Three Tough Guys (1974)

 From the Tarantino Grindhouse DVD set. I don't know why 'Three Tough Guys' is called "Three Tough Guys", because there are only two tough guy leads and even the movies theme song is called "Two Tough Guys". Now it's possible I missed the explanation because this movie was hard to sustain interest in, though I doubt the film bothered to explain its self.

Filmed and set in Chicago. Issac Hayes is a disgraced ex cop who lost a partner in a bank robbery, he teams with fighting Catholic Priest Lino Ventura who lost a parishioner in the same bank robbery. Together they work the mean streets to solve the crime and find the missing million dollars. Why they wanted the lost money so bad I'm not sure, again this movie was hard to pay attention to because it is generally pretty dull. Issac Hayes does fry some eggs on an upside down iron and that's pretty cool, otherwise *

Armageddon Time (2022)

 In 'Armageddon Time' it's the fall of 1980 and  Paul Graff (Micheal Banks Repeta), a 6th grade Jewish boy living with his blue collar family in Queens, learns important lessons about race, class, friendship, his family and himself. All of this you can more or less gather from the movies trailer, it looks to be a pretty conventional coming of age/awaking of social consciousness film and in broad stokes it is that. However there is a certain gruffness here, a hard edge of disappointment and disillusionment that sets it apart. 

While not exactly autobiographical, writer/director James Gray (whose been making movies a good while but this is the first of his films I've seen) was a young boy growing up in Queens in 1980. His childhood period piece is remarkably free of nostalgic glow. Paul isn't a particularly bad kid, but he's not a very good one either. I must confess I could see alot of a younger me in him. 

Paul seems to have an undiagnosed learning disability (we are here about a decade before the idea of ADD was mainstreamed). He's an underperformer, he's flighty, selfish in a non self aware away, very naive about the basic functionality of the world around him. In his family he is his mother's favorite, but is bonded most deeply with his indulgent and well meaning grandfather played by Anthony Hopkins.

Socially awkward Paul befriends held back black student Johnny Davis (Jaylin Webb, also good) at his public school. The two commit various minor trespasses together, eventually partaking of Marijuana while not knowing entirely what it was. Subsequently and with financial help from grandpa, Paul is enrolled at Forest Manor Prep, a real world private school in Queens. It is here that we meet two real world characters, Forest Manor graduate Maryanne Trump and school benefactor Fred Trump.

One of the films more interesting gambles,  having two Trumps as characters in your film is risky for a number of reasons. Somewhat surprisingly Fred and Maryanne do not come across as mere charictatures, they feel like real people to me. Maryanne has only one scene, as a visiting assembly speaker at the school she gives a speech, Jessica Chastain seems to be giving best efforts in the small role. Fred Trump (John Diehl) has a few scenes, he first emerges sulkely in the background, a kind of vaugly menacing Dabney Coleman type, he's pleasant enough, remarkably so from what I know of Fred Trump, but there is a subtext to him, self satisfied, subtily racist and willing himself the aura of a great and beneficent man. 

Paul grows more dissatisfied, self pitting, he makes a stupid decision that may be the turning point of his life. Yet there is also some naive nobility to the way he handles getting caught. 'Armageddon Time' is not a great film, mostly it's just okay, but it has a few moments and a way of just brushing up against the profound, the way a child would, something I found to be unexpected and satisfying. ***

PS I'm just not sure what to make of Ann Hathway's Jewish mother performance, but I thought that Jeremy Strong was pretty good as the father.

Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

 Robert Riskin, who was Frank Capra's writting partner on most of his 1930's work, including Best Picture Oscar winners 'It Happened One Night' and 'You Can't Take It With You', decided to make one of his 'Capraisque' screenplays without Frank Capra after World War II. 'Magic Town', released in 1947 stars Jimmy Stewart as a public opinion surveyor who discovers a small town whose demographics and voting history so mirrors the larger nation as a whole,  that he simply dosen't have to ask opinions anywhere else. Of course once the locals realize this they get kind of full of themselves and their opinions quickly cease to reflect the national mood, it's up to Stewart to set things right.

