Okay. Let's say you're an average movie lover with a penchant for thrillers. You somehow get a job as a movie director (it can happen). You're hired to direct a script called TAKING LIVES. Your brain then begins to spit out scenes from almost every other movie you've ever seen in your 35 year old life. And so, an average movie-goer pays 6 bucks to watch a film compiled from SHADOW OF A DOUBT, SEVEN, ORDINARY PEOPLE, DRESSED TO KILL, PSYCHO, THE BONE COLLECTOR, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, ROSEMARY'S BABY, JAGGED EDGE, FATAL ATTRACTION, MURDER BY NUMBERS, KISS THE GIRLS, TWISTED (I haven't seen it but no matter), ALONG CAME A SPIDER, almost every film by Ridley and Tony Scott, COPYCAT(!), CAPE FEAR, and AN EYE FOR AN EYE. The only reason critics -certain critics- are giving anything other than a big fat raspberry to this tired, TIRED drivel is probably because they've crossed into some other boundary. They're probably so beyond burnt-out having seen the same film for about 40 years they have no idea what they're looking at any more. (Note to filmmakers: Robert Altman once made a film called THE LONG GOODBYE where he brilliantly deconstructed the gangster/mystery genre. It still is fresh, suspenseful, engaging, and quite refreshing. Think about it.)
Reviews
67 Reviews
Wait Until Dark
(1967)
Wonderfully effective suspense thriller!
18 October 2003
Great little gem that -for the most part- stands the test of time very well!
Audrey Hepburn is cast beautifully as the blind woman victimized by three deviants. Alan Arkin is truly terrifying as the leader and his performance here ranks as one of the all-time-great screen villians.
Director Young handles the pace masterfully. No sequence really goes on longer than it should. Henry Mancini uses a nice, quiet score that creates appropriate tension as the film builds to its classic showdown.
My favorite thing about the film is, I think, the use of lighting in the final sequence. Charles Lang uses a creepy, dimly-glowing, red-orange light to illuminate the apartment after Suzie has smashed every other bulb. The effect has a shadowy, nightmarish quality and the scene looks like it was filmed yesterday.
When you think about David Fincher reworking the original concept here for PANIC ROOM, it really is a flattering comment to WAIT UNTIL DARK and its power in still being able to chill. It's also funny to think that with all that impressive photography and filmmaking, the film didn't have nearly half the tension of this 1967 classic.
Audrey Hepburn is cast beautifully as the blind woman victimized by three deviants. Alan Arkin is truly terrifying as the leader and his performance here ranks as one of the all-time-great screen villians.
Director Young handles the pace masterfully. No sequence really goes on longer than it should. Henry Mancini uses a nice, quiet score that creates appropriate tension as the film builds to its classic showdown.
My favorite thing about the film is, I think, the use of lighting in the final sequence. Charles Lang uses a creepy, dimly-glowing, red-orange light to illuminate the apartment after Suzie has smashed every other bulb. The effect has a shadowy, nightmarish quality and the scene looks like it was filmed yesterday.
When you think about David Fincher reworking the original concept here for PANIC ROOM, it really is a flattering comment to WAIT UNTIL DARK and its power in still being able to chill. It's also funny to think that with all that impressive photography and filmmaking, the film didn't have nearly half the tension of this 1967 classic.
Sudden Fear
(1952)
Hysterical camp! *SPOILERS AHEAD*
15 October 2003
Warning: Spoilers
I would really like to thank the other IMDB commenters and critics for drawing attention to this film. It was probably one of the best laughs I've had in quite a while!
Aging, wealthy playwright Myra (Joan) rejects auditioning actor Lester (Jack Palance) for her new play. He's not attractive enough and she simply doesn't believe him in the part. ("He has to be the kind of charm boy that makes every woman sit right up in the audience and go ummmmmmmmmmm!") So he's out. Upon hearing the reasons for his dismissal, he barks "I suggest you go to the art gallery in San Francisco and look at the oil painting of Casanova! He had big ears, a scar over one eye, a broken nose, and a wart on his chin!" Then he storms out of the theater. Myra's hooked!
The play becomes a phenomenal success -with the help of another actor in the part- and Myra couldn't be happier. Happenstance occurs when the two meet on a train shortly after. They play cards, talk, and visit an acting school for wrestlers. Myra's in love. She throws a society party to show her affection for Lessie but he's a no-show and won't answer his phone. In true 'Joan' fashion, she takes off in her fabulous gown and tears in her eyes, determined to find out what's happened. (Of course he's up to something!) They meet in the hallway of his apartment and wind up in an embrace on the stairs. ("Without you I have nothing!" she breathes.) They marry and have more parties.
The film then descends into cheap suspense as we see Myra -channeling Barbara Stanwyck in "Sorry, Wrong Number"- discover Lester's sinister plans for her early demise. Myra's discovery of the plot to bump her off is a gut buster! Her dropping of the record with the conversation when trying to hide it in a book (!) is even more hilarious! Actually, it's almost difficult to say which sequence provides the best laughs. Myra's nightmares of how Lester will murder her, her own 'plot' to frame Lester, the 'accidental' falling down the stairs to get the action going (a scene worthy of Carol Burnett I might add), the stepping on a poor alley cat's tail during a crucial 'quiet' moment, or the written agenda of the fatal night's activities all provide a random viewer with a smile that will last for days. However, I do have a special place in my heart for the final scene: she walks down the alley and into the street, bravely facing dawn, and removes her scarf (her head held high) to reveal her hair still in place......after running for her life and sweating like a bull for the last half hour! Do not be fooled by all those who declare this film taut, suspenseful, and far from camp! They probably all had just watched "Trog"!
Aging, wealthy playwright Myra (Joan) rejects auditioning actor Lester (Jack Palance) for her new play. He's not attractive enough and she simply doesn't believe him in the part. ("He has to be the kind of charm boy that makes every woman sit right up in the audience and go ummmmmmmmmmm!") So he's out. Upon hearing the reasons for his dismissal, he barks "I suggest you go to the art gallery in San Francisco and look at the oil painting of Casanova! He had big ears, a scar over one eye, a broken nose, and a wart on his chin!" Then he storms out of the theater. Myra's hooked!
The play becomes a phenomenal success -with the help of another actor in the part- and Myra couldn't be happier. Happenstance occurs when the two meet on a train shortly after. They play cards, talk, and visit an acting school for wrestlers. Myra's in love. She throws a society party to show her affection for Lessie but he's a no-show and won't answer his phone. In true 'Joan' fashion, she takes off in her fabulous gown and tears in her eyes, determined to find out what's happened. (Of course he's up to something!) They meet in the hallway of his apartment and wind up in an embrace on the stairs. ("Without you I have nothing!" she breathes.) They marry and have more parties.
