NEGROMANCER 2.0: Golden Globe nominee

Showing posts with label Golden Globe nominee. Show all posts

Sunday, February 11, 2024

Review: Pixar's "TURNING RED" is Universal and Unique

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 8 of 2024 (No. 1952) by Leroy Douresseaux

Turning Red (2022)

Running time: 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)

MPA – PG for thematic material, suggestive content and language

DIRECTOR: Domee Shi

WRITERS: Domee Shi and Julie Cho; from a story by Domee Shi, Julie Cho, and Sarah Streicher

PRODUCER: Lindsey Collins

CINEMATOGRAPHERS: Mahyar Abousaeedi and Jonathan Pytko

EDITORS: Nicholas C. Smith with Steve Bloom

COMPOSER: Ludwig Goransson

SONGS: Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell

Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION/FANTASY/COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: (voices) Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Hyein Park, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Orion Lee, Wai Ching Ho, Tristan Allerick Chen, Jordan Fisher, Finneas O'Connell, and James Hong

Turning Red is a 2022 animated fantasy and comedy-drama film directed by Domee Shi and produced by Pixar Animation Studios. It is Pixar's 25th full-length animated feature film, and it is the first to be solely directed by a woman. Turning Red focuses on a teen girl who is dealing with her demanding mother and the changes of adolescence when she suddenly discovers that becoming really excited causes her to turn into a giant red panda.

Turning Red opens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2002. It introduces a Chinese-Canadian girl, 13-year-old Meilin “Mei” Lee (Rosalie Chiang). She lives with her parents, mother Ming (Sandra Oh) and father Jin (Orion Lee). Mei is a dutiful daughter to her mother who calls her “Mei-Mei,” and she helps take care of the family's temple, “the Lee Family Temple,” one of the the oldest temples in Toronto. The temple honors the Lee family ancestors instead of gods, and it is dedicated to Mei's maternal ancestor Sun Yee.

Mei is also dedicated to a trio of girl friends: Miriam (Ava Morse), Priya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), and Abby (Hyein Park), and all three of them are dedicated fans of the boy band, “4*Town.” Life is busy, but it's about to get complicated. The morning after a night of humiliation, Mei wakes up to discover that she has been transformed into a giant red panda. This is a condition that happens when Mei is overly excited, but it can be cured. But what does Mei really want?

In the early days of the Disney+ streaming service and in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Walt Disney Company released three Pixar feature films as direct-to-streaming releases: Soul (2020), Luca (2021), and Turning Red, declining wide theatrical releases for the films. These were and still are three of Pixar's greatest films, but they are finally getting belated theatrical releases in early 2024. [Soul in January 2024; Turning Red in February 2024; and Luca in March 2024.]

Turning Red is an incredible coming-of-age story, and like Pixar's Oscar-winning Brave (2012), it is a story of transformations and of mother-daughter relationships and all the love and support and trials and tribulations that come with it. Its beautiful, terracotta-like colors amplify the film's sense of magic and magical realism. The variety of faces, body types, skin colors, hair styles, and clothes and costumes are a testament of how culturally expansive Pixar's films set in the human world are. Everything about Turning Red invites the entire world of moviegoers to come along on this timeless, universal tale of a child coming into her own and learning to love herself as she is becoming and to love her parents for what they were, are, and can be.

Domee Shi and her co-writers, Julie Cho and Sarah Streicher, have created a character, a world, and a scenario of which I believe I can be a part. I am an old-ass Black man, a million miles away from a 13-year-old Canadian girl of Chinese descent, but Turning Red makes me understand that what the girl experiences are in some ways similar to what I've experienced. In a way, I am jealous of Turning Red and of Meilin Lee because I could never embrace the messy strangeness in me to the extent that she does. I definitely did not want my freak flag fluttering in the wind too much.

There is so much to like in this film. As usual, the animation is up to Pixar's astronomical standards, and Ludwig Goransson's score infuses itself into the film so much that it seems as if the animation is performing a concert. Speaking of music, I'm embarrassed to admit that I like 4*Town, the band, and its three songs performed in the movie, which are written by the sister-brother team of Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell. And I couldn't love the movie if I wasn't crazy about actress Rosalie Chiang's multi-layered and energetic voice performance as Mei. Chiang makes Mei feel like a real girl, genuine child in the throes of change and transformation.

Some have said that Turning Red's setting and its lead character, Mei, make the film not timeless and universal like Pixar's other films. They can go screw themselves. Turning Red is universal like other Pixar films and also unlike other Pixar films. Turning Red is Pixar high art and Disney magic, and it is a truly great film that I plan on watching again and again.

10 of 10

Sunday, February 11, 2024

NOTES:

2023 Academy Awards, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film” (Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins)

2023 BAFTA Film Awards: 1 nominee: “Best Animated Feature Film” (Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins)

2023 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nominee: “Best Motion Picture – Animated”

2023 Image Awards (NAACP): 1 nominee: “Outstanding Animated Motion Picture”

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Saturday, December 16, 2023

Review: First "CHICKEN RUN" Runs Wild at the End

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 54 of 2023 (No. 1943) by Leroy Douresseaux

Chicken Run (2000)

Running time: 84 minutes (1 hour, 24 minutes)

MPAA – G

DIRECTORS: Peter Lord and Nick Park

WRITERS: Karey Kirkpatrick; from a story by Peter Lord and Nick Park

PRODUCERS: Peter Lord, Nick Park, and David Sproxton

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dave Alex Riddett (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Mark Solomon

COMPOSERS: Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell

BAFTA nominee

ANIMATION/FANTASY/ADVENTURE/COMEDY

Starring: (voices): Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Phil Daniels, Lynn Ferguson, Tony Haygarth, Jane Horrocks, Miranda Richardson, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, and Benjamin Whitrow

Chicken Run is a 2000 stop-motion animated fantasy and comedy film directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park. It is a British, French, and U.S. co-production produced by Pathe and Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. Chicken Run was Aardman's first feature-length animated film and, as of this writing, remains the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film in worldwide box office history. Chicken Run is set at a British chicken farm where the chickens hope that an American chicken can help them escape the farm's vicious owners.

Chicken Run opens in post World War II England, specifically at an egg farm that is run like a prisoner-of-war camp. The farm is owned and operated by the cruel Mrs. Malisha Tweedy (Miranda Richardson) and her submissive husband, Mr. Tweedy (Tony Haygarth), who eat and kill any chicken that is no longer able to lay eggs. Inside the chicken yard, a rebellious chicken, Ginger (Julia Sawalha), is constantly engaged in escape attempts. Her goal is to help all her fellow chickens escape the farm and find a new home in the land that lies behind a hill some distance from the Tweedy's farm.

One night, Ginger witnesses a rooster glide over the coop's fences. She learns that he is an American rooster, Rocky Rhodes (Mel Gibson), a.k.a. “Rocky the Flying Rooster” a.k.a. “Rocky the Rhode Island Red.” Believing that Rocky can fly, Ginger begs him to help teach her and the other chickens how to fly so that they can escape the farm. Rocky is not quite what he seems, however, and time is running out as Mrs. Tweedy has devised a new way to get more money out of the farm's large population of chickens.

