Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Big Magilla wrote
Shelley Winters' over-the-top Jewish mother was widely praised at the time. She was nominated for both a Golden Globe and a BAFTA and was widely expected to land a fifth Oscar nomination for the role.

A nomination would have been fine. Shelley Winters is fun in the role. I wish that the film gave her more to do besides being an overbearing Jewish mother, like perhaps creating more contrast between her and Larry's girlfriend.

Looking at the eventual lineup of 1976, it's pretty clear that voters back then do what they do now with supporting categories. They generally watch a handful of movies, some performances are lucky enough to benefit from coattails, while others suffer from voters just not seeing their films. Alexander, Foster, and Straight were in Best Picture nominees, Lee Grant was a previous winner in a big epic that was widely seen to my understanding, not especially beloved, but at least seen. And voters saw Sissy Spacek in Carrie so they saw Piper Laurie.

You could have put Next Stop, Greenwich Village into the Best Supporting Actress of 1976 forum.

Shelley Winters' over-the-top Jewish mother was widely praised at the time. She was nominated for both a Golden Globe and a BAFTA and was widely expected to land a fifth Oscar nomination for the role.

Lenny Baker's breakout role was supposed to make him a star but didn't, although it did lead to Broadway's I Love My Wife for which he won a Tony in the featured actor category in 1977 even though he was the show's star. He continued in guest starring roles on TV until he died of AIDS at 37 in 1982 the year Ellen Greene finally broke through in the off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors.

I spent the last week watching a few Oscar-ish blindspots like Save the Tiger, Joe, and Klute. I've written about the former in two other forums. I haven't written about Klute yet. I wish I had seen it on the big screen as it's just such a beautiful-looking film. I've been trying to figure out why it reminds me of a Soderbergh film in some ways on a structural level.

I can't put Next Stop, Greenwich Village in any of those forums because it doesn't have any nominations to its credit. I've always been intrigued by the titles due to the warmness of its VHS cover image, its title, and the hopes of what it might be. I think Damien was a fan of it. Last night, I watched it on my television from YouTube, and found it to be a generally rewarding experience but not one that lived up to my expectations. Had I seen it on the big screen, its time and place might have done a little more heavy-lifting. The biggest problem that I had with this vignette-ish film is the main character of Larry Lapinski. How was he supposed to change, especially once he's within this group of actors? We're introduced to him on his way out the door on his quest to be an actor and meets up with a girlfriend that he already has, is either introduced to new friends or he already knows them (I don't recall), and sort of bullshits around while waiting for something to happen. The closest reason I can think of to wanting Larry to succeed is because in theory he's funny... except I didn't quite find him to be a charming presence. In theory I admire the decision not to make him too wide-eyed or likable, but if Larry Lipinski isn't in over his head then I don't quite know what journey we're supposed to be watching. At one point, his group of actors inform him that he overthinks and over-intellectualizes everything. As played by Baker, that's not quite apparent. He's pretty arrogant and not always charming, although that quality might be enhanced by Lenny Baker who lends Larry a delusional quality that occasionally seems perhaps a bit more manic than Mazursky intended, and instantly as eccentric as his group of friends. I wonder if Richard Dreyfus might have been more appropriate? But if Larry's problem is supposed to be his arrogance (also workable) then shouldn't he be confronted by it more? I don't know how Larry is supposed to be changed over the course of the film or what we're supposed to learn about this scene.

Also, a movie like this kind of lives and dies on its portrait of Greenwich Village and it's not a very memorable portrait. I wish Larry's friends demonstrated a bit more eccentricity than we were privy to beyond just hanging around. I don't know if these people aren't doers for reasons of laziness, budgetary restrictions, or lack of imagination on Mazursky's part but I think there's a reason none of them are terribly fondly remembered beyond "Did you know that Christopher Walken was in this?" By the end as he goes off for Hollywood, I know he's earned his mother's respect and that matters but I don't know what change she's seen in him beyond the fact that her husband has yelled at him.

There's a better movie in this material, I know it. It fails some basic fish out of water questions. That said, I think it demonstrates that at a certain point, fish out of water stories have to become something else. Look at Breakfast at Tiffany's. It eventually becomes about Holly's past and her relationship with Paul. Look at Mistress America, a weird film. Tracy is out of her element at school until she finds Brooke and has a compass, but eventually Brooke overtakes the story. The closest I can think of to a story in Next Stop, Greenwich Village is Larry's relationship with Sarah but she's such a downer that it doesn't work. They're already established as knowing each other in the beginning of the film to the point where much of the first half of the second act is devoted to her abortion.

6/10 but grateful for the education.

Andrei Rublev (1966) - 8/10 - The movie is based loosely on the life of a Russian icon painter. Life in the early 1400s could be pretty brutal.

Manon of the Spring (1986) - 8/10 - This sequel to Jean de Florette takes place about a decade later. Manon was a young girl in the first film, but is all grown up and beautiful now. She has an admirer in Ugolin, but she wants nothing to do with him after what Ugolin and his uncle did to Manon's father. Manon discovers a way to take vengeance on the men and follows through with it, disrupting life in the town as a consequence.

