Oldies Save the Week

Dog days of January are here indeed for new releases. Next up (down) is the uninspired and unfunny WHEN IN ROME---another case of wanting my money back except I saw this at a free screening. A young woman goes to Rome for a friend's wedding, falls for grooms best man, grabs up coins from a fountain, and finds that the men who threw in the coins will now fall in love with her and follow her back to NYC (???!!!!???) Obviously this story is not grounded in reality, but some fantasy la la land, and it is cloying and dull. You have been warned.

Fortunately, DVD's have been invented for granting the cinematic fix needed to get through a dull week going out to movies......first up this week was CRANK (2006)--a totally high adrenaline, nervous busy camera film that is nearly without redeeming social value, full of vulgar violence, crude sex and nudity (well, maybe that's a plus), wild unbelievable car chases and near escapes, excessive profanity, and gratuitous drug use. In other words, Toni and I rather enjoyed it. We found out too late that you can make this DVD into a "family-friendly audio experience" by listening to the movie with out expletives (!!!!)--unfortunately it's still got all that other "R" rated hardcore stuff. The plot--British actor Jason Statham (who deserves better) is injected with a poison that will eventually stop his heart (couldn't they just shoot him dead?), so to stay alive he must crank up his adrenaline to keep from falling asleep, which he does much to the distress of his enemies by doing hundreds of wild and extreme things, like crazy driving, sex in public, injecting epinephrine to his heart, so that he can spend his final couple of hours running all over LA trying to track down and kill the guy who injected him. It may offend you in any number of ways, but it won't bore you, and there are some crude (see above) laughs.

One of four films that features the delightful Margaret Rutherford as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, MURDER AT THE GALLOP (1963) is a breezy, amusing murder mystery very memorable for the great cast including the hilarious Rutherford, Robert Morley, Flora Robson and Rutherford's real life husband Stringer Davis. The other delightfully British comedy/mysteries in that series include MURDER MOST FOUL, MURDER AHOY and MURDER SHE SAID and they are all priceless gems. I remember first seeing them with my sister during the summer of '69 on the 1pm matinee on TV. My mother thought it was awful that we watched TV in the middle of the day, but we took our lunch break from summer chores then, and the film(s) hold(s) up incredibly well today.

It was Flora Robson night on TMC so next up was a great Errol Flynn film that I'd never seen called THE SEA HAWK (1947), with Flynn as a charming pirate who convinces Queen
Elizabeth I (played by Robson )to allow him to plunder from Spanish ships as they come back from the New World with gold and treasures stolen from the indigenous people there. There is some romance (with a daughter of the Spanish Consulate!--Claude Rains) and some sword fighting, naturally, and some amusing political talk with the queen, full of double-entendres. This is a perfectly good reason for staying up until midnight--it is a lot of fun to watch.

Oscar nominees announced Tuesday 2 Feb, and my top films of the Year!

A Single Man

I can easily make room on my Top Films of 2009 for a film I finally caught up with this past weekend----A SINGLE MAN (not to be confused with the excellent and funny A SERIOUS MAN--also a top film from this past year.) It is always a relief to know that the last few films that straggle into Seattle from any given year are worth the wait. A SINGLE MAN is based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood (best known as the author of the BERLIN STORIES that inspired CABARET), and although it was many years ago that I read the book, I remember feeling how resonant the mood and story struck me, how the author created a most universal and sympathetic character out of a middle-aged gay man struggling to process the sudden and recent death of his long time companion, during a time (1963) where it was impossible to come out to society and family--he was an invisible man in so many ways. The novel is mostly an internal narration of the main character's thoughts and feelings, but the film sucessfully gives us his inside and outside world. The director of the film, Tom Ford, is a well know fashion designer, and this is his first directorial effort, yet he infuses the story with a great deal of stylish melancholy and subtle flourishes, in both his camera movements, costume and set designs and music choices. In an obscure way, it felt like you were watching a runway show from one designer who was taking you on a journey of discovery through his life--in this case George (a beautifully cast Colin Firth), who we find out early on, is wanting to "tie up" all the loose ends of his life in one day because he is tired of loneliness and living "invisibly." One might think that this is a depressing prospect, yet as we learn to understand George, we find out all sorts of intriguing contradictions in his life. He is a respected English professor, well liked professionally, open to his students, compulsively organized, a devoted friend to an ex-girlfriend (Julianne Moore) who still carries a flame, and in one amusing scene, we realize that he is too obsessively and compulsively tidy to leave the mess of a suicide. Still, the film carries a lot of tension throughout as we follow his life for that one paramount day, for we know that something important is going to happen. Will it be renewed interest in life?, the finality of death?, a new found love?, some epiphany of meaning?, a purging of the past?, or something as mundane as a quick sexual experience with a stranger? As these themes all parade the runway of the movie screen, we revel in the fine actors, the fabulous stylish clothes, the unique and ironic "window house" and furnishings, the modish yet appropriate 1960's music score, the moody, evocative cinematography, and the humor that creeps into these proceedings, and we feel grateful that the creative forces behind this film know how to move and entertain us. When the surprise (!) ending does occur, we might feel cheated for a moment, but the film has been honest from the start, and what more can we ask for but to say that we've witnessed life on a grand, if modest, cinematic scale. It is always a PLEASURE for me to see a great film.

