Bill Murray comedies. Like many others, I’m a big fan of the rebirth of Bill Murray in Rushmore, Broken Flowers and the great Lost in Translation (not so much Life Aquatic). But a word of praise here about some of his earlier comedies. In the 48 hours leading up to New Year’s my kids and I had a Bill Murray festival, watching Ghostbusters I and II, Groundhog Day and Quick Change. These could all have been sappy, crappy comedies, and in fact they often are. But all are ultimately saved by Murray. The comic timing, the deadpan delivery, the smarminess honed on SNL, and the simple glances that signify to the audience that he is the only sane person in the room always make Murray’s scenes enjoyable for me, even when the rest of the movie fails.
Tanner ‘88. I am a latecomer here, having never seen this series, but having read Reynolds refer to it frequently. What a remarkable piece of work! This seems well before its time, providing insider politics, a real gritty documentary style, and a portrait of a flawed politician. I have to say that it knocks the socks off West Wing and clearly was the direct inspiration for K Street (which I also liked) But alongside the insider stuff are also some stunningly powerful scenes. In one later episode, fully 15 minutes of screen time is taken up with members of the community just talking about drugs and what to do about then, with no commentary or obvious plot development. And then the episode ends when Tanner sees a dead boy lying in an alleyway and the importance of the issue suddenly transcends politics. It was a Wire moment. Really, really great stuff.
Three Times. I intended to post separately about this but that would have meant three consecutive posts about foreign movies and I would have been kicked out of my local ‘Jackass movies for men’ club. In any case, Three Times, directed by Hsiao-hsien Hou, is an absolute gem. Three separate love stories, using the same pair of actors, set in three different time periods. The first two, set in 1966 and 1911 (or thereabouts) are as near perfect pieces of film-making as I’ve seen all year, but the movie is let down slightly by the third story. The strengths of the movie are the pacing, the repetition of scenes with minor variations (if Steve Reich made movies, they would look like this), and the almost complete absence of dialogue, so that the movie relies on visual imagery and the remarkable soundtrack.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Nothing to say here except that this was the perfect family movie to see in the New Year with. Funny and cheesy, with just a hint of class.
i put tanner ’88 in my netflix queue.
It looks like this thread might have been open to items other than those listed, so: Smiley’s People. I’d heard that it did not come close to the excellent Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I’m not so sure. I think it’s every bit as excellent as that admittedly wonderful movie/program.
There’s still smart TV around, I know. Mostly on HBO I suppose. But for all the same reasons I mentioned here , this was really great TV 23 years ago.
Guinness raises his voice once in this one, shows a little emotion at the end while Karla crosses the bridge into West Berlin, and there’s a 15 minute stretch of the current head of the Circus, whom Smiley dislikes, going over Smiley’s report while downing scotch and flirting with the head of research that is quite funny.
Excellent TV. Try them out if you’ve never watched them before. Up next for me, I’m going to try to re-watch the first season of Twin Peaks. The disappointment in Inland Empire is still stinging, and there’s not much further removed in Lynch’s work than that 8-hour thing.
…”The Lion in Winter”. I have been watching historical dramas with my older son in preparation for AP European History next year. His teacher sent home a list of movies. Most are dull, dull, dull, including Richard Harris as and in “Cromwell” and Paul Scofield in “A Man for all Seasons.” But “The Lion in Winter” is even better than I remembered from many years ago, freakishly good in fact. The quality of dialogue, the acting and rapport of O’Toole and Hepburn, the smaller roles of Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton, the cleverness of the political intrigue, it is all wonderful.
There seems to have been a spate of those movies in what, the mid-late 60s, early 70s? they are QUALITY filmmaking! I would recommend Becket but only if you view it as two drunks trying to outdo each other in scenery-chewing and forget the “history.”
reminds me of…
good acting at its best….