Troubles Aplenty
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.
First, assuming you’re able to celebrate a day or more of rest and togetherness during these often-troubling-times, we wish you a joyous holiday. And now, on to the usual cinematic business at hand:
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): To begin, don’t count on a Two Guys in the Dark posting next week (December 2, 2021, but if not we’ll be back right after that). Your singular (so far; Hi, Pat!) critic, Ken Burke, doesn’t anticipate any additional movie-viewing-time this coming weekend due to the debut of Peter Jackson’s 6-hour documentary of The Beatles: Get Back on Disney+ streaming, beginning tonight (11/25/21), then 2 more 2-hour episodes each on the following nights so that’s mainly what I’ll be watching, but it likely won’t lend itself to a review (if I’m wrong, maybe I will have something here next week, but don’t expect it) so I’ll just say to any Beatles fans out there, you know you’ll watch it (even if you have to pay Apple for a month, it’s only $8) to see how the songs came together for their last 2 albums, Abbey Road (1969) and Let It Be (1970), along with the full version of that last public performance on the rooftop of their recording studio building, seen partially in the Let It Be doc (Michael Lindsay-Hogg, 1970), so what more could I say anyway? As for reviews this week, I’ll got 2 fictionalized-autobiographical films for you, the first being Kenneth Branagh’s marvelous Belfast, based on a small portion of his childhood in this Northern Irish city (mid-1969 to early 1970, a similar period to what’s covered over in London in … Get Back) when The Troubles between Protestants (Branagh’s family) and Catholics began to get increasingly violent forcing a decision for the film’s family about whether to stay or move. In the Short Takes section you’ll find my equally-positive-response to Tick, Tick … BOOM!, a musical about a couple of years (around age 30) in the life of Rent creator Jonathan Larson as he’s struggling to become the well-celebrated Broadway composer he’d later evolve into; this one marks the dynamic-directing-debut of Lin-Manuel Miranda, further enhanced by a terrific lead performance from Andrew Garfield.
Also in that section I’ll offer suggestions for some (extended, in this posting) 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 tonight by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, that tedious software!) along with my standard helping of industry-related-trivia.
Belfast (Kenneth Branagh) rated PG-13 98 min.
Here’s the trailer:
(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 $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: We begin with contemporary color shots of various locales around Belfast, Northern Ireland, then quickly shift to Black & White on August 15, 1969 where we meet 9-year-old Buddy (Jude Hill) playing outside with his friends (in pedestrian-friendly streets with not a car in sight; San Francisco and other cities in my Bay Area should take heed given the number of auto-on-human-fatalities we’ve suffered in recent months, although these Belfast streets won’t be quiet much longer either), seemingly not a care in the world with loving parents, Ma (Caitríona Balfe) and Pa (Jamie Dornan); his supportive older brother, Will (Lewis McAskie); equally-loving-grandparents, Granny (Judi Dench) and Pop (Ciarán Hinds) nearby (Hmm, that’s exactly what I called my Dad’s parents; maybe the Irish part of my heritage has more in common with the old country than I realized [except for my love of Guinness beer, of course]); and friendly neighbors, with the only potential problem being Buddy’s family is Protestant but they’re living in a mostly Catholic neighborhood. Potential becomes reality on this day, though, as The Troubles boiled over when a Protestant mob comes roaming into the area, violently smashing windows, setting a car on fire, generally causing all sorts of havoc (there’s a great shot traveling 360o around Buddy as he stands there shocked at the full impact of the rioters) although they leave Buddy’s home and family alone knowing that they’re Protestant, yet their leader, Billy Clanton’s (Colin Morgan), pushing Pa to be more active in the rebellion instead of heading off to England frequently where he has a much-needed-job, just as Buddy’s slightly-older-cousin Vanessa (Nessa Erickson) encourages the kid to be more committed to the anti-Catholic sentiments. Next we get a fiery sermon from a local Protestant preacher (Turlough Convery), essentially calling for hellfire against the marauders rather than any “turn the other cheek” nonviolent response, with tensions in the streets (entrances to the neighborhood piled high with concrete slabs, destroyed vehicles, and other obstacles reminiscent of the public barricade in Les Misérables [Tom Hooper, 2012]) now kept a bit under control due to the presence of the British army.
