(Boston & France; contemporary)
A rare post-silent Frank Capra film I hadn’t seen. Bing Crosby is a reporter stationed three years in France who has taken up the cause of war orphans. Wanting to adopt a special two of them, Crosby attempts to persuade an old flame to marry him, only she’s engaged to the scion of a family of Boston blue-bloods, ‘Philadelphia Story’ type love quardrangel ensues. While the flick is likable, and has the trademark sentiment and humor of Capra’s earlier work, the material is not as good and the director isn’t pushing himself, something he admitted in his autobiography. Still as I said its enjoyable, and has some fun cameo’s including Louie Armstrong, Hedey Lamar and Charles Lane. Also “introduced” is a young Anna Maria Alberghetti, in a sequence that really doesn’t fit the tone of the rest of this somewhat uneven movie.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Harry and Tonto (1974)
(America, from New York to Los Angels; 1973ish)
Art Carney won a much deserved Oscar for his portal of a beautiful man, on a beautiful journey cross country with his cat. It is a reflection on growing old, on love, on life, on family and on friends. Carney’s portal of Harry is rich in a degree seldom seen, he becomes this throughly fascinating yet simple old man, a man of great understanding who just brings out the innermost self of whoever he’s with. After his apartment is torn down by the city and he is forced to leave the neighborhood where he had lived since childhood, Harry feels a little lost and tries to find a place for himself again at the age of 72. He travels cross country to visit his three children and along the way encounters a variety of characters, from a teenaged runaway, to an Indian medicine man, to his first love, now suffering from Alzheimer’s in an Indiana nursing home. These incidents could seem episodic if they didn’t all add up to something, something about the character of this profoundly decent and empathetic person who is Harry. A moving portrait that is tragically forgotten by many film fans.
See also: The Straight Story
Art Carney won a much deserved Oscar for his portal of a beautiful man, on a beautiful journey cross country with his cat. It is a reflection on growing old, on love, on life, on family and on friends. Carney’s portal of Harry is rich in a degree seldom seen, he becomes this throughly fascinating yet simple old man, a man of great understanding who just brings out the innermost self of whoever he’s with. After his apartment is torn down by the city and he is forced to leave the neighborhood where he had lived since childhood, Harry feels a little lost and tries to find a place for himself again at the age of 72. He travels cross country to visit his three children and along the way encounters a variety of characters, from a teenaged runaway, to an Indian medicine man, to his first love, now suffering from Alzheimer’s in an Indiana nursing home. These incidents could seem episodic if they didn’t all add up to something, something about the character of this profoundly decent and empathetic person who is Harry. A moving portrait that is tragically forgotten by many film fans.
See also: The Straight Story
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Hell House (2001)
Documentary on a Texas “Hell House”, a kind of Evangelical take on the traditional haunted house, only designed to scare visitors into salvation. While these events are generally taken to be in bad taste, the movie attempts to show the motivation of those who put these things on. Mostly they are good people, there intentions are to help, and if they feel they have to be exploitive to save a soul, they’ll be exploitive. One of the more interesting figures in the film is a single father of four (including one child with cerebral palsy) whose ex-wife had cheated on him with someone she meet online, well this gentlemen mines his own experience for one of the scenes in ‘hell house’, and to watch him watch that scene, is really quite surreal. Ironically though, the folks in ‘Hell House” seem decidedly less scary then those in ‘Jesus Camp’.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)
(Southern California; contemporary)
I saw this on the recommendation of Dale who touted it as Cary Grant's greatest performance, and I have to say that I see where he's coming from. While Grant stared and was excellent in a goodly number of important films, such as 'North by Northwest', 'Bringing Up Baby' and 'The Philadelphia Story' this little "throw-away picture" provides perfect microcosm for his talents. While defiantly a screwball comedy Cary Grant also gets to play at debonair lady's man, and demonstrates his ability to maintain a sense of dignity while losing his dignity. Myrna Loy is of course lovely as always and Shirley Temple brings the spark of personality she so naturally applied to her less appreciated teenager roles. The dinner scene is the films comic high point.
I saw this on the recommendation of Dale who touted it as Cary Grant's greatest performance, and I have to say that I see where he's coming from. While Grant stared and was excellent in a goodly number of important films, such as 'North by Northwest', 'Bringing Up Baby' and 'The Philadelphia Story' this little "throw-away picture" provides perfect microcosm for his talents. While defiantly a screwball comedy Cary Grant also gets to play at debonair lady's man, and demonstrates his ability to maintain a sense of dignity while losing his dignity. Myrna Loy is of course lovely as always and Shirley Temple brings the spark of personality she so naturally applied to her less appreciated teenager roles. The dinner scene is the films comic high point.
Friday, September 21, 2007
The Best Two Years (2003)
(Holland; contemporary)
Based on the stage play by writer/director Scott S. Anderson, ‘The Best Two Years’ retains a certain staginess, yet manages to be an affective film portrayal of the life of LDS missionaries. Now I must inform you that I am generally pretty critical of Mormon movies, especially when I suspect there going to be preachy, but ‘The Best Two Years’ surprised me. At first it was just hollow cliché’, the new missionary Elder Hezekiah Calhoun (played by the ubiquities (in Mormon movies) Kirby Heyborne) was stereotypically ‘greenie’, a Oklahoma country boy only two years converted out of Roman Catholicism, and like most of Kirby’s performances seeming more like an impression than actual acting*. Though the film never really abandons its cliché’s, it’s the same old ‘cynical missionary turned around by earnest missionary’ plot Mormons have seen before, it taps close enough to the lived experiences of an RM like me to reignite that mindset and evoke oth nostalgia and genuine spiritual feeling. The scene where Elder Rogers (K.C. Clyde) gives his ‘First Vision’ testimony to American expatriate Kyle Harrison, did evoke a little burning in my bosom, and took a bit of the edge off the cynicism that has grown in me since my mission, which is something of an accomplishment for a movie.
In fact the film has a number of parallels to both of Richards Dutcher’s missionary movies, ‘Gods Army’ and ‘States of Grace’, though in contrast to those films, Anderson’s lacks the same world weariness that turns so many Mormons off from the priors work. I would conjecture to say that which directors depiction of missionary life resonates most with any given R.M. says a lot about where that person is spiritually, though I would never-the-less say that both creators works are worth while. I didn’t expect to like ‘The Best Two Years’, I was poised to find it corny and skin deep, yet it penetrated spiritually and surprised and reminded me how sometimes we all need a “annoying greenie” to set things into perspective when we’re feeling a little worn down.
*I’ve long said of Kirby’s portrayal of a British officer in the otherwise above par ‘Saints and Solders’, that he seemed to be doing more of a David Niven impression then actually becoming a rounded character.
