A comedy from 1950 starring Burt Lancaster, Dorothy McGuire & Oscar winner Edmund Gwenn. Gwenn is a counterfeiter currently flooding his neighborhood w/fake dollar bills & apparently has been doing it for so long, at least 10 years, the treasury department has dubbed him w/the titular moniker. In comes Lancaster, an agent who has a rep for always getting his man, assigned to the case & w/a few men manages to make some headway when he catches Maguire, a translator who works for the UN, using one of the tainted bills which he hopes by wining & dining her will get him closer to Gwenn since Lancaster figures the bill was passed in her neighborhood which gets confirmation when some kids in McGuire's area unearth Gwenn's printer buried in a backlot. Billed as a comedy, the film is a bit more serious minded, maybe due to Lancaster's perf where he comes off as diligent minded in his task, but still Gwenn's affable little minter is still a winner w/the ambience of 50's New York always great to see in black & white.
Reviews
1,683 Reviews
The Big Caper
(1957)
THE LONG CON...!
26 May 2024
A film noir from 1957. Rory Calhoun is a master heist man but after hitting a brick wall because of some gambling losses he goes to his partner & money man, Barney Miller's James Gregory, w/his plight & concocts a long off job where they'll steal money from a military bank in a sleepy town whose windfall intrigues Gregory so he agrees. Calhoun, along w/Gregory's moll, Mary Costa, set up shop as it were posing as a married couple w/Calhoun buying a garage in town as cover. Time passes & various members of the crew begin to come together, especially a lush of a demolition expert, Robert H. Harris, posing as the couple's sickly uncle who stays w/them but his penchant for the sauce becomes an issue. Once the day arrives for the score to go down, Calhoun & Costa start to have feelings for each & more importantly want to get out of the game & go straight which prompts them to want to stop the theft. Will it work though? Calhoun packs a punch as his criminal everyman wants to keep pulling jobs but an aching sense of the norm starts creeping in coupled w/the actual extended set up of the caper makes this flick quite engaging as we know what will happen but it coming off w/o a hitch is a sight to see.
20 Million Miles to Earth
(1957)
HARRYHAUSEN IS THE REAL STAR HERE...!
26 May 2024
A sci-fi monster mash from 1957 featuring a star making turn by Ray Harryhausen's rampaging creature from Venus. A space craft crash lands near an Italian fishing village w/a couple of the astronauts saved before the ship sinks into the ocean. Unbeknownst to the surviving space explorer, a vial containing a Venusian embryo has been saved from the wreckage by the young son of one of the fishermen who sells the find to a visiting zoologist & daughter. That the beast feeds on sulfur & seems to grow at will brings the US military into the fray to contain the behemoth as it runs rampant through Rome culminating in a showdown on the Colosseum. Harryhausen's inventive creation is a feast for lovers of stop motion animation w/the brisk story-line running so fast one forgives the lack of nuance & dramatic heft.
Querelle
(1982)
A BIT MUCH BUT THAT MAY BE THE POINT...!
26 May 2024
Rainer Werner Fassbinder's last film (he would die of an overdose) from 1982 which involves an unsavory minded sailor on leave confronting his own homosexuality. Querelle goes to a brothel which has the unusual practice of having the johns gamble to see who they will eventually bed for the night (if the john wins, he'll sleep w/the madame of the house (played by the late, great Jeanne Moreau or if the client loses, he'll have to bed down w/her husband). Complicating matters is Querelle's strained reunion w/his brother & the various criminal schemes he has underway (a heroin deal, a theft involving his commanding officer played by original Django, Franco Nero) which only puts his eventual sexual liaison in perspective. Shot stylishly on a soundstage w/Fassbinder's usual penchant of having his actors perform his material w/the enthusiasm of a broken mannequin, the film (probably because it was a posthumous effort & his surviving partner had to fight producers to cut 30 minutes from the final release) still is an affecting treatise on the condition of our notions of sexual identity in a world (even today!) where it is still a much fraught over issue. Brad Davis, a particular favorite of mine since he starred & was nominated for Best Actor for the seminal Midnight Express, is this side of beefcake w/a chip on his shoulder giving the film its ambiguous heart in a landscape of artifice & expected masculinity.
