violetta1485 Reviews

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

A little too timely in 2020

[7/10 · 13 October 2020]

I haven't seen other film versions. Under most circumstances, this movie night be a little slow and stagy, but watching a movie about an airborne disease that turns people against their friends and families in the Year of Covid hits all too close to home.

Spoiler: Strongest scene: when Vincent Price chases the death cart, demanding his daughter's body, and one of the men tending the fires says, "There are a lot of daughters in there...including mine."

Red Zone Cuba (1966)

Can you help a fellow American down on his luck?

[1/10 · 8 January 2017]

As others have said, this is Coleman Francis' (inspired by a bad acid trip?) attempt to do "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," which itself has its roots in Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale: ruthless criminals end up double-crossing each other and nobody really wins. Unfortunately, that sort of thing works only if you care about the characters or at least are curious to see what will happen next. I can't tell one character from the next, except that (as everyone else has pointed out) the main guy looks like the guy from the Three Stooges. As for what happens next, I can't tell what ALREADY happened, and I'm still watching it, courtesy of MST3K. I think they threw in the Cuba stuff just because it seemed timely in the '60s. Other than that, this movie seems like a bunch of random chase scenes and shoot-em-ups from other movies tossed together. The Stooges guy choking the one who keeps talking about his long line of Kallikak ancestors is Charles Boyer freaking out at a blind beggar in "Algiers," the MST3K crew picked up on the hiding- from-the-cops scenes cribbed from "The Defiant Ones," the chick associating with the men who abandoned her wounded husband is out of GOK how many films noirs. If you want to see a movie where random amorality actually works, watch 1972's "Bad Company." I've clicked the Spoiler option, but I'm not sure there's anything to spoil. NOBODY knows what's going on in this film.

Horror House (1969)

Less horror than suspense, but GROOVY costumes and sets

[6/10 · 31 December 2016]

The plot seems to be a hot mess, which one Armstrong website attributes to studio meddling that cut out key scenes and characters and replaced them with others, thus destroying whatever unity there was. It looks like Armstrong intended to make a slasher-style "Blow-Up," in which Mod London was revealed to be a lot less fun than its image, but throwing in US surfer-singer Avalon and a bunch of middle-aged characters just distracts from that theme.

It is, however, an awesome time-capsule of Swingin' Sixties clothes, hairstyles, makeup, and sets. The girls have miniskirts, false eyelashes, teased hair (or hair pieces) in the requisite flip-with-fringe; the guys have Technicolor ruffled shirts and Beatle bowl-cuts. They act out their angst in living rooms full of Pop Art. Enjoy it for the era's eye candy.

On Edge (2001)

Works for gymnasts too

[9/10 · 8 October 2015]

Never did competitive ice skating, but everything--the rivalry, the fat- shaming, the ruthless mothers trying to live through their kids--transfers quite well from competitive gymnastics, which I did do. Enjoyed seeing A.J. Langer, "My So-Called Life's" legendary "Rayanne," as a trash-talking trailer tramp. Probably the people who have the worst time with this movie will be the ones who either a) know nothing about competitive sports, or b) hate having their illusions destroyed. It's a more humorous take than sports expose "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes" or Jennifer Sey's gymnastics memoir, "Chalked Up," but I'd say the satire is probably spot on.

Copying Beethoven (2006)

Worth it, despite flaws other reviews have mentioned

[7/10 · 7 June 2015]

No, it didn't happen that way, and yes, it's derivative, with the obnoxious genius trope from "Amadeus" and the young girl inspires jaded artist trope from "Girl with a Pearl Earring." Why is it still worth it? Because it makes you feel something of what it is like to write music--even if you don't write music. It also makes you understand what it is like to be around a genius, not just from the main (fictional) character of Anna, but even from minor characters, i.e., the neighbor who finds Beethoven a nuisance personally, but gets to hear all his music before anyone else. It also gives you some idea of Beethoven's matter- of-fact acceptance of his dual nature, that he can write such heavenly music while being an utter boor as a man.

The Night of the Generals (1967)

Are there levels of evil in an evil regime?

