Home May Be Where The Heart Is … But Where, Exactly, Is Home?
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.
Stage Mother (Thom Fitzgerald) rated R
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): Amidst raging wildfires, unhealthy air, COVID-19, and the Republican Convention this week it’s barely safe to go outside here right now so it’s no surprise CA cinemas (except some drive-ins) remain closed while I’m still streaming on your behalf, this time with a couple of movies that have some direct appeal for me, even as the OCCU didn’t have much use for my first pick although they switched to being the CCAL for my next one (yet the Rotten Tomatoes audience score was only 58% based on 36 responses while the Metacritic audience was more supportive [as best I can understand their point system], 4.8 of 6 [?], but that’s based on only 5 people so there’s not much to celebrate statistically here). Stage Mother appeals to me because it focuses on a conservative woman who leaves her small Texas town for San Francisco to inherent a drag club owned by her now-deceased-young-adult-son, bringing scorn from her disgusted husband as well as the son’s partner/lover who’s disgusted over how Ricky’s parents essentially disowned him for 10 years as well as how his livelihood, residence, life in general will disappear/be diminished if Mom simply sells the place; fortunately for all concerned she makes a sympathetic turn toward the club hoping to improve its attraction, boost its clientele. While I have no direct connection with conservative Texas Christianity (I was about as liberal and agnostic as you can get by the time I left that state in 1984) or gay nightclubs (I don’t even live in SF, although I’m just across the bay), I’m easily heartened by a story of a Texan who comes to northern California, embraces a new worldview.
Also, in the Short Takes section I’ll offer comments on I Used To Go Here about a not-quite-so-young-anymore-woman trying to make a career as a novelist but her first book’s not selling well, her fiancée’s gone, so she accepts an invitation from her former creative writing professor to return to her undergrad campus for a reading where she finds herself involved in all sorts of intrigue unlike what she’d known in her previous time there. While I’ve never been invited to do anything for my alma mater, U. of Texas at Austin, except donate to alumni causes, this premise is still intriguing for me given how I’ve lived most of my professional life in higher ed, not always avoiding the situation Kate’s prof has gotten into (now that I’m retired maybe I’ll reveal more a little bit later). Both movies are available on several platforms; for convenience I chose Amazon Prime where the former’s $5.99 for rental, the latter’s $6.99. Additionally in that section I’ll offer suggestions for some choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, tedious software!) along with my standard options of industry-related-trivia.
Here’s the trailer for Stage Mother:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate
that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: Maybelline Metcalfe’s (Jacki Weaver) a choir director in a Protestant church in a small, conservative (what else?) town, Red Vine, somewhere in Texas (in this movie, not in reality; when I lived there, though, I wondered at times how much reality there was in the state itself); she and husband Jeb (Hugh Thompson) disowned their gay son, Ricky (Eldon Thiele), 10 years ago so the young man moved to San Francisco (where else?), owns a drag club, Pandora’s Box, also performs in it until he suddenly collapses on stage one night, dead. When informed of their son’s demise Mom’s heartbroken, Dad still wants nothing to do with him, leaving Maybelline to head west by herself for the funeral. Once there, however, she walks out of the service when the preacher starts extolling Ricky’s super-gayness intended as praise for the deceased, yet it’s just too much for Maybelline who never could understand or accept her son’s gender-orientation. She finds a friendly ear from Ricky’s best friend, Sienna (Lucy Liu), whose baby’s also named Ricky but not because Maybelline’s boy was the father. She gets a more hostile reception, though, from Ricky’s lover/club manager, Nathan (Adrian Grenier), upset about how isolated Ricky was from his family for all those years, further incensed Ricky left the nightclub to his parents with Mom’s first inclination being to sell it. (Adding a sense of insult to injury, Ricky and Nathan never married as the ostracized son was hoping Mom would accept him first, so Nathan’s now about to be evicted from his apartment as well.)
