Review: Steven Spielberg's THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS (Countdown to "The Fabelmans")

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 51 of 2022 (No. 1863) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Sugarland Express (1974)
Running time:  110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
Rated – PG
DIRECTOR:  Steven Spielberg
WRITERS: Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins; from a story by Steven Spielberg and Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins
PRODUCERS:  David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Vilmos Zsigmond (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Edward M. Abroms and Verna Fields
COMPOSER:  John Williams

CRIME/DRAMA/ACTION

Starring:  Goldie Hawn, William Atherton, Ben Johnson, Michael Sacks, Gregory Walcott, Steve Kanaly, Louise Latham, Dean Smith, and Harrison Zanuck

The Sugarland Express is a 1974 crime drama, road movie, and action film directed by Steven Spielberg.  The film is Spielberg's directorial debut in theatrical films.  Based on a real life event, The Sugarland Express focuses on a young woman and her prison-escapee husband who go on the run in order to retrieve their toddler son from foster care.

The Sugarland Express opens in 1969 and introduces 25-year-old Lou Jean Sparrow Poplin (Goldie Hawn).  She visits her incarcerated husband, 25-year-old Clovis Michael Poplin (William Atherton), at the Beauford H. Jester Unit, a pre-release center of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.  Lou Jean wants to tell Clovis that their son, two-year-old Baby Langston (Harrison Zanuck), has been placed in foster care by the Child Welfare Board.

Lou Jean convinces Clovis that she is breaking him out of prison, although he only has a few months left in pre-release, so that they can retrieve their child.  After sneaking out of the prison, the couple ends up in a car crash.  They waylay a Texas Highway Patrolman, Trooper Maxwell Slide (Michael Sacks), and taking him hostage and taking possession of his patrol car.  Clovis and Lou Jean go on the run, headed for Sugarland, Texas, the home of Baby Langston's foster parents.  Meanwhile, Captain Tanner (Ben Johnson) of the Texas Highway Patrol, leads an ever-growing caravan of police cars in dogged pursuit of Lou Jean and Clovis.

In anticipation of Steven Spielberg's upcoming “semi-autobiographical film, The Fablemans, I am perusing his filmography.  I started with the television movie that first got him noticed, Duel (1971), and now I am at his first theatrical film.

The Sugarland Express is based on a real event that occurred in Texas in the spring of 1969.  The film's lead characters, Lou Jean and Clovis, are not so much likable as they are pitiable because they are so stupid.  Goldie Hawn gives a good performance as Lou Jean, but this isn't a “Goldie Hawn picture,” although her name is placed above the title on movie posters.  However, Trooper Slide and his boss, Captain Tanner (played by the great Ben Johnson), are quite likable or even lovable.  Still, this film is not so much about the characters as it is about the situation.

I think that what makes this film really work is how Steven Spielberg plays out the situation as a film narrative.  I've always said that he gets the best out of his cast, crew, and creatives.  The Sugarland Express is a slow-moving train wreck because the conductors, Lou Jean and Clovis, don't know what they are doing and do not really think out their decisions.  Yet, they are … pulling a train of cop cars, and Spielberg's attention to the thrilling and exciting aspects of this situation:  car chases and crashes, shoot-outs, colorful locales, etc. add some zing to this express to Sugarland.

He finds time to give us just enough of a taste of the Bonnie and Clyde-like Lou Jean and Clovis and of Captain Tanner and Slide to keep the audience interested in the fate of the characters, if not the well-being of all.  Even the Poplins' fans and admirers are a motley lot of lovable regular folks.

As the film races towards its end, Spielberg turns The Sugarland Express into a mesmerizing thriller.  Every performance, small and large, takes on dramatic heft, and the audience knows one thing – this shit is for real, now.  Seriously, it is in the last half-hour of The Sugarland Express that we can see the style and techniques that Spielberg used in his second film, Jaws, a legendary blockbuster movie and one of the most influential films of the last half-century.

7 of 10
B+
★★★½ out of 4 stars

Saturday, September 3, 2022


NOTES:
1974 Cannes Film Festival:  1 win: “Best Screenplay” (Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins, and Steven Spielberg); 1 nominee” “Palme d'Or” (Steven Spielberg)


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "DRIVE MY CAR" is an Extraordinary Drama and is One of 2021's Best Films

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 47 of 2022 (No. 1859) by Leroy Douresseaux

Drive My Car (2021)
Original title: Doraibu Mai Kā (Japan)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Japan; Languages: Japanese, Korean Sign Language, English, and others
Running time:  179 minutes (2 hours, 59 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
WRITERS:  Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe (based on the short story by Haruki Murakami)
PRODUCERS:  Teruhisa Yamamoto
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Hidetoshi Shinomiya
EDITOR:  Azusa Yamazaki
COMPOSER:  Eiko Ishibashi
Academy Award winner

DRAMA

Starring:  Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Masaki Okada, Park Yu-rim, Jin Dae-yeon, Sonia Yuan, Ahn Hwitae, Peri Dizon, and Satoko Abe

Doraibu Mai Kā is a 2021 Japanese drama film directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.  The film is also known by its English title, Drive My Car (the title which I will use for this review).  The film is based on author Haruki Murakami's short story, "Drive My Car," which is included in Murakami's 2014 short story collection, Men Without Women.  Drive My Car the movie focuses on a recent widower who is directing a play and dealing with the fact that he must accept someone else driving his beloved car.

Drive My Car is set in Japan and introduces actor and well-known theater director, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima).  He was married to Oto (Reika Kirishima), an attractive screenwriter who suddenly died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Two years later, Yusuke accepts a residency in Hiroshima, where he will direct a multilingual adaptation of Uncle Vanya, the 1898 play by the renowned Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov.  Yusuke also discovers that the theater company financing Uncle Vanya, the Hiroshima Arts and Culture Center, requires that Yusuke not drive his car, but instead be chauffeured in his own car.  He objects at first, but a reserved young female chauffeur, Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), reveals herself to be a skilled driver.  So Yusuke accepts someone else driving his car.

Yusuke begins casting the play and discovers that one of the auditioning actors is Koshi Takatsuki, a former colleague of his late wife, Oto.  As he works through the play with the cast, Yusuke deals with his grief, but discovers that the young actor, Koshi, and his young driver, Misaki, are also dealing with grief, regret, and inner turmoil.

Apparently, the complicated feelings and trauma of the characters in Drive My Car echo the emotional turmoil of the characters in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.  I have never read Uncle Vanya, nor have I ever seen a production of it.

That does not stop me from seeing Drive My Car as probably the best film of 2021.  The film is meditative and contemplative and has a smooth, calm pace which heightens the film's sense of intimacy.  This tranquility allows director Ryusuke Hamaguchi to direct a film in which it really looks like the actors are engaging in self-examination.  The film's themes of regret, of accepting others as they are, and of self-acceptance feel genuine.

