Out of the Past: The Week In Film

The Banal, the Blah, the Banausic:
1. Sprung (1996) Dir. Randy Cundieff - US
2. Nightbreed (1990) Dir. Clive Barker - US

Guilty Pleasure Cinema:
1. Boom! (1968) Dir. Joseph Losey - UK
2. The Wiz (1978) Dir. Sidney Lumet – US
3. Cold Comfort Farm (1995) Dir. John Schlesinger - UK

Astounding Cinema:
3. Eureka (1983) Dir. Nicolas Roeg – UK/US
2. The Headless Woman (2008) Dir. Lucretia Martel - Argentina
1. On the Waterfront (1954) Dir. Elia Kazan – US

Theatrical Screenings:
1. Sherlock Holmes (2009) Dir. Guy Ritchie – UK/US

Rewatched Goodies:
1. How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) Dir. Jean Negulesco - US
2. Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom (1984) Dir. Steven Spielberg - US

Sprung (1996): Tired concept that drags on for nearly two hours about two lovers best friends trying to sabotage their relationship due to warring nature of said friends' own past relationship. I didn't feel like writing another sentence about that. I think that makes sense. Sorry. Supporting players Joe Torry and Paula Jai Parker fare alright, but poor Tisha Campbell Martin's got a tought job trying to make a realistic relationship with boring boring boring writer/director/star Randy Cundieff. Randy would never direct another major motion picture after Sprung. He sticks television these days.

Nightbreed (1990): I was a Stephen King runt in elementary school, therefore, I never read any Clive Barker. I've enjoyed an adaptation of his work here and there, but Barker himself directed this strange little picture, based on his novel "Cabal." No, I haven't seen Hellraiser (1987), which Barker also directed, but Nightbreed suffers from a lot of things, one of them being lack of clarity and poor transitions. Poorly written dialogue and a piss poor performance from female lead Anne Bobby further complicated my irritation---plus I'm pretty sure I would have hated the evil therapist played by David Cronenberg if I hadn't been aware that a great director like Cronenberg was hamming it up here. And the lead is Craig Sheffer. Remember him?

Boom! (1968): Having done my thesis on adaptations of Tennessee Williams' works, this 1968 adaptation of his play "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" has long been on my list of things to see. Famously dubbed "failed art" by director John Waters, Boom! is basically an entertaining mess, another vehicle where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton get to scream bloody murder at each other, except that between screaming bouts, we kind of lose interest in what is going on, which is basically very little. Burton plays a young poet that has a bad habit of showing up at wealthy ladies' doorsteps just before they're about to die. Taylor is playing a wealthy older woman who seems to be denying from some unkown disease. The saddest part of the whole affair is that the great director Joseph Losey helmed this mess (though it was rumored that he was drinking heavily during the shoot).

The Wiz (1978): And yet another example of a horribly miscast lead is this urban musical production of "The Wizard of Oz" directed, strangely enough, by Sidney Lumet. Starring a 33 year old Diana Ross as the young Dorothy, it seems the makeup crew did everything in their power to make Ms. Ross look the least attractive she ever has. Sadly, The Wiz is mostly a dated masterpiece of what could have been, nearly every dance number a pain to stay awake through (and it's interesting to note that listening to the music on CD is more lively). While I certainly am a great fan of Ms. Ross, she looks like a dowdy crazed Aunt jonesing for uppers, her stick legs akimbo as she gallops all over the screen. While it's obvious that all involved seemed to enjoy working together (and the expressions on Lena Horne's face in the end are worth seeing, believe me) The Wiz is a sad little was. But definitely worth a look if you're in the right mood.

Cold Comfort Farm (1995): A young Kate Beckinsale gets her first major lead in John Schlesinger's goofy adaptation of Stella Gibbons' novel. Though I felt Joanna Lumley was sorely underused, the rest of the cast is quite entertaining as a rural farm family that takes in a long lost niece after her parents die, mostly to right the wrongs against the young woman's father. Eileen Atkins is in top form, as is Ian McKellan as a fire and brimstone preacher -- but the real prize of Cold Comfort Farm is Sheila Burrell as the reclusive and disoriented matriarch that continually spouts "I saw something nasty in the woodshed." The biggest detraction? A haughty, spoiled heroine played by the unimpressive Beckinsale. Well, she was young, wasn't she?

Eureka (1983): Nicolas Roeg is a director you either love or hate. I love most of his output before his marriage to Theresa Russell, whose performances always seem a bit campy to me. And she's in prime form here. Eureka stars the great Gene Hackman as an arctic prospector who strikes it rich when he discovers a cave filled with gold. Fast forward two decades to the 1940's and Hackman is a grizzled old man, pissed at his drunken wife and upset that his daughter (Russell) wants to marry a French playboy that might be a gold digger, in the more modern sense of the word (Rutger Hauer). Add some Miami mobsters (Joe Pesci) and a skeezy lawyer (Mickey Rourke) who want to bulldoze over Hackman's private island paradise to build a casino and things culminate in a vicious murder.

The Headless Woman (2008): Argentinian director Lucretia Martel's third film was derided at Cannes 08, left out of Toronto 08 and never scored a theatrical release. On DVD, The Headless Woman is making everyone's Best Of lists for 2009 (including John Waters) and I would have to agree. Beware, if you don't like to be challenged, this might not be the film for you. Woman centers on Veronica (Maria Onetto), who, at the beginning of the film, runs over something in the road, which she doesn't get out to investigate. However, as the day progresses, this incident throws Veronica into a sort of fugue state, where she forgets everything about herself and is only convinced that she ran over a child rather than a dog. There's so much going on inside and outside this narrative---politically, the construction of female identity, and not to mention Martel's stylistic flairs (concerning the framing of Onetto), plus Onetto's performance, etc, making this an excellent cinematic feature. It is one of the best films you'd be lucky to experience from this year.

On the Waterfront (1954): What is there not to say about this American classic? Or, rather, what is left to say? One of the most iconic pieces of American cinema, Waterfront gives us Kazan before he was a backstabber, Brando before he got too creepy, and a young and fresh Eva Marie Saint to admire. A well deserving picture win, (Brando won Best Acotr and Saint won Supporting Actress for her film debut), if you haven't sat down and watched On the Waterfront, make it a priority. Watch out for an excellent supporting cast in the shape of Rod Steiger, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, and Leif Erickson. A true contender for one of the best films ever made.