Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
Thanksgiving 2020 will be a different experience for many of us (except for those whose sad fate is hunger on a regular basis; please donate what you can to local food banks to help your neighbors) so I didn’t want to use an image here focused too much on mounds of food and family gatherings (there’ll be plenty of that anyway in some situations, but overall I just hope we’re being as safe as possible during these dark days of COVID-19, sharing whatever bounties we might have with those struggling with employment, rent, illness, depression). Yet, even amid these challenges many of us do have reason to be thankful for health, stability, comforting relationships, hopes for better days in 2021. However you may be experiencing this holiday, Two Guys wish you the best for now, more joy as we work through this pandemic together. One minor attempt on my part to help this along is to hold off on movie reviews for a minute, instead rejoicing in a fabulously-upbeat song from decades ago, Bruce Springsteen’s "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"—on his 1973 The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle album—not because it has anything to do with these reviews or difficult times we’re facing but instead it presents a joyous, energetic relief from our present consternations, so “jump a little lighter” with Two Guys in the Dark as we tackle this weird version of year-end-holidays.
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): After a brief flurry of movie theater openings in my San Francisco area most of them have had to shut down again during another surge of coronavirus cases (here, there, and everywhere) so these reviews will continue for who-knows-how-much-longer into the realm of streaming; fortunately, I’m finding interesting options to share with you, maybe you’ll choose some (or more) of these downloads as well, although with The Nest you may have to hunt around for it because my generally-reliable-streaming-info-site, JustWatch, last week led me to a choice of options including Vudu (no Amazon Prime option, easy for me to access) so I signed up for it there, got a great price ($3.49); now, supposedly, they think it’s just on Amazon Prime (for $5.99), although I checked Vudu to find it’s still there too. Wherever you can locate The Nest I think you’d find it interesting in a pure relationship-drama-manner although with none of the extreme trauma that drives other examples of this sort such as the current HBO cable series from David E. Kelly, The Undoing, where Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant are working their way through infidelity, murder, troubling questions about circumstantial evidence regarding the grisly crime. Instead, The Nest features another notable English actor, Jude Law, a commodities trader in 1986 who moves his life, wife, and 2 kids from the U.S. back to the rural outskirts of London in his quest for greater material gain only to find all his plans falling through, his acquisitions becoming far beyond his means, even the horse he bought for his wife needing to be put down. There’s excellent acting here in the midst of a simmering-toward-boil-situation that’s all viable, not exaggerated for dramatic effect. Then, in the Short Takes section I’ll offer comments on Dreamland, a 1934-set drama with Margot Robbie as a bank robber in hiding striking up a relationship (and escape plans) with a local Texas teenager eagerly ready to escape the drudgery of Dustbowl farming life. There are clear overtones of Bonnie and Clyde (and other relevant films) here which work to hold back my stars-rating, only because I find Dreamland to be just a bit too derivative but still enjoyable enough for you to consider exploring.
Yes, I know that in my previous posting I argued Jungleland (Max Winkler) should be judged on its own fine merits rather than be held back in evaluation just because it shows many structural/thematic-similarities to other (even better) films of like content, so why am I being more strict where Dreamland is concerned? The simple answer is that Dreamland—despite its many fine qualities which I found enjoyable—just can’t earn an inclusion among such closely-related-filmic-accomplishments as The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940), Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967), or Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991), while Jungleland does have arguable reason to be discussed in the same breath as The Fighter (David O. Russell, 2010), Warrior (Gavin O’Connor, 2011), even some aspects of On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954); Dreamland just isn’t up to the standards of the significant forerunners it shares some story and character elements with, so while I still recommend seeing it (available on several streaming platforms; I went with Amazon Prime at $9.99 for a rental) I can’t say it quite brings itself into a balanced, equitable conversation about films it clearly owes some heritage to. 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, ye tedious software!) along with my standard dose of industry-related-trivia.
