Noir Chronicles II

A couple more from the Guild Cinema's annual Film Noir fest, plus a bonus track:

ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1951) (B) - Ida Lupino actually co-directed this noir classic with legendary director Nicholas Ray, and she stars as a woman caught between the cop investigating a murder and her brother, a suspect. Robert Ryan is solid as Jim Wilson, a big-city cop, suffering from burnout, who gets sent upstate to the boonies to investigate a local murder. There he falls for Lupino's Mary Malden, a blind woman seeking to protect her brother. A warmth slowly develops between Jim and Mary. A few corny touches detract from Ray's gritty camerawork, but Ryan and Lupino make it work in the end.

Spotted:  Nita Talbot (later the green-eyed guest star on "The Fugitive," "Mannix" and "Hogan's Heroes") as a drunken flirt in a bar.

CHOOSE ME (1984) (C+) - This artsy wank from Alan Rudolph ("Trouble in Mind") has not aged well. Early '80s poodle cuts clash with smooth Teddy Pendergrass slow jams, while Lesley Ann Warren and Keith Carradine age out of their '70s precociousness. The only things that qualify this as noir are the constant smoking, the movie-set hookers and neon signs outside of the hangout bar, and the incessant saxophone swirls (which apparently escaped from an old Billy Joel song) slithering around the soundtrack.

The plot is a combination of confusing and boring. Genevieve Bujold plays a radio sex therapist. One of her regular callers is Eve (Warren), the bar owners. One barfly is young flirty Pearl (Rae Dawn Chong, another key '80s marker), who struggles as a poet and fails in a marriage to an older man. Keith Carradine shows up as Mickey, a greaser with a shady past. He serially seduces the women to various degrees.

The artificial sets and the excessive chatting (often over the phone and mostly women whining about relationships) spill from Rudolph's male ego. What might have seemed edgy or avant-garde in 1984 now feels tacky.

Spotted: John Larroquette (on the brink of "Night Court") trying to be dramatic as a bartender named Billy Ace.

BONUS TRACK
THE LOST WEEKEND (1945) (A-minus) - Ray Milland is powerful in this classic from Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett about a failed writer plumbing the depths of a weekend bender. The usual Wilder snap to the dialogue is present, including some slang of the day. The banter between Milland's Don Birnam and his beleaguered gal-pal Helen St. James (Jane Wyman) also has the familiar crackle.

Wilder shoots in the streets and hallway of wartime New York City for a story that was ground-breaking at the time and still reverberates with the authenticity of addiction. A scene in which Birnam lands in a hospital's dry-dock with others suffering from the DTs is harrowing. The supporting cast is strong, too.  Doris Dowling (bearing a strong resemblance to Kathryn Hahn) smolders as the love-sick barfly lonely enough to give a drunk a pass just to cure her own loneliness  and desperation. This is another timeless picture from one of the all-time great filmmakers. 

Spotted: Frank Faylen (the father on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis") as the wise and wise-cracking nurse Bim in the DT ward.
  

New to the Queue

Coasting ...

Spike Lee's latest provocation looks like a fun romp through the 1970s, "BlackKklansman."

A slow-paced drama from Norway studies love and loss, "Gavagai."

Andrew Bujalski ("Computer Chess," "Results") returns with a slice of life about the working class, "Support the Girls."

A study of teens hanging out on the streets, the fact-fiction hybrid "Skate Kitchen."

A full-on documentary about skateboarders in Rockford, Ill., "Minding the Gap."
  

Family Reckonings

THE ENDLESS (A-minus) - This is the best philosophical time-travel buddy-movie mind-fuck since "Primer." Two brothers, who as teens had escaped from a cult their parents had dragged them to, receive a mysterious videotape from the cult and, at the urging of one of them, return to the cult's bucolic playground.

Justin Benson writes, stars and directs, along with co-star Aaron Moorhead, and the pair pull off a clever debut film. They play with time loops and sci-fi tricks. The ordinariness of the Heaven's Gate-like cult brings to mind the idea of the banality of evil. As IMDb puts it succinctly: "As the members prepare for the coming of a mysterious event, the brothers race to unravel the seemingly impossible truth before their lives become permanently entangled with the cult." This is a smart thriller.

IN THE FADE (C+) - Quite a mess and a disappointment, this is a run-of-the-mill revenge flick teaming striking lead actress Diane Kruger ("Farewell, My Queen") with onetime wunderkind Turkish-German director Fatih Akin, who has shown diminishing returns from "Head On" in 2004, to "The Edge of Heaven" in 2007, and "Soul Kitchen" in 2009.

