At the Cinema - July 2020

42^nd Street – 9

July events.  Our new recliners were finally delivered.   We ordered them the Saturday before everything went into virus shut-down so we waited patiently for 4 months and when they arrived we parked ourselves.  They are much more comfortable than what we had before and are fitting of the not-allowed-to-leave-the-home retirement we are apparently headed for.

We were gifted a subscription to the Broadway HD streaming service and we watched the 2004     Broadway production of 42^nd Street, and later we watched the 1933 classic wherein tapdancing Ruby Keeler was “plucked from the chorusline” to carry a Broadway musical.  This was a movie that was shown in my film class at Southern Miss and along with the Hitchcock Classic “Rebecca” started my love affair with movies.  It was great to revisit it.  Loved watching the Broadway Show too.

Classic Movie Report

Being the movie nut that I am, and with no idea when I will be able to see a movie in a theater,  I decided to make a concerted effort to see all the great movies.  So I’m starting with the Sight and Sound Movie Critics poll of the top 100 movies of all time.  I’d only seen 27 of the top 100 and 61 of the top 250, because many of them are foreign, so here goes.

The Searchers – 9

Director John Ford made many classic westerns starring John Wayne and this is purportedly the best, and is ranked 7^th in the poll.  The Duke plays Ethan Edwards a confederate soldier returning after the war.  When his young niece is kidnapped by Comanche Indians he is committed to retrieval, a process that takes years of pursuit of clues and leads.  It is a grinding epic and while I may prefer Shane and High Noon, I may be wrong in those preferences.  This is a viable candidate for best western ever made.

Le Regle Du Jeu (The Rules of the Game) – 8

This is a French satire by director Jean Renoir released in 1939, the best year ever for movies.  Coming on the eve of WWII, it was reportedly banned by the French Government for its portrayal of the upper class.  Apparently, they were embarrassed by the frivolities of the rich and famous.  Although it is of course tame and dated by today’s standards, it is funny enough and racy enough to hold up pretty well.  This one made me want to revisit all those great 1939 films.  So much of them are dated – but what’s the one movie that has never faded, that never feels dated?  The Wizard of Oz, of course.

A bout de Souffle (Breathless) - 2

Breathless, a 1960 french film that was rated as #13 of all time and I can tell you I’d rather watch a French Fry.  And I certainly would have rather eaten a French fry.  I have no idea what makes this film worthy because it played like a cigarette commercial as there is rarely a scene where smoke is not emanating from the participants, including a death scene.  The plot about a petty thief who brings down the heat when he kills a cop, and his sometimes girlfriend prancing about is about as interesting as watching someone throw French fries in the fryer.   There is one apparent sex scene, under the covers, which I’m sure was quite the topic in 1960, but doesn’t even register today.  So I’m baffled as to why this was a great film.  Some movies just go over my head and this one was in the stratosphere.  I was told it had a groundbreaking style for its time.  Maybe, but it did nothing for me.

City Lights – 10

I’d seen this movie (#50) mentioned many times by movie people as their favorite, but I guess I had forgotten how good a silent movie can be.  Charlie Chaplin is at his peak as the little tramp who befriends a blind flower girl.  I have never written “lol” for many reasons.  A) I’m not a trendy guy, and B) I wouldn’t write it unless I’d really laughed out loud, and that rarely happens.  This movie was the cure for that.  The boxing scene alone is a classic, and I’d seen it many times.  But, when seen in the context of the little tramp’s desperation to win rent money so the flower girl doesn’t get evicted, one’s perspective expands greatly.  Full of heart and exquisite comedy, this struck me as being ranked too low at 50.    Wonderful.  It’s the masterpiece it’s been heralded to be.

 

Rashomon – 10

The same goes for the first Japanese film I’ve ever watched.  I remember Siskel and Ebert singing the praises of famed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa but back in those days the chances of me finding this film to go see were slim to none.  A samarai soldier allegedly rapes a lady traveling with her husband.  The story is recounted in three different versions as the director points out how hard it is to arrive at the truth.  I couldn’t help but think of the House episode Three Stories.  The truth can be elusive.

Binge Report

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark – 10

HBO’s 6-part miniseries on a serial killer is a stunner. 

Between 1973 and 1986 an individual is believed to have committed 50 rapes, 100 burglaries, and at least 13 murders in California.  Known in one jurisdiction as the East Area Rapist, and another as the Original Night Stalker, he appeared to move around the state and it was the lack of coordination between police jurisdictions that played to his advantage.

