brendanchenowith-66538 Reviews

Being the Ricardos (2021)

IT'S NOT GONNA GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS

[10/10 · 15 January 2023]

I should say not. I've seen at least 2 or 3 other made for tv movies on Lucy and Desi making "I Love Lucy", and while I was impressed with them at the time, none of the previous films could hope to hold a candle to this cinematic masterpiece. I like Lucy, Desi, Vivian Vance and William Frawley. I like "I Love Lucy", i also like Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, the writing of Aaron Sorkin and the acting stylings of the great JK Simmons, so when this popped up on my Prime Video menu, I went for it, and over a year later, I still can't stop watching it. Last weekend, for instance, I switched it on because a particular line was running through my mind and I wanted to see it acted out (again). I ended up watching it in its entirety (again). I am such a fanboy when it comes to this movie. I have also just reviewed "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" with the subtitle "A Beautiful Movie in my DVD Player - Too Bad it's Not Mine", and put it right up there with Being the Ricardos as #1 Biopics in my opinion.

The film is not a stright-out comedy, although it has a million one-liners and zingers and it was a joyous experience watching the actors recite this brilliant and snappy dialogue and make it look so easy.

Of course we're all aware Lucille Ball was targeted and accused of being a member of the Communist Party simply for registering to vote "Communist" in 1936 to please her grandfather. She never went any further with it. Yet, Walter Winchell's Broadcast came out with this allegation and the week ahead was not going to be an easy one with Lucy, Vivian, Bill and Desi worrying about the fallout from the Winchell broadcast, but Lucy on her own shouldering the added burden of wondering if Ricky is actually cheating on her while claiming to be playing cards on the boat all night.

I have never seen a better acted, more cleverly and intelligently written, and perfectly produced movie on the subject of "I Love Lucy" than this one. One line from the movie "It's not gonna get any better than this" says it all.

As I mentioned earlier, this film is a joyous experience to watch and it's one of the best reasons to have a Prime Video account. Also fantastic is "Feud: Bette & Joan", which you have to purchase through Prime Video, but it's well worth it.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

A Beautiful Movie in my DVD Player, Too Bad It's Not Mine

[10/10 · 15 January 2023]

I didn't get the chance to go off to the theater when this was released in 2019, and I'd been curious about it, so I spotted it at the library, borrowed it, watched it, and completely fell in love with it. Since this is a "biopic", I was bracing myself for the fact that Fred Rogers had a dark side, and speculated on what that dark side could possibly be. However, either there was no dark side, or it just wasn't spotlighted here, in this beautiful movie. I liked the twist about it, that it was really all about the journalist who reluctantly agreed to interview Fred Rogers, which, according to his editor, would greatly improve his image.

I must say the producers made the absolutely right choice to cast Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers. He didn't merely play him, he embodied him, he got inside his soul and brought it out and illustrated it for us all to see. I was too old for the show when I first heard about it, it was on PBS after the Electric Company, which was a lot "hipper" and funnier. I really didn't care about learning punctuation or spelling or anything else they taught. I already knew how to do that because I love English grammar, and found the show to be very entertaining.

After watching A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, I got to thinking that maybe I could have used a Fred Rogers in my life. Some of the scenes from "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" may have been found to be cringeworthy, but his heart was in the right place for wanting to create a world where goodness and positivity ruled the land

One scene I have to highlight, which I thought to be one of the best in the film, was when our journalist refused to go to the hospital to be with his father and was plagued by a guilt-fed nightmare in which Mister Rogers Neighborhood did a segment on going to the hospital, and the journalist was turned into a rabbit. I watched the blooper reel found in the disc's special features, and it shows an alternate take on the hospital sequence nightmare which is even funnier than the one released in the film. Even though this movie had a completely opposite tone to "Being the Ricardos", another excellent biopic, the two are "right up there", vying for the #1 spot. You should see both back to back.

Two of Us (2000 TV Movie)

PLEASE PLEASE LET IT BE

[8/10 · 20 August 2020]

I saw the DVD in a library yesterday, haven't seen it in years and thought I'd give it another spin. I enjoyed the movie more this time around than I previously had. Granted, for a while my first viewing, I couldn't hear the song "Silly Love Songs" without the voice of Jared Harris sneering the title. When I saw it again last night, I knew it was over 40 years since they hung out and blew off crashing the set of Saturday Night, but I was still thinking "oh, please, please let it be". For years I'd imagined what that crash-guest spot would have looked and sounded like. Later on, folks such as Streisand and Madonna popped up, but it was SO not the same.

