One Night in Miami (Amazon) - 9
This is Regina King’s directorial debut and she tells a fictional story of the night Cassius Clay (soon to change his name to Muhammed Ali) beats Sonny Liston to claim the heavyweight title. After the fight he joins with friends to celebrate - football great Jim Brown, Malcolm X, and Sam Cooke. Thus starts a night of revelry, discussion, and pretty strong disagreement.
The Actors playing the 4 parts are universally superb. By the end of the movie, you believe it may have really happened this way, or you’ve dismissed it as a flight of fancy. There were a couple of things that I really liked about the movie. The movie starts with the Clay/Liston fight, and I found it quite realistic, in that not all the punches land (like they do in most boxing movies) and King has perfectly captured one of the most amazing aspects of Clay. He had a unique ability to just lean back out of the reach of a punch. I’ve never seen another boxer that could do that, and King is the first to capture that perfectly.
The other thing I really liked was the music, anchored by Leslie Odom, Jr who played Aaron Burr in Hamilton. I never saw Sam Cooke sing, but Odon seems to capture his magic and the music scenes, like the boxing scenes, are superb. Musically, there’s never any doubt about how the movie is going to conclude. The “four friends” aspect of the movie is a little rambling, and not quite as hyper as you would guess it would be on a Cassius Clay fight night. Nevertheless, it’s excellent and a worthy view.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (HBO) - 9
Wow, this acclaimed movie was a tough one to watch. A 17 year old girl named Autumn (played beautifully by Sidney Flanigan) from a small Pennsylvania town travels to Manhattan to get an abortion, desperate to keep it from her parents. She is accompanied by her cousin Skyler (an equally terrific Talia Ryder). They work their way to the clinic and their relationship evolves. They get some surprising news about her pregnancy, and the audience is left to draw its own conclusions. There’s nothing in your face here, just tough decisions as a teenager who should not have to make such a decision is forced to.
The two young cousins have a gentle, quiet relationship – not something you see often in movies. Director Eliza Hittman captures the intimacy of Skyler’s support and the lengths she’ll go to protect her cousin. It’s low key and melancholy, but the pain of the entire event is an open book.
Palm Springs (Hulu) - 9
For some reason comedy just gets harder and harder. It’s hard to find a rom-com that doesn’t run out of steam. It’s the script of Palm Springs that keeps things perking right along, and the two likeable leads Andy Sandberg and Cristen Milioti, that held my laughter throughout this one. Yes, it’s essentially the “Groundhog Day” story updated. I wonder how many movies you can make out of a time loop? Several I guess, but there will never have been a better year to make one as we all lived the same day over and over. This isn’t a classic, by any means, but for 2021, it’s a rare rom-com that roms and coms. I'll take it.
Time (Netflix) - 9
Another Louisiana film, this is one of those documentaries
that benefit from 20 years of real footage. In the early 90’s Fox Rich and her husband Rob, in a
desperate attempt to secure enough cash to keep their business alive, rob a bank. Fox serves a couple of years and is let out
but it looks like Rob is going to serve all 60 years of his sentence. For 2 decades, as their two young boys grow
to men, Fox tries to get her husband’s sentence reduced. It’s a long shot, and a painful process. Video cameras are a blessing for art like
this, and this is a heart-wrenching family odyssey.
First Cow (Apple+) - 8
This is a beautifully acted, exquisitely produced story that appears to be a heavy favorite to get a Best Picture nomination from the Oscars. It is about two men who become friends as they battle the elements, and treacherous men as they plot their path to prosperity in 1820's Oregon. Their plan includes surreptiously milking a wealthy landowner's cow every night to use in the making and selling of biscuits which they hope they can convert into their fortune. This is the kind of movie I usually love in that it transports you to a time and place that is unfamiliar.
Yet for some reason, the movie didn't catch fire for me. I respect the craft of the movie, but it just didn't engage me the way it should have. Rapturous reviews are all over the internet, and I must have missed it. Trust them, not me.
The Prom (Netflix) - 6
Director Ryan Murphy wouldn’t know from subtle. He pours it on heavy in this musical and he has corralled significant star power to do it. A Broadway show closes and the stars (Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, James Corden) decide to do something “good” which will also get them positive publicity by traveling to Indiana to support a prom. The prom has been cancelled because a young girl wants to go with her girl friend. They travel to Indiana and a lot of dramas and songs break out. The only thing missing here is an appearance by Cher.
