The Shootist (1976)
It's interesting to see John Wayne in something closer to a theatrical play. Although it's got plenty of sentimental value in its reflection on Wayne's real life condition and his career, and Lauren Bacall comes off well, the script by Miles Hood Swarthout and Scott Hale, despite some clever flourishes, is too much of a silver platter. It's all soft pitches to Wayne, the dialog and the silly setup of the three different bad guys to meet him at the end, without doing anything to really weave these as threads of the story. Don Siegel, of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Dirty Harry among others, directed, but there's not much to it besides the fancy sets, like the fabulous saloon.
It's interesting to see John Wayne in something closer to a theatrical play. Although it's got plenty of sentimental value in its reflection on Wayne's real life condition and his career, and Lauren Bacall comes off well, the script by Miles Hood Swarthout and Scott Hale, despite some clever flourishes, is too much of a silver platter. It's all soft pitches to Wayne, the dialog and the silly setup of the three different bad guys to meet him at the end, without doing anything to really weave these as threads of the story. Don Siegel, of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Dirty Harry among others, directed, but there's not much to it besides the fancy sets, like the fabulous saloon.
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Like its source Seven Samurai, this is holding up noble or heroic behavior, what would be different in strength or virtue from simply using those for personal gain, the opposite of bandits. (Jorge Luis Borges said that a gentleman is only interested in lost causes.) But this movie does it more as theme statements in the dialog, and despite its own action sequences, in some cases transplanting those of the original, it lacks the considerable dramatic and poetic sweep of its source. Two scenes that demonstrate this the most are the scene where the samurai dresses as a monk to rescue a boy -- the spread of that with little dialog, with two characters to be later introduced watching in the crowd -- and the whole segment and stroke of Toshiro Mifune's character revealing his own past and how that complicates the nobility of everyone. Despite the all-star good guy team, they're upstaged by Eli Wallach, warming up for Tuco.
Like its source Seven Samurai, this is holding up noble or heroic behavior, what would be different in strength or virtue from simply using those for personal gain, the opposite of bandits. (Jorge Luis Borges said that a gentleman is only interested in lost causes.) But this movie does it more as theme statements in the dialog, and despite its own action sequences, in some cases transplanting those of the original, it lacks the considerable dramatic and poetic sweep of its source. Two scenes that demonstrate this the most are the scene where the samurai dresses as a monk to rescue a boy -- the spread of that with little dialog, with two characters to be later introduced watching in the crowd -- and the whole segment and stroke of Toshiro Mifune's character revealing his own past and how that complicates the nobility of everyone. Despite the all-star good guy team, they're upstaged by Eli Wallach, warming up for Tuco.
Blood Simple (1984)
Joel and Ethan Coen wrote this, with Joel taking director credit and Ethan producer, Frances McDormand starred, Carter Burwell did the score and Barry Sonnenfeld was the cinematographer. It was the debut for all, along with great performances by Dan Hedaya and M. Emmett Walsh. From the get-go, the Coens showed how slow and quiet could create more tension, but that was also because of the way they focused on context and detail for effect. This seems more like a straight thriller, compared to later when they filled out more of the characterization and showed even more confidence with the mix of tones or senses. But even here, you can see the way they don't sort things into easy schematic or modular emotional modes.
Joel and Ethan Coen wrote this, with Joel taking director credit and Ethan producer, Frances McDormand starred, Carter Burwell did the score and Barry Sonnenfeld was the cinematographer. It was the debut for all, along with great performances by Dan Hedaya and M. Emmett Walsh. From the get-go, the Coens showed how slow and quiet could create more tension, but that was also because of the way they focused on context and detail for effect. This seems more like a straight thriller, compared to later when they filled out more of the characterization and showed even more confidence with the mix of tones or senses. But even here, you can see the way they don't sort things into easy schematic or modular emotional modes.
Point Blank (1967)
Lee Marvin wanted to make a movie of Donald Westlake's book, The Hunter (written as Richard Stark), got John Boorman on it for his first Hollywood movie, with final cut, and the two of them contributed to an approach that was more like the modernist novel or nouveau roman, following also the book which used cut-up chronology. The effect is interesting and makes a change from crime formula, and there's some great set and location coverage of Alcatraz, the L.A. River, and Fort Point (in San Francisco, where Kim Novak jumps in the Bay in Vertigo). But it's more like applied technique, and it has the effect of sometimes muting the actors' own expression in favor of the overriding stylization, particularly Marvin himself.
Lee Marvin wanted to make a movie of Donald Westlake's book, The Hunter (written as Richard Stark), got John Boorman on it for his first Hollywood movie, with final cut, and the two of them contributed to an approach that was more like the modernist novel or nouveau roman, following also the book which used cut-up chronology. The effect is interesting and makes a change from crime formula, and there's some great set and location coverage of Alcatraz, the L.A. River, and Fort Point (in San Francisco, where Kim Novak jumps in the Bay in Vertigo). But it's more like applied technique, and it has the effect of sometimes muting the actors' own expression in favor of the overriding stylization, particularly Marvin himself.
Hard Times (1975)
Walter Hill's directorial debut set up his formula for begrudging partners who learn what to appreciate about each other. Charles Bronson got some variation from his typical action pictures as a street fighter who falls in with hustler James Coburn as a backer. It's set during the depression, mostly in New Orleans, so it falls in with another popular line of the era. While Hill keeps it relatively spare, the fighting itself but also for what the era expresses about dealing with others and dealing yourself, it gets oddly dour with Bronson's off-screen wife Jill Ireland, has a certain movie set flatness like The Sting, and doesn't have the zest of something like Dillinger or even Emperor of the North.
Walter Hill's directorial debut set up his formula for begrudging partners who learn what to appreciate about each other. Charles Bronson got some variation from his typical action pictures as a street fighter who falls in with hustler James Coburn as a backer. It's set during the depression, mostly in New Orleans, so it falls in with another popular line of the era. While Hill keeps it relatively spare, the fighting itself but also for what the era expresses about dealing with others and dealing yourself, it gets oddly dour with Bronson's off-screen wife Jill Ireland, has a certain movie set flatness like The Sting, and doesn't have the zest of something like Dillinger or even Emperor of the North.
Panic (2000)
The opening shot of William H. Macy smoking outside a building has a mix or balance: a little cozy, lush, a little bleak and anxious. We don't have any other context, so we don't know, it's not too much of one thing or another. It's one of those moments that we have in the day when we feel outside of everything even though it's also in the middle of banality. All the other stuff weighing on the mind is suddenly like passing traffic. But this is turned around and presented as an image, a movie stroke. Later we watch a hit go down with the same overt detachment. It doesn't stand out because nobody's watching. Except the camera. Writer and director Henry Bromell carries it all with the same unforced unfolding, and it certainly works as a counter to all the self-consciously quirky or smart-assed caper movies at the time, and similarly for Macy in those types. The dialog is clever in unusual ways, also for being leisurely, like the scenes with Macy's character and his kid, that loop off into surprising views from the way children play with the frames. That Bromell gets these effects for crime movies or family drama (who would've imagined a lean marital strife scene with Tracy Ullman and William H. Macy) or analyst waiting room farce (who would've imagined Neve Campbell trading wit) makes up more formally for whether it adds up any other way: all the generational family drama and mid-life crisis around the business of assassins may have some interesting surreal or subversive implications, but it's more jarring with the soulful take.
The opening shot of William H. Macy smoking outside a building has a mix or balance: a little cozy, lush, a little bleak and anxious. We don't have any other context, so we don't know, it's not too much of one thing or another. It's one of those moments that we have in the day when we feel outside of everything even though it's also in the middle of banality. All the other stuff weighing on the mind is suddenly like passing traffic. But this is turned around and presented as an image, a movie stroke. Later we watch a hit go down with the same overt detachment. It doesn't stand out because nobody's watching. Except the camera. Writer and director Henry Bromell carries it all with the same unforced unfolding, and it certainly works as a counter to all the self-consciously quirky or smart-assed caper movies at the time, and similarly for Macy in those types. The dialog is clever in unusual ways, also for being leisurely, like the scenes with Macy's character and his kid, that loop off into surprising views from the way children play with the frames. That Bromell gets these effects for crime movies or family drama (who would've imagined a lean marital strife scene with Tracy Ullman and William H. Macy) or analyst waiting room farce (who would've imagined Neve Campbell trading wit) makes up more formally for whether it adds up any other way: all the generational family drama and mid-life crisis around the business of assassins may have some interesting surreal or subversive implications, but it's more jarring with the soulful take.
Key for below:
🎃 Halloweenish
💀 Shocktober Frightday and Slaughterday Not Exactly Kosher Halloween Rotation
11/8/24
🎃 Halloweenish
💀 Shocktober Frightday and Slaughterday Not Exactly Kosher Halloween Rotation
The Others (2001) 🎃
Nicole Kidman is aflutter. Alejandro Amenábar tries to build something more like a ghost story in an older, more literary way, or at least more with character and setting, something quite like The Innocents. But it's at such a pitch of melodramatic fey accent, especially Kidman, seething and gasping all over, that it becomes its own kind of foregone conclusion, another kind of affectation than big horror effects.
Nicole Kidman is aflutter. Alejandro Amenábar tries to build something more like a ghost story in an older, more literary way, or at least more with character and setting, something quite like The Innocents. But it's at such a pitch of melodramatic fey accent, especially Kidman, seething and gasping all over, that it becomes its own kind of foregone conclusion, another kind of affectation than big horror effects.
Session 9 (2001) 🎃
A nice, close little drama about a group of workers clearing asbestos from an abandoned asylum keeps to the psychological proportion of the haunting. Brad Anderson (see The Silent Hour) and his cast, particularly Peter Mullan, David Caruso and Stephen Gevedon, do a good job of character study, theatrical in the good sense of the concentration in place, along with the main character, the remains of Danvers State Mental Hospital in Massachusetts. The drawback is that as one of the earliest digital video movies, it has an amateurish look especially in comparison to modern video, so that detracts from what the cinematic can usually gain over theater.
A nice, close little drama about a group of workers clearing asbestos from an abandoned asylum keeps to the psychological proportion of the haunting. Brad Anderson (see The Silent Hour) and his cast, particularly Peter Mullan, David Caruso and Stephen Gevedon, do a good job of character study, theatrical in the good sense of the concentration in place, along with the main character, the remains of Danvers State Mental Hospital in Massachusetts. The drawback is that as one of the earliest digital video movies, it has an amateurish look especially in comparison to modern video, so that detracts from what the cinematic can usually gain over theater.
Kill List (2011) 💀
Geezers meet The Brotherhood of Satan, kitchen sink goes ghastly. Director Ben Wheatley and co-writer Amy Jump concocted a great idea as an an unexpected approach to horror, and then executed the character study of a couple of bourgeois hitmen with excruciating banality. It's also a good idea to not explain everything. So it's all fascinating to go through, even though when said and done, it makes you wonder what sort of point it could make.
Geezers meet The Brotherhood of Satan, kitchen sink goes ghastly. Director Ben Wheatley and co-writer Amy Jump concocted a great idea as an an unexpected approach to horror, and then executed the character study of a couple of bourgeois hitmen with excruciating banality. It's also a good idea to not explain everything. So it's all fascinating to go through, even though when said and done, it makes you wonder what sort of point it could make.
Thesis (1996) 🎃
This Spanish movie has an interesting reflexive approach to horror, trying to create more intrigue with situation than launching into full slasher mode. It's more like a Peeping Tom of its day. But it puts itself in a bind: the gap between presentation and representation. Close that too much and it becomes the kind of snuff film it refers to, but not closing it makes it seem more pretend and diminishes the effect, or at least makes it more sensational or exploitative, in a modest way rather than an extreme one. Of course this can be handled better or worse and the results here are mixed, but the clearest artifice is the way it keeps trying to twist and lead us on about who's the perpetrator.
This Spanish movie has an interesting reflexive approach to horror, trying to create more intrigue with situation than launching into full slasher mode. It's more like a Peeping Tom of its day. But it puts itself in a bind: the gap between presentation and representation. Close that too much and it becomes the kind of snuff film it refers to, but not closing it makes it seem more pretend and diminishes the effect, or at least makes it more sensational or exploitative, in a modest way rather than an extreme one. Of course this can be handled better or worse and the results here are mixed, but the clearest artifice is the way it keeps trying to twist and lead us on about who's the perpetrator.
MacGruber (2010)
MacGoober. The opening segment up to the Rambo-like introduction of the title character is a satisfying parody of action movies. The next scene of planning the mission drops hard into bonehead humor about a bonehead, and that's what you get from there, something already dragged out in SNL skits.
MacGoober. The opening segment up to the Rambo-like introduction of the title character is a satisfying parody of action movies. The next scene of planning the mission drops hard into bonehead humor about a bonehead, and that's what you get from there, something already dragged out in SNL skits.
Foxcatcher (2014)
The slow, mannered style of director Bennett Miller is interesting and welcome for the way it cuts against the grain not only of most movies, but the presentation of sports. But with the time it takes for so many scenes, the jump to the climactic event seems to make it all lack of study rather than studious. The script, by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, or what we have of it left in the movie, leaves out a significant amount about John Du Pont's paranoid behavior (compare the 30 for 30 episode The Prince of Pennsylvania for one account) so that in the movie it comes off as more directly resentment of Dave Schultz.
The slow, mannered style of director Bennett Miller is interesting and welcome for the way it cuts against the grain not only of most movies, but the presentation of sports. But with the time it takes for so many scenes, the jump to the climactic event seems to make it all lack of study rather than studious. The script, by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, or what we have of it left in the movie, leaves out a significant amount about John Du Pont's paranoid behavior (compare the 30 for 30 episode The Prince of Pennsylvania for one account) so that in the movie it comes off as more directly resentment of Dave Schultz.
The Honeymoon Killers (1970) 💀
Before the sneaky blunt attack of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer or even Badlands, there was this, originally to be directed by Martin Scorsese, but taken over by its writer Leonard Kastle when Scorsese was fired. The low-key approach is in the production means, too, but the virtue from necessity is the way it looks and sounds like a Maysles documentary more than a Hollywood movie.
Before the sneaky blunt attack of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer or even Badlands, there was this, originally to be directed by Martin Scorsese, but taken over by its writer Leonard Kastle when Scorsese was fired. The low-key approach is in the production means, too, but the virtue from necessity is the way it looks and sounds like a Maysles documentary more than a Hollywood movie.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) 💀
As compact and uncompromising a dream flight as Eraserhead, this was a rare bird for a while because of its production path, and it wasn't till wider video release that it became better known and easier to get hold of. Even the meager means worked well for its steel mesh wad of an obsession with body and machine. The scribbly, strobic run avoids the cuteness of even a lot of high-speed edited Japanese pop and lifts narrative confusion up to the abstraction of dreams.
As compact and uncompromising a dream flight as Eraserhead, this was a rare bird for a while because of its production path, and it wasn't till wider video release that it became better known and easier to get hold of. Even the meager means worked well for its steel mesh wad of an obsession with body and machine. The scribbly, strobic run avoids the cuteness of even a lot of high-speed edited Japanese pop and lifts narrative confusion up to the abstraction of dreams.
