Movie-Viewing Experiences 20/6/19 - 13/7/19
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 = Absolutely Vile: The Void
HOLIDAY (1938)
A MOVIE JUKEBOX
d: George Cukor
CAST: Katharine Hepburn; Cary Grant; Doris Nolan; Lew Ayres; Henry Kolker; Jean Dixon
> one of the absolute joys of 1930's cinema...ask anybody; mix of screwball comedy, romantic drama and social commentary (the usual 30's focus: haves vs havenots) that is near-perfect in all aspects (my single qualm: Kate and Doris are supposed to be close sisters but seem more like neighbours with nothing in common apart from location); Cary falls for rich Doris who wants him to enter the family big business...but Cary has other plans, most of which only appeal to Kate...will love of money cancel out dreams & fun?; wonderful wonderful performances with a special nod to Jean (what a hoot!), this being her last film appearance...too bad for us
Award-Worthy Performances
Katharine Hepburn; Lew Ayres; Jean Dixon; Edward Everett Horton
LEAVE NO TRACE (2018)
A FIRST VIEWING
d: Debra Granik
CAST: Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie; Ben Foster; Dale Dickey; Jeff Kober
> an Iraq war vet returns harmed by his experiences and can't be around people...with his beloved 13YO daughter as his only companion, he lives a hermit's existence in the wild...the girl, although adoring her father, eventually realises that only he is the one damaged; this is a beautiful, gentle film (I kept expecting violence or at least aggressive f-wording, but no...how refreshing is that?), so well played by Ben and astoundingly so by actually-18YO Thomasin... nothing soppy or overdone, no soaring strings or sunsets as wet eyes twinkle, this is a human story about a man who is no longer capable of fitting in and a young girl who knows she has to
Award-Worthy Performance
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)
A- THIRD VIEWING
d: Elia Kazan
CAST: Vivien Leigh; Marlon Brando; Kim Hunter; Karl Malden
> I'm currently reading Peter Manso's monumental (1118 pages!) biography of Brando, so I just had to rewatch this...curious to discover that Marlon the man was very similar to Stanley the character, to the point of having to wrestle with himself in psychoanalysis to handle it; as great as Marlon is, this is Vivien's picture (Scarlett gone mad)...an awesome performance; a classic film for sure, but it's flawed by a degree of staginess, cuts & changes made to appease the censors and a plot-turn I've never entirely accepted: Stanley's passion for Stella and new fatherhood is thrown away for a vile cat & mouse assault...lout becomes loathsome monster
Award-Worthy Performances
Vivien Leigh; Marlon Brando
DUPLICITY (2009)
B+ SECOND VIEWING
d: Tony Gilroy
CAST: Julia Roberts; Clive Owen; Tom Wilkinson; Paul Giamatti
> if this had been made & released in the 1960's (and therefore starred, oh I don't know, Steve McQueen and Audrey Hepburn), this tricky espionage romantic-comedy would surely be better known (and a far bigger commercial success)...think Charade or The Thomas Crown Affair and you've got the gist; don't bother trying to keep up: this scoots along at a rate of knots with twists and flashbacks and split-screens and things-are-not-what-they-seem (check the title), but it doesn't really seem to matter; Julia & Clive are two spies who drive each other crazy (but are hot stuff in bed together) and weave impenetrable intrigues just to get their respective jobs done... and outsmart one another; if you can remain unbothered by not always understanding what is going on, and can accept a certain degree of breathlessness, this is a classy entertainment
I BELIEVE IN YOU (1952)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Michael Relph; Basil Dearden
CAST: Cecil Parker; Celia Johnson; Godfrey Tearle; George Relph; Sid James; Katie Johnson
> Cecil is a retired ever-so-English gentleman who decides to become a probation officer out of a mixed sense of boredom & social duty...his naivety, well-to-do ethics and fish-out-of-water persona butt heads with some of London's young troublemakers; very much a 1952 version of social drama, this is a terribly polite ancestor of the soon-to-come dreary kitchen-sinkers that were all the rage in 1960's British film...it's more light entertainment than cutting-edge cinema; the stellar cast is an asset (Cecil in mild bumbling mode is always a pleasure + Celia is everybody's idea of the stiff upper lip Englishwoman + wonderful Katie didn't turn up often enough in movies + Sid James is Sid James + the up&comers include Laurence Harvey, Joan Collins and Harry Fowler) and the blending of comedy & commentary largely works
