Movie-Viewing Experiences 15/11/17 - 28/11/17
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
AMERICAN SPLENDOR (2003)
A MOVIE JUKEBOX
d: Shari Springer Berman; Robert Pulcini
CAST: Paul Giamatti; Hope Davis; Judah Friedlander
> a self-admitted grump, Harvey Pekar from Cleveland wanted to leave his mark on the world, and he did...via comics...he couldn't draw, but he could write, and his subject was himself, his life and view on life; a man you would hate to live with, Harvey is played beautifully by Paul and Hope is his long-suffering (but more than a match for him) wife; this is an amalgamation of film-bio, animation, interviews with real people, old film footage and drawn graphics, stitched together into a coherent and endearing whole; just goes to show how extraordinary ordinary can be...even your life...c'mon...wouldn't you like your existence to have an appreciative audience?
Award-Worthy Performances
Paul Giamatti; Hope Davis
LUCKY (2017)
A FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: John Carroll Lynch
CAST: Harry Dean Stanton; David Lynch; Ron Livingston; James Darren; Ed Begley Jr.
> in the exalted company of 1999's The Straight Story and 2016's Paterson comes this little beauty; Lucky is a 90 year old guy (played to gentle perfection by Harry) who lives in a small desert town...he is surrounded by people he engages with regularly but he is an alone person...a WWII vet, a lifetime chainsmoker, a crossword fan, a cross naughty word fan, a drinker of bloody marys and an eater of not much...and he is aware that his number should have been up long ago...not yet, but soon...; heavy on the existentialism and the charm, this made me openly cry on the basis of two words (you'll know which two); an instant classic
Award-Worthy Performance
Harry Dean Stanton
BIGGER THAN LIFE (1956)
A- SECOND VIEWING
d: Nicholas Ray
CAST: James Mason; Barbara Rush; Walter Matthau; Christopher Olsen
> having had kidney stones, snapped three front teeth and torn both shoulders, I have a rough understanding of pain...I would've popped anything to get it to stop; James is a schoolteacher & family man who is suddenly felled by debilitating pain...the only drug that will help him is cortisone, with ghastly side effects; as he self-medicates, Dad becomes a bully, a fascist and a fire 'n' brimstone fatalist; greatest achievement of the film (apart from James' maelstrom of a performance) is the tension which sneaks up on you, all happening within a nice suburban home one weekend; while the ending is inevitably sunshiny, the build-up to it is a gripping trip
Award-Worthy Performance
James Mason
HATTER'S CASTLE (1942)
A- FIRST VIEWING
d: Lance Comfort
CAST: Robert Newton; Deborah Kerr; James Mason; Emlyn Williams
> superbly acted film version of what I am sure was one helluva page-turner of a novel by A.J. Cronin (of Dr Finlay's Casebook fame); tells the story of a truly reprehensible human being and millinery proprietor (played in fine form by Robert...no Long John Silver twinkling here) who demands that his decree be carried out by all...one by one, his daughter, wife, mistress, son remove themselves from him and his class-envy-fuelled tyranny; cancer & unwed pregnancy & drunkenness & suicide & even a trainwreck (the Tay Bridge disaster) are all added to the mix; special mention of Deborah who is at her sweetest; watch it with crumpets while it rains outside
Award-Worthy Performances
Robert Newton; Deborah Kerr
NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950)
B+ SECOND VIEWING
d: Jules Dassin
CAST: Richard Widmark; Gene Tierney; Googie Withers; Francis L. Sullivan; Herbert Lom
> well-regarded film noir tells the story of Harry (played in full Richard Widmark mode), an obvious loser with big, hustling, dreaming plans which never manage to work out...and it's always somebody else's fault; inevitably, his big chance unexpectedly turns up, but...; Googie is wonderful as a scratch-your-way-up woman and Francis does a spot-on Sydney Greenstreet impersonation as a, er, heavy; 3 flaws hold the film back: Gene is painfully miscast as a doormat nightclub singer + Franz Waxman's music keeps bludgeoning me + the attempt at redemption at the end just doesn't seem to fit; still pretty good company for M and The Third Man though
