Life in the Wrong Lane
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.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): COVID-Omicron’s still restricting me (out of caution, despite my many vaccinations) to streaming—thankfully saving me from Jackass Forever (Jeff Tremaine) and Moonfall (Roland Emmerich)—which is no problem this week because a couple of nomination-worthy-options are finally available for at-home-viewing so I was very glad to see them before the Oscar nominations were announced,* but I was already intrigued by both of these given their support from industry guilds, my admiration for their directors, and the marvelous surplus of acting talent in both (they also ended up with some Oscar nods: … Alley's up for Best Picture, Cinematography, Costume Design, Production Design; … Gucci for Makeup and Hair Styling). While I considered using my occasional dual-feature-review-structure, I ultimately decided to hold House of Gucci to a (bit-longer-than-intended) Short Takes inclusion because I just have to admit I think Nightmare Alley delivers a little stronger result in its intriguing tale of manipulation-gone-wrong set against the backdrop of nationwide-misery in late-Depression/early-WW II years as a carnival-conniver (Bradley Cooper) sets out to work his scam on the wrong sucker despite his collaboration with an equally-shifty-psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) whereas … Gucci is lurid historical melodrama. In the Short Takes section, then, I’ll explore the intentionally-sleazy House of Gucci where a woman (Lady Gaga) marrying into this fashion-icon-family unleashes more misery than she could ever have imagined, even if she’d ever gone on stage to play Lady Macbeth; this is another one of those situations where all you need to know about the plot is easily available on the Internet, but I’ll still cordon off some Spoiler statements in case you’d rather see it before knowing all of its actualities. Both of these are still in a few theaters, although your easiest-access is likely on streaming where Nightmare Alley’s free on HBO Max and a few others, ... Gucci’s on Apple TV+ for $19.99 rental in 4K resolution, $6.99 HD from Spectrum. Also in that section I’ll offer suggestions for some choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, tedious software!) plus my standard dose of industry-related-trivia.
*I’d prefer to have my 2021 Top 10 along with my preferences for Oscar noms finalized by now, but I’d also like to have seen a few other potential options such as Drive My Car (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi), The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier), Red Rocket (Sean Baker), and Parallel Mothers (Pedro Almodóvar), so I’ll just have to see how COVID/streaming may grant me access to them (and any others I’d really embrace giving fair attention to) before late March when I’ll have to commit myself one way or the other to my own preferences prior to the delivery of those golden statuettes. For now, though, you can cross-reference the link above to the Oscar noms and the final predictions from Variety in Related Links to see how the experts did naming those contenders for the final cuts.
Here’s the trailer for Nightmare Alley:
(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: We begin this grim-Depression-era-tale in 1939 as Stan Carlisle’s (Bradley Cooper) dragging what seems to be a wrapped-up-dead-body into a seemingly-abandoned house, deposits his load into a hole in the floor, then sets the place on fire as he walks away from this isolated, rural dwelling, catches a bus to the end of the line, wanders over to a carnival, manages to get a dollar-a-day-job as a worker helping tear the whole thing down to move on to the next location. On that first night, though, he witnesses the owner of the troupe, Clem Hoately (Willem Dafoe), mesmerize/terrify the audience by throwing a live chicken into a pit where the Geek (Paul Anderson)—“half man, half animal”—resides, then chomps into the chicken’s neck to drink its blood. Clem later explains how he captures these geeks by finding an alcoholic, lacing his booze with opium so he’s too addicted to walk away from this “job,” then keeps the half-crazed man in a cage; only this night the Geek gets loose so Stan tracks him down, tries to reason with him but when attacked Stan fights back, uses a Billy Club to thrash the frantic creature before Clem stops him. Stan’s fascinated with the “psychic” act put on by “Madame Zeena” (Toni Collette) and her alcoholic husband, Pete Krumbein (David Strathairn), where he feeds her information from under the stage as she expounds on suckers’ naivety (using easy-to-manipulate-assumptions), eventually convinces them to teach him the tricks. Meanwhile, he’s become attracted to Molly Cahill (Rooney Mara) whose act involves absorbing electrical current into her body (routed to the rubber mat she stands on) which Stan enhances with a full electric-chair-simulation, but his attraction’s kept to a minimum by burly Bruno (Ron Perlman), who’s taken on the role of Molly’s protector due to earlier failings of her grifter father.