Suspecting that he was still alive, author Michelle McNamara became obsessed with his actions and in 2013 coined the term “Golden State Killer.”  She spent the next 3 years passionately investigating and chronicling her efforts in a blog, then a magazine, and finally a best-selling book.  She is the fulcrum of the documentary, and it is her efforts that bring attention back to the crimes and her exhaustive investigation that spur the police effort.  Director Liz Garbus captures this story impeccably and like Michelle, her gift is her empathy with the victims, many of whom participate and chronicle their journey through recovery.  It is not easy to watch, but the payoff is huge.

And Now for something completely different

Tired of those long commitments to binge a series? 

Maybe you can take a break and watch some outstanding single episodes.

As a covid public service, here are my favorite classic episodes.  I’ve left off the obvious ones like vitameatavegamin and The Contest.  Check these out - no long term commitment required.

The Newsroom

Season 1 – The Pilot (available on HBO Max)

Jeff Daniels won an Emmy for his first season as News Anchor Will McEvoy and this episode is probably why.  Besides his famous rant that begins the show, the story centers around the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and how the newsroom covers the catastrophe.  Aaron Sorkin at the top of his writing game.

The Practice – a 2 parter
Season 4 Episode 12 – New Evidence
Season 4 Episode 13 – Hammerhead Sharks

The team of attorneys travel from Boston to Los Angeles to take on a client accused of murder.  It’s an impossible case and it makes for one of the great Perry Mason moments.

House – Three Stories
Season 1 Episode 21

This episode won a Peabody award as it is a brilliantly written piece that is critical to understanding Dr. Gregory House.  The good doctor is teaching a class and of course he can’t do it the conventional way.  Simply brilliant.

Rectify – Always There
Season 1 Pilot (can be seen Netflix)

This launched me into one of my favorite tv series of recent years.  It sets up some of the most memorable characters ever and the best portrayal of the south I've ever seen.

Hill Street Blues – Hill Street Stations
Season 1 Pilot (can be seen on Hulu)

I believe this was originally a tv movie, but it changed television forever.  Gritty and groundbreaking, it introduced us to Frank Furillo and Joyce Davenport and a huge cast of offbeat cops

Season 3 Episode 1 (Trial by Fury)
Equally brilliant is this episode which I’ve never forgotten.  A nun is brutally murdered by a gang member, so Furillo resorts to extreme measures to bring the killer to justice. 

The Bob Newhart Show – The Longest Goodbe
Season 4 Episode 1 (can be seen on Hulu)

I’ll just go on record and say this is my nominee for the funniest single episode of TV I’ve ever seen.  It introduced Tom Poston as “The Peeper,” Bob’s old college roommate, and he’s the perfect foil for Newhart’s deadpan delivery.  A Classic.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Graduation Day
Season 3 Episodes 21 & 22 (can be seen on Hulu)

Another 2-parter that concludes season 3, which is my favorite all time season of a television series. This is peak Buffy as she concludes high school.  It’s a year on a roller coaster that we can all relate to.  There are several Buffy episodes, like Hush, Once More With Feeling, and The Body, that are highly acclaimed, but the season-long story arc conclusion is what makes this special.

Firefly – Heart of Gold
Season 1 Episode 13 (can be seen on Hulu)

More Josh Whedon here.  There were only 14 episodes filmed and there could be a 14 way tie for my favorite, but this one wins by an inch, for the relationship between Inara and Captain Malcolm Reynolds and how it’s impacted when they decide to defend a planet’s brothel.

Star Trek – City on the Edge of Forever

This was the first time-travel story I was ever made aware of, and again it launched me into a love of the implications of time travel and how you can’t mess with history, which Captain Kirk finds out the hard way when he falls in love with the beautiful Edith Keeler.

 In case you’d like to play along at home, here are the top 100 movies as voted by international movie critics.    An Asterisk means I’ve seen it, and now I’m up to 33 of 100.  You?

1. Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)  *
2. Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)  *
3. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)
4. La Règle du jeu (Renoir, 1939)  *
5. Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans (Murnau, 1927)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)  *
7. The Searchers (Ford, 1956)  *
8. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1927)
10. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)  *
11. Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)  *
12. L’Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
13. Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)  *
14. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)  *

15. Late Spring (Ozu Yasujiro, 1949)
16. Au hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)
17. Seven Samurai (Kurosawa Akira, 1954)
17. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
19. Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1974)
19. Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1951) *
21. L’avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
21. Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
21. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)  *
24. Ordet (Carl Dreyer, 1955)
24. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)
26. Rashomon (Kurosawa Akira, 1950)  *
26. Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)
28. Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001)  *
29. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
29. Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, 1985)
31. The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)  *
31. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)  *
33. Bicycle Thieves (Vittoria De Sica, 1948)  *
34. The General (Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman, 1926)
35. Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
35. Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)  *
35. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
35. Sátántangó (Béla Tarr, 1994)
39. The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)
39. La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960)
41. Journey to Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1954)
42. Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
42. Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)  *
42. Gertrud (Carl Dreyer, 1964)
42. Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
42. Play Time (Jacques Tati, 1967)
42. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990)
48. The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
48. Histoire(s) du cinéma (Jean-Luc Godard, 1998)
50. City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931)  *
50. Ugetsu monogatari (Mizoguchi Kenji, 1953)
50. La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)