Other tensions begin to build in the family, though, as Pa’s exploring a move to Canada or Australia but he's confronted by Ma who’s not interested in leaving Belfast, while Buddy’s attention is mostly directed to classmate Catherine (Olive Tennant) with a tactic from Pop (make the numbers in his arithmetic homework a bit illegible so the teacher will give him the benefit of the doubt about the right answer) to help the boy get a better grade, move up closer in the classroom (teacher’s logistics) to his object of affection (it works as Catherine begins to chat with him), but then Vanessa helps get him in trouble by joining with her and a couple of others to steal chocolates from a local store, with Buddy initially thinking he’d gotten away with his little crime (wrong!). Although there’s some relief from the ongoing-Troubles by way of the family going to movies or the boys seeing old westerns on TV (more detail on this just below), an air of hopelessness evolves, then escalates: Granny talks of the long-ago Frank Capra movie, Lost Horizon (1937) but notes “No one goes to Shangri-La from our part of Belfast”; every time Pa’s home from England he gets more pressure from Billy; Pa and Ma seriously consider a move to England where the living conditions would be much more pleasant, but when they broach the possibility to the boys Buddy goes into an hysterical fit; even if the kid would reconsider, though, now’s not the time to go because Pop’s in the hospital; yet, Ma’s reached a breaking point because Vanessa encouraged Buddy to join her in grabbing some goodies from Mr. Singh’s (Sid Sager) grocery after its plate-glass-window was smashed during another riot so Ma drags both kids back there (even as chaos continues all around them) to return the stolen goods. ⇒Ultimately, Pop encourages the family to move away, then shortly afterward he dies (at least all get to celebrate his life through a traditionally-joyous Irish wake), with Granny agreeing afterward even as it pains her to see them go. Before they leave, though, Buddy has a heart-to-heart with Pa about Catherine, who’s Catholic, although Pa doesn’t care as long as they’re good to each other, so maybe they meet up again someday somewhere. Just before the final credits roll, Branagh notes this film is “For the ones who left. For the ones who stayed. And for all the ones who were lost.”⇐
As for those movie inserts, we get some comedy when the family watches the absurd Raquel Welsh “prehistoric epic” One Million Years B.C. (Don Chaffey, 1966) where humans coexist with dinosaurs—with the oddity of the movie being in color while the audience remains in B & W—followed by brief thrills later from the flying car when they see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Ken Hughes, 1968)—same thing with the color/B & W mix—as well as commentary from these TV westerns: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (John Ford, 1962) has the scene where outlaw Valence (Lee Marvin) and local hero Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) almost have a shootout in a café as attempted-peacemaker/lawyer Rance Stoddard (James Stewart) tries to diffuse the situation (just as Pa wants no part of The Troubles in Belfast); with High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952) we have a shot of isolated Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) left alone to face 4 killers, then later when tensions intensify between Pa and Ma we get the famous song from that movie’s soundtrack, Tex Ritter’s “High Noon”—better known as “Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling”—as an indication of how their problems need to be resolved (which they are by the time of the wake as he publicly serenades her with “Everlasting Love.”)* I’ll also note at one brief point we see Buddy sitting on the curb reading a Thor comic book, a nice allusion to Branagh’s past-direction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero movie, Thor (2011).
*I don’t have much of it from the film (0:52), but here’s Dornan singing the song (2:59) at the movie’s after-party following its premiere in L.A. on November 8, 2021. This tune was originally a 1967 hit for Robert Knight (his '67 album, named for the song), has since been frequently recorded.
