Dogs Bark

The Girl Can Help It - - Kick Ass (2010) - - 26 May 2012

Recommended. There are two things about Kick Ass that recommend it and both are named Chloe Moretz. I missed this movie when it was in the theaters but it quickly went on my queue after reading some of the reviews. It moved up earlier this year after watching the extraordinary Ms. Moretz in Hugo and Let Me In. She didn’t disappoint as Hit Girl, one of the several pretend superheroes of the story and the only one that knows how to flip open a butterfly knife. Because of her prodigious acting chops (first thing), Ms. Moretz’s blood-spattered characterization created a huge controversy (second thing). Critics like A.O. Scott, who were aghast at an 11-year-old child dispatching adult men with giggling glee, must have hated Chiaki Kuriyama (Battle Royale) in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 but I loved both.  It’s about time cute little girls in plaid skirts got to kick back.

Gesundheit! - - The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (1974) - - 18 May 2010

Strongly recommended. I have a lot of respect for director Tony Scott (True Romance, Top Gun) but why did he remake a movie possessed of such perfect wit as The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three? Particularly in that Joseph Sargent’s film is so brilliantly stuck in time, sodden with the dumpster juice that was 1970’s NYC. Mad Men, this ain’t. Robert Shaw (Jaws, From Russia With Love) and Walter Matthau (Charlie Varrick) give two of the best performances in their prodigious careers. Matthau, in particular, reminds us that before he became grumpy cute, he was a helluva tough guy, smart and sometimes ruthless. Of course, Shaw was always ruthless. Equally brilliant supporting performances are delivered by classic Gothamites Martin Balsam, Tony Roberts, Jerry Stiller, Dick O’Neill and Doris Roberts, with a genius score (David Shire, The Conversation) worthy of a ring tone. Bamp, bamp . . . BAMP!

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.