Rear Window - 9/10
You just don't see this kind of stage business anymore. The double time towards the end was kind of ridiculous, though. Probably my second favorite Jimmy Stewart movie so far, behind Harvey.
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
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Precious Doll
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Breaking the Ice (1938) Edward F Cline 4/10
A Christmas Tale (2008) Arnaud Desplechin 7/10
Heaven and Earth Magic (1962) Harry Smith 5/10
Hildur and the Magician (1969) Larry Jordan 4/10
A Christmas Tale (2008) Arnaud Desplechin 7/10
Heaven and Earth Magic (1962) Harry Smith 5/10
Hildur and the Magician (1969) Larry Jordan 4/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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anonymous1980
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Religulous (Larry Charles) - 3/10
The saying "Do as I say, not as I do" comes to mind. I agree with everything that Maher is saying but what he does is effectively render everybody who comes before the camera a dithering, hypocritical idiot in the wake of the Mighty Maher. This movie could do a lot of good. I still don't like it. And I like his show.
The saying "Do as I say, not as I do" comes to mind. I agree with everything that Maher is saying but what he does is effectively render everybody who comes before the camera a dithering, hypocritical idiot in the wake of the Mighty Maher. This movie could do a lot of good. I still don't like it. And I like his show.
"How's the despair?"
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Precious Doll
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The Strange One (1957) Jack Garfein 8/10
Ben Gazzara gives a crackerjack of a performance in his screen debut. What ever happened to director Jack Garfein. He directed one more film (in 1961) and that's it. Such a shame as this showed a lot of promise.
Mulligans (2008) Chip Hale 6/10
Something of a guilty pleasure. A gay man's wet dream really with some unintentional laughs but easy on the eye in a soap opera sort of way.
13 Frightened Girls (1963 William Castle 6/10
Like most of William Castle's films - silly but lots of fun.
When Ladies Meet (1933) Harry Beaumont 4/10
We Were Dancing 91942) Robert Z. Leonard 4/10
Ben Gazzara gives a crackerjack of a performance in his screen debut. What ever happened to director Jack Garfein. He directed one more film (in 1961) and that's it. Such a shame as this showed a lot of promise.
Mulligans (2008) Chip Hale 6/10
Something of a guilty pleasure. A gay man's wet dream really with some unintentional laughs but easy on the eye in a soap opera sort of way.
13 Frightened Girls (1963 William Castle 6/10
Like most of William Castle's films - silly but lots of fun.
When Ladies Meet (1933) Harry Beaumont 4/10
We Were Dancing 91942) Robert Z. Leonard 4/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
I need work.
Knowing (Proyas) - 4/10
Didn't think the film would really "go there". But it does. Gorgeous Red cinematography and a great youtube-style plane crash. But D-U-M-B.
Ghost Town (Koepp) - 6/10
Cute (adj): A) smart, funny spin on overwrought drama, B) charming little movie I wish we had ten, twenty of each year, C) Ghost Town.
Knowing (Proyas) - 4/10
Didn't think the film would really "go there". But it does. Gorgeous Red cinematography and a great youtube-style plane crash. But D-U-M-B.
Ghost Town (Koepp) - 6/10
Cute (adj): A) smart, funny spin on overwrought drama, B) charming little movie I wish we had ten, twenty of each year, C) Ghost Town.
"How's the despair?"
Well, yeah. You find out he was gang-raped. Pretty significant in examining why he is now selling his body for cash (and not exactly hetero-exclusive from what I recall).
What we gain from that revelation, I think, is better implied. He's clearly running away from something. Why can't we leave it at that and look at him and wonder. The flashbacks of him and his girlfriend and him getting gang-raped add a complexity, I think, the film has in the present tense already.
Beyond these flashbacks though, do we really learn anything from the flashbacks of Joe and his mother, grandmother, life in Church? They feel like source leftovers that shouldn't have been saved in the first place. What I love about Midnight Cowboy is how these two dreamers struggle to stay in the present. Ratso's flashback is absurd but pretty funny - and basically gay. His glorious future is running on the beach with shirtless, beefcake Jon Voight, symbolizing his ability to keep up with him. Midnight Cowboy is about the struggle between love and need that these two men share for each other, and I don't think we really gain anything from Joe Buck's flashbacks. Even those of Crazy Annie and his rape. Or at least nothing that the film really knows how to deal with that it wasn't already doing fine without.
"How's the despair?"
