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knox

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 10:47 am

Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 1246 Location: St. Louis

Well, SPOILER POSSIBLE I GUESS

that was the conclusion, but I wasn't entirely convinced. I mean, those dudes had a lot of personal padding.

Have you seen France Ha yet? This may go against the grain of some, but I feel that Greta Gerwig is just a little too cute for her own good. I mean "cute" in the personality sense here (though she is cute, physically, in a tall Nordic awkward puppy way). There is some absurd humor there, but it's all so improbable. The trip to Paris? Her, being a dancer? I know, that's the comical point, but it concerned me that I kept watching and somehow liking what I was seeing. A confusing film experience for this viewer.

billyweeds

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 11:22 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

knox--I can see what you say about Gerwig, although not in the case of Frances Ha, where I thought she was just cute enough. Her character was intermittently infuriating, so the cuteness helped.

However, in the case of Damsels in Distress, which I caution everyone against, her cuteness becomes unwatchable to the extent where I wanted to start throwing things at the screen whenever she appeared.

bartist

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 12:18 pm

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6958 Location: Black Hills

I also have noticed the excess cuteness. I'd agree with Billy that "infuriating" describes her character better in FH. She seems to alternate between being bright and having a brain the size of a caraway seed. Which could have been me, age 27, so there was no plausibility issue in that regard. I liked that Gerwig used her actual Unitarian parents for the Unitarian parents scenes. I've hung out with Unitarians, and they nailed that part! I also liked the indoor smoking guys and their penchant for leaping onto beds. The film had a good energy, is how I'd put it.

As for some Australian science guys debunking the obese-guy-safety-restraint-system in "Headhunters," I'm not at all convinced where there's a clear lack of empirical testing of said system. That Norwegian blubber shouldn't be lightly dismissed by the scientific community. I think they should have focused more on the peanut bag full of hair, and just what precisely the hero had in mind with that tactic. I mean, I would have just tossed the nanotechnology-embedded hair into the river there. Maybe I missed something?

_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days.

carrobin

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2014 9:55 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC

I hadn't seen "Being There" since it first came out, and I really didn't mean to watch it tonight on TCM, but there was nothing else on. So I missed bits and pieces as I washed dishes and caught up with computer chores, but got hooked into it after a while. Now I'd like to see it all from the beginning. It's really more of a fable than a movie plot, highly improbable, but it's beautifully done and amusingly ironic (it would be even more so in today's media-saturated political milieu). I didn't remember many of the details, and I'd totally forgotten that wonderful final shot. But then Hal Ashby weakened the effect by going into a set of outtakes under the final credits--what was he thinking? If I see it again, I'll switch it off as soon as that last scene fades.

billyweeds

Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2014 10:28 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

In case I didn't make it clear, I thought Frances Ha was one of the best movies of the past couple of years, and that Gerwig was terrific in it.

gromit

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 5:53 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

I thought Frances Ha was intermittently successful.
I liked what it was going for more than the execution at times.
Gerwig was fine in FH.
I disliked her in Lola Versus, which was an annoying film.

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

Syd

Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 1:18 am

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

I'm going to bed in the middle of "Anatomy of a Murder," which I love, but that has to be the most distracting soundtrack, Duke Ellington or no Duke Ellington. I'd rather have no incidental music at all. Anyway, my current theory is that the dog did it.

_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament

gromit

Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 2:33 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

There's also a Duke cameo as local jazz-celeb Pie-Eye. And Jimmy Stewart sits in and plays with him for a brief bit.
I like that a lot of the music and noise is associated with the femme fatale/loose woman.
______________________________________________________

I picked up a film noir set and pre-code set yesterday.
Started with Johnny O'Clock.
I like Dick Powell, but you still have that problem of Mr. Sweet Baby-Face playing Tough Guys. Here he is a junior partner in a gambling operation, with a crooked cop looking to bump him out of the #2 slot.
All the women inexplicably fall for Johnny. His secret, talk with them and treat them like crap. They seem to eat that up. A fairly enjoyable if nothing special noir. The film is kind of stolen by Lee J Cobb as a rumpled tough police inspector.

