Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark: July 2021

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

The Tomorrow War plus various Short Takes on suggestions for TCM cable offering and other possibly interesting cinematic topics

“Time, Time, Time, see what’s become of me

While I looked around for my possibilities”

(title taken from "A Hazy Shade of Winter" on the 1968 Simon and Garfunkel Bookends album)

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.

7/14/2021: If you’re tempted to ask “Well, what’s the other guy look like?,” I’ll have to admit the “other guy” is a treadmill in my condo complex’s little gym that clearly won this encounter because—due to my congenital heart condition of a bicuspid aorta value; most people have a tricuspid—as this valve’s been slowly closing up over the years I wasn’t aware it had reached a dangerous level (I did notice being a bit short of breath in recent months if I exerted myself, wondering if the awful “cold” I had in January 2020 was actually a mild case of COVID-19, leaving me with some slightly-diminished-lung-capacity, but, no, it’s more troubling than that) so I blacked out, fell on the device (the EMTs think it continued moving for the next 15 min. of its programmed time, likely the reason why my face is so scarred [along with blood on the t-shirt they had to cut off of me]). I’m fortunate a passing security guard noticed me after I’d been out for about 20 min., called 911, and soon I was off to a nearby trauma center. As I now know, my problem was with the heart value which will soon need to be repaired by some form of surgery (I’ve already been sewed up on my lower lip which I must have deeply bitten on the way down), so with that looming over me I have no idea when I’ll return to posting Two Guys in the Dark reviews (don’t count on my good buddy, Pat Craig, to pick up the slack; I wouldn’t want to spoil his no-reviews-perfect-record); however, I was already planning to announce taking next week off while I turn cook for a change (nothing fancy, just spaghetti, spinach salad, and Chianti), giving my wonderful wife, Nina, some kitchen time off while we do our annual screening over 3 nights of Francis Ford Coppola’s magnificent Godfather trilogy (1972, 1974, 1990).

When I’ll be back after that I can’t say right now, but, hopefully, I won’t be unavailable for too long. However, given that I’ve lost a good bit of my usual preparation/writing/posting time for this week already while recovering/being diagnosed under great attentive care at nearby Eden Medical Center (Castro Valley, CA), I’m going to post what I already have just to get you caught up on my situation, then I’ll update this with the review of The Tomorrow War over the next couple of days. Wish me well under the knife; I’ll be back as soon as I can (at least in this miserable photo I’m in the realm of creativity, sitting in Nina’s greeting-card-making-workspace; better things to look at there than me).

The Tomorrow War (Chris McKay)

rated PG-13 140 min.

Opening Chatter (no spoilers): You’ve had enough chatter already so to get to the point of the posting I’ll give you a review of a sci-fi movie on Amazon Prime video streaming (no cost to subscribers, 30-day free trial still available for the curious) that combines alien invasion and time-travel in a generally-fun-enough-to-watch-story starring Chris Pratt (all a bit too long, though, with repetitious scenes of humans shooting at aliens), as long as you don’t question some of its premises too much. Also, in the Short Takes section I’ll offer suggestions for some choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, tedious software!) along with my lovely standard dose of industry-related-trivia.

Here’s the trailer for The Tomorrow War:

(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: In 2022 Dan Forester (Chris Pratt), a high-school biology teacher, along with wife Emmy (Betty Gilpin), and young daughter Muri (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) are a stable, happy family although Dan’s disappointed he hasn’t been chosen for a job at a top-notch-research-center, wants to do something special with his life. As we flow into 2023, though, everything changes for the human population of planet Earth as soldiers transport themselves through a time-travel-device—the Jumplink—from 2051, desperately in need of physical peoplepower (able-bodied women along with men) to be transported back to the future (not with Doc Brown [Christopher Lloyd], though), providing lots more defending forces to help stave off a horrible alien invasion of blood-thirsty-monsters, the Whitespikes, who’ve already reducing the human population to about 500,000 after first appearing in 2048. Through cooperation between the futurers and global governments, the world’s military jumps to the future but only 30% of them survive so a mandatory draft notice goes out, rounding up scores of recruits but with the restriction the people being sent onward must have already died before 2051 so that no time-space-anomalies will crop up from a person meeting themselves (although that didn’t seem to be a concern in Back to the Future Part II [Robert Zemeckis, 1989], yet the parallel versions of Marty McFly [Michael J. Fox] never actually encountered each other anyway); to further keep the timeline stable, travelers from the future are all young enough to have not been born yet in 2023, offering another level of insurance (but that means these folks giving orders are like our Millennial high-tech wizards while the draftees heading to 2051 are middle-aged at best, a bit of a disconnect).

Dan gets a no-avoidance draft notice (if he slips out somehow, Emmy will be forced to go in his place), reports for duty to have a time-travel-device attached to his left arm, although Emmy—a PTSD counserlor—wants them all to hide anyway, convinces Dan to visit his long-estranged father, James (J.K. Simmons), who abandoned his family years ago after coming home from the Vietnam War, feeling he was too dangerous for them to be around. However, Dan and James just revive their dispute, Dan ultimately decides to make the future jump in hopes of providing a stable world for Muri and other children to grow up in. (Despite The Tomorrow War being an action-packed sci-fi thriller, the circumstances do reflect contemporary concerns: With the ongoing spread of COVID-19 [not a factor in this movie, just for us in real life] and increasingly-devastating-climate change what kind of future are we creating for the younger generations on our planet? If such chaos is inevitable, why bother with anything—student loans, job searches, pollution—when the future’s doomed to failure?)

