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The Sandman: Playing House (2022)
Once again a story set in Florida that isn't in Florida
I have been up and down about this series throughout. We started with high fantasy (pf the worst sort: self-important and bland) and we have seemed to have moved on to horror ( which disappoints me because I don't like horror.) I'm still unclear about who exactly Morpheus is in relationship to the waking world. But I am only writing this to complain about one thing.... This does not vaguely resemble Florida. We'll pass over that there is no town "Cape Kennedy_ nor was there ever. But if there were such a town, it would be on one of our barrier islands. Most likely Merritt Island. There are no basements on Merritt Island. There are no hills or changes of elevation really on Merritt Island. I realize there was Covid but what would it have hurt to come out to Satellite Beach and seen what the area really looks like. This kind of inexactitude and vagary is my general take of the whole show. Everything seems just a little sloppy. Despite their best efforts (and I do think they made an honest effort) to get it right. On the other hand I just seem to be watching the whole damn thing. I am in general impressed with the acting. But I'd much rather have seen a high budget production of Neverwhere.
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
subpar work from Kaufman
Here's a quick and sloppy review:
Like all of Charlie Kaufman's work, this is essentially a meditation on the relationship between the self and fiction. Unlike my favorites from his oeuvre. Being John Malkovich, Adaptation. And Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, while I am still engaged by his intellectual exercise, I do not find this one entertaining. By the time we are 15 minutes into the movie, it is clear that everything we are being told is suspect. Not even I am as talented as Lucy appears to be, and yet she has clear spots of ignorance that suggest what we are being told isn't true. As a result, there is no sense of danger. It is always clear that either the girl or Jake exists only in the mind of the other. How else to make sense of all the contradictions and inconsistencies in their relationship? I will suggest that the title has a double meaning. One easily imagine that Jake went through a lifetime of believing that any woman who would be involved with him was always "thinking of ending things." Jake clearly finds sympathetic the character Jud from Oklahoma, another character who has trouble imagining that anyone would really care about him. But unlike Jud, Jake has been thinking of ending things in a completely different sort of way. Jake commits suicide freezing himself to death in his truck. However nothing has happened in this story to make me feel any sympathy for Jake, so when he dies it is very much a meaningless death for me. I think they're supposed to be an element of "there but for fortune... " but the complete absence of any sense of reality makes it impossible to sympathize with him and feel the idea that this could be our death as well.
The Tomorrow War (2021)
And this script is supposed to be good?
Many reviewers have picked over plot holes. I keep looking for some place where the plot make sense. I genuinely cannot find any line of dialogue or plot step that adds up. Job interviews being conducted outside of business hours? Americans watching the World Cup? The whole plot turns on enough global warming to let the aliens melt out. That much ice melt and Miami Beach is underwater. So you can either have global warming and aliens or you can have Miami beach but you can't have both. Nobody is going to walk down seven flights of stairs and then run without lots of training. And if all you're going to do is to send the toxin back in time to have it made there, why don't you just plan to blow up the alien spaceship? And yes of course this man's talisman, the alien claw that he has been polishing over and over throughout the movie, still has enough ash on it to be identified? The fellow who melted down and hid from the whole experience has no signs of PTSD, and is able to go back to work like it was nothing to it.
I couldn't tell if the acting was any good or not because I couldn't make sense of the words coming out of their mouths. What good are good effects if the story there telling makes no sense? And they're already talking about a sequel?
Some other critics say just relax and enjoy the show. I hate to think what I'd have to do to be able to relax and enjoy this. Heroin maybe?
August Rush (2007)
A flat fairy tale with no magic
"August Rush" gave us no rush. The story is filled with practical impossibilities necessary to the plot, such as the fraudulent adoption papers, or Evan/August/boy Novacek not being adopted before reaching the age of self-expression. Perhaps set as a period piece such inanities might have flown by, but even fairy tales have to ring true at some level. None of the interactions between Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers make any sense. Terrence Howard and Mikelti Williamson are wasted as mere, inconsistent plot devices. Robin Williams seems to be making a different movie than everyone else.
Look, we're not cynics; we love "Love, Actually," "About a Boy," and all of Frank Capra, but the story has to seduce you in, not knock you to your knees; has to have a level of believability that doesn't require you to swallow logs when straining at gnats.
This was a dud. And we wanted it so bad to succeed.