The parallels to 'Magic Town' occurred to me fairly early while watching 'Drive-Away Dolls', the first feature film directed by Ethan Coen sans his older brother Joel. Written by the younger Coen and his wife, professional film editor Tricia Cooke, 'Drive-Away Dolls' concerns two lesbians (Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan) on a road trip from Philadelphia to Tallahassee in 1999, who discover in their rental car a briefcase whose contents some bad men would gladly kill over. Like 'Magic Town', 'Drive-Away Dolls' contains all the elements associated with hits under its writers previous directorial pairing, but it never seems to spark as brightly as films made with that old partner.

The two Coen Brothers films this reminded me of the most are 'The Big Lebowski' and 'Burn After Reading', one of their best and one of their worst. This is a quirky piece with lots of stange, mostly undistinguished side characters. It is actually very well constructed, though it takes awhile to see where it's going. To often the movie felt flat and overly derivative of earlier Coen work. Leads Qualley and Viswanathan are the best thing the movie has going for it, an odd, distinct couple who each have some great lines. I suspect this movie may be very rewatchable but on first viewing I was kind of underwhelmed. **1/2

Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)

 Having spent most of their college years concentrating on developing a skill of limited marketability, the Bellas find post grad life less then satisfying; so they go on a USO tour. I expected that this would be the worst one, but appreciated the deviations from formula and how this briefly became an action movie. **1/2

Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)

 'Pitch Perfect 2' is of the school of sequels where they basically just remake the first film only bigger. So instead of competing for the national title, this time the Bellas have their sights set on the international accapela championship, their main competition the Eurotash German team. Crasser, lazier and less endering then the original, 'Pitch Perfect 2' has a real off putting glut of celebrity cameos and name dropping. However it ends pretty well. Hailee Steinfield joins the cast. **

Pitch Perfect (2012)

 'Pitch Perfect' turned college competitive acapelia singing into an improbable pop culture hit. At heart this is a pretty dumb and cliche story, well scripted but still dumb and cliche. The film is saved by some catchy singing, its attractive cast and my suspision that these only get worse from here. ***

Life Partners (2014)

 Long time best friends, lesbian Leighton Meester and straight girl Gillian Jacobs, must deal with changes in their relationship after Gillian finally meets the man she's going to marry (Adam Brody). Likable and low key dramadey about romance and friendship. Filmed in California and Minnesota. ***

A Family Thing (1996)

 A few days after his mother's funeral sixty-something Arkansa mechanic Robert Duvall receives a letter from her, a personal letter entrusted to her pastor to be delivered after her burial. In the letter she explains to her son that she is not infact his biological mother, rather he was conceived as the result of his father's rape of the housekeeper, who was black. His biological mother died moments after childbirth and owing to his surrogate mothers genuine love for her and his coming out of the womb white, he was raised with no knowledge of the circumstances of his birth or his true ethnic heritage.

Duvall's mother also advises him that he has an older half brother who is a cop in Chicago, as a last request she asks Robert to seek out his brother and come to know that side of his family. After a couple days brooding on this Robert decides to honor his mother's request, travels up to Chicago to meet his brother James Earl Jones and come to know his extended black family. At first the two siblings are warry of each other but over the course of the film develop a genuine mutual affection.

Co written by Billy Bob Thorton 'A Family Thing' is sweet, solid and empathetic. An impressive, understated work with a very warm quality. The two leads are famously talented actors but the MVP of the picture is Irma P. Hall as their no nonsense, blind aunt who is determined that these two siblings really get to know each other. This film wisely eschews the cheap comedy potential of its premise and makes this both a character piece and an ultimately hopeful rumination on race relations in this country. The gang banger subplot I could have done without. ***

The Iron Curtin (1948)

