stutch Reviews

Seven Beauties (1975)

A brilliant film with an ugly anti-hero

[14 January 2024]

While I want to like Seven Beauties, the anti-hero is just a sad scumbag. Perhaps this is a reflection of societal changes. Back in1975 what occurs in this film may have been acceptable perhaps even humorous in places? The main character is not charming or clever, just another lowlife.

2024 such behavior only serves to remove any sympathy from the main character. That there's some small redemption at the end, well it comes at the expense of amorality and a hollow sense that ultimately this guy is a self serving you know what.

As for the film making, this is a very well made classic. Has all the elements of historical, moral, timeless essentials. The journey is engaging although repulsive at times. The context of war and what measures humans may lower themselves to survive proves interesting; however it is his voluntary acts that occur outside the context of war that disgust. Perhaps some plot points can seem a bit too drawn out for today's impatient fast-cut driven audience; however, that is a stylistic period point and only helps to serve the context of the film. The DP is superb as well.

Now back to the plot... You might think that with kinky overtones of bondage and a dominatrix Seven Beauties might suffice on those alone. But sadly no. Because the context could not be more wrong.

Here we have a man convicted of cutting-up his murder victim (Strike One) sent to the CooCoo's Nest where he literally rapes a woman (Strike Two) tied to the bed obstinately for her own good. She clearly refuses and yet he still goes ahead.

Later he befriends a Nazi dominatrix in pursuit of his release from the camp only to find himself in a sort of a Prison's Dilemma. Sadly he carries out the demands of his captors (Strike Three). Almost at the bottom of his moral decay. BTW Fernando Rey is quite good in this thread of the story.

10 stars for great film making.

0 stars for the sad excuse of human behavior.

Now to go read the reviews of back in the day to see where I landed on my thinking. Was this lauded for entertainment and message back then?

I certainly hope not but 4 Academy nominations will likely prove me wrong.

And yes it may have one of the most difficult to listen to Outro songs ever.

Finding Fela (2014)

Eminently Enjoyable

[21 August 2014]

This movie unfolds a bit like a Fela song…

In the beginning it comes across as a doc about the B'way play. How they struggled with portraying Fela, a complex, powerful yet conflicted God. How to explain The Man to those that likely have never heard of him, much less know and love his music and his message. Like explaining Buddha or Jesus, its a bit slow but an interesting challenge.

Then Fela's personal history and the larger context of his family, nation, education and temperament come into play. Subtle but gradually more engaging, gathering steam. Again mimicking the progression of a Fela arrangement.

The meat of the film is quite cogent and lays out the philosophy and politics that drive Fela's life. Surrounding himself with lovers and followers, standing up and mocking those who make Nigerian life such a struggle. That Fela never shied away, backed down, in fact only made stronger by the oppression of his situation, this comes across very well.

Musically it does a decent job of explaining the extraordinary level of Fela's three principal bands. Interviews with the Players are very insightful in both the incredible musicianship and dedication to the pursuit. But for those of us that saw Fela live and still listen, collect and love his music, for understandable reasons it is here the film falls just a bit short. As the record companies said, "What three minutes of this 25 minute song can we put on the radio?". And thus one has to be content with the interviews and brief concert footage. This is not a concert film.

Likely if you are watching this film, Fela's long format songs are familiar and inspire film goers to drop everything for 30 minutes and drop a needle on listening to a full length "Zombie" or "Expensive S**t".

Some the film editing/audio cuts are quite extraordinary. Post on this must have been a bear but this team really delivers.

Most moving- at least for me- was the unfolding story of Fela's funeral. It too plays out like one of his songs. When someone says a million people show up, it comes across as an exaggeration… until you see the footage. Powerful.

Truly one of the greats. Of Africa. Of Music. Of Philosophy. Fela.

Alphabet City (1984)

Two redeeming features

[30 December 2013]

One: If you happened to be in Alphabet City back in the '80s

Two: Nile Rodgers did the soundtrack. It may not always work but its Nile Rodgers of Chic/Daft Punk. He is the real deal

By biggest gripe: The dialog. Could it be more wooden and contrived? Wow,,, cannot imagine trying to deliver some of those lines.

Casting is also weak. The editing hurts some great cinematography and direction.

So rewrite the script, get the right cast, move it way uptown to Harlem, then fix the post problems and whaddaya get?

New Jack City

SOMM (2012)

Not just for Wine Geeks

[1 July 2013]

I love wine. I like to think I know wine. But I also know I do not know all that much. There's too much to know. When I go to the places where these guys work, I trust them to help me get things right. That's what they do, its beautiful and it is absolutely an art.

These guys chasing the MS designation...THEY know a LOT about wines. More than any one else in the world. Seriously. They have to, just to be invited, even if they don't pass the test. Its brutal.

