Best Picture Synopsis Duned, We're Duned I Tell You...

 

The Oscars are coming this weekend, my favorite holiday of the year.  Of all the ten movies nominated for best picture this year, I noticed a common thread—family.  Here's my pin-head synopsis of the films going for the big prize.

Belfast – family and what are you going to do when the neighbors want you to support their war against neighbors who happen to be of a different religion and you’re nine years old and have your first crush on a girl from the other side of the tracks, and you don’t understand why everyone wants to kill everybody

Dune – family and what are you going to do when the Emperor sends your family packing to another planet to rule over a peaceful desert tribe that wants nothing to do with you, but your destiny is pre-determined and you can’t hop the next shuttle out of Dodge because your mom’s a “witch” and you’re having visions of the tribal “princess” getting up close and personal and shanking you.

West Side Story – family in the 50’s, but not the Ozzie and Harriet variety, who come from different cultures, and stubbornly hang onto their racist notions that because you’re different, you can’t play nice in the sandbox so you have to have a rumble about who owns the sandbox. (see above)

CODA – family and what you would do to protect them from losing their livelihood, in this case fishing, while trying to pursue a career in the arts, when you’re the only member of the family who can hear and you’re in your teens with a dilemma the size of buick

Licorice Pizza – family who thinks you’re wasting your time getting involved with a child actor who thinks he’s going to marry you and gets you to buy into some pretty hair-brained schemes to make money and it helps that you can drive, are old enough to buy booze, and you have little to no self-confidence

King Richard – Based on the story of how Serena and Venus Williams became top-seeded tennis players from Compton due to their dad’s 78 step plan to make them into the top-seeded tennis players – the ultimate in stage dad/manager

Drive My Car – Family, grief, and how a director/actor and his driver come to terms with death in both of their lives

Nightmare Alley – Family, murder, and carnival tricks, murdering your family, and big whopping heaps of mayhem.

Don’t Look Up – Family torn apart by a large planet killing asteroid, which somehow brings family together, but not for long 

Power of the Dog - Dysfunctional family 101 - home on the range with a bucking bronco...what's for dinner?  Hasenpfeffer and a little bit of the hair of the dog that bit you.  Mother, mother, may I have some more la petite marshmallows in my cocoa? 

West Side Story

 

From the first whistle to the last chord, this writer was riveted to the screen.  I’m not one for remakes usually, but putting a new spin to this classic, just makes me want to watch it again and again.  Steven Speilberg, bless you, this is a master class in how to do it right.  The addition of Ms. Moreno, brilliant, Ned Glass is smiling from beyond.  The leads are up-and-comers in the industry and they’re all going to be bright and shining stars of the future.  The songs we all know interpreted differently, but satisfying.  The choreography is spot on.  Only drawback, and it’s fairly minor, no closed captioning in English when the characters are speaking Spanish.  Rating:  Speilberg, Sondheim, Bernstein, and Robbins to Speilberg, Sondheim, Bernstein and Peck---Uno, Dos, Tres, Magnifico!  

Trailer:  https://www.imdb.com/video/vi834454297/?ref_=tt_vi_i_2

 

Drive My Car

 

True story, when my friend and I started watching this film on HBO Max, we thought, great, we get to watch it for free.  Little did we know that it was a Japanese film that didn’t have close captioning in English.  If you’re Japanese or understand it, that’s fine, if you don’t, not so much.  The story centers on a famous stage actor/director, his dead screenwriting wife, bad eyesight, coming to terms with her passing, not being able to drive his car and the driver assigned to him when he’s contracted to direct the play Uncle Vanya at a Hiroshima Drama Festival.  Since I’ve never seen Uncle Vanya or read the play, I would be hard pressed to tell you intelligently, that this film draws parallels between the director, his driver, the actors, and the play.  I will, however, say, that when we did get to see it with subtitles in English, it made more sense as to why things happened in the manner that they occurred.  There are long silences, outbursts, odd timings, characters who at first glance don’t seem to fit the picture, but as you take the backseat and travel along with them, you understand why these two need each other to make it through another day in the life and why neither of them should even consider giving up.  Rating: Waiting for Godot or somebody like him aka 3.5 stars.  Trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BPKPb_RTwI

Nightmare Alley

 

