Night Falls on Manhattan (1996) * * *

 

Directed by:  Sidney Lumet

Starring:  Andy Garcia, Ian Holm, Ron Leibman, Shiek Mahmud-Bey, Richard Dreyfuss, Lena Olin, James Gandolfini, Bobby Cannavale

Sidney Lumet was a brilliant director whose best films were studies in morality, ethics, and their ability to crush the lives of those wrestling with either.  Night Falls on Manhattan gives us a morally upstanding hero named Sean Casey (Garcia), an up-and-coming assistant DA handling a high-profile case of a drug dealer who killed cops during a bust.  The dealer (Mahmud-Bey) insists it was self-defense.  His attorney Sam Vigoda (Dreyfuss) brings up the likelihood that the cops involved were not busting him, but attempting to assassinate him for a dispute over their cut.  Vigoda not only wants to vigorously defend his client, but has other motives which are discussed later in a sad monologue in a sauna.

Night Falls on Manhattan gives us Sean's rise to the DA's office.  His former boss DA Morgenstern (Leibman) suffers a heart attack and later confides in Sean what the job will do to you physically and emotionally.  The best scenes in the movie are ones in which characters slowly explain the gray areas to Sean, who up until his father is implicated in corruption is all about throwing the bums in prison.  What would you do if it were your father?  Or friend?  Or another loved one?  This is the moral quagmire Sean finds himself in.

The cast is a collection of masters.  Garcia is always up to the task of playing hotshot whose conscience gets the better of him.  In a way, all of the characters show us their public faces and their private dilemmas.  Morgenstern is a loud blowhard, but that's part of being a DA, and Leibman puts in an exhausting amount of energy trying to live up to that.   Dreyfuss gives Night Falls on Manhattan's best performance and its surprisingly moral center.   He's at his best when we realize he isn't showing us all the cards.  The weaker scenes involve Lena Olin as Sean's girlfriend who works in Vigoda's office.  Their relationship doesn't have an arc and could've been dispensed and we wouldn't have missed it.  I guess they figured Sean needed someone to talk to when he wasn't in the office.  

Still, Night Falls in Manhattan allows us the opportunity to witness policing and the law while discovering the two may be mutually exclusive.  Some can live with that, especially if you're part of the system.  

Clerks III (2022) * * *

 

Directed by:  Kevin Smith

Starring:  Jeff Anderson, Brian O' Halloran, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Rosario Dawson, Trevor Fehrman, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Amy Sedaris, Justin Long

Kevin Smith's Clerks III is clearly influenced by Smith's well-publicized health scares.  Clerks III isn't just a meta sequel with callbacks to past characters and situations, but it has depth and a heart (no pun intended).  There is true emotion as Quick Stop owners Randal (Anderson) and Dante (O'Halloran) ponder their lives after Randal suffers a heart attack.  Dante already struggles with his late wife's (Dawson) passing shortly after they married.  Clerks III benefits from Smith's experience and perspective. 

After Randal recovers from his near-death episode, he decides to make a movie about the happenings at the Quick Stop over the years.  Dante and Randal wind up playing themselves after more famous actors (Ben Affleck, Anthony Michael Hall, etc.) flub their auditions in an amusing sequence.  Smith himself appears as Silent Bob along with his ever-present sidekick Jay (Mewes).  They operate a marijuana dispensary (formerly the video store where Randal worked in the first film) and assist in the production.  There is even an appearance for Mooby's, the fast-food restaurant where Dante and Randal worked in Clerks II, but it triggers an emotional response from Dante.  This is the place where he met his late wife, and moving on has been tough sledding for him.

The dialogue in which Smith makes references to past Clerks movies and the sly and knowing description of Hollywood moviemaking tendencies is hit and miss.  Sometimes it can be too cute.  But Clerks III succeeds in its heartfelt friendship between Dante and Randal, and touching moments you wouldn't expect from a Clerks movie, which made its bones on sharp comic dialogue and realism.  

