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Reviews
Imitation of Life (1959)
Cheesy Soap Opera with Real Guts
***Spoiler Alert*** This film is a classic Douglas Sirk film, which makes sense as it's his last in Hollywood, and it has all the Sirk ingredients - over-the-top melodrama, beautiful costumes for the gorgeous Lana Turner, glorious lighting, amazing cinematography and social commentary that doesn't seem controversial even when it is. Is it campy? Sure. Is it unbelievable? Sure. Is it great anyway? I think so.
The film seems to be a pretty standard Hollywood star vehicle. Turner, in her first film after that pesky scandal when her daughter stabbed her goon of a boyfriend, plays a widow and struggling actress who has come to New York a little past her prime to try and break into the theater. Meager modeling jobs allow her to (barely) pay the bills. With the help of a black maid named Annie, Turner's character, Lora Meredith, becomes a huge Broadway star, although she must give up the man she loves to make it. Annie helps by making ends meet when times are tough (she's especially good with convincing the milkman to let them delay paying his bill) and taking care of Lora's daughter Susie and Annie's own daughter, Sarah Jane. By the end of the film, Lora Meredith decides to end her career as an actress to once again claim the man she once loved, Steve (there is a minor glitch because Susie, now 18, also loves Steve, but that's quickly resolved).
What I love about the film is that the front story of Lora Meredith, the star who didn't have the time to be a good mother, seems really a decoy to get the audience into the theater to see the "real" film, about Annie and Sarah Jane. Although it is never stated, I have always assumed Sarah Jane is the product of a liaison between Annie and a white employer, and in the film she is white "enough" to pass, which causes her huge problems when people find out who her mother really is. In one horrifying scene, a playing-against-type Troy Donohue, as Sarah Jane's boyfriend, beats Sarah Jane bloody when he finds out the truth.
The scenes between Sarah Jane and her mother, particularly after Sarah Jane runs away from New York and joins a chorus line in LA, so that she can pass w/out her mother's interference, and her mother accepts the decision, calling her "Miss Linda" (Linda is her stage name) in front of her friends, are devastating, and both women were nominated for Academy Awards.
The movie has several elements that would seem hugely controversial if the movie were not such an unrealistic melodrama: a white woman and a black woman being close friends, a white actress playing a bi-racial woman, a funeral scene for a black person where not only are white people present, but they are treated as family members, and the afore-mentioned male-on-female violence.
In his classic style, Sirk presents yet another "women's movie" that has layers and textures far deeper than you would imagine, but all wrapped up in a pretty package that keeps its depth hidden until you are too far in to extricate yourself. A wonderful picture.
Mortal Thoughts (1991)
A Stellar Film Noir
Not being a fan of either Demi Moore or Bruce Willis, I was not prepared to be blown away by both their performances in Mortal Thoughts. The two actors give nuanced and very real performances as regular Jersey folks, and Glenne Headly steals the movie. Demi (Cythia) and Glenne (Joyce) play lifelong friends, both beauticians at Joyce's shop. Joyce is married to the insufferable Jimmy (Willis), who alternately ignores, harasses, and hits her, when he's not out partying. Joyce is constantly talking about killing Jimmy, and since the movie begins during the investigation into his death, the movie raises your suspicion from the start.
The entire movie is told as a flashback during the police questioning of Cynthia, and Demi manages to bring to life a scared, distraught, exhausted and defensive woman whose life as a simple mother of two has been turned upside down. Harvey Keitel, as the lead investigator into the case, gives an amazing performance, supplying the audience with the right level of doubt about Cynthia's story to keep the suspense flying until the end - and all while sitting in the same chair for most of the film! Glenne Headly shows just how good she is as Joyce goes from kooky and fun to paranoid and potentially dangerous. The ending manages to tie all the ends of the mystery up while grabbing at your emotions. Truly a satisfying film for a dark and stormy night.