One might think that Drive My Car is dull or even complicated, but it is not.  The film is rather straightforward, and the confrontations between characters can be intense but feel constructive.  Drive My Car may be too slow for most American audiences, but I think that serious film lovers will find themselves engrossed by this hauntingly beautiful and most painfully human film.  They may even find it helpful.  Watching the film, I felt as if I were experiencing something I needed to see and hear a long time ago.

This film received many honors, including winning the Academy Award for “Best Foreign Language Film.”  Still, I would have liked to have seen some of its cast, especially lead actor, Hidetoshi Nishijima (Yusuke), and supporting actress, Toko Miura (as the drive Misaki), earn Oscar acting notices.  Yusuke and Misaki's scenes at the latter's old home during the last half hour of the film are some of the best in years and some of the best performed.  Other cast members:  Reika Kirishima, Masaki Okada, and Park Yu-rim, are also worthy of award notice.

Drive My Car's cinematographer, Hidetoshi Shinomiya, made the film one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, of the year.  From majestic exterior vistas to shadowy and cozy interiors shots, Drive My Car looks both intimate and epic.  Eiko Ishibashi's film score, with its futuristic flourishes and electronica sensibilities, accentuates Shinomiya's cinematography,

That is the thing about Drive My Car.  Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi has great collaborators, including his co-writer, Takamasa Oe, and he could not have made Drive My Car the achievement in cinema that it is without them.  He could not have made a film in which some of its best scenes occur inside a moving car such an sublime film experience.  Drive My Car.

10 of 10

Friday, August 12, 2022

NOTES:
2022 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best International Feature Film” (Japan); 3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Teruhisa Yamamoto), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi), and “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe)

2022 BAFTA Awards:  1 win “Best Film Not in the English Language” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Teruhisa Yamamoto); 2 nominations: “Best Director” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi) and “Best Screenplay-Adapted” )Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)

2022 Golden Globes, USA:  1 win : “Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language” (Japan)

2021 Cannes Film Festival:  3 wins: “Best Screenplay” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe), “FIPRESCI Prize” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi), and “Prize of the Ecumenical Jury” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi); 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)

The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "THE FRENCH DISPATCH" is Ultimate Wes Anderson

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 14 of 2022 (No. 1826) by Leroy Douresseaux

The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021)
Running time:  107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
MPA – R for graphic nudity, some sexual references and language
DIRECTOR:  Wes Anderson
WRITERS:  Wes Anderson; from a story by Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Hugo Guinness
PRODUCERS:  Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson, and Steven Rales
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Robert Yeoman (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Andrew Weisblum
COMPOSER:  Alexandre Desplat

COMEDY/DRAMA/ANTHOLOGY with elements of fantasy

Starring:  Jeffrey Wright, Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Lea Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Liev Schreiber, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Winston Ait Hellal, and Owen Wilson and Anjelica Huston

The French Dispatch (full title: The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun) is a 2021 comedy-drama and anthology film from writer-director Wes Anderson.  The film focuses on the French foreign bureau of a Kansas newspaper and the features magazine it produces.

The French Dispatch introduces Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray).  When he was a college freshman, he convinces his father, the owner of the newspaper, the “Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun,” to fund his transatlantic trip.  Junior would in turn produce a series of travelogue columns, which would be published for local readers in the Evening Sun's magazine supplement “Sunday Picnic.”  Arthur, Jr. sets up shop in the (fictional) French town of Ennui-sur-Blasé.  Over the next decade, young Arthur assembles a team of the best expatriate journalists of the time.  In 1925, he transforms the Sunday Picnic into the weekly magazine, “The French Dispatch” (something like The New Yorker).

In 1975, fifty years after he left Kansas, Arthur Howitzer, Jr. dies suddenly of a heart attack.  Although it has half a million subscribers in 50 countries, as per his will, The French Dispatch will immediately cease publication following the release of a farewell issue that will feature Arthur's obituary and four articles by magazine's best writers:

In “The Cycling Reporter,” Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson) gives a sight-seeing tour.  It is “a day in Ennui over the course of 250 years” and demonstrates how much and yet how little has changed in Ennui over time.

In “The Concrete Masterpiece,” J.K.L. Berensen (Tilda Swinton) delivers a lecture at an art gallery.  She details the career of Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio del Toro), a mentally disturbed artist serving a sentence in the Ennui Prison-Asylum for murder and the two most important people in his lives.  The first is Simone (Lea Seydoux), a prison officer who becomes Moses' lover and his muse.  Moses paints a portrait of Simone, and that second important person, Julien Cadazio, an art dealer also serving a sentence for tax evasion, is immediately taken by the painting.  After buying the painting, Cadazio uses it to turn Moses into an international sensation.  However, Moses struggles with inspiration, and his relationship with Simone becomes complicated.

In “Revisions to a Manifesto,” Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand) reports on a student protest breaking out in the streets of Ennui, one that soon boils over into the “Chessboard Revolution.”  Krementz fails to maintain “journalistic neutrality” when she falls in love with Zeffirelli (Timothée Chalamet), a college boy who is the self-styled leader of the revolt.  She secretly helps him write his manifesto, but Juliette (Lyna Khoudri), a fellow revolutionary who has some feelings for Zeffirelli, is unimpressed with his manifesto – thus, creating a love triangle.

In “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner,” Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) is the guest of a television talk show host (Liev Schreiber).  Wright recounts the story of his attending a private dinner with The Commissaire (Mathieu Amalric) of the Ennui police force.  The meal is prepared by the legendary police officer and chef, Lt. Nescaffier (Stephen Park).  Nescaffier is the creator of a kind of “haute cuisine” specifically designed to be eaten by police officers while they are working.  The dinner is disrupted when the Commissaire's inquisitive and bright son, Gigi (Winston Ait Hellal), is kidnapped and held for ransom by a large gang of criminals, led by a failed musician known as “The Chauffeur” (Edward Norton).

They mourn his death.  Now, the staff of The French Dispatch must put together a final issue with these four stories that Arthur Howitzer Jr. touched in some way?

The French Dispatch has been described as a film that is “a love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional twentieth century French city.”  The film presents four of the magazine's stories of the city.  Director Wes Anderson has apparently stated that this film is inspired by his love of the venerable weekly magazine, The New Yorker, and that some of the film's characters and events are based on real-life equivalents from that magazine.  During The French Dispatch's closing credits, there is a dedication to several writers and editors, many of whom wrote for The New Yorker.

To that end, The French Dispatch is a movie that celebrates magazine writers, illustrators, and editors and the stories they tell.  This film is a love letter to stories of local color and of locales written for magazines.  The film demands patience and attention on the part of the audience.  The French Dispatch is a hybrid.  It is an anthology of four main stories and of a few small chapters, although everything connects in the end.  The audience has to follow each of the main stories, paying attention from beginning to the end.  That is where the pay off comes.