Pete’s dies, though, when Stan accidently brings him the wrong bottle, so instead of drinking some moonshine he swallows wood alcohol to his immediate detriment. Stan runs away, convincing Molly to leave too, so they can use the “psychic” con, which they’re successfully doing 2 years later for the well-to-do in Buffalo, NY until one night he’s confronted by psychiatrist Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), although he manages to call her bluff, keep his act alive, then conspires to work with her to fleece her wealthy clients. Soon their business partnership turns sexual also (Molly has no idea about it), even as Stan allows himself to be analyzed by Lilith (recorded on audio tape) in which he reveals his guilt about Pete, hatred for his alcoholic father whom he killed just as this story began. ⇒Lilith and Stan plan to con Ezra Grindle (Richard Jenkins) out of $150,000 for the opportunity of seeing the ghost of his dead lover (died during an abortion), Dory (to be played by Molly as one last favor to Stan before leaving him after finding out about his affair), but during the nighttime “apparition” Ezra’s so overcome with passion he gets too close to Molly, knows she’s not Dory, turns on Stan who kills him; then Grindle’s henchman, Anderson (Holt McCallany), hears radio news that grief-stricken Judge Kimball (Peter MacNeill) and wife are dead in a murder-suicide (when Stan’s promise of the return of their dead-WW I-soldier-son fails to happen), so he rushes to Grindle’s location only to be killed by Stan as well. When Stan gets back to Ritter’s office with her he finds she’s only given him $150, will use tapes of his sessions with her to protect herself if necessary, although she shoots at him, only makes a minor wound; he tries to kill her but has to rush out when security men show up. Stan hops a freight train, goes on the lam, becomes an alcoholic hobo, tries to get a job at a carnival but the only opening is for a Geek, which he sadly accepts, aware of what his future will become.⇐
So What? As with House of Gucci (reviewed below) the script for this new version of Nightmare Alley is based on a book but a novel in this case by William Lindsay Gresham (1946), as well as a previous adaptation also called Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947) starring Tyrone Power (Stan), Joan Blondell (Zeena), Coleen Gray (Molly), and Helen Walker (Lilith) in the primary roles also featured in this current version with the plot almost identical except for an uplift in the end (probably needed, even for gruesome film noir stories of that time) that’s not part of del Toro’s conceptualization (his is more in line with the novel’s closure, based on a summary I saw); I haven’t seen the 1947 film (nor read the book), but I can provide a short (7:04) side-by-side-condensed-comparison to give a sense of how this same narrative’s been visualized in different eras. Then, for more in-depth on the current version here’s a very detailed anatomy of a scene (15:48 [ad interrupts at 11:00]) where Stan (his costume at this point reminds me of Indiana Jones) looks for, finds the Geek when he gets loose at the carnival, helping us understand the procedures used to create the dark sense of danger in this specific encounter which will then repeat in different ways throughout the film; to extend on this, I’ll offer you a discussion between del Toro and Jane Campion about how they see the disturbing aspects of this film and (a strong awards contender in many categories) The Power of the Dog (Campion, 2021; review in our December 9, 2021 posting).
One topic they just barely mention at the end of their talk is the impact of fathers/fatherhood in these films, but it’s certainly an underlying aspect of Nightmare Alley regarding whatever happened between Stan and his Dad (as well as how Bruno now keeps watch over Molly because of her father), with the understanding the elder Carlisle was the dead body Stan dragged into what became an inferno, yet beyond that we’re left to (successfully) wonder whom Stan truly is, what events have shaped him, what other instances of karma he may be burdened with beyond the death of Pete. Certainly, the entire mood of this film is quite disturbing with several murders, Clem’s collection of aborted fetuses in jars, a general sense of immorality among many of the major characters (except for Bruno and Molly), but if that sort of thing doesn’t necessarily become a stomach-turning-event, I recommend it. (None of it’s all that graphically-abusive, even the situation with the chicken, but you know from the pervading sense of the grotesque that these people and the economically-stricken-culture they live in—or the personal desperation of the wealthy who are all too eager to fall for Stan’s “mentalist” scam—are all just on the verge of total collapse after the country’s near-failure over the previous decade; hopefully, things aren’t that bad for us now after 2 years of COVID's assault, but this story does serve as a warning of what we can become if desperation begins to overwhelm us.)
