Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark

Thursday, April 14, 2022

Everything Everywhere All at Once plus Short Takes on various suggestions for TCM cable offerings and some other cinematic topics

There’s Something Going On Here But I Barely Know What It Is … Do You, Mister Jones?

(title modified from lyrics of Bob Dylan’s "Ballad of a Thin Man"

[on his 1965 Highway 61 Revisited album])

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’re in a positive mood or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) if they go negative.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

(Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert)

rated R 132 min.

Opening Chatter (no spoilers): Last week I noted no interest in likely (Proven correct, of course; do you ever doubt me?) in-theater-champion, Morbius (Daniel Espinosa), so I went with more esoteric fare of Windfall (Charlie McDowell) and the new Death on the Nile (Kenneth Branagh), both on streaming for me (although the latter's still in some theaters if you like); this week’s more of the same as I find no good reason to spend money on Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Tom Holkenborg), especially when I can make a much-better-theatrical-investment in the weird-but-wonderful-events of Everywhere … which chronicles the trials of an ordinary woman facing problems with her husband, daughter, father, and the IRS that totally pale in comparison to the task she’s given to save the extensive realm of the multiverse from a powerful, seemingly-destructive-version of her own child, so she must learn how to channel the skills of her various parallel selves from many other universes to be able to succeed in this ultimate challenge (it’s wacky but funny as well as intriguing, not yet on streaming). Also, 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, tedious software!) along with the standard dose of some industry-related-trivia.

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 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: (This is an attempt at an approximation of the plot as best I can manage it because the events of this film come roaring at you so fast most of the time it was all I could do to keep a general sense of the plot-flow because details are often presented in such rapid fashion as to just give you a sense of multiple things occurring simultaneously [Cubist cinema?] rather than even expecting the audience to fully comprehend everything “all at once.”) Chinese-American Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) lives with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) in a small, cluttered apartment above the Laundromat they own. Their young-adult-daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), visits only occasionally because she invariably gets into hassles with Mom about Becky (Tallie Medel), Joy’s lover. However, just as Joy gets ongoing grief from Evelyn about being a lesbian so does Evelyn get similar grief from her just-arrived-to-visit-from-China-Dad, Gong Gong (James Hong)—“grandfather” in Cantonese; be warned, though, much of the dialogue at times is in that language (or Mandarin, although I admit I can’t tell one from the other), but it is subtitled, a reality I hope doesn’t dissuade you from seeing this most unique, ultimately-engaging-film—about most of her decisions: coming to the U.S.A., marrying Waymond, getting no farther in life than running a public laundry, etc. As our story begins Evelyn and Waymond are in the process of preparing a Lunar New Year’s party for the neighborhood, although most of her energy (leaving her about to snap most of the time) goes to sorting through an enormous pile of business receipts as they must quickly face an IRS audit. When they arrive for the interrogation, though, everything changes for Evelyn as first, in the elevator, Waymond acts oddly, writes strange notes on the back of some papers (which turn out to be divorce documents he’s nervously waiting to show to her, not necessary to split up but at least to force her into focused dialogue about their deteriorating marriage which has gotten to the point of her maybe agreeing with her father that she’d had been better off if she’s never known her husband).

As many of the submitted business expenses Evelyn submitted (for various hobbies of hers, which might imply her connections to other versions of herself in the soon-to-be-explained multiverse) are being flatly denied by no-nonsense-IRS agent Deirdre Beaubeirdra (Jamie Lee Curtis), Evelyn’s attention drifts, she looks over those odd notes about imagining herself in the janitor’s closet which she does (while still being simultaneously-IRS-interrogated) only to be confronted by another version of Waymond (from the parallel Alpha Universe; previously in the elevator he’d temporarily taken over the body of our Waymond) who explains to her about the existence of many other universes, each one created every time this Evelyn makes a choice (if there are many other multiverses spawned by everyone’s choices—here and on all those other Earths [additional occupied planets as well?]—we don’t get into that in Everything …, thank the heavens, or the astrological explanations of the multiplicity of multiverses would exceed the piles of comic books generated by DC and Marvel as their superhero characters constantly delve into this concept, as we’re about to see in their latest version with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness [Sam Raimi] when it opens on May 6, 2022). In his Alpha Waymond existence Alpha Evelyn has died, but he has access to technology that allows him to visit the other universes, even enter this Earth’s Waymond’s body which keeping his own consciousness, even bringing in aspects of other Waymonds as needed for specific skill sets, all of which he needs to share with our Evelyn so she can channel her many other Evelyns to do battle with Alpha Joy who’s become Jobu Tupaki, seemingly on a path of multiverse-destruction with a black hole-like “everything bagel” that can annihilate, uh, everything. (Got all that? I hope so.)