Napoleon (1927) - 8.5/10 - Gance's film is epic in scope and yet only covers until 1796 and films about the rest of his life didn't get made. There are a lot of cool techniques employed in the film and I liked both actors who played Napoleon (as a youth and as an adult).

Jurassic World: Dominion (Colin Trevorrow, 2022) 5/10

The set up of the story is long, tedious, talky and a bore. Fatal mistake as the franchise comes alive when humans become food fodder for the mighty dinosaurs. Both man and beast are trying to co-exist as the film begins. Familiar faces from the first film turn up - the paleobotanist (Laura Dern), the mathematician (Jeff Goldblum) and the paleontologist (Sam Neill). From the second part of this trilogy returns the clone created by the original scientist who first leashed dinosaurs onto the world. Keeping her hidden from the government (and other assorted rogues) are the enthologist (Chris Pratt) and his girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) - the star duo in this second JP trilogy - who now play Daddy and Mommy to the resentful teenager. And then the kid is kidnapped by the CEO (Campbell Scott) of a Genetics company and one hour into this film we get the first action packed set-piece involving a chase through the narrow streets in Malta as a number of velociraptors are unleashed. And then arrives the mighty T-Rex. A number of them - leading to moments repeated from previous episodes of the franchise as they roar, chase and bite. I believe the producers (Spielberg?) have plans to come up with yet another film although the franchise is finally beginning to creak and groan under its repetitious weight.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (David Dobkin, 2020) 4/10

This thing just lies there like dead meat. None of the jokes land and like the main character - an Icelandic singer - this film is mostly embarrassing. Lars (Will Ferrell) and Sigrit (Rachel McAdams), friends since childhood, make music together as the band Fire Saga with a dream to enter the Eurovision Song Contest. He is a complete moron and gets ridiculed by his "handsome" father (Pierce Brosnan) who feels his son should be doing something constructive with his life. Sheer luck gets them chosen to perform as the band from Iceland and the duo land in Edinburgh where both form alliances with the opposite sex while they rehearse, argue and feel jealous of each other. Dan Stevens is amusing as he lays it on thick as a sleazy-suave Swedish singing sensation who wants to jump McAdams. Lifeless film just goes on and on with its only saving grace being the appearance by a number of actual song contestants from past Eurovision contests. Some of the song sequences are also good with the lovely ballad - "Husavik" - nominated for the Academy Award. McAdams' singing is dubbed by Molly Sandén under the stage name "My Marianne".

RRR (S. S. Rajamouli, 2022) 4/10

This film HAS to be taken as pure fantasy in order to digest the images on screen. Nothing on screen has an iota of realism. Action-packed story is set in 1920 India during the British Raj with the kidnapping of a little village girl - courtesy of the sadistic wife (Alison Doody) of the Governor (Ray Stevenson) - acting as the catalyst to bring two revolutionaries in direct conflict with each other. A hefty villager (N. T. Rama Rao Jr) sneaks into town to rescue the girl and ends up enchanting a British lady who invites him to a party at the Governor's mansion. THIS plot point REALLY takes the cake, as in reality the British had a fixed rule - dogs and Indians not allowed anywhere near the "club". Meanwhile a senior Indian cop (Ram Charan), in the pay of the British, is tasked with finding the rebel who he ends up befriending instead after a death-defying set piece involving a child who they save. Then it gets more absurd as the two Indians get to do a song and dance number amongst the British at a party where later the villager attacks with a truck load of ferocious CGI infested animals. We get a long flashback showing the cop as a child who was urged by his patriot father (Ajay Devgn) to keep up the fight against the white man. The two men are either fighting each other or involved in a bromance as they are beaten, tortured and imprisoned with the hilarious moment where the cop with broken knees is rescued by his friend from solitary confinement, sits on his shoulder and they rampage through the guards who get blown to bits via two shotguns. The film has broken boxoffice records and it was a chore to sit through - took me three days to finish it. Bollywood star Alia Bhatt cameos in this Tollywood production as the saintly amour of the cop, who like Christ, comes to the villager's rescue. The film gets 4 points for the audacity of some of the scenes. Both lead actors are treated like gods in South India and like most actors from that region the acting tends to be over the top matching the action they get to perform.

Interceptor (Matthew Reilly, 2022) 4/10

When terrorists take over a remote interceptor station in the Pacific - the place is used to intercept any nuclear warhead launches - a plucky US Army officer (Elsa Pataky) takes on the leader (Luke Bracey) head-on with human casualties on both sides. Tired plot done to death many times over with the added bonus of gender politics and social issues trying to make it seem fresh. Pataky, who is the wife of Chris Hemsworth (who cameos as a salesman in a store), gives a very physical performance usually reserved for the likes of such B-movie heroes like Chuck Norris, Dolph Lundgren, Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Last Seen Alive (Brian Goodman, 2022) 5/10

Familiar plot allows king of the B-films - Gerard Butler - to do his thing. A couple, on the verge of a divorce, are driving to her parents' home when she disappears when they stop for gas. He searches frantically, calls in the cops and finds himself to be a suspect in his wife's disappearance. On his own he begins to investigate and via closed circuit camera footage discovers his wife talking to a man she is familiar with. The hunt is on. Will he find her alive? Who is the man she was seen talking to? Despite all the potholes in the screenplay the film maintains suspense until the slightly confused ending. A disheveled Butler follows in the footsteps of Harrison Ford (Frantic), Kiefer Sutherland (The Vanishing), Kurt Russell (Breakdown), and Liam Neeson (Taken) in playing a man who has a wife go missing.

