Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Tennesse Johnson (1942), Cat's Eye (1985), Topper (1937)

Tennessee Johnson

Bio-pic about Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the United States. Johnson's rather low on the to tum pool of presidents you'd expect to see depicted in film, and enough of a divisive one that there was some protest regarding the films release. This treatment is as close as your probably going to get to hagiography of Johnson in celluloid, who was by most accounts a very flawed and a difficult man. Johnson was stubborn, had a notorious temper, was prone to drink, and of course was a racist, but he did have an abiding, almost fetishistic love for the Constitution (he was even buried with a copy). It was Johnson's loyalty to that document that lead the southern Democrat to defy the south, being the only Senator from a seceding state not to resign his seat in congress. Johnson would serve in Lincolns army, and as military Governor of the state in which he once held the position by election. Lincoln taped Johnson to be his running mate in 1864 as a sort reconciliatory gesture to the South, no one in party circles ever wanted him to be President. But Lincoln was killed so he assumed that office, and much to the radical Republicans chagrin didn't take to being controlled from behind the scenes. Major power players in the Party conspired to have him impeached on what amounted to little more then technical grounds, but Johnson fought back and managed to retain his office by one vote.

The film starts out with a depiction of a young Johnson, freshly escaped from the tailor to whom he was bound in an indentured apprenticeship. Johnson crosses the North Carolina boarder into Tennessee, and lands in the town of Greenville, which would be his home base from then on. Illiterate, he is taught to read by the women who would become his wife, ran his own tailor shop, and experienced a remarkable rise in electoral politics. It is Van Heflin who plays Johnson, and its probably the best role he ever got, not a remarkable performance but a good one. The movie of course glosses over and simplifies things (for example while the real Johnson had five children this one has only a daughter) and seeks to present Johnson in the most heroic, sympathetic light, though they do actually depict his famous drunken swearing in as Vice-President. Lionel Barrymore is Thaddeus Stevens, Johnson's political bete noire, Mr. Potter with more integrity. This movie is interesting, mostly for its larger then life, heroic treatment of relatively obscure political figure, though a trifle hammy. On the whole Fair.

Cat's Eye

Somehow I saw most of this as a child, which is kind of surprising as its almost a horror film, though on a Alfred Hitchcock Presents level. It's three short Stephen King stories all tied together by a stray cat. We get stories about a psychotic stop-smoking program, a psychotic wager, and a psychotic wall troll. The leads consist of James Woods, Airplane! star Robert Hays, and ten year old Drew Barrymore (playing eight). The cat himself proves to be a pretty good actor. Fair. (Not for Jaxon.)

Topper

Ancestor of Beetljuice. Constance Bennett and Cary Grant are a couple of funny loving, independently wealthy, free spirits, who are killed in automobile accident after a night on the town. Ronald Young is Cosmo Topper, a hen-pecked, droopyish, frustrated banker, who Bennett and Grant target for the good deed they suspect they need to get out of limbo. The two drag Topper through a serious of comic adventures, with most of the gags being supplied by their doing things while invisible, though they both posses a clever verbal wit besides. While the ghosts 'rules' don't make a lot of sense, sometimes their solid sometimes their not, it's really quite funny, and with an enviably good screw ball premise (sorry Howard Hawks, McLeod beat you to it). Constance Bennett glows, why didn't we see more of her? The film spawned a sequel the next year titled Topper Returns, though he didn't go any where, Bennett and Grant did. Billie Burke gets a more central part then usual. Good

Super 8 (2011)

J. J. Abrams spirited tribute to Steven Spielberg and the family, fantasy-adventure films of the 70's and 80's, gets it so right, and captures the essence of those films so precisely, as to be practically indistinguishable from the real thing. The script in fact contains only a couple of knowing references to the present day "kids with portable stereos, that's a slippery slope my friend", but other then that and the now superior special effects, this movie could have been made pretty much as-is by Spielberg in 1979, the year in which it is set. The story concerns Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney), a 14 year old growing up in a small town nestled in the Ohio hills. His mother has recently been killed in a factory accident, leaving his father Jack (Kyle Chandler) a local sheriff's deputy, to raise him on his own; this missing parent motif is a popular and effective sympathy generating device in stories of this type, and provides an emotional and 'smaller-scale' through line, in counter-point to the movies larger fantasy elements.

