Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice (2024)

 

Legacy sequels have been showing up on a regular basis for the last few years. From "Top Gun" to "Planet of the Apes, from "Creed" to "Furiosa", the studios have been strip mining their IP properties for topics, spinoffs, reimaging and direct story sequels. Some of these, like "Top Gun Maverick" and "Blade Runner 2049" have been quality products which do not besmirch the collective memory of their  progenitors. Others, such as "Indiana Jones" and "Bill and Ted", try but just can't recapture the magic of the originals. Still others are atrocities that need to be wiped from our memories ( I'm looking at you "Independence Day Resurgence").

Now, 36 years after the original "Beetlejuice" is getting a legacy sequel, and I can tell you, it is not in the dreadful category at all. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice" is a spry resurrection of a character  created almost entirely by Michael Keaton in the first film. He designed the look of the crazy bio-exorcist and improvised as much as eighty percent of the dialogue he speaks. That is pretty impressive, but it should be noted that the character of Beetlejuice appears for a total of less than fifteen minutes on screen in the 1988 film. It was however an impactful enough fifteen minutes to make the film one of the top ten hits of the year, spawn a children's cartoon show, and a Broadway version. I can't say Beetlejuice is back from the dead, because he still is dead, but he is back on the big screen in what looks to be a sizable hit for the fall.

I liked the original well enough, but it was never a staple at our house so when I was getting ready for the new film, I screened the prior movie at home. It was pretty much as I remembered. Th jokes are hit and miss, the sets are a gas, and the look of the movie is pure Tim Burton. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice" leans into those Tim Burton touches and he seems to have a little of his old swag back. The visuals from the next world are all creepy and funny simultaneously, and the outrageous living characters are just sane enough to keep the story from going off the rails. 

The film takes a while to get it's footing, seeing how we are being introduced to a new main character in Astrid, the daughter of Winona Ryder's character Lydia from the first film. She is played by Jenna Ortega, who I know from "X" and the legacy "Scream" sequels. She is as disaffected as her Mother was but for different reasons. Mom has a thriving career as the host of a ghost hunting television program, since she can actually see ghosts, she is a popular paranormal investigator, but her daughter thinks she is a fraud and is embarrassed by her. Their estrangement is somewhat ended by their return to the town of Winter River by the death of Lydia's Father and Astrid's grandfather Charles. His death is presented in one of the amusing sequences that start the film rolling on it's comic momentum. After that sequence there are three or four set pieces that just worked for me and provoked a ton of laughter.

In the 1988 film, the "Banana Boat Song-Day Oh" was used for comic effect at a dinner table sequence. I was amused by it but in this film, we get a different song being mocked by the dead and acted out on possession form which worked even more effectively for me. It also makes a little more sense for the story this time.  All you disco fans and lovers of 70s Rand B music, have something to look forward to as well. Surprisingly, the Halloween sequence is only moderately as funny, but it still works. Oh, and if you thought you saw the last of Sandworms when you went to catch "Dune Part 2" back in March, well, think again.

Catherine O'Hara is used much more extensively in this movie than in the original, and that is all in the good. Monica Bellucci is under utilized but still creates a plot line that meshes with the main story. I'm not sure that Willem Dafoe was needed and his part feels disconnected from the plot, but I can see how it made sense at some point. The best new addition to the cast is the love interest for Astrid, Jeremy, a boy who has a mysterious back story. Justin Theroux is the poor man's Jon Hamm, and he has some classic good looks and an not very savory way of fitting into the story. The film is a little longer than the original to accommodate all of the background issue. 

Michael Keaton as the repulsive but charming Betelgeuse (more easily pronounced as Beetlejuice) is again the main feature of attraction for the film. He gets more screen time, but he never overstays those moments. Once the Juice is loose, the fun begins.  I was not sure I was going to enjoy the movie, but it won me over and I am happy to recommend that you say "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice" and invite this demonically witty spirit back into your movie life. 

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-What's Up Doc?

The Paramount Summer Classic Film Series finishes off with another presentation by Robert Rodriguez, of the film "What's Up Doc?" This is the same film that finished the summer series last year, and it was hosted by Rodriguez then as well. His presentation before the film continued to be interesting but it was not as elaborate as the introduction he gave last year, but it was just as enthusiastic. This is clearly a movie that he loves and is happy to share with the audience. While sitting in the theater which was packed, I listened to the sound of laughter coming from several hundred audience members, I was reminded about why seeing a movie in a theater with an audience matters. This kind of experience reminds us that we all can find something in common, and that we are human beings capable of enjoying a shared experience, even without interacting with one another. Of course since it was the closing night film, there were some special events that went along with the evening, and that did encourage us to interact with one another. Two guys we had met in the garage elevator of the parking structure across the street, were seated right behind us. There was a trivia contest going on and we teamed up with them to participate. I know I had a lot of fun, and I think they did as well. The fact that we came in second place was only mildly disappointing because we were one wrong answer off, and we'd guessed ourself out of the correct answer on one of the questions. Oh well, we still had the movie to look forward to.

At the time this movie was made Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal were huge stars in Hollywood. O'Neill was coming off of "Love Story" which was the biggest Blockbuster of 1970, and Streisand was an academy award-winning actress who also had huge successes with a variety of films in the previous four or five years. Director Peter Bogdanovich was also on a hot streak. This film he made to explicitly be a screwball comedy in the mode of the great 1930s films that he loved. Rodriguez told the story about how the original script ended up being rewritten, by Buck Henry, who apparently had a pretty good idea about what makes something funny.

The movie introduces us to Madeline Kahn, who would become a comic icon for the next 20 years. Her role in this part might be thought of as thankless, because her character is such a wet blanket. But she turns out to be a wet electric blanket, shocking us with how funny she could be while playing a drudge. She gets a surprising number of laughs as the straight man in the story. Of course she is surrounded by a cast of secondary characters who are equally good at getting laughs from some of their few moments on screen. Austin Pendleton and Kenneth Mars both delight us with their ridiculous delivery of some of Buck Henry's lines. Mars uses an accent that seems like it will show up again in "Young Frankenstein" a couple years later.

The slapstick in this film centers around four identical suitcases that all have varying degrees of valuables in them. One suitcase contains nothing but rocks, but they are important rocks. One suitcase is full of secret government documents revealing a scandal. Another suitcase is loaded with jewelry that belongs to a wealthy visitor to the hotel where everyone is staying. The final suitcase simply contains the personal items of our leading lady. The pursuit of these various suitcases, and the comedy of changing hotel rooms, opening and closing doors, and hiding under beds, in closets, and on window sills, is exactly the kind of humor that you would find in one of those old movies. Here it is just multiplied.

The climax of the film is a street chase thru the city of San Francisco. O'Neal and Streisand are on a delivery bicycle, careening down the hills,  crashing through a Chinatown street parade and generally causing havoc. Of course in the 1970s, there have to be car crashes, and there is an abundance of them from all the pursuing vehicles. The bit with the giant window pane is staged beautifully so that the payoff is much funnier than it would have been in someone else's hands. The rapid film style follows the same pattern as the patter in the first section of the film, with multiple points, finished off by a topper. Bogdanovich was a film scholar who understood how to read a scene. 

I saw this movie years ago on television, but I had very little memory of it. I have seen it the last three times, in a theater, with a packed audience and it is such a treat. I'm sad the Summer season is over but I am grateful for all the movies I saw at the Paramount in the last three months. This cherry on the top will have me thinking about next years programming, all Fall and Winter long. 

