aldri-39576 Reviews

Hollywood Stargirl (2022)

More mature but still mixed with innocence and quirk

[7/10 · 3 June 2022]

This movie has a much different feel than the original Stargirl, and I am still getting over the initial shock here despite enjoying the movie overall and its artful take on an age old theme. Indeed, there is a lot of beauty here - in the SCal scenery, characters, music and story. Stargirl as a character though is a bit on the innocent, wholesome side compared to those around her, and while this is important to the story, it somehow makes how her adventure in LA unfolds a bit improbable to say the least. Is she thinking things through as she makes her way out into her new world or just acting impulsively? As our talented lead, Grace VanderWaal imbues Stargirl with a unique blend of innocence and quirk, but while it is charming, she also projects a naivete that might shock even the original Stargirl. Maybe it doesn't matter and her mom who is wrapped up in her own problems doesn't care. In any case, I doubt most viewers will care either, while others may need to just be reminded that this is a Disney movie after all, and one refreshingly devoted to portraying a more sanitized version of the LA "follow your dream" experience. For the terminally jaded, it should prove a breath of fresh air, and under Julia Harts fine direction, the experience is really not so much "sanitized" as it is "artfully rendered". With lots of well chosen outdoor scenes throughout, this is partly why Hollywood Stargirl is in so many ways a very beautiful and moving film. And there is a lot of other stuff to like too. Various characters (Judd Hirsch, Uma Thurman) who cross Stargirl's path are turned into believers. Meanwhile Stargirl's mom can't balance her own needs with her motherly instincts. Two budding filmmakers also add fun and companionship as they have their own dream to fulfill. And then there is a really nice song writing sequence, followed by the realization you get that this song (Figure it Out) is propelling you deeper into the fantasy by virtue of the fact that it is such a great song. Suddenly, there is a lot more meaning to the film. I also enjoyed Stargirl discussing her past relationship with Leo, while bonding more deeply with her love interest here. It really shows you how Stargirl has matured, and how she now can put more of a historical perspective on her life. Her relationship with Evan is a deeper relationship as it should be, and adroitly handled with genuine emotion and tenderness.

Upon repeated viewing, all the little subplots and how they relate to the movie as a whole have fallen into place for me. The overall style which consists almost of a series of vignettes, typically alternating between muted and more manic ones, is extremely effective. That way we see the whole Stargirl throughout the entire movie, not, as in the original, a happy Stargirl for the first 45 minutes followed by an unhappy or wounded one. But my biggest question throughout gets back to Stargirl's true ambition in life. She didn't journey to LA to make it as I first assumed that she had. Her mom dragged her there. Once there, she is discovered more or less by accident, then only coaxed into performing more. And so her talent is unmistakable, but just as in the original movie, by NOT making it all about herself as someone with a bigger ego might've, she simply makes everyone around her a better person. Its as if her talent is used more to help others pursue their own dreams than it is to advance her own, but all the while not exactly turning down opportunities when they do come her way. This is IMHO the essence of Stargirl: devoted to entertaining while equally devoted to inspiring others to do the same. It worked in both movies but in wonderfully and totally different ways.

First Cow (2019)

Not interested

[2/10 · 21 March 2022]

An inexplicable and bizarre movie/plotline from the sound of it. Watched a few scenes on YT, and have read the reviews. My apologies for maybe jumping to conclusions....but.....

Seemingly woke in its messaging like all movies today, we are I guess suppose to be charmed by this tale of two immigrants or sensitive souls battling not only the American west but also of course those bullying, uncouth trappers who came to America only to rape the landscape for profit. So one wants to open a restaurant, and needs taste testers for his recipes. Welcome to America, guys. Have I seen this plot before? No. Why? Because it would scarcely register a blip on most peoples meters...

So, yawn....... Yes, westerns have gone through several phases in their evolution over time. In the 70's there were many like "The Man who Loved Cat Dancing" that were more sensitive than past generations of films, but at least managed to not be preachy or anti American, and I loved that film. Many fond memories of that time.