It's a Man's World (1962)
A taste maker
Like most everyone else, I was too young to clearly remember this show. What I do remember is that the show contained male tenderness (seldom on display on the small screen), that the leading men were not tough guys (although they were tough), and that the thoughtfulness in the storytelling thrilled me. Unconsciously, IAMW became my measuring stick for the quality of television. Not many shows have measured up.
As important as the scripts were, I remember being so impressed with the four "men" who formed the cast. Glenn Corbett was my personal role model, but I remember being so taken with Ted Bessell that I became a That Girl watcher because he was on the show. I never understood what drove him to do "Me and the Chimp," even though I watched it.
The integrity of the four leads encouraged me to become the person I am today, and I wish I had the opportunity to visit that houseboat again,
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
A trivial movie, in more ways than one
Though visually enchanting, I fear I must join the army of those who complain that there is no movie here to speak of. What we have instead is a series of quotes and references that leave you astonished at the breadth of Tarantino's body of trivia, but with no sense that a movie of its own has taken place.
The visual brilliance doesn't make up for the many weaknesses of the movie. The characters are thinner than the anime and chop-socky movies he is saluting, the non-linearity of the plot eliminates any suspense about who will win what fight, and 5,6,7,8 drove me crazy. Tarantino suggests a parallel between this and the Indiana Jones movies, but accepting that only weakens the movie: there are no human relationships in this movie, unlike even "Temple of Doom," the sense of fun is more pervasive in the Indy movies, and the music... well I'd rather have seen an attempt to create one's own, rather than borrowing from everything in sight.
Perhaps Volume 2 will make the thing hang together better, but Volume 1 is less organic than "That's Entertainment." I expected more than flash from the man who gave us "Reservoir Dogs."
Next Stop Wonderland (1998)
"Next Stop Wonderland" a Wonderful Ride
Brad Anderson presents a wonderful reflection on the human need for order in the face of an apparently random reality. Erin and Alan roll wildly about on the pinball board of Boston, never quite colliding, but always sharing the same system of tubes and bumpers. Erin is trying to come to terms with the death of her adored father, a death that has left her damaged, if not destroyed. Alan is trying to escape the intellectually narrow confines of his working class family, but continually finds himself shoved back into the roles of plumber, oldest son, and debtor to the mob. Both of them have come to see life as random and meaningless, filled with inescapable pains; although Alan has found a true love in marine science that points a way toward meaning for him.
The most astonishing thing about this movie may be the number of stories Anderson and Lyn Vaus manage to squeeze into 104 minutes. The mystery of the balloon fish, the frustration of Alan's job, Erin's trip to the party to rescue a girlfriend who decides she doesn't need rescuing, the visits to Erin's work life, complete with surprisingly real friends, Alan's father's debts to the loan shark, the diversion of the would-be lovers for Alan and Erin, and, most wonderfully, Erin's adventures with the suitors all carry enough plot force to be their own movies, yet at no time does the plot seem crowded or forced.
All the performances are terrific, with the possible exception of the "clown" Bob, whose work is probably exactly what Anderson wanted, but may have been too broad for this subtle movie. I will single out Hope Davis in this cast of splendid players, if only because it is her nuanced performance that sets the tone for the whole ensemble. Able to convey a complete change of attitude with the smallest move of an eyebrow or cheek, hers is the kind of performance actors can marvel at and learn from.
As the characters glide and collide past each other -- Alan's brother is one of Erin's suitors, Erin and Alan ride the same subway car regularly, the loan shark Alan is trying to avoid hits on Erin -- Anderson explores the delicate forces that shape our lives. Erin and her co-workers explicitly discuss this theme in a scene set in their local hangout. Her story about how her parents met serves as a foreshadowing of the end of the movie as well as pointing to the philosophical antinomy in the question of fate versus entropy.
No discussion of this movie would be complete without a mention of the delightful bossanova score. Yes, I love the music of your country, Andre da Silva, and I love the movie you have made, Brad Anderson. If you love fine acting and superb storytelling, you should make your next stop, Next Stop, Wonderland.
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Pudokin was right! Luhrman is too!
Editing is the only original and unique artform in film - Vladimir Pudokin
I read this quote recently on the Film 100 site and was struck by its truth. No film of recent memory drives this point home so well as Moulin Rouge. If no other talent from this movie is recognized next March, Jill Bilcock had better be. Baz Luhrman demands a breakneck pace for this movie, and Bilcock delivers.
The story is simple: a rudimentary love triangle with all the usual outside pressures, including the villain holding the deed, a jealous co-worker, friends banding together to put on a show... the archetypes rattle on indefinitely.