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-Streets of Fire

 

Let me Begin by telling you how excited I was to see this movie. When it showed up in the schedule for the summer series, I wrote it down in pen on a calendar, and put it in all of my electronic calendars, with a heavy emphasis on the date. I was not going to let anything else interfere with my ability to see this on the big screen. Since 1984 I have loved this film, for a whole variety of emotional issues. There is of course the nostalgia factor, because 1984 was not only one of the great years of film, it was my greatest year of films. I saw more films that year that have influenced me and made me want to go see another movie, than I have ever seen in any subsequent year. A second reason that I was so anxious to see the film, is that the music of the band in the movie, is mostly attributable to the late Jim Steinman, a writer and composer of epic rock arias. I've been a fan of his style of music since the original Meatloaf album "Bat Out of Hell". Finally one other reason that I was so anxious for this screening was that it was to be a 70 mm presentation at my favorite theater here in Texas. So that's how anxious I was to see the movie. Now I had bought tickets for a concert that was scheduled 2 weeks before. That show got postponed... to this date. I basically had to choose, and I chose this film.

It's not that the story is so fantastic, or that the performers are so compelling, since everybody is talking about the "vibes" in the world today, I will honestly say this is a vibe movie. The film is loaded with the kind of imagery that movie fans love. There is a combination of wet streets and neon lights, there are shadowy alleyways and gleaming diners, and everybody in the film is dressed in a way it is stylish as hell. And some of those styles look like they came right out of hell. This is a movie that thrives on its looks. The opening of the movie is a flash cut concert video which feature that driving propulsive song from the damsel in distress in this story. As she's singing in a near hypnotic state, we see the ominous motorcycle gang arriving in their town, entering the auditorium, and lurking in the shadows waiting for their moment. When Willem Dafoe is backlit and we can't see his face but only the ominous silhouette, we know danger is coming. When the light finally hits his face and reveals a demonic expression, we know that danger has truly arrived. This is the kind of visual artifice that director Walter Hill uses to tell his story throughout the film. The hero Tom Cody, arrives alone ss the sole rider on an elevated, train. Later in the movie, The Sorrells, a singing group who gets hijacked by the rescue team, perform an acapella song on a dimly lit bus. Hill knows how to take the environment and make it a character in the story, that happens repeatedly in this movie. There are two different bars, a diner, an auditorium, and a street, that are all important characters in the narrative. The fact that these sets sometimes outshine some of the actors is a deliberate choice to emphasize style. And boy is this movie stylish.

Most of the background characters in the film, dress as if it's 1955. They do it up with pizzazz. Bill Paxton plays a feckless character named Clyde, but regardless of whether he is a wimp or a stronger than expected person, he knows how to dress and put his hair up in a pompadour that would do any Elvis fan proud. This is a little ironic considering that last night I saw him dressed down as a punk with spiked hair in "The Terminator". His character could have been the same person, but just dressed differently. The costume of Willem Dafoe in the last half of the movie always gets a laugh, but as the movie goes on, it feels more and more ominous. Who needs a high-waisted vinyl set of waders? What the hell was he doing at Torchy's that required such an outfit? We never figure that out, but we do know that his character might very well have just been described as Satan. 

The film also features actors Rick Moranis and Amy Madigan as members of the rescue team. Madigan is great, as a soldier out of the army and looking for any kind of work that might fit with her skill set. She plays a tough character, with a no-nonsense attitude, but she never is going to be a threat to the relationship between the two separated lovers at the heart of the story. She might be a better match in temperament with Tom Cody, but is she makes clear he is not her type. The coded implication that she has a different sexual identity is not particularly subtle and probably fulfills a few too many stereotypes. Speaking of stereotypes, poor Rick Moranis is trapped as the belligerent buffoonish and nebish manager of the kidnapped singer that everybody is trying to free. He's also supposed to be something of a romantic rival to Tom Cody. That is just laughable on its face. He does what he can with a thankless role, but it is grating every time we have to listen to him b**** about something. If this film has a flaw, is the amount of time granted to his character Billy Fish.

If this were a straight action film, the fight near the end between Cody and his nemesis Raven, using sledgehammers, would be the climax of the movie. As I've already said though, the narrative here is less important than the emotions and the style. So it is the final song performed in front of a large audience as Cody makes his farewell from the scene, that is really the centerpiece of the last Act. "Tonight is What it Means to be Young", turned into the tagline for the movie, and it is a perfect summary of the attitude the film is taking. We see nobody in the film who looks like they're over the age of 30, or under the age of 20. This is a rock and roll fable designed to specifically stimulate the emotions of people in this age group. I'm happy to say that although I'm 30 years over that demographic, I still feel the way I did when I saw this movie in 1984 and I was in the prime age that it was shooting for. Once again I'll just say I love this movie and the vibe that it exudes. I'd watch it again tonight, because it makes me feel young.

The Terminator (1984)-Revisit 2024

 

I said it earlier this summer when I had the chance to see "Terminator 2" at the Paramount, frankly "Terminator" from 1984 was always my favorite of the films in the series. T2 has some great special effects and an exciting story, but the origin of The Terminator and the creativity required by a limited budget, make this version that I prefer. This was a terrific piece of entertainment from that great year 1984, and it fits in perfectly with its use of rear screen projection, stop motion, and puppetry. In addition there is some fantastic makeup work that goes along with the other effects to create a truly terrifying concept.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was just beginning to become the movie star that would ultimately dominate for the next 20 years. This was his second major role in a clearly commercial enterprise. After "Conan the Barbarian" two years earlier, it would have been easy to find himself stuck in fantasy films with muscular guys wearing furs, because that was all the rage in this period. Remember, he also made the sequel to Conan which came out earlier in this year, and the very next year he did "Red Sonja", so between those three films typecasting was about to become a problem for him. "The Terminator" showed that he was capable of more, even if it was as a robotic killer from the future.

Sometimes there's just a confluence of events that allows great things to grow from them. The connection between James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of those great connections. That connection started with this film. I'm still hoping for "True Lies 2".  However, watching the movie I was reminded about how many great moments there are which do not feature Arnold. There are secondary characters that people sometimes forget. Paul Winfield and Lance Henriksen are terrific as a pair of put upon cops, following up on a spree killing where the victims share a name. Henriksen's character just can't stop talking and making comments that feels slightly inappropriate at the end of a conversation. Winfield's captain looks at him askew, and seems to suggest "shut up!" with just a glance. Winfield is particularly sympathetic as he comforts Sarah Connor when she first arrives at the police station. We can almost believe that everything's going to be okay. Of course we know at this point that the police are in way over their heads. Sarah has to rediscover that, and the shootout at the police station is a forerunner of so many contemporary shootout sequences that we see in today's films. John Wick and Jason Statham clearly have been influenced by these scenes.

Michael Biehn is maybe the great underrated aspect of this movie. Clearly Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton are pivotal characters as the film series develops. It is the role of Kyle Reese, the soldier from the future, who arrives to protect Sarah Connor, that sets the standard for badass heroes and plot twists. Reese is just a man, fighting an unstoppable machine, but constantly finding ways to slow it down, and get the best of it. He and Sarah could have easily disappeared, but it is a human error on the part of the pursued victim, that allows the pursuer to track them down. Reese never loses his cool, and even as he's dying, he plays the badass. You can also clearly believe that he fell in love with the reputation and the Polaroid picture of Sarah Connor from the past. The fact that he becomes the father of the man who was his Commander is just one of those nice twists that come with time traveling stories and a creative like James Cameron.

