Movie review - "Five Corners" (1987) ***

 The first American movie from HandMade Films, in hindsight a mistake, though the company kept producing British pictures, and all its American films were something different.

This launched a bunch of names - John Patrick Shanley, John Tururro, Tim Robbins - and was part of the re-awakening of Jodie Foster. 

I remember reading the script ages ago - it was published - and being intrigued by its characters, the combination of nostalgia and violence, the unsettling story of a man out of prison seeking revenge for someone he's obsessed with (Foster), the killing of the penguins. Something Wild is maybe a little close to it though that had more sex.

That script was more vivid to read than the final film was to watch, although the film is faithful. Maybe it needed a better director. Mind you I doubt any other director would have made it. 

The ending felt satisfying. This was odd. It worked. 

Movie review - "Silence of the Lambs" (1991) *****

 A magnificent combination of material, writer, director, approach, and stars. Joanthan Demme didn't always has the best scripts he wasn't great on story and sometimes his take on the material didn't match but it works beautifully here. Few movies better demonstrate the power of close ups.

Also he lucked out with casting. Jodie Foster was never better as the plucky, intimated Clarice, who is constantly shown surrounded by men, leering/dismissive. Even Jack Craword (Scott Glenn, very good) can be dismissive. Tony Hopkings is electric. Charming. Gene Hackman and even Sean Connery wouldn't have been as good.

Full of spectacular set pieces. Stunningly well made. Orion were a great studio. William Goldman advised a whole section be cut out apparently. Roger Corman has one of his best roles.

Book review - "There's No Going Back The Life and Work of Jonathan Demme" by David M. Stewart

 Solid biography of the director - I'm surprised there hadn't been one before now. It packs a fair bit in - his publicist, flashy dad, who had progressive politics and was a bit of a sleaze, like his son, really, who didn't always treat women well. Like his Australian first wife who he refused to allow produce.

Demme broke in as a publicist, worked in New York, interned for Joe Levine, benefited from a wealthy background, move to London, did some work on Eyewitness, then hooked up with Roger Corman, stayed with Corman a few years. Obviously talented, so much so that people kept giving him work despite a lack of hits. Indeed, he only had a few hits throughout his career. Quality of his work seemed to slip after Philadelphia with too many remakes but in his defense his focus seems to have been split, doing a lot of producing and documentaries, being involved in Haiti. A heavy smoker which is why he died relatively young.

I'm not a huge Demme fan. Something slightly lacking in the book. Maybe a layer of depth or something.

Jodie Foster Top Ten

 1) Bugsy Malone (1976) - she'll take over Fat Sam's empire

2) Taxi Driver (1976)

3) Foxes (1980) - forgotten now but terrific

4) Silence of the Lambs (1991)

5) Freaky Friday (1976)

6) Hotel New Hampshire (1984) - film's not great but she is

7) Sommersby (1993) -  does anyone remember this now?

8) Maverick (1994) - should do more comedies

9) The Accused (1988) - deserved the Oscar 

10) A Very Long Engagement (2004) - in French! Good flex 

Movie review - "Hotel New Hampshire" (1984) **

The novel is probably good. This seems to lack focus. Hard for a movie to do justice to more than one to three characters as this proves. Rob Lowe tries but is too pretty. Jodie Foster is stunningly good. Natassa Kinski suits the movie as well.

The serious stuff - death of the mother, rape of Foster, death of a child - is handled well.  But the film got irritating. I think it was a mistake to follow the characters to Vienna and then Hollywood. Sure, it was in the novel, but so what? Setting it in the one place might've been better.

This is the sort of movie that no doubt has its fans. I am not among them. But good on Tony Richardson for having a go.

 

Movie review. - "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974) ***

 Still Scorcese's only feature that focuses on a woman - you think he might've done more because this won Ellen Burstyn an Oscar and was a hit. It's a modern updating of old 30s women's pictures with modern trappings.

It's still Hollywood. Her husband is a dipshit who threatens to hit wife and child so we don't feel bad when he dies early on. She finds an act two guy Harvey Keitel who turns out to be a married dipshit. 