Based on the stage play by writer/director Scott S. Anderson, ‘The Best Two Years’ retains a certain staginess, yet manages to be an affective film portrayal of the life of LDS missionaries. Now I must inform you that I am generally pretty critical of Mormon movies, especially when I suspect there going to be preachy, but ‘The Best Two Years’ surprised me. At first it was just hollow cliché’, the new missionary Elder Hezekiah Calhoun (played by the ubiquities (in Mormon movies) Kirby Heyborne) was stereotypically ‘greenie’, a Oklahoma country boy only two years converted out of Roman Catholicism, and like most of Kirby’s performances seeming more like an impression than actual acting*. Though the film never really abandons its cliché’s, it’s the same old ‘cynical missionary turned around by earnest missionary’ plot Mormons have seen before, it taps close enough to the lived experiences of an RM like me to reignite that mindset and evoke oth nostalgia and genuine spiritual feeling. The scene where Elder Rogers (K.C. Clyde) gives his ‘First Vision’ testimony to American expatriate Kyle Harrison, did evoke a little burning in my bosom, and took a bit of the edge off the cynicism that has grown in me since my mission, which is something of an accomplishment for a movie.
In fact the film has a number of parallels to both of Richards Dutcher’s missionary movies, ‘Gods Army’ and ‘States of Grace’, though in contrast to those films, Anderson’s lacks the same world weariness that turns so many Mormons off from the priors work. I would conjecture to say that which directors depiction of missionary life resonates most with any given R.M. says a lot about where that person is spiritually, though I would never-the-less say that both creators works are worth while. I didn’t expect to like ‘The Best Two Years’, I was poised to find it corny and skin deep, yet it penetrated spiritually and surprised and reminded me how sometimes we all need a “annoying greenie” to set things into perspective when we’re feeling a little worn down.
*I’ve long said of Kirby’s portrayal of a British officer in the otherwise above par ‘Saints and Solders’, that he seemed to be doing more of a David Niven impression then actually becoming a rounded character.
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)
(London, and Austria; 1891)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary Sherlock Holmes has inspired an unusually high number of revisionist cinematic portals, including ’Without a Clue’, ’The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes’, ’The Adventures of Young Sherlock Holmes’, ’The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’s Smarter Brother’, and tangentially ’They Might Be Giants’ which features George C. Scott as a doctor convinced that he’s Sherlock Holmes. Of all these extra-canonical incarnations perhaps the best is ’The Seven-Per-Cent Solution’, which is not only a thoroughly enjoyable romp, but also provides clever and insightful explanations for the master detectives eccentric character and for his associated mythology.
The title comes from Holmes preferred medium for the injection of cocaine, a substance to which he is addicted, and an important part of the Holmes character to which those not well versed in Conan Doyle’s stories may be unaware. In the film Holmes (A worthy Nicol Williamson) addiction has come to a dangerous point, leaving him paranoid and in danger of death. Dr. Watson (Robert Duvall) and Holmes older brother Mycroft (Charles Gray) conspire to trick the ace detective in journeying to Vienna, under the pretense of following Professor Moriarty (in this case presented as Holmes drug-influenced and deluded conception of his childhood math tooter), but in fact as a means to get him into treatment under the hands of a not yet fully established Dr. Sigmund Freud.
The paring of Freud and Holmes is genius, and while at first its largely a doctor/ patient relationship, they do come upon a case to peruse together involving one of the Sigmund’s patients, a famed singer played by Vanessa Redgrave, who is also a recovering cocaine addict. A very satisfying reinvention that succeeds in accomplishing what Wilder and Diamonds ’The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes’ set out to do even more effectively.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary Sherlock Holmes has inspired an unusually high number of revisionist cinematic portals, including ’Without a Clue’, ’The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes’, ’The Adventures of Young Sherlock Holmes’, ’The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’s Smarter Brother’, and tangentially ’They Might Be Giants’ which features George C. Scott as a doctor convinced that he’s Sherlock Holmes. Of all these extra-canonical incarnations perhaps the best is ’The Seven-Per-Cent Solution’, which is not only a thoroughly enjoyable romp, but also provides clever and insightful explanations for the master detectives eccentric character and for his associated mythology.
The title comes from Holmes preferred medium for the injection of cocaine, a substance to which he is addicted, and an important part of the Holmes character to which those not well versed in Conan Doyle’s stories may be unaware. In the film Holmes (A worthy Nicol Williamson) addiction has come to a dangerous point, leaving him paranoid and in danger of death. Dr. Watson (Robert Duvall) and Holmes older brother Mycroft (Charles Gray) conspire to trick the ace detective in journeying to Vienna, under the pretense of following Professor Moriarty (in this case presented as Holmes drug-influenced and deluded conception of his childhood math tooter), but in fact as a means to get him into treatment under the hands of a not yet fully established Dr. Sigmund Freud.
The paring of Freud and Holmes is genius, and while at first its largely a doctor/ patient relationship, they do come upon a case to peruse together involving one of the Sigmund’s patients, a famed singer played by Vanessa Redgrave, who is also a recovering cocaine addict. A very satisfying reinvention that succeeds in accomplishing what Wilder and Diamonds ’The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes’ set out to do even more effectively.
Garden State (2004)
(L. A., New Jersey; contemporary)
'Scrubs' star Zach Braff wrote, directed, and stared in this well-done indie that has provoked comparisons to 'The Graduate'. I suppose the comparisons to that classic late 60's film, which is another glaring whole in my film literacy, are do both to the thematic elements of alienation and search for identity in ones twenties, as well as for there much praised soundtracks. This films succeeds at being are well executed production of a type of coming home film we've all seen before in one form or another. I don't think its particularly ground breaking but it does indicate that Braff is a talent both in front of and behind the camera, and his maturation as a filmmaker should be well worth the watch. Finally, I too own some Desert Storm trading cards.
'Scrubs' star Zach Braff wrote, directed, and stared in this well-done indie that has provoked comparisons to 'The Graduate'. I suppose the comparisons to that classic late 60's film, which is another glaring whole in my film literacy, are do both to the thematic elements of alienation and search for identity in ones twenties, as well as for there much praised soundtracks. This films succeeds at being are well executed production of a type of coming home film we've all seen before in one form or another. I don't think its particularly ground breaking but it does indicate that Braff is a talent both in front of and behind the camera, and his maturation as a filmmaker should be well worth the watch. Finally, I too own some Desert Storm trading cards.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
(Wyoming and Texas; 1963-1984ish)
Reviewing Ang Lee’s ‘Brokeback Mountain’, 2005’s notorious “gay cowboy movie”, presents me with a slight conundrum. Through what lens should I view this movie, through my social libertarianism, and the cinematic logic that encourages all movie goers to sympathize with the couple that society is keeping apart? Or, should I view it through my religious tradition which takes homosexuality as a sin, and through the films subtly played counter-point of the lives negatively effected through Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) prolonged affair (namely their spouses and other family members)? I think the film is very fair and real about the circumstances depicted, the pain of all characters displayed in varying degree’s of subtlety. Ledger’s performance is particularly strong and he probably should have won the Oscar for it, though I can’t now remember who it was that defeated him. I think this movie may be particularly helpful for people from conservative backgrounds (such as the Wyomings and Texans depicted in the film) to understand the plight of homosexual family members or friends, especially as the film is rather restrained in its depiction of gay sex, no male members being shown. This is strong filmmaking and a bit gutsy on the part of director Ang Lee, though I think he ultimately took his pretensions to far, in a decidedly unclassy reaction to it not being named best picture. In the end however I agree with a friend of mine who said this film will probably date better then 2005’s actual Oscar winner ’Crash’.
