NEGROMANCER 2.0: Oscar winner

Showing posts with label Oscar winner. Show all posts

Saturday, June 29, 2024

Review: "GODZILLA MINUS ONE" Recalls the Original Spirit of Godzilla

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 26 of 2024 (No. 1970) by Leroy Douresseaux

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Japan; Language: Japanese

Running time: 124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for creature violence and action

DIRECTOR: Takashi Yamazaki

WRITER: Takashi Yamazaki (based on characters owned by Toho Co., Ltd.)

PRODUCERS: Gô Abe, Kazuaki Kishida, Keiichiro Moriya, and Kenji Yamada

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Kôzô Shibasaki

EDITOR: Ryûji Miyajima

COMPOSER: Naoki Satô

Academy Award winner

SCI-FI/DRAMA and HISTORICAL/WAR

Starring: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Sakura Ando, Munetaka Aoki, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Yuki Yamada, Yuya Endo, and Sae Nagatani

Gojira Mainasu Wan is a 2023 Japanese historical war drama and science fiction film written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki and produced by Toho Studios. It is Toho's 33rd Godzilla film and 37th entry in the Godzilla film franchise. The film's English-language title is Godzilla Minus One, the title by which I will refer to it in this review.

Godzilla Minus One won the Oscar for “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” at the 96th Academy Awards earlier this year (March 10, 2024). The director, Takashi Yamazaki, was one of the four men who each received an Oscar statuette for the win. In Godzilla Minus One, a former kamikaze pilot is struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder when the giant monster of his nightmares returns to attack post-war Japan.

Godzilla Minus One opens in 1945, near the end of World War II. Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki) lands his Mitsubishi A6M Zero at the Japanese base on Odo Island for repairs. Shikishima is a kamikaze pilot (the military units that flew suicide missions for Japan during WWII). The base's lead mechanic, Sōsaku Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki), deduces that Shikishima had fled from his suicidal duty by pretending his plane had technical issues. Later that night, Godzilla, a large dinosaur-like creature, attacks the island garrison, and only Shikishima and Tachibana survive.

Shikishima returns home to find his parents were killed in the bombing of Tokyo. Plagued by survivor's guilt, he begins supporting a woman, Noriko Ōishi (Minami Hamabe), whose parents also died in the bombing. With an orphaned baby girl, Akiko (Sae Nagatani), left in Noriko's custody, Shikishima forms a kind of family unit. He even finds employment aboard a minesweeper tasked with disposing of naval mines from World War II. Still, Shikishima can't leave the war behind and is reluctant to ask Noriko to marry him.

Meanwhile, the United States' nuclear tests at the Bikini Atoll leaves Godzilla mutated and empowered. Baptized within the horrific power of the atomic bomb, Godzilla now re-emerges, more powerful, and begins to battle Japan on land and sea. Can Shikishima emerge from his guilt and help save Japan from a monster that can unleash the power of a nuclear weapon?

North American audiences are familiar with the modern, rebooted version of Godzilla that stumps around the Legendary Entertainment's “MonsterVerse” an American multimedia franchise that includes a suite of movies that began with 2014's Godzilla and includes the most recent hit, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024). In Japan, Godzilla also received a modern reboot, known as the “Reiwa era,” and that began with the 2016 film, Shin Godzilla. Godzilla Minus One is the fifth film from this era.

Godzilla mainly appears in three major sequences in this film, and they are absolutely awesome. The initial one, the attack on Odo Island, is as good any dinosaur attack depicted in Jurassic Park (1993) and its sequels or Jurassic World (2015) and its sequels. The second sequence, when Godzilla attacks Ginza, a district in Tokyo, took my breath away. I believe that the Ginza attack probably earned Godzilla Minus One the votes it needed to win its special effects Oscar. This film's Godzilla is the old-fashioned one that looks like the man-in-a-suit original from the early Godzilla films, beginning in the mid-1950s. However, modern special effects takes the classic and gives him more character, making him more a force a nature than a mere monster.

Godzilla Minus One is as much an ensemble wartime drama as it is a monster movie. It is not perfect, because it does drag quite a bit in places between Godzilla's appearances. The cast, led by Ryunosuke Kamiki as Koichi Shikishima, personifies the lives of people living and struggling through the aftermath of a defeated Japan. In a sense, Japan's imperial ambitions and overreach brought that suffering on the people. However, dropping two atomic bombs dropped on Japan (on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945) was some other country's decision. Nor is Japan at fault for the monster that Godzilla becomes as a result of the United States' atomic testing in the Pacific.

Godzilla Minus One is a depiction of Japan's post-WWII efforts to save itself from its own actions and the actions of others. I found myself rooting for them in that epic final battle much in the way I root for the U.S. of A in American war cinema. However, Godzilla Minus One is not so much about nationalism as it is about national survival, and it is quite well-made and entertaining, also.

