Mrs. Ismitje and I watched "Enola Holmes" last night, and like @Belgian guy I found it charming. The combo of Millie Bobby Brown and the other young actor, Louis Patridge, hit just the right notes between teenager and adult. That's a pretty narrow window and I thought they did well (which might also be to the credit of the director). Something I found uneven in the film is how/when Enola addresses the audience directly. But it's fun on the whole.
Run (2020) Dir. Aneesh Shaganty Chloe Sherman is a home-schooled girl who is very much looking forward to going to college. Due to complications from a premature birth, she is living with several conditions, including asthma, diabetes, heart arrhythmia and paralysis in her legs. One day, she catches her mother in a lie about some of the medication she has to take daily. As Chloe starts to investigate, it is slowly revealed that this isn't the only lie her mom has told her and that she might not truly know her mother at all. But due to her extreme isolation - living out in the boondocks - and lack of mobility, there is no easy avenue for her to get help. Domestic horror film with two good leads. Sarah Paulson is always terrific in this type of work and the newbie Kiera Allen is a revelation as Chloe. The pair of them have to be good since the large majority of the film's runtime is just the two of them within a single location (their home).
Vienna Blood (2019) Vienna, early 20th century. We are introduced to Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt, His latest case is the murder of a young woman, shot at close range and posed in a manner that is reminiscent of a model. There are other aspects of the crime which are weird, among them the fact that her apartment was closed from the inside and is not easily accessible otherwise and that the murder weapon appears to have been an ancient gun. Just as he has been handed this case, a young doctor by the name of Max Liebermann, a disciple and admirer of Freud, has requested to shadow a police inspector during the investigation of a murder, to help with his study of the criminal mind. Rheinhardt is initially annoyed at Liebermann's presence, until he realizes that the doctor's knowledge of the human mind might help solve the difficult case. Something about the Winter months always heightens my already substantial love for old-fashioned detective series. This German-British co-production is perfectly serviceable and Liebermann and Rheinhardt are another in the classic detective pairing of intellectual and streetwise. Quite beautifully shot on location in Vienna as well. The first series is six episodes long, two episodes per mystery, making each story a feature length affair. Has been renewed for a second season.
My wife and I gave this a shot as this is the type of genre we both love....sadly, can't share your enthusiasm. We stopped after the first 2 episodes.
What is about it that you didn't like? I'm actually curious. It certainly isn't the best detective show I have ever seen but far from the worse either. And I love the fact that it's a period piece and shot on location.
After being massively impressed by Reply 1988 it seemed logical that we watch the two previous "Reply Series." An interesting quirk of the series is that Sung Dong-Il and Lee Il-Hwa play the main character's parents (and use their real names) in each though the stories are mostly unrelated, and their chemistry is fantastic from the beginning. Reply 1997 The first of the series that slowly works its way back through South Korean cultural history. This one is set in Busan and is noticeably lower budget than 94 and 88, as this was likely more of a sleeper hit as the episodes get longer and sharper as the series goes on. The story is a fine albeit cliche love triangle. In comparison to the others the one big strength is probably the strongest lead actress and character. This took more effort for me to stay with as the main side plot involved the emergence of Kpop fan culture (which I have nothing against, but don't care about). It fades to the background after a few episodes and gets better, but if not for the year 2020 causing a media binge probably would have abandoned ship. Reply 1994 Despite the titular year, this is actually the one that most deals with the 2002 World Cup, as in a flash forward that is the year of the main characters marriage happens (they picked a wedding date assuming there is no way in hell South Korea would make it past the quarterfinals...). This one came closer to having 1988's charm, but dragged a bit towards the end with clumsy misdirects even if the friendships were charming. Some of it was also lost on me as a number of jokes came from having a boarding house in Seoul full of college students from different parts of Korea although the very basic summary seemed to be that Busan is known for being aggressive, Seoul the cool urban elite, and everywhere else just sort of naive/backwards. This one was good but not great, 1988 definitely was the culmination of a series.
I didn't like the "fake" chemistry b/w the two detectives. I expected something in the mold of Poirot or Maigret (with Atkinson), or something perhaps darker, but it felt too forced for my liking.
