TIME LIMIT: second-guessing the impossible

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Photo caption: Richard Basehart and Richard Widmark in TIME LIMIT.

In the absorbing Korean War Era drama Time Limit, Major Harry Cargill (Richard Basehart) is charged with the capital offense of treason for, as the senior American officer in a North Korean POW camp, collaborating with the enemy. Colonel William Edwards (Richard Widmark) has the responsibility for investigating the case and then recommending a court martial. Since Cargill himself steadfastly admits the charges, all the surviving POWs share the same testimony and recordings of Cargill’s propaganda broadcasts exist, there doesn’t seem to any doubt that Cargill is headed for a trial for his life.

But some details seem fishy to Edwards, and he keeps probing for exculpatory evidence, despite resistance from Cargill himself, seemingly bent on martyring himself. There’s plenty of dramatic tension in this situation anyway, but the son of Edwards’ base commander, General Connors (Carl Benton Reid) died in the POW camp, and the general is fixated on swift justice..

Time Limit is a thinker, posing the philosophical question, when there are no good choices, does one choose most humane option, or follow the oath one has taken and go by the book? It takes Edwards a long time to drill into the truth, which poses its own question of moral and legal accountability (which may not be the same thing).

Time Limit has the look and feel of a play, which it is. Henry Denker adapted the screenplay from the play he co-wrote with Ralph Berkey. Time Limit is directed by Oscar-winning actor Karl Malden. It is his only feature film as a director (apart from filling in for 30 days on the Gary Cooper western The Hanging Tree).

Martin Balsam and Rip Torn in TIME LIMIT

Widmark is very good as the brooding, high-principled and stubborn Edwards; so is Basehart as the traumatized Cargill. There are plenty of memorable performances in Time Limit:

  • Rip Torn is superb as a POW camp survivor, who initially masks his own trauma with a convincing confidence.
  • Martin Balsam as the seasoned non-com with a cynical, clear-eyed view of how things work in the military. He is also comfortable in the devious audacity that comes from being one of the sergeants who really run things in the Army, no matter what the officers think.
  • Dolores Michaels plays Corporal Jean Evans, Edwards’ perky office manager. It will not escape modern viewers that Cpl. Evans is always the smartest person in the room, although it’s clear that she will always stay as an admin because she is a woman. Her insights are explained by her being the daughter of a lawyer.
  • June Lockhart plays Cargill’s bewildered wife.
Richard Widmark and Dolores Michaels in TIME LIMIT.

Fresh off the experience of the Korean War, the topic of brainwashing was very topical in 1957. So was the situation of POWs, in an America where a huge majority of the adult males were WW II vets. Other movies of the period addressed this premise:

  • The Rack (1956):  A returning US army captain (Paul Newman) is court-martialed for collaborating with the enemy while a POW.  He was tortured, and The Rack explores what can be realistically expected of a prisoner under duress.  It’s a pretty good movie, and Wendell Corey and Walter Pidgeon co-star. The Rack occasionally plays on TCM and can be streamed on Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.
  • Act of Violence (1949): In the extremity of a Nazi prisoner of war camp, Frank (Van Heflin) was faced by a situation with no good choices; he knows (correctly) that few in 1949 America will be able to see his action in that context. I’ve tagged Act of Violence as “the single most underrated film noir“. Act of Violence regularly plays on Turner Class Movies and can be streamed on Watch TCM. 
  • Not to mention, of course, Stalag 17 (collaboration POW camps) and The Manchurian Candidate (North Korean brainwashing).

I watched it on TCM, where is occasionally plays, but you can find Time Limit on Amazon and AppleTV.

Rip Torn in TIME LIMIT

SIRAT: gripping, hypnotic and devastating

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Photo caption: Bruno Nunez Arjuna  and Sergi Lopez in SIRAT. Courtesy of NEON.

