MOSSBIE's reviews

This felt a lot like DEATH IN VENICE, CA to me, who arrived at UCLA at 17 looking better than Peter Johnson and knowing who Frances Faye was from hip parents in Cosmo SF and the "in" crowd that was very rich and filled with artsier geniuses in posher houses.I hung out at the Interlude which was as gay as I was straight almost every night before enrolling at UCLA. The owners and the bar fans of mine and Frances' were my first taste of the gay world.In SF it was not happening yet except for decorators. It was there that I met Teri and became good friends for years and she introduced me to a lot of players in the film although I was much more white tennis sweater looking and acting and had a life in the Bel Air movie star tennis group within weeks. I did not meet Weber till NY which became my mid point on my way to Paris where I moved after dropping out of school.CHOP SUEY does have a wonderful feel to repression and Bruce's love for Peter who is really charming as his sexual preference is shielded even when he wears dresses and hugs elephants while nude on a beach. Nearly ALL of my favorite friends and some icons are there like a scrapbook to look at although I did miss a Weston or two.Henry Miller, Cocteau and Mitchum are joyful to see as it was to play with them once. Mostly, it is a lot of beautiful young men who never appealed to me at any time, but, to his credit, Weber crammed the faces with the gorgeous past and many parts of where I first learned that there were only '10,000 people in the world' thinking.Had Weber been handsome, he would never have become the success he did. It is kind of sad to think that, but, I revert to loving this indulgent postcard which fits just fine into my own past which had an equally innocent beginning as Johnson's.

This had all I needed to be entertained with a world of crappy movies out there for the past two years. Neeson is dependable, has a movie star presence, delivers as an actor, and is a really likable star who is over 5'8" like most of our so called leading men in films. I will not go to a movie where the overpaid stars look like busboys who spend time in the gym rather than grooming their talents. The best entertainment is on Cable with actors in series like DEXTER, and HOMELAND and the film industry is suffering from remakes or kid flicks for dunderheads and film students. Luckily, the AFI is restoring some unseen films which come on at 3AM but have dialog and story lines which are fantastic when there were some fine writers with talent. Most film goers and film critics are the types who look for "goofs" and mistakes for the trivia section of reviews here.Called iPadists. Currently, I am hooked on German cinema which is magnificent compared to our "dramas" and action films. We will be making Mid-Eastern-spy-bomb-torture-Al Quaeda-movies for another ten years. The alternative is to show a lot more frontal nudity now that the church has no say, and big stars will be the ones who have large breasts and men are hung like horses.IOW .....silents return.

I first became friends with Rita when I was 22 and the same age as she is in this only film of hers I had never seen till last night. On that night she and Hermes Pan (master choreographer)were slumming to show her what a coffee house was like, and my roommate who knew Hermes invited them to the hippie like house in an alley way in West Hollywood we shared.We both were in love with the Goddess and did black magic (amateur)to see that Hermes would bring her and it worked.Rita was 38 an still beautiful,a gypsy who drank our cheap wine,and we talked and laughed till dawn. From that day forward,we spent three or four nights a week at her home on Hartford and she often burnt dinner for us and we drank Dom Perignon and we danced and laughed and she told stories and her Brooklyn accent would come out (I hear it a lot in ANGELS) Rita always insisted she could act and this film showed her talent and some of her incredible allure which was emerging.I think she did BLOOD AND SAND the next year where she was outrageously sensual and cruel.She was great in that.Paulene Kael disliked her because she was dubbed by Anita Ellis in most films even though Rita had a decent voice. I found this Hecht film to be far ahead of its time with terrific casting and dialogue which sounded like Mankiewicz in a way,and a touch of Damon Runyon with sophistication.It is an odd, and terrific film and my Rita was really good and I watched her and she "listened" to other actors like a seasoned performer.She still is magical and her presence on film still excites.