If you have sat for the Bar or the CFA or something similar, then the tale told here will ring very true. Its the same sort of obsessive all consuming effort required to get prepared.

The film gets very close to conveying what it takes and the methods used to even get to the testing table. And the Fraternity of the participants is absolutely one of the greatest messages that comes out. Its competitive but not in the 'I win you lose' sense. If you can raise yourself to the highest level of expertise in the world then you have a chance of passing. These guys are great.

There's a couple of slow moments but overall this keeps moving by portraying the toll on relationships and the character of all concerned.

Now I cannot judge whether a non-wine person would find it as emotionally immersive as someone that knows just what the hell they are talking about. The fluency and speed of interaction may all pass as a blur that gets boring after the tenth time, I dunno. But for me and the others in the theater, we were rooting for the contestants and making choices of winners and losers. Undoubtedly at some point I will look up at the Somm and it will be one of the guys in this movie.

If you want to know the outcome, you'll have to go cuz I ain't spoiling it here!

Impact (1949)

Great story. Weak movie

[7 April 2013]

"Impact" suffers from some unfortunate director conceits, a lazy screenplay and too large of budget.

For example: New Dad runs out of the car to announce the news, goes back to the car for cigars, gives her cigars, goes back to the car and then runs back to take back most of the cigars he just handed out. Now I get that he's an excited new Father, but please, 3x? Does nothing.

Plus the pregnant-pause/false ending conceit that run throughout. Do we need that? Not clever and gets old fast. Columbo was a master but it falls flat in Impact.

Then the numerous dead-end fillers indicate a lazy, sloppy screenplay. Incredible as it may seem, the Producer may have had too much money. There is a enough of a story, enough meat to be able to get in to the heads of the characters. But they don't. Instead VO is used.

Scenes such as the needless volunteer fire dept scene serve no purpose to move the story forward. Hopefully someone had a gun to the editor's head, otherwise why have these at all? They belong on the editing room floor. Again too much money in the budget? Were they having a tough time filling the run time?

Last it suffers from to weakest of all screen techniques, Voice Over. Honestly, do we need to see him sitting on the bench, staring into space only to listen to dialog be repeated? Even if it is nicely mixed -and it is- c'mon,even he gets bored enough to pull out another smoke. Oooo he's thinking, putting the pieces together. His actions should indicate where his head is and let the audience's stitch things together. That makes a movie.

Those are my gripes.

Impact is a cool story. Generally well played and properly casted. As others have stated, the lighting is not Noir yet the storyline is, which is what holds this together. Which may be another indicator the budget was too large. Noir lighting came from low budget constraints. Cat People is the the film often used as where the technique got started and was basically a solution to a budget driven problem. No money to light with? Use shadows and let the viewer's mind infer.

If you are familiar with San Francisco its nice to see some shots from yesteryear.

Bottom line: Give it a new title, tighten up the script and redo the film with a great Director and a solid cast. Then it may have some Impact!

Eastern Promises (2007)

Cronenberg delivers.

[13 September 2007]

I know a gent that did police detective work in St Petersburg, Russia for a couple of years, mostly blackmarket stuff. One night over dinner he told me, "In St Petersburg everything is available. And you don't want to know what everything is". Eastern Promises has more than a little bit of 'everything'.

Some real edge of your seat moments in this instant classic. Set in dark wet, and noir London, Eastern Promises takes a look into a Russian Gangster mentality and culture with some scenes that will make both your skin crawl and your heart ache. This is one tough and nasty thriller. Not for the squeamish.

A twisted morality tale of family dynamics, gang loyalty and one possible way the Good Guys just might usurp the Bad. Every principal character etches a note that resonates true to the scale of the story. And its an excellent dark dark black hearted story full of places and people that you just hope this movie is as close as you ever get to them. Genuinely bad characters with such exquisite details that it doesn't feel like fiction.

Go see it. Pleasant nightmares!

Zodiac (2007)

taut, driven and surprisingly accurate

[2 March 2007]

I was one of the kids on the school bus followed by the cops - back in the day. Zodiac scared the entire Bay Area for years. To now see what was behind the childhood fear is quite satisfying. Too young to know exactly why Zodiac was so evil- but old enough to fear.

The film nails the mood and details of turn of the decade 1970's San Francisco with cunning accuracy. Right down to the ads on the radio, TV personalities, Herb Caen. Granted many of the inside jokes will go by many viewers. The Melvin Belli character, as with so much of the film's recreation, is spot on. But the story quickly usurps the novelty.

Yeah at nearly 3 hours it runs long - but that too is faithful to the true story. The obsessive second half really has some chilling moments and I didn't feel it dragged. But then again I have a personal interest in the story. If you arrive with a blank slate you might feel differently.

