Movie-Viewing Experiences 15/7/17 - 30/7/17
A+ = Adored Masterwork A = Excellent A- = Very Good B+ = Good B = Nice Try B- = Tolerable
C = Seriously Flawed D = Pretty Awful E = Truly Dreadful: Looking Into the Void F = Vile & Repugnant: The Void
DUNKIRK (2017)
A FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Christopher Nolan
CAST: Fionn Whitehead; Mark Rylance; Tom Hardy; Kenneth Branagh; Cillian Murphy
> exceptional film-making; interesting decisions made in structure (3 main threads to the story & no mention or sight of Nazis/Germans so the real enemy is War itself & few depictions of mutual combat, emphasising sudden bursts of attack); tension starts right from the opening scene and never lets up for 2 hours, stoked by the constant industrial-lite soundtrack which thumps like a pulse; stranded soldiers are shown to be ordinary young blokes scared shitless but trying to man-up as best they can; examples of strength and decency and heroism are spread throughout, with absolutely zero schmaltz to soften the brutality of the situation; a war film which is more about the human beings involved rather than the explosions...quite special
BABY DRIVER (2017)
A- FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Edgar Wright
CAST: Ansel Elgort; Kevin Spacey; Jon Hamm; Jamie Foxx; Lily James
> oozing Cool from every pore, this fast-paced (with a couple of obligatory lags to establish character motivation and relationships) car-chase 'n' heist movie is a cut above the usual seen-it-all-a-hundred-times action flick; why?...well, first off, the soundtrack is relentless (music is turned up and down but rarely off) and is a real mishmash of styles but the preferred criteria are uptempo and familiar & the structure veers close to motion comicbook rather than take-it-too-seriously drama (this is not Heat) & the action scenes are numerous and filmed with inquisitive viewers in mind...you can clearly see what is going on; all actors play their roles as if they are in on the fun and the whole thing clocks in under 2 hours; it's an undeniable rush
FAR FROM HEAVEN (2002)
A- RE-EVALUATION Original Grade: B+
d: Todd Haynes
CAST: Julianne Moore; Dennis Quaid; Dennis Haysbert; Patricia Clarkson; Viola Davis
> last saw this 15 years ago and thought it significantly overrated...I am more appreciative now, but my original criticism remains: while the primary aim is to recreate the Father Knows Best / Magnificent Obsession version of the 1950's, that means that the actors are required to play stereotypes (with twists) rather than full characters...they come across as marionettes controlled by artistic intention rather than being allowed to develop real people in sad & human circumstances; the colour palette used is gorgeous and easily the star of the show; the oppressed love story between lonely white housewife and widowed black gardener is beautifully presented and avoids mere sob-story superficiality; the suggestion that racism will even outlive homophobia is the film's essential sadness
LADY MACBETH (2016)
A- FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: William Oldroyd
CAST: Florence Pugh; Cosmo Jarvis; Naomi Ackie; Paul Hilton; Christopher Fairbank
> geez...don't mess with the lady of the house; a cautionary tale for all husbands about the dire consequences if the missus doesn't get proper lovin'; 1865 rural England and poor girl Katherine is forced to marry rich man Alexander...but he isn't up to snuff when it comes to rockin' the casbah...so she takes a lover...and she will not be denied...; empty soundtrack suits the cold surroundings and story; although there is humour in this at times, it is of the blackest ilk imaginable (I almost felt I needed to apologise to my fellow cinema patrons for my every chortle)...but by the time of the third murder, all smirking is done with; the sheer ruthless audacity of the villainess is what makes this an engrossing but bleak tale; steel yourself
GRAND CENTRAL MURDER (1942)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: S. Sylvan Simon
CAST: Van Heflin; Sam Levene; Tom Conway; Stephen McNally; Connie Gilchrist
