(William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1, line 45)
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) if they agree with me or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) if they choose to disagree.
(Original 4x3 format here; other photos resized by me for layout purposes.)
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): Omicron still keeps me away from theaters (although there’s hope we may soon be on the downside of this virus-variant’s attack-curve), but that mattered none as streaming offers 2 of 2021’s best, well-rewarded by me with ratings used infrequently over this blog's past 10 years, beginning with a stunning adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, an age-old (truly, over 6 centuries on stage, then brought to film) narrative, slimly based in history (mostly fictionalized, to serve the famous playwright’s own socioeconomic-situation) but more lauded for its moral warnings about the corruptive power of overwrought-ambition focused on personal gain at the horrid expense of innocent others. This version’s a haunting combination of B&W cinematography, Expressionism in the visuals and soundtrack, enhanced with Oscar-caliber-acting from past-Oscar-winner-leads Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand; you might find this in a few theaters, but it’s easily available on Apple TV+ for no extra cost beyond their standard monthly subscription rate. I realize the story’s well-known, yet I’ll still note a Spoilers section for those not yet so familiar with it.
In the Short Takes section I’ll explore another engaging drama, Mass, out several months ago (kept eluding me), now available on several platforms (including Amazon Prime Video) for rent at $4.99-$6.99. Sadly, this is an still-relevant-story of attempted-reconciliation between 2 sets of parents: one whose son killed many of his high-school-classmates before taking his own life, the other mourning their son as one of the victims. Also in that section I’ll offer suggestions for some choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, ye tedious software!) along with my standard dose of industry-related-trivia.
Here’s the trailer for The Tragedy of Macbeth:
(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 aren’t that tech-savvy)—to help any of you who’d like 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: (Before reading any of this you might like to watch an animated summary of the plot of the Macbeth play [6:49], but that gets you into Spoiler territory relative to this film adaptation, so go forth as you will.) Scottish Thanes (royal officials) Macbeth (Denzel Washington) and Banquo (Bertie Carvel) have led King Duncan’s (Brendan Gleeson) army to victory over some invaders from Norway, the enemy aided by the traitor Thane of Cawdor; on their way back home they encounter 3 witches (all seen as/voiced by Kathryn Hunter in a most joint-bending-presence) who offer prophecies: Macbeth will be promoted from his present role as Thane of Glamis to be the new Thane of Cawdor (soon comes true as the previous Thane’s executed), then will become King; Banquo’s heirs will be kings also (in that these characters are somewhat based in history this is verified beyond our story as the actual Banquo’s descendants are among those who eventually lead to Scotland’s King James VI [took the throne in 1567]/England’s King James I [1603-death in 1625], a patron of Shakespeare). Macbeth sends a letter home to his wife (Frances McDormand) about all this, which she reads with an immediate sense of ambition, then burns the letter. Macbeth and Banquo are warmly received by Duncan, although Macbeth’s troubled when the king names his son, Malcolm (Henry Melling), as Prince of Cumberland as this complicates any ascension of Macbeth to royalty as he’s already a bit elderly (some have praised Coen’s casting of older Washington and McDormand rather than a more-traditional-younger-version of the Macbeths, as their advanced age puts all the more pressure on them to take the throne soon as time may be running out). Next, Duncan, along with sons Malcolm and Donalbain (Matt Helm), come to visit the Macbeths at their castle with Lady M. pushing her reluctant husband to kill the king that night after she puts knockout-powders in the wine of his 2 guards; Hubbie hesitates, then goes through with the murder, but she’s the one who takes the guards’ knives, smears them with the dead king’s blood to incriminate them.
