Category Archives: Film

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.

Film Review: The Rain People (dir by Francis Ford Coppola)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

1969’s The Rain People tells the story of Natalie Ravenna (Shirley Knight), a Long Island housewife who, one morning, sneaks out of her house, gets in her station wagon, and leaves.  She later calls her husband Vinny from a pay phone and she tells him that she’s pregnant.  Vinny is overjoyed.  Natalie, however, says that she needs time on her own.

Natalie keeps driving.  In West Virginia, she comes upon a young man named Jimmy Kligannon (James Caan).  She picks him up looking for a one-night stand but she changes her mind when she discover that Jimmy is a former college football player who, due to an injury on the field, has been left with severe brain damage.  The college paid Jimmy off with a thousand dollars.  The job that Jimmy had waiting for him disappears.  Jimmy’s ex-girlfriend (Laura Crews) cruelly says that she wants nothing more to do with him.  Natalie finds herself traveling with the child-like Jimmy, always trying to find a safe place to leave him but never quite being able to bring herself to do so.

Jimmy is not the only man that Natalie meets as she drives across the country.  Eventually, she is stopped by Gordon (Robert Duvall), a highway motorcycle cop who gives her a speeding ticket and then invites her back to the trailer that he shares with his young daughter.  (Gordon’s house previously burned down.)  Natalie follows Gordon back to his trailer, where the film’s final tragic act plays out.

The Rain People was the fourth film to be directed Francis Ford Coppola.  Stung by the critical and commercial failure of the big-budget musical Finian’s Rainbow, Coppola made a much more personal and low-key film with The Rain People.  While the critics appreciated The Rain People, audiences stayed away from the rather downbeat film.  Legendary producer Robert Evans often claimed that, when Coppola was first mentioned as a director for The Godfather, he replied, “His last movie was The Rain People, which got rained one.”  Whether that’s true or not, it is generally acknowledged that the commercial failure of The Rain People set back Coppola’s directing career.  (Indeed, at the time that The Godfather went into production, Coppola was better-known as a screenwriter than a director.)  Of course, it was also on The Rain People that Coppola first worked with James Caan and Robert Duvall.  (Duvall, who was Caan’s roommate, was a last-second replacement for Rip Torn.)  Both Caan and Duvall would appear in The Godfather, as Sonny Corleone and Tom Hagen respectively.  Both would be Oscar-nominated for their performances.  (It would be Caan’s only Oscar nomination, which is amazing when you consider how many good performances James Caan gave over the course of his career.)

As for The Rain People, it may have been “rained on” but it’s still an excellent film.  Shirley Knight, Robert Duvall, and James Caan all give excellent performances and, despite a few arty flashbacks, Coppola’s direction gives them room to gradually reveal their characters to us.  The film sympathizes with Knight’s search for identity without ever idealizing her journey.  (She’s not always nice to Jimmy and Jimmy isn’t always easy to travel with.)  As for Caan and Duvall, they both epitomize two different types of men.  Caan is needy but innocent, a former jock transformed into a lost giant.  As for Duvall, he makes Gordon into a character who, at first, charms us and that later terrifies us.  Gordon could have been a one-dimensional villain but Duvall makes him into someone who, in his way, is just as lost as Natalie and Jimmy.

The Rain People is a good film.  It’s also a very sad film.  It made my cry but that’s okay.  It earned the tears.

I Watched Perry Mason: The Case Of The Sinister Spirit (1987, Dir. by Richard Lang)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

David Hall (Matthew Faison) is an obnoxious horror writer who invites a group of associates and former friends to spend the night at a “haunted” hotel.  He’s invited them because all of them are on the verge of suing him for writing about them in his latest book, The Resort.  Over the course of the night, he plays cruel practical jokes on all of them.  Finally, someone gets fed up and tosses him over a railing.  The police arrest publisher Jordan White (Robert Stack) and charge him with the murder.  It’s a good thing that Jordan’s best friend is Perry Mason (Raymond Burr).

