Finian's Rainbow (1968)

This movie musical is one of the last films that can truly be said to have been made under the old studio system. It was ordered up by the top brass largely to take advantage of pre-existing props, costumes, and sets. The film stars Fred Astaire as pixilated Irishman who takes his daughter (Patula Clark) to America, and settles near a Kentucky tobacco co-operative. Astaire is chased from Ireland by a Leprechaun whose gold he stole, Clark falls in love with a guitar toting yokel, a deaf girl dances, and dixiecrat Senator Keenan Wynn learns a lesson about racism. Ironically all of this was directed by a young Francis Ford Coppola. Honestly I mostly kept it on as background.

Solaris (1972)

The Russian answer to 2001: A Space Odessy. A surprisingly small scale sci-fi epic that is very deliberately passed and beautifully shot. Existentialist. Later remade with George Clooney, I liked that version as well, and its only half the running time of the original.

Atonement (2007)

Though it may seem a little out of place among its competitors in the best picture category, Atonement I predict will be the winner come Oscar night. Not to be dismissed as just a racey period piece, or a throwback to Lilian Hellman, it’s a poignant picture, I mean it comes form Ian McEwen how could it not be. A writers movie it is about perspectives, and while I found some of the cutting forced toward the beginning, it all worked for me in the end, Vanessa Redgrave’s five minute narration at the films conclusion is Oscar worthy in itself. Also not to be missed on the big screen is the whole sequence at the battered French sea-side resort pre-Dunkirk. I’ve never seen WWII look quite like that. A worthy film.

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Daniel Day-Lewis can dominate the screen in a way few actors can, and in ‘There Will Be Blood’ he embodies a part few actors could manage. Loosely based on socialist author Upton Sinclair’s mid 1920's novel ‘Oil!’, "Blood" is the story of Daniel Plainview, a Wisconsin born silver prospector whose life is changed when he discovers oil on a California claim. He becomes a self styled ‘oil man’, and a remarkably successful if manipulative one. He is aided in this, indirectly, by his adopted son H. W., a boy his crew found in a basket out in the desert. H.W. is the only thing besides money, and besides himself, that Daniel Plainview loves.

Daniel Plainview hates most things, most people, but what he is particularly passionate against is religion. So when one of his oil prospects gets complicated by a local church and its boy prophet, conflict ensues, and I can assure you there will be blood, you just have to wait for it. A remarkable film that reminds me of the work of Sergio Leonie if it reminds me of anyone’s. Lewis can’t not get the Oscar for this one, and it just might unseat Atonement or No Country for Old Men, to win the best picture honors.

Hairspray (2007)

Movie musical based on the musical based on the non-musical film. A strong adaptation of the Broadway smash that is throughly engaging, happy, and socially aware, not to mention quirky.
Translates much better to film then either The Producers or The Phantom of the Opera, to name two semi-recent examples. Great cast, John Travolta always gives his all to any role. The newcomer lead has real talent, sadly her looks will limit her future options in film. Grand fun.

Happy 90th John Forsythe.

The Mist (2007)

Director Frank Darabont had great success with Stephan King prison movies as The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. Now he takes on a different but equally claustrophobic King story in The Mist. Here we have denizens of a typical King Main town trapped in a local grocery outlet after a mysterious Mist surrounds the building. The mist hides a variety of strange and deadly creatures, who have a taste for viciously devouring humans alive. This is all probably related to the secret military experiments going on up at 'the mountain', but crazy religious lady Marcia Gay Harden thinks its 'The Book of Revelations' coming to fruition. In all its everything you want in a King movie, with Toby Jones my pick as the standout for portraying a rather unusual hero. A-typical ending.

Annie Oakley (1935)

Story of the love between little firecracker Stanwyck and New York born sharp shooter Toby Williams (Preston Foster). Moroni Olsen seems to be having a ball as Buffalo Bill, and Sitting Bull provides comedy relief. In many ways a different (and less compelling) beast then early 50's musical remake. “Well dog my cats!”

The King of Kings: Road Show Version (1927)

Cecil B. DeMill epic about the ministry and passion of the Christ is long and reverent, but also containing that small helping of feminine flesh we have come to expect from the great populist film maker. H. B. Warner’s Jesus is ethrial and iconic and his followers a collection of archetypes. The high priest Caphias an anti-semetic stereotype by today’s standards, but slightly better developed then I’d expected. Some interesting fleshing out of a few story points left largely unexplored in the Bible itself. Atheist writer/philosopher Aynn Rand was an extra in a crowd scene, this being many years before she gained her own fame.

Think Tank (2006)

Some of my roommates old acquittances from Los Angles made this intentionally cliche’ comedy. I’ll give the movie this, its is consistently almost funny. The film has a few moments, and is loaded with references to the pop culture consumed by children of the 1980's, such as myself. Minimal budget and ham acting give this the feel of a very well funded high school project. I’ll give it a thumbs up, just to be a contrarian.

