Paper Moon (1972)

Posted on November 6, 2014 by 4 Star Films

Directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring the father, daughter pair of Ryan O’Neil and Tatum O’Neil, this film is set filmed in stark black and white and set during the Depression.

Addie Loggins is a little girl who has just lost her mother and her closest relation is the shifty Bible salesman Moses Pray. Reluctantly he agrees to take Addie along to some kin in St. Joseph’s Missouri where she can be cared for and he also pockets $200 which is rightfully hers. Sparks fly from the beginning between the perpetually grouchy Addie and the constantly annoyed Moze. However, with the tricks of Moze and the cuteness of Addie, this unlikely pair is able to sell numerous Bibles all over the state to hapless widows.

However, all that is put on hold when they stop at a carnival and Moze becomes infatuated with a high maintenance, exotic dancer named Trixie (Madeleine Kahn). Trixie and her young maid tag along and Addie becomes annoyed with all the attention Trixie now receives. Addies devises a plan with Imogene and it results in a disgusted Moze heading back on the road with Addie.

Their next job includes taking a store of whiskey from a bootlegger so they can sell it back. However, they run into trouble with the local sheriff, who just happens to be the bootleggers brother! They escape thanks to Addie, pawn the car, and get across to Missouri. There everything catches up with Moze and he gets beat up and all their money is stolen. Soon after, he and Addie finally part ways. But in the end this rag tag pair realizes they actually care for each other and they head out to pull more cons all across the country… so Moze can pay Addie her $200.

The strained relationship between the two leads unfortunately reflected the real relationship of father and daughter. In the film however, they were great together adding both humor and drama to this bleak story. As always Bogdanovich loves his nostalgia and there is plenty of it here to be enjoyed.

4/5 Stars

Wings of Desire (1988)

Posted on November 3, 2014 by 4 Star Films

Directed by Wim Wenders, this German film has almost a stream of consciousness feel. It opens over the skies of West Berlin where a couple angels watch over the humans as unseen and unheard guardians. They pay attention to the thoughts, desires, joys, and fears of a plethora of folks from all walks of life and act as unobserved comforters. These angels are immortals and although they are familiar with humanity they are not a part of it.

Among others, the angel Cassiel observes an old man named Homer who dreams of a world of peace. Damiel on his part finds himself infatuated with an utterly lonely circus trapeze performer, and he also watches over the actor Peter Falk as he begins shooting his next film. Because of his newfound love, Damiel desires to feel what it is to be human. Aside from affection, he yearns to be able to do the little things that go along with being mortal like drinking a hot cup of coffee. Finally, determined Damiel does indeed shed his angel wings and immortality for a chance to be human. He knows what it is to breathe, to tell colors apart, and he finally does get his cup of coffee.

Quite by chance, he has an encounter with Falk who tells Damiel a secret and encourages him in his new life. Cassiel, still an angel, tries to stop a suicidal youth from jumping, but he is unsuccessful and it hits him hard.

In the final moments of the film, by fate, Damiel meets his girl at a concert, and they embrace as if they had known one another for an eternity and in a way they had. This film is beautifully photographed in a sepia tone that reflects the viewpoint of the angels. It is only the humans who see the world in all its glory, bursting with different colors. This film was quite fascinating, and it is the type of film I would want to make that really gets up close and personal with some many people without actually focusing on them. Furthermore, Peter Falk was a wonderful addition to this film, and he was a pleasure to watch because he gave off the impression that he was simply being himself. And I think he was.

Next on my list to see from Wim Wenders is Paris, Texas, but I would also like to explore more of the New German Cinema from the likes of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog.

4.5/5 Stars

Alien (1979)

Posted on November 3, 2014 by 4 Star Films

In the wake of other Sci-Fi smashes like Star Wars (1977) and Close Encounter of the Third Kind (1977), Alien was a radically different film, since it lacked the same sentiment of its precursors. One would wager a guess that this core variance stems from director Ridley Scott who certainly is no George Lucas or Spielberg. His films are generally darker, more world-wearied, and disillusioned. Blade Runner is a perfect illustration of this, but three years earlier came Alien, a Sci-Fi Horror film of immense critical acclaim and impact even to this day.