8 of 10

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Saturday, June 29, 2024

NOTES:

2024 Academy Awards, USA: 1 win: “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masanori Takahashi, and Tatsuji Nojima)

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Saturday, May 25, 2024

Review: "PULP FICTION" is Still a Wild Child

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 23 of 2024 (No. 1967) by Leroy Douresseaux

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Running time: 154 minutes (2 hours, 34 minutes)

MPAA – R for strong graphic violence and drug use, pervasive strong language and some sexuality

DIRECTOR: Quentin Tarantino

WRITERS: Quentin Tarantino; from stories by Roger Avary and Quentin Tarantino

PRODUCER: Lawrence Bender

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Andrzej Sekula

EDITOR: Sally Menke

Academy Award winner

CRIME/DRAMA

Starring: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Phil LaMarr, Frank Whaley, Paul Calderon, Bronagh Gallagher, Rosanna Arquette, Eric Stoltz, Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Walken, and Harvey Keitel

Pulp Fiction is a 1994 crime film from writer-director Quentin Tarantino. The film follows the lives of an ensemble of characters, including two mob hit men, a boxer, a pair of armed robbers, and a gangster and his wife in a series of intertwined tales of violence and redemption.

Thirty years ago, this month, May 1994, brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the then co-chairmen of Miramax Films, blew into France with the entire cast of Pulp Fiction for the 47th Cannes Film Festival. On or about May 21, 1994, the Weinsteins unveiled Pulp Fiction at a midnight screening. From what I read lo those many years ago, that screening cause a sensation. Pulp Fiction would go on to win the festival's top prize, the “Palme d'Or,” for Tarantino.

I had been putting off seeing Pulp Fiction during its initial release, but it was re-released in the spring of 1995 in the run-up to the 67th Academy Awards (March 27, 1995). Pulp Fiction had been nominated for seven Oscars. A friend encourage me to see it with her, which I think we did a week or so before the Oscars. I'd seen Reservoir Dogs (1992), which I considered to be an exceptional film of that time, but even the uncommon nature of Reservoir Dogs did not prepare me for the demented nature of the audacious art that was (and still is) Pulp Fiction. In preparation for this film, I recently rewatched Tarantino's other early films, Jackie Brown (1997) and Reservoir Dogs.

Told out of chronological order, Pulp Fiction is set in and around Los Angeles. It opens in a diner, where a couple, Pumpkin/Ringo (Tim Roth) and Honey Bunny/Yolanda (Amanda Plummer), decide to pull of an armed robbery. Elsewhere, two hit men, Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta), seek to retrieve a brief case that belongs to their employer, crime boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), from a small group of thieves who tried to double-cross Wallace.

Later, Vega takes Wallace's wife, Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman), out to dinner – by request of Marsellus. They banter. They dance. They deal with an overdose. Also, a palooka boxer, Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis), double-crosses Marsellus. Now, he's on the run, but before the night is done, Butch and Marsellus will find themselves delivered into evil. Finally, Jules meets Pumpkin and Honey Bunny.

Reservoir Dogs is “neo-noir,” which is a modern versions of “Film-Noir,” a term that refers to the stylized Hollywood dramas – especially crime dramas – covering a period from the 1930s to the 1960s. So if Reservoir Dogs is “neo-noir,” Pulp Fiction recalls another vintage American genre of fiction, the storytelling of the pulp magazines and hard-boiled crime novels of the mid-20th century. Tarantino grabs the lurid, exploitative, and sensational, and also the violence and corruption that were featured in some pulps and crime novels and grafts that onto Pulp Fiction's non-linear narrative tale of people living, working, cheating, screwing, and killing in the criminal underground of L.A.

Three decades later, I find that some of the film has not aged will, such as the opening scene at the diner and the early parts of the misadventures of Vincent and Jules. The rest of the film still sparkles with cinematic magic, as Tarantino delights in the myriad elements of both American pop culture and international cinema that he borrows (or steals) for this film. I will say that this film's last act – the diner scene featuring Vincent & Jules and Pumpkin & Honey Bunny – is what keeps Pulp Fiction in place as one of the best films of the 1990s. If I can divide films into increments of a quarter-hour or so, I'd say that Pulp Fiction's last 17 minutes before the end credits form the one of the best sequences of film that I have ever seen.

Seeing it again, I was frozen in place, mesmerized, and riveted by the power of this moment in American cinema. Honestly, Samuel L. Jackson,who was nominated for a “Best Supporting Actor” Oscar for his work in this film, should have won the award based solely on his performance in this last act of Pulp Fiction. And I say that even as I believe that the actor who did win, the late Martin Landau for Tim Burton's Ed Wood, was deserving of the Oscar.

Back in 1994, at the moment Dick Dale & His Del-Tones' 1962 surf rock anthem, “Misirlou,” blasts across the film's soundtrack, Pulp Fiction injected some much needed juice and venom into American cinema, even if some rejected that injection at the time. Someone once described Pulp Fiction as a “succulent guilty pleasure.” I'll still suck on it, and I won't feel guilty about its pleasures.

