Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Il mare / The Sea (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1962) 8/10

Intriguing film about loneliness is centered around three characters who interact with each other, sometimes with a clash, sometimes with fleetings of eroticism as they each pair off with the other against the third. The desolate setting of these encounters is the dazzling island of Capri during off-season with its empty alleys, streets and hotels. An actor (Umberto Orsini) runs into an aggressive young man (Dino Mele) and they walk, talk, taunt, drink, fight and play games of silence while also attempting to seduce one another. The attempts at seduction are devoid of any sexuality which takes on an erotic charge when suddenly a chic woman (Françoise Prévost) appears. She has come to Capri to sell her magnificent villa and the man initially assumes her to be the woman he is expecting to meet on the island. He embraces her before realizing his mistake which amuses and intrigues her. The screenplay explores the characters' human longing and self-inflicted angst which the director shoots in a very minimilistic manner by emphasizing their actions visually. This is a lot like entering Antonioni's bleak territory except the characters here are more passionate in comparison. Helping to create the right mood for the three actors is the striking cinematography of Ennio Guarnieri and the expressive score by Giovanni Fusco and Ruggero Mastroianni.

Safe Harbour (Bill Corcoran, 2007) 5/10

I wonder if Danielle Steele's sappy books have the same effect as her movie adaptations? The shocking realization that one has so many tears in one's ducts as you watch the corny stories play out across the screen. Two people with various tragedies in their past mope around miserably. She (Melissa Gilbert - speaking with a terrible french accent) has just lost her husband and teenage son in an airplane crash leaving her in a very dark space much to the consternation of her 11-year old daughter. He (Brad Johnson) is a painter whose wife ran off with his best friend and refuses to let their teenage daughter meet him. The two lost souls meet after her daughter befriends him on the beach and gradually love blossoms but not before various other surprising and shocking incidents take place in both their lives. The love affair is conducted on lovely San Francisco locations in mansions in the city and on the beach. Gilbert, who one grew up with watching on tv in "Little House on the Prairie", has shockingly altered her face via cosmetically enhanced lips giving her already protruding teeth more exposure than they need. Johnson has maintained his looks and he makes a good romantic lead opposite her. The material is shamelessly sentimental but if its your thing to watch two people have a romantic fling in beautiful settings while crying every 20 minutes then this is a film for you.

Tony Rome (Gordon Douglas, 1967) 6/10

Sinatra does Bogie in this thriller. A private detective (Frank Sinatra) is hired to find a diamond pin lost by a rich girl (Sue Lyon) and amongst the various seedy characters are the girl's rich parents (Simon Oakland & Gena Rowlands), assorted dead bodies and a "slut" (Jill St. John) who provides help. Sinatra is very good and is surrounded by an excellent supporting cast and lovely Miami locations. One in a series of hard boiled detective flicks that Hollywood revived during the 1960s. Sinatra also filmed a sequel.

Lady in Cement (Gordon Jackson, 1968) 4/10

Tony Rome (Frank Sinatra) finds a woman at the bottom of the sea with her feet in cement. After reporting this to the cops he is hired by a burly man (Dan Blocker) to search for a missing girl who may or may not have some connection to a former gangster's moll (Raquel Welch). Lousy sequel is just too convoluted and uninteresting. Luckily Raquel Welch is around in and out of a bikini.

Darlings (Jasmeet K. Reen, 2022) 9/10

An alcoholic (Vijay Varma) viciously beats his wife (Alia Bhatt) on a daily basis. She tries to reason with him but to no avail. The matter comes to a final head when his beating causes her to lose her baby. Along with the help of her mother (Shefali Shah), who has her own sad story, and a young man (Roshan Matthew) who does odd jobs at the chawl, they band together to teach the violent man a lesson he will never forget. Delicious black comedy takes a wild plunge into hilariously macabre situations as the wicked screenplay takes much needed potshots at domestic violence - the perpetrator here (and everywhere) is very clearly marked as a sniveling coward who needs to be taught as vicious a lesson as he has been giving out to his wife. The four main actors are all outstanding and are helped in great part by the superb screenplay and direction.