So What? If you don’t know already, this film’s based on the director/screenwriter’s actual life growing up in this Northern Irish turmoil before his parents decided it was necessary to make the move to England. Addressing how personal history (however fictionalized) translates into effective-narrative-cinema, the CCAL’s been quite supportive of Belfast (more details in this review’s next section, just below), although there are some naysayers such as the Los Angeles Times' Justin Chang who writes: “Branagh, seldom an intuitive composer of images, frames the action from bizarrely canted angles that further frustrate the movie’s already uncertain point of view. Black-and-white may be convenient visual shorthand for the past, but there’s something flat and inexpressive about these images, scrubbed of grit and buffed to a sharp digital gloss.” A few others have called it overly-sentimental, focusing on the happier aspects of Buddy’s life to the detriment of the serious collision of social forces ripping Northern Ireland apart then, followed by such strife for decades. Alternately, though, I’d encourage you to listen to opinions such as this one from TIME’s Stephanie Zacharek: “It’s both intimate and almost comically egotistical—yet Branagh has clearly poured so much love into it that you can’t be too hard on him. It’s hard to resist the movie’s affectionate energy. […] Love him, hate him, or love-hate him, Kenneth Branagh understands how one person’s eyes can unlock the power of memory. He has also never forgotten the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang song—the ultimate proof, no matter how high he climbs, that he is human, after all.” There’s certainly enough violence here to verify the horrifying conditions Buddy’s parents must address, both for their own well-being and that of their young sons, but we also have to remember this story’s being told from the perspective of a kid who may be horrified by the atrocious actions coming to his formerly-peaceful-neighborhood, confused as to why adults (as well as his cousin) could become so hateful to fellow-Irishmen, yet trying his best to focus on what really matters to him—catching, then enhancing, the attention shown to him by the inklings of that first love, the smart/attractive/interesting (and interested) Catherine.
We’ll likely never know just how much of this story’s fictionalized from Branagh’s actual life-events (unless he chooses to write a tell-all-essay about the differences), but, hopefully, we can appreciate how this young boy, so devoted to his parents and grandparents but just as fully invested in the only life and location he’s ever known could find himself so rooted in Belfast (yet, with Catherine as a vital consideration) that he’d want to endure there even as the violence continues to escalate (although he does show some consideration of re-thinking his resistance to move if his grandparents come along, but that level of uncoupling was never to be as shown by Granny’s firm decision to stay put even when crucial events ⇒not stated here, due to spoiler content,⇐ could have opened the way for her to consider a move too). Some might see this film’s contents as too focused on little Buddy's attempted-avoidance of his surrounding-reality, self-serving for the director’s purposes (well, if so, you might as well start chastising Federico Fellini or Woody Allen—oh, wait, Allen’s already facing the firing squad but in his case for non-cinematic considerations [except how his much-older-adult-character’s having an affair with a teenager in Manhattan {1979}; though, while we’re at it, if you’re not boycotting Allen don’t forget how he marvelously channels Fellini in Stardust Memories {1980}]), but I found Belfast to be engaging with superb performances from Hill and all the primary adults in the cast. You won’t find any explanations about why The Troubles happened (the link far above on the topic might help), but, again, from the child’s perspective this film employs there’s never going to be much of an explanation that makes sense anyway, just a lot of hatred that should be endured as it envelopes your now-confounded-environment.
Bottom Line Final Comments: As promised, here’s the CCAL numbers on Belfast (with, as always, more details on each of these critics’-accumulation-sites in the Related Links section very much farther below on anything I review): the responses at Rotten Tomatoes that have come in so far are 88% positive, those at Metacritic (where the results are nearly always lower) show a 77% average score (which is high enough in their restrained-world), so those great minds are thinking alike with me, much to their credit. What they don’t explore, of course, is the COVID-consideration of attending any film in a theater (which you have to do if you wish to see Belfast) so let me clue you in on a couple of relevant (to me) considerations. First, while I’ll encourage you to see Belfast if health and screening logistics support that choice you probably will have to venture out a bit to find it as at this point it’s only in 584 domestic (U.S.-Canada) venues bringing in a mere $3.6 million in box-office receipts to date as it’s been in release for a couple of weeks (opened in 1,128 theaters according to Box Office Mojo although their daily tally never shows that many so it’s either dropping off fast or just really wasn't in all that many places if you do want to make plans to find it somewhere). In my case, I had to go a few miles to get to 1 of about 3 theaters in my extended surroundings, a Regal multiplex where I found the previews to run only 18 min. (compared to 29 when I last visited a Cinemark multiplex) but, to insure maskless viewing, I again bought a small soda which this time cost about $7 (notably more than Cinemark, although the size was what most places would call medium, so if you drink the whole thing there’s also restroom breaks to consider).
