Movie review - "A Master Builder" (2013) **

 This movie was so annoying. Wallace Shawn lying in a hospital bed having scenes while a machine goes beep. Everyone has strong articulation. 

 

Book review - "We did okay, kid" by Anthony Hopkins

 Is Hopkins a great actor? He's been great - Silence of the Lambs, Howard's End - but  a lot of dreck. Hollywood thinks he's great - Hollywood is like that. It was Hollywood who kept his career going when he walked out of the National in the 1970s.

Hopkins always seemed like he had his head in the clouds. This confirms it. Internal. Quiet. A loud alcoholic.

The book livens up in some spots - being sledged by Paul Sorvino making Nixon, discussing his process in Silence of the Lambs. I wish there had been more of that. But I think he lives in Hopkins land. This is low on anecdotes and actors insights. 

Movie review - "Married to the Mob" (1988) ****

 Not a lot of actual laughs but full of good cheer, atmosphere and superb acting. Michelle Pfeiffer is very likeable as the mafia widow who just wants to have an honest life, Dean Stockwell is excellent (scary but very human), ditto Mercedues Reuhl (whose love for and pain about her husband is very real and affecting), Matthew Modine is charming as an affable FBI man.

There's appearances from people like Oliver Platt, Lady Carol, oh so young Alec Baldwin, an achingly pretty Nancy Travis. 

Lovely movie. 

Matthew Modine Top Ten

 Classy Top Ten (features)

1) Married to the Mob (1988)

2) Full Metal Jacket (1987)

3) Birdy (1986)

4) Streamers (1984)

5) Short Cuts (1993)

6) And the Band Played On (1993)

7) Any Given Sunday (1999)

8) Memphis Belle (1990)

9)  Mrs Soffel (1984)

10) Baby It's You (1983)

Craptacular top five

1)  Private School (1983)

2) Vision Quest (1985)

3) Wind (1992)

4) Cutthroat Island (1995)

5) Gross Anatomy (1989) 

Movie review - "Storefront Hitchcock" (1998) **

Robyn Hitchcock must be a sort of hipsters folk pop star, with his guitar and singing. He's not my cup of tea. Indeed, he's annoying, with his shirts-  I missed David Byrne's flamboyance and autism.

I enjoyed the presentation - in a shop front, and it getting darker.  

If you like singer you'll get into this. 

Movie review - "Something Wild" (1986) ***1/2

 A film best discovered without knowing too much about it. It ticked all of Jonathan Demme's boxes - love letter to a few actors, stylistic, American underbelly, opportunities for music. Melanie Griffith is wonderful, though in the second half she's very passive. Ray Liotta excellent - ditto Jeff Daniel (I miss those pre blowhard days). Fun cameos from John Sayles and John Waters. Full of quirk and tonal shifts. Like a very good Australian film. Like many of those probably half an hour too long.

Movie review - "Philadelphia" (1993) ***

 Nineties cinema par excellance - hot director, social issue, Oscar bait, etc. It made a lot of money, got rewards, but after this the critics turned on Jonathan Demme - too establishment.  The movie became a joke in a way - Tom Hanks seems to apologise for being so acclaimed playing gay and it led to In Out. 

But the movie holds up well. Confidently made. Two great stars in flashy roles. Denzel is that 90s standby - a loveable ambulance chaser. Hanks is very affable - who was as affable, really? Classy support cast including Bradley Whitford, Antonio Banderas. 

The film goes for very long. It's two hours. Thirty minutes could have been cut out. I understand they needed to give Hanks a big monologue in the second half because otherwise Denzel takes over. The powerful drama of the opening half an hour - Hanks discovering his illness, getting fired - is dissipated.

But the acting is lovely, the direction sensitive, it does have heft. 

Roger Corman is used very well once again - Demme knew how to deploy his persona. 

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.

