What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Fading Fast]

From HBO, The Menu, a 2022 film with Ralph Fiennes, Nicholas Hoult, John Leguizamo, Janet McTeer, and (starring) Anya Taylor-Joy.

The Menu is another of the almost-horror films that seem to be right in the zeitgeist now. Think Get Out, Midsommar, Last Night in Soho, Old, Us, (even The White Lotus), etc. Call it "sociological horror", where things seem great and beautiful at the start... but are not what they seem to be.

In this case, a bunch of uber-rich foodies flock to the super-expensive, exclusive island restaurant of a world-class chef (Fiennes) for the meal of their lives. Things do NOT go as expected. The only "ordinary" (as in not rich and/or famous) person there, Taylor-Joy, as Hoult's last-minute date, doesn't put up with the pretentious bushwa and turns out to the real power character. The film is interesting and occasionally shocking, makes some valid points about food culture, privilege, etc., and gives Taylor-Joy her meatiest role since The Queen's Gambit. I'm not really a fan of most modern horror films - certainly not the disgusting, gory ones - but I liked it.

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I think there's a fascinating article/book to be written on why this sort of "social horror" is our current hot film/TV genre, supplanting the future dystopia chosen-one-fights-the-system flicks of a few years back (The Hunger Games, The Giver, The Maze Runner, Divergent, etc.) Here's what my 29-year-old daughter has said:

Back in 2015, when I asked her why those chosen-one films were so popular, her answer was, "Because my generation knows that we're already living in a dystopia, and they give us some hope for the future."

When we were discussing the popularity of these social-horror films last night, her comment was, "After the horrible events of the last few years, my generation and Gen Z know that we're already living in a horror film, and there's no longer much real hope."

An interesting, if depressing, POV.

Of the ones you've mentioned, I've seen "The Hunger Games" and "Last Night in Soho." I am mixed in my opinion of "Last Night in Soho" as I really enjoyed the first half, but found the excessive horror elements of the second half boring and not worthy of the very good setup it was handed

Anya Taylor-Joy is in "Last Night in Soho," too, and, like in "Queens Gambit," she is outstanding.

There was a better movie to be made out of the first half of "Last Night in Soho."

 

[Fading Fast]

The Divorce of Lady X from 1938 with Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, Binnie Barnes, Ralph Richardson and H.B. Hallam


The Divorce of Lady X is Merle Oberon's movie as it is her charm, her mirth, her sparkle, her beauty, her exuberance that carries this romcom from beginning to end.

Yes, Laurence Olivier is very good as the young, single and cynical divorce lawyer who has all but sworn off women until Oberon lands in his hotel room one night and playfully tweaks all his defences against the fairer sex, but it is still Oberon's movie.

Owing to a dense London fog, and some romcom ridiculousness, Oberon forces her way into Olivier's suite one evening as she needs a place to sleep and he has an extra bed.

It's the movie's set-up scene and it's fun as heck as Oberon is intrigued by this cranky and handsome lawyer, so she flirt fights her way with him all night and all through breakfast, but never reveals her identity.

It's 1938 portrayed on screen, so of course, these two didn't engage in any slap and tickle, but still, the sexual tension is palpable.

Later that day, a client tells Olivier he wants to sue his wife for divorce because she spent last night in a hotel room with a man.

Olivier, in classic romcom confusion, believes his client's wife is Oberon, she isn't, and almost refuses the case because he thinks he's the man in question.

The rest of the movie is Olivier confused and emotionally torn as he is falling in love with Oberon, but can't reconcile that with his mistaken belief that she's married and has a reputation as a wanton woman.

This story works because Oberon discovers Olivier's confusion, but instead of correcting him, she just runs with it. This drives him nuts as she is incredibly attractive and flirty, but he thinks she's a "bad woman."

Oberon is having a ball, yet she's never mean-spirited. Eventually, she realizes she's digging a hole for herself, but she still can't stop as she's having too much fun.

Her grandfather, who acts as her father, tells her she's playing with fire, but her youth and beauty isn't ready to listen to his voice of wisdom and experience.