But the real break out is the young lady playing the young girl, Emma. Her name is Jo Ellen Pellman and she was gifted with what I call a Broadway Voice. Her breaking into song is the reason to hang with this overly long, overly preachy movie. A star is born – at least that’s my guess.
The Little Things (HBO Max) - 7
This is the first theatrical release to be simultaneously streamed for HBO Max Subscribers. This is a dilemma for someone like me who loves to go to the movies. I don’t want to see movie theaters die as one of the pandemic victims. But, on the other hand there’s a lot not to like in theaters, starting with the attack of the cell phones (Let’s all turn on our cell phones at once while Rick’s trying to read the credits.) I will gladly stay at home and pay a reasonable fee, although there are some movies that I’ll need to see on the big screen.
This is a buddy cop drama, and in the world of CSI, NCIS,
SUV, and every other crime drama you can think of, it must be hard to come up
with a viable story that you can tell in 2 hours, and this isn’t it. The good news is that Denzel Washington,
while growing a little greyer and paunchier, still carries movie star
charisma. The bad news is that Rami
Malik, who plays his young detective partner appears to have left his charisma
on the stage of Live Aid. The worse news
in that the script in order to differentiate itself from the alphabet soup I
mentioned earlier takes a malicious turn in the last 15 minutes, and what had
been a hunt for a serial killer by the two detectives, takes a left turn into
redemption over resolution. No fault of
the actors, but the ending is just stupid.
Sometimes if you have low expectations you won’t be disappointed. Such was the case with this Jason Stathum beat-people-up movie, which I watched because I’d heard good things, and it was filmed in Louisiana, which I’m a sucker for. He plays a retired DEA Agent who is a widower with a young daughter who does the totally logical thing and moves back to where his wife was from. (?????) Turns out that small Louisiana community of Rayville is a hotbed of drug making, bullying, and “you’re not from around here.” He’ll have his work cut out for him, and he’s got the fists to get it done.
Pretend It’s a City (Netflix) - 9
Fran Lebowitz is a coloerful celebrity. She has managed to parlay her career as an author into a life of personal appearances featuring her very unique takes on life. She doesn’t own a phone or a computer. She is obviously not on social media and has no idea what streaming means. She claims to be broke. You would think she wouldn’t understand America today. You’d be wrong. She gets it.
Martin Scorcese interviewed her, then spliced in many of her other appearances and came up with a 7 part documentary that is entertaining, and often hilarious. And no one enjoys it more than Scorcese whose laughter throughout takes on a life of itself.
Tiger (HBO) - 9
On the heels of the Michael Jordan 10 part documentary “The Last Dance” comes a 2 parter on HBO that tells the story of Tiger Woods. The Woods career is probably not over, and so this isn’t a rear view, career retrospective. This is a TMZ flavored look at the life of an athlete in a microscopic era. Woods at one point gets advice from Jordan on how to deal with fame, and as well trained as Woods was to deal with pressures of golf, no one prepared him for how to deal with the constant pressures of being an icon.
Woods is one of those rare dominant performers that attracts bodies. This is the story of how he handles that and one of the most revealing moments is when his new found love of scuba diving is explained. He is quoted as saying that “down there, no one knows who I am.”
This documentary covers all the great triumphs of his career, but is tinged with sadness over his scrutiny. This one left me sad. Awed at his ability, but sad.
Soul (Disney+) - 9
It takes a lot for me to watch an animated movie, but music
was the lure here and it was a nice trip.
A jazz musician is in limbo after his death as a path for his soul is at stake. Very cool, very nice movie.
The Bee Gees: How Can
You Mend a Broken Heart? (HBO) - 9
The Bee Gees were solid performers who were good and lucky
in that they were able to reinvent themselves several times. They were unlucky in that they were in the
shadow of other long running, and harder acts, and because they were brothers,
they didn’t seem to generate much drama.
In a world obsessed with the personal charms of Mick Jagger or John
Lennon, they seemed bland.
Little did we know.
It turns out they had their drama too, and the roller
coaster was running, it just wasn’t visible.
