Movie-Viewing Experiences 8/12/18 - 22/12/18
A+ = Adored Masterwork A = Excellent A- = Very Good B+ = Good B = Nice Try B- = Scrapes Through
C = Significantly Flawed D = Pretty Bad E = Truly Dreadful: Looking Into the Void F = Vile & Odious: The Void
THE PRESTIGE (2006)
A THIRD VIEWING
d: Christopher Nolan
CAST: Hugh Jackman; Christian Bale; Michael Caine; Scarlett Johansson; Rebecca Hall
> a dazzling story told by a gifted filmmaker; it is late 1800's London, and Hugh & Christian are competing magicians...after a tragic accident, their rivalry becomes bitter and violent...both seek THE trick that will make them famous; as usual with a Christopher film, the movie looks amazing and the script takes many unexpected turns and side-trips (my fave: Nikola Tesla appears... wonderfully portrayed by David Bowie[!!]...and plays a major part in the final twist), making it impossible to second-guess where it's all heading; also as usual, I wondered every now & then if Chris hadn't gone too far out with the imaginative stuff, but that soon passed as the sheer fascination of the movie re-grabbed me; strangely undersung in comparison to Chris's other masterworks, I actually consider this his most fully realised...much more than just clever
STREET OF CHANCE (1930)
A- SECOND VIEWING
d: John Cromwell
CAST: William Powell; Kay Francis; Regis Toomey; Jean Arthur; Stanley Fields
> a Pre-Code film about gambling addiction; William is a professional gambler in 1930 New York...his strict moral code doesn't preclude ordering welchers bumped off...one day, his younger brother Babe(?) turns up with a new bride and a hankering to try his hand at poker... but William won't allow it, and takes tragic action to return Babe(??) to an ethical way of living; while Kay plays another Kay Francis role and Jean is still learning her craft, William carries the whole show and is dapper, earnest and fatalistic...a too-late-now career-criminal who is well aware that his life is awful...his inevitable comeuppance is quite the emotional closing scene
Award-Worthy Performance
William Powell
SMILE (1975)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Michael Ritchie
CAST: Bruce Dern; Barbara Feldon; Annette O'Toole; Nicholas Pryor; Michael Kidd
> an American comedy about America that does it straight...you laugh because you know it's not exaggerated; set in the world of the Miss America beauty pageant (here cunningly camouflaged as the "Young American Miss" contest), we follow the teenage entrants, the organizers and the judges as they prepare to stage a show of glitz and glamour (the spectacular is more like a dread high school production); Middle Class USA is on display here: white people everywhere (with a token "person of colour" who is the target of bitchy girls) + fast food + sex + money + alcohol + God + homes with manicured lawns + an all-male lodge group with hazing rituals + used car salesmanship + a gun (obligatory); there are no knee-slapping guffaws here...but it maintains an air of light amusement without over-burdening you with cynicism
CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (2018)
B+ FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Marielle Heller
CAST: Melissa McCarthy; Richard E. Grant; Jane Curtin; Dolly Wells
> the true story of a misfit who commits the same crime over and over then gets caught...at least, that's all I thought this was going to be, but the unlikely and effective performance-partnership of Melissa (every time I see her, I think of handbasins) & Richard (every time I see him, I think of shotgun-fishing) deepens it; Melissa is a miserable grinchy writer who can't make ends meet...she starts forging and selling letters "written" by famous people...Richard (fellow boozer & reprobate) joins up, and a bound-for-disaster alliance is formed; more a look at debilitating loneliness than criminality, this entertains and occasionally affects...quite a surprise
Award-Worthy Performance
Melissa McCarthy & Richard E. Grant
INFAMOUS (2006)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Douglas McGrath
CAST: Toby Jones; Daniel Craig; Sandra Bullock; Sigourney Weaver; Jeff Daniels
> a movie which shot itself in the foot with unlucky timing (in 2005, Philip Seymour Hoffman appeared in Capote, winning Oscars and critical hosannas); I infinitely prefer Toby's portrayal here of Truman Capote (for a start, the actor is short, surely an essential physical attribute)... the high whiny voice & the flamboyancy & the wit are all in fine form; however, this film is not as good as Capote: a couple of the supporting performances are awful + it inappropriately adds light comedy & a light hand with the truth (the Clutter Family Murders is a permanently-real horror story); still, this is an interesting look at an interesting man-of-his-time
Award-Worthy Performance
Toby Jones
MANHANDLED (1949)
B FIRST VIEWING