But I dunno. So in their next incarnation, westerns will not have any starring characters that could be confused with the early pioneers? Early pioneers that, dare we suggest, might be further confused with rugged, self reliant and individualistic Americans who may have hunted game for survival? Should they all have been wisely consuming tasty cookies instead of the flesh of vulnerable species? We can ditch the fist fights and shoot outs, and still make a decent, sensitive western starring early settlers, many of whom were actually honest, hard working, devout, and generally peace loving.

I didn't hang around long enough to find out if any women were cast in this film, so what are we to conclude about that? Mmmmm..........

Sorry to sound bitter, but I'm not inclined to see my ancestors serve only as backdrops or bullying menaces to a humble immigrant's aspirations. More revisionist American history, of which there is too much of today. We can fill out the picture without implying that the early settlers contributed nothing, shot every living thing that crossed their path, and only came seeking to exploit the land for profit.

This will sell extremely well in China, which of course is where all the profits are today. Always the bottom line here......

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Hope to revise my opinion upwards

[6/10 · 1 May 2021]

Its 2021, not 1977. I know.........back then, sci fi movie making was still in its infancy. I need to take that in to account as I watch this movie again for the first time in decades. But..........

.......despite my efforts, I can't really appreciate this all that much even if I strip away everything I've absorbed from Hollywood since then - at least as to how the story unfolds and the characters are portrayed anyway. The latter are IMHO either annoying or boring (except Melinda Dillon), and you are not really given much chance to get to know them. There was a time in the 80's when a string of movies came out of Hollywood depicting children and families ("Honey I Blew up the Kids", "The Goonies" are two example) in ways that were considered novel and "contemporary". Well, many consider contemporary families to be dysfunctional, neurotic and.....annoying. Count me as one of those. These family scenes were typically uber informal, like "snapshots of a mundane suburban life" and meant to counter the overly sanitized images of families that came out of the 50's. Nice idea, but still off the mark. Perfect just got traded for dysfunctional. So this is how we progressed ultimately to single parent households maybe, LOL.....?

OK, well.......but I guess dysfuntional goes with the territory whenever ET's are involved. I mean, that ups the neurotic factor ten fold. I did like Tom Cruise in "War of the Worlds" because he and those around them keep their heads when they could've been losing them. But with "The Goonies" we had non stop screaming, and "Honey I shrunk the Kids" wasn't too much better. "2012" was another movie in this vein that was hard to swallow at times.

But back to the story - there was a sense of chaos and "whats going on?" in the beginning that might seem to have been designed to add intrigue, but it actually just made me go "So, whats going on?". Maybe lead me along a path more, i.e give me a few more markers along the way. I know the movie much better towards the end, and it is beautiful. But getting there? Its a miracle anyone got out of Indiana.

So I feel like this movie could have established "normalcy" before devolving into chaos, so that you could use it as a baseline for judging everyones actions later on. The ET's are coming, and we haven't gotten to know anyone yet. Before messing up my world, show it back when it functioned normally for comparison sake. Mailboxes are getting ripped apart here. Before that, show someone actually using one to retrieve mail. Stuff like that. Otherwise, you feel like your just stepping into a story half of which has already been told.

The ending of course is a classic. But backing up the truck as I did tonight was ....jarring. OK, time to go watch it again maybe. Or maybe I'm just one of those guys who can only take so much of Richard Dreyfus.

EDIT: watched it again and all the way through this time. It is still magical if tedious at times. Terri Garr was severely underutilized.

Not much character development otherwise. The saving grace here - a wonderfully uplifting plot and enchanting special effects, the newness of which in 1977 blew audiences away. Top scene - I loved how the aliens released the abducted ones first, and you can't see their faces.

The Competition (1980)

Excellent look at a world few know well

[8/10 · 28 April 2021]

The world of classical music kind of exists apart from our ordinary world. It's archaic. It follows rules that have been handed down to us by aristocrats of old. I knew it for a time, and that is why this movie rings so true for me. Its clear that a lot of work (consultation, advice) went into insuring that this world was portrayed as accurately as possible. I really enjoyed that. Great job everyone...

