bigmaq11 Reviews

John and the Hole (2021)

an OK indie

[6/10 · 19 April 2022]

I like to think that the gathering around the dining table at the end happened after Johnny finished a lengthy stay in the loony bin. I think I got the point of the parallel story line about the little girl but I'm not sure. Overall the film reminded me of many student films I worked on where ambition was not matched by talent or skill. Still. I found it interesting enough to get a copy for my own collection.

For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism (2009)

Shocking omission

[5/10 · 13 December 2020]

While ostensibly a survey of 100+ years of American film criticism, and while it spends half its time discussing Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris the film never even mentions John Simon.

Walkabout (1971)

How old was Jenny Agutter?

[7/10 · 23 November 2008]

My only question is was Jenny Agutter 18 when she did her full frontal nudity scenes? In other words, is this child pornography or isn't it? If anybody has production dates to compare with Ms. Agutter's birthday, December 12, 1952, please post a comment.

So I have to add lines to have sufficient content to post this comment. I'll just say the I have a lot of respect for actresses who will undress for their art. Jenny Agutter is an excellent example, but so are Phoebe Cates and Charlise Theron, among others. As an aesthete, I am especially respectful of those actresses, such as the three cited above, whose bodies deserve frequent display.

Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (1969)

A discourse on the very nature of film

[10/10 · 1 January 2008]

This film must be understood in the context of Michaelangelo's famous comment on his "David". He said that the statue already existed in the marble, and that his role as sculptor was simply to bring it out. This is the key to understanding this work. The original film could not be more elementary. A single camera placed in front of a proscenium. Actors move back and forth on stage and on- and off-stage, recreating the nursery rhyme. The camera never moves. There is no editing at all. There are no filmic actions whatsoever. But after showing the original film, Jacobs subjects it to editing, close-ups, pans across the action, etc., and finally to abstraction of the image itself. His point, and he makes it brilliantly, is that all of the language of film-making was inherent in the medium itself. In this primitive work exists the entire language of film making, as by extension it exists in any and all films ever made. Its recognition by the Library of Congress was long overdue, Personally, I would be grateful if someone else could post something as to where this is available on DVD. I've checked the various "avant-garde" DVDs out there and can't find it. If it's not on DVD, will someone please bring it out?

Enthusiasm (1930)

hard to understand due to non-translation

[5/10 · 2 November 2006]

This review is based on the New York Film Annex VHS cassette copyrighted 1998, which I picked up for a buck at Half-Price Books.

The film begins with a lengthy sequence plainly paralleling churchgoers with drunken street bums, as if God and alcohol were comparable. I found myself reminded of some of the apologists for Communism before the fall of the USSR who insisted that the difference between the West and the East was that the East had no homeless. The explanation for the large homeless population in Soviet cities were that they were parasites who were not worthy of consideration.

Much of the remainder of the film is shots of work in mines and factories, living up to he film's subtitle of "Symphony of the Don Basin." Unfortunately, the impact of these sequences is diminished for the American viewer by the fact that the cassette translates neither spoken Russian (by dubbing), or written Russian (by subtitles), and there is quite a bit of both. While the images are interesting, they have lost considerable impact over the years and the many documentaries done on similar subjects since this one. The cassette case includes a blurb by Charlie Chaplin praising the film. I found this interesting inasmuch as Chaplin's major film about industrial order "Modern Times" showed that order to be dehumanizing while this film shows it to be exhilarating.

This film badly needs a major reissue with extensive research and translation. A DVD with a good commentary track would be appreciated. It would give admirers of Dziga Vertov something other than "Man With a Movie Camera" to study.

Night Shift (1982)

OK movie at best

[5/10 · 13 April 2006]

This is an OK movie at best. As one of Ron Howard's earliest efforts it highlights his two greatest traits; his willingness to employ friends and family (eg. Henry Winkler and his brother Clint) and his ability to make a commercial film. His mentor Roger Corman bragged about never having lost a dime on a movie and I have little doubt that Ron Howard can echo that claim. My only real complaint comes near the end of the film, when during an orgiastic party in the morgue a woman exposes her breasts. Given the tawdry nature of the film the shot shouldn't be so jarring but it is the only nudity in the entire film. Howard had made an entire film essentially about prostitution without any nudity up to that point, so there was no reason to descend into nudity in that shot. It is the definitition of gratuitous. If nudity bothers you don't see this film, but if you want to see a film about prostitution, I can't believe that a little nudity would make a difference. It's unnecessary and Howard's taste improved as time went on.

Doc Hollywood (1991)

very enjoyable film with one bit of grauituous nudity that parents should know about

[8/10 · 12 April 2006]

"Doc Hollywood" is a lovely film that deserves a wide audience. It captures some wonderful truths about small-town life in modern America, namely that it is wrong to assume naiveite among its inhabitants, and that the most mundane practice of arcane knowledge, such as medicine, can be the most fulfiling. My only caveat in the entire film appears early on when Julie Warner appears fully frontally nude. She's lovely naked and the shot is completely within the context of the story of the film. But many people might be put off by the nudity and it might be enough for them to not want their children to see the film. That is completely understandable but it is also a shame because with the exception of that shot, the film is wonderful for all ages. I highly recommend "Doc Hollywood" but if female nudity bothers you, then avoid it.