Trois jours à vivre / Three Days to Live (Gilles Grangier, 1957) 8/10
A struggling stage actor (Daniel Gélin), desperate for bigger roles, inadvertently witnesses the killing of a gangster on the street outside the theater. The media publicises him when he claims he can identify the killer and the theater manager uses the publicity to give him the lead role in the dark and complex French drama "Lorenzaccio" by Alfred de Musset. The play deals with playacting, deceit and various facets of courage and cowardice. Under court pressure the actor wrongfully but intentionally identifies the wrong man (Lino Ventura) as the killer who is convicted to prison for 20 years. Drunk on the adulation received by his colleagues for being a brave hero which in turn resulted in him getting prominent parts on stage he continues with the ruse. Later the prisoner escapes, calls the actor and threatens to kill him after three days. His life begins to mirror the play he is acting in as fear begins ruling his life. Gélin is superb as the sensitive young man who suddenly finds that his inflated ego could soon find him at death's door. Jeanne Moreau, as his sympathetic girlfriend, brings a sense of calm into his increasingly chaotic and hysterical life while Lino Ventura, in one of his early film appearances, adds quiet authoritative menace.
The View From Pompey's Head / Secret Interlude (Phillip Dunne, 1955) 7/10
Old fashioned soap opera set in the South with overheated passions by way of yet another beautiful British actress (Dana Wynter) playing a southern belle. One would imagine Hollywood could at least get the casting right with homegrown talent (Joanne Woodward and Faye Dunaway were yet to make their film debuts) but for some strange reason they always turned to British imports (Vivien Leigh, Jessica Tandy and later Elizabeth Taylor) for the quintessential part of the southern belle. An attorney (Richard Egan) returns to his southern hometown in South Carolina where he is reunited after ten years with the woman who was passionately in love with him but now married to a local businessman (Cameron Mitchell). He is briefly in town to meet with the formidable wife (Marjorie Rambeau) of a prominent writer (Sidney Blackmer) after she has sued the estate of her husband's deceased former manager (and close Friend) for embezzlement. He not only rekindles a romance but also once again encounters racial and class prejudices which had made him move away to New York. Well acted film was an attempt by Fox studios to groom rugged Richard Egan into a romantic star on the same lines as Rock Hudson at Universal. He never quite made it although he was an affable presence in a number of films. Wynter is stunningly beautiful dressed to her teeth in glamourous outfits by Charles LeMaire. Elmer Bernstein provides a romantic symphonic score while Joseph MacDonald provides the lush cinematography capturing the lovers in carefully placed shadows and light. The film is stolen by the silent screen beauty Marjorie Rambeau as the crusty old woman still living in archaic times trying to maintain a facade that reeks of prejudice. She was deservedly cited by the National Board of Review for her riveting performance.
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
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Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (2020) - 8.5/10 - This documentary traces the movement to eliminate discrimination against the disabled and to provide accessibility to them to Camp Jened in New York. This was a summer camp teens and young adults with disabilities and was located not too far from Woodstock. In the early 1970s, campers and counselors created a place where the disabled could try different things and expand their horizons. The film uses footage taken at that camp along with footage from tv coverage from protests in the 1970s-1990s involving many people from Camp Jened as well as interviews with some of the same people today. I think it is very well put together and makes for an educational and entertaining film.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020) - 6/10 - Lars (Will Ferrell) and Sigrit (Rachel McAdams) are from a small town in Iceland and have dreamed of winning the Eurovision Song Contest since watching Abba win in the 1970s. They are part of a group called Fire Saga, but aren't really that good. They get the opportunity to perform in Eurovision representing Iceland and things don't go exactly as they hoped. I went in with low expectations and while the movie is kind of goofy and could do to be cut in length a bit, I ended up enjoying it. It's not a great film, but it was generally fun.
Over the Moon (2020) - 7/10 - Fei Fei's family have a popular shop where they make mooncakes. When Fei Fei's father looks to remarry, Fei Fei is worried that her father is forgetting his love for his late wife so she builds a rocket to go seek help from the mythical moon goddess. The story is more about her overcoming the grief that still lingers over the death of her mother. This is a pretty decent animated musical. I'd place it fourth among the nominees for animated feature, but I liked it.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020) - 6/10 - Lars (Will Ferrell) and Sigrit (Rachel McAdams) are from a small town in Iceland and have dreamed of winning the Eurovision Song Contest since watching Abba win in the 1970s. They are part of a group called Fire Saga, but aren't really that good. They get the opportunity to perform in Eurovision representing Iceland and things don't go exactly as they hoped. I went in with low expectations and while the movie is kind of goofy and could do to be cut in length a bit, I ended up enjoying it. It's not a great film, but it was generally fun.
Over the Moon (2020) - 7/10 - Fei Fei's family have a popular shop where they make mooncakes. When Fei Fei's father looks to remarry, Fei Fei is worried that her father is forgetting his love for his late wife so she builds a rocket to go seek help from the mythical moon goddess. The story is more about her overcoming the grief that still lingers over the death of her mother. This is a pretty decent animated musical. I'd place it fourth among the nominees for animated feature, but I liked it.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Company Men (John Wells, 2010) 8/10
What is immediately jarring about this film, a decade on, is the lack of diversity amongst the cast. We are in a totally white world which today would have played very differently up on screen. Nevertheless the entire ensemble cast are at the top of their game in a plot which personally resonates deeply having been close to situations that the characters go through. During a recession a shipbuilding corporation is forced to downsize at the behest of the owner (Craig T. Nelson). His CFO and close friend (Tommy Lee Jones) questions his strategy of laying off workers in order to build an extravagant new corporate headquarter. Amongst the ones fired are a young hotshot (Ben Affleck), who's high-flying lifestyle - huge mansion, his country club membership and a Porsche - come crashing down with his only means for survival being a manual labour job working for his blue-collar brother-in-law (Kevin Costner). In contrast is the Senior Manager (Chris Cooper) who spent 30 years rising the ladder who suddenly finds himself with no job and kids still at university. When the CFO implores the HR manager (Maria Bello) - also his mistress - to rehire him immediately, she not only refuses but fires him too. The film takes a frank and scary look at the fierce and cruel job market which is especially not kind to people of a certain age. While the almost fairytale-like ending seems false the sharply written screenplay scores points in its depiction of a ruthless corporate culture. Jones and Costner, amongst a uniformly fantastic cast, are especially memorable. Roger Deakins' sharp lighting and the outstanding production design also compliment this very fine film.
Hi, Nellie! (Mervyn LeRoy, 1934) 8/10
Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's hit Broadway play, "The Front Page", and it's Oscar nominated screen adaptation set off a similar chain of films set in newspaper offices at all the major studios. Tough editors, tired and weary office workers, rapid-fire streetwise dialogue and sharp-tongued females (in or out of the office and usually the main character's downtrodden squeeze or exasperated colleague) became part of the scenario. Star Muni, just before he became the studio's highly distinguised (and boring) property playing "Louis Pasteur" and "Emile Zola", has great fun with his part and runs with it. Tough editor (Paul Muni) is demoted by the newspaper publisher for refusing to follow up on news involving a crook. He is forced to write for the lonely hearts column, a position he had forced on his ex-girlfriend (Glenda Farrell) as punishment for missing a scoop. He goes onto a drunken binge before snapping out of it and not only turning the column into a major hit but also latches on to a major story involving gangsters. Muni is fast, loose and very funny and all his scenes opposite Farrell crackle with sexual tension. Playing assorted characters at the office are a hilarious bunch of character actors - Berton Churchill, Ned Sparks, Donald Meek and Douglas Dumbrille. The finalé takes place in a gangster's nightclub where the bar is placed in the middle of the room on a merry-go-round - totally absurd but spectacular. Pity Muni did not attempt more comedy because despite his Oscar and four other nominations (for his "distinguished" roles) he is all but forgotten today.
