Tag: Movies

Movie reviews

Stage Door (1937)

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This film has it ALL- witty repartee, energy, humor, and pathos. You’ll see several lovely/talented actresses in their youth, before they became household names.  Though it was made in the ’30s, it will resonate w/ a modern audience, esp. if you are a singleton trying to further your career in a creative field.  Debutante Terry Randall (Katherine Hepburn) goes to live in a crowded, noisy boarding house (The Footlights Club) near the bright lights of Broadway.  Like the other young women there, she’s determined to become an actress.  Her roommate is Jean (Ginger Rogers), an argumentative and sarcastic blond whose specialty is tap dancing.  She’s like Meg Ryan, but more subtle in her acting style.  They DO NOT hit it off, as they are both outspoken.

Terry: I see that, in addition to your other charms, you have that insolence generated by an inferior upbringing.
Jean: Hmm! Fancy clothes, fancy language and everything!
Terry: Unfortunately, I learned to speak English correctly.
Jean: That won’t be of much use to you here. We all talk pig latin.

Another gal at the house is Judy (Lucille Ball), who dates often b/c she hates to eat the lousy dinners prepared at the house.  LOL!  Sometimes she double-dates…    

Judy: Do you want a date?
Jean: To some other lumberman?
Judy: Am I supposed to apologize for being born in Seattle?
Jean: Well, the last couple we went stepping with were made of lumber. Especially their feet.
Judy: All right, all right, you can stay here and gorge yourself on lamb stew again.

The morally upright Jean constantly makes fun of snobby/elegant  actress Linda (Gail Patrick) b/c she has chosen to have a relationship w/ older/influential talent manager, Anthony Powell (Adolphe Menjou).  Linda gets picked up in a car, eats at the best restaurants, and wears furs and jewels given to her by Mr. Powell.  She knows she won’t get ingenue roles at her age.  

Linda: If you were a little more considerate of your elders, maybe Mr. Powell would send his car for you someday. Of course, he would probably take one look at you and send you right back again, but then you have to expect that.
Jean: Is that so?
Linda: Do you know, I think I could fix you up with Mr. Powell’s chauffeur. The chauffeur has a very nice car too.
Jean: Yes, but I understand Mr. Powell’s chauffeur doesn’t go as far in his car as Mr. Powell does.
Linda: Even a chauffer has to have an incentive!
Jean: Well, you should know!

Most of the gals look up to Kay (Andrea Leeds- Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner), a sensitive/serious actress who got rave reviews last year in a fine play. But now, Kay is nearly wasting away from the disappointments that come w/ being unemployed.  She hopes w/ all her heart to get the lead role in Enchanted April.  (Leeds looks VERY much like Olivia de Havilland, the actress chosen to play Melanie over her in Gone with the Wind.)

Just getting any job, even dancing at a supper club, is exciting for the girls, who DO NOT come from money like Terry.  Their choices are to go home and get married or tough it out in the city.  They have to develop a thick skin, something that Kay lacks.

Terry’s fearless, no-nonsense attitude and sense of entitlement MAY get her far…

Broadway on DVD

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The Glass Menagerie (1973)

You are the only young man that I know of who ignores the fact that the future becomes the present, the present becomes the past, and the past turns into everlasting regret if you don’t plan for it.

 

Katherine Hepburn stars as Amanda Wingfield, vivacious Southern belle turned struggling single mom and shop assistant in Tennessee Williams’ autobiographical memory play.  The narrator, Tom, is recounting the story from the distance of some years.  Amanda, who’s hubby ran off years ago, has two grown children (somewhere in their 20s) who live w/ her in a humble St. Louis rowhouse.  Tom (Sam Waterston- best known for Law & Order) grudgingly works at a shoe factory, but desperately longs for adventure and time to concentrate on his writing.  Laura (Joanna Miles), his older sister, lives in the world of her own mind- playing w/ little glass animal figures and listening to old records.     

Into their little world comes factory clerk Jim O’Conner (Michael Moriarty- also of L&O fame).  Jim is a positive, enthusiastic, well-mannered guy who’s quite happy w/ life.  Amanda is VERY eager to please him, seeing Jim as a potential hubby for Laura. 

Amanda, though she often revels in tales of her fabulous girlhood (servants, gowns, lots of gentlemen callers), has BIG hopes and fears for her children.  Tom REALLY hates his job, so he doesn’t try to move up the ladder, like someone w/ his brains could do.  Laura, VERY sensitive and shy, has left secretarial school and has not had any bfs.  And don’t forget the bills!  As a teen, I related more to Tom and Laura.  I didn’t like Amanda much, but when I watched the film again recently, I  was surprised to find that I had sympathy for her as a woman and a mother!  I guess I’m getting wiser…

 

A Moon for the Misbegotten (1975)

 

This version of Eugene O’Neill’s autobiographical play stars veteran theatrically-trianed greats Jason Robards, Colleen Dewhurst (mother of Campbell Scott) and Ed Flanders (St. Elsewhere).  It’s a sequel to A Long Day’s Journey Into Night; the main character is the older son of the VERY dysfunctional Tyrone family.  The setting is an old farmhouse in rural Connecticut in the 1920s, where Irish immigrant tenant farmer Phil Hogan (Flanders) lives w/ his VERY sassy, yet hardworking, daughter Josie (Dewhurst).  His three sons ran off to make their own way. 