 'The Iron Curtin' (1948) is the first of two feature films (the other being 1954's 'Operation Manhunt') to tell the tale of Igor Gouzenko (1919 - 1982), a "clerk" at the Soviet embassy in Ottowa who on defection with wife and child in 1946 revealed the presence of an extensive Russian spy network in Canada. Propagandistic docu-drama reteams Dana Andrews and Gene Tierny, stars of the Noir classic 'Laura', under the direction of workhorse William Wellman. It's just fair, though location filming around Parliament Hill is neat to see. **

Madam Web (2024)

 'Madam Web' is a movie where the more I heard about how bad it was the more I wanted to see it. Preparing myself for a complete disaster no doubt benefited my ultimate reception of the film, which is low to middling but watchable. A Sony picture the film serves as an origin story of the titular Madam Web and various other 2nd to 3rd teir Spiderman side characters. 

A period piece set principally in 2003, this plays like it was written as a TV pilot for Fox and then for inexplicable reasons shot as a feature 20 years later. I enjoyed its low stakes, superhero adjacent quality, clichéd writting and bad ADR are among this movies charms.

 Dakota Johnson's low energy, mildly snarky approach to the material might seem like she was trolling her own film, but I think that's just the way Dakota Johnson acts. Three attractive and ethically diverse young women play future spider heroines who Johnson's psychic paramedic must protect from Tahar Rahim's forgettable villian. Adam Scott and Emma Robert's are also in this for some reason.

The movie ends the way I might end a spoof of superhero movies. I think the descriptor "charmingly bad" best reflects my feelings towards this film. I've been enjoying reflecting on the movies plot holes and stange decisions the last few days. **

You Don't Nomi (2020)

 'You Don't Nomi' is a documentary that takes its title from the name of Elizabeth Berkley's character in the notorious 90's flop 'Showgirls'. I hesitated in watching this, figuring I could get most of its information and insight off of YouTube videos, but there is something to be said for this doc. It is not a lazy hit piece, it was not made to mock. Rather its a fairly serious examination of the critical and cultural legacy of a film that has become a synonym for bad, but in actuality is a much more complex and interesting failure then it might at first appear. It made me want to watch 'Showgirls' again. ***

Showgirls (1995)

 'Showgirls' the notorious 1995, Las Vegas set "erotic drama", was the first major studio release with an NC-17 rating, severly damaged director Paul Verhovan's career and essentially ruined that of its star Elizabeth Berkley. The stylistic term "camp" is sometimes defined as an artistic work of  "failed seriousness", this is the perfect descriptor for 'Showgirls', which seems to really aspire at being a serious work of character study and social criticism. However, there was some serious miscalculation and this piece of cinematic ordinance missed its target and detonated in the uncanny valley. 

'Showgirls' is legitimately very bad, I'm talking piece of shit territory. Yet it clearly wasn't intended to be, you can feel it reaching for, if not greatness, at least adequacy for its entire run time and never quite reaching it, save maybe for the cinematography which at times is very good. On a skeletal level the plot is essentially the same as that of the 1950 Oscar winning film 'All About Eve', both are stories of ambitious young women out to displace an established star. Here this takes the form of Elizabeth Berkley angling to usurpe Gina Gershons position as the queen of Las Vegas erotic dance spectaculars. There are just so many strange choices made here, but playing Berkley's character as decidedly unpleasant and having every other character inexplicably charmed by her, is by far the greatest. One of those films that really needs to be seen to be believed. *1/2

Radio Days (1987)

 In 'Radio Days' Woody Allen combines childhood memories with vignettes about old time radio for a nostalgic portrait of New York City circa 1939-1944. Fellow director Stanley Kubrick, who grew up in around the same area at around the same time, loved this film saying watching it was like watching a home movie. One of Allen's warmest works. Large ensamble cast includes many an Allen regular and a young Seth Green playing a young Woody. ***

Bottoms (2023)

 Lower social strata high school lesbians start a fight club as a way to get with cheerleaders. Gen Z teen sex comedy is both raunch and woke, pretty funny though 'Book Smart' remains the masterpiece of this slim genra. ***