Par un beau matin d'été / Crime on a Summer Morning (Jacques Deray, 1965) 8/10
The french always came up with exciting thrillers often based on pulp novels, and here Deray adapts "One Bright Summer Morning" by James Hadley Chase. A brother (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and sister (Sophie Daumier) duo are small-time con artists luring dirty old men and putting them into sexually compromising positions and blackmailing them for money. When they are hired by a seasoned crook (Akim Tamiroff) to pick up the daughter (Geraldine Chaplin) of a rich American billionaire (Adolfo Celi) the duo soon find themselves in over their head despite their success with the kidnapping. Holed up at the countryside home of a prominent painter (Gabrielle Ferzetti) emotions begin to boil over as sex, jealousy and jangled nerves lead to treachery and murder. The film begins almost in a comedic mode but the mood soon turns very serious. Crisp cinematography, stunning Spanish locations, the delightfully laconic Belmondo, a sexy Daumier - there is a strong undercurrent of incest running through their relationship - and a young Chaplin in her film debut are just some of the memorable parts of this film. Deray, who was fascinated by American film noir, creates all the right moves here later going onto a fantastic career making action films and thrillers.
What is immediately jarring about this film, a decade on, is the lack of diversity amongst the cast. We are in a totally white world which today would have played very differently up on screen. Nevertheless the entire ensemble cast are at the top of their game in a plot which personally resonates deeply having been close to situations that the characters go through. During a recession a shipbuilding corporation is forced to downsize at the behest of the owner (Craig T. Nelson). His CFO and close friend (Tommy Lee Jones) questions his strategy of laying off workers in order to build an extravagant new corporate headquarter. Amongst the ones fired are a young hotshot (Ben Affleck), who's high-flying lifestyle - huge mansion, his country club membership and a Porsche - come crashing down with his only means for survival being a manual labour job working for his blue-collar brother-in-law (Kevin Costner). In contrast is the Senior Manager (Chris Cooper) who spent 30 years rising the ladder who suddenly finds himself with no job and kids still at university. When the CFO implores the HR manager (Maria Bello) - also his mistress - to rehire him immediately, she not only refuses but fires him too. The film takes a frank and scary look at the fierce and cruel job market which is especially not kind to people of a certain age. While the almost fairytale-like ending seems false the sharply written screenplay scores points in its depiction of a ruthless corporate culture. Jones and Costner, amongst a uniformly fantastic cast, are especially memorable. Roger Deakins' sharp lighting and the outstanding production design also compliment this very fine film.
Hi, Nellie! (Mervyn LeRoy, 1934) 8/10
Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's hit Broadway play, "The Front Page", and it's Oscar nominated screen adaptation set off a similar chain of films set in newspaper offices at all the major studios. Tough editors, tired and weary office workers, rapid-fire streetwise dialogue and sharp-tongued females (in or out of the office and usually the main character's downtrodden squeeze or exasperated colleague) became part of the scenario. Star Muni, just before he became the studio's highly distinguised (and boring) property playing "Louis Pasteur" and "Emile Zola", has great fun with his part and runs with it. Tough editor (Paul Muni) is demoted by the newspaper publisher for refusing to follow up on news involving a crook. He is forced to write for the lonely hearts column, a position he had forced on his ex-girlfriend (Glenda Farrell) as punishment for missing a scoop. He goes onto a drunken binge before snapping out of it and not only turning the column into a major hit but also latches on to a major story involving gangsters. Muni is fast, loose and very funny and all his scenes opposite Farrell crackle with sexual tension. Playing assorted characters at the office are a hilarious bunch of character actors - Berton Churchill, Ned Sparks, Donald Meek and Douglas Dumbrille. The finalé takes place in a gangster's nightclub where the bar is placed in the middle of the room on a merry-go-round - totally absurd but spectacular. Pity Muni did not attempt more comedy because despite his Oscar and four other nominations (for his "distinguished" roles) he is all but forgotten today.
Par un beau matin d'été / Crime on a Summer Morning (Jacques Deray, 1965) 8/10
The french always came up with exciting thrillers often based on pulp novels, and here Deray adapts "One Bright Summer Morning" by James Hadley Chase. A brother (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and sister (Sophie Daumier) duo are small-time con artists luring dirty old men and putting them into sexually compromising positions and blackmailing them for money. When they are hired by a seasoned crook (Akim Tamiroff) to pick up the daughter (Geraldine Chaplin) of a rich American billionaire (Adolfo Celi) the duo soon find themselves in over their head despite their success with the kidnapping. Holed up at the countryside home of a prominent painter (Gabrielle Ferzetti) emotions begin to boil over as sex, jealousy and jangled nerves lead to treachery and murder. The film begins almost in a comedic mode but the mood soon turns very serious. Crisp cinematography, stunning Spanish locations, the delightfully laconic Belmondo, a sexy Daumier - there is a strong undercurrent of incest running through their relationship - and a young Chaplin in her film debut are just some of the memorable parts of this film. Deray, who was fascinated by American film noir, creates all the right moves here later going onto a fantastic career making action films and thrillers.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Another Round (2020) - 7.5/10 - Four middle aged high school teachers are kind of in a rut - they've lost the energy and vitality they had in their youth and are kind of dull and boring now. They decided to experiment with day drinking, attempting to keep their blood alcohol level around .05 throughout the day. It does seem to reenergize them and their teaching, but there are problems that arise as well. Mads Mikkelsen is pretty good here and I did enjoy the movie, especially the first half of it, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I had expected.
Glorious Betsy (1928) - 7/10 - Dolores Costello and Conrad Nagel did a nice job in this story of the romance between Elizabeth "Betsy" Patterson of Baltimore and Jerome Bonaparte (brother of Napoleon). They took a few liberties with the story, but the movie was decent, especially the first half of it. Too bad the sound portion of the story was lost, but you can pretty much tell what is going on during that part and the rest of the film has the title cards in place.
Pinocchio (2019) - 8/10 - I think that this new version is fairly faithful to the original novel. Fans of the Disney cartoon may be a little put off by it, but I thought it was pretty good. The acting, costumes, makeup, and settings were all good. I imagine that the planned Disney live action version will look a lot different, but not necessarily better.
Glorious Betsy (1928) - 7/10 - Dolores Costello and Conrad Nagel did a nice job in this story of the romance between Elizabeth "Betsy" Patterson of Baltimore and Jerome Bonaparte (brother of Napoleon). They took a few liberties with the story, but the movie was decent, especially the first half of it. Too bad the sound portion of the story was lost, but you can pretty much tell what is going on during that part and the rest of the film has the title cards in place.
Pinocchio (2019) - 8/10 - I think that this new version is fairly faithful to the original novel. Fans of the Disney cartoon may be a little put off by it, but I thought it was pretty good. The acting, costumes, makeup, and settings were all good. I imagine that the planned Disney live action version will look a lot different, but not necessarily better.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Half of It (Alice Wu) -- 7/10
Alice Wu's first film since Saving Grace in 2005 (which I haven't seen). It's at once a pretty obvious Cyrano de Bergerac update but also an above-average, literate Netflix YA romance. It's cute and occasionally pretty moving.
Alice Wu's first film since Saving Grace in 2005 (which I haven't seen). It's at once a pretty obvious Cyrano de Bergerac update but also an above-average, literate Netflix YA romance. It's cute and occasionally pretty moving.
"How's the despair?"
