Clockers

A crack peddler (Mekhi Phifer) operating out of a Brooklyn Housing Project no longer has the stomach for the life but is torn due to loyalty towards the menacing drug lord/father father (Delroy Lindo) who oversees his operation. When he becomes a suspect in a murder investigation that also targets his straight laced brother (Isaiah Washington), he doesn't know whether to trust the homicide detective (Harvey Keitel) who seems to show a genuine concern for his well being. From a novel and screenplay by Richard Price, Spike Lee's Clockers is an intelligent, rollicking, thought provoking film which unravels just slightly towards the end but is still a full blooded original (which makes you question its absence from recent movie conversations). Phifer throws himself into the lead role, which makes it excusable when he occasionally struggles to hit the right notes, Keitel turns in one of his finest performances and Lindo is potent and absolutely petrifying in a great turn.

Lonesome Dove

Two retired Texas Rangers and lifelong rivals (Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones) currently running a livery in the sleepy title town decide to go on one last tremendous journey, a cattle run to Montana country and through the dangerous, dying West. From Larry McMurtry's acclaimed novel, Lonesome Dove is beautifully sentimental and a masterful demonstration in long form storytelling. In addition to the rascally Duvall and cantankerous Jones, there are also standout performances from Robert Urich as another ex-Ranger with a dark cloud around his head, Chris Cooper as a small town sheriff seeking his capture, Ricky Schroder as Jones' likely progeny, and Anjelica Huston playing Duvall's ex-flame.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The contorted bell ringer of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral becomes a pawn in his master's evil scheme to kidnap the sweet and beautiful gypsy Esmeralda. As an underground revolution concurrently ensues and Esmeralda is brought up falsely on murder charges, Quasimodo sees his opportunity to seize the day and exact revenge on his odious keeper. Carl Laemmle and Irving Thalberg's silent production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a riveting retelling of Victor Hugo's classic due to its expansive staging and an unforgettable Lon Chaney performance who appears more sparingly than one might presume.

Klute

An uncorrupted detective (Donald Sutherland) from rural Pennsylvania  travels to New York City to investigate the disappearance of a local businessman, his only contact being a high rent prostitute (Jane Fonda, an Oscar winner). When his missing person turns out to be a thread in a string of murders, he becomes his new acquaintance's protector and then lover as she becomes the bait to lure the deadly killer. Klute is a well made, typically murky, and often frustrating Alan Pakula film that fits in nicely alongside some of the other thrillers he made in that time frame (The Parallax View, All the President's Men). Fonda is assuredly powerful and sexy and Sutherland makes a nice counter as her introverted partner.

3 Films on Vincent and Theo van Gogh

 Vincente Minnelli's Lust for Life, Paul Cox's Vincent and Robert Altman's Vincent and Theo are three films that all take the same basic story--the passion and madness of the renowned and beleaguered Dutch master and his relationship to his devoted art dealing brother--present them from different angles, and ultimately serve as extraordinary complements of each other. Lust for Life features considerable access to Van Gogh's paintings, often shown in widescreen closeup, and also the forceful and controlled performance from Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn's memorable, Oscar winning turn as the tortured artist's mentor Paul Gauguin. Cox's film is a documentary which presents footage of Van Gogh's supposed tumultuous journey, much of which is set in the idyllic South of France, and features John Hurt, ideally cast, reading Vincent's poetically revealing letters to his brother Theo. Altman's film stays true to its title devoting just about as much time to the less heralded Van Gogh sibling, has a dark tone and tempo meshed with the director's usual offbeat approach, and contains a snarlingly manic and remarkable performance from Tim Roth as Vincent and an equally well realized one from Paul Rhys as his counterpart.

Godspell

Jesus (Victor Garber), John the Baptist (David Haskell), and a nearly complete assemblage of Apostles assume the form of flower children and reinterpret the parables of St. Matthew's Gospel while frolicking around New York City. The film adaptation of Stephen Schwartz's lively and unbounded musical, which was based on a book by John-Michael Tebelak, is about as cheesed out and phony as it gets while carrying very little resonance with only Schwartz's remarkable songs keeping the film afloat. Having recently watched a filmed version of Pippin, another Schwartz scribed musical with a similar structure, it seems like the material is best suited to the stage. Then again, I've seen Godspell put on by a few amateur troupes, and the only thing that has ever stuck is the music. Another film that came to mind while suffering through a lengthy, insufferable nonmusical interlude was Yellow Submarine, where again I found my resisting the urge to reach for the fast forward button to skip the dippy filler material and return to the fantastic songs.