RIDE A WILD PONY (1975)
B+ SECOND VIEWING
d: Don Chaffey
CAST: Robert Bettles; John Meillon; Michael Craig; Eva Griffith; Alfred Bell
> an Australian children's film financed by Disney and lightly charming it is in its old-fashioned way (but would probably put today's kids asleep...so I think its charms are mainly for us old kids); set in 1920's country town Victoria, this boy + horse story centres around a tough-times farmboy and his beloved bush pony which goes missing, and a polio-crippled rich girl who loves horses too and gets a new one; the cast is a collection of faces familiar to anyone who watched Australian TV in the 1970's, and it's a pleasure to see them all again...especially John (one of our greatest); young Robert is not even slightly cute and plays a feral little bugger perfectly (sullenness cut with a blinding grin); if you like 1956's Smiley and 1943's My Friend Flicka, then this is one for you to watch with your own kids and explain to them why it's making you smile
YESTERDAY (2019)
B FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Danny Boyle
CAST: Himesh Patel; Lily James; Kate McKinnon; Joel Fry; Ed Sheeran
> another light British comedy which will stay with you for a couple of hours, then *phfft*, it'll be gone; the tantalizing premise (which is so clever it overwhelms the film) is: What would it be like if the world forgot The Beatles but still revered Ed Sheeran?; the songs are, of course, the central joy of the movie (mostly covered in acoustic form, they hold up beautifully) but the pure charm of the leading actors makes some impact...in fact, the boy-gets-girl story is what balances out the shortcomings: the supporting players are a rather anonymous or overdone lot (enough with the money-grubbing Yanks already, not to mention the now-obligatory buffoonish friend) + the Beatles songs used are primarily the McCartney poppers, yet Lennon is the songwriter referenced + the resolution is mawkish & lazy; overall though, true feelgood stuff...and why object to that?
SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (2019)
B FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Jon Watts
CAST: Tom Hollander; Jake Gyllenhaal; Zendaya; Samuel L. Jackson; Jon Favreau
> while I like the PG-difference of this superhero series, these kids are the most passive, anemic HighSchoolers since teenagers were invented (yes, I'm glad it didn't become Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but the first third is perilously close to Gidget Goes to Rome); on the upside, the SFX are, as usual, spectacular + Tom is the ideal cinematic Spidey (the truest to the original concept of the character) + the budding romance of Peter & MJ is genuinely sweet + Jake as Mysterio is an example of successful casting; on the down, there seemed to be a lot of wasted time faffing about with rather inane stuff (Happy has the hots for Aunt May? Who cares?) + Nick Fury is starting to creak + a number of the jokes fell flat + I wish they'd stop messing about with the costume...go the classic Red & Blue (with the armpit webbing of course)
JULIUS CAESAR (1953)
B- FIRST VIEWING
d: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
CAST: Marlon Brando; James Mason; John Gielgud; Louis Calhern; Edmond O'Brien
> this has been called Hollywood's greatest Shakespearean film...me, I'd probably vote for The Lion King (based on Hamlet, doncha know); the ultimate saga of betrayal, politics and shit-stirring, this has eminently quotable dialogue but there's just so much of it (even the heavy portentous music can't drown it out), that this motion picture can't entirely make the leap off the stage; however, what really sinks this for me is the clash of acting styles from the players... incompatible and at odds... John enunciates and skulks + Marlon sucks all the attention out of the room + James is James Mason + Louis is pining for the good ol' days + Edmond is nearly a joke; however, it's a handy substitute for actually having to read the play in High School
THREE WISE GIRLS (1932)
B- FIRST VIEWING
d: William Beaudine
CAST: Jean Harlow; Mae Clarke; Marie Prevost; Walter Byron; Jameson Thomas; Andy Devine
