Showing posts with label film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label film. Show all posts

Saturday, July 26, 2014

"NEBRASKA" - THE MOVIE

"Nebraska" is a beautiful, funny, poignant film in splendid black and white, a road movie about a father and son who take off in pursuit of the father's fantasy.  Bruce Dern's portrayal of the father, Woody Grant, is one of the finest in his long acting  career.  Will Forte plays David, Woody's son, with just the right mix of fondness, impatience, indulgence, and uncertainty that, in the end, show him to be a son who loves his father very much.

June Squibb as Kate Grant, Woody's wife and David's mother, is a piece of work, but she seems at the end of her rope, as Woody leaves the house time and again to wander the road on foot in pursuit of his fantasy.  Woody is an alcoholic, who is now slipping into dementia.   What a mouth Kate has!  Since she is elderly and now seems so stressed, I cut her slack, but I'd guess she was a feisty woman from a young age and not one to hold her tongue or mince words.

Writer Bob Nelson's excellent script contains many quotable lines, both funny and sad, and I laughed out loud and was near tears a number of times.  Two examples:
David Grant: Where's your family?
Kate Grant: Oh, they're over in the Catholic cemetery. Catholics wouldn't be caught dead around all these damn Lutherans.
....

David Grant: How did you and mom end up getting married?
Woody Grant: She wanted to.
David Grant: And you didn't?
Woody Grant: I figured, what the hell.
David Grant: Were you ever sorry you married her?
Woody Grant: All the time.
Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael's black and white scenes of the West during the road trip are lovely, indeed.  Kudos to director Alexander Payne for pulling it all together to produce a very fine film.  I can't recommend the movie highly enough.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

TOP HAT

The other afternoon, I watched the marvelous Top Hat (1935), a musical comedy starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, filmed in splendid black and white, with Irving Berlin songs, stylish Art Deco settings, and wonderful costumes. What a joy to watch the two dance and listen to them sing. Below is the video clip of "Cheek to Cheek" from the movie. Listen to Astaire hit the high notes, which Berlin worried he might not be able to do. I've long thought Fred Astaire was not given his due for his singing talent. He didn't have a large voice, but his style and grace do full justice to the songs.

The film includes a group dance scene shot from above in Busby Berkeley style, though not nearly as complex as Berkeley's production numbers.

Astaire hated Ginger Rogers' dress with ostrich feathers in the "Cheek to Cheek" scene, because feathers came loose from the dress and flew all over, but Rogers wanted the dress and held her ground. Astaire called her "Feathers" thereafter. Before I send the DVD back, I will watch the film again.
....

Later: The second time around, I noted the ostrich feathers flying around and lying on the floor.

Years ago, I purchased a set of cassettes produced by the Smithsonian titled "American Popular Song", with a cover by Al Hirschfeld.  The set includes several songs brilliantly performed by Fred Astaire - "Cheek to Cheek", "Puttin'on the Ritz", and even "Night and Day", a difficult song to sing to sing well.

Here's the video clip of "Cheek to Cheek", with Astaire singing and Astaire and Rogers dancing and the ostrich feathers flying, which detract not at all from the brilliance of their performance.

Monday, January 13, 2014

"ANOTHER YEAR" - THE FILM

"Another Year" is a strange movie. Written and directed by the much admired Mike Leigh, the film received a number of glowing reviews, yet a quarter way through watching, I wondered what the movie was about. At the end, I asked myself the same question.

Were the names of the two main characters, Tom and Gerri, intentional?  Both Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen play their roles as Tom, a geological engineer, and Gerri, a counsellor, a middle-aged happily married couple, well and naturally, with Broadbent's performance outstanding in excellence. Tom is plainly a nice guy, but Gerri's character is annoying to the point of insufferability, seeming smug, all-knowing, and insular as she observes the disastrous lives surrounding her, even as she offers the characters kindness and hospitality.  Oliver Maltman is very good and natural as their son, Joe.  Tom and Gerri's daughter, mentioned in passing, seems not a steady presence in their lives.