Reviewing Ang Lee’s ‘Brokeback Mountain’, 2005’s notorious “gay cowboy movie”, presents me with a slight conundrum. Through what lens should I view this movie, through my social libertarianism, and the cinematic logic that encourages all movie goers to sympathize with the couple that society is keeping apart? Or, should I view it through my religious tradition which takes homosexuality as a sin, and through the films subtly played counter-point of the lives negatively effected through Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) prolonged affair (namely their spouses and other family members)? I think the film is very fair and real about the circumstances depicted, the pain of all characters displayed in varying degree’s of subtlety. Ledger’s performance is particularly strong and he probably should have won the Oscar for it, though I can’t now remember who it was that defeated him. I think this movie may be particularly helpful for people from conservative backgrounds (such as the Wyomings and Texans depicted in the film) to understand the plight of homosexual family members or friends, especially as the film is rather restrained in its depiction of gay sex, no male members being shown. This is strong filmmaking and a bit gutsy on the part of director Ang Lee, though I think he ultimately took his pretensions to far, in a decidedly unclassy reaction to it not being named best picture. In the end however I agree with a friend of mine who said this film will probably date better then 2005’s actual Oscar winner ’Crash’.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
(L.A.; contemporary)
‘Pulp Fiction’ had been a long time glaring hole in my film literacy, and I take my film literacy seriously. For some time friends of mine have been after me to see it and I finally heeded their council. Perhaps no film from the 1990’s has had, or will have as much of an effect on American cinema as ‘Pulp Fiction’, both in matters of style and technique, as well as in the careers it revitalized, most notably John Travolta’s. The film has both great intensity (particularly in the Bruce Willis storyline), and a dark sense of humor whose odd rhythms reach there most enjoyable in its final third. While the inspiration comes from the ’trash’ films of the 1970’s, it is elevated into high art here by the execution. Butch Coolidge’s obsession with his fathers watch might seem like a somewhat contrived plot device to get him into unnecessary danger, but here it completely works and takes the audience into disturbing directions which to me at least were unpredictable. Tarantino is the great auteur of “Pulp Fiction“ and I think I owe it to myself to see more of his work.
‘Pulp Fiction’ had been a long time glaring hole in my film literacy, and I take my film literacy seriously. For some time friends of mine have been after me to see it and I finally heeded their council. Perhaps no film from the 1990’s has had, or will have as much of an effect on American cinema as ‘Pulp Fiction’, both in matters of style and technique, as well as in the careers it revitalized, most notably John Travolta’s. The film has both great intensity (particularly in the Bruce Willis storyline), and a dark sense of humor whose odd rhythms reach there most enjoyable in its final third. While the inspiration comes from the ’trash’ films of the 1970’s, it is elevated into high art here by the execution. Butch Coolidge’s obsession with his fathers watch might seem like a somewhat contrived plot device to get him into unnecessary danger, but here it completely works and takes the audience into disturbing directions which to me at least were unpredictable. Tarantino is the great auteur of “Pulp Fiction“ and I think I owe it to myself to see more of his work.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Freaks and Geeks: The Complete Series (1999-2000)
(Suburban Michigan; 1980-81)
The Judd Apatow produced series ‘Freaks and Geeks’ is the best show about high school of which I am aware. It is the best show about high school because it recognizes the cliché’s that clutter many of the depictions there of and avoids them. First off the show is not about the ‘beautiful people’ so few of us actually where from 9th to 12th grades, (a point made quite clear in a clever little intro at the start of the pilot), rather the show is about the underdogs, who but a rare person doesn’t identify with, especially in regards to those few years in our lives.
The program which has a well deserved cult following, had its life unduly cut short by NBC. In fact only 12 of the series episodes actually ran on the network, which had at first built the show up considerably during pre-season promotio. An additional three episodes where shown during an apparently brief syndication run, and the remaining three produced are available for the first time on the DVD set. That ’Freaks and Geeks’ even made it to DVD is a testament to both its quality, and the tenacity of its fans, who gathered names on an online petition to get the series box release.
The program centers on the two high school aged children of the Weir family of suburban Michigan, Sophomore Lindsey (Linda Cardellini) and Freshman Sam (John Francis Daley) and their groups of friends, respectively the ’Freaks’ and the ’Greeks”. Lindsay is a bright over achieving young women whose sense of equilibrium is knocked off base after she witnesses her grandmother die in a hospital. In their last conversation, with her parents and brother having gone out of the room to get something from the cafeteria, Lindsay’s asks her grandmother if she saw a light, she replied that she saw nothing and then died. This incident had a profound impact on Lindsey, leading her to identify herself as an athiest, and beging a prolonged period of questioning and reassessment. As part of this ’exploring’ Lindsy starts to hang out with a group of ’burnouts’ or ‘freaks‘, troubled underachievers with whom she now feels some existential bond of lost direction.
The changes in their daughter trouble Lindsey’s mother and father, ably played by
Becky Ann Baker and Joe Flaherty. These are good parents (though not without there quarks), a welcome departure from televisions stereotyped lazy fat husband, and enabling wife. They watch with some sense of bewilderment and try to guide their daughter, mostly successfully, through many troubles/life experiences that come about on account of her friends, namely relationships, dances, drugs, rock concerts, car accidents, attempted cheating, hitchhiking and even a school visit from Vice President George Bush (that episodes features a great and unexpected cameo by Ben Stiller as a Secret Service agent).
The ‘Geeks’ on the other hand provide comic counterpoint (not that hysterically funny stuff doesn’t happen with the ‘Freaks‘) to the goings on with Lindsey’s crowd. Sam is a tiny kid at 14 and still bridging that pubescent gap. He pines for beautiful cheerleader Cindy Sanders (Natasha Melnick) who contrary to genera convention is a real nice girl, and is harassed by bully Gordon Crisp, who again in an unusually twist, we find really like Sam and his gang, but is still hurting from a perceived slight on their part back in elementary school. Speaking of Sam’s gang they are an interesting bunch, vaudeville want to be Neal Schwiber (Samm Levine), is a Jewish kid with a borsch belt sense of humor, who looks like a little Oscar Levant and erroneously thinks of himself as a ladies man. Bill Havechuck, played by the insipidly dorky Martin Starr, is the series breakout character and a performance perhaps unequaled in the realm of television geeks. Interestingly both these characters get surprisingly poignant mini-arcs.
This is a perfectly realized series, deeply satisfying and funnier then most anything that’s been on television in the past ten years. Some of the performers have gone on to increased recognition such as Cardellini (whose face acting is outstanding), James Franco and Seth Rogen. Those who haven’t yet made a splash deserves to, and hopefully Judd Apatow's casting loyalty to many of these players will pay off in the future. You should see ’Freaks and Geeks’ it is worthy of your time.
The Judd Apatow produced series ‘Freaks and Geeks’ is the best show about high school of which I am aware. It is the best show about high school because it recognizes the cliché’s that clutter many of the depictions there of and avoids them. First off the show is not about the ‘beautiful people’ so few of us actually where from 9th to 12th grades, (a point made quite clear in a clever little intro at the start of the pilot), rather the show is about the underdogs, who but a rare person doesn’t identify with, especially in regards to those few years in our lives.
