Starting the new year off right is the new animated Disney production called ZOOTOPIA, about a perky but small rabbit who becomes the first rabbit to become a police officer in a city inhabited only by all kinds (and sizes) of animals. She tries to solve the mysterious disappearance of several different animals (of the predator species) with the help of a wily fox who might just as easily try to eat her. What a creative, amusing, clever world we the viewer are thrust into--there's not a wasted or dull moment (at least for adults) as we laugh at the delightful sequences that unfold. I don't often see some of the popular animated features (oops--I've missed FROZEN and the recent INSIDE OUT), but this one has got to be one of the year's best efforts. GRADE-----------A-
I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a big Sally Field fan. She's got that likable, comic, yet vulnerable routine down pat, and it works to great satisfaction in her new film HELLO MY NAME IS DORIS, sort of a May-December romance in reverse--almost like a remake of HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971) but not as bizarre and extreme. The comedy/drama starts with the funeral of her elderly mother with whom she has lived for many years. They both appear to have become eccentric hoarders of mid-century/retro items and clothing, which Fields wears to fine, amusing effect. At work, the new young art director guy is very polite to her, and she mistakes this for romantic attention. We know that this is going to end poorly for her, but the film has some fun with the twists and plotting of the long list of supporting characters, including co-workers, family and best friends including Tyne Daly, who gets off some choice lines. But the real shining star here is Sally Field, and she hoists HELLO MY NAME IS DORIS sky high. GRADE--------B
Another film lifted up by the lead is WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT (aka WTF or What the Fuck) based on a somewhat true story of a naive TV news woman who volunteers to fly over to cover the war in Afghanistan. She's a fish out of water, and most of the humor comes from her learning the hard way about the intense and dangerous position she's in. (She packs her stuff in a bright orange back pack, making her a vivid target for snipers.) She learns to party like the best of them, and stumbles into an affair with a fellow reporter (Martin Freeman from TV's SHERLOCK and THE HOBBITT). Her best female friend is played by Margot Robbie, and Alfred Molina and Billy Bob Thornton have fine smaller roles. But again, it's Tina Fey who makes us laugh at her desperate attempts to fit into a violent life she's never known, and as the film gets more serious, she keeps us involved in the tragedy of the war time situation. (And trust me when I say this film is 100% better than Tina Fey's film from Christmas time called SISTERS, which I really disliked.) GRADE---------B
Here's a case of diminishing returns. I enjoyed the first two HUNGER GAMES films-- the first one from 2012 for it's gripping and shocking tale of the exploitation of children in a murderous society and also HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (2013) which shatters the game tradition. Then came HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY Part 1 (2014), which although it was watchable, it was not very satisfying--it felt like a prolonged two hour preview for the movie about the assault on Snow's headquarters. I completely disengaged from HG: MOCKINGJAY Part 2, which indeed is the assault on Snow's headquarters, since it is all action all the time. The creatures from the underground felt like something from another (1950's) movie--illogical and pointless, and the ending is projected from the half way point. I was bored, and wished this last installment would be over asap. GRADE-------------C-
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JEZEBEL (1938)--When she didn't get the part of Scarlett O'Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) , Bette Davis jumped at the chance to star in this William Wyler directed costume drama of a haughty Southern belle in New Orleans just prior to the Civil War, and won the Oscar for her efforts. She plays a selfish, stubborn woman who loses the man she loves (Henry Fonda) because of it--she dares to wear a RED dress to the Olympus ball when everyone knows unmarried woman only wear white. The next year, Vivian Leigh, who won the lead in GWTW, won her first Oscar for playing the same type of character. Ironically, Bette Davis was nominated again that same next year for DARK VICTORY (1939), and apparently lost the Oscar by the closest of margins--just a couple of votes. I enjoyed JEZEBEL quite a bit, especially because Davis is so marvelously evil, but the film itself moves along in rapid melodramatic fashion, with clever, witty lines delineating the differences between the North and South sensibilities, and it is lavishly equipped with sumptuous costumes and sets, and the actors are all fascinating. Fay Bainter won a best supporting Oscar for her role as the auntie who tries to reason with her headstrong niece (Davis). GRADE---------A-