The Lost Weekend (1945) 💀
Unlike the more earnest or starchy message movies of its time (famous examples being the next two best picture Oscar winners, The Best Years of Our Lives and Gentleman's Agreement), Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder's rendition of Charles Jackson's novel about alcoholism plays like noir, with both literary and dramatic punch and snap, and with a score that was an early use of theremin, anticipates the eerie quality of 50s horror and sci-fi. Wilder used hidden camera on the streets of New York City and was able to shoot in the actual alcoholic ward of Bellevue. The writer waxes writerly on the inspiration of alcohol and rings on the bar toll the spiral.
11/1/24
Unlike the more earnest or starchy message movies of its time (famous examples being the next two best picture Oscar winners, The Best Years of Our Lives and Gentleman's Agreement), Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder's rendition of Charles Jackson's novel about alcoholism plays like noir, with both literary and dramatic punch and snap, and with a score that was an early use of theremin, anticipates the eerie quality of 50s horror and sci-fi. Wilder used hidden camera on the streets of New York City and was able to shoot in the actual alcoholic ward of Bellevue. The writer waxes writerly on the inspiration of alcohol and rings on the bar toll the spiral.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) 💀
Strange hybrid of indentity, this is an update disguising a sequel for the 1956 original, Kevin McCarthy serving as the sly link. Philip Kaufman did a good job rolling this along without the excesses of either horror or the disaster movies that were so trendy about then, but with something of the intrigue of both, and the San Francisco setting mostly at night sports a good eerie luster with Michael Chapman's photography. The cast was also a good one to trans-plant -- har har -- the young professional set from the 50s officious doctors and authorities to the 70s psychology and self-help scene (Leonard Nimoy was a clever choice, here, as he was in a Columbo episode a few years earlier). The script by W.D. Richter -- yes, the director of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai -- addressed the McCarthyist subtext attributed to the original with some wily comments including one about Republicans (a Saturday Night Live skit in 1980 extrapolated the pod people joke about the Reagan era converts).
Strange hybrid of indentity, this is an update disguising a sequel for the 1956 original, Kevin McCarthy serving as the sly link. Philip Kaufman did a good job rolling this along without the excesses of either horror or the disaster movies that were so trendy about then, but with something of the intrigue of both, and the San Francisco setting mostly at night sports a good eerie luster with Michael Chapman's photography. The cast was also a good one to trans-plant -- har har -- the young professional set from the 50s officious doctors and authorities to the 70s psychology and self-help scene (Leonard Nimoy was a clever choice, here, as he was in a Columbo episode a few years earlier). The script by W.D. Richter -- yes, the director of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai -- addressed the McCarthyist subtext attributed to the original with some wily comments including one about Republicans (a Saturday Night Live skit in 1980 extrapolated the pod people joke about the Reagan era converts).
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989) 💀
From The Draughtsman's Contract we go to a modern times tableau of high and low, where even the formal fun of the debauchery takes on a tawdrier, bleaker tone. Peter Greenaway made movies another kind of tableau vivant, but here it's more like interior design than art installation (Jean-Paul Gaultier designed the costumes, Giorgio Locatelli the food), applying registers of gangster or despot kitsch. What the movie most demonstrates, somewhat more than dramatizes, holds up in its own moving portrait burlesque way, is the loutish idea of culture, subjecting us to Michael Gambon's mob boss harangues as he talks down to everyone with his offal of knowledge. Michael Nyman's score blurts out with a surreal, macabre chortle fanfare at the payoff moment and that scene has the Francis Bacon Night Gallery effect the rest doesn't reach. The scene where Helen Mirren's moll pleads with Richard Bohringer's chef to cook up that ending is bad theater, explication arguing with itself when the whole thing isn't needed.
From The Draughtsman's Contract we go to a modern times tableau of high and low, where even the formal fun of the debauchery takes on a tawdrier, bleaker tone. Peter Greenaway made movies another kind of tableau vivant, but here it's more like interior design than art installation (Jean-Paul Gaultier designed the costumes, Giorgio Locatelli the food), applying registers of gangster or despot kitsch. What the movie most demonstrates, somewhat more than dramatizes, holds up in its own moving portrait burlesque way, is the loutish idea of culture, subjecting us to Michael Gambon's mob boss harangues as he talks down to everyone with his offal of knowledge. Michael Nyman's score blurts out with a surreal, macabre chortle fanfare at the payoff moment and that scene has the Francis Bacon Night Gallery effect the rest doesn't reach. The scene where Helen Mirren's moll pleads with Richard Bohringer's chef to cook up that ending is bad theater, explication arguing with itself when the whole thing isn't needed.
Inside [A l'interieur] (2007) 🎃
French badass turn on horror drama (some might call it part of "new extremity"), with Beatrice Dalle as the diva monster who's more scary for chewing scenery than slashing. The amount of attention put into all the logistics of the attacks and gore might seem sophisticated, but that can't cover up the less attention shown the development of the story, with the basic premise of the intersection and the ridiculous view of the womb.
French badass turn on horror drama (some might call it part of "new extremity"), with Beatrice Dalle as the diva monster who's more scary for chewing scenery than slashing. The amount of attention put into all the logistics of the attacks and gore might seem sophisticated, but that can't cover up the less attention shown the development of the story, with the basic premise of the intersection and the ridiculous view of the womb.
High Plains Drifter (1973) 💀
Clint Eastwood's second go at director is the allegorical Western. But what that means for me does as much to allegory as otherwise. The crossing and mixture going on makes something better than any of the things that are crossed. There's no fixed equation of meaning, one simple code, but an open play of possibilities. It's like the Western ghost story of comic books more than the high form of allegory, and in the same way it's more offhand than the classical or pure form of those comic ghost stories or Westerns. (John Wayne took particular exception to the movie in a letter to Eastwood, objecting to its violation of Western form as Wayne saw it.) Even the crudeness of it, relatively with production and more directly with some of the story -- it was written by Ernest Tidyman, of Shaft and The French Connection fame, and some of it strikes worse today -- works against the grandeur of vista photography Westerns, the sanctity of heroes, even Clint's other roles like the man with no name and Dirty Harry, but most of all against leaders, or the cult or herd mentality of blind following or a savior ideal (it's even a sort of inverted High Noon). Curiously enough, it makes a thematic double feature with Life of Brian.
Clint Eastwood's second go at director is the allegorical Western. But what that means for me does as much to allegory as otherwise. The crossing and mixture going on makes something better than any of the things that are crossed. There's no fixed equation of meaning, one simple code, but an open play of possibilities. It's like the Western ghost story of comic books more than the high form of allegory, and in the same way it's more offhand than the classical or pure form of those comic ghost stories or Westerns. (John Wayne took particular exception to the movie in a letter to Eastwood, objecting to its violation of Western form as Wayne saw it.) Even the crudeness of it, relatively with production and more directly with some of the story -- it was written by Ernest Tidyman, of Shaft and The French Connection fame, and some of it strikes worse today -- works against the grandeur of vista photography Westerns, the sanctity of heroes, even Clint's other roles like the man with no name and Dirty Harry, but most of all against leaders, or the cult or herd mentality of blind following or a savior ideal (it's even a sort of inverted High Noon). Curiously enough, it makes a thematic double feature with Life of Brian.
The Old Dark House (1932) 💀
James Whale's pathmaker for haunted house movies was based on a J.B. Priestly novel considering, in part, class distinction. The class consciousness, particularly as the self-consciousness of the businessman, is still there, but in a funny, perhaps not inadvertent way, it's about the classes of evil, from the off-putting, to the manifestly menacing, to the deviously maniacal. It stacks up with Bride of Frankenstein as fun -- Ernest Thesiger links them, appearing here before his Dr. Pretorius -- and the gathering in the house, a more theatrical unity and the table and fireplace and barn conversations, works even better for that puckish abruptness of the era that's more particularly Whales. And the cast for that, too: Charles Laughton, Melvin Douglas, Raymond Massey, Boris Karloff, Gloria Stuart, Lilian Bond, Brember Wills.
James Whale's pathmaker for haunted house movies was based on a J.B. Priestly novel considering, in part, class distinction. The class consciousness, particularly as the self-consciousness of the businessman, is still there, but in a funny, perhaps not inadvertent way, it's about the classes of evil, from the off-putting, to the manifestly menacing, to the deviously maniacal. It stacks up with Bride of Frankenstein as fun -- Ernest Thesiger links them, appearing here before his Dr. Pretorius -- and the gathering in the house, a more theatrical unity and the table and fireplace and barn conversations, works even better for that puckish abruptness of the era that's more particularly Whales. And the cast for that, too: Charles Laughton, Melvin Douglas, Raymond Massey, Boris Karloff, Gloria Stuart, Lilian Bond, Brember Wills.
The Silent Hour (2024)
The main premise sets up a version of Wait Until Dark about deafness rather than blindness, but the factor of taking place mostly in one apartment building becomes bigger. Whether that upstages the other, the script pushes the gyrations rather than using the circumstance to build the intrigue, and even the revelations are easy to figure so they feel more like manipulation. Director Brad Anderson, who also did Session 9 and The Machinist, isn't as pushy, but is working against that.
The main premise sets up a version of Wait Until Dark about deafness rather than blindness, but the factor of taking place mostly in one apartment building becomes bigger. Whether that upstages the other, the script pushes the gyrations rather than using the circumstance to build the intrigue, and even the revelations are easy to figure so they feel more like manipulation. Director Brad Anderson, who also did Session 9 and The Machinist, isn't as pushy, but is working against that.
Beetlejuice (1988) 🎃
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2014) 🎃
The premise and sensibility, and lots of ideas, come out of left field and hit you that way like an unexpected joke, plus the mix of humor with a sort of grungy macabre. But the ideas are spilling over in a way that's not just tearing loose. They're following flourishes for everything and director Tim Burton at this point still has a self-conscious presentation, holding things to milk the cuteness. This drags out everything else like setup and we get too little of the title character. The sequel, despite Burton's direction improving so that things run more smoothly and sharply, only builds on the same problem with the script, adding more characters and more sidebars.
10/25/24
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2014) 🎃
The premise and sensibility, and lots of ideas, come out of left field and hit you that way like an unexpected joke, plus the mix of humor with a sort of grungy macabre. But the ideas are spilling over in a way that's not just tearing loose. They're following flourishes for everything and director Tim Burton at this point still has a self-conscious presentation, holding things to milk the cuteness. This drags out everything else like setup and we get too little of the title character. The sequel, despite Burton's direction improving so that things run more smoothly and sharply, only builds on the same problem with the script, adding more characters and more sidebars.
New Life (2023) 🎃
The overall plan is a good approach, to build intrigue out of the agent tracking the runaway, and context for less frequent outbursts of horror that also progressively reveal what it's all about. But it's droopy with the lone wolf cliches and the earnestness of idealization about other things, even though that provides some amusing formal contrast when the good-turn people turn otherwise.
The overall plan is a good approach, to build intrigue out of the agent tracking the runaway, and context for less frequent outbursts of horror that also progressively reveal what it's all about. But it's droopy with the lone wolf cliches and the earnestness of idealization about other things, even though that provides some amusing formal contrast when the good-turn people turn otherwise.
Frankenstein (1931) 💀
James Whale's movie, based on a 1927 British play (by Peggy Webling, screenplay by Garrett Fort and Francis Edward Faragoh), made its own jaunty updates to Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, making now "Henry" Frankenstein and his fiancé along with their friend "Victor" smart set. Bride of Frankenstein is an even better movie for giving over to whimsy, but for this Whale certainly made his mark on popular imagination: the hunchback assistant ("Fritz," not "Igor"), the look of the monster with Boris Karloff's performance, and the scene with the little girl and flowers.
James Whale's movie, based on a 1927 British play (by Peggy Webling, screenplay by Garrett Fort and Francis Edward Faragoh), made its own jaunty updates to Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, making now "Henry" Frankenstein and his fiancé along with their friend "Victor" smart set. Bride of Frankenstein is an even better movie for giving over to whimsy, but for this Whale certainly made his mark on popular imagination: the hunchback assistant ("Fritz," not "Igor"), the look of the monster with Boris Karloff's performance, and the scene with the little girl and flowers.
The House of the Devil (2009) 🎃
This earlier effort of writer and director Ti West has a more careful, studied approach, and with good actors like Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov and Greta Gerwig to help with that, it doesn't have quite the precious quality of his more recent movies. As fawning imitation of 80s horror movies goes, it's interesting, certainly looks like an 80s movie especially at first (Dee Wallace is on hand for that), and actually improves on its source material by playing straight to set up contrast instead of banging the horror drum all over. But even that kind of attention becomes its own affectation.
This earlier effort of writer and director Ti West has a more careful, studied approach, and with good actors like Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov and Greta Gerwig to help with that, it doesn't have quite the precious quality of his more recent movies. As fawning imitation of 80s horror movies goes, it's interesting, certainly looks like an 80s movie especially at first (Dee Wallace is on hand for that), and actually improves on its source material by playing straight to set up contrast instead of banging the horror drum all over. But even that kind of attention becomes its own affectation.
Ravenous (1999) 💀
There's a good idea, script, direction and cast, playing out cannibalism as much as a force of suggestion (not unlike a factor in the history of the matter), and as metaphor for more, and with an irreverent snap -- it's not exactly comedy or satire -- about the American West. It loses force not so much from the flighty turns as the more leaden plot ones. The best thing about it is the score by Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn, using instruments and some compositions of the setting period (1840s) to sound both older and newer than typical movie music.
There's a good idea, script, direction and cast, playing out cannibalism as much as a force of suggestion (not unlike a factor in the history of the matter), and as metaphor for more, and with an irreverent snap -- it's not exactly comedy or satire -- about the American West. It loses force not so much from the flighty turns as the more leaden plot ones. The best thing about it is the score by Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn, using instruments and some compositions of the setting period (1840s) to sound both older and newer than typical movie music.
May (2002) 🎃
Walks a tightrope between interesting eccentricity and gratingly precious, with the latter being the much scarier result than the horror in the story. For the most part the director and his actors are on the interesting side and keep to it but they're playing a dangerous game especially with the lead character.
Walks a tightrope between interesting eccentricity and gratingly precious, with the latter being the much scarier result than the horror in the story. For the most part the director and his actors are on the interesting side and keep to it but they're playing a dangerous game especially with the lead character.
The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout (2023)
If you don't know about the multi-level disaster of The Conqueror, here's an introduction, and if you do know, this ties the threads together up to this point. From Howard Hughes getting John Wayne to play Genghis Khan, to the curse of the shooting locations near St. George, Utah, downwind from nuclear testing sites in Nevada, this follows the unusual amount of cast and crew members dying of cancer with the similar fate of the locals. That's the interesting addition here. St. George people tell the story of getting to host all the stars, but then it takes over as their story.
If you don't know about the multi-level disaster of The Conqueror, here's an introduction, and if you do know, this ties the threads together up to this point. From Howard Hughes getting John Wayne to play Genghis Khan, to the curse of the shooting locations near St. George, Utah, downwind from nuclear testing sites in Nevada, this follows the unusual amount of cast and crew members dying of cancer with the similar fate of the locals. That's the interesting addition here. St. George people tell the story of getting to host all the stars, but then it takes over as their story.
