Movie review - "Michael Cimino: God Bless America" (2022) ***1/2

 Doco about the director with taped interviews though not recent pictures. Great talking heads of others though like Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone. Visits scenes where various movies shot notably The Deer Hunter. I like that it book ends The Sunchaser with Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.

Book review - " Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy" by Burt Kearns (2022)

 Hard to read. This is no slight on Kearns who has done a good job, solid research and writing, etc - it's just making it about Tierney. A solid lunk who lucked out in avoiding war service during World War Two, went into movies and got lucky again with the lead in Dillinger, he was all set up for a long life as a tough guy actor, who never lack work. And that kind of figured out for him.

But he was a drunk and a mean drunk, constantly falling off the wagon and getting in fights and winding up in court. Again and again he gets on the booze and fights. He's a frustrating figure to spend a book with. I kept going "you should be in prison". He got so many second chances.

From an acting point of view I get it - he conveyed menace, good voice. But he should've served more time in prison. He was a menace. Couldn't stay on wagon. Would attack cops and beat up small people in bars. People (judges, producers) kept forgiving him. And he never seemed to lack women.

Book more enjoyable in the 80s and 90s when he calmed down a little. He still had plenty of money too (well, enough) - constant work, no divorces, no kids.

Kearns might have discussed the film and his acting a little more to vary things.

Thoughts on Michael Callan (1935-2022)

 I was thinking of doing a piece on Callan but I'm not sure there's one in me at the moment. Still, I felt I should jot down a few thoughts.

An interesting quasi-star, was Callan. He had looks and the backing of a Hollywood studio but the studio system was in decline. 

He was born "Martin Calinoff" in Philadelphia in 1935 - dad ran restaurants - and was something of a showbiz baby, taking singing and dancing lessons at an early age, and appearing on local radio shows. He was a very good dancer, later saying his idol was Gene Kelly. “I thought unlike Fred Astaire, Mr Kelly has that double whammy of sex appeal… Not that I even knew what sex appeal was, but I liked athletics and he moved like an all-star athlete.”

By the age of fifteen he was dancing professionally in local nightclubs. Two years later, when he graduated from high school, he moved to New York, got work in summer stock in St Louis, performing under the name "Mickey Calin".  Callan/Calin/Calinoff successfully auditioned for a small part on Broadway in The Boyfriend with Julie Andrew (you might've seen the Ken Russell film version), playing various parts over seven months; he was then in Catch a Star. He also danced on television and in nightclubs. 

Then came the big big break - Riff in West Side Story. "“There were a great many kids like me up for that part,” said Callan. “I was told I was too cute! Imagine! But I really wanted it, I was asked if I could backflip, so I did a backflip, and eventually, after a year of rounds, I got it. Riff set me on my way.”

Riff is one of the best parts, if not the best part, in one of the greatest musicals of all time and really established Callan, who was in it for seven months. During the show's run he was spotted by Joyce Selznick a famous casting director (her discoveries included James Darren) and she signed Callan to a seven year contract to Columbia off the back of his appearance. 

The studio system was dying off but there was a bit of a revival of signing young talent in the late 1950s, especially at studios that made a lot of television and continued to make B pictures, like Columbia. The studio also signed Evy Norlund, Glenn Corbett, Carol Douglas, Jo Morrow, Margie Regan, Joby Baker, Rian Garrick, Joe Gallison, and Steve Baylor... not a big list of future stars.

Callan was, however, given what those actors weren't - a nice support part in a big budget film, They Came to Cordura, playing one of several seemingly heroic soldiers escorted through the Mexican desert by Gary Cooper along with Rita Hayworth. The studio put him in a low budget circus picture for Sam Katsman, The Flying Fontanes. They also put him in a Dick Clark teen film, Because They're Young (as a delinquent trying to go good who romances Tuesday Weld) and he danced in Pepe. In Oct 1960 he left Columbia's record arm to sign with Paramount (see here) but he never enjoyed Darren's success as a singer.

Callan had looks, and could move, and act. But I think the main thing holding him back was he gave off a sort of intense swaggering self-love vibe. I'm not saying he was like that in person, not at all - but he lacked the sensitivity of say a Tony Curtis or Rock Hudson. He had charisma and was a potential star but needed careful handling.