Not exactly great, but an oddly entertaining "film noir" from 1954 is BLACK WIDOW, a DVD selection that features Ginger Rogers, Van Heflin, Gene Tierney, George Raft, Peggy Ann Garner and Reginald Gardiner--a strong ensemble cast in the twisted story of a young woman who tries to destroy the lives of several innocent people to achieve her goals, even after her murder..... This is an enjoyable curiosity that has a couple of unexpected turns.

Mine, Mary, McGariggle,..Measures

New films opening in January usually mean bad news, and this year is no exception. New this week is a film I screened over a month ago, and I can scarcely remember anything about it except that I thought it was incredibly dull and lifeless. It is called EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES--even the title seems to disappear in banal, lifeless measures--and the best thing I can say about this film is that you should have no problem falling asleep while watching it. It is like watching a TV disease-movie-of-the-week, one that you would watch for a couple minutes because there IS Harrison Ford acting serious, and then you'd turn the station, because nothing seems to be happening except a lot of talk, talk, talk, and dull talk it is. If you want to see a much better film about a couple struggling to find a cure for a rare and unusual disease that their child is struggling with, then rent LORENZO'S OIL (1992) which features Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon. My rating for EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES is ZZZZZ... ZZZZZ... ZZZZZ....
A lovely documentary, MINE, playing at SIFF Cinema this week only is well worth the price. It is a poignant post-Hurricane Katrina true story about animals that were lost/displaced, and the efforts to reunite them with their owners. Unfortunately, some people who adopted these misplaced animals resisted wanting to return them to their rightful owners because they felt that the animals had been abandoned (sometimes there was no choice) and ill treated (most animals from that region were not neutered or spaded, and had heart worms and other diseases.) Issues of racism and classism really make for heart-rending viewing--but there are many happy endings on view in MINE.
A TOWN CALLED PANIC is a French, stop-action animated film with plastic figurines of an Indian, Cowboy and horse, along with other animals, that creates its own unique world of abstract zaniness. It's like watching YELLOW SUBMARINE (1968) on acid and without the Beatles music or the colorful drawings. Movies like this are admired, but for me they are so unconnected from reality that I find it hard to stay engaged, and find my mind wandering, or wishing it were over soon. This would make an inspired 12 minute short, but stretched into nearly 90 minutes, it is just too much.
It's been many years since I viewed MARY POPPINS (1964) and I'm pleased to report it holds up especially well. The tone of this musical film is very British and rather serious. A workaholic banker and his women suffrage-obsessed wife are literally ignoring their children in the early 1900's ,who are placed in the hands of a magical nanny who seems to (literally) come from heaven to help the children cope with their boredom and neglect by stimulating their imagination with fanciful visits to the country side to dance with penguin waiters, and to tea parties on the ceiling. The many popular songs created for this film by Rich and Robt. Sherman still charm: Jolly Holiday, A Spoonful of Sugar, Chim Chim Cher-ee, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!, I Love to Laugh, Step in Time, and Let's Go Fly a Kite! But for me the emotional punch of the "quieter" songs give MARY POPPINS its real heart: Stay Awake (a sarcastic lullaby), The Life I Lead (about the proper -and unattainable-British home), The Fidelity Fiduciary Bank (about corporate greed and money mis-management) and especially Feed the Birds (a beautiful and hauntingly moving song about poverty and charity that was Walt Disney's personal favorite.) You certainly don't need to wait for a child to watch one of the great films of all time--still Walt Disney's greatest achievement!
We also watched a filmed winter concert on dvd last week: A NOT SO SILENT NIGHT(2009) featuring Kate and Anna McGarrigle (aka the McGarrigle Sisters) with Kate's adult children Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright, and featuring Emmylou Harris, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, at the Knitting Factory in NYC. The stage seemed small and crowded with the singers and musicians and many songs were awkwardly (and at times, poorly) filmed. But for those who love this family and their friends, the refreshingly unfamiliar (and some familiar) Christmas and "winter" songs were a delightful revelation. Many of these songs also appear on the CD called A McGarrigle Family Christmas Album that was released over 2 years ago, and is a wonderful celebration of the season. It was the CD that turned us on to Rufus and Martha as unique singers in their own right (see my blog from early November 2009).
So it was with great sadness to read just a few days later that Kate McGarrigle died of cancer at age 63. Check out their best and most popular album from the mid-1970's--Dancer with Bruised Knees by the McGarrigle Sisters.
Coming Soon I promise--the Top Films of 2009!