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Promising Young Woman (2020) - 8.5/10 - Cassie is about to turn 30 and hasn't been the same since what happened to her friend Nina back in med school. Every week she goes out cruising for a it of revenge. Now the opportunity to get some real revenge comes up just as things may be looking up for her on a personal level. I thought that Carey Mulligan did an excellent job and this movie is very entertaining.
My Octopus Teacher (2020) - 7/10 - This documentary has about 80 minutes of nice underwater footage, much of it focused on an octopus that exhibits curiosity and strategy while trying to survive in its environment. We get pyjama sharks, a crab, lobsters, lots of fish, and other sea creatures, but mostly the octopus. We also get about 80 minutes of running commentary from Craig Foster as he seeks meaning in the activity of the octopus and how it relates to his own life. That can get a bit tedious, but I still enjoyed the film quite a bit for the nice underwater scenes.
My Octopus Teacher (2020) - 7/10 - This documentary has about 80 minutes of nice underwater footage, much of it focused on an octopus that exhibits curiosity and strategy while trying to survive in its environment. We get pyjama sharks, a crab, lobsters, lots of fish, and other sea creatures, but mostly the octopus. We also get about 80 minutes of running commentary from Craig Foster as he seeks meaning in the activity of the octopus and how it relates to his own life. That can get a bit tedious, but I still enjoyed the film quite a bit for the nice underwater scenes.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The One and Only Ivan (2020) - 6/10 - Ivan is a silverback gorilla living in a shopping mall as the main attraction of a small circus. The show isn't doing well so new animals are brought in, including a baby elephant named Ruby. Ivan and the others start dreaming more of being free. It's definitely aimed at kids (and is on Disney+) and is kind of predictable, but I thought it was a decent film and enjoyed it.
Time (2020) - 3/10 - Rob Rich and his wife committed armed robbery back in the 1990s. She took a plea bargain and got out of prison after a few years. Rob got sentenced to 60 years. The film shows some of the waiting that she had to do in trying to get him out of prison. I found the movie to be pretty tedious and the background music annoying. I agree that there is a need for prison reform, but there were many stretched out scenes. It felt like there might be a decent 20 minute documentary in here, but this was 80 minutes. It has received a lot of critical praise, but I just don't see it.
One Night in Miami (2020) - 7.5/10 - One night in February 1964, Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight championship. Jim Brown is doing commentary ringside while Sam Cooke and Malcolm X are in the crowd. Afterward, they all head back to Malcolm X's hotel room to hang out and celebrate. I thought that all four actors did a great job and it was a pretty entertaining movie.
Angels Over Broadway (1940) - 5/10 - A man decides that he is going to commit suicide after getting caught for embezzling $3000 for his wife who likes to live it up. Before he can do it, though, he gets mixed up with a con man, a playwright, and a showgirl who discover his plight and decide to help him get the money back by swindling some crooks in a card game. The premise doesn't really hold up and neither does much of the dialogue. It really isn't a very good movie and yet I still kind of liked it. Perhaps it was the presence of Rita Hayworth and Thomas Mitchell.
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2020) - 7/10 - A UFO lands near a small British town and the residents call in their version of the X-Files group to investigate. Meanwhile, the alien from the UFO finds itself at Mossy Bottom Farm and Shaun the Sheep tries to help it get back to its ship so that it can go home. I watched the Wallace & Gromit shorts earlier in the year and loved them. I also liked the Wallace & Gromit movie and The PIrates! movie. I still need to watch the first Shaun the Sheep movie, though. The best parts of this film were the opening and ending sequences. The parts in the middle had a number of fun things, but I didn't find them as consistently entertaining. I did laugh at the cameo from a couple of characters from a popular long running British show. This was a good movie, but not quite at the Wallace & Gromit level.
Time (2020) - 3/10 - Rob Rich and his wife committed armed robbery back in the 1990s. She took a plea bargain and got out of prison after a few years. Rob got sentenced to 60 years. The film shows some of the waiting that she had to do in trying to get him out of prison. I found the movie to be pretty tedious and the background music annoying. I agree that there is a need for prison reform, but there were many stretched out scenes. It felt like there might be a decent 20 minute documentary in here, but this was 80 minutes. It has received a lot of critical praise, but I just don't see it.
One Night in Miami (2020) - 7.5/10 - One night in February 1964, Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight championship. Jim Brown is doing commentary ringside while Sam Cooke and Malcolm X are in the crowd. Afterward, they all head back to Malcolm X's hotel room to hang out and celebrate. I thought that all four actors did a great job and it was a pretty entertaining movie.
Angels Over Broadway (1940) - 5/10 - A man decides that he is going to commit suicide after getting caught for embezzling $3000 for his wife who likes to live it up. Before he can do it, though, he gets mixed up with a con man, a playwright, and a showgirl who discover his plight and decide to help him get the money back by swindling some crooks in a card game. The premise doesn't really hold up and neither does much of the dialogue. It really isn't a very good movie and yet I still kind of liked it. Perhaps it was the presence of Rita Hayworth and Thomas Mitchell.
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2020) - 7/10 - A UFO lands near a small British town and the residents call in their version of the X-Files group to investigate. Meanwhile, the alien from the UFO finds itself at Mossy Bottom Farm and Shaun the Sheep tries to help it get back to its ship so that it can go home. I watched the Wallace & Gromit shorts earlier in the year and loved them. I also liked the Wallace & Gromit movie and The PIrates! movie. I still need to watch the first Shaun the Sheep movie, though. The best parts of this film were the opening and ending sequences. The parts in the middle had a number of fun things, but I didn't find them as consistently entertaining. I did laugh at the cameo from a couple of characters from a popular long running British show. This was a good movie, but not quite at the Wallace & Gromit level.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Sound of Metal (2020) - 7.5/10 - Ruben is a drummer whose hearing is rapidly deteriorating. His girlfriend checks him into a place that houses a deaf community so that he can learn to use ASL and exist without hearing, but he still has hopes of getting his hearing fixed and returning to his former life. Riz Ahmed did a great job in the lead role and his interactions at the deaf community were very good, especially those with the kids and with Joe, the guy in charge. I enjoyed the movie and think it is very good, though not quite as good as some of the other Best Picture nominees.
Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm (2020) - 6/10 - I hated the first Borat film, but found myself laughing a lot during the first half of this one. I got a bit bored with it after that, though there were still some amusing bits thrown in. Overall, I enjoyed it and thought that Maria Bakalova was very good, but I certainly wouldn't classify this as more than a decent movie.
Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm (2020) - 6/10 - I hated the first Borat film, but found myself laughing a lot during the first half of this one. I got a bit bored with it after that, though there were still some amusing bits thrown in. Overall, I enjoyed it and thought that Maria Bakalova was very good, but I certainly wouldn't classify this as more than a decent movie.
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The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) - 7.5/10 - The film takes place in 1969 at the trial of the eight people charged with conspiracy and other crimes relating to protests and riots at the Democratic National Convention the previous year. There were also plenty of flashbacks to the events in 1968. I thought that the film started out very well, but didn't like some of the changes that were made for dramatic effect. I still enjoyed the film, but think that the changes detract from the overall story. The final scene didn't work for me since it seemed too unrealistic (and was indeed fabricated). Dellinger's actions in one scene were also inconsistent with who he was and there was a real event they could have used in its place. I liked the performances of Sacha Baron Cohen and Jeremy Strong as Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Frank Langella was funny as the judge. I think it is a good movie, but had the potential to be much better.
