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A few reviews . . (film or TV) — Page 111

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Time

Young Desire - 1930 - 5/10

Helen, sick and tired of the cootch show, leaves the carnival.
Walking the back road, she meets a swell. Young, naïve, wowed by her looks and worldliness.
As he buys her dinner, gets her an apartment, Helen plans to fleece him down to his skin.
Only thing, he’s so earnest, and so wild about her, she can’t stop falling in love with him.
Meanwhile, the carnival travels the circuit and is soon back in that little town.
And Helen’s past resurfaces.
Creaky early talkie, early Pre-Code, something of a soaper, although Helen’s beau returns home every night between 2 AM and 3 AM, leading one to wonder what that couple is doing all night in her apartment.
Mary Nolan is mouth-watering, but she has problems “acting”. She waits for others to say their lines, thinks a moment, then says hers. William Janney is no great shakes either, but he is perfectly cast!
Fans of Nolan, this is still a must. The print I viewed was pretty good.

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 (Edited)

Faneditors, take note!

Empire State Building Murders - 2008 - 6/10
AKA - Meurtres à l’Empire State Building

Sordid tale, told in flashbacks by the detective (Kirk Douglas), enforcer (Ben Gazarra), rival (Mickey Rooney), maid (Marsha Hunt), girlfriends (Cyd Charisse & Anne Jeffreys).
Late 1940’s, New York is ruled by three Mafia dons: Tony (James Cagney), Brassi (Edward G. Robinson) and Rico (Lawrence Tierney).
Then Tony meets Penny (Lauren Bacall), who acts as propane to simmering tensions.
Unbelievable romp through Film Noir is packed with careening, ofttimes absurd narratives.
Dozens of old clips woven to concoct a loose story that is part mystery, part are-you-kidding-me?
Final film role for some, near the end for most.
Wonderful treat for Noir fans. Did I mention Bogart, Lizabeth Scott, Richard Widmark, Simone Simon?

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Fresh - 2022 - 7/10

Dating. It can just be the worst. Check that, dating is the worst.
The phony face of best behavior, masking the selfish toad beneath.
Still, miraculously, shopping late one night, Noa meets Steve at the grocery store.
They make the casual connection, swap numbers, forget and chill.
After a week, they start doing the restaurants. Selectively, Steve is vegan.
Followed by the long weekend getaway, the next major step … straight into chains.
Horrifying date romp manages to be gut churning and wickedly funny.
The dialogue sparkles, rare in genre films.
Beautifully composed (where is that house?), smartly directed.
One of the better recent terror films … maybe not for vegans.

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Mogul Mowgli - 2020 - 6/10

Better late than never.
Finishing a US tour, British / Pakistani rapper Zed is invited to be opener for a headline act.
Even though he is somewhere in his 30’s, and old in the game, this is the big break.
So why is his body starting to act up? Now, of all times.
Character study of the talented in conflict with time, with family, rivals, his heritage, himself.
Some cultural references I grasped, others eluded me.
There are dream fugues that interrupt the narrative without adding to it.
Conflict and crises are poorly elaborated and the ending feels rushed and tacked on.

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My Gun Is Quick - 1957 - 6/10

Low budget quickie of tawdry Mickey Spillane novel.
Mike Hammer helps out jailbait hooker in hash house.
Couple beats later, downtown police advise him girl was found dead.
Curious, Hammer starts investigating.
Crappy sets, no name actors, indifferent music score bear witness to limited resources.
This actually works in favor of the cheap look and gritty feel of the material.
Spillane’s pulp cocktail of strippers, murderers, WWII smugglers, and sex is well served.

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Hideous Kinky - 1998 - 6/10

Following a divorce (?) Julia moves herself and her two young daughters to Marrakesh.
Heady, exotic, colorful, but Julia is of limited means so they live poorly.
Residents in her run down apartment disdain her, steal from her.
In a quest for enlightenment, purpose, she is blind to the day to day.
Ravishing photography, sharp eye for local color, yet the story is a muddle.
At the end, the point of view shifts, and it probably should have been that way throughout.

