Stephen Schaefer’s Hollywood & Mine
The 93rd Academy Awards will be held on April 25, the latest date the ceremony has ever had. What does this mean, beyond illustrating yet another consequence of the pandemic that has upended the world, sickened and killed millions and dramatically changed so much of life as we once knew it?
The most obvious result of Oscar’s new date is to re-emphasize how many movies — the big budget, special effects ones, the prestige productions that are meant as franchise entries – were yanked from last year’s schedule, some 2 or 3 times, and held until a future when moviegoers will return to seeing pictures in theaters. That means the big screen’s eligible nominating pool has been streamlined. That also means no casual moviegoer can figure out what exactly qualifies as an Oscar-eligible entry — or a TV candidate when it’s been seen virtually in theaters or streamed into homes. That means the ‘buzz’ surrounding a movie is bound to be pretty diffuse. How does a movie really standout when it ‘opens’ to good reviews and plays theatrically as the number one movie – with just $2M, $3M or $4 M?
So we have a stream of small pictures alongside the rare heavyweight like Disney’s $200 million ‘Mulan’ or Warner Bros.’‘WW84’ and prestige big movies like WB’s well received ‘The Little Things’ which paid Denzel Washington’s $20 million salary for a dark, no special effects thriller.
Original films like ‘Mank,’ ‘The US vs Billie Holiday,’ ‘One Night in Miami,’ ‘Promising Young Woman,’ ‘The Father’ and ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ all share ambition, a serious sense of purpose, a desire to be about something larger than their plot outlines. ‘Mank’ may be set in the 1930s amid the Great Depression and a pre-WWII America populated by Nazi sympathizers, which means it’s about a lot more than who wrote ‘Citizen Kane.’ ‘Promising Young Woman’ is a pink cotton candy-colored scream about sexual assault, misogyny and the patriarchy that routinely demeans the value and integrity of women. ‘The Father’ somehow honestly and scarily takes us inside the Alzheimer’s plagued mind of a victim whose terrors, illusions and fantasies are as real to us as they are to him – and as indicative to those caring for him that he needs to be locked away.
‘Miami,’ ‘Judas’ and ‘Billie Holiday’ are all period pieces that pointedly demand answers not for what happened in the 1940s or ‘60s but today. They are Black Lives Matter vehicles that take a harsh, hard look at the promise of America and its current reality. Could the pandemic be a positive, Oscar-wise? Could the postponement of ‘big’ movies like Daniel Craig’s final turn as 007, the umpteenth installment of ‘Fast and the Furious’ and a hold on Tom Cruise revisiting ‘Top Gun’ mean a better, if too long delayed, Oscars? Stay tuned.
NEW DVDs:
CAUTIONARY TALE A landmark in its rendering of a young woman’s sexuality, Joyce Chopra’s 1985 ‘Smooth Talk’ (Blu-ray, Criterion Collection, PG-13) is an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ short story ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’ Laura Dern shines as Connie, soon to be a high school sophomore who struggles with her often critical mother and has a fateful meeting – the last half of this 93 minute film – with one Arnold Friend, a loner with a hot car who seduces high school girls. 
As played by Treat Williams with just the right mix of seduction and low wattage menace, Arnold’s emotional dance with Connie will leave her changed forever. Music by James Taylor. This new, restored 4K digital transfer of ‘Smooth Talk’ premiered at last September’s NY Film Festival where Chopra (her husband Tom Cole was the screenwriter), Dern and Oates via Zoom discussed the film. Oates noted that since her 1969 story was first published it has become of her most read fiction and is frequently included in high school reading lists. Mary Kay Place who plays Connie’s mother, Williams and Chopra also do a Zoom discussion. There are new interviews with production designer David Wasco (an Oscar winner for ‘La La Land’) and Chopra, plus a 1985 interview with the filmmaker. What’s startling and rare is the audible reading of the astonishing 1966 Life magazine true crime article ‘The Pied Piper of Tucson,’ a detailed account of the strange young man who seduced — and murdered and buried in the desert – young girls in Arizona. He did so with the collusion of the victims’ high school friends! This unlikely murderer dyed his hair black and wore black leather, the better to look like his idol Elvis Presley. He wore pancake makeup and eye liner and was just five feet three, hardly the image of a mighty Lothario. This article inspired Oates’s short story which she dedicated to Bob Dylan. Another extra: Oates’ 1986 NY Times article about the adaptation, as well as her celebrated short story. ‘Smooth Talk’ was beaten at the box-office, Chopra notes, by ‘Pretty in Pink’ as teenage girls avoided this harsh if realistic look at the thrill and terror of adolescent sexuality. You wonder, would the same be true today?
