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AntonApple
Reviews
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Is it really an existential or feminist myth?
I just want to know if this movie was influenced by Alejandro Jodorowsky's EL TOPO. Desert settings (in Jodorowsky's case, Mexico), apocalyptic themes, arty cinematography and even the use of actors who are missing limbs, have other disabilities, possibly blindness, etc. See also HOLY MOUNTAIN and his long-sought version of DUNE. Jodorowsky was interested in Aleister Crowley. I am not going to summarize Mad Max. Watch EL TOPO and then go back to Mad Max. I did find Mad Max rather longish. It also predicts the super-literal Monster Trucks movie, now in theatres. Some people find the trucks the most imaginative thing in Mad Max.
Robot in the Family (1993)
Golddigger is not the worst
The original title is GOLDDIGGER. IMDb, you should update your listing! ("A Robot In the Family" was a later title used in some markets.) I met the filmmaker, a true "Independent" if a bit naive. He could not get distribution so he even did some additional sound and re-edited the movie to try to please one studio, but did not sell it anyway. When it finally got a distributor, the result was very spotty. So, it's a rare movie. I am amazed any of your viewers saw it! Maybe they found a videotape lying around in a sale bin somewhere.
The movie is actually pretty amusing, if you don't take it so seriously. The problem is more one of classification: It's not a kids movie, despite having a featured role for the son. It's too adult to be for a teen or preteen audience. Maybe college kids can dig it, along with adults with a tolerance for some silly "business" and satirical plot elements that may hit or miss. The "auteur" here was a real amateur when he made this film, so it's akin to a mid-budget student film. But remember, all Indies have to start somewhere. David Lynch and Quentin Tarrantino have come a long way from their first efforts. If you see this movie, please suspend critical disbelief, relax, and enjoy its better qualities. It's like if the film were a spoof or camp, even if maybe it wasn't intended to be. On that level, it succeeds better than some intended spoofs that fail.
Leadbelly (1976)
Leadbelly film fans note great job by Art Evans as Blind Lemon
This dramatization of the life of Leadbelly is greatly helped by having a SECOND great dalesman in the story, as his road buddy for a time, the historic recording artist BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON, played here by a sighted actor-musician, ART EVANS, in his first major role. Art has gone on to appear in a total of 85 roles in TV and the movies, according to his listing on IMDb (q.v.). Art, why don't you give IMDb a photo? Blind Lemon was a star in his day, recording "Please See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" and "Matchbox Blues" among others in the late Nineteen Twenties, but died, homeless, in Chicago, one winter in the early Thirties. This movie is televised occasionally -- watch for it -- HINT: try Black History Month, February!
Maigret: Maigret and the Maid (1993)
Simenon's Quirky Inspector Must Question Victim's Saucy "Maid"
Georges Simenon created French Inspector Maigret, hard-boiled hero of many medium-length detective novels (usually under 200 pages). He is called to a country village to solve the murder of a well-to-do middle-aged bachelor, shot at close range in his own house. From costume and cars it appears to be the late 1930s. The only other resident is Felice, a pretty, dark-haired young woman (played by Susie Lindeman, who pretty much steals the show). Questioned by Maigret, feisty Felice engages him in snappy and seemingly evasive repartee. The dead man's relatives include a married brother who dislikes the girl, and a young nephew, a sax-playing jazz musician, who comes down from Paris for the funeral. Most of the locals dislike her, though the shop lady backs up her alibi to Maigret. Of course, she could be involved even if she was not present when the man was shot. The scene shifts to Paris, the Metro, a jazz club, some action, and a hospital. There's also the matter of the dead man's Last Will and Testament, which adds more possible motives. Eventually the cast broadens out to include more suspects, but who are the red herrings? Even a lobster figures in the story. Maigret, tough and jaded, also reveals his warmer side.
I liked this show, which appears to be an episode in a made-for-TV series (British, but shot in France). It moves along briskly. Though you may notice a few plot devices, and one or two unanswered questions, I believe they can be attributed to Simenon. The show scores high on atmosphere (the funeral and scenes in the Paris jazz club and in a village restaurant are pretty good set pieces) and Susie Lindeman is a treat as an independent but romantic woman in the post-flapper era. I am surprised she has not done better than TV roles and small parts in a few feature films (see her listing here on IMDb, which lacks a biography -- is she Australian?). She's attractive but not voluptuous, intelligent and vivacious.