> traditional-style murder-mystery which manages a jump-up in quality; Broadway dance-show star / cold-hearted gold digger is found murdered in her private railcar in NY Grand Central Station...all the likely suspects are gathered together to talk and talk and talk it all out until the culprit finally cracks; the cast performs with gusto (as usual, each person-of-interest takes a turn to relate their version of events and reveal their possible motive...and basic character traits), combining with a lightly humorous script to deliver a mildly-entertaining whodunnit; occasional plot diversions (drop-down death & punch-up & gun-grab) rescue the step-by-step structure from repetition; not Hercule Poirot or Inspector Morse by any means, but it'll still rope you in
THE PIANIST (2002)
B+ SECOND VIEWING
d: Roman Polanski
CAST: Adrien Brody; Thomas Kretschmann; Frank Finlay; Emilia Fox
> I have a problem with films about the Holocaust...its enormity overwhelms the medium (like a song about a black hole), particularly if the focus is on a horror like the deathcamps or the Warsaw Ghetto...the films with impact tell stories from its edges (1948's The Search & 1960's Conspiracy of Hearts & 1989's Enemies: a Love Story); only the B&W doco footage and the recorded testimonials from survivors have come close to communicating the sheer scale of the abomination; this film focusses on the trevails of one survivor with shocking scenes of devastation and slaughter, but its emotional impact comes at a cost...from narrow escape to narrow escape over a period of nearly six years, it becomes a little bit like The Perils of Pauline...harrowing of course, but for 150 minutes, more "now-what" than affecting
WHIPSAW (1935)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Sam Wood
CAST: Myrna Loy; Spencer Tracy
> a great example of what old Hollywood used to call "Star Power" and how it was often able to lift an otherwise mediocre property into the realms of classy entertainment; starts off as an apparent lightweight jewel-thief comedy, in the vein of Raffles and Trouble in Paradise (and likely would have continued as that if the original choice of male lead - William Powell - had been available) but metamorphoses into an unlikely romance between cop & robber... and Myrna & Spence somehow make it work... they are a charismatic delight together; the story itself is pretty hokey (y'know, bad girl turns good) but it remains a pleasure throughout
Award-Worthy Performances
Myrna Loy & Spencer Tracy
THE WHALES OF AUGUST (1987)
B- FIRST VIEWING
d: Lindsay Anderson
CAST: Bette Davis; Lillian Gish; Vincent Price; Ann Sothern; Harry Carey Jr.
> the obvious comparison is to On Golden Pond, with which this film shares shots of sunlight twinkling on tranquil water & a central relationship between a cantankerous old curmudgeon and a sympathetic good-hearted soul; Bette plays the grump of course (and looks like the Ghost of Alice Cooper) and her nice sister is Lillian (who talks to faded photographs and likes the colour blue); it's no small thrill for movie buffs to see these two greats together, but the story is as slow and soft as their footsteps and a little frustrating at times; a warming sentiment of a movie, its target audience must be those people who want to believe that old age is sweet and sad... where's the incontinence?
THE STRIP (1951)
B- FIRST VIEWING
d: Laszlo Kardos
CAST: Mickey Rooney; Sally Forrest; William Demarest; James Craig
> typical 50's gangster love story... Mickey is a drummer who plays in a nightclub... falls for the cigarette girl... who has her eye on a crime boss 'cos he can further her movie career... murder is the inevitable result; colour-by-numbers tale is enlivened by (wait for it) Louis Armstrong! Earl 'Fatha' Hines! Jack Teagarden! Barney Bigard! playing in the club's jazz band (with Mickey on too-much-cymbal drums); highlight is the playing of "A Kiss to Build a Dream On", one of Satchmo's greatest hits; hell, even the appearance of Vic Damone singing "Don't Blame Me" is a pleasure; while William is always a plus on screen and Mickey gives the dramatic lead role a good going-over (my, he is a runt though, isn't he?), the story is relatively uninspired and not worthy of the exalted company which has been gathered to deliver it
10 CLOVERFIELD LANE (2016)
C FIRST VIEWING
d: Dan Trachtenberg
CAST: Mary Elizabeth Winstead; John Goodman; John Gallagher Jr.
