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ABC Stage 67: Evening Primrose (1966)
Brilliant Score
I agree that the score to Evening Primrose is excellent. There are only four songs, but every one is perfect. I've also seen the Tony Perkins version and agree that it's imperfect, but the 2001 recording from Nonesuch, with Neil Patrick Harris and Theresa McCarthy, is quite good. I think I prefer "If You Can Find Me I'm Here" to "I Remember Sky," but it's close.
And then there's "Take Me to the World" and "When." Gotta love it. Sondheim just got better after this one, of course, but he was already brilliant in 1966.
By the way, this wasn't a "special," in the conventional sense of the term. It was an episode of ABC's wonderful 1966-67 anthology series Stage 67. It featured plays by writers like Truman Capote and Murray Schisgal. It even featured a musical episode by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, though Sondheim blew those guys away. (Despite which, I love Burt Bacharach and Hal David.)
"A world of skies that's bursting with surprise."
Citizen Kane (1941)
A Great Film. Here Are the Ways in Which It's Great.
Pauline Kael said that Citizen Kane "is a masterpiece, but a shallow masterpiece." It's not hard to see her point. The script by Herman Mankiewicz is extremely clever, packed with enough witty lines to fill a book of quotes and structured as an innovative set of (often out of sequence) flashbacks, but Kane himself is something of a cartoon, an idealistic young man who eventually reveals himself as an opportunist, a stock theatrical type. As a story, Kane is heavy on the irony, light on the deeper emotions.
But Kane is great in two areas: acting and technique. The former is supplied by one of the greatest casts ever put together in a film: Orson Welles (in his best big screen performance), Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick, Dorothy Comingore, and a uniformally terrific set of supporting players. The latter is supplied by Director Welles and Cinematographer Greg Toland, who enjoy equal credits at the end of the film. This suggests that the technique is highly visual, which it is. The film is an unsurpassed visual experience; few modern movies even come close. Welles and Toland invented film noir and few directors or cinematographers have done it as well. (Bernardo Bertolucci and Ridley Scott have probably come closest.)
Even better, the technique informs the story. The warring shots of Welles and Cotten, interspersed throughout the flashback sequences, tell far more about their relationship than words could convey. The widely-praised sequence around the breakfast table, which encapsulates the progress of Kane's first marriage into about 2-3 minutes, is a spectacular example of technique relating story, but so are the chorus girl sequence, the Declaration of Principles sequence, and the deservedly famous sequence where Kane trashes Susan's room after she's left him. (The last was done in single takes, since Welles essentially destroyed the set as it was being shot.)
Bottom line: If you aren't fascinated by cinematic technique, you quite probably will enjoy Kane for the sheer cleverness of the story. But if you're the kind of person who watches a film with an eye toward innovative ways of telling a story, this film may be a revelatory experience. And be sure to watch the DVD version, with alternate soundtracks by both Roger Ebert and Peter Bogdonavich that explain the technique in great detail.
Blood Simple (1984)
James M. Cain has never been ripped off better
What can I say about Blood Simple that hasn't been said before? Probably nothing, but that won't stop me.
It's the best rip off of The Postman Always Rings Twice that I've ever seen, even better than Body Heat.
Who would have thought that Frances McDormand used to be this cute? And I saw this movie when it was new! No wonder Joel Coen married her. I would have too.
The scene in the cornfield is an all-time classic. So is the final shootout.
M. Emmett Walsh, who is probably better known now for playing Jill's father on Home Improvement, may have been the best character actor of the late twentieth century. At least, the best _American_ character actor.
The commentary track on the DVD is an absolute scream. The joke goes on too long -- I've only made it through the first 25 minutes so far -- but it has to go on as long as the movie. Who but the Coens would have gone so completely off the wall?
It's better than Fargo. Fargo was nice for its deep humanity, but lots of movies deliver deep humanity. The Coens can also deliver total depravity, with no redeeming social value except brilliance.
It has the best punchline since the one delivered by Joe E. Walsh in Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot. Simultaneously hilarious and stunning.
The Coens should be named national treasures.
Summation: It's superb. Made on a shoestring but doesn't look like it. Just when you think you've lost track of the plot, you get it again. The Coens, like Hitchcock, are master manipulators. I like that in a pair of filmmakers!
Sexy Beast (2000)
Incomprehensible accents? Who cares?
Somebody suggested that Americans tend to whine about foreign accents in movies. Actually, we don't. What we tend to complain about are foreign LANGUAGES, which is what the characters in some British movies seem to us to be speaking. We have an unabashed craving for nice polite upperclass British accents. It's those Cockney variations out of Eliza Doolittle's London that tend to leave us feeling, well, confused. We catch about one out of every three words, and even rewinding the DVD/tape doesn't necessarily set us straight as to what's being said.
I just watched the DVD of Sexy Beast. I was tempted, at several points, to turn on the subtitles so I could at least follow simple conversation. But, mostly out of sheer inertia, I didn't. And, boy, was I glad I didn't! Sexy Beast isn't about language. It's about images, editing and tone. I learned everything I needed to know about the relationship between Gal and Deedee by watching them dance. I knew what Don was about by the tone of his voice alone. And when there were important plot points that could be made only through dialog, I somehow understood what everybody was saying. I wonder if that was coincidence?
If movies were only about dialog, we'd still spend most of our time listening to radio dramas. But great movies are a mixture of visual and auditory elements. And while Sexy Beast wasn't _quite_ a great movie, it sure did a damned good job of putting those elements together.
Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
Better Than Prozac
Yes, this movie is fluff. But it's such pure, unadulterated fluff that it should be labeled as such by the Food and Drug Administration. I discovered this film on premium cable circa 1990, one night when I was feeling deeply depressed, and it revived my spirits instantly. Elizabeth Shue, back before she became (somewhat) famous, is the perfect sexually-nonthreatening sexpot and I fell instantly in love with her. The kids are well-cast and the youngest child is about as good as a central casting Cute Kid could possibly be. There's even an early performance by Penelope Anne Miller.
If you're looking for more than fluff, look elsewhere. But AiBS is the quintessential cotton candy film. Come to it in the right spirits and you will go away with the wonderful taste of sugar in your mouth.