Further, once the film gets going there’s always the consideration of deciphering the Irish accents (even using my hearing aids, so volume wasn’t the problem), leaving me clueless on about 1/3 of the dialogue; to that situation, though, Pop says to Buddy: “If they can’t understand you, they’re not listening.” OK, maybe it is just my problem (same result for my wife, Nina, though also hearing-aided), but at least what you do hear here is Irish dialects as authentic as when we visited Dublin some years ago, so I acknowledge Branagh’s trying to be true to his heritage as many of his principal actors are from Belfast—as is Van Morrison, a major presence on the soundtrack—so I’ll accept this is how the director wanted his own story to come across, even if I have to struggle with it a bit, although the crucial concepts were always clear even if the specific words eluded me at times.
Speaking of Mr. Morrison, though, easily brings me to my usual review-wrap-up-tactic of a Musical Metaphor which would be easy to find this time simply by borrowing one of Van’s several songs from the soundtrack—most likely, you’d think it would be "Days Like This" (on his 1995 album of the same name) because both Ma and Granny definitely told Buddy there’d now be dangerous days like this due to The Troubles (plus, this video’s in B & W like the film, while the song became the official anthem of the Northern Ireland peace movement as the 1994 ceasefire came into being, followed by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement). However, for the actual Metaphor I’ve stepped outside of the soundtrack to use Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” (from his 1970 Moondance album) at https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=9eFXfcZsvZ0 to directly coincide with the latter time frame shown in the film, to get to lyrics which I think Belfast is ultimately aiming for such as “And I want to rock your gypsy soul Just like way back in the days of old And together we will float Into the mystic,” and, because this version’s from a September 30, 2021 concert in nearby-to-me-Berkeley, CA it gives me a sense of what I’ve missed while avoiding large public gatherings this year. Yet, the audio’s not as clear as I’d prefer so I’ll also give you this version taken from the original album but also as “old school” as you can get by being a video simply showing the record being played (or … maybe that’s right-now-meta after all). Further, this tune and the Metaphor in the review below ("Seasons of Love") are among Nina's favorites so she gets some compensation for being willing to read/ edit/comment on these Two Guys postings of mine over almost the last 10 years (thanks, my Love).
SHORT TAKES (but some not so short this time … once again)
(spoilers also appear here)
This is an intriguing film based on a play, itself based on the life of Rent-genius Jonathan Larson that somewhat follows his fluid and ever-evolving (often desperate) stage work prior to his masterpiece, adding additional fictional elements about this aspiring Broadway star approaching his 30th birthday with slim hopes of achieving the fame he desires, unless his concepts can become more engaging.
Here’s the trailer:
Before reading further, please refer to the plot spoilers warning detailed far above.