The film then descends into cheap suspense as we see Myra -channeling Barbara Stanwyck in "Sorry, Wrong Number"- discover Lester's sinister plans for her early demise. Myra's discovery of the plot to bump her off is a gut buster! Her dropping of the record with the conversation when trying to hide it in a book (!) is even more hilarious! Actually, it's almost difficult to say which sequence provides the best laughs. Myra's nightmares of how Lester will murder her, her own 'plot' to frame Lester, the 'accidental' falling down the stairs to get the action going (a scene worthy of Carol Burnett I might add), the stepping on a poor alley cat's tail during a crucial 'quiet' moment, or the written agenda of the fatal night's activities all provide a random viewer with a smile that will last for days. However, I do have a special place in my heart for the final scene: she walks down the alley and into the street, bravely facing dawn, and removes her scarf (her head held high) to reveal her hair still in place......after running for her life and sweating like a bull for the last half hour! Do not be fooled by all those who declare this film taut, suspenseful, and far from camp! They probably all had just watched "Trog"!
The Detective
(1968)
Oh my!
17 July 2003
Warning: Spoilers
*****Spoiler ahead*****
Many films from the 60's and early 70's have dated terribly but none more so than THE DETECTIVE. What was once shocking and taboo breaking is now hilariously campy and would cause even the most stoic movie watcher to break into a non-stop giggle fit.
Sinatra is the tough, been-around-the-block-and-then-some cop called upon to investigate the brutal murder of a homosexual. Lee Remick --a good actor in one of her most thankless roles-- plays his estranged sex hungry wife and a stiff Jacquline Bisset plays what's supposed to be the slightly 'mysterious' character searching for the clues to her husband's death.
The dialogue is a riot: after Frank and Lee have an awkward quickie he gets to say the line "I came here to ball! Well, that's what you're good at ain't it baby?" Many scenes and performances are smile worthy but honorable mention goes to the 'shocking' finale where the luckless, gold lame mini-robed homosexual hisses "You bitch!" while struggling for the phone with the closeted 'killer' only to have his face smashed in with a marble ashtray. (The director uses the screaming violins from Hitchcock's PSYCHO for this moment.) A runner-up would be the scene where Sinatra and Lloyd Bochner --always good for a laugh-- playing a psychiatrist listen to the killer's audiotaped confession. "I was more ashamed of being a homosexual than I was a murderer." Right.
If your luck is such that you and your friends find yourselves sitting around the t.v. one night and THE DETECTIVE comes on (the thought of someone owning a copy of the damn thing is too much to believe) don't turn the channel...............you'll miss out on having one helluva' good laugh!
Many films from the 60's and early 70's have dated terribly but none more so than THE DETECTIVE. What was once shocking and taboo breaking is now hilariously campy and would cause even the most stoic movie watcher to break into a non-stop giggle fit.
Sinatra is the tough, been-around-the-block-and-then-some cop called upon to investigate the brutal murder of a homosexual. Lee Remick --a good actor in one of her most thankless roles-- plays his estranged sex hungry wife and a stiff Jacquline Bisset plays what's supposed to be the slightly 'mysterious' character searching for the clues to her husband's death.
The dialogue is a riot: after Frank and Lee have an awkward quickie he gets to say the line "I came here to ball! Well, that's what you're good at ain't it baby?" Many scenes and performances are smile worthy but honorable mention goes to the 'shocking' finale where the luckless, gold lame mini-robed homosexual hisses "You bitch!" while struggling for the phone with the closeted 'killer' only to have his face smashed in with a marble ashtray. (The director uses the screaming violins from Hitchcock's PSYCHO for this moment.) A runner-up would be the scene where Sinatra and Lloyd Bochner --always good for a laugh-- playing a psychiatrist listen to the killer's audiotaped confession. "I was more ashamed of being a homosexual than I was a murderer." Right.
If your luck is such that you and your friends find yourselves sitting around the t.v. one night and THE DETECTIVE comes on (the thought of someone owning a copy of the damn thing is too much to believe) don't turn the channel...............you'll miss out on having one helluva' good laugh!
A Decade Under the Influence
(2003)
Disappointing as a theatrical release
21 June 2003
As it stands for right now, Ted Demme and Richard Lagravenese's valentine to 70's film and their makers is an almost average, almost dull look at an incredible moment in the history of cinema; I think even hardcore film buffs will be a bit disappointed, especially if they've seen Raging Bulls, Easy Riders which covers exactly the same territory with much more thoroughness and compulsively compelling narrative. It doesn't seem fair to judge what they've done considering this is a gutted version of what will be a three-part, three hour show on IFC sometime in August but as it stands 'Decade' serves as a celluloid 70'S MOVIES FOR DUMMIES for those who are curious.
It walks the typical tightrope of grainy movie clips from beloved classics --The Godfather, Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-- intercut with that decade's most famous (and beautifully lit) characters --Robert Altman, Peter Bogdonovich, Francis Ford Coppola-- and yet there's no new observations or insight into that time or its films. For the first hour or so, you're slammed over the head again and again with their "We needed to shake up the old studio system, man!" message and the back-slapping, self-congratulatory machismo that runs rampant yet when shown the result of their anger and angst, it looks almost silly --i.e. Midnight Cowboy, Panic in Needle Park, Easy Rider-- and ADUTI comes dangerously close to nearly capsizing.
The only moment where something fresh seems to be said comes when both Julie Christie and Ellen Burstyn comment on the lack of roles for women during this reverential pissing contest. A brief salute to Jane Fonda for They Shoot Horses, Don't They and Klute and Jill Clayburgh for An Unmarried Woman and suddenly it felt like the filmmakers were taking you down a street that's been closed for quite some time but then it was back to the world of Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Peter Bogdonovich, William Friedkin, and Coppola. (Christie and Burstyn are only two out of four women interviewed for this documentary --the others being Polly Platt and Pam Grier-- and it makes you wonder why Gena Rowlands, Faye Dunaway, Diane Keaton, Liv Ullman, Shelley Duvall, and Fonda herself either declined or weren't even approached.)
The best thing about ADUTI is its never-given-its-full-due undercurrent in how most of today's filmmakers and actors are confronted with the same b******* these mavericks were in their struggle for personal vision and expression. Where are our "Klute"'s and "Scarecrow"'s and "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice"'s and "Network"'s in this A Beautiful Mind/Gladiator/Braveheart/Chicago movie world.
