Dogs Bark

One For The Show - - Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 (2008) - - 22 June 2011

Not recommended. If you know the back story of the making of Bonnie And Clyde, you know that both French New Wave-ers François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard were slated to direct it. Truffaut passed to film The Bride Wore Black and Godard mounted the Paris barricades. It was 1968, after all. But the love of the French for gangster films did not suffer much. The Mesrine films, this and Mesrine: Killer Instinct, are a home-grown version of the Scarface story.  Jacques Mesrine was a bandit of international reach and dash. Vincent Cassell (Black Swan) demonstrates his potential to become an agreeable alternative to the current crop of aging, overweight American and Belgian action stars. But despite all this, there’s not enough story in Abdel Raouf Dafri’s (A Prophet) bloated script to keep Cassell busy. See one of them, preferably the first; you can read the ending in Wikipedia.

Living A Few Weeks - - In A Lonely Place (1950) - - 9 June 2011

Strongly recommended. In the fifties, Humphrey Bogart made some of his most interesting movies under a galaxy of great directors. He had that most envied of astronomical adjectives - - bankable. In A Lonely Place was one of two pictures made during this time with director Nicholas Ray (Knock On Any Door). In his final decade, Bogart’s star emitted all different wavelengths of dark energy.  Sometimes a lump of coal like Charlie Allnut twinkled like a diamond; but here, like Captain Queeg, is a tragically self-aware journey into madness. Dixon Steele is Bogart’s most complex monster. Camera work by legend, Burnett Guffey (Bonnie And Clyde, From Here To Eternity) further noirs things up.  The under-appreciated Gloria Graham (It’s a Wonderful Life, The Big Heat) plays a sort of Hawksian dame who comes to Bogie’s aid. She is Steele’s last hope and the ending reminds one of Vertigo. All else is desolation. 

Dirty Ugly Things - - Biutiful (2010) - - 5 June 2011

Recommended. So . . . Requiem For A Dream is now only the second most depressing movie of all time. The talented Alejandro González Iñárritu’s (Amores Perros, Babel), Oscar-nominated film Biutiful begins in a grim, grimy Barcelona neighborhood and goes down from there, a one-way ticket to desperation-ville.  The pacing could use some tightening in places, but this is a serious, important film. Javier Bardem is a petty criminal, dying of cancer who is attempting to save his children from falling under their abusive, dissolute mother (the gorgeously nosed dancer, Maricel Álvarez ). He brings such sensitivity and decency to the role that he almost sabotages its authenticity; however, a tragic blunder reanimates his imperfection and in the end, he nicely evokes the redemptive power of death. I think Javy was done a disservice at the Oscars. Nothing against Colin but this is his best work in a splendid career.

Bye Bye, Love - - All That Jazz (1979) - - 3 June 2011

Strongly recommended. Like most people of less than perfect compassion, I rather loathe hearing about other people’s health problems. I rather loathe hearing about my own, too.  Despite that, and as most of you know, this film has a certain immediacy. But be that as it may, this is one of the best movie musicals of all time. Sandahl Bergman (Conan The Barbarian), Leland Palmer and Ann Reinking perform brilliantly for their director, choreographer and mentor Bob Fosse, with great bit add-ons from Anthony Holland, Jessica Lange and John Lithgow. The technical and narrative beauty of the dance numbers are mind blowing. Everyone wanted to work with Bob. Fosse used Fellini’s cameraman, Giuseppe Rotunno, to further personalize the story. Casting Roy Schneider allows for a powerfully masculine avatar in this yeasty puddle of amneosis. Is it self indulgent? No duh . . . death’s pretty damn personal, too.

To The Moon, Alice - - The Honeymoon Killers (1969) - - 28 May 2011

Not recommended. Lord knows, you can say I’ve got a soft spot for kill-crazy young lovers. From Bonnie and Clyde to Mickey and Mallory, I’m always with a box of Kleenex once that spray of bullets ends their multi-state crime spree. There is nothing more romantic in my eyes than cutting off a cop’s ear for the woman you love. But regardless of that, someone’s going to have to explain the attraction of The Honeymoon Killers to me. The Criterion Collection seems to think it’s an essential. Really! For mood music there’s no Flatt and Scruggs, no NIN, just some random Mahler. Mahler? The glacial pace lets up briefly for a bitchin’ hammer murder but by now I was already out cold. I like Shirley Stoler, in an Edie-the-Egg-Lady sort of way. But in the end The Honeymoon Killers was neither weird enough to delight nor pretty enough to charm.