Young Adult (2011) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Jason Reitman

Starring:  Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson, Elizabeth Reaser

Young Adult has the courage to have a selfish alcoholic as its protagonist.  Mavis Gary (Theron) is a successful author of books for teenagers living in Minneapolis who returns to her hometown.  She wants to relive her glory days while also trying to steal her high-school sweetheart Buddy (Wilson) away from his wife and family.  Mavis forms an alliance with classmate Matt Freehauf (Oswalt), who was beaten to within an inch of his life in high school over allegations that he was gay.  He is not gay, and probably is in love with Mavis and always has been, but that didn't stop the attackers from pounding on him and causing him physical and emotional pain for the rest of his days.

If Mavis didn't drink so much, she might realize she has done far more with her life than any of her classmates.   The bottle makes Mavis feel her best days are behind her, but her classmates are in awe of her "exciting" life as a writer and a Minneapolis denizen.   Mavis feels otherwise.  Buddy doesn't know what to make of Mavis.  He may still be attracted to her, but he does have a wife and baby to think about.  "We'll beat this thing together," Mavis tells Buddy in reference to that pesky little issue of his family.  It's a hilarious line.  

Young Adult is billed as a comedy, but there is a lot of pain.  Mavis with her drinking, Matt dealing with the effects of the assault he endured twenty years ago, and Buddy awkwardly trying to navigate around Mavis.  He tries to let her down easy, but she won't take a hint.   It isn't because Mavis isn't physically attractive (she is played by Charlize Theron after all), but Buddy loves his wife.  Not that Mavis cares about that.  Buddy must be hers again.  We also pity Matt, pining away for Mavis, but also having the guts to tell her that what she's doing is wrong.  

We can call Young Adult a dark comedy since there are laughs derived from Mavis' brazen attempts to revisit the past with people who have mostly moved on.   Theron gives a nervy performance.  She's not afraid to be unlikable, but there is a shot at redemption in the end.  Think of Mavis as Bad Santa without the costume.  

Arcadian (2024) * * 1/2

 

Directed by: Benjamin Brewer

Starring:  Nicolas Cage, Jaeden Martell, Sadie Soverall, Maxwell Jenkins

Arcadian is another movie about aliens with their special quirks.  In A Quiet Place, you can evade them if you stay quiet, but in Arcadian, they attack only at night.  They're helpfully nocturnal, giving their potential victims a chance to prepare proper defenses for them at night.  This provides an eerie atmosphere which works, but the more we see the aliens and the more they attack, the more we see that Arcadian doesn't distinguish itself.   It's skillfully made with actors who are good in their roles, and Nicolas Cage is of course watchable even in bad movies.  

We've seen in last year's Dream Scenario that Cage excels in the right role, and is even quirky and interesting in lesser ones.  I've always said Cage gives it his all no matter what the movie or part.  I say let's get back to giving him quality films to star in.  He's an actor capable of providing unique energy and it's always fun to see him. 

In Arcadian, Cage plays Paul, a father of twin sons who has survived in a house in the wilderness for the past fifteen years these pesky aliens have occupied the planet.  Days are spent preparing mostly to secure the house for the night so the insect-looking thingys can't break in and devour them.  Paul tells his sons not to stray far from the house and be home by a certain time.  One night, one of the sons falls into a hole.  Paul discovers him but is trapped and nearly killed.  The boys are now on their own, with their comatose father recuperating.  

A nearby farm has more medicine than any other.  One of the boys falls in love with the oldest teenage daughter.  One alien is captured and studied.  It appears, for a second, that maybe the aliens aren't all harmful, but just as scared as the humans are.  That wonder is fleeting, and soon the aliens become target practice for our heroes.   Arcadian has its moments of dread which operate on a nightmarish level.  Even though the characters are American, the movie looks to have been filmed maybe in Ireland or England.  This provides an unusual effect, but once the movie degenerates into yet another War of the Worlds retread, I found myself losing interest.  

The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024) * *

 

Directed by:  Renny Harlin

Starring:  Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez, Gabriel Basso, Richard Blake, Ben Cartwright

The Strangers: Chapter 1 (it is expected to be a trilogy) deserves credit for being more about suspense than gore.   The material here doesn't seem like it could stretch out to three movies, but I suppose I'd have to watch the next two chapters to find out.  Is it a temptation I can resist?  We will find out.  

