kingrat

Sorry to hear that Arrival was dead on arrival. I saw Manchester by the Sea and loved it. Great cast, but I was won over just as much by Jody Lee Lipes' cinematography, which makes effective use of the landscapes and seascapes of New England, creates the right kind of lighting for interior scenes, and is 180 degrees removed from the overfiltered and underlit dreck that passes for cinematography in too many movies and television shows today (new season of Homeland, you're on the dreck list). Beautiful when appropriate, never overshadowing what's going on in the story. The New England light becomes a character in the film. Kenneth Lonergan is a writer-director who has learned to direct as capably as he writes. There's too much effing in the effing dialogue, but apart from that, the lines have the sound of real life, carefully selected. MBTS concerns the death of close family members, and Lonergan makes the smart choice of providing the audience some emotional distance from the gut-wrenching events without undercutting the impact of those events on the characters. This is a tough balancing act, and I think Lonergan gets it exactly right. The main characters, uncle and nephew, do not give in to their emotions easily, and the writing and camera placement respect this restraint. There's just enough comedy to leaven the mixture without destroying the overall mood. The unexpressed emotions are also part of a subtle and accurate study of old-school masculinity and how men who practice this code behave in situations of high emotions. Casey Affleck, Kyle Chandler, Tate Donovan, all the actors who play fishermen and other local characters, and Tom Garvin in a very affecting scene near the end (he tells how his father was lost at sea) are all spot-on in their characterizations. I would have sworn that the use of the Albinoni Adagio at an important moment in the film would have been a bad mistake, but all the choices of music seem to work. So does the editing. For instance, the scene in the hospital corridor where Affleck talks to his brother's doctors uses unconventional cuts, but the choices add to the unsettling and slightly unreal (in the good sense) feeling of the scene. I loved the set design, and there are many fine touches in the set decoration, such as a well-worn quilt over a couch. Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams deserve the Oscar nominations they will surely receive. My only slight reservation about the actors is whether the stunt casting of Matthew Broderick in a walk-on role was a good idea and whether it was smart to cast Gretchen Mol, who looks too much like Michelle Williams. The whole subplot about Patrick's mother seems to end too abruptly; perhaps something was trimmed from the original cut of the film. Lonergan gets wonderfully real performances from his actors. There are no villains in the film, and no saints either (for instance, the nephew is something of a jerk, but a likable kid for all that). Some have felt that the pacing of the film was too slow, but I did not feel that way. MBTS unfolds gently. I was curious to learn what would happen next, but was always interested in the scene set before me on the screen. There were so many fine small touches, like the cell phone reception cutting in and out as Affleck, driving while it snows, tries to learn from the doctor how his brother is.

I'm glad to see the love for Life of Brian, one of the funniest movies ever. And for Frederic Forrest, a much underrated and now probably forgotten actor, who gave a couple of excellent performances this year and in When the Legends Die. But seriously, guys . . . Mariel Hemingway? Her adenoidal whine is like fingernails on the chalkboard. On the other hand, Manhattan has a Diane Keaton performance I really enjoy, and there aren't a lot of those. Norma Rae is on the honor roll of films set in the South which actually get some stuff right. I particularly like Sally Field's drunk scene where she hears the song that was playing when she found out her husband was dead. Tess is one of the better literary adaptations of a major novel. All in all, 1979 was a pretty good year, as is the year to follow.

This sounds good to me, Bogie. You're so right that now they would push O'Toole in the supporting category. Steve Railsback has the leading role and does a good job with it.

I'll agree with calvinandme that Letty Lynton and Come Fill the Cup are among the most obscure movies I've seen, both on a website which no longer exists. Both are quite good. The same website is where I saw This Angry Age (mostly in black and white, not in color, alas) and The Passionate Thief, an absolutely superb Italian comedy with a brilliant performance by Anna Magnani. Another pretty obscure, and again quite enjoyable, British film I saw in the theater when it was released in 1982: Experience Preferred . . . But Not Essential. I've only met one other person who has ever seen the film, our own SueSueApplegate, who also liked it.

My sentiments exactly. The late 60s and the 70s were a great era for Masterpiece Theater, however, with The Forsyte Saga, Upstairs Downstairs, and I, Claudius, among others.