At the Drive-In (2017)
The group trying to preserve a drive-in in Leighton, Pennsylvania, one of the largest screens left in America and one of the only 35mm projectors, which means it's also one of the only places left to actually show 35mm film, demonstrates not just an endeavor to preserve the cultural heritage of movies, but any kind of culture at all against the overwhelming current of a so-called free market that makes less and less viable.
The group trying to preserve a drive-in in Leighton, Pennsylvania, one of the largest screens left in America and one of the only 35mm projectors, which means it's also one of the only places left to actually show 35mm film, demonstrates not just an endeavor to preserve the cultural heritage of movies, but any kind of culture at all against the overwhelming current of a so-called free market that makes less and less viable.
Will and Harper (2024)
The journey is interesting, and there's even some bonus comparison to be gleaned about the difference between public and private, life and persona. There are some surprises along the way, more of the good kind because the hateful reaction is now all too public and familiar with social media. What the scene in Meeker, OK -- one of the good surprises -- also gives to see that's not expressly commented is the way everyone is presenting a form of what they want to be, thus the arrogance of judgment when anyone presumes they are any kind of fixed or absolute value. Just as Nietzsche said being is becoming, we're all want to be: want of being, wanting to be.
10/11/24
The journey is interesting, and there's even some bonus comparison to be gleaned about the difference between public and private, life and persona. There are some surprises along the way, more of the good kind because the hateful reaction is now all too public and familiar with social media. What the scene in Meeker, OK -- one of the good surprises -- also gives to see that's not expressly commented is the way everyone is presenting a form of what they want to be, thus the arrogance of judgment when anyone presumes they are any kind of fixed or absolute value. Just as Nietzsche said being is becoming, we're all want to be: want of being, wanting to be.
God Told Me To (1976)
Weird stew. The premise approaches Quatermass and the Pit in its theoretical play with myth. The movie is directed well, by Larry Cohen, delivered in a composed way, interesting, and it's all completely wacky. It's like a much better version of that all-over-the-place stuff in the 70s, e.g. The Omen. It's also such an amazing tangle of connections. The cast itself: Tony Lo Bianco anchoring another rare bird after The Honeymoon Killers, Sylvia Sidney, Richard Lynch, Sandy Dennis -- Andy Kaufman as a possessed cop! Cohen even brought in his blaxspolitation line. Bernard Hermann was set to score this after Taxi Driver, but died, and Frank Cordell ended up composing the score. There is a dedication to Hermann on this as on Taxi Driver. The score is very much in the Hermann style and contributes to the rapt quality.
Weird stew. The premise approaches Quatermass and the Pit in its theoretical play with myth. The movie is directed well, by Larry Cohen, delivered in a composed way, interesting, and it's all completely wacky. It's like a much better version of that all-over-the-place stuff in the 70s, e.g. The Omen. It's also such an amazing tangle of connections. The cast itself: Tony Lo Bianco anchoring another rare bird after The Honeymoon Killers, Sylvia Sidney, Richard Lynch, Sandy Dennis -- Andy Kaufman as a possessed cop! Cohen even brought in his blaxspolitation line. Bernard Hermann was set to score this after Taxi Driver, but died, and Frank Cordell ended up composing the score. There is a dedication to Hermann on this as on Taxi Driver. The score is very much in the Hermann style and contributes to the rapt quality.
Deathdream [aka Dead of Night] (1974)
For more concerted allegory, there's this ditty, about a Vietnam War soldier who returns home after he was reported dead. Writer Alan Ormsby and director Bob Clark give lots of muffled, echoey banality in 70s rooms to set up the bursts of horror from the avatar of war casualty revenge. John Marley heads the cast as the father and has to deal with other gore besides a horse head.
For more concerted allegory, there's this ditty, about a Vietnam War soldier who returns home after he was reported dead. Writer Alan Ormsby and director Bob Clark give lots of muffled, echoey banality in 70s rooms to set up the bursts of horror from the avatar of war casualty revenge. John Marley heads the cast as the father and has to deal with other gore besides a horse head.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
One of the top-shelf horror and sci-fi movies of the 50s, in result though not production: it had it's budget cut and the studio didn't want to mix humor with horror, though some slips through, some is inadvertent, and the film proved more popular than studios figured. It's funny, too, how swank and leisurely they are in "Santa Mira" which is in the vicinity of Crescent City, as mentioned in the movie, thus northern wilderness California, and while such a catastrophe is going on. The dinner club with the stacked stone central wall pillar, the cool bar serving martinis, the quite elegant neighborhood with the curved roads and rolling hills -- Bel Air of Humboldt County? It's so cozy to have drinks and cookout with your friends on their spacious patio while an invasion of alien plants is going on. Crypto-communist paranoia has attached and grown on the movie as a meaning, a super more than a subtext. Director Don Siegel said that if he had any idea of that in the pod people, it was more about those who have no sensitivity or feeling for culture, which would be more like the McCarthyites of the era. What about the basic -- older? archetypal? -- idea of the double, the Doppelganger, the usurper of my life and identity (Poe, Hoffmann), the evil twin, the division of the cell and the uncanny of identity itself? The idea in the movie that the replacements have no emotion and know no real pleasure or pain is both a more horrible fate and a sort of logistic device. It's how the humans can give themselves away, as when the woman reacts when a dog runs in front of a truck. The bodies popping into shape out of the pods is effective and gruesome enough. And then this line: "I've been afraid a lot of times in my life. But I didn't know the real meaning of fear until . . . until I had kissed Becky. A moment's sleep and the girl I loved was an inhuman enemy bent on my destruction." The allegory's hard to contain, and spreads wider.
One of the top-shelf horror and sci-fi movies of the 50s, in result though not production: it had it's budget cut and the studio didn't want to mix humor with horror, though some slips through, some is inadvertent, and the film proved more popular than studios figured. It's funny, too, how swank and leisurely they are in "Santa Mira" which is in the vicinity of Crescent City, as mentioned in the movie, thus northern wilderness California, and while such a catastrophe is going on. The dinner club with the stacked stone central wall pillar, the cool bar serving martinis, the quite elegant neighborhood with the curved roads and rolling hills -- Bel Air of Humboldt County? It's so cozy to have drinks and cookout with your friends on their spacious patio while an invasion of alien plants is going on. Crypto-communist paranoia has attached and grown on the movie as a meaning, a super more than a subtext. Director Don Siegel said that if he had any idea of that in the pod people, it was more about those who have no sensitivity or feeling for culture, which would be more like the McCarthyites of the era. What about the basic -- older? archetypal? -- idea of the double, the Doppelganger, the usurper of my life and identity (Poe, Hoffmann), the evil twin, the division of the cell and the uncanny of identity itself? The idea in the movie that the replacements have no emotion and know no real pleasure or pain is both a more horrible fate and a sort of logistic device. It's how the humans can give themselves away, as when the woman reacts when a dog runs in front of a truck. The bodies popping into shape out of the pods is effective and gruesome enough. And then this line: "I've been afraid a lot of times in my life. But I didn't know the real meaning of fear until . . . until I had kissed Becky. A moment's sleep and the girl I loved was an inhuman enemy bent on my destruction." The allegory's hard to contain, and spreads wider.
Severance (2006)
Before the series played with that term of the title, there was this British -- what? Thriller? Black comedy? Horror movie? It changes tone so drastically from dark humor to grandiose tragic straight (with crashing movie music) and back, it's hard to tell what it wants to be. The main premise of a corporate retreat doesn't really pan out for any great treatment, and it's really more about poetic justice for arms makers, a kind of Deliverance of the former Eastern Bloc. The best bit is a gag with a missile launcher that reminds us of the complication of bad guys for those who arm them.
Before the series played with that term of the title, there was this British -- what? Thriller? Black comedy? Horror movie? It changes tone so drastically from dark humor to grandiose tragic straight (with crashing movie music) and back, it's hard to tell what it wants to be. The main premise of a corporate retreat doesn't really pan out for any great treatment, and it's really more about poetic justice for arms makers, a kind of Deliverance of the former Eastern Bloc. The best bit is a gag with a missile launcher that reminds us of the complication of bad guys for those who arm them.
Speak No Evil (2024)
It's not as lurid as the trailer makes it seem. It's more about intrigue and even the Straw Dogs climax is more blunt and practical, not horror hyperbole (there aren't any superhumans, for example). But it's not as sharp as what I think it's aiming for, and the cat and mouse game with the audience is broad enough it seems more good-humored than menacing, which tends to spoil that ambiguity.
It's not as lurid as the trailer makes it seem. It's more about intrigue and even the Straw Dogs climax is more blunt and practical, not horror hyperbole (there aren't any superhumans, for example). But it's not as sharp as what I think it's aiming for, and the cat and mouse game with the audience is broad enough it seems more good-humored than menacing, which tends to spoil that ambiguity.
Strange Darling (2023)
There are interesting ideas in the conception and execution, the reordering of the segments to change the stages of revelation, the artistic direction and photography, but the whole thing is played just that way -- like an amusing idea. It's not so much smug as that it has a turned-out presentation, like a parody. The scene with Ed Begley Jr. and Barbara Hershey making a killer breakfast has more the humor for that delivery, but after dispensing with the chapters the longest segment at the end breaks down into prosaic horror thriller plot.
10/3/24
There are interesting ideas in the conception and execution, the reordering of the segments to change the stages of revelation, the artistic direction and photography, but the whole thing is played just that way -- like an amusing idea. It's not so much smug as that it has a turned-out presentation, like a parody. The scene with Ed Begley Jr. and Barbara Hershey making a killer breakfast has more the humor for that delivery, but after dispensing with the chapters the longest segment at the end breaks down into prosaic horror thriller plot.
Some Voices (2000)
The movie version of Joe Penhall's own play, directed by Simon Cellan Jones, takes on 60s style eccentric whimsy when it expands locations to find crop circles, and there's a more direct attempt to signal a French New Wave air, but even that gets mixed back into more sober observation that's also not too heavy-handed. The best of it, and what carries it, are the performances of its main trio: Daniel Craig showing his acting chops before Bond, Kelly Macdonald great as usual, and David Morissey. And they dance to Squeeze! "Goodbye Girl" becomes a theme by closing credits.
The movie version of Joe Penhall's own play, directed by Simon Cellan Jones, takes on 60s style eccentric whimsy when it expands locations to find crop circles, and there's a more direct attempt to signal a French New Wave air, but even that gets mixed back into more sober observation that's also not too heavy-handed. The best of it, and what carries it, are the performances of its main trio: Daniel Craig showing his acting chops before Bond, Kelly Macdonald great as usual, and David Morissey. And they dance to Squeeze! "Goodbye Girl" becomes a theme by closing credits.
1992 (2022)
I'm not sure Ariel Vromen, director and co-writer (with Sascha Penn), is making much of a social comment having the Rodney King riots in L.A. as the backdrop of a heist. There's lots of simmering and it keeps feeling like buildup even after things have happened. Vromen loads Tyrese Gibson with the bulk of the simmering and doesn't help Ray Liotta with the gaping looks, but they and the rest of the cast come off well nonetheless, especially Scott Eastwood, Michael Beasley and Oleg Taktarov.
I'm not sure Ariel Vromen, director and co-writer (with Sascha Penn), is making much of a social comment having the Rodney King riots in L.A. as the backdrop of a heist. There's lots of simmering and it keeps feeling like buildup even after things have happened. Vromen loads Tyrese Gibson with the bulk of the simmering and doesn't help Ray Liotta with the gaping looks, but they and the rest of the cast come off well nonetheless, especially Scott Eastwood, Michael Beasley and Oleg Taktarov.
Hardcore (1979)
There are plenty of interesting things about the approach of Paul Schrader's script and direction: the portrayal of religion in stride with the characters' lives and not brandished about them good or bad; a somewhat more matter-of-fact account of porn and sex business; an encounter of these two represented by a casual discussion of ideas and principles we don't usually get in movies; the scene of George C. Scott chasing someone as they crash through paper walls in a cheap porn set that has reflexive and surreal ripples; the encounter of father and daughter at the end that reveals the matter is not just a clash of these two spheres, or good and evil. These elaborations are strung on a thinner framework, a plot that still feels hasty, skimpy, sensational.
There are plenty of interesting things about the approach of Paul Schrader's script and direction: the portrayal of religion in stride with the characters' lives and not brandished about them good or bad; a somewhat more matter-of-fact account of porn and sex business; an encounter of these two represented by a casual discussion of ideas and principles we don't usually get in movies; the scene of George C. Scott chasing someone as they crash through paper walls in a cheap porn set that has reflexive and surreal ripples; the encounter of father and daughter at the end that reveals the matter is not just a clash of these two spheres, or good and evil. These elaborations are strung on a thinner framework, a plot that still feels hasty, skimpy, sensational.
Spy Game (2001)
The setup is as much about Brad Pitt being the Robert Redford of his day, an equivalence that also means posing at the somewhat more serious end of pop, if not quite the best class of acting. The script tries more for the mechanics and intrigue of tradecraft (Pitt reportedly turned down The Bourne Identity for this), something more in line with thrillers of Redford's day, like Three Days of the Condor, than the action of its own day. But director Tony Scott cranks up the posing and telegraphing, especially with the punching bag character played by Stephen Dillane, and dumb show-off stuff like the rooftop meeting shot with swirling helicopters where the spies play Batman (supposed to be in Berlin but shot in Budapest).
9/24/24
The setup is as much about Brad Pitt being the Robert Redford of his day, an equivalence that also means posing at the somewhat more serious end of pop, if not quite the best class of acting. The script tries more for the mechanics and intrigue of tradecraft (Pitt reportedly turned down The Bourne Identity for this), something more in line with thrillers of Redford's day, like Three Days of the Condor, than the action of its own day. But director Tony Scott cranks up the posing and telegraphing, especially with the punching bag character played by Stephen Dillane, and dumb show-off stuff like the rooftop meeting shot with swirling helicopters where the spies play Batman (supposed to be in Berlin but shot in Budapest).
Mikey and Nicky (1976)
What seems like a John Cassavetes movie with his buddy and cohort Peter Falk was written and directed by Elaine May. It's better than most Cassavetes attempts, certainly the ones with Falk, matches his best effort Shadows for the way it unfolds discovery of the characters and situation as it goes, and it's their best work together (though there's an episode of Columbo that's one of the best for their collaboration). Perhaps May's comic touch helped bring off all the excruciating stuff better, but it's certainly not conspicuously comedy. Apart from all the obvious content, it's like a citation of the 70s in the era with the way the seldom-used music is a squelched, flitty version of some breezy background from a travelogue or movie trailer wafting out of some near building. Ned Beatty, M. Emmett Walsh, Joyce Van Patten (another Columbo alum), William Hickey and Sanford Meisner, who was also a famous acting teacher, are also on hand.
