Women of Great Resolve
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.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): In my last posting (9/24/2020) before taking a short break to do a little in-state-traveling down the beautiful (but foggy that day) California coast to Cambria (very near Hearst Castle, with its sly connections to my all-time-favorite film, Citizen Kane [Orson Welles, 1941]), for a short, convenient (as well as motel-discounted), prior celebration for my wonderful wife, Nina Kindblad, as she approached the milestone of her 70th birthday, I also noted last time her presence at the Oakland, CA Coliseum, home of our beloved Athletics baseball team, via a cardboard cutout of a photo of her that accompanies several thousand others in the stadium (actually, through a mix-up by the A’s staff she’s in the outfield twice while my intended cutout never got to join her in the cheap seats) which proved to be a lucky charm for our team because in the first round of this year’s postseason playoffs our A’s managed to beat the Chicago White Sox 2 games to 1, moving on to the American League Division Series, the first time they’re advanced past the first round of playoffs since 2006, I’m sure because of Nina’s smiling double-presence up in those stands.
But, speaking of Nina’s images at the Coliseum in conjunction with days near this year's significant birthday brings me back to 2012 when the A’s won the Western Division (like this year; no more of that Wild Card-crap) by beating the Texas Rangers on the last day of the season, which happened to be right on her birthday so we went to the game to celebrate the dual-occasions. Unfortunately for us, it was a complete sellout except for standing-room-only, which we did for several hours by the right-field-flagpoles so the photo above is from that day (don’t know by now what website I got it from); if you zoom in on this image as much as you can (maybe use a magnifying glass too), then scan up from that big rectangle with the A’s logo on it to just above that small white sign in its upper left there’s someone there wearing a green shirt with a slightly shorter person to his (?) right which could easily be me and Nina back in 2012 (I can’t prove it either way so let’s just say I’m correct). Because it was her birthday I think she brought some needed luck then also for the A’s come-from-behind-victory to clinch the Division. Now, if her vibes can just extend down to Southern CA this week for the next round of the 2020 playoffs where the A’s need to win 3 of 5 from the Houston Astros (Google it if you need to know why these teams are playing in the LA Dodgers stadium) this birthday time will continue to be just as magical. Even if not, we had a great time in Cambria, celebrated her actual calendar birthday when we returned home, at least had some marvelous uplift with that White Sox series (along with 1 win so far vs. 2 for Astros; tension continues on 10/8/2020).
Now I'll turn to some additional unrelated chatter prior to using this blog for what it’s intended to be; while I’m not going to offer a review of it I finally used my time off from viewing current films last week to watch the DVD 7-hour Russian version of War and Peace (Sergei Bondarchuk, 1966-’67)—based on Leo Tolstoy’s celebrated novel (1869), originally released as 4 separate films but still considered one narrative whole—which I got as a present from Nina’s brother awhile back but just hadn’t committed the extended time to watching it yet; however, when spread out over several days it was a much-more-digestible-experience. Nevertheless, even though this massive enterprise won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film from 1968 I must say overall—despite outstanding cinematography, production design, costumes, acting it struck me as just being a combination of never-ending-scenes of war* (Napoleon’s early-19th-century attacks on Austria, Russia) and silly-soap-opera-encounters involving the primary-aristocrats in this huge, activity-packed story, Andrei Bolkonsky (Vyacgeslav Tikhonov), Natasha Rostova (Lyudmila Savelyeva), and Pierre Bezukhov (Sergei Bondarchuk), with Natasha and her attracted-men’s abilities to fall in love at first sight seeming rather ridiculous to me** despite how revered the original novel is (also structured as 4 books, plus a 2-part epilogue [not part of the screen-adaptation, thank God]—which I’m sure is worth the praise [no, I’ve never read it] long-given regarding Tolstoy's additional material about history, philosophy, and the human condition***).
*In watching all this carnage (factual as I’m sure it is) all I could think of was the Seinfeld episode where Jerry falsely convinces Elaine the original title of the novel was War (What Is It Good For?)—as in the Edwin Starr hit song (on his 1970 War & Peace album; this video’s from the time but with poor visual quality)—leading to her horrid embarrassment with a very touchy Russian author.
**Given what I see as somewhat overlapping aspects of this cinematic adaptation of War and Peace and Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939) in watching Natasha’s easy infatuations I’m reminded of Scarlett O’Hara’s comment at the event which opens her story: “Fiddle-dee-dee. War, war, war; this war talk’s spoiling all the fun at every party this spring. I get so bored I could scream.” Insightful!