53.
“Rear Window” (1954)  *
“North By Northwest” (1959)  *
“Raging Bull” (1980)  *
56.
“M” (1931)
“Touch Of Evil” (1958)
“The Leopard” (1963)
59.
“Sherlock Jr” (1924)
“Sansho dayu” (1954)
“La Maman et la Putain” (1973)
“Barry Lyndon” (1975)  *
63.
“Modern Times” (1936)
“Sunset Blvd.” (1950) *
“The Night Of The Hunter” (1955)
“Wild Strawberries” (1957)
“Rio Bravo” (1958)
“Pickpocket” (1959)
69.
“A Man Escaped” (1956)
“Blade Runner” (1982)  *
“Sans soleil” (1982)
“Blue Velvet” (1986) *
73.
“La Grande Illusion” (1937)
“Les Enfants du Paradis” (1945)
“The Third Man” (1949)
“L’eclisse” (1962)

“Nashville” (1975) *

*78.
“Once Upon A Time In The West” (1968)  *
“Chinatown” (1974)  *
“Beau Travail” (1998)
81.
“The Magnificent Ambersons” (1942)
“Lawrence Of Arabia” (1962)  *
“The Spirit Of The Beehive” (1973)
84.
“Greed” (1925)
“Casablanca” (1942)  *
“The Colour Of Pomegranates” (1968)
“The Wild Bunch” (1969)  *
“Fanny And Alexander” (1984)
“A Brighter Summer Day” (1991)
90.
“Partie De Campagne” (1936)
“A Matter Of Life And Death” (1946)
“Aguirre, Wrath Of God” (1972)
93.
“Intolerance” (1916)
“Un chien andalou” (1928)
“The Life & Death Of Colonel Blimp” (1943)
“Madame de…” (1953)
“The Seventh Seal” (1957)
“Imitation Of Life” (1959) *
“Touki-Bouki” (1973)
“A One And A Two” (2000)

At the Cinema - June 2020

The Old Guard – 10

It’s pretty rare that I get excited about an action movie these days.  They are so overblown with special effects, superpowers, ridiculous action sequences, and inept bad guys, that I may watch, but seldom am blown away.  They don’t impress me much.  Which makes me appreciate a good one.

Along comes Charlize Theron.  She has become quite the reliable star, in that, much like Tom Cruise, you can pretty much expect a quality movie.  She can do just about any role, comedy to drama to action, and her beauty is just the tip of the iceberg for the characters she has created.  She’s had a string of good to great movies in recent years.  Besides her Furiosa in Mad Max, there’s been Tully, Bombshell, Long Shot, Young Adult, and Dark Places, to name a few.  She is prolific and building a filmography that will someday be legendary.

She’s a producer on this made for Netflix movie and it is powerfully directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and they may have not gone into this project looking for a franchise, but sequels are in our future, and I can’t wait.

Charlize plays Andy, an immortal warrior who leads a group of 4, soon to be 5 in what they think are righteous causes over centuries.  They are great warriors, as all those conflicts have taught them how to fight, and they have only one superpower, they can’t die.  No matter what you do to them, they heal and come back for more.  Sounds simple, right? 

Well, they’ve been discovered, and in the current times they represent a profit opportunity for a pharmaceutical, if they can just be captured.  So, with that premise, we’re off and running, and it’s a great ride.  This is a Netflix home run.

Wild Tales – 10

In 2014 one of the best Foreign Picture Nominees for an Oscar was this odd little gem from Argentina.  It is the antidote for the streaming blahs.  If you are tired of bingeing shows that seem to go on forever, here’s a great dose of quick hitting, albeit sub-titled stories.  It consists of six sometimes violent vignettes built around the theme of revenge.  The stories range from good to great to masterpieces.  You’ll have to pay for this one, but it’s worth it.  In fact, I paid twice and watched it three times.  It is so compact and efficient in its delivery that you can’t get bored. 

This is the second Argentine film I’ve fallen in love with.  The first was 2009’s The Secret in Their Eyes, which nabbed a best foreign film Oscar.  When I googled it, there are 17 Argentine titles available on Netflix.  Maybe I need to explore more.


