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Posted: |
Dec 2, 2022 - 12:03 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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SHE SAID (2022) – 9/10
Just before I watched this film, I read a column by a conservative writer wondering when we were going to see a film about sexual harassment in which the man was innocent. While somewhat reveling in the current film’s commercial failure, the writer harkened back to films like DOUBLE INDEMNITY and THE MALTESE FALCON, which contained notable movie femme fatales. However, he failed to acknowledge 1994’s DISCLOSURE in which the computer expert played by Michael Douglas is not only innocent, but is the victim of sexual harassment by an ex-lover played by Demi Moore.
But that’s all in the fictional universe. Back in real life, we get films like 2005’s NORTH COUNTRY, about the first major successful sexual harassment case in the U.S; the 2016 HBO film CONFIRMATION, about Anita Hill’s harassment allegations against then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas; 2019’s BOMBSHELL, about the sexual harassment committed by Fox News head Roger Ailes; and now SHE SAID, which opens with the allegations made against Presidential candidate Donald Trump and Fox News host Bill O’Reilly before settling into the case of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan play real-life New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who in 2017 get wind of allegations against Weinstein going back to the early 1990s made by actress Rose McGowan and female employees of Miramax, and doggedly pursue them. The picture brings to mind such newspaper-based procedurals as ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN and 2017’s THE POST, but without the political thriller aspects of those films. Perhaps it is closest in tone to 2015’s SPOTLIGHT, about the Boston Globe’s uncovering of the child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese.
Mulligan and Kazan are first rate in their roles, and are given able support by Patricia Clarkson and Andre Braugher as Times editors. Ashley Judd, one of Weinstein’s early victims and the only “name” actress to initially go on the record, appears as herself in the film.
As powerful as the subject matter is, the film is not so much about the acts of Harvey Weinstein as it is about the tenacity of the two reporters during their five-month investigation, and how their sheer persistence gets them the story. At times it smacks a little of hagiography of the New York Times, but Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s screenplay, after all, is based upon the reporter pair’s 2019 book.
If the film’s focus had been on Weinstein, or more generally upon the reportorial campaign that brought him down, it likely would have included the work done by Ronan Farrow, who was actually first on the story, and whose piece on Weinstein appeared in the New Yorker just 5 days after the Times report. The film mentions Farrow in passing and notes that Weinstein had Farrow’s efforts quashed, likely referring to the fact that Farrow had initially developed his story for NBC News, who then, for reasons still not clear, declined to run it, causing Farrow to take it to the New Yorker. One of the more compelling scenes of the film consists of an actual audio recording of Weinstein trying to seduce Italian model Ambra Battilana. The recording was first released by (and is credited in the film to) Farrow. All three reporters won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize.
SHE SAID is as well-done as such a fact-based procedural can be, and it’s certainly Oscar bait. (Recall that SPOTLIGHT was the Best Picture of its year). SHE SAID reportedly cost $32 million to produce but so far has grossed just $7 million. BOMBSHELL, which cost the same, did much better, with a $61 million take. I wonder if that says something about audiences being more willing to watch the takedown of a conservative than of a liberal. On the other hand, it could just mean that BOMBSHELL, which focused on Ailes and the women (all played by name stars), and not the New York magazine reporters who brought his crimes to light, was a more sensational film. (We never see the face of the actor playing Weinstein in SHE SAID. Only his voice is heard.) As for that conservative writer, his choice of subject for the “innocent man” story is…Brett Kavanaugh. While we may yet see that tale told by Hollywood, I suspect it's unlikely the Justice will be the story’s hero.
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Posted: |
Dec 4, 2022 - 11:08 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE KID FROM TEXAS (1950) – 7/10
The “kid” in this film is William Bonney, AKA “Billy the Kid” (Audie Murphy), who, the film tells us, was a misunderstood youngster. (Has there been any “Billy the Kid” film in which he was not so portrayed?) In any case, Billy has been befriended by “Jameson” (Shepperd Strudwick), a kindly English-born rancher, who takes Billy under his wing and persuades him to lay down his guns and go to work on his ranch. But after Jameson is gunned down by some drunken hands working for his competitor, “Major Harper” (Dennis Hoey), Billy picks those guns right up again and goes off in search of revenge.
