Alright, it is nowhere near Monday. I’ve got a good excuse though! I started my reviews on time, but sickness clouded my head and made forward movement very difficult. I’ve pieced the rest together since then. I hope you enjoy what follows. The next Monday Movie Review I’m hoping will still be right on schedule and ready for Monday and won’t be late again. I hate leaving you guys hanging, especially since this seems to be all I really post anymore.

(March 6)

——Rififi (1955)——

I really want to see more of Jules Dassin’s films, because the few that are available from Criterion right now are so good that I just know that I’ll love the rest of his work. Rififi is considered by many to be his best and it is hard to argue with that. Made in exile in France after being blacklisted in America, this is a very tight heist movie unique in a whole lot of ways. A lot is made about the fact that the entire heist takes up about a third of the film, contains no dialogue or music, and is for the most part pretty silent. It’s an excellent bit of filmmaking, building up plenty of suspense and excitement. But what most people fail to mention is that that third of the film is the MIDDLE third of the film, and seems almost inconsequential to the actual plot and movement of the first and third acts. It’s not inconsequential though, it just seems that way. The real point of the sequence is to show how much effort went into pulling off the perfect heist, and to contrast that with how the perfect heist can fall to pieces by simple human nature. The safe cracker has a weakness for the ladies, which is all it takes to let their enemies in on the fact that they were the ones who pulled off the heist. What precedes and follows the heist is gritty film noir leagues above most others.

(MUST SEE)

——Made In Britain (1982)——

Alan Clarke is an English filmmaker who made very gritty films about youth in Margaret Thatcher’s UK, this being one such film about a young neo-nazi punk played by Tim Roth. Trevor is constantly in trouble, in a youth detention center, and well on his way to prison as an adult. Here’s a good quote from the back of the DVD box: “This is the unsparing portrait of youth fueled by rage and hate prowling an empire ruled by repression and despair.” That’s a pretty accurate depiction of what this movie is like. The writing is very tight and almost stage-like and the acting is dead on from Tim Roth. We don’t necessarily like or agree with where Trevor is coming from, but we do sympathize with his surprisingly eloquent observations of an inhuman world.

(SEE)

——Heathers (1988)——

Heathers has become its own term for a genre in pop culture terminology for a black high school comedy, and watching this for the first time the other night I can definitely see why. This is a devilishly good low budget comedy. You can see all the roots of Tina Fey’s Mean Girls in this film. And I’m sorry Clancy for saying that I was constantly reminded of you whenever I saw Christian Slater’s character on screen.

Winona Ryder is the hero of this tale, as a girl who wants to be popular and joins the most popular click in the school: The Heathers. Yep, three girls, all named Heather. It becomes very quickly apparent that the lead Heather is a massive bitch. Meanwhile, Ryder starts a relationship with the new kid played by Slater. He seems very cool at first, but then stages an “accidental” suicide for the main Heather that throws events into motion that throw into light the fact that Slater is very obsessed with teenage suicide. Ryder gets roped in and wants out, and the film goes off from there.

This movie is very funny, very black, and has a whole lot of social satire thrown in. The movie has lots of classic lines that I’m sure are repeated endlessly by the fans of this film, as well as probably myself, after seeing the movie another couple times. Any fans of the high school satire should definitely go out and find this movie.

(MUST SEE)

——Death Walks at Midnight (1972)——

The boxset for this is actually pretty cool. Two films, great packaging, nice booklet, a bonus CD of various Italian giallo soundtrack songs. The director, Luciano Ercoli, shows some ability with the camera, composing a couple very interesting shots. The action sequence on the roof at the end of the film is very well done (probably the only redeemable part of the film) and reminded me a bit of the end of Ichi the Killer. But other than that, this is definitely a dud, not worth wasting much time on (for you watching it or me writing about it).

(MISS)

(March 7)

——16 Blocks (2006)——

I love Bruce Willis. The man just knows how to carry a movie, even when he is only a supporting character. I was pleasantly surprised by just how good this movie was. I liked the premise when I saw the trailer, but never thought the film could pull it all together like it did. Amen. God loves small genre films that can pull it all together.