OLIVE KITTERIDGE (2014)--This is a four hour HBO mini-series that I watched in one sitting, much like a film. Based on a novel by Elizabeth Strout, the film features the interesting actor Frances McDormand as Olive, a witty yet acerbic middle school teacher and her relationship with her mild mannered husband pharmacist played by Richard Jenkins over the course of nearly 30 years. Olive's demeanor is moralistic and at times very severe, yet at other times she can be nurturing and loving. Ironies abound. She has an affair with a fellow educator, she's sarcastic towards her son's first wife, at times she seems depressed and melancholic--at other times she's chatty and flippant. It is suggested she has bipolar issues, yet despite her intelligence she seems to want to ignore any type of mental/medical help. She's an interesting character, and watching her keeps you on your toes. It constantly amazed me that her husband had the patience to put up with her, which makes you wonder about him too. Fascinating character study with excellent actors. GRADE--------B+
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (2000)---Typical of many Asian films to represent fighting and various types of martial arts to include near flying chases and spectacular sword play, this film by director Ang Lee introduced American (and other international) audiences to the pleasures of these exotic fighters. The plot, centering on an older couple who love each other, but social restraints keep them from marrying, and their search for a sword stolen by a young female martial arts champion, who is also involved for the first time with a desert male bandit. Visually the film is sumptuous and exotic, and the action scenes are mesmerizing, although the plot seems a bit far fetched and lacks some cohesion. GRADE-------B+
MERRILY WE GO TO HELL (1932)--One of the PRE-CODE HOLLYWOOD COLLECTION, this film plays like an early version of THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (1962). A young man with a drinking problem (Fredric March) destroys his marriage to his true love (Sylvia Sidney) because he can't stop drinking, even though she's understanding and tries to accommodate him. The film includes themes of open marriage, most scandalous at the time it was made. The director, Dorothy Arzner, was a very prolific film maker at the time, and considered one of the nation's finest (and one of the first woman) directors. She worked her way up from the bottom, starting as a script reader, then script girl, editor, writer and finally the first woman director of the sound era. For many years she was the only woman of the Directors Guild of America. On her first sound film THE WILD PARTY (1929) she found that a stationary mike was too limiting, so she had it attached to a fishing pole and sound engineers held it over head, allowing the actors to move around the stage, inventing what became known as the first boom mike. GRADE--------B
THE CHEAT (1931)--An early Tallulah Bankhead film (I didn't recognize her at all....) where she plays a compulsive gambler who seeks the help of a sleazy business man to pay off her debt, behind her husband's back. SPOILER ALERT!!!!! Of course the sleaze wants more than money!!! from Tallulah, and literly brands her chest like cow. I was even shocked by that scene. GRADE--------B-
STAR! (1968)---In many ways this musical biography of Gertrude Lawrence's career was ahead of it's time. Director Robert Wise signed up superstar Julie Andrews before she was finished with SOUND OF MUSIC (1965). This new vehicle allowed her to display her acting, dancing and singing skills in a serious film that flashed forward and backward in time, mixing black and white with color photography, and tying in songs to illustrate the highs and lows of Lawrence's life. There is precious little humor, much drama, many song and dance numbers, and the film doesn't sugar coat the lows or the difficult personality and indecision of Gertrude's personality. Andrews does it all in this film, and there is effective support from Daniel Massey as her close friend Noel Coward, and Richard Crenna and Michael Craig as two of her husbands. Not a great film, but an interesting tale of Lawrence that makes you want to explore her life in more detail. GRADE-------B-
