Fantastic! — 11 weeks agoGreat look at how damaging the media can be. Sally Fields plays a newspaper writer who receives a leak that the key suspect in a union leader’s disappearance is the son of a mobster, played by Paul Newman. Excellent, fast-paced script, which felt like a throwback to ‘30s films such as His Girl Friday. Strong performances and a creative storyline. Loved it.
A Gem — 11 weeks agoI love it when you sit down to watch a movie and it has such a surprisingly fresh script that it grabs you from the beginning. Even better when the film was made decades ago. There are so many amazing stories to be told, but so many of the same ones keep getting produced, it really is a joy to find an original. Matthau is brilliant.
Escapism At Its Best — 11 weeks agoThis is quite possibly my favorite Astaire/Rogers musical. You have the expected – the lovely Art Deco scenery, the light love story that keeps Fred and Ginger apart and fighting through most of the film, etc. But this film has some of their best numbers, thanks to Ira Gershwin’s score. Two of the songs are still incredibly recognizable today: “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” and “You Can’t Take That Away from Me.” In particular, the tap-dancing/roller-skating scene is, in my opinion, the most breathtaking number the duo ever performed – a pure joy to watch. Top Hat and Swing Time are better regarded, but this should definitely be considered as one of their best.
A Review of "A Hatful of Rain" — 12 weeks agoThe first half of the movie annoyed me for several reasons. My favorite movie is Trainspotting, so this ‘50s version of drug addiction is at times laughable, but I’m sure at the time it was very groundbreaking. I was not blown away by the acting. The screenplay (based on a play) was well written and as the actors said their lines, I could picture it being said differently and better, more realistic and less theatrical. The entire thing felt more like a lesson than art – “Come watch how evil drugs destroy a veteran and his family.” However, by the second half of the movie I really did care what happened to Eva Marie Saint and Anthony Franciosa.
This movie just about broke my heart, in a nice, not overly dramatic way. Greer Garson working in the office and telling Charles about her son made me cry. The movie is not perfect (I hated how the costume department didn’t even try to make the clothing accurate for the time period), but it is definitely one of the all-time best love stories.
"Roberta" — 11 weeks agoHow many animals died to make this movie? Almost every outfit had fur. Man, PETA must hate this one.
AKA "Lust in the Dust" — 13 weeks agoOh, Jennifer Jones – where is your self-respect? Yes, Gregory Peck is surprisingly hot, but is that is any excuse?
"Mr. Skeffington" — 13 weeks agoI was never able to buy into the idea of Bette Davis being so irresistible. Made me very glad that she didn’t get the role of Scarlett in Gone with the Wind. The story still works (after all, it could be updated as the Dina Lohan story), but it was all just too over the top.
A review of "Driving Miss Daisy (Special Edition)" — 14 weeks agoI was very happy to listen to the southern accents in this movie. Usually southern accents are quite overdone and everyone sounds like Scarlett O’Hara. The screenplay or dialect coach really understood that it is much more about the contractions and cadence than just adding syllables.
Despite its lovely interludes of Murray exploring New York City, I didn’t feel as if this movie successfully transferred itself from a play into a film. The parts from the play and the parts added for the movie seemed glaringly obvious and the editing was a bit of a disaster for me – highlighting the changes rather than blending them in. However, I still really enjoyed the film – the script is funny, clever and engaging. The performances are all solidly good, Robards and the kid playing Nick especially. In the end, however, the film left me wishing I could have seen them perform it on stage rather than the movie.
A Review of "Twelve O'Clock High" — 15 weeks agoOne of the best portraits of wartime leadership ever. Unfortunately, it is a bit slow.
The film got off to a slow start for me. Gregory Peck plays Schuyler Green, a writer recently invited to New York to work on a piece about anti-semitism. He struggles to come up with an angle for the piece and meanwhile falls in love with a divorced upper-class woman, Kathy. He decides to pretend to be Jewish to get an insider look at how anti-Semitism feels. The film has its flaws. Peck is incredibly good, as always, but the relationship with Kathy seems forced and I never felt involved in the issues between them (possibly because I was rooting for Peck to hook up with Celeste Holm the entire time).
Taking into account the injustices other minorities were living in during the time, the film at times feels like misguided preachiness – or even racist really if you think about them arguing for the rights of all white people to be treated the same regardless of religion, yet they never really tackle the color issue. However, the film wonderfully examines the hypocritical prejudice many “nice” people have. Growing up in the south, I was constantly amazed at how many white people say racist things to other white people that they would never say in front of an African American or Hispanic person. They know it is wrong, but have the idea that all white people secretly think the same way they do. The film clearly lays the blame of continued prejudice on so called “nice” people who allow these rude comments and actions to go unchecked because of a feeling that it would be impolite to cause a scene. Sometimes there are times when you simply have to stand up against such injustices. Unfortunately, this movie was made 60 years ago and much of the same hypocritical prejudice still exists.
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