Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark: October 2020

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm plus Short Takes on Rebecca, suggestions for TCM cable offerings, and a few other cinematic topics

Second Times Around

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.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for

make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

(Jason Woliner) rated R

Opening Chatter (no spoilers): This posting will land on the Internet a few days before Halloween 2020 while the next one (if I’ve got the sanity to write it next week; don’t be surprised if the intended-Nov. 5, 2020-one’s a little late due to celebration or desolation) will follow Election Day so I’ve given you a cartoon just above to speak to both of those notable events, with true horrors to be determined in the minds of the American public however the tabulations (eventually) turn out. In regard to the mindsets of individuals, though, I’ll give you a lead review this week about a movie some will find hilarious, others will be appalled by, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, the long-delayed (anticipated? dreaded?) sequel to Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat: Cultural Learnings … (Larry Charles, 2006) mockumentary satire in which this Kazakh “journalist” serendipitously inserted himself into various situations in disguise (as he does this time), completely fooling the people being filmed, producing outrageously funny (at times borderline-obscene) results that resonated with audiences (over $260 million global-gross), garnered a lot of Top 10 nods and other awards (including an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay [from a Baron Cohen character on a British TV series]) along with complaints, lawsuits (most easily dismissed), and censorship in several Muslim countries.

This time around Borat’s attempting to give his 15-year-old-daughter to Mike Pence to curry favor with Trump which leads to “pranked” scenes at a debutante ball, an anti-abortion clinic, an interview with Rudy Giuliani, among other intended-atrocities. The difficulty for some viewers with this type of extreme satire is the mistaken assumption the filmmakers want you to believe, even agree with, what the principal character’s saying and doing, although it’s usually intended to ridicule the content of his statements (as well as some of the people he’s interacting with). If you should see this on Amazon Prime streaming (subscribers or 30-day-free-trial-offer; seemingly also in some theaters, but I don’t know where either in the U.S. or abroad)—a big IF regarding its content which could easily be read as anti-Kazakh, anti-Jewish, misogynistic, or a number of other offensive attitudes—try to keep in mind these goals of satirical humor, to chastise something for its objective absurdity rather than accept or promote it, although the line between revelation-based-humor and denigration is often difficult to discern, especially in extreme situations as are shown here. On a much-less-controversial level (unless you’re an adamant-Hitchcock enthusiast), in the Short Takes section I’ll offer brief comments on the latest adaptation of Rebecca, from Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel, which, like the 1940 Hitchcock version, mostly adheres strongly to the book’s plot (except for some crucial-event-juggling toward the end) where a young woman of limited means suddenly becomes the wife of a wealthy widower, but when they arrive at his huge English mansion she finds herself constantly, poorly compared to departed-Rebecca, especially by head-housekeeper Mrs. Danvers. You have to be a Netflix subscriber to see this one, although it’s supposedly in select British theaters (I find no evidence of such showings so far). 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 is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, tedious software!) plus some of those usual notes on industry-related-trivia.

Here’s the trailer for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm:

(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: The noted, well-known (now former) Kazakhstan journalist, Borat Margaret Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen), whose movie about his journey to America 14 years ago was a big hit overseas but resulted in ridicule for his home country (both that documentary and this one are released by a Kazakh government ministry*), as well as its exports dropping terribly, so he’s been sentenced to life at hard labor. However, Premiere Nursultan Nazarbayev (Dani Popescu—although the real national leader is true, non-fictionalized Nazarbayev) releases him on the condition he travel back to America (taking along a cameraman, of course) to present Vice President Mike Pence with their country’s Minister of Culture, Johnny the Monkey (an actual simian) because he’s a sex-addict, as they assume Pence to be due to the need for him to not be left alone in a room with a woman; this action’s to bring better relations with President Donald Trump who’s yet to include Nazarbayev in his inner-circle of favored-dictators (Borat can’t directly approach Trump because he took a dump in the bushes of a Trump property during his last visit). Before leaving, Borat returns to his home, only to find his hated neighbor, Nursultan Tulyakbay (Miroslav Tolj), has taken control of his wife and sons (one’s even changed his name from Huey Lewis Sagdiyev to Jeffrey Epstein Sagdiyev), keeps the 15-year-old-daughter, Tutar (Maria Bakalova) whom Borat never knew, in the barn (she accepts this, having read the official Kazakh guidebook for women, noting they should be kept in cages; her favorite TV show is an animated story of a Slovenian woman, Melania, who yearns to marry an old, fat, rich man so she can be kept in a golden cage). Tutar wants to also go to America but Borat says no, heads off to disembark by ship with Johnny being sent in a separate (sealed) box. After 22 days of an unnecessary trip around the globe, Borat arrives at the port of Galveston, TX (my old home town) but is dismayed to find he’s easily recognized so he buys several disguises. When Johnny’s crate shows up, though, he finds Tutar inside, having eaten the monkey. After communicating with Nazarbayev by fax (he has a cell phone [bought to aid with masturbation] but uses it mainly to locate fax stores) about this crisis his new order is to give Tutar to Pence, otherwise Borat will be executed.

*The earlier one is fully known as Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, with the Central Asia scenes shots in Romania (same thing in this new one); the “Kazakh language” used in these movies is actually a combo of Hebrew, Polish, Bulgarian. The Kazakh American Association rejects … Moviefilm as “a racist depiction” with further concerns it could “incite violence against a highly vulnerable and underrepresented minority ethnic group”; however, while the government of Kazakhstan (along with most Arab nations) banned Borat … it has now actively brought Borat’s phrase, "Kazakhstan. Very Nice!" into their current tourism campaign.

As a means of making Tutar more acceptable to an American politician she visits a salon where her hair’s dyed blonde, makeup’s applied (after she tries to eat the lipstick); Dad then gives her cupcakes with little baby dolls on them (first he orders a cake with “Jews Will Not Replace Us” written on top, as the saleswoman does this while smiling), but when she gobbles one she swallows the doll so they go to a clinic to have it removed. Through (intentionally) confusing dialogue the pro-life-pastor there thinks she’s pregnant, won’t give her an abortion (she later poops out the doll). Borat then brings her to a debutante ball—as Sarah Jessica Parker Drummond—where she and Dad shock the crowd by doing a fertility dance, with her menstrual blood easily seen on her underwear at the end. Pence (real VP) is appearing at a big rally nearby so Borat (disguised as Trump, after first being denied entry for showing up in a KKK hood and gown) gets in, tries to offer the girl to him, is swiftly ejected. In order to avoid execution, Borat then decides to give Tutar to Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani (himself), but he wants her to get cosmetic and breast-enlargement surgery to be more appealing; however, Tutar learns what’s she been taught about women are lies so she leaves Dad, also telling him (falsely, but she doesn’t know that) the Holocaust is a lie (troubling to him because back home they have the annual Running of the Jew [instead of bulls]). Borat, in despair, dressing himself as a ridiculous Jewish stereotype (Cohen, however, is Jewish, was raised by an Israeli mother and British Jewish father), goes to a synagogue assuming he’ll be killed but instead is accepted by 2 elderly women, Holocaust survivors, who give him some (slim) enlightenment. Next, he takes COVID-19 quarantine-shelter with a couple of guys he meets, Jim and Jerry, QAnon-types, then goes with them to a March for Our Rights rally in Olympia, WA after he sees Tutar on TV as a reporter also going there. Still in disguise, he gets on stage to sing an anti-Obama/infect him with COVID-song, finds Tutar, tells her he’ll be killed if she doesn’t go to Giuliani, so she agrees (Baron Cohen also notes in interviews the crowd at this rally caught onto his ruse; he barely escaped alive).

