The Heart Is a Lonely (maybe damaged) Hunter
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): After my last Two Guys posting (July 14, 2021)—where I explained my brutal encounter with a treadmill due to my in-the-process-of-closing-up-aortic heart valve—I’ve been dealing with preparations for/process of having an artificial valve sent up an artery into my heart (see the above illustration) which changed my pre-procedure-severe stenosis (abnormal narrowing of a blood vessel) to post-procedure-no stenosis, so as I’m quickly recovering from the operation in a smooth, steady-as-she-goes-manner, I’m finally back to being able to post some reviews of interesting options I’ve recently found on streaming, none of which you’ve likely heard of as all the attention is on high-profile-stuff exclusively (for now, not forever) in movie theaters (Jungle Cruise [Jaume Collet-Serra], Old [M. Night Shyamalan], The Green Knight [David Lowery], Stillwater [Tom McCarthy], A Quiet Place Part II [John Krasinski], Black Widow [Cate Shortland], etc.—well, you can get the first and last ones in that list on Disney+, but with a $30 apiece surcharge so I can wait until they’re free later this year on that platform; as for theatrical attendance, not yet as I can’t take any chance of contracting the raging COVID Delta variant in my area [yeah, I could see The Suicide Squad {James Gunn} on HBO Max even while it’s playing in theaters…but, no thanks]).
Even though I haven’t been writing and posting lately I've still been watching so to help us all get caught up I’m putting these reviews in the Short Takes mode; help yourself below to briefer-than-you’d-expect-commentary (where I’m concerned) on Settlers, an unusual sci-fi-story about an Earth family’s travails trying to survive on Mars; Lorelei, a different sort of family drama about a guy released after 15 years in prison trying to reconnect with his high-school girlfriend even though she’s got 3 kids now; The Last Letter from Your Lover, a dual-time-frame story about lust-turned to love in the 1960s, then the discovery of such by a contemporary reporter; and Val, a filmic-autobiography of actor Val Kilmer. Each of these reviews end with my device of a Musical Metaphor to offer a last bit of commentary on what’s gone before, although I admit I’ve had to strain a bit in finding choices for a couple of these films. Also, I’ll offer suggestions for some choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, ye tedious software!) along with my standard dose of industry-related-trivia.
SHORT TAKES (spoilers appear here)
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.
Settlers (Wyatt Rockefeller) Not Rated 103 min.
Lots of ambiguity in this film as Earthlings have found a way to settle on Mars, but bandits attack the family of our focus with Dad seemingly killed by the last invader who says this farm was owned by his parents, then he settles in with the remaining Mom and daughter even as he says the rest of the planet’s become useless. Years later, girl Remmy’s a young woman with her own intended strategy.
Here’s the trailer:
This is a film that refuses to explain its larger context very much (a few facts are revealed, the remainder rests on inference) which either makes it ambiguously-fascinating (for my wife, Nina) or leaves you somewhat frustrated so much is left unanswered (me, hence my rating a bit lower than she’d choose). All we know for sure is a small family—father Reza (Johnny Lee Miller), mother Ilsa (Sofia Boutella), young child Remmy (Brooklynn Prince)—live on a small farm in the desolation of Mars (planet never specified, left up to us to conclude [shot in the deserts of South Africa]), even though they need no oxygen masks as they go about raising plants in their greenhouse (?), tending to a pig (water supply?). Dad tells daughter they came from Earth because it’s become a failing planet but their new home can some day become like Earth in its prime. Their stability’s interrupted, though, when they wake up one day to find “LEAVE” painted on their windows, then an attack by a couple of bandits the parents manage to shoot, even as a third intruder fires back from afar. Reza goes after the other one, never returns, but the next day a young man, Jerry (Ismael Cruz Córdova), imposes himself on Ilsa and Remmy, saying this is the home he was born into, raised until he set out on his own, now he’s returned because other cities and settlements are all abandoned (we also get a sense of how some technological miracle provided Mars with a human-friendly-atmosphere [maybe Total Recall {Paul Verhoeven, 1990} wasn’t fictional after all], but that need seems to be failing also).
