Alfred Hitchcock Presents - The Man Who Knew Too Much

The Man Who Knew Too Much, 3/31/13, Best Song, 1956

If a Hitchcock film was to win an Academy Award, I would not have guessed it would be for Best Song, but that's what happened. Que Sera, Sera sung by the incredible Doris Day, won for Best Song from The Man Who Knew Too Much which also starred James Stewart. The movie is a suspense filled story that starts in Marrakesh, Morocco and ends in London, England. Stewart and Day play the McKennas a couple traveling with their young son through Europe and North Africa. They meet up with a mystery man who involves them in his international caper. To tell you much more risks ruining the story and the drama. I will say Doris Day is wonderful as the former stage performer/singer. She holds her own with James Stewart and the other actors, some of whom were veterans of the British stage and screen.

The movie holds up today; I mean, it's obviously from a different time period, you'd be hard pressed to find tourists today wearing suits and hats anywhere, but other than that, I really think a lot of people will enjoy it, if you haven't seen. I typically don't seek out Hitchcock movies, but because of this task ahead of me, I'm experiencing a lot of things I normally would not, and for the most part, I'm pleased. There is some humor, interesting views of Morocco, drama and suspense and an interesting use of music (it almost takes on the role of a character). I recommend watching the special features on the DVD, particularly the making of the movie; I would have liked to see an interview with Day about her role, but that was not to be. Que sera, sera. The movie is a rarity today, with no swearing and no significant violence. As for the song, I was thinking as I was watching how far we've come in 56 years, with a song like Que sera, sera to Skyfall (not saying one is better than the other, just really different). Que sera is actually performed by Day during the movie and does play a part in the story (you'll have to watch to find out what).

It's been a movie filled weekend, and I think my brain is tired, so I apologize if this is a little lackluster, because the movie certainly was not. I have Spellbound, another Hitchcock movie still in the hopper for this week (or next weekend). (insert profile of Alfred Hitchcock here).

The first docu-drama-mentary? The Three Faces of Eve

The Three Faces of Eve, 3/30/13, Best Actress, 1957

Docu-drama-mentary - I just made that up. It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but I think it describes The Three Faces of Eve, which is based on the true story of a woman diagnosed with multiple personality disorder or dissociative identity disorder. Joanne Woodward won the Best Actress for her roles as Eve White, Eve Black and Jane. Alistair Cooke (from Masterpiece Theater) introduces and narrates the movie and tells the audience that much of the dialogue comes from transcripts from Eve's doctors. In addition to Woodward, the movie features Lee J. Cobb as her primary psychiatrist and David Wayne (character actor, played Ellery Queen's father in the 1970s series) played her husband. I have to say, the acting from Cobb and Wayne seemed very stiff, especially Wayne's. It's like they were really part of the scenery and just there to move Eve's story forward. Woodward does an admirable job of playing three different personalities, sometimes having to change from one to another on command (I have no background in psychiatry, so I cannot say how realistic or accurate the portrayals of the personalities or the doctors was), and she makes them very distinct and identifiable. The movie wraps everything up in a neat little bow, which I find hard to believe. The real Eve, Chris Costner Sizemore (according the article in Wikipedia) has "been living with a single identity for 30 years". The Three Faces of Eve was one of Woodward's earlier movies, and she isn't as well known as her husband, Paul Newman, but I think she gives a great performance whether it's on the television or the big screen (I remember watching her in a performance of Come Back Little Sheba on TV and thinking she was wonderful when I was much younger). So, the usual question - should you watch it? I don't think it's a must see, but a see it if you can type of movie. I caught it for free, no commercials on my cable provider 'on-demand', so you can always try that or the library.