However, when she goes to get a sense of the place Maybelline immediately (despite no sense of connection with the club, its performers, or its patrons) shifts her attention to helping the employees revive the sagging attendance, convincing the main trio of performers—Cherry (Mya Taylor), Tequila Mockingbird (Oscar Moreno), Joan of Arkansas (Allister MacDonald)—to sing live with help from this experienced choir director (Anybody get a sense of a bit of an overlap here from Sister Act [Emile Ardolino, 1992]? At least we’re in a different neighborhood from Whoopi Goldberg’s church.) instead of lip-synching to popular songs. This results in an almost-instant-turnaround in the club’s finances (not unlike Maybelline’s quick shift toward acceptance of a culture about as foreign to her as one from central Asia), attention toward Maybelline from maybe the only straight patron of the place, hotel-concierge August (Anthony Skordi)—a Texan-transplant (but no other sort of trans)—along with a slowly-warming attitude from Nathan. As if she weren’t successful enough already with the club-improvement Maybelline also proves herself to be a useful mother-confessor/acquaintance-protector, helping the club’s singers with their various personal problems, even pulling a gun at one point (well, she is from Texas after all) on one male creep who hassles Pandora’s former hostess, Dusty Muffin (Jackie Beat [Ken Fuhur]), who'd served as Ricky’s “drag mother” when he arrived in San Francisco.
Maybelline’s successful in broadening the club’s appeal, bringing in curious tourists especially to hear a number about not bothering with waiting for “Mr. Right” but instead connecting with “Mr. Right Now” (evoking another past reminder for me, this time from yet-another-Texan: Stephen Stills’ song "Love the One You're With" [live 2000 version, joined by Crosby, Nash, and Young at Farm Aid during one of those rare times when they were all still talking to each other], but that’s just an aside, not a Musical Metaphor for this movie; however, you can find it on his 1970 album named for the song if you like). Jeb keeps trying to make contact but Maybelline won’t take his calls, preferring to push forward for the moment with Pandora’s Box rather than likely be ordered to return home when she has more-pressing-interpersonal-tasks to deal with including helping Joan break her drug habit (in response to how no one tried to pull Ricky back from his brink). ⇒By now Jeb’s waited long enough so he comes to SF to retrieve his wife, wants to just sell the bar and be done with the whole scene, but ultimately he goes along with Maybelline giving it to Nathan for 20% of the ongoing profits. She then returns to Texas with Jeb but finally puts a photo of Ricky on their mantelpiece which still makes Dad uncomfortable, so ultimately she returns to Tony Bennett’s “city by the bay,” even joins the show by singing at Pandora’s Box a rousing rendition of "Total Eclipse of the Heart"; no, still not the official Musical Metaphor (just doesn’t seem appropriate for the overall upbeat arc of this movie, kind of makes for an odd finale also; I guess it’s intended to acknowledge all the pain and loss these various Pandora’s characters have experienced, ultimately overcome, in their challenged-lives, captured in Weaver’s spirited rendition—I can’t give you that one so you’ll just have to make do with Bonnie Tyler’s version—from her 1983 Faster Than the Speed of Light album—live from 2019, evocative of the flamboyant display you’d see in Stage Mother).⇐ An actual Musical Metaphor will appear in this review, though, I promise, soon as I can conjure up something even more appropriate.
So What? Despite the geographic locations of this story in (somewhere) Texas and northern California it’s actually shot in Nova Scotia, Canada (with some authentic opening imagery from the gay-heavy Castro district in SF), yet manages to properly give a sense of both script-indicated-locations to me who’s spent about 35 years apiece in both locations (lived/traveled all over the Lone Star State; never actually lived in SF but dwelled in various Bay Area locations, visited The City [as it’s known locally, never as Frisco] countless times). What doesn’t feel as authentic to me, though, is how quickly Maybelline shifts from seemingly-homophobic-Mom to gay-den-Mom almost overnight, despite how much I’m sure she secretly loved her son (even while living with Jeb’s unwavering hostility). When I think of how my mother, my grandmothers, both of my aunts (all native Texans) would have reacted if I‘d been like Ricky, I just can’t see such immediate acceptance let alone immersion in the main public arena of her son’s lifestyle; I’m not saying all of them wouldn’t have come around eventually (not necessarily saying they would have either), but so quickly, just to keep a drag club open, is quite a stretch despite how Maybelline's presented with a heart as big as Texas.