Award-Worthy Performance
Googie Withers
BEST FRIENDS (1982)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Norman Jewison
CAST: Burt Reynolds; Goldie Hawn; Jessica Tandy; Ron Silver; Barnard Hughes
> a decidedly lightweight romantic comedy that manages to beef itself up enough to ask something interesting about marriage: How do you make the honeymoon period last for the entire relationship?; Goldie hesitantly agrees to marry Burt...they go and visit each other's parents...and discover that long-term marriage makes people go a little strange...the passion fades while the years of compromise alter your self-perceived character...who have I become?; the visit to Goldie's parents is the highlight (Jessica is a hoot!) and nothing else after matches it...but that's really the only significant flaw in a mildly amusing little story; Burt & Goldie work surprisingly well together (Burt has finally discovered the right comic touch), there are some gentle jokes that work and the film largely avoids the cliched rom-com cutes
JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017)
B FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Zack Snyder
CAST: Ben Affleck; Henry Cavill; Gal Gadot; Ezra Miller; Jason Momoa; Ray Fisher; Amy Adams; Ciaran Hinds; Jeremy Irons; Diane Lane; J.K. Simmons
> the handful of reviews I read / heard prior to going to see this (on its opening day) were primarily negative..."same old same old"..."I am sick of superhero movies"..."the villain is crap" etc; well, I sorta liked it, but struggled trying to pinpoint exactly why...because...it is the same old same old (especially the fight scenes) & I am sick of superhero movies & the villain is crap BUT, I finally worked it out...I liked this movie more than most of the other DC produce because this has more smiling in it...not the jokes (although there are some) but more human, friendly SMILING; I enjoyed Henry as Supes for the first time and Gal just grows as WW; I could nitpick-list my fanboy reservations (Aquaman as a bikie? Cyborg over GL?), but...meh. Not bad.
THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (2017)
B FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Yorgos Lanthimos
CAST: Colin Farrell; Nicole Kidman; Barry Keoghan; Raffey Cassidy; Sunny Suljic
> very strange and very creepy and very Bleak Art; tough to give a plot synopsis without a major spoil but...Colin the heart surgeon (opening scene is a closeup of a thumping heart during an op...no eating recommended) takes a teenage boy under his wing, supposedly because the kid is interested in becoming a doctor, but that sure ain't the case; difficult to recall at what point it all tumbles into Bizarro World because it pretty much begins weird (people talk in chopped phrases + there's some peculiar sex stuff + everybody's smoking and asking about body hair) and then just gets weirder; imagine the choice Sophie had to make turned into a psychological thriller for 120 minutes and you'd be halfway there; the climactic human roulette scene was unintentionally funny...I think; quite confronting but worth a look
LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT (1933)
B- FIRST VIEWING
d: Howard Bretherton; William Keighley
CAST: Barbara Stanwyck; Preston Foster; Lyle Talbot; Dorothy Burgess
> the first Women In Prison movie and, while it kickstarted a raincoat exploitation genre (Caged Heat + The Big Doll House + Bad Girls Dormitory etc. etc.), it sure doesn't seem like it; Barb is a gun moll who gets jailed by a D.A. who loves her (he has scruples, y'see) and naturally enough she resents the goody-two-shoes guy...Barb plans a jailbreak with her former gang but the attempt goes awry; one of the very few films where Barbara Stanwyck is unconvincing...she can do tough 'n' brittle in her sleep, but there's no nuance in this...when she reveals her inevitable heart of gold, you demand to know where it suddenly sprang from; the women's prison is more like a Girl Guides' summer camp and the rest of the cast shrivel rather than develop their roles; scoots along at 69 minutes and intermittently holds your interest