As with the review above, what’s pertinent factually here is biographically-available via an Internet search, but I’ll again keep some of it spoiler-free (as long as you don’t read the “forbidden” section) just to keep my policy intact; with that understanding we (as above) begin in one visual mode (in this case, old 4x3 format movies of Jonathan Larson [Andrew Garfield] doing standup comedy [not too successfully; goes along with his Broadway-aspiration-rejection letters—reminds me of the reaction I had from publishers regarding a book on American film I once tried to write]) before expanding into our contemporary-standard-widescreen where the action intersperses between Jonathan in 1992 performing his monologue (seated at a piano, also accompanied by other musicians and singers) eventually called Tick, Tick … BOOM! (it went through various name and content changes beginning in 1989, served as the foundation for this cinematic adaptation which also incorporates a lot of research by Miranda, screenwriter Steven Levenson) and scenes of his struggling NYC life in 1990 as this wannabe-Broadway-composer-star is trying desperately to make a go of his in-progress musical, Superbia, as he approaches his 30th birthday, fearing his chance at success is passing by. At a party in his cramped apartment we meet former roommate Michael (Robin de Jesús), who left performance for a financially-successful-career in advertising, along with girlfriend Susan Wilson (Alexandra Shipp), an injured dancer working her way back into the business who’s tempted by a teaching job at Jacob’s Pillow (a dance/performance center at Becket, MA, in the Berkshires), hoping Jonathan would come with her, an option he struggles with as his dreams of Broadway continue to beckon. At this point he’s encouraged by positive reactions he got to his gestating-musical from Stephen Sondheim (Bradley Whitford) so he’s focused on a workshop for Superbia while also concerned about friends who’ve died from AIDS, even as Freddy (Ben Levi Ross), his co-worker at the Moondance Diner, is diagnosed as HIV-positive. In an attempt to raise enough cash to hire a band to accompany him at the workshop he accepts Michael’s offer of joining a products-based-focus group but then purposely sabotages his chances, rejecting the whole commercialized-concept.
While Jonathan’s career-obsessions eventually cause Susan to break up with him, the workshop goes exceptionally well (especially his friend Karessa Johnson’s [Vanessa Hudgens] rendition of his song, “Come to Your Senses”) but no offers follow even as his agent Rosa Stevens (Judith Light) encourages him to keep writing, ⇒a task made even harder when he learns Michael’s also HIV-positive, although Jonathan’s eventually able to repair his rifts with Michael and Susan (she does relocate to MA but on good terms with him; also, Freddy’s better, discharged from the hospital). As the film wraps up, we hear Susan telling us about the stage version of Tick, Tick … BOOM!, leading later to the April 1996 success of Larson’s Rent (book, music, lyrics all by him—loosely based on La Bohème [Giacomo Puccini, 1896], one of the few operas I’ve seen, along with attending both the stage and film [Chris Columbus, 2005] versions of Rent)—which sadly opened for its Off-Broadway previews in early 1996 the night after Jonathan suddenly died of aortic dissection (a rare disease where the aorta breaks up from many possible causes including problems with a bicuspid aortic valve [the situation that nearly did me in last summer before getting a new valve inserted])—we do get some happy footage of him during the credits, though.⇐ As with anything associated with Miranda there’s active cutting/camera movement throughout, engaging songs, vibrant characters, topped by an the excellent, Oscar-nomination-worthy lead by Garfield (he's a damn good singer too).
If you’re a Netflix streaming subscriber you should check this out (or sign up for a month; at most it’s $17.99 for Premium version, $8.99 for Basic)—the CCAL agrees: RT with 87% positive reviews; MC, 74% average score—because you won’t find it in a theater (unless you live in South Korea where it came out a week ago, took in $53 thousand, although reports imply a wider opening) so I can only hope Oscar rules allow it to be considered for 2022 awards. For a Musical Metaphor, though, I quickly considered/chose “Seasons of Love,” from Rent at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj7LRuusFqo, in that this new film’s mainly about a year in Larson’s life just as the song’s about counting the duration of a year, asking “How do you measure a life of a woman or a man?” Finally, in … BOOM! there are numerous inclusions of Broadway actors, composers, and lyricists; to get a full tally of them (most of whom I don’t know or recognize) access this site, scroll down to Cameos.
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.
(Yes, I know, I get more carried away with some of these descriptions than I do with others but, trust me, they’re all well worth your consideration, for those various reasons that I’ve noted or elaborated.)