Worst Film of 2009: The Lovely Bones

Over ten years ago, I watched a dud of a film with a packed theatre. I remember looking around at the audience and realized that everyone had slouched down in their seats with their heads back on the chair top and some had closed their eyes but most were not actively watching. The film was WHAT DREAMS MAY COME (1998) with Robin Williams, and some very intriguing special effects. Unfortunately, special effects do not a good movie make. Now we have THE LOVELY BONES and the same problem occurs. The special effects of a murdered young girl in heaven are quite unique and intriguing at times, but they don't make any sense to the dramatic arc of the story, or even to her in this heavenly setting. As impressive as the image of a tree where the leaves suddenly take flight thanks to thousands of birds is, what is the point to what is happening to the young girl's family "back on earth?" This constant shifting of heavenly settings which make no sense to us, and the reality of the young girl's murderer and family back on earth distracts from the dramatic thrust of the mystery. Add to that the implausible plot devises that move the story forward, and you have a seriously flawed film. For example, early on, you see the murderer in the middle of a corn field after the stalks have been harvested. Not too far away (maybe a block or two) the field seems to be surrounded by houses--the edge of suburbia you think, but then realize that she has been cutting through the field from school. The murderer starts to dig in the middle of the exposed field, and later you learn that he has dug out a large underground cellar, put in supporting boards, a ladder, candles, dolls, food, etc, and I am thinking---where is he putting all that dirt?, and why hasn't any one seen him and asked about all that construction? A while later, the girl's dead body shows up in his house--how did he get it there with all the blood and mud, across about one block of corn field and another couple blocks (or half mile) to his house without being seen and leaving an incredible trail to follow???? A half dozen characters are introduced, only to be left hanging with nothing of importance to do or to say (like the Shakespeare loving boy friend, and the weird "psychic" girlfriend and the farmer with the sink hole--they are all together at the end, but why, how, and so what.) Perhaps the well loved novel can clear up some of these questions, but I'm so disgusted that I don't even want to read it now. There is absolutely no emotional payoff here. To the film's credit, the cast does what it can. Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weitz are underplayed as the distraught parents, Stanley Tucci was unrecognizable if a bit physically obvious as the killer, and Susan Sarandon tries to liven things up with some overplayed slapstick as the overly dramatic grandmother. And the best part of this mess is the final 20 minutes which manages to whip up some suspense (finally!) as events begin to squeeze around the murderer. But even that is sabotaged with a suddenly revealed subplot in heaven that details the murderer's past history as a serial killer. The fault has to lie with the director Peter (LORD OF THE RINGS) Jackson who stages so awkwardly many unbelievable scenes (the girl's body is stored in a huge, heavy safe in the basement--yet within minutes the safe is hauled upstairs, out side and into the trunk of a car!--and then later is laboriously rolled about 200 yards! to the edge of the sink hole--why not just back up the car and save all that rolling?) Didn't the writer Fran (LOTR) Walsh realize the dumb logic of some of the plot devices? Isn't the producer (Steven Speilberg) there to double check logic? I didn't have to pay for this film (a free screening) but if I had, I'd really want my money back.
Another disappointing film from 2009 is COUPLES RETREAT which I just saw at a $2 theatre, and that's too much to pay. Vince Vaughn is the only top billed actor--he gets the most to say, but it's definitely an ensemble effort. He snorts out his dialogue (which he helped write) with his usual sarcastic, sardonic style. Unfortunately nothing is very funny or witty about four couples in an Eden-like setting who must go through typical (and sometimes extreme) couples therapy, except for the visual gags of the nearly nude yoga stud who offers "up close and personal" body poses with each participant which become ridiculously sexual. A cheap couple of laughs but I take what I can get for $2.
Now playing for what I hope will be a very short run is a dreary, lame comedy/drama I saw at SIFF last year. Matthew Broderick stars as a milquetoast divorced dad who is happy to live his life with low expectations. This changes when his roommate falls into a coma and the sister (Sanaa Lathan) shows up from Senegal and he falls for her (!) It's all very low key and not that interesting or hard to figure out. It also has a lame title--WONDERFUL WORLD.
Watched a fascinating dvd yesterday called FIRST MEN IN THE MOON (1964), a British film based on an H.G.Wells story, and I rather enjoyed it although at times the frenetic acting by Lionel Jeffreys left me cold. Best of all were the special effects by Ray Harryhousen--the stop action master of monsters from the late 50's,60's and early 70's who is more famous for THE 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958) which includes a sword fight with a skeleton, and ONE MILLION YEARS BC (1966) with Raquel Welch in a fur bikini . The moon harbors "ant creatures" who live under the surface, and the flight to and from the moon seemed pretty unbelievable, but hey, this is science fiction and the film moves along at an entertaining pace. And after the disappointing films this week, it seemed like a masterwork.