Junoon (Shyam Benegal, 1978) 10/10

Based on Ruskin Bond's fictional novella, A Flight of Pigeons, the film is set around the Indian Rebellion of 1857. A feudal chieftain (Shashi Kapoor), with a Muslim Pathan heritage, falls hopelessly in love with a young British girl (Nafisa Ali). His brother-in-law (Naseeruddin Shah) leads an attack on a church and all the British men are massacred including the young girl's father. She is saved by a local man who hides her in a mandir with her Anglo-Indian mother (Jennifer Kendall) and muslim grandmother (Ismat Chughtai). They are later captured and provided shelter by the Pathan in his home much to the anguish of his wife (Shabana Azmi) when he openly declares that he wishes to marry the British girl. Superb drama is brilliantly directed by Benegal, photographed by Govind Nihalani and acted to perfection by a superlative cast including Kulbhushan Kharbanda as a Hindu who has feelings for the Anglo-Indian mother and Sushma Seth as the Pathan's sympathetic aunt. Shashi Kapoor not only acted in and produced the film but also cast his entire family - wife Jennifer Kendall, in bit parts their kids (Sanjana, Karan & Kunal Kapoor) and his in-laws (Geoffrey Kendal as the priest who gets cut down in the church and his wife Laura Liddell as a member of the church congregation). Exciting film has rousing battle scenes, dramatic dialogue (by Ismat Chughtai & Satyadev Dubey) and moments of tender unrequited love.

Bengazi (John Brahm, 1955) 4/10

Low budget adventure film, shot on fake sets, has a shady American (Richard Conte) team up with a morally corrupt Irishman (Victor McLaglen) to search for Nazi gold buried in a derelict mosque in the middle of the desert. The plot follows the path of "The Lost Patrol" as it traps a motley group of people - also a cop (Richard Carlson) and the Irishman's pretty daughter (Mala Powers) - surrounded by marauding bedouins. A waste of the cast's talent.

The Stalking Moon (Robert Mulligan, 1968) 3/10

Boring, slow chase film without an iota of thrills or suspense rendering a capable cast helpless. An army scout (Gregory Peck) and the U.S. Cavalry save a white woman and her half breed son from the Apaches. He reluctantly decides to lead her to civilization and his home in New Mexico while she keeps silently muttering that the boy's father will follow them and strike. The Apache does just that while murdering many innocent people along the way. By the time the final confrontation arrives one is absolutely fed up at the film's slow pace and the Peck character's slow reactions. Robert Forster is lively as Peck's pal but Eva Marie Saint moves through the film in a catatonic state. Skip this dull western.

Like Stars On Earth (2007) - 7.5/10 - Ishaan (Darsheel Safary) is an 8 year old boy who has trouble reading, concentrating, doing math, and even dressing himself. His only real strengths are his imagination and his art. His mind wanders and he gets verbal abuse from his parents and teachers alike. He is sent away to a boarding school where a new art teacher (Aamir Khan) recognizes that his underlying problem is dyslexia and proceeds to help Ishaan overcome his problems. The movie lays things on pretty thick and the teachers are pretty one-dimensional through most of the film. Despite this, I still enjoyed the film and Safary is excellent as Ishaan.

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959) - 7.5/10 - Kaji is a pacifist and humanist during WWII. He takes a job supervising prisoners at a labor camp in Manchuria in hope of improving conditions for them and to avoid being drafted into the army. He finds that his methods are resisted by other Japanese in charge at the camp and disbelieved by the prisoners as well. It's a good film, but I thought it was a little uneven in addition to being too slow at times and too long.

The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959) - 8.5/10 - Kaji has been drafted and he (along with other recruits) suffers abuse from the soldiers training them. Despite this, he perseveres and gets some positive notice for his marksmanship and guts. He later serves on the front line as the war is winding down and the Soviets invade Manchuria. I thought this was a much better film than the first part. The pacing was better and the story kept my interest throughout.

The Human Condition III: A Soldier’s Prayer (1961) - 8.5/10 - Kaji has survived the war, but will he survive the aftermath. He attempts to cross Manchuria with a few comrades and others he picks up along the way in a bid to get home. I still like the second film more, but this one was also very good.

Susana (Luis Buñuel, 1951) 9/10

Sometimes prayers to God do come true for the unbeliever - a voluptuous delinquent (Rosita Quintana) incarcerated in a rat and spider infested jail pleads to be released and miraculously the bars on the window fall and she escapes. Thus begins Buñuel's melodrama as the woman is taken in by a wealthy, pious woman as her maid in a hacienda where she proceeds to wreak havoc in the home of this conservative religious family by sexually enticing the ranch foreman, the God-fearing ranch owner (Fernando Soler) and his bookish son. As in most of Buñuel's films there is an underlying battle going on between sex and religion with the former winning out. This is one of his early films and a full-throttle melodrama oozing sex in the confines of religiosity which ends up in shambles - sex being more powerful than religion. A pulpy battle completely in tune to the taste of the cinema-going public and a paean to the disruptive status of women in a male-dominated culture which is presented in a deliriously over-the-top manner. Minor Buñuel but a delicious winner nevertheless.