However, when Dan and his group arrive in 2051 they immediately encounter additional chaos because a teleportation glitch has them pop out in the sky above Miami instead of on the ground so only those who happen to fall into hotel swimming pools survive. Once they regroup they’re told by Col. Forester to evacuate some nearby lab personnel before the whole city’s bombed in an attempt to take out as many Whitespikes as possible, but when the team arrives the humans are already dead although their research data is secured before another onslaught from the monsters. When Dan—and companions Charlie (Sam Richardson) and Dorian (Edwin Hodge), a 3-time time-jumper—wake up, they’re in the Dominican Republic where Dan learns Col. Forester’s his daughter Muri (Yvonne Strahovski), angry at him because his depression over that lost job led to him deserting his family, then dying in a car accident in 2030. Nevertheless, she wants him to accompany her in capturing a rare Whitespike female (sort of a queen bee of this species) so she can extract fluid to help produce a toxin to kill these beasts. That mission’s accomplished but their lab facility’s attacked by a swarm of male Whitespikes—Muri dying in the process—so Dan’s mission is to return to 2023 with the toxin, have it mass-produced, then bring it back to the future to kill all the aliens. However, when he arrives in 2023 somehow the Jumplink breaks down so there’s no way to return to 2051, further encouraging the desperate 2023 population to riot, assuming there’s no future worth living for.

⇒Determined to act resourcefully against these complications, Dan noticed volcanic ash on one of those predators so he consults with Emmy who thinks they’ve actually been buried on Earth for a long time before coming forward; Dan wants to pursue this, gets no help from the government, turns to his student, Martin (Seth Schenall), who has an intense interest in volcanoes, uses some sort of infrared computer program to locate a hot spot under the ice in Siberia where they theorize the monsters have been buried since 946. Given the lack of official support, Dan recruits Dad and a few others, they secretly fly into Russia, burrow through the ice to where a spaceship’s buried, find the dead pilots are some other species than the Whitespikes (Maybe they were being transported here? Maybe this was a crash landing? But it’s clear global warming allowed the creatures to break loose to the surface in 2048, multiply, go on their destructive assault.) then start to use the toxin to kill some of the hibernating Whitespikes. Yet, that wakes the others who kill most of the humans until Dan, James, and Charlie go out to pursue/kill the escaping female while Dorian blows up the ship, terminating himself and the remaining aliens. Dan brings James home to meet his family; we get the sense the future timeline’s now changed, so Dan will indeed enjoy an ongoing life with everyone.⇐

So What? By the time you get this far into this posting you should know I’ve got a lot of things on my mind, some quickly-scheduled doctor visits, etc., so I hope it comes as no surprise that these final 2 sections of the review aren’t going to belabor the movie’s situations in my standard fashion but will be pounded out rather quickly, getting to primary points without elaborating them too much. (What’s that you say? Could I somehow come up with a new medical crisis more often to bring about briefer reviews? Well, I’ll see what I can do about that, especially as the COVID-19 delta variant keeps exploding in my area, but in the near future I hope to keep gassing on as you’ve come to know and love me [you do, don’t you?].) Case in point here: While The Tomorrow War provides plenty of action scenes of humans desperately trying to kill vicious attacking aliens you might want a little more sense of narrative considerations being more-fully-thought-out as there are plenty of opportunities to raise objections to how events are transpiring on-screen. But rather than elaborate all of those continuity-challenges myself, I’ll simply refer you to this video (11:56) which raises several reasonable, unanswered questions, then another one (10:58) which is essentially a movie-summary but with concerns how the script evolves along the way, and, finally, I'll refer you to the second item connected to The Tomorrow War in the Related Links section much farther below, a humorous twist on a fictional pitch of this story to a film studio executive where he keeps noting similar conceptual problems which the concept-pitcher always tries to deflect with facile responses (of course, all of these have numerous spoilers, so keep that in mind before watching any of them).

Without elaboration, I’ll just note there are fundamental questions about the strategies the future humans are using against the aliens regarding bringing in additional warriors from the past, why no better weapons exist beyond our current types of assault rifles to do battle with these ravenous creatures, and what becomes of Dan‘s previous timeline when he returns to his present day: will his life go on so badly (as his daughter recounts it to him in the future) if he’s changed everything by his unselfish actions in the final scenes? (Detailed questions along with possible—yet clumsy—answers are noted in these 3 videos, so I’ll let you work through all this if you wish to, but you really should watch the movie first just to see what satisfaction it might bring because if you go into it loaded with plot objections you’ll just be sitting there the whole time ranting along with these critical-questioners.)

Bottom Line Final Comments: It’s clear the sort of probing questions noted just above about plot viability (even in a fictional, time-travel, attacking-aliens, sci-fi, escapist-diversion from real-world-traumas about a pandemic and politics) in The Tomorrow War were simultaneously on the minds of the OCCU as the Rotten Tomatoes critics could come up with only 54% positive reviews, the ones at Metacritic (not surprisingly) lower—not by much this time—offering a 45% average score. Yet, despite all of this negativity it’s apparently doing well enough in its streaming existence on Amazon Prime (they’re still offering a 30-day free trial if you care to look into it) that a sequel is already under discussion—apparently something along the lines of more of a prequel, as with the more recent episodes of the Alien franchise, where we’d learn more about the origins of these monsters, possibly why they came to Earth (and maybe whether there are more of them out there somewhere that we need to remain on watch for). Further, the reviews aren't completely negative (just about half, as you can see by the numbers above) with some offering support, such as Mick LaSalle from my local San Francisco Chronicle: “The action is gripping but not overdone, and the aliens are more disturbing than revolting. Despite the running time, nothing is belabored.” (not sure I can fully agree about acceptability of the running time, though)—yet he’d easily find arguments in those videos I’ve already cited above to this statement: “Part of what makes ‘The Tomorrow War’ a successful movie is that screenwriter Zach Dean not only comes up with an interesting concept, but he also thinks it through.” Mick’s obviously not bothered by the questions these others have raised, which he’d counter with “At its core, this is just a really good monster movie. All the same, there’s a touch of beauty to it.” But, as we all know, beauty’s in the eye of the beholder, so behold as you will.