One of Hogan’s friends and drinking buddies is also his landlord, Jim Tyrone, a brooding, middle-aged, and faded Broadway actor.  Whenever Jim is in town, they talk, drink, and hang out.  Josie is also friendly w/ Jim, though she doesn’t like his dark moods.  She speaks whenever and however she likes, BUT Jim doesn’t seem to mind like other men!  He even likes her looks, though she calls herself an ugly cow.  Seeing their affection for each other, her dad hatches a plan to get them together, BUT Mr. Hogan’s plan is badly conceived.

I’d never seen this play before, or even heard of it, so was pleasantly surprised by it.  Though it is dark in tone, it’s very compelling.  Dewhurst (known to MANY young people as Anne’s adoptive mom in the Green Gables series) just inhabits the role of Josie, a complicated woman w/ smarts, humor, and LOT of compassion.  Check it out!

Angel Face (1952) & Midnight Cowboy (1969)

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Angel Face (1952)

Ambulence driver/paramedic Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum) underestimates 19 y.o. heiress-to-be Diane Tremayne (Jean Simmons) in one of famed director Otto Preminger’s lesser-known (noir) films.  The couple meet under odd circumstances- an accident (or maybe not) occurs at the SoCal mansion where she lives w/ her novelist father and his wife, potentially fatal to the stepmother.  Frank is intrigued by Diane’s beauty and moody/mysterious ways.  She  takes it a BIT more seriously…

Later that night, Diane drives into town and approaches him for a date.  Though Frank has a steady gf (a nurse) he decides to take Diane out for dinner and dancing.  It’s all harmless fun, or so he thinks…

This film has twists and turns- it kept me guessing.  It’s a psychological drama, for the most part.  Frank, who’s older and more experienced w/ life, thinks he can handle Diane.  But he doesn’t realize the complex/troubled mind she has, or what this petite lady is capable of.  Diane offers him a cushy job as the family chauffeur w/ an apt.

Jean Simmons REALLY shines in her role of the (unexpected) femme fatale, going toe-to-toe w/ Mitchum.  She creates a complicated, troubled, yet VERY watcheable character in Diane.  Mitchum, on the other hand, is sometimes TOO calm/collected.  (I wanted to see more anger/emotion from Frank.)  But his screen presence, charisma, and confidence almost make up for it.

 

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

I never saw this film until last week, though it’s quite famous/controversial.  The two leads (Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman) do a FINE job, no doubt about it!  However, this film is difficult to emotionally connect to at times.  The shooting style is unusual, esp. for its time.  There are flashbacks that provide glimpses into a character’s troubled past, BUT don’t tell the complete story.  There is a weird, disjointed, lengthy scene at a party towards the end.

Joe Buck (Voight) is a handsome 28 y.o. dishwasher from small-town Texas who comes to NYC looking to work as a “hustler.”   He dreams of charming and seducing older ladies and making big money.  But he’s totally clueless.  He happens to meet Ratso Rizzo (Hoffman), a talkative/street-smart trickster w/ a bad leg.

An unlikely, yet mutually beneficial, friendship develops between the two opposites.  In Joe, Ratso sees the strong, able-bodied guy he’d like to be.  Ratso helps Joe navigate through the cruel city, and shares what little he has w/ the wide-eyed innocent.

Two Reviews: Blue & Intimacy

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Blue (1993)

This is the 1st film in dir. Kieslowski’s Three Colors trilogy.  The blue represents depression, sadness, and freedom here.   Julie (Juliette Binoche) is a young French wife who loses her husband (a famous composer) and 5 y.o. daughter in a terrible car crash at the opening of the film.  She decides to leave her large country estate, taking nothing except a gorgeous blue mobile ornament, and move to Paris to live a solitary life.  She’s determined that she won’t work, seek out company, or reconnect w/ the family friend who may have deep feelings for her.  But life has a way of just happening, even as Julie is in deep mourning.

In her apt, Julie is deeply perturbed by a mouse and her babies in one of the closets.  Even a mouse can have babies, while she has lost everything!  Then a young single woman from downstairs barges in on Julie.  She looks like she can use some comfort, and Julie is around (w/ a non-judgmental attitude).  Eventually, Julie starts to finish the song that her hubby left behind.

This is a non-narrative, artisitic film, so it won’t appeal to some viewers.  It’s slow and contemplative.  The music is simply beautiful.  There are many close-ups of Binoche’s (I think perfect) face as she goes through a myriad of emotions.  Binoche is simply great (and I wouldn’t expect anything less).  You can’t see her acting; everything just rises from within.  Vive La Binoche!