Maybe the full, unedited show will be more satisfying.
It walks the typical tightrope of grainy movie clips from beloved classics --The Godfather, Chinatown, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-- intercut with that decade's most famous (and beautifully lit) characters --Robert Altman, Peter Bogdonovich, Francis Ford Coppola-- and yet there's no new observations or insight into that time or its films. For the first hour or so, you're slammed over the head again and again with their "We needed to shake up the old studio system, man!" message and the back-slapping, self-congratulatory machismo that runs rampant yet when shown the result of their anger and angst, it looks almost silly --i.e. Midnight Cowboy, Panic in Needle Park, Easy Rider-- and ADUTI comes dangerously close to nearly capsizing.
The only moment where something fresh seems to be said comes when both Julie Christie and Ellen Burstyn comment on the lack of roles for women during this reverential pissing contest. A brief salute to Jane Fonda for They Shoot Horses, Don't They and Klute and Jill Clayburgh for An Unmarried Woman and suddenly it felt like the filmmakers were taking you down a street that's been closed for quite some time but then it was back to the world of Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Peter Bogdonovich, William Friedkin, and Coppola. (Christie and Burstyn are only two out of four women interviewed for this documentary --the others being Polly Platt and Pam Grier-- and it makes you wonder why Gena Rowlands, Faye Dunaway, Diane Keaton, Liv Ullman, Shelley Duvall, and Fonda herself either declined or weren't even approached.)
The best thing about ADUTI is its never-given-its-full-due undercurrent in how most of today's filmmakers and actors are confronted with the same b******* these mavericks were in their struggle for personal vision and expression. Where are our "Klute"'s and "Scarecrow"'s and "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice"'s and "Network"'s in this A Beautiful Mind/Gladiator/Braveheart/Chicago movie world.
Maybe the full, unedited show will be more satisfying.
Lord Love a Duck
(1966)
See it!
13 January 2003
The only director I've heard give credit to this great '60's film is John Landis but this strange-funny-dark-satirical-dramatic spoof was ahead of its time -like The Loved One or Dr. Strangelove- and had to have been an influence on many others. LLAD is an adult 'teen' movie that effectively slashes what was popular fodder for teen movies -the Beach Party series, bad low-budget horror films, bad low-budget sex dramas, bad low-budget high-school comedies, etc.
Tuesday Weld as Barbara Ann gives her best performance and her scenes with Lola Albright (amazing as her bunny-suited cocktail waitress mother) make them one of the most unusual mother/daughter pairings of all time. Max Showalter -so great as the singing priest with the old housekeeper in Blake Edwards's 10- has a very funny/creepy scene as Tuesday's dad, Ruth Gordon shows off her marvelous oh-what-the-hell-I'll-do-it persona and who knew Roddy McDowell was that sexy? LLAD is more than just a buried '60's curio: it's an overlooked classic that paved the way for most underground filmmakers looking to break the ice.
Tuesday Weld as Barbara Ann gives her best performance and her scenes with Lola Albright (amazing as her bunny-suited cocktail waitress mother) make them one of the most unusual mother/daughter pairings of all time. Max Showalter -so great as the singing priest with the old housekeeper in Blake Edwards's 10- has a very funny/creepy scene as Tuesday's dad, Ruth Gordon shows off her marvelous oh-what-the-hell-I'll-do-it persona and who knew Roddy McDowell was that sexy? LLAD is more than just a buried '60's curio: it's an overlooked classic that paved the way for most underground filmmakers looking to break the ice.
The Loved One
(1965)
It's the ghoul from the graveyard!*slight spoiler*
13 January 2003
Warning: Spoilers
This beautifully sick '60's comedy was incredibly way ahead of its time -like Lord Love a Duck- and the fact that it was released in the same year as The Sound of Music shows that times were definitely changing.
Director Tony Richardson skewers Hollywood culture, big-time corporations, religious beliefs, heros, strippers, and death itself in this dark satirical social commentary that tells the tale of a fresh young innocent (Robert Morse) who comes to Hollywood to stay with his uncle (John Gielgud) and winds up working in a pet cemetary.
Richardson somehow managed to bring out a light-in-the-loafers performance in intense Method actor Rod Steiger and his Mr. Joyboy is a shocking about-face from his heavy dramatic work in The Pawnbroker or Doctor Zhivago. Whether he's arranging the face of a recently deceased corpse or twirling a soon-to-be-embalmed infant, Steiger relishes every single moment he has on screen and Mr. Joyboy is one of the most disturbingly hilarious characters ever put on film.
Anjanette Comer is also a wonderful discovery and her Miss Thanatogenous -the object of Mr. Joyboy's desire- is a happy-go-lucky Morticia Addams and another unique character that's completely her own: she and Steiger create this bizarre twosome with such individual owernship that they're not reminiscent of anyone else in the history of motion pictures. Her light voice has an off-kilter quality that makes her seem so vulnerable to everything and when Miss Thanatogenous discovers the advice columnist she worships (the late Lionel Stander who's perfect) drunk in a bar it becomes the most brutal/funny scene in the movie.
The Loved One starts out at quite a slow pace but just stay with it because you'll never see anything like again. It contains some side-splitting laughs and first-rate contributions from Liberace, Milton Berle, Paul Williams, Johnathan Winters, and Roddy McDowell. (Don't miss what Morse has in his refrigerator!)
Director Tony Richardson skewers Hollywood culture, big-time corporations, religious beliefs, heros, strippers, and death itself in this dark satirical social commentary that tells the tale of a fresh young innocent (Robert Morse) who comes to Hollywood to stay with his uncle (John Gielgud) and winds up working in a pet cemetary.
Richardson somehow managed to bring out a light-in-the-loafers performance in intense Method actor Rod Steiger and his Mr. Joyboy is a shocking about-face from his heavy dramatic work in The Pawnbroker or Doctor Zhivago. Whether he's arranging the face of a recently deceased corpse or twirling a soon-to-be-embalmed infant, Steiger relishes every single moment he has on screen and Mr. Joyboy is one of the most disturbingly hilarious characters ever put on film.
Anjanette Comer is also a wonderful discovery and her Miss Thanatogenous -the object of Mr. Joyboy's desire- is a happy-go-lucky Morticia Addams and another unique character that's completely her own: she and Steiger create this bizarre twosome with such individual owernship that they're not reminiscent of anyone else in the history of motion pictures. Her light voice has an off-kilter quality that makes her seem so vulnerable to everything and when Miss Thanatogenous discovers the advice columnist she worships (the late Lionel Stander who's perfect) drunk in a bar it becomes the most brutal/funny scene in the movie.