⇒Giuliani (himself) accepts Tutar's interview in a hotel suite, after which they go into the bedroom where he lays on the bed, puts his hand down his pants, when Borat bursts in (dressed in a bra and panties) so Rudy runs. Borat and Tutar return to Kazakhstan, ready for death, but he's shocked to learn Nazarbayev infected him with the coronavirus, sent him around the world to spread it. Borat secretly records this admission on his phone, blackmails the Premiere into changing the country’s anti-women-laws, reinstating him as a journalist (along with Tutar) where they cover the Running of the American as Trump supporters chase down, then kill someone dressed as Dr. Anthony Fauci.⇐

So What? The opening (translated) “Kazakh” graphics note this film is not suitable for anyone under the age of 3; depending on how you react to it, you might want to change that to 103 (hoping anyone older than that wouldn’t pay much attention to it anyway). Certainly, you have to appreciate both the clandestine approach Sacha Baron Cohen uses here along with the situations he creates to be able to see anything funny about what’s being depicted. Some of the scenes are innocuous enough—Borat buying costumes to disguise his now-known-appearance, both in the streets and with the people he wants to incorporate into his scenes without their knowledge (it’s not fully clear to me whether he got signed releases from all of them, at least the non-public-ones; when he uses photos of known politicians such as Barack Obama or Vladimir Putin, they’re fair game in this context); Borat buying a party dress for his daughter—but others, such as the participants and parents at the cotillion ball, the QAnon guys who think Democrats are more dangerous for America than COVID-19, and especially Rudy Giuliani, I’m sure are not pleased with how they’re depicted on screen. Where Mr. “I’ve got Hunter Biden’s laptop! Lock him up!” is concerned, he would seem to have a lot of ‘splain’ to do; for context, here’s the full clip (3:26) of what’s in the movie (I can understand how, in this faux-interview-setting, Giuliani would be comfortable being filmed, but why he’d even consider a cameraman coming into the bedroom with him and “Tutar” astonishes me no matter what else is true about his intentions at this point), along with commentary from Baron Cohen and Bakalova (9:45) regarding Rudy’s denial of anything inappropriate (Sacha also tells here how he got into the Pence event in his Trump costume, then hid in a restroom 5 hours until time to offer up that "gift" to the VP).

Extending my point above, I can understand how a cameraman would be allowed to follow Borat (using a false identity to enhance his credibility with those who’d likely bar him from some of the events he attended) if he were understood to be on some legitimate mission that would reasonably be documented or even just in a neutral situation such as buying cupcakes or giving some guy a haircut. However, why the sponsors of that cotillion ball didn’t stop Dad and daughter from their semi-grotesque-antics or at least insist no visual record remain of it, why Jim and Jerry would also bring a following-cameraman into their home to keep recording Borat’s silly behavior of swatting the coronavirus with a frying pan, or other situations like that seem crazy to me that the people being taken for a ride with Sacha would just casually continue to ignore the camera in their midst. (Was it also picking up audio? I guess it would have to; surely, there wasn’t a soundman there too? [I’m not saying “camera operator,” etc. not to be perpetuating sexist terms but to acknowledge Borat would do that to stay in character.]) All I can say is that if Baron Cohen was able to effectively capture all this footage (and, apparently, a lot more that wasn’t used including of Trump and D. Trump Jr.) without anyone questioning why all of it was being shot (especially doing it again after all the publicity about the first movie, no matter how long ago it was), he deserves some sort of special Oscar recognition because this type of stealth-execution successfully takes mockumentaries far beyond the glorious successes of scripted, completely-controlled-productions such as those of Christopher Guest (an actual Baron, a title inherited from his father, even attended Britain’s House of Lords until 1999), including Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003).

Bottom Line Final Comments: My marvelous—and Borat … -loving—wife, Nina, was looking forward to this sequel, especially to help take her mind off all the constant political news, aggressive Trump rallies (where facemasks and social distancing are a constant afterthought, if even a thought at all), and the impending (now finalized) confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court Associate Justice whose votes may well help undo a lot of what progress has been/will hope to be made in our viciously-polarized-country. However, when it was over her first thought was: “It’s a movie you need to see more than once, but I don’t want to.” I laughed considerably more than she did (also wanting 96 minutes of distraction from those things I’ve cited just above), although she wasn’t really offended by it, just not all that engaged (on the other hand, she seems to like this new version of Rebecca [reviewed below] more than me, so I guess it all balances out in the long run). The CCAL’s somewhat divided as well, with the Rotten Tomatoes folks serving up 85% positive reviews while over at Metacritic we find the usual “Let’s not get too excited about this” with a 68% average score (in 2006 the RT response to Borat … was 91% positive reviews, the MC average score was—astoundingly!—about equal, providing an 89% average score).

The real challenge for viewers concerning … Moviefilm is whether the direct jabs at Pence, Trump, Giuliani, and their supporters (assuming you’re tolerant of such content) have been effective (surely intended to be, with this movie released on Amazon Prime just last weekend [free to subscribers or those who use their continuing 30-day-trial-offer-option] so close to November 3, 2020 Election Day with mail-in and early balloting already in action [Nina and I turned in our ballots to a legitimate, official drop-box, have received verification of reception for counting]) after coming at the expense of all the others who were duped* as to what was going on with “Borat” and “Tutar” (see this site for details on complaints from some of those depicted with more specifics about one of them here; I’m sure there’ll be more when this movie’s been in circulation for awhile). For me, just for the sense of seeing how naïve so many of us are—possibly after too much exposure to social media and non-stop-cable-news—it was still useful to see the ease with which a chameleon such as Baron Cohen can persuade people his absurd character (done equally well by Bulgarian actor Bakalova) is a real person, despite the egregious things he says and does. Have we lost all sense of our bullshit radar?

*Except for actors as Kazakh characters—and some celebrities (Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson) portraying themselves—the cast list notes none of the Sagdiyevs’ “encounters” as professional performers, so I’ve got to assume Baron Cohen managed to fool everyone else seen on screen as to whom he was.

