Are the Wages of Sin Negotiable?
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.
Yes, God, Yes (Karen Maine) rated R
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): Please be aware the trailer just below and a couple of photos I’ve used from Yes, God, Yes are a little more explicit than what I usually put in these postings, but this is an R-rated comedy about sex so it’s hard difficult to give you the full flavor (no, not chocolate) of this film without using such examples. You don’t have to be of a certain age to read this blog, but do note this posting will be a bit raunchier than my normal reviews. OK, are you breathing heavily? Good! Now, read on. As is beyond obvious, my feature review is on the teen sex comedy, Yes, God, Yes, about a trying-to-be-good-teenage-girl whose natural urges, along with lying about them, keep adding to her trouble-quotient. There’s no blatant sex here, just a lot of innuendo and language-play ultimately intended to show the hypocrisy of a whole range of kids and adults who preach one thing, practice another. In the Short Takes section I’ll provide a little commentary as well on a psychological horror movie, The Rental, where a couple of couples stumble onto the worst Airbnb-type-weekend you could imagine despite the beautiful view of the ocean and a hot tub on the porch. Both of these are available for rental from Amazon Prime for $6.99 apiece. Also in Short Takes 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!)—although a limited selection this posting due to an existing abundance of review material (while also admitting my blogging time’s been willingly-curtailed some this week by a combination of watching my Oakland A’s rediscovering the ability to actually win baseball games [as COVID-19 problems with other teams threaten to shut down this already-truncated-season] and a trip to the Oakland, CA zoo to help keep them in business while admiring multi-species-diversity, even as I wonder why our singular-species can’t better appreciate our own minimal-homo sapiens-diversity*)—along with my standard dosage of industry-related-trivia.
*Reminding me of a current TV ad (scroll down within link) about universal harmony using the grand humanitarian speech from The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940); here's another of the same intent. (You’ll also find Chaplin options in my TCM notations as they provide extra focus on his work.)
Here’s the Yes, God, Yes trailer:
(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.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $. To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters like this:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, continue on if you prefer.
(I know this photo quality’s 👆 terrible [all the better to force your focused-perusal, my dear] but you need to directly invest yourself deeply [so to speak] in what this story’s all about to fully appreciate it; below 👇 is one with better resolution although it’s doctored a bit, doesn’t appear with the obvious "graphic" thought-bubble on-screen. Yeah, it’s more explicit, but I've already warned you about that.)
What Happens: Beginning with a quote from the Bible’s Revelations 21:8 about the “sexually immoral” suffering for eternity in “the lake that burns with fire and sulfur,” we then get a pair of definitions differentiating tossed salad from “salad tossing” which is about sex involving a mouth and an anus. (Aren’t you overjoyed when a film enhances your education?) Following that, we’re somewhere in Iowa (I think) in the early 2000s (that’s clear from the state of computer and cell phone technology shown) as we find Alice (Natalia Dyer), a 16-year-old junior at a Catholic high-school where she and her classmates (well, not all of them as we’ll find out) attempt to be “holy and pleasing to God” (the goal, I recall, of one of the nuns when I went through 8 grades of Catholic school myself in the late 1950s/early ‘60s), yet in the opening scene we see sour Mrs. Veda (Donna Lynne Champlin) handing out delinquency slips while Alice is chosen to bring “the gifts” (the little host-breads to be blessed for communion) to the altar for what appears to be a daily mass in the gym prior to the kids going home. Before that, though, we join her in Morality class where Father Murphy (Timothy Simons) compares the sexual responses of boys to a microwave oven (ready in no time) while girls are like conventional ovens (need longer to heat up), then makes it clear sex is only acceptable in marriage (for the purpose of children) while sex with yourself is also sinful as it doesn’t lead to children at all. Alice shares this newfound-awareness about the sinfulness of masturbation with best friend Laura (Francesca Reale) who says it’s probably also a sin (from what I remember of my now-discarded-Catholic-teachings, just about everything you can do—or even think about—not in the selfless-service of sainthood can easily be a sin of some sort) they rewound Titanic (James Cameron, 1997) several times to the scene just before streamy-implied-sex between Jack and Rose.
