Category Archives: Film

Here Are The 2025 Actor Nominations!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The SAG Awards are now known as the Actor Awards for some reason.  I think that’s kind of dumb but whatever.  The important thing that the 2025 Actor nominations were announced this morning.  My main take away?  The Best Picture hopes of both Jay Kelly and Wicked: For Good are dead. If they couldn’t score an ensemble nod with this crowd, they’re not going to make it to the top ten.  (Wicked: For Good, at least, seems destined to get a nomination for Ariana Grande and some technical nods.  Jay Kelly seems destined to go for zero.)

Here are the Actor Nominations:

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
Sinners

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue
Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another
Emma Stone – Bugonia

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan – Sinners
Jesse Plemons – Bugonia

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Miles Caton – Sinners
Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
Paul Mescal – Hamnet
Sean Penn – One Battle After Another

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Odessa A’zion – Marty Supreme
Ariana Grande – Wicked: For Good
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another

OUTSTANDING STUNT ENSEMBLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
F1
Frankenstein
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning
One Battle After Another
Sinners

I Watched Perry Mason: The Case Of The Murdered Madam (1987, Dir. by Ron Satlof)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Former madam Suzanne Domenico (Ann Jillian) attempts to blackmail four rich men who are planning on embezzling money from a bank and is found dead by her husband, Tony, shortly afterwards.  Tony (Vincent Baggetta) is arrested and charged with murdering his wife.  Tony’s older brother used to run around with Della Street (Barbara Hale) and Della is able to get Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) to defend him in court.  Paul Drake, Jr. (William Katt) is brought in to do the investigative legwork.  Once again, Paul falls for a younger woman (Daphne Ashbrook) who will probably never be mentioned again in any of the other movies.

This movie was a little sad because it was obvious that Raymond Burr was not in good health.  He spends most of the movie sitting or moving with crutches.  In the movie, they say that Perry is using crutches because of a skiing accident but looking at Raymond Burr, there’s no way to imagine him skiing.  Burr is still as sharp as ever when asking questions in the courtroom but it’s still clear that he was in pain when he did this movie.  Perry being sidelined does mean that Barbara Hale and William Katt get to do more than usual.  After spending the last few movies constantly getting outrun and smacked around, Katt finally gets to beat someone up in the movie.

The mystery isn’t bad, even though I guessed who the murderer was long before the trial started.  The entire embezzlement scheme comes down to embezzling a few cents a day so that no one will notice.  That’s the same thing they tried to do in Office Space!  Luckily, no one got murdered that time.

Overall, this was a good entry in the Parry Mason movies, especially for those of us who like watching Paul Drake, Jr.  I’m starting to wonder if all of Perry and Della’s friends are going to end up getting accused of murder at some point.  My aunt and I always used to joke about how often Jessica Fletcher’s nephew was accused of murdering someone.  It might be just as dangerous to be a friend of Perry Mason’s!

Jury Duty (1990, directed by Michael Schultz)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Meek-looking accountant Sanford Lagelfost (Bronson Pinchot) is on trial for embezzlement.  It’s supposed to be a simple, up-and-shut case but when the beautiful star witness (Tracy Scoggins) testifies that Sanford is an amazing lover, it becomes a tabloid sensation and the jurors are sequestered in a hotel, where they have to deal with their own restlessness and several distractions, the majority of whom are also played by Bronson Pinchot.  Pinchot plays a total of four characters but it’s not like he’s Peter Sellers or even Eddie Murphy.  He looks and sounds like Bronson Pinchot in every role.

