#robert de niro most memorable movie scenes

[aimersproduction]

Uncover Hollywood’s Secrets: Top 10 Iconic Movie Scenes Using ADR

Have you ever watched a movie and been completely captivated by the perfect delivery of a line? It might surprise you to learn that many famous movie moments were actually recorded later in a studio using a process called ADR, or Automated Dialogue Replacement. This technique helps fix audio issues and improve dialogue clarity. 

Here are top ten iconic movie scenes where ADR played a crucial role.

1. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” from Jaws

This famous line, said by the character Quint after seeing the shark, was originally hard to understand when filmed. Actor Robert Shaw re-recorded it in a studio, giving us the clear and memorable line we all know today.

2. “I’m walking here!” from Midnight Cowboy

Dustin Hoffman’s improvised line became legendary, but the street noise made it hard to hear during filming. Hoffman re-recorded it in a studio to make sure his iconic shout was crystal clear.

3. “You had me at ‘hello'” from Jerry Maguire

Renee Zellweger’s heartfelt line was re-recorded in a studio to perfect its emotional impact, making it one of the most romantic moments in film history.

4. The Lobby Shootout in The Matrix

During this intense action scene, Keanu Reeves’ dialogue was mostly re-recorded in a studio. The noise from special effects and stunts made on-set audio unusable, so ADR ensured every line was perfectly clear.

5. “They’re he-ere…” from Poltergeist

Heather O’Rourke’s spooky line was enhanced in post-production with ADR and sound effects, making it even more chilling.

6. “Show me the money!” from Jerry Maguire

Cuba Gooding Jr.’s famous line was re-recorded to capture his energetic delivery more clearly, ensuring it became a pop culture phenomenon.

7. “Keep the change” from Taxi Driver

Robert De Niro’s line in the diner scene was re-recorded to add extra menace and clarity, enhancing the film’s tense atmosphere.

8. “That’ll do, pig” from Babe

James Cromwell’s gentle line to Babe was re-recorded to capture the warmth and sincerity needed for this touching moment.

9. “You’re killing me, Smalls!” from The Sandlot

This funny line was re-recorded by the young actors to ensure it was clearly heard over the noise of their game, making it one of the film’s most memorable quotes.

10. “Here’s looking at you, kid” from Casablanca

Humphrey Bogart’s famous farewell line was enhanced using ADR, making it richer and more impactful than the original on-set recording.

Conclusion

ADR is a hidden gem in filmmaking, allowing directors to fix audio issues and perfect performances. Next time you watch a movie and hear a perfectly delivered line, remember it might have been thanks to the magic of ADR. This technique ensures the dialogue we love is as clear and impactful as possible, making good movies great and unforgettable moments truly iconic. At Aimers Production, we understand the importance of flawless audio and are dedicated to bringing the magic of ADR to every project.

[greensparty]

Remembering Tom Wilkinson and Richard Romanus

Just as 2023 is about to end, there's two actor's who have passed away. Here is my combined remembrance:

Remembering Tom Wilkinson 1948-2023

British actor Tom Wilkinson has died at 75. He was a serious "that guy" actor who appeared in countless great movies and you might not know his name but you'd say "that guy is good in everything"! He received two Academy Award nominations: Todd Field's excellent In the Bedroom for Lead Actor and Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton for Supporting Actor. Both phenomenal performances!

Kirsten Dunst and Wilkinson in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Beyond those two movies I think my other favorite performances of his were as the doctor with secrets of his own in Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the uncle in Woody Allen's underrated Cassandra's Dream.

Other notable performances included The Full Monty, Rush Hour, Shakespeare in Love, Ride with the Devil, The Patriot, Batman Begins, Recount, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Selma just to name a few. That's a lot of historical biopics and period pieces he specialized in! He was consistently good in so many ensemble films.

The link above is the obit from Hollywood Reporter.

Remembering Richard Romanus 1943-2023

Actor Richard Romanus has died at 80. He is most known for playing the loan shark in Martin Scorsese's early epic Mean Streets! The scenes with him and Robert De Niro were quite memorable.

Harvey Keitel and Romanus in Mean Streets

He also played Dr. Melfi's husband on multiple episodes of The Sopranos from 1999-2002.

The link above is the obit from Hollywood Reporter.

[disappointingyet]

Between The Lines

Director Joan Micklin Silver Stars Lindsay Crouse, John Heard, Jeff Goldblum, Jill Eikenberry, Bruno Kirby, Gwen Welles, Stephen Collins USA 1977 Language English 1hr 41mins Colour 

Classic indie ensemble piece – before that was a thing

If you’d seen this at the time, which of the male actors do you think you would have picked out as the future movie star? The obvious thing to say is one of the rectangular-headed blonde guys, especially because John Heard is sort-of the male romantic lead here. But then again, this is the 1970s, the era of Al and Bobby, so maybe you go for Bruno Kirby – the short Italian guy who had actually shared scenes with De Niro in The Godfather Part II.

Watching in 2023, we know it's the tall, weirdly magnetic Jewish dude who seems all limbs who would become much more famous than the rest. The film ends with the camera locked on Jeff Goldblum and he’s fully formed here – the day after I saw Between The Lines, I watched an episode of Search Party from last year that he’s in, and if the mannerisms are a little more extreme now, they were certainly already there. 

It’s a formidable cast of then up-and-comers. It’s not quite a 1970s equivalent of Short Term 12, but almost all of these people went on to have good careers: Kirby and Heard as beloved character actors and Jill Eikenberry and Stephen Collins as leads on hit TV shows (as was Marilu Henner, who has a memorable few scenes in this film). Maybe I think of Crouse as bigger than she is because House Of Games was a very-much-talked-about film back in the day and she was a Columbo villain, which puts her in the company of Donald Pleasance, Janet Leigh, Rip Torn and Johnny Cash. (She’s also in the worst Buffy The Vampire Slayer storyline, but that’s not her fault.)

Never imagined John Heard and Lindsay Crouse as a cute couple

And it’s Crouse who gets the most screen time in this packed ensemble. She plays Abbie, a photographer working the Back Bay Mainline, an alternative weekly newspaper in Boston. Heard is Harry, one of the paper’s star writers and her sometime boyfriend. Goldblum is Max, the rock critic. Collins and Gwen Welles are Michael and Laura, both writers, but he’s the one working on a pompous-sounding book and she’s struggling with being in his shadow. Kirby (27 but looking much younger) is the newly joined boy reporter and Eikenberry is the long-suffering office manager. 

In a lot of ways, this a classic American indie movie about a bunch of bright young folk (eg, the already mentioned Short Term 12). Only that wasn’t really a thing yet in 1977. There were plenty of  films at the time, though, shot in scruffy, believable locations with sprawling casts (indeed, a few of the stars of this had been in Robert Altman pics). It was in the 1980s, I guess, that things started to separate out again. It was shot in only two weeks so I’m assuming the budget was pretty low – there are a couple of aerial shots that feel designed to make you sense this is proper movie.

And it’s a good example of the ensemble movie, a movie that makes us feel immersed in this little world, a very likeable film, funny in places, sharply written. And I don’t think it wrong to say Joan Micklin Silver is clearly bringing a woman’s perspective here – it’s easy to imagine a film that would have indulged and glorified Harry and Michael, rather than exposing their fragile egos. (There’s also a couple of good exchanges between Laura and Abbie that pre-figure the Sally/Marie ‘I don’t think he’s ever going to leave her’ riff in When Harry Met Sally.)

Between The Lines treads fairly lightly in boomer regret and nostalgia – there’s a bit of stuff about the passing of the counterculture, references to the early days of the paper as part of the underground press and the idealism of that moment, contrasted with the mid-1970s when it’s professional enough to be the target of a takeover by a guy who in that earlier moment would have been described as a breadhead.  But that never becomes the main theme — this isn’t the Return Of The Secaucus Seven or The Big Chill. Maybe it was a bit too early for that, and that's probably a good thing.

What feels like it was maybe intended as the movie’s marketing trump card is the presence of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, who were famous as Bruce Springsteen’s mates. They are on the soundtrack, mentioned in the plot and then play at a party. Never really been a fan – they represent the brassy bar band side of Springsteendom that I like less – but it’s kind of fun to have them here. 

At the time I write this, MUBI have a bunch of Joan Micklin Silver films up, aiming to get a serious consideration of her career. This is the first one I have seen, and I’m fully sold. 