I won't go into the plot details here, only make observations here and there. But mainly we are dealing with pianists, and the classical music world that they inhabit. Our central characters are Amy Irving (Heidi) and Richard Dreyfus (Paul), pitted against one another as pianists in a prestigious competition. They know each other casually from years ago. Heidi is very accomplished and pretty, but I would have appreciated more background into her character. She is almost a manic pixie dream girl in a way, which makes you a bit curious as to what motivates her to be successful. I don't know, really. Meanwhile, Paul is the driven, angsty one enraptured by Heidi's charm. The two fall in love as the competition looms. This supports the MPDG notion somewhat because Heidi seemed relatively lacking in ambition, and because Paul is the one in need of the most emotional support. We never really see her overly nervous or competitive, only somewhat aloof and detached from it all. BTW, I don't approach the whole MPDG thing as a negative really. I love Amy Irving.

So yeah, class issues are clearly exploited here, which I did enjoy actually because I don't think they were too unrealistic (except in the case of the Brooklyn contestant). And I did actually know a snobby black classical musician once. The Russian girl OTOH was a little too innocent and youthful to be very believable as a character.

Anyway, the central theme - an intense competition complicated by romance worked quite well. Paul as a love interest doesn't quite pull it off at times though, as his darkness and tendency to self flagellate makes you wonder why Heidi would be attracted to him. But then there is that MPDG thing again. Lee Remick (Heidi's teacher who was magnificent, BTW) was right to be concerned that Heidi might subconsciously back off and, by playing a more supportive role and not being on top of her game, could cause Paul to win it all. Considering the roles each played in their relationship, getting into a romance might have actually been a shrewd career move for Paul. It didn't work out that way though. Heidi holds her ground, is not concerned that her winning might drive Paul over the edge, and sort of nonchalantly prevails in the end. Pauls love for her didn't cause him to pull a Tonya Harding move either and smash her hand the night before the performance.

The choice for Heidi to play the Prokofiev in the end was brilliant. It is such a wonderful concerto. But I wondered if this might be as far as she will go as a concert pianist, as her fun-loving side plus family wealth might make her less inclined to make a career in this.

A few scenes didn't work too well for me, like the restaurant scene (missed opportunity) and the waterfront confrontation scene (pointless). I dunno, so but those are minor quibbles.

I dropped out of the classical music world in college and I instinctively tensed up during the performance scenes here. They hit a little too close to home. Ah, the memories. One of a kind movie here - very enjoyable to see again.

Stargirl (2020)

worth a look

[7/10 · 14 March 2020]

I very much enjoyed this movie, but I never read the book, so I have no idea how true it is to the original. Anyway, some are already complaining Stargirl here is not quirky enough. Others are saying the whole quirkiness thing is old. You can't win. In reality, it seemed a lot of the stuff that was in the book - Stargirls quirky tendencies and the students reactions to it, was simply left out. Maybe you don't like that, but it seemed to make for a less cliched movie to me, one not obsessed with typical teen bullying, mocking the outcasts, etc. Both Stargirl and everyone else were given mostly normal personalities. I expected Hillari Kimbell to be like a typical bully, for example. She absolutely was not, and there was so much dignity to her character. Are Hollywood's bully tropes changing?

Yeah, so the movie Stargirl focuses more on visuals and music rather than on encounters between Stargirl and students. In fact, Stargirl has almost no interaction at all with any students outside of Leo. Be prepared for this as I wasn't. What this means is that Stargirl's popularity and then fall from grace is expressed somewhat obliquely, through football cheers, high fives, or through Leo only. The other students are pretty much invisible as supporters or detractors (save Hillari).