Late Autumn
(1960)
OZU AT HIS MOST GENTLE...!
26 May 2024
Yasujiro Ozu's 1960 semi-sequel to his Late Spring (from 1949). Casting the same actress from his earlier effort, Setsuko Hara, where she played a woman whose father's machinations to marry her off become a nuisance since all she wants is to stay by his side, here she plays a widow w/a willful daughter whose friends of her late husband feel she's ready for marriage. As they gather one evening to preside over memorial rites for Hara's hubby, the businessmen suddenly decide her daughter is ripe for matrimony but the moment she hears this (especially when one of the tycoon's ambushes her w/one of his underlings who she just brushes off), she in no terms tells Hara for them to mind their business. As things keep getting prickly between the combatants, one of the men suggests one of their own court Hara (since he's a widower) in order to force the daughter to make a decision which backfires badly as the daughter's friend/co-worker gets fed up & tells her in no uncertain terms to grow up & pick a mate (or don't!) even though her prior brush off w/the underling comes around on his own. Finally exploding at Hara for all the romantic shenanigans, her daughter decides to leave the nest which doesn't last long as the film comes to an end & things work out for the best. Even when the daughter devolves into a shouting match at Hara, Hara is implacable, keeping whatever turmoil & anguish under lock & key, letting her innate decency rule the day. Not being very Ozu literate (this may be my fourth feature I've seen of his), it's refreshing to see how decent & low key his traits are even when decent people get caught up in their own forthrightness & w/simple straight forward compositions (the dialogue sequences are edited like the gentlest of tennis matches usually w/the speaker addressing the camera head on), the narratives tend to be easygoing & calming.
The Iron Claw
(2023)
WATCH OUT FOR THE CURSE...!
26 May 2024
A sobering drama from last year starring Zac Efron. Based on the tragic true story of the Von Erich brothers who under the rule of their paterfamilias, Holt McCallany, bought into his belief that were going to masters of the wrestling world sending each brother (Jeremy Allan White from the Bear, Harris Dickinson & Stanley Simons) into the ring even though the pressure was great due to the Von Erich curse. One brother had passed away when he was young & throughout the narrative a series of crushing physical & emotional defeats befall the family as their dream soon becomes so much taillights w/Efron the eye of the hurricane as he remains a witness to the going's-on w/McCallany's resolute blindness to success brushing aside his failures like so many bad choices. Playing out as the antithesis of the American dream where the attempt is made but something unseen & insidious takes hold of a family's psyche, the film which director Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) wisely lets play out as his camera remains planted as the tragedy unfolds like a modern day retelling of the story of Job. Also starring Maura Tierney as the mom of the family & Lily James as Efron's wife.
Eileen
(2023)
A MISSED MARK...!
24 May 2024
A pseudo-film noir from last year starring Thomasin McKenzie & Oscar winner Anne Hathaway. Taking place in a jail town in 1960's New England, McKenzie lives a lovely existence going to work as a check-in rep at jail for visitors, taking care of her drunkard ex-cop of a father, Shea Whigham & espying on the occasional couple in a sexual clutch at the local make-out spot where she gets off. Into this meager life comes Hathaway, newly hired as the prison shrink, which shakes her up since Hathaway is all glamor & dangling cigarettes where McKenzie is a perennial wallflower. Using the case of young murderer (who offed his dad) & his mom who wants nothing to do w/him as a point of interest both women comes to forge a friendship during the holidays which seems to be working out swimmingly until Hathaway imprisons the mother, Marin Ireland, in her basement which lures McKenzie in to handle things as the situation goes off the rails. Having all the building blocks in place, director William Oldroyd (who directed the excellent Lady MacBeth which put Oscar nominee Florence Pugh on the map) makes a mash of this story, adapted by Anthony Bregman from Ottessa Moshfegh's novel, never gelling the narrative in a satisfying manner w/some attempts at black humor w/running interludes of McKenzie offing Whigham (shades of Bud Cort's suicide attempts in Harold & Maude) which never work culminating in a ambiguous coda which had me smacking my forehead over.
A GOOD 5th ENTRY...!