What seems like a John Cassavetes movie with his buddy and cohort Peter Falk was written and directed by Elaine May. It's better than most Cassavetes attempts, certainly the ones with Falk, matches his best effort Shadows for the way it unfolds discovery of the characters and situation as it goes, and it's their best work together (though there's an episode of Columbo that's one of the best for their collaboration). Perhaps May's comic touch helped bring off all the excruciating stuff better, but it's certainly not conspicuously comedy. Apart from all the obvious content, it's like a citation of the 70s in the era with the way the seldom-used music is a squelched, flitty version of some breezy background from a travelogue or movie trailer wafting out of some near building. Ned Beatty, M. Emmett Walsh, Joyce Van Patten (another Columbo alum), William Hickey and Sanford Meisner, who was also a famous acting teacher, are also on hand.
Blink Twice (2024)
There's a disclaimer at the beginning, a warning about triggers due to the subject of abuse. I was a bit wary, more so as the movie started up and glided through another flip social satire about a billionaire tech guru. This has been a popular subject of recent movies, not to say cliche, but there's certainly no problem with making a commonplace of billionaire-bashing, the folk revenge a la lawyers. It's certainly not doing anywhere near enough damage. But using that disclaimer along with this seemed exploitative. The movie was skimming in such a way that it seemed perpetual buildup, compressed almost to montage. Then about half way in there's a scene that, at the same time it redeems one of the characters, starts pulling everything together so that it's much more interesting, and eventually even that first half is cast in a different light. The play with the material is similar to Jordan Peele's -- this is co-written and directed by Zoe Kravitz -- horror and humor sublimating or processing material like a dream, like nightmares and jokes at once, and here it gets even more interesting with forgiving and forgetting, fact, memory and confronting. I'm not sure the ending avoids unwanted implications as part of the ambivalence, but like the rest, it certainly provokes thought.
There's a disclaimer at the beginning, a warning about triggers due to the subject of abuse. I was a bit wary, more so as the movie started up and glided through another flip social satire about a billionaire tech guru. This has been a popular subject of recent movies, not to say cliche, but there's certainly no problem with making a commonplace of billionaire-bashing, the folk revenge a la lawyers. It's certainly not doing anywhere near enough damage. But using that disclaimer along with this seemed exploitative. The movie was skimming in such a way that it seemed perpetual buildup, compressed almost to montage. Then about half way in there's a scene that, at the same time it redeems one of the characters, starts pulling everything together so that it's much more interesting, and eventually even that first half is cast in a different light. The play with the material is similar to Jordan Peele's -- this is co-written and directed by Zoe Kravitz -- horror and humor sublimating or processing material like a dream, like nightmares and jokes at once, and here it gets even more interesting with forgiving and forgetting, fact, memory and confronting. I'm not sure the ending avoids unwanted implications as part of the ambivalence, but like the rest, it certainly provokes thought.
Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying (1999)
A fear of flying therapy group is ready to try the real thing and of course learns all the reasons to fear flying, like all the parties who pile on a flight to cause trouble: FBI, MI6, Czech terrorists, some other kind of ambiguously British terrorists. Apart from lighting so many fuses and having the pilot fall and bump his head, this follows suit of the original (see Turbulence) by shooting through a sheet of glass to suggest an air traffic control tower. The 1997 movie did well enough to generate a sequel, but they dropped a notch or two in budget. Besides Craig Sheffer as star, Jennifer Beals and Tom Berenger are about it for all-star.
9/19/24
A fear of flying therapy group is ready to try the real thing and of course learns all the reasons to fear flying, like all the parties who pile on a flight to cause trouble: FBI, MI6, Czech terrorists, some other kind of ambiguously British terrorists. Apart from lighting so many fuses and having the pilot fall and bump his head, this follows suit of the original (see Turbulence) by shooting through a sheet of glass to suggest an air traffic control tower. The 1997 movie did well enough to generate a sequel, but they dropped a notch or two in budget. Besides Craig Sheffer as star, Jennifer Beals and Tom Berenger are about it for all-star.
Turbulence (1997)
Connections: star Ray Liotta with Goodfellas, and producer Martin Ransohoff also produced and co-wrote The White Dawn. Diehard 2 meets Con Air. Despite all the fun of that sloppy cocktail in this big production B movie, Christmas decorations smeared all over without any other link to the holiday, and Liotta getting to feast on a Janus-faced performance, the real distinction of this movie is one of the most curious wastes of cast perhaps ever. Brendan Gleeson gets tossed off with few lines in a bad accent before an early knock-off, but nearly half the cast, not nameless extras -- Hector Elizondo, Rachel Ticotin, Jeffrey DeMunn, e.g. -- get huddled together in one set that's supposed to be the air traffic control tower. The point of view is from outside the window of the tower, definitely through glass, but apparently using a sheet of glass just to suggest they're in a tower. There are only about three shots from an opposite perspective, so most of the time we just see the heads crowded together, Muppet style, and most of them have no lines. Then another group is shut off in a service station at the rear of the plane and not seen again until the end. Of course all this makes for a great xmas twist movie. Never mind snakes or sharks, it's the terror of Christmas on a plane!
Connections: star Ray Liotta with Goodfellas, and producer Martin Ransohoff also produced and co-wrote The White Dawn. Diehard 2 meets Con Air. Despite all the fun of that sloppy cocktail in this big production B movie, Christmas decorations smeared all over without any other link to the holiday, and Liotta getting to feast on a Janus-faced performance, the real distinction of this movie is one of the most curious wastes of cast perhaps ever. Brendan Gleeson gets tossed off with few lines in a bad accent before an early knock-off, but nearly half the cast, not nameless extras -- Hector Elizondo, Rachel Ticotin, Jeffrey DeMunn, e.g. -- get huddled together in one set that's supposed to be the air traffic control tower. The point of view is from outside the window of the tower, definitely through glass, but apparently using a sheet of glass just to suggest they're in a tower. There are only about three shots from an opposite perspective, so most of the time we just see the heads crowded together, Muppet style, and most of them have no lines. Then another group is shut off in a service station at the rear of the plane and not seen again until the end. Of course all this makes for a great xmas twist movie. Never mind snakes or sharks, it's the terror of Christmas on a plane!
The White Dawn (1974)
Philip Kaufman directed this little cutout of life in the 1890s. Three whalers, played by Warren Oats, Louis Gossett Jr. and Timothy Bottoms, are stranded in the Arctic and rescued by Inuit. The sailors, none of high station, are as crude in their way as the Inuit, if not more so, and their encounter is played out with a frankness fitting to all. The material for Bottoms suggests his brother Sam's in Apocalypse Now, but that's also the general parallel, the Heart of Darkness theme and the incivility of the "civilized."
Philip Kaufman directed this little cutout of life in the 1890s. Three whalers, played by Warren Oats, Louis Gossett Jr. and Timothy Bottoms, are stranded in the Arctic and rescued by Inuit. The sailors, none of high station, are as crude in their way as the Inuit, if not more so, and their encounter is played out with a frankness fitting to all. The material for Bottoms suggests his brother Sam's in Apocalypse Now, but that's also the general parallel, the Heart of Darkness theme and the incivility of the "civilized."
Goodfellas (1990) ♠
The gangster sings. The precursor was Mean Streets (and Who's That Knocking at My Door before), but Nicholas Pileggi and Henry Hill gave Martin Scorsese another inspiration for a portrait of the wiseguys he even knew of from the hood he grew up in. Hill parlayed his turning state's evidence into an account of the life, Pileggi conveyed even Hill's vernacular in the book he wrote, and Scorsese orchestrated it all in the roving impressionistic form he established in Mean Streets, but with even more dash and swagger. Now when we hear "Layla" we think of the floating shot into the meat truck with the frozen Carbone. The seduction into the life comes with its cringes, ambivalence, menace, and the climactic coke sequence is enough to give you a cathartic headache. In that, Scorsese cuts the songs in the frenetic, anxious pace in a way that could stand as parody of what all the bad imitators of his popular song soundtracks do, but it works here as another unsettling factor.
The gangster sings. The precursor was Mean Streets (and Who's That Knocking at My Door before), but Nicholas Pileggi and Henry Hill gave Martin Scorsese another inspiration for a portrait of the wiseguys he even knew of from the hood he grew up in. Hill parlayed his turning state's evidence into an account of the life, Pileggi conveyed even Hill's vernacular in the book he wrote, and Scorsese orchestrated it all in the roving impressionistic form he established in Mean Streets, but with even more dash and swagger. Now when we hear "Layla" we think of the floating shot into the meat truck with the frozen Carbone. The seduction into the life comes with its cringes, ambivalence, menace, and the climactic coke sequence is enough to give you a cathartic headache. In that, Scorsese cuts the songs in the frenetic, anxious pace in a way that could stand as parody of what all the bad imitators of his popular song soundtracks do, but it works here as another unsettling factor.
Apollo 13: Survival (2024)
Documentary version of the account of the Apollo 13 mission that turned into a fight for survival. Compiles footage from the command center, the spacecraft, though not necessarily from that same mission, the coverage by lots of different news organizations including British (James Burke, famous for the Connections series, among them), and archival interviews of various participants and family members, like astronaut Jim Lovell and his wife Marilyn. Compare to dramatization of Apollo 13: no matter how realistic such an account, the documents of the real people, places and things, no matter how removed, obviously have their own interest, and more the sense of the experience at the time, for fashion alone if nothing else.
Documentary version of the account of the Apollo 13 mission that turned into a fight for survival. Compiles footage from the command center, the spacecraft, though not necessarily from that same mission, the coverage by lots of different news organizations including British (James Burke, famous for the Connections series, among them), and archival interviews of various participants and family members, like astronaut Jim Lovell and his wife Marilyn. Compare to dramatization of Apollo 13: no matter how realistic such an account, the documents of the real people, places and things, no matter how removed, obviously have their own interest, and more the sense of the experience at the time, for fashion alone if nothing else.
Borderlands (2024)
If you like Star Wars, Wall-E, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tomb Raider, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Expendables, Mad Max: Fury Road, maybe you'll enjoy counting all the derivative elements in this, because there's not much else to it.
If you like Star Wars, Wall-E, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tomb Raider, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Expendables, Mad Max: Fury Road, maybe you'll enjoy counting all the derivative elements in this, because there's not much else to it.
Trap (2024)
The logistics that make this conveniently plotted to involve a pop concert for M. Night Shyamalan's daughter Saleka also make it less heavy-handed than some of his other work. That doesn't keep it from stringing us along, but the manipulations are more like a farce than a horror movie. Josh Hartnett does a good job, but despite the benefits of calming things down, it ultimately feels like not much was done, or a lot of opportunity was missed. (See, for example, MeatCanyon's Taylor Swift Breaks Up on YouTube.)
9/12/24
The logistics that make this conveniently plotted to involve a pop concert for M. Night Shyamalan's daughter Saleka also make it less heavy-handed than some of his other work. That doesn't keep it from stringing us along, but the manipulations are more like a farce than a horror movie. Josh Hartnett does a good job, but despite the benefits of calming things down, it ultimately feels like not much was done, or a lot of opportunity was missed. (See, for example, MeatCanyon's Taylor Swift Breaks Up on YouTube.)
300 (2006)
For the perhaps grander move of the graphic novel on movies (see below), there's this. The combination of CG and live action is working to make an even more comprehensive graphic novel composite image and style, much as the other adaptation of Frank Miller, Sin City did. But, as I said about that, this has a different effect in movies than on the page. Here, all the pulp pretense is made grander, too: nine-foot-tall Xerxes, rhinos, Lord of the Rings-size mammoths (and ogres and giants and mangled humanoids), all the Spartans bare-chested with flowing red capes (instead of breastplated hoplites; I won't go into the screaming implicit versus explicit attitude about homosexuality, not to mention the racial or ethnic choices). And director Zack Snyder's taste for a profusely metallic bronze gray palette. It's the album cover art version of the Hercules movies of the 60s. But here's the microcosm: to have the written figure of arrows blotting out the sun (from Herodotus) made obvious and overworked as a CG multitude sequence. RiffTrax has a treatment of this, about the right speed.
For the perhaps grander move of the graphic novel on movies (see below), there's this. The combination of CG and live action is working to make an even more comprehensive graphic novel composite image and style, much as the other adaptation of Frank Miller, Sin City did. But, as I said about that, this has a different effect in movies than on the page. Here, all the pulp pretense is made grander, too: nine-foot-tall Xerxes, rhinos, Lord of the Rings-size mammoths (and ogres and giants and mangled humanoids), all the Spartans bare-chested with flowing red capes (instead of breastplated hoplites; I won't go into the screaming implicit versus explicit attitude about homosexuality, not to mention the racial or ethnic choices). And director Zack Snyder's taste for a profusely metallic bronze gray palette. It's the album cover art version of the Hercules movies of the 60s. But here's the microcosm: to have the written figure of arrows blotting out the sun (from Herodotus) made obvious and overworked as a CG multitude sequence. RiffTrax has a treatment of this, about the right speed.
Sky Sharks (2020)
Computer graphics now allow for so many different levels of quality, in material and conception. This is the Roger Corman version of the graphic novel version of trash parody trash movies. Although the level of production isn't quite much more than Sharknado, there's considerably more done with it, and the level of parody is savvier in the pulp and exploitation vein. There are two sequences that play out Airplane!-like parody with Nazi zombies on the flying sharks and considerably more cartoonish computer gore. But then the largest part of the movie in between falls into graphic novel style montage sequences simply narrating the ideas and, the Roger Corman part, scenes with the actors continuing the exposition. The movie is essentially reading you its idea, although giving more in illustration than Corman would.
Computer graphics now allow for so many different levels of quality, in material and conception. This is the Roger Corman version of the graphic novel version of trash parody trash movies. Although the level of production isn't quite much more than Sharknado, there's considerably more done with it, and the level of parody is savvier in the pulp and exploitation vein. There are two sequences that play out Airplane!-like parody with Nazi zombies on the flying sharks and considerably more cartoonish computer gore. But then the largest part of the movie in between falls into graphic novel style montage sequences simply narrating the ideas and, the Roger Corman part, scenes with the actors continuing the exposition. The movie is essentially reading you its idea, although giving more in illustration than Corman would.
Longlegs (2024)
While it tends toward the cutesy deadpan that's been trendy for a while even in series, and in a more general trend of affectation passing for artsy, the stylization works against the grain of horror movie vogue, and that makes it more interesting. It's more applied than constitutional, more the way things are dressed up than conceived, so it doesn't have the surreal or uncanny reach of, say, Possession or Herzog's Nosferatu or Lynch. It certainly gives Nicolas Cage a different presentation, one that wraps even irony or parody up with the character, and if for no other reason than he appears in so many movies, it's a different aspect.
While it tends toward the cutesy deadpan that's been trendy for a while even in series, and in a more general trend of affectation passing for artsy, the stylization works against the grain of horror movie vogue, and that makes it more interesting. It's more applied than constitutional, more the way things are dressed up than conceived, so it doesn't have the surreal or uncanny reach of, say, Possession or Herzog's Nosferatu or Lynch. It certainly gives Nicolas Cage a different presentation, one that wraps even irony or parody up with the character, and if for no other reason than he appears in so many movies, it's a different aspect.