If you care to make the concise time-investment (especially because no money’s involved at this point, considering you could watch this on a smartphone if you wanted to [you wouldn’t lose much in terms of cinematic quality as it’s mostly shot in real-time on the fly—although it all looks OK—so I won’t complain about such a viewing option for a change]) to see Borat Subsequent Moviefilm ..., knowing beforehand how challenging it might be to an aspect of your political/personal-sensibilities, then you might also enjoy my chosen Musical Metaphor, the standard-review-closer of my analyses (or you might even prefer this to the movie), which is Tom Lehrer’s satirical song, “Wernher Von Braun” (from his 1965 That Was the Year That Was album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjDEsGZLbio where he takes some digs at both the U.S. government for protecting/recruiting this former-Nazi-rocket-scientist (his work with the V-2 missile resulted in attacks on European cities during WW II) to help spur the American space program and at von Braun for so easily changing allegiances for his own betterment: “ ‘Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That’s not my department’ says Wernher von Braun […] But some think our attitude Should be one of gratitude Like the widows and cripples in old London town Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun […] ‘In German or English, I know how to count down Und I’m learning Chinese!’ says Wernher von Braun,” a bouncy-tune which in its own wicked way also takes aim at the same kinds of exigency/hypocrisy Baron Cohen’s after in his Borat satires. Unlike Sacha and his actual lawsuits (hardly any of which have amounted to anything) Lehrer was never sued by von Braun (despite rumors to the contrary; satire’s protected by our Constitution’s First Amendment as long as it doesn’t devolve into intentional libel or slander). Actually, if you like Tom’s lyrics you might also enjoy Foundring's update (7:17) which also takes on our CIA and its various undercover crimes during several Presidential Administrations (that’s how it goes with politicians and their official-enablers: If you can’t impeach ‘em at least you can sing or make movies about ‘em, which does help heal portions of our public angst a bit, at least until they do something outrageous again).

SHORT TAKES (spoilers also appear here)

Rebecca [2020] (Ben Wheatley) rated PG-13

Yet another adaptation of the famous 1938 Daphne du Maurier novel about a young woman of little means, in the employ of a rich vacationer in Monte Carlo, who catches the eye of a widower who quickly gets her to marry him, takes her to his English mansion where she lives in the shadow of the drowned first wife, with intense distain from the head housekeeper until long-buried secrets emerge.

Here’s the trailer for Rebecca:

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

Let me begin this cinematic-exploration with a bit of a diatribe because, while it’s been years since I’ve seen the famous 1940 adaptation from Dame Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel (also Rebecca)—directed by Alfred Hitchcock (his first American helmsman voyage, getting him an Oscar nomination to be followed as the years went on with 4 more but never a win, although he did get the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1968), produced by David O. Selznick, giving him 2 Best Pictures wins in a row (after Gone with the Wind [Victor Fleming, 1939])—I can’t say I have much of a recent memory of that earlier version of Rebecca, except where I’m reminded of it in the grand documentary about gay and lesbian depictions in Hollywood cinema, The Celluloid Closet (Rob Epstein and Jeffery Friedman, 1996) in the notation of how head-housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) shows the deceased Rebecca’s underwear to the new Mrs. De Winter (Joan Fontaine), caressing these intimate garments, implying either a relationship between these 2 woman or at least lesbian-lust on Danver’s part (also, look in the Related Links section far below to see a brief summary of other scenes from that earlier-filmic-version of this story). Saucy stuff for way back then!

So, while others are drawing various comparisons to these 2 notable adaptations of the book all I can say about the 1940 iteration is it’s impressive enough in its cinematic structure (won Oscars for Best Picture, Cinematography; 11 nominations overall) but doesn’t begin to compare for me to the cinematic-adaptation of another novel (the best I’ve read so far) that year, The Grapes of Wrath, but at least John Ford got the Best Director Oscar for his film (plus Best Supporting Actress for Jane Darwell, 5 more noms), richly deserved (sorry, Alfred; given the recently-renewed-interest in Vertigo [1958], it’s amazing only a couple of technical areas from that now-hallowed-success was even nominated that year, so I guess the odds were never in your favor for a competitive statuette despite your everlasting fame). Therefore, valued readers, you might sense already the previously-lauded 1940 Rebecca (along with several TV adaptations from 1948-’79, plus a 1997 miniseries with Emilia Fox, Charles Dance, Dame Diana Rigg in that previously-mentioned-link far below [none of which I’ve seen, nor—shock!—have I read the novel]) was not something that thrilled me too much, so it was only for curiosity I watched this version (in some British theaters; mostly on Netflix streaming for subscribers, no free trials anymore), not expecting much, especially with the OCCU so negative (RT 44% positive reviews, MC almost the same with a 46% average score, a surprising “win” for these stingy-with-support-critics), many of us finding it technically solid but the same old melodramatic tale.

If you’re not familiar with the Rebecca narrative from any of these previous incarnations, the basic story is the unassuming assistant for Mrs. Van Hopper (Ann Dowd) is a young woman (Lily James), never named, accompanying her employer to Monte Carlo; while Van Hopper lies ill for a week the young woman catches the eye of a rich widower, Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer), who soon takes a strong interest, marries her, escorts her back to his ancestral, seaside mansion in England, Manderley, where the second Mrs. de Winter finds herself to be constantly compared (not favorably) to Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca (never seen, supposedly drowned), especially by the snooty head servant, Mrs. Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas), who knew Rebecca since she was a girl, seemingly idolized her (if not more, although that’s more overt [amazing for the time, under the censorious-Hays Code; must have slipped past the censors' awareness] in the 1940 version), causes great embarrassment for the new wife by encouraging her to costume for a grand formal occasion at the mansion in a dress like that in a painting of an ancestor, but Rebecca had also worn such a gown causing unease among the guests (Rebecca was widely-respected by all), anger from Max. ⇒Just as our unnamed protagonist is about to jump out of a window to suicide (encouraged by Mrs. Danvers) a sunken boat with holes in the hull is discovered, containing Rebecca’s body (Maxim had another woman buried as Rebecca, too mutilated to be positively identified). Verification from a London doctor Rebecca was slowly dying of cancer—rather than humiliating Max by being pregnant from another man, as she claimed—confirmed her death (and the boat’s sinking) as suicide,* taking any suspicion off Maxim for killing her, but Mrs. Danvers get revenge by burning Rebecca’s diaries, clothes, etc. setting all of Manderley on fire, as she jumps to her own death into the ocean. Putting all this morbid past behind them, Maxim and his unnamed wife set out to find a new place to live, in Egypt as we last see them, as she “dreamed of Manderley,” back where this morbid movie began.⇐

*⇒In the novel Maxim shoots Rebecca in a dispute over this supposed-pregnancy, a tactic on her part to prevent a long, painful illness, although no one seems to hold him accountable (based on the summary I read), nor is it explicit—although implied—Danvers set the fire. In Hitchcock’s version (adaptation/script by Robert E. Sherwood, Joan Harrison, Philip MacDonald, Michael Hogan) Rebecca and Maxim argue over the “pregnancy,” she slips, injures herself, dies; he puts her into the boat, sinks it to look like suicide. This new version seems the least negative toward his actions.⇐

