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Other People's Money (1991)
Remake of Pretty Woman
It's only 1 year later already we have a remake of Pretty Woman - except this time the main pretty female character is a well-to-do lawyer instead of an impoverished sex worker and the corporate raider we start with is a short and dumpy and witty gentleman with some depth of character, instead of tall, handsome, and relatively shallow man.. Danny DeVito does an excellent job of acting like a corporate raider. Penelope Ann Miller does an excellent job of acting like a skilled attorney and skilled negotiator. Maybe it is helpful for Danny and Penelope that they have a pretty good script. Yes, I liked Other People's Money better Pretty Woman because it portrays people as being complex and having internal conflicts, rather than portrays some people as being basically good and other people as being kind of evil. Other People's Money is more realistic I think. I thought Other People's Money had more profondeur to it.
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
This is an anti-drug propaganda movie
The less frequently I eat a Haiti-grown mango in the US, the better one tastes when I finally get ahold of one. The less frequently you use any opioid, the better it works when you need it for pain.
The movie shows what can happen to people if they use opioids, or stimulants, without sufficient understanding, or care, about their benefits verses their risks, if you use them indiscriminately. It shows some of the worst effects of opioids and the worst effects of stimulants. It also shows how people in the medical profession and the criminal justice system, may sometimes treat people disparagingly who self-administer drugs. The movie is very heavy-handed. While there are some physicians who may prescribe stimulant diet pills without real care or concern for their patients, most physicians do not prescribe such drugs. You should indeed be careful if a physician prescribes them, without warning you of the risks.
I need to periodically have a painful procedure. Propofol and fentanyl, given by an anesthesiologist, physician, or nurse, have made me much more comfortable during the procedure, and I either do not completely fall asleep, or fall asleep for about 10 minutes and wake up without any noticeable after-effects. These drugs are a blessing when used knowledgably. They are not all-bad, as the movie implies. And that's why I called the movie a propaganda movie.
Ellen Burstyn gives a very moving soliloquy on the subject of being an aging woman. Really to the point, and moving. That was the only part of the movie that thought was worth seeing.
A Rhapsody in Black and Blue (1932)
Visit Another Planet
Sidney Easton gets transported to another planet. This happens 25 years before Startrek! Sidney Easton is THE KING on this planet. However I think ANYONE would feel like a a king. If they were on a planet inhabited by Louis Armstrong and his ensemble - and they took out their instruments. I know I did. You will too.
Young Adult (2011)
Wonderful warmth between Theron's and Oswald's characters
Excellent character study of both Charleze Theron's character and Patton Oswald's. Wonderful warmth between the two of them throughout the movie. Charleze Theron does a marvelously nuanced portrayal of her character. Likewise Patton Oswald does an excellent job of portraying of his character. Marvelous scene by the actors who portray the parents of Theron's character. They give us a hint of how it happened that Theron's character turned out the way it did. I could not tear my eyes or ears away from either of them. Supportive cast of good actors and I definitely enjoyed this movie. Good story, good script. Unusual degree of appreciation and portrayal of how unfair life really is, both in the story, and the dialogue - not just to funny-looking people, not just to stupid people, but also to people who are well-formed, who are smart. However I felt that the directing was not up to the same quality level as the acting. Sometimes things went by too fast, where I think it would have been better if the camera lingered on them a little longer. It sometimes made the action and the dialogue hard to follow. The camera could have lingered on the set and the scenery longer, too. Very often, before you could realize what you were looking at, the camera stopped helping you look at it. And the music was just - deadly dull. It did not help the story. Nevertheless, the camera lingered on Theron and Oswald long enough for them to get the point of the screenplay across. Great job by both of them. Basicly a good movie. I would recommend it. Some of the marketing material for the movie called it a comedy. It was not.
Hud (1963)
Patricia Neal
Patricia Neal's characterization of Alma Brown made this movie. There were excellent characterizations by Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglass, and Brandon DeWilde. But Patricia Neal is who I stayed to watch. And Alma Brown, the family's servant "girl," was the main character, not Hud Bannon, and not his father or nephew. I could not tear my eyes, or my mind, away from her.. It was not surprising she interested the male characters in the play. I think she will interest female viewers, too.
Concussion (2015)
Ignaz Semmelweis
Movie shows how the desire for money can override science in regard to what people know, or think they know. People's desire for money, the greedy desire for more than one needs, can cause people to hide the truth, and to attack the truth-tellers. The movie does a pretty good job of this. It creates suspense. This movie shows this desire not winning out in the end, but sometimes it does. Things did not turn out as well for Ignaz Semmelweis, as it did for Dr Omalu, when Dr Semmelweis discovered the reason for the "childbed fever" that was killing so many women after they gave birth. The other doctors, the ones who thought washing their hands was unnecessary, got together and managed to get Semmelweis locked up inside what we would call a "mental hospital" today. So that they could continue going right from the dissection of cadavers to delivering babies, without washing their hands in between.
