tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5895358988918284272024-03-27T20:01:25.156-06:00His Other BandIt being a blog about movies I done saw.NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.comBlogger3286125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-2103675825053238002024-03-26T20:09:00.012-06:002024-03-26T21:46:31.193-06:00The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)<p> 'The Place Promised in Our Early Days' is an anime concerning a love triangle, two boys and a girl who meet in middle school. The story is set in an alternate timeline in which the Soviet Union invaded Hokkaido, the northern most of Japan's four major islands, at the end of World War II and set up a puppet state there. While the film dosen't say when exactly it is set, it appears to be roughly contemporary to when the film was made. Our protagonists live in the non communist part of Japan, which seems healthy economicly, but war scares with the north are fairly common. In addition the "Union" state on Hokkaido has constructed a massive tower which looks like it reaches into the stratosphere and in which they are conducting experiments into parallel universes. Side effects from the work going on in the tower, as well as joint US/Japanese efforts to learn more about what is going on there play into the plot. These are some interesting ideas but the execution is far too slow and understated, I got bored. This was dull and should not have been. **</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-20461633664372404862024-03-25T19:27:00.005-06:002024-03-26T18:07:50.811-06:00Notting Hill (1999)<p> 'Notting Hill' is a romantic comedy in which the awkward owner of a travel bookshop in the Notting Hill section of London (Hugh Grant) has a chance encounter with an American super star actress (Julia Roberts) and they fall in love. Written by the master of the Brit rom-com Richard Curtis, this is a charming film, the leads have surprisingly good chemistry, but its Grant's group of friends (including Hugh Bonneville and Gina McKee) which really made the movie for me, I want those friends. ***</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-20219778860436923552024-03-24T19:22:00.010-06:002024-03-24T20:54:37.947-06:00Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)<p> 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire' is the 5th theatrical Ghostbusters movie and the 4th in its continuity. That's not an enviable place to be, especially given how beloved the first film is. Even taking into account the unenviable task, creatively and expectations wise of making yet another Ghostbusters film, the final product, and I emphasize the word "product" because that's what this is more then it's a movie, well its both too much and not enough. </p><p>Take a look at that poster, there are 11 lead characters there, original cast, carry overs from the 2021 film and new additions. This is an overcrowded film, even when they don't give many of these characters much of anything to do. The plot feels like a bad guy of the week story from the old Ghostbusters cartoon series, with too much of the plot conventions of the original film grafted on. This whole franchise has had a real problem in coming up with new ideas since the original film 40 years ago, it all feels rather tired. </p><p>New addition Kumail Ali Naniiani and to a lesser extent Patton Oswalt are the only ones displaying old school Ghostbusters energy here. The plot, which concerns a malevolent ancient god with freezing powers and the ability to mind control other ghosts, is well enough put together if kind of blah. The most inventive new angle is the relationship between Phobe Spanger (McKenna Grace) and a ghost girl played by Emily Alyn Lind, which has a carefully constructed ambiguity to it, it can be read as mere friendship or as would be romance depending on the needs of the viewer. All in all competent, but depressingly mediocre. **</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-90487033645378569532024-03-23T14:07:00.005-06:002024-03-24T13:02:59.125-06:00Love Lies Bleeding (2024)<p> New Mexico, 1989</p><p>Kristine Stewart runs a small gym where she meets Katy O'Brian, a drifter and aspiring body builder. The lesbian Stewart and bisexual O'Brian start a relationship, despite Katy working for Kristine's estranged father Ed Harris, who runs a gun club and is involved in various illegal activities for which the FBI is investigating him. Kristine also has a sister, Jena Malone, a mother of three boys who is in an abusive relationships with husband Dave Franco, who also works for Harris. Anna Baryshinko is a local lesbian with a major crush on Stewart, which makes her suspicious of new arrival O'Brian. The whole situation is a powder keg and at lest one of these people is going to lie bleeding by the end of the movie.</p><p>This is rather different, it's a Neo-noir, a melodramatic love story, there is some magical realism. Very strong on sense of time and place, solid tension, good performances all around. Those last 15 minutes or so are designed to be debated, I'm still not quite sure what to make of them. This film is obviously not for everybody, but was a cinematic experience that kept shocking and surprising me, I'm a fan of that. ***1/2</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-73288616972904170412024-03-23T10:03:00.004-06:002024-03-24T12:40:33.558-06:00Mavrick (1994)<p> 'Mavrick' proved a wonderful flashback, though not as much to the old west as to the days when Mel Gibson was widely considered likable. An action comedy by a master of such, Richard Donner, who had helmed Gibson in the 'Leathel Weapon' franchise. The film is inspired by the 1950's TV western of the same name that started James Garner, who also has a leading role here. Notable cast members include Alfred Molinia, Graham Green and James Coburne. Jodi Foster is the female lead, apparently this is the film that started her unlikely friendship with Gibson. The story is low key