[billiambabble]

Goncharov - a lunchtime film club memory

The first time I saw Goncharov (1973, dir. M.Scorsese) was at a school film club.  It must have been around 1988 (? I was 16-17).  The “Mostly Movies Club” was a cliquey lunchtime affair.  Some of the media studies students had found a way of ordering videos through the library - which was quite a trick because normally only staff could do this.  The downside of these county library tapes is that they were never quite like the ones you’d see in the video-rental shops, which often at least had the cinema poster on the cover and some blerb on the back, these had typed labels with indecipherably long dewey code numbers.  Sometimes they were copies of copies - an irony not lost on the ‘Movies Club which was trying be as elitist as possible about the content of those lunchtime viewings.  Due to lunchtimes being just under an hour, and time being needed to stack the plastic chairs at the end, it must have been shown in three or even four sittings.  There’s no guarantee that the tape edit would have been the same length as the original theatrical release, so I can’t be sure.  I remember that it was in multiple sittings because I missed the middle!  It was difficult viewing too.  It was a cramped, dusty study room - possibly locked most of the time because the trolly TV and player was actually left out and not kept in cupboard. We assumed the cleaners just didn’t have the keys to this room. That beautiful-ugly chunky TV on its black metal trolly was practically bulb-like with its curved shiny screen, the shapes of the thin window curtains reflecting off that screen, obliterating all but the brightest scenes.  We lost so much time to adjusting the tracking on that big top loading VHS tape player (the betamax player sat, also chained, on the shelf below it - how the science students loathed those black and white Open University recordings).   This copy of the film was ‘pan-and-scan”, so occasionally the camera would whip across a wide scene (the one in the city square for exampl), or the image was simply zoomed-in to fit the TV ratio, minus a cm or so.  If you hadn’t seen the film, this wasn’t much of a problem, but we had stills in magazines, so even I knew something was up when the famous pocket watch was half-cropped out in one of the three clock scenes. At another point, during the alleyway ambush, a hand gun held low was also cropped out!  It was absurd when you think about it. Even with the blur, Cybil Shepherd still looked amazing (or maybe it was deliberately soft focussed, I forget).  That dress was so memorable - I mean a year or so earlier it would have been a "formative" experience for me.  We only knew Ms. Shepherd from the TV show Moonlighting - although we did watch the Last Picture Show in the club sometime later.  I still get confused about the maths here.  She must have been young in Goncharov, the start of her career?  Robert De Niro’s acting presence was simply so electric, it’s almost a shame for the other talent-eclipsed actors (too many now-established names to mention here).  At least that’s how I remembered it at the time.  I mean it was easier to talk about the portrayal of Russian mafia hitmen, than to admit our crushes on Sofia and Katya.  I swear I heard an audible sigh from one of the media studies kids when Katya suddenly walks in, looking amazing, in the argument scene in the last third of the film.  Don’t ask about the music - those violins did not survive well on stretched tape.  In saying all this, it still felt that we were watching something special, something definitive, after which we could move on and greater appreciate all the films it had influenced.  Thank you  so much Mr. Scorsese!  And thank you Tumblr, for reminding me of a special moment from my past during a bizarre and complicated time.

[adamwatchesmovies]

The Untouchables (1987)

Only a few minutes into The Untouchables I knew I was watching something special. Even if you know how it went down between Eliot Ness and Al Capone, you’re not ready for the tension this film brings. It’s got iconic lines, great performances, terrific costumes, a score that builds the mood like only Ennio Morricone could and the kind of crowd-pleasing moments that will have you returning to it over and over.

In 1930, notorious crime kingpin Al Capone (Robert De Niro) is the source of illegal liquor in Chicago. Everyone knows it, but his influence runs too deep for anyone to take him down. When FBI agent Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) realizes his straight-arrow tactics won’t do, he forms “The Untouchables” and goes where the police are unable - or unwilling - to.

The opening credits get you excited right away: screenplay by David Mamet, directed by Brian De Palma, music by Ennio Morricone, and an all-star cast. Let's go, baby! Is the story 100% accurate to what happened in real life? It doesn’t matter and you don’t care. What’s important is the way the movie makes you feel. Al Capone isn’t in the movie much but immediately, you hate him. He’s like a spoiled kid with a big stick. Capone thinks he’s so classy and smart but he’s not above the law. No one is. You can’t wait to see him get taught a lesson and pay for all the crimes he’s committed. By contrast, a surprising amount of time is spent making Eliot Ness human. Scenes of him at home with his children, tender moments with his wife (Patricia Clarkson) as she leaves notes in his lunch kit, etc. Their roles as the hero and villain are clearly outlined… so why is taking Capone down so hard? He wants to believe in doing things the right way but the game is rigged. As the audience, we may not object to the operations Ness leads but we see the toll working outside the law has on him. You already wanted to see Capone taken down so that smirk would get wiped off his face. What keeps you watching are all the other reasons: so Ness can return to a normal life, to know for certain that the members of the Untouchables are safe and for Ness to stop before he turns into a villain himself.

While the other members of the Untouchables aren’t given nearly as much attention as their leader, the performers make great use of the script they’re given. Sean Connery, in particular, is a standout. There are a lot of great lines in the movie and he’s got some of the most memorable ones. Connery is such a recognizable actor, with such an identifiable voice. While watching the movie, you forget it’s him. You don’t even pay attention to the accent, you’re so absorbed by what’s going on. You're too busy trying to get a grip on your nerves. When Brian De Palma makes you sweat, you’re sweating buckets, you’re tearing out your hair and chewing your nails to the bone. There’s a shootout between Ness and Frank Nitti (Billy Drago), Capone’s chief assassin. It got so extreme that I didn’t even care who shot, whether they hit, or how long the shootout would last. All I wanted was for someone to do something so I could start breathing again.

There are many scenes where things go from bad to worse. They'll all have you thinking “There’s got to be a way out somehow”. Your mind races, trying to figure out what Ness and his cohorts can do. You’re so invested you want to pause the movie and come up with a plan you could propose to them but you desperately want to see what comes next so you just let it play out.

So often, The Untouchables gives you hope and then takes it away. It crushes you to see all the hard work and sacrifices get effortlessly flicked away by Capone and his cronies. Rather than give up, you dig in your heels and keep on, more determined than ever to see this through. You forget about the rest of the world. All that matters is this movie. You even forget that you know how it’s going to end. When the credits finish rolling, you breathe a sigh of relief. Those 119 minutes flew by like they were nothing. (September 2, 2021)

[forbro]

Men's T-Shirts in Pop Culture: Iconic Moments in Film and Music

In the ever-evolving landscape of fashion, men's t-shirts have secured a permanent place not only in our closets but also in the annals of pop culture. From memorable movie scenes to iconic music performances, the humble t-shirt has played a pivotal role in shaping cultural narratives. Join us as we explore the fascinating intersection of men's t-shirts with some unforgettable moments in film and music.

The Rebel Without a Cause: James Dean's White Tee

One of the earliest and most enduring images of men's t-shirts in pop culture can be traced back to James Dean's rebellious persona in the 1955 classic "Rebel Without a Cause." Clad in a simple white tee, Dean's effortless coolness left an indelible mark on generations to come. The white t-shirt became a symbol of nonchalant rebellion and laid the foundation for its enduring popularity.

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Rock 'n' Roll Chic: The Beatles and Graphic Tees

As the 1960s ushered in the era of rock 'n' roll, The Beatles took the world by storm, not just with their music but also with their distinct fashion choices. The Fab Four's affinity for graphic tees, adorned with vibrant colors and bold designs, made a powerful statement. Fans eagerly embraced this trend, turning graphic tees into a staple for expressing individuality and fandom.

Taxi Driver and the Anti-Hero: De Niro's Army Green Tee

In Martin Scorsese's gritty masterpiece "Taxi Driver," Robert De Niro's portrayal of Travis Bickle became an emblem of the anti-hero. Decked in an army green surplus tee, Bickle's character exuded a raw, unfiltered masculinity that resonated with audiences. The army green tee, once associated with utility, became a symbol of urban angst and anti-establishment sentiments.

Dazed and Confused: The Grunge Movement and Band Tees

The 1990s witnessed the rise of grunge music and its unmistakable influence on fashion. Band tees, characterized by their oversized fit and often faded designs, became synonymous with the grunge movement. Films like "Dazed and Confused" captured the essence of this era, featuring characters sporting band tees that seamlessly blended music and fashion, solidifying their place in pop culture history.

Pulp Fiction and the Cult of the Black Tee

Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" is a cinematic masterpiece known for its memorable characters and iconic scenes. John Travolta's character, Vincent Vega, donned a sleek black tee in one of the film's most recognizable moments—the dance sequence with Uma Thurman. This moment not only showcased the timeless allure of the black tee but also elevated it to a symbol of understated sophistication.

The Hip-Hop Connection: Eminem and White Tees in the 2000s

In the early 2000s, hip-hop culture heavily influenced fashion, and the white tee emerged as a wardrobe essential. Eminem, a rap icon of the era, often sported plain white tees in his music videos, contributing to the garment's widespread popularity. The simplicity of the white tee became a canvas for self-expression, reflecting the raw authenticity of hip-hop culture.

Forbro – Redefining Men's T-Shirt Culture

As we traverse the iconic moments in film and music where men's t-shirts took center stage, it's evident that these garments are more than just articles of clothing—they are cultural artifacts, weaving themselves into the fabric of our collective memory. At Forbro, we celebrate the rich history of men's t-shirts in pop culture, offering a curated collection that pays homage to these iconic moments.

Whether you're inspired by James Dean's rebel spirit, The Beatles' graphic exuberance, or Eminem's hip-hop flair, Forbro has a diverse range of men's t-shirts that capture the essence of these cultural touchstones. Our commitment to quality and style ensures that each tee is not just a piece of clothing but a statement—a reflection of your unique taste and the cultural influences that resonate with you.

