It's Time for Another Installment of Films I've Watched Lately Some of Which I Loved Greatly

From Starlet directed by Sean Baker

Midnight in Paris (20110 Allen. It’s not easy to make a movie that feels truly “magical.” This is evidenced by how bad most films are that try to delve in the supernatural in any way shape or form. Woody Allen as writer and director pulled it off with Midnight in Paris. There has be to be a dash of believability to the story’s conceit. Normal conventions need to be followed within the fantasy world. The story has to be compelling enough to make its total implausibility forgotten. The actors have to buy into the story and play it straight, not with a wink and a nod to the audience whether literal or figurative. Lastly it needs to move the audience either through its action, love story or message. With Midnight in Paris Allen made one of the best movies ever of any kind. The missus and I watched it Saturday night for the perhaps the fifth, sixth or seventh time. Hard to keep track. I could watch it again tonight. The story of a man who is able to travel from the 21st century to 1920s Paris every night is perfect for someone like me who is fascinated by certain eras of the past — including Paris in the twenties. I’m also fascinated by the notion of time travel which is why all of the books I’ve written have been set in the past. Imagine a film with characters that include F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Luis Buñuel, Josephine Baker, Cole Porter, Zelda Fitzgerald, Salvador Dali and TS Eliot, to name a few. You get that in Midnight in Paris. You get a lot and it’s all wonderful….and magical.

Prince of Broadway (2008) Baker. Watching this film and Starlet means I’ve know seen all of Sean Baker’s film. There’s not a lemon in the bunch. It’s a film that feels at times like a documentary. Baker’s films often feel like they’re shot from the real lives of people. In this case we have a West African immigrant in New York making a decent living as a hustler selling knock off clothes and shoes. He’s got a business owner as frontman supporting him. It’s all good until his ex brings by what she says is his son for him to raise for awhile. He is not prepared for this. It’s supposed to be for two weeks but we just now it’s not going to be anywhere near that neat and tidy. It’s a story that draws upon so much of what is challenging about being a father, about making it in the world, about small children, about dancing around the law, about survival in the city and how close we often are to slipping off an edge. Excellent stuff.

Starlet (2012) Baker. I knew nothing about the movie when I pressed play other than it appeared to feature a young, white female in the lead role. An hour and forty minutes I was left to wonder why I hadn’t been directed towards this film before. Brilliant. Bree Hemingway stars as Jane, a young porn actress who discovers wads of cash in a thermos she bought at a yard sale. She befriends the elderly woman who sold it to her, much to the dismay of the elderly woman who’d prefer to be left alone. As in all Baker films there are arguments, fights, emotional outbursts, resolutions and issues left hanging. Much of the trouble has to do with Jane’s housemate who’s also in the porn business, she’s something of a train wreck and her all-over-the-map boyfriend is Ward Cleaver in comparison. There’s a lot to unpack in this story of a bizarre but meaningful friendship and the side issues that complicate matters. The unpacking is well worth it as much as revealed and much is left for us to contemplate. Sean Baker is now one of my favorite directors.

The Flim Flam Man (1967) Kershner. Sometimes the story around the movie or the circumstances of seeing it or what you’ve heard or seen about it can alter the way you watch a film. This is often a problem as it skews the way you perceive it, but other times it adds an element to the viewing experience. With Flim Flam Man I couldn’t help thinking that I hadn’t seen it since it first came to theaters fifty-eight years ago. All I remembered about it was that began with the two main characters by a train track. I also had a strong mental image of a very cute young woman in a nighty which revealed luscious legs. Oh yes, I remembered that it co-starred George C Scott and Michael Sarazin. I really liked Sarazin as a kid, he seemed like a cool guy, the type I’d like to grow up to be. Sure Steve McQueen was my hero, but he existed in another stratosphere. Being a Sarazin seemed possible. So I watched the movie lo these many years later continually wondering what the young teenaged me thought of this, that or the other. I had no memory of whether I liked it at the time but having finally seen it again I’m sure that I did. It’s one of those fun, charming movies with ridiculous chase scenes, two mismatched buddies and a love interest. A story in which are rebellious outside-the-law hucksters continually outwit the cops. It was a pleasure to watch and fun to think about the lens I saw it through during my first viewing. It was also nice to see the young beauty who I'd remembered, she was played by Sue Lyons.

Intruder in the Dust (1949) C. Brown. One of those films that is all the more remarkable given the context of when it was made. A story about racism, Jim Crow and a near lynching set in Oxford, Mississippi is not something you’d expect to have been made way back in 1949 when Jim Crow still reigned in the American South and near lynchings were less frequent than actual ones. A black man is accused of murder and the evidence all points to his guilt. Even the well-meaning white lawyer is sure of the man’s guilt. But mostly through the help of a teenaged boy who was once saved from drowning by the accused, the truth seems that it will out. It’s a good story from any time but coming out when it did is amazing.