10 of 10

Saturday, May 25, 2024

NOTES:

1995 Academy Awards, USA: 1 win: “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary); six nominations: “Best Picture” (Lawrence Bender), “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (John Travolta), “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Samuel L. Jackson), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Uma Thurman), “Best Director” (Quentin Tarantino), and “Best Film Editing” (Sally Menke)

1995 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Samuel L. Jackson) and “Best Screenplay – Original” (Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary); 7 nominations: “Best Film” (Lawrence Bender), “Best Actor” (John Travolta), “Best Actress” (Uma Thurman), “Best Cinematography” (Andrzej Sekula) “David Lean Award for Direction” (Quentin Tarantino), “Best Editing” (Sally Menke), and “Best Sound” (Stephen Hunter Flick, Ken King, Rick Ash, and Dean A. Zupancic)

1995 Golden Globes, USA: 1 win: “Best Screenplay-Motion Picture: (Quentin Tarantino); 5 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama,” “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Quentin Tarantino), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (John Travolta), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Uma Thurman), and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Samuel L. Jackson)

1994 Cannes Film Festival: 1 win: “Palme d'Or” (Quentin Tarantino)

2013 National Film Preservation Board, USA: National Film Registry

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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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Sunday, August 27, 2023

Review: "TENET" May Have Been 2020's Best Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 39 of 2023 (No. 1928) by Leroy Douresseaux

Tenet (2020)

Running time: 150 minutes (2 hours, 30 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some suggestive references and brief strong language

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan

PRODUCERS: Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Hoyte Van Hoytema (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Jennifer Lame

COMPOSER: Ludwig Goransson

Academy Award winner

SCI-FI/ACTION/SPY

Starring: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Dimple Kapadia, Himesh Patel, Denzil Smith, Yuri Kolokolnikov, Clémency Poséy, Fiona Dourif, Laurie Shepherd, Martin Donovan, and Kenneth Branagh and Michael Caine

Tenet is a 2020 science fiction, secret agent, and action-thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. The film, Nolan's eleventh as a director, is a co-production between the United Kingdom and the United States. Tenet focuses on a CIA operative on a mission to save the world, armed with only one word, “Tenet.”

Tenet introduces a CIA operative known only as "The Protagonist" (John David Washington). The Protagonist leads a covert CIA extraction during a staged terrorist siege at the National Opera House in Kyiv., Ukraine. After he is injured and the mission goes badly, the Protagonist is recruited by a secretive organization known only by the word, “Tenet.” He is told that with a gesture, Tenet can “open the right doors and the wrong doors.”

He is briefed about bullets with “inverted” entropy that move backwards through time. It seems that the man who possesses the technology to invert entropy is a Russian oligarch named Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh). The technology has been given to Sator from mysterious forces in the future, and those forces are also sending Sator the pieces of something called the “Algorithm,” which is a threat to the present world.

Suddenly, the Protagonist finds himself surrounded by a menagerie of people he cannot quite trust or really know. That includes the Mumbai-based arms dealer, Priya Singh (Dimple Kapadia), and Sator's estranged and abused wife, Katherine “Kat” Barton (Elizabeth Debicki). Another is Ives (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), a Tenet military commander. Most mysterious of all is Neil (Robert Pattinson), who is supposed to be the Protagonist's “handler” from Tenet, and Neil seems to know the Protagonist in ways he does not know Neil. Now, the Protagonist must uncover the secrets of inversion, the secrets of the Algorithm, and perhaps, even the secrets of himself.

Christopher Nolan gained many fans for his series of films starring DC Comics' Batman, known as “The Dark Knight Trilogy”: Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). However, Tenet is closer to Nolan's films such as Memento (2000), Insomnia (2002), The Prestige (2006), and Inception (2010), which, like Tenet, have some combination of complex plots and character time lines, ambiguous elements, and cleverly hidden details that are open to many theories and interpretations.

Tenet freely plays with the themes of free will and determinism. Do people really have free will, or is it better that people think that they have free will? In the end, I think the narrative ultimately decides that free will and determinism are compatible, which is one of many reasons that I love this film. Many secret agent and spy films offer the illusion that the hero (or the protagonist) is in control. From the first movie in Eon Productions' “James Bond film series, Dr No (1962), the hero, James Bond, seems to have a measure of control or at least force of will to save the day or often, the world. One can say the same of Universal Pictures' “Jason Bourne” film series. It starts with The Bourne Identity (2002), and Matt Damon's Jason Bourne seems to exert free will all the more with each film, although his fate was determined and settled before the narrative of the first film begins. In Tenet, free will is a work in progress, exercised within the settled plots of determinism.

I love Tenet's cast. Either The Protagonist was tailor-made for actor John David Washington, or he was the perfect casting. I feel the same way about Robert Pattison's Neil, and Kenneth Branagh is such a fine actor that he can make any role seem like a real person. Elizabeth Debicki, honestly, is Oscar-worthy as Kat Barton, and Dimple Kapadia adds a delightful flavor as Priya Singh. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is all fire, menace, and masculinity as Ives.

I had not seen a Christopher Nolan film since Inception, although I'd planned to see Tenet in a theater. However, I was really wary of returning to movie theaters during the 2020 year of COVID-19 movie theater shutdowns, even after they reopened. In a way, that worked out. I got to savor Tenet on DVD as a way of prepping for eventually seeing his most recent film, Oppenheimer.

I like Tenet's trippy, surreal, time-shifting, inscrutable nature, and I like that Nolan is willing both to throw out a lot of ideas and to engage them. For me, it is mysterious, a mystery worth losing myself in every chance I get. As far as my opinion is concerned, Tenet is Christopher Nolan's best, most imaginative, and truly most inventive film.

