Movie review - "Investigating Sex" (2001) **1/2

 A stronger Alan Rudolph movie - it benefits from an interesting idea (a salon of men discuss sex in 1929 with two female stenographers getting involved), a solid cast, some sex.

The chats aren't that interesting and indeed have dated in many ways - Gen Z are a lot more ahead of the group. Salon chat is hard to dramatise. It's stronger in scenes of peeople being affected by what's going on, particularly the women. The movie should have swapped some male characters for female and told it from female point of view. People like Julie Delpy and Tuesday Weld are under utilised.

Robin Tunney and Neve Campbell are stenographers.  

Like a lot of Rudolph movies it feels like a Woody Allen film without as many laughs.  The movie has strong moments then long period of blah. I gave it a half star because it had more energy and the good bits were good. 

Less characters would have helped incidentally. 

Movie review - "Trixie" (2000) **

 Emily Watson doing Americana, a security guard and aspiring private detective. Her accent and malaprprisms get on the nerves as does the... I don't know, the "whatever" of it all. She investigates a crime, has some entertaining chats with Nathan Lane, has a romance with Dermot Mulroney, interrogates Nick Nolte, hangs out with Brittany Murphy who would be better in the lead.

I liked Murphy and Nolte and the movie got better. But - whatever. 

Movie review - "Breakfast of Champions" (1999) *

 Bruce Willis took a lot of risks at his peak, one of the reasons he became so successful - for every Pulp Fiction and Sixth Sense there would be something like this. I haven't read the novel. It's untypica of the output of Alan Rudolph - more fast paced.

I couldn't follow what was going on. I didn't care. People like this movie. I found it confusing. Couldn't care about its take on American society.

Amazing cast - Albert Finney, Omar Epps, Barbara Hershey, Lukas Haas, Shawnee Smith, Will Patton, etc. 

Movie review - "Afterglow" (1997) **

 Nick Nolte and Julie Christie are a couple having issues - he's a handyman who cheats on her. He hooks up with Lara Flynn Boyle, horny and underserviced by husband Jonny Lee Miller who hooks up with Christie.

The female ingenues were often the strength of Rudolph movies eg Lori Singer in Trouble in Mind, Linda Fiorentino in The Moderns and that's the case here - Boyle is lively and energetic. Christie is excellement. Miller and Nolte are fine. 

You know what my issue was with this film? I didn't like the characters. I didn't care if anyone stayed married or had kids. Boyle's character was such a simpleton, Miller seemed so unengaged his his marriage, fuck Nolte for rejecting his daughter. I think because children were involved their antics got to me. 

I just didn't care. 

Movie review - "Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle" (1994) **1/2

 Another Alan Rudolph film that doesn't quite get there. It looks nice, has fun moment and it's entertaining to see all these figures. But the central relationship doesn't land - Jennifer Jason Leigh's Parker and Campbell Scott's Robert Benchley. For whatever reason in these scenes both feel like actors rather than real people. The relationship between Parker and Charles MacArthur (Matthew Broderick) seems more real. Maybe because Broderick has more energy. Or because something happens - they shag, she gets pregnant - as opposed to just pining.

Leigh is at times affective, at other times the drawl overpowers the movie and drags it down. Gwyneth Paltrow is fun as a shallow starlet.  Nice to see Jennifer Beal, Andrew McCarthy, Stanley Tucci, etc. 

I wish Woody Allen did a version of this story. 

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.