It is the summer following his mother's death and Joe intends to spend it helping his friends produce a zombie movie, which they hope to enter in a super 8 film festival. The films 'director' Charles Kaznyk (Riley Griffiths), decides to inject more emotional drama into his story by adding a love interest for its detective protagonist Martin (Gabriel Basso); this character seems to be an homage to actor Martin Starr. Charles recruits for the part the crush inducing Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning). Alice's periodically drunk single father Louise (Ron Eldard) was indirectly, and quite unintentionally, responsible for Mrs. Lamb's death (no he did not cause the accident). As a result of this he objects to Alice and Joe's seeing each other, and perhaps understandably Mr. Lamb feels the same way. One night the group sneaks out and 'borrows' Louise's car to travel to the local train depot and film an emotional scene between Alice and Martin, a scene in which Fanning delivers a jaw-dropping emotional preformance. Our jaws are to drop again shortly there after with a spectacular train derailment sequence, initated by Dr. Woodword (Glynn Turman) a middle school science teacher with a mysterious past. Dr. Woodword warns the kids to run away and say nothing about the crash, otherwise there lives may be in danger. On their way out of the crash site Joe picks up one of many mysterious cubs that spilled out of the wreck.

In short order Nelec (Noah Emmerich) an army officer and evil counterpart to Peter Coyote's Keys character in E.T., shows up with a bunch of solders to investiage the crash. They are after an, again mysterious, creature that Dr. Woodword derailed the train to free. In the days that follow Joe and his friends keep quiet about witnessing the derailment, and though shaken, they continue to work on their zombie movie. At the same time strange things start to happen around town, all the dogs start to run away, auto engines and even telephone cables disappear, as well as a few locals including Sheriff Pruitt (Brett Rice), which effectively leaves Jack in charge of the towns response, and he's rather suspicious of Nelec and his men.

Nelec and the solders start a forest fire as an excuse to evacuate the town and hunt for the creature, but not until after said creature abducts Alice. Upon learning this Joe and the gang sneak back into the town with the help of a comic relief stoner (David Gallagher) to mount a rescue operation. The film contains references and countless evocations of movies of its type, a delicious ice cream swirl of homage. Obvious points of reference include E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Goonies, The Explorers, Invaders From Mars, and less directly The Deer Hunter (factory mountain town setting), and director Abrams own Cloverfield (when will we see the monster?). It's a nostalgia trip gallore, but also works on its own, and quite well. The young cast is uniformly above par, and while Courtney and Fanning deservedly get most of the attention, I thought Griffiths brought a great deal of depth to what could have been a one note character. It's good to see a movie about adolescence played by adolescents of this caliber. I loved Super 8, it was an enveloping joy to watch, and surely one of the best films of 2011, I heartily recommend it.

Great

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Daisy Keynon (1947), The Moon is Blue (1953), Saint Joan (1957)

Three servings of Preminger


Daisy Kenyon

This is one of director Otto Preminger's lest interesting movies, its not even an ambitious failure, it aims low and barley clears that mark.  A work-men like piece of studio hackery, it's a romantic triangle concerning the titular Daisy Kenyon (Joan Crawford, in full Mildred Pierce 'wonded nobility') a successful magazine fashion illustrator, directionless war veteran, widower, and former yacht designer Peter Lapham (Peter Fonda), and successful adulteress lawyer Dan O'Mara (Dana Andrews). You may find you don't really care about them. The most promising aspect of the story, non-crusading lawyer O'Mara's, conscience raising agreement to defend a decorated Japanese-American war veteran, who's had his farm stolen out from him, is done away with in a very few minutes and we never even get to meet the client. The movies two love stories feel clumsily stitched together, and whenever one starts to get you involved the other one intrudes. The films few middlingly successful moments are easily overwhelmed amid its pale noncommittal melodrama. Both director and stars come across as only partly invested in this thing. In short, it's poor.