Then act three she moves to another town and works in a diner and it becomes recogniseably Alice with Diane Ladd channelling Eve Arden and Kris Kristofferson as George Brent (he suited playing.a love interest, KK, because he seemed so comfortable in his skin and not overly charismatic as to pull focus). It really is a Joan Crawford movie. But it's lovely and done with empathy if a little long.

The kid is excellent. Jodie Foster rocks up again as a girl who befriends him. Wish her part had been better.

I'm surprised how populist it is. I mean it ends with a public declaration of love in a diner with extras looking on and clapping when they kiss.  I mean, it was turned into a sitcom.

Mind you it's a Scorsese so there's still domestic violence - full on from Harvey Keitel, mild from Kris Kristofferson.

Movie review - "Kansas City Bomber" (1972) ***

A high water mark in the career of Raquel Welch: the film was written as a vehicle for her and she helped produce it, and gives one of her best performances: a single mum (Jodie Foster is one of the kids) who is determined to make it in the roller derby. Welch seems more natural than normal, chewing gum, slouching and skating her arse off. Still not brilliant or anything but beautiful

It's a gritty-ish early 70s piece - certainly no add for roller derby which is depicted as brutal, corrupt run by team owners such as Kevin McCarthy. The script depends too much on McCarthy doing Something Bad - whether encouraging Welch to brawl, trading her best friend, encouraging a rival with another skater, causing a male skater to be brutish. It's as if they couldn't bring themselves to criticise anyone else - and sometimes it's a bit silly.

But the milieu works - dingy bars and halls, cramped beds, crummy locker rooms. Its very feminist even if Raquel takes a shower or two and looks great in her costumes, with Raquel learning she can't rely on a man. (Though admittedly she's not the best mum in the world, dumping her two kids with her mum while she goes off skating.) The love scene between McCarthy and Welch is underwhelming but Helena Kallianiotes gives an interesting support performance.

The title is completely perfect even though most of the action takes place in Portland.

Movie review - "Carnage" (2012) ***

Roman Polanski loves a film set in a cramped room - it'll mean he's never out of work since they're cheap to make. Judging by the credits though they still found a way to make this cost a bit - every man and his dog is credited as a producer or financier. 

The casting is very UN - it's set in New York and is about New Yorkers but was shot in Paris and the cast includes two foreigners in accents. The acting is fine - everyone is a good actor, although I felt Jodie Foster pitched her performance a bit too highly. It's skillfully written although there are two scenes with a couple about to leave then invited back for a snack (they could have gotten them to come back by talking about why one kid hit the other - which isn't really explored). Also there isn't really an ending. Still, for the most part this held.

Movie review – “Taxi Driver” (1976) ***1/2

I felt this isn’t as good as its reputation today – but then that’s been influenced by many factors: the iconic image of Robert de Niro walking down the streets, the “you talking to me” bit, de Niro in a Mohawk, the fact it inspired a real life presidential assassination, the dynamic violence at the end. Watching it all the way through I got a bit bored and sleepy in places – this may have been intentional since Martin Scorsese has said he wanted to recreate a dream-like state with the film.

This had its origin with Paul Schrader, who came up with a terrific character, moments and finale, but it’s an odd sort of script. It goes in one direction – de Niro pursuing Cybill Shepherd, being rejected by her, and wanting to kill the Senator… then half way through changes gears and he meets Jodie Foster and wants to save her. The male characters are vivid, the female characters less so, although Foster's performance is superb and I just bought Shepherd agreeing to go to a porn movie with de Niro.

I was struck how little violence is in it - a brief shooting (of the mugger) and the shoot out at the end. But throughout is an atmosphere of seediness, filth and dirt: dingy apartments, unclean cabs, porn theatres, broken streets. Not exactly a fun night out.

Script review – “Taxi Driver” by Paul Schrader

Still a terrific read after all these years. Few scripts better got into the head of an assassin – indeed, few films could have claimed to inspire a presidential assassin. Lonely, tormented Travis Bickle is one of the all time great cinema characters – haunted, paranoid, lonely, desperate for a cause. We 

think he’s going to off a presidential candidate but he ends up taking out a pimp of a young girl. 

