Turner Classic Movies is celebrating the Oscars with its annual 31 Days of Oscars, filling its broadcast schedule with Academy Award-winning films. On this Thursday through Sunday, the TCM lineup is especially rich, including these gems:
Seven Days in May: “I’m suggesting Mr President, there’s a military plot to take over the Government of these United States, next Sunday…” John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) is a master of the thriller, and his 1964 Seven Days in May is a masterpiece of the paranoid political thriller subgenre. Edmond O’Brien’s performance is best among outstanding turns by Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Frederic March and Whit Bissell.
A Place in the Sun:One of the great films of the 1950s. Montgomery Clift is a poor kid who is satisfied to have a job and a trashy girlfriend (Shelly Winters in a brilliant portrayal). Then, he learns that he could have it all – the CEO’s daughter Elizabeth Taylor, lifelong comfort, status and career. Did I mention Elizabeth Taylor? The now pregnant girlfriend is the only obstacle to more than he could have ever dreamed for – can he get rid of her without getting caught?
Anatomy of a Murder (1959): Otto Preminger delivers a classic courtroom drama that frankly addresses sexual mores. James Stewart is a folksy but very canny lawyer defending a cynical soldier (Ben Gazzara) on a murder charge; did he discover his wife straying or is he avenging her rape? Lee Remick portrays the wife with a penchant for partying and uncertain fidelity. The Duke Ellington score could be the very best jazz score in the movies. Joseph Welch, the real-life lawyer who stood up to Sen. Joe McCarthy in a televised red scare hearing, plays the judge.
All this and more! There’s Double Indemnity one of the masterpieces of film noir, Marlon Brando’s tour de force in On the Waterfront, the great trial movie The Caine Mutiny, the historically important Easy Rider (and one of my Best Drug Movies) and the political classic All the King’s Men. If you’re looking for an epic, you can try out The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia on your big screen TV. For a comedy, there’s Tootsie.
And don’t miss an overlooked great Jack Nicholson performance in The Last Detail.
Fans of Downton Abbey – do not despair because Season 3 has run its course. Before he created Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes wrote the 2001 film Gosford Park, also set at the estate of an English aristocrat in the 1920s. The period between the world wars marked the final decline of the Upstairs Downstairs world, and Fellowes, descended from such an upper class family, grew up with relatives who had lived through it. In fact, he modeled the scathingly dismissive character of Constance, Countess of Trentham (Maggie Smith), after his own great-aunt.
Gosford Park won an Oscar for its legendary director, Robert Altman. Altman was a master of weaving together characters and multiple story lines, employing the kind of simultaneous, overlapping speech that people use in real life. In Gosford Park, instead of recording all the actors with the normal boom microphone, he placed radio microphones on each of twenty actors in the large scenes. The result, a triumph of cinematic sound design, is that we can hear key lines of dialogue amidst the realistic cacophony of a large gathering, and our attention can move from group to group within a single camera shot.
Ever unconventional, Altman also showed his genius in the solitary scenes. In one, Helen Mirren’s character has repaired to her own room to reflect on an emotionally shattering development. Instead of a closeup on Mirren’s face, Altman shoots in long shot, allowing Mirren to act with her whole body and emphasizing the loneliness of her life and the situation.
Altman was also known for attracting very deep, top rate casts. Gosford Park contains exceptional performances by Mirren, Kelly Macdonald and Emily Watson. Watson has an outburst at a formal dinner that leaves the audience gasping. American audiences had only seen Clive Owen in the modest art house film Croupier, and the brooding determination in his Gosford Park performance helped make him a star.
As in Downton Abbey, Maggie Smith gets some great lines and makes the most of them. Her performance triggered a stream of spunky roles for Smith, including in the Harry Potter movies, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Quartet and, of course, as Downton Abbey’s Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham.
Gosford Park is a great movie, and you’ll recognize its world as Downton Abbey’s. Gosford Park is available on DVD and streaming from Netflix Instant.
Every year, we watch the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. For example, we had sushi for Lost in Translation, cowboy campfire beans for Brokeback Mountain and Grandma Ethel’s Brisket for A Serious Man – you get the idea. You can see our past Oscar Dinners on this page (including our Severed Hands Ice Sculpture in 2011 for 127 Hours and Winter’s Bone).
This year The Wife did the heavy lifting in organizing our feast.
STARTERS
Hummus for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty – as you will see, it’s a big year for Middle Eastern food at the Oscar Diner.
Philly Cream Cheese Cocktail Sauce Dip for Silver Linings Playbook – a perfect accompaniment to an Eagles game.