Life of Pi - it really did go on forever

Life of Pi, 3/30/13, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score, 2012

Did you hear that sound? That was my sense of whimsy dying, with a thud. Some people might say I never had a sense of the whimsical, and they might be right. First, I will say, this was a visually captivating movie, beautifully filmed and stunning. Great, awesome...Other than that, it was allegory wrapped in metaphor coated in a not subtle theological message. My favorite (can you sense the sarcasm through the Internet?). It sort of reminded me of that bloated 'masterpiece' from 2011, Tree of Life directed by Terrence Malick, which had some great visual sequences, but not much else. I didn't care; I felt every time the grown up Pi opened his mouth he was preaching at me. Gerard Depardieu's appearance was gratuitous (not the character of the Cook, but just him); he has put on some great performances; this was just a ham-fisted job on his part, maybe he should move to Belgium. I think Steven Spielberg should have won for Lincoln or perhaps David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook (just a thought since I haven't seen it yet). At first I thought I should have seen this in the theater to really get all the impact of the visual effects, then I just realized I saved myself $10 and the aggravation of watching the movie.  Do I recommend it? If you like that type of movie ('inspirational', message-y), then sure. I recommended a great documentary earlier today, Undefeated, which is inspirational and uplifting and shows heartache and compassion. That's what I would watch.

Documentary + sports movie is like chocolate + peanut butter

Undefeated, 3/29/13, Best Documentary Feature, 2011

I would have written this review last night except my eyes were red and puffy from crying. I don't really cry at movies, except documentaries and sports movies, so imagine the waterworks when I watch a sports documentary. I have referred to documentaries as 'food for your brain' but in this case, it's food for your heart and soul. Undefeated traces the 2009 season of the Manassas Tigers from Memphis. This story is about the players and their volunteer coaching staff, primarily the head coach, Bill Courtney. Historically, the Tigers have not been very good, in fact, for years they were horrible. Courtney has been coaching the Tigers for 6 years, and this season is the culmination of all of that work. What I like about Courtney is the emphasis he puts on character and teamwork, things that transcend football. He knows how important football is to the kids, who live in a tough part of Memphis, he understands that they probably won't play pro football, only a few may play in college, but for right now, in high school, football is a lifeline. Courtney yells, chides, encourages  the boys, never condescending to them, making them feel less than. We get a little insight into Courtney's motivation, and it made me like him even more. He knows he cannot be the kids' father, but he can be there for them, and let them know someone cares about them, and that's huge. The film features three of the players, O.C Brown, Montrail 'Money' Brown and Chavis Daniels; they are all so different from one another, united only by their geography and love of football. You can't help but love O.C., he's just a big, lovable guy, being raised by his grandmother, struggling with his grades, and a phenomenal offensive lineman with great speed. The coaches think he has a chance to play at the college level, so they come up with a unique plan to help him work on his grades and keep playing football. Money is like a pee-wee when he stands next to O.C., but plays with him on the line. He is the brain, doing two projects for the school science fair; his grades are his ticket out of Memphis. Courtney says early on in the movie that there is no way Money should be playing ball, he's too small, and he should get beaten every time by his opponent, but he doesn't, because of his mental toughness. And there is evidence of that through the movie. I hope he goes on to do great things. Chavis Daniels is a tougher nut to crack, and I'll be honest, I wasn't all that thrilled with him and his antics, but Courtney would not give up on him, and in a move that could have been in any scripted movie, Chavis gets put in at a key time, makes a game-changing play, and the rest is history. If this was written, I think the ending would have been written differently, but this is real-life.

All I could think about while I was watching this movie was everyone should watch it, whether you like football or not, if you don't normally like documentaries, even if you hate sports. There is some profanity, but it's generally heat of the moment, and it's real (some people don't like profanity, I swear like a sailor, so it doesn't bother me). The ethic the coaching staff tries to impart to the players, the understanding that sometimes you have to put the team first and your ego second is a lesson most of us can stand to learn, if you're a grumpy teenager or an old curmudgeon; when life handles you a tough moment, that's when your character comes out, and these kids have a lot of tough moments. Courtney and his staff try to teach the players lessons that will carry them beyond football. Watch this with your friends, watch it with your kids, just watch it. And you can blame me if you tear up. Go Tigers!

Food for your brain, part deux - more documentary winners

Looking at the statistics for my various posts, and I do, it seems that the documentary recap for 2012 was very popular. I hope that's because people were interested in the topics and Netflix and libraries from all over are working overtime to fulfill requests for the DVDs. The following movies won Best Documentary (long or short form) from 1972 - 2009 (not all inclusive).