Evelyn then gets a taste of how all of this seeming madness is real when she re-focuses on the IRS audit where Deirdre becomes enraged, begins to stalk Evelyn (we get the sense immediately this is a parallel Deirdre, in league with Jobu to destroy our Evelyn) so Evelyn punches her in the face, seemingly restoring the previous Deirdre's persona but leading to a call to Security to arrest Evelyn at which point Alpha Waymond takes over meek Waymond’s body, lays low the Security guards (see this link [3:09] for the directors’ exploration of this scene), allowing the family to attempt an escape although various Jubo-connected-mercenaries arrive to take out Evelyn so she has to keep calling on various versions of herself and their needed combat abilities to defeat all these enraged enemies.

From there, it gets even more complex as we see different Evelyns in their contrasting existences (including one where she never married Waymond but instead became a martial arts expert/movie star, another where she’s paired up with Deirdre but everyone has raw hot dogs for fingers forcing them to use their feet for most activities), so I won’t attempt to recite all these goings-on except our Evelyn does meet up with Alpha Jobu Tupaki (who’s been somewhat responsible for occasionally inhabiting our Joy, pushing her away from Mom), learns this young woman’s not intent on destroying the multiverse but instead wants to eliminate herself as she finds no point in living through all this chaos, simply wants our Evelyn to be vaporized along with her, ⇒which almost happens until Mom’s rescued by her Waymond’s calls toward kindness. As this all comes to closure at that Lunar New Year’s party, Evelyn finds a connection with plain Deirdre, seems to lose Joy but they reconcile (Evelyn even accepts Becky), leading to a postponed IRS accounting where Deirdre’s more understanding but still has some problems with the return’s paperwork even as Evelyn continues to get messages from her other selves that she pushes aside, paying attention to her here and now.⇐*

*If you find my plot analysis insufficient for clarity (I’m not saying it completely works for me, either), I’ll give you 2 "improvement" (?) suggestions: (1) Go see Everything Everywhere ... yourself, make your own attempt at summarizing it, then share with me what you came up with to help me get a better grip on it; (2) consult this explanatory link (9:05; Spoilers of course) to see if this guy’s statements are helpful (although he gets a bit confusing visually because some of what he’s offering is illustrated with shots from the film but others use footage from several cast members doing promotional interviews, so what you see doesn’t always make enough sense with what he’s saying).

So What? My process of getting to the theater was almost as difficult as keeping a firm hold on the plot while the story unfolded. First, while driving from Hayward (CA) to Berkeley I had to slam on the brakes as traffic suddenly came to a complete standstill for as far ahead as I can see (nothing on the radio news that day or in newspapers the next about what happened, but, with Bay Area traffic the way it is, there often has to be quite a mess to even get any coverage), so we (wife Nina and I) just happened to be at the junction of another highway, allowing us to creep over to its entrance (almost getting hit in the process) to be on our way again. After settling in at the theater, though, with the show starting I found I hadn’t brought my hearing aids (not necessary at all times, yet quite helpful with movie dialogue, which turned out to be the case here because, while the subtitles easily kept me aware of what the characters were saying to each other in Chinese languages, when they switched to English I couldn’t always follow them—maybe this is just a problem with my hearing, not the soundtrack mix, but do be aware of this situation if you see this film in a public setting while it’s hot rather than waiting for streaming in the near future), nor did I (in my haste to get moving, knowing our traffic's always a consideration even in non-commute-times) bring either of my little flashlight pens which I use to take notes in the dark with minimal disruption to my fellow patrons (of whom there were only about 6 in a large auditorium that day so whatever theatrical-attendance-revival might be going on nationwide hasn’t penetrated late Friday afternoon matinees in Berkeley yet [although the cocktail bar’s open again so that provided some useful mental lubrication after straining to keep up with … All at Once]), allowing me to sit and watch (intently, for sure) for a change rather than missing at least 1/3 of what’s happening on screen as I’m trying to scribble furiously in the dark.

Watching attentively helped with the visual/conceptual-onslaught of Everything …, but I still couldn’t guarantee I caught enough to successfully convey what’s crucial here, although it’s clear there are themes of the importance of keeping families together and finding value in who you are, even when you just run a Laundromat rather than being a movie star. (In another bit of calculated irony, that version of Evelyn's watching a premiere of a film she stars in which concludes while our story’s still going on, causing us to wonder if the Daniels had totally pulled the rug out from under us with an ending as unexpected as the abrupt halt of [what we now know is just the first half of] Dune [Denis Villeneuve, 2021; review in our October 28, 2021 posting], finale to come set for October 20, 2023.)

