Movie-Viewing Experiences 29/11/17 - 18/12/17
A+ = Adored Masterwork A = Excellent A- = Very Good B+ = Good B = Nice Try B- = Tolerable
C = Significantly Flawed D = Pretty Bad E = Truly Dreadful: Looking Into the Void F = Vile & Repugnant: The Void
GOIN' DOWN THE ROAD (1970)
A- FIRST VIEWING
d: Donald Shebib
CAST: Doug McGrath; Paul Bradley; Jayne Eastwood
> I approached this film virtually cold, only knowing that it was considered a classic of Canadian cinema; had to pause it partway to check if it was a documentary, so seemingly-realistic is the presentation; tells the tale of a pair of uneducated, uncool Nova Scotian fellas who fall for the Bright Lights Big City dream (in this case, Toronto) and ultimately find nothing there; the amateur acting initially put me off (like guys who self-consciously overdo it for the camera) but the cast grows into their roles and the director (great use of closeups!) quietly makes you care about these Fate-bullied losers; I kept thinking of old Bruce Springsteen lyrics throughout (tramps like us / is a dream a lie if it don't come true / with eyes that hate for just being born etc.); a very human story which is effectively illuminated and shared
MAD LOVE aka THE HANDS OF ORLAC (1935)
A- MOVIE JUKEBOX
d: Karl Freund
CAST: Peter Lorre; Frances Drake; Colin Clive; Ted Healy
> the nuttiest of all the 1930's horror classics; Peter's performance in this joins the likes of Colin Clive in Frankenstein and Charles Laughton in Island of Lost Souls for unbridled Ham which somehow still works (shame about Frances though); concert pianist gets his hands lopped off and replaced with those of a knife-thrower...guess who his surgeon is?...Peter wants his patient's woman and even keeps a wax model of her around for kinky kicks; the scene where Peter dresses up as God-Knows-What is one of the classic reveals in cinema, not to mention just a bloody hoot!; great fun from a time when horror meant something quite different to gore
Award-Worthy Performance
Peter Lorre
WINCHESTER '73 (1950)
A- RE-EVALUATION Original Grade: B+
d: Anthony Mann
CAST: James Stewart; Shelley Winters; Dan Duryea; Stephen McNally; Millard Mitchell
> a universally-acclaimed Western, I was always slightly put off by its blatant celebration of the gun (specifically, the title character) and the episodic structure (where the gun goes, hand to hand, the story follows); this time round, I noticed the strong acting (gotta be one of underrated Dan's best just-passing-through performances) and just how concentrated & effective the individual episodes actually are; the climactic shootout-for-revenge is one of the genre's better shot (HA!) sequences (and no one plays neurotic-determination-on-the-range better than Jimmy) and Shelley doesn't give me as large a pain as usual; OK...you're right...it is a good Western
Award-Worthy Performances
James Stewart; Dan Duryea
WONDER WHEEL (2017)
A- FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Woody Allen
CAST: Kate Winslet; Justin Timberlake; Juno Temple; Jim Belushi; Jack Gore
> this has been classed as Major and Minor Woody...ever the fence-sitter, I would call it Medium Woody; a return to the feel of Match Point and Blue Jasmine, this is set in 1950's Coney Island and involves a carousel-operator, his estranged daughter, his stepson, his wife & her lover and how everybody is ruined as payback for the universal human flaw: The Heart Wants What the Heart Wants; very gabby (more a stageplay than a movie) but it ultimately works due to the sharp performances, the gorgeous cinematography (rich colour, softened by superb lighting) and the inevitability of it all...you can see the trainwreck coming but you can't look away
Award-Worthy Performances
Kate Winslet; Juno Temple
MONTE WALSH (1970)
A- FIRST VIEWING
d: William A. Fraker
CAST: Lee Marvin; Jack Palance; Jeanne Moreau; Mitchell Ryan
> while this is a good "Demise of the Wild West" film (and would make a great double bill with 1962's Ride the High Country), the movie I kept recalling was the 1975 Aussie classic Sunday Too Far Away...equal doses of melancholy, men & mateship and the impending extinction of a lifestyle; Lee and Jack are cowboys, the closest of friends and getting on in years...times are tough and the cowboys are too, but not enough to stop age and resist the temptation to settle down & be like other folk; with some amusing everyday scenes at the beginning, and a handful of exciting action pieces (the man + horse demolition squad!), the film gets sadder and sadder as it goes on, ultimately turning tragic; a special Western: instead of justice or vengeance, it tells a story about loss...and how we've all got it comin', kid
THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (1946)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Lewis Milestone
CAST: Barbara Stanwyck; Van Heflin; Kirk Douglas; Lizabeth Scott; Judith Anderson
> a slightly overrated noir-soap that takes a little too long to come to the boil...the sort of yarn that Dallas and Dynasty probably used as inspiration; angry girl kills rich bitch Aunt, watched by boy next door and by true-love who lives on the wrong side of the tracks...everyone grows up and just become older versions of their child personas (what...nobody ever changes after 10?); secrets + greed + power + lust + guilt + ruthlessness...all the usual ingredients are swirled about with the actors doing what they do best (Barb = scheming, Van = likeable, Kirk = heelish, Lizabeth = pouty); the storyline veers too close to Turgid at times, dawdling about with needless romantic guff and occasionally being a little silly (Van gets beaten up by 4 thugs and immediately shrugs it off like it's a beer hangover) but remains enjoyable
WONDER (2017)
B FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Steven Chbosky
CAST: Jacob Tremblay; Julia Roberts; Owen Wilson; Izabela Vidovic
> I was reluctant to go and see this, purely because it sounded like the sort of life-affirming / heart-warming confection which would bring out the grinch in me...however, it scored some pretty good reviews, and it was directed by the Perks of a Wallflower guy (and that film just continues to impress), so I thought, hey...; sure enough, it is a life-affirming / heart-warming confection which is pretty good; 11 year old kid has a facial deformity but his determined mum insists that he attends public school now, regardless of the fear of bullying & ostracisation; yep, the kid gets bullied & ostracised, but life gets better; unusual structure lifts the "Affliction of the Week" story (it is told from the perspective of four kids) and the tearjerking set-ups are kept to a humane minimum; nice kid, surrounded by nice people, and it all turns out nice
IN DREAMS (1999)
B SECOND VIEWING
d: Neil Jordan
CAST: Annette Bening; Stephen Rea; Aidan Quinn; Robert Downey Jr
> usually considered a dud, I find this psych-horror tale to be fairly engrossing, but is wounded by the build-up being much stronger than the pay-off; Annette has troubling, violent dreams which come true, predicting a series of child-murders...one of whom is her own daughter; insanity awaits, but Annette is made of stronger stuff...she soon realises that she is sharing dreams with the killer; apart from Robert (who gives a slathering performance), the supporting cast is competent but seem to just stand around in awe of Annette, who is stunning; a rare horror film that may have benefited from a longer running time and a slower telling
Award-Worthy Performance
Annette Bening
THE DISASTER ARTIST (2017)
B- FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: James Franco
CAST: James Franco; Dave Franco; Seth Rogen; Alison Brie
> I am not a member of the "So Bad It's Good" Club...I don't worship at the shrine of Ed Wood and I don't think that Howard the Duck is a misunderstood gem...crap is crap and should be disposed of accordingly; I also don't think that humiliating oneself in public is amusingly cathartic...I just quietly withdraw and pity the poor schmuck; I have never seen The Room and I never will by choice...Life is just too short, people; this film is about Tommy Wiseau, the no-talent who wrote, produced, directed and starred in awful-icon The Room; Tommy is clearly a bizarre guy who has more money than sense and more self-delusion than friends; I laughed a couple of times...the fat guy in the audience with the jumbo box of popcorn and an aisle to himself laughed a lot more than that...to each their own
FRAGMENT OF FEAR (1970)
C FIRST VIEWING
d: Richard C. Sarafian
CAST: David Hemmings; Arthur Lowe; Daniel Massey; Wilfred Hyde-White; Flora Robson
