World War III
"Epic" mini-series not so much about World War III as about the event that triggers it. The United States has enacted and encouraged other nations to enact a grain embargo against the Soviet Union, this causes wide spreed hunger and unrest in the USSR and ironically also hurts the US economy. Elements with in the Soviet government conspire to send an elite squad of commandos into Alaska and threaten to disable the famed oil pipeline and further hurt the US economy, that is unless the Americans agree to lift the embargo and encourage the other participating nations to do the same.
The Soviet Squad eventually engage in a prolonged stand off with a small group of American solders, consisting largely of an Eskimo lead unit of the Alaska National Guard and a recently transferred Colonel who is "some kind of frustrated genius or something". As an unsteady stalemate holds in Alaska U.S. president Rock Hudson (a little thought of pol who recently succeeded to the office after the death of his much admired predecessor) attempts to negotiate a settlement with the Soviet Premier (who never approved of the expedition to Alaska but is being constrained by extremist elements in his government), while also attempting to keep the whole situation secret from the American public. Needless to say despite his best efforts Hudson fails and the movie ends just moments before the third world war is about to begin.
The first half is far too slow but it becomes genuinely interesting in the second; ironically the combat sequences in Alaska are less engaging then the geopolitical maneuvering in Washington, Moscow and Iceland (where the two world leaders meet for a secret conference). Reminds me a lot of Virus in its end of the world theme and largely snow covered setting.
Fair
Hugo
The operative metaphor in this films is machines, that we are all necessary components in the big human machine with parts to play. This is perhaps a bit of a strange metaphor for a film that is largely about imagination and a sense of wonder, or in short about creativity. The consistent presence of gears, and clockwork, and even an automaton does lead one to an increased awareness of just how well constructed this film is, which shouldn't be surprising considering that Scorsese is directing. Do to its children's book origins and non violent story line your not going to see many of the standard Scorsese elements and themes in this film, save for the extraordinary love of "the movies" displayed throughout.
Though the title character of Hugo (Asa Butterfield) is a young orphan who maintains the clock works at a large Pairs train station in the late 1920's, the character who is the films true center is that of Georges Melies (Ben Kingsly, actually not slumming for once). Melies is a real figure and an exceedingly important one in early cinema. Beginning in 1896 the former stage magican produced and astounding 531 films in a seventeen year period. These short, imaginative, and technologically revolutionary films are mostly lost today, but the ones that survive amply illustrate the energy, genius and sense of fun of their maker.
As the film starts out Melies is a forgotten man, running a small mechanical toy shop in the Pairs train depot. He is constantly trying to forgot the past, bitter about the demise of his movie making career as the worlds attention turned to less fanciful things at the outbreak of the first world war. The movies central thrust at first is Hugo's efforts to repair an old automation left to him by his late father. The automaton turns out to have been originally constructed by Melies, leading Hugo and his friend Isabel (Chloe Moretz) to delve into the mystery of Melies secret past and reawaken his joy in life.
The film is supplemented by a number of secondary stores concerning people who work in the train station, including Sacha Baron Cohen as the station inspector, a veteran of the war with an artificial leg who is constantly trying to catch Hugo and is the films primary source of comic relief. Emily Mortimer, Jude Law, Christopher Lee and Michael Stuhlbarg all have supporting parts. The films man attraction to many however will be its 3D, a first for a Scorsese movie, and excellently handled; in addition to the expected swooping and roller coaster shots there is a truly unique montage of Melies silent films that is like nothing you've ever seen. Hugo is a warm, play full, and at times even enchanting film in which Scorses lets lose in a new direction and a love for the magic of movies is on full display.
Great
Another Year
I love Mike Leigh films, I love the poignancy of his human renderings. I think I can safely say that no director working today is better able to convey the true essence, the inner humanity of his characters, then is this great writer/director. The stories Leigh puts on screen are of the sort that mostly go unmade, dealing as they do with the unbeautiful people, the working men and women, poor to middle class. They don't have plots in the traditional sense where everything is leading to a tightly wrapped conclusion, but rather take us into the lives of his characters over a short period of time and show us who they really are, by going deeper, beyond the surface and beyond caricature.
The time frame for this film is of course larger then most for Leigh's work; it takes place over the course of a seemingly average year in the lives of married couple Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen, wonderful) Hepple and a small circle of their friends and family. The films presentation is in four episode, each spanning only a day or so and taking place in successive seasons. The 60ish couple both work, he as a geologist and she as councilor, they have one child, a thirty year old son named Joe (Oliver Maltman) who is a solicitor specializing in helping poor people keep their homes. Tom and Gerri ('you get used to it') are still very much in love, they enjoy spending time together tending their plot of community garden, hosting visiting friends, and being one anothers confidants.
Among their friends are Ken (Peter Wright) a chum going back to their more radical days in the 1960's (the couple is still rather liberal). Ken is divorced, he smokes, he over eats and over drinks and is incredibly lonely, he's of retirement age but won't give up his job because otherwise he wouldn't know what to do with himself. Mary (Lesley Manville, also quite good) is a receptionist at the health center where Gerri works. We're given to know that Mary had one bad marriage, and and an affair with a married man whom she considers her true love and who she hasn't seen in perhaps decades. Like Ken, Mary is also very lonely though she rejects the formers advances when they meet. Once a party girl she pines for her younger days and is deeply hurt that most men no longer find her attractive, she drinks to excess. She has so little going in her life, and accomplished so little in it, that the biggest thing in her life at the start of the film are her planes to buy a car (she hasn't driven since 1984).
