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Reviews
The Newsroom: I'll Try to Fix You (2012)
Bigfoot and guns - the series in a nutshell
"I'll Try to Fix You" is the fourth episode from the first season of the American television series "The Newsroom". Season one consisted of ten episodes in total, so half the season is almost over. It runs for about an hour as they usually do. This is the only episode I review from this show as of now because back when I watched it, I thought this was the best episode from the entire first season. Also, I thought there was a drop on quality after the first season, so I would say that this is maybe also my favorite episode from the entire series. Which was not super long-running admittedly and 25 episodes is something that 90s shows often reached for one single season and not for three like this show here. The series received strong reviews and maybe the most outstanding achievement during awards season was lead actor Jeff Daniels winning a Primetime Emmy for the first season. Today, we want to be more specific though and look at this fourth episode. I would say it is pretty much the series in a nutshell although surely not everything about the show worked as well as it did here. The action starts on the 31st December 2010, so less than two years in the past as this aired in 2012. The new year is coming and this includes focus on the romantic relationships of the protagonists mostly. It involves Alison Pill's character and how she is maybe not too happy about a colleague dating her roommate. It also includes Emily Mortimer's character and who she calls her boyfriend. But most of all it includes Jeff Daniels' character who has a romantic encounter shortly before New Year that does not go too well and later during the episode another that goes even worse.
The latter is linked to gun possession, which is maybe the biggest political issue from the episode. Comments by Glenn Beck and former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin are referenced in terms of how Obama may or may not want to take guns away from Americans. There is also talk about President Obama going on a really expensive trip to India, but not as much focus as on the gun issue. Once again, you could wonder how Daniels' character is a registered Republican. I guess the character's views still helped the series to blend in and succeed with the very liberal American television landscape. The moment that stays most memorable from the episode is maybe when Daniels or rather his character shows us pretty graphically what statistic look like when it comes to women defending themselves with a firearm from an attacker. Or maybe that is the most memorable moment before the last ten minutes where the Tucson shooting from January 2011 was included. The question if United States Representative Gabby Giffords' death should be announced live on air is a key discussion point and we see how the protagonists eventually make the right decision by not doing so. Very tense sequence of events really from the moment when the news reaches everybody.
This is also when bigfoot is totally forgotten right away and this mythic creature was included for comic relief as a bit of a running gag throughout the episode. It is all linked to Dev Patel here, as of now maybe the biggest movie star from the cast still and of course Slumdog Millionaire had already happened before The Newsroom. It surely was what got him his role here. So yeah, Patel is included here for comic relief mostly or rather the other characters mocking him a bit, even if Daniels' character takes him more seriously towards the end then because of what he learned during the episode. What I learned is that giant octopuses and even pandas were considered a myth also for much longer than you would think. Overall, this episode is a good watch, also thanks to creator Aaron Sorkin, who is is more than a decade later still most known for "The Social Network" probably and this show here actually followed immediately after. The other two writers credited here Handelman (rip) and Reichbach have worked on multiple other episodes of the show and same is true for director Alan Poul. As my favorite cast member is probably Sam Waterston, I will say a few words about him at the end of my review. He did not have super much screen time here and he was mostly in it for comedy reasons too, namely joking a bit about Daniels' character's romantic endeavors. However, towards the end, we also get a more serious moment about Waterston's character when he understands a plan to get Daniels' character eliminated from the program and maybe even his career destroyed. This results in a little bit too much drama maybe when Emily Mortimer also loses it immediately afterwards. She is an actress I do not like in general anyway and this show or episode could not change my mind. But I thought what was interesting is the brief connection here between Waterston and Fonda who ended up as co-leads together in a lighter show a little later. So yeah, overall I give this episode a big thumbs-up as I enjoyed it more than anything else from The Newsroom I guess. It has its moments and the cringe is not too frequent and the last 8 minutes or so are really as tense as it gets, even if maybe all the bigfoot stuff still stays my favorite from the episode. It made me laugh a lot, not gonna lie!
Mare of Easttown: Illusions (2021)
Complete escalation
"Illusions" is the fifth episode of the one and only season of the 2021 award-winning miniseries "Mare of Easttown" starring Kate Winslet as the title character. This runs for approximately an hour and I guess many may see this episode as the finest the series brought out. This episode took a little while to really get going, but with the last chapter of it all, there is no way I cannot give it a rating that elevates it from good to great. The director was Craig Zobel again and the screenplay came from Brad Ingelsby. The cast were the same people like from the previous episodes and you know where to find the names. The previous episode ended with a twist in which we almost had nothing in terms of the search for the criminals as it turned out that the caller about the missing girl was just a man trying to cash in and not the one who really hid her. It changes so quickly with this one here. Mare is of course not (yet) back on police duty, but that does not keep her from investigating and even going on a date to get easier access to information. The fella she goes on the date with is Evan Peters' Colin Zabel. This was his final episode as we find out towards the end then and I am glad he received a lot of awards attention for his portrayal here, including at least one great win. He had some decent moments again in this episode and the one that stood out maybe was when he opened up to Mare about the case he solved (or didn't solve) on the timeline before the miniseries started. Maybe the best moment of the episode away from the dramatic escalation at the end. It is also a bit sad though if we look at the words he said about his character on one occasion that showed he was probably not too happy where he was in life and also because Winslet's character was not romantically interested in him. Even if I did not see it coming, I am not super surprised though that his character is gone because if you have somebody like Winslet on board, then the action is probably sooner or later gonna be all about her.
Two episodes are remaining and she will have those all for herself. The maybe biggest comedic inclusion here involved Jean Smart's character and a widower opening up about having an affair with her in front of a large crowd. This was also the first time you really saw Winslet's character laugh really hard during the show. Only inclusion? The episode would have worked without this, but it was alright. The only thing that did bother me a bit here was the story they added for Julianne Nicholson's character and her family struggles. This came totally out of nowhere to be honest and felt for the sake of it. I find it disappointing because I like Nicholson since her L&O days and I would have expected more to be honest given she also received decent awards attention here, including one great win. But let's see what the next two episodes will bring. It's just that her son was not a factor at all so far this series, so it all felt a bit scripted and not too authentic. If we look at the crime component, now we know what happened to the two abducted girls and seems they are safe, but we still don't know what happened to the young mother who we found out was killed at the end of the first episode. There is a conversation including the young mother's former boyfriend, who we know now is not the father of the child, which may lead us into the direction again that he may indeed be the killer, something we have not been thinking for quite some time now and which probably would mean that the deceased's dad was right, but this is also gonna get revealed over the next two episodes I am sure. If it wasn't for this storyline, then you could say that the ending of the fifth episode could have been nice closure for the show itself, even if it was quite abrupt. I mean the bad guy is dead and even the mother of the girl who got abducted first must be happy about Winslet's character now.
It is all really a Winslet vehicle: Look at how a younger man wants her, how she rejects him, how she mentions her depressions early on, how she needs to almost tell Zabel to pull his gun and that he didn't do so fast enough on his own resulted in his death and also how the title character manages to take down the bad guy without a gun on her and she also manages to calm down the girls before doing so. The moment before the end of the episode with a boy mentioning how special of a day this is and why in the form of a voiceover was also a great inclusion after the action was over. Great writing there with how the circles closes. I also liked the song used for the closing credits, but this of course comes down to personal taste and people may see it differently. I guess with all that happened during this episode, you can say that, even if it was an hour and not under 45 minutes, it would have worked as a stand-alone movie as well even. Take the girl who was smart enough to write down the car identification, the way they knock at people's doors and eventually find the guy who did it. And there is like half an hour before that already that may have been only on a level of 3 stars out of 5, but it is also only forgettable because what happens afterwards is this great. Not because it is bad or anything. Which you should understand by a mention of 3 out of 5 anyway. Finally, we have the deacon again who also gets his fair share here and it is interesting if audiences felt sorry for him with what he goes through here. Not just the physical violence, but also people on the table speaking about him. He probably needs to move elsewhere again. He was a bit of a main suspect for me throughout the entire show until now and while we see he was with the young mother shortly before her death, it seems he was not the killer. The bicycle scene from an earlier episode was maybe also too obvious for that. So yeah, I am curious about the next two episodes and how it is all going to unfold at the end, if the previously-presumed father of the child is really the young mother's killer. I guess if you made it this far, there is no way you won't keep watching. Episode 2 was awesome already, episodes 3 and 4 then again a bit on the mediocre side, but by now the show hits in full force. Highly recommended!
Hitzig - Ein Saunagang (2021)
Just visit the nearest sauna instead
"Hitzig - Ein Saunagang" or "On Heat - A Sauna Session" is a German German-language live action short film from 2021, so this one is almost five years old now and apparently it is the second short film work by writer and director Katharina Bischof. She will turn 40 next year. The film runs for slightly under 20 minutes and is pretty much what the title says, namely a collection of recordings taking place at a German sauna. Perhaps "Heated" would even be a better name for this film as there is also some conflict going on, even if most of it is pretty quiet and not too many words can be hard. There may be some conflict between the women too like when one makes statements about age, but the key conflict here was about a statement that some people may deem racist, namely when an Asian employee of the sauna uses the flower jasmine for the next round. I mean it was not super offensive, yet you could feel the moment she says what she says that the other women felt kinda awkward or weren't sure what they should say or if they should say something at all. Eventually, the don't. What added more to the bizarreness of the situation was how the Asian employee was in a bit of a servant role you could almost say, probably more than the other employee you see at the very beginning who interacted with the women in a sense that he was a bit more of an equal. The Asian fella was very silent. He is also the last character we see in the film when the sauna session is basically over.
There are things you will learn from this film if you are not a big sauna-goer as I myself am not a sauna-goer at all either, but I am still curious to do it maybe more often at some point. One thing is that apparently it is not uncommon for men to work at a sauna where there are female guests only, but I guess it is the same with a massage salon or the other way around too gender-wise. Then, apparently jasmine odor can be quite a challenge at the sauna and a key role is that skin never touches the wood. No pun intended. There always needs to be a towel in-between. There is in this movie for everybody. So yeah, I guess this is pretty much it. I would say it was a forgettable film overall and I am glad it did not go any longer. I think that if it did not include naked women pretty much from beginning to end, then it would have attracted even less attention. The most known cast member is Bavarian actress Antonia Bill here, who has been in a film already that was very successful internationally too and another film that is also at least quite known here in Germany because it was probably the last chapter of a long-running series over several decades and there I think I like her even more. Anyway, this film here is by no means an actor's movie. Or actresses. It is more about the atmosphere of it all and rising tension to some extent, even if the way to cash in with the omnipresent (alleged) racism subject in German media did not feel too creative or inspired. For me, the outcome here is a thumbs-down. Watch something else instead. This one's difficult enough to find anyway and you are not missing out on much.
Mare of Easttown: Fathers (2021)
Early investigations and new escalations
"Fathers" is the second episode of the one and only season of the 2021 television mini series "Mare of Easttown" that I started today and while I thought the opening episode was already quite good, this one here definitely reached another level. Director Zobel and writer Ingelsby are the key figures behind the project and the lead actress is of course Oscar winner Kate Winslet, who was also one of the producers here. This one runs for slightly under an hour and five more episodes will follow. I am really curious how the story will go on. The cast scored many nominations for their portrayal here and also some wins, not just Winslet, but also Julianne Nicholson and Evan Peters. Add to that Jean Smart who was nominated on multiple occasions as well. But now let's look at this episode: So much happens here. At the end of the first episode, we already saw one character got killed and the first half of this episode is basically informing the victim's father, early interrogations and investigations. In addition, we also get an insight in the title character's personal life with a new man she meets and the relationship with her mother, her daughter and an issue linked to her grandchild related to custody, but this does not affect Mare personally yet during this episode. The connection there also informs us that her son committed suicide. Many serious and dark inclusions for this episode and those work oh so well.
To make things slightly lighter, Evan Peters' character is introduced and his interactions with Winslet's character brought some alright comic relief here and there. I would not call it much-needed because the episode was also great without that, but it worked well for sure nonetheless and there were another three or four moments maybe when I had to smile, even slightly laugh because of certain situations that still did not feel forced at all, but very authentic. There was a scene with two men from the Church and the way this one was written, I initially got the idea that one of them may be the one who got the murder victim pregnant and might even be the murderer. We will see how this continues, but at least the idea that the man has something to hide and that the boy was not the father turned out right from what we know now. So, I cannot even say that the baby named DJ lost both his parents within a few days because the ending shows us how the murder victim's dead takes matters into his own hands and heads off to kill the one he thought to be the murderer of his daughter. In the scene when the man shows up behind the boy in the car and we see the gun you could wonder if he is really gonna do it and maybe hope for some twist in the way of reason returning to him because we were quite sure the boy did not kill the young mother, but there is no sugar-coating here eventually and the man kills the young guy apparently in the forest.
Speaking of fathers, which is also the episode title, we also have an Italo-American dad who fears that this horrible crime, the first one, will have a major negative impact on his daughter and might ruin everything for her because she beat up the murder victim the night of the killing. And add to that, there is still an unsolved crime in existence that may or may not be connected to the murder of the young mother. I mean this girl there disappeared and was not killed and left in a place where she would be found fast, but if in a relatively small town two crimes like this happen, then it seems possible that it was the same person. As I stated earlier, I am curious if that is the case and how all of this is going to continues. Really tense episode. One of 2021's finest and I highly recommend the watch. I hope the level stays that way. The cast is really, really good (have to mention Patrick Murney here too as one of the lesser-known cast members, I hope his career will continue to thrive) and writing and suspenseful execution could hardly be any better. You could never be sure at all what happens next to any of the characters and sometimes I struggle a bit with one-hour episodes, but here it is really the exact opposite from my perspective. Another example of how good small screen entertainment is right now. The Golden Age of Television indeed.
2020: The Movie (2021)
Short enough for you to not have enough of it
"2020: The Movie" is a pretty pompous title for this one, but of course it needs to be taken with a grain of salt as this is all about the comedy. It is in the form of a trailer for a movie that never got made of course and fittingly for when this got made, you also get some references linked to the pandemic and actor Michael Sheen plays the virus itself and eventually asks himself how you play such a "character". He is one of the most famous faces in here. Two about as famous that I also appreciated were Oscar nominees Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan, the latter clearly feeling the comedy component of it all despite a somewhat "serious" ending to her very short segment. Everybody only has a few seconds screen time here as the entire thing runs for minimally over four minutes, at least the upload now, but it may have been even shorter originally as imdb lists it with two minutes in fact and another reviewer also talked about two minutes.