Mank (2020) - 7/10 - Gary Oldman stars as Herman Mankiewicz, a screenwriter in Hollywood who was a well known script doctor, but also wrote a number of scripts of his own in the 1920s and 1930s. He was also an alcoholic and gambler. He worked on The Wizard of Oz script, but didn't receive credit. He also wrote Citizen Kane and shared the screen credit for that with Orson Welles. This movie tells the story of his writing the script while recovering from an accident. It also delves into his past relationships in Hollywood through numerous flashbacks from the 1930s. Oldman does a pretty nice job in his role and I think many of the other actors did as well, including Tuppence Middleton as his wife Sara, Arliss Howard as Louis B. Mayer, and others. The film has a number of good points in addition to the acting, including doing a pretty decent job making it feel like the era. However, I thought that the story itself was kind of dull and not as engaging as it could have been. Also, while the individual performances were good, Sara was actually slightly older than her husband (each turning 43 in 1940), but Oldman at 62 was 29 years older than Middleton (and about 28 years older than Amanda Seyfried whose Marion Davies was actually older than either Mankiewicz). That age differential did detract from the verisimilitude. I did like the film (more than Citizen Kane even), but it could have been better.
The Mole Agent (2020) - 7/10 - In Chile, a woman is concerned that her mother is being mistreated in a nursing home and having some of her possessions stolen. She hires a private investigator to investigate and he places an ad looking for an 80-90 year old man who can use technology and ends up hiring Sergio. Sergio is 83 and will move into the nursing home for a few months undercover to look into the allegations and document the conditions there. This is part of a documentary and the film crew is already at the nursing home under the pretext of making a documentary about nursing home life which is what the real documentary ends up actually becoming more than the undercover work. I thought that this was a good film and Sergio is a pretty compassionate spy who befriends quite a few residents, many of whom are lonely.
Mank (2020) - 7/10 - Gary Oldman stars as Herman Mankiewicz, a screenwriter in Hollywood who was a well known script doctor, but also wrote a number of scripts of his own in the 1920s and 1930s. He was also an alcoholic and gambler. He worked on The Wizard of Oz script, but didn't receive credit. He also wrote Citizen Kane and shared the screen credit for that with Orson Welles. This movie tells the story of his writing the script while recovering from an accident. It also delves into his past relationships in Hollywood through numerous flashbacks from the 1930s. Oldman does a pretty nice job in his role and I think many of the other actors did as well, including Tuppence Middleton as his wife Sara, Arliss Howard as Louis B. Mayer, and others. The film has a number of good points in addition to the acting, including doing a pretty decent job making it feel like the era. However, I thought that the story itself was kind of dull and not as engaging as it could have been. Also, while the individual performances were good, Sara was actually slightly older than her husband (each turning 43 in 1940), but Oldman at 62 was 29 years older than Middleton (and about 28 years older than Amanda Seyfried whose Marion Davies was actually older than either Mankiewicz). That age differential did detract from the verisimilitude. I did like the film (more than Citizen Kane even), but it could have been better.
The Mole Agent (2020) - 7/10 - In Chile, a woman is concerned that her mother is being mistreated in a nursing home and having some of her possessions stolen. She hires a private investigator to investigate and he places an ad looking for an 80-90 year old man who can use technology and ends up hiring Sergio. Sergio is 83 and will move into the nursing home for a few months undercover to look into the allegations and document the conditions there. This is part of a documentary and the film crew is already at the nursing home under the pretext of making a documentary about nursing home life which is what the real documentary ends up actually becoming more than the undercover work. I thought that this was a good film and Sergio is a pretty compassionate spy who befriends quite a few residents, many of whom are lonely.
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Lord Love a Duck (George Axelrod, 1966) 8/10
Axelrod's satirical black comedy strikes at 1960s teen culture, beach movies and progressive education. The story is narrated by a brilliant but deranged high-school senior (Roddy McDowell at 38) from a psych-ward, who comes into the life of a vain and vacuous teen (Tuesday Weld) and makes all her dreams come true even if it means resorting to murder. Strange but amusing cult film takes its premise and runs with it helped in great part by a group of superb character actors around Weld with all playing at full throttle - Lola Albright (who won the best actress prize at the Berlin Film Festival) as her happy-go-lucky floozie mother who works as a cocktail waitress, Max Showalter as her leering dad, Harvey Korman as the school's horny principal, Martin Best as the hunk who falls for her, Ruth Gordon as his eccentric widowed mother who disapproves of the cocktail waitress and Martin Gabel as a shlock movie producer who recruits her for his next mindless beach film. The film's irreverent kookie humour uses the fast-paced style of Richard Lester. A scene where dad takes daughter on a frenzied shopping spree is straight out of a Ken Russell film - "shopping as the ultimate orgasm", with facial contortions and orgasmic moaning which was preceded by an even more outrageous moment where father and daughter both get worked up into a near state of ecstacy while eating hot dogs. I'm amazed both these scenes weren't censored back in 1966 because they would never make the cut today. The film is from a period when Hollywood was beginning to tackle racier subjects after the staid 1950s.
Volcano (Mick Jackson, 1997) 4/10
A volcano erupts from under Wilshire Blvd in downtown Los Angeles. The disaster genre kicked in once again strictly on formula as the Head of the City's Disaster Management (Tommy Lee Jones) and a seismologist (Anne Heche) try to find ways to avert total anihilation and consumption of the entire city by flowing lava. Gaby Hoffman is the young daughter, in her father's care for the weekend, who gets separated and finds herself and another child in an area where the lava is flowing towards them from one direction and a tall building is being detonated to come down from the other direction. Guess who saves them? Cheesy effects, rapid editing and hand held cameras inducing nausea create more problems for the audience than the disaster itself. The year saw two movies about erupting volcanos and this one was crappier than the other one with Pierce Brosnan.
Rolling Thunder (John Flynn, 1977) 8/10
Low budget revenge thriller, written by Paul Schrader, was an attempt to make William Devane into a movie star. The film was a huge hit, Devane later became a star on tv while Tommy Lee Jones, in a supporting role, got noticed for the first time. A Vietnam POW (William Devane) returns to a hero's welcome in San Antonio only to find his wife has hooked up with someone else and his son hardly knows him. During a robbery at his home by a group of Mexican outlaws his wife and son are killed and he is shot, maimed and left for dead. The plot suddenly takes a left turn - it appeared to be about a soldier settling back into life after the horrors of Vietnam but moves into vigilante territory as he goes on a killing spree with quiet vengeance picking out the murderers one by one. He is helped along the way by a waitress (Linda Haynes) and, at the violent showdown, by his old Army buddy and fellow POW (Tommy Lee Jones). Flynn superbly directs the action sequences while keeping a measured pace throughout. All three actors are very good with the film showing glimpses of "Bonnie and Clyde", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "Taxi Driver", the latter which was also written by Schrader. A cult classic.
Axelrod's satirical black comedy strikes at 1960s teen culture, beach movies and progressive education. The story is narrated by a brilliant but deranged high-school senior (Roddy McDowell at 38) from a psych-ward, who comes into the life of a vain and vacuous teen (Tuesday Weld) and makes all her dreams come true even if it means resorting to murder. Strange but amusing cult film takes its premise and runs with it helped in great part by a group of superb character actors around Weld with all playing at full throttle - Lola Albright (who won the best actress prize at the Berlin Film Festival) as her happy-go-lucky floozie mother who works as a cocktail waitress, Max Showalter as her leering dad, Harvey Korman as the school's horny principal, Martin Best as the hunk who falls for her, Ruth Gordon as his eccentric widowed mother who disapproves of the cocktail waitress and Martin Gabel as a shlock movie producer who recruits her for his next mindless beach film. The film's irreverent kookie humour uses the fast-paced style of Richard Lester. A scene where dad takes daughter on a frenzied shopping spree is straight out of a Ken Russell film - "shopping as the ultimate orgasm", with facial contortions and orgasmic moaning which was preceded by an even more outrageous moment where father and daughter both get worked up into a near state of ecstacy while eating hot dogs. I'm amazed both these scenes weren't censored back in 1966 because they would never make the cut today. The film is from a period when Hollywood was beginning to tackle racier subjects after the staid 1950s.
