Under Fire (Roger Spottiswoode, 1983) 8/10
Gripping political thriller set during the last days of the Nicaraguan Revolution that ended the Somoza regime in 1979. The story centers on three journalists - a television reporter (Gene Hackman), a photojournalist (Nick Nolte) and the radio reporter (a tough Joanna Cassidy) they both love and who are in the thick of it all as they report on the uprising by rebels against the regime and will do anything for a scoop. Hackman's character is based on Bill Stewart the American journalist with ABC News who was murdered by Nicaraguan government National Guard forces while reporting on the Nicaraguan Revolution as Sandinista rebel forces were closing in on the capital city of Managua in 1979. Mature film not only questions both American policy in Latin America and the ethics and truth of journalism but also displays rare realism by making the audience feel in danger and under constant fire on the chaotic streets riddled by snipers (Ed Harris plays one CIA specimen who readily changes sides for a buck). Nolte is especially fine as the reckless photographer who manages to take the scoop photo which was flashed on American television eventually resulting in the end for the embattled Somoza dictatorship. Jerry Goldsmith's score was nominated for an Oscar.
The Night Manager (Sandeep Modi & Priyanka Ghose, 2023) 8/10
John le Carré's novel gets an exciting Hindi-Bollywood adaptation as a mini-series which is less a remake of the 2016 Hollywood version but more a re-imagining while keeping the central plot intact. The backdrop is initially set amidst the Rohingya genocide in 2017 wherein the title character works at a posh hotel in Bangladesh. Later there is a location shift to an exotic island lair in Sri Lanka. The Night Manager (Aditya Roy Kapur) becomes privy to vital information which proves that a supposedly benevolent businessman (Anil Kapoor) is actually a vicious arms dealer who has made his billions by making deals with rogue countries and organizations by helping to finance wars and death. So the plot moves into motion with the help of a savvy RAW officer (Tillotama Shome) who plans an elaborate ruse to bring the criminal to justice. Add to the excitement a child kidnapping, furtive sexual longings between the protagonist and the businessman's sexy girlfriend (Sobhita Dhulipala) and an atmosphere of constant dread and suspense. This 3-part mini series is to continue with its conclusion to air later this year. The entire cast is at the top of their game with outstanding production values throughout.
The Wife Takes a Flyer (Richard Wallace, 1942) 3/10
WWII propaganda set in Holland that intentionally - â la Mel Brooks - takes the mickey out of all things Nazi. I think Brooks must have seen this film because it really brow beats the Nazi calling card of "Heil Hitler" - a mantra which he presented ad nauseum in his remake of "To Be or Not to Be" replete with buffoonery. Here the "comic" Nazi Major (Allyn Joslyn) falls in lust with a pair of sexy legs (Joan Bennett) and demands to be billetted in her house. She is in the midst of divorcing her husband and complications ensue when an escaped Allied pilot (Franchot Tone) is also given refuge in the house and who is then forced to pose as the unfortunate husband facing that divorce. Silly shenanigans are of such lowbrow mentality that it's almost funny watching the actors squirm as they read off their unfunny lines. Stars really were trapped by studios back then and forced to act in such crappy films like this one. Bennet remains a lovely vision as always.
Company Business (Nicholas Meyer, 1991) 4/10
Action-thriller of the buddy variety where the two come from opposing political arenas - a retired ex-CIA agent (Gene Hackman) and a KGB mole (Mikhail Baryshnikov) - who find themselves quickly bonding over a cocktail after which they find themselves part of a doublecross by their superiors so they decide to hightail it with a briefcase containing $2 million. With the CIA and KGB in hot pursuit both end up in Paris trying to launder the money with the help of a lady. Spy movie clichés galore, and while both stars have charisma the tepid screenplay cannot decide if it wants to be menacing or comedic.
Timeline (Richard Donner, 2003) 4/10
Science fiction film, based on the novel by Michael Crichton, harks back to H. G. Wells' "The Time Machine" and the old 1960s tv series "The Time Tunnel". An old archaeology professor (Billy Connolly), excavating a site in France, gets stuck back in the year 1357 where he traveled courtesy of his sponsor company's teleportation machine. In the present his students (Frances O'Connor, Gerard Butler) find a written note from the old man asking for help so they along with his son (Paul Walker) and a few executives of the company go back in time to rescue him. Slapdash action-adventure film has them running foul of the British (led by Michael Sheen) and helped by the French - a local knight (Lambert Wilson) and a lady (Anna Friel). The plot takes on a series of medieval battles as the group try to survive the attacks while attempting to return to the present world. Noisy film has nothing new to say.
Physical Evidence (Michael Crichton, 1989) 2/10
This started off as a direct sequel to the Glenn Close film Jagged Edge (1985) but segued into this boring so called original story about the courtroom trial of a volatile alcoholic ex-cop (Burt Reynolds) accused of murder. A cocky public defender (Theresa Russell) tries to help the cop who wakes up after a blackout with blood on his shirt and on the murder weapon. Reynolds looks sullen throughout and has zero chemistry with Russell which is a major misfire especially since there is a growing attraction between both characters. The lousy screenplay is totally devoid of suspense and the perfunctory direction makes matters worse as the film's tepid action sputters towards its silly conclusion.
The Package (Andrew Davis, 1989) 5/10
Convoluted political thriller set during the Cold War involves talks between the United States and the Soviet Union to sign a treaty for nuclear disarmament. However, elements within each country's military are strongly opposed to peace. When it is suspected that there is an assassination plot a former Green Beret Master Sergeant (Gene Hackman) and his ex-wife (Joanna Cassidy), a high ranking army officer, try to catch the escaped Army veteran (Tommy Lee Jones) who was placed in his custody and who is suspected of being the assassin. The action set pieces come at breakneck intervals but it is confusing to decipher just who is doing what and to whom. Hackman tries to keep his head above water as he is shot at, constantly beaten up and kidnapped. Familiar faces - Pam Grier, John Heard, Dennis Franz - pop up in small roles playing characters who aid or abet Hackman along the way.
Suspect (Peter Yates, 1987) 5/10
The main characters in this courtroom whodunit are a public defender (Cher), a homeless deaf-mute (Liam Neeson) accused of slashing the throat of a Washington legal secretary, the public prosecutor (Joe Mantegna), a stern judge (John Mahoney), the Deputy Attorney General (Philip Bosco), and a juror (Dennis Quaid) who decides to help the defender and plays amateur detective - almost like one of the Hardy Boys to her Nancy Drew. There are moments of suspense - she is chased by a knife-wielding man, encounters another homeless man who threatens her with a knife, and continuously comes to blows with the judge. The potholes in the screenplay are wider than the Grand Canyon and the obligatory summing up â la Poirot comes totally from an unsuspecting direction but not in a good way. This was one of three films that year by Cher as a leading lady with "Moonstruck" striking gold for her. The film is one of many murder-mysteries each starring two attractive stars that were fairly popular during the 1980s.
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Good Morning (1959) - 8/10 - Life in a Japanese suburb goes on with neighbors frequently visiting each other. The women gossip about their neighbors and the boys want to watch tv. Two of the boys vow to stop speaking because their parents won't buy them a tv. The colors look great here and this is a nice slice of life comedy.
Early Summer (1951) - 9/10 - Noriko (Setsuko Hara) is a secretary who lives a happy life hanging out with friends and sharing a home with her parents and her older brother's family. At 28, she is considered to be old to still be single so her family starts thinking about marrying her off to a 40 year old friend of her boss. Noriko has other ideas, though. There is plenty of humor in this family drama and a playfulness at times. Hara is very good here, but that is to be expected.
An Autumn Afternoon (1962) - 8.5/10 - Shuhei is a widower who lives at home with his two younger children, 24 year old Michiko and 21 year old Kazuo, He meets up regularly with some of his old classmates to drink and talk. He starts thinking that he is holding his daughter back from marrying and starts looking for an acceptable husband for her. There is a fair amount of humor here. The relationship between his older son and daughter-in-law is entertaining. The daughter-in-law is a no nonsense take charge type. While some of the themes are a bit dated, it is still a very nice film.
The Return (2003) - 9/10 - Two brothers return home one day to find that their father has returned after an unexplained 12 year absence. The next morning, their father takes the boys on what is supposed to be a nice fishing trip. The older brother seems to desperately want to bond with their father while the younger boy is resentful, suspicious, and stubborn. The father's sometimes abrupt manner doesn't help matters. The trip turns into much more than just a simple fishing trip. I liked this one a lot.
After Life (1998) - 8/10 - The film starts with people arriving at a station in a remote area. It turns out that these people are recently deceased and they are there to choose one memory from their life that they will remember for eternity before moving on. Counselors are on hand to interview the people about their lives and to help them select their memory. The film lacks drama and feels like a documentary at times, but it works pretty well and is a nice film.
Gertrud (1964) - 4/10 - Gertrud leaves her husband for a younger piano player in her search for love. There are long stretches of boring dialogue and I thought the style of acting was very stilted and uninteresting, especially from the woman playing Gertrud. She also spent almost the entire film looking sad and perhaps even depressed. It was a slog to get through.
La Bête Humaine (1938) - 7.5/10 - I suppose this could also be called 'Murder on the La Havre Express'. This film noir precursor is based on an Emile Zola novel. A wealthy man is murdered aboard a train. The main characters are a station master and his young wife along with a train engineer with a blood disease that makes him prone to occasional moments of insanity. It was pretty good.
Muriel, or the Time of Return (1963) - 5.5/10 - Hélène sells antiques out of her apartment. She lives with her stepson, Bernard, who is haunted by his time as a soldier in Algeria. Hélène gets a visit from her old lover Alphonse. The film left me cold and I didn't care for the use of music in it either.
My Own Private Idaho (1991) - 6/10 - River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star in this film about a narcoleptic hustler who goes off in search of his mother and is accompanied by his friend. I didn't really like this as much as I expected.
Stories We Tell (2012) - 8/10 - Sarah Polley interviews family members and friends while also directing her father as he narrates the film about her late mother and a family secret. I thought it was pretty interesting.
Elephant (2003) - 8/10 - The film follows a number of students on a typical day in a high school. Two students have plans to disrupt the day by shooting a number of people. I thought this was very well done. It definitely brought back a number of memories from that time period when I was teaching in the post-Columbine era.
Inland Empire (2006) - 3/10 - A very long and weird movie from David Lynch. Not one that I enjoyed very much, but I stuck with it.
Hypocrites (1915) - 6/10 - A morality film with a preacher giving a sermon about hypocrisy that his congregation doesn't appreciate. The film is kind of boring, but noteworthy for the full frontal nudity of a young woman (as Naked Truth) which was shot using double exposure.
F for Fake (1973) - 6.5/10 - Orson Welles hosts this partial documentary about an art forger. It's interesting for a while, but kind of loses steam. The bit at the end wasn't that great.
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967) - 4/10 - Another strange Godard movie. I didn't like the whispering narration at all.
The King of Comedy (1982) - 9/10 - An aspiring comic (Robert De Niro) tries to get close to a popular late night talk show host (Jerry Lewis), hoping to get a spot on his show. He resorts to drastic measures to get his chance. Very nicely done.
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) - 6.5/10 - A man visits a rural village due to a dying relative. Not much really happens through much of the film as the villagers go about their day. There are humorous moments throughout such as his having to get in his car and drive out of the village to a higher elevation every time he gets a call on his cell phone, the woman who has 9 kids one day and 10 kids the next, and the boy who always has to get to school or study for exams. It's not a bad film, but seemed kind of inconsequential, at least on first viewing.
Marnie (1964) - 7/10 - Tippi Hedren stars as Marnie, a young woman who gets hired at companies under a false name, works there for a few months, and then disappears after robbing the company. Sean Connery stars as the owner of a company who hires her, even though he recognizes her from one of her previous jobs. I thought the first half of the film was pretty mediocre, but I liked the second half a lot more.
The Cloud-Capped Star (1960) - 8/10 - Neeta is a hardworking and bright young woman who is getting close to graduating from college. She lives at home with her poor family and the little money she brings in tutoring helps make ends meet. One brother is kind of lazy and practices his singing, hoping to make it big one day. Her younger sister is more interested in having fun and finding a husband. When Neeta's father gets injured, supporting the family falls on Neeta's shoulders and is just the first of a series of misfortunes to affect her. The film is very melodramatic, but also pretty good.
Red Desert (1964) - 6/10 - Monica Vitti stars as a woman filled with anxiety and other mental issues. She is married with a young son, yet feels isolated, apparently due to a recent accident. The film looks great and Vitti does a good job in her role, but I didn't really connect to the story and ended up not enjoying it very much.
Marketa Lazarová (1967) - 6.5/10 - I liked the cinematography and music quite a bit, but the movie could be a bit of a slog to get through at times.
Early Summer (1951) - 9/10 - Noriko (Setsuko Hara) is a secretary who lives a happy life hanging out with friends and sharing a home with her parents and her older brother's family. At 28, she is considered to be old to still be single so her family starts thinking about marrying her off to a 40 year old friend of her boss. Noriko has other ideas, though. There is plenty of humor in this family drama and a playfulness at times. Hara is very good here, but that is to be expected.
An Autumn Afternoon (1962) - 8.5/10 - Shuhei is a widower who lives at home with his two younger children, 24 year old Michiko and 21 year old Kazuo, He meets up regularly with some of his old classmates to drink and talk. He starts thinking that he is holding his daughter back from marrying and starts looking for an acceptable husband for her. There is a fair amount of humor here. The relationship between his older son and daughter-in-law is entertaining. The daughter-in-law is a no nonsense take charge type. While some of the themes are a bit dated, it is still a very nice film.
The Return (2003) - 9/10 - Two brothers return home one day to find that their father has returned after an unexplained 12 year absence. The next morning, their father takes the boys on what is supposed to be a nice fishing trip. The older brother seems to desperately want to bond with their father while the younger boy is resentful, suspicious, and stubborn. The father's sometimes abrupt manner doesn't help matters. The trip turns into much more than just a simple fishing trip. I liked this one a lot.
After Life (1998) - 8/10 - The film starts with people arriving at a station in a remote area. It turns out that these people are recently deceased and they are there to choose one memory from their life that they will remember for eternity before moving on. Counselors are on hand to interview the people about their lives and to help them select their memory. The film lacks drama and feels like a documentary at times, but it works pretty well and is a nice film.
Gertrud (1964) - 4/10 - Gertrud leaves her husband for a younger piano player in her search for love. There are long stretches of boring dialogue and I thought the style of acting was very stilted and uninteresting, especially from the woman playing Gertrud. She also spent almost the entire film looking sad and perhaps even depressed. It was a slog to get through.
La Bête Humaine (1938) - 7.5/10 - I suppose this could also be called 'Murder on the La Havre Express'. This film noir precursor is based on an Emile Zola novel. A wealthy man is murdered aboard a train. The main characters are a station master and his young wife along with a train engineer with a blood disease that makes him prone to occasional moments of insanity. It was pretty good.
Muriel, or the Time of Return (1963) - 5.5/10 - Hélène sells antiques out of her apartment. She lives with her stepson, Bernard, who is haunted by his time as a soldier in Algeria. Hélène gets a visit from her old lover Alphonse. The film left me cold and I didn't care for the use of music in it either.
My Own Private Idaho (1991) - 6/10 - River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star in this film about a narcoleptic hustler who goes off in search of his mother and is accompanied by his friend. I didn't really like this as much as I expected.
Stories We Tell (2012) - 8/10 - Sarah Polley interviews family members and friends while also directing her father as he narrates the film about her late mother and a family secret. I thought it was pretty interesting.
Elephant (2003) - 8/10 - The film follows a number of students on a typical day in a high school. Two students have plans to disrupt the day by shooting a number of people. I thought this was very well done. It definitely brought back a number of memories from that time period when I was teaching in the post-Columbine era.
Inland Empire (2006) - 3/10 - A very long and weird movie from David Lynch. Not one that I enjoyed very much, but I stuck with it.
Hypocrites (1915) - 6/10 - A morality film with a preacher giving a sermon about hypocrisy that his congregation doesn't appreciate. The film is kind of boring, but noteworthy for the full frontal nudity of a young woman (as Naked Truth) which was shot using double exposure.
F for Fake (1973) - 6.5/10 - Orson Welles hosts this partial documentary about an art forger. It's interesting for a while, but kind of loses steam. The bit at the end wasn't that great.
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967) - 4/10 - Another strange Godard movie. I didn't like the whispering narration at all.
The King of Comedy (1982) - 9/10 - An aspiring comic (Robert De Niro) tries to get close to a popular late night talk show host (Jerry Lewis), hoping to get a spot on his show. He resorts to drastic measures to get his chance. Very nicely done.
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) - 6.5/10 - A man visits a rural village due to a dying relative. Not much really happens through much of the film as the villagers go about their day. There are humorous moments throughout such as his having to get in his car and drive out of the village to a higher elevation every time he gets a call on his cell phone, the woman who has 9 kids one day and 10 kids the next, and the boy who always has to get to school or study for exams. It's not a bad film, but seemed kind of inconsequential, at least on first viewing.
Marnie (1964) - 7/10 - Tippi Hedren stars as Marnie, a young woman who gets hired at companies under a false name, works there for a few months, and then disappears after robbing the company. Sean Connery stars as the owner of a company who hires her, even though he recognizes her from one of her previous jobs. I thought the first half of the film was pretty mediocre, but I liked the second half a lot more.
The Cloud-Capped Star (1960) - 8/10 - Neeta is a hardworking and bright young woman who is getting close to graduating from college. She lives at home with her poor family and the little money she brings in tutoring helps make ends meet. One brother is kind of lazy and practices his singing, hoping to make it big one day. Her younger sister is more interested in having fun and finding a husband. When Neeta's father gets injured, supporting the family falls on Neeta's shoulders and is just the first of a series of misfortunes to affect her. The film is very melodramatic, but also pretty good.
Red Desert (1964) - 6/10 - Monica Vitti stars as a woman filled with anxiety and other mental issues. She is married with a young son, yet feels isolated, apparently due to a recent accident. The film looks great and Vitti does a good job in her role, but I didn't really connect to the story and ended up not enjoying it very much.
Marketa Lazarová (1967) - 6.5/10 - I liked the cinematography and music quite a bit, but the movie could be a bit of a slog to get through at times.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
To Leslie (Michael Morris, 2022) 6/10
Small independent film inadvertently caused a major commotion when the film's director and his actress wife championed their leading lady's performance and urged many actors to watch the film which raised its profile. Many celebrities began to champion the lead performance which eventually resulted in a surprise Best Actress Oscar nomination for Andrea Riseborough. Many people cried foul because it came at the expense of two highly acclaimed performances by black actreses - Viola Davis in "The Woman King" and Danielle Deadwyler in "Till" - both of whom were said to have been "snubbed". The actress gives a no holds barred performance as a former lottery winner who squanders her money on booze and drugs and in the present finds herself evicted from her apartment for not paying the rent. The downbeat screenplay places her repeatedly in harm's way due to her repeated alcohol binges which alienate her son and various friends who try to help her but to no avail. The film has a 1970s Independent Cinema feel to it as it charts the downward spiral of an alcoholic. British actress Riseborough unflinchingly creates this flawed tough West Texan character making her very believable as she battles her demons and seeks redemption.
