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Stazione Termini (1953)
Unrestored yet still good.
This film is notable in that it shows Montgomery Clift in one of his very last films before his movie star good looks were destroyed by a tragic car accident. And it is one of the last films he did where he's a believable love interest and leading man. You would think that would be enough to restore it to decent shape. Apparently not. The film is in horrible condition. It's like watching a broken down 1950's television set while adjusting the rabbit ears antenna on top. Someone please restore it.
Jennifer Jones is very good here and much better than the film and plot deserve and much better than Clift who seems a bit lost. Still, he looks good.
Love & Mercy (2014)
OUR AMERICAN GENIUS
The Beach Boys between 1962 and 1966 were the American Beatles but with better and far more complex harmonies and song structure yet the songs sounded simple and joyous. An act of genius and Brian Wilson was that genius.
After giving the world the greatest popular song of all time - Good Vibrations - it all got to be a little too much for Brian. He continued to write songs sporadically but let his brothers and the other Beach Boys take over more and more.
Us Americans see The Beach Boys as Our Beatles. And those of us Baby Boomers who grew up with them cannot give them enough praise. Yet the, sad for us, truth is The Beach Boys stopped progressing after 1966 except for some occasional good songs here and there.
In the late 60's and 70's Brian sunk into overindulgence and an escape from reality, not emerging till much later to revisit his failed concept album from 1967 - Smile. Still, only of interest to fanatical fans.
But it is the hits that matter and those hits were groundbreaking and transcendent. Brian Wilson will always be a symbol of the positive, the creator of angelic harmonies and sun drenched beach anthems of youth. Rightly so.
This film dramatizes Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys story and I, for one, realized there are some big things Brian Wilson did wrong. He should not have released - Good Vibrations - until 1967 as a foil to The Beatles Sgt. Pepper and it should have been on a good album - not a bad one (Smiley Smile). Brian had only two songs ready that were good enough for a 1967 album that could challenge The Beatles and those were Good Vibrations and Heroes and Villains. He was working on the song Surfs Up but didn't finish it till 1971. So what he should have done was ask the other Beach Boys to contribute their very best songs and put out a 1967 album as a group effort calling it - Good Vibrations - the big hit. Fatal mistake he didn't do that. It may well have been another classic album.
Instead, Brian put out - Smiley Smile - which was a disaster of experimental song fragments and goofing around and The Beach Boys lost their cred as cutting edge cool dudes. And their record sales were dismal ever after. Mike Love warned of this when he told Brian "don't mess with the formula". Mike was right.
The post - Pet Sounds - albums are spotty or just outright bad. The best two are Sunflower from 1970 and Surfs Up from 1971. Brian, in 1973, made another big mistake by not singing lead on his best post 1960's song - Sail On Sailor. Still, the song was so strong it was still a hit with a unknown singer and not a very good singer. Lots of bad songs and bad albums followed after that.
Yet The Beach Boys songs from 1962-1966 are exuberant, transcendent, groundbreaking and, many of them, hits! Most of them written completely by Brian and this is why Brian Wilson is called a "genius".
Ryan's Daughter (1970)
Lean's Best Film
It is understandable that a man who had just given the public two massive historical and literary epics in the 1960's would be criticized for a 1970 epic length film about one woman's sexuality. But this was what Lean was interested to film just as he had been interested to film the sand dunes in Lawrence of Arabia. The film is subtle and poetic. It combines the heartbreak of Brief Encounter with the love of landscape in Lawrence of Arabia. Robert Mitchum underplays his role perfectly. He is a man fading into the background, a victim who retains his dignity as only this great actor (with a believable Irish accent) could. Trevor Howard also stands out as the center point of the film, a strong, wise, dominating yet ultimately gentle force of nature overseeing the simple town folk in God's name. Howard's last words to Mitchum in the film are suitably "God Bless".
Sweet November (1968)
A Sandy Dennis Masterpiece
This film shows Sandy Dennis at her best with her quirks and vast range of emotion, her non-conformity and revolutionary nature.