To enjoy a movie, I must first suspend disbelief and accept the characters as real people for the duration, but several of the characters were caricatures who were not at all credible.  I wondered how it was possible for the couple's friend Mary (Lesley Manville), with her
overplayed shrinking, cringing, and gesturing, to ever pull herself together enough to function in her job as a receptionist.  Then there is sad Ken (Peter Wight, also overplaying his role), as their miserably unhappy friend with whom the couple try to link the miserably unhappy Mary, but she's having none of it, and who can blame her?  What a miserably unhappy pair the two would make.

Enter son Joe's long-awaited (by his parents) fiancée, the giggly, squirmy, gesturing Katie (Karina Fernandez), whom both Tom and Gerri agree is lovely and just the girl for Joe.  Please.  To be in the same room with Mary, Katie, and Ken all at once would try my patience to the utmost.  Though it doesn't happen in the film, viewers are painfully subjected to two at a time.

Oh my.  I sound grumpy even to myself, but, in the end, what this viewer is left with are four seasons in the lives of Tom and Gerri showing the couple's kindness and hospitality to the less fortunate, yet all the while remaining self-contained and self-satisfied throughout.  Director Leigh most certainly does not fear moments of silence.


Three intriguing characters appear only briefly: Janet (Imelda Staunton), an unforgettable picture of depression, whom Gerri counsels at the beginning of the movie and who never again appears; Ronnie (David Bradley), Tom's brother, whose blunt and steely gaze is stunning throughout his nearly wordless performance which begins at his wife's funeral; and Ronnie's son Jack (Philip Davis), a study in anger, barely and, at times, unsuccessfully repressed.  Strangely enough, Mary and Ronnie seem to connect in a way that is believable, but I shuddered at the thought of the havoc Mary'd wreak should she became part of Ronnie's life.
 

Please don't simply take my word on the quality of the film, but read at least some of the words of the 93% of critics and the 74% of audiences who praise "Another Year".  

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

"LAST CHANCE HARVEY"

Since I'd completely forgotten that I bought the DVD, I must have purchased the film "Last Chance Harvey" some years ago. Last night I finally watched, and I enjoyed the performances of two fine actors, Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, in a lovely, romantic story. While the audiences' reactions were decidedly mixed, the critics gave the film higher marks. One critic said the movie was "sweet and tender", and another said, "They don't often make romances like this, so tell your mum - or granny!" Well, I thought it was sweet and tender, and I'm a mum and a granny, so I suppose that's why I more than liked the movie - I loved it. It will not be among the most memorable films I've seen, but it was a fine way to spend a cold and rainy New Year's Eve.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

QUARTET (THE MOVIE)

Loved it, loved it, loved it. What's not to love? It was all about me, starring wonderful British actors, except I'm not a retired opera singer, living in a Beechem House, a retirement home for musicians in England, but otherwise...

Maggie Smith (Jean Horton), Pauline Collins (Cissy Robson), Tom Courtenay (Reg Paget), and Billy Connolly (Wilf Bond) play the roles of the opera singers.  The characters bravely, and more or less cheerfully, face the challenges and vicissitudes of aging.  Cissy suffers from what seems moderate dementia, and the scenes which show Reg and Wilf protecting her and caring for her with love, tenderness, and gentle humor, are quite moving.

The musicians remain active in their former professions by teaching classes to young musicians, but the home is in danger of being closed due to lack of funds.   The residents hope that a planned gala performance fund-raiser, starring themselves, will provide sufficient funding for the continued operation of Beechem House.

Cissy, Reg, and Wilf live rather quietly until the arrival of Jean.  Whenever Maggie Smith comes on the scene, we know she will stir the pot, and so she does when she joins the others in the home.   All four characters knew one another during their performing careers, and Jean and Reg were briefly married, very briefly, only one day, before the marriage ended.  Jean tries to mend their relationship, but Reg will have none of it.

