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February 27, 2023My companion piece to Kirk's regular six monthly movie update. His is here
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
*****
2019 - JULY TO DECEMBER
NEW MOVIES : THE GOOD
Support The Girls
Booksmart
- Kind of obvious and kind of frenetically pushing all available modern buttons but still these two movies have got a lot of heart & soul
Tangerine
- Four years old but new to me – this is fast and furious and filthy and all shot on iPhones – a modern comedy classic, kind of
El Camino
- The Netflix epilogue to Breaking Bad, just what fans wanted
Ready Or Not
- A stupid horror movie just like You’re Next. I liked it a lot. Great cinematography. Lotta screaming.
Toy Story 4
- the act you’ve known for all these years.
Marriage Story
- Two great performances, for sure.
NEW MOVIES BAD
Charlie Says
- Hilarious – Doctor Who (Matt Smith) plays Charles Manson! Must see! The beard takes up most of the screen! But actually, this study of the three central Manson family women is trying hard to say something serious about cults and becoming inured to violence and deprogramming… for a better, less lurid movie on this subject see Martha Marcie May Marlene.
First Reformed
- Liked by many but I thought it was a right royal wallow and the ending was reedickerlous.
Blinded By The Light
- File next to Yesterday. In this one the British Asian kid is obsessed with Bruce Springsteen, to the consternation of his family. If you were thinking I bet this kid has a nerdy but cool friend and gets a cool girlfriend at the end you would be right. Also file this next to Wild Rose. Three modern British films that are wish fulfilment fantasies about music. Hmmm. And I didn’t see Rocketman.
The Dead Don’t Die
- Jim Jarmusch must have some clout to get this zombie uncomedy made. It had two good jokes and it had Bill Murray looking more dead than the zombies.
OLD MOVIES GOOD
These are mostly blindingly obviously great.
La Grande Illusion (1937)
Way Out West (1937)
Ninotchka (1939)
The Great McGinty (1940)
Murder My Sweet (1944)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
- I also saw the Kate Winslett tv series (very good) and I will be reading the James M Cain novel soon & so will become an expert on Mildredology.
The Snake Pit (1948)
- Sometimes you think an old Hollywood movie will trot out the cliches of the day about its chosen subject and often you’re right but sometimes, as in this fascinating movie about mental illness, you’re wrong.
The Reckless Moment (1949)
Los Olvidados (1950)
- As with La Grande Illusion, when you get round to watching these critically-revered monuments of film culture you are already feeling rather browbeaten and a little bit resentful, but mostly they are on the list of Great Movies because they still have the power to reach out of the screen and shake you by the scruff of your neck. Both these movies did it to me. I was well shook.
Hell Drivers (1957)
The Wrong Arm Of The Law (1963)
- Two ancient British movies that are only good if you like corny old British movies. Hell Drivers has an amazing cast : Patrick McGoohan, Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, pre-Bond Sean Connery, Sid James and Alfie Bass
The Servant (1963)
- Again, I thought I knew exactly what I was going to get here (homo-erotic sadomasochistic role-switching between master and servant) and I did but there was a whole lot more going on. Really excellent.
Le Bonheur (1965)
- Agnes Varda movie beamed down from the Planet France where everything is Very Colourful and all the people are Cute. Underneath the vast prettiness this is a real story about real people, too.
Daisies (1966)
- I did not know of this – should be filed next to those other mid-sixties European anarchist movies like WR – Mysteries of the Organism and I Am Curious Yellow. This one is WILD and a must see for any film fan.
The Fireman’s Ball (1967)
- A rewatch and still hilariously cringemaking. Also – how much did this movie influence Robert Altman! I think – a lot.
Straw Dogs (1971)
The Devils (1971)
Dancer In The Dark (2000)
Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Like Someone In Love (2012)
OLD MOVIES BAD
You Can’t Take It With You (1938)
La Ronde (1950)
Shane (1953)
- Finally convinced me that I have had it with Western movies. Strangely, I have only recently discovered the sub-genre of modern Western novels such as the Sisters Brothers. I love those but these classic Hollywood Westerns are just ridiculous now, so pompous.
Paris Nous Appartient (1961)
Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961)
- This could also fit into the Old Movies Good category but really there are so many things that capsize it – Mickey Rooney’s famously racist comedy Japanese man; all that stuff about the cat; the feeble George Peppard; the eyerolling chic New York swingin’ party which goes on and on and on. Really the divine Miss H is the only untrammeled joy to be had.