OK, that’s about all I’ve got at this point so I’ll finish in the usual fashion with a Musical Metaphor to speak in aural terms about what’s been under discussion, with the choice this time relating to Dan‘s fierce determination to find a strategy for conquering these vicious invaders, not so much to save all humanity but more so to help create an alternate future that will be hospitable for his daughter rather than Muri becoming one of the last survivors of our species; with that in mind, I’ll turn to Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” (on his 1989 debut solo album Full Moon Fever) at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=JMzW42zZVN0 (live 2006 performance with The Heartbreakers), me having Dan in mind regarding lyrics like “You can stand me up at the gates of hell But I won’t back down […] I know what’s right I got just one life In a world that keeps on pushin’ me around But I’ll stand my ground And I won’t back down.” I won’t back down either; see you again on the other side of heart-healing.

SHORT TAKES

While I don’t have another offering for you under review this week I’ll backtrack a bit to my recent comments on No Sudden Move (Steven Soderberg; review in our July 8, 2021 posting) because—while I said in that discussion it’s hard to follow in places—I wondered if I had given it a fair shot while trying to watch it as I was constantly distracted by what sounded like gunshots from loud fireworks in the neighborhood (explanation in that review as to why I was seeing it on July 4, not my original intention) which proved distracting even with our door and windows shut. So, with some free time available this previous weekend (and only The Tomorrow War, I was remotely interested in seeing), Nina and I decided to give No Sudden Move another screening (a rare circumstance for me except for revisiting true classics as we’ll be doing next week with The Godfather films) which led to my embarrassment of realizing some notable details correctly this time, contradicting things I’d said in the review. (Admittedly, it’s hard enough scribbling enough reminders to be able to bring back what I saw during any screening [inevitably leading to probably missing about a third of what’s going on because while I may be hearing dialogue as I’m taking notes it doesn’t always register properly as to accurate plot continuity], but I resist using pause, rewind, re-watch as I’m still trying to emulate the theatrical experience in anticipation of sometime relatively soon when I venture back into my local theaters]; normally, that all works out reasonably well, but, when you add the constant attack of the Independence Day revelers, I’ll admit in retrospect I just got a few things wrong in my initial posting.)

I’ve now corrected all the misspoken aspects of the No Sudden Move review, feel further assured it’s worth 4 stars, yet still defend my previous statement there’s a lot of plot complexity here which isn’t always clear (even when it’s supposed to be) as we’re moving quickly through the story, especially because there are notable characters (Frank Capelli, Hugh Naismith, Aldrick Watkins) who have important impacts on our 2 protagonists (Curt Goynes, Ronald Russo—see the review for naming the various actors) yet we don’t see most of them until deep into the film, just as there’s an unexplored backstory about Curt recently being in jail, then comes to see Clarisse (Lauren LaStrada)—ex-wife? sister?—to retrieve his suitcase, implying a lot more we might want to know but aren’t going to learn about at this time. Bottom line here: No Sudden Move is one of the best cinematic experiences of 2021; see it if you can on HBO Max; if not, at least you'll have my amended review.

Suggestions for TCM cablecasts

At least until the pandemic subsides Two Guys also want to encourage you to consider movies you might be interested in that don’t require subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, similar Internet platforms (we may well be stuck inside for longer than those 30-day-free-initial-offers), or premium-tier-cable-TV-fees. While there are a good number of video networks offering movies of various sorts (mostly broken up by commercials), one dependable source of fine cinematic programming is Turner Classic Movies (available in lots of basic-cable-packages) so I’ll be offering suggestions of possible choices for you running from Thursday afternoon of the current week (I usually get this blog posted by early Thursday mornings) on through Thursday morning of the following week. All times are 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 the 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. As I’m not sure when I’ll be back with more reviews, here’s an extra-long-dose of TCM options for you.

Friday July 16, 2021

6:45 PM Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan, 1981) Somewhat of a remake of the equally-great Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944) this is the story of a not-as-bright-as-he-thinks-he-is Florida lawyer (William Hurt) seduced by a woman (Kathleen Turner) to help kill her husband (Richard Crenna) for a fat inheritance, but after the crime his seemingly-safe-alibi weakens as other aspects of the plan also start to unravel. Steamy attraction of the criminal couple, great acting, marvelous atmosphere.

Tuesday July 20, 2021

8:15 AM Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan, 1961) Set in 1928 Kansas, this is the sad story of a teenager (Natalie Wood) who resists sex with her boyfriend (Warren Beatty) until marriage but in the meantime he has to deal with his scandalous sister (Barbara Loden), only for each of them to suffer various forms of anguish when the Depression hits, further increasing the ongoing drama (still plays as truly tragic, not corny, at least for me). William Inge won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

5:00 PM Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955) Iconic James Dean role, a strong contender for best of his 3 powerful cinematic appearances (before his untimely death), as he plays a troubled teen whose independent streak just brings more difficulties from adults (including his parents) and a local gang, even as he tries to distance himself from his problems, escape from all of this hostility into a new life with his new friends (Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo), but further crises swirl around them.