In the harrowing, and finally shattering, Sirat, the middle-aged Spaniard Luis (Sergi Lopez) and his 11-year old son Esteban (Bruno Nunez Arjuna) are looking for Esteban’s older sister, a young adult who they haven’t heard from for five months. Following up on a tip, they are passing out leaflets with her picture at a gathering of European ravers deep in the Moroccan desert.

They don’t find anyone who has seen her, but they hear about another rave coming up to the south, near Mauritania. Civil war has erupted, and the army arrives to evacuate EU citizens out of the country. A small contingent of ravers bolts the convoy, heading for the rumored next rave to the South, and Luis and Esteban, uninvited, follow.

The five ravers, adorned with an assortment of tattoos, piercings, and missing limbs between them, are driving two Mad Max-style trucks that they sleep in. They are nomads, happy to endure rough conditions if they can get high and sway to electric dance music. They’re not thrilled to have Luis and Esteban along, but a bond develops as the seven face the same hardships together.

And hardships abound, as the little convoy grinds through the vast desert. The only people they see are multitudes of refugees fleeing, significantly, in the opposite direction. It’s an unforgiving environment, where if they run out of water, fuel or food, or lose a vehicle, there is no recourse.

They must transverse a narrow, mountain track perched on the side of a cliff. It’s terrifying.

Beginning midway through Sirat, director and co-writer Oliver Laxe rocks us with some stunningly sudden and emotionally devastating events. These are not like the jump scares in the horror genre. These are from among the most shocking occurrences that real people experience in real life.

Sergi Lopez in SIRAT. Courtesy of NEON.

When writing about Sirat, many critics use the words hypnotic and mesmerizing. The story is gripping, but it is embedded in stunning landscapes – the desert itself is becomes a character. During the journey, the soundtrack mirrors the throbbing electronic music from the rave in the opening opening. In terms of audience engagement, Sirat is a triumph for Oliver Laxe.

The performance by Sergi Lopez is epic. Lopez makes Luis’ vulnerability, caginess, dread, terror, numbing grief and fatalistic determination all credible and heartfelt.

The ravers are played by non-actors, but they are so authentic and believable, you can’t tell.

Tonin Janvier and Jade Oukid in SIRAT. Courtesy of NEON.

As Luis and Esteban drive deeper in the forbidding expanse, we wonder, Is the missing daughter/sister safe or in danger? Is she even alive? Does she want to be found? Is Luis risking himself and Esteban for nothing? In the first half of Sirat, we’re asking ourselves whether Luis and Esteban wilI find her. In the second half, those questions become meaningless.

Besides the elements that make Sirat a psychological thriller, there’s a lot here to think about. We see human empathy creating a bond. We see wisdom, most cruelly acquired. Ultimately, Laxe may be asking, what does it really mean to have nothing to lose?

There might also be a comment on adventure tourism. YouTube is full of folks who travel to other lands to experience physical challenges and risky thrills. As seasoned and well-supplied as are the ravers, they are Europeans, and they are from a society in which there are always first responders. Where they have ventured, there are no first responders.

Sirat’s title appears 32 minutes into the running time, a trend I’ve noticed in other recent films. I’m not sure whether I think this practice is pretentious. The title is the name of the mythical bridge between heaven and hell. I’m not sure that there is a heaven in this movie, or even whether any of the characters is seeking heaven. It’s more like everyone is navigating through purgatory unaware of their proximity to hell.

The road on the precarious cliff-side in the trailer frightened me off from seeing Sirat in a theater; I have a fear of heights that precludes me from driving these roads in rel life, and I fear even watching it on screen will trigger a panic attack. Once Sirat started streaming, I knew I could watch it while protected by the fast-forward button on my remote.

Sirat is set n the endless, parched deserts of Morocco, but it was filmed in both Morocco and the Aragon region of Spain. 

This is one of the most-acclaimed recent films. Sirat won the Palme d’or at Cannes and was nominated for the Best International Film Oscar. Many of the 47 awards it has won have been for sound and music.