The Loved One starts out at quite a slow pace but just stay with it because you'll never see anything like again. It contains some side-splitting laughs and first-rate contributions from Liberace, Milton Berle, Paul Williams, Johnathan Winters, and Roddy McDowell. (Don't miss what Morse has in his refrigerator!)
Auto Focus
(2002)
Why?
12 January 2003
Disappointing film treatment of the tragic, ugly life of small pop culture icon and sex addict Bob Crane.
Paul Schrader's filmography shows his strongest talent lies in writing and composing screenplays, not directing. Auto Focus plays out as a series of moving sleazy flashcards that build toward the inevitable and the result is a cold, dull, unsatisfying film that doesn't even have the power of the E!True Hollywood Story on Mr. Crane.
All the actors are fine -Rita Wilson and Maria Bello are great at first but then they vanish and we're left with Dafoe and Kinnear who both do as well as anyone could with their parts- but the distance Schrader's camera keeps between the audience and their characters strips them of any sense of humanity. Instead of probing or observing, it merely slogs. The dark side of human sexuality has always been his creative fount but also his own film indulgence and it makes for the ultimate experience in pointless artistic expression. Auto Focus winds up being your typical movie treatment of the life of a Hollywood casuality. Skip it.
Paul Schrader's filmography shows his strongest talent lies in writing and composing screenplays, not directing. Auto Focus plays out as a series of moving sleazy flashcards that build toward the inevitable and the result is a cold, dull, unsatisfying film that doesn't even have the power of the E!True Hollywood Story on Mr. Crane.
All the actors are fine -Rita Wilson and Maria Bello are great at first but then they vanish and we're left with Dafoe and Kinnear who both do as well as anyone could with their parts- but the distance Schrader's camera keeps between the audience and their characters strips them of any sense of humanity. Instead of probing or observing, it merely slogs. The dark side of human sexuality has always been his creative fount but also his own film indulgence and it makes for the ultimate experience in pointless artistic expression. Auto Focus winds up being your typical movie treatment of the life of a Hollywood casuality. Skip it.
Living in Oblivion
(1995)
Steve Buscemi!
12 January 2003
Frequently funny film about the madness of making independent movies wouldn't be the gem that it is if it wasn't for a fantastic performance by Steve Buscemi. His Ren-like pop eyes and ferocious anger give life to the on-the-brink-of-a-nervous-breakdown director character and the scene towards the beginning of the film where he snaps and tells everyone on the set what he thinks of them gives a viewer a words-cannot-describe feeling of incredibly inspiring bliss. It would be a one-note performance if he played Nick Reve as manic all the way through the film but he adds layers of vulnerability and plays the humanity instead of the schtick making the nervous humor burn and stay with you. It's a quality he brings to every part he plays and is very visible in his best work: Parting Glances, Fargo, Trees Lounge, and especially Ghost World.
Catherine Keener and Dermot Mulroney are also very good here but James Le Gros as the Brad Pitt-inspired Chad Palomino (great name!) is just too good to be true! Enjoy!
Catherine Keener and Dermot Mulroney are also very good here but James Le Gros as the Brad Pitt-inspired Chad Palomino (great name!) is just too good to be true! Enjoy!
Body Heat
(1981)
Wouldn't you rather lick it? *slight,slight spoiler*
12 January 2003
Warning: Spoilers
'40's film noir update sizzles due to Kathleen Turner's turn as a dressed-in-white vamp and William Hurt's unflinching ability to play the dupe. By mixing quiet suspense with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor Body Heat becomes not only director Lawrence Kasdan's best film by far but also one of the best films of the '80's.
Crackling dialogue, a steamy Florida atmosphere, and superb turns from Mickey Rourke as a sexy young arsonist, Ted Danson as a dancing attorney, Richard Crenna as the ill-fated husband, and Guiding Light's Kim Zimmer as the mysterious 'friend' add flavor to this great little number that also has one of the best endings of any movie in recent memory. Don't miss it!
Crackling dialogue, a steamy Florida atmosphere, and superb turns from Mickey Rourke as a sexy young arsonist, Ted Danson as a dancing attorney, Richard Crenna as the ill-fated husband, and Guiding Light's Kim Zimmer as the mysterious 'friend' add flavor to this great little number that also has one of the best endings of any movie in recent memory. Don't miss it!
Starting Over
(1979)
Burt's best!
12 January 2003
Exceptionally funny and moving romantic comedy from Alan J. Pakula (Klute, All the President's Men) is a lost late '70's classic! Burt plays Phil Potter, a married every-man who's dumped by his self-consumed wife (Candice Bergen) only to stumble into love with an insecure school teacher (Jill Clayburgh).
Basically it sounds like An Unmarried Woman for men but Starting Over is its own film made with a gentle touch courtesy of Pakula and writer James L. Brooks and features some outstanding performances: Burt Reynolds -displaying vast amounts of charm and sex appeal- can be so beautifully restrained and sensitive (Deliverance, Boogie Nights) but then quickly turn and flash that devil's grin and deliver a line with a comic timing that's pure genius. He's amazing here and Phil is his best creation. Candice Bergen was sensational in Carnal Knowledge but her shallow Jessica is invested with a played-to-the-hilt quality and she shows a hilarious narcissiscm that wouldn't be seen again until Murphy Brown. (See if you can get her delightfully out-of-tune vocal rendition of Better than Evah out of your head after you've watched this!) Jill Clayburgh never found another part like Erica in An Unmarried Woman but then again she really didn't need to and her Marilyn is a slightly high-strung but charmingly shy wallflower and she plays off Reynolds perfectly; the two of them carry Starting Over to its finish with great style.
Starting Over is one of those movies that people vaguely remember and you almost never come across while channel surfing. (It's not even available on DVD and most video stores don't even have a copy of the VHS tape!) It's a shame it's not more available because it has an honest, acutely observational intelligence going for it and feels like a romantic comedy made for people who don't like romantic comedies. It's a great movie!
Basically it sounds like An Unmarried Woman for men but Starting Over is its own film made with a gentle touch courtesy of Pakula and writer James L. Brooks and features some outstanding performances: Burt Reynolds -displaying vast amounts of charm and sex appeal- can be so beautifully restrained and sensitive (Deliverance, Boogie Nights) but then quickly turn and flash that devil's grin and deliver a line with a comic timing that's pure genius. He's amazing here and Phil is his best creation. Candice Bergen was sensational in Carnal Knowledge but her shallow Jessica is invested with a played-to-the-hilt quality and she shows a hilarious narcissiscm that wouldn't be seen again until Murphy Brown. (See if you can get her delightfully out-of-tune vocal rendition of Better than Evah out of your head after you've watched this!) Jill Clayburgh never found another part like Erica in An Unmarried Woman but then again she really didn't need to and her Marilyn is a slightly high-strung but charmingly shy wallflower and she plays off Reynolds perfectly; the two of them carry Starting Over to its finish with great style.
