Movie Review: Marlowe

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

An excellent modern day film noir. 

Like all good film noirs, a major reason this movie works is because of a wonderful sense of atmosphere. This film takes place in Hollywood of the late 1930's and it fully utilizes this setting to its advantage. While not everything may be perfectly true to this setting, this does not matter. What matters is that this movie creates its own dark and dangerous version of 1930's Hollywood that is completely engaging. Much of this is captured in the film's wonderful use of cinematography and lighting, which make this feel like a noir film of the 1940's in all the best ways. If you are a noir fan (like I am), there is little doubt that this film's visual style will delight you. David Holmes's atmospheric musical score also adds a lot to this movie's ambiance. The film also benefits from simply wonderful dialogue. This is the type of cynical hard-bitten dialogue that has helped give film noir its many fans. This is the type of dialogue that makes us wish we could talk like this in real life and makes these characters seem larger than life. There is also plenty of cynical and witty humor in this dialogue that is just as tough and hard-boiled as the serious lines. This humor is not only quite funny but it adds to the noir like atmosphere and tough feeling of this movie. The storyline is quite engaging and keeps you on the edge of your seat. True at times it can be needlessly complex but that is just part of the game in a Philip Marlowe movie. What matters is that this story never made me feel bored for even a second while watching it and the near two hours passed by quite quickly. It also has a wonderful feel of dread and suspense that is simply delightful. 

Now for the big question. How is Liam Neeson as Phillip Marlowe? The answer is really darn good. Humprey Bogart (who played the character in The Big Sleep (1946)) and Robert Mitchum (who played the character in Farewell My Lovely (1975)) will always be my favorite movie versions of Raymond Chandler's (who wrote the original books featuring the character) famous private detective and I also have a fondness for Dick Powell's version of the character in Murder My Sweet (1944). However Liam Neeson does a great job with the character and never once feels like he is copying any of the great actors who played the part in the past. Because of this it is easy to enjoy his take on the character without comparing it to the previous takes. Here he does a great job of capturing the cynical and world-weary nature of this interpretation of the character. He is also accompanied by a wonderful supporting cast including Jessica Lange, Diane Kruger and Danny Huston. Danny Houston channels his father, legendary director/actor John Houston, with a role very reminiscent of the character John Houston played in the brilliant noir, Chinatown (1974).

This film does have its faults though. Many of the supporting characters can at times feel like more like plot devices than actual characters, as there is little depth to them and little more to them than what they contribute to the plot. There are also quite a few moments in this movie that are too similar to scenes from many other noirs and those noirs did those scenes even better. Because of this, the movie may not be as memorable as it should be. 

All in all this is an excellent noir and a pure delight to those who (like me) love the genre. 

Movie Review: Nightmare Alley

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A-

A fantastic modern day film noir that shows director, Guillermo del Toro at his best. 

One could argue that this story did not need to be told again on the big screen after the excellent 1947 film version, but Del Toro's new adaption of William Lindsay Gresham’s novel proves that wrong by being a truly great movie. This story definitely plays perfectly to the strengths of Del Toro as a director, and as soon as the movie starts his stamp is fully felt. Though this movie takes place in 1940's America, it feels like it takes place in a world all of its own. This is especially true of the early scenes in the carnival which has a creepy and disturbing vibe before anything even happens giving the audience and uneasy feeling of dread, perfectly foreshadowing what is going to follow. However, the sense of atmosphere is prevalent even when we leave the carnival. Much of this is due to the excellent work of not only Del Toro but also cinematographer Dan Laustsen (who previously worked with Del Toro on The Shape of Water and Crimson Peak), who does not waste a single shot of this movie. Yet none of this atmosphere overwhelms the story or characters. This story is a dark and disturbing fable that hits hard emotionally. Even if you figure out or already know where this story is going, the ending still sends shivers down your spine. That is because nearly everything in the story is perfectly setting this up and leading you to this natural conclusion. Despite how melodramatic these twists and turns can be looking back on them, when you watch the film, they are completely gripping. This movie also serves as a character study of a man whose greed and cockiness leads him down a dangerous and deadly path. This is not an easy role to play, but Bradley Cooper does an incredible job. He makes this character feel real and relatable. And while the character is in no way traditionally likable, we are fascinated by him and feel a sense of pity towards him that emotionally pulls us into the story. Cooper does all this seeming effortlessly. This is not to say the rest of the cast isn't excellent as well. This film features a wealth of great actors who all do an incredible job. This movie also benefits from incredibly intelligently written dialogue. The scenes our "hero" shares with the movie's femme fatale are so incredibly well written that it is hard not simply have your eyes and ears glued to the screen. 