Back home that afternoon, Alice treats herself to licking some chocolate off a cracker (as we’ll soon understand, a taste treat for her but also a blunt foreshadowing of this film’s primary plot point), then settles onto her computer where she accidently ends up in a chat room, contacted by some guy who wants to talk dirty (she lies about her age, sends a photo of Laura to begin the interchange), asks her if she’s wet, shows a photo of his hand going into a woman’s panties. Sin or not, Alice finds herself ready to indulge, enjoys the feeling, but has to abruptly stop with a call from Mom to dinner. Next day Alice finds herself the “butt” of an ugly rumor that she tossed classmate Wade’s (Parker Wierling) "salad" at a recent party which makes her a laughingstock as well as incurring a cold stare from Wade’s chaste girlfriend Heather (Allison Shrum)—she won’t even kiss, afraid it’ll ultimately lead to sex—as Heather and Wade are wearing promise-bracelets, spelling out each other’s names.
Even Laura seems dubious about Alice’s protestations of innocence, but soon they’re all off to a 4-day KIRKOS (I never understood what this means; there’s a subcity of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with this name, while in Greek as a noun it’s a circle, as a verb it’s to move around in a circle) retreat in the countryside run by Fr. Murphy and Mrs. Veda where the teens are assigned to small groups each headed by a senior from their school. Alice’s group leader is hunky football star Chris (Wolfgang Novogratz), an immediate attraction for her (something about those hairy arms), while Laura’s in Nina’s (Alisha Boe) group, with Laura soon sucking up to Nina (no salad, though), wearing her hair in parallel fashion, etc. Nina checks Alice into her room, asks if she has a watch (they’re now on “Jesus’ time”) or phone to hand over for the duration; Alice lies about the phone because she uses it for vibration-stimulation, although she’s still concerned about the Wade rumor as well as nervous that upon arrival everyone had to circle any emotions they’d recently felt on a long list; for one she chose “turned on” then tried to remove (no eraser on the pencil) or scratch it out, but it would haunt her later in a private discussion with the priest (she’d already lied to him in confession by not admitting the masturbation [Hmm. I wonder why that sounds familiar?]) Alice adds another lie in a group session when Gabby (sorry, can’t find the actor in a cast list) cries over her grandmother’s death so Alice concocts a story about her dog dying from accidently eating squirrel poison to try to gain sympathy from Chris, but he hugs Gabby instead. Temptation then gets the better of Alice again (after surrendering her phone to Nina when she comes to visit and hears the vibrate sound, earning Alice kitchen-cleanup-duty to go along with scornful looks from Mrs. Veda who—like everyone else in the place—has bought into the Wade-salad-rumor) when she slips into Fr. Murphy’s office to quickly use his computer to find out what “salad tossing” means but gets only an anal-penetration-response before scurrying away; the priest finds the chat, though, asks at an assembly who did it, gets no admissions (of course), so he tries to use group guilt for shaming the perpetrator.
By this time, Laura joins in with the others in assuming it was Alice at the priest's computer (she denies it, adding further to her sin tally in her mind), so she’s left with no support, prompting her to confront Wade into dispelling the salad rumor; he refuses as he’s already caught hell from Heather about it, but as he leaves Alice notices he’s dropped his bracelet so she puts it in Fr. Murphy’s office where he’ll discover it by the computer. When called to task about it, Wade (for some reason) accepts responsibility (maybe as self-penance for the shame he’s caused Alice) so now he’s assumed to also be the salad-rumor-instigator, getting Alice off the hook. There’s more perversity at the retreat, though, as Alice, in the kitchen, looks through the window to see Nina giving a blow job to Adam (John Henry Ward), another senior group leader, leading Alice to use a mop handle for her own pleasure; later, she's further shocked to see Fr. Murphy at his computer watching a porno video.