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

 This was a very anticipated movie by me, but I find I don't have much to say about it. I respect the movie alot, subject matter, performances, but it just didn't grab me emotionally the way I'd hoped it would. It's very understated, it's very long, as many have said this would have been better served as a limited series. ***

Dishonored Lady (1947)

This is a couple of steps removed from the Madeleine Smith scandal that inspired it, as well as the more faithful and recently reviewed by me David Lean picture 'Madeleine'. 'Dishonored Lady' takes a couple of story beats from the original tale and grafts them onto a forgettable, contemporary set nourish thriller. Hedy Llamar can't sustain it as the lead, she may have been a great beauty and a brilliant engineer, but I don't know if she was that much of an actress. Surprisingly bad. *

Fallen Angel: The Outlaw Larry Norman (2009)

 'Fallen Angel' is a documentary on Larry Norman (1947 - 2008), a pioneer of Christian rock music. Born in Texas but raised mostly in California, Norman was the duel lead of the rock group People! who scored a hit in the late 60's with a song simply titled 'I Love You'. Yet Larry was difficult to work with so the rest of the band asked him to leave, he did but that ultimately doomed People! because as their manager said 'Larry was the talent'.

In the aftermath of being booted from his group Larry got a job as a song writer at Capitol Records and had a born again experience at a Pentecostal Church. In 1969 Larry released  his debut solo album for Capitol 'Upon This Rock', widely credited as "the first full-blown Christian Rock album." Larry's carrer would continue, sometimes in fits and starts for the next 30 odd years, he would have hits with songs like 'Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music' and the Rapture anthem 'I Wish We'd All Been Ready'. He even performed at the White House for president Jimmy Carter in 1979.

Larry released many albums, performed all around the world, started record labels, sheppard new talent and lunched careers. He would also marry twice, have one child who was born out of wedlock and who he would never formally recognize as his own; he could be petty, vindictive and slept with his best friends wife. Larry Norman was a Christian but he was also very much a Rock Star, that duality and contradiction certainly made him interesting.

The documentary is not as polished as it might have been and suffers from evident budgetary limitations, but it tells a reasonably intriguing story about a man who in his sphere was at one time a giant. **1/2

Madeleine (1950)

 David Lean is a director best remembered for truly epic movies like 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Doctor Zhivago'. Some years ago I saw a small scale romance Lean directed in the 1940's called 'Brief Encounter', it was as good as his better known epics and made me interested in seeing more from him in that vain. 1950's 'Madaline' is based on a famous scandle that happened in 1850's Glasgow. Madeleine Smith was the socialite daughter of a prominent architect who was tried for the murder by possioning of an ex lover, who had been threatening to derail her engagement to a wealthy young man of whom her father approved.

A period piece, 'Madaline' is situated closer to 'Brief Encounter' then 'Lawrence of Arabia' in scale. It is a good looking movie, well written, directed and acted, with star Ann Todd the highlight, giving an impressively enigmatic performance as Madaline, despite being a 43 year old playing a 21 year old, they couldn't have gotten away with it had the film been shot in color.

My biggest problems with the movie was its pacing, it was slow and took along time to get started. There probably isn't much that could have reasonably been done about this, the story is a slow burn that requires alot of set up. I had just seen 'Poor Things', which is also set in Europe during the latter half of the 19th century, earlier that day and that movie was so well paced Lean's film suffered in comparison. Still 'Madaline' is a solid film which I'd probably enjoy more on a rewatch sometime down the line. ***

Poor Things (2023)

 'Poor Things' is the second colaberation between the stange Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and actress Emma Stone; their first film together was the 2018 historical drama 'The Favorite', for which co star Olivia Coleman won the best actress Oscar for her portrail of Queen Ann.

'Poor Things' is based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Alister Gray. It is a sort of lady Frankenstein story. In late 19th century London (in the source material its Glasgow) a deformed scientist (Willam Defoe) resurrects the body of a pregnate woman (Stone) who had thrown herself off a bridge, he implants the fetel brain into her skull to create a new person.