Callan auditioned for the film version of West Side Story but didn't get it - possibly due to his Columbia contract, possibly they wanted a fresh slate. But he did dance in the film Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961), opposite Deborah Walley as Gidget. He was one of the troops in Mysterious Island .

He was well cast as a thug tormenting a puffy Alan Ladd in 13 West Street and romanced Deborah Walley again in Disney's Bon Voyage! The latter film demonstrates the issue with Callan - he lacked the affability of Tommy Kirk and when he rough houses Deborah Walley it's really scary. As I wrote in a piece on this film "he was a good looking guy, Callan, who could act, and dance, but his performances often had a strand of cruelty about them, he looked like a villain, and I really didn't want him and Walley to wind up together."

However he had a big hit with The Interns as a compromised doctor. Callan was in this alongside a lot of other Columbia contract talent like Cliff Robertson. It was a fun role with some meat in it - Callan plays a super ambitious intern, who dates a rich girl but also sees an older nurse on the side so she'll help his career; this gives him a packed schedule which leads him to take drugs... it's very well done and handled, leading to Callan breaking down at the end. The film was a hit and would have rejuvenated Columbia's faith in him. 

David Merrick offered Callan the lead in a Broadway musical, I Can Get it for You Wholesale, but they couldn't agree over money apparently so Elliot Gould took the part instead - and wound up marrying his co-star Barbra Streisand.    In November 1962 he talked about how he had his own publicist - see this here.

Callan had a showy small part as a pimp in Carl Foreman's cynical war picture The Victors - he's not in the film for very long and the leads went to other new faces (George Hamilton, George Peppard), and Callan presumably thought "hey why not me" but at least the film was a big hit.

The did The The New Interns, one of the few to return (along with Stefanie Powers and Telly Savalas with Dean Jones playing James MacArthur's role). He didn't have as much to do in this one, which hurt the film - in the original his character was comic and romantic but also serious, here he's just comic (in drag for one sequence) and romantic (Barbara Eden); the film hints it's going to deal with his character's past as a druggie, which would've been great, but throws it away. It's a NAGOATO sequel (not as good as the original).  Still it encouraged Columbia to sign him to a new six picture contract. Jack Lemmon had started his film career at Columbia and many pieces from this time would refer to Callan being a new Jack Lemmon.

Callan was announced for a film musical remake of Cover Girl which was never made and a Broadway musical Kelly. See here. But Callan was lucky to miss out on the Broadway Kelly which shut after one night

There was talk of Callan starring in King Rat from the novel by James  Cavell about a smooth operator in Changi during World War Two.He would've been perfect. But he lost out to George Segal who was also in The New Interns which must have really really hurt. Because that film, while considered something of a commercial and critical disappointment, kicked up Segal to a higher plane that he never really left. In fairness, Segal had more acting chops than Callan - he'd done heaps of Broadway and TV.

 It wasn't over yet - He did guest stints on television, Breaking Point and Twelve O'Clock High, then had his biggest hit to date as Jane Fonda's love interest in Cat Ballou but most of the attention for that movie went to Fonda and Lee Marvin. 

He was sent to England for You Must Be Joking, a farcical army comedy for Michael Winner - Callan was cast at Columbia's insistence but didn't do much for the film's box office. He doesn't fit in the movie, he sticks out - the whole film is like a trial run for Winner's better The Jokers.

In August 1965, Callan signed a four-picture deal with Columbia. Jackie Cooper, former actor turned exec at Columbia's TV arm, Screen Gems, offered Callan the lead in a pilot for a sitcom Occasional Wife. Callan asked Cooper what he needed TV for: Cooper replied, "This year we're asking you to do the series. In three years you may be asking us?" The deal was a good one -  $100,000 a year plus a percentage according to this. This didn't last long.  TV Guide did a profile on him here which refers to a partying lifestyle, "a reputation along the Sunset Strip-Vegas axis as one of the great new swingers. He had a Sinatra-like coterie of hangers on and regularly made the columns."

