Review: Netflix's "THE UNION" is Weak Spy Thriller Tea

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 40 of 2024 (No. 1984) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Union (2024)

Running time: 107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, suggestive material and some strong language

DIRECTOR:  Julian Farino

WRITERS:  Joe Barton and David Guggenheim; from a story by David Guggenheim

PRODUCERS:  Stephen Levinson, Mark Wahlberg, and Jeff G. Waxman

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Alan Stewart (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Pia Di Ciaula

COMPOSER:  Rupert Gregson-Williams

ACTION/COMEDY/ROMANCE and SPY/THRILLER

Starring:  Mark Wahlberg, Halle Berry, J.K. Simmons, Mike Colter, Alice Lee, Jessica De Gouw, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jackie Earle Haley, Lucy Cork, Stephen Campbell Moore

SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW:

If you are a fan of Mark Wahlberg and/or Halle Berry, you may want to watch this film

Although it does have some good moments and some good production values, “The Union,” comes across as a big-budget made-for-television spy movie or maybe even a straight-to-DVD spy movie

As a romantic comedy, Wahlberg and Berry have good screen chemistry, but the violence in “The Union” makes it hard to be a romantic-comedy

The film ultimately comes across as an average hodge-podge of genres that is only worth your time when you have time to waste

The Union is a 2024 American spy-thriller and action-romantic-comedy from director Julian Farino.  Starring Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry, the film is a “Netflix Original,” and began streaming on Netflix August 16, 2024.  The Union focuses on a down-to earth construction worker who is thrust into the world of spies and secret agents by his high school sweetheart, who is a secret agent.

The Union introduces, “the Union,” a covert agency whose agents work behind the scenes as everyday blue collar workers such as road crews, construction workers, garbage collectors, and water and wastewater treatment operators, to name a few.  The film opens in the Grand Hotel Castelletto in Trieste, Italy, where the Union prepares to bring in CIA turncoat, Derek Mitchell.  However, the mission is botched, and only veteran agent, Roxanne Hall (Halle Berry), survives, but she has a plan.

Roxanne returns to her hometown of Paterson, New Jersey, where she recruits her high school sweetheart, Michael “Mike” McKenna (Mark Wahlberg), a construction worker, into the Union.  Despite the protestations of her boss, Tom Brennan (J.K. Simmons), Roxanne convinces Mike to join the Union.  Before long, Roxanne and Mike are on a mission, but once again, things go awry.  Now, the former lovers have to straighten out this mess and recover some sensitive government intelligence that, if sold on the black market, will endanger the lives of every American spy and secret agent.

Comic book writer, artist, and publisher, Jimmy Palmiotti (DC Comics' Harley Quinn and Radical Publisher's Time Bomb), suggested via Twitter that the 2010 Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz film, Knight and Day, offers something similar to The Union, but is much better at it.  I've been putting off seeing Knight and Day for 14 years, and after trudging through The Union, I think it's time I did the damn thing and saw it.

I like Mark Wahlberg, and Halle Berry is one of my favorite Hollywood people of all time.  I really wanted to watch The Union because of them, and I found their screen chemistry sometimes sweet and charming.  However, I found The Union to be a slog that took me over a week to watch, as I mostly viewed it in bits and pieces.  Sometimes, I had to do something, and other times, I stopped simply because I was bored.

However, the film is not a total loss.  It is at times, pleasingly pleasant, although had I watched it in an actual movie theater, I would have not found it pleasant at all.  Still, there is about a third of a good action movie here.  The Union is for serious fans of Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry.  That's all I can say.  That's all I should say, lest I say worse, and this review comes back to haunt me.

5 of 10

C+

★★½ out of 4 stars

Sunday, September 1, 2024

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Review: "CAFÉ SOCIETY" Sounds More Scandalous Than It Actually Is

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 2 of 2024 (No. 1946) by Leroy Douresseaux

Café Society (2016)

Running time:  96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)

MPAA –  PG-13 for some violence, a drug reference, suggestive material and smoking

WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Woody Allen

PRODUCERS:  Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, and Edward Walson

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Vittorio Storaro

EDITOR:  Alisa Lepselter

COMEDY/ROMANCE with elements of crime

Starring:  Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell, Blake Lively, Sheryl Lee, Jeannie Berlin, Ken Stott, Sari Lennick, Stephen Kunken, and Corey Stoll

Café Society is a 2016 period comedy and romance film written and directed by Woody Allen.  Set in the 1930s, the film follows a Bronx native who moves to Hollywood and falls in love with a young woman who is already in an affair with a mysterious married man.

Café Society introduces Robert Jacob “Bobby” Dorfman (Jessie Eisenberg).  He is the youngest child and younger son of Marty Dorfman (Ken Stott) and his wife, Rose Dorfman (Jeannie Berlin).  The Dorfman's middle child is their adult daughter, Evelyn (Sari Lennick), who is married to Leonard (Stephen Kunken), a teacher, an intellectual, and a communist.  Dorfman's oldest child is their elder son, Ben (Corey Stoll), a gangster.  While his siblings' lives are set, Bobby's is not.  He is discontented with working for his father, Marty, who is a jeweler, so Bobby decides to move to Hollywood.

There, his mother Karen's brother, Phil Stern (Steve Carell), is a powerful talent agent who works with the most famous stars, biggest filmmakers, and most powerful movie studios.  Phil is married to a beautiful woman, Karen (Sheryl Lee), and he lives in a lavish mansion in Hollywood.  And he might have a job for his wayward nephew, Bobby Dorfman.

Bobby ends up taking a job running menial errands for Phil, and that brings him into contact with on of Phil's employees, Veronica “Vonnie” Sybil (Kristen Stewart).  Bobby falls in love with Vonnie, but she claims that she already has a boyfriend, Doug, whom she describes as a journalist.  Ultimately, Bobby returns to New York City, where he runs a high-end nightclub that he names “Les Tropiques.”  It is there that Bobby embraces “café society,” as the club soon becomes a famous hangout for the rich and powerful.  Bobby, however, cannot escape his recent past, nor can he avoid Ben's gangster activities.

Coup de chance, the film Woody Allen says will likely be his final directorial effort, was released in France in September (2023).  Because of the controversies surrounding Allen the last few decades, especially the last five years, the film may not get a stateside theatrical release (although there has been a rumor that it has found a thus far secret U.S. distributor).  In anticipation of eventually somehow seeing Coup de chance, I have decided to watch the recent Woody Allen films that I missed, such as the 2015 film, Irrational Man, and Cafe Society.

Cafe Society is an amiable, lightweight Woody Allen period comedy.  It's nostalgic overtones certainly recall Allen's utterly delightful and semi-autobiographical period film, Radio Days (1987).  I adore Radio Days and am tempted to call it his masterpiece.  Unfortunately, Cafe Society is nowhere near the film that Radio Days is.

The first half of Cafe Society, which is mostly set in Hollywood, ends up being a prologue to the main story.  You see, dear readers, Cafe Society's real story takes place after Bobby Dorfman returns to New York City and becomes a player in cafe society, the party scene of the Big Apple's rich and famous – from the blue bloods and celebrities to politicians and gangsters.  In fact, the film is practically sleepy until Bobby becomes the impresario of NYC's most popular and notorious nightclub.  That is when the two strands of his past – his aborted relationship with Vonnie and the natural end of Ben's activities – meet.  Of course, it is a time when Bobby has the best of everything.

Cafe Society's themes of love-at-first-sight, love lost, and yearning for what might have been are familiar, and the film deals with it all so slightly that the story feels underdeveloped.  I can't help but believe Cafe Society would work better as a television series, which would allow it to fully develop its multiple subplots and to play out a cast that is filled with potential.  Ultimately, Café Society is an average put-together of familiar Woody Allen tropes, decorated with gorgeous production values.  The cinematography, costumes, and sets are all Oscar worthy.

5 of 10

B-

★★½ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

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Review: Phoenix is the Man in Woody Allen's "IRRATIONAL MAN"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 51 of 2023 (No. 1940) by Leroy Douresseaux

Irrational Man (2015)

Running time:  95 minutes (1 hour, 35 minutes)

MPAA –  R for some language and sexual content

WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Woody Allen

PRODUCERS:  Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, and Edward Walson

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Darius Khondji

EDITOR:  Alisa Lepselter

COMEDY/DRAMA/MYSTERY/ROMANCE

Starring:  Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Parker Posey, Joe Stapleton, Nancy Carroll, Betsy Aidem, Ethan Phillips, Jamie Blackley, Nancy Giles, and Tom Kemp

Irrational Man is a 2015 comedy-drama, romance, and mystery film written and directed by Woody Allen.  The film focuses on a college professor who finds the will to live after committing the act of murder and the young student who falls deeply in love with him.

Philosophy professor Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) arrives in Newport, Rhode Island with some acclaim.  He joins the faculty of (fictional) Braylin College where he will teach “ethical strategies.”  Abe is depressed, is experiencing an existential crisis, and sees no meaning in his life.  He drinks excessively and considers suicide.

Despite his tormented state, Abe catches the attention of two women.  The first is chemistry professor, Rita Richards (Parker Posey), and the second is Jill Pollard (Emma Stone), one of his students.  Each is crazy about him in her own way.  Abe's relationship with the two really goes nowhere … at first.

Abe hatches the idea of murdering Judge Thomas Augustus Spangler (Tom Kemp), an unethical family court judge who is plotting to take the custody of her children away from a woman.  Plotting and committing murder has given Abe's life a sense of purpose that he has not felt in ages.  For various reasons, however, both Rita and Jill suspect Abe of Judge Spangler's murder.

Coup de chance, the film Woody Allen says will likely be his final directorial effort, was released in France in September (2023).  Because of the controversies surrounding Allen the last few decades, especially the last five years, the film may not get a U.S. theatrical release.  In anticipation of seeing Coup de chance, I have decided to watch the recent Woody Allen films that I missed, beginning with the most recent that I had not seen, Irrational Man.

Some of Woody Allen's films have previously focused on a lead character who is involved in murder or commits murder.  Examples include Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) and Match Point (2005).  Having murder as subplot gives Allen's films an edge they don't normally have.  Irrational Man seems to drift with no purpose until Abe Lucas actually commits murder, and suddenly this film seems like a totally different movie from what it was during its first half.  Frankly, Irrational Man seems to be asleep for at least half its runtime.

I find myself entirely sympathetic with Phoenix's Abe Lucas.  Of course, I would feel differently if this were a real murder victim that was friends or family to me.  As it is, I find myself really liking the post-crime Abe Lucas, and I found his later, darker turn to be a bit alluring.

Phoenix gives life to a character that Allen does not develop very well.  As the narrative moves towards its conclusion, Phoenix makes Abe feel richer, and the character might have improved even more with a longer runtime, more because of what Phoenix would do rather than what Allen would not.  Emma Stone is whiny and unlikable as Jill Pollard, but Parker Posey makes the best of horny Rita Richards.  I wish Rita had more screen time.

Irrational Man is strictly for Woody Allen fans, although Phoenix is the one who saves this film and uplifts it.  So Joaquin Phoenix fans may find something in Irrational Man to like, also.

6 of 10

B

★★★ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

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Review: "THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING" is a Fairy Tale of Love Stories

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 73 of 2022 (No. 1885) by Leroy Douresseaux

Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

Running time:  108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)

MPA – R for some sexual content, graphic nudity and brief violence

DIRECTOR:  George Miller

WRITERS:  George Miller and Augusta Gore (based upon the short story by A.S. Byatt)

PRODUCERS:  Doug Mitchell and George Miller

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  John Seale (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Margaret Sixel

COMPOSER: Junkie XL

FANTASY/ROMANCE/DRAMA

Starring:  Tilda Swinton, Idris Elba, Erdil Yasaroglu, Aamito Lagum, Ece Yuksel, Matteo Bocelli, and Nicolas Mouawad

Three Thousand Years of Longing is a 2022 fantasy film and romantic drama directed by George Miller  It is based on the short story, “The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye,” which was written by author A. S. Byatt and first published in the Winter 1994 edition of The Paris Review.  Three Thousand Years of Longing focuses on lonely scholar and a djinn who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom.

Three Thousand Years of Longing introduces Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton), a lonely British scholar and “narratologist.”  She travels to Istanbul, Turkey for a conference.  While there, Alithea visits Istanbul's “Grand Bazaar” where she enters a store filled with beautiful and intricate glassware.  She purchases an odd, antique bottle, and takes it back to her hotel.

While cleaning the bottle, Alithea is shocked to discover that there is something inside it and that she has unwittingly released its contents.  Alithea has accidentally unleashed a djinn that was trapped inside the bottle.  The Djinn (Idris Elba) offers to grant her three wishes, but Alithea believes that djinn are tricksters and that the wishes they grant turn out to be misfortune for those that did the wishing.  So The Djinn tells Alithea three tales that explain how he came to be in the bottle in which she found him.  Will this convince Alithea to accept his offer of three wishes – an act that will grant him freedom?

First, I must say that Three Thousand Years of Longing has excellent production values, and I would expect nothing less from a great filmmaker like George Miller, best known for his Mad Max films, including the original Mad Max (1979) and the most recent, the winner of multiple Oscar-winner, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).  The costumes, sets, art direction, hair and make-up, the score, and cinematography give Three Thousand Years of Longing a golden hue.  It is in the depiction of The Djinn's stories that this film's production values assert their power in transforming Three Thousand Years of Longing into a engaging fairy tale full of wondrous fairy tales

However, these same fairy tales often outshine the main narrative, much of which deals with the impasse in which Alithea and The Djinn find themselves.  Luckily, Three Thousand Years of Longing is a story with a beginning, middle, and an end.  For it is at the end that we learn that Three Thousand Years of Longing is truly a love story, but a love story that only a fairy tale can tell.  Love is a story, and in this story, love, with its endless longing, is different and lives differently.

George Miller and his co-writer, Augusta Gore, could only tell this film story with two extraordinary and exceptional actors.  Tilda Swinton, strange chameleon and splendid thespian, and Idris Elba, whose profound voice reveals the deep pool of ability from which it springs, are so perfectly matched in being mismatched and star-crossed, that they make us believe in what their characters ultimately make for themselves.  Three Thousand Years of Longing is not perfect, but it is the kind of fantasy film that only exceptional cinematic talents can create.

7 of 10

A-

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Saturday, December 3, 2022

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Review: "LA LA LAND" Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda Been Great

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 40 of 2022 (No. 1852) by Leroy Douresseaux

La La Land (2016)
Running time:  128 minutes (2 hours, 8 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some language
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Damien Chazelle
PRODUCERS:  Fred Berger, Gary Gilbert, Jordan Horowitz, and Marc Platt
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Linus Sandgren (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Tom Cross
COMPOSER:  Justin Hurwitz
SONGS: Justin Hurwitz and Pasek & Paul; Justin Hurwitz, John Legend, Marius de Vries and Angelique Cinelu
Academy Award winner

MUSICAL/DRAMA

Starring:  Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Rosemarie DeWitt, J.K. Simmons, and John Legend

La La Land is a 2016 romantic film and musical drama written and directed by Damien Chazelle.  The film focuses on a struggling jazz pianist and an aspiring actress who fall in love while navigating their career paths in Los Angeles.

