tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66123922024-03-17T22:59:48.721-04:00film babble blogFilm reviews, lists, interviews, and all kinds of movie related whatnot.Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.comBlogger1430125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-76132885038246837992024-03-15T18:02:00.009-04:002024-03-15T18:15:44.783-04:00ONE LIFE: An Anthony Hopkins WWII Drama That Will Get You In The End<p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Opening wide today at a theater, multiplex, or likewise venue near you:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13097932/?ref_=nv_sr_srshttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt13097932/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_one%2520life%2520life">ONE LIFE</a></b></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><b>(Dir. James Hawes, 2023)</b></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYCFLcIuw9D5rQHbHRC5F81Jb7aBwit8G8BwgGcUJ4zlkLOdRwPZ_-3gfwaxkp-eRq3wbrahuPZBojoiY_NgyRH4E8exOZufMwuRllMNq_l1hpCQqSq9uA4DqS6_fCu72qqNs8l3kbypmEyidh1cyFqtajSmjMt4vqvHWqCMtQmAoUFw7uGCg-/s1500/Anthony-Hopkins-in-One-Life-tout-3-031324-94c62f7f5f33456e964a0cdc2f4eeb3f.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYCFLcIuw9D5rQHbHRC5F81Jb7aBwit8G8BwgGcUJ4zlkLOdRwPZ_-3gfwaxkp-eRq3wbrahuPZBojoiY_NgyRH4E8exOZufMwuRllMNq_l1hpCQqSq9uA4DqS6_fCu72qqNs8l3kbypmEyidh1cyFqtajSmjMt4vqvHWqCMtQmAoUFw7uGCg-/w479-h319/Anthony-Hopkins-in-One-Life-tout-3-031324-94c62f7f5f33456e964a0cdc2f4eeb3f.jpg" width="479" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">T</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">he first half of this film, the feature film debut by television director James Hawes (<i>Doctor Who</i>, <i>Inside Story</i>), is well-made (and well-meaning), and very watchable, but a fairly standard World War II story about fleeing the Nazis, and escaping the holocaust.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">But, via the strong performances of Anthony Hopkins as the elder version of the British banker, Nicholas Winton, a humanitarian stockbroker who helped hundreds of Czechoslovakian children to escape from Prague; and Johnny Flynn, who portrays the younger Winton, the film grows more and more compelling until its very satisfying ending.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Hawes’ film, based on the book, <i>If It’s Not Impossible…The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton </i>by Barbara Winton, and scripted by Lucinda Coxon, and Nick Drake (not the folk singer of “Pink Moon” fame), begins with Hopkins’ Winton cleaning his study in 1987, and reflecting on a scrapbook he kept with information about the many Jewish children that he took part in relocating in 1938.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">This leads to heavy flashbacks in which we see Flynn’s noble, determined Winton work with his co-workers (including Romola Garai as Doreen Warriner, and Alex Sharp as Trevor Chadwickof) of the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia, and his posh mother, Babi (Helena Bonham Carter, who gets one sharp, effective speech) to help scores of scared kids to board trains to the safety of foster families in England. These scenes are the movie’s most tense moments, you know because of grim, paper-checking Nazis.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Hawes cuts back and forth from the two time periods, maybe a bit too hastily as some shots and scenes aren’t given much room to breathe, but it’s Hopkins’ narrative, which involves the retiree trying to figure out what to do with his documents (donate them to the Holocaust Museum? Try for a newspaper retrospective?) that shines the brightest as it finds our hero being celebrated on the BBC series, <i>That’s Life</i> (which Winton’s wife, played superbly by Lena Olin calls “a very silly show”), and meeting a number of the people, and their families, who owe their life to the humble humanitarian. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ONE LIFE, which takes its title from the expression, “If you can save just one life, it's worth it,” would’ve probably been celebrated much more greatly itself in a different era, as there’s been so many WWII films (and so many Anthony Hopkins historical dramas), but it’s such an earnest, and straightforward tale of humanity at its best while the world is at its worst, that it shouldn’t be dismissed. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Its conclusion is so emotionally well-executed that if you don’t well up at least a little while viewing it, you might not be hooked up right. But if it doesn’t get anywhere near pulling your heart-strings, maybe one can at least see that it brilliantly shows what benefits may come when you de-clutter your office.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-84788237772236222952024-03-11T17:54:00.005-04:002024-03-14T17:14:39.953-04:002024 Oscar® Recap: “I’d Like To Thank My Terrible Childhood And The Academy”<p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizvDzupMfWvqRJcvpaa2avhFiKPboHGBh_pwt_Y6PES9PWU-ZvjrGm3-erufPoH-5mWGuz_RgOJGu7EHUv_kMC3y5BrsjyUMXVAPUwtH1FdUG7-ZsvKj8T8zl7PKLBfODnEUGwxPmLg2cDjNq45AtzWJnkDZIHc1iy99Kgn8q5fFveiU5uGfRf/s620/Jimmy-Kimmel-Oscars-host-pink-pants.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="620" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizvDzupMfWvqRJcvpaa2avhFiKPboHGBh_pwt_Y6PES9PWU-ZvjrGm3-erufPoH-5mWGuz_RgOJGu7EHUv_kMC3y5BrsjyUMXVAPUwtH1FdUG7-ZsvKj8T8zl7PKLBfODnEUGwxPmLg2cDjNq45AtzWJnkDZIHc1iy99Kgn8q5fFveiU5uGfRf/w517-h302/Jimmy-Kimmel-Oscars-host-pink-pants.jpg" width="517" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">L</span><span style="font-size: large;">ast night’s 96th<sup> </sup>Academy Awards was one of the most well produced, entertaining, and incident-free (no violence!) Oscar ceremonies in recent memory. Jimmy Kimmel did a solid job as host, the past winners saluting the new nominees device was touching, and Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” big number from BARBIE brought the house down with the feeling of everyone in the room being blown away being gloriously palpable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjL9IroRLI9ixun-NWR_yyi1QjyVhKotlt1KhMQLwvnE6sywwpKBGIVorA0M8y1_j4TBmbnW9YCTwGNYcS2II2YTD-ioH5MEaVG__AhWWP52d8AB_vWMsGI-iDu-LJecIqlYlPaicApH27ch9Ky8MuBI1vJXF5Pgh8ZaigP2KmQ53WsgBWNDB67" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjL9IroRLI9ixun-NWR_yyi1QjyVhKotlt1KhMQLwvnE6sywwpKBGIVorA0M8y1_j4TBmbnW9YCTwGNYcS2II2YTD-ioH5MEaVG__AhWWP52d8AB_vWMsGI-iDu-LJecIqlYlPaicApH27ch9Ky8MuBI1vJXF5Pgh8ZaigP2KmQ53WsgBWNDB67=w526-h350" width="526" /></a></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I was happy to see the well predicted OPPENHEIMER sweep go down. Christopher Nolan’s epic is a movie’s movie that’s got old fashioned majesty with modern polish, and it well deserved to win the seven Oscars it did (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor (Yay to Robery Downey Jr., the first former <i>SNL</i> cast member to ever win an Oscar - the quote in this post’s headline comes from his speech), Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">My score of 18 out of the 23 categories was far from my best (22 out of 24, back when Sound was split into Sound Editing and Sound Mixing), but better than my worst, 13 out of 24.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here’s what I got wrong:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">BEST ACTRESS: </span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Lily Gladstone, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I, like many, thought it was Gladstone’s Oscar year as she had won the Golden Gl0bes, the Screen Actors Guild, and many critic association awards, but noooooo as Belushi would say (dated reference lost on younger readers), Emma Stone is now a two-time Academy Award winner for POOR THINGS. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But Stone’s emotional acceptance speech was wonderful, featuring this funny moment:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkhAJTSsGSAVyxKIRn8tMccgpItxugVWuD-5f1UK6c5UBOpehv_PgEwAdQjYQ_yuvFVH9CIj7NIac5Wm4ZAds2cKZHIVVmapn5F8fX4vYke4z07CQICZcbFrCltzADrPsx2doHcYYbR8r2yYHeG1Zb76WMsoljjB9LzJkSAc_0X4cEDu3t80ro/s1024/Emma-Stone-Dress-Oscars-Show-Getty-H-2024.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkhAJTSsGSAVyxKIRn8tMccgpItxugVWuD-5f1UK6c5UBOpehv_PgEwAdQjYQ_yuvFVH9CIj7NIac5Wm4ZAds2cKZHIVVmapn5F8fX4vYke4z07CQICZcbFrCltzADrPsx2doHcYYbR8r2yYHeG1Zb76WMsoljjB9LzJkSAc_0X4cEDu3t80ro/w486-h273/Emma-Stone-Dress-Oscars-Show-Getty-H-2024.jpg" width="486" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;">“My dress is broken! I’m pretty sure it happened during ‘I’m Just Ken.’”</span></span><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING:</span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou and Lori McCoy-Bell, MAESTRO<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Another POOR THINGS miss. I should’ve known MAESTRO would go home empty handed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">DOCUMENTARY SHORT:</span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> THE ABCS OF BOOK BANNING (Dirs. Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This was a stab in the dark, as I hadn’t seen any of the Documentary Shorts. Now I’ll definitely seek out THE LAST REPAIR SHOP, which was the winner of this oft overlooked category.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: repeat white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">SOUND:</span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> Jonathan Glazer, OPPENHEIMER<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: repeat white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: repeat white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This was one I was glad to get wrong, because the sound in Jonathan Glazer’s THE ZONE OF INTEREST is such a major element of that movie, which deservedly won Best International Picture (I got that one right). OPPENHEIMER won everything else anyway.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><b>ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:</b> SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDERVERSE<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Simply, I thought the more commercial, and more massively popular film would nab this award like usual, but I’m satisfied that Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki’s THE BOY AND THE HERON went home with the gold. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Okay, so that’s my bout with Oscars 2024. You can now go about your day.</span></span></div>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-31948017503262771862024-03-09T09:37:00.006-05:002024-03-09T17:42:32.383-05:00Hey Kids! Funtime 2023 Oscar® Predictions!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjhEtq4iDo-YPmVIOis40qf1j9HXm6DnZhrGqYxWYnPpAGWABRAKlXqDwkO0kYpRCpW5SD_LYIKzWSVP_HG8D__XPoQkzoXOzLCotHIazJYf_PdUeVtE0n0MgPJCUAQHkxKOKeKeeRVLPY35GOj0ULG3uLIGWfRVUDuX1b-bd8UfjecTHD0Ts74" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="670" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjhEtq4iDo-YPmVIOis40qf1j9HXm6DnZhrGqYxWYnPpAGWABRAKlXqDwkO0kYpRCpW5SD_LYIKzWSVP_HG8D__XPoQkzoXOzLCotHIazJYf_PdUeVtE0n0MgPJCUAQHkxKOKeKeeRVLPY35GOj0ULG3uLIGWfRVUDuX1b-bd8UfjecTHD0Ts74=w471-h306" width="471" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> haven’t been Film Babbling lately because I’ve been deep into working on a big book project (more on that later), but I felt like I just had to weigh in on the 96th</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Academy Awards<span style="font-family: "Hoefler Text 4r", Baskerville, "Baskerville Old Face", "Hoefler Text", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">®</span>, which is going down this Sunday night at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles with Jimmy Kimmel returning to host for his fourth time. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">As I said in my <a href="https://filmbabble.blogspot.com/2024/01/finally-film-babble-blogs-movies-of-2023.html"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">Favorite Films of 2023</span></a> post, this last year was a much better one for film than the last several so there are a number of nominations that I’m seriously rooting for, but as we know with these predictions, one shouldn’t play favorites.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">So here are my highly anticipated, not-thrown-together-at-all predictions:</span></p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>1. BEST PICTURE:</b> OPPENHEIMER</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /><b>2. BEST DIRECTOR:</b> Christopher Nolan, OPPENHEIMER<br /><br /><b>3. BEST ACTOR: </b>Cillian Murphy, OPPENHEIMER<br /><br />Yeah, an OPPENHEIMER sweep seems to be incredibly imminent. It will be surprising (but maybe more fun) if there are some upsets. Still don’t think BARBIE will win anything but best song though.<br /><br /><b>4. BEST ACTRESS: </b>Lily Gladstone, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON<br /><br /><b>5. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:</b> Robert Downey Jr., OPPENHEIMER<br /><br /><b>6. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: </b>Da’Vine Joy Randolph, THE HOLDOVERS<br /><br /><b>7. PRODUCTION DESIGN:</b> James Price, Shona Heath, Zsuzsa Mihalek, </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">POOR THINGS</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The upset could be BARBIE, but this should really go to the vivid imagery in Yorgos Lanthimos’ weird ass erotic black comedy.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUzSqE0I8bTR0UR3NIkXgQI3eEGR4N2cmvdcVnMKEp58L_ZLMDNEON7CxFB2odtuItooWFRt75nQARW3t5nYXrT-DCtBZE4Cs8hLRtTMK4AT_PSdyPf-ogozAV5kJPu27ZyRW2DdwcolJMBR9iqI0i0scLw0Fs9kTbScAvJyGA68dbKkksWF6S/s2364/poor-things-production-design-shona-heath-james-price_dezeen_2364_col_3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1428" data-original-width="2364" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUzSqE0I8bTR0UR3NIkXgQI3eEGR4N2cmvdcVnMKEp58L_ZLMDNEON7CxFB2odtuItooWFRt75nQARW3t5nYXrT-DCtBZE4Cs8hLRtTMK4AT_PSdyPf-ogozAV5kJPu27ZyRW2DdwcolJMBR9iqI0i0scLw0Fs9kTbScAvJyGA68dbKkksWF6S/w519-h313/poor-things-production-design-shona-heath-james-price_dezeen_2364_col_3.jpg" width="519" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>8. CINEMATOGRAPHY:</b> Hoyte van Hoytema, OPPENHEIMER<br /><br /><b>9. COSTUME DESIGN: </b>Holly Waddington, POOR THINGS Again, take that BARBIE! (Kidding, I might’ve actually enjoyed BARBIE more than POOR THINGS).<br /><br /><b>10. DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:</b> 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL (Dirs. Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, and Raney Aronson-Rath)<br /><br /><b>11. DOCUMENTARY SHORT:</b> THE ABCS OF BOOK BANNING (Dirs. Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic)<br /><br /><b>12. FILM EDITING: </b>Jennifer Lame, OPPENHEIMER<br /><br /><b>13. MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING:</b> Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou and Lori McCoy-Bell, MAESTRO</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Yeah, I’m predicting that 5-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper won’t win, and his MAESTRO will only win this category. That</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">’s right.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMLGYDhRTmGf0X9EKhDuWy9wTsGw6WZKoP8roeBTB5pEBAdfmXO3rw0WDnlTynq9aKcrKRmYg3rH56ITzkTdXM4_CWvx6AGMWpB9IEEjDN_JPppALJbT6FaanGYSwnT-wtNFGab3DnzjItw5-Z7Ty-MNizfu-WRlZNn1OnCop8ATW5xwh83Bjb" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="456" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMLGYDhRTmGf0X9EKhDuWy9wTsGw6WZKoP8roeBTB5pEBAdfmXO3rw0WDnlTynq9aKcrKRmYg3rH56ITzkTdXM4_CWvx6AGMWpB9IEEjDN_JPppALJbT6FaanGYSwnT-wtNFGab3DnzjItw5-Z7Ty-MNizfu-WRlZNn1OnCop8ATW5xwh83Bjb=w497-h331" width="497" /></a></div><br /><b>14. VISUAL EFFECTS:</b> Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi, and Tatsuji Nojima, GODZILLA MINUS ONE<br /><br /><b> 15. ORIGINAL SCORE:</b> Robbie Robertson, OPPENHEIMER<br /><br /><b>16. ORIGINAL SONG:</b> “What Was I Made For?”, Billie Eilish (The one bone the Academy will throw to BARBIE)</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>17. ANIMATED SHORT:</b> WAR IS OVER! INSPIRED BY THE MUSIC OF JOHN & YOKO<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><b>18. LIVE ACTION SHORT:</b> THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF HENRY SUGAR (Dir. Wes Anderson)<br /><br /><b>19. SOUND:</b> Jonathan Glazer, OPPENHEIMER<br /><br /><b>20. ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: </b>Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, ANATOMY OF A FALL<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><b>21. ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:</b> Cord Jefferson, AMERICAN FICTION<br /><br /><b>22. ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:</b> SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDERVERSE (Dir. <br /><br /><b>23. BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM:</b> THE ZONE OF INTEREST (Dir. Jonathan Glazer)</span><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">As I usually say, tune in Monday morning to see how many I got wrong.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></div>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-9542070353669144582024-01-30T19:50:00.012-05:002024-03-09T17:51:34.205-05:00Finally, Film Babble Blog’s Favorite Films Of 2023!<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg9Qc0Ag1FOZw553kW_nUQCARm1PK5nZOUehAziVRPB5UYwp2mECM1ap5IRDNOVS1dXuOIO9Ogur55L21SZVeTqS37VdNL5LVmh9r3oVNJ-SJcZa2YeMYImxVNjY5wLG8_oEtCPgi2cWBOwDUzsplU8sqwsa-0t2A08DHBIyrPDRLhKpuuTbgII" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="871" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg9Qc0Ag1FOZw553kW_nUQCARm1PK5nZOUehAziVRPB5UYwp2mECM1ap5IRDNOVS1dXuOIO9Ogur55L21SZVeTqS37VdNL5LVmh9r3oVNJ-SJcZa2YeMYImxVNjY5wLG8_oEtCPgi2cWBOwDUzsplU8sqwsa-0t2A08DHBIyrPDRLhKpuuTbgII=w483-h291" width="483" /></a></span></span></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span><span style="font-size: large;">s s it’s almost February, and the Oscar noms have been announced (and I finally got around to watching PLEASE DON’T DESTROY: THE TREASURE OF FOGGY MOUNTAIN), I’m finally posting my 10 Top movies (and some spillover) from 2023.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">This has been a much better year for film than any of the last several, since before the Pandemic actually, so it was an easier time making these picks. Like a number of my choices, the first one was a movie that surprised me with how much I liked it. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b style="font-size: x-large;">1. DREAM SCENARIO</b> <b>(Dir. Kristoffer Borgli)</b><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Nicholas Cage’s 11,875th</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"> film is one of his best, featuring an timely, inventive premise in which Cage’s schlubby college professor starts showing up in many people’s dreams, giving a new layer to going viral. It’s a profoundly cringy experience that I bet will stay with me longer than most of the other movies on this list. Read my review: When <a href="https://filmbabble.blogspot.com/2023/11/when-nicholas-cage-dreams-become.html">Nicholas Cage Dreams Become Nicholas Cage Nightmares</a> (11/30/23).</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b style="font-size: x-large;">2 KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON</b> <b>(Dir. Martin Scorsese) </b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhiOjRxy59TH3SfTUcHcG5vOeBQ9Sb1C6tPYmbOhzKjIV2wgIP_3OcdLjYAiKRuSCQ8XTIpQAtc7RT23kYmqjiJLZ6WyIsGUFnIvQDN2XNPerh3bes7xacpDTyBb84PK4GPtkq4HyNwITrPbEURTgL2GrTGfvTj_Qagos0mEd86JZyzozmvxu-0" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3140" data-original-width="5187" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhiOjRxy59TH3SfTUcHcG5vOeBQ9Sb1C6tPYmbOhzKjIV2wgIP_3OcdLjYAiKRuSCQ8XTIpQAtc7RT23kYmqjiJLZ6WyIsGUFnIvQDN2XNPerh3bes7xacpDTyBb84PK4GPtkq4HyNwITrPbEURTgL2GrTGfvTj_Qagos0mEd86JZyzozmvxu-0=w477-h290" width="477" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Master movie-maker Marty made a corker of a three and a half-hour thriller about the Osage Reign of Terror in early 1920’s Oklahoma set to the late, great </span><span style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Robbie Robertson’s </span>superbly subtle, bluesy score, which should get him a posthumous Oscar (I'm not going to predict anything yet though). And the powerful film features a career best Leonardo DiCaprio, and a more invested than he has been lately, Robert De Niro together again, for the very first time (they worked together before in A BOY’S LIFE, but this is their first film under Scorsese’s direction together (DiCaprio has been in six Scorsese films; De Niro’s tally is 10). Read the <a href="https://filmbabble.blogspot.com/2023/10/killers-of-flower-moon-film-babble-blog.html">Film Blog Review</a> (10/19/23).