There were a load of people at the screening at Alamo when we went. Many of them look like they had been in a theater 40 years ago when the movie first opened. Like me, they were experiencing a bit of nostalgia, but also the excitement that comes from seeing something that is really well made, and sells itself based on the innovative ideas and the creative shortcuts that the filmmakers took advantage of. As most of us know, these films will never stop playing, even if franchise follow-ups stop being produced. The best way to say it, is to simply the paraphrase,  "this will be back".

The Last Starfighter (1984) - Revisit 2014

 

The above is not the trailer for the film, rather it is the YouTube version of the podcast that we did on the LAMBcast a month ago. I also wrote about the screening we went to last year, and you cna check that out HERE. 

So there are no additional comments that I want to add at this time, but I will share a picture with you.

We have been recruited to defend the frontier against Xur and the Kodan Armada

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series- 2001: A Space Odyssey

 

Every time I see this movie I am floored by the accomplishment of the technicians, craftsmen and especially the director of this film. I have written about the movie a couple of times before. You can read my comments from last year's screening at the Paramount Theater here. I have a more extensive look at the film from a screening I took my daughter to at the Egyptian Theater in 2016. It still befuddles me how she can love movies, the way I do, but not love this film. As the programmer mentioned in his introduction, everyone will see something different in the movie, and probably different every time they see it.

This time around, I thought I might talk a bit about 2001 as a horror story. It may not be a slasher film in the traditional sense, and there is no monster per se in the film, except for the A.I. at the heart of the main part of the film. The HAL 9000 is the apex of computer technology in the era of the film. Referred to as "Hal", it really feels like a crewman aboard the Discovery. Along with Dave Bowman and Frank Poole, Hal works and interacts with the team onboard like any other soul. In fact at times, his warm voice and cheerful demeanor in playing chess, doing his psyche profiles of the crew and diagnosing problems with the telecommunication array, Hal can feel less mechanical than the speech and appearance of his human compatriots.  We realize however, in the first inkling of the horror to come, that Hal has his own agenda, when he eavesdrops on Frank and Dave when they isolate themselves in one of the pods. This perfect intermission pause lets us ponder the danger ahead. 

Hal turns out to be a spree killer. There is something wrong with him despite the vaunted reputation of the 9000 series of computers. His protestations that he is only acting in the best interest of the mission by preventing Dave and Frank from shutting down his higher level capacities, is really just a cover for killing to protect his self image. He cannot accept the fact that he has made a mistake somewhere, and that it is not human error that accounts for that failure. He does not need to kill the three crewman in hibernation to prevent his shutdown, and they are an essential part of the mission. So his action is a reflex to being discovered as a fraud. The AI in Hal has become a little too human. 

The dramatic sequence where Hal shuts down the life support for the sleeping crew is horrifying without any overt violence and no blood at all. The more direct murder of Frank Poole is more visually engaging and intellectually cruel, but the starkest element of the whole thing, which really turns this section into a horror film, at least for a moment, is when he is confronted by Dave in the excursion pod. Not yet realizing what Hal has done, Dave attempts to rescue Frank, and learns upon his return to the ship that Hal will no longer cooperate with him. By letting Dave remain stuck in the pod without any recourse, it is as if he has buried him alive and he is walking away without a second thought. 

Hal once again tries to gain back some humanity, when Dave finds a way to defeat Hal's attempted murder. Hal grovels and pleads for understanding. In essence he is begging for his life. Dave becomes a vindictive avenger, but it is only an act of self preservation. He won't kill Hal without at least allowing him a human moment, like the one Hal tried to deny him. If this interpretation seems unreasonable to you, contrast this movie with Kubrick's version of "The Shining". Hal Kills more people than Jack Torrance does, and he is as evil in his banality as Jack was in his fever dreams.

Like I said, there are a myriad of ways to see this film, I just thought I'd take a different journey for this screening. I had a marvelous time, in part because I received several comments from other audience members on my shirt. In fact, the compliment I received allowed me to engage in a nice conversation with Mark and his daughter Nari, who were seated right behind me. He asked if he could take a picture on my shirt and I asked him to take one for me. Mari had not seen the whole film before last night. Her previous attempt did not make it to the intermission and the home viewing experience according to her was marred by her own cell phone distraction. She seemed sufficiently satisfied at the end of the movie, so it's likely Mark will get the pleasure of seeing this again with his daughter. I wish I could say the same about my own kid. Oh well, be your own person, but you are missing out on something here. 

 

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-The Searchers

 

We missed "The Searchers" at the TCM Film Festival this year because it was opposite to "Chinatown". I am so thankful that Steven Jannise and the Paramount Programmed it for their 70mm week, because that was the format we missed when we were in Los Angeles. This iconic western has one of the all time great John Wayne performances, and it is another of his many collaborations with the great John Ford.

Ethan Edwards (Wayne) is a returning Civil War vet, from the losing side, who reconnects with his brother's family in Texas. Ethan is a hard case in regard to an adopted nephew, who has some of the Native American blood that ran through the veins of the Indians who killed Ethan's parents. Marty, has been considered a brother and son to Aaron and Martha and their children. Marty is played by Jeffrey Hunter, who I knew best as Captain Christopher Pike in the pilot for Star Trek. His easy going manner and sincerity become a counterpoint to Ethan during the film. Ethan is wise and sly and plays his cards close to the vest. Like Sonny Corleone, Marty sometimes lets people outside of the family know what he is thinking, resulting in complications. 

The thing they are searching for is the remaining sister of the family, everyone else having been slaughtered in an Indian raid while Ethan and Marty were with a posse pursuing a false lead. The young Debbie has been taken by a Chief they learn is named "Scar", and for five years, they pursue rumors, stories and tips about the white girl and the Indian Chief who has taken her into his tribe. Wayne's performance is frequently grim for several plot related reasons. It is strongly suggested that he carried a torch for his sister-in-law, and one of the reasons he was slow to return after the was was this unstated love. It also appears that he has been a bit of a tough guy on the trail, maybe benefiting from some less than savory means of making a living, although he does seem to have a code which would preclude anything we might thing of as unethical.

Most of the movie is filmed in Monument Valley and it looks spectacular in color. Ford seemed to really love that part of the country and made it the backdrop in several of his films. The hostility of the Indian tribes is not the only problem that Ethan and Marty face on the trail. In addition to inclement weather, they encounter bushwhacking merchants, overzealous Texas Rangers and domestic conflict at home. It seems that Mary and Laurie, from the neighboring homestead, have a less than well defined romantic relationship. Each of them finds themselves involved with a different partner that they truly don't want.  There is a lot of humor in the film, and most of it comes from their tempestuous long distance love affair.

Ethan and Marty are also at cross purposes in regard to Debbie. Both of them want to save her from captivity and sexual slavery as one of Scar's wives, but they have completely different ideas about what that means. Ethan's bitterness at the loss of his family drives hatred toward the Indians and their path. There are two or three action sequences where a fight between the Searchers and Indian warriors take place. Ethan is in his natural environment in those moments.  He lets his hatred overcome him when plotting against Scar. Marty is the hopeful optimist who wants to reunite his sister with the homelife that he knows. The main conflict in the end is between he and Ethan and also Ethan's inner selves. At the resolution, Ethan remains an outsider, in spite of the ultimate decision he makes.This is a deep thought western, not just a shoot'em up. So glad to see it on the big screen and in 70 mm.