The Strangers is a remake of a 2008 movie (unseen by me), or is it a prequel?  The prologue tells us how frequently violent crimes occur in this country and how this movie is about "one of the worst ones".  Maya (Petsch) and Ryan (Gutierrez) are traveling cross-country through Oregon.  They've been together for five years, although not married, and their GPS accidentally leads them to a small town without pity where the clientele looks at you funny when you enter a diner.  

When they leave, they find their car won't start, and the shady folks recommend they leave the car for the night in the repair shop across the way and hole up at an Airbnb house in the middle of the forest until morning.  Unlike other movies that take place in a dense forest, the cell service at least sometimes works.  Ryan goes into town to get some food, while Maya soon realizes she is not in the house alone.  Some people with creepy masks are following her around the house and hiding in the shadows.  Maya smoked a joint earlier so maybe it's that.  It turns out not to be the case.  When Ryan returns with food, he and Maya find it frightening when blood from a beheaded animal impaled on the fan above the kitchen table drips onto their sandwiches.  

One wonders how someone could place the head up there without being heard and one further wonders how long the creepy people have had that disembodied head in their possession.  There is some genuine suspense until the masked folks make themselves known and chase the couple throughout the forest.  The Strangers then takes place in the dark where it hard to see what's happening, which for reasons I can't fathom is a style choice these days.  Maya and Ryan are caught, tied to chairs, stabbed and left for dead before police arrive.  

The Strangers clocks in at a little over ninety minutes.  I don't normally call for long movies because some these days have ridiculous running times, but another thirty minutes or so could've wrapped up the story.  This way, we don't have to sit through two more movies.  

The Accused (1988) * * *

 

Directed by:  Jonathan Kaplan

Starring:  Jodie Foster, Kelly McGillis, Bernie Coulson, Leo Rossi, Carmen Argenziano, Woody Brown

The Accused would be a simpler movie and likely a less effective one if it were the story of a raped woman seeking justice against those who assaulted her one night in a dive bar with a half-dozen onlookers cheering on the rapists.   There are no easy answers.   Women even now are reluctant to report a rape because of the tendency to blame the victims.   What were they wearing?  Were they intoxicated?  Did they somehow "cause" the rape with "provocative" behavior?   In The Accused, entire sections of the trail of Sarah Tobias' (Foster) rapists involve dissecting Sarah's behavior.  Assistant DA Kathryn Murphy (McGillis) plea bargains the criminals to a light sentence and that was supposed to be that.

Sarah, however, does not feel justice was served.  She never had the chance to tell her story.  Kathryn decides to prosecute those who stood by and cheered under the charge of criminal solicitation.  The rapists didn't need much egging on, but Kathryn thinks it's a way for Sarah to explain the horror that happened to her.  Shortly before going to the bar with a friend, Sarah has a fight with her loser live-in boyfriend, smokes a joint, and goes to the bar to have some drinks.  She is intoxicated when she hooks up with a random guy at the bar, who wants to things to go further quickly.  When Sarah resists, he throws her down on top of a pinball machine and rapes her.  Others follow, until Sarah finds a way to flee in terror with no one having called 911 or even attempted to stop her attackers. 

Because Sarah is rough around the edges and not necessarily heroic or even likable, The Accused takes on another dimension.   It isn't a movie of the week.  The rest of the characters don't carry the weight Sarah does, and the Jodie Foster performance earned her first of two Best Actress Oscars.  The strength of The Accused finds that Sarah, for all of her faults, is worthy of justice.   

IF (2024) * *

 

Directed by:  John Krasinski

Starring:  Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Fiona Shaw, Steve Carell (voice), Emily Blunt (voice), Louis Gossett, Jr. (voice), Matt Damon (voice), Awkwafina (voice), Blake Lively (voice)

IF is curiously morose and sad for a children-oriented comedy.   It's more often than not that we hear Michael Giacchino's heavily dramatic score swelling so we're cued to choke up.  IF (short for Imaginary Friend) isn't much fun, hanging on a threadbare plot which doesn't deliver a satisfying payoff.  There are terrific talents involved, most of them as voices of the animated IF's, but the human characters are lost in the mess.