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate
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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 cash. 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: This story’s conceptually set in 1986 during (one of) the raging-acquisition period(s) epitomized by Gordon Gekko’s (Michael Douglas [Best Actor Oscar for the role]) “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good” mantra in Wall Street (Oliver Stone, 1987)—OK, certainly for some people that’s always the goal no matter what else is going on in the world, not just in certain prior decades (including today when pandering-Presidential-cronies are hoping for one last mega-benefit)—as an Englishman, marginally-successful-commodities-trader Rory O’Hara (Jude Law), thinks he’d have better opportunities if he returned to London to work for his old boss, Arthur Davis (Michael Culkin), requiring his American family—wife Allison (Carrie Coon), teenage daughter Samantha (Oona Roche) from a previous Allison relationship, young son Ben (Charlie Shotwell)—to uproot, hesitantly move to a foreign country (along with being their 4th relocation in the last 10 years). Rory starts off well enough, paying a year’s rent (with option to buy) on an old mansion in county Surrey (somewhat near London), convincing Allison she can start a horse farm (in the U.S. she taught riding) as a stable’s being built for her, enrolling the kids in upscale schools (although their remote location makes it hard for Allison to get them there on time each day, adding another degree of isolation/frustration to what everyone but Rory’s already experiencing). Despite the swank dinner parties with Arthur and his wife that Rory takes Allison to, she’s not all that comfortable in these new surroundings nor is she making headway with Richmond, the horse Rory bought for her. Tensions begin to mount, though, when she finds Rory sought this job more so than it being suddenly offered to him with further trouble coming from him being at work so much, leaving the family alone often (playing into such tense feelings both these parents have, recalling their own miserable upbringings).
Then, the situation takes turns for the worst as work’s halted on the stable due to lack of payment, a check bounces, Allison finds their bank account’s almost empty so she has to dip into personal savings to keep them all solvent, Rory’s big idea is for his company to be sold to an American investor although Arthur rejects the option leaving Rory constantly promising a big payday soon but with little plausibility to back it up. From there it gets even darker for the O’Haras as Richmond collapses—has to be put down by a neighboring farmer—Allison goes to work for him just to bring in some cash, Rory goes off to see his mother who has no interest in meeting his family then returns home for a bitter row with Allison about their dire circumstances. At school Sam makes some questionable druggy friends, Ben’s beaten up by bullies even as Rory forges ahead with a new scheme, helped by colleague Steve (Adeel Akhtar), regarding Norwegian fish-farming, but at a dinner with the potential investors Allison and Rory get into an argument, she leaves (gets drunk in a local bar, passes out in her car) giving these desperately-needed-clients reason to exclude Rory, work only with Steve. ⇒Rory hails a cab to take him home but due to pouring out all of his miseries (including his financial shape—mainly, lack thereof) the driver (James Nelson-Joyce) assumes he won’t be paid for this long trip so he throws Rory out; back at home that night Sam invites her rowdy friends over for an unsanctioned party where they trash the place (she gets sick and passes out), Ben goes outside to get away from the ruckus to find Richmond’s body rising up from a too-shallow-grave. Next morning, Allison wakes up, drives home, breaks down when she sees the dead horse; the kids agree to make breakfast as a calming gesture. Rory finally walks in, tries to interest them in another scheme until he’s cut off by Allison, but Sam hugs him, brings him to a seat at their table.⇐
So What? The Nest may be one of the best arguments against a U.S. couple or family (one of them British) moving to England since the days of Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, 1971) in which American academic David (Dustin Hoffman) gets a grant, moves with wife Amy (Susan George) to her English village in remote Cornwall where he encounters hostility from the locals, doesn’t know that one recent day his wife was raped by a couple of them (they see David as a coward; probably think of him as a constipated mathematician who works it out with a pencil), then events lead a gang to attack their home where David rigs a series of traps and defenses resulting in the goons' deaths. At least in The Nest there’s no physical violence like this, just a big dose of psychological, emotional trauma taking its toll on our relocated family, which causes enough pain for them even though there’s no bloodshed. In fact, what makes The Nest interesting to me is none of the situations Rory brings upon himself and his family result in the kind of fierce trauma usually associated with narratives of this type: no actual bankruptcy, homelessness, affairs, divorce, death or sickness of a child (although it is sad the horse has to die, but, at least, it was from an illness nor a broken leg from a forbidden ride). But, even with these relatively-addressable-challenges the O’Haras face (hard to handle as their specific situations may be) they haven’t fully lost anything that can’t be negotiated back into some form of decent replacement ⇒(Rory has problems at work, often lets his ambitions overcome reason [at one point he attempts to buy a second home closer to London to ease his commute until Allison says “no”], but isn’t out of a job [as best we know], although they’ll likely have to downsize from that mansion, Allison’s horse career at best will be in someone else’s employ, the kids will have to take more responsibility for themselves at school)⇐ although nothing they'll face are easy tasks.
