Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

Well, once all the hoop-la has subsided how will this film, directed by Greta Gerwig, be regarded?  Is it a missed opportunity or does it find a creative way of getting across feminist ideas to a mainstream audience?   I tend towards the latter, although what does it say that in 2023, several decades after the feminist movement was launched, the pretty basic ideas found in this film still need communicating? The early scenes establish the fantasy world of Barbieland, a matriarchal society where the roles of the sexes are the reverse of the real world.  I found these scenes OK but rather predictable and reminiscent of the early scenes of 'The Lego Movie'. The film only really got going for me once Barbie and Ken (Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling) leave Barbieland and enter our world.  There are some funny scenes, especially those where Ken has to get his mind round the idea of a world where men are in charge. I would have liked more scenes of Barbie and Ken explori...

According to Wikipedia this is, along with 'Singin' In The Rain', one of the finest MGM film musicals. Well, I beg to differ. To put this film, directed by Vincente Minnelli, in the same bracket as the Gene Kelly classic is absurd; this film is clearly inferior in terms of the songs, the dance routines, the comedy, the romance. In other words it falls short in every department. An aging Fred Astaire does what he can but he really needs a Ginger Rogers to complement him but instead he, and we, have to make do with Cyd Charisse.  Quite how she became as famous as she did is something of a mystery to me given that her acting is wooden, she didn't sing, and that even her dancing is quite limited in its range.   In this film she plays a famous ballerina so it is unfortunate that the ballet sequence which is our introduction to her is so woeful as to be laughable. Given that there is an age gap of over 20 years between the two leads, I guess we should be thankful that there i...

Whilst the original 1956 film will always have pride of place in my heart, there is no denying that this remake is a damned fine film, benefitting from suspenseful, and at times surreal, direction from Philip Kaufman. The location for this remake h as been moved to San Francisco, allowing the film to tap into the theme of big city alienation and paranoia, where everyone can seem like a threatening or uncaring stranger.  The main protagonist is now a Dept of Health official, Matthew (rather than a doctor) who is well played by peak Donald Sutherland. He is ably supported by a very young looking Jeff Goldblum, as an argumentative poet, and Leonard Nimoy as a celebrity psychiatrist, both well cast. Brooke Adams plays Elizabeth, a colleague of Matthew's.  I liked that she has a science-based job and that, to start with at least, her relationship with Matthew is not romantic, but I was disappointed that she ends up having little more agency here than does Becky in the original. Ver...

This is a 'black comedy thriller', according to Wikipedia, directed by Richard Linklater, based on real events and people.  As is often the case, it falls between two stools, being neither very funny nor very thrilling. The plot is pretty simple.  39-year old Bernie (played by Jack Black) is a mortician and pillar of the small-town community that is Carthage, Texas.  He becomes the constant companion of 81-year old millionaire Marjorie (Shirley MacLaine) but her possessiveness and unpleasantness drives him to kill her.  He manages to keep this hidden for nine months by pretending she has gone away, but eventually the truth comes out, and he is convicted of murder. It's well acted and well directed, and features interviews with some actual townspeople from Carthage.  It's all fine but I couldn't help thinking that if it wasn't based on real events it wouldn't have got made, and would that have been much of a loss? RATING : x Curb Your Enthusiasm 

This solid slice of 1990s entertainment gets 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, and at first I thought that the 1 in 6 critics who didn't rate it were being a bit harsh, but on reflection maybe it's fair: despite all that it has going for it (Tom Cruise v Nicholson, Tom Cruise v Kevin Bacon, a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin) it does have a couple of weaknesses, which we'll get to.   But to be clear, I'm not counting Demi Moore's presence as a weakness, because she doesn't get to do much, and because thankfully there is no cutesy romance between her and Cruise. Cruise and Moore are military lawyers defending a couple of soldiers charged with murder in a military court, and no, I don't understand why the military get their own justice system. A fellow soldier has died as the result of a 'punishment' meted out by the defendants that went  badly wrong,  but the nub of the case, and therefore the film, is whether the punishment was instructed by their commanding officer...

What more is there to say about this comic masterpiece? Well, I guess if 'nobody's perfect' then maybe it's also true that no film is perfect (except 'Citizen Kane' of course), and if I try hard enough I can come up with a couple of minor failings here. Firstly, the comedy does flag a little in the third act i.e. once the gangsters turn up at the hotel. Although maybe it's not so much of a third act as a coda, which means it's allowed to be a little subdued. Secondly, the whole 'dumb blonde' thing with Marilyn Monroe, and the dynamic between her character and that of Tony Curtis, does make for slightly uncomfortable viewing.  So although I shall never not find funny Tony Curtis' imitation of Cary Grant, the scene on the yacht doesn't amuse me quite as much as it once did. Every time I see this film it strikes me more and more that the real star is the fourth lead Joe E. Brown, who as Osgood Fielding III steals every scene he is in.  His i...