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A Gooden Smorgasbord I've come to realize something so obvious that it's a
wonder I never realized it before: More films are made each year than
I will ever have time to watch. It's dawned on me that my life's calling
is too open-ended to be attainable. Even restricting myself to only
movies I think will be good will, nevertheless, make my "To See"
continue to lengthen forever. Your letters and suggestions, though kind,
have made the list even longer. In the last month alone, I've had requests
to review Shawshank Redemption, About a Boy, Solaris (the original),
and "the cheesy 80's version" of Flash Gordon. It disturbs
me. It also excites me.
What to do while watching: What to eat while watching: An early Fellini work from 1956, La Strada (The Road) is a benchmark for future directors aiming at the higher possibilities of cinematic art. There is a simplicity and simultaneous richness to this film that is truly engaging in a way that heavy-handed suspense isn't. Zampano the Strongman played by Anthony Quinn appears at an ocean-side hovel in his little motor home, a sort of camper top on a dune buggy, painted jet black. Guilietta Masina embodies the character of Gelsomina, a young woman who Zampano takes with him on the road as an assistant to his act. The arrangement between them is blurry: Gelsomina is a sort of indentured servant/child bride/apprentice/slave. Her adventures on the road with Zampano is a bounteous frame in which Fellini develops the strange relationship between the two, slowly and patiently attempting to find the love between them. That love is a hard little gem, almost impossible to capture amid a very difficult life full of tribulations and sadness. Zampano, strong as he is, is a very fearful man and little Gelsomina displays saintly qualities besides her mischief. This tragedy moves slowly for contemporary viewers, but those who engage film with the soul will find great depth here.
What to do while watching: What to eat while watching: Jose Miguel Pinero was an important figure on the poetry scene late last century. As a founding member of the Nuyorican Poet's Café, his work is well known as a passionate flood of anger, hope, and craziness from the streets of New York and the perspective of the dispossessed. His poetry draws you in: narrative through lines couple with a driving train-like rhythm to keep your eyes moving and your mind engaged. Images are vivid and intense. His contribution to the world of poetry helped formed the headwaters of Poetry Slam, for better and for worse, and his troubled life makes an interesting study. In Pinero, his portrayal by Benjamin Bratt pays homage, to be sure. Bratt does a lot of reciting, giving the poems room to be what they are. However, this film strikes me with the same troubling paradox as does The Doors: the person being eulogized is not a nice person. Pinero, like Jim Morrison, manipulates a lot of people, coasts on his charisma, and abuses friends and himself. It's hard to feel that a film devoted to some jerk, no matter how successful his creative output, is a justified use of filmmaking energy, to put it frankly. Knowing more about Morrison or Pinero, if anything, puts a diminishing pall on their work. On the other hand, Barfly, the story of Charles Bukowski manages this paradox well by making no attempt to glorify the drunken pig that Bukowski is. I liked that movie a bit better.
What to do while watching: What to eat while watching: Look up farce in the dictionary, and you may see this play given as an example. Two upper-crusty British playboys enjoy the bachelor life. Jack has created a fictional brother named Earnest who serves as a ready excuse for Jack whenever he wants to travel to London and tomcat around. Jack's buddy Algernon has a similar fiction, Bunbury, who he uses to escape London and get to the country. On this foundation of deceit unfolds a comedy of errors and impersonation where identities shift on the rocky road to true love. Wilde's dialogue is razor sharp and famously witty. Many quotable gems comes from this play. It's well acted, and the cast is fetching (Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Frances O'Connor, Reese Witherspoon), but really the play is the thing. To see Importance on stage or on the small screen makes little difference as long as the dialogue is intelligible. It's not even that useful as a period piece. Mainly, it's just a comedic lark, and one of the best of the class.
What to do while watching: What to eat while watching: This movie sits in a minefield of cliche. At each step it could fall into the trap some foreign films fall into of being too much about their foreign setting and not enough about a story with characters. It also risks all the standard fixtures of big family wedding movies. Perhaps that's why it's so delightful to be swept away by the Monsoon. Each character is given a full personality, and the action defies expectation. Even though the father of the bride is harried and the bride has doubts--as we've come to expect in wedding films--the cultural differences around marriage and gender roles shed new light around these archetypal people, and keeps them genuine. This is true nowhere more clearly than in the comic character of the wedding planner, a bumbling geek who, in falling in love, becomes a hero of love, elevated past all comedy to something truly astonishing. It's really a fun film, with great music, too. I was thoroughly charmed.
What to do while watching: What to eat while watching: Father is a world-class Mexican chef who spends a lot of time creating amazing dishes like seared nopales with candied jalapenos over bean-baked tortilla helmets. A good 15% of the footage shows cooking underway. The plot that was built to fill out the cooking scenes exists on the level of most daytime television. Father is a widower with three daughters, each with a familiar arc, played to garner laughs and tug heartstrings. Daughter one is a church-going prude who finally loosens up enough to elope with Paul Rodriquez. Oops, did I give it away? Daughter number two dreams of following in daddy's cooking footsteps, but also has the opportunity to make it big in business. What do you think she'll do? Daughter number three tries to find herself by going out with a Brazilian youth. Turns out a "relationship" is a bigger deal than she imagined! Dad is courted by Raquel Welch, still looking good for an older woman, but stuck into a cloying role, unfortunately. A surprise twist happens for low stakes; then more cooking and a big, happy ending. Enough laughs and sighs make for an untaxing night of viewing, while the visuals of food are the high point. One annoying element that sometimes crops up in films: a song got overused. Sometimes I think that once a director has shelled out for rights to a particular song, he or she decides to milk the tune for all it's worth. But no one needs to hear "Quizas" that many times. Want to share a happy story with Gooden?
©2003 by Randy Shandis Enterprises. All rights happily reserved. |
