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thos173
Reviews
Brazil (1985)
Kim Greist gives Brazil a heart
Kim Greist gives Brazil a heart. Otherwise, it is a sore disappointment. I remember watching it when it came out - I was a junior British civil servant at the time - but remember little other than the oppressive grey atmosphere which was true to life. The humour has not held up well - laughing at its own jokes, silly accents, stupid lower class people, it's parodic like so many hopeless British films of the last forty years. Why Robert de Niro thought it was worth his time I cannot fathom. The cinematography and agonising triumphalist score clunk along, making points with a sledgehammer. And yet the central theme of the blithering, incompetent state prepared to destroy the minds of its best in order to preserve its own existence takes a leaf out of Ginsberg's Howl - "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed" - and is convincingly realised in the closing scenes. It's a long haul, I couldn't watch it one go, but it's got spirit. Kim Greist and her disappearance from public life at the age of not more than forty is the ultimate mystery - I hazard that she brushed up the wrong way against someone like Harvey Weinstein and was landed with an NDA but it's a guess only. Anyway, she is beautiful and gives the film a beating heart.
The Captain's Table (1959)
Cummins and Sims are the highlights
Peggy Cummins is breathtakingly gorgeous as always. Joan Sims's turn as Maud Pritchett is funny. I have a soft spot for Donald Sinden.
Trash (1970)
sweet and touching
I happily come back to this film when I want to clean myself out. It is like a redemption. It is strong meat and disturbing but Holly's love for Joe and despite everything their innocence make this sweet and touching.
Se7en (1995)
Do not see
I recommend not seeing this movie. Unbelievably unpleasant and not good for mind or soul. That's me done.
Die Austernprinzessin (1919)
Hugely enjoyable
Laugh out loud funny and great to see on the big screen. Ossi Oswalda makes a great heroine and has the same kind of madness as Mountain Girl in Intolerance. J7
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
No buzz - good intro to Mr Van Ronk though
Sadly lacking in buzz this movie. Might it be possible that Greenwich Village in 1961 was an exciting place to be? No sense of that here. Instead a series of cliché characters; light and misplaced spoofing of "folk" types - oh what a laugh! with their arran jumpers singing their "dated" shanties - This is film-making by numbers and less than I would expect of the Coen Brothers. We've got that cigarette trick. It's 1961 - everybody smokes. Look at them in the Gaslight Cafe. They are all smoking. How quaint! - and heavy-handed. Redeeming features - Sylvia Gauder. Carey Mulligan is good too. Effective plot loop. A mild sense of thwarted artistic endeavour. In general though it's too knowing and measured.
Final positive - good to have the introduction to the music of Mr Van Ronk. His rendering of House of the Rising Sun sublime - on Spotify (from Washington Square).
One + One (1968)
Good like a difficult album
Don't expect this film to reveal its charms on first viewing. It is akin to a difficult piece of classical music. The first view is strictly baffling. The juxtaposition of elements is absurd, the characterisations fantastical. It marches on. You don't know where it is going. To Godard's chagrin no doubt, he creates beautiful scenes, amongst them Anne Wiazemsky's disappearance into the green wood. He provides an uninterrupted view. Historically fascinating - London with its rough edges. And the Stones at work and play with Nicky Hopkins pulling it together on the keyboards. A must see for Stonesologists and rock specialists. Political fire in the belly. Not time wasted. A sharpening experience.
Trading Places (1983)
A warm-hearted movie about vengeance
I saw this when it came out in 1983 and it was an absolute breath of fresh air. It has held up exceptionally well. Watched it again last night and was struck by how, well, unconstrained Eddy Murphy's language is. Black people didn't say mother****ker* in films then as a rule. I love the way when Eddy Murphy has transitioned into Duke and Duke employee and is sitting in limo and says who is that mother****er .. sorry .. gentleman. It's really well done and throughout E Murphy's manner and grace is a marvel.
*excuse all these asterisks above and below - IMDb prohibited words - ironic, eh what?!
Equally in movies in 83 it was unusual to see a relationship between black and white - like Valentine and Winthorpe's - portrayed as a relationship between equals. The film is amazingly up front about racism and may be one of the last in which n**ger is used with its old unreconstructed intention. From 2012 that is quite a shocker.
There is something about the ethic of the film that is very modern. There is no mercy for the Dukes and and the moral victors delight in hedonism - all very post-Christian. It is a counter-culture ethic I suppose.
That is borne out as well in the lovely way that the film deals with capitalism in the raw - if you can get your head round what is going on in the last half hour that is probably quite a good education on the commodities market. In a way this is the film that started the anti- globalisation movement.
