Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, March 17, 2014

BEHIND THE CANDELABRA (2013)

Generously greeted tv pic (theatrical abroad), immaculately helmed by Steven Soderbergh, and remarkably uninteresting. The saga of aging ivory-tickler Liberace and blond boy-toy Scott Thorson has few surprises: Campy entertainer lands his latest 20-something, but moves on when the youthifying pixie dust fails to rub off. A couple of bizarre incidents add color, especially when a taut-faced Rob Lowe shows up as a feel-good plastic surgeon, but in spite of numerous awards & nominations, the two leads are crucially, even cruelly, miscast. Matt Damon is supposed to be a teenage object of lustful affection, but well into his 40s, he looks slow on the uptake rather than hot, young & innocent. (Great ass though!) Michael Douglas gets all the non-essentials right, but can’t bring the flamboyant Liberace to life. When he walks on stage nothing happens; he doesn’t connect. Where’s Mr. Showmanship? The wardrobe’s in place, but none of the flair. The costumes might be wearing him. (See Hugh Jackman as Peter Allen to see what’s missing.) Douglas certainly got the reviews; chucking your personal vanity and smooching Matt Damon will do the trick for a mainstream movie star. Though, with Damon looking just like a ‘70s Kristy McNichols, how hard was it to pucker up?

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: A year after Liberace died, Victor Garber played him in a tv movie before grabbing his next role the very same year in another tv bio . . . Ernest Hemingway, natch.

No comments: