Results tagged “Kick-Back Friday” from Pathophilia

Winter's Bone

Inevitable comparisons are to be made with the superior Frozen River of 2008 (another Sundance winner), which was carried with greater skill by a truly exceptional (and considerably more mature) leading actress (Melissa Leo). But Winter's Bone is still worth the price of theater admission, even if one is to endure the likely distraction of popcorn munchers. In fact, consider your crude company part of the Sensorama experience.

In addition to Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role (who's probably getting more adulation than she deserves for her performance), Winter's Bone features veteran supporting actor John Hawkes of "Deadwood" fame and a nearly unrecognizable Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer of "Twin Peaks") in a very bit part.

In 1971, Pentagon insider Daniel Ellsberg leaked a top-secret study, aka the Pentagon Papers, to the press. The mammoth document demonstrated the high-level, systematic deceit of multiple administrations to escalate the war in Vietnam, and the press predictably gobbled it up. Ellsberg's treacherous act and its aftermath were chronicled on film in last year's Academy Award-nominated The Most Dangerous Man in America, which is now on DVD.

And while the documentary isn't particularly original in its execution or perspective on Ellsberg's derring-do, it does show (perhaps inadvertently) just how compromised a character must become before he can morph into a historic whistleblower. Think of the initially Koolaid-guzzling characters of Big Tobacco's Jeffrey Wigand and, to a lesser extent, ADM's Mark Whitacre, but on much more expansive stage in a much more explosive era, and you've got an idea of what Ellsberg was and is all about. The steeper the slide into moral ambiguity, the more dramatic the atonement and, god knows, the lengthier the proselytizing.

And if you want to see Defense Secretary Robert McNamara wrestle with his role in the Vietnam War, watch the life-sucking The Fog of War (2004).

On Saturday. No good excuses.

• Contrast the dowdy Catherine (Olivia de Havilland) with her father's ideal of womanhood: Catherine's socially accomplished, dead mother.
• Contrast the overt contempt of Catherine's father for Catherine with the cloaked abuse of Catherine's suitor, Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift).
• Contrast de Havilland's old-school mugging with Clift's subtler method acting.*
• Contrast Catherine's restrictive 19th-century bun with Morris's bon-vivant locks.
• And so on...

It's also worth noting that more contrasts are possible by watching the deftly filmed Washington Square of 1997, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh as Catherine, Albert Finney as Catherine's father, and Ben Chaplin as Morris. Leigh, in particular, adds several effective layers to Catherine's developing character that are absent from de Havilland's two- or three-note execution.

* de Havilland wins, if only because mugging is so hard to ignore.

The White Ribbon

In austere and exquisitely still frames of retrofitted black and white, director Michael Haneke unfolds his story of anonymous evil deeds in a farm village on the cusp of World War I. Cryptically narrated in retrospect by the town's sympathetic, if ineffectual, schoolteacher (who's not even sure he's remembering correctly), the story reveals the stark brutality of paternal figures, suggesting that the perpetrator is an adult. But the innocence of the town's oppressed children cannot be assumed. Brutal adults can bear brutal children.

The story relayed in Crude, however, is comparatively straightforward—and deceptively simple. It begins when Texaco discovered oil in the area of Nueva Loja in northeastern Ecuador in the 1960s. In conjunction with Ecuador's national oil company, Petroecuador, Texaco launched full-scale production in the 1970s by thoroughly mining the area. As was oil business as usual, the massive amounts of drilling waste were disposed in superficial pits—which the resident Ecuadorians claim tainted their drinking and bathing water (obtained from nearby streams and rivers) and caused multiple ailments, including cancer. The plaintiffs are asking for $27 billion.

The corporate side of the story, which Berlinger does reveal, however impersonally, is that Texaco transferred ownership of the oil field and its production to Petroecuador in 1990 and spent millions cleaning up the waste pits under the direction of the Ecuadorian government. According to Chevron, which bought Texaco in 2001, the Ecuadorian government released Texaco of any liability once the waste pits were cleaned up to the government's satisfaction. Chevron also denies that there is an increased risk of cancer or cancer-related death in Nueva Loja residents, when compared with their countrymen.

Featured in the plaintiffs' David-versus-Goliath cause (as it is billed repeatedly in the movie) is a young, modest Ecuadorian lawyer, Pablo Fajardo, who is aided by a tenacious or insufferable (depending on your viewpoint) American lawyer, Steven Donziger. Donziger is a world-class grandstander (at least when the camera's rolling) and a seeker of high-level publicity (either for himself or the suit, it's not always clear). On a few occasions, Berlinger shows the frustration or outright umbrage that Donziger's constant 8-cylinder attitude produces in his adversaries and, at least on one occasion, his Ecuadorian allies.