23 May 2024
The latest in the reboot franchise (number 5 by count) takes place hundreds of years after the events of the last entry after Caesar's passing where we find a young ape, Owen Teague, in a rite of passage to retrieve an eagle's egg from an aerie way up top a mountain face (his tribe is known as the eagle tribe since they raise...you get where I'm going!). Succeeding but then failing (he drops the egg at his village when he's startled by a human, Freya Allan) then discovering a rogue sect of apes sent by a leader, Kevin Durand, who's kidnapping & imprisoning surrounding ape villages in an effort to open a large door to a bunker which he hopes to loot of weapons. Teague & Allan partner up, assisted by Teague's village mates, Lydia Peckham & Travis Jeffery, to blow up a dam so the bunker will be flooded w/another human, Oscar nominee William H. Macy, showing up to cover his own butt in the action. Still carrying the excellence from the previous 3 entries treating the ancient ip at this point w/the appropriate wonder & intelligence makes this a rip roaring yarn which along w/the excellent motion capture tech making this an unusually smart popcorn time at the movies.
DOWN GOES THE MONKEY...!
22 May 2024
A great little doc from 2007 w/an unwieldy title. Billy Mitchell is the world champ (a dubious honor) in classic arcade games w/a high score on Donkey Kong (the infamous game which also introduced Mario). Enter Steve Wiebe, a family man w/kids who also has a knack for the game, even playing on his own arcade unit in his garage, who has aspirations for the throne. Setting out to break Mitchell's record, Wiebe goes down to an infamous arcade & proceeds to get head turning high scores in full view of witnesses & the public at large. Mitchell however believes he's the Bobby Fischer of the Atari age so he stays away from the game den & keeps tabs on Wiebe's progress via phone calls where his loyal yes men keep him informed. When Wiebe achieves a rare game freeze (the game's avatar spins in inactivity when the game's memory is taxed), Mitchell sends a minion (an elderly woman) to the site w/a videotape purported to be a high score (which buries Wiebe's tally) feeding the frenzy for both titans to meet in a head to head competition. As the Guinness people (the world record keepers) give a deadline for Wiebe to top Mitchell's taped claim, the stage is set for a fraught encounter, right? Maybe. Not being a hardcore gamer but knowing enough to distinguish between Galaxina & Galaga, this pseudo grudge match is immensely watchable even though after a while you'd wish these grown-ups would get a life.
The Beautiful Game
(2024)
FAMILIAR BUT WELCOME...!
18 May 2024
A Netflix original currently streaming starring Oscar nominee Bill Nighy & Top Boy's Micheal Ward. During a chance encounter Nighy, a volunteer soccer coach, runs into Ward at a park where he's snatched a ball from some soccerball kicking kids to strut his stuff. What Ward doesn't know is that Nighy coaches a British team filled w/homeless men which are competing in a world tournament (taking place in Italy) & Nighy feels Ward desperately fits the bill. At first reticent to be included w/the downfallen men, Ward soon steps up to the plate & becomes a captain of sorts bringing his fellow players game (& lives to be honest) up to snuff which culminates when the favored South African team comes to play (a team where he already volunteered his time to assist) & they're down a man, causing him to step in as a substitute. Based on a real yearly contest (who knew?) the film has an 'easy going, you know where this is going to end up' vibe about it which will pluck the apropos heartstrings to great affect w/only the most miserly of curmudgeons dismissing the familiar tract out of hand. Also starring Valeria Golino as the Italian host rep who engages Nighy.
The Belly of an Architect
(1987)
DENNEHY IS GREAT, THE FILM...MEH...!