<span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">3. OPPENHEIMER</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span>(Dir. David Nolan)</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8fD-HLql7CCGBieEP6-nSAYeLnDEg5GfqR8geO4ZXtOKzyEn2gliSBnazbmBhI0E9kyqFNhBnOXnAxtrE3S0JuGYzi7FtV77uNg9uAKOrzHU28pBbPr84_HgIQ-ZbJcC9R9VEqF6QUrxmB5CH0eqArz6atVgA4-BxuqPfj_j6C-beoPvCI847" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="537" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8fD-HLql7CCGBieEP6-nSAYeLnDEg5GfqR8geO4ZXtOKzyEn2gliSBnazbmBhI0E9kyqFNhBnOXnAxtrE3S0JuGYzi7FtV77uNg9uAKOrzHU28pBbPr84_HgIQ-ZbJcC9R9VEqF6QUrxmB5CH0eqArz6atVgA4-BxuqPfj_j6C-beoPvCI847=w460-h316" width="460" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Nolan’s</span><span style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, serif;"> epic biopic of nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy</span>, <span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;">wowed the world in the wake of the crazy <a href="https://filmbabble.blogspot.com/2023/08/summer-23-how-barbenheimer-rose-above.html">BARBENHEIMER</a> movement by being a three-hour biopic about a scientist that grossed $955 million. Robert Downey Jr. is a lock for his portrayal of a political rival of our rail thin lead is a lock for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award, but with 13 noms, this film has a good chance of sweeping. Read my review: <a href="https://filmbabble.blogspot.com/2023/07/christopher-nolans-oppenheimer-is-kind.html">Christopher Nolan's OPPENHEIMER Is Kind Of A Big Deal</a> (7/19/23)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">4. THE HOLDOVERS</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span>(Dir. Alexander Payne)</b><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj9caWSl1oMOVVfixopy_MU7Bc0LF0e9yTNPs1mhHJC_WT0coLBBLee6ZFD0x3rwwyDuxkuBM9ii92h3JOKg8bqUNzTxJjeZ33X-71vbf-Jkb7FDPc6znbqdnqKFam1uzrwCZdChSZJrPRpdX3gaTaWdSKNiaRR_cxVXgZ7iXghsVHuCv6hZ0kH" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="2250" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj9caWSl1oMOVVfixopy_MU7Bc0LF0e9yTNPs1mhHJC_WT0coLBBLee6ZFD0x3rwwyDuxkuBM9ii92h3JOKg8bqUNzTxJjeZ33X-71vbf-Jkb7FDPc6znbqdnqKFam1uzrwCZdChSZJrPRpdX3gaTaWdSKNiaRR_cxVXgZ7iXghsVHuCv6hZ0kH=w482-h321" width="482" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Payne rebounds from the disappointing DOWNSIZING, with this charming, and very amusing early ‘70s-set dramedy with Paul Giamatti (for his second collaboration with Paybe after the superb SIDEWAYS) as a classics professor at a New England boarding school that has to baby-sit a few students (mostly the talented </span><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia, serif;">newcomer </span><em style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #5f6368; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-style: normal;">Dominic Sessa) </span></b></em><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;">who are stuck on campus during the holidays. Da’vine Joy Randolph definitely deserves her Supporting Actress nom for work here as school’s head cook, who’s grieving over son who just died in Vietnam, and the other four noms are worthy too, so this is one I hope more people seek out.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">5. ANATOMY OF A FALL</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span>(Dir. Justine Triet)<span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOpw44r8gNaAzeJIHDmk8hG7HD_ZKhWsgjsMaD4mY155vrTNDzMInJ5w5Uj-kMSa5ZMTnDMAGpw7_Q856hzRcDO1RxuS_fp4yOox7HKCmUL4dsjZDQOehPez5mMqbYbRR_dCubNJEJwn_-ezoFx-TnYc2Dy_uFfw344gFEvePSy1tyZFdMHdV1/s820/416100580_694899856119645_6135884117663744043_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="820" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOpw44r8gNaAzeJIHDmk8hG7HD_ZKhWsgjsMaD4mY155vrTNDzMInJ5w5Uj-kMSa5ZMTnDMAGpw7_Q856hzRcDO1RxuS_fp4yOox7HKCmUL4dsjZDQOehPez5mMqbYbRR_dCubNJEJwn_-ezoFx-TnYc2Dy_uFfw344gFEvePSy1tyZFdMHdV1/w459-h303/416100580_694899856119645_6135884117663744043_n.jpg" width="459" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The DVD screener of the first film I watched on New Year's Day, 2024</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">Oscar Best Acrtress nominee Sandra Hüller did double duty this last year in two majorly recognized films as she’s in this French courtroom drama, and Jonathan Glazer’s excellent THE ZONE OF INTEREST. Here she nails her role as a stressed writer trying to prove her innocence in her husband’s death, and the screenplay by Triet, and Arthur Harari keeps us guessing as it goes through gripping court proceedings. Like #4, this also got five Oscar noms, and shouldn’t be missed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">6. GODZILLA MINUS ONE</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span>(Dir. Takashi Yamazaki)</b><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiosLLlmoUswMfIgw3DhIUwj1-3dzlUZG41j2pfCFIfx2rZoKdSkUcQE1MrW0j9R0HmCuvHI56c-8Ozn1SHDBoPR55AOsoiaM45sUg7hyphenhyphen5Wtr3dxiFnQuyOgcj_QhOAqC_U85ufqPlFxmCQrXuUU7YPJCz4-Syqv0ck2tMR1JGM3AGAMD1OkXbU/s640/0x0.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiosLLlmoUswMfIgw3DhIUwj1-3dzlUZG41j2pfCFIfx2rZoKdSkUcQE1MrW0j9R0HmCuvHI56c-8Ozn1SHDBoPR55AOsoiaM45sUg7hyphenhyphen5Wtr3dxiFnQuyOgcj_QhOAqC_U85ufqPlFxmCQrXuUU7YPJCz4-Syqv0ck2tMR1JGM3AGAMD1OkXbU/w524-h295/0x0.png" width="524" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">Now this was a complete surprise as another Godzilla movie was not the most enticing prospect, but the 37th entry in the series that started 70 years ago, is an amazing, gripping action adventure motion picture that won me over early on with its engaging drama about Japan recovering from World War II, and having to band together to fight this nuclear-radiation created reptilian monster that is more convincingly depicted (thanks to state-of-the-art CGI) than ever before. I certainly agree with Keven Smith that it’s the best Godzilla movie ever. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">7. MAY DECEMBER</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span>(Dir. Todd Haynes)</b><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm7RbQADp4OGCPPKl-BVjMUMDB59Gm-I6B7XSl15cSi88PT5J-DqAMNZSoegUhSvH4skKq9RrVWXgnkDufk7rEWFKfgz4VW0tVOCR9NO40WsRTdBCYpWFyanJVoVDchMxyffFk0svd-kDFVrNHqZCv0lbKtotC5quXkkklIk7ziluPcSJWVWca/s1280/AAAABfq_7q7UiGX2ZxytYgpyIF736_cBWimXAVmJBFHC6BlMY0fugJvSXB45ItVCeN9RasJrNV_cakVq4rBfi5ctHpEyHFXdRMyWGTV5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm7RbQADp4OGCPPKl-BVjMUMDB59Gm-I6B7XSl15cSi88PT5J-DqAMNZSoegUhSvH4skKq9RrVWXgnkDufk7rEWFKfgz4VW0tVOCR9NO40WsRTdBCYpWFyanJVoVDchMxyffFk0svd-kDFVrNHqZCv0lbKtotC5quXkkklIk7ziluPcSJWVWca/w485-h273/AAAABfq_7q7UiGX2ZxytYgpyIF736_cBWimXAVmJBFHC6BlMY0fugJvSXB45ItVCeN9RasJrNV_cakVq4rBfi5ctHpEyHFXdRMyWGTV5.jpg" width="485" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">This immaculately-made duel of a drama between Julianne Moore, as a woman who did time for the second-degree rape of a 13-year old, but 20 years later is married to the man who was that boy; and Natalie Portman as an actress who is visiting the couple at their lavish Savannah, Georgia home, for research for a film where she’ll play Moore’s character. The compelling narrative, with its tasty twists and all, helps it stand with Haynes finest work including VELVERT GOLDMINE, I’M NOT THERE, and CAROL.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">8. PAST LIVES </span>(Dir. Celine Song)</b><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjGDCDcRJfiDJeA1mRO_xV3HYaT292P8zbwh4SiuwaJL6N9sOZgupb7sElmkoNJvBdcHAauU2ELR7Qa2snDSwENUNx1hZv4-tyzXNztIkBEXg_zG9zqnRnwQpGj8clFMq_a8HbXUsTcjhZI0QXtFIovduzd5oBgjTKDNAldbTCM6v1oQ-1pfcaK" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1000" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjGDCDcRJfiDJeA1mRO_xV3HYaT292P8zbwh4SiuwaJL6N9sOZgupb7sElmkoNJvBdcHAauU2ELR7Qa2snDSwENUNx1hZv4-tyzXNztIkBEXg_zG9zqnRnwQpGj8clFMq_a8HbXUsTcjhZI0QXtFIovduzd5oBgjTKDNAldbTCM6v1oQ-1pfcaK=w489-h275" width="489" /></a></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">Another surprise here as a Oscar Best Picture contender, and as a movie that I liked enough to make the list, as this a small movie about a relationship between two childhood friends from South Korean who contain their spark, mostly online as they live far away from each other into adulthood. It’s a of unrequited love with naturalistic performances by Greta Lee, and Teo Yoo, with John Magaro putting in a nicely sensitive side character to the couple as Lee’s understanding husband. However, I doubt this will win anything Oscar-wise other than many viewers hearts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">9. BEAU IS AFRAID</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span>(Dir. Ari Aster) </b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIvhGU34MdqdPavYslFEgTfJS9v0llP6kzQys_Z2FDELafHT7BE39-xcv2eswstTbeagHDeFLBZXv2jBY7JCgPpxLg6YfIah2MKsC2Riw410oGdsOUTfEzwSOXK-Usxjc_2KELqoK0c6xU1eFz8Qg9YSZd6AcLB7NlJAqLX3C5m1SHaYb8eJcL/s2034/Screen-Shot-2023-05-14-at-4.35.15-PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1098" data-original-width="2034" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIvhGU34MdqdPavYslFEgTfJS9v0llP6kzQys_Z2FDELafHT7BE39-xcv2eswstTbeagHDeFLBZXv2jBY7JCgPpxLg6YfIah2MKsC2Riw410oGdsOUTfEzwSOXK-Usxjc_2KELqoK0c6xU1eFz8Qg9YSZd6AcLB7NlJAqLX3C5m1SHaYb8eJcL/w519-h302/Screen-Shot-2023-05-14-at-4.35.15-PM.png" width="519" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">My placing of this weird ass A24 surrealist tragicomedy horror film (that’s what Wikipedia’s calling it so let’s go with that) shouldn’t be read as a recommendation or a warning or well, anything but that I couldn’t deny its hold on my troubled soul. It’s a grotesque, stressful, and just plain f-ed up story about Joaquinn Phoenix of a man living a hellish existence, who is going on a trip to his mother’s, but chaotic circumstances make his journey a nightmare. If you’re only going to see one Joaquin Phoenix 2023 movie, make sure it’s this and not NAPOLEON.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span>1</span><b>0. ALBERT BROOKS: DEFENDING MY LIFE</b></span> <b>(Dir. Rob Reiner) </b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTdBofFzkC357zr_iQX7CaAuOwdyXrH8W5Pls3-DluLd1dRJYtPD0vzXa5nESYWavJdSBr-TyfEIqcnfiwjVRJxfDPANDwiGUMEml5SPFrcy9ruVsVDjfWIqw0iGnf43Cu9ahOY5xC_qL9s7yuwclTQJEPhj3cEdP9RWuslQ1szEbwUJNK0RVQ/s1296/albert-brooks-defending-my-life_0-copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="1296" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTdBofFzkC357zr_iQX7CaAuOwdyXrH8W5Pls3-DluLd1dRJYtPD0vzXa5nESYWavJdSBr-TyfEIqcnfiwjVRJxfDPANDwiGUMEml5SPFrcy9ruVsVDjfWIqw0iGnf43Cu9ahOY5xC_qL9s7yuwclTQJEPhj3cEdP9RWuslQ1szEbwUJNK0RVQ/w513-h289/albert-brooks-defending-my-life_0-copy.jpg" width="513" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;">The life, and career of one of my all-time comedians, Albert Brooks, is explored over lunch with his best friend, Rob Reiner in this HBO biodoc that is so packed with great footage of Brooks’ legendary variety, and talk show appearances from the late ‘60s-‘70s that it should be mandatory viewing for aspiring comics. Brook’s classic comedies (like REAL LIFE, MODERN ROMANCE, and LOST IN AMERICA) are insightfully given discussion, with one of its best segments being about the film that inspired this film’s title, DEFENDING YOUR LIFE . A stand out moment, is when Brook's wife since 1997, Kimberly, says of her first wanting to meet him because of that movie, <o:p></o:p></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;">“This man, wrote, directed, and starred in this? That’s the kid of guy I want to marry. I swear to God I said that.” Touching stuff indeed.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Spillover:</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>THE ZONE OF INTEREST </b></span><b>(Dir. Jonathan Glaser)</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>AMERICAN FICTION</b> </span><b>(Dir. Cord Jefferson)</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">TALK TO ME </span>(Dirs. </b></span><b>Danny and Michael Philippou)</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">Some franchise films I thought were better than okay:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE </span>(Dirs. Joaquim Dos Santos,Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson)</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWGo7_JzMvJEbcNd6zgWSu-0Jow8CfiyNlL60xUQhELNrKVGy8uSfmlO5KkZQufWcaCjaq1IKXUishU1wRhpfrXmPDYoDlnxTYgiob6RYqNf_PpITW8hQHiSL8Zh5r9IVpr_JTUTunT7G6PGUO9WTdKhJJsg7YYcBO_J16mFqGfCapoSJNU4aJ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="758" data-original-width="689" height="579" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWGo7_JzMvJEbcNd6zgWSu-0Jow8CfiyNlL60xUQhELNrKVGy8uSfmlO5KkZQufWcaCjaq1IKXUishU1wRhpfrXmPDYoDlnxTYgiob6RYqNf_PpITW8hQHiSL8Zh5r9IVpr_JTUTunT7G6PGUO9WTdKhJJsg7YYcBO_J16mFqGfCapoSJNU4aJ=w525-h579" width="525" /></a></b></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">JOHN WICK 4 </span>(Dir. </b></span><span style="color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b>Chad Stahelski) </b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE </span>(Dir. </b></span><span style="color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b>Christopher McQuarrie) </b><span style="font-size: medium;">This film's title really needs a colon.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">And finally, yes, it’s far from a great movie, but it’s still one of the most notable, and memorable films of 2023:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">BARBIE </span>(Dir. Greta Gerwig)</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">Okay, I’m done. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-65833467220205687212023-12-31T11:36:00.002-05:002023-12-31T11:53:32.260-05:00Great Moments In Fourth Wall Breakage: SUPERMAN Edition<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjnBbBGPn2VqtVbXDZh4Uat_dJPDRexhaXTnLgQa5w1rqMv58j2UqYwxBE99nLZjtqtGh369eMQpneOFGX6prV3d9r1M6R8jwMZDPFr2BBKwuLPyUQSjYakqpqm33IA4BVOyQXBzOnbpIfIB8nKhdP8a05fRnhafyd5nCPQzVQKRr1MGk8x5vS4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="344" data-original-width="555" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjnBbBGPn2VqtVbXDZh4Uat_dJPDRexhaXTnLgQa5w1rqMv58j2UqYwxBE99nLZjtqtGh369eMQpneOFGX6prV3d9r1M6R8jwMZDPFr2BBKwuLPyUQSjYakqpqm33IA4BVOyQXBzOnbpIfIB8nKhdP8a05fRnhafyd5nCPQzVQKRr1MGk8x5vS4=w464-h288" width="464" /></a></div></div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"> I</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">n this latest entry in the ongoing series, <b>Great Moments in Fourth Wall Breakage</b>, that salutes those meta moments in movies when a character makes an aside to the audience, we’re going to look at the SUPERMAN series. That is, the one that began with SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, continued, with diminishing returns, through II, III, and IV in the ‘80s then reviving in the 2000s with SUPERMAN RETURNS.<br /><br />At the end of Richard Donner’s classic 1978 original (a personal vote for best superhero movie ever), Christopher Reeve’s Superman soars high above the earth, while John Williams’ triumphant score sweeps, after defeating Lex Luthor’s plan to nuke California, surveying the status of our big blue globe, then looks directly into the camera, and smiles. It’s a warm, ‘don’t worry, I got this,’ grin, and this footage, with slight variations from outtakes from the shoot (sometimes his right arm goes up when he flies off; sometimes not) is used to end the film’s three sequels.<br /><br />Bryan Singer’s attempt to reboot the series in 2006 with SUPERMAN RETURNS also did its take on the ending flyby, but in this version, Brandon Routh (pretty much a Reeve clone) looks knowingly, with a slight, sly smile, at the camera but doesn’t show any teeth before he flies off.</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDLEPovPM7cNQczU7XIdPgKqD-V0muxAtiMp0SYLMDJZuLKP9ogZ_wCRiWlfQEKlsNGi4K2UdhbHQr544CZUtCZhCbH2ATOvtSaTSBAAiCFQseYcpagp60nt6vreGkBcprSbKdj9FqXBNwvKEnWXM4z_y8bqhOcLamqCPg9SLpLINoUlf93GjF" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="675" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDLEPovPM7cNQczU7XIdPgKqD-V0muxAtiMp0SYLMDJZuLKP9ogZ_wCRiWlfQEKlsNGi4K2UdhbHQr544CZUtCZhCbH2ATOvtSaTSBAAiCFQseYcpagp60nt6vreGkBcprSbKdj9FqXBNwvKEnWXM4z_y8bqhOcLamqCPg9SLpLINoUlf93GjF=w475-h283" width="475" /></a></div><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">This was the last time for the concluding fourth wall breakage in series, as Henry Cavill’s Superman in MAN OF STEEL, BATMAN V. SUPERMAN, and JUSTICE LEAGUE (all of which are awful) hasn’t been shown friendly acknowledging the audience, and it’s one of the many reasons this most recent version of the character has been embraced like Reeve’s was (and still is). I’m not saying that not having the final smiling flyby is like a James Bond movie without the gun barrel intro, but it’s close.</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /><br />So Superman is such a mighty being that he even knows he’s a movie star, and his end of adventure smile for us always put an appealing cap on the caper. I wonder if we’ll see a Superman movie with that moment in it again.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Now here's a YouTube compilation of all of the flyby endings from SUPERMAN to SUPERMAN RETURNS:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eGl8SKo3sjQ" width="433" youtube-src-id="eGl8SKo3sjQ"></iframe></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></div></div>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-17232580224505156272023-12-30T12:29:00.007-05:002023-12-30T12:40:35.559-05:00That Time Orson Welles Ended His Career (And Life) On An Episode of Moonlighting<p><span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: center;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj-tLivY7znk1aJw9SRsMhP02poSXrt_2rPlr6tUX8jBHFk3f7i9EE9VSHXgTTJcC__vBAN3X5Rg-QXjlxPyKMAzgcvgpiGlgJ-5XYcQy-jYzZY2AyrbQZuOYyN1wT-GhTU4iFiJuL_JuWidkeAeFgiT-58IZvh7E5bnzAq8GAuhcK0haPoKx4i" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="575" data-original-width="872" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj-tLivY7znk1aJw9SRsMhP02poSXrt_2rPlr6tUX8jBHFk3f7i9EE9VSHXgTTJcC__vBAN3X5Rg-QXjlxPyKMAzgcvgpiGlgJ-5XYcQy-jYzZY2AyrbQZuOYyN1wT-GhTU4iFiJuL_JuWidkeAeFgiT-58IZvh7E5bnzAq8GAuhcK0haPoKx4i=w492-h325" width="492" /></a></span></div><span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">L</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ast October, the ‘80s comedy detective series, <i>Moonlighting</i>, began streaming for the first time ever. The ABC show was a huge must-see TV hit in the mid ‘80s, but because of its absence, it has been largely forgotten until this event. Now viewers can see Bruce Willis - now non-verbal, and retired due to dementia - at his most verbal as the wise-cracking gumshoe David Addison, trading quips with the softly-lit Cybill Shepherd as former model Maddie Hayes in all their 67-episode run on Hulu, and all of our pop culture worlds are better for it.</span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">At least mine is, as I was a kid when it aired in the ‘80s, and it brought back a lot of memories, and one I was delighted to be reminded of was that Orson Welles made his last appearance on the program. The film-making legend, and personal favorite, passed away a week after shooting his introduction for the season 2 episode, “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice,” (aired: Oct. 15, 1985) capping off his incredible career in a much better, way more classy way than his last film appearance, the voice of Unicron in the animated 1986 flop, TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (I kid you not).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">According to <i>Moonlighting</i> writer, Debra Frank, Welles shot his bit, an intro in which he warned viewers that much of the night’s episode would be in black and white, on October 4, 1985, remembering that because it was her mother’s birthday.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">After Welles passed on October 10th, they added this to precede his intro:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzhE88IuZBBimrbxUAZt6BT4zn4EBTNvx0zxHdSfQLx9WChiRmbPi5S6R55ZqaKF6cXMxZ8Zjn0q7uJodIqxvQEQ4BZ7vuPpYlNakmiIX0XclDcCE0oVZK5DnBO-qrTweyp_lFSz7fV1edQNKpL1at7JDOVmxn4AcgNaAL-E0tSon07Cu2olcV" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="901" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzhE88IuZBBimrbxUAZt6BT4zn4EBTNvx0zxHdSfQLx9WChiRmbPi5S6R55ZqaKF6cXMxZ8Zjn0q7uJodIqxvQEQ4BZ7vuPpYlNakmiIX0XclDcCE0oVZK5DnBO-qrTweyp_lFSz7fV1edQNKpL1at7JDOVmxn4AcgNaAL-E0tSon07Cu2olcV=w449-h250" width="449" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">From the same 2005 <i>Moonlighting</i> DVD bonus featurette that revealed that, “Inside the Blue Moon Detective Agency, the Story of Moonlighting, Part 2,” Moonlighting creator Glenn Gordon Caron told the story of how they got Welles for the gig:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">“They (the network) felt that, like THE WIZARD OF OZ, which was a movie that was shown in this country every year, and every year they went to great lengths to explain to people that the first part is in black and white, the second part is in color – there’s nothing wrong with your television set, ABC thought it was important to offer that kind of assurance to the audience. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">So we thought, well, who should do this? I don’t know, again, it just cracked me up, Orson Welles. You know, here’s the man who probably made the most beautiful black and white film, you know, ever. So I wrote this thing, which he ultimately said, you know, about which he ultimately said, ‘a very special monochromatic, blah blah blah blah, <i>Moonlighting</i>, so get Grandma and the kids and lock them in the basement…” A pretty funny thing, so I called him up, and said, ‘Would you be interested in doing this thing, and to my amazement he said, ‘Well, send it over,’ so I sent it over, and he called back and said, ‘I think it’s funny.’”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Caron misquoted his own writing so here is Welles’ opening intro to “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice” (and you can watch a YouTube clip of it below):<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">“Good evening, I’m Orson Welles. Tonight, broadcasting takes a giant leap backward. In this age of living color, and stereophonic sound, the television show, <i>Moonlighting</i>, is daring to be different, and share with you a monochromatic, monophonic hour of entertainment. Approximately 12 minutes into this evening’s episode, the picture on your television screen will change to black and white. Nothing is wrong with your set, I repeat, *nothing is wrong with your set*, tonight’s episode is an experiment, one we hope you’ll enjoy, so, gather the kids, the dog, grandma, and lock them in another room, and then sit back and enjoy this very special episode of <i>Moonlighting</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xRC1VglKCn0" width="433" youtube-src-id="xRC1VglKCn0"></iframe></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">It’s quite something to think that this was the grand man’s last appearance before he shuffled off of this mortal coil. It’s not surprising after years of hard living, which his girth, and trademark cigar smoking (though it does look cool) in this short video does give ample evidence, that he died at age 70, but it’s a fitting testament that, a week before he died, he could put in such a witty, wise, and even warm cameo in what was then one of the hottest programs on, and go out on such a hip, and humorous final note.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">It's also funny that there’s the Cybill Shepherd connection in that Welles used to stay in the guest room of her house with Peter Bogdanovich in the ‘70s, but that’s a whole ‘nuther blogpost.</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></span></p>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-5757837204306504052023-12-19T18:25:00.012-05:002023-12-19T21:53:02.341-05:00‘Tis The Season For Oscar Bait Biopics: MAESTRO, FERRARI, and NAPOLEON<span style="font-family: georgia;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgPZAXge5YwqdosLi44L-c8nkbpGwmnhCcFiKLyFPZ1fvq9neBLCEPpydOLEwo9VI9bGUkwFmwcKIj-9Mdr_Mz1e9jEVrujm3BCvurrh70_TYAW4Cbdk-l3tbrxBBi75w8I32Y1dxCD-bk__FkbaT8iCbKjnDUqwoVngSD6KCTNCJmPfys4AiRV" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="867" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgPZAXge5YwqdosLi44L-c8nkbpGwmnhCcFiKLyFPZ1fvq9neBLCEPpydOLEwo9VI9bGUkwFmwcKIj-9Mdr_Mz1e9jEVrujm3BCvurrh70_TYAW4Cbdk-l3tbrxBBi75w8I32Y1dxCD-bk__FkbaT8iCbKjnDUqwoVngSD6KCTNCJmPfys4AiRV=w476-h290" width="476" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">Y</span><span style="font-size: large;">es, it’s that time of year again when the studios drop the big prestige pictures, and this round of Oscar-bait biopics are for sure the most prestigious this season. As these three films, each big ass, lavish productions with big ass names behind, and in front of the camera, are going to be in theaters or available streaming over the holidays, I thought I’d give ‘em the ole Film Babble Blog appraisal, so here goes:</span><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5535276/">MAESTRO</a></span></b> <b>(Dir. Bradley Cooper, 2023)</b><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Bradley Cooper’s follow-up to his acclaimed 2018 directorial debut, A STAR IS BORN, garnered criticism when early buzz revealed that the actor (also the film’s co-writer, and producer) wore a large prosthetic nose to enhance his resemblance to his subject Leonard Bernstein, but upon being incredibly charmed by Cooper's lush, loving tribute to the iconic composer/conductor, it is not a critique that holds much weight.</span><div><br /></div><div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>For the nose just fades convincingly into the face of Cooper</span><span>’</span><span>s Bernstein, or Lenny to his friends, fronting a lived-in, layered, and authentic-feeling performance that is sure to get plenty of accolade action in the weeks, months, and years to come. Cooper</span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">’</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">s portrait has a predictable structure - the narrative is initially told in black and white flashbacks (the film switches to color as it moves into the modern era) structured as remembrances in interviews by the elder Bernstein shown in crisp color - but it transcends this convention with its fluid style, and poetic, tuneful tone.</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyR2ogbYCeZGX7x42QkpzE8IHUUQll993f10McJ5nS0sb0mlXHbSUyXxpcAsu-uyqj_mkSJmDHNZ5viAd7j70tzE7E4yCl091PhrSNIo4EAvWxWiL-k5szWfNvbPGfCKa2u39q-1S_7OY3tf3kx6WWClIp9bhvbmjknIUGhxd6cQEkpeorSthw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="785" data-original-width="1100" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjyR2ogbYCeZGX7x42QkpzE8IHUUQll993f10McJ5nS0sb0mlXHbSUyXxpcAsu-uyqj_mkSJmDHNZ5viAd7j70tzE7E4yCl091PhrSNIo4EAvWxWiL-k5szWfNvbPGfCKa2u39q-1S_7OY3tf3kx6WWClIp9bhvbmjknIUGhxd6cQEkpeorSthw=w458-h327" width="458" /></a></div><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">In a portrayal that rivals Cooper’s, Carey Mulligan beautifully plays Bernstein’s wife of 26 years, Felicia Montealegre Bernstein. Their relationship is the crux of the story as we see that despite his homosexuality (i.e. affairs with men), Felicia loved Lenny, and put up with his infidelities, though we witness that taking its toll.</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">For the uninitiated, Cooper and Josh Singer’s screenplay serves up Leonard Bernstein 101, from his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1943 to scoring such Broadway classics as <i>On the Town</i>, and <i>West Side Story</i> or classic motion pictures like ON THE WATERFRONT to his legendary conducting of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony at Ely Cathedral in 1973, among other career highlights sharply shot by cinematographer, Matther Libatique (PI, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM).</span><div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">With superb supporting work by Sarah Silverman, Matt Bomer, and Maya Hawke, MAESTRO is Cooper’s moving love letter to Bernstein, and the evolving emotional languages of the times he lived in, and helped shape musically. It’s one to stream on up when it hits Netflix tomorrow (December 20).</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3758542/">FERRARI</a></b></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><b>(Dir. Michael Mann, 2023)</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhj7Si1fgy3RWa3TOwutYAAw61GuhnQv0HwNwFYidV7oda7kDElNPstgw528qTts1ODgsixsMnE-kicxiFxtrLhcSYIYLEj2ZEY_cLIIFw1PkK7v21ScJPmP7zB3UvLpzuDuOZ_yxmmZsiC1CX-GeiTgm-bk2JgyK4UDFp3akC6BNz6LxHSXXua" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="407" data-original-width="655" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhj7Si1fgy3RWa3TOwutYAAw61GuhnQv0HwNwFYidV7oda7kDElNPstgw528qTts1ODgsixsMnE-kicxiFxtrLhcSYIYLEj2ZEY_cLIIFw1PkK7v21ScJPmP7zB3UvLpzuDuOZ_yxmmZsiC1CX-GeiTgm-bk2JgyK4UDFp3akC6BNz6LxHSXXua=w450-h280" width="450" /></a></div><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Michael Mann makes sleek, streamlined, manly movies about powerful, conflicted men and his latest fancy flick about Italian car racing entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari is no exception. A coiffed, gray haired Adam Driver plays the motor mogul in a measured, stoic manner, which is offset by the tirades by his wife, Laura (Penélope Cruz), who, in an early scene shoots at him with a gun his mother scoffs at him for giving her.</span></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">“Your mother missed on purpose,” Enzo says as he visits the tomb of his dead son, Dino. “One day, she won’t, and I’ll be in here with you.” Such sets the tone as the movie veers from the love triangle between Enzo, Laura, and his secret mistress (a possibly miscast, but still affecting Shailene Woodley) and his race track excursions in 1957, when the tragedy of the Mille Miglia occurred killing nine spectators - a profoundly disturbing shot as Mann, via Director of Photography, Eric Messerschmidt, stunningly captures (with the help of some CGI, of course).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Driver and Mann’s approach may be cold, and overly slick, but FERRARI is a purposeful portrait with a lot of gusto and glorious oomph especially in its racing sequences. It doesn't reach the heights of previous Mann movies like HEAT or COLLATERAL, but it is far and above his last works, PUBLIC ENEMIES and BLACK HAT for certain. It's well worth getting out of the house for when it opens Christmas Day.</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13287846/">NAPOLEON</a></span></b><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><b style="font-family: georgia;">(Dir. Ridley Scott, 2023)</b></div><div><b style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></b></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj7CE-MUvyAPhQbGe6x1pFwjsvJFLzqEWdr4YMKHz96yot4PUaeAVGWvN1loqzFJgRQ0EECOGAM4BKJr4-f8TKOWhkXdFPovPDXEVTgaJ1CGgiY52QAq0GXjLNdIYNKdem1W_VYuXJwoshrvoNrCllqHeG1wff5KzZfQvKO9o0HMQ1ttDUEeQlr" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="885" data-original-width="1426" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj7CE-MUvyAPhQbGe6x1pFwjsvJFLzqEWdr4YMKHz96yot4PUaeAVGWvN1loqzFJgRQ0EECOGAM4BKJr4-f8TKOWhkXdFPovPDXEVTgaJ1CGgiY52QAq0GXjLNdIYNKdem1W_VYuXJwoshrvoNrCllqHeG1wff5KzZfQvKO9o0HMQ1ttDUEeQlr=w457-h284" width="457" /></a></div></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>Since its release at the end of last month, Ridley Scott’s long awaited historical epic about the infamous French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, has gotten mixed reviews, and underperformed at the box office - bad news for a movie that cost 137 million.</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">But does the film deserve that unimpressive reception? Well, yes and no, but mostly yes, as it suffers from horrible dialogue (“You think you're so great just because you have boats!” is an actual line), uninspired performances (actually Joaquin Phoenix does his best with a questionably written role, but no one else in the cast offers much energy) has lengthy sequences that drag, and overall left me with an empty feeling.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">This is largely because Scott’s treatment, scripted by David Scarpa (a screenwriter whose previous work including THE LAST CASTLE, and the 2008 remake of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is less than stellar), is all about how pathetic its subject is, despite having conquered most of Europe in the 19th century.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Napoleon calls his wife, Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby) a slut because while he’s off at war, she's taking lovers, which inspires ridicule in the press, and much of the narrative concerns their rocky relationship. This material is strained, and dull, with the more successful scenes being the battles. Scott, with the aid of cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, takes us convincingly into such major skirmishes as the Battle of Austerlitz, which, taking place on a frozen lake, visually pops more than anything else in the movie.</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">More than once, I was reminded of a moment in Woody Allen’s LOVE AND DEATH, a parody of War and Peace that also features Napolean, where Allen’s character observes that the battle he's in looks different to the generals up on the hill, and the film cuts to a flock of sheep instead of soldiers being driven forward.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">So, yeah, NAPOLEAN is a very mixed bag that proves that the Joaquin Phoenix movie to see in 2023 is Ari Aster’s BEAU IS AFRAID.<br /><br />So, two out of three ain’t bad when it comes to this season’s Oscar-bait biopics.</span><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></div></div></div>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-78282930233550547172023-11-30T19:30:00.005-05:002024-01-16T20:57:58.288-05:00When Nicholas Cage Dreams Become Nicholas Cage Nightmares<p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Opening this evening, and tomorrow nationwide:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21942866/">DREAM SCENARIO</a></b></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><b>(Dir. Kristoffer Borgli, 2023)</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhY3CCFu3pBtChwRRXk4F24ICQUeTKbglSrfnw_zYhkc1mspnr-KDCrd0N66HtGHIvoGa3tQAIwgOIER7Mx6VuxHnYDrciNESFVS2lCyvNxIYXBMqH6jMziKOivU5-TNs830z2gQo50yLpdzN8ejZ3Q0DxzHG-4nbWlpgxpp4a0bzTp48dc_EL1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="670" data-original-width="1068" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhY3CCFu3pBtChwRRXk4F24ICQUeTKbglSrfnw_zYhkc1mspnr-KDCrd0N66HtGHIvoGa3tQAIwgOIER7Mx6VuxHnYDrciNESFVS2lCyvNxIYXBMqH6jMziKOivU5-TNs830z2gQo50yLpdzN8ejZ3Q0DxzHG-4nbWlpgxpp4a0bzTp48dc_EL1=w457-h287" width="457" /></a></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">I</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">n over 100 movies since he first hit the big screen in 1981, Nicholas Cage has forged an iconic, eclectic, and just plain crazy career to which no other actor’s filmography can possibly compare. The often-manic man’s many looks, which all still look like him, along with his all-over-the-place, yet strangely specific delivery has made him into a world-wide-recognized walking meme, and a genre onto himself. Admit, before you even know anything about a new movie – whether it’s good or bad – the fact that it’s a Nicholas Cage movie is alone appealing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">That’s why Cage is perfectly cast in DREAM SCENERIO, writer/director Kristoffer Borgli’s second feature, in which he portrays Paul Matthews, a schlubby, bald biology professor (with a big prosthetic nose btw), who for some reason starts popping up in the dreams of a sizable percentage of the population. But he doesn’t appear in the dreams of his wife, portrayed by a jaded Juliane Nicholson) apparently in real life either; but his daughters (Lily Bird, and Jessica Clement), actually consider calling him a cool dad when Cage’s Paul goes viral. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Our hapless non hero enjoys the spotlight as he’s craved some sort of fame for a long time we find in an early scene when he’s upset about not getting credit in an article a former colleague has written that he believes borrowed from his research. We get from this that the guy is rather pathetic, and, despite the attention, Paul is concerned that people tell him that he’s just a bystander in their night visions – “You don’t do anything, you’re just there” – one woman tells him - and that he just walks through not helping when the dreamer is in peril.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Then the film takes a dark turn when the Paul in people’s dreams starts becoming violent, and even murderous, and a shadow grows over his image meaning that a book deal he was hoping for looks to be doomed, and the viral PR firm he’s been working with (headed by another piece of perfect casting, an aptly glib Michael Cera with the perfect name of Trent) goes from pitching high profile campaigns (“we think we can get Obama to dream about you”) to saying they can maybe get him on Tucker Carlson.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">DREAM SCENARIO is a witty piece of cringe cinema that is incredibly compelling, but can be incredibly unpleasant as one can completely get Paul’s spouse telling him, “It’s really embarrassing to be married to you right now.” Possibly the most I cringed was when a young woman, <span style="background: white; color: #4d5156;">Trent</span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">’</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156;">s assistant Molly (Dylan Gelula)</span>, wants Paul to help recreate her sex dream about him, and, well, I’m not going to go any further because it makes me shudder just thinking about it. Throughout this film, I can’t count how many times I squirmed in my seat for this guy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Yet, with its imaginatively punchy premise, and Cage’s fearlessly awkward performance that feels like it could stand as one of his most authentic characters, this is one of the best films of the year. Despite its darkness, it has affection for Paul, considerable empathy for his predicament, and strong thematic thought-provoking points about cancel culture.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Borgli’s surreal satire is another win for the indie studio A24, who just came off winning the Best Picture Oscar for EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE, and I love how it has a possibly unintended connection to the company’s re-release of Jonathan Demme’s STOP MAKING SENSE, the classic Talking Heads concert film celebrating its 40th Anniversary. Like the cringy sex scene, I won’t spoil it, but I’ll just say that the band’s David Byrne’s famous over-sized suit is involved, and leave it at that.</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Finally, I must share the nifty Nicholas Cage sleep mask I got at the press screening:</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOELrjeTVRumWIM_hSl1v8z3ELSkT6nne2JM5gMCZpTf9kvoNsF_ugsDARvUw1mzlLLDUyd9tumnxVH3_p4Qw-7EuB_vidmS1lfQaZJ82RkWdkSRTSxNotFqU34rATmlcn3-wm2H6_FdRpjvPa1NkAfVw-P7Vvr1b2B3q3F0XU97ixp4emXcFt/s2048/401851863_670121818597449_1139670010745156485_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1249" data-original-width="2048" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOELrjeTVRumWIM_hSl1v8z3ELSkT6nne2JM5gMCZpTf9kvoNsF_ugsDARvUw1mzlLLDUyd9tumnxVH3_p4Qw-7EuB_vidmS1lfQaZJ82RkWdkSRTSxNotFqU34rATmlcn3-wm2H6_FdRpjvPa1NkAfVw-P7Vvr1b2B3q3F0XU97ixp4emXcFt/w457-h279/401851863_670121818597449_1139670010745156485_n.jpg" width="457" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></p>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-59116005654648904112023-11-08T23:19:00.005-05:002023-11-08T23:22:05.900-05:00THE MARVELS: An Immaculate But Way Clunky Mess of a Marvel Movie<p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Opening at every multiplex in the multiverse:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10676048/">THE MARVELS</a></b></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <b><span style="font-size: medium;">(Dir. Nia DaCosta, 2023)</span></b><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9fcXcSBF-sA3iZW3XsMtZdVMkY0yb1Fwja2EH9aVTG9mZcHa0ouAHN_tKeLbwIT6xO0Kgfes2A3qB1VDMxWec931NNCXP9Do7Knmo7wTu9DMYU8_ej6CqXd1hrsn73NGqpZZoULQHV9srSC814HBleo0eBm50aBUxpxZvVlTHASzw-0uJr5qQ/s828/gro-09769-r-1699461084070%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="828" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9fcXcSBF-sA3iZW3XsMtZdVMkY0yb1Fwja2EH9aVTG9mZcHa0ouAHN_tKeLbwIT6xO0Kgfes2A3qB1VDMxWec931NNCXP9Do7Knmo7wTu9DMYU8_ej6CqXd1hrsn73NGqpZZoULQHV9srSC814HBleo0eBm50aBUxpxZvVlTHASzw-0uJr5qQ/w474-h283/gro-09769-r-1699461084070%202.jpg" width="474" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">A</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> decade or so ago, the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe was a lot of fun. What with all the interlocking storylines from film to film, and the charisma and humor of leads like Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Scarlett Johansson (all of whom can be seen shining in the Marvel logo banner than begins every movie), many movie-goers and myself enjoyed quite a few of the ongoing adventures of the AVENGERS, and off-shoots like GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">But now, after over 30 movies, the whole thing has become a big, bloated franchise that I hear more people dis than praise these days. This new release, serving as a sequel to Captain Marvel and an extension of a show I haven’t seen (Ms. Marvel), tries as it might to offer some difference, and diversity, in its leads being three females – respectively Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, Teyonah Parris as Proton/Monica Rambeau, and Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan – but they seem to be winging, rather than helming, their way through this immaculate mess of a Marvel movie.