In addition to the multiverse's “everything” we’re bombarded with in this fascinating film, we get a little bit of actor-everything here also as Yeoh in her various combat scenes brings back allusions to her martial arts mastery in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000), while it’s just nice to see Quan on screen again, now an adult far along from his childhood successes in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Steven Spielberg, 1984) and The Goonies (Richard Donner, 1985)—the latter playfully playing in our theater's comfy bar after our screening (although I still haven’ gotten the relevance of The Bride of Frankenstein [James Whale, 1935] on their other TV set, but it was nice to see that entry from my list of favorites again as well). If all you know about multiverses is how other Sony Pictures Entertainment incarnations of Peter Parker (along with appropriate earlier villains) were called in to (what we assume is our Earth) in Spider-Man: No Way Home (Jon Watts, 2021; review in our January 6, 2022 posting), then you’ll find that was a relatively-simple-trope to consider because each of those characters then existed simultaneously on 1 planet when brought together by a flawed spell from Doctor Strange (now don’t tell me you’re upset with Spoilers from a movie that’s been out since last December, although if you still want to see it you’ll find it in 1,009 domestic [U.S.-Canada] theaters where it’s made $803.8 million [$1.9 billion worldwide]); by contrast, in Everything … we get glimpses into those other universes (especially the movie-star-one, with some sense of how the Evelyn who lives there functions) just as we see a good number of rapid-fire-collages of those many Evelyns as the one who carries our story calls upon them for their various useful talents.

We see the same sort of collages of the many Joys/Jobu Tupaki (reminding me of a similar use of quick-accounts-of-a-life-passage-through-still-images-of-passerby-characters that spun off the main thread of the marvelous-experimental-German-multi-ending-narrative, Run Lola Run [Tom Tykwer, 1998]). Everything about Everything … is effectively conceived to be creatively-unexpected, its pace never drags, many of the frantic-action-scenes display great martial-arts-choreography, often the plot's circumstances are hilarious (especially the black hole-bagel), and the superb acting by the main cast (especially the many moods of Yeoh’s Evelyn, although Curtis is marvelous in her attack mode) make this a consistently-enjoyable-experience, although you should probably think carefully about the details that I and others have presented before deciding to pay for it because it’s oddity (example: a universe where a famous chef is directed from under his tall hat by a talking raccoon in a takeoff from Pixar/Disney’s Ratatouille [Brad Bird, 2007]) may just be a bit too far out there for you to be assaulted with; if you decide to delve in, though, I think you’ll be rewarded with a film that defies expectations, even as it resolves—after consistent conflicts—into harmonious closure (even within a universe where Evelyn and Joy are simply rocks that can talk to each other but still arguing).

Bottom Line Final Comments: If you need even more encouragement to consider Everything Everywhere All at Once, the CCAL’s happy to provide it with a terrific Rotten Tomatoes cluster of 96% positive reviews, an 82% average score at Metacritic (means “Must See” from these usually-stingier-evaluators—more details on both ratings-accumulation-sites in Related Links quite a ways below). In contrast, audiences have been marginally-responsive (plays only in theaters at present) with a domestic take of $8.4 million after 3 weeks in release (nothing globally at this point), so, obviously, compared with much-more-standard-fare such as the big-ticket-items I’m avoiding like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Morbius (with respective domestic/global hauls of $72.1/$142.1 million—after just 1 week in release—and $57/$126.4 million—after 2 weeks availability), Everything … may have already gotten a reputation as a bit too weird for the crowds; however, if not too strange a concept for you, I think you’ll find Everything Everywhere All at Once to be a marvelous digression from standard cinematic fare, which I hope you’ll enjoy should you choose to see it. As you might know (or will learn), I close out these reviews with a Musical Metaphor to add a final round of consideration to the commentary from the perspective of song; normally, I seek to find something with content-connectivity to what’s being analyzed, but this time I’m choosing simple tonal-resonance as I match the surreal quality of this singular film with the surreal lyrics of Bob Dylan’s (yeah, him again, but as a Nobel Laureate in Literature he’s got a lot to offer) “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” (from the masterful 1966 Blonde on Blonde album) at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=3kh6K_-a0c4 (if you should get intrigued about what else is on this original 2-record-set you'll easily find the entire 14-tune-collection here, where you can listen in the order of original structure, beginning with "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"). I could probably try to sell you on some possible allusions from song to film, but it’s best to just enjoy them as separate-but-resonate-triumphs, each with their own brand of accomplishment; yet, the strange occurrences in Bob’s song do seem to be taking place in some parallel universe while Evelyn could easily be “Waiting to find out what price / You have to pay to get out of / Going through all these things twice” or, even, all at once.

