Movie-Viewing Experiences 12/8/19 - 8/9/19
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
GONE BABY GONE (2007)
A SECOND VIEWING
d: Ben Affleck [his directing debut]
CAST: Casey Affleck; Michelle Monaghan; Ed Harris; Morgan Freeman; Amy Ryan
> I am not alone in believing that the British produce the very best crime-murder-mystery shows (Vera + Endeavour et. al.); this terrific American crime-murder-mystery contains many of the same features: takes place in a village (here, it's an urban neighbourhood), leading hero is smart, tough & blunt (Casey is all that), support cast perfection (kudos to Ed as a good-man cop & Amy as a bad-girl mother), a twist then another twist in the plot (I defy you to see either coming), finally solved but still sad; US guns & bloodletting as opposed to UK restraint & menace, but everyday evil remains; Director Ben...you're an underachiever...do more
Award-Worthy Performances
Casey Affleck; Ed Harris; Amy Ryan
FOUR WEDDINGS & A FUNERAL (1994)
A- SECOND VIEWING
d: Mike Newell
CAST: Hugh Grant; Andie MacDowell; James Fleet; Simon Callow; John Hannah
> like most people, this was the first time I really noticed Hugh Grant, and his bumbling, f-word-dropping, shallow-but-appealing persona that turned up in so many other Richard Curtis scripted movies (y'know, Notting Hill et. al.)...and there's no getting around it...he's fun; this movie was where the formula began (Hugh + sex + weirdo friends + sadness + obvious but satisfying ending), and a British Comedy joy it is too; the speech at the funeral is a dignified heartbreaker (as it should be), and the group of close friends unabashedly love each other, irritating quirks and all...so I was envious & warmed & amused all at once; forever nice
Award-Worthy Performance
Hugh Grant
FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (1958)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Arthur Crabtree
CAST: Marshall Thompson; some other people who didn't get paid much
> a 50's sci-fi/monster B-movie that probably wowed them at the drive-ins; invisible creatures are murdering rural Canadians by puncturing their skulls...turns out that a retired British scientist has been experimenting on Living Thought Projection...these manifestations feed on the radiation coming from a nearby airbase...can hunky Marshall stop them before his girlfriend in a towel is their next victim?; this is one of the very few horror movies where it really is better to see the monsters (the cutest brain'n'spinal cord things you have ever seen) than to leave it up to your imagination & shadows / sounds / ominous music; when the things are shot (and on one occasion, belted with a hammer), thick gooey dark stuff squirts out everywhere...it's the best bit!; undeniably amusing with fun SFX, this is utter tripe which is surprisingly tasty
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (2019)
B+ FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Quentin Tarantino
CAST: Leonardo DiCaprio; Brad Pitt; Margot Robbie; Emile Hirsch; Al Pacino
> the shaggiest of cinematic dog stories...it doesn't go anywhere that you expect it to...the clue is in the title...a glitzy fairy tale; set in late Sixties L.A., this has three threads that weave throughout each other, culminating in OMG...as usual, funny & frightening & admirably-inventive BUT I was bored in a few stretches and kept waiting for a classic long drawn-out scene to grip me, and it never came (although a couple were promising); lots of dialogue of course but nothing particularly intriguing or memorable; great music, primo filmcraft, performances to applaud, cathartic violence; has it got anything to do with Charles Manson?...no, not really
Award-Worthy Performances
Margot Robbie; Brad Pitt; Margaret Qualley
P.S. Quentin...mate...enough with the feet...please.
