Movies: The Official "Movie of the Week" Club Thread II

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Punch-Drunk Love (1998) Directed by Carl Robert Mexican

I regret that there is only one of me and that I am basically unilingual. I wish there were at least four of me and that each one spoke seven different languages because one person writing in one language is grossly insufficient to condemn this awful, terrible, misguided movie. Let’s divide this review into what I like and what I hate about this movie.

HATE

This utterly charmless doofus of a central character
Sandler’s one and a sixteenth (the anger bits) note performance
Adam Sandler’s mother and father for having him
The physician and nurses who assisted at his birth
The teachers and doctors who taught the physicians and nurses how to deliver babies
The blank wall, dreary cinematography
The morose mise en scene
Paul Thomas Anderson for being Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread excepted)
Everyone who encouraged PTA not to become an accountant
The thought that a seemingly intelligent, normal woman could have been attracted to this imbecile
The stupid sub-plot about the sex worker
The fact that his business partner doesn’t seem to know him
The seven ******* sisters
Especially the lead sister who overacts so badly it made my brain implode
The often manipulative camera work
The pathetic background music
The witless, pointless nature of the whole enterprise.

In addition, I hated the popcorn that I had at the movie. I hated the flimsy paper bag that it came in. I hated the watered-down coke I continuously gagged on while trying to prevent myself from ripping down the movie screen with my bare hands.

I could go on, but you catch the drift…..

Like

The one shot of dumb ass walking through the open air Honolulu airport (all Hawaiian airports, that I know of anyway, are open air). Why? Because it reminded me how good that air feels, man. Hawaiian air on your skin is like Lafite Rothschild of your tongue, only it’s free.

Totally unnecessary and possibly impolite aside: Every one of you Americans out there who don’t live in Hawaii is certifiably bat-**** crazy. What is the matter with you?

…..but I digress.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If there is a Hell, Punch-Drunk Love would be playing there on a continuous basis.

Now THAT is a review.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Punch Drunk Love
Anderson (2002)
“I have a love in my life that makes me stronger than anything you can imagine.”

Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) is a coiled spring of a person, held contracted by just the smallest bands. He runs a plunger company. He has seven sisters, each seemingly a bit of a ball-busting nag. He’s lonely. There was maybe once a relationship, but it’s gone. It isn’t hard to understand why. Barry’s likable in a way, but he’s that unhealthy mix of put upon and volcanic exploder. He’ll take the barbs until he doesn’t. And when he doesn’t, things break (windows, bathroom fixtures). He meets Lena. At first it seems like a classic movie meet-cute – her car dies in his parking lot. We later learn that isn’t so. It was a set up for her prior to a planned set-up by one of the aforementioned sisters. At the same time, lonely Barry rings a sex line. It’s a decision that sucks him up into a blackmail scam that threatens his finances and physical safety thanks to some aggressive Mormons. It is this backdrop that the lost souls of Barry and Lena find a bit of understanding, a bit of love, a bit of companionship. Oh, and Barry buys a shit ton of Healthy Choice products, zeroing in on pudding as the most affordable way to earn frequent flyer miles on a promotion. But that’s not really what’s important is it?

With Paul Thomas Anderson back on screens with Phantom Thread (I always want to put a THE on that) and with Sandler having recently returned to drama(ish) acting with the Meyerowitz Stories, I’d been wanting to revisit Punch Drunk Love, which still stands as major Sandler (it's a small selection), but probably minor Anderson. That I call it minor is only relative to Anderson’s overall output. This is a bit of an after dinner mint relative to the hearty meals that make up most of his filmography.

I am not shocked when people dismiss the movie. I have no quarrel. Punch-Drunk Love may be a little too precious for it’s own good. He sells plungers! (What a quirky job!). He is trying to scam airline miles with pudding! (Actually, based on a true story). Why is he still carrying that phone?? It’s a little fairy taley, a little story booky. Lena explains her attraction to Barry and I guess it sorta makes sense, but conceded not totally. The vibe just warms me though.

I’m 100 percent in the bag for Anderson and I was pleased with how much this still holds up and fits in with his other work, despite having the smallest scope and stakes and ambition by far of any of his movies. His camera remains on the move. I’m a sucker for every push in on a character walking towards the camera. J.J. Abrams turned lense flare into a joke, but it’s still a nice flourish here. The second time Barry and Lena meet is a masterful job of ratcheting tension (despite low stakes) as Barry tries to deal with work, deal with his sister, be polite to Lena and juggle multiple calls for the Utah based extorters.
Other than occasional outbursts of violence, there isn’t much more happening than talking and yet the energy level remains pitched high. The pink/purple heavy palette of the movie is pleasant and evident fairly early. It’s in sunrises, outfits, interstitial images of paintings.

