Yesterday I slummed it on the couch and gazed at (among other things) two-thirds of John Ford's well-known cavalry trilogy, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon ('49) and Rio Grande ('50).
-
With this week or two of relative downtime, I'm working hard to get my definitive "Best Westerns" list together, which was partly spurred on by my dalliance (good or bad) with The Coen Brothers' True Grit and that interesting, highly combative Playlist article.
-
Truth is, with a few notable exceptions, I've never been really big fan of John Ford's westerns. Stagecoach ('39) and My Darling Clementine ('46) are pretty great and Fort Apache ('48) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance ('62) are pretty stirring for the way they demythicize the Old West.
-
His so-called masterpiece, The Searchers ('56), is a confounding American classic with an astonishing closing shot and numerous vistas of wide-screen mastery that somehow mask what a mess it is.
-
With She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande, Ford's trademark Monument Valley wide-angles, service reverence and goofy camaraderie take center stage on equal footing with his sloppy continuity and errant grasp of time and space. In short, they're beautiful, strangely watchable calamities.
-
Which isn't to say they aren't worthy of a viewing or in any way bad films (the visual craftsmanship on display is head-and-shoulders above anything of the time period), but for this viewer anyway, the roll call, hoo-rah narrative, dusty outpost conflicts and cloying humanism frankly border on tedium. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon: [C+] Rio Grande: [B-]
John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole is a bald-faced, gut-wrenchingly honest marital drama, not just about the grieving process, but about faith, cruel fate and our place in what is an unpredictable, highly enigmatic existence.
-
Nicole Kidman's by turns touchy, boiling and solemn powerhouse effort is the anchor, but Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest and the debuting Miles Teller all bring genuine human emotion to a film that can at times feel too carefully arranged - emphasizing scenes of importance rather than scenes of observance.
-
Overall, it's just a touch too pat and assertive, but the truth here isn't necessarily in the actions but in the feelings, for Rabbit Hole captures the confused, combative and unshakeable affliction of grief like no other in that it offers no easy answers. [B+]
So tomorrow I'm off to see Joel Coen and Ethan Coen's True Grit - again. I saw the film last week and I was severely underwhelmed. Is it an exceptionally polished production? Unquestionably, that wasn't the issue.
-
My problem stemmed from the fact that it was entirely too content to hem and haw and spout its admittedly glorious old-West dialogue without ever going anywhere. In the end it's too folksy and sentimental and I desperately needed just a spark of that Coen Brothers hard-edged cynicism.
-
I'm giving it another shot tomorrow (perhaps my over-laughing audience I saw it with initially was ticking me off to its charms), so we'll see. One things for sure, though, this certainly isn't No Country for Old Men and it sure as hell isn't A Serious Man, this is a straight-up twelve-to-six curveball.
"JONAH HEX" (2010) d: Jimmy Hayward
-
What's to say? It's an unmitigated disaster in every possible way, starting and ending with Josh Brolin and that severe, grotesque grill. The script, based on the DC Comics character, is a threadbare revenge tale that can barely sustain itself for 80 minutes and even the design elements are badly misguided.
-
It's essentially Wild Wild West without the whimsy and The Punisher without the grit, what that leaves us with, I'm not really sure. [D-]
-
-
"THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE" (2010) d: Jon Turteltaub
-
Using a segment from Fantastia and turning it into a full-length feature hardly seems like a good idea and, truth be told, what's contrived here is hardly loftier than a second or third-rate young adult novel, yet miraculously, The Sorcerer's Apprentice actually manages to squeak out some goofy fun.
-
The colorful cast is generally the reason why, mostly because this is the most fun Nicolas Cage has been having on screen since the seldom mentioned Bad Lieutenant. Not to mention the amusingly gangly Jay Baruchel and Toby Kebbell who do all they can to make this wizarding hoopla go down a bit easier. [C+]
-
-
"THE LAST AIRBENDER" (2010) d: M. Night Shyamalan
-
Aside from a few distinctive visual flourishes and an overall luscious production design, The Last Airbender remains relentlessly silly and fatally self-serious.
-
And the young cast certainly can't carry this kooky material with its barefaced dialogue and cluttered storytelling. Shyamalan directs with flair, but this dopey fantasy didn't deserve its live-action jump. [C-]
I drove to sunny South Dallas today for a 3:00 screening of Fritz Lang's Metropolis at the historic Texas Theatre.
-
Now The Texas Theatre has a rich history given that it was originally owned by Howard Hughes back in the late 30's before becoming most well known as the house where Lee Harvey Oswald hid out and was eventually arrested on November 22nd, 1963.
The theater was just recently bought by Aviation Cinemas (a nod to Hughes) and restored for repertory screenings about two months ago, so when given the chance to head out there, I couldn't resist taking in a Dallas landmark and a classic silent film on the big screen.
-
Also, before Metropolis got going, a Buster Keaton/Fatty Arbuckle short entitled The Cook was played with a live piano accompaniment - very cool.
So much has already been said about Tom Hooper's The King's Speech at this point that writing a formal review feels rather perfunctory, so I'll just keep things simple.
-
What we have here is a very classy, very warmly-made British drama that because it's exceedingly well-acted and delivers emotionally in the closing moments is a surefire Best Picture nominee, and you know what, I don't have a problem with that.
-
I would, however, take offense to the film actually taking the Oscar back home across the Atlantic, because as easy as it is to slip into and admire, it's too dapper and antiquated - gently amusing and affecting, yes, but it's aspirations are modest, just like Hooper's previous film, the intelligently crafted footballer, The Damned United.
-
However modest the film may be, Colin Firth is anything but. His stuttering and hesitant King George VI is a very mannered but intelligent and compassionate performance that deserves recognition - delivering that acceptance speech might be a bit tricky, though. [B]
The year is winding down, but now comes that painful process of waiting out the remainder of the awards-season layabouts well into January.
-
The must-sees before even considering putting together a Top 10 list are Sofia Coppola's Somewhere, Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine, John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole, Mike Leigh's Another Year, Claire Denis' White Material, Olivier Assayas' Carlos, etc, etc.
-
I hate this waiting game, I really do.
Posts
