Category: Reviews Page 10 of 63

52nd Nashville Film Festival Opens: September 28, 2023

On September 29, 2023

Gloria Gaynor

Opening Night of the 52nd Nashviille Film Festival featured the documentary “Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive” directed by Betsy Schechter. The 80-year-old Queen of Disco—only recipient ever of a Grammy for disco music—is far from done on the world’s stage. She may have peaked in the 70s with “Never Can Say Goodbye” and “I Will Survive,” but her recently released album of Gospel songs, “Testament, earned her a second Grammy, and she isn’t done yet.

Said Ms. Gaynor, born Gloria Fowles in Newark, New Jersey in 1943, “It’s been an incredible journey. I’m just grateful to have the opportunity.”

Born one of 7 children to a single mother in Newark, New Jersey, Gloria never had a father, lost her mother at 25, and her only sister was beaten to death while trying to stop an attack on another. Gloria’s own history with men was far from romantic, with two incidents of sexual abuse at ages 12 and 17, and a divorce from her husband at age 65. Gloria has no children, as her husband Linwood did not want any.

After a concert at the Beacon Theater in New York City in 1978, when Gloria tripped over a piece of equipment onstage and fell backwards, she woke up paralyzed from the waist down. She spent 3 months in the hospital and twenty years with serious back injuries, until, at age 75, Dr. Hooman Melamed performed an 18 hour surgery on Gloria, placing 12 rods in her spine to enable her to walk again. Gloria converted to Christianity in 1982 and would embark on an ambitious journey to record a gospel album, culminating in the award-winning “Testament” after a 2013 effort failed.

As her manager Stephanie Gold recounted, “Nobody wanted this album. Nobody.” So Gloria set out to underwrite the expense of the album herself and enlisted such heavy hitters as producer Chris Steven and Bart Millard (“Mercy Me) and Jason Crabb.

Gloria’s humility and gratitude shines through in her remarks and in her actions. Shown writing a song with Bart Millard, Gloria says, “He’s a prolific writer whereas I’m still just trying after 40 years.” (The result wins the Gospel Grammy)

Gloria’s desire to “keep on keeping on” shines through during the entire film. She admits that just chilling out does not appeal to her and says that performing only 40 to 50 shows a year, at age 80, is down from the 300 she performed here and abroad when married to Linwood Simon, who kept her working non-stop and succumbed to life in the fast lane that Gloria fought against. You can’t help but feel that this album (and another currently being planned) represent, to some extent, a “giving back” to others, as Gloria’s own career winds down. Several times she mentions her 1982 religious rebirth and her desire to help others. Her own backsliding when married to Linwood she defines as feeling that “my moral fiber was dwindling” and her recent albums of Gospel music seem a chance to reconnect with her roots and, in some ways, to repay. She mentions that God has the timing down and she felt he had given her a “wake-up call.”

Director Betsy Schecht and Gloria Gaynor at Opening Night of the 52nd Nashville Film Festival at the Belcourt Theatre.

The movie has a “feel good” quality to it, especially in the scenes where the studio musicians are performing together (something that Gloria said she had not experienced before during her recording of 19 albums), and the result sounds like a true testament to the talent and determination of the woman whose anthem “I Will Survive” has been voted the #2 Greatest Disco Song of All Time (VH1). Rolling Stone, in 2021, said that “I Will Survive” was #251 on a list of The Greatest Songs of All Time. It has inspired and comforted many a lover after a break-up, but also given hope to the LGBQT community and, in the case of the song’s writer, convinced him that he would live to fight another day when he had just been fired by Motown. The song was written by Dino Fekaris and Freddie Perren and was originally the “B” side of a British hit called “Substitute.” (“You’re going to put that on the B side? What are you—-nuts?” says Gaynor).

You get a feeling of affectionate warmth from the coming together of talents of today in service to Gloria’s vision of a Gospel Roots album. They all seem to creatively feed on one another during the live sessions shown. It is heartwarming to see iconic singers of the past partner with today’s singers, much as Tony Bennett did with Lady Gaga. The affection that the singers have for one another is obvious and both Bart Millard and Jason Crabb were present in person this night. (Also present in the lobby was Steve Cropper, the “Play It, Steve” of the Blues Brothers movie.)

Gloria Gaynor and Bart Millard (“Mercy Me”) on night of the 52nd Nashville Film Festival.

This is an inspiring and entertaining look at the career of a one-woman dynamo. It holds up very nicely against the recent Little Richard documentary and the one that focused on Donna Summer. In some ways it is a more dramatic story, when all of the travails that Gloria Gaynor has faced are depicted. She seems to embody the message “I Will Survive.”‘ With the recent sad passing of the legendary Tina Turner, it is heartwarming and encouraging to hear that Gloria Gaynor is alive and well and working on another new album in a genre that some thought she shouldn’t tackle.

To cite another famous lyric, Gloria Gaynor is “getting by with a little help from her friends.”

“Caterpillar” Documentary to Screen at Nashville Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On September 24, 2023

In Health/Medicine, Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews, travel

This was a fascinating documentary about a new YouTube fad, changing one’s eye color, which is done, surgically, in India. It sounded very dicey, and, as it turns out, it is.

The documentary, written and directed by Liza Mandelup of the Parts & Labor film enterprise, followed the journey of Raymond David Taylor of Miami as he set off for India to have his brown eyes turned into a color described as “frost.”

It seems that there is a thriving cosmetic industry in Cairo, Mexico, Panama, and India and, of course, the recent deaths of two American citizens in Matamoros, Mexico, (we now know), was a trip for cosmetic surgery. A friend of mine flew to Costa Rica for dental work, so I’m surprised I had not heard of this latest vision fad, but I don’t spend much time watching videos on YouTube.

David had a very rough childhood, even getting kicked out of the house while young, at one point, and he (and most of the other patients) seem to think that “Changing me will change my outlook on life.” As David says, “If I feel sad one more day, I don’t know if I’m going to make it.”

“Caterpillar” to screen at Nashville Film Festival. (Raymond David Taylor).