With the assumption (never specified) Jerry killed Reza, neither surviving family member wants anything to do with him, yet he’s armed while they’re not. He’s not a taskmaster, however, offering to share the property with them for 30 days, then he’ll leave his gun on the kitchen table so Ilsa can shoot him if she chooses to. However, during that month Ilsa begins to grow closer to Jerry (she says when they came here his mother was dead, his father was dangerously-hostile to them so she killed him) while Remmy avoids him as much as possible, focusing instead on “Steve,” a little robot she finds in a storage shed. One day Remmy decides to hike into the wilderness, comes to a tunnel built into a hillside, finds herself closed in as the entry door shuts behind her, then passes out from gas spewed by an activated machine; Jerry, wearing a gas mask, rescues her. When the allotted time’s up, Jerry puts down his weapon, walks outside, but when Ilsa tries to shoot him from behind she finds the gun’s empty so she rushes back inside to get a knife; Jerry struggles with her, kills her.
Via an unspecified jump-cut (at least 10 years) we find Remmy (now played by Nell Tiger Free) still co-existing with here-to-stay-Jerry (although, somehow, they have more pigs, plus chickens, with some plants growing in the wilderness, a small pond nearby), still mostly ignoring him, even as he keeps telling her there’s nothing out there on the rest of the planet, ⇒and she’ll soon enjoy being with him which she totally rejects, pulls away from him when he kisses her after she cries looking at a drawing he made of Ilsa. When she tries to leave again, they struggle, she’s knocked out, revives finding herself tied to the bed as he attempts to rape her, but Steve comes to her rescue, wounds Jerry who staggers away. Remmy gets loose, shoots Jerry, leaves Steve in charge of the farm (?), walks again into the wilderness, this time with a gas mask to go through the passage, emerging on the other side of it to see just more of the same desolate terrain.⇐ We never really understand how Mars came to be domesticated, what went wrong, how Remmy and Jerry managed to be together as long as they were without earlier physical confrontation, etc., yet the whole concept is fascinating in its evolution, just left to much speculation on those whats, whys, hows of this oddly-ambiguous-story.
Although Settlers played at NYC’s Tribeca Film Festival in June, 2021 you won’t find much about it anywhere (opened in 30 domestic [U.S.-Canada] theaters July 23, 2021, quickly went away) beyond the barely-CCAL responses: 45 Rotten Tomatoes reviews (52% positive), 15 at Metacritic (56% average score, a rare higher-response—more details on the reviews in this posting in Related Links far below); I wouldn’t even have heard of it except for a radio recommendation by a local San Francisco Bay Area critic, but you can find it on various streaming platforms (including Amazon Prime, Apple TV+) if you’ll spend $6.99 for rental. Acting’s solid, some of the cinematography’s stunning, there’s an effective sense of suspense throughout, and there’s the trivia that the writer-director, in his debut feature, is a descendant of New York tycoon John D. Rockefeller; he's also an MFA graduate from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (like Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese). The review in Related Links implies there are Settlers sequels in the offing, but I’d advise you, if interested, to see this one now as I don’t anticipate this concept will travel much farther, nor do I really see it—as some claim—as an outer space-set-western (where the ultimate struggle should be between wilderness and civilization: “desert” and “garden” in Film Studies terms) because this is all wilderness, not much to be desired. I struggled to find a Musical Metaphor, finally chose Brenda Lee’s “All Alone Am I” (a 1962 hit on her 1963 album of the same name) at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=AiLyhQGRdoo, although you have to metaphorically erase the “People all around” of the singer’s sorrow at a failed love affair to apply Remmy’s challenge of being “All alone am I ever since your goodbye [of all of the film’s other’s characters—spoiler, sorry] All alone with just the beat of my heart” as she faces a great unknown on a planet she’s only seen a limited quadrant of thus far.
Lorelei (Sabrina Doyle) Not Rated 111 min.
After spending 15 years in prison a guy’s released, reconnects with his high-school lover although she’s now got 3 children by various male passersby, but he moves in with her anyway despite hesitancy from most of the kids to go along with his low-paying job, her disgust at being a motel maid, so this intimate relationship drama shows our chief characters always struggling.