While this latest version of the story features attractive actors (even Scott Thomas in her austere manner), lush settings, another marvelous triumph in cinematography, and the fierce antagonism between the unnamed second Mrs. de Winter and the icy Mrs. Danvers (who admits she cared for nothing in life except for sharing her time with Rebecca—finally noted by Maxim as a wife who was an uncaring, manipulative shrew with whom he felt obligated to maintain a seemingly-joyous-marriage [why I’m not sure from any versions of this narrative]), I can’t say I really cared much for it, although that’s more about a disconnect between the story and me rather than any failure on the part of the filmmakers who’ve provided a much-better-result than the dismissive OCCU responses would suggest. I can appreciate the concept that manipulative Rebecca had everyone fooled (somewhat like Baron Cohen playing Borat, maybe) as to how genuinely-charming she truly was (except Mrs. Danvers who seemed to revel in the mere presence of this domineering woman, no matter how saturated she was in her own false-persona), but, as Nina points out, why did Maxim continue to perpetuate this near-idolization of her after her death (was this rich, powerful man that swayed by public opinion of his former wife?) when he detested her so much in life? ⇒In earlier versions of this story I understand he was trying to cover up his killing of Rebecca, even though she egged him on to absolve her cancer-misery (novel), or his planted-suicide-scenario (Hitchcock movie), so I guess he had to perpetuate the role of grief-stricken-former-husband who even takes sides against his new wife, but I’m not as convinced of such motivations in this newest version, not that it really matters to me all that much⇐ ((still, though, you may like it more than I did—that’s Nina’s ultimate decision despite her reservations—even while I’m considerably more supportive than the OCCU as a whole).

As for a Musical Metaphor to bring this trauma all to a close, I’ve chosen Carly Simon’s “We Have No Secrets” (from her 1972 No Secrets album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aMGK 19UlmA because while What’s-Her-Name and Maxim ultimately end up in the situation where “We have no secrets We tell each other everything About the lovers in the past And why they didn’t last” the bulk of their relationship we see on screen amounts to “You always [or not] answer my questions But they don’t always answer my prayers […] Often I wish That I never, never, never knew some of those secrets of yours.” Hopefully, now that Manderley has gone the destroyed-route of Wayne Manor (at we witnessed in the Christopher Nolan Batman Begins movie [2005]) all of these troubled protagonists can find comfort in other locations—although Wayne Manor was rebuilt by the time of The Dark Knight Rises [Nolan, 2012] even as Bruce went away, bequeathing the Batcave to Robin).

Suggestions for TCM cablecasts

At least until the pandemic subsides Two Guys also want to encourage you to consider movies you might be interested in that don’t require subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, similar Internet platforms (we may well be stuck inside for longer than those 30-day-free-initial-offers), or premium-tier-cable-TV-fees. While there are a good number of video networks offering movies of various sorts (mostly broken up by commercials), one dependable source of fine cinematic programming is Turner Classic Movies (available in lots of basic-cable-packages) so I’ll be offering suggestions of possible choices for you running from Thursday afternoon of the current week (I usually get this blog posted by early Thursday mornings) on through Thursday morning of the following week. All times are U.S. Pacific Daylight so if you see something of interest please verify actual show time in your area for the day listed. These recommendations are my particular favorites (no matter when they’re on, although some of those early-day-ones might need to be recorded, watched later), but there’s considerably more to pick from you might like even better; feel free to explore entire schedule here. You can also click on the down arrow at the right of each listing to get additional, useful info.

I’ll bet if you checked that entire schedule link just above you’d find other options of interest, but these are the only ones grabbing my attention at present. Please dig in further for other possibilities.

Thursday October 29, 2020

4:00 AM All the King’s Men (Robert Rossen, 1949) Based on Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name (1946), fictitious main character (but clearly inspired by Louisiana Governor Huey Long) Willy Stark (Broderick Crawford) is an honest, populist local politician whose career advances as his scruples recede, including his affair with Anne Stanton (Joanne Dru), girlfriend of his PR man, even as a campaign worker (Mercedes McCambridge) lusts after him while other scandals continue. Oscars: Best Picture, Actor (Crawford), Supporting Actress (McCambridge); nominated for 4 more.

Friday October 30, 2020

1:00 AM Of Mice and Men (Lewis Milestone, 1939) Based on a play, which itself was based on

John Steinbeck’s novel about 2 migrant farm workers, George (Burgess Meredith) and Lenny

(Lon Chaney Jr.) who’s physically strong but mentally limited, often getting them into trouble; they dream of independence, but circumstances at their latest job turn events further against them. This film didn’t win any Oscars (tough year with lots of strong contenders, some say the best movie year ever) but was nominated for Best Picture, Sound Recording, Musical Scoring, and Original Score.

Saturday October 31, 2020 Halloween!

3:00 AM Freaks (Tod Browning, 1932) A very disturbing horror film (pre-Hays Code when movies had minimal restrictions) about a circus trapeze artist who plans to marry a dwarf only to collect his huge inheritance, so she pretends to buddy up with all the sideshow folks who sport various physical abnormalities even though privately she can’t stand these people. What happens to her must be seen to be believed, although the original cut was too unnerving for audiences of the time so it was edited, didn’t do well at the box-office, but has since become a classic of unrelenting social critique.

5:00 PM Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964) Difficult to make a satire about nuclear annihilation but this one succeeds, an hilarious send-up of the Cold War escalation between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. (regarding surviving nuclear holocaust in underground bunkers for years: “Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap!”) as a very deranged general orders a hit on Russia which looks to succeed. Peter Sellers is in 3 roles, others include George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens, James Earl Jones. (You can also see it on TCM’s Tuesday November 3, 2020 schedule at 4:15 PM, but you should vote first.)

Tuesday November 3, 2020 Election Day! In case you need some relief from it, try this:

1:30 PM Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962) Based on the famous/infamous novel by Vladimir Nabokov this adaptation walks a careful line for its still-buttoned-down-era concerning the sexual obsession of a middle-aged man (James Mason) for a teenager (Sue Lyon) to the point of marrying her mother (Shelly Winters) just to be near the girl, while an even-more nefarious guy (Peter Sellers) lurks in the shadows, lusting as well. Sellers provides useful comic relief, helping Kubrick to dodge censorship.

Wednesday November 4, 2020

2:15 PM High Sierra (Raoul Walsh, 1941) Another screenwriting success for John Huston (along with W.R. Burnett) that year (plus The Maltese Falcon which he also directed, also starred Bogart giving them 2 hits just prior to U.S. entering WW II), about a slick gangster (Humphrey Bogart) hired to pull off a big robbery at a resort hotel even as a woman (Ida Lupino) becomes a distraction for him until he decides otherwise. The robbery goes wrong, but that’s not the worst for Roy Earle (Bogart).

