American Stories: From Hopeful To Disgraceful
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.
Minari (Lee Isaac Chung) rated PG-13 115 min.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): The Golden Globes have now been presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), so you can go to their official site listed down in the Related Links section for more details on the winners (a few of them are relevant to remarks I’m making in this week’s reviews so those are incorporated into the following comments), but I'll state at the outset I was only marginally successful in matching my preferred choices to their decisions, my favorites in 13 of the film categories I offered a decision on matched theirs 8 times (62%), some of that made more difficult by my not having seen all of their nominees yet; however, the industry-insiders at Variety made actual predictions (not preferences, like me) in 11 of those categories (go here, then scroll down a long way to link to each of those 11 clusters of predictions) so their matching rate (55%) wasn’t even as good as mine (given how little I’ve seen of most of what HFPA nominated in the world of TV, I didn’t bother to note favorites for those categories). While I don’t put a lot of credence into what a bit fewer than 90 international journalists pick for their winners, I do admit these awards seem to have stronger influence with Oscar-nominating-voters than those from various critics’ groups so we’ll see in a couple of weeks what overlaps may arise (if you’re interested in snubs and surprises—including Andra Day for The United States vs. Billie Holiday—about this year’s Globe winners, you can read the details here [no surprises, though, regarding Minari’s win]).
As for my reviews, I’ll begin with Minari, which deals with a Korean family making their way across the globe, as they first settle in California but find little option of financial independence so they buy farm land in Arkansas, although the husband’s much more optimistic about success than is his wife; this is a quiet, serious, relevant story (especially with our ongoing political debates about immigrants and what they contribute to our society), winner of many awards already, poised for additional ones. It’s available for streaming on several platforms (including Amazon Prime) for $19.99, well worth it unless you just have no interest in this type of fare. In the Short Takes section (which, I admit, isn’t too short this time, nor is this entire posting, contrary to my 2021 intentions; however, these films have inspired me to explore them at what I feel is proper length) I’ll look at The United States vs. Billie Holiday, based on the history of this famous singer but substantially fictionalized as her success on stage in the 1940s leads to increasing hassles with the government regarding both her heroin use and the disturbing-popularity of her anti-lynching-song, “Strange Fruit”; available to Hulu streaming subscribers. Also in that Short (?) section I’ll offer suggestions for 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.
Here’s the trailer for Minari:
(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: Back in the 1980s a Korean couple, Jacob (Steven Yeun) and Monica Yi (Yeri Han), move to the U.S. in search of the American material dream, settling first in California where they work as chicken sexers. (There's nothing pornographic about this, although it does have a sad component: factory farms need experts [which, according to director Chung, a good many Korean immigrants are] to accurately determine the sex of baby chicks so females can be kept for future eggs and meat, males are destroyed.) Expenses vs. wages there make it clear they’ll always be scraping by so they put what savings they have into buying a small farm in Arkansas, move with their young daughter Anne (Noel Kate Cho), younger son David (Alan Kim) where they live on the land in a beat-up-mobile-home, initially taking jobs again as sexers (Jacob’s quick with it, taught the skill to Monica, yet she’s considerably slower although she does get some help from other Korean woman in the plant where they work). Nevertheless, David wants to devote himself to farming, raising Korean vegetables and fruits which he’s sure he’ll sell to large markets in the area in anticipation of a growing wave of Korean settlers coming to the U.S. (Aided by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which reversed decades of non-Western European-exclusion—however, I got that info from a TIME magazine article linked a bit farther below, it’s not mentioned in the film; this LBJ-era-law sure stands in sharp contrast to the anti-immigration-stance of the recent Trump administration, largely directed at Central American Hispanics, Asian/African Muslims, but generally unsupportive of anyone coming here who couldn’t be immediately financially independent, with limits there as well.)
Overall, Monica’s tolerated David’s dreams but gets increasingly frustrated because at least in California they had a supportive local community but now they know almost no one (we see hardly anyone but rural White people in their new environment), she’s concerned they’ve already given too much of their sparse resources to David’s family, and she’s very troubled this new investment'll leave them broke, unable to care for their children, especially when he’s just spent $2,000 on a tractor; a leaky roof when the rains come along with fear during a tornado watch don’t help her mood much either. Further, they can’t afford to buy water for the farm so he also needs to locate a water source on their property soon or they won’t be able to raise anything. (At least the children settle into their new school relatively unscathed—one kid asks David why he has a flat face, the boy says he doesn’t, then they become friends—but the location’s another hassle for Monica because of the time/distance involved driving/retrieving them there, even as she continues with the chicken work.)
