FIRE WILL COME / O QUE ARDE (2019)

Paris-born, but with a Spanish heritage, director Oliver Laxe currently breaking beyond the film fest circuit and gaining attention on SIRAT/’25, his fourth film (not seen here).  It follows a father & son thru North African ‘rave’ sites as they search for the man’s missing daughter.  This, his previous effort, follows a paroled arsonist (he started a mountain forest fire that threatened his own Northern Spain village) as he tries to restart a life after two years in prison.  Unsurprisingly, no one wants much to do with him.  But, as Robert Frost put it, ‘Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.’  So, holed up with his aging mother, he halfheartedly looks for work, but seems reluctant to try to connect with anyone, even new people in town.  Guilt/innocence/actions never discussed, all settled by small town gossip  & misery.  Even the incessant rain working against hope or redemption. Inevitably, another blaze will look like his doing.  And here, Laxe’s treatment breaks down, unwilling to speculate on the situation other than one physical altercation with a suspicious neighbor.  Laxe entirely focused on fate, a traumatic tone and the physical atmosphere.  But perhaps avoiding the elephant in the room, adds to the mesmerizng atmosphere.  Filming and the non-pro cast (particularly Benedicta Sánchez as the mother) impeccable.

DOUBLE-BILL:  Obviously, SIRAT, which sounds fascinating.

SISU (2022)

The Finnish title may be untranslatable (think ‘Back-against-the-wall indomitable courage’), but the action, ultra-violence and gore easily cross international borders since director Jalmari Helander makes this WWII chase-and-shoot thriller neatly balanced between mirth, mayhem & absurdity.  The look seemingly realistic and stylized; not so much the expected Asian Martial Arts, more like a Chuck Jones Road Runner cartoon.  Finland tundra in for South West canyons.  Plus a twist: Wile E. Coyote is our heroic alter-ego.  With apologies to Ernest Hemingway, it’s THE OLD MAN AND THE NAZIS.  Finnish sniper Jorma Tommila (a one-man killing unit) had been taking out hundreds of Russians like a scythe running thru a wheat field early in the war before walking away from battle to mine for gold.  But the changing landscape of war in 1944 sees retreating Nazi forces after him and his stash.  So now it’s the Nazis’ turn to die in the hunt.  A crash landing, a hanging, a drowning, nothing seems able to stop this guy.  More than tough, he’s downright immortal.  Held to a brisk 91" (any longer and it would collapse from CGI fatigue which it almost does in a flying sequence), but taken on its own terms, it’s effective and weirdly fun.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *A Finnish production, but made in English.

RED WING (2013)

A Hallmark cable movie from deep-think autuer Terrence Malick?  This landscape besotted adaptation of an 1840s George Sand novel (FRANÇOIS LE CHAMPI/FRANK THE FOUNDLING) feels like it might be.  Actually, Malick only exec produced, Will Wallace takes credit (if that’s the word) for directing.  With a Book of Saints æsthetic to exploit the visual harmony of man, nature and Texas in the 1970s, young Glen Powell (25 at the time) plays a naïve & sentimental foundling (a regular Billy Budd), honest, handsome, hardworking, friend to man & beast, earning his keep in the field thru his adolescence (and beyond) on a small farm where surrogate Mom (Breann Johnson) watches over him and mean, lazy surrogate Dad (Luke Perry) takes umbrage with a beer chaser.  Shying off the town ladies who hit on him, he starts rumors by not screwing indiscriminately.  No surprise, jealousy gets him kicked out of the house.  But a few days on the road finds a new farm and a chance to begin making the same personal choices & mistakes.  For some reason, the women in the film are terrible actors (laughably transparent), the men somewhat better.  Bill Paxton fine as farm owner #2, and there’s instant actor/audience rapport from kid ‘brother’ Lucas Adams.   But Wallace’s presentation so hackneyed, they might have done better setting this in the 1870s rather than the 1970s.*

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *To judge by the movie marque in town (they seem to be showing Robert Altman’s THE WEDDING) it’s 1978, the same year Terence Malick’s DAYS OF HEAVEN came out.  Nice try guys.  But this little Texas bijou would never have booked that Altman flop.  Though it’s  a sure bet anything they would have shown would have had just as many embarrassingly crappy music videos in it.