He doesn’t have the money for the surgery, but a well-written letter to BrightOcular explaining his desire for the implants brings an offer from them to come have the cosmetic procedure for free, if he will let the company use his story and his photos for advertising purposes.

We then meet others on this medically unregulated journey, including Izzy, a woman from New Delhi, a young man from Japan, a male underwear model and a beautiful girl from Jamaica, but the focus is on David, which filmmaker/writer Mandelop explained was her attempt to initially start out with three main characters and trace their journeys, with one emerging as central to the story.

She described this engrossing film journey into eye surgery this way: “I wanted to visually convey it. I wanted to do something that people wouldn’t think was cinematic, like eye surgery, but make it cinematic. It became an emotional journey. David allowed me to make the film that I was craving.”

In the course of the journey, we meet David’s mother, who also suffered a rough, abusive life, but tried her best as a young single mother to care for her children on wages of $2.35 an hour. David’s mother and David don’t agree on a lot of things. She is okay with David’s being gay, but she says, “I cannot deal with that if you start cutting parts of your body off and adding stuff.” She adds that she thought he was a great female impersonator. Mom’s point-of-view is, “You’re stubborn. You don’t listen.” She adds, “You’re never satisfied with the way you look.” Others in the film describe the cosmetic procedure as “a bandaid to the past.” Most of the others have selected jade green as the color their brown eyes

It is a big blow to David when they do three patients’ surgeries simultaneously and, in the process, he is given jade green eye color by mistake, rather than frost. This will mean another eye surgery to fix the error.

If you are thinking, “This can’t be safe,” you’re right. It is only about four months post-surgery after David undergoes the procedure that he describes it as “the worst mistake of my life” when headaches and visual problems begin.

All of the prospective patients seem to want to transform to some ideal person they have created in their heads. When the subject of the film appeared before us in person, however, the audience got the feeling that the subject of “Caterpillar” has, in fact, bettered his life, moving back to Brooklyn and now working as an EMT. He explained his mother’s absence from the showing as his way of “avoiding drama.”

Director Liza Mandelup and David Raymond, subject of the SXSW documentary “Caterpillar”on Opening Night, March 10, 2023.

On the left, Director Liza Mandelup and Raymond David Taylor, subject of the SXSW documentary “Caterpillar”on SXSW Opening Night, March 10, 2023.

Some other patients, we learn, who did not heed the United States opthalmalogists’ warning about the damage the implants have done (or are doing) to their eyes ended up blind or partially blind. One former patient whom David tracks down after he begins encountering headaches and blurry vision said that he woke up after 5 years with blood on his cornea. “I had to remove them or go blind.”

The unfettered access to the surgery and the patients seems quite unusual. That is, until we learn that the leadership of BrightOcular is very circumspect. No one ever comes forward to represent BrightOcular or another entity called Spectra. These agencies exist and are offering this service and heavily advertising how it will “change your life” on social media, with beautiful pictures of patients like David. They are not as forthcoming about the negatives of the procedure. The Indian physician who says he, personally, would not undergo the procedure knows this is a very risky way to change one’s outlook on life and seems to convey that through his reticence to heartily endorse the procedure.

David bought into it with words like, “This is my new beginning. I’m changing,” or “Beauty matters. Beauty gets you through the door.

Musical selections like “Stand By Me” and “I Want to Dance With Somebody,” selected by Music Supervisor Melissa Chapman, merge with the early upbeat theme of positive change seamlessly and add much to the extremely well-done production.

Afterwards, the writer/director (Liza Mandelup) and David, the chief subject, answered questions about the inspiration for the film and its aftermath. Liza said she had been doing research on the apps that can change one’s appearance when she learned of this eye surgery. She sent the BrightOcular company an e-mail asking I f she could do a documentary about the process. They were very positive in their response and never really surfaced as an entity. Their leadership remains a mystery.

Writer-Director Liza Mandelup.

She cautions that David was one of the few patients who listened to the warnings from U.S. eye doctors, post-surgery, and had his implants removed fairly quickly. Others have faced the need to have cornea transplants and some have gone blind because they refused to give up the implants over a period of years. One patient, asked what she would be content with in regards to improving her appearance, answered, “What am I content with? Just more.”

Among the best compliments of the terrific job the filmmaker did with this riveting documentary was a woman who stood up in the back during the Q&A and said, in heavily accented English, “You mean this was a documentary? I thought it was a movie!”

59th Chicago International Film Festival to Run October 11-October 22, 2023

By Connie Wilson

On September 20, 2023

In Movies, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

The Chicago International Film Festival’s 59^th iteration will screen at 8 locations in Chicago commencing October 11^th. In a preview of the full range of offerings on September 18^th at the AMC Newcity Theatres on North Clyburn Avenue.

Other venues where films will be screened this year include the historic Music Box Theater, the Chicago History Museum, the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, and some other pop-up venues on the South and West sides of the city.

In other years, nearly all films have been shown at a central location, the AMC Theater on Illinois. I learned that I could make it from my condo to the venue in about fifteen minutes, but the cost of parking has exceeded the cost of tickets in recent years. It appears that the large AMC Theater may have priced itself out of the market. I was also told that they are renovating the theater (and removing many seats), which had been all the buzz before the pandemic hit, i.e., will the AMC go belly-up as a result of their ambitious upgrading plans and the costs of same at a bad time, historically. I was told that the AMC New City Theater had previously existed under a different owner and was snapped up by AMC.

While it took me over an hour to drive from the Field Museum to the North Clyburn Avenue location for a 6:30 p.m. meeting (i.e., during Rush Hour), I was able to park for free on the street and there are restaurants within the New City complex that could make killing time between films much easier. There weren’t many good places near the large AMC complex, and the good ones like P.J. O’Rourkes often closed.

I went back to the beginning of my Weekly Wilson blog and found reviews from 2007 on. I think I actually reviewed cinema offerings earlier than that, but not on my own blog. Now, of course, I publish here and on The Movie Blog.

Director Mimi Plauche and Sir Henry Branagh at the Music Box Theater on Opening Night of his film “Belfast.”

