Reviews

In 1967 Tom Hacklin (James Caan) leaves his Dunlop tire factory job at the end of a miserable drizzly day in Buffalo, New York. He is divorced from his flighty wife Ruthie (Barbra Rae). Tom stops by Ruthie's rental house to baby sit for his son Andy and daughter Junie. Ruthie is going out with low-level hood Jack Scalise (Robert Viharo) for the evening. Jack likes to make nasty comments to Tom. Not long after, Tom's friend Matty (Joe Grifasi) introduces him to nice and unmarried teacher Alisa (Jill Eikenberry) at a restaurant. Tom is clumsy, to say the least.

Things happen. One day Tom stops by to see his kids and discovers that Ruthie's apartment is empty and deserted. We discover that hood Scalise, who had recently committed a bungled bank robbery, had turned state evidence against some mob bosses. So Ruthie, the children, and Joe have been placed in a Federal Witness Protection Program at some unknown location. No one with any knowledge will reveal anything: authorities, police, politicians, etc. Tom becomes desperate but determined to track down his children. Much is done on his own although he obtains a lawyer. Meanwhile the mob follows Tom for its own purpose of locating squealer Jack. Anyway, it takes Jack one and one-half years to find Andy and Junie. It certainly was a dramatization.

The acting in the movie is at a high level, and the film is certainly genuine. Buffalo locations are used well: Erie County Courthouse, Delaware Park, and the Buffalo Zoo.

Now for the rest of the story:

Tom Hacklin is really Tom Leonhard, who did live in Buffalo, but was a cement mason after his plant (Western Electric) left the city around 1975. It took actually eight years - in state and federal courts - before he was able to track down his ex-wife Rochelle (Ruthie in the movie) and his two kids. Rochelle didn't want Tom to see his children ever. By the Tom saw his kids, they were teenagers who had lost touch with him. As Tom was strict with them, they chose to go back to their mother after a year. The movie does not say that Rochelle actually had two children with Scalise (actually Pascal Calabrese). Alisa, Tom's girl in the movie, was Joanne DiVita, who was actually divorced. And she became pregnant after they were married, not before. And Tom never smashed a window with a shovel.

Tom Leonhard sued the federal government for $10.5 million but lost the case. He died in 2014 leaving three children and five grandchildren. His wife Joanne predeceased him. And so is life.

Philip Winter (Rutiger Vogler), age thirty-one, is a solitary German photographer and writer who has been assigned to write about his experiences he drives throughout the United States. Since he only takes Polaroid pictures and has no written stories, he turns off his NY publisher and he cannot get any advance funds. To get some cash, he sells his late model automobile.

Waiting in a NY airport for a flight to Germany, Philip meets German woman Lisa (Lisa Kreuzer) and her lovely nine year-old daughter Alice (Yella Rottlander); they are also waiting for an available flight home. A strike by German pilots has cancelled all trips home. An alternative is that they can go to Amsterdam and then drive or take a bus to Germany. While waiting in a hotel room for that flight, Lisa abandons Alice to give her time to patch things up with her former boyfriend. The awkward situation is supposed to be temporary, but Alice is left with the itinerant Philip. This is the part where the real story commences; it took a while to crank up.

Finally arriving in Germany in a rented car, Philip decides to track down Alice's grandmother. The problem is that Alice has only a faint recollection of her relative's name and city of residence. City after city Philip and Alice travel, but to no avail. Alice has assured Philip that she can recognize the house. At a stop for refreshment, a boy plays on the jukebox "On the road again" by Canned Heat. How apropos! For a man with very limited funds, Philip certainly knows how to stretch a dollar. And where is his luggage? Some important information is gathered when the two stop at a police station in Wuppertal. They discover grandma's last name (Kruger) and that she lives along the Rhine River in the Ruhr. The trip ends when contact is made with Lisa, the mother, and Alice is seen heading home on the a with Philip.

