Spitball Army

3.0
[DVD, library]

A dry-as-a-bone fictional police procedural warning of the dispersion of untested medications. Most likely, this was shown in movie theaters before the feature and the cartoon.

https://boxd.it/lkmiZ

5.3
[blu-ray, Netflix]

This movie gets such a bad rap. Honestly, though, for what it is – a dystopian fantasy with YA leanings – it’s good enough. I haven’t read the books, so I neither have an opinion about their representation in the film, nor do I care. I do wish that Idris Elba had been given more to do; an actor of lesser talents could have pulled off the same interpretation of his Gunslinger character. Don’t ask too many questions and you won’t be disappointed.

https://boxd.it/ljHQV

6.3
[blu-ray, Netflix]

An academic must come to terms with how her life’s work has prepared her for the inevitable changes that life (or the cosmos, or chance) is throwing at her. Huppert is fine, as expected, and there is plenty of food for thought, especially for those having passed the youthful “anarchist” stage of life. I found the first half of the film somewhat meandering, however, and, as a result, didn’t generate the empathy I expected to have for the characters in the more eventful second half.

https://boxd.it/lj8sJ

5.9
[DVD, library]

The film hardly breaks out of its stage-bound origins, and Hepburn chews the scenery with relish. She won the Best Actress Oscar for this, but it surely wouldn’t have been awarded to her today; thankfully, she matured from this showboating style to the more mature actress who was undeniably deserving of the praise she received during her “middle” period.

https://boxd.it/lj8qD

5.2
[DVD, library]

A trifle. What interested me most, aside from the occasional statements spouted forth from the robot’s mouth (that seemed bound to the times in which the cartoon was created), were the striking similarities of the animation and voicing to the early Mickey Mouse shorts. I must pursue this further.

https://boxd.it/lj8on

9.1
[on-demand]

You think you must know everything there is to know about a film that you’ve seen about a dozen times, and then a doc like this comes along and opens your eyes. Hitchcock was indeed a genius craftsman, down to every little detail (the “Susanna and the Elders” painting revelation was a stunner…is there any director today interested in such minute detail?).

https://boxd.it/lj8m7

7.8
[streaming, Netflix]

What a fascinating and ultimately tragic life Joan Didion has led! This doc connects her published works to the life events that inspired her to write them, for, as Didion state’s in the film’s generous interview segments, “You write what you have.” I have read her two late books about grieving, and they were devastating (not cold and removed, as some are quoted as describing her work in this film), and am inspired to seek out “Slouching Toward Bethlehem” after seeing this. One puzzling question I have after seeing this, though: Didion’s speaking mannerisms include wild gesturing with her hands…is that merely an affectation, or is it physiologically-based or perhaps related to her failing eyesight? Also, the scene in which she is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom was very moving.

https://boxd.it/lbm0D

5.1
[DVD, Netflix]

Here is a textbook example of a film likely having amazing potential on paper but not ultimately translating those qualities to the screen. The cast is A-ranked, the script is co-written by Joan Didion, the story offers moral dilemmas; but the acting is, for the most part (especially DeNiro, who was taking a nap in between his work in TAXI DRIVER and THE KING OF COMEDY), wooden and somnolent, the extremely clever turns of phrase fall with a thud, and the moral dilemmas remain intellectualized rather than emotional.

7.6
[DVD, Netflix]

There was a point not too far into this film when the tone changed completely for me. Up until that point, the film was aloof and removed, but at the moment when Catherine Deneuve and Catherine Frot walk through the door of a bistro – the plates clanking, glasses dinging, the low ambient rumble of work and chatter intermingling – the film took on a deeper dimension for me. Not coincidentally, I think, this was the beginning of the first scene in which Deneuve lets her character spill forth, creating the initial contrast between the two women (one impulsive and emotional; the other cold and controlling) that will supply the framework for the rest of the picture. Both leads act wonderfully throughout THE MIDWIFE, and there is a very understated but crucial performance by Olivier Gourmet as titular character Catherine Frot’s possible love interest.

https://boxd.it/l3G0R