Willis plays a corrupt cop washed up and on his last legs. He’s an alcoholic with a limp, so beaten down that his colleagues leave him at a crime scene to preserve it until the uniformed cops get there. The opening scenes are spartan filmmaking at its best, laying out the many layers of the film quickly and with as little exposition as possible. When Mos Def’s witness finally comes into play you know everything you need to know about Willis’ character.

The plot? Willis has to get Mos Def 16 Blocks across town to the Grand Jury at the courthouse in about two hours. Cops want Mos Def dead. That’s all you really need to know. The rest is popcorn film goodness. Mos Def’s character manages to both be extremely annoying and extremely funny all at the same time. Willis is an action hero here, but a believable one for the character in the movie. He’s not jumping off any buildings like in Die Hard. All and all I definitely think this one deserves a shot.

(SEE)

(March 10)

——Network (1976)——

This would make a perfect part of a double header with David Cronenberg’s Videodrome. Both are eerily prophetic of an audiences’ appetite for violence and reality in television, and both speak of television as the new religion. That said, don’t expect to see any stomach vaginas or meat guns in this film.

What you can expect is an excellent drama from Sidney Lumet about a struggling network on its way out that suddenly finds a ratings goldmine when its aging newsman, Howard Beale, forced into retirement, tells the audience at home that he is going to kill himself live, on the air. The network wants to get rid of him immediately, but Faye Dunaway’s head of the entertainment division executive sees a ratings bonanza if they keep him on the air and let him say what he wants to say. He finally does strike it rich by getting an epiphany from God, and goes on the air shouting over and over, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

Now I must have seen that clip of him saying that a hundred times in Oscar montages, but it means nothing and pales in comparison to the complete scene, which had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up on end. Oh man, is that some good film. The rest of the film is quite good too. I got quite the chuckle out of seeing some Communist revolutionaries cum television stars fight over profit shares. I also was very creeped out by the new newsroom set, which is built more like a gameshow and contains plenty of religious iconography. Scary to see how close that metaphor can actually be to reality in today’s television.

(MUST SEE)

——The Grifters (1990)——

Ever since seeing Ridley Scott’s Matchstick Men I’ve been a little cautious when it comes to films about con men, since that film involved a major con on the main character at the end of the film and, by relation, a con on us, the audience. That’s not the first film I’ve seen that’s done that, but it was definitely the film that pissed me off the most. What drew me to this film was the source material. Ever since seeing Coup de Torchon (1981) I’ve become a big fan of Jim Thompson, who wrote the books for both of these films (as well as the excellent The Getaway (1972) by Sam Peckinpah). And because it was based on that source material I shouldn’t have been surprised that I had an excellent film waiting for me.

John Cusack is a master of the short con, saving up money in a low rent hotel room and lying to his girlfriend (Annette Bening) about what he does for a living (he says he’s a peanut salesman). His girlfriend also hasn’t happened to mention to him that she cons as well, using her sexuality as bate, and has been looking for another partner for a long con since her last partner went crazy. He hasn’t spoken to his mom (Angelica Huston) in years, probably because she was also a con woman and had little to do with him growing up. Now she works for the mob placing bets down on long shots to lower the take if they win.

When Roy, our con man, takes a bat to the stomach by a bartender hip to his scams he ends up having to go to the hospital because of internal bleeding, which is what starts off our plot. The mother finds out and takes care of him, setting him off, which the girlfriend sees and starts to put the pieces together about. Thus everyone is desperate and trying to work everyone else. I won’t ruin any more than that.

The movie is very funny though, suspenseful, and honestly had me surprised at the end, zagging where I thought it might zig. Much more than a con movie, this is a classic noir, dripping with sex and dark motives, seedy locations and even seedier people. It’s one of those headtrip noirs that make you love how much you hate what’s going on. I definitely recommend this one.

(MUST SEE)

(March 11)

——All the President’s Men (1976)——

This is a great movie. That said, this is not the movie to see right before going to bed when you have a fever. I woke up in the middle of the night reciting the names of Watergate conspirators in my head over and over again. Not fun.

Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman are just perfect as the two reporters at the Washington Post who dug and dug to uncover a conspiracy no one expected or suspected that reached up all the way into the highest reaches of the government. The pleasure in watching the movie is seeing how the two con their way into getting people to reveal information they either don’t want to share or have been told they can’t share. This is one of those movies that is scary because of how much it reminds you of current events, and yet makes you feel good because these two reporters some how did the impossible and put numerous men in prison and forced Nixon out of the White House. All while everyone thought they were crazy and making up lies in doing so.