I have been putting off seeing Chicken run for 23 years. Then, I discovered that a sequel, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, was set to debut on Netflix December 15, 2023, so I decided to finally watch it. I am a fan of the later feature-length animated films that Aardman Animations produced in partnership with DreamWorks Animation, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) and Flushed Away (2006). I have also enjoyed a few of Aardman's animated short films, including A Grand Day Out with Wallace & Gromit (1989) and Wallace & Gromit in the Wrong Trousers (1993).

In the end, I like Chicken Run, not as much as I like other Aardman works I've seen. Chicken Run takes some inspiration from director John Sturges 1963 war and adventure film, The Great Escape. Chicken Run is also described as an adventure film, but it is really a sedate comedy and drama that only occasionally plays with its edgier elements. Honestly, I think the storytellers under-utilize the Tweedys who are delightfully menacing and are endlessly funny as a dysfunctional couple. The film is filled with interesting characters, inventive production design, and a novel plot, but the filmmakers seem to keep holding back the narrative's energy for the big ending – more than they need to as far as I'm concerned.

Chicken Run does not really live up to its comic and adventure potential until the last 20 minutes of the story before the end credits start. The film suddenly seems to wind up and then explode in a final act of flying contraptions, determined poultry, and maniacal farmers. In fact, the finale is the first time in the film that Mel Gibson's Rocky does not seem like an extraneous character. I will try to see the sequel on Netflix, but for the time being, finally seeing Chicken Run seems to be the only run I really need to make at the story.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Saturday, December 16, 2023

NOTES:

2001 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (Peter Lord, David Sproxton, and Nick Park) and “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Paddy Eason, Mark Nelmes, and Dave Alex Riddett)

2001 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical”

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Monday, September 4, 2023

Review: "THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS" is a Masterpiece

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 125 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Les Invasion Barbares (2003)

The Barbarian Invasions (2003) – U.S. title

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada/France; Language: French/English

Running time: 99 minutes (1 hour, 33 minutes)

MPAA – R for language, sexual dialogue, and content

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Denys Arcand

PRODUCERS: Daniel Louis and Denise Robert

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Guy Dufaux

EDITOR: Isabelle Dedieu

COMPOSER: Pierre Aviat

Academy Award winner

DRAMA/COMEDY

Starring: Rémy Girard, Stéphane Rousseau, Dorothée Berryman, Louise Portal, Dominique Michel, Yves Jacques, Pierre Curzi, Marie-Josée Croze, Marina Hands, Toni Cecchinato, and Mitsou Gélinas

Les Invasions barbares is a 2003 comedy and drama written and directed by Denys Arcand. A Canadian and French co-production, the film was released in the U.S. under the title, The Barbarian Invasions, the title I will used for this review. The Barbarian Invasions focuses on a dying man, who during his final days, is reunited with old friends, former lovers, his ex-wife, and his estranged son.

Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasion won the Academy Award for “Best Foreign Language Film” at the 76th Academy Awards in 2004. A sequel to Arcand's 1986 film, The Decline of the American Empire, The Barbarian Invasions received only one other Oscar nomination, which was for best original screenplay (written by Arcand), and that was and still is ridiculous. Considering the performances and Arcand’s direction, the film should have received at least a few more.

The Barbarian Invasions is the story of 50-ish Rémy (Rémy Girard) and his family. He is dying of cancer and is laid up in a Montreal hospital. His ex-wife, Louise (Dorothée Berryman), summons home their son, Sébastien (Stéphane Rousseau), who is estranged from his father and is living in London. Sébastien, a rich oil trader for a huge British firm, is, in a sense, a disappointment to his father. The son is a wealthy capitalist and the father was an arm chair, leftist, radical type.

Soon after he arrives, Sébastien uses his money and connections to fight the entrenched Canadian nationalized health system, and he gets Rémy a private room and other amenities. But the most difficult part of the prodigal son’s return home is the reconciliation between father and son.

The most amazing thing about this thoroughly beautiful film is that Arcand is able to tell the story of a father trying to redeem himself, of a son trying to put aside his anger at this father, and of a man trying to find meaning in a life he believes that he lazily kept so modest and have still more sub-plots, philosophies, and ideas. The film also deals with mother/daughter relationships, the drug war, drug addiction, personal and professional failure, the Canadian health system, socialism, infidelity, friendship, politics, religion, genocide, and barbarian invasions of civilization. Arcand does all of this without losing the central, human focus of his lovely movie. Filled with rich performances, subtle humor, and endearing characters, The Barbarian Invasions is the best film of the year.

10 of 10

Re-edited: Saturday, September 2, 2023

NOTES:

2004 Academy Awards, USA: 1 win: “Best Foreign Language Film” (Canada); 1 nomination: “Best Writing, Original Screenplay” (Denys Arcand)

2004 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Screenplay-Original” (Denys Arcand) and “Best Film not in the English Language” (Denise Robert, Daniel Louis, and Denys Arcand)

2004 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Foreign Language Film” (Canada)

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Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Review: "INDIANA JONES and the Last Crusade" Stills Feels Like a True Ending

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 28 of 2023 (No. 1917) by Leroy Douresseaux

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Running time: 127 minutes (2 hours, 7 minutes)

MPAA – PG-13

DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg

WRITERS: Jeffrey Boam; from a story by George Lucas and Menno Meyjes (based on characters created by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman)

PRODUCER: Robert Watts

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Douglas Slocombe (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Michael Kahn, A.C.E.

COMPOSER: John Williams

Academy Award winner

ADVENTURE/ACTION/FANTASY

Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Alison Doody, Denholm Elliot, John Rhys-Davies, Julian Glover, River Phoenix, Michael Byrne, Kevork Malikyan, Robert Eddison, Richard Young, and Michael Sheard

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a 1989 action-adventure film from director Steven Spielberg. It is the third entry in the “Indiana Jones” film franchise that began with the 1981 film, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). The Last Crusade finds Indiana Jones searching for his father, who along with the Nazis, are search for the Holy Grail.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade opens in Utah, 1912. It is there that teenage Henry Jones, Jr. (River Phoenix) has his first experiences with raiders of an archaeological site.

Over a quarter-century later, in 1938, Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. (Harrison Ford) recovers the treasure he lost as a teenager. Jones returns to teaching (apparently at Barnett College in Fairfield, New York) when one of the college's wealthy patrons approaches him about a special mission. Walter Donovan (Julian Glover) wants Jones to help him locate the Holy Grail.

Jones informs him that his father, Professor Henry Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery), is the expert on the Holy Grail and the one whom Donovan should seek. Donovan shocks Jones by informing him that he had hired his father to find the Grail, but the senior Jones has disappeared. Jones and his colleague, Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliot), race to Venice, his father's last known location. Waiting for them is Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody), who was working with the elder Jones in Venice as he sought to find more clues about the Grail's location.

Before long, Indiana Jones and Henry Jones Sr. are racing for their lives, staying one step ahead of the Nazis, who also want the Grail, and the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, who want to protect it. Reunited with his old friend, Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), the Jones boys get closer to the Holy Grail, but the secret of the Grail is that it offers both eternal life and total destruction.