SHORT TAKES

Suggestions for TCM cablecasts

At least until the pandemic subsides Two Guys also want to encourage you to consider movies you might be interested in that don’t require subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, similar Internet platforms (we may well be stuck inside for longer than those 30-day-free-initial-offers) or premium-tier-cable-TV-fees. While there are a good number of video networks offering movies of various sorts (mostly broken up by commercials), one dependable source of fine cinematic programming is Turner Classic Movies (available in lots of basic-cable-packages) so I’ll be offering suggestions of possible choices for you running from Thursday afternoon of the current week (I usually get this blog posted by early Thursday mornings) on through Thursday morning of the following week. All times are for U.S. Pacific zone so if you see something of interest please verify actual show time in your area for the day listed. These recommendations are my particular favorites (no matter when they’re on, although some of those early-day-ones might need to be recorded, watched later), but there’s considerably more to pick from you might like even better; feel free to explore their entire schedule here. You can also click the down arrow at the right of each listing for additional, useful info.

I’ll bet if you checked that entire schedule link just above you’d find other options of interest, but these are the only ones grabbing my attention at present. Please dig in further for other possibilities.

(Yes, I know, I get more carried away with some of these descriptions than I do with others but, trust me, they’re all well worth your consideration, for those various reasons that I’ve noted or elaborated.)

Friday April 15, 2022

2:00 AM La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962) This short (27 min.) French film is the basis for the fabulous remake, 12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1995); this time it’s a post-WW III story with time-travel trials by scientists attempting to prevent this disaster from ever happening, but this original version consists only of still images as if we’re watching a slide show version of the narrative film. Quite fascinating.

Saturday April 16, 2022

12:15 PM The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) Some claim this started the troubled-crime-tradition of film noir: Humphrey Bogart as Dashiell Hammett’s streetwise-private-eye, Sam Spade, whose life gets complicated when the takes on Brigid O’Shaughnessy (Mary Astor) as a client searching for the priceless “black bird.” A fabulous cast includes Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Elisha Cook Jr. Masterful “hardboiled-detective” story with a sense of morality amongst greed.

Monday April 18, 2022

9:15 AM Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938) Quintessential screwball comedy: Cary Grant as an easily-befuddled paleontologist on the verge of finishing a Brontosaurus skeleton and marrying a prim woman we know isn’t a right match especially after he meets a cute, flighty heiress (Katharine Hepburn) who gets him in increasingly-embarrassing situations even as romance develops between them. Only movie I can recall featuring 2 leopards. Somewhat remade as What’s Up Doc? (1972).

1:00 PM Wait Until Dark (Terence Young, 1967) Based on a play, this chilling thriller is about an independent blind woman, Audrey Hepburn, attacked by Alan Arkin trying to find drugs unknowingly stashed somewhere in her apartment. She rigs a terrific set of defenses, keeping us on constant edge throughout her ordeal. Marvelously staged, loses nothing in translation from its play setting.

3:00 PM The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940) A screwball romantic comedy standard (adapted from a popular play that starred Katharine Hepburn, as does this movie) with Cary Grant as Hepburn’s ex-husband; she’s set to remarry when her ex shows up along with pulp-journalist James Stewart. Potential bride is re-attracted to Grant, intrigued by Stewart as the triangle (plus the would-be groom) continues right to the end. Oscars for Best Actor (Stewart), Best Adapted Screenplay.

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

Other Cinema-Related Stuff: Extra items for you: (1) Will Smith banned from Oscars Academy for 10 years; (2) An opinion on more apologies needed after the "slap incident"; (3) Sam Elliot apologizes for his Power of the Dog criticisms; (4) 20 movies to stream in April (includes The Batman). As usual for now I’ll close out this section with Joni Mitchell’s "Big Yellow Taxi" (from her 1970 Ladies of the Canyon album)—because “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”—and a reminder that you can search streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts.* Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it!

*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problems’ been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.

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 Top10 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 and winners for 2021 films (and other items from the ABC TV broadcast).

Here’s more information about Everything Everywhere All at Once:

https://a24films.com/films/everything-everywhere-all-at-once

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3trFt71LXGE (28:34 directors Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan [“Daniels’] and actors Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis in discussion)

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

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/everything-everywhere-all-at-once

Please note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post. You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow connect

with us at that site in order to do it (most FB procedures are still a bit of a mystery to us old farts).

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

If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20^th 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 (although, as you know, with bar songs there are plenty about people broken down by various tragic circumstances, with maybe the best of the bunch—calls itself “perfect”—being "You Never Even Called Me by My Name" written by Steve Goodman, sung by David Allen Coe). But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion/lover/

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/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’ll also include another of my top favorites, from the night before at Desert Trip, the Rolling Stones’ "Gimme Shelter" (Wow!), a song “just a shot away” in my memory (along with my memory of their great drummer, Charlie Watts, RIP). To finish this cluster of all-time-great-songs I’d like to have played at my wake (as far away from now as possible) here’s one Dylan didn’t play at Desert Trip but it’s great, much beloved by me and Nina: "Visions of Johanna."