The Moon is Blue

Preminger had directed the play The Moon is Blue on Broadway in 1951, it was a success that ran 924 performances, so he decided to make the movie. The Breen office, 'inforcers' of the then operating Motion Picture Production Code, objected to the stories "light and gay treatment of the subject of illicit sex and seduction", as well as the use of the forbidden word "virgin", and other 'racey' dialogue. Preminger thought this was silly, as well as a great source of free, publicity generating controversy, so he decided to release the film without MPAA certification. This was effectively the death blow to the often arbitrary, moralistic, content policing, that defined most of the studio system era that was then in decline. At first Preminger had a hard time getting theaters to screen the film, but by the end of 1953 it was the 15th highest grossing movie of the year, produced for a little under $375,000, and pulling in 3.5 million.

Yet what of the film its self? Well if your looking for the salacious your going to be disappointed, I suspect that even a large portion of the audience at the time found the film far from 'blue' in content. The story concerns a young women (Maggie McNamara, who looks a lot like Audry Hepburn), who runs into an older, 'worldly' man (William Holden) in the Empire State Building, and is invited back to his apartment, to which she agrees on the condition that he behave 'honorably'. Holden has just broken his engagement to upstairs neighbour Dawn Addams (whose suppose to be 18, Holden's character seems to like them young), and whose father David Niven is attempting to determine why. Both men are enamoured of Maggie, she's a doe-eyed and beguiling creature, who puts on airs of being beyond her years, and that's just adorable. There is no sex in the film, and in fact its message is one of preserving chastity before marriage, but apparently even bringing up the subject that a young women might not keep her pre-martial virtue, rankled a lot of feathers. The movie is very play like, just a few sets, and other then store clerks and the like only five real characters. A very pleasant picture, good natured and fun, and David Niven seems to be having a ball. Don't expect anything spectacular, but the movie is a Good one.

Saint Joan

Preminger conducted a much publicised 'world-wide' search to find the young women to play Joan of Arc, in his forth coming and much hyped film production of the George Bernard Shaw play. Preminger wanted to discover a star, an unknown who would take the world by storm in her first film, and wow critics and the public in a part that can intimidate even experienced actresses. Who he found was Jean Seberg, the 18 year old daughter of an Iowa druggist, whose only experience acting was one summer of work in summer stock, she didn't even enter into the competition herself, her neibhour signed her up. This part was beyond her, though she certainly tried hard, Preminger was frustrated but had committed himself, and the film reaped both disappointing reviews as well as box office. Preminger stood by Seberg however, and used her to much better effect in his next film, Bonjour Tristesse (1958). In fact Seberg would grow into a pretty capable actress, with parts in such films as Breathless (1960), Paint Your Wagon (1969), and Airport (1970). She was ill-fated however, and like fellow Preminger discovery Maggie McNamara, would die of suicide by drug overdose.

The film is a bit of a mess, The (London) Times wrote that the screen play by Graham Green contained "some odd omissions, interpolations and additions" and that "the result is a certain scrappiness and confusion in the first half of the film in place of Shaw's slow and careful build-up." Which is funny because I thought the film was awfully slow to begin with, and in my limited experience with Bernard Shaw's work, (via film adaptations of Androcles and the Lion, as well as the Pygmalion musical adaptation My Fair Lady), I found his work simple, slow, and pedantic, with a lot less to say then it thinks it has (yes this sounds presumptuous).  A decent cast including Richard Widmark, Richard Todd, and John Gielgud, all give performances that feel like they would have been much more appropriate for the stage then for the screen.. I felt uninvolved, and the story of Joan of Arc, one of immense passion, has to be involving to havea point.This supposedly 'epic production' felt both constrained and long at 110 minutes. I'll grant that its an ambitious failure, but its still not worth your time.

Poor

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

The Help (2011)

Based on Kathryn Stockett's 2009 novel of the same name, The Help was big hit this last summer, filling the need for more substantive fair amid rampaging apes, aliens and super hero's. Set in Jackson, Mississippi during the summer of 1963, The Help stars Emma Stone as Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a recent college graduate returning to her home town with dreams of becoming a writer. Plucked down amid her old friends, now busy-body housewives, and somewhat reeling from the recent, mysterious departure of a beloved servant (Cicely Tyson) who had been in her family's employ for decades, Skeeter can't help but look at 'the help' in a different way.