10 of 10

Sunday, August 27, 2023

NOTES:

2021 Academy Awards, USA: 1 win: “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley, and Scott R. Fisher); 1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Production Design”

{Nathan Crowley-production design and Kathy Lucas-set decoration)

2021 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Scott R. Fisher, Andrew Jackson, and Andrew Lockley)

2021 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (Ludwig Göransson)

2021 Black Reel Awards: 2 nominations: “Outstanding Cinematography” (Hoyte Van Hoytema) and 1 nomination: “Outstanding Production Design” (Nathan Crowley)

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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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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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Saturday, March 11, 2023

Review: Disney's "ENCANTO" Spins Its Own Special Magic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 12 of 2023 (No. 1901) by Leroy Douresseaux

Encanto (2021)

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

MPAA – PG for some thematic elements and mild peril

DIRECTORS: Jared Bush and Byron Howard with Charise Castro Smith (co-director)

WRITERS: Jared Bush and Charise Castro Smith; from a story by Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Charise Castro Smith, Jason Hand, Nancy Kruse, and Lin-Manuel Miranda

PRODUCERS: Clark Spencer and Yvett Merino

CINEMATOGRAPHERS: Alessandro Jacomini, Daniel Rice, and Nathan Warner

EDITOR: Jeremy Milton

ORIGINAL SONGS: Lin-Manuel Miranda

COMPOSER: Germaine Franco

ANIMATION/FANTASY/FAMILY/DRAMA

Starring: (voices) Stephanie Beatriz, María Cecilia Botero, John Leguizamo, Mauro Castillo, Jessica Darrow, Angie Cepeda, Carolina Gaitan, Diane Guerrero, Wilmer Valderrama, Rhenzy Feliz, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Adassa, Maluma, Rose Portillo, Alan Tudyk, and Noemi Josefina Flores

Encanto is a 2021 computer-animated fantasy film from directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard and produced Walt Disney Animation Studios. It is the 60th animated feature film in the “Walt Disney Animated Classics” line. Encanto focuses on a teenage girl who must deal with being the only member of her family without magical powers even as the family's magic begins to fade.

Encanto introduces Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz), a teen girl who is part of the multi-generational "la familia Madrigal" (the Madrigal family). Fifty years ago, her grandfather and grandmother, Pedro and Alma Madrigal (Maria Cecilia Botero), were forced to flee their home village in rural Columbia. They took their infant triplets, Julieta, Pepa and Bruno, and escaped into the countryside, but their pursuers killed Pedro, but Alma had a candle that suddenly released magic and repelled the attackers. The magic also created, “Casita,” a living or sentient house for Alma and her children. The home is located in “Encanto,” a magical realm bordered by high mountains. A village of newcomers now thrives under the candle's protection, shining its light from an upper room in the Madrigal home, “La Casa Madrigal.”

But all is not well. The children and grandchildren of Abuela Alma were all granted magical gifts that each one uses to serve the villagers. For instance, Mirabel's oldest sister, Isabela (Diane Guerrero), can make flowers grow anywhere, and her second oldest sister, Luisa (Jessica Darrow), has superhuman strength. However, Mirabel did not receive any powers from the candle, and her Abuela Alma seems to act as if Mirabel is an obstacle in the way of the rest of the family. Mirabel is almost as cursed as her mysterious uncle, Bruno (John Leguizamo), who disappeared years ago. When Mirabel learns that her family members are losing their magic, she is determined to find out what is happening, although everyone else is in a state a denial about it.

I won't waste too much time telling you, dear readers, how beautiful Encanto looks. That is standard for animated films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. The art direction yields beautiful sets and environments, and the costume designs results in colorful costumes that are dazzling, colorful, and imaginative. The visual effects go off like fireworks, and it makes the magic seem … well, really magical. Even the character design stands out, making Encanto one of the few mainstream American films set in Latin American or are Latino-themed that actually recognize that there are dark-skinned and black Latinos. Not every Latino has light skin tones, light enough to front as white.

Encanto plays with notions of “magical realism,” a story that is realistic, but is infused with magic and the supernatural. However, the world of Encanto barely looks realistic, as many animation films don't. In fact, Encanto is one of the most magically-infused Disney films in years.

However, Encanto is like many Disney animated films – a coming of age film that focuses on the lead character, in this case, Mirabel. The film's first dominant theme involves the struggle between tradition and change, the former embodied by Alma, who holds onto Madrigals' tradition of magic, and the latter by Mirabel, who clearly and correctly senses that something is wrong. The second main theme is the conflict between family obligations and individual desires. I think audiences will enjoy that, through Mirabel, Encanto shows that the family and the individual can work together for the benefit of everyone and each one.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's lively song score makes Encanto's narrative flow like an energetic stream, and the hit, “We Don't Talk About Bruno,” isn't the only excellent song. Encanto stands out because it celebrates people overcoming suffering and life's trials and tribulations. Also, one should take notice of the film's diversity and representation. That makes Encanto stand out as special and as a place worth visiting time and again.

