Catching up on catching up - small screen viewing

And now, movies I've seen on the small screen, since I last blogged about such things:

Gasland A-

Kind of an EPA companion piece to Charles Ferguson's Inside Job - and more evidence that Big Money wins out over the little guy - even when the damage is quite clear and convincing. Its amateurish "who me" approach could have been a liability, but it actually works to the movie's benefit. 

The Next Three Days C+
Well-made decently acted thriller with an intriguing premise, but the execution simply strains credibility past the point of no return. Good performances by Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks deserve a better vehicle.

Soul Surfer B-

If I were grading this movie by its sincerity, it would definitely be in the A-range. And there can be no doubt that the story of a teen surfer who rebounded after losing her arm to a tiger shark is inspiring. Unfortunately, the movie pushes too many manipulative buttons to ring completely true. A strong performance by AnnaSophia Robb helps keep it afloat.

Ride the High Country B+

An early Sam Peckinpah western gets most of its juice from seeing two old-timers like Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott face off. The story occasionally lags and the ending is a bit abrupt, but it's fascinating to see the seeds of The Wild Bunch being planted here. 

Shock Corridor B+

Fascinating Sam Fuller pulp that I watched not long after revisiting One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The premise (reporter fakes being mentally ill to crack a murder case) requires more suspension of disbelief than I was willing to give. Still, the acting and the visuals are powerful, particularly when stock color sequences break up the black and white. 

Godspell B+

This was on the same night as Norman Jewison's Jesus Christ Superstar, and comparing the two pictures is very telling. Godspell is just as dated as Superstar, perhaps even more so with all those afros. But Godspell is a much livelier picture because A) The song score is considerably superior, and B) Godspell wasn't so ponderous, slackly paced and convinced of its own self-importance. Godspell is especially valuable as an NYC time capsule.

BIG small screen catch-up

It's been quite awhile since I've reviewed anything I've seen on the small screen, so here are quite a few capsule reviews to swallow. I'll try to keep these pithy:

Missing: Sterling Costa-Gavras drama about a man searching for his missing son in Chile and has his ideology shaken in the process. Great work, as usual, by Jack Lemmon. GRADE:  A

Cyrus: Disappointing black comedy has a good cast (John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei), but needlessly gimmicky camerawork and an overly bitter tone undo it. GRADE: C

The Leopard Man: Underrated Val Lewton chiller about a wild leopard on the prowl. Castanets never sounded so scary. GRADE: A

Broken Blossoms: Lesser-known film by DW Griffith isn't as visually florid as his more famous works, but its dramatically powerful. Racist iconography toned down from Birth of a Nation, but still prevalent.  GRADE: B+

Marty: No, not a Scorsese picture, but the 50s film that won Ernest Borgnine a well-deserved Oscar. Pretty much deserves its reputation; only drawback is an abrupt ending. The girl, Betsy Blair, was Mrs. Gene Kelly at the time. GRADE: A-

The More the Merrier: Delightful comedy is superior to the other Jean Arthur/Charles Coburn pairing, The Devil and Miss Jones. Joel McCrea adds to the fun. GRADE: A-

Jane Eyre: The best-known film version of the Bronte classic benefits from terrific atmosphere created by director Robert Stevenson, who later went on to direct Mary Poppins. Leads Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles are great, but Mia Wasikowska bests Fontaine in current remake. GRADE: A-

Isle of the Dead: More Val Lewton fun, with Boris Karloff alternately chilling and sympathetic. GRADE: B+

Here Comes Mr. Jordan: The original Heaven Can Wait is nothing less than wonderful and actually very moving. Claude Rains is terrffic, as he always was, in the title role. GRADE: A

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer: Fascinating story of a powerful man undone by his own hubris, and, the documentary would have you believe, a few powerful enemies. That can't be proven, but what's beyond dispute is that Spitzer could have made  a difference - and he blew it. GRADE: A-

Red Dust: As expected, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow generate major heat in this tropical drama, and so does a surprising Mary Astor, the third point in their love triangle. Major debit: Ugly racist Oriental caricatures. Still better than the remake, Mogambo. GRADE: B+

Z: The film that made Costa-Gavras' name, and rightly so. Superior editing and camerawork make the drama crackle, even if it is a little too sprawling. GRADE: A-

Victor Victoria: Like so many post-50s musicals, this one is a bit flat-footed and strains too hard for effect, Tootsie was the better "drag" movie the same year. Even so, excellent work by Julie Andrews and Robert Preston make it well worth seeing. GRADE: B+

The Wolfman: It's a typical Hollywood story: Technically superior but dramatically wanting. The film is beautifully designed, but the script is half-baked, especially in the underwriting of the lead character. GRADE: C+

Running on Empty: There may not have been a better actors' director than Sidney Lumet; although the Judd Hirsch character is a tad overbearing, affecting work by River Phoenix and Martha Plimpton make the movie linger. GRADE: A-

These Amazing Shadows: A movie that covers the National Film Registry in 90 minutes is going to be a little superficial, but this documentary remains a great testamant to the power and importance of the moves.

The Actress: A minor George Cukor effort isn't nearly as effective as his best movies, but good performances from major players like Jean Simmons, Spencer Tracy, Teresa Wright and Anthony Perkins (in his first film) make it stick. GRADE: B

Prince of the City: Underrated police/court procedural by Sidney Lumet is one of his best. Very nearly the equal of Serpico or Dog Day Afternoon. GRADE: A

Jesus Christ Superstar: A good musical soundtrack turns into a weird botch of a movie that suffers from a massive failure in tone. It doesn't know just how seriously too take itself. It's too gaudy to be reverent and too reverent to be guady. Show-offy visuals by director Norman Jewison are extremely distracting. GRADE: C

Vacation review catch-up: 127 Hours and then some

I may be on vacation this week, but I never take a vacation from movies. Too often, though, I take vacations from writing about them and I aim to rectify that with another of my patented catch-up posts.