German director/writer Wim Wenders has made a wonderful, enjoyable, and sensitive black and white road movie even though it takes a while to heat up. The dialogue is rather light. The focus is not just about two lonely people but America's abject commercialism, which has spread to Europe. The two leads cannot be any better than they are, and Alice (Yella) is most appealing and charming. But behind her precocious exterior is a rather frightened little girl. Philip comes across as a real person who develops the responsibility that he was lacking. The nonpareil Chuck Berry makes an appearance at a concert. Enjoy the movie.

Kenneth Anger's short film, which focuses on men and their motorcycles, has neither a plot nor dialogue. It highlights a non-stop impressive contemporary music score and skilled photography. The music is provided by contemporary artists like Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Bobby Vinton, the Angels, the Crystals, Little Peggy March, the Surfaris, and others.

It begins with men who ritually prepare their bikes and then dress in black leather and chains before they hit the open road. This slow-running first part shows visuals of Marlon Brando, James Dean, and an occasional skull. Is this a prognostication of a biker's destiny? These folks certainly are contemptuous of society's expectations.

The second part of "Scorpio Rising" turns dark and chaotic with its jump cuts and montages of Nazi images, cocaine-snorting, perverse rites, the occult, and sacrilege. It ends with a race on a dirt track where one biker loses control, crashes, and dies for real. There is a close-up of the dead biker's face at the end with an artistic skeleton head. These guys do live on the edge!

The avant-garde flick is Anger's mind at work. It was very strong stuff when it was released in October 1963.

Aimless and unemployed veteran Vincent Bruce (Warren Beatty) takes an occupational therapist position at the local private mental hospital in Rockville, Maryland. As a loner with no prior experience, Vincent really is unqualified. Despite his personal apprehensions, Dr. Bea Brice (Kim Hunter), the kindly administrative head and social worker, is impressed with Vincent's sensitivity to the patients and encourages him to take the job as a trainee. The patients are all from wealthy families, and Vincent does want to help them.

As the days move on, Vincent becomes precariously obsessed with beautiful and charismatic but manipulative and seductive schizophrenic patient, Lilith Arthur (Jean Seberg). She is also wantonly bi-sexual who lives within her own dream-world. Yet Lilith listens to Vincent's advice, and early on Vincent is successful in helping Lilith emerge from seclusion; soon they are leaving the institutional grounds for a day trip in the country. Later, Vincent escorts her on excursions in which she is alone with him with the hospital staff being oblivious. Breaking his code of ethics, Vincent tells Lilith he is in love with her and they begin having sexual intercourse. Later he catches Lilith seducing an older female patient and witnesses her behaving inappropriately with young boys on two of her outings. Vincent doesn't seem to realize that the girl is at the sanitarium for a reason.

Vincent triggers the suicide of another patient (Peter Fonda), who was jealous of him because he too had a crush on Lilith. This brings up memories in Lilith of her brother's suicide, which causes her implosion. She goes on a destructive rampage in her room and winds up in a catatonic state. Bruce then presents himself to his superiors for psychiatric help: He has become part of the problm.

If you are looking for solutions, the film does not offer any. Nevertheless, the film is daring for its time as it encounters lesbianism and even incest. Not only is Seberg most attractive and bewitching, but also her performance is at a high level. The score by Kenyon Hopkins is appropriate.

This attractive film is about the relationship of people and their environment, a contrast between mankind's world with the natural world. There is neither dialogue nor narrative. Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi word that means out of balance. We never see Hopis in their habitat of cliff-rock dwellings of adobe construction.

The first image in the film is of the Great Gallery pictograph in Horseshoe Canyon, in Canyonlands National Park, Utah. The section shown depicts several tall, shadowed figures standing near a taller figure adorned with a crown. The next image is a close-up of a Saturn V rocket during its launch (Apollo 11). The film fades into a shot of a desolate desert landscape. From there, it progresses to footage of various natural phenomena such as waves and clouds. They are Petroglyphs and atomic bomb detonations. There are other beautiful landscapes: Bryce Canyon, Glen Canyon, and Monument Valley.

