(lyric from Gordon Lightfoot’s "Sit Down Young Stranger")
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
First—and most important—I must pass on the very sad news that my founding-partner on this blog, Pat Craig, passed away on Monday May 22, 2023; in respect for his family I won’t say anything further about his death. He’s the one on the left in the above photo, taken in 2015 when I last saw him on a visit to his then-home in northern Washington state (I was a guest on a weekly NPR radio show he hosted; we talked about movie musicals). The irony about this blog being called Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark is that Pat never got around to writing anything for our postings (early on I did pass on his Oscar-winner-opinions based on my talks with him); however, I’ve always tried to refer to what’s here in the plural in respect to him, along with noting that everything said comes from me. Pat was a great friend, he’ll be sorely missed, and will always be noted as part of this blog because in spirit he was always with me. RIP, old buddy! Now, onward to the usual chatter.
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’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon.
Moving On (Paul Weitz) rated R 85 min.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: We begin in Ohio as elderly Claire (Jane Fonda)—not a value judgment, Don Lemon (who's now looking for another job after CNN fired him); I’m 75 (Fonda's 85), admit to being old—just not decrepit (yet)—is off to California to attend the funeral of Joyce, her college-chum from decades ago. Once she’s at the funeral home, however, she quietly confronts widower Howard (Malcolm McDowell), tells him now Joyce is gone she’s going to kill him this weekend, no joke. Then we get into his eulogy for Joyce when Evelyn (Lily Tomlin)—who also lives in this unnamed community—interrupts by barging in through the wrong door, but she doesn’t have much respect for Howard either, although she was not only close with Joyce and Claire way back when she also was Joyce’s roommate (so she trumps Howard’s 51-year-marriage by having known Joyce for 60 years). After the burial, Claire and Evelyn catch up so we learn cellist Evelyn’s no long with an orchestra but says she plays with 2 ensembles, while Claire notes she’s been divorced twice. Claire tells Evelyn about her mission to send Howard to the afterlife, leading to them going to a gun shop where Claire’s about to buy a derringer but learns she can’t because she doesn’t have a California driver’s license (Evelyn has no intention of buying a gun for Claire), so she tries to think of another murder-method.
Meanwhile, back at her retirement community (not the house Claire assumes her friend still lives in) we see Evelyn with physical difficulties not really in command of her cello, so she’s keeping some truths from Claire, but she learns from a resident’s friendly grandson, James (Marcel Nahapetian), that the old man, Walter (not in cast list), has a gun; in return for this info, she gives the kid clip-on earrings to suit his open-gender-curiosity (later, Dad's [Eddie Martinez] horrified at this gift so his son has to give it back). Next, we’re at Joyce’s wake where Claire takes a butcher knife from the kitchen, ready to stab Howard in spite of what might befall her doing the deed in public (all we know at this point is somehow he defiled her years ago, with Evelyn the only other one who knows about it). Claire’s spontaneous homicide is interrupted, though, when her long-ago-ex-husband, Ralph (Richard Roundtree), shows up, so they meander outside for yet-another-catch-up-conversation, where we get the sense that the Howard assault led to Claire not being able to maintain her marriage (or the next one, apparently), so Howard also remarried with his second wife dying 4 years ago, but Claire still won’t tell him why they broke up (we later get the explicit clarification Howard raped her, but he insists it was drunken-consensual; she never told Joyce in what she understood to be respect for her friend because it seems Joyce implied her marriage to Howard was a stable one).
