2021 SLEEPERS

                                                                    Part 2

    Here’s another batch of movies from last year that didn’t get much play, but which I liked and think are worth a look. On completing this article, I realized for the first time that all but one of them are documentaries!

    It started when a group of teen-age soccer players and their coach decided to explore a cave in Thailand. But a deluge of rain flooded the tunnel and prevented their exit. Divers located the boys on a raised rock platform two and a half miles from the entrance. Various methods were suggested. Finally, it was decided to send divers to swim the boys out one at a time. Two divers died during the rescue effort, but somehow all of the boys and the coach were rescued. This documentary, The Rescue, covers the true story very well.

    You can always count on Spanish director Pedro Almodovar (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Volver, Talk to Her)  for an off-beat, entertaining film. And he doesn’t disappoint in Parallel Mothers. Almodovar’s muse, the beautiful Penelope Cruz, stars as Janis. Janis shares a hospital room with Ana, and both deliver babies the same day. DNA tests later, Janis discovers that a switch was inadvertently made. Ana reveals to Janis that her baby has died. Janis struggles with what to do, as she realizes the baby she has at home is Ana’s child. 

    After discovering that his grandparents had been murdered by the Nazis in a concentration camp, Austrian Luke Holland interviewed over 300 Germans who lived through World War II. Final Account is the documentary account of those interviews, which include everyone from Jewish survivors to SS members. The results are both revealing and chilling. Mr. Holland died shortly after completing this disturbing film. 

    You won’t see many animated documentaries, but Flee is one of them and it’s a good one. Amin is a talented gay man who has escaped from Afghanistan. His journey to Denmark, his eventual home, is fraught with peril and missteps. He is shipped from country to country, always looking over his shoulder as a refugee with no papers. He eventually finds most of his scattered family, none of which are in Denmark. The fate of his father, imprisoned in Afghanistan, is never discovered. 

    She rose from being the only female in a very chauvinistic French cooking school to become an internationally celebrated chef and the author of several books on French cooking. Julia is the documentary about her rise to fame and her travails with colleagues and publishers. The partly fictional Julie and Julia (2009) is frankly more entertaining, though both of these are very good films. 

    All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. Julia and The Rescue are fine for kids. The rest are for adults. 

                                                                 2021 SLEEPERS

In spite of the pandemic and other assorted woes, 2021 was a pretty good year for movies. This article contains five that I thought were good but didn’t get much notice. Perhaps you might find one or more to try. 

The Dry is a whip-smart Australian murder mystery. Eric Bana stars as Aaron Falk, a federal agent returning to his hometown for the funeral of a friend. The deceased friend is believed to have died in a murder-suicide action, killing his wife and  child and himself.  The friend’s parents believe their son was innocent and ask Aaron to stay in town and look into it. It turns out that Aaron had left town under a cloud. Most townspeople believe he was responsible for the death of his then-girlfriend Ellie. The word “Grant” turns out to be a major clue. That’s all I’ll give.

Pig showcases the oft hidden talent of the much-maligned Nicholas Cage. This is his best part in many years. He plays Rob Feld, once a top-flight chef, now a battered truffle hunter living as a recluse in the backwoods of Washington state. His truffle hunting activities are enough for him to live on. His pet pig is the secret to his hunting success. Thugs break into his cabin and steal the pig. He sets out to get it back. 

C’mon C’mon is a slight film featuring the talented Joaquin Phoenix as a radio personality whose niche is interviewing children. When his sister begs him to take care of her nine-year-old son while she cares for her ill ex-husband, he reluctantly agrees. The bond they share is a surprise to both of them and to us, and is the backbone of this movie. 

The Dig features Ralph Fiennes as Basil Brown, a self-taught archaeologist in England. His friend Edith (Carrie Mulligan) owns a farm containing several burial mounds. She hires Basil to dig them up. He has stoutly maintained the mounds are Anglo-Saxon, not Viking. Experts disagree. The digging gradually uncovers incredible artifacts proving that Basil was right. The artifacts now belong to the British Museum. Yep, this is a true story. 

Those Who Wish Me Dead is based on Michael Koryta’s crackerjack novel of the same name. Is it as good as the book? Of course not. But with Angelina Jolie as the smoke jumper trying to rescue a boy on the run, it’s good enough. The boy has witnessed the murder of his father and the killers know he can identify them. A raging forest fire is center stage. 

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. C’mon is ok for kids. The rest are for grownups. 

 

                                                               JAMES CAAN

        James Caan, who died recently at 82, was greatly admired by his fellow actors for his ability to play virtually any role and do it well. He steadfastly refused to be typecast and picked his parts with care. 

He is best known for his portrayal of Sonny Coreleone in The Godfather (1972). Surrounded by heavy hitters, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Robert Duvall and Al Pacino  were also nominated as Supporting Actor and all of them lost to Joel Grey for Cabaret.  Marlon Brando won for Best Actor and the movie itself won the Oscar. It became the rather high bar for gangster movies. Caan’s Sonny is a somewhat dull-witted philaderer whose drunken antics shame the family. Caan’s role in Godfather Part II is limited to a flashback to the famous birthday party, a snippet for which (at his insistence) he was paid the same as he was for Part I. 