> John kidnaps Mary and keeps her in his bunker, explaining that it's for her own good... the world outside is under attack by unknown forces; awkward and ultimately unsatisfying mix of abduction 'n' confinement thriller with alien-invasion-apocalypse horror... imagine The Collector ending with War of the Worlds; this member-of-the-Cloverfield-franchise is really two separate films, both of which have many predecessors and most of these are better than what is shown here...it really should have been one or the other, fellas; this is the sort of thing which M. Night Shyamalan presumably conjured up (and hopefully discarded) during his frantic attempts to reassemble his career; the performances are merely competent (and rather one-note) and the compulsory jump scenes are fairly predictable; nothing flash at all really
MISS TATLOCK'S MILLIONS (1948)
C FIRST VIEWING
d: Richard Haydn
CAST: John Lund; Wanda Hendrix; Barry Fitzgerald; Monty Woolley; Robert Stack
> a screwball comedy with no screwball comedians; John the Movie Stunt Man gets roped in to impersonate a family idiot who is in line to inherit a fortune...but the rest of the family connive to get their hands on it instead; John plays a role which absolutely screams out for Red Skelton or Danny Kaye (y'know...blithering halfwit with no understanding of subtlety...no, I can't stand either actor) and consequently demonstrates a total lack of comic timing or even hammy mugging...he is a disaster; Monty is completely wasted in a pop-in / drop a one-liner / bugger-off role; Barry tries to do his supposedly-charming Irish drunk routine but comes across as bored instead; saving grace is the occasional snippet of bitey dialogue...but it's not enough
THE LOST CONTINENT (1968)
D FIRST & LAST VIEWING
d: Michael Carreras
CAST: Eric Portman; Hildegard Knef; Suzanna Leigh; James Cossins
> really dumb monster movie... H.R. Pufnstuf is far more frightening; freighter with explosive cargo and passengers-with-problems drifts into a weird mist after a mutiny & a hurricane, and comes across...The Spanish Inquisition!!! (oh, and some monsters too... a kraken thing, carnivorous seaweed and my personal fave, a giant hermit crab); takes too long to get to this psychedelic freak show...the characters feel the need to share their hang-ups with us... greed & alcoholism & nymphomania... that kinda thing; the pea soup fog cannot camouflage the silliness of the monsters and the vain attempts by Hildegard & Eric to actually act cannot dilute the sheer bizarreness of what is going on around them; probably best viewed when stoned
Go something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
DUNKIRK (2017)
d: Christopher Nolan
CAST: Fionn Whitehead; Mark Rylance; Tom Hardy; Kenneth Branagh; Cillian Murphy
> exceptional film-making; interesting decisions made in structure (3 main threads to the story & no mention or sight of Nazis/Germans so the real enemy is War itself & few depictions of mutual combat, emphasising sudden bursts of attack); tension starts right from the opening scene and never lets up for 2 hours, stoked by the constant industrial-lite soundtrack which thumps like a pulse; stranded soldiers are shown to be ordinary young blokes scared shitless but trying to man-up as best they can; examples of strength and decency and heroism are spread throughout, with absolutely zero schmaltz to soften the brutality of the situation; a war film which is more about the human beings involved rather than the explosions...quite special
BABY DRIVER (2017)
d: Edgar Wright
CAST: Ansel Elgort; Kevin Spacey; Jon Hamm; Jamie Foxx; Lily James
> oozing Cool from every pore, this fast-paced (with a couple of obligatory lags to establish character motivation and relationships) car-chase 'n' heist movie is a cut above the usual seen-it-all-a-hundred-times action flick; why?...well, first off, the soundtrack is relentless (music is turned up and down but rarely off) and is a real mishmash of styles but the preferred criteria are uptempo and familiar & the structure veers close to motion comicbook rather than take-it-too-seriously drama (this is not Heat) & the action scenes are numerous and filmed with inquisitive viewers in mind...you can clearly see what is going on; all actors play their roles as if they are in on the fun and the whole thing clocks in under 2 hours; it's an undeniable rush
FAR FROM HEAVEN (2002)
d: Todd Haynes