[9/10 · 25 May 2015]

Omar Sharif is investigating the murder of a prostitute in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. He's working for the Nazis, but seems to have his own moral code. The Nazi generals under suspicion include one whose wife finds a red spot on his shirt and coolly concludes that he didn't cut himself shaving, so it must be lipstick; one who's clearly insane enough to do it, but (as Sharif points out), would hardly bother, when he can destroy an entire city in one day; and two who are plotting to kill Hitler (the prostitute was a secret agent; did she know too much?). A similar murder later occurs in occupied Paris; what connects the two besides the presence in town of the same suspects? The movie does meander somewhat, but it does explore the possibility that some evils are more evil than others, even in a world that is already thoroughly corrupt. Worth seeing if only for the performances and the biting wit of the script. Also worth seeing for Sharif and Peter O'Toole, reunited after Lawrence of Arabia, and every bit as gorgeous, both of them.

Fame (2009)

Find the Original, and skip this

[4/10 · 12 February 2015]

It's a mediocre movie, full of Glee and High School Musical vibes. You can watch it with some interest--but it's not like the 1980 one, where the "Hot Lunch Jam" made you wish you could join in. I can barely remember these characters, but the originals, from snotty Leroy and his no-talent girlfriend (who disappears after two indelible scenes), Coco's choosing to believe a sleazy "casting director" when she obviously knows better, the pervy musicians with the peephole, Ralph's helpless rage at his family's misery, Doris' gradual rebellion--these will stay with me forever. Watch the original one, glory in a sleazy NYC where there is genuine danger, and meet students who are not always likable, but have all the passion this remake lacks.

It Felt Like Love (2013)

Nailed every miserable minute of female adolescence

[9/10 · 20 January 2015]

It's all there: the cool best friend who keeps you around mostly so she can feed off your envy; the cool guy whose slut-boy reputation doesn't guarantee he'll bother with you; the younger friend you try to impress by copying your cool best friend's vulgarity without realizing that it is in fact vulgar, not cool; plus the resolution that is no resolution at all, because this isn't a John Hughes film where you triumph over the miseries of adolescence, and the best our heroine can do is survive them. Most tellingly, the most devastating possibility Lila faces isn't what you might expect it to be.

Some have criticized this film because it isn't clear whether Lila's interest in Sammy is love, lust, competition with cooler Chiara, or just curiosity, but I think that's the point--Lila herself doesn't know. More to the point, Lila doesn't know HER SELF: in a world where superficial sex is celebrated (Chiara pretends each of her shallow relationships is The Only One) and traditional crushes are embarrassing, Lila doesn't get a chance to work through old-fashioned puppy-love until she's ready for something else.

If I don't give it a 10, it's because I'm not sure I could bear to watch it again. The desperation for something, anything at all to happen, even something catastrophic, is too much like the real thing.

Into the Woods (2014)

Probably best adaptation possible

[9/10 · 2 January 2015]

I saw this on Broadway in the 80s and did the show in Brooklyn in the 90s, so I am very familiar with the original, and think this was as good an adaptation as could be done, when a show is based on so many theatrical conventions. Without an intermission, the whole point of Act II--that it's what happens AFTER "happily-ever-after," and Act I is designed to set it up--might be lost, and clearly was on people who saw the movie and didn't know the show. And I missed the wonderful moment when the narrator discovers you can't tell a story without risking becoming a part of it! I also missed several numbers: Agony II, the Witch's Act II rap ("Manticore?" "Imaginary" "Gryphon?" "Extinct"), "No More," and lines and verses from the songs included, although I understand they had time-constraints. Most of all, I miss the way the opening of ACT II made it clear that, even before the characters face an unexpected danger, getting their wishes hasn't brought perfect happiness: the longed-for baby strains an already troubled marriage, Jack's mother still treats him like a baby, Little Red hasn't learned that relying on her family and her street smarts won't always be enough, Rapunzel's traumatic upbringing has left her permanently damaged emotionally, and both Rapunzel's prince and Cinderella's only want what they can't have.