Hopefully this is the bottom for Akin. He has little new to offer on the idea of a woman whose husband and child are killed and who goes on a mission to exact justice after being let down by the justice system. Akin blandly breaks this into three parts -- the love affair and family bliss interrupted by tragedy; a Farhadi-Lite court procedural; and then a stalker's revenge fantasy.

Kruger is stone-faced throughout, and she brings nothing fresh to the role of a wronged woman. Akin strains to create moods. A compelling quick-cut from the court verdict to the widow getting violently tattooed only serves to highlight the dull throb of the rest of the film. Not even a shock ending rescues it.
 

New to the Queue

Down in the groove ...

Desiree Akhavan ("Appropriate Behavior") finally follows up her perfect debut with a story of a teen in 1993 going through gay-conversion therapy, "The Miseducation of Cameron Post."

A family interview turns into a documentary about activism in Serbia (and the former Yugoslavia), "The Other Side of Everything."

Lauren Greenfield continues to explore the themes from "The Queen of Versailles," with a documentary about enthusiastic capitalists, "Generation Wealth."

A late '70s documentary tracing back the socialist labor movement back to the turn of the century, "Prairie Trilogy."

A documentary about the prototypical gay gigolo of Hollywood's golden era, "Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood."

The Noir Chronicles

Another summer festival at the Guild Cinema, from postwar nuggets to that '70s drift:

THE LATE SHOW (1977) (A) - Modern noir from Robert Benton ("Kramer vs. Kramer," "Nobody's Fool") has Art Carney, in the gritty L.A. footsteps of Elliott Gould in Robert Altman's '73 classic "The Long Goodbye," limping around as over-the-hill Ira Wells, who gets odd-coupled with young new agey Margo Sterling (a perfectly manic Lily Tomlin), ostensibly to help find her cat.

Character actors Bill Macy ("Maude") and Eugene Roche (you'll recognize him) help zip this along, spitting out Benton's one-liners that are by turn clever and kitschy, homage with a twist. Carney is grizzled, grumpy and living on Alka Seltzer. Tomlin meditates, designs her own clothes and trusts in the universe. When Ira's old colleague shows up on his doorstep gutshot, Ira is determined to track down his killer and unravel the mystery involving Roche's slick-talking fence, a cheating wife, and a stolen stamp collection.

The dialogue sparkles, and Carney and Tomlin have undeniable chemistry, two talented comics bringing depth and heart to their characters.

Spotted: Joanna Cassidy ("Blade Runner," TV's "Buffalo Bill") as the femme fatale with the great gams. 

D.O.A. (1949) (B) - Edmond O'Brien is solid as a poisoned man determined to solve his own murder in the hours before he succumbs. He combs the streets of San Francisco and L.A., interacting with thugs and dames, as he slowly falters from the poison coursing through his system. Femmes fatale like Lynn Baggett and Beverly Garland (later of "My Three Sons") contrast with the secretary who pines for the hero, a perky turn by Pamela Britton (later TV's Blondie). Sharp dialogue emanates from the typewriters of Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene (they also wrote "Pillow Talk") in Rudolph Mate's moody gem.

Spotted: Jerry Paris ("The Dick van Dyke Show") as a bellhop.

RED LIGHT (1949) (D+) - Absolutely ridiculous, this revenge thriller plays like a parody of classic noir tropes. The plot literally makes no sense. Raymond Burr proves that he has little range beyond criminal-defense lawyer and disabled private eye. And George Raft might have been a star in his day, but here he's an unreconcilable ham as a businessman trying to solve the mystery of his war-hero priest brother's death.

Spotted: William Frawley ("I Love Lucy"), who elicited snickers throughout the audience when he confronts someone he suspects of being a detective with the question, "Are you a dick?"
  

Missing the Mark

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (C+) - A lot of good ideas here fail to find traction or go off on tangents, and the cast often seems to work at cross-purposes.

It's as if Spike Lee, having never been to film school, tried to meld "Get Out" with "Idiocracy" for his debut feature. Lakeith Stanfield was quite the discovery in "Short Term 12," but he was forgettable in "Get Out," and he strikes the wrong tone here as a telemarketing employee tempted by corporate riches, falling short as a leading man. He can be forgiven for failing to grasp the gestalt in this mess, though Tessa Thompson ("Creed," "Dear White People") is electrifying, as usual, as the subversive artist girlfriend. Armie Hammer, playing the face of corporate evil, is a dud, as usual.

