Movie review - "Love at Large" (1990) **1/2

 After half an hour I was ready to write this off but then Elizabeth Perkins starts interacting with private eye Tom Berenger - she's another private investigator - and the film lights up. It never quite gets there - Rudolph keeps setting his films in la la land when they should just be based on some sort of reality. But he allows actors the chance to shine - Ann Archer has fun as a femme fetale and Perkins is lively so is Berenger and Kate Capshaw. 

Movie review -"They Shoot Horses Don't They?" (1969) ****

 They were right to sack James Poe - this needed a proper director. The Hunger Games ripped this off down to the fake marriage. Jane Fonda is superb as the broken yet defiant competitor. Gig Young also magnificent- haunted, doomed, ruthless, not without sympathy.

Susannah York goes mad, Red Buttons dies of a heart attack, Bonnie Bedelia is pregnant, Bruce Dern is her husband. Michael Sarrazin looks on, worried - he's not in Fonda's league but he has a great look. 

It's a film about self destruction. The movie warns us up front. Amazing direction. Pefect production design. I love the sea side setting and use of waves in background. 

A triumph for ABC Pictures. 

Movie review - "The Moderns" (1988) **1/2

 I wanted to like this more than I did - setting of Paris in the 20s, cameos from Hemingway and Stein, art, Keith Carradine as an artist offered to do forgery. It's effective and Linda Fiorentino is magnificently sexy, John Lone is fun. Genevieve Bujold is under used again - do better Alan!

The film is two hours. It's ambling. Needed more sex and laughs and satire. There's a boxing match and other scenes. Too much time was spent on development. I wish it had been made in teh late 70s as planned.

Movie review - "Trouble in Mind" (1985) **1/2

 Alan Rudolph's success with Choose Me made it a little easier for him to raise finance for his next movie, this neo-noir about a man out of prison (Kris Kristofferson) whose paths cross with a couple (Keith Carradine, Lori Singer).

This is two movies really - a more serious noir, with Kristofferson kicking ass and falling for Singer, and gangsters - and a campier way out one with Carradine having wacky hair and Divine playing a gangster (quite well). The tone isn't quite right it feels inconsistent.

Singer is lovely, Carradine has a ball, Kristofferson isn't bad, Genevieve Bujold feels a little under utilised. The movie doesn't quite work tonally but I enjoyed the love story with Singer and Kristofferson and the violent bits do keep things going.  

Movie review - "Choose Me" (1984) ***

 Alan Rudolph's one hit - a minor hit but it made a splash, helped by having some names in the cast (Keith Carradine, Rae Dawn Chong, Lesley Ann Downe, Genevieve Bujold). Carradine is another f*boi sleeping with Chong, Downe and Bujold. Chong is married to Patrick Bauchau (excellent) who is sleeping with Downe, who listens to sex talk back Bujold who moves in with Downe without saying who she is.

It's familiar to Welcome to LA  - there's even a sountrack of the one artist. It's always watchable. Carradine's character is unstable, so is Downe's, so I guess it'll work out. There was something lacking in this for me - wasn't quite sure. Maybe it didn't feel like a progression from Welcome to LA. 

Movie review - "A Man Called Horse" (1970) **1/2

 The public liked it - more sympathetic to Indians than normal though it distorts as much as traditional Western, throws in some exotic ceremonies, and is still about a white man who manages to survive, shag a native girl, and become a leader. Richard Harris holds the screen, the direction is poor, the colour enjoyable.

Movie review - "Remember My Name" (1978) ***

 Alan Rudolph's fourth feature, though second "proper" one, is full of interesting moments, including a lead for Geraldine Chaplin and Tony Perkins as a stud opposite his wife Betty Berensen. Perkins and Berensen are married when his ex Chaplin gets out of prison and chaos ensues.

The film keeps you guessing.  No one feels entirely well cast but everyone works. There's an unsettling mood of madness, violence and sex. It's got a standard set up but it's given a non-standard production.