The film opens as a spacecraft called the Nostromo gets ready for a return trip to earth after a commercial excursion by its 7 member crew. However, a distress signal halts their plans and the captain named Dallas (Tom Skerritt) resolves to go investigate. On the surface of the abandoned planet are the remnants of what seems to be an ancient alien empire. One member of the crew Kane (John Hurt) comes upon a chamber full of what appear to be eggs and as is expected he is attacked. We knew it was building up to this point.

Back on the craft, Kane is still alive but now he has an octopus-like alien clinging to his head. It’s an acidic situation because it appears to be feeding him oxygen and it has no plans of coming off anytime soon. Next, comes the calm before the much-anticipated storm as the tension slowly increases exponentially.

What ensues is a cat and mouse game between the crew and this belligerent alien which has grown increasingly larger. Its evolutionary adaptations make it seemingly immune to extermination, but the crew tries desperately to destroy it with electric prods and flamethrowers. Soon it’s difficult to know who the cat and who the mice are, but it certainly favors the alien.

It doesn’t help that Jones the cat is on the loose and there is even a bit of mutiny aboard the craft. It feels a bit like a tense Agatha Christie novel with person after person slowly getting knocked off. But that sensation does not last long when we actually see what we are dealing with. This creature has no conscience. No humanity. It only cares about survival by killing its prey. To win you must do the same and beat it at the game.

Thus, although I initially thought it a weakness to only have one alien, it turns out that it makes this film all the more tense. Also, very little of the action actually takes place outside of the ship. They are stuck on board in the middle of outer space fighting for their lives. Not much can be more horrific than that, and it is a very unnerving ride with surprisingly good pacing and many graphically shocking moments

The cast is a nice diverse group of actors including Skerritt, Hurt, and Ian Holm, but Sigourney Weaver is undoubtedly the standout as 3rd in command Ellen Ripley. She is the last one to keep her head and her story would set the framework for the entire Alien franchise. Not to mention the role propelling Weaver to stardom and introducing the archetypal model for future female protagonists.

Alien definitely has a lot to offer and I am excited to see the next installment Aliens. That added “s” has me intrigued.

4.5/5 Stars

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Posted on October 31, 2014 by 4 Star Films

I came into Night of the Living Dead expecting a whole lot of zombies and some gore and a few deaths. There was most definitely some of that to be sure, but that was far from the whole picture.

First off, it must be acknowledged that George Romero’s picture is a true low budget B film, and it certainly looks the part with its choppy black and white cinematography. Instead of taking away from the film it adds to the aesthetic because we are even less sure of what we are seeing. The inciting details are also rather blurry as well.

It begins with a prudish girl named Barbra (Judith O’Dea) who goes to visit her father’s grave with her brother. Their little sibling quarrel is soon interrupted by a thing. A zombie for lack of a better term. Johnny is taken down, but Barbra frantically escapes to an abandoned house. Soon she is joined by burly, level-headed Ben (Duane Jones) and a few others. Still little is known about the crisis as the men butt heads about the best plan of action in response to the impending onslaught. Whatever their decision it has no power to impede the ghouls from steadily multiplying and moving closer. The authorities can do very little as the men board of the house and get ready to defend their makeshift fortress.

Plans of escape with a truck go awry and they see all too quickly the ferocity and cannibalistic nature of the undead terrors. Meanwhile, the Press and Big Whigs in Washington try to make heads and tails of what is going on across a third of the country. The only explanation is radiation from Venus, but that does little to help our protagonists in their predicament.

By its conclusion Night of the Living Dead becomes increasingly more suffocating and claustrophobic as the zombies close in and do their worst. Ben somehow pulls through, but fate does not smile fondly on him. After all, the line between undead and living is sometimes difficult to differentiate. So much so that sometimes I felt like I was watching some Vietnam footage or a White Supremacist posse instead of a fictional horror tale. Yet another layer that makes Night of the Living Dead strangely unnerving.