I think the biggest flaw here is the marketing, not the movie. Disney should have made clear this was a musical (some comments here show viewers were surprised, and not pleasantly), plus that it would return to the dark quality of the original fairy tales (many of which were quite violent, complete with cutting feet and Hitchcockian birds--Grimm can be GRIM--and BTW, the original wolf IS a warning to girls against the other kind of Wolf, in some versions, he tells Little Red to get into bed with him!). Most of all, they should have publicized the fact that the show's focus is AFTER "happily-ever-after," and how the characters discover that their actions have consequences. Act I ends with "You can't just wish, you have to act!" Act II ends with "You can't just act, you have to listen." Every song involves a character's opportunity to grow from experience, and I'm not sure all viewers got that. They seemed frustrated when the music didn't carry the story forward. Changing the publicity rather than the movie might have set up more accurate expectations.

Christmas at Maxwell's (2006)

Joy to a Fallen World

[6/10 · 15 December 2014]

In real life, Christmas can be a horrible time: illness, death, families that don't match up to the cuddly images on commercials and greeting cards, and it all hurts worse because Christmas is supposed to be fun Fun FUN. The movie, despite the flaws pointed out by other reviewers (it is slow and frequently depressing), deserves some praise if only because it confronts the cultural pressure to be happy with a glimpse at one family's imperfect reality. The family is Catholic, they are matter-of- fact about talking to their priest during various crises, and it's made clear that their faith isn't just about guilt over sin, but the hope of redemption--which is, after all, the religious origin of Christmas. The miraculous aspect of the plot makes more sense if you remember that good deeds to anyone are counted as service to God: "Whatsoever ye do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me." "Men have entertained angels unaware," and the kindness the family shows to a lonely old man may have been exactly that. That said, the lack of continuity with her hair and the kerchiefs is distracting, and should have been fixed.

The Swimmer (1968)

Flawed, but good

[8/10 · 30 November 2014]

This captures the nasty underbelly of the American Dream, and the cheesy music and 60s fashions (which some have criticized) actually underscore that. Where it falters is in being not quite as surreal as the story: in the movie, the neighbors' mentioning Neddy's mysterious absence implies that all his misfortunes, deserved or otherwise, may have already happened, and that he is out of touch with reality, convincing himself he is still happily married and rich. Some comments speculate that he had a psychotic break after losing his job and being divorced by his wife for his infidelities, one thought the red stain on his hands when he shook the gate was blood, and perhaps he had murdered his family. However one explains it, the movie makes it seem as if somehow these events could have happened already, Neddy gradually learning the truth in that one day.

The original story was creepy in that at the start, Neddy really is rich and apparently happy: his odyssey through the water turns into a shortcut through his whole life. As he grows older, colder, and frailer, the weather changes from midsummer to late summer and finally to autumn. The social status that protected him at the start has diminished along with his money. The friends he once counted on abandoned him just as he had abandoned others as he moved up socially. The marriage and affairs he was apparently able to balance at the beginning blow up in his face: the mistress turns on him, and the wife has left him. I think the stain on his hands when he clutches the gate is meant to be rust; the house has been shut for some time. His shock is that of someone who arrives at later life wondering how he got there, how he drifted so far from where he thought he was going to go or the kind of person he thought he was.

I'm not sure if the little boy afraid of water or the babysitter are bad additions. They do slow things down, but they also make him more human. He really isn't any worse or more shallow and materialistic than his neighbors; in a way, he suffers because he is LESS shallow, and begins to see the hollowness of his existence long before they ever will (if they ever do). I believe he's meant to be an Everyman--for everyone who ever arrived at later life wondering how he got there, how he drifted so far from where he thought he was going to go or the kind of person he thought he was.

They Ran for Their Lives (1968)

Meh

[4/10 · 8 November 2014]

The most annoying thing about this movie is the sound. Between Raoul Kraushaar's score, indistinguishable from the one he did for "Wanted: Dead or Alive" (or just about any other TV show he ever scored) and the "skidding-gravel" sound effect--the SAME "skidding-gravel" sound effect, endlessly repeated, no mater how much gravel there is to skid or how steep the incline down which it will be skidding--after a while, you just don't care what happens to any of the characters, good or bad. Other than that, it's not a bad suspense film. You hope that Payne and Patten will beat the bad guys, but it's fairly entertaining trying to figure out how.