The program which has a well deserved cult following, had its life unduly cut short by NBC. In fact only 12 of the series episodes actually ran on the network, which had at first built the show up considerably during pre-season promotio. An additional three episodes where shown during an apparently brief syndication run, and the remaining three produced are available for the first time on the DVD set. That ’Freaks and Geeks’ even made it to DVD is a testament to both its quality, and the tenacity of its fans, who gathered names on an online petition to get the series box release.
The program centers on the two high school aged children of the Weir family of suburban Michigan, Sophomore Lindsey (Linda Cardellini) and Freshman Sam (John Francis Daley) and their groups of friends, respectively the ’Freaks’ and the ’Greeks”. Lindsay is a bright over achieving young women whose sense of equilibrium is knocked off base after she witnesses her grandmother die in a hospital. In their last conversation, with her parents and brother having gone out of the room to get something from the cafeteria, Lindsay’s asks her grandmother if she saw a light, she replied that she saw nothing and then died. This incident had a profound impact on Lindsey, leading her to identify herself as an athiest, and beging a prolonged period of questioning and reassessment. As part of this ’exploring’ Lindsy starts to hang out with a group of ’burnouts’ or ‘freaks‘, troubled underachievers with whom she now feels some existential bond of lost direction.
The changes in their daughter trouble Lindsey’s mother and father, ably played by
Becky Ann Baker and Joe Flaherty. These are good parents (though not without there quarks), a welcome departure from televisions stereotyped lazy fat husband, and enabling wife. They watch with some sense of bewilderment and try to guide their daughter, mostly successfully, through many troubles/life experiences that come about on account of her friends, namely relationships, dances, drugs, rock concerts, car accidents, attempted cheating, hitchhiking and even a school visit from Vice President George Bush (that episodes features a great and unexpected cameo by Ben Stiller as a Secret Service agent).
The ‘Geeks’ on the other hand provide comic counterpoint (not that hysterically funny stuff doesn’t happen with the ‘Freaks‘) to the goings on with Lindsey’s crowd. Sam is a tiny kid at 14 and still bridging that pubescent gap. He pines for beautiful cheerleader Cindy Sanders (Natasha Melnick) who contrary to genera convention is a real nice girl, and is harassed by bully Gordon Crisp, who again in an unusually twist, we find really like Sam and his gang, but is still hurting from a perceived slight on their part back in elementary school. Speaking of Sam’s gang they are an interesting bunch, vaudeville want to be Neal Schwiber (Samm Levine), is a Jewish kid with a borsch belt sense of humor, who looks like a little Oscar Levant and erroneously thinks of himself as a ladies man. Bill Havechuck, played by the insipidly dorky Martin Starr, is the series breakout character and a performance perhaps unequaled in the realm of television geeks. Interestingly both these characters get surprisingly poignant mini-arcs.
This is a perfectly realized series, deeply satisfying and funnier then most anything that’s been on television in the past ten years. Some of the performers have gone on to increased recognition such as Cardellini (whose face acting is outstanding), James Franco and Seth Rogen. Those who haven’t yet made a splash deserves to, and hopefully Judd Apatow's casting loyalty to many of these players will pay off in the future. You should see ’Freaks and Geeks’ it is worthy of your time.
I'll Be Seeing You (1944)
(Texas; Dec 24, 1943- January 1, 1944)
World War II homefront movie (a genera for which I am most defiantly a sucker) that at least tried to be somewhat raw and cutting edge, even in the tried and true solder-meets-girl-while-on-furlough formula. In this case the solder in Joseph Cotton, a shell shocked veteran of the Pacific Theater who has nowhere to go on Christmas leave because he is an orphan (aaww, that's sad). Luckily however Joseph meets Ginger Rogers on the train from Dallas, he gets himself invited to Christmas dinner with her at her aunt and uncles place (that's good), and they fall in love (even better). However (uh oh), Ms. Ginger is keeping from Joseph a terrible secret, she is not the traveling saleslady she claims to be, in fact she is on a brief furlough herself, only from prison instead of the army. You see three or four years previous Ginger was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, when she accidentally killed her boss as he was attempting to rap her. So as you can see this not your typical war time love story, despite having a number of its cliched trappings. In fact this movie is so kinda odd, I still don't know exactly what to make of it, suffice it to say I prefer my Joseph Cotton to be a little more jovial, especially around the Holidays.
Fun Fact: The same year this movie was released Joseph Cotton appeared in another (and far superior) homefront movie called 'Since You Went Away', in which Shirley Temple (who plays Gingers cousin) also appeared.
World War II homefront movie (a genera for which I am most defiantly a sucker) that at least tried to be somewhat raw and cutting edge, even in the tried and true solder-meets-girl-while-on-furlough formula. In this case the solder in Joseph Cotton, a shell shocked veteran of the Pacific Theater who has nowhere to go on Christmas leave because he is an orphan (aaww, that's sad). Luckily however Joseph meets Ginger Rogers on the train from Dallas, he gets himself invited to Christmas dinner with her at her aunt and uncles place (that's good), and they fall in love (even better). However (uh oh), Ms. Ginger is keeping from Joseph a terrible secret, she is not the traveling saleslady she claims to be, in fact she is on a brief furlough herself, only from prison instead of the army. You see three or four years previous Ginger was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, when she accidentally killed her boss as he was attempting to rap her. So as you can see this not your typical war time love story, despite having a number of its cliched trappings. In fact this movie is so kinda odd, I still don't know exactly what to make of it, suffice it to say I prefer my Joseph Cotton to be a little more jovial, especially around the Holidays.
Fun Fact: The same year this movie was released Joseph Cotton appeared in another (and far superior) homefront movie called 'Since You Went Away', in which Shirley Temple (who plays Gingers cousin) also appeared.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
After the Thin Man (1936)
9/17/07
(San Fransico; News Years 1935?)
The second ‘Thin Man’ picture takes up right where the first left off, ala ‘Babe: Pig in the City’. This time newly wed detective Nick Charles (William Powell) and his heiress wife Nora (Mryna Loy) are called into the service of family after Nora’s cousians husband goes missing. A worthy sequel to the first film it boasts the same sly sense of humor, and complicated mystery plot, as well as a large new cast of supporting players. Nick’s conversation with snoring family members an inspired bit of distraction. James Stewart appears in one of his earliest film roles.
(San Fransico; News Years 1935?)