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: Here are just a few other additional items you might be interested in: (1) Several female directors might get the Oscar nod in 2021; (2) Layoffs impact Sony Pictures. 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 my reminder you can search for 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 Borat Subsequent Moviefilm:

https://www.amazon.com/Borat-Subsequent-Moviefilm-Sacha-Baron/dp/B08K3SDZJ9

(typical Amazon Prime minimal-content-official site)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKKh9FU8SRw (29:18 Internet question and answer with Borat [Cohen in character, on October 24, 2020, spontaneously answering questions from various actual people on video chat; funny if you like this kind of humor, otherwise you probably won’t

watch it very long])

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

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/borat-subsequent-moviefilm-delivery-of-prodigious-bribe-to-american-regime-for-make-benefit-once-glo

Here’s more information about Rebecca [2020]:

https://www.netflix.com/title/81002196 (typical Netflix minimal-content-official site)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjIbMHqU5W8 (8:15 side-by-side shot comparison/plot compression of 1940 Rebecca [Alfred Hitchcock] and 1997 Rebecca TV miniseries [Jim O’Brien];

no narration, just music, and from these you can see how the current movie also echoes what’s

been filmed before [ad interruptions at about 3:28, 7:45])

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

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/rebecca

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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 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.

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 5,519 (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 and by what means those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for all those unspecified “Others” also):

Thursday, October 22, 2020

The Trial of the Chicago 7 plus Short Takes on The Lie, suggestions for TCM cable offerings, and a few other cinematic topics

Justice Askew

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin) rated R

Opening Chatter (no spoilers): This time, let’s get right to it because U.S. elections are now less than 2 weeks away and both of these reviewed offerings have political implications (the first one definitely, intentionally; the second one, somewhat more from what I’m adding to it with my Musical Metaphor but even its direct content speaks to manipulating the legal system, a common theme in both of these stories). The Trial of the Chicago 7 takes us back to the late 1960s when massive anti-Vietnam War-protests in 1968 at the Democratic National Convention turned into riots due to brutal police reaction to all those “invaders,” with 8 organizers of the events hauled into court once Richard Nixon became President in 1969 in order to play to his “law and order” image in contrast to the anti-Establishment sentiment growing in the U.S. back in that decade (they became the Chicago 7 when Bobby Seale was granted a separate trial, but only after he was physically abused in Judge Julius Hoffman’s courtroom). It becomes clear from the start this judge had no intention of impartial proceedings, even as there were heated conflicts among the defendants (mainly Tom Hayden and Abbie Hoffman); this is an excellent combination of script, acting, and execution which should factor into next year’s Oscars (available to Netflix streaming subscribers). In the Short Takes section are comments on The Lie, a remake of a 2015 German film (although this one’s from 2018, just now getting a release) about divorced parents of a teenage girl who make bad decisions about how to protect her when it seems she’s pushed her friend off a bridge to her death in an icy river, with the missing girl’s father questioning them harder for information about his daughter even as the police are led astray by our primary parents (free for Amazon Prime subscribers and through their 30-day-trial-offer). Also in that section I’ll provide 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.

Here’s the trailer for The Trial of the Chicago 7:

(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: First, we see grainy news footage from the mid-1960s of President Lyndon B. Johnson increasing monthly draft call-ups (more U.S. soldiers for our increasing involvement in the Vietnam War, pitting us and the government of South Vietnam against invasion from rebellious Viet Cong and North Vietnam military), followed by other quick footage of Martin Luther King Jr. standing against this war, assassinations of King and Presidential-candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, the draft lottery of late 1969 (coincides with the Chicago 7 trial, September 24, 1969 to February 18, 1970; among many other sources if you’re interested, you can read a short recap of its events or a much more extensive summary [I was still an undergrad at the U of Texas at Austin during the originating chaos of 1968 that led to the trial, then had to participate in that draft lottery where I was fortunate—unlike so many others of my generation—to get a number in the 300s so I was never called up; for those who were, I have the highest respect for the men drafted against their will, those who didn’t come back alive, all those who did return to be rejected by their nation]). We then get quick vignettes to introduce us to most of the 8 defendants—Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) and Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp), co-founders of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), leaders of the International Youth Party (Yippies); David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), leader of the National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE); Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), National Chairman of the Black Panther Party (the other 2 were academics, Lee Weiner [Noah Robbins] and John Froines [Daniel Flaherty], whom we don’t see until the trial begins)—accused under the Rap Brown Law (also known as the Anti-Riot Act, crossing state lines to incite a riot [attached to the 1968 Civil Rights Act, the specter of its use again in 2020 by current Attorney General William Barr]) of instigating the riots that occurred at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, even though A.G. Ramsey Clark under the outgoing Johnson Administration declined action against the protesters, convinced the Chicago Police caused the riots (footage shows CBS TV news anchor Walter Cronkite [often during this period called "the most trusted man in America"] saying the riots were in a “police state”).

When Richard Nixon assumed the Presidency in 1969, though, his new A.G., John Mitchell (John Dorman), insisted these charges be filed, pulling a young, reluctant prosecutor, Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), into a lead role (assisted by Tom Foran [J.C. MacKenzie]) he wasn’t fully convinced was justified, despite offering spirited accusations in the courtroom. However, Schultz didn’t have to be very aggressive because it’s clear how biased Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella)—no relation to Abbie, despite jokes from this trickster—is against these defendants, represented as best they could be by lead lawyers William Kunstler (Mark Rylance) and Leonard Weinglass (Ben Shenkman) whose ongoing objections found little favor with this bench-authoritarian.

"Honorable" Judge Hoffman’s most vicious responses were directed at Seale, whose lawyer was stuck in California with illness, so the other lawyers refused to be forced against his will for them to defend him nor was he allowed to defend himself; finally, his outbursts so provoked the judge that Seale was gagged, chained to his chair, a courtroom atrocity that has to be seen to be believed, all the while admonishing Kunstler for accusing J. Hoffman of acting like a racist (Eventually, Seale’s case is ruled a mistrial, he’s scheduled for a new trial [which never happened nor was he convicted on a Connecticut murder charge, so that’s how we get from 8 to the Chicago 7]). As events—mostly conflicts—of the trial move on through this 2hr. 10min. docudrama we see flashbacks of the 1968 riots focusing on police brutality (scenes were shot for this film but not as fictional dramatization as these actual beatings were broadcast live on major news networks all during the convention even as a majority of generally-well-heeled-delegates seem to take no interest in the protests, focused as they were on getting V.P. Hubert Humphrey nominated for the Presidency, a mission opposed by these who saw him as not sufficiently ready to withdraw American troops from Vietnam), how police and FBI counterintelligence-agents such as Daphne O’Connor (Caitlin FitzGerald) infiltrated the protestors (she was assigned to Rubin), how heartbreaking it was to the defendants when Fred Hampton (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), chair of the Illinois Black Panthers (shown in the early days of the trial offering advice over the railing to Seale), was killed in December 1969 in a raid by Chicago police, how Hayden and Hoffman saw each other as antithetical in their tactics to the anti-war movement (driving Kunstler crazy with their bickering), how the defense recruited Ramsey Clark (Michael Keaton) to testify against the prosecution’s case but were thwarted by Judge Hoffman who refused to let the jury hear his testimony. ⇒In the end, Schultz questions A. Hoffman, attempting to goad him into incendiary remarks but fails; Hayden’s called to testify but instead he starts reading the names of U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam since this trial began; final graphics tell us Weiner and Froines were acquitted of all charges, the others acquitted of conspiracy but found guilty of inciting riots; also all 7 and their attorneys were given varying jail terms by Judge Hoffman for contempt of court although all charges were dropped in 1972 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (Seale included) so no time was served by any of them for their Chicago protest or trial activities.⇐

