Change Your Image
chairmanofnarcissism
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Ishtar (1987)
This movie flopped because...
This movie flopped because... it's way too smart for Americans. When you look at it that way, it's easy to understand. (If this offends you please read "Man from Uncool", my blog, and let me have a really good go at upsetting you). Aha, you say, in that endearing Texan drawl of yours, but Ms. May is an American, too. Well that's true,by birth, but not by inclination. Nor has Hollywood been inclined to let Elaine May direct again after this gem. This movie is an example of a woman in complete control and she was working with a cast who delivered. Matt Frewer is online for a few fast talking moments, Adjani, Grodin, Hoffman, and Beatty are all note perfect, (except for when the later two are required to sing), but the show stealer is undoubtedly Jack Weston. He plays an agent who doesn't have any qualms about sending his acts off to death squads. Here, and elsewhere, as also she did in "A New Leaf", Elaine May gets good laughs from death. Her use of slapstick is sparing and unerring. This film is fearless and, oddly, life affirming. No more films to direct for over 30 years for this genius? The lack of laughs are on Hollywood.
The Happytime Murders (2018)
Hit me in the face with a brick
If I ever consider watching this, then put "Meet The Feebles" or that old MTV Europe thing on the betamax player while I recuperate.
The Death of Stalin (2017)
Hilarious from the first death to the last.
Hyperbole often undermines the experience of seeing a film for yourself, so I'll keep my laudatory reaction, (rather than a review), short. This film is visionary and brilliant. It is laugh aloud, and long, funny from gloomy beginning to grey end, death and horror its key ingredients. It is more than the sum of its parts, parts which include the afore mentioned and: Iannucci's obsession with human mortality, a script that's breathlessly full of of mordant one liners, and unbelievable situations, based on reality, brought alive by the perfect timing of a, truly, impeccable ensemble cast. (Crowned by a king making performance from Steve Buscemi.)
Witless (2016)
Great from first to last.
If , like me, you momentarily feel the first of season 3 is not quite up to the standard of previous seasons, maintain the faith: the last season is the best of all. For those who haven't discovered this excellent show yet, you're really missing out.
Kerry Howard & Zoe Boyle star as 2 hapless witnesses caught in web of ineptitude and iniquity. Their chemistry is perfect, and they're strongly supported by an excellent cast (Samuel Anderson is especially good, and grows in his role.)
and a, sometimes macabrely, funny script.
Ingrid Goes West (2017)
The Incredibly Talented Ms Aubrey
I thought that O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Aubrey Plaza were both good in this film. It is a morality tale with some bite, which is lost a little in the resolution.
Why I mark it down is for the writing credits, or rather the absence of them, as it carbon copies large elements of "The Talented Mr Ripley".(This is jarringly obvious in how close the characters of Freddie Miles, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, in "T.T..M.R.", and Billy Magnussen's Nicky Sloane, in this film, are. This is the most obvious "lift" but there are many such steals. The undertones of same sex attraction between the anti-hero and the woman, who is her obsession, is another example.) The film makers then take these elements and drop them, largely unaltered, into their own script. It's almost as close to the older film as "Cruel Intentions" is to" Dangerous Liasons". Thus, for me, it draws criticism for a lack of honesty, and pales in comparison to Highsmith, author of the novel Ripley was based on. It would have been far more satisfying if the creators had acknowledged their debt.
The To Do List (2013)
Clever role reversal
It's an 80's sex com set in the early 90's( Think Porky's or Nerds or any of the plethora of videos that aped them, but with the gender roles reversed.)More clever than people give it credit for.A hell of a lot more fun than that HBO series with the chick who has, wrongly, crowned herself the Queen of comedy.
Aubrey Plaza takes affirmative action and shows how much fun it can be (All the while looking askance at the world. ) There is awkwardness and the odd clunk, but that was part of the terrain we navigated before we all got sophisticated.
Plus, it uses " laid" by James in an already pretty strong soundtrack.
Switch off " Girls" and pop this in the VCR.
Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?) (2010)
Suffers from attempt to inject an over arching narrative
This documentary shows Nilsson had a great deal of love in his life. The women whom he loved seem warm and wonderful, and his children to be likable people.
It is not the fault of the subjects that this documentary disappoints; It is solely the responsibility of the film maker (s).
The questions reveal that the documentary makers have not approached the subject with an open mind ( Nowhere is this more apparent than when Nilsson's 3rd wife,Una, speaks about his crusade for gun control.) and instead feel they need to create, or inject, a synthetic story arc. Whilst so doing, they poor scorn on Harry's attempt to fight the violence of hand guns by editing the answers given to suit their own narrative.
The film is itself, as it supposes of much of Nilsson's life, a missed opportunity.