Bottom Line Final Comments: This new Nightmare Alley has already achieved a good bit of success within the industry in that the Screen Actors Guild has nominated Blanchett for their Outstanding Female Actor in a Supporting Role (but no mention of the actors as a whole for SGA's honor toward Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture; while I admired CODA [Sian Heder, 2021; review in our August 19, 2021 posting] quiet a lot, I’d drop that one from the SAG Outstanding Cast finalists in favor of Nightmare Alley just as Oscar voters did when they nominated it for Best Picture, along with other Oscar noms for Cinematography, Costume Design, Production Design); it’s also up for Best Adapted Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America (where I’d again drop CODA [sorry] in favor of The Tragedy of Macbeth [Joel Coen, 2021; review in our January 20, 2022 posting]). As far as the CCAL’s concerned, Nightmare Alley is a (slightly modified) hit with 80% positive reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, a 69% average score at Metacritic (which for them means “Generally favorable reviews” from 53 critics, although they say 75% for the 1947 version [based only on 13 reviews, though; RT says 87% positive reviews for that one, based on 60 critics]).
However, when we get into the realm of audiences there hasn’t been too much impact as this film opened on Dec. 17, 2021 in 2,145 theaters (down to 705 now so if you’d like to see it on a big screen you may have to travel a bit; it’s in just a couple of boondocks locations in my San Francisco Bay area) with a current domestic (U.S.-Canada) haul of $10.8 million, worldwide $29.8 million, so it’s most likely best-accessible through streaming where you'll find it for free (if you’re already a monthly subscriber) at HBO Max, Hulu, DirectTV, and Spectrum (although I’ve also noticed it recently on HBO cable so that might also be an option for you). It’s not a pleasant story (even reminds me a bit of Todd Browning’s chilling circus-revenge-tale Freaks [1932], a good companion piece to either version of Nightmare Alley, would be even more of a gruesome-content-challenge to watch, which you can do for free at HBO Max or a $2.99-$3.99 rental from several platforms [see JustWatch]), but it’s well done in all aspects (including cinematography, where it has been nominated by the American Society of Cinematographers), has a strong chance of remaining within my Top 10 of 2021 (depending on what else I see of my remaining interests soon), showcases once again a marvelous filmmaker (he won Oscars as producer and director of The Shape of Water [2017; review in our January 4, 2018 posting]) and an outstanding ensemble of actors, so I’ll say see it if you wish.
I’ll round this off as usual with a Musical Metaphor to comment on the previous comments, although nothing jumped out at me as absolutely-appropriate as I kept circling back to aspects of Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row” (on his 1965 Highway 61 Revisited album)—but that might just be because I love the song so much—so I’ll just choose to use it, with hopes you'll accept it as well, at https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=hUvcWXTIjcU (all the verses, except the last one, are found beneath the YouTube photo of the album), because, while only some of these lyrics generally address elements of Nightmare Alley, I think the mood of the entire tune is well in keeping with what’s on del Toro’s screen while certain lines seem right on target, such as: “And the Good Samaritan he’s dressing / He’s getting ready for the show / He’s going to the carnival tonight / On Desolation Row” (as do many of the film’s characters), " ‘It takes one to know one,’ she smiles” (nature of the compact between Stan and Lilith), “Now at midnight all the agents / And the superhuman crew / Come out and round up everyone / That knows more than they do” (as with the ongoing cons practiced by Zeena, Pete, Stan, Molly, and Lilith undermining such audience knowledge of how they're being swindled), “And the riot squad they’re restless / They need somewhere to go” (implies the consistent difficulties Stan keeps encountering), “And the only sound that’s left / After the ambulances go / Is Cinderella sweeping up / On Desolation Row” (the aftermath of Lilith and Stan). If the nature of this disturbing film puts you off about investing 2½ hours into it, maybe about 11 min. of Dylan will suffice.