DEATH OF AN EXPERT WITNESS (1983)----Based on a novel by British writer P.D. James, this nearly 6 hour TV mini series was shown on BBC and eventually on PBS Mystery series. I listened to the book on tape during a long car trip last summer, so I was curious about seeing it visualized. Unfortunately, the film is rather flat, and the acting is only adequate. Roy Marsden plays detective Adam Dalgliesh, and it also features Barry Foster and a very young and thin Brenda Blethyn. In spite of being quite faithful to the plot, the climax feels less than satisfactory in this version. GRADE---------B-
MURDER AT THE VANITIES (1934)--This film is part of a package of films called PRE-CODE HOLLYWOOD COLLECTION which features 6 movies made before the 1935 code went into effect that disallowed sex, violence, nudity and "loose" morals. While a sexy musical revue appears at the Vanities theatre, a murder takes place, back stage, and then another. The police investigate while the chorus girls sing and dance on stage. There are many scenes with nearly naked women waving fans or holding something quite strategical in front of them. Today it would be PG-13, but back then it was probably quite scandalous. At least the murder mystery was entertaining. GRADE----B-
CASE OF THE HOWLING DOG (1934)------GRADE-----B-
CASE OF THE CURIOUS BRIDE (1935)-----GRADE-----B-
CASE OF THE LUCKY LEGS (1935)----------GRADE----B-
CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS (1936)------GRADE----C
These are the first four films in a series of six movies that featured famed lawyer Perry Mason. Portrayed by Warren Williams, a popular leading man in the early 1930's, he is effective in the role although the films themselves play more like quality "B" movies. He died at age 54 of multiple myeloma. HOWLING DOG deals with a woman accused of killing her husband, although it appears she may have TWO! CURIOUS BRIDE features one of the first films to feature Earl Flynn, who plays the murdered man. LUCKY LEGS has a man conning women of their winnings in a beautiful legs contest. In VELVET CLAWS, Perry Mason marries this assistant Della, but on their wedding night a woman with a gun insists Mason come to her aid. Amusing, although after four we were done watching.
THE GAY FALCON (1941)----------GRADE---C+
DATE WITH THE FALCON (1942)--GRADE--C+
THE FALCON TAKES OVER (1942)--GRADE--B-
THE FALCON'S BROTHER (1942)--GRADE--B-
These are the first four films in a series (of twelve films) of the gentleman detective series, which featured British actor George Sanders for the first four, and then in BROTHER, the Falcon's brother Tom comes to town and takes over the case started by Sanders involving a political assassination. The brother is played by Tom Conway, who in spite of the fact that he made dozens of comedies, musicals, dramas, and two Tarzan films, is best known as George Sanders real brother. Both are dapper, attractive and fit the bill. Apparently Sanders was tired of making these short (most are less than 70 minute) "B" movies. Tom finally went to Hollywood and changed his name to Tim Conway because there was another Tom Conway. As the roles dried up, he turned to drink and died at age 64 of illnesses caused by alcohol.
DEEP BLUE SEA (2011)--Based on a play by playwright Terrance Rattigan, this film was reworked by director Terence Davies, who says on an interview on this DVD that he changed the point of view to the woman, deleted some scenes, and got rid of many supporting characters. The film seemed unnaturally ponderous to me, with dialogue spoken carefully and sparsely, and not much happens. A young woman married to an older judge has a tragic affair with a younger pilot after World War II. That's it. All three characters live unhappily ever after, I'm sure. I've seen many of Rattigan's screenplays, including the other three play to movies WINSLOW BOY, SEPARATE TABLES and BROWNING VERSION, and he wrote screenplays for several films that I have a special fondness for---BRIGHTON ROCK (1947), THE V.I.P. s (1963), THE YELLOW ROLLS-ROYCE (1964) and an underrated version of GOODBYE MR CHIPS (1969) with a masterly performance by Peter O'Toole. So I feel very disappointed with this film version of DEEP BLUE SEA. There is another version out there that I will try to catch someday. He died at age 66 of bone cancer in 1977, having never found much fame in the US, but he's considered a British master writer. GRADE--------C
CASE OF THE FRIGHTENED LADY (1940)--This British murder mystery set in a dark old castle, and featuring some quirky butlers, was written by a popular writer of the times, but I had a problem with hearing the dialogue--the sound was not good and the accents were strong. There was some over acting and hand wringing, although I liked the surprise ending. The print I saw was inferior. GRADE-------C-
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