We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004)
The possibility of some different perspective on love or marriage is delivered in such a solemn overall tone it gets capsized, as if any different perspective could only be the negation of the presumptive value (cf. Sex, Lies and Videotape). This is like the depressive pole of romcom manic. The cuts and pacing are an attempt at some other poignant cadence that only adds another layer of confusion to the difficulty of the characters.
The possibility of some different perspective on love or marriage is delivered in such a solemn overall tone it gets capsized, as if any different perspective could only be the negation of the presumptive value (cf. Sex, Lies and Videotape). This is like the depressive pole of romcom manic. The cuts and pacing are an attempt at some other poignant cadence that only adds another layer of confusion to the difficulty of the characters.
Air America (1990)
Trying to mine the vein of Good Morning, Vietnam, this wants to be honorable enough not to be crass, but still has to be pitched as wacky escapades, making it too tepid as comedy or drama.
Trying to mine the vein of Good Morning, Vietnam, this wants to be honorable enough not to be crass, but still has to be pitched as wacky escapades, making it too tepid as comedy or drama.
Bringing out the Dead (1999)
Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader reprise their Taxi Driver act, this time for an overworked paramedic on the streets of Manhattan. Nicolas Cage gets to chew on the psychological mess of the character, but this is a study in contrast. Compared to the way Taxi Driver articulates elision, lapse, magnification, delirium, mental states with the form, this labors the expression of the situation and the character, the material of the plot and the psychology. It feels like even more is being packed into the few days than is necessary for any real paramedic situation, and it's all so constantly fraught, and the imagery so lush, it has no relief. There's nothing giving us the space of these locations, of the grim or exhausted moments, of the benign indifference of the walls or streets to all the suffering. In case you're wondering about a Monty Python reference in the title, there's also this in the movie: "I thought you said this guy was dead." Reply: "He got better."
Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader reprise their Taxi Driver act, this time for an overworked paramedic on the streets of Manhattan. Nicolas Cage gets to chew on the psychological mess of the character, but this is a study in contrast. Compared to the way Taxi Driver articulates elision, lapse, magnification, delirium, mental states with the form, this labors the expression of the situation and the character, the material of the plot and the psychology. It feels like even more is being packed into the few days than is necessary for any real paramedic situation, and it's all so constantly fraught, and the imagery so lush, it has no relief. There's nothing giving us the space of these locations, of the grim or exhausted moments, of the benign indifference of the walls or streets to all the suffering. In case you're wondering about a Monty Python reference in the title, there's also this in the movie: "I thought you said this guy was dead." Reply: "He got better."
Wall Street (1987)
Reverse engineered for rhetorical purposes, everything is built to serve a point that doesn't require complicated argument. All the narrative leaps and postures are like flim flam themselves, shortchanging actual explanation or logic and even useful observation about how any of such people would actually carry on. It's a liberal version of a Capra Richard III. Despite the usual presumptions he makes for us about what we prefer rather than fact, Oliver Stone does a better job here. It's actually not as overblown in manner as some of the other things he's directed.
Reverse engineered for rhetorical purposes, everything is built to serve a point that doesn't require complicated argument. All the narrative leaps and postures are like flim flam themselves, shortchanging actual explanation or logic and even useful observation about how any of such people would actually carry on. It's a liberal version of a Capra Richard III. Despite the usual presumptions he makes for us about what we prefer rather than fact, Oliver Stone does a better job here. It's actually not as overblown in manner as some of the other things he's directed.
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)
The other Bad Lieutenant is a Werner Herzog movie with Nicolas Cage. Despite similarities -- it's also about a corrupt cop -- it was not meant to be related to Abel Ferrara's film, and Herzog reportedly did not want to use that title. Cage's performance is similar to his in Leaving Las Vegas and the movie is distinguished by some Herzog flourishes that recall his 70s work, if using slightly different means, apparently video for some of those abruptly low-key disruptions of the movie narrative pretense, if not quite breaking the fourth wall, that come particularly as part of Cage's drug-altered perception.
The other Bad Lieutenant is a Werner Herzog movie with Nicolas Cage. Despite similarities -- it's also about a corrupt cop -- it was not meant to be related to Abel Ferrara's film, and Herzog reportedly did not want to use that title. Cage's performance is similar to his in Leaving Las Vegas and the movie is distinguished by some Herzog flourishes that recall his 70s work, if using slightly different means, apparently video for some of those abruptly low-key disruptions of the movie narrative pretense, if not quite breaking the fourth wall, that come particularly as part of Cage's drug-altered perception.
Deadfall (1993)
This kooky little project seems like a group of family and friends pitched in to help director and co-writer Christopher Coppola make a B movie. More curious than brothers Nicolas Cage and Marc Coppola, and aunt Talia Shire, are James Coburn, Peter Fonda, Michael Constantine, Mickey Dolenz (The Monkees!) and Clarence Williams III. The inauspicious lead opportunity goes to Michael Biehn, with Cage and Charlie Sheen providing more likely eccentric performances. Despite grift so common you can land in some spot in L.A. where it's going on all around you, the long con of the movie goes far out of the way for its objective, and something like a Bond villain pops up. But what makes it worth the watch is the Cage performance, more over-the-top than even usual. It's over over-the-top.
This kooky little project seems like a group of family and friends pitched in to help director and co-writer Christopher Coppola make a B movie. More curious than brothers Nicolas Cage and Marc Coppola, and aunt Talia Shire, are James Coburn, Peter Fonda, Michael Constantine, Mickey Dolenz (The Monkees!) and Clarence Williams III. The inauspicious lead opportunity goes to Michael Biehn, with Cage and Charlie Sheen providing more likely eccentric performances. Despite grift so common you can land in some spot in L.A. where it's going on all around you, the long con of the movie goes far out of the way for its objective, and something like a Bond villain pops up. But what makes it worth the watch is the Cage performance, more over-the-top than even usual. It's over over-the-top.
American Sniper (2014)
Regardless of matters of veracity or validity, what the movie changed about Chris Kyle's account or Kyle did about facts, Clint Eastwood, by design or inadvertently, managed to avoid a lot of puffery not just of war movies, but movies in general, and a lot of the kind of flash that's become cliche in recent war movies. If the movie isn't saying that Kyle is haunted by the specter of himself in the enemy, the movie itself is haunted by it. "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster." -- Nietzsche.
9/6/24
Regardless of matters of veracity or validity, what the movie changed about Chris Kyle's account or Kyle did about facts, Clint Eastwood, by design or inadvertently, managed to avoid a lot of puffery not just of war movies, but movies in general, and a lot of the kind of flash that's become cliche in recent war movies. If the movie isn't saying that Kyle is haunted by the specter of himself in the enemy, the movie itself is haunted by it. "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster." -- Nietzsche.
Rocco and His Brothers (1960)
It begins, like Luchino Visconti's Ossessione before it, seeming more gritty, on the ground, neorealist that way, and in particular it's the photography of Giuseppe Rotunno that holds to that. This is by comparison to later work, The Damned, Death in Venice, The Leopard, where Visconti leaves more conventional neorealist settings. But it turns out that it wasn't just the matter of setting. Visconti is drier than Hollywood, but also than neorealism. His material is more idealized, in a theatrical way since somewhat more sophisticated than popular movies in general. He doesn't have the parable sense or pathos of Vittorio De Sica, nor the cinematic flair of Fellini. And in this movie, despite all it tries to involve, it never seems to get past the design, all the parts, even characters, as formal elements. Some of the more dramatic moments come off as quite melodramatic, not despite but because of this, because things are more idealized than evocative. Though this movie was a boost for Alain Delon, the revelation is Annie Girardot. She gives flashes of character not just neatly colored in the lines. Nino Rota's score is not as good as his Fellini music, but there are hints of The Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola has mentioned this movie as a big influence, and one of the reasons he got Rota.
It begins, like Luchino Visconti's Ossessione before it, seeming more gritty, on the ground, neorealist that way, and in particular it's the photography of Giuseppe Rotunno that holds to that. This is by comparison to later work, The Damned, Death in Venice, The Leopard, where Visconti leaves more conventional neorealist settings. But it turns out that it wasn't just the matter of setting. Visconti is drier than Hollywood, but also than neorealism. His material is more idealized, in a theatrical way since somewhat more sophisticated than popular movies in general. He doesn't have the parable sense or pathos of Vittorio De Sica, nor the cinematic flair of Fellini. And in this movie, despite all it tries to involve, it never seems to get past the design, all the parts, even characters, as formal elements. Some of the more dramatic moments come off as quite melodramatic, not despite but because of this, because things are more idealized than evocative. Though this movie was a boost for Alain Delon, the revelation is Annie Girardot. She gives flashes of character not just neatly colored in the lines. Nino Rota's score is not as good as his Fellini music, but there are hints of The Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola has mentioned this movie as a big influence, and one of the reasons he got Rota.
The King of Comedy (1982)
One of the best League of Gentlemen bits is about someone who makes telling a joke torturous. There are layers to the irony, frame within frame, too serious about being funny, funny because it's serious, character comedy about a joke and someone who has no idea how to be funny, dissecting a joke instead of presenting it directly, and League of Gentlemen also involved a particular taste for horror from which they made comedy. Martin Scorsese's movie may seem to be the comedy version of Taxi Driver, but it's really the same kind of study in a different environment. It works as a black comedy twist on comedy itself, or at least some macabre humor to go along with the serious consideration, something that wasn't lacking in Taxi Driver. The taste for details serves the realist and satirist alike, and it's that keenness of observation that makes those overlap. Scorsese gets it in all the daily business manners, behind the scenes for celebrities, the people in offices, security personnel and law enforcement, and the refrain throughout is the politesse through which everyone, even the talk show host played by Jerry Lewis (this is a precursor to The Larry Sanders Show as well), must strain to express themselves. For Robert De Niro it's not so much showing range as pliability. His celebrity chaser nerd contrasts his gangsters and Travis Bickle in some ways, but with De Niro it isn't metamorphosis, not the express transformation to another guise or accent (like Fredric March or Peter Sellers), so much as subsuming the character. The character inhabits him. Sandra Bernhard shows the character comedy side of the treatment and of course the other great turn is Lewis, playing serious in the role of host funny man, having the craziness turned on him. The steps in the plot are more extrapolation, though certainly people have done as outrageous or more so, but the best stroke of all is the way Scorsese floats the suggestions of Rupert Pupkin's imagination to ripple out.
One of the best League of Gentlemen bits is about someone who makes telling a joke torturous. There are layers to the irony, frame within frame, too serious about being funny, funny because it's serious, character comedy about a joke and someone who has no idea how to be funny, dissecting a joke instead of presenting it directly, and League of Gentlemen also involved a particular taste for horror from which they made comedy. Martin Scorsese's movie may seem to be the comedy version of Taxi Driver, but it's really the same kind of study in a different environment. It works as a black comedy twist on comedy itself, or at least some macabre humor to go along with the serious consideration, something that wasn't lacking in Taxi Driver. The taste for details serves the realist and satirist alike, and it's that keenness of observation that makes those overlap. Scorsese gets it in all the daily business manners, behind the scenes for celebrities, the people in offices, security personnel and law enforcement, and the refrain throughout is the politesse through which everyone, even the talk show host played by Jerry Lewis (this is a precursor to The Larry Sanders Show as well), must strain to express themselves. For Robert De Niro it's not so much showing range as pliability. His celebrity chaser nerd contrasts his gangsters and Travis Bickle in some ways, but with De Niro it isn't metamorphosis, not the express transformation to another guise or accent (like Fredric March or Peter Sellers), so much as subsuming the character. The character inhabits him. Sandra Bernhard shows the character comedy side of the treatment and of course the other great turn is Lewis, playing serious in the role of host funny man, having the craziness turned on him. The steps in the plot are more extrapolation, though certainly people have done as outrageous or more so, but the best stroke of all is the way Scorsese floats the suggestions of Rupert Pupkin's imagination to ripple out.
Navy Seals (1990)
Follows Top Gun to help codify the genre of military operatives who break all the rules and thus are a self-contradiction. What's odd and curious is that it's a thin version of that predecessor, with squalling rock guitar outbursts and bad boy conflicts so tepid it's funny, but draped on a central plotline, and especially the climactic encounter, that's actually more sober. It's as if someone, a studio exec, thought the script too straight and told them to jazz it up like Top Gun, but they did it in a bad way. There's even a version of the volleyball scene, but it's golf, and the latent antics and cutesy editing are good bad enough to be spoof.
Follows Top Gun to help codify the genre of military operatives who break all the rules and thus are a self-contradiction. What's odd and curious is that it's a thin version of that predecessor, with squalling rock guitar outbursts and bad boy conflicts so tepid it's funny, but draped on a central plotline, and especially the climactic encounter, that's actually more sober. It's as if someone, a studio exec, thought the script too straight and told them to jazz it up like Top Gun, but they did it in a bad way. There's even a version of the volleyball scene, but it's golf, and the latent antics and cutesy editing are good bad enough to be spoof.
Oddity (2024)
Calms down the FX emphasis to use more basic storytelling and movie methods, but the organizing principle of the contrivance is still pretty much to scare, and the jumps in sequence and character relations are more convenient for that than filled out.
Calms down the FX emphasis to use more basic storytelling and movie methods, but the organizing principle of the contrivance is still pretty much to scare, and the jumps in sequence and character relations are more convenient for that than filled out.
Holy Smoke (1999)
It has more interesting material than The Piano and more of the zest of Sweetie, and Jane Campion borrowed more of Quentin Tarantino's casting choices, Pam Grier making an appearance along with Harvey Keitel. The breezy Australian manner can seem to mix tones or registers, especially for Americans, but even at that, a few scattered rhetorical interjections along with other unevenness make it seem like it was subjected to a bad cut. The initial confrontation between Keitel's de-programmer and Kate Winslet's cult member starts a dialogue that gets left off for other kinds of involvement, and whether in the original script or revision, leaves the heart of the matter to carry on more like a farce, but without much bite to its wit.
8/20/24
It has more interesting material than The Piano and more of the zest of Sweetie, and Jane Campion borrowed more of Quentin Tarantino's casting choices, Pam Grier making an appearance along with Harvey Keitel. The breezy Australian manner can seem to mix tones or registers, especially for Americans, but even at that, a few scattered rhetorical interjections along with other unevenness make it seem like it was subjected to a bad cut. The initial confrontation between Keitel's de-programmer and Kate Winslet's cult member starts a dialogue that gets left off for other kinds of involvement, and whether in the original script or revision, leaves the heart of the matter to carry on more like a farce, but without much bite to its wit.
Alien: Romulus (2024)
The characters and acting are more low-key than even the recent Ridley Scott variations, a welcome turn, and there seemed promise of going off on a new path or an independent or standalone story. But the most faithful recreations of the original Alien decor turn out to be just the beginning of tie-ins and callbacks and references to just about everything in the franchise, including lines that are repeated. You could call it a fan film, but it's more like a video game with its modular plot points from previous ingredients. When the spacecraft full of eggs is discovered in Alien it's an allusion to something in a universe of possibilities, and the unknown and openness are part of the effect, the ungraspable vastness. Tying everything back to the same company, even to the same godlike ur-beings, or making it a cookie cutter formula, is going in the opposite direction.