So yeah, I already mentioned the for me best inclusions that were still nothing super special and the worst inclusion was probably Russell Brand at the very beginning, who was once again just loud and not funny, so pretty much the way he always is. Also the segment with the pub that quickly changes between open and closed did not do a lot for me. Fans of the boy group Take That will also see a face they appreciate in here. So all the ones I mentioned are Brits and this is no coincidence because this was apparently a little movie or "movie" they made for the annual Comic Relief / Red Nose Day special or whatever it is called now. You know what I mean, especially if you are from the UK. I give this overall a thumbs-down, but with the running time, you cannot really go totally wrong here if you find one or two names in the cast list you like and decide to check it out for them. Half of these fellas you will probably only know if you are from the United Kingdom yourself. Oh yeah, there is also a joke in here about Doctor Who being an actual doctor. Seems as if the females included here are more known than most of the males. That is all. I guess you can skip the watch and you are not missing much. If you still wanna go for it, this is on Youtube.
Roman Holiday (1953)
Neither the story nor the place won me over the way they should have
"Roman Holiday" is an American black-and-white movie from 1953 that runs for slightly under two hours and the director is William Wyler, one of the most successful filmmakers from his era. He was already two-time Oscar winner when this came out over 70 years go and one more trophy was bound to follow, even if not for this film here. He was around the age of 50 then. Wyler never wrote the screenplays for his movies, so we have multiple writers credited here and this includes Ian McLellan Hunter and John Dighton. But the much more interesting name is Dalton Trumbo who, not super long ago, had a biopic made about him that focused on censorship and discrimination. This is also why Trumbo was not originally credited here for writing, even when the movie won an Oscar for this category, but the two aforementioned writers were. Trumbo is now credited with the win though and same is true for a film that came out three years later. Two out of three is a really good record. He lived on for another 20 years afterwards. His movie here was nominated for a total of ten Oscars, including Best Picture, and won three of those. Screenplay I mentioned already and Oscar number two went to the maybe biggest costume designer Hollywood ever head, namely Edith Head and the other for lead actress Audrey Hepburn. For Head it was the eighth of thirty-five nominations that spanned over 30 years, so she was nominated more than once per year in average. What a crazy statistic. It was her fifth of eight wins.
The third and final Oscar went to lead actress Audrey Hepburn and she was in her early 20s here and it was her breakthrough movie that not only gave her the only Academy Award of her career, but also her maiden nomination. She had acted before already, but not in projects that were really known, so it was pretty much a from-zero-to-hero scenario here. Her male co-lead here is Gregory Peck, who was over a decade older than Hepburn back then and well also always afterwards. His moment of Oscar glory was still a decade away at that point and number five was the lucky charm for him, but the four previous nominations all happened between 1946 and 1950, so he already had them by 1953 when this movie got out and they were also all for lead performances. Clearly among the biggest character actors in Hollywood at that point and maybe it was also a surprise that he did not get in for this movie here to complete the quintet before Mockingbird. The male actor who did get in, however, was supporting player Eddie Albert and this was his first Academy Award nomination. A second followed almost 20 years later. I personally remember him most for playing the antagonist in a Columbo episode and as I love this series dearly, I was curious about him here. I must say he was alright and looked younger than he actually was, but as much as I like him, I definitely think the Oscar nomination was way too much. He brought in some comic relief and played a truly loyal friend to Peck's character despite the latter bullying him in a playful way, almost slapstick-like. But this is really all there was to his character. It's not even Albert's fault. The character just does not have remotely enough depth to receive the honors he did with the Academy.
If we look at the key story here, we have a princess who is living in a gilded age as we find out early on when we hear about her schedule, but also a little later when she tells us all the things she learned and is capable of, but never had the people where she could put her talents to play. This changes with Peck's character. The talk about buying a kitchen was kinda cute and an early indicator of the romance rising between them, which was not there since the very start when the man was ready to leave her in the taxi. Lucky for him, the taxi driver was not fond of this idea at all. But as for the gilded cage and princesses inside, we have this scenario a lot really. I am not just talking period pieces, sometimes categorized as chick flicks, but also for example the recent Lady Di movie starring Kristen Stewart and usually they do have an English background just like this one here, even if the most known dealing with this subject is probably the Sissi trilogy. At least in Europe and these films are roughly from the same days like "Roman Holiday". But before we drift further away, let's get back to this one here: The German title was very different compared to the original The literal translation is "A heart and a crown". I am not too big on that one to be honest. I like the original title more, but even there I am struggling a bit with because I must say that this film did not feel like the tribute to the Italian city I would have liked it to be that could have gotten me really curious to travel there. The tone and lack of color of course make you immediately think about what Mastroianni did back in the day (the photographer profession is even featured as well), even if Peck is probably more of a hunk. But yeah, Hepburn's character in the end says something against the protocol like that Rome will always be her fondest travel and I wish I could have felt the same in terms of movie travel after the watch, but not at all for me.
You can also see from my rating that I was not fond of the outcome here and I am baffled by the high ratings on imdb and Rotten Tomatoes. I would not say it won me over in terms of drama or comedy or romance unfortunately. Not even one of those. I mean the kiss was kinda cute between them and the disguised confession of love in front of everybody then almost at the very end was alright too, even if a bit cheesy maybe and I might end up not liking it as much as I did the moment I heard it, but there were so many forgettable moments to the movie and also a handful weak moments. You can surely criticize the idea of luck and coincidence. I mean it is pretty unrealistic that the man finds the princess there one night and a one-in-a-million scenario (if not billion), but it is the plot of the film, so we can accept it. But the idea that the man had on his schedule to meet the princess anyway and does so at the very end, is then too much in terms of realism. I admit, however, that it was a bit funny when he was talking about meeting the princess in her presence. Then there is this long sequence on the boat which results in some fighting again and slapstick and a pretty hilarious photograph. Maybe the funniest side of the entire film, but the scene itself I was also not big on overall and did not feel as funny to me as they wanted it to be. In a way, I also felt that there might be some conflict between the two love birds when she realizes that he knew all along who she was and that he was just staying with her, at least initially, to get a great story. But she finds out when she was back serving her country again that he knew, so she could not get angry there really. And besides, she also did not tell him either who she was, so she cannot really be mad.
By the way, the opening with the shoe mishap was a bit funny and a nice depiction of how her role might not really suit her. The talk about accepting and not accepting certain presents was good too, even if nothing of all that was really superb and could not make up for the weaknesses the film had or could not make up for not having any memorable scenes and moments whatsoever. I am baffled by this film's success really. I hardly see any appeal. Also did not find Peck's character too likable, but that might just be me. And of course that the film really did come short in showing us how mesmerizing Rome is as I stated earlier, but this is also because the vast majority of scenes are inside houses. With a title like this, I would have expected more. One exception may be the moment in which we see this strange creature bound to eat hands or it is not a creature, not sure what to call it, a sculpture or wall ornament, but this resulted in some comedy too there with Peck's character pretending and I guess overall, there were still more fine comedy moments for me than dramatic moments. With the latter, I only remember the princess' breakdown early on and for comedy it was also funny to see the landlord watch the two main characters as Peck's character gives the princess all this money despite being a fairly poor guy. I guess the suit is still inevitable if you live in the Italian capital. But yeah, overall, it was just not enough for a positive recommendation. The ending with Peck in the spotlight leaving the church or what it was felt also a bit strange. I guess the camera was on him there because he was already a star before the film in contrast to Hepburn. It was almost like a seeing him on a catwalk. So I give the movie a thumbs-down and the awards recognition may be a bit too much too. They really loved Hepburn here, maybe also the name, and the trend of people winning Oscars when they lose a lot of hair, especially women, has gone on until deep into the 21st century as we have seen with Anne Hathaway in "Les Misérables".
My Fair Lady (1964)
Take the girl out of the ghetto
"My Fair Lady" is an American English-language movie from the year 1964, so this one has its 60th anniversary this year and I got to watch it on the occasion of an Audrey Hepburn retrospective yesterday, but before I get to the cast, let's look at some of the basics first: This film is in color and it comes relatively close to the three-hour mark even, so a very long film. The defining genre is probably musical as it is still seen as an all-time classic in this department, but there is a lot more like romance and a little bit of comedy here and there too. The director was George Cukor, in his 60s already at that point, and this is the film that finally won him the Oscar. It also triumphed for Best Picture back then and won a total of eight Oscars and scored four more Oscar nominations. One of the quartet of categories where the movie did not win was the screenplay. Alan Jay Lerner had already won three Academy Awards at that point though, so he probably got over it. Two of those were for screenplay and one was for song and that shows how closely connected to music this film is. The base material was by George Bernard Shaw, an Oscar winner 25 years earlier around the epoque when World War II started, but he was not alive anymore in the mid-1960s to witness the huge success for this movie we got here. I mentioned Hepburn, who was also an Oscar winner already when this came out, but she was almost the only one who came short because she was not nominated for another trophy here, but scored some nominations at other ceremonies at least. She still plays the title character, even if it is a shared lead between her and Rex Harrison. He was cast here for sure because he already played the character on Broadway I think, with great success, so it was not a huge surprise that he almost swept the awards season and won the only Oscar of his long career here too.
You still cannot really say that anybody from the cast except Hepburn is too famous today anymore except to film buffs. She is the huge icon. Interestingly enough, she was way over the age of 30 here already, but her character is described to be in her early 20s on one occasion, namely when one character has to guess her age while talking to the police because she went missing. Stanley Holloway scored an Oscar nomination for playing the female protagonist's father, the only Oscar nomination of his career, and Gladys Cooper got her third and final Oscar nomination here for playing the male protagonist's mother. Both were already in their 70s here. It is probably also the most known film for both of them, even if I struggle a bit with Cooper's nomination. It probably only happened because of the movie's popularity as I did not think her role was that memorable or had too much to offer other than siding a bit with the female protagonist over her son. Her scenes at the horse race track were also nothing too special. With two nominations from 20 years earlier, she was of course already a renowned actress in the industry. As for Holloway, I am happy he got in and even would have liked him winning. Two of his songs were among the finest the film had to offer and I also liked the comedy in the scene in which he meets Harrison's character for the first time, maybe the funniest from the entire movie, and I also liked the moment when they talk about him (not) having married Hepburn's character's mother. Or how he only wants a certain amount of money and not more. Another character I must mention is Wilfrid Hyde-White's Colonel Pickering and he was sadly not nominated for the Oscar here despite really a lot of screen time as he was basically around all the time during the scenes between the two main characters.
And Jeremy Brett deserves a mention for being maybe the most talented singer the cast had to offer. What a voice! He plays the other(?) love interest to Hepburn's character. The potential question mark next to other means that you can never really be sure if Harrison's Henry Higgins is interested in her (or she in him). They definitely did not make it too obvious if this is really a romance movie. If we are honest, there is more humiliation here from his side towards hers than there is affection whatsoever, but I guess playing hard to get was already a vital aspect back in the 1960s. In movies and real life. I still must say I found it hard to really cheer for the two getting together. Maybe this is also why it was not a great movie for me, just a good one, but this was never in doubt. Theodore Bikel I must also mention from the cast, even if his character is almost more talked-about than seen really, but as a Columbo fan I cannot leave him out. How Higgins despised him made him even more likable to me. The really famous character name here, however, comes with the most famous actress and everybody has heard the name of Eliza Doolittle for sure, even younger generations. Maybe they cannot say immediately which film she is from, but it has a familiar ring to it without a doubt even after all these years or rather decades. Somehow I made the connection with Kleinmachnow there and the potential lion, but yeah, just a random information snippet my fellow Germans will maybe understand. I am generally not one who is a female rights or equality warrior when it comes to movies, but here the difference between men and women in society back then is depicted convincingly. I mean Higgins also suffers a bit towards the end when he assumes Eliza is gone, but if you look at all the words he uses to describe her, even in her presence, then it may feel very wrong that she is still there to return to him in the end and not stay with the guy who dearly loves her apparently, but she does not love him. The slipper comment before the closing credits roll in was also complete machoism again. He will probably never change. I did not find it too funny.
Maybe one of the funniest moments was early on when we see her come to his apartment it was I think and he is busy in the other room with these phonetics experiments and we hear some strange sounds coming out of the room (or rather an open door) and I had to smile there or laugh a bit even. Just like maybe five more times during the film. Not super much for such a long movie, but I don't want to be too harsh here, especially with the music. Usually requires me to listen to songs at least a second time or more often to really start appreciating them and there were numbers in here (like those performed by the aforementioned Holloway) that still stayed in my ear. I think my favorites are "With a Little Bit of Luck", "I Could Have Danced All Night" and "Get Me to the Church on Time". I also liked the main theme or I am not sure if it is the right term to call it, but I am referring to the instrumental music played during the entr'acte. We don't have entr'actes these days anymore, also not in long movies. Would actually be a nice inclusion again from the retro perspective for a new modern musical. Anyway, one thing I have to criticize about this film is that, despite its length, there were inclusions that felt rushed and did not make a lot of sense to me. Like how she suddenly improved and managed to speak properly symbolized through this complicated sentence about Spain came a bit out of nowhere. I mean at least it made sense then that a lot went wrong at the horse race. Or also the fact that apparently she had pretty massive feelings for Harrison's character and nothing of the kind whatsoever was implied there. You can dig deep and say that the fact that she stayed at his place though despite being so unhappy with the strenuous speech training could have implied it, but well, they were really not obvious. What I liked was the recurring noise by Hepburn or rather her character when she was not happy with something. I also liked the opening scene where we meet the crucial characters already and it was interesting how Harrison's character was able to identify where people come from exactly, even if it was maybe a bit exaggerated and not super realistic, but it showed us how much of an expert in his field he was.
Overall, the film's strengths and good moments certainly outweigh the weaker parts, even if some of those, like the two I mentioned, were closely connected to the key plot, which does hurt the film. It is also always a good aspect if a film with a running time of easily over 150 minutes does not drag too much. For all I care it could have gone on for another 30 minutes and I probably would not have been bored. The two leads and Holloway plus Hyde-White entertained me well enough. The biggest comedy drama scene was perhaps the bathing moment with all the steam still relatively early in the movie. People today may see it more critically, even if there were only women in the room. The biggest actual drama scene was then Hepburn's character's collapse shortly before she leaves the house when she tears up and this is of course linked to her just being seen as an experiment and not a human being. It was an emotional moment for sure, but I would still say that with some better elaborations early on, it could have been a more touching experience. In addition, I must say that I not only would have needed an ending where the two get together, as it is implied, but maybe where she gets back to her roots and realizes where she really belongs. But of course, it is pompous Hollywood, so the ending does not surprise. The talk to her dad in that scene and his unhappiness with being rich because it resulted in him being there more for others than himself was also among the more memorable inclusions. From a comedy perspective, I also would have liked Higgins to kinda unintentionally copy Doolittle's speaking. It did not happen, but he was still not acting in a perfect manner again on a few occasions, like one really loud laughter. What we have here is a good film, inferior to the similarly-themed "The King's Speech", but worth seeing. I give it a thumbs-up.
