Reviews

For most part I really enjoyed this series. I guessed the twist early on and liked the way the living and the dead intertwined. (That was NOT a spoiler. Check the series title.) There were touches of other ghost stories, even a reference to DON'T LOOK NOW, but after awhile it seemed that the creators were treading water. My favorite ghost story was the one involving Charlie and the mining disaster. No jump out scares but a feeling of dread hanging over the countryside. Beautiful location filming matched by excellent acting, especially by Colin Morgan, but in the end there needed to be a second season. The last line of the last episode elicited a "What?" from me.Not fair to leave us hanging. And what did the locals make of that what was pulled out of the bog? And how did the baby survive if the mother died? Who came upon them? As I look back over what I have written I see that the text is disjointed. I think that is because after a marathon watch of THE LIVING AND THE DEAD that is where my head is at. This show REALLY needed a second season.

The first twenty or so minutes of this film really grabbed me. For a moment or two I felt I might even be in JACOB'S LADDER territory, Alas, this was not to be. A criminal (played by a surprisingly solid and stolid Paul Walker is convicted of murder and given a lethal injection. He wakes up at a facility where he and others like him are given a second chance by rising from "the dead" (hence the title) and programmed into being a better person. This is filled with lies, and in the last few minutes Walker escapes from his experimental prison to return to his loving wife and child. If that is the real ending, bleh, but here is another possibility that would make the film much better, at least for me. In the film's last shot, Walker and his wife are reunited outside the wife's new house while the daughter sleeps on a couch in the foreground. Is it at all possible that all that has ensued might well have been a wish fulfillment dream by the daughter and that the father is actually still dead? Probably not what the writer had in mind, but intriguing all the same. The acting was good as was the direction, but the screenplay, might have been tighter with more surprises along the way. A pretty good film, but not memorable by any standard.

I had heard that CITY ISLAND was good, but I was not prepared for how good it turned out to be. Individual story lines for each member of a very loving family are laid down, and through the brilliance of writer Raymond de Felitta, are tied together warmly and satisfyingly at the end. As I watched this film, I kept thinking of Fellini's AMACORD story of a family that loves one another, warts and all.

Andy Garcia, always good, was exceptional here, as were Juliana Margulies, Steven Strait and Ezra Miller. The story, as noted above, and direction by Raymond de Felitta was sly, subtle and ultimately satisfying. It's a cliché but I actually did laugh and cry, and sometimes at the same time.

CITY ISLAND is simply a gem of a movie. Don't miss it.

CAPTURING MARY is a haunting and quite unforgettable film. Maggi Smith, as always, is a wonder as an old woman looking back at her life with confusion and regret.

There has been much talk about a supernatural angle to the film. I personally don't buy into that. I think the film is about the mores and class system of the still Victorian upper crust in England in the 1950's and how if affected one young woman who challenged it a bit too soon. We are told that Mary has made a small name for herself by writing an article in which she proposes that there be more graphic sex in films. Now remember, this is the mid fifties. At a house party frequented only, we are told, by the rich and famous, Mary finds herself being pursued by an enigmatic somewhat older man who seems to know everyone and to know everyone's secrets as well. In a dank wine cellar he tells Mary the disgusting secrets he knows, mainly dealing with the upper class's disdain for "the lower classes", especially in ethnic and racial terms. Mary is appalled by this, yet strangely fascinated at the same time. She sees that in the mansion housing the party all is proper, yet there is no mistaking a room full of leering men taking in a trio of scantily clad singers. On many different levels, Mary is confused and lost between two worlds. Though she knows it would be to her benefit to join this upper class world (and after all, didn't she lose her working class accent for just this purpose?) when asked she demurs, seeing the ugliness in it, thus wrecking the rest of her life. She is blacklisted by the old guard newspaper moguls for whom she works, and, as the decade changes to the 60's , she finds, though she wears the correct clothes and styles herself to look the part, that she cannot adapt to the new age either. She says of herself, as an older woman looking back, if I had been ten years older or ten years younger, but no, she is too early for the liberation of the sixties and too progressive to deal with the way women were treated in the fifties. She sees her mystery man again, and he has not aged a bit, though it seems, he has lost some of his power. Though it may not be as strong as it was, there will always be a class system.

In the end it is both fascinating and ironic that the one person who can help Mary, even a small bit, is a young caretaker of a different ethnic group, who says at the end, "I really liked that lady." CAPTURING MARY is about being out of time and place and being caught between two disparate worlds. An excellent, thought provoking film.

One of the most exasperating films I have ever seen, SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK had me half wanting to leave the theater while the other half wanted to cheer for the sheer chutzpah of all concerned. Was it brilliant? Was it pretentious? Damned if I know. All I do know is that I stayed with it from beginning to end though many people walked out.

In this film life reflects art, art reflects life and truth and illusion are blurred to a point of madness. Though there is no real relation between them, as I watched Kaufman's film, I kept thinking of Fellini's 8 1/2, so since the musical version of that film was called NINE,for me at least, this ends up being NINE 1/2. If you see it, I think you'll see what I mean.

Hoffman is good as always, Michelle Williams was marvelous and Catherine Keener was, as always, superb.