Hearts and Minds (1974) P. Davis. My favorite documentary of all time. It’s a searing indictment of U.S. participation in the Vietnam War. It has been criticized for its bias. That’s like criticizing a Holocaust documentary for only showing the Jewish side of the story. Any portrayal of U.S. incursion into Vietnam needs to focus on American arrogance, ignorance, cruelty, barbarity and incompetence. It needs to expose the lies, the hypocrisy and the racism at the core of U.S. policies and actions. As Daniel Ellsberg says during the film: "The question used to be: might it be possible that we were on the wrong side in the Vietnamese War? But, we weren't on the wrong side. We are the wrong side.” If you’d like to understand the American position in the war here’s a quote from the film by General Westmoreland: “The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does the Westerner. Life is plentiful, life is cheap in the Orient. And that's the philosophy of the Orient. Expresses it - life is not important.” Or how about this from Lt. George Coker a former POW who said this: “What did Vietnam look like? Well, if it wasn't for the people, it was very pretty. The people over there are very backward and very primitive and they just make a mess out of everything.” There’s another side to this story? 

Back by Popular Demand It's Films I've Watched Lately Some of Which I Loved Greatly

Walkabout

Moonstruck (1987) Jewison. Cher was brilliant and Olympia Dukakis top notch. But the rest of the cast — oh my —- talk about overacting. Director Norman Jewison tended to get broad performances in his films in this is a classic example. It’s amazing that Cher was so wonderfully restrained and I suppose if you care about Oscars, here's was well-earned. But Moonstruck is more notable for slapstick sitcom level acting from the likes of Nicolas Cage, Vincent Gardenia and Julie Bavasso. A different director could have taken the same script and made a more realistic, more believable and more compelling film. Jewison’s version felt like a case of a lot of people trying too hard. As love stories go it's terribly unconvincing. This was my first viewing since the film came out. It’ll be my last.

His Girl Friday (1940) Hawks. My favorite film. Period. It’s perfect. It’s hilarious. It’s smart. It’s innovative. It’s got some points to make (about politics and the press). It’s as perfectly-paced a movie as has ever been made. It’s got Cary Grant in one of his greatest performances (along with Mr. Lucky, Notorious and Talk of the Town). Rosalind Russell was far from the first choice to play Hildy, indeed they’d gone through most of the women in actor’s equity before “settling for” Mr. Russell. They couldn’t have done better. (That’s the kind of luck you need to make something this good.) As always in pictures from Hollywood’s Golden Age the supporting cast is crucial and here they came through with flying colors. I especially take notice of the cynical, world-weary newsmen played by Regis Toomey, Porter Hall, Frank Jenks and Roscoe Karns. And Billy Gilbert deserves plaudits for stealing his two scenes as the governor’s messenger, Joe Pettibone. His Girl Friday is like the Beatles, everything came together at the right time and right place and you can’t imagine it being any better.

The Magnificent Seven (1960) J. Sturges. Not really so magnificent. Of course I loved it when I was kid, the presence of Steve McQueen was enough to make to great picture in my mind. It was based on Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai which is to say it was re-imaging a classic. But it was ultimately a poor imitation. It would have been infinitely better if the Mexican villagers were allowed to speak Spanish, I mean beyond an occasional señor and gracias. All but one of those characters were cardboard cutouts. And speaking of one-dimensional characters, there were Eli Wallach and the the rest of the bandits. They were about as menacing as Yosemite Sam. And why is that the bad guys in movies back then happily ran towards gun fire? Even McQueen couldn’t save this picture. For one thing this was not the Mr. Cool we later got to know in movies such as The Great Escape and Bullit. Yul Bryner, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn and Charles Bronson were all wasted by a script that allowed for no real character development.  

Stardust Memories (1980) Allen. One of Woody’s best which is saying a lot in itself. I have no idea how many times I’ve watched the film since I saw it in Boston upon its original release. But I do know that I’ve enjoyed every viewing. I recall that some critics were miffed by how it seemingly poking fun at them. Evidence of their own thin skins and an ability to dish it out but not take it. Woody was clearly having fun spoofing everyone including himself. No one would make such a film who didn’t deep down appreciate his fans. No one would make such a film who was not introspective and thoughtful. No one would make such a film who wasn’t a comic genius. 

Walkabout (1971) Roeg. I’ve been watching Australian films on the Criterion Collection lately and though there’ve been a few misses, I’ve discovered several classic such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, My Brilliant Career and this film. Director Nicolas Roeg didn’t make much and even less that I’ve enjoyed but my goodness he hit it out of the ballpark with this look at a young brother and sister stranded in the Australian outback, ultimately finding a teenaged aborigine to guide them. It’s as beautifully shot a film as you’ll ever see and a masterclass in direction (how is it that Roeg didn’t do this more often?). It's meditative, original and a wonderful commentary on how modern culture isn't necessarily the best culture.

Action in the North Atlantic (1943) Lawson. Of course I like this picture. It honors the merchant marines serving in World War II. Though he later joined the army, my father was a merchant marine serving in World War II. He was at the helm of a ship that was torpedoed in the Arabian Sea by a Japanese submarine. So North Atlantic honors men like my dad who risked their lives to transport goods and weapons to the allies during the war. North Atlantic is — especially for a film of its era — a realistic account of what it was like to navigate seas swarming with enemy submarines. The cast is led by Humphrey Bogart and that’s a great start right there. Raymond Massey and regular supporting players like Alan Hale, Dane Clark and Sam Levene also feature. This film is one of many made during the war that was designed as war time propaganda. Like some it managed to both rally the Homefront and tell a rollicking good story.