Produced in London, The Divorce of Lady X, based on a play, feels incredibly stagey, right down to the sets which look like they were lifted out of a theater.

Oddly for the day, though, the movie is filmed in color - a horribly fake looking color desperately in need of restoration - that does, though, add to the movie's fairytale atmosphere and lets us see how beautiful Oberon looks, not in black and white for a change.

Binnie Barnes, Ralph Richardson and H.B. Hallam are all good in supporting roles - Hallam, in particular, is enjoyable as the quintessentially unflappable English butler - but this is Oberon's movie and she carries it with a youthful exuberance and an infectious playfulness.

The following year, Oberon and Olivier would hit new heights of fame in what is widely considered one of the screen's all-time-great love stories, Wuthering Heights.

The Divorce of Lady X is a wonderful opportunity, though, to see that soon-to-be-famous movie couple, before they achieved immortality as Heathcliff and Cathy, in a silly-but-enjoyable-as-heck romcom.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Fading, I agree that the first act of Last Night in Soho is wonderful... and the zombie-ish third act is disappointing. Once it goes full horror movie, it's a lot less interesting. And the pacing, which up until then has been excellent, seems off: there's too much horror and it unbalances the film.

That said, I give the film points for its surprise ending, which provides a much better reason for Ellie seeing these ghosts than usual. (Anyway, I was successfully misdirected and surprised by the reveal.) But yeah, if it were all beautifully recreated Swinging London nostalgia, it would be more fun for us... though not much of a commercially viable movie.



Don't get me started on Anya Taylor-Joy. She's just too beautiful and too talented. She blew me away from her first appearance in The Witch (my idea of a masterpiece psychological horror flick, I can't recommend it enough) and I have yet to see her give a bad performance... other than in small, underwritten roles like in The New Mutants, Amsterdam, and The Northman. Given a good script, as in The Menu, Emma, Last Night in Soho, and The Queen's Gambit, she really delivers.

I just realized that another recent flick I reviewed here, Don't Worry Darling, follows the exact same perfect-world-revealed-to-be-a-nightmare plotting that seems ubiquitous at this moment. Hmmm.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Fast, I dimly seem to believe Ms Oberon was wed Claude Rains. Casablanca is a favourite of mine.

 

[Fading Fast]

Fast, I dimly seem to believe Ms Oberon was wed Claude Rains. Casablanca is a favourite of mine.

I checked on IMBD and Ms. Oberon had four marriages (par for a Hollywood star), but none were to Rains. She did, however, famously marry the high-profile British film director Alexander Korda. Rains, as an aside, shot two over par as he had six marriages in total.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Red House from 1947 with Edward G. Robertson, Allene Roberts, Judith Anderson, Lon McCallister and Julie London


Many mystery-dramas, like The Red House, are good at building suspense, but then let you down a bit when the big reveal comes at the end. This doesn't make them bad movies, just not great ones.

In The Red House, Edward G. Robinson plays the head of a small, reasonably prosperous farming family that includes his sister, played by Judith Anderson, and the daughter he and Anderson adopted, now a teenager, played by Allene Roberts.

Robinson, who has a wooden leg and is getting older, hires a local boy and classmate of Roberts, played by Lon McCallister, to help on the farm after school.

Robinson, Anderson and Roberts are happy in their simple life, but once McCallister, a nice kid, starts asking questions about the surrounding woods, all owned by Robinson, as McCallister wants to cut through them to get home at night, Robinson gets uncharacteristically angry and tells him to stay out.

McAllister and daughter Roberts, though, whom Robertson also told to stay out of the woods, do, as kids will do when told not to do something, go into the woods. This gets Robinson angrier as his sister Anderson becomes agitated, especially when bad things, like minor injuries, start happening each time the kids go into the woods.

When alone, Robinson and Anderson hint to each other in hushed tones about some bad thing that happened many years ago in the woods at "the red house," which seems to be the reason Robinson lost his leg, Roberts was adopted and Robinson and Anderson never married. But it's all left vague and mysterious.

