Quarterly Cinema Scan - Volume XXXVIII

Since my last Quarterly Cinema Scan of October 28, there has been a major development in my little world.  At the Quentin Estates we no longer get Turner Classic Movies ("TCM") as part of our cable package from Comcast.  This unfortunate development is important  because most of the movies I have watched on the Quentin Estates idiot lantern, and subsequently have graded on this blog, have been on TCM.  Now, in order to receive TCM I would have to pay an extra charge on top of an already outrageous cable fee, courtesy of Comcast.  I am not willing to do that.  Of the twenty or so bills I pay each month, the one which brings me to tears is Comcast's.  I am too embarrassed to publish here exactly what the dollar amount is, but it is more than $200.  Whenever I write a check to Comcast I feel like I am being played for a sucker and a rube.  I am convinced if there is cable television in heaven, the provider will not be Comcast.

Now that we can no longer avail ourselves of TCM movies, we have turned to Netflix.  Momma Cuan, who is totally into the British royalty sagas of which there are plenty on Netflix, is certainly getting her money's worth with our Netflix subscription.  I have watched only a few films on Netflix, but am delighted that the current trend is for Netflix to show more new feature length films.  These films are showing up on Netflix because of a change in the way films are adjudged to be eligible for Academy Awards.  In order for a movie to be eligible for Academy Award consideration, it must be shown in theaters for at least a limited time.  Some studios have jumped on the opportunity to show their new movies in a very limited theater release (say, two weeks in a handful of cities), and then make it available via streaming on Netflix.  The theory for the movie moguls is that you get the best of both worlds: Their movies are less expensive to distribute, yet still eligible for the all-important accolades.

Of the movies released to Netflix, I was most impressed with Marriage Story.  Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver play a couple who, despite their continuing affection (if not love) for each other, decide to terminate their marriage.  He is a producer/director in a small New York City playhouse.  His career is close to hitting the big time, namely Broadway.  She is a California girl who never cut her West Coast ties, and still dreams of an acting career of her own.  She moved to NYC to accomsodate her husband, but still thinks of herself as a Californian.  Most importantly, they have a son (Azhy Robertson) who is an innocent victim in the tumult presented by his parents' breakup.

The first thing which stands out in Marriage Story is the excellent script written by director Noah Baumbach.  The dialogue is very real and even-handed.  Never once did I doubt that someone in either spouse's position would say what was said.  Each side's position has merit, and therefore it is impossible for viewers to pick sides.  Other than Kramer vs. Kramer, I do not recall seeing a film regarding the painful subject of divorce which impressed me so much.

The second highlight is the performance by Laura Dern as the wife's attorney.  If Dern does not win this year's Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, I just might file a complaint with my congresswoman.

****

Here are the films I viewed at the Quentin Estates during the final quarter of the last decade.

1. The Bounty Hunter (2010 comedy; Ex-cop Gerard Butler, now a bounty hunter, still has feelings for his ex, Jennifer Anniston, but that doesn’t stop him from tracking her down when she skips bail.)  B

2. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005 fantasy; Johnny Depp resurrects a factory by staging a world wide contest which attracts aspiring youngsters, some nice like Freddie Highmore, and others spoiled brats like Julia Winter.)  B

3. Echoes In The Canyon (2018 documentary; In the late 1960's, the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles became the creative cauldron of music artists including Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield, Michelle Phillips of The Mamas And The Papas, and Jackson Browne, all of whom are interviewed by Jakob Dylan.)  B

4. The Irishman (2019 drama; Robert DeNiro gets entangled with criminal activity overseen by mob boss Joe Pesci, and later becomes the body guard of union strong man Al Pacino.) B-

5. Fiddler On The Roof (1971 musical; Israeli milkman Topol has his hands full raising three daughters while his strong-willed wife Norma Crane often ignores the tradition which calls for establishing the “papa” as head of the household.)  B

6. La Bamba (1987 biopic; Lou Diamond Phillips is Ritchie Valens, a California high school kid whose brief music career came to an abrupt and sad end in an Iowa cornfield on the day the music died.)  B-