El Bruto (Luis Buñuel, 1953) 8/10

An old landlord (Andrés Soler) wants to evict his poor tenants in order to build a house for himself and his much younger wife (Katy Jurado). He hires his bastard son (Pedro Armendáriz) - brawn with no brains - to threaten some of the stronger tenants into leaving and asks him to dump his poor mistress and move in with him. When his brutish actions inadvertently kills one of the tenants he can't help getting involved in a love triangle. He feels sorry for the dead man's daughter (Rosita Arenas) and offers to marry her which causes the landlord's wife to fly into a jealous rage as she secretly lusts after him. Melodramatic story was one of Buñuel's early outputs very different from his later surrealistic films. Here he is served by a topnotch Mexican cast who work at a fever pitch creating sexual sparks. The striking cinematography by Augustin Jiménez evokes german expressionism.

The Spy Who Loved Me (Lewis Gilbert, 1977) 8/10

Possibly Roger Moore's best Bond outing also has one of the best theme songs in the franchise - Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better". When British and Russian submarines carrying nuclear warheads are hijacked, James Bond (Roger Moore) teams up with his KGB counterpart - Major Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) - to ferret out the insipid villain - Stromberg (played by the distinguished Curt Jürgens). The duo globe trot from the ice-capped mountains of St. Moritz to Egypt (where they take in the sights at Giza, Abu Simbel and the Temple of Karnak), and Sardinia (where Bond is chased by a helicopter on the bends of a seaside cliff as he escapes by driving a Lotus Esprit into the sea). Caroline Munro and Valerie Leon provide colorful alternatives for Bond to oogle and tackle while Richard Kiel makes his first appearance as "Jaws". The pre-credit jump off a cliff with the Union Jack parachute took 007's status with the British public from being simply a popular character to one who became a truly iconic British hero. The film received Academy Award nominations for its score (by Marvin Hamlisch), the theme song and production design.

Jalsa (Suresh Triveni, 2022) 8/10

A hit-and-run accident finds various people connected to the tragedy in a compromised situation - a high-powered news anchor (Vidya Balan) who falls asleep at the wheel of her car for an instant, her anguished (and eventually very angry) cook (Shefali Shah) and mother of the victim, the young victim's boyfriend who also leaves the scene of the accident, the cop who tries to hide the camera footage of the accident for personal reasons, the anchor's driver who discovers evidence of the accident on the vehicle and who is in desperate need of money, and a young intern journalist hot on the trail of the story who finds herself blocked by various people. Edge of the seat thriller with towering performances at the center by Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah playing anguished and guilty mothers - the former of a young son suffering from cerebral palsy and the latter of the injured daughter with paralyses of the spine.

Thar (Raj Singh Chaudhary, 2022) 6/10

The set up here has classic Western tropes - a small derelect town in a desert, mysterious murders - a couple is shot dead and a man is found hanging from a tree with an axe imbedded in his chest - two cops (Anil Kapoor & Satish Kaushik) investigate the crimes and wonder what a mysterious stranger (Harshvardhan Kapoor), who claims he is an antique dealer, is doing in town. Set in the arid region of the Thar desert in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent that forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan. The film is deliberately shot, edited and scored like one of the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone. A miscast Anil Kapoor - he looks far too cleancut (actor's vanity?) - adds boxoffice heft to this small film which is actually a showcase for his actor-son who plays the silent stranger. Unfortunately the screenplay (Anurag Kashyap wrote the dialogue) takes far too long in explaining why people are being tortured and killed. Fatima Sana Sheikh shines as a village belle who is quite willing to have sex with the stranger while her despicable husband is away. The film's extended torture-porn sequences are extremely gratuitous.

Morituri (1965) - 7.5/10 - Marlon Brando stars as a German pacifist living in India during WWII. He is blackmailed by a British officer to go aboard a German freighter heading out of Japan. He'll have fake papers to show that he is an SS officer and his assignment will be to prevent the ship from being scuttled so that it (and its cargo) can be captured by the Allies. Brando is good here and Yul Brynner isn't bad in his role as the captain of the freighter. There isn't a ton of action, but it works for the most part.