Mary gets the most screen time out of the friends and she is the most interesting. Manville's performance has got to be admired, she plays such a sad, pathetic figure, and she brings out her soul, her wants, her needs, her resentments and desperation. Mary develops an unhealthy infatuation with the Hepple's grown son, and reacts in an uncomfortably competitive fashion when Joe brings a new girlfriend (Karina Fernandez) to meet his parents. Toward the end we meet Tom's brother Ronney whose wife has just died and whose lone child Carl (Martin Savage) hates him. Indeed unhappiness is rife throughout this film, but so is love and life's simple pleasures, the kaleidoscope of feelings that mark any human year, or even human day. As always with Leigh's films Another Year is a carefully observed character work which finds in the subtlety of human neediness a soul piercing sense of the profound.
Great
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Holiday Affair (1949), It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
Three lesser known, vaguely Christmas entries that were all surprisingly good.
Holiday Affair
Would you buy Robert Mitchum as a toy salesman? Well neither would I, but you don't have to buy him as one for long in this little Christmas romantic comedy. Produced by RKO it feels as though the studio just wanted to include their biggest star in some kind of a Christmas offering so they hit on this. Janet Leigh is a war widow with the request precious son (Gordon Gebert). Leigh has a job as a 'comparison shopper' for a department store (mom works for department store and child has no father figure, and its Christmas, cribbed from Miracle on 34th Street perhaps?), which mean she goes around and buys products and returns them (why she doesn't just 'compar the prices' instead of making awkward purchases is beyond me). Anyway she ends up costing Mitchum his job, which he wasn't too attached too anyway as he's just saving up money to go to California and build boats. He does however become interested in Leigh (and her progeny) and engages in a surprisingly civil competition with her blandish, nice guy, Ralph Bellamyesq boyfriend Wendell Corey. No surprise who gets the girl (and son) but its genuinely pretty amusing; I love Corey and Mitchums prolonged awkward idol chatter upon first meeting at Leigh's Place.
Good
It Happened on 5th Avenue
Solid, lightly screwball period comedy that would likely be better known if not for having a no name cast. There all good though, especially Victor Moore whose Aloysius T. McKeever should have been a star making turn. McKeever isahobo of sorts, he'd be homeless if not for his habit of squatting in the mansions of traveling millionaires. His winter residence for the last three Christmas's has been the 5th Avenue home of the worlds second richest man, photography averse land developer Charles Ruggles, who winters at his other home in Virginia. Ruggles 18 year old daughter Gale Storm runs away from finishing school, goes to the 5th Avenue house and encounters McKeever and a displaced returned G.I. (Don DeFore) he's taken in after Ruggles company demolished his apartment building. Storm pretends to be a poor Midwestern girl hopping that DeFore will come to love her for who she is and not for her fathers money. Gradually more and more people end up squatting Ruggles mansion, including Ruggles himself who pretends to be a penniless man named 'Mike' in order to get to know DeFore at his daughters urging (father can't say no to daughter). Soon the Ex-Mrs. Ruggles (Ann Harding) comes to stay and a rekindling of lost love seems imminent. Meanwhile DeFore and some of his war buddies attempt to purchase an abandoned military base from the government in order to build affordable housing for returning service men and there family's. Of course there's a bidding war going on between the vets and Ruggles company, only at first neither knows that the others there computation,comedy of errors. At the end there are to be two marriages resulting from the collective trespassing and McKeever heads south to summer at Ruggles Virgina Residence. As good any comedy to come out of that era, this movies a surprise treat and worthy of your two hours.
Good
Blossoms in the Dust
Bio-pic of pioneering children's rights advocate Edna Gladney is a perfect vehicle for star Greer Garson, she's a brave, noble, crusading women of dignified bearing and tender heart, in short Mrs. Miniver. Gladney's story is a surprisingly long one, Edna is born in 1880's Wisconsin to a locally prominent family, her adopted sister commits suicide after her perspective in-laws through a fit about her 'illigetimat' statues. Edna marrys and moves to Texas to be with her husband ( of course Walter Pidgeon ) who owns a granary and experiments with hybrid wheat's. They have a baby, the baby dies young and Edna's unable to have more, she grows bitter, she rediscovers purpose in running an early daycare, the granary goes bust, the couple sell most of there belongings and move to Ft. Worth where Pidgeon takes low level job and continues to experiment with wheat's in his off hours. Edna founds a progressive orphanage/child placement service, the city cuts her funding, her husband patents a successful new breed of wheat and then dies. The wheat money allows Edna to expand her adoption services, and later she takes on a Texas law that brands children of unwed partners as illigament in government documents such as wedding licences and birth certificates. I was surprised to learn as well that for some time 'illigetamit' persons could not hold civil service jobs. So yeah, Edna Gladney's a near absurdly admirable women, and that's why Greer Garon's fit to play her.