There's also normal teenage stuff going on as McAllister has a kinda girlfriend in the spoiled local hottie, Julie London, who makes Roberts, who now has a crush on McCallister, jealous. London, herself, is also flirting with a local "bad boy" who has been hired by Robinson to keep people out of his woods.

Most of the movie is Robinson's household's tranquility being disturbed as long-unanswered questions - what happened to Roberts' mother, why did neither Anderson nor Robinson ever marry and, the big one, why is it forbidden to go into the woods - keep bubbling to the surface as all seem, somehow, related to the bad thing that happened long ago in the red house in woods.

Director Delmer Daves smartly juxtaposes the bucolic setting of the farm with the dark and foreboding woods. As the picture progresses and the mystery and tension builds, the unknown malignancy of the woods begin to creep into the once-happy farmhouse.

It's an engaging story as the actors are all talented and appealing. You care about innocent Roberts who seems to be facing the first real crisis in her young life as she realizes her parents aren't quite who she thought they were.

You also wonder if Robinson and, even, Anderson are really the good people they first seemed to be as mystery builds around whatever happened long ago in the woods at the red house. McAllister is fine if a bit wooden at times as "the change agent" that forces the past secrets to the surface.

The payoff, though, as noted, doesn't really live up to the billing. You have to accept too many not-believable things at the end for the story to tie together - plus there's too-much forced action.

Like many mystery-dramas, The Red House builds its suspense well by drawing you in with engaging characters you care about - kudos to young Roberts for holding her own in scenes with acting giant Robinson - but its final reveal leaves you a bit let down.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) dir. Henry Selick, based on a story and characters by Tim Burton. Even though it should have been watched during The Christmas Movie Season, I watched this remarkable stop-motion film just so I could see what it was all about. Full disclosure: I have tried for years to watch this, but actually fell asleep during a couple of tries.

Having seen it front to back finally, I must admit it is phenomenal in its look and performance. I viewed it with subtitles off to ensure no part of the screen was obscured, which meant I missed a ton of the lyrics and some of the dialogue. This allowed me to focus on the incredible detail of the characters, the sets, the props, and so on.

For an interesting deep dive into the music, check out The Soundtrack Show podcast, from October and November of 2019. The host goes into great detail on Danny Elfman's music and lyrics.

One more disclosure: the transformation of Disney's Haunted Mansion into The Nightmare Before Christmas is my all-time favorite Disneyland attraction. Like the film, there is too much to take in with one viewing or ride.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Empire of Light, the new film written and directed by Sam Mendes (and photographed by Roger Deakins) starring Olivia Colman.



Colman plays a troubled woman working in a venerable movie theater at an English seaside resort in 1981.

The film has three aspects: a character study of wounded, bipolar personality; a romance complicated by age and racial discrimination; and a love letter to traditional film exhibition. Alas, they don't all play out equally well: while it's never less than beautiful and interesting, the film is uneven.

As expected, Oscar-nominated Colman and the rest of the cast is terrific, both youngsters like love-interest Micheal Ward and old pros like boss Colin Firth and projectionist Toby Jones (geez, he works a lot!) Also as expected, it's gorgeously shot by Oscar-nominated Roger Deakins (who's been my favorite cinematographer for decades). The production design, sets, and detailing are all lovely. And it was shot at a real location:

Dreamland Margate - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

As nostalgia for the days of big, beautiful theaters and the magic of celluloid, it's great. As a story, it has some ups and downs. I definitely recommend it - it's good, just not quite the masterpiece that Mendes envisioned.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Fast, Dr. First-rate reviews. A late waken second coffee Sunday afternoon hungover peruse. Be back later to reread.

Bye the bye, I sat Hidden Figures this week. Costner led team NASA mathematicians GEMINI, FRIENDSHIP 7 missions
that included notable African American ladies segregated and fighting for equality and professional acceptance.
Truly splendid film.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Hidden Figures was pretty good, but it was beaten to the punch by the NBC series Timeless, which did an episode where its time travelers interacted with Katherine Johnson (a few years later when she was working on the Apollo 11 mission) that aired the month before Hidden Figures opened. I liked that series a lot.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

A stitch in time. Katherine is quite the timeless thread with all the other ladies, heroic, courageous, and a math whiz.
Unforgettable for nobility and strength of character. A film that teaches.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Not arguing, it's a good film, and - unlike a canceled two-season broadcast TV series - it's out there and very visible.

