Rob Christopher's Blog, page 26

3 things about Terence Davies’ THE NEON BIBLE

The Neon Bible [1995]

1. He lip-syncs the introductory patter.
2. “Just a tooth. And her dignity.”
3. The most breathtaking sunrise in cinema?

3 things about THE FOX AND THE HOUND

The Fox and the Hound [1981]

1. Scooping up the chickens with the doghouse.
2. A truck bed full of pelts.
3. Only in a Disney film could Mickey Rooney and Kurt Russell conceivably play peers.

3 things about Bruce Bilson’s THE NORTH AVENUE IRREGULARS

The North Avenue Irregulars [1979]

1. “My acid is flowing.”
2. Pulling down the brim of her hat, licking her lips.
3. Snowed in at the Elks convention.

3 other things.

3 things about Richard Boleslawski’s THEODORA GOES WILD

Theodora Goes Wild [1936]

1. Montage of biddies and their cats.
2. A box of soft-baked ginger cookies.
3. She hands the baby to the old lady, who then suddenly realizes she’s a grandmother and promptly faints.

3 things about CALIGULA: THE ULTIMATE CUT

Caligula: The Ultimate Cut [1980/2023]

1. Raping first the wife and then the husband.
2. An army of naked men attacking papyrus.
3: Password: scrotum.

A genuine oddity and eye-filling spectacle that at times brought to mind (heaven help me) a much more honest, less pretentious Peter Greenaway production. Nudity and sex everywhere, but just when you think some eroticism is on offer, the film twists it abruptly away. Which I’d like to think is by design?

Malcom McDowell’s performance is fearless and captures the emperor’s harrowing cruelty and insanity. Helen Mirren doesn’t quite have enough to do but in her finest moments, she’s no shrinking violet either. The final third is a bit of a slog but the finale’s no nonsense carnage gets it right. I imagine that this plays best on a big screen; at home, it could feel tedious.

3 things about Shola Lynch’s CHISHOLM ’72: UNBOUGHT & UNBOSSED

Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed [2004]

1. Walter Cronkite announces that Shirley Chisholm has “thrown her bonnet” into the ring.
2. In 1971 she proposes that the Department of the Interior ought to be led by an Indian.
3. Octavia Butler: “Power really is just a tool, and it’s what you do with it that matters. If you don’t have it, someone else will. And you’ll be at their mercy.”

3 things about Isobel Sandoval’s LINGUA FRANCA

Lingua Franca [2019]

1. In the midst of peeling an orange, she gets the feeling she isn’t at home any longer.
2. He stops reading the letter out of embarrassment.
3. The cow carcass falls to the floor.

3 things about Damien Chazelle’s FIRST MAN

First Man [2018]

1. “Music Out of the Moon” by Les Baxter
2. Swing-set.
3. A painting of a pastoral scene in his quarantine bedroom.

3 things about Thomas McGuane’s 92 IN THE SHADE

92 in the Shade [1975]

1. Possibly the best onscreen assortment of 1970s casual men’s shirts ever assembled.
2. “The French have a word for it: pussy.”
3. She turns down an English muffin but puts a six-pack in her purse.

3 things about Peter Hyams’ BUSTING

Busting [1974]

1. Playing Solitaire in a toilet stall.
2. The hostage clutches tightly to her shopping bag as the gunman drags her out of the market.
3. “Dear Mom and Dad. How are you? I am just swell. A fag ate my leg.”

Not uninteresting as a time capsule. (The sequence in the gay bar is homophobic but fascinating.) However it’s nothing you haven’t seen elsewhere, done better. Except for Elliott Gould’s mustache, which is truly magnificent.