The film, from 1968, effectively reveals the social and sexual experimentation of the time and is therefore priceless as a historical testament of the time.
Newley plays a man hopelessly in love with Dennis's character and he gives the best performance of his life. We feel sorry for him because he has agreed to a romantic contract that no man could tolerate without going completely crazy. A challenging acting job and Newley pulls it off.
It is Sandy Dennis, however, who steals the film as a quirky bohemian seeking free love but with, alas, a catch.
Newley's career tanked soon after this film and Dennis struggled too (with a few exceptions like The Out Of Towners) to find vehicles equal to her talent. This is why this film is such a forgotten gem hidden inside a 1968 time capsule.
Donyale Luna: Supermodel (2023)
LUNA
Truly affecting documentary on the first black supermodel. Donyale Luna was a visiting Angel from Heaven with an unearthly exquisite beauty and an unbounded capacity for revolutionary invention.
Tragically, a completely misunderstood and unappreciated Angel whose innocence was shattered by the forces of evil in the guise of the drug culture of the time.
How did she die? It's suspicious. Her final husband and his conservative parents may have had something to do with it but that tragic possibility is only hinted at.
A number of the interviewees cry in this documentary and I cried too. An Angel - too beautiful and unique to stay on this earth for long.
Morning Joe (2007)
Baseball with a small amount of news.
Joe Scarborough is a privileged former Republican Congressman from the south who likes Classic Rock and Baseball - the perfect demographic for FOX NEWS. Yet, for some reason he wields great power with Liberal Democrats. Why? Because he's on MSNBC 4 hours a day. About 3 hours too much.
MSNBC lets Joe do whatever he wants. His ranting and immature goofing with his buddies takes up the bulk of the 4 hours with wife Mika fighting a losing battle to stick to the news.
The other problem is Baseball. Anyone who watches the ESPN morning shows knows they spend very little time on Baseball because Baseball has been losing ground to the NFL and the NBA for decades now. Not so on Morning Joe where much time is spent on it in the midst of what is supposed to be a politics news show. Awkward and transparent pandering to the host.
Skip this endlessly long show altogether. Watch CNN or ESPN for actual sports reporting or BBC World News if you can get it.
The Beat with Ari Melber (2017)
a lawyer who likes rap
Imagine being locked into a room with a lawyer rattling off legal arguments with no emotion or in fact any human attributes at all - and you can't get out. That's Ari Melber's dinnertime show on MSNBC. Best not to have it on while you are eating dinner if you hope to digest your food.
It gets worse. Ari likes rap music or Hip Hop which is the only thing he shows any emotion for and he adeptly works it into his news coverage and interviews. A good example of this was a recent interview with Tom Hanks that was a complete disaster culminating in Ari playing rap lyrics to Hanks in an attempt to prove some sort of rap connection to Hanks? Say what?
Sorry counselor - you lost your case.
Wild Bill (1995)
Jeff Bridges good, film terrible
Jeff Bridges showed up to play the part of Wild Bill Hickock but the writer, director and producer didn't. The film is terrible but Bridges looks, acts and has the gravitas of the Western legend/icon.
Walter Hill has made some horrible movies and, except for Bridges, this one takes the cake. The story, mostly fictional, is preposterous and an insult to who Hickock really was and a insult to his time.
I really don't understand why Bridges didn't object to the absurd, embarrassing fictional plot and did not insist on more historical accuracy. Wish he had. It may have saved the movie.
If you are a Jeff Bridges fan you may want to wince through this - otherwise skip it.
Deadwood (2004)
Keith Carradine perfect as Wild Bill
Just recently saw Keith Carradine's portrayal of Wild Bill on the series Deadwood. I've got problems with that series because folks didn't swear that much back then and certainly did not use the f word which is in every sentence of dialog. The early settlers and outlaw men were Christians or running from being Christians and were all well aware that God was watching them good or bad and that includes their cussing. Also, folks were not that dirty back then at least not by choice. Great efforts were made to be as clean as possible by both women and men. So, a full cast of dirty, swearing characters is not the realism that was intended and is , in fact, not real.