Screen Two: The Clothes in the Wardrobe (1993) Season 9, Episode 1

Slow, but worth it

[7/10 · 12 September 2014]

This movie requires some patience. We can see that Margaret is torn between the heat and sensuality of Egypt and the chilly convention of England, but what is causing her listless progress towards a wedding with someone she clearly does not love? Is it the result of religious guilt over her own repressed desires? Is she on the rebound from an implied failed romance in the past? Or is it something more serious? During the film, she grows increasingly reluctant to marry her rather repellent fiancé. But if she doesn't marry him, what should she do instead?

Eventually, our questions are answered--and so are Margaret's.

Anna Karenina (I) (2012)

Takes too long to take off

[5/10 · 4 May 2013]

The last quarter of the movie was actually fairly moving, but it just took too long to get there. And I agree with all the people who question whether the performance metaphor for the artificiality of Russian society is effective, considering it's dragged out so long instead of just used as a framing device (as it is in both Olivier's and Branagh's versions of Henry V). Maybe it would have worked had it been filmed as a live performance. As for the performances, it may be deliberate that the lovers seem hollow while Law's Karenin, the most repressed character in the story, somehow implies worlds of conflicting emotions and pain underneath his reserve, but it sells Anna short. Bi-polar she may be (one reason Vivien Leigh's portrayal was so effective), but shallow she is not. Knightley is good in later scenes where Anna's personality starts to disintegrate, but the attraction to and obsession with Vronsky were simply inexplicable. The reviewer who suggested that this approach might have worked better with Mme. Bovary nailed it, I think.

Metropolitan (1989)

They won me over

[8/10 · 22 June 2010]

I was prepared to hate this movie, even though or because I was one of the extras in it. Most of us were dazed by the mere fact that we were picked for background because we apparently looked upscale, since most of us were sporadically employed actors living in creepy lofts with too many unregistered roommates, creepier basement illegal sublets, and (in my case) an all-female SRO populated equally by out-of-town career girls and old biddies on pension, many of whom were well along the process of losing their marbles. Since I was also being stalked by a genuine upper-class twit at the time of shooting, I had little sympathy for the characters of a project that I assumed (like many other extras) was a student film helmed by a trust baby.

When the film came out, it upended all these expectations. I *knew* these characters: the outsider who doesn't know if his longing to fit in means he's selling out, the snotty guy who's actually kind of sweet, the "nice" girl who's never properly appreciated, and the cool girl who takes her power for granted. Even the way the girls try to support shy Audrey over slinky interloper Serena is true to type. They may be stereotypes, but you've met them too, regardless of your socio-economic level. The pseudo-intellectual dialogue didn't make them less sympathetic, it made them more so--they are *desperate* to impress. Well who, at that age, isn't? Some people do it with clothes or athletic achievements: these kids do it with words. As for the pony-tailed possible sociopath, he reminded me painfully of my stalker--now I knew that these jerks who think they can get away with anything don't just target little peasants like me. They endanger their own class too.

Everything that people have criticized in this film, the stilted delivery, the awkwardness, is what makes it wonderful. It captures perfectly the struggle to be accepted. You could point out that Stillman does a certain amount of this in "Barcelona" and "Disco" also, but then do we ever really outgrow the need to be accepted? Only the settings change.