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7 Up & Me - 2019 - 6/10

Airing just before the release of 63 Up, this has clips from the series, as well as comments and reflections by various TV and film stars.
Each sharing their own growing up traumas and challenges … before they became successful.
A curio for diehard fans of the series, though it is neither here nor there, and hardly essential.

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Obscene: A Portrait Of Barney Rosset and Grove Press - 2007 - 6/10

Scored this high early on, lowered it as the film progressed.
Suspicious documentary of the publisher of Grove Press.
The first half of this is absolutely smashing! New York literary elite, the Beats, Jazz greats. All signposted.
Rosset bought a tiny press and proceeded to publish “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” “Tropic Of Cancer,” and “Naked Lunch.”
Each time, he and his cohorts fought local censors and numerous courts. Grove became the locus of the new generation of literature. and published the 50’s edgy icons.

Next, Grove bought I Am Curious Yellow and fought for the film.
By the 70’s, however, Grove was publishing Victorian erotica (porn in purple prose).

Those erotic titles were the ones I distinctly remember seeing in the drugstore racks.
The press, as well as the documentary, goes downhill at this point.
There was a well publicized strike by, as Rosset called them, women libbers.
A bomb went off. He lost his business, he lost his property.
Everyone soft pedaled the latter years. Last twenty minutes feels like a whitewash.

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The Morning After - 1986 - 6/10

Has-been actress, now a lush, wakes next to a corpse.
How? Who? Uh, did I? Nothing like death to rouse sodden brain cells.
Hey! She belongs to an alcoholics support group, where there’s an ex-cop.
How lazy is this?
Jane Fonda and Jeff Bridges have, if not chemistry, an easy rapport.
The photography is glorious, especially if you pine for sunshine LA.
Still, this is a mystery, and a poor one at that. If you want a thriller, watch something else.

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Good Luck To You, Leo Grande - 2022 - 7/10

Older woman, younger man. Intimacy, awkwardness, fear of exposure.
Only Nancy, a retired school teacher, has hired Leo for adult activity.
Oh, she has two grown children, as well as a husband, dead and buried.
Yet in the romance department, physical department, there had been shortcomings.
Nancy hopes there is still time to make up ground, experience what she had missed.
Dialogue driven drama, with adult language and situations.
Much feels theatrical, although acting from the two leads is impeccable
Will possibly resonate more with females, or with those attempting a new relationship.

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The Gift - 2015 - 7/10

Terrific, intelligent thriller. (I shall try to be careful here.)
Man bumps into old schoolmate whilst buying new home supplies with his bride.
The old chum “invites” himself into their home, then into their lives.
The guy is reserved, moody, and the wife’s radar goes off.
Husband then remembers the guy’s school nickname was “Weirdo.”
Twenty minutes in, this has all the trappings of the 137 cookie cutter stalker flicks.
Only noooooo, the plot starts to skew and assumptions unravel.
BEWARE OF REVIEWS, try to watch this cold.
Darkly satisfying.

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Freeheld - 2015 - 6/10

Biopic of Laurel Hester, New Jersey cop for 23 years who developed Stage 4 lung cancer.
When she requested her pension be awarded to her life partner, Stacie, the county board (all male) declined her request.
Multiple reasons are offered, though the main one is - Gasp! Your life partner is …? You mean, lesbo --?
Scenes inside committee meetings seem one-sided.
Most controversial social debates display multiple voices: pro and con.
That is glimpsed in the 2007 documentary Freeheld on which this film is derived.
Movie comes off as over-earnest, heart tugging, emotionally manipulative.
Not that there is anything ostensibly wrong with that, fine movies do so often. Yet this is obvious.
Those expecting Julianne Moore to echo her portrayal from Still Alice will be disappointed.
Midway, her character disappears and yields center stage to others.