But, that initial concern aside, I was very taken with Weaver’s performance, became willing to suspend my disbelief as her character showed such genuine concern for bettering the lives of her son’s companions, so my next problem comes with the OCCU’s harsh rejection of Stage Mother (more details in the next section of this review—any trick I can think of to keep you reading) so I turned to a couple of them I thought might have reasons for affinity with this story based on their CA locations (with active LGBTQ communities) and female identities, finding at best a level of hesitant-tolerance missing from many other reviews. The closest writer to the action of the depicted-narrative is Anita Katz of the San Francisco Examiner who ultimately dismisses what she sees: “[…] we’re willing to follow this woman wherever the screenplay takes her. [¶] Unfortunately, though, those places often defy believability, and the predictability of the plot and the underdevelopment of the characters further weaken the story. The film lacks the emotional resonance of upbeat culture-clash fare like the British film ‘Pride’ or, as San Francisco stories go, a distinctive personality, ‘Tales of the City’ style. [¶] As she almost magically brightens one life after another, Maybelline is less Mary Ann than Mary Poppins. She’s almost otherworldly. That’s watchable, thanks to Weaver, but a less perfect, more deeply human heroine would have more satisfyingly embodied Fitzgerald’s message of acceptance and compassion.” I understand her point, but I still found Maybelline’s transformation (including with her newfound trans friends) to be something I’ll really hope to see more of in real life.
However, when I traveled south in my adopted state for opinions I found a bit more acceptance from Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter: “Like many a stage mother, Thom Fitzgerald's comic drama is pushy. It tries too hard, in all too obvious ways, to win over the audience. But its optimistic, ultra-schematic story is an olive branch of sorts between Southern Baptist suburbia and San Francisco gaytopia — and who couldn't use an olive branch these days, or a shot of optimism? [… ¶ …] Jacki Weaver is luminous and affecting as a bereaved mother who becomes an absurdly effective catalyst in the lives of her late son's friends. And the central trio of drag performers are terrific, onstage and off. Stage Mother could prove a crowd-pleaser for audiences who are willing to overlook its clunkiness.” Yet for me, straight old White guy that I am (who, nevertheless, believes Black Lives Matter—eventually, I’ll accept All Lives Matter but only when vast numbers of the undervalued, underpaid, underfed, underacknowledged in our society are given the same respect, opportunities, and love so many in the White Establishment have enjoyed for so long), I didn’t find all that much clunkiness here (surely, I’d be considered not as “woke” as I need to be by those who’d disagree), so, stereotypical man that I am, I turned further to another California guy (from LA, as with Linden), Dennis Harvey of Variety who manages to better clarify what I’m trying to understand, reviewing this film as best I could have hoped to: “But the script mostly defines characters by their dysfunctions, which somehow only a sweet li’l old Texas lady’s folksy wisdoms (and occasional gun-waving) can magically cure. The film inadvertently revives the old-school notion that LGBT folk are outwardly ‘flamboyant’ yet inwardly lonely souls crippled by substance abuse, lack of parental love and self-acceptance, etc. Even pleasingly crass cis [straight] Sienna turns out to be a hot mess of insecurities in need of a Lone Star mom’s healing gumption. There’s a whole lot of twinkle-eyed overnight problem solving and thankful hugs in the last reel here. […] There’s much about ‘Stage Mother’ that’s slightly stale, but like yesterday’s donut, the icing on top makes it both look inviting and go down easily enough.” OK, I admit, any mention of donuts probably gives me a favorable take on that review, but I do like how he presents his argument (as I did with the 2 other reviews just above).
When you put all of this together you’d probably think I should have dropped my rating down a notch to just 3 stars but I’m still swayed enough, both by Weaver’s performance and screenwriter Bard Henning’s (another small-town Texan, now happily residing in SF) “glasnost” (look it up if you must, although some would likely consider its concept to be as dated as Stage Mother’s worldview) intentions to be a bit more supportive than those OCCU folks. You can also find praise for this narrative from one of its cast, transgender Mya Taylor—most famous for her work in Tangerine (Sean Baker, 2015; review in our July 31, 2015 posting [donuts are featured there also])—who’s able to speak more directly about the goals and impact of this movie than I ever could (you can see her conversation as the second item connected to ... Mother in the Related Links section farther below).