The more IF tries to explain its purpose, the more confusing it becomes.  The movie starts off on a sad note, with Bea (Fleming) losing her mother to cancer and her father soon hospitalized with a heart condition and pending surgery.  Bea moves into a Victorian-style apartment building with her grandmother (Shaw), and goes exploring when she hears bumps in the night from the floor above.  She sees an imaginary character and soon learns she and numerous imaginary friends are housed in the apartment above with Cal (Reynolds), a human, looking after them.  Well, he's actually in charge of finding the IF's new children to attach themselves to once their previous children have grown up and forgotten them.

Bea soon is made a believer when she and Cal visit a "retirement home" for IF's located in a secret dwelling under Coney Island.  It is here where IF takes us on a trippy tour of the home with CGI gone mad and the audience losing its way, ending in a performance of Tina Turner's Better Be Good to Me by Bea and the IF's.  Bea is game for IF, as she has to put up with the breakneck changes in mood and plot.  First, she's in an adventure trying to match IF's with new kids, while also trying to match IF's with the adult versions of the kids they used to hang with.  What exactly is Bea's mission?  Bea also has to fit in visits to her father in the hospital, who performs pranks and encourages his daughter to embrace her childhood.  Too late.  Bea is involved in a movie entirely too grown up for her.  

Reynolds is missing his charm in IF.  He looks like he'd rather be someplace else, or he's just as confused as we are about the whole enterprise.  I have to wonder why IF chooses to go the depressing route it does.  There is a pall over the movie, one which even the lighter scenes can't penetrate.  

Wicked Little Letters (2024) * * *

Directed by:  Thea Sharrock

Starring:  Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Timothy Spall, Anjana Vasan, Malachi Kirby, Gemma Jones

Wicked Little Letters is a pleasant comedy about an unpleasant, anonymous writer who sent nasty, profane letters to an unmarried spinster named Edith (Colman), and then several others in 1920's England.  Who did it and why?  Edith accuses her neighbor Rose (Buckley), a single mother whose husband allegedly died in The Great War, and who is not against throwing down some beers and swearing a bunch.  The community soon believes Rose is the culprit and is indeed found guilty in court and jailed.  

The first police officer in Sussex, Gladys Moss, (Vasan) privately and soon publicly disagrees that Rose is the author.   Despite warnings from her superiors who disdain her, Gladys reopens the investigation.   It is then that the letters arrive more frequently and with more targets.   The writer's identity is soon revealed, although I will be kind and not spoil it for anyone.  However, it is not necessarily surprising.  

Wicked Little Letters mostly delivers with standout performances from Olivia Colman as the unwed, repressed woman still living with her overbearing religious parents who exhibit subtle cruelty to her.  Buckley's Rose, however, is free-spirited and improper, but still feels a certain sympathy towards Edith.  Buckley doesn't just portray Rose as an ill-tempered, foul-mouthed lush, but edges in some added dimensions.   

The movie itself is light and based on a true story.  Naturally, the real story and biographies of the players are altered, but it's still pretty compelling as a whodunit and then a whydunit.   In a way, the perpetrator earns our sympathy a little.  Just a little. 

Chaplin (1992) * * *

 

Directed by:  Richard Attenborough

Starring:  Robert Downey, Jr, Anthony Hopkins, Moira Kelly, Diane Lane, Kevin Kline, James Woods, Nancy Travis, Geraldine Chaplin, Kevin Dunn, Dan Aykroyd

Richard Attenborough's Chaplin tells Charlie Chaplin's story using a fictional writer (Hopkins) interviewing Chaplin at his Swiss mansion circa 1962.   Charlie Chaplin was the sad clown whose Little Tramp was beloved while the real Charlie's personal life was littered with ex-wives, controversy, an enemy in J. Edgar Hoover, and ultimately banishment from his adopted country to Switzerland.  He returned triumphantly in 1972 to accept a lifetime achievement Oscar and received the longest standing ovation in the history of the ceremony.

Robert Downey, Jr. plays Chaplin brilliantly in an Oscar-nominated performance.  He embodies the spirit of the man and the comedian obsessed with work and sex.  Brokenhearted by his mother's insanity and the death of his first love at a young age, Chaplin moved to Hollywood in the early days of cinema to work with celebrated comedy director Mack Sennett (Aykroyd).  He was a gifted physical comic who created the Little Tramp which became his signature character across four different decades, ending with The Great Dictator (1940), where Chaplin lampooned Hitler and Nazism and spoke onscreen for the first and last time.