Upon the morning, Thane of Fife Macduff (Corey Hawkins) arrives to visit with the king, finds him slaughtered, after which Macbeth quickly takes it upon himself to kill the still-unconscious guards, followed by Malcolm and Donalbain making a hasty retreat to England as rumors spread they're the actual murderers, intent on quickly giving Malcolm his heritage. Somehow Macbeth is chosen as the new king, but, as his paranoia grows, he sends a couple of duped-assassins (Scott Subiono, Brian Thompson), aided by the Thane of Ross (Alex Hassell), to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance (Lucas Barker) in fear the boy might usurp Macbeth (as well as Banquo knowing of those prophecies); father’s dispatched, son runs but seemingly is caught by Ross. Macbeth continues to deteriorate (much to his wife’s dismay), goes wild at a banquet when confronted by Banquo’s ghost (no one else sees it), then summons the witches who tell him to beware of Macduff yet he’ll continue to be king until the forest of Great Birnam Wood should come to his castle on Dunsinane Hill (that seeming-impossibility reassures him) with even more comfort because he’ll be harmed by no man born of woman (seems airtight protection). ⇒Macbeth sends soldiers to Macduff’s home where they kill his wife (Moses Ingram) and children, though Dad’s already left for England to join up with Malcolm after Ross comes to tell him of his family massacre. Guilt’s driving Lady Macbeth mad, leading to her suicide, even as Malcolm’s large English army arrives holding branches they’ve cut from Birnam Wood so the forest seems to be advancing on the castle. Ultimately, confident Macbeth duels with Macduff until he learns his antagonist was born by Cesarean section, fights on anyway until beheaded, the crown delivered to Malcolm. As the film ends we find Ross kept Fleance hidden in the wilderness, rides away with him, confirming that someday his heirs will take Scotland’s throne.⇐
So What? Coen’s contemporary adaptation reaches back to the original title (The Tragedie of Macbeth) from the 1623 First Folio for a play probably first performed in 1606, a story based in the history of Scotland although actively fictionalized by Shakespeare. I can’t say exactly how Coen’s trimmed a 5-act-tragedy down to just 1 hr. 47 min. (including film credits) because I didn’t attempt to compare it while watching to the written version (although I did try that once, out of curiosity, while viewing the Orson Welles Macbeth [1948] but found it quite difficult to visually skip around on the printed page while listening to the dialogue coming from my TV, especially because Welles’ version uses Scottish accents which made it even harder to follow if [like me] you’re not already familiar with the lines); if you’d care to make such a comparison you can find Macbeth's entire theatrical text here. If not, you’ll likely not care too much about whatever Coen left out unless you’re as obsessive about Macbeth as I am about Hamlet (Shakespeare, 1599-1601), which is why I most appreciate Kenneth Branagh’s film-adaptation of that play in full (1996), although I can still find great value in a condensed approach, as in Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet (1948)—won Best Picture, Best Actor Oscars.
However, based on reading a detailed, documented summary of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (also contains a grand amount of additional, useful context), I see that Coen’s properly captured the essence of this famous narrative about the misery that awaits those overcome with deadly hubris, where pride and unchecked ambition lead to disaster, as Macbeth himself understands shortly before his demise as he summarizes life's failures as “signifying nothing” in his famous "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" soliloquy (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28), just after he’s learned of his wife’s suicide (which we don’t see directly, but easily surmise from shots at the top, then bottom of a long stone staircase as she lies inert). This short clip offers a taste of how impactful Washington is in this lead performance (where color-blind-casting gives him a chance to go beyond just the role of the Moor in Shakespeare’s Othello [1603], just as is the case too with Blacks as Macduff, Lady Macduff, a few minor characters who transcend the all-Anglo-casting of The Bard’s era [as well as the trope back then of female roles played by men, a situation so well challenged in Shakespeare in Love {John Madden, 1998}]), certainly a major consideration for me when choosing my desired-Best-Actor-Oscar-winner, even if he doesn’t get an official nomination (it helps he does have one from the Screen Actors Guild; it probably doesn’t help that he’s already won 2 of these Oscars, as Best Actor in Training Day [Antoine Fuqua, 2001], Best Supporting Actor in Glory [Edward Zwick, 1989], so the tendency might be to spread the spoils further this year—possibly to Benedict Cumberbatch (winless thus far) for The Power of the Dog [Jane Campion, 2021; review in our December 9, 2021 posting]).
