Movie-Viewing Experiences 13/11/18 - 7/12/18
A+ = Adored Masterwork A = Excellent A- = Very Good B+ = Good B = Nice Try B- = Passable
C = Significantly Flawed D = Pretty Bad E = Truly Dreadful: Looking Into the Void F = Vile & Repugnant: The Void
THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES (1936)
A- SECOND VIEWING
d: Lothar Mendes
CAST: Roland Young; Ralph Richardson; Ernest Thesiger; Joan Gardner; Sophie Stewart
> a whimsical fantasy (taken from an H.G. Wells short story) that poses a fascinating question: If you had the power to change the world, what would it look like?; Roland is the little Mr Nobody (British to his bootstraps + shackled at birth to the class system) who is suddenly granted Ultimate Power by The Gods...bit by bit, his understanding of The True World Order expands, and he decides to remodel it to his version of Right & Proper... unfortunately, he suffers from the same petty desires and selfishness that we all do; excellent SFX (well...okay... excellent for the 1930's) and the twinkling trio of Roland (in a rare leading role) & Ralph & Ernest enrich the telling of the tale...and the timing of its Humanist message is perfect: by 1936, there's been 3 years of Hitler-in-Power & WWII is 3 years away; one of the most prescient films ever made
LITTLE CHILDREN (2006)
A- SECOND VIEWING
d: Todd Field
CAST: Kate Winslet; Patrick Wilson; Jackie Earle Haley; Jennifer Connelly; Noah Emmerich
> aka American Beauty II, so it's a gentle look at how fragile humans are; inside Upper Middle Class Suburbia where unhappy marriages abound & lust is rampant in its many forms & nobody feels fulfilled; Jackie as the local neighbourhood pervert is the stand-out (disgusting and sad), but the entire cast pitches in with effective performances; I find the voice-over inappropriately smug and intrusive, insisting that what we are watching is a dark comedy...which is not how I felt most of the time; the film's central pearl of wisdom is, as Mick once said: "You can't always get what you want"...to which Glen would have replied: "So we've got to try a little kindness"
Award-Worthy Performance
Jackie Earle Haley
LEAN ON PETE (2017)
A- FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Andrew Haigh
CAST: Charlie Plummer; Steve Buscemi; Travis Fimmel; Chloe Sevigny; Steve Zahn
> this is a "Boy & His Horse" story only in the first section...the other is a road movie seeded with troubled people and tragedy; throughout it all is a good-hearted kid named Charley, who wants/needs someone to look after him...played wonderfully by Charlie (have a look in those eyes...a 15YO who deserves better than what he has been handed); the first half with the horse & pottymouth Steve Buscemi is pleasant and you wonder where it's heading...then the second half hurts you (and in one scene, severely); I worried that it was going to go Bigtime Bleak (which would have been an offence to both boy and audience) but we are all spared...phew
Award-Worthy Performance
Charlie Plummer
PS Personal to Marvel: If you haven't cast the roles of Nova or even Noh-Varr yet, Charlie is your guy.
INTERNAL AFFAIRS (1990)
B+ SECOND VIEWING
d: Mike Figgis
CAST: Andy Garcia; Richard Gere; Nancy Travis; Laurie Metcalf; William Baldwin
> a corrupt-police story, but this time the prime bastard is Evil Incarnate...and, as played by Richard, as charismatic as a black Armani suit...hey, let's face it...the baddie is always the best role...and Richard is clearly having a great time here; Andy (he of the wet eyes, calm voice and hair-trigger temper) is the good cop whose job it is to wheedle out and prosecute the bad cops; you've seen the shootout action many times before, not to mention all the marital problems, likeable partner, ominous music and killing of friends, but the tension is only turned up when Richard is on the screen...this monster is capable of anything, as long as it's vile
Award-Worthy Performance
Richard Gere
THE CHILDREN ACT (2017)
B+ FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Richard Eyre
CAST: Emma Thompson; Stanley Tucci; Fionn Whitehead; Ben Chaplin
> rather genteel but still affecting tale about a literal Life-or-Death decision: the teenage son of Jehovah's Witnesses needs a blood transfusion, but their beliefs say no...and the boy agrees... and it's up to Judge Emma to figure out what's best; while I could have done without the Judge's marital problems (she is too busy to have sex with Stanley), the main story has two chapters, and the second one heads off in interesting directions; poorly framed at times (quite a number of scenes have characters scalped), it succeeds as a compassionate drama due to the stunning performance by Emma...it is a privilege to see her act in a meaty role like this
Award-Worthy Performance
Emma Thompson
IF I WERE KING (1938)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Frank Lloyd