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Thursday, April 7, 2022

Short Takes on Windfall, Death on the Nile [2022], suggestions for TCM cable offerings, and some various other cinematic topics

“Murder Most Foul”

(title from a Bob Dylan song on his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways;

this long song’s about the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy but I feel it has

a sense of application in a larger context to what’s reviewed here as well)

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

(I realize we’re getting close to Easter, but this is Jared Leto, not Jesus [for the religiously-challenged among you]. Anyone who did bother to see Morbius is welcome to tell me what you thought about it.)

Opening Chatter (no spoilers): I saw a couple of things this week worth writing about (gruesome as they are in their individual aspects), but, somehow, neither of them hit me with enough force to use one for a feature review so (maybe just out of a bout of laziness) I’ve put everything this week under my heading below of Short Takes, beginning with Windfall, which is just on Netflix streaming (for subscribers to that service), indicative of how I’ll probably be trying to keep an eye on both what’s out on various platforms (now that an exclusively-streamed-film has won Oscar’s Best Picture—Coda [Sian Heder, 2021; review in our August 19, 2021 posting]) and what’s in the theaters (with interest-filters in place for those options as well, so, sorry, Morbius [Daniel Espinosa], despite your $86 million global debut, but at least I gave you a photo just above). With Windfall we have a tightly-constructed-story (just 4 characters, 1 location), but at least there are outdoor scenes so it’s not too claustrophobic, a very-useful-strategy as tension constantly rises around a situation where an intended-burglary of a CEO’s getaway-home is interrupted when the rich couple suddenly shows up, leading to a battle of wits (and values) that might well surprise you when it wraps up. Next is my review of Death on the Nile, another remake of Agatha Christie’s famous novel, this time with Kenneth Branagh at the helm, also playing detective Hercule Poirot attempting to narrow down a boatload (literally) of suspects about a killing, then other bodies fall as well; this one you can still find in a few theaters (it’s been out since Feb. 11, 2022) but likely will be more available on HBO or HBO Max (although you must be a subscriber). You’ll find I’m a bit more generous in my ratings on both of these, though, than the CCAL, so explore further to see just whom you trust more regarding investment of your time/resources. Also, 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 old tedious software!) along with my standard dose of industry-related-trivia.

SHORT TAKES (some spoilers appear here)

Windfall (Charlie McDowell) rated R 92 min.

Nobody's (the characters don't have specific names) robbing a rich couple’s guesthouse when they unexpectedly return so he takes them captive but realizes he’s probably been caught on a security camera, demands $500,000 to help him escape, start a new life. The CEO arranges for the money to be delivered, though nothing goes as intended.

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.)

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

A billionaire businessman (Jesse Plemons, simply called “the CEO” in the credits) and his spouse (Lily Collins, “the wife”) come to their luxurious vacation home with orange groves in the Southwest desert somewhere (filmed in Ojai, CA; looks more like Arizona to me) for a quiet getaway (only his assistant, Alice, knows their destination), only to find a thief (Jason Segel, noted in the cast list as “Nobody”) rummaging through the house, taking whatever jewelry, cash, Rolex watch he could find (apparently the place was unlocked, oddly enough, and, no, it wasn’t prepared as such by Alice as requested because the asked-for-flowers-and-provisions aren’t there, much to the CEO’s initial-irritation). Nobody acts like he has a gun (he doesn’t) so they co-operate in getting more cash for him, with their assurance they have no weapons or security cameras on the properly (possibly somewhat true, but Nobody later finds a pistol in a bedroom). He’s going to leave but first puts them in an outdoor sauna, blocking the door with pool furniture, smashing their cell phones on the way out; after he’s returned to his car parked far away, though, he sees a camera in a tree so he goes back, finds they’ve already pushed their way out of the sauna, so he gives chase when he sees them; they split up, but Nobody catches CEO so wife surrenders as well. CEO continues to claim the camera’s not part of their properly, but Nobody’s dubious, can’t take a chance his image at this location is now part of some public record so he demands cash to help him disappear into a new life.

He initially wants $150,000, yet, oddly enough, they say he needs more so he ups it to $3 million; CEO cites the difficulty of hauling that much cash around so Nobody settles for $500,000. CEO contacts Alice, has her arrange to drop the bundle of big bills off in a bag by the front gate by the next afternoon, so this uncomfortable trio has to spend the night together with Nobody insisting the couple sleep in separate small outdoor cabins. CEO encourages wife to chat up their captor, trying to gain his confidence which she does, although it’s unclear if she’s trying to activate her husband’s plan (he’s still trying to figure out a way to get control of Nobody because he doesn’t trust what the guy might do to them once he gets the money) or just wants to tell someone about her discomfort in this relationship (she was once an assistant at his firm, is now in charge of a charitable foundation—although CEO makes disparaging remarks about the people who need such help as “freeloaders,” just as he justifies himself to Nobody for saving some jobs—while many more are lost—as he takes over/merges other businesses while his current captor’s more concerned about all those who were harshly put out of work), how she wishes she had her old life back of making her own decisions (Nobody’s not sympathetic with her either; later tells the CEO she’s taking birth control pills [saw them in her purse], thwarting his plan to have a child). Other areas of tension between the couple arise the next day, especially when their gardener shows up to do some work, shows CEO a sketch of some landscaping plans which his boss appears to accept but instead scribbles “call 911” instead.