A1967 interview with him is here. Occasional Wife only lasted a season but marked a major shift in Callan's private life as he left his wife for his co star, Patricia Harty. 

After the sitcom was axed Callan might've been expected to return to movies or television but instead he appeared in a musical in Las Vegas, That Certain Girl. See here

In 1968 he was in a TV version of Kiss Me Kate with Robert Goulet.

By the late 60s Callan was out of fashion, Ric Dalton style - he no longer had the film offers or television lead offers. It was a very very quick fall, especially considering The Interns and Cat Ballou had been so popoular and not that long ago. I wonder if there were behaviourial/temperament issues. I have no proof of that - it's just conjecture.  But it does seem odd that a good looking, charismatic performer, who could act and move, didn't get any more leads. This was the time of spaghetti Westerns, war films in Yugoslavia, and telemovies. There were star parts going for former contract stars. But Callan didn't get any.

Not that he was unemployed. Callan kept busy on episodic TV like The Mary Tyler More Show,That Girl, The Name of the Game, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Ironside, Marcus Welby, M.D., Griff, McMillan & Wife, Barnaby Jones, 12 O’Clock High, Quincy, M.E., Charlie’s Angels, Simon & Simon, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, The Bionic Woman, four episodes of Murder, She Wrote, and eight episodes of Love, American Style. Callan also made the occasional feature like Frasier the Sensuous Lion, The Magnificent Seven Ride, Lepke and the Cat and the Canary. He did have the lead in 1974's The Photographer which was kind of remade as 1982's Double Exposure - in both Callan plays a psychotic photographer. See trailer here.  

He appeared in theatre around the country - a lot of musicals like Anything Goes, The Music Man (program here), George M, Bar Mitzvah Boy plus plays like Absurd Person Singular. He produced some musicals.

I don't think Callan was a great lost star. He was unlucky in that Hollywood made less musicals when he hit down  - at least less dancing musicals. He would've been fantastic as Riff in West Side Story  - too cruel to be Tony though.  The tide went out really quickly for him though. I mean, to go from a sitcom to being a permanent guest? I wonder if something else happened.

Callan appears as a character, in a way, in the novel version of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Agent Marv talks to Ric Dalton about Dalton's Western, Tanner, directed by Jerry Hopper, in which Dalton appeared alongside Ralph Meeker and Callan, and Dalton criticised Callan for "sounding like  a Malibu surfer".

TV Guide

Book review - "Cinema Speculation" by Quentin Tarantino

 Loved it. Full of genuinely fresh takes, fascinating autobiographical insights, so much love for cinema. In depth pieces on filmmakers like Brian de Palma, Don Siegel, Sam Peckinpah. Tobe Hooper. Jim Brown. Kenneth Thomas of the LA Times (who he attributes a lot of the success of the Corman school to - he'd give them a good review and they'd get an agent out of it.) Very seventies. I could read books by him on every decade.

Movie review - "The Great Buster" (2018) ***

 Peter Bogdanovich's last feature is a perfectly adequate documentary about Keaton's life and career. It's celebrator rather than with any in depth analysis.

A random collection of interview subjects - Cybill Shepherd, Johnny Knoxville, Richard Lewis (who knew his widow), Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Bill Hader, Dick Van Dyke, one of the directors of Spiderman, Nick Kroll, Quentin Tarantino. 

It is determined to appeal to the younger kids, which I get. It skimps on the personal drama. Really just shows a lot of clips and talks about them.

Bogdanovich narrates and his mates are in there but he never wrote about Keaton or had a connection with him (cf Chaplin) so it doesn't feel particularly Bogdanovich-ian. I'm glad he had a gig though.

Script review - "Pulp Fiction" by Quentin Tarantino

 This script was over exposed at one stage. Now it's nice to look back and appreciate for what it has always been - a clever, exciting piece of work, in which you wish Mr Wolf did something more clever. It's like a novel with various side characters clearly having full lives (eg the Columbian cab driver, English Dave, Lance's wife), A surprisingly moral piece. Vincent's poor bowel control is crucial - going to the toilet leads to his death, leads to the robbers taking control of the Diner, leads to Mia's overdosing.