Two sides of Penelope Cruz

Back to back screenings of the two Penelope Cruz films on Saturday. NINE was up first. When I saw NINE on stage back in the 1980's in NYC, I really really hated it. I was bored and offended and couldn't wait until it was over. The only scene that I remembered was the final scene, when hundreds of white doves were released in the theatre and flew over our heads, and it was startling and exciting (and woke up a lot of sleeping patrons)--and I worried that we might be hit by bird shit. Mostly I was glad it was over. When I heard it was being turned into a movie, I was not very excited, so I went to the new film NINE with LOW expectations. There are no doves this time, but I was still a bit bored. Does anyone really care about a 50-something rich director (Daniel Day Lewis) having a mental block and nervous break down, yet he's surrounded by 5 beautiful women and his sexy (Sophia Loren) mother. They all get to sing (very well) a not too interesting song in a CHICAGO/CABARET manner wearing the same type of costumes as those two (better) films. This is a case where each part (actor/actress/scene) is well done but it doesn't add up to anything we really care about. Penelope Cruz and Fergie both had sexy songs to sing, and they were rather provocative--Cruz as his mistress and Fergie as a prostitute from his youth. Marion Cotillard (Oscar winner for LA VIE en ROSE) is his beautiful but betrayed wife, and brings some needed realism to her part. Kate Hudson is a vivacious almost one night affair, and Nicole Kidman is his ex-mistress/muse who stars in all his films--all are effective. It was fun to see Judy Dench sing and dance as his costume-designer confidant. And I did admire Daniel Day Lewis for his singing and intense acting, but he seemed almost painfully thin--I kept seeing his gaunt cheekbones and vivid rib bones. It just seems like an empty exercise in style and glitz. The total effect is disappointingly AVERAGE.
So, it was a relief to see BROKEN EMBRACES, Pedro Almodovar's newest film starring HIS muse, Penelope Cruz, speaking Spanish, and having more to say (too much?) than one colorful movie can contain. (You have to read a lot of subtitles really fast.) Cruz rises from being a call girl to become the mistress of a wealthy older man, only to fall in love with a (blind) writer/director (!?)--complete with nudity, sex, melodrama galore, and twisty plot devises. In other words, ravishing to watch and not at all boring, but perhaps nothing really new from reliable Mr. Almodovar.
Sunday I saw the new film CRAZY HEART being touted as the best Jeff Bridges film ever. Bridges is a very likable actor, and I would agree that this is one great job--he does his own singing as a drunken, past his prime singer who has ended up playing bowling alley gigs with local pickup bands and bedding local women. This all changes when he falls for a younger single mom/struggling writer (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who has some issues with his alcoholism, but brushes them aside, to nearly tragic results.
It's very much a character study of two lonely people who must learn to change before they can find happiness, and it boils down to --can he or can't he conquer his demons. I have a problem with the resolution of the film. (Possible SPOILER alert--stop reading if you don't want to know part of the ending.) The film spends over one hundred minutes showing Bridges in scene after scene of what most people would call "hitting bottom,"--(extreme vomiting--sometimes mid-set, waking up in strange/awkward positions, car crashes, other near tragedies, etc)--yet when he finally seeks help to dry out, he enters a clinic that includes two brief scenes--maybe 90 seconds--and then he's cured ?!?! It feels like he's in there for a weekend!!! The film ends shortly thereafter, but the emotional payoff of seeing him really change is just NOT there.