Good
Holiday Affair
Would you buy Robert Mitchum as a toy salesman? Well neither would I, but you don't have to buy him as one for long in this little Christmas romantic comedy. Produced by RKO it feels as though the studio just wanted to include their biggest star in some kind of a Christmas offering so they hit on this. Janet Leigh is a war widow with the request precious son (Gordon Gebert). Leigh has a job as a 'comparison shopper' for a department store (mom works for department store and child has no father figure, and its Christmas, cribbed from Miracle on 34th Street perhaps?), which mean she goes around and buys products and returns them (why she doesn't just 'compar the prices' instead of making awkward purchases is beyond me). Anyway she ends up costing Mitchum his job, which he wasn't too attached too anyway as he's just saving up money to go to California and build boats. He does however become interested in Leigh (and her progeny) and engages in a surprisingly civil competition with her blandish, nice guy, Ralph Bellamyesq boyfriend Wendell Corey. No surprise who gets the girl (and son) but its genuinely pretty amusing; I love Corey and Mitchums prolonged awkward idol chatter upon first meeting at Leigh's Place.
Good
It Happened on 5th Avenue
Solid, lightly screwball period comedy that would likely be better known if not for having a no name cast. There all good though, especially Victor Moore whose Aloysius T. McKeever should have been a star making turn. McKeever isahobo of sorts, he'd be homeless if not for his habit of squatting in the mansions of traveling millionaires. His winter residence for the last three Christmas's has been the 5th Avenue home of the worlds second richest man, photography averse land developer Charles Ruggles, who winters at his other home in Virginia. Ruggles 18 year old daughter Gale Storm runs away from finishing school, goes to the 5th Avenue house and encounters McKeever and a displaced returned G.I. (Don DeFore) he's taken in after Ruggles company demolished his apartment building. Storm pretends to be a poor Midwestern girl hopping that DeFore will come to love her for who she is and not for her fathers money. Gradually more and more people end up squatting Ruggles mansion, including Ruggles himself who pretends to be a penniless man named 'Mike' in order to get to know DeFore at his daughters urging (father can't say no to daughter). Soon the Ex-Mrs. Ruggles (Ann Harding) comes to stay and a rekindling of lost love seems imminent. Meanwhile DeFore and some of his war buddies attempt to purchase an abandoned military base from the government in order to build affordable housing for returning service men and there family's. Of course there's a bidding war going on between the vets and Ruggles company, only at first neither knows that the others there computation,comedy of errors. At the end there are to be two marriages resulting from the collective trespassing and McKeever heads south to summer at Ruggles Virgina Residence. As good any comedy to come out of that era, this movies a surprise treat and worthy of your two hours.
Good
Blossoms in the Dust
Bio-pic of pioneering children's rights advocate Edna Gladney is a perfect vehicle for star Greer Garson, she's a brave, noble, crusading women of dignified bearing and tender heart, in short Mrs. Miniver. Gladney's story is a surprisingly long one, Edna is born in 1880's Wisconsin to a locally prominent family, her adopted sister commits suicide after her perspective in-laws through a fit about her 'illigetimat' statues. Edna marrys and moves to Texas to be with her husband ( of course Walter Pidgeon ) who owns a granary and experiments with hybrid wheat's. They have a baby, the baby dies young and Edna's unable to have more, she grows bitter, she rediscovers purpose in running an early daycare, the granary goes bust, the couple sell most of there belongings and move to Ft. Worth where Pidgeon takes low level job and continues to experiment with wheat's in his off hours. Edna founds a progressive orphanage/child placement service, the city cuts her funding, her husband patents a successful new breed of wheat and then dies. The wheat money allows Edna to expand her adoption services, and later she takes on a Texas law that brands children of unwed partners as illigament in government documents such as wedding licences and birth certificates. I was surprised to learn as well that for some time 'illigetamit' persons could not hold civil service jobs. So yeah, Edna Gladney's a near absurdly admirable women, and that's why Greer Garon's fit to play her.
Good
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Carnival of Souls (1962), Fall from Grace (2007), The Story of Mankind (1957), The Mortal Storm (1940)
Carnival of Souls
Kind of famous in the small circle of independently produced horror film aficionados; Carnival of Souls concerns a young woman (Candace Hilligoss) who mysteriously survives a crash off a bridge in which neither her fellow passengers or the car itself is recovered. Shortly there after instead of taking time to deal with her trauma, recent music graduate Candace heads off to a small community just outside of Salt Lake City where she has landed a job as the organist for a small (what I perceive to be Episcopal) Church. Candace has visions of a mysterious man as she travels at night to her new home, and once there develops a fascination with the abandoned Saltair to which she feels strangely drawn. Between organ practices and fending off the advances of her neighbor, Candace continues to have bizarre experiences including seeing the mysterious man and periods in which she can hear no noise and is apparently invisible. This stresses Candace out. She confides in a local Doctor, visits the Saltair, wanders around downtown Salt Lake (true guerrilla film making, I doubt they had permission to film on Temple Square) and basically goes crazy. When she returns to the Saltair she finds it inhabited by a group of ghosts who look like the somnambulist from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Film contains a creepy Twilight Zone type ending. Intriguing.
Verdict: Fair
Fall From Grace
Documentary about the Rev. Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church. These are the people that travel around protesting pretty much anything and claiming that all the bad stuff that happens to this country is because of societal tolerance of homosexuality. Their signs declaring 'God Hates Fags' and 'Thank God for 9/11' are infamous, as is there practice of protesting at the funeral and grave side services of fallen solders. This Kansas based congregation has only around forty members and most of them are decedent of the Rev. Phelps, who turns out is a disbared lawyer (many of the Phelps kids are lawyers, one wonders who hires them). In short the WBC hates everybody and everybody hates them, thus K. Ryan Jones is a brave man.