La La Land opens in Los Angeles, California.  While stuck in a typical L.A. traffic, aspiring actress, Mia Dolan (Emma Stone), has a moment of road rage directed at Sebastian “Seb” Wilder (Ryan Gosling), a struggling jazz pianist.  Mia has a hard day of work at her coffee shop job, and her subsequent audition goes awry.  Sebastian is fired from a gig at a restaurant after he slips in some jazz improvisation despite the owner's (J.K. Simmons) warning to only play traditional Christmas music.  Attracted to the Seb's music, Mia walks into the restaurant and witnesses the firing.  She tries to compliment his music, but Seb rudely walks past her.

Eventually, Fate brings them together at a party.  Soon, they are sharing their dreams and start becoming a couple.  Both have to reconcile their aspirations for the future, however, and as their career paths veer, can they stay a couple?

La La Land almost won the Academy Award for “Best Picture,” but didn't.  La La Land could have been a great film, but it really isn't.  The film's leads, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, are fine actors, and they are true movie stars.  [I don't see anything in Stone's performance here that is worthy of the “Best Actress” Oscar she won.]  The camera seems to love them, and they look great on the big screen – as the sayings go – but as hard as they try, their characters are limp.  Stone's Mia has potential, but remains surprisingly vapid, except for a few moments.  Sebastian is pretentious and insufferable, although he is intriguing.

The material that makes up this film's screenplay, written by Damien Chazelle, is a shallow interpretation of the musicals of “old Hollywood” (also known as the “Golden Age of Hollywood”).  Chazelle may be a fan of such old musicals, but his love cannot recreate the genuine spirit and aesthetic of them.  If you, dear readers, are familiar with classic Hollywood musicals, you will recognize that this film ties to be old-fashioned, but comes across as a pretender.

The film's score is quite good, and it has one great song “City of Stars” (which keeps playing in my head).  Most of the rest of the songs are technically proficient, but are exceedingly dull.  There is one more decent song (can't remember which one) and a catchy tune, “Catch a Fire,” co-written and performed by John Legend.

Still, La La Land has moments of brilliance.  Mia and Sebastian's meeting on a bench at Griffith Park is filled with movie magic, and the film's final moment recalls the semi-tragic mood of Casablanca.  The production values are terrific, including the Oscar-winning art direction and set decoration, and the Oscar-winning cinematography is some of the prettiest I have seen in the last decade.  Even the Oscar-nominated costume design is worthy of a win.

I can see why Barry Jenkins' Moonlight wowed enough voters to win the Oscar for “Best Picture” of 2016 over La La Land.  Moonlight is a fascinating character study, while La La Land is flashy cinematic bauble with caricatures.  It is technically proficient, but every good moment is met by a flat and dull moment.  La La Land is the film that could have been great, and should have been great, but ended up being just very good.

7 of 10
B+
★★★½ out of 4 stars


NOTES:
2017 Academy Awards, USA:  6 wins: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Emma Stone), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Damien Chazelle), “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Linus Sandgren), “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Score” (Justin Hurwitz), “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Song” (Justin Hurwitz-music and Benj Pasek-lyrics and Justin Paul-lyrics for the song, “City of Stars”), and “Best Achievement in Production Design” (David Wasco for production design and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco for set decoration); 8 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, and Marc Platt), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Ryan Gosling), “Best Original Screenplay” (Damien Chazelle), “Best Achievement in Film Editing” (Tom Cross), “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Mary Zophres), “Best Achievement in Sound Mixing” (Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee, and Steven Morrow), “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou), and “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Song” (Justin Hurwitz-music and Benj Pasek-lyrics and Justin Paul-lyrics for the song, “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)”)

2017 BAFTA Awards:  5 wins: “Best Film” (Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, and Marc Platt), “Best Leading Actress” (Emma Stone), “Best Cinematography” (Linus Sandgren), “Original Music” (Justin Hurwitz), and “David Lean Award for Direction” (Damien Chazelle); 6 nominations: “Best Leading Actor” (Ryan Gosling), “Best Screenplay-Original” (Damien Chazelle), “Best Editing” (Tom Cross), “Best Production Design” (Sandy Reynolds-Wasco and David Wasco), “Best Costume Design” (Mary Zophres), and “Best Sound” (Mildred Iatrou, Ai-Ling Lee, Steven Morrow, and Andy Nelson)

2017 Golden Globes, USA:  7 wins: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy,” “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Ryan Gosling), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Emma Stone), “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Damien Chazelle), “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Damien Chazelle), “Best Original Song-Motion Picture” (Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul for the song: “City of Stars”), and “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Justin Hurwitz)

Saturday, July 2, 2022


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Review: "LICORICE PIZZA" is a Dumb Title for a Freaking Fantastic Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 36 of 2022 (No. 1848) by Leroy Douresseaux

Licorice Pizza (2021)
Running time:  133 minutes (2 hours, 13 minutes)
MPA – R for language, sexual material and some drug use
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Paul Thomas Anderson
PRODUCERS:  Paul Thomas Anderson, Sara Murphy, and Adam Somner
CINEMATOGRAPHERS:  Paul Thomas Anderson (D.o.P.) and Michael Bauman
EDITOR:  Andy Jurgensen
COMPOSER:  Jonny Greenwood
Academy Award nominee

ROMANCE/COMEDY/DRAMA/HISTORICAL

Starring:  Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Will Angarola, Griff Giacchino, James Kelley, Maya Rudolph, Iyana Halley, Ryan Heffington, Benny Safdie, Joseph Cross, and Bradley Cooper

Licorice Pizza is a 2021 coming-of-age comedy and drama and period film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.  The film focuses on the adventures and misadventures of a teenage boy and a 20-something young woman as their romantic relationship develops.

Licorice Pizza is set in San Fernando Valley, California, circa 1973.  The film introduces 15-year-old Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman), a child actor.  While preparing for “picture day” at his high school, Gary notices the photographer's assistant, Alana Kane (Alana Haim).  Gary is smitten with her and strikes up a conversation, but Alana, who says that she is 25-years-old (although she could be as much as 28-years-old), tries to rebuff him, to no avail.

A kind of romance begins while Gary becomes a budding teenage businessman and while Alana tries to get her life together.  This version of “first love,” however, involves a treacherous navigation as both are attracted to other people.  This includes other teen girls for Gary and actors and politicians for Alana.  Meanwhile, there is an entire San Fernando Valley of adventures to be had and some growing up to do.

The Los Angeles Times described Licorice Pizza as a “family-and-friends-project” because much of the cast of the film is made up of Paul Thomas Anderson's family and friends.  The lead actor, Cooper Hoffman, is the son of the late actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who appeared in several of Anderson's films.  A former local restaurant that Anderson patronized is recreated for the film.  Living and deceased Hollywood celebrities appear as characters in the film, including legendary television star and studio executive, Lucille Ball, and film producer, Jon Peters.  Gary Valentine and his adventures are based on the life of former child actor turned film and TV producer, Gary Goetzman, a friend of Anderson's and the producing partner of actor Tom Hanks.  The film even takes its title from, “Licorice Pizza” (1969-85), a former Southern California record store chain that, through sales and acquisitions, became part of the “Musicland” brand.