The second ‘Thin Man’ picture takes up right where the first left off, ala ‘Babe: Pig in the City’. This time newly wed detective Nick Charles (William Powell) and his heiress wife Nora (Mryna Loy) are called into the service of family after Nora’s cousians husband goes missing. A worthy sequel to the first film it boasts the same sly sense of humor, and complicated mystery plot, as well as a large new cast of supporting players. Nick’s conversation with snoring family members an inspired bit of distraction. James Stewart appears in one of his earliest film roles.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Mary Pickford: A Life on Film (1997)
9/16
Documentary on the life of actress Mary Pickford (1892-1979), who rose from obscure poverty in Canada, to become a film icon, one of the worlds most famous people, and the first American women to earn more then a million dollars in a single year. She really was a pioneer and the more that you learn about her the more you respect her. She acted, wrote, directed, co-founded and to a large extent ran a major Hollywood studio (United Artists), all this as a women scarsly out of the Victorian era. Mary’s personal life however proved a sharp contrast to her career. It was during the era of her greatest success that she lost her mother, and two younger siblings, not to mention her first and second husbands (the later of which, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., was by far the most famous, and the man with whom she will always be most associated). In the early 1930's her acting career ground to an unwanted halt, as she was now far to old to be at all convincing in the child roles that made her a smash, however some of this dissatisfaction was offset by the fact that she had such a successful and loving relationship with her third husband, actor turned band leader Charles "Buddy" Rogers, with whom she was married for Forty-two years. Mary Pickford is a women worth learning about.
Documentary on the life of actress Mary Pickford (1892-1979), who rose from obscure poverty in Canada, to become a film icon, one of the worlds most famous people, and the first American women to earn more then a million dollars in a single year. She really was a pioneer and the more that you learn about her the more you respect her. She acted, wrote, directed, co-founded and to a large extent ran a major Hollywood studio (United Artists), all this as a women scarsly out of the Victorian era. Mary’s personal life however proved a sharp contrast to her career. It was during the era of her greatest success that she lost her mother, and two younger siblings, not to mention her first and second husbands (the later of which, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., was by far the most famous, and the man with whom she will always be most associated). In the early 1930's her acting career ground to an unwanted halt, as she was now far to old to be at all convincing in the child roles that made her a smash, however some of this dissatisfaction was offset by the fact that she had such a successful and loving relationship with her third husband, actor turned band leader Charles "Buddy" Rogers, with whom she was married for Forty-two years. Mary Pickford is a women worth learning about.
Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
9/13
(England, and the sky’s over Europe; 1942-1943, 1949)
Kind of talkie war movie stars Gregory Peck as a second generation general assigned to straighten up a ‘hard luck’ squad of bombers. Dean Jagger won a best supporting actor Oscar as Peck’s deep feeling adjutant. Very little of the movie is actually spent in combat (and what there is of combat uses actual war footage), but instead focuses on ‘behind the scenes’ happenings at base and the emotional coast of war on all involved. While the flick clock’s in at about 2 hrs 12 minutes, events kind of blur because so much of it is talking, which is a bit unusual for a war picture. This isn’t a bad thing its well executed, but it does mean that viewers looking for action may be a little disappointed in the proceedings.
(England, and the sky’s over Europe; 1942-1943, 1949)
Kind of talkie war movie stars Gregory Peck as a second generation general assigned to straighten up a ‘hard luck’ squad of bombers. Dean Jagger won a best supporting actor Oscar as Peck’s deep feeling adjutant. Very little of the movie is actually spent in combat (and what there is of combat uses actual war footage), but instead focuses on ‘behind the scenes’ happenings at base and the emotional coast of war on all involved. While the flick clock’s in at about 2 hrs 12 minutes, events kind of blur because so much of it is talking, which is a bit unusual for a war picture. This isn’t a bad thing its well executed, but it does mean that viewers looking for action may be a little disappointed in the proceedings.
Johnny Belinda (1948)
9/13
(An island off the coast of Nova Scotia Canada; contemporary)
Jane Wyman won an Oscar for her portrayal of a deaf mute rape victim in this powerful drama of family loyalty. It is quite the performance, communicated almost entirely through the actresses face, which by the way was never lovelier. Lew Ayers is also a standout as the saintly doctor who helps Belinda and her family through trying times and gradually falls in love with her. Bold film making for its time in terms of subject matter, it wears well and should certainly be more widely viewed then it is now.
Also included in the DVD is a film short about a real life four year old precision archer.
(An island off the coast of Nova Scotia Canada; contemporary)
Jane Wyman won an Oscar for her portrayal of a deaf mute rape victim in this powerful drama of family loyalty. It is quite the performance, communicated almost entirely through the actresses face, which by the way was never lovelier. Lew Ayers is also a standout as the saintly doctor who helps Belinda and her family through trying times and gradually falls in love with her. Bold film making for its time in terms of subject matter, it wears well and should certainly be more widely viewed then it is now.
Also included in the DVD is a film short about a real life four year old precision archer.
Cimarron (1930)
9/12
(Kansas, Oklahoma; 1889-1930)
Based on the novel by Edna Ferber, 'Cimarron' (supposedly Indian for 'Wild Country') is the story of the Cravet's (Richard Dix and Irene Dunne), a young couple who leave Wichita to be part of the settlement of 'a new empire' in Oklahoma. Dune's Sabra is the daughter of a society family whose marriage to the adventures Yancey (Dix) is a sometimes volatile one, yet ultimately proves enduring, despite the sometimes years long absences of the male partner. Yancy is driven by both a sense of adventure, and a civil libertarian streak with biblical overtones. He's a bit of rouge, a lawyer, a newspaper publisher, land speculator and amateur preacher. He's suppose to be interesting, and he kind of is, in fact they both are, but the execution of the story seems dated and to be honest board me (I multi tasked through most of my viewing). It's scope made it a groundbreaking film for its time, with sound technology having progressed to the point that large outdoor action sequences could again be filmed (having been largely abandoned with the decline of silent). A slow start hurts the film however, and while the two leads are excellent in their roles, its not a movie most modern audiances would find compelling enough to sit through, and this includes some classic movie fans. Anyway it was kind of neat to see an early Ferber film, as many of the elements that would be present in her later books and films (minority rights, independent women) are present here in, as is the story format concerning a western family and their close associates over the course of several tumultuous decades, later used so splendidly in 'Giant', which currently holds the statues of my favorite film of all time.
(Kansas, Oklahoma; 1889-1930)
Based on the novel by Edna Ferber, 'Cimarron' (supposedly Indian for 'Wild Country') is the story of the Cravet's (Richard Dix and Irene Dunne), a young couple who leave Wichita to be part of the settlement of 'a new empire' in Oklahoma. Dune's Sabra is the daughter of a society family whose marriage to the adventures Yancey (Dix) is a sometimes volatile one, yet ultimately proves enduring, despite the sometimes years long absences of the male partner. Yancy is driven by both a sense of adventure, and a civil libertarian streak with biblical overtones. He's a bit of rouge, a lawyer, a newspaper publisher, land speculator and amateur preacher. He's suppose to be interesting, and he kind of is, in fact they both are, but the execution of the story seems dated and to be honest board me (I multi tasked through most of my viewing). It's scope made it a groundbreaking film for its time, with sound technology having progressed to the point that large outdoor action sequences could again be filmed (having been largely abandoned with the decline of silent). A slow start hurts the film however, and while the two leads are excellent in their roles, its not a movie most modern audiances would find compelling enough to sit through, and this includes some classic movie fans. Anyway it was kind of neat to see an early Ferber film, as many of the elements that would be present in her later books and films (minority rights, independent women) are present here in, as is the story format concerning a western family and their close associates over the course of several tumultuous decades, later used so splendidly in 'Giant', which currently holds the statues of my favorite film of all time.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
9/11
(Louisiana; 1927 and 1964)
Director Robert Aldrich had intended this film as follow up to his earlier camp classic ‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?’ Audiences had responded enthusiastically to that film, which featured the famed feuding ‘Queens’ of the old studio system, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, as faded stars locked in a life and death struggle. Where ‘Jane’ had featured Davis torturing Crawford, ‘Charlotte’ was to have reversed the roles and have Crawford torturing Davis. However the stars behind the scenes feud. became so intense that Crawford walked out of the picture after a few weeks of shooting, and Olivia deHavilland stepped in to take over her role, and delivered a fine performance in it to boot.
