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- 18
I remember really liking The Family Way, but it's many years since I've seen it and my official opinion of it has long since expired. (Plus I also loved Room at the Top so what do I know?)
What was the last film you watched?
- Thread starter Mel O'Drama
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- 27
I've watched (a little bit) of that type of musical a few days ago. It was the German film Linie 1 based on a real musical (a big cult hit in Germany, although I couldn't see what made it so quintessential German) and that means that every scene is pure fantasy.
It's subtitled but that's also part of the problem: subtitles for song lyrics doesn't work. I see the word "metro" and hear the word "U-bahn".
Yesterday I received an email from netflix saying: you have not finished the complete streaming yet, Mr. Oleson!. And, Mr. Oleson!, we think, Mr. Oleson!, that it will be in your best interest to do so a.s.a.p., Mr. Oleson!
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That's really sweet.
And after I finished playing it, 2M5 came on autoplay (presumably the next track). It's so upbeat it made me jump out of my skin. And it's so very 1966 I can easily envisage Batman swinging a cape and doing the Batusi to it.
Probably best it came in writing. Put that to music and it would be a very lethal ear worm.
- Awards
- 18
I'm listening to it now and yes, it's very swinging and groovy, yet there's also a underlying melancholy that makes me strangely nostalgic for a 1966 I even never knew ...
- Awards
- 27
The Family Way (1966)
And so a good thing came from Room At The Top after all. And without Laurence Harvey's spoken reference, the title of this film would have gone over my head.
It's not important but it's true.
The premise of the film - like the original play, I suppose - is very much a comedy, but for the most part it plays out like a straight drama lightly sprinkled with humour and quirk. In other words, it's not a Carry On Married farce.
Because of housing problems, newlyweds Jenny and Arthur are going to live with Arthur's parents and spend their wedding night in Arthur's bedroom.
There's a lot of social expectation about that wedding night which looks a bit medieval to me. Those people literally stood around the bed of the married couple to witness the religious blessing. Thankfully that doesn't happen in this film but the awkwardness is still very much there.
Jenny and Arthur look like a young Eurovision couple (or half of AB/BA) rather than typically British people.
Even more noticeable are the warm and eye-popping colours which looks rather unusual for this genre film made in UK, but a different film poster mentions a "Technicolor Warner Bros. release" so I guess that explains it.
The plot-driven part is that Jenny and Arthur fail to consummate their marriage, but at the heart of it is a strained father/son relationship with a little twist thrown in.
This is very noticeable during an arm wrestling contest between father and son: Arthur is about to win but when he sees his father's tormented facial expressions he decides to fake defeat.
Later, Arthur's mother Lucy berates her husband Ezra for humiliating their son on his wedding day unaware of the fact that Arthur intentionally maintained his father's self-esteem.
Nevertheless, it was Ezra's inconsiderate behaviour that put them in that situation in the first place.
He's the kind of character who always puts his foot in it, followed by Lucy's sarcastic and quotable comments.
Jenny's parents are also far from perfect, and at some point in the story it even foreshadows a bit of Bouquet Of Barbed Wire.
As the story progresses, the emphasis is on the public reaction to Jenny and Arthur's mysterious marital issue, and it kinda looks as if they're watching the couple in a Big Brother TV show.
In a bizarre algorithm sort of way it feels as if the whole world conspires against Arthur: from an unsolicited birth-control catalogue to an overwhelmingly public display of marriage-sex marketing.
The last part of the story is the only part that deals with the drama in a head-on way and a bit of self-awareness threatens to creep in. But since it's also about a certain plot-realisation it stays on the right side of melodrama. I imagine that the closing scene is exactly the same as the one from the stage play.
Not many actors that I recognised, which doesn't mean I had not seen them in any film before this one.
Barry Foster is the household name because he's been in so many films and TV series, and I had previously watched a young Murray Head in Sunday Bloody Sunday.
A marriage guidance counsellor is played by Ruth Trouncer but for a brief moment I thought it was Stephanie Beacham.
