What I knew going in: The basic story and the two famous lines.
Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is a cynical American man living in Casablanca, Morocco during the early stages of WWII. He runs a popular night club which also doubles as a place where people can secretly buy exit papers to flee. When his ex-girlfriend, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) shows up with her husband looking for papers herself, things get complicated.
I was putting this off because for some reason I thought this film was three hours long. Turns out it's not even 90 minutes. A very brisk one at that.
I ended up liking this far more than I expected to, it's a really solid film Strangely enough, it wasn't Rick and Isla together I loved so much, it was Rick and his friendship with the police captain Louis Renault. (Claude Rains) Rains and Bogart have excellent chemistry together. I loved that the setting was mostly in the club as well. It gives the film an upbeat vibe even though it's dealing with some very serious issues.
The cinematography also stood out. I think the scenes of Isla with tears glistening in her eyes are some of the best shots ever put on film. She looked so beautiful. I wish we had gotten a bit more of Isla's story. We hear most of it from Rick other than her explanation of why they parted and I just wanted to know more.
Recommended: Yes
Grade: A-
Memorable Quote: "I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship." - Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart)
Aside: This is my 2000th post on my blog! Wow! I felt like I was just talking about hitting 1000.
What I knew going in: That it was weird.
Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) is a factory worker in a world that apparently barely survived a nuclear holocaust. He is forced into marrying a girl he had sex with, Mary X (Charlotte Stewart) after she gives birth to a mutant baby out of wedlock. Parenthood is not for these two.
I knew this was going to be weird, but holy shit. I always assumed Rubber would continue to reign supreme as the strangest thing I've ever watched but I think this actually takes the cake. Eraserhead definitely wants you to decide what this film means to you. After I sat there incredulous for a while after the fact, I pulled up this films' IMDb page, read the synopsis and some of the reviews and there are people who put a lot more thought into this then I did.
I'll be the first to admit, I'm not in the best place to watch this. A film like this is probably best seen at a midnight movie. Not when you're depressed and lonely, like I am at the moment. That's not the film's fault, but it requires a certain head space and I'm just not there at the moment. Which is a shame because this movie is truly director David Lynch's start. You get a glimpse of the interesting figure he was about to become.
I don't want to end this review on a bad note, so I want to point out the one thing this film does really well - it's creepy as fuck. The mutant baby, if you want to call it that is so unsettling to look at. Especially with the way the camera lingers. There's barely any dialogue in this movie and often you're just left with the score and this baby's cries, and boy is that effective.
Recommended: Today, no. Another day, probably yes.
Grade: C
Memorable Quote: "Oh, you really are sick." - Henry Spencer (Jack Nance)
What I knew going in: The basic premise
General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) orders an attack on the Soviets while a room full of politicians attempt to stop him.
There's one thing I never wanted my blog to feel like and that's a job. I always want to write for fun and I genuinely feel that way 99.9% of the time. However last Monday when I sat down to watch my Blind Spot pick, which I was running late on, I was having a terrible day. This was that .1% of the time where this felt like an assignment I needed to complete. Going into this with that mindset, I was expecting to view this feel very negatively whether it deserved it or not.
But it turns out a satire was a nice way to block everything else out for an hour and a half because I legitimately enjoyed this. Even with my son, who was reading in the same room kept pointing out "all they're doing is talking." The war room scenes were the best because of that. Peter Sellers, who plays multiple roles - the titular Dr. Strangelove, the president, Captain Mandrake really stole the show. George C. Scott was another treasure in those scenes.
Frankly, the film is just stupid and that makes it enjoyable. I don't think it's perfect. The lone female in this film is there for no reason at all other than to look hot and while I was excited to see James Earl Jones, he had nothing to do, but for a film I felt so determined to dislike going in, I'm glad I came out the way I did.
Recommended: Yes
Grade: B-
Memorable Quote: "I know Dmitri, can you imagine how I feel?" - President Muffley (Peter Sellers)
What I knew going in: I had seen parts of this on TV before.
Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy) goes to Germany in 1948 to oversee three former judges being tried for their crimes during the Nazi regime.
I enjoyed the way the courtroom scenes were staged. The standout is still Maximilian Schell playing the German defense attorney. I'm glad he's the one who went home with an Oscar that year.
This was one of the films I was most looking forward to on my Blind Spot list because I enjoyed the parts I've seen previously. I realize now that I must have been watching an edited version on TV because a lot of the non courtroom scenes were completely new to me. The run time for is over three hours and I did feel that length at times.