Book review - "Once Upon a Time In Hollywood" by Quentin Tarantino (2021)

 A delight. Liked it more than the movie. It can go on detours. It's more joyous. Less anti woman. I didn't quite buy Cliff was so into European film, that sounded like Quentin, but I did love how he held his dead wife together for seven hours waiting for the coast guard. Warm heart. Love the changes from the movie, like ending it on the girl and Rick discussing how much they loved acting. Enjoyed the Aldo Ray chapter. Enjoyed pretty much all of it.

Script review - "Natural Born Killers" by Quentin Tarantino

 Bold, funny, imaginative, overlong. A kind of a satire of America's worship of serial killers as well as law enforcement - but stuff still hits home like the scared witness being stabbed to death in the court. An innocent person being killed. You look for a moral take. It's more moral than the film, which seemed to say, "sure serial killers are bad but you know what's worse? The media!" Big slabs of dialogue but that could be easily fixed. You can see why this script got attention.

Movie review - "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (2019) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Random thoughts
- Nicholas Hammond of all people knocks it out of the park
- Bruce Dern was fine but that would have been the perfect last role for Burt Reynolds
- like a lot of film buffs I was sitting there going "I love a lot of this but I get the Fabian and Michael Rennie references, I'm weird, what about normal people?"
- the film was about fetishness - movie posters, TV guide, cigarette packets, logos
- the money is well spent - it's a film about movie stars, production design and Tarantino - without those things it would be a hard slog (for some people it will be)
- I get the ending and I liked it
- the final assault ramming head repeatedly thing... that wasn't cool... wasn't cathartic in the way that say killing Nazis in Inglorious Basterds was or slave owners in Django Unchained was or rapist men in Kill Bill was... the women were killers but marginalised members of society... also we just meet them in the film.
- all the acting is excellent
- I wonder if the 8 year old girl on the set of Lancer is some allusion to James Stacy's pedophilia, not accessed in the film
- there is no female role with shade and dimension - Tate dances and is ethereal, the Charlie girls are sex objects/psychos/"other", Ric's Italian wife jabbers and gesticulates even though she takes part in a crucial scene, Brad Pitt's wife is a nagging bitch... in contrast the male roles are given lots of depth... Brad and Leo of course but also Emile Hirsch's pining Jay Sebring, Bruce Dern's George Spahn
- the visit to the Spahn Ranch was v creepy
- Mike Moh is a great Bruce Lee

Five Rod Taylor Connections to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (there are no spoilers in this)

1) The relationship between actor Rick Dalton (Leo di Caprio) and his stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) has parallels to Rod’s super close relationship with stuntman Fred Hakim. Rod met Hakim when the latter was a grip on the set of Do Not Disturb. The two hit it off and Hakim spent the next decade as Rod’s general assistant/stuntman/stand in/driver/whatever… like Cliff was for Rick. Rod was single at the time and Fred and his wife Dolores moved in with the actor for a period. Hakim was credited as an assistant on three productions where Rod was producer: Chuka, Bearcats and Partisan. Hakim died in a car crash in Yugoslavia during the making of Partisan. Taylor subsequently employed stuntman Terry Wilson as an assistant - Terry accompanied Rod to Australia to make The Picture Show Man - but, like Rick, needed him less once he got married, in Rod’s case to Carol Kikumura in 1980.
2) A clip from Partisan aka Hell River is briefly in OUATIH, as part of talking about Rick Dalton’s films. The film was made after 1969 but is passed off as a pre 1969 movie. I recognise how nerdy it is of me to recognise that.
3) The 14 Fists of McCluskey is a fictional World War II/action-adventure film in the OUATIH universe starring Van Johnson, Rod Taylor, Sal Mineo and Rick Dalton
4) Rod Taylor was actually a bigger star than Rick Dalton through the sixties, even though Rod’s TV series (Hong Kong) only lasted one season while Rick’s (Bounty Law) lasted four. This was mainly due to two reasons: Rod was cast in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, and had a strong relationship with major studios, notably MGM and Fox, who cast him in A-grade films through the sixties. However by the early seventies, Rod was making films in Europe, like Rick.
5) A story told me by the late Bill Kerr… He was discussing the Sharon Tate murders with Dudley Moore who mentioned his then wife Suzy Kendall was in town that night. Kendall was making Darker Than Amber with Rod Taylor. Kerr asked Moore was ever worried if his wife was in danger that night. Moore said no as “she was f*cking Rod Taylor”. I have no proof whatsoever this was true.