Great stuff, I think I'm going to buy the DVD.
And so a good thing came from Room At The Top after all. And without Laurence Harvey's spoken reference, the title of this film would have gone over my head.
It's not important but it's true.
The premise of the film - like the original play, I suppose - is very much a comedy, but for the most part it plays out like a straight drama lightly sprinkled with humour and quirk. In other words, it's not a Carry On Married farce.
Because of housing problems, newlyweds Jenny and Arthur are going to live with Arthur's parents and spend their wedding night in Arthur's bedroom.
There's a lot of social expectation about that wedding night which looks a bit medieval to me. Those people literally stood around the bed of the married couple to witness the religious blessing. Thankfully that doesn't happen in this film but the awkwardness is still very much there.
Jenny and Arthur look like a young Eurovision couple (or half of AB/BA) rather than typically British people.
Even more noticeable are the warm and eye-popping colours which looks rather unusual for this genre film made in UK, but a different film poster mentions a "Technicolor Warner Bros. release" so I guess that explains it.
The plot-driven part is that Jenny and Arthur fail to consummate their marriage, but at the heart of it is a strained father/son relationship with a little twist thrown in.
This is very noticeable during an arm wrestling contest between father and son: Arthur is about to win but when he sees his father's tormented facial expressions he decides to fake defeat.
Later, Arthur's mother Lucy berates her husband Ezra for humiliating their son on his wedding day unaware of the fact that Arthur intentionally maintained his father's self-esteem.
Nevertheless, it was Ezra's inconsiderate behaviour that put them in that situation in the first place.
He's the kind of character who always puts his foot in it, followed by Lucy's sarcastic and quotable comments.
Jenny's parents are also far from perfect, and at some point in the story it even foreshadows a bit of Bouquet Of Barbed Wire.
As the story progresses, the emphasis is on the public reaction to Jenny and Arthur's mysterious marital issue, and it kinda looks as if they're watching the couple in a Big Brother TV show.
In a bizarre algorithm sort of way it feels as if the whole world conspires against Arthur: from an unsolicited birth-control catalogue to an overwhelmingly public display of marriage-sex marketing.
The last part of the story is the only part that deals with the drama in a head-on way and a bit of self-awareness threatens to creep in. But since it's also about a certain plot-realisation it stays on the right side of melodrama. I imagine that the closing scene is exactly the same as the one from the stage play.
Not many actors that I recognised, which doesn't mean I had not seen them in any film before this one.
Barry Foster is the household name because he's been in so many films and TV series, and I had previously watched a young Murray Head in Sunday Bloody Sunday.
A marriage guidance counsellor is played by Ruth Trouncer but for a brief moment I thought it was Stephanie Beacham.
Great stuff, I think I'm going to buy the DVD.
- Awards
- 20
A Talent For Loving (1969)
Producer Walter Shenson reportedly offered this to The Beatles as their third film but it's difficult to see how they would have fit into it.
It's a parody of a western with Richard Widmark and Topol as rivals and Cesar Romero again over the top, but there's no four member team so presumably the Beatles would have played character roles far removed from their established personas.
As well as the Beatles themselves, director Dick Lester is a no-show, but the music is by Ken Thorne, and John Bluthal appears as the antagonist's sidekick, so there's a little family resemblance.
Lester did make a version of The Three Musketeers for which the Beatles had also apparently been considered, a better choice in my opinion, but not to be.
Producer Walter Shenson reportedly offered this to The Beatles as their third film but it's difficult to see how they would have fit into it.
It's a parody of a western with Richard Widmark and Topol as rivals and Cesar Romero again over the top, but there's no four member team so presumably the Beatles would have played character roles far removed from their established personas.
As well as the Beatles themselves, director Dick Lester is a no-show, but the music is by Ken Thorne, and John Bluthal appears as the antagonist's sidekick, so there's a little family resemblance.
Lester did make a version of The Three Musketeers for which the Beatles had also apparently been considered, a better choice in my opinion, but not to be.