This film ushered in a new era of horror films, and it truly is the seminal zombie flick before it was cool. Although to the modern viewer this film can feel slow, it has a surprising amount of social and political commentary. One thing’s for certain. I never want to be stuck in a house with zombies closing in on me. Not fun. Not fun at all.

3.5/5 Stars

The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)

Posted on October 29, 2014 by 4 Star Films

In this precursor to other gritty Boston crime films like The Departed, Eddie “Fingers” Royle (Robert Mitchum) is a middle-aged truck driver who does some gun running on the side for the mob. On one occasion he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and it meant two more years of jail time. He’s seen the clink before.

Three men have been pulling off bank jobs in clear daylight using hostages and new guns each time. Eddie is the guy who has been delivering the guns, and he deals with a young thug (Steven Keats) who acquires the stolen merchandise.

Eddie also gets acquainted with F.B.I. agent Dave Folley (Richard Jordan) who tells Eddie his only way to dodge prison is to become an informer. Unbeknownst to Eddie, Folley has another informant working for him, in fact, it’s the man who set Eddie up. Now Eddie is thinking of himself and so he sets up the gunrunner Jackie because he has everything he needs. Folley closes in and nabs the guy. Eddie wants to be done with it, but Folley wants more. Eddie’s buddies who have been pulling the heists are his next victims, but Folley’s other man gives him the information faster and Royle is left with nothing to bargain with. To top it off, he is suspected to be the stool pigeon, and a hit is secretly planned on him. The middle-aged, hopeless, beat down, world-weary, nobody is knocked off and no one loses any sleep over it. The manipulative stooge reaps the benefit and agent Folley has what he wants. Royle was the one who got the short end of the stick. Some friends he had.

Peter Yates proves again after Bullitt that he can deliver on gritty crime films. He left San Francisco and car chases behind for Boston, Mass. and bank jobs. Murder seems prevalent everywhere and with the killing comes a wide array of tough guy types. The violence is not over the top and neither is the drama, but it is cool, collected and unsentimental.

I cannot help but compare Mitchum’s performance to earlier crime films of his like Out of the Past. He has some of the same grittiness and toughness, but he is decidedly wearier in this film. He has similar moral ambiguity, but his death is far more pitiful. There is no redemption here, and he is a lowlife loser to the end. Despite his rough edges and shady activity, it is difficult not to feel just a little sorry for the man. The film’s title only helps to point out the irony of his situation. We thought he was the rat, but it turned out it was someone else. He needed to find new friends, but then again it takes one to know one. They were a product of their environment and that environment was not the friendliest place to be.

4/5 Stars

“Look, I’m getin’ old, you hear? I spent most of my life hanging around crummy joints with a buncha punks drinkin’ the beer, eatin’ the hash and the hot dogs and watchin’ the other people go off to Florida while I’m sweatin’ out how I’m gonna pay the plumber. I done time and I stood up but I can’t take no more chances. Next time, it’s gonna be me goin’ to Florida.” ~ Eddie Coyle

Le Silence de la mer (1949)

Posted on October 25, 2014 by 4 Star Films

Out of the many titans of French film, I found a personal favorite in Jean-Pierre Melville. Aside from changing his name in honor of the American author who wrote about the great white whale, Melville was also a member of the French Resistance during WWII. Thus, he seems to be the perfect man to helm a film based on a novel that was secretly published during the Nazi occupation. You would think that it would be brimming with political agenda and underhanded controversy.

Instead, Melville gifts us a nuanced and sympathetic film about a German Lieutenant who is quartered in the home of a French gentleman and his young niece. In many ways, much of the story plays out as an extended monologue rattled off by Werner von Ebrennac, and it becomes the perfect narrative device for an intimate character study. He is met by silence and passive aggression from his hosts, who hate his guts and the situation they have been placed in. He represents everything they despise, and his mere presence also reminds them of the shameful fact that France has fallen.