The jurors are played by a bunch of a familiar television actors.  Alan Thicke plays a yuppie named Phil and Lynn Redgrave plays a hippie named Abby and they end up getting married.  Stephen Baldwin is the waiter who falls for Heather Locklear, an actress who is a former call girl who is being threatened by her pimp.  Madchen Amick is the spoiled rich girl.  Television mainstays Mark Blankfield, Ilene Graf, William G. Schilling, Danny Pintauro, and Bill Kirchenbauer are all present and accounted for.  Adding to the overall sitcom feel of the movie is the presence of Reginald VelJohnson as the judge.  No one in the cast tries very hard, though I do think a case can be made that Madchen Amick was the most beautiful woman on television in 1990.

With the film failing to achieve either a consistent tone or a single laugh, the best thing that I can say about Jury Duty is that it didn’t feature Pauly Shore.  Instead it featured Alan Thicke driving a BMW with a license plate that read, “BMW4Phil.”  It’s hard to believe that this film was directed by Michael Schultz, who was responsible for movies like Car Wash, Cooley High, and Greased Lightning in the 70s and Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon in the 80s.

I wish I had watched The Last Dragon instead.

Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin (1937, directed by Sam Newfield)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

On the frontier, crooked lawyer Gabe Bowdre (Karl Hackett) is trying to secure all of the local water rights for himself and that means running off both the homesteaders and the ranchers.  Bowdre and his men try to start a range war between the ranching Stocktown family and the homesteading Dawsons.  Meanwhile, Dan Stockton (Bob Steele) has fallen in love with Gail Dawson (Louise Stanley) and marries her mere minutes before someone shoots his father in the back.

Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin has all the common elements that usually come with a B-western.  I have lost track of how many times I have watched Karl Hackett play a crooked businessman who tries to start a range war to win either the water rights or the property deeds.  Bob Steele spent a good deal of his career beating up Karl Hackett on screen.

What sets Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin apart is the Romeo and Juliet angle.  While it’s predictable, the love story between Dan and Gail still adds more emotional depth than is usually found in these movies.  The scene where all of the ranchers glare daggers at Dan’s new wife is powerful.

Bob Steele’s as good a hero as usual and Karl Hackett is a dastardly villain.  Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin runs a little less than an hour, making it a good western for an afternoon break.

Here Are The 2025 Nominations of the Chicago Indie Film Critics

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Chicago Indie Critics have announced their nominations for the best of 2025!  And here they are:

BEST INDEPENDENT FILM
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You – Producers: Sara Murphy, Ryan Zacarias, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Eli Bush, Conor Hannon, Richie Doyle
It Was Just an Accident – Producers: Jafar Panahi, Philippe Martin
The Life of Chuck – Producers: Trevor Macy, Mike Flanagan
Sorry, Baby – Producers: Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Barry Jenkins
Train Dreams – Producers: Marissa McMahon, Teddy Schwarzman, Will Janowitz, Ashley Schlaifer, Michael Heimler

BEST STUDIO FILM
Hamnet – Producers: Liza Marshall, Pippa Harris, Nicolas Gonda, Sam Mendes, Steven Spielberg
Marty Supreme – Producers: Eli Bush, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Anthony Katagas, Timothée Chalamet
One Battle After Another – Producers: Adam Somner, Sara Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson
Sinners – Producers: Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Ryan Coogler
28 Years Later – Producers: Andrew Macdonald, Peter Rice, Bernie Bellew, Danny Boyle, Alex Garland

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
It Was Just an Accident – Producers: Jafar Panahi, Philippe Martin
No Other Choice – Producers: Park Chan-wook, Back Jisun, Michèle Ray-Gavras, Alexandre Gavras
The Secret Agent – Producers: Emilie Lesclaux, Kleber Mendonça Filho
Sentimental Value – Producers: Maria Ekerhovd, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar
Sirât – Producers: Domingo Corral, Oliver Laxe, Xavi Font, Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar, Esther García, Oriol Maymó, Mani Mortazavi, Andrea Queralt

