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Tender Is the Night (1962)
Gerald Murphy says . . .
This past winter, Murphy went to see the film of "Tender Is the Night." He went alone (Sara flatly refused to go) one Friday afternoon to a theatre in Nyack, near the small Hudson River community where he and Sara now live, and when he sat down he realized that there was no one else in the vast, darkened auditorium but an elderly charwoman sweeping the back rows. "It was an extraordinary sensation," he says, "and oddly appropriate somehow to the unreality of the film, which disregards everything except the battle of the sexes, and dismisses the lure of the era with a nostalgic ridiculing of the Charleston. It was so far from any sort of relationship to us, or the period, or poor Scott, that I couldn't feel any emotion at all except a vague sympathy for Jennifer Jones trying so hard to play the eighteen-year-old Nicole.
This is a quotation from Calvin Tompkins' profile of the Murphys, from the New Yorker Magazine, July 28, 1962.
Fragment of Fear (1970)
Mediocre Story
Possible spoilers * Very peculiar and disappointing final few minutes and ending. The music was odd, not appropriate for a thriller, unpleasant and intrusive screeching flute and bongos. It was nice to see those great old British actors, all gone now, in 2018. The pigeon did a good job too! And don't forget the geranium, very effective in its bit part. After the big revelation about what the murdered woman was really doing, the story just meandered along, not doing much of anything except terrorizing Hemmings till he's limp as a dishrag in a wheelchair. And why was the laughing man laughing so much? Just happy to be terrorizing, I guess. I'm sort of glad I saw it, if only for the good acting, but the plot just wasn't much. A piece of junk, basically.
La La Land (2016)
Enjoyable movie, but too long and slow-moving.
This was an enjoyable dramatic semi-musical, though too slow-moving and lengthy. The last half-hour, with Mia's day-dream about what might have been, wasn't any good, or necessary. I could watch the movie again in two or three years, doing a lot of fast-forwarding. Memorable acting was done by the two stars. The ending should have been after Mia is revealed as an (unmarried, in my version) film star and Seb as having achieved his dream jazz club. They could meet unexpectedly, then have a conversation about re-establishing their relationship. Would they or wouldn't they? Seb asks, Should he call her? Mia smiles, friendly but enigmatic. The End. Not to exceed an hour and a half.
Arrival (2016)
High-Tech Aliens Who Can't Think Straight?
The story was weak, the acting uninspired. Aliens as advanced as the seven-footed critters floating in mist would have learned Earth languages long ago and communicated in the usual high-tech ways.
The writer gave the inappropriate names Abbott and Costello to the two aliens, missing a great chance to call them Kang and Kodos. But why would two experts in language and math fearful of planetary invasion and mankind's destruction select those names? They were in an ominous and terrifying situation and the aliens didn't look comical.
And the humans' method of 'teaching' the aliens English was laughable, with little chalkboards held up so the eyeless near-octopi could read them.
The dialogue wasn't interesting. The emotional interaction between Louise and Ian, the linguist and mathematician, couldn't be very meaningful or touching, because so little was said or done. More character development was needed to make us feel for them. Why did they finally get married?--Oh, yes, Louise was clairvoyant! The whole story was nonsense.
The two language experts apparently learned the aliens' language to a certain extent, but no explanation was given as to the details of how, or what the symbols meant. Once you get used to the special effects, floating monolith, floating heptapods, and that happens quickly, it's just another ordinary sci-fi yarn.
I'd like to blame the actors for their sometimes-insipid performances, but they weren't given much to work with. Not worth a second viewing.
The Jokers (1967)
Posh High Jinks
"The Jokers" is a cheerful, exuberant, amusing British comedy of the 1960s. It's full of bombs that hurt nobody, gore that isn't real, and stars Michael Crawford and Oliver Reed dashing through vibrant London in a mad plot to steal the Crown Jewels and then return them. But younger brother "Michael" is also bent on revenge against his older brother David, played by Oliver Reed, who landed him in trouble often enough ... so David ends in prison, and Michael goes free, for awhile.