- Awards
- 44
Edie (2017)
This film had completely gone under my radar until a couple of days ago, so I thought I would strike while the iron is not.
Mostly I know Sheila for being herself as a regular in the radio panel game Just A Minute, sparring with good friend Kenneth Williams and holding her own with the competitive men. She's one of my favourite players and I would argue the best female player. I dare say I saw her in a Give Us A Clue or two as well. And of course she is well known to most as John Thaw's wife.
Until a few years ago about the only acting roles in which I'd seen her were a cough and a spit as the gloriously named Senna Pod in Carry On Cleo, and the character analogous with Bea Arthur's Dorothy in Brighton Belles, the ill-advised adaption of The Golden Girls. Oh, and possibly a few clips of her in EastEnders. Not so long back I watched her in Buster playing Julie Walters' mother and thought she was one of the best things about the film.
Edie really is a wonderful vehicle for Sheila. She is in practically every scene and is note-perfect. Early on in the film, the character experiences loss. It's the kind of experience that would give a lesser actress free range to emote, but Sheila holds on to this character very tightly and understands that it's all about what goes on inside.
Edie herself is curt and cold and grouchy. She is unpleasant to people - even those who offer her kindness at great inconvenience. Really, though, she is living behind very thick walls that have protected her for most of her life. To be anything other than how she is would be a big thing to ask. Early in the film she has a terrific scene with her daughter where she realises her daughter has read her diary and tells her the words were meant for herself alone. The diary was her friend because she was lonely and had nobody to talk to. I was reminded of that scene in Housewife, 49 where Nella Last shares similar sentiments with her husband about her own diary entries ("I had nobody to talk to. There was only you", or words to that effect). Edie goes on to matter of factly admit that she didn't love her husband, but she stayed with him which has to count for something (we later learn that he had a life-changing stroke the day after she stood up to him, leaving her to care for him for the next thirty years). She goes on to add that she did her duty by raising her children, which naturally goes down like a lead balloon with her daughter who isn't seen again.
Really, this is one of those quest films that British cinema does so well, where a character goes on a mission to fulfil a promise or meet a need or because this is their last hurrah. Or any combination of these. The Last Bus springs to mind, but I've watched many films that could fit this sub-genre, even The Salt Path which I watched last week. Edie's comes from an old photograph with her later father's writing on the back, and a suggestion that they climb Suilven.
Every quest needs a sherpa, and Edie's comes in the form of Jonny, a local who initially takes pity on her after he and his wife bowl Edie over in their rush at the railway station. Handily, he also works at the local camping shop where - despite Edie and Jonny's intolerance of one another - a colleague claims Jonny is a proficient mountaineer who will give Edie the relevant equipment and training... for a price.
The unlikely friendship that forms from a gradual thaw, while not unpredictable, is very lovely. Kevin Guthrie plays him perfectly, with Jonny framed as someone kind, noble and quietly heroic. There's something very romantic about that image, despite the always-platonic relationship. If were climbing a ridiculously steep and isolated mountain on my own, completely inexperienced and in a storm, I'd want Jonny to give me his phone and call every once in a while to make sure I was OK. This made it quite a shock this morning, when looking up the film's cast, to see Wikipedia's description of him and to read what had happened since the film. His cancellation, while understandable, feels like a loss since he turned in a really lovely performance here. I'm glad the film was on Prime because the BBC apparently took his shows off iPlayer after the furore.
There's also something very 'naked' about Sheila's performance. I think of her as someone who is very elegant and poised, but there's no sense of vanity here at all. One feels she's not worried about keylights or angles or whether a costume is complimentary. She's just exposed, which gives the film an incredible subjectivity.
It possibly goes without saying that the scenery is stunning.
The film's tagline, "It's never too late" is spoken in the film, and there's a wonderful scene from Sheila that encapsulates it when Edie, begging to go on with the mission, talks frankly about living with regret and emotionally implores "Don't let it happen to you". It feels she is speaking to the viewer. And perhaps she is.