The characters and acting are more low-key than even the recent Ridley Scott variations, a welcome turn, and there seemed promise of going off on a new path or an independent or standalone story. But the most faithful recreations of the original Alien decor turn out to be just the beginning of tie-ins and callbacks and references to just about everything in the franchise, including lines that are repeated. You could call it a fan film, but it's more like a video game with its modular plot points from previous ingredients. When the spacecraft full of eggs is discovered in Alien it's an allusion to something in a universe of possibilities, and the unknown and openness are part of the effect, the ungraspable vastness. Tying everything back to the same company, even to the same godlike ur-beings, or making it a cookie cutter formula, is going in the opposite direction.
Dikkenek (2006)
This Belgian comedy that includes in its cast Marion Cotillard, Dominique Pinon and, in a role that brought her more attention, Melanie Laurent, has a cult following in Belgium and France, where it's considered a distinctly Belgian flavor of humor. Belgian or otherwise, it's the kind of capricious lowbrow humor that strings together scenes for character ragging and mugging with any larger connection thrown down or dropped in any one of them.
This Belgian comedy that includes in its cast Marion Cotillard, Dominique Pinon and, in a role that brought her more attention, Melanie Laurent, has a cult following in Belgium and France, where it's considered a distinctly Belgian flavor of humor. Belgian or otherwise, it's the kind of capricious lowbrow humor that strings together scenes for character ragging and mugging with any larger connection thrown down or dropped in any one of them.
Agatha (1979)
Director Michael Apted and his cast, primarily Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave since they carry most of the load, do their darnedest to make this interesting, and there's lots of period production design and elegant locations and dusky photography of light through smoke and interesting detail, but the script, by Kathleen Tynan and Arthur Hopcraft, is contriving in two such obvious ways, one romance and the other as suspense of murder or suicide, that there's really no mystery to it, let alone insight.
Director Michael Apted and his cast, primarily Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave since they carry most of the load, do their darnedest to make this interesting, and there's lots of period production design and elegant locations and dusky photography of light through smoke and interesting detail, but the script, by Kathleen Tynan and Arthur Hopcraft, is contriving in two such obvious ways, one romance and the other as suspense of murder or suicide, that there's really no mystery to it, let alone insight.
John Q (2002)
Compare Dog Day Afternoon. It's the difference between unfolding the discovery and signaling everything. You can see the pitch of this in every scene, and it's pretty easy to figure out where it's going because you get an all too good idea of how far they will or won't go with the characters.
Compare Dog Day Afternoon. It's the difference between unfolding the discovery and signaling everything. You can see the pitch of this in every scene, and it's pretty easy to figure out where it's going because you get an all too good idea of how far they will or won't go with the characters.
The Iceman (2012)
It's a good cast headed by Michael Shannon and with interesting roles for Chris Evans and David Schwimmer, but the polish and mechanics of the drama lack some greater vision, tone or sensibility. We get nothing more affecting about a hitman's business and family life than the routine of biopic.
8/15/24
It's a good cast headed by Michael Shannon and with interesting roles for Chris Evans and David Schwimmer, but the polish and mechanics of the drama lack some greater vision, tone or sensibility. We get nothing more affecting about a hitman's business and family life than the routine of biopic.
Rosemary's Baby (1968) ♠
Roman Polanski's view, literally also through William Fraker's cinematography, is sharp and skewed, lucid and lurid at once. Horror works best as insinuation, implication, allegory -- for me anyway -- rather than the sort that plays to, takes aim at, credulousness (see for comparison The Exorcist), and here Polanski has it all shuffling along like social satire, like John Cassavetes or Ruth Gordon's sidling. Even at the climactic moment, there's a fluttering horn with an almost comical quality, like a sinister cartoon razz. But the nightmare of it is pertinent all over again now, with the Repugnantscum scheme for pregnancy.
Roman Polanski's view, literally also through William Fraker's cinematography, is sharp and skewed, lucid and lurid at once. Horror works best as insinuation, implication, allegory -- for me anyway -- rather than the sort that plays to, takes aim at, credulousness (see for comparison The Exorcist), and here Polanski has it all shuffling along like social satire, like John Cassavetes or Ruth Gordon's sidling. Even at the climactic moment, there's a fluttering horn with an almost comical quality, like a sinister cartoon razz. But the nightmare of it is pertinent all over again now, with the Repugnantscum scheme for pregnancy.
Don't Look Now (1973)
Nicolas Roeg's intercutting turns Daphne du Maurier's short story into a figurative play of supernatural and surreal, or superstition and coincidence, like poetry, but with literal images, which would also be like dreamwork, and it makes for a great sex scene. Roeg's style is shaggy as theatrical presentation or narrative, but that also means a break from those standards.
Nicolas Roeg's intercutting turns Daphne du Maurier's short story into a figurative play of supernatural and surreal, or superstition and coincidence, like poetry, but with literal images, which would also be like dreamwork, and it makes for a great sex scene. Roeg's style is shaggy as theatrical presentation or narrative, but that also means a break from those standards.
Act of Violence (1948)
The main drama of this somewhat noirish thriller comes from the story teetering between good and bad for especially the two main characters, played by Van Heflin and Robert Ryan. After setting up the suspense of one man stalking another (a precursor to Cape Fear), the script delves into dialogues of background and justification, even bothering to bring in the Ryan character's girlfriend to make him hash out things, compromising any rationale, though it often seems more like scriptwriter Robert L. Richards wrestling with himself. Director Fred Zinnemann had teamed with Heflin before on Kid Glove Killer, a boost for Zinnemann to features and Heflin to lead. The film also features 21-year-old Janet Leigh.
The main drama of this somewhat noirish thriller comes from the story teetering between good and bad for especially the two main characters, played by Van Heflin and Robert Ryan. After setting up the suspense of one man stalking another (a precursor to Cape Fear), the script delves into dialogues of background and justification, even bothering to bring in the Ryan character's girlfriend to make him hash out things, compromising any rationale, though it often seems more like scriptwriter Robert L. Richards wrestling with himself. Director Fred Zinnemann had teamed with Heflin before on Kid Glove Killer, a boost for Zinnemann to features and Heflin to lead. The film also features 21-year-old Janet Leigh.
Tequila Sunrise (1988)
Robert Towne's second go at directing involves an interesting cast, good performances from Raul Julia and J.T. Walsh, but something of a turn at the time for the lead trio of Kurt Russell, Mel Gibson and Michelle Pfeiffer. After Lethal Weapon, Gibson gets back to the quieter Mad Max mode, but Russell shows more spark in a role with more range than his usual up to then. There's a good idea of old high-school friends crossing lines, but Towne, who also wrote the script, has about four different kinds of movie going, here, in mode or tone. The few scenes that give more ingenuous drama, like one between Russell and Pfeiffer at the restaurant bar where they're finding out all the lines being played, don't have to contrast other movies, because brassy cop movie, snazzy romance, or crime thriller are right here. Even the music bears the incongruity, many scenes eschewing background music but then romance scenes screeching cable porn sax.
Robert Towne's second go at directing involves an interesting cast, good performances from Raul Julia and J.T. Walsh, but something of a turn at the time for the lead trio of Kurt Russell, Mel Gibson and Michelle Pfeiffer. After Lethal Weapon, Gibson gets back to the quieter Mad Max mode, but Russell shows more spark in a role with more range than his usual up to then. There's a good idea of old high-school friends crossing lines, but Towne, who also wrote the script, has about four different kinds of movie going, here, in mode or tone. The few scenes that give more ingenuous drama, like one between Russell and Pfeiffer at the restaurant bar where they're finding out all the lines being played, don't have to contrast other movies, because brassy cop movie, snazzy romance, or crime thriller are right here. Even the music bears the incongruity, many scenes eschewing background music but then romance scenes screeching cable porn sax.
Presumed Innocent (1990)
Patient thriller from director Alan Pakula (Klute , All the President's Men) with a good role for Harrison Ford before he shifted into action thriller hero in the 90s. This is really a thriller dressed up as a courtroom drama, but even its climactic twist is subdued tension, and not the sort of action of sensational thrillers around the same time, before and after. Gordon Willis, who worked with Pakula on those two movies mentioned, directed the photography, with a softer touch of his own virtuosity.
8/7/24
Patient thriller from director Alan Pakula (Klute , All the President's Men) with a good role for Harrison Ford before he shifted into action thriller hero in the 90s. This is really a thriller dressed up as a courtroom drama, but even its climactic twist is subdued tension, and not the sort of action of sensational thrillers around the same time, before and after. Gordon Willis, who worked with Pakula on those two movies mentioned, directed the photography, with a softer touch of his own virtuosity.
The Last Breath (2024)
You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a shark movie. The main distinction of this movie is that it's Julian Sands's last release. Although it's executed at a level of competence above the typical shark exploitation movie, and well above the "I meant to do that" bad ones, it doesn't get any points for originality, and the decent carriage only makes you forget that a lot of it is dumb cliche. It's about a search for a sunken WWII ship, so it's got the right idea of being more of an adventure than just shark frenzy, but the whole bit about getting people into a sunken ship with sharks has been done before, e.g. in the video game No One Lives Forever. Age does Sands well as the crusty old owner of a private search boat using something that might be closer to his own native Yorkshire accent.
You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a shark movie. The main distinction of this movie is that it's Julian Sands's last release. Although it's executed at a level of competence above the typical shark exploitation movie, and well above the "I meant to do that" bad ones, it doesn't get any points for originality, and the decent carriage only makes you forget that a lot of it is dumb cliche. It's about a search for a sunken WWII ship, so it's got the right idea of being more of an adventure than just shark frenzy, but the whole bit about getting people into a sunken ship with sharks has been done before, e.g. in the video game No One Lives Forever. Age does Sands well as the crusty old owner of a private search boat using something that might be closer to his own native Yorkshire accent.
Space Sharks (2024)
What makes this curious enough to take a look is not the DIY exponential badness -- bad attempt at intentionally bad movie version of bad movie romp -- the crud production values, or the fact Eric Roberts was used for star billing and only has a couple of shots, but the attempt to be artsy spacey moody in these terms. This is even below the level of Roberts's other shark movies (Sharktopus, Megalodon: The Frenzy), but it opens with long meditative shots of space, stars and nebulae, surprisingly not as bad as the other graphics, then tries to carry on similarly throughout. In between the backyard acting, the slop-it-on plot and the Photoshop special effects, the camera lingers on vacated shots, scrap points of indiscrimate trees or plants or just ground as if significant with the home-automated music making dramatic pause. They certainly made good on the space part of the title.
What makes this curious enough to take a look is not the DIY exponential badness -- bad attempt at intentionally bad movie version of bad movie romp -- the crud production values, or the fact Eric Roberts was used for star billing and only has a couple of shots, but the attempt to be artsy spacey moody in these terms. This is even below the level of Roberts's other shark movies (Sharktopus, Megalodon: The Frenzy), but it opens with long meditative shots of space, stars and nebulae, surprisingly not as bad as the other graphics, then tries to carry on similarly throughout. In between the backyard acting, the slop-it-on plot and the Photoshop special effects, the camera lingers on vacated shots, scrap points of indiscrimate trees or plants or just ground as if significant with the home-automated music making dramatic pause. They certainly made good on the space part of the title.
A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
As I discussed before, the monster movie has transformed so that everything else is life's rich fabric the monster contrasts. Arcadian played this so earnestly it was comical. Here is a movie which does a better job, but that only presses the point more. Cancer victims, post-traumatic stress, death, loss and memory -- the subtext, or well, what's really the obvious implication, association or even reference, even before the allegorical, of the imaginary abject, the bogeyman or animation of fear, has become so foregrounded, it's scarcely about the monster. Monsters stood for disasters or other kinds of ordeal, but now they might as well be any other, and it's also so common now that they're part of some apocalyptic catastrophe. It's not that the material can't be affecting, but for contrast, imagine Alien -- not any of its sequels, just that alone -- being about the background of all its characters. Or every 50s monster movie. Alien certainly raised the bar for a more involved, naturalistic environment, but even when faced with imaginary monsters, we get it.
7/31/24
As I discussed before, the monster movie has transformed so that everything else is life's rich fabric the monster contrasts. Arcadian played this so earnestly it was comical. Here is a movie which does a better job, but that only presses the point more. Cancer victims, post-traumatic stress, death, loss and memory -- the subtext, or well, what's really the obvious implication, association or even reference, even before the allegorical, of the imaginary abject, the bogeyman or animation of fear, has become so foregrounded, it's scarcely about the monster. Monsters stood for disasters or other kinds of ordeal, but now they might as well be any other, and it's also so common now that they're part of some apocalyptic catastrophe. It's not that the material can't be affecting, but for contrast, imagine Alien -- not any of its sequels, just that alone -- being about the background of all its characters. Or every 50s monster movie. Alien certainly raised the bar for a more involved, naturalistic environment, but even when faced with imaginary monsters, we get it.
RiffTrax Live: Point Break
The Movie Brains Research Division carried out a full-scale analysis of RiffTrax at a live presentation of Point Break at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota, July 27. There will be two more shows August 8 and 13. Each of the shows is also shown remotely at the same time at theaters nationwide, and recordings of the shows will be available later on the RiffTrax website, with the Movie Brains Research Division in evidence in their Phenomena chimp with razor uniforms.
The Movie Brains Research Division carried out a full-scale analysis of RiffTrax at a live presentation of Point Break at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota, July 27. There will be two more shows August 8 and 13. Each of the shows is also shown remotely at the same time at theaters nationwide, and recordings of the shows will be available later on the RiffTrax website, with the Movie Brains Research Division in evidence in their Phenomena chimp with razor uniforms.
Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)
I don't know if the clash of irony and anti-irony will destroy the fabric of existence. Whatever reason from the comics for this matchup, the regenerative powers and the outcast ethos, this movie is about the Marvel character movies now united under Disney and stretching back even further than X-Men to Blade. It's nostalgia, a crowd-pleaser and fan pandering, and no matter how funny or snarky or edgy ironic, it's hard to avoid the sense of elegy. There are some good turns and jokes, in the Deadpool meta-reference vein, such as with Chris Evans, but all of it is tied to previous movies, TV series, plots, characters (and their actors), and locations in the multiverse.
7/26/24
I don't know if the clash of irony and anti-irony will destroy the fabric of existence. Whatever reason from the comics for this matchup, the regenerative powers and the outcast ethos, this movie is about the Marvel character movies now united under Disney and stretching back even further than X-Men to Blade. It's nostalgia, a crowd-pleaser and fan pandering, and no matter how funny or snarky or edgy ironic, it's hard to avoid the sense of elegy. There are some good turns and jokes, in the Deadpool meta-reference vein, such as with Chris Evans, but all of it is tied to previous movies, TV series, plots, characters (and their actors), and locations in the multiverse.
