Dogs Bark

Can’t Sing; Can Dance a Little - - La La Land (2016, USA, Color, 128 min) - - 26 December 2016

Recommended. Yes, I give La La Land a full thumbs up and a ripe tomato. I liked the movie. But given that, this was a disappointment and it may be the most over rated movie of the year. It starts very strong, with a wonderful, wild dance number on an LA freeway that has been widely described. But that’s the high point of the evening. Emma Stone (The Help) and Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine) make a nice couple but director/scribe Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) gives them skeletal characters with which to work. I resented the ending, which I thought was a cheat of the promise of the boy-meets-girl trope.  And, let’s face it, Emma and Ryan are far from Fred and Ginger. I really didn’t buy their commitment to acting or jazz, respectively. But this is an honest attempt to revive the romantic musical. There’s worse ways to spend an evening.

No One's Nightingale - - Night Nurse (1931, USA, Black & White, 72 min) - - 13 December 2016

An essential. Another gem of the pre-code career of Barbara Stanwyck (Double Indemnity), the queen of that era. And those who only know the 60’s and 70’s television version of Joan Blondell (Gold Diggers of 1933) also need to see this. ‘Wild’ Bill Wellman (The Public Enemy) was the director of Night Nurse, a lovely noir that also casts Clark Gable (Red Dust) as an attempted child murderer . . . in a role written for James Cagney (White Heat). Not only is such scandalous behavior present but also, student nurses in their underwear and an unapologetic execution.  As he did frequently, Wellman pushed the code into a broom closet. Stanwyck plays a conflicted but courageous nurse, fighting for her patient alongside the less pure but equally assertive Blondell . . . a great female buddy picture. The DVD includes a great documentary on these liberated ladies of the 30’s, part of the Forbidden Hollywood series.

Princeless Princess - - Moana (2016, USA, Color, 103 minutes) - - 3 November 2016

Strongly recommended.  Moana means "ocean, wide expanse of water, deep sea" in Maori and Hawaiian and used for both genders. This seems apropos of the latest Disney movie and princess, who is scripted without any specific gender limitations on her invented Polynesian island. Moana is simply a hero and leader with whom everyone can fall in love. Moana is a remarkable addition to a lineage that evolved from Beauty And The Beast. The character is perfectly voiced by 16-year-old native Hawaiian Auli'i Cravalho (her first movie), gorgeously rendered - - overcoming my instinctual distaste for Pixar-style animation - - and delightfully scored. Samoan Dwayne Johnson (San Andreas) contributes hugely (literally) as buddy/demi-god/trickster, Maui. Actually, all of the major actors are of Pacific Island descent. Some have quibbled over the possible exploitation of Polynesian culture but Moana tries very hard to honor the contributions of those people to ocean exploration and seamanship. It succeeds splendidly.

Pale Horse - - Idi I Smotri [Come And See](1985, Soviet Union, 142 min) - - 30 November 2016

Strongly recommended. Funny, but I had no trouble finding the relevance of the Biblical title of this powerful film. Perhaps it’s that the supplication is the essence of banal evil, a serene nudge to take a peek. Now, with neo-Nazis prancing up the Mall, the eternal danger of trusting simple solutions is resonant . . . ironic, coming from a director of the old Soviet empire, Elem Klimov (Rasputin). Come And See follows a 13-year-old Belarusian as he fights - - and fights to survive - - the German occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II. Klimov’s camera spends an eternity resting on the face of young Florya (Aleksey Kravchenko, The Star) and ages him ten years in a single season of war. His superb acting is matched by Olga Mironova (her only movie) playing a young girl who attaches herself to him. It’s a bleak story, but a necessary reminder of an old evil.