Certainly McDormand’s no slouch either in … Macbeth (no SAG nom, but remember she’s already taken 3 Best Actress Oscars—Nomadland [Chloé Zhao, 2020; review in our February 25, 2021 posting], Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri [Martin McDonagh, 2017; review in our December 7, 2017 posting], Fargo [Joel and Ethan Coen, 1996], along with her Best Picture producer’s Oscar for Nomadland), yet her prior successes precede her here (Oscar buzz is with Kristen Stewart for Spencer [Pablo Larraín, 2021; review in our November 11, 2021 posting] but time will tell how that transpires), although I found McDormand’s performance to be mesmerizing (damn scary at times, too; I wish I could find a clip focusing on her, but you’ll have to settle for what’s in the trailer above, just as I have to settle for a cloudy memory because she played Lady Macbeth at the Berkeley [CA] Repertory Theatre [Feb.-April 2016], a show I think I would have seen as my theatre-loving-wife, Nina, and I (also a big fan) always get season tickets for their shows, yet, honestly I have only a 50-50 chance of actually remembering that (Nina's murky on it too) even if I can’t imagine how we could have missed it). The whole cast is marvelous as well, all of them delivering Shakespeare’s at-times-difficult-dialogue (at least to those of us not actively in familiarity with reading/hearing it) in manners that feel natural and organic, at least as best they can speak such given the poetic wording.
Visually, Coen’s made choices that evoke the ancient setting of the story (probably the 11th century) by shooting it in black & white in the old 4x3 ratio of pre-1950s-cinema, pre-21st century-TV, as well as using outstanding cinematography (Bruno Delbonnel) and set design (Stefan Dechant) which he admits (in the interview, second item attached to this film in Related Links far below) is influenced by a combination of Danish silent-film-master Carl Theodor Dreyer (here's a scene [2:46] from his celebrated The Passion of Joan of Arc [1928] as she’s harshly-interrogated by priests, looking for a blasphemy excuse to execute her [intertitles in French, subtitled in English]; you can also see the entire film [1:22:29], but you may have to settle for appreciating the visual power of the closeups [well-replicated in … Macbeth] because intertitles are in French, subtitles in Spanish) and German Expressionism (also serves as a direct influence on Orson Welles’ version of Macbeth—which you can get a taste of with his opening scene of the witches [1:21], the "Tomorrow" speech [1:12], or, if you prefer, Welles' entire film [1:54:16]—for that matter, I see a few shots reminding me of the prototype for such cinematic Expressionism, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari [Robert Wiene, 1920] as well as the apogee of this style, Metropolis [Fritz Lang, 1927]), all of this … Macbeth marvelously structured, shot, edited into a compelling flow often filled with mist, clouds, shadows, other devices obscuring what we see, just as the Macbeths attempt to obscure their crimes from their countrymen.
Coen also offers some intriguing imagery with birds, including how the 3 witches turn into large avians flying away from their first encounter with Macbeth; he later sees Banquo’s ghost—losing his equilibrium—after a large bird flies into, then out of his castle; finally, there’s the end shot as Ross rides off with young Fleance as the screen becomes completely filled with flying birds (yeah, I'm treading into Spoiler territory here, but I'm trying to stay ambiguous) reminding me of Vincent Van Gogh’s famous Wheatfield with Crows (1890), one of the last paintings before his death (which I’ve had the great pleasure of seeing at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam). Delbonnel’s getting some traction toward an Oscar nom for Best Cinematography (although momentum once again seems to be with The Power of the Dog [as it does for Campion for Best Director, her film for Best Picture]) so I can only hope he might enter/triumph in that category (just as I’d likely at this point go for … Macbeth to win Oscar’s Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Adapted Screenplay, but I have slim hope because most—if not all—of these awards will likely go elsewhere). Still, I stand proudly by my 5 stars because—just with the new West Side Story—the “play’s the thing” presenting a magnificent concept, triumphant over time, rendered here in glorious fashion for our cinema milieu.
