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Get Out (2017)
How Can this Be Reviewed at Less than a 9
I loved this film. Nine reasons this film deserves a "9" review
1) The plethora of corny, not-so-veiled, race references. 2) Action ending with plenty of well-deserved dying and gore. 3) Actress Betty Gabriel playing the role of Georgina. 4) Creepy silent Bingo scene. 5) Rosemary's Baby meets Deliverance vibe. 6) Fantastic hypnosis special effects. 7) No-holds-barred Black, humor and profanity lines. 8) Impressive directorial debut by Jordan Peele. 9) Finally,what a blast of ironic magnificence to have the Black man pick cotton (from the chair arms) to save his life.
p.s. Took away one star for the jarring music/scene shift in the opening credits. Cut from the tracking woods shot directly to the apartment establishing shot next time.
Gunsmoke: Matt's Love Story (1973)
Where's Kitty?
When Matt is shot by a fugitive he is hunting. He wakes up, in the house of a beautiful, and feisty, widow (Michael Learned) who's character is coincidentally named Mike.
They fall in love. Okay, this is where I have a problem.
Amnesia, or no, why is it the producers of Gunsmoke, pussyfooted around with the romantic relationship between Matt (James Arness) and Kitty Russell (Amanda Blake) for decades without there being some resolution between them?
Matt and Kitty never even share an on-camera kiss. There have been episodes where Matt shares an attraction with other women. There have been episodes where Kitty shares an attraction with other men. But none, where Matt and Kitty consummate (even verbally) their relationship to each other.
I'm a fangirl of Gunsmoke, especially the original half-hour segments, and the wonderful episodes written by the amazing Kathleen Hite, but darn't this is way too much foreplay.
So, As far as Matt's Love Story goes. I can't watch it without thinking about him "cheating" on Kitty. There, I've said it.
The Big Valley: Bounty on a Barkley (1968)
Strains of Alex North
I like this episode, which allows the normally bombastic Nick Barkley to show his softer side. But every time I watch it, I always wonder why I hear the strains of the love theme from Spartacus (1960) by composer Alex North.
Hmm. Could it be that Elmer Bernstein has borrowed, a bit, from his fellow composer?
North was nominated for 15 Academy Awards for his music compositions, but won only an honorary Oscar in 1986. Bernstein, on the other hand, has had 14 Oscar nominations and won the Academy Award in 1967 (Thoroughly, Modern Millie), an Emmy and two Golden Globes.
I love Elmer Bernstein's music scores. Including the scores of two of my favorite movies: The Magnificent Seven, and To Kill a Mockingbird.
I have two takeaways. It's hard to "unhear" a beautiful piece of music; and, as the old saying goes: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
On Dangerous Ground (1951)
Didn't Expect to Like this Film So Much
My TV was still tuned to TCM from the night before, so when I hit the remote to watch the morning news, the first image I had was of what I thought was a gritty, gumshoe tale. A glimpse of Robert Ryan kept me from switching channels, and when I clicked for more info on the remote and saw the summary, and the name: Ida Lupino, there was no turning away.
The most compelling parts of this film is the story's attempt (probably maintained from the novel upon which the film is based) to explain the hardness and inhumanity which can occur when you're a cop. Jaded, and now dangerous, cop Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) doesn't have an outlet to balance the harshness of the tough, city streets he prowls everyday. Even his fellow cops point out that he needs to find a way not to take his work home with him every night. When his anger spills over one too many times, he's sent off to help on a case away from the mean streets. Where he meets, and falls in love with a blind woman (Ida Lupino). Lupino is uncredited as a director but you can see her deft touch in the scenes where she navigates domesticity as a blind woman.
The second thing to become enamored with in this film is the music. Bernard Herrmann's musical themes can be heard all over this film, but especially the rural scenes which invoke North by Northwest, Psycho, and the haunting strains of Marnie. In this film, Herrmann establishes some of the themes he liberally borrows from in later projects, in particular his TV work on westerns like Have Gun Will Travel. But this film, released in 1952, was obviously influenced by his work the year before on one of my favorite films, The Day the Earth Stood Still.