Screamers (1995)
This was originally a Dan O'Bannon script, based on a Philip K. Dick short story (O'Bannon wrote the script for Total Recall, also based on a Dick story, and most famously Alien) but was rewritten by Miguel Tejada-Flores after it was shelved for a long time. A smaller concern produced this, filmed in Canada. Though mostly competent for its means, especially the acting of Peter Weller and Andy Lauer, there are times when it flashes cable or direct-to-video quality of pretense, or even amateur video.
This was originally a Dan O'Bannon script, based on a Philip K. Dick short story (O'Bannon wrote the script for Total Recall, also based on a Dick story, and most famously Alien) but was rewritten by Miguel Tejada-Flores after it was shelved for a long time. A smaller concern produced this, filmed in Canada. Though mostly competent for its means, especially the acting of Peter Weller and Andy Lauer, there are times when it flashes cable or direct-to-video quality of pretense, or even amateur video.
Arachnophobia (1990)
Behind the imposing Spielberg and Disney physique, there's a subtler, less clangy creature. There's certainly pandering and prancing, but the script by Don Jakoby and Wesley Strick manages more nimble material and treatment of it, and director Frank Marshall does a good job of creating the contrast of the spider action at their level. The climactic battle gets back to hyperbole, but prior to that, it's a nice little scheme of humans going on with their soap opera with the scurrying under foot. Jeff Daniels also carries this kinder, gentler form of family romp with his performance.
Behind the imposing Spielberg and Disney physique, there's a subtler, less clangy creature. There's certainly pandering and prancing, but the script by Don Jakoby and Wesley Strick manages more nimble material and treatment of it, and director Frank Marshall does a good job of creating the contrast of the spider action at their level. The climactic battle gets back to hyperbole, but prior to that, it's a nice little scheme of humans going on with their soap opera with the scurrying under foot. Jeff Daniels also carries this kinder, gentler form of family romp with his performance.
Defenseless (1991)
Directed by Martin Campbell, who directed the first Brosnan Bond and the first Craig one, this is a strange mix with an interesting cast that has some flighty stuff beginning and end -- the kind of thing where lots of different points or moods get jammed together for convenience and seem like wild jumps even in the same scene -- but a more composed middle. It's a decent role for Sam Shepard, certainly an interesting one for Mary Beth Hurt, J.T. Walsh almost gets to not be an asshole, and Barbara Hershey talks and sounds like Sigourney Weaver.
Directed by Martin Campbell, who directed the first Brosnan Bond and the first Craig one, this is a strange mix with an interesting cast that has some flighty stuff beginning and end -- the kind of thing where lots of different points or moods get jammed together for convenience and seem like wild jumps even in the same scene -- but a more composed middle. It's a decent role for Sam Shepard, certainly an interesting one for Mary Beth Hurt, J.T. Walsh almost gets to not be an asshole, and Barbara Hershey talks and sounds like Sigourney Weaver.
Apollo 13 (1995)
It's the right case to minimize the fanfare and concentrate on detail, for what, as Ed Harris playing Chief Flight Director Gene Kranz puts it, might be NASA's finest hour. Like the Shackleton Endurance expedition, this was a failure that turned into a more significant kind of success in terms of endurance and saving lives, and it's a case like this that shows what it takes for all the successful missions, how much they rely on and can take for granted when everything works. It gives perspective for all that accomplishment, too, as when they talk about how thin the walls for the lunar lander were, to think of these three men in a tin can in outer space.
It's the right case to minimize the fanfare and concentrate on detail, for what, as Ed Harris playing Chief Flight Director Gene Kranz puts it, might be NASA's finest hour. Like the Shackleton Endurance expedition, this was a failure that turned into a more significant kind of success in terms of endurance and saving lives, and it's a case like this that shows what it takes for all the successful missions, how much they rely on and can take for granted when everything works. It gives perspective for all that accomplishment, too, as when they talk about how thin the walls for the lunar lander were, to think of these three men in a tin can in outer space.
The Russia House (1990)
A different kind of spy movie mixes the more realistic intrigue of John le Carre's novel, the sometimes more intellectual strutting of scriptwriter Tom Stoppard, and the gentler ruminating of director Fred Schepisi. This was the first major American movie production in the opened up Soviet Union of the glasnost era and Schepisi used a cutaway style similar to that in A Cry in the Dark to give here not so much vox as just populi, glances of much more local flavor in Moscow and what was then Leningrad, though also similar in Lisbon, another location. Schepisi presents more texture than the brassy spectacle of globetrotting in Bond movies with this and the layered conversations (see also Six Degrees of Separation), the surveillance extension of the already tangled lines. The wry and anxious spill of the conversations, and all the different intelligence parties clustering in their secret meeting places, offices and listening rooms has a quality similar to the more remote candor of A Cry in the Dark.
7/17/24
A different kind of spy movie mixes the more realistic intrigue of John le Carre's novel, the sometimes more intellectual strutting of scriptwriter Tom Stoppard, and the gentler ruminating of director Fred Schepisi. This was the first major American movie production in the opened up Soviet Union of the glasnost era and Schepisi used a cutaway style similar to that in A Cry in the Dark to give here not so much vox as just populi, glances of much more local flavor in Moscow and what was then Leningrad, though also similar in Lisbon, another location. Schepisi presents more texture than the brassy spectacle of globetrotting in Bond movies with this and the layered conversations (see also Six Degrees of Separation), the surveillance extension of the already tangled lines. The wry and anxious spill of the conversations, and all the different intelligence parties clustering in their secret meeting places, offices and listening rooms has a quality similar to the more remote candor of A Cry in the Dark.
Breakdown (1997)
Though its premise is the kind of sensationalized crime ordeal of abduction movies of its day, this is decently wrought, and even sticks to more realistic turns until its climactic clash of trucks on a bridge. Kurt Russell plays against the grain of his action heroes, and as much of an attraction is J.T. Walsh in a more sizeable role as a no-nonsense bad guy.
Though its premise is the kind of sensationalized crime ordeal of abduction movies of its day, this is decently wrought, and even sticks to more realistic turns until its climactic clash of trucks on a bridge. Kurt Russell plays against the grain of his action heroes, and as much of an attraction is J.T. Walsh in a more sizeable role as a no-nonsense bad guy.
Outland (1981)
The movie begins with moaning wind sound music and progressively appearing title shamelessly stealing effect from Alien. Alan Ladd Jr. helped get Alien produced at 20th Century Fox, and then produced this with his new Alan Ladd Company. He had recommended Jerry Goldsmith for the Alien score, and got him for this, too, so at least Goldsmith was poaching from himself. The initial model sets and composites look 60ish in their color and style, the sets for the interior more like the gritty industrial, well-worn style that Alien and even Star Wars popularized, if not quite cyberpunk. But when it settles down into the situation of a marshal in a mining camp, there's not much of a space movie pretense, because it's really a High Noon pretense. That's actually for the better, and though at the time it came out, it seemed a bit specious as a vehicle for Sean Connery, in hindsight it's a good role, even comparable to Gary Cooper with the more modest demeanor. And check out young Clarke Peters (Lester Freamon on The Wire, Big Chief on Treme).
The movie begins with moaning wind sound music and progressively appearing title shamelessly stealing effect from Alien. Alan Ladd Jr. helped get Alien produced at 20th Century Fox, and then produced this with his new Alan Ladd Company. He had recommended Jerry Goldsmith for the Alien score, and got him for this, too, so at least Goldsmith was poaching from himself. The initial model sets and composites look 60ish in their color and style, the sets for the interior more like the gritty industrial, well-worn style that Alien and even Star Wars popularized, if not quite cyberpunk. But when it settles down into the situation of a marshal in a mining camp, there's not much of a space movie pretense, because it's really a High Noon pretense. That's actually for the better, and though at the time it came out, it seemed a bit specious as a vehicle for Sean Connery, in hindsight it's a good role, even comparable to Gary Cooper with the more modest demeanor. And check out young Clarke Peters (Lester Freamon on The Wire, Big Chief on Treme).
The Promise (2016)
The historical drama is played so earnestly to begin with, and then with such conspicuous intent to be noble, like a silent movie with the self-sacrificing, that it loses any savoriness of the flaws or foibles or entanglements for the characters played by Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale. Angela Sarafyan and especially Charlotte Le Bon manage to do better.
The historical drama is played so earnestly to begin with, and then with such conspicuous intent to be noble, like a silent movie with the self-sacrificing, that it loses any savoriness of the flaws or foibles or entanglements for the characters played by Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale. Angela Sarafyan and especially Charlotte Le Bon manage to do better.
Eye of the Needle (1981)
The most interesting part of this is when Donald Sutherland's character ends up on the island with Kate Nelligan's character. The setup for that takes about half the movie, and even so director Richard Marquand handles it so expediently, it looks like it was edited for TV, scenes cut too abruptly as if for extra commercials. If we'd started with Sutherland coming to the island, then followed the British agents in parallel and even flashback cutaway, the slower intrigue would have been set up, and could've framed and contrasted a more anxious pace.
The most interesting part of this is when Donald Sutherland's character ends up on the island with Kate Nelligan's character. The setup for that takes about half the movie, and even so director Richard Marquand handles it so expediently, it looks like it was edited for TV, scenes cut too abruptly as if for extra commercials. If we'd started with Sutherland coming to the island, then followed the British agents in parallel and even flashback cutaway, the slower intrigue would have been set up, and could've framed and contrasted a more anxious pace.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
The apes franchise forges ahead as a computer graphics vehicle, though with what's going on with AI there's a different sense to that. As with previous installments, some of the detail work, with the ape faces, is the most impressive, but the larger action and vista stuff still looks like we're in a video game, and the script, human or not, can't come up with much more than pretext for that.
The apes franchise forges ahead as a computer graphics vehicle, though with what's going on with AI there's a different sense to that. As with previous installments, some of the detail work, with the ape faces, is the most impressive, but the larger action and vista stuff still looks like we're in a video game, and the script, human or not, can't come up with much more than pretext for that.
IF (2024)
Made me want to take a bath to wash off the sticky wonderment.
Made me want to take a bath to wash off the sticky wonderment.
The Bikeriders (2023)
Director Jeff Nichols and his co-writer Danny Lyon avoided some of the commonplaces of biker repute and movies, but the approach is more as plot than characterization, thus the effort to follow a documentary account comes off flat as either. There's not the spark or air of these people or the milieu, nothing approximating that in the depiction, despite actors like Tom Hardy and Michael Shannon, save for a few moments here and there, and Jodie Comer providing most of them.
7/13/24
Director Jeff Nichols and his co-writer Danny Lyon avoided some of the commonplaces of biker repute and movies, but the approach is more as plot than characterization, thus the effort to follow a documentary account comes off flat as either. There's not the spark or air of these people or the milieu, nothing approximating that in the depiction, despite actors like Tom Hardy and Michael Shannon, save for a few moments here and there, and Jodie Comer providing most of them.
Shelley Duvall died.
Besides The Shining, Nashville, Thieves Like Us and the amazing Three Women (the latter three Altman), go find and watch Faerie Tale Theater, conceived, produced and hosted by Duvall, and which was a Whitman's sampler of all the talent of the 80s, not only the cast who played famous fairy tale parts, but the directors of the episodes as well.
Besides The Shining, Nashville, Thieves Like Us and the amazing Three Women (the latter three Altman), go find and watch Faerie Tale Theater, conceived, produced and hosted by Duvall, and which was a Whitman's sampler of all the talent of the 80s, not only the cast who played famous fairy tale parts, but the directors of the episodes as well.
Rust and Bone (2012)
It's based on a collection of short stories, but that works here like wild turns in the flow of the story, and the effect is more like those silent movie melodramas parodied for just such lurches by Guy Maddin (cf Careful, Archangel). How many stories are there here? Of course real life is complex and not homogeneous and reduced to one theme, but the romance here is in the whimsy of freewheeling from thieving homeless dad and kid to sister and new bouncer job -- oh, and learning of drug-running deadbeat mother in passing -- to rescuing woman from club fight to woman's job training killer whales to losing her legs in a whale accident, scarcely more than in passing, to bouncer being her best solace to no bones about it revitalization of libido to -- oh, well, it's apparently about underground street fighting. Despite decent work here, the effect of it seems to be that we sympathize with the sheer guts of people to survive whatever the endeavor, even if that endeavor is the major risk to survival. At least Americans don't corner the market on such romanticizing passing for unflinching realism. The French, for all their great blase realism and incredulity have their pretense, too (see also Les Miserables).
It's based on a collection of short stories, but that works here like wild turns in the flow of the story, and the effect is more like those silent movie melodramas parodied for just such lurches by Guy Maddin (cf Careful, Archangel). How many stories are there here? Of course real life is complex and not homogeneous and reduced to one theme, but the romance here is in the whimsy of freewheeling from thieving homeless dad and kid to sister and new bouncer job -- oh, and learning of drug-running deadbeat mother in passing -- to rescuing woman from club fight to woman's job training killer whales to losing her legs in a whale accident, scarcely more than in passing, to bouncer being her best solace to no bones about it revitalization of libido to -- oh, well, it's apparently about underground street fighting. Despite decent work here, the effect of it seems to be that we sympathize with the sheer guts of people to survive whatever the endeavor, even if that endeavor is the major risk to survival. At least Americans don't corner the market on such romanticizing passing for unflinching realism. The French, for all their great blase realism and incredulity have their pretense, too (see also Les Miserables).
Donald Sutherland tour
The Day of the Locust (1975)
Nathaniel West's novel is perhaps the most famous critical portrait of Hollywood and by extension America and it was written in the 30s, a view of things then. For the 70s, with all the nostalgia for that earlier era, it suited in more than one way, coming along in the New Hollywood vein, but also against the grain of the more popular appeal of the nostalgia. And, of course, it was downstream, seeing the effects. Waldo Salt, who wrote the script, and director John Schlesinger serve up the bittersweet dish in cinematographer Conrad Hall's gauzy view. Schlesinger seems to have been watching Robert Altman. This has that kind of roaming and jumping through characters in the story, and then in certain shots. But there's also a more strident quality to it, especially the characterization by the actors, and it's not directly preachy, but more like the broad character comedy of its day. It's not that the types played by Karen Black or Donald Sutherland or Burgess Meredith can't come across as excessive or surreal in real life, or be expressed that way, but by the time we get to the disastrous climax, the horror or disaster movie or surreal flashes seem like other extraneous strokes of characterization.
The Day of the Locust (1975)
Nathaniel West's novel is perhaps the most famous critical portrait of Hollywood and by extension America and it was written in the 30s, a view of things then. For the 70s, with all the nostalgia for that earlier era, it suited in more than one way, coming along in the New Hollywood vein, but also against the grain of the more popular appeal of the nostalgia. And, of course, it was downstream, seeing the effects. Waldo Salt, who wrote the script, and director John Schlesinger serve up the bittersweet dish in cinematographer Conrad Hall's gauzy view. Schlesinger seems to have been watching Robert Altman. This has that kind of roaming and jumping through characters in the story, and then in certain shots. But there's also a more strident quality to it, especially the characterization by the actors, and it's not directly preachy, but more like the broad character comedy of its day. It's not that the types played by Karen Black or Donald Sutherland or Burgess Meredith can't come across as excessive or surreal in real life, or be expressed that way, but by the time we get to the disastrous climax, the horror or disaster movie or surreal flashes seem like other extraneous strokes of characterization.