Friday July 23, 2021

5:00 PM Blood Simple (Joel & Ethan Cohen, 1984) A great debut, for the Coens as directors-screenwriters and Frances McDormand. A detective (E. Emmet Walsh) gathers evidence of a woman (McDormand) having an affair with her husband’s (Dan Hedaya) bartender (John Getz).

Lots of double-crossing, murder, suspense, & the most fantastic roadside burial scene you’ll ever see, plus Walsh’s great line: “What I know about is Texas, and down here, you’re on your own.”

Saturday July 24, 2021

12:45 PM The Misfits (John Huston, 1961) In its own way a bit of a swan song for Old Hollywood, with script by Arthur Miller, direction by Huston, the final screen appearances of Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, one of the last by Montgomery Clift (Thelma Ritter and Eil Wallach are in there too), sort of a western but set in contemporary Nevada with interpersonal angst, drunkenness, desperation among the starring characters. A flop in its time, much more highly regarded today by the critics.

Sunday July 25, 2021

11:45 AM The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler, 1946) A richly-deserving Best Picture Oscar winner (along with a cluster of others including Best Director, Actor [Frederic March], Supporting Actor [Harold Russell], Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, plus an Honorary Oscar to Russell, an actual WW II vet amputee), focused on the difficulties of 3 returning G.I’s each with individual problems (a marvelous example of deep-focus-cinematography by Gregg Toland; I once got a chance to talk with Wyler about his intentions with this visual style).

Monday July 26, 2021

11:00 AM A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951) From Tennessee Williams’ equally-searing play (it’s more cruel, as Hays Code-dominated films had to conform to “decency” standards), this masterpiece of interpersonal-brutality stars Marlon Brando at maybe his best but acting Oscars went to Vivien Leigh (Actress), Karl Malden (Supporting Actor), Kim Hunter (Supporting Actress), plus one for B&W Art Direction and 7 other noms including Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay (Williams). “Stella!”—what more can I say? Even with the censorship, an all-time cinematic triumph.

9:15 PM Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) Do you really need my description to know what this one’s about? If so, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre are “looking at you, kid,” to watch it! (A movie truly defining what I consider to be a 5 stars-“classic,” celebrated for decades as a story of hope, patriotism, and making the right decision when romance conflicts with greater needs in the early years of WW II.)

Tuesday July 27, 2021

1:15 AM The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) Widely-regarded as one of the best westerns ever as well as part of the long deconstruction of the genre, this focuses on a Civil War Rebel vet (John Wayne) with a hatred for Indians especially because they kidnapped his niece as a child, killed some other relatives; he’s on a quest to bring her home, but adolescent Debbie (Natalie Wood) wants to stay with Chief Scar causing further trouble, intolerance, deaths as neither side can tolerate each other.

Wednesday July 28, 2021

9:30PM The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971) Maybe it’s because this film reminds me of my more nostalgic aspects of those many years in Texas, but I think it’s a marvelous adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s semi-autobiographical novel of growing up in an early 1950s version of the Lone Star State (filmed in Archer City, standing in for fictional Anarene) about interpersonal-interactions among strong characters played by Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Cybil Shepherd; Johnson and Leachman won the Supporting Acting Oscars.

11:45 PM Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967) Great example of American film beyond the boundaries of the old Studio System with Depression Era-outlaws played by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway (Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons, Michael J. Pollard also in the gang). Romanticized version of history as robbers are Robin Hood-antiheros in their day, represent anti-establishment values for ‘60s audiences; shocking bloody ending. Parsons won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar; the film also got another one for Best Cinematography. Excellent use of Flatt and Scruggs music.

If you’d like your own PDF of the rating/summary of this week's review, 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: Here are some extra items you might like: (1) New on Netflix in July, 2021; (2) New on Amazon Prime in July, 2021; (3) New on Hulu in July, 2021; (4) New on Disney + in July, 2021; (5) New to HBO/HBO Max in July, 2021; (6) Disney reveals streaming revenue for Black Widow ($60 million), but will the other streamers follow such disclosures? 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 always search streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts.* Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it!

*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problems’ been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.

Here’s more information about The Tomorrow War:

https://www.amazon.com/Tomorrow-War-Chris-Pratt/dp/B093CNZ7ST

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzdm_YWwEbA (8:42 funny, fictional pitch meeting that supposedly led [sarcastically] to The Tomorrow War [ad interrupts at 2:50]; SPOILERS, though,

even as they legitimately critique several flaws in the plot), but for me the best absurd pitch for a proposed media project is found in this meta-concept-skit at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvnA8Vtf3rA (NBC TV’s Seinfeld episode, “The Pitch,” [2:35] from season 4, episode 3,

originally aired on 9/16/1992)

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_tomorrow_war

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-tomorrow-war

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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 20^th 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. But, just as we can raunchy at times (in private of course) Neil and his backing band, Promise of the Real, on that same night also did a lengthy, fantastic version of "Cowgirl in the Sand"

(19:06) which I’d also like to commit to this blog’s always-ending-tunes; I never tire of listening to it, then and now (one of my idle dreams is to play guitar even half this good).

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 20,829 (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 the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):

Thursday, July 8, 2021

No Sudden Move plus some Short Takes on Summer of Soul (… Or, How the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), along with suggestions for TCM cable offerings, and other (hopefully-interesting) cinematic topics

Challenging Inequities

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

No Sudden Move (Steven Soderberg)

rated R 115 min.

