Ace in the Hole, Fantastic Beasts and The Shining

 11/19/16 Ace in the Hole, 1951 #100 BBC
 Ace in the Hole was not what I thought it would be; actually, I had no preconceptions whatsoever as I had never heard of the movie before. And after watching it, that really surprises me. I really enjoyed this movie produced, directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, and starring Kirk Douglas as an overly ambitious and self-centered reporter, Chuck Tatum. Tatum has bounced around newspapers because of his drinking, womanizing and other inappropriate behavior. He winds up in New Mexico and joins a local paper there, the Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin, seemingly reformed, until he is sent off to cover a rattlesnake hunt, but instead stumbles across a man who is buried in a collapsed cave. Well, that's a story. An even better story would be if the man, Leo Minosa, stayed down there for a few more days so Tatum can build up a bigger story and negotiate a huge paycheck from the larger national papers. He gets support from Leo's unhappy and dissatisfied wife, Lorraine (Jan Sterling), who is tired of the dusty, poor life she leads. Before long, the town is bursting with gawkers and has a carnival atmosphere as everyone wants to see what happens to Leo. Tatum keeps Leo to himself, not letting other reporters near him. Tatum seems possessed by the glare of the spotlight on him and has visions of relaunching his career with no regard for Leo or his parents. Wilder shines a cynical light on the media, and this is before the advent of cable television, satellite tv, the internet and the 24 hour news cycle. It seems rather prescient with the news circus we have all around us. Douglas is fantastic as Tatum. Wilder is known for movies like The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity and Stalag 17 (among many others), perhaps what's why Ace in the Hole is so overlooked. If you are looking for a movie off the beaten track, I strongly recommend Ace in the Hole.

11/24/16 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, not yet nominated, 2016

I think a lot of people are going to be unhappy with my take on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but I did not love it, I'm not even sure I liked it. I know that I looked at my phone (for the time) at least four times, which is not something I normally do. I just didn't really care that much. Eddie Redmayne (who is one of my favorite actors these days) is Newt Scamander an English wizard traveling in New York City with a magical case with fantastic beasts he has collected from around the world. As far as I'm concerned, the beasts are the stars of the movie, since it seemed to me that over half of the movie focused on them, with little or no dialog to interrupt their gliding and flying.Newt meets Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), a wizard who works for MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States), who has been demoted to wand licenses or some such. Newt also meets a muggle or no-maj (which does not trip off the tongue) named Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), and the adventures start when the two accidentally swap their suitcases and three of the creatures get loose in New York City. Jacob takes the fancy of Tina's sister, Queenie (Alison Sudol). Colin Farrell is Percival Graves, Director of Magical Security. And then there's this whole thing with Mary Lou Barebone (Samantha Morton), the leader of the New Salem Philanthropic Society, who takes in kids and forces them to hand out anti-magic leaflets, she is not above physical punishment, especially towards Credence (Ezra Barebone). This train of thought just annoyed me, it seemed like an afterthought, but it was used to pull everything together at the end. Oh, wait, and then there is the character of Gellert Grindelwald, a dark wizard, whom we just hear of through chatter at MACUSA and newspaper headlines, until the very end. I have to say that even though J.K. Rowling wrote the script (oh, sorry, I didn't mention that this is a prelude to the Harry Potter series), it didn't seem to hang together very well; it seemed awkward and forced to me. Visually, the movie is spectacular, the beasts are creative and unique; the sets are fabulous. There could definitely be nominations for production/set design, visual effects, and some of the other technical awards. Anyway, if you are a true blue Harry Potter fan, you will probably love this; and I guess a lot of people will love it. Sadly, I did not.

11/25/16 The Shining #62 BBC

Oh my god. I'm so glad that's over. I really dislike/hate horror movies. I have told you this. But The Shining by Stanley Kubrick (book by Stephen King) was on the BBC list (damn it), so I had to watch. I intentionally watched it during the day because I am honestly afraid of having nightmares, so I will follow this up with Mrs. Doubtfire. Jack Nicholson stars as Jack Torrance, a wannabe writer and a bit of an arsehole; Shelly Duvall is his wife, Wendy, and Danny Lloyd plays their son Danny. In order to focus on his writing, Jack moves the family to an isolated hotel in Colorado to act as caretakers in the offseason. Danny has a telepathic ability which is more creepy than fun; in fact, most things are creepy in this movie. The hotel has a history of violence, which is brought to Jack's attention early on, as well as to Danny's by his new friend Dick Halloran (Scatman Crothers), who is the chef at the hotel and shares Danny's gift. There is a lot of analysis ofn this movie, as there is with all of Kubrick's movies; there are also comparisons to the book by King, which I have not read. I am in no position to analyze, compare or contrast, as it was all I could do to just get through it. The last 30-40 minutes were pretty intense, ok, really scary to me. So, this is all I've got. I made it.