Wuthering Heights (1998 TV Movie)

The best version I've seen yet

[10/10 · 7 August 2006]

Yes, Brady and Cavanagh are too old for the childhood scenes, but no version has ever cast real twelve-year-old for those parts (The Calder-Marshall/Dalton one skipped to the adult actors ASAP and so did the Binoche/Fiennes one, if you'll recall), and I'll be very surprised if one ever does. The crucial dramatic scenes are from ages 12-16, which means you'd have to cast two or more actors for each role (Cicely Tyson could age 10-110 believably, but most actors can't) if you want to show the changes of adolescence. Most name actors wouldn't tolerate just playing the scenes post-marriage to Edgar, and leaving the meatier adolescent scenes to child actors. And frankly, most younger actors couldn't handle the dramatic weight of those scenes--possibly a young Kirsten Dunst could have carried the role of teen Cathy, maybe River Phoenix teen Heathcliff, but what about those accents? Now this may change someday: just as real teens were once thought unable to play Romeo and Juliet and since the Zeffirelli version casting young has become the norm, there may come a production that changes our view of WH forever and we will be unable to imagine non-teen actors playing those scenes.

That said, however, this version captured the characters as written better than any I have ever seen. Heathcliff was not romantically sugar-coated to make him less ruthless and vengeful than he is, Edgar for once is not portrayed as a wussy little weakling but just an ordinary, civilized guy who doesn't have a clue what a messed-up situation he's getting into with these local savages. Maybe Cathy 2 is a little more sympathetic than she was in the book (she starts out pretty shallow and class-conscious there), but Cathy 1 is as hysterical, self-destructive, and borderline as Bronte meant her to be, and her ill-fated decision to marry Edgar is clearly not just social-climbing or (as she says) an attempt to get power to help Heathcliff, but a misguided notion that if she surrounds herself with comparatively normal people like the Lintons, she'll stop being the permanently-damaged product of a family "dysfunctional" doesn't even begin to describe. Maybe Nelly's a little whitewashed: in the book she meddles when she ought to leave things alone and leaves them alone when she ought to take action, but the actress does a good job as the one rational person following the progress of this Dysfunctional Family Tree. Kudos to all the actors, and to the scriptwriters for not making the Lintons the villains so we can have more sympathy for Cathy and Heathcliff. The Lintons have the values of their time and class, but they don't deserve to be #$%^ed over as horribly as they are just because they're too prosaic to understand Cathy and Heathcliff's supernatural bond.

I loved the scene with the cave--where a young Cathy gets a glimpse of the man Heathcliff will grow to be, and the dying Heathcliff repeats the vision at the end. Even though it wasn't in the book, it captures the eerie sense that there was something extraordinary going on behind those ordinary events of bad marriages and class conflict, something supernatural and fated.

BTW, this is the first version I've seen where all the principals actually have Yorkshire accents. Maybe the Lintons wouldn't, since they have London connections and Joseph even claims he can't understand Isabella's dialect, but Heathcliff, Cathy, and Hindley would all have them, not just the servants like Joseph. This is before mass communication, and they wouldn't have heard many non-local people speaking, the way city-kids from Leeds or Liverpool might. Even today when everybody has TV and radio, the accent in Haworth is very strong, so even though they toned it down for the sake of comprehension, at least they sounded like they grew up in North Country and not in a classroom at RADA.

Endless Love (1981)

If it weren't for the book....

[3/10 · 15 April 2006]

This film wouldn't seem so awful if the book hadn't been so moving and extraordinary. Zeffirelli said in an interview that he was changing it so the love of the two teens was mutual, and not one-sided, and that I believe was his mistake. The book is not about love at all, it's about obsession. Readers have complained that we don't meet Jade until halfway through the book and she hardly seems to merit all that fixation, but that's the point. It's all in David's head.

In the book, when they reunite, he's trying to make them have sex exactly the way they did years ago. The opening pages show him looking through their window, feeling banished from this "wonderful perfect family," but he ignores all the clues that they are nothing of the kind: when he sets the fire, they can't cope because they are all on acid, in what the mother later describes as a last-ditch effort to bring the family together. The mother watches her daughter have sex in order to live vicariously, because her own marriage is falling apart. The father sneaks stimulants into his daughter's food because he believes in homeopathy. The brother, we later learn, brought David home as he brought other classmates home, mostly to impress them with how cool and hip the family is and then dump them when he gets bored (we learn later from an old classmate David meets on the plane that the brother did the same thing to him). David is obviously emotionally fragile to begin with, but these horrible poseurs are exactly the people he doesn't need to meet. They exploit him as an audience for their Coolness Quotient and then dump him without regard for what they might be doing to him. He's a psycho alright--but if he weren't, he might see through them, which he obviously hasn't done, even by the end of the book.