In a world where fashion is a language, Forbro speaks the dialect of iconic moments, blending them seamlessly into every thread. Explore our collection today and be a part of the ongoing narrative of men's t-shirts in pop culture.

Forbro – Where Men's T-Shirts Meet Iconic Culture.

[chillingcinemachronicles]

The 5 Best Movie on netflix Right now

1. Arrival

Year: 2016 Runtime: 1h 56m Director: Denis Villeneuve

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The French-Canadian director guided Amy Adams to one of her best performances in this sharp sci-fi film about an alien invasion that says more about the people on Earth than the interstellar visitors. Based on a short story called “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, Arrival asks how we would communicate with an alien species, led by a linguist played by Adams. A time-twisting narrative made this a smash hit, along with Villeneuve’s undeniable craftsmanship.

2. Call Me by Your Name

Year: 2017 Runtime: 2h 6m Director: Luca Guadagnino

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One of the best films of the 2010s, this drama stars Timothée Chalamet as a boy who discovers his own sexuality when he’s wooed by an older man, played by Armie Hammer. Delicate and moving, this is a remarkable drama because of how true it feels, anchored by great performances throughout, not just from the two leads but the amazing Michael Stuhlbarg too.

3. Backdraft

Year: 1991 Runtime: 2h 17m Director: Ron Howard

People who saw this movie at the right age seem to have continued love for it. Ron Howard brings a grounded, taut craft to ensemble piece about Chicago firefighters trying to track down a serial arsonist. The hit film ($150 million+ for a movie like this is unthinkable nowadays) has a great early ’90s cast that includes Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Scott Glenn, Robert De Niro, and many more, but it’s the fire scenes that make it memorable. You can feel the heat.

4. Cinderella Man

Year: 2005 Runtime: 2h 24m Director: Ron Howard

After the Oscar-winning success of their previous collaboration, it made perfect sense that Russell Crowe and Ron Howard would want to work together again, but this follow-up sports drama didn’t have quite the same impact. It’s a solid drama elevated by great work from Crowe, Renee Zellweger and Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti (his only nod, believe it or not), as they tell the story of James J. Braddock, a heavyweight boxing champ.

5. The Power of the Dog

Year: 2021 Runtime: 2h 6m Director: Jane Campion

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The film that finally won an Oscar for Jane Campion for directing is one of the most acclaimed in the history of the streaming giant. Campion helmed this adaptation of the novel of the same name by Thomas Savage, the story of a vicious landowner (Benedict Cumberbatch) who torments the new wife (Kirsten Dunst) of his brother (Jesse Plemons). A drama that plays like a thriller, this gorgeously rendered period piece unpacks themes of toxic masculinity and manipulation in a way that makes it impossible to turn away. It’s not just one of the best Netflix Original films, it’s one of the best, period, of the 2020s so far.

[ellabina]

The Timeless Magic Of Robert De Niro And Joe Pesci Movies

The electrifying chemistry between Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci has produced some of the most memorable roles and iconic scenes in cinema history. Ever since they first shared the screen in Raging Bull, their seemingly effortless onscreen rapport has mesmerized audiences.

Across seven unforgettable collaborations, De Niro and Pesci exhibited the improvisational magic they brought out in one another, whether facing off as mob associates and playing lifelong friends. Their riveting performances often pushed each other's dramatic talents to staggering new heights.

In this piece, we revisit the powerful films headlined by this dynamic duo of De Niro and Pesci which represent some of the finest acting showcases from these two legends of American cinema.

Read Full Article

[besttailorsinchiangmai]

Iconic suits from Hollywood Part 2

The look may be a little baggier than would be worn today but it’s still slick with its crisp, white shirt and perfectly co-ordinated tie. Classic perfection that still has the power to wow audiences old and new. The eighties did have some stylish moments as we can clearly see in American Gigolo, thanks to Richard Gere and his outfits supplied by Georgio Armani. One of cinema’s most memorable wardrobe scenes is in this film when Richard Gere flicks through his huge range of shirts and blazers. This is undoubtedly where the phrase ‘Armani suits’ became ubiquitous with having style and who better to carry it off than the very sartorial Richard Gere? Did you know that Robert De Niro wore 45 suits in Scorcese’s Las Vegas gangster drama Casino? And all of them were specially made? Rumor has it that the costume budget for this movie alone was around $1 million. I would have liked to been the consultant tailor on that one! Jack Nicholson was mesmerizing in the film Chinatown which was set in 1937 Los Angeles. As well as being one of the best dramas of all time, it is also one of the most stylish, as it had a series of fantastic bespoke three-piece suits that were perfectly accessorized with pocket square and tie ensembles. Talent like Nicholson’s had to be complimented with impeccable attention to detail and the very best of fabrics. An amazing cinematic experience from one of the very best.  

New Moda Custom Tailors

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[all-things-de-niro]

GQ Magazine article from 2020.

I disagree with a few of these film choices/memorable scenes but will post about that another time.

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Midnight Run (Brest, 1988)

When compared to some of the other performances that Robert De Niro was giving in his prime (roughly 1973 to 1997, although there are worthwhile films before and after), his work in Midnight Run might seem low key, maybe even underwhelming. Certainly he hits a lot of the same notes as he did in his easy paycheque period, which started roughly with Meet the Parents. (For the record, I think he’s pretty committed in that movie, but you do see a certain shtickiness develop.) You get a lot of the raised eyebrows, a lot of the indignation and a hell of a lot of the profane outbursts. But what I think grounds his work here is the sense of weariness he brings to the role. This is a character who has been in an unrewarding line of work for far too long, whose integrity is not valued by the disreputable characters he’s often surrounded by, and whose morale has been steadily broken down as a result. If anything, the performance this has most in common with is not another De Niro character, but the one played by Robert Forster in Jackie Brown, another man in the bail bonds business who is just too damn tired of the bullshit he’s waded through for years.

It’s also wise for De Niro to turn down his intensity here, as it allows us to focus on the performance by Charles Grodin as the deeply aggravating but ultimately honourable man he’s tasked with transporting across the country. I’m starting to run out of things to say about Grodin’s acting, as he so reliably plays a certain breed of white collar professional to such memorable comic effect, but I think this movie really plays to his strengths of precise, even-toned line readings. There are a lot of big laughs in the movie, and they frequently come from Grodin attempting to apply a certain logic to a totally unreceptive De Niro. Listen to this exchange, about both characters seething from their respective betrayals at the hands of the other:

"You lied to me first!"

"What the... You lied to me first!"

"Yes! Yes. But you didn't know I was lying to you when you lied to me down by the river. So as far as you knew, you lied to me first!"

"How can I argue with this guy. I don't know what the fuck he's talking about."

If you’re not chuckling at least a bit, I can’t help you. But the exchange also reveals a certain truth about both characters, about their need to maintain a certain integrity and to be able to look at themselves in the mirror even when they’re working at cross purposes.

This is directed by Martin Brest, and scratches the same action comedy itch as his earlier hit, Beverly Hills Cop. This is probably a “better” movie, in that it juggles the intricacies of its plot more deftly, and with a better sense of timing in producing the complications that meet our heroes. It also has a better rounded cast, filling almost every scene with a nicely textured performance. But at the same time, there’s something to be said about the earlier movie’s effectiveness as a star vehicle, an entire movie tailored to capitalize on the formidable charisma of prime era Eddie Murphy. (While I wouldn’t call it a favourite, I do revisit it with some regularity.) Brest isn’t a good action director in the technical sense, but what he does well in both movies is find ways to fill in the gaps of the action scenes with the niceties of the performances. Savour the banter between Judge Reinhold and John Ashton as they’re pinned down by the villain’s henchman in that movie, and savour the interplay here between Ashton, De Niro and Grodin as they’re attacked by hired killers in a helicopter. This was the only scene I really remembered from my viewing years ago, and I’m pleased to report that I still laughed. I will say that this movie needed better action comedy music. Danny Elfman occasionally does a zany action theme, but for the most part the score consists of generic blues rock. There are no synth stylings by Harold Faltemeyer, no “Axel F.”, no “Bit By Bit” from Fletch, not even a “Shakedown” by Bob Seger from Beverly Hills Cop II.

I watched Beethoven late last month and was in the mood for more Grodin, and voila, Midnight Run appeared on the Criterion Channel. While there are likely more reasonable explanations, I can only assume that their employees have been breathlessly following my online activity and as such will take full credit. Of course, this is on the service as part of a Yaphet Kotto retrospective. This may not be the best representation of Kotto’s full talents, but he is effective as a gruff FBI agent, his deadpan reactions hiding his bone-deep exasperation from the proceedings, even as they occur in completely different parts of the country. Such is the power of Charles Grodin that he can annoy across state lines.

[ljones41]

"HEAT" (1995) Review

"HEAT" (1995) Review

For many filmgoers and critics, the 1995 crime drama ”HEAT” is regarded as director Michael Mann’s masterpiece. It is the movie that most fans think of when the director’s name is mentioned. ”TIME” magazine had even placed it on its list of top 100 crime dramas of all time. And the brutal downtown Los Angeles shootout is considered to be one of the best action sequences in movie history.

