What's on your Daily Viewing List? (6 Viewers)

[Toronto Argonauts]

Tonight:

 

[dana martin]

Last Night's Double Feature:
IMO both transcended the general entertainment aspects of there presentations to become Celluloid Magic



as an added bonus, the 2 Walter Lantz/ Bill Nolan Oswald cartoons, with his second redesign, was just the icing on the cake

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The Parent Trap (1998)
Originally Released: 07/29/1998
Watched: 06/09/2020
HDX (1080P) digital streaming on Vudu app, upscaled to 4K via Roku Ultra

I just picked this one up because the price dropped to $7.99 on iTunes. Given the tumultuous and unsettling times we're living in, I've been finding myself drawn to family films lately.

And this is just about a perfect family film, and the rare remake that is better than the original. While the core premise of a couple getting divorced and taking a Judgment of Solomon approach to their twin daughters felt even more ludicrous in 1998 than it did in 1961, this version works a lot harder to sell it than the Hayley Mills version.

Part of the difference is conceptual: Instead of the twins being East Coast and West Coast Americans, one is American and one is British. But the bigger difference is the execution of the concept. The 1961 version relied heavily on sight gags to keep the audience interested. The 1998 version succeeds at getting the audience to forget that visual effects are involved at all.

Given Lindsay Lohan's very public troubles later in life, it's easy to forget just how insanely talented she was from an early age. At the age of eleven, she was pulling off the same feat that Tatiana Maslany won an Emmy for on "Orphan Black" -- and more or less as successfully. Two characters with different accents, different personalities, and different body language that are pretending to be one another for long stretches of the movie, and you're never confused as to which is which. Lohan is flawless as each character when they're themselves, and flawed in some relatively subtle ways when they're pretending to be the other twin. I wasn't sure, over two decades later, that the visual effects would hold up. But they do, beautiful. The movie gets by with body doubles quite a bit, but when it does use compositing to have Lohan acting against herself, the effect is seamless. And Lohan's timing and eyelines are impeccable.

The screenplay is smart, too -- both twins are allowed to be smart and immature and at times quite unpleasant, and the movie is always attuned to their emotions and concerns. When it comes right down to it, what their parents did to them was quite cruel, and the movie allows them to feel the longing and sense of abandonment and wistfulness for all of the time that they missed out on -- both with the noncustodial parent, and with each other. While many of the plot beats are the same as the original film, this version just goes a bit deeper.

It's a Nancy Meyers picture, so of course both families are ensconced in wealth and privilege, with the American daughter growing up on a vast vineyard in northern California, and the British daughter growing up with a butler and a mom who is one of London's top wedding dress designers. The fantasy world that Meyers creates with her movies works better in a children's movie than it does in the rom-coms for adults.

As the parents, Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson have oodles of chemistry -- the only problem is, you don't quite buy that they would have ever split up in the first place. Every time I see this movie, I'm reminded of what a tragedy Richardson's untimely death was. She was really something special.

The transfer on Vudu is clearly from an old master; despite a not insignificant amount of grain, the picture is quite soft. This might be deliberate to some extent to obscure any sins when it comes to the compositing work. But the softness didn't impair my enjoyment of the movie.

 

[Robin9]

I watched two films yesterday which I don't do very often. The first was Boys' Night Out, a pleasant, moderately amusing comedy with a very good cast. Right down the cast list was Anne Jeffreys whom I remembered in Step Lively in which she had a good song duet with Frank Sinatra. So I then watched that film which I always enjoy, mainly because the songs by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn are so good.

The big weakness of Step Lively is the charmless performance of George Murphy. The movie camera didn't much like him and he was no more than fairly talented. The role he played of a fast-talking slickster of a theatrical producer needs an actor with real charm. Dan Dailey's performance in Meet Me At The Fair shows what is possible as does Robert Preston's work in The Music Man. George Murphy just didn't have it and the film suffers. Both Gloria De Haven and Anne Jeffreys were good.

 

[Mysto]

Decided to watch some L&H getting ready for the new BluRay release. Jitterbugs is past their prime but they did get a fair number of gags in. Not a great watch but still fun. Really looking forward to that Blu.

Double feature. Lots of white water and interesting but not as good as the Rocky Mountaineer.

