As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, for #ScarySocial, I will be hosting 1981’s The Burning!
It looks like a red hot classic to me!
If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! The film is available on Prime and Tubi! I’ll be there co-hosting and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, at 10 pm et, #FridayNightFlix has got 1982’s Fast Times At Ridgemont High!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Fast Times At Ridgemont High is available on Prime! See you there!
1995’s Beyond Desire tells the story of Ray Patterson (William Forsythe). He’s spent the last 14 years in jail, convicted of a murder that he says he didn’t commit. He likes to sing. He’s obsessed with Elvis. He claims that he doesn’t know how to drive because he’s been in prison for the last 14 years but he appears to be in his mid-40s so you have to kind of wonder if maybe Ray just wants other people to drive him around. After all, Elvis never drove himself.
Perhaps because everyone is sick of listening to him as he sings Amazing Grace in his cell, Ray is released from prison. Since he was serving his time in Nevada, this means that Ray now has to walk down a desert road and hope that someone gives him a ride. Fortunately, for Ray, a woman named Rita (Kari Wuhrer) pulls up in fancy red car and asks him where he’s going. Rita explains that she’s always had a fantasy about picking up someone who has just been released from prison. Ray accepts her offer of a ride and soon, they’re at a desert motel, engaging in saxophone-scored, Vaseline-on-the-lens softcore sex. Ray may have forgotten how to drive but apparently, he didn’t forget everything during those 14 years he spent in prison. If nothing else, this film reveals more of William Forsythe than most viewers probably ever thought they’d see.
Soon, Ray and Rita are head to Vegas. Of course, it turns out that Rita wasn’t quite honest about why she picked up Ray. Rita is a high-priced escort and she works for a local crime boss named Frank (Leo Rossi). Frank wants Ray to reveal the location of some stolen money. Ray, meanwhile, feels that Frank is the key to clearing his name and catching the real murderer. At first, it seems like everyone is just manipulating everyone else but Rita and Frank do eventually end up falling in love. Can their love survive bullets and hints of betrayal?
Like many 90s crime films, Beyond Desire is one of those films that was obviously made to capitalize on the success of Quentin Tarantino. The characters of Ray and Rita are such obvious copies of True Romance‘s Clarence and Alabama that the film comes close to turning into a self-parody. Ray is a big Elvis fan and occasionally quotes lyrics at inopportune times. The soundtrack itself is full of Elvis songs, though the budget apparently wasn’t big enough to actually get the rights to any of Elvis’s recordings. Instead, we get cover versions, the majority of which feel rather wan. The film emphasizes the garish glitz of the Vegas Strip but none of the quirky beauty of it. Las Vegas, an adult playground sitting in the desert, is pure Americana. That was something that was captured by Francis Ford Coppola in The Godfather, Martin Scorsese in Casino and David Lynch in Twin Peaks: The Return. The film uses Vegas as a convenient backdrop but it has nothing to say about the location itself.
Like the majority of road movies, the film tends to meander a bit. Ultimately, the road leads to nowhere. That, in itself, is not necessarily a problem. The same could be said of Tony Scott’s True Romance or any number of films directed by Wim Wenders. Unfortunately, this film wasn’t directed by Tony Scott or Wim Wenders. Instead, it was directed by the guy who did Halloween 5 and the end result is a film that, even when taken as a purely stylistic exercise, still feels rather empty. It’s a shame because William Forsythe shows off a lot of quirky, bad boy charm in the role of Ray and Kari Wuhrer make Rita into a far more complex and conflicted character than one might expect. But, unfortunately, the film itself just doesn’t live up to their performances.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1975’s The Secret Night Caller! It can be viewed on YouTube!
Though the show pretty much guaranteed that he would forever be a part of the American pop cultural landscape, Robert Reed was not a fan of The Brady Bunch. Onscreen, Reed played Mike Brady, the stern patriarch who always knew the right thing to do and who, as a result, was named father of the year by the local chamber of commerce. (Of course, even though she was responsible for him getting the reward, Mike still grounded Marcia for sneaking out to mail in his nomination forms.) Offscreen, Reed was notoriously difficult, complaining that the scripts for the show were juvenile and shallow. Reed was correct and it should be noted that all of the actors who played the Brady kids have said that Reed never took out his frustration on the cast and actually became a bit of a surrogate father to all of them. Still, you have to wonder what Reed was expecting when he signed up for a show that was created by the man responsible for Gilligan’s Island.
The Brady Bunch was cancelled in 1974, temporarily setting Robert Reed free from the burden of playing Mike Brady. (Of course, he would later return to the role in The Brady Bunch Hour and we all know how that turned out.) One of the first post-Brady movies that Reed starred in was The Secret Night Caller.