Brute Force (1947) Dir. Jules Dassin We are introduced to a cast of characters within Westgate prison, both among the staff and the inmates. Joe Collins and his cell mates are disillusioned prisoners who each have their own reason to want to get out of prison sooner rather than later. For Joe, it's the fact that his girlfriend is seriously ill. Cynical and alcoholic doctor Walters realizes that the prison is a powder keg that is merely waiting for a spark to ignite it. Warden Barnes is a weak man who is threatened to be replaced soon due to an endless series of incidents under his watch. Captain Munsey is a cruel and loathed guard captain who has ambitions of becoming warden himself and who has no qualms of using the lives of the prisoners as capital to advance his career. All of these men's fates are eventually tied together by an escape plot. Noirvember continues. None of the Jules Dassin classics ever disappoint and this one is no exception. A very good Burt Lancaster and Hume Cronyn, as opposites of the same coin. I also enjoyed Whit Bissell's work in this. Several of the inmates are given small vignettes of their former domestic/romantic lives and their wives/girlfriends in these scenes are played by some well-known actresses, including Yvonne de Carlo, Ann Blyth and Ella Raines.
We've been watching the very enjoyable Conan Without Borders - the aggregated episodes of his show where he travels to other countries - on Netflix. Really fun and often poignant - the episode from the week after Trumps inauguration shot in Mexico City is one good example.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Dir. John Huston Dobbs and Curtin are two Americans out of luck and out of dough in Tampico Mexico. They make their meager money working jobs no one else wants or when desperation drives them to it, pan-handling. A chance encounter with Howard, an old prospector who regales them with tales of his adventures, makes the men throw in with the old-timer, bringing what little money they have left into the venture. After a long and arduous journey to a remote area that Howard suspect might contain some sizable gold reserves, they do end up stumbling onto their Bonanza. As the weeks turn into months, the amount of ore they collect grows, but so does the mutual distrust and paranoia. Dobbs especially is convinced that his two partners are only waiting for an opportunity to screw him over and steal his share of their winnings. But is the real threat truly to come from within their own camp? Revisited this classic for the first time in a long while. Still holds up quite beautifully. One of my favorite Humphrey Bogart performances. Though to me, the real star of this film has always been Walter Huston as Howard.
Drive a Crooked Road (1954) Dir. Richard Quine Eddie Shannon is a man who is living a solitary life. He is a mechanic who dabbles in a bit of auto racing on the side, harboring secret dreams of one day being able to compete on the European grand prix circuit. His co-workers like him well enough, apart from the occasional ribbing he has to endure due to his lack of luck in his romantic life. His bad luck with women seems to take a turn for the better when Barbara, a client whose car he twice services, flirts with him and subsequently asks him out on a couple of dates. Eddie quickly falls for the woman's charms. During a party he accompanies her to, he meets Steve Norris, an acquaintance of his new girlfriend who also takes an interest in Eddie. It is revealed that Steve is actually a career criminal who is looking for a getaway driver for a high risk bank robbery and he promises Eddie a share of the profits if he takes the job. Eddie initially has no interest in taking part in a criminal scheme, until he finds out his new love Barbara sees it as a golden opportunity for Eddie to realize his dreams of becoming a professional race car driver in Europe. On the assumption that his new lady friend has no interest in being involved long-term with a poor mechanic, he goes along with the scheme. Noirvember returns! This ended up being better than I thought it would be. Rooney takes a bit of getting used to in the lead role but by the end of the film, you kind of realize that his casting has changed the film for the better. Dianne Foster is also good as the femme fatale with a conscience. I enjoyed the on-locations shots a lot (primarily in and around Malibu it appears).