The Latest Edition of 'Films I've Watched Lately Some of Which I Loved Greatly' Includes Two By Hitchcock

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) Weir. This is a film that has been around for nearly 50 years. In that time I’d watched it once (not sure when but it was a couple of decades ago, at least) and didn’t like it. So again I ask: what the hell is the matter with me? There have been a lot of movies that I didn’t like the first time but discovered after a second viewing such as L’Aventurra, Cries and Whispers and The Exterminating Angel. Picnic at Hanging Rock can be added to that list. A masterpiece. Maybe like a lot of viewers I was bothered by the fact that there was no answer to the film’s central mystery.  An all girls school goes on a picnic in Australia in 1900 at a place called Hanging Rock. Four go missing along with a teacher. One is later found with no memory of what happened. What the hell happened to those picnickers? In watching the film again I realized that not only do we not require an answer to that question, we’re probably better off without one. The story is in the survivor’s reaction to what has gone on and how they react to it. Picnic is also beautiful to look at. Images from the film linger long after watching. It is powerfully evocative. Somehow in watching it I was reminded of Sofia Coppola’s Virgin Suicides. I subsequently read that Coppola admitted that Picnic greatly influenced two of her films, including Virgin Suicides. Sounds like a great double bill.

Elevator to the Gallows (1958) Malle. There have been few women who’ve looked lovelier on the silver screen than Jeanne Moreau did in this, Louis Malle’s first feature. It is surely the greatest French noir ever made. It is tightly plotted, lovingly shot to emphasize Moreau’s stunning features and is highlighted by an excellent score done entirely by Miles Davis. Most of Moreau’s scenes are of her walking around Paris at night wondering what became of her illicit lover and whether he killed — as planned — her husband. Little does she know that he is stuck in an elevator. Of all the rotten luck. Complicating matters is the theft of her lover’s car and identity by a young couple who go on to commit the most serious of mischief. Elevator is much much more than just Moreau’s pretty face, but if it wasn’t that would still he a helluva picture.

Young and Innocent (1937) Hitchcock. Whenever I think of Young and Innocent one indelible scene immediately comes to mind. A car drives into an old mine and starts to sink. The heroine desperately tries to get out and the hero manages to reach for and barely pull her to safety. It’s an extraordinary moment from Hitchcock who directed many such memorable scenes. Young and Innocent is one in a long line of stories he directed in which an innocent man stands accused of murder and as in other of these type of pictures he’s on the run but benefits from the help of a lovely young woman who initially doubts his innocence. Just because he trots this same theme out all the time doesn’t mean it isn’t always successful. It is always successful. This iteration is set in England and features a cast that would be mostly unfamiliar to even a rabid cinephile such as myself. In any event it’s a good cast and an excellent film. With a stunningly shot conclusion. 

Nobody’s Fool (1994) Benton. It’s a really nice movie in which Paul Newman gives a very nice performance. It’s based on a Richard Russo novel of the same name. He writes nice books. Newman is a crotchety old man in a small upstate New York town. It is a cold winter, which adds to a certain gruffness and a certain coziness. Newman’s son, a college professor, reconnects with his dad after many years then spilts from his wife and pop and son get to know each other. Blah, blah, blah. There are characters in the film who are “real characters” who wear their personalities on their sleeves. Newman, who works occasionally for a contractor played by Bruce Willis is the center of everyone’s attention because he’s more interesting than anyone else. Melanie Griffith as Willis’ wife flashes her tits to Newman and that’s a nice moment in a nice movie that ultimately goes nowhere and does nothing original but again, it’s nice.

Blackmail (1929) Hitchcock. If I’d seen this film before it was a long time ago and I somehow didn’t fully appreciate it. Simply put it’s Alfred Hitchcock’s first masterpiece. It was also both his last silent and first talking picture as he made both versions of it. I’ve now watched both versions and both are criminally underrated. I prefer the silent one. A woman who is dating a Scotland Yard detective kills a man in self-defense and as the title suggests she is blackmailed. The story is fine and moves along nicely with a satisfactory denouement (ending at the British Museum the first time Hitch used a well-known place for a climactic scene) but it is all the little touches throughout that make Blackmail special. The seconds after killing (which we don’t see) are remarkable in large part owing to the facial expression and movements of Anny Ondra. Indeed it is from that point on the film that Hitch emphasizes key points with camera angles, highlighting sounds, camera focus and trickery. Utterly compelling.

Nazi Agent (1942) Dassin. It’s World War II propaganda and pretty effective at that. Conrad Veidt (best remembered as Col. Strasser in Casablanca) plays twin brothers. One is a bookish philatelist (is there any other kind?) who has emigrated to the U.S. to escape the horrors of Nazism; the other is quite the opposite, a dedicated Nazi who is German Consul and is also involved in espionage against the allies.