CAST: Ronald Colman; Basil Rathbone; Frances Dee; Ellen Drew; C.V. France
> sprightly costumer (the setting: 1400's Paris) that nicks another notch in Ronald's period bedpost (The Prisoner of Zenda + A Tale of Two Cities)...while it's not as good, it'll do; he plays a thieving poet who is made Grand Constable by the King of France in a fit of jest...needless to say, Ronnie turns out to be loyal, brave, noble and true, saving the King's reign from turncoats & blaggards; there's not much acting going on here (Frances is awful...again, and Ronald keeps doing an Errol Flynn, with hands on hips, head thrown back, laughing raucously)...Basil got all the good reviews as the crotchety King, but he overdoes the heh-hehs; some amusing dialogue (my fave: the King walks into his very-active torture chamber and says, "Smells like Cook's burnt the roast!") and peppy, slightly speeded-up fight scenes help enormously
THE FOUNTAIN (2006)
B SECOND VIEWING
d: Darren Aronofsky
CAST: Hugh Jackman; Rachel Weisz; Ellen Burstyn; Mark Margolis; Cliff Curtis
> Wikipedia describes it thus: "epic magical realism romantic drama film that blends elements of fantasy, history, spirituality and science-fiction"...gosh...me, the first time I attempted it, I fell asleep after 20 minutes; second time round, I got through it all (needed a beer-break after half an hour though), and it sort of impressed in parts (it looks gorgeous...the bigger the screen, the better), but it pushed me to my limits of arty/pretentious tolerance; three stories weave in and out of each other (Mayan folklore / Conquistador-ian quest + a cosmic journeyman...why are spiritual guys always bald? + a cancer-stricken wife and her husband-in-denial), all linked by Hugh & Rachel & the Tree of Life; some of it intrigued me, some of it bored me, but I left with one revelation: Death is an act of creation...now, take a moment...isn't that perfect?
THE DEAD GIRL (2006)
B FIRST VIEWING
d: Karen Moncrieff
CAST: Toni Collette; Rose Byrne; Mary Beth Hurt; Marcia Gay Harden; Brittany Murphy
> arty & heavy &, occasionally, affecting; 5 short stories which revolve around the discovery of a corpse (actually not a girl, a young woman...but I digress); #1: Toni finds the body and this becomes the impetus for her getaway from a damaging upbringing + #2: Rose is the forensic scientist who inspects the body and believes it may be her long-lost sister + #3: Mary Beth has proof that her husband may be the serial killer + #4: Marcia is the grieving mother looking for an explanation +#5: Brittany is the hard-times already-a-victim, who just wants to give her 3YO daughter a birthday present; obviously, this is all as depressing as hell, each story dealing with sex-as-escape & mental illness & thwarted hope; #2 & #4 are the best of the bunch by simply being emotionally identifiable...#1 & #3 are awfully weird, and #5 is slash-your-wrists stuff
WIDOWS (2018)
B- FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Steve McQueen
CAST: Viola Davis; Michelle Rodriguez; Elizabeth Debicki; Cynthia Erivo; Colin Farrell; Daniel Kaluuya; Liam Neeson; Brian Tyree Henry; Robert Duvall; Jacki Weaver
> aka Sisters are Doin' It for Themselves; a big deal is made of the all-female criminals gimmick, but I don't see anything particularly radical in the set-up (what...they resorted to armed robbery because their men didn't provide for them?...what's feminist about that?); too much time is spent getting to know these women and their motivations (the actual heist itself only lasts about 10 minutes)...which I wouldn't mind so much if these unpleasant people were worth the attention; Unavoidable Objection: these women are mothers whose children have already lost their fathers...why would single parents take the enormous risk of turning their kids into orphans?; despite claims of Depth, this is just slickly-designed product...all chrome and not much vroom
DREAM LOVER (1986)
D FIRST VIEWING
d: Alan J. Pakula
CAST: Kristy McNichol; Ben Masters; Paul Shenar; Justin Deas
> a Hitchcockian wannabe that flounders about, revealing its deficiencies at every turn; Kristy is a talented flautist(!) who is attacked in her apartment one night by a knife-wielding looney... understandably, she can't sleep terribly well afterwards and relives the trauma in her dreams... she seeks treatment, which leads to unexpected consequences; Kristy was just not a mature enough actress at this point to handle a role this heavy...she is particularly unconvincing when called on to go psycho (when Kristy is physically attacked, she's more annoyed than terrified); the supporting players, without exception, are as bland as beige; especially galling is how the young woman is dependent upon & manipulated by men whose motives are all suspect... but she just goes along anyway...what a doormat; this is by the same guy who made Klute?