Hip hopper Boots Riley (The Coup) never corrals his big ideas about capitalism, greed, race and class. He's directing with boxing gloves on. A bizarre twist midway through the film is, frankly, preposterous, and it's hard to take any of this polemic seriously. Maybe that's the point, but I don't think it is. There's visual panache, but that's what music videos are for.

VALLEY OF LOVE (B-minus) - Worth it for the pairing of screen legends Isabelle Huppert and Gerard Depardieu, this story of a son's suicide bringing back together his long-estranged parents to, of all places, Death Valley in California, suffers from a slow pace and a lack of a payoff.

But there's something about this slow grind that keeps you hooked. It's certainly not the sight of Depardieu's enormous, hideous gut, which is often on prominent display. It's more the volumes that Huppert speaks through simple casual glances and imperceptible arches of an eyebrow. There is sadness here but also healthy nostalgia for those fulfilling, captivating relationships of your 20s and 30s that launched your adulthood.

BONUS TRACK
The Coup, featuring Stanfield, with "OYAHYTT" from the "Sorry" soundtrack:


 

Heart of Darkness

FIRST REFORMED (B) - Ethan Hawke is solid as a depressed alcoholic priest in Paul Schrader's latest journey into the darkness of the heart. Hawke's Rev. Toller is haunted by personal demons from his past and in despair over the viability of the quaint, historic church he oversees in upstate New York.

Amanda Seyfried has a deft touch with the role of Mary (major symbolism flying around here), a woman who goes to the Reverend concerned that her husband is planning to carry out eco-terrorism. Meantime, fossil-fuel bigwigs donate blood money to the little church on the eve of a major anniversary. Cedric (the Entertainer) Kyles is perfect as the head of a nearby megachurch, a man with good intentions who sees no need to crush its dying rival, which has more tourists than parishioners.

The mood is puritanically grim. Toller scrawls rants in a diary while keeping a steady pour from the hard stuff. Things bog down about halfway through, and a 20-minute trim would have been helpful. But the final 15 minutes are harrowing, as Schrader knits together subtle horror/suspense elements and visual shocks that might haunt you for days afterward.

THE PARTY (C) - A decent ensemble case fumbles around with a wisp of a story in Sally Potters arch art film in which the slaughter rule should be invoked as style wins over substance. Potter ("Orlando," the galling "Yes") shoots in crisp black-and-white for this expanded ensemble ripoff of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Kristin Scott-Thomas draws a blank as an ambitious British politician seemingly weighed down by her sickly pathetic husband (Timothy Spall). Patricia Clarkson is annoying as her annoying, sycophantic, stuck-up friend who spars constantly with her German lover (Bruno Ganz). Cherry Jones and Emily Mortimer have a spark as a bickering lesbian couple. But soon Cillian Murphy shows up as a coked-up businessman whining about his missing lover, the Godot of the story that everyone seems to be waiting for.

There is little chemistry among all of the permutations here. Rarely has so much talent gone to waste. Even at a slim 71 minutes you'll be tempted to fast-forward through the pretentious dialogue and the theatrical buffoonery.
 

Pulp Fiction - Summer Edition

DEADPOOL 2 (B) - Ryan Reynolds is a charmer, even when being a nihilistic smart-ass in a super-hero movie.  The original "Deadpool," which we recently caught up with as show prep, required some fast-forwarding through the violent scenes, and I wish I'd had that option at the megaplex for the sequel. But this zips by fast enough in right around two hours, and if you are inured to cartoon violence you might not mind it.

Reynolds besieges the viewer with randy one-liners, fleeting pop-culture references, and obscure Marvel call-backs (and loopy call-backs to call-backs).  T.J. Miller has a bigger role, and he and Reynolds have a verbal sizzle together. The story is far-fetched, as you'd expect. Characters die but come back via the after-life. Leslie Uggams' blind lady character walks the line between offensive and hilarious.  Reynolds seems all in (he gets a screenwriting credit), and a CGI scene that gives him "baby legs" (complete with "Basic Instinct" leg-crossing) is one for the ages, certain to give teenage boys a go-to reference decades hence in a way that "Caddyshack" once did for us. (And I never tired of his quaint exchanges with the super-perky Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna).)

The self-mocking swagger takes the air (the piss?) out of the usual Marvel bloat, and I alternated between laughing out loud at some of the gags and rolling my eyes as the stupid battle scenes. It's all embarrassingly good, raunchy fun.

OCEAN'S EIGHT (B) - A great cast elevates a clever script that tries a little too hard to be clever in this female counterpart to the Steven Soderbergh's tripartite tribute to the Rat Pack, back at the turn of the millennium, when Harvey Weinstein's boys had all of the toys. Sandra Bullock, whose comedic chops we discovered in "The Heat," is more muted than she's been in the past, but she's generous with her co-stars. 