Jones started this project as part of his film studies courses at KU (home of the Jay Hawks). He established a working relationship with the Phelps's by striving for an intense objectivity, one which eventually produced a film that both pro- and anti- Phelps forces perceive as being fair, even supportive of their side; thus he is also good documentary film maker. There's a lot here, and even the special features are as interesting and reveling as the film its self. (Jones speaks about the awkwardness of having the Phelps's be nice to him and call him by name when he's filming their protests.) The members of the WBC seem to get off on offending people and think they are the center of the universe. The best example of the latter point is when a protesting Phelps girl asks an upset man if he thinks its a coincidence that U.S. solders are being killed by IED's given that an IED was set off on the Phelps's property in the 1990's (no one was injured). Well yes, I'm going to say that it was a coincidence. These people are morbidly fascinating though I'll give them that.
Verdict: Good
The Story of Mankind
Movie starts with two divine stars talking to each other (ala It's a Wonderful Life), followed by a celestial trail in space (ala A Matter of Life and Death) and winds up in an open ended cold war parable (ala The Butter Battle Book). Old Scratch (Vincent Price) and The Spirit of Man (Ronald Coleman) argue the nature of man in front of divine Judge Cedric Hardwicke. They are aided in making their arguments with hokey vinyets taken from (largely western) history and staring a cornucopia of (mostly B level) stars including Virgina Mayo, Peter Lorre, Dennis Hopper, Agnes Moorhead, and the Marx Brothers. Kind of reminiscent of vintage educational film.
Verdict: Fair
The Mortal Storm
Pro-Nazi Robert Young and Anti-Nazi Jimmy Stewart compete for the love of aging professor Frank "That's a Horse of Different Color" Morgan's lovely daughter Margaret Sullivan. Set in a snowy German mountain village in 1933 film does an admirable job of depicting the rise of Nazism and its effects on 'average' Germans. The Roth family is torn apart by this, Morgan's two step sons become Nazi's while his biological daughter and son do not. There is a reason for the dynamics of this particular split though the films 'afraid' to be too explicate; Morgan is never referred to as Jewish (which of course he is suppose to be) but simply as non-Aryan. Still a modestly impressive film which features a rare cross country sky chase.
Verdict: Good
Kind of famous in the small circle of independently produced horror film aficionados; Carnival of Souls concerns a young woman (Candace Hilligoss) who mysteriously survives a crash off a bridge in which neither her fellow passengers or the car itself is recovered. Shortly there after instead of taking time to deal with her trauma, recent music graduate Candace heads off to a small community just outside of Salt Lake City where she has landed a job as the organist for a small (what I perceive to be Episcopal) Church. Candace has visions of a mysterious man as she travels at night to her new home, and once there develops a fascination with the abandoned Saltair to which she feels strangely drawn. Between organ practices and fending off the advances of her neighbor, Candace continues to have bizarre experiences including seeing the mysterious man and periods in which she can hear no noise and is apparently invisible. This stresses Candace out. She confides in a local Doctor, visits the Saltair, wanders around downtown Salt Lake (true guerrilla film making, I doubt they had permission to film on Temple Square) and basically goes crazy. When she returns to the Saltair she finds it inhabited by a group of ghosts who look like the somnambulist from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Film contains a creepy Twilight Zone type ending. Intriguing.
Verdict: Fair
Fall From Grace
Documentary about the Rev. Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church. These are the people that travel around protesting pretty much anything and claiming that all the bad stuff that happens to this country is because of societal tolerance of homosexuality. Their signs declaring 'God Hates Fags' and 'Thank God for 9/11' are infamous, as is there practice of protesting at the funeral and grave side services of fallen solders. This Kansas based congregation has only around forty members and most of them are decedent of the Rev. Phelps, who turns out is a disbared lawyer (many of the Phelps kids are lawyers, one wonders who hires them). In short the WBC hates everybody and everybody hates them, thus K. Ryan Jones is a brave man.
Jones started this project as part of his film studies courses at KU (home of the Jay Hawks). He established a working relationship with the Phelps's by striving for an intense objectivity, one which eventually produced a film that both pro- and anti- Phelps forces perceive as being fair, even supportive of their side; thus he is also good documentary film maker. There's a lot here, and even the special features are as interesting and reveling as the film its self. (Jones speaks about the awkwardness of having the Phelps's be nice to him and call him by name when he's filming their protests.) The members of the WBC seem to get off on offending people and think they are the center of the universe. The best example of the latter point is when a protesting Phelps girl asks an upset man if he thinks its a coincidence that U.S. solders are being killed by IED's given that an IED was set off on the Phelps's property in the 1990's (no one was injured). Well yes, I'm going to say that it was a coincidence. These people are morbidly fascinating though I'll give them that.
Verdict: Good
The Story of Mankind
Movie starts with two divine stars talking to each other (ala It's a Wonderful Life), followed by a celestial trail in space (ala A Matter of Life and Death) and winds up in an open ended cold war parable (ala The Butter Battle Book). Old Scratch (Vincent Price) and The Spirit of Man (Ronald Coleman) argue the nature of man in front of divine Judge Cedric Hardwicke. They are aided in making their arguments with hokey vinyets taken from (largely western) history and staring a cornucopia of (mostly B level) stars including Virgina Mayo, Peter Lorre, Dennis Hopper, Agnes Moorhead, and the Marx Brothers. Kind of reminiscent of vintage educational film.
