Movies I Watched in June, Part 2

I hadn't seen this movie since it hit theaters way back in 1994, when I was a mere four years into my newspaper career. Now, 21 years later, I've been out of the newspaper business for a few years now, and looking back at this pre-Internet, pre-cell phone, pre-9/11 movie, it's hard to believe things were ever remotely like this, even considering the healthy layer of bullshit Hollywood always spreads over any journalism stories. Taking place during a single day in the life of a fictional Manhattan tabloid, "The Paper" follows several storylines, most of them tying back in some way to a murder that two young African Americans have been (wrongly) accused of. The plot is beyond far-fetched and scattershot (reaching a low point when there's an actual physical fight in the pressroom between Michael Keaton and Glenn Close), but it's consistently entertaining, especially if you've logged any hours in a real newsroom. (As is usually the case with these sort of movies, it's the small moments that tend to ring true.) Plus, director Ron Howard admittedly gathered an amazing cast: Besides Keaton and Close, you've also got Robert Duvall, Marisa Tomei, pre-crazy Randy Quaid, Jason Robards, Jason Alexander, Catherine O'Hara, Spalding Gray, Jack McGee and, of course, Clint Howard. Not as good as Jack Webb's "-30-," but then again, few movies are.

Another movie I hadn't seen since it played in theaters (in 2002), and this time around, I was watching it specifically for an upcoming episode of our movie podcast Out of Theaters. It's good stuff -- smart, somber gangster tale beautifully directed by Sam Mendes and filmed by legendary cinematographer Conrad Hall. Nice to see Tom Hanks playing a badguy, too, though admittedly, he's not really that bad -- just a gangster's henchman caught up in a bad situation and forced to go on the run to save his kid. The real counter-casting here is Daniel Craig as gangster boss Paul Newman's craven, sniveling son, no match for the tougher, smarter and braver Tom Hanks. In a few years, Mendes would re-team with Craig for the James Bond movie "Skyfall" -- it's hard to imagine Hanks defeating that rather more formidable character. One more thing: Watching this away from the opening weekend hype, I couldn't help but notice a certain similarity with the Coen Brothers' 1990 film  "Miller's Crossing" -- somber mood, strong and silent lead, Irish and Italian gangsters, the works. Thing is, as good as "Road to Perdition" is -- and it's damned good -- it can't lay a finger on "Miller's Crossing." That movie is a stone-cold classic.
Though I've somehow managed to watch every season of "Downton Abbey," I can't say I'm much of a fan. You ask me, it's nothing more than a soap opera that wins critical raves by (a) saying everything in an English accent and (b) pandering to the well-heeled PBS donors by reassuring them that, yes indeed, the idle rich have problems just like the rest of us. The worst sin it commits, though, is that it's boring. Nothing much happens on the show, and when it accidentally does, it's more than likely something that has happened before (see, for example, anything involving Bates and Anna). So imagine my surprise when I watched "The Guest," a 2014 thriller starring Dan Stevens (Matthew Crawley, "Downton Abbey's" tragically poor driver) and realized that not only is the guy a compelling actor, but he can be the center of a compelling story -- if he's got a solid script to back him up. Stevens plays "David," a veteran who stops by the home of the family of his army buddy and stays for a few days, getting involved in their lives in increasingly uncomfortable ways. It's a simple story, and it's nothing you haven't seen before, but Steven brings a fun intensity to the role (plus a spot-on American accent), and the ending -- which deliberately evokes the feel of an '80s slasher movie -- delivers some genuine jolts. The wife and I liked this one so much that we quickly watched "You're Next," the previous film by director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett -- and we got a kick out of that one, too. But that's a review that must wait until next month...