***I’ll admit that in reading more about Tolstoy’s novel (in an attempt to get better insight into what I was seeing in this filmic version of it) another distraction crept into my mind regarding all the depths apparently explored in those pages (to which maybe I should give another try, at least if I skip over the Natasha parts), from Bob Dylan’s "Maggie's Farm" (on his 1965 Bringing It All Back Home album): “Well, she talks to all the servants About man and God and law Everybody says She’s the brains behind Pa She’s seventy-two but she says she’s twenty-four I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s ma no more” (this video footage from Bob’s infamous electric set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival).
Like Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939), War and Peace has an on-screen-presence (even with just a 47”-version in my living room) that’s commanding, even overwhelming at times (with no scene prevented from displaying its full measure, no matter how long it takes for those ballroom dances or battlefield deaths play out); also, like Gone … there are striking scenes of major cities (Moscow, Atlanta) burning (the image above from Gone … is the actual demolition of the old protective-jungle-wall-set from King Kong [see the TCM suggestions much farther below for an upcoming cablecast of this 1933 monster marvel]) along with an embedded sense of praise for what would sooner or later be wiped away by the forces of history (U.S. Confederacy, Czarist Russia). Back in 1975 I tried to read the novel, got through about 10 pages, never attempted it again; at least now I know what’s it’s all about even if I’m sure I won’t be re-watching this film anytime soon, even as I do admire its serious grandeur along with seeming-adherence to its source material (along with appreciating the visual influences from Russian cinema masters of the 1920s-'30s, incorporating [some] Sergei Eisenstein-like-montage-imagery [especially in battle scenes] and nature-metaphor-shots [especially of clouds] reminiscent of Vsevold Pudovkin). Well, if by now I haven’t fully led you to wonder what any of this has to do with reviewing current films maybe I should digress some more (or maybe I shouldn’t take a week off from assaulting you with my thoughts because the free time just gives my wandering mind too much opportunity to ruminate over topics that “just have to get noted” [or not] in the next posting) … or, better yet, how about we move on to the actual reviews? (Yes, I hear your applause. Maybe you might actually think I deserve some applause for getting this far making nary a comment concerning the Presidential farce of a “debate” on Sept. 29, 2020 between Trump and Biden nor any smarmy knocks at Trump for contracting the COVID-19 “hoax” himself then staging photo-op-events to herald his “quick recovery”; we’ll see if I can maintain my distance from such snide temptations all the way to the end of this posting. I know it won’t be easy.)
The Artist’s Wife (Tom Dolby) rated R
After all that (bogus?) warm-up chatter, I can make it brief in my introduction to these actual review comments because each of the films I’m addressing this week speak clearly for themselves in terms of what they hope to accomplish. With The Artist’s Wife we have a straightforward concept of a well-known, NYC-area painter (Bruce Dern) whose increasing age is leading him into dementia, making it difficult for him to finish a collection of most-recent-works for an important upcoming museum show, pushing him into an attitude of angry outbursts toward the students who continue to look to him for inspiration, raising the specter of deterioration of his long-standing marriage to a fellow artist who’s given up her career first to support his needs but now just to keep him focused which is increasingly more difficult to do especially when the wife (Lena Olin) insists on bringing his estranged daughter back into his life, a difficult challenge for both generations of this burdened-family. In the Short Takes section I’ll offer brief comments on The Glorias, a most intriguing, fascinating docudrama about journalist/feminist-icon Gloria Steinem where 4 actors of different ages (the most well-known likely being Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander) present this semi-fictionalized version of her significant life interweaving various time periods, activities, difficulties, successes Ms. Steinem’s faced thus far plus some visual extrapolations. Also, in Short Takes section I’ll offer suggestions for choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel—where you’ll find a new layout for their schedule page; I’ve put all the showtimes for my U.S. Pacific timezone so check local listings when interested in a particular title (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!) plus that usual, standard dose of industry-related-trivia.
