Loving tribute to a female wrestling group in the 1980s - sort of the same area covered by Robert Aldrich's All the Marbles, but a lot better done... with warmth, and humour and camaraderie. In a weird way the show is also a great tribute to co-op theatre: the lack of funds, the battle to get crowds, the devotion of the actors, the crazy directors.
Full of stand out turns like Alison Brie as the archetypal struggling actor, generally terrible but great in a crisis (though why that pilot nudity), Marc Maron as the director, Sydelle Noel as a genuine hard-arse amongst the girls, Britney Young as wrestling royalt.
Occasionally the dialogue felt a bit writer room-y in the way Orange is the New Black's does, but this was a really good show.
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Monday, November 20, 2017
Movie review - "Magic Fire" (1956) **
William Dieterle had a fondness for biopics - he did Juarez at Warners - and managed to persuade Republic Pictures to pony up the cash for this look at the life of Wagner.
Wagner's life was action packed and had plenty of music and drama but this is a fairly ordinary film, with a slack structure, inadequate cast and poor script.
I think the movie tries to pack too much in - a lot happens, three main romances, revolution, musical success and failure, jail... too much, so nothing every really has much impact.
I also think the cast isn't particularly up to it. Alan Badel was effective as crazy John the Baptist in Salome but lacks a certain something as Wagner - warmth, empathy... something. I didn't care what happened to him. Yvonne de Carlo does what she can as his first girl which isn't much with some terrible dialogue; but she's better than Rita Gam and Valentina Cortese in support. Actors play Ludwig II and Liszt but no one makes much impact.
There are some pretty location shots and decent slabs of music but the whole sense I got from this was "meh".
Wagner's life was action packed and had plenty of music and drama but this is a fairly ordinary film, with a slack structure, inadequate cast and poor script.
I think the movie tries to pack too much in - a lot happens, three main romances, revolution, musical success and failure, jail... too much, so nothing every really has much impact.
I also think the cast isn't particularly up to it. Alan Badel was effective as crazy John the Baptist in Salome but lacks a certain something as Wagner - warmth, empathy... something. I didn't care what happened to him. Yvonne de Carlo does what she can as his first girl which isn't much with some terrible dialogue; but she's better than Rita Gam and Valentina Cortese in support. Actors play Ludwig II and Liszt but no one makes much impact.
There are some pretty location shots and decent slabs of music but the whole sense I got from this was "meh".
Movie review - "Wonder Woman" (2017) **** (warning: spoilers)
It took a bizarrely long time for Wonder Woman to get the big screen treatment, especially since her origin story is so good and she's probably the most famous female super hero.
It's not a perfect film - I couldn't help wonder what might've happened had a German washed up on that beach, and the movie feels built around sequences rather than a cohesive whole.
But the sequences are amazing - Amazons training, Wonder Woman going into no man's land, the death of Steve Trevor (though couldn't he have flown out into the ocean or something?).
Gal Gadot's acting is limited but she's a movie star - she looks like a goddess, can do the acting, and is likeable. Chris Pine is perfectly suited for this sort of role - I think he's better as a support star.
Danny Huston camps it up as a villain. Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen are perfect as islanders; ditto Elena Anaya as a mysterious doctor and Lucy Davis as a fellow spy (bringing some much needed warmth and levity to the film). There's even a cute little gang including Said Taghmaoui, Ewen Bemner, and Eugene Brave Rock.
I was surprised it was in World War One, not Two, but it is a bit fresher that way. It was very entertaining.
It's not a perfect film - I couldn't help wonder what might've happened had a German washed up on that beach, and the movie feels built around sequences rather than a cohesive whole.
But the sequences are amazing - Amazons training, Wonder Woman going into no man's land, the death of Steve Trevor (though couldn't he have flown out into the ocean or something?).
Gal Gadot's acting is limited but she's a movie star - she looks like a goddess, can do the acting, and is likeable. Chris Pine is perfectly suited for this sort of role - I think he's better as a support star.
Danny Huston camps it up as a villain. Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen are perfect as islanders; ditto Elena Anaya as a mysterious doctor and Lucy Davis as a fellow spy (bringing some much needed warmth and levity to the film). There's even a cute little gang including Said Taghmaoui, Ewen Bemner, and Eugene Brave Rock.
I was surprised it was in World War One, not Two, but it is a bit fresher that way. It was very entertaining.
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Movie review - "Passion" (1954) **
An oldish Western storyline - a cowboy gets revenge on the land owners who kill his gal - is given some freshness by being set in Spanish California, and have its characters be Spanish Americans. There's also Yvonne de Carlo in a dual role as said dead gal and her twin sister - both of whom love Cornel Wilde. And some spectacular scenery - the Sierra mountains, a shoot out in snow...
