Best films of 2014
This is a list of the best films I saw on dvd this past year. You can read the complete reviews by clicking on the links
Fallen Angel 1945
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This is a pretty good but somewhat improbable dandruff on a
double breasted navy blue pin stripe suit film noir that was directed by Otto
Preminger one year after his masterpiece Laura and once again using leading man Dana Andrews and some of the same crew.
This one begins with Andrews down on his luck being asked to get off an
overnight bus because he doesn’t have money for his fare so off he goes and he
finds himself in a small coast town somewhere between San Francisco and
nowhere. Walking to the “business district” of the town he finds a dump diner
called “Pops Eats” where he can just about manage to get himself a cup of java
and a burger but because the diner is about to close Pops the owner played by
none other than Percy Kilbride few years away from his big break in movies as
Pop Kettle and film immortality gives him a hard time. It seems that his
sluttish sultry hard as nails waitress Stella has not showed up all day, and
Pops who has a crush big time for her is worried. Soon she appears very quickly
into the scene and is so hungry that Pops gives her Dana’s burger. “That was
the best hamburger I never had” Dana says and this is how we are introduced to
Stella played by the beautiful the wonderful Linda Darnell who is one of the
fallen angels.
Talk of the town 1942
Somewhat lumpy overlong (as only George Stevens can be)
romantic comedy with serious topical touches circa 1942 thrown in that still
resonate. This is the kind of movie that you would expect to see coming out of
the mind of Frank Capra, sentimental, patriotic with quirky characters making
cute and a message that hits us over the head. The film opens with an
impressive montage showing in swift images Cary Grant being sent to prison for
arson and murder, newspaper headlines flash by along with grim shots of Grant,
and right away we just know that he has to be innocent, this is Cary for crying
out loud. The next sequence takes place on a stormy rainy night and Grant makes
an unbelievable escape from prison by overpowering a guard and jumping out of a
window. The hounds are soon snapping at his behind as he limps (he hurt his
ankle jumping out the window) to the home of the wonderful, the magnificent
Jean Arthur who is hanging curtains and getting her house ready for the tenant
moving in the next morning. Jean hears a noise outside and sees Grant moving by
and soon he’s in the living room, where Jean brandishing a weapon calls him by
his first name Leopold and we soon realize that they know each other. It seems
that Jean and Cary grew up together in this small back lot town set somewhere
in New England, and of course she also believes in his innocence.
Blue Is The Warmest Color 2013
When I mentioned to someone I know that I was going to watch
"Blue Is The Warmest Color" tonight he said "oh the Lesbian
movie" with a somewhat sweaty smirk on his face. Yes there is sex in the
movie, explicit sex between two women, but this extraordinary nearly 3 hour
film is about more than the sex. The director Abdellatif Kechiche based the
film on a graphic (comic book) novel which I didn't read or even know about, my
one time short intense graphic novel phase of a few years back is long over, so
I really didn't know what to expect, other than "the explicit Lesbian
sex". Set in Lille France the focus of the movie is on a 15 year old
beautiful sensitive teenage girl named Adele who is played by the young and
beautiful actress Adele Exarchoplous who gives a truly remarkable performance,
the best of the year for sure, and her growth as a person and a woman over a
span of 10 years.
The Best Of Everything 1959
High pitched girlie movie from the
mid century with great clothes and decor. The cast is mixed with oldies (Joan
Crawford) never more scary Brian Aherne as a dirty old man who would be brought
up on sexual harassment charges today, and
Louis Jourdan as a piece of shit theatre director, along with some hot young
stars of the day, Hope Lange, Diane Baker, Suzy Parker (beautiful but an
embarrassment in the acting dept, and a young Robert Evans before he left
acting doing us all a big favor, and the most beautiful of them all Stephen
Boyd who Raquel Welch recently outed and who died way too young. You could have
fallen into his cleft chin.
Two Men In Manhattan 1959I’ve been thinking a lot about this odd little 84 minute Jean Pierre Melville film that I saw the other night that is set in a nocturnal 1958 New York City right before Christmas and where all roads seem to lead to and from Times Square. The story follows two Frenchmen a reporter and a photographer, both old friends, sometimes not in agreement, but here they are on assignment from a French news agency to find a missing French delegate to the United Nations. All they have to work with are photographs of the guy with 4 of his mistresses, a jazz singer, a striper, an actress and a call girl, performers all, and off they go in their snazzy overcoats into the inky black night of Manhattan to find them and hopefully the missing diplomat.