Before Sunset (2004)
Managed the impossible, even better than the brilliant first
Okay, here we have "Before Sunset" and this is of course the sequel to "Before Sunrise", the film from 1995 that launched the franchise focusing on the romantic encounters between Jesse (James) and Céline played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy and directed and written of course by Richard Linklater. The two lead actors I just mentioned collaborated on the script here with Linklater and it was such a fruitful reunion that it brought all three of them an Oscar nomination in the screenplay category. I am pretty happy about that and I even wish they could have won because, as you can see from my rating, I really adored this movie. I hope I can illustrate what I liked so much about it. It is now pretty much the 30th anniversary in the year 2024 of the day that the two lovebirds in their early/mid-20s met in a train to/in Vienna for the first time and explored the city. This is why the film from 1995 as well as this sequel here were shown again on the big screen last night and no way I would miss out on this opportunity, even if I might have enjoyed it even more if the films had been in the original and not in the German dub. The translators and voice actors did a pretty good job though with the entire franchise. I guess you can call it that as by now it is a trilogy, but the third film is already 11 years old now in 2024, so it is high time they give us a fourth movie.
This second film is probably my favorite from the ones that exist now. Why I would say that the first is close to perfection, this one here nails perfection pretty much. It is 20 minutes shorter than the movie about how it all started, so it runs for only 80 minutes and this already includes credits, so not a long watch by any means. It flew by just like the first film did. The first film was set in Vienna, here we are in Paris, another beautiful European capital. Jesse and Céline are ten years older now and a lot has happened. Jesse is a successful writer, married and also has a son. Céline lives in the capital of France now where she works for an organization dealing with environmental issues. She even lived in New York for a while and Jesse moved there too, but the two did not know about each other maybe just living around the corner. There is a reference about a moment back in New York when he may have seen her even. However, this was just a theoretical encounter, even if it feels bittersweet how they were so close to one another, yet so far. What was far from theoretical was the meeting in Vienna and we are taken back to this with some shots from the first film early on. I liked it. Of course, if you just watched the first film, it is double pretty much, but if you haven't, then it makes total sense and the first film is sweet enough anyway to appreciate some of the key moments again in this flashback. The saddest part for me here is really when the two talk about the planned meeting in Vienna half a year after the original events and how he first denies it, but then admits he did come again to see Céline and he was sad and heartbroken that she was not there. The moment she realizes that he was actually will probably always get my eyes a little wet. And I have to be harsh on Céline there. I mean I understand it was her grandmother's funeral and she really adored her grandmother, but couldn't they have held the funeral another day? Or even if not, then I would have thought her to travel to Vienna nonetheless after how intimate they were in the first film. But okay, after six months memories do fade a little bit and maybe she also thought how sad it would be if she skips the funeral, travels to Vienna and he is not there then. This is almost the only criticism I have with Céline here though from the entire film. Maybe her not admitting early on that they had sex in Austria was also a bit on the odd side, but okay, if that is what women do, then so be it.
But it was not just that this revelation that Jesse was there and he was alone that was one of the good moments from the beginning. I also liked the interaction with the people coming to the book event there, how Jesse eventually admits that it was based on real events and that he met a young French woman on the train. Or also how he reads his audience and what they think about a certain scenario, one who is optimistic, the other pessimistic and the third just wants something to happen, but has still doubts. But even if this was good, none of it came close to the moment when Jesse spots Céline in the room right before he is about to leave. Or the revelation about her not being there six months later and him being there. The latter was probably one of the three most touching moments from the entire film. The other two belong mostly to Céline as well. There I am talking about her words how she sees small thinks in people that she misses much more than she should. She makes the connection there to some red hairs in Jesse's beard, but it was more the overall statement there than the mere connection between the two that really had me in awe. Wonderfully written and also delivered by Delpy. The third and final really great part was then her breakdown in the car, which was maybe the dramatic and emotional highlight from the entire film. Luckily, he gets her not to leave the car. Seeing the conflicted driver there was almost a bit on the funny side, even if it was probably not meant that way. She calms down though and realizes immediately afterwards that Jesse's life is even more in shambles. This was sad to and made sense and fit in terms of the tone. Of course, his revelation would not be as fiery as hers, but it was almost equally sad, even if overall probably Delpy had the best moments and baitiest material from the film.
Despite all these more dramatic moments, we also get some comic relief from time to time again, maybe even more than in the first film. These lighter moments usually belong to Hawke's character. Take his comment about her sexual fantasies or him mocking her playfully about being a communist. There are so many quotes in here that deserve to be included in my review to be honest because it is all so well-written. One that stayed in the mind for me too as a good example that was neither comedy or drama though, but just small err.. big talk between the two was when they talk about buddhism it was I think and if it applies to him, but he rejects it and says he just does not like labels. I hope you know what I mean if you watched the film because I am not 100% sure about the exact words used there, but it was approximately this. Just another example of how well-rounded and smart the writing here was. The ending then is another great highlight. I am not yet at the end of my review, but I will have to mention that for sure before I forget. We did not get quiet daytime shots without the two from the defining locations as we did in the first film, but we have Céline sing her song to Jesse and he realizes it is about him. His name is even included and you could understand what it means to him, even if he is joking again about her including the name of every guest there in the lyrics. A bit of a parallel maybe to the first film and the poem dude and we don't know if he just changed one word or line or really wrote a poem for them. But this song performance from Delpy was of course very revealing about her feelings and then the two last lines that include her saying once more that he will miss his flight and him finally coming to terms that there is no need to say anymore that enough time is left the way he did throughout almost the entire film and instead he just says "I know" was really as good as the film could have ended. We know now that he is exactly where he belongs and seems as if he is not leaving anytime soon. I loved it so much. I also liked the inclusion of the cat towards the end there. The first film had a bunny, this one has a feline.
So yeah, you see I am just going for some brainstorming now as the end of the review moves closer. The scenes on the water were also so cool of course, it seemed as if the world was standing still for the two. My favorite was probably the shot of the Notre Dame when they were looking at it or rather the shots as it was not just one thank God. This also comes down to personal preference because I really wanna visit it once it reopens again after the big fire, which should actually be pretty soon. Maybe this is not a special scene to you the way it was for me, but I am sure everybody will find something they really like in this movie depending on their very own perspective. The weaker moments are still mediocre or even good and not forgettable at all only because they do not reach the same greatness the film achieves in its absolute top-notch moments. I am also pretty sure that the protagonists' dramatic elaboration about feeling lonely in relationships, but also outside of relationships, in a way resonates with everybody because I am convinced that there's probably no people out there, or almost none, that have never felt this way before. Once again the trio's brilliant writing and the duo's brilliant acting makes it work oh so well. I said about "Before Sunrise" already that it is a contender for my number-one favorite romance movie and I stand with that. I would say this film here is even better, maybe not as much of a pure romance movie, but let's call it a contender for best romance drama I have ever seen. Hawke's repeated mentions of how it all would come different if she had been there in Vienna that day in December also felt really heartbreaking to me. I literally see him there alone in the cold of Austria. So there were surely some sad moments here. This part from the beginning is the biggest for me. The talk about being young and naïve for not exchanging phone numbers makes total sense too. Okay, this is all. You must see this film, but even without my dedicated recommendation, I am sure you wanna do so yourself after watching the first,
Before Sunrise (1995)
The art of big talk
"Before Sunrise" is an American live action film from 1995, so this one will have its 30th anniversary next year, but it takes place in mid-June 1994, so this is one reason why one of my favorite movie theaters showed it last night again because it is the 30th anniversary of the movie and we know of course that as of 2024 two sequels came out and there seems to be a decent chance for at least one more as these happen to come every (almost) ten years. We are already beyond this mark for film number four. We will see. Today, we are gonna talk about this one though. The director of this movie as well as the other two is Richard Linklater and he is also one of the two writers. It is debatable if this film here was an early movie from him or a really early movie because what he worked on before that includes content that really not many have seen. In some of those, Linklater even acted in front of the camera. His big breakthrough surely came through "Dazed and Confused", two years before "Before Sunrise". Kim Krizan acted in that one and she and Linklater collaborated on the script here and became Oscar nominees for the (first) sequel in the new millennium. The familiar faces, however, are the cast here, the two leads: Ethan Hawke has four Oscar nominations now, three of which came for Linklater projects and for Julie Delpy it was two of two. This franchise here is a serious contender for their most known work, maybe even the undisputed champion. The idea is so simple: We have a man and woman who meet in a train and decide to explore the city of Vienna together for a night. The film ends when they are apart and each goes their own way again. I always like it if the element of coincidence plays a big role in movies and this is surely the case here if you look at how the female protagonist has had it with a couple arguing and fighting and moves to another seat in the train, the seat right next to the male protagonist. Deep into the movie, there is a reference to how she chose the seat and it was maybe coincidence that she was looking for another, but not where she was sitting exactly. Another thing there that caught my attention was that you never see the two in one shot really until they leave the train, but always just one of them. They are not together at this point. They are when they step outside, even if the female later on says that she knew she was ready to sleep with the man and she was right away ready to go out with him almost when she saw him.
The scenes in the train were maybe also when the writing for Hawke's character was at its best. How he remembers his great-grandmother it was I think and how he saw he spirit after her departure was pretty touching. No surprise that Delpy's character later on lists it as the moment when she already fell for him. And even if she plays hard to get before leaving the train, I also want to mention those words Hawke's character uses there to convince her, namely about a person/woman thinking back in life later on about the men (s)he could have had instead what she really got and that it would be important to know what they were like, not only in the sense of potential regret, but also in the sense of knowing this one was definitely not the right person for her. It is very obvious there already that Jesse (Hawke) is romantically interested in Céline. The occasional banter was nice as well. I could mention so many examples there, but one that stayed in the mind for me is her joking or stating that she knew right away he was American. So then the journey outside continues. It was maybe the funniest moment from the entire film for me when the two run into these actors who tell them they should come to their stage play later that night. The cow inclusions there were just hilarious and just the situation as a whole. Later on, we are reminded that they never went to see the play. Linklater had definitely not run out of ideas what else he could include, but 100 minutes seems like the perfect duration here and boy did they fly by. May have been the fastest 100 minutes in my life, especially movie-wise. I even thought the film was shorter. It was not the first time I watched it.
So yeah, you can wonder what happened to these actors, you can wonder what happened to the arguing couple from the beginning, you can wonder what happened to the palm reader or to the man writing poems from the bank of the Danube. Or to the woman with her fertility dance. The one I wanna mention is the poem writer here. I really liked what he did to, almost as much as Céline. It never eve came to my mind that he may have had a poem prepared and just included the word they give him. That's how much I wanted it to be true I guess. Those are just some people the film gave us in supporting roles that included a single scene. The locations are just as memorable, no matter if we are talking about the cabin in which the two are listening to a piece of music and so close to kissing already or if we are looking at the gondola where it eventually happens. But there's also locations that stand in the focus for other stuff than romance. The cemetery was really memorable to me with what Céline had to say there about the grave of a girl that she first came across when she was just the same age like the girl and it meant something to her. I must say with this background I am almost a bit surprised that she had no plans to get out of the train herself, without anybody asking her to and visit this special place. Another scene between the two that is definitely among my favorites was the phone conversation scene in which the duo was at a club sitting at a table and they simulated what it would sound like if they now call their best friends and what they would tell them about the special encounter they had this very day that included stuff they would not say directly to each other yet maybe at this point, but playfully through some role-playing they did say to one another. That was just really awesome to watch, funny, sweet, entertaining at the same time. One of the best scenes from the film.
But it was not just full scenes that stayed memorable, but here and there also quotes that included one or two sentences and felt pretty existential already, like the question about sharing your life with nothing but the dedication for whatever subject you have versus sharing your life with another person that may in a way collide with your dedication, but of course bring other advantages. There is no definite conclusion there, everybody needs to find their own path. I just liked when the conversations between the two lovebirds became a bit philosophical too. It was never so in-depth that you felt excluded as a viewer who did not have a lot to do with philosophy. Of course, not every single line can be a winner here, but it comes down to individual taste what you will care less for from this movie. For me personally it was the talk about their ex-partners, also the woman I think I was for whom Hawke's character was initially in Europe. A woman from Spain I think. And still those parts were not bad at all, just not totally on par with all the greatness the film offered during its finest moments. The sex scene, or where it is implied, also did not feel too crucial to me. We don't even know if they actually slept with each other before the sequel. Towards the end then, there is a lot of talk about how their encounter is supposed to stay a one-time thing or not. I must say it felt a bit strange to me there, her saying she was scared that he would not want to see her again when it could not have been any more obvious and him not saying right away multiple times that he wants to see her again. But it happens towards the end, so it is a bit of a happy ending then when they decide to pick a day exactly six months later where they will meet each other again at the exact same place. Will they, though? You need to watch the sequel to find out how the story of Jesse (James) and Céline continues. Of course, it is out of the picture that they will never see each other again. But I assure you you will wanna watch the sequel anyway when this one here ends. It was nice they showed both films one after the other last night. So many awesome moments here. I am struggling to really call it a comedy, but when the film wanted to be funny, it succeeded effortlessly. Take the moment when the protagonist parodies the two priests or whatever they were passing by.
The ending is a true highlight here too. We see the two on their own again, but what happened before that is something nobody can ever take away from them. Céline's smile said it all. But this was not the very end. The final shots included all the places they visited and we visit them too again while the protagonists were thinking back about those. The cemetery is included too. I mean first date at a cemetery, probably a no-go for many, but this film shows that if you find the right connection, it is not important where you are. It will always feel right. The end of my review is near. I could not recommend this film more. Maybe I would "only" give 4 stars out of 5 on rewatch, but I remember that I gave a perfect rating of 5 out of 5 when I watched it the first time and I am not gonna change it. This film is a thing of utter beauty. Inspiring and thought-provoking from beginning to end. Of course, for me as a straight male, it also helps that the young Julie Delpy is totally mesmerizing. Who could resist her? She was in her mid-20s I think when this got made. Hawke was even a year younger and their characters were another two or three years younger. I could list another dozen quotes that made the film oh so memorable like her comments about the way he kisses, but the character limit is getting closer, so I will leave it at that. As a German speaker, I also really like the major Austrian impact here and as a film lover, this is one of my favorite romance movies of all time. Total must-see.