In preparation for the upcoming fifth film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, I decided to see the one Indiana Jones film that I have not watched in its entirety since the 1990s, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I have seen the first film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, countless times, and I rewatched its follow-up, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), in November of last year (2022). I have watched the fourth film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), many times since its release.

I have long considered Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade the true end of the Indiana Jones film series because it was the third film in the original trilogy and because it felt like the end of something. The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull felt like a “coda,” in the sense that it was both an addition to the three-film series that ran from 1981 to 1989 and a final piece added to the ending of The Last Crusade's tale of family and friends out for one last adventure.

Seeing The Last Crusade in its entirety for the first time in decades, I still feel like I'm watching the end of trilogy. If there was going to be another film after it, that ceased to be when River Phoenix, the actor who played teen Henry Jones, Jr. in this film, died in 1993 at the age of 23. Actor Denholm Elliot, who played Marcus Brody in the original film and in The Last Crusade, died at the age of 70, a year earlier in 1992. Henry Jones Sr., actor Sean Connery, only recently died (2020) at the age of 90. So, you see, dear readers, because of the passing of a number of cast members, more and more, I associate Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with endings.

The Last Crusade is my least favorite film of the original trilogy. I know that some audiences prefer it to the darker Temple of Doom, and apparently, director Steven Spielberg made The Last Crusade the way he did to offer a lighter film in response to the criticism of the Temple of Doom's violence and exotic mysticism. However, I find Temple of Doom to be wildly inventive, darkly imaginative, and a roller coaster ride. If Raiders of the Lost Ark is an original, in a way, Temple of Doom still seems determined to be something very different from its predecessor.

Honestly, I find The Last Crusade to be only mildly entertaining until the film's last 45 minutes. Then, it explodes and really finds itself with lots of Nazi-punching and killing and also with a spine-tingling jaunt to the Holy Grail. Besides, Indiana Jones is always at his best when he's beating Nazis. Honestly, I think it is important that audiences who have not seen the original films watch them all before moving on to the new film. By the time they get to the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, many newbies may finally understand what Indiana Jones meant to American cinema once upon a time, and why, over four decades after the release of the first film, there is a new one.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

You can purchase the "INDIANA JONES 4-Movie Collection" Blu-ray or DVD here at AMAZON.

NOTES:

1990 Academy Awards, USA: 1 win: “Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing” (Ben Burtt and Richard Hymns); 2 nominations: “Best Sound” (Ben Burtt, Gary Summers, Shawn Murphy, and Tony Dawe), and “Best Music, Original Score” (John Williams)

1990 BAFTA Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Sean Connery), “Best Sound” (Richard Hymns, Tony Dawe, Ben Burtt, Gary Summers, and Shawn Murphy), and “Best Special Effects” (George Gibbs, Michael J. McAlister, Mark Sullivan, and John Ellis)

1990 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Sean Connery)

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Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Review: Entertaining "TRIANGLE OF SADNESS" is Not as Clever or as Sharp As it Thinks It Is

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 21 of 2023 (No. 1910) by Leroy Douresseaux

Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Running time: 147 minutes (2 hour, 27 minutes)

MPA – R for language and some sexual content

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Rubin Östlund

PRODUCERS: Philippe Bober and Erik Hemmendorff

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Fredrik Wenzel (D.o.P.)

EDITORS: Mikel Cee Karlsson and Rubin Östlund

Academy Award nominee

DRAMA

Starring: Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Vicki Berlin, Dolly De Leon, Zlatko Buric, Sunnyi Melles, Iris Berben, Amanda Walker, Oliver Ford Davies, Ralph Schicha, Henrik Dorsin, Jean-Christophe Folly, Alicia Eriksson, and Woody Harrelson

Triangle of Sadness is a 2022 satirical film and black comedy from writer-director Ruben Östlund. It is the Swedish Östlund's first English-language film, and it is an international co-production between four nations: Sweden, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The film follows a celebrity couple, who are both fashion models, as they join a doomed luxury cruse for the super-rich.

Triangle of Sadness introduces Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean). Yaya is a successful fashion model, and Carl is male model, who is not as successful as Yaya. Yaya expects Carl to pay for their meals, although she makes more money than him, and her ambition is to be a trophy wife. Yaya is an “influencer,” and she is in a relationship with Carl for the social media engagement it earns them.

Carl and Yaya are invited on a luxury cruise aboard a super-yacht in exchange for its social media promotion. Among the wealthy guests are the Russian oligarch, Dimitry (Zlatko Buric), and his wife, Vera (Sunnyi Melles), and Jarmo (Henrik Dorsin), a lonely tech millionaire who flirts with Yaya. Paula (Vicki Berlin), the tightly wound head of the ship's staff, demands that the staff obey the guests' every request, even the absurd ones. The ship's Captain (Woody Harrelson) will not leave his room and seems to be drunk all the time. The captain's neglect of his duties, Paula's insistence on placating the super-wealthy guests, and the guests crazy demands culminate in a single disastrous evening.

Eventually, a small group of the yacht's guests, including Carl and Yaya, find themselves on what seems to be a deserted island. Now, the balance of power has shifted from the wealthy and powerful to a rather skillful cleaning woman, Abigail (Dolly De Leon). Will the guests adjust to this new status, and how well will they adjust?

There are some fun, outrageous, and outrageously funny material, moments, and scenes in Triangle of Sadness. The film critiques and mocks the obscenely wealthy, but I think that its strongest points are made when it takes swipes at how some people get rich and famous. Some are wealthy because they sell things that are destructive to humanity (things used in war), and some are rich and famous … for being rich and famous. Some people's wealth does not make their lives better, such as the lonely Jarmo. Some, like the Russian, Dimitry, merely happened to be in the right place at the right time with the right stuff to sell.

For all his film's political commentary and moral lessons, writer-director Ruben Östlund seems to be a tad too mannered. It's as if he doesn't know that while his film is edgy, he seems to be dulling the sharp edges that would really go after his social and political targets. Is Östlund saying that the super-rich and famous are obscene and that they need to be brought down to the level of ordinary people in order to regain their humanity? By the end of the film, it seems that way.

I would recommend Triangle of Sadness (which takes its title from a modeling term used in the film) to fans of foreign movies. Most movie fans can get a similar message, more or less, from the classic Eddie Murphy-Dan Aykroyd film, Trading Places (1983). I like Triangle of Sadness because it is a genuinely good film, but it feels like Ruben Östlund left the hardness of its allegories and metaphors on the cutting room floor.

