I wanted to revisit The
Full Monty because in my memory, it resides in a place where thruway, but
well-made popular entertainments go to die. Every time I’ve considered its pace
among five Oscar Best Picture nominees (competing against L.A.
Confidential, Titanic, Good
Will Hunting, and As Good as It
Gets, it was the definition of “it’s an honor just to be nominated.”) Was
it also a stroke of incredible good fortune to be nominated? Was it really that
good or did it just tickle audiences the right way and have the right wards
marketing team to help it fill a niche spot in the category often reserved for
light quirky comedies that make a lot of money and get people talking? C.f. Four Weddings and a Funeral and Chocolat.
A blog mostly dedicated to cinema (including both new and old film reviews; commentary; and as the URL suggests - movie lists, although it has been lacking in this area to be honest), but on occasion touching on other areas of personal interest to me.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Election Movie Review
Alexander Payne’s second film was a brilliant little gem
called Election, a satirical look at
electoral process through the prism of a high school student council election.
The screenplay was adapted from Tom Perrotta’s novel by Payne and Jim Taylor
and is as true to high school life and character as it is cynically observant
of political ambition.
Reese Witherspoon achieved major breakout success playing
Tracy Flick, the little bundle of gumption and up-start attitude that comes
across as admirable in a teenager, but which has the potential to transition
into an adulthood of stepping on everyone to achieve her goals. Matthew
Broderick plays the popular history teacher, Jim McAllister, who oversees
student government elections. He teaches the students civics and about the
difference between morals and ethics – a line he would do well to consider
later in the film when he manipulates the election results and cheats on his
wife. Mr. McAllister is one of those teachers that students remember their
whole lives. He is dedicated and enthusiastic and truly a stand-up guy, even
standing beside his friend and colleague Dave Novotni after it’s discovered
he’s been having an affair with sixteen-year old Tracy (the one detail I find
sort of unbelievable in an otherwise perfect movie because girls like Tracy are
not typically sexually ambitious and aren’t targeted by men like Dave.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
From My Collection: Shakespeare in Love Movie Review
I just recently rewatched Shakespeare in Love and it was a s good, if not better than I
remember it. John Madden’s film of the fictional and comic fantasy of how the
greatest romantic tragedy in literary history came to be was my favorite film
of 1998. I saw it Christmas Day, part of a moviegoing tradition I diligently
maintained from 1997 through 2005, and then again a few weeks after. I bought
the DVD in 1999 and have watched it a few times over the years and now I have
the Blu-Ray (yes, I’m a dinosaur) so I can enjoy it in HD whenever I please. I
was one of few people to accurately predict its victory in the Best Picture
Oscar contest. In the Oscar pool I used to manage, only three people out of
about thirty made that pick over Saving
Private Ryan.
Saturday, October 3, 2015
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation Movie Review
The whole plot of the latest Mission: Impossible film, subtitled Rogue Nation, and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who also wrote
the screenplay and is involved in one way or another in just about everything
Tom Cruise stars in these days, hinges on the usual MacGuffin device. In this
case it’s a cache of data that will give financial support to an international
crime organization known as The Syndicate. They are essentially the
anti-Impossible Mission force, comprised of agents from all over the world who
disappeared, presumed dead, over the last several years. The thing is, the data
can be accessed using fingerprint and voice ID of only one person – the Prime
Minister of Britain! I mean, there’s security and then there’s just plain
stupid and ineffective. What happens if the PM suddenly dies? What if he
resigns? What if he’s revealed to be greater than Nixon levels of corrupt?
Anyway, this is just a minor logical inconvenience o the way to a
cleverly-crafted sequence that results in the kidnapping of the Prime Minister.
And clever set pieces are the stock in trade of the Mission: Impossible series.
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