HELP! (1965)
D SECOND VIEWING
d: Richard Lester
CAST: John, Paul, George & Ringo; Leo McKern; Eleanor Bron; Victor Spinetti
> aka What a Movie Would Be Like If Everybody Was Stoned...Plus Some Great Songs!; this is as awful as A Hard Day's Night was awesome; a sort-of James Bond spoof / Goon Show hybrid, this submerges the charm of The Beatles which was so prominent (and refreshing) in their first film, replacing it with ever-so groovy dreck; it's as if everybody was told to "Pretend That You're Very Funny!", mugging and elbowing each other out of the way for attention...except for John (the secret star of the first celluloid outing), who doesn't seem to want to be there...in fact, the entire band seems sluggish (hmm...); the single redeeming feature, of course, is the songlist, containing some of my absolute 60's fave raves, in particular "The Night Before" and "Ticket to Ride"; if you want Beatle inanity, play "Octopus's Garden" or watch the old cartoons instead
THE MAN FROM DOWN UNDER (1943)
D FIRST VIEWING
d: Robert Z. Leonard
CAST: Charles Laughton; Richard Carlson; Donna Reed; Binnie Barnes; Clyde Cook
> excruciating if you're Australian, just plain bad if you're sadly from somewhere else; Charles pins on a Cockney accent and wants it to pass as Aussie strine...it doesn't, but all the fair dinkum cliches are on show anyway: brawling, gambling, boozing (there's even a boxing kangaroo!); digger returns from WWI with two Belgian war orphans in tow...they grow into Richard & Donna (who sensibly stick with their Yankee accents)...and then the stew is truly over-stirred: prize-fighting + birth certificate mix-up + peculiar incest-lite romance + long-lost love returns + a Northern Territory hotel in the middle of a definitely NOT Northern Territory landscape + a portentous dream are all upended into the pot...then WWII hits...Darwin gets itself bombed + bloody Japs storm the pub...but it all works out grouse; a yellow dingo of a movie, cobber
Got something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES (1936)
d: Lothar Mendes
CAST: Roland Young; Ralph Richardson; Ernest Thesiger; Joan Gardner; Sophie Stewart
> a whimsical fantasy (taken from an H.G. Wells short story) that poses a fascinating question: If you had the power to change the world, what would it look like?; Roland is the little Mr Nobody (British to his bootstraps + shackled at birth to the class system) who is suddenly granted Ultimate Power by The Gods...bit by bit, his understanding of The True World Order expands, and he decides to remodel it to his version of Right & Proper... unfortunately, he suffers from the same petty desires and selfishness that we all do; excellent SFX (well...okay... excellent for the 1930's) and the twinkling trio of Roland (in a rare leading role) & Ralph & Ernest enrich the telling of the tale...and the timing of its Humanist message is perfect: by 1936, there's been 3 years of Hitler-in-Power & WWII is 3 years away; one of the most prescient films ever made
LITTLE CHILDREN (2006)
d: Todd Field
CAST: Kate Winslet; Patrick Wilson; Jackie Earle Haley; Jennifer Connelly; Noah Emmerich
> aka American Beauty II, so it's a gentle look at how fragile humans are; inside Upper Middle Class Suburbia where unhappy marriages abound & lust is rampant in its many forms & nobody feels fulfilled; Jackie as the local neighbourhood pervert is the stand-out (disgusting and sad), but the entire cast pitches in with effective performances; I find the voice-over inappropriately smug and intrusive, insisting that what we are watching is a dark comedy...which is not how I felt most of the time; the film's central pearl of wisdom is, as Mick once said: "You can't always get what you want"...to which Glen would have replied: "So we've got to try a little kindness"
Award-Worthy Performance
Jackie Earle Haley
LEAN ON PETE (2017)
d: Andrew Haigh
CAST: Charlie Plummer; Steve Buscemi; Travis Fimmel; Chloe Sevigny; Steve Zahn
> this is a "Boy & His Horse" story only in the first section...the other is a road movie seeded with troubled people and tragedy; throughout it all is a good-hearted kid named Charley, who wants/needs someone to look after him...played wonderfully by Charlie (have a look in those eyes...a 15YO who deserves better than what he has been handed); the first half with the horse & pottymouth Steve Buscemi is pleasant and you wonder where it's heading...then the second half hurts you (and in one scene, severely); I worried that it was going to go Bigtime Bleak (which would have been an offence to both boy and audience) but we are all spared...phew
Award-Worthy Performance
Charlie Plummer
PS Personal to Marvel: If you haven't cast the roles of Nova or even Noh-Varr yet, Charlie is your guy.