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Big Magilla
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Oy vey, I Never Sang for My Father, mediocre? Hackman is, if anything, co-lead. Melvyn Douglas' performance is absolutely brilliant. Fredric March was probably the only other actor of the day who could have brought that off, and there aren't any around nowadays who could do it. Hackman, Parsons and Dorothy Stickney are all great, but Douglas owns that movie.
Hoffman and Voight were both brilliant in Midnight Cowboy, clear co-leads, neither of whom should be relegated to support under any circumstances.
Three actresses, actually, were talked of for supporting actress nominations. Ruth White, the highly respected Broadway character actress and acting teacher who passed away in December, 1969, whose last film was as a replacement for Ruth Gordon in The Pursuit of Happiness at Robert Mulligan's insistence after Gordon's scenes had already been filmed, was talked up for a posthumous nomination for her relatively small role as Voight's grandmother. Vaccaro, best known as Michael Douglas' girlfriend at the time, was also a possibility, but Sylvia Miles, unknown at the time, was the film's big revelation. People, including Barbara Stanwyck who said she voted for her, were convinced she was a hooker discovered on the streets, who was pretty much playing herself.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1247244304
Hoffman and Voight were both brilliant in Midnight Cowboy, clear co-leads, neither of whom should be relegated to support under any circumstances.
Three actresses, actually, were talked of for supporting actress nominations. Ruth White, the highly respected Broadway character actress and acting teacher who passed away in December, 1969, whose last film was as a replacement for Ruth Gordon in The Pursuit of Happiness at Robert Mulligan's insistence after Gordon's scenes had already been filmed, was talked up for a posthumous nomination for her relatively small role as Voight's grandmother. Vaccaro, best known as Michael Douglas' girlfriend at the time, was also a possibility, but Sylvia Miles, unknown at the time, was the film's big revelation. People, including Barbara Stanwyck who said she voted for her, were convinced she was a hooker discovered on the streets, who was pretty much playing herself.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1247244304
Sabin wrote:Do we gain anything from Joe Buck's flashbacks? Do they serve any purpose?
Well, yeah. You find out he was gang-raped. Pretty significant in examining why he is now selling his body for cash (and not exactly hetero-exclusive from what I recall).
Didn't voters actually think that Sylvia Miles was an old whore? And that was part of the intrigue of voting for her? I thought I remembered hearing something like that.
Edited By flipp525 on 1247243691
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
-Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Greetings from BR, LA.
/Midnight Cowboy/ (dir. John Schlesinger) - 9/10
Do we gain anything from Joe Buck's flashbacks? Do they serve any purpose? We first see him putting on a cowboy costume and heading out to New York to be a street hustler. Clearly A) he has identity issues, and B) he's running from something. If anything, I think his flashbacks are a disservice to the intrigue of the character that Jon Voight creates. Although Dustin Hoffman twitches up a storm (and one of his best), it's Voight who owns this movie with the harder role. You can see him struggle to process through his naivete. Great screenplay and great management of performances, if a bit too over-directed in parts.
I kind of wish that Brenda Vaccaro was nominated in lieu of Sylvia Miles. Both performances are the kind I wish were nominated more often (and with Dustin Hoffman more likely reduced to supporting these days, it's not likely to happen), but Miles' is a rather monstrously iconic performance whereas Vaccaro has the more difficult role and fits more into it.
/Midnight Cowboy/ (dir. John Schlesinger) - 9/10
Do we gain anything from Joe Buck's flashbacks? Do they serve any purpose? We first see him putting on a cowboy costume and heading out to New York to be a street hustler. Clearly A) he has identity issues, and B) he's running from something. If anything, I think his flashbacks are a disservice to the intrigue of the character that Jon Voight creates. Although Dustin Hoffman twitches up a storm (and one of his best), it's Voight who owns this movie with the harder role. You can see him struggle to process through his naivete. Great screenplay and great management of performances, if a bit too over-directed in parts.
I kind of wish that Brenda Vaccaro was nominated in lieu of Sylvia Miles. Both performances are the kind I wish were nominated more often (and with Dustin Hoffman more likely reduced to supporting these days, it's not likely to happen), but Miles' is a rather monstrously iconic performance whereas Vaccaro has the more difficult role and fits more into it.
"How's the despair?"
I agree with you, specially Estelle Parsons and Melvin Douglas. I think Gene Hackman was too stiff.flipp525 wrote:You missed the boat. This film has some beautiful performances that manage to transcend the "datedness". Melvyn Douglas, Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons are all superb.mlrg wrote:I Never Sang for My Father (1970) - Gil Cates
5/10
Rather mediocre and dated film. Gene Hackman clearly is lead. The soundtrack is horrendous.
What I didn't like was how the movie was directed as a whole.