So . . . how do I feel about "HEAT"? Like many others, I consider it to be one of the best crime dramas I have ever seen. Honestly. The movie centered around a cat-and-mouse game between a Los Angeles Police detective named Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) and a ruthless professional thief named Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro). McCauley’s carefully planned heist of an armored car that contained US$1.6 million dollars in bearer bonds owned by a money launderer named Roger Van Zant (William Fichtner) goes slightly wrong when one of his crew – a trigger-happy cowboy named Waingro (Kevin Gage) – kills one of the armored car guards being held at gunpoint by the crew. Realizing they cannot leave behind any witnesses, McCauley’s crew is forced to kill the remaining guards. This multiple homicide, along with the armored car robbery, attracts the attention of Detective Hanna and his squad – members of the L.A.P.D. Robbery/Homicide Unit.

Back in the late 1980s, Michael Mann had written a transcript for a 1989 made-for-television film called ”L.A. TAKEDOWN” about a cat-and-mouse game between a Los Angeles Police detective and a hardened and methodical criminal that affected a bank robbery in downtown Los Angeles. Following his success of ”THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS”, Mann took that transcript and broadened it for a theatrical movie that would eventually become ”HEAT”. Mann’s screenplay featured a multi-layered and complex look into the lives of professional criminals and the police officers that pursued them. Through characters like the introverted thief McCauley and one of his co-horts, Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer), audiences received a glimpse into the lives of professional criminals that were neither mobsters or amateurish lone wolves. Men like McCauley and Shiherlis were just as organized as the Mob, but they did not come from any particular ethnic group like the La Cosa Nostra. The movie also offered a glimpse into their personal lives and reveal how their pursuit of crime affected their families and other loved ones. ”HEAT” also presented a parallel glimpse into the lives of police officers like Vincent Hanna, who led a special unit of detectives that investigate robberies and homicides. Mann took film goers into Hanna’s marriage. There, the director revealed how the detective’s intense dedication to his profession and temper affected said marriage.

As I had earlier stated, ”HEAT” is a complex tale filled with intriguing characters and multiple subplots that served the movie’s main plot. Well . . . some of the subplots accomplished this task. The one plot that dominated the movie (and served as the only plot for Mann’s ”L.A. TAKEDOWN”) was the clash between Hanna and McCauley that culminated in a downtown Los Angeles bank robbery and its aftereffects. Through his script and direction, Mann provided some memorable moments in the film. I found myself impressed by the scene that featured McCauley and his crew being double-crossed at a local drive-in theater by men working for money launderer Van Zant. Another scene that impressed me was the more dramatic quarrel between Chris Shiherlis and his wife, Charlene (Ashley Judd) over his gambling habits. The scene served as a reminder on how the activities of criminals end up affecting their lives on a personal scale. One favorite scene featured an amusing, yet crowd-pleasing moment when Hanna realized that McCauley had become aware of the squad’s presence with his own investigation. But the movie’s tour-de-force remains, of course, the famous shootout in downtown Los Angeles, following a bank robbery committed by McCauley and his crew. I could rave over the excellence and excitement of the scene. But why should I bother? The sequence’s positive reputation amongst critics and filmgoers is a perfect reflection of the scene’s excellence. I can only think of a handful of similar action sequences – two of them from other Mann movies – that are this well shot.

As much as I admire ”HEAT”, it has its flaws. One, the movie has a running time of 165 minutes. Now, this might not be much of a problem on its own. However, it does become something of a problem with a movie filled with what I consider to be unnecessary subplots that dragged the film in certain areas. I could have done without the movie’s romantic subplots. McCauley’s romance with a bookstore clerk/graphics artist named Eady (Amy Bremmerman) bored the hell out of me. Hanna’s marriage to a divorcee named Justine (Diane Verona) annoyed me. Well . . . her character annoyed me. I became weary of her constant complaints about his “dedication” to the job. This particular subplot had its own in the form of Hanna’s suicidal stepdaughter (Natalie Portman), who seemed incapable of dealing with her real father’s absence from her life. In the end, Hanna and McCauley’s personal lives seemed to have NO real impact upon the movie’s main plot and minor impact upon their respective characters. Worse, both subplots nearly dragged the film. Ironically, the two relationships that had a stronger impact upon the movie’s main plot turned out to be Chris and Charlene Shiherlis’s troubled marriage and the marriage between another member of McCauley’s crew named Trejo (Danny Trejo) and his wife, Anna (Begonya Plaza). Chris and Charlene’s marriage and feelings for one another played a role in Chris’ fate following the disastrous bank robbery. And Trejo’s love for his wife led him to reveal McCauley’s robbery plans, while being tortured by Van Zant’s men and Waingro . . . before they could tip off the police. And yet, these two relationships did not receive as much screen time as Hanna and McCauley’s relationships.

Three other subplots failed to grab me. With Trejo and his wife in Van Zant’s clutches, McCauley was forced to recruit a driver for the bank robbery – a paroled convict named Donald Breeden (Dennis Haysbert). Unfortunately, Mann included a subplot that led Breeden to break his parole and accept McCauley’s job offer – a subplot that described the parolee’s difficulties in staying straight. I found the story a bore and a waste of Haysbert’s talent. And I never understood Mann’s decision to include Waingro’s murder of a teenage prostitute. Hanna and his team had never linked the murder to Waingro. Nor did the crime have an impact upon the movie’s plot, except force Hanna to abandon a dinner party with his squad and their wives . . . and give Justine another excuse to complain about his job. One last subplot seemed useless to me. It featured Hanna and McCauley’s only meeting at a local diner near, where each man examined the other and revealed that they would not hesitate to kill the other if the situation demands it. And while I must admit that Pacino and De Niro gave top notch performances, the entire scene struck me as a . . . waste . . . of . . . time. The only thing this entire scene had served was a chance to allow Pacino and De Niro to share one scene together.

I realized that I had written so much about the movie’s plot that I nearly forgotten about the performances. Fortunately, Mann had cast the movie with talented actors and actresses and I cannot fault any one of them. I realize much has been said about Al Pacino’s tendency to engage in theatrical acting. In other words, he can be a ham. He certainly was a ham in ”HEAT”. But the thing about Pacino is that he can be subtle or he can be a ham . . . with style. Which is why I am willing to give him a pass on some of his hammier moments. But I cannot deny that Vincent Hanna may be one of his best roles. Whereas Pacino’s Hanna is all fire and theatrics, De Niro’s Neil McCauley is quiet intensity. His McCauley must be one of the most subtle performances he has ever given. I cannot even remember a scene where he had raised his voice, let alone mugged for the camera. There were other performances that also impressed me - Mykelti Williamson as the no-nonsense Sergeant Drucker, one of Hanna’s teammates; Tom Siezemore as McCauley’s most loyal henchman, Michael Cheritto; Jon Voight as Nate, McCauley’s pragmatic fence; and Diane Verona as Hanna’s embittered wife, Justine. Yes I had complained about her character, but I must admit that Verona gave a memorable performance. However, I have to give special kudos to Natalie Portman’s emotional performance as Hanna’s suicidal stepdaughter who is desperate for her real father’s attention; and to Val Kilmer and Ashley Judd, who managed to give complex performances as Chris and Charlene Shiherlis – one of McCauley’s colleagues and his wife. Despite their constant clashes over his gambling habit and her brief foray into adultery with a Las Vegas resident named Alan Marciano (Hank Azaria), Kilmer and Judd made it clear that these two loved each other . . . especially in a quiet and tense scene that featured Charlene giving fugitive Chris a silent warning to stay away, due to the presence of nearby police.

As much as I admire Michael Mann as a director, there is one aspect of his filmmaking that turns me off – namely his cinematic view of Los Angeles. I tend to find this view cold and antiseptic. I have noticed this in both ”HEAT” and his 2004 thriller, ”COLLATERAL”. Hell, Mann’s view of Chicago in ”PUBLIC ENEMIES” struck me as ten times more colorful. Considering that Mann is from Chicago, I am not surprised. Mind you, cinematographer Dante Spinotti captured some memorable shots of Los Angeles – including one breathtaking one of the city at night from McCauley’s Hollywood Hills home. But it still came off as slightly chilly. Mann’s view of Los Angeles is probably a reflection of his view of the city . . . which is completely opposite of my own. I did find Pasquale Buba, William Goldenberg, Dov Hoenig and Tom Rolf’s editing very impressive; especially in the downtown shootout. But there is one technical aspect of ”HEAT” that really knocked my socks off. I am speaking of Elliot Goldenthal’s score. Granted, most of Goldenthal’s score failed to make an impression upon me. However . . . his score for the bank robbery sequence was more than memorable. I enjoyed the way Goldenthal used percussion instruments to underscore the scene’s growing tension that finally exploded into violence when Chris Shirherlis spotted cops and Hanna’s team waiting outside of the bank. For me, the entire sequence featured a perfect blend of music and action.