Dr Omalu managed to avoid having Dr Semmelweis' fate happen to him. The movie showed that this result was not inevitable. He managed to avoid this fate perhaps only by the skin of his teeth. There were times when he thought his attackers might get the best of him. We have a happy ending here, in this particular story, but the movie made me wonder how often we get the other result: when desire for money wins out over the desire for truth.
Well-told suspenseful story.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Charming special effects.
That's about it. The special effects are clever and charming. The "food" looks disgusting. None of the characters in the movie seem to be enjoying it. The movie has a a little bit of wit: corporate inanity has spread everywhere, even to space. I had never seen a black monolith at the foot of someone's deathbed before. Not in real life, not in a movie. I probably never will. They don't seem to serve any purpose. They aren't particularly decorative. I think we can dispense with them.
The Graduate (1967)
It's not funny and it's not such a tradgedy either
I couldn't take my eyes off of Anne Bancroft in the role of Mrs. Robinson. But something made me feel ill. It wasn't the nasty character of Mrs Robinson's behavior that made me feel ill. I kind of ENJOYED that. It was having Simon and Garfunkle that made me feel ill. Their attempts at singing and playing musical instruments, and the nursery-rhyme nonsense-lyrics that they made up especially for the movie - that weren't especially relevant to the move - the lyrics that made no sense at all - those are what made me feel ill.
Even better than Anne Bancroft nasty behavior is Norman Fell's depiction of a nasty landlord. Here, a few years before he does a limpid, watered down version of this role in Three's Company, he depicts a wonderfully obnoxious landlord to perfection.God bless Norman Fell, he brings some class to this otherwise quite bland movie. I didn't find him quite as sexy as Anne Bancroft but perhaps you might. Who knows. In any even, it doesn't matter. His performance was juicy.
Dustin Hoffman does an indecisive interpretation of Ben, an indecisive young man. He hasn't figured out what to do with his life; he hasn't figured out what to do with his pedookie either. His "sex-interest" is Mrs. Robinson; his "love-interest" is Mrs. Robinsons daughter Elaine. Elaine is just a love-object, she is not an actual character. She is just a one-dimensional objet for Ben to stalk. Does Ben have any interest in having sex with her or does he just kind of have warm feelings for her and like being around her? Maybe he just has a stalking instinct? I think that's it. The writers haven't decided. I don't care.
Destination Planet Negro (2013)
Black history for the confused
Silly but warm story about sometimes chilling subject matter. Historical figures from the history of black people in the US, from the time of emancipation until the time of President Obama, time-travel to historical periods other than the periods they actually lived in. Makes for humorous confusion and an enjoyable movie. If you name is O'Bama you are probably Irish, no? There is a name for the story-telling technique of putting a person from one place or time in the environment of another place or time. Whatever the technique is called - that's the technique that was used here.
King Kong (1933)
Huge primate prefers white women
The dark-skinned inhabitants of skull island apparently have long been trying to appease the huge, fearsome Kong, by sending him beautiful dark-skinned ladies to do with as he pleases. But we never find out what Kong does with them. They seem to just disappear. What - what - has Kong done with them? It looks like the islanders are thinking that maybe a white lady will get better results? Make Kong happier? Appease him more? So they kidnap one from a ship that has happend to moor in their harbor. Wow! Wow! That did the trick. Kong is obviously keen on this particular lady. He carries her around everywhere. He protects her from every danger that presents itself. He undresses her. Not sure what he's thinking - she is awfully small.
Few reviewers seem to realize that the last words, spoken by Carl Denham, "it was beauty killed the beast," are spoken disingenuously. He came up with the idea just a short while before, when speaking to "the boys from the press." One of the reporters, after hearing how the Kong followed Miss Darrow back to the village, looks at Miss Darrow and says "beauty and the beast, huh?" To
which Mr Denham replies: "that's it; play up that angle. Kong could have stayed safe where he was, but he couldn't stay away from beauty." It is spin, propaganda, said more to pique the public's interest, sell papers, and sell tickets to see Kong, rather than to inform the public of the truth.
It's a Barnham and Baily world; just as phony as it could be. It was people in airplanes, with guns, that killed Kong. If Kong hadn't been so stuck on a white woman, who knows, they might have found some Other way to kill him.
Divorzio all'italiana (1961)
Wicked and Delicious
I think Divorzio all'italiana is an all-time masterpiece of movie-making art. It has amazing depth, and an amazing amount of detail. The cinematography, the script, the acting, the music – all wonderful. The thing is just uncanny. Even though my understanding of Italian is limited to maybe a dozen words, I felt drawn to listening to the dialog – listening in order to get whatever meaning I could pick up from the actors' InFlection and InTonation. The actors were just fantastic.
The screenplay is a ruthless skewering of post world war 2 Italy, revealing how Italians were becoming fully aware of the changes that were happening in the rest of the world, revealing how they were being affected by them – appearing eager to adopt them, but at the same time suffering from some kind of insidious stagnation resulting from the Italy's interpretation of the mores imposed by the Roman Catholic church – and revealing the problems that resulted from the conflict between change and stagnation. Some of the changes that were referenced, to hilarious effect as they reached stagnant Italy, were rock and roll, men orbiting the earth, and perhaps the most hilarious, the Italian movie released just a short time earlier: La Dolce Vita.