Yet, despite the absence of more-usual-aspects of greater tragedy impacting struggling families in similar cinematic situations, The Nest is a compelling-enough-character-study, especially about how Rory’s delusions of imminent success limit his more-rational-visions, causing difficulty for spouse and offspring in the process. If you'd prefer a psychological horror thrill-ride, rent Straw Dogs (yes, I’ve already told you how it comes out, but watching the process is still fascinating as a much-more-cruel option—and violent, at an R-rated-level; or, if that’s way too heavy, how about a thwarted-invasion-comedy such as Home Alone [Chris Columbus, 1990]? Sorry, I digress. [Oh, you noticed.]), but for a calmer look at the avoidable failures of human aspirations (remember, Rory wasn’t doing badly in the U.S., he just wanted more) I think you’d find The Nest to be a worthwhile consideration. (See the interview with writer/director Durkin in the Related Links section—much farther below here—for his comments on how this all was inspired by his own childhood, living in both England and the U.S.A.)
Bottom Line Final Comments: You’ll find the CCAL’s in league with me in supporting The Nest, with Rotten Tomatoes providing this film with a hearty 88% positive reviews while those at Metacritic give it a 79% average score (more details on both in the Related Links section far below, as with everything I review), making this film only one of eight 2020 releases both MC and I have reviewed (out of 65) to rate this high or even better from them (in case you’re interested in maybe streaming some of these MC embraceables, the others are Never Rarely Sometimes Maybe [Eliza Hittman; review in our April 9, 2020 posting], Invisible Life [Karim Aïnouz; review in our April 16, 2020 posting], Bad Education [Cory Finley; review in our May 7, 2020 posting], The Vast of Night [Andrew Patterson; review in our June 4, 2020 posting], Da 5 Bloods [Spike Lee; review in our June 25, 2020 posting], Palm Springs [Max Barbakow; review in our July 16, 2020 posting], First Cow [Kelly Reichardt; review in our July 23, 2020 posting], most of which I awarded 4 stars to except for the last 2 where I was the sourpuss giving only 3½ stars to each [you can consult our Archives to the top right of this page to access any of these earlier Two Guys reviews]). I’m quite in support of The Nest too, as enthusiastic as my more-visible-colleagues (sadly—from the perspective of immaculate-criticism-quality—Two Guys global readership has dropped from about 35,000 per month to just over 2,000 [like with the Stock Market, I can never predict, certainly never explain, our highs and lows; however, for whoever out there is still reading this blog on any sort of regular—or even occasional—basis, we still thank you for your attention to our ramblings, hope maybe to see a rise again now that political tweets and emails are cooling off a bit). Where you might find The Nest, though, is an interesting twist for me; last weekend when my (thankful I'm married to her for 30 years) wife, Nina, and I decided to stream, JustWatch had it on a few platforms we don’t already access so we added Vudu to our Roku options, rented it for a mere $3.49; as I type this, I see it’s still on Vudu but now for $3.99 while JustWatch shows it only on Amazon Prime for a $5.99 rental, so, if you do decide to explore it, see where you can find it at your convenience while it seems to be playing hide-and-seek.