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-Josie and the Pussycats

 

When I first saw this movie in 2001, I thought it was a fantastic satire of pop culture and consumerism. My opinion was not widely shared, as the film was a big flop and to rub dirt in the wound, prominent critic Roger Ebert gave the movie half a star as it's rating. I think after losing Gene Siskel as a partner, Roger got an inflated opinion of his own opinion, and drifted from the audience a little to often. This movie is a pop confection with a nice subverted message about pop culture, and the most well known film critic of his time, missed the whole point. 

Rather than rebut the review of the long gone Mr. Ebert, I plan on explaining my point of view, right here, right now. There are several ways that you can process the film, and I am going to talk about three of them. The first and most elemental take on the movie is that it is a teen comedy, made primarily for young girls and enlightened boys. Josie, Val, and Melody are three girls from a midwestern town, dreaming of rock stardom but fated to play at the bowling alley, mostly on spec. Josie has a crush on longtime guy pal Alan M, but is flummoxed about saying anything, just as he is. This is your usual case of pluralistic ignorance in a romantic comedy. By the end of the story will they overcome their mutual intimidation and get together? Of course they will, but guess what, this is barely the C plot in the story. If you are focusing on romantic comedy, you are going to miss the point of the film. Mel and Val don't get romantic counterparts, Alan M is mostly superfluous to the story, the usual rom-com tropes are missing, deliberately so. That is so not what the movie is about. 

The second way of looking at the film is as a rags to riches rise of a pop band. "The Pussycats" struggle to find a place in the music industry, and break through the barriers they encounter with gumption and talent. This is a little closer to the real story of the film because so much of the movie involves the songs and performances that the band create. There are recording sessions, promotional videos for MTV, and stage shows for audiences primed by their love of the music. Anyone who says the songs are not good enough to produce success, much less be entertaining, has not heard any pop music since 1962. Maybe every song is not a banger, but "Three Small Words", "Pretend to be Nice" and "Spin Around" are the kinds of tunes that could easily form the backbone of an album.  Each of those tunes could be the encore song for a popular girl band at the turn of the century. Song writers Adan Schlesinger, Adam Duritz and Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds are all part of the ensemble of producers, writers and music professionals, who made sure that the songs of the Pussycats were credible pop tunes. I will put their credibility and my personal taste, up against any of the naysayers out there. 

Still, in spite of the fact that the rise to stardom plotline is substantial, it is not the main paradigm by which the film can be judged. The third and maybe most important element of the film is the satire on consumerism and the influence of the media on teen culture. This film suggests a secret cabal of product manufacturers, government, and technical media wizardry could drive the economy with the money from teens. This is before Facebook, You Tube, and Twitter existed. The writers of this film saw that the rise of media influence would be the strongest force for consumption in the future. Everyone out there making a career as an influencer, can look at this movie and say, "that's how it starts". Replace the Head of the Record Company, Fiona, and her toady assistant Wyatt, with some You Tubers and a couple of media analysts, and you have the world of today.  (Of course none of them are as much fun as Parker Posey and Alan Cummings)

The whole opening segment with the boy band is a commercial for dozens of products, satirically.  That joke is extended through the whole movie. Amazingly enough, these were not paid placements, like they would have been in a hundred other movies, they were targets (Including Target) of the film makers suspicion of consumer manipulation. If you think "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nirvana was cutting criticism of youth consumerism, how could everyone miss the savagely aggressive takedown of product placement, teen fashion trends and celebrity worship that this movie took on? I don't know, but somehow they did. 

If the rise of Boy Bands, manufactured by record companies and supplemented by autotune and other technologies is a sore point with music lovers, why is it that the "DuJour" song "Backdoor Lover" from the fictional band in this film, not become a rallying cry against manufactured music? It is a great takedown of the form, and it is also hysterical. There might be some PC resistance to it these days, but a quarter of a century ago, it would be embraced by hipsters as ironically ideal.

The three girls in the power trio that make up the Pussycats are spot on. Rachel Leigh Cook has that punk girl next door quality. She has attitude but not bitterness and she is cute as heck. Rosario Dawson has been the thinking mans sex symbol for two decades now. She is smart, tough and attractive and her character is in tune with what is going on from the beginning. Tara Reid, was the staple hot chick of 90s movies and she is delightfully dingy and sweet as Melody, who loves puppies and plays the drums with gusto. 

"Josie and the Pussycats" has all the markings of a cult film. It was a flop initially, it has undergone re-evaluation and it has a devoted following of fans who are willing to humiliate themselves to show their love. That was evident Sunday Night as the audience was full of people wearing their cat ears through the whole movie. Me Included. I am not a late arrival to the cult, I could easily be the founder.  I have shouted praise for this movie for a long time. Back in 2013, I featured it in one of my posts "Movies I Want Everyone to See".   

Paramount Classic Film Series-Roman Holiday

I think it might be interesting to know the effect this film can have on a person by describing to you the context in which I saw it and the impact had on me last Sunday. We had a tight schedule, and so left for the movie with just an hour to spare. It is usually a 40-minute trip down to Austin from where we live, and then a 5 to 10 minute walk over to the theater. Typically we leave much earlier and arrive anywhere from 30 minutes to 60 minutes before the film is supposed to screen. Clearly we were cutting it close. When we arrived at the parking garage, the kiosk that distributes the tickets was not working and we had a backup of cars behind us who could not get into the structure as we could not. I used the call box and a voice said somebody would be coming down to take care of the problem, but I had no idea how long it was going to take them. The car is behind me finally backed up and left the structure which allowed me to do the same. As the time was getting closer to the start of the film, while I was stuck, I sent Amanda on ahead and told her I would find parking and just meet her in the theater. When I finally got out of the structure which has been my usual parking spot for the summer, and for which I have a prepaid voucher, I needed to find a place to park in downtown Austin. There was a lot on the corner three blocks south and I pulled in there, thinking that would be the solution. When I checked the QR code instructions I discovered that the fee for parking in this lot was $11 an hour, far higher than I had imagined it would be for a Sunday afternoon. So I pulled out of that lot drove around the block and pulled into another structure for one of the high-rises in downtown, it had a list price of $10 a day for weekend parking. That was much more reasonable but it was a slightly longer walk. At this point I was pretty irritable, and then somebody on the street with a political message that I don't particularly care for approached me and I lashed out. I rudely told them what I thought of their message and plowed on with as much indifference as I could muster after having blown my stack. I got to the theater made it inside and sat down next to Amanda 5 seconds before the lights went down and the movie started. I was still quite wound up and frustrated, but within 5 minutes my soul was soothed, my mind was at rest and the negative memories were far away. That's what this movie can accomplish almost instantaneously.

This effect is entirely responsibility of the ephemeral and eternal beauty and charm of the star Audrey Hepburn. As a put-upon princess who longs for connection with the real world, Hepburn is the epitome of grace and loveliness. We can instantaneously sympathize with her frazzled persona, as she stands in a presentation line with one shoe off, and she struggles to get it back on so as not too embarrass the nation she represents. The baroness and the doctor who are responsible for managing her, or micromanaging her, are supportive bureaucrats, merely carrying out their dictates. It's a miracle that she figures out how to escape the surroundings before she collapses from the drug that has been administered to help her sleep. Of course this sets up the cute meet with a journalist, Gregory Peck. Their first 10 minutes together are quite charming, and once he takes her back to his apartment to safely allow her to fall asleep, the movie takes on an almost slapstick nature. You're expecting sophisticated comedy from the film, and there's plenty of that, but there are also pratfalls in the small apartment, tumbles from the bed, and mistaken inferences by the housekeeper and the landlord. Gregory Peck is as solemn as he usually is but he does get a little bit more excited and in character when he realizes what he's gotten himself into and the opportunity it presents. This is a romantic comedy that plays with the idea of social status in a more serious way than any of the other royalty falls in love with commoner films you are likely to have seen. This is not the "Princess Diaries".

