Dogs Bark

“Hey, Boo” - - To Kill A Mockingbird (1962, USA, B/W, 129 min) - - 24 March 2019, a TCM Big Screen Classic

An essential. It’s almost impossible for me to give an objective review of this movie. I have always seen Scout Finch as the most authentic fictional representation of me that was ever drawn. And I’ve thought that since my mother - - a devout 60’s civil rights supporter - - read the book to me and my sister in 1960, when I was seven years old and struggling with schoolyard anger and alienation.  But beyond that, this last (2000^th?) viewing most impressed me with the choices that director Robert Mulligan (Summer of '42) made to select the parts of the novel that best represent its essence. And also . . . the way that a brilliant actor can encapsulate an entire backstory in an expression. My immediate thought is the end of the movie when Scout (Mary Badham, This Property Is Condemned) recognizes Robert Duvall (Network) and utters the tag line of this review. Movie magic.

Ozymandias - - Timbuktu (2014, Mauritania, Color, 97 min) - - 23 March 2019

Recommended. Abderrahmane Sissako’s (Bamako) Oscar-nominated movie, Timbuktu, was released the same week as the Charlie Hebdo attack and because of that, it was banned in Paris. Some thought that the Jihadist government of Mali was not represented as evil as it deserved. But that misses Sissako’s point. Often a totalitarian government starts small, showing a more tolerant face. Then - - when power is totally in their hands - - the hard-liners take over. Sissako intended to show a more sinister process. And he is successful, giving us a family of herders that seem totally uninvolved in politics. The government seems almost clownish at first, but the rope is slowly tightened, exacerbating dread, and eventually the herder and his family is pulled into the noose. Sissako’s cast of mostly non-actors do a wonderful job. This is a sad movie; however, Timbuktu has seen many despots come and go . . . and this crop, too, will pass.

Assassins Crude - - The Sisters Brothers (2018, France/Spain/Romania/Belgium/USA, Color, 122 min) - - 19 March 2019

Strongly Recommended. I have a theory that the reason Westerns are eternally popular is that they are perfect framework to ask, What would I do in that awful situation? We think we know these people. We can identify with them. But the reality is: we don’t know squat. Recent Westerns cut this cord and demonstrate it was no country for men or women of any age. The Sisters Brothers sketches an ugly, lethal place where existence dangled from a spider’s thread. I don’t know why this is the first pairing of Joaquin Phoenix (Walk The Line) and John C. Reilly (Hard Eight) but they are perfectly cast. They are killers hired to eliminate a meek mining chemist (Riz Ahmed, Nightcrawler) after he’s located by a detective (Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler). The exotic take on Western mythology may come from French director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet), whose storytelling skills are internationally celebrated.

 

Gravity - - Free Solo (2018, USA, Color, 100 min) - - 7 March 2019

Not recommended. In 1977, Bob Locke - - my college days climbing friend - - fell 200 ft on Yosemite Valley’s Mt. Watkins and died. The rope broke. No one knows why (Google it). My climbing ended soon after. If the guy who taught you dies . . . that’s a teaching moment. But truth is, everyone falls and if you climb without a rope, and don’t stop, eventually you'll die. That’s why I cannot recommend this amazingly filmed, Oscar winning documentary about Alex Honnold’s epic free solo of El Capitan. Yes, the emotional turmoil is in the picture, but some things just shouldn’t be made into movies. I acknowledge Honnold’s unearthly skill and his right to climb, but making a movie about him - - making his subject climb look almost uneventful - - is going to cause another death and I can’t endorse that. If you think I’m being too squeamish, read the Kevin Corrigan op-ed in Climbing magazine.

Taught By Masters - - The Heiress (1949, USA, B/W, 115 min) - - 3 March 2019

An essential - - In consideration of the astonishing career of costume designer Edith Head (Sabrina), I finally saw her first of eight Academy-Award-winning works, William Wyler’s (Mrs. Miniver) gripping interpretation of Henry James’s, Washington Square. I wonder how much James there is in the movie, given the phenomenal acting of Olivia de Havilland (Gone With The Wind) and Ralph Richardson (Doctor Zhivago), playing her manipulative father. Mongomery Cliff (A Place In The Sun) is almost overlooked but even his predatory parvenu possesses more than meets the eye. But it’s the obsessive madness of de Havilland’s Catherine - - going from a simpleton to a vengeful conniver - - that earned both universal praise and her second Oscar. This is three-time Oscared director Wyler at his best, whose ‘signature’ was combining deeply nuanced performances into a cogent whole. Head’s gowns are diminished by the lack of color but must have been spectacular on set.