Tag Archives: movie

4 Shots From 4 Inaugural Oscar Winners: Wings, Sunrise, The Last Command, Seventh Heaven

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 is the 90th anniversary of the very first Academy Awards ceremony!

On May 16th, 1929, a private dinner was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California.  The dinner was largely meant to celebrate the establishment of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  The brainchild of Louis B. Mayer, the AMPAS was founded to help mediate labor disputes between the studios and the unions.  As almost an afterthought, it was decided that AMPAS would also give out annual awards to honor the best films of the year.

12 awards were handed out on May 16th, before an audience of 270 people.  The entire awards ceremony took 15 minutes.  That’s quite a contrast to what the Academy eventually became.

In honor of that 15-minute ceremony, here’s….

4 Shots From 4 Films Honored At The Very First Oscar Ceremony

Wings (1927, dir by William Wellman) Won The Outstanding Production Awards

Sunrise (1927, dir by F.W. Murnau) Won Best Unique and Artistic Picture

The Last Command (1928, dir by Josef von Sternberg) Won Best Actor — Emil Jannings

Seventh Heaven (1927, dir by Frank Borzage) Winner Best Actress — Janet Gaynor

Along with her performance in Seventh Heaven, Janet Gaynor was also honored for her work in Street Angel and Sunrise.  Emil Jannings was honored for his work in both The Last Command and The Way of all Flesh,

Here’s what else won at the inaugural Oscar ceremony:

Best Direction, Comedy Picture — Lewis Milestone for Two Arabian Knights

Best Direction, Drama Picture — Frank Borzage for Seventh Heaven

Best Original Story — Ben Hecht for Underworld

Best Adaptation — Benjamin Glazer for Seventh Heaven, based on the play by Austin Strong

Best Art Direction — William Cameron Menzies for The Dove and Tempest

Best Cinematography — Charles Rosher and Karl Struss for Sunrise

Best Engineering Effects — Roy Pomeroy for Wings

Best Title Writing — Joseph Farnham for Fair Co-Ed; Laugh, Clown, Laugh; and Telling the World.

Lifetime Movie Review: Homekilling Queen (dir by Alexandre Carrière)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Poor Whitney Manning!

As the central character of the Lifetime film, Homekilling Queen, Whitney (played by Kaitlyn Bernard) only wants one thing.  She wants to be homecoming queen!  And really, why shouldn’t she be?  She believes that she’s the most popular girl in the entire school, despite the fact that no one actually seems to like her.  Add to that, she’s rich and serving as homecoming queen is practically a family tradition!  Her mother, Connie (Ashley Jones), was homecoming queen.  So was her grandmother, Evelyn (Jennifer Dale).  Both Connie and Evelyn are determined that Whitney will be the next homecoming queen.  Connie’s even taught her how to do a proper pageant wave.

How determined is Whitney?  She’s so determined that, over the summer, she even murdered one of her rivals!  That’s determination!

Still, things are never quite as easy as they should be.  For instance, Whitney may think that she has the election all sewn up but Natasha Hart (Kayleigh Shikanai) feels differently.  Natasha is sick of the school being run by mean girls like Whitney.  Natasha decides that she’s going to run against Whitney!

At first, Whitney is dismissive of Natasha and her campaign.  Everyone knows that Natasha had a drug problem in the past.  Apparently, she drove her car into the bleachers while high on oxy.  (This automatically makes Natasha cooler than anyone I went to high school with.)  However, Natasha is now clean and sober and looking to make the world a better place.  To Whitney’s shock, Natasha starts to pick up support for her campaign.  Even after Whitney sends everyone in school a nude picture that’s been photoshopped to look like Natasha, Natasha’s campaign continues to build momentum.

Well, if photoshopped nudes won’t knock Natasha out of the race, how about planting drugs on her?  And if Whitney has to murder someone to get those drugs …. well, that’s politics.