As a response to all the misery and hypocrisy she’s found at the retreat, Alice slips away one night, walks to a bar down the road, lies about her age (no I.D. check?), drinks a wine cooler, gets into a conversation with much-older-Gina (Susan Blackwell), a former Catholic, as they share stories about actions each of them thought would be a sure-fire-ticket to Hell, then Rita gives Alice a lift on her motorcycle back to the retreat camp. ⇒After returning home Alice is in confession again with Fr. Murphy, doesn’t admit most of her sins (at least by the definitions of rigid Catholic dogma, although nothing she did was really any worse than the gossipy-humiliation brought on her for no reason) except for seeing the porno video which she describes in enough detail that he must know it was the one he was watching yet he says nothing, just gives her a harsh penance (50 Our Father, 50 Hail Mary prayers; as my also-no-longer-Catholic-wife, Nina [no relation nor resemblance to the film’s character of that name] tells me, the usual practice was to kneel in the church immediately to say your penance so one of that length would be a clear signal to your friends what a scamp you are; thus, you needed to learn to speed-pray to take the onus off yourself), but Alice just strolls out of the church so it’s not clear when (or if) she even served her “sentence.” Oh, I forgot to mention back at the retreat Chris was wiling to talk to her when she seemed upset but in the process she lunged into a passionate kiss with him which he initially responded to, then broke away with a huge boner in his sweatpants, bringing about a “microwave” comment from him before he ran off (take a look if you like); they meet again at school, she apologizes, wants to be friends, so he gives her a “side hug” to keep things clean. At home, as this story ends, Alice is on her computer, taking Gina’s advice to go far away to college as she searches for schools on the East or West Coasts (her original plan was to go to “State,” only 40 min. away so Dad says she could come home every weekend), then pops in a VHS of Titanic, cues up the appropriate scene, settles in to pleasure herself before today’s dinner.⇐
So What? Now why would you think I have a particular interest in this film just because my loving wife of 30 years was also a teenager in a Catholic school (endured all the way from grade 1 to 12 [after my 8 years of selling candy and magazine subscriptions my mother decided to shift me over to public school; sorry, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos—you idiot!—for once I have to admit Mom was right]), has told me many episodes of her high-school-experience (mid-‘60s) that still ring true in Yes, God, Yes (although there are other aspects of Nina’s [again, real-life-wife, not film character] life that shall remain unreported here with no implications about any parallel activity with mop handles—not to mention computers, cell phones, VCRs, which didn’t even exist back then). Fortunately, despite her still-uncomfortable-response whenever she sees nuns or priests on screen, Nina enjoyed Yes ..., cheering on Alice as she found strategies to take better control of her life, even if the Church would continue to tally her choices within the sins column (which I'd see Alice as beginning to care less about, seeing more clearly the perspective Gina wanted her to consider). Yes, God, Yes has lots of clever aspects, from the title itself serving as a double-entendre on accepting inspirations from Jesus or being ecstatic during orgasm (self-induced or not) to the bit where Nina brings Alice a peace offering of a s’more where each one was roasted as a cardinal sin (Alice’s was lust). There’s also some insightful bits about how teens must endure these difficult years (Alice is blunt: “High-school sucks!”) as Nina shares her intra-family-difficulties where her older sister, Melissa, is the focus of attention so that when Nina came in 3 hours late once no one even noticed, but when Melissa picked up Nina one night to bring her home they ended up in car wreck leaving Nina with broken ribs yet she felt guilty Melissa had any negative feelings about the incident, that it was Nina’s fault her prized sister was even involved in the accident. Similarly, at the end of the retreat each student is required to share what they’ve learned: Alice notes how hurtful it is when lies undermine a person’s reputation, pleading with the group to just accept each other as they are during this mutual struggle to make their collective way through the trials of adolescence. There are lots of laughs here along with serious thoughts to consider, as in how a priest’s Sunday Mass statement about all of us being sinners can better be understood not as condemning the human condition but a simple admission of how we all stumble, have fears and doubts, need each other’s help finding emotional stability, not viciously-chastising ourselves about those inherent-human-faults.