Donziger becomes the means by which Fajardo is featured in a very sympathetic Vanity Fair article, which becomes the springboard for introducing Fajardo and his cause to the new Ecuadorian president, Rafeal Correra, and Trudy Styler, wife of Sting. Berlinger does gets a nod for including a segment in which Styler visits an unidentifed Ecuadorian tar pit (the reponsibility of which, mind you—Texaco or Petroecuador—is completely unclear). In the segment, the publicity-minded Donziger pulls Styler aside and tells her to mention "Texaco" as much as possible on film. Whether it is the intention of Berlinger (and what does that matter anyway?), the viewer hopes that Donziger will not pollute the simple Fajardo with Western celebrity. Thanks to Donziger's publicity efforts, Fajardo ended up hanging out with Sting at the 2007 Live Earth concert and was honored with CNN's Hero Award and the Goldman Prize.**  

What Crude ultimately prompts (besides repugnance for Donziger) are a number of questions that attempt to flush out a more even-handed and accurate account of the events that led to and inform this litigation. Namely...

• Do Ecuadorian residents of Nuevo Lajo, in fact, have an increased incidence of disease generally and cancer specifically? The pathetic, heart-wrenching cases presented in Crude shouldn't be sufficient for evidentiary purposes (but they probably will be). According to a PubMed search, there are a number of medical articles suggesting that the Nuevo Lajo Ecuadorians are at greater risk of certain diseases, but these positive studies are also authored by the same Ecuadorian investigators and apparently haven't been replicated by independent sources.
• If Neuvo Lajo citizens have an increased incidence of certain diseases, can they be linked to chemicals leaching from the remaining, uncleaned waste pits?
• If so, who created or has responsibility for these waste pits? Chevron or Petroecuador? (It is undisputed in Crude that Petroecuador has a dismal environmental record.)
• Can a fair trial be conducted in Ecuador, where judicial and political corruption seems to be the norm instead of the exception? While judicial corruption is highlighted briefly in Crude (and to the plaintiffs' advantage), more widespread charges have been made by Chevron against a court-appointed expert, the formerly presiding judge, and Donziger himself. (Although Crude revealed that the presiding judge was removed from the case, Berlinger did not explain why.)
• If the plaintiffs prevail in their suit, who gets the money? Crude hints that much of the cash will go to attorneys (eg, the Philadelophia firm of Kohn Swift and Graft, which is funding the plaintiffs) and the Ecuadorian government.

N.B.--No matter how unduly influenced Styler may have been by the bulldozing Donziger to believe that Texaco/Chevron is responsible for the current mess in Nuevo Lajo, it is to her (and Sting's) credit that their organization supplied local families with rain-water cisterns--which the Ecuadorian government is apparently unwilling or unable to do.

* However temporary.

** It should be noted that Donziger approached Berlinger to make Crude, although this fact is only revealed in recent news coverage of the suit.

I'll forgo this week's obvious recommendation: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), which was just released on DVD. The movie is undeniably engaging. (What serial-killer tale isn't?) But the story, at least as executed on film, simply isn't good enough or clever enough or sufficiently well executed to justify or sustain several explicitly violent scenes and images, most of which are sexually brutal.

After an unidentified murder victim shows up in the coroner's office with pneumonic plague, a government health officer (Richard Widmark) and a police captain (Paul Douglas) reluctantly pair up to thwart an epidemic. Their ultimate task: to find the victim's killer (or killers), who might spread the disease or die of it.

Because this is an Elia Kazan joint, character dynamics approach the importance of plot, and several new actors—namely Walter Jack Palance, Zero Mostel, and Barbara Bel Geddes—get to flaunt their emotive talents.

One brief, callous and self-serving act in particular (which is perpetrated by Palance's character) is all the more shocking and effective because the movie (unlike The Girl...) doesn't repeatedly assault the viewer with technicolor carnage.

Britain's second most-beloved movie of all time (if one film poll is to be believed), A Matter of Life and Death (1946) was finally (finally) pounded out on DVD last year. David Niven is a WW2 pilot who attempts to avert a certain, imminent death while falling in love with an American radio dispatcher (Kim Hunter). Like Heaven Can Wait (both versions) and The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), A Matter of Life and Death concerns the fanciful struggle between the desire to continue an earthly existence, with all its ephemeral virtues, and the demands of mortality, the gods, or whatever you want to call it.