It’s an interesting film.  On the one hand, you’re supposed to dislike Whitney, Connie, and Evelyn.  And it is true that Whitney does commit a murder or two.  On the other hand, they’re all so determined to win that homecoming election that you can’t help but admire the level of their dedication.  If it means giving students gifts to win their vote, Whitney’s willing to do it.  If it means seducing the school’s creepy principal to keep her daughter from being disqualified, Connie’s going to do just that.  Kaitlyn Bernard, Ashley Jones, and Jennifer Dale all really dig into their roles and do a great job at capturing the unhinged obsessiveness of their characters.  Jennifer Dale is especially a marvel as the coldy pragmatic Evelyn.  When she glares at anyone who would stand in her granddaughter’s way, you’re left with no doubt that Evelyn is not someone who you would want to mess with.  She’s scary but you would definitely want her to have your back in a confrontation.

Also doing a good job were Kayleigh Shikanai and Krista Bridges, who were perfectly cast as mother and daughter.  Every scene between them rang true and, watching them, I was reminded of the way that my mom and I would relate to each other.  They brought an unexpected sense of reality to a film that could have otherwise just been an enjoyably over-the-top melodrama.

Homekilling Queen was a lot of fun and, given the number of times that Lifetime rebroadcasts all of their films over the year, it’s one to keep an eye out for.

Nobody Can Stop Gina Carano In The Trailer For Daughter Of The Wolf!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Seriously, Gina Carano kicks so much ass!

She managed to survive starring in one of Steven Soderbergh’s worst films and has gone on to become one of my favorite action movie stars.  Though she may be best-known for her supporting roles in Fast & Furious 6 and Deadpool, Gina Carano’s best work is usually found in an underappreciated genre films like In The Blood and Scorched Earth.  For me, there’s little that’s more empowering than watching Gina Carano single-handedly take down an army of mercenaries and evil-doers.

The trailer for Carano’s upcoming film features her doing what she does best.  This time, she’s a mother trying to rescue her child and it would appear that screen veteran Richard Dreyfuss is playing the bad guy.  Carano vs. Dreyfuss?  I wonder who will win that one.

Here’s the trailer for Daughter of the Wolf!

Here’s The New Red Band Trailer For The Dead Don’t Die

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I know that I should probably be more excited about The Dead Don’t Die, the upcoming zombie comedy film from Jim Jarmusch.

I mean, after all, Jim Jarmusch has made some brilliant films and I enjoyed his take on vampires, Only Lovers Left Alive.  Add to that, the film is full of wonderful actors, people like Adam Driver, Bill Murray, Selena Gomez, Steve Buscemi, and Tilda Swinton.  And yet, for whatever reason, I can’t summon up much enthusiasm for The Dead Don’t Die.  Everything that I’ve seen about it so far just seems to add up to one big “meh.”

Maybe it’s just the fact that there’s seems to be a new zombie movie every week.  Seriously, zombies were a lot more interesting before they went mainstream.

Anyway, The Dead Don’t Die opened the Cannes Film Festival yesterday and the response so far has been rather lukewarm, if respectful of the fact that the film was directed by a very important filmmaker.  Reading the reviews, you get the feeling that it’s a film that the reviewers wanted to like more than they actually did.

To coincide with the Cannes premiere, here’s a new redband trailer!  You can watch it below.  Maybe it’ll leave you with a bit more enthusiasm than it does me.

The Dead Don’t Die comes to theaters on June 14th.

Lifetime Film Review: A Mother on the Edge (dir by Jason Bourque)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

What would you do if, one day, you were suddenly told that everything that you believed was a delusion?

That’s question that rests at the heart of A Mother On The Edge, a film that aired on Lifetime earlier this month.

The mother of the title is Blair Ayken (Kelly Thiebaud).  When we first meet Blair, her life is definitely in flux.  She’s wrapped up in a lawsuit with a former business partner.  Her sleazy ex-husband, Simon (Matt Hamilton), is …. well, he’s acting like a sleazy ex-husband.  She still occasionally has nightmares about a serious auto accident that occurred a year earlier.  Perhaps the only bright spot in her life is her daughter, Lori (Lina Renna).