TWO O’CLOCK COURAGE (1945)

Comic films noir, a sub-genre generally best avoided, tend to have less laughs than straight noir; and no discernable suspense.  But here’s a happy exception from early in noir master director Anthony Mann’s career.  Not much known for comedy, perhaps that’s his secret.  Rather than going for laughs, he plays the game straight; making sure his plot holds water.  Pleasingly cockeyed rather than dumb.  It also has the striking advantage of debuting noir icon Jane Greer, already showing cool heat in support.  Elsewise, lead couple, top cop, crime reporter, all pull together on a script that rarely sinks for a laugh.  (From a Gelett Burgess novel previously filmed as TWO IN THE DARK/’36 - not seen here.)  Tom Conway (the non-caddish kid brother of George Sanders) is nearly hit by cute cabbie Ann Rutherford.  Already conked on the head, he’s got temporary amnesia and a likely murder rap chasing him.  Who is he?  Figure that out to find the real murderer among a bunch of B’way writers, producers & actors before the cops move in for an arrest.  Less innocent man on the run than innocent man running in society and theatrical circles.  Neatly played and written, with quick answers and solutions, the film doesn’t overplay for easy laughs, but leads us toward believable motives and solutions.  But all bets are off when Greer shows up as a B’way sharpie who knows what’s going on.  Poor Ann Rutherford, pleasant enough as a sympathetic cabbie sidekick to Conway’s confused suspect, hasn’t a chance once this Always-Gets-What-She-Wants femme fatale shows up.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *Jane Greer’s main claim to noir immortality stems from OUT OF THE PAST/’47, but for lighthearted noir stylings, try THE BIG STEAL/’49.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/07/big-steal-1949.html

JUVENILE COURT (1973)

From late/great documentarian Frederick Wiseman (dead last month at 96, his most recent film out in 2023), this early masterpiece in his favored fly-on-the-wall manner remains one of his best; certainly one of his most influential, inspiring thousands of syndicated hours of copycat courtroom tv drama.  Most of them spoiled by textbook melodrama; literally so thru underscored speech & action.  These offshoots quite a contrast to Wiseman’s slow-burn purity & effectiveness in his approach on a handful of cases, gray areas left intact.  Everyone given as much sympathy as Wiseman is able to generate.  With far more comfort & care, and a lack of jaded behavior from this Memphis, TN courthouse staff, than you’d expect.  More staff Blacks than you expect, too.   How different this might have looked ten years earlier.  Wiseman holds back the most complex case for the end (the film running about two and a half hours without a wasted minute).  Deeply empathetic with a thoughtful even-handed judge and an uncomprehending sacrifice to the system bringing the most emotional moments in the film.  But you’ll find your own case of special interest.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  Some of the cases don’t finish, but are sent to continue in another court giving no closure after we’ve invested ourselves in some kind of outcome.  A commission from the Wiseman Estate on a Project Update to run as a coda to the film would be just the thing.

PENELOPE (1966)

Not yet 30, but with her career slipping (only one film of consequence ahead of her*), Natalie Wood couldn’t have been happy with the scripts on offer at the time.  Nor this cast & crew other than D.P. Harry Stradling, too many near novices on a major studio production.  But with Hollywood facing collapse and, as yet, no rebirth on the horizon, she grabbed this meager comedy that sees her playing a goofy, but glamorous kleptomaniac who’s trying to rejigger interest from workaholic bank executive husband Ian Bannen.  (His first & last conventional Hollywood lead.)  Maybe she’ll get his attention by robbing his new flagship bank?  That’s about it for plot, the rest is comic fashion show (did Howard Fast really co-write this?), complications coming via love-addled shrink Dick Shawn (fey & reasonably funny) and love-addled police investigator Peter Falk (in something of a trial run for Columbo two years off).  But don’t give up, what catches the eye is more than usual NYC location work (the city looking great in 1966, late ‘60s decline yet to appear; one long scene played in the MoMA Sculpture Garden a treat), plus the chemistry between Falk & Wood so obvious, you wonder why no one did anything with it.  But the oddest part of the film is that everyone involved, including faceless director Arthur Hiller, seems to think they’ve got another BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S/’61 in here.  With borrowed style, borrowed party scenes, borrowed kooks, even a Givenchy outfit as a major clue to the crime.  Maybe they borrowed it from #1 Givenchy client Audrey Hepburn?  And maybe that’s why they got ‘Johnny’ Williams to write a song for Natalie to sing.  ‘Moon River’ it ain’t.

DOUBLE-BILL:  *That would be BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE/’69.

HAMNET (2025)

