Thursday, November 25, 2021

Belfast plus Short Takes on Tick, Tick … BOOM!, suggestions for TCM cable offerings, and a few other cinematic topics

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)

             
               Tick, Tick … BOOM! (Lin-Manuel Miranda)
                                rated PG-13   115 min.


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!


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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews-academic-articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)


If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world.  I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.


By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check-out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile (quite an eternal while, in fact).  Ken


P.S.  Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker.  But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion, lover, and wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"

—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, 

a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes and wanes over the months/years to come. But, just as we can raunchy at times (in private of course) Neil and his backing band, Promise of the Real, on that same night also did a lengthy, fantastic version of "Cowgirl in the Sand"

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

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):


Thursday, November 18, 2021

Passing plus Short Takes on some suggestions for TCM cable offerings and other cinematic topics

“Things aren’t always what they seem […] we’re all of us passing for something or other.”

Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) to Hugh Wentworth (Bill Camp) in Passing


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.


          Passing (Rebecca Hall)   rated PG-13   99 min.


Opening Chatter (no spoilers): With all due respect (“due,” you will please note, not “required”) to Eternals (Chloé Zhao) and Clifford the Big Red Dog (Walt Becker)—which together raked in about $44 million in domestic (U.S.-Canada) box-office-receipts last weekend (former’s up to $282.4 million worldwide, latter’s just playing in northern North America right now)—I once again found no compelling reason to rush out to a COVID-optional theatrical experience (but did attend a local stage production of The Game’s Afoot or Holmes for the Holidays, a comedy/murder mystery, where audience members had to show a vaccination card and keep their masks on all night)—although I am quite intrigued by Belfast (Kenneth Branagh) but will have to travel a bit to find it—so it was back to streaming once again, arriving at Netflix for one of the year’s best films (I know, there are a lot more to come, but this will surely be on my preliminary list for 2021’s Top 10), Passing, based on a 1929 novel about 2 Black women, childhood friends but long-removed from each other’s lives, who meet again in NYC, both of them light-skinned but one (Irene) living in Harlem with her doctor husband and their 2 children while the other’s (Claire) passing for White, married to a rich, racist businessman, with horrid trouble sure to follow when Claire decides she'll return (as best she clandestinely can) to her roots even as Irene both worries that her friend’s masquerade will be discovered and resents how attracted husband Brian’s becoming to her supposedly-White friend.  Tessa Thompson as Irene, Ruth Negga as Claire are both fabulous in their roles as is the beauty of the throwback black & white cinematography.  In the Short Takes section I’ll offer suggestions for some choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, ye tedious software!) along with my standard dose of industry-related-trivia.  Regarding trivia, this posting marks our 500th with unique hits approaching 1.8 million, so thanks again to anyone worldwide who’s ever looked even briefly at our project here!


Here’s the trailer for Passing:

                   (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: Set in late 1920s NYC, this film’s based on Nella Larson’s 1929 book of the same name where we begin—after purposefully-unfocused shots, muffled dialogue which then resolves into women’s legs walking in a city—with Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson), a light-skinned Black woman who lives in Harlem with her doctor husband, Brian Redfield (André Holland), and 2 young sons, Junior (Ethan Barrett) and Ted (Justus Davis Graham), finding herself being treated respectfully farther south in Manhattan as she’s likely passing for White in the eyes of the people she interacts with, seeing what they assume to be true based on the contextual-circumstances (why would a Black woman dare to be found in their upper-crust-establishments?).  After finishing her shopping (and seeing a man passed out on the sidewalk) she takes a cab to the classy Drayton Hotel, sits in the restaurant, suddenly sees a woman who catches her attention who turns out to be her childhood friend from Chicago, Clare Bellew (Ruth Negga), now with bleached-blonde-hair (as we’ll assume from another sort of context, as this film’s shot in black & white, presented in the old 4x3 ratio of films and TV until the later-20th-century, all to give us a sense of the long-ago-period where this particular story occurs) as she’s married to a rich businessman, John Bellew (Alexander Skarsgård), who’s in the city on a specific project so they’re staying at this hotel.  Unlike Irene, though, equally-light-skinned-Claire’s been passing for White since she was 18, enjoying the wealth and privilege accompanying her marriage but now lonesome for the Black culture she'd grown up in.