Verdict: Fair
The Mortal Storm
Pro-Nazi Robert Young and Anti-Nazi Jimmy Stewart compete for the love of aging professor Frank "That's a Horse of Different Color" Morgan's lovely daughter Margaret Sullivan. Set in a snowy German mountain village in 1933 film does an admirable job of depicting the rise of Nazism and its effects on 'average' Germans. The Roth family is torn apart by this, Morgan's two step sons become Nazi's while his biological daughter and son do not. There is a reason for the dynamics of this particular split though the films 'afraid' to be too explicate; Morgan is never referred to as Jewish (which of course he is suppose to be) but simply as non-Aryan. Still a modestly impressive film which features a rare cross country sky chase.
Verdict: Good
Sunday, December 11, 2011
The Pawnbroker (1964), Jolson Sings Again (1949), The Muppets (2011), House of Saddam (2008)
The Pawnbroker
It took American film nearly 20 years to really deal with the holocaust; the anti-anti-Semitic Oscar winner A Gentleman's Agreement (1947) doesn't even mention it, while The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) is of course not about the concentration camp experience. Director Sidney Lument broke this and a couple of other boundaries with The Pawnbroker. Rod Steiger gives a ligament contender for the best film performance of all time as Sol Nazerman, a holocaust survivor with a tormented inner life who threatens to unravel as the anniversary of his wife's death approaches. Sol's wife and children died in the camps and all he has left is the oblivious suburban family of his sister-in-law, and the wife of an old friend who was killed in the camp and with whom he is having a rather grim sexual relationship. Nazerman runs a pawn shop in Harlem, bringing him in constant contact with a whole other type of human suffering, which doesn't help him any. He has become a callused human being, just trying to protect himself, but as that moral cocoon threatens to burst this tragic figure hopes for death. Riveting. An Amazing movie, a must see.
Great
Jolson Sings Again
Sequel to the Al Jolson bio-pic The Jolson Story. It picks up where the last movie left off, Jolson's composit wife has just left him as he performs in a night club, he searches for her in vain though eventually decides her leaving is for the best, thusly the film makers don't have to pay Evelyn Keyes again. Jolson enjoys a brief come back, followed by a number of years of narcissistic self amusement, followed by performing for U.S. troops in World War II, re-marriage to a much younger southern nurse (Barbara Hale, rather sexy actually), and finally a late in life re-emergence in the Zeitgeist with the success of his bio-pic The Jolson Story. The latter sequences are odd and regressive, including Al Jolson dubbing for Alan Parks dubbing for Alan Parks, also its an excuse to show clips from the first film and thereby save money. It is what it is.
Fair
The Muppets
The fact that writer/star Jason Segel is a huge and sentimental Muppet fan is on emanate display in this nostalgic tribute to the creations of Jim Henson. In fact this has got to be the best Muppet product to come out since Henson's death more then twenty years ago. The basic plot of the Muppets trying to save their old theater has been done before as part of a Christmas special, but here it is profoundly better done and aided by the insertion of a romantic sub-plot for human characters Segel and Amy Adams. This counterbalancing of Muppet wackiness with a more conventional story acts in much the same way as did the secondary plots in the later Marx Brothers movies, providing an anchor that actually makes the true stars more impressive. The film is loaded with cameos ranging from Mickey Rooney to Selena Gomez, and contains some very well done musical work. It was a treat.
Good
House of Saddam
Joint HBO/BBC miniseries production about the former Iraqi dictator and his kin shows us how they where all just one big happy family. Not so much. It reminded me a lot of the prime time soap Dallas, only with more palm trees and executions. I loved how the names of the husbands of Saddam's two daughters were Saddam and Hussein. Production keeps the right balance between indictment and objectivity as well as a surprising amount of context for the last thirty years of mid-east history (I feel like I understand the Persian Gulf War a lot better now).
Good
It took American film nearly 20 years to really deal with the holocaust; the anti-anti-Semitic Oscar winner A Gentleman's Agreement (1947) doesn't even mention it, while The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) is of course not about the concentration camp experience. Director Sidney Lument broke this and a couple of other boundaries with The Pawnbroker. Rod Steiger gives a ligament contender for the best film performance of all time as Sol Nazerman, a holocaust survivor with a tormented inner life who threatens to unravel as the anniversary of his wife's death approaches. Sol's wife and children died in the camps and all he has left is the oblivious suburban family of his sister-in-law, and the wife of an old friend who was killed in the camp and with whom he is having a rather grim sexual relationship. Nazerman runs a pawn shop in Harlem, bringing him in constant contact with a whole other type of human suffering, which doesn't help him any. He has become a callused human being, just trying to protect himself, but as that moral cocoon threatens to burst this tragic figure hopes for death. Riveting. An Amazing movie, a must see.
Great
Jolson Sings Again
Sequel to the Al Jolson bio-pic The Jolson Story. It picks up where the last movie left off, Jolson's composit wife has just left him as he performs in a night club, he searches for her in vain though eventually decides her leaving is for the best, thusly the film makers don't have to pay Evelyn Keyes again. Jolson enjoys a brief come back, followed by a number of years of narcissistic self amusement, followed by performing for U.S. troops in World War II, re-marriage to a much younger southern nurse (Barbara Hale, rather sexy actually), and finally a late in life re-emergence in the Zeitgeist with the success of his bio-pic The Jolson Story. The latter sequences are odd and regressive, including Al Jolson dubbing for Alan Parks dubbing for Alan Parks, also its an excuse to show clips from the first film and thereby save money. It is what it is.
Fair
The Muppets
The fact that writer/star Jason Segel is a huge and sentimental Muppet fan is on emanate display in this nostalgic tribute to the creations of Jim Henson. In fact this has got to be the best Muppet product to come out since Henson's death more then twenty years ago. The basic plot of the Muppets trying to save their old theater has been done before as part of a Christmas special, but here it is profoundly better done and aided by the insertion of a romantic sub-plot for human characters Segel and Amy Adams. This counterbalancing of Muppet wackiness with a more conventional story acts in much the same way as did the secondary plots in the later Marx Brothers movies, providing an anchor that actually makes the true stars more impressive. The film is loaded with cameos ranging from Mickey Rooney to Selena Gomez, and contains some very well done musical work. It was a treat.
Good
House of Saddam
Joint HBO/BBC miniseries production about the former Iraqi dictator and his kin shows us how they where all just one big happy family. Not so much. It reminded me a lot of the prime time soap Dallas, only with more palm trees and executions. I loved how the names of the husbands of Saddam's two daughters were Saddam and Hussein. Production keeps the right balance between indictment and objectivity as well as a surprising amount of context for the last thirty years of mid-east history (I feel like I understand the Persian Gulf War a lot better now).
Good
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Elvis Meets Nixon (1997)
The photograph of Elvis Presley shaking hands with Richard Nixon immediately after their first and only meeting is reputed to be the most asked for photo from the National Archives. Why this picture? What about it is so intriguing, why is it so, well, funny? The shear randomness and incongruity of it perhaps? Elvis and Nixon, they couldn't have anything in common; or could they?
This movie in opening narration by Dick Cavett points out that the two figures had oddly parallel carers, both burst on the scene from no where to spectacular success in the 1950's, fell largely from relevance through most of the 60's, had unexpected comebacks in 1968 (Nixon elected president, Elvis's career revitalizing Christmas special), and meet tragic ends of one form or another in the 70's. So how did these two come to meet? Well its a story made for a Showtime television movie
Just before Christmas 1970 a board and frustrated Elvis Presley made a 'secret trip' to Washington D.C. with an eye to being made a "Federal agent at large" for what was then called the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Elvis snuck out of Graceland, and on his own without an entourage for the first time since he was 21, made his way for the nations capital. While the Nixon scenes prior to his meeting with Elvis are an uninteresting exhausted caricature, the Elvis scenes work because they are true. Elvis buying his own ticket and using a credit card for the first time, Elvis pulling a gun at an all-night donut shop, Elvis not used to being alone at night flying out to California and encountering hippies who don't recognize him.
Elvis, much like Nixon it seems was an isolated figure, living cut off from the world, largely out of sync with the popular culture. "I wonder what my fans would think if they knew I didn't even like rock-n-roll music anymore?", musses Elvis to an old associate. Later an anti-war activist tries to recruit Elvis to the cause, 'you were the first rebell' he says 'you made all this possilble'. But Elvis isn't pleased, the rebel has become a reactionary. Elvis loves America uncritically, he loves Nixon, and while constantly popping pills he wants to help fight the war on drugs. An unlikely and amusing true story.
Fair
This movie in opening narration by Dick Cavett points out that the two figures had oddly parallel carers, both burst on the scene from no where to spectacular success in the 1950's, fell largely from relevance through most of the 60's, had unexpected comebacks in 1968 (Nixon elected president, Elvis's career revitalizing Christmas special), and meet tragic ends of one form or another in the 70's. So how did these two come to meet? Well its a story made for a Showtime television movie
Just before Christmas 1970 a board and frustrated Elvis Presley made a 'secret trip' to Washington D.C. with an eye to being made a "Federal agent at large" for what was then called the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Elvis snuck out of Graceland, and on his own without an entourage for the first time since he was 21, made his way for the nations capital. While the Nixon scenes prior to his meeting with Elvis are an uninteresting exhausted caricature, the Elvis scenes work because they are true. Elvis buying his own ticket and using a credit card for the first time, Elvis pulling a gun at an all-night donut shop, Elvis not used to being alone at night flying out to California and encountering hippies who don't recognize him.
Elvis, much like Nixon it seems was an isolated figure, living cut off from the world, largely out of sync with the popular culture. "I wonder what my fans would think if they knew I didn't even like rock-n-roll music anymore?", musses Elvis to an old associate. Later an anti-war activist tries to recruit Elvis to the cause, 'you were the first rebell' he says 'you made all this possilble'. But Elvis isn't pleased, the rebel has become a reactionary. Elvis loves America uncritically, he loves Nixon, and while constantly popping pills he wants to help fight the war on drugs. An unlikely and amusing true story.
Fair
Saturday, December 3, 2011
The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
In the summer of 1946 needing a last minute cash influx to pay for costumes in his stage production of Around the World in Eighty Days, Orson Wells arranged with Columbia studio head Harry Cohn to direct a film adaptation of a book he hadn't even read (If I Die Before I Wake by Sherman King) in exchange for a $50,000 advance. The film that resulted from that deal, while less ambitious then Citizen Kane, would be saturated with the Wellsion style, almost too the point of self parody. The visuals, the casting (with the notable exception of Rita Hayworth), the melancholy mood, weird characters, and winking sense of humor would all combine with an almost indecipherably complex plot and result in a film that left Cohn flummoxed and more then a little bit irritated.