I Wake Up Screaming (1941) Dir. Bruce Humberstone We are introduced to Frankie Christopher and Jill Lynn as they are both being interrogated by the police. We learn that they are the former promoter/manager and sister of Vicky Lynn, a murdered model. Frankie is also one of the prime suspects, though he denies any involvement in her death. Through flashbacks as they are recounted by both Frankie and Jill, we learn about the last months of Vicky's life, during which she was discovered by Frankie when she was still working as a waitress. Jill for her part had serious misgivings about her sister's career change, until it yields actual results, culminating in a Hollywood contract that also ends her professional involvement with Frankie and is seen as the primary motive for the murder by the police. Ed Cornell, the lead detective on the case, seems especially convinced of Frankie's guilt, even whilst not all of his colleagues agree with him. Noirvember: Just when I thought I was out, it pulls me back in! I'm generally a fan of Victor Mature and I enjoyed his work here too. Laird Cregar (1940s character actor whose career was cut short by his premature death at just 30) also leaves a strong impression as the obsessed police detective.
The Lodger (1944) Dir. John Brahm At the same time that Jack the Ripper is terrorizing Whitechapel and by extension all of London, Ellen and Robert Bonting decided to take on a lodger in their home, mostly due to their suddenly dire financial condition, following Robert losing his business due to making a terrible gaffe. Their house guest is a Mr. Slade, a physically imposing man who has a bit of a strange manner and unusual habits but otherwise seems harmless. As the Ripper murders continue, Ellen starts to notice certain things about Slade's behavior that lead her to believe he might be the infamous murderer, a belief that is rubbished by her husband Robert as hysterical paranoia. Ellen's concern grows greater when her niece Kitty, a Music Hall performer, comes to live with them. Kitty herself shares her uncle's belief that her aunt Ellen is seeing ghosts, but is there actually more truth to her aunt's suspicions than one might suspect? This was very enjoyable. Another impressive performance by Laird Cregar as Mr. Slade. The director uses both his stature and his very expressive face to maximum effect. His opposite in the film, Sara Allgood, almost matches the quality of his performance. The source material for this is the same as it is for one of Hitchcock's earliest films.
Fatman (2020) Great idea, great acting, alright pace but still flat. How straight everyone plays their characters in this movie is it's true shining moment.
The Garment Jungle (1957) Dir. Richard Sherman Walter Mitchell is the owner of a lady garment's factory in NYC. On the day that his business partner dies in an apparent elevator accident, his son Alan returns from Europe after mustering out of the army following the Korean war, intending to go into the garment business with his dad. Walter is reluctant to let his son come on board, mostly because he is involved in a dirty struggle to keep the unions out of his business. To that end, he has a criminal on the payroll who uses intimidation and violence against union reps. When the violence escalates into the death of one such representative, tensions with his son go to another level as Alan finds himself attracted to the man's young widow. This was quite good, a gritty noirish drama that mostly deals with unions and the underhand tactics some business owners employed to keep them out. Robert Aldrich did some uncredited directing on his film - before he was fired - and you can definitely still spot glimpses of his visual style. Though the actual lead is Kerwin Matthews, it is Lee J. Cobb's gravitas and screen presence you will most remember from this film. As well as Gia Scala's turn as the widow. The movie itself was based on a Reader's Digest article of the time that dealt with how organized crime was interfering in the NYC garment business. I would say that the purely positive depiction of unions is fairly unique for a movie of this specific era.
The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)-A good movie about a Down's Syndrome patient who escapes from a facility and goes on adventures with a fisherman.
I saw this movie on opening night with three Down kids. [Me being pedantic: it's Down Syndrom. No "S"] It's basically Rain Man only with a far more interesting lead than Dustin Hoffman's Raymond. But that's par for the course, people with Down are waaaaay more interesting than most other folks with intellectual or developmental disabilities. The only problem was the fight scene at the end as the movie slips away from reality for a moment.
Queen's Gambit My android phone has it's own RSS feed and I don't understand it's algorithm, but Queen's Gambit has busted the algorithm. So very much hype about this tv show. And some of it is deserved. This is the story of a girl, who has to be autistic, who stuns the chess world during the Cold War to win the World Chess Championship a la Bobby Fischer. The chess matches simply rock. Every match is shot a different way, and they're freakin' exciting. Who would have thought that chess could be exciting? The personal story of Beth Harmon (completely fictitious) though, misses. She is orphaned at a young age and is taught chess by the janitor at her orphanage. She is a broken woman who never heals and is socially distant/aloof. Except that everybody on the show loves her. It's wildly unrealistic. Beth does nothing to make friends or maintain her friendships and yet there are a dozen people on the show who move heaven and earth to help her. The deus ex machina friends were a real drag on the story.
