serious89 Reviews

The Daytrippers (1996)

Sweet, VERY personal movie, a little too close to life ...

[30 July 2005]

... a believably bickering family, portrayed by skilled actors, w/some wonderful ham stuff by Anne Meara and Parker Posey, and more subtle stuff from Hope Davis and Liev Schreiber. The story had a distinctly voyeuristic feel, as if the screenwriter was exorcising some history and making it more entertaining, often hilarious (and interesting?) than a painful history he may have lived through. A cinema verite re-creation by world class skilled actors. As the family's lives unravel, driving around in a freezing cold NYC winter evening, there is a quiet lingering shot of the World Trade Center that is unintentionally haunting, and gives the film (made in 1996) an unintended resonance.

Born to Be Bad (1934)

Snappy and chic ...

[8/10 · 25 July 2005]

Having grown up w/Loretta Young as a paragon of virtue in her TV show and her movies (seen on TV) - The Bishop's Wife, The Famer's Daughter, Come to the Stable, etc, etc, etc - I was surprised and entertained by this bauble. She plays a slut w/verve, AND she is dressed w/ her habitual hyper elegance. She changes outfits 5or 6 times a day, evidently. Her rather brutal screaming at her raucous son strikes an odd note, making her (no other word will do) horniness even more striking. Cary Grant is about as long-suffering & gullible as he was w/ Mae West, but he also looks good. Fast, sentimental and raunchy, she even gets to tear up several times - a swell little film.

A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

Extraordinary --

[10/10 · 24 June 2005]

.. a standard '40s Ladies Home Journal fiction becomes a microcosm of small town American attitudes about love, marriage, money, class, entertainment. Celeste Holm's voice as Addy is a fully fleshed character. Linda Darnell delivers the best line of her career: "Gracias." Her debate w/her mother about whether to wait for love or marry for money is funny and surprisingly touching. Kirk Douglas and Ann Sothern are well-matched - he underplays for once. Only Jeffry Lynn washes out. (BTW, I believe that based on this film, Jeanne Crain was slated to play Eve in All About ... supposedly she got pregnant and was replaced by Ann Baxter.)

Seen it four times, will buy it when I can -- this ranks w/All About Eve as a Mankiewicz masterpiece.