The Firefly (Robert Z. Leonard, 1937) 5/10

For a change Jeannette MacDonald plays an ordinary woman and not a "lady" so comes off looking very real. She plays "Firefly", an undercover spy, for the King of Spain during the Napoleonic era and tries to fool the french Captain (Allan Jones) she loves into convincing his General (Henry Daniell) of false information so the Duke of Wellington gets the edge over Napoleon during the war. The film is an adaptation of the operetta of the same name by composer Rudolf Friml and librettist Otto A. Harbach that premiered on Broadway in 1912. So we get MacDonald and Jones in high voice which they were famous for. The famous "Donkey Serenade" is sung by Jones. Superb MGM production values accompany the two stars.

The Strange One (Jack Garfein, 1957) 8/10

The entire acting and technical staff on the film are alumini from the famed Acting Studio in New York with Ben Gazzara, George Peppard and Julie Wilson (as a prostitute) making their film debuts. The theme of the story, based on the novel and play - "End as a Man" - by Calder Willingham, revolves around the dehumanization associated with the tradition of hazing at a Southern military college. A young cocky sergeant (Ben Gazzara) uses his family influence, his own senior rank and the institution's tradition to viciously bully junior students and hold them in a vice-like grip. When he gets the son of a staff member drunk and who is then expelled the other students finally decide to pull him down once and for all. The film famously got censored due to homoerotic content although the film version was not as sensational as the play. Gazzara gives a mesmerizing performance as the sadist harboring homosexual tendencies which he hides under a macho exterior. Extremely dark film is heavy going but extremely well acted by Pat Hingle, Peppard, and the entire cast playing assorted cadets.

Hit the Deck (Roy Rowland, 1955) 7/10

Not a very original plot which like " Anchors Aweigh" and "On the Town" is about sailors on shore leave and their romantic shenanigans in San Francisco. Chief Mate (Tony Martin) is marriage-shy much to the annoyance of his tap-dancing girlfriend (Ann Miller). Junior sailor (Russ Tamblyn), secretly the son of an Admiral (Walter Pudgeon), gets into trouble defending his sister (Jane Powell) from a lecherous married man (Gene Raymond) with whom she is auditioning for a show. Meanwhile he is in love with a dancer (Debbie Reynolds) and his sister hooks up with his sailor buddy (Vic Damone). Second-tier MGM musical is bouncy upbeat fun with lots of singing and dancing, comic moments with Raymond and the sensational Ann Miller who steams it up in "The Lady From the Bayou" dance number before joining the entire cast in the finale, "Hallelujah", where she tap dances with the troops. Filmed in cinemascope and stunningly shot in color by George Folsey.

Father of the Bride (Gary Alazraki, 2022) 7/10

After "Crazy Rich Asians" we get its equivalent with Crazy Rich Hispanics doing their thing at an ostentatious wedding. Vulgar rich? Yes, but with deep-rooted Hispanic culture coming through just as it did with the Asians. The story is that old chestnut - based on the 1949 novel by Edward Streeter - dragged out yet again after the successful versions in 1950 where Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennet gave away their daughter Elizabeth Taylor in marriage and in 1991 where Steve Martin and Diane Keaton similarly gave away Kimberly Williams. The father's angst at the thought of his baby girl getting married and leaving home is the story's main plot with the comic moments set around the wedding's planning. Here we get a slight twist as the bride's parents ( Andy Garcia & Gloria Estefan) are planning to get divorced when their daughter (Adria Arjona) suddenly announces her engagement and plans of an immediate wedding. Chaos ensues as the wedding plans go awry - a storm brews up threatening total disaster, the families do not see eye-to-eye, assorted colorful relatives pipe in, the disastrous attempts of the wedding planner - flamboyant Martin Short from the 1991 version is sorely missed. There is catchy Latin infused music and dancing and many tear-inducing sentimental moments which all add to a delightful romantic comedy. Garcia and Estefan lead an outstanding hispanic cast in this fun remake.

Downton Abbey: A New Era (Simon Curtis, 2022) 7/10

The film is a happy excuse to bring back these characters who are familiar and feel like family. The tone at the start is rightly set by the Dowager Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith) who summons her family and announces she has inherited a villa in the South of France bequeathed to her by a former paramour 60-years before. Invited by the villa owner's son for a visit some members of the family accompany Lord (Hugh Bonville) and Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern) to France to inspect the palatial estate. The owner's wife (Nathalie Baye) is not pleased at giving up her seaside home but her son wants to honour his late father's wishes. Lord Grantham is put in an awkward situation wondering if he is the product of his mother's liaison with the french count. Meanwhile back home their house is invaded by a movie company which arrives to shoot a film on the premises against a huge sum of money which is needed for the estate's repairs. The downstairs staff get to play extras in the film, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) finds herself smitten with the director (Hugh Dancy), Barrow the butler (Robert James-Collier) finds the possibility of a life partner in the film's silent star (Dominic West), possible cancer rears its ugly head for Lady Grantham), Carson (Jim Carter) the former butler gets summoned back to his old job and the movie ends with a funeral and a lot of tears. Like the previous big screen film it all seems rushed with the characters getting very brief moments to shine. Breezy, innocuous but charming little film has outstanding production values and is strictly for fans of the show who are willing to get pulled by the heart strings.