Since I don't want my review to be a spoiler, I'll give no more details but only say that I highly recommend the film.  The actors are delightful in their roles, and, although there's much in the story line that is improbable, if not quite impossible, I loved "Quartet" anyway.  For me, the test of a drama or any fictional art form is whether I get caught up in the story and suspend disbelief, and I did, in spades, as I watched "Quartet", so much so that I want to see the film again.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

SEEING "THE BUTLER"

A couple of weeks ago, Grandpère and I went to the theater to see "The Butler".  People were talking about the film here because scenes from the movie were filmed in this area, in Houma, Louisiana, and at Laurel Valley plantation outside Thibodaux.  The movie makers built a false front to a building in downtown Houma and blew it up.  The early scenes from Cecil Gaines' childhood in the film were set in Macon, Georgia, but Louisiana is close enough, right?

Forest Whitaker's portrayal of Cecil Gaines is excellent.  Gaines erved as a butler in the White House beginning in the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower into the presidency of Ronald Reagan.  Cuba Gooding, as head butler, does a fine job of acting, as does Oprah Winfrey, as Gaines' wife Gloria, somewhat to my surprise.

If you heard or read of the outrage of Reagan admirers at the casting of Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan, which I found quite amusing (After all, Fonda is an actor and was playing a role, and why not the role of Nancy?), you can think of it as a good joke on the part of the filmmakers or as brilliant casting.  Whatever their intention, the result was brilliant.  Fonda was Nancy Reagan, or so close as to be surpassed only by the reincarnation of Nancy Reagan.

Real footage from the civil rights struggle was painful to watch and brought back terrible memories of the horror of the times.  I sat in my seat cringing and squirming, wanting the scenes to be over.  Gaines son Louis (David Oyelowo) becomes active in the struggle, which causes a breach between him and his father, who disapproves of his activism and prefers to work quietly to achieve equality in wages for the African-Americans on the White House staff, who earn less than the white employees.  As Gaines goes about his work, he hears discussions about the demands of African-Americans and the "problem" of the fight for civil rights, but, of course, he cannot react in any way.

While there was much that was good about the movie, Tom and I both came away feeling a bit unsettled and questioning.  The movie seemed to lack a point of view.  Who was the hero?  Was it Cecil, who did his job, serving faithfully in the White House and caring for his wife and children?  Or was it Louis, who was active in the fight for civil rights?  Both?  Were we meant to be left to decide for ourselves? Anyway, we walked away shaking our heads.

There you have it.  I hope I've succeeded in writing my impressions of the movie without spoiling the film for those who have not seen it.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

"THE TREE OF LIFE" - THE MOVIE

Spoiler warning.

Over the last couple of nights, I watched the film "The Tree of Life" on Netflix DVD.  I've enjoyed all the Netflix movies that I've chosen so far, some more than others, but "The Tree of Life' was the absolute worst.  The movie was filled with beautiful images, some from the Hubble telescope, others such as a view of the silhouette of an actor projected against sunlight shining through trees, with a soundtrack that includes Brahms, Bach, and Schumann, along with original music, but - hey! - where's the story?  A character comes on the scene, we see images, strange landscapes, then the character thinks or talks in a low voice, mostly to her/himself.  (Before the movie begins, the viewer is instructed to turn the volume to loud.  Good advice.)  What's going on?   I broke my viewing into two parts, because I was bored/impatient/mystified.  The actors, especially the young boys, were very good when the camera was on them, which it was far too little of the time.  There is a story in the movie, but it's broken in pieces and lost in interruptions that serve to lengthen the movie to over two hours to no good purpose.

