thebuckguy Reviews

A Summer Place (1959)

Camp-y fun

[5/10 · 20 June 2018]

Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee couldn't act, so instead Max Steiner throws a crescendo every time there's drama to be had with them. That, and Sandra Dee carries on about trying not to be "bad". Constance Ford is terrific as a frigid harpy and Dee's mother, who even calls her a harlot. The film goes on a bit too long, but it it was daring for its day.

The Crowded Sky (1960)

Warner Bros hokum

[4/10 · 19 June 2018]

Early in the film, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. is checking out a new Edsel at the local Edsel dealer---a car that was a disaster is the perfect metaphor for the disaster that follows. . Laughable product placement like that should tell you that, at best, this is a film filled with unintentional humor. At worst, it's a feature film starring that paargon of wooden acting, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. and featuring that blonde dreamboat who couldn't act his way out of a paper bag, Troy Donahue.

The Big Chill (1983)

Cartoonish, would be unwatchable w/o William Hurt & the Soundtrack

[3/10 · 19 January 2016]

I saw this when it first came out and occasional TV viewings since then haven't made me a fan. Some time after seeing this, I saw "Return of the Secaucus 7" which probably inspired it--the director of "The Big Chill", Lawrence Kasdan used to deny ever hearing of Secaucus 7, and later just denied seeing it. Unconvincing, because it was a movie that played for months at some theaters and helped usher in the 80s/90s wave of indie film. John Sayles made it for $20K, employing actor friends and using a plot that brought together college classmates, most of whom had gone on in the way normal ways that people often did in their first 10-15 years after college and even poked fun at their old political idealism. It even had a subplot involving a penis, like "Big Chill". Despite cheap production values, I saw why people had loved it--Secaucus 7 captured change and provided a natural setting of friendships gone deep and frayed. As for "Big Chill", it's easy to see why many critics and members of the public never liked it. It's basically a high concept version of Secaucus 7--better production values, middling known actors and overly dramatic, cynical shifts in people's lives. The acting seems flat and the characters don't really seem to engage each other. At least we were spared Kevin Costner trying to act--I always though he should have stuck to corpses. The best parts were William Hurt who probably was playing himself--not literally, but he has the best lines and delivery and carries off the most twisted, if somewhat unbelievable back story. And then the soundtrack...without it the vapid quality of the movie would have been in the foreground throughout.

Pilchuck: A Dance with Fire (2015)

An endless commercial for Pilchuk

[2/10 · 9 January 2016]

Watching this laughable documentary, one would think that glass art in the US had its start and major hub in Seattle. One would be surprised that Seattle's galleries tend to sell a lot of Chihuly knockoffs and that glass art is distributed all over the country, with the best museum installations in established glass making areas like Toledo, upstate NY, and southern NJ. Chihuly was one of a number people who were students when the studio glass movement was launched through a series of seminars at the Toledo Museum of Art back in the 60s. The leaders were Dominic Labino, an engineering trained glass artists who worked for Toledo's industrial glass makers and Harvey Littleton, a professor and studio artist at U Wisconsin-Madison (and Chihuly's mentor). The combination of studio artists and people familiar with the materials science of glass was what launched the field. Instead of this rich history that launched many different styles of art, this documentary blathers on about Pilchuk and Seattle in the manner of a chamber of commerce puff piece. I'd give it no starts, but at least one is able to see some nice glass pieces. Chihuly has been phoning it in for years and the glory days of glass art's appreciation have ended (which is obliquely mentioned here) and a much better documentary would have looked forward toward the future.

Naked City (1958–1963)

New York and its people were the real stars

[8/10 · 22 December 2007]

As others have noted, Naked City was essentially an anthology series (a now gone genre that was common in the late 50s/early 60s), rather than a "police procedural". The scripts varied in quality and some veered a bit too much toward the sentimentality and sanctimony that passed for quality television in the show's era. Nonetheless, it provided many sides of New York and probably showed off the city better than any subsequent New York-based show. "Naked City" was put together by many of the same people responsible for "Route 66", which was the yin to this show's yang--restless loners who went everywhere (rather than cops rooted in New York) and and served up a similar range of characters in places all over the country, with similar kinds of scripts. Whatever the limits of the writing, the show was well-acted and had strong regulars, as well as a range of guest stars and bit players that seems amazing from our vantage point in the present.