Just as all boys who become readers as a result of CATCHER IN THE RYE and later are either discovering Phillip Roth or "rebel" types, the same goes for the adult woman emerging from the BELL JAR....EVERY sort of bright or pseudo intellectual girl is introduced to this book which becomes their stepping stone into the neurotic hormonal changes into WOMAN. That is trite and will annoy most of you, but it has been true for a long time. Even Liz Taylor once was going to do the film when young but could not get anyone to finance the "downer" aspect of this terrific work. Of course, a film with a mental narrative is almost impossible to make into a good film. Joan Didion's PLAY IT AS IT LAYS was a fantastic film of a very little known subject....filmmaking and the "biz", but a good portrait of a woman and Tuesday Weld was mind blowing in it.Just as the boys went on into the literary world to Mailer, Kesey, Tom Wolfe,and others went on to the political savants Vidal etc.;the women did the Virginia Woolf and offshoots of downer hood and independence and the intellectuals of both genders met in the middle with earlier mentioned Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, but the bump in the rug was when Erich Segal had such a hit with LOVE STORY and both sexes were now trapped by this silly little book and started reading together because they became "adult" enough to discuss each others' favorites. Now, are new literary heroes are emerging through politics or trash and some heavy handed intellectuals or NO READING at all---compared to the days when one had up to three or four books going at once.There are so many writers from foreign lands who are doing better work because the world is so bizarrely transitioning into a heavy handed place to create and kids are using electronic communication devices which has played havoc with a lot of good storytellers who cannot get a publisher and we almost know what our old "favorites" are going to write about..There are a lot more books and writers than I make it appear....but, it is still frustrating to go into a store and come out empty handed because it is quite a luxury to spend $25-40 when you are having financial setbacks or one struggles to justify not reading a great book they have at their apartment or home bookshelves which are bursting. Try Lorca or some Chinese writers by going to the public library first.

This really beautifully cast ensemble piece (the best group I have seen since THE METHOD)is wonderfully directed by Turkish director Frazan Ozpetik, whose films I intend to find and watch....not just at premieres. The one actress who is quite remarkable as one of the most interesting and amusing and attractive cast members Ambia Angiolini. The cast, very attractive and some for plot reasons. What is so surprising to me is why Hollywood hasn't grabbed actor Luca, who is a heart throb and grabbed him like they did a lot of Almodovar's leading men. One of the reasons some of the reviewers complain about the film is mostly because it is a bit grand and for sophisticated tastes including the homosexuality driven plot which is not for most online reviewers even though the film took a handful of Italian Oscars. For those who claim it may be soap operaish, they forget that prior to reality shows, the world, not just Americans, thrived on soaps in most every country for decades; and still do in some. This film is made fascinating by the mixture of both gay and straight characters with little homophobic focus. If SATURN IN OPPOSITION isn't grabbed and remade either by the Weinsteins or some tasteful British group, I will be surprised. What I also have to mention is the stunning photography, lighting, art direction and most of all, the music. I am going to see about finding if there is a soundtrack which is really inventive and organic.

Since the story is so well known by some of the very good reviewers here, I am merely adding my surprise at the discovery of the talent of Mae Clarke. I had no idea she had done this original version and according to the collected IMDb data, Ms. Clarke was just 20 years old when she worked on this excellent adaptation of the play. There is no need to compare her performance to Vivien Leigh's later remake, because that film had no real grit and Clarke's performance was one of the best I have ever seen from a performer despite her youth. The film was shot soon after talkies began and her screen presence and non theatrical emoting was astonishingly on target. The director, Whale, must have had a good rapport because her scenes with all of the players came off honest and not a bit dated. I can see that Davis would have liked to play the part as someone mentioned, but she could not have done a better job. I just discovered it on the Turner channel and became so engrossed in Clarke's performance, I called people to get a copy and watch this actress' work. Quite remarkable.

This is a beautifully acted and realized "soap" kind of mother love films, which done in 1946, has the ability to still bring down the toughest EVIL MEANIE to his or her knees. De Havilland is deserving of the Academy Award she won for her range and her excellence as a screen actress. She may not have come from the Method school of training or RADA but her varied performances which can quite literally be called a brilliant melange of characters in THE HEIRESS to SNAKE PIT in which she is as good as it gets in female roles. Charlie Brackett wrote a tight screenplay for what could have gone on for hours and the art direction and music all work along with one of those great supporting group of character actors of the day. All told, it is De Havilland's controlled and believable performance that make this a film a must see for the most hardened critic. Grown men will not admit to liking this film because it more than likely will bring a tear of two.....it is that good.

