by Dean | Nov 19, 2014 | General
The 1951 Billy Wilder film, Ace in the Hole, is one of those wherein Wilder expresses his anger over deception and skulduggery, the bilking of the innocent or vulnerable for the sake of money or prestige or sex. A newspaper reporter (Kirk Douglas) “befriends” a man trapped under rocks during a mountain cave-in, but cruelly arranges for a third-rate rescue operation in order to prolong the man’s predicament. This, the reporter believes, will make for a more important scoop, one that will possibly guarantee for the gent a New York City position.
That the lousy rescue plan is devised is not quite credible, and, unlike other Wilder films, Ace is disturbingly gray, chilly. Even so, it is one of his best. The whole of Wilder’s personality is evident in it; it’s intelligently cynical and morally meaningful. Neither Wilder nor Douglas makes the reporter a caricature; the former aims for too much unHollywood-like honesty to commit such an error.
Cover of Ace in the Hole – Criterion Collection
by Dean | Nov 16, 2014 | General
Too fancy but still fascinatingly shot, Birdman (2014) is a notable film but not a great one. Though awash in coarse language, its serious and personal nature is potent, and it can be funny. It asks how an individual’s sense of worth is to be had in the present world, especially with moral and emotional failure so pervasive. It’s a great question, notwithstanding the movie’s ending is meaningless.
Michael Keaton is extraordinary in Birdman, while Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts and many others are thrilling strong.
Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
by Dean | Nov 11, 2014 | General
In Marc Lawrence’s Music and Lyrics (2007), Alex (Hugh Grant), a forgotten singer once a part of the raved-about PoP! band, gets a chance to write a song for, and record with, a currently famous pop queen called Cora Corman (Haley Bennett). Lacking any talent for lyrics, Alex begs a stranger—Drew Barrymore‘s Sophie—with a certain poetic sensibility to churn out some words for him. Not only do they naturally fall in love, they also struggle with the song and face the threat of severe artistic compromise, thanks to someone who represents “Buddhism in a thong,”: namely, Cora. That phrase in quotes belongs to one of the flick’s many one-liners, that which makes Music and Lyrics a funny treat until it starts limping with no hope of recovery. Dramatically crippled by Sophie’s character and, finally, some weak acting, the film proves it was made by a man who doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Cover via Amazon
by Dean | Nov 9, 2014 | General
Effervescent but never silly, convincing in her emotional range, Doris Day stars as a woman long believed to be dead—but not—in Michael Gordon’s Move Over, Darling (1963). James Garner co-stars as her well-to-do husband newly married to Polly Bergen. Day is not expected to carry the film by herself, as she so often does; Garner and others are sapidly talented, forcefully comic.
Though only mildly funny, Darling is a comedy of recognizable emotions. Cardboard characters, yes, but recognizable emotions. In addition, it is charming and involving—with a great woman-subjected-to-a-car-wash sequence.
Cover of Move Over Darling
by Dean | Nov 6, 2014 | General
Embed from Getty Images
The CW series Jane the Virgin keeps going strong.
Jane is a pretty complex character (some of the others need more complexity, and they may get it) played by an actress, Gina Rodriguez, who keeps proving just how able she is.
To no one’s surprise, the Village Voice reports that the show began with a “seeming social conservatism” but is now displaying “a rather nuanced, if not strictly progressive, sexual politics.” Are you sure it’s not a seeming sexual politics? To my mind, all the show wants to do is entertain. It cares about its characters, but has nothing to say. (Note to myself: There are plenty of more episodes to come, though.)
by Dean | Nov 3, 2014 | General
There is a lot of acquisitiveness in the Flannery O’Connor short story, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”: Old woman Crater longs to acquire a husband for her simpleminded daughter, Mr. Shiftlet aims to acquire the old woman’s car without paying for it. Mrs. Crater lets Mr. Shiftlet stay and earn his bread on her property, intending to play matchmaker for the moneyless man and Lucynell, the daughter; and, indeed, there is a marriage. But the marriage means nothing to Mr. Shiftlet. He wishes to abandon the daughter (who has a child’s mind).
Though a miscreant, Mr. Shiftlet is not below feeling regret or even remorse. The “tramp” who shan’t be starting a family begins to sentimentalize family (motherhood, anyway) to assuage a bitterness he experiences. But bitterness all too easily gives way to despair. After a hitchhiking boy—Mr. Shiftlet gives him a ride in the car he stole—insults the man’s mother, he feels “the rottenness of the world . . . about to engulf him.” It is a rottenness with which Mr. Shiftlet knows he is united, and it triggers in him a thought about the indignation of God. It is worth asking whether Mr. Shiftlet is on his way to salvation in this Christian story. Perhaps so, but what is conveyed beyond a doubt is that, as Hebrews 10 tells us, “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
English: Portrait of American writer Flannery-O’Connor from 1947. Picture is cropped and edited from bigger picture: Robie with Flannery 1947.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