I went back to read the reviews again, because I always check them out before I put movies in my Netflix queue, and more than 80% of the critics gave the movie positive reviews, but when I went to audience reviews, it was a different story.  The moviegoers either loved the movie or they hated it.  The scores were either 0 or 10.  I'd score it far on the low end, either 1 or 0.
The Tree of Life is nonetheless a singular work, an impressionistic metaphysical inquiry into mankind’s place in the grand scheme of things that releases waves of insights amid its narrative imprecisions. This fifth feature in Terrence Malick’s eccentric four-decade career is a beauteous creation that ponders the imponderables, asks the questions that religious and thoughtful people have posed for millennia and provokes expansive philosophical musings along with intense personal introspection.
As such, it is hardly a movie for the masses and will polarize even buffs, some of whom might fail to grasp the connection between the depiction of the beginnings of life on Earth and the travails of a 1950s Texas family. But there are great, heady things here, both obvious and evanescent, more than enough to qualify this as an exceptional and major film. Critical passions, pro and con, along with Brad Pitt in one of his finest performances will stir specialized audiences to attention, but Fox Searchlight will have its work cut out for it in luring a wider public.
Crikey!  If I'd read the overblown review from Cannes beforehand I'd have known not to put the movie in my queue, that it was not for little me of "the masses".  I ask you, what would I know about "great, heady things", me of "the wider public"?  The film won the Palme d'Or at  Cannes.  Not for everyone, surely.  Not for me.


Movie poster from Wikipedia.

Friday, August 31, 2012

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - GEORGE SMILEY

"The fanatic is always concealing a secret doubt."
From the film "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy".

The movie is excellent, and Gary Oldman is superb as George Smiley, a British secret service agent during the cold war.  I watched the movie twice to tie up the loose ends from the first time around, which included more than one than one distraction.  The film calls for close attention.  Although I'd read the book and watched the TV series of the same name years ago, I had mercifully forgotten who was the mole, so the suspense remained on the first view. 

When I heard Oldman speak the words above, they seemed very true to me, so I backed up to get the exact quote.   The words do not refer only to others but are cautionary for me to examine myself for drift into fanatic mode, and, should I find myself there, to look for the secret doubt. 

Picture from Wikipedia.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

NEW ORLEANS - A "GENIUS LOCI"

"Bad Lieutenant"
In the Times-Picayune's Lagniappe, David Germain interviews Nicholas Cage, who stars in "Bad Lieutenant", a movie in which, according to Cage, "explosive violence and extreme drug use are leavened by raucously twisted humor".
Directed by Werner Herzog, the film stars Cage as a New Orleans police detective traipsing about post-Katrina New Orleans, snorting, popping and smoking whatever drugs he can while threatening witnesses in pursuit of savage killers.

The film is not an outright remake of 1992's "Bad Lieutenant," which starred Harvey Keitel, but rather Herzog and Cage's take on the idea of a cop without conscience, doing his job in a sometimes hallucinatory fog.
Why film the movie in New Orleans?
"Bad Lieutenant" marked Cage's first time working in New Orleans since he shot his directing debut there with 2002's "Sonny." Cage said he was anxious about returning, because he had a life-changing experience in New Orleans during the "Sonny" shoot.

"In some ways, you could say that I was reborn in New Orleans, and I had this terrifying, mystical experience," said Cage, who would not provide details about what happened.

Critics might assail Cage for his action movies, but they're heaping praise on the actor for the frenzy and fearlessness of his role in "Bad Lieutenant."

New Orleans might have something to do with that, Cage said. Going back was a catharsis, and the city's spirit helped inspire his performance, he said.

"New Orleans is not like any place else in the world. It was colonized by the French and Spanish, it has these African energies, and all these things sort of roll into one to create this genius loci, which is the reason we have jazz," Cage said.

"I felt that I could embrace that, and that I could maybe have a bit of jazz, or my understanding of jazz, in the delivery. Which, my understanding is, that you know the lines so well that you go off-page and you improvise, and you can riff, and you can soak that energy up if you're willing to listen to it. And that's what I think happened."
(My emphasis)
I haven't read a better description of my beloved native city in quite a while. His words on jazz as a metaphor for the city are brilliant. Not everyone "gets" New Orleans. Not all of the native-born "feel" the city, and then there are those who come from far-away places who "feel" the city right away.

I may have to see the movie, although "explosive violence" is not really my thing. Here's a link to the review of the film in the Boston Globe.