Northwest Passage (1940) - 8/10 - Spencer Tracy stars as Robert Rogers, a major in charge of colonial soldiers known as Rogers' Rangers who fought with the British during the French and Indian War. The focus is on one particular battle and the aftermath as the men need to cross quite a bit of territory to reach their objective and then return safely home. It makes good use of technicolor and has a few good battle scenes.

In Harm's Way (1965) - 8.5/10 - The film starts just before the attack on Pearl Harbor and then skips ahead a few months. John Wayne stars as a naval captain named Rock whose ship escapes damage in the initial attack and is sent out to find the Japanese fleet. His XO (Kirk Douglas) has marital problems that have a lasting effect on him. Rock becomes involved with a nurse (Patricia Neal) whose roommate is dating Rock's estranged son, a naval Ensign. There are a few nice action scenes, but overall it is just a good drama with nice performances. It probably didn't have to be shot in black and white, but it didn't really detract from the film.

Lunana: A Yak in the classroom (Pawo Choyning Dorji, 2019) 6/10

OSS 117: From Africa With Love (Nicolas Bedos, 2021) 5/10

Infinite Storm (Małgorzata Szumowska & Michał Englert, 2022) 6/10

As They Made Us (Mayim Bialik, 2022) 4/10

Absolute Power (Clint Eastwood, 1997) 8/10

A kinky President of the United States (Gene Hackman) who likes rough sex, a senator's young wife who gets badly beaten up and then gets shot by two trigger-happy secret service men (Scott Glenn & Dennis Haysbert), the wily Chief of Staff (Judy Davis) who covers up the indiscretion and murder, and a police officer (Ed Harris who suspects that something is seriously amiss in the case. Watching quietly through a two-way mirror from within a closet is a cat burglar (Clint Eastwood) who ends up being a witness to the cover-up and crime and ends up being chased by the authorities who are hell bent on silencing him. An understated Eastwood creates loving sparks with Laura Linney as his estranged daughter while Judy Davis is very funny camping it up outrageously. E.G. Marshall, in his last film, is excellent as the devastated senator who finds his nymphomaniac wife is dead because of her tryst with his close friend the President.

Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021) 4/10

Pointless and overlong coming of age story about a 15-year old child actor (Cooper Hoffman) who has hidden talents as an enthusiastic entrepreneur and his love for an enigmatic 25-year old (Alana Haim) who he relentlessly pursues. Both young actors are dazzling and its fun to see the brilliant period recreation of the San Fernando Valley during 1973. It's all very unconventional - which is perfectly fine as it fits in with the mood of the frantic screenplay - but the story just dragged on and on. Also not helping matters are the rather gratuitous appearances by both Sean Pann and Bradley Cooper (as hairdresser and lover of Barbra StreiSAND) in silly plot tangents - of which the film has far too many. The film, director Anderson and the screenplay were nominated for Academy Awards.

To Olivia (John Hay, 2021) 6/10

Touching, if a tad clunky, film based on a traumatic and very tumultuous period in the lives of author, Roald Dahl (High Bonneville) and his wife, Hollywood star Patricia Neal (Keeley Hawes). It's the early 1960s and they are ensconsed in a house in rural England, his book, "James and the Giant Peach", is not a success, their son Theo has recently revovered from severe injuries sustained when his baby carriage was struck by a taxicab in New York City, the couple's marriage is going through a testy period, when their older daughter, Olivia, suddenly dies of measles (there was no vaccine for the disease in 1962). The death causes Dahl to go into a deep depression where he neglects his other two children, his equally grieving wife, and rails against religion during a confrontation with a Church official (Geoffrey Palmer) - an amusing moment where it is implied to them that their deceased child is happy in heaven but her pets will not be allowed next to her as animals are not allowed in heaven. The film shows these events interspersed with Dahl conversing with an imaginary child out of one of his macabre novels. There is finally some moments of respite in their lives when Neal decides to take on, against her husband's wishes, a brief film role offered by Hollywood opposite Paul Newman in "Hud" and Dahl finishes writing " Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". The film wins for Neal an Oscar and the novel brings huge acclaim for Dahl. Bonneville is remarkably transformed through makeup to look like Dahl and superbly convey's the author's prickly demeanor while Hawes fails to come up with Neal's husky voice or southern drawl but instead concentrates on the star's elegance. Roald Dahl's books James and the Giant Peach (1961) and The BFG (1982) were both dedicated to his daughter Olivia. As a result of her death, her father Roald became an advocate for vaccination, and wrote the pamphlet "Measles: A Dangerous Illness" in 1988.