7 of 10

A-

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

NOTES:

2023 Academy Awards, USA: 3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Erik Hemmendorff and Philippe Bober), “Best Original Screenplay” (Ruben Östlund), and “Best Achievement in Directing” (Ruben Östlund)

2023 BAFTA Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Supporting Actress” (Dolly De Leon), “Best Casting” (Pauline Hansson), and “Best Screenplay-Original” (Ruben Östlund)

2023 Golden Globes, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture” (Dolly De Leon)

2022 Cannes Film Festival: 2 wins: “Palme d'Or” (Ruben Östlund) and “CST Artist-Technician Prize” (Andreas Franck, Bent Holm, Jacob Ilgner, and Jonas Rudels)

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Thursday, May 4, 2023

Review: Riveting "WOMEN TALKING" is a Film That Speaks Directly, Even to Us

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 19 of 2023 (No. 1908) by Leroy Douresseaux

Women Talking (2022)

Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for mature thematic content including sexual assault, bloody images, and some strong language

DIRECTOR: Sarah Polley

WRITER: Sarah Polley (based upon the book by Miriam Toews)

PRODUCERS: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Frances McDormand

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Luc Montpellier

EDITORS: Christopher Donaldson and Roslyn Kalloo

COMPOSER: Hildur Guðnadottir

Academy Award winner

DRAMA/RELIGION

Starring: Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, France McDormand, Judith Ivey, Emily Mitchell, Kate Hallet, Liv McNeil, Shelia McCarthy, Michelle McLeod, Kira Guloien, Shayla Brown, Vivien Endicott-Douglas, August Winter, and Ben Whishaw

Women Talking is a 2022 drama film from writer-director Sarah Polley. The film is based on Miriam Towes' 2018 Canadian novel, Women Talking. Both the film and the novel are inspired by real-life events. Women Talking the film focuses on a group of women who must decide if they should do nothing, stay and fight, or leave their isolated religious community where sexual abuse of girls and women is common.

Women Talking opens in the year 2010 in an unnamed, isolated Mennonite colony. The colony's women and girls have discovered that some of the men in the colony have been using livestock tranquilizer to subdue them in order to rape them. Although other men in the colony have had these attackers arrested and imprisoned in a nearby city, they are also seeking bail for the attackers.

The men have left the women by themselves for two days in order for the women to determine what they will do going forward. However, the men expect the women to forgive their attackers or be expelled from the colony. The women gather in a barn to discuss and to vote. They have a young man named August (Ben Whishaw) sit in the meeting in order to take the minutes. When he was a boy, Ben's mother was expelled from the colony. Ben returned to become the colony's sole teacher, but he only teaches the boys because women are not allowed to attend school.

Elders like Agata (Judith Ivey) and Greta (Sheila McCarthy) lead the discussion, but young women like Ona (Rooney Mara), Salome (Claire Foy), Mariche (Jessie Buckley), and Mejal (Michelle McLeod) have strong opinions. Should the women do nothing... forgive... stay and fight... or leave the colony? As they grapple with the brutal reality of their faith, the time to decide is running out.

Almost four days out from watching Women Talking, and I find myself still thinking about it, dear readers. In the wake of the of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, it feels like a supernaturally timely film. The “Dobbs decision” held that the Constitution of the United States did not confer a right to abortion. It is just the latest in a more than three-decade assault on women's rights to reproductive freedom and choice.

Women Talking effectively delivers a valuable message. The women of the Mennonite colony that this film depicts must confront not only the violence against them, but also a religion designed down to its bones to give men all the power over women. Their faith essentially renders women and girls indentured servants and non-citizens.

I quibble that writer-director Sarah Polley's direction and Oscar-winning screenplay bury the actresses of Women Talking beneath the scenario and story. There is a lot of genuine talent here, and I wanted to see more of them, in a broader sense, although no one can really keep Rooney Mara from shining. In a way, however, that is good thing. The way Polley presents this makes Women Talking as timeless as it is timely.

Women Talking is truly an exceptional and spectacular film because the women at the heart of its story are talking. What they say crosses over into our real world. Because what is depicted in this film is real, it matters. Women Talking is based on something that happened not that long ago, in this century, so women struggling for equality and human rights must keep talking. And this movie, Women Talking, is entertainment, educational, and hopefully, inspiration for future generations.

9 of 10

A+

★★★★+ out of 4 stars

Thursday, May 4, 2023

NOTES:

2023 Academy Awards, USA: 1 win: “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Sarah Polley) and 1 nomination: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Jeremy Kleiner, Dede Gardner, and Frances McDormand – producers)

2023 Golden Globes, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Hildur Guðnadóttir) and “Best Screenplay-Motion Picture” (Sarah Polley)

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Sunday, April 16, 2023

Review: "PUSS IN BOOTS: The Last Wish" is a Delightful Surprise

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 17 of 2023 (No. 1906) by Leroy Douresseaux

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Running time: 102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)

MPA – PG for action/violence, rude humor/language, and some scary moments

DIRECTOR: Joel Crawford with Januel Mercado

WRITERS: Paul Fisher and Tommy Swerdlow; from a story by Tom Wheeler and Tommy Swerdlow

PRODUCER: Mark Swift

EDITOR: James Ryan

COMPOSER: Heitor Pereira

Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION/FANTASY/ADVENTURE/COMEDY

Starring: (voices) Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Harvey Guillén, Florence Pugh, Olivia Coleman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo, John Mulaney, Wagner Moura, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Kevin McCann, Anthony Mendez, and Bernardo De Paula

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a 2022 computer-animated fantasy-adventure film directed by Joel Crawford and produced by DreamWorks Animation. The film is a sequel to Puss in Boots (2011) and is also the sixth installment in the Shrek film franchise. The Last Wish focuses on Puss in Boots' epic journey to gain the wish that will restore the eight of his nine lives that he has lost.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish opens in the town of Del Mar. There, the renowned hero and outlaw, Puss in Boots (Antionio Banderas), hosts a party and later, saves the town from a giant. After being injured during his battle with a giant, Puss sees a local doctor (Anthony Mendez) who informs him that he has used eight of his nine lives. [I'm assuming that you, dear readers, are familiar with the superstitious belief that cats have nine lives]. The doctor urges Puss to retire from adventuring before he loses his ninth and final life.

Puss refuses to retire, but then, he has an unfortunate encounter with a menacing, bounty-hunting. Known as Wolf (Wagner Moura), he is garbed in a black robe and hood and wields twin sickles, and he is so fearsome that Puss has to flee. While on the run, Puss learns of the magical “Wishing Star,” which can grant a single wish to someone bearing the map to its location. Puss begins his journey to the Star's location, the “Dark Forest.” Joining him on his journey is Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), the savvy Tuxedo cat he apparently betrayed, and also a small dog that Puss and Kitty call “Perrito” (Harvey Guillén). But they aren't the only ones looking for the Wishing Star.

I was happy to hear about Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. When I first saw the original, Puss in Boots, I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is like its fellow DreamWorks Animation 2022 stablemate, The Bad Guys. Both films take inspiration for their production design from Sony Pictures Animation's 2018, Oscar-winning film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which mixes both a 3D and a 2D aesthetic in its design. I think The Last Wish looks closer to Into the Spider-Verse than The Bad Guys does, but neither film electrifies the screen the way the Spider-Man film did.

Like its predecessor, The Last Wish has a lead character who is part Zorro and part Valentino. Puss in Boots is a charming rogue, the kind of character that can drive a swashbuckling adventure film to success. However, The Last Wish requires a character to not only undergo a character arc, but also to evolve. To that end, Antonio Banderas gives a performance with more humor and pathos than most actors give in live-action roles. By the time The Last Wish ends, Banderas has me wishing real hard for a third film in this series.

As Kitty Softpaws, Salma Hayek makes the most of her moments. The character doesn't get the space to roam dramatically that Puss does, but Hayek makes Kitty seem like a character that could carry her own movie. Actor Harvey Guillén keeps Perrito the dog perfectly cute for this film, because he is just the kind of character that can quickly go from lovable to annoying.

