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Reviews
Rocky and His Friends (1959)
Irreplaceable part of my childhood
I think I saw every single episode of this show, no matter what channel it turned up on. There are whole pages of dialogue I can still recite. What a cast of voice actors! Every one a star. I watched it years later, and was amazed how many of the gags probably went right over the heads of young children. It's just possible that kids now wouldn't understand the whole Cold War subtext (the Anti-Anti-Missile-Missile-Missile, for instance). I spent years as a classical-music announcer on the radio, having majored in music in college. Imagine my delight and surprise on finding out there was a great opera called "Boris Godunov"! I laughed all over again.
Maestro (2023)
Never intended to be a biography!
I see that a lot of others were disappointed this movie isn't a bio of Leonard Bernstein. If that's what you're looking for, then see the superb "American Masters" episode, "Reaching for the Note" on PBS. "Maestro" concentrates on the relationship of Leonard and Felicia--how they met, what attracted them to each other, why (against some pretty stiff odds) they stayed together, in spite of Lenny's interlude with Tommy Cothran. I think Bernstein's attitude toward life is summed up pretty well in the text for Beethoven's Ninth, finale: "Seid umschlungen, millionen!" "Be embraced, all ye millions!" Or even better: Walt Whitman: "I am large. I contain multitudes." He really did want to reach out and embrace all humanity, which no one mortal can ever do. But then, "A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's a Heaven for?".
The Object of My Affection (1998)
I know it's kind of a fairy tale, but....
I love it anyway. What a cast! I never watched "Friends". It was this movie that made me an Aniston fan. I'd watch Alda and Janney in anything. But it was Nigel Hawthorne and his character who brought me to tears. This movie made me love Paul Rudd even more than I already did. I do know that in the situation the movie depicts, such a rainbows-and-unicorns ending probably would not happen. But the actors' work is so endearing that I had to go along. I bet you will too. (I could add that this movie does a fine job of making you feel you're enduring an NYC summer without air conditioning--a nice touch of authenticity.)
Ladies in Lavender (2004)
With Judi and Maggie, how could you NOT watch?
I have admired Charles Dance as an actor ever since "The Jewel in the Crown", but I didn't know he'd also written and directed anything. I discovered this on Peacock, and I was just enchanted. All this and Miriam too! Beautiful to look at and so deeply felt, especially for this classical-music lover. Every part, right down to the characters who don't have any lines, is perfectly cast. I love listening to the Cornish accents! Watching this lovely movie, you don't need to be told where you are and when. It's a perfect lesson in the old writers' maxim--"Show, don't tell". The little bits of programming on the "wireless" give you the time, and the camera shows you where. Just delicious.
Coda (2019)
This movie could have been made just for me
Why wouldn't I love a movie in which 99% of the music is classical piano--and many of my personal favorites to boot! Some of them I used to play myself. Sir Patrick Stewart is wonderful. I felt every emotion so clearly. Delightful to see Katie Holmes as the New Yorker writer--the relationship she builds with the pianist is nuanced and natural. Also a surprising turn from Giancarlo Esposito. Even the small parts are so well drawn. (I'd actually like to see more about Felix!) Gorgeous glimpses of some of the most spectacular scenery on earth, as Sir Patrick walks trails he's clearly walked before. We're aware that the memories are flooding back. Beautiful, start to finish.
Crimson Peak (2015)
Why did I waste my time?
Plausibility isn't what you judge a Gothic ghost story by, I know, but this one piles one absurd, nonsensical notion after another. If you happen to be the outfit that makes fake blood, then this is the greatest movie of all time! Didn't this renowned director realize that by the twelfth or thirteenth bloodbath, the whole thing loses any shock value it might have had? Why would a supposedly intelligent young woman fall for the feeble charms of the Hiddleston character? How can even as coldhearted a pair as the brother and sister live in a house where snow comes in through the caved-in roof? Wouldn't they die of hypothermia? If you are a sucker for the "naive young woman arrives at big, strange country house" plot, see any of the "Jane Eyre" adaptations (my favorite: Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine), or "Rebecca". Or "The Innocents". Skip this one. It's an incoherent mess.
Behind Her Eyes (2021)
When the highlight is the wardrobe...
Simona Brown is an actress unknown to me before I saw this. I will certainly look for her again; she's easily the best thing about "Behind Her Eyes". But I found myself more interested in the clothes she wore--slouchy yet beautifully put together--than in the story. I kept wondering how a part-time receptionist can afford such a beautiful apartment (she must have had a crackerjack divorce lawyer!). When your mind keeps wandering to thoughts such as "Gee, I wonder where I could buy that sweater", you know something's gone awry. Then comes the big revelation in the final two episodes, and that's where this series fell apart for me. Why do we need to veer off the deep end and into the wacky supernatural?
Law & Order: The Pursuit of Happiness (1993)
Anyone else catch it?
There's a nice little Easter egg in this episode. The young Russian bride asserts as part of her alibi that she and her late husband had theatre tickets for later that week: "Guys and Dolls". Faith Prince plays a co-worker of the young wife, and also played Miss Adelaide in that revival.
You Should Have Left (2020)
Tired
Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried are fine as usual, and all praise to the cinematographer and the SFX people. I just wish I hadn't seen this storyline about a hundred times before. Many degrees better: "The Haunting"--the old one with Julie Harris and Claire Bloom. You really want a shiver? Read Shirley Jackson.
The Undoing (2020)
Beautiful production, familiar storyling
You could watch this and be entertained by its heaping helping of lifestyle porn: lavish homes, beautiful clothes, New York's toniest neighborhoods. I've been known to stay with otherwise mediocre movies just for the scenery or the costumes. So it was a given I'd get caught up in this series, whether I could pretty much see where it was going or not. One thing definitely caught my ear: Has anybody else noticed how similar Noma Dumezweni's voice is to Kathleen Turner's? Husky, intriguing...and a useful weapon in the arsenal of any criminal defense attorney. I had never seen her before, and she is brilliant. The same goes for Donald Sutherland, whose character could easily frighten small children without saying a word.
Mad Men: Souvenir (2009)
Betty has forgotten nothing
I know a lot of viewers thought "Souvenir" was an exercise in time- marking, but keep an eye on January Jones' Betty (who loves to make heads turn wherever she goes, trattorias in Rome emphatically included). She also revels in all that faux-flirting with Don. And, boy, that hairdo! But we're aware that she and Don are still under the terms of a truce, and that Henry is now in the picture; again, Betty caught the eye of an attractive man, and it makes her feel good when nothing else can. By the way: according to a "Music of Mad Men" list I found, the version of Rodgers and Hart's "There's a Small Hotel" used at the end of this episode comes from a 1954 revival-cast recording of the show "On Your Toes"; the singers are Bobby Van and Kay Coulter.