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The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021)
Wes Anderson stumbles
The critics are already falling over themselves to proclaim this a brilliant and important film, but it is not. The familiar trademarks are here - the wonderful sets and superbly timed action, the quirk and whimsy, the charm, the same faces - Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, etc.....but this time around this it is all just artifice and window dressing to prop up a frankly boring movie without a decent plot.
Apart from the aesthetics, The French Dispatch has very little of what made previous Wes Anderson films special. This movie is a turkey, a beautiful and very occasionally charming turkey, but still a turkey. I am very glad this film was not my introduction to the world of Wes Anderson for had that been the case, I would not see the need to return. Here's hoping Wes moves himself out of his comfort zone next time around for then he might have something smart, witty and engaging to say again.
Double Indemnity (1944)
Classics.....
I wonder with these "classics". I read the book a few years ago and thought the plot was ludicrous. Was mystified at the book's cult status.
Watching the movie a few nights ago, well the plot is still frankly unbelievable, but the movie is admittedly a distinct improvement upon the book. The casting is excellent and the performances fine indeed. Now if only the story was worthy of the performances....
Flowers (2016)
Messily and chaotically sublime
At one point while watching an episode of Flowers I turned to my wife and said, this is EXACTLY what having depression is like. I suspect anyone who has fought clinical depression will be drawn into this show's dark and surreal web. The belly laughs come from a place of having been there and done that while the moments of sadness and tragedy are watched with a knowing sense of resignation that this is the way of things when one faces these demons.
I utterly adored this show from start to finish and I don't think I will ever see anything better on television than this. It is a perverse, dark, bleak and tragic delight and while those words might not seem to make sense together, they describe this wonderful show precisely.
Technically the show ends in the final inevitable scene of the SECOND LAST episode. But the closing episode of the show is a bittersweet gift that will remain with me for quite some time.
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Flawed movie that shines solely due to superb acting
It's the convincing performances by all the main actors in this movie that helps elevate this movie above the weepy schlock that it could easily have become. Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams in particular are brilliant.
However 2 flaws continually pull this movie down from the heights that some critics were elevating it to. The performances might have been potentially Oscar worthy but the film as a whole is not.
Firstly the music, particularly in the "emotional" scenes is far too melodramatic. It's overkill and the scenes are powerful enough to stand on their own (or with far more subtle music) without the director yelling at us to feel the characters pain. Sometimes the music drowns out the dialogue. Frankly the soundtrack choices are hamfisted and amateurish.
Secondly, the teenage boy who Casey Affleck becomes the guardian for is a very unsympathetic character, and the script handles his reactions to his father's death clumsily. The scene in which he breaks down after opening a freezer borders on schlock.
It's still a movie well worth watching, if only for the superb performanes, but don't expect it to be "The best film of 2016" as many critics were saying.
Her er Harold (2014)
There is nothing flat-packed about this quirky little gem!
"Here Is Harold" is a quirky Norwegian film which walks a fine line between comic absurdism and drama, and for the most part pulls it off quite successfully. I found it be funny, entertaining and touching, and well worth the inconvenience of having to deal with subtitles for the dialogue.
Harold has run his own furniture shop for 40 years when he learns that Ikea will be opening across the road from his store. Harold watches the news of this on TV, and announces to his wife - "We survived waterbeds, we'll survive this." Predictably though, within a short matter of time his small shop goes out of business and we learn that his wife has Alzheimers disease. With his wife's condition deteriorating and the failure of his shop, Harold no longer has the means to look after her and makes the very reluctant decision to place her in a nursing home. His wife, in a moment of lucidity realises that she is being left alone, dies on the spot.
With both his wife and his business dead, Harold decides to burn his old shop down, and also attempts to take his own life by pouring petrol over himself while the shop burns. One of the things I really love about this film is its ability to combine comedy and real drama in the same scene - and in this scene the combination of pathos as Harold decides to end his life along with the comic failure of this to happen works really well and neither the drama or comedy compromises the other.
With his attempted suicide thwarted, Harold decided he will kidnap Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea and hold him responsible. Along the way, after yet another failed suicide attempt,Harold meets Fanny, a young girl who is caught up in bad relationships with both her boyfriend and her mother.