I was just pointing out that when Hidden Figures opened and I read the reviews, my first thought was, "Wait, didn't I just see this story?!?" Merely a by-the-way observation. It's an important enough story to tell repeatedly.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Not arguing, it's a good film, and - unlike a canceled two-season broadcast TV series - it's out there and very visible.

I was just pointing out that when Hidden Figures opened and I read the reviews, my first thought was, "Wait, didn't I just see this story?!?" Merely a by-the-way observation. It's an important enough story to tell repeatedly.

Not arguing Dr, just commenting off hand. Costner did a good ramrod leader, but Ms Johnson in particular made quite an impression with me. Math is a subject tool in finance, used daily, but I never peeled back the onion of whatever aptitude I have for it, never pushed myself and just did the minimum. There is a certain majesty in calculus, analytic geometry, factoring speed, and Hidden Figures really drove that home. I like film that shakes me up.

 

[Fading Fast]

Woman's World from 1954 with Fred MacMurray, Lauren Bacall, Van Heflin, Arlene Dahl, Cornel Wilde, June Allyson from Clifton Webb


Thought of as a time capsule, Woman's World is an enjoyable look at how a large company, in the 1950s, chose an executive for its top job. It's a lighter take on the same basic story of 1954's Executive Suite and 1956's Patterns.

Three couples - played by Fred MacMurray and Lauren Bacall from Philly, Van Heflin and Arlene Dahl from Dallas, and Cornel Wilde and June Allyson from Kansas City - are brought to New York City by the Company's Chairman, played by Clifton Webb, for a few days of evaluation for the top position.

Webb is trying to decide, not only who is the best man for the job, but which woman would make the best "corporate wife," as she would be, effectively, a hostess and ambassador for the company with her husband in such a prominent position.

Webb, an actor born to play a well-bred man of culture obnoxiously picking a top executive, smartly tones down his usual condescension here and, instead, is almost likeable when he, occasionally, lets his chairman mask slip. It's a nicely nuanced performance.

Woman's World is less a business movie, though, than a glossy soap opera as we learn each couple has its issues. MacMurray and Bacall are about to get a divorce as his passion for the company is killing his health and alienating Bacall. They agree to play the good couple until the company makes its decision.

Wilde and Allyson have a secure marriage, but she has no interest in being, nor the social skills necessary to be, the wife of the top executive. Dahl, conversely, ferally wants the job for the social position she'll get from it more than she cares about her husband's career or their marriage.

Over the course of a few days, we see the men go to several company meetings where their business acumen is tested, while the women have social events where their grace, manners and poise are evaluated.

Then the couples meet up in their hotel suites, which they can't really enjoy due to the stress, and discuss or fight about how they did that day. These scenes are the heart of the movie as we learn that Bacall and MacMurray are still in love, but as can happen in long marriages, they are, now, just talking past each other.

Allyson is cute (as always) telling her very understanding husband what social gaffe she made that day. Yet it's when Van Heflin, a nice guy who is singularly focussed on his job, finally sees his wife for the conniving (eh hem) witch that she is, that we get the movie's money moment. After that, the job is awarded and the couples begin to deal with how their lives will change or not.

The audition for the job - like lipizzaners being pranced around the ring at auction - is very awkward, which appears to be part of the point of the movie: it might seem fun to be a big executive or his wife (in the 1950s), but the process, despite the nice clothes, fancy cars, expensive dinners and fawning by others in the company, is humiliating.

Today, women are executives and both spouses usually work, so Woman's World is much more of a museum piece than any comment on modern times. For more of an insider's look at the machinations of how a top executive in the 1950s really got chosen, check out Executive Suite (with Allyson, once again, playing a corporate wife) or Patterns, but for a fun saponaceous approach, Woman's World is enjoyable time travel to a no-longer-extant corporate world.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Nice review and commentary Fast. Wilde's Naked Prey is both singular and substantive, very well done Hemingwayesque film.