This 79-minute film doesn’t beat around the bush in getting to the action. Baby-faced Audie Murphy (he was only 26 at the time), appears here in his first western, and is a good fit for the role. (Paul Newman was 33 when he starred in THE LEFT-HANDED GUN, and Kris Kristofferson was 37 when he appeared in PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID. The real Billy died before he reached 22.) Gale Storm appears as an object of Billy’s affection (not a love interest, since in the film she is the wife of Jameson’s partner “Alexander Kain” (Albert Dekker)).
The film has not had a video release on any physical format, possibly because it needs some restoration. The print of the film I watched had constantly shifting color density.
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the film tells us, was a misunderstood youngster. (Has there been any “Billy the Kid” film in which he was not so portrayed?)
Well he died fairly young, so he's never going to be portrayed as an oap. ( don't mention young guns)
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Zardoz (1974)
The system doesn't make many science fiction films. Plenty of fantasy with spaceships or superheroes, sure, but very few actual science fiction films. Zardoz is a science fiction film, and a rather intriguing one at that (while he isn't busy trying to buy a "panic" house in New Zealand or elsewhere, isn't Peter Thiel financing research into radical life extension? And isn't Musk in on the action too?).
Not having watched it in some time it was such a pleasure to see not a splash of CGI, what with practically every visual effect accomplished in-camera. As equal a pleasure was to be taken on a crazy journey by a director who isn't afraid to embrace the weird and wonderful (apparently Boorman was as high as a kite for much of this). Geoffery Unsworth's cinematography is as handsome as ever, and the cast, including a very hairy Connery in a red bungee diaper, and titty flashing Rampling and Kestelman all good sports about the unfolding wackiness.
My strongest reservation about the film is that it seems like a good chunk of its middle is missing. Zardoz has a very strong open and close, but the middle seems awfully curtailed.
7/10 (almost an 8)
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including a very hairy Connery in a red bungee diaper, and titty flashing.
How F'ing drunk was Connery when he made this movie? How this didn't end his career is beyond me!
According to Boorman, he got Connery for a steal because Connery couldn't land any work at the time.
And what's the big deal about his scant wardrobe, anyway? Does his brazen masculinity intimidate?
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Hey, I love Arnold's Conan and his magnificent bod, so no phobia on my part.
Just that Connery outfit was an embarrassment.
For your purview: Kimono briefs.
It seemed obvious to me the "Brutals" were essentially samurai sans kimono. Or Mongols.
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I have pair of them, only in leopard print.
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PUFNSTUF (1970) – 7/10
“H.R. Pufnstuf” was a children's television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. It was the first Krofft live-action, life-sized-puppet program (not including their previous work with the Hanna-Barbera program “The Banana Splits Adventure Hour.”) “H.R. Pufnstuf” introduced the Kroffts' most-used plot scenario of a fairy tale of good versus evil, as well as their second plot scenario of the stranger in a strange land.
The show centered on a shipwrecked boy named “Jimmy,” played by teenage actor Jack Wild. He is 11 years old when he arrives on the island and turns 12 in the episode called "The Birthday Party". Jimmy and a talking flute named “Freddy” (voiced by Joan Gerber) take a ride on a mysterious boat, but the boat was actually owned by a wicked witch named “Wilhelmina W. Witchiepoo” (played by Billie Hayes), who rode on a broomstick-vehicle called the Vroom Broom. She used the boat to lure Jimmy and Freddy to her castle on Living Island, where she was going to take Jimmy prisoner and steal Freddy for her own purposes.
Billie Hayes and Jack Wild in “H.R. Pufnstuf”
The Mayor of Living Island was a friendly and helpful anthropomorphic dragon named “H.R. Pufnstuf,” performed in costume by Roberto Gamonet and voiced by the show's writer Lennie Weinrib, who also voiced many of the other characters. The dragon rescued Jimmy and protected him from Witchiepoo, as his cave was the only place where her magic had no effect.
All of the characters on Living Island were realized by large cumbersome costumes or puppetry of anthropomorphic animals and objects. Everything was alive on the island, including houses, boats, clocks, candles, and so forth; virtually any part of the Living Island sets could become a character, usually voiced in a parody of a famous film star such as Mae West, Edward G. Robinson, or John Wayne.