PINK STRING AND SEALING WAX (1945)
B FIRST VIEWING
d: Robert Hamer
CAST: Googie Withers; Mervyn Johns; Gordon Jackson; Jean Ireland; Sally Ann Howes
> a British drama/thriller which is unfortunately more melodrama than thriller; set in late 1800's Brighton, this begins curiously with a woman complaining to a chemist about a bellyache and splinters off into three barely-linked tales: #1=Mervyn is a mean old bugger who runs his family like it's Tom Brown's Schooldays #2=Jean wants to sing horrible opera songs and leave home (while her sister Sally wants to feed guinea pigs and brother Gordon just wants to have sex with someone, anyone) #3=Googie wants to get rid of her boozy pub-owning husband and be a slut for fun...this all eventually sharpens into murder and comeuppance; it surprisingly held my interest and, even though the first half is quite slow, the twisty second half (and a tough performance from Googie) makes amends; worth a watch if you're a Coronation Street fan
EVERYBODY WINS (1990)
B FIRST VIEWING (NEEDS ANOTHER)
d: Karel Reisz
CAST: Nick Nolte; Debra Winger; Will Patton; Jack Warden; Judith Ivey
> what an odd movie...all its components (characters & plot & atmosphere & structure) seem slightly out of kilter, as if they don't entirely belong with each other; Nick is a Private Eye who is roped in to the case of a young guy falsely convicted of the murder of his uncle...Debra is the on/off, up/down, upfront/secretive woman who does the roping; the usual murder-mystery conspiracy and false leads play out until justice is (kinda) served but the focus is on Debra... what a looney; my main gripe is that I never accepted that Nick could possibly be in love with this troubled & bizarre woman...was he really that indiscriminately horny or was he just in the mood for something a little different?; I bumped the movie up a notch because even after 3 days, I kept thinking about it (mostly her), which must be a recommendation of sorts, right?
THE 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958)
B- FIRST VIEWING
d: Nathan Juran
CAST: Kerwin Matthews; Torin Thatcher; Kathryn Grant; Richard Eyer; Alec Mango
> this is often put in the same class as Ray Harryhausen's Jason and the Argonauts...but that's silly...if anything, this was merely Ray's warm-up to that 1963 masterwork; the usual mythic / fantasy tale, this has chisel-profile hero Sinbad battling some of Ray's impressive claymation creations: a cyclops, a cobra-woman, a dragon, a two-headed roc and swashbuckling skeleton... and the film only comes alive when these creations appear on the screen...in between these we have to put up with some pretty naff dialogue and acting (Kathryn...later to become Mrs Bing Crosby...kept reminding me of Yvonne Craig as Batgirl...and young Richard as the genie is ludicrous casting); critics who rate this movie all saw it when they were kids and their irrational affection for it stems from that, I guess...I understand though...Ray's craft can be dazzling
THE SLENDER THREAD (1965)
B- FIRST...MAYBE SECOND VIEWING
d: Sydney Pollack
CAST: Sidney Poitier; Anne Bancroft; Telly Savalas; Steven Hill; Ed Asner
> a social commentary movie...this time, the targets are loneliness & suicide; Sidney is a Crisis Call operator and Anne is the in-trouble soul who has snacked on sleeping pills and wants to have a chat about herself while the drugs take effect...Sidney has to keep her talking while police and telephone company employees try to track her down; supremely well-meaning of course (the film is anti-knocking-yourself-off) with an attempt at fast-paced suspense but it is still just a guy in an office talking to a slowing-down woman in a hotel room...the various flashbacks that give reasons add variety but the story just doesn't seem to be completely in motion; Anne never convinces me she's at the end of her tether (she only ever impressed in sassy, backboned roles like The Miracle Worker and 7 Women); feels longer than 90 minutes
EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX (1972)
B- SECOND VIEWING
d: Woody Allen
CAST: Woody Allen; Gene Wilder; Tony Randall; Lou Jacobi; Lynn Redgrave; John Carradine
