Fitting In, Against All Odds
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): While I’m getting more comfortable with the thought of doing my viewing in a commercial theater (especially after doing so twice recently with a minimal amount of neighboring patrons not required to show me their vaccination cards), what I saw as options in last week’s Halloween weekend left me with the thought that of this current crop—after already seeing the only current offerings I’m really interested in—“there’s nothing, really nothing to turn off,”* so I'm back to streaming at home again, finally catching up with 2 excellent films released theatrically some months ago, now available for video-viewing, providing you this week with colorful, cool-hued titles to balance nature’s warm palette as we’ve moved fully into autumn, Blue Bayou and The Green Knight. The former wasn’t too impactful at the box-office but was generally critically lauded in its heartbreaking story of a Korean-American man trying to make a life with a woman and her young daughter in New Orleans but suddenly finds he’s facing deportation because when he was adopted at age 3 his new parents didn’t go through the necessary procedures for his citizenship, so he begins to make desperate choices even while some other situations begin to turn against him.
The latter did much better in terms of ticket-sales, possibly because its setting in the remote-times of King Arthur allows for a rather-exotic-fantasy-tale about Arthur’s nephew, Gawain (not yet a knight here but eager to prove himself) when a strange being enters Camelot, allows Gawain to chop off his head but then calmly picks up his severed body part and walks away from the Round Table with the command Gawain must meet with him again a year hence to receive the same blow, although other strange things will happen on his troubled-journey to the Green Chapel. Both are available on various platforms (Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, etc.), Blue … for $19.99 rental, Green … at the same locations for $5.99. 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.
*A line from Bob Dylan’s "Visions of Johanna" (1966 Blonde on Blonde album), which I didn’t really have to link here (comes with lyrics, though, below the YouTube screen; sing along) but did so anyway for the benefit of my fabulous wife, Nina, because she truly loves to hear this song (as do I).
Blue Bayou (Justin Chon) rated R 118 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 meet Antonio LeBlanc (played by Justin Chon, in full auteur-mode being also director/screenwriter of this story) as a young illiterate man in roughly 1985 living in New Orleans, working as a tattoo artist in a shop (where he’s behind on his station fees), hoping to find a better-paying job because he and wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander, Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner for The Danish Girl [Tom Hooper, 2015; review in our January 11, 2016 posting]) already have a little daughter, Jessie (Sydney Kowalske)—from her previous relationship with local cop Ace (Mark O’Brien)—and a baby daughter on the way, so she’s currently not working, money’s tight for them, but his earlier arrests for stealing motorcycles works against Antonio’s hiring opportunities just as his obvious Korean heritage (he was brought to this country in 1955 as a 3-year-old-adoptee but then passed around to foster homes until another, later adoption) doesn’t make him a likely hire or neighbor for some of the rednecks he must deal with in this fictional-yet-based-in-fact-narrative. Ace (clean-shaven in the photo just below) wants more opportunities to see his daughter but Kathy keeps putting him off with various (phony) excuses until one night at a grocery story the LeBlancs are confronted by Ace and his partner, Denny (Emory Cohen), with the latter being aggressive toward Antonio (in a wrongheaded-assumption this will be appreciated by his pal); as Antonio tries to just walk away Denny drags him down, arrests him (for what cause we have no idea short of the cop's stupidity/racism). Kathy manages to scrape up the bail money (maybe from her mother, Dawn [Geraldine Singer], even though Mom cares little for her son-in-law), then finds Antonio’s now in the custody of ICE who are preparing to deport him as an illegal immigrant (sadly, this is an all-too-common-situation of young adoptees not given the needed citizenship process by their new parents; see more below) so he retains lawyer Barry Boucher (Vondie Curtis-Hall), however with the burden of needing a $5,000 retainer although Antonio’s hopes are slim given his overall prior situation with added burdens of him never being allowed back into the U.S. if this appeal's not granted by a judge.