Regarding previous comments: The city has changed less than one might expect in the last few decades. I rented a DVD that included a scene at 3rd Ave & 68th St. A few days before, I happened to be in that area--except for one corner, much of the area looks much as it did in that 1961 episode. As for the "diversity" of the show and NYC: New York in 1960 had a much smaller proportion of minorities than cities such as Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, Washington DC, etc. Also, the big drug-fueled crime wave of the late 60s to the 80s had not begun and the racial disparity in arrests and incarceration was not as large as it has become in the present day. African Americans lived in Harlem, but also middle class sections of Queens and economically mixed areas of Brooklyn; it was never as ghettoized as many other places such as LA or Chicago and there was a significant middle class. In 1960, New York still was very much a city of Irish, Italian, & Jewish immigrants and their descendants, with healthy doses of Greeks, Eastern European gentiles, Scandinavians, and others. In addition, the show's occasional African-American guest star or even its inclusion of Black faces in crowds were radical steps for their time and the sort of thing that engendered sponsor resistance. Even after the passage of Civil Rights laws, Black faces were rare on television. Naked City was far ahead of its time, even if it seems anachronistic now. Pontiac may have been a sponsor, which would explain the 4 door hardtops (top of the line cars in their day) for the cops and old Fords for the perps. OTOH, location filming was novel and has never been cheap, so the expendable perp cars would have been potential junkers.

My guess is that "Naked City" was popular among everyday police officers for the same reason that "Barney Miller" was--it humanized the individual cop, showed the tedium of their job, and portrayed the world of odd and unexplainable characters that filled their day. It's doubtful that anyone would want to identify with the likes of Andy Sipowicz (NYPD Blue), even he that seems more realistic to a TV viewer.

Cherm (2005)

A great turn on an old story

[9/10 · 15 September 2007]

The love between a sex worker and a taxi/rickshaw driver is a fairly old staple in Asian film. "Cyclo" was a widely distributed effort from Vietnam a number of years ago. Bob Hoskins first made a big splash in international film with a British version of this in "Mona Lisa". Often the woman is harsh but somewhat vulnerable. Usually the man is sweet and often a little dim.

The conventions are used here in a way that accurately captures the consumer culture of Bangkok, the rhythms of the city and the world of talk radio in taxis. The acting is subtle, although the storytelling is broad, in places (but rather nuanced compared with the cartoonish plotting of most Thai films made for domestic consumption). The cinematography is excellent and one reason that this film is able to build such starkly realistic and contemporary atmosphere. It's a shame that this film is difficult to find and had a limited run even on the festival circuit.

The Family Stone (2005)

An odd film

[3/10 · 30 December 2006]

This is one of those movies that can't be fairly reviewed without a few spoilers. The film builds from the premise of "meeting the folks" and the prospective spouse having to cope with a wacky, but ultimately lovable group of characters. Here, the concept is twisted a little bit by making the folks truly vicious and making the "girlfriend" insensitive and unlikable. Unfortunately, the film seems to be missing the kind of subtext that would make this irreverent, ironic or simply dark. Instead, the plot is filled with a collection of clichés and a hodgepodge of performances (some very good) that don't really jell. There's a cancer tragedy subplot, a diversity subplot (gay interracial couple who want to adopt) that uses two characters more as plot devices than as members of the family, there's a mean daughter, a hippie prodigal son, and an underlying set of political conflicts which present a tiresome rendition of conservative versus liberal (the twist here is that the right winger is the outcast). Sarah Jessica Parker seems miscast or at least miswritten as the girlfriend. The part would be better if she'd been written like Ann Coulter, who is insensitive, downright crazy and easily mocked. Ironically, having the character be a harpy would make the happy ending less absurd than the one in the film. Diane Keaton is actually quite good and there's real chemistry between here and Craig T. Nelson. Owen Wilson is fine although his attraction to the SJP character never seems real. The chemistry between Dermot Mulroney and Parker also is absent and one really doesn't get a sense of what brought them together. The mean daughter was actually my favorite, although we never get a sense of why she's so mean--she doesn't seem all that attached to her brother and the void in her own personal life never seems that real. The Parker character's younger sister comes and saves the day, although her arrival never really has much reason behind it and their relationship doesn't seem that close to require her to show up and support Parker. The "surprisies" that come at the end can be seen 100 miles away. The film is a good example of how a strong cast can't make up for a weak script and a weaker set of premises.

