Alice Doesn’t Live
Here Anymore (Martin Scorsese, USA, 1974, 112 min.)
Viewed on DVD First Viewing
Though it’s Martin Scorsese’s directorial follow-up to Mean Streets (1973), the real creative
leader of this feminist character study was Ellen Burstyn, who hired the then
up-and-coming director to toughen up Robert Getchell’s screenplay. Burstyn (in her best performance) plays a
dissatisfied housewife who is left to raise a young child (Alfred Lutter) by
herself after her abusive husband (Billy Green Bush) dies in a work
accident. That scenario sounds like
fodder for a Lifetime melodrama, but the gritty aesthetic, the three-dimensional
performances of the impressive cast, and the surprisingly frequent comedic
moments turn Alice Doesn’t Live Here
Anymore into a vibrantly realistic character study. The mood is lively and funky rather than
somber, and neither the big dramatic moments nor the hopeful ending feel
forced. B+
Blue is the Warmest
Color (Abdellatif Kechiche, France, 2013, 179 min.)
Viewed on Netflix First Viewing
This drama about a tempestuous relationship between a
sexually inexperienced high school student (Adele Exarchopoulos) and an
adventurous college-age artist (Lea Seydoux) follows the predictable broad
outlines of most romance stories, but distinguishes itself by burrowing so
thoroughly into every intimate detail of the couple’s life that they wind up
feeling like real people rather than movie characters. The lead actresses give phenomenal individual
performances, and have an electric chemistry whenever they appear onscreen
together. B+
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Anthony & Joe
Russo, USA, 2014, 136 min.)
Viewed Theatrically First Viewing
Though slickly directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (previously
best known for helming episodes of ambitious sitcoms like Arrested Development and Community),
the second film in the Captain America franchise is ultimately just another in
the endless assembly line of Marvel superhero movies. The basic governmental conspiracy scenario is
fairly involving – and it’s a clever touch to cast Robert Redford, hero of
classic paranoid thrillers like Three
Days of the Condor (1975), as a corrupt official - but the story is weighed
down by its need to service the increasingly convoluted Marvel continuity. I love The
Dark Knight (2008) as much as anyone, but at this point the model that it
set for all subsequent superhero blockbusters is starting to ware on me, and I’d
love to see someone make a brisk, fun 90 minute action movie rather than another
of these overcomplicated behemoths. C+
Captain Blood
(Michael Curtiz, USA, 1935, 119 min.)
Viewed on DVD First Viewing
This uncommonly elegant swashbuckler marked the first of
eight films co-starring newcomer Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, who later
reunited with ace villain Basil Rathbone and director Michael Curtiz for the
1938 classic The Adventures of Robin Hood. Here Flynn portrays an Irish doctor who is
enslaved after giving medical attention to an enemy of King James. After successfully leading a revolt, Flynn
and his fellow former slaves turn to a life of piracy. The filmed version of Rafael Sabatini’s novel
is sometimes a bit too classy for its own good – a climactic battle between two
pirate ships doesn’t feel as chaotically exciting as it should – but the
episodic plotting ensures that a fun setpiece is never far away. The handsome production values and Flynn’s
effortlessly charismatic performance combine to make this a sterling example of
1930s blockbuster filmmaking. B
Django (Sergio
Corbucci, Italy, 1966, 91 min.)
Viewed on DVD First Viewing
Django is the
quintessential Sergio Corbucci spaghetti western, which is to say that it’s
just like a Sergio Leone movie except with lesser production values and more
sadistic violence. For a film that’s
such an obvious knockoff of Leone’s Fistful
of Dollars (1964) – another western that featured a stoic protagonist
playing two sides of a war against each other – Django has had a surprisingly long legacy, inspiring dozens of
unofficial sequels, including Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2012). This
type of cult film lives or dies on its iconic moments, but unfortunately it’s
all downhill after an opening credit sequence that finds Franco Nero’s
eponymous hero dragging a huge casket through a muddy wilderness as Luis
Bacalov’s melodramatic theme song blares.
