We're Back Together....

So, Oscar and I decided to take a break.. Well more accurately, I took a break from Oscar..  But because Oscar is simply a proverb for my movie watching challenge and not a literal boyfriend, he was more than happy to take me back.. Phew....

So I have to admit life did go on in the last six months, but Oscar was never far from my mind... I kept telling my friends that I would go back to him... I’m not sure if it was out of want, so much as it was to the guilt of not following through on my challenge... But again because Oscar isn’t a real person, it doesn’t matter what my reasons are for coming back to him, only that I’m back...

So without further ado, let’s get back to the reviewing... I’ve got three films for review this entry so let’s get under way...

Tender Mercies  MOVIE OF THE BIANNUAL

Director: Bruce Beresford
Starring: Robert Duvall, Tess Harper, Betty Buckley, Allan Hubbard and Ellen Barkin

This film was a simple yet complex story. It was presented in a way that it was almost like not much happened, but it really did. I think that’s what I liked about it, no Hollywood over-dramatisation!

The film is the story of Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall), a famous country western writer and performer, who developed an alcohol addiction, destroying both his career and his family. The film opens with Mac, intoxicated in a small motel room somewhere in Texas. The hotel is owned and operated by Rosa Lee (Tess Harper), a widow raising her one and only son, Sonny (Allan Hubbard). With no other prospects or anywhere else to go, Mac stays on at the motel and works there in exchange for food and rent. With Rosa’s positive influence, Mac ceases drinking and soon after he and Rosa marry. Mac seems content with his new life, but cannot forget about his old one and when his ex-wife, Dixie (Betty Buckley) comes to perform in the area, he attempts to meet up with her, in the hope of seeing his daughter, Sue Anne (Ellen Barkin). Dixie refuses to believe that he has changed and prevents him from seeing Sue Anne, claiming “she never thinks about you”.  Soon after, Sue Anne makes contact with Mac independently, seeking his blessing for her new relationship with one of her mother’s back up musicians. Mac agrees to meet with them, but insists that she tell her mother before arranging the meeting.

Meanwhile, a local band in the area sort out Mac, after they found out he was working at the motel and ask him to write some songs for them to perform. He agrees and the band starts to build some notoriety in the area, even getting one of their songs on the radio and securing a record deal.

Just as Mac’s life appears to be getting back on track, his daughter Sue Anne elopes with her boyfriend and is later killed in a motor vehicle accident. Mac, who everyone expected to slip back into alcoholism, is able to pull through this with the help of his new family, whereas Dixie is left completely destroyed. The film ends with Mac throwing the football around with Sonny, with Rosa looking on.

Like I said there is actually a lot of significant events that take place in the movie (e.g. recovery from alcoholism, love, marriage, death of a child, fame etc). And events that would invoke raw emotion, that could easily be presented quite dramatically. Beresford avoids the temptation to get the “easy vote”, which directors in Hollywood often do through over-dramatisation (e.g. big musical scores, over-acting). Rather the story doesn’t delve too much into the emotion of the characters (apart from the final scenes with Dixie inconsolable in her bedroom and one scene with Mac driving around all night after a fight with Rosa). Things just seem to “happen” and despite absolutely tragic circumstances or even highly exciting events (when the bands song is released on the radio for example), life just simply goes on, without too much focus on the emotionality of the character(s).  I liked that very much about the film and hence why I gave it the MOVIE OF THE BIANNUAL status (out of the three I viewed of course).

6.5/10

Terms Of Endearment

Director: James L Brooks
Starring: Shirley MacLaine, Deborah Winger, Jack Nicholson, Jeff Daniels, Danny Devito and John Lithgow

For the only movie I had heard of out of three prior to viewing, I didn’t love it. To me the characters were a bit “unlikeable”, except for Danny Devito, who definitely made me chuckle.

The movie is about the lives of mother Aurora (Shirley MacLaine) and her daughter Emma (Debra Winger). Aurora is very overprotective of Emma as a child, resulting in her rebelling by marrying a man her mother did not approve of Flap (Jeff Daniels). Flap is offered a job a long way from home and due his difficulties with Aurora, stemming from her non-acceptance of him, he accepts the position and moves Emma and the kids away.