Au hasard Balthazar (1966)
A donkey for all seasons
"Au hasard Balthazar" is a co-production between Sweden and France from 1966, so this film is almost 60 years old now, maybe older if you get here a little later to read this review of mine and France is definitely the defining country here because this is where the film is set and also people are speaking French from beginning to end. Apparently, a little Latin is included as well. Given the mid1960s, it is not really a surprise that this film is still black-and-white, but does have sound. They were also going with the French title here for releases in the English-speaking territories, so this says it all. The writer and director was Robert Bresson, who was already around the age of 65 when this came out, so minimally younger when it was filmed and this is a contender for his most known work, if it is not even a given that this is by far his most known work. He worked on a double-digit number of films over his career that started already in the 1930s, but it was not a high double-digit amount. He was not the most prolific filmmaker in contrast to other French greats from his time. This movie we have here, which runs for over 1.5 hours, but under 100 minutes won really big at Venice back then and also scored solidly with the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics and a few more bodies here and there. It is far from forgotten now as we are deep in the 21st century and it is self-explanatory that this film is for example also still shown in Germany on the big screen. This was where I saw it two days ago and there were many people in this actually really big room where it was shown. I am glad about that because I really love donkeys and they are a bit underrepresented in movies I would say, even if there was a successful Polish film from not too long ago that had a bit of a similar background with a donkey being at the center of the story and as we follow the grey animal, we find out about the people next to him.
It is not too different with this movie here. The donkey is the star and so is the story. You will not find any really famous names in the cast here, for pretty much every cast member this film here is also easily their most known. The majority of performers is French, but there are two exceptions. First would be one of the female protagonist's love interests portrayed by Walter Green. I would at least imagine he is not French with the name. What stands out about him, probably even more than his performance here, is that he realized one career credit in the movie industry is enough for him and he went on to work as a dentist afterwards. And of course that he is indeed the father of actress Eva Green, who appreciated acting more than her dad. Green plays the good guy here, who seems genuinely in love with the character of Marie, who, however, is drawn to the dark side portrayed by François Lafarge. The latter acted in more films than Green, but also did not come close to lead actress Anne Wiazemsky, who was so young here and kept acting until the late 1980s and then lift on for another 30 years before passing at the not really old age of 70. She was born in my city Berlin, even if I would have thought her to be Polish given the name. But I see her birth name even different, sounded very Russian. It is also interesting that she was married to Godard for over a decade in the 1970s. You cannot blame him. She is absolutely breathtakingly stunning in this film here, when during shooting she was maybe 18 or 19 only. This movie here was apparently her film debut and the screen time she has showed that she would not be going away anytime soon.
There is also no other lead in this film except the donkey perhaps. With my appreciation for this animal, it is also tough to choose if I liked him more or if I preferred Wiazemsky. Maybe a shared victory. The two also have a lot in common here. Both are basically suffering throughout the movie. The donkey is never really treated like a beloved creature by anybody here, but only used as an animal to perform duties and if he is not fast or strong enough, he is beaten. He can never really get out of his role, even if there are maybe two occasions where people at least talk kindly about him. With the girl, it is not much different. She also cannot really get out of her role as all the men that see and approach her desire her, but do not really treat her well either. Or actually, the character played by the aforementioned Green does, so in a way she is more to blame than the donkey because she is really held back by her feelings and hormones because of her attraction to the young brute who does not treat her well at all. Who hits her, takes her sexually whenever he wants to and also is not scared of showing her that he likes other women too and is in touch with those. He is definitely considered the main antagonist. The moment when he literally sets the donkey on fire was one of those the hardest to take and maybe it is a case of foreshadowing about what is going to happen to the girl in the end if she stays too long in the young man's proximity. The one thing he maybe isn't is a murderer. Apparently, a character got killed, not one we really know about, and we are presented a suspect. The police then also come to the suspect's place, but tell him that he is free and he will not go to court or jail. So, there we have an example of how justice did not win and it is definitely not a film where beauty defeats the beast, but rather the opposite where the beast devours beauty and leads to its demise, even if we are not told explicitly that the young woman is dead in the end or how she died, but we hear the words that she is gone and won't return and it seems unlikely that she was just sent to live in another city.
What we do know is that donkey dies in the end. It feels almost biblical how he is surrounded there by all those sheep that initially take a bit away from this being a sad moment. There were people laughing in the crowd when the donkey was surrounded by the sheep here. This also shows us that the donkey is of course the key player here. The film starts with his birth, his very young and also very furry days and ends then with him leaving this Earth. Of course, he is also included in the title, so there is no doubt that he is the big player in here, even if he disappears for quite some time in the second half of the movie. It is not a very long film, but there were scenes that did not really do a lot for me. They were also not so bad that I would say they should have been omitted, but they just did not add super much. This includes all about the murderer. The scene when he is confronted by the brutes is one that felt a bit strange to me because he initially seems to be so eager to physically defend himself, but then when it counts, does nothing. The celebration of his "innocence" was also not too great. What was more interesting, was when the young brute leader gives the man a gun to defend himself against the arriving police (officer) and the boy knew that there were no bullets in the barrel, so probably he was planning for the man to be killed by the police officer because he now knew the man would not be getting to jail, even if he tells the alleged killer something different. So there was certainly some scheming going on. Maybe this young man there was a bit of a French equivalent to James Dean, who was already dead at that point for (almost) a decade, but still already a defining icon of (American) film culture. You will not find too much harmony in this movie. One example was the opening when the donkey is still a furry baby and later on there was a scene in which the female protagonist petted the donkey and put some flowers on his head. That was cute. Maybe she realized that the two were not so different after all.
As for other positive emotions, I thought that the funniest moment was maybe how the donkey was looking at the circus animals, something he had never seen before and probably also the other way around. Interesting nature encounter, even if the cages made it a bit sad. Admittedly, they also saved the donkey's life. When the film begins, you will also hear donkey noise. I interpreted it as an expression of discomfort. I may be wrong there too. So yeah, there were some scenes in this film I really liked and others that did not do a lot for me like for example also towards the end when the girl is with this considerably older man and does not really have any other option than to sleep with him there. It is implied. After all, it was the 1960s and they did not get too graphic. But it also would not have fit into the film's narrative. Another thing that caught my attention was how on at least two occasions cars drove by to interrupt the young bad guy's actions, so there was a glimmer of hope for us in the audience that somebody could get out and do something, but it was not meant to be and the boy literally looked at the car driving away and immediately afterwards he continued with his awful actions. What stays in the end, is also those words from the old lady directed at the young female protagonist when the latter tells her about her affections for the brute and she just responds by calling her a "poor, poor girl" or something like that. I do not have the exact words and it may have been something different in the French script anyway as I was watching with English subtitles. But it really underlines the overall tone in this movie. There are no winners really and those who come closest are certainly not the good guys, but the violent ones. It feels realistic though and that is what matters most and does not take away any quality from the outcome here. So I give this film a thumbs-up overall, which was never in doubt, even if I wanted to like the film even a little bit more than I finally did, but who knows, maybe I can change it to an even higher rating if I ever rewatch. You should watch it too, just don't expect a feel-good movie. It is the polar opposite.
The Fox and the Hound (1981)
Fantastic Mr. Tod
"The Fox and the Hound" is an American cartoon movie from 1981, so it is almost 45 years old now or maybe even older depending on when you get here to read this review of mine. At slightly over 80 minutes, it is not a long film by any means, but Disney movies back then were always around that duration. You find three writers and three directors, including one person that worked in both fields, so a total of five people in the most important positions, which is definitely a lot for a relatively short film. One of those is Daniel P. Mannix who wrote the book that the film is based on. Anyway, the four people I saw the birthdates from were all already fairly old when they made this movie, in their 60s or even 70s. This includes Mannix, Berman, Stevens and Clemmons. I cannot find a date for Richard Rich. Nice name though. Most of them worked on some of the older Disney classics as well and their experience really shows. I adored the watch here. Or rewatch I should say because it was not the first time I watched this film, but the last/previous time happened a long time ago, so I was glad to give this another go here on the occasion of a Disney retrospective where literally every cartoon/animated full feature from the company was shown again. A bit of a pity there were not even ten people in my sitting and it was one of only two screenings for this movie. I am kinda proud that the only awards win (according to imdb) came from my country, namely the Golden Screen or Goldene Leinwand that was given to films that manage to surpass a really high amount of people who come and see the film. If you have come across this film as a young human, then there is probably no way you will not appreciate it as an adult either. I also found it kinda funny that one person working on the music for the movie here was named Sheets.
So yeah, the version I watched was in English with German subtitles and maybe this is a reason why they were not more parents with children in the audience yesterday. I liked it that way though and this also has to do with the original voice cast. The two big names are the ones that give their voices to the title characters and that would be Mickey Rooney and Kurt Russell. The former is not with us anymore for a decade now, but at the age of 60 he was also older already than you would have thought when he gave the fox his voice. He would be over 100 now. Kurt Russell, who voiced the hound, was only 30 and he is still here and hopefully will be for many years. Other than those two, you will also for example find the original voice of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. It all stays in the Disney family I guess. There is one interesting thing to say about the title because the German title is "Cap & Capper", which are the names of the two characters and this change surely has to do with the fact that the fox is called Tod (with one d) in the original and this is the German word for "death". Unlucky coincidence. So they went with a little play on words to make the two have almost the same name, which can be a bit confusing when watching an original-language version with subtitles, but you get used to it. I guess they did not go with Cop and Copper because of "cop" being the word for a police officer? I am not sure how familiar German audiences were with this in the early 1980s, but overall they surely did the right thing if you look at the aforementioned commercial success this film had in my country. By the way, they also changed Vixey to Trixi or so, but I have no explanation for that other than Trixi just being a more common name in German(y), even if it takes away the vixen-fox connection. Oh and I almost forgot: Corey Feldman is also part of this film as he lends his voice to the very young Copper.
The animal characters were all pretty memorable and not only the two main characters. Take the smart owl who is a bit of a mentor to Tod and not only comes up with a plan on how the baby fox finds a new mother, but also makes sure he stays with his fox girlfriend in the end after they have an argument. There are two other birds that are constantly chasing a caterpillar and those are in it for the comedy exclusively and to help the owl of course. I hope nobody will ever deem the owl a racist depiction or anything. Political correctness is getting too much in the way of creativity already with all kinds of other films and I hope this one never gets touched. Okay, I will just go on about the story now and some inclusions and do some brainstorming: The bear was oh so scary towards the end, but this fight there and Tod interfering to save Copper's life was a true highlight, even if the real emotional highlight then was the hunter pulling his gun and Copper getting in the way to protect his friend. It is one scene where the animals do not talk, but they do not have to in order to create the biggest emotional impact. You will not not sob. At the very start, the death of the fox's mother was also pretty sad, even if we do not see what happens, only hear. Luckily the owl was nearby to witness it all. I also really liked the other dog, Chief was his name, and even if he is a loyal fox hunter, he is not an antagonist I would say. He just does what he is trained to do. Just like Copper basically. I was worried that Chief died there in one scene, but I guess they let him live because they would not want Tod to be responsible for the death of another (animal) character. I was surely relieved though when Copper said that Tod "almost killed Chief". In a way, this injured Chief even brought some comedy then and you totally had to hate his owner when he says something along the lines of how he would break the canine's other leg too, but yeah the man gets his fair share at the end too and Chief reflecting and making a (for us) funny connection between his suffering from earlier and his owner's current injury was totally worth it.
Speaking of the two protagonists again, they were surely right when telling each other how much they had grown when the hound returns after his hunting training. All those furs there were pretty sad though. There may have been foxes included too. By the way, if we ignore the face for a second, the hound really reminded me of Pluto in terms of color and anatomy. Oh and if we look at the minor characters again, there is also an interesting depiction of a badger. He was not seen a lot, but still made a bit of an entertaining impact for me in the last third of the film. It is difficult for me to find flaws with this movie, not only because of the youth connection as I remember that I had a sticker album back then, but also because there aren't really (m)any. Maybe the strong ending makes you forget that here and there the film was a bit mediocre early on and probably really should not have run for over 1.5 hours, but it is all good. The change happening in the main antagonist's mind in terms of eventually letting the fox live was also debatable. I mean he entered a safety zone for animals where he was not allowed to shoot anything, in order to kill the fox instead of simply forgetting about him, but yeah. His life was at risk there because of the bear and his hound's life too, so probably the man was not 100% mean-spirited. Same can be said about the pretty much final shot then when he is even bonding a bit with the fox owner, something you never would have expected earlier with how the two were going against each other or especially how the man is attacking the woman and almost shooting her dead on one occasion, even if she was not the target. But for every slightly sub-par inclusion, there are three or four that are really nice. The music is good too, also the threatening music when we are shown the deadly fox trap for example, but also the harmless music on many other occasions.
I also really liked how they jumped from autumn to spring or so when the hound was absent with his owner and returns a big dog and the fox has grown too obviously. There they just showed us the changing seasons for a moment. During other segments, the hound is also absent, but there the reason is that the story focus is on the fox and the big example there is of course when the fox meets another fox, a female. I kinda would have thought that maybe at the end we see young foxes even, but with the last shot the film is giving a happy ending, but not going too much over the top. That would be for the sequel. We also do not see the two reunited again and playing like fox and hound, which you could have expected. Instead, you hear a voiceover from the two back when they were kids still and just had all the joy in the world together. It was probably better and more effective this way even. Such a touching movie. The moment when the hound has to leave the fun in the water with his new friend was cute, really nice depiction of how you as a child do not want to go home again, even if it is late and you wanna keep playing with your friends. The first meeting between the two was also great when the hound could smell the fox, but did not realize right away it was him. Before the end of my review, let me mention just a couple moments when the film felt sad. This included the scene in which the dog was all tied up and could not leave to play with the fox when they were still kids and there's two occasions when the fox is pretty sad too: First would be when the hound, now a grown-up, tells him things have changed and they cannot be friends anymore and second would be when the widow leaves him behind to protect him from the hunter. That was a touching moment too. I also really, really liked the words from the widow in the car there. Anybody who thinks that they are too old for Disney classics, I dare them to watch this one. If they really feel nothing here, I feel bad for them. Big thumbs-up and I highly recommend "The Fox and the Hound". It's a wonderful film and just gets better and better the longer it goes. Beautiful imagery and so much heart!
