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Reviews
Where Love Has Gone (1964)
A very good effort with some very fine acting and some very good writing-one of my favourite 60's melodramas
This is a classic tearjerker melodrama made much better by the acting of Bette Davis and Susan Hayward and some occasional very good script writing a la older film noir. And the story leads to a serious less conventional place than most of these B melodramas go (especially by popular steamy writers like Robbins). Actually all of the acting is pretty good and the film works as a very good example of a "'bad" movie actually moving one to do some serious thinking about life, though I admit not that much. I give it an A for effort and acting and an B+ for an uneven script that manages to be very real & good at times in spite of the sexy soap formula.
The Bachelor Party (1957)
great movie, poor ending
the ending was a bit to pat for a well written, questioning movie--moves to brink of nihilism and then becomes very conventional. The acting of the main male leads is very good and one of Chayevsky's best scripts (Hospital is another favorite) butt he main character Charlie gives in too easily at the end to a positive and sappy conclusion; love the 50's existential ambiance and the great party scene in the Village; Kerouac would could have been at the party; the wife of Charlie is a bit simplistic as are some of the other women in the film, black and white very effective. Eg MArshall is poignant is his nihilistic questioning of the meaning of life.
Charlie Bartlett (2007)
This generation's Harold & MAude and more (and less)
This is a wonderful satiric film that owes more than a lot to the classic late 60's cult film "Harold and Maude". Like it predecessor this black comedy has a ditsy rich mom, a too smart kid, and a lot of wonderful life affirming Cat Stevens songs. Themes in both films include alienation, parodic take on parenting, a devil may care overall attitude summed up by "If you want to sing out, sing out...." Other influences are obviously Ferris Bueller and Peanuts. The satire on rebellious teens and psychiatry are a major part both of these two. Overall this film works very well as this generation's Harold & MAude (without the very dark black comedy and theme inter- generational love (a 20 year old guy and an 80 year old woman wonderfully played by the late Ruth Gordon). It also works very well on its own.