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The Cell - 2000 - 6/10

Aww, man, this is one of those films I was ecstatic about when it first screened.
Bought the DVD, rewatched, and each time enjoyed less and less.
Feds ask a “counselor” to use tech gear to mind-meld with a comatose serial killer.
Reason, where is the most recent victim still hidden?
The look, the effects, are outstanding, especially so on first encounter.
Plotwise, the story doesn’t always make sense.
Moreover, our “heroes” from the Feds to the psychologist, they seem perfumed with sympathy repellent.
Artsy, yet sterile. Best to watch once and leave the wow factor intact.

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Orpheus In The Record Store - 2021 - 7/10

After hours, Orpheus spins a few records on the turntable.
Each recalls a memory: childhood, customers, his father, the shop, the girl.
Life is what you make it. You get what you give.
Oh yeah?
Most find Life is unpredictable, sometimes harsh.
Essentially a one-man show, with an increasing array of backup musicians.
Vinyl lovers, hold the faith.

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No Offence: S01 - 2015 - 6/10

Police procedural set in Manchester.
There is an ongoing arc of a sexual predator targeting females with Downs Syndrome, as well as an individual one-off storyline each week.
Stereotypes in the roles (troubled detective, new insecure detective), but the boss lady is a force of nature.
Eight episodes, easy to take.
This is actually a very funny series, though the humor is gallows black.
Note - The Mancunian accent is pronounced. Subs might be helpful.

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Crime Against Joe - 1956 - 5/10

Our hero is an unsuccessful (untalented) artist.
A war veteran, he still lives with Mom, who supports her unemployed son.
Like his deceased father, when he is frustrated – say with his artistic efforts – he hits the booze and the bars.
For whatever reason, sexy females linger near him.
Frances (Julie London), Irene and Christine.
Not that he remembers, since ole Joe was on a drunken bender.
Shoot, he doesn’t even know how Irene got murdered afterward.
Middling Noir, cheap looking, decent acting, smoky tune by Alika Louis.
Don’t hunt for it, but if this airs late night, it’s watchable.

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 (Edited)

Sadie - 2021 - 7/10

That’s Sadie above right, with her boyfriend’s analyst, left.
In the middle, her ex. Actually, he’s dead.
Also on the scene is her young boyfriend. Much younger boyfriend.
And her uncle, the only one who really loved her. He’s dead, too.
Sadie has issues. She is angry, toxic, with a long list.
“… I hate everybody younger than me.
“I hate the lockdown. I hate masks.
“I hate that everyone has to have an effing opinion about everything these days.
“I hate that everyone’s so easily effing offended.
“I hate Netflix and all the endless effing channels now.
“I hate “the new normal”. I miss the old normal.
“I miss the old days. I can’t even believe I’m calling them that.
“Doesn’t feel that long ago - the '90s, the '80s, the '70s.
“I miss Van Halen and Def Leppard.
“I miss having a slim waist.
“I miss Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, cos even though they were c++s, at least it felt like they were grown-ups and they knew what they were doing, even if what they were doing was s++t.
“I miss my mother.
“I hate that I’ve inherited her sickening addiction to nostalgia…”
By turns savagely funny, then desperately sad.

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Hello, My Name Is Doris - 2015 - 5/10

Sure, whatever. Nice meeting you, Doris, now goodbye.
Sally Field plays 60+ schlemiel in Manhattan ad agency, everyone else is 20’s and 30’s.
A transfer arrives from California, 30 year old guy she develops the hots for.
She stalks him via social media, shows up at music raves.
One-sided “romance” is not Harold And Maude.
Doris has zero vitality, has the fashion sense of a bag lady, and the social skills of a leftover bagel.
Her obsession is creepy. Apologists cry that if men do it, so can she.
Sorry, pilgrim, stretching two generations is generally beyond accepted norms, for either gender.
Secondary plot deals with the aftermath of her mother’s death, with whom she had been living.
Her brother (and wife) suggest she clean out the Staten Island house before selling - and what - share the proceeds? Seems filmmakers dialed back that aspect so to make him more sympathetic.

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Two For The Road - 1967 - 6/10

Ups and downs of a ten year marriage.
Faithless, competitive, verbally sparring, swooning at the sight of the other.
Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney have genuine chemistry in the edgy “love” story.
While not exactly Martha and George (Virginia Woolf), they are on their way
A beautiful looking film, and Hepburn is radiant, yet I never bought the marriage.
This is a soured couple, with sugar sprinkles tossed on from time to time to simulate romance.
Not remotely a comedy, but a couple on the brink of divorce, no longer appreciating each other.