(MUST SEE)

——Midnight Cowboy (1969)——

This is ALSO another movie you probably don’t want to watch right before going to bed when you are sick, especially since I had started a cough that sounded a lot like Ratso Rizzo’s in this film. When you think about it, it is kind of amazing to think that this was the film that won the best picture Oscar for 1969, but then again in the year that also gave us Woodstock and so many other huge cultural moments, maybe it isn’t so hard to believe. And at its heart Midnight Cowboy is just a tear jerker buddy movie, which Oscar loves so much anyway.

That shouldn’t sound like a condemnation, though. This is a very literate work about a naïve hustler just trying to live the American dream, arriving in New York City with all of the hopes in the world and then being slowly eaten alive by hardship and other peoples’ apathy. Poor Joe Buck. Guy finally gets himself a hustle, but unbeknownst to him, he’s the one being hustled. When he asks the woman to pay him she starts crying and he ends up paying her. In fact he pays a lot of people. Being the Southern gentleman he is, he dishes out far more money than he ever makes in the film.

One of those people working him for money is “Ratso” Rizzo, a sick, crippled lowlife just scraping by who’ll do anything for cash. He lives in an abandoned building and steals most of his food to live. When they first meet he cons Buck by sending him to an Evangelist instead of a pimp. Buck wants to kill him, but once he finally tracks him down his good nature won’t let him take out his vengeance on this pathetic man. At this point Joe Buck has nothing. Nowhere to live, no money, and all of his belongings are taken from him. He has to depend on Rizzo to survive. At this point Rizzo needs Buck as much as he needs him. They develop a very close relationship after finding one other person in the world that will actually give a shit about them.

Parts of this film are very 60’s. The soundtrack for one, and the Warholian party (which I learned was actually at a set based on Warhol’s factory, much of it actually leant by Warhol, including all of his friends). And yet the underlying story still holds up and is quite timeless. I wouldn’t rush out to see this again, but it is a very well done film.

(SEE)

(March 12)

——First Blood (1982)——

Poor John Rambo just wanted a sandwich.

After finding out that his last surviving friend from his Green Beret squad in Vietnam died of cancer caused by exposure to Agent Orange, Rambo walks to the next nearest town to get himself a bite to eat. Brian Dennehy is the sheriff of this quiet Pacific Northwest town, and upon seeing the smelly looking Rambo he picks him up in his cruiser and drives him right back out of town. The problem is Rambo didn’t do anything and he’s still hungry. So when Dennehy drops him off and starts driving back into town, Rambo walks in after him. Dennehy pulls over the car and in an inspired act of supreme stupidity arrests Rambo for “vagrancy”.

Now remember, Rambo hasn’t done anything yet other than ask for a sandwich. They take him into the jail and manhandle him, which just happens to give him some rather nasty flashbacks to being tortured by the Viet Cong. When they hold a razor up to his throat he finally goes berserk, kicks all of their asses, and breaks out into the forests in the mountains surrounding the town. Now, for some reason, Dennehy has a giant bug up his ass, because he takes his men up there to find him so he can teach him that you don’t mess with Dennehy in his town.

What none of them seem to grasp is that Rambo is the strongest, toughest Green Beret that ever was. They hunt him like an animal, only to be taken down one by one by his cool survival training. Even after his commanding officer comes to help out, Dennehy can’t figure out that even a rocket launcher can’t stop this guy. And why exactly are they trying to stop him again? Oh yeah, because he wanted a sandwich.

First Blood is definitely the best of the Rambo movies, much like how Rocky is the best of the Rocky films. The two sequels (Rambo: First Blood Part Two and Rambo 3) amp up the action but scale back quite a bit on logic and heart. The great thing about First Blood is that just when you thought that you’ve got the movie pegged that final scene hits you like a load of bricks. Rambo stands in for all Vietnam veterans who saw horrible things over there, only to be treated like second class citizens upon coming back to the US. Rambo goes crazy because the world is crazy. He can’t help going a little mad.

(SEE)