> common premise for Great Depression Hollywood: three young women live in the big bad city hoping to find true love and wealth (but not necessarily in that order); this was Jean's first leading role and her take-no-crap-from-no-man persona is a mere fledgling here...by the time she did the same year's Red Dust, she had it nailed; still, it's a pleasant performance made more impressive by appearing opposite eternally-stiff Mae Clarke (who was only ever good whilst wearing grapefruit); Marie tries, but her sidekick-charm of previous films (especially Paid from 1930) is missing...her lonely demise from alcoholism was only five years away; appropriately for a film with a 68 minute running time, the story can be simply summed up: Married Men...you can't live with them, you can't live without them, may as well drink poison
ALIVE AND KICKING (1959)
C FIRST VIEWING
d: Cyril Frankel
CAST: Sybil Thorndike; Kathleen Harrison; Estelle Winwood; Stanley Holloway
> a British comedy that wants to be up there with the Ealing Classics, but it misses that golden era by at least two years; the plot involves three old dears who run away from their nursing home to escape a tedious wind-down of Life... their adventures include joyriding in a speedboat, being rescued by a Russian Navy ship, landing on a remote Irish island, stumbling across a skinnydipping vicar, being mistaken for harem wives, throwing a drunken knees-up and starting a jumper-knitting business; this comedy will only work for you if you find the three veteran actresses utterly charming... me, I liked them better when they were in smaller character roles in a hundred other movies (Sybil: 1947's Nicholas Nickleby + Kathleen: 1951's Scrooge + Estelle: 1967's The Producers)... up close like this, their mannerisms become irritating
THE NIGHTCOMERS (1971)
D FIRST VIEWING
d: Michael Winner
CAST: Marlon Brando; Stephanie Beacham; Christopher Ellis; Verna Harvey; Thora Hird
> my fave horror tale is The Turn of the Screw (the audiobook scared the bejeezus out of me driving home late one night from Bendigo); this film is supposedly a prequel to that story which answers the question: What exactly did the gardener & the governess do to corrupt the children?...believe me, you don't want to know; Marlon fiddles around with an Irish brogue and does his best to hide his girth while Thora can't make up her mind if she's in a costume drama or a ribald farce; the other three keep straight faces and try to look malevolent or carnal; looking at children as they look at S&M sex is my idea of uncomfortable viewing; the nasties include crosseyed corpses, skull-puncturing and exploding toads; as Pauline Kael asked: How could anyone think this movie would be entertaining?...now that's a good question
Got something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD masted59@gmail.com
HOLIDAY (1938)
d: George Cukor
CAST: Katharine Hepburn; Cary Grant; Doris Nolan; Lew Ayres; Henry Kolker; Jean Dixon
> one of the absolute joys of 1930's cinema...ask anybody; mix of screwball comedy, romantic drama and social commentary (the usual 30's focus: haves vs havenots) that is near-perfect in all aspects (my single qualm: Kate and Doris are supposed to be close sisters but seem more like neighbours with nothing in common apart from location); Cary falls for rich Doris who wants him to enter the family big business...but Cary has other plans, most of which only appeal to Kate...will love of money cancel out dreams & fun?; wonderful wonderful performances with a special nod to Jean (what a hoot!), this being her last film appearance...too bad for us
Award-Worthy Performances
Katharine Hepburn; Lew Ayres; Jean Dixon; Edward Everett Horton
LEAVE NO TRACE (2018)
d: Debra Granik
CAST: Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie; Ben Foster; Dale Dickey; Jeff Kober
> an Iraq war vet returns harmed by his experiences and can't be around people...with his beloved 13YO daughter as his only companion, he lives a hermit's existence in the wild...the girl, although adoring her father, eventually realises that only he is the one damaged; this is a beautiful, gentle film (I kept expecting violence or at least aggressive f-wording, but no...how refreshing is that?), so well played by Ben and astoundingly so by actually-18YO Thomasin... nothing soppy or overdone, no soaring strings or sunsets as wet eyes twinkle, this is a human story about a man who is no longer capable of fitting in and a young girl who knows she has to
Award-Worthy Performance
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)
d: Elia Kazan
CAST: Vivien Leigh; Marlon Brando; Kim Hunter; Karl Malden