8 of 10

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Thursday, March 9, 2023

NOTES:

2022 Academy Awards, USA: 1 win: “Best Animated Feature Film” (Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino, and Clark Spencer); 2 nominations: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Score” (Germaine Franco) and “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Song” (Lin-Manuel Miranda-music and lyric for the song “Dos Oruguitas”)

2022 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Animated Feature Film” (Clark Spencer, Jared Bush, Byron Howard, and Yvett Merino)

2022 Golden Globes, USA: 1 win: “Best Motion Picture – Animated;” 2 nominations: “Best Original Score-Motion Picture” (Germaine Franco) and “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Lin-Manuel Miranda for the song “Dos Oruguitas”)

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Saturday, December 10, 2022

Review: Netflix's "THE POWER OF THE DOG" is Certainly a Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 74 of 2022 (No. 1886) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Power of the Dog (2021)

Running time: 128 minutes (2 hours, 8 minutes)

MPA – R for strong sexuality and language

DIRECTOR: Jane Campion

WRITER: Jane Campion (based on a novel by Thomas Savage)

PRODUCERS: Jane Chapman, Iain Canning, Roger Frappier, Tanya Seghatchian, and Emile Sherman

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ari Wegner (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Peter Sciberras

COMPOSER: Jonny Greenwood

Academy Award winner

WESTERN/DRAMA

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Genevieve Lemon, Peter Carroll, Frances Conroy, Alison Bruce, Keith Carradine, Thomasin McKenzie, Ramontay McConnell, Adam Beach, and Maeson Stone Skuggedal

The Power of the Dog is a 2021 Western drama film from writer-director Jane Campion. It is based on the1967 novel, The Power of the Dog, from author Thomas Savage. The Power of the Dog the movie focuses on a charismatic rancher who torments his brother, his brother's new wife, and her son.

The Power of the Dog opens in rural Montana, 1925 and focuses on Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch). Phil is, along with brother, George Burbank (Jesse Plemons), wealthy ranch-owners. George meets Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst), a widow and inn owner, during a cattle drive. The kindhearted George is quickly smitten with Rose, but Phil, always coarse and volatile, dislikes her and considers her nothing more than a gold-digger who wants George's money.

Phil also belittles Rose's teenage son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), whom he derides as weak and effeminate – a sissy. George and Rose soon marry, and Rose comes to live at the Burbank brothers' isolated ranch estate and manor home. However, Rose withers under Phil's torment. Sometimes later, Peter comes to stay and things begin to change...

The Power of the Dog is a ridiculous title for a film, but I like it for a novel. The film is a psychological drama dressed in the rags of a Western. Its narrative focuses on two despicable characters (Phil and Pete) and two meek, but lovable and sympathetic characters (George and Rose).

I would not describe any of the characters as vague so much as they reflect a narrative that is oblique, which in turn reflects on characters with pinched personalities. Benedict Cumberbatch's Phil Burbank is mean and spiteful, but just like that, one day, he turns all … gay over a weirdo kid he only hated just a few seconds ago. Kodi Smit-McPhee's Peter may be the film's most well-developed character; it is obvious that there is a lot going on with him. He is more than the audience can imagine and apparently quite the litle psycho-sociopath.

As I said, Kirsten's Dunst's Rose and Jessie Plemons' George are lovable, but are slight characters. They both received Oscar nominations in supporting acting categories; whether they deserved them or not is a matter of opinion. I will say that Dunst spends most of the film crying and sniveling and yelling and stumbling around. Jesse Plemons is barely a whisper in the wind as George, and sometimes it seems as if George's entire screen time amounts to only a few minutes. Of course, he is onscreen more than that; it's just that he seems to be on it much less...

I can see why actor Sam Elliot questioned The Power of the Dog's credibility as a Western. The film lacks a central, focused voice, and girl, Westerns have voice. It is not a bad film. The Power of the Dog does indeed have some power and some powerful moments, but director Jane Campion sublimates the passion and the urges she says define this film. The film lacks heart and is unhurried to the point of being meandering.

My original plan was to write a review of The Power of the Dog that was comprised of a single question mark. However, the film's shock ending gave me a reason to say more. I guess I'm one critic who is not buying into The Power of the Dog.

5 of 10

B-

★★½ out of 4 stars

Saturday, December 10, 2022

NOTES:

2022 Academy Awards, USA: 1 win: “Best Achievement in Directing” (Jane Campion); 11 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Jane Campion, Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, and Roger Frappier), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Kodi Smit-McPhee), “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Jane Campion), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Jesse Plemons), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Benedict Cumberbatch), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Kirsten Dunst), “Best Achievement in Production Design” (Grant Major-production design and Amber Richards-set decoration), “Best Sound” (Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie, and Tara Webb), “Best Achievement in Cinematography” (Ari Wegner), “Best Achievement in Film Editing” (Peter Sciberras), and “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Score” (Jonny Greenwood)

2022 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Best Film” (Jane Campion, Iain Canning, Roger Frappier, Tanya Seghatchian, and Emile Sherman) and “Best Director” (Jane Campion); 6 nominations: “Best Screenplay-Adapted” (Jane Campion), “Best Leading Actor” (Benedict Cumberbatch), “Best Supporting Actor” (Jesse Plemons), “Best Supporting Actor” (Kodi Smit-McPhee), “Best Cinematography” (Ari Wegner), and “Original Score” (Jonny Greenwood)

