Movie review - "Bullets over Broadway" (1994) ****

 Lots of fun. One of Allen's best scripts - I wish he'd work with Doug McGrath again - and a superb cast, including John Cusack (pretentious Greenwich Village artiste), Diane Weist (grand dame of theatre), Chazz Palmenteri (gangster who has a gift for writing), Jennifer Tilly (bimbo... Allen used this trope too many times but she's very funny).

I felt it actually wasn't that well directed - it needed snap and energy but there's these long takes and it felt flabby. That's just my thoughts, anyway.

Movie review - "Shadows and Fog" (1992) **** (re-watching)

 Surprised how so few people got this film. Wasn't it obvious? German expressionism of the 20s, with some Kafka, pointing at Antisemitism, vigilantism... it's one of Allen's most political films. It's also very funny with Woody ideally cast and in great form as a scared little man, and a very strong all star support cast.

Beautifully shot and designed, genuinely scary. The world is a mixture of the cold (the streets) and the warm (the brothel, the circus). I love the friendship between Allen and Farrow. I do wish they'd caught the killer at the end.

Movie review - "Drive Hard" (2014) * (warning: spoilers)

Disappointingly poor action-comedy which the director has hopefully suggested is a throw back to Midnight Run but in fact feels like a poor knock off of Collateral. It actually has a couple of decent ideas including a strong set up - former car racing champ Thomas Jane now runs a driving school and is giving a lesson to mysterious John Cusack; Cusack asks if he can pop out for five minutes and it's to rob a bank and Jane is up to his neck in mayhem.

Now that's a pretty good idea for a film and adding to the fun is the fact that Cusack is an anti-corporate crusader. But the problem is the movie doesn't do anything much on top of that. Cusack's "revolutionary" nature is limited to the bank being corrupt. There are dodgy cops going after Jane/Cusack (good old Damien Garvey playing this role once again) but also an honest one (Zoe Ventura, not very convincing) so the dodgy ones don't cause much trouble.

A lot of time is spent on Cusack and Jane bantering but really it comes down to Cusack going to Jane 'man up dude and race cars again' which Jane does, which also feels a little blah.

The script feels as though it's going to do all these things to make it more exciting/interesting but that doesn't happen - the corrupt cop looks as though he's going to do something really bad but doesn't; Jane and Cusack look as though they're going to take a hostage like Carol Burns but they don't; the good cop never catches them; the good cop is just good and that's it (I did like how all four cops ended up shooting each other to death - the film could have done with more intense moments like this); there's a few mentions of them being Yanks in Australia together, and you think there'll be some culture clash comedy but there isn't; there's something potentially interesting in Cusack and the wife of bad banker Chris Morris but it's never really exploited; I kept waiting for Chris Morris to hire a really scary baddie but the ones that come along are comic more than anything else; a work mate of Jane's says she had an affair with him and the wife believes it but it's all cleared up easily; I kept expecting the baddies to go after Jane's wife and daughter but they don't; Jerome Ehlders (another banker) looks as though he's going to do something interesting but doesn't; there's no third act twist like or emotional depth there was in Midnight Run (eg de Niro's associate being a traitor, meeting de Niro's estranged wife and daughter) or Collateral (eg Mark Ruffalo catching up to Foxx and being killed).

Brian Trenchard Smith keeps everything at a light, fast pace and the photography is good but the action is disappointing. There isn't even that much car racing. John Cusack and Thomas Jane don't look in very good shape - Cusack is all pale, Jane has a dreadful haircut - but they do provide some good moments.

Movie review - "Maps to the Stars" (2014) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Acerbic, gripping look at life in Hollywood with more melodramatic plot than a Greek tragedy (which feels like it's main influence, actually) - there is incest, suicide, self-immolation, murder, threesomes, schizophrenia, visions of dead people, cancer, drowning, greed, lust, botox, massage and lots of therapy.

I can't say that I super enjoyed it - some of it was just plain unpleasant, and depressing with so much pain. There's plenty of story and I could never pick what was going to happen next. It's also superbly acted: Julianne Moore as an aging starlet (loved her lip work), newcomer Evan Bird as a brattish child star, chameleon Mia Wasikowska, and ever reliable Olivia Williams; John Cusack and Robert Pattison are also solid in smaller, if crucial parts. Actually everyone was good, down to the smallest parts.