Every time I watch it it gets better. A triumph for John Landis to rank alongside Blues Brothers and Animal House. There is something about his direction that is very sweet and has a wonderful liberating feel.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Denholm Elliott are both excellent and put in very tender performances. There are not many white English actors who would have been able to get into Elliott's role - subservient to a black man! - in that way at that time.
I agree that there are one or two flat notes. What is it with gorilla suits and movies of this period? - the other is Wise Blood (1979) - they just don't age or wear well. But I find the fate of Beeks quite gratifying.
Other pleasures - the satirical depiction of a stodgy American gentleman's club of which (little known fact) America has quite a few; the extreme low-tech (1983!) - no mobile phones so Beeks has to make his clandestine call from a public phone box (good comic moment there)- no personal computers - travelling on trains! Excellent soundtrack - judicious rock and roll music selection. Deadpan direction. Marvellous use of location - makes me want to go to Philadelphia. How tragic the twin towers now look! This movie is almost perfect in my eyes and getting on for its 30th anniversary I would wholeheartedly recommend it. Has been a favourite with my eldest nipper.
Stunningly unmanufactured feel. I laughed throughout.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Disappointment - a faint shadow of the book
I can't imagine that Terry Gilliam had no experience of psychedelic drugs to draw on but it seems like that watching this movie - which I thought was dull. No sense of acid whatsoever. Except the carpet pattern swirling, that wasn't bad, in the first few minutes, but I think that blew the special effects budget. God knows why anyone thought it was worth spending $18.5m on this. Depp mannerisms started driving me crazy after about two minutes. Trite little cut-ins of "60s" footage were daft. All in all - given how mega brilliant is Hunter S Thompson's original book - this movie, fillum, call it what you will. was a rollicking great disappointment.
Stella Street (2004)
improves with age
I am finding that this film improves with age. I didn't watch the original series, but this works for me as a movie - got enough plot, well-put together and shot, pacey and off-beat - and kind of intelligent about celebs. The star of the show has to be though the definitely not star- struck Mrs Huggett who "does" for them all. Unphased, obviously a bit of a goer when she was younger although a bit stooped now, exceptionally fond of Michael Caine - Mrs Huggett on acid is one of the highlights of this movie. Others include Len the gardener's wise words - and the great bit at the beginning where we meet the Jagger parents. The character creations are out of this world. Yep, it's moving onto my top movie shelf.
The Canterville Ghost (1944)
Extraordinary that this is not available as UK DVD
This is a most accomplished movie and haunting. From the first moments of bricking in to the final absolution of the ghost it follows a poetic course and is one of the greatest of redemption movies. But it's not available as DVD in UK and I doubt it's been shown on UK TV in the last 30 years. Is there a copyright problem with it? One would have thought not. Have the producers of the later movie buried it? Surely not. Charles Laughton's role here is deeply affecting - and given knowledge of his homosexuality, the portrayal of the failed knight unable to compete in the jousts and ostracised by his community and family becomes even more affecting. His equivalent is the poor lion in the Wizard of Oz.
His redemption comes of course with the arrival of the unflappable American family and especially their loving daughter who sees qualities in the poor knight that were never seen before. This is a lovely film that needs to be seen more often.
Son of Rambow (2007)
Disappointed by Son of Rambow -- spoiler included
This movie annoyed me so much.
Instances - the stereotyping of the past, so yes, it's the 80s, so yes, everybody smokes all the time, like in the teachers' common room, and in the cinema; the crass stigmatisation of the Plymouth Brethren; the "budget" of non-pcness that the film allowed itself - oooh! they said "spazzy" - and the thought-processes that contribute to it - to show how non-pc people were in the 80s.
Clunking non-sequiturs - why was Didier ostracised right at the end of the film when there had been absolutely no sign that his fellow-students thought him anything but super-cool? A really irresponsible notion that you can light a cigarette by connecting yourself to mains voltage.
The suggestion that a man with a pair of scissors up his nose is an object of mirth.
Jumbled landscapes - derelict power station (?Notts) adjacent to rolling dales (?Dorset?Peak District) - or maybe that's what it's like in Tring, must go there - and accents - estuary, cut glass etc - like the film makers have got to tick every box of inclusivity to get their FilmFour grant - at least it wasn't Film Council, who have been responsible for some real horrors.
There were five minutes at the beginning of the film when I thought, good, I'm glad I've come to see this. Then the cringing began and I ended up thinking, why does the British film industry have the endless capacity to do this to itself?
My son liked it, though.