OK, the dog days of summer and it’s time to get fired up for a BIG WRITING WEEKEND. Of course, I feel like this one has a good chance of success because of the “broke factor”—as in we have no cash to do much else but write.
So here are some movies from the Journal. The viewing this year has been light, but perhaps more selective as well. Some thoughts as I get over the shock of Monty Clift’s appearance in THE DEFECTOR.
LABOR DAY WEEKEND now…and some thoughts on movies while we get ready to finish off the ENVOY saga.
Didn’t get very far, did I?
Sat. Sept. 10, 2011 - OK, checking in a few weeks later, just one week shy of our 7th wedding anniversary in fact. We completed the ENVOY story, and now Tiffany is working on the treatment/Bible/start of the novel document. We’re blowing off Soderbergh at KING OF THE HILL, a shame but I think it will inspire her to finish the damn thing.
OK, a few flicks from 2010 as I try and figure out what the fuck Merchant/Ivory’s SAVAGES is all about.
A bit of a Kurosawa-fest for me last year thanks as usual to TCM. HIGH AND LOW was fascinating stuff, a bit dull but man, Mifune is truly one of the greats. I can see the issues Americans have had with adapting it, as various directors have threatened to do. Continuing my education with an important film never seen, HUSBANDS was pure Cassavetes but I greatly prefer everything that came before (FACES and SHADOWS at least, not so much TOO LATE BLUES). It was tiresome to me, and that was a shame because I love Cassavetes and Falk…oh well, I couldn’t take MIKEY AND NICKY either.
Good God, FIVE MINUTES TO LIVE is bad, even for a low budget Johnny Cash thriller. Retitled DOOR-TO-DOOR MANIAC, but it never comes close to living up to that title. But hey, you’ve got a wooden JC, Ronny Howard and Vic Tayback, and that’s something. Not much, but something.
BLUES IN THE NIGHT was mildly nourish melodrama, with a nifty start and slow fade to sapsville (cornytown?). Hey, I got to meet one of my childhood heroes, POWERS BOOTHE, at an Aero screening for EMERALD FOREST and TOMBSTONE (which I did see in the theatre). Boothe was great at his Q&A, and I asked him about his awesome Philip Marlowe performance.
He told many EMERALD FOREST stories and what a fun experience working with John Boorman must have been. Dude’s kinda crazy is my point (I mean, have you seen ZARDOZ?)…but FOREST is good stuff, big-hearted and contemplative while still giving audiences some exploitation-style action. Also, a special sneak preview of MACGRUBER, really just the trailer (saw the flick later and it unfortunately gave Boothe very little to do.
OK, back on the tube, JOHNNY GET YOUR GUN was bold but not too effective. THE WHISPERERS was muddled with fine performances, TOBACCO ROAD was another chapter of Erskine Caldwell’s seriocomedy about a strange deep south Georgia community. Not nearly as memorable as the later GOD’S LITTLE ACRE, based on Caldwell’s novel, but that one was scandalous in 1958, so TOBACCO in 1942 was considerably cleaned up from the stage version.
More Direct TV theatre…THE SECRET FURY was solid melonoir with Claudette Colbert as the center of a fun and twisty plot, directed by Mel Ferrer, with the always-solid Robert Ryan…THE SERVANT was a loooong must-see that lived up to the hype, damn, Bogarde is killer in that (Fox too), OUR MOTHERS HOUSE a nice slice of British nastiness, with a bunch of kids, a mother who’s never home and a superbly seedy performance from Dirk Bogarde.
SHIVERS is good solid early Cronenberg, with a really gross finale. More Kurosawa with the very early THE MEN WHO TREAD ON THE TIGERS TAIL, more of a filmed stage production than a movie, but still full of fascinating details. Disappointments don’t come much bigger than D13-ULTIMATUM, a big letdown from the original action opus. Not even many memorable parkour moves. MOONRISE is uneven but interesting Hollywood noir from director Frank Borzage, Dane Clark is a very poor man’s John Garfield, but the rich atmosphere is worthwhile – Borzage’s didn’t make another film for ten years. Robert Downey’s ad agency satire PUTNEY SWOPE is still a trip after all these years, and DAYS OF HEAVEN struck a perfect tone between character and image – need to see that on a big screen.
Speaking of, BIGGER THAN LIFE deserves the big screen treatment some time, with Nicholas Ray, James Mason and Walter Matthau (as the heroic gym teacher!) is a still-potent tale of addiction. TCM continues piling on the premieres CHUKA, a Rod Taylor starrer that’s not worthy of him. He’s the title gunfighter but the budget can’t match the ambition. Kurosawa-fest continued with the STAR WARS-influencing THE HIDDEN FORTRESS, more fantastic fun from a world great. His movies are a real delight because you truly never know how he will choose to handle a situation. It’s always something unexpected.
As for the very lovely, very inert MARRIED LIFE, oh my God, did I even finish it?
I LOVE YOU, MAN was murdered by its awful ad campaign that zeroed in on a Lou Ferrigno cameo (which was good BTW). A sweet, slightly overlong, very funny comedy with Paul Rudd as a friendless fellow chumming with Jason Segal. Barely watched the awful Italian horror flick/JAWS ripoff (TENTACLES), worth a look for the completely listless American cast. The cast of AN AMERICAN DREAM, led by stalwart Stuart Whitman, are far from listless, but they aren’t very effective at bringing the Norman Mailer story to the screen. Bit of a garish mess. Middling noir MANHANDLED wastes a promising trio of Dorothy Lamour, Dan Duryea and Sterling Hayden (in his early beefcake days).
1960s TV show NAME OF THE GAME had rotating heroes (including Robert Culp), on 90-minute adventures each week, but none of their episodes was ever this creative, sending reporter Gene Barry off the road and into a hellish still-in-the-future in L.A. 2017 A.D. Interesting artifact gains great value when you learn the director is a young Steve Spielberg. Sharp visuals hint at the great director is almost already was.
Yasujiro Ozu's TOKYO STORY is a masterpiece worthy of the billing, and REVOLUTIONARY ROAD unworthy of a very exceptional book. Not bad a somewhat strained attempt, Michael Shannon takes his showy part and runs for the hills, taking the movie with him.
Had a MISFITS marathon at the apartment, and Jeff Miler brought the dark comedy OBSERVE & REPORT all for the watching. It tested the patience but it was a true and dark little vision from Seth Rogan and company. Not bad at all.
I’m gonna wrap it up with MACGRUBER, the feature-length SNL sketch made feature film. Hey, we were supporting Powers Boothe, who costars here and is given little to do. Will Forte and Kristen Wiig get some laughs, especially during some sexy sexy sex scenes.
OK, a few more…finally saw 1965’s KING RAT, a good example of the POW genre, with a great George Segal performance. MISS PINKERTON is a zippy programmer with Joan Blondell in the lead.
WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO? was a DVD from Don that we finally watched and really loved - I mean, Ruth Gordon and Shelly Winters made for quite a pair, and things got pretty shocking at times. Shocking is a good word for CAPT. NEMO AND THE UNDERWATER CITY a 1970 snoozer that I pray star Robert Ryan was well paid for...
Let's finish up with some video of ol' Powers Boothe at the Aero, shall we?
CPike
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