Mr. Caan’s first big part is as the dying Brian Piccolo in the made-for-TV Brian’s Song (1971). He is convincing and quite human and has great rapport with football colleague Gayle Sayers (Billy Dee Williams). There are few dry eyes in the house when this one winds up. The 2001 remake, also a TV movie, is a pale imitation of the original.

Caan’s next great role after Godfather was in Thief (1981). In a frankly surprising bit of casting, he plays Frank, the title figure. A nifty take on the old “one last job and I’m out of the business” plot, Frank is an expert jewel thief who wants to go straight. His thuggish boss wants him to keep stealing, and tries to renege on the money Frank is entitled to. The boss and his minions try to get rid of Frank. There’s an ending that will please most everyone. 

James Caan spends most of Misery (1990) flat on his back. He is  Paul Sheldon, a famous author who has  a car wreck and the misfortune to be “rescued” by nurse Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates). She says she is his number one fan and that she loves his romance novels featuring a character named Misery. She is outraged when she sees the manuscript of  his new novel in which Misery is killed off. She reveals that no one knows where he is and when he tries to leave she stops him. From there is gets worse. This one will keep you guessing (and maybe hoping) til the credits roll. 

Elf (2003) requires of viewers a giant dose of “just go with it”. Suspend your disbelief and enjoy the fun! Will Ferrell portrays Buddy, who as a baby who sneaked into Santa’s bag and was taken to the North Pole. The other elfs accept him as one of them, but as he grows taller they realize he is not. Buddy travels to New York to meet his real father Walter (James Caan) who is a children’s book publisher. From there stranger things happen, most of them pretty funny. 

James Caan can also be seen to good effect in Rabbit, Run (1970), Cinderella Liberty (1973) and Chapter Two (1979).

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. Only Elf is really suitable for kids. 

         WHO SAID THAT? Part 2

The last “who said that” column was so popular (okay three people kind of mentioned it in passing), that I decided to do another. Answers at the bottom. No cheating! 

1. I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.

2. You talkin’ to me?

3. What we have here is a failure to communicate.

4. Show me the money!

5. I want to be alone.

6. Round up the usual suspects.

7. Plastics.

8. I see dead people.

9. We rob banks.

10. Well, nobody’s perfect!

11. You can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!

12. I can’t do that, Dave.

13. Where’s the rest of me?

14. You can’t handle the truth!

15. You had me at hello.

ANSWERS

1. Marlon Brando to assorted thugs in The Godfather

2. Robert DeNiro to an unfortunate bystander in Taxi Driver

3. Strother Martin to a shackled Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke

4. Cuba Gooding, Jr. to wannabe agent Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire

5. Greta Garbo to everybody in Grand Hotel

6. Claude Rains to the police chief in Casablanca

7. Walter Brooke’s career advice to a puzzled Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate

8. Haley Joel Osment to Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense

9. Warren Beatty explaining his vocation in Bonnie And Clyde

10. Joe E. Brown on discovering Jack Lemon is actually a guy in Some Like It Hot

11. Peter Sellers to battling bureaucrats in Dr. Strangelove

12. HAL the computer’s chilling answer to Keir Dullea in 2001: A Space Odyssey

13. Ronald Reagan (yes, him!) on discovering his legs have been amputated in Kings Row

14. Jack Nicholson to Demi Moore in A Few Good Men. (He was wrong.)

15. Renee Zellwegger to Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire

12-15 Cinephile

8-11 Fair

                                                       WHO SAID THAT?

Let’s have some fun with some famous movie lines. See how many you can correctly identify which movie they come from. For bonus points, the character that said the line. Answers at the bottom. No cheating!

1. “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”

2. “Who are those guys?”

3. “The stuff that dreams are made of”

4. “I’ll have what she’s having”

5. “It’s alive!”

6. “There’s no crying in baseball”

7. “Play it again, Sam”

8. “Carpe diem; seize the day, boys!”

9. “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get”

10. “Fasten your seatbelts! It’s gonna be a bumpy night.”

11. “Houston, we’ve had a problem”

12. “Rosebud”

13. “You’ve got to ask yourself one question- do I feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?”

14. “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”

15. “Here’s looking at you, kid”

ANSWERS:

1. Rhett Butler as he leaves a tearful Scarett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind.

2. Paul Newman to Robert Redford when they can’t shake their pursuers in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

3. Humphrey Bogart to the room at large, describing The Maltese Falcon

4. Nearby diner, played by Carl Reiner’s mom, on hearing Meg Ryan describe faking an orgasm to Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally

5. Dr. Frankenstein (Carl Clive) on seeing the monster (Boris Karlof) move in Frankenstein

6. Tom Hanks to Geena Davis when something goes wrong in A League Of Their Own

7. Humphrey Bogart to pianist Dooley Wilson in Casablanca, though the actual quote is “Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By.”

8. Robin Williams to his Prep School English class in Dead Poets’ Society

9. Tom Hanks to lady on a park bench in Forest Gump

10. Bette Davis to partygoers in All About Eve

11. Tom Hanks to Mission Control in Apollo 13. 

12. Orson Welles as a dying Charles Foster Cane remembering his boyhood in Citizen Kane

13. Clint Eastwood glowering down at a captured street punk in Dirty Harry

14. Judy Garland to her little dog in The Wizard Of Oz

15. Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca

12-15 Cinephile

9-11 Fair