This year, the panels picking what we will be able to see reviewed 7,500 films before boiling it down to 57 offerings. There were 5,500 short films that were viewed to narrow the offering to 99 shorts. The films came in from 123 countries and the Opening Night film will be “We Grown Now,” directed by Minhal Baig and starring Jurnee Smollett as Dolores, the mother of a young Black boy in the Cabrini-Green Housing Project who must decide whether to stay or move away.

Tickets this year run $35 for Opening/Closing Nights, and $23 for Special Presentations. A general screening, if you are a member of Cinema Chicago, is $18 and $22 if you are not a Cinema Chicago member.

It is my fervent hope that the parking this year will be cheaper, as it had really gotten out of hand last year.

Nashville Film Festival Screens from September 28th to October 4th, 2023

By Connie Wilson

On September 16, 2023

In Local, Movies, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews, travel

Nashville Film Festival September 28th through October 4th, 2023.

The Nashville Film Festival commences September 28^th, and I will be there, in person, covering it. It runs from September 28^th until October 4^th. The Nashville Film Festival presents more than 125 film screenings, a selection of post-film Q&As and in-depth discussions with attending filmmakers.

NashFilm hosts events and programs that highlight the many aspects of filmmaking, including: a Screenwriting Competition (September 28-October 4); a Music Supervisors Program; the Creators Conference (film and music industry panels; and live music performances and new artist showcases throughout the week.

The festival opens with the documentary “I Will Survive,” from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville. It is the story of the career and resurgence of Gloria Gaynor and Gaynor, plus director Betsy Schechter will be present at the post-party afterwards at Anzie Blue.

On Friday, in addition to composer Mark Isham (“Crash”) in conference, the short “The Hit Man” (18 minutes) with Richard Kind and Peter Riegert and Nancy Allen screens at the Rothschild Black Box Theatre. Later that night, “Another Body,” about a coed who finds fake nude photos of herself online, will show at the same theater.

Saturday, 9/30, a Joan Baez documentary (“I Am A Noise”) is up, along with a documentary entitled “The Disappearance of Sheri Hite.” (Sheri Hite wrote a groundbreaking book on female sexuality and then largely disappeared from public view.)

Sunday, October 1^st, I am looking forward to some documentary shorts, as well as David Straithorn in “Remember This.” David Strathairn portrays Jan Karski in this genre-defying true story of a reluctant World War II hero and Holocaust witness. After surviving the devastation of the Blitzkrieg, Karski swears allegiance to the Polish Underground and risks his life to carry the first eyewitness reports of war-torn Poland to the Western world, and ultimately, the Oval Office. Escaping a Gestapo prison, bearing witness to the despair of the Warsaw ghetto and confronted by the inhumanity of a death camp, Karski endures unspeakable mental anguish and physical torture to stand tall in the halls of power and speak the truth.

Monday, October 2^nd, brings a Minnie Pearl documentary, “Facing the Laughter” and a documentary entitled “The Tuba Thieves,” about real-life thefts of that instrument in California.

Tuesday, October 3^rd, is a day to do some streaming, with many options there.

Wednesday, October 4^th is closing night at the Belcourt, featuring the film “Foe” with Saiorse Ronan, with a closing night party at Exit/In. Earlier, there is a documentary entitled “Silver Dollar Road,” also at the Belcourt, From Academy-Award Nominee Raoul Peck, Silver Dollar Road follows the story of the Reels family as told by the matriarch Mamie Reels Ellison and her niece Kim Renee Duhon, two fierce and clear-eyed women bending to safeguard valiantly their ancestors’ land and their brothers and uncles Melvin and Licurtis, who were wrongfully imprisoned for eight years – the longest sentence for civil contempt in North Carolina history.

“Retribution” Is Yet Another Liam Neeson Action Movie (With A Lot Less Action)

By Connie Wilson

On August 25, 2023

In Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

Liam Neeson (“Taken”) has made another action movie (at the age of 71) but there isn’t much action required of him, other than driving a car and peering into the side mirror a lot.

The movie is a remake (the third) of the Dani de la Torreia film “El Desopascido” (2015). It is a bit of a “Speed” rip-off, in that businessman Matt Turner is trapped in his car, with his two children, by an unknown assailant who contacts him via cell phone and warns him that, if he or the kids try to get out of the car or he doesn’t drive as instructed, the vehicle will blow up.

There is a bomb planted beneath the seats and if Neeson or his son or daughter get out of the car, the change in pressure will automatically detonate the hidden bomb. To prove that he isn’t fooling around, the anonymous criminal blows up a car with a hapless couple inside, so that Neeson can realize he is serious. It also turns out that it is so that Neeson’s car is seen by the authorities in the vicinity where the first explosion occurs and they will begin targeting and chasing him, assuming he is to blame for all the carnage.

From there on, it is pretty much Liam Neeson driving around and doing whatever the anonymous voice on the phone tells him to do, even after both of his car doors have been removed. (A passerby tells the hapless driver this, speaking in German.) I was somewhat confused by the melange of languages. It appears that Liam and family are full-time residents of Germany (Berlin, specifically) but they don’t seem to speak the language. Yet they seem to understand televsion in the native tongue and there is no real explanation of why none of the Turner clan is bi-lingual. (Weird).

Neeson is not having a good day, as he learns during the ordeal that his wife (Embeth Davidtz, with whom Neeson worked in “Schindler’s List”) is having a meeting with a divorce attorney. Plus, his two children are mouthy and pretty annoying, especially early on. Lilly Aspell, who played the young “Wonder Woman” in that film (2017), plays his daughter, Emily Turner, and Jack Champion (“Avatar: The Way of Water,” 2022) portrays the teen-aged Zach Turner.They are typical in being addicted to their cell phones, but their hostile reactions to most requests (“Get in the car.” “Give me your cell phone.”) make them less-than-likeable.

At one point I turned to my spouse and said, “At what point did Matt lose control of his children.” It was not a remark without foundation. We are given only the slightest of clues about why Heather Turner (Matt’s wife) might be talking to a divorce attorney, but one of the main reasons seems to be that he is a workaholic and frequently leaves her holding the parenting bag, even if he was alerted in advance that he needed to pitch in that day.. At one point, the script has Liam Neeson say, “I’ve had better days,” which caused me to laugh out loud.

