The last two months have been a cinematic whirlwind, including the return in person (for me) of the Seattle International Film Festival. I won't write about all the films seen until they actually open in Seattle area this coming year, but I will designate those films with a SIFF in the description. Here, then are the regular films that I saw at theatres the last two months.
CYRANO--I was a bit skeptical when I realized this was a musical version of the classic novel, but director Joe Wright really knocked this one out of the park. The costumes, setting, directon and photograpy all shine, as do the main characters, especially Peter Dinklage as Cyrano, so instead of having an ugly large nose he feels that being so short compared to the height of Roxanne is reason to feel insecure. This devise works much better than the original and Dinklage is both modest and realistically sad. I found the songs to be very moving, especially the last three, and they moved me to tears, and the tricky balcony scene impressed me. I hope this film finds more of the audience that it deserves. GRADE-------------A-
THE NORTHMAN--Violent but engrossing epic tale of a young Viking prince who spends 20 years trying to avenge the murder of his father by his uncle. The film deals with witches, shamans, mythology, and a bit of sorcery. It's heavy handed but powerful at times with some mystical happenings. The excellent cast includes Alexander Skarsgard, Niocole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Bjork and Willem Dafoe. GRADE---------B+
POWER OF THE DOG--Viewed a second time for me, it felt masterful in its drama and symbolism, and was worth the direction Oscar that it received. GRADE---------A-
LUCY AND DESI--This excellent documentary on the lives of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz was well directed by actor and comedienne Amy Poehler, and covered the long career of this popular couple, with the direct narration involvement of their daughter Lucie Arnaz and some excellent new footage of their life together. GRADE--A-
ALINE--This French language Canadian film is based on the life of Celine Dion, her family, her long marriage to her much older manager, and life after his death. The actress who plays her is quite good, although some early scenes seemed oddly amusing because her face is superimposed on a shorter, younger 12 year old body. Still, this effective biopic works well and features a few of her popular songs. GRADE-------B+
THE OUTFIT--This tidy and effective little British thriller features Mark Rylance as a master British tailor who now lives in Chicago, and one night must out wit some Chicago thugs who seek an incriminating tape at his store. GRADE--------------B+
FATHER STU--A rough and tumble ex-boxer falls for a highly religious Catholic girl, so throws himself into religion to win her, but finds himself wanting to become a priest. Based on a true story. Mel Gibson and Jackie Weaver play his divorced, atheistic parents. The fast paced film covers maybe a dozen years, and is filmed with some witty barbs directed at religion, mostly from Gibson and Weaver, and make for an amusing experience. GRADE-----------B+
PETITE MAMAN--From SIFF--Charming short story film of a young girl who meets what probably is her mother at the same age as herself while cleaning out her recently deceased grandmother's house. An odd story of childhood, but handled with grace and curiosity. GRADE--------B
THE DUKE--A SIFF film. British film based on a true story. Lower middle class pensioners find trouble when husband Jim Broadbent steals a valuable painting and tries to hide it in his small row house. Helen Mirren is amusing as his wife, and the supporting cast make for an entertaining if low key tale. GRADE-----------------------B
THE HATCHING--SIFF film. Smooth Finnish film of young teen girl who finds a large egg in the woods and takes it home to hatch after killing its injured mother. The film works as a symbolic exercise as pressures from her own mother disrupts her own developing sexuality. GRADE-------------B
DOG--Laid back performance by Channing Tatum and an amazing dog he is transporting to a funeral provide a lot entertainment in this moving road movie. GRADE--------B
THE BATMAN--A literally Dark dark version of a Batman story, this film feels more like film noir than anime with a moody Robert Pattinson and saucy Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman. The serial killer plot is depressing--I wish the film was easier on the eyes to watch (lighter and brighter) and it needed an injection of humor/wit and POW. It is not boring but feels long. Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright and Andy Sirkus seem to be having some fun with their roles. GRADE-----------B
DEATH ON THE NILE--Competently directed by Kenneth Branaugh--he also plays master detective Hercule Poirot in this new version of Agatha Christie's classic murder mystery--the film is stylish and easy to watch, but suffers from giving too little importance to some soon to be killed supporting characters, therefore blunting the shock of their death. GRADE----------B