As a means of getting help for David caring for the kids when they’re at home while he needs to be out in the fields, as well as providing a family tie for Monica, he suggests bringing her mother, Soon-ja (noted Korean actor Youn Yuh-jung), to the farm, which soon happens. She arrives with long-longed-for-foods-from-home along with other little presents so Monica’s especially happy to see her, although David’s very standoffish because she’s not like a “real grandmother” (she doesn’t cook or read, loves to play card games [she’s a bit of a hustler], curses like a sailor) so she tries to accommodate him (especially with a shared taste for Mountain Dew), a somewhat fragile child with a fragile heart condition. Jacob gets additional help from his tractor-deliveryman, Paul (Will Patton), a friendly, dedicated-evangelical-Christian who knows farming well (finds water with a divining rod), speaks in tongues to cast out demons, generally becomes an unofficial partner in the farm. Next, Monica decides to fill their lack of attending a Korean church (none anywhere close) by simply taking the family to the nearest congregation where they’re actively welcomed (even as Paul spends his Sundays in private penance walking through the fields carrying a good-sized-wooden-cross on his back), while Soon-ja makes her own contributions by planting the hearty herb minari in a creekbed on their property. Just as things start looking stable, though, a string of problems arrives: first, the well runs dry panicking David to find another one, which he does with Paul’s help; then his intended buyer in Dallas decides to procure his product elsewhere (California!) leaving David panicked again he’ll have nowhere to sell his crop; these problems push Monica to a near-breaking-point, as she’s ready to return to CA, even if just on her own, when further tragedy strikes as Grandma has a stroke, which she recovers from with treatment, though now she's hindered in both speech and movement.
⇒As this plot moves onward, both positive and negative events define further difficulties. In Oklahoma City a doctor notes improvement in David’s heart condition, advises the family they should continue whatever they’re doing to further help him (essentially, as we understand, stay on the farm); while in the city, Jacob makes an agreement with a grocer to buy his produce but when he later admits to Monica the farm’s more important to him than his family she wants to separate. Before that can happen, though, Soon-ja’s burning trash in an oil drum one night (as a kid I used to do that at my grandmother’s home in a small town in West Texas, the county coming by periodically to haul off the ashes) when the fire gets out of control, burns down the barn where Jacob’s stored all his veggies. Grandma starts walking away despondently until David and Anne stop her, bring her home. In a change of heart, Monica agrees to stay on the farm as it all ends with Jacob and David marveling over Soon-ja’s huge minari crop so we’ll assume that will help them get by until starting again with more planting in the next year, hopefully surviving but no guarantees of these results.⇐
So What? In a sneaky tactic to try to get you interested enough in this humane-yet-somewhat-tragic-at-times-film, I’ve left it to now to finally admit much of the dialogue’s among the family where they mostly speak Korean, hence a lot of what you hear on screen must be translated into subtitles unless you speak that language. Reading what’s being said as the action flows shouldn’t be an awful hindrance to appreciating cinematic art, but I realize it puts off many potential viewers as a distraction (especially seen on a small computer screen/cellphone), so all I can do is: (1) Heartily encourage you to watch Minari; (2) See it on a large enough screen so you can easily read the subtitles, don’t let that become a reason to avoid this fine film, likely one of my Top 10 of 2020 (including those finally released in early 2021, still eligible for this year’s various awards). Even if you think the plights of immigrants don’t constitute a story you want to spend time with, instead realize this family’s facing the same difficulties plaguing many hard-working, limited-resource Americans who just want to provide a decent life for their families, trying to turn their one advantage of “good dirt” into financial independence, acceptance in a community. Ironically, though, the HFPA, while honoring this film last Sunday with their Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language award, stirred up a lot of heat by not allowing it to compete for overall Best Motion Picture – Drama because their rules require such contenders to use at least 50% English dialogue, so even though this film’s made in the U.S. by a Korean-American director (who grew up in Arkansas in circumstances he’s incorporated into this stunning work), using mostly Asian-American actors, it was forced in the Golden Globes competition to go up against entries actually made in other countries. (Same situation—in Chinese—last year at the Globes when The Farewell [Lulu Wang, 2019; review in our August 8, 2019 posting] suffered the same fate, although the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences overcame such divisions by allowing Parasite [Bong Joon-ho, 2019; review in our October 31, 2019 posting] to compete for [and win] both Best Picture and Best International Film Oscars [although a little different as it’s truly Korean, made entirely in that country while using native actors]).