> a fascinating mystery which is utterly destroyed by an awful ending; David is an ex-junkie who has cleaned up his act and written a book about it...then his lovely old Auntie is strangled in Pompeii for no apparent reason...David investigates...and very strange things begin to occur; classy & well-acted (check out that supporting cast!) paranoid / things-aren't-what-they-seem thriller which sucks you in, then, once it has expertly built up the suspense, the Big Climax is a jawdropping letdown...like riding the Orient Express and getting off at Woolworths
Award-Worthy Performance
David Hemmings
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (2017)
C FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Kenneth Branagh
CAST: Kenneth Branagh; Olivia Colman; Penelope Cruz; Willem Dafoe; Judi Dench; Johnny Depp; Josh Gad; Derek Jacobi; Leslie Odom Jr; Michelle Pfeiffer
> handsome and dull; impossible not to compare it to the 1974 version...and come to the conclusion that the original is better in every way; Kenneth as Poirot is all moustache and inconsistent accent and, while the updated supporting cast performs well, they take it so seriously and behave so stuffily that all the fun is drained out of the puzzle...the original all-star cast didn't bother acting...they just established caricatures that were cartoonishly memorable, like 2D boardgame suspects; undeniably gorgeous facade (the alpine scenery is wonderful) and the opening scenes in 1934 Istanbul are fascinating but nice clothes can't reanimate a corpse; I'm not looking forward to the threatened Death on the Nile sequel
13 GHOSTS (1960)
D FIRST VIEWING
d: William Castle
CAST: Charles Herbert; Donald Woods; Martin Milner; Margaret Hamilton
> the silliest of haunted house movies...some episodes of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? were scarier; poor paleontologist with a great name (Cyrus Zorba) inherits a creepy house from his occultist uncle...the family moves in, along with 12 ghosts, who are awaiting the 13th; another one of Director William's gimmick movies (ref. The Tingler + Homicidal), it's impossible to imagine that this was ever considered an effective horror movie, even in more naive times...far more frightening is the acting (watch the teenage daughter repeatedly put her hands on her hips to express a vast range of emotions); the gimmick this time was special glasses...you put them on to see the hideous apparitions...if you dare...; not even dumb fun, just dumb
Got something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
d: Donald Shebib
CAST: Doug McGrath; Paul Bradley; Jayne Eastwood
> I approached this film virtually cold, only knowing that it was considered a classic of Canadian cinema; had to pause it partway to check if it was a documentary, so seemingly-realistic is the presentation; tells the tale of a pair of uneducated, uncool Nova Scotian fellas who fall for the Bright Lights Big City dream (in this case, Toronto) and ultimately find nothing there; the amateur acting initially put me off (like guys who self-consciously overdo it for the camera) but the cast grows into their roles and the director (great use of closeups!) quietly makes you care about these Fate-bullied losers; I kept thinking of old Bruce Springsteen lyrics throughout (tramps like us / is a dream a lie if it don't come true / with eyes that hate for just being born etc.); a very human story which is effectively illuminated and shared
MAD LOVE aka THE HANDS OF ORLAC (1935)
d: Karl Freund
CAST: Peter Lorre; Frances Drake; Colin Clive; Ted Healy
> the nuttiest of all the 1930's horror classics; Peter's performance in this joins the likes of Colin Clive in Frankenstein and Charles Laughton in Island of Lost Souls for unbridled Ham which somehow still works (shame about Frances though); concert pianist gets his hands lopped off and replaced with those of a knife-thrower...guess who his surgeon is?...Peter wants his patient's woman and even keeps a wax model of her around for kinky kicks; the scene where Peter dresses up as God-Knows-What is one of the classic reveals in cinema, not to mention just a bloody hoot!; great fun from a time when horror meant something quite different to gore
Award-Worthy Performance
Peter Lorre
WINCHESTER '73 (1950)
d: Anthony Mann
CAST: James Stewart; Shelley Winters; Dan Duryea; Stephen McNally; Millard Mitchell