 

[Fading Fast]

Vivre Sa Vie from 1962


Vivre Sa Vie - My Life to Live - by director Jean-Luc Godard is full-force French New Wave cinema loaded with angst, existentialism and that French way of observing life in an artfully depressing way.

Done in twelve short "chapters," Vivre Sa Vie is the story of a young Parisian woman named Nana Kleinfrankenheim (good grief), played by Anna Karina, whom we see breakup with her husband in chapter one.

Now alone, pressed for rent money, seemingly to have already tapped out her borrowing lines with friends and family and not making enough in her sales clerk job at a record store, Nana's world starts closing in on her.

Godard didn't film this as a plot-driven story, though, but more as a "look at life" and how bits and pieces of it come together to drive an outcome. We don't really know why Nana left her husband, but she did.

Nana has a desire to "get into movies," but goes about it in a not-rigorous way. She knows she is attractive to men, but sort of floats through her, somewhat, relationships.

Odd things happen to Nana as we see her arrested for, kind of, stealing some money that she immediately gave back. She goes to the movies and seems to identify with the lead character in Joan of Arc (it's a bit much). Later she has a deep conversation with a random older man she meets in a bar about the meaning of love.

As her financial woes become desperate, Nana takes, at first, hesitant steps to becoming a prostitute, which seems to be either legal or "accepted" in France at the time, with the government's focus on the health of the women, not the lawfulness of what they do.

Nana takes to her job as a prostitute in the same way she takes to almost everything in life, with a, sort of, depressed acceptance. She seems to feel about being a prostitute the same way she did about being a clerk in the record store: “meh, it's a living, if I care enough to stay alive.”

Filmed in beautiful, clear and crisp black and white and done in the aforementioned "chapter" style with titles introducing each one, Godard's movie has a documentary feel, which emphasizes the gritty descent of Nana's life.

Vivre Sa Vie is very French as an attractive, well-coiffed, nicely clothed and intelligent woman, who seemingly has options if she'd get up the energy and focus to pursue them, slides into prostitution owing to a sort of ennui over the meaninglessness of life.

An American woman becomes a prostitute by choice to make money or after a furious fight to find another way to survive, but this French woman almost lets it happen to her because she believes life is futile anyway.

The dramatic ending (no spoilers coming) felt like the movie's one false note, but perhaps Godard believed it put a needed exclamation point on his story.

Vivre Sa Vie is a visually appealing movie - even with all the cigarette smoke, you want to visit this world - that has you thinking about several "big" life questions in an abstract manner: it is sort of like the movie equivalent of reading Camus.

If you are in the mood for light entertainment, this isn't the movie, but for us today, Vivre Sa Vie is a wonderful time capsule of both a moment in France and a moment in French filmmaking that engages you visually and philosophically from beginning to end.


N.B., Look for the part where Nana dances around the pool hall as it's a beautiful scene that is the only time you see a playful joy in her character, but one that also feels like a cry for help. The French are good at doing that angsty meaning-of-life stuff.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

My heart struck a rock, she's so enticingly lovely. Anna Karina. Live Your Life. Never ever heard of her or this film.
Vivien Leigh's Waterloo Bridge with Robert Taylor was set diamond in similar ring, nice girl becomes prostitute, always an interesting theme.

Tar is here now and I'll catch it somehow somewhere. Need a film to top off this flat beer week of economic discourse.

 

[Fading Fast]

My heart struck a rock, she's so enticingly lovely. Anna Karina. Live Your Life. Never ever heard of her or this film.
Vivien Leigh's Waterloo Bridge with Robert Taylor was set diamond in similar ring, nice girl becomes prostitute, always an interesting theme.

Tar is here now and I'll catch it somehow somewhere. Need a film to top off this flat beer week of economic discourse.

That's an outstanding movie. There's also a 1931 version of "Waterloo Bridge" with Mae Clarke in the lead, which is well worth the watch too.