Opening Chatter (no spoilers): As I explain fully in the So What? section below, I had a good bit of trouble being able to watch No Sudden Move when I intended to (problems were resolved, though), yet my challenges for getting through this post-Fourth of July-week now continue as when I started to take in our Mini-Cooper for brakes work in an early-Tuesday-morning-delivery with my wife, Nina, following in our other car (a 2013 Ford Focus), it apparently had some sort of steering crisis which shuts down the entire operation, requiring a call to AAA for a tow; although, the Ford problem turned out to be something with the battery so I was able to drive it there myself after all—now both cars are being operated on, allowing me to make my generous, patriotic contribution to the automotive-service-industry, distracting me a bit from my usual posting schedule (which also required a new mouse to keep my computer functional, along with some mystery cuts on my left big toe [possibly from minor foot damage while hauling myself out of the passenger side of the loaner-car after an unsuccessful attempt to put it in my garage—a bit too long, too tight—which led to the surprise sight of a bloody toe). After all that, I’m ready to lose myself in just ruminating about films, so please join me in the attempt. No Sudden Move takes place in 1950s Detroit with the merge of auto-industry-secrets into an increasingly-convoluted-gangster-story that easily-elicits memories of various manifestations of Fargo; I found it a bit hard to follow at times but still enjoyed it quite a bit, thanks in no small part to the excellent work of a crafty director along with a fascinating cast including Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta, Brendan Fraser, and Matt Damon.

In the Short Takes section you’ll find comments on a great documentary, Summer of Soul (… Or, How the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), made from current interviews added to footage stored for over 50 years of a multi-weekend music festival in NYC’s Harlem, amounting to a “Black Woodstock” with contributions from many including Stevie Wonder, the Fifth Dimension, Mahalia Jackson, the Staples Singers, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, along with a strong message to the huge crowds about Black Pride. Also in that section I’ll offer suggestions for some choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, tedious software!) plus my standard dose of industry-related-trivia.

Here’s the trailer for No Sudden Move:

(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate

that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

What Happens: 1954 Detroit (opening titles interspersed with black & white photos of the time) finds small-time-hood Curt Goynes (Don Cheadle) needing cash to re-acquire land swindled from him in Kansas City; opportunity comes from mid-range-hood Doug Jones (Brendan Fraser—barely recognizable in this portly-manifestation compared to earlier, muscular roles such as in those Millennium-era Mummy movies [1999, 2001, 2008]) who’s willing to pay a few thousand for a “babysitting” job, which is to hold General Motors-accountant-Matt Wertz’s (David Harbour) family (wife Mary [Amy Seimetz], son Matthew Jr. [Noah Jupe], daughter Peggy [Lucy Holt]) hostage while Matt’s forced at gunpoint to get a certain document from his boss’ locked office safe. What doesn’t work as well for Curt is there’ll be another “babysitter”—Ronald Russo (Benicio del Toro)—whom he doesn’t yet know, doesn’t like when he meets him (both emphatically saying they want nothing to do with upper-echelon-thugs each of them has difficulties with, Aldrick Watkins [Bill Duke] for Curt [who secretly has Watkins' crucial code book for his various nefarious activities], Frank Capelli [Ray Liotta] for Ronald), plus there's also a third guy—Charlie (Kieran Culkin, younger brother of Home Alone's Macaulay)—who’ll escort surprised-Matt to the office while the other 2 keep the family quiet, even forcing Mary to lie, turn away nosey (unconvinced) neighbor Dawn Atkinson (Katherine Banks).

Back at his workplace, Matt knows his boss, Mel Forbert (Hugh Maguire), is away at his northern Ohio home with supposedly no safe combination left with secretary Paula Cole (Frankie Shaw), even though the thugs behind this heist knew she’d be cooperative because she’s having an affair with Matt (in later scenes she’s constantly pushing him to go away with her to California, as she's already left lover Phil [Patrick Cronin]); so, in the next shots we see an empty safe (Mel took the document), Matt then giving seemingly what he found (but just a nothing-substitute) to Doug, now in the alley with Charlie. When Matt’s returned home, Charlie gets nervous but before he can act Curt shoots him, then gets a call he's supposed to kill everyone; instead, he gives the gun to Matt with a story for the police about how he had to kill a lone intruder. That’s the bunk Matt tries to sell to Attorney General Task Force-investigator-Joe Finney (Jon Hamm), suspicious, sensing there’s more to the situation, later gets more info from Matthew Jr. who’s stormed outside. Meanwhile, Curt and Ronald call Matt to meet them, then they’re all off to Mel’s home where Matt has to get violent with his boss in order to finally get the prized document which turns out to be some plans for an exhaust system intended for a new GM Cadillac convertible. As Curt and Ronald learn they now have large prices on their heads, they make plans to see how much they can peddle this meager document for, Curt ripping it in half so both of them must be together to finalize any deal as they plan to meet with Capelli who seems to be behind this whole situation; however, Ronald alone sees Capelli at his home, pretends he doesn’t know wife Vanessa (Julia Fox) even though he’s having an affair with her, agrees to bump off Curt so Frank and Ronald can score much more of the ransom for this document.

