Spitball Army

watched Oct 30, 2021spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 7.4[streaming, Criterion Channel] I know I’d seen this sometime in the past, but, on watching, found I remembered nothing about it aside from the similarities borrowed for the Cronenberg remake. I loved the way it begins – at the end of the story, which then gets told […]

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watched Oct 27, 2021spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 5.8[streaming, Criterion Channel] I wanted to like this more than I did, as its cinematography is sometimes breathtakingly beautiful, given plenty of slow-cinema time for one to luxuriate in. There is a lot of quiet tension in the plot, but the plot itself is simple and deserved […]

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watched Oct 27, 2021spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 7.9[DVD, library] The three main actresses in this – Hayley Mills, Deborah Kerr, and especially Edith Evans – are superb. The film’s origins as a stage play aren’t all that obvious, but the script written from it is occasionally brilliant, with sharp, biting, and witty dialogue.

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watched Oct 21, 2021spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 6.5[streaming, Criterion Channel] This was made four years after his amateurish FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, and it shows a lot of maturity. It has a dreamlike structure similar to MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON, which I saw for the first time recently. Then I read (on […]

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watched Oct 21, 2021spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 5.5[DVD, library] This picture starts out promisingly. The story jumps out right at the start, the characters are engaging, and the rich colors and sets of the Pinewood Studios very closely resemble the look and mood of a Powell/Pressburger film. But, once an avalanche in the Andes […]

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watched Oct 20, 2021spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 7.1[streaming, Criterion Channel] Clearly shot on the cheap – Korea here sure does look like parts of Southern California – but effective in its spareness. Plus, there’s Aldo Ray in his mature prime, putting in as fine a performance as I’ve ever seen him in, and outshining […]

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watched Jan 15, 2018spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 6.8[blu-ray] The music is energetic and fun with creative wordplay, even if sounding if all of it is cut from the same oompah/striptease mold. And the intercutting between “real life” and “on stage” is a clever concept that adds depth to the story, but after a few […]

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watched Jan 14, 2018spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 9.8[theater] This – what I believe was my father’s favorite film – gained so much for me on this TCM big-screen presentation, after decades of seeing it only on TV sets. Even Alfonso Bedoya’s “Goldhat” character, which in today’s politically-correct climate could feel like an insensitive stereotype, […]

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watched Jan 11, 2018spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 6.3[blu-ray, netflix] The formative years of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall encapsulated into a trial that took place while he was traveling the country as a NAACP defense attorney. Unfortunately, the trial itself seems like a cinematic retread of others – most notably, the trial at the […]

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watched Jan 10, 2018spitballarmy’s review published on Letterboxd: 6.3[DVD] Great concept – man discovers that all of the inhabitants of his town are frozen in time – that I swear I first saw used in an episode of The Twilight Zone, but this decades-earlier treatment leans more toward the light-hearted and frothy. The shots of […]

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