Made even more desperate for cash by losing his tattoo parlor job, Antonio tries to find clients on the street, leading him to meet Parker Nguyen (Linh Dan Pham) who came to America as a child-refugee with her father and other family members from Vietnam (her mother died in the escape), now dying of cancer but requesting a Fleur-de-lis tattoo which Antonio gives her in his private work space, refusing payment when he learns her full situation. Antonio finally raises his needed money for Barry by working with some old pals stealing motorcycles again (breaking the glass walls of a dealership in the process), with Ace highly suspicious of his involvement. Barry tells Antonio he needs supportive, good-citizen testimony primarily from his second adoptive mother, Suzanne (Susan McPhail), but he refuses (we later learn it’s because her husband beat both of them yet Mom refused to leave with Antonio so he’s cut himself off from her [Dad’s now dead]), leaving Kathy hurt Antonio knew this woman’s still alive, yet lied about it. Kathy takes Jessie to move in with Dawn, leading to Antonio finally visiting Suzanne, although she declines to come to the court appearance; Kathy and Antonio make up, though, when their daughter’s born, so she, Jessie, some friends, (surprisingly) Suzanne, and even Ace come to the hearing to offer support, but Antonio never shows because Denny and a couple of goons grab Antonio, drag him to the woods, assault him to keep him away from the courthouse so the judge has no option except to verify a deportation to South Korea.
Denny brags about this to Ace (assuming he’d welcome the departure of the “intruder”) who arrests him (also, privately, friendly ICE agent Merk [Toby Vitrano] tells Antonio to go on the lam with no worry about being hunted yet Antonio can’t bring himself to do that—although he did race away on a motorcycle, driving it into the swamp in an attempted suicide but flashback images of his Korean mother trying to drown him as a baby to spare burdening him with her harsh conditions, then pulling back to keep him alive lead him to abort this second attempt of death by water). ⇒As Antonio’s taken by ICE to the airport, Kathy and Jessie come running to catch up with him, intending to go also, but when Ace arrives just to say goodbye to Jessie this leads Antonio to insist the others stay together, claiming he’ll go first to make arrangements for wife and daughters yet with the clear implication he knows they'll re-establish themselves as a Louisiana family.⇐ Pre-credits-graphics tell us that from 1945-’98 there were between 25,000-49,000 such adoptees deported while there will be between 30,000-64,000 more sent away between 2015-2033 (when some of them turn 18, then be deported), with photos of some of these people shown next to the initial-cluster of ending credits.
So What? In what seems to be another case of “no good deed goes unpunished,” despite the extensive research done by non-immigrant Chon (born and raised in southern CA), he’s been criticized by Adoptees for Justice who advocate boycotting the film for telling the stories of specific individuals incorporated into this script without giving credit to their experiences (specifically Adam Crapser who makes legitimate claims Blue Bayou reflects many aspects of his actual life) or for bringing this situation to light from his perspective as someone who’s not personally gone through the trauma of those thousands of deportees, even though Chon’s gotten support from Adoptee Advocacy as he rejects the idea that he’s exploiting anyone with the circumstances or content of this film. As an adoptee myself (in Texas, decades ago, previously arranged to take effect on the day of my birth) but with no aspect of the trauma that Chon’s character or anyone else who faces the horrific-uprooting of being forced from the only country (language, customs, history) you’ve ever known into a truly foreign society (I did have some personal anguish when—as an adult—I learned who my birth mother was but she refused to meet with me so her family wouldn’t learn of my circumstances, but that’s minor compared to what Antonio and the real “illegal” adoptees face as presented in this film, noted in the above links), so I can appreciate that adoptees of any sort can easily have issues others might have a difficult time understanding, but I find nothing indulgent or manipulatively-exploitative about the events of Blue Bayou; in fact, it’s usefully informative about a situation that I assume few of us not directly impacted by this legal loophole even know much about.
Whether this film helps raise awareness enough for this situation to be addressed legally so that citizenship is woven into the adoption process for these minor children—retroactively, currently, or in the future—who have no awareness of what their legal obligations might be is yet another challenge for our dismally-divided-Congress, but maybe something humane will come out of Washington D.C. on this issue so they can resume their usual squabbling over inflation, infrastructure, and immigration in general. Certainly, Blue Bayou shows us the dark side of “foreigners” coming to the U.S. when compared to the struggles-turned-to-acceptance in Minari (Lee Isaac Chung, 2020; review in our March 4, 2021 posting) about another Korean family initially facing hard times in 1980s Arkansas but finding ways to survive, helped by community acceptance and support, so keep this earlier film in mind for uplift if you see Blue Bayou, then get too bummed out by the ongoing difficulties it exposes.