So What? As a guy who's gladly on the mailing list for Landmark Theatres (a regular weekend destination I’ve sorely missed during this cruel pandemic) I got a letter from Sorkin explaining some of his motivations for this film (begun in 2006 in collaboration with Steven Spielberg, delayed for various reasons until now, when it couldn’t be more timely about a government intent on overcoming protest actions against its awful policies): “There were a dozen or so books to read and a 21,000 page trial transcript, but the most valuable research was the time I got to spend with Tom Hayden. Hayden passed away in 2016, but while he was alive I was able to get from him a personal insight into his relationship with Abbie Hoffman and the friction that existed between the two of them. [¶ …] after the shootings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arberry, protestors took to the streets in Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Kenosha, Lexington and Washington, D.C. And the protestors were met by tear gas and clubs. And they were called anarchists and communists and un-American. At one point, the President tweeted that these protestors should be charged with Conspiracy to Cross State Lines in Order to Incite Violence. That’s a federal crime and a charge that’s only been brought once. It’s what the Chicago 7 were charged with. [¶] So in 14 years, the film went from a chance to work with Steven Spielberg, to a story I thought could make a good movie, to a movie that was no longer about 1968, it was about now. We thought the film was plenty relevant when we were making it. We didn’t need it or want it to get more relevant, but it did.” (You might also be interested in this short video [4:27] noting aspects of the trial shown or not shown in the film.) Even with the narrative aspects used to streamline historical accounts for a clearer, more-effective cinematic structure, I find The Trial … to be incredibly faithful to aspects of events I witnessed (on TV or in newspaper accounts admittedly, not in Grant Park nor in the courtroom; it would be years after all this before I’d have a few brief visits to Chicago), giving me the context of seeing how this is trying to play out again when members of the Trump Administration talk of indicting Democratic mayors or governors for not better containing the crises that have roiled American cities this past summer, even as clashes in those conflicts often arose due to some blatant actions of police/National Guard troops.

I’m in no way excusing the 2020 violent thugs who destroyed property, defaced buildings, attacked police, or even killed a man in Portland, OR, but, just like back in 1968 Chicago, the vast majority of demonstrators were peaceful even though destructive anarchists infiltrated their events; this is a tense, complex situation not easily reduced to simple clarifying statements—by Trump or anyone else—although this … Chicago 7 story allows us to see a documented perversion of justice done only to burnish the “law and order” credentials of those attempting to prove themselves protectors of the public, a false narrative I hope won’t be a decisive factor in this year’s elections the way it was in 1968 when the Democratic Party as a whole took far too much politicized-blame for how Chicago’s bully-boy-mayor (yes, a Democrat himself) overreacted to the huge influx of anti-war protestors to his city, helping Richard Nixon mobilize his “Silent Majority”-voters to a tight-victory. What I did witness in person in 1968 (along with my later heartbreak of the Nixon win, when I was a couple of months shy of being old enough to vote) was an odd confrontation with my father when I went home that summer to Dayton, OH for a visit on a break from those undergrad studies. (At that point I’d lived in Texas all my life, but my NCR-repairman Dad [anything from adding machines to cash registers to room-sized-computers] was transferred to that factory city as I stayed behind in Austin for college.)

On the night my parents drove me home from the airport the Democratic convention was on TV as we began talking (they rarely turned it off then, no matter what was on); in the most ironic situation I can ever remember, Dad—a WW II vet, winner of a Silver Star and a Purple Heart—was essentially in agreement with the protesters, saying we had no business being part of the Vietnam War. I was against it too, but for some weird reason I tried to explain the government’s “Domino Theory” to him, about protecting other Southeast Asian countries from falling to the Communists, a line of discussion that oddly got us into an argument that took awhile to diffuse. That irony’s intensified as I stayed with my parents for a short time on my way to moving from Texas to NYC in summer, 1972 with a convention on the TV again, this time the Republicans who were being protested for still not ending the war; however, by now my parents had become Nixon supporters with Dad incensed these young people had the freedom to be loitering around in Miami rather than working 5 days a week like him. Once again, we were on opposite sides, but this time I tried to hold back (although something I said angered him enough that Mom had to calm him down), so we essentially never discussed politics again. Even now I can’t believe what happened in 1968 (1972 was more predictable) in my family, but it does reinforce the intense cultural gaps of that time as shown in The Trial of the Chicago 7, a film that sadly-yet-importantly gives some useful context to the same kinds of social unrest plaguing our society today. (I can only hope the final outcome for us is something I choose to cheer about this time as I did regarding the 7’s clearance-of-charges in 1972 [but certainly not the Nixon landslide re-election]. Yet, nothing ever changes unless we own up to our responsibility to VOTE! so please do.)

Bottom Line Final Comments: Parallel to thoughts just above about aspects of the past now reflected in The Trial … film is this statement from the widely-respected (not “failing”) New York Times: “Scores of protesters in streets across the country. A looming presidential election. Violent stand-offs between law enforcement and the citizens they had sworn to protect. And, amid the prospects of political and cultural change, a chilling and inescapable backdrop: thousands upon thousands of Americans dead. [¶] The summer of 2020 was, by any stretch, a historic one. But for some it’s a season that feels remarkably like the summer of 1968. [¶] Instead of President Trump, it was Lyndon B. Johnson, succeeded by Richard M. Nixon. The tragedy that cost American lives was not a pandemic but the war in Vietnam. Racism was central to the protests — the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated just months earlier — but so were a relentless draft and demands for peace. [¶] In late August, tensions culminated in Chicago, in the shadow of the Democratic National Convention. The National Guard, U.S. Army troops and 12,000 Chicago police officers were mobilized against 10,000 demonstrators. (Who, yes, were called 'outside agitators' then, too.) 'Everything since Chicago,' the New York Times journalist Tom Wicker wrote one year later, ‘has had a new intensity — that of polarization, of confrontation, of antagonism and fear.' ” (You’ll also find lots more useful facts in this article about those 1968 Chicago confrontations.)

So, for those of you who have Netflix streaming subscriptions (sorry, no more 30-day-free-trial-offers from them), I highly encourage you to seek out this film (it’s now the 7^th in a row I’ve seen and awarded 4 stars—about as high as I usually go, saving 4½ and 5 stars for the truly-cinematically-unique such as I'm Thinking of Ending Things [Charlie Kaufman; review in our September 10, 2020 posting]—so I’m thankful the theatrical-isolation I’ve endured since the pandemic began has been alleviated somewhat by a string of wonderful online options) for its excellent script, acting, editing, overall impact even if you (unlike me) have to struggle a bit (or more) with its clear-leftist-political-intentions (Nixon/Trump, Mitchell/Barr, all they represent). I’m also pleased to see the CCAL’s in agreement, Rotten Tomatoes tossing 92% positive reviews (of 219), Metacritic’s average score at 76% (quite supportive, given their usual stinginess; result based on just 47 reviews, though).