To repeat myself, ”HEAT” is not a perfect movie, despite its reputation. I consider Mann’s septic view of Los Angeles to be one of the movie’s minor flaws. But its major flaw seemed to be the numerous subplots that had nothing to do with the movie’s main narrative. A flaw that ended up dragging the movie’s pacing in many scenes. But despite these flaws, Mann still managed to create an exciting and complex story about two men – a methodical thief and an intuitive police detective – whose cat-and-mouse game engulfed those in their lives and an entire city. It is this cat-and-mouse game that made ”HEAT” a modern Hollywood classic.

[justforbooks]

“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” Those words, delivered with lingering fascination by the actor Ray Liotta, who has died unexpectedly aged 67, ushered audiences into Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990), one of the most dynamic pictures made about the criminal life and its enticements.

Liotta, playing the real mobster-turned-informant Henry Hill, has just been seen taking part in the fatal knifing of a mob rival when the camera zooms on to his face, bathed in the infernal red glow of a car’s brake-lights. Seductive and terrifying, he exudes a charred handsomeness and a chilling self-belief. Though Goodfellas was only his fourth major screen role, Liotta was seen (and heard, in a matter-of-fact voiceover) for much of the movie’s two-and-a-half-hour running time.

He held his own in the company of experienced co-stars such as Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, who played fellow hoods. His fizzy, feisty rapport with Lorraine Bracco, as Henry’s wife, Karen, brought valuable warmth to the intense, sometimes harrowing, material.

Take any of the movie’s most memorable scenes and Liotta is at the heart of them: the technically complex single-take Steadicam shot, which doubles as a portrait of Henry’s rise in miniature as it follows him and Karen from the streets into the back entrance of the Copacabana nightclub, through its corridors and kitchens, and ends up at their VIP table for that evening’s show; the mortifying moment when Henry makes the mistake of referring to the volatile Tommy (Pesci) as “a funny guy”, unleashing in the process an intimidating tirade; and the virtuoso sequence late in the film in which Henry, frazzled on cocaine, plagued by paranoia and pursued by the Feds, finally runs out of luck.

He is last seen standing on a doorstep in his dressing gown, staring into the camera as he contemplates life in the witness protection programme. “I’m an average nobody,” he complains in the voiceover. “I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.”

Goodfellas made Liotta a star but he had already given an equally magnetic performance in Something Wild (1986), his first lead role. He was 30 when he was cast as Ray Sinclair, a thug who terrorises his free-spirited ex-wife, Audrey (Melanie Griffith), after being released from prison.

Jonathan Demme’s masterful comedy-thriller is a movie of two halves, its audacious shift from high-jinks to horror resting largely on Liotta’s shoulders. When he looms into view on the dancefloor at a high-school reunion, spooking Audrey and her date (Jeff Daniels), it is one of the most spine-tingling moments in modern cinema, as well as a warning to audiences who had been blithely enjoying the previous hour that the fun and games were now over. His mercurial quality, his gift for stillness, his arctic blue eyes – all these were assets in portraying a brute who nevertheless remains compellingly human.

It helped no end that Liotta was an unknown quantity, at least to those who had not seen him on television during his three years in the soap opera Another World (1978-81), where he played “the nicest guy in the world”.

In later years, he often insisted that he had been unfairly pigeonholed as a villain or a gangster. It was for that reason that he turned down a part in the third series of The Sopranos, though he did appear in the show’s movie prequel, The Many Saints of Newark (2021), as well as playing the mobster Roy DeMeo in The Iceman (2012). Chagrined that “bad guys just seem to stand out”, Liotta protested that he wasn’t “a criminal or a tough guy or a gang member. My life does not revolve around intensity … I like playing the nicer guy in movies. I can relate to them better.”

He played the twin brother of a man (Tom Hulce) with learning difficulties in Dominick and Eugene (1988), but his most beloved “nice guy” role was in Field of Dreams (1989), a sentimental fantasy about a farmer (Kevin Costner) who builds a baseball field that is then frequented by the ghosts of long-dead players.

Among them is “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, who is played by Liotta with an unusual twinkling softness, as well as a steely undertone that keeps his performance focused even as the film makes its assault on the tear ducts.

He could be disarmingly vulnerable in harsher contexts, too. The most shocking scene in the crime movie Killing Them Softly (2012) occurs when Liotta, as a luckless card sharp, bursts into tears while being beaten up, a sight simultaneously moving, upsetting and unshakably strange.

He was born in Newark, New Jersey, where he was adopted at six months old and raised by Mary, a township clerk, and Alfred Liotta, who owned an auto parts store. Ray had grown up believing he was of Italian heritage, but on meeting his birth mother in his 40s, discovered his origins were in fact Scottish. He was educated at Union high school, in his home state, and at the University of Miami, where he studied drama.

He enjoyed acting on stage there, and later moved to New York, where he was cast in commercials and television series before auditioning successfully for Something Wild.

Though he never became a superstar – he expressed regret that he had declined an offer to meet Tim Burton, who wanted him to play Batman in his 1989 film – he worked consistently. He was a cop menacing Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe in Unlawful Entry (1992); in fact, violent or corrupt cops would later became something of a speciality of his in the likes of Narc (2002) and The Place Beyond the Pines (2012).

In a gentler register, he played a widower who hires a nanny (Whoopi Goldberg) for his daughter in Corrina, Corrina (1994), then starred in the thriller Unforgettable (1996), the airborne action movie Turbulence and the more thoughtful crime drama Cop Land (both 1997), which co-starred De Niro, Sylvester Stallone and Harvey Keitel.

When he played Frank Sinatra in the TV movie The Rat Pack (1998), he received a fake horse’s head in the mail (a Godfather reference) from the singer’s daughters, who were aggrieved that he had turned down their offer to play their father in a competing project.

He was an unsavoury justice department agent in Hannibal (2001), where he had the dubious privilege of being at the centre of its grisliest scene: sitting upright but partially anaesthetised at the dinner table, he is fed parts of his own brain – sautéed, no less – by the cannibalistic killer played by Anthony Hopkins. He was also Johnny Depp’s father in the drugs-and-crime drama Blow (2001), which owed a considerable stylistic debt to Goodfellas.

Later films included the thrillers Identity (2003) and Guy Ritchie’s Revolver (2005), as well as the biker comedy Wild Hogs, with John Travolta. Liotta had a ball playing himself in Jerry Seinfeld’s animated Bee Movie (2007), where he is the purveyor of his own brand of honey, and appeared alongside Kermit the Frog and co in Muppets from Space (1999) and Muppets Most Wanted (2014). In 2005 he won an Emmy for a guest appearance on the TV drama ER.

Forthcoming productions include the Apple TV drama Black Bird, in July, in which Liotta plays the police-officer father of a drug-dealing son, and what he termed the “nutty” movie Cocaine Bear, due for release next February. His standout performance of recent years was as a remorseless divorce lawyer in the Oscar-winning Marriage Story (2019). Like all his best work, it was authentic, direct and unfussy. “I don’t do things to find out about myself,” he said. “I just like playing pretend.”

Liotta was shooting a film, Dangerous Waters, in the Dominican Republic when he was found dead in his hotel room.

His fiancee, Jacy Nittolo, survives him, as does a daughter, Karsen, from his marriage to Michelle Grace, which ended in divorce.

🔔 Raymond Allen Liotta, actor, born 18 December 1954; died 26 May 2022

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[spiderdreamer-blog]

Midnight Run (1988)

The passing of actor Charles Grodin at age 86 this past week engendered many reactions: shock (it didn't click for me in particular that he was that old), sadness, and eventually fond remembrance of his most memorable film and television roles. He was a presence who never quite reached the stardom of a Bill Murray, Steve Martin, or Chevy Chase, but always did steady, reliable work with his particular brand of male neuroses. Sometimes that could be sweetly decent, as in the likes of Heart and Souls or Dave. At other times, he was the put-upon everyman in family comedies like Beethoven. It could even be sleazy and villainous like his turn in The Great Muppet Caper. And sometimes it landed in a curious and nuanced spot as his arguably best-remembered role as Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas alongside the legendary Robert De Niro in 1988's Midnight Run, which remains one of the best "buddy movie" blueprints ever made.

Former Chicago cop turned bounty hunter Jack Walsh (De Niro) makes a lonely living hunting down bail jumpers and the like. He's just received his latest job from his usual client Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano): the Duke, an accountant who swindled money from Chicago mob boss Jimmy Serrano (Dennis Farina). It promises to be a huge payday, one that might give Jack the chance to fulfill his dream of opening a coffee shop and getting out of bounty hunting. Naturally, complications arise: the feds want to put away Serrano with Mardukas' help, and it's eventually revealed that he ran honest Jack out of town in the first place when he refused to play ball with corruption; the Duke is none too keen to head to prison and almost assuredly be murdered by Serrano's men; Serrano has sent his own henchmen after them; FBI agent Alonzo Mosely (Yaphet Kotto, who also passed away earlier this year) is in hot pursuit, especially since Jack keeps impersonating him; AND Eddie points rival hunter Marvin Dorfler (John Ashton) in their direction because he is exactly the kind of asshole who grouses that people don't trust him not to screw them over and then proves them to be well-founded in their suspicions. Chases, shootouts, and travel hiccups ensue, all while Jack and the Duke argue and banter about lifestyles, personal histories, and so forth.