Bottom Line Final Comments: While I sometimes find myself at odds with the "official" reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic (most recently when I was notably higher for Being the Ricardos [Aaron Sorkin, 2021; review in our January 6, 2022 posting]—4 stars for me vs. 69% and 60% respectively for them—Don’t Look Up [Adam McKay, 2021; review in our January 13, 2022 posting]—4 stars vs. 54%, 49%—and The Tender Bar [George Clooney, 2021; also in our Jan. 13, 2022 posting]—3½ stars vs. 52%, 53%), we have little disagreement regarding The Tragedy of Macbeth as the RT folks provide 94% positive reviews, the MC evaluators give it an 87% average score, a very high number for them (of the 84 2020/2021 releases both they and I reviewed in 2021/early 2022 they only went to 80% or higher on 19 of them [I agreed on 16, was a bit lower on the others], with only 4 of them topping their current 87% for … Macbeth—Minari [Lee Isaac Chung, 2020; review in our March 4, 2021 posting] 88%, my 4 stars; The Father [Florian Zeller, 2020; review in our April 1, 2021 posting] 88%, my 4 stars; The Power of the Dog, 88%, my 4 stars; The Summer of Soul (… Or, How the Revolution Could Not Be Televised [Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, 2021; review in our July 8, 2021 posting] an incredible 96%, my 4 stars [on all of these I consider myself in league with their results as I so rarely exceed 4 stars except for truly timeless work {such as ... Macbeth} whereas the critics surveyed at these sites are willing to go to maximum credit for any film they like enough within any given year, not necessarily taking it into context all the preceding classics, which is what makes my 0-5 stars system somewhere different from how most of them do it]). As always with anything that I review, consult RT/MC listings in Related Links for more details.
Given how stingy I’ve been with 5 stars at this Two Guys site during these past 10 years you know this would almost automatically land … Macbeth at the head of my Top 10 of 2021 (a list I’ll compile sometime in the next month or so, in hopes a few well-regarded-others—Licorice Pizza [Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021], House of Gucci [Ridley Scott, 2021], Drive My Car [Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2021]—make it to streaming soon [or that Omicron—along with its potential cousins—eases off so I might reconsider a trip to a theater]). But this time around I’ve got the unusual situation of (at least) one other 5 stars-film to consider, West Side Story (Steven Spielberg, 2021; review in our December 16, 2021 posting), with both of them ultimately based on famous plays, which doesn’t mean that for me a powerful-stage-narrative automatically makes for an astounding-cinematic-adaptation (e.g. the regrettable-flop of A Chorus Line [play: Marvin Hamlisch, Edward Kleban, James Kirkwood Jr., and Nicolas Dante, 1975; film: Richard Attenborough, 1985]), although it certainly can in the case of my 2021-dual-5 stars-successes, just as it did earlier with Cabaret (play: John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Joe Masteroff, 1966; film: Bob Fosse, 1972) and Chicago (play: Kander, Ebb, Fosse, 1975; film: Rob Marshall, 2002), both plays I saw on Broadway (saw A Chorus Line in Miami) so I do have some basis for comparison (of course you could probably do "Cabaret" and "Cell Block Tango" in a high-school-gym [reduced lighting, I'd hope] with success, so these might be seen as too-easy-victories).
For me, Spielberg and Coen have found strategies to transfer stage magic to screen magic so I encourage you to see both (as I ponder which one will be my #1 for 2021, … Macbeth probably on the inside-track at this point; maybe James Cameron can take a break from his Avatar sequels to help me out by cooking up a combo of the 2 where we might have Macbeth singing a version of “Something’s Coming”—“Murder’s comin’, don’t know when […] Maybe tonight” as he’s mentally wrestling with the sin/crime of killing Duncan), possibly still playing in moviehouses in your area (more likely … West [in 1,460 domestic {U.S.-Canada} venues, several global locations] than The Tragedy …, which only seems to be theatrical in a few U.S. sites and Australia) or you can stream … Macbeth at Apple TV+ (free with their normal $4.99 monthly subscription fee). I don’t think you can lose with either one, although possibly one of them will appeal more specifically to your tastes (uncouth-literary-lout that I am, I’ll recommend using closed-captions if you stream … Macbeth as it will likely help in following Shakespeare’s well-crafted-but-at-times-obtuse-language). Well, this has gone on almost as long as a full staging of Macbeth so I’ll bring it to a close with my usual tactic of a Musical Metaphor to react in some manner to what’s just been reviewed; in this case I’ll use more of a commentary than a direct reflection by referring to one masterpiece by taking something from another one (The Beatles 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band), George Harrison’s “Within You Without You” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsffxGyY4ck where after-the-fact-analysts could easily be talking about the Macbeths as “[…] people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion / Never glimpse the truth / Then it’s far too late / When they pass away / [… they] gain the world and lose their soul / They don’t know / They can’t see / Are you one of them?” Certainly these doomed regents of Scotland don’t see in time that “[…] You’re really only very small / And life flows on within you and without you.” Maybe if Macbeth had been spared the witches’ prophecies he (and his ready-to-pounce-wife) would have been spared the tribulations they endured, been satisfied with the honors already accorded them, but—as this story has long reminded us—greed is a difficult failing to ignore, often taking us down long, dark, winding roads into certain doom.