Reunited after many years they struggle, they fight, a gun goes off, one is dead and the other assumes his identity. It’s an interesting film capably directed by Jules Dassin. It was only his second feature in a career that would span forty years and it evidenced his great promise. The ending seems implausible but was clearly designed to stir up wartime audiences and I’d wager it succeeded.

It's Time Again for Films I've Watched Lately Some of Which I've Liked Greatly

A Complete Unknown

A Complete Unknown (2024) Mangold. Hollywood very much likes it biopics. Musicians are a frequent subject and so who better than one of the most important of all time, Bob Dylan? Naturally there’s a tremendous burden on the lead in any biopic, especially when playing such a familiar figure as Dylan. Fortunately Timothée Chalamet is more than up to the task. His performance is matched by Edward Norton as Pete Seeger and Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez. The film plays fast and loose with a few facts but they tend to be the kind of arcana that only true Dylan devotees would notice. A Complete Unknown traces Dylan from his early days in New York to his achieving super stardom then turning much of his audience against him by going electric (some people needed to get over themselves). It seems the biopic, for reasons I can’t put my finger on, have certain limitations, you’re never going to see one that is a great film but most are going to be pretty good. A Complete Unknown is very good. The cast sees to that as does director James Mangold who similarly did good work with another musical biopic, Walk the Line. It’s a film that never lags and broadens the viewer’s understanding and even appreciation of Dylan.

Holiday (1938) Cukor. One of my favorite films of all time. No idea how many times I’ve seen it but I could watch it again tonight. Of course the focus is typically on the two leads, Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn who shine. But the more I watch Holiday the more I’m impressed by Lew Ayres who is positively brilliant as the lush, Ned Seaton. Playing a drunk is never as easy as it seems but Ayres was pitch perfect. Ned is trapped. He wanted to be a musician but father has him working at the bank, and staying until six even though there’s nothing to do after three, “as an example to the other employees.” Ned bristles but hasn’t the gumption to defy his over-bearing father. He can only find solace in drink. When his older sister flees the family to be with her new love she invites Ned to come along. He wants to. But he…just…can’t. Maybe someday. Sis promises to come back for him. We hope she does and we hope he gets out and we hope he stops drinking. Ned brings a profundity to Holiday that lifts the film above most comedies of the era.  

The Skeleton Twins (2014) Johnson. I love Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig. If I were to make a list of the ten greatest all-time cast members on SNL — hang on, if I made a list of the FIVE greatest all time cast members on SNL, they’d be on it. It’s only natural that they should excel in moving pictures as well as sketch comedy and this film proves it. You’d expect a lot of laughs with this pairing (Luke Wilson also features) and you do get a fair share but this more drama then comedy. You kind of get a clue at the beginning of the picture as both leads are contemplating or trying to commit suicide. Wiig and Hader play twins who’ve not seen each other in years but get together to rekindle their sibling love and to find comfort in an uncomfortable world. I think Skeleton Twins is vastly underrated. It’s unflinching in its look at family dynamics, depression and how sex used to soothe can often create terrible complications. 

Song of the Thin Man (1947) Buzzell. Nick and Nora Charles (and you too, Asta) should have quit while you were ahead. The original Thin Man film was a classic and the first four sequels were all perfectly fine, but the fifth was a stinker. Myrna Loy, who played Nora and should know, hated it. It’s not worth summarizing but it is well worth avoiding as you  should do if planning a Thin Man marathon. 

Ball of Fire (1941) Hawks. A warm and fuzzy screwball comedy with a menacing gangster. Any film written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, directed by Howard Hawks and starring Barbara Stanwyck is a guaranteed winner (this is the only one). Stanwyck is the wonderfully named Sugarpuss O’Shea, a gangster’s girl and a nightclub singer/dancer. To avoid a subpoena she hides out with eight single man who have been living in a large house for nine years writing an encyclopedia. They’re all older gents except for Gary Cooper. In spite of themselves the mismatched pair — Sugarpuss and Cooper’s Bertram Potts — fall in love. Complications ensue as they do in films. It’s an absolute delight from beginning to end with a wonderful supporting cast including S.Z. Sakall, Henry Travers, Leonid Kinskey and Allen Jenkins. Dana Andrews is wonderful as the heavy.

Nickel Boys (2024) Ross. A great story from a novel by Colson Whiteside has here been overly stylized by a director drawing more attention to himself than the motion picture. Hand held shaky cams, characters constantly talking into the camera, intercuts of all variety including several of alligators (?) and one of horse in an office for reasons unknown, blurry images, forced perspectives. Shots from bizarre angles. It's an often vertiginous viewing experience. A good story should tell itself with the director supplementing normal story-telling with OCCASIONAL flourishes that emphasizes and underscore. I understand that RaMell Ross was trying to create an immersive experience, but he needs to tone it down a notch. I’m surprised that so many critics are abetting his self indulgence. He’s clearly a great talent but his style here tested my patience.