Anyway, on a Saturday afternoon in 1976, Paul (Aidan Quinn) is on tour in New York and decides to stop by John's (Jared Harris) apartment for a visit. John's a bit skeptical over why he turned up, but since he was convinced Paul wasn't interested in getting the Beatles back together, he relaxed and they had a great chat, meditating in the bedroom, out for a bite at a neighborhood diner, and a nice intimate chat on the rooftop of the Dakota. There are some tense moments, even an after-the-fact row from both points of view about how the rest of the band treated Yoko when she gate-crashed their careers. You honest feel for both of them. I for one wouldn't really know what to do on either side. Would I be nicer to my buddy's girlfriend, as much as I was put off by her? Would I be super-defensive and think my buddies were ganging up on me and were out to get me and hated me because of this chick I've been seeing? It's a tough call.

A highlight for me is when John and Paul sneak off to a diner to grab some decidedly non-macrobiotic food, Paul is unrecognizable in his disguise, as no one does recognize him, but a couple of fans spot John and make his time in the diner miserable, even an older couple who beg him to sing their favorite song, "Yesterday". The real John Lennon would have gone insane if anyone was stupid enough to ask him to do so. If he ever did that. talk about cringe worthy.

About that diner scene, I'd never noticed this before, but it was especially creepy when I spotted what looked like bullet holes on the glass partition on John's side of the booth. His head was right near the bullet marks and it gave me a chill.

And now for the moment we've all been waiting for...Paul's watching Saturday Night and John's fast asleep. As soon as Lorne Michaels says John's and Paul's names, along with those of George and Ringo, and offers to pay them $3,000, Paul nudges John awake, and says "let's go". They scurry about the place, getting their gear, but.....THE PHONE RINGS.....It turns out Yoko was returning a call John had placed to her early in the afternoon. As soon as he says "it's Yoko", he immediately goes down into an almost-fetal position, mumbling incoherently. With coat on and guitar in hand, Paul sees this unfolding before his unfortunate eyes, grimaces in resignation and waves and whispers "I gotta go"...and he takes off while John reverts to infancy.

Twenty years after this bit first aired, twenty five years after the events unfolded in real life, I still want to scream "OH GOD, WHY DIDN'T YOU GO! WHY HATH THOU FORSAKEN US???" I know it's crazy and I'm glad I didn't actually say it out loud, but it was a fun thought.

Aidan Quinn was just about tops as Paul - he even resembles him, but once in a while his accent goes down into a deep American accent (I think that's his real voice). Jared Harris - I really don't know who he was mimicking in this, but as he'd previously played Andy Warhol movie ("I Shot Andy Warhol") I was thinking it's Andy doing a bad Liverpool accent. He didn't sound a damn thing like John, and trust me, I've heard tons of interviews with him over the years. I think the only thing Harris got right was.....maybe the hair? Oh, wait, I know who he sounded like - he sounded like Wilfred Brambell, Paul's CLEAN grandfather in "A Hard Day's Night". Yep, that was it.

Watch it, though, if and when you can. Suspend your disbelief and think to yourself, "at least it's not Al Brodax's Beatles cartoon series".

Serial Mom (1994)

Waters' perfect blend of "now" and "then"

[10/10 · 30 April 2020]

I went into this not wanting to see Kathleen Turner, and wondering of Waters lost his way because of Cry Baby. It's a nice, cute movie with some funny things, but not a laugh-out-loud masterpiece, but SERIAL MOM is ! Turner wins me over as Beverly Sutphin, but not in the first viewing. Then I was basically sizing it up, comparing it to other Waters movies, wondering if THIS is the big laugh, or is THAT? Where do Patty Hears and Mink Stole come in - what do they do, will they be funny? Of course they would, of course they are, their scenes are some of the best. Waters is not only in his element in the courtroom scenes, but he seems to be in his glee. When the judge sentenced Mink to 5 days in jail for contempt of court, Waters is heard on the commentary saying "I used to LOVE it when contempt of court happened". With such a wild premise and a very well-written script, I don't see how anyone in this movie can't be funny? Supporting players break me up when they're being killed, and it's great to see them in other Waters movies later on. I look for them. In Doug Roberts (Ralph Sterner), Patsy Grady Abrams (Mrs Jensen), Scott Morgan (Detective Pike), I think Waters had a new stable of Dreamlanders to add to the roster of MINK, DAVID, BONNIE, COOKIE, EDIE and of course the late great Divine. Thanks to John Waters and Pat Moran, we get to see some incredibly funny actors.

