Dogs Bark

On Another Road - - Vagabond [Sans Toit Ni Loi] (1985) - - 9 May 2010

Recommended. A literal translation of the French title of Vagabond is “without roof or law.” The French for a female vagabond would be “vagabonde” so . . . what’s the deal? Writer/director and New Waver, Agnès Varda, is a scholar and probably meant what she wrote on the cover of the screenplay. After reading a news report, Varda wondered how a healthy young woman could freeze to death in a ditch; Vagabond is her well-made and well-photographed (Patrick Blossier, Days of Glory) answer. The film opens with Mona the vagabond . . . dead, subsequently recounting the last few weeks of her life. We discover that Mona is a drop out by choice, with abundant opportunities for a conventional life. Sandrine Bonnaire (La Cérémonie), like Charlize Theron in Monster, paints Mona without compromise. Despite the attitude, she manages to win our affection. And the sad consequences of the French title are central to her fate.

Stung By A Dead Bee - - Only Angels Have Wings (1939) - - 4 May 2012

Strongly recommended. It’s a staple of the critical sideboard - - possibly cooked up by William Faulkner - - that Howard Hawks served up the same story over and over again. If you buy that, Only Angels Have Wings starts an arc than ran through To Have And Have Not to Rio Bravo. Each features a charming male ne'er-do-well, a wise dame stuck in a two-bit town, and the redemption of either a drunk or a coward, or both. Each was penned by a great, but near-forgotten, screenwriter, Jules Furthman. Hawks may have taught Baby how to drink bourbon, but Furthman gave her the signature quote. In Only Angels Have Wings Jean Arthur tells Cary Grant “I'm hard to get, Geoff. All you have to do is ask me,” moistening the lips of Bacall and Dickinson. Amazingly, Furthman was only nominated once for an Oscar (Mutiny On The Bounty 1936) . . . and that’s a damn shame.

Mad Mann - - Mister Buddwing (1965) - - 30 April 2012

Recommended. Was there ever a more wonderfully suggestive name than Suzanne Pleschette? And that whiskey voice (long sigh). She isn’t around anymore but we do have Mister Buddwing . . . on DVD after a long absence. Delbert Mann (Marty, Separate Tables) directs Ms. Pleschette and a trio of co-stars, Jean Simmons (Spartacus, Elmer Gantry), Katherine Ross (The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and Angela Lansbury (Gaslight, The Manchurian Candidate), six Oscar nods among them. The rather mediocre script by Dale Wassermann revolves around amnesiac James Garner confusing each of the first three women for his wife and then flashing back to scenes from his marriage. So each actress has to play two parts. Garner never finds his part, claiming later that Mister Buddwing is one of his worst performances. But the scenes of mid-60’s New York are really delightful. Look for Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols in a nice bit part.

Sometimes A Movie Is Just A Movie - - A Dangerous Method (2011) - - 28 April 2012

Recommended. I can’t exactly put my critical finger on it but there is something about this David Cronenburg effort that mocks the title. Maybe it’s just that the philosophical basis of psychotherapy is so tame after a century on the couch. It’s tough to understand how radical Jung and Freud were, both absolutely and relative to each other, back in 1910. Both Viggo Mortenson (Eastern Promises), as Freud, and Michael Fassbender (Shame), as Jung, provide perfectly fine interpretations. Much has been made of Keira Knightley’s (Pride And Prejudice) mad scenes and getting her backside slapped, yet Sabina Spielrein was an extraordinary intellectual figure and much more than a gorgeous bottom. I was reminded throughout of Ken Russell’s Altered States - - another very talky but unsuccessful - - movie about young (actually, behaviorist) shrinks in love. But whatever . . . this is a thoughtful, albeit cautious, attempt to represent an important intellectual battle. I was entertained.

Agony - - The Woodsman (2004) - - 25 April 2012

Recommended. . . but not to everyone. If you have molestation issues, I don’t recommend this very serious, but very disturbing, movie. Kevin Bacon (Footloose), showing a depth that he rarely gets to display, plays Walter, a paroled pedophile. Bacon plays Walter in an entirely believable way, a man so repulsed by his own impulses that he lives in a state of perpetual terror. Normal people joke about being normal; sick people never do. Fledgling director Nicole Kassell does well with her cast, including an astonishing and painful performance by Hannah Pilkes as an abused (not by Walter) girl. My only problem with the movie is its overly busy plot, diluting the complex power of Bacon’s performance. I would have done some judicious editing. But despite this, if we are going to better protect our children, we need first to better understand the problem and this movie eloquently makes that argument.  

The Sons Of Latka Gravas - - Night On Earth (1991) - - 13 April 2012

Strongly recommended. You know . . . I’m waiting for Jim Jarmusch to film an epic - - maybe a remake of The Sound Of Music starring Crispin Glover and Björk.  But Jim doesn’t seem interested and that’s OK since he’s so good at telling the littler stories. Night On Earth, like Mystery Train before it, extends Jarmusch’s devotion to the overlooked corners of life, something few do as slyly as him. The five stories follow cab rides through five cities during a single night. I adore the way he recreates the circadian rhythms of these cities using great dialogue and by opening up talented, very place-bound, actors.  The New York segment, my favorite, borrows Rosie Perez and Giancarlo Esposito from Do The Right Thing but set up against a marvelous performance by Armin Mueller-Stahl. There’s a sweet craziness to this segment, possibly defining Jarmusch’s sentimental side. Tom Waits, as usual, provides perfect background music.