My chosen Musical Metaphor (the tactic I use in wrapping up each review, with or [often] without a truly clever connection) for The Nest will focus on the greed that proves to be Rory‘s near-undoing as his failures to produce the material gains he promised his family show how the quest of success often leads to a brick wall of frustration (Nina suggested this line of thought; she deserves credit for where I took it from that opening), so I’ll give you 2 cash-oriented-songs mirroring the O’Haras move to England in the success-driven-1980s as well as the acquisition-demands of these tunes (with the implied moral failures of such obsessions) as presented in their lyrics, with the further connection of the bands involved each being the premiere British acts (in my opinion, Rolling Stones fans [I'm one] notwithstanding) of the 1960s and 1970s. We begin with The Beatles, “Money (That’s What I Want)” (written by Barry Gordy and Janie Bradford, the first hit for Motown [Barrett Strong, 1959], on the Fab Four’s 1963 UK With the Beatles album, 1964 US The Beatles Second Album), at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcRsZ-syiHA (live 1963 performance, marginal video quality)—“Your lovin’ gives me a thrill But your lovin’ don’t pay my bills […] Money don’t get everything, it’s true What it don’t get, I can’t use”—then we move on to Pink Floyd’s “Money” (1973 The Dark Side of the Moon album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjgwjh4H7wg (another live performance, this one from 2005 when Roger Waters rejoined his old bandmates [first time since 1981] for the London Live 8 concert)—“Money, get back I’m alright, Jack, keep your hands off my stack Money, it’s a hit Ah, don’t give me that do-goody-good bullshit.” I’m sure I’ve used this pair of songs as Metaphors before, but the reality is there are many cinematic stories relevant to these tunes because for far too many of us, far too often the attitude of “The best things in life are free, but you can keep ‘em for the birds and bees Now, give me money That’s what I want,” is a sad reality but at least one that continues to serve as a moral lesson so don’t be surprised if this sonic pair should pop up again.
(somewhat) SHORT TAKES (spoilers here also)
In the dark days of America’s socioeconomic Depression in 1934 a teenage boy in rural Texas dreams of some sort of interesting life beyond his Dustbowl-plagued farm and demanding stepfather when he discovers a dangerous bank robber/killer hiding in his barn, takes an immediate liking to this woman, believes her side of the story, sets events in motion which will change both of their lives.
Here’s the trailer for Dreamland:
Before reading further, please refer to the plot spoilers warning detailed far above.
In its own way Dreamland evokes aspects of even better tales of crime during the Depression such as The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940) and Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967) without quite reaching the heights of either of those stunning stories of desperation (although this new one shares their effective use of attractively-dismal-cinematography), all of these films increasingly feeling relevant to the pandemic horrors of our own era with growing death counts, economic retrenchment, a growing gap between rich and poor with so many in the Heartland and minority neighborhoods left behind, turning away from a government that suddenly has no relief for them, contributing to a sense of despair so well articulated by a character in The Grapes … from a family about to be thrown off their land: “Who do we shoot?” In Dreamland the answer to that question’s already been decided by bank-robber-on-the-run-Allison Wells (Margot Robbie) who’s lost her family and their property, turned to crime with lover/partner Perry Montroy (Garrett Hedlund)—who died in their latest heist—but her story is she didn’t kill a little girl in the process of the theft/escape. However, about the only person who wants to believe her is 17-year-old (claims he’s 25, possibly to be more plausible as Allison’s next connection because he quickly falls fully in love with her, a bright possibility in his-otherwise-deadend-existence) Eugene Evans (Finn Cole) who discovers her hiding out in his family’s useless barn in Bismark, Childress County (at the bottom of the Texas panhandle, just across the border from Oklahoma), their farm a barren wasteland (like all others around them) during the dual horrors of the country-wide-Depression and mid-continent-Dustbowl devastation that sent so many destitute farmers farther west in hopes of finding work or some salvation from their fragile, doomed existence.