But it's a curiously flat movie. It's a vigilante tale - Wilde killing off the baddies one by one - but I didn't feel too much for his pain since he'd been away from de Carlo for ages, hadn't even married her, and indeed didn't know she was pregnant. He didn't seem to particularly like her.
The film lacks another twist or complication - I kept expecting Raymond Burr, as a local law man, to provide this (a reveal he's in on it, or in love with one of the de Carlos, etc), or maybe the second de Carlo (to betray Wilde or something) but it never happens. It's very linear and monotonous. The reveal that his baby is still alive isn't it - if anything it makes Wilde look like an idiot for going off on this rampage.
I loved the idea of seeing two de Carlo's, one a tomboy the other more feminine, but the two of them are only around for ten minutes before one is killed and that's no time to do anything. It was fun to see Lon Chaney Jnr as a dodgy cowboy.
But it's a curiously flat movie. It's a vigilante tale - Wilde killing off the baddies one by one - but I didn't feel too much for his pain since he'd been away from de Carlo for ages, hadn't even married her, and indeed didn't know she was pregnant. He didn't seem to particularly like her.
The film lacks another twist or complication - I kept expecting Raymond Burr, as a local law man, to provide this (a reveal he's in on it, or in love with one of the de Carlos, etc), or maybe the second de Carlo (to betray Wilde or something) but it never happens. It's very linear and monotonous. The reveal that his baby is still alive isn't it - if anything it makes Wilde look like an idiot for going off on this rampage.
I loved the idea of seeing two de Carlo's, one a tomboy the other more feminine, but the two of them are only around for ten minutes before one is killed and that's no time to do anything. It was fun to see Lon Chaney Jnr as a dodgy cowboy.
Movie review - "Border River" (1954) **
Who says Hollywood can't be educational? I'd never heard of the Mexican free trade zone, the Zona Libre, until this movie - where a Confederate soldier, Joel McCrea, rocks up to buy guns for his slave-owning masters. Yvonne de Carlo is on hand as a local gal, and Pedro Armendariz is the local warlord.
The Confederate-supplies story gets ignored for a lot of time and instead there's lots of stuff of Armendariz being jealous of de Carlo's attraction to McCrea, and a local revolutionary wanting to take over Armendariz.
Why not have a main character be a Union soldier after McCrea? (There is one but it's half arsed.) Why not talk about what happened to the, you know, guns? Why not have a decent ending? Why not have McCrea be more actively involved with the revolutionaries? Or at least de Carlo, who comes from revolutionary stock? (She basically carries the water for McCrea.)
The ingredients are there for something decent but the result is dull and mediocre.
The Confederate-supplies story gets ignored for a lot of time and instead there's lots of stuff of Armendariz being jealous of de Carlo's attraction to McCrea, and a local revolutionary wanting to take over Armendariz.
Why not have a main character be a Union soldier after McCrea? (There is one but it's half arsed.) Why not talk about what happened to the, you know, guns? Why not have a decent ending? Why not have McCrea be more actively involved with the revolutionaries? Or at least de Carlo, who comes from revolutionary stock? (She basically carries the water for McCrea.)
The ingredients are there for something decent but the result is dull and mediocre.
Friday, November 17, 2017
Script review - "Mother" by David Aaronofksy (warning: spoilers)
I get why this is polarising - it's a bit wanky, it's very confronting that a baby is killed - but I'm surprised it got such squeals of shock. I guess I'm more used to it having seen all that "in your face" British theatre of the nineties and noughties. At least it has the guts to go there - and is full on and hard core and tries to be different.
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Script review - "I, Tonya" by Steve Rogers
It's surprising in a way it took Hollywood so long to make a film about Tonya Harding - she's got such great name recognition and it's clearly going to be a fantastic role for whoever played her. Maybe it was too associated with 90s scandal like OJ or the Menendez brothers, or Amy Fisher.
It actually reminded me of a 1990s film - To Die For with Nicole Kidman. It has the same pieces to camera, and protagonists' love of fame, and look at the dark underbelly of American society, etc.
This has some funny lines, and strongly etched characters - Tony, her mother, her abusive husband Jeff, his idiot mate. It does feel very familiar at times. Once or twice though it was surprising and moved me - such as Tonya doing the triple. But all too often it felt "surface".
It actually reminded me of a 1990s film - To Die For with Nicole Kidman. It has the same pieces to camera, and protagonists' love of fame, and look at the dark underbelly of American society, etc.
This has some funny lines, and strongly etched characters - Tony, her mother, her abusive husband Jeff, his idiot mate. It does feel very familiar at times. Once or twice though it was surprising and moved me - such as Tonya doing the triple. But all too often it felt "surface".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)