In the meantime, Curt’s made plans with Watkins for him to get a cut of the money, thereby resolving their debts and antagonism. Then, at a restaurant meeting with Curt, Ronald, Frank, and Doug, Frank’s also set up a double-cross with Doug intended to kill our 2 protagonists, but in the ensuing melee Doug ends up dead, Frank tries to escape before Curt and Ronald catch him, get the name of his contact, Hugh Naismith (Kevin Scollin) of Studebaker, who then offers them $125,000 for the document. Frank escapes from a car trunk, but when he gets home he’s killed by Vanessa, furious over the abuse she suffered from her husband after Ronald admitted the affair. Curt and Ronald now see an even bigger payday in the making, so they return to Mel, demand to know who his contact was, turns out to be independent-auto-shark Mike Lowen (Matt Damon) who’ll pay $375,000 for these increasingly-valuable-goods, which turn out to be the prototype for the catalytic converter which he wants to destroy under the mistaken belief cars aren’t polluting the atmosphere (I wonder if he could keep a straight face on that assertion if he saw the smog in L.A. I wheezed through in 1957 or the enveloping grey cloud over Manhattan I could see daily from Queens in 1972-’73) nor does he want carmakers to reduce their profits by having to adopt this proposed new technology (he’s also behind an urban renewal project that will displace Black residents, much to Curt’s grim annoyance).

⇒Lowen leaves our 2 hapless guys with the promised cash, but then Watkins and his goons show up (arranged by Curt in case anyone else, including Ronald, tried to muscle him out of the payoff), say they’ve already gotten the $125,000 from Naismith (told to wait in the hotel lobby until sent for, easily overpowered), let Ronald leave with all the swag, take Curt with them, seemingly to be rubbed out; however, Watkins lets Curt go, gives him the $5,000 he needs for Kansas City in return for the code book (as a side subplot, Paula runs off to CA with Phil after all because Matt didn’t steal the document himself earlier for their benefit, leaving him with nothing including a family who has little use for him at this point). Ronald runs away with Vanessa, thinks they’re being followed by a cop so he drives off into the countryside where she shoots him, intends to keep all the money, but the cop is there, stops her, takes the suitcase full of cash, gives it to Det. Finney who brings it all back to Lowen (375 K, plus 31 K Vanessa had, plus 50 K Watkins gave Finney supposedly as payoff for killing Curt to wrap up all the other murders) in return for a pricy bottle of booze. Graphics preceding the final credits note that in 1969 the U.S. government sued the Big 4 automakers for keeping the catalytic converter info secret, finally settled in 1975 with the device now standard (and an expensive theft item today from Toyota Prius and other vehicles) but no fines were ever imposed for this scheme.⇐

So What? My goal of watching this film on Saturday night, July 3, was rudely interrupted due (as best I can tell) by my switching video service from AT&T U-Verse to Comcast Xfinity because when I went into my Roku service to access HBO Max I was only able to get to the film (my account was recognized) but I couldn’t get it to play. Annoyed, I called the Comcast helpline, was connected to a friendly guy in Seattle who spent about 1½ hrs. with me doing every conceivable strategy of getting my HBO Max service directly connected to Xfinity until success finally occurred; however, by then it was too late to start so I put it off until Sunday, July 4. Well, Nina and I got to watch No Sudden Move easily enough, although we were constantly distracted by ongoing illegal fireworks popping off consistently for hours before, during, and after (you’d have thought we were in Afghanistan [with my deepest sympathies to all who’ve ever had to live there as local citizens or deployed military, given the horrors that consistently seem to consume the place]), with worries that some of these errant “celebrations” would touch off wildfires in our statewide-drought-induced-tinderbox, but fortunately no blazes happened in this neighborhood even as 53 of them were reported in the larger region around us, so at least those who get their kicks from constant-holiday-explosives didn’t cause any nearby-damage (then, while washing our dinner dishes I watched my recording of the NYC Macy’s fireworks spectacular so I finally got some lovely visuals to go with all that noise continuing outside my condo).

Thus, I can’t say I viewed No Sudden Move with the very best set of focused-intentions, which may easily contribute to my saying I enjoyed it but found it hard to follow at times given the increasingly-negative-impact on our 2 protagonists, especially from important characters we don’t see much of until considerably later in the presentation. Overall, the situations and tone of this film reminded me of the FX TV series of Fargo in recent years, notably the latest one (2020) set in 1950 Kansas City starring Chris Rock with contention between rival Black and Italian gangs (maybe one of these thugs is who cheated Curt Goynes out of his land in this area). That Fargo also, with its many characters and storylines, was at times hard to keep clear on regarding events from one week to the next, given such a regular separation of our viewings (no, we don’t binge-watch anything all that often, although a few years ago Nina did a couple of Game of Thrones [HBO 2011-2019] mini-marathons, although she zipped though the more-violent-parts, so she probably only saw about 20 min. of each episode).

I'll admit, in No Sudden Move my initial response to the central plot device, seemingly just a new exhaust system for an upcoming model of the Cadillac (which, when we finally saw it on just a few pieces of paper, looks somewhat like the first rough sketch of Doc Brown’s [Christopher Lloyd] crucial flux-capacitor for his time-traveling-DeLorean car in the Back to the Future trilogy [Robert Zemeckis; 1985, 1989, 1990]), was: “This minor device is justification for all of the violence and hundreds of thousands of ransom dollars that’s driving this film?” However, given the various plotlines are appropriately tied up by the end, those closing graphics finally give some substance to the attempt to destroy this more-crucial-than-I’d-realized-automobile-device, the acting (along with the pacing, flow of the story) is superb on all counts, and anything on screen that gives me a sense of any version of Fargo is something to be celebrated, I came to the conclusion No Sudden Move had finally given me solid reason to break my chain of 9 consecutive ratings-awards of 3½ stars in my most-recent-reviews (Summer of Soul ... reviewed below easily continued the new liberation). Even if it may seem a bit confusing in its intentions as we get about midway into it, No Sudden Move is one of the most intriguing things I’ve seen this year, so I highly recommend it unless crime stories just aren’t intriguing to you for any reasons you might have about such a potentially-complex-subject.