The Lives of Others (2006)

This movie is so incredibly good that it has been praised by a spectrum ranging from my gay friend Steve to William F. Buckley Jr., the latter saying that after first seeing this picture he felt like going out into the street and dragging random passerby into the theater to see it. It is the story of a Stasi agent in mid 1980's East Germany assigned to spy on a respected play write and his actress girlfriend. Over the time he spends monitoring this couple he is changed as a man, from a soulless automaton for the state, into a compassionate soul who risks his life and career to cover for the two, when they finally get involved in ‘subversive activities’, a change brought on by a friends suicide. Beautiful and effecting in every way, to my judgment the best picture of 2006! Winner of that years Oscar for best picture forgine picture, upsetting Pan’s Labyrinth.

Amazing Grace (2007)

For those of you who like your parliamentary procedure movies with a little inspiration, you’ll find ‘Amazing Grace’ a fine chose. The story of William Wilberforce’s quest to outlaw the slave trade within the empire, is British drama of a populist/Christian mind set that will actually sell in America. In short, it’s Mike Huckabee as film.

Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953)

Yet another of David O. Selzneck’s love letters to Jennifer Jones. In this incarnation Jones is an American housewife who cheats on her husband with Montgomery Clift while visiting her sister in Rome. The entire film is set in a train station. Almost jarringly brief at a 63 minute running time. It is interesting to note, given the subject of the movie, that Jones was Selzneck’s mistress before she became his wife. Neat for ‘Twin Peaks’ fans to Richard Beymer at roughly twelve years of age.

Junebug (2005)

You think Junebug, with its story of a proper Englishwomen going to meet her new in-laws at their home in North Carolina, is going to be one of those ‘gawk at the southerners/ ain’t my family crazy pictures’, and while those elements are present in the film, its really something much more. It’s a story about the importance of family relationships, and the good and bad there in. Excellent performances and scripting all around allow for the gradual revel of at first 2D characters, into rounded whole individuals. Amy Adams is the standout of the picture in a role that earned her an Oscar nomination, as the pregnant, not to brite, but throughly charming sister-in-law. A moving picture about love and family.

Garbo (2005)

TCM documentary on the elusive Swedish born actress. Perhaps most interesting thing I learned was about Garbo's strange obsession with trousers, and her penchant to describe herself using male terms, i.e. "When I was a little boy." Some people have taken this as evidence that Garbo was a bisexual, though the only affairs of hers we know about are with men, most notably the actor John Gilbert. She seemed to keep a core of gay men around her in her later years, if I'm reading some of the movies talking heads correctly.

September Dawn (2007)

First Impressions.

I’ve long said there is a good and potentially powerful movie to be made out of the events
of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, however September Dawn is not that movie. Almost universally panned by the critics (it merits a mear 15% approval rating at Rotten Tomato’s, a website that composites the reviews of newspaper and magazine critics across the nation). Perhaps the most pertinent comment on the film from a national critic that I can recall comes from Roger Ebert, who said something along the lines of: “What a sad and unpleasant movie this is”. I echo that statement.

Director Cain was by his own admission quite taken by the now eerie date of the massacre of a wagon train of Missouri and Arkansas immigrants by a group of Mormon settlers and Paiute Indians, September 11th. Cain can be heard in the DVD’s own bonis material (and elsewhere), to say that he intended the feature to point out that acts of religious violence have occurred in our own nations history and not just among the Muslims we now fight. Any intelligent person knows this, and examples can be cited from the murder of colonial Quakers, to Jehovah’s Witness being betan for there pacifism in World War II, to two 1844 events: Anti-Catholic riots in Pennsylvania and the murder of Mormon spiritual leader Joseph Smith.

Yet for all the apparent appeals to tolerance this film would like to aggrandize to itself, it has not one positive thing to say about Mormonism. It is eager to embrace any wild 19th century notion of Mormon nefariousness, including Danites (a Mormon militia of Missouri days whose continued existence in Utah is questionable) and blood atonement (a particular strain of frontier Mormon belief that has been formally repudiated by the modern LDS Church, and of which only one instance of its actual application, saving that of splinter groups, is clearly documented). The story plays like a pulp Victorian novel, employing sensationalist presentations of Mormon life and belief, and making no efforts to strive for balance. Let us not forgot that Mountain Meadows is arguably the worst episode in Mormon history, no similar massacres of “gential” by Mormons having occurred before or since.

The desire to believe the worst about the Mormons can be seen down the line. The idea that Brigham Young sanctioned the massacre is delivered as fact, and historian Will Beagly, a strong propionate of that belief, is shown in the special features advocating that position. Yet this is a controversial call that divides scholars of Mormonism and to which no real hard or conclusive evidence exists. But history is secondary to metaphor in importance to Cain. Here the Fancher party are all saints, save maybe one, and the Saints all zealots, save one who eventually leaves the Church. The true story of the Massacre at Mountain Meadows will not be told effectively in film, until a film maker comes along who is willing to develop the humanity of the Mormons and the Immigrants involved beyond just stereotyped levels.