 

[Dave Moritz]

The Secrete Of Skinwalker Ranch from the DVR

 

[Toronto Argonauts]

Tonight:

 

[dana martin]

Last Night's Double Feature

 

[bujaki]

Death Race 2000 (Criterion Channel) 1975. Satire set in dystopian totalitarian future where car racers score points by killing innocent pedestrians. Paul Bartel directs. The state is strong (and funny); the resistance is weak. Stallone snarls.
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (Indicator BD) 1973. Is this entertaining! What wonderful Harryhausen special effects! The transfer is exemplary. Good story and earnest acting. Munro explodes from her costume...
The Doolins of Oklahoma (TCM Vault DVD) 1949. Good Randolph Scott western. Well directed. acted and shot, with many action sequences. Quite satisfying.
7th Cavalry (TCM Vault DVD) 1956. Technicolor (too bad it's not a remastered BD) story of an officer who survived the massacre at Little Big Horn. He reveres Custer; the surviving officers do not (they were right). At any rate, another good Randy Scott western directed by the great Joseph H. Lewis.
The General Died at Dawn (Kino BD) 1936. I hadn't seen this in decades, and not in such a beautiful presentation as this. Milner's cinematography really stands out. I wonder if almost a reel was chopped out early on. Carroll and Cooper are never introduced, no seduction is involved to indicate his radical change of plans, and suddenly they're off together! Very odd continuity. Odets dialogue throughout with its heightened artificiality.
Dr.Cyclops (Kino BD) 1940. Very good encoding of this Technicolor showcase. I saw this a kid in the '50s in a stunning 35mm Technicolor print that remains one of my most vivid memories. Great fun and special effects.

 

[Robin9]

I was in a lazy mood today and wanted to watch something which didn't require great concentration so I chose Five Card Stud. It's an easy-going movie with an element of mystery in the first half. I always like Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum and I really enjoyed the film which I hadn't seen for a long time.

 

[Toronto Argonauts]

Tonight:

 

[dana martin]

Last Night's Double Feature: Two from King Hu

Desert Scenes and Ethereal Dreams galore



here's hoping that his 8 remaining films get the same loving treatment these had for eventual North American High Definition releases

 

[Mysto]

Well we're almost at the end of the series. This one is more of a thriller than mystery. We know the killer early on, but there still is a surprise. Goldie appears this time courtesy of Vince Barnett. A bevy of beauties surrounds our sleuth once again with lovely Rita Corday and Jane Greer. A pleasant quick watch as always.

 

[bujaki]

A trio of British films shot in B&W, all new to me, courtesy of Kino; and an old favorite in luscious Technicolor, also courtesy of Kino:
The Night My Number Came Up 1955. Unfortunately transferred open matte. This is definitely WS so adjust your screen (as I did) accordingly and it will play beautifully. And it is a film very much worth watching for its premise, its suspense and its acting. Nominated for 4 BAFTA awards and one can see why. Highly recommended (except for the wrong AR which you can adjust). Directed by Leslie Norman who also directed the next one...
The Long and the Short and the Tall aka Jungle Fighters 1961. Another gem I'd never heard of. Also nominated for 2 BAFTA awards and one can see why. Raw tale of men at war confronted by their own fears and prejudices. Stand-out performances from Richard Todd and Laurence Harvey. Very strong and highly recommended.
The Criminal 1960. Joseph Losey, Stanley Baker and Robert Krasker team up and deliver an uncompromising view of prison life and the underworld in Britain at the tail end of the '50s. Tough story, bleak ending with an act of contrition.
Canyon Passage 1946. Very good transfer of this Technicolor picture. Exciting Jacques Tourneur frontier story with two very handsome leading ladies, a stalwart leading man, a bona fide villain, lynchings, Indian attacks, beautiful scenery...O, America! Also highly recommended.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Peg and I completed our binge-rewatch of 30 Rock: Complete Series this week. A very funny series.

Now we'll get back to some feature films, but we are also beginning to watch (for the first time) The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Complete Series. This is from much of the same creative team as 30 Rock. Fingers crossed.

Fitzcarraldo (Shout BD) 1982. Werner Herzog, an obsessive film director, tackles another film about a man with a single-minded obsession to bring opera to the Amazonian jungle in the first decade of the 20th century, the actor playing him being none other than the obsessed Klaus Kinski. Incredible location images give life to this incredible tale of two cultures meeting (European and Jivaro) via the extraordinary recordings of Enrico Caruso, the miracle of the human voice lifted in glorious song.

Isn't there also a documentary that was made of the making of this film? I have always wanted to watch both of those.