Once the journalist and the princess start off on their excursions around the Eternal City of Rome, the fun begins to be more consistent. Accompanied by his friend, a photographer played by Eddie Albert, Peck is trying to maneuver the princess into not only having a good time, but revealing things about herself that he would never have any chance of getting in a formal interview. The fact that he is being duplicitous is a little off-putting and it takes the dawning love between the two of them to show that his true nature is not really his harsh as we were led to believe. Nowadays it would certainly be a fairy tale to imagine that somebody working in this sort of journalistic format could be circumspect enough to choose not to publish some information. This may in fact account for the notion that this is more of a fairy tale than a romantic comedy. I still found it quite affecting when after the princess has returned to her role, she discovers that her partner was in fact a reporter, but that he has no intention of violating her trust. They played at a surface level that is just right for their stations in this story. And of course while all of this was happening, we got a little travel log of the city of Rome.

There was so much to smile about by the end of the film that I  nearly forgotten how crazy I  was when I first sat down. The rest of the day went so much more smoothly and I felt so much better having been entertained by two fabulous stars of the golden era of Hollywood. If anyone ever suggests that Audrey Hepburn didn't deserve to win the award for best actress in "Roman Holiday", just make them watch the 5 minutes seen at the end where she wordlessly accepts the circumstances of her responsibility, and the love that she's not going to be able to follow. It's a perfect example of acting for the screen. All hail the princess.

Reagan (2024)

We unfortunately live in a world where any sort of political position seems to result in backlash instead of discussion. There shouldn't be anything controversial about reviewing a biopic that covers the life of the 40th President of the United States. The man had a compelling story, starting with an impoverished childhood, running through the Golden Age of Hollywood, touching down on the Red Scare of the 50s, the counterculture of the 60s, and the threat of nuclear war as a result of the Cold War in the 1980s. The fact that there's so much to talk about May in fact be the key weakness of this film. The script tries to cover so much of Reagan's life and so many of the key events in his political career, that there's not really much time to reflect on any of it. This plays like a slideshow reminder for people who lived through the era, and a set of bullet points for younger viewers who only know Reagan from their history books or memes on the internet.

As I said, I hesitate to even discuss the film because people will have knee-jerk reactions to the mere mention of a political figure. On one side you'll have people who will react negatively simply because they identify with a different political philosophy. On the other side of course, worshipful fans might be too forgiving of the flaws of the film. Everyone will be looking to score some political points one way or the other from the movie. I remain committed to my goal of writing something about every film I see in a theater, so I'm not going to let the fear of opening a can of political worms keep me from putting some words down on this film.

Reagan is an interesting political figure because he was elected president with a 40 state Electoral College victory in 1980, and a 49 state victory in 1984. He was clearly a very popular president, and the film gives us several reasons to see why. The one thing that the film does which makes it worthwhile, is to focus on the character of the president, his sense of morality, and the ethos that drove him. Even if you don't care for that sort of philosophical bent, I think you'll have a better understanding of how it influenced Ronald Reagan over his lifetime. The other big thing that the film has going for it is the lead performance of Dennis Quaid. He's not quite doing an impersonation of the well-known president, but he does get his cadence and intonation pretty well covered. He also presents him as a cheerful advocate for his positions, rather than the impenetrable wall that many biographers have found. If there is a weak performance in the film it is probably Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan. Her performance feels a little brittle and stagy. Sometimes she seems to be shouting when it's not completely necessary. I'm sure she has Nancy Reagan's unfailing love for Ronald Reagan completely covered, but whenever her character steps out of the romantic entanglement and into the larger political sphere, it feels overdone.

There's a terrific supporting Cast in the film, many well-known character actors get a chance to shine in the spotlight during the course of the story. Nick Searcy is doing a great job as chief of staff James Baker. Xander Berkeley is George Schultz and Dan Lauria does a pretty reasonable impression of House Speaker Tip O'Neill. C. Thomas Howell is also in the film as part of Reagan's Cadre of advisors. The most significant role in the film, for an actor playing a character part, is the former Russian analyst portrayed by John Voight, using an accent it is a lot more clear than the one he used in Anaconda. This plot line is really the backbone of the film, in spite of its fictionalized nature. His character is telling the story of Reagan from the perspective of an adversarial spy, after the events have already occurred, in an attempt to explain the significance of Reagan's personality but especially his political ideology. Some of the things that get developed in the story might be the kinds of things that would justify some political shenanigans. This framing story however is not that central to the main character of the film.

Although the film comes from a specialty Film Production, the technical aspects of the film are very solid, and the effects, sets, and photography do not let down the professionalism of the movie. The story is a little schmaltzy because it is trying to cover the entire life of Reagan. It remains shallow as a consequence. I think this would have been a film which could be more successful artistically if it picked a significant event from Reagan's presidency and connected it to maybe his early anti-communist stance. That's the approach that Spielberg took with his Lincoln film, and it might have been a better choice for this movie. Regardless of the weaknesses of the script, I do think that the film achieves one of its objectives, namely making Ronald Reagan a real person for a large part of the audience that did not live in his times.

The Crow (2024)

 

I've never been the biggest fan of the original "The Crow" from 1994. It's a perfectly acceptable film, it's main attraction being the goth-like look of the city in decay that is haunted by the avenging spirit of Brandon Lee's character. The whole plot itself mostly consists of a revenge driven fantasy, which doesn't do much to build character, or make us loath the villains who are being given justice. It's a paint by numbers Vengeance film with a supernatural element to it. In that version of the film there is no explanation whatsoever as to why the character comes back from the dead. There is only some mumbo jumbo about crows leading the dead to the after world or back to this one if something is left undone. The impervious nature of Eric's body to weapons and punishment is clearly supernatural but not very clear as to why it is happening.

This version of the movie attempts to answer those questions and make the plot line conform to a more coherent structure. I'm not sure that that's completely necessary but I had a better understanding of what the hell was going on when watching this than I did with the original. That however is not enough to make this a good movie. The fact that we meet the hero and his lost love early in the film and spend some time understanding how they got together and what they mean to one another, does help a little bit, but it moves pretty slow and I'm not sure how much the audience really care about this. Apparently the whole plot that appears in this film concerning a minion of Satan using his powers on Earth to send innocent souls to hell is completely new with this screenplay. I didn't have any problem with this since it conforms to the other part of the story about why Eric comes back from the dead in the first place. It also makes the ultimate villain of the piece a little bit more interesting than in the previous film.

The slow moving first hour is not likely to endear this film to most viewers. A love story between two drug users, who break out of rehab and somehow managed to find an upscale apartment to stay in and unlimited resources to function with, is not really that appealing. The two characters are all right, with the female lead being more appealing than our main protagonist. There's a convoluted connection to the villain and why this young woman is being sent to hell and why Eric feels he must come back from the dead to try and save her. Blah blah blah.