Downey gives us the epitome of the man who laughs so that he may not cry.  Over 100 years after their creation, Chaplin's films are still beloved.   There were other silent film comedians like Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd, but Chaplin remains in pop culture memory the most.  Most people likely wouldn't know Keaton or Lloyd by sight even if they know the names.  Chaplin endures.  Attenborough's movie sometimes is overly concerned with Chaplin's personal escapades and less about the work which made him immortal, but thanks to the Downey performance and the film's sense of time and place, it gives us a pretty vivid portrait.  

Tarot (2024) *

 

Directed by:  Anna Helberg and Spenser Cohen

Starring:  Avantika Vandanapu, Jacob Batalon, Larsen Thompson

Tarot is a horror film which continues the trend of having almost everything shot in the dark, so it's nearly impossible to see what's happening.  The beginning takes place in a mansion where a group of friends are hanging out.  Or is it just a nice house?   Whatever it is, they proceed to the basement where one of them reads tarot cards predicting everyone else's future.  Within hours, the friends are knocked off one by one in grisly, bloody ways. 

How and why?  Those evil spirits are at it again.  Those pesky ghosts and phantoms from the past who just don't want anyone to have a good life.  Somehow, the tarot cards disrupted a group of evil folks from beyond the realm who were happy being miserable wherever they were.  There isn't anything exciting or scary that goes on in Tarot.  My amusement ended shortly after the opening scenes.  

Peter Jackson directed the Lord of the Rings trilogy simultaneously, with a complex series of camera setups, scenery, filming locations, actors, and a constantly evolving script.   He is one director.  Tarot is a 92-minute standalone horror film with two directors.  Jackson must bust a gut laughing when he sees that.  The two-director phenomenon is relatively new, not counting the Coen Brothers, who of course know how to make classic films.   Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins won the Oscar for Best Director for West Side Story, but it was hardly a collaboration.   And let's not forget Daniels.  However, we can forget Tarot and most likely already have. 

Road House (2024) * *

 

Directed by:  Doug Liman

Starring:  Jake Gyllenhaal, Conor McGregor, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams, Daniela Melchior, Lukas Gage, Joaquim de Almeida

The Patrick Swayze-starrer from 1989 wasn't begging for a remake, but we have one anyway.  The original movie wasn't a great film, but it had style and a detestable villain played by Ben Gazzara.  The idea of Gazzara shaking down the three or four businesses left in a tiny Missouri town doesn't make much financial sense for him, but we were pleased when Swayze kicked his ass.  Not much about was believable, but it didn't need to be.   It served its purpose.

The 2024 version doesn't have much of a purpose.  Its action scenes contain inexplicable and unnecessary CGI.  Billy Magnussen gives us a spoiled rich guy with a powerful, imprisoned father, but he doesn't hold a candle to the quietly menacing Gazzara.  Gyllenhaal has the body of a former MMA fighter turned professional bouncer hired to turn around a Florida bar being terrorized by Magnussen and his cronies so she would sell her property.  In movies about land deals, there is always one holdout.  Gyllenhaal protects it while still being a relatively nice guy.  He thrashes a group of thugs and then gives them a ride to the hospital.  What a dude!

Much criticism has been levied at Conor McGregor making his film debut as Knox, the beefy maniac who is hired to get rid of Gyllenhaal's Dalton (whose first name is Elwood).  Sure, McGregor gives an off-kilter, edgy performance that drifts occasionally into scenery chewing, but we respond to him.  He's more memorable than anyone else in the movie, so I don't see where the pans are warranted.  He could play wild-eyed, crazy villains in the future.   In Road House, we take satisfaction in seeing him get his clock cleaned.

Gyllenhaal is a skilled actor and he more or less does the job.  The movie itself is meh.  It may even tempt me to push the 1989 version to a three-star review.  I'm still debating that.  