Bottom Line Final Comments: The CCAL's quite supportive of No Sudden Move, as reviews surveyed at Rotten Tomatoes give it 89% positive while those at Metacritic offer a 77% average score (reasonably supportive for them, although not nearly as high as their reaction to Summer of Soul … below; more details on both these critics’-accumulation-sites can be found in the Related Links section, as is the case for anything I review in any posting). If you want to see it, though, your only option is HBO Max (which I hope you can locate more easily than I did, but at least I learned about the Incognito option on Google Chrome, which helped overcome my technical issues although I just have to hope it doesn’t somehow connect me with Russian trolls), a platform you can subscribe to directly or already have access if your TV cable package has HBO. So, at this point I’m out of anything further to say about this film except to highly encourage you to watch it (hopefully with fewer distractions than I encountered), leading me to my usual closure tactic of a Musical Metaphor to speak once again—but from a somewhat different, aural perspective—to what's under review. This one presented a challenge, though, as nothing directly came to mind until I started ruminating on what the essential situation is in No Sudden Move, which I find to be lack of trust among many of the characters as various backstabbing, clandestine negotiations, me-first/you-last-decisions are being made regarding the acquisition of that seemingly-invaluable-little-old-document.

That insight led me to an old Bob Dylan song, “I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)” (on his 1964 Another Side of Bob Dylan album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= XuUXWG5dqnM (best version I could find for our purposes is audio-only from his performance at The Band's final concert, San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, but not included in the documentary film of that event, The Last Waltz [Martin Scorsese, 1978]). Yes, I’m going hyper-metaphorical here (largely because I couldn't think of any alternative), as the song’s about a guy who connects with a woman one night but the next day she won’t even acknowledge his existence, for no reason he can figure out, but in the context of No Sudden Move (a bit of a narrative challenge at times in its own right, at least for me) these lyrics could also allude to a number of shady/self-serving/dangerous decisions woven into the film’s plot where these characters are just as unconnected, ready to sacrifice others for their own benefit: “I’d sure like to know Why she’d go But I can’t get close to her at all […] She said she would never forget But now morning’s clear It’s like I ain’t here […] If I didn’t have to guess I’d gladly confess To anything I might have tried […] I wish she’d tell me what it is, I’ll run and hide […] And if anybody asks me ‘Is it easy to forget?’ I’ll say, ‘It’s easily done You just pick anyone And pretend that you never have met!’ “ You probably have to watch the film to see if this Metaphor makes any sense, so there’s another encouragement to do so—take me up on it! You might end up somewhat confused, hopefully not disappointed at all.

SHORT TAKES (spoilers also appear here)

Summer of Soul (… Or, How the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson)

rated PG-13 118 min.

Way back in the summer of 1969 on 6 occasionally-non-consecutive weekends in NYC there was a musical/pride-enhancing event called the Harlem Cultural Festival featuring many famous Black performers of the day; the event was recorded but never saw much distribution as a film until now when 40 original hours have been boiled down to 2, yet with the original energy and uplift sustained.

Here’s the trailer:

Before reading further, please refer to the plot spoilers warning detailed far above.

Over the course of 6 sometimes-separated-weekends from June 29 to August 24, 1969, the Harlem Cultural Festival attracted a crowd of about 300,000 at concerts produced by Tony Lawrence at Mount Morris Park (with estimates of 40,000-50,000 each time but no way to know how many of these attendees were repeats from week to week) so it overlapped with both the historical NASA moon landing (July 24, 1969 [close festival weekends were July 20 and 27]) and the much-more-famous Woodstock Music & Art Festival (actually in Bethel, NY, about 100 miles north of Harlem) on August 15-18, 1969. About 40 hours of footage was shot of the Harlem event but then went into storage for 50 years with few besides the musicians and attendees aware this “Black Is Beautiful” event had even occurred. That omission finally changed when the producers of this documentary, David Dinerstein and Robert Fyvolent, persuaded Thompson, leader of the “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” band, The Roots, to become the director, bringing this footage (along with recent interviews of some who were at the original event) to public awareness, beginning with a debut at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival last January where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the US Documentary Competition; now it’s in theaters (752 of them domestically [U.S.-Canada], making $647,634 after 2 weeks in release) along with streaming on Hulu. Watch it, please!

While the entire lineup's too much for a standard 2-hr.-film (even the director’s cut of Woodstock [Michael Wadleigh, 1994] at 224 min. [1970 version ran 185 min.] couldn’t begin to present all that went on there over 3 days and nights, well into Monday morning for the Jimi Hendrix finale, hours after his scheduled start time) you do get partial or complete single songs in Summer … from Stevie Wonder (also an accomplished drummer), the Chambers Brothers, B.B. King, the Fifth Dimension, the Edwin Hawkins Singers (“Oh Happy Day”), the Staples Singers, Mahalia Jackson (a great duet with Mavis Staples, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” on gospel day, July 13), David Ruffin (just left The Temptations, does a great version of “My Girl”), Gladys Knight and the Pips (“I Heard It Through the Grapevine”), Cuban Mongo Santamaría, Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln, the Puerto Rican stylings of Ray Barretto, drummer Max Roach, Hugh Masekela, a powerful performance by Nina Simone (“Young, Gifted and Black”), and soon-to-be-Woodstock-stars Sly and the Family Stone (Harlem on June 29^th [when the NYC Police declined to provide security so it was done instead by the Black Panthers]; Woodstock on Sunday, August 17^th at 3 AM after more of those considerable rain delays).