THE MOUNTAIN (1956)
C SECOND VIEWING
d: Edward Dmytryk
CAST: Spencer Tracy; Robert Wagner; Claire Trevor; William Demarest; E.G. Marshall
> one of the most ludicrously cast movies ever made; we are expected to believe that Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner are brothers (Spence looks so grey and paunchy that he is more like Robert's grandpa...and skinny Robert looks like a bobbysoxer's pin-up); in an action-hero role that cries out for Clark Gable, old & good Spence lumbers himself up a mountain, dragging young & horrible Robert with him...object: rob a planewreck on top; other oddball castings include Claire as a Swiss maid (!) and William as a village priest (!!); a couple of compensations...the French Alps scenery is truly stunning and filmed in Vistavision with lush colour, and the climb up is tense and well-staged (y'know...closeups on fingers stretching for a handhold that isn't quite there); why it was ever filmed with these actors though is an eternal display of silliness
1984 (1956)
C FIRST VIEWING
d: Michael Anderson
CAST: Edmond O'Brien; Jan Sterling; Michael Redgrave; Donald Pleasence
> I had to read Orwell's 1984, Huxley's Brave New World and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 for Year 11 English and compare differences and similarities in the three dystopian worlds...put me off science-fiction novels for 20 years; this adaptation of Orwell's classic is a bit of a mess, most of which is probably unavoidable...the film is dreary, gloomy, slow-paced and a complete downer... but so is the original story, so how do you turn it into something celluloid-bright?; never understood how Edmond was ever put into leading roles like this...he was competent in support, but that's his limit; Jan seems to immediately realise that her agent needs to be fired, Michael is only asked to do a lot of glowering and Donald Pleasence is Donald Pleasence; graded leniently because the message remains valid (and because I love the term "Thought Police")
THE SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN (1968)
D SECOND VIEWING
d: Michael Anderson
CAST: Anthony Quinn; Leo McKern; Oskar Werner; David Janssen; Laurence Olivier; John Gielgud; Vittorio De Sica; Frank Finlay
> bum-numbingly humdrum; I did Religious Studies in college and enjoyed the history but sludged through the theology...this film is just the sludge; tells the story of a Russian man-of-the-people who gets elected Pope; the film is awash with wet eyes, gentle speaking and men wearing funny hats; attempts to stir global politics into the mix, along with an anemic love triangle involving the most vapid of people; Holy Anthony struggles with his social conscience and the need to conform to Christian tradition...this culminates with the ultimate Vatican fantasy: The Catholic Church distributes its vast wealth & real estate investments to feed the starving masses and prevent a war...try believing that, all ye faithful
BONUS COMMENT - this contains my favourite alliterative movie-quote: "There will be a massacre in a matter of months and I have run out of mathematics." Now...what the bloody hell does that mean?
Got something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
AMERICAN SPLENDOR (2003)
d: Shari Springer Berman; Robert Pulcini
CAST: Paul Giamatti; Hope Davis; Judah Friedlander
> a self-admitted grump, Harvey Pekar from Cleveland wanted to leave his mark on the world, and he did...via comics...he couldn't draw, but he could write, and his subject was himself, his life and view on life; a man you would hate to live with, Harvey is played beautifully by Paul and Hope is his long-suffering (but more than a match for him) wife; this is an amalgamation of film-bio, animation, interviews with real people, old film footage and drawn graphics, stitched together into a coherent and endearing whole; just goes to show how extraordinary ordinary can be...even your life...c'mon...wouldn't you like your existence to have an appreciative audience?
Award-Worthy Performances
Paul Giamatti; Hope Davis
LUCKY (2017)
d: John Carroll Lynch
CAST: Harry Dean Stanton; David Lynch; Ron Livingston; James Darren; Ed Begley Jr.