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The premise having to do with ancient glowing bracelets (this film’s MacGuffin/Infinity Stones) sought after fiery villain Dar-Benn, played by a crazy-eyed Zawe Ashton, and a couple of our female leads body-switching when they use their powers at the same time, never built any momentum, with action sequence after action sequence piling up with little impact.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">While she sure can’t sing as can be seen in a strange musical number with her alien prince played by Park Seo-joon, Larson is a fine actress (she well deserved her Oscar for 2015’s ROOM), but she mainly serves as a straight person to her co-stars and the scenery. She does lighten up dancing to hip hop with Parris and Vellani (whose spunk does charm at odd moments) in one scene, but otherwise her stoic demeanor is frankly dull throughout.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">THE MARVELS looks mahvelous, as Billy Crystal’s <i>SNL</i> character Fernando would say (outdated reference lost on younger readers), with its incredible cinematography by Sean Bobbit (another Academy Award winner), that presents eye-popping visuals of space stations, alien terrains, and cats with tenacles coming from their mouths that can devour whole human beings, and such sights can surely amuse.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">But the action surrounding that doesn’t excite, and worse, the comedy that should be the saving grace is awkward, and clunky AF. This latest Marvel offering doesn’t improve on the last entry, ANT MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA (Lord, I hate that title!), and makes me weary of considering what’s to come. There’s no way this Marvel machine is gonna stop, but maybe some flops like these will slow it down so some quality control can be instigated. Here’s hoping because even Samuel L. <span style="background: white; color: #222222;">J</span>ackson, here playing Nick Fury for the umpteenth time (15th, I think), can’t even muster much edge for this beyond played out material. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></p>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-67425312866975333642023-10-26T18:38:00.002-04:002023-10-29T20:11:56.214-04:00THE KILLER Contains Fassbender & Fincher's Icy Execution In Neo Noir<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Opening tonight at a multiplex near us all: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1136617/">THE KILLER</a></b></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><b>(Dir. David Fincher, 2023)</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi3kzr5gK2CNzb_zU5b_qsXjqG5VUP8_99BmhsL8JKOuDpT14JBBYx-Spo0bEmATL47yhyNDxix-opZZUGcNTD9Exl9swzNuFTqj3Be-dBcgTZxpaV0a7vPDesRebRlqDl9gjEt8LYv_l0oqQ72CaeEBqsa6K60cTW6E9D7m9VTr9l8_y1F4PTm" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="1180" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi3kzr5gK2CNzb_zU5b_qsXjqG5VUP8_99BmhsL8JKOuDpT14JBBYx-Spo0bEmATL47yhyNDxix-opZZUGcNTD9Exl9swzNuFTqj3Be-dBcgTZxpaV0a7vPDesRebRlqDl9gjEt8LYv_l0oqQ72CaeEBqsa6K60cTW6E9D7m9VTr9l8_y1F4PTm=w478-h288" width="478" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">A</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> neo noir thriller about an unnamed professional contract hitman may seem a curious choice for David Fincher as a follow-up to MANK, his ode to old Hollywood, but it makes sense as an attempt for the filmmaker to scale down, and get back to basics. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">This globe-trotting series of chapters, each containing a different hit, is based on a 1998 French graphic novel by Alexis “Matz” Nolent, features a stoic Michael Fassbender in the title role, who we get to know through his constant monologuing (or self-narration).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Right before Fassbender’s Killer takes aim, we hear his personal pep talk in voice-0ver: “Stick to the plan. Anticipate. Don’t improvise,” and “Fight only the battle you’re paid to fight.” Problem is, the film opens with our anti-hero botching a hit, missing his target, and having to flea through the streets of Paris to allude the police, but with precise, and very entertaining maneuvering.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">When he returns home to the Dominican Republican, he finds his lavish home has been broken into, and his wife (or girlfriend – we aren’t told which), played by Sophie Charlotte, has been attacked and is in the hospital on a respirator. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Using aliases with the names of ‘70s, and ‘80s TV characters (Howard Cunningham, Lou Grant, Sam Malone, George Jefferson, etc.) Fletch-style, ‘The Killer’ travels to <span style="background: white; color: #121212;">New Orleans, Florida, New York, and finally Chicago to visit, and off the likes of his handler, ‘The Lawyer,’ Hodges (Charles Parnell), ‘The Brute’ (Sala Baker), ‘The Expert’ (Tilda Swinton), and ‘The Client’ (Arliss Howard).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #121212;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">At the half-way mark, an amped-up fight sequence between Fassbender, and Baker that goes through several rooms and utilizes every item within reach the combatants can grab to use as weapons JOHN WICK-style shakes up the movie from its moody intensity. However, it could’ve been more captivating than it is as it’s shot in very dark interiors, and at times it’s hard to tell which silhouette is who.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Helping the narrative’s flow, provided by screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, who previously collaborated with Fincher on SE7EN, is our titular assassin’s constant listening to the Smiths through ear buds (the film features bits of over 1o of the British mope rock band’s tunes). Otherwise, <span style="background: white; color: #4d5156;">Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross</span><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156;"> (also Fincher veterans) superbly </span><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156;">score up the rest of the (of course) dark, edgy soundtrack.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Fincher’s 12th film is engaging overall, and has a number of juicy moments - Fassbender’s restaurant sit-down with Swinton, in a delicately classy performance, as another contract killer being a stand-out – but ultimately it felt a bit empty as its lead, for all his weighty talk about being a superior being to most of the inhabitants of our planet, doesn’t feel like a fully fleshed-out persona. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The Killer’s lack of back story, and his meticulously constructed methods that we aren’t given much insight into, make him feel as layered as a character in a video game. Fassbender does a fine job with Walker’s words, and convincingly hits his mark acting as well as action-wise, but the iciness of both his and Fincher’s execution made it hard for me to care. So while it’s a stylish exercise that has its merits, THE KILLER left me cold.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></p>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-55509698587524305982023-10-19T18:47:00.006-04:002023-12-19T22:40:20.371-05:00KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: The Film Babble Blog Review<span style="font-size: large;">Opening tonight at a multiplex near us all:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5537002/"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON</span></b></a><br /><b>(Dir. Martin Scorsese, 2023)</b></span><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiAwJ-ez91zHxHcCh1QeWRXSM8cSDEon4qH0RcEEv07H1TlS545m6BAMbDgd_DlKXH1OrgZJC7wdzX9WD65JwUE88xPdO-28iL2EXJxBCJlzQFH8Q1dAT-R7XAsI9Y0DmISQiUu3nKp9YvXS55lwMQkL9QRpqcp3hcF9183bQacBPqh2uKvP3Yx" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="743" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiAwJ-ez91zHxHcCh1QeWRXSM8cSDEon4qH0RcEEv07H1TlS545m6BAMbDgd_DlKXH1OrgZJC7wdzX9WD65JwUE88xPdO-28iL2EXJxBCJlzQFH8Q1dAT-R7XAsI9Y0DmISQiUu3nKp9YvXS55lwMQkL9QRpqcp3hcF9183bQacBPqh2uKvP3Yx=w491-h308" width="491" /></a></div></b></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">E</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">arly on in Martin Scorsese’s highly anticipated adaptation of David Grann’s 2017 nonfiction novel, <i>Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI</i>, one can sense that this will be a film full of a lot of intense talk. This is apparent in the sit-down meeting between Leonardo DiCaprio as WWI veteran Ernest Burkhart, and Robert De Niro, and his uncle, William King Hale, a rich, revered cattle rancher.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Their conversation contains nothing surprising – it’s largely a set-up about what DiCaprio’s Ernest is going to do having come to Fairfax, Oklahoma to live, and work for his uncle in the early 1920s – but as an intro to these men, it’s a compellingly crafted scene that gives us a lot of hints via the advice of DeNiro’s King (as he wants to be called) as to not only what Ernest will face in the Osage community, but how he should and shouldn’t react.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">But while that quiet scene sets the tone, and gives the audience plenty of foreshadowing; Scorsese aims to interject disturbing, stark shots depicting a number of the murders of the many Native Americans, killed because of the oil found beneath their land. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">We get to see their wealth being discovered in a stunning opening sequence, going back to 1897, that features several members of the Osage Nation dancing in celebration in slow motion as they shower in the bubblin’ crude from a burst oil well. Hard for a film buff not to recall THERE WILL BE BLOOD, but Scorsese’s distinct style keeps that thought from lingering very long.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Ernest works as a chauffeur for one of the rich Osage women, Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), and before long he takes a shine to her. After a courtship with an eager Ernest attempting to charm a sly Mollie, they marry, but as the ominous music below the surface tells us, evil is afoot. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The murder of Mollie’s sister Anna (a bawdy Cara Jade Myer) is one of the movie’s main mystery threads, alongside the mounting murders of the Osages, and who planted a bomb under the house of Mollie’s other sister, Rita (Janae Collins); all true episodes in what has been called the “Osage Reign of Terror.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">In their first film together under Scorsese (their first and only film together previous was Michael Caton-Jones’ THIS BOY’S LIFE in 1993), DiCaprio, and De Niro put in career-best performances. The desperation, and greed in Ernest is captured by Scorsese six-timer DiCaprio in his most unlikable, yet most engrossing character, a guy who only seems truly passionate when he’s talking about money.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">De Niro, who has often been criticized for walking through movies, brings crusty, lived-in layers to King. The grand actor’s portrayal of this political boss’s power stands with his best work, and perfectly falls in line with his past collaborations with Scorsese, this being their tenth time together taking on toxic masculinity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhETw_eHDGiSbbhZ9bfC8ei3mxl2HiHxBeGbj2VSeyWqtxjsmmX7iJ5jYWt2RhWAbHdSM6jNu6gX3bZ8a4ZvgI8sSjs7xfoqEBpVAXayVx3CQ6uAYjyvUHG8-7_oMl4cX-OrsFxS5sFJRaNt16FHdh_SlIq1nLnkEpJS0Z4Hb67WShIeb35A4du" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="649" data-original-width="982" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhETw_eHDGiSbbhZ9bfC8ei3mxl2HiHxBeGbj2VSeyWqtxjsmmX7iJ5jYWt2RhWAbHdSM6jNu6gX3bZ8a4ZvgI8sSjs7xfoqEBpVAXayVx3CQ6uAYjyvUHG8-7_oMl4cX-OrsFxS5sFJRaNt16FHdh_SlIq1nLnkEpJS0Z4Hb67WShIeb35A4du=w494-h326" width="494" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Gladstone provides a stoic, knowing persona for Mollie, who gives us another quietly unnerving presence in a film full of them. It's being labeled a breakout performance, and I agree. The actress has been acting in film for over a decade in such films as FIRST COW, CERTAIN WOMEN, and THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY (which she co-wrote), but the strength of her acting here will undoubtedly put her on the movie map.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">As in many Scorsese films, there are too speaking parts to give proper shout outs to, but Jesse Plemmons, who was also in the Director's last work, THE IRISHMAN, as a gruff, humorless FBI guy does a good job, and there are interesting turns by Jon Lithgow, Scott Shepherd, and Brendan Frasier, as well as notable cameos by musicians Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, and Pete Yorn.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Scorsese’s KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON joins David Nolan’s OPPENHEIMER in my forming best films of 2023 list. Both share the similarities of being historically themed epics with challenging running times (OPPENHEIMER is 3 hours; KILLERS is 26 minutes longer), but both justify what many might consider punishing lengths with their immersive pacing, and absorbing storylines. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Scorsese’s latest isn’t as visually flashy as Nolan’s, but cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto gives the film a sepia-tone look that gives it authentic look. I also must mention the superbly subtle, bluesy score by the late, great Robbie Robertson (his 12th</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">collaboration with the Director), and the use of ‘20s popular music, the perfect placing of such is a Scorsese trademark.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">One of my only complaints with this immaculate masterwork is that the subtitles for the Osage language aren’t consistent. The film begins with captioning being present for a character speaking the language, but in other scenes it doesn’t appear. In one crucial moment, De Niro’s King makes a declaration to a crowd in Osage - seemed like that should be subtitled. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">That’s a small quibble as Scorsese’s 26th</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 20px;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">dramatic feature is a profoundly powerful picture well worth your three and a half hours. At age 80, Scorsese proves again that he’s still what it takes to make movies of vivid vitality. The excitement of seeing the legendary filmmaker bringing together his two biggest leading men to give us this magnificent piece of pure cinema is what going to the movies is all about. So don’t wait for streaming, go to it – you’ll be glad you did.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></p></div>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-8031117165191649722023-10-11T12:51:00.013-04:002023-10-27T19:58:54.034-04:0060 Years Ago Today, The Twilight Zone’s Nightmare At 20,000 Feet Made Pop Culture History<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0RC9TJYgR3BkPdqHpk6v9gcIbwH3qXwdxnZvWpgTw62MlGgEzF4YsA1YPjCIt-pSqB4ZC2wglityfJ6ab84idpxM-vurC2cVxtKPdkuWgMwM3zyvdIbozBZcXVNjibwT6fTV4C28gBACAWt8uHba4MgDpAZMqO2lPmwQXI4xywkCkBGoWklva" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="688" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0RC9TJYgR3BkPdqHpk6v9gcIbwH3qXwdxnZvWpgTw62MlGgEzF4YsA1YPjCIt-pSqB4ZC2wglityfJ6ab84idpxM-vurC2cVxtKPdkuWgMwM3zyvdIbozBZcXVNjibwT6fTV4C28gBACAWt8uHba4MgDpAZMqO2lPmwQXI4xywkCkBGoWklva=w468-h297" width="468" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">S</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">ixty years ago today, the third episode of the fifth season of CBS’s wildly popular anthology show, <i>The Twilight Zone</i>, aired featuring a pre-<i>Star Trek</i> William Shatner, and a premise that has become a historic part of pop culture.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The episode was entitled “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” with Shatner playing Robert Wilson, an airline passenger who was just released from a sanatorium where he spent the last six months recovering from a nervous breakdown as Rod Serling’s opening narration tells us. This makes the difference from many other <i>TZ </i>installments as usually the protagonists have no mental health baggage so when Wilson yells about there being something on the wing of the plane, people have plenty reason not to believe him.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">That something that Shatner’s Wilson determines is a gremlin, jumps away whenever he tries to get anyone to see him, so he goes crazier and crazier until he actually steals a gun from a sleeping policeman to kill the creature to keep it from tearing apart the engines.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijOEj5e4GXPX8ugZa51qM28mM_6o8MhSMGT7RXiGCJCAKtH9fkcBzDwF1NVbksKPh0PGQE27jZxoFcLVdmQMtO8oQkP5skendA6qbKLmNOE1wHKrKUwsqqxVOsSYYDbyJaB0dHSWZTwFuWjrYKkeZVPNpgRruDKiLJ2pHYEM2bFoPIiYnEwDfm" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="805" height="335" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijOEj5e4GXPX8ugZa51qM28mM_6o8MhSMGT7RXiGCJCAKtH9fkcBzDwF1NVbksKPh0PGQE27jZxoFcLVdmQMtO8oQkP5skendA6qbKLmNOE1wHKrKUwsqqxVOsSYYDbyJaB0dHSWZTwFuWjrYKkeZVPNpgRruDKiLJ2pHYEM2bFoPIiYnEwDfm=w476-h335" width="476" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">It’s an effectively scary story with some of Shatner’s best acting, sharp direction by Richard Donner, who would go on to helm SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, THE GOONIES, and the LETHAL WEAPON series; and a superb script by Richard Matheson, who wrote many <i>TZ</i>s, and notable works such as THE OMEGA MAN (remade later as I AM LEGEND), SOMEWHERE IN TIME, and WHAT DREAMS MAY COME.</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">In a <a href="https://www.theaquarian.com/2016/01/27/getting-the-shatner-treatment-an-interview-with-william-shatner/">2016 interview with The Aquarian</a>, Shatner talked about the episode with Brian Reesman:</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">“So this guy on the airplane was actually a Czechoslovakian acrobat * in a furry suit like you would buy for your child to go to a Halloween party, but nobody talks about that. Nobody talks about how stupid it is that at 500 miles an hour the guy is not aerodynamic. They just accept what this little suit means, which is, I guess, fear of flying.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">* Actor/stunt performer Nick Kravat</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">20 years after Shatner’s ill-fated flight, the episode was remade for TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE (released June 24, 1983) by George Miller (MAD MAX) with John Lithgow in Shatner’s shoes, although his character is renamed John Valentine, and there’s no mention of a mental hospital stay – he’s simply crazy scared of flying.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0Cnv0pkGQaqXCKom9j7JsC4KsATjmEFzRtnVKP0gFx1BWiphvarMMmhFCWzDiLMnO-65gduSejL50UqsR5GoDVojeIAN24ft3C_sRNP520CEGGYWd9Wv7FS7pHArw6qTo5lwQP57BqRaCONR_TYgbYGxRU8qf9wiGgaFNf6v1kSP8exEG0f0V" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1943" data-original-width="2435" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0Cnv0pkGQaqXCKom9j7JsC4KsATjmEFzRtnVKP0gFx1BWiphvarMMmhFCWzDiLMnO-65gduSejL50UqsR5GoDVojeIAN24ft3C_sRNP520CEGGYWd9Wv7FS7pHArw6qTo5lwQP57BqRaCONR_TYgbYGxRU8qf9wiGgaFNf6v1kSP8exEG0f0V=w492-h392" width="492" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The segment, which is the fourth in the film following <i>TZ</i> efforts by John Landis, Steven Spielberg, and Joe Dante; is much edgier, and more amped up than the original, but it doesn’t top it – it co-exists as another worthy adaptation of Matheson’s original short story that appeared in the anthology, <i>Alone by Night</i> (1961).