Volcano (Mick Jackson, 1997) 4/10
A volcano erupts from under Wilshire Blvd in downtown Los Angeles. The disaster genre kicked in once again strictly on formula as the Head of the City's Disaster Management (Tommy Lee Jones) and a seismologist (Anne Heche) try to find ways to avert total anihilation and consumption of the entire city by flowing lava. Gaby Hoffman is the young daughter, in her father's care for the weekend, who gets separated and finds herself and another child in an area where the lava is flowing towards them from one direction and a tall building is being detonated to come down from the other direction. Guess who saves them? Cheesy effects, rapid editing and hand held cameras inducing nausea create more problems for the audience than the disaster itself. The year saw two movies about erupting volcanos and this one was crappier than the other one with Pierce Brosnan.
Rolling Thunder (John Flynn, 1977) 8/10
Low budget revenge thriller, written by Paul Schrader, was an attempt to make William Devane into a movie star. The film was a huge hit, Devane later became a star on tv while Tommy Lee Jones, in a supporting role, got noticed for the first time. A Vietnam POW (William Devane) returns to a hero's welcome in San Antonio only to find his wife has hooked up with someone else and his son hardly knows him. During a robbery at his home by a group of Mexican outlaws his wife and son are killed and he is shot, maimed and left for dead. The plot suddenly takes a left turn - it appeared to be about a soldier settling back into life after the horrors of Vietnam but moves into vigilante territory as he goes on a killing spree with quiet vengeance picking out the murderers one by one. He is helped along the way by a waitress (Linda Haynes) and, at the violent showdown, by his old Army buddy and fellow POW (Tommy Lee Jones). Flynn superbly directs the action sequences while keeping a measured pace throughout. All three actors are very good with the film showing glimpses of "Bonnie and Clyde", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "Taxi Driver", the latter which was also written by Schrader. A cult classic.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) - 6/10 - James Cagney stars in this biopic of silent film star Lon Chaney. Cagney was too old for the role, but did a nice job, especially the parts in makeup/costume and performing. I think that they spent too much time on his relationship with his first wife, Cleva (whom he married when she was 15 years old), and not enough time on his acting career. I liked the second half of the film more than the first half. Overall it was a decent film, though it could have been much better.
The Yellow Star: The Persecution of the Jews in Europe - 1933-1945 (1980) - 7/10 - A look at what happened to Jews in Germany and Nazi controlled Europe with lots of footage that I hadn't seen before. There wasn't really much in here that I was unaware of, but it puts it all together in a linear fashion.
Better Days (2019) - 8/10 - This Chinese film follows a quiet high school senior named Chen Nian who is preparing for the national college entrance exam which is 60 days away. She witnesses a classmate commit suicide due to bullying and soon becomes the next target of the bullies. She befriends a tough young man from the street and he decides to protect her, though the bullies can be persistent. The two develop feelings for each other along the way. I thought that this was a pretty good film. The lead actors and the director each did a nice job. The story itself isn't necessarily anything special, but the film elements come together nicely.
The Yellow Star: The Persecution of the Jews in Europe - 1933-1945 (1980) - 7/10 - A look at what happened to Jews in Germany and Nazi controlled Europe with lots of footage that I hadn't seen before. There wasn't really much in here that I was unaware of, but it puts it all together in a linear fashion.
Better Days (2019) - 8/10 - This Chinese film follows a quiet high school senior named Chen Nian who is preparing for the national college entrance exam which is 60 days away. She witnesses a classmate commit suicide due to bullying and soon becomes the next target of the bullies. She befriends a tough young man from the street and he decides to protect her, though the bullies can be persistent. The two develop feelings for each other along the way. I thought that this was a pretty good film. The lead actors and the director each did a nice job. The story itself isn't necessarily anything special, but the film elements come together nicely.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Skyscraper (1928) - 6/10 - Two construction workers (Alan Hale and William Boyd) who are helping build a new skyscraper are friends, but spend a lot of time pranking each other. When one of them gets a girl, but is injured in an accident, the other one tries to help him overcome his injury, though using a method in line with their friendship. The comedy is exaggerated here, but the film is still fun and I enjoyed it, even if it isn't really a very good movie by today's standards. It did really look like they were up in a skyscraper, though.
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) - 8/10 - Che Guevara and Alberto Grenada set out on a long quest in 1952 to travel by motorcycle from Buenos Aires to Caracas, visiting Lima, Machu Picchu, Cuzco, and many other places along the way. They crash a lot, spend lots of time with people in the areas they visit, and spend time working at a leper colony. It is a big travelogue of a movie with great sights along the way and the trip helped form some of Guevara's revolutionary ideas in his mind. The revolutionary ideas seemed kind of secondary to the buddy picture and travel aspects of the film. Gael García Bernal and Rodrigo de la Serna had pretty good chemistry as the two friends making the trip and I enjoyed the film quite a bit.
The Father (2020) - 9/10 - Anthony Hopkins gives an outstanding performance as an elderly man with dementia whose daughter tries to take care of him while still living her own life. The techniques that they used to portray the confusion that dementia can leave one with were very effective. Olivia Colman was great as his daughter and the rest of the cast was very good as well. This is an excellent film, but I just hope that I never have to live through it as either a caretaker or the person experiencing it.
Topsy-Turvy (1999) - 8/10 - In the mid-1880s, Gilbert and Sullivan were having a few problems. Their latest work wasn't doing well due to the stifling heat wave London was experiencing. The pair did not have a replacement comic opera ready and were at an impasse - Sullivan did not like Gilbert's proposed opera and refused to set it to music. Inspiration eventually struck and the result was The Mikado. The film delves into the relationship between the pair and their partner who ran the theater as well as the various cast members. It also has plenty of singing from rehearsals to performances. I'm not a big Gilbert and Sullivan fan, but I enjoyed the film quite a bit.
Operation Petticoat (1959) - 7/10 - Cary Grant stars as an admiral who reminisces about the adventure the submarine he commanded had shortly after the U.S. entered WWII. His sub was sunk at the base in the Philippines and while they were able to raise it, they weren't able to fully repair it before having to leave the base to evade the enemy. They embarked on a trip with an undersized crew, a group of nurses, and a first officer with a flair for 'acquiring' needed materials. The movie is silly, but I thought it was fun.
The Man Who Would Be King (1975) - 5/10 - Sean Connery and Michael Caine star as two former British soldiers in India who decide to travel across the mountains in search of a remote country known as Kafiristan where they plan to help a local to power in order to gain wealth for themselves. They enlist the aid of journalist Rudyard Kipling and sign a contract stating that they'll give up alcohol and women for the duration of their adventure. The proceed to have an adventure with bandits, blizzards, an avalanche, and so on. I didn't really find the adventure aspects that interesting much of the time, though there were some decent sights. Most of the humor didn't really seem that funny to me either. It wasn't all bad, but I found it highly overrated from other reviews that I've seen.
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) - 8/10 - Che Guevara and Alberto Grenada set out on a long quest in 1952 to travel by motorcycle from Buenos Aires to Caracas, visiting Lima, Machu Picchu, Cuzco, and many other places along the way. They crash a lot, spend lots of time with people in the areas they visit, and spend time working at a leper colony. It is a big travelogue of a movie with great sights along the way and the trip helped form some of Guevara's revolutionary ideas in his mind. The revolutionary ideas seemed kind of secondary to the buddy picture and travel aspects of the film. Gael García Bernal and Rodrigo de la Serna had pretty good chemistry as the two friends making the trip and I enjoyed the film quite a bit.