The one thing I didn't quite believe story wise was Cusack being a famous self-help guru and Bird's father - that didn't feel super real to me (also would someone with Cusack's secret really chase fame? It wasn't necessary that he was famous).

Maybe I'm being too smarty pants here but the movie seemed to betray a Canadian bias - a distaste for lack of politeness (Bird and Moore suffer terribly for being rude) and guns (Bird again is shown to be a brat).

Movie review - "The Sure Thing" (1985) ***

The standard of most 80s teen sex comedies was so dire it wasn't hard to stick above the pack. This one did - it's not a very original idea (mismatched couple travel across country) but is full of interesting touches and done with a great deal of charm, helped by some lovely performances from John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga.

Cusack's abilities are well known - they weren't at the time but this helped him stand out pretty quickly. I'd forgotten how terrific Zuniga was - pretty, believably smart but still likeable, game for adventure. Neither character is that memorable - it's not a patch on say Say Anything even though the archetypes are similar (I never got a fix on what Cusack's character was really about) - but they work well and there's this lovely sweetness to it all. Tim Robbins pops up and in one scene Cusack wears an Aussie rugby league jersey.

Movie review - "The Raven" (2012) **

This must have sounded like a winner at pitch - a look at the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life, where a serial killer is knocking off people in a manner described by Poe. But despite that strong idea, and some terrific production design, it all feels like a damp squib. I love Poe, love Poe movies, but it's got none of the atmosphere of the Roger Cormans, or even the Boris Karloffs. Maybe it needed to be shot on a soundstage, or be more expressionistic like The Legend of Sleep Hollow - less realistic. Actually the presentation here isn't that realistic - it just feels bland.

John Cusack is a good actor but he's miscast here. He feels - I don't know, too modern, too sane. He lacks the tormented doomed passionate genius thing that a bigger (and, yes, campier) actor would bring to it - Vincent Price, James Mason, Joaquin Phoenix. He's not helped by the role which makes Poe passive too much of the time - there are actually two heroes here (the other is a cop, Luke Evans, who is a good actor, and who drives more of the action). Alice Eve is pretty but lacks that Poe touch of 19th century tragedy/beauty/whatever.

There are occasional flashes of gore too which feel out of place - presumably this was a requirement - when what was needed was more intensity and suspense. It's not a bad film, and at least they've read their Poe, it's just feels flat.

Script review – “Bullets Over Broadway” by Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath

An absolutely wonderful script – bright, fast paced, logical, well structured, funny, even moving (the involvement of Cheech, the playwright’s realisation that he’s not talented) and with something to say (about the nature of art and collaboration). It doesn't have a traditional hero - it starts off as the playwright but ends up about the gangster - but that makes it more unpredictable. I loved it - why doesn't Woody collaborate more often?

Movie review - “Hot Tub Time Machine” (2010) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

John Cusack rarely looked more bored than in this half-successful attempt to do a Gen X Back to the Future. It’s got a decent enough set up – four friends find themselves transplanted back to 1986 at what was a key weekend in the lives of all four – and some very effective moments: the baddies being convinced our heroes are Red Dawn style commies, Cusack’s sister being a tramp, Crispin Glover constantly almost losing his arm, some of the darkness, Jessica Pare in the hot tub, Cusack’s dream girl turning out to be an idiot.

 

 But they waste too much time with stupid vile humour (catheters, urine, etc), Cusack brings it down, they don’t figure out they need to get the special drink until too late in the film (Marty McFly in Back to the Future always had his goal of getting back). 

 

Also it’s really annoying that Cusack decides to go back to the future at the end – he had a horrible life. So he goes back and misses out on falling in love with Lizzie Caplan, having a great career and all this fun… He should have stayed in the past. It made sense the black dude went back because he loved his wife and the young kid had his life in front of him… but not Cusack. 

 

Also Michael Sheen’s character in 30 Rock was right – the science is dodgy.

Movie review - "Strummer: The Future is Unwritten" (2007) ***

People who become rebel heroes tend to be wankers: Che Guevera, Joe Strummer. I think a lack of sense of humour and bloated feeling of self-importance help you spread the gospel. Strummer is an all too familiar type - public school educated, spent time as a kid in exotic countries (dad was a diplomat), went to art school and became too cool for school, was in a punk band which he dropped at the request of a manager and joined the clash.