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The parodies of “Nightmare of 20,000 Feet” are too numerous to mention (the Wikipedia page for the episode lists about a dozen) as every comedy show from <i>The Simpsons</i> to <i>It’s Garry Shandling’s Show</i> to, of course, <i>Saturday Night Live</i> has taken it on. Here’s <i>SNL</i>’s from 2010 with Jude Law in the Shatner role, and a hilarious Bobby Moynihan as the gremlin (somehow they even work musical guest Pearl Jam in there too):</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="356" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ma_LSr7CwlQ" width="428" youtube-src-id="ma_LSr7CwlQ"></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Jordan Peele’s 2019 <i>TZ</i> reboot had an episode that might be best considered a re-imagining entitled “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet.” In the new-fangled take, written by Marco Ramirez (from a story by Peele, Simon Kinberg, and Ramirez), Adam Scott plays passenger Justin Sanderson who this time is spooked by a podcast about a missing plane that makes him think the flight is doomed unless he saves it. It’s good stuff like the rest of Peele’s <i>TZ</i> run, which sadly ran only two seasons.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPmMi0-vO6AuKe5K5ehuZGfxnzdEZftdXqpJRlHD_aCX2gAEPj6jk2jPcbQ1773EZEtsXG8RT5ALXDMdB8Jyn9SPTj8L0ALmiQ_427IS0m3fJeDqQl7b73opQGPppq4xVcNcQDlW1ttcqGq24sets05yyEFocVJEQKY0HYx2ir7KlMw85DztwR/s1069/twilight-zone-nightmare-at-30000-feet-adam-scott-1200x640%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="1069" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPmMi0-vO6AuKe5K5ehuZGfxnzdEZftdXqpJRlHD_aCX2gAEPj6jk2jPcbQ1773EZEtsXG8RT5ALXDMdB8Jyn9SPTj8L0ALmiQ_427IS0m3fJeDqQl7b73opQGPppq4xVcNcQDlW1ttcqGq24sets05yyEFocVJEQKY0HYx2ir7KlMw85DztwR/w455-h268/twilight-zone-nightmare-at-30000-feet-adam-scott-1200x640%202.jpg" width="455" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">But the best capper to celebrate the anniversary of this legendary <i>TZ</i> episode is from the sitcom, <i>Third Rock from the Sun</i>, which starred Lithgow as alien masquerading as a college professor. In the 1999 episode, “Dick’s Big Giant Headache Part 1,” Lithgow’s Dick Solomon meets his superior, The Big Giant Head (portrayed by a drunk-acting Shatner), at an airport. When asked how his flight was, Shatner’s character replies, “Horrifying at first, I looked out the window, and there was something on the wing of the plane!” Lithgow’s Dick responds, “The same thing happened to me!”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="371" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gTNOihQnqVQ" width="446" youtube-src-id="gTNOihQnqVQ"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span>And that, my friends, is one of the best meta moments in TV history. So here</span><span>’</span><span>s to sixty years of there being something on the wing of the plane that nobody but you can see.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></p>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-603703694013272972023-09-28T17:12:00.005-04:002023-10-08T03:39:40.028-04:00Gareth Edwards’ THE CREATOR: Solid But Unsurprising Sci-Fi<p><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Opening at a multiplex near you tonight, and tomorrow:</span></p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11858890/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><b>THE CREATOR</b></a></span><br /><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Dir. Gareth Edwards, 2023)</span></b></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiNd9OzBnBIWAVkdIgwNzNh7GAO8MTLFccmy8LviffrljEGy52QjBV18FIU3eMDe2OtLSNtCoICUNx1N9N6rQuUSHealR8B1bzm8Nb9BI-kFkNnECNh95tWsnx1HhYFZSLSYWCrAijpqaq-cT9rAiedVbgr1mw20Yd3sf2fz3YZs_buNsPYei-Q" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1163" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiNd9OzBnBIWAVkdIgwNzNh7GAO8MTLFccmy8LviffrljEGy52QjBV18FIU3eMDe2OtLSNtCoICUNx1N9N6rQuUSHealR8B1bzm8Nb9BI-kFkNnECNh95tWsnx1HhYFZSLSYWCrAijpqaq-cT9rAiedVbgr1mw20Yd3sf2fz3YZs_buNsPYei-Q=w491-h296" width="491" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: x-large;">D</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">espite helming such ginormous franchise installments in the GODZILLA (the 2014 reboot), and STAR WARS universes, Gareth Edwards isn’t quite yet an A-List, household name filmmaker. That doubtfully won’t change much with his newest effort, his fourth film, THE CREATOR, as it’s not getting much publicity from its studio, Twentieth Century Fox, and looks like it might not get much attention from movie-goers this coming weekend. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">If THE CREATOR does indeed fail to connect with audiences, that will be a damn shame as it’s a fairly solid sci-fi yarn with fine performances, cool visuals, and a thoughtful premise about a war between humans and AI that actually shows soul for both sides. And it<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">’</span>s on par with Edwards<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">’</span> best work, 2016<span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">’</span>s ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">A quick newsreel presentation opening, which, by the quality of the video in the clips, heavily implies that this film’s version of Earth adapted to having robots around earlier than our modern times (a year is never identified, but we get the idea that the film is set several decades in the future). Something went wrong with the relations between man and machines, and the AI overlords nuked Los Angeles, and a full-scale war resulted with North America outlawing all of the technology.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Our protagonist, an ex-special forces agent named Joshua, whose played by a wide-eyed John David Washington, probably happy that he’s in a sci-fi flick that’s easier to follow than TENET; is recruited to kill what they call “Nirmata,” that is the robotics master of the title. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">In a scene we’ve seen many times before, Washington’s Joshua refuses the assignment until military bigwigs Colonel Howell (Allison Janney), and General Andrews (Ralph Ineson) tell him that the mission could re-unite him with his missing wife, Maya (Genna Chan).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">S0 off Joshua goes with Janney’s Howell, and a crew that includes country music singer/songwriter Sturgill Simpson as Drew to venture behind enemy lines in New Asia, where he finds <span style="background: white; color: #202124;">the threat in the form of a humanoid robot child (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), who Josha names Alphie.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">The movie becomes a familiar, formulaic road picture up until its race against the clock finale aboard the </span><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">U.S. superweapon NOMAD, a space station that scarily scans the planet with blue beams – these are among the many cool visuals I was talking about. It’s never boring, but Edwards’ plotting, from a screenplay he wrote with Chris Weitz, never surprises as its story beats all recall its influences from APOCALYPSE NOW to BLADE RUNNER to, its most obvious touchstone, A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">There’s also the similarities in the relationship between a warrior carting around a kid with incredible powers that THE CREATOR has with <i>The Mandalorian</i>, and even THE GOLDEN CHILD.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">So, yeah, not the most original material, but there’s a lot to enjoy in Edwards’ latest starting with Washington’s edgy yet earnest performance, alongside Academy Award®-winning actress Janney as a hard as nails army lifer, who, with this and I, TONYA, has gotten as far from her original breakthrough character of C.J. from <i>The West Wing</i> as she can get.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">There’s also Ken Watanabe as a Japanese robot who brings gravitas to his somewhat perplexing part as one starts to realize that Edwards has a more sympathetic to the synthetics theme than you might think going in. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">This fine cast, the gritty when it needs to be, glimmering the rest of the time cinematography by Greig Fraser, and Oren Soffer; and Han Zimmer’s fitting score (often broken up by rock music cues by the likes of Radiohead, and Deep Purple), are what makes the movie worthwhile.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">THE CREATOR will be dismissed as too derivative by many (sort of like ROGUE ONE was), but it worked for me, and if movie-goers give it a chance (that is, if they hear about it at all), I bet it’ll function like the best AI for them too.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">More later...</span></span></p>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-39580816091982390312023-09-17T18:29:00.009-04:002023-10-08T03:42:21.786-04:00Anatomy Of A Voice Cameo: Robert Redford In White House Plumbers<span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: xx-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjK8A3ncEx7ibBsTyyQ9IdqSCxm1Uav1w0TinVhd6x9ep3NRnTa-MJOcgmDIU28Tz0qBZiDfpLVUX182H9zMlyf3vf0lniLEF-SHTbDPI55WmwMEFrUd3ivUHh26WWJNzq-YF_cNNDuzT66fbS-GQ0aon-2yvrlhJu4WTtNdrAxvKVwcANRKJHS" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1790" data-original-width="2701" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjK8A3ncEx7ibBsTyyQ9IdqSCxm1Uav1w0TinVhd6x9ep3NRnTa-MJOcgmDIU28Tz0qBZiDfpLVUX182H9zMlyf3vf0lniLEF-SHTbDPI55WmwMEFrUd3ivUHh26WWJNzq-YF_cNNDuzT66fbS-GQ0aon-2yvrlhJu4WTtNdrAxvKVwcANRKJHS=w466-h309" width="466" /></a></div><div><br /></div><span style="font-size: x-large;">O</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">ne of the best elements of the highly entertaining HBO mini-series, <i>White House Plumbers</i>, about the bumbling team of ex-CIA and FBO operatives who broke into Watergate in 1972, is its strong cast.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">Headed by Woody Harrelson, and Justin Theroux as Richard M. Nixon’s political fixers Howard Hunt, and G. Gordon Liddy; the five episode run, which premiered in May of this year, also features fine supporting efforts from Lena Headey, Judy Greer, Domhnal Gleeson, and Katherine Turner. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">But a surprise casting choice came in episode 4, “The Writer’s Wife,”from Robert Redford reprising, or literally phoning in his famous role as Washington Post reporter, Bob Woodward from Alan J. Pakula’s 1976 classic, ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">Sure, it’s an uncredited voice-only appearance, and it’s only a few lines, but its notable because they didn’t just use the audio from the 47-year old film, Redford newly recorded his end of a phone call with Harrelson’s Howard Hunt with a little change in the dialogue. So let’s compare the scenes side-by-side.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, Redford’s Woodward tries to reach Hunt first at the White House, then the Mullen public relations firm, where he is surprised to hear Hunt pick up. In <i>White House Plumbers</i>, Hunt receives the call at home.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgFDLsXa4LvlXHneUiFPDI7h1U_FEQYui4Ew25QGIxrrofrrs-79bE1kZ-VUKl0RGul0BUI7JqF0D5UAysYHtPE3fdVm1Qt6vK2pcfTwjN0yv-hnTN0HI3j22thxenX-lXtmb3B9G4qdqJqCOMWLufeboqeqJG_-E9nLenpl-XGVPcEGFiHuQxZ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2412" data-original-width="3840" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgFDLsXa4LvlXHneUiFPDI7h1U_FEQYui4Ew25QGIxrrofrrs-79bE1kZ-VUKl0RGul0BUI7JqF0D5UAysYHtPE3fdVm1Qt6vK2pcfTwjN0yv-hnTN0HI3j22thxenX-lXtmb3B9G4qdqJqCOMWLufeboqeqJG_-E9nLenpl-XGVPcEGFiHuQxZ=w488-h306" width="488" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">Agitated, as he was before he ever got on the phone, Hunt replies:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKVanUdS5d65uDciZcUA7bwlmEsxQx-1KwrQxVORAJ_-uwz6rB30swx0JBE_fSsMhdcKWBgPIXIvaI3AktCxpMGk8QwW8KBsX_lTAODoAvYagVHelb5vYAobeIFx-2MzafZFP3LOuU4E0VEsuL9ou_Hj2PT3NLv93nU2yDU6CvOcJdETpAbr2v/s2276/IMG_1940.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2276" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKVanUdS5d65uDciZcUA7bwlmEsxQx-1KwrQxVORAJ_-uwz6rB30swx0JBE_fSsMhdcKWBgPIXIvaI3AktCxpMGk8QwW8KBsX_lTAODoAvYagVHelb5vYAobeIFx-2MzafZFP3LOuU4E0VEsuL9ou_Hj2PT3NLv93nU2yDU6CvOcJdETpAbr2v/w478-h317/IMG_1940.jpeg" width="478" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">This is the line that’s a bit different, as it originally went like this:</span><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT9SWpGDN_kNh2wjW9L2jSaugOzT7uFRfs3RC6XuM53I71w5GEfQPoXenHsvYuANm-UBWkRSDs3QT2HH89SxRKu9XjackWn9hWfk5tnCZs0GsMBdm49BHbAlrTkWUYQIP1Naxg-IVLzo5FomDQJGJGAwYA4EQcVPp5IEGyX6R51pH5lC1Nsr2a/s2950/IMG_1943.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1768" data-original-width="2950" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT9SWpGDN_kNh2wjW9L2jSaugOzT7uFRfs3RC6XuM53I71w5GEfQPoXenHsvYuANm-UBWkRSDs3QT2HH89SxRKu9XjackWn9hWfk5tnCZs0GsMBdm49BHbAlrTkWUYQIP1Naxg-IVLzo5FomDQJGJGAwYA4EQcVPp5IEGyX6R51pH5lC1Nsr2a/w472-h283/IMG_1943.jpeg" width="472" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigPW6AOWcMsuaR1V2JmwGDSViOsV2jJ6ow2lXsWhGZbB2pcjVANKjqF-epjFJtQ_3ABfjz8TRR4SSsOLGMiAc8hATKjNXqlUhudv2ZchPIPgjv3_KHasd8Sv5tz7yIrq_aeKgPOfuEj-CFzmyc-yqnOnL_hRgqsUB9si4jLIJUEGwrSK731gnu" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1909" data-original-width="3364" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigPW6AOWcMsuaR1V2JmwGDSViOsV2jJ6ow2lXsWhGZbB2pcjVANKjqF-epjFJtQ_3ABfjz8TRR4SSsOLGMiAc8hATKjNXqlUhudv2ZchPIPgjv3_KHasd8Sv5tz7yIrq_aeKgPOfuEj-CFzmyc-yqnOnL_hRgqsUB9si4jLIJUEGwrSK731gnu=w471-h269" width="471" /></a></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">And this is how it goes down this time around:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjrDXb_TAj2WErFniPG6OGjKgFjbiYk35E5EdU0uicrlDBBSiDrVW7PtdosnlMLNdgOLVnl-Rvy59tp1ikxWGZxc5e-uB8Zy1Sm3RtoczrKZp76KOt0Sq6W-3PTG4hI3_fvN-scutVkCfiZc_xTxJxUtqM3w6tCfEZGaTaPoYFwNXnceG1IYgjL" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1631" data-original-width="2824" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjrDXb_TAj2WErFniPG6OGjKgFjbiYk35E5EdU0uicrlDBBSiDrVW7PtdosnlMLNdgOLVnl-Rvy59tp1ikxWGZxc5e-uB8Zy1Sm3RtoczrKZp76KOt0Sq6W-3PTG4hI3_fvN-scutVkCfiZc_xTxJxUtqM3w6tCfEZGaTaPoYFwNXnceG1IYgjL=w463-h268" width="463" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEih4m_8dIwQy4HNYJg0qtZnTTrt1CpZnWDVP8lsA7o22tYqJdFuN-BOMP3f9mb9hgoF-HuQp8wRpqC_Hj8URiE2XNtaxJ0wjJEAFMqpEmO7Lp0lNRWasmOq04ecuwfbqlWXAt88xe87HDT154A4FQOoHsb3a85eDlLXI0-t3ZEmSlXCmAJTKvhT" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1922" data-original-width="2911" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEih4m_8dIwQy4HNYJg0qtZnTTrt1CpZnWDVP8lsA7o22tYqJdFuN-BOMP3f9mb9hgoF-HuQp8wRpqC_Hj8URiE2XNtaxJ0wjJEAFMqpEmO7Lp0lNRWasmOq04ecuwfbqlWXAt88xe87HDT154A4FQOoHsb3a85eDlLXI0-t3ZEmSlXCmAJTKvhT=w468-h309" width="468" /></a></div></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br />The difference being that White House Plumbers got Woodward’s question to be more accurate - the crucial evidence of the envelope with Hunt’s name on it doesn’t appear in the 1976 film. Also Redford says “The Watergate” unlike the earlier take. Next, we see a shot of Woodward’s yellow legal pad where he notes Hunt’s reaction.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_CHVNzKZofPwfOf5BkSATQxhu_A9hTBT5FihgZqL09ydAFTFuaHbcTC09cQJ61KrvDpidFx_KfQe5uivka3XyMKLIRKNt59wKDSpqMRRnhIHLjrqXOCbhgOSqc_KXP42_epLtVMsisKxR2kxzFkt2oPpa7D-mlN1yymU1FhR97Ddg6d_oY6b_/s3756/IMG_1963.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2230" data-original-width="3756" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_CHVNzKZofPwfOf5BkSATQxhu_A9hTBT5FihgZqL09ydAFTFuaHbcTC09cQJ61KrvDpidFx_KfQe5uivka3XyMKLIRKNt59wKDSpqMRRnhIHLjrqXOCbhgOSqc_KXP42_epLtVMsisKxR2kxzFkt2oPpa7D-mlN1yymU1FhR97Ddg6d_oY6b_/w453-h270/IMG_1963.jpeg" width="453" /></a></div></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;">Hunt’s comment is exactly the same in both versions:</span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1zVfwbEinODw2XcDGOv3yS8oT03TIQOM6bAogreE5Jl_5mtznRX7OhwBt7DNw3PT75z269YTpoMvxlH6TAH5PyMC6GqZsPAh4N5IjzcONxejsgID7uv6o-ilIdn9Qn9bH8mTV_qdkXOp0TZP1UzzBqJM3IMUT54AnaslvUGEeR2yLXT8nPYjF" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="461" data-original-width="743" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1zVfwbEinODw2XcDGOv3yS8oT03TIQOM6bAogreE5Jl_5mtznRX7OhwBt7DNw3PT75z269YTpoMvxlH6TAH5PyMC6GqZsPAh4N5IjzcONxejsgID7uv6o-ilIdn9Qn9bH8mTV_qdkXOp0TZP1UzzBqJM3IMUT54AnaslvUGEeR2yLXT8nPYjF=w453-h281" width="453" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj5CdlgTNgzZAt9qCTfdOl4IPPbip-ZzY8_4b-pcI98p152HG-XWvKWI8czteozFm_GzHo0JLRPqQnEStJIY4mnkm2ULR0Xh9xNwPawU9jGngTG7ibBECHaZF2ncPZpwnWSIQWJ-ll7_shTRC9ckKl_lQqOuN11QoJp6FXT7OZzGQ3EHPNfcngj" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2039" data-original-width="3081" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj5CdlgTNgzZAt9qCTfdOl4IPPbip-ZzY8_4b-pcI98p152HG-XWvKWI8czteozFm_GzHo0JLRPqQnEStJIY4mnkm2ULR0Xh9xNwPawU9jGngTG7ibBECHaZF2ncPZpwnWSIQWJ-ll7_shTRC9ckKl_lQqOuN11QoJp6FXT7OZzGQ3EHPNfcngj=w452-h300" width="452" /></a></div></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">And from Redford/Woodward</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: x-large;">’</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">s end:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiApCPBomZ326iW3KXYb5fMiN3csdMubQiLsJBn8Pr1pRoYPXB_rCx4DSKcBdHCQEdWrRlRj4W-gmGycvLN6lWL-AYdUQKQ39_NqeFRT6hjrCmgZDPG-Lu3TQ2BPVbgVP-koJvxSoQQs6TZYZiyMrDgdMkY4GZawmEo1IckrJyoheH6samHS088" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2178" data-original-width="3351" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiApCPBomZ326iW3KXYb5fMiN3csdMubQiLsJBn8Pr1pRoYPXB_rCx4DSKcBdHCQEdWrRlRj4W-gmGycvLN6lWL-AYdUQKQ39_NqeFRT6hjrCmgZDPG-Lu3TQ2BPVbgVP-koJvxSoQQs6TZYZiyMrDgdMkY4GZawmEo1IckrJyoheH6samHS088=w448-h290" width="448" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Hunt hangs up, and the cameo is done. Halfway through putting together this post, I found that someone had done a mash-up combining the scenes on YouTube - something I should’ve figured someone would do. I’ll leave you with it what one commenter calls, and I agree, an awesome Easter egg:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="381" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jH6oCyhZf_c" width="457" youtube-src-id="jH6oCyhZf_c"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></div><p></p></div>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-6976644707698611252023-08-23T21:48:00.010-04:002023-08-26T13:13:26.570-04:00Summer ’23: How BARBENHEIMER Rose Above All The Flopbusters<span style="font-family: georgia;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjDxRTeYFhxm945k0o7E2K5KUmYTQm7jIk4Tt73nyXMdtI3wR5hBufcdUb4jl1t406lWVA8TSIvHaFM1_aYgJo-y_wux9ZjX_S10fSrTTKgjRAeab422odgRntzA2x4RxQDX-mOlEG1VjpGvcSASj0JWHIbyNa0_wSBCzNHqQnDDSLGjTekzwGx" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="517" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjDxRTeYFhxm945k0o7E2K5KUmYTQm7jIk4Tt73nyXMdtI3wR5hBufcdUb4jl1t406lWVA8TSIvHaFM1_aYgJo-y_wux9ZjX_S10fSrTTKgjRAeab422odgRntzA2x4RxQDX-mOlEG1VjpGvcSASj0JWHIbyNa0_wSBCzNHqQnDDSLGjTekzwGx=w459-h640" width="459" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;"> I’</span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">m most likely the last person who writes about film to weigh in on BARBIE, Greta Gerwig’s billions-grossing fantasy comedy, but since the season is winding down, I thought I’d opine at how it, and its odd blockbuster bedfellow, OPPENHEIMER became a huge event, or even a movement this last summer at the cinema (or more aptly, the multiplex).</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The build-up to the release date (July 21) for both films prompted many memes, fake trailers, and a lot of op-ed action to comically address the internet phenomenon that was dubbed BARBENHEIMER (it even has <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbenheimer"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">a Wikipedia page!</span></b></a>), as it seemed everyone thought it was so hilarious that two such polar opposites were opening on the same day.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Christopher Nolan’s OPPENHEIMER was the true winner artistically as it’s a must-see-on-the-big-screen masterpiece (read <a href="https://filmbabble.blogspot.com/2023/07/christopher-nolans-oppenheimer-is-kind.html"><b>my review</b></a>), but while BARBIE was far from an essential work, it’s a fairly fun piece of satire. A radiant Margot Robbie, as “Stereotypical Barbie,” perfectly brings to life the first ever live-action version of the Mattel model doll, who lives in the surreal Barbieland, a largely pink, plastic world populated by discontinued Barbies - the identifying of which, like Video Girl Barbie, Barbie’s friend, Pregnant Midge; and Sugar Daddy Ken, is a running joke throughout the film (aided by Helen Mirren as “The Narrator” - another nice touch).</span><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_hhgdjmVK4BtdCE1yFJoGrlQV-yRdrj6y69ZL__UQ0_PYs0FvDohQcuVRPXkwM-JDZ_pveDqSdLuYahoKel4-OoNVRXZW0ZHfnsaRKfg_QGODKK4FHVyivD9Zd9hzBfKbLPgsfJPDEXjzv4NOXjU0ExkYXHhWQhqbnao7_kqQeUHNjScaTp9A/s1280/Barbie-movie.