Thinking about Licorice Pizza, I can only regard it as perfect, and I feel that its perfection comes from the fact that the concept, plot, story, setting, and characters come from a place of love and of familiarity for Anderson.  Everything feels natural and real, and there were instances when I was watching this film that it felt like I was staring through a window in time at something that had actually taken place.

To me, Anderson's screenplay is perfect down to the punctuation and indention.  To change it would be to ruin it.  Even the soundtrack is filled with songs that seem as if they were recorded long ago, but were always meant for Licorice Pizza.

Gary Valentine and Alana Kane (love those names) are so well-developed and so naturally developed that I found myself loving them, being annoyed at them, and being worried for them – as if they were my own charges.  As Gary, Hoffman gives one of the best performances of a teenage character that I have ever seen.  Alana Haim is Meryl Streep and Glenn Close good as Alana Kane, and her not receiving an Oscar nomination for this performance is artistic theft.

Well … I love this film, and I demand that you watch it.  Or I'll beg if that's what it takes.  The lives of white kids in 1970s San Fernando Valley is a star system away from when and how I grew up.  Still, I could feel that era and the lives of these people in my heart.  Honestly, Licorice Pizza is a stupid-ass title for a stupendous-ass film.  If the title is what is holding you back from seeing it, ignore that title and see one of the truly great films of the last several years.

10 of 10

Wednesday, June 15, 2022


NOTES:
2022 Academy Awards, USA:  3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Sara Murphy, Adam Somner, and Paul Thomas Anderson), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Paul Thomas Anderson), and “Best Original Screenplay” (Paul Thomas Anderson)

2022 BAFTA Awards:  1 win:  “Best Screenplay-Original (Paul Thomas Anderson);  4 nominations: “Best Film” (Sara Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Adam Somner), “Best Director” (Paul Thomas Anderson), “Best Leading Actress” (Alana Haim), “Best Editing” (Andy Jurgensen)

2022 Golden Globes, USA:  4 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy,” “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Alana Haim), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Cooper Hoffman), and “Best Screenplay – Motion Picture” (Paul Thomas Anderson)


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Review: Hurt and Turner Put All the Heat in "BODY HEAT"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 17 of 2022 (No. 1829) by Leroy Douresseaux

Body Heat (1981)
Running time: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – R
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Lawrence Kasdan
PRODCUER:  Fred T. Gallo
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Richard H. Kline (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Carol Littleton
COMPOSER:  John Barry

DRAMA/ROMANCE/CRIME

Starring:  William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, J.A. Preston, Oscar Grace, Mickey Rourke, Kim Zimmer, Jane Hallaren, Lanna Saunders, and Carola McGuinness

Body Heat is a 1981 romance and crime drama written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan.  The film is set in Florida during a searing heat wave and focuses on a small-town lawyer and a sultry woman who conspire to murder her rich husband.

Body Heat introduces Ned Racine (William Hurt), an inept lawyer who operates out of Okeelanta County, in southern Florida, which is in the middle of a searing heatwave.  One night, he chances upon a very attractive woman, who is all alone.  Although she initially rebuffs his amorous attempts, she eventually gives in to Ned's advances and identifies herself as Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner).  She lives in a posh mansion with her mysteriously wealthy husband, Edmund Walker (Richard Crenna).  Edmund is usually away on business during the week, so that is when Matty is alone.

Ned and Matty begin a torrid affair.  When they can be together, they have lots of sex in the sweltering heat of the night.  When Edmund is home on the weekends, Matty longs to be with Ned, as he longs to be with her.  If Matty were to divorce her husband, an onerous marital prenuptial agreement would leave her with very little, but she would get half his estate if he died...  Matty wishes Edmund was dead, and Ned presents her with a way to get rid of him.  Ned believes that he has figured out how to get away with murder, but has he figured out Matty Walker?

William Hurt (1950-2022) recently died after a reported battle with cancer, and I was taken aback.  William Hurt was one of the biggest names in Hollywood in the 1980s when I was first coming of age an a film fan.  I have decided to go back and watch some of his films that I'd previously seen and also to watch some for the first time.  One of those first time films is Body Heat, which was only the third film in which he'd starred.  It is apparently the film that made him a “bankable” Hollywood movie star.

Body Heat is also the film debut of Kathleen Turner.  Her physicality and obvious and frank sexuality made her a star of the 1980s.  Her adventurousness in choosing movie roles created an eclectic filmography, but Turner's star waned in the 1990s.  In Body Heat, however, she is ready to unleash her unique skill set on the world.  Matty Walker is Turner's signature work, and bits and pieces of the character and her performance of the character continued to show up in her work in the decades that followed the original release of Body Heat.

Here, in Body Heat, Hurt and Turner are stars ascendant.  At first, I wondered if they would have screen chemistry, and from my point of view, they are magnificent together.  The fact that they are willing to be naked together so often in this film speaks to their professionalism and also the depth of their skill as actors.  Both had performed on stage before they entered the world of Hollywood films, so they had acting experience.  That experience was needed in filming what has been described as many explicit sex scenes that were not included in the finished film.

Still, what is left on screen is hot and nasty.  Turner and Hurt are so hot together that they damn near burned this film down, which it needs.  The truth is that Body Heat is rather tepid.  The film is described as a “neo-noir,” a modern version of the classic Hollywood film genre, “Film-Noir.”  Outside of the depictions of sex and nudity, Body Heat's story and the execution of its narrative, to me, seem rather tame compared to a film like, for instance, 1950's Gun Crazy, another romantic crime drama about a killer couple.  Writer-director Lawrence Kasdan, one of the best writer-directors and screen writers of the last five decades, apparently found inspiration for Body Heat in the 1944 Film-Noir classic, Double Indemnity.  Well, it's time for me to see that one.

Beside Ned Racine and Matty Walker, I like the other characters in this film.  Richard Crenna is really good in a small role as Edmund Walker; he deserved more screen time.  Ted Danson's Peter Lowenstein is good, but seems extraneous in this film, and J.A. Preston's Oscar Grace, a police detective, has his best moments in Body Heat's last act.  Also, if you ever wondered what Hollywood executives saw in Mickey Rourke that would make him a star, his small but potent turn as Teddy Lewis, an explosives expert and former client of Ned's, reveals the first glimmer of his movie star potential.

Body Heat is not William Hurt's best work, but his quirky takes make Ned Racine an interesting character.  Kasdan throws out hints about the general sloppy nature of Ned's skills as an attorney and also his inability to see the big picture.  Hurt takes that the rest of the way, creating a Ned Racine that is not savvy enough not to be a fall guy, but too smart not to figure it out eventually.  Body Heat is not a crime fiction classic, but it is a classic “erotic thriller.”  Hurt and Turner make it so.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, March 26, 2022


NOTES:
1983 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination:  “Most Outstanding Newcomer to Leading Film Roles” (Kathleen Turner)


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Review: "MAKING LOVE" Can Still Knock Boots

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 11 of 2022 (No. 1823) by Leroy Douresseaux

Making Love (1982)
Running time:  113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR:  Arthur Hiller
WRITERS:  Barry Sandler; from a story by A. Scott Berg
PRODUCERS:  Alan J. Adler and Daniel Melnick
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  David M. Walsh
EDITOR:  William Reynolds
COMPOSER: Leonard Rosenman

LGBTQ/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring:  Michael Ontkean, Kate Jackson, Harry Hamlin, Wendy Hiller, and Gary Swanson

Making Love is a 1982 romantic drama and LGBTQ film from director Arthur Hiller.  Making Love focuses on a successful Los Angeles couple making big plans for their future when the husband finds himself unable to keep repressing his attraction for other men.

