Tom Wilkinson 1948-2023

 

All of Us Strangers 2023

 All Of Us Strangers 2023

This is going to be a hard one to review because I have to be careful of the spoilers. I will give a brief outline of what the film is "about" Two youngish gay men meet in their spooky large apartment building in London and begin a romantic relationship. There it is in a nutshell. I will say that this is one of the saddest films I have ever seen and left me moody and depressed but I can't shake the film after one day of viewing it. It's a beautiful film about longing and loneliness with a superb performance by Andrew Scott who might be the upset in the Oscar race. He is a great actor. Also in the small cast is Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell and Claire Foy, and the director is Andrew Haigh. I saw it at the Bam which is the only movie theatre complex I go to. I was expecting it to be in one of the smaller theatres, but instead it was in the large stadium theatre which was pretty much filled up at the 2 in the afternoon showing. All the other screenings later in the day and evening were sold out. I was surprised but pleased that it was attracting an audience. Unfortunately the screening was being shown with open captioning which I hate but had no choice. It seems that they must use it at one screening and that was that. I had no choice. I don't mind subtitles but I hate the descriptions that go with it, the phone rings, there is music on the radio, the wind whistles through the curtains and on and on. I can't say I got use to it. I wish I could say more about the story but I don't want to ruin it. It is based on a Japanese novel with straight characters instead of gay ones, so that is interesting.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 1953

From the startling opening musical number these two little girls from little rock are on a roll, with the blonde one becoming one of the biggest stars ever. Directed by Howard Hawks, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was based on the Anita Loos novel, play and finally the musical which this film was based on. Made in 1953 right before cinemascope burst open the screen, its screen size was still tight and controlled, almost bursting at the seams. Jane Russell was still good and she is tough as nails but of course its Monroe's movie. The transfer I have is restored to its brilliant paint box colors that pretty much pop out at you. Also great are the fashions that the two of them wear designed by Travilla. There are also the famous numbers including the one where Jane sings to a bunch of young men in tight swimming suits about not getting any love. This is one of the most and best homoerotic pieces of film that ever was filmed, and was done by Jack Cole. Also great of course is Monroe's classic number of Diamonds are a girl's best friend that one never gets tired of of. You can see why she was so great and beloved just from this wonderful number. Sadly the male actors used as their romantic leads are duds Tommy Noonan and Elliott Reid but Charles Coburn adds his usual something to the film and the child actor George Winslow plays well with Monroe especially in her stuck in the porthole bit. This was the perfect gift I got for Christmas from me.

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Poor Things. The best film of 2023

 Poor Things 2023

I finally went to a movie theatre after a long time. It was the BAM damn which is the only theatre in the city I will go to. I wanted to get away from the fat 7 year old meatball upstairs and his all day stomping, and just to be out in the world. I saw Poor Things, which I loved. Ah Emma Stone how I adore her, and she is remarkable in this fantastic fantasy horror trip. She should win a second Oscar for this performance. It glitters and glows all over the place. Not for everyone no doubt, its rooted in myths and literature including Frankenstein and also references to Jules Verne in its design and the Tod Browning classic "Freaks". The story is boundless in its imagination taking us to a Victorian London and beyond where a scared and scary doctor played by Willem DaFoe operates on dead bodies. One of those dead bodies is Emma Stone who he brings back to life. The adventures of Bella Baxter as she learns to begin again and tastes the treasures of the earth. Its also a broad and sometimes sexually explicit comedy sometimes of errors and misdeeds with Bella at the root of it all. This is great stuff directed by that imaginative man Yorgos Lanthmos who last gave us "The Favorite" and this is the best film of 2023. Also featuring Mark Ruffalo as a damaged lawyer in spirit and deeds. The art direction and cinematography are splendid and breathtaking. Should appeal to artists and demented souls everywhere.

Andre Braugher 1962-2023

 

Ryan O'Neal 1941-2023

 

Norman Lear 1922-2023

 

Arsenic and Old Lace 1944

 

I never pass up the chance to watch “Arsenic and Old Lace, and that chance happened the other night when I watched the newly restored sparkling criterion release. This film is one of my childhood delights seen first on a late night movie show that was sponsored by Shaefer beer in New York City called “The Shaefer Award Theatre”. They would present classic films from the 30's and 40's that had never been shown on tv before and they would make a big deal about it. Since the films began after 11 in the evening I usually fell well asleep on our couch before the film was over, and Arsenic was in that group. I of course caught up with it later in life, this dark comedy about a family in Brooklyn including two elderly unmarried sisters who are serial killers. Funny ha ha. Directed in 1941 by Frank Capra who wanted a break from his “message” films of the 1930's but was not released until 1944 because of the stipulation that the film could not be released until the long running hit closed on Broadway.

Cary Grant plays their brother Mortimer a theater critic who is also a critic of marriage but who finally bites the marriage bullet. The film opens with a quick montage of a Brooklyn Dodgers fisticuffs baseball game and then its on to city hall where Grant is getting hitched to his lovely love played by Priscilla Lane who conveniently resides across a cemetery and his sisters house with her father who is a minister.

Arriving back in Brooklyn to his aunt's house, Grant accidentally discovers a body in the window seat and assumes that his “crazy uncle” who thinks he is Teddy Roosevelt did the deed but his aunts nonchalantly tells him that it was them that did the deed, and there are 12 other bodies of old men buried in the basement. The mayhem, chaos and hysteria begins at this point with Grant displaying all three of the conditions mentioned in a broad farcical performance that some may find is over played and tiring, but not me. Granted (pun intended) this kind of farce and frantic mugging is not for everyone, but I thought Grant handled the broad brush strokes of his character well and he looked wonderful doing prat falls, showing broad expressions of shock and disbelief along with hysterical mugging crossing his handsome face.

His family members all brought in from the original Broadway production to repeat their roles were Jean Adair and Josephine Hull who has a marvelous hip hop walk as the two dotty sisters and John Alexander as the “Teddy” brother. The sisters in their minds are doing good helping lonely old men rest in peace by giving them glasses of elderberry wine laced with several kinds of poison. “Teddy” helps out by digging locks in the basement thinking that he is working on the Panama canal and helping to put to rest victims of yellow fever. This is dark stuff for sure. Besides being serial killers the cute sisters also express racist remarks about how the neighborhood is changing due to foreigners moving in, and also express their distaste that one of the victims is a foreigner and should not be buried with the “Christian” ones.

The last two major characters to appear is another brother Jonathan missing for years and his doctor friend who is a plastic surgeon and one of their recent victims who they want to bury in the basement. The role of Jonathan was originated by Boris Karloff but he couldn't leave the production in New York and Raymond Massey who is quite good was cast along with the great Peter Lorre as the doctor. Both are on the run for crimes including many murders and Massey is covered in scars and ugly from botched surgeries by Lorre. Many jokes are made about his looks including that he looks like Boris Karloff and Frankenstein, and there are one or two scary moments that made me jump that are supplied by him and Sol Polito's wonderful moody cinematography.

The action takes place appropriately on Halloween in a quaint neighborhood in Brooklyn but I couldn't name the place. Is it Brooklyn Heights? In any case the film is stagy with most of the action taking place in the big cluttered house with a charming outdoor set that is elaborate with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background along with a churchyard cemetery and quaint trolley cars going back and forth with painted passengers looking out the windows. Also in the cast are some great character actors of the period including James Gleason, Edward Everett Horton, Grant Mitchell and Jack Carson as a policeman who wants to be a playwright and pretty much steals every scene he is in which was not easy going in this group.

Late Fall Early Winter 2023 Mixed on board

 

Elliott Erwitt 1928-2023

Great photographer.