A ubiquitous army of underpaid black women who cook, clean, and largely raise the children of well off local whites, 'the help' are under- appreciated, and must daily confront the casual, unthinking racism of their employers. It occurs to Skeeter that these women might make an interesting subject for a book, but her attempts to land candid interviews with local housekeepers are uniformly rebuffed. These women fear for their jobs, and know that any honest recounting of their experiences with their white employers will not be flattering. Aibileen (Viola Davis), finally agrees to collaborate with Skeeter, when the family she works for build a small additional bathroom in their house which they force the black woman too use, deeming her unworthy to share the same toilet-set with them. Aibileen meets with Skeeter in secrete and agrees to write down her experiences, on the condition she not be referred to by name in the book. Later Aibileen is joined in working with Skeeter by Minnie Jackson (Octavia Spencer), who has been fired from the employ of Skeeters childhood friend Hily (a delightfully bitchy Bryce Dallas Howard) for supposedly using the family toilet (Hily is in the process of sponsoring an initiative it make it illegal for black servants to use the same toilets as their white employers).

Minnie is a fun character, she has about five children and is trapped in a bad marriage, but she can be a sassy one. When pushed to the limit by Hily's blacklisting Minnie from gaining new employment, she shows up at her old bosses house offering a rather 'unique' pie as a 'peace offering'. Minnie does eventually get employ from one Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain, who I expect we'll be seeing more of). In a big house at the outskirts of town Mrs. Foote is as ostracised and shunned by the women of Jackson as Minnie is, (the busy-bodies wrongly suspect that she is a lose women). In hiring a maid (without her husbands knowing), what Celia is really hoping for is a friend, and her flightiness and practical obliviousness to the expected social norms of her neighbours make her a fun character.

Real history intersects our narrative with the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers right there in Jackson. This is the straw that broke the camels back, and soon there are a plethora of maids willing to speak with Skeeter and help with her book. Elaine Stein (Mary Steenburgen), a New York publisher Skeeter has been trying to get the patronage of, is thrilled by the work Skeeter sends her, and before long her book (where all the characters have pseudos names) is publish anonymously and takes Jackson by storm.

I won't finish it for you, but doubtless the book causes something of a fuss, especially when Hily figures out the book is about Jackson, and contains information that would be very, how shall we say, embarrassing for her should it get out. I was a little leery going in, but this is a great movie, it has an enveloping quality of quality, and at roughly two and a half hours has nary a dull spot. There has been some criticism of the film owing to the old Hollywood convention that the plight of black characters must been seen through the viewpoint of white characters (see Cry Freedom, Mississippi Burning, and even To Kill a Mocking Bird), but the film presents events as much (if not more) through the eyes of its black characters as through its whites. Some criticism might also be directed towards the films arguably 'straw women' construction of most of the white female characters, not to mention the virtual absence of men that makes the male sex look largely like their just going along with the prejudices of their 'woman folk'. But these are small faults, the movie succeeds at doing what it set out to do, and does it in an entertaining way. Davis, Spencer and Chastain give stand out performance, and the reset of the cast are all above average. Though try as they might, Emma Stone can not be made un-cute. One of the best films of last year, and a serious contender for a best actress Oscar.

Great

High Sierra (1941)

Warning: Spoilers

At the beginning of High Sierra, Roy Earle (Humphrey Bogart) is released from an Indiana prison after an eight year stint for armed robbery, and the first thing he wants to do is take a walk in the park, this serves to instantly makes him interesting/sympathetic. Earle's unexpected, and politically unpopular pardon by the Governor, has been engineered by his old associate Big Mac (Donald MacBridge), who wants his assistance in a planed jewelry heist from a palm beach type resort in, you guessed it, the High Sierra's. Earle's mid-west contact is Jack Krammer (Barton MacLane), a crooked former cop, who supplies him a car and sends him off to California to meet with Mac. On his way west Earle saves a family of dispossessed Ohio farmers from having a car accident. Pa, the patriarch of the clan (Henry Travers), takes an instant liking to Earle, who takes an instant liking to Pa's attractive by club footed grand daughter Velma (Joan Leslie). They part company and Earle makes it to the KOA type mountain retreat where he is too meet the fellow hoods with whom he is to preform the robbery. The inexperienced hoods Babe (Alan Curtis) and Red (Arthur Kennedy) have brought along with them a girl (top billed Ida Lupino), whom they had picked up a L.A. dime a dance joint. Earle is none to pleased by Marie's presence, but eventually agrees to let her stay, and she develops a fancy for him.

