TV Snide: December 2021

Movie of the month: Schindler’s List (Sling TV/Showtime): Of course I saw this years ago, but now it was time to watch with my 14-year-old son. The true story of the Nazi industrialist who did just about all that he could to save as many Jews from the Holocaust as possible is a heartbreaking and tear-filled story that is crucial to build empathy and caring in a world that seems almost as cruel as those days in some ways. 5 out of 5 stars

Borat (Hulu): What can you say? This is an essential comedy, possibly with more insightful social commentary on the United States than any other film ever. The dark side of our way of life is revealed in scene after scene of Borat traveling across the country to take best practices back to his homeland. Hey, the U.S. is great in countless ways, but as these undercover interactions with politicians, frat boys, and rodeo racists show, it seems he may have been better off picking another country for a leading example of good. 5 out of 5 stars

The Shining (HBO Max): Jack Nicholson still horrifies all these years later in Stephen King’s slow burner of a psychological breakdown. It’s doesn’t all make sense, but basically know that the murderous ghosts are alive and well at The Overlook Hotel. It may be the one King movie that is actually better than the book, but that’s a controversial take. 4.5 out of 5 stars

Babyteeth (Hulu): A teen girl is dying of a disease and she stumbles upon a local drug dealer who makes her end days better, leading to a complicated relationship with her parents, including the dad, one of my favorites, Ben Mendelsohn. A powerful drama. 4 out of 5 stars

American Honey (Showtime): This is the overly long but otherwise mesmerizing film about a rebellious teen who takes up with some hard-partying drifter/grifters. They ride around in a van selling magazines in various communities. It’s an impressive study of lost youth in a world when sometimes even the most skewed love of friends will have to do. 3.5 out of 5 stars

Spider-Man: Homecoming (Amazon): I’ve never seen the Tom Holland series and this opener from 2017 sets a promising tone for the series, with Spidey battling his bullying schoolmates and a Falcon-like arms dealer bad guy played to extra evil effect by the excellent Michael Keaton. Looking forward to parts 2 and the new 3. 3.5 out of 5 stars

Audiobook of the Month: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino: This is overall pretty unnecessary since the movie is one of my favorites of Tarantino’s and it could hardly be topped. Audiobook, however, is definitely the way to go and, like the film, it’s filled with great scenes. The story even unfolds differently than the movie so it’s worth it for that. The long listings of old real Hollywood names can be tiresome, but a good story is a good story no matter how you deliver it. 3.5 out of 5 stars

Handful of Old Movies Get a Look in My Queue

I've been catching up on some old movies lately. Some classic, some a little less than classic.

Funny Farm: This is a relatively terrible Chevy Chase flick from 1988, the downside of a time when he was arguably the funniest movie-comedian in America. Gene Siskel once called it Chase's funniest film, a serious stretch for one that has a few laughs but is pretty badly dated by now. I had never seen it. Must have been going to too many Boston and AC/DC concerts that year.
**1/2 out of ***** stars

Dazed and Confused: After my favorite movie of 2014, Boyhood, I had to go back and watch Richard Linklater's other great Texas epic. This one was named Quentin Tarantino's 10th favorite film of all time for good reason. Beyond star-cameos galore, this view of high-school life in Austin captures the ethos of an entire generation of kids growing up in the 1970s and 1980s.
***** out of ***** stars

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure: I somehow never saw this, although I recognized the numerous catchphrases that still hold strong today ("I know you are but what am I?"). It's pretty funny and even educational stuff, and, as my 7-year-old said, "Pee-Wee makes funny faces."
**** out of ***** stars

The Man With Two Brains: Steve Martin comes nowhere close to The Jerk or Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid in this completely wacky script. Playing a neurosurgeon with an unpronounceable name (in the grand tradition of Chase's Fletch), Martin is nevertheless still funny and this one is still worth watching.
***1/2 out of ***** stars

An Affair to Remember: Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr star in this exceedingly romantic film, which suffers just a bit because Grant's typical comedic touches are largely missing. Instead, he is very George Clooney, meaning suave and very handsome, as he becomes friends on a passenger ship with Kerr between Europe and New York before slowly falling in love even amidst some traumatic setbacks.
***1/2 out of ***** stars

The Object of My Affection: The acting talents of Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd are pretty raw in this 1998 film. But it's entertaining enough and is pretty important in bringing societal acceptability of gay relationships to a more mass audience.
*** out of ***** stars

Hushpuppy from Beasts of the Southern Wild Deserved the Best Actress Oscar

I already mentioned here that Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained would have been my Oscar winner. But another nominee who should have won was Quvenzhane Wallis for her role as little tough Hushpuppy in Beasts of the Southern Wild.

I've long held a strong distaste for Best Actress winner Anne Hathaway, which makes it even more bitter to swallow this Oscar crime. But award or not, Beasts is a treasure of 2012 and a classic worthy of being ranked comparatively well with the other greatest indie movies of all time.

The large themes of global warming and Hurricane Katrina and abject poverty are captured compellingly by telling the story of this young girl and her abusive but somehow likable and sympathetic father simply trying to get by in the swamps of Louisiana. Their community is called "The Bathtub" and it's an amazing insight into a fascinating way of life that has somehow been under-explored in pop culture.

There's also a small side story of beasts being released from the melting icecaps in the Arctic. This is fantastical, and works in powerful ways that the recent film version of Where the Wild Things didn't.

****1/2 out of ***** stars

Django Unchained is Tarantino's Second-Best Movie Ever

Django Unchained is a stunner. I never thought I would say that a Quentin Tarantino film is almost as good as his piece de resistance Pulp Fiction, but this one comes close.

Much like Pulp Fiction, this movie is not so much about the plot but rather about the dialogue that drives the masterful suspense and the scene after scene of purely tantalizing cinematography and episodic brilliance.

Chapter after chapter roll past and the viewer rarely wants the scene to end, but it always does, and Tarantino always leaves us wanting more. Even the most graphically violent scenes never overstay their welcome, which helps make them so enjoyable and some of them even downright hilarious (like when the southern lady gets swooped off her feet and out of the room by one of Django's righteous bullets).

Christoph Waltz, who was so captivating in Inglourious Basterds at "The Jew Hunter," is flat-out the actor of the year in this one. Forget Daniel Day Lewis in Lincoln. It's pretty safe to say that Waltz is the top master at delivering Tarantino's also award-deserving scriptwriting lines.

Jamie Foxx as Django and Samuel L. Jackson as an influential house slave are also great. Leonardo DiCaprio could be better as the wack-job slave-plantation owner Calvin Candie, but that said, perhaps I have too high of expectations for the actor, who may not be capable of being quite as evil as he needs to be in this part. (He's still pretty darn evil though.)

This is my movie of the year, and the second-best Tarantino movie ever.

***** out of ***** stars