On the BIG screen

Enter the Void: I went into this film by maverick director Gaspar Noe (Irreversible) expecting a memorable experience. I got one, all right. Just not the one I wanted. The movie begins fascinatingly, with Noe using hypnotic visuals and/or an almost entirely subjective camera to explore life after death. At first, the approach is intriguing and enthralling, but gradually it wears out its welcome. For one thing, the characters he focuses on are dull. Then the visuals become repetitive, climaxing with the camera tracking in and out of a hotel as it explores several couples having explicit sex, complete with psychedelically glowing groins.  I left the film with a giant headache - and the conviction that I had just watched the work of a visually talented pervert. GRADE: D+

Fair Game: This dramatization of the Valerie Plame story is one of those solid, straight-ahead films that doesn't do anything particularly wrong, but doesn't do anything particularly noteworthy either. Doug Liman's film starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts smartly goes behind the scenes of an oft-told story, but with this kind of pedigree, I was hoping for something a little better than "fine." GRADE: B

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest: Most critics seem to think this is the weakest of the trilogy based on Stieg Larsson's books, but I disagree. I think that distinction belongs to the second film, The Girl Who Played with Fire, which seems rather ordinary compared to its bookends. What's remarkable about the series is that each film has such a distinct tone. While the first was a mystery and the second was an action movie, this one is a courtroom drama. Most impressively of all, the movie remains gripping, even though the dynamic lead, Noomi Rapace, spends most of the film in the hospital. GRADE: A

127 Hours: Danny Boyle's films tackle a variety of subjects in a variety of styles, but through most of them, there is a common thread: celebrating the vitality of the human spirit through dynamic visuals. This time, Boyle's achievement is particularly impressive, considering the limited setting. It's a true story about a devil-may-care young man, Aaron Ralston, who becomes trapped in a narrow canyon after a boulder pins his arm. That Boyle gets so much mileage out of such a confined space is impressive, but what truly elevates the movie is the extraordinary lead performance by James Franco. Only some unclear storytelling towards the end keeps this from getting highest marks. GRADE: A

ON THE small SCREEN

American Grindhouse: This documentary about the grindhouse/exploitation scene made for a fascinating companion piece to the Moguls and Movie Stars series now playing on TCM. If the TCM series is about the glossy exterior of Hollywood, this film is about the sordid underbelly. Since it's only about 90 minutes long, it's a little shy on depth, but it has great archival clips and some fascinating interviews. My favorite tidbit: One interviewee's contention that the most recent grindhouse movie was not actually the Rodriguez/Tarantinio Grindhouse, but The Passion of the Christ. Available on Netflix streaming. GRADE: B+

Calamity Jane: I rented this movie expecting something of a retread of Annie Get Your Gun, but what I got was a movie that's actually even better than the MGM film of Annie. Doris Day is a delight as the ultimate singing tomboy, this may be my favorite of her musicals. Great song score too. GRADE: A-

She's Out of My League: Even though this looked like a knock-off of Knocked Up (geeky guy scores gorgeous chick), I found myself strangely drawn to it. I soon figured out why: the leads, played by Jay Barcuchel and Alice Eve, are very appealing and make a believable couple. Too bad everything surrounding them, particularly their one-dimensional buddies, is out of their league. GRADE: C+

I watched Heaven's Gate so you don't have to

They say that curiosity killed the cat. Curiosity didn't kill the critic - but it sure bored him stiff for three and a half hours.

For you see, I finally saw Heaven's Gate. And while I'm not going to be a complete wag and call it Hell's Gate, Purgatory's Passageway makes for an apt title.

I had just finished reading Final Cut, the book about the making of the infamous film and the demise of the studio that financed it: United Artists, the company founded by movie pioneers Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin. For decades, it was known as the most artist-friendly studio in town, having been the home of Woody Allen and Billy Wilder, but it also could ride herd on big commercial juggernauts like the James Bond movies. If  Heaven's Gate were as excellent as the book, United Artists might still be a viable name today. And indeed, there might have been no book, and you might not be reading this right now. 

But since you are reading this right now, it falls to me to tell you that the book is one of the best Hollywood insider stories ever written, if not the best. Written by the late Steven Bach, a UA production executive, the book lays out in painstaking and often self-deprecating detail how United Artists came to make Heaven's Gate - and how Heaven's Gate unmade United Artists. 

I will not recount all those details here. You can find them out for yourself, via this excellent documentary based on the book, viewable on YouTube. It was the viewing of this documentary that piqued my interest in the book. Having finally read the book, I said to myself, "You know, I really ought to see the movie." 

Part of my rationale was that I simply wanted to fill in the blanks left by the book. Part of it was simple curiosity. Could the movie possibly be as bad as legend said it was? New York Times critic Vincent Canby savaged the film, likening it to a "forced four-hour walking tour of one's own living room." Roger Ebert pretty much agreed, calling it "the most scandalous cinematic waste I have ever seen." 

The good news is, no, Heaven's Gate is not that bad. The bad news is that Heaven's Gate is not that good, either. 

Some revisionists, particularly critics based in Europe,  have called the film a misbegotten masterpiece. It's not. While reports of the film's out-of-control budget may have colored the original reviews, the picture's ambition must not be mistaken for quality. Heaven's Gate has its virtues - but none of them can overcome the central problem: its formless blob of a screenplay. 

Many have faulted Michael Cimino for his his wretched excess, for shooting take after take after take and for letting the picture run grossly overlong. And it is true that Heaven's Gate suffered from a lack of control. Final Cut reveals that Cimino directed like Stanley Kubrick, only with half the artistry and none of the discipline.

But Cimino was not an untalented man. He had an excellent eye, and a decent ear for performances. Ebert was far off the mark when he called it "incompetently photographed." The "incompetent" photographer was Vilmos Zsigmond, who had just shot The Deer Hunter for Cimino and won an Oscar for Steven  Spielberg's Close Encounters. Maybe some of the visuals are overly diffuse, but on the whole, the picture looks great. Kris Kristofferson's performance is solid, and Isabelle Huppert is rather touching as the object of a love triangle between Kristofferson and Christopher Walken. David Mansfield's musical score is lovely. (Alas, the sound mix is not. Especially in large crowd scenes, the soundtrack is so muddled, I couldn't make out the dialogue.) 