And yet he is far from the stereotype, and Melville never allows this German Lieutenant to succumb to our preconceptions. This has to be one of the most sympathetic depictions of a German soldier ever seen captured on film. It turns out that Ebrennac is a perfect gentleman, cultured in literature (Moliere, Rascine, Cervantes, Dante, Shakespeare, and Goethe), and a seasoned musician. His head is full of romantic ideals about the reviving of France as it is taken under the wing of its new conqueror.

His words are always met with a quiet contempt as uncle and niece continually sit reading and knitting. It never seems to change or stop. There is never a change in temperate or a word spoken. Just the words of Ebrennac every evening after he gets back and the voice-over of the older gentlemen constantly illuminates us about the unspoken workings of his mind.

Soon, however, the Lieutenant learns the reality of the war from Treblinka to the Nazi ideology pervading the psyche of all the German military. Friends have been brainwashed, and his view of the German war is completely dashed. There is nothing left to do but apply for a transfer and resign himself to the hell that has been created. Uncle and niece reluctantly bid farewell to a man who was the exception.

This was Jean-Pierre Melville’s first feature, but I really enjoyed it as simple as it is. He seems to understand the ambiguities of war. It often is difficult to decipher who is in the right or the wrong. Germany was the odious villain and France the obvious victim. However, in this domestic drama the tables are seemingly switched in stark contrast.

4/5 Stars

My Dinner with Andre (1981)

Posted on October 25, 2014 by 4 Star Films

Directed by Louis Maille and starring Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory playing characters named after themselves, this interesting film has a relatively simple, albeit, unique premise. A writer who lives in New York goes to a dinner engagement with a man who he used to know well.

However, he approaches their meeting with some anxiety not knowing what to expect from a man who has no doubt changed. Andre greets Wally and pretty soon they are talking about this and that as they wait for their food. Andre initially talks about his experiences abroad in Poland, Findhorn Scotland, and even the Sahara. All the while Andre experimented with spiritual encounters, met unusual artists, and took part in performance art. During his time away he was made to contemplate humanity, life, death, and many other profound subjects.

Wally for his part describes his own life in contrast and what he thinks about his more droll existence. It includes spending time with his girlfriend, reading an autobiography on Charlton Heston, sleeping with an electric blanket, and trying to write plays. Andre on his part believes there are problems with this lifestyle because it is more like a dream than reality.

Both men leave the meeting content and Wally rides off in a taxi ready to tell his girlfriend about his dinner with Andre. Andre Gregory represents your philosophical existentialist who is discontent with the normalcy of life. Then, Wallace Shawn is your common everyman who lives his days simply, content with simple comforts and a normal existence. Maybe not your normal dinner conversation, but after all it is a movie. This film is certainly not for those with a short attention span and I myself find this film more intriguing in concept rather than in practice. However, there are many philosophical issues here so if you are ready to ponder and sit back so the conversation can flood over you, it can be an interesting film to take in.

3.5/5 Stars

The Defiant Ones (1958)

Posted on October 24, 2014 by 4 Star Films

Starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier with director Stanley Kramer, the film opens in the pouring rain with a truck full of convicts. It goes off road and no one is hurt except two men escape. A Sheriff an state policemen begin tracking them on foot. However, this pair is unique since one is the white “Joker” Jackson and the other is a black man named Noah Cullen. Their racial prejudice and conflict of interests causes sparks to fly. Through it all they are forced to work together just to survive, whether it be wading through rapids, climbing out of a ditch, or trying to break their chains. Along the way they narrowly escape a hanging and they meet a lonely white woman. Jackson is forced to make a decision about his newfound comrade and Cullen in turn also makes a sacrifice of his own. This is such an extraordinary story about racial conflict. Ultimately, they are no longer so much black or white as much as they are fellow men. In an era full of racial tensions, this film was extremely relevant and it is still powerful to this day.