2022 Golden Globes, USA: 3 wins: “Best Motion Picture-Drama,” “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and “Best Director-Motion Picture” (Jane Campion); 4 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Benedict Cumberbatch), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Kirsten Dunst), “Best Screenplay-Motion Picture” (Jane Campion), and “Best Original Score-Motion Picture” (Jonny Greenwood)

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Saturday, November 19, 2022

Review: Spielberg's "INDIANA JONES and the Temple of Doom" Still Goes Boom! (Celebrating "The Fabelmans")

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 71 of 2022 (No. 1883) by Leroy Douresseaux

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Running time: 118 minutes (1 hour, 58 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
WRITERS: Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz; from a story by George Lucas
PRODUCER: Robert Watts
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Douglas Slocombe (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Michael Kahn, A.C.E.
COMPOSER: John Williams
Academy Awards winner

ACTION/ADVENTURE

Starring: Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri, Roy Chiao, Roshan Seth, Philip Stone, Raj Singh, D. R. Nanayakkara, Dan Aykroyd, and Pat Roach

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 action-adventure film from director Steven Spielberg. It is the second entry in the “Indiana Jones” film franchise that began with the 1981 film, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), but it is also a prequel to Raiders. In the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones takes on a secret cult in India in order to reclaim a sacred rock stolen from a simple Indian village.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom opens in Shanghai, 1935. Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. a.k.a. “Indy” (Harrison Ford) has been hired by Lao Che (Roy Chiao), a Shanghai crime boss, to find the remains of Emperor Nurhaci. Che betrays Indy, who goes on the run with Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw), one of Che's nightclub singers, and Short Round (Ke Huy Quan), a young Chinese orphan who is Indy's sidekick.

After surviving a plane crash orchestrated by Lao Che, the trio ends up in a small village in northern India. The village chieftain (D. R. Nanayakkara) believes that Indy's arrival is fated, and that he will help the village with two problems. The first is to retrieve the village's stolen “Shivalinga,” a rock the villagers hold in high esteem. Indy believes that this rock is one of the five sacred “Sankara stones.” The chieftain also wants Indy to find the villagers' missing children. The chieftain informs Indy that the village's troubles began when the new Maharajá reopened the Pankot Palace in Pankot, an opening that has brought back a “dark light” to the land.

Traveling to Pankot Palace, Indy, Willie, and Short Round discover that the Maharajá of Pankot (Raj Singh) is a child, and beneath his palace, the ancient “Thuggee” cult has also been revived. The cult leader, Mola Ram (Amrish Puri), wants to find all five Sankara stones in order to gain power from the Thuggees' goddess, Kali. Now, Indiana Jones has taken it upon himself to stop the cult.

For years, I encountered pretentious film fans who despised Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and who insisted that I should hate it, too. However, I have always found Temple of Doom to be endlessly entertaining, but I also understand that it has a lot to live up to. It is the sequel (prequel) to one of the most popular movies of all time and one of the greatest films of all time (as far as I'm concerned), Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a great action-adventure film precisely because the filmmakers were not trying to make “Raiders of the Lost Ark II” so much as they were creating a franchise. Temple of Doom is essentially world-building, as the film, especially early in the narrative, hints that Indiana Jones has had many adventures. So before there was Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, there was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. That is what I liked most when I first saw it and still like: Indiana Jones was not a one-time great thing; it was new universe and a new series of adventures centering on an archaeologist who was as much a cowboy as he was an professor and academic.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom also remains the most unique film in the series. To date, it is the only entry that does not have a single moment set in the United States. Set in China and India, it is the only film in the series in which the main cast is largely non-white. The film has an intriguing villain to open the story, the Shanghai crime boss, Lao Che, and a superb main villain, Mola Ram, the Thuggee cult leader. Both actors play their respective villainous roles quite well.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is also the first film in the series to suggest that Indy has a network of helpers or at least a circle of associates. For me, Short Round is an excellent sidekick, and he fits better than Kate Capshaw's Willie Scott, who seems like nothing more than a noisy dame.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom also has excellent production values, especially its costumes, hair and make-up, and art direction and sets. The film won an Oscar for its visual effects, which remain impressive four decades later, especially for the scenes involving the lava pit and the chase through the mine's tunnel system.

I am watching and, in some cases, re-watching early Steven Spielberg films, such as Duel, Jaws, and 1941, in anticipation of Spielberg's autobiographical film, The Fabelmans. I have lost track of how many times I have watched at least part of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but this is the first time that I have watched the film in its entirety in decades. Watching it again, I am sure now, more than ever, that I love this film. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was the first sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark, and to date, it remains the best.