Living (Oliver Hermanus, 2022) 7/10
Leo Tolstoy's 1886 Russian novella "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" was the inspiration for Akira Kurosawa's classic 1952 Japanese film "Ikiru" which has now been remade in this Oscar nominated adaptation by Kazuo Ishiguro and set in 1950s Britain. The original story translates beautifully as it journeys from Russia to Japan and now to Britain. A buttoned-up senior civil servant (Bill Nighy) in the county Public Works department is diagnosed with a fatal illness and plans to take a lethal overdose of sleeping medicine to end his life. However, things don't go quite according to plan as instead he finds himself helping an insomniac writer (under whose urging the old man lets down his hair - he trades in his Bowler hat for a Trilby and sings a Scottish ditty in a club) and starts a friendship with a young woman who is an ex-colleague from whom he hopes to attain a semblance of his once youthful vigour. The idea of a scandal causes immense consternation to his estranged grasping son and daughter-in-law. He also decides to do some good and pushes his office to redevelop a children's playground in a WWII bomb site. Charming and gentle old fashioned little film beautifully invokes the atmosphere of 1950s Britain and has an understated performance by the great Bill Nighy who, in typical stiff upper lip fashion, brings a quiet dignity to his character in this exquisitely sad film. While it is no masterpiece the film finally does celebrate Nighy's long career with a much deserved Oscar nomination.
The Elephant Whisperers (Kartiki Gonsalves, 2022) 8/10
Life-affirming story about the rehabilitation of a badly injured orphan baby elephant and of its relationship with an indigenous couple who care for it. Set in Mudumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu India this short film is also a celebration of a way of life for the local people and of their close relationship with the surrounding forests and the animals that roam within. A life which is in perfect harmony with nature. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short Film category.
The Whale (Darren Aronofsky, 2022) 7/10
The set up is stagy - it's based on a play - with an apartment used by the characters to open and close doors, walk in and out of rooms, and confront each other over their pathetic sad lives which have them all twisted in a knot. A massively obese writer (Brendan Fraser under a 300 pound prosthetic body suit), mourning the death of his male lover, is on a downward spiral and plans to eat himself to death. To make a living he teaches students via zoom and hopes to leave money saved for his estranged daughter. The film becomes a series of confrontations between him and his smart-ass angry teenage daughter, his equally angry ex-wife (Samantha Morton), a young teenage missionary who belongs to a Christian cult, and his late lover's plain-talking sister (Hong Chau) who is his nurse and confidante. Herman Melville's story about Moby Dick is an in-your-face presence throughout. Moving performance by Fraser is complimented by Chau's acerbic turn as the tough but sympathetic companion. Aronofsky ends the film on a highly operatic tone which seems fitting as it provides a lot of dignity to the main character and to his plight involving shame and guilt. Fraser, Chau and the film's makeup design have been nominated for the Academy Award.
Gulmohar (Rahul V. Chittella, 2023) 6/10
A matriarch (Sharmila Tagore) of a large joint family announces that she has sold their family home - "Gulmohar" - and she is moving alone to her new home in Pondicherry. Her son (Manoj Bajpayee) reacts badly to the news and gradually the whole family - including the help - find that long-hidden secrets suddenly erupt amidst the mother's chaotic announcement. Chittella tries to give his film the same vibe as his mentor Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding", but a number of the issues dealt with in the screenplay seem half baked and don't ring true. Fractured relationships, complex emotions and healing are part and parcel of the screenplay which juggles a huge set of characters. At the center is the graceful presence of lovely Sharmila Tagore making a return to the screen after over a decade. The film soars whenever she is on screen and her sympathetic and very modern take on a sensitive issue related to her grandaughter is smartly handled with a nod to her own planned lifestyle change neatly packaged for her twilight years. Watch this to see La Tagore at her best.
Small independent film inadvertently caused a major commotion when the film's director and his actress wife championed their leading lady's performance and urged many actors to watch the film which raised its profile. Many celebrities began to champion the lead performance which eventually resulted in a surprise Best Actress Oscar nomination for Andrea Riseborough. Many people cried foul because it came at the expense of two highly acclaimed performances by black actreses - Viola Davis in "The Woman King" and Danielle Deadwyler in "Till" - both of whom were said to have been "snubbed". The actress gives a no holds barred performance as a former lottery winner who squanders her money on booze and drugs and in the present finds herself evicted from her apartment for not paying the rent. The downbeat screenplay places her repeatedly in harm's way due to her repeated alcohol binges which alienate her son and various friends who try to help her but to no avail. The film has a 1970s Independent Cinema feel to it as it charts the downward spiral of an alcoholic. British actress Riseborough unflinchingly creates this flawed tough West Texan character making her very believable as she battles her demons and seeks redemption.
Living (Oliver Hermanus, 2022) 7/10
Leo Tolstoy's 1886 Russian novella "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" was the inspiration for Akira Kurosawa's classic 1952 Japanese film "Ikiru" which has now been remade in this Oscar nominated adaptation by Kazuo Ishiguro and set in 1950s Britain. The original story translates beautifully as it journeys from Russia to Japan and now to Britain. A buttoned-up senior civil servant (Bill Nighy) in the county Public Works department is diagnosed with a fatal illness and plans to take a lethal overdose of sleeping medicine to end his life. However, things don't go quite according to plan as instead he finds himself helping an insomniac writer (under whose urging the old man lets down his hair - he trades in his Bowler hat for a Trilby and sings a Scottish ditty in a club) and starts a friendship with a young woman who is an ex-colleague from whom he hopes to attain a semblance of his once youthful vigour. The idea of a scandal causes immense consternation to his estranged grasping son and daughter-in-law. He also decides to do some good and pushes his office to redevelop a children's playground in a WWII bomb site. Charming and gentle old fashioned little film beautifully invokes the atmosphere of 1950s Britain and has an understated performance by the great Bill Nighy who, in typical stiff upper lip fashion, brings a quiet dignity to his character in this exquisitely sad film. While it is no masterpiece the film finally does celebrate Nighy's long career with a much deserved Oscar nomination.
The Elephant Whisperers (Kartiki Gonsalves, 2022) 8/10
Life-affirming story about the rehabilitation of a badly injured orphan baby elephant and of its relationship with an indigenous couple who care for it. Set in Mudumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu India this short film is also a celebration of a way of life for the local people and of their close relationship with the surrounding forests and the animals that roam within. A life which is in perfect harmony with nature. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short Film category.
The Whale (Darren Aronofsky, 2022) 7/10
The set up is stagy - it's based on a play - with an apartment used by the characters to open and close doors, walk in and out of rooms, and confront each other over their pathetic sad lives which have them all twisted in a knot. A massively obese writer (Brendan Fraser under a 300 pound prosthetic body suit), mourning the death of his male lover, is on a downward spiral and plans to eat himself to death. To make a living he teaches students via zoom and hopes to leave money saved for his estranged daughter. The film becomes a series of confrontations between him and his smart-ass angry teenage daughter, his equally angry ex-wife (Samantha Morton), a young teenage missionary who belongs to a Christian cult, and his late lover's plain-talking sister (Hong Chau) who is his nurse and confidante. Herman Melville's story about Moby Dick is an in-your-face presence throughout. Moving performance by Fraser is complimented by Chau's acerbic turn as the tough but sympathetic companion. Aronofsky ends the film on a highly operatic tone which seems fitting as it provides a lot of dignity to the main character and to his plight involving shame and guilt. Fraser, Chau and the film's makeup design have been nominated for the Academy Award.
Gulmohar (Rahul V. Chittella, 2023) 6/10
A matriarch (Sharmila Tagore) of a large joint family announces that she has sold their family home - "Gulmohar" - and she is moving alone to her new home in Pondicherry. Her son (Manoj Bajpayee) reacts badly to the news and gradually the whole family - including the help - find that long-hidden secrets suddenly erupt amidst the mother's chaotic announcement. Chittella tries to give his film the same vibe as his mentor Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding", but a number of the issues dealt with in the screenplay seem half baked and don't ring true. Fractured relationships, complex emotions and healing are part and parcel of the screenplay which juggles a huge set of characters. At the center is the graceful presence of lovely Sharmila Tagore making a return to the screen after over a decade. The film soars whenever she is on screen and her sympathetic and very modern take on a sensitive issue related to her grandaughter is smartly handled with a nod to her own planned lifestyle change neatly packaged for her twilight years. Watch this to see La Tagore at her best.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Flowers of St. Francis (1950) - 6/10 - Nine vignettes are shown to illustrate the teachings of St. Francis. There are some nice visuals here and a bit of humor now and then, but overall these didn't do much for me.
Flowers of Shanghai (1998) - 6.5/10 - The film follows a few courtesans at various brothels along with their wealthy patrons in late 1800s Shanghai. The patrons buy things for the courtesans and might get them out of the life by paying off their debts or marrying them. The costumes and settings were pretty good, but I found the story to be kind of dull for the most part.
Nazarin (1959) - 8/10 - A Catholic priest lives in a poor inn among his flock. He gives away what money and possessions he has to those in need. After helping a prostitute who may have killed another woman, he is forced to leave and wander the countryside, working or begging for food. I liked this movie a lot, especially the first 2/3 or so of the film.
Masculin Féminin (1966) - 7.5/10 - Paul is interested in political movements, including writing graffiti against the Vietnam War. Madeleine is working toward becoming a pop singer. They begin a relationship that has its ups and downs. The film has plenty of long conversations on a variety of topics between Paul, Madeleine, and their friends. I still found the film enjoyable and interesting, though.
Warrendale (1952) - 7.5/10 - This documentary looks in on the daily lives of the people at a group home for emotionally disturbed children in Ontario. The facility used some experimental techniques such as holding and bottle feeding that were seen by some as controversial. I thought it was pretty good, though I did start to lose interest during the last third of the film.
Walkabout (1971) - 9/10 - A teenage girl and her younger brother are stranded in the Outback with limited supplies. They try to make their way back to civilization and are aided by an Aboriginal boy who is on his walkabout. Nicely acted with excellent cinematography and an engaging story.
Wake in Fright (1971) - 6.5/10 - A schoolteacher in a small remote town heads for Sydney for the holidays, but gets stuck in a cruel mining town instead. This seems to be a popular film, but I didn't really like it much. Perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for it. The schoolteacher should really lay off the booze.
Naked (1993) - 4/10 - I know that this film has its fans, but I didn't care for it much at all.
The Sacrifice (1986) - 6.5/10 - Family and friends gather for the birthday of an actor turned journalist. During the gathering, war is announced with a strong possibility of nuclear annihilation. The film is shot very and well and like other Tarkovsky films, there are things that I like in the film, but am not a big fan of the whole.
Las Niñas (2020) - 8/10 - Celia is an 11 year old girl who attends a strict Catholic school in Spain in 1992. She is on the verge of adolescence and lives with her single mother who has to work hard and often to pay the bills. A new girl transfers in from Barcelona and Celia befriends her. This new friendship also starts Celia on the road to questioning the rules and values that are commonplace in her life. I enjoyed the film a lot, though some might be put off by the long stretches where not much of consequence seems to happen. However, I think that a lot happens during those periods, even if it is setting the mood or giving insight into Celia's life. There are some questions raised about family history that aren't answered, but life can be messy, too. The girl who played Celia was excellent.
Turn Me On, Dammit! (2011) - 7.5/10 - Alma is a horny 15 year old girl who lives with her mother in a small Norwegian town that she and her friends can't wait to leave. She regularly calls a phone sex number and fantasizes about a neighbor boy and many other people as well. I wasn't sure whether I would really like this film going in to it, but thought it was pretty funny.
La Notte (1961) - 7/10 - A married couple spends a day visiting an old friend, walking around various parts of the city, and attending a party. Sometimes they are together, sometimes apart. The two each seem tired of life, either in general or just as a married couple, and at times seem to be going through the motions. He flirts with several women and she seems too listless to care. This is a good movie, though I'll admit to being bored with it at times.
The Passenger (1975) - 8/10 - Jack Nicholson is a journalist working on a story in northern Africa. He runs into a few problems and when the man in the neighboring room of his hotel suddenly dies, he assumes the other man's identity. He soon discovers that the man was an arms dealer, though, and this complicates things. Nicholson is pretty good here as expected.
The Thin Blue Line (1988) - 8/10 - This documentary is an in-depth look at the case of a man who was wrongfully convicted of murdering a police officer despite little in the way of credible evidence against him. It's pretty well done.
Flowers of Shanghai (1998) - 6.5/10 - The film follows a few courtesans at various brothels along with their wealthy patrons in late 1800s Shanghai. The patrons buy things for the courtesans and might get them out of the life by paying off their debts or marrying them. The costumes and settings were pretty good, but I found the story to be kind of dull for the most part.
Nazarin (1959) - 8/10 - A Catholic priest lives in a poor inn among his flock. He gives away what money and possessions he has to those in need. After helping a prostitute who may have killed another woman, he is forced to leave and wander the countryside, working or begging for food. I liked this movie a lot, especially the first 2/3 or so of the film.
Masculin Féminin (1966) - 7.5/10 - Paul is interested in political movements, including writing graffiti against the Vietnam War. Madeleine is working toward becoming a pop singer. They begin a relationship that has its ups and downs. The film has plenty of long conversations on a variety of topics between Paul, Madeleine, and their friends. I still found the film enjoyable and interesting, though.
Warrendale (1952) - 7.5/10 - This documentary looks in on the daily lives of the people at a group home for emotionally disturbed children in Ontario. The facility used some experimental techniques such as holding and bottle feeding that were seen by some as controversial. I thought it was pretty good, though I did start to lose interest during the last third of the film.
Walkabout (1971) - 9/10 - A teenage girl and her younger brother are stranded in the Outback with limited supplies. They try to make their way back to civilization and are aided by an Aboriginal boy who is on his walkabout. Nicely acted with excellent cinematography and an engaging story.
Wake in Fright (1971) - 6.5/10 - A schoolteacher in a small remote town heads for Sydney for the holidays, but gets stuck in a cruel mining town instead. This seems to be a popular film, but I didn't really like it much. Perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for it. The schoolteacher should really lay off the booze.
Naked (1993) - 4/10 - I know that this film has its fans, but I didn't care for it much at all.
The Sacrifice (1986) - 6.5/10 - Family and friends gather for the birthday of an actor turned journalist. During the gathering, war is announced with a strong possibility of nuclear annihilation. The film is shot very and well and like other Tarkovsky films, there are things that I like in the film, but am not a big fan of the whole.
Las Niñas (2020) - 8/10 - Celia is an 11 year old girl who attends a strict Catholic school in Spain in 1992. She is on the verge of adolescence and lives with her single mother who has to work hard and often to pay the bills. A new girl transfers in from Barcelona and Celia befriends her. This new friendship also starts Celia on the road to questioning the rules and values that are commonplace in her life. I enjoyed the film a lot, though some might be put off by the long stretches where not much of consequence seems to happen. However, I think that a lot happens during those periods, even if it is setting the mood or giving insight into Celia's life. There are some questions raised about family history that aren't answered, but life can be messy, too. The girl who played Celia was excellent.
Turn Me On, Dammit! (2011) - 7.5/10 - Alma is a horny 15 year old girl who lives with her mother in a small Norwegian town that she and her friends can't wait to leave. She regularly calls a phone sex number and fantasizes about a neighbor boy and many other people as well. I wasn't sure whether I would really like this film going in to it, but thought it was pretty funny.
La Notte (1961) - 7/10 - A married couple spends a day visiting an old friend, walking around various parts of the city, and attending a party. Sometimes they are together, sometimes apart. The two each seem tired of life, either in general or just as a married couple, and at times seem to be going through the motions. He flirts with several women and she seems too listless to care. This is a good movie, though I'll admit to being bored with it at times.
The Passenger (1975) - 8/10 - Jack Nicholson is a journalist working on a story in northern Africa. He runs into a few problems and when the man in the neighboring room of his hotel suddenly dies, he assumes the other man's identity. He soon discovers that the man was an arms dealer, though, and this complicates things. Nicholson is pretty good here as expected.
The Thin Blue Line (1988) - 8/10 - This documentary is an in-depth look at the case of a man who was wrongfully convicted of murdering a police officer despite little in the way of credible evidence against him. It's pretty well done.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Departures (Yojiro Takita, 2008) 9/10
The Japanese stigma against people working with dead bodies makes a newly married man ashamed about his new job as an encoffinment supervisor cleaning and preparing dead bodies before they are put in coffins in a ceremonial or ritualistic manner. He hides the true nature of it from his wife but over time becomes comfortable with his profession and completes a number of assignments while experiencing the gratitude of the families of the deceased. When he hears about his estranged father's death he is at first angry and refuses to deal with his father's body. However, he relents and insists on dressing the body for the funeral himself. The film's foremost theme focuses mainly on the humanity that death brings to the surface and how it strengthens family bonds. This subject of 'encoffinment' was a highly unusual subject for a Japanese film. Despite the importance of death rituals in traditional Japanese culture the subject is considered unclean as everything related to death is thought to be a source of defilement. Despite a cultural shift in the last hundred years or so, the stigma of death still has considerable force within Japanese society, and discrimination against the untouchables has continued. For a subject as morbid as this the screenplay is refreshingly humorous but also extremely poignant. There is so much in Japanese culture that is different yet I could see many similarities as well to our culture here in Pakistan. Beautifully shot on location in the countryside and the film has a great classical soundtrack. Deserved the Oscar it won in the foreign film category.
The Double Man (Franklin W. Schaffner, 1967) 6/10
Minor spy thriller set in an Austrian ski resort where CIA agent (Yul Brynner) arrives to solve the mystery of his son's death. Is it a plot by a Russian agent (Anton Diffring) to get him there and substitute a double? Is his former friend, now a retired agent (Clive Revill), involved in the murder or does the sexy party girl (Britt Ekland) have something to hide - she accompanied the boy and two strangers on the cable car on the fateful day when the teenager fell down a deadly slope. The film almost resembles a James Bond thriller with Brynner playing it tough and deadpan while trusting nobody. The film's snowy on-location filming is the real highlight.
Lacombe, Lucien (Louis Malle, 1974) 6/10
Malle brings to light the underground movement in France during WWII that was persecuting its own people and working to undermine the Allied invasion and the Resistance. An indifferent teenage country bumpkin (Pierre Blaise - an amateur actor) wants to join the Resistance but is refused by the local leader - a school teacher - for being too young. So he stumbles into a local hotel which is the headquarters of the Carlingue - french citizens who work for the Gestapo. Under the influence of alcohol he casually betrays the school teacher who is tortured and is soon brandishing a gun and starts enjoying the power and money his position as an extortionist brings him. When he falls in love with the daughter (Aurore Clément) of a sophisticated jewish tailor (Holger Löwenadler) he finds himself protecting the very people he has been told to target by his superiors. The film is a series of vignettes with Malle implying a lot of the dramatic moments - the shooting of a couple and a dog, sex between the two teenagers, an attack on the hotel - where we are merely shown the aftermath with the actors placed on the ground and shown as having been shot or standing and lying naked after making love. And he has Blaise walk through the film or stand still with a complete deadpan expression on his face like a model on the catwalk - the young actor died the following year in a car crash. The film highlights how indifferent people could be about the suffering they caused in their pursuit for position or wealth during wartime. Beautifully shot film by Tonino Delli Colli is overlong and begins to drag towards the end. The film was nominated for an Academy award in the foreign film category.
Empire of Light (Sam Mendes, 2022) 6/10
They keep saying they don't write movies for actresses over the age of forty. Well Olivia Colman seems to be doing rather well for herself as she gets to play characters on screen who have a lot going for them in terms of drama and comedy. Colman, who is blessed with looks that are so far away from the likes of Vivien Leigh or Grace Kelly, has the sheer luck of looking like one of us and so fits into any mould on screen. Here she not only gets to bonk with Colin Firth but also with a much younger black man while secretly suffering from bipolar disorder. The lady clearly has her hands full - gets not only to have her cake but eat it too. Mendes' film, set in a small coastal town in Kent, explores humans connecting with each other. A lonely duty manager (Olivia Colman) at a palatial two-screen Art Deco cinema, struggling with bipolar disorder, is having extramarital sex with her boss (Colin Firth), and connects emotionally with another outcast in town - a much younger black man (Michael Ward) who joins her as an employee at the cinema who faces racism as is wont when you live anywhere amongst the majority white. The screenplay shines during smaller moments between the characters - her interaction with her friend's mother, a proud black nurse, who is sympathetic but guarded about their relationship, with the cinema's sad projectionist (Toby Jones) and with another sympathetic work colleague (Tom Brooke). The screenplay badly falters when it takes on the additional strokes on race (rampaging skinheads) and mental illness making the film seem rather jumbled - too much seems to be going on when it was really not necessary. There is also not much clarity if the film is about Colman's character or the one played by Ward. Both are sharply drawn individually but together don't seem like a cohesive whole. Colman is of course mesmerizing to watch as she goes through an assortment of emotions and the film is beautifully shot by Roger Deakins (the film's sole Oscar nominee). The gorgeous cinema and the films on show - Stir Crazy, Chariots of Fire, Raging Bull, Being There - immediately invoke the time and period (1980-81) the story is set in.