 

[Touchofevil]

This morning on TCM’s Noir Alley, Lightning Strikes Twice (1951). Once again, another movie that despite its flaws is an entertaining watch.
Last night on TCM, In the Heat of the Night. A movie that I can watch again and again. Poitier and Steiger are so much fun to watch.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Upturned Glass from 1947 with James Mason, Pamela Kellino, Rosamund John and Ann Stephens


Held up against the standard of believability, The Upturned Glass has many issues, but as an entertaining morality tale inside a noirish English wrapper, it's quite engaging. However, its heavy reliance on flashbacks, and some intentionally misleading scenes, makes its story a bit confusing to follow at times.

James Mason plays a leading brain surgeon who also teaches at a medical school where we meet him giving a lecture on the psychology of murderers, most of whom, he says, are insane.

He then tells the class about one murderer, though, who planned out a homicide rationally and methodically to exact revenge on a person who was able to avoid prosecution for a murder she committed.

As he is telling the story, the movie often fades into flashbacks where we quickly learn that the tale is about Mason himself.

Mason, who is married, had an affair with a married woman, played by Rosamund John, whom he met when he performed a cutting-edge eyesight-saving surgery on her twelve-year-old daughter, played by Ann Stephens.

Both Mason and John are "separated" from their spouses in a 1940s English way, meaning their affair was "okay" as long as they carried it out with the proper discretion. Then John seemingly commits suicide by jumping out of a window leading a disbelieving Mason to conduct his own investigation.

Mason discovers that John's sister-in-law, played by Pamela Kellino was with John almost up to the moment that John putatively committed suicide. (In real life, at this time, James Mason was married to Pamela Kellino. Kellino also wrote the movie's screenplay based on a story by John Monaghan.)

The flashback part of the story now gets more tangled and less believable, but it's the heart of the movie's morality tale.

Mason learns that Kellino is a luxury-loving society woman who's always in debt. He comes to believe she pushed her sister-in-law out of the window, despite an inquest clearing Kellino of any charges.

Mason, as he relates his roman-a-clef story to his students and as we see in flashbacks, begins to date Kellino to confirm his conviction that she's guilty of murder, which, when he does to his satisfaction, motivates him to plan her murder.

What happens from there requires the audience to accept several leaps of faith as the story almost becomes comical when Mason's plan goes horribly wrong.

To avoid spoilers, we'll stop recounting the plot here, other than to note, the movie, which makes liberal use of England's famous fog, becomes more noirish toward the end.

The "big" question the movie asks is if it's moral to murder someone if you know that person escaped justice for the murder of someone else?

The question is all dressed up, here, in Mason's urbane polish and sophisticated psychological-sounding logic, but distilled down to its core element, it's still the age-old "taking the law into your own hands" argument or, even more raw, the vigilante-justice argument.

James Mason, Pamela Kellino and Rosamund John are so good that you just enjoy the picture and, often, forgive the movie its failings and incredulous plot twists as you are passionately involved with all of their life stories.

Kellino, dressed to the nines and blasé about her selfishness, is engaging because she's so honest about her shortcomings. Rosamund is incredibly warm and sympathetic as a caring mother having an affair with her daughter's physician.

Mason, himself, captures our attention because we struggle to watch this highly intelligent man, who seems to have it all, go insane with revenge before our eyes.

It's another example of something Hitchcock understood: audiences care much more about whether the characters touch them in a meaningful way than they do about the verisimilitude of the story.

The Upturned Glass is solid post-war English filmmaking where its beautiful black and white cinematography, smart and wordy script, noirish atmosphere and talented acting and directing cover for a plot that falls apart a bit if you think too hard about its believability.


N.B. Keep an eye out for Brefni O'Rorke's small but outstanding performance in the role of the bitter and cynical country doctor, a character at odds with the typical Hollywood stereotype of the caring and selfless country doctor. His cynicism, though, serves a purpose, as it allows him to quickly see into Mason's character, leading to O'Rorke making a surprising moral choice at a critical turn in the story.