- Awards
- 27
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)
There's nothing in this film I hadn't seen before but sometimes it's the familiarity that makes for a pleasant experience, and there's a lot of spot-the-tropes going on.
I'm not a big fan of the "crazy inventions" slapstick, and the beginning of Wallace & Gromit looked like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on steroids.
But there's also words and language woven into the plot-driven humour, and this is something I usually enjoy - even if it is as on the nose as reporter Onya Doorstep or Cutting Hedge Technology.
The evil gnomes are rebooted with real boots, it's very silly but someone had to come up with the idea.
The characters are fabulous especially CI Mackintosh and Feathers McGraw who'd do great in 1960s Gotham City (and there's also that ceremonial public display of a most-wanted diamond which would attract villains like the Joker and Cat Woman).
The stop-motion animation proved to be a challenge, but that's a personal physical problem and not a fault of the art itself.
It was a fun and neat & tidy film.
There's nothing in this film I hadn't seen before but sometimes it's the familiarity that makes for a pleasant experience, and there's a lot of spot-the-tropes going on.
I'm not a big fan of the "crazy inventions" slapstick, and the beginning of Wallace & Gromit looked like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on steroids.
But there's also words and language woven into the plot-driven humour, and this is something I usually enjoy - even if it is as on the nose as reporter Onya Doorstep or Cutting Hedge Technology.
The evil gnomes are rebooted with real boots, it's very silly but someone had to come up with the idea.
It's totally predictable and it's still very funny.
The characters are fabulous especially CI Mackintosh and Feathers McGraw who'd do great in 1960s Gotham City (and there's also that ceremonial public display of a most-wanted diamond which would attract villains like the Joker and Cat Woman).
The stop-motion animation proved to be a challenge, but that's a personal physical problem and not a fault of the art itself.
It was a fun and neat & tidy film.
- Awards
- 44
I enjoyed this element as well:
Yes. It's very distinct and could take some getting used to. I'm a big fan of the style, as I gushed after watching the film:
My key challenge with it at the time was that in a number of ways it didn't feel as old-fashioned as the others:
- Awards
- 27
Brussels By Night (1983)
A Belgian arty-farty road tripmovie film in which nothing significants happens. There are characters in it and they do stuff but it all looks very random.
Let's take the bus, let's drink, let's ask questions answered with "why do you ask so many questions", let's take snapshots, let's go to a discotheque but we're not allowed to enter so then let's not do it.
The depressing and sometimes violent nature of the main character makes you wonder why there is a social connection between him and the other characters.
But that's the beauty of film because the simple answer is: they filmed it.
There's a lot of sightseeing to do, and thankfully it's all that boring random stuff that says so much more about the zeitgeist than the touristic spots (although, except for Manneke Pis, I'd be hard-pressed to name a touristic spot in Brussels).
Sometimes it reminded me of The Wiz but without songs, which is actually not true because main character Max performs Erma Franklin's Piece Of My Heart albeit in a drunken and aggressive way.
Come to think of it, it's more like Elizabeth Taylor's best and most haunting film The Driver's Seat (1974) which I'm going to rewatch in glorious 4K once I got myself a blu ray player. The difference is that we know the motivation of Taylor's character.
Max in Brussels makes telephone calls throughout the entire film but those calls are never answered. It implies that it's always the same number and that it has something to do with his reckless and irrational behaviour. He's married but his wife is not in the film and he doesn't want to talk about her.
Then something unexpectedly shocking happens and I thought that was the film's Jeanne Dielman moment. It gave me a false sense of relaxation because I expected those last 5 minutes to peter out until the end credits started to roll.
Talk about pulling the rug from under this viewer's feet. It may be the darkest ending in film I've ever seen in my entire life, even darker than The Vanishing or Mr. Goodbar. It made me rewatch the whole story in a flash.
It's a wonderful film if you're in the mood for something less Hollywood. I watched it on netflix but there's also a subtitled version on YT.