But as any director (or critic) worth their salt will tell you, music, visual skill and even performances can only carry you so far if you haven't got a story. And Cimino's screenplay never gave me a reason to care about all that fuss onscreen. The romance between Kristofferson and Huppert barely registers, and the romance between Walken and Hupert doesn't register at all. Maybe there's a nugget of interest here or there that might have warranted a 100-minute film. There certainly isn't enough to support more than 200 minutes. 

I often disagreed with the legendary critic Pauline Kael, but I applauded her sentiments when she wrote: "While watching the three hour and 39-minute Heaven's Gate, I thought it was easy to see what to cut. But when I tried afterward to think of what to keep, my mind went blank." 

Mine too. 

GRADE: C-

The retro movies I've seen

It's time to catch up on the movies I've seen on the small screen of late.

Breathless: Was lucky enough to catch this in 35MM in Columbus a couple weeks ago. And I had never seen it all. Suffice it to say this pioneering film of the French New Wave absolutely deserves its reputation. It's one of those films that makes me wish I had been around to see it on its original release. Maybe Jean-Luc Godard became a pretentious ass later, but this film alone seals his place in cinema history. And Jean Seberg is very easy on the eyes  GRADE: A

Detour: This famous film noir has a reputation for having been made in two hours at a cost of $35 - and still being quite good. OK, I'm exaggerating.  A little. But not about the pretty good part. It was only available on DVD via a cheap public domain copy and the print was in terrible shape - but that actually added to its allure. GRADE: B+


The Defiant Ones: I watched Tony Curtis' one Oscar-nominated performance not long after his passing. Like many of Stanley Kramer's "message" pictures, it's a bit preachy and dramatically obvious, but thanks to Curtis and costar Sidney Poitier, it delivers. GRADE: B+

The Misfits: Clark Gable. Marilyn Monroe. Eli Wallach. Thelma Ritter. Written by Arthur Miller. Directed by John Huston. How can it not be great? Well, oddly. it's not. Sometimes a disadvantage of that much firepower is that everyone is trying too hard, and the effort puts a strain on the film. Miller's story in particular feels too high-minded. Still, it's a highly watchable film thanks to the performances GRADE: B

Hi Mom: This is very early Robert De Niro and very early Brian De Palma, before the latter began working in faux Hitchcock mode. Even in his early days, his direction is still show-offy, and I can see hints of later films, particularly Body Double, in that it shares a preoccupation with voyeurism.  It's fairly intriguing but the story wanders too often. GRADE: C+

My Neighbor Totoro: The film that made Miyazaki's name in this country is as magical as most of his movies. And I WANT a 12-legged cat bus. GRADE:  A

Panic in the Streets: This is a good, solid suspense film, but the odd thing about it is that it falters  when it tries to be deep and to explore What It All Means. And what's odd about that is, that's where director Elia Kazan usually excels. This time, however, Kazan is much more effective at delivering action beats in a story about criminals who have no idea they're spreading a deadly virus. GRADE:  B

The Snake Pit: A fascinating look at how society used to view "crazy" people and the psychiatric treatment of them. It's inevitably dated, but emotionally it works very well, thanks to the lead performance by the great Olivia de Havilland.   B+

Weekend viewing catch-up: Splice, Rain, Greek and more

After a few moribund weeks, my moviegoing habits roared back to life last weekend, even if the theatrical movies themselves didn't quite roar - well,except for one - at the very beginning.

On the big screen

Get him to the Greek: The latest product of the Judd Apatow machine turns out to be one of the weaker efforts. It's decent enough, with a few inspired routines. Russell Brand's gleeful and brave tastelessness makes him fun to watch, and Rose Byrne matches him so well as his female counterpoint rock star, I wished the movie had used her more. Unfortunately, the script is missing the heart that made Forgetting Sarah Marshall by the same director so winning. Jonah Hill is miscast as the straight man, and Elizabeth Moss, playing Hill's girl, is used even less well than Byrne . I laughed enough to recommend it slimly, but not enough to see it again. GRADE: B-

Singin' in the Rain: Caught this at Columbus' classic film series. How classic is this film? "Moses Supposes" got applause at my screening. "Moses Supposes!" To say nothing of the ageless "Make 'Em Laugh" or the title number. GRADE: A+

Splice: In a way, I can see why the mass audience rejected this eerie tale of science gone awry. The story of two maverick scientists who create sort of a female Frankenstein bites off more than it can chew thematically, making for some fuzzy character motivations. The movie also suffers from failure of tone in its last act, which resorts to conventional horror shocks. That's disappointing because most of the way, the film is quite effective, owing a great debt to the work of David Cronenberg, who knows a thing or two about gooey Canadian horror. Leads Adrien Brody and Sarah Polly work very well together. For those who like their sci-fi/horror offbeat, this one is worth a look, even if it's not as good as it could be. GRADE: B

On the small screen

New Moon: It's not quite so bad as many critics said it was. The basic story of vampires meeting werewolves work, even if it is old hat, and the performances are fine, but it's undone by Chris Weitz's overly showy direction, and by laughably lame dialogue that makes Avatar seem like the work of Billy Wilder. Note that I dispensed with that "Twilight saga" BS. GRADE: C

Make Way for Tomorrow: Criterion recently rescued this Leo McCarey picture from obscurity, and bless them for that. It's a wonderfully charming and heartbreaking tale about an elderly couple that's forced to separate and live with their children, who don't put much stock in their elders. If this movie had pointed things to say about the marginalizing of senior citizens in the 1930s, just imagine what it would say about the modern era. When McCarey won an Oscar for the much better known The Awful Truth, made the same year. he said, "Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture." I don't know about that, but I do know this is a gem worth discovering. GRADE: A

Picture This: Netlfix's Instant feed unearths another gem, this one a short but excellent documentary on the making of Peter Bogdanovich's classic The Last Picture Show. The film usurped the lives not only of the people who lived in Archer City, Texas, but of the people who made it. When director George Hickenlooper turns his cameras on the making of the sequel Texasville 20 years later, he finds some of the old wounds still remain. Hickenlooper co-directed Hearts of Darkness, the excellent look at the chaotic making of Apocalypse Now. Clearly, he has a knack for movies about movies. GRADE: A


Note: Toy Story 3 comes out this weekend. I am unsure when I will get to see it, but I promise you I will review it as soon as I can.

