Rhapsodies

Wednesday Double Feature – Assassination Conspiracy

by wpmorse on May 30, 2018 at 11:16 am

Posted In: Test

This week I watched another batch of conspiracy theory movies. Specifically, I watched movies that dealt with the all of the paranoid fantasies involving the Kennedy Assassination or films that do their own paranoid fantasies, using the Kennedy assassination as a template.

The first film on my list, Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View, starring Warren Beatty, technically starts out using the assassination of Robert Kennedy (well technically I didn’t say WHICH Kennedy assassination in the title) Three years ago a prominent Senator is assassinated during his reelection campaign in the Space Needle. The killer dies falling off the needle’s roof, but another killer slips away.

Since then investigators and anyone else involved have been dropping like flies. Reporter Joe Frady (Beaty) has been investigating since the beginning but has been mostly silenced by the police who want to know his sources. Slowly he begins to find evidence of an organization recruiting malcontents to commit even more assassinations, but can Frady find the truth before the truth closes in on him.

This film was… okay. It starts out all right, provided you ignore the gratuitous car chases and fight scenes. However by the second half is so heavy-handed that being paranoid is pointless. You don’t have to suspect anyone. Either they’re going to die or they’re going to betray you.

The next film on my list Oliver Stone’s JFK tells the story of the aftermath of the Kennedy Assassination and the investigation of New Orleans District Attorney General Jim Garrison, (played by Kevin Costner) who led the only prosecution attached to the assassination.

I really have mixed feelings about this film. A lot of this is due to my feelings about Stone himself and my belief that he always lets his agenda get in the way of craft. The fact that I may occasionally agree with him is irrelevant here.

JFK is no acceptation it is a rambling collection of all of Stone’s pet theories and views of the world that are so all over the place that it can’t be regarded as anything besides fiction.

On the other hand, Stone’s at the top of his game as a filmmaker and I really liked the editing and the ensemble cast of some of my favorite actors playing against type.

└ Tags: Film review

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Wednesday Double Feature – War Comedies

by wpmorse on May 23, 2018 at 9:21 am

Posted In: Test

For this week’s film selection I watched some war comedies.

The most I knew about Richard Lester’s How I Won the War is that it was the film with John Lennon in it. I had seen photographs of Lennon dressed in fatigues with a thousand-yard stare through his trademark glasses.

The film based on the book of the same name by so and so, and tells the story of Lieutenant Goodbody, played by Micheal Crawford, an optimistic proper idealistic British officer who leads his unit in North Africa to create the perfect cricket pitch. He believes he has what it takes to succeed in his mission no matter how many of his soldiers die around him.

This film, even though it was still very funny, made no sense. Most of the time it felt like a strange off-broadway avant-garde play done as a big budget film and because of this it never felt like a good fit.
Still, the theatrical bits were the best parts with all of the cast constantly breaking the fourth wall and dead soldiers represented by the actors painted bright colors silently following their comrades as if nothing happened.

The next film on my list, Norman Jewison’s The Russians are Coming, The Russians are coming! An ensemble film featuring Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Alan Arkin and Brian Keith, tells the story of a Soviet submarine that goes aground on a sandbar just offshore of a small New England island township. In their efforts to escape the townsfolk find out and hilarity ensues.

This is a fun comedy of errors, with hilarious slapstick scenes, that takes full advantage of the cold war paranoia going on at the time. It also does a good job showing that despite all of our differences, we’re all people… Stupid, scared, well-armed people.

└ Tags: Comedy, Movie Reviews, Satire

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Wednesday Double Feature – Cannibals

by wpmorse on May 16, 2018 at 8:44 am

Posted In: Test

This week, on a friend suggestion (that I have some regrets about) I decided to watch films about cannibals.

The first film on my list, Paul Bartel’s Eating Raoul, tells the story of Paul and Mary Bland (Bartel and Mary Woronov) a nice, straight-laced couple, living in 80s Hollywood at its worst. They dream of moving out of their apartment full of degenerate swingers and start their own restaurant. The problem is they’re broke and Paul has a hard time holding any job whatsoever due to his high standards, (which includes refusing to sell some cheap plonk his boss needs to move six boxes of.)