Bottom Line Final Comments: Unless you’ve already seen Blue Bayou during its brief theatrical existence your only option now seems to be streaming as I find no mention of it in still playing anywhere in either my normal go-to-source of Box Office Mojo (current link found in TCM suggestions much farther below) or the alternative option of The Numbers so I guess it’s already faded away from the big screen where it opened in domestic (U.S.-Canada) theaters on September 17, 2021, taking in a total of $738,175 in ticket sales ($808, 973 worldwide) leaving you to consult JustWatch for which platform you’d pick (I usually go with Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV+ of these choices) to invest your $19.99 for a rental (about what you’d pay for 2 bargain-matinee-tickets at a theater). Despite the hassles Chon’s getting for this film (which I’ll leave to you to decide if that would steer you away from it or not), I think it’s well worth your time, seems to me to be a sincere attempt to draw needed attention to a horrible situation which could be fixed with a little legislative cooperation, and is honest in its portrayal of the legitimate flaws in all of its major characters (with Kathy showing the most willingness to address the hard-but-legitimate-functional-choices she’s forced to make, even Ace trying to understand how to redeem himself, while Antonio goes off on some bad sideroads at times yet given the pressures he’s under it’s hard to chastise him too much)—although don’t rent it with expectations of seeing much of the touristy side of New Orleans (mostly viewed in the distance across the Mississippi) as the locations used could easily be in Kansas (except for the bayou scenes, along with some beautiful, vivid, surreal images scattered throughout).
The CCAL’s generally backing me on ... Bayou, with the Rotten Tomatoes critics giving the film 76% positive reviews while the normally-less-effusive-folks at Metacritic show their usual restrain with a 60% positive score. As an example of someone satisfied with what she saw, Katie Walsh of the Tribune News Service says: “ ‘Blue Bayou’ was filmed on 16mm, which has become one of Chon’s auteurist hallmarks, creating for a grainy, tactile and textured immediacy of the image. It beautifully captures the location, and performances, of which Chon’s is a standout, roiling emotions bubbling just below Antonio’s controlled surface.” Conversely, Vikram Murthi of AV Club offers these grim thoughts: “No amount of good acting could salvage this ensemble of offensive clichés. […] Even the film’s 16mm photography feels like an affectation—a cheap stab at realism that the film can never achieve. […] In the film’s failures, we can see the limits of good intentions: It doesn’t matter if a heart is in the right place if the mind isn’t too.” Fortunately (I say), you’ll find more responses like Walsh's.
While I share none of Murthi’s opinions I will also disagree with another critic, one who loved the film, G. Allen Johnson, but only in his statement Vikander “does a killer Linda Ronstadt impression in singing the title song”; I’ll leave that choice up to you also, but I think when you compare Kathy's performance at a huge Parker extended-family-party to Ronstadt’s (1977 Simple Dreams album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp9G0zkorio you’ll hopefully see why I chose the latter as my Musical Metaphor for this film with poignant lyrics of “Go to see my baby again And to be with some of my friends Maybe I’d be happy then on Blue Bayou I’m going back some day Gonna stay on Blue Bayou Where the folks are fine And the world is mine On Blue Bayou Oh, that girl of mine by my side The silver moon and the evening tide Oh, some sweet day gonna take away This hurtin’ inside I’ll never be blue My dreams come true on Blue Bayou,” all of which speak appropriately to the themes and events of this film. For true balance, though, I’ll finish with my true favorite, Roy Orbison's original version (from his 1963 In Dreams album). OK, now let’s switch from blue to a different hue.
The Green Knight (David Lowery) rated R 130 min.
Here’s the trailer:
Before reading further, please refer to the plot spoilers warning detailed far above.