BEST DOCUMENTARY
John Candy: I Like Me – Producers: Colin Hanks, Johnny Pariseau, George Dewey, Shane Reid, Ryan Reynolds, Sean Stuart, Glen Zipper
Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5 – Producers: Raoul Peck, Alex Gibney, George Chignell, Nick Shumaker
The Perfect Neighbor – Producers: Alisa Payne, Geeta Gandbhir, Nikon Kwantu, Sam Bisbee
Secret Mall Apartment – Producers: Jeremy Workman, Jesse Eisenberg
Zodiac Killer Project – Producers: Charlie Shackleton, Anthony Ing, Catherine Bray

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Elio – Producers: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina, Mary Alice Drumm
KPop Demon Hunters – Producers: Maggie Kang, Chris Applehans, Michelle Wong
Looney Tunes: The Day the Earth Blew Up – Producers: Peter Browngardt, Sam Register, Alex Kirwan
Predator: Killer of Killers – Producers: John Davis, Dan Trachtenberg, Marc Toberoff, Ben Rosenblatt
Zootopia 2 – Producers: Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Ryan Coogler – Sinners
Guillermo del Toro – Frankenstein
Jafar Panahi – It Was Just an Accident
Chloé Zhao – Hamnet

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Eddington – Ari Aster
Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie
Sinners – Ryan Coogler
Sorry, Baby – Eva Victor
Weapons – Zach Cregger

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Bugonia – Will Tracy
Frankenstein – Guillermo del Toro
Hamnet – Chloé Zhao, Maggie O’Farrell
One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson
28 Years Later – Alex Garland

BEST ACTOR
Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme
Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon
Michael B. Jordan – Sinners
Jesse Plemons – Bugonia

BEST ACTRESS
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Amanda Seyfried – The Testament of Ann Lee
Emma Stone – Bugonia
Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
Delroy Lindo – Sinners
Sean Penn – One Battle After Another
Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Odessa A’zion – Marty Supreme
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners
Hailee Steinfeld – Sinners
Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another

BEST ENSEMBLE (Casting Director Award)
Black Bag – Carmen Cuba
It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi
Marty Supreme – Jennifer Venditti
One Battle After Another – Cassandra Kulukundis
Sinners – Francine Maisler

BREAKOUT PERFORMER
Odessa A’zion
Miles Caton
Indy the Dog
Chase Infiniti
Jacobi Jupe

BREAKOUT BEHIND-THE-SCENES
Clint Bentley
Harris Dickinson
Scarlett Johansson
James Sweeney
Eva Victor

SIGHT UNSEEN PERFORMANCE
Jason Bateman – Zootopia 2
Oona Chaplin – Avatar: Fire and Ash
Nick Offerman – The Life of Chuck
Will Patton – Train Dreams
Alan Tudyk – Superman

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
F1 – Claudio Miranda
Frankenstein – Dan Laustsen
One Battle After Another – Michael Bauman
Sinners – Autumn Durald Arkapaw
Train Dreams – Adolpho Veloso

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Fantastic Four: First Steps – Kasra Farahani, Jille Azis
Frankenstein – Tamara Deverell
Sinners – Hannah Beachler, Monique Champagne
28 Years Later – Carson McColl, Gareth Pugh
Wicked: For Good – Nathan Crowley, Lee Sandales

BEST EDITING
F1 – Stephen Mirrione
Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie
One Battle After Another – Andy Jurgensen
Sinners – Michael P. Shawver
Weapons – Joe Murphy

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Fantastic Four: First Steps – Alexandra Byrne
Frankenstein – Kate Hawley
Hedda – Lindsay Pugh
Sinners – Ruth E. Carter
Wicked: For Good – Paul Tazewell

BEST MAKEUP
Frankenstein – Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, Cliona Furey
Sinners – Mike Fontaine, Ken Diaz, Shunika Terry
The Smashing Machine – Kazu Hiro, Felix Fox, Mia Neal
28 Years Later – Flora Moody, John Nolan
Weapons – Leo Satkovich, Melizah Wheat, Jason Collins