That being said, this is not a movie for everyone. The audience has to be ready for excruciating heartache and profound bleakness. Despite the sun-baked visuals and the exciting set pieces, this is a very dark film.

Sirat is available to stream from Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango and is included with Hulu.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Ted Turner (left foreground) in GETTYSBURG.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – after a very rewarding movie-going April, especially with the SLO and SFFILM film festivals, May has been disappointing, with the likes of Heads or Tails? and A Great Awakening.

REMEMBRANCE

Ted Turner was only minimally a filmmaker, but he was a giant in making films available to all of us. He pioneered in a cable television movement that resulted all of those channels that cablecast movies, as well as the premium channels that made original films and episodics. Most essentially, he created Turner Classic Movies, which, with its core from the Warner Bros, MGM and RKO libraries, presents classic American movies, along with international and silent films to the broad North American audience. If you like watching movies at home without commercial interruption, thank Ted Turner.

As to filmmaking, Ted Turner did act as a Confederate colonel dying in Pickett’s Charge in the very best Civil War movie, Gettysburg, and then produced and cameoed in its prequel Gods and Generals (one of the worst Civil War movies).

CURRENT MOVIES

  • The Last One for the Road: the party never ends. In art-house theaters.
  • Omaha: in the best interest of the children. In theaters.
  • Two Pianos: he doesn’t know what he should want, but the women do. In theaters.
  • The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Is This Thing On? uncoiling the bewilderment of a break-up. Hulu (included,) Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Heads or Tails?: a spaghetti western goes off the rails. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Heel: don’t try this at home. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Grazia: it’s time to get past his malaise. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • A Great Awakening: good religion and bad history. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Magellan: slower than the slowest slow boat. Criterion.
Filippo Scotti (center front) in THE LAST ONE FOR THE ROAD. Courtesy of Music Box Films.

A GREAT AWAKENING: good religion and bad history

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Photo caption: Jonathan Blair (center) in A GREAT AWAKENING. Courtesy of Sight and Sound Films.

A Great Awakening has two good stories to tell, but muddles a third. In 18th century England, and then America, George Whitefield (pronounced Whitfield) founded the Methodist denomination, along with John and Charles Wesley, and became the leading public evangelist in England and America. A charismatic orator who could draw crowds of thousands, he was an important figure in the first of what America historians call the Great Awakening. The life and times of George Whitefield is the first good story.

Here’s the second good story – the unlikely friendship between Whitefield and no less an American icon than Benjamin Franklin. Whitefield was drawn to Franklin’s genius and humor, and Franklin admired Whirefield’s passion and ability to attract the masses. The two shared a close personal bond, with the science-minded Franklin resisting Whitehead’s attempts to spiritualize him, and with Franklin’s needling Whitefield about using slaves to run his orphanage.

As near as I can tell, A Great Awakening accurately depicts the life of George Whitefield and the relationship between Whitefield and Franklin. But then, the movie takes on a key moment in American political history and tries to embed a soapy religiosity. Indeed, A Great Awakening comes from Sight & Sound Films, a Christian movie studio whose mission is telling faith-based stories.

John Paul Sneed (center) in A GREAT AWAKENING. Courtesy of Sight and Sound Films.

Here, A Great Awakening takes on a third story, Franklin’s participation in America’s Constitutional Convention, where the Founders battled each other to reach a compromise solution to the American nation’s framework of government. This was well after Whitefield’s death, and A Great Awakening has Franklin, remembering his old friend, and suggesting that every session of negotiations be opened with a prayer. A Great Awakening asserts that these morning prayers were instrumental in the final success of the Constitutional Convention.

Indeed, the notoriously nonreligious Franklin did propose a daily prayer. But no real historian credits the birth of the Constitution to a ritual prayer instead of the creative thinking and hard-fought compromises that finally satisfied the disparate States. Students of American government will note that this is why we have checks and balances, power divided between small States (the Senate) and populous States (the House of Representative) and a political boost to slave states (the heinous, since rescinded, three-fifths rule). So, as political history, A Great Awakening is just not credible, and is even misleading.

