Ant-Man, Cake, Do the Right Thing and more

A quick note: the BBC recently published their list of the best 100 American films and for kicks, I decided to incorporate it into the list for Academy Award winners, the American Film Institute's best 100 films over the past 100 years and the National Film Registry.

7/13/15 Cake, 2014

When I tell people I've seen Cake, I get 'really?' and then 'was it really depressing?' Yes, really, and no, it wasn't depressing. Jennifer Aniston deserved the great reviews she received for playing Claire Bennett, an attorney suffering from chronic pain, who also can be a raving bitch. Claire takes out her pain and anger on anyone within reach including her housekeeper, Silvana (Adriana Barraza who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress in Babel, and she was amazing), people in her support group, her physical therapist, and her estranged husband. I got the feeling that as bad as her physical pain was, her emotional pain was just as bad. Nina Collins (Anna Kendrick) was a member of Claire's pain support group who committed suicide, but she visits Claire in dreams, trying to convince Claire to commit suicide. Sounds really depressing, doesn't it? It is serious and occasionally sad, but I never thought it was depressing. Claire fights people and her pain with a wicked sense of humor, some might call it gallows humor, but I understood it. I liked watching the relationship between Silvana and Claire; Silvana's daughter doesn't like how Claire treats her and wants her to quit, but Silvana has an understanding of Claire, and seems to realize that Claire needs to lash out at someone, and she's okay if it's her, within reason. Barraza can totally mix it up with Aniston, they are a great match; I was actually thinking this could be re-worked to be a play with the focus on Silvana and Claire. I don't want to give out too many details since it's still fairly new in the home video market. But, if you're wondering if you should see it, I would say yes. Aniston should have received an Oscar nomination, in my opinion.

7/15/15 Do the Right Thing, 1989 #96 AFI,  National Film Registry, #25 BBC

I sort of remember when Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing came out, it caused a lot of controversy.  For whatever reason, I didn't go see it. The movie is set in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, which is as much of a character as the actors. Lee wrote, directed and starred in Do the Right Thing. Mookie (Spike Lee) is the main character and he works at Sal's Pizzeria (Sal is Danny Aiello). The story is kind of a day in the life of the neighborhood characters in a sweltering summer: Sal's sons, Vito and Pino; Da Mayor (Ossie Davis), Mother Sister (Ruby Dee), Tina, Mookie's girlfriend and mother of his son (Rosie Perez) and more (the cast list is really a who's who of great actors).  We see the movie through Mookie's eyes; he's really just trying to make a couple of dollars to take care of his son, hang out with his friends. He hears Sal's brusque, abrasive comments, but seems to know Sal's being a curmudgeon, occasionally pointing out some of the prejudices coming out of his mouth. Mookie's not as understanding with Sal's eldest son, Pino (John Turturro), who openly despises his father's customers, who are mostly African-American. I wanted to punch Pino in the mouth. Lee conveys the heat of the summer and as the temperature rises, so do the tempers. The set design pops with color, and draws your eye. There is a flavor of comedy which builds into a dramatic peak with a race riot and an unanticipated death that pack a punch. Lee is a provocateur, presenting images that are upsetting and troubling, and ending the movie with two quotes, one from Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, two men with the same ultimate goal, but with different ideas on attaining it. The way events transpire at the end reminded me of the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland, and not in a good way. Sadly, it shows how little has changed in twenty-five years. It's a movie worth seeing, not only for the film-making, essentially unknown actors making their mark, but because the issues of generational and race conflict still exist.

7/25/15 Wild Tales, nominated, Best Foreign Film, 2014

I'm beginning to think that when a write up says "black comedy" it's code for 'this really isn't funny, but we're too pretentious for our own good', because this movie was pretentious and not funny. Wild Tales is a Spanish/Argentine production; it's a collection of short films linked together by the theme of revenge. Save the two hours to do something fun, like having your cuticles yanked out.

7/25/15 Bringing Up Baby, 1938 #88 AFI, National Film Registry, #83 BBC

Bringing Up Baby stars Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant as Susan Vance and David Huxley, an odd couple if there ever was one. Huxley is a paleontologist who is going to be married the next day, but he is preoccupied with getting a million dollar grant from the wealthy Mrs. Random (to be fair, his fiancee is also preoccupied with him getting the grant and building his career, more than he is). In his quest to meet with Mrs. Random, David keeps meeting up with a young woman, who we would call 'spacey'; she takes his golf ball, thinking it's hers, she practically destroys his car, and then she thinks he is a zoologist. This woman is Susan Vance, and she happens to be Mrs. Random's niece, but she doesn't exactly share that information. Susan's brother has sent a young leopard, Baby, to their aunt, and Susan invites David to help bring up Baby. I hate to be a wet blanket, but while I enjoyed Bringing up Baby, I didn't love it. It was fun to watch Hepburn and Grant;  enjoyed them both more in The Philadelphia Story.

7/26/15 Ant-Man, not yet nominated, 2015

For some of us, this is odd timing for an Ant-Man film, considering Hank Pym (as Ant-Man) was an original Avenger, but I thought the movie linked the past, the present and the future with any new Marvel films, kind of the link that Iron Man provided previously. This movie is still in theaters, so I'll be sparing with the details. The new Ant-Man is Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), mentored by Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). This movie, like Guardians of the Galaxy sneaks up on you and mixes action with the comic book humor that I love (Douglas seemed to really enjoy his role and I hope he sticks around for other movies). The special effects are fabulous; I was curious to see how the tiny world of ants would translate to the screen, and honestly, it's awesome. The photography is fabulous. Normally I skip on 3D films because most of them are scams to get your money, but if I was to see this again, I would go 3D. If you want to see this, don't wait for DVD, see it on the big screen.

7/26/15 Sullivan's Travels, 1941, #61 AFI

Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake star in Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels, a movie about a movie director, John L. Sullivan (McCrea) who is tired of making the same kind of comedy films and wants to make a serious movie about poverty and the harsh realities of life. His big studio bosses think that's a very bad idea, and they think his other idea of pretending to be a hobo and traveling across the country is even worse. They agree if they can send a crew with him; he consents, but tries to lose them at every opportunity. On one of his stops, Sullivan meets a young woman, identified in the film as The Girl, played by Veronica Lake, who is a struggling actress and ready to go back home. The Girl goes on the road with Sullivan, dressed as a young boy. The movie has two divisions, the first one is the voluntary journey that the Girl and Sullivan take together, learning about life on the road, meeting some good people, and ending the journey on their terms. The second is a little darker, with Sullivan being attacked, losing his memory, and then being bullied by a railroad guard and attacking him, and Sullivan being thrown into a labor camp (kind of like the one Burt Reynolds was in in The Longest Yard) (I will say that was the speediest trial in history). In the meantime, another body is found and identified Sullivan, but as a favor to their friend, they give the Girl an acting role. Things eventually work out, and I don't want to ruin the ending, so I'll stop here. This was the first Veronica Lake movie I have seen, but she is referenced all the time, not necessarily because she was a great actress, but because of her hair style, very long blond hair, covering part of her face. I thought she was very good and funny. The movie isn't a 'screwball comedy' like Bringing up Baby, but it balances comedy with the heavy topic of post-Depression and the early war years, and sadly, it's probably still relevant today. Most people have probably not heard of Sullivan's Travels, but it is #61 on the AFI list and very much worth seeing.