The claymation looks good, but there's a slight interference with my visual perception. I also can't sit in a chair that leans back without getting dizzy.
You know, the car-sick kid. Not that it ever impressed my dad who always smoked inside the car even if it was to get to the other side of the street.
"Select all images with cheese in it".
There are no other W&G films on netflix, unfortunately, but they've got some Shaun the Sheep stuff. Is it funny?
A Belgian arty-farty road trip
Let's take the bus, let's drink, let's ask questions answered with "why do you ask so many questions", let's take snapshots, let's go to a discotheque but we're not allowed to enter so then let's not do it.
The depressing and sometimes violent nature of the main character makes you wonder why there is a social connection between him and the other characters.
But that's the beauty of film because the simple answer is: they filmed it.
There's a lot of sightseeing to do, and thankfully it's all that boring random stuff that says so much more about the zeitgeist than the touristic spots (although, except for Manneke Pis, I'd be hard-pressed to name a touristic spot in Brussels).
Sometimes it reminded me of The Wiz but without songs, which is actually not true because main character Max performs Erma Franklin's Piece Of My Heart albeit in a drunken and aggressive way.
Come to think of it, it's more like Elizabeth Taylor's best and most haunting film The Driver's Seat (1974) which I'm going to rewatch in glorious 4K once I got myself a blu ray player. The difference is that we know the motivation of Taylor's character.
Max in Brussels makes telephone calls throughout the entire film but those calls are never answered. It implies that it's always the same number and that it has something to do with his reckless and irrational behaviour. He's married but his wife is not in the film and he doesn't want to talk about her.
Then something unexpectedly shocking happens and I thought that was the film's Jeanne Dielman moment. It gave me a false sense of relaxation because I expected those last 5 minutes to peter out until the end credits started to roll.
Talk about pulling the rug from under this viewer's feet. It may be the darkest ending in film I've ever seen in my entire life, even darker than The Vanishing or Mr. Goodbar. It made me rewatch the whole story in a flash.
It's a wonderful film if you're in the mood for something less Hollywood. I watched it on netflix but there's also a subtitled version on YT.
I haven't seen the other W&G films but I know what you mean. It looks like it should happen in the 101 Dalmatians era.
The claymation looks good, but there's a slight interference with my visual perception. I also can't sit in a chair that leans back without getting dizzy.
You know, the car-sick kid. Not that it ever impressed my dad who always smoked inside the car even if it was to get to the other side of the street.
When I checked the cast list I didn't see anyone as the voice of Feathers McGraw. Then the penny dropped.
"Select all images with cheese in it".
There are no other W&G films on netflix, unfortunately, but they've got some Shaun the Sheep stuff. Is it funny?
- Awards
- 44
How very intriguing.
Ha.
Oh, that's a shame. They're all worth watching. The other full-length W&G film, The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit is great fun.
I'm not as familiar with Shaun as W&G. I have watched the original Shaun film but it was about a decade ago and I can't remember much about it. As a general rule, though, most of Aardman's stuff is very good. Chicken Run is worth a peek, if I remember correctly.
- Awards
- 18
So there is! I've just added it to my "Things to Watch on YouTube" list. Speaking of Watching Things on YouTube, I've finally completed the first season of Savannah (good fun, very dumb) and now it's movie-time again. I'm going with Scarlet Street, a film noir starring Elizabeth Collins off of Dark Shadows, Eddie Jacks off of Peyton Place and Edward G Robinson off of films.
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- 44
Was this your first time watching it? I enjoyed it a lot back in the day (Friday nights, 8pm on ITV), but never watched beyond the first season.
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- 27
I recently saw Joan Bennett in a veeery old romcom playing opposite Spencer Tracy. It's got that spitfire old-fashioned American English that I find impossible to understand completely (with or without subtitles) but it always sounds great. It's a miracle that they could remember those lines and perform them in sync with the scenes they were playing (even more so since she couldn't remember half of her lines in Dark Shadows).