Blacklight (Mark Williams, 2022) 4/10

Yet another Liam Neeson B-flick with a plot done to death many, many times. A government operative (Liam Neeson) and a fixer for the FBI discovers that his outfit could be involved with the killings of innocent American civilians. I did not recognise an overweight Aidan Quinn as the Director of the FBI and the screenplay has many unconvincing scenes with Neeson and his 4-year old grand daugter - the dialogue coming out of the child's mouth is simply too mature for a character of that young age. Many continuity errors.

What a Way to Go! (1964) - 8/10 - Shirley MacLaine stars as woman who tries to give away a fortune to the government and is sent to see a psychiatrist. She tells him about how she has been married and widowed four times, becoming richer and richer along the way. I thought it was very funny and MacLaine does a very nice job.

Paris Underground (1945) - 8/10 - Kitty de Mornay (Constance Bennett) is an American living in Paris and recently separated from her French husband when the German army is approaching the city in 1940. She tries to escape to the south with a British friend (Gracie Fields), but ends up stuck in Paris. The two end up working to help British soldiers escape from occupied territory at great risk to themselves. This is based on a memoir that was published in 1943 about an actual pair of women in Paris. Bennett and Fields very good and so is the film.

Jane Eyre (2011) - 8/10 - I enjoyed this adaptation of the classic novel. It has nice atmosphere, costumes, etc. and the acting of Mia Wasikowska as Jane is excellent. Amelia Clarkson was also pretty good in her smaller role as young Jane.

The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (2013) - 8.5/10 - A 100 year old man climbs out of the window of his room at a retirement home before they can bring in his birthday cake. He heads to the bus station to get out of town and his a series of adventures along the way . We also get flashbacks to his very full life. There are a lot of laughs and it is a fun film with a number of improbable (but entertaining) events along the way. There's also a sequel that I plan to watch, though I've read that it isn't quite as good.

Tammy and the Bachelor (1957) - 8/10 - Debbie Reynolds stars as Tammy, a young woman who lives on a Mississippi River houseboat with her grandfather. The two rescue a man on the river named Peter (Leslie Nielsen) and nurse him back to health. Tammy visits Peter and his upper class family when her father lands in jail and she has quite an effect on the family. Reynolds and Nielsen are very good here and I liked the film very much.

Greg wrote
I only saw Starting Over on TV a long time ago; but, I remember Reynolds' underplayed-disappointed response to Candice Bergan's attempt sing a romantic power ballad to be just hilarious.

That’s probably his best moment because he seems truly disturbed.

Forever Mine (Paul Schrader, 1999) 5/10

Pulp conventions galore in this B-noir that regurgitates that stale chestnut plot - poor guy - a cabana boy (Joseph Fiennes) at a posh Florida resort - who foolishly falls head over his ass in lust with a blonde babe (Gretchen Moll) - she gets to rise out of the sea her breasts covered in a white bathing suit - who sadly and dangerously happens to be married to a rich businessman (since its Ray Liotta we know he will also be kinda psychotic). The film clicks off every familiar trope starting with a hot sex scene which is carefully choreographed to reveal her perfect breasts and his totally hidden assets as they writhe in ecstacy. You know its all fake because neither Fiennes nor Mol break out in a sweat - its sex without sweat. Since she's Catholic she decides to confess her "sin" to her husband which does not bode too well for lover boy. However, you can't keep down a man in lust despite putting him in jail on trumped up charges, then shooting him in the face and leaving him for dead in a construction site. After 14 years he rises like a phoenix, disguises himself as a hispanic and returns to take revenge by legally helping the rich man who is in trouble with the government. He hopes to also win back the wife. The screenplay doesn't quite pull off the second half - for starters Fiennes is badly miscast not only as the stud at the start but especially as the disfigured heavily accented, middle-aged hispanic schemer. Mol is very pretty but the screenplay does not allow her any room for her character to develop while Liotta plays yet another of his vicious psycho roles which he can do in his sleep. Not topnotch Schrader.

A Time For Killing (Phil Karlson, 1967) 5/10

The insanity of war between Union and Confederate soldiers. A Union search party is led by their Major (Glenn Ford) who go after escaped Confederate soldiers. The prisoners come across the Major's fiancé (Inger Stevens) and capture her. Along the way, they kill a Union courier bearing the news that the war is over but the crazed Captain (George Hamilton) hides this fact from his soldiers wanting to continue his killing spree. Violent Western is typical of the genre during the 1960s where the actual period (1865) is conveniently ignored in the case of the leading lady's hairstyle - Inger Steven's blonde flowing bouffant hairstyle is straight out of the Swinging Sixties and her character is around strictly to be attacked, beaten and raped. Harrison Ford's film debut. Blink and you'll miss him. I did.