Passion

A frigid advertising executive (Rachel McAdams) manipulates her talented assistant (Noomi Rapace) both professionally and sexually before finally stealing her business proposal, an act of betrayal that sets  the pair on a bizarre and homicidal trail. Brian De Palma's Passion, which was based on the 2010 French film Love Crime and shares a kinship with Dressed to Kill, Body Double, and some of his other thrillers he made around that time, features a sleekness and an overexaggerated McAdams performance which grates for awhile, then really services the picture before a twist happy ending derails any gradually generated goodwill. Rapace is excellent, which has really been par for the course for her up to this point.

Grave of the Fireflies

In Kobe, Japan near the close of World War II a teenage boy dodges the constant fire bombings ravaging the city while contending with desperate neighbors and relatives and combatting the pitiless starvation that plagues him, his sister and the rest of the countryside. From Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli and director Isao Takahata, Grave of the Fireflies is dark, beautifully poetic, and all around masterful animated storytelling.

As I Lay Dying

The story of the pitiable, grossly impoverished, backwoods Bundren family and their calamitous attempts to transport their matriarch's coffin to a distant Mississippi town for burial following her agonizing death. I went into James Franco's adaptation of As I Lay Dying rolling my eyes just the same as every other person upon hearing that James Franco adapted William Faulkner. As cumbersome and flat as the film is, I surprisingly found myself half admiring the earnest attempt made to bring a challenging, cerebral, and probably untranslatable novel to the big screen, while the other half was still keenly aware that it just wasn't working.

Dead Calm

A naval officer (Sam Neill) and his wife (Nicole Kidman) in mourning over the loss of their infant son take an extended sabbatical on their yacht as they sail around the Pacific in an attempt to salvage their marriage. One day a half crazed sailor (Billy Zane) emerges out of the clear blue horizon on a lifeboat and, upon gaining entry to their vessel, tells a story of how his ship's crew has been ravaged by a case of botulism. When the officer departs to assist the survivors, he soon realizes it all has been an elaborate ruse, with himself trapped on a sink rigged to sink and his fragile wife left all alone to the whims of a madman. Dead Calm is an exceptionally well done thriller and would be a masterpiece if not for the presence of Zane whose laughably manic performance unintentionally turns his scenes farcical and also for a ludicrous ending that would feel more at home in a Halloween sequel. Still, hats off to director Phillip Noyce for his stylish visuals and intense presentation, and Kidman and Neill for their effective and believable turns.

Blancanieves

A girl from Seville who lost her mother at a young age learns the art of bullfighting from her renowned father only to have him stricken from her by her diabolical stepmother. Desperate and alone, she joins up with a caravan of dwarves where she continues her tutelage and faces her destiny. Blancanieves is both an imaginative refiguring of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and also an exceedingly well done silent picture throwback. Filmed on the heels of The Artist, it is crafted with at least as much passion, reverence, technical prowess, and general enthusiasm that in many ways it matches and even surpasses its immensely successful predecessor.

Jules and Jim

A sociable Frenchman (Henri Serre) and his brooding German best friend (Oskar Werner) alternately (and civilly) romance a beautiful, free spirited woman (Jeanne Moreau) in the years bookending the First World War. With its amazing, quick-cutting photography and fast paced, catch as catch can narrative, Francois Truffaut's much beloved Jules and Jim is as breezy as its characters in this affable and very, very French film.

Written on the Wind

A Texas oil heir (Robert Stack) galavants with his executive assistant and childhood friend (Rock Hudson) but their relationship takes a hit when the drunken playboy marries a secretary (Lauren Bacall) his pal had his eyes on, and is steered towards tragedy when his lusty kid sister (Dorothy Malone) makes a play for the same friend who was also her childhood sweetheart. On the surface, Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind is a tawdry 1950s soaper but upon closer examination reveals cleverly disguised references to impotence, sexual promiscuity, buried homosexuality and not to mention the usual betrayal, blackmail, and murder, all presented assuredly on an incredibly lush tableau. All the stars are perfectly suited to their roles with Malone even taking home an Oscar for her wide eyed, unhinged performance.

The Kid Stays in the Picture

The title decree was proclaimed by legendary producer Darryl F. Zanuck in response to a petition signed by Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer, and other cast members of The Sun Also Rises who had lobbied to have the woefully inexperienced Robert Evans removed from his crucial role in the picture. Evans would go on to rise fast in the industry as a producer and present some of the most important films of the 1970s (The Godfather and Chinatown for starters) before going into a catastrophic tailspin in the decade to follow. Evans put his life story into a same named memoir which is an ego stroking and wildly entertaining read that becomes extremely compressed, even more egomaniacal, and devoid of most of its value when translated into documentary form. It was interesting to see a few elements described in the book such as Evans filmed plea to the Paramount brass to save The Godfather production, but mostly I spent the film wishing a similar appeal for his own book adaptation had been rejected.