Boîte noire / Black Box (Yann Gozlan, 2021) 8/10
Fascinating look at how a black box is deciphered after a plane crash. An expert black box analyst (Pierre Niney) is given the task to investigate a mysterious plane crash in the Alps while flying from Paris to Dubai. The plane was brand new and went down in a strange manner with the voices of the pilots on the black box breaking down. The more he listens to the recording the more he begins to realise there is a cover up and the black box has been doctored. Riveting thriller is just as dark as the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s - The Parralax View (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), and All the President's Men (1976) - as the film reaches a fever pitch of twists and dangerous turns with the analyst's life in serious danger. Niney superbly handles the emotional complexities of his role as he gradually begins to realise that the airline is hiding something and hell bent on providing a false explanation for the crash. The film received César nominations for Niney, the film's screenplay, editing, score and the outstanding sound design.
The Japanese stigma against people working with dead bodies makes a newly married man ashamed about his new job as an encoffinment supervisor cleaning and preparing dead bodies before they are put in coffins in a ceremonial or ritualistic manner. He hides the true nature of it from his wife but over time becomes comfortable with his profession and completes a number of assignments while experiencing the gratitude of the families of the deceased. When he hears about his estranged father's death he is at first angry and refuses to deal with his father's body. However, he relents and insists on dressing the body for the funeral himself. The film's foremost theme focuses mainly on the humanity that death brings to the surface and how it strengthens family bonds. This subject of 'encoffinment' was a highly unusual subject for a Japanese film. Despite the importance of death rituals in traditional Japanese culture the subject is considered unclean as everything related to death is thought to be a source of defilement. Despite a cultural shift in the last hundred years or so, the stigma of death still has considerable force within Japanese society, and discrimination against the untouchables has continued. For a subject as morbid as this the screenplay is refreshingly humorous but also extremely poignant. There is so much in Japanese culture that is different yet I could see many similarities as well to our culture here in Pakistan. Beautifully shot on location in the countryside and the film has a great classical soundtrack. Deserved the Oscar it won in the foreign film category.
The Double Man (Franklin W. Schaffner, 1967) 6/10
Minor spy thriller set in an Austrian ski resort where CIA agent (Yul Brynner) arrives to solve the mystery of his son's death. Is it a plot by a Russian agent (Anton Diffring) to get him there and substitute a double? Is his former friend, now a retired agent (Clive Revill), involved in the murder or does the sexy party girl (Britt Ekland) have something to hide - she accompanied the boy and two strangers on the cable car on the fateful day when the teenager fell down a deadly slope. The film almost resembles a James Bond thriller with Brynner playing it tough and deadpan while trusting nobody. The film's snowy on-location filming is the real highlight.
Lacombe, Lucien (Louis Malle, 1974) 6/10
Malle brings to light the underground movement in France during WWII that was persecuting its own people and working to undermine the Allied invasion and the Resistance. An indifferent teenage country bumpkin (Pierre Blaise - an amateur actor) wants to join the Resistance but is refused by the local leader - a school teacher - for being too young. So he stumbles into a local hotel which is the headquarters of the Carlingue - french citizens who work for the Gestapo. Under the influence of alcohol he casually betrays the school teacher who is tortured and is soon brandishing a gun and starts enjoying the power and money his position as an extortionist brings him. When he falls in love with the daughter (Aurore Clément) of a sophisticated jewish tailor (Holger Löwenadler) he finds himself protecting the very people he has been told to target by his superiors. The film is a series of vignettes with Malle implying a lot of the dramatic moments - the shooting of a couple and a dog, sex between the two teenagers, an attack on the hotel - where we are merely shown the aftermath with the actors placed on the ground and shown as having been shot or standing and lying naked after making love. And he has Blaise walk through the film or stand still with a complete deadpan expression on his face like a model on the catwalk - the young actor died the following year in a car crash. The film highlights how indifferent people could be about the suffering they caused in their pursuit for position or wealth during wartime. Beautifully shot film by Tonino Delli Colli is overlong and begins to drag towards the end. The film was nominated for an Academy award in the foreign film category.
Empire of Light (Sam Mendes, 2022) 6/10
They keep saying they don't write movies for actresses over the age of forty. Well Olivia Colman seems to be doing rather well for herself as she gets to play characters on screen who have a lot going for them in terms of drama and comedy. Colman, who is blessed with looks that are so far away from the likes of Vivien Leigh or Grace Kelly, has the sheer luck of looking like one of us and so fits into any mould on screen. Here she not only gets to bonk with Colin Firth but also with a much younger black man while secretly suffering from bipolar disorder. The lady clearly has her hands full - gets not only to have her cake but eat it too. Mendes' film, set in a small coastal town in Kent, explores humans connecting with each other. A lonely duty manager (Olivia Colman) at a palatial two-screen Art Deco cinema, struggling with bipolar disorder, is having extramarital sex with her boss (Colin Firth), and connects emotionally with another outcast in town - a much younger black man (Michael Ward) who joins her as an employee at the cinema who faces racism as is wont when you live anywhere amongst the majority white. The screenplay shines during smaller moments between the characters - her interaction with her friend's mother, a proud black nurse, who is sympathetic but guarded about their relationship, with the cinema's sad projectionist (Toby Jones) and with another sympathetic work colleague (Tom Brooke). The screenplay badly falters when it takes on the additional strokes on race (rampaging skinheads) and mental illness making the film seem rather jumbled - too much seems to be going on when it was really not necessary. There is also not much clarity if the film is about Colman's character or the one played by Ward. Both are sharply drawn individually but together don't seem like a cohesive whole. Colman is of course mesmerizing to watch as she goes through an assortment of emotions and the film is beautifully shot by Roger Deakins (the film's sole Oscar nominee). The gorgeous cinema and the films on show - Stir Crazy, Chariots of Fire, Raging Bull, Being There - immediately invoke the time and period (1980-81) the story is set in.
Boîte noire / Black Box (Yann Gozlan, 2021) 8/10
Fascinating look at how a black box is deciphered after a plane crash. An expert black box analyst (Pierre Niney) is given the task to investigate a mysterious plane crash in the Alps while flying from Paris to Dubai. The plane was brand new and went down in a strange manner with the voices of the pilots on the black box breaking down. The more he listens to the recording the more he begins to realise there is a cover up and the black box has been doctored. Riveting thriller is just as dark as the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s - The Parralax View (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), and All the President's Men (1976) - as the film reaches a fever pitch of twists and dangerous turns with the analyst's life in serious danger. Niney superbly handles the emotional complexities of his role as he gradually begins to realise that the airline is hiding something and hell bent on providing a false explanation for the crash. The film received César nominations for Niney, the film's screenplay, editing, score and the outstanding sound design.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) - 6.5/10 - The film is shot fairly well and I liked the theme music and a few of the scenes, but overall I slightly prefer Satantango even though it is nearly three times the length of this film.
She Said (2022) - 7/10 - This film tells the tale of the New York Times investigation into Harvey Weinstein by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. Zoe Kavan and Carey Mulligan are pretty good in their roles as the reporters. The subject is important and I did like the film, but I think it was missing something and seemed a bit by the numbers at times.
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022) - 7.5/10 - A girl grows up in the marshlands outside of a town. Her mother and siblings leave over time due to the abusive father and then the father leaves. She is left to fend for herself. Years later, she is arrested and put on trial when her former boyfriend is found dead. I've never read the book, but I found the movie to be pretty entertaining.
The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) - 5.5/10 - The film mostly consists of people in period costume performing works composed by J.S. Bach with sporadic narration from his second wife's (fictitious) journal about his life. The film is worth listening to for the classical music if you are in to that at all and I would rate the music as a 9/10, but the narration is kind of tiresome and what acting there is is fairly wooden. As a movie on its own, it's not very good.
Leviathan (2012) - 3/10 - The film takes place on a fishing boat in the North Atlantic. There is a lot of shaky cam and no real dialogue other than a bit of background noise. One person described it as a Brakhage film with added fish. That seems like an apt description.Nine Queens (2000) - 8/10 - A professional con artist meets an amateur con artist and they spend the day going over some of the grifts that they know. An opportunity comes up for them to team up on a con involving counterfeit stamps and they go for it. A number of nice twists and good performances here in an entertaining crime film.
Clandestine Childhood (2011) - 8/10 - Juan is a young boy whose parents and uncle are guerrillas who fled Argentina when the military took over. They return to Argentina in 1979 under assumed names to carry on the fight. Juan at first seems to enjoy the secrets and clandestine behavior, but events make it seem not quite as fun. He also falls in love with a girl at his new school. The film is inspired by the life of the director and is pretty good. The actors do a very nice job, including the boy who played the lead role.
Nine Queens (2000) - 8/10 - A professional con artist meets an amateur con artist and they spend the day going over some of the grifts that they know. An opportunity comes up for them to team up on a con involving counterfeit stamps and they go for it. A number of nice twists and good performances here in an entertaining crime film.
Not Reconciled (1965) - 6/10 - This is a frustrating film that jumps between time periods and parts of a family's history without much in the way of clues or explanation. There were a number of things that I liked and I think that I would have enjoyed the film a lot if it had been made in a more traditional manner rather than the stripped down version that Straub and Huillet went with, but then it wouldn't have been in their style I suppose.
Moonfleet (1955) - 7/10 - In the 1700s, a young boy is sent by his dying mother to the village of Moonfleet and the care of her former lover. The former lover happens to be a man who keeps a respectable facade, but is aligned with smugglers and pirates. I thought it was a decent adventure film and I enjoyed it, though was surprised to see that Fritz Lang directed it.
Pixote (1980) - 8/10 - Pixote is a 10 year old boy who is sent to a juvenile detention facility. Conditions there are poor with rapes, beatings, other abuse, poor food, etc. being prevalent. Eventually, Pixote joins a group of boys who escape the facility and live on the street. Living on the street comes with its own set of challenges, including having to hustle to survive on a daily basis. It's not a very happy film, but it's a good one.
Living (2022) - 7.5/10 - Bill Nighy gives a nice performance in this British adaptation/remake of Ikiru. A civil servant learns that he is dying and it changes his outlook on life for the time he has remaining. It's not as good as Ikiru, but it's still a solid film.
The River (1951) - 8.5/10 - A British family living on an estate next to the Bengal River has four girls and a boy. One of their neighbors has a teenage daughter about the same age as the two oldest girls and they are all friends. The neighbor's American cousin comes to stay with him. He lost a leg during the war and all three of the girls take an interest in him. The use of color during the film is very nice and I also enjoyed the narration which took the form of one of the girls as an adult looking back on that time of her life. We get to see their daily lives and occasional rivalries. I liked the film quite a bit.
Hunger (2008) - 6.5/10 - Steve McQueen's film about IRA member Bobby Sands and the hunger strike he helped lead in prison goes for a minimalist approach in a number of ways. The first half of the film is filled with life in prison, including a lot of violence from the guards and little in the way of explanation. McQueen seems to be going more for the show don't tell approach, except for a nice scene with a priest mid-film. This is effective in its way and I can see why some people might love the film, but it felt a bit lacking to me.
Journey to Italy (1954) - 8/10 - Marital issues come to the forefront when an English couple travels to Italy to sell a house that they inherited from a relative. Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders were each pretty good here.
She Said (2022) - 7/10 - This film tells the tale of the New York Times investigation into Harvey Weinstein by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. Zoe Kavan and Carey Mulligan are pretty good in their roles as the reporters. The subject is important and I did like the film, but I think it was missing something and seemed a bit by the numbers at times.
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022) - 7.5/10 - A girl grows up in the marshlands outside of a town. Her mother and siblings leave over time due to the abusive father and then the father leaves. She is left to fend for herself. Years later, she is arrested and put on trial when her former boyfriend is found dead. I've never read the book, but I found the movie to be pretty entertaining.
The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) - 5.5/10 - The film mostly consists of people in period costume performing works composed by J.S. Bach with sporadic narration from his second wife's (fictitious) journal about his life. The film is worth listening to for the classical music if you are in to that at all and I would rate the music as a 9/10, but the narration is kind of tiresome and what acting there is is fairly wooden. As a movie on its own, it's not very good.
Leviathan (2012) - 3/10 - The film takes place on a fishing boat in the North Atlantic. There is a lot of shaky cam and no real dialogue other than a bit of background noise. One person described it as a Brakhage film with added fish. That seems like an apt description.Nine Queens (2000) - 8/10 - A professional con artist meets an amateur con artist and they spend the day going over some of the grifts that they know. An opportunity comes up for them to team up on a con involving counterfeit stamps and they go for it. A number of nice twists and good performances here in an entertaining crime film.
Clandestine Childhood (2011) - 8/10 - Juan is a young boy whose parents and uncle are guerrillas who fled Argentina when the military took over. They return to Argentina in 1979 under assumed names to carry on the fight. Juan at first seems to enjoy the secrets and clandestine behavior, but events make it seem not quite as fun. He also falls in love with a girl at his new school. The film is inspired by the life of the director and is pretty good. The actors do a very nice job, including the boy who played the lead role.
Nine Queens (2000) - 8/10 - A professional con artist meets an amateur con artist and they spend the day going over some of the grifts that they know. An opportunity comes up for them to team up on a con involving counterfeit stamps and they go for it. A number of nice twists and good performances here in an entertaining crime film.
Not Reconciled (1965) - 6/10 - This is a frustrating film that jumps between time periods and parts of a family's history without much in the way of clues or explanation. There were a number of things that I liked and I think that I would have enjoyed the film a lot if it had been made in a more traditional manner rather than the stripped down version that Straub and Huillet went with, but then it wouldn't have been in their style I suppose.
Moonfleet (1955) - 7/10 - In the 1700s, a young boy is sent by his dying mother to the village of Moonfleet and the care of her former lover. The former lover happens to be a man who keeps a respectable facade, but is aligned with smugglers and pirates. I thought it was a decent adventure film and I enjoyed it, though was surprised to see that Fritz Lang directed it.
Pixote (1980) - 8/10 - Pixote is a 10 year old boy who is sent to a juvenile detention facility. Conditions there are poor with rapes, beatings, other abuse, poor food, etc. being prevalent. Eventually, Pixote joins a group of boys who escape the facility and live on the street. Living on the street comes with its own set of challenges, including having to hustle to survive on a daily basis. It's not a very happy film, but it's a good one.
Living (2022) - 7.5/10 - Bill Nighy gives a nice performance in this British adaptation/remake of Ikiru. A civil servant learns that he is dying and it changes his outlook on life for the time he has remaining. It's not as good as Ikiru, but it's still a solid film.
The River (1951) - 8.5/10 - A British family living on an estate next to the Bengal River has four girls and a boy. One of their neighbors has a teenage daughter about the same age as the two oldest girls and they are all friends. The neighbor's American cousin comes to stay with him. He lost a leg during the war and all three of the girls take an interest in him. The use of color during the film is very nice and I also enjoyed the narration which took the form of one of the girls as an adult looking back on that time of her life. We get to see their daily lives and occasional rivalries. I liked the film quite a bit.
Hunger (2008) - 6.5/10 - Steve McQueen's film about IRA member Bobby Sands and the hunger strike he helped lead in prison goes for a minimalist approach in a number of ways. The first half of the film is filled with life in prison, including a lot of violence from the guards and little in the way of explanation. McQueen seems to be going more for the show don't tell approach, except for a nice scene with a priest mid-film. This is effective in its way and I can see why some people might love the film, but it felt a bit lacking to me.
Journey to Italy (1954) - 8/10 - Marital issues come to the forefront when an English couple travels to Italy to sell a house that they inherited from a relative. Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders were each pretty good here.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Code Name: Tiranga (Ribhu Dasgupta, 2022) 4/10
Routine spy thriller has the obligatory Muslim protagonist called Omar - not sure if he was ISI or Al-Qaida, but this being a Bollywood film he must be a deadly combo of both. And a kick-ass female RAW agent (Parineeti Chopra) who traipses all over Afghanisran and Turkey in pursuit. The set up allows Chopra countless action oriented sequences where she does what is usually the ambit of the male hero in a film. Typical Bollywood patriotic propaganda to counteract all that is not right in India under the rule of PM Modi.
Treason (Louise Hooper & Sarah O'Gorman, 2022) 7/10
When the head of MI6 (Ciarán Hinds) is hospitalised after being poisoned, his Deputy Chief (Charlie Cox) temporarily gets the top position. However, matters take an alarming turn when the attacker (Olga Kurylenko) turns out to be an ex-Russian spy and his former lover who had a hand in getting him to rise swiftly up the ladder at British Intelligence. In return she requests him to provide information relating to certain covert activities they were both involved in Baku years before. When his daughter gets kidnapped and his wife (Oona Chaplin) is approached by a friend in the CIA who hints at her husband's possible treason he has to race against time to prove his innocence. Frentic espionage thriller has its moments despite major potholes in the plot. Cox is totally miscast and comes across as a most ineffectual replacement head of MI6 without an iota of ambition. When the screenplay requires him to hold a gun and perform in a few action sequences he stumbles around almost like a child. Both Hinds, as the reptilian head of the Secret Service, and Alex Kingston as a hapless politician, come off best.
Cirkus (Rohit Shetty, 2022) 1/10
Unfunny, loud, obnoxious film is a remake of Gulzar's 1982 comedy classic "Angoor" which in turn was an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play "The Comedy of Errors". Two sets of identical twins mixed up at birth encounter each other as adults causing predictable confusion. Stylized film - with garish production design - has Ranveer Singh and Varun Sharma as the twins with the former romancing Pooja Hegde and Jacqueline Fernandez. They even pull out Johnny Lever from mothballs to provide his bug-eyed shtick while Sanjay Mishra, who usually plays in serious critically acclaimed fare, tries to outdo even Lever in the overacting stakes. A horrible mess and a boxoffice bomb all the more shocking that it came from the Rohit Shetty stable. The film's only saving grace is the soundtrack of old Hindi hit songs along with an item number - "Current Laga Re" - performed by the star's superstar wife Deepika Padukone.
Firecreek (Vincent McEveety, 1968) 5/10
Lackadaisical farmer and part-time sheriff (James Stewart) finds himself in "High Noon" territory - all the townfolk refuse to come to his aid when a group of outlaws (Jack Elam, Gary Lockwood, James Best) suddenly descend on them. Their leader (Henry Fonda), who appears to have some humanity, ignores his gang's vicious antics and seems more keen in pursuing a local widow (Inger Stevens). When the men hang a stable boy the farmer decides to take on the entire gang. This was the first screen teaming of buddies Stewart & Fonda - they had appeared briefly together once many years before - but here played adversaries. While Stewart is in his full-on Anthony Mann mode, Fonda is surprisingly very subdued. Slow film takes its time to get moving but the action packed showdown shows Stewart at his best.
Cell (Todd Williams, 2016) 6/10
Science fiction zombie thriller, based on the novel by Stephen King, is really not as bad as the bum rap it got from critics. Granted there is nothing new here but the two stars return to this author's work after previously co-starring in the eerie 2007 film "1408". A mysterious signal gets broadcast over the global cell network which results in every human who happened to be talking on a cell phone at that precise instance to turn into a vicious flesh eating zombie. A graphic novel artist (John Cusack), estranged from his family, tries desperately to reach them when the zombie pandemic breaks out. Accompanying him are a train conductor (Samuel L. Jackson) and a few survivors they meet up on the way. Trying to avoid flocks of infected humans they meet and lose assorted people on the way. Grim, gloomy tale of the apocalypse.