In short the story of ‘Charlotte’ concerns Charlotte (Davis) a daughter of Southern society who became notorious as the murder of the married man with whom she was having an affair (Bruce Dern). Her fathers connections kept her out of jail, but more then 35 years later she was living, mostly alone (save loyal made Agnes Moorehead) in the old family estate, a figure of local gossip and the imagination of young boys who want a scare. When the state decides to put a highway through her property, forcing her evacuation, Charlotte refuses, in part out of a deference to her late father, who wanted nothing more then to preserve the family homestead.
Into this tense situation comes deHavilland, a long estranged niece of the notorious Charlotte, who as her only living relative comes to help her move, and perhaps rekindle an old romance with a local doctor and former beau (Joseph Cotten). Of course this is how things seem at first, you feel you have the basic contours of the movie down, but trust me you don’t. Cecil Kellaway, in an unexpectedly scene stealing performance, has come from England to investigate the matter of the late Dern’s insurance policy having never been claimed, which holds the key, as it where, to the whole darned mystery.
This is great stuff, I thought it was only okay at first but by the end I was sold. It’s high melodrama as exploitation flick starting golden era Hollywood players. Yet I don’t feel they were taken advantage of here, no not at all, they gave strong performances and where kept relevant in the eyes of then contemporary audiences through work such as this, which never reached the level of self mockery that marked some of Vincent Prices later work. Thusly ‘Sweet Charlotte’ is a pretty sweet picture.
(Louisiana; 1927 and 1964)
Director Robert Aldrich had intended this film as follow up to his earlier camp classic ‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?’ Audiences had responded enthusiastically to that film, which featured the famed feuding ‘Queens’ of the old studio system, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, as faded stars locked in a life and death struggle. Where ‘Jane’ had featured Davis torturing Crawford, ‘Charlotte’ was to have reversed the roles and have Crawford torturing Davis. However the stars behind the scenes feud. became so intense that Crawford walked out of the picture after a few weeks of shooting, and Olivia deHavilland stepped in to take over her role, and delivered a fine performance in it to boot.
In short the story of ‘Charlotte’ concerns Charlotte (Davis) a daughter of Southern society who became notorious as the murder of the married man with whom she was having an affair (Bruce Dern). Her fathers connections kept her out of jail, but more then 35 years later she was living, mostly alone (save loyal made Agnes Moorehead) in the old family estate, a figure of local gossip and the imagination of young boys who want a scare. When the state decides to put a highway through her property, forcing her evacuation, Charlotte refuses, in part out of a deference to her late father, who wanted nothing more then to preserve the family homestead.
Into this tense situation comes deHavilland, a long estranged niece of the notorious Charlotte, who as her only living relative comes to help her move, and perhaps rekindle an old romance with a local doctor and former beau (Joseph Cotten). Of course this is how things seem at first, you feel you have the basic contours of the movie down, but trust me you don’t. Cecil Kellaway, in an unexpectedly scene stealing performance, has come from England to investigate the matter of the late Dern’s insurance policy having never been claimed, which holds the key, as it where, to the whole darned mystery.
This is great stuff, I thought it was only okay at first but by the end I was sold. It’s high melodrama as exploitation flick starting golden era Hollywood players. Yet I don’t feel they were taken advantage of here, no not at all, they gave strong performances and where kept relevant in the eyes of then contemporary audiences through work such as this, which never reached the level of self mockery that marked some of Vincent Prices later work. Thusly ‘Sweet Charlotte’ is a pretty sweet picture.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Deliver Us From Evil (2006)
Documentary on pedophile Catholic Priest Father Oliver “Ollie” O’Grady, who sexually abused possibly hundred’s of children in various north-central California perishes during the 1970's and 80's. Father O’Grady was eventually successfully prosecuted for some of his crimes and spent a number of years in prison, before being deported back to his native Ireland, where he is now a free man and due to receive a pension when he turns 65. Father O’Grady’s perverted crimes brought sorrow and destruction to many lives, but his deeds are not the sole focus of the film. O’Grady’s story is but one of many, many examples of abusive Priest’s kept in positions that allowed them access to children, because of an administrative cultural within the Catholic hierarchy that in many cases came to value personnel and public image above the safety of some of their most vulnerable parishioners. The Bishop who shielded Father O’Grady for much of his time in the states, Roger Mahoney, had over 500 such dangerous Priests kept active in his California Diosces alone, according to the film.
Of course these kind of tragedies occur in all religions, where perverted individuals manage to work their way into positions where they can abuse children. In the Catholic case however these issues have been seen as more pronounced, especially in recent years. Part of this problem might be alleviated by a return to long former practice and allowing priests to marry, however the traditionalist in sway in the highest corders of power in the Church are vehemently opposed to such change. Even granting that the Catholic Church should retain the practice of ‘celibate’ Priests, it most defiantly should have done a better job of removing sexual offenders from positions where thye could do harm, at the very least sending them off to a monastery where they have little-to-no chance of recidivism. It should be pointed out that Father O’Grady, while allowed to attend some lay therapy during his time as an active priest, was never cloistered away, and in fact today (the time in which the documentary was made, this may have changed by now) has no aperient restrictions placed upon his personal movements in Ireland, and is in fact even interviewed in this film in front of a children’s play ground. Amy Berg’s documentary does a good job of bring these issues even further into the open and showing the damage men like Father O’Grady, and those who enabled him, have done to good Catholics and their Church.
Of course these kind of tragedies occur in all religions, where perverted individuals manage to work their way into positions where they can abuse children. In the Catholic case however these issues have been seen as more pronounced, especially in recent years. Part of this problem might be alleviated by a return to long former practice and allowing priests to marry, however the traditionalist in sway in the highest corders of power in the Church are vehemently opposed to such change. Even granting that the Catholic Church should retain the practice of ‘celibate’ Priests, it most defiantly should have done a better job of removing sexual offenders from positions where thye could do harm, at the very least sending them off to a monastery where they have little-to-no chance of recidivism. It should be pointed out that Father O’Grady, while allowed to attend some lay therapy during his time as an active priest, was never cloistered away, and in fact today (the time in which the documentary was made, this may have changed by now) has no aperient restrictions placed upon his personal movements in Ireland, and is in fact even interviewed in this film in front of a children’s play ground. Amy Berg’s documentary does a good job of bring these issues even further into the open and showing the damage men like Father O’Grady, and those who enabled him, have done to good Catholics and their Church.