National Velvet

A bitter ex-jockey wanders the English countryside and is taken in as a farmhand by a family whom he soon plans to rob, but has his heart softened by their kind and indomitable horse loving daughter. After winning a wild stallion in an auction, the two train it to race and enter the powerful beast in the Grand National, with the young girl disguised as a male jockey. "National Velvet" is a gorgeous, sumptuous, and moving family spectacle. From overlooked director Clarence Brown, the film offered a young Elizabeth Taylor her first starring role in which she succeeds swimmingly, with Mickey Rooney starring opposite and providing an equally commanding performance. Supporters Donald Crisp and Oscar winning Anne Revere are delightful as Taylor's parents and the film is brimming with wonderful visuals, engaging scenes, and a whirlwind closing race. "National Velvet" is a family film of great entertainment and earned sentiment, the likes of which are virtually extinct today.

Broken Blossoms

Amidst the squalor of the poorest district of London, the neglected daughter (Lillian Gish) of a barbaric drunken pugilist (Donald Crisp) receives kindness and sympathy solely from a dejected, opium addicted Chinese shopkeeper (Richard Barthelmess). D.W. Griffith's Broken Blossoms is a simple, silent melodrama, but surprisingly curt and with unforgettable performances by Gish, Barthelmess, and the terrifyingly odious Crisp. Although the film's depiction of its Asian lead character would be seen as grossly stereotypical by today's standards (not to mention that Barthelmess is an actor of European descent), the film is almost shockingly daring and eons ahead of its time.

Always

I recently read Peter Biskind's My Lunches with Orson which is a transcription of taped conversations held between Orson Welles and confidant and fellow filmmaker Henry Jaglom in the final years of the legendary director's life. After getting to know both Welles and Jaglom through these exchanges, I felt I owed it to the lesser known of the pair to check out one of his films. In one particular passage, Jaglom relays his plans for a project which he intends to star in about a separated couple deciding to spend a final night together before finalizing their divorce and Welles responds with merciless discouragement. For some reason, that is the picture I decided to watch. Always is a pretentious, barely watchable, and horrendously acted picture that grows messier as it progresses, one which Jaglom should have heeded Welles' advice in not making and whose instincts I should have trusted by avoiding the film entirely. 

Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery

Ken Burns documentary on U.S. Army Officers Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the Corps of Discovery's grueling, prolonged, and monumental explorative 1804 journey, which was initiated by Thomas Jefferson, began at St. Louis, and traversed the Pacific Northwest, does an excellent job of visualizing the participant's journey and capturing their ranging thoughts and emotions, but has a tendency to feel as lengthy and redundant as the journey itself. Uninspired guest commentator expousings don't add to the proceedings but fine photography does help to smoothen the ride.

Orson Welles: The One-Man Band

When Orson Welles died in 1985 he left a laundry list of unrealized dreams and incomplete projects which, to name a few, included adaptations of Moby Dick, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear and Don Quixote and also a political satire featuring a Kennedyesque leading figure entitled The Big Brass Ring and Cradle Will Rock, which detailed a famous political staging by his own Mercury Theater. His will bequeathed a warehouse sized treasure trove of much of this footage to his longtime mistress Oja Kodar who, with the director Vassili Silovic, crafted this fascinating love letter to the irascible genius which (of course) winds up being a somewhat depressing tease of what might have been.

Twenty Feet from Stardom

Twenty Feet from Stardom, Morgan Neville's Oscar winning documentary, features an assemblage of some lovely and talented women (Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Tata Vega, Lisa Fischer among others) who have spent their impressive and mostly unheralded careers in the background abbetting the careers of their immeasurably more popular frontmen, some of whom appear here (Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Sting) as they tell their tales of woe in the merciless music industry. The film features some great footage (most memorably in some reminiscences between Clayton and Jagger on their recording of "Gimme Shelter") and some of the sob stories do strike a chord (i.e. Love hearing her voice on the radio while cleaning houses for a living) but the collective accounts of heartbreak become redundant and, in light of a sequence displaying their solo efforts, regretful as it is to say not every star was made for the limelight.

The Broken Circle Breakdown

A Belgian couple (Johan Heldenberg and Veerle Baetens) who share an affinity for bluegrass music fall in love at first sight and take their act on the road before they are confronted with several unexpected tragedies. Felix can Groeningen's Broken Circle Breakdown, which was adapted from a play by Mieke Dobbels and star Heldenberg and also an Academy Award nominee this year for Best Foreign Film, tries to mask an overly simple storyline with an unnecessary flashback structure and an unflinching look at its painful subject matter, an approach which occasionally leads itself to almost shameless depths. Lively musical scenes which feature renditions of American country standards in addition to some handsome pastoral photography help but can't save a film that also features inconsistent acting and a screenplay that for some inexplicable reason wants to throw in outdated political barbs at George W. Bush.