Sandler is good (again, relative for him). But with the benefit of time, I’m not sure he’s as good as I once thought. He really isn’t that far removed from his typical man-child schtick. Anderson got him to dial it down maybe a notch. Watson is lovely. It occurs to me I haven’t seen her in many American movies. Philip Seymour Hoffman appears as the tormentor/extorter and throws 100 mph in his handful of scenes.

An odd, but enjoyable little trip.

 

[Ralph Spoilsport]

Lonely guy Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) steps out to the sidewalk with his morning coffee only to witness the peacefulness of daybreak shattered by a car crash. Consider it a harbinger of things to come: today will be the day love enters his life.

Romance and destruction go hand in hand in Punch-Drunk Love; though it may not be obvious in the first minute or two, it is implied by the title. This is a romantic comedy like no other I can think of offhand. It is brilliantly daft like a novelty toilet bowl plunger and invigorating thanks to its percussive score, abstract art dissolves (which I could watch all day long) and an ever-present threat of violence. Love is a many-splintered thing and can hurt in a lot of ways as Barry discovers. He has seven sisters who clearly love him but that doesn't stop them from teasing him mercilessly and it's obvious this is one source of his disorder. A phone sex line gets him into a world of hurt before he can get his pants off. Who doesn't trash the men's room on a first date? How's “I wanna smash your face with a sledgehammer” for pillow talk?

This is a rom-com for the boys. Emily Watson doesn't have much to do besides be the love interest. Sandler's showcase all the way…channeling Travis Bickle and Rain Man through his own fratboy schtick he creates a unique and memorable clown, in the tradition of Lloyd and Keaton but with 21st century attitude.

A couple of months ago I mentioned in another thread that Silver Linings Playbook was my fave rom-com of this century, but I actually think Punch-Drunk Love is much better. I feel guilty for liking either though, since they both exploit the comedy potential of mental illness. But that too is implied in the title and I guess we all have a little of that craziness in us.

 

[Ralph Spoilsport]

If there is a Hell, Punch-Drunk Love would be playing there on a continuous basis.

Yikes!

I'd hate to imagine where Jack & Jill might be playing...

 

[Jevo]

Punch Drunk Love (2002) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) is a troubled novelty item salesman. He's lonely, but also scared to meet women. He's constantly put down by his seven sisters. He has anger issues that he often takes out on inanimate objects. One particularly lonely night, he calls a phone sex line, which turns out to be a front for blackmailing lonely rich guys with knowledge of their 'perversions'. Lena (Emily Watson), a co-worker of one of Barry's sisters, gets infatuated with Barry after seeing a picture of him, and the two gets set up. Now Lena is maybe a bit weird herself, but for reason, after going on a date with Barry, she's not been scared away after he vandalises a restaurant bathroom, and generally acts weird. Weirder than you normally do on a first date.

Is Adam Sandler a good actor? No, not really. Although this movie has often been cited as the proof that he can act. He's better here than he normally is, but that's mainly down to playing an actual character her, but he does the exact same thing he does in every film he's in, and I'm not really convinced by that. I watched this movie many years ago, and I was positively surprised by Sandlers acting. But I made the mistake of comparing him to what he usually does, instead of comparing him to actually good actors. When you do that, he's not really that impressive.

As for the rest of the movie. I don't really know what to think. Is it a parody of romantic comedies, by trying to highlight how over the top and stupid most romantic comedies are, and how the main couple is often just unlikeable? If that's the case, then it doesn't really work that well, because there's no pay off in any way from that. If it's not the case, then it's not much better. Because the story is an over the top version of a mediocre romantic comedy. The most redeeming thing about the movie is that it has a director who can make it look good. But that doesn't make the story any better. The big problem really is that I don't like Barry Egan one bit. He's not had an easy life, but he also seems like kind of a bad person in his own right. So I don't really care that much if good things happen to him. So now it's just a mediocre romantic comedy, with a protagonist that I don't really care about. At least Paul Thomas Anderson is a good enough director, that he can dress it up a bit, but it doesn't really hide the deficiencies of the story for long, but it does make it bearable to watch unlike most other mediocre romantic comedies.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Punch Drunk Love (2002) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

Is Adam Sandler a good actor? No, not really. Although this movie has often been cited as the proof that he can act. He's better here than he normally is, but that's mainly down to playing an actual character her, but he does the exact same thing he does in every film he's in, and I'm not really convinced by that. I watched this movie many years ago, and I was positively surprised by Sandlers acting. But I made the mistake of comparing him to what he usually does, instead of comparing him to actually good actors. When you do that, he's not really that impressive.