Starting Over is one of those movies that people vaguely remember and you almost never come across while channel surfing. (It's not even available on DVD and most video stores don't even have a copy of the VHS tape!) It's a shame it's not more available because it has an honest, acutely observational intelligence going for it and feels like a romantic comedy made for people who don't like romantic comedies. It's a great movie!
Theater of Blood
(1973)
Vincent!
12 January 2003
Great, gory tale of a Shakespearean actor's revenge on the snobbish theater critics who snubbed him.
Vincent Price has a field day and revels in playing everything from a gay hairdresser named Butch to a sadistic t.v. show host. Price himself -like Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing- has been tragically overlooked and his work here is a dark, campy delight! The monsters he created in The Abominable Dr. Phibes and The Pit and the Pendulum are horror classics but there's a prejudice against horror films and they never seem to be taken seriously by most award groups or critics. Diana Rigg (Emma Peel from The Avengers) is also along for the ride -playing his equally disturbed daughter- and seems to have just as much as 'ol boy Vincent.
The murder sequences are based on Shakespeare's most brutal theatrical killings and director Douglas Hickox has no sympathy for the viewer: they're violent, uncomfortable, disturbing and highly thrilling all at the same time.
Theater of Blood is a film made with some skill, wit, good acting, and lots of blood making it one of the '70's best cult movies and something that would be interesting to see if it was remade.
Vincent Price has a field day and revels in playing everything from a gay hairdresser named Butch to a sadistic t.v. show host. Price himself -like Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing- has been tragically overlooked and his work here is a dark, campy delight! The monsters he created in The Abominable Dr. Phibes and The Pit and the Pendulum are horror classics but there's a prejudice against horror films and they never seem to be taken seriously by most award groups or critics. Diana Rigg (Emma Peel from The Avengers) is also along for the ride -playing his equally disturbed daughter- and seems to have just as much as 'ol boy Vincent.
The murder sequences are based on Shakespeare's most brutal theatrical killings and director Douglas Hickox has no sympathy for the viewer: they're violent, uncomfortable, disturbing and highly thrilling all at the same time.
Theater of Blood is a film made with some skill, wit, good acting, and lots of blood making it one of the '70's best cult movies and something that would be interesting to see if it was remade.
Great fun!
12 January 2003
Funny film features Gene Wilder in one of his very best performances. He and Donald Sutherland score as both sets of identical twins but no one can match the comedic intensity Wilder brings to the role of the pompous psycho with the dead stuffed hawk on his arm. It's a great gag and ranks with his best work -The Producers, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles- and even some of the film performances of Peter Sellers -Dr. Strangelove, his Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther series. It's a good time!
Darling
(1965)
Existentialist froth but compelling none the less!
12 January 2003
Julie Christie gives a raw, jagged performance as Diana Scott, a free-wheeling model/actress/whatever whose bedhopping exploits among the upper British classes cause her own self-destruction.
Quick zooms, freeze frames, and stop-motion effects aside, Darling holds up just as well as the other international hit about immoral behavior among the rich and semi-famous (La Dolce Vita) and makes a nice beginning for director John Schlesinger's adult trilogy. (Midnight Cowboy and Sunday Bloody Sunday followed.)
The film is a fascinating time capsule and Christie's wonderfully expressive eyes, the handsome Dirk Bogarde's masterful underplaying, and Laurence Harvey's cold sexuality make Darling a swinging '60's classic that still packs a cynical punch and is yet another example of a fine lost film that's almost unavailable in any format. DVD please?
Quick zooms, freeze frames, and stop-motion effects aside, Darling holds up just as well as the other international hit about immoral behavior among the rich and semi-famous (La Dolce Vita) and makes a nice beginning for director John Schlesinger's adult trilogy. (Midnight Cowboy and Sunday Bloody Sunday followed.)
The film is a fascinating time capsule and Christie's wonderfully expressive eyes, the handsome Dirk Bogarde's masterful underplaying, and Laurence Harvey's cold sexuality make Darling a swinging '60's classic that still packs a cynical punch and is yet another example of a fine lost film that's almost unavailable in any format. DVD please?
Far from Heaven
(2002)
The best movie of 2002
11 January 2003
Todd Haynes's masterwork is a beautiful piece of movie-making and probably one of the best films to come along in recent years. It's a visual masterpiece and a grandly acted, emtionally charged drama that turns soap opera cliches into golden observations about our society and its cultures.
Featuring outstanding acting by Julianne Moore, Dennis Haysbert, and Dennis Quaid, Far from Heaven is a poetic valentine to the films of Douglas Sirk and a stunning achievement in cinematic art. Period.
Featuring outstanding acting by Julianne Moore, Dennis Haysbert, and Dennis Quaid, Far from Heaven is a poetic valentine to the films of Douglas Sirk and a stunning achievement in cinematic art. Period.
Punch-Drunk Love
(2002)
A visual curio
11 January 2003
PTA's interesting but ultimately unsatisfying tale about the dizzy effect love has when it enters the life of a solitary small business executive (Adam Sandler) in the form of an equally idiosyncratic young woman (Emily Watson).
PTA has almost dropped the 95% Scorsese impression and is trusting his own artistic impulses more (i.e. watch the scene where Sandler first talks to the sex worker on the phone) and the result falls somewhere between 'good' and 'disappointing'. (It actually feels like a 90 minute version of the romantic subplot of Terry GIlliam's The Fisher King with Sandler and Watson substituting for Robin Williams and Amanda Plummer.) His sheer love of film -not to mention film characters- and his over-ambitiousness are fantastic fuel for his creative fire making him the most exciting young filmmaker out there but he has yet to make his masterpiece. With his minutely detailed eye for casting (the actors he chose for Sandler's sisters), sets (Sandler's apartment), character nuances (the chocolate pudding), and his ear for sound (the use of silence before the car accident in the beginning sequence and Shelley Duvall's song -'Olive's Lament'- from Robert Altman's 'Popeye') he has the power and artistry to create a truly superb film: Punch Drunk Love feels like a work-in-progress or something similar to Orson Welles's butchered The Magnificent Ambersons.
