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Reviews
Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Hilarious and tragic
Sweet and Lowdown is rather minor Woody, much in the vein of Broadway Danny Rose and Radio Days, but still a fascinating and hilarious jazz history piece. The film is like the Ken Burns Jazz documentary, except the stories are played out between narration -- where different versions of legends exist, we see them all.
Emmett Ray was a typically tortured-soul jazz phenom in the swing age, "the best guitar player in the world, except for some gypsy in France," Django Reinhardt, who "haunted" him. Legend has it that whenever he saw Django, Ray would either faint or cry.
Ray's escapades are hilarious and tragic. Pimp -- er, "manager" -- kleptomaniac, drunk, and genius on the guitar, he loses jobs, marries impetuously, and squanders money. He likes to go down to the railyards and watch the trains -- on dates! "Hey, let's go down to the dump and shoot some rats!" Every girl's dream date. His wife marvels at his "genuine crudeness."
Perhaps the most intriguing part of the Emmett Ray saga is that it is so cryptic. Little is known about him, and no one knows what became of him in the end. As Woody says in conclusion, fortunately he made several recordings before fading away (or maybe going to Europe?) that preserved his tremendous playing, which in the end was every bit as good as Django Reinhardt's.
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Fine film, bad lawyer
Be aforewarned: Spoilers, and persnickety legal griping ahead.
I hate to throw cold water on such a finely crafted, deeply felt film, but it botches the legal side to the story, taking some of the bite out of the ending. The movies always get legal process wrong -- mostly because the law is actually too boring to make a decent story without embellishing. Here, Nicole (Sarah Polley) scotches the law suit by lying at her deposition. When the opposing lawyer asks her lawyer (Ian Holm) if he has any questions, he dumbfoundedly says no. Wrong.
The line of questions that would have really followed would have "reminded" Nicole that Billy was following in the truck and had told the police Dolores was going 50 mph; if Billy was lying, as she is now alleging, he could be brought up on charges of impeding an investigation; does Nicole want that? And what about Dolores? Did she often drive 20 mph over the speed limit with children in the bus? Will Nicole testify against Dolores in her trial for reckless endangerment and negligent homicide? Does she want that? I doubt it. Rather, confronted with these ramifications, her story would crumble, and the case would go on. Only Nicole's role as a witness -- for either side -- would be ended by the lie.
Do you really think a little white lie would be enough to make a real lawyer go away? If only...
The Big Parade (1925)
War Movie or Romance?
Although the beginning suggests All Quiet on the Western Front, this silly and superficial version of war falls far astray of its much better contemporary. This depicts the funnest war ever fought, with the first hour and a half devoted to romance and good times.
When we finally see some battle, it is lame: An enemy plane flies over? Shoot it down (in one shot). Sniper in the tree? Kill him before he gets a shot off. Enemy soldiers in the woods? Not to worry, they gladly surrender. Ho-hum.
Tepid, turgid, predictable...
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
Brilliant, searing -- and uproariously funny
Brilliant, searing social satire and moral examination. Inventive story-telling mechanism, weaving in and out of short stories paralleling life of agitated, angst-ridden writer -- Woody, naturally, with ample parallels to his own life. The most complex, rich film of his since Crimes and Misdemeanors with tremendous insights such as religion-as-group-exclusion, and the resulting moral bankruptcy it evokes. Twisted echoes of Wild Strawberries as "Harry" faces his inner- demons during a road trip to accept an academic award, capped by a hilarious Orpheus sequence that sends-up vast swathes of post-modern, pop culture overload. Harry finds redemption through his writing, even as it mirrors the life that he "is no good at living."
An jarringly imaginative film, brimming with ideas, insights, biting social commentary, and uproarious humor.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Kitsch-berg replaces Capra-corn
This movie does for battle scenes what Raiders did for action movies, but between the battles it's the same old sickly sentimentality and kitsch Speilberg-isms we are accustomed to. The Speilberg suspense-arc is easily recognized, giving SPR the feel of Poltergeist with Germans rather than ghosts, and E.T. with a kid from Iowa rather than a kid's toy. Positively tiresome.
The interminable length results in a whole lot of a bad thing...