(intended as) SHORT TAKES (reality’s often different, though)
(spoilers also appear here)
Based in fact—sleazy, melodramatic fact, of course—this is the story of the famous Gucci Italian-fashion-design-empire with ongoing infighting, manipulations, even murder from the late 1970s to the late 1990s so even though it plays like over-the-top-opera, it’s generally all (sadly) true. Excellent star performances: Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jeremy Irons, Al Pacino, Jared Lito, and Salma Hayek.
Here’s the trailer:
Before reading any further, I’ll ask you to refer to the plot spoilers warning far above.
As a well-crafted soap opera (based in atrocious fact) about a horribly-dysfunctional-family, to me House of Gucci falls somewhere between Shakespeare’s Hamlet (c. 1599-1601) and CBS TV’s Dallas (1978-1991)—or maybe a more apt comparison would be the spectrum that contains the creepy short story The Fall of the House of Usher (Edgar Allan Poe, 1839)—with its deaths of twins Roderick and Madeline Usher in the realm of supernatural horrors—and the Universal Pictures movie The House of Frankenstein (Erie C. Kenton, 1944)—where a criminal-scientist (Boris Karloff) has various death-involved-episodes involving Count Dracula (John Carradine), the Wolfman (Lon Chaney Jr.), along with Frankenstein’s monster (Glenn Strange)—in that in both of these spectrum-examples the first cited is intended as a serious work of art involving horrible losses of life while the latter devolves into melodramatic-crises based in envy, disregard of human decency, and revenge with House of Gucci leaning more toward the latter examples in its content despite its solid anchoring in documented-history. (This video [12:35; ad interrupts at 9:30] gives facts about the actual Gucci family while this one [14:39, ad interrupts at 10:25] notes the Top 10 things this movie got right or wrong [mostly right, except for Patrizia Reggiani being even worse than she’s depicted here, as evidenced by this brief interview with her {2:45} in which she bluntly says ⇒she’d have killed her husband herself if she could shoot straight.]⇐ For a bit-less-sensationalized-account of Gucci [except for the prices] here’s how the Gucci Company is currently presenting itself.) While a little research reveals the reality of this lurid docudrama, allowing me to better appreciate the veracity of most of what’s shown here, the whole experience (true as it may be) seems so exaggerated (including the usual “foreign language trope” of almost all the characters speaking English with Italian accents to imply they’re speaking Italian; still, the dialogue’s now made more-accessible to monolinguists like me, most of whom would likely choose to watch this movie because of the name-value of the cast [and the lurid situations] but wouldn’t care to endure subtitles [I’m not sure how many of these actors speak passible Italian anyway]) it's hard to see it as anything but absurd farce.
As for this ripped-from-the-headlines-story, we begin in 1978 (company founded in Florence as a leather shop in 1921 by Guccio Gucci, expanded by his sons) as the family business is run by brothers Rodolfo Gucci (Jeremy Irons)—oversees Italian headquarters in fashion-forward-Milan—and Aldo Gucci (Al Pacino)—in Milan, also oversees NYC-branch—although neither of their sons, respectively Maurizio (Adam Driver) and Paolo Gucci (Jared Leto [unrecognizable under heavy, Oscar-worthy make-up; easy to confuse him with Dennis Franz in ABC TV’s NYPD Blue {1993-2005} or Fredo {John Cazale} from The Godfather {Francis Ford Coppola, 1972}, but it contributed to Oscar nomination in the Makeup and Hair Styling category]) seem likely to maintain control of the House because the former (materially-comfortable) isn’t that interested in managing company affairs (in law school instead) while the latter (called an “idiot” by his own father) sees himself as a great designer until that bubble’s burst by Rodolfo. Family dynamics change, though, when Patrizia (Lady Gaga) sets her sights (effectively) on seducing Maurizio when they meet at a lavish party, yet Rodolfo dismisses her as a common golddigger (her father owns a trucking company so they’re comfortable but not ostentatiously-rich), cuts Maurizio out of his will when his son marries Patrizia so Maurizio’s forced to take an actual job at her Dad’s business. Upon getting pregnant Patrizia gets in the good graces of Uncle Aldo who brings his brother and nephew back together not long before Rodolfo dies, although he forgets to sign the crucial document giving Maurizio a 50% share of the Gucci empire, a situation known only to Patrizia, her husband, and family advisor Domenico De Sole (Jack Huston), so she forges the necessary signature, putting herself and Maurizio into the big time.