There are some great stories here, great music, great scenes and
interviews about how the music came together, and most of all, you will leave
with an earworm for a few days. Mine was
“Massachusetts.” Let me know what yours
was.
Mank (Netflix) - 9
I don’t think I ever wrote about Mank last year, thus at first I forgot it when ranking movies. This is a movie for movie-lovers, especially those who know the history of the classic Citizen Kane. For over 50 years, Citizen Kane was considered the best movie ever made. Although it didn’t win best picture in 1941, Orson Welles and Mankiewicz shared the Oscar for best original screenplay. Mankiewicz was Welles’ employee with the Mercury Radio Theater group, and as such was not expected to get a writing credit. However, the movie makes the case that Mankiewicz, who was quite the eccentric character, was so enamored of his first draft that he asked Welles for a screen credit, which a furious Welles granted him. At least that’s the story of the movie.
It has long been debated in Hollywood how much credit Mankiewicz should get, and noted film critic Pauline Kael made quite the case for him in a long article. It was quite a long running soap opera, and all this is portrayed quite nicely here, in black and white, by the great director David Fincher. But again, this is a movie for movie lovers.
Classic Movie Watch
Timothy Bottoms Double Feature (both PPV)
The Paper Chase – 9
The Last Picture Show – 9
I don’t know what ever happened to Timothy Bottoms, but somehow we caught his 2
classics (although I would argue that “Rollercoaster” is underappreciated.)
John Houseman is a real life participant in “Mank” as a cohort of Orson Welles,
and many years later he won an Oscar as the law professor in The Paper
Chase. It even spawned a TV series as I
recall. The Paper Chase, although
released in 1973 remains the definitive law school movie, although the recent
“On the Basis of Sex” is a cool supplement, and I’m guessing that “The Social
Network” is the Harvard standard these days.
The night Cloris Leachman died, we dialed up her Oscar winning performance in The Last Picture Show. Turns out if I’d ever watched this Peter Bogdanovich classic, it was wiped clean from my memory. It came out in 1971, the year I graduated from high school, and I guess I didn’t get to the theater much that year. There is one thing you just don’t know when you watch a movie. How is it really going to hold up? Well, 50 years later, this one holds up pretty well in that it certainly captures a unique time and place. It’s a dusty, racy soap opera adapted from Larry McMurtry’s book. I’m not going to go back and read it, but I bet it’s terrific.
Jaws (Netflix) - 10
I had to go back and rewatch this after listening to the
podcast “The Rewatchables” because the crew made the observation that this
movie greatly benefits from the hi-def, wide screens of today, and they were
right. Now it can terrify you in your
own living room the same way it did in the theater in 1975. All you have to do is turn out the lights. This movie hasn’t lost a beat.
Doctor Sleep (HBO) - 9
Well, it’s not a classic, but it’s a sequel to one. This is about the grown up Dan Torrance, the tricycle riding son of Jack Nicholson in The Shining. No surprise that he has demons, and some special insights too. Rebecca Ferguson plays the villain, a leader of a band of near-immortals who breathe in the dying souls of people as their sustenance. Here I thought she was strictly in Mission Impossible movies, where she is fantastic.
Since this movie was loosely adathted from Stephen King’s follow up, published in 2013, I should comment on how closely the movie follows the book. Except I didn’t read it, won’t read it, and don’t care. The movie stands on its own as a decent sequel with a good story.
Under the Skin (Showtime) - 5
Finally got to see the Scarlett Johannson 2013 film which was supposed to be so daring. It got under my skin that I didn’t like it as much as it was hyped
Binge Report
Cobra Kai - Season 1 (Netflix) - 9
An ingenious follow-up to the Karate Kid movie franchise starts with a hilarious first episode and maintains a perfectly credible story line throughout the first season. If you dug wax on/wax off, you’ll dig this.
Your Honor – (Showtime) - Incomplete
No, just no. I love Bryan Cranston, and I looked forward to this series, because, guess what – it takes place in New Orleans. But the first episode contains a scene so ridiculous that I just couldn’t take it, and gave up on this series on the spot.
The Office (England) – First Season (Hulu) - Incomplete
I’m five episodes in on the Ricky Gervais original, and so far it is hilarious. Can’t rate it yet, but hope to get through both versions of The Office this year. Stand by.
