BAD BOSSES
Have you ever had a boss you absolutely hated? Seems like most folks have, and the movies have guilt-free revenge for you in several movies where very bad bosses get their comeuppance. 
One of the best in this genre is 9 To 5 (1980), with Jane Fonda, Lilly Tomlin and Dolly Parton having a grand time kidnaping their horrible boss, Dabney Coleman. Their actions may be a little over the top, but you’ll find yourself cheering for the downtrodden workers. 
In Click (2006), architect Adam Sandler not only gets even with his bad boss (David Hasselhoff), but everyone else when Bed, Bath and Beyond employee Christopher Walken provides him with a “universal remote” that is exactly that. It enables him to change almost anything in the universe. Hi-jinks ensue. Even if you’re not a big Sandler fan (I’m not), this one is pretty good. 
Maggie Gyllenhaal is the extremely put-upon employee of attorney James Spader in Secretary (2002). Recovering from being hospitalized for self-harm, she becomes her boss’s sexual slave. This goes to really great lengths, and you will not see the end coming. Okay, this one’s a little weird, but her revenge is of a different kind. 
Melanie Griffith is the heroine of the justly-praised Working Girl (1988). When her awful boss (Sigourney Weaver) steals her excellent idea, she exacts delicious revenge by pretending to be her boss when Weaver is injured in a ski accident. Helped by new boyfriend and powerful executive Harrison Ford, she pulls off the switch. There are several reversals of fortune, but Griffith’s revenge is sweet and final. 
Love Crime (2011) features Kristin Scott Thomas as the Boss From Hell of poor Isabelle Guerin, who she enjoys humiliating, especially in front of others. She will find this was a huge mistake, as Guerin exacts especially final revenge. This excellent French film has two delicious twists!
We knew that Meryl Streep could play absolutely anything, and she proves it once again as the awful boss in The Devil Wears Prada (2006). She is the editor of a swanky fashion magazine, who seems to delight in humiliating newly hired Anne Hathaway. Hathaway strives mightily to fit in, almost becoming the thing she hates. Streep’s outrageous demands are extremely funny to us, though not to Hathaway.
     In Swimming With Sharks (1994), Kevin Spacey is the horrible boss and Frank Whaley his poor assistant. This is definitely not a comedy, as we watch the employee gradually turn into a carbon copy of his employer. 



All of the films in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are for grown-ups.

                                                      ARTHUR HILLER

Director Arthur Hiller left this vale of tears recently at the good age of 92. He had a run of good films in the 70's. He kept working for many years but never got back to that high level. 
He is perhaps best known as the director of the classic three-handkerchief Love Story (1970). Okay, it’s really soapy by today’s jaded standards. But let’s see you watch the whole thing without tearing up! Good grief, Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal are just beyond beautiful. Remember “Love means never having to say you’re sorry”? Of course you don’t- you’re too young. Anyway, Mr. Hiller got his only Oscar nomination for this one but lost out to Franklin Schaffner for Patton. 
The Academy finally gave him one of those honorary deals in 2002. “Gee, we really ought to do something for this guy- he’s not going to be around forever”.
Plaza Suite (1971) may not be the very best Neil Simon adaptation, but it’s pretty good. The film, like the play, is divided into three parts. Walter Matthau appears in all three, changing characters as easily as changing hats. Lee Grant and Maureen Stapleton are on board and are just fine. The third act is the funniest, as Mimsey Hubley (Jenny Sullivan) locks herself in the bathroom rather than go through with her wedding. Her parents’ increasingly frantic efforts to get her to come out are hilarious.
Paddy Chayefsky won an Oscar for his screenplay, The Hospital (1971). George C. Scott stars as a doctor in a Manhattan hospital. His life is falling apart and so is his beloved hospital. There are curious unexplained deaths, and a fight over whether to just tear the thing down and build a rehab center. Mr. Hiller gets the most out of this powerful script. 
I would call the filming of Man Of La Mancha (1972) serviceable. The suits missed a chance to cast the Broadway stars, like Richard Kiley as Don Quixote and several other missteps. Peter O’Toole couldn’t sing a lick and a voice double is used for his songs. The film is okay but somehow doesn’t soar like the play did. 
The Man In The Glass Booth (1975) is about a German war criminal snatched from his comfy life by Israeli agents and whisked off to stand trial for his misdeeds. It is fictional, but based on the life and trial of Adolf Eichmann. Nowadays it would start off with something like “based on a true story”.  Maximilian Schell stars as the Nazi. The glass booth of the title is bullet-proof because this is one hated guy. The plot is a bit of a reach, but hey, this is Hollywood.
Silver Streak (1976) is a convoluted but funny film with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor having frantic adventures on and off the title train. 
All of the films in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are for grown-ups.

                                GOOD MOVIES YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF
                                                     Part 4

