Doomsday's Andrei Tarkovsky Love Fest

Gah, Leonard Maltin. If any critic would go to bat for a movie like Topaz it's him.

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Doomsday Burns Through His Alfred Hitchcock Blu-Ray Box Set

Family Plot (1976)

View count: First time



I've said before that growing up I was raised on John Wayne movies. True Grit, Red River, The Cowboys, I've seen a ton of them several times over the years. His last movie was The Shootist, another conventional western released in 1976. He died three years later and in a way it's probably good that Wayne passed on when he did at least as far as his career was concerned. Film was going through massive changes in the late-60s and 70s. Cosmic shifts were happening that hadn't been seen since the jump from silent films to talkies. John Wayne wasn't part of that cultural revolution. In fact, he was adamantly against it. He was too old and too traditional that a change in the times went against the persona that he had built for himself. There were some less than successful attempts to stay relevant such as making watered-down Dirty Harry knockoffs after the success of Dirty Harry, a role he had turned down, but by and large his career was on the downhill by the time he passed away. As I was getting into the 1970s era of Alfred Hitchcock films I was beginning to wonder if the same would apply to Hitchcock as well. Rounding out the 1960s with movies like Marnie and Torn Curtain only made me more certain that he might also be a victim of the cultural shift. You could say the same about any artist at any point in time really. It comes back to that idea of whether it's better to burn out or fade away. Look at Clint Eastwood, he's 88 years old. Sure his legacy is intact but he has hardly made anything good in years and maybe won't again. Hopefully I'm wrong but who knows. Anyways, that's what was on my mind before wading into Family Plot, the last of my Hitchcock films as well as the last film he ever directed. Sure I enjoyed Frenzy but it was one amongst a few others that weren't that great and I sat there hoping that maybe, just maybe Hitch might be able to end it on a high note. It's not impossible, after all look at Peyton Manning.

Family Plot is the first Hitchcock movie since The Trouble With Harry that can be considered a comedy albeit a dark comedy that still retains the murder mystery themes. Blanche (Barbara Harris) and George (Bruce Dern) are a 'psychic' and cab driver respectively who spend their off hours scamming old women. This time however is different; the old woman they have in their sights has a long lost nephew and her sister's 'ghost' who spoke through Blanche instructed them to find him. She offers Blanche $10,000 if she can find her nephew so he can inherit her fortune. Blanche and the inept George take the case with $10,000 in their sights but there's a catch; they don't know that the nephew actually faked his own death years ago and is now a kidnapper and jewel thief, along with his girlfriend, who notices their snooping around and decides to do away with them himself.

When looking at this movie it's hard not to view it through a certain lens considering how it's Alfred Hitchcock's final film. There was a tiny part of me that was hoping for something special, an element that would help cement some sort of legacy. Of course I shouldn't have put it on some pedestal like that and naturally it didn't meet that silly if small expectation. What I did take away from it was that it fits pretty nicely with the rest of Hitchcock's work because that's really what it is; a basic Hitchcock movie. Family Plot is certainly more light-hearted than Frenzy and its humor is more on point mainly because the dark humor in Frenzy didn't really gel with the heinous and graphic murder that was surrounding it. Family Plot's characters however are meant to be more incompetent but I'm glad that they weren't written as dumb, oafish caricatures. It would have been very easy to write George as a moron but it would have prevented those characters from pulling the thread of the entire affair and that's one of the things that makes Hitchcock movies so appealing. Sometimes characters in his films are secret agents or police officers but usually the main people we follow are everyday folks who get caught up in a huge scheme and have to use whatever logic or common sense they possess in order to make it out on top. That I think is one of the main draws to an Alfred Hitchcock movie, next to the murder and suspense of course. People can relate to it and the lingering question of 'what if this happened to me?' dances in their heads throughout the entire runtime. Family Plot might not be the deepest or thematically rich movie of Hitchcock's output but it hits all the beats that we've come to expect from one of his films. In that regard, the film is a success.

When it comes to Alfred Hitchcock navigating the waters of an ever-changing industry, I think it would be fair to say that Hitchcock didn't really need to prove himself to anyone nor did he need to further prove his relevance. While I believe he made a noble effort with Frenzy he also made sure to stay in his wheelhouse with his final feature. Normally I wouldn't give people much credit for doing so but seeing how this was the last film that Hitchcock directed it seems like a suitable, if somewhat forgettable ending to his career that spanned half a century. Family Plot does what it set out to do, entertain you while giving a few thrills and guesses along the way, and considering how Alfred Hitchcock aimed to do those things in almost every film he made regardless of the genre, setting or atmosphere I think this was a good enough movie to send him off.

So we're doing Kevin Smith next, right?

So, Kevin Smith this weekend?

Clerks. Mallrats. Chasing Amy. Dogma. Jay & Silent Bob. Jersey Girl. Clerks II. Cop Out. Red State.

That’s all I ask.

Oh, and Yoga Hosers.

That’s it.

Yes

Skip green book, Poppins, klansmen and probably eighth grade. I don't think those are worth seeing in any set time frame.

BlackKklansman

Spike Lee is another one of those filmmakers who confounds me. The guy has made some good movies here and there and he has an eye for setting up a shot. At the same time he's also made some garbage. A lot of it in fact. Enough to make me think that his reputation is built more on an image and what he represents and less on the quality of his work. He certainly does have some good films but there are several more notable directors working today. He's not really a filmmaker whom I seek out unless there's something that's really worth seeing but BlackKklansman is one of those movies that stuck out. Not only did it have great word of mouth, it sounded like a dark comedy that's right in his wheelhouse. Driven by stellar performances, a great soundtrack and some laugh out loud moments, it's definitely a more mainstream Spike Lee movie that still contains his director trademarks.