 After the women go upstairs to Claire’s quarters she tells “Reenie” she’d like to come up to Harlem for a visit, a request Irene resists as she doesn’t want her old friend’s crucial-ruse to be undone by this supposed-White-woman seen around “Negroes,” probably undoing her carefully-constructed-life.  Tension further mounts for Irene (and us) as John comes in, is gracious with his wife’s friend (again, assuming from context that she’s White), then casually clarifies how he hates Blacks (based on his passing comments, we get the sense Claire’s kept up a façade of such racism as well), even laughingly calls Claire “Nig” because her skin darkens in the summer.  Irene later relents on allowing Claire to visit (although Brian has plenty of dismissal about her until she actually arrives), with all of them headed off to a community dance Irene’s organized to benefit the Negro Welfare League where the Redfields meet up with Hugh Wentworth (Bill Camp), a White novelist who frequents Harlem; he's surprised to learn Claire’s actually Black but notes a growing attraction between her and Brian.


 With tensions growing between our Harlem married couple due to Claire’s frequent presence—along with their disagreement over Brian telling his sons about society’s blatant hostility toward Blacks as shown by lynching in the South, Irene not wanting him to terrify these kids at such a young age—Irene tries to ban Claire from their lives but Brian counters by inviting her to a party for Hugh, where Irene’s suspicions of an affair continue to grow.  This all comes to head, though, when Irene, walking along in town with a clearly-Black-friend runs into John on the street, with him immediately understanding the mistake he’s made about her and—by extension—his wife.  ⇒That night Claire comes again to the Redfields’ residence so they can all go to yet another party; however, at this one John barges in, confronts his wife, is pushing toward her as she’s near a window from which she falls several stories to her death in a snow-filled-courtyard (there’s speculation in this video [10:47; ads interrupt at about 7:50]—along with concise, useful analysis of themes in the film, many Spoilers of course—about whether she was pushed by John or Irene or jumped, with only a brief, somewhat ambiguous shot to give any definitive evidence, although it looks to me like Irene pushed her, but whether to save her from ongoing agony due to John or getting her out of the way so after John’s done with her she won’t come lusting after Brian is a topic for much additional discussion).  Both John and Irene testify to the police on the scene that Claire jumped, but it’s intentionally left ambiguous as to who’s covering up what, although they’re both clearly distraught over Claire’s death.  With that, snowfall increases as the image steadily fades to white, then pre-credits-black.⇐


So What? Among other topics this powerful film confronts us with is the subjective assumptions we make about appearances, beginning with images we might see of debut-director Hall, an English actor (with a variety of roles from Vicky Cristina Barcelona [Woody Allen, 2008] to The Town [Ben Affleck, 2010] to Godzilla vs. Kong [Adam Wingard, 2021; review in our April 8, 2021 posting]), whom you might never suspect is ¼ Black due to her Detroit grandfather who himself passed for White.  Then there’s the question of just how possibly-White either Irene or Claire look on screen here, because to me they both seem to be African-American despite how this cinematography turns everyone’s skin tones into tints/shades of grey (although Irene and Brian’s maid, Zu [Ashley Ware Jenkins] clearly is dark enough to be seen as Black [same as Brian]; further, her character easily could lead to conversations about attitudes within this Harlem community as she’s clearly treated by her employers as occupying a lower class [despite her well-appreciated-down-home-cooking-skills]).


 If my inability to see these main characters as so easily passing for White should come across as offensive to anyone in any way, my apologies (hopefully due to ignorance on my part rather than unrealized-racism, yet look at these women in the interview video far below in Related Links to see how difficult I think it would be for either of them to “pass” in a color-cinematography-situation, even though Negga’s born of an Ethiopian father, Irish mother while Thompson has Mexican-British ancestry on her mother's side), but, as noted above, it’s clear that people within this story, especially John, are willing to see what they assume to be true due to the context they’ve accepted to feel comfortable with, so even Hugh, a regular-quasi-resident of Harlem, easily saw Claire as White upon first meeting her until he’s set straight by Irene.  Beyond appearances, though, the deeper drama here is about how we individually go about choosing what we want, now far we’re willing to go to acquire it, as evidenced by Claire’s admission to Irene she’d do just about anything to enhance her own benefit while Brian shows us his uncomfortable side both in his easy attraction to Claire despite a supposed-stable-marriage and in his exhaustion with his sick patients, undermining any nobility he might normally register with us as a dedicated man of medicine (yet he’s also rightfully-tired of U.S. racism, wants to move to some other country in order to escape it).  In that interview below, the source novel is praised for offering so much to contemplate without going into pedantic-detail on the topics raised, the case with this film as well.  The acting is uniformly superb, the cinematography is gorgeous to see (especially as we’re so rarely treated to the luminescence of monochrome imagery in contemporary cinema), the conflicts simmer more so than boil over most often (although Irene’s distraction with events literally results in a symbolic-stovetop-eruption, just as her nervousness causes her to drop Brian’s family-heirloom-teapot as an indication of how she feels her own life is shattering due to Claire’s intrusions), with the entire experience becoming subtle-yet-so-devastating.