What Happens: After a brief opening giving us indications this movie won’t be your standard-somewhat-plausible-narrative (being told to us by a woman seemingly on fire or at least sitting on a fiery chair), we find we’re in times very long ago of King Arthur (Sean Harris), Queen Guinevere (Kate Dickie), and the knights of the Round Table on Christmas Day where the king’s nephew, Gawain (Dev Patel), wakes up in a brothel with his lover, Essel (Alicia Vikander [back again, showing further depths to her acting versatility]), then joins his uncle and the knights at the most prestigious spot in Camelot (although decidedly-grubby [surely more historically-correct] than the famous movie musical of that name [Joshua Logan, 1967—with a Richard Harris connection to my marvelous wife, whom I’m won’t embarrass by recounting it here]). Despite Arthur’s stated sorrow on this occasion he hasn’t paid that much attention previously to his young relative, son of his sister, the witch Morgan le Fay (Sarita Choudhury), an opportunity arises for Gawain to prove himself in this august company when the mysterious Green Knight (Ralph Ineson)—who seems to be a human-tree hybrid—called forth by le Fay, enters, then lays down the challenge that any knight able to land a blow on him will receive his wicked-looking green axe but then must come to his Green Chapel in a year to receive the same blow. Gawain leaps to the opportunity with Arthur offering him the legendary Excalibur sword to use, but, strangely, the Green Knight simply kneels, offers his neck, so Gawain easily chops off his head. The room’s then in shock, though, as the Green Knight simply rises, picks up his severed appendage, reminds Gawain about his needed action in this Christmas “game,” then leaves.
Following a near-year of drinking/carousing by his nephew, Arthur summons Gawain to send him on his required journey to fulfill his destiny with the Green Knight, although Mom has given him a green girdle (looks like a sash to our contemporary eyes) which she says will protect him from harm. Gawain sets out on his quest, comes upon a battlefield with bodies of dead soldiers (no one left to bury them) where a Scavenger (Barry Keoghan) directs him to a stream that will lead to the Green Chapel, but when Gawain offers only a pittance of a tip in return for this information he comes upon the boy again who, aided by 2 companions, steals Gawain’s axe, sash, and horse, leaving him tied up. Gawain manages to crawl to his sword fallen on the ground (no indication why the thieves didn’t take it also), cuts his bonds, then—exhausted—continues on until he comes to a cottage where he sleeps until awakened by the ghost of young Winifred (Erin Kellyman) who tasks Gawain with retrieving her head from a nearby stream; he dives in, finds the skull, puts it on her bed (where the rest of her skeleton appears), then finds his axe has been returned. As he continues on, he comes across some giants who don’t interact with him much, then a fox who becomes his close companion.
Eventually Gawain arrives at a small castle where the Lord (Joel Edgerton) says the Green Chapel is nearby but Gawain should rest for a few days until Christmas dawns. The Lord’s Lady (also Vikander) closely resembles Essel, makes sexual advances on Gawain and gives him a girdle like the one from le Fay (the Lady claims she made it herself), but he restrains himself to mere kisses. The Lord then says he will exchange what he’s gathered lately—which turns out to be the fox—for what Gawain’s found in the Lord's home so they kiss before Gawain travels on (Gawain keeps the girdle, though); however, the fox speaks, tells Gawain to turn back, the advice unheeded. ⇒Upon arriving at the Green Chapel, Gawain must wait for Christmas morning until the Green Knight comes out of a trance ready to swing the axe upon Gawain’s neck, but our protagonist becomes frightened, runs away back to Camelot where (for some reason I don’t follow) he’s welcomed as a hero, Arthur finally knights him, then he becomes king when Arthur dies. He has a son with Essel, then abandons her for a noblewoman, but the son later dies in battle while Gawain’s kingdom deteriorates until he removes his green sash, at which point his head falls off. Suddenly, we’re back at the Green Chapel where we assume all we just witnessed was a vision of what tragedies awaited Gawain if he didn’t fulfill his obligation with the Green Knight who gleefully prepares to chop off Gawain's head.⇐