I also thought some of the other scripted lines were excessively formulaic and bore little relationship to what was happening onscreen. One example: “You don’t run from a challenge. You take it on.” [Well, maybe not if the challenge is keeping your car from blowing up while your two children are trapped inside with you.]

There was a scene where we learn that there is no cell phone signal in a large Berlin tunnel. I thought this meant that the bomb could not, then, be triggered. Our discussion of this plot point did give some credibility to the thought that removing Liam Neeson’s body weight from the driver’s side of the Mercedes would cause the vehicle to explode because of the “pressure plate” mentioned early on.

I smiled when the Black investigator, played by Noma Dumazweme, told the hassled businessman that the police had interrupted the cell service. She tells him that it is the first time that cell phone service was interrupted to Berlin since 1945. The only problem with that factoid is that there were no cell phones at all in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, or the 1970s. It is true that the cell phone was invented in 1973, but it was not readily available to the public until 1983. Liam’s tearing out of the signal-less underground highway tunnel with bezillion Polizei arrayed in front of him, while telling the policewoman that HE would find the culprit if they (the police) could not (and shouting “Tell your men to stand down” which she had no time at all to do) was batshit crazy.

I should mention the presence of Matthew Modine as Liam Neeson’s business partner in an investment firm. Initially, I felt this fine actor (“Full Metal Jacket” 1987) was being totally under-utilized, as he appeared only in cell phone conversations sent to Neeson’s car that were business-related. As the plot progressed, his role increased. I was happy to see that he got more screentime. (I also noticed that Matthew Modinne’s teeth are far better than Liam Neeson’s).

Here was another random formulaic line, as scripted by Alberto Marina and Christopher Salmanpour: “This was all inevitable.” Really?

Nothing that happened seemed “inevitable.” The chase scenes where Liam successfully navigates literally multitudes of police cars that are arrayed to stop him were implausible in the extreme. There have been movies with good car chase scenes (“Bullitt,” “To Live and Die in L.A.,” “The French Connection”) but this was not one of them.

This movie was directed by Nimrod Antal, who was previously involved in directing “Machete” and “Predators.” At some point, he must have known that even audiences that have been suspending belief to watch Liam Neeson go to great lengths to defend or rescue his family members for years in mediocre movies were going to find Neeson’s driving through road blocks that must have been designed by a mentally deficient police sergeant would not play successfully in Peoria (or anywhere else). It will, however, soon be streaming on a streaming service near you. Possibly right now on YouTube.

I actually enjoyed the “twist” at the end, for several reasons. The acting was acceptable, even if the script did not hold water. There were some impressive explosions at various points. Many stunt people got work in the streets of Berlin. (My son works for a company headquartered in Berlin, so I enjoyed the tour of the city.)

The thing that gave me pause as I watched what could well be one of Liam Neeson’s last outings as an action hero was the realization that we’ve lost two great ones in this genre this year: Bruce Willis and, potentially, Liam Neeson. I am not encouraged that the new crop of action movie performers is up to snuff, especially since a trailer ran for another “Expendables” film with Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Statham and 50 Cent. (50 Cent, in particular, was nearly impossible to understand.)

Music for “Retribution” by Harry Gregson-Williams

Cinematography by Flavrio Martinez Labiano.

“Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning” Is Tom Cruise’s Baby

By Connie Wilson

On August 7, 2023

In Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

“Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning,” Part One, is Tom Cruise’s latest entry into that series, the 7^th in a series stretching back 27 years, and supposedly the next-to-last.

The movie runs 2 hours and 43 minutes and contains one over-the-top action sequence after another. The efforts of Ethan Hunt and the IMF (Impossible Mission Force) pits Ethan against an evil power known as The Entity represented by the arch-villain Gabriel (Esai Morales). There is a key involved, with two sides of the key meant to power the most nefarious weapon in the world. Everybody wants it and tries to get it.

The main impression I came away from this over-long film were these:

Tom Cruise is shown running repeatedly—-scene after scene after scene. SEE TOM RUN! RUN, TOM, RUN!
Tom Cruise drives a motorcycle a lot.
Tom Cruise also does a lot of hang gliding/parachuting while looking for half of this All-Powerful key in some of the most exotic locales in the world.
This movie cost A LOT to make! Supposedly it is the priciest film of Tom Cruise’s career. Pandemic delays ballooned the budget to $291 million. By contrast, “Oppenheimer” cost $100 million.
Tom Cruise has the ability to switch Significant Others onscreen almost as readily as he has done in real life. When the movie begins, the love interest is Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust. Before the movie ends, the new love interest becomes Hayley Atwell as Grace. Both are very good.
Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn and Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell are also good, but the standout for most critics has been Pom Klementieff as Paris.

I’d like to say that the plot and the character development keep pace with the action sequences, but I’d be lying. They don’t. As the old saying goes, “It is what it is.” That means a very opulent-looking (some scenes are shot on what is represented to be the Orient Express) movie with action sequences that are so far removed from reality that we are watching a violent ballet. We are reassured, however, that the car chase did not actually occur on the real Spanish Steps, but took place on a studio sound stage built for the stunt.

Director ChristopherMcQuarrie, who is also one of the three writers (Erik Jendresen and Bruce Geller are the others) has directed 3 movies with Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt (and worked with him on 4). He allows for some sardonic humor, here and there. There are many pompous-sounding pronouncements, like, “We live and die in the shadows for those we hold dear and for those we never meet.” Also, “Our lives are the sum of our choices, and we cannot escape the past.”

Perhaps Ethan/Tom cannot escape the past, but he sure can escape everything else! In one memorable escape an entire train is being sent hurtling over a cliff as the bridge blows up. It isn’t enough to just have the train, car by car, hurtling into the void. It also is necessary for the interior of the train to be on fire! (I can just hear the screenwriters talking that one up. Rumor is that they think up a lot of this stuff on the fly.)