Set in 1941, this film noir/psychological thriller is exactly what you’d find in the pages of those True Crime pulp fiction dime novels that sold in drugstores and newsstands of the day  and kept you on the edge of your seat until the final page.  Bradley Cooper is our “antihero”, Stanton “Stan” Carlisle, and from the first scene to the last, you know he’s just somehow a bit off.  He plays a homicidal grifter and we all know the saying, “you can’t con a con man”.  We get a view from the backside of Carny life, not as romantic as “Water for Elephants”, but as stylistic and visceral as any good film from the 30’s and 40’s that plays on your fears.  This one’s in color and it’s blood red.  Cate Blanchett is in top form as psychoanalyst, Lilith Ritter.  She slinks through the film like a snake in the Garden of Eden wearing Edith Head designer gowns.  The set-design and cinematography is a---mazing.  Guillermo Del Toro doesn’t hold back on the gross factor, there’s sex, drugs, séances, and living the high life on razorblades.  If you’re not a vegetarian after watching this, you may give it another thought, just sayin’.  Definitely not for the kiddies.  Rating:  Tastes Like Chicken and Everclear aka 3.75 stars.  Trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN9y_r3FtrQ

The King of Staten Island

So here’s my take on the King of Staten Island, a semi-autobiographical dramedy starring Pete Davidson.  You know Pete, he’s on Saturday Night Live, looks a bit like a wonky version of Mick Jagger.  His mouth is huge, that’s why I said Mick Jagger, not a Grouper.  Anyway, he has a lot going on for someone who, at the age of 24, has been living with his widowed ER/School Nurse mother (Marisa Tomei), is trying to start up a business combining tattoos and food, a restaurant ink parlor, and I bet you can’t guess the name.  It’s actually pretty brilliant. The only drawback is that his talent hasn’t be honed to work in a parlor.  That being said, it’s rare that you, unless you’re living like this, get to see what happens if you’re directionless in life and making questionable, if not downright stupid, choices.   

His major relationships, mother-son, brother-sister, friends, girlfriend, mother’s new boyfriend (comedian Bill Burr) and the irony that he’s a fireman, just like Pete’s father who passed when he was 7 years old, are blended together beautifully.  There is plenty of drug use, swearing, not as much sex as you’d think, crimes gone way wrong and Steve Buscemi*, what more could you want?  I, for one, was just happy when the film stopped acting up, i.e., pausing and buffering in the middle of a scene, and got to see the whole shebang from start to finish (streaming can sometimes be fraught with peril).  Not recommended for children by any stretch of the imagination, but a good guide for parents who have kids that just can’t seem to leave the nest.   

Rating:  Bong hits for Jesus, belly button cat’s behind tat, mental health awareness celebration, and a hot time in the old town tonight…3.75 stars  *Was a New York City Fire Department Fireman (thank you for your service, Steve).  

Harriet

Cynthia Erivo commands the screen.  You believe that she is Harriet Tubman nee Minty, who wouldn’t rest until all of her people were free.  History is unfolded and this visual representation of what it means to be free and uphold the rights of human beings, is a compelling look into the change Ms Tubman made by her beliefs, her determination, and her compassion for others.  Ms Erivo is a singer, songwriter, and actress and is well on her way to being considered as Best Actress in all of the upcoming contests, and will more than likely be considered for best song.  The story seems larger than life, but it’s not a story, it’s a reenactment of what occurred in the 1800’s before and during the Civil War.  Direction is stellar and the entire cast provides a peek into history and it’s profound effect on abolishing slavery and the future of civil rights.  Bravo. 4 big stars.

Parasite

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or you just don’t care about anything to do with the entertainment business, you probably know that Parasite took two major awards at this year’s Academy Awards Ceremony.  They won Best International Film and Best Picture for 2019.  First time ever in 92 years.  That could have happened last year with Roma, however, they were one best award shy.  Personally, that’s okay with me.  I enjoyed this much more than Roma, although I speak only a tiny amount of Spanish, and absolutely no Korean.  The basic premise…the Kim family is poor, living hand-to-mouth, the Park family is affluent.  A chance encounter by the Kim’s son with a former school chum connects the two families, although there are several complications, secrets, and downright lies that keep the Parks from connecting the dots.  Deftly orchestrated, near misses abound and the twists and turns keep you on the edge of your seat.  Rating:  ooo - - ooo- o- o-o ooo   (check your Morse Code)