DVD Catch-Up/What I've been watching

Since the theatrical slate is about as exciting as a bowl of bran flakes, I've taken to watching mostly the small screen lately. Here's a rundown of DVDs of movies I've seen, and other titles I've seen via the cathode ray tube (Yeah, I still have one of those.)

New DVDs

Edge of Darkness - Very solid police procedural that I believe was unfairly tainted by the cloud that hovers around Mel Gibson. Point blank, the man still holds the screen and does so very well here as a vengeful cop investigating the murder of his daughter. Solidly directed, as usual, by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) and well written by William Monahan (The Departed). GRADE: B+

Invictus: Decent yet somewhat lacking sports melodrama from Clint Eastwood. It suffers a bit from over-earnestness, and Eastwood errs in the sports sequences by playing too many shots in slow motion. The film benefits, as expected, from strong performances by Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.  GRADE: B

Leap Year: Well, of course I liked it. It's Amy Adams. And no, had any other actress been in the lead I probably wouldn't have forgiven the extremely predictable plot, but my bias is my bias, so there ya go. Full review - GRADE: B

The Messenger: This drama focuses on a side of the military that is too little thought about, because to think about it too much is unbearable. The leads are two Army officers who have the grave mission of telling families their loved one has died in the line of duty. The performances are so poweful I wish the drama hadn't gone somewhat muted by the end, but it's well worth seeking out. GRADE: B+

Nine: When I saw this in December, I enjoyed the energy of the musical numbers, and - that was about it. The songs are well sung, but I didn't connect with the drama of Daniel Day-Lewis' tortured director at all. Hence, the film faded quickly from my memory. GRADE: C+

Small-screen viewing

Annie Oakley: No, no one sings "There's No Business Like Show Business" in this version, and to be honest, I didn't miss it all that much. George Stevens' 1935 drama about the Ohio sharpshooter.  Stevens' comedy rhythms are a bit awkward, and the plot is certainly hokey/dated, but it gets a ton of charm from its performances, most especially that of Barbara Stanwyck in the title role. GRADE: B+

Broken Embraces: Pedro Almodovar's latest, about the melodrama surrounding a blinded movie director doesn't live up to its early intrigue, with the third act being a bit rote, but there's enough fascination to make it highly watchable. I would have much rather seen Penelope Cruz Oscar nominated for this film than her unsurprising work in Nine. GRADE: B+

A Foreign Affair: Well of course I liked it, it's Billy Wilder. And I haven't met a Wilder movie yet that wasn't at least decent. This one, about a love triangle in post-war Germany isn't as fresh as the best Wilder, but the sharp performances by the ever-sultry Marlene Dietrich and the always delightful Jean Arthur make it hold up quite well all the same. Fun character actor recognition: the commanding officer in the film is Millard Mitchell, who would later play the somewhat dotty studio head in Singin' in the Rain. GRADE: A-

Red Cliff (extended version): John Woo's return to foreign language film isn't quite the return to form I hoped it would be. As expected, it's filled with dazzling camerawork, with exciting battle scenes, but Woo stacks the deck too much with the sprawling story. The drama, though solid, never leaves the conflict in enough doubt. GRADE: B

Seconds: Underrated, thoroughly engrossing and eerie paranoid thriller about a man who changes identities so completely that he gets a whole new face and, indeed a whole new life. Striking direction by John Frankenheimer and innovative camerawork by James Wong Howe power this movie, which dilutes only a little at the end with a somewhat  abrupt denouement. GRADE: A-

Summertime: This David Lean film isn't as strong as his early British movies (e.g. Great Expectations) or his later massive epics (e.g. Lawrence of Arabia), but it's kinda hard to miss with a romance fronted by Kate Hepburn, isn't it? GRADE: B+

Targets: I saved the best for last.  Peter Bogdanovich's 1968 thriller at first seems to be two completely different movies. One is about an aged star (Boris Karloff0 who is disillusioned with the movie business, and the other is about a crazed gunman who goes on Charles Whitman-like shooting sprees. Bogdanovich cleverly and chillingly dovetails the two plots; this is his second-best film, after The Last Picture Show. GRADE: A

What I watched Easter weekend

New to me

The Nun's Story: On most Easter weekends I like to watch something with religious themes, and this film, one of the few major Audrey Hepburn vehicles I hadn't seen, turned out to be quite a fine choice. It took me by surprise at first. Seemed to me Fred Zinnemann usually directed more muscular films like High Noon or From Here to Eternity. But as I watched it, I realized it's a muscular film, it just exercises something we don't think of as a muscle: The heart. The film has just as much emotional punch as those other films, but this one is about the inner torment of Audrey as she struggles to live and serve rightly as a nun. She described this as her own personal favorite performance, and it's not hard to see why - it strongly echoes the real-life charity work to which she devoted herself. But it's also a performance of subtle power - there aren't many big emotional scenes, but Audrey, an excellent actress with her eyes -  handles them all with the grace and skill that came so effortlessly to her. GRADE A

The Uninvited: How this movie ended up in my mailbox I'm not sure; I thought it was further down in my Netflix queue. Still, I remembered why I put it there: I've always really liked Elizabeth Banks as an actress - she seems to me to have the makings of a major star, but works more like a character actress in a leading lady's body. At first I couldn't understand why she wanted to play in what I call the "[Blank] from hell" genre - in this case, she was the stepmother from hell. Or maybe just The Stepmother, since we've now had two versions of The Stepfather. Then, when I saw the film, I understood - because it's really not a "[blank] from hell" movie. I can't say what it really is without giving too much away, but I will say it's a decent little thriller. The "stings" are fairly rote - this film came at the tail end of Hollywood's fascination with Asian horror - but its well acted by Banks, and by Emily Browning, who first impressed as one of the kids in Lemony Snicket. GRADE: B 

Repeats

Apollo 13: For my money, still Ron Howard's best film. It never fails to amaze me that even though we know very well everything we turn out fine in the end, this film still maintains a great deal of suspense on each subsequent viewing. GRADE: A+

Hercules: Hadn't watched this 1997 Disney film in quite awhile, and I still think it's grossly underrated. Yes, I'm sure people who know me will call "bias" but I thought that even before I got to know one of the voice artists. And I still like it better than The Lion King. So there. GRADE: A

Standing in the Shadows of Motown: Supremely (pun intended) documentary about the Funk Brothers, the stellar session musicians who played on all the great Motown classics. I pulled this one out because the tune "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted" had resonated with me lately - I think this version even tops the original. Certainly made me wonder why Joan Osborne didn't have more hits. GRADE A

Reboot, reflect, review (Don't You Forget about Me)

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives - and the first day of a new life on this blog.