It is only after Emma moves away and Aurora’s focus has to shift from her daughter, to her own life that she actually begins to live. She is pursued by her womanising, astronaut neighbour, Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson). He’s crude, rude and yet irresistible to Aurora. After a lot of witty banter and a disastrous date or two, they sleep together and actually start to develop a relationship.

Meanwhile, unlike Aurora’s life which seems to get better with the distance, the quality of Emma’s seems to decrease. Her relationship with Flap begins to deteriorate with the stress of raising the children, as well as the financial pressure. She soon discovers that Flap is having an affair with one of his graduate students and so she retaliates with a brief affair with Sam Burns (John Lithgow). Soon after she is diagnosed with terminal cancer and the last part of the film focuses on Emma’s end of life and how the family copes with this. Aurora and Emma are able to repair any relationship damage from the past. Probably the most gut wrenching part for me was watching the way Emma’s eldest son, Tommy (Troy Bishop) related to his mother, even in her dying hours. He was very bratty and although grieving I’m sure, was frankly a “little shit”.

All in all, I didn’t love the movie. There were parts that were certainly enjoyable, namely Danny Devitos’ characters unrelenting pursuance of Aurora. Similarly, I found the interaction between Garrett and Aurora somewhat entertaining, mostly because Garrett did not hold back and consistently made sexually inappropriate comments to Aurora, despite her age and disgust. But I didn’t love the characters. Aurora was uptight and overbearing, Emma was passive and impulsive, Flap was a flake and Tommy was, as I so intelligently put it earlier, a little shit!

5/10

The Big Chill

Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Starring: Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, Tom Berenger, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly and Jobeth Williams.

Well, I’m just warning you, I’m not going to waste too much time reviewing this film, because it was my least favourite. It actually took me a few nights to get through it, as I kept falling asleep. Shame really!

The movie is about seven college friends, who are brought back together for a weekend away, following the funeral of one of their other friends, Alex, who committed suicide. The movie focuses on love lost, dreams shattered and ideals compromised. Each character seems to have something unresolved with one of the other characters and these are explored to some extent over the course of the film.

I found it boring, drawn out and frankly pointless. But challenge me and my ease at righting this film off. It was nominated for best film, so I can’t help but feel that I must be missing something. But hey, Oscar can’t always be right, that goes against all the laws of relationships, which state that the woman is always right, right??

3/10

Well, until next week (hopefully) “bon-voy-age”!

A J.D. Moment

So, if you are familiar with the TV comedy "Scrubs", you should understand where I'm going with this post. But for those of you who aren't, here’s a quick background. Basically, the show is about a bunch of hospital interns who have just recently graduated from medical school. The show depicts their progression from interns into residents and then eventually fully qualified doctors. It centres around a guy by the name of J.D., his best friend Turk and the people they meet whilst working in Sacred Heart Hospital.  The events of each episode are depicted through self narration by J.D. Each episode is called "My..... something" and comes from his perspective. Much like my blog, which by its very nature has to come from somebody's perspective and because it's mine, it should be my perspective right? Not necessarily. As fans of Scrubs would know, once in every season, J.D. will pass the reigns to one of his offsiders and the events taking place are depicted through their perspective and titled "Her/His....... something". What's this got to do with me you ask? Well basically the last movie I watched was The Right Stuff and I fell asleep. So instead of giving you a review that would read something along the lines of "boring action movie about the race to space", I thought I would let my wonderful and supportive partner Tim write this post. He did enjoy the film and managed to watch it from start to finish. Bonus:)

Hey folks, Turk here. I liked the movie. The End.

If you’re looking for a little more information about the movie then here goes. I don’t know any of the actors in the movie so I can’t really tell you that. I didn’t pay too much attention to who the Director was, so I can’t really tell you about that either. What I can tell you is that the movie is about a group of test pilots all wanting to be the best, the fastest, the strongest, the one with the biggest balls. It starts off with the men dragging their wives out to the desert to live as they try and fly their test planes faster than the speed of sound. Some of the pilots crash and die and there is one guy who does succeed. The guy who does go the fastest is held as being the champ. He always gets the best equipment and if someone goes faster than him then he pushes himself to go faster. He always manages to stay on top. The race then turns on who could fly twice as fast as the speed of sound and then three times the speed of sound. With each accomplishment, less and less people care about it and less men travel to the desert to become test pilots.