The acting is nearly nonexistent. Who has time to emote or construct a persona when the production is carried out a bullet-train speed? Casting then must carry the weight, and it does. Everyone from the leads on down to Warner, the thug, instantly project a character recognizably and completely. However, special kudos must go out to Ewan McGregor and Jim Broadbent for being especially effective in their roles. (And Nicole Kidman should be in every movie made... but that's just my opinion)
After all this, you'd be tempted to guess that I disliked the film. I most emphatically did not. I loved it. This is a carefully constructed movie that has nothing to do with fin de siecle Paris and everything to do with youth, beauty, truth, freedom, and love. For those looking for a docudrama (documusical?) recounting the tawdry facts of life in Montmartre at the Moulin Rouge, I advise they hunt up John Huston, Jose Ferrer and their Moulin Rouge. For anyone who wants to understand the ecstacies of forbidden doomed love, of the joys of instant friendships that last a lifetime, however brief those lifetimes, for anyone who needs to learn about the rash painful but unregrettable follies of youth, send them to Satine, Christian, and Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge.
So much remains to be said, yet I am too overwhelmed to say it all. The witty animations. The spectacular sets and models that serve the storytelling so much better than the real Paris could ever have. A film that does not pretend to be real, but knows it is a tale told for the entertainment and edification of the audience.
Oh there are real flaws. Le Chocalate arrives at his big moment without adequate build up. And there is no reason that Leguizamo's character has to be Toulouse-Lautrec. The painter could have been alluded to in a crowd scene and more than fulfilled our historically minded friends. As for me, I'm looking to become a narcoleptic Argentinian
Can a play show us the very truth and nature of love? If Romeo and Juliet manages to, as Shakespeare in Love maintains, so to0 does Moulin Rouge.
Davis Rules (1991)
Just a appreciation, not a review
I loved this show. The feeling of family was so real. The characters were so not cookie cutter. The sense of the Northwest, even for such a cheesily produced program as a sitcom, was palpable. Dennis Quaid was solid, yet wacky. I fell in love with Patricia Cookson at once. When they added Bonnie Hunt, I fell even more in love with the show. Even the kids were terrific, and I hate kids. Best of all, Jonathan Winters was given the freedom to be both Gunny Davis and whoever the gunny thought he ought to be, at any given moment. A rich wonderful rewarding experience!
The African Queen (1951)
Memory Corrected, but not to be neglected
I remembered The African Queen as a great movie; a rambling adventure, telling the gently romantic story of Charlie and Rosie's Quixotic cruise to sink the Louisa. I remembered snappy dialogue and well-drawn characters. I remembered a movie that moved me equally to laughter and tears.
I reviewed it this weekend and found my memory to be in error. The African Queen is not a great movie.
The writing is flabby, relying on the established personas of the actors rather than any internal references to convey the depth of the characters. The photography, though adequate, seems poorly knit together, and sometimes clichéd; for example, the footage of crocodiles slipping into the water after Charlie asks about the presence of the reptiles. Likewise, the sniper fire from the German fort appears to be stock footage.
The acting, while not demanding, is pure and crisp. Given little other than exposition to say, Bogart and Hepburn use their inestimable presences to make this middle aged couple come to life. We see that Rosie is the order Charlie yearns for, even before his after-shaving speech on the joys of having a good woman around. We see that Rose had never been Rosie before Charlie and she became lovers, although she'd always wanted to be. No lines suggest these insights, nor do any overt dramatic gestures. Rather tensions in Hepburn's voice, in Bogart's shoulders, in the angles of their body's convey meanings the script cannot find a way to say. And perhaps it should not have to.
The script abounds with absurdities, either intentional or otherwise. Charlie says that the river has one hundred miles of rapids. Even assuming "one hundred miles" refers to stretches of calm water followed by white water, nothing of so demanding a nature is intimated by the actual events in the movie. We are told that the African Queen can only maintain steerage if she moves faster than the river current, yet the rapids clearly move faster than any speeds the ship ever demonstrates. Rosie's steering through the rapids is then an impossibility.
However, the script does convey the wonderful irony of the "civilized" worldview of the early 20th century. Rosie says "Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above," and indeed, she and Charlie appear do just that. They overcome the obstacles of the river and deal firmly with Charlie's human weaknesses. At the last, however, nature, as manifested in the storm that sinks the African Queen and as manifested in the love she and Charlie share, proves as indomitable as it always is.