Marjoe, Best Documentary Feature, 1972

Some of you may recall Marjoe Gortner from his time as an evangelist, or perhaps from his B-movie roles from the 1970s and 1980s, but it's far more probable that most of you do not remember him at all. I think that's one of the great things about documentaries, you don't actually have to have knowledge of the subject matter to appreciate or even enjoy the movie. The documentary follows Gortner as he works his way through revival tents and churches throughout the U.S. He is an extremely charismatic and likable and you can see how people got caught up in his act; it wasn't always an act, but at some point Marjoe admits it is a performance and a way to make money. I found it a compelling film, even forty years later.

Harlan County, USA, Best Documentary Feature, 1976

Barbara Kopple directed this documentary about a coal miners strike in Kentucky; she also directed American Dream which will be covered a little later. I think these days unions and the role they play is uncertain, the benefits that they can bring (safer working conditions, fair and living wages) versus the politics and reputation of widespread corruption. I don't think this movie or American Dream answer those questions for the viewer, and I do not think that is the point. It does make you think, and I thought, and still do, that people who do jobs like go hundreds of feet underground, potentially risk their lives so we can have fuel, deserve some kind of protection and decent wages, and there is probably a bias towards those results. Kopple shows the work the men do (it is a male-dominated field at this time, but also the importance of the women in the strike), how the families scratch out a living, and also how they live, the culture of that part of the country, including, and maybe especially, the music. I am not a huge country or bluegrass fan (typically), but I wanted to hear more of the music. It is definitely representative of that part of the country. This is a part of our history that, while it happened during my lifetime, I was too young to form any memories, but I feel like I should be aware of what happened. I think it's important to see this film and I'm glad I did (I actually saw this before I started my list).

Scared Straight, Best Documentary Feature, 1978

I think this movie should be called Scared Shitless, because quite frankly, that's what it did to me. I was an adult when I watched it, and I was nowhere close to being on the wrong side of the law, so maybe I was not the intended demographic. However, I think it showed what prison could be like to teenagers who are too cool for school. I'm sure the inmates went a little over the top, but I am really not going to tell any of them that. Thirty plus years later, there are opinions from law enforcement and judicial authorities that this type of 'presentation' to teens does not work (information from Wikipedia on their article on Scared Straight); see what I mean about me being the intended audience? So, should you see it? I do not know. It may be of interest from a historical perspective (what was considered acceptable and successful back in 1978, what could we do differently in the 21st century?). If you have limited time and want to limit how much you feed your brain, you can skip this. If you like, email me, and I can just yell at you and say really bad words.

Best Boy, Best Documentary Feature, 1979

This is a documentary where the film maker has a direct and real life connection with the subject. Ira Wohl made this film about his mentally-challenged cousin, Philly Wohl, and how Philly and his aging parents cope with his disability, and their plans for the future. They realize Philly needs to learn some life skills and Philly goes to a special school to learn those skills. I liked this documentary for several different reasons: it shows the main 'character' and his family as they are, flaws and all; there were definitely times I thought, well, I would never do that; I felt like Ira tried to be a film maker, but this is also his cousin and aunt and uncle, and he clearly has some ideas and perhaps thoughts on resources that may help the family; and also, it presents a glimpse into what it was like to have a mentally-challenged adult child in the late 1970s, and the viewer can ponder how things have changed, if they've changed, etc. I think they have changed, with so many work programs and other social programs available to families. But that's just my opinion. Wohl doesn't paint a little Mary sunshine picture, but I choose to think it's got hope. And spoiler alert: Philly is now in his 80s.

American Dream, Best Documentary Feature, 1990

American Dream is the second Barbara Kopple film in this section. It is the story of the strike against Hormel Foods, based in Austin, Minnesota between 1985 and 1986. I found this movie interesting for a couple of reasons: I live in Minnesota now, I moved here roughly seven years after the strike; I have a vague recollection of it, and for a while after I moved here, there were still references made in the press about the strike; and while the main story is about the strike, it is also about the inner-workings and in-fighting between the local union and the national leadership. Again, Kopple and her team of co-directors, do a wonderful job of making this a human issue; there are families affected by these decisions and choices. As I have learned living here for twenty years, many of my fellow Minnesotans have lived here for generations, many on farms or have made their living in agricultural work, and it is not walked away from lightly. There is not a happy ending to this story, but you don't watch documentaries for happy endings, you watch them for a well-told narrative and the human story.