Given Lindsay Lohan's very public troubles later in life, it's easy to forget just how insanely talented she was from an early age. At the age of eleven, she was pulling off the same feat that Tatiana Maslany won an Emmy for on "Orphan Black" -- and more or less as successfully. Two characters with different accents, different personalities, and different body language that are pretending to be one another for long stretches of the movie, and you're never confused as to which is which. Lohan is flawless as each character when they're themselves, and flawed in some relatively subtle ways when they're pretending to be the other twin. I wasn't sure, over two decades later, that the visual effects would hold up. But they do, beautiful. The movie gets by with body doubles quite a bit, but when it does use compositing to have Lohan acting against herself, the effect is seamless. And Lohan's timing and eyelines are impeccable.

I'll champion that sentiment for as long as I have a breath in my body. Her talent knew no bounds. What a shame she couldn't control her personal life. And there was no reason to think her abilities wouldn't have continued to shine in her adult years. What a waste. I still hope for her to make some kind of comeback and reclaim her position as an elite talent.

 

[bujaki]

@Mike Frezon Yes, the documentary is called Burden of Dreams. It's a Criterion release. I haven't watched it yet.

 

[Toronto Argonauts]

Tonight:

 

[Matt Hough]

They were streaming the NBC presentation of The Wiz Live! tonight on YouTube, and as I hadn't watched it in years, I watched and enjoyed it all over again tonight. I had forgotten how many truly outstanding voices they rounded up for this production. Not a weak performer in the bunch, and for a production airing live and on interior sets, they did a wonderful job with it.

 

[Mike2001]

Age of Adeline on iTunes HD stream. Thanks to those here who recommended this as we enjoyed it very much. Blake Lively holds your attention in an old fashioned movie star turn as she is onscreen almost every minute.

Spoiler

Marred only by one heck of a storytelling coincidence.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Little Women (2019)
Originally Released: 12/25/2019
Watched: 06/12/2020
4K UHD digital streaming on Apple TV app via Roku Ultra

My favorite film of 2019, and one of the more divisive films of last year. I can understand why; whereas most adaptations of Little Women soften it with a nostalgic glean, Greta Gerwig's take on the story sharpens all of the edges. Many of the moments in the story that are most memorable in the other adaptations are downplayed or undercut here by the nonlinear storytelling. Major moments in this adaptation were downplayed or omitted entirely in the other adaptations. It makes for a very different experience.

I was on board with each and every controversial filmmaking and storytelling choice. What the nonlinear storytelling gives you is a version of Little Women about adults coming to terms with their present by reflecting on their past rather than a story about children coming of age. In particular, Amy's relationship with Laurie in the post-Civil War present is given more equal footing with Jo's relationship with Laurie in the mid-Civil War past, which recontextualizes both relationships in ways that make the final outcome less of a letdown for the audience. It also allows moments in the past to resonate with moments in the present, and vice-versa. When done well, it has a similar power to when "This Is Us" draws thematical parallels between different time periods. The ending both mirrors the ending of the book and cheekily subverts it at the same time. The actual ending is far more satisfying, anyway.

The cast ranges from solid to outstanding. Saoirse Ronan drives the movie forward, and she is a fierce and uncompromising but deeply human Jo March. She brings an almost masculine energy to the role that reminded me a bit of Katharine Hepburn's take on the character.

But there have been great Jo Marches before. What makes this version stand out in terms of casting is how well cast the other March sisters were. Florence Pugh is a remarkable Amy, making her far more three-dimensional than any of the other adaptations I can think of. Eliza Scanlen is incredible as Beth, despite having probably the least focus on her of the four sisters. One thing I really appreciated with this viewing is how different Scanlen plays Beth as a sickly and dying young adult versus the timid and innocent girl that Beth had once been. You really feel the difference of those years, and how tired Beth is as her health ebbs, and how firm of a grasp she has on the world, what it holds in store for her, and what needs to happen as a result. Emma Watson is more limited as an actress than her three onscreen sisters, but Meg is squarely within her wheelhouse.

This is the second consecutive film that Gerwig has paired Ronan with Timothée Chalamet, and I can see why: his almost feminine energy counterbalances Ronan's screen presence in an interesting way. I lean in a little closer every time they share the screen together.

Laura Dern is probably my favorite Marmee, a character who can be idealized, even canonized. The Marmee in this film is a remarkable human being, but Dern lets strain and fragility leak into her performance from time to time. Her Marmee feels like a person instead of a infalliable matriarch placed up on a pillar. And a quick shoutout to Bob Odenkirk as Robert March, the girls' father; he has probably less than five minutes of screen time total, but in that time you understand why his wife and daughters so adore him.

Meryl Streep can be hit or miss for me, but she's the perfect Aunt March.

Just as magical at home for me as it was in theaters. This one will be revisited more than most of the movies in my collection.