My pledge to you:
Only the basics of a movie's premise,
with no spoilers after that.
Hippy Porn (1991)
Free on DVD from your public library
Despite the title and a few amusing R-rated moments, this is not pornography.
It's an amateur, rambling, talky, sometimes interesting DIY semi-documentary in which a handful of white 20-somethings talk about walking in the sewer, poetry, first masturbation, first rock song, filter cigarettes, whatever.
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| #334 [archive] SEPT. 14, 2024 |
I've classified it as 'semi-documentary' because it looks spontaneous, but most of what's said sounds suspiciously scripted, and the delivery often seems oddly unhuman.
This is art trying to deconstruct art, and it's faux punk — "STEAL YEAH" flashes on the screen over rock'n'roll and footage of exaggerated shoplifting.
The whole endeavor feels like college kids having a good time, but there's nothing wrong with college kids having a good time, and I about 60% enjoyed this.
Co-written and co-directed by Jon Moritsugu, who later graced us with Mod Fuck Explosion.
Verdict: YES.
♦ ♦ ♦
Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959; France-Japan)
Free on DVD from your public library
An unseen man and woman talk about the bombing — the woman saying she's deeply saddened, the man brusquely dismissing her statements. Turns out he's a survivor of the blast, and she's a visiting actress from France, making an anti-war film in the city. He knows the grief personally, and disdains her empathy as a second-hand emotion.
That's an intriguing start, but what follows is progressively less and less, as this becomes an unconvincing romance, with the destruction of Hiroshima as merely a backdrop.
This man and woman are both married to other people, and they're very talky lovers, going on and on about their feelings. Sometimes they speak of other stuff, even Hiroshima between the mon amours, but always they loop back to "relationship talk," which is of course the worst conversation in any relationship.
And it's in French, the alleged language of love, which might be part of my problem with the movie — every line is delivered like pretentious French poetry.
"Time will pass. Only time. And time will come. A time will come, when we can no longer name what it is that unites us. The name will gradually fade from our memory. Then it will disappear entirely..."
You want an hour and a half of that, only in French? Here it is, and it's widely hailed as a classic of French New Wave, but I only wanted to wave goodbye.
Verdict: BIG NO.
♦ ♦ ♦
His Girl Friday (1940)
Streaming free at Internet Archive
But a grand time is had by all who watch. This is one of the films any movie fan should have already seen. I'd guesstimate I've seen it twenty times, and it hasn't yet seemed repetitive.
Walter Burns (Grant) is the manipulative and scheming editor of a newspaper, Hildy Johnson (Russell) is his ex-wife and ex-star reporter. She's about to remarry and become a dull, demure housewife — a future that's clearly wrong for her. Burns figures if he can lure her into covering a hot news story, she might come back as both reporter and wife.
Of course, it's far funnier than that description, with snap crackle pop dialogue that's frequently hilarious, always quick.
Written by Charles Lederer, based on Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's play The Front Page, and the 1931 movie by that title, but this remake is sooo much better. In the play and original flick, Burns and Johnson are both men, with no romantic spark between them; rewriting Hildy as a woman, and as Walter's ex-wife, was a double-stroke of genius by Lederer (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Ocean's Eleven '60, Mutiny on the Bounty '62), and kicks everything into high gear.
Directed by Howard Hawks (who made so many good films they won't fit in parenthesis).
Verdict: BIG YES.
♦ ♦ ♦
His Kind of Woman (1951)
Streaming free at Internet Archive
Intrigue swirls, and someone named Joel Fluellen plays Sam the black bartender in an early scene. He has only a few lines, but obviously knows more than he lets on. You'll be certain that Sam's going to factor into the plot later on, but nope, he pours Mitchum a milk and disappears from the story.
And the story, wow! It's a mess, meandering through several subplots, jumping genres,
and sometimes it's hard to tell whether it's noir or a satire of
noir. Even after putting the plot pieces together, there are pieces left
over, but that's certainly better than missing pieces.
The cast includes Jim Backus, Raymond Burr, Tim Holt, Charles McGraw, Marjorie Reynolds, a quick glimpse of Mamie Van Doren, and best of all, Vincent Price, playing a comically egotistical movie hero who fancies being a hero in real life.
One of the bad guys is Paul Frees. You might not know the name or face,
but you'll know the voice, familiar as narrator of educational films,
public service announcements, and Hardware Wars. He was also the voice of Boris Badenov on Rocky and Bullwinkle, and the original Pillsbury Doughboy.
"I'm ignorant. Happy to be that way."
The entire movie is largely nonsense, but it doesn't matter. Every moment is atmospheric, looks great, and holds your attention. Ms Russell sings, Mr Mitchum smolders, and Mr Backus sums it up:
"Yes sir, that was one of the finest movies I've ever seen. They ought to make 'em all like that. None of this nonsense about social matters. People don't go to the movies to see how miserable the world is. They go there to eat popcorn and be happy!"
Verdict: YES.
♦ ♦ ♦
A History of Violence (2005)
Streaming free at Hoopla, with your library card
Viggo Mortensen plays Tom Stall, a man almost boringly quiet and normal, who owns a diner in the small town of Millbrook, Indiana. When a pair of especially nasty customers come in, armed and impatient and demanding cash, Tom fights back, and takes out both of them single-handedly.
This makes him a hero on TV news, but you don't particularly want that, because TV news is sometimes seen by people you'd rather weren't watching. Ed Harris sees the newscast, and decides to visit Tom's tiny town, but he wants something more than breakfast at the diner.
This is a dang fine action movie, and also an exquisite rumination on violence — are you for it, or against it, or do you say you're against violence but you're really only against it happening to you?
All of the above for me, but I could've done without the rape scene, but (second-level but) it's weirdly revealing for both characters.
Cronenberg is the king of thoughtful repulsiveness — Dead Ringers, The Fly, Naked Lunch, etc — and he does it here without any gore. He deserves a better reputation, in my opinion. Gory or not, he's one of the best moviemakers of our time.
Verdict: BIG YES.
♦ ♦ ♦
A History Without Importance (1980; France)
Streaming free at YouTube
Two young boys meet, become sorta friends, and eventually flirt and fool around. One of them is just exploring things and having a good time, isn't even gay, but the other takes it much more seriously, and falls in love.
It's a rare treat when a film shows fictional kids who seem real. None of that Disney shit, please. This feels totally true to being 12, and it's a winner.
IMDB says it's 44 minutes, but every version I could find clocks in at a bit less than 40, so the rest was presumably snipped away like in Cinema Paradiso, when this was first released.
Verdict: YES.
♦ ♦ ♦
The UFO Incident: One of James Earl Jones's greatest performances
Garfield: Another of James Earl Jones's greatest performances
Interview with Jack Hill, 1960s schlock impresario
9/14/2024
• • • Coming attractions • • •
Hit Man (1972)
The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
The Hitchhiker (2014)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Hobgoblins (1988)
... plus schlock,
shorts,
and surprises out of alphabetical order
especially starting with the letter 'I'.
Just add a comment, below.
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