No, this is not a great movie; rather a very good one. And though the great ones are few, the very good ones are not many more in number, and we should be grateful for the cruise of the African Queen.
The Music Man (1962)
A confusing treasure
The Music Man is very confusing experience for me. It is clearly shot on a stage, which always annoys me. The supporting actors are at best adequate; Pert Kelton's brogue comes and goes, Ronny Howard's lisp might have worked on stage, but sounded more like an epileptic fit in the movies, and Buddy Hackett can neither sing nor dance nor deliver the dialogue effectively. I should hate this movie.
But I don't. I think the reasons are three: brilliant visuals, charming music, and Prof. Harold Hill himself. And by that last, I do not simply mean Robert Preston's sterling interpretation of the role, but the rascally rogue with a weak spot for sadder, but wiser girls himself. Hill, as a character, captures the city slicker that Americans have been proud of since the days of the Yankee trader, but with a vulnerability that lifts him above the stereotype, and into the realm of living breathing human being. We like Hill, even when we shouldn't, and even more when we should.
The music is Willson's best, but he's no Rodgers. The dialogue does sound right out of a bad dime novel. But the good man gone bad, redeemed by the love of a good woman and her family, especially set in Ioway and to witty music, makes The Music Man a wonderful movie
The Rocketeer (1991)
Fun, but not good
The Rocketeer captures the look of the 30's serials wonderfully, and the feel, too.... unfortunately. Most of those old stories were powered by expository dialogue and a couple of snappy stunts -- no real story, no real characters, and that's the problem here. A story almost happens, when Terry O'Quinn emerges as Howard Hughes, but instead we are carried through a series of cliches and near misses that leave you smiling and intrigued, but never breathless and thrilled. I like this movie, largely because of the cast and my fond remembrances of the comic book, but I fear it falls well short of its promise. It remains a tribute to the 30's instead of trying to fulfil the period's fondest wishes.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
A joyous humanist Yuletide treat
Under Chuck Jones' able leadership, the magical still drawings of Theodore Geisel(Dr. Seuss) move and compel our attention in a way few animations ever do. Without damaging the book or bastardizing his own style, Jones makes a quintessentially Jones short. The music is memorable, especially Thurl Ravenscroft's "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch." Karloff's performance is so facile, one almost forgets that his voice is practically the only one we hear. Jones and Geisel were great friends, and reported to have enjoyed making this movie. Everyone else involved seems to have had a good time making it as well. For a joyous humanist celebration of love and brotherhood during the Yuletide season, no work I know has the power and pleasure of How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
The greatest musical of them all
The biggest numbers, the greatest stars, the snappiest dialog, and a story worth telling... Sure the lengthy "Broadway Melody" ballet at the end drags things for the non-dance fan, but even it is a superior effort to other attempts at a jazz ballet, say, American in Paris. From "Fit as a Fiddle" to "Lucky Star" the numbers sizzle. If you single out the title tune and Kelly's wonderful dance, you can't forget the outrageous O'Connor's "Be a Clown" or either of the male leads comedy duets. Words fail me. See the movie.
The Three Musketeers (1948)
A flawed, but wonderful effort
June Allyson as Constance Bonacieux?? What were they thinking? Were it not for this painful miscasting and surprisingly slow pacing, this movie would be one of the great swashbucklers. Kelly is everything D'Artangan should be, Turner matches any Lady DeWinter the movies have ever supplied, and only Heflin approaches the standard for Athos which Oliver Reed later set. And Price as Richelieu... that says it all. Sparkling 40's Hollywood production values finish the film off nicely. But June Allyson as Constance Bonacieux??
Adventures of Don Juan (1948)
My second favorite movie of all
If you love swashbucklers, period movies, buddy movies, or Errol Flynn, you must love this movie. For swashbuckling, you have a series of wonderful fight scenes, each one convincing, each one a delight. For period movies, the costumes are excellent and the history just accurate enough to be useful, but not so accurate as to be dull. Flynn and Hale are perfectly matched foils here, with Hale getting some of the wittiest lines in the movie. And this is Flynn's perfect part, still ladykiller enough to carry off the love scenes, still fit enough to persuade as the great duellist. Watch it.
Monkey Business (1931)
I laughed till I was sore...
... and sat up all night retelling the jokes to the friends who saw it with me. And they laughed again and I laughed again when they retold them to me. The ending is weak, as most Marx Brothers endings are, but the trip getting there will wear you out.