 

The only really bung note in it is the character of Betsy, the ambitious political assistant – I didn’t buy it even on the page she’d go near a guy like Travis. Schrader keeps specifying how handsome he is and I’m sure that in the 70s there was a man drought on as well but he must seem creepy. And he’s a taxi driver. But the rest of it feels all too real (Schrader himself drove a cab for a while and the authenticity seeps through. Apparently the script was originally set in Los Angeles which is hard to believe – it feels so New York.) 

 

Reading this I was surprised how small the part of Iris the prostitute was, but it is evocative. Powerful, delirious and a deserved masterpiece.

Movie review – “The Beaver” (2011) **1/2

Mel Gibson gives a fantastic performance here – but then I guess he’s really playing himself, a burnt out middle aged family man who loathes himself and his life. (At times I couldn’t help thinking maybe the technique his character uses here would work for Mel in real life). 

 

You wonder why, then, half the film is devoted to the escapades of his son, which really don’t have anything to do with Mel. This goes on and on, while more interesting Mel is ignored. 

 

Also some of it doesn’t ring true: a valedictorian having to pay a boy to write her speech? Would the beaver really be a craze that sweeps the nation? Does the beaver have to be cleaned? 

 

Jodie Foster doesn’t have any character to play really and the young boy is just a young boy – there’s opportunities missed there. Instead they devote time to the son, and his girlfriend, and her fear of talking about her brother. Yawn, snore. A real shame. But Mel is really good.

Movie review – “Bugsy Malone” (1976) ***1/2

Excellent fun which would remain one of Alan Parker’s and David Puttnam’s best film. Some excellent performances in the cast, including Scott Baio, Jodie Foster (who looks as though she could have played the role in a grown up’s film) and the bloke who plays Fat Sam; Blousy and Dandy Dan are less good (to be fair, Blousy isn’t much of a character). The structure for the story is very solid – some moments are genuinely scary (such as the elimination of Fat Sam’s men) and rousing (when Bugsy recruits men to fight against Dandy Dan). I love the finale where everyone becomes friends and then Blousy and Bugsy take off for Hollywood. 

I remember this was the film which educated me about the Depression – when Bugsy visits the soup kitchen I asked my mother what it was and she told me. There’s worse ways of learning about the world than the movies.

Movie review - "A Very Long Engagement' (2004) ***1/2

Jodie Foster pops up in this French movie speaking the lingo fluently which is a lovely surprise. The title is perhaps not the best in the world (anything with "a very long" in it is asking for trouble). This looks terrific and is full of interesting little scenes and "bits" - eg lighting a match while seducing someone - and anything to do with World War One makes you angry and furious at the loss of life even if done only half-well, and this is much better than that. 

Occasionally the main drama gets lost with all the peripheral characters (though I understand why - they were aiming more for a novel-type kaleidoscope). The "clever bits" nature of the piece also adds to this.

Movie review - "Flight Plan" (2005) **1/2

For a while this is a passable thriller, aided by some flashy direction and ever-reliable Jodie Foster in the lead (looking even more stressed out and miserable than usual). It felt a bit too familiar to Red Eye and The Lady Vanishes but had some creepy moments. Then the mystery is solved and then it's half an hour or so of a ticking clock and Jodie punching out the villain and an overlong climax. Might have been better if they'd increased the "other-ness" of other people on the plane a la Lady Vanishes. Too many people can speak English. Could have used some humour.

Movie review - "Inside Man" (2006) ***1/2

One of those movies I really enjoyed with a few late minute twists that make you go "ooh"... then around two hours later something clicks and you go "hang on". One or two obvious plot contrivances - why keep it in the vault? - and some less obvious - how does he get out? - but this is mostly a lot of fun. Denzel Washington is a slightly bent cop outwitted by Clive Owen; it's great to see Jodie Foster playing a bitch. 

The hostages behave very selfishly and whiningly - it's Spike Lee's city so I guess he knows what he's talking about. Visual flourishes and social commentary work well. I know the Sikh is hard done by - but how about being a little less selfish? The female characters aren't the best - they're either bitches (Jodie Foster, the Albanian ex-wife), or sex figures (the big boobed robber, Denzel's girlfriend). Tremendous music score from Terence Blanchard.