I’ll easily acknowledge these awards groups face complex-categorization-difficulties when trying to differentiate non-Hollywood products into a “safer” category so they have a better chance to compete in contests where the vast majority of voters are Americans; thus, “foreign language” may be a bit clearer than “international” due to many U.S. films being shot abroad so you want something else than production location as your defining term, but when an American-made-film such as Minari has to compete against actual international product it certainly creates a lot of problems. All that aside, though, Minari’s taken a lot of prizes (67 so far when I went to "press," plus 161 nominations) in addition to its Golden Globe, along with being in competition at the Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Male Leading Role (Yeun), Outstanding Female Supporting Role (Youn), in addition to Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture (their version of Best Film), so check out the SAG results on Sunday April 4, 2021, 3 weeks before the Oscars (those noms due on Monday March 15, 2021). You can also look in the Related Links section of this posting (very far below) for the current summaries of awards/nominations where Minari’s at #3 (as I posted this) for Best Picture, while Chung’s at #5 for Best Director, Yeun’s at #5 for Best Actor, Youn’s at #1 for Best Supporting Actress, Chung’s screenplay’s at #3 (in light of what’s noted above, it’s also at #2 for Best Foreign Language/International Feature); as far as Critics’ Top 10 lists go, it’s at #6. I find Minari to be a beautifully-subtle film, like Nomadland (Chloé Zhao; review in our February 25, 2021 posting [#1 on many of those lists just above]) a tale of people trying to find a place in our society where they have few attributes of traditional U.S. success except resilience (just like the hardy plant that titles Chung’s film) with aspects that feel almost documentary-like (reflecting the reality screenwriter Chung grew up in), although Minari’s populated with actors, unlike the actual nomads incorporated into Zhao’s even-more-compelling-masterpiece. I recommend Minari highly for all of its cinematic aspects as well as its humanity in helping giving presence to the struggles of so many contemporary Americans, hoping some version of a diving rod could lead them to a greatly-needed-manifestation of salvation.
Minari! (Also called water dropwort.) Yum, yum! Let’s have some!
Bottom Line Final Comments: But don’t just take my word for it; the CCAL’s very high on Minari (early on discussed as a possible 1-2 punch of Korean-based Oscar Best Pictures after Parasite, but despite how well it may do in the major upcoming awards races the Oscar front-runner's Nomadland, another Asian-American director also in the lead), Rotten Tomatoes critics at a lofty 98% positive reviews while those at Metacritic come in with an 88% average score (2nd best for them this year of anything both they and I have reviewed, topped only by Nomadland). While you might be able to find Minari in a theater as more of them open up (still not in my county near San Francisco, though) you can definitely see it on several streaming platforms (for convenience I chose Amazon Prime) at $19.99 so think about what I’ve offered to you on this film if that’s a considerable investment, but I do think you’d find it worth your time, your emotions, your embrace. OK, I’ll wrap this up with my usual device of a Musical Metaphor to cap off what I’ve previously explored, but—as with my 3 alternatives on 1 song in the review of … Billie Holiday just below—I’m going with multiple options here, beginning with Woody Guthrie (from Arkansas’ neighbor, Oklahoma [where Minari’s actually shot]), whose folk-standard “This Land Is Your Land” speaks clearly to me of the Yi family’s acceptance (despite their struggles) into what’s a “foreign” community for them with hopes that wherever we live, “From the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters” (echoing my own life, now in northern CA, previously in Galveston, TX [even a short time on a “New York island” in Queens]), we can work together, live together, support each other as “the fog was lifting This land was made for you and me.” (However, as my socialist sympathies align with Guthrie’s I must use this version at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AePCvFrggZM where Woody includes an original 1940 verse about shared resources: “There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me Sign was painted said 'Private Property' But on the back side it didn’t say nothing This land was made for you and me.” 👍)
However, I’m also compelled to use Steve Fromholz’s masterpiece, “Texas Trilogy” (from the 1969 Frummox album, Here to There) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvFaKxN03-o, also about a neighboring Arkansas state, also with similar situations of struggling small towns, personal crises, battles with the elements to sustain your livelihood. It’s not exactly what the Yi family experiences, but there are clear resonances in this song-cycle that maybe will get the point of Minari across in its extended, conceptual manner if you just prefer to read all this, save 20 bucks by not renting the film.
