Quarantine Reviews 8: Academy Award Winners and Nominees (prime for rediscovery, and one current nominee)

Copyright Academy of Arts and Sciences

Oscar Fever, Ryan Reviews: Hud, Lillies of the Field, Only When I Laugh,  Tender Mercies, Starman, and The Trial of the Chicago Seven

With the 2021 Academy Awards coming up this weekend (an event I've watched since I was a little boy) I've reviewed several Academy Award Winners and Nominees that are prime for rediscovery!

Happy Viewing!

Cinematographer James Wong Howe. credit: AFI

 Hud. released 1963. Ryan's Rating ✯✯✯✯ (out of four)

Based on a novel by Larry McMurtry (who just passed away in 2021) and like most McMurtry stories it is a coming of age character study about the conflicts between the old world and the new world.  Hud Bannon (Paul Newman), a young self centered womanizer, is constantly at odds with his father, Homer (Melvyn Douglas who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), an aging rancher with an admirable moral code and unflinching principles. They operate a cattle ranch in a small Texas town in the 1950s. Also on the ranch is teenaged Lonnie (Brandon deWilde) who is trying to find his way in the world and is unsure if he should follow Hud's rebellious ways or Homer's more principled lifestyle. Over the course of the story an entire herd of cattle becomes infected with foot and mouth disease which could be the end of the ranch. There is a powerful scene where the entire herd needs to be killed to prevent the spread of the disease. Patricia Neal (who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar) plays the ranch housekeeper who wants nothing to do with Hud or his continuing advances. Filmed in spectacular black and white with Oscar winning cinematography by James Wong Howe (a truly important figure that should be better known, an innovator in the field and all the more impressive because he was Asian American at a time when there were none or very few behind the camera). Martin Ritt always gets exceptional performances from his actors and here is no exception in a truly moving film.

Lilies of the Field released 1963. Ryan's Rating ✯✯✯✯ (out of four)

Sidney Poitier. photocredit: TCM

This film is probably best known today for Sidney Poitier winning the Best Actor Academy Award making him the second black actor to win a competitive acting award (Hattie McDaniel was the first) and making him the first black man to win Best Actor (he would be the only one to win Best Actor for nearly forty more years). I wonder how many of today's viewers have actually seen the movie? I must confess I had always wanted to see it but never took the time until 2020. It is prime for rediscovery. Poitier plays Homer Smith, a man who can fix anything and is good at construction. He is driving west to find work but makes a pitstop at a farm in Arizona occupied by five German nuns. The head nun (Lilia Skala, Oscar nominated) believes he has been sent by God and convinces (really tricks Homer) into staying with them to build a chapel. This dynamic, the push and pull between the two headstrong characters (Homer and Mother Maria), is the heart of the story, and the plot is almost like a bible parable. It is a very small and simple movie but I found it very moving and Poitier is as always commanding to watch. I highly recommend it for an old fashioned film and it is only 90 minutes long.

Only When I Laugh released 1981. Ryan's Rating ✯✯✯ (out of four)

Marsha Mason and Kristy McNichol pc:Prime Video

Based on Neil Simon's play The Gingerbread Lady, with a screenplay adapted by Simon, follows a once successful Broadway star, Georgia (Marsha Mason), who lost her career to alcoholism and as the film opens she is leaving a rehab center. She returns to her New York apartment and her two best friends, one an unemployed actor (James Coco) and a debutant who is obsessed with appearing young (Joan Hackett). Shortly after returning home, Georgia's teenaged daughter (Kristy McNichol), who normally lives with Georgia's ex-husband, comes to live with her. The story continues with Georgia working to stay sober, create a relationship with her daughter, and working to get her Broadway career back on track. There is a very theatrical feel to this (showing its stage origins) and I had to get used to the rhythm of Simon's dialog here because it is not quite realistic. Once I became accustom to the film's style I enjoyed the movie, especially the acting, and I love the location filming in New York. The four main actors are great but Coco and McNichol really stand out (Mason, Coco and Hackett were all nominated for Academy Awards). Prime for rediscovery especially for fans of Broadway and Neil Simon's work. That being said I want to note, the alcoholism is not presented in a very credible way, and there is an assault of the main character (off screen late in the film) that is also not handled well, both are simply here as plot devices. This offhanded use of very real issues may effect your enjoyment of the movie or may make you not want to see it (Siskel & Ebert hated this movie for this and several other reasons). While watching the film it didn't bother me as I was swept up in the story, but as I was thinking about the film for this review it rubbed me the wrong way. I'm still very glad to have seen this film and do recommend it.  