I'm glad I finally saw this in one sitting. It wasn't as thrilling as I had hoped it would be now that I got to take it all in at once. I'm struggling to talk about it a bit because I didn't love the one thing most people seem to about this film, and that's Spencer Tracy. He was fine, Haywood in theory is an interesting character, but I walked away far more impressed with other actors instead.
Recommended: Yes
Grade: B-
Memorable Quote: "It came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death that you knew to be innocent." - Judge Haywood (Spencer Tracy)
What I knew going in: Not much, other than what it was about.
Mabel (Gena Rowlands) is a housewife who lives to please her husband, Nick. (Peter Falk) However she suffers from a mental illness that neither Nick, nor anyone else in their family is equipped to help her with.
When putting together my Blind Spot list, this was a recommendation I got on Twitter and it was a film I was familiar with due to all the praise for Gena Rowlands' performance.
That aspect of the film was no hyperbole. Rowlands is fantastic. It's sad to watch Mabel who with a less shitty husband and more supportive social circle could've gotten the help she needed and thrived. There are parts of this movie that are so deeply uncomfortable that it kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to follow.
Speaking of Mabel's husband, Nick really is the worst, right? This is nothing against Falk who's great, but Nick is so unlikable that the film, which is already far too long at 2 hours and 35 minutes drags even more when Mabel is sent to an institution and we're left to watch him parent his children. I wish the film would've stayed with her instead because it's not interesting enough when she's not around.
Thankfully the majority of this works well, I think it's a bit overlong. The story is interesting and the actors deliver, it just needed a bit of trimming.
Recommended: Yes
Grade: B-
Memorable Quote: "Oh you poor thing. You can't name someone Harold." - Mabel (Gena Rowlands)
What I knew going in: That there would be excellent fighting scenes.
Growing up, I had family members in Karate, I would play Mortal Combat with friends on their Nintendos. I would watch movies like 3 Ninjas, Karate Kid and anything with Jackie Chan, but of course I didn't see a damn thing with the famed Bruce Lee. I'm not sure how that was possible. I even saw The Crow with his son but yet I had seen nothing but clips of Lee's work. Now here I am in my 30's trying to make up for that oversight.
Enter The Dragon is actually kind of a mess. It's not only about Lee (Bruce Lee), who plays a secret agent infiltrating a crime lord Han's ( Kien Shih) tournament. His henchmen are also responsible for the death of Lee's sister. But it also features two Americans, Roper (John Saxon) and Williams (Jim Kelly) who are also there dealing with their own things.
It's a bit distracting, but I was drawn to Williams, not only because Kelly is insanely hot but he was escaping racist cops so I was immediately on his side..and he's the first to die of the bunch. It just had weird pacing and I found myself getting annoyed whenever Roper was on screen because I didn't care for him the way I did Lee and Williams. Lee's character weirdly gets treated like an afterthought at times despite this being his movie.
The martial arts however was fantastic and did not disappoint. Lee is a joy to watch. Over all, I was expecting this to be a bit faster pace but I still had a good time watching it. I think my expectations were just slightly too high.
Recommended: Yes
Grade: C+
Memorable Quote: "A board can't hit back." - Lee (Bruce Lee)
What I knew going in: Honestly, nothing.
Toto (Salvatore Cascio as a child, Marco Leonardi as a teen, and Jacques Perrin as an adult) reflects on his time growing up in Sicily and falling in love with the world of film. Now, he's a famous director, but back then we follow his friendship with local projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) and how he shaped his life forever.
This was another title that I dropped on my Blind Spot list after a lot of recommendations. This is the film for people who love film, and I'm so glad I went for it even without knowing a lot about it because it made me so teary eyed with its beauty.
Of the Toto's we follow, the child version is my favorite. I thought his relationship with Alfredo was so pure and director Giuseppe Tornatore really brought the love for the cinema home. I loved all the scenes of everyone just enjoying a film, or getting mad when they have to cut out the steamier moments because the priests request it. They made going to the theater look like going to Disney World.
This film is from 1988 but it feels much older, and it did drag a bit towards the middle when Toto was a teenager but I enjoyed it so much. You can tell they dubbed over some of the actors (Noiret in particular was speaking his native French, and was dubbed in Italian) The ending is honestly perfect. One of the best I've ever seen from any film.
Recommended: Yes
Grade: A
Memorable Quote: "Whatever you end up doing, love it." - Alfredo (Philippe Noiret)
What I knew going in: I had seen scenes from the first Godfather before, and the essential plot.