Time-lapse is used in the film, along with slow-motion. A striking visual image is the movement of the moon behind the skyscraper. There is other time-lapse photography like clouds, people walking, etc. There are crowded cities with cars and factories and machinery (making TVs, sewing jeans, etc.), Grand Central Station, slum buildings, auto-assembly plant, trash, folks rushing to and fro, overcrowded beaches, and crazy life, life in turmoil. We see meat packing: hot dogs, Twinkies, and the monotony of lunch meat. Also seen are tanks, planes, bombs, rockets. A power plant provides electricity but also invades the earth.

The film ends with flaming rocket, desert rock art, and a message, "If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster."

In 2000, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, aesthetically, or historically significant".

At the beginning, British agent Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) is sent to Budapest to speak with a Hungarian general who wants to defect to the West. The general also knows the name of the mole that infests the British Secret Service (known as "The Circus"). As the arrangement was a Soviet set-up, it goes badly with Prideaux being shot. Because of the disaster, agents "Control" (John Hurt) and "Beggerman" (George Smiley = Gary Oldman) are dismissed from service.

Out of retirement, Smiley is given an independent assignment to ferret out the mole in the Circus. The top men there are Smiley and Control's successors: Percy Alleline (Toby Jones) as the new chief, Bill Haydon (Colin Firth) as the deputy, and Roy Bland (Ciaran Hinds) and Toby Esterhase (David Dencik) as the two lieutenants.

Smiley picks Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Mendel (Roger Lloyd Pack) to assist him. Smiley is not the dashing James Bond type of spy with the fast cars, the sexy girls, and the quick gun. On the contrary, he wears eyeglasses, speaks softly, and walks slowly. Smiley is contained and cool, and cunning and brilliant. He absorbs information like a dry sponge on a puddle of water. He rarely raises his voice, and he does so after he has trapped the culprit at the end: "What are you then . . ."

To complicate matters in a fairly complicated movie, there are sub-stories, like Smiley's wife Ann leaving him. There is another story, with Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy) who works for Guillam. Tarr has an affair with pretty blonde Soviet agent Irina (Svetlana Khodchenkova) whom he met in Istanbul. She wants to defect, but the mole tells the Russians, who capture her. Tarr wants her back.

Meanwhile the top four at The Circus, Smiley's successors, have formed a secret organization known as "Witchcraft" unknown to Smiley. Witchcraft was created to obtain sensitive information from the Soviets in the name of Polyakov (Konstantin Khabensky). In reality, Polyakov is playing a game as he is a Soviet spy, not really a double agent, who works for the USSR! He obtains good information, while providing little (as Smiley says, "glitter amongst the chicken feed"). What the United States tell the Circus, will be told to the Kremlin.

Smiley is surprised to learn that Prideaux is back in England teaching a class in school. He lives in a trailer. The Soviets actually returned him after getting all they could out of him.

Control creates a list of mole suspects with code names

"Tinker" - Percy Alleline "Tailor" - Bill Haydon "Soldier" - Roy Bland "Poor Man" - Toby Esterhase "Beggarman" - Smiley (not really a suspect)

Smiley finds out that Toby is a messenger to the others, who are leakers in one way or another. He forces Toby, who may have been duped, to provide Polyakov's Paris safe house address. There a meeting is taking place with Polyakov and the mole. It is Haydon. After being captured by Smiley, Haydon is being held in detention to be exchanged for another. But Prideaux finds out and shoots him with a high-powered rifle. Meanwhile, Ann has returned to Smiley. The last scene shows Smiley heading to work: he is now the new "Control" and awaits his new team.

In keeping with the spirit of the times of the Cold War, England is sufficiently chilly and gray throughout. The movie is complicated with many characters, but they are all good actors. The film is based upon the espionage novel by British author John le Carré. He has a cameo: You will catch of glimpse of him at the Soviet Embassy's Christmas celebration singing a patriotic song.