INTERNAL AFFAIRS (1990)
d: Mike Figgis
CAST: Andy Garcia; Richard Gere; Nancy Travis; Laurie Metcalf; William Baldwin
> a corrupt-police story, but this time the prime bastard is Evil Incarnate...and, as played by Richard, as charismatic as a black Armani suit...hey, let's face it...the baddie is always the best role...and Richard is clearly having a great time here; Andy (he of the wet eyes, calm voice and hair-trigger temper) is the good cop whose job it is to wheedle out and prosecute the bad cops; you've seen the shootout action many times before, not to mention all the marital problems, likeable partner, ominous music and killing of friends, but the tension is only turned up when Richard is on the screen...this monster is capable of anything, as long as it's vile
Award-Worthy Performance
Richard Gere
THE CHILDREN ACT (2017)
d: Richard Eyre
CAST: Emma Thompson; Stanley Tucci; Fionn Whitehead; Ben Chaplin
> rather genteel but still affecting tale about a literal Life-or-Death decision: the teenage son of Jehovah's Witnesses needs a blood transfusion, but their beliefs say no...and the boy agrees... and it's up to Judge Emma to figure out what's best; while I could have done without the Judge's marital problems (she is too busy to have sex with Stanley), the main story has two chapters, and the second one heads off in interesting directions; poorly framed at times (quite a number of scenes have characters scalped), it succeeds as a compassionate drama due to the stunning performance by Emma...it is a privilege to see her act in a meaty role like this
Award-Worthy Performance
Emma Thompson
IF I WERE KING (1938)
d: Frank Lloyd
CAST: Ronald Colman; Basil Rathbone; Frances Dee; Ellen Drew; C.V. France
> sprightly costumer (the setting: 1400's Paris) that nicks another notch in Ronald's period bedpost (The Prisoner of Zenda + A Tale of Two Cities)...while it's not as good, it'll do; he plays a thieving poet who is made Grand Constable by the King of France in a fit of jest...needless to say, Ronnie turns out to be loyal, brave, noble and true, saving the King's reign from turncoats & blaggards; there's not much acting going on here (Frances is awful...again, and Ronald keeps doing an Errol Flynn, with hands on hips, head thrown back, laughing raucously)...Basil got all the good reviews as the crotchety King, but he overdoes the heh-hehs; some amusing dialogue (my fave: the King walks into his very-active torture chamber and says, "Smells like Cook's burnt the roast!") and peppy, slightly speeded-up fight scenes help enormously
THE FOUNTAIN (2006)
d: Darren Aronofsky
CAST: Hugh Jackman; Rachel Weisz; Ellen Burstyn; Mark Margolis; Cliff Curtis
> Wikipedia describes it thus: "epic magical realism romantic drama film that blends elements of fantasy, history, spirituality and science-fiction"...gosh...me, the first time I attempted it, I fell asleep after 20 minutes; second time round, I got through it all (needed a beer-break after half an hour though), and it sort of impressed in parts (it looks gorgeous...the bigger the screen, the better), but it pushed me to my limits of arty/pretentious tolerance; three stories weave in and out of each other (Mayan folklore / Conquistador-ian quest + a cosmic journeyman...why are spiritual guys always bald? + a cancer-stricken wife and her husband-in-denial), all linked by Hugh & Rachel & the Tree of Life; some of it intrigued me, some of it bored me, but I left with one revelation: Death is an act of creation...now, take a moment...isn't that perfect?