> a universally-acclaimed Western, I was always slightly put off by its blatant celebration of the gun (specifically, the title character) and the episodic structure (where the gun goes, hand to hand, the story follows); this time round, I noticed the strong acting (gotta be one of underrated Dan's best just-passing-through performances) and just how concentrated & effective the individual episodes actually are; the climactic shootout-for-revenge is one of the genre's better shot (HA!) sequences (and no one plays neurotic-determination-on-the-range better than Jimmy) and Shelley doesn't give me as large a pain as usual; OK...you're right...it is a good Western
Award-Worthy Performances
James Stewart; Dan Duryea
WONDER WHEEL (2017)
d: Woody Allen
CAST: Kate Winslet; Justin Timberlake; Juno Temple; Jim Belushi; Jack Gore
> this has been classed as Major and Minor Woody...ever the fence-sitter, I would call it Medium Woody; a return to the feel of Match Point and Blue Jasmine, this is set in 1950's Coney Island and involves a carousel-operator, his estranged daughter, his stepson, his wife & her lover and how everybody is ruined as payback for the universal human flaw: The Heart Wants What the Heart Wants; very gabby (more a stageplay than a movie) but it ultimately works due to the sharp performances, the gorgeous cinematography (rich colour, softened by superb lighting) and the inevitability of it all...you can see the trainwreck coming but you can't look away
Award-Worthy Performances
Kate Winslet; Juno Temple
MONTE WALSH (1970)
d: William A. Fraker
CAST: Lee Marvin; Jack Palance; Jeanne Moreau; Mitchell Ryan
> while this is a good "Demise of the Wild West" film (and would make a great double bill with 1962's Ride the High Country), the movie I kept recalling was the 1975 Aussie classic Sunday Too Far Away...equal doses of melancholy, men & mateship and the impending extinction of a lifestyle; Lee and Jack are cowboys, the closest of friends and getting on in years...times are tough and the cowboys are too, but not enough to stop age and resist the temptation to settle down & be like other folk; with some amusing everyday scenes at the beginning, and a handful of exciting action pieces (the man + horse demolition squad!), the film gets sadder and sadder as it goes on, ultimately turning tragic; a special Western: instead of justice or vengeance, it tells a story about loss...and how we've all got it comin', kid
THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (1946)
d: Lewis Milestone
CAST: Barbara Stanwyck; Van Heflin; Kirk Douglas; Lizabeth Scott; Judith Anderson
> a slightly overrated noir-soap that takes a little too long to come to the boil...the sort of yarn that Dallas and Dynasty probably used as inspiration; angry girl kills rich bitch Aunt, watched by boy next door and by true-love who lives on the wrong side of the tracks...everyone grows up and just become older versions of their child personas (what...nobody ever changes after 10?); secrets + greed + power + lust + guilt + ruthlessness...all the usual ingredients are swirled about with the actors doing what they do best (Barb = scheming, Van = likeable, Kirk = heelish, Lizabeth = pouty); the storyline veers too close to Turgid at times, dawdling about with needless romantic guff and occasionally being a little silly (Van gets beaten up by 4 thugs and immediately shrugs it off like it's a beer hangover) but remains enjoyable
WONDER (2017)
d: Steven Chbosky
CAST: Jacob Tremblay; Julia Roberts; Owen Wilson; Izabela Vidovic
> I was reluctant to go and see this, purely because it sounded like the sort of life-affirming / heart-warming confection which would bring out the grinch in me...however, it scored some pretty good reviews, and it was directed by the Perks of a Wallflower guy (and that film just continues to impress), so I thought, hey...; sure enough, it is a life-affirming / heart-warming confection which is pretty good; 11 year old kid has a facial deformity but his determined mum insists that he attends public school now, regardless of the fear of bullying & ostracisation; yep, the kid gets bullied & ostracised, but life gets better; unusual structure lifts the "Affliction of the Week" story (it is told from the perspective of four kids) and the tearjerking set-ups are kept to a humane minimum; nice kid, surrounded by nice people, and it all turns out nice