Wild Bill himself was a Northerner and was brought up in a abolitionist, anti-slavery household. He drove wagons, fought and spied for the Union during the Civil War and also fought with the notorious abolitionist Jim Lane in his brigade. So, Wild Bill would be politically correct today. During his time many wanted to kill him and tried to kill him for his Union sympathies and this included former Confederates. Also, I've always been struck by Wild Bill's, by today's standards, unmanly vanity. He was a tall striking looking dude and paid an enormous amount of attention to his long curly hair, which was probably not easy surrounded as he was by ruffians and killers his whole life. So, Wild Bill, all in all, not fitting into any of the boxes of a bad guy both then and now.
Keith Carradine's portrayal of Wild Bill is the most accurate thing in the Deadwood series from what we know from historical records and eyewitness accounts. Wish he had been in more than 5 episodes.
The Homesman (2014)
Tommy Lee Jones and Hillary Swank in a Western Masterpiece!
I don't know how this brilliant film slipped through the cracks but it is the best Western by far since the True Grit remake by the Coen brothers.
Tommy Lee Jones directs and stars and he is brilliant at both but it is Hillary Swank who really shines here. It is her best performance since Million Dollar Baby showing great depth and a emotional devastation which matches and surpasses the bleak landscape.
What really makes the film stand out for me is the historical accuracy and the bravery to tell the tale with all the brutal prejudices and hypocrisies that were present during that time period. By doing so Jones tells us something about us.
An overlooked Masterpiece!
The 12th Victim (2023)
Excellent Documentary but still Guilty
This is probably the best documentary you will find on the Starkweather killings. Starkweather comes across, rightfully, as a unhinged evil monster yet, somehow, and we will never know why, acted out all this horror in some form of love bond with Fugate. And that is what has spawned so many movies, mostly bad, based on the duo.
The filmmakers have a ax to grind though. They want us to believe in Fugate's total innocence. They defeat this purpose in numerous ways. The film clips and pictures of Fugate during the time of her surrender and Starkweather's capture show a young girl with nothing but a cold, emotionless, blank face. There is zero indication that any of the absolute horrors had any effect on her in any way. In fact, she is wearing the expensive coat of the wealthy Lincoln wife that was brutally slain and bragging about how nice it is.
Fugate changes her personality the longer she is behind bars and the brutal realization that she may be there for life sinks in. The authorities saw this at the time.
The documentary does allow for some comments from non-believers in her innocence who feel she was in her element the whole time only giving up "when the jig was up" and that no one but Starkweather and Fugate really know what happened because they left no witnesses. A fair point.
Ultimately, the authorities in Nebraska in 2020 had the final word when they denied her pardon.
MILF Manor (2023)
THE LOWEST LOW
Reality tv has finally hit the lowest low - mothers between 40 and 60 encouraged to get intimate with kids the age of their sons.
Whats next? Dad's shacked up with their teen daughters?
All those who scratch their heads at how divisive our current politics and society is right now need only to glimpse at what immorality/reality tv is getting away with. The hope is so few people will watch this that the galling lack of morals won't sink in to the general public and that whoever at TLC came up with this disgusting taboo trash is fired.
This endless trend of putting people in a fake luxury backdrop and watching them commit sin is getting old.
To the Wonder (2012)
Malick's French Wife
This film is excruciating. However, it is beautiful. Beautiful and poetic if you view the film the right way. It is Malick's homage to his French wife/lover/soulmate who he met in Paris in 1980 and divorced in 1996, years where he did no film at all and the viewer can see why.
The woman in real life was Michèle Marie Morette who is a mystery except for this film where Malick's love and obsession for her is plain to see and Malick, as he does in all his films, casts the most supernaturally beautiful actress he can find for the part and lovingly caresses her with the camera throughout the film amidst breathtaking sunsets and seascapes and fields of weeds.
I wish we knew more about this woman.