Or is she?

One day, Blair goes to her daughter’s school and can’t find Lori.  When she goes to the office, she’s informed that the school has never had a student named Lori Ayken.  When she talks to the students who she believed to be Lori’s classmates, they all tell her that they’ve never seen or heard of Lori.  When Blair goes to her friend and lawyer, Cynthia (Alison Wandzura), Cynthia reveals that, though she’s heard a lot about Lori from Blair, she’s never actually met her.  Finally, when Blair confronts Simon and demands to know where Lori is, Simon tells her that she’s gone crazy.  Lori, he explains, has been dead for a year.  She died in the very same car accident about which Blair has been having nightmares.

Blair swears that her daughter is alive and has been kidnapped.  Everyone around her swears that Lori has been dead for a year and that Blair has lost her mind.  Even Cynthia gets a little bit upset when Blair speaks up at a court hearing and starts to explain her theory that everyone but her is either incorrect or lying.  So, who is correct?  The best thing about A Mother On The Edge is that it keeps you guessing.  Since Blair is the main character and Simon is such a sleaze, our natural instinct is to believe her.  But, it’s hard not to have doubts.  As sure as Blair is that Lori is alive, everyone else seems to be equally sure that Blair is delusional.  As I watched the film, I found myself going back and forth.  At first, I was like, “Well, this is obviously a setup” but then I was like, “Maybe Blair really is crazy.”

A lot of that was due to the performance of Kelly Thiebaud.  She did a great job capturing both Blair’s initial panic and also her determination to not only prove that Lori was alive but to also rescue her.  Thiebaud brought just enough of a nervous edginess to her performance that you easily could understand why people might view her as being unbalanced and, as a result, you were never quite sure just how much you should trust her beliefs.  She kept you wondering.  It was a performance that left me wondering how I was would react and what I would do if I ever found myself in Blair’s situation.

I also liked the performance of Phillip Mitchell, who played a character known as The Fixer and who brought just the right combination of menace and annoyance to his role.  I can’t reveal too much about his role without spoiling the film but Mitchell definitely made an impression.

A Mother On The Edge originally aired on Lifetime on May 3rd.  Fortunately, Lifetime tends to rebroadcast their films several times during the year so keep an eye out for A Mother On The Edge.

Doris Day, R.I.P.

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, we lost another star from Hollywood’s Golden Age.  There will be more to write later.  For now….

Doris Day was 97 and she was a far better actress than she was ever given credit for.  She may have been best known for the romantic comedies that she made with Rock Hudson but let us not forget that Doris Day also starred in Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much and held her own opposite James Cagney in Love Me or Leave Me.  She starred in the superior thriller, Midnight Lace, and she was the first choice to play Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate.  After she retired from acting, she worked to promote animal welfare and she founded the Doris Day Animal Foundation.   The Doris Day Horse Rescue and Adoption Center operates to this day in Murchison, Texas.

Rest in peace, Doris Day.

Film Review: Another Plan From Outer Space (dir by Lance Polland)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Another Plan From Outer Space opens with both the Star Spangled Banner and a quick trip through history.  We watch and listen as President John F. Kennedy announces that, some day, a man will walk on the Moon.  Kennedy is followed by Barack Obama, announcing that we will land on Mars within his lifetime.  And finally, we have President Trump, announcing that we will not only someday land on Mars but on other worlds as well.

Jump forward to 2024 and all of those predictions have come true.  There are now Martian colonies and space shuttles regularly make the journey from Earth to Mars and back again.  Man may have conquered space but that doesn’t mean that accidents don’t occasionally happen.  For instance, after we’ve heard from the Presidents, we watch as the American spaceship Genesis One crashes into the desert.