Earle goes down to L.A. to meet with Mac and on his way bumps into Pa and clan again. He saves them from getting fined for a fender bender, and now Pa is more impressed with him then ever ('there's no better man'), and they promise to keep in touch. Earle meets with Mac, who is sick and dying, and also with Doc Banton (Henry Hull), their old underground surgeon. Earle asks Banton if Velma's club foot can be healed, he agrees to see her, determins it can, and recommends a good 'legitment' surgeon who can do the job. Earle insists on paying for the surgery, hoping that Velma will agree to marry him in gratitude, though Pa informs him the girl has a some what slimmy bue back in Ohio. The surgery is a success, and though Velma is grateful she can't agree to marry him because "But I don't love him, Pa."

This state of affairs suits Marie just fine, and as a more appropriate mate for Earle the two pair up. The robbery of course goes awry and their inside man (Cornel Wilde) spills the beans. Red and Babe end up dead, and Earle and Velma on the lamb. Earle goes to see Mac, whose died, and Krammer, fresh from the mid-west, tries to take the jewels, Earle kills him. The film ends with a final confrontation between Earle and the police as he hides out in the rocky High Sierra's. Marie is there too see the man she loves gunned down.

Generally credited as the film that made him a star (before this he played mostly hevy's), Bogart here plays the first of the 'good bad men', that after detective roles (and people slowly going mad) would become his stock and trade. Though Lupino's first billed the film is really built around Bogart, who takes a so-so part and just makes you want to watch him. He would play better parts, and though really not a great actor, Bogart had his Bogartness, meaning a distinctive presence, something that was really requierd to be a star back then. A bit of a patchwork film, with varying modes and styles and a slow pace, its good though not great, but goods all it takes to make a satisfying feature, which this movie defiantly is.

Good

Friday, February 3, 2012

Rubber (2010)

At the beginning of Rubber, Lt. Chad (Stephen Spinella), holds forth a discourse on how in movies things often happen for "no reason". Chad providers a number of examples for this, ranging from the true but unimportant ('why is E.T. brown?'), too the farcically false ('In The Pianist, why is he running around like a bum when he's so good at the piano?').  "No reason" is a theme that runs throughout this movie, not least in its application to why the film was made. The trailer for this one is what made me interested, its sheer bizarreness, its Dadaism. Its promise of knowing satire however falls short as all too many of its observations are on an eight grade level (so I suspect I'd have kind of loved this in middle school).

The movie does score for audacity of concept, as it concerns an abandoned rubber tire named Robert and his pursuit of love, not to mention his ability to telekineticly blow stuff up (with a favorite being human heads). It's not suppose to make sense, which might have made it cool, but for the fact that it didn't.

The beginning of the film introduces us to a group of spectators in the (presumably California) desert, who have gather to watch our story, which they observe through binoculars. The whole enterprise has been produced by Lt. Chad as some sort of... con? Mad exercise? Anyway through the aid of his accountant (Jack Plotnick), Lt. Chad manages to kill all but one of the spectators via poisoned turkey. The remaining viewer (Wings Hauser), a wheel chair bound Vietnam vet sort, posses an unexpected difficulty for the Lieutenant as he had not thought out how the movie would end. Because of this Chad's fellow police officers, and the other characters in the film are unable to realize that they are just actors, and must continue to play their parts as long as 'the movie' is being watched.

There is little or nothing too the characters in this film, their odd and mostly one note, and generally can't act. Aside from maybe Robert the only one in the film worth watching is Spinella's Lt. Chad. Stephen Spinella is a Tony winning actor, he has a compelling screen presence even as he hams it up, what he's doing in this movie however is a mystery. Rubber is a French production (which might explain a lot) and features the model Roxane Mesquida as Robert's potential love interest, she is unimpressive (as an actress, physically kind of impressive, like a more sleek but less funny Aubrey Plaza). Rubber just doesn't work, its simultaneously too juvenile and too film school; it might have done better had it just concentrated on being one of the two.