In fact, each of the main stories seems like one thing in the beginning, but fully develops over the course of the narrative in something different.  At the end of each, I realized that the story was about wonderful characters living lives both ordinary and extraordinary.  In the extraordinary, Anderson gives us a reason to love what is so ordinary and human about them.

This is brilliant character writing on Anderson's part.  His gift is to make not only the lead and supporting characters fascinating, but he also makes even the characters who say little and the extras seem worth knowing – even when the narrative passes them by.  To that end, I think Roebuck Wright is the character that ties all the characters and stories together.  He is the narrator/writer of “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner,” the final story.  Both his first meeting and final conversation with Bill Murray's Arthur coalesces the film's theme of expatriate writers, and he begins Arthur's obituary, which also brings together the film's shifts in time.  It would have been nice to see Wright receive a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his work here, but The French Dispatch did not receive any Oscar nominations.

The film's production values:  art direction and production design, costumes, and cinematography all meet the wonderfully inventive and incredibly imaginative standards that audiences have come to expect from Wes Anderson's films.  The French Dispatch looks like no film I have ever seen.  Even Alexandre Desplat's score sounds like something entirely new in film music.  I described Anderson's 2014 film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, as Wes Anderson art for Wes Anderson's art sake.  The French Dispatch is Wes Anderson high art.

9 of 10
A+

Thursday, March 17, 2022


NOTES:
2022 BAFTA Awards:  3 nominations: “Best Costume Design” (Milena Canonero); “Original Score” (Alexandre Desplat), and “Best Production Design” (Adam Stockhausen and Rena DeAngelo)

2022 Black Reel Awards:  1 nomination: “Outstanding Supporting Actor” (Jeffrey Wright)

2021 Cannes Film Festival:  1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (Wes Anderson)

2022 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Alexandre Desplat)


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "The Great Beauty" is" La grande bellezza"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 38 (of 2015) by Leroy Douresseaux

[A version of this review was first posted on Patreon.]

The Great Beauty (2013)
La grande bellezza – original title
Country: Italy/France
Running time:  141 minutes (2 hours, 21 minutes)
Not rated by the MPAA
DIRECTOR:  Paolo Sorrentino
WRITERS:  Paolo Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello; from a story by Paolo Sorrentino
PRODUCERS:  Francesca Cima and Nicola Giuliano
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Luca Bigazzi
EDITOR:  Cristiano Travagl
COMPOSER:  Lele Marchitelli
Academy Award winner

DRAMA

Starring:  Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli, Carlo Buccirosso, Pamela Villoresi, Galatea Ranzi, Franco Graziosi, Giorgio Pasotti, Sonia Gessner, Luca Marinelli, Serena Grandi, Vernon Dobtcheff, Giovanna Vignola, Isabella Ferrari, and Giusi Merli

La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty) is a 2013 drama from director Paolo Sorrentino.  The Great Beauty is an Italian and French co-production, and as a representative of Italy, it won the Oscar for “Best Foreign Language Film of the Year” for the year 2013.  The film was released to U.S. theaters in 2014.  The Great Beauty follows a writer through timeless and beautiful Rome as he takes stock of his life after he receives a shock from the past.

The Great Beauty focuses on Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo), a journalist and socialite living in Rome.  He has lived a lavish life in Rome since he moved to the city as a 26-year-old.  Once upon a time, Jep wrote an acclaimed and well-received novel, The Human Apparatus.  While people awaited a second novel, Jep lived a comfortable life of writing about about celebrities and of throwing parties for celebrities and socialites in his fancy luxury apartment.

After his 65th birthday, Jep receives some shocking news about an old girlfriend.  He walks through the side of Rome that is a timeless landscape of absurd beauty and exquisite antiquity.  He reflects on his life and the sense that he is unfulfilled, as he encounters various characters.

The Great Beauty is indeed a great beauty.  The audience follows Jep Gambardella through parts of Rome that are tourist destinations or are either museums or sections of palatial estates.  I could recommend The Great Beauty for the absurd beauty of the film's settings and locales, alone.

As for the film's narrative:  it would be too easy to say that the specter of death hangs over the film.  The theme of growing old permeates the film, and also most of the characters seem to be yearning for more of something in their lives, even if more of what they want is bad for them.  Their lives are emotionally and spiritually empty.  I think the idea is that Jep has drifted through the last four decades of his life without realizing that he needs to establish roots.

I think that The Great Beauty encourages people to realize that beauty comes in fits and flashes between long stretches of what is ugly and banal in life; don't chase the superficial prettiness could be a tag line for the movie.  Still, the parties depicted in this film look pretty good, and the apartments and houses are just lovely.  I enjoyed Jep Gambardella's journey, although it meanders at times, but once again, the beauty in The Great Beauty is just so... beautiful.  This visual splendor alone makes this a truly exceptional film.

9 of 10
A+

Friday, July 31, 2015


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

NOTES:
2014 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Foreign Language Film of the Year” (Italy)

2014 Golden Globes, USA:  1 win: “Best Foreign Language Film” (Italy)

2014 BAFTA Awards:  1 win: “Best Film not in the English Language” (Paolo Sorrentino, Nicola Giuliano, and Francesca Cima)

2013 Cannes Film Festival:  1 nomination: “Palme d'Or: (Paolo Sorrentino)

Review "Excalibur" is Epic, Unforgettable (Happy B'day, Liam Neeson)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 77 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Excalibur (1981)
Running time:  140 minutes (2 hours, 20 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER:  John Boorman
WRITERS:  Rospo Pallenberg and John Boorman; from an adaptation by Rospo Pallenberg of Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Alex Thomson
EDITOR:  John Merritt with Donn Cambern (no screen credit)
COMPOSER:  Trevor Jones
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/FANTASY/WAR

Starring:  Nigel Terry, Helen Mirren, Nicholas Clay, Cherie Lunghi, Paul Geoffrey, Nicol Williamson, Robert Addie, Gabriel Byrne, Keith Buckley, Katrine Boorman, Liam Neeson, Corin Redgrave, Niall O’Brien, Patrick Stewart, and Clive Swift

The subject of this movie review is Excalibur, a 1981 drama and fantasy film from producer-director John Boorman.  The film is mostly based on Le Morte d’Arthur, the 15th century Arthurian romance written by Thomas Malory.  Excalibur focuses on Merlin the magician, King Arthur, and Morgana Le Fey.  It depicts how Arthur unites a land, creates the Round Table, and builds Camelot, while forces conspire to destroy it all.

John Boorman’s Excalibur is the acclaimed director’s lushly filmed take on the Arthurian legend as adapted from Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur.  Early in the film, we see Arthur’s illicit conception when his father, King Uther Pendragon (Gabriel Byrne), use magical trickery to seduce, Igrayne (Katrine Boorman), another man’s wife, and impregnates her with the child that would become Arthur.  Later, Merlin (Nicol Williamson) claims the infant Arthur as the price Uther must pay Merlin for providing the magical disguise Arthur used to seduce Igrayne.