I can't believe I'm saying this about any 2016 film, but I actually wished that Moonlight had been twenty or thirty minutes longer, to develop the characters played by Mahershala Ali, Janelle Monae, and Naomie Harris. The film is mostly told from the perspective of Chiron ("Shyrone"), and it's perfectly believable that an adolescent boy wouldn't ask all the questions we want answered. The one drawback of Moonlight was that I understood half of the dialogue at most. Part of this is probably due to less than optimal miking; part may be due to the fad for muffled dialogue as in McCabe and Mrs. Miller; and part is due to the fact that I am unfamiliar with both the accent and the slang used by some of the characters. For instance, when asked what he's doing, does a character answer, "Trapping," apparently meaning drug dealing? Subtitles would have been welcome. Even French subtitles might have helped! This problem would sink a lesser film, but Moonlight does many things right, and images and characters are going to linger in the memory. The Miami setting is used effectively. The actors are all very good. Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris really got to show the range of their talent this year, with Ali equally fine as the drug dealer here and the romantic soldier in Hidden Figures, and Harris equally fine as the grief-stricken psychologist in Collateral Beauty and the crack-addicted mother in Moonlight. Janelle Monae doesn't get the chance to show quite so much difference from her sassy mathematician in Hidden Figures--she seems too glamorous for this movie--but she's a beauty, the camera loves her, and she has a great silent moment as she thinks about what it will mean for Chiron if he turns out to be gay. One of the best scenes occurs when Chiron asks Juan (Ali) what a word means. The word is a common gay slur which some of the other boys have called him. I'm not entirely convinced that drug dealer Juan would actually have said that it was a word people use to make gay people feel bad, but it's the best possible answer for sure. As most of you know from the reviews, the film takes place in three different time periods, with different actors playing Chiron and his friend Kevin as they grow up. All are excellent. The first two Chirons are a particularly good match, and both can act. Barry Jenkins is a gifted director, and making a unity of the different time frames and different actors is a real accomplishment. The camera often follows Chiron, who is afraid (rightly so) of some of the boys at school, and this builds up tension. The choice of music, which ranges from classical to pop and rap, is thoughtfully done. There's much more to say about Moonlight, but wondering how it is going to unfold is part of the pleasure.

The Oscars did a better job in 1978 than they sometimes do. Jon Voight and Jane Fonda are certainly acceptable choices, though some would have preferred Jill Clayburgh; Maggie Smith, though not my choice, did her best with inferior material; and Christopher Walken gave the performance of the year. I agree with jlewis that 1978 was a year where the actors stood out in flawed films. This is true not only of The Deer Hunter, Coming Home, and An Unmarried Woman, which at least were ambitious, but also of films like Midnight Express and California Suite. Although I'm pretty sure I liked Robert DeNiro in The Deer Hunter, I don't tend to remember his performance well because he's trapped in all the less successful parts of the film, like the hokey symbolic stuff that gives the movie its title. What I like revolves around Christopher Walken and Meryl Streep, who would definitely be my choices for best supporting actors, and John Savage, who would be my runner-up for best supporting actor. The scene between Walken and Streep where this undereducated man tries to articulate his poetic intuitions is the heart of the film, well written and beautifully acted by both stars. DeNiro has company this year; Bruce Dern has an even worse written part in Coming Home. It seemed obvious to the filmmakers that if anyone who supported the war in Vietnam ever wised up--and we're never told what the experiences were that led him to change his mind; this is taken for granted--his only course of action would be to turn into James Mason in A Star Is Born. Dern does as much as anyone could with this underdeveloped role. I'm interested in Jane Fonda's performances in Julia and California Suite because she's so miscast in both. Lillian Hellman was an unattractive intellectual, two things Jane Fonda never was and never could be. In California Suite Fonda plays a woman who is obviously a Jewish New Yorker, though I don't believe the J-word is ever spoken. Neil Simon's comedy comes from these roots, and many an actress would flourish as Fonda's character. Fonda does her best with both parts, and it's possible to watch her acting choices more directly than in roles where she is more appropriately cast. Midnight Express makes me think not only of Brad Davis, a good actor whose life was cut short by drug use and AIDS, but of Bo Hopkins, a fine supporting actor who worked regularly but had the talent that would have justified an even bigger career.