Tender Mercies released 1981. Ryan's Rating ✯✯✯1/2 (out of four)

Duvall and Tess Harper. pc: IMDB

Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall) is a once successful country musician who lost his career and family to alcoholism. As the film opens Mac wakes up from a days long blackout in a roadside motel located in a vast open area of Texas. The motel is owned and run by a young widow (Tess Harper, in her film debut) whose husband died as a young soldier in Vietnam about ten years prior, she also has a ten year old son. He asks if she needs an employee in exchange for a place to stay. She agrees and eventually they fall in love and get married. Now, that could be a story in itself but this all happens in the first ten minutes. Hotron Foote's Academy award winning screenplay is really a series of loosely connected scenes/vignettes all centered around the Mac character. For such a low key role Duvall commands the screen and is mesmerizing, he even does his own signing. This role won him a well deserved Best Actor Oscar. The entire cast is excellent and while I thoroughly enjoyed the film (and was moved by it) this may not be to everyone's liking since it is so quiet. If you're willing to stick with it there are a lot of rewards.

Starman released 1984. Ryan's Rating ✯✯✯1/2 (out of four)

Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen. pc: blu-ray.com

In response to the invitation from the Voyager 2 space probe, a being from outer space comes to earth. In Starman's initial arrival to Earth the ship is shot at by the military and crashes in Wisconsin near the home of a young widow (Karen Allen). Reviewing photos and home movies, the starman takes the form of the woman's recently deceased husband (Jeff Bridges). Soon Starman and the widow (against her will) are on a road trip to Barringer Crater Arizona where he must meet his pick up ship in four days. The basic story and several scenes are very similar to E.T. (which was released two years earlier) but this is a very different movie. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned into a road picture with the two characters traveling cross country, initially I thought the two would stay on her farm so this change of scenery was an exciting change and despite the fact that this is an easy way to show Starman interacting with American life it all rings true. There are some truly great shots of the open desert as they near Arizona. There is a scene where they hitch a ride in the back of a pickup with some migrant workers and we see the clouds and mountains expand in the background in a single shot/long take. I found it breathtaking. Bridges (nominated for Best Actor here) is great as the alien in an unfamiliar skin. Critic Roger Ebert notes that one of the best parts of Bridges's performance is that he never fully becomes human. His speech and movements are always slightly off center and it provides for a great performance. For me, the real key to the film is Karen Allen, who has the less showy and therefore more difficult part. Her progression from fear and uncertainty to warmth and affection is the heart of the movie. This is director John Carpenter's most a-typical film and it is arguably his best. Highly recommend by me.

Trial of the Chicago 7 (2021 Nominee) released 2020. Ryan's Rating ✯✯✯1/2 (out of four)

pc: nytimes.com

Currently nominated for six Academy Awards is another fine film by Aaron Sorkin, who in my opinion has yet to make a bad film. As the title explains this film focuses on a ludicrous trail of initially eight but eventually seven anti-Vietnam war protest leaders who were brought to trial as a scapegoat for the Nixon administration under claims that the seven started the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. As many reviews have stated, Sorkin plays with the facts and rearranges some of the events in order to tell his story so this should not be taken as a complete reenactment but more a commanding film inspired by real events. Perfectly cast. Sasha Baron Cohen (Oscar nominated here) is excellent as Abby Hoffman and this was the first time I have seen Cohen in a film where I forgot it was him. The film is ultimately timely in its depiction of a corrupt government and legal system (Frank Langella as the deranged judge is infuriating), as well as abuses of police power are all unfortunately relevant. Originally intended as a theatrical release (it had a very short run) but made its wide release on Netflix due to the pandemic. It seemed more suited to the TV screen I'm not sure why. It is a fine film and I was enthralled, engaged, and entertained.

Quarantine Movies Reviews 7: Four small town murder mysteries

Watch out who you chat with in these small towns (really three small towns and a big estate)!

Ryan's Reviews of Cookie's Fortune, Clay Pigeons, Drowning Mona, and Gosford Park.