Later, young Arthur (Nigel Terry) pulls the sword of kings, Excalibur, from a stone, which makes him King Arthur.  The film tells the story of the rise of Arthur’s kingdom and the righteous birth of The Knights of the Round Table.  Then, things go bad when Arthur’s wife, Guenevere (Cherie Lunghi), takes Arthur’s best, bravest, and most favored knight, Lancelot (Nicholas Clay), as her lover.  Arthur’s sister, Morgana (Helen Mirren), a crafty sorceress, connives until the balance of power shifts from Merlin to her.  The film concludes with Arthur’s final battle, this against his son, Mordred (Robert Addie), whom Arthur fathered with Morgana.

Boorman, his screenwriting partner Rospo Pallenberg, cinematographer Alex Thomson (who earned an Oscar nomination for his work here), composer Trevor Jones, and costume designer Bob Ringwood (who earned a BAFTA Award nomination for his work in this film) came together to create an exquisite rendition of the tale of King Arthur and Camelot.  The film is full of Christian symbolism, in particularly dealing with Christianity supplanting the old gods and necromancy in favor of men.  There is also a lot of sexual subtext, much of it is surprisingly gay; there is lots of man love and admiration of the virility, honor, bravery, and skill of men.  Men really admire and love great men in this story, and women, for the most part, are trouble in this film.

Boorman wanted to emphasize the story over the characters in his take on the Arthurian myth, and he uses the stunning visuals to evoke feelings, but to also get the viewer to think about the things for which the stories of King Arthur and his kingdom stand.  However, the actors really don’t surrender and play the role of puppets.  They play up to the symbolism and imagery.  They don’t treat their roles as figurative, but as interpreters of the things that this myth teaches us about the better parts of human nature – humility, charity, bravery, and sacrifice, and an understanding to forgive the trespasses our friends, loved ones, countrymen, and fellow humans make against us and we against them.

In Excalibur, John Boorman composes his scenes and photographic shots as if each were a giant painting, a series of representational works meant to tell a powerful tale about universal ideals.  There is something grand in Excalibur, and in spite of its faults:  some poor dialogue, the tendency for the film to suddenly take big leaps forward in the narrative time, and Boorman’s assumption that we should be familiar with these characters and their motivations, it succeeds.

8 of 10
A

Monday, May 23, 2005

Updated:  Saturday, June 07, 2014

NOTES:
1982 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Cinematography” (Alex Thomson)

1982 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Costume Design” (Bob Ringwood)

1981 Cannes Film Festival:  1 win: “Best Artistic Contribution (John Boorman) and 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (John Boorman)

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: Sayles Draws Viewers in "LIMBO" (Happy B'day," David Strathairn)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 34 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Limbo (1999)
Running time:  126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
MPAA – R for language
EDITOR/WRITER/DIRECTOR:  John Sayles
PRODUCER:  Maggie Renzi
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Haskell Wexler
COMPOSER:  Mason Daring
Palme d'Or nominee

DRAMA/THRILLER/ROMANCE

Starring:  Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, David Strathairn, Venessa Martinez, Kris Kristofferson, and Casey Siemaszko

The subject of this movie review is Limbo, a 1999 drama and crime-thriller from writer-director John Sayles.  The film focuses on a fisherman who tries to protect his new girlfriend and her daughter from his past and his brother’s present.  The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, and at the 1999 Seattle International Film Festival, Sayles received the “Golden Space Needle Award” for “Best Director.”  The National Board of Review, USA also gave Limbo a “Special Recognition” award “For excellent in filmmaking.”

John Sayles is a true independent filmmaker, rarely dealing with the major studios to produce his pictures, although they have distributed them, as is the case with Limbo.  Upon seeing this film, one can understand why he remains an independent.  Most directors can do this kind of film once or twice, but to make a career out of films like this, a director has to have an iron will.

Joe Gastineau (David Strathairn, a veteran of several Sayles films) lives, but that’s all he does.  He merely lives, working a few odd jobs in a small Alaska town.  He meets and helps out Donna De Angelo (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) a lovelorn lounge singer and the mother of one of Joe’s coworkers Noelle (Vanessa Martinez), and Joe gently falls for Donna.  When Joe’s self-inflated half-brother Bobby (Casey Siemaszko, Young Guns) blows into town, the four take a journey to up-country Alaska that changes and endangers their lives.

The acting is good, especially from the trio of Strathairn, Ms. Mastrantonio, and Ms. Martinez.  Strathairn is a vulnerable and moody character, but a quite approachable guy, a strong and supportive man when he has to be.  Ms. Mastrantonio is punch drunk from the love of broken relationships, but she never gives up on the positive, even when things keep falling apart.  Ms. Martinez is the sullen, self-pitying teen; quiet and withdrawn, she is an imaginative storyteller who can take elements of her life and create metaphorical delights.  Sayles has affection for these characters, and, because he takes time to give them depth, we care about them.

Sayles, a novelist and short story writer, creates films with characters that are very much like real people.  Each and every character has their own story, and a Sayles movie is actually of composition containing all these characters’ stories.  His gift is to show the viewers enough of each story so that they can get a feel for the film.  We see more of the lead characters’ stories, but we get a taste of every person’s story.  He is a visionary, able to weave stories with the same complexities and depth of a novel into the visual shorthand of a film.

Critics have accused his films of not having passion, but they have sold their souls for the press junkets and star interviews of the major studios and their product.  A Sayles film is vibrant and engaging.  He makes you think, and he lets you be part of the film, to put yourself inside the story.  This is as vicarious a thrill as any adrenalin-monkey action movie.

8 of 10
A

NOTE:
1999 Cannes Film Festival:  1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (John Sayles)

Updated:  Sunday, January 26, 2014


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Basic Instinct" is Still a Killer (Happy B'day, Sharon Stone)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 129 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Basic Instinct (1992)
Running time: 123 minutes (2 hours, 3 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence and sensuality and for drug use and language
DIRECTOR: Paul Verhoeven
WRITER: Joe Eszterhas
PRODUCER: Alan Marshall
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jan De Bont, A.S.C.
EDITOR: Frank J. Urioste, A.C.E.
COMPOSER: Jerry Goldsmith
Academy Award nominee

THRILLER/CRIME/MYSTERY

Starring: Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, George Dzundza, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Denis Arndt, Leilani Sarelle, Bruce A. Young, Chelcie Ross, Dorothy Malone, Wayne Knight, and Daniel von Bargen

The subject of this movie review is Basic Instinct, a 1992 erotic thriller and mystery film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by the great Joe Eszterhas. The film follows a police detective in charge of the investigation of a brutal murder and a beautiful and seductive woman who could be involved.

Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) is a tough, but vulnerable San Francisco detective – vulnerable because he’s under the watchful eye of Internal Affairs after he’d shot and killed some tourists during a pursuit of suspects. Nick has also complicated his life by having intimate relations with the therapist, Dr. Beth Garner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), his bosses are making him see.

The story begins after a prominent community member is found bound and brutally murdered (stabbed with an ice pick) in his blood-soaked bed. Nick’s life and job get even more convoluted when he and his partner, Gus Moran (George Dzundza), are assigned to be the lead detectives in the case. The prime suspect is Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a cold, calculating, and beautiful novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite. Catherine takes an immediate interest in Nick and delves into his past, but is she using him for reference in her new novel or is she dragging Nick into an even more dangerous game. As the bodies pile up, Nick wonders if a jealous rival of Catherine’s or of his and Catherine’s relationship is out to frame her… and kill him. Or is Catherine behind all the murders?

Basic Instinct was one of the most talked about and controversial movies of 1992. Protests from gay rights groups marred the film’s production shoot after the script was leaked and it was learn that all the murder suspects in the film were lesbian characters. When the film was finally released, Basic Instinct’s explicit sex, tawdry subject matter, and riveting crime plot made it one of the year’s biggest box office hits and the poster child for those who believed sex and violence in Hollywood films had finally crossed too many lines.

But the film was good… no, great. Hot sex, hot girls, beautiful locations in San Francisco and the surrounding area, swanky sets, multiple plausible murder suspects, and a cop nearly out of his mind chasing hot ass – Basic Instinct was and still is a thoroughly delightful adult thriller. Director Paul Verhoeven created a murder mystery in the tradition of films such as Out of the Past and Murder, My Sweet. If Basic Instinct weren’t a color film, it would be a modern Film-Noir classic.

There were good performances all around, and the best were Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone’s. The duo had great screen chemistry, and Ms. Stone played the part for all it was worth, making her a top-billed, highly paid actress for the next few years. Rarely had there been so much sexual tension, distrust, dishonesty, and brazenness between a screen couple that couldn’t stop “being” with one another, and Douglas coolly played the role on the way to solidifying his position as an A-list actor.

One element that was absolutely necessary in making Basic Instinct such a sexy thriller is the Oscar-nominated score (Best Music, Original Score) by the late Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004). Haunting and alluring, it helps the film capture some of the screen magic of crime films from the golden age of Hollywood. Goldsmith also provided the right musical themes and rhythms to go with Michael and Sharon’s pummel-your-partner love scenes.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
1993 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Film Editing” (Frank J. Urioste) and “Best Music, Original Score” (Jerry Goldsmith)

1993 Golden Globes, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Jerry Goldsmith) and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Sharon Stone)

1992 Cannes Film Festival: 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (Jerry Goldsmith)

1993 Razzie Awards: 3 nominations: “Worst Actor” (Michael Douglas, also for Shining Through -1992), “Worst New Star” ("Sharon Stone's 'Tribute to Theodore Cleaver'"), and “Worst Supporting Actress” (Jeanne Tripplehorn)

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"The Wizard of Oz" Still the Greatest Fantasy Film Ever

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 115 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 mintues)
MPAA – G
DIRECTOR: Victor Fleming
WRITERS: Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf (based upon the novel by L. Frank Baum)
PRODUCER: Mervyn LeRoy
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Harold Rosson (photographed by: in Technicolor)
EDITOR: Blanche Sewell
COMPOSER: Herbert Stothart
SONGS: Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg
Academy Award winner

FANTASY/ADVENTURE/FAMILY/MUSICAL

Starring: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, Charley Grapewin, and Clara Blandick

The subject of this movie review is The Wizard of Oz, a 1939 musical fantasy and adventure film from MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). The film is based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a children’s fantasy novel written by L. Frank Baum and first published in 1900.

Although Victor Fleming was credited as the film’s director, several other directors worked on the film, including King Vidor, George Cuko, and Mervyn LeRoy (who produced the film along with Arthur Freed). In fact numerous people who contributed to this film did not receive any screed credit, such as Arthur Freed (writer and producer), Ogden Nash (writer) and Herman J. Mankeiwicz (writer).

Various critics and popular polls often name it one of the “ten best movies of all time,” and in 2010, the Library of Congress said it was the most watched movie of all time. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve watched it, but I consider The Wizard of Oz to be the greatest fantasy film of all time.

Since it was first released over six decades ago, The Wizard of Oz has stood the test of time as a great fantasy film. And though computers have revolutionized the use of special effects in movies, The Wizard of Oz, with its painted backdrops, handmade costumes, and ordinary makeup effects is as potent as any modern fantasy film filled with super SFX.

In the story, a tornado whisks a Kansas farm girl named Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her dog Toto to the magical Land of Oz where she encounters many strange and wonderful beings. She embarks upon a quest to the Emerald City to see the Wizard of Oz, who reportedly has it in his powers to send Dorothy back to Kansas. Along the way she gathers a group of fellow travelers who also wish a boon from the Wizard: The Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) who wants a brain; The Tin Man (Jack Haley) who wants a heart; and The Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) who wants courage. To get what they want, however, they must face off with The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) who wants a pair of magical ruby slippers that Dorothy wears.

Anyone who has seen The Wizard of Oz is already aware of the magical hold the film has had and continues to have over audiences. Like a good fantasy film, it is filled with fantastical elements, but the heart of the story is the quest for something dear. For Dorothy, it is a way home; for her friends it is something they wrongly believe is missing from their lives and personalities. Like a great family film, The Wizard of Oz endears itself by entertaining all ages with a wonderful story, memorable songs and lines, and loveable characters. It is also in a way an adventure film, but the vicarious thrill of the adventure doesn’t come from destruction, but comes from sharing the quest with friends and loved ones.

The Wizard of Oz is undoubtedly one of the great American films. Watch it, and one can’t help but marvel how the filmmakers came together to make a film that approaches perfection with nearly every scene and in nearly every moment.

10 of 10

NOTES:
1940 Academy Awards: 2 wins: “Best Music, Original Score” (Herbert Stothart) and “Best Music, Original Song” (Harold Arlen-music for E.Y. Harburg-lyrics for the song "Over the Rainbow"); 4 nominations: “Best Picture” (M-G-M), “Best Art Direction” (Cedric Gibbons and William A. Horning), “Best Cinematography, Color” (Harold Rosson), and “Best Effects, Special Effects” (A. Arnold Gillespie-photographic and Douglas Shearer-sound)

1939 Cannes Film Festival: 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (Victor Fleming)

1989 National Film Preservation Board, USA: National Film Registry

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"The Innocents" is the Ultimate Ghost Story

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 71 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Innocents (1961) – B&W
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK
Running time: 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Jack Clayton
WRITERS: William Archibald and Truman Capote with John Mortimer (additional scenes and dialogue); based upon the novel The Turn of the Screw by Henry James)
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Freddie Francis
EDITOR: Jim Clark
COMPOSER: Georges Auric
BAFTA nominee

HORROR/MYSTERY

Starring: Deborah Kerr, Martin Stephens, Pamela Franklin, Megs Jenkins, Peter Wyngard, Michael Redgrave, Isla Cameron, and Clytie Jessop

The subject of this movie review is The Innocents, a 1961 British horror film produced and directed by Jack Clayton. Although it is based on Henry James’ novella, The Turn of the Screw, this black and white film takes its title from The Innocents, a 1950 Broadway stage adaptation of James’ novella by William Archibald.

Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr), a young governess, accepts a position supervising a young girl, Flora (Pamela Franklin) and her brother, Miles (Martin Stephens), (who is away at school when Miss Giddens first arrives), in a lonely old house on a large English country estate. Things are going well until Miles is expelled from school and returns home. Not only must Miss Giddens deal with Miles disruptive behavior, but she also begins to see shadowy figures and ghostly apparitions and to hear mysterious voices, strange noises, and unexplained music in the manor house and on its grounds. Miss Giddens comes to believe that the house, as well as the children, are haunted by former servants, but the estate’s clouded history is keeping her in the dark… and in danger.

The Innocents, a film adaptation of Henry James’ famed novella, The Turn of the Screw, is one of best English-language horror films ever made. It’s hard to imagine that this film isn’t among the top three to five best Western ghost stories on film. Like James’ novel, producer/director Jack Clayton’s film is coy about whether there are actually ghosts haunting the house or whether Miss Giddens the governess is mentally disturbed, though Clayton and his writers lean towards the former. Viewers may recognize one of Nicole Kidman’s films, 2001’s The Others, as a clever reworking of Henry James’ story via this film. The 2005 film The Skeleton Key also seems to have been launched from this concept.

However, regardless of how one interprets the film, it is a masterwork. Deborah Kerr is superb as the busybody Miss Giddens who is at once high-strung and then quite reserved. Pamela Franklin and Martin Stephens are mesmerizing as the sly, manipulative, and clever children. Rarely have young actors managed to look purely innocent and naïve while at the same time coming across and guilty and disingenuous. Megs Jenkins does a fine turn as the subtle messy housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, with her crafty touch of instantly feigning innocence. We can’t quite get a bead on the children, and Miss Giddens obviously has her problems, while Mrs. Grose knows more than she’ll ever let on – no matter how innocent she may act. And those ghosts: they are determined phantoms that the children must see because they seem like such obvious solid looking phantoms, but the director presents them in such a way that maybe only Miss Giddens is crazy enough to see them. And the great performances totally sell us into the confusion and doubt.

Not only do we get excellent acting, but also Clayton, cinematographer Freddie Francis, and composer Georges Auric deliver career-defining work. Auric’s music for The Innocents defines the term, “haunting score,” yet you wouldn’t really notice it unless you stopped specifically to hear it. Auric made the score quiet, yet forcefully effective. Oscar-winning cinematographer Freddie Francis (Sons and Lovers, Glory) gave the film a look that is as beautiful and it is frightening. Rarely does a ghost story seem so fascinating; his lighting crew certainly did stellar work. I wanted to live in Francis’ beautiful shot dream world no matter how many ghosts were there. Finally, producer/director Jack Clayton brought his talented cast and crew together and created a captivating film that is as distant as it is alluring – always calling the viewer, yet being standoffish.

The Innocents is a ghost story that seems itself to be a ghost – a haunting black and white dream that refuses to give up it secrets no matter how coy it is when giving up tidbits. Its shocking, disquieting ending is like an unsettled ghost that won’t let us leave but also pushes us away. This spectral ghost story is unforgettable.

10 of 10

NOTES:
1962 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Film from Any Source,” and “Best British Film”

1962 Cannes Film Festival: 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (Jack Clayton)

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Review: Women Make Almodavor's "VOLVER" Spin (Happy B'day, Penelope Cruz)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 63 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Volver (2006)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Spain
Running time: 121 minutes (2 hour, 1 minutes)
MPAA – R for sexual content and language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Pedro Almodóvar
PRODUCER: Esther García
CINEMATOGRAPHER: José Luis Alcaine (director of photography)
EDITOR: José Salcedo
2007 Academy Award nominee

DRAMA with elements of comedy and fantasy

Starring: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, and Chus Lampreave

In his new film, Volver, two-time Academy Award winner Pedro Almodóvar (All About my Mother, Talk to Her) gives us three generations of women living in a world where the living and dead coexist. In this film, it is natural for the people of the La Mancha region of Spain, with its ever-present east wind, to practice a culture of death in which the deceased remain present in the lives of their living relatives. Also, José Luis Alcaine’s cinematograph for Volver is easily among the year’s best.

Abuela Irene (Carmen Maura), who died in a fire four years ago, is apparently revisiting her hometown in La Mancha. Irene wants to resolve the problems she didn’t or couldn’t during her lifetime, especially her relationship with her estranged daughter Raimunda (Penélope Cruz), who has her own problems. Raimunda has to surreptitiously bury her husband, Paco (Antonio de la Torre), after their daughter, Paula (Yohana Cobo who plays her part with such naturalness), kills him when he tries to rape his own daughter. After appearing first to her sister, the elderly Aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave), Irene also visits her daughter Sole (Lola Dueñas), who makes a living as an illegal, home-based hairdresser. Meanwhile, fellow villager, Agustina (Blanca Portillo), is seeking out Irene for help with her own family issues.

If there are men who were born to make movies, Pedro Almodóvar is undoubtedly one of them. That’s evident in his beautiful films filled with vibrant colors, narratives, and people; in fact, José Luis Alcaine’s vivid cinematograph for Volver is easily among the year’s best.

Almodóvar also understands women. Here, in Volver (which mean “coming back”) his female characters make it through life by lying when necessary – either to protect themselves or the feelings of their loved ones. These women also survive the troubles of life because they have persistent vitality and a treasure trove of goodness in them. That’s how Almodóvar makes you root for them. These are good, simple, plain folks who, if possible, won’t let their complex interior selves bring harm to their loved ones, but they’re still capable of making bold moves to enrich their lives.

To play such funny, spontaneous, and intrepid women, Almodóvar guides a cast capable of deep, genuine emotion and of playing characters that sometimes take the hilarious path out of trouble. You’ll never look at Penélope Cruz the same way again after seeing her in this movie. Her Raimunda is a painterly performance, full of subtle color and audacious, but gentle strokes. Cruz is layered and flavored like a buffet of earthy dishes, and I was sad whenever her Raimunda left the screen.