I mentioned it in my review, but wanted to come back to it. I too remember thinking WOW! He can act! It's probably been 10 years since I last watched it and his performance really hasn't aged well. Maybe he cause he still hasn't really aged.

Anywho, I realized I neglected to pick a flick.

Let's do Milos Forman's Amadeus (1984).

 

[Jevo]

The Last Picture Show (1971) dir. Peter Bogdanovich

In a small town in north Texas around 1950, best friends Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane (Jeff Bridges) are finishing up their last year of High School, after which there's no really defined path for them. They are not going to college that's for sure, so working in the oil industry looks like the only real option for them. Not that they are thinking much about that in the beginning. They pass their time by hanging out eating cheeseburgers at the diner, playing pool in the pool hall, or trying to convince their girlfriends to sleep with them. Sonny manages to scare his girlfriend away, and instead starts an affair with wife of the high school coach. Duane is having problems with his girlfriend Jacy (Cybil Sheppard), the daughter of a local oil baron, the only rich family in the town. But Lucy is slowly learning her mothers tricks of how to use her sexuality to manipulate men, although Jacy has some learning difficulties. In this community the change from High School kid to adult is very abrupt, and the kids have to navigate this change, which is much more sudden than the changes inside them.

I don't really know a lot about what life as a teenager in a small Texas town was like around that time. But this movie sure gives a good impression of what it might be like. Even if the experience of a small Texas town is somewhat distinct, the general experience of coming of age is very universal, and it's told very universally here. It's still relatable more than 45 years after release, and more than 65 years after the movie takes place. What I really like about The Last Picture Show compared to many other coming of age movies, is how natural the movie feels. I trust 100% that the experience in such a place, is like that. The story doesn't feel contrived at all, and the characters feel real. They don't feel like adults put into a teenage body. Something I feel many coming of age movies fail by doing. Probably because the writer has forgotten how it was to be a teenager, and how teenagers talk and interact. The worst offender of this I can think of, is Juno.

The Last Picture Show might be the first really good American coming of age movie. By that time it had only been a few years where movies could really explore the sexual coming of age of the characters, as well as the mental coming of age. Compared to something like The Graduate, I like how this movie came about it better. The characters have their own drive, and their sexual exploration is mostly driven by themselves. Rather than being led by someone else. Even if Sonny kinda has his own Mrs. Robinson, the relationship between them is vastly different from the one shown in The Graduate.

I quite like coming of age movies. Lots of them don't really bring anything really new to the table, perhaps because the coming of age experience doesn't change that much from one generation to the next, and sometimes you do feel like you don't want to watch another, because they all feel the same. But then comes along something great and new, like Moonlight last year, or the Apu trilogy, Y Tu Mama Tambien, and my interest gets renewed. But one thing I like about watching coming of age movies from different times, is that they show how universal the experience is. It's a reminder how my parents coming of age experience wasn't all that different from my own, even if it didn't always feel like it was the case. But on a second thought, maybe it was because they knew about teenagers are up to...

 

[kihei]

The Last Picture Show (1971) Directed by Peter Bogdanovitch

Stuck in the middle of a Texas nowhere, a whole bunch of people watch with varying degrees of interest as their lives go nowhere, too. Three teenagers, none of them especially bright, struggle to find some traction but there is not even much of that to be found. Sonny (Timothy Bottoms), fresh off his last high school football game, meaning his life is all downhill from here, aimlessly wanders about pretty much willing to go wherever the wind blows him. He falls for the local femme fatale Jacy (Cybil Shepherd) who doesn't know what she wants except that it entails more attention. He falls in love with the football coach's neglected wife, Ruth (Cloris Leachman), who has more woes than she can handle, and he has a falling out with his best friend Duane (Jeff Bridges) who is even more smitten with Jacy than he is. None of these character's future looks anything but bleak. But people do muddle through as evidenced by Jacy's mom, Lois (Ellen Burstyn), who has seen it all and knows it can always get worse. Meanwhile old Sam (Ben Johnson) watches over everything, a guy who has been around forever and is as much a part of the local landscape as sagebrush and snapping turtles.