Here’s the trailer for The Artist’s Wife:
(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 those 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, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: Richard Smythson (Bruce Dern) is a famous abstractionist-painter living in the upscale environs of Long Island where his fame is perpetuated in NYC showcases such as the New Museum (an actual, well-respected venue); however, as advancing age is catching up with him he’s developing Alzheimer’s, a distinct interference with his life as a celebrated modern master (he has a show of new work scheduled to debut soon yet inspiration is failing him so nothing’s finished yet for the opening) as well as a teacher (he’s quite rude to some of his students, chastising them for not pouring more passion into their work, demanding they leave some of themselves on the canvas saying we must paint because we have no choice otherwise, that there must be an emotional commitment to the art lest it be a hollow exercise); however, the greatest negative impact this debilitating disease is putting on him is sarcasm, anger, resentment, withdrawal from his wife of 20 years, Claire (Lena Olin), an artist herself but one who put her own career aside to help nurture and manage his, now earning frequent scorn from a husband who claims she doesn’t have the courage to pursue her work, seemingly-oblivious in his increasingly-demented-state of what she’s sacrificed for him during their time together (he likely also tears into other artists as a form of muddled-self-compensation for the fear growing in him as he’s still lucid enough to mourn the loss of his inspirations, painfully aware of how his mind’s closing down on him even as he projects such terror as bluster onto those around him, a means of proving to himself he’s still got some command of his life even if he has little to show for his intentions [in one early scene Claire questions why he’s bought a $94,000 clock when all he intended to do was have a functioning timepiece in his studio; he seems to not even be aware of what he paid for the device]). Other tensions also flare up between them because of her accusing him of an affair with a student 6 years ago, which he doesn’t fully deny, implies it would have been his choice if it occurred, probably doesn’t even know at this point whether it even happened or not. Setting all this in snowy winter imagery only adds to the cold distance Richard’s establishing between himself and all those around him, his life now slipping away.
The situation deteriorates further as he’s given an award, then makes a rambling acceptance speech greatly embarrassing Claire; in desperation, she appeals to Angela (Juliet Rylance), his adult lesbian daughter from an earlier marriage, to try to make peace with grumpy-Dad despite their lack of connection as he wasn’t much of a father to her, always giving most of his time and energy to his work; she’s also got her own troubles, having recently broken up with her lover while trying to provide some decent sense of parenthood to her young son, Gogo (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), with the help of a nanny-of-sorts—young, attractive Danny (Avan Jogia) whose real goal is to be a musician. Eventually, though, Angela’s troupe comes to visit Richard who makes some effort to be engaging, especially to the little kid (although father and daughter clash at times). Later, Claire’s in the city, drinks too much, crashes with Angela, then ends up making love with Richard the next morning when she gets home so their marriage still has some heart (and heat). However, becoming tired of her caretaker role (especially when Hubby criticizes her for it), she rents her own studio space, slips away to get her own painting visions going again. ⇒One night Danny comes to visit her there (she’s fond of a CD of his music he gave her), they have sex but she doesn’t encourage him to continue an affair; however, in praising her music he’s encouraged to make that his focus, quitting his nanny job which angers Angela toward Claire, even as Richard’s impressed with her return to painting when she decides to show him what she’s been doing. All of this comes to closure at the successful show opening where Angela also attends, with this fragmented-family finding connection again even as Richard’s lauded for the quality of the new paintings. What only we and Claire know, though, is that she finished his incomplete works, added those of her own to help fill the galleries, is content allowing him to take all the praise for what’s truly her accomplishments, giving us the sense that he’ll likely soon be gone but still leaving her many years to establish a presence in the arts for herself.⇐
So What? Quoting from my rare opportunity for access to press notes, I know what director Dolby was after, inspired by his own father’s dementia-related-death: “Over one bleak winter in the Hamptons, when my father had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, I started sketching out the story for The Artist’s Wife [¶]. I knew from studying art history that our cultural legacy was filled with female artists who have supported their more famous husbands or partners. Lee Krasner. Elaine De Kooning. Camille Claudel. Dora Maar. The Artist’s Wife is a tribute to these women, a contemporary imagining of the journey of the stronger woman next to the man – and what happens when the relationship begins to crumble due to circumstances beyond either person’s control. [¶] The experience of the middle-aged woman as she enters the third act of life is often ignored in our filmic landscape. In The Artist’s Wife, Claire’s passage is about new beginnings, about rediscovering the parts of herself that she left behind during the early years of her marriage, as well as recognizing qualities she never knew she had. [¶ …] My hope is that The Artist’s Wife honors the many women and men who have stuck by their partners, artists or otherwise, through challenging circumstances. [¶ …] ‘The problem with being constantly surrounded by bright lights,’ she says, ‘is that they make you feel there’s already enough light in the world.’ May the film’s narrative allow Claire to release this belief and let her talent run free, its brilliant beams lighting up the sky.” In my opinion Dolby’s (son of the famous sound engineer) succeeded because, through second-hand-experience with a friend who died from Alzheimer’s, I have an idea what toll it takes on immediate victims and the tireless-caregivers who work to ease the pain, confusion, and (not-always-realized) emptiness in the patient while suffering themselves, often in physical/mental/emotional exhaustion. What I knew of my friend’s condition was mostly through talking to his (by chance, trained-nurse) wife because when I saw him he was in good spirits, just admitting memory loss; from her I knew how he’d deteriorated from his beloved-college-professor-status, how so much of himself essentially evaporated over time.