Lend a Paw (1941)
Now give him the works
"Lend a Paw" is an American eight-minute cartoon from 1941, so this one is already over 80 years old now in 2024 or maybe even older if you get here a little later to read this review of mine. This is of course a Walt Disney production and you will hear Disney himself giving his voice to Mickey Mouse on a few occasions. This is also categorized as a Mickey cartoon which for me it is not really because Pluto is at the center of the plot here and Mickey is just a supporting player, only the third-important character in this film. The director was the prolific Clyde Geronimi, who was around or under the age of 40 here and this is of course a color cartoon. It won the Oscar in its category Best Short Subject, Cartoons back in 1942 when there were even ten nominees. This shows you how much the cartoon industry was booming and there Disney still had it under control, even if there were more than just a few nominees from other production companies. The Tom & Jerry glory hadn't started yet at that point apparently when this film took home the award in the year when World War II was half over. People surely appreciated something back then that made them smile or even laugh. I would say "smile" for this film here. It is not a triumph, but a fairly entertaining watch from beginning to end. You will also see aspects to Pluto that you have never come across, like the change of color when he manages to get rid of the cold within him. Then you also see him really angry on a few occasions. And you see and hear him talk, well not him precisely, but the two depictions of conscience inside him and they basically look like him, so I would say it counts.
What I found interesting was the reaction of the goldfish and how that one is really smart enough to say it was Pluto's fault because he made sure the cat would spot the fish. However, you can also say that Pluto may not have been the kindest creature in this film, but he is not the only one to blame. To let the little kitten drink out of Pluto's bowl was really not an appropriate move and every hound would have been made. We also realize that Pluto is not evil or anything when he shows his appreciation to one half of his conscience on one occasion, even if it was the evil half. That was one of the funniest moments. Another moment I really appreciated was right at the very end, namely how they got said end in there in an utterly creative fashion through a little rhyme coming from the kind side of Pluto's conscience. He tumbles there and closes the film and his statements with the words "the end" and because of the tumble, there is a gap that was obviously no coincidence from the writer(s) here. This statement there was about treating animals with kindness and I liked it of course and if Pluto can do so when it comes to cats that are really not his best friends, then surely we should be able to do the same. No matter what animal we are talking about. This appreciation of animals also comes through at the very beginning during the opening in fact when we see who these eight minutes are dedicated to.
Finally, I also do not only want to mention regular Pluto voice actor Pinto Colvig, whose first name is perfect for the character he voices, but also John Dehner and John McLeish. Both had long careers and Dehner's was especially prolific. Here the two voiced the two halves of Pluto's conscience and they both did a really fine job. It was McLeish's that had especially great recognition value. In a way I even felt that he could voice Mickey with some slight variation. Fitting that McLeish got the last spoken words from the film. His work here is one key reason why it was never in doubt for me to give this film a thumbs-up and positive recommendation. I thought I watched this cartoon in the past already, but now I am not even sure. Anyway, today I saw it at one of my favorite movie theaters as an opening short to "The Fox and the Hound". It may not have been on the level of the latter quality-wise, but it was still pretty fine and Pluto did not look entirely different compared to the hound in the full feature film. Several moments here I appreciated like the kitten's clumsiness, Pluto turning into an Indian (waiting for people to say this is offensive) or Dehner's "Now give him the works". The snowy landscape outside was fine too, even if it brings some unpleasant situations for the key characters. I would still say that the first two minutes outside in the snow were among the weakest the film had to offer, but afterwards it gets more interesting pretty quickly. So yeah, what else can I say? Go see it.
The Jungle Book (1967)
Welcome to the Jungle
"The Jungle Book" is an American animated movie from 1967, but back then the term "cartoon" was probably still more common for this kind of films. I watched this one 20 years ago for the first time, probably more, and now it was shown here once again on the big screen on the occasion of a Disney retrospective, so I thought it was surely a good choice to give it another go finally. It is almost 60 years old now, so it existed also already for almost 20 years when I was born. This recent watch also got me taking a deeper look into the project and I saw there was actually another Jungle Book film from 25 years earlier that was with actors and nominated for several Oscars in the visual categories if I remember correctly or at least in the technical categories. I am curious now how this turned out. And then there was of course the relatively recent take on the story that even won the Oscar for the film's visual effects and is maybe the one film from all these recent modern-style Disney remakes that received the biggest respect from audiences and critics alike. But today we want to talk about this one here that is surely the film that most people know when it comes to Kipling's famous story. I am a bit surprised that he was not credited as one of the writers here, especially as they had three writers and that is quite a lot for a film that is not based on an original story and also for a film that is not even 80 minutes long. These old Disney films were all not super long, especially compared to recent animated movies. Anyway, the names of the three writers are Clemmons, Wright and Anderson and they have been part of many Disney films and also this was far from their only collaboration, even if the names in addition to their first names will not sound totally familiar to most people, including those as well who love (old) Disney like myself. But this should not take away one bit from their great careers that still bring joy to people so many decades later.
The director was Wolfgang Reitherman, who was actually born in Munich, so in my country Germany, and what I just said about the three writers surely also applies to him, probably to an even bigger extent because I think that his name is more known still to people nowadays and he also included as part of an iconic group of Disney filmmakers. He was in his mid-late 50s when he made this movie here and the three writers were all almost the same age or rather minimally older in fact, so getting closer to 60 already. You could surely make an argument that here they were during their prime because there many who considered "The Jungle Book" one of Disney's finest achievements. Before I move on to the story, let me say a few words about the cast. I have to admit that, in contrast to the new movie, I cannot say too much about the actors here. The voice actor, because I don't really know them or don't know them at all. I see, however, that Bruce Reitherman, the son of the director was on board and also George Sanders was among the most known actors from his generation probably. Or at least more known. That is pretty much it. I am sure it is my loss and that there are a few others with really respectable careers and bodies of work. The main character and pretty much only lead here is Mowgli, even if from beginning to end it is always his supporting characters that made this a more interesting movie and Mowgli was there, but he was not really doing much, mostly just reacting to everything the animals did. So it is kinda fitting that the film ends the very moment when Mowgli leaves the jungle to stay with other humans.
There is a lot I remembered when rewatching this now from back when I saw the film the first time, even if it was so long ago. Characters like Bagheera, Kaa, Shere Khan, Baloo or Louie are impossible to forget. Same is true for the elephants of course. The moment when one gets his hair cut by the leader was hilarious. Pay attention to how Louie is voiced by an actor with the same name. The only bigger animal characters I kinda forgot were the wolves at the beginning and the vultures at the end. I thought it was nice that those were not depicted as antagonists either waiting for Mowgli to be killed to literally vulture over his remains. They are friends too and even supportive of the main character. This confrontation then at the end was inevitable and the moment when the tigers jumps the boy with a roar was perhaps the scariest of the entire film. I think as a kid I found Kaa even scarier. And it took me much longer to understand that Kaa is male, maybe because the article we use for the German translation of "snake" is female. Or because it is simply not easy to identify with snakes. I see the character was also voiced by a male. The one Oscar nomination this film scored was for a song and that one features Baloo heavily. It is a song that everybody in Germany knows really, but almost nobody here has listened to the English-language original, which has totally different lyrics. As for Baloo, there can be a lore more said about this cool character. It was already funny enough when we understand how he is seen as so incompetent by Bagheera, but the two become friends and partners in their quest to free Mowgli from the apes. This scene included also one of the funniest costumes from the entire film or the funniest in fact when we see Baloo dressed up as a big ape. The big bear is really strong by the way and I was wondering too if he could maybe protect Mowgli from the tiger and in a way it happens near the end when Baloo pulls the predator away from the boy. The consequence then is that Baloo himself gets in a fight with the tiger that may have ended the big bears life even. We are led to believe so for a little while. So Baloo also brought the maybe saddest moment from the film as well, even if it all goes well. But mostly he brought the comedy. This includes the music of course and with that I also mean the final shot of the movie when we see him and Bagheera united as friends again and walking away from the human village.
Before I get to the human village, let's go back briefly to the apes and Baloo: There he seemed truly on a mission to free Mowgli, but the apes' music was just too catchy for him to now swing along. I can see why. It was really some fine music and also would have deserved an Oscar nomination, if not the win, but yeah it is also a song that everybody still knows nowadays. As for the apes, they are maybe considered the third-biggest threat to Mowgli in this film, even if they never tried to do him any harm. I am still unsure why they were criticized so heavily for wanting to find out how fire is made. Perhaps because they would violently rule the jungle then? I am not sure. Maybe there the connection with humans comes into play. Towards the very end we then have Mowgli finally near the human village and all his resilience to go there is gone so fast when he sees a young attractive female human and he is under her spell immediately. Bagheera approves, Baloo not so much. But the mission is then completed when he follows her into her village. This scene was almost a bit too much honestly and how she was depicted it felt a bit as if she was some kind of siren luring people or, more specifically, men into their demise. But this was of course never the intention here, but really just all intended very playfully, also with the moment she drops something on purpose (indeed, Baloo!) to have Mowgli help and follow her.
So yeah, this is pretty much it then, the lengthy review of my recent viewing of Reitherman's "The Jungle Book". I personally would not say it is a really great film or one of my absolute Disney favorites, but a good film it is without a doubt and the positive recommendation was never in doubt. I also realized a few things about this film that I did not realize back then. Or did not remember anymore, like how pretty much the entire film, except the opening or prologue with Mowgli as a baby, is about Bagheera's quest to get him back to the humans and out of the jungle. Also interesting that from a species perspective Bagheera is also a predator and thus an animal which could very well eat Mowgli in real life, but here he was his longest friend. The polar opposite to Shere Khan Oh and since when are snakes capable of hypnotizing humans and other animals? Some mysteries there, also why Kaa all of a sudden left during the second shot she took at Mowgli's life. See, I wrote "she" again. I mean he. Because he was scared of the tiger and what he would to him if he found out that it was Kaa who took Mowgli's life? I mean why would the tiger even care. We are constantly told that he only wants to kill Mowgli to make sure he does not grow into a big strong man to take it out on Shere Khan then, but instead kill Mowgli while he is still a kid. Eating Mowgli did not seem top priority at least, so maybe the tiger simply could have been happy had Mowgli died, no matter how it happened. I wonder how these parts were elaborated on in the book. Maybe I will read it one day, but for now I wanna see the other two films I mentioned earlier. This one here gets a thumbs-up from me and it will surely never lose it. This is also because of some charming really small moments you do not want to miss like when the wolf father at the beginning accepts Mowgli and the changing face expression he has while doing so. Luckily, Bagheera's doubts were not justified.
Hungry Hoboes (1928)
Okay overall, good news it reappeared
"Hungry Hoboes" or also "Hungry Hobos" without the "e" is an American animated short film, in other words a cartoon, from 1928, so this one is pretty close now to its 100th anniversary. Maybe it happened already depending on when you get here to read this review of mine. To put it into a perspective of time, this came out almost the exact same day that the first Mickey Mouse cartoon was release. But today we shall speak about this one here. The director was the young Walt Disney and he was born at the very beginning of the new century back then, so he was still considerably under the age of 30 when he worked on these under six minutes. The protagonists are Oswald, a rabbit, and his buddy Pete, although I am not sure you can call them buddies with what happens in this film. It is maybe a bit of a love-hate relationship. I mean they are on the same page when it comes to playing a game of checkers, being ready to eat some delicious eggs and also when the police is chasing them, but there are also moments of confrontations, some playful at the very beginning, but looking at how Pete uses Oswald to make a fire is pretty rough, not to say violent. Oh and I said Oswald is a rabbit, which is also true, but in the second half here he transformed into a monkey. All is possible in the world of animation, also was back in the 1920s clearly. Disney's creativity shines and his vision exceeds the medium at that point for sure. It is still a black-and-white film and I think also a silent movie, so if you wanna see it the way it was released back then, you may wanna disable sound completely. If you don't, you will hear some really fast and catchy music including a handful famous tunes that are also associated to country music and western music and just children's songs.
If we look at the plot, there is a bit of a clean cut halfway into the film. The first half takes place on the train and I thought it was the funnier half with the milk attack, the way Oswald uses a chicken as if it was some mechanical device and also does not care about the head being on the wrong side at the end. But the chicken also seems to cope with it after some initial shock and confusion, so all is good. And of course the way how Pete makes fire there to cook the chicken was also on the more memorable side. In the second half, there is nothing really on the same level, maybe how the police officer is depicted as an actual sausage dog. The film also ends when the two protagonists are back on a train and the officer is trying to shoot them from afar, but misses. So it is a bit of an open ending and Oswald is in trouble again. He is definitely no superior, almost invincible bunny like Bugs or Roger Rabbit, but literally inferior to every other character here, at least physically. We must not forget he is the one who is getting the eggs for his mate and himself. Overall, it is a solid little film and worth watching if you like cartoons. What is maybe most interesting about it is that it was considered lost until way into the 21st century, but eventually a copy showed up ad now we have the joy to see Oswald in one more film. You will also not find this one on recent Oswalt collections. Maybe this will change as more time goes by. For now, it is maybe one of the better cartoons from the Oswalt series and, thanks to the first 2.5 to 3 minutes, I give the outcome a thumbs-up and a positive recommendation.
Robu (2019)
I would not watch the sequel
"Robu" is a co-production between the United States and Japan from 2019, June actually, so this film is really almost exactly five years old now. This may vary depending on when you get here to read this review of mine. The writer and director was Kai Hasson and this is perhaps his most known work until now. He also worked on some official Youtube best-of-the-year video(s), but those are always a bit questionable in terms of the quality and the people they feature. Talk about false heroes. That is another story though. Let's stay with this one: The co-writer here is Josh Hallman and he and Hasson also collaborated on the other stuff I just mentioned. The big name attached to this film that runs for under 20, actually under 19 minutes is lead actor Jharrel Jerome. It was also in 2019 when he won an Emmy, so at a really young age and of course he was featured in two very big films, one of those as a voice actor. With his movie here I cannot say a lot about the rest of the cast really because I do not know the performers, but the Asian actresses are pretty attractive. This film is set in Asia, so it is only fitting that this was also where the movie scored its only awards recognition. Given Jerome's name now, I am a bit surprised that this was only rated 35 times on imdb so far, probably because it was almost impossible to find for many years, but now for a while it is available on Youtube and scored approximately 150k views since then. I personally preferred the first 10 minutes or first half of the film here compared to the second half where the film gets a bit more serious and there is more talk about the father. The dramatic component from this film did not really win me over. I preferred the lightness early on when he is looking for the sequel and talking to new friends, even if you could kinda guess that it was not only the hunt for a comic book that brought him to the other end of the planet, even if one male character especially would have liked that idea.
Here and there, we also get some language struggles, like when the main character does not understand what locals say to him or also when Asian characters repeat the words of the main character because they do not understand either. That comic book store early on was totally spectacular though. How massive! Unfortunately, as I stated earlier already, I felt that the film got weaker the longer it went. The coincidence that the boy saw a building that was depicted the exact same way in his book was also a bit too much. Can't let them get away with it unfortunately there. And how the main character at the very end of the movie in the last shot is depicted pretty much like a comic book character himself also did nothing for me. This is why my initial tendency to give this film a thumbs-up is something I have to revoke and overall it is a thumbs-down then for me. Even if you are really fascinated by Asian/Japanese culture, then it is not a particularly good watch. I found it also a bit odd that the main character maybe tells history to those other guys, but in the end the film does not end with the bunch. So yeah, there area handful inclusions in the script that could have been handled better. It's a negative recommendation overall for me.