Saturday November 27, 2021
2:45 PM The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948) In the 1920s 3 men (Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt, Walter Huston [John's father]) go to Mexico searching for gold which they find but greed, suspicion, and brutality await these prospectors as events go from bad to worse; contains
the famous line: “I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!” (which is often slightly misquoted).
Won the Oscars for Best Director, Supporting Actor (W. Huston), Adapted Screenplay (J. Huston).
6:30 PM Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979) A masterpiece of Outer-Space Sci-Fi (although some call it a horror film because of a deadly monster attacking in a confined area) which has “spawned” several sequels and now prequels. A cargo ship in deep space receives a distress signal from a nearby moon so the crew investigates only for one of them to have a creature attach to his face, deposit an embryo in his chest which breaks loose later in a bloody, iconic scene with the creature rapidly growing, killing off the crew until only Sigourney Weaver’s (and the ship’s cat) left to battle the beast. Also stars Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Koto, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright, Ian Holm.
Sunday November 22, 2021
12:45 PM 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.
Monday November 29, 2021
5:00 PM Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972) An 8-Oscar winner: Best Director, Actress (Liza Minnelli), Supporting Actor (Joel Grey), Art Direction, Sound, Score Adaptation and Original Song Score, Cinematography, Film Editing (close for me on these last 2 with The Godfather which won Best Picture [I agree]). A great film, best musical of all-time for me, set in 1931 Berlin as an American performer & an English academic get involved, Nazis on the rise, notable differences from the play. Followed right at 7:15 PM on TCM by Fosse’s fictionalized-autobiography, All That Jazz (1979).
7:00 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.
Monday December 6, 2021
3:30 AM Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) Still my All-Time #1 (even though Sight and Sound’s poll dethroned it in 2012 in favor of Hitchcock’s Vertigo [1958] after 50 years on top); a triumph of script, acting, cinematography, editing, sound design, art direction, special effects, score, with Welles as director, star actor portraying Charles Foster Kane, an enormously wealthy (by chance as a kid) newspaperman (patterned on William Randolph Hearst) whose early progressive ideals succumb to pragmatics destroying marriages to 2 wives (Ruth Warrick, Dorothy Comingore) and a long-time-friend (Joseph Cotton), retaining loyalty only from his business manager (Everett Sloane). Except for the eye-of-God beginning & end told in flashbacks, 5 narrators imparting subjective accounts (hard for us to know what’s true). Won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz [granddad of noted TCM host Ben Mankiewicz]); scripting process the subject of Mank.
Tuesday December 7, 2021
12:15 AM 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 Eli Wallach are in there too),
sort of a western but set in contemporary Nevada as interpersonal angst, drunkenness, desperation haunt the starring characters. A flop in its time, much more highly regarded today by the critics.
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: No Time to Die could be 2021's top-grosser but might still lose millions. 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:
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 problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.
Here’s more information about Belfast:
https://www.focusfeatures.com/belfast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8D6KtJqGCE (32:06 interview with actors Ciarán Hinds, Jude Hill, Jamie Dornan, Caitríona Balfe and screenwriter/director Kenneth Branagh)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/belfast
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/belfast
Here’s more information about Tick, Tick … BOOM!:
https://www.netflix.com/title/81149184
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMQcVFrtuDY (21:35 interview with director Lin-Manuel Miranda and actors Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Vanessa Hudgens, Joshua Henry,
Robin De Jesús)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tick_tick_boom
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/tick-tickboom!
Please note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post. You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow connect
with us at that site in order to do it (most FB procedures are still a bit of a mystery to us old farts).
If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work. (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews-academic-articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)
If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world. I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.
By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check-out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile (quite an eternal while, in fact). Ken
P.S. Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker. But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion, lover, and wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"
—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest,
a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes and wanes over the months/years to come. 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).
But, while I’m at it, I should also include another of my top favorites, from the night before
at Desert Trip, the Rolling Stones’ "Gimme Shelter" (Wow!), a song always “just a shot
away” in my memory (along with my memory of the great drummer, Charlie Watts; RIP).
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 16,180 (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):