The Samaritan (David Weaver, 2012) 8/10
Superb neo-noir sadly decides to go the route of Old Hollywood where the transgressor always paid for his deeds at the end but then that adheres to the noir formula here. A con man (Samuel L. Jackson), out of jail after serving a 25-year murder sentence, decides to go straight. He had killed his best friend after a grift went wrong and his only chance of survival was murder. Into his life comes the son (Luke Kirby) of his friend whom he had killed and who now proposes a fool proof grift against a vicious businessman (Tom Wilkinson). When he refuses to get involved he is blackmailed into going through with the grift which also involves a drug-addicted prostitute (an intensely captivating Ruth Negga). Grim, pulpy story is anchored by Jackson who is rock solid as the philosophical ex-con trying to find redemption.
The Long Kiss Goodnight (Renny Harlin, 1996) 6/10
Small-town schoolteacher (Geena Davis) with a daughter, boyfriend and amnesia suddenly finds herself in over her head when to her surprise she manages to ruthlessly kill an escaped prisoner who arrives at her doorstep and tries to kill her. So begins her journey to try and solve her mysterious past with an ineffectual, down-on-his-luck private investigator (Samuel L. Jackson) along for the ride. With nobody around to trust and pursued by a bunch of gun and knife wielding thugs who seem to know her as a dangerous CIA assassin she finds herself fighting for her life while trying to save her kidnapped daughter by a former adversary who plans to detonate a bomb. Geena Davis is badly miscast in this over-the-top action thriller - the actress has too sweet a personality to be playing this tough character. The role calls out for someone like Sigourney Weaver who would have been more suited. Jackson, however, is great fun as her wisecracking partner. And the less said about that extremely annoying child who stops the action dead in its tracks each time she appears. Lots of loud action set pieces with a screenplay that has a combination of potholes and convenient coincidences. Nevertheless it's fun in a mindless way.
2012 (Roland Emmerich, 2009) 6/10
Doomsday is at hand yet humans are prepared to be one up on God by preparing arks to be populated by the rich and important heads of government - QEII can be seen scurrying on board with her corgis. In the midst of all the chaos a frustrated writer (John Cusack) struggles to keep alive his ex-wife (Amanda Peet), their two kids and her boyfriend (Tom McCarthy) who conveniently knows how to pilot a plane. Flailing around are the usual stock characters - the President of the United States (Danny Glover), his daughter (Thandiwe Newton), the evil Chief of Staff (Oliver Platt), a geologist (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an Indian astrophysicist (Jimi Mistry) who first discovers the shit that is warming up the earth's core, a Conspiracy theorist (Woody Harrelson in full-on mad mode), and a jazz singer (George Segal). CGI creates all the spectacular destruction as familiar cities collapse while some cast members fly through the debris and end up on the ark which gets hit by a tidal wave knocking it against Mount Everest. Completely over-the-top situations become a roller coaster ride of thrills. Put your thinking cap away, sit back, munch your popcorn and watch the world end.
Routine spy thriller has the obligatory Muslim protagonist called Omar - not sure if he was ISI or Al-Qaida, but this being a Bollywood film he must be a deadly combo of both. And a kick-ass female RAW agent (Parineeti Chopra) who traipses all over Afghanisran and Turkey in pursuit. The set up allows Chopra countless action oriented sequences where she does what is usually the ambit of the male hero in a film. Typical Bollywood patriotic propaganda to counteract all that is not right in India under the rule of PM Modi.
Treason (Louise Hooper & Sarah O'Gorman, 2022) 7/10
When the head of MI6 (Ciarán Hinds) is hospitalised after being poisoned, his Deputy Chief (Charlie Cox) temporarily gets the top position. However, matters take an alarming turn when the attacker (Olga Kurylenko) turns out to be an ex-Russian spy and his former lover who had a hand in getting him to rise swiftly up the ladder at British Intelligence. In return she requests him to provide information relating to certain covert activities they were both involved in Baku years before. When his daughter gets kidnapped and his wife (Oona Chaplin) is approached by a friend in the CIA who hints at her husband's possible treason he has to race against time to prove his innocence. Frentic espionage thriller has its moments despite major potholes in the plot. Cox is totally miscast and comes across as a most ineffectual replacement head of MI6 without an iota of ambition. When the screenplay requires him to hold a gun and perform in a few action sequences he stumbles around almost like a child. Both Hinds, as the reptilian head of the Secret Service, and Alex Kingston as a hapless politician, come off best.
Cirkus (Rohit Shetty, 2022) 1/10
Unfunny, loud, obnoxious film is a remake of Gulzar's 1982 comedy classic "Angoor" which in turn was an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play "The Comedy of Errors". Two sets of identical twins mixed up at birth encounter each other as adults causing predictable confusion. Stylized film - with garish production design - has Ranveer Singh and Varun Sharma as the twins with the former romancing Pooja Hegde and Jacqueline Fernandez. They even pull out Johnny Lever from mothballs to provide his bug-eyed shtick while Sanjay Mishra, who usually plays in serious critically acclaimed fare, tries to outdo even Lever in the overacting stakes. A horrible mess and a boxoffice bomb all the more shocking that it came from the Rohit Shetty stable. The film's only saving grace is the soundtrack of old Hindi hit songs along with an item number - "Current Laga Re" - performed by the star's superstar wife Deepika Padukone.
Firecreek (Vincent McEveety, 1968) 5/10
Lackadaisical farmer and part-time sheriff (James Stewart) finds himself in "High Noon" territory - all the townfolk refuse to come to his aid when a group of outlaws (Jack Elam, Gary Lockwood, James Best) suddenly descend on them. Their leader (Henry Fonda), who appears to have some humanity, ignores his gang's vicious antics and seems more keen in pursuing a local widow (Inger Stevens). When the men hang a stable boy the farmer decides to take on the entire gang. This was the first screen teaming of buddies Stewart & Fonda - they had appeared briefly together once many years before - but here played adversaries. While Stewart is in his full-on Anthony Mann mode, Fonda is surprisingly very subdued. Slow film takes its time to get moving but the action packed showdown shows Stewart at his best.
Cell (Todd Williams, 2016) 6/10
Science fiction zombie thriller, based on the novel by Stephen King, is really not as bad as the bum rap it got from critics. Granted there is nothing new here but the two stars return to this author's work after previously co-starring in the eerie 2007 film "1408". A mysterious signal gets broadcast over the global cell network which results in every human who happened to be talking on a cell phone at that precise instance to turn into a vicious flesh eating zombie. A graphic novel artist (John Cusack), estranged from his family, tries desperately to reach them when the zombie pandemic breaks out. Accompanying him are a train conductor (Samuel L. Jackson) and a few survivors they meet up on the way. Trying to avoid flocks of infected humans they meet and lose assorted people on the way. Grim, gloomy tale of the apocalypse.
The Samaritan (David Weaver, 2012) 8/10
Superb neo-noir sadly decides to go the route of Old Hollywood where the transgressor always paid for his deeds at the end but then that adheres to the noir formula here. A con man (Samuel L. Jackson), out of jail after serving a 25-year murder sentence, decides to go straight. He had killed his best friend after a grift went wrong and his only chance of survival was murder. Into his life comes the son (Luke Kirby) of his friend whom he had killed and who now proposes a fool proof grift against a vicious businessman (Tom Wilkinson). When he refuses to get involved he is blackmailed into going through with the grift which also involves a drug-addicted prostitute (an intensely captivating Ruth Negga). Grim, pulpy story is anchored by Jackson who is rock solid as the philosophical ex-con trying to find redemption.
The Long Kiss Goodnight (Renny Harlin, 1996) 6/10
Small-town schoolteacher (Geena Davis) with a daughter, boyfriend and amnesia suddenly finds herself in over her head when to her surprise she manages to ruthlessly kill an escaped prisoner who arrives at her doorstep and tries to kill her. So begins her journey to try and solve her mysterious past with an ineffectual, down-on-his-luck private investigator (Samuel L. Jackson) along for the ride. With nobody around to trust and pursued by a bunch of gun and knife wielding thugs who seem to know her as a dangerous CIA assassin she finds herself fighting for her life while trying to save her kidnapped daughter by a former adversary who plans to detonate a bomb. Geena Davis is badly miscast in this over-the-top action thriller - the actress has too sweet a personality to be playing this tough character. The role calls out for someone like Sigourney Weaver who would have been more suited. Jackson, however, is great fun as her wisecracking partner. And the less said about that extremely annoying child who stops the action dead in its tracks each time she appears. Lots of loud action set pieces with a screenplay that has a combination of potholes and convenient coincidences. Nevertheless it's fun in a mindless way.
2012 (Roland Emmerich, 2009) 6/10
Doomsday is at hand yet humans are prepared to be one up on God by preparing arks to be populated by the rich and important heads of government - QEII can be seen scurrying on board with her corgis. In the midst of all the chaos a frustrated writer (John Cusack) struggles to keep alive his ex-wife (Amanda Peet), their two kids and her boyfriend (Tom McCarthy) who conveniently knows how to pilot a plane. Flailing around are the usual stock characters - the President of the United States (Danny Glover), his daughter (Thandiwe Newton), the evil Chief of Staff (Oliver Platt), a geologist (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an Indian astrophysicist (Jimi Mistry) who first discovers the shit that is warming up the earth's core, a Conspiracy theorist (Woody Harrelson in full-on mad mode), and a jazz singer (George Segal). CGI creates all the spectacular destruction as familiar cities collapse while some cast members fly through the debris and end up on the ark which gets hit by a tidal wave knocking it against Mount Everest. Completely over-the-top situations become a roller coaster ride of thrills. Put your thinking cap away, sit back, munch your popcorn and watch the world end.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Northman (2022) - 6/10 - A young prince sees his father murdered by his uncle. The boy flees and years later returns as an adult for his vengeance. The film is well made, but I didn't really enjoy it that much.
Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) - 7/10 - A young woman named Adèle is a high school junior who seems unsatisfied with her intimate relationships until she meets Emma, slightly older woman with blue hair. The film follows the two of them over the next few years as Adèle grows up and eventually becomes a teacher. The film seemed longer than necessary and was filled with a number of scenes of people eating pasta and the two woman having sex. I can see why some might love the film (and others hate it) and I thought the film wasn't bad, but could have been much better.
Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) - 5/10 - Boudu is an eccentric free spirit/bum who jumps into the Seine only to be rescued by a bookseller. The bookseller takes Boudu into his home where life is disrupted by Boudu's antics. This is a social satire, but I didn't really care for the portrayal of Boudu which was more a caricature than a fleshed out character. The plot is a bit thin as well.
Moonage Daydream (2022) - 7.5/10 - This documentary about David Bowie is a bit unconventional and uses lots of unreleased footage from Bowie's estate plus interviews from throughout his career and an excellent soundtrack. The visuals and music are great, but I thought it was a bit overlong and the central narrative of the film was kind of lacking. It did give decent glimpses into the person that Bowie was. I'll definitely take this over the Elvis movie.
Vivre Sa Vie (1962) - 5.5/10 - A woman who aspires to be an actress quickly descends into prostitution. The story is told in 12 vignettes. I liked Anna Karina, but found the story to be pretty dull and only a couple of the vignettes were interesting.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) - 8/10 - I liked this one a lot more than I did when I watched it 15 years ago. At the moment, I like the 2022 version more, but this has quite a bit going for it and I might change my opinion if I rewatch the two films again in the future.
The Woman King (2022) - 7.5/10 - In the 1820s, a kingdom in Africa has an elite group of female warriors (led by Viola Davis). They fight to protect their people from the warriors of a neighboring kingdom and from slavers. The focus is split between the leader and a new recruit (Thuso Mbedu) who joins the warriors rather than wed a man who will beat her. It was perhaps a bit predictable, but was entertaining.
The Headless Woman (2008) - 6/10 - A woman runs over a dog while momentarily distracted by her cell phone while on a deserted road. She is shaken up and doesn't get out to check on it. She continues to be out of sorts for days to come as she convinces herself that she might have actually run over a child instead of a dog. The film seemed a bit lifeless at times and while it isn't bad, it didn't really do much for me.
Le Bonheur (1965) - 7.5/10 - Francois is happily married with a beautiful wife and two young children. They enjoy taking picnics out in the woods. He meets a young single woman and embarks on a relationship with her as well and this only increases his happiness. I've seen this film described as horror wrapped in sunny colors and the description seems to fit. It is very nicely shot.
Wanda (1970) - 4/10 - Wanda is a not very bright woman whose husband divorces her and keeps their young children since she was neglectful of them. Wanda readily agrees to the divorce and starts wandering, sleeping with men who buy her drinks and give her a place to sleep. She ends up traveling around with a small time criminal who doesn't treat her very well. The film is kind of a slog to get through with uninteresting characters and situations. I didn't think the acting was that great either. The most interesting part of the film was seeing the cars , buildings, etc. from that time period.
Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) - 7/10 - A young woman named Adèle is a high school junior who seems unsatisfied with her intimate relationships until she meets Emma, slightly older woman with blue hair. The film follows the two of them over the next few years as Adèle grows up and eventually becomes a teacher. The film seemed longer than necessary and was filled with a number of scenes of people eating pasta and the two woman having sex. I can see why some might love the film (and others hate it) and I thought the film wasn't bad, but could have been much better.
Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) - 5/10 - Boudu is an eccentric free spirit/bum who jumps into the Seine only to be rescued by a bookseller. The bookseller takes Boudu into his home where life is disrupted by Boudu's antics. This is a social satire, but I didn't really care for the portrayal of Boudu which was more a caricature than a fleshed out character. The plot is a bit thin as well.
Moonage Daydream (2022) - 7.5/10 - This documentary about David Bowie is a bit unconventional and uses lots of unreleased footage from Bowie's estate plus interviews from throughout his career and an excellent soundtrack. The visuals and music are great, but I thought it was a bit overlong and the central narrative of the film was kind of lacking. It did give decent glimpses into the person that Bowie was. I'll definitely take this over the Elvis movie.
Vivre Sa Vie (1962) - 5.5/10 - A woman who aspires to be an actress quickly descends into prostitution. The story is told in 12 vignettes. I liked Anna Karina, but found the story to be pretty dull and only a couple of the vignettes were interesting.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) - 8/10 - I liked this one a lot more than I did when I watched it 15 years ago. At the moment, I like the 2022 version more, but this has quite a bit going for it and I might change my opinion if I rewatch the two films again in the future.
The Woman King (2022) - 7.5/10 - In the 1820s, a kingdom in Africa has an elite group of female warriors (led by Viola Davis). They fight to protect their people from the warriors of a neighboring kingdom and from slavers. The focus is split between the leader and a new recruit (Thuso Mbedu) who joins the warriors rather than wed a man who will beat her. It was perhaps a bit predictable, but was entertaining.
The Headless Woman (2008) - 6/10 - A woman runs over a dog while momentarily distracted by her cell phone while on a deserted road. She is shaken up and doesn't get out to check on it. She continues to be out of sorts for days to come as she convinces herself that she might have actually run over a child instead of a dog. The film seemed a bit lifeless at times and while it isn't bad, it didn't really do much for me.
Le Bonheur (1965) - 7.5/10 - Francois is happily married with a beautiful wife and two young children. They enjoy taking picnics out in the woods. He meets a young single woman and embarks on a relationship with her as well and this only increases his happiness. I've seen this film described as horror wrapped in sunny colors and the description seems to fit. It is very nicely shot.
Wanda (1970) - 4/10 - Wanda is a not very bright woman whose husband divorces her and keeps their young children since she was neglectful of them. Wanda readily agrees to the divorce and starts wandering, sleeping with men who buy her drinks and give her a place to sleep. She ends up traveling around with a small time criminal who doesn't treat her very well. The film is kind of a slog to get through with uninteresting characters and situations. I didn't think the acting was that great either. The most interesting part of the film was seeing the cars , buildings, etc. from that time period.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Utz (George Sluizer, 1992) 8/10
A New York art dealer (Peter Riegert) goes to Communist Prague in search of priceless Meissen porcelain collected by a connoisseur (Armin Mueller-Stahl). He was meant to purchase the collection but it appears to have disappeared after the old Baron's death. Through the Baron's close friend (Paul Scofield) he finds out about the life of the late collector. The story is as much a sad reminder of Czechoslovakia's lost grandeur which the porcelein pieces represent. A grand past that vanished in the wake of wars, pogroms and revolutions. The pieces are glimpsed via flashbacks and although they belong to the Baron the delicate figurines can never be fully owned by him as they cannot be taken out of the country and in the end they belong to the State who have confiscated the pieces after his death. Often allowed to travel abroad he considers defecting but being a prisoner of his collection always returns home with newly bought figurines to his home which is run efficiently by his life-long partner (Brenda Fricker) who works as his cook and maid. Based on the Booker nominated book by Bruce Chatwin the morale of the story hints at leading a simpler life instead of getting bogged down by collecting items which consume one's time yet in the end get left behind when one dies. Mueller-Stahl won a much deserved prize at the Berlin film festival. Shot on location in lovely Prague with its magnificent buildings, bridges and mansions.
Corvette K-225 (Robert Rosson, 1943) 7/10
The Battle of the Atlantic as seen through the eyes of a crew of a Corvette and in particular the battleship's Commander (Randolph Scott). The screenplay almost takes on the look of a documentary as it shows how these small ships accompanied convoys carrying battle equipment, oil and supplies across the Atlantic for the Allied troops in Europe. The strain of working such a ship often through stormy waters was a feat unto itself which the crew bore with great fortitude. Scott is surprisingly not his usual stiff self and gives a warm performance as the dedicated seaman who wishes to take revenge on the Nazi U-boat which destroyed his previous ship and crew. Pretty Ella Raines, in her film debut, is his love interest while a wonderful cast of character actors - Barry Fitzgerald, Noah Beery Jr., Andy Devine, Thomas Gomez - round out the cast. Robert Mitchum can be briefly seen in one of his very early roles. Gritty WWII propaganda film is rousing and very moving with wonderful visual effects and Oscar nominated cinematography by Tony Gaudio.
In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro (Raju Patel, 1986) 4/10
African baboons on a rampage during a severe drought. The "Jaws" formula is churned out yet again using a usually passive animal into a horror freak with snarling blood soaked long fangs. Into the mix come together a game hunter (Timothy Bottoms) and a miner (John Rhys-Davies) who band together to fight the menace. In the way is the former's just arrived wife (Irene Miracle) dressed in flowy frocks and flouncy hats as if she is out for a day at Disneyland and who decides to leave the compound and go for a stroll in the bush. Supposedly based on a true incident this feels like "The Birds" meeting up with "Born Free".
Puss in Boots (Chris Miller, 2011) 5/10
This spinoff from "Shrek" starts off with a great deal of fun in a sort of Western zone with Puss delightfully voiced by Antonio Banderas and his lady love - the delectable Kitty Softpaws - voiced by Salma Hayak. But then the annoying and noisy white man - Humpty Dumpty (voiced by Zach Galifianakis) - takes over, its downhill all the way. Nominated for an Oscar in the Animated Feature film category.
Novembre (Cédric Jimenez, 2022) 6/10
Police pocedural set against the backdrop of the Paris terror attacks of 2015. The film depicts the investigations and the interventions of the police and a highly-secretive anti-terrorist squad (Jean Dujardin, Sandrine Kiberlain and Anaïs Demoustier) during the five days which followed the attacks. The task is to find the two perpetrators who did not die at the scene of the attacks which is then clinically rendered but with enough suspense to keep the viewer glued to the screen. We know nothing about the main characters as we follow these brave souls on their quest towards truth and justice. Action packed film lacks focus while zooming through the events - the constant use of the hand-held camera is also an annoyance. César nominations for director Jimenez, actors Dujardin, Demoustier & Lyna Khoudri (as the hijab-wearing informant), editing, sound and visual effects.