The rest of the characters in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish come across as extraneous. The “Three Bears Crime Family,” which includes Goldilocks (Florence Pugh), Mama Bear (Olivia Colman), Papa Bear (Ray Winstone), and Baby Bear (Samson Kayo), and also the crime lord, “Big” Jack Horner (John Mulaney), don't feel so important to the story that they could not be replaced with other famous fairy tale characters. They aren't bad characters, but they seem to exist in The Last Wish for no other reason than to be part of this film's big action set pieces. But Wagner Moura is awesome as the magnificent “Wolf.” The film could have used more of him and less of the other “criminals.”

Still, Antonio Banderas once again makes Puss in Boots an animated character worthy of headlining his own films. Hopefully, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is not the last Puss in Boots film.

7 of 10

A-

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Sunday, April 16, 2023

NOTES:

2023 Academy Awards, USA: 1nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film” (Joel Crawford and Mark Swift)

2023 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film” (Joel Crawford and Mark Swift)

2023 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Motion Picture – Animated”

2023 Image Awards (NAACP): 1 nomination: “Outstanding Animated Motion Picture”

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Thursday, October 27, 2022

Review: Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (Countdown to "The Fabelmans")

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 64 of 2022 (No. 1876) by Leroy Douresseaux

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Running time: 135 minutes (2 hour, 15 minutes)
MPAA – PG
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
PRODUCERS: Julia Phillips and Michael Phillips
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Vilmos Zsigmond (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Michael Kahn
COMPOSER: John Williams
Academy Award winner

SCI-FI/ADVENTURE/MYSTERY/DRAMA

Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Terri Garr, Melinda Dillon, Bob Balaban, and Cary Guffey

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film follows an everyday blue-collar worker from Indiana who has a life-changing encounter with a UFO and then, embarks on a cross-country journey to the place where a momentous event is to occur.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind opens in the Sonoran Desert. There, French scientist Claude Lacombe (François Truffaut), his American interpreter, David Laughlin (Bob Balaban), and a group of other researchers make a shocking discovery regarding a three-decade-old mystery.

Then, the film introduces Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), an rural electrical lineman living in Muncie, Indiana with his wife, Ronnie (Terri Garr), and their three children. One night, while working on a power outage, Roy has a “close encounter” with a UFO (unidentified flying object). The encounter is so intense that the right side of Roy's face is lightly burned, and it also becomes a kind of metaphysical experience for Roy. He becomes fascinated with the UFO and obsessed with some kind of mountain-like image that won't leave his mind.

Roy isn't the only one who has had a close encounter. Single mother Jillian Guiler (Melinda Dillon) watches in horror as her three-year-old son, Barry Guiler (Cary Guffey), is abducted, apparently by a UFO. Now, Roy and Jillian are headed to a place they have never been, Devils Tower in Moorcroft, Wyoming, where they will hopefully find answers to the questions plaguing their minds.

As I await the release of Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical film, The Fabelmans, I have been re-watching and, in some cases, watching for the first time, Spielberg's early films. Thus far, I have watched Duel (the TV film that first got Spielberg noticed), The Sugarland Express (his debut theatrical film), and Jaws (which I have seen countless times). I did not see Close Encounters of the Third Kind when it first arrived in movie theaters, but I finally got to watch it when it debuted on television. I recently watched a DVD release of what is known as Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Special Edition, a shortened (132 minutes long compared to the original's 135 minutes) and altered version of the film that Columbia Pictures released in August 1980.

The truth is that I have never been as crazy about Close Encounters of the Third Kind the way I have been about such Spielberg's films as Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Jurassic Park. I liked Close Encounters the first time I saw it (a few years after its theatrical release), but I had expected a lot from it after hearing such wonderful things about the film from acquaintances who had seen it in a theater. I was a bit underwhelmed,. I liked Close Encounters, but was not “wowed” by it, and was less so the second time I saw it a few years after the first time.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a combination of science fiction, adventure, drama, and mystery. The drama works, especially when Spielberg depicts the trouble that Roy Neary's obsession causes his family and also the terror of the “attack” on Jillian Guiler and her son, Barry. Roy's adventure and journey are quite captivating and result in the events of the film's final half hour, which is the part of the film that many consider to be marvelous. Close Encounters' last act certainly offers an impressive display of special effects and a dazzling light show.

I am attracted to the sense of wonder and discovery that infuses much of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I think my problem is that it seems like three movies in one: Claude Lacombe and Davie Laughlin's story, Roy's story, and the the big “close encounter” at Devils Tower. None of them really gets the time to develop properly, so the film's overall narrative and also the character development are somewhat shallow. There is a lot to like about Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and it is an impressive display of Spielberg's filmmaking skills. However, I am done with it. I don't need to see it again, although I am a huge fan of UFO-related media. I simply cannot warm to Close Encounters of the Third Kind the way I have with other Spielberg films.

7 of 10
B+
★★★½ out of 4 stars

Thursday, October 27, 2022

NOTES:
1978 Academy Awards, USA: 2 wins: “Best Cinematography” (Vilmos Zsigmond) and a “Special Achievement Award” (Frank E. Warner for sound effects editing); 7 nominations: “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Melinda Dillon), “Best Director” (Steven Spielberg), “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Joe Alves, Daniel A. Lomino, and Phil Abramson), “Best Sound” (Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don MacDougall, and Gene S. Cantamessa), “Best Film Editing” (Michael Kahn), “Best Effects, Visual Effects” (Roy Arbogast, Douglas Trumbull, Matthew Yuricich, Gregory Jein, and Richard Yuricich), and “Best Music, Original Score” (John Williams)

1979 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: Best Production Design/Art Direction (Joe Alves); 8 nominations: “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (John Williams); “BAFTA Film Award Best Cinematography” (Vilmos Zsigmond), “Best Direction” (Steven Spielberg), “Best Film,” “Best Film Editing” (Michael Kahn), “Best Screenplay” (Steven Spielberg), “Best Sound” (Gene S. Cantamessa, Robert Knudson, Don MacDougall, Robert Glass, Stephen Katz, Frank E. Warner, Richard Oswald, David M. Horton, Sam Gemette, Gary S. Gerlich, Chester Slomka, and Neil Burrow), and “Best Supporting Actor? (François Truffaut)

1978 Golden Globes, USA: 4 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama,” “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Steven Spielberg), “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Steven Spielberg), and “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (John Williams)

2007 National Film Preservation Board, USA: 1 win: “National Film Registry”

The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Friday, August 12, 2022

Review: Steven Spielberg's "Duel" (Countdown to "The Fabelmans")

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 46 of 2022 (No. 1858) by Leroy Douresseaux

Duel (1971) – TV movie
Running time: 90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
WRITER: Richard Matheson (based on his short story)
PRODUCER: George Eckstein
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jack a Marta (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Frank Morriss
COMPOSER: Billy Goldenberg
Primetime Emmy Award winner

THRILLER/ACTION

Starring: Dennis Weaver, Jacqueline Scott, Eddie Firestone, Lou Frizzell, Lucille Benson, and Carey Loftin

Duel is a 1971 action-thriller and television film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is based on the short story, “Duel,” which was first published in the April 1971 issue of Playboy Magazine. It was written by Richard Matheson, who also wrote this film's teleplay (screenplay). Duel the movie focuses on a business commuter pursued and terrorized by a driver in a massive tanker truck.