Adam Sandler's angry psychotic comedy has been subverted and channeled into the character of Barry Egan and the results are more than impressive. When a comedic actor who's not known for having dramatic skills suddenly gets an opportunity to show his range, the effect can be refreshingly exhilarating -Lily Tomlin in Nashville, Richard Lewis in Drunks, Sandler here- and far more watchable than seeing a more well-regarded thesbian give us a 'theatrical' performance -Kevin Spacey in American Beauty or Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt. He beautifully sustains his characterization and shows that somewhere inside him is an artist who wants to come out.
The mentally unhinged intensity Emily Watson has brought to some of her film perfromances has bordered on emotional rape -Breaking the Waves, Hilary and Jackie- but Anderson wisely downplays that facet and cast her as Lena, his eye of the storm: she makes for an enchanting, warm, calm center and looks absolutely stunning in red. There's phenominal acting chemistry between she and Sandler even when their characters are just talking on the phone to one another and PDL is worth seeing just for the scenes they have together.
The impulsive phone call to the sex line -and its subsequent repercussions- feels like an amatuerish, desperate attempt to kick the story into high gear and weakens the movie. The scene where Barry and Lena engage in pre-coital verbal violence also sticks out because this seems like a cheap nod to the audience for a laugh -and indeed the large college audience I saw the film with did laugh- and comes closer to Sandler's old routines than anything else in the film. It's an intrusion on his performance because he has moved beyond 'working the crowd'. PDL comes as close to a Godard film -in that you have no idea what's going to happen and there's such high risks being taken in every scene- made by an American director yet; however, it lacks a master's touch.
PTA has almost dropped the 95% Scorsese impression and is trusting his own artistic impulses more (i.e. watch the scene where Sandler first talks to the sex worker on the phone) and the result falls somewhere between 'good' and 'disappointing'. (It actually feels like a 90 minute version of the romantic subplot of Terry GIlliam's The Fisher King with Sandler and Watson substituting for Robin Williams and Amanda Plummer.) His sheer love of film -not to mention film characters- and his over-ambitiousness are fantastic fuel for his creative fire making him the most exciting young filmmaker out there but he has yet to make his masterpiece. With his minutely detailed eye for casting (the actors he chose for Sandler's sisters), sets (Sandler's apartment), character nuances (the chocolate pudding), and his ear for sound (the use of silence before the car accident in the beginning sequence and Shelley Duvall's song -'Olive's Lament'- from Robert Altman's 'Popeye') he has the power and artistry to create a truly superb film: Punch Drunk Love feels like a work-in-progress or something similar to Orson Welles's butchered The Magnificent Ambersons.
Adam Sandler's angry psychotic comedy has been subverted and channeled into the character of Barry Egan and the results are more than impressive. When a comedic actor who's not known for having dramatic skills suddenly gets an opportunity to show his range, the effect can be refreshingly exhilarating -Lily Tomlin in Nashville, Richard Lewis in Drunks, Sandler here- and far more watchable than seeing a more well-regarded thesbian give us a 'theatrical' performance -Kevin Spacey in American Beauty or Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt. He beautifully sustains his characterization and shows that somewhere inside him is an artist who wants to come out.
The mentally unhinged intensity Emily Watson has brought to some of her film perfromances has bordered on emotional rape -Breaking the Waves, Hilary and Jackie- but Anderson wisely downplays that facet and cast her as Lena, his eye of the storm: she makes for an enchanting, warm, calm center and looks absolutely stunning in red. There's phenominal acting chemistry between she and Sandler even when their characters are just talking on the phone to one another and PDL is worth seeing just for the scenes they have together.
The impulsive phone call to the sex line -and its subsequent repercussions- feels like an amatuerish, desperate attempt to kick the story into high gear and weakens the movie. The scene where Barry and Lena engage in pre-coital verbal violence also sticks out because this seems like a cheap nod to the audience for a laugh -and indeed the large college audience I saw the film with did laugh- and comes closer to Sandler's old routines than anything else in the film. It's an intrusion on his performance because he has moved beyond 'working the crowd'. PDL comes as close to a Godard film -in that you have no idea what's going to happen and there's such high risks being taken in every scene- made by an American director yet; however, it lacks a master's touch.
Death to Smoochy
(2002)
Deadly!
11 January 2003
Abominable comedy from Danny DeVito about a children's show host (Robin Williams) who seeks revenge on his Barney-like replacement (Ed Norton).
DeVito's The War of the Roses was a marvelous dark comedy with outstanding performances from Kathleen Turner and Micheal Douglas; Death to Smoochy is a pathetic excuse for a movie with two good actors who cannot do comedy (Catherine Keener and Norton) simply because they're not funny. Watch the scenes they have together: there's no chemistry of any kind and the jokes sound like heavy lumber when it falls! Williams screams, rants, and acts psychotic but it's exhausting to watch and will leave you scrambling for the 'off' button on your remote control.
Granted, the story sounds funny and like it might be a good time with a little bit of a bite but DeVito crushes any inspired sense of zestfulness -you can tell from the opening shot that you're in deep trouble- and it leaves you with a severe headache and a sudden, desperate need to read a book. If you have any sort of curiousity about this dismal mess of a movie, save yourself the trouble and channel it into knitting!
DeVito's The War of the Roses was a marvelous dark comedy with outstanding performances from Kathleen Turner and Micheal Douglas; Death to Smoochy is a pathetic excuse for a movie with two good actors who cannot do comedy (Catherine Keener and Norton) simply because they're not funny. Watch the scenes they have together: there's no chemistry of any kind and the jokes sound like heavy lumber when it falls! Williams screams, rants, and acts psychotic but it's exhausting to watch and will leave you scrambling for the 'off' button on your remote control.
Granted, the story sounds funny and like it might be a good time with a little bit of a bite but DeVito crushes any inspired sense of zestfulness -you can tell from the opening shot that you're in deep trouble- and it leaves you with a severe headache and a sudden, desperate need to read a book. If you have any sort of curiousity about this dismal mess of a movie, save yourself the trouble and channel it into knitting!
Addams Family Values
(1993)
Very funny
11 January 2003
Barry Sonnenfeld (Get Shorty) takes a zany script written by Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey, In and Out) and directs with an exhilarating rhythm to tell the tale of Uncle Fester's marriage to a suspicious young nanny (Joan Cusack) and its effect on the Addams family.