7. Marriage Story (2019 drama; Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are married with a son, but their career aspirations are on different coasts, leading to a dissolution.)   A-

8. The Two Popes (2019 biopic; Jonathan Pryce plays Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio who arrives in Rome to seek permission from Pope Benedict XVI (Anthony Hopkins) to retire to simple parish work, but the pope has other ideas.)  B

Movie Review: "Little Women"

"Little Women": C+.  I am 50% Italian. Both of my maternal grandparents were born in the old country.  Italians like to hug.  I am no exception. There are few things I like better than being on the receiving end of a hug, especially if it’s coming from one of the Plethora Of Pulchritude, i.e., my four granddaughters. But even hugging has its limits. For example, if I’m watching a movie, I don’t want or need to see the characters embracing in virtually every scene. But that’s what you get in the latest version of Little Women. Two-plus hours of almost perpetual hugging.  The four sisters and their mother can’t be in the same room without administering a big ol’ hug. What ever happened to a nod, a wave or even a simple, warm smile? Do those gestures not sometimes suffice?  And these characters are not Italian!  Are they pretending to be?  I wish writer-director Greta Gerwig had switched it up a little bit, just for variety’s sake.

Now on to more serious reflections.  Almost exactly a year ago I watched the 1994 version of Little Women, directed by Gillian Armstrong.  As most adults already know, it is the story of the March household with four mostly disparate daughters lovingly headed by a mother whose husband is away fighting in the Civil War.  I gave it an A-, as noted in my thirty-fourth Quarterly Cinema Scan posted last January 31.  The Armstrong film was the sixth time a full length motion picture adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's 1868 classic had been produced.  Given the critical and commercial success of that movie, I wonder what the primary motivation was for yet another film adaptation so relatively soon after its predecessor.  Did the story of the March family really need to be told again?  Both the '94 and the '19 films follow Alcott's novel.  Unless a filmmaker is going to significantly depart from the original source material, thereby offering a new "take" on a well known and beloved story, I believe the answer to my posed question is "no."  Despite misgivings, in my perpetual quest to be a cooperative spouse I accompanied Momma Cuardito, at her request, to the screening.

The aspect of the 1994 film which I found most memorable was the acting by Winona Ryder, who plays Jo, the smart and spunky second oldest March daughter.  Most literary scholars consider Jo to be Alcott's alter ego.  Ryder's performance won her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, thus presenting a high bar for her successor in the 2019 film, Saoirse Ronan, to surpass.  Ronan is equally good as Jo and, just like Ryder, is the strongest attribute in her respective movie.  In the last five years Ronan has been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar three times, including this year for Little Women.  Such a resume is even more amazing when you consider that the red headed actress is only twenty-five years old.

Gerwig's film has other strong points, such as the comfy costuming by Jacqueline Durran, the rich interior set decoration by Claire Kaufman and the New England cinematography by York Le Saux.  Laura Dern is an excellent choice to play mother Marmee.  Her work here may be overlooked, however, because she was spectacular as a divorce lawyer in the contemporaneously released Marriage Story.  Florence Pugh has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of youngest daughter Amy, an honor which surprised me a little for reasons I'll explain below.  The Academy voters have selected the film as one of its nine Best Picture nominees.

The most problematic facet of Gerwig's script is the confusing and totally unnecessary jumping back and forth among various years.  As I have written before, I don't object if a narrative is not presented in chronological order provided that the choice works to the advantage of the viewers.  Here, it fails.  Two examples in Gerwig's film substantiate my objections.  There is a funeral scene in which one of the female characters is buried.  Seconds later, the scene switches to a wedding in which the deceased is celebrating with the bride.  Huh?  To further complicate matters, Gerwig decided to have Amy played by a single actress, twenty-three year old Pugh.  When the story opens Amy is a very young girl -- you might say a "little woman."  At the end she is a married woman.  By comparison, Armstrong, the '94 film's director, wisely chose to have Amy played by two different actresses, twelve year old Kirsten Dunst and twenty-four year old Samantha Mathis.