By now, you’ve probably seen the stunt with the motorcycle going off the cliff and the Ethan Hunt character then unfurling his parachute and gliding to safety in previews. As Manohla Dargis of the “New York Times” put it, “Like the other large-scale, stunt-driven sequences, this showy leap at once underscores Cruise’s skills and reminds you that a real person in a real location on a real motorbike did this lunatic stunt.”

Then there’s the villain of the piece, Gabriel (Esai Morales). The two fight atop a moving train, which might be an homage to something similar in the very first “Mission Impossible” film (1996).Tom Cruise and Esai Morales were both born in 1962, so they are 61. Cruise is listed as 5’ 7” tall, while Morales is said to be 5’ 10.” The fight on the train, then, features two stocky middle-aged actors who are giving it their best shot. (The close-ups of Cruise atop the train are the least flattering shots of him in the film, forehead wrinkled, hair askew.)Here we have a perfectly attired middle-aged stocky male figure who isn’t so tall that he makes Tom Cruise look even shorter than the 5’ 7” he is (*Note: Al Pacino- only 5’ 6”).

Some critics have criticized Esai Morales as not being “evil” enough to embody the total villainy of the plot’s Gabriel. I was fine with Morales’ version of evil and have liked him ever since “La Bamba.”However, I do remember films where other baddies were far more evil-looking/acting—say Al Pacino in “The Devil’s Advocate” (1997) for the intrinsically evil acting, or Jack Nicholson in “The Shining” and “The Witches of Eastwock.”

For the appearance alone aspect, consider Dr. No or Goldfinger or Ernest Stavro Blofeld (“You Only Live Twice,” Donald Pleasance, 1967) or Jaws or even the much more recent appearance of Rami Malek in “No Time to Die.” So, does Esai Morales look like the quintessential “bad guy.” In a word, no. But, then, neither did Ted Bundy

The locations are also standout, with the Orient Express-mentioned train scenes, others shot in what is supposed to be a Russian submarine; some in the deserts near Yemen; Amsterdam; Venice; and as many other exotic ports of call as you can name. Starting shooting in northern Italy was a stroke of particularly bad luck, as the pandemic kicked off and hit Italy hard. Cruise was sick with something early on and then both Cruise and McQuarrie got Covid (as did many others working on the film.) It even caused a much-publicized blow-up from the perfectionistic Cruise, who read the crew out in no uncertain terms.

The expert choreography of the action sequences (some of which feature Cruise and Atwell handcuffed together) is to be marveled at. The acting is sufficient for a film of this nature. Because, as mentioned earlier, “It is what it is.

Stay tuned for the second installment (and eighth and last in the “Mission Impossible” franchise) if you care whether the key fits anything and what it does when inserted.

Meanwhile, more interesting to me than the movie itself is the drama going on behind the scenes, as reported in the “Hollywood Reporter.”

The studio tried to reign in the ever-burgeoning budget, which had to shut down 7 times due to Covid-19. At one point, Cruise rented an entire cruise ship for $676,000 so that the cast could isolate. Then there was the matter of the Russian submarine, added to the budget at the last minute (and the opening of the film) in one of those on-the-fly last-minute moves that the McQuarrie/Cruise partnership has involved. Paramount tried to tell Cruise that this entry in the series would only have a 45-day theatrical window and then would begin streaming on Paramount Plus.

Cruise, aware that he has earned $3.6 billion dollars for the studio over his 37-year association with Paramount (and his 30-years playing the character Ethan Hunt) lawyered up and told the studio that the 45-day theatrical window was not going to prevail. After all, there was language in their contract that said this film would be handled like the others that preceded it.

The most successful film of the series, financially, was 2018’s “Fallout,” which brought in $791.6 worldwide. It is going to be interesting to see what the numbers add up to when the dust clears on this next-to-last outing of the series that spun off from a TV series. Regardless, sources say that Cruise will make more from the film than the studio will.

A veteran of Tom Cruise movies laughed about the attempt to tell Tom Cruise that the film would only have a 45-day theatrical window showing (according to the “Hollywood Reporter”). This insider said, “ This is the way these things go. ‘Tom says what he wants and the studio says what it wants. And then Tom gets what he asked for.'”

“M.J.: The Musical” Hits Chicago

By Connie Wilson

On August 4, 2023

In Music, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

While taking in “Tommy: The Rock Opera” on my birthday, I became aware that “M.J.: The Musical” would be opening soon at the Niederlander Theater (formerly the Oriental Theater) on Aug. 1^st and running only until September 3^rd.

I had seen the New York City lead in the play on the Tony awards, and I thought it looked like something that would be very high energy and enjoyable. (It was nominated for 6 Tonys).

So, a quick trip to Chicago ensued.

The trip in put us in traffic for Soldier Field. There was a big soccer game between two European teams, Chelsea and Dortmund.

Also, Lollapalooza was scheduled to kick off on August 3^rd in Grant Park, with Billie Eilish singing at 7:30 p.m. Many streets were closed for Lolla.

I secured tickets to the musical online and it said we were in Row B to the right side of the stage in the Orchestra section. It turned out that Row B was actually the first row and the musicians were playing almost directly beneath us, which means that we had an unobstructed view and our seats actually vibrated to the beat and pulse of all of the Michael Jackson hits through the years.

Several different actors portrayed the young and teen-aged and adult Michael Jackson and the play sketched his life as though a film crew were trying to document the preparations for the “Dangerous” tour.

All of the actors were fantastic. It sometimes became a wee bit confusing to have multiple actors playing the same role and to have one actor portraying two parts simultaneously. For instance, the very talented actress playing Michael Jackson’s mother held down a couple of roles, as did the burly gentleman portraying Joseph Johnson, who had a great voice.

The traffic in Chicago was absolutely horrific and, when we came out of the theater after the play, it took the better part of half an hour for the Lyft driver (Jose) to make his way to the theater for pick-up. Cabs were few and far between.

It was a wonderful uplifting play, if slanted to highlight only the positive P.R. of Michael Jackson.