Yellowstone (Stephen Kay & Christina Alexandra Voros, 2022 - Season 5) 7/10
This season seems to be now in limbo. 8 episodes in and with more to follow but star Kevin Costner wants out. Will he return or will he be replaced by Matthew McConaughey? While this offscreen drama continues the producers hope to create yet more spinoffs after 1883 & 1923 (and the already proposed 6666) with one starring Kurt Russell.
Massacre River (John Rawlins, 1949) 4/10
B-western has sporadic action - the Indians do appear but mainly in peaceful mode which was a welcome change - but the screenplay here has more soap opera. The Colonel's daughter (Cathy Downs) dumps the cavalry officer (Rory Calhoun) who loves her and takes up instead with his best friend and fellow officer (Guy Madison). When the latter starts two timing her with a racy saloon girl (Carole Mathews) friendships come to an end causing consternation all around. First western for both lead actors.
Naam Shabana (Shivam Nair, 2017) 5/10
Shabana (Taapsee Pannu) - a college student is recruited by an agent (Manoj Bajpayee) belonging to a covert government agency who is then rigourously trained to go after an international arms dealer (Tamil actor Prithviraj Sukumaran). This plodding film takes far too long setting up the title character's back story which includes killing her alcoholic, wife-beating dad, seeing her boyfriend killed and a detailed section where she takes revenge. The film is also a prequel to the film Baby (2015) where her character was first seen assisting another agent (Akshay Kumar) who makes an appearance here as well. Pannu performs well during the action sequences but in all the dramatic moments is such a dead pan presence and goes through the motions as if thoroughly bored. The franchise never caught on despite being a success at the boxoffice which was mainly due to Akshay Kumar's James Bond-like presence with Anupam Kher playing a wry version of Q.
The Romantics (Smriti Mundhra, 2023) 9/10
Four part documentary on Indian film - never call it Bollywood - director, Yash Chopra, who created romance on screen as never seen before - beautiful women swathed in chiffon sarees dancing in exotic locations like Kashmir and Switzerland. Before getting the romance tag he worked very successfully in a number of genres but his natural eye for beauty helped create many iconic films and moments on screen. Benefitting the most were Indian film heroines - Sadhana, Sharmila Tagore, Raakhee, Rekha, Sridevi, Juhi Chawla, Kajol, Madhuri Dixit, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherji, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif. And Shah Rukh Khan - his muse - whose presence was a major factor in creating the Yash Raj studio hits. Colleagues and actors speak about the late director with center stage taken by his son - the very reclusive film director-producer, Aditya Chopra, who narrates the ups and downs of his father's career and his own successes big and small which have helped make the family studio a force to reckon with.
A New York art dealer (Peter Riegert) goes to Communist Prague in search of priceless Meissen porcelain collected by a connoisseur (Armin Mueller-Stahl). He was meant to purchase the collection but it appears to have disappeared after the old Baron's death. Through the Baron's close friend (Paul Scofield) he finds out about the life of the late collector. The story is as much a sad reminder of Czechoslovakia's lost grandeur which the porcelein pieces represent. A grand past that vanished in the wake of wars, pogroms and revolutions. The pieces are glimpsed via flashbacks and although they belong to the Baron the delicate figurines can never be fully owned by him as they cannot be taken out of the country and in the end they belong to the State who have confiscated the pieces after his death. Often allowed to travel abroad he considers defecting but being a prisoner of his collection always returns home with newly bought figurines to his home which is run efficiently by his life-long partner (Brenda Fricker) who works as his cook and maid. Based on the Booker nominated book by Bruce Chatwin the morale of the story hints at leading a simpler life instead of getting bogged down by collecting items which consume one's time yet in the end get left behind when one dies. Mueller-Stahl won a much deserved prize at the Berlin film festival. Shot on location in lovely Prague with its magnificent buildings, bridges and mansions.
Corvette K-225 (Robert Rosson, 1943) 7/10
The Battle of the Atlantic as seen through the eyes of a crew of a Corvette and in particular the battleship's Commander (Randolph Scott). The screenplay almost takes on the look of a documentary as it shows how these small ships accompanied convoys carrying battle equipment, oil and supplies across the Atlantic for the Allied troops in Europe. The strain of working such a ship often through stormy waters was a feat unto itself which the crew bore with great fortitude. Scott is surprisingly not his usual stiff self and gives a warm performance as the dedicated seaman who wishes to take revenge on the Nazi U-boat which destroyed his previous ship and crew. Pretty Ella Raines, in her film debut, is his love interest while a wonderful cast of character actors - Barry Fitzgerald, Noah Beery Jr., Andy Devine, Thomas Gomez - round out the cast. Robert Mitchum can be briefly seen in one of his very early roles. Gritty WWII propaganda film is rousing and very moving with wonderful visual effects and Oscar nominated cinematography by Tony Gaudio.
In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro (Raju Patel, 1986) 4/10
African baboons on a rampage during a severe drought. The "Jaws" formula is churned out yet again using a usually passive animal into a horror freak with snarling blood soaked long fangs. Into the mix come together a game hunter (Timothy Bottoms) and a miner (John Rhys-Davies) who band together to fight the menace. In the way is the former's just arrived wife (Irene Miracle) dressed in flowy frocks and flouncy hats as if she is out for a day at Disneyland and who decides to leave the compound and go for a stroll in the bush. Supposedly based on a true incident this feels like "The Birds" meeting up with "Born Free".
Puss in Boots (Chris Miller, 2011) 5/10
This spinoff from "Shrek" starts off with a great deal of fun in a sort of Western zone with Puss delightfully voiced by Antonio Banderas and his lady love - the delectable Kitty Softpaws - voiced by Salma Hayak. But then the annoying and noisy white man - Humpty Dumpty (voiced by Zach Galifianakis) - takes over, its downhill all the way. Nominated for an Oscar in the Animated Feature film category.
Novembre (Cédric Jimenez, 2022) 6/10
Police pocedural set against the backdrop of the Paris terror attacks of 2015. The film depicts the investigations and the interventions of the police and a highly-secretive anti-terrorist squad (Jean Dujardin, Sandrine Kiberlain and Anaïs Demoustier) during the five days which followed the attacks. The task is to find the two perpetrators who did not die at the scene of the attacks which is then clinically rendered but with enough suspense to keep the viewer glued to the screen. We know nothing about the main characters as we follow these brave souls on their quest towards truth and justice. Action packed film lacks focus while zooming through the events - the constant use of the hand-held camera is also an annoyance. César nominations for director Jimenez, actors Dujardin, Demoustier & Lyna Khoudri (as the hijab-wearing informant), editing, sound and visual effects.
Yellowstone (Stephen Kay & Christina Alexandra Voros, 2022 - Season 5) 7/10
This season seems to be now in limbo. 8 episodes in and with more to follow but star Kevin Costner wants out. Will he return or will he be replaced by Matthew McConaughey? While this offscreen drama continues the producers hope to create yet more spinoffs after 1883 & 1923 (and the already proposed 6666) with one starring Kurt Russell.
Massacre River (John Rawlins, 1949) 4/10
B-western has sporadic action - the Indians do appear but mainly in peaceful mode which was a welcome change - but the screenplay here has more soap opera. The Colonel's daughter (Cathy Downs) dumps the cavalry officer (Rory Calhoun) who loves her and takes up instead with his best friend and fellow officer (Guy Madison). When the latter starts two timing her with a racy saloon girl (Carole Mathews) friendships come to an end causing consternation all around. First western for both lead actors.
Naam Shabana (Shivam Nair, 2017) 5/10
Shabana (Taapsee Pannu) - a college student is recruited by an agent (Manoj Bajpayee) belonging to a covert government agency who is then rigourously trained to go after an international arms dealer (Tamil actor Prithviraj Sukumaran). This plodding film takes far too long setting up the title character's back story which includes killing her alcoholic, wife-beating dad, seeing her boyfriend killed and a detailed section where she takes revenge. The film is also a prequel to the film Baby (2015) where her character was first seen assisting another agent (Akshay Kumar) who makes an appearance here as well. Pannu performs well during the action sequences but in all the dramatic moments is such a dead pan presence and goes through the motions as if thoroughly bored. The franchise never caught on despite being a success at the boxoffice which was mainly due to Akshay Kumar's James Bond-like presence with Anupam Kher playing a wry version of Q.
The Romantics (Smriti Mundhra, 2023) 9/10
Four part documentary on Indian film - never call it Bollywood - director, Yash Chopra, who created romance on screen as never seen before - beautiful women swathed in chiffon sarees dancing in exotic locations like Kashmir and Switzerland. Before getting the romance tag he worked very successfully in a number of genres but his natural eye for beauty helped create many iconic films and moments on screen. Benefitting the most were Indian film heroines - Sadhana, Sharmila Tagore, Raakhee, Rekha, Sridevi, Juhi Chawla, Kajol, Madhuri Dixit, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherji, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif. And Shah Rukh Khan - his muse - whose presence was a major factor in creating the Yash Raj studio hits. Colleagues and actors speak about the late director with center stage taken by his son - the very reclusive film director-producer, Aditya Chopra, who narrates the ups and downs of his father's career and his own successes big and small which have helped make the family studio a force to reckon with.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Argentina, 1985 (2022) - 8/10 - The Trial of the Juntas in Argentina is dramatized here, focusing on the lead prosecutor, Julio Strassera, his family, and those who worked with him during the trial. It's pretty well acted.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022) - 8/10 - This version is set in fascist Italy and is a bit darker than the Disney version. The animation is pretty good and I enjoyed the film.
Le Doulos (1962) - 8/10 - Maurice recently got out of prison, but is planning a job with his friend Remy. Maurice and others of his acquaintance are worried about a police informer in their midst with talk centering on a man named Silien. There is plenty of action and some great shots. There was also plenty of dialogue, but that didn't bother me.
Prey (2022) - 8/10 - A young Comanche woman in 1719 is a healer, but wishes to be a hunter like her brother. When a mountain lion threatens, she senses a greater threat in the area, but is not believed. This was a lot of fun with plenty of action. Amber Midthunder did a nice job in the lead role.
Purple Noon (1960) - 8/10 - Tom Ripley is hanging out with the wealthy Philippe Greenleaf in Italy, trying to convince Philippe to return with him to San Francisco so that Tom can earn $5000 from Philippe's father. Philippe prefers to spend his time traveling, partying, and spending money. Tom has many talents that he will soon find useful. I liked this version a bit more than the later Matt Damon film. Alain Delon is very good as Tom Ripley and Marie Laforêt was pretty good as Marge, Philippe's girlfriend.
The Menu (2022) - 8/10 - A group of wealthy and influential diners gather at an exclusive restaurant on an island only to find that the chef (Ralph Fiennes) has quite a bit on the menu in addition to food. Fiennes is very good as is Anya Taylor-Joy who plays the date of one of the guests, but not the one he originally planned to bring. There is plenty of dark humor throughout and I enjoyed the film.
Women Talking (2022) - 8/10 - Some of the men in a remote religious community have been systematically sedating and raping the women and girls of the colony. After it is discovered, some men have been arrested and place in jail in the nearest town. When the rest of the men leave to bail them out, the women gather to decide between three choices - stay and forgive the men, stay and fight, or leave. The title of the film is pretty accurate since much of the film is devoted to women debating the topic and their place in the community, but it remained interesting due to nice performances and direction.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022) - 8/10 - This version is set in fascist Italy and is a bit darker than the Disney version. The animation is pretty good and I enjoyed the film.
Le Doulos (1962) - 8/10 - Maurice recently got out of prison, but is planning a job with his friend Remy. Maurice and others of his acquaintance are worried about a police informer in their midst with talk centering on a man named Silien. There is plenty of action and some great shots. There was also plenty of dialogue, but that didn't bother me.
Prey (2022) - 8/10 - A young Comanche woman in 1719 is a healer, but wishes to be a hunter like her brother. When a mountain lion threatens, she senses a greater threat in the area, but is not believed. This was a lot of fun with plenty of action. Amber Midthunder did a nice job in the lead role.
Purple Noon (1960) - 8/10 - Tom Ripley is hanging out with the wealthy Philippe Greenleaf in Italy, trying to convince Philippe to return with him to San Francisco so that Tom can earn $5000 from Philippe's father. Philippe prefers to spend his time traveling, partying, and spending money. Tom has many talents that he will soon find useful. I liked this version a bit more than the later Matt Damon film. Alain Delon is very good as Tom Ripley and Marie Laforêt was pretty good as Marge, Philippe's girlfriend.
The Menu (2022) - 8/10 - A group of wealthy and influential diners gather at an exclusive restaurant on an island only to find that the chef (Ralph Fiennes) has quite a bit on the menu in addition to food. Fiennes is very good as is Anya Taylor-Joy who plays the date of one of the guests, but not the one he originally planned to bring. There is plenty of dark humor throughout and I enjoyed the film.
Women Talking (2022) - 8/10 - Some of the men in a remote religious community have been systematically sedating and raping the women and girls of the colony. After it is discovered, some men have been arrested and place in jail in the nearest town. When the rest of the men leave to bail them out, the women gather to decide between three choices - stay and forgive the men, stay and fight, or leave. The title of the film is pretty accurate since much of the film is devoted to women debating the topic and their place in the community, but it remained interesting due to nice performances and direction.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Your Place or Mine (Aline Brosh McKenna, 2022) 7/10
Cute Rom-Com has an uptight single L.A. mom (Reese Witherspoon) and her 20-year best buddy (Ashton Kutcher), a serial womanizer in N.Y. exchange places for a week. She moves into his swanky Manhattan apartment while in town to sit for an exam while he babysits her son in L.A. He changes her son's life by encouraging him to eat all the wrong foods, watch a horror film ("Aliens") on tv and try out for the ice hockey team. She befriends his vivacious neighbor and ex-girlfriend (Zoë Chao), discovers an unpublished manuscript for a novel he has written, and shows it to a publisher (Jesse Williams) with whom she has a one night stand. Will they get together at the end? It wouldn't be a Rom-Com if they didn't. Despite having minimal scenes together - they just speak to each other via zoom calls across split screens, sort of like Rock Hudson & Doris Day many moons before - both Witherspoon (at her perky best) and Kutcher have delightful chemistry. And there are a whole bunch of songs on the soundtrack by The Cars which kind of adds the icing onto the plot.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991) 7/10
Plodding, overlong film is nevertheless great fun. Kevin Costner, despite his American twang, makes a sometimes dashing, if often dull, Robin Hood (he won a Razzie) but is still a worthy successor in the role to Errol Flynn who appeared in the classic 1938 version. The historically dodgy screenplay brings interesting touches - introduction of a droll Moor sidekick (Morgan Freeman) who saves Robin from a dungeon in the Holy Land â la the Crusades, and a nasty but very witty and ruthless Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman):
Sherriff (to wench): You. My room. 10.30 tonight
Sheriff (to another wench): You. 10.45.....and bring a friend.
Intense gore - amputations, flogging, burnings, hangings, gougings, stabbings - are the order of the day as the Merry Men - Will Scarlett (Christian Slater - horrendous accent part II), Friar Tuck (Michael McShane), Little John (Nick Bimble) - join hands in battle with Robin against the evil Sherriff who hopes to take over the country in absence of King Richard (Sean Connery in a surprise cameo). Along for a bit of romance is lovely Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as the feisty Maid Marian while Bryan Adams sings his Oscar nominated song, "Everything I Do) I Do It for You". Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" set the tone for most of the future action-adventure films and this one is in the same vein. The film's infamous moments involve a bare-arsed Costner taking a shower under a waterfall and Rickman rolling his eyes when interuppted during his rape of a spreadeagled Mastrantonio. Despite the film's murky cinematography there is much to admire on the production front with superb sets and costumes, but without doubt the saving grace of the film is Alan Rickman's demented, over-the-top, Bafta-winning performance who is delightfully evil and an antidote to the antiseptic Costner. And it is interesting to see the Moor, a Muslim, cleverer than all the heathens around him as he uses a binocular, helps a woman give birth to a breech baby and introduces gunpowder during the concluding battle.
Plane (Jean-François Richet, 2023) 6/10
Scottish actor Gerard Butler, like Irish Liam Neeson, has also made a career of playing lonesome simmering male characters who find themselves under extraordinarily dangerous circumstances. It's strictly B-movie territory with danger, thrills and many death defying moments that keep the audience on the edge of their seats. In order to get to the seat's edge you need to put your brain in neutral and suspend all sense of belief in order to enjoy the ride. Hell, if you can do it through those endless Marvel & DC inspired comic book movies then you can certainly do the same here. A commercial pilot (Gerard Butler), eager to meet up with his college age daughter in Hawaii, flies a plane (Yes, they used a lot of imagination while deciding on the film's title) from Manila to Honolulu via Tokyo for his family reunion. However, the plane journey disastrously goes astray when extreme turbulence followed by a lightning strike causes them to miraculously safely crash land on an island in the Philippines. Once on the ground their troubles only become bigger when the pilot and one of the passengers (Mike Colter) - a handcuffed prisoner wanted for a homicide - find themselves battling for survival against rebels on the island. The film easily skirts its potboiler elements with scenes of genuine thrills and suspense with full credit going to Butler who plays a protagonist who is a real flesh and blood character getting beat up but also dishing out with equal ferocity. The movie delivers exactly what it promises - a fun time at the movies. Nothing more and nothing less.
Big Guns (Duccio Tessari, 1973) 6/10
One of countless similarly themed Italian and/or French films with a plot that either involved a police procedural, the mafia, bitter cops or hitmen trying to go straight with most of them starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Franco Nero or Alain Delon. The latter here plays a hitman who wants to retire from the business but gets drawn in further when his bosses inadvertently kill his wife and son instead of him. The plot naturally segues into revenge mode with Delon giving his usual steel-eyed but dead pan performance as he takes on the mob bosses and their stooges played by an eclectic group of familar actors from the past - Anton Diffring, Roger Hanin, Marc Porel, Ettore Manni, Alberto Farnese, Umberto Orsini, and yesteryear Hollywood star Richard Conte. Carla Gravina is the moll who sides with Delon and gets thrashed around for doing just that. Interesting to see only ordinary cars used during the very natural chase sequences unlike in films today where the film's hero drives only luxury brands which the filmmaker's proceed to destroy during highly unrealistic action set pieces involving death-defying stunt work. Overlong but stylish film has many of the murders inspired by and shot as in "The Godfather" which was the gangster film that brought on countless imitations in its wake. Ornella Vanoni sings the memorable classic song, "L'Appuntamento", over the film's opening credits.
Yellowstone (Stephen Kay, John Dahl, Christina Alexandra Voros & Guy Ferland, 2020 - Season 3) 7/10
The season concentrates on issues related to land and how man goes to any length to get it. The on-going issues Native Americans still encounter with the White Man mainly boils down to a fight about land which has always been the case from the start. In addition the Dutton family continues to face various corporations trying to wrest control of their land. The season cliffhanger has a strong whiff of The Godfather, Part III.
Yellowstone (Stephen Kay, Guy Ferland, Christina Alexandra Voros & Taylor Sheridan, 2021-22 - Season 4) 7/10
A season full of reflection, introspection and revenge for the previous season end cliffhanger. And the fight continues against the land mafia. On the personal front a cowboy comes of age and leaves the ranch and a spur-of-the-moment wedding closes the season.