Five members of the crew manage to survive the crash.  They know they’re on Earth but, with their communications equipment damaged, they don’t know exactly where they are.  As Chief Hudson (Augie Duke) puts it, they could just as easily be in the Middle East as they could be in North America.  With the mission leader dead, Captain Jackson (Scott Sell) takes command and immediately starts giving out orders, much to the annoyance of Commander Strickland (Jessica Morris).

However, the crew has more than just professional jealousy and hurt feelings to deal with.  Strange things are happening in the desert.  Hudson swears that she saw the ship’s doctor, Yushiro (Minchi Murakami), fatally injured by something in the desert, just for the body to vanish and Yushiro to later show up quite alive and uninjured.  While Lt. Brooks (Hans Hernke) worries that his watch — a family heirloom — has stopped working, Captain Jackson swears that he can hear music in the distance.

And then there’s the seemingly abandoned cabin, sitting out in the middle of the desert….

Though the title may be evocative of Plan Nine From Outer Space, this film actually has more in common with a classic episode of The Twilight Zone than it does with Ed Wood’s infamous UFO epic.  Along with exploring the mystery of where the Genesis has crashed, the film is even more interested in exploring how each of the individual survivors deal with the isolation of being stranded in the desert.  (Let’s just say that some handle it better than others.)  About halfway through the film, there’s an extended sequence in which the survivors simply sit around a campfire and discuss not only their pasts but what they’re hoping for their futures.  It’s a nicely done scene, one that adds an element of relatable humanity to the film’s science fiction story.

The film’s black-and-white cinematography not captures the harshness of the desert but it also contributes to the film’s retro feel.  The film makes the best of its low-budget aesthetic, using the desert to create a properly ominous atmosphere.  At its best, you can feel the oppressive heat burning down on the characters.  Add to that a nicely fierce performance from Jessica Morris and you have a film that favorably compares to the early sci-fi work of Roger Corman.  The film, of course, ends with both a twist and the possibility of continuation.

Another Plan From Outer Space is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD.

Here’s The Trailer for Rim of the World

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, apparently, the plot of this Netflix film is that the aliens have invaded and only a group of children can save us.

In other words, humanity is screwed.

Anyway, I guess this is kind of like Stranger Things meets Independence Day.  It was directed by McG and you can tell the audience that this film has been made for by the fact that the trailer describes McG as being the director of The Babysitter instead of the director of Terminator: Salvation.

I have to admit that I’m always kind of amused by the fact that people actually call the director “McG.”  I know, I know …. it’s a childhood nickname, like Beto.  Still, it’s always a little hard for me not to smile whenever I hear anyone casually talk about “McG” in an interview.  I remember listening to that infamous Christian Bale rant from the Terminator set and thinking that Bale sounded like a rather unpleasant person to work with.  But then Bale said something like, “McG, are you going to say something?” and I just started laughing.

Anyway, here’s the trailer.  It’s a Netflix film so I guess it will be streaming sometime in May.  Have you noticed recently that Netflix seems to be kind of obsessed with the end of the world?  I guess they’re hoping to reinfect us with some of that Bird Box fever.

Here’s The Trailer for American Woman!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Sienna Miller is one of those extremely capable actresses who rarely seems to get the type of roles that she deserves.  She’s played a lot of girlfriends and a lot of loyal wives.  Check out Foxcatcher, The Catcher Was A Spy, and American Sniper for just a few examples.

However, the soon-to-be-released American Woman appears to give Sienna Miller a role with a bit more depth than those previous roles.  In American Woman, Miller plays Deb, a 31 year-old grandmother whose life is turned upside down when her teenage daughter vanishes, leaving Deb to raise her grandchild.  Taking place in a small Pennsylvania town, the film spans 11 years and, from what I’ve heard, it gives Miller a chance to show what she can do with a really good role.