The distinctiveness of this movie lies in its juxtaposition of a black-and-white afterlife against a very technicolor existence on Earth (in a wry homage to The Wizard of Oz); the adherence to intricacies of British jurisprudence (even in the afterlife); and the attempt to weave in a neurologic disorder* (somewhat dubiously, I might add) to explain Niven's visions of his afterlife courier, an executed French aristocrat. The courier, or Conductor, as he is called, has got to be one of the most bizarre filmic oddities around, both visually and in personality—even by the very liberal standards of eighteenth-century French nobility.

* Chronic, adhesive arachnoiditis due to a previous head injury.

Killer's Kiss

The final scene between boxer and villain (which presumably takes place somewhere near the Garment District) evokes the climax in The Lady From Shanghai (1947), with female mannequins substituting for mirrors. It's clear here that Kubrick was in love with the compositional possibilities.

* Given the on-site filming.

Jamie Smith and mannequins in still from Killer's Kiss.

Ball of Fire

* One dazzling gem: Toland captures Stanwyck's reflection in a nightclub table while Gene Krupa plays "Drum Boogie" with matchsticks.

Classe Tous Risques

The end of the road for Abel Davos (Lino Ventura), a career thief with 2 young sons, is told in a cinematic nexus of hard-boiled noir, existentialism, and lingering ideas of social responsibility. Put that in yer film-class paper.

Murder by Contract

Claude (Vince Edwards—yes, Ben Casey) is a resolute* hit man whose dedication to job completion is shaken by a tough assignment: offing a protected female witness in a high-profile court case. It's not that he minds killing a woman, per se, he just finds it logistically difficult: women don't stand still; they're not dependable, he complains.

* But gun eschewing!

Vince Edwards prepares to kill in a still from Murder by Contract.

* Provided in the volume 1 set of Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics.

Still from The Lineup, with Eli Wallach (right).

Lady in the Lake

With a mugging Audrey Totter (The Set-Up) as Marlowe's editor and client and a young Lloyd Nolan as an underhanded cop.

* Montgomery also tosses in the occasional, creative mirror shot.

Intermission (2003): I believe that Colin Farrell and America got off on the wrong foot. The actor's bad-boy antics could hardly be excused by his clumsy work in Spielberg's Minority Report (2002) or Oliver Stone's Alexander (2004). Dude should have adhered to his Irish roots if In Bruges (2008) and Intermission are any indication. Farrell is vastly better in both Irish films than in any Hollywood vehicle to date.* And he proves himself to be, not a leading man, but an exceptional ensemble player—particularly in Intermission, a 9-plus character jumble of what goes down whan a young couple breaks up.

* With the possible exception of Crazy Heart.

That Hamilton Woman

The closing line, ostensibly written by Walter Reisch or playwright R. C. Sheriff, is a kicker.

The Long Goodbye

Altman's love of overlapping dialogue, extraneous audio, and distracting visuals is in full bloom, as Marlowe investigates the apparent suicide of a buddy whose wife was just murdered. Renowned DP Vilmos Zsigmond (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) effectively contrasts dark, cool interiors with blinding beachscapes in numerous single shots, and underachiever John Williams takes partial credit for the title song, which is heard repeatedly in various incarnations—like torch cabaret, uptempo jazz, and Mexican funeral march.

Featuring Sterling Hayden, Henry Gibson, and a mute Governator in an uncredited bit role.

Accepting the KBF duty this week is KTG. Take it away, KTG.

Franklyn

This Brindie (that's Brit-indie) features Ryan Phillippe as a steampunk vigilante, Bernard Hill as a tormented father, and Eva Green* as a suicidal performance artist. Put that in your rolled-up, overwrought screenplay and smoke it. Meanwhile Sam Riley plays a jilted lover who stumbles into the middle of...things.

* You remember her as the Bond girl in Casino Royale (2006). 

Born to Kill

In this Robert Wise joint, San Francisco socialite Helen Brent (played by Claire Trevor, the undisputed Queen of Noir) appreciates more than physical attributes in the low-rent Sam Wild* (played by big, bad Lawrence Tierney). This homme fatale, who is to become (gasp!) Helen's brother-in-law, has got one helluva thrilling, rudderless soul.

Other than smoke like a chimney, what's a horny, morally conflicted gal to do?

Featuring exceptional supporting performances by Walter Slezak (an unctuous PI), Elisha Cook, Jr (Sam's officious sidekick), and Esther Howard (a beer-loving landlady). The DVD offers expert commentary from the ever-amusing and informative Eddie Muller and a few audio clips from the director himself.

N.B. While Ben Affleck may have a passing resemblance to Lawrence Tierney, at least as far as the movie poster is concerned, there is a world of difference between the two when it comes to screen presence.