Buddy films are hard to pull off. Done well, you get the likes of 48 Hours, Lethal Weapon, or Planes, Trains, & Automobiles: well-matched actors, great filmmaking, and the genuine transition of tension and mistrust to a bond of friendship. Done poorly, you get Bright or the infamous Theodore Rex. Run is thankfully in the former category, by turns intelligent, witty, and heartfelt. Moreover, it doesn't fall into the trap some examples do of feeling like the action and comedy are separate. Director Martin Brest (who also directed the iconic Beverly Hills Cop, aka "oh NOW Eddie Murphy is going to be a massive star, got it") makes everything flow together naturally in terms of escalation. We never feel like we're taking a break to let the stunt and pyro teams show off because Jack and the Duke are always grounded and present in the scenes. And he manages some nice screwing tension as well, such as in the climactic actions at a Las Vegas airport where one wrong move nearly dooms everything. Aesthetically, the film is about as late-80s as you can get, with Danny Elfman, of all people, providing a 'twangy blues score and now-defunct cultural signifiers on display: cell phones don't exist, and SO MANY PEOPLE smoke like chimneys.

Though ultimately, this is an actors and writers' movie, and as a result, there are a lot of excellent little touches in the screenplay and performances that keep things novel and fresh. One weakness of poorer buddy pictures is the plot can feel like an afterthought that the characters just riff through. Not here; the twists and turns keep us genuinely invested and in suspense. On the acting end, De Niro modulates his vintage tough-guy bravado to something far more comically exasperated (if still quite profane) as he goes between genuinely clever scheming and desperately trying to keep chaotic situations under his control. This proves to keep him in our sympathies as revelations about his past come to light; a mid-film scene where they visit Jack's ex-wife and now-grown daughter is perfectly played in its quiet heartbreak. Grodin is a perfect match for him: neurotic, complaining, and more than a bit judgmental of many of Jack's choices (I can believe the screenwriter saying he based the relationship on his own parents in moments like the Duke needling Jack about his smoking habits), but far more insightful that he initially lets on. We believe him that he was innocent of his initial mob dealings and that he gave the money he stole to charity, but he's certainly no fool, perfectly snapping into performance if the need arises, such as the famous scene where he and Jack run a scam to get some grocery money. The ending in particular wouldn't work well without the dignity and genuine grace that he grants Jack.

Both have an insanely rich supporting cast and set of bit players backing them up (Danielle DuClos, as the aforementioned daughter, gets the smallest, punchiest emotional gesture in the whole film). Kotto is an excellent frustrated foil, stern and unyielding but genuinely decent enough that we don't want to him to fail. Ashton makes Marvin more of a genuine pain in the ass than we anticipate, bumbling and lacking Jack's planning and long-term view, but with a good sense of short-term animal cunning (I was also impressed since he gives quite different performances in Beverly Hills Cop and John Hughes' terrific teen drama Some Kind Of Wonderful). Farina is an inner-city mob boss par excellence, memorably dubbing his goons "moron number 1 and moron number 2" in comedic frustration and assuring his lawyer Sidney (Philip Baker Hall, perfectly nervous and flopsweaty) that he's going to bury a phone in his head. But he's chilling and ruthless when he needs to be, such as matter-of-factly informing the Duke that he'll die and his wife is next. And Pantoliano is hilarious, whiny and ineffectual as others deservedly run roughshod over him.

I would say it is rare that one comes across a "perfect" film. Perfection, in my mind, is rarely achievable, but the closest I can think of is if a work of art is truly exemplary in what it sets out to do. And in that sense....yes, I would say Midnight Run achieves that noble goal.

Rest in peace, Mr. Grodin. As the Duke says, see you in the next life.

[simplylove101]

2020 Horror Challenge: [34/?]

↳ “There was something at work in my soul which I do not understand.”

“And what of my soul? Do I have one? Or was that a part you left out?”  Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) dir. Kenneth Branagh

Plot: When the brilliant but unorthodox scientist Dr. Victor Frankenstein rejects the artificial man that he has created, the Creature escapes and later swears revenge.

Starring: Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hulce, Helena Bonham Carter, Ian Holm, John Cleese & Aidan Quinn

Finally, a movie that was not an intentional hate watch for me today! Yay lol Cuz as fun as that was (or at least was for one of those haha), it’s nice to watch a movie that you intend to enjoy. And you know what? Overall, I did. I sometimes have mixed feelings with Kenneth Branagh, because it feels like he tries so hard to be a modern day Laurence Olivier and I guess it works for him most of the time. Here it does, for the most part. He plays Frankenstein in the way that you would hope to expect - frantic and passionate and teetering his way towards madness. The man loves his dramatics. lol De Niro as The Creature may seem an unexpected choice with him surrounded by all these English actors, but it works for me. He does a fine job making you feel for him while also making us fear him. I feel like Helena Bonham Carter was kinda just mostly there as a plot device BUT the woman did a lovely job with what she was given as always. I’m not surprised to hear that Kenneth Branagh fell in love with her while making this. Also, both of her death scenes were highly memorable so that’s a plus. It feels a little long imo, coming at about 2 hours, but I will say Branagh was certainly making good use of it by being maybe the most faithful adaptation to Mary Shelley’s novel, despite any of the changes that he made to the story. It is interesting to hear that both the screenplay writer and producer Francis Ford Coppola both denounced the movie. I think I can get why, but I don’t think it’s a bad movie. For me, the pacing of it was definitely too fast for maybe the first 20 minutes or so. I was like “Can he slow this thing down a bit?” Lol, but once the story settles a bit, I think we do manage to see some more subtle, quieter moments like they wanted. It’s not a perfect film imo. It’s def not my favorite Frankenstein movie (The original is great & my love for Young Frankenstein is infinite) but it is certainly a good movie in my book. So, successful watch methinks!!

[mattbrothersscriptwriter]

My Top 20 Films of 2019 - Part Two

I don’t think I’ve had a year where my top ten jostled and shifted as much as this one did - these really are the best of the best and my personal favourites of 2019.

10. Toy Story 4

I think we can all agree that Toy Story 3 was a pretty much perfect conclusion to a perfect trilogy right? About as close as is likely to get, I’m sure. I shared the same trepidation when part four was announced, especially after some underwhelming sequels like Finding Dory and Cars 3 (though I do have a lot of time for Monsters University and Incredibles 2). So maybe it’s because the odds were so stacked against this being good but I thought it was wonderful. A truly existential nightmare of an epilogue that does away with Andy (and mostly kids altogether) to focus on the dreams and desires of the toys themselves - separate from their ‘duties’ as playthings to biological Gods. What is their purpose in life without an owner? Can they be their own person and carve their own path? In the case of breakout new character Forky (Tony Hale), what IS life? Big big questions for a cash grab kids films huh?

The animation is somehow yet another huge leap forward (that opening rainstorm!), Bo Peep’s return is excellently pitched and the series tradition of being unnervingly horrifying is back as well thanks to those creepy ventriloquist dolls! Keanu Reeves continues his ‘Keanuassaince‘ as the hilarious Duke Caboom and this time, hopefully, the ending at least feels finite. This series means so much to me: I think the first movie is possibly the tightest, most perfect script ever written, the third is one of my favourites of the decade and growing up with the franchise (I was 9 when the first came out, 13 for part two, 24 for part three and now 32 for this one), these characters are like old friends so of course it was great to see them again. All this film had to do was be good enough to justify its existence and while there are certainly those out there that don’t believe this one managed it, I think the fact that it went as far as it did showed that Pixar are still capable of pushing boundaries and exploring infinity and beyond when they really put their minds to it.

9. The Nightingale

Hoo boy. Already controversial with talk of mass walkouts (I witnessed a few when this screened at Sundance London), it’s not hard to see why but easy to understand. Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) is a truly fearless filmmaker following up her acclaimed suburban horror movie come grief allegory with a period revenge tale set in the Tasmanian wilderness during British colonial rule in the early 1800s. It’s rare to see the British depicted with the monstrous brutality for which they were known in the distant colonies and this unflinching drama sorely needed an Australian voice behind the camera to do it justice.

The film is front loaded with some genuinely upsetting, nasty scenes of cruel violence but its uncensored brutality and the almost casual nature of its depiction is entirely the point - this was normalised behaviour over there and by treating it so matter of factly, it doesn’t slip into gratuitous ‘movie violence’. It is what it is. And what it is is hard to watch. If anything, as Kent has often stated, it’s still toned down from the actual atrocities that occurred so it’s a delicate balance that I think Kent more than understands. Quoting from an excellent Vanity Fair interview she did about how she directs, Kent said “I think audiences have become very anaesthetised to violence on screen and it’s something I find disturbing... People say ‘these scenes are so shocking and disturbing’. Of course they are. We need to feel that. When we become so removed from violence on screen, this is a very irresponsible thing. So I wanted to put us right within the frame with that person experiencing the loss of everything they hold dear”. 