Into this idiocentric project would come, by her own insistence, Rita Hayworth, Columbia's biggest star at the time. Hayworth was then in a failing marriage with Wells and insisted she be included in the film hopping that their working together would help the marriage; it didn't they were divorced the next year. Hayworth made some sacrifices for her role, she was not playing her usual care-free flirty type, but instead a sort of low key fem-fatal; and to Cohn's frustration cut her signature long red main and appeared instead as a short haired blond.
The plot of the film has Wells playing a Irish seaman (complete with accent) who saves a rich young trophy wife from a possibly staged mugging in Central Park. He takes the woman (Hayworth of course) back home where she informs him that she is about to leave with her wealthy husband on a long Yacht trip through the Panama Canal to California, and would like to offer him a job there on. Wells senses that it wouldn't be a wise idea to go and turns the offer down; the next day Hayworth's husband, a prominent lawyer (Everett Sloane) who looks like Marty Feldman and for some reason sports crutches, tracks Wells down and essentially forces him into taking the job on the condition that he will hire two of his friends as well.
The Yacht trip is awkward, Wells, Hayworth, Sloane and his smiley end-of-the-world obsessed law partner Glenn Anders, as well as a mysterious crewman who turns out to be a PI hired by Sloane (Ted de Corisa). There's tension, somethings off, they all seem to recognize it, and even though they don't address it openly, recognize that everyone else recognizes it. The plot is not clear, we know a somethings afoot, but it comes down to a question of whose plotting with who to kill whom? It is Big Sleep complicated.
Eventually they get to San Fransisco, Wells against his better judgment has fallen for Hayworth and somebodies murdered. Wells of course is the prime suspect but with a little police work I think it would be easy to see that it wasn't him, but the plot demands he stand trial so he is; to be defended of course by Sloane, who may or may not want him to go free. Orson Wells reportedly hated lawyers and he has fun poking holes in the legal balloon throughout that court sequences. Senseless squabbles between the lawyers, plainly gimmicky arguments, a largely impotent judge, and a juror who keeps sneezing. When the verdict is set to be read Wells mounts a sudden escape, scenes in a Chinese opera, and (iconicly) a house of mirrors follow, and in narration Wells admits hes acted pretty dumb.
Its a strange trip, noirish in many ways but also rather Camus. I recommend.
Great
Into this idiocentric project would come, by her own insistence, Rita Hayworth, Columbia's biggest star at the time. Hayworth was then in a failing marriage with Wells and insisted she be included in the film hopping that their working together would help the marriage; it didn't they were divorced the next year. Hayworth made some sacrifices for her role, she was not playing her usual care-free flirty type, but instead a sort of low key fem-fatal; and to Cohn's frustration cut her signature long red main and appeared instead as a short haired blond.
The plot of the film has Wells playing a Irish seaman (complete with accent) who saves a rich young trophy wife from a possibly staged mugging in Central Park. He takes the woman (Hayworth of course) back home where she informs him that she is about to leave with her wealthy husband on a long Yacht trip through the Panama Canal to California, and would like to offer him a job there on. Wells senses that it wouldn't be a wise idea to go and turns the offer down; the next day Hayworth's husband, a prominent lawyer (Everett Sloane) who looks like Marty Feldman and for some reason sports crutches, tracks Wells down and essentially forces him into taking the job on the condition that he will hire two of his friends as well.
The Yacht trip is awkward, Wells, Hayworth, Sloane and his smiley end-of-the-world obsessed law partner Glenn Anders, as well as a mysterious crewman who turns out to be a PI hired by Sloane (Ted de Corisa). There's tension, somethings off, they all seem to recognize it, and even though they don't address it openly, recognize that everyone else recognizes it. The plot is not clear, we know a somethings afoot, but it comes down to a question of whose plotting with who to kill whom? It is Big Sleep complicated.
Eventually they get to San Fransisco, Wells against his better judgment has fallen for Hayworth and somebodies murdered. Wells of course is the prime suspect but with a little police work I think it would be easy to see that it wasn't him, but the plot demands he stand trial so he is; to be defended of course by Sloane, who may or may not want him to go free. Orson Wells reportedly hated lawyers and he has fun poking holes in the legal balloon throughout that court sequences. Senseless squabbles between the lawyers, plainly gimmicky arguments, a largely impotent judge, and a juror who keeps sneezing. When the verdict is set to be read Wells mounts a sudden escape, scenes in a Chinese opera, and (iconicly) a house of mirrors follow, and in narration Wells admits hes acted pretty dumb.
Its a strange trip, noirish in many ways but also rather Camus. I recommend.
Great
Friday, December 2, 2011
Glorious 39 (2009)
In the summer of 1939 the world was posed on the brink of what would prove to be the defining turning point of the 20th century, World War II. While Japan had long held Manchuria and Korea under its control, Italy had invaded Ethiopia, and Germany had annexed Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia the previous year, what we generally think of as WWII wouldn't begin until September of 39 when German troops marched on Poland. Rushing to the aid of there Polish allies France and Britain entered the fray and in a little over two years essentially the entire planet was at war. Great Britain's role in the war is today so iconic and vaunted that it can be hard to believe that in mid 1939 the UK's entrance into the conflict was far from certain.