“H.R. Pufnstuf” premiered on Saturday, 6 September 1969. It was an immediate hit, so NBC renewed it for a second season. But the show, shot on film, was such an overwhelming money pit for the producers that they decided to stop production. Only 17 episodes of the show were produced, with the last first-run episode airing on 27 December 1969. NBC continued re-running these episodes periodically until August 1972. Then ABC aired them during the 1972-73 season.
Plans were formulated for a feature film version of “H.R. Pufnstuf” months before the show even premiered. Shot in early 1970, after the show ended production, PUFNSTUF was produced by Universal Pictures in conjunction with The Kellogg Company, the cereal company that had served as the television show’s sole advertiser. The 1970 release retained most of the cast and crew from the series and featured guest appearances by “Mama” Cass Elliott (in her feature film debut) as “Witch Hazel” and Martha Raye as “Boss Witch.” Jack Wild didn’t get along with Martha Raye, referring to her as "a right old cow". Cass Elliot literally lived next door to Sid Krofft, and took the Witch Hazel role in the film as a favor to him.
The film version is basically a rehash of the initial episodes of the series. The puppetry and physical effects look primitive compared to today’s CGI wonders, but they have plenty of nostalgia value, both for those who saw the series, or those (like me) who just want to get a sense of what it was all about. Hollingsworth Morse directed the $1 million production, which was reportedly shot in thirty-two days
The film marked the first collaboration between Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, who wrote the songs for the film. Jack Wild did not like the songs he was given, especially "If I Could". He said he had a sore throat on the day he recorded it. Cass Elliot was the only cast member who could really sing well, and Fox and Gimbel wrote a special song for her.
To aid the other cast members in their songs, Charles Fox utilized as background singers the same performers that he employed to sing his theme song for the television show “Love, American Style” (1969-74). The film’s soundtrack was released on a Capitol LP, which was re-issued on a gray market CD by Él/Cherry Red Records in 2006.
Fox and Gimbel stayed partners after PUFNSTUF and went on to write "Killing Me Softly with His Song", "I Got A Name", "Ready To Take A Chance Again" and many other popular songs for television and film.
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I have pair of them, only in leopard print.
Hot!
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BLACK SAMURAI (1976) – 7/10
Martial arts star Jim Kelly first came to prominence when he co-starred with Bruce Lee and John Saxon in 1973’s ENTER THE DRAGON. That film was the #15 film of the year at the U.S. box office, grossing $25 million. The next year, Warner Bros. gave Kelly his first starring vehicle with BLACK BELT JONES, and found out that he was not the key to the success of ENTER THE DRAGON, after JONES earned just $2.9 million. But after Kelly appeared in some co-starring roles in higher-grossing films for lesser studios, with THREE THE HARD WAY ($9.1 million) being released by Allied Artists and GOLDEN NEEDLES ($3.0 million) by American International, Warners gave him another shot at a lead role in 1976’s HOT POTATO. The resultant film was barely released, and Kelly’s relationship with Warners came to an end. Later that year, Kelly appeared in BLACK SAMURAI, which was released by Trans National Film.
In the film, Jim Kelly stars as “Robert Sand,” agent of D.R.A.G.O.N. (Defense Reserve Agency Guardian Of Nations). He is playing tennis on his vacation with a beautiful black girl when his commanding officers ask him to save a kidnapped Chinese girl (Chia Essie Lin) who happens to be Sand's girlfriend, and the daughter of a top Eastern Ambassador. The ransom for the abduction is the secret for a terrible new weapon - the freeze bomb - but the warlock “Janicot” (Bill Roy) behind the deed is also into the business of drug dealing and voodoo ritual murders. The search takes Sand from Hong Kong to California through Miami. Along the way, he faces the diminutive hit man “Rheinhardt” (Felix Silla) before he finally confronts Janicot’s number one enforcer “Chavez” (Roberto Contreras).
BLACK SAMURAI posits Kelly as a black James Bond. Kelly was still in top form as a martial artist, and the fight scenes, which he choreographed, are fine. Al Adamson directed the film, which had no original score.
