Anna Karenina (1935)
I have not read the Leo Tolstoy novel this movie is based on, nor seen any of the other adaptations. I knew absolutely nothing about the story going into it. I do know it is a long book, and at 90 minutes, this version definitely feels truncated. Greta Garbo plays the titular Anna Karenina, a Russian woman married to a Czarist official (Basil Rathbone) who has more feelings towards duty and country than he does for his wife. She meets Count Vronsky (Frederic March), falls in love, and runs away with him, defying not only her husband but also social customs of the time. When he learns of the affair, her husband cuts off her access to her son.
Buy Anna Karenina (1935) DVDIt is meant to be this big sacrifice. She loves her son, but her heart yearns for Vronsky, and so she’s willing to give up access to her son to be with him. But that’s a terrible concept. A woman who leaves her son in the hands of a pretty terrible father to run away with some new dude, no matter how nice that new dude may be, is a lousy mom. It doesn’t help that this depiction of Vronsky is utterly dull and their love affair is rushed. I usually like Frederic March, but he’s a big nothing here, just absolutely boring. Certainly not the type of guy you’d want to sacrifice everything to be with. And their initial romance is given no time at all. They meet at one event, have a bit of a chat, and suddenly, we’re supposed to believe they are madly in love. Movies often rush a romance, but there should at least be a bit of chemistry and maybe a little romance, just something to make us buy into their feelings. Presumably, Tolstoy fleshes all that out a lot more and makes it both believable and something you actually care about.
What makes the film worth watching is Garbo’s performance. While I never bought the relationship between her and March, I totally bought the pathos she feels at leaving her child and running away. Basil Rathbone is wonderful too, as the utterly awful husband.
Sinners
I knew almost nothing about Sinners before going to see it this weekend. I knew it was directed by Ryan Coogler, who directed Black Panther, which I liked, and Fruitvale Station, which I was pretty indifferent to, and several other films I haven’t seen. I knew it starred Michael B. Jordan (who I like very much) as twins. Oh, and I knew there were going to be vampires.
Buy Sinners Blu-rayI seldom go to the movies anymore, preferring to watch things in the comfort of my home, but the reviews for this were so good and everybody kept saying you need to see it in the theater, so I broke down and did just that. I’m so glad I did. I was completely knocked out by it.
Jordan plays twin brothers, Smoke and Stack, who return to their hometown in 1932 rural Mississippi. They originally left to fight in World War I then spent time in Chicago working for Al Capone’s outfit. They have come home to start up a juke joint. The first hour or so of the film follows them setting up the joint. They purchase an old sawmill from some Klansmen. They talk their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) and an old alcoholic pianist (Delroy Lindo) into performing that night. They convince a couple of Chinese shopkeepers to supply food and get Smoke’s wife to make food. That sounds rather dull, but it decidedly is not. I could watch another three movies with these characters just hanging out and running a juke joint.
Once everything is prepared and the joint opens, there is a long section of just people dancing, playing music, and making love. Music permeates the entire film, but this section is incredible. The dancing is hot, sweaty, and sexy, and the music connects to America’s history, the future, and across cultural divides. I won’t spoil what the filmmaking is doing here, but it becomes an unforgettable scene.
Then the vampires show up. Honestly, the horror elements of this film are probably my least favorite thing about it, and they are still pretty great. Sinners is a film that had me sitting forward in my seat, with a big old grin on my face.
Tombstone
In last week’s Pick of the Week, I noted that I’ve never loved this film as much as others seem to. When it first came out, all my friends raved about it and endlessly quoted Val Kilmer in it. When I finally watched it, I didn’t hate it, but I did have that sense of, is that it? I’ve seen it several times since then, and each time I like it more, but I’ve never considered it a masterpiece. After watching it this past weekend, I still don’t think it is a masterpiece, but I finally realize it isn’t trying to be. This is a big-budget, excellently cast genre movie designed to please a crowd. And for that purpose, it works exceptionally well.