The First World War had been a horrible thing, traumatizing all of Europe. England had entered that war with enthusiasm largely on behalf of there allies the French. After four years of largely pointless fighting the conflict came to an end with the collapse of the Kaiser's regime; the German people were made to pay unfair reparations after the peace and thusly setting the stage for the second global conflict. Alexander Walton (Bill Nighy) fought in that war and it haunts him, now a member of Parliament Alexander wants to keep out of Europe's newly brewing conflict, and how much he wants to keep out will not be clear till later. Alexander has three children, the first an adopted daughter Anna (Romola Garai) whom he adores and is fast becoming one England's rising film actresses. Anna is in love with Lawrence (Charlie Cox) who works with her brother Ralph (Eddie Redmayne) in the intelligence service. They and others all get together for a surprise birthday party for Alexander. The elder Walton brings with him from London a mysterious associate (Jeremy Northam) who seems displeased when Anna's friend Hector, an enthusiastic young member of Parliament, repudiates Chamberlain and supports Churchill's more aggressive foreign policy in dinner conversation. A few days later Hector turns up dead of an apparent suicide, prompting Anna's suspicion and investigation into the murky goings-on that seem to surround her.
A historical thriller Glorious 39 is continuously exciting and unusually good. For those who think they've seen every variant on the World War II story in film this may prove surprising. The internal politices es of Britain at the time are central to the tale, as are allegations of an alleged conspiracy to keep England out of the conflict. While the later 'conspiracy' under Churchill to get the America's into the war receives more attention, especially on the internet, this earlier effort, no doubt in some degree real and backed by powerful people is lesser known. How organized either of these efforts wear, and the extent to which they may be characterized as sinister cables is an open question, but makes for good viewing.
One of the great things about this movie, and a perspective that we don't see that often, is its projection of the sense of fear and despair that saturated England through much of the war. People fleeing London, children relocated, houses shuttered up, martial law, and one thing I don't think I've heard about before, the mass ethunization of pets. It has a 9/11 vibe, that feeling of fearful uncertainty after a massive global change, this movie brings that home.
This movie is filled with strong performances, but they all pale in comparison to Romola Garai's glorious anchoring of the piece. Memorable as the 18 year old Briny in Atonement, Garai has a slightly different look and her shear presence on screen conveys a a strong sense of depth in her characters. She is the detective of the story, the woman on the run, a person who a strong sense of right and wrong who only wants to be believed by those she loves. Her sense of fear, feeling that she might be going slowly mad is palpable, and her courage enveloping.
This film gives you a more or less contemporary framing story that seemingly gives you a broad outline of whats going to happen, but mixes it up a little at the end, though not entirely satisfactory. Christopher Lee and Julie Christie are big names in the cast with little to do, and Hugh Bonneville steals a couple of scenes as an also ran character actor with whom actress Anna has become close. A very satisfying feature as both history, mystery, and thriller, as well as a good character peice, Glorious 39 comes highly recommended.
Great
The First World War had been a horrible thing, traumatizing all of Europe. England had entered that war with enthusiasm largely on behalf of there allies the French. After four years of largely pointless fighting the conflict came to an end with the collapse of the Kaiser's regime; the German people were made to pay unfair reparations after the peace and thusly setting the stage for the second global conflict. Alexander Walton (Bill Nighy) fought in that war and it haunts him, now a member of Parliament Alexander wants to keep out of Europe's newly brewing conflict, and how much he wants to keep out will not be clear till later. Alexander has three children, the first an adopted daughter Anna (Romola Garai) whom he adores and is fast becoming one England's rising film actresses. Anna is in love with Lawrence (Charlie Cox) who works with her brother Ralph (Eddie Redmayne) in the intelligence service. They and others all get together for a surprise birthday party for Alexander. The elder Walton brings with him from London a mysterious associate (Jeremy Northam) who seems displeased when Anna's friend Hector, an enthusiastic young member of Parliament, repudiates Chamberlain and supports Churchill's more aggressive foreign policy in dinner conversation. A few days later Hector turns up dead of an apparent suicide, prompting Anna's suspicion and investigation into the murky goings-on that seem to surround her.
A historical thriller Glorious 39 is continuously exciting and unusually good. For those who think they've seen every variant on the World War II story in film this may prove surprising. The internal politices es of Britain at the time are central to the tale, as are allegations of an alleged conspiracy to keep England out of the conflict. While the later 'conspiracy' under Churchill to get the America's into the war receives more attention, especially on the internet, this earlier effort, no doubt in some degree real and backed by powerful people is lesser known. How organized either of these efforts wear, and the extent to which they may be characterized as sinister cables is an open question, but makes for good viewing.
One of the great things about this movie, and a perspective that we don't see that often, is its projection of the sense of fear and despair that saturated England through much of the war. People fleeing London, children relocated, houses shuttered up, martial law, and one thing I don't think I've heard about before, the mass ethunization of pets. It has a 9/11 vibe, that feeling of fearful uncertainty after a massive global change, this movie brings that home.
This movie is filled with strong performances, but they all pale in comparison to Romola Garai's glorious anchoring of the piece. Memorable as the 18 year old Briny in Atonement, Garai has a slightly different look and her shear presence on screen conveys a a strong sense of depth in her characters. She is the detective of the story, the woman on the run, a person who a strong sense of right and wrong who only wants to be believed by those she loves. Her sense of fear, feeling that she might be going slowly mad is palpable, and her courage enveloping.
This film gives you a more or less contemporary framing story that seemingly gives you a broad outline of whats going to happen, but mixes it up a little at the end, though not entirely satisfactory. Christopher Lee and Julie Christie are big names in the cast with little to do, and Hugh Bonneville steals a couple of scenes as an also ran character actor with whom actress Anna has become close. A very satisfying feature as both history, mystery, and thriller, as well as a good character peice, Glorious 39 comes highly recommended.
Great
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