To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995)
John Leguizamo's Best Performance
This is not a very good film. Three Drag Queen's stuck in a hick town - a one joke premise if there ever was one. What makes it rise above it's limited script is the truly amazing performance by John Leguizamo who plays the only passable transsexual character and who's highly emotional story line is the most believable.
I find this film tragic, however, in that it obviously effected John Leguizamo adversely for he has made it a point only to play super macho characters ever since. Why?
An actor, especially a good actor, should wholeheartedly embrace his best work and not actively avoid any such similar role ever again. Very sad.
This Is Life with Lisa Ling (2014)
Best Documentary Series on CNN
This is by far the best documentary series on CNN. Lisa's expose on massage parlors was blistering as it revealed a form of sex slavery going on across America in a strip mall storefront near you and a form of sex slavery that law enforcement does essentially nothing about.
Her most recent show about AI is probably her best. The first segment deals with a man in love with a life-like doll. There could be nothing more tragically sad and in so many ways yet Lisa has compassion for a person who no other journalist could tolerate.
It is in fact the sad losers of America that Lisa is drawn to and is fascinated by. Whether they deserve it or not.
Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972)
BRANDO'S METHOD ACTING MASTERPIECE
If you have never seen this film you should. Millions of words have been written about it, here's my take:
The film is the very best example of Method Acting ever put on screen. Brando was trained as a Method actor and he was the symbol of it in the 50's. Method Acting is where the actor bonds with the character by dredging up all of their real emotions from their real lives and real past. Sounds like an excruciatingly hard thing to do and must have been. In this film Brando dredges up all of his real emotions from his real life and past but instead of using it to play a character he uses it to play himself. The end result - a brilliant, terrifyingly real performance never done before and never done since.
Warning though, Brando is not a good guy here. He is abusive, sexist, contemptuous of everybody and every thing. Yet he is looking for love. Looking for love he will never find because of his own faults. This is who Brando really was.
In the end Brando is punished - but I won't give away the ending.
Brando never did any Method Acting again after this film and the case can be made he never did any acting at all after this film. So just watch this.
Little Men (2016)
HORRIBLE YUPPIE COUPLE
Despite some good acting especially from the child actors this film goes nowhere fast.
A white yuppie couple inherit a property with a rental storefront occupied by a much loved Latina dressmaker whose son bonds with their son. This should be a heartwarming film right? Wrong. Every greedy and evil and self centered thought that could occur to the white couple does in fact occur and the viewer is disgusted and horrified. Not to give anything away but the white couple act on their evil impulses with no consequences to them and we wonder if the filmmaker is actually on their side. A horrible thought but it seems that way.
The film also includes a relationship with the young boys which is much more interesting and upbeat but squanders exploring it.
Skip this one.
Gimme Shelter (1970)
THE DEATH OF HIPPIE ROCK
The Altamont fiasco and tragedy was the death of hippie Rock but it also should have been the death of The Rolling Stones. The mind boggling ludicrous display of Mick Jagger all glamed up with mascara and a cape in front of the racist, fascist Hells Angels is vomit inducing.
Jagger had passed on Woodstock and was so jealous of the bands who became icons there he helped to organize this tragic fiasco with the Hells Angels plyed with all the beer they could drink as "security".
End result, the fascist bikers killed a young black man before Jagger's eyes as he sashayed about the stage.
No one should have bought a Rolling Stones record again and the fact that this band is still put on a pedestal is disgusting, revolting and dead wrong.
Sunday Today with Willie Geist (2016)
Good Until Today (the Goop episode)
This Sunday morning show was the best example of family fare news. However, Willie has always had a bad penchant for interviewing people unworthy of praise or even mention.
He crossed the line today with a fawning interview of Gwyneth Paltrow Goop. Gwyneth Paltrow, at one time, was a great actress. Her version of Emma was an instant classic. Yet she disgracefully gave up the honorable trade of full time acting for crass materialism at it's worst. Goop is nothing more than dollar store garbage dressed up in an elitist way to scam rich white people. And no one scams rich white people better than Gwyneth Paltrow.