Upon personal reflection, I've decided to change my approach here. I will still review movies, on the big and small screens. I will still opine on movie-related matters as the mood strikes me. But the manner in which I will do so changes, starting with this post.

I've decided to get away from posts like my wrap-ups of the DVD releases and of the theatrical movies coming out every week. Creating those posts had begun to feel like a chore. I was writing them because I felt I had to - not because I really wanted to.  If anyone wants to know about a particular theatrical or DVD release, or wants to know my thoughts on a particular issue du cinema, you can always ask me, either via comments or email.

My blog audience is very small - about 20-30 readers a day, if I'm lucky, and that's OK. It's mainly friends, family and associates. One of the benefits of having a forum like this is the personal freedom it gives me. And that makes me feel comfortable in taking this blog to a more personal place.

I'm going to treat this blog more as a journal - a movie diary. Some posts will be long, others will be brief. Longer than a tweet, but shorter than a novel. Either way, I'm going to write more often, and more thoughtfully about the movies I see and why I see them. It will do my soul some good, I think, and I hope to continue to give you food for thought too. More to the point, I hope you like what I serve.

So with that in mind ....

Browsing around the movies available for "Instant Viewing" on Netflix, I made an interesting find this week - a movie called Don't You Forget About Me. If those very words conjure up a warm aural bath of synthesiszers and "hey hey hey heys," you've probably surmised the movie has something to do with the late John Hughes. You would be right.

The doc, which is mostly very well done, follows a group of filmmakers as they attempted to track down Hughes and get him to talk on camera about his legacy and why he became something akin to the JD Salinger of cinema. (Obviously, the documentary was made  before Hughes' sudden death in 2009).

While I understood the need to give the movie a narrative "hook," the "looking for John Hughes" segments of the doc are its least interesting. The filmmakers' attempts to find Hughes are well-intentioned but come across as creepy and stalker-ish. It's almost as if someone made the pitch "Hey! Let's trespass on the private property of the most reclusive filmmaker since Greta Garbo, and film ourselves doing it!"

Much more successful are the various interviews. The crew managed to talk to many of Hughes' collaborators like Ally Sheedy, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Judd Nelson and director Howard Deutch, who made Pretty in Pink and its gender-reversed counterpart, Some Kind of Wonderful. No, they're not exactly Matthew Broderick and Molly Ringwald, but that was OK - I liked hearing the viewpoints of the lesser-known Brat Packers.

Impressively, the filmmakers also scored sit-downs with Kevin Smith (who calls his flicks "raunchy John Hughes films"), Ebert and Roeper, Up in the Air director Jason Reitman (prescience!), and even Jim Kerr, the lead singer of Simple Minds. Most striking of all are interviews with contemporary teens who are big Hughes fans and say that today's teens movies hardly represent them at all. ("Who has sex with a pie?" one wonders.)

And then something strange happened to me. Watching the clips, I found they hit me harder personally than they once did.

Why is that? A little background is in order. When Hughes'  films originally came out, I really wasn't that much into them. With the possible exception of Ferris Bueller, I don't think I saw a single one of them upon their original theatrical release. I caught most of them on VHS later, and liked most of them but did not love them.  I remember giving The Breakfast Club points because it was cool enough to mention John Lennon.

But that was part of why Hughes' films didn't resonate with me as much as they did my contemporaries. In a subconscious attempt to forge an identity as something other than "the kid with cerebral palsy," I cast myself as "the kid who likes the Beatles." It wasn't very cool to like the Beatles in the mid-80s, so I didn't see myself as the kind of angsty teen that populated Hughes' movies. I  prided myself on being off the beaten track and was comfortable in my own skin.

But as I watched Don't You Forget About Me, I found those scenes from Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, et al, resonating me more than they did when I was a teenager. I think that's because in the intervening years, I became more of the angsty lost soul than I used to be.

In large part, this stems from my lack of success in finding a significant other, especially since just last week, I was dealt a bad hand in the dating game. That pill is bitter enough to swallow under any circumstance, but when you're pushing 40, you just about choke on it. Suddenly, all that loneliness and alienation in Hughes' films hit me  where I have come to live. Talk about being a late bloomer.

What does all this mean? Well, I don't expect Hughes' films to shine a bright light and quote Lennon with to an uplifting sing-along of "Love is the answer, and you know that for sure." But seeing that documentary made me realize that Hughes wasn't just speaking to teens - he was speaking to everybody.

Not everybody listened, but I'm starting to do so.   After all, I will always be grateful to Hughes for helping turn the Fabs' "Twist and Shout" into a top 40 hit again via Bueller. For one brief, shining moment in the 80s, everybody knew what I was talking about. Who's to say something like that can't happen again?

Movie grade: B+
Available on Netflix streaming.

Back from a respite, with multiple reviews

Hello, all. I'm sorry for the gap in posts, but I was on vacation and for one reason or another, lacked the wherewithal to write. 

But did I still watch movies? Oh, sure. This post will catch you up with most everything I've seen lately, and then I'll take this blog in a somewhat new direction. More on that later.  