Le choc (Robin Davis, 1982) 6/10
A trenchcoat, a gun and a cigarette dangling from the mouth makes for the coolest image ever and achieved magnificently on screen by only two men - Humphrey Bogart and Alain Delon. When a hitman (Alain Delon) wants to retire from his life as a hired assassin the Organization won't let him. He hides out at one of his business investments in the countryside - a turkey farm - where he falls in love with the beautiful wife (Catherine Deneuve) of the farmer (Philippe Léotard). Returning to Paris to confront his employers he discovers they have looted all his money from the bank and demand they do one last job in return for all his money. This troubled production - Deneuve did not get along with the director so Delon directed all her scenes in the film - is fast paced if quite a tad predictable with a typical french sensibility about the world of crime it is set in. Routine film has the grand allure of watching these two beautiful stars do their thing - action and romance - which if you think carefully is not a bad way to spend an hour and a half. And where else would you ever get to see the sensual Deneuve play, of all things, a turkey farmer. Stéphane Audran has an amusing cameo as the assassin's cat-loving investment advisor.
Shotgun Wedding (Jason Moore, 2023) 5/10
A destination wedding on an island is beset by pirates and the bride (Jennifer Lopez) and groom (Josh Duhamel) come to the rescue of their guests who are being held hostage. Extremely silly film has Lopez grappling with grenades and shotguns as she scurries about in a diaphanous wedding dress that resembles a tent. Through all the chaos the couple manage to almost break up before coming together again. Loud animated performances by the supporting cast - Cheech Marin and an unrecognizable Sonia Braga as the bride's parents, Lenny Kravitz as her ex-boyfriend and Jennifer Coolidge as the groom's vulgar mother. Frantic nonsense seems over familiar and hence all the laughs fall flat.
Rosita (Ernst Lubitsch & Raoul Walsh, 1923) 7/10
For a change of pace Mary Pickford decided to dispense with playing a little girl on screen and imported Ernst Lubitsch from Europe to direct her as a fiery street singer in Seville who catches the eye of a lecherous king (Holbrook Blinn) and a nobleman (George Walsh). The director-star duo hated each other but the film proved to be a success. Based on the 19th century French opera "Don César de Bazan", the film, as per Pickford's insistence, was given spectacular production values by the studio. The Danish designer Sven Gade collaborated with William Cameron Menzies, to create a replica of Seville on the backlot while it was photographed by Charles Rosher. Although Pickford is no Pola Negri (who was the exotic star of various european Lubitsch films) she manages to hold her own in this often very witty film to which the director brings his special "touch".
Cute Rom-Com has an uptight single L.A. mom (Reese Witherspoon) and her 20-year best buddy (Ashton Kutcher), a serial womanizer in N.Y. exchange places for a week. She moves into his swanky Manhattan apartment while in town to sit for an exam while he babysits her son in L.A. He changes her son's life by encouraging him to eat all the wrong foods, watch a horror film ("Aliens") on tv and try out for the ice hockey team. She befriends his vivacious neighbor and ex-girlfriend (Zoë Chao), discovers an unpublished manuscript for a novel he has written, and shows it to a publisher (Jesse Williams) with whom she has a one night stand. Will they get together at the end? It wouldn't be a Rom-Com if they didn't. Despite having minimal scenes together - they just speak to each other via zoom calls across split screens, sort of like Rock Hudson & Doris Day many moons before - both Witherspoon (at her perky best) and Kutcher have delightful chemistry. And there are a whole bunch of songs on the soundtrack by The Cars which kind of adds the icing onto the plot.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991) 7/10
Plodding, overlong film is nevertheless great fun. Kevin Costner, despite his American twang, makes a sometimes dashing, if often dull, Robin Hood (he won a Razzie) but is still a worthy successor in the role to Errol Flynn who appeared in the classic 1938 version. The historically dodgy screenplay brings interesting touches - introduction of a droll Moor sidekick (Morgan Freeman) who saves Robin from a dungeon in the Holy Land â la the Crusades, and a nasty but very witty and ruthless Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman):
Sherriff (to wench): You. My room. 10.30 tonight
Sheriff (to another wench): You. 10.45.....and bring a friend.
Intense gore - amputations, flogging, burnings, hangings, gougings, stabbings - are the order of the day as the Merry Men - Will Scarlett (Christian Slater - horrendous accent part II), Friar Tuck (Michael McShane), Little John (Nick Bimble) - join hands in battle with Robin against the evil Sherriff who hopes to take over the country in absence of King Richard (Sean Connery in a surprise cameo). Along for a bit of romance is lovely Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as the feisty Maid Marian while Bryan Adams sings his Oscar nominated song, "Everything I Do) I Do It for You". Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" set the tone for most of the future action-adventure films and this one is in the same vein. The film's infamous moments involve a bare-arsed Costner taking a shower under a waterfall and Rickman rolling his eyes when interuppted during his rape of a spreadeagled Mastrantonio. Despite the film's murky cinematography there is much to admire on the production front with superb sets and costumes, but without doubt the saving grace of the film is Alan Rickman's demented, over-the-top, Bafta-winning performance who is delightfully evil and an antidote to the antiseptic Costner. And it is interesting to see the Moor, a Muslim, cleverer than all the heathens around him as he uses a binocular, helps a woman give birth to a breech baby and introduces gunpowder during the concluding battle.
Plane (Jean-François Richet, 2023) 6/10
Scottish actor Gerard Butler, like Irish Liam Neeson, has also made a career of playing lonesome simmering male characters who find themselves under extraordinarily dangerous circumstances. It's strictly B-movie territory with danger, thrills and many death defying moments that keep the audience on the edge of their seats. In order to get to the seat's edge you need to put your brain in neutral and suspend all sense of belief in order to enjoy the ride. Hell, if you can do it through those endless Marvel & DC inspired comic book movies then you can certainly do the same here. A commercial pilot (Gerard Butler), eager to meet up with his college age daughter in Hawaii, flies a plane (Yes, they used a lot of imagination while deciding on the film's title) from Manila to Honolulu via Tokyo for his family reunion. However, the plane journey disastrously goes astray when extreme turbulence followed by a lightning strike causes them to miraculously safely crash land on an island in the Philippines. Once on the ground their troubles only become bigger when the pilot and one of the passengers (Mike Colter) - a handcuffed prisoner wanted for a homicide - find themselves battling for survival against rebels on the island. The film easily skirts its potboiler elements with scenes of genuine thrills and suspense with full credit going to Butler who plays a protagonist who is a real flesh and blood character getting beat up but also dishing out with equal ferocity. The movie delivers exactly what it promises - a fun time at the movies. Nothing more and nothing less.
Big Guns (Duccio Tessari, 1973) 6/10
One of countless similarly themed Italian and/or French films with a plot that either involved a police procedural, the mafia, bitter cops or hitmen trying to go straight with most of them starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Franco Nero or Alain Delon. The latter here plays a hitman who wants to retire from the business but gets drawn in further when his bosses inadvertently kill his wife and son instead of him. The plot naturally segues into revenge mode with Delon giving his usual steel-eyed but dead pan performance as he takes on the mob bosses and their stooges played by an eclectic group of familar actors from the past - Anton Diffring, Roger Hanin, Marc Porel, Ettore Manni, Alberto Farnese, Umberto Orsini, and yesteryear Hollywood star Richard Conte. Carla Gravina is the moll who sides with Delon and gets thrashed around for doing just that. Interesting to see only ordinary cars used during the very natural chase sequences unlike in films today where the film's hero drives only luxury brands which the filmmaker's proceed to destroy during highly unrealistic action set pieces involving death-defying stunt work. Overlong but stylish film has many of the murders inspired by and shot as in "The Godfather" which was the gangster film that brought on countless imitations in its wake. Ornella Vanoni sings the memorable classic song, "L'Appuntamento", over the film's opening credits.
Yellowstone (Stephen Kay, John Dahl, Christina Alexandra Voros & Guy Ferland, 2020 - Season 3) 7/10
The season concentrates on issues related to land and how man goes to any length to get it. The on-going issues Native Americans still encounter with the White Man mainly boils down to a fight about land which has always been the case from the start. In addition the Dutton family continues to face various corporations trying to wrest control of their land. The season cliffhanger has a strong whiff of The Godfather, Part III.
Yellowstone (Stephen Kay, Guy Ferland, Christina Alexandra Voros & Taylor Sheridan, 2021-22 - Season 4) 7/10
A season full of reflection, introspection and revenge for the previous season end cliffhanger. And the fight continues against the land mafia. On the personal front a cowboy comes of age and leaves the ranch and a spur-of-the-moment wedding closes the season.
Le choc (Robin Davis, 1982) 6/10
A trenchcoat, a gun and a cigarette dangling from the mouth makes for the coolest image ever and achieved magnificently on screen by only two men - Humphrey Bogart and Alain Delon. When a hitman (Alain Delon) wants to retire from his life as a hired assassin the Organization won't let him. He hides out at one of his business investments in the countryside - a turkey farm - where he falls in love with the beautiful wife (Catherine Deneuve) of the farmer (Philippe Léotard). Returning to Paris to confront his employers he discovers they have looted all his money from the bank and demand they do one last job in return for all his money. This troubled production - Deneuve did not get along with the director so Delon directed all her scenes in the film - is fast paced if quite a tad predictable with a typical french sensibility about the world of crime it is set in. Routine film has the grand allure of watching these two beautiful stars do their thing - action and romance - which if you think carefully is not a bad way to spend an hour and a half. And where else would you ever get to see the sensual Deneuve play, of all things, a turkey farmer. Stéphane Audran has an amusing cameo as the assassin's cat-loving investment advisor.
Shotgun Wedding (Jason Moore, 2023) 5/10
A destination wedding on an island is beset by pirates and the bride (Jennifer Lopez) and groom (Josh Duhamel) come to the rescue of their guests who are being held hostage. Extremely silly film has Lopez grappling with grenades and shotguns as she scurries about in a diaphanous wedding dress that resembles a tent. Through all the chaos the couple manage to almost break up before coming together again. Loud animated performances by the supporting cast - Cheech Marin and an unrecognizable Sonia Braga as the bride's parents, Lenny Kravitz as her ex-boyfriend and Jennifer Coolidge as the groom's vulgar mother. Frantic nonsense seems over familiar and hence all the laughs fall flat.
Rosita (Ernst Lubitsch & Raoul Walsh, 1923) 7/10
For a change of pace Mary Pickford decided to dispense with playing a little girl on screen and imported Ernst Lubitsch from Europe to direct her as a fiery street singer in Seville who catches the eye of a lecherous king (Holbrook Blinn) and a nobleman (George Walsh). The director-star duo hated each other but the film proved to be a success. Based on the 19th century French opera "Don César de Bazan", the film, as per Pickford's insistence, was given spectacular production values by the studio. The Danish designer Sven Gade collaborated with William Cameron Menzies, to create a replica of Seville on the backlot while it was photographed by Charles Rosher. Although Pickford is no Pola Negri (who was the exotic star of various european Lubitsch films) she manages to hold her own in this often very witty film to which the director brings his special "touch".
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Quiet Girl (2022) - 8/10 - A shy and withdrawn girl who doesn't get much attention at home is sent away to live with her mother's cousin during the summer until the girl's pregnant mother gives birth. During the summer, the girl finds the attention and affection that she had been missing. It's a fairly simple film, but I really liked the setting and the performance of the girl in the lead role.
Fanny (1932) - 8/10 - This picks up right after Marius ended and focuses on Fanny and how she deals with her new situation. I liked this film more than the previous one and think having Marius only appear for a small role was good.
César (1936) - 7.5/10 - 20 years have passed since the events in Fanny. Fanny's husband is dying and Fanny's son, Césariot, is grown up and about to join the army. Césariot seeks out Marius to try and find out what kind of person he is. Overall, I liked this and would put it on par with the first film in the trilogy and a step below the second.
Aftersun (2022) - 8/10 - A woman pieces together a vacation she took with her father to a Turkish resort when she was 11 using her memory and old videos that they took during the trip. Her father is dealing with a number of issues, but is doing his best to be a good dad and hold it together. It's clear that he loves his daughter a lot and that she returns the affection. Frankie Corio was excellent as 11 year old Sophie and Paul Mescal also did a nice job as her father. I liked the film quite a bit and suspect that I might like it even more if I rewatch it at some point.
Babylon (2022) - 8/10 - Life in Hollywood during the late 1920s/early 1930s seems to be one big drug fueled party, at least for a while. Many have dreams of making it big, whether through acting, making tons of money, or behind the camera. There is a ton of humor and the film seemed to fly by, even with a 3+ hour runtime. It doesn't all land, but much of it does and it is quite the spectacle.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) - 8/10 - Puss in Boots is down to his last life and it makes him more cautious. Then he discovers a possible way to recover those lost lives and goes on a quest. It's a lot of fun.
Fire of Love (2022) - 8.5/10 - This film looks at Katia and Maurice Krafft, French volcanologists who traveled the world and studied volcanoes before, during, and after eruptions. A lot of their stunning footage of volcanoes is incorporated into the film and this, combined with other archival footage and the narration, paints a good picture of the couple. They spent about 20 years studying volcanoes before dying due to a volcano in Japan in 1991.
Tár (2022) - 8/10 - Cate Blanchett stars as a world renowned conductor who has a new book coming out and has plans to record Mahler's Fifth Symphony soon. She can be arrogant, callous, manipulative, and controlling in addition to being brilliant. We get to live in her world for quite some time before her eventual downfall, though the seeds are planted early in the film. Blanchett definitely earned her Best Actress nomination and I enjoyed the film quite a bit.
The Sea Beast (2022) - 8/10 - A very nice animated tale about a land where ships with 'Hunters' hunt giant sea beasts to keep a kingdom protected. This was has gone on for generations and there are many tales and storybooks about the exploit of the Hunters. One young orphan girl runs away from the orphanage to join the crew of the most accomplished ship. The animation is pretty nice, especially the parts with the sea, and I enjoyed the story.
RRR (2022) - 8.5/10 - When a sadistic governor and his equally sadistic wife take a young tribal girl away from her village, it set off a chain of events which involves two men who fight against the British Raj. The men have different approaches, but become close friends without knowing the true nature of the other. Sure it is ridiculously exaggerated and over the top at times, but it is still a lot of fun with the action sequences and humor and occasional songs. Heck, they even express their love of nachos in one big song and dance number.
All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) - 8.5/10 - The film is very well acted and has nice cinematography. It does a good job depicting the senselessness and some of the horrors of WWI.
Glass Onion (2022) - 8/10 - An eccentric billionaire gets together with his friends on a Greek island for a murder mystery game. Benoit Blanc somehow also ends up with an invite. Janelle Monáe was pretty good here (as expected) and the story was pretty entertaining. I'd still give the edge to the first film, but I enjoyed this one, too.
L'Argent (1983) - 8/10 - When two teens pass off a fake 500 franc note at a photo shop, it sets off a chain of events that ruins the life of an honest man and leads him to a life of crime. It's a fast paced minimalist film.
Fanny (1932) - 8/10 - This picks up right after Marius ended and focuses on Fanny and how she deals with her new situation. I liked this film more than the previous one and think having Marius only appear for a small role was good.
César (1936) - 7.5/10 - 20 years have passed since the events in Fanny. Fanny's husband is dying and Fanny's son, Césariot, is grown up and about to join the army. Césariot seeks out Marius to try and find out what kind of person he is. Overall, I liked this and would put it on par with the first film in the trilogy and a step below the second.
Aftersun (2022) - 8/10 - A woman pieces together a vacation she took with her father to a Turkish resort when she was 11 using her memory and old videos that they took during the trip. Her father is dealing with a number of issues, but is doing his best to be a good dad and hold it together. It's clear that he loves his daughter a lot and that she returns the affection. Frankie Corio was excellent as 11 year old Sophie and Paul Mescal also did a nice job as her father. I liked the film quite a bit and suspect that I might like it even more if I rewatch it at some point.
Babylon (2022) - 8/10 - Life in Hollywood during the late 1920s/early 1930s seems to be one big drug fueled party, at least for a while. Many have dreams of making it big, whether through acting, making tons of money, or behind the camera. There is a ton of humor and the film seemed to fly by, even with a 3+ hour runtime. It doesn't all land, but much of it does and it is quite the spectacle.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) - 8/10 - Puss in Boots is down to his last life and it makes him more cautious. Then he discovers a possible way to recover those lost lives and goes on a quest. It's a lot of fun.
Fire of Love (2022) - 8.5/10 - This film looks at Katia and Maurice Krafft, French volcanologists who traveled the world and studied volcanoes before, during, and after eruptions. A lot of their stunning footage of volcanoes is incorporated into the film and this, combined with other archival footage and the narration, paints a good picture of the couple. They spent about 20 years studying volcanoes before dying due to a volcano in Japan in 1991.
Tár (2022) - 8/10 - Cate Blanchett stars as a world renowned conductor who has a new book coming out and has plans to record Mahler's Fifth Symphony soon. She can be arrogant, callous, manipulative, and controlling in addition to being brilliant. We get to live in her world for quite some time before her eventual downfall, though the seeds are planted early in the film. Blanchett definitely earned her Best Actress nomination and I enjoyed the film quite a bit.
The Sea Beast (2022) - 8/10 - A very nice animated tale about a land where ships with 'Hunters' hunt giant sea beasts to keep a kingdom protected. This was has gone on for generations and there are many tales and storybooks about the exploit of the Hunters. One young orphan girl runs away from the orphanage to join the crew of the most accomplished ship. The animation is pretty nice, especially the parts with the sea, and I enjoyed the story.
RRR (2022) - 8.5/10 - When a sadistic governor and his equally sadistic wife take a young tribal girl away from her village, it set off a chain of events which involves two men who fight against the British Raj. The men have different approaches, but become close friends without knowing the true nature of the other. Sure it is ridiculously exaggerated and over the top at times, but it is still a lot of fun with the action sequences and humor and occasional songs. Heck, they even express their love of nachos in one big song and dance number.
All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) - 8.5/10 - The film is very well acted and has nice cinematography. It does a good job depicting the senselessness and some of the horrors of WWI.
Glass Onion (2022) - 8/10 - An eccentric billionaire gets together with his friends on a Greek island for a murder mystery game. Benoit Blanc somehow also ends up with an invite. Janelle Monáe was pretty good here (as expected) and the story was pretty entertaining. I'd still give the edge to the first film, but I enjoyed this one, too.
L'Argent (1983) - 8/10 - When two teens pass off a fake 500 franc note at a photo shop, it sets off a chain of events that ruins the life of an honest man and leads him to a life of crime. It's a fast paced minimalist film.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Le dialogue des Carmélites (Philippe Agostini & Raymond Leopold Bruckberger, 1960) 7/10
The power and limits of faith get a look over in this true story taken from a stage play by Georges Bernanos, which in turn was adapted from the 1931 novel, La Dernière à l'échafaud, by Gertrud von Le Fort. The story is set in a Carmélite convent during the french revolution under Robespierre's Reign of Terror where the cloistered nuns are given an ultimatum to renounce their faith or face prosecution. The first half is deceptively calm as we see two postulant nuns join the order, the rituals involved in integrating them in, and the daily convent life conducted within the peaceful setting of cloistered halls and very small rooms occupied by the nuns. Death is first encountered when the gentle old Mother Superior (Madeleine Renaud) dies and her position is taken over by a foreign nun (Alida Valli). When the revolutionaries take over France the nuns are forced to decide which path to take. Renounce their faith or die - Pierre Brasseur is the flint-eyed commissaire de la République heading the tribunal. The nuns undertake a vote at the behest of a senior nun (Jeanne Moreau) to decide if they should renounce Christ or die. They willingly become martyrs in the name of Christian faith as their gruesome end is reflected on the horror-stricken face of the nun who instigated the vote but ends up staying alive as ordered to be the one to revive the Carmélite Order. Slow, hard going film is superbly acted and photographed. Jean-Louis Barrault, in a cameo, reprises his role of a mime which he once made famous in Marcel Carné's Les Enfants du Paradis (1945).
