Washington Square (1997)

 Adaptation of the 1880 Henry James novel of the same name. Long ago and several times since, I've watched 'The Heiress', a 1949 film based on a stage adaptation of the novel. That movie stars Olivia de Havilland as the titular Heiress, Ralph Richardson as her stern father, and Montgomery Clift as the first man to show a romantic interest in her, and to whom she becomes romanticly obsessed. 

When first watching that movie as a somewhat naive twenty something, I figured that since this was the beautiful Olivia de Havilland plainiffed in dress and make up, this was going to be an Ugly Duckling story in which Clift saw the true beauty in her and would ultimately rescue her form a hard hearted father. I was wrong, Clift was basically an opertunist, who saw the plan, naive and not too bright girl as a ticket to worldly fortune. When it becomes clear to him that her father will dis-inherit her should they wed, he abandons her, leaving her to grow into a wealthy but imbittered woman. 

The 1997 'Washington Square' is an expanded, deeper and more nuanced version of the same story. It is 'The Heiress', but up a full point on the Richter Scale; with the novel promising to do more of the same but even more so, I think I need to read it. This film casts Jennifer Jason Leigh as Catherine (so it still has the 'she's too pretty to be plain' misdirect thing de Havilland had in the earlier film), Albert Finney as her father and Ben Chaplin in the Monty Clift part. 

The film starts with Catherine's birth, her mother dies in childbirth and Albert Finney was so deeply in love with her, that having lost her in exchange for such a plan, dull and simple minded daughter is something he can never reconcile to, so he keeps her at a distance. Catherine meanwhile is desperate to be loved, and showers her father with affection that he can only manage to return in a muted fashion. When she meets Ben Chaplin's Morris Townsend at a party, and he continues to see and persue her their after, Catherine is lost in the romantic fantasy of it all, the kind of love she'd long yearned for but never really expected to have, now seems at her doorstep. Her father however sees in Morris only a lazy, unworthy chissler after his money. Yet he also sees his daughter as unworthy of great love. So which of these are the deciding factor in his denying her what will likely be her only shot at passionote love in life.

There are subplot concerning Catherine's two aunts, who are both interesting people, one of whom is played by Maggie Smith. But that father daughter relationship is just fascinating, layered, tragic. Not all that much really happens in 'Washington Square' at a plot level, but on an emotional level it's just devastating. Unobtrusively directed by Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, the film was well received by critics but a box office flop, making $1.9 million off a $15 million budget. This is, appropriately, a highly literary film, and one I highly recommend to those of that inclination. ***1/2

Wasted on the Young (2010)

 Oliver Ackland and Adelaide Clemons are students at a private Australian high school; they like each other but they're shy and kind of dance around it. Before the potential couple can get together, Oliver's step brother, and uber-popular king of the school Alex Russll, drugs her and he and his buddies rape her. It takes Adelaide a little while to realize what happend, she wants to go through channels and get Alex suitably punished, realizes he's too well connected, so threatens him with a gun, he taunts her that her life will be ruined if she shoots him, so she kills herself in front of a crowd at school. Oliver then plots a fatal revenge against his step brother.

Heavy stuff. Kind of stylized; unusual and sometimes confusing editing. Their aren't no adults shown in the film, just the teenage characters. Add the Australian setting and the whole thing seems kind of 'Off'. It's an after school special as explotation film. But it's very oddness makes it something of a hypnotic watch. ***

Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien: Resurrection (1997)

 I saw 'Alien' (1979) back in the 90's and I've since seen two of the prequel films, otherwise this is a vastly under consumed franchise for me, especially given its prominence. Well it's seemingly all on HBO Max at the moment, so I thought I'd check some of these boxes off.

I rewatched 'Alien', it holds up, then on to 'Aliens' in which James Cameron took over from Ridley Scott. The movie does a better then anticipated job of wrapping up lose threads from the first film (the cat lives), takes some time getting started, adds some space marines, and gives us one of the most solid third acts in action movie history. ****

'Alien 3' was more devicive then it's predecessors, but I really liked David Fincher's take, very solid screenplay, took some unexpected directions, who could have anticipated prisoners turned warrior monks? ***1/2

'Alien: Resurrection'. Ripley dies at the end of the third one, but a successful franchise can not be stopped. Ripley finds herself brought back as a clone roughly 200 years after the events of the last film, as part of that damned corporations obsession with finding a way of monitizing the deadly xeniomorph via their weapons division. This isn't on the level of the first three, but I appreciated that the Ripley clone is allowed to develop into a character distinct from the original. ***

I got about 15 minutes into 2004's 'Alien vs Predator' before decideding it wasn't worth my time, too bland for its own good, not even an interesting failure. The one thing I'll give it is that by having the Weyland Corporation first encounter the xenomorph in the early 21st century, it's obsession with the creatures in the subsequent films makes a little more sense. But I've seen too many Paul W. S. Anderson films to feel like I'm missing anything here. 

Juror # 2 (2024)

Clint Eastwood directing in his assured, lean but thoughtful style, the best moral quandry film I've seen in awhile. 'Juror # 2' stars Nicholas Hoult as an expectant father who fails in his attempts to get out of jury duty. Once empanald he realizes he may have inadvertently caused the death for which an innocent man is being prosecuted. He wants to do the right thing, but when his lawyer friend Keifer Sutherland advises him that if he steps forward he'll go to prison, Nicholas attempts to stear the jury, which starts out 10 - 2 in favor of conviction, towards an acquittal. Very well done, a solid cast including Zoey Deutch, J. K. Simmons, Toni Collette, Amy Aquino, Leslie Bibb, and Clint's daughter Francesca Eastwood as the dead woman. This movie feels like it's from 30 years ago, but in a good way.  ***1/2

The East (2013)

 Brit Marling co-wrote and stars in 'The East', in which she plays an employee of a private security firm who goes undercover to infiltrate an anarchist collective/ eco terrorist group. The time she spends with them weighs on her thinking and changes some presectives. This is a very smart movie and there were times when I was expecting the obvious, then it went in unexpected directions. I was really impressed. It's sociological character study meets 1970s style conspiracy thriller. ****

The Stone Creek Killer (2025)

 In a small Minnesota town two teenage girls go missing, a professional 'psychic' shows up to help, and the girls bodies a found ritualisticly displayed, the sheriff and the only two other officers on the force face what appears to be a serial killer. Filmed on location with a largely no name cast, in 10 days for $300,000, 'The Stone Creek Killer' is bland, "filler" "entertainment". It is also what comes from my mother, my sister and me selecting a movie based on what could get consensus as an acceptable choice. * 

I also watched the Irish mini-series 'The Dublin Murders' this trip and that was great. Watch that, skip this. 

Drowning Mona (2000)

 Mona Dearly (Bette Midler), the most hated resident of Verplanack, New York (a real small town, that was largely not happy with its portral in this movie) dies in what at first seems like an accident, but may have been murder. Sheriff Danny DeVito has no shortage of suspects, including Mona's son, her husband, the husband's mistress, and DeVito's perspective son in law, who had a buisness dispute with the woman. Great cast includes William Fitchner, Neve Campbell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Afflick, and an SNL era Will Farrell as the town's sex addict funeral director. I found it quirky, likeable, unchallanging, and enjoyably small scale. **1/2