Bottom Line Final Comments: OK, here are those OCCU numbers I previously alluded to: Rotten Tomatoes could muster up only 58% positive reviews while those at Metacritic come in with their customary response even lower, a 41% average score. In scanning through some of these I find the chief complaints mostly echo what the 3 reviews I’ve cited above had to say, that the SF LGBTQ community (and, by extension, all like it) is presented in a too-simplistic, retrograde manner with fundamentally-flawed-characters who need a motherly, White, cis savior to bring themselves (along with their new mentor herself) into a condition of better self-acceptance, life-control, joy in existence. Well, as this story goes, that’s true enough but such a narrative could also have been constructed around Silicon Valley high-tech-workers or aspiring-NYC-stockbrokers or any other group where personal anxiety, social fragility, economic uncertainty can mask what appears on the surface to be a celebrated, healthy lifestyle fraught with hidden fears, individual failures, even angry-ostracization by others outside their enclaves for too being too financially successful (although that part’s certainly not the case for the Pandora’s Box crowd). On the other (most important) hand, the trope of downtrodden LGBTQ characters may be tiresome to some audiences who’d otherwise want to appreciate the “come together” (however you may want to interpret that phrase) attitude of this movie because they’re tired of such a long cinematic tradition of gender nonconformists—especially gay men, but also lesbians, trans-folks, others—being treated as deviant, desperate, or dangerous (if you need more background on this see The Celluloid Closet [Rob Epstein and Jeffery Friedman, 1996] because for every La Cage au Folles [Édouard Molinaro, 1978; remade as The Birdcage by Mike Nichols in 1996] that attempts to celebrate gender diversity there are just as many or more such as Boys Don’t Cry [Kimberly Peirce, 1999] that chronicle its difficult, often deadly, resistance). In truth, there’s no nonconformity at all here (except in the minds of homophobes like Jeb who are quick to “other-ize” anything/anyone threating the fragile security of their learned-identities), a point Stage Mother’s ultimately trying to make despite how its optimistic message (as well as admittedly fictional plot, considering what so many LGBTQ people are still up against even with growing legal acceptance) may feel like too many spoonfuls of sugar (still tasty, though, for me).
Still, when I see daily documentation of how divided this country has become, first in entrenched resistance to a long-denied Black leader in charge of our government from 2008-2016, then in the staunch embrace of an antagonistic White one who claims to be open to “fine people on both sides” but only seems able to truly accept the QAnon-types and dirty dealers who flaunt law, tradition, and decency, I can’t help but be buoyed a bit by something as openly hopeful as Stage Mother, so think carefully if such a story (in its contents as well as its intentions) might be attractive to you (even with such possible flaws as I’ve noted above) and, if so, look over the various options of how you can stream it at JustWatch where it’s cheap to rent (Nina and I are already hooked up with Amazon Prime so we chose that option for a $5.99 rental, but several other platforms also have the same price for the HD version). That’s about all I can find to say right now about this movie so let’s wrap up with that long-ago-promised-Musical Metaphor; however, because I earlier gave you 2 songs that weren’t even intended as Metaphors I think you deserve 2 that are official ones, in recognition of competing attitudes in this story which reflect similar competing values in our troubled society today.
So, I’ll start with Jeb, or at least a version of those like him who might try to see things from a different viewpoint but ultimately can’t make the leap, by using Paul Simon’s “Slip Slidin’ Away” (from his 1977 Greatest Hits, Etc. album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC-ZaUDUiwc (live from 2012) to cite “[...] a father Who had a son He longed to tell him all the reasons For the things he’d done He came a long way Just to explain He kissed his boy as he lay sleeping Then he turned around and headed home again,” even though you don’t have to modify the situation behind these lyrics at all when referring to Maybelline: “I know a woman Became a wife These are the very words she uses to describe her life She said a good day Ain’t got no rain She said a bad day’s when I lie in bed And think of things that might have been.” On a more positive (or saccharin, depending on how you see it in this context) note, I’ll offer you Graham Nash’s “Teach Your Children” (from the CSN&Y 1970 Déjà Vu album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLoX5_CjC2c (live at the Oakland Arena in 1988 [joined by Tracy Chapman] because I might have been there, not sure as time plays tricks with memories [but, as they thank their audience, I thank you for reading my reviews]) in hopes that somehow, someday, someway “the past [will be] just a good-bye” where children and parents will be taught well even if we have to learn to “[never] ask them why, if they told you, you will cry So just look at them and sign and know they love you.” That’s what everyone associated with Stage Mother is hoping for, even if those of us who respond well to it are just fed on our dreams as we try to find “a code that [we] can live by.” All of us have hell that needs to “slowly go by,” but we’ve got to find ways to help it leave; maybe voting, however you’re able to, next November can be a useful step forward.