John David Washington, son of Denzel, plays Ron Stallworth, a black police officer who ‘goes undercover’ via telephone in order to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. His partner (Adam Driver) is the face of the operation and together they work their way up to the Grand Wizard himself, David Duke (Topher Grace in a great turn). Although I'm not sure if this was intentional, it was fun seeing how Lee broke down the degrees of Klansman that Stallworth came in contact with. The most blatant and unflinching believer of the group, Felix, hams it up for the camera as your stereotypical racist. Walter, Stallworth's introduction to the Klan, is also someone who remains loyal to their beliefs but is more level headed and functioning. They eventually lead to David Duke, easily the most dangerous in that he's well-spoken, educated and even comes off as charming. He doesn't speak with Stallworth about bombs or destroying the non-whites, he ties his beliefs up in the context of preserving white culture and maintaining a division in races for the benefit of everyone, not just whites. It's these types of messages that get people with just enough of a chip on their shoulder on the hook without coming off as directly violent or extreme and Lee puts that under the direct spotlight. The one thing that derailed the movie for me was the point where it suddenly remembered that it was a movie and movies must have conflict. Unfortunately it's not enough to just have an undercover cop join the KKK, after all it's not illegal to be in the KKK so it's a little hard to make a compelling movie around that alone. Instead we’re introduced via shoehorn to a bomb plot that coincidentally involves Stallworth’s activist girlfriend and is resolved about as quickly as it’s introduced within about 20 minutes. This gear shift makes the movie take its eye off the ball that was the movie’s main focal point; watching as Stallworth makes a fool out of David Duke and his idiot henchman. Aside from that, BlackKklansman presented a movie that was entertaining and pertinent to today’s climate of escalating racial tensions.

A-, Doomsday approves AFI’s Top 10 placement

Eighth Grade

It's easy to see why Eighth Grade captivated people the way it did. I can guarantee that I'm not the only one who watched a young girl, Kayla, try to navigate the last week of her middle school and had his own awkward and embarrassing memories from that same time flood back into his brain. Anyone worth their salt can remember trying to be cool, worrying about whether they fit in, doing whatever it takes to get that one person to notice them. Eighth Grade covers all of it and does a great job of making you feel for Kayla while cringing at all those thoughts of what we all did in our youth.

Eighth Grade opens with Kayla recording a youtube video for her channel. She regularly leaves short clips giving advice to kids her age despite the fact that her videos received little to no views. She's very shy and secretly pines for Aiden, the cool kid in class who is the perfect caricature of the guy whom the girls dig and all the boys secretly want to punch in the face. Over the course of the next week she goes through awkward pool parties, befriending older high schoolers, dodging sexual advances and finally coming to better understand her place in life before entering the next phase. It isn't the most groundbreaking stuff but it left me nodding my head at almost all of it, perfectly understanding the angst that everyone minus the Doomsday prepping homeschoolers has to power through.

Eight Grade a simple movie whose strength lies in making it one of the most painfully relatable films in recent memory. You not only cringe and cheer for Kayla, you cringe and cheer for yourself at that age. One side of my brain says that maybe some of it should have been toned down to make it more relatable and accessible to today's middle schoolers but the other side quickly reminded me that middle schoolers talk of blowjobs, whacking off and laying chicks as much as high schoolers do. If anything, this movie would be par for the course for them. A very good, funny and solemn look at youth that I hope attracts more of an audience down the road.

A- so says Doomsday, worthy of an AFI top 10 placement

If Beale Street Could Talk

I only know Barry Jenkins due to Moonlight, a movie that I felt was fine if overrated, dare I say very overrated. If Beale Street Could Talk flew under my radar for the most part but based on the previews looked to be exactly the type of movie that was made to get award nominations. It was a racial-themed drama set in New York during the 60s, it touted a diverse cast which counts for a lot these days and had a rising start of a director behind it. It sounded like a movie that seemed tailor made for Oscars. In other words it was a movie that I had little to no interest in ever watching. Strangely enough it piqued my interest when I saw that it didn't receive a Best Picture nomination and when it wound up on the AFI Top 10 list I thought it might be worth a shot. I'm glad that I initially felt the way I did because there's nothing I like better than being wrong about a movie, at least when it comes to watching a movie that I thought I would hate that turns out to be good, in this case very, very good.

Sometimes movies can trip all over themselves when they try to combine a story with a message. Often it's too heavy handed and in your face, other times something is briefly mentioned and feels superficial and tacked on. If Beale Street Could Talk doesn't come hard and fast with themes of racism, it's mentioned when need be until it becomes more of a focal point. Fonny and Tish spend a portion of the film looking for a place to live but are unable to find anyone willing to rent to a black couple. After Fonny is arrested on a rape charge it becomes clear that he was set up by a police officer with a grudge. Unable to provide reliable alibis and with a witness unwilling to come out from hiding to testify, Fonny is held in jail indefinitely until he's forced to accept a plea to a crime that he didn't commit and resigns himself to years in prison, a fate that's had by many African Americans.

Personally, my favorite film of the year was probably They Shall Not Grow Old but documentaries aside, my favorite feature of 2018 as of now would probably come down to either If Beale Street Could Talk or A Star Is Born. How this movie didn't get a Best Picture nomination is beyond me, not because I think it deserves to win the award but because it's better than almost all the other nominees I've seen. I have a few more to go on the AFI list that I'll hopefully get through before the Oscars as three of them are other Best Picture contenders but if I enjoy any of those as much as I enjoyed the previous two then 2018 will have ended on a few high notes, certainly more than 2017 was willing to give me.

A so says Doomsday, also quite worthy of the AFI top 10 list.