Buy Tombstone 4K UHDIf you haven’t seen it, Tombstone is yet another retelling of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The story is mostly historically inaccurate. Its storytelling is classic Hollywood (although its insistence on having Wyatt Earp cheat on his drug-addicted wife is strange). But it doesn’t matter. The film is rip-roaring fun. Its cast is stacked – Kurt Russell is Wyatt Earp, Val Kilmer plays Doc Holiday, Sam Elliott and Bill Paxton are the other Earp brothers. The villains are played by Michael Rooker, Powers Booth, Michael Biehn, John Corbett, among others. Billy Bob Thornton, Harry Carey, Jr., John Corbett, and Billy Zane have roles, and Dana Delaney is the love interest. It is wall-to-wall great actors.
Val Kilmer gets all the best lines, and his performance is fantastic. I still hold to the idea that this isn’t a great movie, but it sure is an entertaining one.
QI
I’ve mentioned several different British comedy panel shows in the past, and this is kind of the godfather of them all. It wasn’t the first panel show, but it is probably the most famous and longest-lasting. QI stands for Quite Interesting, and it is essentially a pub quiz. Four panelists (three rotating comedians and/or various celebrities, plus Alan Davies, who is the permanent panelist) answer general questions on various themes asked by the show’s host (Stephen Fry for the first 13 series, Sandi Toksvig from there on).
The questions can be quite tricky. They will often lead towards an obvious, incorrect answer whilst actually being about something entirely different. They regularly use play on words and other dramatic tricks to fool the panelists. When a question is answered with something incorrect and obvious, the panelist will get a loud klaxon, and their answer will be flashed in big, bright letters as a form of shaming them. All in good fun, of course.
Unlike most of the other panel shows I’ve talked about, QI actually is informative. Often, the host will lead a short discussion concerning the question, and I’ve learned quite a lot of little facts from watching. But the joy of the show is simply watching very funny people banter. The best episodes will have one person answer a question and then everybody else will just riff on it for several minutes, leaving me in tears.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
In preparation for the new season of Andor, I went back and watched this film. With each viewing, Rogue One increasingly becomes one of my favorite films in the franchise. While it was billed as a stand-alone story, not being connected to the main Skywalker saga, it is essentially a prequel to A New Hope. It follows a ragtag crew of rebels as they try and steal the plans to the Death Star, the very ones Luke Skywalker used to destroy it in the very first Star Wars film.
Buy Rogue One Blu-rayEven though it is very obviously tied to the larger story, I do love that it feels like its own thing. For the most part, these are characters whom we’ll never see again. We know from the very beginning these characters are doomed. They don’t exist in A New Hope and so they almost assuredly will die by the film’s end. I think knowing that allowed the filmmakers a certain freedom. They didn’t have to consider endless sequels and spin-offs. They could just tell this story.
I also love the world-building here and the deepening of the mythology. I love the different factions of rebels. Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) is a militant, willing to use great violence and make any sacrifice to destroy the Empire. But then there is also a group of more diplomatic rebels, some of whom were members of the now-defunct Senate, who are unwilling to truly fight for the cause. I love the blind warrior who isn’t a Jedi or a Sith but is connected to the Force.
That’s exactly what I want from a Star Wars story. Give me a film that expands the universe in interesting ways, but still feel connected to the larger story.
Predator: Badlands
I love that this franchise just keeps going. I haven’t loved every film (heck, I’ve not even seen them all), but I dig the concept of a villain being the thing that stays, not the protagonist. It is like all those slasher films from the 1980s, where the teens came and went with each film, but Jason and Michael Myers kept the audience coming back. Except with Predator, our disposable characters are usually played by well-known stars.
Buy Predator: 4-movie Collection Blu-rayPredator: Badlands is directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who also helmed Prey, probably the best film in the entire franchise, so I’m excited about this one. The hook here is that the Predator will be our hero (teaming up with a humanoid played by Elle Fanning) out to destroy an even bigger, badder enemy. Color me intrigued.