The Father (2020) - 9/10 - Anthony Hopkins gives an outstanding performance as an elderly man with dementia whose daughter tries to take care of him while still living her own life. The techniques that they used to portray the confusion that dementia can leave one with were very effective. Olivia Colman was great as his daughter and the rest of the cast was very good as well. This is an excellent film, but I just hope that I never have to live through it as either a caretaker or the person experiencing it.
Topsy-Turvy (1999) - 8/10 - In the mid-1880s, Gilbert and Sullivan were having a few problems. Their latest work wasn't doing well due to the stifling heat wave London was experiencing. The pair did not have a replacement comic opera ready and were at an impasse - Sullivan did not like Gilbert's proposed opera and refused to set it to music. Inspiration eventually struck and the result was The Mikado. The film delves into the relationship between the pair and their partner who ran the theater as well as the various cast members. It also has plenty of singing from rehearsals to performances. I'm not a big Gilbert and Sullivan fan, but I enjoyed the film quite a bit.
Operation Petticoat (1959) - 7/10 - Cary Grant stars as an admiral who reminisces about the adventure the submarine he commanded had shortly after the U.S. entered WWII. His sub was sunk at the base in the Philippines and while they were able to raise it, they weren't able to fully repair it before having to leave the base to evade the enemy. They embarked on a trip with an undersized crew, a group of nurses, and a first officer with a flair for 'acquiring' needed materials. The movie is silly, but I thought it was fun.
The Man Who Would Be King (1975) - 5/10 - Sean Connery and Michael Caine star as two former British soldiers in India who decide to travel across the mountains in search of a remote country known as Kafiristan where they plan to help a local to power in order to gain wealth for themselves. They enlist the aid of journalist Rudyard Kipling and sign a contract stating that they'll give up alcohol and women for the duration of their adventure. The proceed to have an adventure with bandits, blizzards, an avalanche, and so on. I didn't really find the adventure aspects that interesting much of the time, though there were some decent sights. Most of the humor didn't really seem that funny to me either. It wasn't all bad, but I found it highly overrated from other reviews that I've seen.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Bye Bye Braverman (Sidney Lumet, 1968) 8/10
Very jewish. Very New York. And very funny. Lumet's film is an adaptation of the novel "To an Early Grave" by Wallace Markfield, with its acerbic screenplay written by Herbert Sargent who won numerous Emmys over the years including three as a writer on "Saturday Night Live". Four liberal intellectuals and close friends - a PR man (George Segal) who periodically goes into a daydream involving death, a mother-fixated aging playboy (Jack Warden), an acid-tongued socialist (Joseph Wiseman), a compulsively tidy writer (Sorrell Booke) - get together on a Sunday afternoon and go to the funeral of their deceased friend Braverman. The trip, in a red Volkswagen beetle ("a legacy from Hitler"), is not only a travelogue from Greenwich Village to Brooklyn (one gets to see fascinating shots of New York as it was during the 1960s) but also allows the four friends to bicker and contemplate death. They have trouble finding the synagogue but along the way run into a couple of bizzare characters - a black-jewish taxi driver (Godfrey Cambridge) and a rabbi (Alan King) whose sermon they get to hear while at the wrong funeral. The characters are written with broad jewish strokes (Alan King's rabbi is particularly offensive) but most come off very funny, bittersweet and real. All four friends have abandoned their jewish traditions and returning to their roots (Brooklyn) make them look inward. The actors give very funny performances and are also very moving. Very quirky film also has memorable cameos by Jessica Walter as the bitchy widow who early on in the film forcefully comes on to George Segal, Phyllis Newman as Warden's nubile girlfriend and Zohra Lampert as Segal's irritated wife who refuses to squeeze orange juice for him. Offbeat film has a few slow bits but has one of George Segal's best performances. Ironic that in a film in which death figures as the main plot point both Segal and Jessica Walter eventually died within a day of each other.
In the Electric Mist (Bertrand Tavernier, 2009) 8/10
French director Bertrand Tavernier directs an American cast of actors in this adaptation of a novel by James Lee Burke best known for his Dave Robicheaux series of crime thrillers. New Orleans detective and former alcoholic, Dave Robicheaux (Tommy Lee Jones), is investigating a series of murders involving young runaways and prostitutes. An added mystery is the discovery of a long-dead body of a black man in the swamp by an alcoholic actor (Peter Sarsgaard) in town with his girlfriend (Kelly Macdonald) for the shooting of a film on the Civil War. The detective realises he was a witness to the murder many years before when he was a teenager and the present day murders could be connected to the discovered corpse. Chief amongst his suspects are a former friend and local bigwig (John Goodman having a hoot with his part) with mob connections and a rich local businessman (Ned Beatty). After having a drink laced with LSD the detective starts hallucinating and sees a group of Confederate soldiers in the swamp and forms a bond with a general (Levon Helm) much to the consternation of his worried wife (Mary Steenburgen). The over burdened plot is directed by Tavernier with a keen European sensibility and a deliberately measured pace soaking in the post-Katrina atmosphere of the Louisiana locations. The superb Jones moves through the story with quiet intensity ready to explode at the smallest provocation. The violence when it comes is at full throttle in keeping with the dark crimes on hand. Tavernier keeps the film from falling into the usual trap of a wrapped-up Hollywood ending and settles instead for something more ambiguous and unsettling.
Very jewish. Very New York. And very funny. Lumet's film is an adaptation of the novel "To an Early Grave" by Wallace Markfield, with its acerbic screenplay written by Herbert Sargent who won numerous Emmys over the years including three as a writer on "Saturday Night Live". Four liberal intellectuals and close friends - a PR man (George Segal) who periodically goes into a daydream involving death, a mother-fixated aging playboy (Jack Warden), an acid-tongued socialist (Joseph Wiseman), a compulsively tidy writer (Sorrell Booke) - get together on a Sunday afternoon and go to the funeral of their deceased friend Braverman. The trip, in a red Volkswagen beetle ("a legacy from Hitler"), is not only a travelogue from Greenwich Village to Brooklyn (one gets to see fascinating shots of New York as it was during the 1960s) but also allows the four friends to bicker and contemplate death. They have trouble finding the synagogue but along the way run into a couple of bizzare characters - a black-jewish taxi driver (Godfrey Cambridge) and a rabbi (Alan King) whose sermon they get to hear while at the wrong funeral. The characters are written with broad jewish strokes (Alan King's rabbi is particularly offensive) but most come off very funny, bittersweet and real. All four friends have abandoned their jewish traditions and returning to their roots (Brooklyn) make them look inward. The actors give very funny performances and are also very moving. Very quirky film also has memorable cameos by Jessica Walter as the bitchy widow who early on in the film forcefully comes on to George Segal, Phyllis Newman as Warden's nubile girlfriend and Zohra Lampert as Segal's irritated wife who refuses to squeeze orange juice for him. Offbeat film has a few slow bits but has one of George Segal's best performances. Ironic that in a film in which death figures as the main plot point both Segal and Jessica Walter eventually died within a day of each other.