> 7 topics / 7 vignettes: #1 Aphrodisiacs - a "Farmer's Daughter" style rude joke that weakly channels Bob Hope; #2 Sodomy - one of the funniest comedy shorts ever made featuring one of the greatest comedic performances; #3 Female Orgasm - a Fellini homage that would make a so-so skit on The Benny Hill Show; #4 Transvestism - Oh God...burn out my eyes...please; #5 Perversion - rape & child molestation are never funny; #6 Sex Research - The Rocky Horror Picture Show did it a lot better; #7 Ejaculation - a good climax; overall, a couple of laughs but for tittering naughtiness I prefer the Sex Education scene in Monty Python's Meaning of Life
Award-Worthy Performance
Gene Wilder
ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER (1970)
C FIRST VIEWING
d: Vincente Minnelli
CAST: Barbra Streisand; Yves Montand; Larry Blyden; Bob Newhart; Simon Oakland
> apparently, this is a highly-regarded musical (100% on Rotten Tomatoes, gosh), but nobody has ever bothered writing much about it...me, I think it's rambling, patchworky and dumb; Babs is a clairvoyant dingbat who goes to Yves the hypnotherapist to quit smoking...during her first session Babs reveals that she lived a previous life as a 19th Century loose & scandalous woman named Lady Melinda Tentrees...and, of course, as she tells all, she falls in love with her honey-voiced entrancer; Barbra unleashes her gorgeous supersonics (geez that woman can warble) but I couldn't hum any of the songs afterwards...not even the one I knew; three assets are partial compensation: Bob Newhart does Bob Newhart + the original 3 hour running time was cut to a little over 2 + Irene Handl plays Barbra Streisand's mum (now, that's entertainment)
STAGE STRUCK (1936)
D FIRST VIEWING
d: Busby Berkeley
CAST: Dick Powell; Joan Blondell; Warren William; Jeanne Madden; Frank McHugh
> can a movie musical sparkle and stink at the same time?...this production proves that the answer is "sadly, yep"; not a particularly original story (Dick & Warren want to put on a Broadway show...Joan is the no-talent leading lady who puts up the money...Jeanne is the yes-talent girl in the chorus line...guess how it ends up), this has some of the very best (Joan gives one of her funniest performances as the ego-driven diva) and some of the very worst (4 singing twerps called The Yacht Club Boys do a couple of excruciating "comedy" numbers) in American musicals; what finally pushes it into the void is the ironically no-talent Jeanne; a Busby flopperoo
Award-Worthy Performance
Joan Blondell
MIDSOMMAR (2019)
E FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Ari Aster
CAST: Florence Pugh; Jack Raynor; William Jackson Harper; Vilhem Blomgren; Will Poulter
> pretentious artiness with no emotion transmitted or picked up (unless revulsion and tedium count); a group of uni students go to Sweden for a holiday / study tour, joining in with a folk commune during their paganish celebrations but it all turns rather odd; film begins with a very confronting death scene then slides into a l-o-n-g lull where clues are dropped (and dropped heavily) as to what is going to happen to these kids when surrounded by all the smiling Nordic frock-wearers...drugs & sex & ultra-violence of course (is there ever anything else made available?); during 147 minutes of awful piled on with more awful, nothing holds your attention (oh alright...maybe the bear guts & the pubic-hair pie) because you've been directed to peek at the last page; the cinematic equivalent of Serrano's Piss Christ: something to rile everybody
Got something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD masted59@gmail.com
GONE BABY GONE (2007)
d: Ben Affleck [his directing debut]
CAST: Casey Affleck; Michelle Monaghan; Ed Harris; Morgan Freeman; Amy Ryan
> I am not alone in believing that the British produce the very best crime-murder-mystery shows (Vera + Endeavour et. al.); this terrific American crime-murder-mystery contains many of the same features: takes place in a village (here, it's an urban neighbourhood), leading hero is smart, tough & blunt (Casey is all that), support cast perfection (kudos to Ed as a good-man cop & Amy as a bad-girl mother), a twist then another twist in the plot (I defy you to see either coming), finally solved but still sad; US guns & bloodletting as opposed to UK restraint & menace, but everyday evil remains; Director Ben...you're an underachiever...do more
Award-Worthy Performances
Casey Affleck; Ed Harris; Amy Ryan
FOUR WEDDINGS & A FUNERAL (1994)
d: Mike Newell
CAST: Hugh Grant; Andie MacDowell; James Fleet; Simon Callow; John Hannah