So Little Time (Compton Bennett, 1952) 9/10

Exquisite little film about a love affair borne out of hatred. In Nazi occupied Belgium during WWII a chateau is partially requisitioned to a German officer (Marous Goring). The home belongs to a resistance fighter who has been captured by the Nazi leaving his old wife and young daughter (Maria Schell) as residents. The girl hates the Germans but is thankful to the brusque officer for helping her mother who is unwell. Gradually these two disparate individuals come together and form a bond that turns to love through their mutual interest in music. Goring's only romantic lead was not favourably received by the British public - the film shows the Germans to be highly cultured, polite and helpful while the Belgian resistance characters are aggressive. The touching love story at the center gives the film its heart helped in great part by the delicate performances by the two leads, the music played on the piano throughout the film (Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, and an aria from Mozart's opera, The Marriage of Figaro, performed on stage by Lucie Mannheim who was Marius Goring's wife playing here his mature former mistress) and Oswald Morris' moody cinematography.

Runway 34 (Ajay Devgn, 2022) 8/10

A pilot (Ajay Devgn), after a hard night of partying and drinking, flies a plane from Dubai to Cochin which gets diverted to Bangalore due to bad weather. However, he tries to unsuccessfully land at Cochin three times after which he proceeds to Trivandrum where unbeknownst to him and his co-pilot (Rakul Preet Singh) - a warning from the control tower fails to reach them - the weather is equally bad but where they attempt to land in zero visibility. Based on a true story, and inspired by the film "Flight", the film's first tense hour depicts the hazardous flight and eventual landing which is superbly acted and directed by the star. The second hour finds the pilot under serious investigation in court by the Aviation authorities for taking undue risks on his flight plan and possibly flying under the influence of alcohol. Amitabh Bachchan, playing to the gallery, takes on Devgn in court, with the latter remaining understated in his performance in contrast to the senior actor who uses his voice and dramatic dialogue to upstage all his scenes. It's interesting to see in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tenure how Bollywood, in small subtle ways, is also playing up toward's the PM's gallery - Bachchan's dialogue is laced with difficult Hindi words which is a complete turnaround from the usual (Muslim) Urdu language long spoken in Indian cinema. Star Ajay Devgn has also started shifting towards projects heavily laced with Hindutva ideology that tend to glorify not only in terms of language but also subject matter as in his previous historical epic which played to the Hindu gallery. Also noticed that the film's credits at the end were in English and Hindi only. Credits in Urdu, which once prominently also appeared in every Indian film, are here completely missing. This is indeed a first and a glaring change during the current political climate in India where all things Muslim are slowly and steadily being eradicated.

Anek (Anubhav Sinha, 2022) 6/10

Sinha's film takes a brave stance in questioning India's claim to be a diverse democracy and being fair towards every ethnicity that is part of the country as a whole. The screenplay explores the "troubles" in the North-East of the country without naming exactly which of the eight states in that region the story is set in. This political film follows the director's recent output where he dealt with communalism in Mulk (2018), casteism in Article 15 (2019), and sexism in Thappad (2020). Here he dives headlong into the violence and racism faced by people in the North-East - it is also a not too subtle nudge at the Kashmir issue which is also a similar kind of trouble the Indian government faces. Unfortunately the screenplay is far too convoluted which comes off disjointed as it tries to balance the various characters involved in the crisis - the blustery government officials (Manoj Pahva & Kumud Mishra) from Delhi who clearly have no sympathy for the local people, an Indian undercover agent (Ayushmann Khurrana) posted in the region to ferret out the trouble makers and make peace between the many separatist groups, and his love interest, a local girl (Andrea Kevichüsa) who is not only the daughter of the prime rebel leader but also an avid boxer who faces racism by not being chosen by the Indian Government to represent the country on a National level - she is deemed too Chinese to represent India. Despite the chaotic nature of the screenplay it at least refuses to judge the local rebels as terrorists and shows them as citizens fighting for some semblance of acceptance. The film is a fascinating failure even though well worth watching to see a part of India that barely gets spoken about or seen.