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Yes, first time. I never realised it had such a prominent time slot back in the day, but then ITV did like to move its American soaps around from region to region. Gary Ewing's in Season 2 so that'll be interesting, but I think I'll have a break before getting back into it.
Yes, I'm so used to seeing Joan Bennett being all matronly and dignified and getting her lines in a complete muddle that it's quite a shock to see her being young and sexy and rattling off her dialogue while flicking cigarette ash everywhere and spitting grape seeds halfway across a room.
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He is, and married to Linda Fairgate's mother.
The story's setup limits it as a soap opera though not as severe as Revenge. I enjoyed most of it but I think two seasons was precisely enough.
Nineties TV is tricky, I find. A few years ago I rewatched Central Park West and Sisters and I recognised why I loved it at that time, but the magic could not be recaptured.
Maybe it's better to keep Savannah as a happy memory.
- Awards
- 27
The Lost Daughter (2021)
I think this is very much a "swimming pool" drama, which deserves to be a genre imo. These films are more about atmosphere, underlying tension and awkwardness that expose the characters in a quasi-mysterious but also unflattering way.
Literary translator/analyst Leda (Olivia Colman, and Jessie Buckley as her younger version) is impulsive and socially unskilled. She's not rude or bad, but her jokes never land and she doesn't know how to "read" people (ironically).
There is nothing particularly likeable or interesting about her but those flaws are not sold as "quirk". It's the story of a woman who could be any woman rather than an entertainer, and that makes it interestingly uncompromising to watch.
The moments of tension - sometimes hinting at danger - when she interacts with certain characters are very recognisable even though there are no true villains in this story.
Sometimes it's unclear who's the weird and untrustworthy person, it's all about the unknown and reading between the lines. Shades of We Need To Talk About Kevin.
Leda's past is relevant in the present time although it takes some time to get there.
There are lots of flashbacks with some red herrings in the first ones. I think this film didn't need that kind of trickery because everything else is so brutally honest.
Ed Harris proves once again to be a very reliable supporting actor. It's not a "big" performance but his mere presence gives the scenes more oomph.
I'm not surprised to see that this film was made by Maggie Gyllenhaal. She had previously acted in some terrific indie dramas like The Kindergarden Teacher and Secretary, and also as brother Jake's on-screen sister in Donnie Darko.
She knows this stuff and I hope there's more to come.
I think this is very much a "swimming pool" drama, which deserves to be a genre imo. These films are more about atmosphere, underlying tension and awkwardness that expose the characters in a quasi-mysterious but also unflattering way.
Literary translator/analyst Leda (Olivia Colman, and Jessie Buckley as her younger version) is impulsive and socially unskilled. She's not rude or bad, but her jokes never land and she doesn't know how to "read" people (ironically).
There is nothing particularly likeable or interesting about her but those flaws are not sold as "quirk". It's the story of a woman who could be any woman rather than an entertainer, and that makes it interestingly uncompromising to watch.
The moments of tension - sometimes hinting at danger - when she interacts with certain characters are very recognisable even though there are no true villains in this story.
Sometimes it's unclear who's the weird and untrustworthy person, it's all about the unknown and reading between the lines. Shades of We Need To Talk About Kevin.
Leda's past is relevant in the present time although it takes some time to get there.
There are lots of flashbacks with some red herrings in the first ones. I think this film didn't need that kind of trickery because everything else is so brutally honest.
Ed Harris proves once again to be a very reliable supporting actor. It's not a "big" performance but his mere presence gives the scenes more oomph.
I'm not surprised to see that this film was made by Maggie Gyllenhaal. She had previously acted in some terrific indie dramas like The Kindergarden Teacher and Secretary, and also as brother Jake's on-screen sister in Donnie Darko.
She knows this stuff and I hope there's more to come.
- Awards
- 44
The Final Destination (2009)
This was really a cynical box-ticking exercise. When I rewatched the first three films back in 2022, this one was unavailable, so I skipped to a first-time watch of the fifth film. While I haven't particularly felt I was missing much, the completist in me was aware of a gap.