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE--First the good news--Michelle Yeoh is magnificent. The wild script has her through the paces as a haggard mom, laundry mat owner, and much more in this sci-fi fantasy. Jamie Lee Curtis and the rest of the cast are also impressive, but the plotting/story is all over the map, and the camera work is chaotic and tiresome at best, and many themes keep repeating and repeating, the film goes on for 30 minutes longer than it should. With cartoonish karate fighting, (but shown in live action) and the running, running, running around of all the characters, and the occasional lapses into bizarre animation, the film wears out it's welcome fast. Creatively innovative at times, but it feels like over kill a lot. GRADE----------B-
FIREBIRD--British film shot in Estonia, this great looking film is based on a true story--a tale of a forbidden menage a trois between a jet flyer and an enlisted man and a woman they both have been dating and the two men trying to hide their attraction to one another--all set in the 1970's at a restrictive communist base in Estonia during the cold war. The plotting is a bit pedestrian, but the film is lovely to look at. GRADE-------------------- B-
UNCHARTED--Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland have some witty banter, but other wise this is a ho hum missing treasure in the jungle adventure. GRADE-----------B-
THE LOST CITY--Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum have a lot of amusing chemistry that helps compensate for the very familiar plot--in fact last summer's JUNGLE CRUISE had the charming duo of Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, and this past spring had the funny back and forth of Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland. Thinking back these movies all had people searching the jungle for lost treasure and they are very similar. GRADE-------------------B-
THE HAND OF GOD--This Italian coming of age (of the director) film is nicely photographed but the characters are typical of young boys dealing with sex, nudity, death--in other words the realities of life. The older characters seemed to be always screaming at them or each other (right--they are all Italian cliches) and they were familiar and mostly pathetic. Netflix. GRADE------------C+
THE DEVIL YOU KNOW--Gritty drama about ex-con trying to go straight, but he soon discovers a younger brother may be involved in murder. The film's pacing is off and the film ran hot and cold for interest. Stars Omar Epps, Michael Ealy and Glynn Turman needed more hot sauce poured into the screen play. GRADE-------C+
UMMA--Sandra Oh stars as a middle aged woman "haunted" by her recently deceased mother, and this affects her relationship with her daughter. Film is so low key that it doesn't have much impact in spite of a solid idea and set up. GRADE---------C+
ALL THE OLD KNIVES--Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton play ex-lovers and ex-spies who meet up to try to find who was the leak in a CIA operation that caused dozens of people to lose their lives in an operation 8 years earlier. Think novels by John le Carre, but not so involving or complicated. Prime. GRADE------------C+
I WANT YOU BACK--Two recently dumped twenty-somethings meet and vow revenge on the two who dumped them. Sometimes I was charmed, sometimes I winced, sometimes the mechanics were unbelievable. Prime. GRADE-----------C
ENCANTO--A popular film hit, with colorful characters and visuals, and great songs by Lin-Manuel Mirando, but the story was the shits--unbelievable, chaotic, confusing and dumb. GRADE------C
VINTAGE FILMS ON DVD/TV
LIFEBOAT 1944--I've been reading a biography of Tallulah Bankhead--a beautiful and controversial and talented mostly stage actress but one of her best known films was Alfred Hitchcock's clever and suspenseful story of survivors from a passenger ship that is sunk by the Nazis in WWII. He gets his amusing cameo appearance by being on the back page of a newspaper in an ad to lose weight. Her pithy remarks add some needed humor to the desperation felt by the nearly dozen fellow survivors, which include excellent turns by William Bendix, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, Hume Croyn and Canada Lee (an ex-boxer who during this time period was one of the few significant black male actors to play some leading roles.) GRADE----------A-
MY OCTOPUS TEACHER 2020--Fascinating documentary about a skin diver/photographer who develops a strong relationship with a curious octopus in a South African kelp forest. Very hopeful and moving. Netflix. GRADE----A-
THE GLORIAS 2020--Director Julie Taymor made this engrossing bio-pic based on the life of Gloria Steinmen's life and career. Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander play Gloria at various times in her life and Timothy Hutton plays her father. Released just as covid was starting up, this fine film deserves a fresh look. On Prime. GRADE-----------B+
WHO WE ARE: RACISM IN AMERICA 2021--Profound and insightful look at the history of racism in America, and what needs to be done about it. Prime. GRADE--------------B+