OK, but now on to the love story which dominated the film more than I expected. Leo's backstory was a bit cheesy, but maybe I'm not a porcupine tie kind of guy. Thats OK - otherwise, I very much appreciated his character and how he was grounded in reality unlike Stargirl who's idealism made her prone to making occasional errors in judgement. And Stargirl - this was singer songwriter Grace VanderWaal's film debut - she was wonderful. The vast majority of her time on screen she is engaging, smart, buoyant and childlike in her joy, or just plain mesmerizing. And somehow her pet rat Cinnamon comes to embody her adorable qualities as you will see in one particular early scene. Later, she changes somewhat and you see her sadness and loneliness, as well as stubborn insistence on being herself. At times, it was compelling. Overall, the love story blossomed nicely (after an improbable start (a little too much of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl coming out of nowhere) and both Leo and Stargirl are given plenty of screen time. This was a touching first romance.

Finally, the movie for me peaks midway through as we delve more deeply into Stargirls character and her vulnerabilities are exposed. She tries to conform, but never really shows she knows how to make friends (showing her actually trying to do this might have been good, BTW), something she says she wanted to do. That was sad - I know the experience. It is actually a trait common in autistic people, and possibly Stargirl might have been on the spectrum. So, but this is what made the ending appropriate but also a bit unsatisfying, because she never really got to know any of the people she was dancing with so gleefully. I guess they saw her as a somewhat mystical power rather than a friend. And Leo's ending song just seemed a little of out of character for him. We do not really know what his hopes and dreams were in life other than to reclaim part of his childhood. And as the more grounded character in the relationship, are we as interested in his growth as we are in Stargirls?

Overall, in conclusion much of this movie I didn't expect, but in a good way. In talking about it, I bring up the occasional negatives, but in reality i loved most of it. It was beautiful - visually, musically, and with an unexpected amount of emotional impact. And what are the lasting effects likely to be on Stargirl after her experience at Mica? I doubt she will remember anyone there besides Leo, and what did she take away from that relationship? Hopefully we will find out in a sequel. But I think Leo did teach her a little about the benefits of conforming - it makes the world go a little smoother at times. Its funny, because the movie is suppose to be all about being yourself, but does Stargirl FEAR conforming as it would cause her to lose herself in other people? Would that scare her? These questions and themes were never really explored and they might have been also. Its food for thought.

Oh yeah - I almost forgot - I'm all for cell phones and social media, but is the future of movies going to involve actors and actresses spending a lot of time staring down at their devices??? Help!!

I, Tonya (2017)

Gripping but not really funny

[7/10 · 8 February 2018]

I, Tonya is a surprisingly good movie and much of the credit goes to Margot Robbie and Allison Janney who were both excellent. If you want to call this a "dark comedy" though I guess that would be alright but don't expect a lot of laughs. The humor is really in the storytelling, full of irony, plus the foul language and violence which is kind of taken to absurd, almost comedic levels.

Anyway, Tonya is portrayed throughout as a fiercely combative woman who gives as good as she gets. She's no timid victim except perhaps when going up against her mom in the early years. You can infer what you will about that as it applies to the "the incident" as it is called. I mean, the real Tonya always seemed more sweet that prone to violence at least in public interviews. But if she is in reality anything like the Margo Robbie character, I would have to say that yes, she could easily have been complicit.

But I liked this movie especially because of the way it contrasts the "two" Tonyas - Tonya while on the ice vs Tonya everywhere else in her life. The skating scenes were awesome (good music throughout, BTW), with Tonya's gracefulness and athleticism on full display. Everywhere else in her life though it was pretty much chaos, so the skating seems likely to have been an escape for her. This is reinforced in the movie by her relationship with her proper coach who is so very different from her mom you have to wonder if Tonya ever wished she actually had been her mom.

Also, taking everyone back to your main character's childhood is a ploy that always works for me in movies in general (like in "Contact" etc). Its just something that inevitably causes tears to well somewhere along the line while evoking sympathy for your character.

Dirty Dancing (I) (1987)

A gem

[8/10 · 8 January 2018]

When I first saw Dirty Dancing years ago, I was stunned by how much of it I recognized from my past and how true it rang for me. Nobody except John Sayles (and later the authors of Good Will Hunting) had ever brought a time and a place so familiar to me so alive on the screen before. It was all there - the Ivy league protocol and manners (I went to Cornell, like Neil), the resort's silly entertainment, the lodge and cabins, the Houseman's table manners - everything was just as I remembered, INCLUDING the presence of other people that we werent really "suppose" to associate with as much. At least not invite them to dinner anyway, unless they were perhaps courageous bums like Jack Dawson in Titanic, or maybe....just maybe......handsome and talented dancers?