Nobody sees this attempt, forces the gardener to come inside, captive with the couple, as they all wait nervously for the cash drop. As the hours brutally tick by, though, CEO talks of himself as a (shallow) distressed-because-of-being-a-targeted-rich-White-man in today’s society, starts harassing Nobody, tells him what a loser he is and how he doesn’t really have the courage to do anything to them; in anger Nobody fires a warning shot into the wall, the gardener tries to make a run for it, trips and crashes into the glass door, impales himself on a sharp edge, cruelly dies. ⇒Later that night the money drop finally happens, wife retrieves it, Nobody ties both of them up and harangues CEO while she has a chunk of broken glass she uses to cut away her foot bonds, then sits quietly (hands tied in front) as Nobody leaves with the cash but stops to (once again) retie a loose shoelace so she sneaks up behind him, bashes him to death with a small stone sculpture, gets her hands loose, takes the gun to where CEO’s tied up, kills him too, puts the gun in Nobody’s hand, then walks out the front door as the film ends, leaving us to assume she’ll take their car and the cash, establish a new identity, leave behind all of the privilege and headaches that came with her unfulfilled position of economic power.⇐ As Segel says in an interview below in Related Links (second item connected to this film), this is one of those pandemic-projects which joined a small cast, a single location, even shot-in-chronological-sequence-scenes that allowed the claustrophobic-situation (although we do get useful outdoor relief in the orchards and poolside-patio) of such an enterprise to work well with the topic. It’s an overall-effectively-tension-building-experience to watch (reminiscent of Hitchcock, just not as fully successful as many of his triumphs) with interesting surprises as the 3 main characters continue to reveal various self-aspects as pressures build, with CEO ultimately demonstrating how he’s a lot more ruthless, self-centered than he projects himself to be, wife with ongoing misgivings but still voluntarily part of a lifestyle she’s come to hate, Nobody more ambiguous in his motives and backgrounds than we might prefer but all the more interesting because of those unspecified aspects.

This is only available to Netflix streaming subscribers, generally well worth the investment of your attention to see consistently fine acting, proper use of condensed running time. For my usual device of a Musical Metaphor to wrap this all up, I’ll go way back to The Byrds’ “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” (from their 1965 Mr. Tambourine Man album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeKGPhc SPHk because, just as the wife emerges as the primary character in this story, these lyrics clearly speak to her disgust with both the CEO and Nobody: “Baby, for a long time, you had me believe / That your love was all mine, and that’s the way it should be / But I didn’t know, that you were putting me on / […] Now I’ve got to say that it’s not like before / And I’m not gonna play your games anymore / After what you did, I can’t stay on / And I’ll probably feel a whole better / When you’re gone.” After it’s all over, we don’t know yet if she’ll truly feel better because she has a lot to leave behind, but we have enough of a start here to imagine our own sequel to all the ill winds of Windfall.

Death on the Nile [2022] (Kenneth Branagh)

Rated PG-13 127 min.

We begin in WW I to see future-detective Hercule Poirot (far right just above) in military action, then shift to 1937 where he’s aware of an upcoming wedding that goes sour when the would-be-groom shifts to the would-be-bride’s wealthy friend; soon after they marry in Egypt with the entire wedding party (including Poirot and the jilted lover) on a boat down the Nile when the new bride’s found dead.

Here’s the trailer:

While it’s been far too long since I saw the previous adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel (1937), directed by John Gillerman (1978), starring Peter Ustinov and a good number of famed co-stars (Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Olivia Hussey, George Kennedy, Angela Lansbury, David Niven, Maggie Smith, Jack Warden among them)—same title across the board for book and movies—for me to remember anything about it (except enjoyment), I won’t be making any comparisons, but, based on summaries I’ve read, the essential plot’s the same, although some characters (and their identities) are presented a bit differently in each version of this story. Branagh (following his previous venture with a Christie adaptation, Murder on the Orient Express [2017, which for some reason I haven’t yet seen, maybe will on Amazon Prime or other platforms for a $3.99 rental, although 61% at RT, 52% at MC aren’t calling very loudly so it may be awhile], itself a follow-up to another earlier star-studded-adaptation [Sidney Lumet, 1974; the cast included Albert Finney as the famed detective, along with Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Widmark, others—90% on RT, 63% on MC, available for streaming on several platforms also for a $3.99 rental or free in a few options; I haven’t seen that one since its debut either, probably should top my “revisit” list]) has now wandered into Egypt (well, actually stayed in England for filming [although Morocco was intended, so there’s a lot of Computer Generated Imagery here along with a recreated Temple of Abu Simbel]) for another situation of a primary murder (followed by 2 others in … Nile unlike just the 1 in … Express), with all the intricacies of plot—and intentional misdirections—you’d expect from a beloved-Christie-narrative.