A SHOT IN THE DARK 1964--Delightful film directed by Blake Edwards which featured the first major appearance of clumsy Inspector Clouseau. The driver has been murdered and the maid is found holding the gun. Soon several murders follow the maid around Paris, and even though she is the likely murderer, Clouseau falls for her and thinks she is not the one. Peter Sellers, Elke Sommer, Herbert Lom and George Sanders are featured along with some amusing slapstick scenes. This is a sequel to the first PINK PANTHER movie (see below). GRADE-------B+
BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY 2018--Cheerful documentary about musical plays that played only one or two times for a specific sales audience features songs and plots about certain items for purchase (like certain cars, or food stuff, or clothing brands etc), With appearances by Martin Short, Chita Rivera and David Letterman and others. Netflix. GRADE------B
BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMAR STORY 2017--Not only a lovely and talented actress but she was an inventor--her most popular was a security radio system that was the basis for today's blue tooth technology. Prime. GRADE---------B
THE STARLING 2021--Melissa McCarthy and Chris O'Dowd play a married couple struggling with tragedy, sending him to a mental home. She tries to carry on with gardening, but a pesky starling keeps attaching her and she ends up being advised by Kevin Kline, now a vet. The film mixes sadness with humor, and I enjoyed it. GRADE-----------B
THE PINK PANTHER 1963--Director Blake Edwards first PP film about a diamond thief trying to steal a priceless jewel (named the pink panther) and the clumsy detective Clouseau trying to find the thief, not realizing his wife is a lover of the thief. The comedy moves slower than modern audiences are used to, in fact some sequences are downright boring, but every once in a while a slapstick sequences brightens up the viewing. The cast is sparkling, and includes David Niven, Capucine, Robert Wagner, Claudia Cardinale, and introducing Peter Sellers as Clouseau. GRADE-------B-
PARIS BLUES 1961--Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier are handsome music playing friends living in Paris who meet US tourists Joanne Woodward and Dianann Carroll and the two couples fall in love, with the women hoping to bring the men back to the USA where they are from for marriage. Louis Armstrong (playing himself) drops by in a few scenes to warm up the night clubs. The men resist the women. Paris in 1961 looks lovely and cool. GRADE------------B-
THE CASE AGAINST BROOKLYN 1958--This is a film noir crime story staring Darren McGavin as a young cop working to stop corruption in Brooklyn, even at the expense of neglecting his new wife and becoming involved with the widow of a possibly corrupt man. GRADE---------------B-
BLACKMAIL 1925--Early Alfred Hitchcock film based on a London play which originally stared Tallullah Bankhead to great reviews. Unfortunately she did not appear in the film. A policeman's girlfriend decides to date a stranger, but when he takes her home and tries to molest her, she kills him and leaves her gloves at the scene. A friend of the killed man knows where she works and tries to blackmail her (he found a glove, as did her investigating boyfriend cop) and they play a game of cat and mouse. GRADE----------B-
EASY VIRTUE 1928--Another early Hitchcock film, this is mostly a soap opera of a woman who moves after a scandal involving the death of a painter to the south of France to live in obscurity, but meets a young man who becomes smitten. They marry and he takes her home to meet his family but his mother thinks something is wrong with the new bride and hates her. Before they can leave the mother discovers the scandal and wants the new bride out of his life. Noel Coward wrote the screenplay, but the film is rather predictable. GRADE-----------C+
THE MARRIAGE FOOL 1998--When his longtime wife dies, Walter Matthau a depressed widower becomes interested again after meeting a vivacious widow Carol Burnett, but his adult son (John Stamos) isn't so sure. Production values are simple and low key for this modest TV movie. GRADE----C+
UNDER THE YUM YUM TREE 1963--Dated sex comedy about engaged couple who try to live platonically before marriage, but are pestered by the lecher manager of apartment building, Jack Lemmon who has designs on the woman. Dean Jones and Carol Lynley are the couple, and Imogine Coco and her milk toast husband Paul Lynde are the janitors--all wasted by the script. GRADE-------------C
WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO? 1972-- Low budget lame horror film watchable only for the extreme efforts of Shelley Winters as a rich widow who tries to adopt orphaned siblings who do not like her. She keeps the corpse of her 20 years long dead daughter upstairs, the the kids have seen it. GRADE-------C
Brief SIFF note: I saw 46 films at SIFF (including some seen after the festival). Here are my top 10 films in no particular order--
WILDHOOD
EVERYTHING WENT FINE
BLIND MAN WHO DID NOT SEE TITANIC
LAST FILM SHOW
VOICE OF SILENCE
I LOVE MY DAD
CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH
FINLANDIA
MONEY BOYS
PHANTOM OF THE OPEN
I will be writing about these films when (and if) they open at theatres or on streaming.
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