terencebells Reviews

The Big Lebowski (1998)

A Scrumptious Je Ne Sais Qua

[10/10 · 3 November 2018]

How mysterious certain films can be. They become addictive. I've seen Lebowski at least a dozen time and most of the times by accident. It was on TV or a friend is watching it and it is enough to catch a glimpse to be hooked, completely hooked. Last night I saw it on purpose with a couple of friends and I think I'm stating to realize what is it - A unique combination of talents all looking in the same direction --- The Coen Brothers are, probably, the only ones who know what they are seeing and the rest just trust their vision. Totally. Jeff Bridges is miraculous. His character is unique, never seen and at the same times is all of Bridges characters put together. I love him in this part and I love the Coen brothers for writing it knowing, I'm sure, that Bridges was going to give it that real, totally real surreal kind of life. Philip Seymour Hoffman, comes in to do what he does best, being memorable and then, of course, John Tarturro, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, delicious, each one of them - I'm pretty sure The Big Lebowski will be around for centuries and it will always have something to say even if we don't know exactly what.

Hud (1963)

A Hard Western Look

[9/10 · 20 April 2018]

I knew I had seen it, I had a black and white James Wong Howe Cinemascope memory and Paul Newman's body language. How he walks, how he stands. I remember thinking that Jake Gyllenhaal had borrowed that physicality for his character in "Brokeback Mountain" and I just realized that Larry McMurtry is the author of both "Brokeback Mountain" and "Hud". He provides us with a look into the modern cowboy that is not only unique but mesmerizing. Paul Newman's Hud is a cad and yet you feel we sense that behind the bravado hides a desperate man looking for something. Something personal and unspoken. Hud is one of my favorite Newman performances. Soulless and yet needy. Is it a coincidence that the only woman that"got away" from Hud is named Alma? - Alma in Spanish means soul - Alma is played by Patricia Neal with power and humanity and she won the Oscar for it. Melvyn Douglas also won the Oscar for his superb performance and Brandon de Wilde deserved one of his own. He is extraordinary. Hud has become an important film in my life and in future viewings in years to come I may discover why.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

The Resurrection Of The Hudson Sisters

[10/10 · 21 April 2017]

Ryan Murphy's series "Feud" in which Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon play Joan Crawford and Bette Davis at the time of Baby Jane and beyond. I got so engrossed the series that I had to see What Ever Happened To Baby Jane again. Wow! Now, it all feels slightly different, less campy more poignant. Joan Crawford as played by Jessica Lange - the best performance by an actress in many, many years - is a totally recognizable person, crazy or not. When George Cukor tries to convince Joan not to be so vindictive "you're better than this Joan" to what Crawford/Lange replies: "No George, I'm not" Fantastic! Like another user already mention, I agree What Ever Happened To Baby Jane and Feud will be feeding each other keeping each other alive for generations to come.

Purple Noon (1960)

Scrumptious Darkness

[9/10 · 17 January 2008]

Alain Delon and Maurice Ronnet play a fascinating duet of savage cruelty in this tense beautifully crafted Rene Clement thriller from Patricia Highsmith's pen. Anthony Minghella remade it as "The Talented Mr Ripley" with a more polished script and some startling character development but "Purple Noon" has an unbeatable extra gear in Alain Delon's portrayal. He is deadly because anyone would have fallen into his trap. His beauty is inviting and reassuring. We witness his brutal side but don't get to the point of judging him. That is more unique than rare in a movie. Delon's Ripley acts as if there was nothing objectionable about his behavior. A poster boy for amorality. Marie Laforet's Marge is stunningly beautiful but don't get to know her as well as we do Gyneth Paltrow in Minghella's version. If you liked The Talented Mr Ripley" you're going to love "Purple Noon" and vice-versa.

Apartment Zero (1988)

One or two hundred idiosyncrasies

[9/10 · 18 October 2007]

The movie starts in the projection booth of an almost deserted movie theater in Argentina where "Touch Of Evil" is showing and ends outside the same theater,with a crowd leaving, but now the movie theater is a porno house. There is a palpable, visible change in Adrian LeDuc, the theater owner as well. This astonishing study on the horrors of sexual/political repression is given the shape of a thriller and the result is one of the most entertaining, unexpected, erotic cat and mouse stories I've ever seen. I thought I had everything figured out in two or three occasions and I was wrong every time. Martin Donovan, the director, tells the real story between the lines of a thriller, The real story is so private, so intimate, that it would be impossible to put into words. Everything said means something else or, means something more. "We're allowed one or two...hundred idiosyncrasies..." Adrian tells Jack to justify some of his weirdness. Perfect chemistry between a sensational an unrecognizable Colin Firth and Hart Bochner an actor I've only remembered in Die Hard. Here, he gives a performance of so many layers and faces that I don't quite get why he's not a major star. (I'm Netflixing everything I can find with him in it) The film spends a great deal of time with some of the supporting players, sometimes too much but mostly is a pleasure to abandon what we had embarked on and be distracted by a new story line that seems to take the movie into another direction completely to be pull back violently into the mainstream when you least expected. There is a strange sense of dread that runs through the entire film and it's that sense that keeps the whole movie together. My only advise: try not to see it alone in your own apartment. 9/10

Swoon (1992)

Another Kind Of Compulsion

[9/10 · 23 August 2007]

What a riveting, startling and altogether masterful achievement. The idea the we're actually seeing Leopold and Loeb in person crossed my mind more than once. The illusion is overwhelming and the idea that we're seeing and hearing something that we shouldn't is part of its fascination. I loved Richard Fleischer's 1959 film from Meyer Levin's novel. I was enthralled by Dean Stockwell's performance and that's the only missing element here. Dean Stockwell. However, Tom Kalin has masterminded a narration that makes the whole thing so close to what it really must have been that the experience, for all film lovers, should be a must.