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

gromit

Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 10:43 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

So Dark The Night however was kind of ridiculous.
A famous French police detective hunts down a killer, who he starts to suspect might be himself. I think they tried a little too hard to come up with that premise. But a lot of the buildup is rather clumsy and overacted.
Not recommended.

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

gromit

Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 8:52 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

Walk a Crooked Mile (1948) was pretty entertaining. An early Cold War entry, very topical with the commies trying to steal nuclear secrets (it would come out the next year that they did -- just ask Julius and Ethel...).
It's mostly an FBI procedural, but with a Scotland Yard man thrown in, since the secret nuclear formulas are being sent on to London.

It focuses a good deal on forensics details, but as many CSI TV shows can attest, this stuff can be interesting and challenging if presented in the right manner. Just a solid film with a good pace and interesting cat-and-mouse work between the international baddies and the good old FBI/police. Actually one thing the film stresses is that many of the baddies and their commie associates are seemingly true blue Americans, so you have to be wary.

The only thing bad is you know that Nixon-McCarthy commie witchhunts were just around the corner and a propaganda film such as this just strengthened their hand. Now I see this was released Sept 1948 and these B pics were usually done in under 2 months. So HUAC was already well under way when this was released.

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

bartist

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:52 am

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6958 Location: Black Hills

Hey, moderator, can we bring Syd's A of a M comments (and followups, Lee Remick love, etc.) over here?

Saw What Maisie Knew, I think the raves here cover it. Yambu is right, it does diverge from the novel. I didnt mind a bit. Stellan should be proud of his son Alex, and I was impressed by 20 year old rookie, Joannna V. You see where that's going, but the trip is enjoyable. Im not ready to put in a 2013 best list, due to maybe a little
heavyhandedness in illustrating the horridness of the parents. Coogan and Moore are great, but somehow it feels over the top.

_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days.

Syd

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 11:48 am

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

Anatomy of a Murder: a courtroom procedural and a great film, with a really wonderful cast, and, according to lawyers, gets it exactly right. It's based of a novel by a writer who was the defense attorney in the case on which it is based, many actual locations in the Upper Peninsula used, and some of the background people were actual townspeople. James Stewart plays the defense attorney, George C. Scott is a prosecutor from the big city--Lansing (?), Ben Gazzara is the Lieutenant who shot his wife's alleged rapist, Lee Remick is the alleged rape victim (who seems a bit chipper and flirty for a rape victim), and Arthur O'Connell has the role of his life as Stewart's alcoholic mentor and eventual partner. Joseph Welch--yes the Joseph Welch who brought down Joe McCarthy--is the presiding judge, and after an awkward opening speech, acquits himself quite well. For some reason, you don't hear much about Kathryn Grant in this film, but I was captivated by her time on the stand. She's the one witness I totally believed.

This film was banned in a few places at the time because it was explicit about the nature of the crime, although it seems tamer now, and since Preminger distained flashbacks, we never see the actual assault. After 55 years, we can just see it as a great film.

Welcome Danger brings Harold Lloyd into the sound era, and I think it would be a better film if it hadn't. It does have a lot of really funny ideas: for example, by accident, when Harold Bledsoe (Lloyd) has a photograph taken by a self-service machine, it combines his picture with the girl whose photograph was taken before his, in a nice romantic cameo. (The girl was robbed of her quarter, and it's a double exposure.) Later, he comes across a broken down car, and the mechanic disparages the picture, and for the next ten or fifteen minutes he mistreats Billy the mechanic, who actually the girl in the cameo in mechanic's clothing. With sound added, Bledsoe comes across as an asshole as well as an ass. I think without sound, he simply would have come across an ass. Anyway, Bledsoe's on his way to San Francisco to be a police detective, and finds himself deeply involved in solving a crime wave in Chinatown. Lots of slapstick and sight gags ensue. The tone is off for a lot of the film, and it's too long, but I did laugh some.

F for Fake: Orson Welles sort-of-documentary of celebrated art forger Elmy de Hory, which gaines resonance because de Hory's biographer was Clifford Irving, whose famous hoax broke while the film was being made. And Welles goes into what of his own life is a hoax. Then we discover de Hory may not have been the greatest art forger of the twentieth century, that was ... Delightful film, with Welles in top form, and nice observations of the fallacy of experts. By the way, Oja Kodar was Welles' girlfriend, a fact I'm glad I didn't know while I watching the film.