SHORT TAKES (in principle, not always in reality, as with this lengthy … Holiday review just below; spoilers also appear here)
Based in history but a freely-fictionalized biopic of famed singer, civil rights-advocate Holiday whose determination to keep singing the anti-lynching song, “Strange Fruit,” brought retaliation from the U.S. government who used an agent-infiltrator to gather information on her frequent (illegal) drug use and bisexual affairs with women to callously use against her, derail her career, despite her resilience.
Here’s the trailer:
Before reading further, please refer to the plot spoilers warning detailed far above.
In the first major attempt at a film about Billie Holiday’s (real name, Eleanora Fagan) life since the marvelous Lady Sings the Blues (Sidney J. Furie, 1972; Diana Ross as Holiday [Best Actress Oscar nomination])—although there was a TV movie, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (Lonny Price, 2016) with Audra McDonald as Holiday (Lead Actress Emmy nomination)—director Daniels presents what he says is a fictionalized-account of the life of this famous singer not intended as a fact-filled-biography, because he says that accounts of her exploits, even those written by her, are difficult to verify anyway (similarly, most of what we see in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom [George C. Wolfe, 2020; review in our December 31, 2020 posting] is inspired by history but largely the creation of inspired-playwright-August Wilson).* The structure is a 1957 taped interview of Billie (Andra Day) for later radio play by fictional Reginald Lord Devine (Leslie Jordan) which takes us back 10 years to the height of Holiday’s fame, building since the mid-1930s but with ongoing harassment from the Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics, headed by Harry J. Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund) who agreed with FBI head J. Edgar Hoover that Holiday’s well-known song, “Strange Fruit” (written as a poem [1937] by Bronx schoolteacher/musician Abel Meeropol; recorded by Billie in 1939), confronting the horror of lynching, was “un-American,” stirred people up too much, so she was forbidden to sing it, was once hauled off stage in an act of blatant censorship for attempting to do so.
To further silence Holiday, Anslinger sent one of his few Black agents, Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), to cozy up to Billie and her crew, knowing she used heroin (he even takes a dose in an attempt to show his sincerity), waiting for the appropriate time for a bust (similar situation in Judas and the Black Messiah [Shaka King; review in our February 18, 2021 posting] in the late 1960s where Illinois Black Panther chairman Fred Hampton [Daniel Kaluuya—Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture] is infiltrated by Hoover’s agent, Bill O’Neal [LaKeith Stanfield]). Despite Billie’s domineering-but-protective husband, James Monroe (Erik LaRay Harvey)—married 1941-’47—Jimmy gets romantically close with her, then sets her up for an arrest in 1947 (hence, the film’s title, along with the sense of ongoing government persecution of this famous woman) after the failed “… Fruit” attempt (as part of the raid, Fletcher reveals his true self; in anger, she strips naked).
*If you’d like to see explorations of fact vs. fiction in … Holiday you can consult these accounts in Slate and the Los Angeles Times; you might also like to look at the official Billie Holiday website.
Her lawyer convinces her she’ll be sent to rehab but instead the judge’s sentence is a year and a day in prison, after which Billie returns to a triumphant 1948 Carnegie Hall concert, but without her needed cabaret license she couldn’t perform anywhere alcohol was served until new manager John Levy (Tone Bell) gets her into the Ebony Club due to his connections with NYC cops. ⇒Holiday’s attempts at going straight backslide due to junk supplied by her trumpeter, Joe Guy (Melvin Gregg)—also a husband 1951-’57—even as Fletcher continues on her case (yet clearly infatuated), gets Billie set up for another arrest in 1949, but then his own testimony at trial greatly aids her acquittal; not letting the Feds know how personally involved he is (despite conflicts with husband #3, Louis McKay [Rob Morgan]—married from 1957 until her death in 1959 at age 44 from pulmonary edema, heart failure due to liver cirrhosis) Jimmy continues to pine for her even as Anslinger has her arrested again (for planted drugs in her hospital room!) as her health fails, handcuffs her to the deathbed.⇐
Opening and closing graphics tell us how a 1937 attempt at an anti-lynching bill failed in the U.S. Senate, attempts still unsuccessful up through 2020, even as Anslinger had a successful, honored career until retirement in 1962. Like Judas …, as well as The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin, 2020; review in our October 22, 2020 posting; winner of the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay – Motion Picture) about the callous aftermath of the massive antiwar-protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention, … Holiday is an indictment of how our "protective"-government for decades has used unethical/illegal tactics to harass those actively-critical of U.S. policies, entrenched racism, cultural hegemony, especially if they're considered to be/aligned with Communists, although in this case Anslinger and Fletcher are vocally opposed to drugs (although Jimmy’s concern at least is about how they’re destroying Black communities) while Harry makes it clear he also doesn’t care for Blacks in general, except when he can manipulate them as with Fletcher. Critical opinion of … Holiday clearly swings into OCCU territory (near-matching-results: RT 55% positive reviews, MC 52% average score) with Rolling Stone’s K. Austin Collins opinion typical of the naysayers: “a brutally thin sketch of the woman, is all the movie is prepared to give us […] it mostly makes you crave a movie more deserving.” Further, I’ll admit the chronology’s a bit confusing at times so you might want to scan a Holiday biography before viewing, if you choose to do so (a good decision, I’ll say).