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Avatar: Fire and Ash – Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, Daniel Barrett
F1 – Ryan Tudhope, Keith Alfred Dawson, Nicholas Chevallier, Robert Harrington
Frankenstein – Dennis Berardi
Sinners – Michael Ralla, Espen Nordahl, Guido Wolter, Donnie Dean
Superman – Stephane Ceretti, Enrico Damm, Stephane Naze, Guy Williams

BEST STUNTS
Ballerina – Jackson Spidell, Stephen Dunlevy
F1 – Gary Powell, Luciano Bacheta
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – Wade Eastwood
One Battle After Another – Brian Machleit
Superman – Wayne Dalglish

BEST SOUND
Avatar: Fire and Ash – Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Brent Burge, Gary Summers, Michael Hedges, Alexis Feodoroff, Julian Howarth
F1 – Al Nelson, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Gary A. Rizzo, Juan Peralta, Gareth John
Sinners – Chris Welcker, Benny Burtt, Brandon Proctor, Steve Boeddeker, Felipe Pacheco
28 Years Later – Johnnie Burn
Warfare – Mitch Low, Glenn Freemantle, Ben Barker, Howard Bargroff, Richard Spooner

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Frankenstein – Alexandre Desplat
Hamnet – Max Richter
Marty Supreme – Daniel Lopatin
One Battle After Another – Jonny Greenwood
Sinners – Ludwig Göransson

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Clothed by the Sun” – The Testament of Ann Lee (Written by Daniel Blumberg, Mona Fastvold; Performed by David Cale, Lewis Pullman, Matthew Beard)
“Golden” – KPop Demon Hunters (Written by EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick, IDO, 24, Teddy; Performed by EJAE, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami)
“Highest 2 Lowest” – Highest 2 Lowest (Written and Performed by Aiyana-Lee)
“I Lied to You” – Sinners (Written by Raphael Saadiq, Ludwig Göransson; Performed by Miles Caton)
“Pale, Pale Moon” – Sinners (Written by Brittany Howard, Ludwig Göransson; Performed by Jayme Lawson)

THE IMPACT AWARD
Elizabeth Arnott – Programmer of “Sapphopalooza”
Tyler Michael Baletine – Programmer of “Life Within the Lens: Juneteenth Edition”
Matthew C. Hoffman – Programmer and Host at the Pickwick Theatre
Anna Pattinson – Editor-in-Chief of Cinema Femme
Michael Phillips – Former Film Critic of The Chicago Tribune

Happy Birthday to Actress Jan Gan Boyd, the “This Week in Charles Bronson” Podcast, and a Lifelong Obsession with Charles Bronson!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Happy Birthday to one of my favorite people in the world, Jan Gan Boyd, Charles Bronson’s co-star in ASSASSINATION (1987)!

We’ll be back to that in a bit, but first a little about me. My parents purchased a VCR for our family sometime around 1985 or so. I was about 12 years old at that time, and it’s fair to say that I’ve been obsessed with movies ever since. It’s actually fair to say that I have somewhat of an obsessive personality, so when I latch onto something, I really, really latch on. At the very top of that list is my lifelong fascination with the actor Charles Bronson. To be completely honest with you, it’s a passion that not many people really understand or appreciate. Beginning around 1986 with my discovery of DEATH WISH 3, I would talk about his movies to my friends constantly. Now keep in mind that I was a young teenager and Bronson was around 65, with his best movie-making years well behind him. Charles Bronson was not high on the list of topics my friends wanted to discuss. I’m in my 50’s now, and my old high school friends still tease me about Charles Bronson. I don’t care, because I still think he’s awesome!