Bottom Line Final Comments: This film began as a 2017 short (also starring Dyer), impressive enough to some financiers to push it into a feature—a short one, 78 min., which feels just right to me; nothing’s extraneous, no needed-clarification-scenes seem missing. The CCAL’s quite taken with it too—Rotten Tomatoes has 93% positive reviews, Metacritic’s average score is 72% (supportive; their scores into the 80s are an accomplishment)—just as I am (also Nina [my wife, not the the girl just above]): comedy manages to consistently reflect reality of high-school-evil (everyone’s status usually depends on intimidating others) and warped values of those who talk spirituality yet walk in self-serving-human-nature, yet encourages young people to make their own decisions about their bodies (assuming they have enough information to know what they’re doing, not hurting anyone). Maybe being raised Catholic (and understanding “microwave male masturbation”—just in concept, of course) helped me appreciate the ridicule of enforced shame this film explores, but even without such background I think anyone (except the insistently-pious, who’d probably be deeply offended by just about everything in Yes, God, Yes) could appreciate what’s shown here, find lots of recognizable situations (including underage-bar-trips), empathize with the full range of Alice's emotions. In fact, I liked what I saw in Yes ... enough to give it 3 (!) Musical Metaphors to round off the review, starting with 1 from the soundtrack under the first scene, “Are You Washed in the Blood?” (19th-century Christian hymn) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhG25 DnZoog (Foggy Mountain Quartet, Earl Scruggs on lead guitar) to speak to the all the expectations of Alice (even if they’re not genuine), followed by Elton John’s “All the Girls Love Alice” (on his 1973 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGHAfBVP3gw (lyrics added) as an extension of how Alice’s rumormongering “friends” might up the ante to label her as a lesbian hooker: “She couldn’t get it on with the boys on the scene But what do you expect from a chick who just sixteen? […] All the young girls love Alice Tender young Alice, they say Come over and see me Come over and please me Alice, it’s my turn today.” Elton’s Alice dies young but ours is castigated, headed toward greater disgrace as her classmates are eager to create salacious gossip.
Ultimately, though, this Alice decides to make her own choices, seeing past the “shit” (her word, but we're being raunchy this time) she’s endured, as expressed in The Beatles’ “Think for Yourself” (George Harrison tune on 1965’s Rubber Soul) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtx5NTxebJk: “I left you far behind The ruins of the life that you had in mind And although you can’t see I know your mind’s made up You’re gonna cause more misery Do what you want to do And go where you’re going to Think for yourself ‘Cuase I won’t be there with you.” Alice learns how to say “yes” to herself for now, she’ll deal with God later; if you’d like to join in with her, it’s a $6.99 rental on Amazon Prime.
SHORT TAKES (spoilers also appear here)
The Rental (Dave Franco) rated R
2 couples (with intertwined connections—the female business partner of a guy is in a personal relationship with his brother) drive far away for a weekend at a house overlooking the Pacific Ocean but interpersonal tensions create immediate problems, then things take a horrid turn for the worst as everything shifts into the grim mode of a slasher movie (maintaining solid acting, effective surprises).
Here’s the trailer:
Before reading further, please refer to the plot spoilers warning detailed far above.
Unlike most of what I’ve reviewed over these past-coronavirus-dictated-months, The Rental’s actually playing in some theaters (mostly drive-ins) so it has a box-office gross of $888.8 thousand domestically (U.S.-Canada) plus enough else for $1.1 million globally, making it #1 domestically on a daily basis for the last couple of weeks (but only #58 for the year so far, due to a plethora of 2019 holdovers into early 2020 before the shutdowns), along with who knows how much from streaming on Amazon Prime (another $6.99 rental; interested?). Relative to our present viewing conditions, though, it's a solid feature-directorial-debut for actor Dave Franco (brother of likely-more-famous-actor James), akin to Karen Maine’s also-feature-debut (reviewed above). Billed as a psychological horror movie (more psychological—and relationship-focused—until a sharp turn toward the end), we watch a weekend go horribly bad as business partners Charlie (Dan Stevens) and Mina (Shelia Vand) rent an oceanside house (somewhere north of San Francisco [shot in Oregon]) for themselves and their mates, Charlie’s wife Michelle (Alison Brie [director’s wife]) and Mina’s boyfriend, Josh (Jeremy Allen Taylor)—Charlie’s much-less-successful brother (college dropout, arrested for assault at a frat party, feels fortunate to be with Mina). When they arrive, though, there’s tension with house-manager Taylor (Toby Huss) who’s gruff, sarcastic, and Mina’s pissed her rental application was denied while Charlie’s was immediately accepted, but the others encourage her to forget all about it.