Here’s the trailer:
Once again we have a writer-director making a feature debut with a film that premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. Other than those similar elements this is an entirely different story (although one with minor overtones of Five Easy Pieces [Bob Rafelson, 1970] and Paris, Texas [Wim Wenders, 1984]), beginning with the shot of a nude woman seemingly resting in deep water followed by a grey, rural Oregon morning where Wayland’s (Pablo Schreiber) being released from prison after serving 15 years for armed robbery. His biker buddies are waiting to take him to a big celebration in the woods, after which one of them gives him a lift to a church/halfway house run by Pastor Gail (Trish Egan) who clarifies he gets room and board in exchange for work around the property. Among her activities is a regular group meeting for single mothers, one of which—Dolores (Jena Malone)—is Wayland’s old high-school girlfriend so when they see each other they drift outside to catch up where she admits: (1) She tried to bring herself to write to him but never could because (2) over the years she’s had 3 kids from various drifters—Dodger Blue (Chancellor Perry), old enough that Wayland briefly wondered if he might be the father, Periwinkle Blue (Amelia Borgerding), who’s surly at times and calls Mom “Lola” but she’s mostly Dolores to everyone else, very young Denim Blue (Parker Pascoe-Sheppard), a boy who dresses like/presents himself as a girl, a tactic not embraced by other kids his age—so even though Dolores is still strongly attracted to Wayland she’s not sure he’s ready to deal with her family/strained-financial-situation (she’s a maid at a local motel; he doesn’t have a paying job yet but intends to ask his cousin Violet [Dana Millican] for a spot at her husband Gordie’s [Jeb Berrier] junkyard, which does come through a bit later as we go but the paycheck’s quite small).
Wayland at least gets emotional support—plus an eventual $250—from old pals Bobbi (Lynn Sher) and Kurt (Ryan Findley), still thankful Wayland never ratted on them for also being part of the crime he was convicted of, then he moves in with Dolores and her kids after getting begrudging-approval from parole-officer Raf Ortiz (Joseph Bertót) with Dodger mostly ignoring the newcomer, Denim quickly warming up to him, Peri continuing her cynical ways especially on her birthday when Mom can’t come up with much for her gift, further blows it by taking them all to a restaurant for dinner but the coupons she’d hoped to pay with have all expired; Wayland saves the day, though, by rigging up a tire swing, using a discarded tire from his job; Peri likes it a lot, as he makes inroads with the kids.
Soon both Dolores and Wayland are out of work, though, her in disgust after having to clean a room with feces all over the bed and walls, him caught allowing his junkie friends to use remote areas of his job site to meet up for their exchanges. Wayland then buys an old ice-cream truck he intends to fix up, which becomes useful transportation because after he goes off on another party with his biker buddies, almost has sex with a very-willing-woman, angry Dolores just drives away in her car one night, ⇒finally calls from L.A., says she’s at Sunset Blvd. where they always talked about running off to years ago, says she’s got a job at a bar that’s working out well for her (we’ve also had scenes of her dreams where she’s walking toward an ocean, Wayland unable to join her as he comes up against an invisible wall, along with a scene of him watching her at a public pool reviving an old routine from the days when she dreamed of someday competing in the Olympics). After the trauma of 12-year-old Peri getting her first period (Wayland calls Pastor Gail over to help give the girl comfort and advice), Wayland gets permission to leave the state to take the kids to see Mom. When they get to L.A. they find she’s a mermaid called Lorelei in the Dive Bar’s huge tank. She sees them during her stint in the water, the kids (and Wayland) are impressed, we’re at the close of the film.⇐
The name “Lorelei” is associated with a 19th-century German legend about an enchanted woman who threw herself into the Rhine in despair over her faithless lover, then becomes a siren on a cliff overlooking the river, her enchanting song causing sailors to crash into the rocks—yet, how you might see that info informing anything about Dolores/Lola I’ll leave to your consideration; the CCAL, though, is in supportive-territory for Lorelei with RT’s 88% positive reviews, MC’s solid-enough (for them) 71% average score, so while you may never have heard of it with all the noise about the latest big-budget-theatrical-releases I think you might find Lorelei to be another well-acted, well-written experience offering no easy excuses for the left-behinds in our once-again-economically-churning-society, just brutally-honest-depictions of people trying to find their better natures even when nothing seems to imply a better tomorrow. If you’re interested, Lorelei’s on several streaming platforms (including Amazon Prime, Apple TV+) for a $6.99 rental. I don’t have a Musical Metaphor that speaks to all of its aspects, but Sheryl Crow’s “All I Wanna Do” (from her 1993 debut album Tuesday Night Music Club), at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiOtjXUpflY, is about another woman “drinking beer at noon on Tuesday In a bar that faces a giant car wash [… because] All I wanna do is have some fun Until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard” (not Sunset, but close enough in the overall scheme of L.A.) which speaks to Dolores’ desire to leave behind her gloom in rural Oregon for a life where she can be somebody for an appreciative crowd instead of just the local unmarried slut. We get the sense Wayland and the kids will be easily integrated into her realm too (as long as he follows mandated parole rules, eventually finds a new life for himself down south).