> like most people, this was the first time I really noticed Hugh Grant, and his bumbling, f-word-dropping, shallow-but-appealing persona that turned up in so many other Richard Curtis scripted movies (y'know, Notting Hill et. al.)...and there's no getting around it...he's fun; this movie was where the formula began (Hugh + sex + weirdo friends + sadness + obvious but satisfying ending), and a British Comedy joy it is too; the speech at the funeral is a dignified heartbreaker (as it should be), and the group of close friends unabashedly love each other, irritating quirks and all...so I was envious & warmed & amused all at once; forever nice
Award-Worthy Performance
Hugh Grant
FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (1958)
d: Arthur Crabtree
CAST: Marshall Thompson; some other people who didn't get paid much
> a 50's sci-fi/monster B-movie that probably wowed them at the drive-ins; invisible creatures are murdering rural Canadians by puncturing their skulls...turns out that a retired British scientist has been experimenting on Living Thought Projection...these manifestations feed on the radiation coming from a nearby airbase...can hunky Marshall stop them before his girlfriend in a towel is their next victim?; this is one of the very few horror movies where it really is better to see the monsters (the cutest brain'n'spinal cord things you have ever seen) than to leave it up to your imagination & shadows / sounds / ominous music; when the things are shot (and on one occasion, belted with a hammer), thick gooey dark stuff squirts out everywhere...it's the best bit!; undeniably amusing with fun SFX, this is utter tripe which is surprisingly tasty
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (2019)
d: Quentin Tarantino
CAST: Leonardo DiCaprio; Brad Pitt; Margot Robbie; Emile Hirsch; Al Pacino
> the shaggiest of cinematic dog stories...it doesn't go anywhere that you expect it to...the clue is in the title...a glitzy fairy tale; set in late Sixties L.A., this has three threads that weave throughout each other, culminating in OMG...as usual, funny & frightening & admirably-inventive BUT I was bored in a few stretches and kept waiting for a classic long drawn-out scene to grip me, and it never came (although a couple were promising); lots of dialogue of course but nothing particularly intriguing or memorable; great music, primo filmcraft, performances to applaud, cathartic violence; has it got anything to do with Charles Manson?...no, not really
Award-Worthy Performances
Margot Robbie; Brad Pitt; Margaret Qualley
P.S. Quentin...mate...enough with the feet...please.
PINK STRING AND SEALING WAX (1945)
d: Robert Hamer
CAST: Googie Withers; Mervyn Johns; Gordon Jackson; Jean Ireland; Sally Ann Howes
> a British drama/thriller which is unfortunately more melodrama than thriller; set in late 1800's Brighton, this begins curiously with a woman complaining to a chemist about a bellyache and splinters off into three barely-linked tales: #1=Mervyn is a mean old bugger who runs his family like it's Tom Brown's Schooldays #2=Jean wants to sing horrible opera songs and leave home (while her sister Sally wants to feed guinea pigs and brother Gordon just wants to have sex with someone, anyone) #3=Googie wants to get rid of her boozy pub-owning husband and be a slut for fun...this all eventually sharpens into murder and comeuppance; it surprisingly held my interest and, even though the first half is quite slow, the twisty second half (and a tough performance from Googie) makes amends; worth a watch if you're a Coronation Street fan
EVERYBODY WINS (1990)
d: Karel Reisz
CAST: Nick Nolte; Debra Winger; Will Patton; Jack Warden; Judith Ivey
> what an odd movie...all its components (characters & plot & atmosphere & structure) seem slightly out of kilter, as if they don't entirely belong with each other; Nick is a Private Eye who is roped in to the case of a young guy falsely convicted of the murder of his uncle...Debra is the on/off, up/down, upfront/secretive woman who does the roping; the usual murder-mystery conspiracy and false leads play out until justice is (kinda) served but the focus is on Debra... what a looney; my main gripe is that I never accepted that Nick could possibly be in love with this troubled & bizarre woman...was he really that indiscriminately horny or was he just in the mood for something a little different?; I bumped the movie up a notch because even after 3 days, I kept thinking about it (mostly her), which must be a recommendation of sorts, right?