Here's a hit list of pay cable fare that I've seen lately: Heist (2001) - A thief is forced into one last job before retirement, but he looks to turn the tables on his bosses. I LOVE David Mamet movies. A lot of his movies feel like plays (he is a playwright after all), but I just eat the dialogue up, and the actors are almost always top notch. Gene Hackman and his crew are forced to go on one last job for Danny DeVito in order to get his cut, so he can finally retire. Like every Mamet movie, there are a thousand twists and turns, but you get to the ending, and it feels good. This is no different. Some of my favorite dialogue from this movie: "Anybody can get the goods. The hard part's getting away. You plan a good enough getaway, you could steal Ebbets Field." "Ebbets Field is gone." "What'd I tell ya?" "My motherf*cker is so cool that when he goes to bed at night sheep count him." "There's nothing wrong with prayer. One time, we were in this firefight, this trooper, he kept a bible close to his heart. We used to mock him, but that bible stopped a bullet. Hand to god. That bible stopped a bullet. And if he had another one in front of his face, that man would be alive today." "She could talk her way out of a sunburn." "You know why the chicken crossed the road? Because the road crossed the chicken." "This other thing, the Swiss thing: if I was a publisher I'd publish the plans." "So why don't you publish the plans?" "Yeah, no, I said that's what I would do if I was a publisher. Unfortunately, I'm a thief, so I have to do that thing." "Don't smoke." "It makes me look calm." "What kind of people try to look calm?" "Nobody lives forever." "Sinatra gave it a shot." I loved this movie, and my wife hated it. Clearly, my tastes are exquisite.
Freaky (2020) Dir. Christopher Landon Millie, a high school senior who is a bit of a social pariah at her high school, finds herself stranded after a football game one night, due to her mother's failure to pick her up. She stumbles upon the serial killer who has been murdering high schoolers in her town. Due to the killer using a new knife for the first time, one he does not know possesses mystical powers, Millie does not die. Instead the pair of them wake up the next day having swapped bodies. Millie is now wearing the face of a killer and has to convince her two best friends that she is in fact Millie. The killer meanwhile has a new guise that gives him easy access to a high school full of potential victims... I've enjoyed most of the Blumhouse horror comedies and this one is no exception. It's a new turn on the old Freaky Friday concept, with added knife-wielding killer. Both Kathryn Newton and Vince Vaughn do a good job at playing each other during the body swapped scenes.
Other, much shorter, pay cable fare reviews: Super Troopers (2001) - A group of fun-loving State Troopers who are about to lose their funding uncover a drug ring. 20 years on, I still find this movie hilarious. It's so dumb, but I laugh throughout. Some of the jokes don't hold up as well, but most are still really funny. Kingpin (1996) - A bowler who lost his hand 20 years prior uncovers an Amish bowler who he believes he can turn into the next big thing. I'm surprised that this holds up as well as it does. Every time I hear the opening to Disco Inferno, I always think of this, and I crack up. Bill Murray is great in this, as is Woody Harrelson. I still like this move 25 years on. The Untouchables (1987) - A band of federal marshals led by Eliot Ness attempt to bring down Al Capone and his criminal empire. Written by David Mamet, the dialogue is superior, and the cast is terrific. Robert De Niro as Al Capone is great, and Sean Connery was excellent, too. I will always love De Niro's monologue about baseball being a team game made from individual achievement before he kills someone. I still thoroughly enjoy this picture and will always find a time to stop and watch it if it comes across my television.
I think of a scene in this movie often while playing soccer. I am older than everyone I play with except one guy, the next youngest 12 years younger than me and most 20-35 years younger. And if I play smart enough and the ball is moving between players well enough then it goes well, but if people are running more than passing . . . In the movie, the Untouchables are partnering with the Mounties on a raid, and it goes poorly. A baddie starts running and Sean Connery's character is chasing. He's an old beat cop, and after a certain distance he fires his gun in the air to warn the guy to stop and says "Enough of this running shit!" That's so me chasing these youngsters. I will never catch them. Enough of this running shit indeed.