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
(New York, England, Holland; August-September 1939, plus epilogue several months later)
Hitchcock film concerns American crime reporter Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) sent to Europe by his paper to get the real scoop on impending war. Jones under a new paper mandated moniker is tasked with landing an interview with a Dutch politician named Van Meer, who may be key to last minute peace negations. When his subject is apparently killed in front of him, Jones follows a suspect and manages to sneak into a secret holding facility where he discovers Van Meer still alive, being held by German agents in an attempt to get important information out of him regarding a secret treaty. Jones is then thrown into the task of attempting to prove that Van Meer is still alive and effect his rescue, a cause for which he gradually gains allies including British reporter George Sanders, and Carol Fisher the daughter of a prominate peace activist. Also Robert Benchley appears as comic relief in the form of a senior American correspondent in London.
The film is sold, good espionage stuff, which seems fairly conventionally framed until the last half hour or so. Indeed the last 30 minutes of the film are a real treasure, a kind of low key twist occurs, in which the villain manages to redeem himself, and in facts turns out to be a good egg in a bad situation. Really you need to see this film for the wonderfully unconventional resolution. The ending also contains a not to subtle plea for American involvement in the European war.
Hitchcock film concerns American crime reporter Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) sent to Europe by his paper to get the real scoop on impending war. Jones under a new paper mandated moniker is tasked with landing an interview with a Dutch politician named Van Meer, who may be key to last minute peace negations. When his subject is apparently killed in front of him, Jones follows a suspect and manages to sneak into a secret holding facility where he discovers Van Meer still alive, being held by German agents in an attempt to get important information out of him regarding a secret treaty. Jones is then thrown into the task of attempting to prove that Van Meer is still alive and effect his rescue, a cause for which he gradually gains allies including British reporter George Sanders, and Carol Fisher the daughter of a prominate peace activist. Also Robert Benchley appears as comic relief in the form of a senior American correspondent in London.
The film is sold, good espionage stuff, which seems fairly conventionally framed until the last half hour or so. Indeed the last 30 minutes of the film are a real treasure, a kind of low key twist occurs, in which the villain manages to redeem himself, and in facts turns out to be a good egg in a bad situation. Really you need to see this film for the wonderfully unconventional resolution. The ending also contains a not to subtle plea for American involvement in the European war.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Path to War (2002)
(Mostly Washington D.C.; January 1965- early 1968)
John Frankenheimer’s dramatically solid rendering of the Johnson administrations ill-fated slide into the Vietnam War. Michaell Gambon makes an excellent Lyndon Johnson, despite being English I don’t know who else could have played him, he has the right face, the right build, and even managed not to overplay the accent. (Of course and Englishman playing a U.S. President in a movie is nothing new, there were two American presidents depicted in the 1997 movie Amistade, and both were played by veteran British actors.) Also notable is Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, this is an actor who just fascinating as the kind of stuffed shirt character that would boar or a be a caricature in lesser hands. Also Felicity Huffman was an unexpected but fine choice for the part of Lady Bird Johnson.
Anybody with a basic knowledge of history knows the story of this movie, at least in broad outline. Now the story of Johnson, like the story of his successor Richard Nixon, is American Shakespear. Here is a man who had the potential for greatness, even had greatness, but lost it do to a flaw. Now this flaw isn’t Nixon’s flaw, because we get the sense that Johnson felt comfortable in his own skin, something Nixon may never have. In fact, as pointed out by Clark Clifford (Donald Sutherland) in the movie, that Johnson flaw seemed to go against the man’s own historic political instincts. He just felt he couldn’t lose face on Vietnam, that he was obligated even when failure seemed all but inevitable. Johnson gave up much of his ‘Great Society’ for the self-destructive experience that was American involvement in the Vietnam war, and as this movie and I think history implies, he never got over it, but then again how could he. ‘Path to War’ is no ‘Nixon’ but its as good as your likely to get in a made-for-tv format.
Note: Gary Sinise reprises unbilled his Emmy winning role of George Wallace from the mini-series ‘Wallace’.
John Frankenheimer’s dramatically solid rendering of the Johnson administrations ill-fated slide into the Vietnam War. Michaell Gambon makes an excellent Lyndon Johnson, despite being English I don’t know who else could have played him, he has the right face, the right build, and even managed not to overplay the accent. (Of course and Englishman playing a U.S. President in a movie is nothing new, there were two American presidents depicted in the 1997 movie Amistade, and both were played by veteran British actors.) Also notable is Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, this is an actor who just fascinating as the kind of stuffed shirt character that would boar or a be a caricature in lesser hands. Also Felicity Huffman was an unexpected but fine choice for the part of Lady Bird Johnson.
Anybody with a basic knowledge of history knows the story of this movie, at least in broad outline. Now the story of Johnson, like the story of his successor Richard Nixon, is American Shakespear. Here is a man who had the potential for greatness, even had greatness, but lost it do to a flaw. Now this flaw isn’t Nixon’s flaw, because we get the sense that Johnson felt comfortable in his own skin, something Nixon may never have. In fact, as pointed out by Clark Clifford (Donald Sutherland) in the movie, that Johnson flaw seemed to go against the man’s own historic political instincts. He just felt he couldn’t lose face on Vietnam, that he was obligated even when failure seemed all but inevitable. Johnson gave up much of his ‘Great Society’ for the self-destructive experience that was American involvement in the Vietnam war, and as this movie and I think history implies, he never got over it, but then again how could he. ‘Path to War’ is no ‘Nixon’ but its as good as your likely to get in a made-for-tv format.
Note: Gary Sinise reprises unbilled his Emmy winning role of George Wallace from the mini-series ‘Wallace’.
Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
(China; 1940's, pre-communist take over)
Stephen Chow directed Kung Fu action spoof about the gangs that plagued China during the first half of the 20th Century. Very much along the lines of his earlier ‘Sholine Soccer’ its about a bunch of under-dogs who take on a seemingly superior group of bad guys through the mastery of super natural martial arts skills. The film is full of homages, many of them thematic to works from ‘Top Hat’ (1935) to ‘Gangs of New York’ (2003), the world of the movie is a kind of lawless Scorsese landscape filtered through both ‘West Side Story’ and the work’s of Tex Avery.
Stephen Chow directed Kung Fu action spoof about the gangs that plagued China during the first half of the 20th Century. Very much along the lines of his earlier ‘Sholine Soccer’ its about a bunch of under-dogs who take on a seemingly superior group of bad guys through the mastery of super natural martial arts skills. The film is full of homages, many of them thematic to works from ‘Top Hat’ (1935) to ‘Gangs of New York’ (2003), the world of the movie is a kind of lawless Scorsese landscape filtered through both ‘West Side Story’ and the work’s of Tex Avery.
Being John Malkovich (1999)
(New York City; contemporary)
Charlie Kaufmans groundbreaking meditation on puppetry as a metaphor for life. John Cusake is Craig Schwartz an unemployed puppeteer who lands a job as a filing clerk at a company based in the seventh-and-a-half floor of a New York City high-rise (it was designed as an optimal working environment for midgets). Schwartz discovers there-in a portal into the mind of acclaimed actor John Malkovich. Craig shares this secret with his wife (Camren Diaz) and a women he would like to have an affair with (Cathrine Keener). They establish a business that allows anyone to spend 15 minutes as a passenger in John Malkovich’s body, but eventually Craig gains sufficient skill at manipulating Malkovich’s person, that he decides to take up residence full time, re-directing his hosts career into the world of puppetry.