Admittedly, in 1994, I went in with the attitude "will it be just as good without Divine and David?" With all due respect to Babs and Raymond Marble, the answer is yes.

Each murder scene has the right balance of horror and hilarity - not just humorous, but gut-bustingly funny, ranging from being crushed by an air conditioner, beaten to death by a leg of lamb, to being run over in the family station wagon...repeatedly, over and over again, just to make sure she finished what she set about to do.

I cannot recommend this movie highly enough and I can't wait to get my Blu-Ray next week. I've had the DVD for years, I don't chew gum, I wear my seat belt and I never wear white shoes.



I always think of them when I watch a late period Waters movie (I have them all),

Mildred Pierce (2011)

SHOCKED BY THE ENDING BUT HARDLY DISAPPOINTED, EITHER...GREAT FILM

[10/10 · 24 February 2020]

As a life-long fan of the original 1945 Crawford flick, I finally got around to borrowing the DVD set of the HBO version with Kate Winslet. I thought it would be fun to compare the two as I went on, and I certainly enjoyed myself. I couldn't stop watching it. I finished the entire thing in one binge. As someone who's never read the novel (that'll change soon, I ordered a copy from the library as well), it was great to finally see Mildred's neighbor, Lucy, played by Melissa Leo, as well as Ida (Mare Winningham), so Craw---I mean, Mildred, has both confidants back. I thought this Veda, actually both new Vedas, were a little more menacing than the great Ann Blyth, mainly because you can get away with a little more nastiness these days than you could in 1945. Veda Pierce will always have a place in my heart as one hell of a character you really love to hate. Morgan Turner (little Veda) and Evan Rachel Wood (big Veda) had me wanting to slap the daylights out of them. I also wanted to shake Mildred sometimes. No matter how horribly Veda treated her own mother, I couldn't get how Mildred could be so afraid of her, it's as if Veda had something on her and this means momma's gotta take all her crap and be happy about it, too. After all, it's the only sort of attention she's ever going to get from her. Now, the real point of this review is the ending. Sure, Mildred still ends up marrying Monte Barrigan (like an idiot) and Veda somehow falls in love with him. In the version we all know and love Mildred is confronted with the fact that Monte wants to leave Craw- -...MILDRED, for her own daughter. However, in this version, I was shocked there was no reference to Monte spurning Veda's "proposal of marriage" which in turn prompts her to pump him full-o-lead, which in turn prompts Mildred to take the blame for the murder, because, after all, it's HER fault Veda turned out the way she did (yeah, I can see that). Nothing like that happens in the HBO version, but it's wilder. Veda's caught in Monte's bed and MIldred finally says "RIGHT! THAT'S ENOUGH" and chases her down trying to strangle her. Veda, as an opera singer these days, blames JOAN - -sorry about this - MILDRED, for ruining her voice, when, in fact, her voice was never ruined at all. Veda certainly leads a charmed life, doesn't she? All around her tread in great fear, she gets everything she wants and everyone around her is a bunch of saps who let her get away with all the crap she pulls on everyone, even manipulating her own mother to feel guilty about an imaginary throat problem. Shen Veda finally takes a taxi out of everyone's lives to make life a living hell for the poor unfortunate citizens of New York City, Mildred has a nervous breakdown running in the streets of Not-Good-Enough Glendale, California - THE DAY SHE COMES BACK FROM HER HONEYMOON WHEN SHE REGAINS SOME SANITY AND RE-MARRIES BERT.

This was a lot of fun, I predict you'll feel the same (uh, some of you, anyway- I've read a lot of scathing reviews on this board which are equally as much fun).

Live in Front of a Studio Audience: 'All in the Family' and 'Good Times' (2019 TV Special)

Nice to be able to watch, but I wish I hadn't.