Music in My Heart (Joseph Santley, 1940) 5/10

Rita Hayworth's first musical is more a vehicle for the popular singer Tony Martin who didn't quite make it big on the screen. Actor-Crooner (Tony Martin), about to be deported, meets up with a gorgeous girl (Rita Hayworth) when their taxis collide. Both miss their boat - he was being sent back home while she was joining her rich fiancé (Alan Mowbray) for the voyage and marriage. As in all such old fashioned romances the two immediately click and fall in love. Innocuous little film did nothing for either star - Hayworth would finally make a dent the following year - but it has amusing bits by the three character actors in the cast - Mowbray as the jilted older lover, Eric Blore as his valet-butler and George Tobias as a phony Russian chef. Martin sings the Oscar nominated song, "It's a Blue World".

The Ski Bum (Bruce D. Clark, 1971) 2/10

A guest relations manager (Charlotte Rampling) at a ski resort gets her boyfriend (Zalman King) a job to teach hotel guests how to ski. He soon finds that everyone finds him interesting - some want to jump into his bed (including a 12-year old girl which comes off creepy and forced) while some want him to run errands for them or supply them drugs. King sleep walks through the entire film and is not helped by a vapid screenplay. One of numerous trippy films made during that period. Lovely Rampling is stoic throughout but has really nothing much to do as the story revolves around the boring ski bum. King later gained fame as director of a number of soft-porn movies. Superbly shot by Vilmos Zsigmond on Colorado lications.

Shoah (1985) - 8/10 - A powerful 9.5 hour long documentary about the Holocaust with interviews of numerous survivors and also some of the Germans and others involved with the camps or trains.

Paris, Texas (1984) - 8/10 - A man walks out of the desert in Texas, seemingly mute and with memory loss. His brother starts bringing him back to himself and the reasons for his four year absence eventually come out. The film is kind of a slow burn, but is pretty good.

The World of Apu (1959) - 8/10 - Apu has graduated and dreams of being a writer, but has no job or money. He gets talked into marrying a girl and things go well for a while until the don't. I think certain things could have been developed more, but I did like this one a bit more than the earlier parts of the trilogy.

The Ascent (1977) - 8/10 - Two soldiers are sent out into a bleak winter landscape to search for food and supplies for a group of partisans and refugees from the Germans during WWII. Their journey will cause them to discover what type of person they are inside. I liked the first half of the film more than the second half when it became more philosophical.

Greg wrote
One stunning irony is that Matt Damon narrates this; and, Damon just recently has been the celebrity spokesperson for crypto.com.

That's wild.

The Best of Youth (2003) - 9/10 - The film starts in the 1960s with two brothers - Nicola and Matteo. They are pretty close, but their paths soon diverge as Nicola becomes a psychiatrist and Matteo joins the army and later the police. We get to see nearly 40 years of Italian history through their family. It's a very long film at over 6 hours, but it didn't feel long to me. It kept my interest throughout and was very well done.

Inside Job - Charles Ferguson - 2010

This is a catch-up viewing as it is among the acclaimed/popular movies of the last decade or so that I had still not seen.

It is a documentary about what led to the 2008 financial-collapse/Great-Recession and the reaction to it and dealing with it. Despite following the documentary trope of being comprised mostly of talking heads, voice-over narration, and archival footage, it manages to create quite compelling drama, almost as if it was a narrative film. Much of this comes from simply allowing "experts" to hang themselves with their own words while they are being interviewed.

I am glad that the film dealt with how money from wealthy finance bigwigs not only buys off politicians but also university economics departments; however, I wish it expanded on this to show how this money not only corrupted government policy leading to reckless financial deregulation, but, also how it corrupted academic economics leading to fraudulent teaching of the way the economy actually works. There was a very small hint of how this financialization not only leads to bubbles and busts, but, also how it saps the economy's productive capacity, when an interviewee states that physical engineers build bridges while financial engineers build dreams that turn into nightmares. It is too bad a lot more time was not devoted to this.

This is one of the slickest-looking documentaries I have seen. While much is a result of simply interviewing many wealthy people in luxury offices, a lot is also owed to aerial photography of New York City. I thought this photography was more stock footage; but, when I read the end credits I did see that the film employed its own aerial photographers and even helicopter pilots.

One stunning irony is that Matt Damon narrates this; and, Damon just recently has been the celebrity spokesperson for crypto.com.

8.5/10

Once Upon a Time in America (1984) - 8/10 - A big gangster film that takes place in multiple time periods with much of the action taking place during Prohibition or shortly thereafter plus 35 years later. Overall, I thought it was a good movie, though I'll admit to starting to get bored with the 1960s era at times. There were other negatives, but they were outweighed by the positives.