Her next plot involves Aldo and Paolo signing over their 50% of Gucci, which they reject until Patrizia promises Paolo to support his designs if he’ll squeal on Aldo evading U.S. taxes, resulting in an FBI arrest, 1 year and a day in prison for Aldo, as Patrizia reneges on her agreement with Paolo. By this time Maurizio is more-actively-involved in running the company, resents the controlling intrusions of his wife, runs away to Switzerland when accused of forging Dad’s signature, begins an affair with Paola Franchi (Camille Cottin), makes disastrous management moves requiring assistance from Investcorp, ultimately resulting in beaten-down Aldo and Paolo selling their shares.
⇒Maurizio’s fortunes spiral downward from that point on, though, as Patrizia refuses his divorce request, new designer Tom Ford (Reeve Carney) is a success but Maurizio’s mismanagement leads Investcorp in 1993 to buy him out for $170 million putting Domenico in charge, so Patrizia consults with Pina Auriemma (Salma Hayek) to have a couple of thugs kill Maurizio so she can take whatever still belongs to him, resulting in a successful hit on her husband in 1995 but also lengthy jail time for Patrizia (sentenced in 1998 to 29 years; released in 2016,), along with Pina and the hitmen.⇐ Pre-final-credits-text tells us Aldo died of prostate cancer in 1990; Paolo died, broke, in London in 1995; Investcorp continue to completely own, manage Gucci (they’ve got Tiffany too) as no family members are still involved. Despite the wallowing in illegal activities by members of this tribe (Aldo even quietly licensed knock-off versions of their merchandise to further increase the empire’s income) the presentation of their foibles is quite entertaining even as they drive each other into the ground (literally in some cases), with recognition coming from the Screen Actors Guild as they’ve nominated Gaga for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role (here’s an interesting article about how Patrizia and others in Being the Ricardos [Aaron Sorkin, 2021; review in our January 6, 2022 posting] and The Tragedy of Macbeth focus on women taking power), Leto for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, and the starring group for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture (SAG's version of Best Film). The CCAL’s not so impressed, though, with RT's 63% positive reviews, MC’s 59% average score, just as some of the Gucci family object to the filmmaking process and result due to lack of consultation with them.
The movie was released on November 24, 2001, is still playing in a few domestic venues (537 down from 3,477), having taken in $53.4 million in northern North America, $151.8 million worldwide, but you’re more likely to find it via streaming where you can rent it in 4K version (as I did) from Apple TV+ (for $19.99, just like going to a theater—you can also buy it from a few sources for that price if you like) or spend only $6.99 to rent the regular HD version from Spectrum. My Musical Metaphor was easy this time, taking Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” (from the 1978 Parallel Lines album) straight from the soundtrack, with a video featuring Debbie Harry at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= WGU_4-5RaxU. Lyrics such as “Once I had a love and it was a gas / Soon turned out had a heart of glass / Seemed like the real thing, only to find / Mucho mistrust, love’s gone behind […] I’m the one you’re using, please don’t push me aside” could easily come from pride/wallet-wounded Patrizia as she was being pushed aside by Maurizio, but he could easily say the same as he was initially truly intrigued by her just for herself while she seemed to view him always only as some tasty-meal-ticket.
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 February 10, 2022
11:15 PM The General (Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton, 1927) Considered by film historians as one of the greatest of silent films (no worries; soundtrack and intertitles provided for this cablecast) with Keaton as a Confederate railroad engineer during the Civil War when his prized train, The General, is stolen by Union forces so he gives chase. With our contemporary special effects unavailable when a bridge collapses, destroying a train, that’s all full-scale, grandly-authentic.
Friday February 11, 2022
12:45 AM Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959) Marvelous; big hit then now ranked as one of the best, if not the actual top comedy of all time, with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis disguised as women in a nightclub band in Florida trying to escape gangsters after they witness the brutal St. Valentine’s Day massacre in Chicago; also stars Marilyn Monroe, George Raft, Pat O’Brien (Oscar for Best B&W Costume Design). Joe E. Brown’s final line was terrific for its time, now it’s immortal.
