Shameless Self Expression

Schmoozing PR man Jack Lemmon is in a job that requires him to do two things; drink and BS people. He’s really good at both. Too good, actually. Even more unfortunately, he’s just gotten involved with somewhat naïve Lee Remick, a secretary who at first is not a drinker. Lemmon changes that when he introduces choc-o-holic Remick to the wonders of the Brandy Alexander. Soon, they’re madly in love, and for a while it’s fun. Until it isn’t. Sadly, by that stage, the drinking has become a huge part of the relationship (and it had always been a part of it). Will either or both of them be able to escape their addictions before it’s too late? Charles Bickford plays Remick’s simple, firm, but caring father who has Lemmon’s number immediately but can’t do a damn thing about it. Jack Klugman (from TV’s “Odd Couple” , remembering Lemmon himself played the other part in the film version) plays a supportive, somewhat matter-of-fact AA sponsor for Lemmon.   There have been several very fine ...

In 1987, an African-American man named Walter McMillan (Jamie Foxx) got arrested, charged, tried, and convicted of the murder of an 18 year-old white girl. He’s been on Death Row for several years when novice lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) offers to represent him and try to get a new trial. Stevenson acquires the aid of an anti-Capital Punishment activist named Eva Ansley (Brie Larson) and they go to work on what seems to have been a truly wrongful conviction involving corruption, prejudice, and incompetence from several levels of the so-called justice system. A mannered Tim Blake Nelson plays an inmate and important part of the case.   I was looking forward to this 2019 courtroom/true crime flick from director Destin Daniel Cretton and co-writer & Andrew Lanham (Cretton’s “The Last Castle” with Woody Harrelson and Brie Larson). I really liked Cretton’s “Short Term 12” (also with Brie Larson), and I love both courtroom movies and true crime stories. I will say...

A killer is running amok killing cast and crew members of an Italian opera adaptation of ‘The Scottish Play’. Cristina Marsillach is the young ingenue who steps into the lead role after the tempestuous opera diva originally set for the part has an unfortunate accident. Ian Charleson plays the opera director, and a debuting William McNamara turns up as a baby-faced production assistant.   Unsubtle but thoroughly enjoyable, bravura filmmaking from premier horror director Dario Argento ( “Deep Red” , “Tenebrae” , “The Bird With the Crystal Plumage” ), who also co-wrote this 1987 horror flick with Franco Ferrini (Argento’s “Creepers” , co-writer of Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in America” ). It’s ten times better than Argento’s more official (but overall pretty crummy) adaptation of “Phantom of the Opera” , if not quite hitting the heights of his best films “Suspiria” and the underrated “Inferno” . With its operatic setting, classical music filling the soundtrack, and Argento ...

A WWII comedy in which soldiers Dick Shawn, Aldo Ray, and James Coburn are tasked with capturing a small Italian town. The locals (led by Sergio Fantoni) would normally be happy to surrender, only they’d like to finish with their local festival first. A festival that never seems to end. Carroll O’Connor and Harry Morgan play a General and Major, respectively.   There were a lot of big, loud, bombastic war-comedies made during the 60s and 70s. This 1966 film from director Blake Edwards ( “Days of Wine and Roses” , “The Pink Panther” , “The Great Race” ) and screenwriter William Peter Blatty (writer/author of “The Exorcist” ) is most certainly…one of them. A flat, seemingly aimless film that offers up a decent showing for Dick Shawn, Aldo Ray (surprisingly adaptable to comedy), and a scene-stealing Sergio Fantoni, but little else of merit. Casting Shawn as a very silly straight man in a film full of kooks and nutbars is pretty inspired, and Fantoni is genuinely hilarious at times...

John David Washington plays ‘The Protagonist’ a CIA operative who has witnessed odd behaviour during a rescue mission at an opera house held by terrorists. Chiefly that bullets appear to be moving backwards instead of forwards. Afterwards, he is approached by a shadowy character played by Martin Donovan who gives him a secret word: Tenet. It turns out that Tenet is the name of a top-secret elite anti-terrorism unit. He has the concept of ‘reverse entropy’ explained by a scientist (a distressingly uninterested Clemency Poesy), gets partnered up with a British secret agent (Robert Pattinson), and together they uncover a sinister plot that threatens the entire world. Kenneth Branagh plays a violent Russian arms dealer, Elizabeth Debicki plays a battered wife, Aaron Taylor-Johnson thinks he’s Jason Statham, and Sir Michael Caine has a cameo as an aging British spy contact Washington meets along the way.   I’ve enjoyed some of the more cerebral and imaginative work of writer-directo...