Change Your Image
jerrywarriner
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Rio Rita (1929)
Moderately Interesting, Historically Significant
The best way to view "Rio Rita" is to put yourself in the place of a 1929 moviegoer. Sound was still new, the camera was static, technicians were learning their craft and actors were finding that their voice was a crucial component of their skill.
The film is propelled along by its novelty and the reputation of the stage version. It was released amid a flood of other film musicals, and the public was about to become inured to them.
Other reviewers have described the innards of "Rio Rita" so there's little point in dissecting it. I can't say I was absorbed by the plot, which is conventional. The acting is competent and the music is somewhat tuneful. My interest was sparked when the black-and-white turned to color. Early Technicolor is a curiosity; some colors are bright while others are either muddy or absent. Nevertheless, it's eyecatching. The costumes are fine but the sets are rather dull and don't take full advantage of the available palette.
The movie is diverting and you may want to view it a second time. Those who appreciate film history will enjoy it more than the average film buff.
Roberta (1935)
Jerome Kern's Music Is the Real Star
I've been making a point of re-watching as many Astaire/Rogers films as I can get my hands on. "Roberta" is the sixth one so far and was sort of a letdown. It's not that it's a bad movie; it surely isn't. But as soon as the credits started I could see this was going to be an Irene Dunne picture because she gets top billing.
As the bandleader, Fred Astaire is given much more to do than Ginger Rogers. Other reviewers have described the plot so I won't go into that. Dunne is given some of the best songs and her voice is magnificent, but her introduction of "Lovely to Look At" is incongruous. There's a long stretch in which the only music is the underscoring of Kern's songs.
The movie focuses more on the relationship between Randolf Scott and Dunne's characters than on Astaire and Rogers. Perhaps that's why I felt let down. There are only two numbers in which Astaire and Rogers get to dance but the film ends with one of those dances, ironically to the tune of "I Won't Dance."
Kern and Otto Harbach wrong the songs for the Broadway production. Dorothy Fields, Kern's usual writing partner, is given credit for additional lyrics, most likely for the two added numbers that weren't in the stage version, "I Won't Dance" and "Lovely to Look At."
There's also "Yesterdays (sung by Dunne)", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Dunne again)," "Let's Begin," and "I'll Be Hard to Handle."
"Roberta" is entertaining but I'm partial to Kern's other musical, "Swing Time."
Melinda and Melinda (2004)
No Degrees of Separation
If the audience is supposed to tell which version of the story is a comedy and which is a tragedy, then I can only say, "good luck." There are no visual or audio cues to alert the audience to a switch in the versions. Perhaps a quick wipe accompanied by a sliding sound would alert the viewer to the switch.
Even worse, both versions contain elements of both the comic and tragic, so the separation of the versions is even more difficult to discern. If Mr. Allen threw the pages of the script in the air and re-assembled them in no particular order, he could have done no worse.
Because, with a few exceptions I'm not familiar with the performers, they looked to me like clones. Perhaps Allen should have instructed them to wear name tags.
I like many of Allen's films. The tragic and comic elements in "Crimes and Misdemeanors" are clear cut and don't require captions that read "This is comic" and "This is tragic." The last thing I want to hear from pretentious M&M fans is the comment, "It's so obvious you must be awfully obtuse."
Friends (1994)
Friends Is Like a Fresh Breath of Carbon Monoxide
After force-feeding myself a half-dozen episodes of "Friends," I was reminded of H.L. Mencken's observation that "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."
This is one of the most contrived shows ever produced. I have to assume that the people who find this series so riveting only do so to live vicariously through the lives of the characters. Either that or they are immature yuppie wannabees whose sensibilities have been compromised by gamma rays. The effusiveness of most of the positive reviews made me want to throw up.
Friends" reeks of nauseating sexual innuendos that are spat out like projectiles from a tennis ball machine.
When it comes to dealing with sex, "Cheers", Frasier" and "Seinfeld" were far more clever, witty and intelligent. "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David wanted his show's humor to be based largely on real experiences. The show broke one barrier after another and either originated or popularized numerous expressions. "Seinfeld's" sexual humor was clever and original; on "Friends" it was on the same level as smut.
On "Cheers," Ted Danson as babe hound Sam Malone was far more endearing than any of the male characters on "Friends." The show never ran out of hilarious one-liners, which was quite a feat considering that the show didn't often venture outside the confines of a bar.
"Frasier" was both cerebral and jocular (how many TV shows make references to the Algonquin Round Table?) Kelsey Grammar's Frasier Crane was sidesplitting as he pursued one failed relationship after another, but he never descended to the low-level sexual innuendos that were characteristic of "Friends."
Unlike evergreens such as the "Dick Van Dyke Show," 20 years from now "Friends" will have been consigned to the dustbin of forgotten TV shows alongside "Meet Millie" and "Hey, Jeannie." We'll see.
Is It Just Me? (2010)
Stereotypical?
I won't repeat the details, which have been provided by other reviewers.
It's far too easy and common to dismiss gay films as stereotypical depictions of gay characters and their relations to one another. That's like criticizing Cary Grant's romantic characters as stereotypically heterosexual
The film is populated by gay men who can be found in droves in real life, and the situations are not at all uncommon.
Men like Blaine can be romantic, shy, sweet, put off by men who are too aggressive or fearful of rejection.
The Camerons of the gay milieu are the opposite: full of themselves, firm in the belief they can "have" anyone and/or sexual athletes.
Xander typifies the middle ground. Nevertheless, most men have a combination of attributes and are hard to pigeonhole.
I was struck by the first scene in the coffee shop. Blaine is dismissed rudely by the gay man behind the counter. Yet, when Xander asks for the same beverage, because of his looks, the server is effusively friendly and gives him free coffee.
I've witnessed or heard of many similar incidents, when waiters, salesmen and others have been neglectful, abrasive or dismissive of customers who don't meet their standards of male pulchritude.
I'm not a big fan of gay cinema, but I enjoyed "Is It Just Me?" It's well acted and directed. Good music, too