Regarding Billy (2005 Video)

Mesmerizing badness

[1/10 · 23 December 2006]

It's difficult to know what's worse: the sappy script, the wooden acting, or the cheap cinematography (or the cheap sentiment). The gay relationship has more in common with weepies from the 40s than any kind of contemporary version of gayness. My guess is that London is the love child of Douglas Sirk and Ed Wood--so much seriousness, so much bad acting and such sentimental sappiness. there's no real dramatic tension in the previously unrequited relationship between the leads and the younger brother is the kind of idealized kid with problems who only exists in sentimental TV news pieces. The guys also seem to live quite well on very little. Yes, it's a movie, but having take place on Mars would give it more realism.

Father Knows Best (1954–1960)

Easily the most nauseating of the 50s sitcoms

[2/10 · 23 December 2006]

This show was easily the most cloying and nauseating of the classic 50s sitcoms. The story lines tended toward the obvious and sentimental and created a sitcom world even more difficult to live up to than most of its contemporaries. Other than Jane Wyatt, the cast's personal lives were anything like what was portrayed on screen, which probably should be an endorsement of their acting talent---Robert Young was a heavy alcoholic. Elinor Donahue was in an unhappy teen marriage, Lauren Chapin had an abusive, troubled childhood that went ignored by cast and crew (she later went on to prostitution, drug addiction and irritating religious evangelism--at least she's alive), and Billy Gray was developing a substance abuse problem. What's sadder is that people viewed the cast as role models (and apparently still do). Ozzie & Harriet holds up better (esp. the shows from the 50s) because it was based on real life and despite Ozzie's talky authoritarianism in real life, there was real warmth. Donna Reed occasionally tried to transcend the sappy conventions of the genre, didn't portray her TV hsband as an idiot and was more or less the same person whe appeared to be on screen.In its early years, "Leave it to Beaver" actually tried to capture a child's frame of reference of family life in a away that no show achieved until "The Wonder Years", although later years were filled with tired scripts. The people who idealize this show are obviously in a dream world. Average families were nothing like this in the '50s--people who had their eyes open in this era saw abuse, infidelity, teen pregnancy, alcohol if not drugs, etc. And like most shows, father only appeared to know best and it's unclear what was worse--the passive-aggressive role consigned to women or the nitwit role (softened a bit here incomparison with, e.g.,, "Make Room for Daddy") for the father.

All About Eve (1950)

A true classic

[10/10 · 23 December 2006]

This is a real standout film from its era. The dialogue still seems smart and funny. the off-screen affair between Bette Davis & Gary Merrill probably added to the obvious chemistry between them on screen. Marilyn Monroe is the perfect scene stealer, but is hardly alone with other supporting cast members like Thelma Ritter, who easily dominates her few scenes as Davis' dresser. Although Davis was the star and the story revolves around here and "Eve", its George Sanders who steals the show. His long, confrontational speech with Anne Baxter near the end of the film is easily one of the best things about the film. I wonder how the subtext of lesbianism and homosexuality (Addison DeWitt's obvious "beardsmanship") got past the censors. Perhaps it was the heavy handedness of Davis' character's desire for a husband that overshadowed it. Margo Channing's willingness to give up the stage seems a bit overdone, even for its era and is the one false note in the film, especially coming from an iconoclast like Davis. Nonetheless, this is a great film that holds up well, even on repeat viewings.

Terms of Endearment (1983)

Extremely overrated

[2/10 · 1 October 2005]

I never really got the "Oscar quality" to this film when it was first released and certainly don't get it now. Nicholson's part is the same sly cad he's played many times before, only phoned-in. Shirley MacLaine plays a brittle, over controlled (and controlling) version of the ditzy, oversexed characters she usually plays. Jeff Daniels is completely unbelievable as an academic (I used to be one). He doesn't even rate as a marginally employed academic although vapid guys like his characters often are the ones who wind up having affairs with the coeds. The accents are forced (like Winger, I'm a Clevelander and couldn't do Texas either). The cancer ending is forced and overwrought. I used to work with cancer patients and this film is an insult to them and their families. The performances lack depth and James Brooks clearly was better for television than for a film like this. I never read McMurtry's story, so I don't know how faithful it is. I hope the story isn't as gassy and predictable as the film.