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Reviews
Miller's Crossing (1990)
Intellectual Popcorn
Miller's Crossing is a popcorn movie for intellectuals. Full of the usual Coen Brother sparkle - colorful dialogue, creative imagery, and otherworldly feel - the intricate plot is also wonderfully constructed. Paced like a mystery, we follow Tom Reagan as he makes a series of odd choices that seem, one by one, to be the wrong choices but ultimately are the right ones. The Coens keep pulling out formulaic tricks, particularly the one where Tom is ALMOST done in for several times before some last minute twist of fate saves his life. This kind of thing can be exasperating for a chronic film-goer, but the way the Coen's have set it up we are so involved in the story that anything incongruous with reality is immaterial- the Coen's have made their own reality.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Great Characters, Bad Execution
While fun to watch - if not taken too seriously - I felt this too be yet another addition to the watered-down, post-Pulp Fiction genre of bam-bam dialog and cosmic coincidences. The most interesting aspects of the story, which I won't tell here because I'm not a spoiler, happen off-screen, and the events leading up to their revelation seem rather flippant by comparison. Freakishness occurs, but sparingly...and rather trite compared to other films of this genre. I was distracted by the messy, disorderly manner Harry & Perry dealt with the dead bodies, fingerprints are left everywhere, even Harry's urine. As amusing as these two doofuses are, how they managed to escape police investigation, I can't figure out.
That said, the three principles, Michelle Monaghen, Val Kilmer, and the twitchy, magnetic Robert Downey, Jr. play their quirky, claptrap characters with such glee it's impossible not to engage in their joyous triptych.
Paris, Texas (1984)
Bleak Brilliance
There is so much to say about this film that saying anything at all would undermine it. I haven't met anyone who wasn't proufoundly touched by the humanity director Wim Wenders and his amazing team captures. I'll go a step farther and say that this film is, to me, what America is all about; that is, the Johnny Cash kind of America of hidden pasts, broken hearts, and tiny moments of redemption. Wim Wenders obsession with the American West is apparent in the bleak cinematography and simple yet effective dialogue. A German doctor and French wife infuse a curious European mix that is markedly congrous with the universality of the story. I am madly in love with this film. You don't hear much about it except in certain independent film circles, but I believe it is one of the most effective English language films next to Citizen Kane and Midnight Cowboy.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Well-shot, Overpraised
If you are a John Wayne fan, disregard this comment; same for Jimmy Stewart fans. I happen to think they are the two most overrated, and overacting, actors in film. Neither changed my mind in what I think is, also, a highly overrated film - even for the Western genre which, admittedly, storytelling often takes a pedestrian turn to make way for landscape and action.
There is little of the transfixing panoramic shots that made John Ford famous, which is just as well because the bellicose yammering of the film's two stars would have chewed up the scenery. Stewart represents the ideal utopia that democracy is suppose to bring, while Wayne represents the primal instincts of living on an untamed land. The two are at odds, as the cattle ranchers and the settlers are in the back story. Their mutual love interest, Hallie (America manifested, duh) is yanked between the two of them, eventually settling on the man on the side of the law.
The film is so caught up in metaphor and idealism, it forgets its characters. There is no back story on anybody to illustrate a reason for their behavior, or why any of them stay in that godforsaken desert town. The settlers are suppose to love their land so much they risk their lives at the hands of a violent henchmen, Liberty Valence (Lee Marvin looking and acting remarkably like Tom Waits)but why? Too much is expected to be taken for granted.
All that said, the camera work - typically Ford - is beautiful. The high contrast sculpts shadow and danger into the actors' faces, and the restored sheen is almost chrome-like. There is some wonderful play with the lighting when the newspaper editor is attacked by the Liberty gang.
Sherlock Jr. (1924)
The Best Place to Start...