TikiSoo, thanks for the heads up about the Moms Mabley documentary. I always cherished this line from an appearance on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour: (After Moms has been hugging Tommy Smothers): "Moms likes putting her arms around young men. If Moms has her arms around an old man, she's holding him for the po-leese."

My spouse and I both enjoyed Hidden Figures, which I would recommend to just about anyone. It has the virtue of a TCM classic film: an intelligent script, a terrific cast, excellent direction and cinematography. Taraji P. Henson has the main role of Katherine Goble, a rather shy mathematical genius who has the double disadvantage, for 1961, of being both female and African-American. NASA will ultimately make use of her talents, and those of other African-American women, because they must. The film does a good job of portraying the period--every skinny tie in LA must have been used for the scientists' costumes--and doesn't force 2016 attitudes on any of the characters. The racism is clearly shown, but the audience isn't hit over the head with a cast-iron skillet. Henson shows us the shyness, the intelligence, the natural and learned deference of Katherine, which makes her one explosion of righteous anger the more compelling, and the very 1950s romance (with the outstanding Mahershala Ali) the more touching. Henson and Ali have been added to my list of favorite movie couples. Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan, who does a supervisor's job without the title, recognition, or pay, and Janelle Monae as Mary Jackson, the sassy young woman who wants to take engineering classes which are only given at the white high school, both provide strong support, as does Kevin Costner as the head of the engineers and scientists trying to put American astronauts in space. Costner's career has had its ups and downs, but he is perfectly cast, looks good in his crew cut, and gives a totally committed and believable performance. Theodore Melfi's first-rate direction, with the camera in the right place, is at the service of the script and the actors, and Mandy Walker's cinematography is always appropriate and unmannered. It's possible to make a 2016 film without steel-blue tones dominating? Who knew? The women wear attractive dresses that nonetheless look like clothes that might have been found in 1961. Footage from the actual space launches is used, and at the end of the film we get to see images of the actual women, a most welcome touch.

Riot in Cell Block 11, partially filmed in Folsom Prison, portrayed the prison guards as being so poorly paid that they had to have second jobs. My, my, how times have changed. In California the average prison guard salary is more than $100,000 per year, and the prison guard union is often considered the most single powerful political entity in the state of California.

TB, I would see 1959 as a fine year for actresses, such as almost the entire cast of The Nun's Story, Lee Remick in both Anatomy of a Murder and These Thousand Hills, Deborah Kerr and several supporting players in The Journey, Marilyn Monroe's best work in Some Like It Hot, Eva Marie Saint and Jessie Royce Landis in North by Northwest, Maria Schell in The Hanging Tree, Maureen O'Hara in Our Man in Havana, Joan Copeland in Middle of the Night, and Sybil Thorndike in Shake Hands with the Devil, to name some favorites. 1966, perhaps the last year of the studio era, has slim pickings for actresses. 1944 was a very good year, with many women in central or at least major roles.

For those of you who have seen Silence: the trailer for the film made it appear that everything was shot in the steel blue tones so inescapable today. Is this the case? Secondly, how much torture or other gore is in the film? My tolerance for such is quite low. Otherwise, it seems like a film I'd want to see.

One of the biggest stars of the 1970s, but one perhaps not so familiar to younger moviegoers, was Burt Reynolds. From 1972's Deliverance on into the mid-80s, Reynolds was a fixture on the movie screen and also on the talk show circuit, which provided a major boost to his career. Indeed, Pauline Kael opined that Reynolds was the first film actor to become a star based on his talk-show persona. It's worth considering Reynolds' talk-show persona in a little more detail. The period of Reynolds' stardom was the era in which America was beginning, if only a little, to become more open to the subject of homosexuality. Reynolds had traditional tall, dark, and handsome looks, he dated famous women, and he had played college football, so he had the necessary resume of masculinity credentials, yet the lively sense of humor he displayed on television and sometimes in his films was surprisingly campy, even downright queeny at times. I have no idea what his private life was like, but I'm sure most gay men assumed that he was also gay. Instead of being an actual macho man, like Lee Marvin, Burt Reynolds was more like the Village People's "Macho Man." Reynolds comes across as much gayer than such gay stars as Rock Hudson. Whether intentionally or not, Reynolds found a way of incorporating a campy sensibility into an ostensibly straight masculine persona that was acceptable to mainstream audiences. He was perceived as one of the most likable stars of the time. If Reynolds is not so well known today, that is probably because he didn't often work with top directors or on prestige projects. Deliverance is the major exception, and so is Starting Over, in which Reynolds plays a journalist turned college professor. Deliverance belongs, however, more to John Boorman and Jon Voight (and even Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox) than to Reynolds, and Starting Over perhaps belongs more to Jill Clayburgh and Candice Bergen. Reynolds was especially popular in the South, where many of his films were set, including 1977's megahit Smokey and the Bandit.