Grade: Poor

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The Adjustment Bureau (2011)


David Norris (Matt Damon), who eight years before was elected the youngest congressman in U.S. history (Democrat, Brooklyn), has just lost the 2006 general election race for the U.S. senate (Wait, 2006? What happened to Hillary?). It's election night and Norris is stealing himself up inside the men's room of a fancy Manhattan hotel, before going out to face his crowd of supporters for the inevitable concession speech. A demoralized Norris is interrupted in his pitying funk by Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt), an aspiring ballerina who is hiding in the men's room after hotel security caught her crashing a party upstairs; it is love at first sight. The quirky Stellas bucks Norris up, enough so that he goes on to delivery a well received, self-mocking, yet resolute concession speech which manages to revive his political prospects for another run in four years.

Months go by and Norris, who never even got Sella's name, has taken a job in the investment banking firm of his former campaign manager and patron Charlie Traynor (Michael Kelly). On his way to work one day he unexpectedly runs into Sellas on the bus, they both still have the hots for each other and he gets her number, things are looking up. But it is not be, for you see Harry Mitchell (Anthony Mackie), Norris's kind-of guardian angel messed up and allowed the two to meet, when such a reunion was not part of The Chairman's plan.

The Chairman you see is God and has a divine plan for Norris that doesn't include a romance with Sellas. The Chairman has a group of fedora wearing helpers, The Adjustment Bureau, who work to keep the divine plan on track, and 'adjust' any pesky instance of free will which might get in the way, Mitchell is one of their number. The Chairman has fluctuated over time between allowing his creations free will, and imposing on them pre-destination. The Chairman started out by guiding man from hunter-gather tribes up through the 4th century, and then decided we were ready to go it on our own, the result was the dark ages. So The Chairman took over again and brought us the renaissance, age of reason and industrial revolution, in 1910 he decided to give us another chance on our own. When we almost nuked the planet in the early 1960's He decided to take over again and thusly in the early 21st century our lives are thoroughly monitored and controlled by a celestial C.I.A.

Richardson (John Slattery, hardly removed from Mad Men mode in his fedora hat and nicely tailored suit) is spotted by Norris in the act of adjusting his boss (so that he will favor Norris's recent proposal to invest in a company that makes solar panels), when he arrives at work too early (Mitchell was suppose to delay him with spilled coffee). Slattery and his men chase Norris, they catch, come clean as The Adjustment Bureau, and threaten to lobotomize him (plan or no plan) if he ever revels their existence or goes off plan again. In no uncertain terms they tell him not to pursue Sellas, and they destroy the card with her number on it.

Mitchell, who has watched Norris his whole life, silently seen him through the death of hi parents, reckless school days, and the up and downs of a political career, has grown attached to the guy and decides to break the rules and go speak with him. Water seems to dampen (pun) the AB's ability to monitor there subjects, so Harris lures Norris to the city pier and spills the beans. It turns out in an earlier version of 'The Plan'  Norris and Sallas were suppose to get together, but if that happens it will derail the Almighty's plan to make Norris a (presumably historically important) President of the United States. Norris chooses love over power and sets out with Harris on a crazy plan to force a meeting with The Chairmen so he can plead his case; however Richardson has been replaced on the Norris case by the notorious (to The Adjustment Bureau) Thompson (Terence Stamp), who is determined to get Norris in the White House no matter what the cost.

Billed as a thriller this is really more of fantasy romance, with Damon and Blunt cast as lovers whose bond is so strong that not even God can keep them apart. It is too bad that their is really nothing too electric about the couples chemistry, I mean they work well together but I don't know if I buy them as the kind of fated lovers this movie demands. Based on a short story but that fount of movie material Philip K. Dick, the concept is intriguing in a Twilight Zone kind of way (in fact I remember an episode of The New Twilight Zone back in the 1980's that this movie kind of reminds me of). It's good, but never achieves the kind of intensity I wanted from it, while swinging awkwardly between understated romance and chase scenes. A better movie in conception then execution The Adjustment Bureau still makes for a good 99 minutes of mixed genera fun.

Good