Table 19 (2017): written by Mark & Jay Duplass and Jeffrey Blitz; directed by Jeffrey Blitz; starring Anna Kendrick (Eloise McGarry), Rya Meyers (Francie), Lisa Kudrow (Bina Kepp), Craig Robinson (Jerry Kepp), Tony Revolori (Renzo Eckberg), Stephen Merchant (Walter), June Squibb (Nanny Jo), and Wyatt Russell (Teddy): Barely released romantic comedy basically follows the principles of The Breakfast Club and applies them to a wedding. Orson Scott Card loved it!
Table 19 is the last table at the wedding reception, there for all the losers. I guess. But this ragtag group will bond in their loserdom, realize they're not losers, and solve their life's problems. Mostly. The movie rises on the charm of its actors and falls on the script problems -- which is to say, the script needs to be funnier. And it could have been. It's floated around Hollywood for something like a decade! Still, a decent time-filler with a cute dog. Lightly recommended.
Lifeboat (1944): written by John Steinbeck and Jo Swerling; directed by Alfred Hitchcock; starring Tallulah Bankhead (Connie), William Bendix (Gus), Walter Slezak (Willi), Mary Anderson (Alice), John Hodiak (John), Henry Hull (Rittenhouse), Heather Angel (Mrs. Higley), Hume Cronyn (Stanley), and Canada Lee (Joe): Hitchcock's 'Bottle Show' movie remains a surprisingly prickly delight to this day, with terrific performances and tense direction. The survivors of a U-Boat attack on a freighter are stuck in a life boat with a survivor from the U-Boat, also sunk during the exchange. The set-up is a lot like the earlier Stagecoach, if you couldn't get off the titular stagecoach without drowning.
Various class issues play out, as do issues of bigotry and vengeance. People die. The dialogue crackles, especially when spoken by Tallulah Bankhead in one of her rare film appearances. She's a quick-talking female reporter who could be played by Rosalind Russell a la His Girl Friday. Lifeboat defies current Hollywood stereotypes and plot points by not killing the black guy first: nope, Lifeboat kills a baby first. A baby! And the black guy turns out to have the warm family life that all the white characters lack! Good old Hitch. If only we had more like him now. Highly recommended.
Presumed Innocent (1990): adapted by Alan Pakula and Frank Pierson from the novel by Scott Turow; starring Harrison Ford (Rusty Sabich), Brian Dennehy (Horgan), Raul Julia (Sandy), Bonnie Bedelia (Barbara Sabich), Paul Winfield (Judge Larren Lyttle), Greta Scacchi (Carolyn Polhemus), John Spencer (Det. Lipranzer), and Bradley Whitford (Kemp): Veteran screenwriter Alan Pakula's turn as a director wowed people in 1990 with this courtroom thriller. The heavyweight list of actors helps a lot, with stand-out turns from Raul Julia, Paul Winfield, and Brian Dennehy. Harrison Ford is fine, though his haircut is weirdly ridiculous.
Presumed Innocent succeeds or fails on the basis of how well it plays 'Whodunnit?' with the audience. Accused of murdering a colleague he'd had an affair with (Greta Scacchi), Harrison Ford's Chicago-based Assistant District Attorney has to survive a wealth of circumstantial evidence. Or did he do it? Scacchi's ADA Carolyn Polhemus is about as distilled a version of a femme fatale/career-bitch as one ever gets, while Bonnie Bedelia gets stuck with the role of the weepy, wronged wife of Ford's ADA.
The movie holds up pretty well, though it would hold up better if the film-makers had kept the novel's coda, which contextualizes the ending in a way that makes logical sense and adds depth to certain performances. Of course, the movie leaves everything in that leads to this coda, so you can just pretend the coda is there once you discover what it is. Recommended.
The Accountant (2016): written by Bill Dubuque; directed by Gavin O'Connor; starring Ben Affleck (Christian Wolff), Anna Kendrick (Dana Cummings), J.K. Simmons (Ray King), Jon Bernthal (Brax), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Agent Medina), and John Lithgow (Blackburn): Ben Affleck plays an autistic accountant who's also a super-assassin philanthropist. Basically, he's BatRainman. The Accountant is a competent, entertaining thriller. Don't ask more of it. Lightly recommended.
Pitch Perfect: adapted by Kay Cannon from the novel by Mickey Rapkin; directed by Jason Moore; starring Anna Kendrick (Beca), Skylar Astin (Jesse), Ben Platt (Benji), Brittany Snow (Chloe), Anna Camp (Aubrey) and Rebel Wilson (Fat Amy) (2012): Surprisingly witty sleeper about college a cappela groups that's already become a cult hit
There's a certain amount of slightly subversive humour -- unlike Glee, the movie takes many of its comedy cues from Animal House -- in this, along with an awful lot of people in their late 20's and early 30's playing students ten years younger. Rebel Wilson steals most of her scenes as Fat Amy. Recommended.
The Kid: written and directed by Charles Chaplin; starring Charles Chaplin (The Tramp), Jackie Coogan (The Child), and Edna Purviance (The Woman) (1921): Chaplin's first self-written, self-directed feature made him the world's biggest box-office star. And it holds up today, with winning performances by Chaplin and then-6-year-old Jackie Coogan, who would go one from this to be one of the biggest child stars of the 1920's.
There's even a very odd dream sequence towards the end of the film, along with a lightning-quick wrap-up that pretty much encapsulates how quickly filmmakers ended their movies in the Good Old Days. And even if you don't like it, it's only an hour long! Highly recommended.
The Expendables 2: written by Richard Wenk, Ken Kaufman, David Agosto, Dave Callaham, and Sylvester Stallone; directed by Simon West; starring Sylvester Stallone (Barney Ross), Jason Statham (Lee Christmas), Dolph Lundgren (Gunnar Jensen), Jean-Claude Van Damme (Vilain), Terry Crews (Hale Caesar), Randy Couture (Toll Road), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Trench), Bruce Willis (Church), Jet Li (Yin Yang), Nan Yu (Maggie), Liam Hemsworth (Billy the Kid), and Chuck Norris (Booker) (2012): The classic 1980's action vibe starts to get drowned out about midway through this second Expendables movie by a seemingly endless series of unfunny metafictional guest appearances and comments.
It's not that one expects the movie to play things straight. But if you're going to drop jokes about the action movies the various actors have previously appeared in, it would be nice if they were funnier jokes. A Chuck Norris appearance isn't inherently funny. Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis crowded together in a SmartCar is funny, but the joke vanishes in the obligatory, overly long climax, which involves a lot of shooting and a lesson on why one doesn't bring a knife to a chain fight. Lightly recommended for action-movie fans; everyone else should steer clear.