and episodic with a winking sense of humor, enjoyable and undemanding, big tent entertainment confidently done. ***</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-6110157810988915672024-03-19T20:05:00.004-06:002024-03-19T21:40:26.391-06:00Man on a Ledge (2012)<p> There is a man on a ledge of New York's Roosevelt Hotel (Sam Worthington), he's threatening to jump, but its really an attempt at distraction for a dimond robbery across the street. There are a lot of attempts at distraction in this movie, Elizabeth Banks, Genesis Rodriguez in a cat suit, Ed Harris as an amoral New York real estate developer, but none of them can conceal that this movie is really just blah studio product. An assembledge of types and clichés signifying a nothing movie. *1/2</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-20310012797217210142024-03-15T21:15:00.007-06:002024-03-15T23:46:07.668-06:00Buffaloed (2019)Blue collar girl and small time hustler Zoey Deutch, decides to get into the telephone debt collecting buisness in her native Buffalo, only to butt heads with less scrupulous debt collectors. While the story is not drawn from an actual incident, it is reminiscent of stylized, <span style="background-color: white; color: #474747; font-family: "Google Sans", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Exposé</span>-ish films that are, like 'The Informant' or 'The Big Short'. Solid ensamble cast includes Judy Greer and Jai Courtney, but it's Deutch's energetic performance that sells and impells this thing. Occasional unevenness is made up for by elements of charm, amongst which is the films continual ribbing of the city of Buffalo, New York. I started this one thinking I might not finish it, but it won me over. ***NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-56134704255807241292024-03-11T20:58:00.018-06:002024-03-11T23:57:50.856-06:00Pumpkin (2002)<p> Pumpkin Romanoff (Hank Harris) is a mostly wheelchair bound, mentally challenged teenaged boy. He is to be paired with a sorority volunteer from the local college to coach him for a regional equivalent of the Special Olympics. When Pumpkin first sees his mentor Carolyn McDuffy (a blonde, 21 year old Christina Ricci) he is gobsmacked by love for the first time.</p><p>Pumpkin stretches himself as he has never stretched himself before, all to please Carolyn. He wills improvement of his hand eye coordination, starts to stand and even walk more, starts to talk more, its miracle level improvement. Carolyn is deeply moved and effected by the time she spends with Pumpkin, so much so that this beautiful girl who has lived a mostly surifacey life enters a state of existential crises and finds herself, much against her will, falling in love with a mentally retarded man.</p><p>I've been using the word audacity a lot lately, but really who decides to make a movie like this? A strange mixture of turn of the Milleniaum raunch comedy and Hallmarkian message film, becomes black comedy gold. The movie delights in messing with expectations, a prime example is Samuel Ball as Kent Woodlands, Carolyn's fraternity royalty, tennis star boyfriend. On the surface Kent seems to embody every jock stereotype in a college movie, yet he is a reasonable person, cares about other people's feelings and sincerely loves his girlfriend, who he might even be (at least at first) a better person then. This makes it all the more tragicly humorous when Carolyn leaves Kent for Pumpkin. </p><p>Starting fairly grounded the film reachs heights of absurdist bliss, it has seemingly all the ingredients of a cult classic yet sadly never achieved that status. Cast includes pre star Amy Adams and Melissa McCarthy in bit roles, as well as Nina Foch in one of her later screen appearances, I was shocked when I saw the name of this 1950's Oscar nominee in the opening credits. I found 'Pumpkin' to be enderingly odd, a bitting but strangly sweet piece of self mockering satire. It's a shame that this film has been forgotten, but its also something of a joy to stumble across it.***</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-89320130417371818332024-03-09T18:52:00.014-07:002024-03-11T19:41:35.162-06:00What if I Defect?: Directors Cut (2020)<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Google Sans", Roboto-Medium, HelveticaNeue-Medium, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif-medium, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px;">I had heard that Shelise Ann Sola, the rather attractive host of the 'Cults to Consciousness' YouTube series and podcast was an actress. Curious to see her in something, the only movie of hers I could find was the directors cut of 'What if I Defect?', as a two dollar rental on Amazon, so I thought I'd give it a watch.</span></p><p><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Google Sans, Roboto-Medium, HelveticaNeue-Medium, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif-medium, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 24px;">A low budget indie film featuring many of the minuses of low budget independent film making. There is some bad sound mixing, especially early on. A very limited number of locations, principly in some ones house and apperent gurilla film making at a mall, hotel, book store, restaurants. The camera quality varies, cheap visual effects are used, the acting quality genrally poor to blah. Shelise is good in this, nobody else is.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Google Sans, Roboto-Medium, HelveticaNeue-Medium, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif-medium, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 24px;">This is kind of a Christian movie, though it's pretty sensual for one of those. Filmed in the Anchorage area 'What if I Defect?' is a vanity project for director/writer/star Robby Monroe. Robby plays Daniel, a Christian man whose fiancé has just broke up with him. Daniel is apparently in college, though he looks around 30. He plays video games, Magic, has nerd culture conversations with his friend. He sells shirts at the mall but indicates he has other sources of income. He whines alot, is annoying, kind of self righteous, not much to look at, but Shelise falls for him.