Always a Time for Misery

Film Reviewed: Misery

Director: Rob Reiner

Date Watched: 29 October 2021

jamesintexas rating: **** (highest rating)

This film is a stone-cold classic. Without seeing it for at least twenty years, a random sick day and a friend's Annie Wilkes' costume brought me back to this taut thriller which was my very first Stephen King novel.  I love it. James Caan, confined to a bed and wheelchair for most of the film, shines as Paul Sheldon, a meticulous writer of Misery Chastain romances that he disdains. Unfortunately, he packs his latest non-Misery book into his '65 Mustang and drives into a blizzard in Colorado, ending up tossed aside in an upside down car, only to be rescued by his number one fan, Annie Wilkes. 

Annie (Kathy Bates, a revelation, in the first role I ever saw her play), won the Oscar for her performance, and 32 years later it holds up.  Annie Wilkes is simultaneously cheery, horrifying, malevolent, unhinged, silly, rapturous, giddy, immensely lonely, and wildly swinging among all the moods.  Hosting her favorite writer after rescuing him from said accident, Wilkes sounds finds Paul's profanity-laden new manuscript (not a Misery novel), hates it, and the writer then becomes trapped as his number one fan compels him to burn his new novel and return to Misery work.

There are so many layers and levels here, the first of which is all the fun Reiner has with the title of the film and the character.  Caan is doing great work here.  Annie blasts Liberace records, bonds with her pet pig, and has a "flair" for decorating.  Richard Farnsworth and Frances Sternhagen are great fun as the Sheriff and Deputy on the case in the small town.  Both are hilarious and dry; their characters seem ripped from a Shakespeare play for comic relief and a break in the tension.

Misery is taut, 90 minutes or so, moving with speed and concision.  Reiner utilizes slow zooms and intense close-ups on his two leads' faces, close-ups that make Bates appear slightly off, filling the screen as she pontificates about the serials cheating her as a kid.  The film makes me think a lot about art and how artists create art and who they create art for.  Lauren Bacall's small role as Paul Sheldon's publicist bookends the film, itself calling our attention to her great string of films, her own contribution to the art of cinema.  The claustrophobic nature of the subject matter mean that Reiner had to be endlessly inventive in his shots and sequencing.  To craft both Misery and The Princess Bride in one lifetime is truly a marvel!

A four-star classic.

An Epic for All-Time: Zhivago's Power is All In Sharif and Christie's Eyes

Film Reviewed: Dr. Zhivago 

Director: David Lean

Date Watched: 24 October 2021

jamesintexas rating: ***1/2  

Powerful epic storytelling, David Lean's work here seems quiet, complex, and reserved, though it sometimes is suprisingly emotional with its themes.  A strange framing device of a brother (Alec Guinness) searching for his niece leads us to Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif), a young poet-doctor in pre-Revolutionary Russia, who finds himself wrapped up in the drama of Lara (Julie Christie), a young woman who finds herself involved with Victor Komarovsky (Rod Steiger) who is grooming her and manipulating her.  A shooting, a scandal, the violent upheaval of Russian society all swirls through this patient story, which just seems content to not move at a quick pace.  Long shots of landscapes and mountains, a perilous train ride, a brutal running-down of protesters by police, and a frozen house in the countryside are all highlights for me. 

But the truth is that none of this works without the performances of Sharif and Christie, both incredibly magnetic.  Their eyes communicate so much here, and the film is content to keep them separate for long stretches, to depict the harshness of war and power, and to eschew the beats of plot-driven story.  Instead, Lean lingers on the light, the landscape, the snow, the clutching of two desperate people together set against the backdrop of such horror.  

Boris Pasternak's novel was one I read in high school and found VERY difficult because of the Russian names and nicknames and my own lack of historical context.  Revisiting this world meant that I got to talk to my Film teacher about it and my parents as well.  My dad saw it in downtown Philadelphia at the Fox Theater with friend Matthew Bradfield; he describes Julie Christie as an angel.  My mom saw it with Denise Spatafore, her long-time friend.  She loved it also.  I saw it on HBO, early in the morning, over the course of two weekends (3+ hours!), and I am so glad to have seen it.