Au Hasard Balthazar (1963)
- I never know which Great Critical Favourites I will love & which I will loathe. This one was truly absurd. Like bresson is standing over us with a donkey shaped hammer yelling “have you got the religious allegory going on here yet?” And the patented blank-faced non-acting throughout makes you long for Joan Crawford.
Woman In The Dunes (1964)
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
A CABINET OF CURIOSITIES
The General
The New Girlfriend
Silent Light
Blue Velvet
The Baader Meinhof Complex
TWO GREAT DOCUMENTARIES
The Kingdom Of Us
Beaches Of Agnes
BILLY WILDER
I caught up with a bunch of this amazing director’s stuff. I a lot of it is very iffy – feminists are going to be throwing things at the screen sometimes – but the guy had energy and he knew what a rattling script should sound like. I do admit his fondness for Jack Lemmon is regrettable.
Irma La Douce
The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes
One Two Three
- A must see for the final fantastic amphetamine performance by Jimmy Cagney. Has to be seen to believe it.
Kiss Me Stupid
Witness For The Prosecution
The Fortune Cookie
The Odd Couple
Sunset Boulevard
- Just when you think Billy Wilder is all about daft comedies, wham – this tragedy comes along. Three great performances, especially Eric von Stroheim playing one of the saddest men you ever did see on screen.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
*****
2019 - JULY TO DECEMBER
NEW MOVIES : THE GOOD
Support The Girls
Booksmart
- Kind of obvious and kind of frenetically pushing all available modern buttons but still these two movies have got a lot of heart & soul
Tangerine
- Four years old but new to me – this is fast and furious and filthy and all shot on iPhones – a modern comedy classic, kind of
El Camino
- The Netflix epilogue to Breaking Bad, just what fans wanted
Ready Or Not
- A stupid horror movie just like You’re Next. I liked it a lot. Great cinematography. Lotta screaming.
Toy Story 4
- the act you’ve known for all these years.
Marriage Story
- Two great performances, for sure.
NEW MOVIES BAD
Charlie Says
- Hilarious – Doctor Who (Matt Smith) plays Charles Manson! Must see! The beard takes up most of the screen! But actually, this study of the three central Manson family women is trying hard to say something serious about cults and becoming inured to violence and deprogramming… for a better, less lurid movie on this subject see Martha Marcie May Marlene.
First Reformed
- Liked by many but I thought it was a right royal wallow and the ending was reedickerlous.
Blinded By The Light
- File next to Yesterday. In this one the British Asian kid is obsessed with Bruce Springsteen, to the consternation of his family. If you were thinking I bet this kid has a nerdy but cool friend and gets a cool girlfriend at the end you would be right. Also file this next to Wild Rose. Three modern British films that are wish fulfilment fantasies about music. Hmmm. And I didn’t see Rocketman.
The Dead Don’t Die
- Jim Jarmusch must have some clout to get this zombie uncomedy made. It had two good jokes and it had Bill Murray looking more dead than the zombies.
OLD MOVIES GOOD
These are mostly blindingly obviously great.
La Grande Illusion (1937)
Way Out West (1937)
Ninotchka (1939)
The Great McGinty (1940)
Murder My Sweet (1944)
Mildred Pierce (1945)
- I also saw the Kate Winslett tv series (very good) and I will be reading the James M Cain novel soon & so will become an expert on Mildredology.
The Snake Pit (1948)
- Sometimes you think an old Hollywood movie will trot out the cliches of the day about its chosen subject and often you’re right but sometimes, as in this fascinating movie about mental illness, you’re wrong.
The Reckless Moment (1949)
Los Olvidados (1950)
- As with La Grande Illusion, when you get round to watching these critically-revered monuments of film culture you are already feeling rather browbeaten and a little bit resentful, but mostly they are on the list of Great Movies because they still have the power to reach out of the screen and shake you by the scruff of your neck. Both these movies did it to me. I was well shook.
Hell Drivers (1957)
The Wrong Arm Of The Law (1963)
- Two ancient British movies that are only good if you like corny old British movies. Hell Drivers has an amazing cast : Patrick McGoohan, Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, pre-Bond Sean Connery, Sid James and Alfie Bass
The Servant (1963)
- Again, I thought I knew exactly what I was going to get here (homo-erotic sadomasochistic role-switching between master and servant) and I did but there was a whole lot more going on. Really excellent.