Crackers from Life of Pi (not many food choices on that lifeboat).
Baguette from Amour and Les Miserables (I did NOT steal the bread, Javert).
The Wife vetoed the peach yogurt from Amour.
DINNER
Kabob Koubideh for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty.
Roast Chicken from Beasts of the Southern Wild (we could have done crab, too, but Quvenzhané Wallis won’t be here to rip them up for us).
Khoresh Ghormeh (a Persian veggie stew) for Argo.
DESSERT
Mary Todd Lincoln’s Almond Cake for Lincoln. Understanding the political junkie that I am, my daughter gave me the Capitol Hill Cookbook and this is an authentic recipe from the Lincoln family.
BEVERAGES
Whiskey from Django Unchained (from the bar scene with Jamie Foxx and Franco Nero).
Vodka (Jennifer Lawrence ordered it at the bar) from Silver Linings Playbook.
Water from Life of Pi (again – not many choices in that lifeboat).
Here’s my list of Zombie Movies for People Who Don’t Like Zombie Movies. I’m generally not a fan of the genre because the primary elements of a zombie movie – gross looking zombies, gory human deaths and spectacular zombie slaughter – just aren’t enough to keep me coming back.
That’s why the best zombie movies are hybrids of another genre. I’ve highlighted five movies that use the framework of the zombie genre to create movies that can stand on their own as comedies or thrillers. Plus they ease off on the gore, which is just fine by me.
The very idea of reanimated dead who must eat live humans is, of course, absurd, and that absurdity can set up some fine film comedy, including Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead, Fido and Warm Bodies. And when you add a first rate filmmaker like Danny Boyle to the mix, you can get a top thriller – 28 Days Later.
The best new movie is Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller Side Effects with Rooney Mara, Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones. In Stand Up Guys, Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin play old mobsters gearing up for one last surge of adrenaline. Quartet is a pleasant lark of a geezer comedy with four fine performances. The charmingly funny Warm Bodies has made my list of Zombie Movies for People Who Don’t Like Zombie Movies. The pretty good horror movie Mama (with Jessica Chastain) can send chills down your spine without any slashing or splattering.
Zero Dark Thirty, Argo, Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook are on my list of Best Movies of 2012 and all are nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. The French language drama Amour, also nominated for Best Picture, is a brilliantly made film about the end of life – it’s also an almost unbearable viewing experience.
If, like me, you worship the spaghetti Western, the Quentin Tarantino blockbuster Django Unchained is gloriously pedal-to-the-metal, splattering exploitation. The intelligent dramaRust and Bone is the singular tale of a complicated woman and an uncomplicated man. Ang Lee’s visually stunning fable Life of Pi is an enthralling commentary on story-telling.
Skip the unoriginal mob movie Gangster Squad, which wastes its fine cast. Also pass on the lavish but stupefying all-star Les Miserables, with its multiple endings, each more miserable than the last. The FDR movie Hyde Park on Hudson is a bore. The disaster movie The Impossible is only for audiences that enjoy watching suffering adults and children in peril. I have not seen Movie 43 – it is the most critically reviled movie in a looooong time.
My DVD of the week is the underrated 2012 thriller Deadfall.
Turner Classic Movies is celebrating the Oscars with its annual 31 Days of Oscars, filling its broadcast schedule with Academy Award-winning films. In the next week, the especially rich lineup will include Double Indemnity, A Place in the Sun, Seven Days in May, All the King’s Men, Anatomy of a Murder with its great jazz score, On the Waterfront, The Caine Mutiny, Easy Rider, The Last Detail, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia and Tootsie.
Side Effects is a psychological thriller that keeps thriller-lovers on the their toes by constantly changing its focus. First one character is on the verge of falling apart, then another and then another. Initially, we think that the story is about mental illness and prescription psych meds, but then it evolves into something else quite different. The plot might have seemed implausible in the hands of a lesser director, but Steven Soderbergh pulls it off with panache.
Soderbergh got superb performances by his leads: Jude Law, Rooney Mara and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Mara, so striking in The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, serves notice that she is a perfect fit for psychological dramas; she can turn apparent fragility and unknowability into menace like few other film actresses. And few actors can take a character from charming confidence to a desperate meltdown like Law does here. Zeta-Jones shows that she play a frigid mistress of the universe who is passionate and needy underneath. The supporting players are all perfectly cast.
The insistent music by Thomas Newman, while never obvious, is an integral part of the suspense. Soderbergh, a master who has repeatedly elevated genre films, has another winner in Side Effects.
Here’s my interview with the writer-director of Fuzz Track City, Steve Hicks.