So What? This movie’s based on a 14th century poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which you can learn more about at this site, plus this one, with an enormous amount of meticulously-referenced-detail at yet another one; you can further enhance your understanding of the cinematic adaptation of this tale by watching this video (12:42) which gives an explanation of the movie, clarifies details, notes differences from the original poem (of which there are some but nothing all that significant until the endings), although you should expect Spoilers abound in it, so decide what you want to see (or even read just above) before stumbling into unwanted plot details. Even so, it’s a bit difficult for me to say much of relevance in this review-section without getting into Spoiler territory myself so read on with trepidation as you see fit. One clear difference in this movie from most accounts of Sir Gawain in other legends of the Round Table is here he’s not yet a knight ⇒(and becomes one only in his tormented-future-projection while awaiting his fate at the Green Chapel)⇐ so he’s on his appointed task in search of ‘honor,” although it’s not clear how he’s to fulfill such honor if he’s protected by the magical girdle/sash that seemingly keeps him from fatal harm (yet it wasn’t much help against the thieves in the forest early on in the journey who simply took it from him), ⇒a protection he’s still wearing when the Green Knight prepares to behead him just before the screen cuts to a final black, so is he truly sacrificing himself according to the rules of this “game” or not?⇐
This also brings up the crucial question of exactly what are Morgan la Fey’s intentions in this tale? In summoning the Green Knight to make his challenge (which none of Arthur’s seasoned-warriors were quick to accept, possibly aware of the un-human, convoluted situation they might be facing) she seemed to know her son would jump at the chance to prove himself worthy of knighthood, which she’s further be able to manipulate with that magical girdle, yet how could Gawain heroically escape the Green Knight if he has an enchanted device to protect him from death: therefore, if the axe should fail to sever Gawain’s head due to Mom’s precaution would he still be accorded the grand-knightly-status he seeks? I don’t think we’re supposed to be bothered by these concerns (it’s a myth, after all), but it does give us reason to wonder how much honor we’re to see in Gawain (who didn’t share the new girdle with the Lord who hosted him, even though it should’ve been part of the trade bargain). Another interesting difference on screen from the poem is the clever casting of Vikander as both Essel and the Lady Gawain encounters toward the end of his challenging journey. Clearly her appearance is a further temptation—along with the overtures—to push his position as a guest beyond the bounds of decency, even for this ancient time, so here’s a situation where he conducts himself honorably (as he did in retrieving Winifred’s head) as we see he’s rewarded when he truly gives of himself, even though this story’s a bit ambiguous in its ending relative to what’s truly moral here, even from a man who early on says that he doesn’t see himself destined for greatness.
(Don’t worry, all you reading-adversers! Subtitles are only on this photo, not in the movie itself.)
Bottom Line Final Comments: The Green Knight is certainly one of the most unique cinematic experiences I’ve encountered this year, one clearly inspired by its source material (with medieval-style chapter headings superimposed over the imagery as the plot moves along, although they’re a bit more for show than clarity as you [or at least I] may not be able to decipher them quickly enough to know for sure what they say), then making that legend into something with a more-contemporary-feel as this version of Gawain is—literally—no knight in shining armor but instead a young man eager to advance his station in life yet frequently hesitating in the necessary follow-through to accomplish the goal he’s required to meet (surely when he chopped off the Green Knight’s head—even as it was offered to him—rather than simply leaving him with a minor wound, he never expected this mysterious stranger to rise up, laugh at the situation, walk away with head in hand rather than just die on the spot, making Gawain the automatic winner of this “game” with no need for a follow-up-confrontation). Some of Gawain’s actions in the process of this tale aren’t so noble nor chivalrous either (including the way he continues his pleasure with Essel for a year prior to his fated-journey, yet never answering her desire to officially be his “lady”), so he comes across as a questionable-man, negotiating on the fly, options become more complicated as the story progresses.