8 of 10
A
★★★★ out of 4 stars

Saturday, November 19, 2022

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

NOTES:
1985 Academy Awards, USA: 1 win: “Best Effects, Visual Effects” (Dennis Muren, Michael J. McAlister, Lorne Peterson, and George Gibbs) and 1 nomination: “Best Music, Original Score” (John Williams)

1985 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Special Visual Effects” (Dennis Muren, George Gibbs, Michael J. McAlister, and Lorne Peterson; 3 nominations: “Best Cinematography” (Douglas Slocombe), “Best Editing” (Michael Kahn), and “Best Sound” (Ben Burtt, Simon Kaye, and Laurel Ladevich)

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, 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, September 23, 2022

Review: Steven Spielberg's "JAWS" is Still Hungry For Your Ass (Countdown to "The Fabelmans")

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 54 of 2022 (No. 1866) by Leroy Douresseaux

Jaws (1975)
Running time: 124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)
Rated – PG by the Classification and Ratings Administration
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
WRITERS: Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb (based on the novel by Peter Benchley)
PRODUCERS: David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bill Butler (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Verna Fields
COMPOSER: John Williams
Academy Award winner

DRAMA/THRILLER/ADVENTURE

Starring: Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Carl Gottlieb, Jeffrey Kramer, Chris Rebello, Jay Mello, Lee Fierro, Jeffrey Voorhees, Robert Nevin, and Susan Backlinie

Jaws is a 1974 adventure drama and thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is based on the 1974 novel, Jaws, by author Peter Benchley, who also wrote (with Carl Gottlieb) the screenplay adapting his novel. Jaws the film is set in and around a beach community that is dealing with a killer shark and focuses on the police chief who leads a team to hunt down and kill the creature.

Jaws opens in the New England beach town of Amity Island. During a nighttime beach party, a young woman, Christine “Chrissie” Watkins (Susan Backlinie), goes skinny dipping in the ocean. While treading water, something unseen attacks Chrissie and pulls her under the water, The next day, local police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) and Deputy Hendricks (Jeffrey Kramer) find the partial remains of Chrissie's body on the shore of the beach.

The medical examiner concludes that Chrissie died due to a shark attack. Still, Amity's Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) is more concerned with the town's summer economy, which is wholly reliant on tourism, and does not want the beaches closed. Then, the fact that a shark, specifically a “great white shark,” is hunting the waters off the island becomes reality when the shark attacks and kills a boy named Alex Kintner (Jeffrey Voorhees).

After another attack, Chief Brody takes matters into his own hands. He joins Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), a marine biologist who specializes in shark, and Quint (Robert Shaw), a crusty old shark fisherman, on a seafaring mission to hunt and kill the shark. But that mission proves more difficult than any of the many realized.

I have seen Jaws so many times that I have lost count. Still, the movie seems eternally fresh to me, in a semi-sepia tone kind of way. Jaws fascinates me because it seems to me, at least, to be like three short films merged into one film. The first section introduces the shark attacks and Chief Brody's misgivings and investigations. The second section pits Brody against the town fathers, led by money grubber, Mayor Vaughn, who want the beaches open at all cost. The film's final section focuses on the boys' adventure of Brody, Matt Hooper, and Quint going shark-hunting and ending up being the hunted. As much as I enjoy the film's final act, I find the first section of the film to be the most intriguing because of its sense of mystery. What is really beneath the waves, coming up to chomp on young folks?

Jaws is essentially the prototypical summer blockbuster, a kind of film that is designed to get as many people into movie theaters and chomping on popcorn and guzzling soda. The blockbuster, especially the summer kind, is the cinema of the sensations: thrills and chills to make the viewer's body tingle and get the heart racing. The bracing action scenes keep the viewer on the edge of his or her seat. Steven Spielberg turned out to be the perfect director of summer blockbusters – at least for awhile. He could press all our emotional buttons and ensnare our imaginations so that all we thought about was what he wanted us to think about – for two or so hours.

Still, Spielberg's prodigious skills as a filmmaker are evident. He is a superb film artist and a consummate cinematic entertainer. He gets the best out of his cast and crew and creatives – from composer John Williams' iconic and ominous shark-presence theme to Bill Butler's expansive cinematography that turns this movie into a vista of natural wonders. Plus, Spielberg allows his talented cast to really show their dramatic chops, especially Richard Dreyfuss as Matt Hooper and Richard Shaw as Quint. Even Lorraine Gary gets to make the most of her moments as Ellen Brody.

If I am honest, however, Spielberg has a co-captain on this ship. Roy Scheider (1932-2008) brings the film together and at times, holds it together. Steady as a rock, Chief Brody epitomizes the small town law man who has to save the town not only from the bad guy – a shark in this instance – but also from themselves. I think serious movie lovers and film fans recognize both the breath and depth of Scheider's talent and that he was a mesmerizing film presence. If Jaws is the film that shot Spielberg's career into the stratosphere like a rocket, Scheider can certainly be described as the rocket booster.