In the Electric Mist (Bertrand Tavernier, 2009) 8/10
French director Bertrand Tavernier directs an American cast of actors in this adaptation of a novel by James Lee Burke best known for his Dave Robicheaux series of crime thrillers. New Orleans detective and former alcoholic, Dave Robicheaux (Tommy Lee Jones), is investigating a series of murders involving young runaways and prostitutes. An added mystery is the discovery of a long-dead body of a black man in the swamp by an alcoholic actor (Peter Sarsgaard) in town with his girlfriend (Kelly Macdonald) for the shooting of a film on the Civil War. The detective realises he was a witness to the murder many years before when he was a teenager and the present day murders could be connected to the discovered corpse. Chief amongst his suspects are a former friend and local bigwig (John Goodman having a hoot with his part) with mob connections and a rich local businessman (Ned Beatty). After having a drink laced with LSD the detective starts hallucinating and sees a group of Confederate soldiers in the swamp and forms a bond with a general (Levon Helm) much to the consternation of his worried wife (Mary Steenburgen). The over burdened plot is directed by Tavernier with a keen European sensibility and a deliberately measured pace soaking in the post-Katrina atmosphere of the Louisiana locations. The superb Jones moves through the story with quiet intensity ready to explode at the smallest provocation. The violence when it comes is at full throttle in keeping with the dark crimes on hand. Tavernier keeps the film from falling into the usual trap of a wrapped-up Hollywood ending and settles instead for something more ambiguous and unsettling.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Tomorrow We Live (George King, 1943) 6/10
Wartime propaganda and an ode to the French people who resisted the Nazis during the Occupation. The screenplay starts off in an almost lighthearted mode with the Germans portrayed as bumbling buffoons but then it suddenly becomes serious and brutal when the SS arrives and takes charge of the small french town. A young french idealist (John Clements) arrives in a small town near a major port and base of operations for the German Navy and gets involved with the local French Resistance. Aiding and abetting the cause are the colorful inhabitants of the town - the respected Mayor (Godfrey Tearle), his daughter (Greta Gynt) who is suspected of collaboration, the sexy barmaid (Judy Kelly) who is an informer, a kindly landlady (Yvonne Arnaud) and the blustery Commandant (Hugh Sinclair). Notwithstanding the over simplification of events this is a fairly exciting drama with an excellent cast of British character actors.
Night Boat to Dublin (Lawrence Huntington, 1946) 6/10
Thriller is an offshoot to all those WWII Nazi themed films which the studios on both sides of the Atlantic were quick to churn out before during and after the war. This one involves a race against time to locate a Swedish scientist who has been kidnapped so that unbeknownst to him his workings on the atomic bomb are being despatched to the Nazis by their agents. An intelligence officer (Robert Newton) agrees to infiltrate the gang in order to find out where the scientist is being kept. He also finds himself married to an Austrian refugee (Muriel Pavlow) who may or may not be part of the gang. The mystery concludes on a large country estate in Devon where all the characters converge. Fast paced film is strictly a boy's own adventure story with a wonderfully droll performance by Robert Newton and a typically stiff-upper-lipped pompous one by Guy Middleton as another military agent who also gets in on the heroic acts at the end.
Gate of Hell (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1953) 10/10
During a rebellion in 12th century Japan a samurai (Kazuo Hasegawa) falls in love with a lady-in-waiting (Machiko Kyō) who turns out to be married. A story about desire, obsession and unrequited love as the samurai relentlessly pursues the woman and in his anger is willing to kill her, himself and her husband in order to win her hand which she rightfully thinks is utter madness. Exquisitely crafted production was the first Japanese film to be shot in Eastman Colour and the result is specatcular with each frame resembling a painting. The deliberate pace enhances each scene as the camera moves in and out of palaces and characters, dressed in resplendent costumes, act with strict formality as per ancient Japanese custom. Never before has tension and anguish been performed with such subtlety. The film was awarded the grand prize at the Cannes film festival and won Oscars in the categories of costume design and foreign film. A must-see.
The Flying Missile (Henry Levin, 1950) 5/10
One of numerous films sanctioned in Hollywood with ample support by the United States Armed Forces to depict modern warfare technolgy here applying cruise missiles to submarines in order to gain better advantage over the enemy. The screenplay is built around the fictionalized account of a decorated submarine Commander (Glenn Ford) who first comes up with the idea. Interesting film from a historical perspective unfortunately goes into comic mode with the man and his officers resorting to theft of machinery and parts from the Navy in order to go against bureaucratic delays in order to prove to the higher brass thst their proposed experiment works. Romance along the way is provided by the base Commander's secretary (Viveca Lindfors) which is followed by an experiment gone wrong resulting in death and injury with a lot of moping. Comic elements of the comic buffoonery in television's "McHale's Navy" are part and parcel of the film which detracts from what is basically a serious pro-military docudrama.
Disputed Passage (Frank Borzage, 1939) 6/10
Borzage's melodrama, based on the Lloyd C. Douglas novel, is about the conflict between a detached, cold pragmatic view of the medical profession versus a more humanistic attitude which also includes a doctor's private life. A brilliant young doctor (John Howard), just out of medical school, is chosen to work as a research assistant to a cold and clinical old doctor (Akim Tamiroff) whose past hides vicious wounds that make him into a machine-like human. The doctor is also befriended by a kindly more humane elderly doctor who encourages his growing relationship with a Chinese woman (Dorothy Lamour). When she suddenly disappears due to the interference of his pragmatic boss he goes in search of her in war-torn China. The film's first half crackles with tension between the two men - Tamiroff is superb throughout. The second half devolves into a soap opera involving the war, an injury and a death-defying medical operation under extreme danger. Dorothy Lamour's casting as the Chinese woman is not really a problem despite its absurdity. More worrying is the fact that Hollywood then, and even today, has never been able to get the nuances of foreign cultures and its people right on screen. And this is despite America being a multi-cultural country with many of those cultures residing side-by-side with white people. So much effort and research goes into the technical side of a film yet Hollywood invariably fails to portray foreigners with the same careful detail which instead often comes out as a perception of the white man's view of them. Whether its intentional or just pure laziness it remains a major distraction for us as foreigners viewing a Hollywood production.
Last Will (Brent Huff, 2011) 3/10
A tried and tested plot gets a weak makeover in this story of deception, corruption and deceit. Why did they even bother to churn out this stale plot? The answer is pretty obvious. It allowed a group of once famous actors, now pretty much down and out in Hollywood, to get a paycheck. From the nostalgic angle the film is pretty watchable but only to check out these old stars all of whom unfortunately seem to have lost their ability to act. A woman (Tatum O'Neal) is framed for the murder of her rich husband (Tom Berenger) which is followed by a courtcase. All the clichés appear like clockwork - the evil brother-in-law (Patrick Muldoon) done out of the will, a sleazy D.A. (who else but Peter Coyote), a twinkle-eyed old cop (James Brolin) who, like Columbo, has an annoying habit of turning up at the wrong time, important witnesses who keep getting shot or stabbed and a predictable mole who is part of the twist at the end. Bad script, bad direction and lousy acting all around.
Wartime propaganda and an ode to the French people who resisted the Nazis during the Occupation. The screenplay starts off in an almost lighthearted mode with the Germans portrayed as bumbling buffoons but then it suddenly becomes serious and brutal when the SS arrives and takes charge of the small french town. A young french idealist (John Clements) arrives in a small town near a major port and base of operations for the German Navy and gets involved with the local French Resistance. Aiding and abetting the cause are the colorful inhabitants of the town - the respected Mayor (Godfrey Tearle), his daughter (Greta Gynt) who is suspected of collaboration, the sexy barmaid (Judy Kelly) who is an informer, a kindly landlady (Yvonne Arnaud) and the blustery Commandant (Hugh Sinclair). Notwithstanding the over simplification of events this is a fairly exciting drama with an excellent cast of British character actors.