Movie review - "Twisted Nerve" (1968) **

Roy Boulting's second film with Hayley Mills, and she's shot very prettily, but really the film's more a tour de force for Hywel Bennett (who worked with the two of them before in The Family Way).

Bennett plays a psycho from a wealthy family (Phyllis Calvert) who pretends to be dim around Hayley Mills. He goes to live with her, keeping up the pretense - he sleeps with her mother (Billie Whitelaw, who doesn't really look old enough to be Mills' mother) which is pretty full on because she thinks he's mentally delayed.

I was confused by some of this. I'm not sure how Bennett thinks he's going to seduce Mills by being slow - he goes the grope on her in a river at one stage and she recoils, she never seems that interested in him. Also the film hints that he's gay - he's got all these male muscle magazines in his bedroom and he seems tormented.

The film copped it, deservedly, for the suggestion towards the end that Bennett was the way he was because his brother had down syndrome. As many critics pointed out this bit wasn't needed - the film is basically an old fashioned psycho thriller with some modern gore and psychology.

The cast is excellent. Mills doesn't have much to do except react - I think Boulting was trying to fashion her as a Hitchcock blonde but she's very passive. Frank Finlay is enjoyably smarmy as Bennett's stepfather, Bennett gets to act all over the shop and does well, Barry Foster is nicely slimy as a lodger (I was disappointed he wasn't killed). The climax is unwhelming when it needed to be a pow - I don't think Roy Boulting was a terribly gifted visual director. (This was a  problem evident in the Sidney Gilliat directed film with Bennett and Mills, Endless Night.)

Bernard Herrman provided an excellent score including a whistling tune which Tarantino pinched for Kill Bill. But it's a movie that needed a Hitchcock to direct and didn't get it.

Movie review - "That Guy Dick Miller" (2014) ***

Just as Dick Miller is an impossible actor to dislike so too is this tribute to him - full of love and good nature. Dick Miller was a beloved character actor whose presence illuminated many classic films - The Terminator, Piranha, Gremlins. He became a good luck charm for Joe Dante in particular, appearing in most of that director's movies.

Miller got his start with Roger Corman and became a part of Corman's late 50s stock company, even getting the occasional lead as in Bucket of Blood. He kept that status in the early 60s but kind of drifted out of popularity in the late 60s... then had a comeback in the early 70s at New World Pictures as many Corman alumni liked to use him.

That's kind of it for his life story - he has brothers, a wife who was very hot back in the day and gets a lot of screen time. People like him. He's occasionally anxious. He wrote a bit (including an early draft of TNT Jackson) but gave it up.

It's not a super gripping story - I think it would be better as a 50 minute featurette. Some things feel like padding, such as talking about making Gremlins. And I get it was disappointing to be cut out of Pulp Fiction but was it really such a major tragedy. Still, a very sweet movie.

Thoughts on Ralph Meeker

Ralph Meeker isn't a very well known name to buffs today unless you're a fan of Kiss Me Deadly. At one stage though he had a real buzz around him - he replaced Brando on stage in Streetcar Named Desire, and had a key role in Mr Roberts on Broadway as well as the lead role in Picnic (with Paul Newman supporting him).

Why did never become a star?

He was a burly tough guy in a decade when that was a plus. Other Brand replacements, Jack Palance and Anthony Quinn, became famous. Meeker's Picnic co star Paul Newman became famous.

Why not Meeker?

Well, they did try - MGM hired him to a contract in the early 50s. His starring vehicles did not perform well (unlike say Palance who got lucky with Sudden Fear and Shane right off the bat).

Maybe he was difficult, but I've got no proof of that.

