Movie Review: A Raisin in the Sun
Year of Release: 1961
Country of Origin: USA
Director: Daniel Petrie
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands
Plot outline: A substantial insurance payment could mean either financial salvation or personal ruin for a poor black family (IMDb).
Released in 1961, the story revolves around the changes that are taking place within the Younger family. The father of the family has died, leaving behind a ten thousand dollar insurance policy. The money causes a crisis of changing morals for Lena Younger and her two grown children. As a movie it comes off very well, although, there are times when the director seems to give up on the idea of camera movement completely. Other times the camera work is dynamic and telling. The real gold here is in the script and the performances, all of the characters are strong and well drawn out. The cast is flawless each one of them (with the exception of the little boy, who's part is limited) communicate things with a look or gesture that many modern performers don't seem to be able to. There are times when the melodrama can feel like a bit much, but you have to make allowances for the style of filmmaking, and from the fact that the playwright adapted her own work. There are conventions on stage that don't translate into movie, and I think that is why some of the more theatrical moments come off a bit wonky. This is a minor thing and does not distract at all from the power of the whole, but to modern eyes especially it will seem overdone at times. More than anything else, A Raisin in the Sun is a story about people who will not give up their dignity. Even in the face of a world that they didn't build that tries to take it away. It is a raw, stunning piece of work that is justly regarded as one of the classics. (JH)
My judgement: ***1/2 out of 4 stars
Movie Review: Wall Street
Year of Release: 1987
Country of Origin: USA
Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen
Plot outline: A young stockbroker prospers on Wall Street under the tutelage of a greedy millionaire stockbroker (IMDb).
The movie certainly offers universal human truths about business dealings, yet it is also clearly a product of its time. Stylistically, Wall Street is very much a part of the late 1980s: tortoise-shell glasses, yellow power ties, big cell phones, slicked hair. It is a fast-paced, absorbing movie that makes complicated business dealings understandable to the uninformed, yet still intriguing. The screenplay is smart and lean, and Stone's direction is solid and confident without being overly flashy. His limited use of fast zooms, rapid edits, and canted camera angles foretell of the more extreme stylistic decisions that would come into play in his later movies like JFK (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994), and Any Given Sunday (1999), while his soft spot for family dynamics clearly portends the sentimentality of World Trade Center (2006). There is rarely a boring moment in Wall Street, and although its tone tends to get a bit didactic near the end, it never feels overly moralistic. Stone grounds his morality play in the day-to-day workings of everyday life, whether that be the hustle and bustle of Bud's trading company or meetings with his father at a smoke-filled pub in Queens. Stone gets the small moments just right, especially the scenes between Martin Sheen and Charlie Sheen as father and son, which play nicely into the larger whole. Wall Street is remembered mainly as a movie that exposed the ugly underbelly of the greed-is-good corporate world of the 1980s, but it is also very much a human story about a father and son finally coming to understand each other. Michael Douglas is at his best playing the oily Gordon Gekko (he won a well-deserved Best Actor Oscar). Charlie Sheen is similarly well cast as Bud Fox the stockbroker with blue collar roots who will do anything to make good. Particularly poignant are his scenes with real-life father Martin Sheen, who plays his dad, factory worker and proud union steward Carl Fox. Supporting cast is top notch with the exception of miscast Darryl Hannah who sticks out like a sore thumb as Bud's "trophy" girlfriend, courtesy of Gordon Gekko. John C. McGinley and Hal Holbrook are highlighted as Bud's fellow account executives. (A, GC)
My judgement: ***1/2 out of 4 stars
Movie Review: Marie Antoinette
Year of Release: 2006
Country of Origin: USA, France, Japan
Director: Sofia Coppola
Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Judy Davis, Rip Torn
Plot outline: Based on Antonia Fraser's Marie Antoinette: The Journey, it tells the story of the beautiful Queen of France who became a symbol for the wanton extravagance of the 18th century monarchy (IMDb).