Yay! Another Edition of Films I've Watched Lately Some of Which I Loved Greatly

Saturday Night

Saturday Night (Reitman). They got it right. What a challenge to make a  film whose cast of characters includes so many well-known people from entertainment (Lorne Michaels, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Billy Crystal to name a few). Looking like who you’re playing is nice but acting like them is crucial and the cast here comes through. Jason Reitman’s direction is exemplary. This story of the ninety minutes leading up to the first episode of Saturday Night Live moves briskly with nary a dull moment. It’s funny, interesting and entertaining. One of those rare films that’s better than you hoped. 

A Special Day (1977) Scola. A special movie. Marcello Mastroianni is transcendent, opposite Sophia Loren, as Gabriel, a gay man in 1938 Fascist Italy who’s about to be sent to an island reserved for “subversives.” The day in question is when Adolph Hitler visited Rome and the whole city turned out to fete him and Mussolini. Gabrielle is befriended by a neighbor (Sophia Loren)  a beleaguered housewife who keeps a scrapbook about her beloved fascists. The pair have moments that are awkward, funny, angry and touching. Their day together forms the story and it is compelling from start to finish. This was my third viewing of A Special Day and it get’s better each time.

JFK (1991) Stone. New to the Kennedy Assassination? Watching Oliver Stone’s terrific film is an excellent start. No, it’s not a documentary and shouldn’t be taken as pure fact. But it does pose questions aplenty about the who, how and most importantly the why of Kennedy’s murder. Stone’s direction, the editing and the cast are all first class. Kevin Costner plays Jim Garrison the New Orleands D.A. who led the only investigation into the Kennedy assassination that brought anyone to trial, Clay Shaw (played by Tommy Lee Jones in a brilliant performance) for complicity in the assassination. Garrison fails to make a case against Shaw but he convinces many that Kennedy was killed as a result of a conspiracy and not by a lone gunman. JFK not only raises questions but it’s also bravura cinema. 

Reality Bites (1994) Stiller. So does this film. For thirty blissful years I’d been spared watching this… I want to say, movie but is that what it was? By any name it was terrible. There had to have been the proverbial script problems from day one that were never resolved. What a waste of Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and Ben Stiller (in his directorial debut and how he ever got another gig after this is beyond me). The characters were unlikable, the dialogue phony baloney and…..never mind. I’d prefer to forget it.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Spielberg. Always great fun and it raises the question: why can’t they make action/adventure films like this anymore? Story and character reign supreme, not CGI, not over the top action. Classic good vs. evil. Harrison Ford is excellent as Indiana and the cast of Nazi bad guys is perfect. The action is veritably non-stop but never excessive. Raiders inspired numerous sequels, the third of which was just as good, if not better, than the original, the rest we could have done without. Raiders of the Lost Ark never gets old.

Mr. And Mrs. Smith (1941) Hitchcock. Alfred Hitchcock’s one foray into screwball comedy was a smashing success. Of course, it’s hard to go wrong when your film co-stars Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery but the the picture benefits from the great director’s framing and camera movement. It has a silly premise about a marriage not being legal or maybe it is but it doesn’t matter. In any event the wife hooks up (production code style) with hubby’s best friend/law partner. Husband wants the missus back and goes to hilarious lengths to that end. It’s a sure cure for depression.

Mermaids (1990) Benjamin. The missus and I enjoyed this film three decades ago when it was new. Neither of us had seen it since. We had doubts that it would hold up lo these many years later. What a pleasant surprise. Cher, Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci (then nine years old) along with Bob Hoskins make an entertaining and endearing cast. Cher plays a single mother forever on the move but maybe she finds true love in a small New England town. Meanwhile Winona as the teen daughter is asserting herself and falling in love. The movie’s flaw is her love interest, a totally uninteresting actor who should have looked like Josh Hartnett but more resembled Josh Gad.

It's Time Once Again For....Movies I've Watched Lately A Few of Which I Liked Greatly

Cary Grant and Leslie Caron in Father Goose

Father Goose (1958) Nelson. I recorded this on TCM with some trepidation. I might have seen this when I was a kid but I remembered nothing about it other than it starred Cary Grant and Leslie Caron, was set during World War II on a tropical island. Would this be another of those dumb comedies from the early Sixties that were barely funny then and as dull as corduroy now? Nope. What a delight! This was Grant’s penultimate film in perhaps Hollywood's most storied film career. He turned mediocre films into good ones and good ones into great ones and great ones into classics. Father Goose is no classic but by the grace of Grant it is a thoroughly entertaining one hundred and fifty-eight minutes of cinema. It’s so much fun to see the suave and debonair Grant (the man knew how to wear a suit) playing a gruff, unshaven, sloppy beach bum turned hero. Grant plays a former history professor who wants to wile away his life on his boat but the war has gotten in the way and he’s enlisted to be an observer for the army. He does this reluctantly and even more reluctantly he rescues a woman (Caron) and the seven girls she’s in charge of. The rest is predicable such as the two principals bickering constantly then falling in love. Nonetheless it’s great fun. Everything from script to supporting characters to editing is fine, but Grant is magnificent.

