The Banal, the Blah, the Banausic:
Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971) Dir. Roger Vadim - US
Shafted! (2000) Dir. Tom Putnam - US
Guilty Pleasures:
The Man With The Screaming Brain (2005) Dir. Bruce Campbell - US
Of Interest:
Cousin Bette (1998) Dir. Des McAnuff - US
Recommended:
A Delicate Balance (1973) Dir. Tony Richardson - US/UK/Canada
Momma's Man (2008) Dir. Azazel Jacobs - US
Essential Cinema:
The Night of the Hunter (1955) Dir. Charles Laughton - US
Theatrical Screenings:
Horrible Bosses (2011) Dir. Seth Gordon - US 6/10
Terri (2011) Dir. Azazel Jacobs - US 8/10
Tabloid (2010) Dir. Errol Morris - US 10/10
Rewatched:
Role Models (2008) Dir. David Wain - US
The Night of the Hunter (1955) Dir. Charles Laughton - US
Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971): I was delighted to see Warner Bros. Archive brought this cult classic to light and snatched it up for my own collection. It's a bit of a creaky turkey, but then I wasn't expecting fine filmmaking from the American debut of Roger Vadim, sexual auteur responsible for Euro-trash sex babe sci-fi like Barbarella (1968) or softcore bisexual vampiric piece, Blood and Roses (1960). While I've yet to see his signature work, And God Created Woman(1956) which birthed the sensation of Brigitte Bardot, Maids is nothing but a sex-crazed carciature of heterosexuality, its sensibilities entrenched in teenage melodramatics. While it's entertaining to see Rock Hudson as the playboy gym coach bedding female students left and right in his office, his presence now provides a homosexual subtext underneath all this heteronormative posturing (and paired with Roddy McDowell, also starring in the film, well, we have the whole spectrum). But the whole affair is further undermined by a hackneyed plot and the distraction of sexy substitute teacher, Angie Dickinson, given no agency whatsoever as she is instructed by football coach Hudson to seduce and teach a virginal young student in the art of heterosexual sex. Whatever.
Shafted! (2000): Well, my darling husband is going into podiatric medicine, and this film (along with the 2003 re-make The In-Laws, a terrible, awful film which stars Albert Brooks as a podiatrist) came up on his radar because the main character is released from the Herve Villechaize School of Podiatry and Institute for the Criminally Insane. And then the fun and the reference tries to stop there. A very homely white man obsessed with blaxploitation, and the Shaft films in particular, names himself John Shaft and enters into a series of not so much and nothing of interest in modern day Los Angeles. Kudos to the film actually looking like one of those grainy cheapies from the 70's, but it's a but flat and extremely dull after 90 min. Angelle Brooks does her best to vamp it up in homage to Pam Grier, but it's too little and infrequent to really register.
The Man With the Screaming Brain (2005): I do enjoy Bruce Campbell, and his directorial debut set in Bulgaria isn't half bad---but I feel like it could have been a lot better. In fact, his next effort, 2008's My Name Is Bruce is much more entertaining and polished in comparison. However, Brain has a few little fun moments, including a reanimated robot sporting the implanted brain of his murdered wife, but it's a bit forgettable and extremely cheap looking. Campbell is a bit stiff for the first half, playing a first rate American asshole. He gets a little better after the brain of a Russian cab driver gets sown into his skull, but the film relies way too heavily on sight gags. Bruce Campbell has a lot of charm and a lot of ideas, but this particular outing is a tad weak. Stacy Keach and an entertaining Ted Raimi provide some much needed steam.
A Delicate Balance (1973): A very difficult and depressing Edward Albee play gets the star treatment with Tony Richardson at the helm. Paul Scofield and Katharine Hepburn star as the main characters, an aging, rich, married couple that seem to get along, well, kind of fine. However, Hepburn's sister is living with them, a raging alcoholic hysteric (a nice performance from Kate Reid, though this is the flashiest character) and the claws come out. Along with the claws come skeletons in the closet---it turns out Hepburn and Scofield's daughter is on her way home to prepare for her fourth divorce (the beautiful Lee Remick)---she just can't ever choose the right man. On top of that, Joseph Cotten and Betsy Blair stop by, a couple that has been friends with them for decades. Well, they need a place to stay. They suddenly had a feeling of impending doom and needed to get out of their house. While it's never quite explained what this impending doom really is (it's referred to as a plague and a terror), my interpretation after watching the film (I read the play in High School and didn't quite understand) is that the terror/plague was just the realization that they were alone together, and that was it. It was their life, time was and is passing and they would soon die, without, perhaps, much ado. To me, this is one example of upsetting a delicate balance---the balance of living day-to-day and either being frightened by the inevitable, or being happy with what you have in front of you for the day. Of course, this is a rather terse and albeit positive spin on what's going on (perhaps a little naieve, too), but the understanding I was able to grasp at this point in my life was that every day we have the ability to walk a fine line between contentedness or despair. I once read a critic that stated Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) should be revisited once every few years, especially by married couples. I would argue that you could throw A Delicate Balance in there, too.