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_hhgdjmVK4BtdCE1yFJoGrlQV-yRdrj6y69ZL__UQ0_PYs0FvDohQcuVRPXkwM-JDZ_pveDqSdLuYahoKel4-OoNVRXZW0ZHfnsaRKfg_QGODKK4FHVyivD9Zd9hzBfKbLPgsfJPDEXjzv4NOXjU0ExkYXHhWQhqbnao7_kqQeUHNjScaTp9A/w495-h278/Barbie-movie.jpg" width="495" /></a></div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">With both the charm of his sympathy, and his stupidity, Ryan Gosling’s Ken more than holds his own with Robbie’s Barbie, and may even get more laughs. The premise, which deals with Barbie beginning to become human, and journeying to the real world (present-day Los Angeles) to find the troubled little girl whose influence on her doll brought on Barbie’s existential crisis (something like that), is pretty basic fish-out-of-the-water stuff, but it moves along briskly gag to gag.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Will Ferrell, in a role that could be his character from THE LEGO MOVIE, but I bet that’s just wishful thinking, plays the Mattel CEO bad guy here with an all-male (not true in real life) Board of Directors. A mostly funny Ferrell’s loud bluster bounces around the lavish boardroom, another example of Sarah Greenwood’s excellent production design, that calls upon the War Room in DR. STRANGELOVE. That’s actually the second Kubrick reference on display as the movie opens with a hilarious parody of the apes at the dawn of time sequence at the start of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">However, it did feel a bit padded with a chase sequence through a maze through corporate office cubicles before heading into more standard automobile activity that could’ve been cut completely, and not made a difference - especially as the movie is nearly 2 hours. Also, as funny as Gosling’s big number “I’m Just Ken” is, it felt uneven in that the movie seemed to decide to become a musical in its last third.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">One of BARBIE’s most controversial moments comes in the form of a fiery America Ferrera as Gloria, a Mattel employee who unites with our heroine, and accompanies her back to Barbieland. Ferrera gives a speech, more like a rant, about the struggle of being a woman in a man’s world - sample line: “You have to answer for men’s bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you’re accused of complaining.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br />Ferrera’s mouthful (which you can <a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a44640422/america-ferrera-full-barbie-monologue/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=arb_ga_elm_md_pmx_us_urlx_20071786260&gclid=CjwKCAjwxaanBhBQEiwA84TVXMSPpfmH53MkeI-j5TB07-0oz2C9WcykdA3-zYncVWkCim_y_IJQARoCwiMQAvD_BwE"><b>read in full here</b></a>) is effectively edgy, yet heartfelt part of the film, </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">but that didn’t stop many on the right to condemn BARBIE as a preachy, man-hating piece of left-wing propaganda. One such dickhead, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who called the film, “the most woke movie I’ve ever seen,” actually set a trashcan of Barbie toys on fire to make, uh, some point. If you’re glutton for punishment, you can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynU-wVdesr0"><b>watch Shapiro’s 43-minute review</b></a>, which features him setting what looks like a few hundred dollars of Barbies ablaze.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">An over-used expression these days by Shapiro, and many of the folks at Fox News, is “if you go woke, you go broke,” but the incredible success of BARBIE proves that to be B.S., just like just about every rule that anybody makes about going woke. Sure, it can be seen as just a silly spoof of a toy for little girls, but Gerwig, and co-writer (and her long-time partner) Noah Baumbach had some layers they wanted to playfully explore, and it makes for a movie that’s sure to be a repeated, and relished part of pop culture for a long, long time.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">But while the double bill of BARBENHEIMER is the big hit of our hottest ever summer, there was another notable phenomenon, that being that this has been the era of the flopbuster. Sometimes, as the Urban Dictonary defines it, a flopbuster is a movie that was supposed to be a blockbuster but flopped at the box office, other times, it’s a terrible movie that still makes lots of money.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">This summer was jammed packed with flopbusters including THE FLASH, INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY (read <a href="https://filmbabble.blogspot.com/2023/06/indy-5-is-better-than-crystal-skull-but.html"><b>my review</b></a>), HAUNTED MANSION (<b><a href="https://filmbabble.blogspot.com/2023/07/haunted-mansion-as-unscary-as-it-is.html">my review</a></b>), and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING PART I. As people were probably burned out, or felt burned, by Indy since his last, much lambasted adventure, or passed on Cruise’s latest mission while ignoring its acclaim, and turned their nose up at THE FLASH, like I did, despite it containing the return of Michael Keaton’s Batman, it seems obvious why audiences opted instead for the brainer/no-brainer combo that is BARBENHEIMER.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">In the wake of the success of BARBIE, it was announced that Lena Dunham, of HBO’s <i>Girls</i> fame, was going to make a movie based on Mattel’s ‘90s mini-doll “Polly Pocket.” Actor/writer/director Randall Park had a great reaction to that:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">“Barbie is this massive blockbuster, and the idea is: Make more movies about toys! No - make more movies by and about women!”</span><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Now, is that really so woke an idea?</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">More later…</span></span></div>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-82446345118380040052023-07-28T19:14:00.004-04:002023-07-29T13:49:22.318-04:00HAUNTED MANSION: As Unscary As It Is Unfunny<p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Opening today at a multiplex near everyone:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1695843/"><b>HAUNTED MANSION</b></a></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><b>(Dir. Justin Simien, 2023)</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPe20E_pwGNeplRrd-ZU8j7KEACfBkkWBIeRU-3sWdQyEBUP-PFfRFkmSLow5KJfjRB0fxP4W9VhSnWnEP-8kPrssFFOEWk_jeHNh5IpWeGK3OX-raFcAu-uyp0KRBznE71VX6xENhzA1fvVwfdtdgWiZJhQDTJz2C4X5LVXKdkvzpKAhFnTaY/s640/Screenshot%202023-07-28%20at%207.08.43%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="640" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPe20E_pwGNeplRrd-ZU8j7KEACfBkkWBIeRU-3sWdQyEBUP-PFfRFkmSLow5KJfjRB0fxP4W9VhSnWnEP-8kPrssFFOEWk_jeHNh5IpWeGK3OX-raFcAu-uyp0KRBznE71VX6xENhzA1fvVwfdtdgWiZJhQDTJz2C4X5LVXKdkvzpKAhFnTaY/w492-h288/Screenshot%202023-07-28%20at%207.08.43%20PM.jpeg" width="492" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">20</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> years ago, there was a movie called HAUNTED MANSION, that, like this one, was based on the Disney dark park ride/tour that I’ve actually been on around a decade ago on a trip to Florida. I never saw the 2003 version, because I dismissed it as yet another lame Eddie Murphy vehicle (there were a lot of those at the time), but I’m wishing I had skipped the new one as it is as unscary as it is unfunny, with a chemistry-less cast giving us some tired-ass ghost story which it wants to be as hip as BEETLEJUICE, but it ain’t even up to CASPER standards.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">I don’t even care how similar the plot it is to the original, but this time around begins with Rosario Dawson as a plucky single mother, and her son Travis (Chase Dillon) moving into the most rustic and most clichéd-looking, ancient New Orleans house and immediately finding out that there are ghosts there and that once you step inside the house, you’ll be haunted wherever you go.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">LaKeith Stanfield shows up as an astrophysicist turned paranormal expert, whose wife has recently died as we learn from mawkish flashbacks, with other house guests including a laid-back priest played by Owen Wilson, a gruff history professor portrayed by Danny DeVito, and most obnoxiously, Tiffany Haddish as a medium who attempts to steal scenes, but her arsenal of lame one-liners stops her way short.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">There’s also the <span style="background: white; color: #181818;">house’s former psychic, Madame Leota (a game Jamie Lee Curtis)</span>, and the film’s villain, the Hatbox Ghost (Jared Leto, daring you to recognize him), who our Dawson, and Stanfield-led team go up against in a series of ho-hum hallway chases, and séances, while they bond, and deal with their grief. It’s a thoroughly unimpressive experience, but then I didn’t care for the ride either. The premise is as ancient as the mansion, with the mysteries surrounding the ghosts failing to keep me engaged as well.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #181818;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">When one says that a movie has its moments, they usually mean more than the one or two that this has (and spread over 123 min!), but I will say that the cast did their best with the dire material – especially Haddish, who had to spout out sitcom-ish lines about CVS, and Costco; the effects by the usually reliable Industrial Light & Magic were good (but not scary), and, uh, well, that’s all I got for the pluses.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">So basically, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbenheimer"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">BARBENHEIMER</span></b></a> has nothing to fear from HAUNTED MANSION this weekend.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">I think screenwriter Katie Dippold (<i>Parks & Recreation</i>, THE HEAT, 2016’s GHOSTBUSTERS) can, and will do better than this rubbish of a re-imagining, which at least will likely end up having a higher rating on Rotten Tomatoes than the 2003 original, which stands at 14%. But it really doesn’t deserve much higher than that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></p>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-49379429210199467122023-07-19T12:51:00.012-04:002023-08-08T17:25:14.492-04:00Christopher Nolan's OPPENHEIMER Is Kind Of A Big Deal<span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Opening tomorrow at a multiplex near us all:</span><br /><br /><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>OPPENHEIMER</b></span></a> <b>(Dir. Christopher Nolan, 2023)</b></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFMUTsw2lcSp30-4kDm3of4ATEbqxGyPISR4fQSruNwcBNpyZdIVyE7AoIQbpo1yrx9Z2klamDPlURTf86a5r-AosNc-V04X5S03bXhij_YluKD-5C2Iq_O8UjMYicvhJ9l5nkEJxktJHiWXI7vcI9MHP1qzuApXKndwPRntjAWyPFkYmfOhr_/s1500/cillian-murphy-oppenheimer-christopher-nolan.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="845" data-original-width="1500" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFMUTsw2lcSp30-4kDm3of4ATEbqxGyPISR4fQSruNwcBNpyZdIVyE7AoIQbpo1yrx9Z2klamDPlURTf86a5r-AosNc-V04X5S03bXhij_YluKD-5C2Iq_O8UjMYicvhJ9l5nkEJxktJHiWXI7vcI9MHP1qzuApXKndwPRntjAWyPFkYmfOhr_/w521-h296/cillian-murphy-oppenheimer-christopher-nolan.jpg" width="521" /></a></div></span><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">W</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">hile there is visual splendor aplenty in this epic biopic of nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, played perfectly by a rail thin Cillian Murphy, the bulk of it concerns the 1954 security hearing, in which the scientist was grilled by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) over his communist leanings. But the good news is all that talk, largely in stark, but pleasingly sharp black and white, is just as compelling as the sequences involving the Manhattan Project, especially the recreation of the Trinity test, the first nuclear weapon detonation, in New Mexico.</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Simply put, Nolan’s 12th film, and second to be based on real events after DUNKIRK, is a masterwork, a rich powerful portrait that somehow makes science exciting, and justifies every second of its three-hour running time. It doesn’t matter that a lot of its dialogue, that has our hero brainstorming with his colleagues, will go over the heads of many movie-goers because the urgency and flow of the film, aided by composer Ludwig Göransson’s striking score will still hold audiences in its grasp. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="articleparagraph" style="background: repeat white; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Told largely in flashbacks that are conjured by the panel hearing, the film illustrates how during World War II, <span style="color: #383f4e;">Oppenheimer was appointed scientific director of the top-secret Manhattan Project at Los Alamos by General Leslie Groves (a great, gruff Matt Damon) as part of the arms race against the Nazi regime. After the war, and the devastating bombing of Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, a guilt-ridden Oppenheimer went against the thermonuclear weapon (H-bomb), and campaigned for international control of these weapons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">One of the key figures in this story is AEC Chairman, Lewis Strauss, who suspected that the scientist was a Soviet spy, and was among those behind the revocation of Oppenheimer’s security clearance. Strauss is portrayed, in heavy aging make-up, by Robert Downey Jr. in a career best performance. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjss0-LnhrgEe9cb7PKgmm8i7-2azrbEkAO64RDvorbcKOjIULjxi7vee1NIAUSY-piYZ-JtAAtAN6hG6CULXxOIxWViAZoZw-B9TLtKn2nqlQOqF_mNldnp3Y094x6X8RtTAnICPtEhC0Clhu5wBFroDiA-6_sQGc5mdO96dVNXAW_oyhYo5y4/s899/Oppenheimer-Robert-Downey-Jr%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="899" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjss0-LnhrgEe9cb7PKgmm8i7-2azrbEkAO64RDvorbcKOjIULjxi7vee1NIAUSY-piYZ-JtAAtAN6hG6CULXxOIxWViAZoZw-B9TLtKn2nqlQOqF_mNldnp3Y094x6X8RtTAnICPtEhC0Clhu5wBFroDiA-6_sQGc5mdO96dVNXAW_oyhYo5y4/w445-h307/Oppenheimer-Robert-Downey-Jr%202.jpg" width="445" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The actor shakes off his Marvel armor to deliver an impassioned, and at times desperate performance that is sure to be noticed by the Academy. At the film’s UK premiere, Downey Jr. said that, “This is the best film I’ve ever been in,” and I highly agree.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The rest of the film’s cast is as impressive as the effects, which Nolan claims contain no CGI, including an emotional Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s communist wife Katherine (“Kitty”), a long-suffering alcoholic, who was such because of her husband’s affair with psychiatrist, and another communist, Jean Tatlock, who is played by Florence Pugh initially as a sexy shrink (not that I’m complaining). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Well placed in the roles of celebrated scientist colleagues are Kenneth Branaugh (in his third film with Nolan) as Danish physicist Niels Bohr, Josh Harnett as nuclear physicist Ernest Lawrence, and David Krumholtz as Isidor Isaac Rabi, another Noble Prize-winning physicist, who has a stirring scene that enhances the film’s conscience.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">In less lofty, yet still crucial, parts are Casey Affleck as snooping intelligence officer Boris Pash, and Rami Malek as David Hill, an experimental physicist, who doesn’t make much of an impression at first, but is vital by the end.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">But it’s the centerpiece of OPPENHEIMER, The Trinity Test sequence, that might be the film’s biggest star. Director of Photography, and frequent Nolan collaborator, Hoyte Van Hoytema’s incredible IMAX cinematography gives us the world’s first-ever successful atomic bomb detonation in all of its scary glory, and it’s as stunning as it is profoundly unsettling.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">In his telling of the story of the man credited as “the Father of the Atomic Bomb,” Nolan working from the 2005 bio <i>American Prometheus</i> by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, employs Oliver Stone-style cutting, and ominous framing to take us into Oppenheimer’s politically paranoid world, while switching back and forth from crisp color to start black and white throughout (so much you forget about it).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">All of these strong elements – its narrative arc via its layered, engaging screenplay; its excellent cast headed by a dead-on, invested Murphy whose towering, tortured close-ups are really cool looking in IMAX; its practical effects adding up to modern movie magic in our current CGI oversaturated superhero era; Göransson’s tension-filled soundtrack (the only negative there is that it overwhelms the dialogue at times); and its emotional sense of both fear and amazement that science could cause the end of the world – all combine to make the first great movie of 2023, and an absolute must see on the biggest screen you can find.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">I first questioned why Universal would release OPPENHEIMER in the middle of the summer, going up against BARBIE, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, and INDIANA JONES, when it seems more like a better fit for the prestige Oscar season in December, but with all its explosive power it more than deserves a place among those blockbusters (or flopbusters), and I’m betting it be far from forgotten at the end of the year.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></p></div></div>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-29144747866305348122023-06-28T07:33:00.014-04:002024-01-28T06:38:38.552-05:00INDY 5 Is Better Than CRYSTAL SKULL, But Feels Off<p><span style="font-size: large;">Opening tomorrow at a multiplex near you :</span></p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1462764/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_indian"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY</span></b></a><br /><b><span style="font-size: medium;">(Dir. James Mangold, 2023)</span></b></span><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimJ7Cb6eIvFm-ZMyNyoh56jUJjLlVWLT5UGwc2yxIBLcjzbtwxENM2S8J9p7z5CCN8yCHXJM0ArDxD9Voj6bD2ps9g8bKyWuvrndMhjAMVvSGVR6O0MnpOxhVpgQfDSeTXwrq4WAopmOb4IEduNJ5YDsumIxEIkw3SJ9jXyLHeUleNagOpv6Ym" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="525" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimJ7Cb6eIvFm-ZMyNyoh56jUJjLlVWLT5UGwc2yxIBLcjzbtwxENM2S8J9p7z5CCN8yCHXJM0ArDxD9Voj6bD2ps9g8bKyWuvrndMhjAMVvSGVR6O0MnpOxhVpgQfDSeTXwrq4WAopmOb4IEduNJ5YDsumIxEIkw3SJ9jXyLHeUleNagOpv6Ym=w529-h317" width="529" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b style="font-size: large;">Warning: This review contains major</b> <span style="color: red; font-size: large;"><b>SPOILERS!</b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: x-large;">“W</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">hat are you, 80?” <em><span style="background: white; color: #5f6368; font-style: normal;">Shia</span></em><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156;"> LaBeouf’s Mutt Williams cracks at a 65-year old Harrison Ford in the last, least loved Indiana Jones flick, something about a CRYSTAL SKULL. That was a joke, but now it’s the truth as an 80-year old Ford reprises Dr. Jones for the fifth time in the big summer popcorn movie sequel that opens tomorrow.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">I’ll report right off that INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY, which releases tomorrow, is better than CRYSTAL SKULL, but how much is debatable as it is still far from the engaging adventures the original trilogy presented. The fluid Spielbergian touch is noticeably missing in action scene after action scene – it simply doesn’t visually pop like even the last bad one did.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">It feels off right from the start as it doesn’t have the traditional play on the Paramount mountain that has opened every previous Indy movie. Maybe this is to establish that this is a Mangold take on the franchise, it doesn’t make sense as it’s an established aesthetic, and its omission threw me off. They use the same font for the credits as the others, so why would they change that?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">Then the next tradition, Indy’s first close-up, which began with one of the most bad-ass shots in movie history of the man with the fedora and whip stepping out of the shadows in the jungle in the opening moments of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, was spoiled months ago with pictures of how the AI de-aging was going to give us a lengthy opening sequence set in 1944.