1977 was the year when Rex Reed (remember him?) decreed that if Diane Keaton didn't win the Oscar for Looking for Mr. Goodbar, there was no God. I'm not sure of the theological implications of her winning for another film. I'd bet that just about every Hollywood actress under the age of forty (or over forty, for that matter) wanted to play the lead in Looking for Mr. Goodbar. It was obviously one of the best parts of the year.

For the last few years TCM has been able to feature one Fox star per year as SOTM. Tyrone Power would be a great choice.

I'm crazy about WELCOME TO L.A., but that is not a universally shared opinion. It lacks the scope of NASHVILLE, but also lacks Altman's smug sense of superiority, so I actually prefer the imitation to the original. Again, not a universally shared opinion. THE RITZ is an entertaining comedy, with Rita Moreno repeating her Tony-winning performance as Googie Gomez, a less than talented Broadway wannabe. Rita did her Googie act at parties, and Terrence McNally worked it up into a play, if I recall correctly. Jack Weston plays a guy running away from the mob, and the door he ducks into happens to be the entrance to a gay bathhouse. The name "Seymour Pippin" continues to be meaningful for those who have seen THE RITZ. Another fine moment has Googie singing, as Mama Rose in GYPSY, "I hod a dream, a dream about choo, baybay." I vaguely recall being disappointed by EDVARD MUNCH. Despite the greatness of the painter, the movie seemed long and dull, if I remember correctly.

My spouse and I both liked Collateral Beauty, although some people do not. Negatives: the early part of the film doesn't quite get the rhythm right; the director could punch up some comic lines a little more (usually the problem in films is the opposite); and neither script nor director gives enough examples of collateral beauty. The idea of noticing the collateral beauty in life is a strong and beautiful one. Positives: if you'd like to see a film different from the usual Hollywood product, this is definitely one of them. Not everyone wants to see a film about grief for the death of a child, but for those who can take the subject, this is both honest and imaginative in its treatment. The cast is solid gold: Naomie Harris, Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, and Keira Knightley in the same movie? Wow. Will Smith is always believable as the grieving father around him the story revolves, but I'd like to single out three of the other performances for special notice. Naomie Harris is as talented as she is gorgeous, which is saying something, and her kind, gentle, grief-stricken therapist is the heart of the film. She doesn't have a showy "give me the Oscar" scene; instead, she shows us the cumulative effect of grief as experienced on a daily basis. Wonderful, honest work without a single false moment. Helen Mirren has a difficult task. She's playing an actress, but one who, though talented and committed, has never become a success. The obvious temptation is to camp up the role a bit; just imagine Maggie Smith in the part. (I love Maggie Smith, but by now she couldn't possibly play this part without camp.) Mirren hits the sweet spot of theatricality without camp, and the work is so subtly and capably done that some viewers will not recognize her accomplishment. Edward Norton, so strong and dangerous in films like Primal Fear, plays Will Smith's nebbishy friend who got divorced when his wife caught him fooling around and thus has a strained relationship with his daughter. Norton brings just as much insight and commitment to this role as he does to showier, more dramatic characters. If the previews for Collateral Beauty interested you, don't be afraid to check it out. There's a twist at the end which I'm not sure I can defend intellectually, but it is very satisfying on an emotional level.