Oh man, this was a lot of hours. Like I did when I reviewed the Three Colors Trilogy, I'll break them up film by film.
The Godfather - Aging Don Vito Corleone (Marlan Brando) is about to let one of his sons take over his criminal empire when someone wages war against him and his then clean son, Michael (Al Pacino) gets sucked in.
I never realized just how many films borrowed from The Godfather. I saw so many things that looked so familiar. Marlan Brando was spectacular in this, damn. Seeing the entire context of his performance was something else. His scene in the morgue with Sonny was the most powerful. Pacino was great as well. I became very immersed in this story, but there is a lot of filler. Then strangely some parts, like Michael's time in Sicily seemed to race by. It felt slightly uneven but you can't deny the masterful film making here. Everything from the director to the actors to the editing was just very well done. After sitting with this film for a week, I ended up watching it again and raising my grade. I couldn't stop thinking about it. A
The Godfather Part II -We meet up again with Michael, and intertwine the story with Don Vito's (Robert DeNiro) origin story. Michael has firmly replaced Don Vito in all capacities.
I liked this one a bit less than the first. I thought the parts with Don Vito's origin were really strong, and DeNiro was so good. His mannerisms were so similar to Pacino's that at times I didn't realize the scene had changed for a few seconds. But the entire trial aspect dragged this film down. I felt like Michael's story didn't truly get interesting until the last hour or so of it. The best scene is easily the emotional conversation between Michael and Fredo (John Cazale) The entire story between the two of them was so tragic. It makes no goddamn sense that Cazale wasn't Oscar nominated for this. I also watched this a second time a couple of weeks later and appreciated it more the second time around. A-
The Godfather Part III - Oh boy, I actively disliked this. I'm glad to read Coppola regretted not having Robert Duvall in this because first things first, he was sorely missed. Michael had no legitimate confidants. The one thing I consistently heard about this film was how terrible Sofia Coppola was in it, and yeah she wasn't good, but she's not nearly the most egregious part of this movie. I'd argue that Andy Garcia (who somehow got nominated for an Oscar when Cazale didn't) was on par with her. Their "romance" was gross. Diane Keaton was phoning it in for the majority of the film as well. On top of all that, Michael just got boring. I didn't need to meet up with him in the 70's when he had nothing interesting to say or do. It's well made, but ultimately unnecessary. I didn't go back for this one a second time like I did the other two. C-
Recommended: Yes for the first two, nope for the third.
Memorable Quote: "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." - Don Vito (Marlan Brando)
What I knew going in: The basic plot as my millennial ass saw the loosely remade Disturbia when came out.
Photographer L.B Jeffries (James Stewart) is holed up in his apartment after breaking his leg on job. When he's not getting visits from his girlfriend, Lisa (Grace Kelly) or his at home nurse, Stella (Thelma Ritter) he's spending his time spying on his neighbors. Then he becomes convinced one of them, Mr. Thorwald (Raymond Burr) has murdered his wife.
For some reason, I assumed this film would be kind of slow. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't and that I was immediately engaged throughout. I think this is my new favorite Hitchcock film, there wasn't a minute of it I didn't enjoy.
All the actors in this are good (and the ones we watch across the way are amusing) but Thelma Ritter was by far my favorite. Stella was awesome. I assumed she was going to disappear after she stopped by at the beginning and she didn't. I'm so glad she got to be in the final act as well. Stewart and Kelly had good chemistry as well, I especially loved the moment where Jeffries realizes how wrong he was about Lisa being the right woman for him. Lisa and Stella working as a team was another delight.
The only part of this film that didn't age well are the special effects and that's to be expected. That's always good for a chuckle.
Recommended: Yes
Grade: A+
Memorable Quote "That's abnormal." - Stella (Thelma Ritter)
2019 Blind Spot List
And here are the films I plan on watching next year for Ryan's creation, which is now managed by Sofia. Normally I stick with one movie per month, but I'm going to try to tackle the entire Godfather trilogy like I did the Three Colors series in 2017.
What do you think of my choices? Have you seen them? Let me know!
1) Network
2) Cinema Paradiso
3) In The Heat of the Night
4) Scenes from a Marriage
5) My Left Foot
6) Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
7) Eraserhead
8) Enter the Dragon
9) Kramer vs Kramer
10) The Godfather trilogy*
11) Judgement at Nuremberg*
12) Casablanca
Alternates: Suddenly, Last Summer (This was actually on my 2018 list but apparently Netflix has one DVD for the entire country because I've been on "very long wait" all year)
*Indicates that I have seen parts of the film, just not all in one sitting.