[2/10 · 30 December 2019]

This concept is suffering its sophomore slump. Last year we had the fun of Jamie Foxx screwing up, catching himself and bailing himself out, which made his scene funnier than it was intended to be. Marla Gibbs' reprisal of Florence at the end was a very touching, poignant, heartwarming moment. I wish I could see that again.

Everyone in "Good Times" was either miscast, or not sure of themselves. Their performances were so tentative and shy, it threw their timing so badly off. Andre Braugher and Viola Davis were certainly not accustomed to doing comedy

Woody Harrelson really blew his big moment in this All in the Family remake. I was thrilled when I heard which episode it was because it's one of their best. Carroll O'Connor had a fantastic speech about war, etc., and it was highly emotional, and I really looked forward to seeing if Harrelson could do the speech with the same level of passion. He failed on all counts. He didn't make Archie sound like a simpleton stammering fumbling for words like O'Connor always had, he sounded drunk half the time. Ike Barinholtz (sic) was okay as Mike as was Jesse Eisenberg as the draft dodger, but the only shining moments in this piece were Marisa Tomei's flawless Edith and Kevin Bacon's spot-on portrayal of Pinky Peterson. Ellie Kemper was just "meh" as Gloria. She just filled space.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)

Picks up Where American Graffiti Leaves Off...and Predicts "Hairspray"...and deserves a Criterion release

[10/10 · 22 October 2017]

As American Graffiti focuses on one night in the lives of a group of California teenagers, I Wanna Hold Your Hand goes across the plains two years later and focuses on A Day In the Life of Beatle-crazed teenagers hoping for a glimpse of the best band in history (their opinion which I share). Released in 1978, the same year as the god- awful Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, this does a much better job as an homage to the Beatles and equally deserves the exposure and saturation of the Pepper movie. Wendy Jo Sperber, Nancy Allen and Teresa Saldana are manic fans who travel from New Jersey to New York to catch even the slightest glimpse of their idols while in town to appear on "The Ed Sullivan Show". Pandemonium appears to dog their every step as they try to break into the band's hotel as well as the CBS Studio hosting the live broadcast. Supported by beatnik-folk-purist Susan Kendall Newman, jealous Beatle-hater and Four Season fan Bobby Di Ciccio, obsessive Beatle- geek Eddie Deezen and mild-mannered future Jimmy Olsen actor Marc McClure (see what I did there?) as an unlicensed getaway car driver (actually one of the limos from his father's funeral parlor), the girls fight a never-ending battle for an encounter with John, Paul, George, Ringo, and the American Way (sorry).

Seriously, all the leading and supporting actors give this film 110% in hilarity, likability and authenticity. You really want them to get what they want and you're laughing your head off at everything that goes wrong during their exploits. One of the biggest laughs comes early in the film in which Rosie (Wendy Jo Sperber) goes insane and screams at the top of her lungs when she mistakes a life sized cardboard cut- out of Paul for the genuine article.

This movie made me think of the Hairspray yet to come at that time, as Rosie's character is what Tracy Turnblad might be like two years after desegregating the Corny Collins Show. Her hair is still straight, although some of it's bunched up in a hideously hilarious looking ribbon. The hysteria, the screaming, chanting crowds, the cop chases, and the pandemonium are all chief ingredients of every John Waters movie. Could it be he might have seen this and it seeped into his subconscious?

Finally, I think this movie, this film, this cinematic comedic masterpiece (and yes, I'm as obsessive a Beatles fan as they were) should be reissued through the Criterion Collection as it paints a very accurate as well as affectionately satirical picture of Beatlemania on "Sullivan Day". Music licenses were a lot less expensive to acquire in 1978, and this may not be the case these days, with the Beatles now enjoying a higher level of popularity than when they were a band. This wasn't the case in the late 70s, and the Sgt Pepper movie didn't do them very many favors. In fact, the Beatles were so "over" then, there wasn't much interest in anything to do with them, so the licensing of their music was obtained for...a song (okay, yes I had to say it, very sorry). Hopefully good will triumph over evil and this film will see a remastered release (with a stolen limo full of extras). If you're either a fan of broad slapstick comedy, the Beatles music, or both (as I am), and you haven't seen this yet, try to get yourself a copy whether owned or loaned. You know this can't be bad.