The Fall Guy (2024) * *

 

Directed by:  David Leitch

Starring:  Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Teresa Palmer, Winston Duke, Stephanie Hsu, Hannah Waddingham

The Fall Guy is based partly on the 1980's Lee Majors series about a stuntman who moonlights as a bounty hunter.   The Colt Seavers (Gosling) of the 2024 movie is a stuntman who is tasked to pursue the missing star of the movie he's working on.  Bounty hunting isn't in the offing, unless it comes about in the sequel.   The movie is lots of stunts and action as promised, but the best scenes involve a will they or won't they romance featuring Colt and director Jody Moreno (Blunt), who is working on her first directorial effort and can't afford having its star Tom Ryder (Taylor-Johnson) go missing in action. 

The romance is soon consumed by the action, which like many in movies is overly long and uncompelling.   Gosling and Blunt are effortlessly likable, and a movie about them and the behind-the-scenes aspects of moviemaking would be perfect if The Fall Guy got out of its own way.  The movie begins with Colt, having a fling with then assistant director Jody, working as Ryder's personal stuntman and enjoying his work and life.  Then, he is nearly killed when a dangerous stunt goes awry and he retires from movies, instead working as a put-upon valet.

Jody will helm her first film and producer Gail Meyer (Waddingham), coaxes Colt into returning to the stunt game, albeit without Jody's knowledge.  This leads to banter and jokes between Colt and Jody on set, but then Colt is asked by Gail to find the AWOL Tom before the movie is kaput.  Colt, as amateur sleuth, is headed into different directions as he tries to find Tom.  Colt then becomes a murder suspect in the death of a fellow stuntman who was actually killed by Tom.  AI is introduced and places Colt's face on Tom's body when the video footage is released.  Now Colt has to prove his innocence by finding Tom. 

The Fall Guy sounds more exciting than it is.  What a missed opportunity.  Gosling and Blunt are gold, but the movie's plot doesn't play to their strengths.  Director Leitch is a former stuntman who lives to make movies like these.  The action sequences are slickly and professionally handled, but they don't stand out in the pantheon of historically great movie action.  The action has to include a plot and characters we care about.  The Fall Guy, unfortunately, doesn't deliver in that regard. 

Face/Off (1997) * * *

 

Directed by:  John Woo

Starring:  John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Alessandro Nivola, Gina Gershon

The premise is fascinating, flawed, preposterous, and you just have to go with it.  The hero and villain of Face/Off have facial transplants performed on them and infiltrate unfamiliar worlds under their new identities.  FBI agent Sean Archer (Travolta) goes undercover as supervillain Castor Troy (Cage) by having the face of the comatose Castor transplanted onto him.  A few nips and tucks, followed by a vocal implant which allows Sean to sound like Castor.  There is a bomb set to go off in a few days somewhere in LA, so Sean wants to gain information from Castor's imprisoned brother Pollux (Nivola), who is suspicious of the idea that the comatose Castor is now 100% again.  This lends tension to the scenes between Sean and Pollux. 

Castor soon awakens from his coma, has the doctor transplant Sean's face onto him, and then poses as Archer in dismantling the bomb, becoming a hero, and then in the ultimate slap in the real Sean's face, beds Sean's wife Eve (Allen).  Why wouldn't she make love with the man who she thinks is her husband?  Face/Off adds other elements.  Castor is also responsible for Sean's son's death and this has caused Sean to jump into his work as a way of avoiding dealing with the pain.  Would you believe me if I said that Castor has a son also who looks exactly like Sean's deceased son?   In a movie like this, nothing is off-limits.  But there is poignancy when Sean (as Castor of course) begins to see that Castor's girlfriend (Gershon) is actually a good mother despite being a criminal.  He tells her:  "No matter what, Sean Archer is off your back for good."

Face/Off's action scenes are well choreographed and sometimes a bit too lengthy.  Everyone has stormtrooper's aim and can't hit anyone even with automatic weapons that fire off one hundred rounds in five seconds.  Woo is an action master, but the best parts of Face/Off exist when the bullets aren't flying and no one is killed.  Travolta and Cage relish that both get to play the hero and the villain all in the same movie!  Yes, it's insane, but it also operates successfully. 