Le Bonheur (1965)
- Agnes Varda movie beamed down from the Planet France where everything is Very Colourful and all the people are Cute. Underneath the vast prettiness this is a real story about real people, too.
Daisies (1966)
- I did not know of this – should be filed next to those other mid-sixties European anarchist movies like WR – Mysteries of the Organism and I Am Curious Yellow. This one is WILD and a must see for any film fan.
The Fireman’s Ball (1967)
- A rewatch and still hilariously cringemaking. Also – how much did this movie influence Robert Altman! I think – a lot.
Straw Dogs (1971)
The Devils (1971)
Dancer In The Dark (2000)
Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Like Someone In Love (2012)
OLD MOVIES BAD
You Can’t Take It With You (1938)
La Ronde (1950)
Shane (1953)
- Finally convinced me that I have had it with Western movies. Strangely, I have only recently discovered the sub-genre of modern Western novels such as the Sisters Brothers. I love those but these classic Hollywood Westerns are just ridiculous now, so pompous.
Paris Nous Appartient (1961)
Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961)
- This could also fit into the Old Movies Good category but really there are so many things that capsize it – Mickey Rooney’s famously racist comedy Japanese man; all that stuff about the cat; the feeble George Peppard; the eyerolling chic New York swingin’ party which goes on and on and on. Really the divine Miss H is the only untrammeled joy to be had.
Au Hasard Balthazar (1963)
- I never know which Great Critical Favourites I will love & which I will loathe. This one was truly absurd. Like bresson is standing over us with a donkey shaped hammer yelling “have you got the religious allegory going on here yet?” And the patented blank-faced non-acting throughout makes you long for Joan Crawford.
Woman In The Dunes (1964)
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
A CABINET OF CURIOSITIES
The General
The New Girlfriend
Silent Light
Blue Velvet
The Baader Meinhof Complex
TWO GREAT DOCUMENTARIES
The Kingdom Of Us
Beaches Of Agnes
BILLY WILDER
I caught up with a bunch of this amazing director’s stuff. I a lot of it is very iffy – feminists are going to be throwing things at the screen sometimes – but the guy had energy and he knew what a rattling script should sound like. I do admit his fondness for Jack Lemmon is regrettable.
Irma La Douce
The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes
One Two Three
- A must see for the final fantastic amphetamine performance by Jimmy Cagney. Has to be seen to believe it.
Kiss Me Stupid
Witness For The Prosecution
The Fortune Cookie
The Odd Couple
Sunset Boulevard
- Just when you think Billy Wilder is all about daft comedies, wham – this tragedy comes along. Three great performances, especially Eric von Stroheim playing one of the saddest men you ever did see on screen.
January 7, 2020
My last State of Cinema post from the U.S. of A. Barring the unforeseen, at the halfway point of 2020 we should be living in the UK. So a quick shout-out to my favorite Bay Area cinemas:
Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, truly a jewel, one of the places I'll miss the most.
Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, Oakland's oldest and best cinema, memories stretching back to childhood (spent mostly watching mediocre Disney flicks from their fallow period); so glad I saw Oakland-centric films like Blindspotting and Black Panther there.
Piedmont Cinema in Oakland.
Shattuck Cinema in Berkeley.
Elmwood Theater in Berkeley.
Anyway, films seen from July - December 2019. Bold = 5 stars or nearly so; (r) = a rewatch. Part One, January - June, can be found here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Movie of the Year
Parasite
A masterpiece from Bong Joon Ho, about a desperately poor family who worms their way into the lives of a prosperous family. A little bit like the Japanese film Shoplifters but much funnier and more sinister. Huge twists that seem organic to the story, a wild ride that never steps wrong.
New or New-ish Films
The Farewell
Very good generational comedy/drama of a Chinese and Chinese-American family.
Maiden
Excellent documentary about an all-women crew entering the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989; I knew nothing about this, great stuff.
Yesterday
The riff on what-if-no-one-remembered-the-Beatles is funny and clever; the traditional rom-com aspect is lame. Overall it's pretty good.
The Nightingale
Really tough drama about an Irish woman in Tasmania bent on revenge against a British soldier. There are multiple rapes depicted, though never exploitatively. I found this powerful and it's stayed with me.