Evelyn arrives at the wake, shocks everyone by announcing Joyce was not only her roommate but also her lover (apparently Joyce denied her own sexuality by her long-term-connection with Howard; in a quick revelation later we learn Evelyn was married to another woman for some years). Howard laughs this off, saying Evelyn’s always been delusional, but it’s clear Howard’s daughter, Allie (Sarah Burns), is upset, tells Evelyn to leave. Later, Claire accepts Ralph’s invitation to dinner at his home where he lives with his daughter, Joie (Amber Chardae Robinson), and grandchildren (Jeremiah King, Isai Devine), ends up staying the night with him, leading to her chuckling a bit the next morning in the kitchen with Joie. Meanwhile Evelyn’s asked to meet with Allie who admits she found love letters between Evelyn and Joyce, so she’s apologetic for her earlier attitude. Back at Ralph’s, Claire cooks some bacon to use as trade with Walter for his weapon, which turns out to be a flare gun, but Evelyn assures her at close enough range the flare will still burn a hole through Howard. Next, Claire calls Howard, wants to meet with him, he suggests a public park so Evelyn comes along to keep Allie and her young kids distracted while Claire confronts Howard who angrily denies her accusations, then stress overcomes him as he collapses so Claire uses the flare gun to call for help, Howard's taken to the hospital. While he’s there Claire comes to his room, tries to smother him with a pillow, but Evelyn stops her. ⇒At Evelyn’s residence (she’s now come clean with Claire about her true circumstances), Claire’s arm’s been somewhat injured in all the prior chaos so Evelyn (who long ago gave up driving for bus riding) clumsily drives them back to the hospital, where Howard’s just been released. Before Allie can drive him home he insists on going back to the cafeteria for a latte (even as it’s not good for him), is almost hit by Evelyn and Claire so he starts berating them again. As he turns to leave a guy in a van is speeding through the parking garage, slams into Howard, kills him, with the horrified driver running away. At Howard’s funeral, Claire connects again with Ralph.⇐
So What? This has already been a good year for seeing Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in a movie (although you may have already watched plenty of them in their well-received Netflix streamer, Grace and Frankie [2015-‘22]), although I passed on their teamwork with Rita Moreno and Sally Field in 80 for Brady (Kyle Marvin) when it was in theaters and haven’t taken my second chance with streaming nor have I found reason to be interested in Book Club: The Next Chapter (Bill Holderman) where Fonda shares the screen with Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, and Candice Bergen whenever it migrates over to the small screen, yet now that Moving On’s available to stream I was intrigued enough to watch Fonda and Tomlin together (on their own from their recent mature co-stars) in what sounded like an intriguing premise (although, given that in the next review below I state my intention to avoid further focus on 2022 releases, yet that’s how this one’s consistently noted; but, I disagree, in that it didn’t receive a domestic [U.S.-Canada] debut until this 2023 spring).
Overall, I was pleasantly entertained by it, although (if I paid proper attention; however, watching it after a filling dinner might have provided somewhat of a distraction) there are some plot points I think could have been better addressed, although I admit there’s only so much you can cram into such a concise running time (which I think works well overall for this story), so maybe others wouldn’t find my quibbles to be such a big deal. To some degree I’d have liked to know just a bit more about Claire’s second marriage (which must have produced the adult daughter, then teenage grandson we see briefly in the opening scene), Evelyn’s marriage, Ralph’s marriage, or—if all of that becomes too cluttered to fit into the tight running time here—maybe we could at least get a sense of why Claire doesn’t seem to have been in contact with Evelyn for years, what connection (or maybe none, I guess) Evelyn would have had with Joyce during that time as they all (except Claire) seemed to live in the same community. So, you have to take a lot of what you see here on faith that such details don’t matter, that we need to be focused on the intended killing and why it matters so much to Claire.
Ironically, even though this movie was made a year ago a crucial part of its plot mirrors what we’ve found reported in recent months about the rape accusations against former-President Donald Trump by E. Jean Carroll where he was convicted for sexual abuse (not rape, though) and defamation for claiming she was lying about the situation (ordered to pay her $5 million), which like with Claire and Howard took place years ago (in the 1990s according to Carroll in her lawsuit). When Carroll was confronted by the defense about why she didn’t scream at the time or call the police, she admitted that due to social conditioning (in our all-too-often-misogynist-culture) she felt shamed she’d allowed it to happen, she wasn’t comfortable she’d be believed, told only a few close friends about what happened (she’s willing to speak out now, asking for additional defamation damages due to more of the same condemnations from Trump at his recent CNN Town Hall). Unlike Howard, who apparently convinced himself Claire “wanted it,” despite how it damaged her life with 2 ex-husbands for decades, Trump claimed he doesn’t even know Carroll, although when shown a picture of her standing next to him at some social gathering he misidentified her as ex-wife Marla Maples (further undercutting Trump’s “rationale” that he wouldn’t have molested her because she’s not “his type” [!]).
