I had high hopes for the well-known eroticism of this film. Instead I got a light version of 50 Shades of Grey with Kim Basinger getting coerced into performing soft core acts with her dominating paramour. It does have a delightful 80s feel, an excellent soundtrack, and Mickey Rourke during his pretty days. Unfortunately his character doesn’t exhibit any positive qualities and is a creep before the sex affair even starts.
An unnecessary remake of the Hitchcock classic, this version is a bit weighed down by casting the leads with Cybill Shepherd and Elliott Gould as somewhat obnoxious Americans. The obnoxious qualities luckily wane over the course of the film but it dully settles to being very close to the original. This version is certainly watchable and also contains the incomparable Angela Lansbury, so the time isn’t a complete waste.
I wish more people would watch this movie, since it resonates greatly in current times. Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel reunite to bring to the screen this adaption of the French absurdist play about a town where people who follow the herd turn into rhinoceroses. They both bring the same charm and energy to this film as they did to The Producers.
Filmed in an actual VA hospital with many patients in supporting roles, Marlon Brando’s debut film is an affecting look into the experiences of injured vets. In some ways it feels like a documentary, including a few scenes that are almost lectures to give the vets, their loved ones, and the audience information on what to expect in recovery and the long lasting effects of their injuries. Brando and Teresa Wright work well together, portraying the ups and downs of a relationship living with their new reality.
Oscar Nomination: Best Writing, Story and Screenplay
As a pioneering documentary film, Nanook is an incredible anthropological record of the Inuit people, who were already more modernized than shown in this somewhat staged film. While there are bits of questionable othering and dumbing down of the subjects, making the film as a definite product of its time, it painstakingly shows various mechanisms as to how native cultures survived so long in the frozen far North.
There is a bit of this short film about a group of Kenyans who refuse to turn over their fellow Christian passengers to the terrorists that hijack their bus that feels Oscar baity, but it is hard to not be affected by the story knowing that it is based on the actual 2015 Mandera bus attack. For a short film, it builds the tension of the event quite well and not being aware of the outcome of the true story, I was unsure until the climax how things would turn out.
Oscar Nomination: Best Live Action Short Film
Burt Lancaster is like the paperboy in Better Off Dead, except instead of $2.00, Burt is willing to do whatever it takes to get back the furs he’d been collecting all season, taken by a group of Kiowas and then stolen by the titular scalphunters. In the meantime, he’s been somewhat burdened with intelligent former slave Ossie Davis. Directed by the great Sidney Pollack, the film is tonally uneven, but the cast, including a menacing Telly Savalas and a spunky Shelley Winters, makes it worth the watch.
Eartha Kitt’s father kicked her out of the family home for being ‘bad’, but the one thing that drove her to a less than respectable life was being turned away from her family. When given a chance to turn things around, her father still is unwilling to see her differently. I found this whole film to be heartbreakingly sad. Every time it seems Eartha might experience a change for the better, something comes to punch her back down. While a bit theatrical in the way many stage adaptations are, Eartha Kitt is a complete queen here and backed up admirably by the likes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Rex Ingram.
I’m really surprised that I had never heard much buzz about this film. Myself, I only put it on The List because of the actors involved. It’s a bit of a folk tale about a hermit, played by Robert Duvall, who decides to throw himself a funeral party with the help of funeral director Bill Murray. Amidst the preparations, the tale of what drove him to live a life of solitude is told. There is a smooth blending of the two stories of the past and present. The mystery unwinds slowly but deliberately with Robert Duvall expertly conveying the hardening of his character while also touching on the heartbreak he’s experienced in his life.
Honorable Mentions: Abducted in Plain Sight, The Beguiled, Columbus, The Death of Stalin, The Disaster Artist, Dunkirk, Icarus, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, The Lego Batman Movie, Loving Vincent