OTTO SO TERRIBLE? Otto Preminger stands tall as one of the great Hollywood filmmakers. A brand name as producer-director with a signature style courtesy of title designer Saul Bass to market his movies, Preminger was known as ‘Otto the Terrible’ for his brusque brutality on sets, his penchant for firing actors. But his classics are many: ‘Laura,’ the chic definition of a Manhattan murder mystery, ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’ bringing realism to a story of addiction, Marilyn Monroe in ‘River of No Return,’ ‘Carmen Jones’ with Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge, ‘Exodus,’ his epic about the founding of Israel, ‘Advise and Consent’ which ranks as a forerunner in the discussion of homosexuality, ‘The Cardinal,’ a thinly disguised decades-spanning look at Boston’s Cardinal Cushing and ‘Anatomy of a Murder,’ perhaps the greatest courtroom drama yet made. ‘Late Preminger’ refers to the half-dozen final films he made, none of which were box-office or critical hits.
The 1975 ‘Rosebud’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, PG) was a notoriously panned flop which clearly deserves another reckoning. Its study of anti-Israeli Black September terrorists now looks horribly prescient in this story of international politics. Five young women, wealthy by birth, are kidnapped from a yacht named Rosebud in Corsica by the Black September terrorists. They are filmed making political statements and demands that must be broadcast internationally on prime-time TV – or else one captive will be murdered. Peter O’Toole (who replaced Robert Mitchum once filming began) is an MI5 undercover operative (or is he really CIA?) who must rescue the 5 and stop the fanatical Muslim leader, a white man converted to the cause (Richard Attenborough), He is a fanatic who wants nothing less to erase Israel from existence. As usual Preminger’s trademark tracking shots and lucid plotting are first rate, as is his casting. For among the 5 are an unrecognizable teenage Kim Cattrall (her debut) and the great Isabelle Huppert who makes a vivid impression in her English language debut; she really becomes the film’s female lead. In fact, 5 years later when Michael Cimino received resistance to casting Huppert as the lead in his notorious Western ‘Heaven’s Gate,’ ‘Rosebud’ was screened for the producers to prove that her English was easily understood – she now famously got the part. Filmmaker and historian Daniel Kremer’s audio commentary is very enlightening on this troubled production which really demands another look.
TWO BY FLEISCHER A virtually unsung master of Hollywood filmmaking Richard Fleischer (1916-2006) nevertheless remains a towering figure, if not universally acclaimed one. A short list of his notable pictures and expansive subjects: The classic noir ‘The Narrow Margin,’ Disney’s ’20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,’ the imaginative Kirk Douglas-Tony Curtis-Janet Leigh Norse epic ‘The Vikings,’ ‘Compulsion’ with Orson Welles defending 2 young thrill killers in the homicide case that inspired Hitchcock’s ‘Rope’ and Tony Curtis’ greatest dramatic role as ‘The Boston Strangler.’ Here are 2 late period Fleischers newly released. The 1977 ‘Crossed Swords’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, PG) is inspired by Mark Twain’s ‘The Prince and the Pauper’ with a formidable cast: Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison, George C. Scott and Raquel Welch. In this brand new 4K master, Mark Lester, the young orphan Oliver Twist in ‘Oliver!’ has the dual role of a royal and a commoner who initially switch places for fun. The Special Features: An audio commentary and an interview with Lester who is now 62. 
In the wake of ‘The Godfather’s phenomenal success in 1971, the gangster movie was revived. Fleischer’s 1973 ‘The Don is Dead’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, R) depicts a Las Vegas turf war between 3 warring crime families. Top-billed Anthony Quinn offers not his usual bombastic, tear-up-the-scenery turn but an effectively subdued performance in a role that rather than dominate the proceedings blends into an ensemble. ‘Don is Dead’ is significant as the penultimate film of the legendary producer Hal B. Wallis (‘Casablanca,’ ‘The Maltese Falcon,’ ‘True Grit’ and ‘King Creole’ to name but a few). It’s old-fashioned in its old-style visuals, clearly shot on Universal’s backlot. The 2 who must carry the picture, Robert Forster (Tarantino’s ‘Jackie Brown’) and Frederic Forest (Coppola’s ‘Apocalypse Now’), are first-rate character actors not stars. As ‘Don’ careens to its bloody conclusion there’s a suggestion Fleischer might be parodying gangster movie conventions.
AMANDA BYNES’ TRIUMPH Amanda Bynes, who began as a child actor, reached a professional peak with the 2006 hit ‘She’s the Man’ (Blu-ray + Digital, Paramount, PG-13), a riff on Shakespeare’s cross-dressing ‘Twelfth Night’ where Bynes’s Viola disguises herself as a boy to play on the soccer team.