Even though I saw the first film, and I think the first couple of sequels, in the cinema, the poster for this film feels like the one that I remember seeing more than others on billboards and the side of buses. I suppose it was heavily-promoted. While I haven't read much about the film, the little I'd seen and heard suggested this was the weakest of the franchise. Expectations were low because of this and I'm glad they were because I wasn't as disappointed as I could have been.
I wasn't expecting sophistication or nuance, but I probably could have been more prepared for the gimmicky direction to make the most of the 3D format. Watching in standard two dimensions it's just distracting. Burst tyres, shrapnel and explosions invariably fly out towards the screen - occasionally effectively so, but mostly it just feels samey. And of course there's a gratuitous sex scene with 3D tits jiggling.
Death sequences have an equally sledgehammer approach. There's the usual random stuff all happening at once but this time mostly meaningless. They even try for another blink-and-you'll-miss-it instant shocker à la Terry in the original. It doesn't work.
The premonitions, too, are clunky. This is established very early on when - after the initial premonition - the precognitive character begins pointing out every single detail before it happens. This instantly takes away any question of whether or not the character is imagining things or simply experiencing déjà vu (this is a failing of most - perhaps all - of the sequels). There's no sense of isolation for the character, who instantly has his own little Scooby gang to help him work things out. Naturally, they almost instantly read about Flight 180, but the only real connection is a very poorly mocked up article printed off by a character. I will give the film credit for getting me with a second premonition sequence that I accepted in the context of the story.
I realise I keep referring to "the character", which is telling when it comes to the level of characterisation in this film. 3D the action may be, but the same cannot be said for the characters or actors. Names are incidental and I didn't really pick any up. They're mostly glorified extras, reenacting the franchise's past glories (the only face I knew was One Tree Hill's Shantel VanSanten, but watching in this post-2017 era I struggled to get past how similar her facial features are to those of Meghan Markle). The initial tragedy has little emotional resonance for the characters, barring the perfunctory lines about trying to move on with their lives or whatever. Performances fall mostly into the range of workaday but this isn't art and the writing hardly invites depth. Most of the core crew seem defined by a single characteristic ("the racist redneck", "the one who constantly wants to get laid", "the thoughtful one") but even this only really applies to the male characters. The women are almost indistinguishable from one another (especially the dark-haired friend and the dark-haired mother. They even cleared their throats in identically irritating pitches).
The positive to come from the lack of character is that there isn't a character who irks as much as, say, FD1's Carter, or FD5's Peter.
Despite the ambition of the concept, the film feels cheaper than most in the series, which might be down to the dull direction (incidentally, director David R. Ellis would himself die in mysteriously unexplained circumstances a few years after this).
Funnily enough, the first season was broadcast simultaneously across the whole ITV network and I think it performed decently. Then they gave up and went back to the regional variations with Season Two, which is why I never ended up watching it. Either it wasn't shown in my region, or it was shown much later and tucked away somewhere where it couldn't be found.
CPW is another where I followed the first season and then somehow missed the second, apart from stumbling upon a couple of scenes several years later (it looked as though it had become too shallow and bonkers even for me).
- Awards
- 27
Wild Things (1998)
Speaking of Savannah and Central Park West, here we have a neo-noir for the Melrose Place generation that revels in its crowd-pleasing trashiness.
Cape Fear, this ain't.
It's a rewatch with several decades between this and the first time I watched it, and it's kinda funny to recognise all the names in the opening credits.
These days I have no idea who is who, and actors don't do stage names anymore even if their real names are impossible to pronounce.
Theresa Russell plays Denise Richards' filthy rich mother and Matt Dillon reprises his role of the murderous sleazebag from that other nineties A Kiss Before Dying remake.
It's really just plot twist after plot twist and then some, with very little attention to atmosphere and acting performances.
They even pay homage to "Bobby in the shower" played in full frontal by Kevin Bacon, the only time the film goes the extra mile, as it were.