> I'm currently reading Peter Manso's monumental (1118 pages!) biography of Brando, so I just had to rewatch this...curious to discover that Marlon the man was very similar to Stanley the character, to the point of having to wrestle with himself in psychoanalysis to handle it; as great as Marlon is, this is Vivien's picture (Scarlett gone mad)...an awesome performance; a classic film for sure, but it's flawed by a degree of staginess, cuts & changes made to appease the censors and a plot-turn I've never entirely accepted: Stanley's passion for Stella and new fatherhood is thrown away for a vile cat & mouse assault...lout becomes loathsome monster
Award-Worthy Performances
Vivien Leigh; Marlon Brando
DUPLICITY (2009)
d: Tony Gilroy
CAST: Julia Roberts; Clive Owen; Tom Wilkinson; Paul Giamatti
> if this had been made & released in the 1960's (and therefore starred, oh I don't know, Steve McQueen and Audrey Hepburn), this tricky espionage romantic-comedy would surely be better known (and a far bigger commercial success)...think Charade or The Thomas Crown Affair and you've got the gist; don't bother trying to keep up: this scoots along at a rate of knots with twists and flashbacks and split-screens and things-are-not-what-they-seem (check the title), but it doesn't really seem to matter; Julia & Clive are two spies who drive each other crazy (but are hot stuff in bed together) and weave impenetrable intrigues just to get their respective jobs done... and outsmart one another; if you can remain unbothered by not always understanding what is going on, and can accept a certain degree of breathlessness, this is a classy entertainment
I BELIEVE IN YOU (1952)
d: Michael Relph; Basil Dearden
CAST: Cecil Parker; Celia Johnson; Godfrey Tearle; George Relph; Sid James; Katie Johnson
> Cecil is a retired ever-so-English gentleman who decides to become a probation officer out of a mixed sense of boredom & social duty...his naivety, well-to-do ethics and fish-out-of-water persona butt heads with some of London's young troublemakers; very much a 1952 version of social drama, this is a terribly polite ancestor of the soon-to-come dreary kitchen-sinkers that were all the rage in 1960's British film...it's more light entertainment than cutting-edge cinema; the stellar cast is an asset (Cecil in mild bumbling mode is always a pleasure + Celia is everybody's idea of the stiff upper lip Englishwoman + wonderful Katie didn't turn up often enough in movies + Sid James is Sid James + the up&comers include Laurence Harvey, Joan Collins and Harry Fowler) and the blending of comedy & commentary largely works
RIDE A WILD PONY (1975)
d: Don Chaffey
CAST: Robert Bettles; John Meillon; Michael Craig; Eva Griffith; Alfred Bell
> an Australian children's film financed by Disney and lightly charming it is in its old-fashioned way (but would probably put today's kids asleep...so I think its charms are mainly for us old kids); set in 1920's country town Victoria, this boy + horse story centres around a tough-times farmboy and his beloved bush pony which goes missing, and a polio-crippled rich girl who loves horses too and gets a new one; the cast is a collection of faces familiar to anyone who watched Australian TV in the 1970's, and it's a pleasure to see them all again...especially John (one of our greatest); young Robert is not even slightly cute and plays a feral little bugger perfectly (sullenness cut with a blinding grin); if you like 1956's Smiley and 1943's My Friend Flicka, then this is one for you to watch with your own kids and explain to them why it's making you smile
YESTERDAY (2019)
d: Danny Boyle
CAST: Himesh Patel; Lily James; Kate McKinnon; Joel Fry; Ed Sheeran
> another light British comedy which will stay with you for a couple of hours, then *phfft*, it'll be gone; the tantalizing premise (which is so clever it overwhelms the film) is: What would it be like if the world forgot The Beatles but still revered Ed Sheeran?; the songs are, of course, the central joy of the movie (mostly covered in acoustic form, they hold up beautifully) but the pure charm of the leading actors makes some impact...in fact, the boy-gets-girl story is what balances out the shortcomings: the supporting players are a rather anonymous or overdone lot (enough with the money-grubbing Yanks already, not to mention the now-obligatory buffoonish friend) + the Beatles songs used are primarily the McCartney poppers, yet Lennon is the songwriter referenced + the resolution is mawkish & lazy; overall though, true feelgood stuff...and why object to that?
SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (2019)
d: Jon Watts
CAST: Tom Hollander; Jake Gyllenhaal; Zendaya; Samuel L. Jackson; Jon Favreau
> while I like the PG-difference of this superhero series, these kids are the most passive, anemic HighSchoolers since teenagers were invented (yes, I'm glad it didn't become Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but the first third is perilously close to Gidget Goes to Rome); on the upside, the SFX are, as usual, spectacular + Tom is the ideal cinematic Spidey (the truest to the original concept of the character) + the budding romance of Peter & MJ is genuinely sweet + Jake as Mysterio is an example of successful casting; on the down, there seemed to be a lot of wasted time faffing about with rather inane stuff (Happy has the hots for Aunt May? Who cares?) + Nick Fury is starting to creak + a number of the jokes fell flat + I wish they'd stop messing about with the costume...go the classic Red & Blue (with the armpit webbing of course)
JULIUS CAESAR (1953)
d: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
CAST: Marlon Brando; James Mason; John Gielgud; Louis Calhern; Edmond O'Brien
> this has been called Hollywood's greatest Shakespearean film...me, I'd probably vote for The Lion King (based on Hamlet, doncha know); the ultimate saga of betrayal, politics and shit-stirring, this has eminently quotable dialogue but there's just so much of it (even the heavy portentous music can't drown it out), that this motion picture can't entirely make the leap off the stage; however, what really sinks this for me is the clash of acting styles from the players... incompatible and at odds... John enunciates and skulks + Marlon sucks all the attention out of the room + James is James Mason + Louis is pining for the good ol' days + Edmond is nearly a joke; however, it's a handy substitute for actually having to read the play in High School
THREE WISE GIRLS (1932)
d: William Beaudine
CAST: Jean Harlow; Mae Clarke; Marie Prevost; Walter Byron; Jameson Thomas; Andy Devine
> common premise for Great Depression Hollywood: three young women live in the big bad city hoping to find true love and wealth (but not necessarily in that order); this was Jean's first leading role and her take-no-crap-from-no-man persona is a mere fledgling here...by the time she did the same year's Red Dust, she had it nailed; still, it's a pleasant performance made more impressive by appearing opposite eternally-stiff Mae Clarke (who was only ever good whilst wearing grapefruit); Marie tries, but her sidekick-charm of previous films (especially Paid from 1930) is missing...her lonely demise from alcoholism was only five years away; appropriately for a film with a 68 minute running time, the story can be simply summed up: Married Men...you can't live with them, you can't live without them, may as well drink poison
ALIVE AND KICKING (1959)
d: Cyril Frankel
CAST: Sybil Thorndike; Kathleen Harrison; Estelle Winwood; Stanley Holloway
> a British comedy that wants to be up there with the Ealing Classics, but it misses that golden era by at least two years; the plot involves three old dears who run away from their nursing home to escape a tedious wind-down of Life... their adventures include joyriding in a speedboat, being rescued by a Russian Navy ship, landing on a remote Irish island, stumbling across a skinnydipping vicar, being mistaken for harem wives, throwing a drunken knees-up and starting a jumper-knitting business; this comedy will only work for you if you find the three veteran actresses utterly charming... me, I liked them better when they were in smaller character roles in a hundred other movies (Sybil: 1947's Nicholas Nickleby + Kathleen: 1951's Scrooge + Estelle: 1967's The Producers)... up close like this, their mannerisms become irritating
THE NIGHTCOMERS (1971)
d: Michael Winner
CAST: Marlon Brando; Stephanie Beacham; Christopher Ellis; Verna Harvey; Thora Hird
> my fave horror tale is The Turn of the Screw (the audiobook scared the bejeezus out of me driving home late one night from Bendigo); this film is supposedly a prequel to that story which answers the question: What exactly did the gardener & the governess do to corrupt the children?...believe me, you don't want to know; Marlon fiddles around with an Irish brogue and does his best to hide his girth while Thora can't make up her mind if she's in a costume drama or a ribald farce; the other three keep straight faces and try to look malevolent or carnal; looking at children as they look at S&M sex is my idea of uncomfortable viewing; the nasties include crosseyed corpses, skull-puncturing and exploding toads; as Pauline Kael asked: How could anyone think this movie would be entertaining?...now that's a good question
Got something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD masted59@gmail.com