Fried Barry (2017)
Completely uninteresting
"Fried Barry" is a South African live action short film from 2017, so this one is now seven years old or maybe already a decade if you get here a little later to read this review of mine. It is, according to imdb, in the English language, but there are no spoken lines in here, so you can watch it no matter which languages you (don't) speak. Or better don't watch it, which is my suggestion as you can already see from my rating, but I will get to that a little later. The writer and director is Ryan Kruger, who is fairly experienced in both fields and also a prolific actor, so he is far from a rookie and also was not a rookie back in 2017, which makes it especially disappointing how this turned out. Lack of experience is not a factor here. There is only one actor here and this would be Gary Green. He plays the title character, a man who is not young anymore, but in decent physical shape overall judging from his looks and he also has long hair. The camera is on him from beginning to end, sometimes we only see his face or head, sometimes the entire body. Apparently in the beginning there is some kind of substance abuse going on early on as we see he is injected something or at least something is added to his body. The consequence is basically the man's reaction to what is now in his bloodstream and this the entire four minutes. Or rather three minutes and forty-five seconds. I am glad it was this short.
I would not even blame the actor here. The material/writing was just so poor that no actor could have turned it into a good watch I would say. You can blame him though for playing this same uninteresting character in more short films, although I must add that there was a feature film made circling around Fried Barry and I just hope this was better and explained a bit more then. From what I have seen here, however, I have no intention to watch those over 1.5 hours or so. What maybe stayed slightly in the mind here was the out-of-body experience towards the end, but not because it was really good, but just not as forgettable as everything before that. Oh and when the credits roll in, Kruger does not call it a film or project or release on the screen, but a "thing". First time I read it, but as I in a way connect motion pictures to quality, even if strictly-speaking it is just a technical term, I like the idea of not calling this one here a film or motion picture. I give it a big thumbs-down and recommend everybody to stay far, far away from it. It is a bit self-explanatory that it has almost no views on Youtube. I am still clueless how/why this was turned into a full feature a few years later, but oh well, maybe there is a fanbase that helped with the funding. Doesn't matter though as today we are only talking about the short film that started it all and I give it a massively negative recommendation.
Ratt: Back for More (1984)
Absolutely generic 80s music video with a lack of creativity and catchiness
This is the music video for the song "Back for More" from the band Ratt and this was released back in autumn 1984, so as it is spring 2024 now, this will soon have its 40th anniversary or maybe it happened already if you got here a little later to check out this review of mine. It runs for 250 seconds, so slightly over four minutes and the one who shot it was prolific music video director Mark Rezyka who was only in his mid20s at that point and who has worked with many other artists throughout his career. Kiss is just one example. A more famous band than the one we have here in fact and I cannot say I am familiar with Ratt at all. Judging from the outcome here, I would not say it is really my loss as I was fairly underwhelmed all in all by what I saw and heard here, so I am relatively glad it was not a long music video by any means, but pretty much average duration. Maybe even a bit above-average for the 1980s. The video feels very generic. I think true music video creativity did not happen before the 1990s and there were not many exceptions for sure. This is not one of them. Most of it is just a stage performance from Ratt, even if the beginning lets you think slightly differently as if there was a bit of a plot. Well, not really.
About the cast members, if you want to call them that, it can be said that Tommy Lee is of course pretty well-known, also because of a recent television series and also because of Pam obviously. The female protagonist in here is not the Baywatch actress, however, but Tawny Kitaen who was maybe more famous back then than she is now several years after her untimely death. She had her own rock music romance going on. But back to this music video, even if there is not too much to add anymore. I found all about it pretty mediocre and forgettable. It cannot convince me to take a deeper look, or rather a look at all into Ratt's discography to be honest. To be fair though, there's many people who think differently it seems because this one here scored over 5 million views on Youtube in approximately seven years, which is not an outstanding figure for music videos, but still pretty decent. For me personally, however, the thumbs-down was never in doubt from the very beginning. I would say it is also probably closer to being an awful music video or short film than to being worth spending four minutes on. Skip this one and also don't listen to the record.
Kompanie der Knallköppe (1971)
Oddball comedy where the actors are having a better time than the viewers
"Kompanie der Knallköppe" is a West German live action film from the year 1971, so this one is already over 50 years old now, which sadly means that many of the cast members are not alive anymore, but as several actors were really young when this got made, they are still with us in their 70s now. This film that runs for over 95 minutes also goes by the almost identical title "Kompanie der Knallköpfe" or the pretty different title "Drei blaue Jungs in Oberbayern", which means "three blue boys in upper Bavaria", even if "blue" could also mean "drunk" in this context, but I kinda doubt it because there are not alcohol excesses in this film really. What it surely does not mean is "blue" in the sense of "sad". Nobody is sad in this movie. The original title includes the German word "Kompanie" which is a term for a group from a military camp and thus far more specific compared to the English term "company". And the last word in the original title basically just means "fools". The names Momme and Kahlfuß are quite fitting there. These do not exude competence. So much for the language aspect here. The writer and director was Rolf Olsen, around the age of 50 when he shot this movie, so obviously not with us anymore, but he was a prolific actor himself, even if he was the man in charge behind the camera. He worked on many projects throughout his career, also as a writer and director, but the fact that this one here is maybe among his most known tells us that his efforts are mostly forgotten, even if there were so many. Judging from the quality in this movie, I cannot be sad about it really.
If you are familiar with the German school prankster films that got made in German in the late 1960s and early 1970s and featured the character of Pepe Nietnagel, then you will not only recognize Hansi Kraus here, but also Ilja Richter, the beautiful Mascha Gonska and of course Rudolf Schündler who were among the defining names from the Nietnagel franchise back then. With the exception of Schündler, probably my favorite from the bunch, they are also still with us all three of them. And so is Christiane Rücker. They were all around the age of 20 back then, so nice to see they are still alive anymore. However, I cannot say anything positive really about Ilja Richter, who is probably the most active these days from all those, still playing stage theater on a regular basis and getting interviewed from time to time. However, I just cannot take him seriously as an actor, maybe also because in his recent outings he clearly wants to be taken seriously. The thing he does is go over the top in all his (old) movies. Maybe he has more charisma than most others, but in terms of range and musical talent as well, I do not see anything in him at all. This film cannot change my perception. I mean the moment he stood there in front of the plane after this massive flight and was really unstable physically was his role (or roles in general) in a nutshell. Showy yes, maybe here and there even mildly entertaining, but beyond klamauk there seems to be nothing to him. Also in other stuff I watched him in and it's been quite a few films actually. I hope you understand the word klamauk. I like it. It is fairly self-explanatory. One actor I have not yet mentioned is Eddi Arent, who even got first credit. For him this film here is surely not among his most known nowadays as he played in several Karl May Winnetou films and also in numerous Edgar Wallace adaptations, so also more serious material there in his body of work.
The film starts with his character and Richter's being salespeople ringing bells and trying to get people to pay for hoovers. Eventually, they enter a woman's apartment and the display process there goes all kinds of wrong and the apartment is a mess afterwards and the man living with the woman there is not happy at all. It is pretty difficult to really talk about a plot and continuity here, because it is all so over the place. In any case, the unlucky and incompetent duo ends up somehow in a scenario where they are mistaken for two important military men, a father and son and thins get even messier when we have the actual son show up, played by Roger Fritz, and he knows of course that the two are impostors and gets them (or rather one of them) to pilot a plane, because the man he is impersonating is a talented pilot. This is what resulted in the plane moment I mentioned earlier. Of course, if it is not the biggest coincidence already that the part essential for flying is replaced so the plane actually takes of, nothing can top the fact that the Arent's character there actually manages to fly the plane and come up with some loopings despite not having a clue what he is doing. I have to admit Richter's comment there that, right before they take off, his "father" must not press any buttons, was on the funny side. Here and there, I had to smile watching this movie. One quote from the romance story was nice too, like when a guy kisses a girl and she is a bit upset and he tells her that she can have her kiss back anytime, was actually a bit witty and the funniest comedy moment for me was surely early on when we have a military man talk to one of his cadets or so about something that is not in order and the cadet responds that it was the military man himself who made that choice a while ago. That was fine situational comedy.
However, for every solid moment here, there are three not so solid moments, like take the scene in which one male character saves a female character after the horses had gone wild. That was so scripted and out of nowhere really. This one romance story also would have been enough, but they included another surrounding Kraus' character and of course there is a happy ending to both of them. This was also very strange, as if something was missing. There were those arguments and both relationships seemed troublesome and then at the end they stand there with their partners and everybody is happy. Talk about a forced happy ending. And things do not look differently on the impostor front. It all comes out, but nobody is mad at all. After people before that stated that others will do terrible things with them if it all comes out. Not even Schündler could save it for me when he shows up at the very end then. And the film ended not only with a bang that he showed up, but an actual bang. I guess the proper physical reaction to an explosion is people losing their pants? At least this is what they did in this movie. All this made no sense, but I guess you can say the same about many German films from this era back then. It was not exactly the most glorious time for German cinema, the 1960s at least. In the 70s then things got a little bit better. However, I must also say that it is not a disastrous movie from beginning to end we have here. I could imagine that the performers had some fun shooting it and it was not fake. Here and there, the joy felt almost a bit contagious. Unfortunately, in other segments the line deliveries of the already awful dialogues was rock-bottom material. Nobody could have saved this script, not even the best Hollywood actors from back in the day. Not that they would have wanted to get anywhere near this production.
I watched this film on German television today or rather on the internet presence of a German television broadcaster that focuses on music and music films in the German language. But yeah, I watched it online because nobody is really having this channel available on their TV. Still, you have to give them a thumbs-up for coming with such an online presence. Not to be taken for granted, no matter how poor most of the content is that they are showing. Apart from the three times maybe this film is played each year on said channel, it is almost impossible to find it elsewhere despite some of the familiar names and faces. Probably a good thing because you won't be missing much if you skip the watch and seeing it once is already one time too many. I am also still unsure why the alternate title here includes three men. I guess Fritz's character has to be third or Kraus' perhaps, but his role turned out smaller than they had on their minds initially. If you wanna see him in a more defining role with way more screen time, this one here is not the film to choose. But you will not find it anywhere anyway, so all is good. I give the outcome here a thumbs-down, which was really never in doubt. It should have been much funnier for a positive recommendation. I mean I like cringeworthy word play, but don't get me started on A. R. SCH in this film. Admittedly, inclusions like the greeting reference were funnier, but all in all I have to say that it is best if you watch something else instead.
Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)
Karma chameleon and a new warrior
"Kung Fu Panda 4" is an American animated movie from 2024, so really new and fresh at this point and the title already gives away that this is the fourth film from the "Kung Fu Panda" franchise. It runs for under 95 minutes, so not exactly short, but also not too long for an animated movie and those are often shorter than live action films. Two directors and three writers is a pretty massive quantity though. I would not say it is an example of too many cooks spoiling the broth, but maybe with slightly more focus this could have been an even better movie. Let's look at those now: Mike Mitchell is a really experienced animation filmmaker and his most known effort to-date may be a Shrek sequel and the original Trolls movie. However, it's been a few years since the last time he was in charge of a big-screen project of a similar prestige like this Kung-Fu Panda film here. It turned out fine though. Stephanie Stine is more experienced as a storyboard artist and has only worked as a director on a television show before this one here, but I have a feeling we will read her name attached to many other projects in the future. Writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger have not only a long history together, but also a long history with the Kung Fu Panda franchise while Darren Lemke is new to it, but has worked on the aforementioned Shrek sequel too and also on "Turbo", a film I liked more than I thought I would.
If you look at the fact that this newest installment makes this franchise a quadrology even, more if you include short films, then you can surely say that the quality is good enough. As for the characters, we get many familiar faces back here and also the voice actors return. This includes Jack Black who lent his voice to the title character and I see he is in his mid-50s now already. How time flies. I don't want to go super deep into the cast list now, but the likes of Hoffman, Cranston and McShane are not new to this franchise at all. You can say that this was probably a male-dominated series of films so far, but the inclusions of Viola Davis and Awkwafina here, or rather their character, change that a little bit. The latter voices the biggest supporting character perhaps, even if she is close to lead already. It was fairly predictable from the first meeting between Zhen and the title character that she would become the one who Panda considers to follow in his footsteps eventually and that the two would grow closer on their mission. I liked the character, but I like foxes anyway and if we also look at the upcoming Zootopia sequel, 2024 could be a year for those. Or 2025 if it takes a little longer. They kept her grey here to avoid confusion with the other character. The only thing I was struggling a bit with was the revelation then that the female fox was a loyal helper to the chameleon, the main antagonist from this film here. People who have followed the franchise since the very beginning were surely happy to see the character of Tai Lung back in this film. The opening sequence was pretty gritty was we see him show up and depicted as the main antagonist, even if it was all just a disguise as we find out a little later. But the real Tai Lung can also be seen in the second half then. Given the subject and locations where the film is set, it makes sense that there are really many Asian actors in this movie, also new additions like recent Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan, even if his role was a bit of a nothing role. By the way, I am sure not many will understand the meaning of Po in German, but let's not get into detail there. As I watched the German dub, I personally thought it was nice that Hape Kerkeling returned for the character as you never know with him, but it shows that he probably still adores the franchise and character after all those years.
So yeah, the introduction was nice and the idea of Po having to pick a successor was alright too and made for decent closure if this was really the last film of the series. We will see. It resulted also in one of the funniest moment when he changed a symbol to represent fate and coincidence in a way that showed us that the successor to Po will be Po himself because he did not deem any of those worthy. Speaking of the comedy, a lot also comes from the two buddies of Po that are on their own mission that may be dramatic too in terms of where they were heading, but the journey itself was fairly light most of the time. As for the unfolding then with the antagonist(s), you can almost say that there is also a certain multiverse parallel here or especially a connection to the most recent Spider-Man movie where all the antagonists from back in the day show up again as well. I will just continue with some brainstorming now about what I liked and maybe not liked that much. As for new character, these three really cute bunny creatures (more Zootopia) were fairly hilarious and funny how they were hiding their sadistic selves behind alleged sweetness. Almost every time they were on, I had to laugh. This also included the scene with the deadly drink they were offering Po. Or the character that is named Granny Boar in the cast list I think. She only had one scene with her spectacular hair, but she stole it completely with all her movies. I would watch a film about her and maybe also the three bunnies. However, except for those bunnies, almost all other characters down there did almost nothing for me and felt fairly forgettable, also the aforementioned character voices by Ke Huy Quan. The story has some lengths here and there and is also not always super-logical, but it was alright. The chameleon is a fine antagonist long before her wild transformation into some Kung Fu super creature. There you could also see how they kept it kids-friendly when the evilest thing she does is push another villain down the stairs. In the end, the chameleon even gets a chance to step back from the evil she has done, but decides to take a different route and stay with the bad guys. Everything else really would not have made any sense to be honest. So she follows the previously defeated bad guys into the parallel universe or whatever you wanna call it.