Movie review - "Ricki and the Flash" (2015) **

 Jonathan Demme's last dramatic feature sent him out with a minor hit, helped by the casting of Meryl Streep as a rocker. She's estranged from her family - ex husband Kevin Kline.

Interesting double bill with Rachel Gets Married - that film needed this character. 

Feels like an Australian film. I plotted this. Really poor script. From Diablo Cody! But things of great promise like Rick Springfield loving Streep - that's resolved in one scene! Endless music. Dull. 

Movie review - "Rachel Getting Married" (2008) **

 Anne Hathaway is a proper film star and Jonathan Demme's direction is full of energy but it's not uch of a script it feels like an Australian movie with AH as a hot mess out of rehab for her sister's wedding. There's a lot of speeches and family stuff, and encounters. A romance with a fellow junkie is dispensed with very quickly - they root, that's it. There's a Past (Hathaway accidentally kileld her brother), some secrets (she's full of it), Rosemary de Witt is the sister gets upset. The cast includes Debra Winger and some vaguely familiar faces.

It's too long and too much of it is undercooked - the guy she hooks up with, the mother, the dad's girlfriend, the groom, the groom's family. There's so many speeches and music acts. I get that Demme loves his actors and extras but give them something to play.

Rewrite, please. 

Movie review -"The Manchurian Candidate" (2004) **1/2

 For the first half of this I found it annoying - there was no need to make it, really, and the story doens't really work outside the Cold War. I know big business is bad but they normally just buy off people instead of big conspiracies. It needed the religious fervour of the Cold War.

Meryl Streep has a high old time and Denzel Washington goes mad well - the second half where the movie forges more of its own identity is stronger.It beefs up the Janet Leigh part.

The TV pundit scenes annoyed me for some reason. 

Roger Corman has a small role! 

Movie review - "The Truth About Charlie" (2002) ***1/2

 A delightful surprise - I'd dismissed this film without having seen it like many. I was offended, I guess, by the idea of remaking Charade and its junior grade stars. So I didn't bother. Maybe I wouldn't have liked it at the time but now I totally get it and really enjoyed the film. I understand why Demme wanted to make it, coming off Beloved, a heavy movie, and distracted by his production company and Good Works. He just wanted to have fun. So he look a terrific script, and an actress he wanted to work with and had fun in France. 

It's a love letter to the French new wave, with cameos from Agnes Varda, Anna Karina, and Charles Azanvour, and New Wave techniques and lots of French dialogue. He made the film for Thandie Newton who is fine - not perfect in the way Audrey Hepburn was but she's having a good time and Demme adores her. And Wahlberg is giving it a good try, and it's fun now to see him in a beret and talking French. Will Smith would've been much, much better but Demme is having a great time and so are the cast. Demme was ahead of the curve on diverse casting, and there's quirky touches like the girl from Emmanuele with the magazine (you'll know the one if you've seen the film) playing a cop, Ted Levine as a baddy but a flawed one. Tim Robbins is a little annoying with his dumb voice - this was around the time in his career when I began to dread him in films because he was always Saying Something about American Foreign Policy.

Loved the music. Enjoyed the movie. 

Movie review - "Beloved" (1998) **

 A film that kind of sank without a trace despite the star power of Oprah, writer Toni Morrison and her book, and director Jonathan Demme. This was in part due to an uninspiring release - I remember seeing this bland poster of Danny Glover and Oprah and the title and thinking "what is that about". I think it needed to lean into its ghost story background more.

It's a decent story though there's a lot of backstory. It's long - three hours long. Very well acted although Thandie Newton stumbles into Simple Jack territory.

It didn't work for me.  There were good moments. It felt unfocused. Kept changing protagnists.

Movie review - "Swing Shift" (1984) **

I've got a theory that movies that are endlessly cut and recut have a basic story flaw. That's my take on this one where Jonathan Demme was famously sacked by Goldie Hawn.

It's got a great idea - women working in World War Two. Solid feminism - women working for the first time, being liberated financially and sexually. 