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2l5hfcqIAKFjHgPDxnHn5XaATwYv5CkFZtGS97VYt-2pZ_fIMxM2uDxwjxnmfTehCf7vxL11fp0bUCxLY5mH2vanqGKFjg25JD-Jf_Vp7LrCna781D6QcipuOVL9q_qSq8Tp8xmlBe8Nqsouj91dq8ZM_BCrihByVvDH0fdNOdVd4eEz0Sq0Y" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="560" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2l5hfcqIAKFjHgPDxnHn5XaATwYv5CkFZtGS97VYt-2pZ_fIMxM2uDxwjxnmfTehCf7vxL11fp0bUCxLY5mH2vanqGKFjg25JD-Jf_Vp7LrCna781D6QcipuOVL9q_qSq8Tp8xmlBe8Nqsouj91dq8ZM_BCrihByVvDH0fdNOdVd4eEz0Sq0Y=w490-h324" width="490" /></a></span></div><p></p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The version of the younger Ford running around somewhere in Europe (I forget where) in the dying days of the Third Reich, again punching out Nazis, and saving historic artifacts from their grasp, is very convincing, but the sequence itself, which culminates in a fight on top of a train isn’t particularly exciting. It does effectively set up the film’s MacGuffin, Archimedes’ Dial, and the villain, Nazi physicist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen, who fits perfectly into Indy’s world).</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">Then we’re in New York, 1969, and Indy is a cranky old man, who we regrettably see shirtless, going to tell his hippy neighbors to turn down their stereo blaring the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour.” He’s told it’s “Moon Day,” and we also learn that Marion (Karen Allen) has left him, and his son Mutt is out of the picture (thank the Lord!). Dr. Jones is set to retire from Hunter University where the students are falling asleep instead of fawning over him like back in the day.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">But the plot doesn’t really kick off until Phoebe Waller-Bridge enters as Indy’s goddaughter, Helena Shaw, who is after the Dial, and wants Indy’s help so she can sell it to the highest bidder – something our grizzled hero doesn’t approve of (of course, because “It belongs in a museum!”).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">A reluctant Indy gets roped into the action, and we’re soon taken through a series of high-speed chase sequences starting with a Moon Day Parade scene, in which Indy takes down three assailants in succession, pretty good for an octogenarian!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">I’ll refrain from describing any more of the action on screen, but one can guess the back and forth the Dial goes through from good guys to bad guys back to good guys - Jones: “You stole it.” Voller: “Then you stole it.” Helena: “And then I stole it! It</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">’</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">s called capitalism.” </span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">The feared image of Ford portraying a broken-down Dr. Jones who is shown up by Waller-Bridge as his energetic, overly-hip goddaughter who even says in her defense that she’s “Beautiful and self-sufficient,” a cringe-worthy line for sure, isn’t entirely accurate, but I was disappointed that our adventure icon’s confidence was lacking. He’s faced death his whole life, and he’s just giving up to drink and watch TV now? Seems a bad choice for the character.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">But Ford’s Indy, with his gruff but lovable lived-in persona, will still work, and have weight to folks like me who have known him for four decades. I can’t speak for the younger audiences, nor will I make any predictions about its box office - (I’ve never seen the internet so want a movie to flop like this one - if you don't believe me go to YouTube, and search Indiana Jones, and see what vitriol comes up).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">Of course, since this is an Indiana Jones movie, we’ve got to visit dark, spooky, trap-filled caves, and the tomb of Archimedes in Sicily fits that bill. I don’t think it’s a Spoiler to say there’s a time-travel premise as that’s what Archimedes’ ancient artifact dials up, but I will say that it works well as the MacGuffin – i.e. much better than that Crystal Skull of Akator whatnot.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">A good choice was bringing Salah (John Rhys-Davies) back for his third time around with Indy, as he gives great gusto to the beloved role, while bringing the movie much needed warmth at times.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">Another welcome return is composer John Williams whose iconic scores really brought sonic gravitas to the series, and it greatly helps out here – audiences will surely get goose bumps when it first arrives in the opening.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">While Mikkelsen, and Toby Jones as an old WWII friend of Indy’s fit neatly into the world George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created over 40 years ago, and I’m not sure that Antonio Banderas, playing a boat captain, was necessary. Waller-Bridge was too smug for my liking, and the idea that she would continue these adventures herself is really unappealing – I don’t think that even people who dig her in this will be dying for a Helena Shaw franchise.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">So with its competent screenplay by Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, David Koepp (who co-wrote CRYSTAL SKULL), and James Mangold, INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY is a good, not great (one of my most used phrases on Film Babble Blog!) film that maybe is most notable for being a big summer movie in 2023 that is headlined by an 80-year old. That was something that was hard to shake at times, as it often felt like an old Harrison Ford film than a true Indiana Jones movie. </span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">Mangold’s approach, direction, and tone for the entry just felt off for too much of the film, but maybe that’s because I re-watched all four Spielberg Indy films leading up to the screening I attended of DIAL. And like I said before, it’s better than the fourth one, but it doesn’t look better – cinematographer Phedon Papamichael is no Janusz Kamiński, I guess.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">But I did enjoy this supposed last chapter enough to recommend, and it ends on a decent, if not fully satisfying note.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: large;">Now, please, let it end here!</span></p></div>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-11598380614120456482023-06-09T07:00:00.009-04:002024-03-14T21:13:42.394-04:00Cutesy Tribute To Kevin Smith’s Problematic ‘90s Rom Com Only Skirts The Surface<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Film Babble Blog's first review in months tackles a film which is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival today (actually it has a screening last night), and is also set to screen at Frameline, Bentonville and Provincetown. </span><p><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10825052/">CHASING CHASING AMY</a> </span></b></span><b style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">(Dir. Sav Rodgers, 2023)</b></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3506ajW-dioeWoRZbw0VHWuU8tgfAgD8Kjqo-3d8MCL7Xq0ZLfMOn0vXnZ4koBb0WT8ohbImzIkpmLmlDXBs4NecbXYeehW2ROWrjTA4gQIOe3A3h-dWw5BoQkajXeCIVPUawNFuKxsF3Gmr0geqiIg9uCkMhhgEZtdjqg4bYgc4pbbbayg/s2000/image.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="2000" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3506ajW-dioeWoRZbw0VHWuU8tgfAgD8Kjqo-3d8MCL7Xq0ZLfMOn0vXnZ4koBb0WT8ohbImzIkpmLmlDXBs4NecbXYeehW2ROWrjTA4gQIOe3A3h-dWw5BoQkajXeCIVPUawNFuKxsF3Gmr0geqiIg9uCkMhhgEZtdjqg4bYgc4pbbbayg/w492-h327/image.jpeg" width="492" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">his documentary begins with an old school VHS cassette being popped into a VCR, with the year being noted as 2008. As we hear audio from the trailer of Kevin Smith’s 1997 rom com, CHASING AMY, we see graphic novel-style panels (just like in the opening of the original movie) that depict a glasses, backwards-baseball cap-wearing kid plopped down in front of a TV. “Our young hero watches CHASING AMY over and over…and over…and over,” little boxes in the comic panels tell us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">That young hero is filmmaker, writer, producer Sav Rodgers, who has turned his obsession with CHASING AMY into a Ted Talk, and now this film, which explores Rodgers’ journey with the movie from seeing it at age 12, and dealing its problematic reputation in the </span><span style="background: repeat white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">LGBTQ+ community</span>. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">In an introductory montage, we get the lowdown – Ben Affleck, and Joey Lauren Adams are the leads in the film that was a breakthrough for Smith after a few minor splashes (the black and white crude comedy CLERKS, and the kinda crappy crude comedy MALLRATS) in the indie scene of the ‘90s. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">A clip from <i>Late Night with Conan O’Brien</i> features Adams explaining the film’s premise: “It’s about a guy who falls in love with a lesbian, finds out she’s had heterosexual relationships, and can’t deal with that.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">But for its detractors, it’s about how a lesbian can be turned by the ‘right guy.’ When asked if the film is authentic to the LGBTQ community, CHASING AMY Casting Director Shane Lory says, “No, I find it authentic to the straight white dude who happens to fall for the queer woman community.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Rodgers, who came out as a trans man during the making of this doc, tells his Ted Talk audience, and us, that through tough times being bullied in high school, “I did have this one movie. I had a movie where the gay, and lesbian characters were good; they were intelligent, and funny, and out – they were able to live as their authentic selves. And you know what? The spirit of CHASING AMY kept me alive for years to come despite the suicidal thoughts that began to permeate from the trauma that I was continuously experiencing at school.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Rodgers’ Ted Talk get some action on Twitter which leads to Adams and Affleck taking notice and retweeting, and then Smith himself contacting our young hero. Rodgers visits Smith at his comic and movie memorabilia-stocked home, and they bond immediately, but it’s not until Smith sits down for an interview, that we get any insight. We learn that Smith’s first film, CLERKS, came out at the same time as </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Rose Troche’s lesbian drama GO FISH, written by Guinevere Turner, who appears here to say that the films were siblings, and her relationship, or “romantic friendship” (as Turner calls it) with Smith’s friend/collaborator largely informed CHASING AMY.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">To tell Rodgers’ story, his doc goes from one interview to another, with clips from the film interjected, but while it’s watchable, and quick-moving, it doesn’t really dive too deep into its subject matter. Even when it comes to the involvement of Miramax producer, Harvey Weinstein, who was later convicted of first-degree criminal sex act, third-degree rape, and is now serving a 23-year prison, it only offers such expected observations like Smith saying, “I can’t undo the fact that my career is tied up with him.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">The most substantial interview segment comes from the film’s leading lady, Adams, who explains that why she’s proud of CHASING AMY, she doesn’t “like looking back at that time,” and still has issues with Smith “making me feel bad for living the life I had lived,” as much of the material was based on his insecurities about her past sexual experiences when they were dating.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Rodgers is likable as he awkwardly shuffles through the film’s original locations, has sone mushy AF hangs with his girlfriend, Riley, and cutely conducts interviews with Smith, but the film can be a gooey tribute that won’t likely be tolerated by folks who dislike Smith (and I’ve known many). Personally I've found the dude to be a bit pleased at his own persona, but still a likable stoner sort. However, after the early promise of his films, a lot of his work (the CLERKS and JAY AND SILENT BOB sequels, TUSK, and especially YOGA HOSERS) has sucked (I did like RED STATE though).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>CHASING AMY is the director’s most personal (and probably best) work, and this very personal doc has its touching moments via Rodgers’ sincere gestures of thanks for Smith’s irregular rom com, but it doesn’t have much to say about its stature these days in the </span><span style="background: repeat white; color: #222222;">LGBTQ+ community</span>. It fills in such spaces with a lot about Rodgers, and his all-too-wonderful relationship with his wife Riley, which, hey, I</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">’</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">m happy for them kids, and love </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">’</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">n all, but it was a little too much at times.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;">How CHASING CHASING AMY only skirts the surface of its subject without offering any real thesis can be found in this sound-bite from Princess Weekes (Geek Girl Pop Culture Site, The Mary Sue), “Sometimes, something that’s problematic can still mean a lot in your development.” Well said, but still, duh.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></p>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-28807265659418753712023-06-08T19:15:00.002-04:002023-06-08T19:18:47.956-04:00The Rialto Is Coming Back And So Is Film Babble Blog<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQ4KQZp3qbSEKw8GWBtYPL7HmkB9wvj4x_MDhoWV7wra1v13Z_dKTX3JIFBQsQl5lnYuDmQzQDb57AxhOn_SHNTgCcDTK8sWjIVE8cr4uEexs8T6Xl72G3P_UzSZd4TjMue3VCa-4yXz-y0RvQYTm_26n5yYnAAJuTrx9F5fSA2s3h0mr1hg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img data-original-height="2339" data-original-width="3221" height="379" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQ4KQZp3qbSEKw8GWBtYPL7HmkB9wvj4x_MDhoWV7wra1v13Z_dKTX3JIFBQsQl5lnYuDmQzQDb57AxhOn_SHNTgCcDTK8sWjIVE8cr4uEexs8T6Xl72G3P_UzSZd4TjMue3VCa-4yXz-y0RvQYTm_26n5yYnAAJuTrx9F5fSA2s3h0mr1hg=w522-h379" title="I don't know who Andrew is - this was the Rialto's marquee yesterday" width="522" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I don't know who Andrew is - this was just the Rialto's marquee yesterday.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large;">A</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">fter a hiatus that I thought might be much longer, Film Babble Blog is back with some great news. The Rialto Theatre in Raleigh, N.C., is re-opening. I have a personal history with the venue as I worked there from the early 2010’s until it closed last August (I worked the final ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW night, and it was a blast), so I’m elated that it will again be screening movies for local audiences thanks to an investment group, headed by Hayes Permar. </span><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #232323;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Read Ral today’s write-up about the news:</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #232323;"><o:p><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></span></p><h1 class="Page-headline" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: no-repeat; box-sizing: border-box; color: #232323; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: -0.5px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://raltoday.6amcity.com/culture/rialto-theatre-to-reopen-under-new-ownership">Rialto Theatre to reopen under new ownership</a></span></h1><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">And here (again) is my video from when the Rialto closed last year:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="378" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CV-fi6Xe9aw" width="455" youtube-src-id="CV-fi6Xe9aw"></iframe></div><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #232323;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">So like the article says, there’s no word on when the Rialto will re-open, and again serve the community with cinema (and live music – something it hasn’t done in decades), but I’ll keep you posted. I’m thinking of re-applying for my ole usher job – for just a couple of shifts a week maybe. I’m thinking that might help re-ignite my love of movies, and seeing them on the big screen again. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #232323;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #232323;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">My movie-loving mojo has been lacking lately, and that might be exactly what I need.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #232323;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #232323; font-family: georgia;">Also, no word whether THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW is also coming back.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #232323;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="color: #232323; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></span></span></p><p></p></div>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-87814783631519728562023-03-19T18:04:00.006-04:002023-03-20T21:34:40.413-04:00The End of Film Babble Blog?<p><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-decoration: underline;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpNrJKtS2pIBgDBgvKs1CgvZVi5Xf_PO-rlAt52LtRvp3Iy0ec8mfr5oO-CUVEwe5w11WgF1irXmHEEePe6hS3sskAE2vSqQ8mfdBX39y_iE0uxWQ2-Pof-6571D-jC78jZNKBruBTosC8z5aTYoxmFaeaQyQPXBYGiSuEe7XUaihv9B3ARg/s500/tumblr_8ace2b1f4d57ca2e04529ca4b3794f2b_b7c793c7_500.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="500" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpNrJKtS2pIBgDBgvKs1CgvZVi5Xf_PO-rlAt52LtRvp3Iy0ec8mfr5oO-CUVEwe5w11WgF1irXmHEEePe6hS3sskAE2vSqQ8mfdBX39y_iE0uxWQ2-Pof-6571D-jC78jZNKBruBTosC8z5aTYoxmFaeaQyQPXBYGiSuEe7XUaihv9B3ARg/w428-h308/tumblr_8ace2b1f4d57ca2e04529ca4b3794f2b_b7c793c7_500.gif" width="428" /></a></div><p></p><p><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">N</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: large;">o, it isn’t. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">It’s just going on a hiatus. A pause. An interval. Wait! I know! An intermission. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’ve got to take a break because I’ve got more than one book project in the works, and the whole film criticism thing has lost a lot of its appeal to me. I can’t remember the last full review I’ve read, and I used to devour them. But that was a different time when there was so much less content to keep up with, and one may seek out a writer, or writers that they like to let them in on the flavor, and feel of a film, even if they may not agree with them in the end.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">I</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">n 2009, Will Ferrell performed a one-man show entitled You’re Welcome America. A Final Night With George W. Bush in which the comic actor, of course, appearing as the 43rd President asked audience members for a Christian name and occupation, and he will give them an instant nick-name “Texas-style.”<br /></span><br /> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: #0563c1;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif; text-decoration: none;">At a show covered by the New York Times, somebody yelled out “Reviewer!” Scott Brown reported, “</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Ferrell, in character, cracked a huge grin, and didn’t miss a beat: ‘I’m gonna call you ‘Obsolete Profession.’</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yeah, and that was 14 years ago. I loved writing many of the over 1,400 posts since I started this site in 2014. I’ve followed and covered some really cool (and not so cool, but some of those could be cool too), thriving actors, filmmakers, genres, concepts, clichés, film festivals, genres, and whatever it was that I wanted to share with my readers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">While never a major movie forum, Film Babble Blog has had its moments. It was mentioned and linked to in the New Yorker’s <i>Vulture</i>, the UK’s historic <i>The Guardian</i> rag, and many places online that are sadly no more (I still have links, and screen shots ‘n all so there’s that). <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Film Babble Blog was also frequently featured on the IMDb’s daily Hit List, which I know means nothing to most likely 99.9% of anyone reading this, but it was where they used to shine a light on the cream of the crop of current writing about entertainment. When a post from my site made the list, I got thousands of hits, which led to followers, and advertisers, so for a nice while, Film Babble Blog was thriving.