17 May 2024
Peter Greenaway's (The Pillow Book/Prospero's Books) 1987 treatise on a talented architect who's lost his way creatively & emotionally. Played by the late, great Brian Dennehy (in probably his only foray into art film) as an ugly American in Italy on assignment in a retrospective of his hero Etienne-Louis Boullée. Once there however it becomes a battle of wills & ideologies when he butts heads w/the organizers of the presentation. His wife, played by Chloe Webb, also feels the brunt of his constant battles (& decides to keep her pregnancy to herself) while she piques the interest of a suitor, played by Lambert Wilson. Dennehy decides to shack up w/another woman but what really fells Dennehy is a constant pain in his stomach (the titular belly) which for all he does (changing his diet, seeing specialists, etc.), the ache remains. The pain affects his demeanor whereby he punches first whenever a verbal disagreement is brought to his attention & even postcards he sends to a friend (I have to hand it to Dennehy, he had wonderful penmanship!) are not answered at any point in the story leading to the eventual empty solace of a man who lets his demons get the best of him. Being an early Greenaway film, his usual artistic concerns were in its infancy & his standing as an filmmaker wouldn't be noticed until The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover 2 years later would cause a deserved stir but here (the print on TCM was horrible) I can only glean my reaction from the version I saw w/the plotline very familiar & other than having an actor like Dennehy cast in an unorthodox role (he would play Willy Loman in a lauded stage version of Death of a Salesman in the last few years of his life) the narrative comes off as passe & past its prime.
No Regrets for Our Youth
(1946)
HEADY STUFF FOR THE TIME...!
17 May 2024
An early Akira Kurasawa (Ikuru/Ran) feature from 1946. A group of like minded students during 1930's Japan see the world as idealists even thought the specter of fascism will rear its head in a few years time. Focusing on the daughter, played by Setsuko Hara (I must have an unspoken thing for her since this is the 4th film of hers I've seen in the last 2 weeks), of a professor who goes from being a student body darling to a disgraced outsider (when the power dynamic changes in the country) but Hara plows forward, romancing & eventually marrying one of her fellow classmates who shares her philosophy even when the government scoops him up (tragically where he dies in custody). Retreating back to her parents home, Hara decides to go live w/her in-laws (who have been labeled as spies) & live her days (even getting sick) as a laborer. A lot of food for thought to be sure but Hara's mercurial performance (which screams bipolar!) doesn't engender much audience sympathy but when her battle becomes an inner one, she finally comes to the fore. Also starring Takashi Shimura (one of Kurasawa's stock players) who shows up as a police enforcer.
Unlocked
(I) (2017)
ACTIONER ON AUTO PILOT...!
17 May 2024
A by the book actioner (I mean look at the poster, photoshop anyone?) directed by Michael Apted (Coal Miner's Daughter/Nell) that has a game Oscar winning/nominated cast (I still don't know what Legolas is doing in this) which includes aforementioned Orlando Bloom & Oscar winner Michael Douglas. Noomi Rapace is a CIA operative being used by her agency & MI6 to thwart an impending terrorist attack w/the usual double crosses & uninspired gunfights along the way to spice up the business on display. A similarly plotted Idris Elba flick from a few years back named The Take did it a whole lot better. Try that one instead.
The Fall Guy
(2024)
DOES THE FALL GUY, FAIL...?
16 May 2024
A current release in theaters starring Oscar nominees Ryan Gosling & Emily Blunt in this big screen adaptation of the famous 80's show which featured Lee Majors as a professional stuntman who moonlights as a bounty hunter. Playing out as an origin story finds Gosling's stuntman coming out of a year long rehab (after he broke his back in a fall) to get back on set at the behest of a cutthroat agent, Ted Lasso's Hannah Waddington, to double for the missing star, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, until Gosling can find him. Adding fuel to his particular fire is Gosling's reunion w/his currently off again gal, Blunt, who is directing this feature (at the film's onset she was a production coordinator) Down Under where Gosling upon discovering a corpse in a hotel room rightfully finds himself in over his head as the case plays out. An unabashed tribute to stuntmen & directed by one time stunter David Leitch who has parlayed his former career to become a premiere action director (Atomic Blonde/Deadpool 2/Bullet Train) rightfully delivers the goods but does himself no favors by having a gag reel at the film's end showing the audience everything you just watched is fake which other than the very funny rebuilding of a fractious love affair which plays front & center, the explosive ballet on display falls by the wayside. Also starring Teresa Palmer as Johnson's co-star in the production, Winston Duke, from the Black Panther series, plays another stuntman while recent Oscar nominee, Stephanie Hsu, plays an assistant.
Shirley
(2024)
KING IS QUEEN...?
