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Leo-12
Reviews
You Know My Name (1999)
Great Western Star Vehicle for Sam Elliott
If a SMILE could be the star of a movie, Sam Elliott's inimitable smile would be the star of "You Know My Name." Elliott may well be the greatest leading man in westerns in the post-1970 period, and he is at the top of his game in this based-on-a-true-story oater set in Oklahoma in the early twentieth century. There have been better westerns, sure, but there have not been many better western star turns than this. Elliott makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time, ALL the time, and at the end you just do both.
Babe: Pig in the City (1998)
Best Film of 1998
I add my ditto to those who've said that PIG IN THE CITY was the best film of 1998 -- most especially the late and lamented Gene Siskel. A lot of critics didn't care for this film (apparently because it is indeed different from its even better predecessor, BABE), and American audiences stayed away in droves. It was thus a flop in both crucial senses, which fact must have saddened George Miller and his team of loony geniuses after they put so much love and time and talent into making it. But a few end-of-year newsmagazine wrapup pieces named it to 1998's Top Ten, and I think it's slowly getting recognition -- too late to produce much money or fun for its makers, but not too late for film history, where I predict it'll join such reputational slow-builders as THE WIZARD OF OZ and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.
It's an amazing piece of work from beginning to end, and maybe the most amazing thing about it is that, after the first ten minutes or so, the special effects stop calling attention to themselves and start looking quite natural. You just buy it all. At the same time, however, the sui generis Look of the film never stops startling you. (It's half David Lynch and half Frank Capra. In other words, it's George Miller.) See this movie, preferably on some sort of big screen with high resolution. If you don't like it, I will (as Mark Twain used to say upon completing one of his lectures) do everything in my power to make it up to you.
Saving Grace (1986)
Really Good Movie, Much Underrated
Ebert liked it. Maltin hated it. Maltin's usually reliable, but not here. Tom Conti, Giancarlo Giannini, and Fernando Rey are all terrific here in improbable story about how depressed young pope gets accidentally locked out of the Vatican and has an adventure amongst Italian peasants in a remote village. This is admittedly a feel-good flick, but its message is nonetheless both strong and timeless. As an added plus: on-location cinematography is gorgeous.
The Great Gatsby (1974)
Totally faithful to the Fitzgerald novel, and that's the problem
The 1974 version of GATSBY is totally faithful to F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel -- in fact, it is virtually a scene-by-scene recreation of the book, including the best and most memorable of Fitzgerald's words -- and therein lies the problem. The novel actually doesn't hold up very well today, despite its "classic" status: its characters are mostly a bunch of uninteresting (by today's standards) rich Americans of the 1920s, and the creaky Victorian novel-of-manners story-line, pacing, character development, and thematics seem awfully tame and so-whatish now. Because it is so much a careful refashioning of the book, the film can't help but be the same. Redford is an absolutely terrific Jay Gatsby, but what could he or anybody else do with Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby? Ditto for Mia Farrow's Daisy Buchanan and Bruce Dern's Tom Buchanan. (Dern, by the way, was sort of cast against type as the wealthy Eastern socialite Tom, but he is perfect in the part.) This is a great movie for any diehard Fitzgerald loyalist, but will probably bore to death anybody who's not. One small mystery is why more wasn't done with "Roaring Twenties" atmospherics -- the music and dancing, and even the parties themselves, seem strangely tepid here, although there's a good bit of 'em included.
The Freshman (1990)
Not a great movie, but one of Brando's greatest roles.
"The Freshman" is certainly not a masterpiece of film-making, but it's eminently watchable. The best thing about it is Brando, who (sort of) reprises "The Godfather"'s Don Corleone via the gimmick of playing the guy he was (supposedly) based on. The real story here is that this is actually one of Brando's greatest performances, and the footage with him in it is certainly something I'd show to acting classes. What he does with a beat-up hat and two walnuts, for example, is just a classic of New York "method" acting -- creating something magically amazing out of nothing much at all. Bert Parks' cameo as a singer (doing the wonderfully right "Maggie's Farm" by Dylan) is a brilliant bonus.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
Puh-LEEZE!!!
The title should have been "The Unbearable Longness of Sitting in a Movie Theater Having Your Absolute Ass Bored Off." Bloated, arty, pretentious chick flick would make a nice double bill with "The English Patient" for the Sensitive, Caring Set. Good dog in it -- who unfortunately dies before the other characters, and WAY before this dog gives us its final fade.
Natural Born Killers (1994)
One of the most under-rated films of the '90s.
Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" is one of the most under-rated films of the 1990s. Too often and too superficially compared to Tarrantino's "Pulp Fiction" (both are dark, violent comedies about young criminals within the American underclasses), it may actually be the better film. It certainly deserves a second look -- or a first look by those who stayed home because of the initial reviews.
National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
One of the best-directed comedies in American film history -- and one of the funniest!
Jon Landis' "Animal House" is one of the best-directed comedies in American film history -- and one of the funniest. Like a small and loopy symphony (the score is in fact inextricably linked to the narrative action), it moves inexorably forward from one hilarious situation to the next. Beloved of people who like to roar laughing but detested by high-minded and humorless moralists, "Animal House" has been consistently under-rated by the critics (Leonard Maltin gives it two stars out of four, as I remember -- an outrageous assessment). Landis' direction in this film inspired a host of stylistic imitators (the most obvious being Spike Lee, especially in "Do the Right Thing"), most of whom don't acknowledge the debt. A landmark film.