Aisling Franciosi is next level here as a woman who has her whole life torn from her, leaving her as nothing but a raging husk out for vengeance. It would be so easy to fall into odd couple tropes once she teams up with reluctant native tracker Billy (an equally impressive newcomer, Baykali Ganambarr) but the film continues to stay true to the harsh racism of the era, unafraid to depict our heroine - our point of sympathy - as horrendously racist towards her own ally. Their partnership is not easily solidified but that makes it all the stronger when they star to trust each other. Sam Claflin is also career best here, weaponizing his usual charm into dangerous menace and even after cementing himself as the year’s most evil villain, he can still draw out the humanity in such a broken and corrupt man.

Gorgeously shot in the Academy ratio, the forest landscape here is oppressive and claustrophobic. Kent also steps back into her horror roots with some mesmerising, skin crawling dream scenes that amplify the woozy nightmarish tone and overbearing sense of dread. Once seen, never forgotten, this is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea (and that’s fine) but when cinema can affect you on such a visceral level and be this powerful, reflective and honest about our own past, it’s hard to ignore. Stunning.

8. The Irishman

Aka Martin Scorsese’s magnum opus, I did manage to see this one in a cinema before the Netflix drop and absolutely loved it. I’ve watched 85 minute long movies that felt longer than this - Marty’s mastery of pace, energy and knowing when to let things play out in agonising detail is second to none. This epic tale of  the life of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) really is the cinematic equivalent of having your cake and eating it too, allowing Scorsese to run through a greatest hits victory lap of mobster set pieces, alpha male arguments, a decades spanning life story and one (last?) truly great Joe Pesci performance before simply letting the story... continue... to a natural, depressing and tragic ending, reflecting the emptiness of a life built on violence and crime.

For a film this long, it’s impressive how much the smallest details make the biggest impacts. A stammering phone call from a man emotionally incapable of offering any sort of condolence. The cold refusal of forgiveness from a once loving daughter. A simple mirroring of a bowl of cereal or a door left slightly ajar. These are the parts of life that haunt us all and it’s what we notice the most in a deliberately lengthy biopic that shows how much these things matter when everything else is said and done. The violence explodes in sudden, sharp bursts, often capping off unbearably tense sequences filled with the everyday (a car ride, a conversation about fish, ice cream...) and this contrast between the whizz bang of classic Scorsese and the contemplative nature of Silence era Scorsese is what makes this film feel like such an accomplishment. De Niro is FINALLY back but it’s the memorably against type role for Pesci and an invigorated Al Pacino who steals this one, along with a roll call of fantastic cameos, with perhaps the most screentime given to the wonderfully petty Stephen Graham as Tony Pro, not to mention Anna Paquin’s near silent performance which says more than possibly anyone else. 

Yes, the CG de-aging is misguided at best, distracting at worst (I never really knew how old anyone was meant to be at any given time... which is kinda a problem) but like how you get used to it really quickly when it’s used well, here I kinda got past it being bad in an equally fast amount of time and just went with it. Would it have been a different beast had they cast younger actors to play them in the past? Undoubtedly. But if this gives us over three hours of Hollywood’s finest giving it their all for the last real time together, then that’s a compromise I can live with.

7. The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Wow. I was in love with this film from the moving first trailer but then the film itself surpassed all expectations. This is a true indie film success story, with lead actor Jimmie Fails developing the idea with director Joe Talbot for years before Kickstarting a proof of concept and eventually getting into Sundance with short film American Paradise, which led to the backing of this debut feature through Plan B and A24. The deeply personal and poetic drama follows a fictionalised version of Jimmie, trying to buy back an old Victorian town house he claims was built by his grandfather, in an act of rebellion against the increasingly gentrified San Francisco that both he and director Talbot call home.

The film is many things - a story of male friendship, of solidarity within our community, of how our cities can change right from underneath us - it moves to the beat of it’s own drum, with painterly cinematography full of gorgeous autumnal colours and my favourite score of the year from Emile Mosseri. The performances, mostly by newcomers or locals outside of brilliant turns from Jonathan Majors, Danny Glover and Thora Birch, are wonderful and the whole thing is such a beautiful love letter to the city that it makes you ache for a strong sense of place in your own home, even if your relationship with it is fractured or strained. As Jimmie says, “you’re not allowed to hate it unless you love it”.

For me, last year’s Blindspotting (my favourite film of the year) tackled gentrification within California more succinctly but this much more lyrical piece of work ebbs and flows through a number of themes like identity, family, memory and time. It’s a big film living inside a small, personal one and it is not to be overlooked.

6. Little Women

I had neither read the book nor seen any prior adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel so to me, this is by default the definitive telling of this story. If from what I hear, the non linear structure is Greta Gerwig’s addition, then it’s a total slam dunk. It works so well in breaking up the narrative and by jumping from past to present, her screenplay highlights certain moments and decisions with a palpable sense of irony, emotional weight or knowing wink. Getting to see a statement made with sincere conviction and then paid off within seconds, can be both a joy and a surefire recipe for tears. Whether it’s the devastating contrast between scenes centred around Beth’s illness or the juxtaposition of character’s attitudes to one another, it’s a massive triumph. Watching Amy angrily tell Laurie how she’s been in love with him all her life and then cutting back to her childishly making a plaster cast of her foot for him (’to remind him how small her feet are’) is so funny. 

Gerwig and her impeccable cast bring an electric energy to the period setting, capturing the big, messy realities of family life with a mix of overwhelming cross-chatter and the smallest of intimate gestures. It’s a testament to the film that every sister feels fully serviced and represented, from Beth’s quiet strength to Amy’s unforgivable sibling rivalry. Chris Cooper’s turn as a stoic man suffering almost imperceptible grief is a personal heartbreaking favourite. 

The book’s (I’m assuming) most sweeping romantic statements are wonderfully delivered, full of urgent passion and relatable heartache, from Marmie’s (Laura Dern) “I’m angry nearly every day of my life” moment to Jo’s (Saoirse Ronan) painful defiance of feminine attributes not being enough to cure her loneliness. The sheer amount of heart and warmth in this is just remarkable and I can easily see it being a film I return to again and again.

5. Booksmart

2019 has been a banner year for female directors, making their exclusion from some of the early awards conversations all the more damning. From this list alone, we have Lulu Wang, Jennifer Kent and Greta Gerwig. Not to mention Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers), Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Jocelyn DeBoer & Dawn Luebbe (Greener Grass), Sophie Hyde (Animals) and Rose Glass (Saint Maud - watch out for THIS one in 2020, it’s brilliant). Perhaps the most natural transition from in front of to behind the camera has been made by Olivia Wilde, who has created a borderline perfect teen comedy that can make you laugh till you cry, cry till you laugh and everything in-between.

Subverting the (usually male focused) ‘one last party before college’ tropes that fuel the likes of Superbad and it’s many inferior imitators, Booksmart follows two overachievers who, rather than go on a coming of age journey to get some booze or get laid, simply want to indulge in an insane night of teenage freedom after realising that all of the ‘cool kids’ who they assumed were dropouts, also managed to get a place in all of the big universities. It’s a subtly clever remix of an old favourite from the get go but the committed performances from Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein put you firmly in their shoes for the whole ride. 

It’s a genuine blast, with big laughs and a bigger heart, portraying a supportive female friendship that doesn’t rely on hokey contrivances to tear them apart, meaning that when certain repressed feelings do come to the surface, the fallout is heartbreaking. As I stated in a twitter rave after first seeing it back in May, every single character, no matter how much they might appear to be simply representing a stock role or genre trope, gets their moment to be humanised. This is an impeccably cast ensemble of young unknowns who constantly surprise and the script is a marvel - a watertight structure without a beat out of place, callbacks and payoffs to throwaway gags circle back to be hugely important and most of all, the approach taken to sexuality and representation feels so natural. I really think it is destined to be looked back on and represent 2019 the way Heathers does ‘88, Clueless ‘95 or Easy A 2010. A new high benchmark for crowd pleasing, indie comedy - teen or otherwise.

4. Ad Astra

Brad Pitt is one of my favourite actors and one who, despite still being a huge A-lister even after 30 years in the game, never seems to get enough credit for the choices he makes, the movies he stars in and also the range of stories he helps produce through his company, Plan B. 2019 was something of a comeback year for Pitt as an actor with the insanely measured and controlled lead performance seen here in Ad Astra and the more charismatic and chaotic supporting role in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.

I love space movies, especially those that are more about broken people blasting themselves into the unknown to search for answers within themselves... which manages to sum up a lot of recent output in this weirdly specific sub-genre. First Man was a devastating look at grief characterised by a man who would rather go to a desolate rock than have to confront what he lost, all while being packaged as a heroic biopic with a stunning score. Gravity and The Martian both find their protagonists forced to rely on their own cunning and ingenuity to survive and Interstellar looked at the lengths we go to for those we love left behind. Smaller, arty character studies like High Life or Moon are also astounding. All of this is to say that Ad Astra takes these concepts and runs with them, challenging Pitt to cross the solar system to talk some sense into his long thought dead father (Tommy Lee Jones). But within all the ‘sad dad’ stuff, there’s another film in here just daring you to try and second guess it - one that kicks things off with a terrifying free fall from space, gives us a Mad Max style buggy chase on the moon and sidesteps into horror for one particular set-piece involving a rabid baboon in zero G! It manages to feel so completely nuts, so episodic in structure, that I understand why a lot of people were turned off - feeling that the overall film was too scattershot to land the drama or too pondering to have any fun with. I get the criticisms but for me, both elements worked in tandem, propelling Pitt on this (assumed) one way journey at a crazy pace whilst sitting back and languishing in the ‘bigger themes’ more associated with a Malik or Kubrick film. Something that Pitt can sell me on in his sleep by this point.