A Smart Teen Comedy--Youth in Revolt

Let's start the New Year off right with a great new teen-angst comedy called YOUTH IN REVOLT. The adults in the cast include such great character actors as Jean Smart, Zach Galifianakis (Hangover), Ray Liotta, Fred Willard, M.Emmet Walsh, and Mary Kay Place, and the two main teens are the delightful Portia Doubleday and the rising young comedian Michael Cera, who is making a name for himself playing (or being typecast as) the smart mouthed, sex obsessed, virgin, sensitive, geeky teen as in the TV show Arrested Development, and films Superbad, Juno and Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist---all of which I highly recommend. In YOUTH IN REVOLT, he plays the aforementioned teen and his alter-ego, a smooth French lover who helps him to loose his virginity by getting into all sorts of trouble, and thankfully, the film has so much plot and quirky characters that I was very entertained right up to the end. Apparently the story is based on a cult novel popular with young adults, and I look forward to reading it. As for Michael Cera, I don't mind that I've seen this character before, because he does it so well, without a trace of sarcasm or smugness. This is a smart and happy surprise!
My dvd pick this week was FATHER OF THE BRIDE (1950) with Spencer Tracy (who was Oscar nominated), Joan Bennett, and a radiant Elizabeth Taylor as the bride. The film was remade in 1991 with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton--and as I recall the remake was better in some ways than the original, although they both cover the same ground. Tracy narrates the entire film, which I felt was tiresome and unnecessary, and the story drives home without much subtlety how expensive and overblown and out of hand weddings can be and have become. (Do regular people today really KNOW 500 people to invite to a ceremony?) There are many reality shows on TV today that deal with these excesses (Bridezilla, the wedding dress show, the cake shows, etc) that I guess these things can happen, but I felt that too many mountains were made out of molehills, and I didn't feel too sorry for Tracy, since he is a successful lawyer living in a huge fancy house in a great part of town. Still it was fun seeing Elizabeth Taylor shine and there were some clever moments like when Tracy is stuck in the kitchen fixing drinks and can't get out to the living room to greet guests or give an obvious wedding announcement.
Next week, when it opens, I will report on the WORST FILM OF 2009, which is quite a shock considering the talent behind it: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Steven Spielberg!

Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Invictus

New Year's Eve started off with a great movie--the best way to celebrate. In 1972 I saw a little film in college directed by Alan J. Pakula (who a few years later would direct The Parallax View, Klute, Sophie's Choice and All the President's Men) and starring one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE actresses, Maggie Smith, and a great young newcomer Timothy Bottoms in what at the time I felt was one of the year's best films. It was fresh, funny, had great scenery of Spain, and best of all, I remembered the wonderful music score(by Michael Small, what's happened to him?), so reminiscent of Christopher Parkening's Spanish guitar classics, but not quite the same. For years I've searched for the soundtrack of that film, LOVE AND PAIN AND THE WHOLE DAMN THING, and as far as I know, there is not one around. To bad, because the music is still great. The film has FINALLY been released for the first time on dvd just this past year, and it is still a great little movie. Maggie Smith had won her Oscar a few years earlier for one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES--The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie--and continues to amaze me with scene stealing characters in films like California Suite (another Oscar win), Travels with My Aunt (Oscar nominee), A Room With a View (Oscar nominee), Gosford Park (Oscar nominee), The V.I.P's, the Harry Potter movies, and many many more. I think she is an International Treasure, and in Great Britain where she's won many acting awards for her stage work (I saw her several years ago on a London stage in Edward Albee's Three Tall Women and she stole the show--my in-laws kept asking me who was this incredible actress) she is Dame Maggie Smith. You won't watch a more moving, funny, romantic, beautiful little movie all year than LOVE AND PAIN AND THE WHOLE DAMN THING.
This week I finally caught up with INVICTUS, a film I didn't think I really wanted to see--like eating a spinach salad--good for you but sort of yuck. Happily, this is a great Caesars Salad--a very compelling film that fires on all cylinders--it works as a political drama with a spot on performance by Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, who struggles to gain the trust of all people, white and black in South Africa after he is released from prison and wins election as President. It also works as a tense sports drama, with the underdogs transformed into a winning team by the energy and inspiration and support that Mandela gives them. And it works as an interesting character study with intimate portrayals of every day people confronting racism, change, political awareness, loyalty, and hope. It is the feel good movie of the year, and director Clint Eastwood, who is pushing 80, has out done himself again. I foresee Oscar nominations for Picture, Director, script, actor and perhaps Support Actor, a convincing Matt Damon among others.
Top of the dvd list this week, a second viewing of last summers classic Pixar film, UP, which holds up delightfully well on a TV screen, and will be included in my top 10 films list, TBA.
Very few films, much less animated ones, can get my tears ducts flowing.
I received a twin pack of TRANSFORMERS (2007) and TRANSFORMERS II: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, so Toni and I sat and watched them both on back to back nights. I enjoyed the original TRANSFORMERS several years ago in the theatre--a wild eye-popping popcorn film, and recieved many nods and nudges from my 12 year old nephew who thought it was fantastic. It still is, but it does get rather tiresome, too--the first hour set up is the best--the last 30 minutes of fighting and explosions in the Big city is annoying. So I was surprised when Toni wanted to see TRANSFORMERS II the next night. It was pretty much the same, with long scenes of non-stop mayhem and fighting that is edited so quickly that you don't have time to focus your eyes, but --hey, bring out the popcorn for this one too. As sequels go, it wasn't the worst I've seen, and we kept our expectations low and sort of liked it (!).
I also recieved as a gift a dvd set of two Marx Bros. films, and watched THE BIG STORE (1941)this last week. It wasn't the greatest Marx Bros. film I've seen, but it was mildly entertaining, kept me awake (when they weren't stopping the plot for a musical piano playing number, harp number, singing number, etc) and there's a great 20 minute chase through a large department store on skates, bikes, ropes, chutes, etc that is a masterpiece of silly choreography, if not completely hilarious.
And last but not least, also this week watched a film from new boxed set called Pre-Code Hollywood Collection, which features films from the early 30's in beautifully restored black and white which were all made before the THE CODE forced film-makers to censor their films of sex and violence and nudity and "inappropriate" themes. Buster Crabbe and Ida Lupino portray Olympic swimming champions who are tricked into being editors of a new health and fitness magazine, but the owners really want it to be a racy "skin" magazine with lots of healthy young men and women wearing almost nothing, and suggestive stories to go along with that. Of course it wasn't as shocking to me now as what you see today, but it really did have a rather lurid undertone, and the camera did seem to love to pan over young flesh as they worked out, and sang and danced in skimpy attire. The film is called SEARCH FOR BEAUTY (1934) and even though it was heavily censored at the time, one character states "It's so hot you could fry an egg on it."