Deadwood the Movie
One of my top 5 all-time shows, which sadly ended after only three seasons, finally gets a movie to wrap things up. I absolutely loved it, most characters get some indelible moments. How can you not love a show where the line "Wu, feed this one to the pigs" serves as an affectionate callback?
Hustlers
Enjoyable if rather silly thriller about strippers on a crime spree.
Madeline's Madeline
The most genuinely experimental film I saw in 2019, about a teenage girl's involvement with a theater group. Bracing, inventive, and sometimes a bit aggravating. I'm really looking forward to the director Josephine Decker's next film, a biopic of Shirley Jackson.
Harriet
Effective biopic of Harriet Tubman, tense and action packed.
Terminator: Dark Fate
The Godfather III of Terminator flicks, which is not a criticism. (Godfather III is wrongly remembered as a bad movie; it's not, it just isn't a masterpiece like its predecessors.) So I saw the third Terminator flick but barely remember it, then skipped the two that followed. This one is solid, due largely to giving Linda Hamilton a starring role. But they should probably stop now.
Knives Out
For pure fun, this is great, a whodunnit along the lines of Deathtrap.
Waves
A tough intimate drama about tragedy besetting a black family.
I Am Mother
Decent low-budget Aussie sci-fi with Rose Byrne voicing a sinister robot/AI. Byrne is an actual Aussie but she does an American accent, because a sinister robot/AI with an Aussie accent would be, um, implausible?
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Better than the godawful prequels (but then what isn't?) but the weakest of the recent Star Wars flicks. I was half entertained, half bored.
The Two Masterpieces That Weren’t, Really
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
I usually enjoy and defend Tarantino, but to me this was his second weakest movie. Way too long, and I wasn’t really looking for a movie to turn a broken down stuntman into a virtual superhero. The alt-history thing at the end was…..different, but I’m not sure what the point was. As far as the Bruce Lee scene—fuck off, Quentin.
The Irishman
On a scale of 1 to 10, with Goodfellas being a 10 and Casino being a 4, I guess The Irishman is a 7. It’s good, the acting is impeccable, but again too damn long (3.5 hours) particularly given the (appropriately) somber tone. Thank the gods for Al Pacino though, he gives a very Al Pacino performance, outsized, boisterous, volcanic, and it’s just the jolt of energy the movie needs. Without him I don’t know if I make it to the end.
Other Foreign Films
Dekalog
Kieslowski's 10-part Polish miniseries, a masterwork. Parts 7 & 8 were our favorites, but nearly all of it is great.
Cria Cuervos (r)
Spanish domestic drama with Ana Torrent, the amazing child actress from Spirit of the Beehive, four years older. Subtle and dark and very effective.
Z
The famous Costa-Gavras political thriller which I'd never seen. So often political films from the '60s age badly, but not this one. Exciting and literate and compelling beginning to end. Recommended.
Pain & Glory
Almodovar's latest. I feel like I'm grading on an unfair curve not to give this 5 stars, Almodovar is on an amazing late-career run, and this is excellent.
Horror or Just Weird
Midsommar
Breaks my rule that a horror film should never be two and a half hours, but mostly gets away with it. By turns wrenching, gory, or blackly funny. Not everything works, but unlike the director's previous film Hereditary, at least it doesn't completely fall apart in the last ten minutes.
Don't Let Go
A thriller with sci-fi elements, no one saw this but it's pretty good. A bit like Triangle, which was also underrated.
Villains
Another nobody saw (the cinema where I saw it had an audience of 3, including me) but also pretty good. It has the pitch black funny while grisly vibe of You're Next, if not quite as good as that one.
The Blood on Satan's Claw
One of the folk horror flicks that British cinema did in the '70s. Kind of like a Hammer film but earthier and grittier.
Eye of the Devil
It occurred to me I'd never seen a film with Sharon Tate. This was her first, but pretty mediocre.
The Haunted Palace
Roger Corman mashup of Poe and Lovecraft. Meh.
The Endless
By the directors of Spring, an excellent indie romance and monster flick (really, it's great). This one isn't quite as good but worth seeing, about two brothers who escaped a death cult but unaccountably decide to go back for a visit.
Moon
Claustrophobic one-man sci-fi with Sam Rockwell as a lonely astronaut. Recalls Silent Running a bit. Recommended.
