11 April 2022

After Hours

 After Hours 1985

 

  • Director: Martin Scorsese
  • Seen by this director: The Wolf of Wall Street, Hugo, Shutter Island, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Bringing Out the Dead, The Last Temptation of Christ, New York New York, Taxi Driver, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More
  • Based on the novel: no
  • Cast: Griffin Dunne, Roseanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, John Heard, Catherine O’Hara
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • Griffin Dunne – Le grand bleu, Who’s That Girl
    • Roseanna Arquette – Pulp Fiction, Le grand bleu, Silverado, Desperately Seeking Susan
    • Verna Bloom – The Last Temptation of Christ, TV series
    • Linda Fiorentino – Dogma, Men in Black
    • Terri Garr – Friends, Tootsie, Close Encounter of the Third Degree, The Conversation
    • John Heard – The Great Debaters, The Sopranos, O, Pollock, The Pelican Brief, Waterland, Awakenings, The Trip to Bountiful
    • Catherine O’Hara – Six Feet Under, A Might Wind, Waiting for Guffman, Beetlejuice
  • Why?  Is it good enough to keep?
  • Seen: Twice before. Now 10 April 2022 

Paul (Dunne) has a boring dead-end office job. He meets Marcy (Arquette) in a coffee shop. A wild New York by Night ensues.

Bizarre characters and unlikely events aren’t enough to make this a film that stands the tests of time. It was good the first time. On second viewing a few years ago, it became clear that Scorsese was trying too hard for the quirky. It was more stressful than entertaining and this third time I found it both stressful and irritating.

Definitely a film that should not have been seen more than once. 

2 ½ * of 5

 


Welcome

 Welcome 2009 

  • Director: Philippe Lioret
  • Based on the novel: no
  • Cast: Vincent Lindon, Firat Ayverdi, Audrey Dana, Derya Ayverdi
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • Vincent Lindon – La Haine
  • Why?  Possibly interesting
  • Seen: 9 April 2022 

Bilal (Firat Ayverdi) a 17-year-old Iraqi Kurd, is trying to get to London to see his girlfriend Mina (Derya Ayverdi, Firat’s sister IRL) and pays a smuggler to get him across the channel. He’s caught. He’s released from jail but has nowhere to go so hangs with the hundreds of young men at the Calais harbour who are desperate to get across somehow.

Simon (Lindon) is a swimming instructor whose wife Marion (Dana) is divorcing him.

Bilal has the mad idea to learn to swim so that he can swim to Dover. Simon sets him straight but finds himself helping the boy, though it’s a crime in France to help illegal immigrants. The police hound him.

It’s a melancholy film about unlikely friendship, solidarity, lost love, oppression, and despair. 

4* of 5

 

The Day the Earth Stood Still 2008 Update

 The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

Update 9 April 2022

  • Director: Scott Derrickson
    • Seen by this director: Doctor Strange
  • Based on the story by Harry Bates
  • Cast: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Jaden Smith, Kathy Bates, John Cleese, Jon Hamm
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor/actress in:
    • Keanu Reeves – many. Here are a few favorites: Much Ado About Nothing, Speed, Feeling Minnesota, Matrix (and the other two, though less so), A Scanner Darkly, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, My Own Private Idaho, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures
    • Jennifer Connelly: A Beautiful Mind, Creation, He’s Just Not That Into You, House of Sand and Fog, Pollack, Requiem for a Dream
    • Kathy Bates: Six Feet Under, About Schmidt, Titanic, Dolores Claiborne, Fried Green Tomatoes, Misery
    • John Cleese – Monty Python, Harry Potter, A Fish Called Wanda, Clockwise, The Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life, Fawlty Towers, The Taming of a Shrew
    • Jon Hamm: Madmen
  • Why bought: included in Doomsday box with The Day after Tomorrow. I probably would have bought it anyway eventually.
  • Seen: Twice. First time in 2008. Now December 7, 2012
    • Third time 9 April 2022 

The original from 1951 with Michael Rennie is generally considered a much better film and I might agree if I watched both one after the other.  It’s been several years since I saw the ’51 version and I remember liking it very much, but I think the 2008 version is better than its reputation.  It is a serious attempt to update the story.  Of course, the Earth is in no way free from the threat of nuclear destruction either through war or power plant/waste storage disasters but the threat to the environment through overconsumption is dire enough to warrant a visit from an extraterrestrial rescue mission.  I hope they come soon!

The film is bogged down by platitudes and simplifications – when Klaatu sees Dr. Benson grieving with her beloved stepson by the father’s grave he realizes humans aren’t all bad and he decided to help them – a little too pathetic and don’t aliens love each other too?! – but good acting carries the film. Keanu Reeves is always Keanu Reeves and fits the role of the super intelligent detached ambassador very well. Jennifer Connelly is always good and it’s always a pleasure to see John Cleese and Kathy Bates. Since seeing it the first time I’ve made Jon Hamm’s acquaintance through Mad Men and had a hard time separating him from Don Draper, but it was fun to see him in a different role.

Generally, it’s a well-done film with believable special effects.  It’s exciting from start to finish.  And I like the kid.

 3* of 5.  