A quick note about three other things which don't add up.  The March family owns a beautiful house, and appear to have many of life's comforts without having to perform hard labor.  They wear extremely nice clothing and are well educated.  Yet when Marmee needs to travel to visit her wounded husband in Washington, D.C., Jo cuts her own hair which she sells to help pay for her mother's train ticket.  (This sets up the funniest line in the film when one of Jo's younger sisters, referring to Jo's hair, laments, "Oh, Jo, your one beauty!")  Secondly, the story includes the romantic interests of the sisters with young men.  Why aren't those guys off to war instead of the girls' middle-aged father?  And thirdly, why does one of the sisters hurriedly and surprisingly get married en route from Europe back to Massachusetts instead of in the presence of her loving family?  Whose fault are these puzzlements, Alcott or Gerwig?

Although I did not enjoy this movie as much as I'd hoped, Momma Cuandito "absolutely loved it."  In the grand scheme of things, that's what counts the most.  Happy wife, happy life.

Movie Review: "1917"

You're old enough to kill, but not for votin',
You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin'?
- "Eve Of Destruction," Barry McGuire (1965)

"1917": B+.  As I was exiting the screening room of the Icon West End Theater, I was confident in my appraisal that 1917 deserves a grade of B+.  The story of two young British soldiers sent on a perilous mission into German occupied France in the early stages of World War I easily manages to maintain an interest level sufficient to carry through two hours.  Much of the media hype surrounding this film was about the "single shot" technique used by director Sam Mendes.  Employing a style occasionally used by Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Altman, the camera work is so fluid and mobile that the viewer never loses sight of at least one of the two infantrymen.  Some critics have found this method to be superficial and distracting, while others feel that the perpetual up-close motion adds to the intensity.  Not to be a weenie, but I am in the camp which looks upon Mendes' choice as being neither a distraction nor a huge benefit.  There are other reasons to favor this movie irrespective of its single shot filming technique.

Unfortunately for me as a reviewer, the facet of the film which I found most unforgettable and impactful is one which I can not describe as much as I'd like without spoiling the viewing experience for you, the readers.  (I wonder if I should have used the singular, "reader.")  About as far as I dare go is to write this: An event occurs approximately a third of the way into the story which utterly takes me by surprise, partly because of the movie’s pre-release marketing.  Hint: If you have ever seen Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho, you might discern a similarity.

Also in 1917's plus column is the endearing magnetism of the two leading men, Lance Corporal Tom Blake (Dean Charles Chapman) and especially Lance Corporal Will Schofield (George MacKay).  This is not your typical war story.  Although there certainly are battlefields, they are deserted.  In fact, the rolling French meadows are beautiful, seeming as if they don't belong in something as horrible as a war.  Few soldiers are killed on the screen, and yet corpses abound, some draped over barbed wire fences, others piled in shallow troughs.  The focus is not on generals, or for that matter, any officers at all.  The concentration of 1917 is strictly on the two lance corporals who appear barely old enough to tote a rifle.  It is this simplicity which personalizes the drama for us.

The story arc of 1917 is straightforward.  Blake and Schofield are charged with getting word to another British battalion several miles away that the purported recent withdrawal by the German troops from a land sector is not what it seems.  The Germans, unbeknownst to the battalion, are lying in wait to ambush the Brits as soon as they advance to the territory exited by the Germans.  To prevent the slaughter of sixteen hundred of their countrymen, one of whom is Blake's older brother, the two buddies must make their way across the treacherous landscape, replete with places an enemy sniper might be hiding.  Blake and Schofield's mission is ordered by General Erinmore, played by Colin Firth in a two minute cameo.  (Note: The only other "big name" in the cast, Benedict Cumberbatch, also makes a cameo appearance near movie's end.)

The script has some head-scratching features which prevent it from attaining a grade in the "A" range.  From my list of six or seven, here are three.  First, if the lives of 1600 men are at stake, why did Erinmore send only two foot soldiers to deliver the warning?  And why not use an air drop?