Duel was originally a “Movie of the Week” that was broadcast on ABC November 20, 1971. Duel was the first film directed by Steven Spielberg, and it is considered to be the film that marked young Spielberg as an up and coming film director. Following its successful air on television, Universal had Spielberg shoot new scenes for Duel in order to extend it from its original length of 74 minutes for TV to 90 minutes for a theatrical release. This extended version of Duel was released to theaters internationally and also received a limited release in the United States. The theatrical version is the subject of this review.

Duel focuses on David Mann (Dennis Weaver), a middle-aged salesman. One morning, he leaves his suburban home to drive across California on a business trip. Along the way, he encounters a dilapidated tanker truck that is driving too slow for David. He drives his car past the tanker, but a short while later, the tanker speeds up and roars past David's car. After David passes the tanker again, the truck driver blasts his horn. That sets off a cat and mouse game in which the tanker's seemingly malevolent driver pursues David's car and terrorizes him. And nothing David does can help him to escape the pursuit.

I think that the mark of a great film director is his or her ability to get the most out of his or her cast and creatives and a maximum effort from the film crew. Duel is a display of excellent work on the stunt performers and drivers. Together with the camera crew, sound technicians, and film editor, they deliver a small screen film that offers a big cinematic duel between a small car and relentless tanker truck.

Dennis Weaver delivers a performance in multiple layers as David Mann. Weaver makes Mann seem like a real businessman type, a cog-in-the-machine and ordinary fellow just trying to make it in the world. Weaver does not seem to be acting so much as he is living and fighting for survival.

Behind all this is the young maestro, Steven Spielberg. It is not often that TV movies get the cinematic treatment, but I imagine that the original production company, Universal Television, was quite pleased when they first saw this film. It is genuinely thrilling and unsettling, and the truck driver (played by stuntman Carey Loftin), who is unseen except for his forearm and waving hand and his jeans and cowboy boots, can unnerve like the best horror film slasher killers. The way that dilapidated tanker truck moves makes me think that it was a precursor to the shark in Jaws, which would become Spielberg's first blockbuster theatrical film just a few years (1975) after the release of Duel.

Richard Matheson's script for the film seems to want to make the viewer really wonder about the driver. Is he evil... or a maniac... or demented prankster? Why does he focus on David Mann? Has he done this before? What is his endgame with David? Does he want to kill him or just punish him. Does he want to torment David before he crushes him and his car beneath his tanker truck's wheels?

Steven Spielberg brings those questions to fearsome life on the small screen and later big screen. He makes Duel work both by scaring us and David with the big bad truck and by fascinating us with all these questions concerning the trucker's motivations and David's fate. Hindsight is just as accurate as foresight in the case of Duel. Steven Spielberg was great, practically from the beginning.

7 of 10
A-
★★★½ out of 4 stars

Friday, August 12, 2022

NOTES:
1972 Primetime Emmy Awards: 1 win: “Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing” (Jerry Christian, James Troutman, Ronald LaVine, Sid Lubowm Richard Raderman, Dale Johnston, Sam Caylor, John Stacy, and Jack Kirschner – sound editors); 1 nomination: “Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography for Entertainment Programming – For a Special or Feature Length Program Made for Television (Jack A. Marta)

1972 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination “Best Movie Made for TV”

The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Friday, June 24, 2022

Review: "PARALLEL MOTHERS" is Another Almodovar-Cruz Masterpiece

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 39 of 2022 (No. 1851) by Leroy Douresseaux

Parallel Mothers (2021)
Original title: Madres paralelas
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Spain; Language: Spanish
Running time: 123 minutes (2 hours, 3 minutes)
MPA – R for some sexuality
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Pedro Almodóvar
PRODUCERS: Augustin Almodóvar and Esther Garcia
CINEMATOGRAPHER: José Luis Alcaine (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Teresa Font
COMPOSER: Alberto Iglesias
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA

Starring: Penelope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Julieta Serrano, Adelfa Clavo, Carmen Flores, Ainhoa Santamaria, and Rossy de Palma

Madres paralelas is a 2021 Spanish drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. The film is also known by its English release title, Parallel Mothers (the title I will use for this review). The film focuses on two mothers who give birth on the same day causing them to bond in unexpected ways.

Parallel Mothers introduces Janis Martínez (Penelope Cruz), a highly considered magazine photographer. She does a photo shoot with renowned forensic archaeologist, Arturo (Israel Elejalde). She asks him if his foundation will help excavate a mass grave in her home village, where she believes her great-grandfather and other men from the village were killed and buried during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). After he agrees to review the case with his foundation, Arturo has sexual relations with Janis, who becomes pregnant.

Later, Janis shares a hospital room with Ana Manso (Milena Smit), a teen single mother, and the two end up giving birth at the same time. Janis has a daughter whom she names “Cecilia,” and Ana a daughter she names “Anita.” The women promise to stay in touch, but Janis makes a series of shocking discoveries that will change both their lives.

Parallel Mothers is obviously an acting showcase for Penelope Cruz, who wastes no time exercising her prodigious talents. Cruz won numerous awards and received even more nominations for her performance as Janis Martinez. Writer-director Pedro Almodovar has spent his four-decade career in film making writing wonderful roles for women that result is wonderful films featuring an eclectic group of actresses.

Parallel Mothers' women are united across time by the bonds of motherhood, family, friendship, and loss. They are the speakers for the dead and the nurtures of men, but they also nurture and support and lift-up the other women in their lives. This is the uplift that Janis will provide for Ana, played by actress Milena Smit as a pixie of a girl in need of mothering. Janis and Ana are the solid center and radiant soul of this film about the complications and twists, the pain and the glory, and joy, sadness, and bittersweet nature of being a mother.

The film has a subplot involving the Spanish Civil War, which is the impetus for the Janis and Arturo conceiving a child. The search for the missing graves in her village, a grave that will hold the remains of her great-grandfather and the grandfathers of other women she knows is also part of the film's theme of loss and separation. These men, murdered in the civil war, should ultimately have a decent burial, and Janis and the other women will see to that.

Pedro Almodovar offers a film that is as raw and unflinching as it is beautiful. He draws out performances that are unashamedly naked and vulnerable in their depictions and displays of emotions, in a way American films tend to avoid, even Oscar-bait films. Sometimes Almodovar can be riotous and uproarious, but other times he can be uncannily intimate, as he is here. Sometimes, I feel unworthy of viewing his amazing films, which are so different and so much more daring than what I usually watch. Parallel Mothers is one of 2021's very best films and reveals that the Spanish maestro is, as usual, in top form.