Kelly would star in two more minor martial arts films in 1978, co-star with Fred Williamson in the latter’s ONE DOWN, TWO TO GO in 1982, and then only appear in an occasional bit part over the next two decades. Kelly died in 2013 at age 67, but leaves behind his image as the black martial artist with the big Afro hairdo.
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Posted: |
Dec 8, 2022 - 11:58 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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DEVOTION (2022) – 7/10
This is the true story of two U.S. aircraft carrier pilots who served during the Korean War. Ensign Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors) is the first black pilot in the Navy, and Tom Hudner (Glen Powell) is a newly assigned white pilot to the group who becomes Brown’s wingman. Before they deploy overseas, Brown’s wife Daisy (Christina Jackson) asks Hudner to watch over her husband. That request is put to the test when the pair get into some harrowing combat situations over the skies of Korea.
This is a relatively low-key drama, which hits all of the marks you would expect of such an endeavor—the tacit racism still present in the U.S. military at that time; the gradual building of a relationship between Brown and Hudner; and the warm domestic scenes of Brown, Daisy, and their young daughter. The film is competently made, but it’s unlikely the story would have been told had it not been based upon real events. A basis in fact is supposed to infuse any story with more meaning for us than it would had it been a fictional tale. And it most cases, as here, it does.
Black female composer Chanda Dancy’s score becomes noticeable in the emotional moments. Although Dancy has been composing for films since 2004, she didn’t graduate from short films until 2013, and has spent most of her time in television and documentary features until recently. This is the first time I have heard any of her work.
The film’s aerial sequences are realistic, but nowhere near as thrilling (or as numerous) as TOP GUN: MAVERICK. DEVOTION was brought in for $90 million, half the cost of MAVERICK, by using CGI for most of the flying sequences rather than real planes. (Few planes from the Korean War are still flyable.) Even though Glen Powell also appeared in MAVERICK (as “Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin”), no money was spent on stars’ salaries for DEVOTION either. Despite its lower cost, DEVOTION still dropped a bomb at the box office, with just $15 million in grosses to date.
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MOONFALL
4/10
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Posted: |
Dec 9, 2022 - 7:16 AM
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By: |
Solium
(Member)
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DEVOTION (2022) – 7/10
This is the true story of two U.S. aircraft carrier pilots who served during the Korean War. Ensign Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors) is the first black pilot in the Navy, and Tom Hudner (Glen Powell) is a newly assigned white pilot to the group who becomes Brown’s wingman. Before they deploy overseas, Brown’s wife Daisy (Christina Jackson) asks Hudner to watch over her husband. That request is put to the test when the pair get into some harrowing combat situations over the skies of Korea.
This is a relatively low-key drama, which hits all of the marks you would expect of such an endeavor—the tacit racism still present in the U.S. military at that time; the gradual building of a relationship between Brown and Hudner; and the warm domestic scenes of Brown, Daisy, and their young daughter. The film is competently made, but it’s unlikely the story would have been told had it not been based upon real events. A basis in fact is supposed to infuse any story with more meaning for us than it would had it been a fictional tale. And it most cases, as here, it does.
Black female composer Chanda Dancy’s score becomes noticeable in the emotional moments. Although Dancy has been composing for films since 2004, she didn’t graduate from short films until 2013, and has spent most of her time in television and documentary features until recently. This is the first time I have heard any of her work.
The film’s aerial sequences are realistic, but nowhere near as thrilling (or as numerous) as TOP GUN: MAVERICK. DEVOTION was brought in for $90 million, half the cost of MAVERICK, by using CGI for most of the flying sequences rather than real planes. (Few planes from the Korean War are still flyable.) Even though Glen Powell also appeared in MAVERICK (as “Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin”), no money was spent on stars’ salaries for DEVOTION either. Despite its lower cost, DEVOTION still dropped a bomb at the box office, with just $15 million in grosses to date.
A lady where I work, probably in her 70's saw the film and pretty much said the same thing. A low key, somewhat slow historical drama. But she really enjoyed the film. Her husband was a pilot in the Korean War.
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- score by John Barry adds plenty of emotion. For me, Barry ended on a high ... 