Gehraiyaan (Shakun Batra, 2022) 7/10

The film keeps showing that old cliché of a giant wave crashing which signifies an orgasm. But its an orgasm borne out of a painful past. Two of the four protagonists conceal problematic parental relationships. Alisha (Deepika Padukone), a yoga instructor, is in a long term relationship with her unemployed boyfriend Karan (Dhairya Karwa). Her cousin Tia (Ananya Panday) is seeing successful businessman Zain (Siddhant Chaturvedi). Alisha has bitter childhood memories of her mother trapped in a bad marriage to her drunk father (Naseeruddin Shah) and who ends up a suicide. Zain has bitter memories of his abusive father. Both hurt souls begin an affair that continues in fits and starts. Many of the scenes are shot like a music video as Deepika and Siddhant make out in the bedroom and on a boat. Various family skeletons lurking in the closet are revealed and the plot takes on a sudden thriller aspect very much like the erotic screen potboilers from the 90s which results in a death followed by an uneasy catharsis. Deepika Padukone stands out in a fine cast and her brief scenes with Naseeruddin Shah crackle with subtle intensity. Surprisingly Ananya Panday holds her own amongst her more accomplished co-stars and gives a mature performance.

Sabin wrote:I could throw Starting Over on one of the Oscar threads but it wouldn't greatly impact my vote. So, despite everything that I liked about it, I'll just say that I found the casting of Burt Reynolds to be just about ruinous to this film's tone. He's far too laid-back for James L. Brooks' dialogue nor can he match Jill Clayburgh's energy.

I only saw Starting Over on TV a long time ago; but, I remember Reynolds' underplayed-disappointed response to Candice Bergan's attempt sing a romantic power ballad to be just hilarious.

There are certain movies that you've sorted of floated around watching (catching in chunks here and there or overseen) that you can basically count it as a viewing. That's what I've done with The Guilt Trip for the last ten years. I felt as though I had basically seen it. Last night, I put off going to see Thor: Love and Thunder and gave The Guilt Trip a watch after an especially stressful conversation with my mother. Full disclosure: I currently have a very stressful relationship with my mother.

This movie has real problems but I've decided that I like it for these simple reasons: we don't get enough movies about mother/adult son relationships, it reminded me of my relationship with my mother, and fuck it if that honestly isn't enough to say it worked for me. Also (and this is a big qualifier), I'm still not tired of Seth Rogen's persona. I'm sure many are but I think he's done as good a job as any of exploring Jewish Elder Millennial rite of passage in grounded comedies as anyone. His movies are rarely a home-run but I'm just endlessly impressed with his output. In The Guilt Trip, he's playing Andy, an "inventor" whose devised an environmentally friendly cleaning product (the terribly named ScieoClean) and is taking it cross-country to put into corporate outlets. Before leaving, he stops off at Joyce, his Mother's (Barbra Streisand) in New Jersey. She is an increasingly closed off, powerfully meddler-y Boomer widow who was never entirely happy in her marriage and whose life is starting to become consumed with regret (btw: switch widow with divorcee and this is my mother), and while there he learns of a special someone in her life before Andy whom she never got over and wonders "What if?" going so far as to name Andy after him. Andy looks this person up, learns he's in San Francisco, asks his mother to tag along with him to do this nice thing for her (or so he thinks), and thus begins The Guilt Trip.

The best way to describe the problems with this film is that it's never entirely dialed in. The script is far too thin and it never quite feels like a full enough journey. It lacks the fullness of journey of Sideways, and too many bits along the way feel like "What if?" sessions (what if they stopped off at the strip club?). The direction is also a bit mismatched to the tone. Anne Fletcher never quite finds the right coverage. It also has a much clearer view of who Andy is rather than Joyce. And that brings us to Barbra Streisand. To the film's strength, she never turns Joyce into a one-note caricature, although there are times in the movie where I think it would have been a bit stronger (and honest) if she had a less Streisand-y oomph to her. In theory, this is a movie where Andy is supposed to learn more about his unassuming mother along the way, and that never quite happens. It's a problem that he learns the big secret at the beginning which, y'know, he has to to launch the journey. That being said, if anyone's going to see this thing, it's because of Streisand in the first place and while I don't think she goes very deep into this role she and Seth Rogen are fun together. I don't think she deserved her Razzie nomination at all.

It has big problems but it's fine. And it served a purpose for me.

I could throw Starting Over on one of the Oscar threads but it wouldn't greatly impact my vote. So, despite everything that I liked about it, I'll just say that I found the casting of Burt Reynolds to be just about ruinous to this film's tone. He's far too laid-back for James L. Brooks' dialogue nor can he match Jill Clayburgh's energy. I'm not sure if Starting Over had greatness in it but with someone else in the Phil Potter role it might've gone down better. His smug face started to wear on me as the film went on. Like, you've gotta find somebody very charming to pull of dunking poor Jill Clayburgh into a dunk tank again and again and making it work. Reynolds can't pull it off. I don't know what Jack Nicholson was doing at the time but we know that he can handle Brooks' dialogue.