Diabolique (1955) - 8.5/10 - The owner of a boarding school is a mild mannered woman who teaches at the school. Her husband is the principal and can be cruel. His mistress is also a teacher there, but she gets along with the man's wife. The two women decide to murder the husband, but something funny starts happening when the body disappears. This is a nice thriller with good performances. I had guessed what was going on earlier in the film, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment.

Le Trou (1960) - 8.5/10 - Four prisoners in a particular prison cell have been planning an escape for quite some time. Their plans may be in jeopardy when another inmate is transferred into their cell due to construction at the prison. The film features quite a bit of interesting preparations as the prisoners put their plan into motion. It's a very nice film.

High and Low (1963) - 8/10 - An executive for a shoe company is about to leverage all he has to take over the company so that he can push it in the direction that he want. Before this deal is complete, his young son's companion, the son of the man's chauffeur, is kidnapped and a huge ransom is demanded. This is a very nice Akira Kurosawa drama with plenty of police work in tracking down the kidnapper. The police work manages to be pretty interesting.

Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2022) 7/10

The world's biggest movie star - Tom Cruise - returns to the big screen after a delay of four years courtesy the global pandemic. I saw Top Gun in real time way back when it came out but was never a fan of the film. Or of the star. However, I found myself closely awaiting the sequel's release and it must be old age - I'm a month older than the star - that has made me agreeable to the idea of not only this sequel but was actually looking forward to seeing the star back on screen. Not withstanding all the film's clichés and the plot points which one could see coming from a mile away this movie delivers big time. Starting with the star himself who is still extremely trim and fit but finally and thankfully with age lines around his familiar face which give him character. I loved the way how the camera closes in on him - as he smiles, smirks, sports his eye-glasses - in the old fashioned Hollywood way where the star gets the full glamour treatment. The generic plot has Maverick's old flight-foe turned mate, Iceman (Val Kilmer), a retired Admiral, who ropes him in as instructor to a group of top gun graduates to train them to fly into an unnamed country - the script seems to imply "Russia" - and why not, since they are once again Enemy # Uno for the (Wild) West after attacking Ukraine - and after a death-defying flying course through difficult terrain bomb the enemy and their uranium reserves. There is also a return to the past and a misunderstanding with one of the young flyers who is the son of "Goose", Maverick's deceased buddy from the first film. A very mature Jennifer Connelly plays the love interest and its wonderful to see two actors of a certain age play lovers on screen with superb chemistry and a far cry from the more common but ridiculous teaming of older male stars opposite much younger female starlets. The film is replete with expected jingoistic moments - and the usual rivalry-banter between the younger crop of characters - but surprisingly has many emotional moments scattered throughout as well. All the brief scenes with and about Val Kilmer are tear inducing as friendship, loyalty and bromance get highlighted. There are telling brief bits by Ed Harris and Jon Hamm as senior officers sceptical about Maverick. The final daring mission is the film's pièce de résistance as the low altitude flights and the dogfights take on an exhilarating high helped in great part by a heady mix of cinematography, sound, editing and superb visual effects. Cruise and company have delivered a sequel they can be proud of.

Scarlet Thread (Lewis Gilbert, 1951) 5/10

Shifty cockney pickpocket (Laurence Harvey) teams up with a one-armed, well-mannered college educated crook (Sydney Tafler) and participates in a jewel robbery that goes wrong and ends up with a murder. On the run the two men end up at Cambridge University and hide out in the home of the dean where the cockney seduces the old man's daughter (Kathleen Byron). Based on a play the thriller soon runs out of steam as the two crooks end up squabbling. What isn't too clear is if the older crook is jealous because he fancies the woman too or is he jealous of the woman because he has a crush on the cockney. Byron shines as the spinster who opens up after being seduced. Stiff B-film set in claustrophobic surroundings at Trinity College Cambridge.

A Rumor of Angels (Peter O'Fallon, 2000) 6/10

Lonely boy, grieving for his dead mother and neglected by his mostly absent father (Ray Liotta), befriends an eccentric old widow (Vanessa Redgrave) who gradually draws him out of his shell. Banal little film gets a lift with the presence of the remarkable Redgrave - tall, tough and abrupt - and the lovely Maine location. The plot points dealing with the supernatural are erratic and luckily do not intrude into the sparkling relationship between the boy and the old lady. Liotta and lovely Catherine McCormack (as the boy's stepmother) stay mostly on the periphery of the story until the end when the obligatory reconciliations take place.

The Gingerbread Man (Robert Altman, 1998) 5/10

Altman is an odd choice as director to be involved in a John Grisham thriller. Quirky film has tons of atmosphere - an approaching hurricane adds to the ominous goings on - but Branagh's southern drawl comes off very annoying even if it sounds authentic. One loses track of the plot listening to Branagh talk with that accent. Successful lawyer (Kenneth Branagh), known for getting crooks off in court, comes to the help of a waitress (Embeth Davidtz) who wants her crazy dad (Robert Duvall) put away. When the old coot escapes after he is incarcerated the lawyer comes under threat - a car blows up, his already troubled relationship with his ex-wife (Famke Janssen) comes to a boiling point when he first takes his two kids from school without her permission - there were threats to their lives - and later gets into a chase when the kids are kidnapped from him. Helping him is his trusted assistant (Daryl Hannah) and a seedy private eye (Robert Downey Jr.) while lurking around is the woman's ex-husband (Tom Berenger) who hates her. Ludicrous plot keeps getting worse as it goes along with coincidences piling up leading to a twist ending one saw coming up from a mile away.