10 of 10

Friday, June 24, 2022

NOTES:
2022 Academy Awards, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Penelope Cruz) and “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Score (Alberto Iglesias)

2022 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Film not in the English Language” (Pedro Almodóvar and Augustin Almodovar)

2022 Golden Globes, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language” (Spain) and Best Original Score – Motion Picture (Alberto Iglesias)

The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Thursday, June 23, 2022

Review: "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" is Still Fresh and Vibrant

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 38 of 2022 (No. 1850) by Leroy Douresseaux

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
Original title: Mujeres al borde de un ataque de "nervios"
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Spain; Language: Spanish
Running time: 89 minutes (1 hour, 29 minutes)
MPAA – R
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Pedro Almodóvar
PRODUCER: Pedro Almodóvar
CINEMATOGRAPHER: José Luis Alcaine (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: José Salcedo
COMPOSER: Bernardo Bonezzi
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/COMEDY

Starring: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, Rossy de Palma, Maria Berranco, Kiti Manver, Guillermo Montesinos, Chus Lampreave, and Fernando Guillen

Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios is a 1988 Spanish comedy and drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. The film is also known by its English release title, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (the title I will use for this review). The film focuses on a television actress who encounters a variety of eccentric characters as she tries to make contact with her lover who recently and abruptly left her.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown introduces television actress, Pepa Marcos (Carmen Maura), who was recently dumped by her lover, Ivan (Fernando Guillen). They are both voice actors who dub foreign language films into Spanish, and Ivan's sweet-talking voice is the same one he uses in his work. Pepa knows that Ivan is about to leave on a trip … with another woman. He has even asked Pepa to pack his things in a suitcase that he will pick up later.

However, Pepa just wants to talk to Ivan. She really needs to talk to him, but he seems to be avoiding her. She never catches him at home and leaves messages on his telephone answering machine. He leaves voice messages on her machine, always seeming to call when she is unavailable. Her life is spiraling out of control, especially as an ever increasing number of eccentric characters, some connected to Ivan, start gathering around her. Their lives are apparently spiraling out of control, too.

There is her friend Candela (Maria Berranco), who is afraid of the police because she had a brief sexual encounter with a man who turns out to be a “Shiite terrorist.” He later returned to her, bringing a few terrorists colleagues, and they are planning a terrorist attack. Candela is more afraid of going to jail than having had a sexual relationship with a terrorist.

Ivan's son, Carlos (Antonio Banderas), arrives at Pepa's penthouse, with his snobbish fiancée, Marisa (Rossy de Palma). They are apartment-hunting and are interested in Pepa's place. Pepa meets the feminist and lawyer, Paulina (Kiti Mánver), who has a past with Ivan's family and may be connected to them now. Carlos describes his mother, Lucia (Julieta Serrano), Ivan's previous lover, as “crazy,” and she is apparently out of her mental hospital and on the way to Pepa's for a confrontation. Meanwhile, what is Ivan up to?

The original Spanish title of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown – Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios – is evidently not about a “nervous breakdown.” The “ataque de nervois” is more about women showing excessive negative emotions via panic attacks, fainting, and bodily gestures when they get upsetting news or see something that disturbs them. This is about agitation and stress instead of a full breakdown, which actually seems possible with some of the film's characters.

I can see why so many film critics, fans, and audiences were taken with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown at the time of its original release. There was nothing like it in U.S. contemporary film at the time. Its costumes, art direction, and set decoration have stylish references to the past and present and hints at the future. If one ignores such things as the types of telephones and answering machines and the operation of the airport, the film does not seem to be set in any particular time, past or present. The decorations in Pepa's penthouse and all the characters clothing are a riot of beautiful colors and color design. However, things like the taxi cab that Pepa frequently uses and its lovable driver (Guillermo Montesinos) add an earthy street-level touch to the film. Even Pepa's menagerie of animals (chickens and rabbits) are a nice addition to the film's oddness

For most of the 1990s, there were rumors of an American remake of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, with Jane Fonda often listed as a potential cast member (as I remember it). I am not surprised that American actresses would be attracted to this kind of film. Even with Pepa as the lead, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown has five supporting female roles with significant speaking parts, to say nothing of a few smaller parts that all actresses to show themselves.

No one female character is like another, and each woman has her own reason for “ataque de nervois.” Pepa and her eccentric friends and acquaintances are a delight, and the actresses make the most of their time on screen. They turn their character types into showy, gaudy, and captivating women, and I wanted more of them. Also, a young Antonio Banderas, as Carlos, deftly fits in with all these females, never dominating the screen, but always complimenting with uncanny skill.

I have seen Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown described as a black comedy. It is too wildly exaggerated to be anything but a farce. For Pedro Almodóvar, it was his calling card that introduced him to a wider audience outside of both Spain and of the devoted international film audience that already knew him. I like it as a comedy, but I am really fascinated by its characters and the actors playing them. The women on the verge of a nervous breakdown are some amazing women indeed, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is an amazing film.

9 of 10
A+
★★★★+ out of 4 stars

NOTES:
1989 Academy Awards, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Foreign Language Film” (Spain)

1990 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Film not in the English Language” (Pedro Almodóvar)

1989 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Foreign Language Film” (Spain)

The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Thursday, June 16, 2022

Review: "LICORICE PIZZA" is a Dumb Title for a Freaking Fantastic Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 36 of 2022 (No. 1848) by Leroy Douresseaux

Licorice Pizza (2021)
Running time: 133 minutes (2 hours, 13 minutes)
MPA – R for language, sexual material and some drug use
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Paul Thomas Anderson
PRODUCERS: Paul Thomas Anderson, Sara Murphy, and Adam Somner
CINEMATOGRAPHERS: Paul Thomas Anderson (D.o.P.) and Michael Bauman
EDITOR: Andy Jurgensen
COMPOSER: Jonny Greenwood
Academy Award nominee

ROMANCE/COMEDY/DRAMA/HISTORICAL

Starring: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Will Angarola, Griff Giacchino, James Kelley, Maya Rudolph, Iyana Halley, Ryan Heffington, Benny Safdie, Joseph Cross, and Bradley Cooper

Licorice Pizza is a 2021 coming-of-age comedy and drama and period film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film focuses on the adventures and misadventures of a teenage boy and a 20-something young woman as their romantic relationship develops.

Licorice Pizza is set in San Fernando Valley, California, circa 1973. The film introduces 15-year-old Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman), a child actor. While preparing for “picture day” at his high school, Gary notices the photographer's assistant, Alana Kane (Alana Haim). Gary is smitten with her and strikes up a conversation, but Alana, who says that she is 25-years-old (although she could be as much as 28-years-old), tries to rebuff him, to no avail.

A kind of romance begins while Gary becomes a budding teenage businessman and while Alana tries to get her life together. This version of “first love,” however, involves a treacherous navigation as both are attracted to other people. This includes other teen girls for Gary and actors and politicians for Alana. Meanwhile, there is an entire San Fernando Valley of adventures to be had and some growing up to do.

The Los Angeles Times described Licorice Pizza as a “family-and-friends-project” because much of the cast of the film is made up of Paul Thomas Anderson's family and friends. The lead actor, Cooper Hoffman, is the son of the late actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who appeared in several of Anderson's films. A former local restaurant that Anderson patronized is recreated for the film. Living and deceased Hollywood celebrities appear as characters in the film, including legendary television star and studio executive, Lucille Ball, and film producer, Jon Peters. Gary Valentine and his adventures are based on the life of former child actor turned film and TV producer, Gary Goetzman, a friend of Anderson's and the producing partner of actor Tom Hanks. The film even takes its title from, “Licorice Pizza” (1969-85), a former Southern California record store chain that, through sales and acquisitions, became part of the “Musicland” brand.