Perry uses a cane in this movie and is not that active outside of the courtroom.  That means that it’s up to Paul Drake, Jr. (William Katt) to do most of the investigating.  As usual, Paul falls for an attractive, younger woman, in this case the hotel’s owner, Susan Warrenfield (Kim Delaney).  Every movie features Paul falling for someone and then we never hear about them again.  Does Paul have commitment issues?

I enjoyed this Perry Mason mystery.  The hotel was a great location and I appreciated that the movie tried to add some horror elements to the story.  The Perry Mason movies can be predictable so I always like it when they at least try to do something a little bit different.  This was a fun entry in Perry Mason’s career.

Deal of the Century (1983, directed by William Friedkin)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Ø8˜é

Chevy Chase, Gregory Hines, and Wallace Shawn all play small-time arms dealers who get involved in a scheme to sell the “Peacemaker” drone to the dictatorship that has seized control of the Latin American country of San Miguel.  After Shawn commits suicide, Chase and Hines are joined by his widow, who is played by Sigourney Weaver.  Selling the Peacemaker should be easy except that Hines has a religious epiphany and becomes a pacifist and Chase himself is starting to have qualms about the way he makes a living.  As his brother-in-law puts it, something bad seems to happen in every country that Chase visits.

Deal of the Century has the unique distinction of being one of the two films that director William Friedkin did not acknowledge in his autobiography, The Friedkin Connection.  When Friedkin was asked why he left it out of his book, Friedkin said that he didn’t consider Deal of the Century to be a “Friedkin film.”  He wanted to do a Dr. Strangelove-style satire while the studio wanted a board Chevy Chase comedy.  The studio won, Friedkin was not given final cut, the movie bombed, and Friedkin didn’t see any reason to revisit the experience of making it.

Deal of the Century is a disjointed film.  The best scenes are the one that are probably the closest to Friedkin’s original vision.  These are the scenes set in weapons expos and that highlight the commercials designed to sell products of mass destruction.  But those scenes are dwarfed by scenes of Chevy Chase being pursued by cartoonish guerillas in San Miguel and Gregory Hines overacting after getting baptized.  Chase has a few good smartass scenes at the start of the film, some of which are reminiscent of his career-best work in Fletch.  But he loses his way as the film goes on and his change-of-heart never feels convincing.  The film ends with a burst of special effects that are unconvincing even for 1983.

Deal of the Century may have been directed by William Friedkin but he was correct to say that it is definitely not a Friedkin film.

Riders of the Desert (1932, directed by Robert N. Bradbury)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In the closing days of the frontier, a group of Rangers in New Mexico receive a telegram telling them that it is time to disband and to turn law enforcement duties over to the local sheriff.  However, there’s a viscous outlaw named Hashknife (George “Gabby” Hayes) on the loose so Bob Houston (Bob Steele) and Slim (Al St. John) pretend that they never received the telegram so that they can arrest him.  Hashknife kidnaps Bob’s girl (Gertie Messenger) and that makes thing personal.

Riders of the Desert is an appropriate name for this film because the majority of its 50-minute running time really was just taken up with footage of men riding their horses from one location to another.  Even though the film was less than an hour long, the story sill needed some filler.

Riders of the Desert is still a pretty good western, though.  It’s definitely better than the average Poverty Row western.  As always, Bob Steele look authentic riding a horse and Al St. John provides good support as Fuzzy.  The disbanding of the Rangers gives the first half of the film an elegiac feel that would later show up in several of the westerns made during and after the 1960s.  The old west is coming to an end and there’s less need for the Rangers.  The second half of the film is almost all action and George “Gabby” Hayes is a surprisingly effective villain.  Of course, this movie was made before he became Gabby.

As with most Poverty Row westerns, this is not the film to watch if you’re not already a fan of the genre.  But for those who like westerns, Riders of the Desert is a good one.