A visit to Chinatown hosted by J.J. Gittes

My apologies for a lack of activity, other than playing with the layout of the blog. I was on a visit home, and while I suppose i could have knocked out four or five movies at my mom's, it was much more fun watching NCIS marathons and movies on the Lifetime Channel with me mum. As I mentioned, I did play around with the layout/template of the blog after some feedback from my brother. We'll see how this works (I think it has messed around with the text of the reviews because I pasted them in from a Word document). I also added tags to the individual entries that may be used for searching, so if you want to find movies that may be kid-friendly, or mysteries, etc., you should be able to search for them. So, back to work.

Chinatown, 3/26/13, Best Original Screenplay, 1974

I finally managed to see Chinatown; my previous attempt was thwarted by a buggy DVD from the library (I am currently being thwarted in watching Bound for Glory). Chinatown is set in the late 1930s, but made in the 1970s, and it has aged well into the 21st century. Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway star in this dark and moody mystery set in Los Angeles; Roman Polanski directed it. The story revolves around the fight for water, which was based on the real events from a few decades earlier. Nicholson plays Jake Gittes, a private detective, and Faye Dunaway plays Evelyn Mulray, the widow of the murdered chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Mulray is one messed up lady, that's for sure, and she takes Gittes on wild goose chases throughout the movie, and the last one is a doozy. There are a lot of layers in this film, which was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, winning only one, for Best Original Screenplay. 1974 was a great year for movies, with The Godfather, Part II which won six awards, disaster movies Towering Inferno  and Earthquake winning a couple, and Murder on the Orient Express winning as well. I was not sure if I would like this movie or not; I like mysteries, especially period pieces, but I knew nothing about this movie at all until I started watching it. I did like it, I found the setting and the premise intriguing, and I liked J.J. Gittes; he reminded me of Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon. As I mentioned, there is a lot going on, some characters are on for a few minutes, some for several scenes, you don't know who will be important and who is a red herring. John Huston plays Evelyn Mulray's father, and it was very cool to see him act. If you do not know, Huston was a writer, director and actor, and directed the aforementioned The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen, to name just two; and is the father of actors Angelica Huston and Danny Huston. The movie is rated R, but I thought it was more like PG-13. Definitely glad I saw it, and you should add this to your ever-growing list.

Documentaries - food for your brain

A friend of mine asked me what my favorite film genre was, and without missing a beat, I said 'documentaries'. She wasn't all that surprised, I think she was indulging me. I love that documentaries can take you on a journey to another country, culture, time period, or examine an event in depth. It would be even better if I could get college credit for watching them, but I don't think that will happen. The nominees for 2012's Best Documentary are all worth watching (well, I haven't been able to see The Gatekeepers yet, but let's go with 4 out of 5), and they are so disparate in their content and story-telling method. Not to be bossy, but you should see them.

Searching for Sugar Man, 3/17/13, Best Documentary Feature 2012

Searching for Sugar Man tells the story of Sixto Rodriguez’s incredible and unknown popularity in South Africa. Rodriguez is a musician who was mostly active during late 1960s and early 1970s. He essentially disappeared from the music scene but cultivated almost myth-like status in South Africa. The movie looks at this status and traces Rodriguez’s life in Detroit in the 1970s and into the early 21st century. There is very little direct commentary from Rodriguez, the history and background are filled in by his South African fans, people who knew him in Detroit and his daughters. There is plenty of Rodriguez’s music, which is great, because the songs are really incredible. If you like music or are interested in music’s role in society and culture, you should check it out. 


This is one of the few categories where I have seen most of the nominated films, and while I really liked Sugar Man, in my opinion, it was not the best feature.

