Junto Boys

CATCHING UP ON MOVIE REVIEWS

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES N.M. (1998) – Kiefer Southerland’s directorial debut features a shaky script that takes the film into more contrived areas as it proceeds. The good news is the acting rises above the material with Sutherland leading the way as the boss a hold-up gang that spends the movie on the run. Vincent Gallo is great casting as the creep with a decent heart. Kevin Pollack is a kidnap victim that starts to identify a little too much with the criminal life. In short, this is a Tarantino rip-off that can’t match the wit.

THE NAKED KISS (1964) – I think Samuel Fuller must be an acquired taste, because although he is well revered by foreign critics and indie movie makers, I just don’t see the greatness in these rough B-movie efforts. His leading lady (Constance Towers) is 10 years too old for the part of a prostitute who waltzes into town and for no apparent reason goes straight and dedicates herself to a kids hospital. The leading man Anthony Eisley is the sheriff. He’s fighting attraction to Towers, doesn’t believe the conversion and wants her in jail. The screen presence and acting ability of these leads seems about right for an episode of the RIFLEMAN. You could put a cowboy hat on either of them and they’d look like extras in any number of early TV shows. When I’m retired and have nothing but time, I will watch some Fuller movies with the sound down to see if his directing style actually rises above the shoddy plots and acting.

MELVIN AND HOWARD (1980) An early Jonathan Demme film that won Best Original Screenplay and best supporting Actress (Mary Steenburgen). In fact, Steenburgen won about every accolade as the flaky wife of Melvin. The movie is based on a story of a man that claimed to have picked up Hughes in the desert one night and drove him to Vegas. Robards plays Hughes early in the movie with the typical zest you’d expect. Paul LeMat plays Howard as the nary-do-well husband and father that is surprised to wind up in Hughes will years later. I’m not sure why the movie is so highly rated. It seems to be nothing but a pitiful white trash escapade.

ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW (2004) – This is a movie of little character situations with some scenes that really play well and others that seem entirely unreasonable. The writer/director Miranda July also plays the socially inept artist female lead. John Hawkes plays her male counterpart, a recently divorced father with two kids trying to adjust. The conventional part of the story has these two misfits trying to get together and it works pretty well. The story of the kid’s adjustment to divorce is also decent, and the relationship between Miranda and gallery owner is compelling. But you could pretty much cut every other character and subplot out of the movie and not miss it.

CALIFORNIA SPLIT (1974) – An entertaining film from the hit or miss Robert Altman. Elliot Gould and George Segal meet each other in a California poker room and decide to team up as gamblers betting the ponies and playing cards. This atmosphere usually makes for an entertaining beginning and in the hands of a decent director this material works the whole way through. The central question the script poses is whether it’s action or results that these men seek. It also answers one of the central questions as to why good players go through bad streaks. When you play well and win money the action becomes a drug and if you don’t watch out you start to crave the action over the money and then you give it back.

+CACHE (2005) Often times I’m at a loss for something interesting and I let Netflix talk me into this recent French psychological drama starring Juliet Binnoche and directed by Michael Haneke. Without giving away too much, Binoche and her husband are being semi-stalked by someone from the husband’s past. The movie really gets the subtlety right and the mystery plays out at a very good pace. One of the most interesting facets is the unspoken question of whether Binoche is having fling with a family friend. You get to answer it for yourself.

THE PIANO TEACHER (2001) – After enjoying CACHE, I immediately rented Haneke’s earlier acclaimed film. American audiences may recognize Isabelle Huppert from I Heart Huccabees. Here she gives a disturbing performance as the Masochistic title character. It has less of the nuance that I enjoyed in CACHE and some of it is down right mean. Thankfully I saw it second or I may not have tried Cache. Based on these two films I would probably give anything future Haneke film a chance even if I know that I won’t be the right audience for all of them.

EIGHT BELOW (2006) – Researchers on Antartica have to leave some dogs behind in the dead of winter and the movie follows the survival of the dogs. The movie sustains excitement, and sorrow proving once again that you don’t need named actors or even dialogue if the story is solid enough. It doesn’t hurt that we have a sled dog ourselves.

THE MATADOR (2005) – This is Pierce Brosnan’s second attempt at turning his glossy James Bond persona into a darker version of the same character. I thought that the first try, THE TAILOR OF PANAMA, worked quite well and he doesn’t really disappoint here either. Brosnan has a license to kill here like Bond and he’s the symbolic matador killing the bull. Greg Kinnear shows up as the everyman that meets Brosnan on a business trip and they become friends sort-of despite a few misfires at first. It’s resolved in a typical American movie way which is not a criticism but a good way of understanding the American outlook on life. The French director Haneke would have found a much more bleak way to end it and that would have been in line with the way the French see the world.

THE MODERNS (1988) Alan Rudolph explores the ex-patriate American culture in 1920s France. I don’t think Nick Hart played by Keith Carradine was a real person, but many of the others characters – Gertrude Stein, Hemingway – are. A few years later, Rudolph tackled the same time period for “Mrs. Parker and the Viscous Circle” which I like better. Carradine makes a surprisingly effective leading man and the young Linda Fiorentino is solid object of affection, but the story itself goes from lighthearted to dark and then to silly and then to contrived. I seldom like it when serious bitter rivals evolve into comedic bitter rivals followed by timely deaths that solve the nature of the conflict for the characters.

HAPPY ENDINGS (2005) - The title refers to the kind of massage that Kevin Costner was trying to get in Scotland. An ensemble cast including Lisa Kudrow, Maggie Gyllenhal, Tom Arnold and Jason (Son of John) Ritter go about their lives in whatever way touching upon the lives of one another. The main plots are Kudrow possibly re-connecting with the son she gave away and Tom Arnold being taken for a fool by Maggie Gyllenhal who is either pregnant by Arnold or his son Ritter. The situations are handled with both humor and sadness with a decent overall style.

+MY VOYAGE TO ITALY (2001) – Martin Scorsese divides the film into 2 parts and 243 complete minutes to explore the greatest of classic Italian cinema with commentary on directors, actors, and stories. The major players are Fellini, De Sica, and Rossellini, with Antonioni and Visconti showing up for laughs. I found it somewhere in the first hour and was so engrossed I didn’t realize 3 hours had past. The films are interesting in themselves, but it’s Scorsese’s commentary that pulls you in and keeps you watching. This was especially true in the postwar Bergman/Rossillini collaborations and Fellini’s 8 ½, a movie I appreciated much more with Scorsese’s take.

MEET THE FOCKERS (2004) – While Marty is busy telling film history, Bobby is playing MEET THE PAYCHECK. The once interesting actor is not only willing to play a cartoon version of himself, he’s willing to do so in sequels. Scorsese answered by casting Jack Nicholson in his latest DeNiro role. Other Oscar winners, Hoffman and Streisand show up for cheap laughs. Episodes of My Name is Earl seem more plausible.

+FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1982) – One of the few cinematic treats I have left to look forward to is watching the entire Ingmar Bergman output. I believe this is the 4th film I’ve seen after Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, and Three Strange Loves. The movie is 188 minutes and paced so well that it never feels overlong. Fanny and Alexander are two young kids that deal with the death of their actor father and the introduction of the strict clergyman stepfather. Plenty of temperamental theatre characters make for some lighthearted subplots.

(+) denotes exceptional film.