Making Love is set in the early 1980s and introduces three 30-something characters.  The first is Dr. Zack Elliot (Michael Ontkean), a successful, Los Angeles-based oncologist.  He is married to Claire Elliot (Kate Jackson), an equally successful television network executive.  Claire and Zack have been married for eight years and are generally happy.  They are talking about having a baby, so they buy a bigger house.

Unknown to Claire, however, Zack has been struggling with feelings of attraction for other men.  He begins loosening these long-repressed feelings by cruising places where gay men congregate to pick up other men for sex.  Enter the film's third main character, Bart McGuire (Harry Hamlin), a successful novelist and gay man.  Bart goes in for a medical check-up, and Zack is temporarily seeing the patients of Bart's regular doctor.

Bart frequents gay bars and clubs and has multiple sexual partners, preferring one night stands to committed relationships.  Zack and Bart are mutually attracted to each other, but there are complications.  As gay men, each wants something different in intimate relationships.  Meanwhile, Claire is having professional struggles, and she starts to suspect that Zack is cheating on her.  However, she would never suspect that he is cheating on her with another man.

This is the fortieth anniversary of the theatrical release of the landmark gay film drama, Making Love, specifically February 12, 1982.  While Making Love was not the first gay-themed film released by a major Hollywood studio, it was the first mainstream Hollywood film drama to address particular subjects related to homosexuality, such as the effect of a spouse coming out while being in a heterosexual marriage and also the toll of being closeted on a gay man.

Making Love is not a great film; at best, it is average or maybe a little above average.  Apparently, it has been accused of dodging its core subject, which is that of a gay man not only coming out while being married to a woman, but also engaging in an affair with another man.  Making Love does not actually duck or dodge any sensitive homosexual issues.

The problem is that the film addresses too many issues.  Zack Elliot is having a midlife crisis.  Repressed, Zack is horny and cruises for gay sex, but usually backs out before the sex can begin.  Claire is having a career crisis.  She wants her television executive bosses to utilize the talents for which she was hired, but they ignore her thoughtful programming pitches.  She wants to take a year off so that she can have a baby.  Her desire to have a better relationship with her estranged father also crops up.  Bart treats each man that he wants to screw like he is the perfect guy for him.  Yet as soon as the sex is over, Bart hops out of bed and heads home.  He is always on the prowl, but seems to yearn for a little more.

This are enough subplots and melodramatic twists for a television series, but it is a bit much for a film.  What also hampers the film is that with so much to talk about, a lot of the dialogue is stiff and sounds contrived when the actors speak it.  The performances are well meaning, but the screenplay for Making Love does address what is at the heart of this film.

Making Love may be a gay drama, but the way I see it, the story is really about the dysfunction in Zack and Claire's relationship and in Zack and Bart's relationship.  Making Love is really not about “making love,” but about people being honest about what they want from a partner and what they really want for themselves.  Making Love only deals with that in a shallow way, but I do give the film, the filmmakers, and the cast the credit for making this kind of film.  Making Love depicts homosexuality and being a man who wants to have sex with lots of other men seem like perfectly normal aspects of modern American life.

6 of 10
B

Friday, March 4, 2022


NOTES:
1983 Golden Globes, USA:  1 nomination: Best Original Song - Motion Picture (Burt Bacharach-music, Bruce Roberts-music/lyrics, and Carole Bayer Sager-lyrics for the song, “Making Love”)


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Review: Crosby and Astaire Keep "HOLIDAY INN" Open with Crooning and Hoofing

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 73 of 2021 (No. 1811) by Leroy Douresseaux

Holiday Inn (1942)
Running time:  101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR:  Mark Sandrich
WRITERS:  Claude Binyon-screenplay; Elmer Rice-adaptation (based on an idea by Irving Berlin)
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  David Abel (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Ellsworth Hoagland
COMPOSERS:  Irving Berlin (songs and music); Robert Emmett Dolan (musical direction)
Academy Award winner

MUSICAL/COMEDY/ROMANCE

Starring:  Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds, Virginia Dale, Walter Abel, Louise Beavers, Irving Bacon, Marek Windheim, James Bell, John Gallaudet, Shelby Bacon, and Joan Arnold

Holiday Inn is a 1942 musical, comedy and romance film from director Mark Sandrich.  The film is based on an idea by legendary American song writer and composer, Irving Berlin, who also wrote twelve songs specifically for this film.  The most famous of the film's songs is “White Christmas,” which went on to be the biggest hit record in the career of one of Holiday Inn's stars, Bing Crosby, and also the best selling record of all time.  Holiday Inn is set at an inn that is open only on holidays, and the story focuses on a love triangle involving a singer, a dancer, and a beautiful up-and-coming young female performer.

Holiday Inn opens on Christmas Eve at the Midnight Club in New York City.  Crooner (singer) Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby), hoofer (dancer) Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire), and signer-dancer Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale) have a popular musical act.  Jim plans for tonight to be his last performance.  He is retiring and moving to Midville, Connecticut where he will be a farmer.  Jim wants Lila to retire with him, and she has previously accepted his marriage proposal.  However, she has fallen in love with Ted and wants to continue working as his partner in a new act.  Jim accepts this and bids them goodbye.

Over the next year, Jim does not have much success running a farm.  So on Christmas Eve, a year after he retired, Jim is back in NYC.  He tells Ted and his agent, Danny Reed (Walter Abel), that he wants to turn the farm into an entertainment venue that opens only on holidays.  He has named it the “Holiday Inn.”  Ted and Danny are amused at the idea, and Ted is not interested in performing there.

However, Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds), an aspiring young singer and dancer, does find her way to the Holiday Inn.  There, she finds Jim, his African-American housekeeper, Mamie (Louise Beavers), and her two small children, son Vanderbilt (Shelby Bacon) and daughter Daphne (Joan Arnold).  The homey feeling that permeates the Inn and Jim's new song, “White Christmas,” convince Linda to stay.  But old rivals are conspiring to return and ruin Jim's plans again.

First, I have to be honest with you, dear readers.  I never really watched very much of those Bing Crosby holiday television specials that ran decades ago and now, still occasionally pop up on vintage TV channels.  I do, however, love to watch the films in which he appeared.  The man dazzles me, and I just love his singing voice.  He doesn't need to try hard; he seems to be amazing just naturally.

Watching Holiday Inn for the first time just recently also gave me a chance to really start to appreciate Fred Astaire.  He's amazing on film, and now, I see why the late “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson, was such a fan of his.  It's the same as Crosby – he doesn't even have to try hard.  Astaire just seems naturally an incredible dancer and performer.

The production values on Holiday Inn are beautiful, obviously so even in black and white.  In fact, Holiday Inn features some of the most beautiful and sharp black and white photography that I have ever seen in a Golden Age Hollywood film.  Director Mark Sandrich, a highly respected director in his day, makes this simple story, with its nonsensical plots and narrative, seem like it is almost high art.

Crosby and Astaire's co-stars, Marjorie Reynolds (as Linda) and Virginia Dale (as Lila), are also delightful, especially Reynolds in a larger role than Dale's.  Reynolds makes Linda seem like the equal, in terms of stage performance, of both Jim and Ted.  They bring Irving Berlin's wonderful songs to life with the kind of professionalism and skill that makes such songs into hits or at least into memorable tunes.  Besides the great “White Christmas,” there are a number of stand-out songs in this film, such as “Happy Holiday” and “Be Careful, It's My Heart.”