As the air speed race slows down and less people care about it the next race turns to space. It now becomes a race between Russia and the USA to see who could get the first person into space. Russia puts a lot more effort towards this at the beginning and ultimately is the first person to achieve this. USA is not happy and they make it a priority to make sure that they beat Russia from then on. USA picks seven test pilots who ultimately become astronauts. All seven astronauts get to go into space and each one made it safely back and each achieve a greater goal.

The movie ends with cutting back to the desert with the original champ being the only person left there as everyone has moved on to the space race. He is there with a new plane that had just been delivered for him to test. He and the mechanic believe this plane could beat the record for the higest altitude that a plane could get to. He quickly jumps in the plane and goes for it. He reaches the record but runs into trouble and crashes the plane. He survives and walks away.

So Tim gives this movie a 7/10. Pretty good, but I guess if you want to watch it, you’ll have to take his word for it cos I aint vouching for this rating:p

By the way the director of this film was Philip Kaufman and it starred: Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris and Dennis Quaid, just in case you were interested!

Until next time, “that’s robot for goodbye” (JD, Scrubs)

Natural Disasters

It seems like an age since I've written on here, but in reality it's only been two weeks. So much has happened since the last post that it feels a lot longer. The day after my last post it seemed that the apocalypse was coming, well for Queensland anyway. Here's the scenario: I rock up to work after taking the day off sick (refer to last post for full details haha). I briefly catch up with a few colleagues about the bizarre and devastating inland tidal wave that had rushed through Toowomba the day before. Many of my colleagues are from the area and whilst their family and loved ones were all okay, I think a lot of them felt quite displaced. The idea that a wave of that magnitude could go through the high set inland town was previously inconceivable particularly for those who had lived there, but was now very much a reality. Whilst we all commented and discussed the tragedy of this event, we all went about our day. A mere two hours later the emergency alarm rang. Next thing I know my manager is talking about evacuation plans and king tides. From there it was a rush to lift valuables up off the ground and contact clients to alert them that the office was shutting indefinitely. Brisbane was going to flood and the prediction was that the water levels would reach higher than those of 1974, which saw much of Brisbane's CBD infiltrated with water. The idea that Brisbane could go under seemed like a foreign concept to me, but I witnessed it. From the safety of my lounge room, thanks to the amazing media coverage, I saw my university UQ go under, I saw one of my favourite restaurant precincts Rosalie destroyed, I saw Riverwalk a place that I had taken visitors from interstate many times literally float away and I saw Suncorp where I'd watch my beloved South Sydney Rabbitohs get thrashed by the Brisbane Broncos literally turn into a giant swamp. From my own neighbourhood, I watched plontoons with lights and park benches on top of them float down the river, I watched Sydney Street ferry terminal be overpowered by the unrelenting tide, I saw a car with water up to its roof top and I watched a poisonous LPG gas tank make its way towards Moreton Bay. This event was unbelievable and left almost no one unaffected. Whilst my home and my workplace were safe, I spent the day leading up to the first king tide helping Tim sandbag his business, I waited with anticipation and hoped with all my strength as one my very best friends was trapped in one of the flood affected suburbs and I watched so many places that I frequent go under water. I have never experienced anything like that in my life and I hope to never again.

E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial MOVIE OF THE WEEK
Director: Steven Spielburg
Starring: Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore and Peter Cyote

Well I think you have to have been sleeping under a rock, under water, in the deepest, darkest swamp in Botswana to have not seen this movie. It was massive both at the box office and amongst the mainstream and like other science fiction movies before it, still to this day has a massive cult following. I think it’s a little hard to really understand why it was and continues to be soo big, but you have to put yourself in the context of when it was made to really get it. Special effects wise, it had been matched by no other (apart from maybe the Star Wars films). It was a unique story and according to my post viewing reading, was inspired by Spielburg’s own childhood (E.T. himself was an imaginary friend Spielburg had as a child). The alien himself was a costume warn at different times throughout the film by two small people and a twelve year old boy who was born without legs. His arms were played by a mime artist and his voice was that of an elderly woman, who chain smoked, hence the husky tone. Pretty interesting hey!