“Barbie” Movie Delivers Way More Than Sparkle at the Box Office

By Connie Wilson

On July 28, 2023

In Local, Movies, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

I was one of those little girls who was given a baby doll to mother. Barbie dolls did not exist until 1959. By that point, I was entering high school and done with dolls. I do remember when my friend Beverley’s little sister, Bonnie, got her first Barbie doll. We older girls looked at it as though it were from another world. This was nothing like the Kewpie doll or the dolls with big heads that we were to mock feed with bottles. This creature was something else entirely.

I entered college in 1963 and graduated with a degree in English. When I wanted to go to law school, my father, born in 1902, said, “A woman shouldn’t take a man’s job.” While he and my mother thought it was fine if I wanted to go on to graduate school in English, law school was not something they would help me finance.

The only “acceptable” careers for a woman as I headed off to college in the early sixties were secretary, nurse, or teacher. A fourth possibility might be the less professional hairdresser. Yes, Ruth Bader Ginsberg made it through law school, but she had an extremely supportive husband who assisted her. I did not have any support from my family for a career other than the “acceptable” ones mentioned above.

As a result, I went on to get my Master’s (plus 30 hours) in English with a Journalism minor. I taught for 18 years before I took my own money and invested it in an entrepreneurial idea that bore fruit. I ended up establishing and being CEO of two businesses and left the low-paying teaching job I had labored at from 1969 until 1985 behind for good.

I talked my husband into accompanying me to see “Barbie” because another critic (male) whose opinion I respect sang its praises. Since one (of only two) theaters in our Quad City area just closed (and the weather was beastly hot) we ended up having to sit in the very first row of the theater at 5:05 p.m. on a Thursday. We couldn’t sit together—which is just as well, since my spouse went in with a negative attitude and emerged with an even more negative attitude. His remarks after the film ended were all uber critical. (Gee…maybe I should call him “the most negative person I’ve ever met” which he once said to me, for a bit of inaccurate hyperbole). I think he is just the wrong gender to really be able to relate to most of what the film was articulating about the way women have traditionally been treated in our society. You gotta’ be female to really get that. He’s not.

I loved the “Barbie” movie. I hadn’t expected to, but it entertained while really flinging some zingers at society’s treatment of women versus men, historically.

The cast is great. The fashions and music are to-die-for. The script is the best. Only those who, in the face of ample proof, deny that “it’s a man’s world,” or are arch-Conservatives, would hate this clever, well-written movie.

Of course, when a liberal Democrat marries into a Republican conclave, there will be disagreements. This is one of them. Trust me: I’m right on this one. And the Never Trump one, too.

One sure-fire Oscar nominee is probably Billie Eilish’s theme song, with others to come.

SPOILER WARNING

I will be recapping a few of the script’s better lines. Be warned.

What is the plot?

Barbie and Ken journey from Barbieland to “the real world” and—much like films as far back as “Time After Time”—they are strangers in a strange land, trying to adjust to the realities of what is referred to as “the patriarchy.” (My spouse apparently does not believe in the patriarchy, but that’s on him. It exists and has existed since time immemorial.)

Barbie is being visited by thoughts that are totally UN-Barbie-like—thoughts about death and dying, for one thing. Baumbach’s last film “White Noise” (Adam Driver) also involved thoughts about death and dying. Baumbach, who co-wrote the script with his life partner Greta Gerwig (who directed) mines his own life for themes. Many deal with dysfunctional family relationships or divorce, like “Marriage Story” and death is a concern, as it is in the works of Woody Allen.

But “Barbie” is Greta Gerwig’s triumph, because, after all, she’s female. She just had the biggest opening week for a movie directed by a woman in history, a $162 million debut, the biggest of the year.

Noah Baumbach may be more aware of “the patriarchy” (or what we used to call “the Good Old Boys’ network) than most men, but Greta has nailed all the things that women of MY generation were expected to cope with to be a desirable, acceptable female in “the real world.” As one prescient line from the outstanding script says, “Everything exists to expand and elevate the presence of men.”

What things, you might ask disingenuously?

Let me share some of the lines from this film that “nail” the idea that women have, traditionally, been put down and kept down and had to behave in certain ways in order to get by in our society.

“A woman must appear helpless and confused.” Add to that the thought, spoken by Barbie, “I like not having to make any decisions.”

“ Power (on the part of a female) must be masked under a giggle.”

“A woman must pretend to be terrible at every single sport ever.”

“Either you’re brainwashed or you’re weird and ugly. There is no in-between.”

“Every night is boys’ night.”

“I’m not good enough for anything.”

Some of these “truths” are now changing, and all are being challenged, but, remember: this is the world I grew up in, not the one my granddaughters are growing up in.

There is a terrific monologue (by America Ferrera) that articulated the “required” things for females in America. That one scene, alone, is worth the price of admission, describing, as it does, the tightrope that women in America have to navigate.

“Everything is your fault.”

“We must tie ourselves into knots so that people will like us.”

“We must reject men’s advances without rejecting them.

“It’s best if you don’t think about it too much. Don’t overthink it.”

Barbies, says the film, represent sexualized capitalism. The rise of the Barbie doll “set the feminist movement back fifty years.” The term “Fascist” is thrown around, even though Barbie immediately says that she doesn’t have anything to do with railways or the flow of commerce.

At one point, a male character says, “I’m a man with no power. Does that make me a woman?” (I laughed out loud at that one.)

Greta Gerwig is one clever writer. If you didn’t laugh at “Lady Bird” you probably need a humor transplant. “Lady Bird” also had the ability to encapsulate the mother/daughter relationship so perfectly; mothers and daughters everywhere could relate.

With “Barbie,” females of any age will be able to relate. Men? Not so much.

THE CLOTHES

Another Big Plus for me—a child of the sixties—were the outfits that the gorgeous Margot Robbie and the handsome Ryan Gosling wear. I loved the blue dress with the white collar and cuffs, although it was very short—even shorter than the mini skirt years I wore in my prime. Loved, loved, loved the green and pink outfit with the matching hat. Ken’s outfits didn’t make him appear as attractive as Barbie’s, although, as the script says, “He’s one nice-looking piece of plastic.”