Like some Hollywood films from the first half of the twentieth-century, Holiday Inn has characters in “blackface,” which is when White actors blacken their face to play racist and stereotypical caricatures of Black people.  In this film, it occurs during the “Lincoln's Birthday” holiday performance when Crosby's Jim and Reynold's Linda perform a song called “Abraham.”  Crosby's blackface makeup is not the worst that I have seen, but Reynold's get-up, a sort of female “picaninny” with fake ponytails radiating from her head like sunbeams, is horrible.  However, the song “Abraham” is weak, and the sequence in which it is performed is forgettable.  Honestly, I had forgotten the song, the performance, and the blackface less than a minute after it finished.

For me, Holiday Inn is a magical Christmas movie.  No, the film does not depict all 15 holidays that Jim plans to celebrate at the Holiday Inn, but the ones that really count seem to be Christmas Eve-Christmas and New Year's Eve-New Year's Day.  And in these moments, the film is most lovable and at its most enchanting.  Holiday Inn is not my favorite Christmas movie.  That would be the Holiday Inn semi-remake, 1954's White Christmas (also starring Bing Crosby), which takes its inspiration and title from the beloved song.  Still, Holiday Inn is special because it introduced the biggest Christmas song of all time, Irving Berlin's “White Christmas.”  For that reason, I will always try to find my way back to Holiday Inn … especially during the Christmas season.

8 of 10
A

Saturday, December 25, 2021


1943 Academy Awards, USA:  1 win: “Best Music, Original Song” (Irving Berlin for the song “White Christmas”); 2 nominations: “Best Writing, Original Story” (Irving Berlin) and “Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture” (Robert Emmett Dolan)


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#28DaysofBlack Review: "IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK"

[One of the emerging film talents of the last decade is writer-director Barry Jenkins.  His incredible adaptation of James Baldwin's 1974 novel, If Beale Street Could Talk, proves that Moonlight, which won the “Best Picture” Oscar, was and is not a fluke.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 6 of 2021 (No. 1744) by Leroy Douresseaux

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

Running time:  119 minutes (1 hour, 59 minutes)

MPAA – R for language and some sexual content

DIRECTOR:  Barry Jenkins

WRITER:  Barry Jenkins (based on the novel by James Baldwin)

PRODUCERS:  Dede Gardner, Barry Jenkins, Jeremy Kleiner, Sara Murphy, and Adele Romanski

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  James Laxton

EDITORS:  Joi McMillon and Nat Sanders

COMPOSER:  Nicholas Britell

Academy Award winner

DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring:  KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo, Ethan Barrett, Melanni Mines, Ebony Obsidian, Dominique Thorne, Michael Beach, Aunjanue Ellis, Diego Luna, Emily Rios, Ed Skrein, Finn Wittrock, Brian Tyree Henry, Dave Franco, and Kaden Byrd

If Beale Street Could Talk is a 2018 American drama and romance film written and directed by Barry Jenkins.  The film is based on James Baldwin's 1974 novel, If Beale Street Could Talk.  The film follows the efforts of a young woman and her family as they try to prove the innocence of her lover after he is charged with a serious crime.

If Beale Street Could Talk introduces “Tish” Rivers (KiKi Layne) and Alonzo “Fonny” Hunt (Stephan James).  They have been friends their entire lives, and begin a romantic relationship when Tish is 19 and Fonny is 22.  They struggle to find a place to live because it is the early 1970s, and most New York City landlords refuse to rent apartments to black people.  Fonny, a young artist and sculptor, is later arrested and accused of raping a woman in an unlikely scenario.

It is afterwards that Tish announces to her parents, Sharon (Regina King) and Joseph Rivers (Colman Domingo), and to her sister, Ernestine (Teyonah Parris), that she is pregnant.  Not everyone in Fonny's family, however, is happy about the impending birth of a grandchild.  As the months drag on, Tish, Sharon, and the rest of the family realize that they will have to give an all-out effort in order to help Fonny's lawyer, Hayward (Finn Wittrock), free Fonny from a criminal justice system that will do anything to keep him behind bars.

I love the beautiful cinematography in If Beale Street Could Talk.  I think it does so much to sell the exquisite love story at the heart of this film, and If Beale Street Could Talk is a romantic movie.  It imagines love in the ruins of a society shackled by white racism and white supremacy.  In that way, director Barry Jenkins' film can literally talk to his audience about racism and oppression of black people while telling a poetic and expressionistic story of two young black people in love.

If Beale Street Could Talk is shaped by a number of excellent performances, with Regina King's Sharon Rivers as the port-in-the-storm for the tossed and turned ships in her immediate family and circle.  King is the sun queen, and in her warmth, KiKi Layne and Stephan James can grow and build their characters and their characters' love story into something that is so strong that it overcomes everything working against it.

In his Oscar-winning Moonlight, Jenkins told the story of gay boy growing into a man by taking the ordinary coming-of-age story and making it something extraordinary for the ages.  In If Beale Street Could Talk, Jenkins' racial drama is told as a timeless love story.  Perhaps, making a film set in the 1970s be timeless is most important, as the racism and oppression of then are not only symptoms of that time, but rather are also the breaths that this nation takes.

In the end, I am amazed by Barry Jenkins.  His film is about love and shows us love and is love.  Love, love, love:  I am overwhelmed.  If Beale Street Could Talk holds to the truths that Dr. Martin Luther King spoke on love (love's transforming powers).  Normally, I would feel anger after seeing a film like this, but in the end, Jenkins' fascinating aesthetic of love and Black Consciousness wins out.  This is why I am still trying to figure out which is the best film of 2018 – BlacKkKlansman or If Beale Street Could Talk?

10 out of 10

Tuesday, February 2, 2021


2019 Academy Awards, USA”  1 win for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: (Regina King); 2 nominations: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Score” (Nicholas Britell) and “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Barry Jenkins)

2019 Golden Globes, USA:  1 win for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Regina King); 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama” and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Barry Jenkins)

BAFTA Awards:  2 nominations: “Best Screenplay-Adapted” (Barry Jenkins) and “Original Music” (Nicholas Britell)

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#28DaysofBlack Review: All Black Cast is Glorious in "CARMEN JONES"

[For her performance as the title character in Carmen Jones, Dorothy Dandridge became the first African-American actress to be nominated for the “Academy Award for Best Actress.” Dandridge was also the first Black actor nominated for an Oscar in a leading role category, besting by four years Sidney Poitier, the first Black man nominated for “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (for 1958's The Defiant Ones). Dandridge was dead a little under 11 years after the release of Carmen Jones.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 5 of 2021 (No. 1743) by Leroy Douresseaux

Carmen Jones (1954)
Running time:  105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR:  Otto Preminger    
WRITERS: Harry Kleiner (screenplay); Oscar Hammerstein 2nd (lyrics and book); (based on the opera by Georges Bizet)
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Sam Leavitt (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Louis R. Loeffler    
COMPOSERS:  Herschel Burke Gilbert (musical director); Georges Bizet (original music)
Academy Award nominee

MUSICAL/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring:  Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, Pearl Bailey, Olga James, Joe Adams, Brock Peters, Roy Daniels, Nick Stewart, and Diahann Carroll

Carmen Jones is a 1954 American musical film produced and directed by Otto Preminger.  It is a film version of Oscar Hammerstein II's 1943 stage musical, Carmen Jones.  Hammerstein wrote the book (story) and lyrics to Carmen Jones and set them to the music of Georges Bizet's 1875 opera, Carmen.  However, Carmen Jones is a contemporary version of the Bizet opera, with new lyrics, and it features a lead cast of all African-American and black actors.

