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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
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2007 - US
Director
Andrew Dominik
Starring
Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck
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A majestic, graceful, portentous film that meanders at its own pace, with an energy and sense of humor all its own, through the events that lead to the realization of its title. I can’t say enough about it. It is exceptionally enjoyable and beautiful in every respect: the best thing I’ve seen this year to date.
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1980 - US
Director
William Friedkin
Starring
Al Pacino, Karen Allen
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At last! And not a film I want to dash off… Despite the initial backlash from gay rights groups, I have to say this looks pretty benign almost 30 years later. The film’s clear position is that the “dangerous and mysterious” S&M world is not the mainstream “lifestyle” (I dare anyone to review this film without using “sarcastic quoties” liberally) and none of the credible characters judge or even look askance at any gay characters. The film attempts to be fair and fails only when it falls back on stereotype. If I take issue with anything it’s how carefully they guard Pacino’s image: though undercover as a guy cruising for hardcore man-on-man action, he barely touches or is touched by another man; certainly no kissing, certainly no sex. Certainly he fucks Karen Allen every time he catches a break, possibly only to work off the tension at not being able to score with any men…? Anyway the film might be unjustly maligned on the gay front, and stripped of that it’s just a pretty lame by-the-book thriller. But somehow worth the anticipation.
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2007 - US
Director
Julie Taymor
Starring
Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess
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This is overblown, kooky, erratic and ultra-romantic, and I loved every moment of it. Unfolding through the songs of The Beatles (sometimes imaginatively and cunningly reënvisioned) and the turmoil of the 60s, it becomes progressively crazier, less innocent, more thoughtful as it proceeds just as the Fab Four’s musical output did. Lush and vibrant, full of wonderful characters, this took me on an intense emotional journey and left me unable to move from my seat until the cleaning crew arrived. I had no expectations for it, and only knew that it seemed to be polarizing audiences; I can well imagine how it would put off some, but I loved it whole and entire. Against it, I could tell you some bits worked better than others, some musical selections were too on the nose, and the overall effect is not quite a polished one, but I do so love interesting flawed things. This is just that, and to date it is also my #1 film of the year.
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Elizabeth: The Golden Age
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2007 - UK
Director
Shekhar Kapur
Starring
Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Abbie Cornish, Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton
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Several months ago — at the end of my last film hiatus — I went through a whole Elizabeth I phase… watching all the movies, reading bodice rippers and actual scholarship, ya know. So with some investment in the real figure and my own romantic notions about her, this unbelievably anti-fact account bothers me more than in most historical films. I mean… getting a Scottish actress with, like, a real Scottish accent to play Mary of Scots… Samantha Morton is great and all, but crack open a high school textbook and one might realize Mary was French in all but name.
So accept the historical inaccuracies from the start and you’re still left with a mixed bag. Kapur’s virtuoso camera tricks work sometimes (the 360s around Elizabeth’s chambers were cool) and very definitely not other times (why the hell am I staring down through this crack in the ceiling??). The score is atrocious, the worst example I have seen recently of an overbearing score cueing the gamut of emotional responses, from swoony romance to spy-thriller intrigue when the substance of the movie can’t inspire such reactions itself. The dialogue, for the most part, is corny as hell and tries too hard to sound period; people make bold declarations everywhere, in the absence of real characterization. In some places — when the bad dialogue, bombastic score and ridiculous visuals come together — the film becomes laughable, and half my audience agreed.
And yet, if one goes in wanting a period soap opera and Errol Flynn-esque swashbuckler, the film is very enjoyable and possibly even satisfying. Pervert that I am, I could not possibly have been more thrilled by the erotically charged relationship between Elizabeth and her “favorite,” Bess Throckmorton; their interaction is much more compelling than the one Clive Owen’s Raleigh shares with either. Blanchett, Rush and Owen all do very good work despite the material, although (perhaps because the past few years have been Elizabeth Overload; perhaps Mirren is now definitive in my mind) some of the Holy Fury moments and playful girly moments were clearly Mirren Lite for me.
Sooo… recommended only for fans of the talent and Elizabeth obsessives, not for the general fall-movie crowd.
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[Le Temps qui reste]
2005 - France
Director
Francois Ozon
Starring
Melvil Poupaud, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Jeanne Moreau
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I always figured Ozon would be a filmmaker for me, but perhaps after all there is only that batty, colorful 8 Women which I love in a fangirlish way and otherwise not. There is an economy to both this and 5×2 that I admire in a way, but for a character-driven story he goes too fast to learn about, let alone care about, the people in it. It’s not a quiet, contemplative meditation on death — saying little and showing less can be effective — but rather a surface-oriented and contrived thing, that succeeds in eliciting an emotional response only in the most facile ways (a character cries out in pain and beats his head against the wall, for example). Then there’s this tacked on sideplot about helping a sterile couple, which would always have been obvious but could have made a touching life/death counterpoint, which in front of Ozon’s camera devolves into a sexy threesome romp. A very disappointing effort.