THE CAST

When you’ve got Ryan Gosling willing to take a career risk like this, you’re on a roll. There was a really interesting interview with Greta Gerwig in the “New York Times” where she described how she called Gosling up and convinced him to be her Ken. Will Ferrell portrays the CEO of Mattel and his encounters with the discontinued Pregnant Midge Barbie and the Proust Barbie ( Rhea Perlman plays the part of the creator of Barbie, Ruth Handler.

THE MUSIC

Lots of good music, but listen for the closing theme by Billie Eilish, “What Was I Made For?” Potential Oscar nominee.

THE SCRIPT

Terrific! And another move forward for the talented Greta Gerwig after her debut with “Lady Bird.” She and partner Noah Baumbach have made an important movie. I would not have dreamed that this movie would deliver as it has, but the thoughts are true and the truth will out.

A line that resonated with me—a former proud wearer of an ERA bracelet (look it up)—was this one:

“We mothers stand still so we can see how far our daughters have come.” In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, this certainly rang true. And, as the script puts it, “anxiety, panic attacks, and OCD sold separately.”

Jennifer Lawrence Is the “Maneater” in “No Hard Feelings”

By Connie Wilson

On July 10, 2023

In Local, Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

Maneater

(Hall & Oates)

[Verse 1]
She’ll only come out at night
The lean and hungry type
Nothing is new
I’ve seen her here before
Watching and waiting
Ooh, she’s sitting with you, but her eyes are on the door
So many have paid to see what you think you’re getting for free
The woman is wild, a she-cat tamed by the purr of a Jaguar
Money’s the matter
If you’re in it for love, you ain’t gonna get too far

[Chorus]
(Oh-oh, here she comes)
Watch out, boy, she’ll chew you up
(Oh-oh, here she comes)
She’s a maneater
(Oh-oh, here she comes)
Watch out, boy, she’ll chew you up
(Oh-oh, here she comes)
She’s a maneater

[Verse 2]
I wouldn’t if I were you
I know what she can do
She’s deadly, man
She could really rip your world apart
Mind over matter
Ooh, the beauty is there but a beast is in the heart

It’s important for me to start this review of “No Hard Feelings,” the newest Jennifer Lawrence film, with the lyrics of the 1982 Hall & Oates hit “Maneater.” The lyrics sum up the character of the film’s female lead, Jennifer Lawrence, as Maddie Barker.

Maddie Barker is a native of Montauk, a watering hole for the rich and famous. Maddie, raised by a single Mom, is resentful of many things in her life. She is angry at the influx of the myriad well-to-do tourists in the summer season and just as angry that her own biological father—who was himself a married summer visitor—impregnated her mother and then left town, taking no responsibility for the daughter left behind. He paid her Mom off with the house they live in. A letter sent to her father years later was returned without comment. It is safe to say that Maddie’s relationship with men, in general, is summed up by the “Maneater” lyrics.

Jennifer Lawrence last appeared in “Causeway,” a grim portrait of a woman haunted by PTSD. This lightweight comedy was such an improvement. I hope she continues to, as one reviewer put it, “fly her freak flag,” because she does it so well and it is such a joy to see ANY recent release that isn’t a Marvel spin-off or a horror movie.

“No Hard Feelings” is the sweet story of a young woman Uber driver and part-time bartender trying to save her Montauk home, inherited from her recently deceased mother, which is in danger of being taken over for back taxes. She is hired by the wealthy parents of Percy Becker to try to socialize a very nerdy young man who is about to leave for his freshman year at Princeton at the end of the summer. Her payment will be a car to replace the car that is being towed by an ex-boyfriend in some early hilarious scenes.

Naming the 2 main characters “Becker” and “Barker” might not have been the strongest plot point. The side character that Kyle Mooney plays (“SNL”) seems completely extraneous and, to a certain extent, so is the character of the tow truck driver, Gary, played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach. That role reminded me of one that would fit Chris O’Dowd. But most of this movie is sheer pleasure, from start to finish, thanks to clever writing and excellent acting.

The nerdy young man is well-played by Andrew Barth Feldman (“Dear Evan Hansen” on Broadway during his high school years.) Feldman does a great job of holding his own opposite Lawrence as Maddie. His helicopter parents have hired Maddie Barker to bring their son Percy Becker out of his shell. His father, Laird Becker, is portrayed by Matthew Broderick, looking grayer and paunchier. Mom Allison is played by Laura Benanti. The couple promises Maddie a secondhand Buick if she will escort son Percy around town and introduce him to the ways of the world, socially and, potentially, sexually.

Gene Stupnitsky is the director and co-writer with John Phillips. Stupnitsky is known, previously, for “The Office” (2005) and “Bad Teacher” (2011). With its $31 million opening, “No Hard Feelings” becomes the highest-grossing R-rated comedy since Stupnitsky directed “Good Boys” in 2019. The film has surpassed $50 million worldwide, on a slim budget of $45 million.

The movie has raunchy dialogue, as when Maddie goes to the veterinary clinic to “meet cute” with Percy, who volunteers there. She sees him cuddling a puppy and, dressed to the nines, approaches and says “Mind if I touch your weiner.” It turns out that Maddie means weiner DOG and, when asked why she wants to adopt a dog, says, “Because I can’t have dogs of my own.”

The uber confident Maddie, taking on some teenagers who are attempting to steal their clothes as they skinny dip in the ocean, while nude is a tour de force. Her confident and aggressive take charge attitude is perfectly contrasted with Percy’s indecisiveness. However, when Maddie convinces Percy to sing a song for her at a restaurant ( he selects “Maneater”), the significance of the song’s lyrics resonate and we begin to see the emotional growth that will occur for both main characters, leading to a better-than-anticipated happy ending.

Jennifer Lawrence is a talented actress and, boy, can she do comedy! I would much rather see her in something like this than in “Mother” or “Causeway,” despite acknowledging that she can expertly do both.

Now to my own unique connection to the song “Maneater,” which made this film a home run even for me.