All this is just coincidental, of course, yet it does add another level of intrigue to what’s largely intended/presented as a comedy (although the ongoing-effects of a rape aren’t funny, so the whole premise of this as enjoyable entertainment may become harder to justify for some viewers) with some great sarcastic delivery from Tomlin at times along with the somewhat-debatable-conviction that a heinous crime should never go unpunished even if the victim has to become a criminal herself to gain her long-desired-revenge. Maybe I’m just not easy enough to offend to be put off by what I watched here, but overall I found the content enjoyable enough (not with happened between Howard and Claire long ago, of course), with a fast ending providing enough of a sense of ironic satisfaction.
Bottom Line Final Comments: The CCAC has some concerns about Moving On also, with Rotten Tomatoes reviews at 74% positive, the Metacritic average score at 60%. AP’s Lindsey Bahr is among those with a few reservations who still finds laudable aspects of this movie: “This is one of those rare films that balances a darkly comedic conceit with authentic, emotional resonance, allowing Fonda, Tomlin and co-stars Malcolm McDowell and Richard Roundtree to actually act rather than be demeaned by cheap caricatures of senior citizens. […] ‘Moving On’ is certainly not perfect, but it’s sincerely trying to be something more than your standard octogenarian farce. You might even be surprised by your own emotional investment in this rather trim film. […] Hopefully performances like these will remind screenwriters, directors and those who make the decision about what gets made to give our living legends good roles while we still have them. The actors are still game, and hopefully audiences are too.” You'll find many similar statements like this.
But if you want a more dismissive look, here’s A.O. Scott of The New York Times: “Let me say right up front that I would happily watch Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda in anything — except for maybe that one about the football player. […] It becomes clear fairly early on that ‘Moving On’ is operating in strange and risky genre territory. If the phrase ‘rape-revenge comedy’ sounds like an oxymoron, this movie won’t convince you otherwise. And even though you can’t help but root for the would-be killers to deliver a much-deserved comeuppance, this vengeance is oversweetened and served lukewarm. […] Something else is missing here — a farcical energy or satirical audacity that might shock the premise to unsettling life, or else a deeper, darker core of feeling. ‘Moving On’ takes refuge in pleasantness, and in the easy charm of its stars.” You’re unlikely to read gushingly-supportive-reviews of this endeavor, but I certainly agree it’s almost always a pleasure to once again encounter Fonda and/or Tomlin (McDowell and Roundtree also display a fine command of their roles, McDowell easy to hate from practically the first moment we've met him, Roundtree just the pleasant opposite).
Moving On opened in theaters back on March 17, 2023, but has long since moved on from the big screen (if it was even intended to stick around very long anyway, as it pulled in only $2.1 million on domestic screens, nothing further worldwide; just barely still playing last week in only 5 venues); now it’s available for a $5.99 streaming rental from Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, other platforms if you’re interested. Even if you’re not, you might enjoy my usual review-wrap-up-tactic of a Musical Metaphor, attempting to offer a final perspective on what’s been under critical consideration. As you’ll see by the time you finish reading this posting I’d gotten all my other music this time from Gordon Lightfoot so it seems only right to do the same with this Metaphor, “Ribbon of Darkness” (on his 1966 debut Lightfoot! album [Marty Robbins had a big hit with it first, in 1965]) at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS6F1JNJL0A, though I have to stress the metaphor aspect because I see these lyrics mostly from Claire’s perspective about her long-endured-miserable-life due to Howard’s assault, yet she’s the one who “walked out the door” in her marriages, never really wanted “To forget” Ralph, though she assumed he was done with her. Otherwise, however, I think it fits the “Clouds a-gatherin’ o’er [her] head” underlying sense of discomfort that’s haunted Claire throughout her life, despite the comic tone that keeps emerging in this movie above that grim, underlying sorrow.