Richard is clearly losing it but still knows his wife and daughter, why people are supposed to be impressed with him—even as he’s lost all sense of restraint in criticizing current students, as well as Claire, for not pouring themselves into their art, his bitter statements likely brought on by the effects of dementia on his mind as well as angry frustration over the loss of his own artistic inspiration. ⇒I can’t be sure if he even realized at his celebrated show the works on the wall were created by his wife, not him, but at least he seemed pleased with the attendees’ responses as well as finally feeling a warm connection to his increasingly-estranged-family.⇐ Ultimately, though, as the title indicates and as the director/co-screenwriter (with Nicole Brending, Abdi Nazemian) intended, this is Claire’s story, how she never gave up on trying to make life as meaningful as possible for her deteriorating-husband while reclaiming herself with talent and needs needing to be equally-respected on her own.
Bottom Line Final Comments: However, as much as I might admire this film, the CCAL is trending toward OCCU status as Rotten Tomatoes critics provide only 66% positive reviews while those at Metacritic are their usual less-supportive-selves with a 53% average number (more details on both in the Related Links section much farther below [as with the following review too]; the MC number, though, is based on only 10 reviews so you might check back on them later to see if anything changes). I’m not overly-surprised at this discrepancy, given that of 53 cinematic offerings I, along with RT and MC, have reviewed so far this year (as we’re now about 75% through 2020 I thought it might be a good time to take stock of this situation) my responses (translating stars into numbers: i.e. 3 of 5 = 60%) have matched only 15 from RT, 20 from MC, although in 25 of those 53 my numbers weren’t close enough to either of theirs to rate a match; further, of those 25, 14 times my score was higher than either of theirs, 7 times I was lower than them both, 4 times brought mixed results as I was higher with one, lower with the other. All this tells me is that I’ve been generally successful in picking the films/movies I’ve reviewed (former being more artistic for me, latter more intended as entertainment)—largely based on having the advantage of access to those other reviews by the time I can see what I’d want to watch, although that’s no different from when I was going to theaters instead of relying on streaming (as indoor screenings still haven’t come to my CA county, and I’m not going to travel excessive distances for drive-ins nor risk my old-man-health [unlike our PR-courting-President—oops, there I go!] as this point in the pandemic saga even to see Tenet [Christopher Nolan]—despite its $307.7 million global intake [only about $45.1 million in the U.S.-Canada domestic market, though, proving that many former regular attendees are like me in still avoiding indoor venues even though Nolan’s latest-head-scratcher’s playing in 2,722 northern-North American-theaters]) because I don’t have the luxury of pre-release critics screenings/DVD screeners, so I get to explore the market, see what seems to be interesting in content (even when the OCCU numbers aren’t that supportive), then take my time mulling over what I’ve seen for a few days before the weekly posting-battle with BlogSpot software. This situation’s led me to see films usually in my 3-4 stars-range (saving higher numbers for unique, artform-distinquishing successes), allowing me to appreciate narratives such as The Artist’s Wife, even when the overall consensus isn’t that enthusiastic, while usually avoiding what I consider to be duds (at the 2½ stars-level or lower) unless I get too overwhelmed by a lot of CCAL chatter (damn it all; what were they thinking?).