d: Lewis R. Foster
CAST: Dorothy Lamour; Dan Duryea; Sterling Hayden; Art Smith; Alan Napier
> lower-level crime film that, as usual, is labelled a noir just because A). it's in black-and-white B). it was made in the 1940's C). it's got a murder in it and D). it's got another murder in it; rich woman is killed for her jewels...hubbie is Suspect No. 1 but then the clues lead the police (and a wisecracking P.I. of course) to someone else...have they got the right one?; only Dan is doing any acting (and he plays his trademark: lowlife heel who would kill his auntie for a quick buck and some gum)...everyone else is cardboard at best and pulp at worst (Alan wisely quit acting and became Alfred in the 1960's campy Batman instead); what saves the movie is the script: trickily plotted, veering away from its starting point (almost the entire first 20 minutes is a red herring), and little bits of humour which, for once, are occasionally funny; surprisingly okay
SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (1998)
B SECOND VIEWING
d: John Madden
CAST: Joseph Fiennes; Gwyneth Paltrow; Colin Firth; Geoffrey Rush; Judi Dench; Tom Wilkinson
> billed as a romantic comedy, this is much more the former than the latter...not that there's anything wrong with that; telling the [quite imagined] story of how Romeo & Juliet was originally staged at the Rose Theatre in 1593, this [quite overrated] film is beautiful to look at in costume, settings and British thespians...but it's more lushness than substance; the soundtrack music tends towards the overwhelming (it rarely stops swelling) and while the performers are fine, they are not especially great (exception: Tom); certainly a pleasant watch, but in the year of Primary Colours and Bulworth, hardly the Best Picture of 1998
Award-Worthy Performance
Tom Wilkinson
TOBY TYLER (1960)
B- FIRST VIEWING
d: Charles Barton
CAST: Kevin Corcoran; Henry Calvin; Bob Sweeney; Gene Sheldon; Mr. Stubbs
> a Disney movie about a boy who really does run away and join the circus...he's an orphan (of course) who is shabbily treated by his guardians (of course) and is looked after by a gruff animal trainer with a heart of gold (of course) and a clown who is wise with a heart of gold (of course), and befriends a rascally chimpanzee (double of course); the story rolls along its fairly-predictable way, with prime colour scenery, meanies who get their just desserts, a giggle here and a sob there; young Kevin gets the job done (applaud his stuntwork!) in the title role and Gene has a nice patter going as the clown; while this would put most of today's kids asleep within minutes, it has a certain old home charm for any 50+ year olds who were fans of Disneyland on TV; not up there with Pollyanna or Old Yeller, but it'll do if you want to remember being 9
SUSPECT aka THE RISK (1960)
B- FIRST VIEWING
d: Roy & John Boulting
CAST: Tony Britton; Virginia Maskell; Ian Bannon; Peter Cushing; Donald Pleasence
> a rather mundane politics/espionage drama; Peter leads a team of scientists whose work in microbiology is shut down by the government over security concerns...through resentment and loose lips, the research nearly falls into the hands of enemy agents; obviously on a tight budget, the production tries to scoot things along despite minimal sets and zero action scenes... as compensation, we get Ian playing (unconvincingly) the peculiar part of a bitter, no-armed war veteran who turns traitor, Donald in his usual white-rat role and an awkward Spike Milligan (of all people) as a chimp-hating caretaker; the movie is rescued from terminal staleness by two minor performances: Raymond Huntley as the ultimate far-too-polite politician and Thorley Walters as the ultimate dithering head-of-department...both very British comedic
THE OLD MAN & THE GUN (2018)
C FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: David Lowery
CAST: Robert Redford; Sissy Spacek; Casey Affleck; Danny Glover; Tom Waits
> this is where my tendency towards one-eyed grumpiness takes over: I am immediately wary of any story where an armed criminal is portrayed as sympathetic; old man Robert the Career Robber may be as charming as a bracelet, but he still uses a gun to steal money, scaring people (in one scene, even a child) into handing over their property...he's a selfish mongrel, regardless of how warm his smile is; the man's motivation (apart from greed) is that he considers theft to be "real living"...imagine if all that obvious intelligence and drive had been put into a pursuit which benefited mankind rather than exploiting it...it's a wasted life, and that's not poignant, it's pathetic; this bile is partially compensated by the conversational rapport between Robert and Sissy...natural, easy & affectionate...something we can all appropriately admire
P.S. Check THIS out instead if you have a need to celebrate the joys of thievery.