Anyway, but thats just the set up. Author Eleanor Bergstein knew the era well and depicted it with stunning accuracy and brutal honesty. But the real story is about dancing and the sexual awakening of an innocent young girl, Baby Houseman. In that role, Jennifer Grey was perfect, and the transformation she undergoes throughout the film never strains credibility nor seems contrived or forced. Not an easy feat considering how much she was intent on growing up that summer.

Other cast members contributed mightily to this classic. Baby's parents projected just the right mix of parental authority and love for their daughter, an essential ingredient throughout. Meanwhile, well educated Neil and Robbie were superb as the cocky nerd and womanizing cad, especially when contrasted with Johnny. And I especially loved Baby's relationship with Penny and how Penny ultimately came to respect her after treating her like trash in the beginning. Last but not least, Patrick Swayze was magnanimous - combining raw power and sexuality with vulnerability and a soft heart, I couldn't imagine the movie without him.

Finally, the music and dance was absolutely essential to the success of this film. The dance needed to be sexualized as it was important to the plot, but it never crossed the line into bad taste or vulgarity. The musical choices were all superb, and the closing dance scene is one of Hollywoods most memorable. All in all, I never stop enjoying this movie, and expect to see it again and again periodically for the nostalia and memories it never fails to conjure up.

Wait Until Dark (1967)

Terrifying

[7/10 · 6 January 2018]

I saw this movie on vacation when I was about 13. It was a night I'll never forget. My brother sat next to me, and literally screamed during the movies climactic scene. I don't know what I did, but being younger than him, I was a bit unnerved.

This was one of the scariest movies made in the 60's. It seemed relatively low budget, but that sometimes only adds to the fear factor.

Foul Play (1978)

Good fun

[7/10 · 18 February 2017]

It's a little hard going all the way back to 1978 as I had to tonight watching foul play again for about the dozenth time. I've always enjoyed this movie, and felt like it really symbolized that era well. Chevy Chase and Goldi Hawn were both in their prime then, and their little affair had a lot of good chemistry. As a comedy suspense thriller, this movie suits the genre really well. The pacing seemed a little slow to me this time around, and the dialogue weaker than I expected. But there are so many memorable scenes here. This was back when feminism, political correctness and the swinger lifestyle were all sort of new and topical. And so some of the best scenes revolved around those themes. Also, we have a lot of colorful characters to offset goldie's ditsy blandness. In fact, one of the characters was actually devoid of any color at all in a literal sense i.e. he was an albino. This guy's albino eyes really gave him an unusually sinister quality. And then there was Dudley Moore who almost stole the comedy spotlight from Chevy Chase. No small feat there. But the circus like cast of villains was important to the plot, as early on Goldie comes across as a lunatic for mentioning plots to kill her involving unseen dwarfs, albinos, etc. All very funny. Anyway, in retrospect, Goldie is not given much of a script though, while the dwarf and Dudley Moore provide the best comic relief aside from Chevy who plays his usual droll self.

A spoiler would be needed to talk about what happens near the end. There is not much meat to the murder suspense subplot, but thankfully, there are other surprises here and there that will make you smile. Rounding out this blast from the past is Barry Manilows famous song about going for it.

If you've ever seen the classic horror thriller "wait until dark" starring Audrey Hepburn, Foul Play is at times reminiscent of it early on, only not so terrifying. It's a good thing, as Foul Play is really more about comedy than suspense, and the Batmanesque cast of villains encourages you to not take it all too seriously. And with Dudley Moore famous swinger pad scene early on, you're definitely laughing more than you are clutching your chair. I've played a clip of that on YouTube many, many times and never tire of Dudleys performance.

So, two thumbs up. Vintage Chevy and Goldie, while Brian Dennehy also puts in a nice appearance.