Still, critics' objections aside, exquisite-singer Andra Day, in her film debut, is found by many to be quite "deserving," especially the HFPA, which surprisingly awarded her their statuette for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, beating out more-likely-contenders like Viola Davis (Ma Rainey …), Frances McDormand (Nomadland [Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Direction – Motion Picture; review in our February 25, 2021 posting]—although these competitors of Day’s are both nominated by the Screen Actors Guild while she's not; we’ll soon see how she fares with the Oscar nominations), which beat predictions from me and Variety, where we both had her at #5 of 5 (although their prediction of Carey Mulligan for Promising Young Woman [Emerald Fennell; review in our January 28, 2021 posting] didn’t hold up either [I’d hoped for Davis, even more impactful than Day in my opinion]). Well, enough from me, especially on something supposed to be explored in Short Takes-compression-fashion (yet it keeps deserving more; therefore, I respond as called), so I’ll close with the Musical Metaphor of (what else?) “Strange Fruit,” in that its content, controversy, and association with Holiday is essentially what this film’s all about. I’ll start with Billie’s version at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bckob0AyKCA (filmed late in her life), followed by Andra Day's version in the film, plus a music video using Day’s music, imagery alluding to … Holiday’s content but not directly taken from the film. Despite the weak critical support, I encourage you to consider seeing this if for no other reason than the superb singing of the new “Lady Day," along with showing poignant challenges to entrenched racism in our society; considerations of how some “drug addicts” (like Billie) are just trying to ease the pain of rape as a 10-year-old, prostitution forced on her by her mother, abusive actions by most men in her life; more evidence of how oppressively hostile our own government can be to those it (but not necessarily many of the rest of us) considers to be “dangerous” to traditional American values (at least the current Biden administration’s trying desperately to deal with those who create violence in support of such “values,” warped as they can become in some minds). The United States vs. Billie Holiday’s available for streaming on Hulu for a mere $5.99 monthly for it and everything else they might offer.
Finally, while unrelated to The United States vs. Billie Holiday (or Minari or anything else in this week's posting for that matter) but crucially connected to music (and significant historical events), because I’ve had little solid rationale to make much mention here of my marvelous wife, Nina Kindblad, in recent postings (Gee, I wonder if she noticed that?) I’ll now gladly call grateful attention to the fact that we recently celebrated yet another loving anniversary of our chance meeting back in late February 1987 at the Paul Simon Graceland concert tour (in the Berkeley [CA] Community Theater) which has led to our marvelous constant-connection (and 1990 marriage) ever since; so, my love, Happy 34 years ago with an apt Musical Memory for us from the guy who inadvertently brought us together that night as we hunted for scalper tickets for his sold-out event, "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" (on that magnificent 1986 Graceland album), because you too stroll through life so elevated by wonder as if you have some precious magic gliding you along. Thanks again for keeping me on the journey all this time. (Even better, we got into the concert!)
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 for U.S. Pacific zone 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 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 March 4, 2021
5:00 PM Gone with Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939) I may lose readers for mentioning this movie with its despicable, sappy presentation of slavery (although it gained a crucial Oscar for Hattie McDaniel, first for a Black actor) but from a production-values-perspective for its time it’s a triumph of the old studio system (even as it glorifies the “Lost Cause” of the Confederacy). Famous for romance of scheming Scarlett O’Hara (Vivian Leigh), dashing Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). Won Oscars for Best Picture plus Director, Adapted Screenplay (Sidney Howard), Actress (Leigh), Supporting Actress (McDaniel), Color Cinematography, Film Editing, Art Direction plus a Special Award to Production Designer William Cameron Menzies for use of color, and a Technical Achievement Honorary Award. Still box-office champ, adjusted for inflation; will TCM address Black Lives Matter considerations?