As a matter of fact, my obsession with Charles Bronson has only gotten stronger over the last five years or so. Back in November of 2021, I met a guy from Pennsylvania named Eric Todd who had started the “This Week in Charles Bronson” Podcast and Facebook page. After joining the page, we became fast friends. For the first time, through the Facebook page, I had a whole group of friends who love Charles Bronson as much, or at least close to as much, as I do. In the summer of 2022, when my wife and I drove 17 hours from my home in Arkansas to the Mahoning Drive-In in Lehighton, PA, to watch a triple feature of classic Bronson films, Eric asked me to join him on the podcast and while on-site at the drive-in, I recorded my first episode. I thought this would just be some fun social media or podcast activity where us “Bronson weirdos,” as we call ourselves, would discuss our hero and his movies. I never thought it would lead me to getting to meet some of the actors and actresses who actually worked with Bronson in the movies. Boy, was I wrong!

Through my participation with the “This Week in Charles Bronson” podcast and Facebook page, I have met Paul Talbot (author of the “Bronson’s Loose” and “Bronson’s Loose Again” books), Jordan Rhodes (co-star of MR. MAJESTYK and THE INDIAN RUNNER), Henry Brooks (writer of “Charles Bronson, More than a Vigilante, The Musical” ), Robert F. Lyons (co-star of DEATH WISH II, TEN TO MIDNIGHT and MURPHY’S LAW), and Lindsay Ireland (Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland’s niece and author of the book “Why Not Me?”). I have met fellow Bronson fans from all over the country and world. Not only have I met these people, but I’ve also developed some true friendships along the way. Eric and I now plan family vacations together, and if I ever find myself in a city where one of my “Buchinsky Boys” reside, I will definitely find the time to break bread with them. It’s one of the nicest communities I’ve ever been a part of, and I’m thankful for it.

To bring this full circle, one of my favorite people in the world, who I now consider a friend, just so happened to co-star with Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland in the 1987 action film, ASSASSINATION. Back in January of 2023, Eric and I were able to interview actress Jan Gan Boyd. It was such an honor to be able spend some time with her as she talked about working with Bronson, Michael Douglas, Richard Attenborough, Martin Kove, Ted Danson, and even Richard Roundtree. She remained close friends with Charles Bronson up until his death in 2003. If any of you would like to watch that podcast episode, I’ve linked to it below.

Happy Birthday, Jan! You’re absolutely the best!

Catching Up With The Films of 2025: The Life of Chuck (dir by Mike Flanagan)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Life of Chuck is a story told in reverse.

The world is ending and teacher Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) wonders why he keeps seeing signs that announce, “Charles Krantz: 39 Great Years! Thanks, Chuck!”  Marty’s ex-wife (Karen Gillan) calls him and tells him that, at the hospital where she works, she and her co-workers have taken to calling themselves “the suicide squad.”  It would be an effective moment if not for the fact that the film’s narration (somewhat predictably voiced by Nick Offerman) had already informed us of that fact.  Everyone wonders why the world is falling apart.  Why has the internet gone off-line?  Why has California finally sunk into the ocean?  Why are people rioting?  Several characters say that it’s the end times before then adding that it’s not the same end time that the “religious fanatics” and “right-wing nuts” always talk about.  Thanks for clarifying that!  It’s nice to know that, at the end of the world, people will still talk like an aging Maine boomer.

Nine months earlier, a straight-laced banked named Chuck Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) comes across a busker playing her drums on a street corner and feels inspired to start dancing.

Years earlier, a young boy named Chuck Krantz is raised by his grandmother (Mia Sara) and his grandfather (Mark Hamill).  Young Chuck (Jacob Tremblay) inherits a love of dance from his grandmother but, after she dies in a supermarket, his grandfather turns to drinking.  His grandfather keeps one room in their house locked.  (There’s even an absurdly huge lock on the door because The Life of Chuck is not a subtle one.)  Eventually, Chuck discovers what is hidden away in the room and it shapes the rest of his life.