Don't go expecting an easy ride as you will be frustrated. However, should you go with friends who are film buffs and are ready to spend an hour or two over coffee or a drink battling about a film's merits or lack of same, this film is for you.

Cross THE OMEN with THE SHINING and add a great dollop of "The Ransom of Red Chief", and you get WHISPER, a slick, "better than I had expected", horror flick. The cinematography is beautiful and the direction fluid and sure. The acting is good with a standout, scene stealing, turn by Joel Edgerton, someone I had never heard of before, but whose films I will now seek out. There are lots of wolves with glowing eyes, the usual "jump out at you" scenes,"and a really creepy child actor, and even with an overlong screenplay, somehow the whole project comes together nicely. (I guessed who the main kidnapper was pretty quick, but the reveal still held a couple of good shocks.) Look, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO it ain't, but for a fun night around a bowl of popcorn you could do worse. 7 out of 10!

The films of the 30's and 40's are known today as those of "the Golden Age," and in that age, MGM stood at the forefront of creating classic entertainment. Every now and again, however, even MGM came a cropper, and with IF WINTER COMES they hit close to the bottom.

I only watched this film on TCM because a friend of mine has a framed one sheet of it in his home, a sheet he puts up on December 21st of every year and takes down the following March 21st. Nice idea, nice poster. But what a dud of a film.

Walter Pidgeon plays a man of principle married, on the rebound, to a shrew of a wife (Angela Lansbury). He has been thrown over for no seemingly good reason by the love of his life, Deborah Kerr. When the film begins Kerr reappears to say that she made a mistake and will always love Pidgeon. Ditto from Pidgeon. But the two ex-lovers are far too noble to leave their respective spouses, so they continue as "friends" as WW2 hits the British Isles. Pidgeon's bosses hate his liberal, humanistic attitude and are constantly looking for a way to get rid of him. Enter Janet Leigh, a young girl who lives with her heartless, toe-the-line, Bible reading father, (Rhys Williams). When she gets pregnant and tossed out by her Dad it is Pidgeon (of course!) who takes her in prompting Lansbury to file for divorce citing adultery. From there on it is one rung after another on the road to complete collapse for Pidgeon.

Handled in a better way this might have been a good soaper, but the screenplay is sloppy, the editing choppy, the direction almost non-existent and the acting by Pidgeon, Lansbury and Kerr all stiff as a board. (Even wonderful Mae Witty, in a minuscule role, chews a bit of scenery before she is dispatched.) The best acting award, at least from where I was sitting, goes to young Janet Leigh who brought a quiet dignity and warmth to her role.

Mean spirited to an astonishing degree and clunky at almost every level, I have to wonder what MGM was thinking when they chose to make the film in the first place.

After seeing IF WINTER COMES I intend to find a new one sheet for my friend, maybe WINTER MEETING or WHITE Christmas, anything, in fact other than this nightmare from MGM, the dream factory.

Just finished watching this terrific film for the third or fourth time and though someone else is credited with the screenplay, Joe Mankiewicz's tart, smart, witty dialog is there in almost every scene. Lubitsch may have had his touch, but when it came to dialog there was no one like Mank.Watch this back to back with ALL ABOUT EVE or A LETTER TO THREE WIVES and you will see what I am talking about.

Though I still don't know what truly constitutes a "noir" film, though touted as being one, HOUSE OF STRANGERS seems more like a Greek tragedy than say something in the same style as I WAKE UP SCREAMING. No matter, this is an excellent film, brimming over with Mankiewicz's brilliant pacing and, yes, dialog.

In theme and execution, Fighting Tommy Riley owes less to Rocky and more to Gods and Monsters. I know that there are many thematic differences between the two films, but there are enough similarities to call attention to them. In Riley, written by and starring J.P.Davis, once again an aging homosexual takes a straight, young uneducated hunk under his wing. Here, as in Monsters, the younger man is at first repulsed by his mentor's sexual predilections and then, through frustration, confusion and a feeling of responsibility, offers himself to the older man. Riley, a well meaning, if predictable film, even ends as Monsters does with the older man committing suicide and the younger man finding his way back to his girlfriend. One main difference between the two films is that Gods works on every level from start to finish, while Riley,though laced through with some touching moments and some good dialog, spends too much of its time revisiting the same boxing clichés we have seen forever.

I would like to see more from J.P. Davis as a writer as there is certainly promise there. Fighting Tommy Riley is far from a bad movie. It's just not good enough to be able to recommend with no reservations.

Like My Dream Is Yours, the heroine of this wartime low budget flick works for a call in juke box company. As does Doris Day in Dream, Martha Tilton also becomes a star at fade out, but not even Doris had to go through so much to get there! Mistaken identity. Stolen identity. Mixed up demo records. Undelivered messages...and on and on and on. And you know what, it's all a great deal of fun. Catch this 1944 release and find yourself sitting there for 70 minutes with a happy grin on your face, especially when the wonderful Iris Adrian, Tilton's co-star, is on screen. Next to Lady of Burlesque, this is Adrian's best film. Swing Hostess is not a great film but should you decide to watch it, I don't think you'll be disappointed.