9 of 10
A+
★★★★+ out of 4 stars

Friday, September 23, 2022

NOTES:
1976 Academy Awards, USA: 3 wins: “Best Sound” (Robert L. Hoyt, Roger Heman Jr., Earl Madery, and John R. Carter), “Best Film Editing” (Verna Fields), and “Best Music, Original Dramatic Score” (John Williams); 1 nomination: “Best Picture” (Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown)

1976 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music” (John Williams for Jaws and also The Towering Inferno); 6 nominations: “Best Actor”(Richard Dreyfuss), “Best Direction” (Steven Spielberg), “Best Film,” “Best Film Editing” (Verna Fields), “Best Screenplay” (Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb), and “Best Sound Track” (John R. Carter and Robert L. Hoyt)

1976 Golden Globes, USA: 1 win: “Best Original Score - Motion Picture” (John Williams); 3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama,” (Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb), and “Best Director - Motion Picture” (Steven Spielberg)

2001 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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Saturday, August 13, 2022

Review: "DRIVE MY CAR" is an Extraordinary Drama and is One of 2021's Best Films

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 47 of 2022 (No. 1859) by Leroy Douresseaux

Drive My Car (2021)
Original title: Doraibu Mai Kā (Japan)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Japan; Languages: Japanese, Korean Sign Language, English, and others
Running time: 179 minutes (2 hours, 59 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
WRITERS: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe (based on the short story by Haruki Murakami)
PRODUCERS: Teruhisa Yamamoto
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Hidetoshi Shinomiya
EDITOR: Azusa Yamazaki
COMPOSER: Eiko Ishibashi
Academy Award winner

DRAMA

Starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Reika Kirishima, Masaki Okada, Park Yu-rim, Jin Dae-yeon, Sonia Yuan, Ahn Hwitae, Peri Dizon, and Satoko Abe

Doraibu Mai Kā is a 2021 Japanese drama film directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. The film is also known by its English title, Drive My Car (the title which I will use for this review). The film is based on author Haruki Murakami's short story, "Drive My Car," which is included in Murakami's 2014 short story collection, Men Without Women. Drive My Car the movie focuses on a recent widower who is directing a play and dealing with the fact that he must accept someone else driving his beloved car.

Drive My Car is set in Japan and introduces actor and well-known theater director, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima). He was married to Oto (Reika Kirishima), an attractive screenwriter who suddenly died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Two years later, Yusuke accepts a residency in Hiroshima, where he will direct a multilingual adaptation of Uncle Vanya, the 1898 play by the renowned Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov. Yusuke also discovers that the theater company financing Uncle Vanya, the Hiroshima Arts and Culture Center, requires that Yusuke not drive his car, but instead be chauffeured in his own car. He objects at first, but a reserved young female chauffeur, Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), reveals herself to be a skilled driver. So Yusuke accepts someone else driving his car.

Yusuke begins casting the play and discovers that one of the auditioning actors is Koshi Takatsuki, a former colleague of his late wife, Oto. As he works through the play with the cast, Yusuke deals with his grief, but discovers that the young actor, Koshi, and his young driver, Misaki, are also dealing with grief, regret, and inner turmoil.

Apparently, the complicated feelings and trauma of the characters in Drive My Car echo the emotional turmoil of the characters in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. I have never read Uncle Vanya, nor have I ever seen a production of it.

That does not stop me from seeing Drive My Car as probably the best film of 2021. The film is meditative and contemplative and has a smooth, calm pace which heightens the film's sense of intimacy. This tranquility allows director Ryusuke Hamaguchi to direct a film in which it really looks like the actors are engaging in self-examination. The film's themes of regret, of accepting others as they are, and of self-acceptance feel genuine.

One might think that Drive My Car is dull or even complicated, but it is not. The film is rather straightforward, and the confrontations between characters can be intense but feel constructive. Drive My Car may be too slow for most American audiences, but I think that serious film lovers will find themselves engrossed by this hauntingly beautiful and most painfully human film. They may even find it helpful. Watching the film, I felt as if I were experiencing something I needed to see and hear a long time ago.

This film received many honors, including winning the Academy Award for “Best Foreign Language Film.” Still, I would have liked to have seen some of its cast, especially lead actor, Hidetoshi Nishijima (Yusuke), and supporting actress, Toko Miura (as the drive Misaki), earn Oscar acting notices. Yusuke and Misaki's scenes at the latter's old home during the last half hour of the film are some of the best in years and some of the best performed. Other cast members: Reika Kirishima, Masaki Okada, and Park Yu-rim, are also worthy of award notice.

Drive My Car's cinematographer, Hidetoshi Shinomiya, made the film one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, of the year. From majestic exterior vistas to shadowy and cozy interiors shots, Drive My Car looks both intimate and epic. Eiko Ishibashi's film score, with its futuristic flourishes and electronica sensibilities, accentuates Shinomiya's cinematography,

That is the thing about Drive My Car. Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi has great collaborators, including his co-writer, Takamasa Oe, and he could not have made Drive My Car the achievement in cinema that it is without them. He could not have made a film in which some of its best scenes occur inside a moving car such an sublime film experience. Drive My Car.

10 of 10

Friday, August 12, 2022

NOTES:
2022 Academy Awards, USA: 1 win: “Best International Feature Film” (Japan); 3 nominations: “Best Motion Picture of the Year” (Teruhisa Yamamoto), “Best Achievement in Directing” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi), and “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe)

2022 BAFTA Awards: 1 win “Best Film Not in the English Language” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Teruhisa Yamamoto); 2 nominations: “Best Director” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi) and “Best Screenplay-Adapted” )Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)

2022 Golden Globes, USA: 1 win : “Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language” (Japan)

2021 Cannes Film Festival: 3 wins: “Best Screenplay” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe), “FIPRESCI Prize” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi), and “Prize of the Ecumenical Jury” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi); 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)

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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