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Reviews
The Rain People (1969)
The first strike of Coppola's genius
Coppola is often a filmmaker thought of as having a particular golden period from 1972-1979. I don't think that's true. It started sooner than that. It started here.
This film is incredible. It's strikingly bold and unconventional even still today. With a limited budget, Coppola was able to create a film that felt raw, authentic and genuine. A lot of this is down to the cast. Shirley Knight does a great job of making a character who isn't always as likable as you would expect the lead of a movie to be always feel understandable and human. Knight is truly a marvelous actor who never really got her due. But the real star here is the late great James Caan, who delivers a powerhouse performance here. Perhaps ranking alongside Thief as one of his finest performances. It's a character that as written could come off as very annoying. But not once is Caan anything less than endearing. Truly an amazing character.
In his first of many collaborations with Coppola, Robert Duvall shows up and, well, he's Robert Duvall. Nothing less than perfection. But it's Coppola here who really shines. Now with some experience under his belt to give him confidence and out from under the oppressive thumb that held him down on Finian's Rainbow, Coppola shows what a rare sort of genius he is. His method of incorporating settings into the film as he comes across them never comes off as strange or out of place at all. And there's a sense of realism to this piece that isn't there in anything else that Coppola did before or after. It's just such a genuinely human tale that balances it's (at the time) experimental stylings with the tender performances. This was Coppola's first great masterpiece, and is a much watch for any cinefile.
Finian's Rainbow (1968)
Terrible
Just awful. A disastrous production. No one is done justice here. Not Warner Bros. Not Coppola. And certainly not Astaire. This was one of the last attempts to hold on to a type of film that was falling out of fashion while the film industry was on the precipice of a great change. And as such it serves as nothing more than a red mark on the brilliant careers of Coppola and Astaire. Skip this.
You're a Big Boy Now (1966)
Fun little movie that doesn't quite demonstrate Coppola's future genius
This is a perfectly entertaining little movie. If you're a Richard Lester fan, you probably enjoy this (although it's not as good as Lester's best). The best thing here is the cast. All of the actors are great and know exactly how to play what kind of roles their in. Another great thing is the soundtrack provided by Lovin' Spoonful. Fun songs that set the mood of the picture well. It is interesting the ways in which this film proceeds The Graduate in term of it's subject matter. However, at this point, Coppola simply did not command his craft as a writer or a director enough to give the story what it needed to become truly special, as Nichols would a year later.
Royalties (2020)
A lot of good, hindered by the format
As I've felt with all the shows I've watched on Quibi, the short format really hurt this show for me. Which is a shame, because I'm a massive fan Nick and Matt Lang, and this show was at times a great showcase for their wacky brand of silly comedy.
Darren Criss finally doing just straight up stupid, fun, slapstick comedy was absolutely what I've been waiting to see him do. He's always had a charming screen presence, but here he lets his too often under utilized comedic timing shine. If I'm correct, he had a hand of all the original and hilarious songs in this show. He should be proud, because they are absolutely fantastic and surprisingly catchy. All of the actors in the show did a great job, in particular John Stamos and Jeff Blim. They both had me cracking up every time either of them were on screen.
Despite having nothing really negative to say about anything in the series, I can't help but feel like we missed out on what's not in the series. Every episode is less than ten minutes long, and there's hardly anything to grab onto in the show other than the jokes (which still aren't given enough time to fully flourish). I remember reading something years ago about Criss taking this show to Fox, for what I can only assume would have been a half hour series that would have had actual characters and storylines to go along with the wonderful humor. It's a shame we never got to see that show.