This is all needless to say a very bizarre concept for a movie, but it works and establishes quite well the existential field about which Kaufman enjoys writing, namely the subject of identity and self. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind explores this subject matter in pronounced regards to relationships, while Adaptation is more about the creative process as an expression of self. The metaphor in Malkovich is simultaneously more persise and abstract with one person literaly becoming another yet unable to cease being ones self. Perhaps this can be interpreted as the internal pointlessness of attempting to be something we are not, or perhaps its about something else entirely. Whatever its about exactly, and that was doubtless meant to be at least semi-ambiguous, it’s a creative, entertaining and lightly though provoking work.
See also: Donnie Darko (2001)
Charlie Kaufmans groundbreaking meditation on puppetry as a metaphor for life. John Cusake is Craig Schwartz an unemployed puppeteer who lands a job as a filing clerk at a company based in the seventh-and-a-half floor of a New York City high-rise (it was designed as an optimal working environment for midgets). Schwartz discovers there-in a portal into the mind of acclaimed actor John Malkovich. Craig shares this secret with his wife (Camren Diaz) and a women he would like to have an affair with (Cathrine Keener). They establish a business that allows anyone to spend 15 minutes as a passenger in John Malkovich’s body, but eventually Craig gains sufficient skill at manipulating Malkovich’s person, that he decides to take up residence full time, re-directing his hosts career into the world of puppetry.
This is all needless to say a very bizarre concept for a movie, but it works and establishes quite well the existential field about which Kaufman enjoys writing, namely the subject of identity and self. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind explores this subject matter in pronounced regards to relationships, while Adaptation is more about the creative process as an expression of self. The metaphor in Malkovich is simultaneously more persise and abstract with one person literaly becoming another yet unable to cease being ones self. Perhaps this can be interpreted as the internal pointlessness of attempting to be something we are not, or perhaps its about something else entirely. Whatever its about exactly, and that was doubtless meant to be at least semi-ambiguous, it’s a creative, entertaining and lightly though provoking work.
See also: Donnie Darko (2001)
Maxed Out (2006)
9/2/07
Documentary film delves into the American culture of debt and the morally despicable practices of predatory lenders. Important viewing as a kind of ‘Scared Straight’ for credit card holders.
Documentary film delves into the American culture of debt and the morally despicable practices of predatory lenders. Important viewing as a kind of ‘Scared Straight’ for credit card holders.
Papillon (1973)
8/30/07
(France, Atlantic Ocean, Gyuana, Honduras, Devil’s Island; 1930's +)
Based on the true story of Henri Charriere, a Frenchmen falsely convicted of the death of a pimp and sentenced to that nations notorious South American prisons, this is a dang fine movie. There are elements of other films here, such as The Life of Emile Zoie, but doubtless comparisons can be made to McQueens other ‘Great Escape’ movie, The Great Escape. That movie was more about a cunning bravado and daring do, while Papillon has that, its in a more mature and reflective form. The mediation on friendship between McQueen and Hoffman is beautiful and subtle, but human will, endurance and what it takes to be a man are also on display as thematic subtexts, and handled as masterfully as perhaps they ever could be in something of an adventure format (thank you Dalton Trumbo). Anyway this film is simply worth your time.
(France, Atlantic Ocean, Gyuana, Honduras, Devil’s Island; 1930's +)
Based on the true story of Henri Charriere, a Frenchmen falsely convicted of the death of a pimp and sentenced to that nations notorious South American prisons, this is a dang fine movie. There are elements of other films here, such as The Life of Emile Zoie, but doubtless comparisons can be made to McQueens other ‘Great Escape’ movie, The Great Escape. That movie was more about a cunning bravado and daring do, while Papillon has that, its in a more mature and reflective form. The mediation on friendship between McQueen and Hoffman is beautiful and subtle, but human will, endurance and what it takes to be a man are also on display as thematic subtexts, and handled as masterfully as perhaps they ever could be in something of an adventure format (thank you Dalton Trumbo). Anyway this film is simply worth your time.
The Royal Tenenbaums (2002)
8/29/07
(Mostly New York City; 1970's and roughly contemporary)
I just finished this movie mere minutes ago and I must say I’m not yet sure what I think of it. This is my first Wes Anderson film you see, and while I’m aware of the director through reputation and a smart credit card commercial he did for the last Academy Awards, I’d had no real exposer to his work. I’d seen the first eight or so minutes of this movie on YouTube a few weeks ago and was impressed by its conceit, that it’s a sort of children’s book, a motifs that is made clear at the very beginning of the film, when we are shown said children’s book checked out of a library, and we hear the wonderful straight narration of the story, in stylistically simple proses, by the great Alice Baldwin.
The story concerns the family of Tenenbaum, a rich but dysfunctional New York City family whose three ‘genius’ children were a brief media sensation in the 1970's. Decades later all three children, played in there adult incarnations by Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Luke Wilson, are emotionally and psychologically damaged individuals. This is in part do to their father, a manipulative man of poor relational competence, who separated from there mother when there were just children. Now on the verge of economic destitution this Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackmen) comes back into their life fanning stomach cancer, but eventually discovers his emotional core and becomes a sort of nexus for the emotional rehabilitation of his family.
As I write these word and reflect I can already feel the movie coming together for me, though obviously a bit delayed. The story works, and the memorable visual composition, eclectic musical selection, and surreal straightness in which the whole thing is played, combines with the excellent cast performances to form what may be a sly little classic. I’m gonna enjoy sorting this one out in my mind.
(Mostly New York City; 1970's and roughly contemporary)
I just finished this movie mere minutes ago and I must say I’m not yet sure what I think of it. This is my first Wes Anderson film you see, and while I’m aware of the director through reputation and a smart credit card commercial he did for the last Academy Awards, I’d had no real exposer to his work. I’d seen the first eight or so minutes of this movie on YouTube a few weeks ago and was impressed by its conceit, that it’s a sort of children’s book, a motifs that is made clear at the very beginning of the film, when we are shown said children’s book checked out of a library, and we hear the wonderful straight narration of the story, in stylistically simple proses, by the great Alice Baldwin.
The story concerns the family of Tenenbaum, a rich but dysfunctional New York City family whose three ‘genius’ children were a brief media sensation in the 1970's. Decades later all three children, played in there adult incarnations by Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Luke Wilson, are emotionally and psychologically damaged individuals. This is in part do to their father, a manipulative man of poor relational competence, who separated from there mother when there were just children. Now on the verge of economic destitution this Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackmen) comes back into their life fanning stomach cancer, but eventually discovers his emotional core and becomes a sort of nexus for the emotional rehabilitation of his family.
As I write these word and reflect I can already feel the movie coming together for me, though obviously a bit delayed. The story works, and the memorable visual composition, eclectic musical selection, and surreal straightness in which the whole thing is played, combines with the excellent cast performances to form what may be a sly little classic. I’m gonna enjoy sorting this one out in my mind.
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