SHORT TAKES (spoilers also appear here)
A few years after a high-school tragedy where a boy killed many of his classmates the parents of the killer and one of the victims agree to meet to see if any sort of reconciliation is possible; this is a powerful drama, mostly done as a dialogue among the 4 grieving parents in the confined space of a church room, tempers flaring sometimes, alternating with attempts at a better mutual understanding.
Here’s the trailer:
Before reading any further, I’ll ask you to refer to the plot spoilers warning far above.
This film looks like you’re seeing a direct-stage-to-film-adaptation-of-a-play, but not as cinematically-adapted as ... Macbeth (actually, debut screenwriter-director Kranz began his narrative intended for the stage but evolved it to cinema instead, which doesn’t in any way diminish the power of this claustrophobic-confrontation—same case as with the effective transfer of 12 Angry Men from a TV teleplay [Reginald Rose, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, 1954] to an unforgettable theatrical film [Sidney Lumet, 1957]), where, a few years after a tragic event, parents Linda (Ann Dowd) and Richard (Reed Birney) of teenage Hayden—who killed several of this classmates with a bomb he made, guns he borrowed before shooting himself—have agreed to a face-to-face-reconciliation attempt in a small Idaho Episcopal church with Gail (Martha Plimpton) and Jay (Jason Isaacs), whose son, Evan, was the first body found in the carnage. These couples have been in touch over time, but this is their first direct encounter. What transpires (after the clumsy introductions, then a couple of minor characters depart) becomes a steady rhythm of restrained-recrimination, attempts at apology, heartbreak, with ultimately a sense of uneasy-closure as Evan’s parents ultimately can’t understand how Hayden’s parents could have let their son stray so far from human decency while the accused plead they didn’t know how lost he’d become even as they accept blame for the tragedy (any similarity to the recent school shootings in Michigan is purely coincidental as this film went into production in 2020 [with the restrained setting useful during COVID restrictions], although Kranz says he was impacted by the 2018 Parkland, FL shooting). This is a powerful emotional encounter best seen rather than just read about ⇒although I’ll note the payoff is when Linda comes back, by herself, briefly after she and Richard—who’s tried his best to remain stoic through all this trauma—left, to admit to Evan’s family how terrified she’d become of her son shortly before the massacre.⇐
Even though this came out on Oct. 8, 2021 (barely made $145.9 thousand worldwide, so most of us were likely unaware of it although a radio-based-film-critic in my San Francisco area kept promoting it as one of the best of the year; he was right), I hadn’t paid much attention to this film on streaming ($4.99 Amazon Prime Video, a little more on some others, see JustWatch) until I recently saw in the Metacritic awards tally (see Related Links farther below) Dowd and Isaacs are getting attention for supporting roles (I see all 4 as equal leads, though), along with the screenplay, so I watched, was highly impressed, can’t recommend it enough (unless such a horror’s invaded your life; maybe still more than you could handle despite best intentions of you and the filmmakers) with the CCAL in full support (RT 95% positive reviews, MC 81% average score); I can’t say with any certainty what the title implies, but, having been raised Catholic, I assume it refers to the Communion ritual (similar in the Episcopal church) where forgiveness is asked in the context of celebrating Christ’s atonement for the sins of humanity (the constant presence of a crucifix behind Linda and Richard is no accident). For a Musical Metaphor I’ll use The Fleetwoods “Tragedy” (on their 1961 Softly album) at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4wkVrak1Oc where its lyrics about a love gone wrong (“Wind and storm / Gone’s the sun / From the stars / My dark has come / You’ve gone from me, whoa, whoa, tragedy”) easily fit this situation as well. There are bigger, well-promoted films likely to dominate the Oscar race this year, but you owe it to yourself to at least know about Mass, with any awards or not.
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.