From a lifetime of watching movies, I have gleaned five more from the vault that I really liked. And I hope you’ll find at least one of them to your taste!
A Midnight Clear (1992) is one of the best war movies ever made. During World War II at Christmas time a small contingent of American soldiers encounter the enemy in an area of France far behind the lines. Gradually the two sides downsize tensions and begin to see the humanity in us all. Gary Sinise and Ethan Hawke lead an ensemble cast in a film the first half of which has a unique fairy tale quality. Unusual and worthwhile.
The Postman (1994) is an outstanding Italian flick. The 1997 American film of the same title with Kevin Costner is not even so-so. The Italian one features the story of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda’s exile to a small Italian island where his mail is delivered by the title character. Though poorly educated, Il Postino comes to love Neruda’s poetry and a life-long bond is formed, overcoming politics and xenophobia. 
Proof (1990) is an Australian film of extraordinary power. It is super-star Russell Crowe’s breakthrough part. Hugo Weaving plays a blind photographer (!) who depends on sighted people to describe his pictures. He is by nature skeptical and wary of others, mainly because he believes his mother lied to him about what was in his early pictures. He gradually forms a bond with Mr. Crowe’s character. The process of getting there includes a girl with a crush on the blind photographer and the photographer’s slow acceptance of the goodness of some others. 
I have probably watched The Red Balloon (1955) a dozen times. It is the poetic story of a little boy and his red balloon. As it circles around a very picturesque Paris and he chases it, the minimal story develops and we’re hooked. The ending just raises the goose bumps and gladdens the heart. Okay, I love The Red Balloon.
Jean De Florette and Manon Of The Spring (1986) comprise a rare recommendation by Mr. Movie of a double feature. These wonderful French films, shot in Provence over a period of seven months, are based on a Maurice Pagnol novel. They feature three French movie icons: Gerard Depardieu, Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil. The story begins with a naive man being cheated out of his property. On that property is an incredible spring which feeds a local cottage industry, the growing of carnations. The plot twists are many but not hard to follow. And no, neither one really stands alone. But watch them in chronological order and I think you’ll be pleased. 
All of these films are available on DVD and for streaming. All are for grown-ups. 

                                                                  RADIO
From the 1920's until the 1950's, radio was the main means of electronic communication. Not only was there no Iphone or Twitter or Facebook or Internet, there wasn’t even any television! Somehow, we survived. There are lots of good movies featuring the radio and here are a few.
Handle With Care (1977) is an original, celebrating the short, eventful life of Citizens Band radio (remember CBs?) with a wacky cast that congregates around it. It is one of those handful of movies that goes in completely unexpected plot directions, all of them quite delightful. 
Play Misty For Me (1971) is a complex thriller with Clint Eastwood very good as a disc jockey whose endearing caller turns out to be the stalker from Hell. Jessica Walter is fine as the femme fatal. This is Mr. Eastwood’s first directorial effort and it is assured and polished, as well as extremely suspensful. 
Jeff Bridges is a self-absorbed smart-alecky radio personality blind sided by a tragedy in The Fisher King (1991). Amazingly, he is brought back to an even keel by street person Robin Williams. Mercedes Ruehl won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as Mr. Bridges’ on and off girlfriend. 
Robin Williams surfaces again in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987). Mr. Williams is the GI disc jockey whose goofy radio persona is just right for the war nobody understands. Like M*A*S*H, this movie manages to combine side-splitting humor with heart-breaking tragedy. 
Radio Days (1987) is considered Woody Allen lite, but I really liked it. It bounces joyfully between 1940's good times around the family radio, and charming stories of the radio personalities America listens to. Woody and Mia Farrow head a fine cast also including Allen regulars Tony Roberts and Mercedes Ruehl. 
In Kaufmann and Hart’s The Man Who Came To Dinner (1941), Monty Wooley is the ego-heavy radio personality who breaks a leg in a middle class home and becomes the guest nobody would want. Various assorted friends and acquaintances wander in and out, to the chagrin of the “hosts” and to the hilarity of the audience. 
A film about a more modern radio show that is still very much around is Prairie Home Companion (2006), an excellent adaptation of Garrison Keillor’s famous broadcast. Though Mr. Keillor has moved on, the show is still very much alive. Mr. Keillor, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Lilly Tomlin, among many others, bring the radio program to vibrant life on the silver screen. 
Other films you might enjoy that center around the radio include Comfort And Joy (1984) and Sleepless In Seattle (1993).
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All except the first two are fine for all ages; those are for grown-ups only. 

                                               BEST DIRECTOR?
The Departed (2006) is a darn good movie. It was named Best Movie of that year by the Motion Picture Academy. Martin Scorcese won an Oscar for directing it (it was about time!). It’s not his best, or second, or third, or fourth. I don’t usually like “it’s his turn” Oscars, but on this one I totally agree. 
Scorcese was snubbed many times by the Academy. The worst gaffe was in 1990, when Kevin Costner’s self-indulgent and forgettable Dances With Wolves won him the director’s Oscar over Scorcese, for the classic Goodfellas. Scorcese is a National Treasure; Costner is, well, Costner (Is it unfair to mention Waterworld and The Postman here?)
1995 is another year when an actor-director beat out a more deserving pro. Mel Gibson won Best Director for Braveheart, not too bad until you consider the competition. How about Tim Robbins for Dead Man Walking, still and probably always the best film made about capital punishment. The performances he elicited from Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon are amazing. And the film has just the right balance about an extremely emotional and difficult subject. 
Ten years earlier, in 1985, the Best Director Oscar went to Sidney Pollack for the overrated and overlong Out Of Africa. There were at least two better directorial efforts that year: John Huston for Prizzi’s Honor and the grand Japanese master Akira Kurosawa for Ran. I have a sneaky feeling that this was a “it’s his turn” Oscar, as Pollack had been overlooked for Tootsie and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, both superior to Out Of Africa. 
The original Rocky (1965) is a pretty good movie, and it won the Director Oscar for studio hack John Avildsen. To get to him, they had to overlook both Sidney Lumet for Network and Allen Pakula for All The President’s Men. 
I think these awards are fair: 1994- Robert Zemakis for Forest Gump; 1996- Anthony Minghella for The English Patient .  But in those respective years, I would have voted for Quentin Tarantino for Pulp Fiction and Joel Coen for Fargo. 
Here’s the oddest thing: not that I’m opinionated or anything, but in the years before 1976 I think the Academy was absolutely on the money with every Best Director Award. And I feel the same for the years after 1996.  Oh, and I certainly have no prejudice regarding actor-directors. Look at Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford!
All of the movies in this article are probably best for adults, though there is more of a boredom than an offensiveness factor. All are available on DVD and for streaming.