Janeane Garofalo and Vince Vaughn in Clay Pigeons. pc: IMDB

Clay Pigeons (released 1998) Ryan's Rating ✯✯1/2 (out of four)

I have wanted to see this film since I saw the VHS cover in Blockbuster Video but at the time it was a little older than my sixth grade mind could handle so my family was not going to rent it for me. I never got around to watching it till now (though the Amazon Prime Video version is a pan & scan, seemingly copied from a VHS which maybe takes it all full circle). 

Clay (a young Joaquin Phoenix) is a lazy guy living in a small town (possibly in Texas though the film was shot in Utah) and has been sleeping with his best friend's wife. His best friend kills himself and makes it look like a murder committed by Clay. Soon a mysterious drifter, with a creepy laugh (early career Vince Vaughn), shows up and insinuates himself into Clay's life. Within a week more dead bodies start showing up all with a connection to Clay and then the FBI arrives (Janeane Garofalo) to look into it. This is a mix of Neo-Noir and a black comedy, the opening scene really pulls the audience in and the first thirty minutes are so good that the rest of the film doesn't sustain the greatness of the beginning. On top of that the pace slows down at about the halfway mark. I enjoyed the movie overall, though the ending is not a satisfying resolution and sometimes the country songs on the soundtrack dilute their scenes instead of enhancing them. It is very reminiscent of the 1980s and 1990s independent Neo-Noirs or crime films like Blood Simple, One False Move, and Red Rock West (among many others). If you're a fan of Neo-Noir and have an hour and forty five minutes give this one a whirl.

Cookie's Fortune (released 1999) Ryan's Rating ✯✯✯ (out of four).

Charles S. Dutton and Liv Tyler in Cookie's Fortune PC IMDB

During Easter weekend in a small Mississippi town, a wealthy eccentric woman named Cookie (played by the always lovely Patricia Neal) dies in her sleep and her money hungry sister (played by Glenn Close) claims it was murder. Soon Cookie's longtime friend and handyman (Charles S. Dutton in one of his most appealing performances) is charged with the crime, though most of the town doubts his involvement. This Robert Altman film, like all Altman films, is an ensemble piece with a wonderful cast (including Julianne Moore, and many1990s familiar faces like Liv Tyler, Chris O'Donnell, and Lyle Lovett) and a more whimsical lighthearted approach than I am used to from Altman. And like other Altman films it is more of a character study than a true mystery as the audience knows full well what happened but we are watching to see how the story plays out with the these wonderful characters. It is a sweet funny film.

Drowning Mona (released 2000) Ryan's Rating ✯✯ (out of four).

In a town where everyone still drives a Yugo brand car because it was used for market testing in the 1970s, the most hated resident Mona Dearly (played with gusto by Bette Midler) is murdered when her brakes fail. The sheriff (excellent Danny DeVito) begins to investigate and finds a town full of suspects but all evidence seems to point toward his soon to be son-in-law (pre-fame Casey Affleck). This is a very black comedy, with much of the "humor" being downright mean. Through flashbacks we see events told by different characters and how the story changes depending on which character is speaking. The plot is a traditional small town "whodunit" mystery but run through a wacky filter and by the end I did not really care to figure out who the culprit was. The movie feels too long even at 96 minutes and the excellent cast that includes Neve Campbell (the sheriff's daughter) and Jamie Lee Curtis (not given much to do as a chain smoking waitress). It would have been better shorter and maybe as an HBO TV movie instead of a theatrical feature. There are some funny ideas, like the Yugos.

Gosford Park (released 2001) Ryan's Rating ✯✯✯ (out of four).

Another wonderful late career gem by Robert Altman. At the British Estate of the title a wide array of aristocracy and their servants gather for a weekend party where the host is killed. While there is a murder and a solution, the murder element of the story doesn't really happen till quite late in the film. This is really a "upstairs/downstairs" ensemble piece as we see the lives of the wealthy and their servants juxtaposed. The Oscar winning screenplay by Julian Fellows is a precursor to Fellows later success. He took many of the elements in his story here and several years later created the extremely successful Downton Abby TV Series. An enjoyable ensemble piece that is not really a mystery but just an interesting character study with great cinematography, excellent set/costume design, and wonderful performance by a great cast.