Intimacy (2001)

NOTE: There are 2 versions of this film, one of which is R-rated, and was shown in indie theaters upon release.  The version on Netflix is the original Unrated film(equivalent to MPAA’s NC-17 rating). 

This is another film that’s not for everyone, BUT it certainly is unusual and out-of-the-box.  (NOTE: There is an R-rated version and an Unrated version.)  Raw emotions are depicted, as two strangers connect to and disconnect from each other in London.  It was directed by Frenchman Chereau and stars British character actors from the theater.  The film is based on a short story by famed British-Pakistani writer, Hanif Kureishi.  This is the kind of stuff Hollywood is afraid to show!

Jay (Mark Rylance) is a failed musician who manages a trendy bar and lives in a dump of a rowhouse in a working-class area.  In his past life, he was married and father to two adorable young sons.  For a personal life, he has a (junkie) best friend and Claire (Kerry Fox).  But Claire is NOT his gf or a “friend w/ benefits”- she’s a stranger who comes by once a week for hooking up.

Jay and Claire barely speak, but one day, Jay follows Claire out into the streets, curious about her “real” life.  That’s when the story gets GOOD, and even a BIT suspenseful!

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Jay is shocked to discover that Claire has a full life; she’s an amateur actress, drama teacher, wife, and mother to a preteen son.  He even talks w/ her husband, Andy (Timothy Spall), a talkative/humble cabbie who doesn’t know much about the theater, but supports his wife (in the background).

You can see the shock/pain/jealousy on Rylance’s face as his character wonders why Claire gets to have a life while he’s in a fog of depression, missing his ex and (especially) sons.  When Jay confronts her about it, Claire feels VERY violated.  She lashes out at him- he wasn’t supposed to enter her life like THAT!

But Jay CHOSE to leave his family, and now he can’t handle it.  The new bartender working below Jay, a cute young Frenchman, wonders if Jay can even feel love.  Ouch!

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The streets are gritty and unwelcoming.  There are people everywhere, but the main characters are drifting, lost in their own world of disappointments, compromises, etc.  Jay and Claire are BOTH artistic souls, BUT they have failed (or not made much of a mark) in that regard.  Andy seems like a decent guy; Claire is a mystery- I found her to be TOO abrasive.  I’m pretty sure that was intentional.  Jay is the more sympathetic individual (though very flawed); more is seen from his view.  In one quiet scene, he watches for Claire from his window; Rylance’s face becomes that of a hopeful little boy.  His performance is fearless; I don’t think I’ve seen a lead man portrayed in this manner EVER in Hollywood!

Our Mutual Friend (BBC, 1998)

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I saw this miniseries (based on Dickens’ final novel) a while ago, and was VERY impressed by it!  There is glam, grit, unconventional romances, and many quirky characters.  There are several plots intertwined.

The stand-in for the viewer (or perhaps the author) is level-headed gentleman, Mortimer Lightwood (Dominic Mafham, pictured right).  Though the entire cast is strong, the standout actor is Paul McGann (pictured left w/ mustache).  This is b/c his interpretation of aimless gent Eugene Wrayburn, who falls deeply (and unexpectedly), in love is SO natural.  The voice, snobbery, and swagger show that he has BECOME the character.  Eugene and Mortimer are both barristers and best pals, though Eugene is not interested in furthering his career.  He’s dissatisfied w/ life- searching for some purpose.

Lizzie Hexam (gorgeous Keeley Hawes) is a shy beauty who works w/ her father on the Thames River.  They search the water for dead bodies- YIKES!  She saves up to send her younger brother Charley to a decent school, realizing that the slum is no place for a bright boy like him.  Hawes can convey LOT w/o speaking, as this role demands.

While Eugene starts out carefree, quiet and serious John Harmon (Stephen Mackintosh) has a definite plan when he comes to London from the West Indies.  His dead father left him a fortune; he also had plans for his personal life- an (arranged) marriage.  John says his last name is Rokesmith, takes a job as a humble secretary to Mr. Boffin, who made his fortune from dust heaps.  (Yup, that’s historically true!)  John finds a room to rent from the humble Wilfer family.

Though Bella Wilfer (petite/fiesty Anna Friel) was born poor, she yearns for more.  She doesn’t like the idea of the arranged marriage to a stranger, BUT likes the idea of being rich.  Like Eugene, Bella (a “Daddy’s girl” w/ a sense of entitlement) changes her character over the course of the story.  Friel fits her role VERY well, showing different shades of a young woman in (and out of) high society.

Fans of tall/handsome David Morrissey (recently seen on South Riding) may be surprised to see him cast as a VERY jealous/repressed baddie here.  He plays Bradley Headstone, a teacher at a boys’ boarding school who develops a dangerous obsession.