_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament

whiskeypriest

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 12:12 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 6916 Location: "It's a Dry Heat."

A few more movies I have caught up on with my free trials.

Saving Mr. Banks - Well, one thing in its favor: I get to watch Emma Thompson interact with Paul Giamatti, so it has that going for it. And snatches of all those songs I can still remember despite having seen Mary Poppins last about thirty years ago. And too much sentimentality for my taste. And, there is this: one of my biggest objection to the whole alternate Shakespeare crew is their insistence in nailing the works of Shakespeare to a biography, explaining everything by direct link to a real person. Not that Mary Poppins is on that level, mind, but I loathe having the right of interpretation and connection taken away from me. Anyway, not a bad thing, but nothing special.

Les vacances de Monsieur Haricot

Because it is less embarrassing in French, that's why. This is what big screen, modern TV is designed for, Because there is nothing like watching an enormous Rowan Atkinson ingesting a crayfish ass first in 70 inch, High Definition glory. I like it. Sue me.

A Man Escaped, Or the Wind Blows Where it Will

Early Robert Bresson, the story of a man imprisoned for his role in the French Resistance. A procedural, really, of one man's patient and painstaking plans to escape. Bresson is not everyone's cup of tea, though based upon the wonderful Diary of a Country Priest and great Au hasard Balthazar, he is mine. A priest and a pastor figure prominently, hope is kept down by fear of danger but always under the surface, and in the end, well, it's the title. There is narration. I do not recommend Bresson to many people, but this is a little more plotty and less severe. But it does have Bresson's love of faces - Francois Leterrier's in particular - and of course, feet.

Le grand restaurant

My wife is Polish. All Poles adore Louis de Funes. Did you know that? Absolutely adore him. In a recent survey, he was named the 18th greatest male actor ever. Seriously, they absolutely love de Funes. Why? Don't ask me. Maybe they have the same relationship with him the French have with Jerry Lewis. Although the French also loved de Funes. A later and much better of his movies, 1966's La grande vadrouille (aka, Don't Look Now We're Being Shot At) held the record for the most tickets sold first run from its release until it was unseated by Le Titanique. At best silightly amusing.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)

Early Woody Allen. When you see him in his sperm suit in 70" Hi Def you realize how many freckles he actually has. Anyway, uneven, sketchy, of course. At the end, I wondered what happened to the woman getting banged in the last sketch, the one with the sperms. So I looked her up. And immediately wished I hadn't. Got depressed.

_________________
I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed?

gromit

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 12:14 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

Continuing with the Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics Vol. 4.
Between Midnight And Dawn (1950) is possibly the first buddy cop film. Kind of odd since a lot of it is derivative -- it copies the voiceover intro style of Night and the City, and tries to cash in on the success of various FBI pics. But seems this was one of the first films to focus on cops on the beat -- and has been called the first buddy cop film. They go on various calls, but the main plot is trying to nail a gangster who runs a flashy nightclub and engages in extortion and racketeering. Things get a little melodramatic, but mostly it's pretty involving and well-paced.

Surprisingly, the romance in the film is one of the strong points. Gale Storm is perky and winning as the love interest. She joins the force as a secretary to a Lieutenant, since her father had been a cop. To keep the drama up, Gale Storm goes on a few field assignments which are probably unlikely, but it's handled rather well, so you hardly notice (or easily forgive). Anyway, I think her hairstyle deserved its own credit in this film.

She spent most of the rest of the 50's on TV, but I've never seen My Little Margie or The Gale Storm Show. Apparently Margie was something of an I Love Lucy take-off/ripoff. She even had a brief successful singing career in the mid-50's, but her version of I Hear You Knockin' is pretty darn whitebread.

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

whiskeypriest

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 12:16 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 6916 Location: "It's a Dry Heat."

Syd wrote:

Anatomy of a Murder: George C. Scott is a prosecutor from the big city--Lansing (?),

It's the State Capitol, which is why he would have come from there.

I prefer the movie to the book, but the book is way more accurate about the law.

_________________
I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed?

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