Momma's Man (2008): Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture (2010) drew a lot of comparison with this much hailed film from Azazel Jacobs. I can see why, but they are both distinct. Casting his own parents (like Dunham) and set in their Manhattan apartment. Matt Boren stars as their son, currently living in Los Angeles. But on one cold, winter visit, he decides he does not want to leave, lying profusely to both his wife in California (taking care of their newborn) and his parents. After a few days, his parents realize that something is wrong. Momma's Man touches on that desire to go back to times of less responsibility, obviously, and the human tendency or, attraction, rather, to nostalgia. Flo Jacobs stands out as mom, a beacon of empathy for her son. And while there's much empathy and understanding to be had for what the main character is going through, I often felt myself feeling worse for his beleauguered wife and his confused parents. But it's quite a well made, excellent independent film.
The Night of the Hunter (1955): Wow. I watched this film years and years ago as a kid, and always thought that I never fully appreciated it. Upon re-watching it, I was blown away at how damn good it is. The cinematography is perfect, just amazingly beautiful and weird, while the performances of Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, and Evelyn Varden are just deliciously great. Actor Charles Laughton directed this and apparently, since it was poorly received in 1955, he vowed never to direct again, and he never did. Which is a bummer, because this is one of the best, weirdest, and bizarre film noirs ever made. Mitchum stars as a "preacher" with some intense sexual repression issues. A serial killer, he is imprisoned for stealing a car. His cell mate is Peter Graves, about to be hanged for stealing 10,000 dollars, which no one, mysteriously can find. Believing that Graves' family must know the whereabouts of the money, Mitchum cons the simpleminded Winters into marriage, but meets his match when the small children, who know where the money is hidden, evade him. There's more, but if you happen to read this, just watch it. It's intense, and scary, and also funny as hell. Laughton, a known homosexual (yet married to Elsa Lanchester) is obviously criticizing religion, how it corrupts and blinds, but beyond that, this is one dark and strange little tale more scary than many a horror film. And Mitchum's fists, upon which is tattooed, LOVE and HATE....damn, it's so good!
Horrible Bosses (2011): Well, this film is sort of a disappointment because it could have been so much better. The three buddies are a little far-fetched as is the whole plot device about killing bosses. It's predictable and a bit mediocre, however, I will say that Jennifer Aniston is very entertaining as a foul-mouthed, sex-crazed dentist. And Kevin Spacey, playing a bitter old queen here...oh wait, he's supposed to be straight and married to Julie Bowen....right...just a little too campy to gel with the rest of the comedic underpinnings of the feature.
Terri (2011): John C. Reilly stars as an enigmatic high school principal in this, for lack of a better phrase, coming of age tale, about an overweight high-school student, Terri (newcomer Jacob Wysocki) struggling to adjust to life, living with and caring for his overly medicated and somewhat disturbed uncle. While there's nothing new or exceptionally extraordinary about Jacobs' latest film, Reilly and Wysocki give some great, heartfelt performances.
Tabloid (2010): One of the world's most famous documentarians is Errol Morris. Sadly, I have only previously seen his first film, the intriguing Gates of Heaven (1978), about pet cemeteries. His latest centers on Joyce McKinney, a woman, who, in the late '70s, became obsessed with a Mormon. Right before they were about to be married, he was sent to England for his mission, but, according to Joyce, he was abducted by the Mormons in order to avoid his marriage to a non-Moromon. She hired a PI, tracked him down to England, hires a private plane and some bodygaurds, kidnaps her beau and chains him to a bed so she can repeatedly have sex with him and get pregnant. A scandalous sensation in the tabloids at the time, Morris' doc centers on McKinney, who narrates in present time her side of the story, as well as some of the other participants from the time. A documentary that has to be seen to be believed, McKinney is an urban legend to the Mormon community, and if you have ever heard reference to a "manacled Mormon," this is what that's referring to. An excellent and intriguing doc, I highly recommend it.
Role Models (2008): Upon a rewatch, David Wain's Role Models is a little slim on plot, and it does dip unabashedly into cornball territory every now and then. However, Jane Lynch and Sean William Scott are still damn funny in this slight yet extremely watchable comedy. And perhaps we will get to see more of the funny kid actor Bobb'e J. Thompson eventually. However, I've been over the one note nerdiness of Christopher Mintz-Plasse for quite some time now. I'm all about challenging the deconstruction of masculinity, but between Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Cera and Mintz-Plasse, I'm just a little bored with nerdy teenagers that never grow up.
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