Willie, you should be ashamed.
The Counselor (2013)
Horrifying, Grotesque, Violent
Ridley Scott makes monster movies. His best films are the three Alien monster films that he directed. The Alien is the ultimate predator. It kills to survive, like animal predators, and is very good at it. When Ridley Scott makes films without an Alien monster the people in it are also predators but they are also much worse. Unlike animals or Aliens they torture each other both physically and mentally and are gleeful about it. This is excruciatingly difficult to watch for us fairly well adjusted folks. But not for Ridley Scott, who, in all his movies loves to watch people suffer.
Also, more disturbing for me, is Ridley Scott's attitude toward women. Other than Sigorney Weaver in the first Alien no woman character in his films is anything other than a paper cutout, either a sex goddess, a evil greedy wife, a overly subservient wife, or any other stereotype that he can populate the set with. Because the women in Scott's films are only there to entertain the male viewers including Scott himself. And they must know their place. Either to be desired or hated or both. Ridley Scott makes films for men. Men only. Even Weaver had to do the final scenes in Alien in her underwear.
As to this trainwreck of a film, the plot, implausible and preposterous, does not matter. Only that the men are as stylishly evil and grotesque as possible.
Why bother to make a film like this? A massive amount of money was spent on it with big name actors but why? What is the purpose? I guess the same purpose people have slowing down as they pass a fatal car wreck.
Ridley Scott has gotten a lot of kudos as a film maker. But does he deserve it? I think not. No film he has made has inspired any one, including a Biblically wrong film about Moses.
One other thing. What was Brad Pitt doing in this mess? Pitt is an example of a wasted talent if there ever was one. Taking parts where he will look good rather than act. Other than Moneyball and a film about Jesse James no one saw Pitt has not lived up to his potential. And he's not getting any younger.
Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road (2021)
OUR AMERICAN GENIUS
The Beach Boys between 1962 and 1966 were the American Beatles but with better and far more complex harmonies and song structure yet the songs sounded simple and joyous. An act of genius and Brian Wilson was that genius.
After giving the world the greatest popular song of all time - Good Vibrations - it all got to be a little too much for Brian. He continued to write songs sporadically but let his brothers and the other Beach Boys take over more and more.
Us Americans see The Beach Boys as Our Beatles. And those of us Baby Boomers who grew up with them cannot give them enough praise. Yet the, sad for us, truth is The Beach Boys stopped progressing after 1966 except for some occasional good songs here and there.
In the late 60's and 70's Brian sunk into overindulgence and an escape from reality, not emerging till much later to revisit his failed concept album from 1967 - Smile. Still, only of interest to fanatical fans. What saved The Beach Boys was actually the guy most hated by Beach Boys fans, Mike Love, who has toured various lineups of a Beach Boys band playing the hits up until this day. And he is barely mentioned in this doc.
But it is the hits that matter and those hits were groundbreaking and transcendent. Brian Wilson will always be a symbol of the positive, the creator of angelic harmonies and sun drenched beach anthems of youth. Rightly so.
Some further observations:
I was really enlightened by this documentary but had some issues. There are some big things Brian Wilson did wrong. He should not have released - Good Vibrations - until 1967 as a foil to The Beatles Sgt. Pepper and it should have been on a good album - not a bad one (Smiley Smile). Brian had only two songs ready that were good enough for a 1967 album that could challenge The Beatles and those were Good Vibrations and Heroes and Villains. He was working on the song Surfs Up but didn't finish it till 1971. So what he should have done was ask the other Beach Boys to contribute their very best songs and put out a 1967 album as a group effort calling it - Good Vibrations - the big hit. Fatal mistake he didn't do that. It may well have been another classic album.
Instead, Brian put out - Smiley Smile - which was a disaster of experimental song fragments and goofing around and The Beach Boys lost their cred as cutting edge cool dudes. And their record sales were dismal ever after. Mike Love warned of this when he told Brian "don't mess with the formula". Mike was right.