So many LA detective tales are set in art deco offices and Bel Air estates, but yours is set in the most ordinary neighborhoods and the seediest retail strips. Why did you choose to feature the LA that movie audiences and tourists rarely see?
STEVE HICKS: I live in the San Fernando Valley (area code 818) in Los Angeles County and I wanted to celebrate/exploit the valley’s locale. Personally, I find so much solace and inspiration in The Valley and I wanted to add my cinematic two bits into the mix. The Valley is a most wonderful place…come and see.
The movie’s MacGuffin is an obscure B-side track – which you wrote yourself. Tell me about writing the infectious lick for the rock song “Ricochet” and arranging it for the commercial jingles.
STEVE HICKS: I’m a devout guitar god enthusiast; Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen…etc. These artists transformed my life as an adolescent. Truly. I know riffs–I’ve researched and obsessed over guitar riffs note-for-note…However, as I discovered–I am not a natural guitar player. I studied piano for many years when I was a kid, but that is the extent of my musical prowess…I wrote ‘Ricochet’ out of necessity when I could not find a guitarist that was willing to write riff after riff after riff for no money. It should be noted, however, that I DID NOT perform the song, ‘Ricochet.’ I wrote what should be played, but it was performed with slick shredder excellence by NICK MAYBURY–a tried-and-true guitar master.
How did you select songs for the sound track? It’s a remarkable compendium of pretty good but not popular rock songs.
STEVE HICKS: I felt that the music in FUZZ TRACK CITY should be as a strong and prominent character as the protagonist…In the initial cuts of the film, I used tracks by Bob Seger, Led Zeppelin, Strawberry Alarm Clock–all the while knowing that one day I had to swap them out (for cost/licensing reasons–too much $$$). However, two music libraries that I can’t say enough good things about (APERTURE MUSIC and DeWOLFE MUSIC) helped me find legitimate music tracks from the actual eras from their vaults to redo the film’s song soundtrack. I was able to replace every ‘popular’ tune with songs from their libraries that–in almost every case–I liked better than my original choices. And they could not have been more helpful or more “indie” friendly when it came to negotiate rates. Thanks to APERTURE MUSIC and DeWOLFE MUSIC.
I think that people will note superficial similarities to THE BIG LEBOWSKI? Any thoughts?
STEVE HICKS: I love ‘The Big Lebowski.’ And it definitely influenced me on some level. When I was writing FUZZ TRACK CITY, I was drawn to a throwback and somewhat passive protagonist for whatever reason. I certainly wasn’t trying to compete with the Coen Brothers. Comparisons are inevitable, although I never intended to compete with The Dude. Certainly not. I just wanted to tell my own story in my own way. FUZZ TRACK CITY abides…indeed.
Who decided that Josh Adell would spend the entire movie as Ziggy in his tidy whities? (I think you missed a product placement opportunity from Fruit of the Loom.)
STEVE HICKS: The ‘undie concept’ was Josh’s…I’ve known Josh since we were 10 years old. We met in sixth grade and bonded over our love for “Caddyshack” and “Stripes” and became inseparable friends. We were roommates at NYU for all four years–he was a drama major, I was in film. I’ve made more projects with Josh than I can count. I wrote the part of Ziggy specifically for him and he just ran with it. He’s a very creative guy–kinda out there. In a good way. One night we went to discuss the role and he had only one thing to say: briefs. Inherently, I understood. And so it goes…
Is that you in the photo of the missing Mike Lockwood?
STEVE HICKS: That is me, yes. I was the cheapest and most accessible person to pose for the photo. In fact, I took the photo myself…of myself. And printed it, too. Myself. Low budget filmmaking at its most sincere.
What’s next for FUZZ TRACK CITY? Will there be a wider release after the festival circuit?
STEVE HICKS: We’ll know soon–working on all that. I’ll will let you know!
What’s next for you? Is there a new film project?
STEVE HICKS: My next project is an adaptation of a memoir by author Peter Conners called GROWING UP DEAD. It’s about a kid going through high school in the late 1980’s–coming of age by way of his love and passion for The Grateful Dead and their music/culture. Fun, trippy stuff. Further…
In the darkly comic Fuzz Track City, writer-director Steve Hicks riffs on the conventions of the detective genre to celebrate the most offbeat sides of LA. Our hero could be a hard-boiled detective if he were more alert. But Murphy Dunn (Todd Robert Anderson) is preoccupied with the death of his partner and the end of his marriage, two numbing losses that stem from betrayals. It takes all of his remaining energy to order his daily Monte Cristo sandwich at the diner.