Though a silent film aficionado, I've only recently been getting into the comedies of the twenties. Sherlock, Jr. was my first taste of Buster Keaton, and thank god for it is the best place to start. Like Bill Murray or Bob Newhart, Keaton's humor is based on perfectly timed lack of expression, which can convey more than anything said or done by a more animated comedian. Unlike those other stone faces, Keaton is also an action hero, constantly jumping off cliffs, hopping moving trains, riding the handle bars of a speeding bicycle, throwing himself through windows, all without the aid of a stunt double. The seamlessness of the camera trickery is mind-blowing, and the post-modern breaking-the-fourth wall philosophy has been the subject of an entire book published by Cambridge. But despite all the leaps, falls, and technical wizardry, the funniest moment in the film is when Buster kisses the girl, which must be one of the most awkward-yet-endearing love scene ever put on film.
Way Down East (1920)
Griffith's Last Masterpiece
If Way Down East has been newly restored since the Kino VHS, then my initial disappointment is obsolete. One much watch silent films with a sympathetic view, understanding that much of the seemingly-sloppy editing, jarring grain changes, and nitrate deterioration are not the fault of the filmmakers - who had, by 1920, locked down the basics of film grammar still used today - but subject to the laws of nature, and must be imagined in their original state as one must do while walking through the ruins of the Roman Forum.
One reel into this so-called "Victorian melodrama," and every jerky cut and washed out sky are hidden behind the remarkable acting talents of Gish as tragedy-stricken Anna Moore. "The Gish Close-Up," is often used in preservation-speak to illustrate the subtle nuances of emotion rippling across a lusciously lit face. Gish was blessed with a blowin'-in-the-wind beauty that translates soliloquies to rival Shakespeare; her presence and skill alone is worth the epic three hours.
Also remarkable, and a must-see for film and editing students everywhere, is the thrilling rescue sequence across an icy Connecticut River. Though logic tells us many of the scenes must have been faked, it is impossible to tell and one is doubly chilled at the thought of not only the characters in such a desperate position, but the ACTORS as well...and before the age of stunt doubles.
For those interested in Griffith, it is arguably his last masterpiece before his slow decline in the twenties (unless one counts "America"), and his last blockbuster. The "Victorian" values Griffith expounded in positive, creative - if sometimes ignorant - ways were simply not in keeping with the hedonistic tendencies of the Jazz Age. The melodrama of "Way Down East," is surrounded by so much humor, character, and scenery that one is swept away from modern cynicism...for a while.
The Plastic Age (1925)
For Clara Bow fans only
All those bright, insipid, and embarrassingly satisfying college films of the eighties (and for a brief time in the sixties) owe a great deal to "The Plastic Age." Remember when the nerd was caught in his underwear on the steps of campus in "Revenge of the Nerds?" Donald Keith's suitcase opens unexpectedly while entering his dormitory, spilling long johns at once mocked by surrounding students. Clara Bow sparkles as the college "fast girl," whose desirable qualities causes a rift between Keith and his roommate. The great Henry B. Walthal plays Keith's father, a typically rigid rich man that may have been the unseen ass that spawned Emilio Estevez in "The Breakfast Club." Modern day movie fans will find the remarkable similarities amusing, but those not keen on the silents will not be won over by this mostly flaccid, formulic comedy. For those of us obsessed with the "jazz age," however, simply experiencing the thrill of Clara Bow's bee-stung lips and unearthly eyes will make a viewing worthwhile. See if you can spot Clark Gable in one of his first on screen appearances.
Vera Drake (2004)
Excellent but disappointing
Vera Drake was something of a disappointment for me. Review after review hails the movie as some extraordinary catharsis. I disagree. It is hard to say why. Visually, it is stunning: heads lit from above by dim bulbs as they were in the era, shadows at once soft and dangerous. Staunton gives an amazing performance, but I will credit Leigh for insightful casting. She is a cheerfully non-descript person engaging in dangerous, medical emergencies - some call murder - in a cheerfully non-descript way. The build-up to her eventual arrest is overlong, stuffed with a pair of subplots that almost, but not quite, tie seamlessly into Vera's own story. The pacing is slow without being mesmerizing like Paris, Texas, or hypnotic, like Lost in Translation. It is worth watching for the performances, all around amazing, and the colors so saturated you could eat them.