It sounds like the movie should be depressing, and it is in its way. But the script is based on a Larry McMurty novel, and McMurty isn't one to let his characters mope (McMurty also co-authored the screenplay with director Bogdanovitch). There is a lot of wry good humour to go around, and people's attitudes aren't always as predictable as I thought they were going to be. Jacy, for instance, isn't stereotypically saving her virginity to give to her husband, she can't lose it quick enough. And Lois, who knows a handful when she sees one, rather than counseling abstinence agrees with her daughter. Lois is more concerned about the boys hearts breaking than her daughter's vulnerability, which she sees as basically being non-existent. Lois likes Jacy just fine, but she also knows her daughter is capable of doing real damage in the wrong circumstance. In fact, most of the characters have these little glimmers of particularity that make them special. So what in lesser hands could have been a collection of deadbeats take on a life and vitality that I wasn't fully expecting.

The Last Picture Show came out a year after director Bob Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces and two years after Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider, all three films shot in the south or the southwest, all gritty looks at American life, all presenting a deeply flawed America that had previously only rarely been seen in Hollywood movies. I haven't seen the other two movies recently, so I don't know how well they stand up to scrutiny after all these years. But I thought The Last Picture Show held up really well. The one fly in the ointment: among a great cast in top form, Timothy Bottoms seems over-matched. He has a big emotional scene right at the end with Cloris Leachman, and she has to do all the work because there is a limit to how deep Bottoms can go. It should be a great scene, the perfect capper on the story, but Bottoms can only vaguely suggest what the scene needs, he can't deliver the goods. The rest of the time all he has to do is play a shallow kid and he's fine with that. But I think he prevents The Last Picture Show from being great, good though it is.

 

[Ralph Spoilsport]

Welcome to Loserville, Texas. Population: Sonny and Duane. Two high school football stars who've just had their asses kicked by a rival team and now they're scorned by their hometown. Not a promising way to begin adulthood, but that's The Last Picture Show, which captures the period when the fantasy world of adolescence ends and the harsh reality of life kicks in.

The town of Anarene, c. 1950, is an emotional dustbowl, not much fertile ground for love or happiness to take root so the residents cling to whatever they can get. It's a bleak soap opera but the small town atmosphere seems very real, the black and white cinematography is moody and the characters are all engaging thanks to a strong ensemble cast, four of whom bagged Oscar noms (two of them won--Cloris Leachman as the sex-starved coach's wife and Ben Johnson, who normally doesn't say more than two words in his movies, delivers a soliloquy at the film's emotional centre.) Jeff Bridges is something to behold, who knew he was that young once? It's no wonder he would become the most acclaimed of the cast.

And then there's Jacy, the town flirt and budding femme fatale; she has sex appeal but doesn't quite know how to use it…yet. But she knows it has a power of some kind and is eagerly exploring its properties. Cybill Shepherd has a screen presence that transcends her acting ability. She's a great villianess, cunning but still innocent in a way. Realizing she's just ruined the fancy watch her boyfriend saved six months to buy for her by wearing it in the swimming pool she just shrugs and gives a girlish grin to the camera, meeting the pov of the rich boy who is the new focus of her attention. The scene makes me melt, and I would probably fall for her too knowing very well she would only stomp on my heart eventually.

 

[kihei]

Truly Madly Deeply (1991) Directed by Anthony Minghella

Nina (Juliet Stevenson) and Jamie (Alan Rickman) were soulmates and lovers, a perfectly matched pair. When Jamie dies suddenly and unexpectedly, Nina's world crumbles around her and she is overwhelmed by grief. Nothing seems to help. And then Jamie returns, as though summoned by Nina's will. He may be an apparition but he seems very real to Nina...and to the audience. At first she is beside herself with relief, but it isn't long before Jamie becomes a bit of a problem to have around. As Nina grasps at the first flutterings of a new life, her attachment to the past begins to fade just a little. Jamie, rather than distressed by this turn of events, actually seems to nudge this transition along--creating situations that make him expendable and that remind Nina that their relationship wasn't always flowers and light. That eventually Nina will let go does not lessen the agony that she feels in doing so.