As a young child, Eugene came to this (now God-forsaken) place with his parents Olivia (Kerry Condon) and John Baker (Hans Christopher), looking for a better life on these plains (where farming earlier in the 20th century was once prosperous, as shown in Days of Heaven [Terrence Malick, 1978], yet tragedies similar to what we find in Dreamland haunt that era also), but in these times economic and agricultural conditions were more enduringly-daunting, John was troubled by personal depression and alcoholism so he went to Mexico, sent one postcard to young Eugene noting the paradise of the Gulf Coast there, was then presumed dead (we learn later Olivia kept other cards hidden because John’s statements indicated mental problems, then they ceased so she assumed he did too), although Eugene holds out hope Dad’s still alive somewhere, especially due to the kid’s ongoing clashes with Stepdad George Evans (Travis Fimmel), a local sheriff’s deputy who prefers his own daughter, little Phoebe (Darby Camp)—she gives us ongoing narration (voice of Lola Kirke) about her stepbrother from the time of her adulthood—to this inherited-boy George cares little about.
As George is trying to get the sheriff to increase the $10,000 bounty on Allison in an attempt to galvanize the local farmers into looking more actively for her, Eugene’s trying to help her by following her lead in getting a bullet out of her leg, swiping a dress from Mom’s clothesline so she can change from her bloody attire, going with her at night to a lake where she can clean herself, then trying to help her find a truck she can use to escape to Mexico (after which she says she can send him $20,000); however, when Eugene steals a key for a cabinet in George’s office to look at the evidence against Allison he becomes simultaneously disheartened to find photos further incriminating her as well as more determined than ever to escape with her (after burning the photos), which he does by stealing George’s truck, heading off to Mexico with her. ⇒George and a couple of buddies (with Phoebe hiding in their car, wanting to support her step-sibling) head off in pursuit, finally catch up, shoot Allison dead, but Eugene wounds George in the leg; George tells the others to lay down their guns as Eugene drives off, never to be seen again, hoping he can somehow find John in Mexico.⇐
This is a compelling story with Cole and Robbie especially effective in their roles, particularly as there’s an ongoing conflict of attraction and mistrust between their characters which gives us reason to wonder if Eugene really wants to run off with her or might prefer to reap the considerable reward for turning her in. I found it quite watchable if not fully mesmerizing (Allison’s a very interesting presence but not as fully developed as to who she truly is as would be useful in this context), more or less in league with the CCAL where RT gives it a passible 68% positive reviews, MC’s back to their usual stingy selves with a 57% average score (both based on small samples, though, the former from 34 reviews, the latter only 11; you might check these links again [Related Links below] later to see if anything’s changed). Supposedly it’s in some theaters (not on Box Office Mojo’s tally from last weekend), but I got it on Amazon Prime streaming for $9.99 (several other platforms have it for the same price), recommend it as a story (echoing Bonnie and Clyde) properly set in the 1930s (1934 to be specific from some press info, although nothing in it I noted is that precise) but (also like Bonnie …) resonates with its time of release (the Barrow gang as attractive, historical anti-heroes at a time of 1960’s hot cultural rebellion; Allison and Eugene here as rejected individuals trying to find a place to accommodate their dreams in a time of awful social upheaval, epitomized by a huge dust storm [akin to our pandemic] with wind power so intense it keeps George from getting to the barn to look for this escapee, but when it’s gone by the next morning so are his truck, Allison, and Eugene).
Maybe it’s because I became well aware of this realm of Texas by the mid-1950s when I began visiting my grandmother in the tiny town of Clyde out in the “big country” (with many occasions of my life spent returning for family visits to that region from Amarillo to Abilene [as sung about in “London Homesick Blues” way down toward the end of this and every Two Guys posting]), I have a hard time confining myself to just 1 Musical Metaphor here, with even those I’ve chosen being a stretch of my usual allusive intentions, so I’ll start with the more-obvious-choice of the Eagles “Desperado” (from their 1973 album of the same name) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7dXwwbi3bM as Eugene might be imploring Allison to reconsider her situation of running from the law because “Your pain and your hunger They’re driving you home And freedom, oh, freedom Well that’s just some people talking Your prison is walking through this world all alone.” (Yet, he’s ultimately ready to escape with her to Mexico in hopes of finding a new life, the law be damned in a manner reminiscent of 2 women on the run after their crimes in the marvelous Thelma and Louise [Ridley Scott, 1991].)