The same can be said for the rest of cast: from Blanca Portillo as the troubled, gentle soul, Agustina to Carmen Maura as Irene, back-from-the-dead and looking to heal wounds and bandage hurts. Almodóvar’s Volver is why I like foreign cinema. It doesn’t mind telling stories that are as rich and as complex as literary fiction. But Almodóvar does the telling in a purely visual style that makes one appreciate storytelling shown on the screen.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards: 1 nomination for “Best performance by an actress in a leading role” (Penélope Cruz)

2007 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Penélope Cruz) and “Best Film not in the English Language” (Agustín Almodóvar and Pedro Almodóvar)

2007 Golden Globes, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Foreign Language Film” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Penélope Cruz)

2007 Image Awards: 2 nominations: “Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture” (Penélope Cruz) and “Outstanding Independent or Foreign Film”

2006 Cannes Film Festival: 2 wins: “Best Actress” (Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, and Chus Lampreave to the female ensemble cast) and “Best Screenplay” (Pedro Almodóvar); 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (Pedro Almodóvar)

Saturday, April 14, 2007

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Review: "A History of Violence" is Really Violent (Happy B'day, David Cronenberg)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 160 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux


A History of Violence (2005)
Running time: 98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – R for brutal violence, graphic sexuality, nudity, language, and some drug use
DIRECTOR: David Cronenberg
WRITER: Josh Olson (based upon the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke)
PRODUCERS: Chris Bender, JC Spink, and David Cronenberg
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Peter Suschitzky
EDITOR: Ronald Sanders
Academy Award nominee

CRIME/DRAMA/MYSTERY with elements of a thriller

Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Ashton Holmes, Heidi Hayes, and Peter MacNeill

Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) is a pillar of the community in a rural Indiana town where he owns a small business, Stall’s Diner, and lives a quiet live with his wife, Edie (Maria Bello), and their two children, Jack (Ashton Holmes) and Sarah (Heidi Hayes). But the Stalls’ lives are forever changed after Tom thwarts a violent attempted robbery at the diner and kills the two, armed robbers. Lauded as a hero by his fellow townsfolk and by the media, he captures the attention of a Philadelphia mobster, Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris), and his henchmen who swear Tom is an old associate named Joey Cusack. It seems as if Fogarty wants Tom (or the man he swears is Joey) to tie up some loose ends…

In some ways, David Cronenberg’s new film, A History of Violence, is just like most violent crime dramas or action thrillers – the kind in which a man of few words tries to have a family and a peaceful life in a small town, but one day his violent history comes back to bite him on the ass. A good example of this sub-genre is the film noir (true) classic, Out of the Past with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas, or even Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning Best Picture, Unforgiven. Like those two example of superb cinema, A History of Violence is contemplative. Where many directors would turn a movie crime drama into a hyper-kinetic music video, Cronenberg (who received a “Golden Palm” nomination at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival for this film) is almost painterly.

Bodies that are shot or mortally wounded in some other manner don’t fly off screen, nor do they disappear once used like some throw away special effects. We see humans rather than objects with gun shot wounds and nearly destroyed faces struggling to hold onto life. Cronenberg makes sure we hear the death rattle and the raspy, distressed breathing. Violence, even when justified, isn’t clean and pretty; there are real world consequences, as when Jack Stall badly beats two tormenting bullies at his high school. Cronenberg shows us chunks of flesh and some how that makes everything so visceral and more real, or maybe not so surreal, ethereal, and unreal as film violence normally is.

The performances are a mixed bag. Ed Harris and William Hurt shine with malicious glee in small, kooky roles. Maria Bello is sometimes, annoying and shrill, as Edie Stall, and sometimes she has moments where she is as earthy and authentic as a working woman with a family. Peter MacNeill as Sheriff Sam Carney is believable as the small town lawman who is as steady in the face of big city thugs as he is when dealing with his own people.

Still, this material truly stands out because of Cronenberg. The concept is pedestrian (almost pitiful), but screenwriter Josh Olson punches it up by creating weirdo and oddball characters and giving them quirky lines. Ultimately, Cronenberg is the ringmaster, or master chef, if you will, who makes this tale of a small town hero, who must face the vile and violent horror of his past, something a little different from the rest. A History of Violence is about the consequences of the past, and it’s too smart for pat resolutions; that only makes it special.

7 of 10
B+

Thursday, October 20, 2005

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (William Hurt) and “Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay” (Josh Olson)

2006 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Screenplay – Adapted” (Josh Olson)

2005 Cannes Film Festival: 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (David Cronenberg)

2006 Golden Globes: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Maria Bello)

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Review: Refn and Gosling "Drive" to Greatness

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 18 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux

Drive (2011)
Running time: 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong brutal bloody violence, language and some nudity
DIRECTOR: Nicolas Winding Refn
WRITER: Hossein Amini (based upon the novel by James Sallis)
PRODUCERS: Michel Litvak, John Palermo, Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, and Adam Siegel
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Newton Thomas Sigel (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Mat Newman
COMPOSER: Cliff Martinez
Academy Award nominee

CRIME/DRAMA/ACTION/THRILLER with elements of romance

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, and Kaden Leos

I kept hearing good things about the film Drive, a 2011 crime drama and action thriller starring Ryan Gosling. Directed by critically-acclaimed Danish filmmaker, Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive centers on a mysterious getaway driver who lands himself in trouble when he helps out his neighbor’s troubled husband. The good things I heard about this film turned out to be true, and it is one of the very best films of 2011.

In the film, he is only known as The Driver (Ryan Gosling), and he is a supremely skilled getaway driver for those who need to get away after pulling off a heist or robbery. The Driver is also a Hollywood stuntman and mechanic, working on both jobs for garage owner, Shannon (Bryan Cranston). Shannon wants to get involved in stock car racing with The Driver as the man behind the wheel, so Shannon brings in mobster, Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks), as an investor in this venture.

The Driver lives in a low-rent apartment building where he meets and befriends his neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan), and her son, Benicio (Kaden Leos). The Driver begins to date Irene, but she is actually married to a man named Standard Gabriel (Oscar Isaac), who is about to be released from prison. After Standard is released, he must find a way to pay back protection money that he owes to a gangster. The Driver tries to help Standard and things go bad on all sides.

Drive is a hard-edged crime thriller with a neo-Film-Noir pedigree. Those who watch it may see the influence of a lot of Los Angeles-based films, including Pulp Fiction and various Michael Mann films. There is also more than a touch of John Carpenter – from the atmospheric, 1980s synth-pop score (created by the always interesting Cliff Martinez) to the somewhat Michael Myers-like Driver. I also see this as partially a blend of Carpenter’s original Halloween (1978) and The Transporter film series.

Whatever its influences are, Drive is simply brilliant. It is cool without being slick and overly produced (like many Hollywood crime movies). Drive is more modern than retro, but it has a timeless quality that also makes it seem to be from a vague near-future. Director Nicolas Winding Refn turned in one of the year’s best feats of film directing simply by making a movie that takes so many influences and inspirations and turns them into an original vision and a film apart from the rest.