While the film does ask a lot of the viewer to accept the convenience and contrivance of the coincidence that allows Harold to actually kidnap Kamprad, it does set the film up for its second half, in which Harold, with the help of Fanny, tries to work out what he is going to doing with Kamprad now that he has him. All the while, Björn Granath, who plays Ingvar Kamprad hams it up with glee, never taking his kidnapping seriously, and continuing to come up with new ideas for Ikea furniture and refusing to have sympathy for Harold's misfortunes.
There are a few sub plots visited in the film, one depicting the fractured relationship between Harold and his drunken son, who just happens to have an apartment full of Ikea furniture. The other involves Fanny and her mother, whose one crowning glory is she was once a fine champion gymnast, but now lives the life of a drunken slut. This particular sub plot works the better of the two, culminating in a touching scene where Harold and Fanny allow Fanny's mother one moment of blissful nostalgia for her younger, more innocent, gymnastic days.
But the bulk of the film centres around Harold and his bumbling, unorganised kidnap of Kamprad, which features poor Harold trying to 1. work out what he actually wants to do with Kamprad now that he has him, and 2. getting a belligerent and contemptuous Kamprad to cooperate.
There are many absurdist moments of comedy in this film, including a scene where Harold hilariously dresses in bubble wrap to protect himself from a vicious dog, a scene where Kamprad escapes only to fall into ice, whereupon Harold gives chase and falls into the same ice - whereupon they engage in a icy, water bound fistfight. Towards the end of the film, Harold and Kamprad even spend a night in an Ikea showroom, choosing from the huge selection of beds, while Kamprad tells Harold where the switch to turn off the big industrial showroom lights is, like they are buddies.
I really enjoyed this very quirky and entertaining movie and its tone reminded me somewhat of Fargo, with its mix of offbeat, often absurd humour and moments of genuine drama. The only quibble I had with the film was the ending, which is more like an epilogue, involving Harold and his son - I thought it was a little too sweet.
The Third Man (1949)
Film Nu-uh
Since this movie appeared on the IMDb top rated movies list, I felt obliged to watch it, so last night I settled in to be blown away by a what has been described as a film noir classic. Instead of film noir, I saw film nu-uh.
The black and white film is generally well shot and pretty to look at - with the occasional hilariously fake car scene - one scene with 3 or 4 men in a jeep early in the film in particular stands out in my mind, as it almost looks like the actors are inwardly cringing, knowing how fake the scene is going to look. Nevertheless this is a comic distraction that can be written off as a technical limitation from the time the movie was made, and indeed many modern films and TV shows still haven't mastered a realistic car scene.
The flow of the plot reveals contrivance after contrivance. Some of the acting borders on pantomime - in one early street scene there are several "watchers" on the sidewalk, or in apartment windows or shadowy corners, who cast what are supposed to be surreptitious glances towards the action, "subtly" looking away or appearing to mind their own business when they sensed they are being noticed. Gee, do you think these people might know something the guy on the street doesn't??
Two thirds of the way through the film, the "twist" or the "Third Man" in the plot is revealed, and by the time the end of the film arrives, it is obvious that the twist made no sense. In a real life situation, the Third Man has no reason to reveal himself, in actual fact it would be completely detrimental (dare I say suicidal?) to his own interests to reveal himself. Towards the end of the film we are watching an underground chase scene, which is really just a long montage of a chased man looked desperate in a tunnel and policemen climbing down manholes and shining torches into the darkness. The way this scene ends is comically flawed and loses its last piece of credibility when lead policeman literally forgets about chasing the criminal to attend to a friend, complete with a pantomime shaking of his head as he snaps out of it and realises that he is still supposed to be involved in a chase.
I'm prepared to make allowances for an old film and shrug off its technical flaws or inadequacies and accept the cultural and artistic aspects that link it to a certain time. However the flimsy plot of The Third Man is its achilles heel. I also found the constant switching of languages (particularly early in the film) to be quite jarring and wasn't a fan of the frequent zither throughout the soundtrack.
Having said all of that, there are a few likable aspects to The Third Man. Every now and then there is snappy line of dialogue that makes you smile and some of the minor parts, particularly those played by Siegfried Breuer & Ernst Deutsch are roguishly charming, and it is at these times the film does shine briefly as these character actors are free to beguile and charm. And I must finally say that the final scene of the movie does actually achieve one lone moment of classic film noir - it is beautifully shot and is a genuinely classic scene complete with the lighting of a cigarette as the film fades out.