However, I’m also drawn to another tune which could be used as a warning to Eugene to put aside the lawless life he’s tempted to be drawn into—especially because he’s never clear how much of a cold-blooded-killer Allison really is—and just escape himself to somewhere else completely from this earlier-version of the Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie, 2016; review in our August 26, 2016 posting) milieu surrounding him by hitting the road on his own without the additional baggage of Allison, summed up in “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone” (originally a 1970 hit for Charlie Pride, then Doug Sahm [of Texas’ Sir Douglas Quintet] had a 1973 version [shown here in 1975]) which I give you at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkY1qnoSCVw by the Tejano supergroup, the Texas Tornados—Sahm, Augie Meyers (another original in the Quintet), Flaco Jiménez (all 3 from San Antonio), Freddy Fender (from Benito, TX in the southernmost-tip, near Brownsville)—a music video celebrating their shared, beloved San Antonio backgrounds (or, if their personal inserts become distracting, here’s the straight recorded version), a song I used to hear in Austin in the mid-1970s on a “country outlaws” radio station (with Bob Dylan, The Beatles, other pop stars in the mix also), one I think could easily have been done by the “kings of western swing,” Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys who formed in Dreamland's 1934 (continued to 1962), with an attitude appropriate for warning Eugene: “Is anybody goin’ to San Antone Or Phoenix, Arizona Anyplace is alright as long as I Can forget I’ve ever known her […] Tomorrow she’ll probably want me back But I’ll be just as gone.” Doubtful Eugene would have listened to such advice, but his journey from Bismark might have been less traumatic if he had at least considered it, despite Allison's powerful spell on his heart.
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 even better; feel free to explore their entire schedule here. You can also click the down arrow at the right of each listing for additional, useful info.
I’ll bet if you checked that entire TCM 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.
Thursday November 26, 2020
5:00 PM Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) An injured, wheelchair-bound photographer (James Stewart) uses his telephoto lens to watch others in his apartment complex, thinks a man's (Raymond Burr) murdered his wife so he gets a friend (Grace Kelly) to help him investigate. Widely regarded as one of Hitchcock’s best (despite its seeming-celebration of voyeurism). Part of a Hitchcock marathon followed at 7:00 PM with The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), 9:15 PM The Birds (1963), and …
11:30 PM Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960) Relatively tame compared to today’s brutal slashers, this foundational movie of the psychological horror subgenre was disturbing enough in its time; the story follows a woman (Janet Leigh) who steals money from her employer in Arizona, tries to hide out in
a small, out-of-the-way motel in California with an odd proprietor (Anthony Perkins), then shocking surprises mount up (also stars Vera Miles, Martin Balsam, John Gavin). Famous for the shower scene but more controversial with the censors for showing a toilet flushing (just paper, though).
Friday November 27, 2020
The Hitchcock marathon continues until 5:00 PM today (check the website yourself for the details); I’ll just note …
1:30 AM Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, 1948) Based on a 1929 play of the same name, itself inspired by the actual 1924 murder of a teenager by college students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb (as
a misguided manifestation of their “intellectual superiority), where Brandon Shaw (John Dall) and
Philip Morgan (Farley Granger) murder their friend, hide his body in a large chest in their apartment, then host a dinner party there attended by their former philosophy professor, Rupert Cadell (James Steward), their crime inspired by his Nietzschean lectures, but he becomes suspicious of their odd actions. While there are a few cuts in this 80 min. film they’re mostly hidden so it seems to be a real-time flow of the action. Features undertones of homosexuality, fascism, and rejection of the latter.