The film remains frothy fun and is buoyed by future star Channing Tatum as the Duke, a star on the playing field who becomes Viola’s big crush. This is its first time on Blu-ray. Special Features: Commentary by Bynes, director Andy Fickman, Tatum and others. Another commentary by screenwriter Ewan Leslie and producer Lauren Shuler Donner. Deleted scenes with optional commentary, and a music video.
A YOUTHFUL PIERCE In 1988, before he was James Bond, a sleek, youthful Pierce Brosnan returned to his Irish roots with ‘Taffin’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, R), a quirky if formulaic action film. Brosnan’s Mark Taffin is an ex-seminarian who still reads books (!) and works as a local enforcer, helping merchants get what’s owed them from thuggish bar owners and obnoxious restaurateurs. 
Asked to help save a local youth soccer field, Taffin becomes a target for loathsome councilors all to eager to see a toxic factory built in this picturesque Irish seaside village where it can unleash its airborne toxins. Taffin rates as a low-key Robin Hood figure whose affair with a free-spirited beauty from Oslo is far too clichéd to pass muster. Brosnan somehow manages to carry all this off, the feuding, the fighting, the loving, with dignity intact. Alison Doody, a striking Irish beauty with real ability, would a year later have her biggest break opposite Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones. Additionally, hear an early Hans Zimmer score.
KUBRICK MYTHOLOGY A wonderful discovery and a key chapter in understanding the man behind the mystique that was Stanley Kubrick, ‘Film Worker’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) celebrates the essential contributions Leon Vitali made as he dedicated his life to the maintenance and pristine appearance of Kubrick and his many films.
Vitali was a British actor cast by the mercurial filmmaker in ‘Barry Lyndon.’ The experience changed his life. He became a devotee, dedicated to all things Kubrick. Working behind the scenes in multiple capacities, Vitali was casting director, location scout, sound engineer and, crucially, color corrector and ultimately restorer for the physical prints that Kubrick owned and allowed to be shown in film festivals or retrospectives around the world. Vitali is engaging if modest about his decades of essential service, most notably in casting and coaching 6 year old Danny Lloyd for ‘The Shining.’ Director Tony Zierra has a Q&A with Vitali as a Special Feature for this wondrous, fascinating 2017 documentary
A RUSSIAN AUTEUR Russia’s Andrei Konchalovsky is having a revival this season with his critically acclaimed ‘Dear Comrades!’ a devastating examination of how citizens protesting increased food prices in 1962 Russia were subsequently slaughtered. ‘Comrades’ is shortlisted for an Oscar nomination as Best International Feature; it won the Jury Prize at Venice. Konchalovsky’s best known film is the 1985 Oscar-nominated ‘Runaway Train’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, R), now in a brand new 2K master. 
An Alaskan prison break means a run for freedom for convicts played by Jon Voight (a Best Actor Oscar nominee) and Eric Roberts (a Best Supporting Actor nominee). Their problem: The engineer dies of a heart attack, the 100 mph speeding train is unstoppable – until they meet railroad worker (Rebecca DeMornay, so memorable in ‘An Inconvenient Woman’). The screenplay is, surprisingly, by the revered Japanese genius Akira Kurosawa. Special Features: Writer-director Rod Lurie doing a Trailer From Hell and Eric Roberts and 2 film historians contributing an audio commentary.
PECKINPAH POWER Sam Peckinpah is the magnet with the 1974 Western ‘Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, R). A formidable writer-director Peckinpah, self-destructive, volatile and extremely talented, forged a new kind of violent realism in the violent Sixties.
His cinema gave the splatter, the slo-mo transcendence to bullet-torn bodies, most spectacularly with his 1969 masterpiece ‘The Wild Bunch.’ He courted controversy, especially with a film like ‘Straw Dogs’ which argued the most passionate peace-nik could quickly transform into a revenge-driven killer. His 1974 ‘The Getaway’ (badly remade in 1994 with Alec Baldwin and then Mrs. Baldwin, Kim Basinger) is mostly remembered not for its heist or S&M relationship but that superstar Steve McQueen combusted with his costar Ali MacGraw of ‘Love Story’ and became coupled. Peckinpah was 59 when he died in 1984 — too much drug and alcohol abuse. Controversies surround many of Peckinpah’s films, especially in their final edited versions, so fans consider ‘Alfredo Garcia’ the last true Peckinpah picture. Alfredo is seen as a thinly disguised Peckinpah portrait. The burlap bag Warren Oates carries has Garcia’s severed head which must be delivered as proof of death for Oates to claim a ransom. Naturally, this black comedy was mostly trounced by critics (except Roger Ebert). Today its influence for directors Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch and Takeshi Kitano is obvious. This 2017 HD Master from a 4K scan of the original camera negative offers two different audio commentaries as well as a Trailer from Hell with Josh Olson.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3beSpZ3
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