Little of this was conveyed in the movie, which also did not keep Spencer's late-'60s setting, which would have made the Butterfields' boho weekend-hippie aspirations more understandable. A lot of suburban people were trying to prove how groovy they were back then: look at mainstream magazines like Ladies' Home Journal or Newsweek and you'll see articles on open marriages, the pill, and symbolic meanings of Beatles Album covers. The respective talents (or lack thereof) of Shields and Hewitt have been the subject of much debate and jeering, but I don't think much could be done with a script that jettisoned the essential unreliable narrator aspect of the book (i.e., what David *thinks* he's telling us about the Butterfields and himself is not necessarily what we decide to believe after we've heard some of the details). All we have left is the star-crossed lover thing, and that has been done by Zeffirelli himself in R&J, and modernized in West Side Story. Without Shakespeare's words or Bernstein's music, or any novel element or perspective, it's hard to justify doing it again.

Wolf (1994)

Surprisingly clever

[8/10 · 26 March 2006]

I expected this to be pretty cheesy, and watched it only because I'm on a Spader kick. It's actually a really witty comment on both the corporate world and our concept of monsters: unlike the usual Hollywood treatment of this genre, this movie asks what effect a transformation has on a character when you consider his personality *before* the transformation: how does a werewolf bite affect a basically good and decent man as opposed to someone who is already a sleazebag?

Even the chemistry between Pfeiffer and the much-older Nicholson was effective. I thought at first pairing them was the usual Hollywood casting director wishful thinking, but they made it work and consistent with what we know about their characters.

Bad Influence (1990)

Fatal Attraction wanna-be

[24 March 2006]

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD: Ending was a little too pat and Fatal Attraction-y. What would have made this a cruelly perfect movie is having the entire thing turn out to be a plot by Patterson, the rival co-worker: he tricks Michael into committing worse and worse crimes until the guy melts down one way or the other, committing suicide, taken out by the cops in a shoot-out, going to jail forever, etc. Then Patterson (who faked his injuries with make-up) gets the promotion and marries Michael's former fiancée, the rich socialite.

Granted, that would owe a lot to "Diabolique"--but it would still be a more interesting turnaround than the existing one. I mean, we know Alex is sleazy, so there's not much surprise.

BTW, people who suggest a gay undercurrent probably have a better spin too--having a gay pickup turn psycho on him would make Michael's reluctance to turn to the police a lot more understandable.

Pretty in Pink (1986)

No to Duckie or Blane, Si to Steff

[16 March 2006]

Possible spoilers: To hell with the Duckie vs. Blane question. Steff's the only interesting one.

1. He's fearless: Duckie's afraid to tell Andie he loves her, Blane's afraid of his friends, but Steff walks up and hits on her right in front of his friends without caring what they'll think. He exploits Blane's shame about Andie but clearly feels no shame himself.

2. Duckie's suffering puppy love, Blane's just curious, but Steff has been after Andie for years. When he says it's "not *only* for sex," he's probably telling the truth, in his own sarcastic way. Key scene, when Blane and Andie walk in on Steff and Benny Bimbo, and Steff clearly wishes he were with the hot geeky girl, instead of the vapid blonde, even if Benny is better-looking, sexually available, and approved by his friends. And it's not only the challenge attracts him to Andie: despite his arrogance, he's probably been turned down before. He just suspects that with Andie, he'd have something real, and with Benny, whether her ecstasy is real or faked, it will be conducted according to "Cosmo."

3. He's willing to fight for what he wants, i.e., sabotaging Andie's relationship with Blane. OK, he's fighting dirty--but he's fighting at all. The others are about as decisive as Hamlet.

Right, enough deep thought devoted to what should probably be regarded as another teen movie. I give full credit to Spader, who fleshed out what could have been a one-dimensional baddie by making him really interested in Andie in his own sociopathic way, instead giving lip-service to a script that could have been played with the character being vicious solely out of hurt pride and snobbery.