The cast is neither well-known or well-seasoned, with the leads sharing only seven screen credits between them. Whitefield is played by a co-writer of the movie, Jonathan Blair, who has the ringing voice and gleaming passion that Whitefield must have had. John Paul Sneed plays Franklin, as Franklin ages from his forties through his eighties.

A Great Awakening’s biggest flaw.however, is that all the actors deliver virtually every line with fervent passion. Admittedly, actual religious passion and actual political passion are important elements of these stories, but the emoting is just unrelenting. It’s like a compendium of auditions for a soap opera.

So, the hackneyed over-earnestness and the bit of Fake History sink this movie. A Great Awakening can be streamed on Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.

HEADS OR TAILS?: a spaghetti western goes off the rails

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Photo caption: John C. Reilly in HEADS OR TAILS? Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Company.

Well, this was a disappointment. One of my personal favorite sub-genres is the Spaghetti Western. I really admired The Tale of King Crab, the first narrative by writer-directors Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis, and I was delighted to see these guys riffing off Sergio Leone in a movie starring Nadia Tereszkiewicz, with her sexy magnetism and feral unpredictability, Allesandro Borghi of the acclaimed The Eight Mountains, and the always hilarious John C. Reilly. This looked really good.

Heads or Tails? begins with a bizarre, but historical event – Buffalo Bill Cody (John C. Reilly) putting on his Wild West Show, a live spectacle of cowboys and Indians, for an Italian audience circa 1900. Buffalo Bill lived through the most exciting phase of the Old West, having been a Pony Express rider, buffalo hunter and a scout in the Indian Wars. A remarkable showman and entrepreneur, he capitalized on his experiences by creating the Wild West Show, which entertained Easterners and Europeans with riding, roping, shooting, real life bison and an Indian “battle”. Indigenous cast members even included Sitting Bull. Of course, Cody himself knew that the show was filled with hokum, but he happily became rich by playing the role. The Wild West Show did tour Italy twice, once performing for the Pope.

A local aristocrat, a scummy wife-beater, has hosted Buffalo Bill’s performance, and afterwards, tries to further enrich himself with a crooked wager. Santino (Borghi), a dim but virile cattle worker, screws up the wager, and, the furious nobleman suspects that Santino has also been involved with his young wife Rosa (Tereszkiewicz). The aristocrat is killed, and Santino and Rosa go on the run.

At this point, Heads or Tails? leaves conventional Spaghetti Western territory, adds a heavy dose of surrealism, and becomes less coherent – and less watchable.

John C. Reilly, who captures Buffalo Bill’s performative bluster and worldly cynicism, is brilliant, but 80% of the story follows Rosa and Santino without Buffalo Bill.

I streamed Heads or Tails? on Amazon Prime, and most of the dialogue, except for Reilly’s, seemed dubbed in English. I found it off-putting, and didn’t understand it because Tereszkiewicz, who is French, speaks both Italian and English. Besides Amazon, you can also stream Heads or Tails? on AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Sergio Romano and Pierpaolo Capovilla in THE LAST ONE FOR THE ROAD. Courtesy of Music Box Films.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the genial Italian comedy The Last One for the Road and the French melodrama Two Pianos.

CURRENT MOVIES

  • The Last One for the Road: the party never ends. In art-house theaters.
  • Two Pianos: he doesn’t know what he should want, but the women do. In theaters.
  • The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. In theaters.
  • Is This Thing On? uncoiling the bewilderment of a break-up. Hulu (included,) Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Heel: don’t try this at home. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Grazia: it’s time to get past his malaise. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters.In theaters and VOD.
  • A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • Mercy: not as good as the premise. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV.
  • Magellan: slower than the slowest slow boat. Criterion.