Gen X and Millennial uber stars like Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway savor their juicy bad-girl roles. Dame Helena Bonham Carter is charmingly daffy. The single-named Rihanna and Awkwafina bring a punk freshness to the genre. And Sarah Paulson and Mindy Kaling solidify the middle of the lineup.

The plot is clever. You can spot a few holes, but for Hollywood summer fare, the plausibility ranking is unusually high. Director Gary Ross does his usually workmanlike job behind the camera, with a writing assist from newcomer Olivia Milch. Celebrity cameos whiz by. Bullock wisecracks like Barbara Stanwyck. The 110 minutes fly by pretty quickly, and you end up more entertained than insulted. Good enough for summer.
 

New to the Queue

A change of scenery ...

A documentary about three men reunited in adulthood as triplets separated at birth, "Three Identical Strangers."

Debra Granik ("Winter's Bone" and "Down to the Bone") is back with a drama about a father and daughter living off the grid, "Leave No Trace."

Clio Barnard ("The Selfish Giant") contributes another gritty drama, about a family farm in Yorkshire, "Dark River."

Hip-hopper Boots Riley casts Lakeith Stanfield ("Short Term 12") as a telemarketing sales rep in Riley's debut feature "Sorry to Bother You."

A dark comedy about a suburban feud between neighboring families, "Under the Tree."
  

Dark Days

I DON'T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE (B-minus) - Melanie Lynskey barely salvages a bizarre story about a woman seeking revenge for a simple home burglary. Coming off like Columbo stepping in for Charles Bronson in "Death Wish," Lynskey's beleaguered Ruth bumbles her way through the first two acts with the help of dorky Tony (Elijah Wood), a twerp who dreams of ninja warriorhood.

The final act falls apart in an onslaught of violence and bloodshed. The early charm and quirkiness are decimated by the sloppy, ugly finale. A few supporting performances stand out, including Christine Woods and Robert Longstreet as the parents of the teen burglar, and David Yow (lead singer of the Jesus Lizard) as the creepy leader of the burglary ring. The jangly small-town weirdness has a pleasing pace, and there are just enough offbeat moments to make this charming. Until that charm disappears.

This is the directing debut of Macon Blair (he wrote it, too), who starred in the similarly gritty "Blue Ruin" in 2013.

BONUS TRACKS
The soundtrack also comes to the rescue of "I Don't Feel at Home."  Here is Fern Jones with "The World Is Not My Home":



And an early '60s nugget from Bob Fryfogle, "Six Feet Under":


  

Ideas

EX-LIBRIS: THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY (B) - Toggling between dull and fascinating, the latest fly-on-the-wall epic from legendary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman is a three-plus-hour insider's examination of the grand and the mundane of New York's public library system.

The endless board meetings -- mostly about the financial future of the library system -- should be skipped, and the rest can be hit and miss. (I'm glad I saw it on DVD, not in the theater.) But Wiseman seems to be sending a simple, radical message: facts still matter; the truth still matters; ideas and diversity are our lifeblood. Brilliant minds can still draw an audience; ordinary folks can still change others' lives, often simply by volunteering their time. It's the power of the local community, far away from the politics of Washington and beyond.

We watch, nearly hypnotized, at trivial tasks -- the sorting of photos, books returning on a conveyor belt, patrons scrolling through page after page of microfiche. It's numbing but fascinating when taken as a whole. (Even if you watch it in 2 or 3 sittings.) Some of the recorded presentations flop (an overlong overview of the history of Jews in New York) and others are profound, including a hip-hop slam poet spieling a powerful rant about manhood. It is at that latter moment that Wiseman's genius -- for recognizing other forms of genius -- shines through.

BONUS TRACKS

Elvis Costello, promoting his memoir at a library event, offers a full-throated defense of his anti-Thatcher screed "Tramp the Dirt Down":



Costello introduced this wacky video featuring father, Ross McManus, and band cavorting through "If I Had a Hammer," and Wiseman's camera captures Costello's arched eyebrow as he sips from a glass of water -- a scene you can only get from "Ex Libris":



Here, Costello recounts his father's band of the '50s and '60s in England:


 

New to the Queue

A beautiful day in the neighborhood ...

A documentary (from the director of "20 Feet From Stardom") about legendary children's-show host Fred Rogers, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"

A low-wage worker must decide between his soccer league championship and a Sunday shift in "En el Septimo Dia" ("On the Seventh Day").

Eugene Jarecki ("The House I Live In," "The Trials of Henry Kissinger") wrestles with Elvis and race in his latest documentary, "The King."