Big-screen viewing

How to Train Your Dragon: Hands down, this is the best picture DreamWorks has ever made. Do I consider it a coincidence that it just happens to be directed by two guys who used to work for Disney? Oh hell no. Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois made Lilo & Stitch, and some of the same "strange alien = endearing creature" sensibility reappears here, but this film is very much its own animal. While too many DreamWorks movies are iPod Shuffles of pop culture references, this one tells a story with real heart. Wall Street may say the movie underperformed at the box office last weekend, but I firmly believe the test of time will trump the test of short-sighted shareholders.  The animation is superb, both in its creative character design, and the absolutely breathtaking 3D visuals. It's the best use of the technique I've seen outside of Avatar.  Will young kids like it? Some scenes are intense, but the immensely charming 5-year-old I saw it with immediately started drawing dragons when she got home, if that's any indication. GRADE: A

Chloe: Pulpy sexual melodramas are director Atom Egoyan's stock in trade, and I liked this one better than most critics, thanks to excellent performances by the three leads: Julianne Moore as a woman who suspects her husband is cheating on her, Liam Neeson as the suspected philanderer, and especially Amanda Seyfried as the titular escort who taps into Moore's vulnerabilities. The climax felt a bit too much like it was drafted in from an Adrian Lyne film, but for the most part, the film works. GRADE: B+

The Ghost Writer: This film will forever be known as The Movie Roman Polanski was Making When he was Arrested, which is sort of a shame because it deserves notoriety for being pretty good. It takes perhaps a bit too long to get going and didn't feel very Polanski-esque in the first half, but the second half gains momentum as the director's knack for sinister mysteries takes hold. GRADE: B+

Small-screen viewing

American Pimp: I watched this documentary about pimps because it was directed by the Hughes brothers, who broke through with Menace II Society and most recently made The Book of Eli. The film doesn't do a lot more than say "Pimps are people too," but it does so in visually arresting fashion. 

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer: Solidly entertaining puffball of a comedy that's often mislabeled as a classic. It's not. Oh sure, it has classic stars in Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple, but let's face it - they're A-listers working with B material. If they weren't in the film, nobody would remember it today. But since they were, it still endures. And it stands as proof that even though Shirley lost her star power as she got older, she was still damn cute as a teen. GRADE: B

An Education: I didn't actually see this again on the small screen, but it is available on DVD today. Watch it and discover Carey Mulligan, AKA The Main Reason I am Jealous of Shia LeBeouf. If my vote were the only one in the Oscars, she would have won. GRADE: A

Where the Truth Lies: More Atom Egoyan, which I watched in preparation for Chloe. This look at a murder mystery between a Martin and Lewis-like team is not as good as it could have been, largely because it tries too hard to surprise with its twists and turns. Still, performances hold it together, although the best work coms from the least-known name. Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth are good, as one would expect, and even though Alison Lohman is slightly miscast as a naive book writer, she makes a valiant effort. Outshining them all is Rachel Blanchard as the murder victim, who is alternately touching and alluring. GRADE: B

Review Catch-Up: Green Zone, The African Queen, etc.

Time for an extensive review catch up, on all fronts

In theaters now

Green Zone: Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass' latest collaboration isn't the great film I hoped it would be. By now, a look at malfeasance in Iraq feels like old news, and this was the first time it seemed like Greengrass was repeating himself. I found myself thinking"OK, we know you can do hyperkinetic action (Bourne) and mix it with contemporary history very well (United 93) - what else is in your arsenal?"  Slight staleness aside, Green Zone is still a gripping and extremely well-made thriller, with a terrific performance by Damon.  Many reasons have been bandied about for its underperformance at the box office, but people are missing a good story well told - and that's a shame, whatever the reasons are.  GRADE: B+

DVDs out today

The African Queen: Bogie and Kate. Simply put, no self-respecting movie fan has any excuse not to see this classic now that its finally out on DVD, in a newly restored edition. I'm getting the Blu-Ray box that comes with Kate's memoir about the making of the movie. GRADE: A+




Bigger Than Life: I first discovered this Nicholas Ray (Rebel Without a Cause) film courtesy of Martin Scorsese's Personal Journey Through American Movies. In a way, it's very much of its 1950s era, but it was also ahead of its time in even daring to tackle the dangers of prescription drugs. James Mason, whose talents history still has not fully appreciated, powers the film with an unforgettable performance.  GRADE: A-


Brothers: This drama about a military man's presumed death in Afghanistan has a rather large plot hole, in that the military would never lead a family to believe their loved one was dead, as this movie tells it. Regardless, powerful performances by Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman and (in a small but key role) Carey Mulligan make up for any lack of credibility. GRADE: B+

The Blind Side: I can understand why people loved this movie, even if it never struck me as anything more than well-made hokum. Like so many films about the disadvantaged, it pats itself on the back too hard for being noble, but the story remains affecting, thanks in no small part to Sandra Bullock's Oscar-winning performance. GRADE: B+

Fantastic Mr. Fox: Think Wes Anderson's indie sensibilities wouldn't be entertaining for kids? Give this one a try and you might be surprised. His quirkiness meshes rather well with Roald Dahl's mordant humor. Great fun - and as an added bonus, it features one of the year's coolest soundtracks. Full review - GRADE: A-

The Men Who Stare at Goats: If this movie were as goofy as its title, it would have been one of the funniest films of last year; as it is, it feels curiously restrained. I wanted it to cut loose more. It's an amusing goof of a movie, no more, no less. Full review - GRADE: B

DVDs out now 

Astro Boy: Is it just me, or did this look like Frisch's Big Boy became an animated superhero movie?

Broken Embraces: Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz are always worth seeing, even if this one doesn't have the reputation of Volver.

Did You Hear About the Morgans?: Yes, and I heard they sucked, thank you very much.

The Fourth Kind: Hm, strange, I can't find much to say about this Milla Jovovich sci-fi thriller. Even people who saw it can't seem to find much to say about it, best I can tell.

The Princess and the Frog: Better than even Disney thinks it is, given all the Rapunzel/Tangled foolishness. Full review - GRADE: A.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon: The very fact that there are dolls that show Pattinson's/Lautner's ripped physiques is enough to make me reject this franchise altogether. For a series that supposedly caters to teen girls, it's uncomfortably close to Playgirl territory.