All the actors are absolutely wonderful but Cusack steals the movie with a gleefully nasty turn as the murderous Debbie. Her without-peer comedic talent is more strongly showcased here -watch the scene when Debbie sits in a car waiting for a house to explode- than in her award winning role as Kevin Kline's jilted bride in In and Out. Angelica Huston and Raoul Julia are magnetic in dramatic roles but they also have sensational comic timing and their Morticia and Gomez make a memorable dark-humored pair, most notably in the scenes where the sexual innuendo takes a front-row seat. Peter MacNichol (Ally McBeal) and Christine Baranski (The Ref) have a ball as the irritating summer camp counslers and Christina Ricci will probably never top her performance as Wednesday.
It's a guilty pleasure and a fun ride, zipping by in an hour and a half and also features a hilarious cameo by Peter Graves (Airplane). Check it out!
All the actors are absolutely wonderful but Cusack steals the movie with a gleefully nasty turn as the murderous Debbie. Her without-peer comedic talent is more strongly showcased here -watch the scene when Debbie sits in a car waiting for a house to explode- than in her award winning role as Kevin Kline's jilted bride in In and Out. Angelica Huston and Raoul Julia are magnetic in dramatic roles but they also have sensational comic timing and their Morticia and Gomez make a memorable dark-humored pair, most notably in the scenes where the sexual innuendo takes a front-row seat. Peter MacNichol (Ally McBeal) and Christine Baranski (The Ref) have a ball as the irritating summer camp counslers and Christina Ricci will probably never top her performance as Wednesday.
It's a guilty pleasure and a fun ride, zipping by in an hour and a half and also features a hilarious cameo by Peter Graves (Airplane). Check it out!
What's Up, Doc?
(1972)
Barbra's best
11 January 2003
First rate screwball comedy revolving around the contents of about 5 identical bags, a zany free spirit (Barbra Streisand), an uptight music professor (Ryan O'Neal), his frigid fiancee (Madeline Kahn), and the trecherous streets of San Francisco.
Peter Bogdonovich has fashioned an inspired throwback to the film comedies of the '30's and What's Up, Doc? is easily one of the best comedies of the 70's. Barbra gives the best performance of her career -even Streisand's non-fans like her here- and a bespectacled Ryan O'Neal is a perfect straight man. Madeline Kahn (Paper Moon) was one of the most talented and hilarious comedic actors of all time and her Eunice is a brilliant creation. Kenneth Mars (The Producers) also scores as Hugh Simon -a character patterned after intellectual film/theater critic John Simon- John Hillerman (Magnum PI) nails the role of the hotel manager and Liam Dunn (Young Frankenstein) almost steals the movie as the exasperated judge.
Bogdonovich brings the story's madcap quality to a boiling point and creates a chase scene that ranks right up there with the one in Bullitt or any of the other great action sequences in the history of film.
It's an incredibly entertaining movie that gets even better on repeated viewings.
Peter Bogdonovich has fashioned an inspired throwback to the film comedies of the '30's and What's Up, Doc? is easily one of the best comedies of the 70's. Barbra gives the best performance of her career -even Streisand's non-fans like her here- and a bespectacled Ryan O'Neal is a perfect straight man. Madeline Kahn (Paper Moon) was one of the most talented and hilarious comedic actors of all time and her Eunice is a brilliant creation. Kenneth Mars (The Producers) also scores as Hugh Simon -a character patterned after intellectual film/theater critic John Simon- John Hillerman (Magnum PI) nails the role of the hotel manager and Liam Dunn (Young Frankenstein) almost steals the movie as the exasperated judge.
Bogdonovich brings the story's madcap quality to a boiling point and creates a chase scene that ranks right up there with the one in Bullitt or any of the other great action sequences in the history of film.
It's an incredibly entertaining movie that gets even better on repeated viewings.
Bye Bye Birdie
(1963)
Only works on the stage
11 January 2003
Cheesy '60's musical is only worth seeing for the electrifying image of a young Ann-Margret dressed in a frilly hot pink half-top and matching capri pants slithering around a teen club purring the lyrics to A Lot of Livin' To Do while teasing every boy in the place. It's a perfect example of star power and a great cult visual equal. The rest of the movie contains the always reliable Dick Van Dyke, the late Paul Lynde -'Oh, those midgets! WILD!', a comedic Maureen Stapleton -'Wear your rubbers!'-, and poor, miscast Janet Leigh in a wild Chita Rivera wig. (Although her character's attempt to sexually boost a group of Shriner's is quite fun to watch.) Other than that, it's just silly stuff.
The Good Time Girls
(1960)
Disturbing French classic *slight, slight spoiler*
11 January 2003
Warning: Spoilers
Superb, unnerving film about four young Parisian women and their desires for and experiences with the opposite sex.
'60's New Wave director Claude Chabrol (Les Cousins, Le Boucher) was one of the best and crafted his films with deliberate care -he takes everyday events, adds something sinister and builds on that dreadful feeling- understanding that character developement and pacing are most crucial for a thriller and it makes Les Bonnes Femmes a haunting experience.
There's evidence of his influence in directors like DePalma and even in John Carpenter's Halloween but he's the master and only ranks a notch higher than Hitchcock because he doesn't button-push so overtly.
A great film that also features the dazzling beauty of the young Stephane Audran and packs a punch missing in most other suspense tales.
'60's New Wave director Claude Chabrol (Les Cousins, Le Boucher) was one of the best and crafted his films with deliberate care -he takes everyday events, adds something sinister and builds on that dreadful feeling- understanding that character developement and pacing are most crucial for a thriller and it makes Les Bonnes Femmes a haunting experience.
There's evidence of his influence in directors like DePalma and even in John Carpenter's Halloween but he's the master and only ranks a notch higher than Hitchcock because he doesn't button-push so overtly.
A great film that also features the dazzling beauty of the young Stephane Audran and packs a punch missing in most other suspense tales.
Imitation of Life
(1959)
The Great One
11 January 2003
Grand soap opera still carries its tear-jerking ability after 44 years. Lana Tuner -the Sharon Stone of her day- and Sandra Dee -the Reese Witherspoon of her day- are perfectly matched as mother and daughter and have their moments but the real glory comes when Juanita Moore and Sandra Kohner -who in some scenes resembles a fleshier Mary Louise-Parker- hit the screen. Their mother-daughter relationship is what everyone talks about and thinks of when you mention the film's title and it's a loving testament to both these actors that the '50's film is still part of today's pop culture.
Sure the story is silly and campy: a down-on-her-luck, 30-something stage actress (Turner) suddenly hits it big and is romanced by two different men (John Gavin and Dan O'Herlihy) while her black maid struggles with her own daughter's inability to cope with having been born mulatto. But as the oh-here-we-go ending approaches and that powerhouse Mahalia Jackson lets loose with Troubles of the World and the rebellious daughter makes her last minute appearance, I dare anyone to stay dry! This weepy classic was directed with unbelievable skill by Douglas Sirk and remains one of the best films to come out of that era.