In this film, Reed plays a seemingly mild-mannered IRS (booo!) agent named Freddy Durant. Freddy has a good career and a nice home but he’s deeply unsatisfied. He barely communicates with his wife, Pat (Hope Lange). He freaks out over his teenage daughter, Jan (Robin Mattson), wearing a bikini. He fantasies about hitting on almost every woman that he sees. He hangs out at a strip club and, when he’s really feeling unsatisfied, he makes obscene phone calls! Because this is a made-for-TV movie from the 70s, we never actually get to hear what Freddy says on the phone but he manages to disgust and/or horrify everyone who has the misfortune to answer his call. He even calls a woman who works in his office, scaring Charlotte (Arlene Golonka) so much that she subsequently has an auto accident. Unfortunately, for Freddy, one of his victims, a stripper named Chloe (Elaine Giftos), recognizes his voice and tries to blackmail him. Freddy’s life is falling apart. Can his psychiatrist (played by Michael Constantine) help him put it all back together again?
Freddy Durant is obviously meant to come across as being the exact opposite of Mike Brady. (Of course, many of us who have seen The Brady Bunch have our suspicions about what Mike was actually doing in his office….) Whereas Mike Brady was the perfect father, Freddy is cold, distant, and repressed. Reed is convincingly uptight as Freddy and he’s surrounded by a fine supporting cast, including Sylvia Sidney as his disapproving mother-in-law. That said, it’s still impossible to watch this show without thinking to yourself, “There’s Mike Brady making an obscene phone call.” That’s the difficulty of typecasting unfortunately. For all of his efforts to escape the shadow of the Brady Bunch, it’s impossible not to associate Robert Reed with the show, even when he’s talking dirty on the phone.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, for #ScarySocial, Tim Buntley will be hosting 1997’s Event Horizon!
If you want to join us on Saturday night, just hop onto twitter, start the film at 9 pm et, and use the #ScarySocial hashtag! The film is available on Prime. I’ll probably be there and I imagine some other members of the TSL Crew will be there as well. It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on twitter. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, at 10 pm et, #FridayNightFlix has got 1985’s The Breaskfast Club!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
The Breakfast Club is available on Prime! See you there!
The initial line-up for the 2023 Cannes Film Festival was announced today. Usually, films are added (and occasionally even withdrawn) after the initial announcement so this list will probably be added to in the days and weeks to come:
COMPETITION:
Club Zero, Jessica Hausner
Asteroid City, Wes Anderson
The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer
Fallen Leaves, Aki Kaurismaki
Les Filles D’Olfa (Four Daughters), Kaouther Ben Hania
Anatomie D’une Chute, Justine Triet
Monster, Kore-eda Hirokazu
Il Sol Dell’Avvenire, Nanni Moretti,
La Chimera, Alice Rohrwacher,
About Dry Grasses, Nuri Bilge Ceylan,
L’Ete Dernier, Catherine Breillat,
The Passion of Dodin Bouffant, Tran Anh Hung,
Rapito, Marco Bellocchio,
May December, Todd Haynes,
Firebrand, Karim Ainouz,
The Old Oak, Ken Loach,
Perfect Days, Wim Wenders,
Banel Et Adama, Ramata-Toulaye Sy,
Jeunesse, Wang Bing,
OUT OF COMPETITION:
Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese
The Idol, Sam Levinson
Cobweb, Kim Jee-woon
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, James Mangold
Jeanne du Barry, Maiwenn
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS:
Omar la Fraise, Elias Belkeddar
Kennedy,” Anurag Kashyap
Acide, Just Philippot
SPECIAL SCREENINGS:
Retratos Fantasmas (Pictures of Ghosts), Kleber Mendonca Filho
Anselm, Wim Wenders
Occupied City, Steve McQueen
Man in Black, Wang Bing
CANNES PREMIERE:
Le Temps D’Aimer, Katell Quillevere,
Cerrar Los Ojos, Victor Erice,
Bonnard, Pierre et Marthe, Martin Provost,
Kubi, Takeshi Kitano
For Oscar watchers, the big news is probably that both Asteroid City and Killers of The Flower Moon will be premiering at Cannes. Asteroid City is the latest from Wes Anderson and, to be honest, I have my doubts about it as an Oscar contender. The trailer indicates that it’s very, very quirky. While Anderson did receive some Oscar recognition for Grand Budapest Hotel, a good deal of that film’s success was due to Ralph Fiennes’s lead performance. Fieness kept Grand Budapest rooted in a stylized reality. I’m not sure if anyone in the cast of Asteroid City is going to perform the same duty. If Asteroid City is going to become an Oscar contender, a good showing at Cannes would definitely help.
As for Killers of the Flower Moon, it’s being shown out of competition. I can understand the logic. With all of the high expectations that come along with being Martin Scorsese’s latest film (as well as being the first Scorsese film to feature both De Niro and Di Caprio), it’s best not to run the risk of being snubbed by the unpredictable Cannes jury. The last thing anyone wants is for the narrative to shift from “sure-fire contender” to “late career disappointment.”
The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 16th to May 27th!