Update 9 April 2022 – I feel the same. It’s a decent remake and though it doesn’t have the impact as the original (seen for the second time yesterday) it should satisfy today’s viewers. I still like it.

 

The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951

 The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

 

  • Director: Robert Wise
  • Seen by this director: Sound of Music, The Haunting, West Side Story, I Want to Live
  • Based on the story by Harry Bates
  • Cast: Michal Rennie, Patricia Neal, Billy Gray, Sam Jaffe
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • Michael Rennie – Third Man on the Mountain, TV series
    • Patricia Neal – Hud, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
    • Billy Gray – TV series
    • Sam Jaffe – Ben-Hur, The Asfalt Jungle, Lost Horizon, TV series
  • Why?  A classic.
  • Seen: Once before. Now 8 April 2022 

An alien spaceship lands on a baseball diamond in Washington DC. A figure emerges and speaks of peace and good will. One of the soldiers surrounding the craft shoots him.  Another figure, a huge robot, emerges and destroys all the weapons.

The wounded alien Klaatu (Rennie) tells the presidential secretary Harley (Bates) that he has a message he will impart only to gathered representatives of all nations at the same time. Harley explains that with the hostilities and tensions between nations, this will be impossible.

It’s a bold, intelligent and politically astute film. Not to mention entertaining. It does have a few flaws and major holes in its logic, but it was made in 1951, after all. It’s still a classic.

4* of 5

 

Bend of the River

 Bend of the River 1952

  • Director: Anthony Mann
  • Seen by this director: El Cid
  • Based on the book by William Gulick
  • Cast: James Stewart, Rock Hudson, Arthur Kennedy, Julie Adams, Stepin Fetchit, Harry Morgan
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • James Stewart – The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Greatest Show on Earth, Bell Book and Candle, Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rear Window, Rope, maybe others
    • Rock Hudson – probably some old ones
    • Arthur Kennedy – Crawlspace, Fantastic Voyage, Lawrence of Arabia, Elmer Gantry
    • Julie Adams – TV series
    • Harry Morgan – Third Rock from the Sun, M*A*S*H
  • Why? In the James Stewart box.
  • Seen: 6 April 2022      

       Wagon trains, settlers, gold rush, bad guy cattle raiders, one of whom is James Stewart. I can’t be bothered to tell the story. Westerns are really not my cup of tea and with this film’s traces of 50’s racism even James Stewart and his boring character can’t give it more than      

2* of 5

 

4 April 2022

Last Life in the Universe

 Last Life in the Universe 2003 

  • Director: Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
  • Based on the novel: no
  • Cast: Tadanobu Asano, Sinitta Boonyasak
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • Tadanobu Asano Thor
  • Why?  It sounded good
  • Seen: 3 April 2022 

Kenji (Asano) is a young man who fantasises about suicide. He’s obsessively compulsive and an obsessive book collector, Japanese but living in Bangkok. Two tragic events bring free-spirit Noi (Boonyasak) into his life.

There is a very fine line between artistic intellectual, symbolic, existential films that grip your heart and provoke your thoughts, and those who leave you unmoved. Sadly, this is of the latter category. It got great reviews but it’s not for me. A pity. I so wanted to like it. 

2 * of 5

 

 

Georgia

 Georgia 1995 

  • Director: Ulu Grosbard
  • Seen by this director: Falling in Love
  • Based on the novel: no
  • Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mare Winningham, Ted Levin, Max Perlich, John Doe, John C Reilly, Jimmy Witherspoon, Jason Carter
  • Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
    • Jennifer Jason Leigh – Annihilation, The Hateful Eight, Margot at the Wedding, Road to Perdition, eXistenZ, A Thousand Acres, Dolores Claibourne, Fast Times in Ridgmont High
    • Mare Winningham – Philomena, Swing Vote, Six Feet Under, One-Trick Pony
    • Ted Levine – Shutter Island, Wild Wild West, Heat, Silence of the Lambs, Ironweed
    • Max Perlich – The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Darwin Awards, Hill Street Blues, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Homicide Life on the Streets, Feeling Minnesota, Beautiful Girls
    • John Dow – Roswell, The Good Girl, Great Balls of Fire
    • John C Reilly – Kong Skull Island, A Prairie Home Companion, The Aviator, The Hours, Chicago, The Good Girl, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,
  • Why?  I liked it the first time.
  • Seen: Once before. Now 2 April 2022 

Sadie (Jason Leigh) is a singer, an alcoholic, and a heavily made-up blues-rocking loser. Georgia (Winningham) is a clean-cut, housewifely superstar country and western singer with a husband, two and a half kids and a bucolic house in the country.

They’re sisters.

George never sought fame and fortune, but she got it. Sadie burned for it her entire life but screws up every time she gets a chance. She idolises Georgia, envies her success and family, and suffers from a severe inferiority complex. Georgia is sick and tired of Sadie’s neediness and constant demand for attention to her suffering.

Sisters. Love. Hate.

It’s more about Sadie than Georgia but the title is appropriate because Sadie lives her whole life as a distorted negative reaction to Georgia’s perfection. Jason Leigh is spectacular in the role. 

4 * of 5