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But time has moved on, and the thrill is gone. I still love movies, but the idea of seeing as many and writing about them like I used to wears my noggin out. I didn’t even post a review of EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE, which just won Best Picture at the Oscars. Speaking of the Oscars, I used to make predictions for all of the 23-24 categories, but this year I could only bring myself to predict the top 5 (I got 3 out of 5). <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">With the ginormous amount of content out there, the Oscars is seeming less and less necessary every damn year, a sentiment that’s echoed every time somebody, and lately it feels like everybody, says that “nobody cares about the Oscars.” As Seth Rogen said, “And why should they?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">When I was younger, so much younger than today (in the ‘80s, and ‘90s) there were like only 200-300 or so movies coming out a year, and it was easy to catch up with the ones you had interest in. And you could really process them. Discuss them with friends, re-listen to their soundtracks, see them again when they hit home video six months after their release. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">That window has all but disappeared, and people don’t watch movies like they used to. They go to whatever streaming platform and pick something, and if it doesn’t grab them, they click to something else. There’s nothing wrong with that. I do it too. So why do you need to read a review online?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now, my blog has offered a lot more than reviews with interviews, features, obits, funny behind-the-scenes stuff, and, my favorite, nutty lists like, my favorite, <a href="https://filmbabble.blogspot.com/2008/11/10-essential-slapped-actresses.html"><b>“10 Slapped Actresses.”</b></a> But the art of writing or reading the finely tuned 600 (or so) word piece on a particularly juicy movie rendered with oomph is just not the invigorating thing it was. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Since the pandemic, there have been very few critics’ screenings in my area and they’ve mostly been for Marvel movies. A decade ago, there used to be a manageable array of films of different genres that I felt I could be up on the latest mainstream multi-plex fare as well as the indie releases (it helped that I worked at an indie theater), and pick out the most notable ones to blog about. But now I’m less enthused when there seems to be a batch of new movies every day that nobody could ever keep up with, and many of them look mighty disposable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Also, I used to get feedback from people with comments on posts, or emails, but that is rare nowadays. In person, people used to tell me they read such and such review, and may be had an argument, but the last time somebody said anything, I could tell they had had only seen the headline, because that’s the only thing that they said anything about.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But that’s alright. I do that too. I still keep up with movies. I saw most of the top 10 grossing films last year, and still enjoy reading some film writing here and there. I’ve read some great pieces on EEAAO, THE BANSHEES OF INERSHERIN, and THE WHALE that I thought enhanced my appreciation for those films so don’t think I’m writing film criticism off entirely.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m just wanting any of the small amount of people that might come here to know why there isn’t a new post (a review of the latest Marvel movie maybe?) – why Film Babble Blog is taking break but will be back. Hell, if I’m inspired by a film I see in the next few weeks I may be back here posting on it! You never know with this crazy world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">As for the book projects I previously mentioned, I’ve been working for some time on finalizing what my follow-up to my 2019 debut, <i>Wilcopedia</i>, will</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> be, and am very excited that I will be announcing it very soon. </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: x-large;">There are other new things that appear to be pulling me off of the film scribing path for the time being, so it seems to time to take a break.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So thanks for following, and reading - even if it was just the headline. Await the triumphant comeback – after all 2024 is the 20th Anniversary of the site, and there will be fanfare for sure. So with the promise of bigger fish to fry, it's time for Film Babble Blog to say goodbye...for now.</span></span></p>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-35633431527020870172023-03-10T15:08:00.001-05:002023-03-10T15:08:25.377-05:00Hey Kids! Not So Fun Time 2022 Oscar® Predictions!<div><br /></div><div style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiR67bq8bSewZebYEHrKwlDD6gah3ELCmnfKyNLUnhG_EG0ZJxETzp5S1YL5gsRYhZ_kEBO5wJSZWyVKIQ0YlMf-486yBp3mEuzohYy2fqpsBnIOabaafKz7QMelWSUBXSRZ_DRyjn3UjsJxGNEQumgH7hECCGyTSo6tJVqmQW77nYP64Wtww" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="783" data-original-width="1068" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiR67bq8bSewZebYEHrKwlDD6gah3ELCmnfKyNLUnhG_EG0ZJxETzp5S1YL5gsRYhZ_kEBO5wJSZWyVKIQ0YlMf-486yBp3mEuzohYy2fqpsBnIOabaafKz7QMelWSUBXSRZ_DRyjn3UjsJxGNEQumgH7hECCGyTSo6tJVqmQW77nYP64Wtww=w434-h319" width="434" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jimmy Kimmel hosts the Oscars for the third time. Woo Hoo.</td></tr></tbody></table></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">ehold, my most half -assed Oscar Predictions post in the history of Film Babble Blog (and that’s going on nearly 20 years). I’ve been busy with a new book, and other life shit, and have felt disconnected from the world of movies lately despite having seen a large bunch of the nominated films. Not caring about the Academy Awards, now in their 95th year, has been a thing for quite a few years, so my indifference this year seems to fall in line with the overall public sentiment: who cares?</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">But in the tradition of consistency, I’m still gonna post my picks. What does it matter what I, or anyone, gets right or wrong?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>1. BEST PICTURE:</b> Yes, everyone everywhere is saying that EVERYONE EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE will win the big one so I am too. Does indeed seem to be a lock.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSU-7E_Xui9QdCOiNoVEjqjTa4qXnMz6TpO_miywzkbIbfYOBLLOV1nWaMB7J-B9CR_nA1A3dw5rYoNCPmwluv0yZ2l05_Czhr7gBBpIhC3RGANUbrM3WzsVEoCV0hrfxzyrcMMM0tuhVHx2mrjdpIu6ukl4Gz1Yb0bFaej95fvH-BXqOx8w/s1280/_TMDB-iN3vKCuOGRdZ9Cn3yRGCyMlaiST.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSU-7E_Xui9QdCOiNoVEjqjTa4qXnMz6TpO_miywzkbIbfYOBLLOV1nWaMB7J-B9CR_nA1A3dw5rYoNCPmwluv0yZ2l05_Czhr7gBBpIhC3RGANUbrM3WzsVEoCV0hrfxzyrcMMM0tuhVHx2mrjdpIu6ukl4Gz1Yb0bFaej95fvH-BXqOx8w/w468-h263/_TMDB-iN3vKCuOGRdZ9Cn3yRGCyMlaiST.jpeg" width="468" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /><b>2. BEST DIRECTOR:</b> Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for EEAAO.<br /><br /><b>3. BEST ACTOR:</b> Austin Butler – yeah, Elvis has just got to get it. Brendan Fraser I can see too, but yeah, Elvis.<br /><br /><b>4. BEST ACTRESS: </b>It’s either Michelle Yeoh for EEAAO or Cate Blanchett for TÁR. I, like just about everybody else, is going with Yeoh.<br /><br /><b>5. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:</b> Ke Huy Quan – yes, let’s just say it’s gonna be a EEAAO sweep.<br /><br /><b>6. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:</b> Angela Bassett in BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER<br /><br />Normally, I would predict all 23 categories, but I really don’t have it in me this time around so I’ll just go with those. <br /><br />Now, I usually say “Please check back here Monday to see how many I got wrong” but I don’t even care about that right now. I gots other fish to fry and them there Academy Awards really aren’t in my focus this season. I don’t think many other people care about them either – unless somebody gets punched in the face that is. I’m sure, if nothing else, there will be some joke, or reference or something notable about that now historical instance at this year’s event, and we’ll talk about that for a day and that’ll be that.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">More later...</span></div></div>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-54080435250591671692023-02-28T20:11:00.002-05:002023-02-28T20:33:31.942-05:00A Quick Update, And Oscars 2023 Whatnot<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhToWgH8UyMdyVV8cnC9_VLzzRc3MkTEOwugRQozSXgBJbwJEU1893gDqTQKSxm3r0SP4dITwxw0On-IgEKgpYQV76_FJC2-sq5ufrjr_4yeohpfXNGoDhHIomawY53hBY51NiRp3RVt2UghiXugqPLeDuLdGV9X5zdN1iOKI5R0dcmNWnmmg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="550" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhToWgH8UyMdyVV8cnC9_VLzzRc3MkTEOwugRQozSXgBJbwJEU1893gDqTQKSxm3r0SP4dITwxw0On-IgEKgpYQV76_FJC2-sq5ufrjr_4yeohpfXNGoDhHIomawY53hBY51NiRp3RVt2UghiXugqPLeDuLdGV9X5zdN1iOKI5R0dcmNWnmmg=w531-h438" width="531" /></a></div> <p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">H</span><span style="font-size: large;">ey folks, I haven't been Film Babbling lately because I've been working on a new book, and dealing with other life shit. But rest assured that I'll be covering the </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">95th Academy Awards with both prediction, and a recap.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Until then, I'll leave you with this:</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiTe-sufnoe7q9J3YjCaiTVjz-p4stq4b6cwl5VKhLZ0kxmbyR_3FM9gnQBXZfIhTfUMzxC9Uced0y2cXjWAhBidX4G_Bj9daGaPjjCId3EC_NdWmStTFlxTtPHNzz7fToCOfkrKFF55eYM-rEXAs-NgDPRrjpARrdf6iV-Bp8rGJfQgXiqxQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="506" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiTe-sufnoe7q9J3YjCaiTVjz-p4stq4b6cwl5VKhLZ0kxmbyR_3FM9gnQBXZfIhTfUMzxC9Uced0y2cXjWAhBidX4G_Bj9daGaPjjCId3EC_NdWmStTFlxTtPHNzz7fToCOfkrKFF55eYM-rEXAs-NgDPRrjpARrdf6iV-Bp8rGJfQgXiqxQ=w474-h303" width="474" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">More later...</span></p>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-53082324199017823612023-01-22T20:13:00.007-05:002023-01-22T20:15:23.266-05:00Great Moments In Fourth Wall Breakage: SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7vgNC_KNCTVTxILtdzt0GKQEEA6fz9Sd0zcPyJMyj4-IgWCH641d-GYLP7vtvdBDDy7fPeWNxDebm25eJhA2Hn_LZLeDnyLbRvjxbCcRwx9BB-xi-Ep5gLy5_7lJwGVNCkdV2u4siGgO6rrDronTCtprFfHG9r1rxKh-dZYJgAqJGy0Bvjw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="772" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7vgNC_KNCTVTxILtdzt0GKQEEA6fz9Sd0zcPyJMyj4-IgWCH641d-GYLP7vtvdBDDy7fPeWNxDebm25eJhA2Hn_LZLeDnyLbRvjxbCcRwx9BB-xi-Ep5gLy5_7lJwGVNCkdV2u4siGgO6rrDronTCtprFfHG9r1rxKh-dZYJgAqJGy0Bvjw=w484-h283" width="484" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">W</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">elcome to a new Film Babble Blog series, <b>Great Moments in Fourth Wall Breakage</b>, which will pinpoint those meta moments in movies when a character makes an aside to the audience. I originally presented a Top 10 list of such moments back in 2007 (<a href="https://filmbabble.blogspot.com/2007/08/here-i-go-again-with-another-meta-movie.html"><i><b>10 Movie Moments That Broke the Fourth Wall</b></i></a>, 8/22/07), and am planning on re-visiting some of those, but I’m kicking off the series with an excellent example of fourth wall breakage that I hadn’t blogged about before.</span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Former stuntman Hal Needham’s <b><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076729/">SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT</a></b> was the second biggest grossing movie of 1997, after STAR WARS. The action comedy, which starred Burt Reynolds as a bootlegger with the nickname of “The Bandit” on an illegal beer run from Texarkana to Atlanta, features a scene around the fifteen mark in which our leading man in his </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Pontiac Firebird Trans Amis is being chased by a city cop at night</span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The Bandit eludes the police by pulling his Firebird into a used car lot, then gradually pulling away, as he’s looking to be sure that the cop has left. When Reynolds and the camera line up, he looks right into the frame, and flashes his classic grin.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">In an interview from a DVD featurette, Reynolds explained, “I pulled in behind the john, and the cop went by. And I pulled ahead a little bit more. Then I looked right in the lens (smiles) and then drove off. And everybody laughed, the crew laughed, everybody laughed, and I backed up because I figured we were going to do another one. Hal said, ‘that’s it.’<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">In the same featurette, Needham said this about the scene: “I don’t think Burt wanted to do it, but he did, and I thought it worked like a charm. You know what he’s doing? He’s saying ‘look at all the fun we’re having. You know?’”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Back to Burt: “And I went, ‘boy, you got some cajones, man! I mean, that’s breaking the fourth wall, you know, you gotta know, Hal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Hal went, ‘the what?’ He didn’t know from fourth wall!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Watch the scene below aptly entitled </span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: georgia;">“The Fourth Wall</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: georgia;">”:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="342" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ndt_84WBxUM" width="412" youtube-src-id="ndt_84WBxUM"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Stay tuned to this space for more <b>Great Moments in Fourth Wall Breakage</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">More later…</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p></div>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6612392.post-24612971470148971792023-01-13T15:39:00.012-05:002024-03-14T17:43:09.947-04:00A MAN CALLED OTTO: A Grumpy Old Hanks In The Maybe-See Feel-Okay Film Of The Season<span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now playing at a bunch of multi-plexes in my neck of the woods:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7405458/"><b>A MAN CALLED OTTO</b></a></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><b>(Dir. Marc Forster, 2022)</b></span><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfKciKKkZi1fG3fH7DUWaIXcOgR5FYkVn1L0GaGIGy2ahhNPA-4mdqJIICnFPuQNF_q9TY14JjrHv2dxlxKGsMG_GVnmlezE4YKVulquswXp2lx3xWUkFejDHk17wvb6w6EJHErf-YKko4wjgxCVh6fSPPNO6TUlB4FPIViM6YpuxLmvsADA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="604" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfKciKKkZi1fG3fH7DUWaIXcOgR5FYkVn1L0GaGIGy2ahhNPA-4mdqJIICnFPuQNF_q9TY14JjrHv2dxlxKGsMG_GVnmlezE4YKVulquswXp2lx3xWUkFejDHk17wvb6w6EJHErf-YKko4wjgxCVh6fSPPNO6TUlB4FPIViM6YpuxLmvsADA=w505-h317" width="505" /></a></div></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div><br /></div><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">h, Tom Hanks. America’s Dad. The modern day Jimmy Stewart. You know the deal - he’s the double Oscar-winning everyman of cinema that’s been on the pop culture radar for four decades, who I’ve never met anyone who disliked. His stock hasn’t even fallen in the last year with his badly reviewed, very odd, and frankly off role as Colonel Tom Parker in Baz Luhrman’s ELVIS, or his instantly forgettable performance as Gepetto in Robert Zemeckis’ PINOCCHIO the last year (I even considered a post entitled “Has Covid Thrown Tom Hanks off his game), because the goodwill embedded in his rich legacy can’t easily be erased with a few missteps.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">So here is Hanks in a classic, meaning frankly standard, grumpy old man role (somebody even calls him a grumpy old bastard in the first five minutes) as widowed Pittsburgh resident, Otto Anderson, in this remake of Hannes Holm’s 2015 Swedish comedy drama, A MAN CALLED OVE. Just like Rolf Lassgård in the original, we meet Otto in a box store having issues with staff, but he’s buying rope, not the flowers that Ove grumbled about the discount price of when buying for his wife’s grave.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The rope Otto is purchasing is to hang himself, which brings us this story’s central premise – a man’s suicide attempts keep getting aborted by life re-affirming interruptions. These distractions from Otto’s rush to join his spouse in the afterlife come in the form of a new family that has moved in to his small, contained suburban housing community. The out-going, bubbly, and pregnant Marisol (Mariana Treviño), and her friendly doofus husband Tommy (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and their two kids ( Christiana Montoy, and Alessandra Perez) have moved into a unit across from Otto’s home, and they immediately are in need of his help with home repairs.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The community surrounding Otto, and his new neighbors includes the kindly Anita (Juanita Jennings), and her dementia-suffering husband Reuben (Peter Lawson Jones), who a younger Otto (played in flashbacks by Hanks’ 27-year old son, Truman) had a long-running Ford vs. Chevy rivalry over automobile purchases (it was Saab vs. Volvo in the Swedish version); the overly chipper Jimmy (Cameron Britton), and transgender delivery boy Malcolm (Mack Bayda), who was a former student of Otto’s wife, Sonya (Rachel Keller). That last cast member may sound like a woke addition, and it pretty much is as David Magee’s adapted screenplay changes the character from just being gay in OVE).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">As for those aforementioned flashbacks, they are emotionally summoned when Otto is closest to death, whether it be by rope, his Chevy’s exhaust, getting hit by a train, or with a rifle, and they dive deep into sometimes icky, but still earnestly poignant enough, sentiment especially when Otto and Sonya’s first meeting is enhanced to be even more of a meet cute than in the original with Truman Hank’s Otto getting on a commuter train heading the opposite direction that he was going to return a book that the young lady dropped on the platform (He just happens to wakes up on in the train compartment with her there in OVE).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Then there are the strands of Mike Birbiglia (SLEEPWALK WITH ME) as an adversarial dickhead real estate agent (from a evil company actually called Dye & Merica), and another concession to today’s internet fame culture with a social media journalist played by Kelly Lamor Wilson, who aims to make Otto an online hero. Yeah, this stuff is pretty forced, dopey, and sitcom-ish, but somehow felt like it had just as much right to be there as the more fleshed-out character elements.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">While Marc Forster’s (FINDING NEVERLAND, QUANTUM OF SOLACE) direction is stylishly unspectacular, there is a decent amount of real charm, and warm sensibility (especially in Hanks’ moments with the scene-stealing Treviño) in this light opus about the ornery Otto, but it’s still fairly insubstantial Hanks fare in the league of the other A-lister’s little-remembered throwaways like THE TERMINAL, HOLOGRAM, any of those DA VINCI CODE non epics (which even Hanks now calls “hooey”), or especially LARRY CROWNE. Still, A MAN CALLED OTTO is a fine, fluffy watch – a maybe-see, feel-okay view if I must say - that didn’t make me cringe too hard, and that fans of Hanks will most likely enjoy.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Holm’s OVE original, which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime, is a better movie, but only by a small measure as it’s a pretty cornball affair itself. They are interesting to compare as many scenes are close to shot-by-shot recreations, and there’s only a handful of story deviations. It’s telling that OTTO most resonates when it stays faithful to its source material. Consider it the equivalent of an English language cover song by a big name star that’ll just be background music in most people’s lives.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />More later...</span></span></div>Daniel Cook Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10429877492305095834noreply@blogger.com0