Michael's most recent escapade, aided and abetted by David, caused him to be expelled from Sandhurst, the British military academy for army officers. The plot calls for a bomb threat to the Jewels in the Tower of London to be taken seriously, hence some preliminary bombs are set in various locations, one of them even going off, a bit too close for comfort. Michael phones in the threats under the name "Red George", the mad bomber, while David constructs the devices, often contained in coffee pots.
The acting is excellent all round, with Harry Andrews as Scotland Yard's earnest inspector Marryatt tracking the ubiquitous bombers first the Albert Memorial, next the Stock Exchange ("about to be depressed") and James Donald as the army's somewhat addled and befuddled Col. Gurney-Simms.
The DVD, obtained in August, 2006 from eBay, was apparently made from a very poor copy of the film. In some of the scenes the colors are too dark, and about an hour into the movie a vertical white line, which never completely goes away, appears in the center of the picture. There are other visual problems associated with old movies that have been run countless times. I don't know why it never seems to be shown as a TV movie, or why it's so hard to find.
Reality Bites (1994)
Soap Opera in Disguise?
Lelaina, Troy and Michael. And Vickie, Lelaina's roommate. And Sammy. Forget him, he's the gay guy having trouble coming out, but his story is just filler, and practically non-existent. Vickie fears she may have AIDS, there's about one and a half scenes devoted to that. So that leaves the trio, or triangle, of Lelaina, Troy and Michael. The first two are recent graduates of college, and like a lot of people in their early twenties, trying to come to terms with the fact that earning a living usually isn't fun, especially if you aren't talented, focused, capable, mature . . . like the somewhat older Michael, who works in television in New York, and actually has a decent salary.
Troy is currently without a job, he's had a dozen or so, and moves in with the girls. Lelaina has one, as assistant to an obnoxious talk-show host, but soon gets herself fired, becoming aware she was on the way out anyway, if her boss had his way. She makes numerous attempts to find work somewhere, anywhere, but unsuccessfully. Not in print journalism she can't define 'irony', which, of course, was the situation she was in; intelligent, smart (or thought she was), just out of college, and couldn't even get a job in a Burgerama, couldn't do mental arithmetic fast enough. Perhaps she was like a Henry James character: intelligent but not clever. Maybe this is a story on which Henry James could have based a pretty good novel frivolous girl, reckless drive in a horseless carriage, two men in her life, conflict between practical or meaningful employment and desire for the all-important financial security.
Earlier she had met Michael, by inadvertently causing his car to hit hers, while she was acting in her typically immature, reckless, dopey way. Michael likes her, and eventually, when she's out of work, also likes her pathetic home videos, which he manages to sell at the studio where he works. So Lelaina is attracted to Michael for awhile, and buys a nice dress that Troy thinks looks like a doily. Troy and Mike don't get along at all. Michael knows he's doing OK in Life and The World, while Troy lies around in the over-intelligent, over-philosophical doldrums, yearning for a nobler calling that Michael doesn't believe exists.
Lelaina is torn between the two. Who to choose, successful Mike, or maybe-to-be-successful Troy, who has been musically active lately, singing, playing guitar in a night spot downtown. They all talk, and squabble, and separate, and suffer. Eventually Lelaina makes a choice, but it's unlikely to be permanent, unless they both come down to the Planet Earth.
This isn't a movie I enjoyed much, but it successfully shows the unattractive side of being young, the hopes and fears and yearnings of youth, the overwhelming desire to have it all, immediately, that most of us suffer through, till we really start suffering, in a Working Life that stretches to infinity. The film seems to be a good record of dissatisfied young people who wouldn't and couldn't fit into the traditional American way of life. It also gives an accurate glimpse of the popular music, the way people dressed, spoke and expressed themselves, and day-to-day working life in the nineteen-nineties. The movie doesn't really seem to be a comedy, but some scenes are funny or have inherent humor.