The post - Pet Sounds - albums are spotty or just outright bad. The best two are Sunflower from 1970 and Surfs Up from 1971. Brian, in 1973, made another big mistake by not singing lead on his best post 1960's song - Sail On Sailor. Still, the song was so strong it was still a hit with a unknown singer and not a very good singer. Lots of bad songs and bad albums followed after that.
Yet The Beach Boys songs from 1962-1966 are exuberant, transcendent, groundbreaking and, many of them, hits! Most of them written completely by Brian and this is why Brian Wilson is called a "genius".
You can tell I'm a Beach Boys fanatic - but I'm realistic as to their bad decisions. The worst being Mike Love's rant at the R@R Hall of fame when The Beach Boys were inducted.
The Rachel Maddow Show (2008)
Selfish, Elitist, Lazy, Picking and Choosing of when she wants to work
What employee of any company could go to their boss and say "I just want to work one hour on Mondays but I still expect a huge paycheck." Only, Rachel Maddow.
This move by Maddow which she has been trying to get away with for some time is an insult to her, dwindling, fans and it is selfish, elitist, lazy, and did I mention selfish? MSNBC should have had some self respect, some remnant of guts, and told her - no. Either be a part of the team, do the workload, or see ya. Adios.
Maddow has been attacking corrupt rich white guys for years. Corrupt rich white guys who do no honest work but connive a living from doing as little as possible on the dedication and sweat of the underlings they never see. Isn't Maddow doing the same thing? Collecting a huge paycheck for doing basically nothing besides attaching her name to the network.
This selfish, elitist, lazy picking and choosing of when she feels like working and when she doesn't is nauseating and a complete and total sell out for someone who, supposedly, had Liberal values.
The Old Man (2022)
Truly Awful Misstep from Jeff Bridges
I am a huge Jeff Bridges fan! His transcendent performance in the True Grit remake completely outdoing John Wayne is the most wondrous, joyful and professional acting ever filmed! But, alas, do not expect anything like that here.
The Old Man is a tv series on the FX channel. That should stop you right there since FX bombards you with so many commercials nothing on that channel is watchable. That being said, the show itself is awful. The plot is beyond implausible with a Taliban like back story that makes zero sense and is offensive to American viewers who are morally appalled by this subject in light of current events.
Now to the dialog. The dialog is beyond moronic with cloying, stale lines you have heard a million times over on every fake espionage tv show ever made.
Now to the acting. Cardboard cutouts of the actors involved would have done far better than the actual actors who all seem to know the show is complete trash and just want to collect the paycheck and go home. Of these John Lithgow is worst, so excruciatingly bad it could end his career. Only Bridges himself has a few good moments with his dogs but other than that he walks through the part moaning and groaning as if to say "Why am I doing this trash?"
Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present (2012)
Unforgivable Sin
Someone should tell Marina Abramovic that having people line up to sit before you as you pretend to be God is the worst sin imaginable. Breaking at least two of the Ten Commandments prohibiting the making and worshiping of idols and setting herself up as some sort of false prophet of the blank stare?!. This is a sin, when the time comes, and Miss Abramovic is begging to be let into Heaven and asking for forgiveness for producing bad art, that may well not be forgiven.
It is extremely painful to watch how these innocent people were emotionally duped by this performance con artist.
Also, more horrifically, Abramovic had a nude woman pinned to the wall so obscenely I will not describe it. A more blatant and truly revolting attack on religion.
I have studied art. This is not art. This is grift. Abramovic is a con woman and a grifter. Grifting the easiest of all prey - pseudo intellectuals who go to modern art museums.
Aloft (2014)
Truly Awful
How could such talented actors involve themselves in such complete trash?
What bothers me the most is the reverent tone of this preposterous film.
The film makers were obviously looking for a story involving replacement religion/spiritual experience outside of actual religions and something acceptable to hip international audiences. With the beautiful Jennifer Connelly thrown in as a replacement Jesus.
Looks like it didn't work since no one went to see the film. Don't blame them.