by Dean | Apr 13, 2016 | General
Edvard Munch (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
From Germany in 1976 came a biopic and dramatized quasi-documentary on the life of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, and though seriously flawed, it is also fascinating and felt.
Peter Watkins directed and, in collaboration with the cast, wrote the script for Edvard Munch, which concentrates on the man’s art and very humanity with equal effectiveness. Where it goes wrong, I believe, is in permitting the crosscutting between shots of Munch as a sick child and those of Munch as an aspiring and suffering adult to produce a certain blatancy, an overexplicitness. For, after all, there are also shots of Munch’s sister Sophie as a sick child, necessary as it is to demonstrate that Munch’s attitude toward life was formed in part by the household illnesses he grew up with. Blatancy, however, is blatancy. Sometimes the film grips too hard.
Also, notwithstanding he resembles Munch, Geir Westby is too stolid in his portrayal of the gifted painter. But I repeat: the film is fascinating (and essentially unhappy).
by Dean | Apr 10, 2016 | General
With an outstanding range, Sally Field terrifically enacts a poorly conceived character in Hello, My Name is Doris (2016), a pack-of-lies movie by Michael Showalter and Laura Terruso. Pack-of-lies? Yes: Doris is a bashful woman deeply silly enough to chase a much younger, good-looking man—one who is forever tolerant and understanding. Too, though frumpy, she holds her own among the young man’s lively young companions.
A waste of time, this. Launched by the idea that Doris is a naif who must learn a lesson, critic Alan Scherstuhl, though a slight fan of this flop, correctly asks: “What are we supposed to get from watching a naif learn a lesson we already know?”
by Dean | Apr 4, 2016 | General
It’s mainly for Christian viewers, yes, but deals with something serious in American affairs: the effort to suppress all references to Christian doctrine in public institutions, and to suppress Christian actions (such as the refusal to make a same-sex “wedding” cake, of all things) elsewhere.
Unfortunately, this filmic drama, and sequel, directed by Harold Cronk is egregiously preachy. The courtroom material can get quite bad, and excessive closeups are used. I like Melissa Joan Hart, though.
by Dean | Apr 3, 2016 | General
Cover via Amazon
The film is one of Elia Kazan‘s best—a work of considerable realism and intelligence. A political picture, it never gets as tiresome as Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd. Not exactly an art film, with its pastoral long shots it nevertheless reflects the filmmaker’s admiration for the old-time Russian directors such as Pudovkin. Moreover, Wild River is usually impressively acted.
by Dean | Mar 31, 2016 | General
I just finished watching the seventh episode of Game of Thrones (Season 5) on DVD.
In this season, there is a religious cult called the Faith Militant which reminds me of the Taliban. It’s a wonder even Cersei (Lena Headey), who ends up being arrested by the cult, tolerates it. I take it she was pleased by the Militants’ treatment of Margaery (Natalie Dormer), social-climbingly married to Cersei’s young son.
Speaking of Dormer, I’m glad she is now permitted by the show to exercise her acting chops: She convinces as an angry Margaery as well as a sweet and sly one. . . Also, there seems to be better cinematography than in the past—better lighting, more beauty. Truth to tell, although too much nudity appears in the series, much of this beauty can be seen in the excellent body of the show-offy Tyene, played by the California-born (not British) Rosabell Laurenti Sellers.
by Dean | Mar 29, 2016 | General
Cover of Down with Love (Widescreen Edition)
Peyton Reed‘s Down With Love (2003) is a charming curio about love and sex. Actually it values sex over love without realizing it, which is a pity. Another pity is that it was made strictly in the mode of the old Rock Hudson-Doris Day confections of 1959 to 1964, and so displays some pretty trivial nostalgia, mainly for clothes, room decor and period songs.
Rene Zellweger plays the author of a self-help book, “Down With Love,” Ewan McGregor enacts a Casanova of a men’s magazine writer. The scenarists insert a mild, reasonable feminism, but err by having Casanova finally turn into an enlightened and sensitive New Man instead of simply a gent thoughtfully in love with Zellweger. But Down With Love has an agenda, you see.
It also has a nifty opening titles sequence which is so corny it’s hip.
by Dean | Mar 27, 2016 | General
I wasn’t always sure what was happening in 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016), but I was entertained by it.
One thing is clear: Even a cruel lunatic like John Goodman‘s Howard can be right about something—in this case, the occurrence of apocalyptic events. But he’s still a cruel lunatic. Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is brought to his bunker, distrusting him, then trusting him, then distrusting him again. He’s smart but neurotic—far worse than neurotic.
The star of the movie, Winstead, even prettier than she was as a post-adolescent, is an agreeable heroine, while Goodman is expertly scary. 10 Cloverfield is sci fi horror, and for all its credulity-straining, it is every bit as good as the imperfect Alien. If director Dan Trachtenberg and his screenwriters push hard enough, they might come up with flicks which positively compete with our finer TV entertainments.
by Dean | Mar 24, 2016 | General
Season 5 of Game of Thrones is now on DVD and I saw the first episode of it last night.
Plot problems notwithstanding, I’ve had a good time with the series up till now, and currently, with Season 5, it feels like an old friend. At least the first episode did.
The chieftan played by Ciaran Hinds is burned at the stake, and serious Jon Snow (Kit Harington) fires an arrow through his heart to put him out of his agony. It makes me wish that people executed this way in actual history had been compassionately shot with fatal arrows. ‘Twas not the case.
Much earlier than this, Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) opines to the bald guy, the eunuch, that the future of their country is “s–t.” With the Trump-Clinton phenomenon going on, I am tempted to say I know how he feels.
by Dean | Mar 23, 2016 | General
Sunshine (1999 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Istvan Szabo film, Sunshine (2000), gives us a Jewish family in Hungary as it encounters historical events of the 20th century. This, however, is designer history meant to point up anti-Semitic politics and policy; history’s true density is missing. Small wonder that the characters succeed more as types than as human beings, albeit there are exceptions—e.g. Adam Sors, one of the three men played by Ralph Fiennes.
Adam is of limited interest, though, when he didn’t have to be. Of course he falls in love since falling-in-love is one of the very few values this movie upholds. Belief in God, on the other hand, it doesn’t know what to do with.
by Dean | Mar 21, 2016 | General
Cover via Amazon
Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Punch-Drunk Love (2002) is an existentialist romantic comedy. The protagonist is a severely frustrated misfit (Adam Sandler) who meets a girl who is gaga over him. What hinders it from working is a rotten subplot wherein Sandler encounters a crooked phone-sex girl and her unprincipled employer; naught but the lamest absurdism is in this. Virtues include Anderson’s jittery, intimidating mise en scene (the birthday party, the car wreck, etc.) and Jon Brion‘s strange, take-charge score. Also, the film is often funny but, to me, too eccentric.