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1937 - US
Director
Norman Z MacLeod
Starring
Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Billie Burke
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I had read that he really developed the Cary Grant persona while filming The Awful Truth under Leo McCarey’s direction, but the change in him is really startling in viewing this film, made just a few months before Truth. It’s shocking how few of his trademarks are in evidence here. Well, there lies the interest in Topper for me. The film itself is not amazing or hilarious but for the most part the stars make the most of it.
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1946 - US
Director
Michael Curtiz
Starring
Cary Grant, Alexis Smith, Jane Wyman
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Nothing special here but solid entertainment if you like show tunes and Cary at his most charming in this half-fictional Cole Porter biopic. I’ve read he had his reservations about taking on the role and was not happy with his work (it’s not entirely his fault by any stretch: aside from the lovely songs, this is hardly Porter’s life), but if you look at it as a character this is typically high-caliber work. Alexis Smith has zero screen presence; Jane Wyman, who I may have never seen in anything before & had never heard of before her recent death is full of energy and quite good. Really this sort of thing is an actor’s showcase so I’ll delve no further…
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1934 - US
Director
Ernst Lubitsch
Starring
Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald
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More love for the Lubitsch touch. This is the sort of musical I like best, I suppose: the American musical before the Big Hollywood musical. I’m not really sure how to account for the difference, but already between something like this and the 1936 Show Boat the shift has occurred. This sort of thing is more light, playful, romantic, less mannered and aware of its cleverness, more like the Jerome Kern kind of musical produced contemporaneously with BHMs that I like much better.
Anyway, Lubitsch is hilarious. His comedy works so well not because it is broad and obvious, as my blurb on Trouble might have indicated (”suffused through every frame”): in fact it succeeds through economy. The best jokes are when the audience cannot see the whole joke: two characters talk about what they’re doing under the table; the camera stays on the character who’s narrating a lover’s spat which would be foreground action in any other movie. In so many ways, he seems to take a conventional sort of moment, that has its place in any romantic comedy, and turns it on its head: how does everyone else do it? let’s do it differently.
Add to that, Jeanette MacDonald & Maurice Chevalier have joined the ranks of my Great Screen Couples — though I’ve only seen them in two costarring vehicles now, I have to say both are just pure charm, and their charms are in perfect harmony. Maurice Chevalier is definitely the sexiest ugly man in history. I’m pretty crazy about him.
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1932 - US
Director
Ernst Lubitsch
Starring
Miriam Hopkins, Edward Everett Horton, Kay Frances, Herbert Marshall, Charlie Ruggles
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This film is simply astonishing, pure perfection on every possible level, filled with what I can already distinguish as Lubitsch humor, Lubitsch visual flair, Lubitsch acting because it is so distinct and suffused through every last frame. I’m not sure I have seen another film that is as nonstop hilarious and sexy as this. I love 30s comedies and hope to discover dozens more great ones, but at the end of it all I suspect there will only be five or so at this level. This is the tuning pitch.
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About TLC
Films: All reviewed | Favorites
Actors: Profiles | Favorites
Directors: Profiles | Favorites
Screencap galleries
All films by year
2008 Viewing log
Waterloo Bridge 1931, James Whale
Red-Headed Woman 1932, Jack Conway
Millie 1931, John Francis Dillon
The Woman Accused 1933, Paul Sloane
So Big! 1932, William A Wellman
The Awful Truth 1937, Leo McCarey
Conquest 1937, Clarence Brown
It’s Love I’m After 1937, Archie Mayo
The Mad Miss Manton 1938, Leigh Jason
Algiers 1938, John Cromwell
A short digression on Charles Boyer…
Yes, I am endeared. I am, in fact, ensorceled. His inhumanly arched eyebrows, his little winks and half-smiles, and that ability to at once maintain full control of his material while shining the spotlight on his costar: yes, that is talent; yes, this is love. And no, Cluny Brown, it’s not just the cocktails giving you that persian cat feeling… I think we both know too well it has a bit to do with Mr Charles Boyer. Rawr.
Pre-Code Hollywood
» Waterloo Bridge 1931 James Whale
» Red-Headed Woman 1932 Jack Conway
» Millie 1931 John Francis Dillon
» The Woman Accused 1933 Paul Sloane
» So Big! 1932 William A Wellman
Previous & ongoing
30s Cinema
Maestresses
The Lubitsch Race
In-transit romances
Nothing better suited to Hollywood romance than three weeks out of time, away from life, falling in love with a stranger, spending days idly and nights actively.
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