> in the exalted company of 1999's The Straight Story and 2016's Paterson comes this little beauty; Lucky is a 90 year old guy (played to gentle perfection by Harry) who lives in a small desert town...he is surrounded by people he engages with regularly but he is an alone person...a WWII vet, a lifetime chainsmoker, a crossword fan, a cross naughty word fan, a drinker of bloody marys and an eater of not much...and he is aware that his number should have been up long ago...not yet, but soon...; heavy on the existentialism and the charm, this made me openly cry on the basis of two words (you'll know which two); an instant classic
Award-Worthy Performance
Harry Dean Stanton
BIGGER THAN LIFE (1956)
d: Nicholas Ray
CAST: James Mason; Barbara Rush; Walter Matthau; Christopher Olsen
> having had kidney stones, snapped three front teeth and torn both shoulders, I have a rough understanding of pain...I would've popped anything to get it to stop; James is a schoolteacher & family man who is suddenly felled by debilitating pain...the only drug that will help him is cortisone, with ghastly side effects; as he self-medicates, Dad becomes a bully, a fascist and a fire 'n' brimstone fatalist; greatest achievement of the film (apart from James' maelstrom of a performance) is the tension which sneaks up on you, all happening within a nice suburban home one weekend; while the ending is inevitably sunshiny, the build-up to it is a gripping trip
Award-Worthy Performance
James Mason
HATTER'S CASTLE (1942)
d: Lance Comfort
CAST: Robert Newton; Deborah Kerr; James Mason; Emlyn Williams
> superbly acted film version of what I am sure was one helluva page-turner of a novel by A.J. Cronin (of Dr Finlay's Casebook fame); tells the story of a truly reprehensible human being and millinery proprietor (played in fine form by Robert...no Long John Silver twinkling here) who demands that his decree be carried out by all...one by one, his daughter, wife, mistress, son remove themselves from him and his class-envy-fuelled tyranny; cancer & unwed pregnancy & drunkenness & suicide & even a trainwreck (the Tay Bridge disaster) are all added to the mix; special mention of Deborah who is at her sweetest; watch it with crumpets while it rains outside
Award-Worthy Performances
Robert Newton; Deborah Kerr
NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950)
d: Jules Dassin
CAST: Richard Widmark; Gene Tierney; Googie Withers; Francis L. Sullivan; Herbert Lom
> well-regarded film noir tells the story of Harry (played in full Richard Widmark mode), an obvious loser with big, hustling, dreaming plans which never manage to work out...and it's always somebody else's fault; inevitably, his big chance unexpectedly turns up, but...; Googie is wonderful as a scratch-your-way-up woman and Francis does a spot-on Sydney Greenstreet impersonation as a, er, heavy; 3 flaws hold the film back: Gene is painfully miscast as a doormat nightclub singer + Franz Waxman's music keeps bludgeoning me + the attempt at redemption at the end just doesn't seem to fit; still pretty good company for M and The Third Man though
Award-Worthy Performance
Googie Withers
BEST FRIENDS (1982)
d: Norman Jewison
CAST: Burt Reynolds; Goldie Hawn; Jessica Tandy; Ron Silver; Barnard Hughes
> a decidedly lightweight romantic comedy that manages to beef itself up enough to ask something interesting about marriage: How do you make the honeymoon period last for the entire relationship?; Goldie hesitantly agrees to marry Burt...they go and visit each other's parents...and discover that long-term marriage makes people go a little strange...the passion fades while the years of compromise alter your self-perceived character...who have I become?; the visit to Goldie's parents is the highlight (Jessica is a hoot!) and nothing else after matches it...but that's really the only significant flaw in a mildly amusing little story; Burt & Goldie work surprisingly well together (Burt has finally discovered the right comic touch), there are some gentle jokes that work and the film largely avoids the cliched rom-com cutes
JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017)
d: Zack Snyder
CAST: Ben Affleck; Henry Cavill; Gal Gadot; Ezra Miller; Jason Momoa; Ray Fisher; Amy Adams; Ciaran Hinds; Jeremy Irons; Diane Lane; J.K. Simmons
> the handful of reviews I read / heard prior to going to see this (on its opening day) were primarily negative..."same old same old"..."I am sick of superhero movies"..."the villain is crap" etc; well, I sorta liked it, but struggled trying to pinpoint exactly why...because...it is the same old same old (especially the fight scenes) & I am sick of superhero movies & the villain is crap BUT, I finally worked it out...I liked this movie more than most of the other DC produce because this has more smiling in it...not the jokes (although there are some) but more human, friendly SMILING; I enjoyed Henry as Supes for the first time and Gal just grows as WW; I could nitpick-list my fanboy reservations (Aquaman as a bikie? Cyborg over GL?), but...meh. Not bad.
THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (2017)
d: Yorgos Lanthimos
CAST: Colin Farrell; Nicole Kidman; Barry Keoghan; Raffey Cassidy; Sunny Suljic
> very strange and very creepy and very Bleak Art; tough to give a plot synopsis without a major spoil but...Colin the heart surgeon (opening scene is a closeup of a thumping heart during an op...no eating recommended) takes a teenage boy under his wing, supposedly because the kid is interested in becoming a doctor, but that sure ain't the case; difficult to recall at what point it all tumbles into Bizarro World because it pretty much begins weird (people talk in chopped phrases + there's some peculiar sex stuff + everybody's smoking and asking about body hair) and then just gets weirder; imagine the choice Sophie had to make turned into a psychological thriller for 120 minutes and you'd be halfway there; the climactic human roulette scene was unintentionally funny...I think; quite confronting but worth a look
LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT (1933)
d: Howard Bretherton; William Keighley
CAST: Barbara Stanwyck; Preston Foster; Lyle Talbot; Dorothy Burgess
> the first Women In Prison movie and, while it kickstarted a raincoat exploitation genre (Caged Heat + The Big Doll House + Bad Girls Dormitory etc. etc.), it sure doesn't seem like it; Barb is a gun moll who gets jailed by a D.A. who loves her (he has scruples, y'see) and naturally enough she resents the goody-two-shoes guy...Barb plans a jailbreak with her former gang but the attempt goes awry; one of the very few films where Barbara Stanwyck is unconvincing...she can do tough 'n' brittle in her sleep, but there's no nuance in this...when she reveals her inevitable heart of gold, you demand to know where it suddenly sprang from; the women's prison is more like a Girl Guides' summer camp and the rest of the cast shrivel rather than develop their roles; scoots along at 69 minutes and intermittently holds your interest
THE MOUNTAIN (1956)
d: Edward Dmytryk
CAST: Spencer Tracy; Robert Wagner; Claire Trevor; William Demarest; E.G. Marshall
> one of the most ludicrously cast movies ever made; we are expected to believe that Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner are brothers (Spence looks so grey and paunchy that he is more like Robert's grandpa...and skinny Robert looks like a bobbysoxer's pin-up); in an action-hero role that cries out for Clark Gable, old & good Spence lumbers himself up a mountain, dragging young & horrible Robert with him...object: rob a planewreck on top; other oddball castings include Claire as a Swiss maid (!) and William as a village priest (!!); a couple of compensations...the French Alps scenery is truly stunning and filmed in Vistavision with lush colour, and the climb up is tense and well-staged (y'know...closeups on fingers stretching for a handhold that isn't quite there); why it was ever filmed with these actors though is an eternal display of silliness
1984 (1956)
d: Michael Anderson
CAST: Edmond O'Brien; Jan Sterling; Michael Redgrave; Donald Pleasence
> I had to read Orwell's 1984, Huxley's Brave New World and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 for Year 11 English and compare differences and similarities in the three dystopian worlds...put me off science-fiction novels for 20 years; this adaptation of Orwell's classic is a bit of a mess, most of which is probably unavoidable...the film is dreary, gloomy, slow-paced and a complete downer... but so is the original story, so how do you turn it into something celluloid-bright?; never understood how Edmond was ever put into leading roles like this...he was competent in support, but that's his limit; Jan seems to immediately realise that her agent needs to be fired, Michael is only asked to do a lot of glowering and Donald Pleasence is Donald Pleasence; graded leniently because the message remains valid (and because I love the term "Thought Police")
THE SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN (1968)
d: Michael Anderson
CAST: Anthony Quinn; Leo McKern; Oskar Werner; David Janssen; Laurence Olivier; John Gielgud; Vittorio De Sica; Frank Finlay
> bum-numbingly humdrum; I did Religious Studies in college and enjoyed the history but sludged through the theology...this film is just the sludge; tells the story of a Russian man-of-the-people who gets elected Pope; the film is awash with wet eyes, gentle speaking and men wearing funny hats; attempts to stir global politics into the mix, along with an anemic love triangle involving the most vapid of people; Holy Anthony struggles with his social conscience and the need to conform to Christian tradition...this culminates with the ultimate Vatican fantasy: The Catholic Church distributes its vast wealth & real estate investments to feed the starving masses and prevent a war...try believing that, all ye faithful
BONUS COMMENT - this contains my favourite alliterative movie-quote: "There will be a massacre in a matter of months and I have run out of mathematics." Now...what the bloody hell does that mean?
Got something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
