2022 Sleepers

                                                                            Part 1

        2022 was not a great year for movies, but there were quite a few that I thought were pretty good and which didn’t get much play. Herewith some of those.

Mark Rylance carries the complicated The Outfit (2020) as Leonard Burling, an unassuming British tailor in Chicago who gets mixed up with the criminal mob. All of the many heavies treat Leonard as a timid servant, only to get their comeuppance in a surprising way. I’m giving nothing away; you’ll have to watch it to find out.

I admit I’m a sucker for newspaper movies. Well, I worked on one for years and am writing in one now. Anyway, She Said is the true story of the exposing and downfall of the satanic Harvey Weinstein. He was a powerful film producer. His word got films made and his antics got starlets made and unmade. Carey Mulligan and Zoey Kazan portray the New York Times reporters whose investigative reporting brought the horrid Weinstein down. Ashley Judd is quite good as one of the many actresses preyed on by Weinstein, and one of the first to come forward on the record. There turn out to be about 50! And Harvey winds up in prison, probably for life. 

Good Night Oppy is a documentary about the strange, long life of Opportunity, a rover landed on Mars by NASA in 2003. It sent back lots of pictures and other information. It was only supposed to last a few weeks, but wound up lasting over 15 years. Oppy is the nickname bestowed by the engineers, and the thing almost seems human as they talk about it. As its batteries gradually weaken, the time comes for NASA to say Good Night to a good and faithful, if mechanical, servant. 

Unknown Aubrey Plaza is the title character in Emily The Criminal, a crackerjack film noir. Emily owes a ton of student debt but can’t get a good job because of her criminal record. She falls in with a credit card scamming group, whose MO involves using fake credit cards to make big purchases in stores. She has lots of adventures and winds up in South America. As the film ends, she is seen teaching a class the art of credit card scams.

And finally The Pale Blue Eye starring Christian Bale as retired detective August Landor. He is hired to investigate the hanging of a cadet at the US Military Academy at West Point. To aid in his work he hires cadet Edgar Allen Poe, portrayed by unknown Harry Melling. Melling looks enough like pictures of Poe to give you the creeps. Anyway, the pair eventually unravel the complicated story. And there’s a very cool twist at the end you will not see coming!

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are for adults except Oppy, which is ok for all ages. 

                                                            Mr. Movie’s Best of 2022

                                                      ...and a confession

        I have no 10s to report this year but a fair number of 9s and 8s. My picks diverge wildly from the Oscars and the critics but I can live with it. Herewith my lucky 13 from last year.

1- The Outfit 9

2- Till 9

3- She Said 9

4- Downton Abbey: A New Era 9

5- Phantom of the Open 8

6- Top Gun: Maverick 8

7- Argentina 1985 8

8- Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris 8

9- The Fabelmans 8

10- Good Night Oppy 8

11- Women Talking 8

12- The Good Nurse 8

13- Pinocchio 8

Last year there were 29 films on my best list. In 2020 there were only 11 mainly because that was the worst year of the pandemic and not many were made. Before that in 2019 I listed 25, in 2018 30 and in 2017 36. By the way, the last 10-rated film from Mr. Movie was The Post in 2017. 

Oscar-nominated Best Movies I have seen and my rating: All Quiet on the Western Front 7, Avatar: The Way of Water 7,The Banshees of Insherin 7, Elvis 7, Tar 6. I have not seen Triangle of Sadness (It’s ordered). I have not seen all of the acting-nominated films, but this column deals only with Best Picture nominees. 

And now for the confession. Are you old enough to remember when Ricky Ricardo said to Lucy: “Lucy, you got some splainin’ to do” ? Well, I guess Mr. Movie has some splainin’ to do.   I saw Best Picture winner  Everything Everywhere All At Once in the real theater with my wife and daughter. To say I didn’t like it is way too nice. I hated it. It was too long, too chaotic, too mixed-up, too everything but good. My wife hated it even more. She left to go to the restroom and never came back to her seat. When Michelle Yeoh won the Oscar for Best Actress I had to ask, “Which one was she?” 

And it’s not just that we’re old (we are). Going out of the theater we asked some college kids what they thought. “Oh, man, what the *&^%# was that about?” one answered. So, will I give EEAAO another chance? Don’t count on it.

All of the movies in this column are available somewhere on DVD. Numbers 5, 8, and 10 are okay for all ages. The rest are for grown-ups. 

At least three columns about 2022 sleepers are planned. Some were on the list; most weren’t. 