Look elsewhere for Hollywood gloss. As Dunn searches for the MacGuffin, the B-side of a failed rock band’s long lost 45, he never enters a Bel Air estate. Instead, he pads about the most ordinary neighborhoods of Burbank and Arcadia. His office isn’t in an art deco office building – it’s in a strip on the run down Lankershim Boulevard. Dunn doesn’t drive down storied Mulholland Drive or Sunset Boulevard; his bliss is cruising Ventura Boulevard.
Dunn is a lovable loser, still wearing his high school hair and driving his high school beater. He’s so inexpert with his fists and gun that he needs to get bailed out of a bad situation by his extremely pregnant ex-wife (Tarina Pouncy). The ex-wife witheringly says “take off those sunglasses – they don’t make you look cool” (and she’s right). When he becomes the last LA resident to get a cell phone, he treats it as if it were about to explode.
Along the way Dunn encounters a series of oddballs. One is an agoraphobic vinyl record collector (Josh Adell) who “hasn’t left Burbank in seven years or his house in three” and who scampers about in his tidy whities. Another is a trailer-dwelling former musician (Dave Florek) whose idea of hospitality is to offer a choice of variously colored mouthwashes. Abby Miller (Ellen Mae in Justified) brings some kooky originality to the role of the sad sack waitress. And then there’s the object of Dunn’s schoolboy crush – his high school guidance counselor (Dee Wallace).
As he toys with the tropes of detective fiction, filmmaker Hicks takes us on a leisurely journey through the San Fernando Valley that finally crescendos into an uproarious climax. It’s a fun ride.
Deadfall is a solid thriller that flew under the radar during the holidays. Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde are brother and sister running for the Canadian border after a casino heist. They wreck their car and split up. The brother sets off overland, leaving a trail of murderous carnage. The local cops are on the alert, including the sheriff’s deputy daughter (Kate Mara). Meanwhile, a bad luck boxer (Charlie Hannum of Sons of Anarchy) is released from prison, impulsively commits another crime and is headed for his parents’ (Sissy Spacek and Kris Kristofferson) remote northern cabin. The sister hitches a ride with the boxer. Everybody converges at the boxer’s parents’ place for an extremely stressful Thanksgiving dinner.
An essential element of this thriller is that all of the families are dysfunctional. The siblings have survived a hellish upbringing, from which the older brother has rescued his little sister; unfortunately, he has emerged as a psychopath himself and has infantilized the sister. The relationship between the boxer and his father has been poisoned by a long-festering dispute. The sheriff resents and belittles his bright and highly professional daughter while doting on her idiot brothers.
The core of the movie is the evolving relationship between Wilde’s sister and Hunnam’s boxer. Neither knows that the other is on the lam. She cynically seduces him because he is useful. But then she starts to fall for him, and, by Thanksgiving dinner, her loyalties are uncertain.
Sissy Spacek is brilliant as the boxer’s mom, who must steer over the wreckage of the relationship between her son and her husband, and who must then serve a Thanksgiving dinner to a volatile killer who is holding a shotgun on the other guests. She is a great actor, and she’s as good here as in any of her signature performances.
The cinematography, characters, acting and the directorial choices by Stefan Ruzowitzky are excellent. What keeps Deadfall from being one of the year’s best is some trite, TV movie level dialogue along the way. Still, it’s a good watch.
Note: This is NOT the 1993 Deadfall, with Nicholas Cage even more over-the-top than usual.
Take the zombie version of Romeo and Juliet meets Beauty and the Beast and we have the charmingly funny Warm Bodies. When marauding zombies corner some human teens, a hunky teen zombie is smitten by a saucy live girl (Teresa Palmer), saves her from his comrades and shambles her off to his lair. After he saves her life a few times, she begins to look past his deadness. But her people want to shoot him in the head, and his people want to feast on her organs, so there’s that.
Nicholas Hoult, all grown up from his role as the kid in About a Boy, plays the zombie. Although he can only grunt to the zombies and live humans, the audience hears him narrating his thoughts. It’s normal for any besotted guy to warn himself, “Don’t be creepy! Don’t be creepy!”, but it’s very funny when the guy is dead and looks dead.
Director Jonathan Levine’s (50/50) screenplay is adapted from Isaac Marion’s novel, and it hits all the right notes. It’s the story of a really nice boy trying to get a girl to like him, and it’s just hard for her to get past the fact that he ate her boyfriend’s brains.
Rob Corddray is excellent as Hoult’s zombie best friend and, hey, John Malkovich is in this movie, too. I’m going to include Warm Bodies in my upcoming list of Zombie Movies for People Who Don’t Like Zombie Movies.