Thursday January 20, 2022
12:00 AM It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934) Hailed, sometimes as the origin of screwball comedy, as a desperate-reporter (Clark Gable) chases a big story when an heiress (Claudette Colbert) elopes (Dad’s mad), then disappears until Gable encounters her. 1 of 3 (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest [1975], The Silence of the Lambs [1991]) ever to win the top 5 Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Actor (Gable), Actress (Colbert), and Screenplay, Adapted in this case (Robert Riskin).
5:00 PM The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971) Based on a real situation, we follow the grind of NYC narcotics cops Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider) as they stumble onto a huge dope ring run by Frenchman Alain Charnier (Fernando Ray); it features one of the greatest car chase scenes ever filmed as Popeye’s racing under the elevated tracks of the subway, dodging danger. Won Oscars for Best Film, Director, Actor (Hackman), Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, plus additional nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Scheider) and Cinematography.
11:30 PM Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975) Godfather-alums Al Pacino and John Cazale attempt a bank robbery (based in fact) to raise cash for sex reassignment surgery for Pacino’s lover, a botched job resulting in hostages, a standoff, crowd support for the robbers, with Pacino shouting “Attica! Attica!” (referencing an unpopular, vicious assault on a NY prison riot/hostage situation from that time). Won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (Frank Pierson), acting showcase for Pacino.
Friday January 21. 2022
7:00 PM Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969) A timely chronicle of conflicts of the time, made in low-budget mode (more money went to song rights for the soundtrack) as Peter Fonda and Hopper play motorcycle-riding drug dealers going cross-country to find what America’s all about; on the way they meet, travel with a young lawyer (Jack Nicholson). A big hit with a brutal ending; nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Supporting Actor (Nicholson), Original Screenplay (Hopper, Fonda, Terry Southern).
Sunday January 18, 2022
1:00 AM Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964) Difficult to make a satire about nuclear annihilation but this one succeeds, an hilarious send-up of the Cold War escalation between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. (regarding surviving nuclear holocaust in underground bunkers for years: “Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap!”) as a very deranged general orders a hit on Russia which looks to succeed. Peter Sellers is in 3 roles, others include George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens, and James Earl Jones.
Wednesday January 26, 2022
12:30 AM 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]). One of the best musicals 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.
If you’d like your own PDF of ratings/summaries of this week's reviews, suggestions for TCM cablecasts, links to Two Guys info click this link to access then save, print, or whatever you need
Other Cinema-Related Stuff: In quicker fashion than usual, here's an extra item you might like: (1) The Power of the Dog wins 21 Best Picture prizes from critics, a new record for a Netflix film. As always 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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AND … at least until the Oscars for 2020’s releases have been awarded on Sunday, March 27, 2022 we’re also going to include reminders in each posting of very informative links where you can get updated tallies of which films have been nominated for and/or received various awards and which ones made various individual critic’s Top 10 lists. You may find the diversity among the various awards competitions and the various critics hard to reconcile at times—not to mention the often-significant-gap between critics’ choices and competitive-award-winners (which pales when they’re compared to the even-more-noticeable-gap between specific award winners and big box-office-grosses you might want to monitor here—but as that less-than-enthusiastic-patron-of-the-arts, Plato, noted in The Symposium (385-380 BC)—roughly translated, depending on how accurate you wish the actual quote to be—“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder,” so your choices for success are as valid as any of these others, especially if you offer some rationale for your decisions (unlike any awards voters who blindly fill out ballots, sometimes—damn it!—for films they’ve never seen).
Here’s more information about The Tragedy of Macbeth:
https://a24films.com/films/the-tragedy-of-macbeth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNcGggqJhCY (43:01 interview with director Joel Coen [also a producer] and actors Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand [also a producer], Bertie Carvel, Henry Melling, Moses Ingram)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_tragedy_of_macbeth_2021
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-tragedy-of-macbeth
Here’s more information about Mass:
https://www.mass.movie/ (click on the 3 little lines in the upper left for categories)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E2Xt4EZkhc (18:52 interview with director-screenwriter Fran Kranz and actors Martha Plimpton, Jason Isaacs, Reed Birney, Ann Dowd)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mass_2021
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/mass
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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, but maybe while there you’ll get a chance to meet Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, RIP). 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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