  

Back to School (1986) * * *

 

Directed by: Alan Metter

Starring:  Rodney Dangerfield, Keith Gordon, Robert Downey, Jr., Burt Young, Sally Kellerman, Paxton Whitehead, William Zabka, Terry Farrell, Adrienne Barbeau, Sam Kinison, M. Emmet Walsh, Ned Beatty

While Back to School doesn't match Easy Money in sheer comic brilliance, it is funny and touching when it needs to be.  It's almost impossible to watch Rodney Dangerfield and not laugh, which I mean of course in the best possible way.  He not only doles out the jokes, but he's a ball of infectious nervous energy with the goofiest facial expressions.  Underneath it all, though, is a man who wants to be loved.  His character, multi-millionaire clothing store chain founder Thornton Melon, is a crude man who has money but doesn't behave well among the rich and snobby.   He is a widower (with a gold-digging second wife he can't wait to divorce) who has been searching for another woman he loved as much as his first bride.  And he dearly loves his son, Jason (Gordon), who unhappily attends Grand Lakes University as an unpopular towel boy who can't make the swim team.  

Thornton feels so badly for Jason that he decides to enroll in the university to support him.   An endowment for a new business school greases the skids for someone who is "fifty years older than our average freshman".   Thornton throws money around, has his son's dorm room remodeled, and even helps Jason make the swim team.  Jason, however, seeks further into despair watching his father become the Big Man on Campus.   Thornton also initiates a romance with his English professor (Kellerman), while making an enemy of his economics professor (Whitehead), who loathes Thornton mostly because he likes Kellerman also. 

Like Easy Money, Back to School is full of funny supporting performances, including Burt Young as Thornton's loyal driver Lou, Robert Downey, Jr. in an early role as Jason's rebellious best friend Derek, and Sam Kinison as a history professor who screams at his students (very much like his stand-up act).  There are subplots including Jason's love for a young lady who is dating the prick swim team captain, but they don't subtract from Dangerfield, who can carry subpar material with the sheer force of his humor and personality.   Not that Back to School is subpar.  

Serpico (1973) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Sidney Lumet

Starring:  Al Pacino, Tony Roberts, John Randolph, Cornelia Sharpe, Jack Kehoe, James Tolkan, F. Murray Abraham

Frank Serpico's story, if put in the wrong hands, would be a one-dimensional story of one good cop fighting NYPD corruption.  Serpico would be a candidate for sainthood and that's that.  The 1973 movie based on his experience in the NYPD is more complex than that.  Serpico is a cop who refuses go on the take unlike so many others at the time.  He is personally and professionally offended by the idea of dirty cops, but he deals with it until he can no longer tolerate it.   He transfers to different precincts, only to encounter more of the same.  

There are other honest cops out there, and Serpico is fortunate to find them, such as Bob Blair (Roberts), but soon even he is alienated by Serpico because "he's not doing enough,"  Serpico then goes public with his story, which results in the citywide Knapp Investigation which cracks down on corruption, but puts a bullseye squarely on Serpico's back.  As the movie opens, Frank is being carried away after being shot in the face during a bust gone wrong.  He was likely set up by his partners, and the epilogue states that Serpico moved to Switzerland after testifying in the inquiries. 

Al Pacino plays Serpico as an idealist who soon turns his anger and despair on his wife (Sharpe) and the few friends he has.  Sidney Lumet's movie doesn't make the mistake of turning Serpico into the one who is always right.  He is sometimes unreasonable and hostile as he cracks under the pressure of maintaining his honesty.  His fellow officers try to convince him that taking some money does more good than harm.  It allows the others to rest easier knowing he is "one of them,"  Some are subtle, while others strongarm more intently.  We find ourselves not necessarily approving of the corrupt officers, but we understand why they feel the need to take bribes.  They have mortgages, kids going to college, car payments, alimony, and other emergencies that require money.  The bills won't pay themselves.  

Serpico doesn't want to accept their stories.  He lumps them all into the same pile, almost oblivious to the danger.  Pacino's performance is multi-faceted.  At times, we're with him.  At times, we think he's a blowhard spewing moral superiority while making his life and his wife's miserable.  What drives Frank Serpico?  Why doesn't he just leave the force?  Why did he have to flee to Switzerland in the name of standing up for his principles?  Because Serpico the movie has different dimensions and sees the flaws in humanity, we dare seek the answers to those questions.  Ones even Serpico himself might not know. 

