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robertpullman
Reviews
August: Osage County (2013)
Awful
We bailed on this after 20 minutes. I expected better from Tracy Letts and Meryl Streep. Perhaps the director bears some of the responsibility. It just did not flow. Margo Martindale and Julia Roberts delivered. Sam Shepard did not; the opening scene was wasted by his mumbling and Meryl Streep's hammy performance. It is always difficult to transpose a play to the big screen. Robert Altman's "Streamers" is an example of a successful adaptation. This was a pretentious flop. There were too many characters introduced in too short a time without a focal point, other than "the county" - Osage County, Oklahoma.
The Whole Shootin' Match (1978)
Disappointing
I do not watch a movie because of its "indieness." There are too many bad movies, Indy or mainstream. This film has some charms, and shows what can be done without a budget. For some that is enough; not for me. Pennell did much better with "Last Night At The Alamo," telling much the same slice-of-life story with the same lead actors (Davis, Perryman). "Alamo" spends nearly all its 80 minutes in a blue-collar Houston bar on its last night, which provides a convenient stage for presenting an assortment of characters and situations. "Shootin Match" rambles for far too long across too many disjoint scenes. The last third of the film adds virtually nothing.
Still I would sooner watch the worst of Eagle Pennell than the best of Jim Jarmusch, John Sayles, or Spike Lee. There is something to like in all of Pennell's films. His work is unaffected and unambitious.
Schultze Gets the Blues (2003)
John Ford lives!
Michael Schorr makes it look easy. The film is a montage of everyday life in a small town in Germany. Nothing much happens, no obvious plot device propels the movie through its 1 hour 45 minutes. There's no sex, no jokes, not even much dialog. The story unfolds in very brief scenes, brilliantly framed and beautifully photographed, which convey the character of the town. Most of the film shows how Schultze, and everyone else, lives a simple life in a quiet, uneventful place. Schultze and two of his buddies are forced into early retirement, and have time on their hands. They fish. They wait on their bikes, impatiently, for the gatekeeper to raise the railroad gate, but they have nothing to hurry to. The bachelor Schultze passes idle moments at home playing accordion and listening to the radio. He visits his mother in a nursing home and strikes up a platonic relationship with a resident his age.
Schultze is asked to represent the town at a music festival in Texas. The remainder of the film is a road movie of Schultze in Texas and Louisiana. The landscape and culture changes but somehow it is the same.
I won't say that this film is, or isn't, a masterpiece. It's not for everyone, but if you like films like those of Ford and Ozu you'll like this one.