What Branagh adds in this latest version of … the Nile is more background on celebrated detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh, here and in his adaptation of … Orient Express), so we begin with a Black & White segment during WW I in 1914 Belgium where as a soldier Poirot convinces his troops of a successful strategy to attack the Germans, resulting in a rout, yet calamity strikes anyway when his commander accidently touches off a bomb, killing him while also scarring Poirot’s face leading to his growth of a complex mustache, suggested by his fiancée, nurse Katherine (Susannah Fielding), who will later die in the war, leaving Poirot heartbroken, self-isolated from romance even decades later. We shift to color in 1937 London where Jackie de Bellefort (Emma Mackey) is celebrating her engagement to Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer), although his finances have been hit by the global Depression so Jackie asks long-time-wealthy-friend-Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot) for help, but Linnet responds by stealing Simon away. 6 weeks later Poirot’s in Egypt where he first stumbles upon his good buddy, Bouc (Tom Bateman), traveling with his opinionated-painter-mother, Euphemia (Annette Bening), then finds himself at the wedding of Linnet and Simon, with angry Jackie lurking around, trying to cause trouble for the newlyweds. There are a good number of other characters here as part of the large wedding party, but rather than enumerate them all I’ll simply refer you to this summary.

Poirot advises the newlyweds to return home; instead, they rent the paddlewheel cruise ship Karnak for a honeymoon trip down the Nile where various animosities toward Linnet emerge as Poirot comes to know the other passengers, but his most direct observation’s about Bouc, who’s enamored with Rosalie Otterbourne (Letitia Wright), niece of noted-nightclub-singer Salome Otterbourne (Sophie Okonedo), a union opposed by Euphemia, seemingly because she doesn’t approve of public entertainers, not because the young woman is Black (although that does bring up an unspoken consideration). Jackie joins the voyage at Abu Simbel, Poirot knows she has a small handgun which she apparently uses to injure Simon, then the next morning Linnet’s found dead from a gunshot to the head. As Poirot’s conducting his investigation into the murder (Jackie has a solid alibi) because almost everyone aboard had a grievance of some sort with Linnet, 2 other deaths occur: Louise Bourget (Rose Leslie), Linnet’s maid; Bouc, who saw Louise’s killer, but is mysteriously shot before he can say who it was. ⇒In the inevitable showdown with the suspects Poirot unravels all of the misleading clues, finds it was Simon who killed Linnet (to gain a huge inheritance), Jackie killed the others to cover up what they knew as she and Simon had a secret plan to dispose of Linnet. As they’re trapped in their crimes (see the 2^nd item in Related Links for events and clarifications on all 3 murders), Jackie embraces Simon, shoots him in the back with the bullet killing her as well. Later, back in London, a clean-shaven, scarred Poirot watches Sophie rehearse in an empty nightclub.⇐

Given the age of this book (and its previous cinematic adaptation), it may depend on how well you already know it to provide fascination/enjoyment with this current version; as I didn’t remember who committed the crimes, I found it interesting enough to watch, although it’s hard to match the star-power of that 1978 excursion, even as I credit Branagh for seeking additions to the original to make this more intriguing for a 21^st-century-audience. The CCAL’s not overwhelmed, though, with RT’s 63% positive reviews, MC’s 52% average score (virtually identical to their responses to Branagh’s … Orient Express) so while you can still find this in 615 domestic theaters (down from its opening of 3,280; so far having made 45.4 million domestic dollars, 134.8 million worldwide ones), you can get it for free as a subscriber to HBO (check cablecast listings) or HBO Max, Hulu for streaming. I’ve leave you with another from-the-past-Musical Metaphor, The Beatles’ “What You’re Doing” (on the U.K. 1964 Beatles for Sale album, the U.S. 1965 Beatles VI) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eARQAsKBJSc (plus a lesson in Spanish translation), where I can envision versions of it sung by Simon to Jackie or her back to him (changing some gender references) as their unrequited passion leads each to wonder “Would it be too much to ask of you / What you’re doing to me? […] I’ve been waiting here for you / Wondering what you’re gonna do / Should you need a love that’s true / It’s me.” Love only took them so far, though; life—and the Nile—potentially had much farther to explore.

