Quinoa1984

Between this and Splitsville, one of the handful of positive things to come out of American cinema this year is that the successfully funny, nutty, constanty irreverent yet sincerely heartfelt Screwball Romantic Comedy is not only alive but thriving.

This may not be as visually ambitious as that film, but Eternity has three of the kind of appealing performances - and appealing in the way that these two former husbands and the wife who can't decide between who to spend eternity with are charming and hare-brained and equally clueless as they are assured - that you could have seen in a sublime Hollywood movie from the 1940's (fan-casting off the top of my head, and notwithstanding Montgomery Clift being name dropped in the actual film, Carol Lombard, James Stewart and William Powell as wife, second and first husband respectively). Olsen, Teller and Turner are all that fantastic here and keep you hooked with their patter and sincere delivery.

Maybe not everything here totally makes sense when it comes to the rulrs of the Middle-Waiting world (it seems like it should be much easier for someone to get away with escaping the Eternity space than we see early on based on what comes later, without giving too much away), and there are a few lines or bits that don't totally land as well as some others, but the ratio is like 3 or 4 to 5 that work vs those that don't. I think once you see where the *story is going to go, it will be fairly predictable, but the joy and feeling of the film is not in the events but hoe the actors navigate the complicated emotional problems around the scenario.

And as good as Olsen is here, this is probably Teller's best non-franchise work in many years; throw in another splendid D'avine Joy Randolph supporting turn (she has one single line about why she is this 'A. C.' role and manages to convey a lot of sadness in that one line that hits well amid a turn that it otherwise totally comedic) and a bit involving a certain celebrity that is one of the great comedic momebts of the year (like on par with Naked Gun level laugh), and you got a sweet natured satirical story of love and the afterlife. Come to think of it, this would actually be a better pairing with Splittsville than even Defending Your Life, as it is about how much of an existential minefield commitment can be.

(*No, it does not turn out like the ending of that Simpsons episode where Marge's mom turns down Abe Simpson and Mr. Burns for the Graduate ending, but it could have gone that way!)

Probably not a great film, not particularly unpredictable at any stretch. But this is a) more sexy than you would expect and b) it is so cool that Marlee Matlin won the Oscar and other accolades not necessarily because of the deaf representation but because she is wholly convincing as a young person who stands up for herself and what she wants on her terms in a relationship. While Hurt's character is our window into this world as the "normie" audience, her presence and humanity (what joy she seeks and the Hurt she has at this need of Hurt to conform to his world), is what drives the pathos of it all.

Really this is strongest as a film about how much William Hurt comes on much too strongly and embodies a certain kind of man, more prevalent in the 1980s but I am sure it persists today, of wanting someone to be in their experiences and it takes a lot for them to open up. This is to say it is more important as a film about empathy in relationships than as a romance drama, though it is not *bad* as a testy romantic relationship story as well.

And Piper Laurie (!) certainly gives it a great boost every time she is on screen (the reconciling "who do you want to be" scene between mother and daughter is the best scene in the movie). 7.5/10.

Blues in the Night is mostly relatively Okay for about half an hour of "We are a Band and We Are Gonna Do Big Great Things" light musical hijinks and dramatics, and then once Kay, played by Betty Field, enters into the picture and the band has to contend with a criminal fugitive and how much anger and vitriol and just general frustration with her lack of being a better singer than she can be percolates to the top, then director Anatole Litvak has something special.

There is one montage in particular where we see her getting pushed to the limit and she dreams running across a set of piano keys and it is one of those feverish set pieces that must have been planned to be edited and put together by the camera team as so, but there is also some extra inspiration that is so wild that it seems about ready to burst out of the seams of the frame of the film. And Field has that kind of electric delivery and spark in her eyes that makes Kay a much more tragic figure because she stands up for herself (or tries). She alone makes it worth seeking out.

That maybe makes this sound like some hidden gem of Jazzy Film Noir and it is not quite that - Richard Whorf is not at the level of Field, or Lloyd Nolan as the ornery criminal Del - but there is energy and sweat and some good dark vibes the longer it goes on. And the music is, dated as it might be, really fab on the whole, mostly when it comes to those nightclub scenes and that one stagey but soulful number when the band is behind bars (it is like... oh, that is what the Blues is like).

One wonders what American cinrma would be like if Elia Kazan just stayed as a perky character actor in Programmers like this.