Second, Blake and Schofield risk life and limb to maneuver slowly from General Erinmore's long trenches to an abandoned small farm.  Several minutes after their arrival, a convoy of British military trucks rumbles down a dirt road which runs next to the farm's property as if their drivers were out for a holiday lark.  They are traveling from the same direction as were Blake and Schofield.  If it was so easy for the truckers to get to the farm, why did the two lance corporals have to endure such a miserable walk to get there?  Apparently hitching a ride was out of the question.

Third, there is a pre-dawn scene occurring in a bombed out village.  A woman, her baby and a couple of combatants are the only ones around.  But near sunrise we hear the tolling of church bells.  It's hard to imagine that a Jerry or a Brit took it upon himself to perform that task.  It must have been Quasimodo in the belfry.

1917 received ten nominations for the upcoming Academy Awards, including Mendes for Best Director and Roger Deakins for Best Cinematography.  The much-acclaimed Deakins is considered a favorite, while Mendes has already won a Golden Globe for direction of this film.  The movie itself is one of nine nominated for Best Picture; it has already won the recently presented Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama.  MacKay might have a beef for not being recognized with at least an Academy nomination, but at age twenty-seven he will have more opportunities.        

Movie Review: "Uncut Gems"

"Uncut Gems": B-.  Collectively, Adam Sandler movies, most of which are comedies, have a reputation among critics as a mixed bag. His reputation as an actor mirrors that of his films. He has won more Razzies for poor acting than any star not named Sylvester Stallone, yet he’s no doubt laughing all the way to the bank.  (His net worth is estimated to be $420 million; his current asking price is $20 million per film.)  Uncut Gems, a serious drama with few comic elements, may signal a new direction for the comedian’s career path.

Sandler plays Howard Ratner, a jewelry store owner who repeatedly makes one horrible decision after another. It starts the day his business associate, Demany (Lakeith Stanfield), brings Kevin Garnett (playing himself) into the shop, which is located in Manhattan's Diamond District. The year is 2012, and KG is the key cog on the Boston Celtics.  Demany has informed KG about a mysterious rock roughly the size of a beer can, mined in the mountains of Ethiopia. It contains many gems of various colors still imbedded therein.  For reasons not fully explained, the rock is now in the possession of Ratner.  It had apparently been smuggled to him inside the body of a fish.  The curious KG arrives with his entourage and is quickly fascinated by what he sees.  He feels lots of mojo emanating from the rock; he's got to have it, at least on a trial basis for his next game.  The rock clearly has more upside potential as a talisman than a rabbit’s foot or other good luck charm.  Ratner knows KG is worth millions, but then so might the uncut gems, or so he has reason to believe. He agrees to allow KG to leave with the rock on the condition that Garnett put up collateral in the form of his beautiful emerald world championship ring from 2008, embossed with the Celtics logo.

That transaction sets off a chain of events which, given Ratner's circumstances and makeup, are almost inevitable.  Ratner is in debt up to his ears, and to make matters worse, he has a gambling addiction.  His creditors, one of whom is his brother-in-law, Arno (Eric Bogosian), are short on patience, the type who will get physically rough if they aren't paid.  To get the tough guys off his back, Ratner resorts to what amounts to a quasi-ponzi scheme.  He unwisely takes Garnett's championship ring to his favorite pawn shop.  In exchange for entrusting the ring with the pawnbroker, Ratner gets cash. Their deal is that Ratner has until the end of that week to buy back the ring.  Otherwise, it's the pawnbroker's.  As soon as that little factoid is revealed to us, we can guess where this is going to lead.

When Ratner gets the money, he has two options.  He can either repay some of his financial obligations, or use the money to place a bet with the hope of increasing his cash position.  For a man with a gambling addiction, the choice is obvious.  Not only does he make a huge wager, but he picks Garnett’s Celtics.  Maybe he believes, as does KG, that the basketball gods will bestow good fortune on the player with the Ethiopian rock.  As the two-plus hour movie goes on, Howard is faced with several more dilemmas, rarely making the right move.