 If this sort of content intrigues you there are some earlier film classics I can suggest dealing with aspects of these topics you might be interested in perusing (all of which are available cheaply for streaming on Apple TV+ [search through JustWatch for details] or Netflix DVD for subscribers to that service) including: Pinky (Elia Kazan, 1949) where (White) Jeanne Crain (nominated for Oscar’s Best Actress) is Black passing for White until a doctor proposes to her so she flees to the South to be with her grandmother (Ethel Waters, nominated for Best Supporting Actress), then stays there despite the opportunity to go back to passing in the North; Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959) where an aspiring Broadway star (Lana Turner) becomes friends with a Black woman (Juanita Moore) whose daughter (Susan Kohner [Mexican mother]) could pass for White, pulls away from Mom, regrets it (Moore and Kohner both nominated for Best Supporting Actress); Far from Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002) inspired somewhat by the Sirk film, this 1957-set-story is about a suburban housewife (Julianne Moore) married to a closeted gay, then falls in love with a Black man (Dennis Haysbert) but he rejects her wanting no part of integration hostilities of the time; then, in contrast, we have Loving (Jeff Nichols, 2016; review in our December 1, 2016 posting), a history-based-drama about the marriage of White Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton) to Black Mildred Loving (Ruth Negga, nominated for Best Actress) with legal challenges to their union rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967, nullifying any laws against interracial marriage.  However, if you want to focus just on the concept of what one’s identity is, how it comes to be formed, how difficult it might be to maintain (all of which is at the heart of Passing even as it’s overlaid with the difficult issues of race), I’ll also recommend a masterpiece from Ingmar Bergman, Persona (1966) which you can find a bit more about in my TCM recommendations a little farther below (another cinematic experience in stunning black & white, also found on Netflix DVD or free/cheaply via streaming on a few platforms).  All of these films would be well worth your time (and small fees in some cases), but don’t forget Passing as it has connections in various ways to each of them, while being extremely worthy in its own right.


Bottom Line Final Comments: The CCAL’s (rightfully) in agreement with me about the fine merits of Passing with the critics at Rotten Tomatoes yielding a highly-supportive 91% positive reviews while the usually-stingy-souls over at Metacritic have tallied an 85% average score, tied with The Green Knight (David Lowery; review in our November 4, 2021 posting) for their second highest toward 2021 releases both they and I have addressed (their #1 is a whopping 96% average score for Summer of Soul (… Or, How the Revolution Could Not Be Televised [Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson; review in our July 8, 2021 posting]), all of which proves again how great minds think alike, except when they don’t, but I try to be forgiving to these struggling evaluators when their results don’t match my keen insights (yet, they get paid and I don’t; amazing!)—a result happening often enough as of 72 reviews I’ve done so far this year of releases from 2020 or 2021 my stars-of-5-ratings have matched at least one, if not both, of these critics-accumulation-sites just 38 times (not counting 13 reviews I did of Oscar-nominated-Short Films for which they didn’t offer individual evaluations) with me frequently higher on the discrepancies.  How Passing will hold up when awards nominations roll around in a month or so is always hard to tell this far out while year-end-heavyweights are coming to theaters (and home-screening-rooms), but I’d say both Thompson and Negga surely should have considerations for acting awards, although if they both end up as Best Actress contenders they’ll likely cancel each other out while if Negga were considered as a Supporting Actress (in that her screen time’s not quite the same as Thompson’s, along with the tactic of getting them both into separate categories) I feel it would be somewhat demeaning given the impact she has in this film plus the way the entire plot revolves around her presence and actions.  Seemingly, Passing had a limited theatrical release in late October, but I find no evidence of such so if you want to see it (I encourage you to do so), you’ll need to be a Netflix streaming subscriber (which costs about $15 monthly but no extra fees for what you choose to see, unlike some choices on sites such as Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, or Apple TV+, even though you’re already paying their annual/monthly fees).