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Armour Of God II: Operation Condor - 1991 - 6/10
AKA - Feiying gaiwak // 飛鷹計劃

I shoulda held onto my VHS I had bought at the Asian grocery store years ago.
The image was washed out, 4th generation, but the Hong Kong cut ran longer!
Who knew that Dimension (Disney) would cut this? So despite the DVD upgrade I was disappointed.
Anyway, Jackie, the Asian Hawk, is assigned to locate a couple hundred tons of Nazi gold buried in the Sahara.
And the quest commences! With eventually three female (comic) companions.
Stunts are all first rate, from the opening orb escape, to the wind tunnel.
What amazed me then, and now, is how Jackie Chan continued to top himself at this time.
This would be a Top 10 Jackie film for me, though most polls place the Western costar efforts higher.

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Creep - 2015 - 5/10

Found footage genre finds one of the Duplass brothers playing terminal cancer statistic.
He hires a cameraman to film “his life” for his unborn son so junior can see what dad was like.
The meeting and shoot is at an isolated cabin, which only someone with putty for brains would agree to.
Really. Haven’t people seen horror films?
Two actors alternately irritating, annoying, questionable, sad.
The camera guy arrives mid morning. Afternoon draws into evening into night.
A handful of a few unpredictable twists and turns, but the story is paper-thin predictable.
Disturbing at times, yet more disappointing. DVD offers alternate, though not better, endings.

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Sexy Beast - 2000 - 7/10

Gandhi? Who’s that?
A retired criminal, enjoying sunny Spain, is pressured / coerced to take part in one “last big score.”
Yes, aren’t they all?
He’s made his pile, warm sunshine is nicer than cold rain, his wife is happy.
Alas, the crime lord has dispatched a total psychopath Don (Ben Kingsley, unforgettable).
The script pays attention to secondary and tertiary characters, and the caper is a corker.
Thing is, Kingsley’s performance or character is so dominating, it skews the entire film.

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Together - 2021 - 6/10

Opposites attract. Although, with opposites, attraction often reverts to repulsion.
Here, the couple have nothing in common.
He is Conservative, a businessman, an exploiter.
She is Liberal, does charity, is sanctimonious. “Hey, look what I’m doing for others!”
They stay together for the sake of their love-child, Artie.
Then Covid. And with Lockdown, they are forced to endure each other (and poor Artie) for a year.
Stagey looking film benefits from terrific acting. Dialogue is staccato and crisp, something I usually associate with 1930’s cinema.
Scores points when Covid mistakes and aftermath are topics. Suffers during spleen venting.
Ending is predictable and phony.

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Hunderby - 2012 - 7/10

Genius! Sheer genius!
Wicked spoof of Jane Austen shows, overwrought Brontë series, even Gothic potboilers like Rebecca.
Eight part series follows young Helene (an identity she assumed) as she marries local curate (marriage #2 for him, after first wife disappeared), and all the shenanigans (primarily sexual) occurring in tiny village.
Each episode less than 30“ and features truly fruity dialogue. Examples
“I wish I could lie with thee forever, nuzzling thy nectar nook.”
“You have conjured some fevered notion that I am eaten up with lust for another, and wake each hour with sticky britches.”
“I should love to plunge you, and stay inside you all day like a dozing mouse.”
All lines delivered dead-panned. I don’t know how actors did this straight faced.

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Connie And Carla - 2004 - 6/10

Two showgirls witness a murder in Chicago and flee to Los Angeles.
The mob sends a hitman. All he knows is they are theatre types, so he attends every musical enroute.
Normal modus operandi of the classic whack man? No. You are in goofy territory.
Empty headed comedy is fun, nonetheless.
Toni Collette and Nia Vardalos are good together, and this is brimming with laughs.
Not Greek Wedding, but a cheery date film, especially for theatre fans.