Small-screen viewing

The Confederate States of America: Clever idea for a satire: what if the South had won? There's just one teensy problem with the faux documentary - it's not funny. GRADE: C-

The Diary of Anne Frank: Here is the very model of how to turn a stage play into a movie - George Stevens' insightful direction conveys the claustrophobia of the Franks' hideaway, yet very cleverly and cinematically opens up the action with skillful editing and camera moves. Some of the dramatics, especially the romance between Anne (Millie Perkins) and Peter (Russ Beymer) feel a little too "Hollywood,"  but the film is still very moving on the whole. GRADE :A-

Lady for a Day: One of Frank Capra's earlier films is also one of his lesser known works, and that's a shame - it's a very charming fable about a band of hoods who tries to pass off a beggar as an aristocrat to please her long-lost daughter. The story doesn't stand up to scrutiny if one thinks about it too hard, so it's best to just go with the improbable flow. GRADE: A-

Seven Days in May: When this political thriller was remade for cable in the 1990s as The Enemy Within, my best friend who once managed a video store told me a story about a guy who asked to rent the original. He promptly returned it saying "I don't like black and white movies." (Facepalm) That guy missed an excellent drama. Maybe it's a little dry in places, but powerhouse acting by Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Fredric March carries the film. GRADE: A-

The other movies of Sherlock Holmes - and bonus Billy Wilder

I often like to theme my movie viewing at home. . I tend to go on certain kinds of "kicks" - a Grace Kelly kick, an MGM musicals kick, a Scorsese kick (which I am permanently on) and so forth.

Sometimes these kicks happen organically. I didn't really mean to go on a Sherlock Holmes kick recently, but now I might as well be carrying around a pipe and playing a fiddle. I'm not really sharp at deductions unless it has to do with movies, but I am not gifted enough to find, say, the missing footage from The Magnificent Ambersons.

But I digress. My Holmes kick started when I watched the movie in theaters now. I found it passably entertaining, but really didn't think much of it.

Then came Disney's The Great Mouse Detective. I didn't mean to watch the movies so close together, but I had it in my Netflix queue because it was one of the few Disney animated features I had not seen, and it just happened to arrive not long after I saw the new Holmes. But I'm glad it did, because I found the film quite the delight. It's maybe a little shy on heart, and the songs are forgettable, but it's wonderfully clever in the way it synchs up the human Holmes with the mouse version. Two of the directors are Ron Clements and John Musker, who would later get credit for launching the Disney renaissance with The Little Mermaid, but Mouse Detective laid some very fine groundwork.

Since I was on a roll, I decided to make my next film a Holmes feature I had long wanted to see but had never gotten around to it: Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. And it's much more imaginative than the current Holmes could ever dream of being. (Billy Wilder trumping Guy Ritchie? Who knew?)

In a sense, it feels unlike most Wilder pics because of its British milieu, but it still bears Wilder's distinctive tone and voice as he and co-writer IAL Diamond concoct an "undiscovered" Holmes adventure that cuts into his legend. One of my favorite lines: "Some of us are cursed with memories like flypaper. Stuck there is a staggering amount of miscellaneous data, most of it useless."

Some would say that's true of my brain: But I think it better enables me to enjoy movies like that one.

Since I didn't have any more Holmes movies in my collection (or Netflix queue) I decided to go for another Wilder picture that was on TCM - The Major and the Minor, about the misadventures of Ginger Rogers when she tries to pass herself off as a 12-year-old so she can take a train trip home.

This was Wilder's directorial debut, but you'd never know it unless you were told - the movie bears none of the tentativeness of a typical first-timer. Wilder was assured right off the bat. The idea that Rogers could pass for a 12-year-old is preposterous - and Wilder knows it, getting great comic mileage out of it. The inclusion of a real teenager who sees right through Rogers' disguise off the bat gives the movie a sharp edge.

It's not one of the truly great Wilder movies, mainly because Ray Milland's male lead and love interest is a bland washout. But Rogers is an absolute hoot. When Wilder finds an excuse for her to do a little dance, it's comic gold.

Where will my movie viewing take me next? More Wilder? More Rogers? Whatever's coming from Netflix? Even I don't know just yet. But I'll post more when I do decide.

The Great Mouse Detective: B+
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes:  A-
The Major and the Minor:  B+

REVIEW: The Fox and the Hound

Being on something of a Disney kick of late, I decided to start catching up with some of the animated features I'd never seen.

Well - I'm not really sure I'd never seen The Fox and the Hound. Watching it Sunday night, it felt vaguely familiar to me, as if I had seen it years ago and then forgotten about it - which is odd, because The Fox and the Hound came out in 1981, and I have much clearer memories of The Rescuers, which was released in 1977. Perhaps the difference is that I know I saw The Rescuers in a theater, and I did not see The Fox and the Hound until some years later on TV, if indeed, I saw at all.

But I have clear memories of The Fox and the Hound now, and they're mostly fond ones, even if they are rather ... recent, shall we say.

The movie actually starts somewhat shakily. The early scenes, with Todd and Copper as kids, are just this side of too cute, even for this sentimentalist. The sidekicks Boomer the woodpecker and Dinky the finch are neither particularly funny nor memorable. And "The Best of Friends" aside, the songs and score are indistinct at best.

However, the core characters are very strong, and the ending, with its frightening bear attack, is just about as efffective as anything in Bambi. Because that central friendship is so solid, I got caught up emotionally in it, to the point where this sentimentalist got misty-eyed, as he so often does with Disney movies.

The DVD has a featurette  about how this film marked a turning point in Disney animation. The legendary "Nine Old Men," from Walt's era,  including Wolfgang Reitherman, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston started the picture, then  the new generation of animators finished it, including Glen Keane (Ariel, the Beast, Aladdin) and John Musker and Ron Clements (The Littler Mermaid, Aladdin, The Princess and the Frog) finished it. The featurette runs a mere 10 minutes, I would have loved to see something at least a little more in-depth, considering the film was so pivotal.

 I rate the film just slightly below The Rescuers, if only because of the nostalgia that film carries for me, but The Fox and the Hound recalls both the glories of Disney's past - and points the way to the renaissance of the then-future.


GRADE: B+

Reviews of every Disney 2D animated film I've seen

Some people are most looking forward to seeing Avatar this holiday season. Some are most looking forward to Up in the Air. Some are most looking forward to Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel. And I really hope I can look down on most of those people.

Ah, but the film I most want to see in the remainder of this year is Disney's The Princess and the Frog.

I freely admit, I'm a fool for most things Disney, and with good reason. Their animated films were among the first powerful stories I heard in my youth. And being a Disney aficionado has earned me some of my most wonderful friends.

While I have been a staunch Disney defender, and even something of an apologist for their work, I have to admit, the past decade has not been kind to Walt Disney Feature Animation. There have been a couple great films and a lot of good ones, but the 2000s have been nowhere close to their magnificent run in the 1990s. Somewhere along the way, Disney's storytelling went slack.