Beyond praising the scripting and featured-performers-acting of … Wife, though, I think this is a cinematic experience best left to seeing it for yourself, so I’ll just encourage you to do that, available on Amazon Prime for $6.99 for a film making its point in a concise 97 min., with no extraneous distractions. (Although you wouldn’t know that if you consulted Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times: “[…] had Dolby allowed Claire’s awakening full rein, and followed it to a finale less servile and expected, he might have produced a movie more worthwhile than this one” or Christy Lemire of LA’s KPCC radio/ReogerEbert.com [you’d have to listen rather than read this one, with brief comments on ... Wife among many other opinions on films I've not seen]: “Lovely acting but that’s about it.” I’d steer you instead to Joe Leydon of Variety: “this familiar but affecting drama spends less time on depicting the systematic lessening of an exceptional intellect — though, rest assured, that tragedy is not at all minimized — and focuses more on the psychic toll taken on a loyal life partner whose selflessness is running on empty.”) Accordingly, I’ll wrap up my comments here with my usual tactic of a Musical Metaphor for closure but will offer 2 of them to acknowledge what’s being explored regarding both Richard and Claire; for him I’ll turn to Pink Floyd’s 1979 album, The Wall, for a medley of “Hey You,” “Is There Anybody Out There,” “Nobody Home” at https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=23H1JwOoWQI for the first one, then https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2kjbpEKD4M for the others (linked to footage from the film Pink Floyd—The Wall [Alan Parker and Gerald Scarfe, 1982]), as I feel this increasingly-troubled man losing awareness of himself: “Hey you, out there in the cold Getting lonely, getting old Can you feel me? […] No matter how he tried He could not break free And the worms ate into his brain […] Hey you, don’t tell me there’s no hope at all Together we stand, divided we fall [… đŸ‘‰] ‘Well, only got an hour of daylight left. Better get started.’ ‘Isn’t it unsafe to travel at night?’ ‘It’s a lot less safe to stay here’ [đŸ‘ˆ this last cluster of lyrics barely audible only on the recording, not this film clip …] I’ve got wild staring eyes And I’ve got a strong urge to fly But I got nowhere to fly […] There’s still nobody home.” This shows Richard's fate.
For her, however, I’ll choose Jackson Browne’s “Doctor My Eyes” (from his 1972 self-named album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wF7zc_YK6A (poor video, good audio) as she wonders desperately at times: “I have done all that I could To see the evil and the good without hiding You must help me if you can […] People go just where they will I never noticed them until I got this feeling That it’s later than it seems […] Is this the prize For having learned how not to cry?” This is not an easy film to watch at times, especially if you’d had any direct experience with slowly losing a loved one to Alzheimer’s, but it’s well worth it in helping us understand how painful it is to lose yourself even as it can be liberating to rediscover yourself after self-denial for the benefit of another (as with my aunt long ago when she visited my grandmother in the hospital/nursing home every day for 5 years from the time of the dear elderly woman’s stroke to a final, liberating [for both of them] death).
SHORT TAKES (spoilers usually appear here but not this time)
The Glorias (Julie Taymor) rated R
A conceptually and visually-dynamic docudrama on the life of journalist and female rights crusader Gloria Steinem using 4 actors to portray her at different ages although interesting fictionalization enters in as well as these Glorias at various times are traveling on a bus, interacting with each other about the life they’ve mutually led. It's leftist politics, yes, but compelling.
Here’s the trailer for The Glorias:
Before reading further, please refer to the plot spoilers warning detailed far above.
The cinematic approach of the “biopic,” exploring the life of a famous person, has a long history in Hollywood from celebrating Depression/WW II-era notables from ballplayers (The Pride of the Yankees [Sam Wood, 1942], starring Gary Cooper) to bandleaders (The Glenn Miller Story [Anthony Mann, 1954], starring James Stewart) or notables from the previous century in the astounding work of Chadwick Boseman in our time exploring career aspects of Jackie Robinson (42 [Brian Helgeland, 2013; review in our April 18, 2013 posting]), James Brown (Get On Up [Tate Taylor, 2014; review in our August 7, 2014 posting]), and Thurgood Marshall (Marshall [Reginald Hudlin, 2017; review in our October 19, 2017 posting]), with emphasis usually on the subject’s adult life although some look at the younger years of an extraordinary person such as Helen Keller (The Miracle Worker [Arthur Penn, 1962], starring Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke). Blending all of these concepts into a slightly-surrealistic-portrait of journalist/feminist-warrior Gloria Steinem gives us The Glorias, in which this fascinating woman is shown at different ages (born in 1934)—a young girl (Ryan Kira Armstrong), a teenager (Lulu Wilson), a young adult from roughly 20 to 40 (Alicia Vikander), and the middle-aged to older woman of today (Julianne Moore). However, rather than following a standard chronological progression with these 4 actors Taymor not only switches back and forth within a roughly 75-year-time-period but also at times has the various Glorias interact with each other while on a bus ride (usually with the bus interior imagery in black & white while the passing outside world’s in color), at first mostly Vikander and Moore but incorporating the younger ones also as this intriguing film progresses, with the 2 older Glorias shown in their various partnerships with lawyer/activist Florynce Kennedy (Lorraine Toussaint), author/activist Dorothy Pitman Hughes (Janelle MonĂ¡e)—co-founder of influential Ms. magazine with Steinem—Congressperson/activist Bella Abzug (Bette Midler), labor leader/activist Dolores Huerta (Monica Sanchez), and spiritual Cherokee activist/Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller (Kimberly Guerrero) [during my more active days at Mills College, Oakland, CA I had the great privilege of hearing these latter 2 women as guest speakers, both extremely inspiring]).
