MMM is a screwball comedy reformulated into a pitch black misadventure where dangerous entanglements recur with greater intensity, and the nonsense begins when against Larry’s wishes Carol agrees to accept an invitation of coffee & cake by senior neighbours Paul and Lillian House…
Alice is clearer example of Woody Allen revisiting his familiar template of an unhappily married woman going through a series of personal adventures before she decides it’s time to change her life and begin a second and more enlightened phase that may not even require a husband or boyfriend…
The joy (and perils) of infidelity are centre-frame in Paul Mazursky’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) + Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives (1992), on Blu via Twilight Time.
Woody Allen’s last film starring Mia Farrow is one of his best and darkest comedies, hyper-fixating on the (largely) negative effects of infidelity – the film earned Oscar nominations for writing and supporting actress (Judy Davis) – but its most powerful moments…
Reviews of two Woody Allen satirical classics – Bananas (1971) + Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) – on Blu via Twilight Time.
Woody Allen’s reteaming with Take the Money and Run (1969) co-writer Mickey Rose struck pure gold in this poke at contemporary politics in which a moron becomes the leader of a South American country after it undergoes a Cuba-like revolution…
One of the toughest challenges for any film built around a series of thematically connected sketches is consistency of quality, and offering enough variation so that no segment is redundant nor feels disconnected from the original concept. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex…
Reviews of Woody Allen’s formal feature directorial debut Take the Money and Run (1969) from KL Studio Classics, the short mockumentary Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story (1971), and the underrated drama September (1987) from Twilight Time.
Running a compact 25 mins. Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story is a satire of the Nixon Administration, which was past the halfway point of its first term mandate when the short was scheduled for airing in February of 1972, but as the lore surrounding this ‘lost’ film goes…
Released the same year as Radio Days, Woody Allen’s September retains the cast members Mia Farrow and Dianne Wiest, but the tone harkens back to the auteur’s Interiors (1978), a more dour and overwrought attempt at Serious Drama…
Walter Wanger’s Arabian Adventures
Reviews of two Arabian adventure-romance mini-epics from producer Walter Wanger: The Adventures of Hajji Baba (1954) on Blu from Twilight Time + Arabian Nights (1942) from Universal.
Stinkers of 2018: Mile 22 + Peppermint
Two of 2018’s action stinkers are reviewed this week: Peter Berg’s Mile 22 + Pierre Morel’s Peppermint.
Sunshine (1973) + R.I.P. Nick Redman (1955-2019)
Review of the touching docu-drama Sunshine (1973) + R.I.P. Twilight Time’s Nick Redman (1955-2019).
Trick Films I: Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) + The Hateful Eight (2015)
Reviews of Drew Goddard’s Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) + Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight (2015), films that converge towards tricky finales.
Two Shades of the Flint, Michigan, Water Crisis: Fahrentheit 11/9 (2018) + Flint (2017)
Reviews of two films ostensibly about the water Crisis in Flint, Michigan: Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018) from WHV + Bruce Beresford’s Flint (2017) from Sony.
Viva Amiga’s Zach Weddington (and a bit of gear talk)
Podcast interview with Zach Weddington on Viva Amiga, his affectionate documentary on the pioneering multimedia computer (plus a bit of gear talk).
Patricia Rozema’s Singing Mermaids & White Room + Bonus Audio from NCFD 2018
Review of the CanCon classic I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987) and much-maligned White Room (1990) + Q&A audio of director Patricia Rozema & journalist Kiva Reardon during National Canadian Film Day.
ArtScopeTO 07: Interview with Photographer Andre Vittorio
Aprils ArtScopeTO podcast features photographer Andre Vittorio, whose series Abstractions on Metal can be seen at Toronto’s Urban Gallery until Sat. April 28, 2018.
BR: Adventures of Hajji Baba, The (1954)
When Monogram Pictures morphed into Allied Artists around 1953, the poverty row studio took several cracks at B+ and the odd A-level picture during the mid-1950s, including their first foray into CinemaScope…
Inspired by the success of Rank’s Technicolor extravaganza The Thief of Bagdad (1940), producer Walter Wanger set up a sweet deal to produce films for Universal, and the first production to benefit from the studio’s talent and cash pool was Arabian Nights…
Action dramas about characters struggling to get from point A to B within a set time frame aren’t new – Richard Donner tackled one in 13 Blocks, although it helped shutter his lengthy, box office-friendly career after 2006 – but they’re rarely successful when the script fails…
Peppermint is the latest revenge thriller in which a mature actor plays a character whose family is either endangered (Taken) or dead, or whose own life is part of a larger scheme to hush an opponent permanently (The Gunman)…
Based on the published journals by Jacquelyn Helton, Carol Sobieski’s adaptation follows the basic chronology of a young mother diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer, and her decision to dictate personal thoughts, articulate feelings, and provide advice for the daughter and husband destined to lose her at age 20…
Written during his busiest period (1968-1970), Quincy Jones’ score for John and Mary was quite sparse, leaving obligatory space for the film’s myriad dialogue exchanges and source music, but the score is memorable for being atypical of the material Jones was writing at the time: action comedies (The Italian Job, The Hell with Heroes), comedies (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,Cactus Flower), and the funky style of They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!
For some soundtrack fans, it was a bit of surprise to learn the composer of pioneering synth scores had begun his career with large orchestral scores for John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981) and Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal (1982)…
LP: Bourne Identity, The (2002)
The first film in the enduring franchise gave John Powell the perfect opportunity to write what remains both his definitive action sound, and the definitive action score of that decade, blending large orchestral sounds with layers upon layers of electronics…
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