While Turner and Gavin may make a poor man's version of Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, the film has a first rate director and the Moore-Kohner acting partnership making it an essential viewing experience.
Sure the story is silly and campy: a down-on-her-luck, 30-something stage actress (Turner) suddenly hits it big and is romanced by two different men (John Gavin and Dan O'Herlihy) while her black maid struggles with her own daughter's inability to cope with having been born mulatto. But as the oh-here-we-go ending approaches and that powerhouse Mahalia Jackson lets loose with Troubles of the World and the rebellious daughter makes her last minute appearance, I dare anyone to stay dry! This weepy classic was directed with unbelievable skill by Douglas Sirk and remains one of the best films to come out of that era.
While Turner and Gavin may make a poor man's version of Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, the film has a first rate director and the Moore-Kohner acting partnership making it an essential viewing experience.
Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid
(1948)
Better than 'Splash'
11 January 2003
Slightly bizarre little '40's comedy about a middle-aged married man's mid-life crisis solved by the discovery of a young mermaid while fishing in the Caribbean.
William Powell (The Thin Man series) carries the picture on his charm alone and Ann Blyth (Veda in Mildred Pierce) makes a very cute and seductive sea creature. Some droll set pieces -Peabody's attempt to purchase a swim top for his catch, the various encounters with the busy-body's who come to snoop- work quite nicely and Powell actually creates some genuine moments of heartfelt desire but it runs out of steam before long, turns dark, then ends with a thud.
Regardless, the film is a harmless little buried treasure and more than worth a look.
William Powell (The Thin Man series) carries the picture on his charm alone and Ann Blyth (Veda in Mildred Pierce) makes a very cute and seductive sea creature. Some droll set pieces -Peabody's attempt to purchase a swim top for his catch, the various encounters with the busy-body's who come to snoop- work quite nicely and Powell actually creates some genuine moments of heartfelt desire but it runs out of steam before long, turns dark, then ends with a thud.
Regardless, the film is a harmless little buried treasure and more than worth a look.
The Good Time Girls
(1960)
Disturbing *slight spoiler for Goodbar & Femmes*
10 January 2003
Warning: Spoilers
Unnerving French film by superb director Claude Chabrol deceivingly begins as a good time tale about four fun lasses then turns into a nightmare filmed with a darkly poetic style that haunts.
A lost '60's New Wave classic, the film obviously had a strong impact on future filmmakers since you can spot components in works by DePalma and John Carpenter -especially in his Halloween. Les Bonnes Femmes also makes the kind of impact that the clunky Looking for Mr. Goodbar doesn't: the 1977 tale about singles bars featured an in-your-face woman who pursued non-stop sex with disastrous results while Les Bonnes Femmes shows naive characters who are merely looking for emotional love only to be tragically disappointed. There's a world of difference between a pop culture message film and an observational foreign character study.
A lost '60's New Wave classic, the film obviously had a strong impact on future filmmakers since you can spot components in works by DePalma and John Carpenter -especially in his Halloween. Les Bonnes Femmes also makes the kind of impact that the clunky Looking for Mr. Goodbar doesn't: the 1977 tale about singles bars featured an in-your-face woman who pursued non-stop sex with disastrous results while Les Bonnes Femmes shows naive characters who are merely looking for emotional love only to be tragically disappointed. There's a world of difference between a pop culture message film and an observational foreign character study.
An Unmarried Woman
(1978)
Watershed moment in the history of 'women's films'
8 January 2003
Moving tale of a middle-class Manhattan housewife's struggle for independence after her husband leaves her for another woman.
The wonderful Paul Mazursky created this 1978 landmark slaute to women's liberation and the film wipes the floor with the messy urban horror of 1977's Looking for Mr. Goodbar: Goodbar's makers ultimately had no respect for their female protagonist but Mazursky scores in his depiction of female self-respect and love.
Jill Clayburg's miraculous performance as Erica was snubbed at the Academy Awards in favor of Jane Fonda's more 'tolerable' female in Coming Home but if you look closely you'll see there's no comparison and Clayburg hits all the right notes while displaying Erica's overwhelmingly complex feelings. Perhaps Erica's unique strength was too much for many male Academy members so they rewarded the typical moony-eyed housewife character instead. Regardless of that, Clayburg makes a brilliant lead and her lonely journey through New York-chic (art exhibits, bars, therapists, narcisstic artists) makes for great viewing. (The very brief encounters Erica has with a handsome blonde man at the coatcheck before and after she's been hit with the news from her husband are a nice touch!) There's a rare level of intimacy between the actors in all of the scenes but especially the girl group talks: the words sound surprisingly like they belong to the actors and Mazursky's ear for dialogue is sharp and refreshingly to-the-point.
Michael Murphy as the wayward husband, Alan Bates as the new love interest, and Cliff Gorman -whom I last saw as the bitchy, effeminate in The Boys in the Band!- as a male chauvinist provide exceptional support as the men in Erica's life. The only thing that marres the beauty of this film is its awful, piercingly shrill, '70's saxophone musical score.
The wonderful Paul Mazursky created this 1978 landmark slaute to women's liberation and the film wipes the floor with the messy urban horror of 1977's Looking for Mr. Goodbar: Goodbar's makers ultimately had no respect for their female protagonist but Mazursky scores in his depiction of female self-respect and love.
Jill Clayburg's miraculous performance as Erica was snubbed at the Academy Awards in favor of Jane Fonda's more 'tolerable' female in Coming Home but if you look closely you'll see there's no comparison and Clayburg hits all the right notes while displaying Erica's overwhelmingly complex feelings. Perhaps Erica's unique strength was too much for many male Academy members so they rewarded the typical moony-eyed housewife character instead. Regardless of that, Clayburg makes a brilliant lead and her lonely journey through New York-chic (art exhibits, bars, therapists, narcisstic artists) makes for great viewing. (The very brief encounters Erica has with a handsome blonde man at the coatcheck before and after she's been hit with the news from her husband are a nice touch!) There's a rare level of intimacy between the actors in all of the scenes but especially the girl group talks: the words sound surprisingly like they belong to the actors and Mazursky's ear for dialogue is sharp and refreshingly to-the-point.
Michael Murphy as the wayward husband, Alan Bates as the new love interest, and Cliff Gorman -whom I last saw as the bitchy, effeminate in The Boys in the Band!- as a male chauvinist provide exceptional support as the men in Erica's life. The only thing that marres the beauty of this film is its awful, piercingly shrill, '70's saxophone musical score.
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