In the 1992 film, My Cousin Vinny, two college students from New York City, Bill Gambini (Ralph Macchio) and Stan Rothstein (Mitchell Whitfield), make the mistake of driving through Alabama. The two students stop off at a convenience store. When the clerk is subsequently shot dead during a robbery, Bill and Stan are arrested for the crime. The viewers know they’re innocent. Bill and Stan know they’re innocent. But the entire state of Alabama seems to be determined to send Bill and Stan to prison for life.
Fortunately, Bill’s cousin, Vinny (Joe Pesci, star of Half Nelson), is a lawyer. Unfortunately, he just recently passed the bar exam and he has yet to actually try a case. Still, Vinny and his fiancée, Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei), come down to Alabama. Vinny takes the case, lying to the judge (Fred Gwynne) about his qualification as a trial attorney. Vinny is momentarily impressed when the prosecutor (Lane Smith) shares with him all of the files about the case. “It’s called disclosure, dickhead!” Lisa snaps at him, revealing that she actually has more common sense than Vinny. That becomes increasingly important as Vinny tries to keep Bill and Stan from spending the rest of their lives in prison.
To be honest, considering how much I complain about stereotypical portrayals of the South, I really shouldn’t like My CousinVinny as much as I do. Almost every character in the film is a stereotype to some extent or another, from the farmers and rednecks who take the witness stand to Fred Gwynne’s no-nonsense judge who rules that Vinny is in contempt of court because he’s wearing a leather jacket. Fortunately, though, the Southern stereotypes don’t bother me because both Vinny and Lisa are New York stereotypes. Just as the judge and the townspeople seem to confirm every prejudice that someone like Vinny would have against the South, Vinny seems to be the epitome of everything that people in the South dislike about the North. When Vinny first shows up on the scene, he’s loud and brash and obnoxious. But, as the film progresses, Vinny reveals himself to not only be a better attorney than anyone was expecting but he also calms down and adjusts to the more relaxed pace of life in the country. Just as Vinny reveals himself to be not as bad as everyone originally assumed, both the Judge and the prosecutor are also allowed to reveal some hidden depths. Neither one is the cardboard authority figure that viewers might expect. The Judge does sincerely want justice to be done and the prosecutor sincerely wants to keep the county safe, even if he is prosecuting two innocent men. Just as Vinny learns not to be too quick to judge them, they learn not to be too quick to judge Vinny. The end message is that everyone is innocent until proven guilty and deserves a fair hearing, whether in a court of law or just in the courts of public and private opinion. It’s not a bad message. In fact, it’s one that more than a few people could still stand to learn today.
Of course, the best thing about the film is Marisa Tomei, who not brings a lot of energy to the film but whose hair is amazing and whose clothes are to die for. Tomei won an Oscar for her performance in My Cousin Vinny, a victory that was so controversial that there were unfounded rumors that presenter Jack Palance had read the wrong name by mistake. (As we all learned a few years ago when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway actually did read the wrong winner, the accountants aren’t going to let anyone get away with that.) Watching the film last night, it was obvious to me that Tomei deserved that Oscar because Lisa is the heart of the film. Pesci, Gwynne, and Lane Smith are all give good performances but, without Marisa Tomei’s performance, My Cousin Vinny would ultimately just be another culture clash comedy. A lesser actress would have just played Lisa as being a stereotype. But Tomei turned Lisa into the most believable and sincere character in the film. While Lisa won the case, Tomei saved the movie.
(And needless to say, I’m a fan of any movie that features a Lisa saving the day.)
My Cousin Vinny holds up as an enjoyable film. Watch it the next time you’re losing faith in humanity.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More 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, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 76th birthday to German director, Uli Edel! It’s time for….
4 Shots from 4 Uli Edel Films
Christiane F. (1981, dir b Uli Edel, DP: Justus Pankau and Jürgen Jürges)
Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989, dir by Uli Edel, DP: Stefan Czapsky)
Confessions of a Sorority Girl (1994, dir by Uli Edel, DP: Jean de Segonzac)
The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008, dir by Uli Edel, DP: Rainer Klausmann)
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to a true Hollywood iconoclast, John Milius! In honor of Milius and his career and his legacy, today’s scene that I love comes from Milius’s 1984 film, Red Dawn.
After their small town is taken over by a combination of Cuban and Russian soldiers, a group of teenagers flee to the hills. After a few months, they sneak back into town. In this scene, two brothers (Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen) discover that their father (Harry Dean Stanton) is one of the many townspeople who have been sentenced to a reeducation camp. Their dad says a few final words to them, knowing that he’ll probably never see them again. He leaves them with one final instruction: “AVENGE ME!” Not even the propaganda film playing in the background can cover the sound of their father demanding vengeance.
And, of course, they do get their revenge, sacrificing their lives so that America might once again be free. It’s a classic John Milius moment and an appropriate scene with which to celebrate his birthday.
Through the Shattered Lens