In a dual-time-period-story, we have a contemporary journalist (Felicity Jones) digging into her newspaper’s archives in an attempt to find out the writer and recipient of love letters from the 1960s; through flashbacks we see the full story of this married woman (Shaliene Woodley) and her journalist lover (Callum Turner) in their attempt to run away together but other, harsh circumstances intervene.
Here’s the trailer:
Here’s the adaptation of a book of the same name (Jojo Moyes, 2012); while it might be regarded as overly-romantic-treacle by some it can also be appreciated (if you’re so disposed) as a “true love never dies” story, one spanning at least 2 generations. In our present day at a major newspaper (fictional, name from an 18th-century periodical), The London Chronicle, we find non-romantic/up-and-coming-journalist (at least in her intentions) Ellie Haworth (Felicity Jones) begrudgingly-assigned to write the obituary of her recently-deceased-editor. Forcing herself past the standard restrictions—managed by dutiful-employee Rory McCallan (Nabhaan Rizwan)—for getting access to archival materials she finds a love letter to “J” from “Boot,” prompting Ellie (in search of more interesting material than in standard obit-bios) to dig further into un-catalogued archives (to Rory’s dismay) where other letters turn up. Then we shift to 1965 where wealthy young English socialites Larry (Joe Alwyn) and Jenny Stirling (Shaliene Woodley) are on French Riviera-holiday (she’s a bit distant from him, though) where foreign correspondent Anthony O’Hare (Callum Turner) wants to interview Larry.
At a dinner Jenny overhears Anthony making disparaging remarks about the spoiled Stirlings; she confronts him, leading to an apology plus an invitation for lunch the next day. During the meal, however, Larry’s suddenly called away on business for the rest of the summer leaving Jenny and Anthony to increasingly spend time together, become hesitantly-attracted, write to each other as “J” and “B” (or “Boot”), leading to a meeting in London’s Postman’s Park where they begin an affair. Ultimately, he lands a job offer in NYC, wants her to go with him; she resists, to avoid disgrace with her family and friends. In another letter Anthony asks her to meet him at the train station, run off to America, which she suddenly decides to do, but on the way in her friend’s car they’re rammed in a traffic accident, leaving her with amnesia about Anthony, him assuming she’s rejected his offer. As she recovers she finds Anthony’s letters hidden in her home by Larry who tries to convince her it was Anthony in the car crash, dead from the collision. In 1969, though, she accidently runs into Anthony, bringing back her memories of their hidden-love; he once again asks her to run away with him, but she refuses because of her now-2-year-old-daughter. She angrily confronts Larry with all this news, saying she’s only staying with him because of the child; he rebuts if she did leave he’d ruin her reputation as an adulteress, so she once again decides to leave with Anthony. When she gets to his newspaper office, though, suitcase and daughter in hand, he’s resigned, left, so she gives his love letters to the editor to return to him in case he ever makes contact with these colleagues again (which is how those missives make their way to the … Chronicle archives for Ellie to find years later).