Strummer was a charismatic fella - he looks like a tough prick and was imposing, especially when he had a mohawk. His politics and beliefs seem to be mainly "stuff youse all" rather than a definite philosophy - even later on in life when he matured you still feel as though it was a lot of hot air being pumped out. So his company gets a bit wearying at times - there were more laughs with the Sex Pistols. The footage assembled is amazing - on stage, home movies all through his life, audio interviews. It's a bit annoying to have people around the campfire talk about Strummer who are not identified - it just would have been a bit easier to follow.

The actors who talk about Strummer are the ones you'd expect - the studious, smart, serious ones like John Cusack, Johnny Depp and Steve Buscemi (no Ethan Hawke though, surprisingly - maybe because he, unlike the others, hasn't yet made a film for Jerry Bruckheimer). And it goes on too long - the stuff about his 90s band isn't that interesting. But visually dynamic, with that Julien Temple thing of raiding other films for inspiration (If, Animal Farm, Cushing's 1984), and all the old aging rockers are good talent.

Book review - "Josh Hartnett Really Wants to do This" by Bruce Beresford

Irritatingly subtitled "adventures from a life in the screen trade"which makes you hopefully that its going to be an autobiography but it only covers a year or so. Not that that doesn't have value, I enjoyed the book, it's just that's an annoying subtitle. 

Beresford makes good company - smart, cultured (he genuinely loves movies, opera, music and art), opinionated and indiscreet. He's not slow in slagging off movies, coworkers, etc - but he's also quick to praise, and even better admits at times to have been wrong (mainly in failing to predict what will be a successful film - is this why he's made so much junk). It seems that Beresford still gets gigs overseas from Driving Miss Daisy. 

It's fascinating to read an account of making a film that the director doesn't want to make (The Contract - John Cusack charges $4 million! For an action movie! No one wants to see Cusack in an action film) and to see just how thick skinned and tenacious you need to be eg executives and stars often say they're willing to make movies with anyone but Beresford, which must be a bit withering. 

For all his gripes about failing to get up projects he wants to make and dealing with idiots life can still be pretty good - travelling all round the world, being put up in top quality accom at film festivals, whipping over to Italy to see friends - and many of his problems are whiny rich baby boomer problems(eg "I told the tenants of my London flat to draw the curtains as it ruins my paintings but they didn't listen"). 

His family life is a bit obscure - he is married but barely mentions his wife, and is his heavily overweight son a special needs child? No mention either of Long Tan.

Movie review - "Shadows and Fog" (1992) ****

This Woody Allen film doesn't seem to have much of a reputation but I've always loved it - a creepy and funny tribute to German expressionism and Kafka. Set in an unnamed European town in the 20s, shot in black and white with lots of shadows and fog, it all takes place over one night. Woody is in good form as the coward forced to join a vigilante. Woody skillfully mixes the high brow stuff (discussions about god, existence, sex, beauty) in with the low (the warm friendly brothel, the circus), with some lovely Kurt Weill songs. Woody makes an ideal team with Mia - I love it that they instantly become best friends but don't become romantically involved.

Many fine sequences: John Malkovich's tormented clown, his love scene with Madonna, John Cusack as a wanker student, Donald Pleasance as a creepy doctor, the finale where Woody takes on the killer (I only wish they'd let him actually capture him - though they make up for it by having him run off to join the circus), Woody running into old lover Julie Kavner who hasn't forgiven him. The killer is genuinely scary, the atmosphere wonderful.

Movie review - "Must Love Dogs" (2005) **

Diane Lane found stardom unexepctedly late playing glamorous yet battered 40 somethings in Unfaithful and Under the Tuscan Sun and she pops up here in a rom com. She is pretty and gives a nice performance, but lacks the spark of a Meg, Sandra or Julia. Indeed the whole film is undercast - a bright script isn't given the spark it deserves. John Cusack seems to be slumming it, the guy who plays his best mate is a lazy performance, Dermot Mulroney has played the false love interest too many times, Chris Plummer just feels wrong as a loveable Irishman, the wacky support cast aren't wacky enough. Only Stockard Channing manages to hit the right notes. Fairly run of the mill stuff.