THE DEAD GIRL (2006)
d: Karen Moncrieff
CAST: Toni Collette; Rose Byrne; Mary Beth Hurt; Marcia Gay Harden; Brittany Murphy
> arty & heavy &, occasionally, affecting; 5 short stories which revolve around the discovery of a corpse (actually not a girl, a young woman...but I digress); #1: Toni finds the body and this becomes the impetus for her getaway from a damaging upbringing + #2: Rose is the forensic scientist who inspects the body and believes it may be her long-lost sister + #3: Mary Beth has proof that her husband may be the serial killer + #4: Marcia is the grieving mother looking for an explanation +#5: Brittany is the hard-times already-a-victim, who just wants to give her 3YO daughter a birthday present; obviously, this is all as depressing as hell, each story dealing with sex-as-escape & mental illness & thwarted hope; #2 & #4 are the best of the bunch by simply being emotionally identifiable...#1 & #3 are awfully weird, and #5 is slash-your-wrists stuff
WIDOWS (2018)
d: Steve McQueen
CAST: Viola Davis; Michelle Rodriguez; Elizabeth Debicki; Cynthia Erivo; Colin Farrell; Daniel Kaluuya; Liam Neeson; Brian Tyree Henry; Robert Duvall; Jacki Weaver
> aka Sisters are Doin' It for Themselves; a big deal is made of the all-female criminals gimmick, but I don't see anything particularly radical in the set-up (what...they resorted to armed robbery because their men didn't provide for them?...what's feminist about that?); too much time is spent getting to know these women and their motivations (the actual heist itself only lasts about 10 minutes)...which I wouldn't mind so much if these unpleasant people were worth the attention; Unavoidable Objection: these women are mothers whose children have already lost their fathers...why would single parents take the enormous risk of turning their kids into orphans?; despite claims of Depth, this is just slickly-designed product...all chrome and not much vroom
DREAM LOVER (1986)
d: Alan J. Pakula
CAST: Kristy McNichol; Ben Masters; Paul Shenar; Justin Deas
> a Hitchcockian wannabe that flounders about, revealing its deficiencies at every turn; Kristy is a talented flautist(!) who is attacked in her apartment one night by a knife-wielding looney... understandably, she can't sleep terribly well afterwards and relives the trauma in her dreams... she seeks treatment, which leads to unexpected consequences; Kristy was just not a mature enough actress at this point to handle a role this heavy...she is particularly unconvincing when called on to go psycho (when Kristy is physically attacked, she's more annoyed than terrified); the supporting players, without exception, are as bland as beige; especially galling is how the young woman is dependent upon & manipulated by men whose motives are all suspect... but she just goes along anyway...what a doormat; this is by the same guy who made Klute?
HELP! (1965)
d: Richard Lester
CAST: John, Paul, George & Ringo; Leo McKern; Eleanor Bron; Victor Spinetti
> aka What a Movie Would Be Like If Everybody Was Stoned...Plus Some Great Songs!; this is as awful as A Hard Day's Night was awesome; a sort-of James Bond spoof / Goon Show hybrid, this submerges the charm of The Beatles which was so prominent (and refreshing) in their first film, replacing it with ever-so groovy dreck; it's as if everybody was told to "Pretend That You're Very Funny!", mugging and elbowing each other out of the way for attention...except for John (the secret star of the first celluloid outing), who doesn't seem to want to be there...in fact, the entire band seems sluggish (hmm...); the single redeeming feature, of course, is the songlist, containing some of my absolute 60's fave raves, in particular "The Night Before" and "Ticket to Ride"; if you want Beatle inanity, play "Octopus's Garden" or watch the old cartoons instead
THE MAN FROM DOWN UNDER (1943)
d: Robert Z. Leonard
CAST: Charles Laughton; Richard Carlson; Donna Reed; Binnie Barnes; Clyde Cook
> excruciating if you're Australian, just plain bad if you're sadly from somewhere else; Charles pins on a Cockney accent and wants it to pass as Aussie strine...it doesn't, but all the fair dinkum cliches are on show anyway: brawling, gambling, boozing (there's even a boxing kangaroo!); digger returns from WWI with two Belgian war orphans in tow...they grow into Richard & Donna (who sensibly stick with their Yankee accents)...and then the stew is truly over-stirred: prize-fighting + birth certificate mix-up + peculiar incest-lite romance + long-lost love returns + a Northern Territory hotel in the middle of a definitely NOT Northern Territory landscape + a portentous dream are all upended into the pot...then WWII hits...Darwin gets itself bombed + bloody Japs storm the pub...but it all works out grouse; a yellow dingo of a movie, cobber
Got something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