By the way, it's easy to imagine that the Master, Hitchcock, may have borrowed a few cinematic techniques from On Dangerous Ground director, Nicholas Ray, in the mountain chase scene. Imagine Mount Rushmore instead of the snowy, rural mountain in this film, and you'll see what I mean.
Klute (1971)
KLUTE is haunting. Fonda is brilliant.
Jane Fonda was honored this month with the American Film Institute's 42nd AFI Lifetime Achievement Award at a gala event in Los Angeles. In tribute to Fonda, AFI showed a retrospective of her works. At the AFI Silver Screen Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, MD (a Washington, DC suburb), I sat in its smallest theatre to watch my favorite Fonda film, KLUTE, the 1971 mystery/thriller for which Fonda won an Academy award for Best Actress.
KLUTE is an enigma. Dark, in its cinematography and its subject matter. A thriller/mystery whose mystery is revealed midway through the film because it is not the 'who done it' that is at the heart of this film. At its essence KLUTE is an invitation to witness a lifestyle we would never want to inhabit but piques our curiosity and titillates. Fonda's character, Bree Daniels, is an aspiring actress and an experienced call girl. Her three-act plays performed in hotel rooms where anonymous men are her appreciative collaborators. She confides to her psychiatrist that these dalliances with men are better than her acting auditions because in the former she always gets to play the part.
Fonda gives flesh and complexity to her character. She is physically, emotionally and mentally agile in this role with moments of brilliance that are startlingly effective. Donald Sutherland plays her foil and later protector with a sameness that makes him charming. The word 'nerd' had not come into fashion when this movie was made but Sutherland's John Klute is just that. A moral square from a small Pennsylvania town who is thrust into New York City's seamy scenes of drugs, prostitution and free love. His straightness is not hypocrisy. He is not like her other Johns. His steadfastness is the lure that eventually catches her.
The two other stars of the movie are the cinematography by Gordon Willis and the film's use of audio. Best known for his work as Director of Photography on the Godfather trilogy,Willis didn't receive an Oscar nomination for his work on this film but he should have. KLUTE is his palette for contrasting scenes of flat color, silhouette and neo-noir realism. Martin Scorsese says of Willis' work in this film: "There are movies that change the whole way in which films are made, like Klute, where Gordon Willis's photography on the film is so textured, and, they said, too dark."
We hear a lot of Fonda's voice in KLUTE. At the psychiatry sessions, in the acting auditions, in the one-sided conversations her character has with men who call to introduce themselves and set up dates.
The murderer in KLUTE likes to audiotape his interactions with women and he seems obsessed with Daniels. We watch the tapes twirl on a small recorder as he listens to her "come hither" chatter over and over, her words inadvertently giving him permission to confuse his acts of violence against prostitutes as free-spirited nonconformity, "
there's nothing wrong in what you want."
Private Investigator, Klute is also listening after he wiretaps Daniels' apartment to acquire information that will help him solve what he thinks is a simple missing person case.
In KLUTE we are eager eavesdroppers and voyeurs. Fonda makes us want to watch. She strips off her clothes with deliberate nonchalance. Her seventies bohemian haute couture and bob hair style brings a smile. Her vulnerability in the riveting, minutes-long, close up scene at the film's climax is powerful. She has become Bree Daniels and we feel her pain.
If this film were made today, Director Alan Pakula would likely elongate the climax by adding slow motion or slowing the cuts and putting more light on the subject to extend the fear. Yet, he makes KLUTE interesting to watch throughout.
Sutherland's pouty lips and placid eyes make him as adorable as a beagle. The panoramic shot of models lined up for a cosmetics casting call is fascinating. Roy Scheider's easy meditation on "pimpdom" is at once sexy and dangerous, and fun to watch. The scenes of the late 60's/early 70's disco culture are spot on.
Do yourself a favor and give KLUTE a viewing. AFI will celebrate Jane Fonda at its tribute which will be shown this month on both TNT network and Turner Classic Movies (TCM).
DIR/PROD Alan J. Pakula; SCR Andy Lewis, Dave Lewis. US, 1971, color, 114 min. RATED R.