Divorzio all'italiana's main character, FeFe, to get the changes he wants in his life, he doesn't try to change the system; he works within the system. He carries out what seems like a rather unlikely strategy, however it is a strategy that works, sort of. In the process of carrying it out, the rot within the system gets exposed, and the humor gets created.
In most movies, the music that is used – it is used to tell the audience how the movie makers want the audience to feel about the things that are being said, about the things that are going on, about how the characters must feel. The dialog tells viewers what the the characters Think; the music tells viewers what the movie makers want the characters, and the viewers, to feel about that. It is, in most movies, as if the dialog and the actors need some extra help emoting, so the director calls in the composer to help out. "Now you know how you are supposed to feel about this, audience." This is NOT how the music is used in Divorzio all'italiana. I am not sure I can explain what the music does in Divorzio all'italiana, what it does differently – but the music does something different, and wonderful. I don't think I have ever seen another movie where I enjoyed the music so much, or where it supported the movie and "belonged" to the movie so well. Just another one of the little details that contribute to Divorzio all'italiana being a masterpiece. By the way, for most of the dialog, I needed a translation, but not for the title. I find it hard to believe that there are any speakers of English who couldn't figure out the meaning of "Divorzio all'italiana" without a translation.
Repulsion (1965)
Carol makes a mess of her apartment
The flat that the very shy, retiring Carol, lives in with her self-assured and "sexually active" sister, is a rather ugly flat, but it least it is neat and clean. However when Carol's sister goes on a little holiday with her boyfriend, and Carol is left alone, Carol imagines hands coming through the walls to grope her and also makes a horrid mess in the apartment. Now it is a very MESSY flat as well as a rather ugly flat. No conflict, no story, just Carol being afraid of everything and making a mess. Her only attempt at straightening out the mess involves ironing a shirt - using an electric iron without plugging it in. Really, she makes a horrifying mess of the apartment. Carol's sister comes home and is duly horrified by the mess. Tedious.
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Lots of Yelling
Blanche is no more neurotic than the rest of the mumbling characters, but the most vulnerable (not having enough income to be able to get her own apartment), so it is she that gets marked to be the scapegoat, and gets carted off to a "mental hospital" at the end.
Before that climax, you see a troop of impossibly over-emotional people yelling and throwing things. I thought I was watching a nature film about chimpanzees.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
No actual lambs appear on-screen in this movie
Beautiful love story about a convicted murderer and an FBI agent. Anthony Hopkins got a lot of critical praise for his portrayal of the convicted murderer. Ted Levine, as another murderer, one who has not been caught and convicted, but rather is being hunted, did not get as much notice from the critics, but Levine's portrayal of an obnoxious, evasive sewer rat of a person was just - wonderful.
Carnal Knowledge (1971)
Pretty dull
Perhaps a better title might have been carnal misapprehension. The story seems rather dated. I'm old enough to remember the time, the era being portrayed. And I remember the movie generating some attention when it came out. However I didn't see it then, I didn't see it until recently, 2017. I don't know what I would have thought in 1971, but today (1) I found it hard to warm up to the characters and (2) I didn't find their antics funny. I was just - not amused. I sort of see how perhaps people might have found the movie interesting at the time it came out, maybe, but I don't see how anyone could be interested today. Does anyone think and act like that anymore - the way the characters think and act? Do people today remember how some people acted like that 46 years ago? If so, would they be interested today? Today we know that the earth revolves around the sun. Is anyone today interested in how the misapprehension that the sun revolved around the earth, affected people's behavior many years ago, when that was what people believed?
Il disco volante (1964)
fantastic fun
Despite thinking it is unnecessary, the police chief dutifully complies when he is ordered by a higher-up to interview everyone who has claimed to have seen the flying saucer. What follows provides insight into human motivation and human nature, and is also hysterically funny.
The story uses the plot device of a supposedly non-existent object, the flying saucer, like a psycho therapist uses a rorschach inkblot. But of course, while rorschach inkblots are real printed copies of real inkblots, there is no such thing as a flying saucer. Of course. Or is there? Well, what is it then that is stimulating people's imaginations, revealing what is on their mind, revealing what they care about, showing us "who they are," and where they are situated in a small town's class hierarchy in 1964 Italy? Such things are revealed by what it is that they tell us they have seen, and by the way that they tell us that. Seem to me that what they have seen is not as important to the story as what they say about what they've seen. I think that what matters is what we learn about the *witnesses* to the flying saucer, if it exists, is what we learn about the people, from their testimony.
One reviewer called this movie "light fare." It is not what I would call light fare. Perhaps I might call it deeply penetrating satire. At any rate, I found every minute of this movie to be a delight. One of my favorite movies of all times.
Now, is there actually a flying saucer, or not? Watch the movie and find out.