THE 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958)
d: Nathan Juran
CAST: Kerwin Matthews; Torin Thatcher; Kathryn Grant; Richard Eyer; Alec Mango
> this is often put in the same class as Ray Harryhausen's Jason and the Argonauts...but that's silly...if anything, this was merely Ray's warm-up to that 1963 masterwork; the usual mythic / fantasy tale, this has chisel-profile hero Sinbad battling some of Ray's impressive claymation creations: a cyclops, a cobra-woman, a dragon, a two-headed roc and swashbuckling skeleton... and the film only comes alive when these creations appear on the screen...in between these we have to put up with some pretty naff dialogue and acting (Kathryn...later to become Mrs Bing Crosby...kept reminding me of Yvonne Craig as Batgirl...and young Richard as the genie is ludicrous casting); critics who rate this movie all saw it when they were kids and their irrational affection for it stems from that, I guess...I understand though...Ray's craft can be dazzling
THE SLENDER THREAD (1965)
d: Sydney Pollack
CAST: Sidney Poitier; Anne Bancroft; Telly Savalas; Steven Hill; Ed Asner
> a social commentary movie...this time, the targets are loneliness & suicide; Sidney is a Crisis Call operator and Anne is the in-trouble soul who has snacked on sleeping pills and wants to have a chat about herself while the drugs take effect...Sidney has to keep her talking while police and telephone company employees try to track her down; supremely well-meaning of course (the film is anti-knocking-yourself-off) with an attempt at fast-paced suspense but it is still just a guy in an office talking to a slowing-down woman in a hotel room...the various flashbacks that give reasons add variety but the story just doesn't seem to be completely in motion; Anne never convinces me she's at the end of her tether (she only ever impressed in sassy, backboned roles like The Miracle Worker and 7 Women); feels longer than 90 minutes
EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX (1972)
d: Woody Allen
CAST: Woody Allen; Gene Wilder; Tony Randall; Lou Jacobi; Lynn Redgrave; John Carradine
> 7 topics / 7 vignettes: #1 Aphrodisiacs - a "Farmer's Daughter" style rude joke that weakly channels Bob Hope; #2 Sodomy - one of the funniest comedy shorts ever made featuring one of the greatest comedic performances; #3 Female Orgasm - a Fellini homage that would make a so-so skit on The Benny Hill Show; #4 Transvestism - Oh God...burn out my eyes...please; #5 Perversion - rape & child molestation are never funny; #6 Sex Research - The Rocky Horror Picture Show did it a lot better; #7 Ejaculation - a good climax; overall, a couple of laughs but for tittering naughtiness I prefer the Sex Education scene in Monty Python's Meaning of Life
Award-Worthy Performance
Gene Wilder
ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER (1970)
d: Vincente Minnelli
CAST: Barbra Streisand; Yves Montand; Larry Blyden; Bob Newhart; Simon Oakland
> apparently, this is a highly-regarded musical (100% on Rotten Tomatoes, gosh), but nobody has ever bothered writing much about it...me, I think it's rambling, patchworky and dumb; Babs is a clairvoyant dingbat who goes to Yves the hypnotherapist to quit smoking...during her first session Babs reveals that she lived a previous life as a 19th Century loose & scandalous woman named Lady Melinda Tentrees...and, of course, as she tells all, she falls in love with her honey-voiced entrancer; Barbra unleashes her gorgeous supersonics (geez that woman can warble) but I couldn't hum any of the songs afterwards...not even the one I knew; three assets are partial compensation: Bob Newhart does Bob Newhart + the original 3 hour running time was cut to a little over 2 + Irene Handl plays Barbra Streisand's mum (now, that's entertainment)
STAGE STRUCK (1936)
D FIRST VIEWINGd: Busby Berkeley
CAST: Dick Powell; Joan Blondell; Warren William; Jeanne Madden; Frank McHugh
> can a movie musical sparkle and stink at the same time?...this production proves that the answer is "sadly, yep"; not a particularly original story (Dick & Warren want to put on a Broadway show...Joan is the no-talent leading lady who puts up the money...Jeanne is the yes-talent girl in the chorus line...guess how it ends up), this has some of the very best (Joan gives one of her funniest performances as the ego-driven diva) and some of the very worst (4 singing twerps called The Yacht Club Boys do a couple of excruciating "comedy" numbers) in American musicals; what finally pushes it into the void is the ironically no-talent Jeanne; a Busby flopperoo
Award-Worthy Performance
Joan Blondell
MIDSOMMAR (2019)
d: Ari Aster
CAST: Florence Pugh; Jack Raynor; William Jackson Harper; Vilhem Blomgren; Will Poulter
> pretentious artiness with no emotion transmitted or picked up (unless revulsion and tedium count); a group of uni students go to Sweden for a holiday / study tour, joining in with a folk commune during their paganish celebrations but it all turns rather odd; film begins with a very confronting death scene then slides into a l-o-n-g lull where clues are dropped (and dropped heavily) as to what is going to happen to these kids when surrounded by all the smiling Nordic frock-wearers...drugs & sex & ultra-violence of course (is there ever anything else made available?); during 147 minutes of awful piled on with more awful, nothing holds your attention (oh alright...maybe the bear guts & the pubic-hair pie) because you've been directed to peek at the last page; the cinematic equivalent of Serrano's Piss Christ: something to rile everybody
Got something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD masted59@gmail.com