14 May 2024
A Netflix original, currently streaming, about a forgotten, in some circles, black woman who ran for president during the early 1970's. Oscar winner Regina King plays Shirley Chisolm who became the first black woman to be elected representative to Congress who due to some bureaucracy (she didn't get to work on the committees she wanted due to her freshman status) was advised to 'go for it' & run for president against Nixon even though fellow Democratic nominee, George Wallace, played W. Earl Brown, an unapologetic racist, was doing better in the polls. Buoyed by the support of her husband, Michael Cherrie & her advisors which include the late, great Lance Reddick, Oscar nominee Terrence Howard, Brian Stokes Mitchell & Oscar nominee Lucas Hedges, the race is on or is it as King's presence in the electorate is vague at best which aligned w/her efforts to not bother campaigning in areas which she feels are a long shot makes her the slimmest of also ran's but then Brown is the victim of an assassination attempt which signals to King a chance may be had w/the film's last third focusing on the eve of the Democratic Convention where pledges for the possible nominee come to the fore. King is great here (don't be surprised if she caps another Emmy win come this time next year) as even in the most vulnerable moments, her strength is evident further buoyed a stellar supporting cast that writer/director & Oscar winner, John Ridley (he won for his script for 12 Years a Slave), gets great mileage from.
Scoop
(2024)
IS THE EGG SHOWING...?
14 May 2024
A 2024 Netflix original currently streaming about the bombshell get of an interview by a news organization, Newsnight, getting a tip that Prince Andrew, Rufus Sewell, was a close friend of Jeffrey Epstein (since the opening salvo has a paparazzi snapping a photo of them together walking in New York). Focusing on a reporter for the scandal page, Doctor Who's Billie Piper, trying to get her ducks in a row while the lead anchor, played by The X-Files' Gillian Anderson, also preps for the interview, especially in lieu of Epstein's suicide, while Sewell's advisor, Keeley Hawes, preps him for the impending taping. The closest thing I can equate this presentation w/is Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon from 2008 but from across the pond which as Sewell flounders in his rationalizations to continue his relationship w/Epstein after some earlier accusations of sex trafficking came to light makes him more buffoon than royal elder statesman eliciting gasps from the viewing public makes for a nice investigative yarn American audiences may not know too intimately but will know tangentially. Romola Garai shows up as the station's manager.
RRR
(2022)
A LOT TO TAKE IN & THAT'S A GOOD THING...!
13 May 2024
A Bollywood actioner from 2022 streaming on Netflix. During the British rule of India, a contingent of rebel factions are starting to threaten that rule w/a jungle leader, played by N. T. Rama Rao Jr, emerging as the head guy in charge (I wonder why, was it the scene where he corrals a tiger?). Things come to a head when his sister is taken away by the ruling magistrate, Ray Stevenson, since she was quite prodigious in applying henna tattoos on his wife's (played by Alison Doody from Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade) hands. Enter Ram Charan, an ambitious member of the British forces who is guaranteed a leadership position if he catches Rao Jr. Which becomes a bit of a thriller since when he does meet him, as they both save a child from falling debris from a bridge, they bond but they don't know they're actually on opposite sides of the impending violence so when it comes, we get Charan's backstory & his true motives, setting up the extended conflict which wraps up the narrative. Now a warning, if you've never indulged in a Bollywood film then the sheer gamut of emotions that you'll go through will snap the neck of most casual viewers but if you're up for it then you'll get the closest thing to a visual smorgasbord as this film has action, adventure, horror & a song number or two w/the all the players gleefully serving up this mishmash w/a smile on their collective faces or gallons of tears wiped from anguished cheeks.
Cat Person
(I) (2023)
NEVER GOT INTO THIS ONE, IRONICALLY I'M A CAT PERSON...!
13 May 2024
From last year comes this off kilter romance cum horror flick starring Coda/Locke & Key's Emilia Jones. Jones is at college working at a movie theater which specializes in retro fare. One day one of her customers, Nicholas Braun, buys a peculiar combo of concessions to eat which prompts a breezy reflect from Jones. Wondering aloud to her roomie, Geraldine Viswanathan, that she may be interested spurs some pushback but date they do even though some signposts are clear & evident that Braun may not be the guy she envisioned culminating in a sex bout which would have anyone else racing to the hills. Jones does come to her senses & w/Viswanathan's brusque help breaks up w/him which spawns a fuselage of texts as to why. Thinking there's something off about the whole situation prompts Jones to stay on the defensive which culminates in a showdown in his home that when broken down makes both sides logical in their findings. Never really buying into Jones fascination w/Braun (whether because she's lonely or went through a bitter break-up w/her ex who we meet on a trip home who's now asexual) was a big hinderance into an 'in' to Jones' character making the rest of the narrative fall apart although Jones is on her way to being an actress to watch.