Saturday November 28, 2020
3:00 AM Key Largo (John Huston, 1948) Here’s another crucial gangster story, more in the film noir realm as exiled gangster Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson, alluding to his earlier Rico role in Little Caesar [1931]) is smuggled back into the country during a Florida hurricane where he and his gang take hotel occupants Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore hostage. Claire Trevor as Rocco’s desperate-for-a-drink-moll, Gaye Dawn, won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
11:30 AM Giant (George Stevens, 1956) Another epic story of the West (3 hrs. 21 min.) but a contemporary plot where the owner of a huge west Texas ranch (Rock Hudson) goes East to buy a horse, ends up also with a wife (Elizabeth Taylor) who has more supportive attitudes toward their Mexican workers. His older sister Luz (Mercedes McCambridge) dies, leaves a small plot to a local rounder (James Dean) who finds oil on his land, gets quickly rich, continues over the years to bedevil the main family. Oscar for Best Director (plus 9 more nominations), Dean’s last role before his car-crash death. For the time and location, a surprising ongoing theme of emerging social tolerance.
5:00 PM An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951) All-time great musical about a painter in Paris (Gene Kelley), his neighbor (Oscar Levant), and the woman he loves (Leslie Caron), ends with a spectacular ballet set to Gershwin’s An American in Paris. Nominated for 8 Oscars, won for Best Picture, Story and Screenplay, Art Direction-Color, Cinematography-Color, Costume Design-Color, Scoring of a Musical Picture, plus an Honorary Oscar to Kelly for cinematic versatility, multi-talents.
Monday November 30, 2020
1:30 AM 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963) This one’s not quite on my all-time Top 10 list but certainly would be within the Top 20 (did make #10 on the 2012 Sight & Sound once-a-decade poll of all-time greats by critics, #4 by directors), usually regarded as Fellini’s ultimate masterpiece (but that’s up for debate). A meta-situation about a director (Marcello Mastroianni) struggling to find the proper content for his next film as events and people from his past life begin to intrude on him, resulting in an odd, ambiguous ending (title refers to this being Fellini’s eight and a half-th film after previous features, inclusions in anthologies). Won the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film, Costume Design (B&W).
2:45 PM White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949) A highly-acclaimed gangster movie that’s not so much like the production structures of other film noir stories but certainly features a criminal environment where decency has long been forgotten. Outlaw Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) is brutal, psychotic, troubled with migraines, and Freudian mother-fixated despite being married to Verna (Virginia Mayo). Nobody escapes Cody's wrath, whether he’s on the loose or in prison. You need to see what leads up to (and follows) his final statement: “Made it, Ma! Top of the world!,” but it’s all quite grimly, tensely powerful.
Wednesday November 23, 2020
8:45 PM Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) Still my All-Time #1 (even though Sight and Sound’s poll dethroned it in 2012 in favor of Hitchcock’s Vertigo [1958] after 50 years on top); a triumph of script, acting, cinematography, editing, sound design, art direction, special effects, score, with Welles as director, star actor portraying Charles Foster Kane, an enormously wealthy (by chance as a kid) newspaperman (patterned on William Randolph Hearst) whose early progressive ideals succumb to pragmatics destroying marriages to 2 wives (Ruth Warrick, Dorothy Comingore) and a long-time-friend (Joseph Cotton), retaining loyalty only from his business manager (Everett Sloane). Except for the eye-of-God beginning and end it’s told in flashbacks with 5 narrators imparting their subjective accounts of his life (hard for us to know what’s true). Won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz [grandfather of noted TCM host Ben Mankiewicz]), no others.
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 a couple of extra items you might be interested in: (1) Wonder Woman 1984 to debut on Christmas Day both in theaters and on HBO Max; (2) In 2021 Netflix could set a record for most Best Picture nominations from a single studio. Then, 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.
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Here’s more information about The Nest:
https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/the-nest (a very thin official site)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGQhNQ0XX2M (10:35 interview by Kevin Smith with director Sean Durkin and actors Jude Law, Oona Roche, Charlie Shotwell)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_nest_2020
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-nest
Here’s more information about Dreamland:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5294522/ (best I could find for an official site)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNwYSoGKcgI (4:44 short interview with actor Margot Robbie)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dreamland_2019
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/dreamland-2019
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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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