Well, then, enough from me and my various cited sources on the outstanding merits of The Trial of the Chicago 7 (worthy of a good number of Oscar nominations, due to its intended theatrical release in the U.S. this year, allowing official Academy recognition in early 2021; however, it has found a few public audiences in 3 other countries [With more to come? Or, then again, probably not, given all the current anti-government-protests happening all around the globe.] in addition to its online-presence) so let’s cap off these comments with my usual tactic of a Musical Metaphor which this time just has to be a pair of Graham Nash songs, “Chicago” and “We Can Change the World” (found on two 1971 albums, Nash’s Songs for Beginners and the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young live album 4 Way Street) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pro1Fhvwwh4 (a video enhanced by images from the 1968 riots/related events; for those of you who want to learn some Spanish there are subtitles to the lyrics in that language, but for fluent-Spanish-speakers there’s also explanatory text at the beginning and end) because it’s directly about the Chicago 7 trial: “So your brother’s bound and gagged And they’ve chained him to a chair Won’t you please come to Chicago just to sing In a land that’s known as freedom how can such a thing be fair? Won’t you please come to Chicago for the help that we can bring [the goal was] We can change the world rearrange the world It’s dying—to get better [… but the reality remains] Somehow people must be free I hope the day comes soon.” So do I, in desperate hope such horrific events as the 1968 Chicago riots and legal-political farces such as the ensuing trial of those harassed-organizers will definitely never see the light of day again.

SHORT TAKES (spoilers also appear here)

The Lie (Veena Sud, 2018) rated R

This remake of a 2015 German film is about how divorced parents (one of them a lawyer) react to the tragedy of their teenage daughter pushing her best friend off a bridge, likely to die in the freezing river below; instead of alerting the police to what happened they even attempt to shift blame to the victim’s father, deepening their own sense of corruption, intensified fear.

Here’s the trailer for The Lie:

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

Originally, this story was presented in a German film, Wir Monsters [We Monsters] (Sebastian Ko, 2015), then was remade into the present version in 2018 (in English, shot and set in Canada) but is just now becoming available (streaming on Amazon Prime for subscribers or those who chose a 30-day-free-trial); ironically, when my wife, Nina, and I watched The Lie we got the dialogue on this new adaptation in German (fortunately we could use subtitles in English), so I guess we got a sense of what the original was like also (there are several languages available for the dialogue as well as the subtitles, but I couldn’t change any of them; we just had to accept what Amazon was giving us, although I did check other titles with English dialogue we’d recently watched, finding no problem so I guess the spirits that seem to co-exist in our condo, occasionally playing tricks on us, were at it again because on my computer this movie comes up in English, I can turn language/subtitles off/on, etc. so why we get it in German [checked again later, still the same] on our LG TV I have no idea). Anyway, the premise is a divorced father, Jay (Peter Sarsgaard), is driving his teen daughter, Kayla (Joey King), to a ballet camp retreat when they see her friend Brittany (Devery Jacobs) waiting at a bus stop for the same event so she hops in with them, makes flirty-chatter with Dad, steaming Kayla up a bit (she obviously loves her father more than Mom Rebecca’s [Mireille Enos] new guy who’s just off on a business trip as our story begins). Brittany says she has to pee so Jay pulls over in the snow for the girls to hike off into the woods; soon, however, he’s startled to hear Kayla calling for him, rushes to find her on a bridge where she tearfully says she pushed Brittany off of it, into the icy river below. Jay runs down, frantically wades around in the water, finds nothing except Brittany’s phone back on the bridge. Terrified, he whisks his kid back to Mom’s house (she’s a lawyer) where they decide on a story that Kayla was sick, never went to the retreat, never saw Brittany that day. However, when Brittany’s father, Sam (Cas Anvar), comes inquiring about his missing daughter, he’s not so convinced; yet, Kayla’s parents see an opening because Kayla noted a bruise on Brittany’s face, confesses her friend told her Sam’s often abused his daughter so this becomes their argument.

Rebecca sells this story to her police pal, Det. Kenji Tagata (Patti Kim), who questions Sam, only for him to deny any such aggressive actions toward his girl. (Hard to know the truth here.) ⇒Then things shift on Jay and Rebecca when the cops find Kayla’s asthma inhaler on the bridge so the parents try to hide their piece of evidence (the phone) by burying it at night near Sam’s house but he catches them. They drive away to escape, he runs in front of their car, resulting in his death, blood on their grill. They hurry home to clean it up when they’re suddenly stunned by Brittany showing up, alive after all (!), having faked her death in order to sneak off for a weekend with her boyfriend, after which (I guess) she intended to just surprisingly stumble back into town, OK from her “ordeal.” Kayla was in on it but maintained the ruse hoping her now-cooperating-parents would get back together.⇐

⇒Abruptly, Rebecca tells Brittany she should go home—which she does—but the noose is now tightening on our primary family as the film ends with the sound of police sirens and the doorbell ringing (Brittany may also have seen the blood on the grill). I’ll stay in “cone-of-silence-mode” just a bit longer to say this ending provides a visceral shock (at least for naïve me) in its quick twist/ resolution at the moment when it seemed this collection of put-upon-liars had realized the horrors of the deep hole they’d dug for themselves but might somehow be able to continue squirming their way out of trouble (not clear whether we’re supposed to morally accept that or not); to so drastically know that their lives are now collectively ruined with no hope of redemption gives us a cold blast of quick-acting-karma, making the point of how attempting to secretly rectify horrible-spontaneous-decisions usually just snowballs into further tragedy.⇐ Nevertheless, my positive response to this film was not echoed by the OCCU, with a miserable 44% RT reviews, an almost-identical (surprisingly, but just 13 reviews) slightly-better MC 45% average score, very few feeling you should spend even 97 min. of your life with The Lie. Just to get a sense of what they found wrong here that I didn’t comprehend, from someone’s opinion I normally trust, I turned to James Berardinelli, who says: “They [the characters] cease being worthy of sympathy or interest not long after the opening montage of home movie footage and, like idiots in inferior horror films, they make so many bad decisions that they teeter on the edge of self-parody. Only the relentlessly downbeat tone informs us that this excursion into tedium is intended to be taken seriously and isn’t a sendup of the genre.” No holds barred, huh?

So, I guess this just tells me I’m an idiot (or not!) for being taken for an effective ride by this movie, leaving you to decide whether to trust me by exploring it for yourself; all I can say in my (and The Lie’s) defense is I’ve made bad, stupid decisions under stress in my life, had to suffer the emotional (and legal, once; let’s not go there, OK?) consequences, understood in retrospect the better choices I could have made so I think this story would resonate at some level with a lot of people who’d see it (but, definitely not the great majority of critics), most of those viewers, like me (not intended as an insult, although you could read it that way based on the opinions of those like Berardinelli), likely surprised by how this collection of errors comes to a hard ending. Mr. B. says better choices of this type include Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954) and Sleuth (Joseph L. Mankiewicz [brother of the screenwriter I note in regard to Citizen Kane in TCM Suggestions below], 1972 [Mr. B’s own older review shows he mistakenly cited 1969 as that movie’s date in his current comments on The Lie. Fortunately, I have Nina to catch my typos; maybe she should hire herself out.]), which I can’t argue with, but I do find value in The Lie, would be interested to learn if any of you Primers agreed with me.