The movie is about an alien by the name of E.T., who is accidentally left behind by his people during a trip to Earth. He is discovered by a young boy Elliot (Henry Thomas), who lures him into his house using lollies. Elliot decides to keep him and only tells his older brother Michael (Robert MacNaughton) about him. Their little sister Gertie (Drew Barrymore) accidentally finds out about him and they swear her to secrecy. The film starts out as being focused on E.T. learning about Earth and its people from his new friends, however he soon starts to become ill and so too does Elliot due to their psychic connection. The children eventually have to confess to their mother Mary (Dee Wallace) about E.T.s existence, as Elliot becomes sicker, but by this stage the government is well aware of E.T. and bust into their home and take it over. In the final scenes Elliot and E.T. both become increasingly sicker and are both dying. In E.T.’s final moments, he breaks his psychic connection with Elliot and the young boy starts to recover, whilst we assume that E.T. has died. Later, as Elliot asks to be alone with the alien’s corpse to say goodbye, a flower in a pot, which died when E.T. did, suddenly comes back to life, symbolising E.T. also coming back. E.T. has been contacted by his people and they are coming for him, which resuscitates him. Elliot and Michael steal one of the government’s vans and with the help of Michael’s friends, as well as E.T.s ability to levitate them off the ground, abduct E.T. and fly on their bicycles over the town, back to the spot where the ship first left E.T. behind so they can return him to his people (who can forget that famous scene with the silhouettes of the boys on their flying bicycles go across the sunset). Mary and Gertie, as well as a sympathetic and dedicated scientist “Keys” (Peter Cyote) meet the boys and E.T. there. They all say goodbye to E.T. and watch his ship return to space.

For me this film is a childhood classic. To be honest with you, I wasn’t looking forward to watching it, just because I had seen it sooooooo many times. But because I was watching it with a purpose I did enjoy it. And here’s an interesting bit of trivia that I found out during my post viewing reading, Robert MacNaughton (Michael) now works as a mail sorter in the American post. Just goes to show that saying of “fifteen minutes of fame” is sometimes closer to the truth then what we think.

8/10

The Dresser
Director: Peter Yates
Starring: Albert Finney, Thomas Courtenay, Zena Walker and Eileen Atkins

Hmmm, I’m still not sure about this film. It was definitely different, but I just don’t think I liked it. The film is about a Shakespearean theatre company in England during World War II. The film stars Albert Finney as “Sir” the head actor and creator of the company, who appears to be suffering with a form of dementia. The film is about the company’s struggle to perform King Lear, a play that they have performed many times before, but this particular performance is being jeopardised by Sir’s progressive condition. He not only struggles to remember his lines, but has frequent outbursts, which are non-sensical and stop him from being able to perform. The film tracks the lead up to this performance and focuses on the relationship between Sir and his dresser Norman (Thomas Courtenay). Norman appears to be the only one who can get through to Sir, is the only one who can calm him down, but at the same time is often the victim of Sir’s abuse and ego. The performances on screen mirror that of the theatre and particularly the dramatic nature of Shakespearean plays. Sir is the “fallen hero”, the veteran and legendary actor, who is well past his prime and is doomed for a tragic end, like many of Shakespeare’s leading men. The other characters in the film are merely parts of Sir’s world and do not have lives in their own right. Norman’s life is about pandering to Sir’s every need, although he does show an inner strength that one would assume he would not have given his chosen line of work. At various points he stands up for himself against Sir’s abuse and he is steadfast in defending Sir against those in the company who doubt he can perform. There’s Her Ladyship (Zena Walker), who is Sir’s wife, who appears to be so passive and so far removed from her husband, that one could argue Norman is almost playing the part of dresser, servant, friend and wife in her place. Then there’s the stage manager Madge (Eileen Atkins), who has dedicated her life to Sir’s company and has sacrificed her own happiness because of her love for him, even knowing that he would never love her back. In the end, Sir is able to live up to his legendary reputation and perform King Lear for his audience, even with the sirens going off the in background signifying that there may be about to be an air raid. In the final scene, Sir shows Norman the first draft of his biography. The only part he has written is the dedication. In this dedication he makes note of all those who work in the theatre from actors to electricians. Norman is very hurt by this, as he has made no mention of him personally or acknowledge the role of the dresser in his dedication to the theatre. Sir then dies, leaving Norman feeling ungratified and although he has wasted his life, as Sir even in his dying minutes could not tell him how much he appreciated him. The film ends shortly after.