Didi (2024) Wang. In the theaters now. Set and filmed in Fremont, California, it is the story of fourteen-year old Taiwanese-American lad struggling with adolescence, his family, his friends and romance. It’s a fraught age for most. Sometimes “being ethnic” complicates matters. You’re straddling being a typical American boy and being a proud member of your distinct immigrant group. A different culture and a different language are at home. You walk out the door and your like apple pie. I grew up Finnish, American and Finnish-American (yes, they’re three distinct things). I could also relate to the title character because his family was not perfectly functional, adding another layer of complication to a life. Didi is not the first film to take on a young teen’s coming of age story but it is one of the better iterations of the genre. It’s honest story-telling. Young Isaac Wang — fifteen during filming — is a budding talent who, like an experienced thespian, does  a lot of acting with his eyes which are wonderfully expressive. Often raw and uncomfortable complete with drugs, profanity and scatological references aplenty. It’s set in the summer of 2008 so social media adds another element to the young man’s story. An excellent new film.

The Last Picture Show (1971) Bogdanovich. My top 100 films list is fluid. As evidence I recently moved this masterpiece from Peter Bogdanovich into the number four spot. There’s not a false note in it. There is no better telling of small town America. It is a riveting examination of the quiet lives of desperation that so many people live, have lived, will live. There are few escapes from the drudgery, the pain, the emptiness of the small rural town that supposedly composes the heartland and the values of “real Americans.” Out of high school you can get married. That’s something to do, that’s taking a kind of control over your life. That’s adding company to your misery. That the marriage has little chance of true happiness, that it’s too early, that it’s ill-conceived is not understood. You can join the military. It’s a way to escape. You’re paid, fed, housed, perhaps taught a trade or set up for college or perhaps you lose a body part or are traumatized or pay the “ultimate sacrifice.” If you’re bold you can go off to college. And maybe you won’t come back. The Last Picture show is a snapshot of a dying town. It focuses on a group of teens graduating from high school. But we meet other members of the community. They lie, they cheat, the have affairs, but they also offer wisdom and solace and protection for the young, if not for one another. Brilliant performances highlight the film including Oscar winning turns by Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman. The star-studded cast also includes Cybill Shepard, Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottom, Sam Bottoms, Ellen Burstyn, Club Galager and Eileen Brennan.

From The Searchers

The Searchers (1956) Ford. Another film in my top ten. John Ford’s best which is saying something in itself. As exquisitely shot as any picture ever made. Ford’s mastery as a director was never more evident. The framing of shots, notably the opening and closing of the film, are masterful. You can't tell a good story on film without someone who knows where and how to point the camera. This often entails both a great director and cinema photographer like the duo of Ingmar Bergman and Sven Nykvist or Orson Welles and Gregg Toland or Woody Allen and Gordon Willis or John Ford and Winton C. Hoch. The Searchers is more than just great film to look at. The odious John Wayne was at his best as the racist Ethan Edwards who along with his not nephew Martin (Jeffrey Hunter) pursues the kidnapped young girl Debbie (Natalie Wood). It’s a powerful story with solid performances all around and it’s one helluva fine movie to look at.

Double Wedding (1937) Thorpe. It’s easy to make a silly movie. It’s especially easy to make a silly movie that’s also just plain stupid. But making a silly movie that’s genuinely funny is a tough ask. Double Wedding manages to pull of this rare feat. Of course having William Powell and Myrna Loy — the best man/woman screen pairing from Hollywood’s Golden Age, or any age for that matter — as your stars makes the task a lot easier. Like Grant in Father Goose, Powell is playing against type. We’re once again used to a suave and sophisticated performance — with heavy dashes of wit. But here Powell as an artist and bohemian who lives in a trailer. He’s fine in the role, thank you. Loy is sterner and more serious than usual and it’s no surprise that Powell’s character pulls her out of her shell.  The plot takes twists and turns yet manages to be predictable and yet loads of fun. 

A Place in the Sun (1951) Stevens. Meh. I suppose in 1951 when it was released and for a decade or so after A Place in the Sun was seen as an important message picture (there were a lot of those in the Fifties and most didn’t age well). Montgomery Clift, the delicious Elizabeth Taylor and Shelly Winters are the stars and all turn in admirable performances. Raymond Burr — pre Perry Mason — is over the top as the prosecutor. I’d imagine most people know this story of an ambitious young man who gets his break and starts to climb the social ladder. He climbs away from the nice girl he was with (Winters) and finds a beautiful young  socialite (Taylor) that any man would salivate over. Problem is girl number one is pregnant. Is murder afoot? There’s a bit of drama to the story but the ending is a massive letdown in too many ways to recount especially as doing so would contain major spoilers. Some people still extoll the film but I can’t imagine why. It's point --- whatever it was -- is lost on me.

Hey Everybody! It's Time for Another Edition of: `Some of the Films I've Watched Lately a Few of Which I Enjoyed Greatly

Evil Does Not Exist

Evil Does Not Exist (2023) Hamaguchi. Is the title meant to be ironic? This is just one of many questions posed by this the latest film from the Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose previous effort was the brilliant, Drive My Car. This is a shorter film but it packs in a lot. A corporation wants to set up a glamping (glamor camping) site near a small, tight-knit rural community. The local's reactions ranges from skepticism to outright hostility. We focus on a handyman who is single dad to a young daughter. But plot points don’t do this film justice. I don’t know, it is a complex story simply told or a simple story told with complexity? And the ending. I’ve never been so challenged. But it is a film that stays with you. It’s been six days since I saw it and it hasn’t left me yet and I can’t wait to revisit it.