When I look at this film, first of all, I am astonished no one bothers to mention the costumes she wears which are not only revealing but incredibly original and almost better than designers of today. Edith Head is rumored, but she has a controversial reputation as having put her name on a lot of designs while at Paramount where this film was made and where Head remained as chief designer right through the years Audrey Hepburn brought in Givenchy and though he got special billing, when Hepburn worked, she always chose the advice of Givenchy and it supposedly drove Piaf up the wall. Those people who think of West as "ridiculous" seem to forget that she was writing on her own against the most powerful writers in films and theater, and she skirted the laws by her clever use of the double entendre. When I was invited to her house at the Ravenswood for tea, she was well into her 80's and was as sharp and smart and hilariously funny as she was 50 years before the women's movement, and even woman's suffrage. She was idolized by both men and women because she insisted that "the brain was the best seducer of men".That is sadly lacking in the female of today. West was also an avid reader and ridiculed sex experts with many quotes which never were published.She was an amazing talent who was 40 when she did this film, but she was a seductress to audiences.

The actor Ben Bonefant is certifiably the first male porn actor who has star quality and can do the crossover into straight film even though he makes no attempt to be anything but queer and performs most of the usual acts with professionalism. All this he does with style, good use of his screen presence, much better than his straight lookalike, Mr.Demi Moore.....Ashton. Actually, he has star quality where Ashton has leftovers. The story is unique and very American and not a rifpoff of some French mec film, or a polite or violent Brit gang rape type plot.This is one of the best films I have seen this year simply because it is good. It is also original..........something one does not hear much. And, in the middle of all this, we have Ben....a real charmer who seems to like his job and earns it by sheer quantity. He has humor, honesty and that kind of smirk only real stars own and which is totally their own. I would bet on him to cross over to straight films. Did I mention that he is sexy and not perfect? He is like a gay Eric Bana. Bana was much sexier early on in his career.Now, he is just too polished. He had better drop his drawers and be well hung.

Considering Ms. Weld was barely 20 and had understudied on Broadway in dramatic roles like DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, she handled this really offbeat tale of a glamorous reincarnated movie star with great authority and nuance and a complexity far beyond other actresses of the time. This mysterious "lost" project has seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth and almost every major director of the day...most of them who she later worked with in film...and t.v., always seem to mention the Du Pont Productions' disappearances and mostly, the Lylah Clare episode. There is a mystery attached to it, and writer Thom was the first to mention the strangeness of the story of what turned out to be his most remembered writing which did have an eerie plot. The director was amazed at Weld's grasp and glamor of the offbeat character she portrayed which in many ways mimicked her own later on. Today in the 2011, this original DuPont and the later remake by Aldrich are like lost treasures. People speak of "campy" which like the word "fey" has a connotation with death.It definitely removed Kim Novak from Hollywood, and it was the beginning of Weld's turning down every major film from BONNIE AND CLYDE to ROSEMARY'S BABY and a half dozen more HUGE successes.Weld does not like to work on long shooting schedules and preferred doing two week movies of the week when she did. She is scheduled to get a major industry award in NY but is not attending.Like she failed to do in Venice when winning best actress for PLAY IT AS IT LAYS.

While I normally enjoy pornography of all kinds when it is done in a documentary way; it is not palatable when one adds a plot which does not have a way of telling a complete story. This is that kind of film. The writer/director, apart from having an obvious love for film and its techniques and auteurs by the dozens, he only picks bits and pieces from some of his favorites, and then writes a story that should have been storyboarded, in order to even play homage to his most often used,enigmatic and "surprise/plot" directors. Hitchcock would have thought this the longest trailer in history......as a matter of fact, the movie IS a long trailer. I yearned for reason, as well as reason for casting, for lighting, for a clarity, and for ONE interesting character. What a bunch of bores the writer wrote. Who the hell cares? It sounds homophobic, but gay films must learn to realize that the serious subjects are always going to deal with "gay" and its problems, and MUST not try and take itself seriously. Lesbian films succeed because they are willing to take chances with honesty and anti heterosexual subjects.