The Covered Wagon (James Cruze, 1923) 8/10
Historically important film was the first epic in the Western genre and its plot set the tone for what was to come in all subsequent films set in the Wild West - both silent and sound. Two covered wagon trains converge at Kansas City and move towards the Oregon Trail with some deciding to try their luck for gold in California. Intense heat, snow, food supplies running out, a buffalo hunt, a treacherous river crossing, and an attack by Native Indians are all part of the exciting screenplay which was how it was on these trails. At the center is a love triangle between the leader of one of the trains (J. Warren Kerrigan), the pretty daughter of the leader of the second train (Lois Wilson) and her villanous fiancé (Alan Hale). Cruze manages to cram a whole lot of plot into its relatively short running time with a mostly static camera capturing the story with almost a documentary-like realism.
Ray (2021)
Anthology series based on four short stories by Satyajit Ray highlighting ego, revenge, envy and betrayal - each is tweaked and brought into the present which drastically changes the tone of the original but gives the stories a modern perspective thus making them accessible to a younger generation.
a) Forget Me Not (Srijit Mukherji, 2021) 8/10
Spooky Twilight Zone-like episode about a hotshot entrepreneur (Ali Fazal) with a razor sharp memory who to his annoyance finds he can no longer recall certain parts of his past life. This is triggered at a bar where a woman approaches him, greets him fondly and speaks about a sexual tryst they had some years back while staying at a hotel in Aurangabad where they also visited the Ajanta caves. Thinking it's some kind of joke he rudely disses the woman but is shocked to see her name listed on his phone when she calls him from across the room. Matters keep getting worse as he starts forgetting to attend meetings. And then there is a secretary who aborted his child upon his say so and his dear college friend whom he discovers working as an elevator operator and to whom he offers a job at his company as a ....lowly peon. Is he stressed out or is it an early form of dementia? Or is he being made a victim of a revenge plot? Shot mostly inside board rooms, and at night with the camera panning the Mumbai skyline - the episode's stunning opening inside the bar - and at the spectacular Ajanta caves. Based on the Bengali short story "Bipin Chowdhury'r Smritibhrom" (Bipin Chowdhury’s Memory Loss).
b) Bahrupiya (Srijit Mukherji, 2021) 7/10
A downtrodden low paid makeup artist (Kay Kay Menon) inherits a small fortune and a book on prosthetics from his beloved late grandmother and uses the art of makeup to transform his personality and life but gets carried away and lives to regret it. This psychological thriller has echoes of "Frankenstein". Menon is outstanding. Based on Ray's short story "Bahurupi"
(Chameleon).
c) Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa (Abhishek Chaubey, 2021) 8/10
A renowned poet and singer (Manoj Bajpayee), traveling on a train from Bhopal to Delhi, encounters a wrestler turned sports journalist (Gajraj Rao) with whom he had a previous encounter which the latter recalls and brings up a past embarrasing indiscretion. Poetry by Ghalib and Ahmad Faraz which Bajpayee recites with perfect urdu diction. Based on Ray's short story "Barin Bhowmick-er Byaram" (Barin Bhowmick's Ailment).
d) Spotlight (Vasan Bala, 2021) 4/10
Popular film star (Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor), already under pressure after being panned by critics for always maintaining the same look on screen, has an existential crisis after meeting Didi (Radhika Madan) a revered cult leader. Kafkaesque in its tone this is the least interesting episode
An Action Hero (Anirudh Iyer, 2022) 8/10
Ayushmann Khurrana who plays the proverbial non-action "everyman" in Bollywood films sends up the Bollywood action-hero in this clever action flick. He has the look and attitude down right - shaved chest protruding through open buttons on his shirt, a look that consists of arrogance with a slight smirk, and macho posturing that includes swigging whiskey straight from the bottle - which could be an homage to Bollywood superstar Salman Khan except the portrayal almost seems closer to a hilarious parody. The star suddenly finds himself in over his head when he fails to pose for a photograph with a fawning fan who just happens to be the brother of a nasty local politician (Jaideep Ahlawat) who has allowed his factory premises as a location for a fight sequence. A chase ensues - the star in his recently delivered Mustang and the goon in his Fortuner - which ends up inadvertently with the latter's death. The plot shifts into revenge mode as our action-hero takes flight to the UK with the politician in hot pursuit. The wicked screenplay takes assorted digs at the ruthlessly hypocritical Indian media, movie stardom and its reverberation on the public, and the hilarious concept of machismo and how it plays a role in an actor's real life. There is an interesting and hilarious look at on-screen vs off-screen brawling - super cool as the film's hero beats up a never-ending stream of goons on screen versus the painful reality of getting seriously bruised during an off-screen skirmish. Both merge into the other as the film progresses with the introduction of a Pakistani Don and an item number - no less than the late Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan's iconic "Aap Jaisa Koi" - danced by the statuesquely sexy Malaika Arora dressed in a figure hugging lime green mini-dress with a tight neckline that does full justice to breasts that seem to be on the verge of bursting out in truly spectacular fashion. That they don't is full marks to the costume designer and the fabric used for that outfit. Quirky film uses unusual location shots in England (Portsmouth & the Isle of Wight), has witty dialogue and great chemistry between Khurrana and his nemesis - the Haryanvi-spouting Jaideep Ahlawat. Great fun.
The New Daughter (Luis Berdejo, 2009) 5/10
Recently divorced writer (Kevin Costner) moves his teenage daughter and young son to a secluded mansion in the backwoods of South Carolina. We need not answer the first question that springs to mind as to why would a single parent do just that - choose to live in isolation in a huge house. An Indian burial ground in the backyard eventually signals every horror trope in the book with the daughter getting possessed by something sinister. Adding to this is writer's block and a testy relationship with his daughter who refers to her wayward mother as a slut - Mom abandoned them all by running off with another man. Slow film manages to overcome the clichés of the genre (decapitated pet cat, straw voodoo doll, weird sprouting acne on the teen's back) by creating an ominous mood that involves night walkers and their need to procreate using a female as their vessel. Costner sleep walks through all the mayhem which is carefully disguised by shooting in the dark so the walkers can only be heard but not really seen.
Safety Last (Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor, 1923) 6/10
Silent comedy with its preponderance of sight gags is really not my forte. So technically this, for me, cancels out Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the star of this one - the white-faced, straw hat-wearing, horn-rimmed bespectacled Harold Lloyd. However, having resisted many of the "classics" from this genre I thought its time to give them a serious look-in. Lloyd was basically a stunt performer and the plots of his films put him in outrageously dangerous situations as he precariously climbs or dangles from a building or participates in a chase sequence. This film has the iconic shot of him hanging from the hand of a giant clock high up on a building which he proceeds to climb from the outside as a stunt to win money for attracting a crowd to the store inside the building. Lloyd's real-life wife, Mildred Davis, appears as his lady love on screen and gets to kiss him at the fade-out as they walk away holding hands. Dramatic camera angles create the illusion of Lloyd in precarious positions high up on the ledge or was that really the actor performing those death defying stunts? The film's early scenes with Lloyd in pratfall mode while playing a cat-and-mouse game with the store manager or trying to impress his girlfriend are no longer fresh but the film's last act on the building remains a tour-de-force of stunt acting for which this comedy is rightfully remembered today as a classic from the silent age of comedy.
Yellowstone (Taylor Sheridan, 2018 - Season 1) 8/10
Ruthless rancher (Kevin Costner) holds sway over large land holdings alienating and enticing local Native Americans and land developers to try and wrest control from him. Aiding and abetting him, at various times, are his kids - his eldest son (who is killed during the opening), his bitter and abrasive daughter (Kelly Reilly), his younger alienated son (Luke Grimes), his adopted politician-lawyer son (Wes Bentley), and his loyal and trusted foreman (Cole Hauser). There is murder, suicide, sex, grizzly bears and knockout brawls. Costner plays a variation of JR in "Dallas" & the plot and characters have more than a whiff of "The Godfather". Stunning location shots of Montana and Utah.
Yellowstone (Ed Bianchi, Stephen Kay, John Dahl, Ben Richardson & Guy Ferland, 2019 - Season 2) 8/10
The series continues its mix of family melodrama and tough, brutal business negotiations that invariably end up in bloodshed. Every character is deeply flawed and badly scarred as they go about their way in the world. Costner brings a quiet compelling intensity to his part as the aging patriarch surrounded by cutthroat vultures trying to bring down his empire and his brood of kids with massive personal issues of their own.
Babylon (Damien Chazelle, 2022) 5/10
Hollywood was a happening place way back during the 1920s where anything could happen and did. Tinseltown was populated by the likes of a suave silent matinée idol (Brad Pitt) who passes himself off as an exotic Italian even to his many wives, an ambitious starlet (Margot Robbie) desperate to be a star, an obese ageing actor who likes to be bathed in golden showers by a starlet straddling his naked tummy, a Mexican film assistant (Diego Calva) who wants a bigger role in the movies, a gossip journalist (Jean Smart), a lesbian Chinese-American cabaret singer (Li Jun Li) who sings about pussies, a black jazz trumpeter (Jovan Adepo) and various directors, producers, a mob boss (Tobey Maguire) and assorted studio executives. There are also drug and sex addicts, and even a defecating elephant. Chazelle's epic film covers just about everyone with almost every character an amalgam of someone who really did populate Hollywood back then. The screenplay shows how capitalist greed makes people willing to completely overhaul their original personas - many times to their accute detriment - in order to participate in the American dream of upward mobility. And in doing so often achieving it by paying a very heavy price. Stunning production values - sets, costumes and score are tops - do not overcome what is basically a bloated 3-hour film that bombed at the boxoffice.
The power and limits of faith get a look over in this true story taken from a stage play by Georges Bernanos, which in turn was adapted from the 1931 novel, La Dernière à l'échafaud, by Gertrud von Le Fort. The story is set in a Carmélite convent during the french revolution under Robespierre's Reign of Terror where the cloistered nuns are given an ultimatum to renounce their faith or face prosecution. The first half is deceptively calm as we see two postulant nuns join the order, the rituals involved in integrating them in, and the daily convent life conducted within the peaceful setting of cloistered halls and very small rooms occupied by the nuns. Death is first encountered when the gentle old Mother Superior (Madeleine Renaud) dies and her position is taken over by a foreign nun (Alida Valli). When the revolutionaries take over France the nuns are forced to decide which path to take. Renounce their faith or die - Pierre Brasseur is the flint-eyed commissaire de la République heading the tribunal. The nuns undertake a vote at the behest of a senior nun (Jeanne Moreau) to decide if they should renounce Christ or die. They willingly become martyrs in the name of Christian faith as their gruesome end is reflected on the horror-stricken face of the nun who instigated the vote but ends up staying alive as ordered to be the one to revive the Carmélite Order. Slow, hard going film is superbly acted and photographed. Jean-Louis Barrault, in a cameo, reprises his role of a mime which he once made famous in Marcel Carné's Les Enfants du Paradis (1945).
The Covered Wagon (James Cruze, 1923) 8/10
Historically important film was the first epic in the Western genre and its plot set the tone for what was to come in all subsequent films set in the Wild West - both silent and sound. Two covered wagon trains converge at Kansas City and move towards the Oregon Trail with some deciding to try their luck for gold in California. Intense heat, snow, food supplies running out, a buffalo hunt, a treacherous river crossing, and an attack by Native Indians are all part of the exciting screenplay which was how it was on these trails. At the center is a love triangle between the leader of one of the trains (J. Warren Kerrigan), the pretty daughter of the leader of the second train (Lois Wilson) and her villanous fiancé (Alan Hale). Cruze manages to cram a whole lot of plot into its relatively short running time with a mostly static camera capturing the story with almost a documentary-like realism.
Ray (2021)
Anthology series based on four short stories by Satyajit Ray highlighting ego, revenge, envy and betrayal - each is tweaked and brought into the present which drastically changes the tone of the original but gives the stories a modern perspective thus making them accessible to a younger generation.
a) Forget Me Not (Srijit Mukherji, 2021) 8/10
Spooky Twilight Zone-like episode about a hotshot entrepreneur (Ali Fazal) with a razor sharp memory who to his annoyance finds he can no longer recall certain parts of his past life. This is triggered at a bar where a woman approaches him, greets him fondly and speaks about a sexual tryst they had some years back while staying at a hotel in Aurangabad where they also visited the Ajanta caves. Thinking it's some kind of joke he rudely disses the woman but is shocked to see her name listed on his phone when she calls him from across the room. Matters keep getting worse as he starts forgetting to attend meetings. And then there is a secretary who aborted his child upon his say so and his dear college friend whom he discovers working as an elevator operator and to whom he offers a job at his company as a ....lowly peon. Is he stressed out or is it an early form of dementia? Or is he being made a victim of a revenge plot? Shot mostly inside board rooms, and at night with the camera panning the Mumbai skyline - the episode's stunning opening inside the bar - and at the spectacular Ajanta caves. Based on the Bengali short story "Bipin Chowdhury'r Smritibhrom" (Bipin Chowdhury’s Memory Loss).
b) Bahrupiya (Srijit Mukherji, 2021) 7/10
A downtrodden low paid makeup artist (Kay Kay Menon) inherits a small fortune and a book on prosthetics from his beloved late grandmother and uses the art of makeup to transform his personality and life but gets carried away and lives to regret it. This psychological thriller has echoes of "Frankenstein". Menon is outstanding. Based on Ray's short story "Bahurupi"
(Chameleon).
c) Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa (Abhishek Chaubey, 2021) 8/10
A renowned poet and singer (Manoj Bajpayee), traveling on a train from Bhopal to Delhi, encounters a wrestler turned sports journalist (Gajraj Rao) with whom he had a previous encounter which the latter recalls and brings up a past embarrasing indiscretion. Poetry by Ghalib and Ahmad Faraz which Bajpayee recites with perfect urdu diction. Based on Ray's short story "Barin Bhowmick-er Byaram" (Barin Bhowmick's Ailment).
d) Spotlight (Vasan Bala, 2021) 4/10
Popular film star (Harsh Varrdhan Kapoor), already under pressure after being panned by critics for always maintaining the same look on screen, has an existential crisis after meeting Didi (Radhika Madan) a revered cult leader. Kafkaesque in its tone this is the least interesting episode
An Action Hero (Anirudh Iyer, 2022) 8/10
Ayushmann Khurrana who plays the proverbial non-action "everyman" in Bollywood films sends up the Bollywood action-hero in this clever action flick. He has the look and attitude down right - shaved chest protruding through open buttons on his shirt, a look that consists of arrogance with a slight smirk, and macho posturing that includes swigging whiskey straight from the bottle - which could be an homage to Bollywood superstar Salman Khan except the portrayal almost seems closer to a hilarious parody. The star suddenly finds himself in over his head when he fails to pose for a photograph with a fawning fan who just happens to be the brother of a nasty local politician (Jaideep Ahlawat) who has allowed his factory premises as a location for a fight sequence. A chase ensues - the star in his recently delivered Mustang and the goon in his Fortuner - which ends up inadvertently with the latter's death. The plot shifts into revenge mode as our action-hero takes flight to the UK with the politician in hot pursuit. The wicked screenplay takes assorted digs at the ruthlessly hypocritical Indian media, movie stardom and its reverberation on the public, and the hilarious concept of machismo and how it plays a role in an actor's real life. There is an interesting and hilarious look at on-screen vs off-screen brawling - super cool as the film's hero beats up a never-ending stream of goons on screen versus the painful reality of getting seriously bruised during an off-screen skirmish. Both merge into the other as the film progresses with the introduction of a Pakistani Don and an item number - no less than the late Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan's iconic "Aap Jaisa Koi" - danced by the statuesquely sexy Malaika Arora dressed in a figure hugging lime green mini-dress with a tight neckline that does full justice to breasts that seem to be on the verge of bursting out in truly spectacular fashion. That they don't is full marks to the costume designer and the fabric used for that outfit. Quirky film uses unusual location shots in England (Portsmouth & the Isle of Wight), has witty dialogue and great chemistry between Khurrana and his nemesis - the Haryanvi-spouting Jaideep Ahlawat. Great fun.
The New Daughter (Luis Berdejo, 2009) 5/10
Recently divorced writer (Kevin Costner) moves his teenage daughter and young son to a secluded mansion in the backwoods of South Carolina. We need not answer the first question that springs to mind as to why would a single parent do just that - choose to live in isolation in a huge house. An Indian burial ground in the backyard eventually signals every horror trope in the book with the daughter getting possessed by something sinister. Adding to this is writer's block and a testy relationship with his daughter who refers to her wayward mother as a slut - Mom abandoned them all by running off with another man. Slow film manages to overcome the clichés of the genre (decapitated pet cat, straw voodoo doll, weird sprouting acne on the teen's back) by creating an ominous mood that involves night walkers and their need to procreate using a female as their vessel. Costner sleep walks through all the mayhem which is carefully disguised by shooting in the dark so the walkers can only be heard but not really seen.
Safety Last (Fred C. Newmeyer & Sam Taylor, 1923) 6/10
Silent comedy with its preponderance of sight gags is really not my forte. So technically this, for me, cancels out Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the star of this one - the white-faced, straw hat-wearing, horn-rimmed bespectacled Harold Lloyd. However, having resisted many of the "classics" from this genre I thought its time to give them a serious look-in. Lloyd was basically a stunt performer and the plots of his films put him in outrageously dangerous situations as he precariously climbs or dangles from a building or participates in a chase sequence. This film has the iconic shot of him hanging from the hand of a giant clock high up on a building which he proceeds to climb from the outside as a stunt to win money for attracting a crowd to the store inside the building. Lloyd's real-life wife, Mildred Davis, appears as his lady love on screen and gets to kiss him at the fade-out as they walk away holding hands. Dramatic camera angles create the illusion of Lloyd in precarious positions high up on the ledge or was that really the actor performing those death defying stunts? The film's early scenes with Lloyd in pratfall mode while playing a cat-and-mouse game with the store manager or trying to impress his girlfriend are no longer fresh but the film's last act on the building remains a tour-de-force of stunt acting for which this comedy is rightfully remembered today as a classic from the silent age of comedy.
Yellowstone (Taylor Sheridan, 2018 - Season 1) 8/10
Ruthless rancher (Kevin Costner) holds sway over large land holdings alienating and enticing local Native Americans and land developers to try and wrest control from him. Aiding and abetting him, at various times, are his kids - his eldest son (who is killed during the opening), his bitter and abrasive daughter (Kelly Reilly), his younger alienated son (Luke Grimes), his adopted politician-lawyer son (Wes Bentley), and his loyal and trusted foreman (Cole Hauser). There is murder, suicide, sex, grizzly bears and knockout brawls. Costner plays a variation of JR in "Dallas" & the plot and characters have more than a whiff of "The Godfather". Stunning location shots of Montana and Utah.
Yellowstone (Ed Bianchi, Stephen Kay, John Dahl, Ben Richardson & Guy Ferland, 2019 - Season 2) 8/10
The series continues its mix of family melodrama and tough, brutal business negotiations that invariably end up in bloodshed. Every character is deeply flawed and badly scarred as they go about their way in the world. Costner brings a quiet compelling intensity to his part as the aging patriarch surrounded by cutthroat vultures trying to bring down his empire and his brood of kids with massive personal issues of their own.
Babylon (Damien Chazelle, 2022) 5/10
Hollywood was a happening place way back during the 1920s where anything could happen and did. Tinseltown was populated by the likes of a suave silent matinée idol (Brad Pitt) who passes himself off as an exotic Italian even to his many wives, an ambitious starlet (Margot Robbie) desperate to be a star, an obese ageing actor who likes to be bathed in golden showers by a starlet straddling his naked tummy, a Mexican film assistant (Diego Calva) who wants a bigger role in the movies, a gossip journalist (Jean Smart), a lesbian Chinese-American cabaret singer (Li Jun Li) who sings about pussies, a black jazz trumpeter (Jovan Adepo) and various directors, producers, a mob boss (Tobey Maguire) and assorted studio executives. There are also drug and sex addicts, and even a defecating elephant. Chazelle's epic film covers just about everyone with almost every character an amalgam of someone who really did populate Hollywood back then. The screenplay shows how capitalist greed makes people willing to completely overhaul their original personas - many times to their accute detriment - in order to participate in the American dream of upward mobility. And in doing so often achieving it by paying a very heavy price. Stunning production values - sets, costumes and score are tops - do not overcome what is basically a bloated 3-hour film that bombed at the boxoffice.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Summer Time Machine Blues (2005) - 7.5/10 - The members of a scifi club are unhappy when the remote for their air conditioner stops working and they may be forced to spend the sweltering summer without the benefit of cooler air. Then a time machine appears and they concoct a plan to use it to retrieve the remote and save their summer. It takes a while for this film to really get going, but once it does, I enjoyed the overlapping timelines, quirky humor, and various characters.