SHORT TAKES
Here’s the trailer:
I've added no plot spoilers on this one because it’s all public record by now.
After this year's first couple of months I made a decision to not explore any more 2022 cinematic experiences that I was catching up on via streaming so I could focus exclusively on 2023; then, master-musician (one of my all-time-favorites) Gordon Lightfoot died recently (my brief musical-eulogy to him in our May 3, 2023 posting), so when Amazon Prime informed me there’s a documentary about him from a few years ago, I decided to violate my own rule, watch and report on this biography made when he was still healthy enough to perform (oddly enough, this film makes no mention of some major health issues that almost cut his career [if not his life] short, although there is some mention of his increasing alcoholism as fame increased, though he finally quit), nor does it barely mention his marriages (the first to Brita Ingegard Olasisson, 1963-’73, the disintegration of which inspired his famous song that’s the subtitle of this film [more on that shortly]; then there was Elizabeth Moon 1989 to 2011, Kim Hasse 2014 until his death), although there’s brief interview footage with his early 1970s lover Cathy Smith, who admits in 1982 she gave John Belushi the heroin/cocaine concoction that killed him (she served 15 months in CA state prison), who inspired the song “Sundown” (for more extensive details on Lightfoot’s life than you’ll get on-screen here, this link provides lots of useful information). In the doc we begin with elder Lightfoot bemoaning his early hit "For Lovin' Me" (on his 1966 debut album, Lightfoot!) because it celebrates a vagabond serial monogamist (“I got a hundred more like you / So don’t be blue / I’ll have a thousand ‘fore I’m through”), written at a time when he was married, so he no longer was singing it (stopped 20 years ago) when these interviews were shot. The film is essentially a compression of his career, after moving from small-town Orilla, Ontario, Canada (for a short while to L.A., then back north) to Toronto where his songs were picked up by Ian and Sylvia, Peter, Paul and Mary, and many others (including Judy Collins, Neal Young, even Elvis Presley during the 1960s) while his performances in the folkie environs of his new home led to steadily-increasing-exposure/album sales in Canada and the U.S.A.
Rather than this doc being a penetrating exposé of triumphs and failures of his life (though you get a sense of the latter in those brutally-honest-older-life-comments delivered directly to the camera—one aspect of this film that makes it so watchable, I would think even to someone who’s not a dedicated fan [as I am], just like what you get so equally-successful in Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie [Davis Guggenheim; review in our May 17, 2023 posting]), it’s mostly a fine catalogue of him performing some of his most-well-known-music including “Song for a Winter’s Night,” “Beautiful,” “Steel Rail Blues,” “Did She Mention My Name,” “Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” “Don Quixote,” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (along with testimonies from several admirers). Attention is also given to his fascination/friendship with Bob Dylan (“I can’t think of any Gordon Lightfoot song I don’t like.”) who inducted him into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986 (here’s years-later-Gordon, looking back on that moment). Like those awards clips, this film is mostly about celebrating a life of musical genius which was plenty for me, especially at a sad time when he's recently gone from us (fortunately, I got to see him perform 3 times, on both sides of our extensive American continent).
The CCAC‘s likewise supportive, with 89% RT positive reviews, 74% MC average score; if you’re a subscriber to Amazon Prime VIdeo you can stream it for free or it’s rentable for $3.99 from Apple TV+ and other platforms. Choosing a Musical Metaphor for a Gordon Lightfoot doc offers a wealth of options, but I’ll just go with the song that’s part of this film’s title at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=b35XdQxvVJ0 (on Lightfoot’s 1970 album originally called Sit Down Young Stranger, renamed to the If You Could Read My Mind single when it became a big hit; Gordon originally tried to challenge Reprise Records over that until they told him how much bigger the sales would be with the change; he easily agreed). The heartbreak that comes with “But stories always end / And if you read between the lines / You’ll know that I’m just tryin’ to understand” and the rest of these lyrics speak directly to how Lightfoot could eulogize the many failures in any of our lives, as we now eulogize him.
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