This is the FIRST film I have ever scene where, when a soldier gets shot and killed actually screams OWWWW!! or screams in pain when hit. Other than that, when any film brings in religion as a subtext...That is, in a SciFi film, it simply does not work. Even Faith Domergue would have never worn a cross on a chain in her cult classic films. Has anyone noticed that in the last 10 years of film-making the book of GENESIS seems to appear more and more? As an instance where religion DOES show its face is in the H.G.Wells 2005 version of WAR OF THE WORLDS with C. Thomas Howell which did mention the BOOK OF REVELATIONS in its script. In this film, which got some fairly good ratings from viewers when I saw it on the SYFY Channel, when people die, they also do not make any noise of pain when they die. I believe H.G.Wells was an Atheist or Agnostic in case the writers of this version read his book. If anyone has ever been around a real death or wounding of a human, you will remember audible screams of pain.

This is probably the funniest film from the "new generation" mentality and pisses off every film school student here because it succeeds as a non stop, side splitting "goofing" comedy. I had never heard of the star, Seth Rogan and avoided the film for weeks on my satellite movie listings. Quite simply,well written (hilarious dialogue and interplay by a really well cast group of fantastic actors. James Franco does the best pot head and is totally different from Brad Pitt's wonderful portrayal. This is real comedic timing done with a straight face by Franco, who also manages to exude a lovable hippie maintaining his Jimmy Dean charisma. Rosie Perez is a natural comedienne and good actress and a great bad girl.I never have liked Ed Begley Jr. so much because he is strong and authoritative with great timing. The writing is really non TV and the whole thing moves with outrageous situations, and all this with masses of gun play for a comedy. It is the best comedy I have seen this year.

Both films were based on characters and the budgets were many millions of dollars apart in spite of the fact, in B and C we NEVER get to know either of the characters and what today is so outdated, is made up by the incredible performance of Ashley Judd, who employs no clichés of a a wild drunk and does not reveal herself as a clearly bipolar,drugged out mess. Later, to his credit the script writer does not delve into her childhood past beyond one scene,thus throwing pity at her.This is way truer than fashion icon Bonnie whose famous line "we rob banks" thrilled people and made heroes out of them and Theodora Van Runkle.Most surprising is Luke Perry (with bad mustache created to make him not so baby faced)who is really good and we get a glimpse of how honorable a man is who falls for a gorgeous unpredictable girl/woman whose heroes and myths lie in astronomy and chaos and lack of fear.I have known two women like them and been in love with them who were equally beautiful and could be so appealing and sexy one minute and the next out of their minds. In their case it was a lot of speed when it was legal,and they fascinated a lot of guys whose lives they messed up before dumping them prior to me. I had to leave them because they had such power. One married 5 times to millionaires and institutionalized while the other is now the most normal mother who looks great and goes to PTA meetings.She was exactly like the Judd character while the other drove around Hollywood with shotguns her classic sports cars and a Bentleys drinking champagne.Exactly like Judd's character. This film is far more real and explains the unexplainable but it usually has to do with drugs and booze while in B and C it was fashionable to love the underdog during the depression and feel compassion for them. Ashley Judd, again is a genuinely intelligent and gorgeous actress with an educational b.g. which is astonishing and may have influenced the director/writer to involve her in the astronomy which was a masterful quirky touch.The dialogue rings true and again Perry and her amaze.

When one reads reviews about this film, it could just as well be about a non kung fu action movie for all that is missing in the creative surplus that is bedazzling. First the best group of actors and casting I have ever seen who are all "unknowns" to me, except for a heavy set guard conspirator who plays it straight and does it well, too. The story line is unexpected and the "lead" has so many faces and is so calm and cool at once, and then a complete wacko. It works because we are not force fed a story line typically American, but the revelations do come back in flashbacks, in revelations which are accidental or cleverly edited. However they make it there, they work. Even the evangelist works whereas most of them are all so dumb and overdone.The film is going to be a sleeper and is going to be HUGE in France. It is very much like a combination of French directors and does not mess around with any of the modern icons who are running out of parts for DeNiro and Pacino playing devils.This is low budget and mesmerizing film making with not one bad actor. Too many young filmmakers who have no idea of the roots of films who try and be witty and forget what it takes to assemble this kind of involving production.