This tale is actually about five dogs that live their lives with various people, die (except the last), and are reincarnated with past memories. Although the ending is uplifting, the movie is a tear-jerker for doggie lovers who have lost their furry ones. "A Dog's Purpose" is really not meant to be a great film, but rather is a heartfelt one. It is family-friendly with no objectionable scenes. Josh Gad is the voice of all the dogs.

The story begins around 1962 to the sound of Bruce Channel's song "Hey Baby"; the first dog is a beagle puppy, but within a few weeks is caught by the dogcatcher, ending his free-wheeling days. He is soon euthanized. The episode is very short, lasting only a few moments. It is followed by the loveable golden red retriever "Bailey," the playmate of eight year-old Ethan Montgomery (Bryce Gheisar). This section is the longest, as it occupies about 50 minutes of the film. Much time is spent in a rural area. Later Bailey saves Ethan and his mother from a fire started by an ignorant boob. Bailey questions, "What is the purpose of life." We see Ethan grow (K.J. Apa) ) and fall into romance with Hannah (Britt Robertson), whom he met at a county fair. Later, after an injury, Ethan tells Hannah it is best for her to move on. Soon Ethan leaves for agricultural college. Bailey eventually pines away, grows old, and gets sick and is humanely put to sleep at the veterinarian's office.

In the third segment, "Ellie" is a female German shepherd. She is owned by a lonely policeman, Carlos in Chicago. Ellie saves a kidnapped girl from drowning, and dies heroically after being shot by the kidnapper. In the next episode, "Tino" is a corgi owned by the lonely Maya, a college student in Atlanta. Tino finds a female playmate "Roxy." In a touching scene near the end of the section, Tino laments as he sees the aging Roxy go the vet's, never to return. Tino later passes away in Maya's presence.

The final episode brings it all back together. Around 2005 "Waffles" is a St. Bernard mix who initially has a bad owner who drops him off in an abandoned lot, never to return. Isn't that what uncaring pet owners do? Anyway, Waffles runs away and works his way back to the country at Ethan's farm that he inherited from his grandfather. Ethan (Dennis Quaid) is now almost a senior citizen. Waffles' name is now Buddy. Widowed Hannah (Peggy Lipton) returns into Ethan's life, helped along by Buddy, whom Ethan recognizes as Bailey, the original "boss dog" who has found his purpose in life.

As Buddy says, "Have fun," and "Find someone to save and save them," and "Be here now." This writer would add that we have lives outside of our dogs, but our devoted pets only have us! Give them the time that they need. A sequel, "A Dog's Journey," is premiering this week.

Before the initial credits appear, Sadie (Analeigh Tipton) is engaged in an intense sexual act with her ex-boyfriend, bearded Alex (Jakob Cedergren). Interposed are brief back-shots of her in various sexual proclivities.

After the credits, Sadie is the guest of honor at a book tour in Turin, Italy, where, in describing her autobiography, she relates her sexual feelings to a gathering. Her latest boyfriend is Thierry (Valentin Merlet). After the gathering, Alex, who is around, invites her to a seamy club, where she meets Francesca (Marta Gastini), who is as attractive as Sadie is. Alex invites Sadie and Francesca to his business-partner's villa, really a 17th century walled fortress decorated with magnificent art and statues. For some insipid reason she accepts.

At the villa Sadie and Francesca take drugs (pills) with alcohol. Sadie develops a lesbian relationship with Francesca. Meanwhile, bizarre rituals occur and masked guests attend wearing strange attire. There is a ritualistic killing, a "black magic" type of ceremony. Is it all a dream? Bloodstained fingers say no. When Sadie questions Alex the next day, he says she should have known what she was getting into.

Thierry then appears at the villa for some reason, but is rebuffed by sexually-charged Sadie. Later it is Thierry who is tied up and on the sacrificial agenda. Sadie is given a knife. What will Sadie do? Will she ever escape her dilemma? Is her name a derivative of sadism?

This is an artsy type of film like "Last Year at Marienbad" (1961), an entirely different film, but also difficult to understand. Despite its colorful sets, erotic scenes, and on-location filming, "Compulsion" makes little sense. The screenwriting and plot are weak, and the film unmemorable.