Bill Murray (as Dillon's lawyer) questions Neve Campbell's character who is the second girl to accuse Dillon's Sam Lombardo of rape.
In that courtroom scene he introduces a question with "Let me ask you a question, Miss Toller", and the whole film is of that dialogue on a post-it level.
Of course I already knew it was a guilty pleasure but it's a bit more lowbrow than I remembered. Still, it's fun to watch a bunch of familiar 80s and 90s faces in this Do They Know It's Neo-Noir? vehicle.
It always looks best when it looks like something that can be prevented before it escalates, with just enough opportunity to cheat the curse. Then the pleasure comes from watching them fail.
But when objects start to move by themselves or when the characters are placed in an extremely dangerous situation then it's "anything goes" and waiting for the kills to happen. And I find that very boring.
*1998
Speaking of Savannah and Central Park West, here we have a neo-noir for the Melrose Place generation that revels in its crowd-pleasing trashiness.
Cape Fear, this ain't.
It's a rewatch with several decades between this and the first time I watched it, and it's kinda funny to recognise all the names in the opening credits.
These days I have no idea who is who, and actors don't do stage names anymore even if their real names are impossible to pronounce.
Theresa Russell plays Denise Richards' filthy rich mother and Matt Dillon reprises his role of the murderous sleazebag from that other nineties A Kiss Before Dying remake.
It's really just plot twist after plot twist and then some, with very little attention to atmosphere and acting performances.
They even pay homage to "Bobby in the shower" played in full frontal by Kevin Bacon, the only time the film goes the extra mile, as it were.
Bill Murray (as Dillon's lawyer) questions Neve Campbell's character who is the second girl to accuse Dillon's Sam Lombardo of rape.
In that courtroom scene he introduces a question with "Let me ask you a question, Miss Toller", and the whole film is of that dialogue on a post-it level.
Of course I already knew it was a guilty pleasure but it's a bit more lowbrow than I remembered. Still, it's fun to watch a bunch of familiar 80s and 90s faces in this Do They Know It's Neo-Noir? vehicle.
At some point they stopped paying attention to the events that result in these fabulous freak accidents.
It always looks best when it looks like something that can be prevented before it escalates, with just enough opportunity to cheat the curse. Then the pleasure comes from watching them fail.
But when objects start to move by themselves or when the characters are placed in an extremely dangerous situation then it's "anything goes" and waiting for the kills to happen. And I find that very boring.
*1998
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- Awards
- 27
Le Corbeau (1943)
Gosh, this poison-pen letters mystery looks surprisingly decadent for a film made in 1943.
There's plenty of relatively obscene language in this story about sexual desires, adultery, abortion, drugs - even sex with a 14 y/o girl is considered a possibility. It's Peyton Place on steroids.
The reviews on IMDB read "dark, suspenseful, chilling, noir" but personally I didn't see much of that.
All the whimsical and very bitchy humour made it impossible for me to take any of it too seriously, but I enjoyed it very much for what it was.
The non-stop dictation test was hilarious.
Le Corbeau is energetic, sharp and sometimes brutal, and in fact a dark comedy that could be made today. All they'd have to do is to update the dialogue a little bit.
I haven't seen Wicked Little Letters so I don't know how it compares.
Gosh, this poison-pen letters mystery looks surprisingly decadent for a film made in 1943.
There's plenty of relatively obscene language in this story about sexual desires, adultery, abortion, drugs - even sex with a 14 y/o girl is considered a possibility. It's Peyton Place on steroids.
The reviews on IMDB read "dark, suspenseful, chilling, noir" but personally I didn't see much of that.
All the whimsical and very bitchy humour made it impossible for me to take any of it too seriously, but I enjoyed it very much for what it was.
The non-stop dictation test was hilarious.
Le Corbeau is energetic, sharp and sometimes brutal, and in fact a dark comedy that could be made today. All they'd have to do is to update the dialogue a little bit.
I haven't seen Wicked Little Letters so I don't know how it compares.