Fortunately, an accidental murder leads them to a new source of revenue. Masquerading as sex workers to trap and kill rich swingers for their money. They are soon joined by a charming thief named Raoul (Robert Beltran) who helps them earn more of a profit and get rid of the bodies. What could possibly go wrong?

This is another one of those films I knew by name for years, though it was definitely not the film I thought it was. At the time I did not realize that the title was literal. I always assumed it was something on the line of my Dinner with Andre.

The humor is dry in the dark, and good solid performances from all the cast members, along with some very witty cameos. Of which the funniest being the character Doris the Dominitrix, (Susan Saiger) who’s a total sweetheart when she’s off the clock and a porn store owner who takes his work way too seriously.

The next on my list, Parents takes us back to the kinder gentler time of the mid-50s. Ten-year-old Michael Laemle and his parents Randy Quaid and Mary Beth Hurt are moving to a brand new neighborhood. He’s nervous of course and because of the hardships of a new home, a new school and catching his parents having sex he’s started to have nightmares. Also, he ’s beginning to have some suspicions about where all the good food his mom is cooking is coming from.

I’m not sure what to make of this film. It works best when it is from Micheal’s point of view and when we are not sure of what of what is real and what is childhood neuroses. However, it does a very good job of showing 50s mindset and Randy Quaid is terrifying as what is essentially the darker side of Ward Cleaver

└ Tags: Movie Reviews, Satire

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Wednesday Double Features – Comedy with Rabbis

by wpmorse on May 9, 2018 at 9:11 am

Posted In: Test

This week I decided to dip into a very small pool and watch comedies about Rabbis.

The film that inspired me to go with this theme was the first film on my list, Gérard Oury‘s The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob. Starring Louis de Funès and Claude Girau.

Rabbi Jacob (Marcel Dalio) is a beloved Rabbi in New York who is going back to his hometown in Normandy to attend a great nephew’s Bar Mitzvah. But this is not his story but not quite. We meet Victor Pivert (de Funès) a rich businessman and obnoxious bigot who is rushing to get to his daughter’s wedding. On the way, he gets mixed up with Arab revolutionist leader Mohamed Larbi Slimane (Claude Giraud) who has been captured by agents of his government. Pivert finds himself dragged along in Slimane’s escape. They run into Rabbi Jacob in the airport and get the idea of disguising themselves as the Rabbi and his assistant. At this point, things start getting really weird.

This was a piece of broad slapstick with most of the humor coming from Funes hamming it up, for the which I mostly found myself wanting more. I was hoping more from Rabbi himself but instead he’s mostly an innocent bystander.

The next film on my list Robert Aldrich’s The Frisco Kid. (Not to be mistaken for 1935 western film starring James Cagney) tells the story of Rabbi Avram Belinski played by Gene Wilder. A young polish rabbi fresh out of his yeshiva at the bottom of his class who’s been sent to America to answer the request for a Rabbi in San Francisco’s small Jewish community.

He arrives in Philadelphia where he is quickly robbed of all his money. On the plus side, he runs into Tom Lillard (Harrison Ford) a bank robber with a soft side, who agrees to be his guide across the west to San Francisco.

Mostly this was a by the numbers picaresque buddy film putting a complete innocent in the wild west. Wilder plays Avram as a quiet sweet man of faith. A faith that’s not mocked even though the inconvenience of it is played for laughs. (Not being able to ride on Saturdays is not convenient when you’re being chased by a posse.) Ford’s Tom Lillard is essentially Han Solo as a cowboy. (Yes I know, technically Han Solo was always a cowboy but you know what I mean.) All in all it was… okay.

└ Tags: Comedy, Movie Reviews

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May The Fourth be With You!

by wpmorse on May 4, 2018 at 10:30 am

Posted In: Art

For all the geeks out there May Fourth is a hard choice. For the Geeks of a literary bent today is the day Alice dreamed about her trip to wonderland. For everybody else, thanks to a certain godawful pun, it’s Star Wars day. Normally I go with Alice, but it’s been a while since I did Star Wars, so I did a quick piece for it, featuring Luke’s first trip to the Cantina where he meets Ponda Baba and his associate, Dr. Cornelius Evazan.

Perhaps a little too quick.

I’m mostly happy with it but I think I’ll recolor it eventually.