Thinking about Licorice Pizza, I can only regard it as perfect, and I feel that its perfection comes from the fact that the concept, plot, story, setting, and characters come from a place of love and of familiarity for Anderson. Everything feels natural and real, and there were instances when I was watching this film that it felt like I was staring through a window in time at something that had actually taken place.

To me, Anderson's screenplay is perfect down to the punctuation and indention. To change it would be to ruin it. Even the soundtrack is filled with songs that seem as if they were recorded long ago, but were always meant for Licorice Pizza.

Gary Valentine and Alana Kane (love those names) are so well-developed and so naturally developed that I found myself loving them, being annoyed at them, and being worried for them – as if they were my own charges. As Gary, Hoffman gives one of the best performances of a teenage character that I have ever seen. Alana Haim is Meryl Streep and Glenn Close good as Alana Kane, and her not receiving an Oscar nomination for this performance is artistic theft.

Well … I love this film, and I demand that you watch it. Or I'll beg if that's what it takes. The lives of white kids in 1970s San Fernando Valley is a star system away from when and how I grew up. Still, I could feel that era and the lives of these people in my heart. Honestly, Licorice Pizza is a stupid-ass title for a stupendous-ass film. If the title is what is holding you back from seeing it, ignore that title and see one of the truly great films of the last several years.

10 of 10

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

NOTES:
2022 Academy Awards, USA: 3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Sara Murphy, Adam Somner, and Paul Thomas Anderson), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Paul Thomas Anderson), and “Best Original Screenplay” (Paul Thomas Anderson)

2022 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Screenplay-Original (Paul Thomas Anderson); 4 nominations: “Best Film” (Sara Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Adam Somner), “Best Director” (Paul Thomas Anderson), “Best Leading Actress” (Alana Haim), “Best Editing” (Andy Jurgensen)

2022 Golden Globes, USA: 4 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy,” “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Alana Haim), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” (Cooper Hoffman), and “Best Screenplay – Motion Picture” (Paul Thomas Anderson)

The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Thursday, May 12, 2022

Review: 1978 Version of "DEATH ON THE NILE" Still Has Some Charms

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 29 of 2022 (No. 1841) by Leroy Douresseaux

Death on the Nile (1978)
Running time: 140 minutes (2 hours, 20 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR: John Guillermin
WRITER: Anthony Shaffer
PRODUCERS: John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jack Cardiff (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Malcolm Cooke
COMPOSER: Nino Rota
Academy Award winner

MYSTERY

Starring: Peter Ustinov, Mia Farrow, Simon MacCorkindale, Jane Birkin, Lois Chiles, Bette Davis, Jon Finch, Olivia Hussey, I.S. Johar, George Kennedy, Angela Lansbury, David Niven, Maggie Smith, Jack Warden, Harry Andrews, and Sam Wanamaker

Death on the Nile is a 1978 British mystery film directed by John Guillermin. It is based on the 1937 novel, Death on the Nile, written by Agatha Christie (1890-1976). Death on the Nile the movie finds Hercule Poirot investigating the murder of a newlywed heiress, committed during a luxurious cruise.

Death on the Nile finds famous detective Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) embarking on a luxurious cruise on the Nile River in Egypt. Poirot is delighted to discover that his friend, Colonel Race (David Niven), will also be aboard the Nile paddle steamer, the “S.S. Karnak.”

Also aboard are the newlyweds: wealthy heiress, Linnet Ridgeway (Lois Chiles), and her husband, Simon Doyle (Simon MacCorkindale). While in Egypt on their honeymoon, they are being stalked and hounded by Simon's former fiancé, Jacqueline “Jackie” de Bellefort (Mia Farrow), who was also Linnet's close friend.

When Linnet is found shot to death aboard the Karnak, Jackie is the most obvious culprit, but there are others on board who have reason to want Linnet dead. There is Linnet's maid, Louise Bourget (Jane Birkin), who was bitter due to her mistress' refusal to grant her a promised dowry. Linnet's shady American attorney and estate trustee, Andrew Pennington (George Kennedy), whom she called “Uncle Andrew,” was stealing from her. Elderly American socialite, Mrs. van Schuyler (Bette Davis), is a kleptomaniac who wanted to steal Linnet's pearl necklace. Miss Bowers (Maggie Smith), van Schuyler's nurse, blamed Linnet's father for financially ruining her own father.

Linnet was suing Salome Otterbourne (Angela Lansbury), a brassy romance novelist, for libel regarding a similarity between Linnet and one of the characters in Otterbourne's novel, “Passion Under the Persimmon Tree.” Meanwhile, Mrs. Otterbourne's daughter, Rosalie (Olivia Hussey), was anxious to protect her mother from financial ruin. Linnet was also threatening to expose Dr. Ludwig Bessner (Jack Warden), a Swiss psychiatrist faced with exposure because his unorthodox treatments affected one of Linnet's friends. Finally, Jim Ferguson (Jon Finch) is an outspoken Communist, and he resented Linnet's wealth.

Can Poirot uncover the identity of the killer before the Karnak reaches the end of its journey? He better hurry because the bodies are starting to pile up.

If I had heard of this 1978 take on Death on the Nile, I did not remember it. I decided to watch it when I learned that director Kenneth Branagh was directing a new film version of Agatha Christie's novel, which was released to theaters earlier this year (2022). Branagh also directed a 2017 film version of Christie's world famous novel, Murder on the Orient Express.

I enjoyed the 1978 Death on the Nile, but not as much as I enjoyed the 1974 Murder on the Orient Express, which starred Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot. When Finney decided not to return for Death on the Nile, actor Peter Ustinov was cast to play Poirot. Finney's Poirot had a humorous side, but he was deadly serious about his profession and did not suffer fools. Ustinov's Poirot is playful, but conceited, and even a bit randy.

Death on the Nile is a sedate film, its narrative lazily moving through this plot to match the languid pace with which the S.S. Karnak sails the Nile. The performances are nice, but a number of luminaries who appear in this film, including Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury, and Maggie Smith, are merely passing through this film and resting on their laurels.. However, Mia Farrow proves just how good and perfect she is at playing crazy, unbalanced, and unstable characters.

Death on the Nile 1978 is a nice whodunit film and cozy mystery movie, and I would probably watch it again. At times, it seems to be a surprisingly average and somewhat uninspired film, but, on the other hand, it has its charms.

5 out of 10
B-
★★½ out of 4 stars

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

NOTES:
1979 Academy Awards, USA: 1 win: “Best Costume Design” (Anthony Powell)

1979 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Costume Design” (Anthony Powell); 3 nominations: “Best Actor” (Peter Ustinov), “Best Supporting Actress” (Angela Lansbury), and “Best Supporting Actress” (Maggie Smith)

1979 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Foreign Film” (England)

The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

-----------------

Amazon wants me to inform you that the affiliate link below is a PAID AD, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on the affiliate link below AND buy something(s).