I suspect what fans really want from a film like this, are the sequences where the hero makes the bad guys suffer for their sins. I know that's what I was sitting here waiting for. When it happens this film goes further in making the punishments seem harsher and more just, given what the criminals are responsible for. Eric doesn't seem so much like a righteous angel as he does an Angry Young Man who simply has an extraordinary power to survive deadly force. Apparently death also makes him an expert at using a sword and firing a gun. It doesn't matter how he got so good with those tools, all that matters is that he uses them and we get to see. So there are dismemberments, piercings, and face shooting galore at the start of the third act, and damn it that's what we've been waiting for.

Bill Skarsgårdis is in fact a perfectly acceptable replacement for Brandon Lee and the role of The Crow. He has a washed out hollow look, and the lanky frame of a drug user, who's still possesses a little bit of physical capability. He never comes across however as anything other than an angry man. There is very little depth to his mission, even when it appears that he has to accept a truly negative consequence in order to pursue it. Little thought has been put into whatever intellectual concepts might have been relevant in a revenge story of this type. Danny Houston is particularly reptilian as the minion of the evil one, who is trading the souls of hundreds of Innocence, for his continued existence on Earth. He seems to have some Supernatural persuasive voice, like some Hellbound Bene Gesserit, convincing the innocent to do something that will damn them. It's all a little fuzzy, as are most of the things in this story.

As I've already said, the main difference between this film and the previous iteration of "The Crow", is the look of the film. So much of this version occurs during daylight hours, maybe the skies are cloudy, but it is certainly not as dark is the 94 film was. The original Crow had the death of Brandon Lee hanging over it, which probably also accounts for its cult status. This version of the movie will probably not achieve that standard. I guess is it will be forgotten after this last weekend, in fact I nearly forgot that I had seen it myself.

Paramount Classic Film Series Double Feature-The Breakfast Club and 10 Things I Hate About You

 

We are heading into the final week of then Summer Series and the Double features are piling up. Friday featured two teen films from different decades. "The Breakfast Club" is a Gen X staple from 1985 and "10 Things I Hate About You" is catnip for millennial girls. The show was well attended and the audience stuck around for the second movie.

The Breakfast Club (1985) 

I must have seen this movie a couple dozen times over the years. That is largely because I used a section of it in my Small Group Communication Classes and my Interpersonal Communication classes. Regardless of how credible the personalities in the film are, the process by which they interact is a good illustration of several communication concepts I was trying to teach my classes. Most of the students I taught were not too distant from the high school experience in the film, so some of the instigating events would likely feel relevant to them.

How do you see yourself as a person? Are you capable, a clown, superior, a leader or a toady? Why do you think of yourself that way? In the film, the strongest influence that writer/director John Hughes came up with is the power of the family and parents to shape who you see when you look in the mirror. Emilio Estevez as Andy, sees a jock, who must live up to the experience of his father. Anthony Michael Hall as Brian, is the smart kid, who has never failed a class, is an A student, and who has a family that expects him to excel. Molly Ringwald is Claire, a princess, who has been pampered by her parents and coddled through life,, with unhappy role models. John Bender played by Judd Nelson is an anti-social misanthrope, who has been formed by an abusive set of parents, and Allison, the introverted outsider is ignored by her family and craves the love she doesn't get at home. True, they are all stereotypes, but they clearly illustrate some of the principles that our self concept derives from.

When they finally break down some barriers, the subject of self-disclosure becomes the focus of the film. You can see each of the kids testing the safety of the group when thinking about honestly sharing something about themselves. Bender is slower to share because he fears a loss of power in the relationships, Claire on the other hand is concerned with status. Brian and Andy disclose to the group as a form of catharsis, trying to lessen the burden they carry on themselves. Allison shares false information to manipulate the others and then reciprocates with some truth when she knows that others have made themselves vulnerable. I would run these scenes in class and usually, someone would pick out something connected to what we had talked about and for a few minutes, there would be some actual conversation.

The movie is also filled with entertaining moments, sometimes the kids dance, sometimes they obfuscate with the vice principal monitoring them during their detention. Paul Gleason was maybe tied with William Atherton as the go to actor for the asshole character in a film. Mr. Vernon is mostly an adult, who resents the kids for putting him in the position he is in. Although in the closing essay that Brian wrote for the group, where they mock his assignment and assumptions about them, it is in fact the assignment that they have been completing in the whole film. Maybe they will never use algebra, but they will use these lessons in life. There are some very funny moments and some painful ones. They may not always be credible, but they work for the most part.

10 Things I Hate About You

One of the many films that updates stories from William Shakespeare in the 1990s, "!0 Things I Hate About You" would be a film I saw multiple times twenty four years ago, because I had teen and tween daughters who loved it, and we had a DVD player. This movie was a go to for gatherings with their friends, rainy Saturday afternoons or days spent home when they were sick. Heath Ledger planted the seeds of his future fandom and legacy in the hearts of girls everywhere with this movie. Julia Styles may very well have turned one of my daughters into the heinous bitch version of her character simply by presenting that attitude as being so cool.

If you are familiar with "The Taming of the Shrew", you will recognize how closely this hewed to the original plot structure. There are occasional names, and lines that will connect the film to the play as well. While this is still a teen romantic comedy, it is one that goes much deeper than usual in those types of films. The nature of popularity is not just treated as a joke, but as an actual dilemma that teens must confront in some way or another. The two male leads find that truth is a better path to happiness than pretention, and of course the pretentious one gets a comic comeuppance.

Larry Miller plays the father of the two female leads, and he has had a prolific career in film and television as a character actor. This role may be his most memorable because of the way he plays his scenes with star Julia Stiles. He goes from comic foil to supportive father in one really memorable scene. Allison Janney is about to start her time on "The West Wing" but the goofy, wannabe romance writer as vice principal was a fun role in just a couple of brief scenes.  

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and David Krumholtz are a terrific comic duo with great timing in their scenes together. Krumholtz probably steals more scenes than he should, but he does pay for it when he has a penis drawn on his face, and Andrew Keegan may have typecast himself perfectly with his performance as the self centered antagonist in the film. If you are a fan of indie's rock music of the 90s, you will find it in abundance on the soundtrack of this film.

In the packed audience last Friday, it was clear there were a number of women reliving their youth. Every time Heath Ledger did something in the film that was charming or cute, you could hear sighs and cheers throughout the auditorium. If I was thirty years younger, I might have considered it a prime situation for hitting on women who liked the film and wanted to experience the exuberance of young love once again. I'm not that young or stupid, but I smiled every time some woman let out a small moan of pleasure during the film. 

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series- The Man who Knew Too Much (1956) Hitchcock Week

 

Jimmy Stewart returns to the Paramount with another Hitchcock thriller, a very rare remake of his own work "The Man Who Knew Too Much". This is an international intrigue with a political assassination as the MacGuffin. The settings include  London and Marrakesh, and there are authentic location shots mixed with rear screen projection. Most of the interior shots were done in Hollywood on sound stages, but the film has an international flavor to it because of all the extras and the supporting roles.

The title gives away just enough to let us know that it is information which drives the plot. Stewart and Doris Day play the married couple, Doctor and Mrs. McKenna. He worked in the army Mash unit in North Africa during the war, and she was a well known pop singer when they met in London. They are returning to those haunts on a medical junket/vacation, with their little boy. They get connected to a man, Lois Bernard, who speaks Arabic as well as French and English, when he helps them with a cultural misunderstanding on a bus ride to Marrakesh from Casablanca. Bernard turns out to have been some sort of spy, who for is not clear, the local French authorities are suspicious of the Americans having any contact with him. It turns out there is a conspiracy, and the son of the nice American couple is used as a tool to keep them from sharing what they know.