                                                               TONY CURTIS

He was so incredibly good-looking that he kept having to reinvent himself to get work. And work he got! Tony Curtis, still handsome when he died at 85, made over 100 movies. He even appears (by film clip) in Blonde (2022) a biopic about Marilyn Monroe. Okay, probably 75 of the Curtis films are pretty bad. And yet, he made his mark in some rather good movies. 

Perhaps his best-known role was when he was paired with Jack Lemmon as one of two guys in drag fleeing from the mob, and hiding out with an all-girl band featuring vocalist Marilyn Monroe. Some Like It Hot (1959) is ranked Number One on the American Film Institute list of comedies and it is certainly a classic. 

Curtis’ first noteworthy appearance was as the legendary escape artist Houdini (1953). This film is a lot of fun. You can learn how some (but not all) of the escapes were done, and have a good time doing it. 

Spartacus (1960) is a famous Hollywood epic, featuring some of the handsomest Roman slaves ever seen. When the Roman soldiers confront the rabble of slaves and demand to know which of them is Spartacus (no doubt to do him in), Tony Curtis is the first one to famously shout “I am Spartacus”, soon followed by dozens of others. This saves Kirk Douglas, if not the movie.

Playing completely against type,  Curtis gleefully accepted the lead role in The Boston Strangler (1968). This is the kind of challenge he loved- the really good-looking serial killer! And his looks got him in all those doors to murder all those too credible women. Why the strangler would want to (kill them) remains a mystery, but getting there is all the fun here. 

Paired (actually handcuffed) with Sidney Poitier, Tony Curtis was nominated for an Oscar for his role as the white escaped convict in The Defiant Ones (1958). This film is a little tattered after 60+ years but the performances are still good and the underlying moral holds up pretty well. By the way, he lost the Oscar to David Niven for Separate Tables.

One of my favorite Tony Curtis parts is as the unscrupulous agent-hustler Sidney Falco in the Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)  Burt Lancaster, as the smarmy gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker, convinces Falco to do underhanded shenanigans in order to get a favorable mention in the newspaper. Both these actors are quite good and utterly drip sleaze. 

All of the movies in this column are available on DVD. All except the last one are fine for 10 and over. 

                                                                  Gina Lollobrigida

        She is nearly forgotten now, but she was once called The Most Beautiful Woman in the World. Gina Lollobrigida died recently at the great age of 95. She had an up and down movie career but it included some notable roles.

Already a staple of Italian flicks, she was hardly known in America until she got her shot in a major Hollywood movie. Trapeze (1956) is about a high-flying romantic triangle. Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster are the male roles and Gina is Lola, the female flyer. Lancaster is the old pro, broken and battered by falls. He is seen in some flashbacks and Burt did most of the tricks himself. The other two did not. Tony plays Tino Orsini, the hotshot up-and-comer who wants the old pro to teach him the triple. Gina is Lola, also a trapeze artist and definitely eye candy. 

That same year Gina landed the star role in the classic Hunchback of Notre Dame. She is the sultry and beautiful gypsy Esmerelda and the misshapen bell ringer Quasimodo (Anthony Quinn) is besotted with her. She has been labelled a witch and in great danger. Quasimodo tries to save her and flees with her to the cathedral. The villagers in a misguided attempt to rescue her from the hunchback storm the castle and pepper it with arrows. There are several versions of this story on film. This one is truest to Victor Hugo’s novel. 

Gina is the queen herself in Solomon and Sheba (1959). This is one of those biblical epics so popular in the 50's and 60's. This one is not within shouting distance of the bible story, but has lots of good battles and the gorgeous Gina on display. And- it has Yul Brynner with hair!

In Hotel Paradiso (1966) Gina is Marcelle Cotte, neglected wife (!) of building inspector Henri (Robert Morley). As her husband inspects Hotel Paradiso she takes the opportunity to have an affair with Benedict Boniface (Alec Guiness). Inspector Cotte was sent to the hotel because of several reports of ghosts. This turned out to be faulty drains, but the by-the-hour hotel still provided a great opportunity for several trysts. 

Ms. Llollobrigida’s last major role is quite a good one. She has the title role in Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1968). She plays an Italian woman who has slept with three different American soldiers during the occupation of Italy right after WWII. When she finds she is pregnant, she is completely unsure which of the Gis is the father. She convinces each one, played by Peter Lawford. Phil Silvers and Telly Savalas to support “his” daughter Gia. The whole cast is somehow united when there is a reunion of the soldiers’ outfit in Italy. Does this sound at all familiar. Yeah, it sounds a lot like Mamma Mia (2008). The authors of the latter film deny there is any connection. Yeah, right...

Gina Lollobrigida can also be seen to advantage in Beat The Devil (1953), Never So Few (1959) and Stuntman (1968).

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are really ok for littlies, factoring in possible boredom with the adult themes.