I also think maybe he lacked a certain... affability. He seemed mean. He never had say Brando's or Newman's on screen gentleness. Maybe he could've and I haven't seen it. Maybe it was just role selection. Too many guest shots on TV not enough solid directors.

But it is a puzzle. He has his fans - Quentin Tarantino liked that Aldo Ray/Meeker/Brian Keith type. But Meeker's career never seemed to hit even Aldo Ray heights.

Anyway, still, made some great movies - anyone would be happy to have Kiss Me Deadly and Paths of Glory on their resume.

Movie review - "The Girl from Starship Venus" (1975) *

I saw this at the New Beverly - apparently Quentin Tarantino is a fan. But surely he was being perverse, for this is an exceedingly dull, unsexy, unfunny movie from auteur Derek Ford.

It's got a bright central idea - an alien arrives on earth in the body of a blonde woman (Monika Ringwald) who walks around and has a series of sexual encounters. None of these are sexy, at least not to me; there's not a lot of nudity or sex; much of it I found downright uncomfortable because the alien walks around parts of sleazy 70s England: a porno theatre (where she's felt up by an old goat), a strip club, a massage parlour, a porn shop, a wedding, a drycleaners, a sex photographer's studio.

Everyone wants to cop a  feel - the only person nice to her is a nice guy who lets her crash on his couch. They get together at the end, which is the only feel good aspect of this movie. There's all these creepy middle aged and old man leching about.

It just depressed me. Scenes go on forever. Jokes aren't funny. A mess.

Movie review - "The Hateful Eight" (2016) *** (warning: spoilers)

Tarantino has called this a "northern" because it's a Western set in the snow. I'd argue that really it's a Western set in the snow - Northerns being a specific sub genre of the Western set in Alaska (The Spoilers, North to Alaska, The Far Country, Call of the Wild) or Canada (mountie movies).

It's also a siege movie, in a way - a bunch of desperadoes holed up in a haberdashery during a blizzard - which could easily be adapted into a play. It reminded me of Reservoir Dogs (this too has Michael Madsen and Tim Roth in the cast).

Maybe it should have been a play - though it is cinematically interesting with its 70 mm cinematography and lush production design and movie stars. What it doesn't need to be is three hours long. Scenes drag on; dialogue is repeated by characters several times; exposition is repeated. The script needed a good edit. But I guess who was going to convince Tarantino of that.

He's given the Sergio Leone treatment to what is in its heart of hearts a good taunt Raoul Walsh B movie. There's a great cast of B movie stars - I don't use "B movie stars" in a derogatory sense... I mean the modern day equivalent of say Howard Duff and Edmund O'Brien: Samuel L Jackson and Kurt Russell as rival bounty hunters, Jennifer Jason Leigh as a femme fetale, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen as mysterious gun men, Walton Goggins as a redneck, Demian Bichir as a handyman, Bruce Dern as a Southern general.

The acting is very strong as usual in a Tarantino picture and all the leads get a chance to shine. Roth's humour was particularly enjoyable. Jackson gets perhaps the most shocking moment - describing to Dern what he made Dern's son do.

The most depressing sequence is the flashback where a gang wipe out a bunch of innocent people. We see one big for mercy before being shot; another bleeding to death pleading with their eyes before being shot. They are nice people too - it's not like seeing the leads be killed (they all play ruthless people who live life according to tough rules); they are just people in the wrong place at the wrong time. Good on Tarantino for conveying the horror but it also makes it really depressing. 

And he seems to really enjoy putting in scenes where people punch and abuse Jennifer Jason Leigh - I mean there's a LOT of moments where that happens. (While Tarantino is down with the hard luck black men had during this time in history he seems to have nil sympathy/empathy for what women had to put up with during this time.)

Movie review - "One Day Since Yesterday: Peter Bogdanovich & the Lost American Film" (2014) ****

Peter Bogdanovich is one of those directors I feel I know personally, mostly because, in addition to seeing his films, I've read so many things he's written - his pieces on directors and actors, especially Orson Welles, are really good. So I'm the perfect target market for this documentary, which explores his life and work, focusing on the making of They All Laughed.