* Wild. Get it? Get it?

The movie, based on a popular novel of the same name, is the story of an attempted military coup in the United States, spearheaded by the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Burt Lancaster). The planned coup is in response to a nuclear disarmament treaty signed by an unpopular President (Fredric March). Kirk Douglas plays Lancaster's right-hand military man, who alerts the Administration to his boss's overthrow plot.

The soul-searching dialog, as noted by Frankenheimer in the DVD commentary, is pure Serling:

General Scott (Lancaster): You're a night crawler, Colonel. A peddler. You sell information. Are you sufficiently up on your Bible to know who Judas was?

Colonel Casey (Douglas): I suggest you read that letter, sir. It's from the President.

General Scott: I asked you a question.

Colonel Casey (hesitantly): Are you ordering me to answer, sir?

General Scott (angrily): I am!

Colonel Casey (calmy, stoically): Yes, I know who Judas was. He was a man I worked for and admired...until he disgraced the four stars on his uniform.

Raw Deal (1948): Underappreciated noir from director Anthony Mann,* with moody voiceover narration from Claire Trevor, the Queen of Noir. A northern California setting provides the fog.

The story: Homme fatale Joe (Dennis O'Keefe) takes the prison rap for a crime boss, Rick (Raymond Burr), who owes Joe 50 Gs. Rick then sets up a prison escape for Joe, while relying on the odds that he'll get caught. But Joe escapes the police dragnet with the aid of his lovesick BFF (Trevor) and the reluctant cover of a pretty legal aid.

Despite the caliber of the film, the transfer to DVD (Classic Media) provides the bare minimum. Not even a subtitle option to catch every last drop of juicy screenplay—let alone any deserving commentary.

* Of noir and western fame.

The Honeymoon Killers (1969): It just goes to show you that a shoestring budget doesn't prevent the creation of really interesting shots. Director Leonard Castle and DP Oliver Wood are largely responsible for the look, sound, and feel of this black-and-white docudrama of 2 real-life lovers, Martha Beck and Ray Fernandez. The zaftig nurse and her Latin gigolo, played completely unapologetically by Stephanie Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco, became notorious in the 1940s for murdering a string of lovelorn women.

The DVD interview with Castle, a composer by training and profession, is mandatory.

Movie poster from Wikipedia reproduced under fair use law.

District 9

District 9 is, more or less, a character study of the callous and self-serving Van De Merwe, who is made watchable by the curiously named South African actor, Sharlto Copley. But the story is also a very graphic union of depravity, violence, and technology, and its quick telling relies on easily recognized elements from a number of dystopic sci-fi stories, namely "V," Mad Max, The Fly, Aliens, and (God help us) Enemy Mine.

While District 9 isn't Best Picture material, despite its nomination, it is distressingly memorable.

I Soliti Ignoti

Marcello Mastroianni plays just one of several incompetent, demonstrative, thieving wannabes.

The usual nod and thanks to KTG.

The Conversation

For my part, I've watched this film, about a wiretapper with a Catholic conscience, more times than I care to admit outside a group of drooling cinephiles: There's the pulling of focus to complement audio lapses; the showing of character (Hackman picking up sidewalk trash to emphasize his character's fastidiousness); the best dream sequence on film; the confession (play close attention to the developing mismatch between the audio and Hackman's lips*); tech geeks cutting loose; the wry nod to Psycho in the hotel bathroom; John Cazale (fer Christ's sake!); a fetal Harrison Ford; the surveillance camera-like closing. Yes. YES. YES!

* This guy's so wound up he can't even tell his deepest secret to a priest in a confessional.

Pickup on South Street

Other than asking, "What's the moral compass of a petty thief?" the movie raises this question: "Where exactly was there a waterfront shack in Manhattan?"

N.B.--The movie also features the incomparable Thelma Ritter as a tie peddler and professional CI. Her pre-demise monologue is something, bitches.

Green for Danger (1946): Interesting title for a black-and-white whodunit.

An off-beat inspector from Scotland Yard (Alistair Sim)* investigates the surgical death of a postman and the murder of an OR nurse at a remote English hospital. The suspects are soon limited to 5 overdramatic medical personnel—2 of whom deliver a priceless over-the-top sequence of mad laughter, followed by face slap, followed by hysterical sobbing.

* Think precursor to Columbo.

The usual HT to KTG.

An Enemy of the People

In the Victorian-era play, fraternal conflict escalates to extremes over the purity of the local spring baths, a major attraction of a small Norwegian town. One brother, a physician, tries to warn the citizens of bacterial contamination; the other brother, the town's mayor, uses his political influence to convince the villagers otherwise—at the expense of his brother's reputation and safety.