This movie has a number of good performances. Of course, Ryan Gosling is the centerpiece. At first, he may come across as flat and too cool, but he slowly unveils a great big darkness that lives just under the surface. Gosling also shows a gentle, romantic, and human side that surprisingly breaks through in the most surprising moments. Plus, Gosling creates, in The Driver, a most memorable man-of-few-words anti-hero. The Driver is another performance that shows just how much talent Gosling has.

Carey Mulligan is solid in a relatively quiet and restrained performance, but she sells every scene in which she appears and matches Gosling when they appear in the same scene. Everything Albert Brooks does in this movie seems fresh and sensational, even when he does something that a movie mobster typically does. He makes the old mobster stereotypes edgy, contemporary, and original.

Drive is a crime flick that is also a dark L.A. fairy tale. It makes violence and brutality seem as if it could be no cooler than it is in Los Angeles. I would have enjoyed seeing more action sequences with cars, but I like Drive too much to complain.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2012 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis)

2012 BAFTA Awards: 4 nominations: “Best Film” (Marc Platt and Adam Siegel), “Best Director” (Nicolas Winding Refn), “Best Editing” (Matthew Newman), “Best Supporting Actress” (Carey Mulligan)

2011 Cannes Film Festival: 1 win: “Best Director” (Nicolas Winding Refn); 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (Nicolas Winding Refn)

2012 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Albert Brooks)

Friday, March 09, 2012

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Review: "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" is a Good Neo-Western (Happy B'day, Tommy Lee Jones)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 162 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
Running time: 121 minutes (2 hours, 1 minute)
MPAA – R for language, violence, and sexuality
DIRECTOR: Tommy Lee Jones
WRITER: Guillermo Arriaga
PRODUCERS: Luc Besson, Michael Fitzgerald, Tommy Lee Jones, and Pierre-Ange Le Pogam
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Chris Menges
EDITOR: Roberto Silvi

DRAMA with elements of comedy and western

Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Julio Cesar Cedillo, January Jones, Dwight Yoakum, Melissa Leo, and Levon Helm

Ranch hand Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones) found a treasured friend in an illegal (undocumented) Mexican worker, Melquiades Estrada (Julio Cesar Cedillo), who becomes a cowboy at the ranch Peter manages. However, a hot headed and ruthless border patrol officer, Mike Norton (Barry Pepper, who exquisitely channels bad vibes to play Norton), kills Melquiades and buries him in an unmarked grave to hide his crime or error (depends on how you look at it). When Pete learns of Melquiades’ death, he kidnaps Mike and has him dig the body out of the pauper’s grave in which it was buried. Then, Pete drags Mike and Melquiades’ corpse on a harrowing journey by horseback across the border to Mexico in order to bury Melquiades in his hometown.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada has all the trappings of a western and the narrative is ripe with scenes of black humor. Like a western, it deals with revenge and justice, and the black comedy comes through the macabre situations involving Estrada’s increasingly gruesome corpse (not to mention a drolly humorous love/sex triangle). Still, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is a story of friendship and obligation. As a famous talk show host recently said of her close relationship with a female friend, perhaps, we don’t have a term to describe the familiarity and understanding that defines the bond between Pete Perkins and Melquiades Estrada. Tommy Lee Jones unadorned and simple, yet masterful direction helps us to understand that a friendship means so much that a man would risk his standing and his professional life to do right by what’s left of his friend on this earth.

Jones, who seems to wear the western well – even quasi ones such as this, also deals with the themes of alienation and the search for meaning in life and love, and in this case the love between two men, as well as between women and men. In his film, souls seem as sparse as much of the landscape that surrounds them. Jones’ characters grasp at connectivity, and Jones uses the subtleties to enrich the film. He shows that even the most lonesome souls find partnerships – even for a little while. It makes The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada a work that eagerly reflects humanity in all its unattractiveness and its most desperately hopeful light.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2005 Cannes Film Festival: 2 wins: “Best Actor” (Tommy Lee Jones) and “Best Screenplay” (Guillermo Arriaga); 1 nominations for the Palme d'Or (Tommy Lee Jones)

Saturday, July 29, 2006

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Review: "Nil by Mouth" (Happy B'day, Gary Oldman)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 29 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Nil by Mouth (1997)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: U.K. and France
Running time: 128 minutes (2 hours, 8 minutes)
MPAA – R for graphic drug use, non-stop strong language, brutal domestic violence and some nudity
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Gary Oldman
PRODUCERS: Luc Besson, Gary Oldman, and Douglas Urbanski
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ron Fortunato
EDITOR: Brad Fuller
COMPOSER: Eric Clapton
BAFTA Award winner

DRAMA

Starring: Ray Winstone, Kathy Burke, Charlie Creed-Miles, Laila Morse, Edna Doré, Chrisse Cotterill, Jon Morrison, Jamie Foreman, Steve Sweeney, and Leah Fitzgerald

Nil by Mouth is acclaimed actor Gary Oldman’s directorial debut. It’s what I call “cinema de unflinching,” in particular that “cinema’s” sub-genre “film de raw.” Oldman, an extremely talented actor who can simultaneously bury himself in a role and also exude movie star wattage, composed a film that stands as one of the most powerful family dramas of the 1990’s because of its dogged pursuit of portraying the effects of drugs and alcohol on a poor family in notorious South London.

Ray (Ray Winstone) is a coke snorting, alcoholic bully who brow beats his wife Valerie (Kathy Burke) and his brother-in-law, Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles), who lives with the couple. After Raymond savagely attacks Billy and kicks him out of the apartment, both men spiral downward, as Ray drinks more and becomes more paranoid and Billy does little other than feed his dope habit. Meanwhile, Val and the rest of the women in the family valiantly hold the family together and look for a few good times in a drug-addled world of poverty and crushing of claustrophobia.

The film starts off quite slowly, and I am certain that it will be difficult for many non-Brits to understand the London dialects (as it was for me). Still, the acting is good, quite good, actually. Oldman gives this film a good pace and a high level of intensity, considering that this film is heavy with the kind of dialogue that reveals character. However, when Nil by Mouth bogs down on a plot point, it is almost anal, and I occasionally found myself drifting away from it. Nil by Mouth is raw and unflinching, but it did not always hold my attention. Still, the script is well-written and well thought out; when you consider the movie as a whole, the screenplay seems rather brilliant.

All in all, Nil by Mouth is a satisfying and rewarding film viewing experience. Oldman makes the right choice in terms of satisfying the audience by letting his film family work through their difficulties. Rather than call it a Hollywood ending, I’ll describe it as artfully handled.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
1998 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (Luc Besson, Douglas Urbanski, and Gary Oldman) and “Best Screenplay – Original” (Gary Oldman); 2 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Ray Winstone) and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Kathy Burke)

1997 Cannes Film Festival: 1 win: “Best Actress” (Kathy Burke) and 1 nomination: “Golden Palm” (Gary Oldman)

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