by Dean | Oct 16, 2014 | Money
Drew
Riding in Cars With Boys is what finally gets Beverly Donofrio (Drew Barrymore) pregnant. The young man (Steve Zahn) who must then marry her eventually turns into a junkie; Beverly throws him out. Raising her little boy alone, she is permanently prevented from going to college, and must forever wonder whether she is a good mom or a bad one. She loves her son, but her life disappoints her. She writes about it in the book on which this 2001 Penny Marshall film is based.
Anything but disreputable, Riding is felt and attentive to character. Its comedy, however, is lame, and sentimentality sometimes creeps in. The latter might not been so bothersome had scriptwriter Morgan Upton Wood been a little less unflattering toward the young men in the film. Middle-aged men like the one James Woods plays are treated respectfully, but the young guys are either stereotypes or close to it. At the same time, Ward nonsensically compliments women on their compassion with a line Beverly’s husband speaks to his son: “Even total screw-ups they want to help.”
Zahn and, as Beverly’s best friend, Brittany Murphy, provide some winsome seriocomic acting. James Woods is quietly compelling as the heroine’s father, but a redheaded Barrymore founders. She could have been fine, but she chose to be histrionic. Too bad Penny “Laverne & Shirley” Marshall didn’t restrain her.
by Dean | Oct 14, 2014 | General
Anthony Mann’s Bend of the River (1952) is a rugged, natural beauty-loving Western, but much about the narrative doesn’t hold up.
Surely a pack of hostile men would not ride their horses into an unoccupied area with a burning campfire and thus risk an ambush from their enemies. Surely Jimmy Stewart’s cowboy would refuse the further services of scalawags who try to overturn his plans to deliver food to a settlement. And a few other befuddling things go on as well. Adapting someone’s novel, scenarist Borden Deal should have known better: The plotting makes this movie impure in a way that a Western flick like Shane is not.
Bend is a rich movie, yes, but that’s only owing to what the director, Mann, has done.
Cover of Bend of the River
by Dean | Oct 12, 2014 | General
Unpleasant as it is, Gone Girl (2014) is the misanthropic David Fincher movie I’ve been waiting for. I have no use for Seven and The Social Network, but this film, not merely unpleasant, is riveting and pulpy-good.
Does polished Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) deserve to have her skull shattered, as her hubby Nick (Ben Affleck) sort of intimates? Well, clearly their marriage has become unstable, but then Amy turns up missing and suspicion understandably falls on put-upon Nick. See the movie and you’ll know why I say “understandably.”
Astutely directed by Fincher, Gone Girl was admirably screenwritten by the woman on whose novel the film is based—viz., Gillian Flynn—and offers nicely eccentric music by Trent Razor and Atticus Ross. The acting ranges from competent (Affleck) to superlative (Pike and probably the magnetic Carrie Coon). Sex and unclothed female bazooms are there and are shot un-vulgarly.
English: Rosamund Pike at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
by Dean | Oct 8, 2014 | General
So far we’re waiting for the maturation of such villains as the Penguin and Catwoman and of Bruce Wayne’s Batman (if indeed it takes place) in the new Fox TV series, Gotham (on Monday nights), but in the meantime there is no mere modicum of criminal activity in depraved Gotham City. All the perniciousness gives police detective Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) a run for his money, forcing him to consort with future costumed personages. He makes a promise to young Wayne, for example, that he will find his parents’ killer.
The sleaziness of the police force, etc. is a stale element in Gotham, and yet the show tries hard not to be boring. It can be hard-nosed fun if also a bit raffish, and there is first-rate acting from Donal Logue and Robin Lord Taylor (as the future Penguin). Some of the female thespians could be stronger.
Selina Kyle’s first appearance as The Cat in Batman #1 (Spring 1940). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
by Dean | Oct 5, 2014 | General
Who says there will be a pre-Tribulation Rapture? It doesn’t seem quite compatible with what the Bible says about the suffering of the saints, but maybe the Christians who believe in it are right; I don’t know. The 2014 Left Behind movie has a way of making the concept slightly dubious, even though this is not the apocalyptic picture’s problem. The early footage is promising, but afterwards Vic Armstrong proves he doesn’t know how to direct the film, which is why it is rhythmless, clumsy and pseudo-clever.
Left Behind is a more successful Christian action film than the very bad Trinity Broadcasting Left Behind of 2000, but this isn’t saying much. Nicolas Cage’s commanding performance as Rayford Steele, however, is enjoyable, and the not-bad Nicky Whalen (as Hattie) is a beautiful woman. You might want to try out the movie, after all.