Jewel Robbery (1932) Dieterle. I have no idea how this picture eluded me until now. What a delight. William Powell is always fun, in this case as a jewel thief, and my appreciation for Kay Francis grows every time I see her. These two co-star in this very pre-code film. Criminals escape punishment, marijuana is smoked (though not named), and premarital sex is most strongly suggested. Damn the production code! Depriving movie goers the rich variety of stories that could have been told for the thirty or so years of its enforcement. In Jewel Robbery Powell is charming, Francis sexy and together they are great fun. Like a lot of films from this era it's short, but what there is is choice.

Treasure of the Sierra Madre (19480 Huston. One of the great films of all time. Maybe seen at a dozen times now. Maybe more. Who counts? Walter Huston won a much deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance but that fella Bogart was pretty damn good too and so for that matter was Tim Holt. There’s simply nothing wrong with and everything to love about this movie. Some films are classics and  you couldn’t make them any better in a thousand years. Primary credit to the director — Walter’s kid — John Huston. One thing I love about the film is the depth of the story. Madness, greed, companionship, trust, luck. Themes aplenty beautifully rendered.d

The Master. (2012) P.T. Anderson.  This was my third (perhaps fourth) viewing of The Master. I keep hoping for more but it doesn’t quite deliver. It feels like director Paul Thomas Anderson was holding back. There was more power to this story of fictional L. Ron Hubbard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and one of his weirder acolytes (Joaquin Phoenix). Two powerhouse actors giving bravura performances but the whole does not live up to some of the many great pieces within this oft compelling film. For me Anderson has made a number of excellent films (notably Licorice Pizza, Punch Drunk Love, Phantom Thread, Boogie Nights) but keeps falling short of a masterpiece. One may be coming. I wish it were The Master because there's so much to it, yet there could have been more.

A Taste of Honey

A Taste of Honey (1961) Richardson. An unwanted pregnancy. Premarital sex. An interracial couple. An openly gay man. In a film from 1961? Who’d have thunk. A Taste of Honey must have been a bit of a scandal when it released. It was something of a forerunner of what was to come in the decade. This was my second viewing and I reckon not my last. There is a bleakness to the story furthered by the dark, grimy setting of urban London. There are unattractive characters, rotten luck, dashed dreams and desperation. But there is also love and hope. It’s a British Jarmusch or Kaurismäki without the lightness. It’s melancholia on film. It’s damn good not just as an early telling of controversial issues, but on its own merits.

Great Expectations (1946) Lean. This movie is positively ruined by one piece of disastrous casting. John Mills (Hayley’s dad) plays Pip starting when the character was nineteen. Mills was twice that age and looked even older. It’s damn ridiculous. You can never get past it. To top it off Mills didn’t give much of a performance. Everything else about the film is excellent and it does Dickens’ novel justice. Notably the cinema photography, the set designs and most of the cast. A fifteen-year-old Jean Simmons features and she’s a delight. But Mills…come on. 

Il Posto (1961) Olmi and I fidanzati (1963) Olmi. Two masterpieces from Ermanno Olmi. Two testaments to the fact that the simplest of stories told simply can carry immense power and make for great cinema. Il Posto is the story of a young man starting a life-long (and secure) position working at a desk in a big firm. Along the way he meets a charming young beauty who he hopes is the one. I fidanzati is about two finances who are separated when the man takes a job that he can’t pass up, out of town. It is a test of -- and ends being a testament to -- love. Olmi was primarily a documentarian and those sensibilities help inform these nominally fictional tales. Everyday life, the city, the factory, the office, the cafes, the hotels, the streets, the passing crowd, are all key characters in these stories and they are in their own way powerful and beautiful and interesting. Two great films.

Postcards From the Edge (1990) Nichols. I’m not even sure what the movie is supposed to be about. Whatever its purpose it widely missed the mark. Sure, Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep are wonderful and there are some excellent supporting players in the cast and boy howdy don’t we love that rollicking song at the end but….What are we seeing here? An interesting mother-daughter relationship? Sorry, friend it’s more like two big stars vamping. The perils of addiction and the difficulties of recovery? As one who's been there I can say we get little sense of that. The prices of fame? Yawn. There’s nothing to see here and it reminds me that director Mike Nichols had a lot more misses than hits in his career.

Some of the Films I've Watched Lately a Few of Which I Enjoyed Greatly

The Royal Tenenbaums

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) Anderson. I unreservedly love this movie. And I loved it all the more with this latest viewing. Dysfunctionality has never been funnier. Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum steals the show with lines like these:

“Anybody interested in grabbing a couple of burgers and hittin' the cemetery?” 

“I'm very sorry for your loss. Your mother was a terribly attractive woman.” 

“I've always been considered an asshole for about as long as I can remember. That's just my style. But I'd really feel blue if I didn't think you were going to forgive me.”

“Chas has those boys cooped up like a pair of jackrabbits, Ethel.”