Triangle of Sadness (2022) - 7.5/10 - A male model and his controlling social media influencer girlfriend get invited to take a trip on a yacht with a group of very rich (and not necessarily well behaved) people. Things go well at first, but take a turn for the worse. I didn't really enjoy the opening section of the movie, but started liking it quite a bit more once they got on the yacht
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022) - 7.5/10 - A cleaning woman (and war widow) in 1950s London becomes infatuated with owning a Christian Dior dress and travels to Paris to buy one, making a number of friends along the way. Leslie Manville does a nice job as Mrs. Harris. The movie is old-fashioned and doesn't really add anything new, but it's pleasant to watch and a good way to spend a couple of hours. The costumes are also very nice.
The Fabelmans (2022) - 8.5/10 - I've read various mixed reactions to Stephen Spielberg's film based on his youth, but I enjoyed it. Gabriel Labelle is really good as Sammy Fabelman. I also liked Michelle Williams and Paul Dano as his parents. Judd Hirsch was good in his brief role as Uncle Boris, but it seemed like a very small role to get an Academy Award nomination.
La Chienne (1931) - 8/10 - A middle aged cashier with a domineering wife falls for a pretty woman who happens to be a prostitute who is in love with her pimp. The pimp has the woman start a relationship with the man to try and get money out of him. The cashier paints as a hobby and this also comes into play. I like Fritz Lang's version (Scarlet Street) more, but this is a pretty good film.
Certified Copy (2010) - 8/10 - A British author is giving a speech in Tuscany about his latest book. The book is about original art and copies of original art and whether there is really any difference between the two. A woman is in the front row for the speech, but has to leave due to her son's behavior so she leaves her number with the author's friend. The woman meets with the author the next day and they spend the day driving and walking around to various places. It's an interesting film with a bit of mystery thrown in about their relationship.
Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (2022) - 7.5/10 - In 1969, a 4th grader is recruited by NASA for a special mission to the moon in advance of the Apollo 11 mission in the science fiction fantasy. The film has the man narrating the story of his childhood during this time and it does a pretty good job capturing the feel of the era.
Triangle of Sadness (2022) - 7.5/10 - A male model and his controlling social media influencer girlfriend get invited to take a trip on a yacht with a group of very rich (and not necessarily well behaved) people. Things go well at first, but take a turn for the worse. I didn't really enjoy the opening section of the movie, but started liking it quite a bit more once they got on the yacht
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022) - 7.5/10 - A cleaning woman (and war widow) in 1950s London becomes infatuated with owning a Christian Dior dress and travels to Paris to buy one, making a number of friends along the way. Leslie Manville does a nice job as Mrs. Harris. The movie is old-fashioned and doesn't really add anything new, but it's pleasant to watch and a good way to spend a couple of hours. The costumes are also very nice.
The Fabelmans (2022) - 8.5/10 - I've read various mixed reactions to Stephen Spielberg's film based on his youth, but I enjoyed it. Gabriel Labelle is really good as Sammy Fabelman. I also liked Michelle Williams and Paul Dano as his parents. Judd Hirsch was good in his brief role as Uncle Boris, but it seemed like a very small role to get an Academy Award nomination.
La Chienne (1931) - 8/10 - A middle aged cashier with a domineering wife falls for a pretty woman who happens to be a prostitute who is in love with her pimp. The pimp has the woman start a relationship with the man to try and get money out of him. The cashier paints as a hobby and this also comes into play. I like Fritz Lang's version (Scarlet Street) more, but this is a pretty good film.
Certified Copy (2010) - 8/10 - A British author is giving a speech in Tuscany about his latest book. The book is about original art and copies of original art and whether there is really any difference between the two. A woman is in the front row for the speech, but has to leave due to her son's behavior so she leaves her number with the author's friend. The woman meets with the author the next day and they spend the day driving and walking around to various places. It's an interesting film with a bit of mystery thrown in about their relationship.
Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (2022) - 7.5/10 - In 1969, a 4th grader is recruited by NASA for a special mission to the moon in advance of the Apollo 11 mission in the science fiction fantasy. The film has the man narrating the story of his childhood during this time and it does a pretty good job capturing the feel of the era.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Pathaan (Siddharth Anand, 2023) 8/10
What can you say about the dynamics of a Bollywood action-adventure film in which the breasts of both leading men - the deadly Pathaan (Shah Rukh Khan) and his adversary a rogue RAW agent (John Abraham) - are bigger and more supple than those of their sexy leading lady. The two actors face-off and go shirtless while shamelessly showing off their set of strong bands of muscles lining the walls of their abdomen. A homo-erotic pas de deux where ballet steps are not the order of the day but flexing of muscles and dangling huge guns while riding the rooftop of a bus or hanging off a helicopter turn the bronzed twosome into boys comparing the size of their genitals. Poor Deepika Padukone (as a Pakistani ex-ISI agent) tries hard to attract attention with her enticing dance steps - during the celebrated dance number "Besharam Rang" - using an assortment of flimsy revealing outfits to help in her quest. Truth be told she is a heavenly vision especially in that saffron coloured two-piece bathing suit that caused many Modi-inspired politicians and goons in India to break into a sweat-induced hissy fit as they urged the powers that be to ban the film. Was it that sexy saffron outfit that had them in a tizzy or was it the fact that Shah Rukh Khan, THE Muslim actor, was making his comeback on the big screen after four long years? The fact is that the film is a stupendous hit even if the Director Siddharth Anand channels his own previous film "War" - the slow-mo star entrances (he did that with Hrithik Roshan & Tiger Shroff), the hit song on the waterfront with the sexy babe (Vaani Kapoor did the honours wearing next to nothing) - and for safe measure fearlessly rehashes the "Mission Impossible" and "James Bond" franchises to quite positive results. Shah Rukh is certainly back with a vengeance looking rather grungy with long straggly hair but seriously buffed up as he quips, smiles and plays action hero with aplomb. Lovely Dimple Kapadia is the perfect personification of "M" while both John Abraham and Deepika Padukone are kick-ass during the completely over-the-top action sequences with and without the sometimes wobbly VFX. Hey, this ain't Shakespeare so you need to put logic totally aside before venturing into the film. And then the film pulls out the icing on the cake as a former franchise gets to rub shoulders with this one with the amusing cameo appearance of Tiger (Salman Khan). Its a film with very many paisa vasool moments barring the few moments that sag which one can ignore. Tiger may be zinda but Pathaan is most certainly back!!
Gorky Park (Michael Apted, 1983) 7/10
Helsinki substitutes for pre-perestroika & pre-glasnost Moscow in the film because Russian authorities refused to allow this Hollywood production access to actual locations claiming that the three ruthless murders in Gorky Park that open the story could never have taken place in Russia. Michael Cruz Smith's best-selling novel comes flying through with drab colours and moods hell bent on keeping the plot's tone in perfect sync to that. The police procedural is headed by a methodical and relentless cop (William Hurt intoning with a Brit accent) who deduces the identities of the faceless, bullet-ridden corpses and suspects the involvement of a rich American businessman (Lee Marvin) and a beautiful young woman (Joanna Pacula) who may or may not be connected to the export of sable for its prized fur. After two hours the "Russian" drabness - the architecture, the characters and their moods - begin to grate one's nerves. An eclectic cast of character actors - Brian Dennehy, Ian Bannen, Michael Elphik, Richard Griffiths, Alexander Knox, Ian McDiarmid - bring much needed colour to the proceedings, while Lee Marvin alone brings a strong touch of wit and glamour to the film by way of his performance. Maybe I'm imagining it but the ending has a lovely whiff of Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago" followed by Hurt finally smiling sweetly as he releases the frisky sables as Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake waltz plays dramatically on the soundtrack.
Reunion in France (Jules Dassin, 1942) 7/10
The first of two propaganda war efforts by Joan Crawford (she followed immediately with "Above Suspicion" the following year and was promptly fired by MGM) has her dressed to the nines in gowns by Irene while being flippant with Nazis in Paris. Many moments of the star also very dewey-eyed as she rattles of important dialogue which aims to keep the morale high not just for France but also for the Yanks who were by then finally ensconsed in the thick of war after first trying to avoid being part of the German fracas on the Continent. John Wayne was rather odd casting opposite La Crawford (apparently she tried to seduce him off the set but he did not respond) and appears over 40 minutes into the film. However, it would be the last time he would be billed second to a female co-star. The plot involves a spoiled rich girl (Joan Crawford) - she doesn't ask for cake but initially comes off as superficial and silly as the myth surrounding Marie Antoinette - who arrives in Paris to discover her lover (Philip Dorn) is in thick with the Nazi menace, helps a downed American flyer (a miscast John Wayne), and returns to her lover after discovering some positive news about him. The Nazis are shown as the buffoons they were very much not although the screenplay does manage to create a sense of danger and suspense despite Miss Crawford's impeccably coiffured hair not making a single dent as she is roughed up, and gets to drive a getaway car as Nazi bullets are fired in her direction. Jules Dassin, who is at the helm, would years down the line go on to much greater glory with "Rififi", and with marriage to Melina Mercouri result in her deliciously over-the-top performances in "Never on Sunday", "Phaedra" and "Topkapi" amongst many other films he would lovingly direct for his greek-goddess lover and eventual bride. John Carradine plays a menacing Nazi while Wayne amusingly addresses one particularly nasty one as "bub".
Above Suspicion (Richard Thorpe, 1943) 7/10
Crawford does Nancy Drew in this adaptation of Helen MacInnes' espionage thriller which was in keeping with the WWII propaganda films then prevalent courtesy of Hollywood. Oxford University professor (Fred MacMurray) and his newly wedded wife (Joan Crawford) are roped in by one of his foreign office friends to do a spot of spying on the Continent while on their honeymoon. They are to use clues to find a missing scientist who has developed an antidote to a newly developed Nazi weapon. The game is on and Joan giddily gets into spy mode as if she is at a scavenger hunt. It was her last film at MGM where she was unceremoniously fired before jump-starting her career later at Warners. Adding some heat to the proceedings are Basil Rathbone as the Professor's former schoolmate now the ruthless Gestapo chief and Conrad Veidt (in his last role - he died soon after the film's shoot) who surprisingly plays against type. Typical WWII fluff has the two stars effortlessly traipsing through studio-bound sets depicting Oxford, Paris, Salzburg and the Italian Alps. Great fun!
EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022) 7/10
Skolimowski's film, part narrative and part documentary, is a plea against man's ill-treatment of defenceless animals. It is inspired by and an homage to Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) and follows the life of a circus donkey whose ownership keeps changing hands. The film takes in flashbacks from the donkey's point of view as we see him being loved by his first owner - a beautiful circus performer who is forced to let go of him when townfolk protest against animals in captivity who are made to perform under torture. The circus is forced to sell the donkey who ends up in a sanctuary, is then captured in the streets and becomes a mascot for a football team, gets beaten up by hooligans, is captured by a gang trading in illegal horse and donkey meat, and finally manages to find shelter and peace at the home of a haughty aristocrat (Isabelle Huppert). The film uses drones to photograph the countryside surrounding the donkey in spectacular fashion. The camera sweeps upwards and downwards giving the story an almost romantic visage while the screenplay makes you question man's inhumanity while showing the animal in all its stubborn innocence. The donkey serves as a comment on human behaviour. This Polish film was nominated for an Oscar in the International Feature category.
Armageddon Time (James Gray, 2022) 6/10
Understated, if bittersweet, memory piece looks at a jewish family - Mom (Anne Hathaway), Dad (Jeremy Strong), Grandfather (Anthony Hopkins) - through the eyes of a young impressionable boy whose coming-of-age takes place during the 1980s in Queens, New York. Tough life lessons (race, class, prejudice) and his close friendship with an impoverished young black friend help shape his character into the artist he eventually becomes. Predictable but heartwarming little film is well acted by the entire cast.
What can you say about the dynamics of a Bollywood action-adventure film in which the breasts of both leading men - the deadly Pathaan (Shah Rukh Khan) and his adversary a rogue RAW agent (John Abraham) - are bigger and more supple than those of their sexy leading lady. The two actors face-off and go shirtless while shamelessly showing off their set of strong bands of muscles lining the walls of their abdomen. A homo-erotic pas de deux where ballet steps are not the order of the day but flexing of muscles and dangling huge guns while riding the rooftop of a bus or hanging off a helicopter turn the bronzed twosome into boys comparing the size of their genitals. Poor Deepika Padukone (as a Pakistani ex-ISI agent) tries hard to attract attention with her enticing dance steps - during the celebrated dance number "Besharam Rang" - using an assortment of flimsy revealing outfits to help in her quest. Truth be told she is a heavenly vision especially in that saffron coloured two-piece bathing suit that caused many Modi-inspired politicians and goons in India to break into a sweat-induced hissy fit as they urged the powers that be to ban the film. Was it that sexy saffron outfit that had them in a tizzy or was it the fact that Shah Rukh Khan, THE Muslim actor, was making his comeback on the big screen after four long years? The fact is that the film is a stupendous hit even if the Director Siddharth Anand channels his own previous film "War" - the slow-mo star entrances (he did that with Hrithik Roshan & Tiger Shroff), the hit song on the waterfront with the sexy babe (Vaani Kapoor did the honours wearing next to nothing) - and for safe measure fearlessly rehashes the "Mission Impossible" and "James Bond" franchises to quite positive results. Shah Rukh is certainly back with a vengeance looking rather grungy with long straggly hair but seriously buffed up as he quips, smiles and plays action hero with aplomb. Lovely Dimple Kapadia is the perfect personification of "M" while both John Abraham and Deepika Padukone are kick-ass during the completely over-the-top action sequences with and without the sometimes wobbly VFX. Hey, this ain't Shakespeare so you need to put logic totally aside before venturing into the film. And then the film pulls out the icing on the cake as a former franchise gets to rub shoulders with this one with the amusing cameo appearance of Tiger (Salman Khan). Its a film with very many paisa vasool moments barring the few moments that sag which one can ignore. Tiger may be zinda but Pathaan is most certainly back!!
Gorky Park (Michael Apted, 1983) 7/10
Helsinki substitutes for pre-perestroika & pre-glasnost Moscow in the film because Russian authorities refused to allow this Hollywood production access to actual locations claiming that the three ruthless murders in Gorky Park that open the story could never have taken place in Russia. Michael Cruz Smith's best-selling novel comes flying through with drab colours and moods hell bent on keeping the plot's tone in perfect sync to that. The police procedural is headed by a methodical and relentless cop (William Hurt intoning with a Brit accent) who deduces the identities of the faceless, bullet-ridden corpses and suspects the involvement of a rich American businessman (Lee Marvin) and a beautiful young woman (Joanna Pacula) who may or may not be connected to the export of sable for its prized fur. After two hours the "Russian" drabness - the architecture, the characters and their moods - begin to grate one's nerves. An eclectic cast of character actors - Brian Dennehy, Ian Bannen, Michael Elphik, Richard Griffiths, Alexander Knox, Ian McDiarmid - bring much needed colour to the proceedings, while Lee Marvin alone brings a strong touch of wit and glamour to the film by way of his performance. Maybe I'm imagining it but the ending has a lovely whiff of Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago" followed by Hurt finally smiling sweetly as he releases the frisky sables as Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake waltz plays dramatically on the soundtrack.
Reunion in France (Jules Dassin, 1942) 7/10
The first of two propaganda war efforts by Joan Crawford (she followed immediately with "Above Suspicion" the following year and was promptly fired by MGM) has her dressed to the nines in gowns by Irene while being flippant with Nazis in Paris. Many moments of the star also very dewey-eyed as she rattles of important dialogue which aims to keep the morale high not just for France but also for the Yanks who were by then finally ensconsed in the thick of war after first trying to avoid being part of the German fracas on the Continent. John Wayne was rather odd casting opposite La Crawford (apparently she tried to seduce him off the set but he did not respond) and appears over 40 minutes into the film. However, it would be the last time he would be billed second to a female co-star. The plot involves a spoiled rich girl (Joan Crawford) - she doesn't ask for cake but initially comes off as superficial and silly as the myth surrounding Marie Antoinette - who arrives in Paris to discover her lover (Philip Dorn) is in thick with the Nazi menace, helps a downed American flyer (a miscast John Wayne), and returns to her lover after discovering some positive news about him. The Nazis are shown as the buffoons they were very much not although the screenplay does manage to create a sense of danger and suspense despite Miss Crawford's impeccably coiffured hair not making a single dent as she is roughed up, and gets to drive a getaway car as Nazi bullets are fired in her direction. Jules Dassin, who is at the helm, would years down the line go on to much greater glory with "Rififi", and with marriage to Melina Mercouri result in her deliciously over-the-top performances in "Never on Sunday", "Phaedra" and "Topkapi" amongst many other films he would lovingly direct for his greek-goddess lover and eventual bride. John Carradine plays a menacing Nazi while Wayne amusingly addresses one particularly nasty one as "bub".
Above Suspicion (Richard Thorpe, 1943) 7/10
Crawford does Nancy Drew in this adaptation of Helen MacInnes' espionage thriller which was in keeping with the WWII propaganda films then prevalent courtesy of Hollywood. Oxford University professor (Fred MacMurray) and his newly wedded wife (Joan Crawford) are roped in by one of his foreign office friends to do a spot of spying on the Continent while on their honeymoon. They are to use clues to find a missing scientist who has developed an antidote to a newly developed Nazi weapon. The game is on and Joan giddily gets into spy mode as if she is at a scavenger hunt. It was her last film at MGM where she was unceremoniously fired before jump-starting her career later at Warners. Adding some heat to the proceedings are Basil Rathbone as the Professor's former schoolmate now the ruthless Gestapo chief and Conrad Veidt (in his last role - he died soon after the film's shoot) who surprisingly plays against type. Typical WWII fluff has the two stars effortlessly traipsing through studio-bound sets depicting Oxford, Paris, Salzburg and the Italian Alps. Great fun!
EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022) 7/10
Skolimowski's film, part narrative and part documentary, is a plea against man's ill-treatment of defenceless animals. It is inspired by and an homage to Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) and follows the life of a circus donkey whose ownership keeps changing hands. The film takes in flashbacks from the donkey's point of view as we see him being loved by his first owner - a beautiful circus performer who is forced to let go of him when townfolk protest against animals in captivity who are made to perform under torture. The circus is forced to sell the donkey who ends up in a sanctuary, is then captured in the streets and becomes a mascot for a football team, gets beaten up by hooligans, is captured by a gang trading in illegal horse and donkey meat, and finally manages to find shelter and peace at the home of a haughty aristocrat (Isabelle Huppert). The film uses drones to photograph the countryside surrounding the donkey in spectacular fashion. The camera sweeps upwards and downwards giving the story an almost romantic visage while the screenplay makes you question man's inhumanity while showing the animal in all its stubborn innocence. The donkey serves as a comment on human behaviour. This Polish film was nominated for an Oscar in the International Feature category.
Armageddon Time (James Gray, 2022) 6/10
Understated, if bittersweet, memory piece looks at a jewish family - Mom (Anne Hathaway), Dad (Jeremy Strong), Grandfather (Anthony Hopkins) - through the eyes of a young impressionable boy whose coming-of-age takes place during the 1980s in Queens, New York. Tough life lessons (race, class, prejudice) and his close friendship with an impoverished young black friend help shape his character into the artist he eventually becomes. Predictable but heartwarming little film is well acted by the entire cast.