Bette Davis
Continuing my quest to see every film of Ms. Ruth Elizabeth, TCM helped me out with a Bette Davis month, so six more titles checked off, though the law of diminishing returns can’t be avoided. One hidden gem, two worth seeing out of six:
Fashions of 1934
Forgettable fluff, though Davis and William Powell have a good chemistry together.
Special Agent
A fairly bland crime drama.
The Golden Arrow
Alleged comedy; complete waste of time.
The Scapegoat
Daphne DuMaurier story with Alec Guiness playing dual roles. Davis (all of six years older) played his mother. It’s ok, but maybe suffered for being made in 1959; needed a lot more edge.
Waterloo Bridge
Not a Davis film per se, she has a supporting role. Regarded as a classic, made by James Whale in 1931, the same year he made Frankenstein. Not sure it’s a classic but it is a solid romantic drama.
The Catered Affair
The surprise hidden gem. Given the title and that it was made in the ‘50s, I expected bland middlebrow sentiment. Instead it’s a working class drama that’s anything but sentimental. Davis and Ernest Borgnine are a middle-aged couple whose daughter, Debbie Reynolds, is getting married. It never glosses over the poverty, the reality of living close to the edge. Davis and Reynolds do passable New York accents (Borgnine just has to do Borgnine). I should have known: Paddy Chayefsky wrote the play, and Gore Vidal the screenplay. Recommended.
Other Stuff
Logan
Essentially the first honest X-Men flick, meaning the violence is given free reign and you get a very sweary, very stabby movie. Which actually makes it a blast to watch; it is very very stabby though.
Mikey & Nicky
Elaine May directing her own Cassavetes movie, with Peter Falk and Mr. Cassavetes himself. So two half-bright guys talking through a long night. She pulls it off, and I'd watch Falk in anything. Only problem is Cassavetes has a contract on his head, and you kind of wish they'd hurry up and find him already.
Seven Days in May (r)
Excellent pairing of Kirk Douglas & Burt Lancaster in a tense political drama of an attempted U.S. coup. Recommended.
The Graduate
For decades this was my most-famous-movie-I'd-never-seen. Now I've seen it and I have to pick another... Yeah, it's good, but it's so entered the culture that I felt spoiled for practically every single scene. Also, Anne Bancroft is the only human in sight with an actual personality and any charisma.
Sunset Song
Terence Davies is sure attracted to misery and unhappy people, ain't he? This time in Scotland around World War I.
Everything Else
Unleashed
The Small Back Room
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
99 River Street
Riot
Moana
Her Defiance (a 1916 short film)
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, truly a jewel, one of the places I'll miss the most.
Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, Oakland's oldest and best cinema, memories stretching back to childhood (spent mostly watching mediocre Disney flicks from their fallow period); so glad I saw Oakland-centric films like Blindspotting and Black Panther there.
Piedmont Cinema in Oakland.
Shattuck Cinema in Berkeley.
Elmwood Theater in Berkeley.
Anyway, films seen from July - December 2019. Bold = 5 stars or nearly so; (r) = a rewatch. Part One, January - June, can be found here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Movie of the Year
Parasite
A masterpiece from Bong Joon Ho, about a desperately poor family who worms their way into the lives of a prosperous family. A little bit like the Japanese film Shoplifters but much funnier and more sinister. Huge twists that seem organic to the story, a wild ride that never steps wrong.
New or New-ish Films
The Farewell
Very good generational comedy/drama of a Chinese and Chinese-American family.
Maiden
Excellent documentary about an all-women crew entering the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989; I knew nothing about this, great stuff.
Yesterday
The riff on what-if-no-one-remembered-the-Beatles is funny and clever; the traditional rom-com aspect is lame. Overall it's pretty good.
The Nightingale
Really tough drama about an Irish woman in Tasmania bent on revenge against a British soldier. There are multiple rapes depicted, though never exploitatively. I found this powerful and it's stayed with me.
Deadwood the Movie
One of my top 5 all-time shows, which sadly ended after only three seasons, finally gets a movie to wrap things up. I absolutely loved it, most characters get some indelible moments. How can you not love a show where the line "Wu, feed this one to the pigs" serves as an affectionate callback?
Hustlers
Enjoyable if rather silly thriller about strippers on a crime spree.