Beautifully shot with nods to late-18th-century art and the icy formality of Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, Sofia Coppola draws on Antonia Fraser's sympathetic bio Marie Antoinette: The Journey, letting Kirsten Dunst play the queen as a nice, naive Austrian girl thrust into a strange land and an arranged marriage by politics she doesn't understand. She's shaped by fame and lofty expectations, but never turned into the monster that history made her to be. Dunst and her Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman) mostly live in isolation at Versailles. They host parties and attend to domestic affairs (and later, for Dunst, love affairs) in a hurricane's eye that keeps a growing storm at bay, at least for a while. It's a daring move, focusing on the isolated splendour and interior dramas, and letting the politics remain at most a distant rumble; Coppola deserves credit for offering a different, and probably truer, perspective on life as a royal. But the perspective rarely lends itself to compelling filmmaking. When Marie Antoinette does settle into the business of plot, it scares up some nice moments, bringing dry humor into Schwartzman's all-too-public inability to consummate his marriage, much less produce an heir. And the movie takes time to explore fascinating details, such as the servant charged with wiping off the eggs at a country retreat so Dunst's daughter can gather them. Elsewhere, Rip Torn and Asia Argento bring some much-needed earthiness to the airless proceedings as Louis XV and his uncouth mistress Madame du Barry. But for all its invention, Marie Antoinette ultimately falls into the same traps as other historical dramas. It has to check off history's highlights: Louis XV's death, du Barry's expulsion, the American Revolution, "Let them eat cake!" - as it chugs toward the inevitable. The mostly post-punk and new-wave soundtrack feels shoehorned in, and Dunst's flat line-readings do little to squelch the notion that the movie's insights don't go much further than the costumes and famous locations. It's history written with truffles. (KP)
My judgement: **1/2 out of 4 stars
Movie Review: The Bedford Incident
Year of Release: 1965
Country of Origin: UK, USA
Director: James B. Harris
Cast: Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Martin Balsam
Plot outline: An American destroyer, with a journalist on board, is determined to confront a Soviet submarine caught violating territorial waters. Perhaps too determined (IMDb).
James B. Harris, who handles the movie very well, is also gifted in developing these interpersonal tensions into dramatic moments that certainly add to the mounting tensions while contributing to the dramatic ending. Although this is a well-acted Cold War melodrama with a supporting cast who all provide fine performances, Richard Widmark is perfect in his role as a dedicated anti-Communist and patriotic American zealot who cuts no slack. One of my favourite scenes is when Richard Widmark appears to take on the persona of a Gestapo icon and becomes so intimidating at one point that he even frightens the retired, ex-Nazi U-Boat commander Wolfgang Schrepke (Eric Portman) who happens to be an on board consultant during this patrol. The ship model used during the iceberg scenes does seem dated. Also, in one interior scene of the ship, I noticed a weapon rack of Enfield rifles. Such rifles were certainly obsolete at the time this film was made. Furthermore, this weapon was uncommon on American ships and was typically used by the British Royal Navy. Despite these small errors, the suspense, drama, and entertainment value of this movie are engrossing even after several viewings and the performances only magnify the escalating tensions throughout the movie. Although some might consider the ending exceedingly abrupt, I think it is very explosive, leaves the audience breathless, and forces them to deeply reflect on the movie as well as its strong, unsettling message. (DH)
My judgement: *** out of 4 stars
Movie Review: My Left Foot
Year of Release: 1989
Country of Origin: Ireland, UK
Director: Jim Sheridan
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker
Plot outline: Based on the true story of Christy Brown who was born with cerebral palsy. He learned to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot (IMDb).
Prior to 1989, not many knew of Daniel Day-Lewis - sure, he'd starred in a handful of British arthouse flicks in the Eighties, but he wasn't very visible in the cinematic consciousness. Jim Sheridan's directorial debut, My Left Foot changed all that. The deeply moving true story of cerebral palsy-afflicted and celebrated Irish polymath Christy Brown, My Left Foot is an alternately tough and tender movie that deals honestly with disabilities, hinging upon Day-Lewis' utterly compelling and award-winning performance. Unfolding contrary to the usual "life-affirming triumph" biographies that Hollywood churns out, My Left Foot centers on the story of Christy Brown. Paralyzed from birth, he's written off as helpless and intellectually stunted - his strong-willed mother (Brenda Fricker, who collected an Oscar for her work) begs to disagree. By encouraging Christy to use his left foot (his only controllable limb), he soon learns how to write and becomes a famous author, artist and fundraiser. As he comes into his own, he also falls in love with his nurse. Nominated for five Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress) and winner of two, Sheridan's unblinking veracity lends an air of raw realism to what otherwise be an insufferably tear-jerking story. As it stands, the movie earns the right to pluck heartstrings, doing so in as unsentimental a way as possible. (PJ)
My judgement: ***1/2 out of 4 stars
Year of Release: 1961