I actually found this a better and more moving film than They All Laughed which I've never loved that much. Bogdanovich is a fantastic protagonist - actor and film enthusiast turned writer about film and then filmmaker; who had such a hot streak from Targets to Paper Moon (all entirely different films); so famous he appeared in the trailers for his movies (as Quentin Tarantino points out, he even sidelines Barbra Streisand in the What's Up Doc? trailer); a high-publicised romance with Cybill Shepherd; guest hosting The Tonight Show. Then the downfall - a series of flops, breaking up with Shepherd - before restoring critical favour with Saint Jack and finding love with Dorothy Stratten and enjoying a wonderful creative experience on They All Laughed.

Then the true nightmare begins - Stratten is killed, Bogdanovich tries to distribute the film himself and goes broke, has a comeback with Mask but stuffs it by being difficult over Bruce Springsteen's music. He recovers to marry Dorothy's sister and makes some decent films but never regains his old heights. (The film omits his second bankruptcy in the late 90s). However he remains revered as a filmmaker, his reputation continues to be strong and the film ends with him making a movie with decent stars, She's Funny That Way.

I was familiar with a lot of the material but there's a great collection of talking heads: Tarantino's take on his films is genuinely fresh; Noah Bambach and Wes Anderson are true fans; Bogdanovich's daughters talk about their dad and his life with love but some wariness; several of his exes appear, including Cybil Shepherd and Colleen Camp. We get to meet some critics such as Molly Haskell, Andrew Sarris and Todd McCarthy. There's also Ben Gazzara who sounds like he's had a stroke.

Bogdanovich leant his papers which mean we see his old annotated scripts and, movingly, a card Stratten wrote for him. Bogdanovich was a bit of a goose but is a very talented filmmaker and it's a shame his post 1985 credits aren't stronger. Excellent doco.

Movie review - "She's Funny That Way" (2015) ** (warning: spoilers)

It's great to see Peter Bogdanovich helming a theatrical feature again and this passed the time pleasantly enough: a fantastic cast, gorgeous photography, and a loving homage to old Hollywood comedies. It feels very much in the vein of Woody Allen (it's set in New York, with an ensemble cast) and Bogdanovich's They All Laughed.

I liked this, but then I'm a film buff and got a lot of the jokes: the references to old movies, Bogdanovich in jokes (a character uses a pseudonym "Derek Thomas" which he would use). He wrote the script with Louise Stratten and it has some good ideas and bright moments but I really wish he would've gotten a proper writer to have a pass at it.

The story seems to lack reality - they're putting on a play and the director is put up at an expensive hotel and has masses of cash lying around; I never believed the young girl being so into old movies; cell phones don't play the role they logically would (the script feels dated in that regard, like it was written in the 90s). The drama and complications don't really build in the way it could/should.

But let's take a walk on the sunny side... Owen Wilson is always engaging, I liked the twist of him falling for escorts and giving them all this money to change their lives; Kathryn Hahn is always fun too; Jennifer Aniston is a stand out as a therapist who hates her patients; Austin Pendleton is a lot of fun as a love struck judge; Rhys Ifans does his Rhys Ifans thing well. The gag at the end was brilliant.

Imogen Poots doesn't impress terribly in her part - she's clearly sporting an accent and never seems to be as captivating as Bogdanovich thinks she is.  Will Forte is undercooked in a role that feels underused. Richard Lewis and Cybill Shepherd feel wasted.

I'm glad Bogdanovich is back in the theatres, its pleasing to see this style of movie... I hope he gts the chance to do another one.

Movie review - "Rolling Thunder" (1977) **1/2

This vigilante film has a bit of a reputation among film buffs - Quentin Tarantino has long been a fan (I'm sure the returning Vietnam POW stuff influenced the Chris Walker scene in Pulp Fiction), it was co-written by Paul Schrader whose reputation seems to be nothing these days but whose 70s output is highly regarded, the reputation of director John Flynn is rising, it received a famously bad preview where the audience almost rioted.