With Philip Bosco and James Daly as the brothers. Other, potentially recognizable actors include Kate Reid and James Olson (both of The Andromeda Strain) and James Daly's son, Timothy (of "Wings" and "Private Practice").

The Racket

P.S. All physicians will have fun randomly quoting this line from Ryan's bully of a character: "Blow, shyster!"

With James Whitmore, a vulnerable Jean Hagen (Singin' in the Rain), and a young Marilyn Monroe. Directed by John Huston.

Perennial HT: KTG

Addendum: Well I thought it was San Francisco (maybe I recognized some exterior shots). But the movie apparently takes place in some nameless Midwestern city.

Murder, My Sweet

You won't find harder-boiled flashback narration. To wit:

I just found out all over again how big this city is. My feet hurt. And my mind felt like a plumber's handkerchief.

I don't get the simile either; but the phrase sounds oh-so-noirishly right.

HT: KTG

The Wages of Fear, or Le salaire de la peur (1953): One of 2 signature movies from Henri-Georges Clouzot. (The other is Diabolique.)

Stuck in a South American shit-hole, 4 ex-pats vie for a highly lucrative job of trucking nitroglycerin for an exploitive American oil company. After a very leisurely European start, the pace intensifies as the freelance truckers haul the explosive over roads that are actually worse than the Illinois Tollway system. With Yves Montand.

N.B. William Friedkin directed the not-so-iconic 1977 remake, Sorcerer.

Harvard Beats Yale 29-29

Spearheaded almost exclusively (or at least apparently almost exclusively) by Harvard grad Kevin Rafferty (The Atomic Cafe), the documentary cuts simply between quaint archival game footage and current head-shot interviews of the seminal players—nearly all of whom are sufficiently articulate and suitably reflective. They are Ivy League grads, after all. Moreover, they attended school when proper emphasis could be placed on the components of "student-athlete."

A surprising exception is actor Tommy Lee Jones, former Harvard offensive tackle, who is something short of reticent in his interviews. But one of the most entertaining participants, perhaps inadvertently so, is former Yale linebacker Mike Bouscaren, who evidently likes to remember himself as the team enforcer. Bouscaren's amusing attempt to take credit for inuring Ray Hornblower, Harvard's star halfback, reminds us: Before you brag, know what's on film.

A Blueprint for Murder*

* At Amazon, the DVD of the movie is coupled with Man in the Attic (1954) starring Jack Palance, an uninspired remake of The Lodger (1944).

Poster image from Wikipedia reproduced under fair-use law.

HT: Once again, KTG.

Criss Cross

The paripatetic Steve (Burt Lancaster) returns to Los Angeles, where he pursues his gorgeous ex-wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo, aka Mrs. Munster), who's hooked up with Slim Dundee,* the local mob boss. But Anna is inconstant in love...or in deciding her best option.

P.S. Check out De Carlo's dance partner in the Round-up Bar.

* I just wanted to write out that name, 'cause it's so goofy.

Brute Force (1947): A deeply moody prison noir, photographed by black-and-white master William Daniels. 

Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster*) and his cellmates are mentally and physically tormented by the sadistic chief guard, Captain Munsey (Hume Cronyn). But when Munsey assigns the prisoners to the dreaded drain-pipe detail, the group plans their dramatic escape.

* In his 2nd movie, after The Killers.

Andrews didn't have the acting chops, or perhaps the inclination, to show her character's real sadness, but the musical production is remarkable for coming off live, with nary a hitch. Especially notable are Alice Ghostley and Kaye Ballard as the stepsisters (singing, "Why would a fella want a girl like her...?") and Edith (Edie) Adams as the godmother.

The DVD's 20-minute special feature, in which Andrews and other cast members remember the show, is a must.

The Well

Although the primary-speaking roles belong to white actors, the film is notable for employing a considerable number of black actors—including Maidie Norman—who didn't have to pretend they were domestic help for a change.

Major HT to KTG.

Duplicity (2009): Who's setting up whommmmm in this lust-love affair between an ex-CIA agent with racehorse legs* (Julia Roberts) and an impossibly hot ex-MI6 agent (Clive Owen)?

Absurdity is the foundation of the ridiculously self-important world of corporate spying between 2 rival conglomerates, each headed up by Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson—and neither of whommmmm gets enough screen time for my taste. Giamatti, in particular, is absolutely flawless when rallying his shareholders.

P.S. Skip the self-congratulatory commentary** with writer/director Tony Gilroy.

* Phrase blatently stolen from somebody.