SHORT TAKES (spoilers also appear here)
I Used to Go Here (Kris Rey) Not Rated
Kate’s a woman 15 years removed from her undergrad college days facing some problems—her first novel’s not selling well, her fiancée’s broken up with her—when she gets a offer from her former writing teacher to come back to her college as a guest speaker; however, once there she falls into familiar old habits while discovering secrets that challenge her sense of propriety.
Here’s the trailer:
Before reading further, please refer to the plot spoilers warning detailed far above.
Kate Conklin (Gillian Jacobs) graduated from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (director’s alma mater) 15 years ago; now she’s living in Chicago, trying to succeed as an author especially as her personal life’s in turmoil due to a breakup with fiancée Michael (we see some Instagram photos of him on her phone, but he’s not really a cast-list-presence); however, her first novel, Seasons Past, isn’t selling well so her publisher’s cancelled her book tour leaving her with little else than trying to be supportive of 3 of her friends, all pregnant. Into this gloom comes a sunny break when her former creative-writing-professor, David Kirkpatrick (Jemaine Clement), invites her back to SIU for a reading from her book/meeting with some of his current students. She eagerly accepts, travels downstate, is put up in a B&B right across the street from the Writers Retreat co-op where she used to live (she even named the place) but gets off on the wrong foot with stern B&B manager Mrs. Beeter (Cindy Gold), who advises her to wear her key around her neck as it’s the only one she’ll get (David makes a joke about it so she hides it in her purse, later can’t find it, gets more grief from the proprietor). The reading goes well, followed by a drink with David who brings his wife, Alexis (Kristina Valada-Viars); she's underwhelmed with Kate's book, seems aloof with Kate, probably because she’s aware of some attraction on David's part to his former student (which Kate’s picking up on as well, even though way back when he first came to SIU just out of grad school, not all that much older than Kate, he resisted her advances in respect for campus rules about non-fraternization with students; he seems more casual toward that now), even offering her a lectureship for the upcoming fall semester.
When attending David’s class, Kate hears a brief reading from a class assignment by April (Hannah Marks), quite compelling, although she's aloof as well. Things move along casually for Kate, running into an old classmate, Brad Cooper (Jorma Taccone), so she has a beer with him (He admits he used to jerk off thinking of her; how’s that for sharing?) but he also brings a mate, Rachel (Kate Micucci), who loses herself kissing Brad as Kate’s trying to claim, in her more-adult-perspective, life is “restrained.” Kate also ends up a keg party at the co-op, meets some of the residents, finds those photos of Michael on her phone with a new girlfriend, gets depressed (even though she never really wanted to be engaged to him but took it hard when he called it off), spends the night at the co-op (lost her new B&B key too), goes to the lake the next day with Hugo (Josh Wiggins), Animal (Forrest Goodluck), Emma (Khloe Janel), and Tall Brandon (Brandon Daley) until she’s rushed back to a bookstore to meet with April, so convinced of her abilities she wants to establish her very own press.
⇒Later, chatter among these new friends leads them to believe David’s having an affair with April (Alexis is in Kentucky, visiting her sister)—Hugo’s upset because he’s dating April, has seen her at David’s house right across the backyard from his Mom—so they all sneak over to David’s house that night to catch them in the act, which they do (although Brandon doesn’t make it over the fence, ends up watching TV with Mom [Jennifer Joan Taylor]). David explains to Kate the “unique” nature of his marriage, as Alexis is actually in Kentucky with her ex-husband, whereupon she turns down his job offer, goes back to the co-op, has sex with Hugo, runs into April next morning as they exchange jabs about hypocrisy even as Kate admits her book sucks and she admires April’s writing, hopes to improve; Kate finally has a nice breakfast at her B&B, gets a call from Chicago friend (former classmate) Laura (Zoë Chao) who’s close to delivery, husband’s out of town, needs Kate back in Chicago quickly so away she goes, leaving all connections to SIU behind.⇐ There’s quite a lot of pleasant humor here as well as the standard lesson about not being able to go “home” (wherever, whatever that may be) again, with the CCAL being notably more impressed than me: RT has 85% positive reviews, MC with their more-supportive-range this time of a 68% average score. I liked it, I just didn’t find it going anywhere particular except for some occasionally witty exchanges among various characters. (As for my own admissions, hinted at many paragraphs ago, I can’t be too critical of David because in my younger college prof days I also had a few affairs with students—one of which dragged on for years, far beyond its “use by” date—which was wrong, probably [rightfully] cost me my first tenure-track-job [got me out of Dallas, though, thank God], taught me to refrain from ever doing so again, helped me keep my focus for 26 years at Mills College in Oakland as well as in my marriage of 30 years [and counting] to Nina Kindblad, too marvelous to ever consider fooling around on nor have I ever wanted to.) In her interview in Related Links director Rey notes there’s personal stuff here which I can relate to overall, think potential viewers would find useful whimsy while considering this a good $6.99 investment (also available on many platforms; we chose Prime).