THE PHENIX CITY STORY (1955)
C FIRST VIEWING
d: Phil Karlson
CAST: John McIntire; Richard Kiley; Kathryn Crosby; Edward Andrews; James Edwards
> remember that bit in It's a Wonderful Life where Bedford Falls degenerates into Pottersville?... this is a movie about that Sodom Americana; this docudrama (y'know...it's like faction...not entirely fact and not entirely fiction) was quite something in 1955, but now, only the violence has any impact...the dialogue is mostly short speeches, the acting is perfunctory and the finale solos with a moralistic trumpet; Sickening Observation: it is not the bloody murder of a little black girl (brutally shown to us) that galvanizes the well-respected lawyer into action... it's the off-screen murder of a white man that rises his hackles...a white man he knew, that is; while a social message film like this is unavoidably coupled with its Time, to make the leap into eternal relevance, the story must say something more than just "this is what happened"
WILD AT HEART (1990)
D FIRST VIEWING
d: David Lynch
CAST: Nicolas Cage; Laura Dern; Diane Ladd; Harry Dean Stanton; Willem Dafoe
> I'm obviously missing something...this has been called one of the coolest movies ever made...and has been labelled a "neo-noir black comedy crime film"...but I thought it downright tedious: the Lynchian style bludgeons the story to a pulpy mess; obsessively-loving couple are on the run and hit the All-American road with killers and a demented mother in tepid pursuit; I find the deliberately-large and faux-amateurish acting a major annoyance (even Harry is too much) and the camera pushes your face right into the graphic sex 'n' violence scenes; with some Twin Peaks imagery + some Elvis + some pyromania + some porn + some Wizard of Oz + some disabilities & deformities + some car crashes + a lot of cigarettes, the intention may have been to thrill and fascinate, but I responded in the worst possible way...I was bored
Got something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
THE PRESTIGE (2006)
d: Christopher Nolan
CAST: Hugh Jackman; Christian Bale; Michael Caine; Scarlett Johansson; Rebecca Hall
> a dazzling story told by a gifted filmmaker; it is late 1800's London, and Hugh & Christian are competing magicians...after a tragic accident, their rivalry becomes bitter and violent...both seek THE trick that will make them famous; as usual with a Christopher film, the movie looks amazing and the script takes many unexpected turns and side-trips (my fave: Nikola Tesla appears... wonderfully portrayed by David Bowie[!!]...and plays a major part in the final twist), making it impossible to second-guess where it's all heading; also as usual, I wondered every now & then if Chris hadn't gone too far out with the imaginative stuff, but that soon passed as the sheer fascination of the movie re-grabbed me; strangely undersung in comparison to Chris's other masterworks, I actually consider this his most fully realised...much more than just clever
STREET OF CHANCE (1930)
d: John Cromwell
CAST: William Powell; Kay Francis; Regis Toomey; Jean Arthur; Stanley Fields
> a Pre-Code film about gambling addiction; William is a professional gambler in 1930 New York...his strict moral code doesn't preclude ordering welchers bumped off...one day, his younger brother Babe(?) turns up with a new bride and a hankering to try his hand at poker... but William won't allow it, and takes tragic action to return Babe(??) to an ethical way of living; while Kay plays another Kay Francis role and Jean is still learning her craft, William carries the whole show and is dapper, earnest and fatalistic...a too-late-now career-criminal who is well aware that his life is awful...his inevitable comeuppance is quite the emotional closing scene
Award-Worthy Performance
William Powell
SMILE (1975)
d: Michael Ritchie
CAST: Bruce Dern; Barbara Feldon; Annette O'Toole; Nicholas Pryor; Michael Kidd
> an American comedy about America that does it straight...you laugh because you know it's not exaggerated; set in the world of the Miss America beauty pageant (here cunningly camouflaged as the "Young American Miss" contest), we follow the teenage entrants, the organizers and the judges as they prepare to stage a show of glitz and glamour (the spectacular is more like a dread high school production); Middle Class USA is on display here: white people everywhere (with a token "person of colour" who is the target of bitchy girls) + fast food + sex + money + alcohol + God + homes with manicured lawns + an all-male lodge group with hazing rituals + used car salesmanship + a gun (obligatory); there are no knee-slapping guffaws here...but it maintains an air of light amusement without over-burdening you with cynicism
CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (2018)
d: Marielle Heller
CAST: Melissa McCarthy; Richard E. Grant; Jane Curtin; Dolly Wells
> the true story of a misfit who commits the same crime over and over then gets caught...at least, that's all I thought this was going to be, but the unlikely and effective performance-partnership of Melissa (every time I see her, I think of handbasins) & Richard (every time I see him, I think of shotgun-fishing) deepens it; Melissa is a miserable grinchy writer who can't make ends meet...she starts forging and selling letters "written" by famous people...Richard (fellow boozer & reprobate) joins up, and a bound-for-disaster alliance is formed; more a look at debilitating loneliness than criminality, this entertains and occasionally affects...quite a surprise
Award-Worthy Performance
Melissa McCarthy & Richard E. Grant
INFAMOUS (2006)
d: Douglas McGrath
CAST: Toby Jones; Daniel Craig; Sandra Bullock; Sigourney Weaver; Jeff Daniels
> a movie which shot itself in the foot with unlucky timing (in 2005, Philip Seymour Hoffman appeared in Capote, winning Oscars and critical hosannas); I infinitely prefer Toby's portrayal here of Truman Capote (for a start, the actor is short, surely an essential physical attribute)... the high whiny voice & the flamboyancy & the wit are all in fine form; however, this film is not as good as Capote: a couple of the supporting performances are awful + it inappropriately adds light comedy & a light hand with the truth (the Clutter Family Murders is a permanently-real horror story); still, this is an interesting look at an interesting man-of-his-time
Award-Worthy Performance
Toby Jones
MANHANDLED (1949)
d: Lewis R. Foster
CAST: Dorothy Lamour; Dan Duryea; Sterling Hayden; Art Smith; Alan Napier
> lower-level crime film that, as usual, is labelled a noir just because A). it's in black-and-white B). it was made in the 1940's C). it's got a murder in it and D). it's got another murder in it; rich woman is killed for her jewels...hubbie is Suspect No. 1 but then the clues lead the police (and a wisecracking P.I. of course) to someone else...have they got the right one?; only Dan is doing any acting (and he plays his trademark: lowlife heel who would kill his auntie for a quick buck and some gum)...everyone else is cardboard at best and pulp at worst (Alan wisely quit acting and became Alfred in the 1960's campy Batman instead); what saves the movie is the script: trickily plotted, veering away from its starting point (almost the entire first 20 minutes is a red herring), and little bits of humour which, for once, are occasionally funny; surprisingly okay
SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (1998)
d: John Madden
CAST: Joseph Fiennes; Gwyneth Paltrow; Colin Firth; Geoffrey Rush; Judi Dench; Tom Wilkinson
> billed as a romantic comedy, this is much more the former than the latter...not that there's anything wrong with that; telling the [quite imagined] story of how Romeo & Juliet was originally staged at the Rose Theatre in 1593, this [quite overrated] film is beautiful to look at in costume, settings and British thespians...but it's more lushness than substance; the soundtrack music tends towards the overwhelming (it rarely stops swelling) and while the performers are fine, they are not especially great (exception: Tom); certainly a pleasant watch, but in the year of Primary Colours and Bulworth, hardly the Best Picture of 1998
Award-Worthy Performance
Tom Wilkinson
TOBY TYLER (1960)
d: Charles Barton
CAST: Kevin Corcoran; Henry Calvin; Bob Sweeney; Gene Sheldon; Mr. Stubbs
> a Disney movie about a boy who really does run away and join the circus...he's an orphan (of course) who is shabbily treated by his guardians (of course) and is looked after by a gruff animal trainer with a heart of gold (of course) and a clown who is wise with a heart of gold (of course), and befriends a rascally chimpanzee (double of course); the story rolls along its fairly-predictable way, with prime colour scenery, meanies who get their just desserts, a giggle here and a sob there; young Kevin gets the job done (applaud his stuntwork!) in the title role and Gene has a nice patter going as the clown; while this would put most of today's kids asleep within minutes, it has a certain old home charm for any 50+ year olds who were fans of Disneyland on TV; not up there with Pollyanna or Old Yeller, but it'll do if you want to remember being 9