Dune, Part 1: The Best Film of The Year

Film Reviewed: Dune  

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Date Watched: 24 October 2021

jamesintexas rating: **** (highest rating)

Simply stunning, Dune, Part 1 is a marvelous achievement of cinematography, broad storytelling, color and light, and economy of storytelling. 

I will review it again once I have seen it twice, but Timothee Chalamet is Paul Atreus, the quasi-Messiah, the son of Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) and heir to the House of Atreus who has inherited the spice-rich planet Arakis, a troubling development that puts them in the crosshairs of the Harkonnens, who were forced out by the Emperor, and the Fremen, the mysterious nomads who live in the nature of the gorgeous planet, preserving their water in elaborate recycling suits.  

The film has great performances and even more impressive imagery.  Much of this film could be printed and put on a wall as a painting.  It feels like it is just ramping up, and then it ends.

Thank goodness we have a second film on the way, but Dune contains an examination of imperialism, religious zealotry, ecological survival, and humanity's relationship with technology.  From the dragonfly-type ships they fly in to the sand worms, which deserve their own Oscar for visual effects, Denis Villeneuve triumphs here by going all-in on the emotional beats of Paul and his mother Lady Jessica (a standout Rebecca Ferguson), by hinting at more to come in the sequel, more of the mysterious Chani (essentially a cameo so far by Zendaya), while also telling the story of this world.

The cast is incredible.  I have not mentioned Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista, Charlotte Rampling, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, and Stellen Skarsgard.  All performances are pitch-perfect, charismatic, emotionally powerful, and resonant.  The Dune of our time is a reflection of diverse casting and multiple languages and customs; the director's steady hand guides all through the greater purpose of crafting the beginning of the grand story.

My criticism is the same criticism I had when Kill-Bill, Volume 1 was released six month before Volume 2.  What I really want to see is the entire story, and I think we are only 300 pages through a 1000 page novel.  This book was one I read in December and January, the favorite of my late father-in-law Keith, and I think that way these artists put people and place together in such a compelling way is truly marvelous and memorable and magnificent.  I do not think it is hyperbolic to compare my emotions watching this film to when I first experienced Star Wars: Episode 4: A New Hope or Avatar.  I cannot wait for more.  Bravo.  

Dune, Part 1 is the best film of the year.  

Talking to an Empty Chair: The Decline of Great Director Clint Eastwood in Cry Macho

Film Reviewed: Cry Macho    

Director: Clint Eastwood

Date Watched: 19 September 2021

jamesintexas rating: *

I think this film is a travesty.  No one clearly told Clint Eastwood, a masterful director and storyteller, that his script here was unfinished, cliche-ridden, and devoid of genuine emotion.  He makes his 91-year old protagonist sexually attractive to not one but two women, creates genuine suspense by getting on a horse, survives a car crash with no effects, and wastes a wonderful Dwight Yoakum by not giving him enough to do.  I was so surprised by the ending; it feels like Eastwood made all the choices, took none of the feedback, and instead of any sort of climax, it whimpers away with a non-ending.  

Clint's character Mike Milo is a former rodeo rider with a tortured past, summarily fired by ranch boss Howard Polk (Dwight Yoakum) very early on.  A title card informs us of the passage of time, and suddenly, he is roped into traveling to Mexico in 1979 to bring Yoakum's son back to the US.  Feeling a life debt, Eastwood goes, and then he ends up bonding in a picaresque journey back with the son, Rafo (Eduardo Minnet).  A supposed meditation on aging and the twilight of a life, Eastwood's camera is at its best when it focuses on sun glares, fading light, and his profile set against dark shadows.  But it is really a mess with his character hiding behind a box to elude police, engaging in a low-speed chase where he hides from the cops, the aforementioned car crash, but the sheer fact of seeing 91 year old Eastwood working, moving, walking in a way that made me think of my grandpa is a testament to his strength and intensity as an artist.  I just wish this story was worth the massive effort it obviously took for him to make it and star in it.

I am a fan of Unforgiven, A Perfect World, Million Dollar Baby, and more (latter-day Eastwood, given my need to explore his early films).  I am unsure what Eastwood is doing in Cry Macho.  It is the cinematic equivalent of talking to an empty chair.