Occasionally, solid genre craftsmen will fill the need to prove that they’re actually deeper than people give them credit for.  In 2020, Stephen King published a novella called The Life of Chuck.  In October of 2023, director Mike Flanagan announced that he had begun filming on his adaptation of The Life of Chuck.  Both King and Flanagan are better-known for their contributions to the horror gerne, though, around 2017, King apparently decided that he was also meant to be a political pundit.  (No writer, with the possible exception of Joyce Carol Oates, has done more damage to their reputation by joining twitter than Stephen King.)  There are elements of horror to be found in The Life of Chuck.  There’s the world ending during Act One.  There’s the locked rom in Act Three.  There’s the terrible acting of the woman playing the drummer in Act Two.  But this definitely is not a horror film.  Instead, it’s King and Flanagan at their most sentimental, heartfelt, and ultimately simplistic.

It’s ultimately a bit too self-consciously quirky for its own good.  Flanagan seems to be really concerned that we’ll miss the point of the film so he directs with a heavy-hand and, at times, he overexplains.  Sometimes, you have to have some faith in your audience and their ability to figure out things on their own.  The scenes of Chuck’s childhood are so shot through a haze of nostalgia that they feel as overly stylized as the scenes that don’t necessarily take place in our reality.  For the most part, the narration could have been ditched without weakening the film.  That said, the film is hardly a disaster.  There are moments that work, like the joyous scene of Tom Hiddleston dancing.  The film tries a bit too hard to be profound but there’s joy to be found in the performances of Hiddleston and Jacob Tremblay.  Chucks seems like a nice guy.

Thanks, Chuck!

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special John Singleton Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.

Today would have been the 58th birthday of John Singleton, the first black filmmaker to ever receive an Oscar nomination for Best Director.  It’s time for….

4 Shots From 4 John Singleton Films

Boyz N The Hood (1991, dir by John Singleton, DP: Chuck Mills)

Poetic Justice (1993, dir by John Singleton, DP: Peter Lyons Collister)

Higher Learning (1995, dir by John Singleon, DP: Peter Lyons Collister)

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003, dir by John Singleton, DP: Matthew Leonetti)

Film Review: Tomorrow (dir by Joseph Anthony)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

1972’s Tomorrow opens up in rural Mississippi, in the early 40s.  A man is on trial for shooting another man.  The majority of the juror wants to acquit the shooter because it’s generally agreed that the victim was a no-account, someone who was never going to amount to anything and who the entire country is better off without.  Only one juror votes to convict, a quiet and stoic-looking farmer named Fenty (Robert Duvall).  Fenty refuses to go into much detail about why he’s voted to convict.  Despite the efforts of the other jurors, Fenty refuses to change his vote and the end result is a hung jury.

The film flashes twenty years, to show why Fenty eventually voted the way that he did.  Even in the past, Fenty is quiet and shy, a farmer who also works as a caretaker at another property that is several miles away.  He walks to and from his home.  Even on Christmas Eve, he says that he plans to walk the 30 miles back to his farm and then, on the day after Christmas, the 30 miles back to his caretaking job.  Fenty is someone who keeps to himself, answering most questions with just a few words and revealing little about how he feels about anything.

When Fenty comes across a sickly and pregnant drifter named Sarah Eubanks (Olga Bellin), he takes her into his farm and he nurses her back to health.  The film examines the bond that forms between Fenty and Sarah, two people who have been judged by society to be of little significance.  It’s not an easy life but Fenty endures.  Fenty’s decision to take in Sarah is a decision that will ultimately lead to Fenty’s guilty vote at the trial many years later.

Tomorrow is a film that is not as well-known as it should be.  Adapted by Horton Foote from a William Faulkner short story, the black-and-white film is one that demands a little patience.  Audiences looking for an immediate pay-off will be disappointed but those willing to give the film time to tell its story will be rewarded.  The action unfolds at a gradual but deliberate pace, one that will seem familiar to anyone who has spent any time in the rural South.  The film allows the audience the time to get to know both Fenty and Sarah and to truly understand the world in which the live.  In the end, when the film’s narrator comes to realize that Fenty is not an insignificant bystander but instead a man of strong character and morals, the audience won’t be surprised because the audience already knows.  Fenty has proven himself to the viewer.