4/5 Stars

Shadowlands (1993)

Posted on October 22, 2014 by 4 Star Films

Starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger with direction by Richard Attenborough, this film chronicles the romance of famed Christian professor and author, C.S. “Jack” Lewis with the American poet Joy Gresham. Jack is by now a respected professor at Oxford and a widely acclaimed lecturer who often speaks on the issue of human suffering. In his personal life, he is rather reserved. He lives with his older brother Warnie and spends times with his colleagues discussing topics of all sorts at the local pub in the evenings.

It is not until he receives a letter from an American admirer named Joy Gresham that his life seemingly begins to change. He first accepts to meet her only to be gracious, but soon their relationship develops into a close bond. Jack meets Joy’s son Douglas who is enthralled by Narnia. He even offers them a place to stay during the Christmas season, since they have nowhere else to go. Lewis and Gresham are very different people, to say the least. He is a quiet intellectual with the sensibilities of an Englishman, while she is a plain -speaking American who does not mince words. However, these differences bring them closer together because they help each other to view the world in a radically new light. Jack learns how Gresham’s marriage is going badly and he settles to marry her in a practical union so she and Douglas can stay in England. They do not speak of it much and it hardly seems real. Joy calls him on it realizing for herself that he allows no one to challenge him. There is no vulnerability to him whatsoever.

However, then Joy is diagnosed with bone cancer and slowly but surely she begins to deteriorate. For the second time in his lif,e Lewis understands the anguish that comes when a loved one is suffering. Because, the fact is, he most definitely loves Joy, and it simply took a tragedy to make him realize it. As with any inexplicable suffering, Lewis is tested in his faith, and the reality human suffering has new meaning to him. It is no longer just lecture material, becoming a far more personal process.

Although this film is not so much focused on C.S. Lewis as a Christian theologian or apologist, I think Anthony Hopkins does a wonderful job of portraying him as a kindly and gentle man of faith. He struggles with doubts and fears like every human, but he found something wonderful in his love for Joy which ultimately changed him.

Debra Winger must also be commended because she played well off of Hopkins and even though I have no picture of the real Gresham, Winger seemed to embody her. In some ways, I found her most beautiful when she was bedridden, absent of all makeup and seemingly so pure. It positively tears your heart out watching her son say a tearful goodnight or to look on as Jack stays up with her. This is a better picture of real, unadulterated love than most films can hope to manage because it very rarely becomes a sappy melodrama instead resorting to more deliberate means. As Jack says we live in the “Shadowlands,” but amidst the pain and suffering, love seems to shine through even brighter.

This was such an enlightening film for me because I always envision C.S. Lewis as a scholar and rational thinker, which he was. But he also had a vulnerable human side and this film, as well as A Grief Observed (written after Joy’s death), prove that point. It’s hard not to feel for him and that’s part of the beauty of this story.

4.5/5 Stars

A Room with a View (1986)

Posted on October 21, 2014 by 4 Star Films

With direction by James Ivory and a cast including Helen Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, and Daniel Day-Lewis, the film opens in Italy where a well to do English woman is on holiday with her significantly older cousin. While staying in Italy she falls in love with the country and comes to appreciate the many different people you come across there.

It could be a commanding author, a pair of kindly old women, or a father and son with a more open way of thinking. In fact the Emerson’s reflect the change that is coming to England while Lucy and her cousin Charlotte reflect the old Victorian way of England. They are so caught up in manners and etiquette that they never give much thought to their actual desires and feelings. This becomes extremely important when Lucy returns home to her family and the snobbish but well-meaning young man she is to marry. She believes she is in love, but then the Emerson’s come to live nearby and Lucy is in conflict, especially after an incident in Italy.

Lucy continues to follow the norms of what she is supposed to do, and it is only after much lying to others and herself that she truly confesses her feelings. Things are not turning out the way she had expected and thanks to kindly Mr. Emerson she finally leaves the pleasantries behind for love. She returns to Italy with her love and is met with another group of colorful individuals and she once again has a room with a view. This film is obviously very English and it is made by the characters like Mr. Beebe, Charlotte, and the Emersons who all make this a pleasant film to watch.

4/5 Stars