Boy Kills World
(2023)
A WASTE OF MY TIME BUT SLEEP WAS HAD...!
11 May 2024
A current cult film to be currently in release starring Bill Skarsgard & Jessica Rothe. Skarsgard has grown up mute & will not speak stemming from growing up in a totalitarian futuristic wasteland where he lost his sister. Running into various colorful types which includes Warrior's Andrew Koji, District 9's Sharlto Copley & the original Jean Grey herself, Famke Janssen, the film lurches from one bloodstained colorful set piece to the next which from the opening bass thumping salvos wore me out as I tried in vain to stay awake during this sensory malarkey overload. Also starring Brett Gelman from Stranger Things, Michelle Dockery from Downton Abbey & Yayan Ruhian from the Raid series wasted here w/his chopsocky chops.
Navalny
(2022)
THE WILL OF A MAN...!
9 May 2024
A timely documentary from 2022 (& also the Oscar winner from that year) about Russian dissident & rival to Putin's presidency, Alexei Navalny. Following the events of his poisoning discovered in a Russian flight which was diverted to a hospital, the Navalny camp fought & won to have him ferried to Germany where recuperating, the drug Novichok (or at least the remnants of it) were discovered. Hooking up w/a Russian journalist, Christo Grozev, the pair along w/Navalny's producer, track the players in the poisoning scheme & even further calling the phone numbers which were unearthed where a dunderheaded chemist spills the beans on the entire scheme. Bookended by Navalny's return to Mother Russia as the seconds tick down before the plane lands & we witness what'll happen next makes this a doc feel like a double thriller even though recent news of Navalny's passing makes the ending a surety. Considering the ever changing nature of history & our place in it, it's a wonder this story ever got out & to the exacting details in which it did which makes Navalny's legacy, which hopefully the Russians people will continue to foster & fight the good fight.
Lust for Gold
(1949)
FORD & GOLD DON'T MIX...?
9 May 2024
An engaging Western from 1949. Starting off in the present day (the late 1940's), we have the grandson, William Prince, of a gold prospector, Glenn Ford, searching for the fabled entry to his grandad's mine but instead of finding it he comes across a dead body of another man who also was in search of the elusive treasure. Being picked up by the authorities, Prince regales & is regaled on the history Ford had w/the mine (where we see Ford finds it & loots the treasure after killing his companion, played by stalwart character actor, Edgar Buchanan). Going back to town to cash in his ill gotten gains, Ford draws the attention of a scheming bakery owner, Ida Lupino, who hopes to gain some of Ford's gold even using her estranged lout of a hubby, Gig Young, to run interference. Ford falls under her spell but then overhears the truth (from an advantageous window outside the bakery) setting up the finale, in the past, as Ford gets his revenge. Coming out on the heels of the seminal Treasure of the Sierra Madre the year before, another tale of greed, this film's tricksy structure makes it a contender for the former's throne while being a hoot of a yarn of the first order w/Ford giving a great perf as the villain the audience still roots for.
I Live in Fear
(1955)
FEAR THE BOMB...!
9 May 2024
Akira Kurasawa's (Ikuru/Red Beard) 1955 paean to the perils of the Atomic Age. Kurasawa's go to actor Toshiro Mifune, again stars as an old man who after living through the trauma of the nuclear bomb attacks by the US (Hiroshima & Nagasaki), now fears it's going to happen again so he intends to move his brood abroad (he may buy land in Brazil) but his family is not having any of it so they enlist a board of arbitrators, one of which is Takashi Shimura, a dentist, to intervene so what follows is a back & forth of one man's (& probably Japan as a nation) rationalization of his crippling doubts which may cost him his own sanity. One could argue the extremes Mifune goes through may border on the maniacal but being a nation that's never faced that kind of nuclear terror what do we know? Another marvelous facet to Mifune's performance is how well suited he was at playing an old man (he was 35 at the time playing a man double his age) using minimal make-up & a hunch to his gait.