Truly Madly Deeply is a ghost story that I never think of a ghost story. The movie is more of a romance than a ghost story, but that doesn't capture it either. More than anything else, Truly Madly Deeply is a movie about coping with debilitating grief, eventually allowing life to move on despite the great difficulty of finally letting go of the past. I once ran into a psychologist at a party who claimed that at a certain point in his patient's grieving process, he showed them this movie and then discussed it with them. He believed the film was a catalyst that helped his patients express their feelings, especially their sense of guilt about moving on. That the movie might have clinical value, of course, is neither here nor there--while Truly, Madly, Deeply may be an accurate portrayal of the stages of grief and acceptance, how does it stand up as a movie? I loved it, but I can see why others wouldn't. The movie plays directly to its audience's emotions. Juliet Stevenson's Nina presents an immediately believable portrait of grief at its most raw; for his part Alan Rickman is immediately believable, too, charming, playful, but with a few annoying idiosyncrasies that Nina might have forgotten. Both actors are so well suited to their roles that it helps obscure, for me anyway, some of the movie's flaws, such as a mawkish performance by Michael Maloney as Nina's emerging romantic interest. All by himself, he seems to find all the trite notes that Stevenson and Rickman scrupulously avoid.

The movie is also an interesting example of how important background music can be to setting a mood. Jamie was a cellist and it is mostly a solo cello playing Bach that we hear on the soundtrack. The music lends a weight and beauty and sense of gravitas that the movie could not achieve with a different soundtrack and provides a kind of classy melancholy that seems to me perfect for the material. Normally I am not a fan of using music to set a mood in a film as I see it as a cheap trick most of the time, but here I think it really promotes the themes and emotions of the film very well.

While I can see why some critics might find the proceedings "gooey," to use the New York Times' Vincent Canby's description, Truly, Madly, Deeply always works for me. There is a "love it or hate it" scene near the end where Rickman attempts to recite a poem in Spanish that Stevenson simultaneously translates in English. While I am a very infrequent crier at movies, this scene always chokes me up as it perfectly expresses the need to let go, the pain and reluctance to do so, yet the importance and necessity of it eventually happening. Life must move on.

Finally, one last point: any fan of Alan Rickman needs to see this movie. I think it is easily among his best performances

 

[kihei]

My next pick will be Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive (2014).

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

A vacation delayed review ...

The Last Pictutre Show
Bogdanovich (1971)
“Why don’t we just take off and go some place? I’m tired of this town.”

Sonny, Duane and Jacy are a trio of high school seniors in a dead-end Texas town. We don’t catch a lot of their school life, but plenty of time is spent away from school (and the football field). Much of that time, as horny teens are wont to do is spent in the pursuit of carnal connections. Duane and Jacy are together, but Sonny isn’t much taken with his current girlfriend. He has clear eyes for Jacy. She is trouble for other men and quite possibly to herself. Sonny takes up with an older woman. Jacy, pressured by her mom, begins to drift toward a more well-to-do crowd. There are a few notable sounding boards in town, namely Sam the Lion, owner of several local establishments the town’s kids frequent and a kindly, weathered waitress. Sam dies. Jacy moves on to Duane’s frustration. Eventually she finds her way to Sonny. There is a brief bit of drama on the relationship, but it passes. Sonny and Duane have the stronger bond than either had with Jacy. Duane leaves for the military. Jacy leaves for college. Sonny remains. The tumbleweeds blow.

The Last Picture Show is a story that’s been told before – youth ready to burst and yet constrained by status, community, surroundings, etc. Some escape. Some do not. Time marches on, consuming all things. Told though it may be, this is a good telling with yearning and melancholy infused throughout. It’s well portioned.

Bogdanovich peaked here, which might be a little sad because it’s just his second film. Few get that much, though so I shed no tears (What’s Up Doc is a fun little trifle!). It has such an outsized reputation, but watching it (even though I like it), it’s hard to wonder how much of that was a product of its time. What was borderline revolutionary then, feels a tad staid today. I appreciate Bogdanovich’s classic touch. It’s his more showy stylistic tics that always irritate me. He loves faces, but it feels like he holds the shots a little too long, like when Duane leaves the hotel room and there’s a progression of shots of the friends watching him or when the jerk rich kid and Jacy talk in the kitchen – it just always feels like there are too many beats. It’s a weird feeling but it occurs repeatedly in The Last Picture Show.