Maybe the idea of an Indiana Doctor and his pop singer wife, turning into spies who travel to London, seems far fetched. The real strength that drives them is their love for their little boy and the animosity they feel toward those who betrayed them and threaten their son. Stewart gets tense in some scenes, clutching his fingers in anger below the surface of a table, struggling to contain his frustration. Day is more openly desperate and the scene where her husband has to sedate her before he can reveal their son's abduction is frightening and sad. 

The British security authority who wants them to trust his agency, is incapable of following up on their promise. The bureaucratic mind of the police officers who could potentially have stopped the plot by taking an active crime as enough justification to enter a building is almost as infuriating as the assassination plot. Of course, social niceties are also why Jo McKenna and the Doctor, don't disrupt a concert performance where the murder is supposed to take place. The final scream of warning comes at the last minute, which is thrilling for a drama, but makes little logical sense.

Having seen "Notorious" just two nights earlier, it is striking how much the descending staircase image dominates the climax of both movies. It seems to be a Hitchcock trope so when you watch "Psycho" remember, he has done this before. I think this is one of the few Academy Award winning songs that is actually relevant to the plot. Doris Day was a crossover star of the era, a singer and actress, and she took a simple little sing along tune and turned it into a moment of tension during the final act. She was famously uncertain about how she was doing in the role, but when you watch the screen, it is clear, she has command of her part.

This is another mystery thriller that mixes murder, espionage and ordinary people together in a well written script. The execution of the drama and suspense cannot be faulted, and the performances are top notch. If you ever get a chance to see this on the big screen, take it, you will be in the hands of a master.

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series Double Feature-Dial M for Murder and Rope (Hitchcock Week)

 

Dial M for Murder

A double dose of Hitchcock last Friday night, with two films based on plays that take place in a limited setting. First up, the star studded "Dial M for Murder" from 1954. Ray Milland, the Academy Award winning actor from a decade earlier in "The Lost Weekend", plays a retired English tennis player, married to a socialite American played by Grace Kelly, who would win the Academy Award this same year for another film. There is however a love triangle going on as she is still emotionally involved with a former paramour, played by Bob Cummings.

The plot involves an elaborate murder plot that goes awry and deepens the sinister nature of the crime. Tony is a conniving dilettante, who is unsatisfied with his life as a married man who has retired from his sport.  He maneuvers an old school acquaintance into his plot through a blackmail threat. His goal is to do away with his wife, inherit her money and be safely alibied by his wife's former lover. Things don't go according to plan but Tony is a clever man if not an ethical one, he improvises a scenario that results in an even more solid cover for his crime.   

The Paramount Program Director, Steven Jannise, correctly lauds Grace Kelly as the victimized woman in the story, but I am not sure you can say she steals the picture because Milland as the villain, is unctuous, quick footed, and capable of making the most seemingly innocent things look bad, while also explaining away his own bad actions in a reasonable manner. The part is very cleverly written and Milland handles it with aplomb. Kelly does the distraught wife and victim role well, but there needs to be a little more to her indignance at what transpires.

There are two supporting performances that deserve some attention away from the shade of the stars. John Williams portrays the suspicious Chief Inspector Hubbard, who follows a false trail at first and then doggedly pursues the truth on a last minute bit of subterfuge. Williams is brilliant in the part, side eying everyone and  smiling at his own suspicions. It is exactly the kind of performance that makes a movie special. Also deserving some kudos is Anthony Dawson, who plays the shady schoolmate recruited by Tony to be his weapon. I hadn't recognized him immediately, and I should have, perhaps the moustache was in fact a perfect disguise. Dawson is the actor that plays Professor Dent in Dr. No. He is on the receiving end of James Bonds Walther, when his Smith and Wesson runs out of ammo. As 

Charles Alexander Swann/Captain Lesgate, Dawson is sinister and charming as he loses a battle of wits with the well prepared Tony. 

The film is set largely on the apartment of Tony and Margo, with brief exteriors in front of their building and a couple of scenes set in the police headquarters of Chief Inspector Hubbard. The part with the key switch was a memorable moment in "The West Wing" one of my favorite TV series. The President is screening "Dial M for Murder" and trying to connect with his middle daughter Elle, who is resisting his fatherly sense of humor. The resolution of the scene with the Hitchcock film in the background is one of the warm moments from the series.

Rope

The second feature was another movie based on a play, and it is a grand experiment for the master of suspense. Set entirely in the apartment of the two killers, "Rope" is a psychological tug of war between the killers and their former mentor, the head of their house at prep school. Jimmy Stewart was a frequent star in Hitchcock films, and this was his first foray into the thriller territory that Hitch was the ultimate authority in. 

Pseudo intellectual entitled miscreants Brandon Hall and Phillip Morgan, murder a former classmate and friend as an intellectual exercise in power and superiority. They have taken the late night bull sessions with their teacher, way too seriously. Swallowing whole the philosophy of Nietzsche's "Superman", they kill as a way of affirming their own superiority.  Brandon, a narcissist with a sadistic streak, secures the body of their victim in a  wooden chest that he turns into a center piece at a party he is hosting with Phillip in their apartment. The dead man's father, Aunt and fiancé, as well as his former best friend are all in attendance.  When Rupert Cadell, their school house head and mentor, comes to the party, the intellectual cat and mouse games begin. Jimmy Stewart as Cadell, starts to suspect his former students are guilty of something as the snarky Brandon drops hints of his intellectual pretensions while the unnerved Phillip, drinks himself into a morose shell of himself and practically confesses to the crime repeatedly.

The movie is shot in continuity, as if it is all one take. The transitions between the film cuts, necessitated by the limit of ten minutes worth of film at a time, are covered by fades into someone's back or shots cast into a shadow. The movie also plays out in real time, a brief eighty minutes of tense talk and camera movements limited by the setting. The conclusion is a little melodramatic but the film is a fascinating experiment and it features an interesting set of performances from the two villains. The idea that they are superior to a character like the decent Mr. Kentley , played by Cedric Hardwicke, is ultimately laughable. Their twisted self rationalizations are thin and not even convincing to the man they think they are taking inspiration from.

I've seen the film a couple of times, including a theatrical experience at a revival house back in the 1980s. I can't quite remember if it was at the Rialto in South Pasadena or at the New Beverly in West Hollywood. Regardless, it is a great way to see the film, but it may be one Hitchcock that is not diminished by viewing on a TV. 

Alien Romulus (2024)

 

Ever since James Cameron's "Aliens" I have been excited about a new entry into the franchise, and then disappointed with the product. The second film was the last time I walked out of an Alien movie, completely satisfied. That pattern is not entirely eliminated by the new entry "Alien Romulus", but I can say that the level of disappointment was much lower than the previous two films produced. "Romulus" is basically a remake of the original premise, but after a strong first half, it falls into rapid action sequences that don't satisfy the tension levels the way I would like. People, study your Spielberg/Hitchcock films a little more, you are imitating but not replicating the suspense.