For any fan of Film-noir, this movie is a must watch. 

Movie Review: Motherless Brooklyn

Michael's Movie Grade: B

A very enjoyable modern day film noir filled with an incredible sense of atmosphere.

How much you enjoy this film will fully depend on how much you like film noir. This film is a love letter to the genre in many ways. The film not only avoids having any fast paced action scenes, but the majority of the film is very slow paced to allow us to soak up the atmosphere. Though this slow pace lasting for nearly two and a half hours might be too much for some, others like myself will delight in it. This film is soaking in atmosphere. Edward Norton's stylish direction as well as Dick Pope's cinematography give this film such a powerful and memorable look. As many modern film noirs have discovered there is something about New York that just works cinema-wise more than any other big city in the US. It just has a certain feeling and personality to it that is unlike any other major city. Helping extremely with this atmosphere is Daniel Pemberton's incredible jazz music score. Jazz music is often associated with film noir for a reason. The two fit together perfectly. Jazz music makes these films come to life in a way no other genre could. The music here is obviously inspired by jazz scores for pervious film noirs, but it never copies them, instead having its own sound.

Edward Norton is perfect in the main role. Playing a character with Tourette's Syndrome would cause many actors to overplay their part, turning the character into a caricature of a person with a disability. This never happens in this film. Anyone who has ever actually known someone with a disability will know that they are not defined by there disability. Instead it is only a very small part of who they actually are. That is definitely the way Norton plays this character, as a full human being who just happens to have this disability. He is often the smartest man in the room and the most complex character on screen. People underestimate him because of his disability but the more time we spend with him the more we understand what a remarkable person he is.

However it must be said that the story is often too complicated for its own good. There is no need for the sheer amount of twists and turns found in this story. This film could have cut some of this complexities out and have a shorter, but tighter movie. The movie also overuses the narration and can rely on it too much to give us information the film should have shown us.

If you are a fan of film noir, I am sure you will enjoy this movie. It may not be a masterpiece, but it delivers very well at giving us film noir fans exactly what we want.

-Michael J. Ruhland    

Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #14

Happy Saturday Morning my friends. That's right it time to look at some more classic cartoons. 

The idea of cartoons being cinematic art capable of everything live action films are is shown very clearly in the Fleischer and Famous Studios Superman cartoons. These films are unlike any other cartoons to come out of these studios. They have a heavily cinematic quality to them with filmmaking that is in many ways a part of the film noir movement of the era. One of the most clear examples of this is Eleventh Hour (1942). This is also pure world war 2 propaganda making it also a vey interesting look at the time period it was made in, Once again the voices of Superman and Lois are by Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander, who also provided the voices on the Superman Radio show. Both would continue voicing the characters into the 1960's where they were doing them for Filmmation's TV series. 


Beaky Buzzard was a character that originally appeared in two classic Bob Clampett cartoons, Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (1942) and The Bashful Buzzard (1945). At that time he was voiced by Kent Rogers. Rogers died in World War 2. However the character didn't disappear after this and received two more cartoons. This cartoon was the first one to not be directed by Bob Clampett or have Ken Rogers as the voice. Friz Freleng is the director and I believe Mel Blanc is the voice. Also notice in this cartoon, Beaky seems smarter than he had been in previous cartoons, one wonders if Friz had directed more cartoons of this character, if he would have stayed smarter. So enjoy The Lion's Busy (1948).


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Next up comes one of Walt Disney's great silent Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons, Ozzie of the Mounted (1928). One of the animators on this cartoon was Hugh Harmon who would later be one of the co-creators (along with Rudolph Ising) of the Looney Tunes cartoon series. Hugh would later direct a Looney Tunes cartoon called Big Man of the North (1931), the big difference between the cartoons is that the Looney Tune being a sound cartoon would feature a musical number. The Walt Disney silent also featured a mechanical horse that does not appear in the Looney Tune. Mechanical animals were a popular theme in the silent Disney cartoons, including in an earlier Oswald cartoon, The Mechanical Cow (1927). Also animating on this cartoon is one of Disney's future Nine Old Men, Les Clark. The cartoon was directed by Walt himself.

  

Next comes the first Terrytoon to team Gandy Goose and Sourpuss. These two were used as a comedy team for a while by the studio and watching this film it is easy to see why. They are delightful together. This is one of the best and most creative Terrytoons cartoons and I can't recommend it enough. So enjoy The Magic Pencil (1940).

-Michael J. Ruhland