I’ll close out this review with the Musical Metaphor of “My Back Pages” (from the 1964 Another Side of Bob Dylan) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_Df39PjkwA (a 1992 live performance where Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Dylan, and George Harrison each sing a verse, along with guitar solos by Clapton and Young; lyrics below the YouTube screen if you want to join in with them) due to my sense Kate found some of this wisdom in that trip back to her former life: “A self-ordained professor’s tongue too serious to fool Spouted out that liberty is just equality in school […] In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand at the mongrel dogs who teach Fearing not that I’d become my enemy in the instant that I preach My existence led by confusion boats, mutiny from stern to bow Ah, but I was so much order then, I’m younger than that now.” Even while still an undergrad myself in 1966 I bought all of Dylan’s albums up to that point, was particularly taken by this song which helped me overcome some of my own know-it-all-pomposity (not often enough), continues to be a useful lesson in humility I think Kate, but not yet David, is coming around to grasp.
Suggestions for TCM cablecasts
At least until the pandemic subsides Two Guys also want to encourage you to consider movies you might be interested in that don’t require subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, similar Internet platforms (we may well be stuck inside for longer than those 30-day-free-initial-offers), or premium-tier-cable-TV-fees. While there are a good number of video networks offering movies of various sorts (mostly broken up by commercials), one dependable source of fine cinematic programming is Turner Classic Movies (available in lots of basic-cable-packages) so I’ll be offering suggestions of possible choices for you running from Thursday afternoon of the current week (I usually get this blog posted by early Thursday mornings) on through Thursday morning of the following week. All times are U.S. Eastern Daylight so if you see something of interest please verify actual show time in your area for the day listed. These recommendations are my particular favorites (no matter when they’re on, although some of those early-day-ones might need to be recorded, watched later), but there’s considerably more to pick from you might like better; feel free to explore their entire schedule here. You can also click on that + sign at the right of each listing to get additional, useful info.
Thursday August 27, 2020
8:00 PM It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934) Hailed, sometimes as origin of screwball comedy, as a desperate-reporter (Clark Gable) chases a big story when an heiress (Claudette Colbert) elopes (Dad’s mad), then disappears until Gable encounters her. 1 of 3 (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest [1975], The Silence of the Lambs [1991]) ever to win the top 5 Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Actor (Gable), Actress (Colbert), and Screenplay, Adapted in this case (Robert Riskin).
Saturday August 29, 2020
12:00 AM Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) Do you really need to know what this one’s about?
If so, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre are “looking at you, kid,” to watch it! (This one truly defines what I consider to be a 5 stars-“classic,” celebrated for decades as a story of hope, patriotism, and
making the right decision when romance conflicts with greater needs in the early years of WW II.)
6:00 PM On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954) Deserving winner of 8 Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Actor (Marlon Brando), Supporting Actress (Eva Marie Saint). A mob/union boss (Lee J. Cobb) runs the waterfront but a sub-honcho’s (Rod Steiger) in trouble because his brother’s (Brando) witnessed a killing, is being pressured to testify by a priest (Karl Malden). Contains the famous “I coulda been a contenda” scene between Brando and Steiger during a testy cab ride.
8:00 PM North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) One of Hitchcock’s top achievements (that’s saying a lot) about a case of mistaken-identity gone terribly wrong as ad executive Roger Thornhill (Gary Grant) is thought to be a U.S. spy, hunted by thugs working for a foreign agent (James Mason). A marvelous collage of great scenes including the crop-duster-in-the-cornfield; also stars Eve Marie Saint, Leo G. Carroll, Martin Landau providing a great combination of tension and laughs.