Director Fede Alvarez has tread this territory before. In 2013, he took the original "Evil Dead" movies and remade them as a smashing example of horror and practical effects. That film not only stuck to the formula, it upped the ante on suspense. With "Romulus", he has basically replayed the same plot in a slightly different location, with a slightly modified crew, but ultimately, you can pick out the beats of the film that follow exactly from the original. We get six characters (plus one) in search of a death by Aliens.  

One of the reasons that I like the slow burn first hour, is that it contains the biggest difference in the plotline from the original. Instead of going down to a planet to investigate a derelict ship , our crew is going up from the planet surface to ransack a derelict space station. The artificial person starts of as benign, and has a surprising story arc. The Weyland/Yutani Corporation continues to be the enemy in the story, but in the initial launch of the plot, they do so in a completely different way. Somehow, indentured servitude has become a legitimate employment practice.  Ridley Scott's film "Blade Runner" could easily be a companion piece to what is going on here. If someone wanted to make a political thriller out of these two film conceits, it would be a great story.

That slow build structure is a lot like the original movie, with an opportunity to meet and start to care about the characters we are doing to watch be massacred. None is given a complete backstory, but we get a good sense of who they are during act one. The young colonists are determined to obtain the material on the station, to facilitate their exit from the mining world they are trapped on. It is not essential to know some things, but I would like to understand why Rain, our lead character and Tyler, her ex-boyfriend broke up. What is Tyler's job on the planet and why does he have a spacecraft? Bjorn is the designated ass, and we get a little about his resentment of synthetics, but nothing about why he and Navarro are together. Kay is Tyler's sister, and she just seems to be along for the ride as non-essential personnel. The most interesting character is the artificial person, Andy. When so much energy is put into making the robot the sympathetic character at the start of the film, you know there are going to be some manipulative moments later on.

I liked that the film tried to use practical effects as much as possible. Including, up to a point, a second artificial person. When we finally get a closer examination of that character, who is named Rook, we know that A.I. has crept into bed with the puppets and models that have been the mainstay of the film up to that point. There are lots of Aliens as the story goes along, many of them in the form of face-huggers that add the earliest creep elements to the movie. When we get to the climax, there is a big shift in the imagery and our suspension of disbelief is sorely tested.

If I were ranking all of the Alien Films, this one would come in behind "Alien" and "Aliens", but quite a ways behind them, although in front of all the others.  I don't think there was a jump scare that got me, and only a couple of the fx moments were gruesome enough to make this feel like a horror film. Go see it, you will probably have a good time, but keep your expectations in check.

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series- Notorious (Hitchcock Week)

 

It's Hitchcock Week at the Paramount Theater and last night was a chance to see one of the best from the master of suspense, "Notorious", the 1946 spy thriller starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Raines. Set mostly in Rio after the war, "Notorious" is about an attempt to penetrate a Nazi spy ring, operating in South America. Grant plays Devlin, an equivocating intelligence agent, who recruits the daughter of a German Spy, convicted of treason in Florida. For the romance element of the story to work, we have to believe that he is in the dark over exactly what his superiors want from Alicia Huberman. 

The world of espionage is particularly dark in Hitchcock's films. Although we want the American agencies that he vaguely refers to to succeed, they do so through one of the most unpleasant means available. In both "Notorious" and "North by Northwest", party girls with emotional vulnerabilities are asked to seduce the targets in order to gain intelligence. With Eva Marie-Saint we don't get a lot of backstory, but Ingrid Bergman's character is all backstory, especially for the first act of the film. Alicia has rebelled against her Nazi father and in drowning herself in booze, she has become a loose woman, who is taken advantage of by a variety of men. At the depth of her humiliation, Devlin, the character played by Grant, insinuates himself in her circle of friends and begins the process of luring her into an assignment in South America. I find it interesting, that Grant is the man who falls for the loose women turned spies in both films. In "North by Northwest" he is an innocent, caught up in plans beyond his ken. Here, he is a calculating cad, who learns the dangers of his own callousness. 

"Notorious" is at heart a love triangle, the third party being the erudite Alexander Sebastian,  a key member of the Nazi group. It seems that years earlier, when Sebastian was friends with Alicia's father, he had a massive crush on her, and the U.S. and Brazilin intelligence group wants to take advantage of that by inserting her into his life. In essence, pimping her out for Uncle Sam.  The fact that Devlin has fallen for Alicia and she for him, is a big complication. Devlin is cold to Alicia, as a way of distancing himself and her from the unpleasantness of her activities. Regardless of what Devlin says to her however, he is defensive on her behalf with the intelligence group in private. In an excellent illustration of true movie dialogue here is an example:

Paul Prescott: [about Alicia] I don't like this, I don't like her coming here.

Walter Beardsley: She's had me worried for some time. A woman of that sort.

Devlin: What sort is that, Mr. Beardsley?

Walter Beardsley: Oh, I don't think any of us have any illusions about her character. Have we, Devlin?

Devlin: Not at all, not in the slightest. Miss Huberman is first, last, and always not a lady. She may be risking her life, but when it comes to being a lady, she doesn't hold a candle to your wife, sitting in Washington, playing bridge with three other ladies of great honor and virtue.

Devlin gives himself away to his superior Paul Prescott, played by veteran actor Louis Calhern, with a dash of charm and a bureaucratic mind. Prescott has a clever scene revealing a little of his humanity when Devlin comes to him worried about Alicia, and the discussion takes place while he is prone in bed, eating cheese and crackers. Not the tightly controlled mission boss, but a man who has to kick his shoes off an dine alone in bed sometimes. He knows what he is doing with Alicia, but he is not the monster that he could be. A decade later, Leo G. Carroll will fill a similar role in the other spy film I mentioned.

My admiration for Claude Rains as an actor has been expressed before. In "Casablanca", "The Adventures of Robin Hood", and "The Invisible Man", Rains has been one of the consistent lights of the golden age of Hollywood. He is the sweetest and most vulnerable Nazi in films, as a besotted member of this cabal, he is both murderously awful and sympathetic. That is a piece of cognitive complexity that only an expert performer like Rains could pull off. The defeated resignation of his denouncement is perfect for the character and the film.

There are several moments of tension in the movie. Bergman's acquisition of a key without her husband discovering it is one of those sequences. Of course the search for the secret in the wine cellar is gripping as well. You could hear the audience last night, collectively inhaling and holding their breath, as a wine bottle teeters on the edge of a shelf. Finally, the elegant bluff and turning of the tide with Grant rescuing Bergman from the clutches of Rains, and his loathsome Mother. The mother, played by actress Leopoldine Konstantin, is one of the Mother's that Hitchcock used as a tool for manipulating his male leads in the movies. While not as famous as Norman Bates mother, Mme. Sebastian, would certainly belong in a rogue's gallery of villains. 

As usual with a Hitchcock film, the production design is impressive. Although the scenes set in Rio rely on rear projection, they still look convincing. Alicia's house in Florida, and her apartment in Rio, swim in the deco elegance of the era and her outfits do the same thing. The camera work is impeccable, I liked the trick with the coffee cup in the foreground as Alicia is in the background, both in focus. There are a number of moments shot from above that also establish the pecking order of power in the household, but allowing us to track the activities of the characters as well. The final descent on the staircase is an excellent visual complement to the plot tension in the script. 

From 1945 to his death in 1980, Alfred Hitchcock made 24 films and in that thirty five year period, a dozen of them are essential and another half dozen are excellent. "Notorious" deservedly belongs on the top shelf with a cast of stars that were at the height of their powers. A big screen visit is always called for when a Hitchcock film is involved. Tonight, two more of the top tier films.