Vast of Night - 9

I got so aggravated with the mumbling of the leading man during the first 10 minutes of this movie (he has a cigarette dangling from his mouth) that I turned on the sub-titles.  Then I settled in to a rather enjoyable story of a possible UFO sighting in the late 1950's in New Mexico.  Given that UFO's seem attracted to New Mexico, this makes perfect sense to me, although the year and a half I lived in Albuquerque in the early 60's were not memorable for any flying objects  It was 1963 and I recall 2 things, the Kennedy assassination which would blaze my last name (not in spelling, but in pronunciation) into the history books, and the night my fever was so high I thought the mountains were coming in our back door. I have gotten to telling people lately in the conspiracy theory rich world we live in, that I've never seen a conspiracy theory pan out in the long run, and I really was rooting for that grassy knoll one, to maybe take a little pressure off the Oswald's and Osswald's of the world.

The whole town is about to be changed, way beyond the big game going on in the high school gym this night. This a fun movie on Amazon Prime.

On another personal note, I wrote a book report in the 8th grade (I think) on a book called The Interrupted Journey, about 2 hours on a flying saucer, and I must have done a good job, because every time I saw Mrs. Davis for the rest or her life, she wanted to talk about UFO's. 

Bushnick – 6

On the other end of the action spectrum, here’s a violent little piece set in New York City. Brittany Snow plays a graduate student coming home to her neighborhood and the grandmother who raised her only to find that war has broken out in her neighborhood.  Is it gangs, an alien invasion, a foreign army?  What the hell is going on?  She teams up with a former medic, played by Dave Bautista to try to navigate the few blocks from the subway stop she emerges from to her home.  The reveal of why they’re fighting is pretty cool, but beyond that, there’s not much to recommend this, and I wish one of those endless “what to watch” lists I receive hadn’t.

Hamilton – 10

Disney purchased the rights to the filming of the Broadway sensation just before some of the original cast exited.  Filming is something that is rarely done, because it’s a gamble to pull back the curtain when it could affect box office.  They needn’t worry.  I suspect if you watch this filmed play, you’ll want to go see it live. 

I can’t tell you how much I love musical theater and how much I don’t love rap music, so this was a challenge for me.  But, I shouldn’t have worried.  It’s easy to see why this is destined to be a Broadway legend.

What’s so great?  Well, first the music.  Yes there is some rap, but almost every style of music is used to tell the story of Alexander Hamilton.  Second, the choreography is stunning.  While there are some closeups that you wouldn’t get in a theater, it doesn’t come at the sacrifice of the amazing dancing going on throughout.  The performers are uniformly incredible.  But what makes this a masterpiece is the story.  The way Lin Manuel-Miranda, who also plays Hamilton, weaves this story between personal and political is simply stunning.  His creativity in crafting this whole thing is mind-boggling.  What an achievement.

Is it worth signing up for a month of Disney+ streaming just to watch this?  Yes.  That’s the bargain of the century.

The War Room – 9

Somehow I missed this acclaimed 1993 documentary about the Clinton Presidential run, as piloted by James Carville and George Stephanopoulos.  Suddenly, it’s available on HBO Max, so I finally got to see it.  Worth it to see the Ragin Cajun in action, and further enhanced by The Documentary Now spoof “The Bunker” where Bill Hader plays a Carville clone, and Fred Armison nails Stephanopoulos.  If nothing else this quarantine has allowed me to catch up on stuff I’ve always wanted to see but missed.  Oh, and campaigns sure have changed.

Seth Meyers – Lobby Baby – 9
Jim Jeffries – Intolerant – 8
John Mulaney – Kid Gorgeous – 8
Yes, I watch a lot of stand-up.  It’s hard to beat Seth’s retelling of how his wife gave birth in the lobby of his New York apartment building.  

David Foster:  Off the Record– 8

If you like music, don’t miss this chronicling of David Foster and the music he has helped craft over the years.  From Streisand to Chicago to Whitney Houston to Celine Dion to Michael Buble and beyond, the stories are fascinating, and getting to watch a hitmaker at work is terrific.  The list of artists he has discovered and nurtured to stardom is impressive.

Binge-report:

Breaking Bad – 10

I’m well into the fourth season of this, and “I can’t watch everything,” was my excuse for not watching this sooner, but Covid has made me do it, and it’s as good as all my friends said it was.  Superb story-telling, acting, and directing.  Not the easiest thing to watch at times, but spectacularly well done. 

Ozark – 9

We finished all three seasons of Ozark, and it’s as good as advertised, but exhausting.  When Netflix grabs a series like Breaking Bad and removes commercials it’s down to 45 minutes, but hour-long episodes of a series like Ozark to binge make it a marathon.  I’m used to the format because of HBO and Showtime, but those were once a week indulgences.  Ozark is coming back for a fourth and final season.  Take your time.  I need the rest.