Night Boat to Dublin (Lawrence Huntington, 1946) 6/10
Thriller is an offshoot to all those WWII Nazi themed films which the studios on both sides of the Atlantic were quick to churn out before during and after the war. This one involves a race against time to locate a Swedish scientist who has been kidnapped so that unbeknownst to him his workings on the atomic bomb are being despatched to the Nazis by their agents. An intelligence officer (Robert Newton) agrees to infiltrate the gang in order to find out where the scientist is being kept. He also finds himself married to an Austrian refugee (Muriel Pavlow) who may or may not be part of the gang. The mystery concludes on a large country estate in Devon where all the characters converge. Fast paced film is strictly a boy's own adventure story with a wonderfully droll performance by Robert Newton and a typically stiff-upper-lipped pompous one by Guy Middleton as another military agent who also gets in on the heroic acts at the end.
Gate of Hell (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1953) 10/10
During a rebellion in 12th century Japan a samurai (Kazuo Hasegawa) falls in love with a lady-in-waiting (Machiko Kyō) who turns out to be married. A story about desire, obsession and unrequited love as the samurai relentlessly pursues the woman and in his anger is willing to kill her, himself and her husband in order to win her hand which she rightfully thinks is utter madness. Exquisitely crafted production was the first Japanese film to be shot in Eastman Colour and the result is specatcular with each frame resembling a painting. The deliberate pace enhances each scene as the camera moves in and out of palaces and characters, dressed in resplendent costumes, act with strict formality as per ancient Japanese custom. Never before has tension and anguish been performed with such subtlety. The film was awarded the grand prize at the Cannes film festival and won Oscars in the categories of costume design and foreign film. A must-see.
The Flying Missile (Henry Levin, 1950) 5/10
One of numerous films sanctioned in Hollywood with ample support by the United States Armed Forces to depict modern warfare technolgy here applying cruise missiles to submarines in order to gain better advantage over the enemy. The screenplay is built around the fictionalized account of a decorated submarine Commander (Glenn Ford) who first comes up with the idea. Interesting film from a historical perspective unfortunately goes into comic mode with the man and his officers resorting to theft of machinery and parts from the Navy in order to go against bureaucratic delays in order to prove to the higher brass thst their proposed experiment works. Romance along the way is provided by the base Commander's secretary (Viveca Lindfors) which is followed by an experiment gone wrong resulting in death and injury with a lot of moping. Comic elements of the comic buffoonery in television's "McHale's Navy" are part and parcel of the film which detracts from what is basically a serious pro-military docudrama.
Disputed Passage (Frank Borzage, 1939) 6/10
Borzage's melodrama, based on the Lloyd C. Douglas novel, is about the conflict between a detached, cold pragmatic view of the medical profession versus a more humanistic attitude which also includes a doctor's private life. A brilliant young doctor (John Howard), just out of medical school, is chosen to work as a research assistant to a cold and clinical old doctor (Akim Tamiroff) whose past hides vicious wounds that make him into a machine-like human. The doctor is also befriended by a kindly more humane elderly doctor who encourages his growing relationship with a Chinese woman (Dorothy Lamour). When she suddenly disappears due to the interference of his pragmatic boss he goes in search of her in war-torn China. The film's first half crackles with tension between the two men - Tamiroff is superb throughout. The second half devolves into a soap opera involving the war, an injury and a death-defying medical operation under extreme danger. Dorothy Lamour's casting as the Chinese woman is not really a problem despite its absurdity. More worrying is the fact that Hollywood then, and even today, has never been able to get the nuances of foreign cultures and its people right on screen. And this is despite America being a multi-cultural country with many of those cultures residing side-by-side with white people. So much effort and research goes into the technical side of a film yet Hollywood invariably fails to portray foreigners with the same careful detail which instead often comes out as a perception of the white man's view of them. Whether its intentional or just pure laziness it remains a major distraction for us as foreigners viewing a Hollywood production.
Last Will (Brent Huff, 2011) 3/10
A tried and tested plot gets a weak makeover in this story of deception, corruption and deceit. Why did they even bother to churn out this stale plot? The answer is pretty obvious. It allowed a group of once famous actors, now pretty much down and out in Hollywood, to get a paycheck. From the nostalgic angle the film is pretty watchable but only to check out these old stars all of whom unfortunately seem to have lost their ability to act. A woman (Tatum O'Neal) is framed for the murder of her rich husband (Tom Berenger) which is followed by a courtcase. All the clichés appear like clockwork - the evil brother-in-law (Patrick Muldoon) done out of the will, a sleazy D.A. (who else but Peter Coyote), a twinkle-eyed old cop (James Brolin) who, like Columbo, has an annoying habit of turning up at the wrong time, important witnesses who keep getting shot or stabbed and a predictable mole who is part of the twist at the end. Bad script, bad direction and lousy acting all around.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
/Greenberg/ (Noah Baumbach): 7.5/10
Convinced I underrated this because: 1) the impromptu/instantly-aborted leap to Australia feels so forced, and 2) it feels so wrong to have Greenberg volunteer the voice message rather than have her check her messages, him remember, but ultimately allow her to listen to it rather than freak out, which would have represented actual growth. A bizarrely unsatisfying choice. No matter. It's the leap into the filmmaker Noah Baumbach is today. Especially following Margot at the Wedding, its confidence in who these people are, what they represent, how we're supposed to feel about, and what we want to see is so welcome. I could go on about its pleasures. Now five movies into Noah Baumbach's oeuvre, it's clear that he views each story as a home for his turns of phrases and Greenberg might be his best home for these phrases as both protagonist and film.
But I have a question about Greenberg: is it the story of a socially-inept misanthrope or a socially-inept misanthrope and a chronic doormat? Because these are not equally-weighted personality flaws. This is where I had difficulty the first time. Florence has flaws but she's a good person. He's allowed an arc and inches of growth and she isn't, only allowed a proclamation that she doesn't know what she's doing with her life (before being wheeled in for an abortion) and informs him that he likes her more than he thinks. It would be easier to have more empathy for Florence if he gave her a little more agency and growth. Even just one, and I'll choose the scene: the scene where they have sex, he asks her to wait, and he doesn't. I think we can all agree that while Noah Baumbach couldn't have seen the MeToo moment coming, that he wasn't interested in making a movie about a guy who ignores consent.
I'm conflicted but it's a beautifully shot, edited, scored, and acted leap into the filmmaker we know today.
Convinced I underrated this because: 1) the impromptu/instantly-aborted leap to Australia feels so forced, and 2) it feels so wrong to have Greenberg volunteer the voice message rather than have her check her messages, him remember, but ultimately allow her to listen to it rather than freak out, which would have represented actual growth. A bizarrely unsatisfying choice. No matter. It's the leap into the filmmaker Noah Baumbach is today. Especially following Margot at the Wedding, its confidence in who these people are, what they represent, how we're supposed to feel about, and what we want to see is so welcome. I could go on about its pleasures. Now five movies into Noah Baumbach's oeuvre, it's clear that he views each story as a home for his turns of phrases and Greenberg might be his best home for these phrases as both protagonist and film.
But I have a question about Greenberg: is it the story of a socially-inept misanthrope or a socially-inept misanthrope and a chronic doormat? Because these are not equally-weighted personality flaws. This is where I had difficulty the first time. Florence has flaws but she's a good person. He's allowed an arc and inches of growth and she isn't, only allowed a proclamation that she doesn't know what she's doing with her life (before being wheeled in for an abortion) and informs him that he likes her more than he thinks. It would be easier to have more empathy for Florence if he gave her a little more agency and growth. Even just one, and I'll choose the scene: the scene where they have sex, he asks her to wait, and he doesn't. I think we can all agree that while Noah Baumbach couldn't have seen the MeToo moment coming, that he wasn't interested in making a movie about a guy who ignores consent.
I'm conflicted but it's a beautifully shot, edited, scored, and acted leap into the filmmaker we know today.
"How's the despair?"