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Google Sans, Roboto-Medium, HelveticaNeue-Medium, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif-medium, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 24px;">They meet at the mall, she's sad, he's nice to her, tries to cheer her up, listens, they start hanging out. In time we learn that Shelise's character, whose name is Olivia, has been subject to the sexual advances of men since the age of 14, she's been in bad and abusive relationships. Olivia and Daniel are not evenly yoked looks wise, I guess we are suppose to buy her falling for him because he's nice to her, though he's not always nice to her. Again, vanity project, I can buy this story as Robby Monroe's fantasy, but as a movie its clunky. The Iong car drive/ conversation scene near the end of the movie was probably my favorite part, though that felt more like a memory or dream then a fully functional movie scene. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Google Sans, Roboto-Medium, HelveticaNeue-Medium, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif-medium, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 24px;">This was an odd one, also a way too long one, alot of cutting would have really helped, especially in the first half of the film. This 141 minute cut, should have been closer to 110. I kind of admire its strange audacity, but this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I do not hold Shelise responsible however. Still *</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: Google Sans, Roboto-Medium, HelveticaNeue-Medium, Helvetica Neue, sans-serif-medium, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 24px;">Interestingly, I could not find a single other review of this online.</span></span></p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-37631799947170340142024-03-08T21:55:00.009-07:002024-03-08T23:58:00.187-07:00The Well (1951)<p> In 'The Well' a small Midwestern town's racial divisons are laid open, when a five year old black girl disappeares shortly after being seen in the company of a white stranger (Colonel Potter himself Henry Morgan). Tensions quickly rise and before long there is race rioting and the national guard is called in. Then the young girl is found having fallen down a well, the town awkwardly comes together to try and rescue her. A bold movie to make in 1951. I wish it had been tighter. **1/2</p><p>Actor Richard Rober, who played the towns level headed sheriff, died the following year in a car accident at the age of 42. The car he was in plummeted over an embankment in a heavy fog. Three years earlier in the movie 'The File on Thelma Jordan' Rober played a character who also died in a car the plummeted over an embankment.</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-21852016952780441122024-03-06T18:42:00.007-07:002024-03-06T20:02:59.770-07:00Bring It On: Fight to the Finish (2009)<p> Another 'Bring It On' movie. 'Fight to the Finish' is basically 'All or Nothing' in reverse. Christina Milian is captian of her east L.A. high-school cheer squad, but shortly into her senior year changing economic circumstances (her mother marries a rich white widower) relocate her to a posh Malibue high school with a faltering cheer team, one she is determined to re-energize. I guess if you've got a money making formula you don't mess with it. I'm a bit surprised how central race is to these movies. **</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-630176932764961432024-03-05T18:26:00.006-07:002024-03-06T18:02:58.367-07:00Bring it On: All or Nothing (2006)<p> 'Bring It On: All or Nothing' is the 3rd film in the 'Bring It On' film series, I skipped the second one because it is not currently free on Prime. The franchise is seemingly all variations on a theme, no recurring characters or schools. Number 3 is very on par with number one, maybe even slightly better. The first film wanted to be two kinds of movies at the same time, this is also true of number 3, wanting to be both naughty and wholesome, however this central contradiction is seemingly more at home in a smaller, non theatrical budget.</p><p>Hayden Panettiere, still a minor at the time of filming, is cheer captain at her upscale California high school. Shortly into her senior year her family is forced by economic circumstances to move, relocating her to a very working class and ethic high school. Hayden slowly accustomes herself to a new environment and friends, overcomes personal prejudices and realizes how shelterd she was and how shallow some of her old friends were. In the end her new squad must compete against her old squad to land positions as back up dancers in a Rhianna (yes she is actually in the film) music video and get new computers for their school. Turns out as you'd expect. **</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-52891799455552157372024-03-04T20:11:00.006-07:002024-03-04T21:39:40.536-07:00Bring It On (2000)<p> The original 'Bring it On', the theatrical movie which launched a direct to video franchise. Hot young Millennial actresses compete in cheering competitions, love triangles and internecine power struggles. Containing a number of period cultural elements that wouldn't fly today, it as Roger Ebert described it, what should have been a R rated comedy squeezed into PG 13 Nickelodeon form. A very mediocre movie. **</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-80258945443800848632024-03-03T13:23:00.006-07:002024-03-04T19:00:59.804-07:00Dune: Part II (2024)<p> 'Dune: Part II' aka 'Dune 2: More Dune', like it's predisascor is a visual triumph. The cast of characters here expands, people change and get more complex as do their relationships. In the first film I wasn't yet invested in these characters, I feel invested now.