I appreciate that this film was different and in its own way almost seemed like a dedication to the theatre. However, I did not enjoy it very much and found it quite peculiar and a bit boring.

I give it a 3/10!

Until next time “I’ll be right here” (ET, ET: The Extra Terrestrial)

The Sick Day

I never know what's the appropriate etiquette when on a sick day. Sure there's the day's that you call in sick, where you feel like death and the only option is sleeping. But what about those other days, where you're not well enough to be at work, but after tossing and turning for a few hours, sleep becomes a mythological concept? In these situations is it okay to do chores? Is it okay to catch up on Facebook, read a magazine or write on your blog? Or should we become social recluses, riddled with disease, trapped in the deep dark depths of the bedroom, only to resurface once the last sneeze has sounded? Well today I'm compromising! I've got the dreaded and long lasting summer cold and was unable to drag my sneezing and suffling behind into work this morning. So, I'm lying in bed removing the possibility of contaminating anyone else, but at the same time, I'm writing on here.

I also have to apologise, as it has been quite a few weeks since I've been on here. However, despite my absence, I have continued with the films of 1982 and have two to review. So here it goes.

The Verdict
Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden, James Mason, Milo O’Shea

The Verdict is a court room drama, starring Paul Newman as broke down lawyer, Frank Galvin. The film opens with various scenes of Frank in bars, drunk in his office and trying to swindle work at funerals (he would approach the family members and claim to have known the deceased and offer his services). Of course at this point he is presented as a very unlikeable character, a maggot, drinking way too much and preying on the grief of others. However, it is quite obvious that there is more to this story then what you are seeing on screen (maybe because it’s Hollywood and there always is more to the story, but I would like to think it is because of a deep insight hehe).

Frank’s friend and colleague, Mickey Morrissey (James Mason), has a soft spot for Frank (we do not understand why at this point) and gives him a civil suit case.  However, due to Frank’s self-destructive ways, Mickey tells him they are through after this case. The case is a medical malpractice case, involving a young pregnant woman, who was given the wrong dose of aneasetic and as a result her baby died and she was left in a coma. Her sister and her husband bought the case to Mickey’s firm. They are suing the hospital involved, which is owned by the Archdiocese. All parties are willing to settle out of court with a settlement fee of $210000 going to the plaintiffs. However, Frank much to the opposition of the sister and her husband, Frank decides the case needs to tried, both because he believes that the woman deserves a chance at a more just outcome and because he desires to restore his reputation as a lawyer.

The film is as much about the case itself, as it is about the inadequacies of the court system. The judge (Milo O’Shea) is nothing less than bias and actively works against Frank, openly telling him that he should have settled, dismisses a key witnesses testimony and actually cross examines a witness himself. The defence buys off witnesses and even goes as far as planting a mole, to spy on Frank and Mickey as they build their case. Her name is Laura Fischer (Charlotte Rampling) and she becomes the love interest of Frank in the film. Both Mickey and Frank confide in her. Mickey tells her about Frank’s background and how he ended up where he did. Frank was once a really strong and successful lawyer, until he found out that witnesses were being “bought off” in a case he was trying. He was going to report it, but those involved found out and set him up. He was arrested for witness tampering himself and was only released from prison after he promised not to report his colleagues. His reputation was ruined after this and this led him to his life style of chronic drinking and ambulance chasing. Laura is eventually caught out by Mickey, after he finds a cheque in her bag from the defence. At this point in the film, the case is going really bad and it is only after Frank seeks out a nurse, who was not testifying for the defence that there is hope for his case. Laura turns over a new leaf and does not tell the defence about the nurse. She is then able to testify and tell the court that her job was threatened by the doctors involved if she disclosed that the patient was given aneasetic one hour after eating, when it should have been nine. They even forced her to change what she had written on the admittance sheet. Based on this testimony (even though the judge told the jury to strike it from their memory, based on some loose precedent allowing him to rightfully dismiss the testimony as evidence) the jury come back in favour of the plaintiff and even ask the judge if they can award a bigger amount then that asked for. We do not find out what that is. The final scene is Frank looking across at Laura from a distance. You get the sense from his look that he is appreciative that she did the “right thing” not revealing that witness to the defence, but that he cannot forgive such a betrayal and they will never be together again.