Watching the film years on I wasn't that knocked out by it. Flynn directs in a solid, almost polite way - the story is inherently exciting but it's not that an exciting film. William Devane's hand is shoved in  garbage disposal unit but we don't hear crunching sound effects or see anything bloody - it's implied. The deaths off his wife and son happen off screen. The opening credit sequence features a crappy 70s love ballad and it takes ages for any action to happen. Indeed there's only a few action sequences - the attack on Devane, Devane smacking around an informer, Devane taking on one of the crooks and his cronies, the boyfriend of Devane's wife shooting out with some baddies, and the final shoot out.

If you're looking for high voltage vigilante movie this doesn't really deliver, except maybe at the end when Flynn lets loose and shows blood, carnage and nudity (the climax is set at a whorehouse) that he's been restrained about to now. Actually a lot of the movie feels restrained - it's as though Devane and Tommy Lee Jones should die at the end but they don't (though admittedly they could be mortally wounded - the film ends abruptly.)

The first act is well-done drama, with William Devane adjusting to coming home, being told by his wife that she's fallen for another man, struggling to reconnect with his son (similar to Homeland). The role of the woman who falls for him is surprisingly complex and well drawn and very well played by Linda Haynes. The quality of acting is high - though Devane was a little cold. I get that he's detached and all that but he's got to have some emotion because he goes on a rampage and Devane never coveys that. In his defence he wears mirrored sunglasses a lot but for instance Tommy Lee Jones conveys far more instability in his stillness.

There's some odd bits - the abrupt ending (as mentioned), the large amount of screen time given to the 2IC of the baddy gang (Luke Askew) but not the ringleader (James Best). It wasn't clear why the gang let Devane live when they killed his wife and kid. I remember reading Schrader's script and liking how it was the fact the former POW could distance himself from reality helped him survive the camp but also meant he couldn't act to help his wife and child... that's not clear here.

There are some great bits too - Devane making a weapon out of his hook; the feel of small town Texas; the prominence given to Hayne's role; and especially the moment where Devane tells Tommy Lee Jones he's found the guys and Tommy just says "let's go". To give the film it's due it's very much a character-driven piece.

Movie review - "The Wild Racers" (1968) **1/2

I was prompted to re-visit this after reading that it was Quentin Tarantino's favourite racing movie.  I think he liked the fact it was so different - he compared it to an Antonioni movie. It's certainly very arty, full of short scenes and non synchronous sound - I think there's no scene of people talking going for longer than 30 seconds, and plenty of rapid cuts and voice over... which presumably helped the unit when they went "sneak filming" in Europe. i.e. stealing shots of cars racing around monuments.

Roger Corman helped finance this and did some uncredited direction; it's a kind of a follow up to Corman's The Young Racers, which like this was shot in Europe. Fabian - in the middle of a seven film contract with AIP - is very good as the cocky race driver who is meant to help his more senior partner win but can't help winning himself. That's the gist of the plot - plus a romance with a stunningly beautiful Mimsy Farmer. (He also has flings with a few other girls who are less attractive and poor actors to boot).

Plenty of scenes of cars zipping around, groovy music and credits, great production values (it was shot all over Europe, there's trips to bull fights as well as the obligatory night clubs), consistently interesting technique (in the style of A Man and a Woman). It's beautifully shot. There's not a lot of drama going on and only Fabian gets a full fleshed character - the way the movie is made causes you to feel distance from it. Still, it's worth seeking out if you're interested in a race car movie that is very "late 60s funky".

Movie review - "Jackie Brown" (1997) **1/2

This was politely reviewed when it came out and made a bit of money, but I do scratch my head at the thought that anyone really likes it. Scenes go on for far too long, endless slabs of dialogue about nothing - which wasn't true in QT's other better films, they would have this great violent tension or subtext going on.

The plot is alright, but not terribly gripping; the acting is excellent and it does have a good feel for the world of Elmore Leonard (though not as good as Out of Sight). By this stage QT's little indulgences were getting annoying (eg all the close ups of feet - it's like Death Proof).

Pam Grier has a formidable presence but isn't that awesome; Robert Foster is touching, Robert de Niro and Michael Keaton solid, Bridget Fonda lots of fun in the Candice Rialson part (though that's not too hard to play, surely), and Samuel L. Jackson great as always.