My personal choice is The Invisible War which discusses the issue of sexual assault in the armed forces. The film feature interviews with several veterans, women and men, military investigators, JAG attorneys and others. I found this to be one of the most compelling documentaries I have watched. The women and men tell of their love for the military; for some of them they were 2nd or 3rd generation military and that their service was so important to them. Then it all changed after their first assault (in many instances, the assaults were repeated many times before a superior intervened or they were able to ‘escape’). Alongside the personal stories, attorneys and some investigators discuss the gauntlet that victims of sexual assault must walk to pursue any course of action and also the ‘process’ that the military and Department of Defense follow, essentially re-victimizing the victims over and over. The movie made me sad for the victims, and then incredibly angry. If there is anything good that came out of this film, it is that the discussion has been raised above a whisper in the Senate with hearings being held by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and maybe with more women in the Senate than ever before (and more enlightened men) there will be a change. Perhaps that is why I wanted this movie to win so badly, because it would have given the women and men in this film another platform for their message. Everyone should watch this movie.

5 Broken Cameras is a first-person documentary of the protests in Bil’in in the West Bank. Emad Burnat films the protest of his fellow villagers with five different cameras (most of them were given to him); the cameras are usually broken during encounters with Israeli soldiers. Burnat is not a professional videographer, and that’s not really essential here, he is capturing the events as they happen, many times through tear gas, bullets, and other explosive devices. Burnat shows us the protests and the violence, but he also shows how the villagers try to survive, harvesting the olives from their beloved olive groves. Burnat’s family features prominently in the narrative, particularly his youngest son. To be honest, I was not sure I wanted to watch this movie because I was afraid it would be anti-Semitic and I knew I would not react well to that at all. I didn’t find it to be anti-Semitic; I just saw people who were trying to keep their homes, their groves, and their dignity. The questions of Gaza and the West Bank are far too complicated for me to even try to cover here, so I won’t. I will say, I appreciated the honest efforts of the villagers to pursue a course of civil disobedience and when one of Burnat’s best friends, and a favorite among the kids, was shot and killed, I was just stunned. I think a documentary is successful when it makes you reframe your perspective. And this did that.

How to Survive a Plague traces the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and the activist groups ACT UP and TAG, and the fight to get drugs tested and out to AIDS patients. It relies mostly on archival footage from news coverage and the groups themselves. Any kind of radical movements (or perceived as radical) tend to get bad raps and dismissed as the lunatic fringe. This movie shows there was a lot of thought into what the members of ACT UP did, their protests, sit-ins, marches, confronting representatives from drug companies and government agencies. Through their persistence, refusal to take ‘no’ for an answer, and an ability and desire to synthesize reams of information and data, ACT UP earned the respect (reluctantly, perhaps) of the scientific community. Don’t get me wrong, they made a lot of enemies along the way, people who wanted gays to go away and who didn’t like the brash and aggressive tactics they took. I would like to think I could do a tenth of what they did in terms of putting themselves on the line (keep in mind, many of these men had the HIV virus or full-blown AIDS and they were marching and protesting, sometimes getting arrested). It was interesting to watch the timeline unfold because I was in high school when this documentary starts its timeline and I remember many of the more national level events, and to see where were are today.
So, what’s a movie viewer to do? Watch them all (I wouldn’t do it all at once, but if you do, finish with Sugar Man) you will not be disappointed.

It's an honor just to be nominated

Since 2009 I have tried to see all the nominated films, in all categories. Sometimes it takes a few years, but it's going pretty well. It's usually the short films and documentaries that take the longest (of course there are several I am delaying intentionally, like Avatar. This year I probably did the best job of getting the main films done before the Oscars, but I still fell short. Oh well, 2013 is a new year. Below are some of the nominees that I have seen recently. I think out of all the movies I have seen this past week, I would say the must see is A Better Life.