If we go back to the good guys, Po's master does not have that much screen time here, but when he is on, he still delivers, like how at the start he really needs to talk to Po and this results in some funny scenarios there between the two. The moment when he is not too happy apparently that Po was chosen, but hides his feelings, well tries to hide them, was also one of the best comedic moments of the film. Good to see Dustin Hoffman did not get cancelled too like so many other did before him. The idea that Kung Fu is at least as much about the mind and spirit as it is about physical fighting was also picked up and elaborated on in here a few times. I already mentioned the moment of mercy towards the chameleon near the end and this also includes the presence of the master in Po's mind, which was pretty hilarious when the Panda is surprised that both masters were against him and supporting each other instead, thus not offering an angelic and diabolic option as you sometimes see it in terms of voice of reason metaphors that were also done already in cartoons now almost 100 years ago. The final moment there when Po's master (in Po's mind) tells him it is alright and he tried it his way and now can try it his own way was also slightly memorable. In terms of the animation, it is almost difficult to take it not for granted these days that the level is really high, but it can be said here still. Should be said. Maybe this is not a film that will make it to next year's Oscars because of the release date and because the overall rating (on imdb) is not high enough, even if critics liked it quite a bit, but I am still glad the film got made and the franchise stays alive. And aren't we all a bit curious about what happens next to Po there in his new position? We only get very vague details throughout the movie and it ends before we see him in charge there, so I am definitely curious.
Before I get to the end of the review let me also say that the inclusion of McShane's character here may get you curious to watch the first KFP film again and that I was wondering throughout the entire film here not if, but when the chameleon would trick us and Po by changing into a character we did not see through the disguise right away. Or did not thing so right away at least. It happens with Zhen then and it was a very quick scene and revelation too, but a crucial moment that showed us still that the real Zhen is already basically on the good side there. The potentially complex relationship between her and the chameleon was depicted a bit on the shoddy side at times. If we look at the audio, the music was fine overall, but the Britney Spears song they decided to cover for the closing did almost nothing for me. It also had no real connection to the story, so I would have preferred if they had used something else there. Nonetheless, despite some weaknesses, this is a film where it was never in doubt for me that I would give it a positive rating all in all, but also it was never an option to call it a truly great movie, perhaps also because Po sometimes felt more like a supporting character in his own movie. What was great was maybe the funniest moment for me though when one of the (let's call them) henchlizards is down there defeated on the ground and still applauded his surging and boastful leader. That was hilarious. I did not know why I liked this moment so much when the lizards clapped his hands. So yeah this is really it now. I say that you can go see this film, regardless of if you know the previous movies. I thought it was a good watch. Thumbs-up und that powerful green rod was pretty cool too!
The Hard Case (1995)
Very Ritchie already back then
"The Hard Case" is a British live action short film from 1995, so this one here is almost 30 years old now or probably over 30 already once you get here to read this review of mine. This is from the days of VHS still, so it is surely not too easy to get a hand on a copy, especially one that is not missing parts of the audio, but I can imagine that hardcore fans of Guy Ritchie must be really curious about this one here. I am not one of those, but I still wanted to give it a go and succeeded. Overall, I think this was approximately what I expected, maybe even a bit better than I initially thought because Ritchie was only in his mid20s at that point and it was his very first directorial effort according to imdb and he also was not yet married to Madonna in 1995. There is not too much to say about the cast. Not a single big name included here, but a pretty long list for a film that barely makes it past the 20-minute mark. First credit went to Darren Spencer who apparently never acted in a film before or after this one. It is a bit surprising because he was still pretty young here. Reminded me a bit of Cillian Murphy in terms of looks and it is a role that also would have suited Matthew McConaughey for example. Just came to my mind because he also played the protagonist in a Guy Ritchie movie not too long ago. The cast here is British/English, however, for obvious reasons. You don't import people from the other end of the planet for your first film at a young age.
Some say that Ritchie is a bit of a poor man's Tarantino, but I would not disagree with that, especially because what Tarantino did later in his career was totally different and far away from the concept of action crime that Ritchie has included in his films so many times. This is not a negative statement by any means from my side. I like how it is not difficult at all to identify Ritchie's style in this short film already compared to what he does in the 21st century, especially now that he is twice as old as he was back then. The elements of crime, money and use music are just typical Ritchie style and the how fast things are moving forward is as well. Even the camera work was pretty fast back then already and even if you do not know the actors here, unless you are related to them, they do look like people you would expect to show up in later Ritchie movies. Some even did if you look at James Tarbuck (not Starbuck), who got second credit. He acted in a Ritchie full feature film a little later and that was it for him as well. Or same can also be said about the beautiful Suzy Ratner here. Actually, the same movie like for Tarbuck. And a character nicknamed Bacon is also exactly what I would expect from Ritchie. Just like a dwarf making sure that there's no firearms on the casino visitors. Or there was a shot I think when we were literally in the footsteps of the protagonist(s) as we see the Black guy tell him/them/us that he/they/we will not be allowed in without opening the suitcase and have them look inside.
The scene at this casino-like institution that probably included much more crime than casinos usually do, or rather let's say much more physical crime, was the center of the film. It was enjoyable and interesting to watch and the escalation was just around the corner waiting to happen. In the end, there is a bit of a feel-good moment if we cheered for the protagonists. Nice little twist. This film was almost too much already for 21 minutes. I am sure It could have worked as a full feature film too, but you gotta start somewhere. This also applied to Guy Ritchie. This is almost all then. Finally, I want to say thanks for reminding me of a pretty cool song by The Flying Lizards that was used in the middle of the film and is not only a catchy tune, but fit the scenario where it got used nicely as well. I liked it more than the song used later during a maybe even more crucial scene. My thoughts that this film would not get a positive recommendation from me vanished fast enough and in the end the thumbs-up was never in doubt. It's a good film and if we take Ritchie's young age back then into account, he hardly could have started any better. Go watch it if you manage to find a good copy perhaps on British television.
Mad Men: The Gold Violin (2008)
Red, the blood of angry men
"The Gold Violin" is the seventh episode from the second season of "Mad Men", so pretty much from the middle of the season, and many think it is one of the best from the season. As you see from my rating, I would have a hard time to disagree with them. But first things first: The episode runs the usual 48 minutes and it was the third of four episodes directed by Andrew Bernstein. The writers here are familiar names too and have worked on quite a lot from this show. This also includes writer Matthew Weiner. Like with every Mad Men episode, there are moments when you will laugh or at least smile, but the more dramatic moments are the bigger factor here. There are regulars from the show that do not play a vital role in this episode at all. Peggy is not a factor and neither is Pete. Sterlin has some screen time, but not a lot either. Cooper is once again included, which is always nice. May Robert Morse rest in peace. I have been wondering for quite some time why the episode is called like that and eventually you understand or at least find out that it is the name of Ken Cosgrove's book. He got included a little more here and so did Bryan Batt's Salvatore Romano. I am still not sure what to make of this part though. There was at least one earlier episode when we found out that Sal may be in the closet and the way how he shut out his wife in this episode here when a colleague came to dinner may add more fuel to the fire. It is really only speculation though. I am not sure at all what to make of these scenes.
What was much easier to understand where the scenes involving Jane. She pretty much convinces the guys from the office to walk into Bertram Cooper's office while he was away to take a look at a certain painting. This has serious consequences for her as she is fired by Joan not much later. However, she goes to see Sterling then and apparently he will work something out that she can stay. Next Monday she shows up again at the office and Sterling has not talked yet to Joan, so we will see how this is gonna unfold in the next episodes. I mean I would not say "Mad Men" is a show where the situation is exactly the same between the beginning and end of an episode, but such an obvious difference is surely a bit of a rarity. I am surely convinced how the entire Joan/Jane situation is going to continue. By the way, the fact that people need to get out of their shoes before entering Cooper's office has also become a nice tradition, almost the way kids get out of their shoes before entering their father's working office. Add to that the words by Cosgrove it was I think on one occasion before they get in that were also really funny. Also showed how much respect everybody had for Cooper. Of course, the scene later on with the painting was also entertaining thanks to Morse mostly. The other guy trying to take the easy way out by asking Cooper what he thinks of the painting did not work out, but he fared the best when he honestly admitted he does not know a thing about paintings and eventually also gets Cooper's honest statement that the painting is just an investment.
The funniest moment from this episode or rather funniest and most entertaining scene for me was maybe the opening when we see Don and how he is about to buy a new car. The Dodge comment was quite something. Getting somewhere versus having arrived. I also really liked the actor who played the car salesman. Need to check if I find more stuff from him. The car is included on several occasions during this episode. The ending then is of course a bitter one and while I surely don't feel bad for Don that the car got puke all over it, I am a bit undecided if I should feel sorry for Betty. I mean it may sound harsh what Barrett was telling her, but he was right all along and maybe the fact that Betty needs to throw up in the car shows that she is finally away from the idea that Don is 100% faithful to her. Of course, Patrick Fischler was also a true scene-stealer there and should have been nominated for an Emmy in the guest acting category. He could not have gone out on a higher note really. Other than that, this episode is mostly worth remembering for understanding that you do not want Joan as an enemy in the office. In the previous episode I think, there was a statement from her towards Peggy that also showed that female employees who do not follow exactly what she tells them, may sometimes have a hard time, even if Jane is of course the complete opposite of Peggy. When she realizes that playing the victim is not gonna cut it, she even dares to speak aggressively towards Joan. The comment that she does not need somebody to act towards her like a mother because she is 20 years old was pretty hilarious.
So red is a defining factor in this episode, not only because Joan's hair and temper, but also because of the painting and the only thing definite about it being that everybody perceives art as something different. There you can make a reference again to the early parts from my review about Sal and Ken and the former maybe appreciating the artistic side of the latter and what he has to say about the painting. As I come to the end of the review, let me make another reference to the beginning where I explained why this episode does not end the way it started with the Joan/Jane situation as there was another inclusion that got me truly curious and I wonder if they will pick up on it again. "Mad Men" is known for flashbacks telling us about the past of Don Draper (or "Don Draper") and we have a short one here as well. It is closely connected to the car selling scene, only that Don worked a similar job as well in the past and we understand that after giving his best to sell a car to a man (or rather his son), there is a blonde woman who showed up at Don's workplace back in the day and tells him that he is not Don Draper. We do not find out if she knows who he is and if so, why she knows. If she maybe knew the actual Don Draper or what her background may be. I expected this to be solved at the end, but it did not. Will it be in the future? I guess so. But you need to keep watching to find out and to be honest, this should not be difficult because I am so hooked (again) now with this show and surely I am not the only one. Small-screen filmmaking at its finest. Truly high quality in this episode. Do not miss out!
Mad Men: The New Girl (2008)
Don and the women
"The New Girl" is the fifth episode from the second season of "Mad Men". It runs for under 49 minutes and premiered back in 2008, so now it is over 15 years old already. The director was Jennifer Getzinger, a BAFTA nominee for this show, and the screenplay here is Robin Veith, who scored three Emmy nominations for "Mad Men". The cast includes the usual faces, but there is quite a bit of progress for the characters. The biggest comes with Joan Holloway who is engaged now, even if we do not really find out to whom and her meeting with Sterling when the two talk was also cut-short. His only scene during the episode. Instead, there is major focus on Don with this one here and also on another female character from the office, namely Peggy and this episode shows us a lot about their relationship. There is not only a flashback sequence to Peggy at the hospital with her pregnancy, but in the now Don ends up in a car accident and as another woman is with him, who does he call? That's right, Peggy. She brings the money, picks him and the woman up and even lets her stay for a little while at her place until she is fine again. Don pays for it though and I mean physically. I wonder what bothers him more, his injured arm or that he has to do without salt at home in the future. So there is at least a little bit of punishment he gets from his wife for what he did, even if she could not be any more in the unknown.
Speaking of the women in Don's life, Rachel returns shortly and we find out she is now married to, found herself a Jewish man. Good for her I guess. The break-up with Don was pretty abrupt in the last season and the two meeting again did not exactly seem filled with positive feelings here during this episode. And there's more women as Don also has a new female in front of his room now taking care of the job Peggy did before. Now this new character really got the men crazy you can say in this episode. Joan's tent-related comment was pure comedy gold there, but what happened afterwards with the guy who played Mozart on his zipper was something else. Nobody can ever say that Mad Men is not funny after scene like this. I had to laugh so hard. I guess this is what an attractive new female at the office does, especially if she does not use all the buttons on her outfit. If we look at one male character from the office, Pete is also having some decent screen time this time, but mostly from a personal perspective as he and his wife Trudy have tried for quite some time to become parents, but it just wasn't meant to be so far, so he goes to see a doctor because his wife wants him to and the result is that Pete's sperms could not be any better. Well, we knew that already with what happened to Peggy and what Pete does not know of course. It was at the same time entertaining and embarrassing to see Pete so happy about his manhood there at the end, but also depressing in a way if you look at Trudy as she realizes that she must be the reason why it is not working out with a pregnancy. The way he acted towards her there showed really that he was void of any empathy.
Lack of empathy from women towards men is something you see on other occasions during this episode. The best example is probably the phone call between Don and the woman resting at Peggy's place and how he talks business first with her and then asks her if she is okay in terms of her health. But then again, this is also exactly what she does, so the two may not have been too different from each other. We also get some solid mentions of movies from back then. "La notte" is mentioned, so is "Spartacus" and "Cape Fear" later on. Watching "Mad Men" can actually get you really decent movie recommendations. What else can I say? Oh yes, we get to see Peggy's mother and sister on one occasion. Very briefly only. This was not one scene to make you smile or even laugh, but there were a few more. Take the brief comment by one character who introduces himself as being married to an attractive female when the other guys react differently before that. So we knew exactly where all this was heading. Or where they wanted it to head you can say. Some more brainstorming: We are remembered again that Pete's dead is dead, but I think all is said about Pete now and if you did not find him unlikable before this episode, if that was even possible, then nobody can support this character even after it to be honest.