ON TV

Laurence Tierney and Clair Trevor in BORN TO KILL

On May 10, Turner Classic Movies offers Born to Kill (1947). Lawrence Tierney (no cupcake in real life, either), plays the nastiest, most predatory and savage male character in film noir history. Set in the world of Reno quickie divorces, the characters seem to compete in demonstrating the most venal behavior; (spoiler: the psychopath played by Tierney wins.) Claire Trevor, the Queen of Noir, often wore flamboyant hats, but she just keeps topping herself in this film. Walter Slezak and Elisha Cook, Jr., play dregs of the underworld.

THE LAST ONE FOR THE ROAD: the party never ends

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Photo caption: Filippo Scotti (center front) in THE LAST ONE FOR THE ROAD. Courtesy of Music Box Films.

In the genial Italian comedy The Last One for the Road, we get to meet two cheerful reprobates, whose only ambition is for their next drink. On the downside of middle age, Carlobianchi (Sergio Romano) and Doriano (Pierpaolo Capovilla) employ their wily charms to cadge free drinks from a bachelorette party and even impersonate a team of architects expert in historical preservation. Bill Clinton said he represented the folks who “work hard, follow the rules and pay their taxes“; Carlobianchi and Dori are not those people.

Carlobianchi and Dori have a close friend returning home after decades abroad, and they resolve to meet him at the airport. Because they’ve never been to any airports in the province of Venice, this precipitates a meandering road trip to find the right one. While crashing a college graduation party, the two meet a straitlaced architecture grad student Giulio (Filippo Scotti), and take him along.

Giulio protests that he has an important academic presentation the next day, but Carlobianchi and Dori insist on dragging him along on their hazy mission. Giulio really does need to loosen up, he’s blowing it with the young woman he likes by being just too uptight. Will the two old slackers succeed in debauching him? The road trip evolves into a semi-voluntary kidnapping. 

Sergio Romano and Pierpaolo Capovilla in THE LAST ONE FOR THE ROAD. Courtesy of Music Box Films.

The lengths that Carlobiachi and Dori will go to get another drink are funny; so is Giulio’s insistence that he is disembarking from their tour, despite never getting out of their car and calling an Uber, which any grown ass adult would do to “escape”.

The Last Round for the Road is a fun comic road trip, but there’s more here than it seems. The film begins with a factory worker’s entire work life rewarded with a Rolex, followed by a glimpse of how little that luxury watch really means to him. The industry of Carlobianchi and Dori’s old buddy Genio in masterminding a heist is not rewarded. Giulio’s passion for architecture and his academic discipline will surely pay off in professional success, but he takes notice that Carlobianchi and Dori, as aimless and irresponsible as they are, are enjoying a stress-free life. The party never ends.

The Last One for the Road, the second feature for director and co-writer Francesco Sossai, opens tomorrow at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles and releases more widely next weekend.

TWO PIANOS: he doesn’t know what he should want, but the women do

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Photo caption: Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Francois Civil in TWO PIANOS. Courtesy of Kino Lorber.

In the well-crafted French melodrama Two Pianos, concert pianist Matthias (three-time César nominee Francois Civil) returns to his hometown of Lyon after a decade abroad. Matthias is already in a mid-career malaise, but things get more complicated when he re-encounters his formidable mentor Elena (Charlotte Rampling) and his best friend’s wife Claude (Nadia Tereszkiewicz). Matthias, who had dated Claude just before his self-exile, is further rocked when he sees that her ten-year-old son looks exactly like him. A well-crafted melodrama ensues, albeit one with unconventional turns.

Two Pianos is the latest from French director Arnaud Desplechin, who made the delightful My Golden Days, which I loved, and then Ismael’s Ghosts, which although it was generally favorable critical buzz, I loathed. Desplechin has received uneven notices for his recent narrative features. He co-wrote Two Pianos.

The plot of Two Pianos pivots on an unforeshadowed surprise which clears the way for a conventional ending, which Desplechin thankfully avoids. This plot point is so unabashedly convenient that some viewers have found it off-putting. I uneasily went with it and was relieved when Desplechin steered the story away from what would have been corny.