I loved the visuals from cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar), loved the imagination and flair of the script from director James Gray and Ethan Gross and loved the score by Max Richter (with Lorne Balfe and Nils Frahm) but most of all, loved Pitt, proving that sometimes a lot less, is a lot more. The sting of hearing the one thing he surely knew (but hoped he wouldn’t) be destined to hear from his absent father, acted almost entirely in his eyes during a third act confrontation, summed up the movie’s brilliance for me - so much so that I can forgive some of the more outlandish ‘Mr Hyde’ moments of this thing’s alter ego... like, say, riding a piece of damaged hull like a surfboard through a meteor debris field! 

3. Avengers: Endgame

It’s no secret that I think Marvel, the MCU in particular, have been going from strength to strength in recent years, slowly but surely taking bigger risks with filmmakers (the bonkers Taika Waititi, the indie darlings of Ryan Coogler, Cate Shortland and Chloe Zhao) whilst also carefully crafting an entertaining, interconnected universe of characters and stories. But what is the point of building up any movie ‘universe’ if you’re not going to pay it off and Endgame is perhaps the strongest conclusion to eleven years of movie sequels that fans could have possibly hoped for.

Going into this thing, the hype was off the charts (and for good reason, with it now being the highest grossing film of all time) but I remember souring on the first entry of this two-parter, Infinity War, during the time between initial release and Endgame’s premiere. That film had a game-changing climax, killing off half the heroes (and indeed the universe’s population) and letting the credits role on the villain having achieved his ultimate goal. It was daring, especially for a mammoth summer blockbuster but obviously, we all knew the deaths would never be permanent, especially with so many already-announced sequels for now ‘dusted’ characters. However, it wasn’t just the feeling that everything would inevitably be alright in the end. For me, the characters themselves felt hugely under-serviced, with arguably the franchise’s main goody two shoes Captain America being little more than a beardy bloke who showed up to fight a little bit. Basically what I’m getting at is that I felt Endgame, perhaps emboldened by the giant runtime, managed to not only address these character slights but ALSO managed to deliver the most action packed, comic booky, ‘bashing your toys together’ final fight as well.

It’s a film of three parts, each pretty much broken up into one hour sections. There’s the genuinely new and interesting initial section following our heroes dealing with the fact that they lost... and it stuck. Thor angrily kills Thanos within the first fifteen minutes but it’s a meaningless action by this point - empty revenge. Cutting to five years later, we get to see how defeat has affected them, for better or worse, trying to come to terms with grief and acceptance. Cap tries to help the everyman, Black Widow is out leading an intergalactic mop up squad and Thor is wallowing in a depressive black hole. It’s a shocking and vibrantly compelling deconstruction of the whole superhero thing and it gives the actors some real meat to chew on, especially Robert Downy Jr here who goes from being utterly broken to fighting within himself to do the right thing despite now having a daughter he doesn’t want to lose too. Part two is the trip down memory lane, fan service-y time heist which is possibly the most fun section of any of these movies, paying tribute to the franchise’s past whilst teetering on a knife’s edge trying to pull off a genuine ‘mission impossible’. And then it explodes into the extended finale which pays everyone off, demonstrates some brilliantly imaginative action and sticks the landing better than it had any right to. In a year which saw the ending of a handful of massive geek properties, from Game of Thrones to Star Wars, it’s a miracle even one of them got it right at all. That Endgame managed to get it SO right is an extraordinary accomplishment and if anything, I think Marvel may have shot themselves in the foot as it’s hard to imagine anything they can give us in the future having the intense emotional weight and momentum of this huge finale.

2. Knives Out

Rian Johnson has been having a ball leaping into genre sandpits and stirring shit up, from his teen spin on noir in Brick to his quirky con man caper with The Brothers Bloom, his time travel thriller Looper and even his approach to the Star Wars mythos in The Last Jedi. Turning his attention to the relatively dead ‘whodunnit’ genre, Knives Out is a perfect example of how to celebrate everything that excites you about a genre whilst weaponizing it’s tropes against your audience’s baggage and preconceptions.

An impeccable cast have the time of their lives here, revelling in playing self obsessed narcissists who scramble to punt the blame around when the family’s patriarch, a successful crime novelist (Christopher Plummer), winds up dead. Of course there’s something fishy going on so Daniel Craig’s brilliantly dry southern detective Benoit Blanc is called in to investigate.There are plenty of standouts here, from Don Johnson’s ignorant alpha wannabe Richard to Michael Shannon’s ferocious eldest son Walt to Chris Evan’s sweater wearing jock Ransom, full of unchecked, white privilege swagger. But the surprise was the wholly sympathetic, meek, vomit prone Marta, played brilliantly by Ana de Armas, cast against her usual type of sultry bombshell (Knock Knock, Blade Runner 2049), to spearhead the biggest shake up of the genre conventions. To go into more detail would begin to tread into spoiler territory but by flipping the audience’s engagement with the detective, we’re suddenly on the receiving end of the scrutiny and the tension derived from this switcheroo is genius and opens up the second act of the story immensely.

The whole thing is so lovingly crafted and the script is one of the tightest I’ve seen in years. The amount of setup and payoff here is staggering and never not hugely satisfying, especially as it heads into it’s final stretch. It really gives you some hope that you could have such a dense, plotty, character driven idea for a story and that it could survive the transition from page to screen intact and for the finished product to work as well as it does. I really hope Johnson returns to tell another Benoit Blanc mystery and judging by the roaring box office success (currently over $200 million worldwide for a non IP original), I certainly believe he will.

1. Eighth Grade

My film of the year is another example of the power of cinema to put us in other people’s shoes and to discover the traits, fears, joys and insecurities that we all share irregardless. It may shock you to learn this but I have never been a 13 year old teenage girl trying to get by in the modern world of social media peer pressure and ‘influencer’ culture whilst crippled with personal anxiety. My school days almost literally could not have looked more different than this (less Instagram, more POGs) and yet, this is a film about struggling with oneself, with loneliness, with wanting more but not knowing how to get it without changing yourself and the careless way we treat those with our best interests at heart in our selfish attempt to impress peers and fit in. That is understandable. That is universal. And as I’m sure I’ve said a bunch of times in this list, movies that present the most specific worldview whilst tapping into universal themes are the ones that inevitably resonate the most.

Youtuber and comedian Bo Burnham has crafted an impeccable debut feature, somehow portraying a generation of teens at least a couple of generations below his own, with such laser focused insight and intimate detail. It’s no accident that this film has often been called a sort of social-horror, with cringe levels off the charts and recognisable trappings of anxiety and depression in every frame. The film’s style services this feeling at every turn, from it’s long takes and nauseous handheld camerawork to the sensory overload in it’s score (take a bow Anna Meredith) and the naturalistic performances from all involved. Burnham struck gold when he found Elsie Fisher, delivering the most painful and effortlessly real portrayal of a tweenager in crisis as Kayla. The way she glances around skittishly, the way she is completely lost in her phone, the way she talks, even the way she breathes all feeds into the illusion - the film is oftentimes less a studio style teen comedy and more a fly on the wall documentary. 

This is a film that could have coasted on being a distant, social media based cousin to more standard fare like Sex Drive or Superbad or even Easy A but it goes much deeper, unafraid to let you lower your guard and suddenly hit you with the most terrifying scene of casually attempted sexual aggression or let you watch this pure, kindhearted girl falter and question herself in ways she shouldn’t even have to worry about. And at it’s core, there is another beautiful father/daughter relationship, with Josh Hamilton stuck on the outside looking in, desperate to help Kayla with every fibre of his being but knowing there are certain things she has to figure out for herself. It absolutely had me and their scene around a backyard campfire is one of the year’s most touching.

This is a truly remarkable film that I think everyone should seek out but I’m especially excited for all the actual teenage girls who will get to watch this and feel seen. This isn’t about the popular kid, it isn’t about the dork who hangs out with his or her own band of misfits. This is about the true loner, that person trying everything to get noticed and still ending up invisible, that person trying to connect through the most disconnected means there is - the internet - and everything that comes with it. Learning that the version of yourself you ‘portray’ on a Youtube channel may act like they have all the answers but if you’re kidding yourself then how do you grow? 

When I saw this in the cinema, I watched a mother take her seat with her two daughters, aged probably at around nine and twelve. Possibly a touch young for this, I thought, and I admit I cringed a bit on their behalf during some very adult trailers but in the end, I’m glad their mum decided they were mature enough to see this because a) they had a total blast and b) life simply IS R rated for the most part, especially during our school years, and those girls being able to see someone like Kayla have her story told on the big screen felt like a huge win. I honestly can’t wait to see what Burnham or Fisher decide to do next. 2019 has absolutely been their year... and it’s been a hell of a year.