⇒Jenny returns to her husband, divorces him eventually. In the present day Ellie and Rory grow close as they find more evidence of the thwarted-passions of “J” and “B,” are impressed by such devoted love, seek it for themselves, but after spending the night with Rory Ellie backs off, breaks contact, devotes herself to learning more about Jenny and Anthony after having determined who they are. As she finds each of them, though, she learns neither is willing to pursue their “Diamonds & Rust,”* until she’s able to enlighten Anthony on how Jenny did try to find him back in 1969, leading him to send her one more letter again suggesting they meet at Postman’s Park, which they hesitantly-but-lovingly do (now played by Ben Cross and Diana Kent), even as Ellie’s thrown herself on Rory’s mercy, apologizing, finally willing to embrace love with whatever pain may accompany it.⇐ The CCAL’s just barely-supportive of The Last Letter …, RT critics mustering up 57% positive reviews, MCers surprisingly the same with a 57% average score so obviously it was too sappy for many of them; I, however, with a failed marriage back in my 20s, along with a couple of long-term-busted-relationships after that, am likely more sympathetic to this story given my never-too-late-when-the-right-one-comes-along-status with the amazing Nina Kindblad, lover for 34 years, married for 31, so seeing an elderly couple open to revisiting what once was (plus a young couple willing to risk inevitable challenges when compromising your full independence for something greater, in loving-league with another, even though she first saw him as a mere bureaucratic-hindrance, he saw her as a viable-job-threat given her distain for procedures he’s hired to enforce), willing to overcome years of misunderstood-resentment, felt heartening to me even if all these mutual absolutions are a bit easy to accept in the service of not pushing the movie’s running time into the realm of tedium (nevertheless, the lead females are their usual pleasures to watch whatever the plot’s weaknesses).
I think you’d find it charming, and if you’re a Netflix streaming subscriber you’ve already paid for it so you could give it a look, maybe. For a musical metaphor there’s a perfect choice in the soundtrack (you can hear all the movie’s music here via either Amazon or YouTube), Irma Thomas’ “Straight from the Heart” (originally on her 1964 album Wish Someone Would Care) at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=bGDX1foAWU0 where it’s used as Jenny and Anthony are falling in love, with lyrics speaking to both their present and future: “Do you need me, like I need you? […] Understanding is a great thing If it comes from the heart […] Life is too fragile Don’t abuse it now,” advice they—along with the rest of us, including Ellie and Rory—needed then, now, and into whatever their future brings.
*From a Joan Baez song of this name (on her 1975 album also of the same name), a brutally-honest-tune about her refusal to get romantic again with Bob Dylan—although she did join him in 1975-‘76 for his Rolling Thunder Review concerts (one of which I saw, in Houston in January 1976).
Val (Leo Scott, Ting Poo) rated R 109 min.
A cinematic autobiography of actor Val Kilmer composed of a lot of home-movie-footage shot over most of his life with a video camera plus contemporary scenes alternating between narration written by Val but delivered by his son, Jack, and Val speaking as best he can after the ravages of throat cancer and follow-up medical procedures. Honest, straightforward stuff, at least from Val's viewpoint.
Here’s the trailer:
Val Kilmer (born on December 31, 1959) has been in dozens of movies in his extensive career, from on-screen to animation-voice work, but is best known for his appearances from the mid-1980s to the mid-‘90s where it seemed he had a stellar future ahead that was not to come to anticipated-fruition. In this self-determined look at his life (he’s the subject of his autobiographical-documentary, further credited as screenwriter, cinematographer, one of several producers) Kilmer provides us with extensive footage taken by him over the years since he was a boy (he notes it as being 1,000s of hours of material all shot with a video camera but one quick look into a box shows some reels of what seems to be 8mm footage so maybe that’s mixed in as well; further, he’s the screen-subject for much of that home-movie-memorabilia so he either handed the camera off to someone else a lot of the time or maybe just pointed it at himself; however, in the contemporary scenes shot for this doc it’s clear another person [Leila El Hayani, from the credits?] did the camerawork as we see him in the wide-shot-context of driving, autograph-signing, sifting through piles of artwork/personal items) so we watch from the time he grew up in the San Fernando Valley just north of Hollywood (with Christian Scientists-parents Eugene and Gladys Kilmer who divorced when he was 8; Dad got custody of Val, brothers Mark and Wesley), his drama training at NYC’s Julliard School (back then, the youngest person ever accepted) where he co-wrote a successful play, How It All Began, performed at the Public Theater at the New York Shakespeare Festival which sent him to an off-Broadway career launch in The Slab Boys (1983) with Kevin Bacon, Sean Penn, encouraging him to find roles that focused substantially on his own talents, rather than being diminished by more focus put on co-stars.