A Better Life, 3/16/13, Nominee for Best Actor, 2011

A Better Life is set in current day Los Angeles and is the story of a father and son struggling to make it economically and as a family. The father, Carlos, played by Demian Bechir who was nominated as Best Actor, is an illegal immigrant working hard as a gardener. His son, Luis, is your typical teenager, resentful of parental controls, embarrassed by his dad (weren’t we all?) and trying to find his place in the world of gangs and drugs and the work ethic of his dad. There is a lot happening in this movie, and I really don’t want to ruin any of it; there were parts of the movie where I found myself yelling at the television in disbelief. In light of the discussion we are having in this country around immigration, it frames the conversation in a very personal way. It doesn’t provide answers (at least not for me), but gave me something to think about. If you take away the immigration storyline, it’s also the age old story of rebellious teen and protective father who cannot communicate with one another, it could be an Irish-American family in Chicago, an Italian-American family in New York; it really is universal. I don’t know if Demian Bechir should have won the Best Actor compared to all the other actors, but I do think he (and the movie) was better than The Artist. It was a great performance. It was a very good movie, and I highly recommend seeing it. 
Flight, 3/16/13, Nominee for Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay 2012

I honestly don’t know if anyone could have beaten Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor this year, but it is going to be fun to watch the rest of the movies to find out. Denzel Washington is good, just plain good, it doesn’t matter what movie he’s in, he makes it better. Flight is definitely worth a watch for his performance as the rest of the cast. Washington plays Whip Whitaker, an airplane pilot with some severe addiction issues. The story follows Whitaker as he miraculously pilots his plane through incredible circumstances and the aftermath of the crash and his addictions. He’s a hard guy to like, really, because he is so arrogant and pretty much refuses any responsibility for what he did or does.

The Master, 3/9/13, Nominee for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress 2012
I have to say this: you can have great performances and still have a crap movie. The Master is proof of that. Ugh. What a painful movie. I kept hoping Joaquin Phoenix’s character would die from alcohol poisoning, but I was not that lucky. I don’t know if I am madder that it was so bad or that I paid for it on pay-per-view instead of waiting for the library to get it. I don’t know how to explain it, so I won’t. I don’t even know if the performances were that great (although I really do like Amy Adams – please see her in Junebug; at some point she will win an Oscar). So, my gift to you – skip this. Watch Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt and Phoenix in Walk the Line instead.


Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman, 3/10/13, Nominee for Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects (Snow White and the Huntsman) 2011

These are two very different takes on the Snow White story, Mirror, Mirror is lighter and comedic while Snow White and the Huntsman is dark and moody and has more action. Lily Collins is Snow White and Julia Roberts is the Evil Queen in Mirror, Mirror, while Kristen Stewart plays Snow White and Charlize Theron is the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Huntsman. I thought both movies were visually appealing and the costumes were really well done. I don’t know if I would recommend either of them, but if you must, if you want something light, then Mirror Mirror is the ticket. If you’re looking for something more Middle Ages and you like Chris Hemsworth (who plays the Huntsman), you’d be better off with SWATH. I do think you can live your life to the fullest if you see neither.

Not your average Saturday night

No Man’s Land, 3/16/13, Best Foreign Language Film, 2001No Man’s Land is set during the Bosnian war, and focuses on two soldiers, one a Bosnian and the other a Bosnian-Serb, who find themselves stuck together in a trench between the two fighting sides. At first I was watching it as a film about the war, but as other pieces started to fall into place, it started to seem like some kind of wicked satire on war and the international politics surrounding it. As long as the two men are stuck in the trench together, both sides have a temporary cease fire, if one kills the other, it’s over; complicating the issue is there is also a Bosnian soldier, who when he was thought dead, was moved onto a booby-trapped bouncing grenade, and if he moved at all, it would explode, spraying deadly shrapnel all around, killing all in the trench. The UN forces monitoring the situation want to try and help, instead of just ‘observe’ which was their brief. This is where the absurdity begins, with the bureaucratic paralysis that has come to symbolize UN intervention. The French UN team on the ground wants to help; the UN leadership (in this case, commanded by a British officer) wants them to do nothing. And the ending left me wanting to know how the event ended (not how I would have thought). The events that follow are infuriating and represent the frustration that actually happened during the Bosnian war, with the whole world just watching as the region imploded. It’s an interesting movie, and worth a watch.