** Despite the fact that Gilroy denies the commentary is self-congratulatory.

To Die For

Nicole Kidman, as the Smart-ish character, is outstanding in many a truth-y, cringe-worthy scene. Case in point: Her aborted seduction of a cable-access news producer, played by Wayne Knight. But the high school kids—depicted by then-unknowns Joaquin Phoenix, Casey Affleck, and Alison Folland—are the undisputed models of verisimilitude in this flick.

Out of the Past (1947): Classic, classic, CLASSIC noir. Right up there with Double Indemnity. Cigarette smoke will be coming out of your speakers.

Does Robert Mitchum, as an ex-"detective," deserve redemption, or he is consigned to a damned life with a very bad girl? Nice scenes are created, in particular, between Mitchum and Kirk Douglas (in his second film), who plays Mitchum's off-and-on mob employer.

Better-than-average commentary is also provided on the DVD by noir expert James Ursini.

N.B. 1984's Against All Odds was the flop remake.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Merely by example, old-schooler Mitchum could teach a thing or two about naturalistic acting to any method whippersnapper.

A twofer—for two entertaining, but seriously flawed, movies.

A happily married and notable defense attorney (Gregory Peck) becomes infatuated with his client (the enigmatic Valli from The Third Man), who is accused of murdering her blind husband. At trial, the case balances on the moral fiber of the accused and her ambiguous relationship with her husband's valet (Louis Jourdan).

Not one of Hitchcock's best but still a Hitchcock joint, with the expected hallmarks—including brief visual nods to carnal appetites; the sharp, supportive single gal; and the director's fleeting cameo. Perhaps most notable is the moving shot of the valet's entry into the courtroom to testify, contrasted with the filming of his exit.

An easy-going cowboy (Kirk Douglas, in what has to be one of his best performances) refuses to be fenced in by urban sprawl and the law. With fine, complementary work from Gena Rowlands, Walter Matthau, and Whiskey the Horse and an over-the-top performance by George Kennedy.

HT: KTG

Winner of Best US Drama at last year's Sundance, Frozen River (2008) is writer-director Courtney Hunt's very realistic feature debut about human trafficking along the New York-Canadian border. The movie's highly authentic feel begins with the amazing Melissa Leo, playing a desperate mom who merely wants her double-wide. There is absolutely no sense that Leo, who was nominated for an Academy Award last year, is the usual Hollywood glamourpuss-turned-frump for the sake of an Oscar bid. Not a trace of Botox, chemical peeling, or Restylane. Praise Jesus.

The supporting cast, including Misty Upham, Charlie McDermott, and Michael O'Keefe, is also beyond reproach.

Kiss of Death (1947): An armed robber (Victor Mature) sets up a hit on his accomplice through the DA's office. Mature then proceeds to go after the giggly, psychopathic hitman (a young Richard Widmark).* Karl Malden makes brief, but noticeable, appearances as an aggressive prosecutor.

P.S. The basis for the title remains a mystery to me.

* Widmark's over-the-top portrayal clearly informed Frank Gorshin's turn as The Riddler on TV's "Batman."

Middlemarch (1994): If you can't get through the book (I'm talking to you, English majors), then watch the BBC mini-series—a highly faithful adaptation of George Eliot's novel (written by Andrew Davies of Pride and Prejudice fame).

Dorothea Brooke believes that life's purpose can be found in marriage to a fussy academic, the elderly Reverend Casabaun, while she cultivates a sympathic friendship with his disinherited cousin, the fetching Will Ladislaw (Rufus Sewell). The parallel lives of two other couples (the earnest Dr. Lydgate and his spoiled wife; a ne'er-do-well aristocrat and his long-suffering country sweetheart) are intertwined for the obligatory contrast and comparison.

State of Play (2003): Not the recent Russell Crowe movie, but the BBC mini-series (on which the movie was based). There's no rule of privacy that British journalists won't violate when investigating the death of an MP's mistress. The series, comprising 6 twisty episodes, is notable for its prescient casting of up-and-comers Kelly Macdonald (No County for Old Men) and James McAvoy (Atonement). Lesser-known UK actors* John Simm, Bill Nighy (Shaun of the Dead), Polly Walker ("Rome"), Marc Warren, and David Morrissey round out the excellent cast. Morrissey, in particular, is spot-on as the distressed, self-interested MP.

MP = Member of Parliament.

* At least lesser known in America.

Fail-Safe

* In 2000, Fail-Safe was remade as a live TV broadcast, starring Richard Dreyfuss and George Clooney.

Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski: two crazy men who are crazier together. And it all started with Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), the story of a power-hungry conquistador (Kinski) on his psychotic quest for the mythical El Dorado along the Amazon River. Although the story is only very loosely based on fact, Herzog's allegiance to 16th-century detail—costuming, customs, hair*—conveys a powerful authenticity and, moreover, keeps the movie from becoming dated.

Warning: Some animals were possibly harmed in the making of this film.

* Nothing worse than anachronistic hair.

Le Cercle Rouge (1970): Deliberate pacing and spare dialogue lend a very existential vibe* to this engaging jewel-heist movie from Jean-Pierre Melville. With Alain Delon as a professional thief and Yves Montand as a seriously alcoholic cop.

Il n'y a pas d'innocent.

A remake is reportedly in production with director Johnnie To, the "Jerry Bruckheimer of Hong Kong." No doubt the action will be accelerated.

* With a wry, introductory nod to Buddha.

Force of Evil* (1948): Shot in gorgeous black and white by DP George Barnes; written and directed by the later-blacklisted Abraham Polonsky.

John Garfield (The Postman Always Rings Twice) is a Manhattan attorney caught between the organized numbers game and fraternal loyalty. Supporting character actors Thomas Gomez (Key Largo), as Garfield's beefy brother, and Howland Chamberlain (High Noon), as the jumpy bookkeeper, are in top noirish form.

* Not to be confused with the Orson Welles classic, Touch of Evil.

Un long dimanche de fiancailles

N.B.—A mid-film sequence reveals the payoff of Jodie Foster's education at Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles.

* English title: A Very Long Engagement.

HT: KTG

A double-crossed thief, Walker (Lee Marvin), is after the guy who stole his wife and his share of a cash heist in this very conscientiously (perhaps too conscientiously) photographed story of vengence. The film gains steam after an initial, wooden performance by Sharon Acker as Marvin's wife. With Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn, and Carroll O'Connor.

Patty Hearst

Note: This movie is not currently available on DVD (US format) but can be watched "instantly" at Netflix.

See No Evil

* Do not confuse with the identically titled teen-slasher flick from 2006.

The Beatles, The First US Visit

Watch Ringo play with a new-fangled transistor radio!

Hear John shriek when Paul plugs Capital Records on the "Ed Sullivan Show"!

Miss a sick George during a Central Park photo shoot!

(But the real highlight: John's on-air performance of "This Boy.")

HBO's Recount (2008): A left-leaning dramatization of the 2000 recount of Florida votes, which determined the outcome of the US Presidential race by a hair's breadth.

A very tight script of a very complicated story was ostensibly written by 34-year-old actor Danny Strong ("The Gilmore Girls," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), who I suspect got a lot of rewrite help from the late Sydney Pollack (executive producer) and others. Florida's infamous Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, is handled mostly with care by Laura Dern—a difficult job, given that Harris is such a real-life cartoon.

Also Kevin Spacey and Denis Leary have a nice exchange about chads.

When Tracy and Borgnine finally go at it, notice Tracy's method of defense.

A consummate idea man, Robinson's "Pressure" Maxwell pairs up with 2 fellow ex-cons—dim-witted gorilla "Jug" Martin (Broderick Crawford) and the merely dim-witted "Weepy" Davis (Edward Brophy)—to pull off a labor-intensive bank heist. Anthony Quinn and a nearly unrecognizable Jane Wyman co-star.

Pressure: This job's got to be handled with finesse.
Jug: Who's that?

McDonagh's Laurel-and-Hardy hitman duo, played by Brendan Gleeson (aka Professor Alastor "Mad Eye" Moody in the Harry Potter movies) and a surprisingly amusing Colin Farrell, hang out in Bruges (Belgium, that is) to wait for their next assignment from their very principled boss (Ralph Fiennes).

Overacting even by his contemporary standards, Boris Karloff nevertheless cuts a striking figure as a religious fanatic before the movie's climax. The film also features the solidly built Victor McLaglen, who became a staple in Ford's films.

Congratulations to Chicago stage actor Michael Shannon, who received an Academy Award nomination this week for his supporting role in Revolutionary Road.

I first saw Shannon onstage several years ago at a tiny Chicago venue, A Red Orchid Theatre,* where he reprised his role as the very disturbed Peter in Tracy Letts's very disturbing Bug. Shannon's performance was possibly the most riveting I've seen in any theater (his leading lady, Kate Buddeke, was also outstanding).

Since that rare experience, I've seen Shannon in several other stage productions, including Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, Craig Wright's Lady, and Denis Johnson's Shoppers Carried by Escalators Into the Flames. In all cases, Shannon either supported the beauty of the work (as in the case of The Pillowman) or transcended it (as in the case of Johnson's theatrical misfire).