But it's dragged down by being so fair and nice. Ed Harris is nice. Hawn's life before the war is quite pleasant. He joins up.

Kurt Russell wants Goldie. He asks her out a bunch of times which makes him an arsehole.  I didn't like him and I didn't like her. Then he shags Christine Lahti and I didn't like them.

The problems are so easy to be fixed. Just make Hawn's husband horrible. Have her be liberated by the war. Discover the joys of decent sex, money, working. Private Benjamin did it better. 

The movie also is annoyingly expensive - huge sets, factories, ballrooms, extras. Not needed.

It's fun to see people like Holly Hunter, Roger Corman, Stephen Tobolowsy. But the film doesn't work. It's not enjoyable.

In fairness, the film was heavily rewritten and changed from what Demme intended - see here. But I'm not sure even with those changes it would have worked.

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.

Movie review - "Melvin and Howard" (1980) ***

 Looking at Jonathan Demme's movies it's amazing how many of his early ones flopped - Crazy Mama, Fighting Mad, Citizens Band, Last Embrace and this. He kept getting chances because of strong reviews - this won a couple of Oscars.

It's a true life tale of an odd chap, played by Paul Le Mat, during that actor's star years, who gives Howard Hughes a lift and later inherits a fortune. That's the beginning and end. Most of the movie is Le Mat and wife Mary Steenburgen and him marrying Pamela Reed.

It's nicely made and acted and everything. I just didn't care. Sorry. Maybe I saw it in a bad mood. 

Movie review - "Last Embrace" (1979) *** (warning: spoilers)

 Jonathan Demme did a series of flops for studios - he got chances though because he was clearly talented and the movies were interesting. This is an attempt at a Hitchcock type thing with Roy Scheider as a secret agent recovering from the death of his wife who is convinced people want to kill him.

Maybe it would've worked better if he hadn't been a secret agent. Maybe people didn't like Scheider as a stand alone star - or Janet Margolin had been a bigger name.

It's full of neat touches like the person playing guitar. The shift to Margolin being a hooker looks a little silly.  The film is uncertain about its POV. It probably needed to be entirely Demme's POV. 

Why does Chris Walken want Scheider dead? Charles Napier had enough motivation as the brother of Scheider's dead wife. Why did Demme have Scheider start to seduce Margolin and have her going "no no no" but still submit? Not very sexy. Why have the whole final chase with no stakes? He figured out she did it... she escapes... so what? Why not have someone try to kill her or him as well?

It doesn't get what Vertigo made clear - that the lying woman genuinely loves the new guy. It's not clear that Margolin has fallen in love with Scheider.

Also revenge for a grandmother's death seems so ancient. It's like two generations. If Scheider had been descended from Nazis maybe. Or He did it. Or if it was just her mother and dad.

The whole thing is silly but I kept watching and Demme kept trying different things. 

Movie review - "Citizens Band" (1977) ***

 Weird that this was a studio movie but I guess it was the 70s - Paramount but Paramount under Freddie Fields and Barry Diller. Shaggy dog tale of different people in a small town - Charles Napier has two women, Paul Le Mat is brother of Bruce McGill and loves Candy Clark. It's fine.

Play review - "Monster in the Box" by Spalding Gray

 Sequel to Swimming to Cambodia has decent moments but is bitsy - it addresses the success of that movie and its author/star's various adventures: writing a novel about his mother's suicide, going to Nicaragua, maknig a special for HBO, being in Our Town. A little over the shop but entertainining.

Play review - "Swimming to Cambodia" by Spalding Gray

 Heard about these. Never seen one. Gray was a very good supporting actor that's all I know him from. Actors playing suppport characters in movies aren't that interesting but filming in Thailand and recapping the Cambodia conflict is interesting. David Puttnam and Roland Joffe come out of this very well. A bit too much about his sex life in Thailand. 

Jonathan Demme filmed this.