</p><p>The 'Dune' franchise continues to be perhaps the most anthropological of science fantasies; at times it seems almost documentary. It has a great story canvas as well as a visual one. Such themes, political intrigue, an insurgency against an imperial occupier, the manufacture and fulfillment of prophecy. It's all very deep for a blockbuster. Plus that cast. Better then 'Dune:Part I'. See it on as big a screne as possible. ****</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-8228320532821552982024-03-02T21:06:00.003-07:002024-03-02T22:28:06.033-07:00The Babysitters (2007)<p> In 'The Babysitters' high school student Katherine Waterson runs a suburban prostitution ring out of a babysitters club. She's a smart girl and had been good up till then, it just sort of happened. I really liked Waterson's performance in this, she's playing about a decade younger then she was at the time and really sells it; her gradual transformation until discovering she has become kind of a monster, well its impressive. A cross between comic caper film, character driven drama and a prurient explotation film, it gets dark and that is what redeems it from being merely naughty. John Leguizamo is good as the inital client. **1/2</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-68487632967516947092024-03-02T17:23:00.004-07:002024-03-02T19:28:11.964-07:00The Humanity Bureau (2018)<p> Set in a mid apocalyptic near future, 'The Humanity Bureau' is a clichéd dystopian thriller overlayed with Trumpian/ vaugly Q-Anon adjacent conspiracism (death panels, positive reference to a late president Trump). Nic Cage is an agent of "The Humanity Bureau", an Orwellian US Government agency tasked with relocating "un productive" citizens to a new life in "New Edan". Now "New Edan" is pretty clearly a euphonium for killing government designated undesirables, but it takes about 27 of this movies 95 minutes for Cage to figure this out.</p><p>Armed with this new information Cage procedes to go on the run to Canadia with an attractive single mom and son who he was supposed to relocate. Cage is persued by an obsessive friend and coworker who feels betrayed by Nic's defection. So the basic story is barrowed from 'Logan's Run'. This is pretty bottom of the barrel stuff, almost like the script was written by an AI that was feed clichés. Cage's presence and antagonist Hugh Dillion's hammyess makes this almost watchable. *</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-86028658590072415622024-03-01T21:31:00.007-07:002024-03-02T23:03:48.772-07:00Mandinga (1976)<p> From the Tarantino Grindhouse DVD Box Set. 'Mandinga' is a work of low budget Italin made explotation trash whose name is meant to sound like 'Mandango', the name of a similar work of moderately budgeted American made explotation trash that came out the previous year. Now I have not seen 'Mandango', but I know it was a box office failure, so trying to capitalize off the name is a pretty exquisitely Grindhouse thing to do.</p><p>This whole movie is pretty exquisitely Grindhouse. Set in Antebellum Louisiana over the course of around 20 years, though the movie does a pisspoor job of communicating the passage of time. The sexual explotation of slaves, by both men and women, is depicted multiple times then we skip forward a couple of decades for more of the same as well as our main plot, which is a kind of love quadrangle. The big reveal at the end is a case of accidental incest and two generations of plantation owners realizing slavery is wrong when they end up with a mixed race heir. A mostly unpleasant first half followed by an also unpleasant but watchable second half. I kind of admire the audiciousness of this movie, but I don't think I can even call the film fair, so I'm giving it *1/2</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-38549177021272296252024-02-29T20:47:00.003-07:002024-03-02T18:30:01.250-07:00Three Tough Guys (1974)<p> 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.</p><p>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 *</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-27955394170945907982024-02-28T20:18:00.011-07:002024-03-01T21:18:30.954-07:00Armageddon Time (2022)<p> 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. </p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p>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. ***</p><p>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.</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-32277904345133542722024-02-25T14:29:00.006-07:002024-02-25T20:42:42.532-07:00Drive-Away Dolls (2024)<p> 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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</p><p><br /></p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-10777949961241278692024-02-24T18:39:00.005-07:002024-02-24T23:32:22.100-07:00Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)<p> 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</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-39966399905651009282024-02-24T18:38:00.008-07:002024-02-24T21:17:59.182-07:00Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)<p> '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. **</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-47809462645168236732024-02-24T01:25:00.003-07:002024-02-24T13:02:58.218-07:00Pitch Perfect (2012)<p> '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. ***</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-18676170696515725442024-02-23T16:44:00.005-07:002024-02-23T18:08:20.633-07:00Life Partners (2014)<p> 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. ***</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-589535898891828427.post-84324226376938878852024-02-23T08:25:00.009-07:002024-02-23T12:33:56.944-07:00A Family Thing (1996)<p> 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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. ***</p>NateDredgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07312989322231452410noreply@blogger.com0