Sunday February 13, 2022
6:30 PM Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking (Francesco Zippel, 2021) Isn’t a classic film so much as it’s a documentary appropriate for Black History Month that all audiences would benefit seeing, about a generally-forgotten pioneer director of Black cinema working in the silent era, then in sound although limited budgets also limited the technical quality of his work so more known for what he did, not so much about how he did it. Followed by 2 of his silent films on TCM, Within Our Gates (1920) at 8:00 PM, The Symbol of the Unconquered (1921) at 9:30 PM.
Monday February 14, 2022
5:00 PM The Way We Were (Sydney Pollack, 1973) Here’s another not-so-much-of-a-cinematic-classic (apologies to big fans of either/both of the stars) but very appropriate for Valentine’s Day (especially if you’re spending it alone) as Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford play unlikely, off-
and-on-again-lovers given their different ethnic and political backgrounds so relationship struggles continue. Won the Oscars for Best Original Dramatic Score (Marvin Hamlisch), Best Song (music Hamlisch, lyrics Alan and Marilyn Bergman), plus that title song became a huge hit for Streisand.
8:45 PM Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton, 1979) Drama about a troubled wife/mother (Meryl Streep) needing to find herself, in conflict with a workaholic husband (Dustin Hoffman), so she leaves him to raise their young son (Justin Henry) by himself which he learns to do with help from a neighbor (Jane Alexander); Mom returns, sparking a fierce custody battle. Big Oscar winner: Best Picture, Director, Actor (Hoffman), Supporting Actress (Streep), noms for Henry and Alexander.
11:00 PM Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965) Epic adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s novel (1957)—less emphasis on history (Russian Revolution, Civil War), more on affair of Zhivago (Omar Sharif), Lara Anipova (Julie Christie); also stars Geraldine Chaplin, Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson, Rod Steiger. 10 Oscar noms (The Sound of Music also had 10, beat Doctor … in 4 of those categories), won 5: Best Art Direction, Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay, Costume Design, Original Score.
Wednesday February 16, 2022
12:45 PM Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966) Adapted from Edward Albee’s controversial play (1962), keeps story and most of the (profane) dialogue intact as a professor (Richard Burton) and his wife (Elizabeth Taylor), daughter of this small college’s president, verbally battle in front of house guests (George Segal, Sandy Dennis) as dysfunctionality reigns. Multiple-Oscar-winner: Best Actress (Taylor), Supporting Actress (Dennis), Art Direction, Costume Design, Cinematography (all 3 for B&W films), plus another 8 nominations; bitter to watch, grim masterpiece.
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: Some extra items: (1) New to Netflix in February 2022; (2) New to Amazon Prime Video in February 2022; (3) New to Hulu in February 2022; (4) New to Disney+ in February 2022; (5) New to HBO/HBO Max in February 2022; (6) Variety's final Oscar nominations predictions before actual noms are announced; (7) Oscars biggest snubs and surprises; (8) Where to stream many of the 2022 Oscar nominees (9) Theaters brace for fewer new releases in 2022. 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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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).
To save you a little time scrolling through the “various awards” list above, here are the
Oscar nominees for 2021 films.
Here’s more information about Nightmare Alley:
https://www.searchlightpictures.com/nightmarealley/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge5FqIYC-rI (5:17 interview with director Guillermo del Toro, co-screenwriter Kim Morgan [with del Toro, William Lindsay Gresham], and actors Bradley Cooper, Rooney Mara); if you really want to go in-depth on this film, here’s another interview with even more of those involved (actors Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, David Strathairn, along with Cooper and Mara) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32qt1ri6unk (1:02:11)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nightmare_alley_2021
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/nightmare-alley
Here’s more information about House of Gucci:
https://www.houseofguccimovie.ca/home/ (click the 3 little lines in the upper-left-corner for various choices)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbZu_XcDfLo (37:10 interview with director Ridley Scott, co-screenwriter Roberto Bentivegna [with Becky Johnston], actors Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jared Leto, Salma Hayek, Jeremy Irons, and [one of many producers] Giannina Facio Scott [also Ridley’s wife])
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/house_of_gucci
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/house-of-gucci
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
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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 well).
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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