Other notable figures who appear in this doc (with all events done during daylight because there wasn’t sufficient backing to afford night lighting, although Maxwell House Coffee kicked in a lot of financial support) are NYC Mayor John Lindsay (a liberal Republican [!], well received by the crowd) and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who recalled the sorrow of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s death a year prior. While there’s plenty of music in this film the true focus is on showing some recognizable images of the Harlem community enhanced with commentary (from then and now) about the need for Black pride, liberation from systematic racial oppression along with the constant violence in the community—my, how things have changed over the decades … or not! There’s also an interesting collection of brief comments from attendees about how the money spent on getting Americans to the moon could have been better used for improving schools, providing jobs, etc., the same arguments currently being made by some about how the fortunes certain billionaires are spending to launch themselves and some well-heeled-fellow-travelers into the bare-limits of outer space could be put to use today for those same social aids, rather than satisfying outlandish egos trying to top each other.

Woodstock, the event along with its subsequent record album and documentary, leaned more on celebrating the music but—especially in the film where it was noted that the crowd of 500,000 managed to remain peaceful during its duration, with even local cops impressed—also got across a brief image of hope for societal change and inter-generational dialogue (until those dreams were shattered just a few months later by deaths at the Altamont, CA festival, then basically buried for good by Nixon's landslide-Presidential victory in 1972). By contrast, the social messages in Summer … sound like they could have been said at a “protect the vote” rally yesterday as so many Blacks (and other people of color, along with impoverished Whites [although some of the latter get a sense of satisfaction in their rabid support of Donald Trump]) in this country of ours still struggle for equal acceptance, opportunity, respect, dignity. Likely for such reasons, the CCAL’s extremely supportive of this film, with a massive 99% positive reactions at Rotten Tomatoes (same as Citizen Kane [Orson Welles, 1941] after a single negative review finally surfaced from decades ago [oddly enough, that 1 negative splat is noted at their site but not listed with the 116 positive reviews]), with an even more astounding result from Metacritic’s 96% average score (far and away the highest of anything both they and I have reviewed in 2021), so on that note of uplift I’ll leave with what’s essentially the finale of Summer of Soul …, Sly and the Family Stone’s “I Want to Take You Higher” (from their 1969 Stand! album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fQvlN8Aizw, although this clip is the multi-image-version from the Woodstock doc as I merge aspects of these 2 seminal music events of 1969.

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.

Friday July 9, 2021

9:00 PM Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974) Had it not been for The Godfather Part II also in 1974 Chinatown would easily have been Oscar’s Best Picture. Set in 1930’s L.A., stars Jack Nicholson as a seedy-but-generally-effective detective who runs up against situations he’d never imagined in the person of powerful Noah Cross (John Huston) and his distraught daughter (Faye Dunaway), as our private eye seeks to solve her husband’s death. Nominated for 11 Oscars (including Best Picture, Director, Actor [Nicholson], Actress [Dunaway], won for Best Original Screenplay [Robert Towne]).

Monday July 12, 2021

6:30 PM 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.

8:15 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?

Tuesday July 13, 2021

7:15 AM His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940) Adapted from Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur play, The Front Page, this turns a sensationalistic-journalism-story into something with those aspects but also becomes a screwball comedy where now-divorced newspaper editor Walter Burns (Gary Grant) conspires to get ex-wife Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) back (and on the payroll to cover a big story) despite her upcoming marriage to mild-mannered Ralph Bellamy. Famous rapid-fire dialogue.

9:00 AM Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938) Quintessential screwball comedy: Cary Grant as an easily-befuddled paleontologist on the verge of finishing a Brontosaurus skeleton and marrying a prim woman we know isn’t a right match especially after he meets a cute, flighty heiress (Katharine Hepburn) who gets him in increasingly-embarrassing situations even as romance develops between them. Only movie I can recall featuring 2 leopards. Somewhat remade as What’s Up Doc? (1972).

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) Entertainment Weekly's opinion of the best movies of 2021 (so far) (a couple of them are really 2020 releases; of the actual 2021’s I’ve reviewed In the Heights [June 17, 2021], Summer of Soul [this posting], Luca [June 24, 2021] but haven’t seen the others); (2) Universal product will soon move from HBO to NBC's Peacock; (3) Movie theaters slowly recover but box-office still down 81% from 2019. 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:

Here’s more information about No Sudden Move:

https://www.hbomax.com/series/urn:hbo:feature:GYMzEGg049ruJvQEAAAAW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMFOCJw_xMc (20:43 interview about acting with actors

Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta, Brendan Fraser, David Harbour,

Kieran Culkin, Julia Fox, Bill Duke, Noah Jupe, Frankie Shaw [ad interrupts at about 15:00])

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_sudden_move

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/no-sudden-move

Here’s more information about Summer of Soul (…Or, How the Revolution Could Not Be Televised):

https://www.searchlightpictures.com/summerofsoul/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgtyuUyJjW4 (8:31 overview of the film [ads interrupt at about 1:00, 4:25])

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/summer_of_soul

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/summer-of-soul-or-when-the-revolution-could-not-be-televised

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.)

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

(19:06) which I’d also like to commit to this blog’s always-ending-tunes; I never tire of listening to it, then and now (one of my idle dreams is to play guitar even half this good).