I really liked the movie. I enjoyed seeing Paul Newman in a film, as being from Gen Y, much like Jane Fonda being the exercise lady to me, Paul Newman is the creator of my favourite spaghetti sauce.

7/10


Missing
Director: Costa-Gavras
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea

Missing stars Jack Lemmon as Ed Horman and Sissy Spacek as Beth Horman, and is based on a true story. The movie is about the disappearance of Ed’s son and Beth’s husband, Charles Horman (John Shea) during the military coup in Chile in 1973. Beth and Charlie lived there during this period and worked on a liberal newspaper. At the start of the film, they make the decision to return home, deciding that it was becoming too dangerous to remain in the country. The general belief was that American citizens were safe due to an agreement forged between the two counties.

The movie tracks the search carried out by Ed and Beth and the American government’s potential involvement in Charlie’s disappearance. Ed is a high flying businessman and so has good contacts in Washington. At the start of the film he has a strong sense of trust and faith in the American government and is in close contact with staff in the American Consulate in Chile. Beth on the other hand, is very mistrusting, does not believe that Charlie is in “hiding”, which is what the Consulate are telling her is most likely, and is not willing to cooperate in their investigation, opting to find answers herself. Ed and Beth do not have a good relationship at the beginning of the film. It appears that Ed and Charles’ relationship has suffered due to fundamental differences in their politics (Ed is a conservative, believing in the American government, whilst Charles is more liberal and leftist in his politics) and Ed resents Beth, who shares the same views as Charlie.

It is not until Beth and Ed start talking with all those people who were with Charlie in the weeks and days leading up to his disappearance, and through these conversations are able to find out that Charlie was privy to information that could potentially prove America’s involvement in the coup, that Ed starts to question the American government and whether they are doing everything humanly possible to find his son. Despite their differences, Ed loves his son and will do anything to find him. He begs, pleads and offers to be bound and blind folded, if it means he can talk to somebody who knows what happened to his son. The straw that breaks the camel’s back for Ed is when he and Beth uncover the body of one of Charlie’s associates Frank Teruggi. The reason that is the breaking point for Ed is because an official from the Consulate himself, told Ed personally that Frank had left the country, but obviously he had not, as he was dead. Ed finds out towards the end of the film that his son was executed in the National Stadium where the Chilean military were holding people captive. After he finds this out, he takes Beth back to America and sues the American government for negligence. This is the end of the film, however there is a citation just before the credits, that informs the viewer of what happens after Beth and Ed leave Chile. Ed does sue the government, however it takes seven months for them to ship Charlie’s body back to the States making an accurate autopsy impossible. The suit does go to court and after many years of litigation, the case is dismissed due to lack of evidence proving negligence.

The movie was very sad, but I still enjoyed it. Jack Lemon and Sissy Spacek were really good in the film, really bringing the characters to life. I also found it interesting, as I knew nothing of the coup in Chile or the suspicion that the American government may have been involved. In my post viewing reading, I found out that the coup came about potentially because the American government became involved with the Chilean military due to their concern about the socialist regime growing with the Chilean president Allende, being a socialist. He was elected democratically in 1970, however only won marginally, despite America spending nearly half a million dollars supporting National Party leader, Rodriguez’s campaign.

Good movie.
7/10

Until my next entry, “well goooooodddbyyyeeee now, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah” (Natalie, The Commitments)