Charlotte Rampling in TWO PIANOS. Courtesy of Kino Lorber.

Civil has the challenge of playing a protagonist of uncertain will, who spends much of his screen time hand-wringing and naval gazing. The audience will see that, in contrast to Matthias’ dithering, all of the female characters know exactly what they want – the iron-willed Elena, Matthias’ unsentimental mother (Anne Kessler), Claude’s bestie Judith (Alba Gaia Bellugi) and, eventually, even the vulnerable and temperamental Claude.

Nadia Tereszkiewicz has a sexy magnetism and a feral unpredictability that serves her well in Two Pianos and in the underappreciated Only the Animals.

Charlotte Rampling is a treasure, and her performance as the exacting Elena is one of the pleasure of Two Pianos.

I especially appreciated that the story is set in Lyon, a city underrepresented in cinema. Lyon, after all, is the third largest city in France and the place where Parisian foodies go to experience the best of French cuisine. It’s a wonderful city.

I screened Two Pianos for the 2026 SFFILM festival. It opens in theaters this weekend.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Nathalie Baye in BEAUTIFUL LIES.

This busy week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the emotionally gutting indie Omaha and the playful, dialogue-free Gondola, plus a remembrance of the great French actress Nathalie Baye.

And my coverage of both the SLO and SFFILM film festivals:

CURRENT MOVIES

  • The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. In theaters.
  • Is This Thing On? uncoiling the bewilderment of a break-up. Hulu (included,) Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Heel: don’t try this at home. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Grazia: it’s time to get past his malaise. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Omaha: in the best interest of the children. In theaters.
  • The Bride!: a funnier Bonnie and Clyde, with monsters. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Fackham Hall: silly, low-brow, and that’s okay. HBO Max (free), Amazon, AppleTV.
  • A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • Mercy: not as good as the premise. Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV.
  • Magellan: slower than the slowest slow boat. Criterion.

ON TV

Stacy Keach and Jeff Bridges in FAT CITY

On May 2, Turner Classic Movies presents John Huston’s under-appreciated Fat City (1972). Stacy Keach plays a boxer on the slide, his skills unraveled by his alcoholism. He inspires a kid (a very young Jeff Bridges), who becomes a boxer on the rise. Keach and Susan Tyrrell give dead-on performances as pathetic, sad sack barflies. Tyrrell was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Filmed in Stockton.

Susan Tyrrell in FAT CITY

OMAHA: in the best interest of the children

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Photo caption: Molly Belle Wright, Wyatt Solis and John Magaro in OMAHA. Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.

In the concise, searing drama Omaha, an especially devoted dad (John Magaro) has been financially ruined by his late wife’s final illness. He bundles their two kids into his barely drivable car for a road trip across the Great Basin toward Nebraska. The purpose of the road trip is mysterious, and even the whip-smart nine-year-old daughter can’t guess it. The emotionally powerful ending is shattering.

Omaha is a showcase for John Magaro (Past Lives). His inability to provide for his kids has filled him with desperation and profound shame, but he is determined to insulate his kids from his stress.

Magaro’s performance is in the same ballpark as his extraordinary turn in Past Lives, where his character, waiting to see if his girlfriend will run off with a childhood crush, puts on a mask of stoicism and civility while practically vibrating with anxiety. Before Past Lives, I had seen Magaro in The Big Short, The Many Saints of Newark and 18 1/2 without any appreciation that he was capable of work like this. Fortunately for us, Magaro is now getting even more high profile work (The Mastermind, Materialists, The Bride!).

Omaha is the first feature for director Cole Webley, working off a screenplay from Richard Machoian (God Bless the Child, The Killing of Two Lovers). Webley has a gift for portraying those seemingly minor life moments that tell the audience so much about relationships and motivations. Omaha is only 83 minutes long – and that’s perfect for this story.

I screened Omaha for the Nashvlle Film Festival and included it in my Must See at NashFilm. Omaha released theatrically last weekend in New York and more widely this Friday.