The film’s anti-fascist subtext is hard to take seriously considering the
worshipful attitude it takes toward the hero’s machine gun. C
Four Lions (Chris
Morris, UK, 2010, 97 min.)
Viewed on Netflix First Viewing
This fearless satire follows a group of novice jihadists as
they plan and eventually (sort of) execute a public bombing. Terrorism is hardly the most obvious source
for comedy, but the sheer audacity of Four
Lions’ concept is a large part of what makes it funny. The film isn’t particularly cinematic – it’s
no surprise that co-writer/director Chris Morris has primarily worked in
television – but the cast is so magnificent, managing to strike a tricky
balance between portraying believable people and bumbling fools, that the
pedestrian cinematography seems beside the point. B
Go West (Buster
Keaton, USA, 1925, 68 min.)
Viewed on Netflix First Viewing
Buster Keaton’s take on the western genre doesn’t have the
huge laughs of Sherlock Jr. (1924) or
the impressive production values of The
General (1927), but it does admirably revolve around a goofy non sequitur
of a loving relationship between Keaton’s novice ranch hand and a cow named
Brown Eyes. This is unmistakably minor
Keaton, but fans will find plenty to enjoy.
B-
The Trouble with
Harry (Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1955, 99 min.)
Viewed on Blu-Ray Second Viewing
Full Review at Joyless Creatures
The Trouble with Harry
is Alfred Hitchcock’s only full-blown comedy and perhaps the most offbeat and
overlooked film from his incredibly sustained creative winning streak in the ‘50s. (In an impressive display of his range,
Hitchcock made The Wrong Man, his
bleakest and most existentialist film, a year later). It’s indicative of the film’s odd tone that
the titular “character” is in fact a corpse who the main quartet of characters
spends most of the film burying and unburying.
These are the richest and most multi-faceted lead characters in any Hitchcock
film, and the excellent ensemble cast makes their actions feel believable even
when they are at their most absurd. Many
films revolve around dead bodies, but this is one of the few that uses such a
setup to celebrate the oddities of life.
A-
The Untouchables
(Brian De Palma, USA, 1987, 119 min.)
Viewed on Netflix First Viewing
Paramount threw everything that money could buy at this
prestige blockbuster, marrying a recognizable property (the 1960s TV series The Untouchables) with typically showy
direction from Brian De Palma, a script from David Mamet, costumes by Giorgio
Armani, a musical score by Ennio Morricone, and a star-studded cast including
Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, and Robert De Niro. Naturally the end result seems more like a
work of commerce than art. While the
film is passably entertaining in spurts, most of its best moments seem borrowed
from better pieces of entertainment – with the pointless and endlessly
protracted homage to the Odessa Steps sequence from Potemkin (1925) being the worst offender. In all respects except box office numbers
this is the Gangster Squad (2013) of
its day. C
Up (Pete Docter
& Bob Peterson, USA, 2009, 96 min.)
Viewed on Blu-Ray Second Viewing
Pixar’s boldest, strangest, and hands-down most moving film
manages to deliver all of the spectacle and humor expected in a quality family
film while still being more unpredictable and wise than most films aimed at
adults. A widowed retiree finds a
creative way to avoid having his house taken away from him when he ties
thousands of balloons to it and floats away to the tropical paradise that he
always dreamed of visiting with his wife.
But his dream vacation is foiled when he inadvertently brings a sweetly obnoxious
Boy Scout along with him. Their bizarre
adventure includes unique sights such as dogs whose collars transmit their base
thoughts, and climaxes with an epic action sequence involving elderly men with
chronic back problems. This is one of
the last truly creative films that Pixar made before turning into a sequel
factory, and they certainly went out with a bang, with a uniquely enthralling
story captured by the most expressive CGI animation seen anywhere to date. A