In addition to the jeweler’s financial and gambling challenges, his love life is a mess.  His wife, Dinah (Idina Menzel), turns a deaf ear to his seemingly sincere plea for another chance.  Sandler has made a career playing the sad sack.  Here, he makes us hope Dinah will change her mind, but she is steadfast in her decision.  She's tired of his lifestyle, watching him fritter away their money for too long.  As soon as Passover is done, she is filing divorce papers. However, we can't feel too sorry for poor Howard.  He is having an affair with the comely Julia (Julia Fox), his store clerk who is twenty years his junior. This man has clearly outkicked his coverage.

Although the movie does not lack for intensity, or even excitement to some extent, I found it to be repetitive and overly long.  The film editors should have had one more go at it -- maybe more Fox and less Sandler?  No, I guess that proposal would not work, as Sandler's acting is a strength of the film.  One aspect in which the directors, brothers Josh and Benny Safdie, spend too much time is showing actual footage of the Celtics game on which Ratner has bet a small fortune.  Watching guys watching a pro basketball game on a small television screen does little to entertain me.  (Disclosure: I would rather watch professional bowling than pro basketball.)  I found the story to be jumbled.  I almost wrote "a jumbled mess," but drew back.  It's not quite a mess, so let's put it this way: The writers have crammed in too many chaotic events, twists and turns, several of which do not advance the story.

Two of the minor characters merit a quick comment.  I was surprised to find Menzel cast as the wife in this movie.  The famous singer from the Frozen animated films and award winning Broadway plays has a small, non-singing part in a movie that falls on the opposite end of the decorum spectrum.  Also, one of Arno's henchmen is Phil, played by Keith Williams Richards in his debut role.  The actor has a presence about him that reminds me of Hollywood icon Kirk Douglas.  I learned that Richards had never acted at any level, amateur or professional, before he was discovered by an assistant casting director, Michele Mansoor, while walking through a subway station in New York.

Finally, a caveat.  I recently watched The Irishman on Netflix.  Other than movies starring the late Dennis Hopper, I hadn't recalled a movie in which the effenheimer was used by more characters in such a variety of circumstances.  That "record" is threatened by Uncut Gems, in which blue dialogue flows naturally from the lips of the majority of its characters.

The Old Boy Pretending To Be Nineteen Again, Part III

The Grand Finale was everything it had been hyped to be, and more.  Terry's last minute advice to "enjoy the moment" was prescient, as our performance and surrounding hoopla turned out to be one of the highlights of my sporadic drumming "career."

When our pre-gig run-through ended around 7:45 that Wednesday night, June 26, the hallway outside the main studio where we'd been rehearsing was filling up.  There were friends, relatives and probably people off the street who came in to grab the beer, wine and appetizers which RCX was providing free of charge.  Presumably they also came to hear what we'd been up to for the past month.  Across the hallway was a smaller studio in which a 101 group was also wrapping up its own four week camp.  While RCX does not typically offer a public show for their 101 camps, the idea of having that group come on before us had been proposed the previous week, and we were all fine with it.  Having an opener would add to the lively aura of the event.  The question of whether they, the 101ers, were game for it wasn't answered until that final night when that group gave their collective thumbs up.

Gina, John and Michael showed up.  I was delighted to have their support, and wished a few other Famdamily members could have made it too.  The four of us chatted in the hall where I introduced them to a couple of my nearby bandmates.  A few minutes later the 101 camp was almost ready to begin, so we made our way back into the main studio.  There were at least several dozen people in there, with chairs and benches filling up the relatively large room.  The party atmosphere was contagious.  The 101 coach was our old pal, Henry.  As he was welcoming the crowd and about to introduce the opening act, I glanced over at their drummer.  A weird thought occurred to me:  What if this guy turns out to be the second coming of Keith Moon or John Bonham?  That would be a rather hard -- okay, impossible -- act for me to follow.  I even shared that thought with Gina, who looked at me like, "Who in the world are Keith Moon and John Bonham?"

That first group was fronted by a young woman with a pleasant, old school style.  She and her mates did well, playing a short set of four light rock songs originally performed by female singers such as Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Nicks.  The crowd appreciated the good music and the band appeared to grow more confident with each tune.  Then it was our turn.

