smithjet Reviews

You Can't Have It (2017)

Junk

[2/10 · 21 February 2019]

This film is not one you should waste your time viewing. The story of the last night in a bar named Mr. Phil's consists of a bunch of uninteresting people who do things for no discernible reason, then suddenly at the very end there is what I guess is supposed to be a shocking display of violence. But it wasn't shocking it was just weird. I don't mean kinky weird, I mean "WTF! Where did that come from?" weird.

The last scene is, I guess, supposed to resolve the whole story and I believe was the director's idea of a twist ending. The only thing twisted was my neck from getting out of the chair too fast as I reached for the remote.

All of the actors are of the "there's that guy who was in that thing" ilk.

Two stars.

Whiplash (2014)

Highly Entertaining

[8/10 · 19 February 2019]

I haven't read all 1000 reviews, but of those I have read not one of them mentioned the soundtrack for this engrossing film.

That's a pity because I think the music holds a key part in the story. I didn't catch from the credits who was playing all the band pieces but they were a top notch band. I would have liked to have heard a couple more charts from them. However, I am a rehabilitated trombonist and it's been years since I played, but it was clear to me that the close ups were of people who weren't actually playing the music that was on the soundtrack. But you know what? I was willing to suspend my disbelief because the story was so gripping.

J. K. Simmons was absolutely a terror, and I would love to see him try to sell State Farm insurance in character as Terence Fletcher. Just kidding! While Fletcher was an extreme caricature of a driven perfectionist, I had a band teacher in junior high who would throw small objects and yell at players he thought were lazy or not concentrating. I bought Fletcher's behavior, and I don't know how many of his stories about Bird were true, but I do know that Parker (and Miles and other greats) practiced their instruments for hours a day, every day. One of my favorites, Don Lanphere, was still practicing his scales two hours a day into his 70's, so Fletcher's message about what it takes to achieve greatness wasn't that far off track.

I think most people, even experienced musicians, will be enthralled by this movie because of the performances of the main actors, the story, the interaction between characters (I felt Andrew and his father's relationship - played by Paul Reiser - was touching) and the tremendous soundtrack.

While Fletcher's methods could be (and were) questionable, his objective was not and most people, including me, have no idea what it really takes to be one of the greats. Prodigies like Mozart are so very rare, that nearly all greats got where they are by embellishing some natural talent through dedicated and disciplined hard work. This move portrays that in a thoroughly entertaining and sometimes shocking way.

Highly Recommended.

King Lear (2018 TV Movie)

Elizabethan Language in a 21st Century Kingdom

[7/10 · 15 January 2019]

This is a gripping rendition of Lear with fantastic performances by all. Nearly all the famous and inspiring lines are here. I say "nearly".

There were several cuts to Shakespeare's text that surprised and disappointed me. A couple examples: 1) When Kent (Jim Carter) berates Oswald (Christopher Eccleston) I couldn't wait for Kent's long insulting harangue of Oswald: "A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats, etc." Alas, it was cut. 2) The most shocking scene in the play, the blinding of Gloucester (Jim Broadbent) by Cornwall (Tobias Menzies), contains the line: "Out, vile jelly! Where is your luster now?" Sadly, the second sentence was cut. I saw a performance where Cornwall not only gouges out Gloucester's eye, but when it pops onto the floor, he stomps on it. That still gives me chills, but it is not in this version.

Many other of the famous lines are kept in: "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child", "Every inch a king", And my favorite speech, Edmund's (John MacMillan) "This is the excellent foppery of the world..."

The cuts from scene to scene were a little jarring, and if one is unfamiliar with the text it is difficult to understand the conversations. The gist of the story can be discerned, but at the end I felt slightly disappointed despite the bravura performances. Emma Thompson as Goneril was cold blooded malice; Emily Watson as Regan was a convincing conniver. Andrew Scott was fine as Edgar but the film does not explain how no one could recognize him despite having nothing more than a dirty face and a woman's frock on. The same goes for Jim Carter's Kent, although he did at least shave off his hair and moustache, and wore shabby clothes.

Anthony Hopkins was excellent as Lear, with the full range of emotions Shakespeare gives him: loving, raging, angry, mad and grief stricken.

Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

One of Frankenheimer's Finest Films - but the story is sanitized

[7/10 · 28 February 2016]

I watched this again the other day for the first time since my original viewing about 40 years ago.

As it so happens, I toured Alcatraz about 6 months ago and none of the scenes supposedly inside the prison were actually filmed at Alcatraz. This isn't surprising since Alcatraz was still an active prison at the time of filming.

As far as the movie, Lancaster was superb and deserved his Oscar nomination. All of the other actors were also very fine except for Telly Savalas who was rather hammy as Feto Gomez. Lancaster had the mannerisms and gait a man might have who had spent 50 years in prison, nearly all of it in solitary. One of Lancaster's finest roles, if not his finest.

I haven't read the book by Tom Geddis that this film is supposedly based on, but if the film was a faithful adaptation, then Geddis should have been paid as a novelist not as a nonfiction author.

Stroud was not a nice man and did not appear to be rehabilitated or mellow as he aged - even though he became a renowned expert on birds while at Leavenworth. According to the National Park Service sources at Alcatraz, Stroud was a difficult, violent person almost until the end. Only his deteriorating health "mellowed" him, not his bird work.

In the film Stroud (Lancaster) complains to Warden Shoemaker (Karl Malden) that the prison system was "repressive" and robbed men of their individuality. Oh, boo-hoo: murder is even more repressive and permanently robs the victims of their rights to individuality. In real life, Stroud continually demonstrated that he was a menace to others when he was in and out of prison. The film's attempts to soften or lessen the severity of Stroud's crimes and psychopathic personality was one of the things I found most disappointing in this treatment.

There were other fabrications or omissions that detracted from the film for me: Stroud was an ardent homosexual (he often wrote homosexual erotica while in prison) who several times attempted to rape other prisoners. This aspect of his personality was not even remotely hinted at in the film. In addition, Stroud had no role whatsoever in the 1946 so-called "Battle of Alcatraz". This film paints him as someone who tried to make peace and who was instrumental in ending the assault. In fact, the weapons Stroud is shown dropping out the window in the movie were found on the dead inmates when authorities finally restored order.

In summary, this movie is a fine example of a great director at the peak of his powers. The story is compelling and the acting is first rate. However, the plot is largely fictional and the viewer will learn almost nothing about Stroud himself. It is no more enlightening on Stroud than JFK was about the Kennedy assassination, which is why I gave this film a 7 instead of 8. As long as the viewer is aware that it is almost completely sanitized, they are encouraged to view and appreciate this excellent film.