As for a Musical Metaphor to round this out, because the one I chose for … Chicago 7 was so obvious (yet, appropriate) I decided to go much more metaphorically-obscure here (while also quietly continuing the critique of overreaching-government in that earlier film) by not using any of the many songs about people lying in interpersonal relationships (“Liar, Liar,” The Castaways [1965]; “Lyin’ Eyes,” The Eagles [1975]; etc.), instead shifting to the damage done at a higher level about death of innocence (and individuals) in this movie or failure of governments to be honest with their citizens about what’s happening in the halls of power (“So, President Trump, what did you know in February 2020 about this deadly coronavirus?”) by using Jackson Browne’s “Lives in the Balance” (found on his 1986 album of the same name) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPFdbKLUm Qk (connecting to our previous Metaphor with Crosby and Nash joining in on this performance) referencing the Iran-Contra Affair from the early-to-mid-1980s during Ronald Reagan’s Presidential terms when U.S. officials clandestinely (illegally) sold arms to Iran for its war against Iraq, then used some of the money to clandestinely (illegally) support the Contra rebels’ war against the Communist Sandinista government of Nicaragua (all of this came to light in 1986, leading to Congressional hearings, indictments, trials but almost no penalties*). Browne’s song addresses how the American people are consistently lied to by our so many of our leaders, especially where U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts is concerned: “They sell us the President the same way They sell us our clothes and our cars They sell us everything from youth to religion The same time they sell us our wars […] There are lives in the balance There are people under fire There are children at the cannons And there is blood on the wire.” In a less-sweeping but still (ultimately) criminal manner, the “children at the cannons” in The Lie set off a growing collection of horrors no one anticipated, none of them could handle. I still find it a chilling experience, well worth watching, even if I’m in the uninformed-minority.

*Even those who received prison sentences were granted pardons by President George H.W. Bush toward the end of his 1989-1992 term, helped in that decision by then-Attorney General William P. Barr (yeah, same guy, same “integrity” where protecting those top-level-govt.-honchos is concerned).

Suggestions for TCM cablecasts

At least until the pandemic subsides Two Guys also want to encourage you to consider movies you might be interested in that don’t require subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, similar Internet platforms (we may well be stuck inside for longer than those 30-day-free-initial-offers), or premium-tier-cable-TV-fees. While there are a good number of video networks offering movies of various sorts (mostly broken up by commercials), one dependable source of fine cinematic programming is Turner Classic Movies (available in lots of basic-cable-packages) so I’ll be offering suggestions of possible choices for you running from Thursday afternoon of the current week (I usually get this blog posted by early Thursday mornings) on through Thursday morning of the following week. All times are U.S. Pacific Daylight so if you see something of interest please verify actual show time in your area for the day listed. These recommendations are my particular favorites (no matter when they’re on, although some of those early-day-ones might need to be recorded, watched later), but there’s considerably more to pick from you might like better; feel free to explore their entire schedule here. You can also click on the down arrow at the right of each listing to get additional, useful info.

Friday October 23, 2020

4:00 AM Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968) Another of my periodic suggestions based not so much on cinematic quality but on cult-status, especially because it led to several sequels (all directed by Romero) and a remake of this original (Tom Savini, 1990), as well as inspiring a seemingly-never-ending glut of zombie movies into the present. It’s grotesquely gory at times, maybe the scariest thing I’ve ever seen, but with an even more chilling sociopolitical ending.

Saturday October 24, 2020

3:45 PM The Thing from Another World (Christian Nyby, 1951) This too embodies more cultural significance than cinematic grandeur; it’s about a sort of plant-based-alien—James Arness of TV’s Gunsmoke fame—that hunts mammals, especially the humans who discover it, whose ship crash-lands in the Arctic, then is discovered by a small group of scientists and Air Force guys with the focus of the time being on the military who want to kill it vs. the silly scientists who want to study it.

8:45 PM Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941) Still my All-Time #1 (even though Sight and Sound’s once-a-decade-critics-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 newspaperman (patterned on William Randolph Hearst) whose early progressive ideals succumb to pragmatics destroying marriages to 2 wives (Ruth Warrick, Dorothy Comingore) and a long-time-friend (Joseph Cotton), retaining loyalty only from his business manager (Everett Sloane). Except for the eye-of-God beginning and end it’s told in flashbacks with 5 narrators imparting their subjective accounts of his life (hard for us to know what’s true). Won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz [grandfather of noted TCM host Ben Mankiewicz]).

Sunday October 25, 2020

8:00 AM The Mummy (Karl Freund, 1932) Not necessarily a cinematic triumph but still memorable because its director was one of the great cinematographers of German Expressionism (Metropolis [Fritz Lang, 1927]) before relocating to the U.S.; also a great horror classic for Universal and Boris Karloff as Imhotep (an actual celebrated ancient Egyptian chancellor/architect/high priest) who’s found in a tomb, inadvertently brought back to life looking for his lost love (she's seemingly been reincarnated into a contemporary woman), causing trouble for those in the present. Brings about other Classic-era mummy movies, often starring Lon Chaney Jr., followed by even more into today.

Thursday October 29, 2020

7:00 AM All the King’s Men (Robert Rossen, 1949) Based on Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name (1946), fictitious main character (but clearly inspired by Louisiana Governor Huey Long) Willy Stark (Broderick Crawford) is an honest, populist local politician whose career advances as his scruples recede, including his affair with Anne Stanton (Joanne Dru), girlfriend of his PR man, even as a campaign worker (Mercedes McCambridge) lusts after him while other scandals continue. Oscars: Best Picture, Actor (Crawford), Supporting Actress (McCambridge); nominated for 4 more.

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 quicker fashion than anything else I've presented, here are some extra items you might be interested in: (1) No more 30-day-free-trials at Netflix (none on Disney+ any more either); (2) Director of Wonder Woman 1984 not sure it will open in theaters on Christmas Day; (3) China 2020 box-office almost at $2 billion, just behind North America's $2.1 billion. 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 you can search a wealth of streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

Here’s more information about The Trial of the Chicago 7:

https://www.netflix.com/title/81043755 (typical Netflix minimal-info official site)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRe5bWw0FZI (8:36 exploration of the actual events being depicted in this film and the socio-historical context in which they occurred, extremely informative)

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_trial_of_the_chicago_7

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-trial-of-the-chicago-7

Here’s more information about The Lie:

https://www.amazon.com/Lie-Joey-King/dp/B08DX1WFWK (typical Amazon Prime minimal-info official site)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMM-9Gxkrik (6:14 video that addresses the premise and ending of the movie; an odd structure of still photos, text—including commentary from actors Peter Sarsgaard and Joey King—and background piano music; Beware: Major Spoiler Reveal Here!)

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lie_2018

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-lie-2020

with us at that site in order to do it (most FB procedures are still a bit of a mystery to us old farts).

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