The Great Debator's (2007)

Denzil directs and co-stars in this inspiring story of a history making debate team, from an all black collage in the depression era south. Cast of young performers a compelling one and the period detail is wonderful. I quite liked Denzil's character, a real crusading liberal, suitable for the admiration of all Nation readers.

1/12

The Great Debater’s (2007): Alternate Stub:

When I first heard about the movie The Great Debater’s I knew I’d have to see it. You see I did four years in the speech and debate program during high school and quite enjoyed it, but have long been disappointed at the lack of depictions of school sponsored competitive debate in movies. In fact prior to the release of Denzil Washington’s film I knew of only one movie that was about debate, and it stared Kirk Cameron. The Great Debater’s does a good job of depicting the discipline/sport that is competitive debate, at least as far as you’d like to see within a movie format. However the competitions that the Great Debater’s participate in, are of importance not so much in-and-of themselves, as they are within the context of proto-civil rights narrative in which they are presented, and in which in fact they did occur. This really is a strong entry in the pantheon of films about the struggle for black recognition and fuller integration into the ‘mainstream’ (for lack of a better word) of American society. To me it is more effecting then say ‘Remember the Titans’ (which also stared Washington), because it is about black American’s succeeding in a field that the conventional wisdom of many whites said they could never succeed in, namely a discipline of the mind. I’d like to see more movies depicting this kind of black achievement, as well as those depicting debate in any incarnation.

The Propesition (2005)

Gritty "western" of the Australian outback has been called by Joe Firmage a "little masterpiece". I don't quite agree with that statement but I can see where he is coming from. It's moody, nicely shot, and ham-fistedly existential. The characters however, with the exception of two, are really underdeveloped and hence not compelling enough for me to really care about. Mostly it just reminded me of a lot of other movies ranging from Unforgiven to Stingeree. Great character part in it for Jon Hurt though.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy (2004)

In the top 50% of Will Ferrell's work, I'm thinking Judd Aptow's involvement might be responsible for elevating this over say that Ricky Bobby movie (which I couldn't finish). Ferrell is great at throwing himself into a character and this is probably, oddly, one of his more well rounded. Strong supporting cast, including Christina Appelgate in probably the best performance of her career. Loved the Tim Robbins cameo as a reporter for public television.

The Towering Inferno (1974)

Steve McQueen and Paul Newman were friendly rivals both behind and in front of the camera in this Irwin Allen disaster extravaganza. The movie is just plain fun, in fact I was actually surprised that it maintained my interest so well over its roughly 2 hr 40 minute run. It's not that the film is all special effects and melodrama without any real subtext, it is after all a movie about foolish hubris, essentially a retelling of the Tower of Babel, though the cut on Fay Dunaway's dress might be more appropriate for Babylon.

The Nativity Story (2006)

Direct and likable adaptation of the story of the birth of Jesus. The film is largely made viable by the engaging performance of Keisha Castle-Hughes as Mary, her characterization is endearing and sympathetic, and her dynamic with Joseph brings out the whole, stunned young couple aspect, that the Biblical narrative always implies but doesn't sketch out in any detail. I've seen other interpretations of the Magi that were more compelling however.

Collateral (2004)

Michael Mann is a director I’ve never paid that much attention to, though just a casual awareness of his work gives you a good idea about his style. It’s a style that I found worked in Collateral, a film that’s both violent and relatively contemplative. Jamie Foxx got an arguably deserved but ultimately unnecessary Oscar nod for this performance the same year he did Ray (good performance boring movie that one). Also it was refreshing to see Tom Cruse do something so different. Certain aspects of the films end stretched things a little bit, but on the whole I liked it.

Tootsie (1982)

You know I’d never seen Tootsie until last night and it really does deserve its much praise. A highly respected comedy it also succeeds, perhaps surprisingly, at its intended objective of communicating the world of women to men. I’m not saying the film presents any great breakthroughs in that area, or even that I learned anything that I didn’t already know, but the empathy of the story, for all sides involved, save maybe Dabney Colmen’s (happy 76th by the way), comes through remarkably well. Plus now I know where the cheesy 80’s ballad “It Might Be You” comes from.

Stardust (2007)

Stardust was a totally satisfying movie, a fact made even more surprising to me because I thought I’d already seen my engaging revisionist fantasy for the year in Enchanted, which I also thoroughly enjoyed. Credit for Stardust’s success goes equally to the unique vision of Neil Gaimen whose “Amazing Screw on Head” first clued me into his quirky sensibilities. Second off it goes to the hammy fun had by Michelle Pfiffer and especially Robert De Nero, whose transvestite sky captain was the high point of the movie, and the movie was consistently engaging, lacking in the lags that usually accompany fantasy films. Worth your time, though the films light but not wholly traditional sexual attitudes might offend some Huckabee voters.