Stop Making Sense (1984) - 9/10 - Great music with the Talking Heads and a great show as well.

A Silent Voice: The Movie (2016) - 8/10 - Shoya and some of his classmates bullied a deaf girl named Shoko when they were in elementary school. Shoya took the blame for the whole thing and was then ostracized and bullied himself for years after. He's remorseful and is contemplating suicide, but decides to try and reconnect with Shoko in order to apologize first. The film is a bit slow at times, but is a good adaptation of the manga.

Foo Fighters: Back and Forth (2011) - 9/10 - A nice documentary looking at the formation of the band, how they function as a group, and a bit about the creation of their albums. Lots of interviews, concert footage, and practice footage.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) - 8/10 - A fun movie starring Angela Lansbury as a woman studying to be a witch through a correspondence course. She has to take in three young children who have been evacuated from London during WWII and they soon learn of her abilities. There is music, humor, and an enjoyable film.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) - 8/10 - Tom Cruise returns as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, the aging pilot who is still a captain, even after decades of service. He is called back to Top Gun to serve as an instructor for a special mission. He also has to face people and memories from his past. It's a good movie and hits a lot of the right chords, though I thought it was a bit predictable. It is still solidly entertaining and fun.

The Little Kidnappers (1953) - 8/10 - Two young boys arrive in Nova Scotia from Scotland to live with their grandparents after the death of their father in the Boer War. Their stern grandfather is feuding with a neighbor that he accuses of stealing his land. The brothers get caught up in this feud a bit before coming across an abandoned baby. This is a nice film that takes place in 1904.

Gun Crazy (1950) - 8.5/10 - Bart grew up crazy about guns and became an excellent shot, but didn't want to hurt anybody. He falls for a lady sharpshooter that he meets at a carnival and the two later go on a major crime spree. This is a very nice film noir.

Le Corbeau (1943) - 8.5/10 - Somebody in a town in France starts sending out poison pen letters slandering a local doctor and also accusing others of improprieties. The people in the town are greatly disturbed and search for the author of the letters, which are signed 'Le corbeau'. I enjoyed the film quite a bit. It is a very nice noir film with a smart script and good acting.

Late Spring (1949) - 10/10 - Noriko (Setsuko Hara) is a 27 year old woman who smiles and laughs a lot. She is very happy living with and taking care of her widowed father (Chishu Ryu). Noriko's aunt thinks that she should marry and convinces Noriko's father about this. Noriko has no interest in marriage, but faces constant pressure from her aunt, father, and a close friend. You can see the happiness in her diminish as this goes on. It's an excellent film and the performances by Hara and Ryu are excellent as well.

The Gilded Age (Michael Engler & Salli Richardson Whitfield, 2022) 8/10

Snobbery in late 1800s New York society could be just as vicious as in turn of the century England as seen in writer Julian Fellowes' other dramatic serial "Downton Abbey". However, nobody here can match the deadly wit of Abbey's Dowager Countess of Grantham (played by Dame Maggie Smith). Two women here do try and give that character a run for her money - Mrs Astor (Donna Murphy), who rules New York society with an iron hand, and to a lesser extent the equally snobbish aunt (Christine Baranski) of the series' main character - a young penniless wide-eyed orphan (Louisa Jacobson) who arrives at the New York house of her two estranged aunts (Baranski & sweet spinster Cynthia Nixon) and gradually enters rigid New York society which includes the Nouveau riche Russell family living across the street - a robber baron (Morgan Spector) and his relentlessly determined wife (Carrie Coon) who use their money to try and gain entrance into "polite" upper class society. The series weaves these characters' children into the plot with their own pairings which sometimes leads to happiness but often to disappointments as well. The screenplay also takes a look-in at the Black upper class - a young ambitious African-American journalist (Denée Benton) and her family - and the domestic workers downstairs. Sumptuously mounted series (season two is in the pipeline) is livened up considerably by the four veteran actresses - Baranski, Nixon, Murphy and Coon) - with lead Jacobson (Meryl Streep's daughter) playing a somewhat dull character whose storyline more or less follows Henry James' "Washington Square". Also making a mark in brief roles are Jeanne Tripplehorn as a socialite shunned by high society because of a scandal in her past, Audra McDonald as the black writer's mother, Debra Monk as a maid and Nathan Lane as a popular arbiter of social taste during the Gilded Age.