* At 1531 N. Wells. I'm terrible at square-footage estimates, but the seating area was probably the size of a large living room. It's important to state that I'll never see the movie version of Bug, lest the film spoil my memory of the stage production.

Photo of Michael Shannon from A Red Orchid Theatre.

This frigid week, the reader is referred to an update of a previous Kick-Back post.

(And just for the record, the answer to "Who is Number 1?" isn't "Pittsburgh.")

P.S. It took me forever to place a young Ward Bond as the doorman, maybe because Dead End is not a western.

There are some artistic liberties taken with the story of the royal conflict between the cousins, so don't let teenagers use the movie as a historic reference. But do point out actors, including Redgrave,* that they'll recognize from more recent films—like Timothy Dalton (aka Simon Skinner in Hot Fuzz) as Lord Darnley or Ian Holm (aka Bilbo Baggins) as David Riccio.

* For instance, kids, Redgrave was the old Briony in Atonement. Aha.

01/15/09 update

Zulu

Close attention to smart dialogue among the British infantrymen will compensate for the dramatically rough, often amateurish scenes of hand-to-hand combat.

The Dawn Patrol

Plus I could look at Basil's profile for hours.

Poster image from Wikipedia and reproduced under fair use law.

Another scenery-chewing western (but the good kind) from Anthony Mann: The Furies (1950). Walter Huston, in his last film, and Barbara Stanwyck are New Mexican ranchers T. C. and Vance Jeffords, possibly the most mutually vindictive father-daughter duo outside of Greek tragedy.

Blago wouldn't stand a chance against these two.

N.B. If you're trying to place the miscast Wendell Corey, Stanwyck's would-be fiance, he was the detective in Rear Window.

Gloria Grahame, as Stone's girlfriend, becomes a none-too-subtle metaphor for corruption when she encounters a pot of coffee.

If for nothing else, to be (re)watched for the famous brew-that-is-true bit between Kaye and Mildred Natwick.

The Naked Spur

There are no real good guys in this over-the-top western from director Anthony Mann—just one guy who's not as bad as the others.

The recent high-profile gigs of hot Scotsman Kevin McKidd (Rome) in TV's "Grey's Anatomy," "Journeyman," and the straight-to-airplane Made of Honor do him no credit, but he is a one hell of a Count Vronsky in this "Masterpiece" version of Anna Karenina (2000).

Yeah, I'd throw myself in front of a train, too, if I thought he was cheating on me.

P.S. Brit Helen McCrory, who plays Anna, is hooked up with another UK redhead, Damian Lewis, star of TV's "Life."

Not Without My Daughter (1991): Based on the true account of an American woman's unexpected, indefinite stay in Iran with her husband and his family during the Islamic revolution. Recommended because Alfred Molina (Frida, Boogie Nights, Enchanted April), as the husband, is so incredibly good at morphing from a sympathetic foreign medical grad in the US to a conflicted monster in his native country. I also really (really) like Sally Field.

There are at least 7 movie versions of Jane Eyre out there, including the classic with Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles, the Timothy Dalton version (now who decided he'd be a good Bond?), and the recent "Masterpiece" version with Maggie Smith's son. But my favorite, far and away, is the A&E film with Samantha Morton and Ciaran Hinds—primarily because Ciaran Hinds can do no wrong.

P.S. I'm astonished to find that this version has been roundly panned at Netflix. They're mistaken.

Featuring the great character heavies Lee Van Cleef and Jack Elam, both of whom appeared in too many westerns to name.

Good and campy, Dangerous Crossing features an interesting mix of actors whose careers, characteristic of the early 1950s, straddled the motion-picture and television industries. Twenty-eight-year-old Jeanne Crain (State Fair), a little long in the tooth by then-Hollywood standards, doubts her sanity when her new husband, played by Carl Betz ("The Donna Reed Show," "Judd for the Defense"), goes missing on their honeymoon cruise. The ship's doctor, Michael Rennie (The Day the Earth Stood Still), tries to sort it all out.

Don't spend a whole lot of thought on this one. 

Trouble in Paradise

Gaston: Madame Colet, if I were your father, which fortunately I am not, and you made any attempt to handle your own business affairs, I would give you a good spanking, in a business way, of course.
Madame Colet: What would you do if you were my secretary?
Gaston: The same thing.
Madame Colet: You're hired.

Although the movie is considered an Ernst Lubitsch classic, just about anybody could imagine a Coen Brothers remake with George Clooney.

Poster image from Wikipedia and reproduced under fair-use law.