Even while in drama school, though, his life was marred by tragedy when brother Wesley (a co-creator of their home-produced short movies) had an epileptic episode, died in a Jacuzzi, with that sobering event bookended by Val’s problems since 2015 with throat cancer plus damage to his vocal chords from chemotherapy, tracheotomies so his speech now is difficult to listen to, resulting in much of what he’d like to share with us about the art of acting presented as voiceover-narration by his son, Jack (he also has a daughter, Mercedes; both kids with ex-wife Joanne Whalley [married 1988-‘96]).
Along the way we see how he rose to stardom as Iceman in Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986), tried to extend his range by creating unsolicited audition tapes for Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987) and Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990); fortunately, such a self-promotional-attempt landed him the career-defining-role as Jim Morrison in The Doors (Oliver Stone, 1991), followed by his notable presence as Doc Holliday in Tombstone (George P. Cosmatos, 1993), the Caped Crusader in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995) and Heat (Michael Mann, 1995) with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro; however, that was all somewhat overshadowed by the disaster of The Island of Dr. Moreau (John Frankenheimer, 1996) where things went so bad with star Marlon Brando another actor was used in many of Brando’s scenes (there’s also brief mention of what I consider Val’s great late work in The Salton Sea [D.J. Caruso, 2002]). Other focuses here are how Kilmer spent much of his movie-fortune bailing out his over-extended, wannabe-real estate-mogul Dad, then had to sell his 6,000 acre New Mexico ranch to fund his one-man-show about Mark Twain, used as a vehicle to raise money to finance a film he’s been writing about Twain and Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science church, with throat cancer ending his play’s run in 2015. He briefly acknowledges how many find him difficult (some insistently so), but he says he's a dedicated perfectionist seeking the best means of expression of anything he’s involved in, including the visual arts—his focus since the mangling of any actor’s essential instrument for dialogue-based-films. You could see this as just the ramblings of anyone’s life only notable because this subject’s so well-known, but there’s a certain sense of sad loss throughout (appreciated by the CCAL, as RT has 93% positive reviews, MC a 73% average score) mirroring his early desire to play Hamlet, an ambition (apparently) never realized. Accordingly, I’ll wrap this up with a Musical Metaphor of Joni Mitchell’s “The Arrangement” (on her 1970 Ladies of the Canyon album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei9hXjRHCNk due to lyrics such as these: “You could have been more than a name on the door On the thirty-third floor in the air More than a credit card Swimming pool in the back yard.” Seemingly, Val had a minor theatrical release, but you can now find it easily—for free!—if you subscribe to Amazon Prime Video.
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 August 13, 2021
5:00 PM The China Syndrome (James Bridges, 1979) Chilling then, still a grim warning about nuclear power plant meltdowns as significant ones have occurred in the ensuing decades. A TV reporter (Jane Fonda) and her cameraman (Michael Douglas) are filming a story at an L.A.-area plant when a problem occurs, brought under control by a supervisor (Jack Lemmon) who further investigates, finds a major construction fault, then many crises occur. Up for 4 Oscars but no wins.
7:15 PM Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971) A chemical company executive, Tom Gruneman (Robert Milli), disappears, only clue an obscene letter addressed to NYC prostitute Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda); fellow executive (Charles Cioffi) hires private eye John Klute (Donald Sutherland) to investigate. He tails Bree (beaten by some trick 2 years ago, not sure if it was Gruneman), then other prostitutes turn up dead. Fonda won Best Actress Oscar while the film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
9:30 PM Barbarella (Roger Vadim, 1968) If you despise “Hanoi Jane” Fonda as a serious actor, this silly movie lets you laugh at its sci-fi absurdity or maybe immerse yourself in the many soft-core intercourse scenes or just drool over her sexualized costumes (she was Vadim’s wife at the time, didn’t really care for the character or the script). No cinematic triumph here, just maximum camp.