Bob Marley: One Love
(2024)
A WORTHY IF NOT REMARKABLE TALE OF THE MAN...!
9 May 2024
From earlier this year comes a biopic on Bob Marley, the world's most renowned reggae artist who left us too soon in 1981. Essayed by Kinsley Ben-Adir (the villain of Secret Invasion) & taking place during a 3 or so year period after there was an attempt on his life at his Jamaican compound where he & some others were shot, Ben-Adir relocates to England to gather his thoughts as he preps to record his seminal recording of "Exodus". Back home the violence arose from the political race which was taking place & since Ben-Adir eschewed matters of state, declining to get involved, it opened him up to the drive-by but finding a safe space in Blighty, Ben-Adir recenters himself, preps the album & soon finds fans on the international circuit (we glimpse someone obviously aping Mick Jagger posing w/Ben-Adir for a photo) but while its intimated he wasn't the most loyal of spouses which wife Rita, played by Lashana Lynch, goes w/the flow until she doesn't & his manager, Anthony Welsh, was caught milking an African concert venue for more cash, Ben-Adir decides to return home to perform a restorative concert for peace to quell the masses which proved to be a rousing success. Blessed & shepherded by the Marley family, you can feel the film wanting to dig deeper into the man but since the focus is limited to a chapter of a many layered book, we deal w/what we got letting the music weave in & out of the narrative providing the best sounding soundtrack ever w/o even trying. If you want a deeper delve into the man, watch Kevin McDonald's titular 2012 doc to quench that particular thirst. Also starring Michael Gandolfini (James' son) playing a record exec & Top Boy's Micheal Ward as one Marley's assassins.
NOT WORTHY OF ITS ORIGINATOR...!
8 May 2024
The 1999 sequel to 1995's Once Were Warriors about the domestic drama revolving a Maori family in New Zealand. Taking place a few years after the events of the first film we find the patriarch, Temuera Morrison, still besotted at his local watering hole when word comes down his eldest, Julian Arahanga (reprising his role but wasted here!) is killed during a gang hit. Already on the outs w/his family (his wife, Rena Owen, also wasted, has divorced him), he decides to not attend the funeral where another of his sons vows revenge & joins a rival gang to find out what happened. Morrison meanwhile, still nursing his old demons, has hit his occasional girlfriend & is tossed to the proverbial curb but a pair of clean living brothers take him under his wing (& give him a job) so when his son shows up, he decides to help. Based on a novel by Alan Duff (much like the predecessor), here Duff does scripting duties which do the story no favors (an author wants to get every nook & cranny into his story as he can) as Morrison's road to redemption takes a backseat to his son's story-line which smacks of an A-Team episode making whatever strides Morrison makes get lost in translation.
Woman in Hiding
(1950)
GOOD QUALITY LUPINO NOIR...!
8 May 2024
A 1949 film noir starring Ida Lupino. In what amounts to a trial run for Julia Roberts 1991 vehicle Sleeping w/the Enemy, Lupino is the abused wife on the run from her heel of a husband, Stephen McNally, who believes Lupino is still alive even though it's believed she took her own life when her car went off a cliff. During one of her stops in a small town she befriends an itchy footed cashier at a pharmacy, Howard Duff, who takes a fancy to her so much so he follows her when she boards a bus out of town & reaching a new berg they disembark & spend the day together even getting involved in a large convention in the same area. Seeing the reward for Lupino's return in a newspaper, Duff decides to call McNally (he believes Lupino's disturbed behavior is a result of hysterics) letting him know he's found her which pleases McNally since he does want to kill her off, along w/the help of his equally bent side piece, Peggy Dow, so he can gain control of her company setting up the last third in a warehouse where Duff comes to the rescue. If you've seen Enemy than you know the ebb & flow of the yarn but seeing how effective the bare bones original played out makes a good argument for less is more. Fun fact, thanks to Eddie Muller from Noir Alley for the edification, director Michael Gordon is Joseph Gordon-Levitt's granddad.
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