The acting, particularly from the older actors, is top notch though. Ben Johnson won an Oscar and he’s good as the stern, fatherly figure, but it’s also a tad cliché (including his predictable passing). The trio of women – Eileen Brennan as the waitress, Cloris Leachman (who I never think of for drama despite her Oscar win here) and Ellen Burstyn as Jacy’s mom all are stellar. Burstyn spends most of the film as a non-entity but swoops in a great scene with Sonny near the end. Leachman’s final monologue and fight with Sonny is heartbreaking.

Random: I always forget Clu Gulager is in this. Such a fixture in horror movies of my youth (Return of the Living Dead, Nightmare on Elm Street 2), it’s always shock to see him here in the significant role as Jacy’s eventual deflowerer.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Truly Madly Deeply
Minghella (1990)
“I feel looked after, I suppose, watched over.”

We meet Nina (Juliet Stevenson) first in voice over. She’s talking about her life. She’s calm and hopeful. She has a good job, people who care for her, including a kind landlord hoping to sweep her off her feet. There are rats in her meager flat. There is something else about Nina. She’s in mourning. Her husband, Jamie (Alan Rickman) has died. She’s trying in her own way to get on and she puts on a good face, but she hasn’t completed that journey yet. The bursts of anger still come, to her therapist, to a friend who wants to buy or borrow Jamie’s beloved cello.

There is, of course, a very good reason why she’s having trouble letting go. Jamie, has not truly gone. He still appears in the apartment, urging her to close doors and wanting to keep their flame lit (at least at first). Nina is practically a shut-in in her moments with Jamie, afraid to leave even for work, disappearing for days at a time. This ghostly Jamie is there on another mission though – not to hang onto his past, but to help Juliet let it go. The past might not have been as idealized as it seemed, while the future is never as bleak.

What a lovely film about loss and love and acceptance. I was taken with the progression of Jamie, first as charming partner and gradually to a more and more selfish person (not to mention a bad and overbearing roommate). I loved the soft humor in that journey and the interaction with the ghostly friends. I was so taken, that I didn’t see the reveal that this whole act had a greater purpose and wasn’t merely some cosmic quirk in the system. I loved how plain and matter-of-fact both Rickman and Stevenson are about the predicament (and that he’s still into “party politics.”). Their concerns and questions are only their own and not about larger, grander ideas. It’s almost as if in Stevenson’s case that knowing more would make the magic wear off.

It’s the sort of intelligent/sweet/grownup film that you don’t see much of these days and will immediately go into my rotation of romantic movies to watch with my partner. I believe it was Anthony Minghella’s first film and he himself seems to be a type of intelligent/grownup filmmaker that we don’t have enough of these days. It’s coming up on 10 years since his unexpected death. Not a filmmaker I fully appreciated in my youth, but one I see value in now that there are so few like him.

 

[kihei]

Random: I always forget Clu Gulager is in this. Such a fixture in horror movies of my youth (Return of the Living Dead, Nightmare on Elm Street 2), it’s always shock to see him here in the significant role as Jacy’s eventual deflowerer.

Clu Gulager was a weird fixture of my childhood, as he popped up on TV a lot early in his careers, even had a weekly Western for awhile. He's a terrible actor, self conscious and vain. He reminds me of Michael Madsen, sometimes, who has a terrible Elvis Presley fixation that makes him unintentionally hilarious to watch. Gulager has a similar fixation, though I don't know with whom exactly....Elvis, too? James Dean? Steve McQueen?....somebody who Gulager thinks is pretty damn cool anyway. Unfortunately he just kind of stands around posing in a pouty way and looks dumb, like he is one very silly man. Been working for over half a century so somebody likes him.....

 

[Ralph Spoilsport]

Sorcerer joined this year's They Shoot Pictures, Don't They list of the all-time 1000 most-acclaimed films:

TSPDT - The 1,000 Greatest Films (Introduction)

It barely made the cut...ranked #1000!

 

[Ralph Spoilsport]

I still owe a pick. Since we're big Clu Gulager fans I'll go with Don Siegel's version of The Killers from 1964.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Sorcerer joined this year's They Shoot Pictures, Don't They list of the all-time 1000 most-acclaimed films:

TSPDT - The 1,000 Greatest Films (Introduction)

It barely made the cut...ranked #1000!

It still counts!

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Got the urge to tally up a few things. Since I joined this group in April 2016 (and despite a several month absence in there), I have watched 70 films, 40 of which were new to me. Thank you gents for the good conversation, good films and furthered education.