Bone Dry - - Cutter’s Way (1981) - - 9 April 2012

Not recommended. It’s not often you see Jeff Bridges upstaged but if that thrills you, take Cutter’s Way, an interesting but unsatisfying little movie from the early 80’s.  The ham in this sandwich is little-used John Heard (Home Alone, Big).  This time Heard assumes the gravelly voice and eye patch, well playing an ebulliently alcoholic Vietnam Vet.  Bridges is Richard Bone, Cutter's more introspective side-kick. The story, like Heard’s character, is crippled, never really stepping off and stumbling over an arbitrarily unresolved ending.  Lisa Eichhorn (Yanks, The Talented Mr. Ripley), another appealing but underused talent, is very good as Heard’s wife but she's not given much of part. Not sure if all this is the fault of director Ivan Passer or writer Jeffrey Alan Fiskin; neither has produced much else I’ve seen. But having said all that, there is a very strong cult regard for this movie. Very mysterious.

No One Gets to Be A Cow Boy Forever - - Monte Walsh (1970) - - 31 March 2012

Recommended. In 1970 the western, like the frontier eighty years previous, was presumed dead.  Howard Hawks had cremated his last remake of Rio Bravo. Budd Boetticher hadn’t even made a Western in ten years. John Ford was in a wheelchair. But despite this, there were a number of younger directors - - Peckinpah, Eastwood, Penn and Altman - - who were hot on the trail of a different sort of Western. And along came Monte Walsh. Actually, until two years ago, you couldn’t even find this movie but here it now is on DVD.  Cameraman-turned-director William A. Fraker sobered up Lee Marvin enough to turn in a steller performance as an aging 'cow boy' closing out his frontier. He’s backed up by sidekick Jack Palance and still-lovely Jeanne Moreau as a past-her-prime dove. In the 70’s, the Western kept relevant with an elegiac gaze and wry characters.  Monte Walsh is a lovely example of this genre.

A Not Straight Story- - Beginners (2011) - - 28 March 2012

Not recommended.  This movie probably began as the perfect elevator pitch. Christopher Plummer (The Sound Of Music, Inside Job), a widower facing death from cancer, reveals to his son (Ewen MacGregor, Trainspotting) and close friends that he’s gay, always has been gay and wants, in the few months left, to revel in his gayness. Such a story could go in many ways, from poignant to celebratory. I mean, aren’t we all wondering if there’s enough time to finally become the person we intended? But, sadly, writer/director Mike Mills doesn’t go anywhere interesting with Beginners. Plummer is, as usual, Oscar-worthy; however his lover, played by Goran Visnjic (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), is irritating and shallow. The side story between MacGregor and Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) wastes half the run time on a very emo and conventional romance, cloyingly accompanied by a terrible score. Directors need to point, Mr. Mills.

Game Change - - The Walking Dead (2012) - - 24 March 2012

It’s funny how social scientists can create a pop industry out of a single idea. They take a widely recognized problem, come up with a way to frame or otherwise encompass the problem and make that into a product, which they then sell as books, op-ed pieces and interviews to a resonant audience. Funny that they rarely ever have a solution to the problem; the ultimate goal is intellectual entertainment, right?

I’m thinking here about University of Virginia social psychologist and TED darling, Jon Haidt and his take on why politics has gotten so contentious and uncivil. Haidt says that the reason is the sacralization of political goals, the reduction of all disputes to a sort of good vs. evil cosmic struggle.  As we parse ourselves off into opposing camps, there can no longer be compromise or even conversation with the forces of darkness closing in. I think Haidt has a decent argument but I think it applies to a much more sinister spectator sport than politics. I think he’s really talking about . . . zombies.

Is it a coincidence that this Manichaean tribalism peaks at the same time that the season finale of AMC’s uneven hit series, The Walking Dead, gets the highest rating in the network history?  That’s about as implausible as all of the major characters surviving the zombie attack on Hershel’s farm. It’s posited by many, most eloquently Chuck Klosterman in the NY Times, that the walking dead symbolize the relentless deluge of modern day life. “Battling zombies is like battling anything ... or everything.” That’s a good interpretation but it doesn’t really slap the brain stem of our shambling subject. See, zombies don’t just want us . . . they want our entire tribe.

The Walking Dead, much like most zombie movies, established an us-vs-them dynamic, the minute Rick Grimes and his wife Lori gathered on the side of Interstate 75 and careened south. Haidt’s argument is that we are demonizing our political opponents so thoroughly that we can’t compromise with them. There is no common ground with the army of Satan. Right, you don’t argue with zombies. All through the interminable second season, Shane is accusing Rick of putting his people at risk. In the end of the second season finale, Hershel is shown ‘standing his ground,’ blasting zombies with a shotgun. And now, Dale, the voice of reason and compassion, irritating though it was, is gone. It’s only gonna get worse.

And wither the national course? Will the ghost of common sense ever rise from its grave and return to occupy the Dirksen Senate Office Building? Not likely. Whoever is President in a year should expect just as much anger and gridlock from the opposing tribe. Like the zombie plague, it seems the virus of self-righteous anger will have to run its course, awaiting the evolution of some super bug that can consume the last reptile brain.

Evolution takes a very . . . long . . . time.