Mackenzie Davis and Carrie Coon anchor a debut feature about a messed-up woman on a journey, "Izzy Gets the Fuck Across Town."
  

Trailer Trash

I, TONYA (C) - A cartoonish account of the fascinating trailer-trash tale of Tonya Harding, the hard-luck figure skater whose husband and associated thugs knee-capped Nancy Carrigan during the 1994 winter Olympics.  Margot Robbie is passable as Harding; Allison Janney chews scenery unconvincingly as the mean mother. Others are mostly forgettable, cast mostly for their resemblance to key players. Broad caricatures and historical liberties abound.

The CGI gymnastics endeavor to place Robbie's head on the bodies of real figure skaters, and the trick is noticeable at times; a silly choice by director Craig Gillespie ("Lars and the Real Girl"). The scattered soundtrack is mostly annoying. Any number of documentaries on the subject are preferable to this Lifetime-level effort, reminiscent of that 1970s Evel Knievel movie starring George Hamilton.


A SONG FOR YOU, THE AUSTIN CITY LIMITS STORY (C) - A rather flat and fawning look at the venerable PBS concert series that dates to the 1970s and was launched by a pre-braids Willie Nelson. The hero here is Terry Lickona, who joined in season four and is now the executive producer, nearly 40 years later. Drab staff meetings drag this down and distract from the performances. With so many great artists (Ray Charles and Lyle Lovett) to choose from, a clip job would have sufficed. Sometimes the story behind the story just isn't that interesting. A bunch of hippies in Austin decided to fill air time, and the show grew from a little hoedown to a cutting-edge showcase for the likes of Wilco and Radiohead. The music speaks for itself.

BONUS TRACK 
Jeff Tweedy, covering Doug Sahm's "Give Back the Keys to My Heart":


 

The Human Pain

THE RIDER (A) - Nonprofessional actors pack a wallop here in a the thinly fictional tale of a local rodeo star struggling to recover from a serious injury in the Badlands of South Dakota. Brady Jandreau turns in a devastating slow burn as Brady Blackburn, first seen tending to a huge stapled gash in his scalp. He battles brain damage that affects the grip in his right hand, and he is forced to take a demeaning gig in a dollar store.

Brady lives with his gruff, bitter dad Wayne (Tim Jandreau) and mentally challenged sister Lilly (Lilly Jandreau), a real family acting naturally together. Brady visits a pal who resides in an assisted-living facility, brain-damaged Lane (Lane Scott), a former rodeo star trapped in his body, with eyes that still shine.

Brady defies the doctors and is determined to ride and rope, but heartbreak seems determined to dash his dreams. He aches for the adrenaline rush and camaraderie of his favorite sport. Chinese director Chloe Zhao, in her second release, has an innate feel for the American heartland, crafting somber but humbly joyous images from the stark landscape. This has the grit and heft of a great American novel. Few films are more moving.

BONUS TRACK
The trailer:


 

Macho Men

THE PROFESSIONALS (1966) (B) - A pretty cool '60s-era western stars rugged men and a voluptuous woman, in a gripping adventure featuring a band of misfits. Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster team up with two others (Robert Ryan and Woody Strode) to form a gang hired by a Texas millionaire to find his kidnapped wife across the border of Mexico.

The screenplay adaptation is by the legendary Richard Brooks ("Key Largo," "Elmer Gantry," "Looking for Mr. Goodbar"), and his macho dialogue crackles. Samples:

"Go to hell."
"Yes, ma'am. I'm on my way."

"You bastard."
"Mine was a mistake of birth. You, sir, are a self-made man."

Jack Palance shows up as the gruff bad guy, and Claudia Cardinale ("Once Upon a Time in the West") smolders as only she could 50 years ago. This clocks in a few ticks short of two hours, but it packs in a lot of action and suspense.

THE STUNT MAN (1980) (C+) - This one has not aged well at all. A hackneyed directing effort by Richard Rush ("Freebie and the Bean"(!)) and starring Steve Railsback (from the "Whatever Happened To" files) as a fugitive who stumbles on a movie set and lucks into the job of stunt man. It's full of corny camera tricks and embarrassingly outdated (even at the time) musical flourishes. This plays like a classic porno without the (explicit) sex.

Presumably celebrating the remnants of the old studio system, "The Stunt Man" wallows in traditional gender conceits, as well. Peter O'Toole is on board as the cliched eccentric director, and Barbara Hershey is wasted as the love interest. The script is sloppy and the plot meanders. I remember liking this one when it came out, but I was a teenager then. This time through, I winced a lot.