 

[kihei]

Got the urge to tally up a few things. Since I joined this group in April 2016 (and despite a several month absence in there), I have watched 70 films, 40 of which were new to me. Thank you gents for the good conversation, good films and furthered education.

I really enjoy getting your take on a film on a weekly basis. Hope you keep going for another 70.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

I really enjoy getting your take on a film on a weekly basis. Hope you keep going for another 70.

That's my plan -- even if I have to return from the afterlife and watch them on VHS from my ghost friend's house.

 

[Ralph Spoilsport]

Truly Madly Deeply is very popular at my local video store...still haven't got my hands on a copy and apparently they are rare nowadays. The movie has gone out of print. Saw a copy on Amazon for $180 Canadian! That's like, $9.99 US. Hehehe. Just kidding. Still a lot of dough.

A fan posted the movie on Youtube in 10-15 minute segments but the first part was taken down due to a copyright issue...I wonder if that's why it's out of print.

Still looking forward to it though...have never seen it.

 

[Jevo]

Truly Madly Deeply (1990) dir. Anthony Minghella

Nina (Juliet Stevenson) recently became a widow, after her husband Jamie (Alan Rickman), died way too young. She's grief stricken, and has trouble just going through her day and her job. Although she's not short on people to help her and court her. She's also just moved into a new apartment, that is full of rats and has loads of problems with it. One day though, Jamie's ghost reappears in Nina's apartment. At first it's like they are newly in-love again for the first time, and Nina hardly leaves the apartment, to spend as much time as possible with Jamie. After a while Jamie starts taking ownership of the apartment, moving things around as he sees fit, inviting over some of his ghost friends over to watch classic movies. Nina grows increasingly dissatisfied with Jamie's behaviour, and at the same she begins to develop feelings for another man.

How do you move on when the love of your life dies 50 years before his time. The grief is unbearable. Why even go on living. You'll never love anyone like that ever again. What's the point? Eventually, even if you don't think it will happen, you'll move one. Luckily I've never had to go through that. So I can't say what it is like, and the experience is without a doubt, probably very personal. But Truly Madly Deeply sure makes a good case for presenting what it might be like. Not in a literal sense of course. I don't think your loved ones ghosts will come back, to help you move on. But it shows what might happen on an emotional level very well. It does it without being melodramatic or sappy as well, which is what's so nice about the film. Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman are great, and they have great chemistry. It's a lot of fun to watch them, especially Stevenson, who really shines.

Romantic comedies are rarely worth watching. Even if it's just to please a significant other. But Truly Madly Deeply is one of the exceptions. It's fun, charming, and has relationships that feels real. It's something I wouldn't mind watching again.

 

[Jevo]

Limelight (1952) dir. Charlie Chaplin

Calvero (Charlie Chaplin) is an ageing and fading comedian, and struggling with alcoholism. Once popular, his act doesn't draw crowds any more, and he can't get work for the life of him. One day he rescues a young ballet dancer, Terry (Claire Bloom), from suicide, as he breaks into her apartment when he smells gas. The local pharmacist helps get her back on track, and suggests not involving the police to avoid an investigation. And he tells Calvero to let her recover in his apartment. As she recovers, Calvero helps her regain confidence in her own dancing abilities, after she had lost all hope in herself. Leading to her attempted to suicide. Doing so he also starts to regain confidence in himself, and even stops drinking. Affectionate feelings also bloom between them, despite the large age difference. Calvero's return to the stage however, is far from as successful as Terry's. Not that it bothers her, she wants to marry him. Calvero is bothered by the differences in age and success, and believes a younger suitor is better for Terry. So he leaves her, to give the young couple a chance.

Chaplin was perhaps the only one in the world, who was a big enough star, that he could continue making successful silent films way into the 1930s. But perhaps he was never meant to make silent films. Perhaps he was just as good, if not even better working with sound. Now admittedly, I am not as big a fan of Chaplin's silent films as some are. I've always been more of a Keaton man. But after seeing Limelight, it might be my favourite Chaplin movie. Chaplin's performance is fantastic. He's shows a lot of different sides of his character, and shows incredible range as an actor. Calvero's stage performance's, which are very fun, are akin to his classic silent performances. His emoting with his voice, and his dramatic acting are incredibly underrated parts of his repertoire, which utilises greatly in this film.