The youngest Gloria shjows us her childhood in Toledo, OH where her eternally-optimistic-salesman-father, Leo (Timothy Hutton), was constantly on the move making deals while teen Gloria—after the parents divorced—was left with her mother, Ruth (Enid Graham), a woman suffering from physical and mental illnesses, although she’d been a journalist but had to use a male byline to hide her gender. These scenes are background to young adult Gloria exploring a 2-year-fellowship in India (getting an abortion in London on the way), then returning to push her way into NYC journalism, especially with an undercover article on the famed Playboy Club exploring the sexual exploitation of “bunnies,” gaining more experience and feminist consciousness over the years until co-founding Ms. in 1972, a great success despite disparagement from prominent males in the media.
Over the course of 2 hrs. 27 min. major episodes of Steinem’s long life are shown (with frequent commentary about their meaning and impact among those Glorias on the bus) although not in such a manner you can quickly follow the chronology (here’s an an extensive account of her life facts if you like), further enhanced by marvelous graphic extrapolations (Taymor’s clearly established her credentials for such with her Tony Awards for Direction of a Musical and Costume Design for Disney’s Broadway megahit, The Lion King, beginning its run in 1997), easily putting equal emphasis on the “bio” (finishing on footage of actual Gloria at the anti-Trump 2017 Women’s March on Washington) and “pic” aspects of this production: an excellent example of how this film merges reality with visual extravagance is a scene where Moore as Steinem faces off with a male TV interviewer (Michael Lowry) who shows more interest in her sexual allure than her politics so they both fly off into a tornado (intentionally evoking The Wizard of Oz [Victor Fleming, 1939]), with explanations of intention by Taymor here.* Yet, despite my enjoyment of/respect for this film, once again the CCAL’s not all that enthused with 66% positive RT reviews, a 58% MC average score so I’ll just have to hope more of them will eventually see the light (and the successful complexity of this venture) more like Peter Travers (and I) did: “Since the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it’s more important than ever to celebrate feminist warriors,” which you can do for free if you subscribe to Amazon Prime or use their 30-day-free-trial. As for a Musical Metaphor, what else could I use but Van Morrison’s “Gloria” (a 1964 hit with his band, Them; on the 1965 The Angry Young Them album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RII_Uhfw2Wg (another example of miserable video but shot live, roughly from the time of release) because whether Ms. Steinem “[…] comes around here At just about midnight” or not, her life’s work (not done yet) should make anyone, female or male, say “She make ya feel so good, Lord She make ya feel all right”—without dragging those sexual connotations of the "Gloria" song into our Metaphor lest we get swept up into a tornado.
*If you scan the content-strip below the video screen for this link you’ll find other Anatomies of a Scene from my relatively-recent-postings on The Devil All the Time (Antonio Campos; review in our September 24, 2020 posting), Mulan [2020] (Niki Caro; review in our September 17, 2020 posting), Palm Springs (Max Barbakow; review in our July 16, 2020 posting), Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee; review in our June 25, 2020 posting), The King of Staten Island (Judd Apatow; review in our June 25, 2020 posting), and The Vast of Night (Andrew Patterson; review in our June 4, 2020 posting). Take a look.
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. Pacific 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 the down arrow at the right of each listing to get additional, useful info.
I’ll bet if you checked that entire schedule link just above you’d find other options of interest, but these are the only ones grabbing my attention at present. Please dig in further for other possibilities.