Carmen Jones is set during World War II.  The story opens as a young woman, Cindy Lou (Olga James), arrives at the “Parachute Division” of A.J. Gardner Manufacturing Corp. (apparently located in North Carolina), where U.S. Army soldiers provide security.  Cindy Lou is there to meet her betrothed, Corporal Joe (Harry Belafonte), a young soldier who is about to enter flight officers training school.  But Cindy Lou isn't the only young woman with her eye on Joe.

Carmen Jones (Dorothy Dandridge) is an employee at the parachute factory.  One of her fellow employees describes Carmen as a “hip-swinging floozie.”  She arrives late to work wearing a loud red skirt, and she shamelessly declares that he wants Joe – mainly because she is attracted to men who play hard to get with her.  Joe seems bound and determined to focus only on Cindy Lou, and, in fact, he wants to marry her right away.

However, after Carmen gets in a fight with another female employee, scheming Sgt. Brown (Brock Peters) orders Joe to take Carmen to a civilian jail in the town of Masonville, which is over fifty miles away from the parachute plant.  Fate and circumstance seemed bound and determined to bring Carmen Jones and Corporal Joe together, but the cards and the spirits seem to say they are bound for tragedy.

When it comes to Carmen Jones the musical film, I can take it or leave it.  Oh, I enjoyed it enough, and some of the songs actually tickles my senses.  For me, the joy of Carmen Jones is its magnificent cast.  It is a shame how things were for African-American actors and performers in film back in those days.  This cast includes actors who should have dominated their craft and profession.

When Dorothy Dandridge first appears as Carmen Jones, she cuts through this film like a red hot knife through butter, and it is not only because of the hot red skirt she wears, which could launch a thousand ships.  Her presence is glorious, and director Otto Preminger clearly makes her the center of the film – as if he had a choice.  Because Dandridge, who was a singer, did not sing opera, she does not sing in the film; her singing voice is dubbed by Marilyn Horne, but Dandrige's lip-syncing is so convincing that it is hard to believe that she is actually not singing.  I can see why she captured the imaginations of enough voters in the Academy Awards to earn a “Best Actress” Oscar nomination as Carmen.

That is saying something considering that Harry Belafonte as Joe throws off quite a bit of energy himself.  When he wants to, Belafonte moves about like a panther, all power and lightning.  Belafonte's name appears first onscreen among the performers, and he acquits himself very, very well.  Belafonte's singing voice is also dubbed (by LeVern Hutcherson), but he also does some powerful lip-syncing, probably because he is also a singer.

If there is another actress in Carmen Jones packing as much dynamite as Dandridge, it is Pearl Bailey as Frankie, one of Carmen's friends.  Wow!  I am almost without words to describe how mesmerizing Bailey is the moment.  When she sings “Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum (Gypsy Song),” Bailey pumps so much sexual heat into the film that I am surprised that scene did not get cut out by censors.

So I recommend Carmen Jones to anyone ready to see that an all-black cast can be magnetic on the screen.  They can be sexy and alluring and make you want to follow them on any adventure.  They can transport you to another world, and … they make Carmen Jones much more than it could have been.

8 of 10
A

Tuesday, February 2, 2021


NOTES:
1955 Academy Awards, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Dorothy Dandridge) and “Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture” (Herschel Burke Gilbert)

1955 Golden Globes, USA:  2 wins: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” and “Most Promising Newcomer – Male” (Joe Adams)

1956 BAFTA Awards:  2 nominations: “Best Film from any Source” (USA) and “Best Foreign Actress” (Dorothy Dandridge-USA)


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Review: "THE PRINCESS BRIDE" Still Storming the Castle

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 21 (of 2020) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review originally appeared on Patreon.]

The Princess Bride (1987)

Running time: 98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)

MPAA – PG

DIRECTOR:  Rob Reiner

WRITER:  William Goldman (based on the book by William Goldman)

PRODUCERS:  Rob Reiner and Andrew Scheinman

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Adrian Biddle

EDITOR:  Robert Leighton

COMPOSER:  Mark Knopfler

Academy Award nominee

FANTASY/ROMANCE/ADVENTURE/FAMILY

Starring:  Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, Andre the Giant, Fred Savage, Peter Falk, Carol Kane, and Billy Crystal

The Princess Bride is a 1987 fantasy-adventure and romantic film from director Rob Reiner.  The film is based on William Goldman's 1973 novel, The Princess Bride, for which Goldman wrote the screenplay adaptation.  2017 will mark the 30th anniversary of the film's release (October 9, 1987).  In The Princess Bride the film, a grandfather tells his grandson the story of a princess sought by two men who desire her – one a mysterious hero and the other a hateful prince.

The Princess Bride opens with a framing story in which The Grandfather (Peter Falk) reads a book, “The Princess Bride,” to The Grandson (Fred Savage), who is sick and relegated to his bed.  The story then travels from the present day of the Grandson's bedroom to the past of the Renaissance Era.  The place of arrival is a country named “Florin.”  There, we meet Buttercup (Robin Wright), a beautiful young woman, and Westley (Cary Elwes), the farmhand she loves to order around.  The truth is that Buttercup loves Westley, but one day, Westley leaves the farm to seek his fortune.

Later, Buttercup learns that Westley was on ship that was attacked by the Dread Pirate Roberts and is assumed dead.  The story moves ahead five years, and Buttercup has reluctantly agreed to marry Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon), Prince of Florin.  There are, however, conspiracies and conspirators afoot who stand in the way of that marriage.  This includes a Sicilian crime boss named Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), a giant named Fezzik (André the Giant), a Spanish master swordsman named Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin), and a mysterious man in black.

Recently, IDW Publishing sent me a copy-for-review of their adult coloring book based on The Prince Bride, entitled The Princess Bride: A Storybook to Color.  I decided that I finally needed to sit down and watch The Princes Bride, start to finish, in its entirety, which I had never done.  Why had I not done that before?  I don't know.  I have always been curious about the movie, and I even owned a copy of William Goldman's novel a long time ago (which I lost before I could read it).

I can describe The Princess Bride as a multi-genre movie.  It is part medieval fantasy, part storybook romance, and part swashbuckling adventure (quietly and gently adventurous).  And the result is a damn fine movie.  I don't know what makes it work, but I think director Rob Reiner has a lot to do with that.  His directorial pace and mood suggests that he wanted this movie to be a storybook tale that found comedy in the elements of fairy tales and fantasy, but without mocking and parodying them.  Also, I think William Goldman's screenplay builds the characters using quirks and eccentricities so that he can poke fun at the players rather than at the genres that are their field of play.

The resulting film is an utterly delightful and a truly unique cinematic gem.  I don't think Reiner could get The Princess Bride made today, not without pumping it full of intense action and making extensive use of computer-generated imagery (CGI).  If made today, even the film's photography would be heavily altered and enhanced through the use of software.

The Princess Bride is essentially a “hand-made” movie, and somehow the talent involved in this film made magic.  I bet they did not realize that until they saw the finished film.  If you have not yet seen The Princess Bride, it is time for you to realize the magic, too.