The Killing 1956Slinking into the Mayfair Theatre in Times Sq. in May of 1956 where it just laid there collecting dust and indifference, this is Kubrick’s first masterwork. Unsettling, damp and dark this little bed bug of a movie was pretty much ignored by critics and audiences alike. Maybe because even in 1956 it seemed dated even by conservative Hollywood’s standards. It looks like 1951 and in 1956 Hollywood was doing the big Cinemascope color thing with bloated brightly colored easy does it entertainment, and giving out its little Oscar man to some pretty but dreadful things like “Around The World in 80 Days,” “Giant”, “The Ten Commandments” and “The King and I” none of which have stood my test of time. It’s a stay at home on a Saturday night when everyone else is having fun at the Prom kind of movie. That’s ok. I finally saw “The Killing” for the first time some years back, and recently slipped the gorgeous Criterion transfer into my dvd player the other night and started to swoon the minute Marie Windsor as Sherry started to give it to her poor schnook of a husband the short sad Elisha Cook Jr. who asks her why did she marry him? Good question Elisha because this Sherry is no cherry on the top. She is bad, a cheat, a rancid parfait topped off by a bunch of blonde hair sitting on the top of her head.
Gloria 2013
No not the wonderful John Cassavettes-Gena Rowlands film but still an equally wonderful Gloria. This smart and moving little film from Chile tells the story of an average middle age divorced woman who is lonely and spends her evenings at Discos full of other lonely middle aged and even older men and women who dance and drink the night away. Gloria is average looking but at times because of her vibrant personality she glows and shines. Played by the wonderful (and new to me) actress Paulina Garcia who gives a deep and touching performance that might very well be my favorite female performance of the year. She’s a mixture of Giulietta Messina and Anna Magnani but without mimicking those two great women. Her days are spent working at some unknown job and she sometimes sees her two grown children but not that often, and sometimes has sleepless nights because of a rowdy drug addled upstairs neighbor. One night at the disco she meets a somewhat older man, and they start an intense and difficult relationship.
No not the wonderful John Cassavettes-Gena Rowlands film but still an equally wonderful Gloria. This smart and moving little film from Chile tells the story of an average middle age divorced woman who is lonely and spends her evenings at Discos full of other lonely middle aged and even older men and women who dance and drink the night away. Gloria is average looking but at times because of her vibrant personality she glows and shines. Played by the wonderful (and new to me) actress Paulina Garcia who gives a deep and touching performance that might very well be my favorite female performance of the year. She’s a mixture of Giulietta Messina and Anna Magnani but without mimicking those two great women. Her days are spent working at some unknown job and she sometimes sees her two grown children but not that often, and sometimes has sleepless nights because of a rowdy drug addled upstairs neighbor. One night at the disco she meets a somewhat older man, and they start an intense and difficult relationship.
Gloria 1980A grim gritty New York fable set in the city before it became a shopping mall. This very untypical John Cassavetes film is just about his most accessible movie, simple; dramatic with flourishes of humor and suspense, hell it almost doesn’t seem like a Cassavetes film. The movie tells the entertaining story of an ex gangster’s moll who is at the right place but the wrong time and like the Pharaoh’s daughter saves a child from certain death. The moll is given depth and beauty by one of our greatest actresses Gena Rowlands who plays an urban know it all tough girl tootsie who uses a gun like a pro, because as it turns out she is a pro. The scene of Rowlands in her high heels with legs spread and firmly planted on the sidewalk wearing an expensive but somewhat trashy Emanuel Ungaro outfit (a great costume touch) as she shoots up a car of hoods is one of the lasting and memorable scenes in all of 80’s cinema. Improbable yes but its so shocking and unexpected that it pretty much puts a smile on our jaw dropping faces.
Glen or Glenda 1953I finally saw this movie and I have to say that I was very much taken with it. Sure it’s cheap and badly acted but it’s also charming and when was the last time you saw a movie sympathetic to transvestites and transsexuals especially from the early 50’s that wasn’t a horror movie. Made (and that’s the right word for this movie) by Ed Wood Jr. who also stars as both Glen and Glenda and who was in real life s a heterosexual transvestite with a yen for angora sweaters. You can easily watch and consider this 65 minute film as autobiographical, part real and part fantasy. The movie has a hand made look, like a junky assemblage found in some flea market and if it was a painting or an object it would probably be hanging in the American Folk Art Museum. Outsider movie making.