CAST: Julianne Moore; Dennis Quaid; Dennis Haysbert; Patricia Clarkson; Viola Davis
> last saw this 15 years ago and thought it significantly overrated...I am more appreciative now, but my original criticism remains: while the primary aim is to recreate the Father Knows Best / Magnificent Obsession version of the 1950's, that means that the actors are required to play stereotypes (with twists) rather than full characters...they come across as marionettes controlled by artistic intention rather than being allowed to develop real people in sad & human circumstances; the colour palette used is gorgeous and easily the star of the show; the oppressed love story between lonely white housewife and widowed black gardener is beautifully presented and avoids mere sob-story superficiality; the suggestion that racism will even outlive homophobia is the film's essential sadness
LADY MACBETH (2016)
d: William Oldroyd
CAST: Florence Pugh; Cosmo Jarvis; Naomi Ackie; Paul Hilton; Christopher Fairbank
> geez...don't mess with the lady of the house; a cautionary tale for all husbands about the dire consequences if the missus doesn't get proper lovin'; 1865 rural England and poor girl Katherine is forced to marry rich man Alexander...but he isn't up to snuff when it comes to rockin' the casbah...so she takes a lover...and she will not be denied...; empty soundtrack suits the cold surroundings and story; although there is humour in this at times, it is of the blackest ilk imaginable (I almost felt I needed to apologise to my fellow cinema patrons for my every chortle)...but by the time of the third murder, all smirking is done with; the sheer ruthless audacity of the villainess is what makes this an engrossing but bleak tale; steel yourself
GRAND CENTRAL MURDER (1942)
d: S. Sylvan Simon
CAST: Van Heflin; Sam Levene; Tom Conway; Stephen McNally; Connie Gilchrist
> traditional-style murder-mystery which manages a jump-up in quality; Broadway dance-show star / cold-hearted gold digger is found murdered in her private railcar in NY Grand Central Station...all the likely suspects are gathered together to talk and talk and talk it all out until the culprit finally cracks; the cast performs with gusto (as usual, each person-of-interest takes a turn to relate their version of events and reveal their possible motive...and basic character traits), combining with a lightly humorous script to deliver a mildly-entertaining whodunnit; occasional plot diversions (drop-down death & punch-up & gun-grab) rescue the step-by-step structure from repetition; not Hercule Poirot or Inspector Morse by any means, but it'll still rope you in
THE PIANIST (2002)
d: Roman Polanski
CAST: Adrien Brody; Thomas Kretschmann; Frank Finlay; Emilia Fox
> I have a problem with films about the Holocaust...its enormity overwhelms the medium (like a song about a black hole), particularly if the focus is on a horror like the deathcamps or the Warsaw Ghetto...the films with impact tell stories from its edges (1948's The Search & 1960's Conspiracy of Hearts & 1989's Enemies: a Love Story); only the B&W doco footage and the recorded testimonials from survivors have come close to communicating the sheer scale of the abomination; this film focusses on the trevails of one survivor with shocking scenes of devastation and slaughter, but its emotional impact comes at a cost...from narrow escape to narrow escape over a period of nearly six years, it becomes a little bit like The Perils of Pauline...harrowing of course, but for 150 minutes, more "now-what" than affecting
WHIPSAW (1935)
d: Sam Wood
CAST: Myrna Loy; Spencer Tracy
> a great example of what old Hollywood used to call "Star Power" and how it was often able to lift an otherwise mediocre property into the realms of classy entertainment; starts off as an apparent lightweight jewel-thief comedy, in the vein of Raffles and Trouble in Paradise (and likely would have continued as that if the original choice of male lead - William Powell - had been available) but metamorphoses into an unlikely romance between cop & robber... and Myrna & Spence somehow make it work... they are a charismatic delight together; the story itself is pretty hokey (y'know, bad girl turns good) but it remains a pleasure throughout
Award-Worthy Performances
Myrna Loy & Spencer Tracy
THE WHALES OF AUGUST (1987)
d: Lindsay Anderson
CAST: Bette Davis; Lillian Gish; Vincent Price; Ann Sothern; Harry Carey Jr.