Madeline's Madeline
The most genuinely experimental film I saw in 2019, about a teenage girl's involvement with a theater group. Bracing, inventive, and sometimes a bit aggravating. I'm really looking forward to the director Josephine Decker's next film, a biopic of Shirley Jackson.
Harriet
Effective biopic of Harriet Tubman, tense and action packed.
Terminator: Dark Fate
The Godfather III of Terminator flicks, which is not a criticism. (Godfather III is wrongly remembered as a bad movie; it's not, it just isn't a masterpiece like its predecessors.) So I saw the third Terminator flick but barely remember it, then skipped the two that followed. This one is solid, due largely to giving Linda Hamilton a starring role. But they should probably stop now.
Knives Out
For pure fun, this is great, a whodunnit along the lines of Deathtrap.
Waves
A tough intimate drama about tragedy besetting a black family.
I Am Mother
Decent low-budget Aussie sci-fi with Rose Byrne voicing a sinister robot/AI. Byrne is an actual Aussie but she does an American accent, because a sinister robot/AI with an Aussie accent would be, um, implausible?
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Better than the godawful prequels (but then what isn't?) but the weakest of the recent Star Wars flicks. I was half entertained, half bored.
The Two Masterpieces That Weren’t, Really
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
I usually enjoy and defend Tarantino, but to me this was his second weakest movie. Way too long, and I wasn’t really looking for a movie to turn a broken down stuntman into a virtual superhero. The alt-history thing at the end was…..different, but I’m not sure what the point was. As far as the Bruce Lee scene—fuck off, Quentin.
The Irishman
On a scale of 1 to 10, with Goodfellas being a 10 and Casino being a 4, I guess The Irishman is a 7. It’s good, the acting is impeccable, but again too damn long (3.5 hours) particularly given the (appropriately) somber tone. Thank the gods for Al Pacino though, he gives a very Al Pacino performance, outsized, boisterous, volcanic, and it’s just the jolt of energy the movie needs. Without him I don’t know if I make it to the end.
Other Foreign Films
Dekalog
Kieslowski's 10-part Polish miniseries, a masterwork. Parts 7 & 8 were our favorites, but nearly all of it is great.
Cria Cuervos (r)
Spanish domestic drama with Ana Torrent, the amazing child actress from Spirit of the Beehive, four years older. Subtle and dark and very effective.
Z
The famous Costa-Gavras political thriller which I'd never seen. So often political films from the '60s age badly, but not this one. Exciting and literate and compelling beginning to end. Recommended.
Pain & Glory
Almodovar's latest. I feel like I'm grading on an unfair curve not to give this 5 stars, Almodovar is on an amazing late-career run, and this is excellent.
Horror or Just Weird
Midsommar
Breaks my rule that a horror film should never be two and a half hours, but mostly gets away with it. By turns wrenching, gory, or blackly funny. Not everything works, but unlike the director's previous film Hereditary, at least it doesn't completely fall apart in the last ten minutes.
Don't Let Go
A thriller with sci-fi elements, no one saw this but it's pretty good. A bit like Triangle, which was also underrated.
Villains
Another nobody saw (the cinema where I saw it had an audience of 3, including me) but also pretty good. It has the pitch black funny while grisly vibe of You're Next, if not quite as good as that one.
The Blood on Satan's Claw
One of the folk horror flicks that British cinema did in the '70s. Kind of like a Hammer film but earthier and grittier.
Eye of the Devil
It occurred to me I'd never seen a film with Sharon Tate. This was her first, but pretty mediocre.
The Haunted Palace
Roger Corman mashup of Poe and Lovecraft. Meh.
The Endless
By the directors of Spring, an excellent indie romance and monster flick (really, it's great). This one isn't quite as good but worth seeing, about two brothers who escaped a death cult but unaccountably decide to go back for a visit.
Moon
Claustrophobic one-man sci-fi with Sam Rockwell as a lonely astronaut. Recalls Silent Running a bit. Recommended.
Bette Davis
Continuing my quest to see every film of Ms. Ruth Elizabeth, TCM helped me out with a Bette Davis month, so six more titles checked off, though the law of diminishing returns can’t be avoided. One hidden gem, two worth seeing out of six:
Fashions of 1934
Forgettable fluff, though Davis and William Powell have a good chemistry together.
Special Agent
A fairly bland crime drama.