If Henry V belongs here, as imdb says it does, then 1944 becomes an even stronger year. Top 10: Meet Me in St. Louis Henry V Double Indemnity Laura The Mask of Dimitrios Murder My Sweet Between Two Worlds Mrs. Parkington The Uninvited The Miracle of Morgan's Creek Alternates: None But the Lonely Heart, Frenchman's Creek, Lifeboat, Phantom Lady, The Seventh Cross, The Very Thought of You, Gaslight, To Have and Have Not, Since You Went Away, A Canterbury Tale Best Actor: Laurence Olivier, Henry V Best Actress: Barbara Stanwyck, Double Indemnity Best Supporting Actor: Clifton Webb, Laura Best Supporting Actress: Agnes Moorehead, Mrs. Parkington, although on another day it might be Faye Emerson for The Mask of Dimitrios or Cornelia Otis Skinner for The Uninvited As I've said too many times, Going My Way and Braveheart are the two Oscar-winning films I actively dislike.

Interesting, Lawrence. It's understandable why people went to see these movies, which is not to say they are all favorites. Thanks for posting these. It's fascinating to see what was popular and how well the films have aged.

I recall Keetje Tippel as being a pretty good film. Soldier of Orange, too. I believe KT would be acceptable for TCM if shown at night, as they aired the Mark Cousins Story of Film clips with full frontal male nudity.

Bonjour Tristesse is one of my favorites. Arthur Laurents, who did such a great job with the screenplay, doesn't even mention the movie in his memoir. In addition to everything else about the movie that's wonderful, Jean Seberg's haircut and little black dress look chic even today. Deborah Kerr's sack dress (a momentary fad), not so much. I generally like all the Preminger 40s and 50s films I've seen (never seen The Moon Is Blue) and haven't seen the post-Bunny Lake films. Bad Suthun accents are always a hoot, so Hurry Sundown is a must.

How about Sandra Dee and Joan Fontaine as sisters in Until They Sail? It doesn't help that Joan began to look matronly at a comparatively early age. I had a co-worker who was the oldest of five children. Then after a ten-year gap her mother had five more children. In families like this the older siblings are like aunts or uncles and may even have children older than their youngest siblings. D.W. Griffith liked the mother character to be white-haired, and as Lawrence said, this continued into the thirties. Little Caesar is one of the films that comes immediately to mind.

I enjoyed I'd Climb the Highest Mountain, in which Susan Hayward marries a circuit riding preacher (William Lundigan) and encounters life in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. Location photography is a plus. People who like, say, Stars in My Crown would probably like this one, too. It's an episodic film with a little laughter, more than a few tears, and a good picture of the community. You can add this one to the short list of Hollywood films with realistic depictions of the South. A strong supporting cast helps, including Rory Calhoun as a handsome ne'er-do-well who wants to marry nice girl Barbara Bates. Her father (Gene Lockhart) naturally objects. Alexander Knox has a great supporting role as an atheist who doesn't want his children to attend Sunday school. I could wish that Ruth Donnelly got to show more of her comic skill as one of the woman in the congregation. Lynn Bari has the enjoyable role of a rich woman with designs on the pastor. Henry King was a good match for this material. There are some particularly nice moments, including the two girls tunelessly singing a hymn at the welcoming party for the preacher's wife.

I remember in 1975 thinking that Chris Sarandon avoided the obvious gay cliches. His performance seemed to be based on careful observation of specific individuals. Instead of phony limp-wristed effeminacy, he plays real effeminacy and instability, along with the selfishness of the character. I think it's an outstanding piece of work. This is the exact opposite of a crude stereotype like Martin Balsam in The Anderson Tapes. I'll compare this with another fine performance coming up in a few years, Perry King in A Different Story. As the bisexual main character, who has been kept by a series of wealthy men, he could have used stereotyped gestures or could have played him simply as an ordinary masculine guy. Instead, Perry King seems to have spent some time observing good-looking gay men of the type he plays, and well-chosen gestures in the early scenes show a familiar type, but not a stereotype. All this from an actor who has not always received a lot of respect.

1975: Best Actor: Al Pacino, DOG DAY AFTERNOON**** Sean Connery, THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING Michael Caine, THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING Best Actress: Isabelle Adjani, THE STORY OF ADELE H.**** Best Supporting Actor: Chris Sarandon, DOG DAY AFTERNOON**** John Cazale, DOG DAY AFTERNOON Best Supporting Actress: Ronee Blakley, NASHVILLE****