11:00 PM 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 they 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.
Friday March 5, 2021
6:45 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 torn paper, though).
8:45 PM North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) One of Hitchcock’s top achievements (that’s saying a lot) about a case of mistaken-identity gone terribly wrong as ad executive Roger Thornhill (Gary Grant) is thought to be a U.S. spy, hunted by thugs working for a foreign agent (James Mason). A marvelous collage of great scenes including the crop-duster-in-the-cornfield; also stars Eve Marie Saint, Leo G. Carroll, Martin Landau providing a great combination of tension and laughs.
Saturday March 6, 2021
5:00 PM AM Gandhi (Richard Attenborough, 1982) Biography of famous nonviolent-activist Mahatma Gandhi whose protests for rights for Asian Indians led to legal victories against the British Empire in South Africa and India, later contributes to his home-country’s freedom from the Empire; marvelous lead by Ben Kingsley. Won Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actor (Kingsley), Original Screenplay (John Briley), Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, and Editing (nominated for 3 more).
Monday March 8, 2021
2:30 PM Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948) Fiction about Chisholm Trail cattle drives from Texas to Midwest railroad centers; John Wayne as Thomas Dunson, a grizzled tyrant in charge of a large herd who feuds with adopted son Matt (Montgomery Clift) leading to Matt overthrowing Tom’s leadership, leaving a lady love (Joanne Dru) behind in a rush to beat Tom to Abilene, KS to sell the herd but inevitable confrontation between the 2 men occurs. Often considered one of the best westerns.
Wednesday March 10, 2021
7:00 PM Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984) Marvelous story of a man (Harry Dean Stanton) who's physically/mentally lost for a time, wanders back out of the desert, reunites with his young son, goes to Houston seeking his ex-wife (Nastassja Kinski), now a stripper at a peep-show club. Excellent renderings of American situations by a German director (don’t worry; it’s in English)—connective for me because my Dad was born in Paris, TX. Took top prize (Palme d’Or) at Cannes Film Festival.
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 like: (1) Vulture picks the Top 50 westerns (for me #1 would have to be Unforgiven [Clint Eastwood, 1992]); (2) 366 Feature films eligible for Oscar consideration this year in various categories. As usual for now I’ll close out this section with Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” "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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AND … at least until the Oscars for 2020’s releases have been awarded on Sunday, April 25, 2021 we’re also going to include reminders in each posting of very informative links where you can get updated tallies of which films have been nominated for and/or received various awards and which ones made various individual critic’s Top 10 lists. You may find the diversity among the various awards competitions and the various critics hard to reconcile at times—not to mention the often-significant-gap between critics’ choices and competitive-award-winners (which pales when they’re compared to the even-more-noticeable-gap between specific award winners and big box-office-grosses you might want to monitor here as well as here due to many 2020 releases being tracked on the 2021 list, although the income situation for 2020’s skewed due to so many award-contenders getting limited or no theatrical releases)—but as that less-than-enthusiastic-patron-of-the-arts, Plato, noted in The Symposium (385-380 BC)—roughly translated, depending on how accurate you wish the actual quote to be—“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder,” so your choices for success are as valid as any of these others, especially if you offer some rationale for your decisions (unlike many of the awards voters who simply fill out ballots, sometimes—damn it!—for films they’ve never seen).
To save you a little time scrolling through the “various awards” list above, here are the current Golden Globes nominees and winners for films and TV from 2020-early 2021.
Here’s more information about Minari:
https://a24films.com/films/minari
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7seLx57WVNE (36:01 interview with director-screenwriter Lee Isaac Chung and actor Steven Yeun)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/minari
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/minari
Here’s more information about The United States vs. Billie Holiday:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8521718/reference (best I can do for an official site)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5Sdkw5NmuE (27:14 interview with director Lee Daniels and actors Andra Day, Trevante Rhodes)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_united_states_vs_billie_holiday
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-united-states-vs-billie-holiday
Please note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post. You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow connect
with us at that site in order to do it (most FB procedures are still a bit of a mystery to us old farts).
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.
OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.
Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 28,136 (as always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers); below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for all of those “Others” also visiting Two Guys' site):
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