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024) * * *

 

Directed by:  Guy Ritchie

Starring:  Henry Cavill, Cary Elwes, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Henry Golding, Eiza Gonzalez, Til Schweiger, Babs Olusanmokun, Freddie Fox

Truth in reviewing:  I spent about half of this movie enduring a toothache.  I crunched down on a tooth with a Tootsie Roll and ouch!  I didn't have Tylenol readily available and Orajel was still at the store, so I suffered a bit.  It probably muted my enjoyment of Guy Ritchie's latest actioner, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which is stylish and fun.  It's a World War II precursor to James Bond based on recently declassified war files.  It can't be a coincidence that one of the members of British Intelligence is Ian Fleming.

Circa early 1942, the British decide that, in order to coax the United States into the war, they must prove that the Germans are vulnerable.  History buffs will point out that Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7, 1941 and the U.S. declared war on Japan the next day and Germany declared war on the U.S. soon after.  But, let's forget that happened and continue with the plot.  Winston Churchill tasks the British military and intelligence with putting together a group of ragtag soldiers who care about one thing:  Winning at all costs.  

Gus March-Phillips (Cavill) is the leader of the group, which includes hulking Swede Anders Lassen (Ritchson), explosives expert Freddy Alvarez (Golding), and femme fatale in training Marjorie Stewart (Gonzalez), whose job it is to seduce a rich German national (Schweiger) and allow the group to gain access to a key European port.  I doubt I'll be able to describe any Alan Ritchson role in the near future without using the word "hulking".  

My memory of what happens grows hazy as my tooth pain takes hold.  Before that unfortunate turn of events, I found myself entertained by Ungentlemanly Warfare as almost a throwback action movie where the heroes bicker and spew one-liners without being bothered by explosions, gunfire, and fistfights.  Anyone who says they would've loved to live in the Old West or other times, I ask them:  Would you want to live in a world where there is no painless dentistry?  I know my answer is no. 

Challengers (2024) * * *

 

Directed by:  Luca Guadagnino

Starring:  Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O' Connor

Challengers is a time-bending sports drama about two male tennis players in love with the same woman, or each other, and for the most part it keeps us involved and it works.   The ending flies in the face of convention of your average sports movie which ends in "the big game" (maybe too much so), but overall Challengers provides us with some depth and unhappy characters trying to grasp on to elusive joy. 

The story is not told chronologically.  It jumps back and forth and fills in gaps which provide us with information we didn't know before.  It's an effective and strategic approach.  As Challengers opens, we meet Art (Faist), a multi-grand slam tennis champion on the downside of his career.  His wife, Tashi (Zendaya), wants him to regain his form by entering a warmup tournament weeks prior to the U.S. Open.  His finals opponent is Patrick (O'Connor), his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend.  We learn in the interim how these events unfolded.   

Tashi was a superstar on the rise when a college match injury forced her to quit playing.   She becomes Art's coach and soon his wife, but only after a stretch as Patrick's girlfriend.  Both Art and Patrick fall in love with Tashi at first sight while all are playing at a U.S. Open junior event.  However, there are vibes that Art and Patrick are already in love...with each other.  When Tashi accepts their invite to come to their room after midnight, they drink, they talk, and Tashi openly suggests that Art and Patrick are into each other.  When an attempted threesome begins, Tashi winds up sitting back and watching Art and Patrick make out.  The smile of satisfaction on her face tells the story.  She is happier to be right.

Nonetheless, the triangle goes on for over a decade with each person not realizing there are other fish in the sea.  Tashi, after her career-ending injury, winds up with Art and marries him, but neither are particularly happy.  Tashi treats her marriage as a business, while Art is a tougher read.  His friendship with Patrick became estranged over the years, until both face each other in the finals of the tournament with the past rearing its head in flashbacks.   Challengers isn't as much a movie about a romantic love triangle as it is about three wounded people looking for happiness, whether professionally or personally, and not quite succeeding at either.  

Zendaya, Faist, and O'Connor flesh out characters who aren't necessarily likable and don't attempt to be.  But we care about them nonetheless, because they have a desire to win that encompasses everything else, including their own contentment.  The final scenes are ones that don't fit at first, but they do inspire thought, and we may finally glimpse how each of these three people can find a way to succeed at being happy.