Pixar picked up that slack, and I've made it abundantly clear I adore their work. However, Pixar is not Disney. Pixar picked up a lot of traits from Disney, to be sure, but each studio has a very different vibe. I want both. And I am very hopeful that Disney is on the rebound with a most welcome return to hand-drawn animation, given the reviews so far.

I hope to see The Princess and the Frog on Saturday. In commemoration and in preparation for that imminet viewing, I offer up short reviews of every Disney hand-drawn animated film. (Please note this list does not consider hybrids like Mary Poppins or Pete's Dragon,  and certainly does NOT cover the direct-to-video titles, which were largely responsible for watering down the brand.). The list that follows is considered Disney's official roster.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs - I always thought Snow herself was kind of dull, but the dwarfs and the wicked queen absolutely make the move. GRADE: A

Pinocchio - Still my favorite animated film of any kind. Magnificent. GRADE: A+

Fantasia - Remains ahead of its time, nearly 70 years later. GRADE: A+

Dumbo - "Baby Mine" ... oh god ... GRADE: A+

Bambi - Bambi's mom. oh god ... GRADE: A+

Saludos Amigos - Fun, but too slight; it's barely a feature. GRADE: B-

The Three Caballeros - Delightfully zany and trippy. One of the studio's most underrated films. GRADE: A-

Cinderella - My favorite of Walt's princess movies. GRADE: A+

Alice In Wonderland - A little disjointed story-wise, even for a Lewis Carroll adaptation, but visually inventive, very funny, and far too maligned over the years. GRADE: B+

Peter Pan - A bit dated, particularly in its depiction of the Indians, but mostly delightful. GRADE: A

Lady And The Tramp - The famous "spaghetti kiss" is seriously one of the most romantic moments in the movies, animated or otherwise. GRADE: A+

Sleeping Beauty -  I've never cared much for the angular style of the animation here, and story problems abound. On the plus side, Maleficent is one of the most terrifying villains ever created. And the three fairies are quite funny, just to balance the scales. GRADE: B

101 Dalmatians - Great fun, and Cruellla is another great villainess, but for some reason I can't quite define, has never been one of my favorites. As dog movies go, Lady and the Tramp has it all over this one. GRADE: B+

The Sword In The Stone - Has one great scene in the battle between Merlin and Madame Mimm, but otherwise, this is depressingly average, and the weakest movie of Walt's era. GRADE: C

The Jungle Book - Walt's final film is just a touch thin narratively, but great characters and irresistible songs carry it a very long way. GRADE: A-

The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh: (Starts humming the theme, which means you'll all have the theme song stuck in your heads now.) GRADE: A-

The Rescuers - Not one of the great Disney movies, but I have a very soft spot for it because it was the first new Disney film of my childhood - that I can clearly remember, anyway.  GRADE: B+

Oliver & Company - Billy Joel's musical number "Why Should I Worry" is fun, but otherwise, barely memorable. My vote for Disney's low point. GRADE: C

The Little Mermaid - Hello, renaissance! GRADE: A+

The Rescuers Down Under - Entertaining if fairly indistinct sequel. GRADE: B

Beauty And The Beast - My absolute favorite of the "renaissance" period. It should have WON the Best Picture Oscar. GRADE: A+

Aladdin - The funniest movie Disney has ever made. GRADE: A+

The Lion King - Excellent at its best, but I never understood why people went SO bananas over this film. It has some excellent scenes, but "Circle of Life" and "Hakuna Matata" aside, the songs were weak. GRADE: B+

Pocahontas - Not a great film overall, and it IS a tad on the preachy side, but I will forever maintain this is a better film than The Lion King. So there. GRADE: A-

The Hunchback Of Notre Dame - The comedy mixes a little uneasily with the drama, but this is the great underrated Disney film of the 90s. The opening sequence especially is a knockout, and Alan Menken's score is one of his best. GRADE: A

Hercules: Yes, this one is underrated too - and I thought that even BEFORE a certain bias took hold, just so you know. GRADE: A

Mulan - The songs are a bit flat, (by now, "Reflection" has been sung by 341 American Idol contestants too many), but quite moving and powerful on the whole. GRADE: A-

Tarzan - Stunning in almost every respect, particularly in the amazing visuals rendered with the "deep canvas" process that made camera movement more fluid and the backgrounds more lively. GRADE: A

Fantasia 2000 - Couldn't possibly match the original but at times comes astonishingly close. GRADE: A

The Emperor's New Groove - I remember being distinctly underwhelmed by the trailers,  then couldn't stop laughing when I saw it. GRADE: B+

Atlantis: The Lost Empire - Has some great action scenes and fun comedic touches, but the story is  extremely scattershot. It feels like the script was endlessly tinkered with and picked over. GRADE: B

Lilo And Stitch - The ad campaign intermingling Sitich with classic characters was a stroke of genius - and the movie pretty much lived up to it. GRADE: A

Treasure Planet - This dazzlingly inventive movie got shafted, even by its own studio. It did NOT deserve to stuff at the box office the way it did. GRADE: A

Brother Bear - What do you know, another underrated film. The moose Rutt and Tuke's comedy alone makes it worthwhile. GRADE: A-

Home On The Range - Has some funny moments, but it evaporated from memory very quickly, and it contains not one memorable tune. Alan Menken was way off his game here. GRADE: B-

Unseen 

Make Mine Music/Fun And Fancy Free/Melody Time - I've seen parts of these omnibus films, but never the complete works, so I can't consider them here.

The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mr. Toad - I've seen the Ichabod sequence many times, and it's great, but I've still never seen Mr. Toad. I know him only from the fairly lame ride.

The Aristocats - The first actual Disney film of my childhood, but I was a wee bit young to see it then and have still never gotten around to it.

Robin Hood - My understanding is it's better that I've missed this one.

The Fox and the Hound: Actually, I have seen this one, but it's been so long, I can't review it fairly.

The Black Cauldron: It can't be THAT bad, can it?


The Great Mouse Detective: The Disney film I most regret missing. Many say the renaissance had its roots in this movie.

I'd love it if my readers would chime in with their own Disney critiques - or at the very least, name their favorites.