“Hell of a damn grave. Wish it were mine.”

“You wanna talk some jive? I'll talk some jive. I'll talk some jive like you never heard!”

“Hey, lay it on me, man.” This said when meeting a distinguished African American man. 

Royal, as should be obvious from the above, has a propensity for being totally inappropriate. But it’s not as though he’s surrounded by sanity. His family is a wacky crew. His sons (Ben Stiller and Luke Wilson) are, to put it charitably, eccentric (albeit successful) and his daughter (Gwyneth Paltrow) — who he introduces as his “adopted daughter” — is so far out there you couldn’t find her with a telescope. Attached to the family is more madness such as Raleigh St. Clair (Bill Murray) and Eli Cash (Owen Wilson). Only his ex-wife (Angelica Huston) seems at all normal and only just. This and Rushmore are peak Wes Anderson, for my money only Moonrise Kingdom has matched these two.

The File on Thelma Jordan (1949) Siodmak. Barbara Stanwyck stars opposite Wendell Corey. Wait, what? Wendell Corey the leading man? That can’t be right. He was always the protagonist’s buddy -- notably in Rear Window -- never the main man. Actually Corey  was fine in this picture though it would have been better served with someone else in the lead. Like a leading man. William Holden? Melvyn Douglass? Dana Andrews? Maybe they and others all turned it down. TFTJ is being shown on Criterion Channel as part of their "1950 the Peak Year of Noir" series. There’s always one basic problem with noir: you know the “bad guys” aren’t going to get away with it. The mystery, such as it is, is what is going to trip them up. The plot here is not worth detailing but suffice to say Stanwyck is the villainess though not half as interesting as she is in Double Indemnity. Of course this one wasn’t written and directed by Billy Wilder. TFTJ is a solidly mediocre picture, certainly no waste of time but nothing you’re going to much remember after watching it — unless you blog about it.

The Immigrant (2013) Gray. Simply a terrible movie. The first really bad one I’ve sat through in a long time. Marion Cotillard stars, or rather she goes through the motions. The brilliant Joaquin Phoenix similarly reads his lines and hits his marks. Jeremy Renner plays a thoroughly uninteresting character with little evident enthusiasm. The film starts off dark in confined spaces and one imagines we’re being set up for wide open vistas and large spaces with brilliant light much as John Ford would do. Nope. It stays that way through the entire running time. There is nothing interesting about the film except to imagine why some critics liked it. Cotillard plays an immigrant from Poland in 1921 coming to New York with her ailing sister. It’s a great set up but the rest of the film is a complete disappointment.

The Passenger (1975) Antonioni. Sometimes I amaze myself. Prior to my latest viewing I’d watched The Passenger once before many years ago and didn’t like it. In the intervening years I’ve read and heard so many good things about it that I decided it deserved a second chance. After all, I’d disliked another Antonioni film the first time I saw it (L’Aventurra) and thought it masterpiece after a second viewing. Guess what? Same thing happened with The Passenger. Who was that person who didn’t like it? What a great film! Jack Nicholson stars as a disaffected journalist in North Africa who assumes a dead man's identity. Turns out the recently deceased was running guns for rebels and had some serious enemies. As was his custom, Antonioni took his sweet time in telling the story with long lingering shots that allow the viewer to breathe and think and take in any of the various locales that the protagonist travels through. Maria Schneider co-stars. The Passenger ranks up there with Antonioni's best. The closing scene has got to rank with one of the best endings in cinema.

The Lady Eve (1941) Sturges. One of the ten greatest screwball comedies of all time for me and countless others. Hell, it's one of the great films of all time, period. In Barbara Stanwyck’s great career she was never better. Certainly never funnier nor sexier. Henry Fonda proved here that a great actor can play in any genre as this was a rare foray into comedy for him. A supporting crew of Eugene Palette, Charles Coburn, William Demarest and Eric Blore round out a picture worth seeing again and again. And again.

Prizii’s Honor. (1985) Huston. Such was the state of American cinema in the eighties that this was not only a very popular film but a highly acclaimed one. Honestly it’s not bad but sure ain’t great either. Jack Nicholson shines as always, Kathleen Turner is sultry, as always. Angelica Huston (directed by her Dad) turns in a nice performance (it won an Oscar?) the supporting players are just fine. But Huston who directed some of Hollywood’s great films (Maltese Falcon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, the African Queen, The Man Who Would Be King, Key Largo) was not in great form in this his penultimate directoral effort and more importantly the script was not up to the actors. The line “do I ice her or do I kill her” is memorable but not much else is in this in one ear and out the other film.

Mirror (1975) Tarkovsky. Critic Antti Alanen called the film a "space odyssey into the interior of the psyche.” That’s as good a description as any. This was my fifth or sixth viewing and I found it just as mysterious, enigmatic and enthralling. It’s like free form jazz on film, hopping from one scene to the next, cutting in actual footage of the Spanish Civil War or a bullfight. A woman floats in mid air. A woman we haven’t seen before upbraids a main character. A barn burns. It’s a puzzle why we’re watching certain things but they are compelling and it makes sense just as it doesn’t. I love this film.