What we have here is a very well written, very well paced film, with a solid enasmble cast, interesting ideas to explore, lots of subtext, creative camera work and gorgeously inventive sets, which all play second fiddle to the lead performance. Emma Stone is fantastic in this, it's the best work she's ever done. 

Emma plays a character who when we first meet her, despite being in a full grown body, is essentially a toddler. She walks in a jerky, awkward manner, eats as a young child might, and speaks in a clipped, basic and uncensored way. Over the course of the film we see her character, Bella Baxter, grow up at an accelerate pace. She proves in fact to be quite bright, while her ability to speak improves markedly, she continues to express herself in a kind of charmingly blunt shorthand. The performance of her dialogue is my single favorite aspect of this film.

As Bella has not gone through the normal, gradual process of growing up, she is not attuned to social mores and self censorship. She is a frank person and a person in a hurry to gain new experiences. She embarks on a European trip with a self involved and lecherous lawyer played delightfully by Mark Ruffalo, she surpasses him intellectually and sexually in fairly rapid order.

The sexuality of the film and Ms. Stones performance has gotten a lot of attention, it is pretty in you face. She really goes for it. The sexuality however is just one way in which the film acts subversive. For a movie based on a book written by a man born in 1934, directed by a Gen Xer and staring a Millennial, its sensibilities struck me as rather Gen Z. Using "Woke" as a descriptor rather then a value judgment, this film is very woke.

"Poor Things" is the kind of film that might really have collapsed under the weight of its own pretension, but I think it avoided doing so because it was so intricately thought out, put together and executed (only once very late in the film did I feel it lag a little). There are large audiences for whom this film is decidedly not for, but for others it can be quite the cinematic experience. ***1/2

Sickies Making Films (2018)

 'Sickies Making Films' is a documentary on the history of film censorship in the United States, most specifically the Maryland Board of Censors, the longest running and last state operated film censorship board in the country, it operated from 1916 to 1981. After the New York board was dissolved in 1965 due to a decision by the state Supreme Court, Maryland's was the last board standing, it continued to stand for another 16 years, largely at the grace of a sympathetic state board of appeals and the inability of the legislator to muster the votes to repeal it. The  tenacious three person committe was finally shuttered by the state early in the Reagan administration, not for ideological reasons but because the MBC cost more to operate then it generated in film licensing fees. I knew most of the genral cinema history presented in this film, but the Maryland stuff I was not familiar with. ***

Promises! Promises! (1963)

 'Promises! Promises!' was the first Hollywood film of the sound era to feature nudity by a mainstream star (*), that star was Jayne Mansfield. A stunt move for the 30 year old Mansfield, whose box office glory days of the mid 50's were behind her. Made well into the long slow death of the production code and five years before the birth of the MPAA ratings system, it is perhaps needless to say that the uncut version of this film was NOT available in all markets.

Based on the play 'The Plant' by Edna Sheklow, the plot concerns two couples, Jayne Mansfield & Tommy Noonan and Marie McDonald & Mickey Hargitay (Mansfield's real life husband at the time), who may have spouse swapped during a drunken night on a cruse. The film has a couple moments but really isn't very good.

Interestingly all of Mansfield's nude scenes are front loaded (double entendra) into the first 10 minutes of the movie, though we see those same scenes again multiple times in flashback. This movie marks the final film appernce of Marie McDonald, the 7 times married actress would die of a drug overdose in 1965 at the age of 42. The film is also the big screen debut of T.C. Jones, probably the eras most famous drag performer, though he does not appear in drag here he does play a clearly gay coded hairdresser named Babbette. Character actor Fritz Field appears as the ships doctor.

Again this film is not very a good, a cash grab with an odd cross section of performers. American Export Lines, whose ship the S.S. Independence was used in the production, seemed to see this movie as a kind of commercial and is heavily referenced in the opening credits. *1/2

(*) Annette Kellerman holds the distinction of being the first mainstream star to appear nude in a Hollywood film of the silent era, specifically 1916's 'A Daughter of the Gods', a movie which helped inspire greater calls for censorship in that era.