The Breaking Point 1950
I suppose this can be classified as a remake of To Have and
Have Not, but I found it be more nihilistic and downbeat than the Howard Hawks
1944 version. The film is red hot and sad and in some ways even better than the
Hawk‘s version. In this one we have John Garfield (who by the way is superb)
playing Harry Morgan a down on his luck fisherman who uses his boat for fishing
charters and has a wife and two kids to support. His friend and employee is
played by the great Juano Hernandez and the use of a well-defined sympathetic
African American character in a Hollywood film was indeed quite rare during
this time period. I’ve read that this casting was done because of Garfield’s
instance that Hernandez be cast in this pivotal role and was not the studios idea. The short scene where his young son (played
by Juano’s real life son) goes off to school with Garfield’s two little girls
is both heartfelt and kind
Only Lovers Left Alive 2014
They wear their sunglasses at night. One could say that this is like one of those romantic films, a throwback to those fluffy 30’s and 40’s romantic comedies about long and fruitful marriages with the husband and wife taking a vacation from bored wedlock and living separately in far off places only to come back together when they realize how much they love and miss each other. Oh yes I should add that the husband Adam played by Tim Hiddleston an actor new to me and Eve the wife played by the luminous Tilda Swinton who always seems new to me are vampires. Oh not another vampire movie I can hear you saying along with all the moans and groans, but wait these are two charming, clever and culturally sophisticated drinkers of blood.
http://wwwirajoelcinemagebooks.blogspot.com/2014/08/only-lovers-left-alive-2014.html
Good Sam 1948
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there" L. P. Hartley. The go-between.
I thought of this great opening line from “The Go-Between” the other night as I sat down to watch one of my favorite childhood movies “Good Sam”, which I had seen on one of those programs of my youth that would show movies from the 30’s and 40’s and thought to myself the past is a childhood movie, they look differently there.
Made in 1948 by Leo McCarey on the cusp of post war prosperity and the coming of the cold war, the film starred two great performers of Hollywood’s golden years Gary Cooper and Ann Sheridan (this may have been the first time I had seen Sheridan, and I fell madly in love forever and a day with her) as Mr. And Mrs. Sam Clayton of any town USA. Cooper tall, lanky and still good-looking plays good Sam who is an executive- manager in a large department store with a hands on approach to his job and is treasured by his employees and customers alike. He is kind and helpful with a heart of gold, to the dismay of his wife. Sam thinks nothing of lending his car to his neighbors so they can get away for a weekend (never mind the neighbor would qualify as being legally blind), He lends a lot of money to a young couple so they can open a gas station, lets his lazy brother in law live with them, and takes in a troubled young employee of his store played by the talented Joan Lorring.
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there" L. P. Hartley. The go-between.
I thought of this great opening line from “The Go-Between” the other night as I sat down to watch one of my favorite childhood movies “Good Sam”, which I had seen on one of those programs of my youth that would show movies from the 30’s and 40’s and thought to myself the past is a childhood movie, they look differently there.
Made in 1948 by Leo McCarey on the cusp of post war prosperity and the coming of the cold war, the film starred two great performers of Hollywood’s golden years Gary Cooper and Ann Sheridan (this may have been the first time I had seen Sheridan, and I fell madly in love forever and a day with her) as Mr. And Mrs. Sam Clayton of any town USA. Cooper tall, lanky and still good-looking plays good Sam who is an executive- manager in a large department store with a hands on approach to his job and is treasured by his employees and customers alike. He is kind and helpful with a heart of gold, to the dismay of his wife. Sam thinks nothing of lending his car to his neighbors so they can get away for a weekend (never mind the neighbor would qualify as being legally blind), He lends a lot of money to a young couple so they can open a gas station, lets his lazy brother in law live with them, and takes in a troubled young employee of his store played by the talented Joan Lorring.
Child’s Posse 2013If you’ve never seen a Romanian “New Wave” film you might want to start with this compelling tightly woven story of a well off middle age architect-set designer and her damaged relationship with her grown son. The film directed by Calin Peter Netzer opens with the mother played by the wonderful Luminita Gheorghiu who gives a superb performance sitting, smoking and bitching about someone to her sister who is also sitting and smoking. It turns out that Luminita is talking about her estranged son who wants nothing to do with her.
And without meeting the son we can see why. Cornelia is controlling and demanding, a woman who can’t really see the truth of her life and how toxic she is and who needs to have everything go her own way. She brow beats her timid but angry husband shamelessly interrogates her cleaning lady who also cleans her son’s apartment on his reading habits, (what books are on his nightstand) and rewards her with a pair shoes she no longer wants, but are too small for the cleaning lady. “Well give them to your daughter” she tells her as if she was doing her a big favor, the queen bestowing a gift to her servant girl. Supposedly she is a success at her profession, but we never see any hint of her work only the rewards that her success brings.
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