Overpraised for an award-winning NOMADLAND/’20; then under-performing in her MARVEL misstep/’21, here Chloé Zhao fulfills the promise of THE RIDER/’17, her docu-flavored feature, with this Shakespeare & family re-imagining.  Collaborating on the script with original novelist Maggie O’Farrell, it’s a daring rethink of the young Latin tutor William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and older Anne (Agnes) Hathaway (Jessie Buckley), a forest-wise Earth Mother type); their courtship & marriage before a quick succession of children (two girls/one boy) and long separations as Will pursues theatrical opportunities in London.  Finding believable physical & mental spaces for this to play in (note the static one-shots during intense moments), Zhao carefully builds in period detail and still-modern emotion, refusing to overplay or nail everything in place for us.  Late 16th/early 17th century Stratford & London coming fully to life before Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), their enchanting young son, suddenly falls ill while Shakespeare is away (as he always seems to be) in London.  The feeling of desertion particularly acute for Agnes.  All of this superbly handled across the board, and all of it heartbreaking.  But the miracle of the film comes in what technically amounts to a long coda (it runs its own entire three act structure in about twenty minutes) when Agnes and her brother go to London to see their first play, the premiere of HAMLET at the Globe Theatre.  (That’s Jacobi’s real-life big brother Noah Jupe playing a college-age Hamlet.)  Scenes of rehearsal and then the opening* before a rapt crowd, knowing what we now know of the personal life . . . has HAMLET ever played in quite this raw a fashion?  Zhao showing nothing less than the purpose of art at its highest level, with tear-worthy emotional depth you rarely find in something you know so well.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  As mentioned above: THE RIDER/’17, still too little seen.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-rider-2017.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *The modern/thoughtful pace of stage acting we see used in the production of HAMLET works within the film.  But at this tempo, could HAMLET get to the finish line in the two-and-a-half hours of natural light available at The Globe?

THE ICEBREAKER / LEDOKOL (2016)

And you thinking Russia not know how to make CGI-loaded Bolshoi Blockbuster?  (Bolshoi Icebuster!)  Phooey!  We show.  Big ship taking on frozen Arctic Sea as well as frozen expeditionary science unit with dog.  But with ship Captain Pyotr Fyodorov, handsome, strong, stubble beard, 70 men safe on board.  (Two time winner of Russian Hero of the Year acting award!  Real thing.  Look up!)  But stopping boat when science man & dog go overboard in frigid waters bolshoi mistake.  Save doggie; lose man.  Puts rescue attempt ahead of mission.  Soon helicopter comes.  Replace fine Captain with no nonsense Captain.  Less handsome; no caring.  Crusty exterior hiding crusty interior.  Smashes sailor’s guitar to bits if deck not swabbed with anti-freeze.  Relieved Captain & new Captain like Burt Lancaster & Clark Gable in RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP/’58; Liam Neeson & Harrison Ford in K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER/’02.  Dozens others to choose from.  Yet, mean Captain wife back home having baby #1 at home.  Maybe he's not so bad.  But now, ship stuck in ice, with huge iceberg following.  Yikes!  Cracks below deck no one in Moscow takes responsibility for.  Now storage flooded, nothing to eat but cabbage soup.   (Inside info: is same cabbage soup as before flood.  Ironic, da?)  Almost forget; for film, no expense spared, English dub made by same team who did WHAT’S UP, TIGER LILY?/’66 for Woody Allen.  And since date of events is 1985, everyone calls everyone ‘dude.’   Plus takeaway motto: Shit Floats.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Look for some great sunshiny weather as a water truck spews out heavy rain showers on a Moscow sidewalk.  While on the English dub track, a clueless actor pronounces LeninGRAD as LeninGARD.  Even under perestroika , you could get shot for that.

JUNGLE HEAT (1957)

Howard Koch’s film career took him from NYC-based distribution office work to Hollywood production assistant before co-starting a production company for tv and small features led to running Paramount for a couple of years and then the Paramount production deal he’s remembered for.  Early Neal Simon pics (think THE ODD COUPLE/’68) and game changing Zucker Bros. comedies (think AIRPLANE!/’80).  Lost in the middle of his onwards & upwards trajectory are a few directing credits, mostly in the ‘50s for tv and low budget second-run features.  That’s what we’ve got here.  And what a deliciously trashy title to entice the curious: JUNGLE HEAT.  If only it lived down to it.  Alas, former Tarzan hunk Lex Barker is doctor on the lesser Hawaiian island of Kaua'i, a likable guy who’ll treat anyone, native or visitor, but has his good nature tested by new plantation overseer Glenn Langan whose racist tendencies are supported by big shot overseer James Westerfield.  Fortunately, Langan’s pretty wife, Mari Blanchard, has little in common with her husband, but lots in common with Barker.  Meanwhile, Japanese Fifth Columnists are threatening the whole damn island in the weeks before Dec. 7, 1941.  Not that we see them (budget too small?), instead, tepid interracial marriage issues and almost a kiss between a White Military Officer and his Island beauty bride.  Other than that, the film feels pointless.  What was Koch up to?  True they were shooting a second film on the island at the same time (VOODOO ISLAND/’57), but a more likely explanation is that the conscientious Koch was rounding out his Hollywood education by learning just what a director went thru before moving into the big time.  Smart, though not exactly showing much aptitude for directing.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Though shot in Academy Ratio (1.37:1), generous top & bottom framing suggests the film was designed to be cropped by the projectionist (via scrims or aperture plate) down to ‘flat’ (1.77 or 1.85:1).  A simple manual adjustment on older DVD players lets you watch it that way, but automatically adjusting BLU-Ray machines may not.