Force 10 from Navarone (1978)
By the time we get to this, things look a bit fuzzy for war adventures and director Guy Hamilton. After Goldfinger, one of the best in the series, Hamilton directed three 70s Bond movies, bridging the transition to Roger Moore. Richard Kiel and Barabara Bach turn up in this, from The Spy Who Loved Me of the previous year, which was curiously not directed by Hamilton but they certainly give it that pop corn quality. Fresh off Star Wars, but before Raiders of the Lost Ark Harrison Ford makes a bid as the new Clint Eastwood -- see Where Eagles Dare, the Alistair Maclean war adventure in between this and what its story follows, The Guns of Navarone, with Robert Shaw and Edward Fox as the Gregory Peck and David Niven characters. Ford is made via character a strangely bitchy junior to the senior characters and actors.
By the time we get to this, things look a bit fuzzy for war adventures and director Guy Hamilton. After Goldfinger, one of the best in the series, Hamilton directed three 70s Bond movies, bridging the transition to Roger Moore. Richard Kiel and Barabara Bach turn up in this, from The Spy Who Loved Me of the previous year, which was curiously not directed by Hamilton but they certainly give it that pop corn quality. Fresh off Star Wars, but before Raiders of the Lost Ark Harrison Ford makes a bid as the new Clint Eastwood -- see Where Eagles Dare, the Alistair Maclean war adventure in between this and what its story follows, The Guns of Navarone, with Robert Shaw and Edward Fox as the Gregory Peck and David Niven characters. Ford is made via character a strangely bitchy junior to the senior characters and actors.
The Guns of Navarone (1961)
War adventure, secret mission variation, the first of Alistair Maclean's such novels to be made into a movie, with Carl Foreman of Bridge on the River Kwai as scriptwriter. The nobility of the overall endeavor, and the courage and daring and heroism involved all along the way, became more tacit as the drama and action became more the focus. There are certainly moments here where the dialogue tries to make all the big themes express, and in fact in several scenes the talking drags out the point, but that's still in a scheme that divides the action and comments, compared to the more social parable of Kwai or even the characterization of La Grande illusion. Character still makes this the best of the line it kicked off, with the performances of its cast suiting nicely, Gregory Peck, for some reason cast as a British officer (Robert Shaw plays the same character in the follow-up, Force 10 from Navarone), David Niven and Anthony Quinn leading the way.
7/4/24
War adventure, secret mission variation, the first of Alistair Maclean's such novels to be made into a movie, with Carl Foreman of Bridge on the River Kwai as scriptwriter. The nobility of the overall endeavor, and the courage and daring and heroism involved all along the way, became more tacit as the drama and action became more the focus. There are certainly moments here where the dialogue tries to make all the big themes express, and in fact in several scenes the talking drags out the point, but that's still in a scheme that divides the action and comments, compared to the more social parable of Kwai or even the characterization of La Grande illusion. Character still makes this the best of the line it kicked off, with the performances of its cast suiting nicely, Gregory Peck, for some reason cast as a British officer (Robert Shaw plays the same character in the follow-up, Force 10 from Navarone), David Niven and Anthony Quinn leading the way.
Donald Sutherland tour
Kelly's Heroes (1970)
On the heels of The Dirty Dozen, this vehicle for another ragtag bunch has a more interesting back story, especially since the movie. The results of an investigation into the real incident of a wartime bank robbery and its cover-up were in part the subject of a 1984 book, Nazi Gold. The movie tries to get by on characters, particulary those played by Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, and the show stealer, Donald Sutherland, whose Oddball is some sort of proto beat, surfer or hippie, if not just a shameless anachronism. Cf. the theme song "Burning Bridges" which was a hit single. Late in the proceedings, there's a reference to Eastwood's spaghetti Westerns, a little mockup of the music, a gunslinger setup and approach, but the comparison with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly doesn't favor this, as a caper during wartime, mercenary intent official and unofficial, or even the humor, gallows or otherwise.
Klute (1971)
As with director Alan Pakula's The Parallax View there's a patina of swank reverence over this, an air of foreboding but also of fashionable aloofness. The script, by Andy Lewis and David E. Lewis, involves more interesting character study, so even the thriller plotting doesn't pull it too far from that, which makes for good performances from Donald Sutherland, Jane Fonda and Roy Scheider in particular, and from the photography of Gordon Willis. The visual plan contributes to that air, but it's also doing so much in its own way that's more interesting.
M.A.S.H. (1972)
Ring Lardner Jr. wrote the script from Richard Hooker's book, and it was the movie that catalyzed Robert Altman's style. What came together in that line was a stroke of cutting through bullshit. The irreverence for any sort of ceremony or rationalization of war is juxtaposed with battlefield surgery, without further comment. Altman's method, as much practical to deal with lower budget, of filling shots and scenes with more going on, working that up through improvisation with the actors, catching all that with the camera and then composing it into a roving, rolling sprawl, emphasized not only what's in the scene, the material or reality, but what's actually more basic to dramatization, the overall character or voice, mood, tone. It was more sophisticated, as parody or social comment, indirect and cumulative rather than declamatory, as also demonstrated by contrast to the TV series that followed the success of the movie, that, as Altman also said, was its antithesis, rifling off one-liners and patting itself on the back.
For more of the Donald Sutherland tour, see:
Don't Look Now
The Day of the Locust
Eye of the Needle
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Six Degrees of Separation
Kelly's Heroes (1970)
On the heels of The Dirty Dozen, this vehicle for another ragtag bunch has a more interesting back story, especially since the movie. The results of an investigation into the real incident of a wartime bank robbery and its cover-up were in part the subject of a 1984 book, Nazi Gold. The movie tries to get by on characters, particulary those played by Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Don Rickles, and the show stealer, Donald Sutherland, whose Oddball is some sort of proto beat, surfer or hippie, if not just a shameless anachronism. Cf. the theme song "Burning Bridges" which was a hit single. Late in the proceedings, there's a reference to Eastwood's spaghetti Westerns, a little mockup of the music, a gunslinger setup and approach, but the comparison with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly doesn't favor this, as a caper during wartime, mercenary intent official and unofficial, or even the humor, gallows or otherwise.
Klute (1971)
As with director Alan Pakula's The Parallax View there's a patina of swank reverence over this, an air of foreboding but also of fashionable aloofness. The script, by Andy Lewis and David E. Lewis, involves more interesting character study, so even the thriller plotting doesn't pull it too far from that, which makes for good performances from Donald Sutherland, Jane Fonda and Roy Scheider in particular, and from the photography of Gordon Willis. The visual plan contributes to that air, but it's also doing so much in its own way that's more interesting.
M.A.S.H. (1972)
Ring Lardner Jr. wrote the script from Richard Hooker's book, and it was the movie that catalyzed Robert Altman's style. What came together in that line was a stroke of cutting through bullshit. The irreverence for any sort of ceremony or rationalization of war is juxtaposed with battlefield surgery, without further comment. Altman's method, as much practical to deal with lower budget, of filling shots and scenes with more going on, working that up through improvisation with the actors, catching all that with the camera and then composing it into a roving, rolling sprawl, emphasized not only what's in the scene, the material or reality, but what's actually more basic to dramatization, the overall character or voice, mood, tone. It was more sophisticated, as parody or social comment, indirect and cumulative rather than declamatory, as also demonstrated by contrast to the TV series that followed the success of the movie, that, as Altman also said, was its antithesis, rifling off one-liners and patting itself on the back.
For more of the Donald Sutherland tour, see:
Don't Look Now
The Day of the Locust
Eye of the Needle
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Six Degrees of Separation
The Wild Party (1975)
Along the way of the Hollywood Babylon theme (cf. The Day of the Locust of the same year, more recently Babylon), and Merchant and Ivory productions, there was this curiosity that coupled James Coco and Raquel Welch! It's based on a 1926 narrative poem of the same name by Joseph Mancure March, but was reworked as a Fatty Arbuckle type story. Its more unfortunate line was the popularity in the 70s for things early century as perhaps peaked with The Sting but was everywhere in fashion, decor and pizza parlors. The music for this represents the worst, most infatuated distillation of the trend, but the whole thing is shrill presentation.
Along the way of the Hollywood Babylon theme (cf. The Day of the Locust of the same year, more recently Babylon), and Merchant and Ivory productions, there was this curiosity that coupled James Coco and Raquel Welch! It's based on a 1926 narrative poem of the same name by Joseph Mancure March, but was reworked as a Fatty Arbuckle type story. Its more unfortunate line was the popularity in the 70s for things early century as perhaps peaked with The Sting but was everywhere in fashion, decor and pizza parlors. The music for this represents the worst, most infatuated distillation of the trend, but the whole thing is shrill presentation.
Chaw (2009)
This Korean updating of Razorback introduces a new character with almost every scene, sometimes with every shot. That provides its own dubious thrill, but also dispatch to keep the movie rolling through rank bumbling. It seems to be conscious of the hokey horror quality -- despite its CG attempt at the giant boar, it's certainly not on the level of The Host -- but when it settles down into the climactic team hunt, it takes things pretty seriously.
This Korean updating of Razorback introduces a new character with almost every scene, sometimes with every shot. That provides its own dubious thrill, but also dispatch to keep the movie rolling through rank bumbling. It seems to be conscious of the hokey horror quality -- despite its CG attempt at the giant boar, it's certainly not on the level of The Host -- but when it settles down into the climactic team hunt, it takes things pretty seriously.
The General (1998)
John Boorman's rendition of the real-life story of Martin Cahill, a Dublin gangster who pulled off big robberies in the 80s, has a tour-de-force performance from Brendan Gleeson and plenty of force otherwise, but hardly gives you time to catch your breath. The script tries to cover so much it feels crammed, the pace a matter of that, but there's also a restless bravado about it, so that even all its points and flourishes are rushed.
John Boorman's rendition of the real-life story of Martin Cahill, a Dublin gangster who pulled off big robberies in the 80s, has a tour-de-force performance from Brendan Gleeson and plenty of force otherwise, but hardly gives you time to catch your breath. The script tries to cover so much it feels crammed, the pace a matter of that, but there's also a restless bravado about it, so that even all its points and flourishes are rushed.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
It's cut from the same cloth as Mad Max: Fury Road, and George Miller has the act down, so it's got the same drive and sweep, the motion Miller gives to it all so that it's not just plot or action. But it's a more labored story, not the graceful structure of the prior movie, certainly not that great Seven Samurai move where all the social depth opens up, and Miller and his co-writer Nick Lathouris got more carried away with the literary pretension, so the dialogue gets heavy in places. Fury Road was this analogously, the movie version of poetic, but here they're trying to make it more so with the writing, including a character who's a walking book. Besides her giant eyes, there's not much else Anya Taylor-Joy has that matches the stature of Charlize Theron for the character, but Tom Burke is like the rebirth of Stacy Keach, and has good presence for that.
It's cut from the same cloth as Mad Max: Fury Road, and George Miller has the act down, so it's got the same drive and sweep, the motion Miller gives to it all so that it's not just plot or action. But it's a more labored story, not the graceful structure of the prior movie, certainly not that great Seven Samurai move where all the social depth opens up, and Miller and his co-writer Nick Lathouris got more carried away with the literary pretension, so the dialogue gets heavy in places. Fury Road was this analogously, the movie version of poetic, but here they're trying to make it more so with the writing, including a character who's a walking book. Besides her giant eyes, there's not much else Anya Taylor-Joy has that matches the stature of Charlize Theron for the character, but Tom Burke is like the rebirth of Stacy Keach, and has good presence for that.
Carny (1980)
The tone, especially with the acting, isn't quite TV movie sensationalism, but the story keeps going into other things not exactly carny life. It's a great chance to let it hang out for Gary Busey, Robbie Robertson and Jodie Foster, although Kenneth McMillan is kind of wasted, but it's the case of Foster that demonstrates the swerve. By the time we get to Foster running the grift at a game booth, and playing to the ladies in one scene that has its own indirect frankness, we realize all the other business has been off track. The romance didn't give us the runaway joining the carnival, something more like Foster's character in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, a street tough character, but has been softened for that in favor of sexual intrigue. Did someone fear there would be more reaction to kids wanting to be carnies than to sexual assault?
The tone, especially with the acting, isn't quite TV movie sensationalism, but the story keeps going into other things not exactly carny life. It's a great chance to let it hang out for Gary Busey, Robbie Robertson and Jodie Foster, although Kenneth McMillan is kind of wasted, but it's the case of Foster that demonstrates the swerve. By the time we get to Foster running the grift at a game booth, and playing to the ladies in one scene that has its own indirect frankness, we realize all the other business has been off track. The romance didn't give us the runaway joining the carnival, something more like Foster's character in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, a street tough character, but has been softened for that in favor of sexual intrigue. Did someone fear there would be more reaction to kids wanting to be carnies than to sexual assault?
Stakeout (1987)
There are a few clever moments in this overly pitched romance disguised as a buddy cop movie, including some decent photography and a segment of a car floating down a river that's more interesting than the sequence is dramatically. When the movie started dragging out the climax, dragging off to other locations and setups, I started imagining a spoof of this, and then the movie beat me to the punch with -- a paper mill! -- dragging the mano a mano onto conveyor belts and saws and crushing machines. Dudley Do-Right!
There are a few clever moments in this overly pitched romance disguised as a buddy cop movie, including some decent photography and a segment of a car floating down a river that's more interesting than the sequence is dramatically. When the movie started dragging out the climax, dragging off to other locations and setups, I started imagining a spoof of this, and then the movie beat me to the punch with -- a paper mill! -- dragging the mano a mano onto conveyor belts and saws and crushing machines. Dudley Do-Right!
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Entries by Greg Macon for the Facebook group Movie Brains, related to film comments on this website, Fixion. Text for movie comments this page © 2024 Greg Macon. Banner image and quote from Earth vs. The Flying Saucers.
Contact: mail@fixionsytes.net
People were just not ready for [King of Comedy]. And it's only now that you can have a movie like Joker come in and essentially just, you know, replicate the whole thing and audiences laught it up and it makes a billion dollars.
-- Clarisse Loughrey, The Independent
You've been reading your script for seven minutes and there's not a word of dialogue yet. That's enough for me. I'm making this movie.
-- Alain Delon to Jean-Pierre Melville about Le Samourai
What's great about being an actress is you don't just live one life, you live many lives. You are not just stuck with yourself all of your life.
-- Gena Rowlands said on accepting her honorary Oscar in 2015
He offers me damn good roles. None of them have been alike. He has a great confidence in me, and a trust and respect for me, and he doesn't put any restrictions on me or intimidate me, and I love him. I remember the first advice he ever gave me: "Don't take yourself seriously."
-- Shelley Duvall about Robert Altman, interview in The New York Times in 1977.
It's a city that's so illusory. It's the westernmost west of America. It's a sort of place of last resort. It's a place where, in a word, people go to make their dreams come true. And they're forever disappointed.
-- Robert Towne on L.A.
https://www.fosters.com/story/entertainment/2006/03/15/towne-city-famed-screenwriter-returns/53108862007/