The CCAL’s largely-ecstatic over The Green Knight, seemingly for the reasons noted just above, with the RT reviews at an 89% positive response while the MC average score soars to 85%, the second highest result they’ve given to anything both they and I have reviewed of 2021 releases (only Summer of Soul [Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson; review in our July 8, 2021 posting] was higher, at an astounding 96% average score; as always, anything cited from these critics-compilation-sites will have details in the Related Links section farther below). This movie you definitely won’t find in a theater now as it debuted on July 30, 2021, proving to be fairly successful in this pandemic-era with a $17.2 million take domestically ($18.9 million worldwide) so again consult JustWatch for your streaming options (rentals from $4.99-$.5.99 at the usual platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+) if you choose to visit The Green Knight; until then (or if you’re satisfied with just reading this whole posting including the Spoilers) you might enjoy my usual review-wrap-up-device of a Musical Metaphor, this time being “These Eyes” from The Guess Who (on their 1969 Wheatfield Soul album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOBBXfWEdW0, which, I admit, connects best to the elements of this film noted in my Spoiler comments, so if you’ve chosen to not read them yet you can just speculate for now on what these lyrics have to do with this movie: “You gave a promise to me, yeah And I will never be free, no, no, no You took the vow with me, yeah An’ you broke it, an’ you broke it […] These eyes cry every night for you These arms, these arms long to hold you, hold you again These eyes are cryin’ These eyes have seen a lot of loves But they’re never gonna see another one like I had with you.” But, I surely hope your eyes will see more Two Guys film reviews, even if there’s never another as wonderful as this one like I’ve had with you (but I think there will be).
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.
Friday November 5, 2021
4:00 AM The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1968) Not classic in a traditional-filmic-sense but maybe the best “spaghetti western” from the master of this type of story where Clint Eastwood stars, this time working bounty-hunter-hustles with Eli Wallach while vicious Lee Van Cleef’s in the same 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 and an unforgettable score by Ennio Morricone. Followed, continuing the reverse-release-order, on TCM by the earlier entries of this trilogy (both directed by Leone), For a Few Dollars More (1965) at 7:15 AM, A Fistful of Dollars (1964) at 9:30 AM—the latter inspired by Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961)—all of them followed by the very brief early western, The Great Train Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903) at 11:15 AM, a crucial development in narrative cinematic storytelling, starring “Bronco Billy” Anderson.
Saturday November 6, 2021
3:00 PM The Celluloid Closet (Robert Epstein and Jeffery Friedman, 1995) Powerful documentary about the presentations of gay men, lesbian women, bisexuals and transgenders in American movies since almost the beginning of the industry until the time of this film’s production with a vast amount of clips enhanced with a wide range of relevant testimony, based on Vito Russo’s 1981 book of the same name. Informative in a factual manner about the wide range of negative depictions.
Monday November 8, 2021
11:45 PM 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, Busby Berkeley for lavish choreography, 1933) Here’s a genre-foundational-movie, a musical based on an already-successful play. Set in the Depression, an upcoming-Broadway show has to be a hit for the financially-desperate cast and crew, with classic scenes where ingénue Ruby Keeler has to replace injured star Bebe Daniels, under intense pressure to save the production—can she do it? Also stars Warner Baxter, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers.
Tuesday November 9, 2021
9:00 PM My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong, 1979) In 1897 rural Australia, this is about a free-spirited woman (Judy Davis) yearning for more than working on the family farm, instead wants to be a writer despite consistent encouragement from her relatives to comfortably marry which she has the chance to do with a wealthy suitor (Sam Neill) although she keeps turning him down to instead focus on her own life/hopes for a more independent future. Well-received critically, won some awards.
If you’d like your own PDF of ratings/summaries of this week's reviews, suggestions for TCM cablecasts, links to Two Guys info click this link to access then save, print, or whatever you need.
Other Cinema-Related Stuff: In quick fashion, here are some extra items you might like: (1) New to Netflix in November 2021; (2) New to Amazon Prime Video in November 2021; (3) New to Hulu in November 2021; (4) New to Disney+ in November 2021; (5) New to HBO/HB) Max in November 2021. As usual for now I’ll close out this section with Joni Mitchell’s "Big Yellow Taxi" (from her 1970 Ladies of the Canyon album)—because “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”—and a reminder that you can search streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.
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!
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Here’s more information about Blue Bayou:
https://www.focusfeatures.com/blue-bayou
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vhONIee-GY (5:05 interview with actors Alicia Vikander
and Justin Chon [he’s also the director-screenwriter])
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blue_bayou_2021
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/blue-bayou
Here’s more information about The Green Knight:
https://a24films.com/films/the-green-knight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSW1ZBd2ARY (4:28 interview with actors Dev Patel
and Joel Edgerton)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_green_knight
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-green-knight
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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).
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