Saturday August 14, 2021
1:15 AM Tout va bien (Jean-Luc Godard, 1972) Jane Fonda again, this time as an American TV reporter covering a strike at a French sausage factory, along with her husband (Yves Montand) in a challenging film more in line with her politics than Barbarella as Godard’s intent on undercutting conventional cinematic storytelling procedures as well as displaying the shallowness of both sides of the strike, bosses and workers in an arbitrary setting also unlike most films. You’ll have to work a bit.
3:00 AM How the West Was Won (John Ford, Henry Hathaway & George Marshall, 1962) Narrated by Spencer Tracy, epic (2 hrs. 44 min.) 4 generations of a family move from NY to CA (1839-1889; Ford directs only the Civil War segment) encountering countless difficulties along the way. Filled with stars including James Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, Karl Malden, Gregory Peck, Andy Devine, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Eli Wallach. Made for 3-projector Cinerama process, may be
too wide for some TV screens. Won Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, Film Editing, & Sound.
12:15 PM Moby Dick (John Huston, 1956) Adaptation of Herman Melville’s famous novel (1851) as sailor Ishmael (Richard Basehart) narrates the story of a whaling ship set out from New Bedford, MA, commanded by Captain Ahab (Gregory Peck) whose real intention is to find/kill a huge white whale, Moby Dick, who previously took off part of Ahab’s left leg; prophecies predict death in response to this ill-advised-quest. Easier to follow than Melville’s novel, stunning special effects for its time.
Sunday August 15, 2021
1:45 PM A Star Is Born (George Cukor, 1954) First musical version of this story (original drama in 1937, William A. Wellman); James Mason as movie star Norman Maine, Judy Garland as protégé Esther Blodgett (later Vicki Lester/“Mrs. Norman Maine”), since retold twice as musicals with the basic plot of an up-and-comer taking the spotlight from an established-but-fading-star. For me, the best of these 4 versions, especially because of Garland’s rendition of “The Man Who Got Away.”
Wednesday August 18, 2021
2:30 PM The Natural (Barry Levinson, 1984) An adaptation more uplifting than the original Bernard Malamud novel (1952), a sentimental favorite with baseball fans (especially those whose teams are perpetually out of the running) as talented Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) leaves his Nebraska home for the big leagues, is injured by a crazy woman (Barbara Hershey) so he disappears for years until showing up with the New York Knights where the manager (Wilford Brimley) initially benches him in disgust until he sees what talent this old rookie has, then Hobbs’ long-ago-girlfriend (Glenn Close) shows up as all sorts of complications arise until the end. Robert Duvall, Kim Basinger also star.
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: I admit I’m a bit late with these streaming updates: (1) New on Netflix in August 2021; (2) New on Amazon Prime Video in August 2021; (3) New on HBO/HBO Max in August 2021; (4) New on Disney+ in August 2021; (5) New on Hulu in August 2021. As usual for now I’ll close out this section with Joni Mitchell’s "Big Yellow Taxi" (from her 1970 Ladies of the Canyon album)—because “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”—and a reminder that you can search streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.
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Here’s more information about Settlers:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9373688/reference (best I could do for an official site)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dsl-hDTNxw (8:45 review of the film; only backup video
I could find that offers much more than the trailer, no Spoilers though)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/settlers_2021
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/settlers
Here’s more information about Lorelei:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6461318/reference (again, best I could for an official site)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQzfJ24A2bc (16:22 interview with actors Jena Malone
and Pablo Schreiber [ad interrupts at about 8:15])
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lorelei
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/lorelei
Here’s more information about The Last Letter From Your Lover:
https://www.netflix.com/title/81030821
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ticpIuUIAIo (5:26 actor Shaliene Woodley and director Augustine Frizzell explore scenes from the movie, shot by shot)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_last_letter_from_your_lover
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/last-letter-from-your-lover
Here’s more information about Val:
https://a24films.com/films/val
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoHA3b1U3SA (11:26 summary of Val Kilmer’s life as a standard biography; essentially, it’s a shorter version of what you get in the full documentary
[ad interrupts at about 6:38])
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/val
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/val
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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work. (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews-academic-articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)
If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world. I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.
By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check-out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile (quite an eternal while, in fact). Ken
P.S. Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker. But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion, lover, and wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"
—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest,
a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes and wanes over the months/years to come. 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 get tired of listening to it, then and now (one of my idle dreams is to play guitar even half this good).
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