Suggestions for TCM cablecasts

Thursday April 7, 2022

10:30 PM 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) Sci-fi spectacular, on my All-Time Top 10 list, lots of mysterious, difficult interpretations back then (since clarified with a novel and sequel) about a powerful object enhancing human evolution; astronauts to Jupiter aided/thwarted by super-computer HAL 9000 as the lone human fights for survival, encounters a transformation. “Star Gate” scene at the end visually-groundbreaking, still impressive; Oscar for Best Special Visual Effects.

Sunday April 10, 2022 (you’d think this was Bastille Day or something of that Francophile nature)

1:15 AM The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959) A foundational film of the French New Wave cinematic revolution of the 1960s, essentially a fictionalized-autobiography of the director as an adolescent, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), who gets into constant trouble with his parents, teachers, and ultimately the police leading to his ongoing attempts toward independence even

at his young age (Truffaut made 4 sequels with Léaud as the character grows into adulthood).

5:00 PM An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951) All-time great musical about a painter in Paris (Gene Kelley), his neighbor (Oscar Levant), and the woman he loves (Leslie Caron), ends with a spectacular ballet set to Gershwin’s An American in Paris. Nominated for 8 Oscars, won for Best Picture, Story and Screenplay, Art Direction-Color, Cinematography-Color, Costume Design-Color, Scoring of a Musical Picture, plus an Honorary Oscar to Kelly for cinematic versatility, multi-talents.

11:00 PM Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) An early classic of the French New Wave starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as a small-time hood, pattering himself after American gangster movies, involved with Jean Seberg (an American actress Kristen Stewart’s recent film, Seberg, is based on), a woman whose attempts on his behalf backfire badly; this film’s a primer in attention-grabbing jump-cutting where connective aspects of the action are left out so you have to pay attention to fill it all in.

Monday April 11, 2022

11:30 AM Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973) Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek as young killers-on-the-run in a compelling, marvelously photographed story that’s part Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967) and part John Mellencamp’s song, "Jack and Diane," a marvelous, truly significant—distinctly disturbing—debut film from an eccentric, extremely talented director-screenwriter, somewhat based on actual events from likewise killers-on-the-run Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate in 1958.

1:15 PM Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967) Great example of American film beyond the boundaries of the old Studio System with Depression Era-outlaws played by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway (Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons, Michael J. Pollard also in the gang). Romanticized version of history as robbers are Robin Hood-antiheros in their day, represent anti-establishment values for ‘60s audiences; shocking bloody ending. Parsons won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar; the film also got another one for Best Cinematography. Excellent use of Flatt and Scruggs music.

Tuesday April 12, 2022

6:30 PM Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939) Brought the genre up to a more adult level with themes of East vs. West values, letter vs. spirit of the law, a story elevating John Wayne to the realm of major star (but Claire Trevor, as Dallas the prostitute, got top billing). Wayne’s an escaped (framed) jailbird out to avenge dishonor to his family (Indians aren’t treated well here either). Also stars Andy Devine, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell (Oscar, Best Supporting Actor); Oscar for Best Music Scoring.

Thursday April 14, 2022

1:00 AM Days of Wine and Roses (Blake Edwards, 1962) Tragedy of a married couple’s (Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick) descent into alcoholism, troubles in their personal lives; they try to go sober, no success as they begin to drift apart. Oscar for Best Song (Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer), noms for Best Actor (Lemmon), Actress (Remick), Art Direction, Costume Design (both for B&W films).

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: Extra items for you: (1) What's new on Netflix in April 2022; (2) What's new on Amazon Prime Video in April 2022; (3) What's new on Hulu in April 2022; (4) What's new on Disney+ in April 2022; (5) What's new on HBO/HBO Max in April 2022; (6) Will Smith resigns from the Oscars Academy; (7) How to save the Motion Picture Academy and the Oscars. 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:

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 and winners for 2021 films (and other items from the ABC TV broadcast).

Here’s more information about Windfall:

https://www.netflix.com/title/81483895

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfVmeKUVMeE (9:06 interview with actors Jason Segel

[also one of the original conceptors of the story], Jesse Plemons, Lily Collins [all of them, along

with director McDowell, are among the producers of this movie])

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/windfall_2022

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/windfall-2022

Here’s more information about Deal on the Nile [2022]:

https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/death-on-the-nile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzH4kQpJ9jU (4:16, the 3 deaths and their explanations

in the movie; Spoilers of course)

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/death_on_the_nile_2022

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/death-on-the-nile

with us at that site in order to do it (most FB procedures are still a bit of a mystery to us old farts).

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/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’ll also include another of my top favorites, from the night before at Desert Trip, the Rolling Stones’ "Gimme Shelter" (Wow!), a song “just a shot away” in my memory (along with my memory of their great drummer, Charlie Watts, RIP). To finish this cluster of all-time-great-songs I’d like to have played at my wake (as far away from now as possible) here’s one Dylan didn’t play at Desert Trip but it’s great, much beloved by me and Nina: "Visions of Johanna."