We will never know exactly who the Zodiac was/is. This is one true psycho that beat the system and never got caught. To experience what feels like a first hand display of what went down makes Zodiac all the creepier.

The Weather Underground (2002)

Relevant objective insight into violent protest

[25 March 2004]

As a child in San Francisco, The Weather Underground was a name in the news that would pop up along with The Black Panthers, SLA & Yippies. Unlike other political rockstars, The Weathermen were enigmatic and now I know why: No one knew who they were or their motivations. Merely a series of scattered bombs and proclamations of political protest. It was the early 70's with war, Nixon, drugs and revolution in the songs and the headlines. I was a young boy attempting to make sense of this crazy era.

The core of the film is getting to know the central agitators, what it meant to 'go underground' and most importantly, how the intellect of each member developed, justified purpose and later reconciled the acts committed. <Is it possible to spoil a doc? If so don't read the next sentences> All but one have realized the folly of their method. Curiously that one man is currently serving a 75 year prison term for an armored car robbery that left two dead. The others now pursue honorable lives of teaching and advocacy. And one owns a bar in NY.

I left feeling melancholy. The illegal FBI surveillance, government led assassinations, the heisted CoIntelPro files and the useless pursuit of bombings. Without family, reward or recognition, when the Viet Nam War ended so did any purpose. All for naught. The Revolution was over along with any viable political career track. The Weathermen lost and the message seems to be they never had much prospect of traction. A misguided venture that left them empty.

One of them says the American people are taught that violence is the product of a criminal or sick mind. The Weather Underground were deemed as both. Surprisingly no one outside the group was ever killed. With Reagan came time to turn themselves in and go legit.

I saw this in the same week as "Fog of War" the Robert McNamara monologue. If you can handle two deeply political docs back to back, makes for a superb examination of War and the mentalities that drive and oppose. Two sides of the same coin and just about as close.

Twisted (I) (2004)

Left me ready to walk out

[29 February 2004]

I was ready for a fun ride through a crime thriller. Within 5 minutes I was wondering whether the momentum and the pacing would pull this piece into something worth watching. Perhaps this would be a decent hour long TV movie, otherwise don't even. A sparsely populated theater and the audience sharing the plotlines before they happen? That coupled with some group laughs at dialog that was cliche, poorly delivered and empty. The "Where were you on the night of sept 25th?....I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!" was laugh out loud bad.

So how did this get ruined by such talented people? I am guessing a frustrating script eviseration with a studio that ruined what might once have been a readable screenplay. That and some weak editing/plot point choices, questionable continuity and a few 'huh?' casting choices. I wanted to like it. I should have liked it. It never even had a chance to fall apart as it was broken from the beginning.

Zero Hour! (1957)

A template for more than Airplane!>

[6 September 2003]

Yes the others are spot on when Airplane! is invoked...but I think a truly great film maker also watched and lifted the character of Zero Hour! Stanley Kubrick. The cockpit scenes are so Dr Strangelove looking and feeling that one has to consider if this is where Kubrick looked for production design inspiration for the classic Slim Pickens scenes. Certainly looks and feels that way to this viewer. A Kubrick documentary has some bits about how the Dept of Defense was very curious about how accurate Stanley was in the instruments and layout of the Strangelove plane. Watch ZH and I think its pretty odvious. And a big Thank You TCM for putting Airplane! and ZH back-to-back for what is undoubtedly great film viewing.

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

Seems everybody is crippled by something. Broken.

[18 June 2001]

Asphalt Jungle has a look and feel that epitomizes the genre. Grimy black and white, rarely does the sun make an appearance and all the principals are rotten to the core. Sure there's enough personality in the characters to make them affable and complex; but bad people doing bad things for bad reasons, for me, defines the essence of Noir. And this movie has it in spades.

Houston's morality study has shades of grey that help one to understand the motivations behind criminal acts. Morality isn't simply black and white, right and wrong. These are desperate, thrill seeking people who run with a plan in hopes of solving personal problems of survival or excess; but in the end they are all losers. By running against the grain of society's mores they encounter impediments we all face in life. Some of the fault lies with original intention and intensifies as they make weak decisions that add up to nil. Everyone loses this game.

Sterling Hayden makes a suberb dumb hooligan. Doc Redenschnider, the man with the plan, is crafty yet trapped by carnal vices. Emerick is the slimely lawyer you never want to meet. And Marilyn Monroe puts in quite a performance as his mistress. Even the cops are shaded in this tale. Lots of great supporting cast who portray characters from the underbelly of life.

Seems everybody is crippled by something. Broken. Here you get a taste of the why and how.