I wasn't nervous at all, but I did take the precaution of resisting the free beer.  I correctly figured I would have a chance to quench my thirst after the show.

We had not finalized the order of our set list until earlier that week via email.  There were three main considerations on how to slot our seven songs.  First, start with a bang; second, end with a bang; and third, place Jukebox Hero, the most demanding song for our lead vocalist, deep enough into the set so that her voice wouldn't run out of gas before the end.  What we came up with, as shown below, was possibly the best order of all the possible permutations.  For the benefit of those of you who are rock historians, or simply curious, inside the brackets following each Foreigner song are its Billboard Hot 100 debut date, the peak position, and number of weeks on the Billboard chart.

1. Feels Like The First Time - What you might label as a "build up song," starting with a slow lead guitar, then joined by drums and keys, followed by a pounding beat with vocals, all within the first thirty seconds.  A good starting point for us and, coincidentally, Foreigner's first single.  [March '77; 4; 22]

2. Double Vision - The song that Foreigner often chooses to open their live concerts, including the two I have seen in person.  A dynamite rocker.  [September '78; 2; 20]

3. Hot Blooded - Foreigner's signature rocker, the quintessential classic rock song.  [July '78; 3; 17]

4. Urgent -  Bouncy beat; one of rock's most famous sax solos, courtesy of Junior Walker, second only to Bobby Keys' masterpiece on the Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar.  [ July '81; 4; 23]

5. Cold As Ice -  A relatively short (3:20) yet oddly structured song, with prominent leadoff keyboards and a fade-out that lasts over a minute.  Requires the most backing vocals of the seven on our set .  We only had one session to learn it, as it was not introduced until our third meeting.  [July '77; 6; 21]

6. Juke Box Hero - Our toughest song to master and the most strenuous to sing.  We liked to call it Juice Box Hero.  Another "build up song."  Heavy backing vocals, a staple of the Foreigner catalogue.  The lyrics tell a story similar in theme to Bad Company's Shooting Star, which had been released seven years earlier.  [February '82; 26; 13]

7. Dirty White Boy - The perfect closing song, with the potential to send the crowd home stoked.  The fastest beat of our seven, and one I loved to drum to.  [September '79; 12;14]

While I was playing I was trying to take everything in.  I figured our set would fly by quickly, as so many big personal events are wont to do.  Therefore my thoughts were comparable to the Aerosmith tune penned by Diane Warren, I Don't Want To Miss A Thing.  The band was solid throughout.  As Sara wrote to us in a subsequent email, "We really found a groove."

After Dirty White Boy the enthusiastic crowd was generous with their applause.  Terry unexpectedly proposed that we play Hot Blooded again, and invited everyone in the crowd to come onto the stage to sing along, dance, play a tambourine or a cowbell, or do whatever else their mood dictated.  About half the audience followed his suggestion while we reprised Hot Blooded.  I could feel the stage floor thumping.  The place was rockin'.

Epilogue:  On August 7 the six members of our band received an email from "Jack," the head of RCX.  He wrote that their Walker Street neighbor, Sota Clothing, was putting on a block party September 14, and had approached RCX to find out if that organization could supply the music.  Jack, in turn, was gauging our interest and availability.  It would have been very fun to play our Foreigner music again, but that opportunity never came to fruition.  While four of the band members indicated they were ready and willing to play on the 14th, two of us, Tammy and I, could not make it.  Tammy was already committed to be a dancer at the Renaissance Festival that weekend, and I had already booked a two week trip, including September 14, to Idaho with Momma Cuandito.  I am not sure to what lengths, if any, RCX went to find fill-ins for Tammy and me so that "Foreigners" (as our coach called us) could gig at the block party, but in any event RCX provided three other bands to accommodate Sota's request.  I felt bad for Sara, Alex, Paul and Kerry.  Had Sota extended the offer earlier in the summer perhaps Foreigners could have reunited.  In a bit of irony, Momma Cuan and I attended an outdoor rock concert in Boise's beautiful arboretum on the evening of September 12.  The headliner was Foreigner.