The Silent Partner (Daryl Duke & Curtis Hanson, 1978) 7/10

Cat and mouse game between a meek bank teller (Elliott Gould) and a cunning bank robber (Christopher Plummer) after the former anticipates the robbery and steals the money before the crook can get his hands on it. Susannah York as the love interest and bank colleague is mostly wasted in an underwritten part but the screenplay allows Plummer to shine for the first time on screen. A mostly bland actor through most of his screen career until this film he suddenly came into his own playing a character of pure malevolence who also gets to perform a stomach churning violent act. The inventive screenplay (by Curtis Hanson who would go on to direct L.A. Confidential) keeps things moving at a brisk pace.

Man Bait (Terence Fisher, 1952) 4/10

Lonely bookshop owner (George Brent), with an invalid wife, makes a pass at his sexy blonde clerk (Diana Dors). She, along with a crooked friend, starts blackmailing him which eventually leads to murder. Low budget British B-noir has screen veterans Brent and Marguerite Chapman (as an assistant in love with him) trapped in subpar material although the film was one of many early ones that created a springboard for sexy Dors to rise up the ladder of stardom.

Bend of the River (1952) - 7.5/10 - Jimmy Stewart is a reformed border raider who is leading a group of farmers to their land in Oregon. They have a number of things to deal with, including raids by Shoshone warriors and a merchant who decides to hold back their winter supplies when prices rise due to a gold strike. It's a pretty solid and film, though not as good as Winchester '73.

Destry Rides Again (1939) - 8/10 -The town of Bottleneck is run by a crooked gambler/saloon owner in conjunction with the corrupt mayor. When a local ranch owner is cheated, the sheriff goes to investigate and isn't seen again. The town drunk is named sheriff and he sends for the son of a famous lawman to serve as his deputy. Jimmy Stewart gives a nice performance as the laid back deputy and Marlene Dietrich has a big role as Frenchy, a popular singer at the saloon. The fight between Dietrich and Una Merkel during the film was very good and the movie as a whole is as well.

The Tall T (1957) - 7.5/10 - A former ranch foreman loses his horse in a bet so he hitches a ride on a hired coach that is transporting newlyweds. Outlaws hijack the coach and take the passengers prisoner, figuring to get a ransom for the wife who is from a wealthy family. This is a pretty standard, but enjoyable western.

Wagon Master (1950) - 8/10 - Two horse traders decide to help escort a group of Mormons across the desert to their new home. Along the way, they encounter a gang of criminals, natives, and others. This is a pretty laid back John Ford film that was entertaining.

El Dorado (1966) - 8/10 - An aging gunfighter (John Wayne) helps his old friend (Robert Mitchum) who is a sheriff trying to keep a greedy rancher from stealing the water rights from another rancher. There is plenty of action and a fair amount of humor as well. A young James Caan plays Mississippi, a 'stray' picked up by Wayne along the way.

Comanche Station (1960) - 8/10 - Randolph Scott rescues a woman who is being held by the Comanches and sets out to get her home to her husband, but there are a few obstacles in his way. It's pretty straightforward and I enjoyed it.

Ride Lonesome (1959) - 8/10 - A bounty hunter (Randolph Scott) captures a man wanted for murder and teams up with a couple of outlaws and a widow to get the man to Santa Cruz to be hanged. The bounty hunter has to avoid the man's brother and friends who aim to save the man. This is another nice Boetticher film.

The Goddess (1934) - 8/10 - After finishing Center Stage, I decided to watch an actual movie starring Ruan Lingyu. In this film, she portrays a single mother who works as a prostitute in order to support her young son. She falls under the control of an ignorant thug, but still raises money to put her son into a good school. Her secret occupation causes problems when it becomes more generally known. Ruan Lingyu did a nice job in this and I certainly liked it more than the biopic about her.

The Killer (1989) - 7.5/10 - An assassin takes an interest in a nightclub singer after she is accidentally blinded during one of his jobs. He decides to take on one last big job to help pay for a cornea transplant, but is double crossed and now has assassins after him as well. He finds an unlikely ally in a police officer investigating his latest job. The bullets sure were flying through a good portion of the movie. It's kind of ridiculous, but is still plenty of fun.

A Touch of Zen (1971) - 8/10 - A scholar/artist becomes involved with Yang, a warrior noble whose family has been targeted by the emperor's eunuch, who holds a lot of power in the court. The first hour was my favorite as we get to know the characters a bit and things aren't quite as fast paced. There is a lot more action after that, including nice scenes in the bamboo forest and with the ghost fortress. A pretty nice film overall.

Wild Rose (1932) - 7.5/10 - Jiang Bo is a painter who lives in the city with his wealthy family. He travels to the country to do some painting and befriends Xiao Feng, a country girl with a lively personality and a talent for mischief. When her father disappears, he brings her back with him to the city, though his father disapproves of her. I enjoyed this quite a bit, especially due to Renmei Wang who played Xiao Feng.

The Peach Girl (1931) - 7.5/10 - A couple who work on a farm have a daughter and plant a peach blossom on the day they bring her home. The girl is the same age the son of the mistress who owns the property and the two children become friends. When they grow older, they fall in love, but the mistress sees class distinctions and refuses to allow their relationship. It's a pretty good melodrama and I enjoyed Ruan Lingyu's performance as the grown up 'peach girl'. Jin Yan was also good as her lover.

Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978) - 8/10 - This film came out the same year as Drunken Master. Jackie Chan is a drudge at a kung-fu school and is often used as a practice dummy by the teachers. He becomes friends with a wandering beggar who teaches him snake fist style and Jackie becomes a talented fighter. It was pretty entertaining.

You Only Live Twice (Lewis Gilbert, 1967) 6/10

Bond goes to Japan and gets involved with three girls who are saddled with disappointingly underwritten parts. The good Bond girls are Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi) & Kissy Suzuki (Mie Hama) who Bond marries in a fake Japanese wedding ceremony while made up "slant-eyed" â la Anna May Wong (the American woke generation would have a major shit-fit "waking up" to this image of Bond which is akin to Al Jolson singing "Mammy" in black face) - and the obligatory bad Bond girl, red-haired Helga Brandt (Karin Dor) who has an unpleasant swim with a bunch of piranhas. For the first time after four films we get to see more than just a white pussy as the scarred face of Blofeld (Donald Pleasence) is finally revealed and who is upto his usual dastardly self. Someone is using a mysterious unidentified spacecraft to swallow up the spacecrafts of both the USSR and the USA. Blofeld's iconic hidey-hole is inside a volcano designed by Bond regular Ken Adams - in fact a lot of the futuristic sets here are repeated (with slight variations) by Adams from his designs on a previous Bond film "Goldfinger" and Stanley Kubrick's "Dr Strangelove". The plot moves slowly until the explosive finalé involving an army of ninjas. Roald Dahl threw out most of Ian Fleming's plot from the book and came up with new stuff in his screenplay. Connery looks old and his toupée seems rather flustered on his head. There are the usual bit appearances by "M" (Bernard Lee), Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) and "Q" (Desmond Llewelyn). The iconic Aston Martin is missing but we get to see "Little Nelly", a mini helicopter that Bond flies and which shoots down four regular helicopters chasing it. By this time Bond was beginning to get on Connery's nerves and I don't blame him for jumping ship after this film for this is a rather shoddy (though watchable) installment. Nancy Sinatra sings the title song.

Khamosh Pani / Silent Waters (Sabiha Sumar, 2003) 8/10

Stirring but sad film about the rise of fundamentalism in Pakistan in 1979 during General Zia's dictatorship. This leads to intolerance, violence, and the reassertion of patriarchal control of women. Middle-aged widow (Kirron Kher) gets by on her late husband’s pension and by teaching the Quran to young girls. Her 18-year-old son, Saleem (Aamir Malik), is a handsome loafer who scoots off for secret rendezvous with his sweetheart, Zubeida (Shilpa Shukla), a teen from a much richer family. Nagged by Zubeida to get a job, Saleem drifts into the circle of some Islamic fundamentalists, joins their cause, and is soon harassing Sikhs who’ve been given permission to enter the country as pilgrims. The son's fundamentalist friends hear that his mother still has Sikh sympathies, and they pressurize him to get her to publicly re-state her faith in Islam. However, flashbacks to the violent Partition of 1947 hint that the boy's mother is hiding a secret even he doesn’t know. The film is a strong indictment of the intolerance and the abuse of women caused by religious differences. It helps us to better appreciate the vulnerability of women during times of political crises.

28 Weeks Later (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 2007) 8/10

Post-apocalyptic horror film is a direct sequel to Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (2002). The first outbreak of the highly contagious, rage-inducing virus caused a pandemic leading to the breakdown of society. NATO salvages a safe zone in central London where survivors are housed. A couple (Robert Carlyle & Catherine McCormick) find their shelter compromised and are attacked by zombies. The scared husband manages to get away leaving his wife to be attacked. Later he is reunited with his two children (Imogen Poots & Mackintosh Muggleton) who break protocol, leave the safe zone and return to their house where they find their cowering mother. She is taken under custody and tests are run which show she has the virus but is only a carrier. When her guilty husband goes to see her he kisses her and gets infected resulting in pandemonium. He attacks other residents in the safe zone and gradually turns many into zombies. The government decides to bomb the safe zone and kill all civillians infected or not. The two kids manage to escape with a military sniper (Jeremy Renner) and a doctor (Rose Byrne). Riveting chase sequences with horrific, gory set pieces make this one of the superior thrillers in the zombie genre.

Con Air (Simon West, 1997) 8/10

Completely over-the-top action thriller about a parolee (Nicolas Cage) returning to his wife and daughter after a long prison sentence who just happens to be on a plane transporting a group of cutthroat convicts being transferred to a maximum security prison. The eclectic group of prisoners are played by an eclectic group of actors - a witty career criminal (John Malkovich), his partner and a terrorist (Ving Rhames), a serial killer and child molester (Steve Buscemi), a serial rapist (Danny Trejo) and other assorted criminals who are all in on a plan to breakout. Trying to stay one step ahead of the gang of derelicts in sabotaging their plan is the parolee and a U.S. Marshall (John Cusack). Superbly filmed action set pieces with the plane landing, getting stuck in a sand drift, taking off again, being chased by helicopters and finally ending with a spectacular crash landing on the Vegas strip. And let's not underestimate the screenplay for wringing a few sentimental tears involving a stuffed bunny rabbit and the parolee's sweet little daughter. The film is a guilty pleasure.