Mina brought some Molly (look it up, if necessary) for kicks, Michelle begs off until tomorrow due to fatigue, Josh drinks too much and passes out, leaving Mina and Charlie alone in the hot tub where it’s not just the water heating up. Soon they’re in the shower going at it, feel miserably-guilty the next day (but keep quiet about their lapse) until Mina discovers a camera in the shower head, fears a likely video of their tryst means relationships-disaster (Michelle’s already withdrawing from Charlie after Josh leads her to assume her husband doesn’t necessary end one involvement because he’s begun another), assumes it’s Taylor who planted the camera, wants to confront him, but Charlie says stay quiet, just leave the next day. More tension arises when Josh and Mina’s dog (smuggled into the rental) disappears, Taylor comes by to fix the malfunctioning hot tub then gets into an argument with Mina claiming to know nothing about any clandestine videorecording, they escalate into physical shoving, Josh rushes in and beats Taylor bloody and unconscious in the bathtub as our couples retreat into another room, unsure what to do as Michelle’s freaking out (she had a dose of Molly that night even as the others declined). Then a barely-seen, black-clad man slips in, suffocates still-alive-until-then-Taylor, slips away, leaving us confused at that point as to what’s really going on here.
⇒Everyone (except us) assumes Taylor died at Josh’s hand so all but Michelle (who wants no part of any of this) decide to throw Taylor over the cliff into the ocean, assuming he’ll be found dead from a drunken stumble; even that goes awry as he lands on an outcropping requiring Josh to climb down, push him into the water. Michelle’s paranoia increases even while we know the stalker’s in the house, then she sees the Charlie-Mina video on the bedroom TV so she tries to drive away but hits a spike strip, crashes into a tree. Dazed, she sends a text to Charlie who runs to find her, comes upon her dead body just before he’s also killed. Back at the house, Josh is the next victim as Mina escapes outside, but, lost in the fog, falls over the cliff. The killer (Anthony Molinari—known only from the credits; we never see his face, even when he takes his ugly mask off) removes all his cameras, other gear. As the movie wraps up, we see him renting what seems to be an urban apartment, installing cameras in it, later attacking a sleeping couple there. We never know who he is, why he engineers these random killings (although Franco admitss he might want to pursue a sequel).⇐ Effective from rising tension over a compact 88 min., then inevitably—arbitrarily?—shifting to gory scenes (but not too graphic), I enjoyed The Rental especially because I don’t usually indulge in this sort of fare so it was nice to get a dose of such adventure with complex characters, not just setups for the inevitable butchering (my violence-adverse-wife found it works well for her too). The CCAL’s mostly supportive also: RT with 73% positive reviews, MC a more-conventional 63% average score for this intriguing twist on horror tropes. Yet, I couldn’t easily come up with an easily-appropriate Musical Metaphor, finally settling on Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” (found on their 1969 Green River album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6iRNVws lM4 (written by John Fogerty in response to the dangers of a terrible storm, used for comically-ironic-effect in An American Werewolf in London [John Landis, 1981]) where the warnings of “Hope you got your things together Hope you are quite prepared to die Looks like we’re in for nasty weather One eye is taken for an eye Well don’t go around tonight Well it’s bound to take your life There’s a bad moon on the rise” are used by me as symbolic versions of cruel-surprise-warnings for/posthumous-notations about these besieged travelers during our pandemic-driven-time-of-uncertainty rather than the dangers of high winds or raging waters (such reality just experienced on the U.S. East Coast as Hurricane Isaias slammed through); however, it’s still a good tune to close on until the next review.
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 for additional, useful information.
Thursday August 6, 2020
3:15 PM Seven Days in May (John Frankenheimer, 1964) American President (Frederick March) has recently signed a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union so the Joint Chiefs of Staff (led by Burt Lancaster), worried about invasion, are plotting a coup but plan’s discovered by a Marine Col. (Kirk Douglas) who works to prevent it. Cold War tensions to the max, makes you wonder what might happen in an internal-governmental-crisis in our current concerns about the Executive Branch.