The Apartment, 3/16/13, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction, B&W, Best Film Editing, 1960Billy Wilder directed this romantic comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine set in a New York City insurance company. Jack Lemmon was one of the cinema’s great actors, in comedy or drama. C.C. Baxter (Lemmon) has an apartment that he lets a few of the managers from his insurance company use for extra-marital relations, seemingly to help him climb the corporate ladder. And it works, perhaps a little too well, because the personnel director promotes Baxter so he can also use the apartment. The tenants in the apartment think all the hanky-panky is because of Baxter, and cast the expected disapproving glances. Shirley MacLaine plays Fran Kubelik, an elevator operator (which will seem so archaic in this day and age) in the building where Baxter works. The movie is full of sexist stereotypes and would probably be frowned upon today. That being said, there are a lot of movies that would be done in differently today or not all, so I don’t mark it down for that; it was made over fifty years ago and has some of the biggest talent of the time (or any time, really). I enjoyed it, and I think if movie directors and writers are so lazy that they keep digging up old movies to re-do (and they usually pick the crap movies), perhaps they could try re-making The Apartment, maybe with Amy Adams as Fran Kubelik and Steve Carrell as Baxter, and to mix it up, maybe have some of the executives using the apartment be women. If you are looking for a change of pace from the typical movie fare, get this from the library or Netflix and enjoy.

What if the Transformers were B-25 Bombers?

Pearl Harbor, 3/10/13, Best Sound Editing, 2001

Well, the good news is, it didn’t kill me to watch Pearl Harbor. The bad news is it took me over three hours to make that determination. I really thought it would be horrible; it wasn’t. I do think it was trying to tell too many stories and do too much, but the action was great, true to form for director Michael Bay (who has directed the Transformers series). Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett play the two daring pilots who are also boyhood best friends, who ultimately fall in love with the same woman, played by Kate Beckinsale. The focal point of the movie, and where the most action is, is the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. The movie won for Best Sound Editing, and there is definitely a lot going on with all the action, guns, bombs, planes, people yelling, and it does all come together seamlessly. There is a lot of story that leads up to that morning (the pilots, the nurses, the president, military command). I don’t know if the movie sheds any new light on the events at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, but it does show them up close. Alec Baldwin plays Jimmy Doolittle, famous for his raid over Tokyo; it’s this event that makes up the last part of the film, and something I did not know a lot about, so I liked learning about that (I will try to find some more material on this because it was an incredible story about some very brave pilots). I didn’t hear a lot of good things about this movie or the acting, and admittedly it’s not fabulous, but I have seen worse. Once I focused on the fact that it was a Michael Bay movie, I was okay with everything; he doesn’t pretend to be Woody Allen or Steven Spielberg, he makes movies like Armageddon and Transformers, and I don’t think anyone watches those movies for the acting. He (and the writer) took a pivotal event in American history and made an action movie, no more, no less. He through in a gratuitous nod to the African-Americans who served by adding Cuba Gooding, Jr.’s character (it didn’t seem very well thought out, and should have been left out or added with more scenes and dialog). If you have three hours to spare, and don’t set your expectations too high, I would recommend Pearl Harbor, if for no other reason than the information on the Doolittle raids.

Sometimes short isn't short enough

Six Shooter, 3/9/13, Best Live Action Short Film, 2005

I have to say none of the nominees in this category for this year knocked my socks off; the Icelandic entry, The Last Farm, had an interesting twist that didn’t totally surprise me, but I was still surprised it happened. It was worth watching just to see Iceland. Two had a kind of redemption theme, the German film, Ausreisser (The Runaway) and Our Time is Up; two men both getting a second chance; the latter features Kevin Pollack, who is good in everything he does. Cashback defies any summarization, in my opinion, and yet they somehow took an 18 minute short and turned it into a 102 minute film. I will let some other poor soul suffer through that, it was enough to sit through the short version. I’m just glad it didn’t win, because then I would be really irritated. The winner was Six Shooter, an Irish short featuring Brendan Gleeson, who is probably better known as Mad-Eye Moody from the Harry Potter films (as well as many other movies). I actually really didn’t like this film either, it seemed like there were too many narrative gaps and lapses in story-telling. I do like Gleeson and he has a great presence; the young actor who played the other main role, Rúaidhrí Conroy, was very compelling to watch and listen to as he tossed out swear words with cheerful abandon. I think the short form, whether it’s live action or animated, is very challenging because you are trying to tell a story, convey a message in less than 45 minutes, maybe on a really tight budget; but it does seem like the writers and directors take more chances and try far out ideas. I just don’t think it totally worked with this year’s selections.