 Until you should happen to see Passing, though, you might like listening to my usual tactic of a review-ending-Musical Metaphor, which I enjoy adding on at the close of these comments, but—unless the film itself provides me with an easy choice, as did Blue Bayou (Justin Chon; review in our recent November 4, 2021 posting)—sometimes I struggle for awhile finding a choice that’s even reasonably-connected (I admit some have pushed the idea of “metaphor” to the limit), the case this time also until I finally settled on Neil Diamond’s “I Am … I Said” (1971 Stones album) at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhEaHcQgyLs with passionate lyrics that spoke appropriately to me, “But nowadays, I’m lost between two shores [or identities …] ‘I am’ I cried ‘I am’ said I And I am lost and I can’t even say why Leavin’ me lonely still,” obviously commenting on Claire’s situation but subtly on Irene’s as well because you can tell she’s content on one level with her marriage and motherhood but seemingly is jealous of the attention Claire easily draws (especially from Brian), possibly mourning the loss of more-outgoing-traits that might provide an occasional "devil with a blue dress on" persona to accompany the saintly one she’s acquired within her community or even occasional-indulgence in passing herself as Hugh says she’d be capable of doing.  Yet, to get the best impact for this Metaphor choice I’d hoped to use a rendition sung by an African-American woman (nothing personal Neil, it’s still your autobiographical song) but found none; instead, though, I’ll leave you with how one Black woman, Tysheen Orane, speaking just for herself found resonance with these lyrics while watching the same video I’ve provided for you, then talks about that a bit more regarding such universality (song runs 3:24, her video’s 6:57, although some of that’s due to her pausing to check Google, verifying Diamond’s actually from NYC [Brooklyn, to be exact] as he says).

              

SHORT TAKES

          

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.)


Thursday November 18, 2021


5:00 PM Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974) Hilarious parody of the first 3 (1930s) Universal Studios Frankenstein movies with Gene Wilder embracing his mad scientist heritage, Marty Feldman as his helper, Igor, Peter Boyle as the monster, plus great roles by Cloris Leachman, Teri Garr, Gene Hackman, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars. Followed on TCM by High Anxiety (Brooks, 1977), a Hitchcock parody, at 7:00 PM and Blazing Saddles (Brooks, 1974), at 9:00 PM, a parody of the westerns genre and a satire on racism (a bit of a tightrope act for the second aspect, but it works).


Saturday November 20, 2021


11:00 PM The Good, the Bad and the Ugly  (Sergio Leone, 1968) Not classic in a traditional sense but maybe the best “spaghetti western” from the master of this type of story where Clint Eastwood stars, working bounty-hunter-hustles with Eli Wallach while vicious Lee Van Cleef’s in the territory, all looking for a hidden stash of Confederate gold in the Old West as double-crossings increase tension of what the outcome might be; great cinematography, an unforgettable score by Ennio Morricone.


Monday November 22, 2021


12:45 AM Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) My All-Time #2 (Citizen Kane [Orson Welles, 1941 #1]), a stunning tale of 2 women: famed actor Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann) who suddenly goes silent in a play, is then overseen by nurse Alma (Bibi Andersson) who takes her away to a country retreat but provides virtually all of the film’s dialogue, including speaking for Elisabet at times as these women become psychologically close with images at times beginning to blend them, all the while various devices are used to remind viewers they’re watching a constructed film, not some alternate reality up on the screen—cinematic Modernism at its best; never has the word “nothing” been so chilling. Yet, the Academy didn't nominate it as a contender for its Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race (they should be mortified). Words don’t do this difficult masterpiece justice so I encourage you to see it.


9:30 PM Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1952) Beloved-musical (a standard for achievement in its genre) starring Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Jean Hagen, and Cyd Charisse about Hollywood’s clumsy transition into sound movies, plus romance between male star and female newcomer of great potential; features the fabulous “Broadway Melody” sequence, a grand MGM spectacular, along with many songs borrowed from previous MGM musicals. Preceded at 7:30 PM by An American in Paris (Vincinte Minnelli, 1951) starring Kelly and Leslie Caron; won 6 Oscars for Best Picture, Story and Screenplay, Art Direction-Color, Cinematography-Color, Costume Design-Color, Scoring of a Musical Picture, plus an honorary award to Kelly; ends with a magnificent dance number by Kelly, Caron, and dozens of others, set to Gershwin’s An American in Paris music.


Wednesday November 24, 2021


5:00 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.


If you’d like your own PDF of the rating/summary of this week's review, suggestions for TCM cablecasts, links to Two Guys info click this link to access then save, print, or whatever you need.


Other Cinema-Related Stuff: A few extra items for you: (1) No strike for IATSE, contract ratified; (2) Netflix releases viewership data (Passing came in at #8 of English-language-films last week).  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:

               

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Here’s more information about Passing:


https://www.netflix.com/title/81424320 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWpk2rogZeI (21:49 interview with director Rebecca Hall and actors Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga [if you want to pursue their thoughts further, this YouTube page has a couple more extended interviews with these women—and André Holland—so just refer to the column of options on the right side of the YouTube screen; also, down that list a bit is another quite relevant video, an academic lecture “A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life” {28:20} at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toyjv27q17E if you need that link to find the video])


https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/passing_2021


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


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):