IN DREAMS (1999)
d: Neil Jordan
CAST: Annette Bening; Stephen Rea; Aidan Quinn; Robert Downey Jr
> usually considered a dud, I find this psych-horror tale to be fairly engrossing, but is wounded by the build-up being much stronger than the pay-off; Annette has troubling, violent dreams which come true, predicting a series of child-murders...one of whom is her own daughter; insanity awaits, but Annette is made of stronger stuff...she soon realises that she is sharing dreams with the killer; apart from Robert (who gives a slathering performance), the supporting cast is competent but seem to just stand around in awe of Annette, who is stunning; a rare horror film that may have benefited from a longer running time and a slower telling
Award-Worthy Performance
Annette Bening
THE DISASTER ARTIST (2017)
d: James Franco
CAST: James Franco; Dave Franco; Seth Rogen; Alison Brie
> I am not a member of the "So Bad It's Good" Club...I don't worship at the shrine of Ed Wood and I don't think that Howard the Duck is a misunderstood gem...crap is crap and should be disposed of accordingly; I also don't think that humiliating oneself in public is amusingly cathartic...I just quietly withdraw and pity the poor schmuck; I have never seen The Room and I never will by choice...Life is just too short, people; this film is about Tommy Wiseau, the no-talent who wrote, produced, directed and starred in awful-icon The Room; Tommy is clearly a bizarre guy who has more money than sense and more self-delusion than friends; I laughed a couple of times...the fat guy in the audience with the jumbo box of popcorn and an aisle to himself laughed a lot more than that...to each their own
FRAGMENT OF FEAR (1970)
d: Richard C. Sarafian
CAST: David Hemmings; Arthur Lowe; Daniel Massey; Wilfred Hyde-White; Flora Robson
> a fascinating mystery which is utterly destroyed by an awful ending; David is an ex-junkie who has cleaned up his act and written a book about it...then his lovely old Auntie is strangled in Pompeii for no apparent reason...David investigates...and very strange things begin to occur; classy & well-acted (check out that supporting cast!) paranoid / things-aren't-what-they-seem thriller which sucks you in, then, once it has expertly built up the suspense, the Big Climax is a jawdropping letdown...like riding the Orient Express and getting off at Woolworths
Award-Worthy Performance
David Hemmings
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (2017)
d: Kenneth Branagh
CAST: Kenneth Branagh; Olivia Colman; Penelope Cruz; Willem Dafoe; Judi Dench; Johnny Depp; Josh Gad; Derek Jacobi; Leslie Odom Jr; Michelle Pfeiffer
> handsome and dull; impossible not to compare it to the 1974 version...and come to the conclusion that the original is better in every way; Kenneth as Poirot is all moustache and inconsistent accent and, while the updated supporting cast performs well, they take it so seriously and behave so stuffily that all the fun is drained out of the puzzle...the original all-star cast didn't bother acting...they just established caricatures that were cartoonishly memorable, like 2D boardgame suspects; undeniably gorgeous facade (the alpine scenery is wonderful) and the opening scenes in 1934 Istanbul are fascinating but nice clothes can't reanimate a corpse; I'm not looking forward to the threatened Death on the Nile sequel
13 GHOSTS (1960)
d: William Castle
CAST: Charles Herbert; Donald Woods; Martin Milner; Margaret Hamilton
> the silliest of haunted house movies...some episodes of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? were scarier; poor paleontologist with a great name (Cyrus Zorba) inherits a creepy house from his occultist uncle...the family moves in, along with 12 ghosts, who are awaiting the 13th; another one of Director William's gimmick movies (ref. The Tingler + Homicidal), it's impossible to imagine that this was ever considered an effective horror movie, even in more naive times...far more frightening is the acting (watch the teenage daughter repeatedly put her hands on her hips to express a vast range of emotions); the gimmick this time was special glasses...you put them on to see the hideous apparitions...if you dare...; not even dumb fun, just dumb
Got something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