SUSPECT aka THE RISK (1960)
d: Roy & John Boulting
CAST: Tony Britton; Virginia Maskell; Ian Bannon; Peter Cushing; Donald Pleasence
> a rather mundane politics/espionage drama; Peter leads a team of scientists whose work in microbiology is shut down by the government over security concerns...through resentment and loose lips, the research nearly falls into the hands of enemy agents; obviously on a tight budget, the production tries to scoot things along despite minimal sets and zero action scenes... as compensation, we get Ian playing (unconvincingly) the peculiar part of a bitter, no-armed war veteran who turns traitor, Donald in his usual white-rat role and an awkward Spike Milligan (of all people) as a chimp-hating caretaker; the movie is rescued from terminal staleness by two minor performances: Raymond Huntley as the ultimate far-too-polite politician and Thorley Walters as the ultimate dithering head-of-department...both very British comedic
THE OLD MAN & THE GUN (2018)
d: David Lowery
CAST: Robert Redford; Sissy Spacek; Casey Affleck; Danny Glover; Tom Waits
> this is where my tendency towards one-eyed grumpiness takes over: I am immediately wary of any story where an armed criminal is portrayed as sympathetic; old man Robert the Career Robber may be as charming as a bracelet, but he still uses a gun to steal money, scaring people (in one scene, even a child) into handing over their property...he's a selfish mongrel, regardless of how warm his smile is; the man's motivation (apart from greed) is that he considers theft to be "real living"...imagine if all that obvious intelligence and drive had been put into a pursuit which benefited mankind rather than exploiting it...it's a wasted life, and that's not poignant, it's pathetic; this bile is partially compensated by the conversational rapport between Robert and Sissy...natural, easy & affectionate...something we can all appropriately admire
P.S. Check THIS out instead if you have a need to celebrate the joys of thievery.
THE PHENIX CITY STORY (1955)
d: Phil Karlson
CAST: John McIntire; Richard Kiley; Kathryn Crosby; Edward Andrews; James Edwards
> remember that bit in It's a Wonderful Life where Bedford Falls degenerates into Pottersville?... this is a movie about that Sodom Americana; this docudrama (y'know...it's like faction...not entirely fact and not entirely fiction) was quite something in 1955, but now, only the violence has any impact...the dialogue is mostly short speeches, the acting is perfunctory and the finale solos with a moralistic trumpet; Sickening Observation: it is not the bloody murder of a little black girl (brutally shown to us) that galvanizes the well-respected lawyer into action... it's the off-screen murder of a white man that rises his hackles...a white man he knew, that is; while a social message film like this is unavoidably coupled with its Time, to make the leap into eternal relevance, the story must say something more than just "this is what happened"
WILD AT HEART (1990)
d: David Lynch
CAST: Nicolas Cage; Laura Dern; Diane Ladd; Harry Dean Stanton; Willem Dafoe
> I'm obviously missing something...this has been called one of the coolest movies ever made...and has been labelled a "neo-noir black comedy crime film"...but I thought it downright tedious: the Lynchian style bludgeons the story to a pulpy mess; obsessively-loving couple are on the run and hit the All-American road with killers and a demented mother in tepid pursuit; I find the deliberately-large and faux-amateurish acting a major annoyance (even Harry is too much) and the camera pushes your face right into the graphic sex 'n' violence scenes; with some Twin Peaks imagery + some Elvis + some pyromania + some porn + some Wizard of Oz + some disabilities & deformities + some car crashes + a lot of cigarettes, the intention may have been to thrill and fascinate, but I responded in the worst possible way...I was bored
Got something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