I once did a road trip from the Quad Cities of Illinois to Fargo, North Dakota, to visit my friend Pan. This is a distance of roughly 500 miles. It takes 9 hours. This was in the 1980s, the day of cassettes. My radio was not working, so I was dependent on the cassettes I had brought for tunes for the trip.

I popped in Hall & Oates’ “Maneater” tape and enjoyed it for a while. Then, I attempted to eject it and put in a different tape; the cassette would not eject. I tried the radio, which was not working. I had two choices: silence for 9 hours or “Maneater.”

Three times, along the route, I stopped at gas stations and asked various mechanic types to try to get this cassette out of my player, so I could change songs. I still remember the gas station attendant stretched out on the floor of my car, attractive butt-crack revealed, poking at the cassette player with a long pointed screwdriver-like instrument. He was unsuccessful in removing the tape, so it was “Maneater” or nothing for 9 long hours.

When my friend and I—who were going to be flying to Europe together on a girls only trip—went out the night after my arrival to a Neil Diamond concert (THAT will date me!) the tape was still stuck in my cassette player. We attended the concert and, after we emerged from the concert and started the engine, the tape magically popped out on its own.

I will never forget that song. I truly related to its message, then and now.

“No Hard Feelings” is a good one! Check it out.

“The Boogeyman:” Stephen King Redux

By Connie Wilson

On June 19, 2023

In Best Paranormal Stories Online to Read | Paranormal Podcast, Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews, Scary stories

We were desperate for a movie to see at the theater on a weekend. The ones offered were grim.

Then, I noticed that the screenwriters (Scott Beck and Bryan Woods) behind “A Quiet Place” had collaborated with a third writer (Mark Heyman) and taken an old Stephen King short story (from his “Night Shift” collection) and amplified it into a PG horror film. The second thing it had going for it was its lead, Chris Messina, whom I enjoyed in “Damages” (and “Argo” and “Air”). It was directed by Rob Savage who has been making films since he was eighteen that won him a “Star of Tomorrow” award.

Off we went to enjoy a truly good ensemble cast, which included Sophie Thatcher as Messina’s teenaged daughter Sadie Harper and Vivien Lyra Blair as her younger sister, Sawyer. Marin Ireland as Rita Billings has a nice cameo-length appearance as the deranged wife of Lester Billings (from the short story). Lester was portrayed by David Dastmalchian, who wanders into therapist Will Harper’s home office, tells him a harrowing story about his children dying one after another, and then, without enough of a preamble for the act, offs himself in a nearby closet.

Not since Jeffrey Epstein have we had a suicide as poorly explained. In fact—although I’ve read that the very act of barging in and killing himself in their house dooms the Harper family to what happens thereafter—I admit I don’t remember it from the source material. This explanation is not emphasized enough to satisfy me as the why for all that occurs after Lester’s untimely demise.

THE GOOD

I’m glad I saw this film in a theater, because it’s so dark that when it streams, the dark images will be difficult to decipher. The cast is uniformly excellent. The production designer (Jeremy Woodward) and the cinematographer (Eli Born) have worked together to use negative space and darkness beautifully. Since one of the lines from the film is “It needs the dark to stay hidden,” the framing and continual use of darkness is extremely well-done.

Most of us, as small children, had a fear of the dark. All of us, at any age, have a fear of what goes bump in the night. I was particularly struck by the sounds that foster the mood. I grew up in a very old house that had a heating system along the baseboards that pumped heated water to warm the rooms upstairs. The baseboard heating system made all sorts of ungodly noises. Id you were home alone, it was only a short putt from the strange gurgling noises to paranoia and incipient terror. So, well done, sound people!

I was impressed by the ominous music in the therapist scenes and elsewhere. Sometimes, the background noises are of a beating heart gradually slowing. Music is by Patrick Jonsson. Yes, the movie is more dependent on sounds and jump scares than on gory images, at least until the finale “Alien-like” scenes, but that was just fine with me. The “thing” that lurked in the closet and under the bed was well done when it finally is seen up close, but I’m partial to the build up of suspense by subtler means.

THE BAD

I had never seen a giant white ball that lights up in the possession of a child or an adult. It was an interesting prop for the “fear of the dark” theme, but, still, it seemed very unusual. While I loved the scene where the younger daughter uses the white ball to try to see the boogeyman, it was not a universal toy.

The grief that the family is experiencing, because of the death of the girls’ mother in a car accident only months prior, makes for a troubled backdrop for the teenager Sadie, in particular. Her friends at school, with the exception of one closer friend, seem like the cast of “Mean Girls.” When the wound of a lost parent is so fresh for the troubled teenager I found the extreme nastiness of 90% of her friends to be questionable, but, then, this is the age of Facebook shaming, so color me Old School. (Shame on them, by the way!)

I wondered, when Sophie goes to Lester Billings’ house, if you could really walk right in, as she does. The candles in the hallway, while a nicely spooky touch, seemed completely unsafe, but the scenes featuring Lester’s widow (Marin Ireland) were top-notch, as she attempts to lure the Shadow Monster from the dark using Sophie as unwilling bait. The dialogue made me smile, as when Sawyer, the younger child, says, “Just trying not to die.”

The old Polaroid camera in the closet, while a nice touch, was an anachronism. Who still sells or uses Polaroid cameras, and what, exactly, was the camera going to do to help Mrs. Billingsley? Sony got a nice product placement with a Sony Infolithium System. Use of the old Irish song “Tura Lura Lura” never seemed to be tied into the plot well, just as Lester Billingsley’s sudden suicide seemed precipitous and poorly explained. I blame this on my memory of the short story, which I read many years ago (and have not revisited.)

Lines that I liked (“The thing that comes for your kids when you’re not paying attention,” and “”Sometimes it’s better to have something to blame than to accept things that happen”) were offset by the ubiquitous “You got this.” (That’s probably just me; I’m really sick of that catch phrase.)

Overall, while I agree that no new horror ground was broken by the film, the normal scary territory was well served. We enjoyed the film, especially glad that we had actually been able to see it because of the big screen. We’ve been watching “The Invasion” on Apple + and it’s so dark in the monster sequences that, frequently, we don’t know exactly what we’re watching.