The Golden Arrow
Alleged comedy; complete waste of time.
The Scapegoat
Daphne DuMaurier story with Alec Guiness playing dual roles. Davis (all of six years older) played his mother. It’s ok, but maybe suffered for being made in 1959; needed a lot more edge.
Waterloo Bridge
Not a Davis film per se, she has a supporting role. Regarded as a classic, made by James Whale in 1931, the same year he made Frankenstein. Not sure it’s a classic but it is a solid romantic drama.
The Catered Affair
The surprise hidden gem. Given the title and that it was made in the ‘50s, I expected bland middlebrow sentiment. Instead it’s a working class drama that’s anything but sentimental. Davis and Ernest Borgnine are a middle-aged couple whose daughter, Debbie Reynolds, is getting married. It never glosses over the poverty, the reality of living close to the edge. Davis and Reynolds do passable New York accents (Borgnine just has to do Borgnine). I should have known: Paddy Chayefsky wrote the play, and Gore Vidal the screenplay. Recommended.
Other Stuff
Logan
Essentially the first honest X-Men flick, meaning the violence is given free reign and you get a very sweary, very stabby movie. Which actually makes it a blast to watch; it is very very stabby though.
Mikey & Nicky
Elaine May directing her own Cassavetes movie, with Peter Falk and Mr. Cassavetes himself. So two half-bright guys talking through a long night. She pulls it off, and I'd watch Falk in anything. Only problem is Cassavetes has a contract on his head, and you kind of wish they'd hurry up and find him already.
Seven Days in May (r)
Excellent pairing of Kirk Douglas & Burt Lancaster in a tense political drama of an attempted U.S. coup. Recommended.
The Graduate
For decades this was my most-famous-movie-I'd-never-seen. Now I've seen it and I have to pick another... Yeah, it's good, but it's so entered the culture that I felt spoiled for practically every single scene. Also, Anne Bancroft is the only human in sight with an actual personality and any charisma.
Sunset Song
Terence Davies is sure attracted to misery and unhappy people, ain't he? This time in Scotland around World War I.
Everything Else
Unleashed
The Small Back Room
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
99 River Street
Riot
Moana
Her Defiance (a 1916 short film)
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
December 23, 2012
This was the first movie guide I bought as an independent adult perusing video stores. In some ways, this edition was better than later editions, but in others it was more flawed, so I've defaulted to giving it the same star rating. The major disadvantage of the Guide at this time is that the main entries were divided into 11 categories ("Action/Adventure," "Children's/Family," "Horror," "Western, etc). This meant that it was impossible to use the book to locate a given movie without first checking the index at the back to see which category it was listed under. From the publisher's point of view, this was even a bigger disadvantage, because that unnecessary index required almost 100 pages that could have been devoted to printing more reviews (or could have been omitted, reducing the cost of printing). From the user's point of view, it was a hassle trying to guess how they had decided to categorize a given film, or flip around in the Guide to find it. They discontinued this practice shortly afterward, simply listing all of the movies alphabetically by title.
The major advantage of this edition is that they still seemed to feel they had some space to devote to more obscure movies, so the listing is more complete for the period than any later edition I've held on to. As I compared sample pages, I noted that the reviews were longer in 95, and that there were more "Turkey" movies (the ones I really wanted to see) listed than later on. Apparently, they decided that their mainstream audience would be more interested in having the space dedicated to the newest releases, rather than obscure old movies. An interesting example is the Bela Lugosi serial, "The Whispering Shadow," which gets a fairly interesting review in this edition, but was missing from the 2005 Guide.
Today, of course, most people will turn to the imdb for this sort of information, but the printed Movie Guide remains an interesting cultural relic.
The major advantage of this edition is that they still seemed to feel they had some space to devote to more obscure movies, so the listing is more complete for the period than any later edition I've held on to. As I compared sample pages, I noted that the reviews were longer in 95, and that there were more "Turkey" movies (the ones I really wanted to see) listed than later on. Apparently, they decided that their mainstream audience would be more interested in having the space dedicated to the newest releases, rather than obscure old movies. An interesting example is the Bela Lugosi serial, "The Whispering Shadow," which gets a fairly interesting review in this edition, but was missing from the 2005 Guide.
Today, of course, most people will turn to the imdb for this sort of information, but the printed Movie Guide remains an interesting cultural relic.
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