The trailer for American Woman dropped today and, not surprisingly, it was totally overshadowed by the latest Spider-Man trailer. The trailer looks pretty good, though.  Some of the images are evocative of films like Gone Girl, Winter’s Bone, and Under the Skin.  Will the film live up to the trailer?  We’ll find out on June 14th!

Here’s the trailer for American Woman:

What Lisa Watched Last Night #198: Psycho Stripper (dir by Jake Helgren)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, I watched the latest Lifetime premiere, Psycho Stripper!Why Was I Watching It?

Why was I watching it?  Seriously, with a name like Psycho Stripper, how couldn’t I watch it!?  There’s an art to coming up with a good title and whoever came up with Psycho Stripper has obviously perfected that art.  The title was so great that I even abandoned the neighborhood Cinco De Mayo party early, just so I could watch the movie in the comfort of my own home.  That’s the power of a perfect title!

Also, I have to give some credit to Lifetime, here.  Before they showed Psycho Stripper, they showed Magic Mike.  So, on Sunday night, viewers got a chance to see two separate versions of the life of a male stripper, the yellow-tinted Steven Soderbergh version (seriously, I like Magic Mike but, whenever I watch it, I worry all that yellow is going to burn my retinas) and the wonderfully over-the-top Lifetime version!

What Was It About?

Amber (Karissa Lee Staples) owns her own dance studio, has a lot of friends, and is about to get married to the wealthy (if kinda wimpy) Owen (Mark Hapka).

Hunter (Tyler Johnson) is a handsome and charming male stripper who dresses up like a fireman, can change a flat tire, and who happens to be really good with an ax.

Together, they solve crimes!

No, not really.  Instead, Hunter shows up at Amber’s bachelorette party.  He’s supposed to just be a part of the night’s entertainment but, instead, Hunter keeps showing up wherever Amber happens to be.  First, he just wants dance lessons.  Then, he’s kind of dating Amber’s best friend, Taryn (Rachele Brooke Smith).  Then, he’s bringing Amber a gift to thank her for the lessons.  Suddenly, he’s asking Amber if she wants to get lunch!  Amber doesn’t think that it’s a good idea for her to have lunch with Hunter, especially since Owen seems to have a hang-up about her hanging out with a mysterious man who has a great body.

Then again, Owen has issues of his own.  For instance, he doesn’t seem to have quite gotten over his previous girlfriend, the one who died mysteriously….

What Worked?

Okay, so I absolutely loved this movie.  I mean, how couldn’t I?  It combined two of my favorite things: over-the-top, in-your-face melodrama and dancing!  This movie was a lot of fun and Tyler Johnson really threw himself into playing the role of the psycho stripper.

The film also had a bit of a subversive side, as well.  Hunter may be a psycho but you still kind of find yourself on his side, if just because everyone else in the movie is so judgmental of him and how he makes his living.  Owen’s family is extremely wealthy and all of his friends are extremely privileged.  When they start giving Hunter a hard time about being a stripper (with one of them even throwing a dollar bill at him), you can’t help but feel a little bit bad for him.  (Of course, then he starts killing people and you’re like, “Okay, never mind….”)

My favorite character was Taryn, who was not only a good dancer but also the greatest best friends that one could possibly hope for.  She got all the best lines.  My personal favorite was, “We’re going to get in this car and plow his ass down!”

What Didn’t Work?

It all worked.  This was Lifetime at its best.

“Oh my God!  Just like me!” Moments

A Lifetime film set in a dance studio?  To be honest, almost the entire film was an “Oh my God!  Just like me!” moment.  I related to Taryn.  I’d like to think that, if there was a psycho wandering around outside, I too would be smart enough to grab a knife before going outside.

The last Bachelorette Party that I went to had a stripping fireman, just like this movie.  However, I don’t think he ever killed anyone.  Actually, rumor has it that he was a real fireman who had too much to drink that night.  Who knows?  Life is indeed a crazy tapestry.

Lessons Learned

Beware of strippers bearing gifts.