Robert Duvall has described Tomorrow as being his favorite of the many films in which he’s appeared.  (The film came out the same year that Duvall co-starred in The Godfather.)  Indeed, Duvall does give one of his best performances as the quiet but strong Fenty.  In many ways, the performance feels as if its descended from his film debut as Boo Radley in To Kill A Mockingbird.  Duvall gives an excellent performance as a man who can hide his emotions but not his decency.  Tomorrow is a film that requires patience but which still deserves to be better known.

Film Review: The Revolutionary (dir by Paul Williams)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

1970’s The Revolutionary tells the story of a young man named A (Jon Voight).

When we first meet him, A is a college student who lives in the industrial town of Axton.  A comes from a wealthy family but he chooses to live in a tiny and quite frankly repellent apartment.  He has a girlfriend named Ann (Collin Wilcox).  A and Ann don’t really seem to have much of a relationship.  “We should make love,” A says in a flat tone of voice.  Ann is willing to show her emotions while the self-serious A goes through life with everything under wraps.  Ann and A are both members of a radical political group.  The group spends a lot of time talking and discussing theory but they don’t really do much else.

A grows frustrated with the group.  He gets a job at a factory, where he falls under the sway of a communist named Despard (Robert Duvall).  Despard is a bit more active than A’s former comrades.  Despard, for instance, is willing to call a general strike but, when that strike still fails, A, along with Despard and everyone else involved, goes underground.  Suspended from the university, he soon finds himself being drafted into the Army.  His father asks A if he wants to be drafted.  A questions why only the poor should be drafted.  His father looks at A as if he’s hopelessly naive and his father might be right.

A continues to wander around Axton in an idealistic daze, trying to get people to read the flyers that he spends his time passing out.  Things change when A meets Leonard II (Seymour Cassel), a radical who recruits A into an apparent suicide mission….

The Revolutionary took me by surprise.  On the one hand, it’s definitely very much a political film.  The movie agrees with A’s politics.  But, at the same time, the film is also willing to be critical of A and his self-righteous view of the world.  One gets the feeling that A’s politics have less to do with sincere belief and more to do with his own need to be a part of something.  Up until the film’s final few minute, A is something of a passive character, following orders until he’s finally forced to decide for himself what his next move is going to be.  A’s father thinks he’s a fool.  Despard views him as being an interloper.  Even Leonard II seems to largely view A as being a pawn.  A wanders through Axton, trying to find his place in the chaos of the times.

It’s not a perfect film, of course.  The pace is way too slow.  Referring to the lead character only as “A” is one of those 70s things that feels embarrassingly cutesy today.  As was the case with many counterculture films of the early 70s, the film’s visuals often mistake graininess with authenticity.  Seriously, this film features some of the ugliest production design that I’ve ever seen.  But for every scene that doesn’t work or that plays out too slow, there’s one that’s surprisingly powerful, like when an army of heavily armored policemen break up a demonstration.  The film itself is full of talented actors.  Seymour Cassel is both charismatic and kind of frightening as the unstable Leonard II.  Jon Voight and Robert Duvall are both totally convincing as the leftist revolutionary and his communist mentor.  (In real life, of course, Voight and Duvall would become two of Hollywood’s most prominent Republicans.)  In The Revolutionary, Duvall brings a certain working class machismo to the role of Despard and Voight does a good job of capturing both A’s intelligence and his growing detachment.  A can be a frustrating and passive character but Voight holds the viewer’s interest.

The film works because it doesn’t try to turn A into some sort of hero.  In the end, A is just a confused soul trying to figure out what his place is in a rapidly changing world.  Thanks to the performance of Voight, Duvall, and Cassel, it’s a far more effective film than it perhaps has any right to be.