I know that James L. Brooks isn't the director of this one but it still feels like his movie. It has this sitcom on a high-wire quality to it, and when his movies aren't cast right it's hard to know who to identify with. I definitely found Reynolds' casting to be problematic in identifying with Phil Potter but I also wondered if Jill Clayburgh and Candice Bergen should've flipped roles. Clayburgh is perfectly adorable but I never quite felt that Bergen brought the manic, narcissistic energy needed for Jessica.

It's a gorgeous-looking film. Pakula doesn't quite have a light energy touch but he directs a handsome film. He's all wrong for moments like when Phil has a panic attack in the furniture store. I generally liked it in spite of what I perceive as glaring flaws.

Operation Mincemeat (John Madden, 2022) 8/10

During WWII in 1943 Churchill (Simon Russell Beale) planned for the Allies to invade Sicily but since it was an obvious target it became imperative to delude the German High Command. So a highly classified ruse was developed whereby a corpse carrying "secret" documents (mentioning an Allied attack in Greece) was dumped off the coast of Spain to be discovered by the Nazis. A team of five was put in place to work out the plan's details - Naval Commander Ian Fleming (Johnny Flynn) - of later "James Bond" fame - a British intelligence officer (Matthew Macfadyen), a jewish lawyer (Colin Firth), his loyal secretary (Penelope Wilton), and a young widowed typist (Kelly MacDonald). Highly atmospheric espionage yarn is based on a true story with a screenplay that is talky, very dry but not without flashes of great wit. The romantic subplot - a love triangle between Firth, Macdonald and Macfadyen - is carefully intertwined into the suspense-filled main plot which is entirely played out in board rooms, offices, homes and inside nightclubs. Strongly acted film has topnotch production values.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Tom Gormican, 2022) 7/10

Hollywood actor Nick Cage (Nicolas Cage) is going through a career lull - he has been working constantly mainly making junk - has an angry ex-wife and a neglected and very disappointed teenage daughter. When he decides to retire after losing a couple of important roles his agent (Neil Patrick Harris) gets him a gig at a huge salary to go attend the birthday party of a super-fan - a billionaire (Pedro Pascal) in Majorca who may be an arms dealer the CIA is after. Cage milks this bat-shit crazy scenario for all its worth with his past screen roles emerging a mile a minute which is a Cage fanboy's dream come true. It moves predictably into action-comedy mode when the daughter is kidnapped and Cage and his fan-buddy team up to confront the real arms dealer. And let's not forget that delicious piece of audition dialogue the actor gets to use at a very tense moment which does not bring on a standing audition but certainly is an excellent accompaniment to flying bullets. The film's most shocking moment comes at the end with a brief appearance by Demi Moore. Wtf has she done to her face? Why don't these stupid actresses in Hollywood - and other regular women - "get" that putting their face under a knife or injected with fillers and other chemicals make them look grotesque. Cage seems to have also proved that if you keep churning out dreck your career will one day return to its former peak. This and a couple of recent films seem to be taking the actor in the right direction.

The Last Flight of Noah's Ark (Charles Jarrott, 1980) 6/10

Walt Disney, two precocious stowaway kids (one of them the insufferable Ricky Schroder), a prim missionary (Geneviève Bujold), a jaded pilot (Elliott Gould) being chased by creditors, a WWII Boeing B-29 Superfortress, a plane load of farm animals. Mix it all up and add on a crash landing on an uncharted island inhabited by two Japanese soldiers who think the war is still going strong. The pilot and the lady start off icy but are soon canoodling, Shroder is cocky and sheds tears like a tap, the group befriend the two soldiers and turn the crashed plane into a boat in order to return to civilization. Utterly predictable but charming little action-adventure also throws in a shark attack and a storm at sea. Old fashioned fun.

Damien wrote
As memorable a portrayal of someone standing on the cusp of adulthood as there's been on screen, she enthusiastically gets my vote for a great performance in Woody Allen's greatest film -- and the best movie of 1979, edging out Blake Edwards's 10.

Well, now I have my answer.

Yes, Damien had a soft spot for Blake Edwards whom he had interviewed at some point. He could no wrong in Damien's book. He even defended his atrocious casting of Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's, which even Edwards admitted in later years was a mistake.