Friday August 7, 2020
3:45 AM Atlantic City (Louis Malle, 1980) Susan Sarandon’s a waitress, Sally, in an Atlantic City casino, dreaming of being a blackjack dealer, but her lowlife husband, Dave (Robert Joy), shows up with stolen cocaine, get aging small-time gangster Lou (Burt Lancaster) to peddle it; Dave dies, Lou continues to sell until he and Sally are cornered so he kills the killers, they go on the run. Highly regarded, 5 Oscar noms (no wins); caps off evening/night/early morning run of Lancaster movies.
Saturday August 8, 2020
9:30 AM The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 1925) A celebrated success of a great master of the cinema, even as a silent movie, with The Tramp in the Klondike seeking his fortune, finding many challenges instead, comedy mixed with pathos. Contains the boot-for-dinner scene, the Oceana Roll dance, and the teetering cabin scene (also stars Georgia Hale, Mack Swain). One of lots of Chaplin movies today (features and shorts) beginning at 6 AM, continuing on through early Sunday morning.
8:00 PM City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931) On my all-time Top 10 list, combining the Tramp’s physical-dexterity-comedy (especially in the prizefight scene) with subtly-serious observations during this early-Depression era as he tries to help a blind woman (Virginia Cherrill) he’s fallen in love with, her mistakenly thinking he’s a rich man; there's an actual millionaire also (Harry Myers) who buddies with the Tramp when drunk, dismisses him when sober. Poignant ending left open to interpretation.
9:45 PM Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 1936) As in City Lights, Chaplin defied the industry’s evolution to sound, using only synchronized music, sound effects rather than dialogue (shown on intertitle cards) in this last of his “silent” films where The Tramp’s an overwhelmed assembly-line worker in a nation reeling from the Depression; he meets Ellen (Paulette Goddard) who becomes his love interest as they both struggle with the law and the demands of the times. His final Tramp role.
Monday August 10, 2020
12:00 AM Shampoo (Hal Ashby, 1975) Comedy starring Warren Beatty as George, a popular Beverly Hills hairdresser who has easy sex with clients, co-written by Beatty, Robert Towne; George dreams of running his own salon, can’t afford it, tries to get cash from a lover (Lee Grant)—despite his official girlfriend (Goldie Hawn)—and her husband (Jack Warden), with his own lover (Julie Christie): morals not much in fashion here. A big hit at the box office, won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar (Grant).
Tuesday August 11, 2020
11:30 PM Sweet Charity (Bob Fosse, 1969) Fosse also directed/choreographed the 1966 Broadway musical version (from Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria [1957]): Charity Valentine (Shirley MacLaine), a dancer-for-hire (“taxi dancer”), is dumped by her married boyfriend, tries but fails to connect with movie star Vittorio Vitale (Ricardo Montalbán), does better (at first) with shy Oscar Lindquist (John McMartin). 3 Oscar nominations (didn’t win); also stars Chita Rivera, Sammy David Jr., Ben Vereen.
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: In quick fashion, here are some other items you might be interested in from the wide world of evolving film topics: (1) Hollywood Foreign Press Association (Golden Globes) accused of being an illegal cartel; (2) Mulan will premiere on Disney+ (in September 2020, for $29.99 as well as theatrically where that platform’s not available), article also contains a chart of the audience "reach" (in millions of subscribers) of the biggest streaming services (Netflix, Amazon Prime way ahead, then Disney+, Hulu, others far behind); (3) New Jersey attempt to keep indoor theaters closed (includes a state-by-state chart of the closed or partially-opened [most fall into the latter category but not CA which is why I can only review streaming options at present]). As usual I’ll finish this 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 a reminder that you can search streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.
We encourage you to visit the summary of Two Guys reviews for our past posts.* Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it!
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Here’s more information about Yes, God, Yes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYuuGBPCwHQ (24:28 interview with director Karen Maine,
and actors Timothy Simons, Natalia Dyer, Wolfgang Novogratz, Francesca Reale, Alisha Boe)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/yes_god_yes
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/yes-god-yes
Here’s more information about The Rental:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf27tipGiBw (19:57 interview with director/co-screenwriter
[with Joe Swanberg for the script] Dave Franco)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_rental_2020
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-rental
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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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