Sunday August 30, 2020
4:00 PM Ben-Hur (William Wyler, 1959) A Jewish prince (Charlton Heston!) runs afoul of his childhood friend Messala (Steven Boyd), now a Roman tribune, who wrongly condemns noble Judah to slavery; from here it’s all about the long road back for Judah, culminating in a magnificent chariot race, all during the time of Christ. Won 11 Oscars from 12 nominations (only Titanic [1998], The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King [2004] have also won that many): Best Picture, Director, Actor (Heston), Supporting Actor (Hugh Griffith), Film Editing, Music Scoring, Sound Recording, Special Effects, Art Direction-Set Decoration, Cinematography, Costume Design (the last 3 for color films).
4:00 PM Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958) After Citizen Kane (1941), I consider this Welles' best work; he plays a corrupt U.S. sheriff on the porous USA/Mexico border, making trouble for a Mexican detective (Charlton Heston!) and his new bride (Janet Leigh) as Heston’s determined to hold Hank Quinlan responsible for his crimes, ultimately with the aid of a long-time associate (Joseph Calleia). Marlene Dietrich has a small role but delivers a zinger final line. It seems TCM has the 1998 re-edit (111 min.) based on Welles’ notes, not the atrocious studio cut (95 min.) with credits mucking up a magnificent 3-min. opening traveling shot; the re-edited version is how I define a 5 stars-rated-film.
Tuesday September 1, 2020
3:45 PM Dial M for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) A perennial favorite on stage brought to screen; famed tennis player Ray Milland sets up an accomplice to terminate wife Grace Kelly yet she kills the assailant instead in self-defense, then is set up by her husband to be convicted of murder, but … . This comes within a full morning/afternoon of Hitchcock hits on TCM starting at 6:00 AM that day.
Wednesday September 2, 2020
3:30 AM Seven Beauties (Lina Wertmüller, 1975) Set before/during WW II, this story follows the adventures of Pasqualino (Giancarlo Giannini), a small-time Naples hood in jail, a psych ward, the Italian army, a German concentration camp, all due to family dishonorment because of prostitution. Helmed by a German-named Italian director, she’s the first woman nominated for a Best Director Oscar (didn’t win as it was the year of a big sweep by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest); subtitles!
Thursday September 3, 2020
1:00 AM Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972) An 8-Oscar winner: Best Director, Actress (Liza Minnelli), Supporting Actor (Joel Grey), Art Direction, Sound, Score Adaptation and Original Song Score, Cinematography, Film Editing (I’d say close call on these last 2 with The Godfather which won Best Picture [yes!]). A great film, best musical of all-time for me, set in 1931 Berlin with an American performer and an English academic in love, Nazis on the rise, notable differences from the play.
If you’d like your own PDF of ratings/summaries of this week's reviews, suggestions for TCM cablecasts, links to Two Guys info click this link to access then save, print, or whatever you need.
Other Cinema-Related Stuff: This week I've found just a few items of possible interest: (1) The Batman set for October 2021; (2) Slow, steady reopening of domestic theaters. Then, as usual in these times, I’ll finish this (skimpier than usual) section with Joni Mitchell’s "Big Yellow Taxi" (from her 1970 Ladies of the Canyon album)—because “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”—and my reminder of searching many streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.
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Here’s more information about Stage Mother:
http://www.momentumpictures.net/stage-mother (not a lot here for an official site so here’s the IMDb link also: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8364138/reference)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsGvz2gNlZI (1:11 hope from actor Jacki Weaver this film might encourage homophobic parents to accept their homosexual child) and more extensive comments at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blpEnoB0MYY (16:25 actor Mya Taylor discusses this film and her previous success in Tangerine and other topics [interrupted by ads at about 5:00 and 15:45])
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stage_mother_2020
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/stage-mother
Here’s more information about I Used To Go Here:
http://gravitasventures.com/i-used-to-go-here/ (another sparse official site, so, once again, a bit more at the IMDb link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10887902/reference)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woXbqpdWClQ (11:36 interview with screenwriter-director Kris Rey and actor Gillian Jacobs)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_used_to_go_here
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/i-used-to-go-here
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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work. (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews-academic-articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)
If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world. I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.
By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check-out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile (quite an eternal while, in fact). Ken
P.S. Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker. But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion, lover, and wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"
—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes and wanes over the months/years to come.
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