Melinda McGraw's character was maybe more interesting here. Early on in the scenes with Don, she just seemed as nothing more than another quick affair to him, maybe to boost his ego as well after finding out about Rachel being married, but in the scenes at Peggy's place we find out more about her as well as about Peggy. The two still seem to come from different spheres and they will not become friends or anything and you see that during the moment when one character declines another's suggestion to play a game of cards, but in a way they are still fascinated by each other. The older one by how all the stuff Peggy is doing for Don despite not having feelings for him while realizing that it was talent and hard work that got humble Peggy the job and Peggy also listens to the other woman's words in the end stemming from her experience and stands up a bit for herself in her final meeting with Don during this episode. Pay attention to how she calls him Don there and his face expression afterwards when she leaves the room. It's nice to see her gain some respect. Probably almost nobody will disagree that Peggy is the most likable character on the show. As for Don, what can you say about him. Nothing positive for sure as Peggy even has to mention the money to him and that he does not pay her back right away when he can without any questions asked. It is tough to say if he is less likable than Pete, probably not at this point, but at least with Pete you can say that he is still younger and might have changed once he is Don's age. Okay, it seems unlikely too. They are just both a different kind of unlikable then I guess. It was also good to see Don did not come out of this episode unharmed. In any case, this was another really entertaining Mad Men episode with more than just a few scenes and moments that will stay in the mind. In terms of both drama and comedy. I highly recommend checking it out. Episodes like this contribute a lot to me considering this a worthy choice for being my number-one favorite TV show ever.
Madar tamame rooz doa mikhanad (2022)
Pornpaganda
"Madar tamame rooz doa mikhanad", which means "Mother prays all day long" is a German live action short film from 2022 that is mostly in the German language, but also includes segments in English and Farsi it is I think. The former is spoken between the two protagonists and the latter between one character and her mother. The film runs for minimally over 24 minutes including credits and scored some awards attention in Germany and Switzerland, but not too much. Hoda Taheri plays the immigrant here and she is also the writer and director. For her it is probably so far the most known for and same is true for Magdalena Jacob, who co-wrote the script with Taheri here and plays the other female protagonist. She has worked in different fields of film production already. I think the problems with this film already start with the title. Obviously, by picking those five words that nobody in Germany understands they wanted everybody to know right away that this movie is about the subject of immigration and in favor of such, which pretty much means in Germany that if you make a film like that, it is not important if it is good at all, but they will always throw money your way and most of the time awards too. Apart from that, the meaning of the title is also nothing that summarizes the film whatsoever, so a poor choice from every perspective. Yes, we do see the Iranian woman's mother in the first half via webcam footage, but she does not pray once and neither does the mother of the German central character. The only thing memorable there with the Iranian was that apparently it was really common in the country to tell your pin code to every stranger. With the German mother, it was maybe my favorite scene and it felt kinda realistic what the mother said there, how she talked about her time as a teacher and also how she des not even think about abortion being an option for her daughter. Had the rest of the film been on the same level as this scene, I might have given a slightly better rating. But it is not.
It just tries to be as showy in terms of nudity and getting the right political messages across while never really making any sense or justifying the nudity. We have the two women naked in bed next to each other at the very start. Later on, we have the two have sex and one uses a glass bottle with a condom to pleasure the other before the other proceeds to perform cunnilingus on the first one. I am not sure if the talk about that bottle moment before is worse or the scene itself. Both was abysmal and all for the sake of it. The talk between the two women earlier was better, but every time the subject became more dramatic, it was not working. They just stuffed in al the content in this scene that you would think the two women definitely know about each other given they are getting married soon. Like what month one character had her abortion. What the experience was like when the abortion happened etc. How convenient also that one character had an abortion in the past already when the other is considering it. Does not feel written at all. But it was also the small moments when the film struggled. Like we see one character throw up into the toilet and the other is in the shower nearby and hears it, but what she hears and what we hear is only a coughing sound, so you will certainly wonder why the woman in the shower showed such a worried reaction when what she heard was literally nothing.
The open ending that still implies that an abortion seems likely let me think that Taheri was maybe considering turning this film into a full-feature film at some point. I hope it is not gonna happen. I mean it may sound harsh, but I prefer to call it honest and the way this piece was written here, I don't see any talent at all and all the film delivers through and also why it was not completely overlooked is the political subjects it touches. When we hear the woman talk about giving the same answers in a certain scenario, we are supposed to find it funny how they lie and we should not be worrying about them breaking the law, but rather think that it is sad that they even do have to lie in order to be allowed to stay together. Or take the fact that the German protagonist is pregnant from a man right now in the face of her romance with this Iranian female. Or take the last camera shot that takes us first close and then into the vagina of one character when they are talking about the ways in which a fetus can or cannot hear what is going on in the outer world. The indirect explanation that she should go through with the abortion is then supported by the words that it does not understand the meaning of those words anyway, even if it hears them. Or early on you also have one woman say that her abortion was not painful at all despite the questionable circumstances under which it took place. So you can say it is a film clearly in favor of abortion. In general, the movie brings all the political positions that are relentless pursued by politics in Germany and also by the media. This is why it is known. It is not a good film by any means and I genuinely hope that if Taheri, who is admittedly pretty stunning, continues making films which she very well could given her young age at this point, she will find major improvement one way or the other over the years. Or get rid of Jacob if she was a major contributing factor why this was such an awful film overall. I highly recommend skipping the watch.
About Schmidt (2002)
Schmidt happens
"About Schmidt" is an American live action movie that runs for over two hours and was released back in 2002, so this one is over 20 years old now and maybe over 25 or 30 even if you get here a little later to read this review of mine. The writer and director is Alexander Payne, not yet an Oscar winner back then, but now he has two wins for penning. No surprise he was joined by Jim Taylor for this work here as the two have collaborated on many occasions. For Louis Begley this is the only work that got turned into a movie. I am curious what he thought of the outcome here. Or thinks because he is still with us and over 90 in 2024. But even if Payne is a household name in Hollywood, the man that this film stands and falls (but really only stands) with is Jack Nicholson, who plays the title character of course. He had already won three Oscars by then and looks like this film here was his final nomination. He even had a decent shot at winning a fourth because he took home the Golden Globe for Drama, but in the end it was not meant to be. At the end, it was also not his major rival that night Daniel Day-Lewis who won, but young Adrien Brody instead in what is still considered one of the biggest surprises in the male lead category from the Academy Awards. What is also a bit surprising is that Payne was not nominated for writing here, but the second nomination for the film went to Kathy Bates. Well, that was not surprising because Bates is a really big name in Hollywood too and she got nominated at the SAG Awards and at the Golden Globes before. I like her, but I must say that I did not really think her performance here was super outstanding. There are many films and shows as well where I think she was better. I would not even blame her because she really does the most with how the character is written, but it is just not enough for an Oscar nomination from my perspective. The name Bates probably helped and also that we see her topless briefly in one scene, which is nothing actresses 50+ do too often. Or maybe I should say "did" because back then it was even more of an exception. It probably came easy that she was never considered a sex symbol anyway and already had an Oscar, so why would she care. Nothing could ruin her career at that point.
There are more cast members I want to mention in the supporting roles: Hope Davis is pretty stunning here and looked younger than she was. Dermot Mulroney is an actor that probably not too many are familiar with, but I always appreciate him. I did not even recognize him here with the outfit and haircut. He plays in one of my favorite romance movies ever, which makes it easy for me to smile when I recognize him somewhere or at least read his name during the credits. And of course I have to mention June Squibb, who is almost 95 now and still kicking. Hopefully for years to come. She is only in it at the very beginning, but Payne worked with her on "Nebraska" too a few years later, a movie I liked even more than this one here. A man goes on a lengthy trip there too. Squibb played the wife there too and was just a delight scoring a deserved Oscar nomination. Here her character does not warrant that, but she is still nice to see early on, even if she plays an unlikable character. It was really also a lot of back-and-forth there when it comes to her and how Schmidt sees her. Initially they seem to be a harmonic couple. Then we hear voiceovers that tell us the opposite, how Schmidt is completely annoyed by her, then when he finds her dead, he is of course really sad. And misses her a lot afterwards and does not really think about the aspects anymore that bothered him about her before that. Honestly, her last words directed at him before he leaves the house are also not too nice. But from the opposite perspective you could also say that if he had really returned home earlier like she asked him to instead of having this milkshake drink there, then perhaps he could have called an ambulance and saved her. We will never know. Just like we will never know how she really thought and felt about him. He asks the stars on one occasion and this is really the last time when she is included, or crucially included. The fact that he mentions her towards the end during the speech at the wedding ceremony shows that by then he had probably really forgiven her for cheating on him. Or who knows, we cannot really be sure. He also behaves peacefully there and we could not be sure if he might escalate because obviously he was still not happy at all with the choice his daughter made. We understand that by what he calls her husband towards the end.
However, Schmidt may be a man with some shenanigans to him and not the nicest fellow around, but on many occasions we see that at his very core, he is not a bad man. The mourning for his wife was real and of course there is the whole story with the money he sends to Africa to support a little boy and make sure he leads a better life. This was also then a bit of a happy ending when Schmidt gets this letter from the woman taking care of the boy there and she thanks him and sends him a picture drawn by the boy. Of course, Schmidt was really moved there and his tears were real again. All this came immediately after we hear him say something utterly depressing about his life and how meaningless it all seems. So there are some deep and really touching moments in here for sure, but this is always Payne's approach you can say and still he manages to mix it nicely with some situational comedy. With Nicholson he also had the right man for the role to deliver the awkwardness. The awkward comedy. Take the moment when he pees all over the bathroom the way he really wants, which was maybe the funniest of the entire film how he decides to let go and let flow there with nobody stopping him. There were also multiple hilarious static camera shots showing us Schmidt's face and he did not even have to do or say something there. Or take that funnily weird fella at the wedding. But there are other scenes that are funny and a bit sad at the same time. Take the alien dream moment he mentions towards his daughter. Or take the moment when he gets a little too close with a new acquaintance. But then again, she kinda deserved it. What a mean statement to make towards a man who had just lost his wife! Even if she was right with all she said, sometimes it is better to be quiet than to be right. And she could have been right without him telling so.
I must also mention the daughter: I was struggling a bit with her too like especially when the protagonist is driving towards her, probably because he was feeling a bit on the lonely side, but also just because he can, and her reaction was utterly disrespectful there on the phone how she made herself very clear that she did not want him to come. It's his money she wants. Maybe this is why Mulroney's character was so over-the-top caring and friendly towards Schmidt too early on. The comforting hug was funny. But it was sad there to see how there Schmidt begged his daughter to stay a little longer. Unsuccessfully. Or take the scene before the alien conversation. I mean what the protagonist said precisely was surely bizarre, but the daughter could not have known yet at that point and did not care at all that her father wanted to speak to her in private. The first delay was already not exactly nice, but when she almost drives off without having the conversation, it was just utterly mean. No daughter-of-the-year material by any means. By the way, early on I was wondering if perhaps she is not even his biological daughter, but the other guy's, the one who wrote those letters to Squibb's character, but the film did not elaborate on that any further. As for Mulroney's character, it was not totally clear what was on his mind. I would say he was just a goofball and not evil in a way to get as much money out of his father-in-law as possible. Could very well be that he believed in this snowball system himself there he mentioned to him and asked him to invest in. If you pay attention, you find out that he never called Schmidt again afterwards about this topic. Of course, you can also speculate if his wife kept him from doing so because she knew it would not go well. Overall, the in-laws are quite the goofball family and mostly in it for the comedy. Each and every single one of them. Or at least the ones we find out about.
Overall, Payne and Nicholson created in Schmidt one of the most interesting and multi-layered movie characters from the year 2002. He definitely has his flaws, but more than just a few inclusions show you his heart is somewhat at the right place and there is nothing wrong with not appreciating the young guy who follows after you at the office after your retirement. That does not make him a bad guy. Neither of the two. Take the very short mention of Schmidt talking to a Native American. Politically correct language was gaining support back then. Schmidt had lots of respect for the man. Maybe because he was closer to his age too. I could elaborate on a few more scenes and depictions here, but I think this is pretty much it. The film also starts in a really nice manner with the clock ticking down on his last day. There is a parallel to how his face there is just 100% stoic, but in the final shot it is filled with tears of joy. This final shot is all about his private life then and not about work. It is also a nice reference towards being remembered somehow, even if it comes from a young kid at the other end of the planet. Touching inclusion long before people started including stuff like that for the sake of things. So yeah, I would say this is a good film and worth seeing, but not one of my favorites from Payne. One of the best lead performances though. Oh and pay attention to the "Sideways" reference seen on the screen on one occasion and how Payne later on with "Nebraska" continued elaborating on schemes that do not pursue honorable intentions.
Silversun Pickups: Nightlight (2015)
Chaotic and all style, no substance
What we got here is the music video for the song Nightlight by the band Silversun Pickups, so quite a few cosmic phenomena in here with night, light and sun, but unfortunately this one did not illuminate me at all, on the contrary. You can see from my rating that I am not a fan at all. The director was Mark Pellington and if you take a look at his body of work, then you will see that he has been really prolific over the years and this is not just the case now in 2024, but he was already fairly experienced in 2015, so almost a decade ago when this got made. Probably over a decade if you get here a little later to read this review of mine. It is also not your stereotypical music video as it runs for slightly under eight minutes, so definitely above-average, almost twice as long as they usually do, and the face that it has a credit section as well makes it obvious that Pellington was going for a bit of a mix between movie and music video. A plot I cannot really make out here though. In the first minute and at the end again as well we have a woman that we see and hear her voiceover. I do not remember the exact words, but it was clearly on the pretentious side. We follow her journey through the night a bit during the long part in-between. Unfortunately, not in an awesome fashion as The Prodigy had us follow a girl through the night back in the day. But even in the middle part here it felt very much style over substance from beginning to end. The supposedly showy moments when we see a man sing with a voice that was very high-pitched and could have come from a female were just not enough.
I cannot come with any reason at all to watch this music video and I wish it would have been shorter. I am not familiar with the band Silver Sun Pickups and while the name is alright, there was nothing in this music video that makes me want to keep an eye on them (or rather ear) and I cannot find any motivation to check out their discography any time soon. So what you hear in this short film is just as forgettable as what you see I must say, even the audio is inferior and it takes quite something for that because yeah it is not a pretty sight by any means. The artistic component the were going for here through pompous set decoration, lots of skin and wigs here and there - it was just not working for me at all. Probably also did not help that the Meg Steedle who plays the main character here was not exactly appealing to me physically. I cannot be a judge of her acting talent from the way she is included here, but I see she was on Boardwalk Empire. Quite liked that show, even if I cannot say I remember her. But before I am drifting further away from this extremely forgettable music video, let me say that I think this is absolutely not worth it and that the viewer count on Youtube that is easily inside seven-digit territory is just far too high. I give it a thumbs-down and it was not even close. I thought this was awful and very unappealing. Like basically a fashion commercial gone totally wrong.