Month: August 2022

Newly appointed sheriff Pat Garrett, portrayed by James Coburn, is forced to bring down his old friend Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson). Circumstances lead me to watching both the preview and special editions of the film, which is definitely an interesting way to compare a director’s vision with that of people less connected to the production. While the cast is strong and I enjoyed Bob Dylan’s soundtrack here, I realized that I find myself more disconnected from revisionist Westerns than the classic Hollywood versions. The revisionists are definitely more gritty with no real good characters, but they don’t feel any more realistic to history than the glossy, moralistic stories of the past. 

Stubborn American teenager Antonio J. Bell is sent against his will to live with his aunt in Nigeria in hopes that he will connect with his native roots. On his first day in country, he meets his scam artist older cousin Chinaza Uche who convinces him to join in a con that could get him money needed to return home. I’ve generally dug the Nigerian films I’ve checked out and it was interesting to see the culture here through a more American lens. Maybe it’s a differences in culture issue, but it was hard for me from the get-go to get over the idea of parents lying to and then sending their child alone to a country the child has never been without any forewarning of what to expect. When the film switches over to Uche’s experiences, I found the story more interesting as I hadn’t been aware that the Nigerian Prince scam often actually comes from Nigeria and that there’s a whole scamming industry there.

In Steven Spielberg’s theatrical debut, Goldie Hawn is a struggling mother who breaks her husband William Atherton out of jail to reclaim their son from foster care. Based on a true story, what follows is an often slow police pursuit across the state of Texas after the pair hold officer Michael Sacks hostage and eventually become folk heroes in the eyes of the public. Hawn gives perhaps the best performance I’ve seen from her, equally determined and vulnerable in her singular goal. It’s really a solid bit of storytelling with little excess from a young director now known for greater things. 

The arduous task of flying mail across the Andes Mountains is made much more dangerous with airline director John Barrymore’s determination to have his night delivery program succeed. Putting real stakes in the delivery is a sick child in Rio de Janeiro desperately needing a polio serum from Buenos Aires. A star-studded affair that includes Helen Hayes, Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, Lionel Barrymore, and Myrna Loy, these heavy stakes are oddly only discussed as bookends at the beginning and end while the rest of the film rests on conflict at the airline and the personal lives of its pilots. I have an affinity for postal films and this one certainly has gorgeous vistas and a lovely South America map showing the connections that must be made, but I wish it had an added runtime to really flesh out each of the star characters and the importance of the activity at hand.

Readying his company to sell for a handsome profit, hedge fund magnate Richard Gere is trying to hold it all together while the lies he has told and the corruption he has endorsed in his personal and professional life threaten to pull it all apart. Just like watching episodes of Billions, the financial maneuvers go […]