The Householder (1963)
Indian Growing Pains
This is a touching story about the early days of a young married couple in mid-twentieth century Delhi. Prem Sagar is an inexperienced school teacher not much older than his students, underpaid and browbeaten by his superiors. His young wife, who hardly knows him because the marriage was arranged, is barely literate, lonely, and misses her young friends from her earlier years. The two newlyweds aren't getting along at all, so Prem sends for his mother to "help" his inexperienced and lackadaisical wife, with predictable results. Indu packs her things and returns to her own mother for awhile, while Prem dallies with the idea of taking up the religious life and following a local swami. What suffuses his face with a look of religious ecstasy, however, is the news that his wife has come back to him.
During Indu's absence, Prem meets an intense and exuberant young man from Pennsylvania, infatuated with Indian religion who, amusingly, can only talk of Indian spirituality, while Prem can only respond with remarks about India's burgeoning material progress. Ernest lives with two other Westerners in love with Indian culture, but the trio seems more like an Indian idea of such an eccentric group than the real thing.
The exterior and interior scenes of Indian life will appeal to those who may be familiar with R.K. Narayan's stories of India. Now we can actually see the streets, crumbling ruins, flowering trees, trains, sense the heat, look inside real Indian rooms, hear Indian poetry sung and how women and men talk to each other. A lot of the acting was good, with Durga Khote as the mother, Leela Naidu as Indu, and Shashi Kapoor outstanding. The DVD soundtrack was not good, and there should have been English subtitles. The meaning of some scenes could only be generally understood; the dialog wasn't comprehensible.
Zoolander (2001)
Also for People Who Read Good
This movie has a somewhat unlikely hero, a male supermodel named Derek Zoolander. He will eventually be programmed by evil-doers to assassinate the Prime Minister of Malaysia. He really isn't too bright, and his stunning beauty is apparent only to himself and a surprising number of admirers ("He's almost ... too good looking", "It's like there's a light around him") who don't notice that his special facial expressions, his "looks", are all identical. He loses a model contest to a rival, Hansel, but doesn't notice, and accepts the prize anyway. By the time his faux pas reaches Time magazine's cover, he is becoming aware that all is not well.
There's lots of wacky and grossly outrageous humor, situations, and action in the film, which only loses momentum a bit before the climactic wild and zany grunge fashion show scene, with Derek alternately hyper-athletically modeling, and trying to murder the Prime Minister. When shown a model of a school he proposes to establish for children who don't read too good, Derek hurls it to the floor; even he knows it has to be at least three times bigger for anyone to fit inside! If you get a laugh from that, you'll probably like the movie.
Ben Stiller as Derek may be the chief actor whose personality and ability make this film watchable and enjoyable. The DVD has some funny outtakes, and an excellent short on modeling from the Derek Zoolander University of Modeling for Men. (Tip: while on the runway, don't be distracted by celebrities to the left and right of you; pretend you're wearing blinders, "like a cow".)
That Certain Feeling (1956)
Feels Like Fun
This well-acted mid-nineteen fifties comedy with its star-studded cast is engaging and full of funny lines and situations. In the case of Pearl Bailey, still looking young, slim and attractive in her late thirties, it is also well sung. Her humorous asides to Eva Marie Saint's character ("Are you all right, Honey?") as she serenades Dignan (Bob Hope) and Dunreith after dinner, in the role of their maid, Gussie, are very amusing. The song she sings is "Zing! went the strings of my heart." A very young Jerry Mathers will tug at your heartstrings as a little boy being adopted by a famous cartoonist. George Sanders acted the part of the self-deceiving and self-promoting cartoonist Larry Larkin to the limit and beyond, but it all comes together in this light-hearted and entertaining movie. One memorable scene has Bob Hope, with a ukulele and straw hat, sitting in a canoe on a very long sofa, preparing to sing the title tune. If you missed the film when it came out, it's well worth a look, fifty years later.