The film is not exactly autobiographical. Even if you can draw some parallels between Calvero and Chaplin, in this stage of Chaplin's career. A time where Chaplin was slowly losing his audience, he was perhaps on the way to becoming Calvero, rather than being Calvero. Calvero more closely resembles the life of Buster Keaton. Who gives a great performance as Calvero's partner at the end of the film. A man whose deep voice does not fit his small stature. Something that always takes me by surprise when I hear him speak. But Keaton had definitely lost his audience, and had big struggles with alcoholism during his life. Parallels can probably be drawn to many different people, and Chaplin himself claimed it was based on the life of Frank Tinney. But the movie feels personal to Chaplin in some way, and he has probably seen different sides of Calvero, in many different people in his time.

At different times in Limelight, Chaplin shows that he has a great eye for how subtleties in visuals and sound, can change dramatically, how an audience perceives what is happening on screen. The first time we see Calvero perform, the sound scape is one of the enthusiastic audience., and Calvero performs likes he's riding on the excitement of the audience. Of course it isn't there. We cut the back of Calvero as he comes in for the encore, and it's an empty dead silent theatre. But the audience believes that things are great until that cut. The next we see him perform, he does the same routine. No enthusiastic audience, and Calvero performs timidly instead of confidently. The changes in his performance are very subtle, but Chaplin accurately shows these differences to the audience, and we pick up on it subconciously, without even having to think about it.

As great as I thought Limelight was. What will probably stick in my mind is seeing Chaplin and Keaton together on screen. The only time it happened. Perhaps 30 years too late. It's not the best skit either of them has ever made. But it's good, and there's something special about seeing them together. And it helps a lot, that there's a lot of emotion tied to the skit in the film, which gives it something more than the laughs.

 

[Jevo]

My next pick is Floating Clouds by Mikio Naruse.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Limelight
Chaplin (1952)
“This has been a wonderful evening. I’d like to continue. But I’m stuck.”

A man we’ll soon learn to be a once-famous performer named Calvero (an old Charlie Chaplin) stumbles to his home, clearly drunk. He discovers a neighbor, a dancer who has tried to commit suicide. He springs (as much as he can in his stupor) to save her and earns himself a roommate. As Terry (a young Claire Bloom) recovers, the first half of Limelight is a bit of a two-hander, practically a stage play itself as this mismatched duo learn each other’s pasts. He is an entertainer, very aware he is past his prime, but still stubborn enough to rage against it. She is a depressive with doubts about her future, let alone whether or not she’ll walk again. I enjoyed the interplay between the two. For being best known for silence, Chaplin’s quite adept with a bon mot (“I also hate the sight of blood, but it’s in my veins.” “Life isn’t a gag anymore, I can’t see the joke.”). In the second half, Terry, buoyed by Calvero’s encouragement of her, sees her star rise while Calvero’s continues to fall. She gets him a job, which he takes reluctantly but under an assumed name. This deception allows him to hear what people really think of his work (To quote the immortal Jay Sherman, “It stinks!”) Fear not! Terry loves him and helps to organize a tribute event that allows Calvero one last bit of glory. (So what if the patrons were encouraged to cheer at first).

Movie club confession time: I’ve never cared much for silent comedy. Not Chaplin. Not Keaton. Not Lloyd. And especially not Tati. Tati can go to hell. I appreciate the physicality. I appreciate the directorial/choreographical feats, but I’m cold to it. Maybe I’m soulless, heartless to such old pleasures? Now I know this isn’t silent, but Chaplin falls back on some of the schtick at points, plus some vaudevillian stuff (another classic form of entertainment that I’ve never found entertaining). On some level, I like what he does with Limelight structurally, the staged flashbacks to Calvero’s heyday, the performances of current productions. It works in the movie, though I didn’t care much for the content itself. The function is there.

The film felt like two distinct halves to me. The first, I enjoyed. The second, less so. I think a portrait of a past-peak artist in decline is great fodder, but the beautiful young ingenue who only has wide eyes for that wounded old soul? Meh, that’s a character I’d be happy to not see ever again, especially when the object of affection has written and directed the movie. (See Allen, Woody). It’s just hard for me to separate creator from creation in scenarios like that. Calvero isn’t without some charm, but he’s also a drunk and a not so secretly morose bore. Terry can do better. I suppose I should credit Chaplin with knowing that too and having Calvero repeatedly fend off the approaches. But is it still ok if I roll my eyes when he literally performs to death?

Like I said, soulless, heartless.