Dogs Bark

Treat Them Like Cattle - - Marnie (1964, USA, Color, 130 min) - - 13 October 2018

Not recommended. I can honestly say that I didn’t understand the depths of Alfred Hitchcock’s (Psycho) depravity until I saw this movie, supported by a viewing of The Girl, the HBO movie about the diseased intensity of Hitchcock’s sexual obsession with Tippi Hedron (The Birds). The HBO movie was approved by Ms. Hedron making it the most expensive #MeToo story yet told. Marnie is a story of a mentally ill thief and confidence woman (Ms. Hedron) blackmailed into marrying a rich playboy (Sean Connally, Dr. No) who literally rapes her on their honeymoon. Although Marnie is spectacularly well made - - especially Tippi Hedron’s performance - - the fact that Hitchcock used this vile fantasy to demean Ms Hedron can’t justify this bizarre piece of celluloid. Despite my non-recommendation, the strong stomached among you may still want to watch it as a testimony to Hollywood’s sordid past. Might want to watch The Girl, too.

Like Spiders Across The Stars - - La Strada [The Road] (1954, Italy, Black and White, 108 min) - - 8 October 2018

An essential - - If you have ever used the adjective Felliniesque, you need to see La Strada.  This film is where it all began. It was La Strada that first gave the world Frederico Fellini’s (8½) bawdy, dark sense of the carnival of life. This film also initiated Fellini’s transition from Italiam Neorealism into a more psychological direction.  Even though his films became more narrative as he grew older, the metaphor of the Clown (Giulietta Masina, aka Mrs. Fellini, The Nights of Cabiria), the Fool (Richard Basehart, Moby-Dick) and the Brute (Anthony Quinn, Zorba the Greek) -- as humanity blindly following a mad highway - - was the binding thread. By the end, the Brute devours intellect and intuition becoming an integrated self . . . confessing his sins to the stars. The score was the beginning of a lifetime collaboration with Nino Rota (The Godfather: Part II) and cinematographer Otello Martelli (The Sea Wall).

Space Creep - - Passengers (2016, USA, Color, 116 min) - - 30 September 2018

Not recommended. Passengers is a deceptive movie. The premise is interesting. Jennifer Lawrence (Joy) and Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) are attractive stars with plenty of chemistry. The music (Thomas Newman, American Beauty) and production design (Guy Hendrix Dyas, Inception) were Oscar-nominated. But watching it gives rise to a slowly increasing feel of queasiness.  Chris and Jen are in hibernation on a big broken spaceship. Chris gets mistakenly awakened and gets lonely so he wakes Jen up, who falls in love with him until she realizes what he’s done. They fix the ship and she falls back in love because . . . she’s stuck with him. Isn’t this every psychoteen stalker fantasy? And what of the thousands of other passengers? Do they ever matter to Chris-n-Jen? So even before the silly-space-physics plot holes start to yawn . . . you’re getting ethically slimed. Please take a few moments now to locate your nearest exit.  

Scoot Down The Road - - Baby Driver (2017, USA, Color, 112 min) - - 29 September 2018

Not recommended. There is nothing remarkably bad about Baby Driver, last year’s critical darling and latest Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) offering. The Academy liked it, too . . . but in a way that made you think of a bunch of fortysomethings at a Lorde concert. Baby (Ansel Elgort, Divergent) is the Driver in a robbery crew master-minded by Kevin Spacey (Fall from Grace, The Jim And Tammy Bakker Story). There’s numerous fast chases, car and foot, and plenty of fast music (no Lorde) but I found it hard to run down the characterization, plot logic or heart of this movie. Baby’s back story gives Debbie the waitress (Lily James, Cinderella) major waterworks but I was dry. Elgort plays the role with an affect flat enough for commitment. Many compared Baby Driver to the Tarantino gem, True Romance - - but please - - Jon Hamm is no Jim Gandolfini. He’s not even Saul Rubinek.