> the obvious comparison is to On Golden Pond, with which this film shares shots of sunlight twinkling on tranquil water & a central relationship between a cantankerous old curmudgeon and a sympathetic good-hearted soul; Bette plays the grump of course (and looks like the Ghost of Alice Cooper) and her nice sister is Lillian (who talks to faded photographs and likes the colour blue); it's no small thrill for movie buffs to see these two greats together, but the story is as slow and soft as their footsteps and a little frustrating at times; a warming sentiment of a movie, its target audience must be those people who want to believe that old age is sweet and sad... where's the incontinence?
THE STRIP (1951)
d: Laszlo Kardos
CAST: Mickey Rooney; Sally Forrest; William Demarest; James Craig
> typical 50's gangster love story... Mickey is a drummer who plays in a nightclub... falls for the cigarette girl... who has her eye on a crime boss 'cos he can further her movie career... murder is the inevitable result; colour-by-numbers tale is enlivened by (wait for it) Louis Armstrong! Earl 'Fatha' Hines! Jack Teagarden! Barney Bigard! playing in the club's jazz band (with Mickey on too-much-cymbal drums); highlight is the playing of "A Kiss to Build a Dream On", one of Satchmo's greatest hits; hell, even the appearance of Vic Damone singing "Don't Blame Me" is a pleasure; while William is always a plus on screen and Mickey gives the dramatic lead role a good going-over (my, he is a runt though, isn't he?), the story is relatively uninspired and not worthy of the exalted company which has been gathered to deliver it
10 CLOVERFIELD LANE (2016)
d: Dan Trachtenberg
CAST: Mary Elizabeth Winstead; John Goodman; John Gallagher Jr.
> John kidnaps Mary and keeps her in his bunker, explaining that it's for her own good... the world outside is under attack by unknown forces; awkward and ultimately unsatisfying mix of abduction 'n' confinement thriller with alien-invasion-apocalypse horror... imagine The Collector ending with War of the Worlds; this member-of-the-Cloverfield-franchise is really two separate films, both of which have many predecessors and most of these are better than what is shown here...it really should have been one or the other, fellas; this is the sort of thing which M. Night Shyamalan presumably conjured up (and hopefully discarded) during his frantic attempts to reassemble his career; the performances are merely competent (and rather one-note) and the compulsory jump scenes are fairly predictable; nothing flash at all really
MISS TATLOCK'S MILLIONS (1948)
d: Richard Haydn
CAST: John Lund; Wanda Hendrix; Barry Fitzgerald; Monty Woolley; Robert Stack
> a screwball comedy with no screwball comedians; John the Movie Stunt Man gets roped in to impersonate a family idiot who is in line to inherit a fortune...but the rest of the family connive to get their hands on it instead; John plays a role which absolutely screams out for Red Skelton or Danny Kaye (y'know...blithering halfwit with no understanding of subtlety...no, I can't stand either actor) and consequently demonstrates a total lack of comic timing or even hammy mugging...he is a disaster; Monty is completely wasted in a pop-in / drop a one-liner / bugger-off role; Barry tries to do his supposedly-charming Irish drunk routine but comes across as bored instead; saving grace is the occasional snippet of bitey dialogue...but it's not enough
THE LOST CONTINENT (1968)
d: Michael Carreras
CAST: Eric Portman; Hildegard Knef; Suzanna Leigh; James Cossins
> really dumb monster movie... H.R. Pufnstuf is far more frightening; freighter with explosive cargo and passengers-with-problems drifts into a weird mist after a mutiny & a hurricane, and comes across...The Spanish Inquisition!!! (oh, and some monsters too... a kraken thing, carnivorous seaweed and my personal fave, a giant hermit crab); takes too long to get to this psychedelic freak show...the characters feel the need to share their hang-ups with us... greed & alcoholism & nymphomania... that kinda thing; the pea soup fog cannot camouflage the silliness of the monsters and the vain attempts by Hildegard & Eric to actually act cannot dilute the sheer bizarreness of what is going on around them; probably best viewed when stoned
Go something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