The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation, 3/9/13, Best Animated Short Film, 2005

Not all of the nominees were included on the DVD from Netflix, but the winner and two other shorts were included. I don’t mind messages in my movies, sometimes I learn a lot and I feel so much more enlightened. If enlightenment and education were the point of Badgered, I must have totally missed it; I may have even fallen asleep. I guess the lesson would be, it’s nice to be subtle, but if you only have six minutes, subtle may not be your friend. My choice for the winner was The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello; it used a very different animation style, like cutouts or shadow puppets; a futuristic setting, but also a throwback to an unidentified past (it seemed to pay homage to Jules Verne), and an interesting story. Jasper Morello was voiced by Joel Edgerton who was in Kinky Boots (I have been trying to figure out how to work in a reference to this movie, and voila! It’s not an Oscar winner, but it is a really good movie – do not let the title scare you) as well as Oscar-nominees, Animal Kingdom (eh) and Zero Dark Thirty (thumbs up) and Warrior (also thumbs up). I actually would like to see what this story would be in a longer format. It certainly isn’t run of the mill. The winner, The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation was a strange sort of family therapy session told with home movies and photos and animation; it’s a son talking to his father (represented as the moon) about how disappointed and angry he is at the way his father treated the family, the decisions he made, etc. It also portrays how little kids know about their parents’ lives before they were born, gives the son some insight into his father’s motives. It was an interesting concept; I’m not sure that’s how I would like to air my family differences or past. John Turturro and Eli Wallach voiced the son and father, respectively. If you get the DVD from Netflix, 2005 Academy Award Short Film Collection, you can judge for yourself. If you can find, Jasper Morello online, just watch that, don’t mess up your rotation for the others.

Super duper Gary Cooper or not

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, 3/2/13, Best Assistant Director, 1935

A friend of mine who is a devoted follower of this blog has asked me what is the biggest surprise I’ve had doing this project. I have found that the more movies I watch, that answer gets a little more complex. Some surprises have been very delightful, like the movie, Departures which won Best Foreign Film in 2008 or It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World which was a madcap adventure brimming with great comedians. On the other hand, the more movies I watch, the greater chance I’m going to find those that surprise me at how much I dislike them, like The Hours. The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, which won for Best Assistant Director (an award no longer given) in 1935 falls closer to The Hours’ end of the scale than The Grand Hotel (from that same period). It was actually up for seven awards and only won one; noticeably none of the cast was nominated for a Best Actor award. The movie is set in the early 20th century in British Imperial India and follows the activities of the 41st Bengal Lancers as they try to prevent the uprising of one of the regions. It really focuses on four men, the by the book colonel, Colonel Stone, Lieutenants McGregor, Forsythe and Stone (the latter being the estranged son of Colonel Stone). If you take the story out of the Indian setting, it could actually be set in any war-torn area and era, the American Civil War, the World Wars, the Punic Wars; it’s really a story about a father and son and the development of their relationship: father doesn’t want to show favoritism, so he’s extra tough on his son; son resents this treatment so he does something stupid, etc. Having said this, there are probably many other movies that you can watch and probably enjoy more, like Captains Courageous with Spencer Tracy and Freddie Bartholomew or There Will Be Blood with Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano. The acting in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer was less than captivating and at times more wooden than a stage full of marionettes. Gary Cooper is the big name in the movie, and I know he is an American film icon, but I don’t get it, he’s just so stiff, I don’t think I’ve seen a movie where I have actually believed him in the role or enjoyed it. I’m sure I’ll have more chances to re-evaluate that comment because it seems he was in a lot of Oscar-winners. Some performances and films transcend the era in which they were filmed, this would not be one of them.