9 of 10
A+

Sunday, January 22, 2017

NOTES:
1988 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Music, Original Song” (Willy DeVille for the song "Storybook Love")

The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: Amy Schumer Shows Her Brilliance in "Trainwreck"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 10 (of 2016) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Trainwreck (2015)
Running time:  125 minutes (2 hours, 5 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong sexual content, nudity, language and some drug use
DIRECTOR:  Judd Apatow
WRITER:  Amy Schumer
PRODUCERS:  Judd Apatow and Barry Mendel
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Jody Lee Lipes
EDITORS:  William Kerr, Peck Prior, and Paul Zucker
COMPOSER:  Jon Brion

COMEDY/ROMANCE

Starring:  Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Tilda Swinton, Brie Larson, Mike Birbiglia, Evan Brinkman, LeBron James, Amar'e Stoudemire, Colin Quinn, John Cena, Dave Attell, Vanessa Bayer, Randall Park, Jon Glaser, Ezra Miller, Norman Lloyd, Cliff “Method Man” Smith, Matthew Broderick, Leslie Jones, Marisa Tomei, and Daniel Radcliffe

Trainwreck is a 2015 comedy and romance directed by Judd Apatow and written by and starring Amy Schumer.  The film focuses on a woman who prefers sexual encounters instead of committed relations and who then meets the kind of good guy that she cannot simply leave.

Amy Townsend (Amy Schumer) is a party girl who drinks too much, smokes weed, and sleeps around with other guys, even when she has a boyfriend, as her current boyfriend, the muscle-bound gym-addict, Steven (John Cena), is about to discover.  Amy learned her promiscuous ways from her father, Gordon Townsend (Colin Quinn), who once told her that monogamy is not realistic.   Strangely, Amy's sister, Kim (Brie Larson), is doing just fine with her boyfriend, Tom (Mike Birbiglia), and she is even more of a mother than a stepmother to Tom's son, Allister (Evan Brinkman).

Amy writes for a raunchy men's magazine, “Snuff.”  Her boss, Dianna (Tilda Swinton), assigns her to write an article about a sports doctor named Aaron Conner (Bill Hader).  After Aaron helps her with a family matter, Amy feels a bond with him and even has sex with him.  However, Aaron sees that as the beginning of a romance, while Amy sees the sex as a one-night stand.  Amy tries to find a way to avoid monogamy, even when part of her starts to believe that Aaron could be the good guy she needs to keep.

If you like Amy Schumer (and I do), you will like Trainwreck (and I do – for the most part).  As a romantic comedy, however, the film really doesn't work.  Bill Hader is a comedian and a professional impersonator (at which he is quite good), but he has no business trying to be a romantic lead.  There is nothing remotely interesting about him in this film; he delivers what is almost a zombie performance.

I really don't buy Schumer as a romantic lead or as a magazine writer.  Schumer is at her best when she is skewering social, sexual, and gender conventions.  The character Amy Townsend is at her best when she is being a one-night stand or is mocking other people's ambitions of respectability.  When actress Amy tries to make fictional Amy fall in love... well, it's a trainwreck.

Tilda Swinton gives a killer performance as Amy's despicable boss, Dianna.  Swinton can disappear behind even the least amount of movie make-up and hair with the best of them.  John Cena delivers a sparkling two-scene performance as Steven.  Every time Colin Quinn is on screen as Amy's father, Gordon, he is a delight to see.  Director Judd Apatow does not do much here, except get out of Amy Schumer's way, which works when it works, but he does nothing to save the last third of this film which is a... trainwreck.

Still, for most of this movie, Amy Schumer proves why she is currently an it-girl.  She is brilliant when she is at the top of her game, and in Trainwreck, she occasionally shows off her brilliance.

6 of 10
B

Friday, January 8, 2016

Edited: Tuesday, April 26, 2016

NOTES:
2016 Golden Globes, USA:  2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” (Amy Schumer)


The text is copyright © 2016 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Just One of the Guys" Not Just Another Teen Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 3 (of 2016) by Leroy Douresseaux

[A version of this review originally appeared on Patreon.]

Just One of the Guys (1985)
Running time:  90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13
DIRECTOR:  Lisa Gottlieb
WRITERS:  Dennis Feldman and Jeff Franklin; from a story by Dennis Feldman
PRODUCER:  Andrew Fogelson
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  John McPherson (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Tony Lombardo
COMPOSER:  Tom Scott

COMEDY/ROMANCE

Starring:  Joyce Hyser, Clayton Rohner, Billy Jayne, Toni Hudson, William Zabka, Leigh McCloskey, Sherilyn Fenn, Deborah Goodrich, Ayre Gross, Robert Fieldsteel, Stuart Charno, John Apicella, Kenneth Tigar, Richard Blake, and Tony Brock and Jay Davis

Just One of the Guys is a 1985 comedy and high school romance from director Lisa Gottlieb and writers Dennis Feldman and Jeff Franklin.  The film focuses on a popular and attractive high school student who disguises herself as a teen boy in order to win a high school journalism contest.

Just One of the Guys introduces high school student, Terry Griffith (Joyce Hyser), of Phoenix, Arizona.  She has it all:  the looks, the popularity, and a college boyfriend who is quite the hunk.  Terry is also an aspiring teenage journalist, but her male teachers at Edwina Pearl High School don't take her newspaper articles seriously, mostly because she is a girl.  In fact, her journalism teacher, Mr. Raymaker (Kenneth Tigar), has chosen articles written by two male students to be entered in a contest that will land one student a summer internship at the Sun-Tribune.

So Terry comes up with an idea that will help her write an article that will earn her respect and hopefully win that summer internship.  With the help of her horny, little brother, Buddy (Billy Jacoby), and her lovelorn best friend, Denise (Toni Hudson), Terry disguises herself as a teen boy and enrolls in rival Sturgis-Wilder High School.  As a student at this new high school, Terry is sure that she can write an article about high school boys as secretly observed by a girl undercover as a boy.  Her mission goes awry when she meets handsome nerd, Rick Morehouse (Clayton Rohner).  Rick becomes her pet project, as she tries to give him a makeover and get him a date to the prom.  But Terry starts to fall in love with Rick.

I pretty much ignored 1980s teen movies that revolve around high school romance, and I had never even heard of Just One of the Guys.  However, a few weeks ago, I found an article on the Yahoo Movies website (https://www.yahoo.com/movies/are-those-what-i-think-they-are-a-revealing-175211213.html) about the 1985 film.  It turns out that 2015 is the 30th anniversary of the film's initial release (specifically April 26, 1985).  Apparently, Just One of the Guys is fondly remembered and has fanbase and something of a cult-following.  In fact, the magazine Entertainment Weekly once included Just One of the Guys in its listing of the “50 Best High School Movies” (at #48).

After reading a few paragraphs of the Yahoo article, I decided to rent Just One of the Guys from Netflix.  I enjoyed the film so much that it once again reminded me that Netflix is essential to my life as a movie-lover.  I won't call it a great movie, but Just One of The Guys is quite good and shouldn't be lost to history.

Just One of the Guys is a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's comedy, Twelfth Night, which also inspired the 2006 high school comedy, She's the Man.  You don't need to have seen Shakespeare's play in order to enjoy this film.  All you need is the ability to sympathize with Terry Griffith and to see things from her point of view.  As Terry, Joyce Hyser gives a natural performance that sells the absurdity of her role and this movie's conceit.  I found myself willingly suspending disbelief because Hyser made me believe in Terry, her motivations, her plan, and her character.  In the way that Dustin Hoffman made Tootsie worthy of the audience suspension of disbelief, Hyser makes us want to latch onto Terry and buy into the entire act.

I can see why Just One of the Guys has a devoted following after three decades, and is apparently still winning new fans.  It is not a sparkling high school idyll, cool and slick, like those 1980s John Hughes films.  The earthy Just One of the Guys mines comedy gold in the minefield of high school society and in the lives of high school age young people.  It does not romanticize high school, not when it can love the high school years while simultaneously skewering it.  No high school movie list is complete without the surprising Just One of the Guys.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, November 14, 2015


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