Saturday October 10, 2020
12:15 AM Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968) Another of my periodic suggestions based not so much on cinematic quality but on cult-status, especially because it led to several sequels (all directed by Romero) and a remake of this original (Tom Savini, 1990), as well as inspiring a seemingly-never-ending glut of zombie movies into the present. It’s grotesquely gory at times, maybe the scariest thing I’ve ever seen, but with an even more chilling sociopolitical ending.
6:00 PM Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935) Ginger Rogers again teamed with famed-partner Fred Astaire in what I call a Performance Musical (a thin plot existing only to give the stars an opportunity to showcase their skills on screen). A professional dancer (Astaire) in London for a show falls in love at first sight (with Rogers) but misunderstandings keep them apart until their reconciliation in Venice. Silly as hell but fun to watch; songs by Irving Berlin and Max Steiner in a true classic of the genre.
Sunday October 11, 2020
4:00 AM Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986) If you're open to it, this is one of Allen’s best. He’s ex-husband of Mia Farrow (ironic), her current spouse (Michael Caine) is in an affair with her sister (Barbara Hershey) who leaves her previous lover (Max Von Sydow); Allen eventually connects with another sister (Dianne Wiest)—Carrie Fisher, Maureen O’Sullivan are in there too. Oscars for Best Original Screenplay (Allen), Supporting Actor (Von Sydow), and Supporting Actress (Wiest).
12:00 PM Sounder (Martin Ritt, 1972) A Black sharecropper family in Depression-era Louisiana struggles to balance their immediate economic survival (ultimately, the father’s jailed for stealing a ham to feed his family) with a better future opportunity for their son as he stumbles upon a chance for getting an education, hopefully leading him out of such poverty (by the way, Sounder’s their dog); starring Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield as the parents, Kevin Hooks as the boy. Very well-honored.
10:00 PM The Odd Couple (Gene Saks, 1968) Written by Neil Simon, adapted from his 1965 play (inspired an ABC TV series—1970-’75—with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman), about divorced guys who end up sharing an apartment, Felix Ungar (Jack Lemmon), a neurotic-neatnik, and Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau), a sportswriter-slob, their innate differences leading to constant conflicts which play for great comedy to the audience as these men come to know/appreciate each other.
Monday October 12, 2020
9:00 AM King Kong (Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack, 1933) Original tale of a huge ape
on a secluded island with natives and dinosaurs, taken away by an entrepreneurial filmmaker as an NYC stage attraction until all hell breaks loose. Marvelous stop-motion-animation by Willis O’Brien of the island’s creatures (racist stereotypes of the natives, though), culminating with Kong’s capture of Fay Wray, carrying her with him to the top of the Empire State Building for the (sad) grand finale.
12:30 PM Gojira (Ishiro Honda, 1954) Based on info provided I assume this is the original Japanese version (in that language, subtitles provided?) rather than the slightly-later “Americanized” version with dubbed dialogue and insertion of Raymond Burr as a reporter covering the "Godzilla" attack on Tokyo; this begins the longest-running movie franchise in history (36) even with the crude special effects and seeming-commentary about devastation in Japan from the WW II U.S. atomic bombs.
Wednesday October 14, 2020
4:00 PM Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932) A very disturbing horror film (pre-Hays Code when movies had minimal restrictions) about a circus trapeze artist who plans to marry a dwarf only to collect his huge inheritance, so she pretends to buddy up with all the sideshow folks who sport various physical abnormalities even though privately she can’t stand these people. What happens to her must be seen to be believed, although the original cut was too unnerving for audiences of the time so it was edited, didn’t do well at the box-office, but has since become a classic of unrelenting social critique.
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 extra items you might be interested in: (1) Cineworld theaters hit heavily by coronavirus; (2) Tenet's low box-office indicative of struggling theaters worldwide; (3) Bond movie delay a huge problem for many theaters' continuance. As usual for now I’ll close out 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.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
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Here’s more information about The Artist’s Wife:
https://strandreleasing.com/films/the-artists-wife/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw5RVSYIrAs (21:49 interview with director Tom Dolby and actor Lena Olin)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_artists_wife
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-artists-wife
Here’s more information about The Glorias:
https://www.thegloriasmovie.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ovxEG7eiqk (4:54 interview with director Julie Taymor and film subject Gloria Steinem)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_glorias
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-glorias
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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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