Films That Matter
A Law Unto Themselves
The front door to an apartment swings open... an unseen figure walks through the living area and approaches a beautiful blonde woman wearing a robe as she walks around the bathroom... he then deliberately empties the barrel of his revolver into her – this is the jarring cold opening to the film noir Illegal (1955), and one thing is for sure, it knows how to grab your attention. Funnily enough, this was the third adaptation of the 1929 play “The Mouthpiece” by Frank J. Collins, following Mouthpiece (1932) and The Man Who Talked Too Much (1940) – and they say movies are remade too much today. Flash to Victor Scott (Edward G. Robinson), a district attorney who is wise to all the angles and is graced with a silver tongue. With an unyielding desire to win (he got it from growing up and fighting his way out of the slums), he argues every case like it is his last.
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When Art Imitates Life
In a Lonely PlaceApril 25, 2017A man – lonely, laconic and quick to anger. A woman – cool, collected and in hiding. Both live in the same apartment complex in The City of Angels. Murder brings them together, but will it keep them together? Written by Andrew Solt and directed by Nicholas Ray, In a Lonely Place immerses us within the world of a Hollywood screenwriter, the rough-and-tumble, explosive Dixon ‘Dix’ Steele (Humphrey Bogart – who also produces the film); an apropos name to be sure. Struggling with a multitude of demons, he is quick to anger and even quicker to act. Despite not having a hit since before the war, he is given a solid opportunity by his agent, Mel Lippman (Art Smith), who asks him to adapt a novel. Seemingly uninterested, he invites the club’s hat-check girl, Mildred Atkinson (Martha Stewart. . . not that Martha Stewart), to his home to summarize the book for him (as she has just finished reading it). Following their business, he sends her on her way, directing her to where cabs usually gather nearby.
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Oh Danny Boy
Kill the IrishmanApril 23, 2017A true example of a hidden gem, the based-on-a-true-story crime film Kill the Irishman, directed by Jonathan Hensleigh and released in 2011, earned just over one million dollars at the box office, making it a motion picture that has sadly been missed by way too many people. Set in Cleveland, we are first introduced to our lead, Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson – Rome; Thor) in 1975, a criminal who always seems to be in the line of fire – at this point, he dodges death by leaping from his moving car after realizing it has been wired to blow. Hensleigh then transports us back to the beginning of the tale through narrator and cop Joe Manditski (Val Kilmer), as he provides us with a look at the complex gangland of Cleveland and the childhood of our main player (as he grew up on the same streets as Greene), eventually leading us to the point where Danny’s story skyrockets, in 1960, with him working as a longshoreman on the docks. It is an opening that in many ways pays tribute to Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas.
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A Deliciously Fishy Caper
A Fish Called WandaApril 21, 2017Satirizing the stereotypical nature of Brits and Americans, John Cleese’s 1988 film A Fish Called Wanda, directed by Charles Crichton, is a kooky heist movie with loads of quirky humour. Following a gang of bank robbers, the group consists of a comic version of a femme fatale, Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis), her secret lover pretending to be her brother, Otto (Kevin Kline), as well as an English duo, Georges Thomason (Tom Georgeson) and the severely stuttering Ken Pile (Michael Palin – he based the part on his father, who dealt with a similar issue). To further complicate things, Wanda is sleeping with Georges and is prone to flirting with Ken. Filled with doublecrosses and complications, Georges soon finds himself in jail – not knowing who put him behind bars. With only one quasi-witness, an elderly lady who spotted the man while they were driving away from the scene of the crime, the prisoner turns to his longtime compatriot Ken to finish the woman off in a way that will look accidental – knowing that without her, the case falls flat.
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Star Pick with David Ebeltoft
A Buzzworthy ProductionThe StingApril 18, 2017Whether you’ve seen The Sting or not, it is nearly impossible not to recognize its main theme, titled "The Entertainer". A feel good, catchy, ragtime tune that is heard on and off from very beginning to utter end, it is Marvin Hamlisch’s reworking of the 1902 song by Scott Joplin that adds an auditory flair to the piece. It is this classic cinematic work that screenwriter David Ebeltoft, scribe of the Tribeca Audience Award Winner Here Alone, highlights as being his favourite. An up and coming writer in the business, his union with director Rod Blackhurst and producer Noah Lang (who was featured in last week’s Star Pick) seems like it is going to be a fruitful one, as the film making team have already announced two more features, You Were Once Called Queen City and North, following their first united effort – which has just been released and is doing very well in both theatres and online.
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Star Pick with Noah Lang
Off to See the WizardsWizardsApril 11, 2017Some time ago, I was fortunate enough to attend a special screening of the Tribeca Audience Award Winner for Best Picture, Here Alone, at an event held by the St. Lawrence International Film Festival in Potsdam, New York. In attendance were director Rod Blackhurst, writer David Ebeltoft and producer Noah Lang. Over the next several weeks, each of their respective Star Picks will be posted (in honour of the release of the film in theatres), each with a lengthy interview that should give you an insight into the world of movie making from three talented up and comers in the industry. Today, I introduce Noah Lang. Son of talented character actor Stephen Lang (Avatar; Don’t Breathe), Noah has had a fruitful start to his career. With a wide array of films to his name already, he also produced another feature that was shown at the St. Lawrence International Film Festival, the well received Band of Robbers, though Here Alone is what I am going to focus on today – as it has solid momentum heading into its release. Lang’s work on the project is detailed quite nicely in the interview, and it will most likely say more that I can say here with the written word, so check it out below. It will give you insight into Here Alone, a clear picture for those unsure as to what a producer actually does, an idea of the complexity of the business, as well as so much more.
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Air Jordan
Here Comes Mr. JordanApril 9, 2017There may be no film with a more influential pedigree that is lesser known than the fantastical 1941 romantic dramedy Here Comes Mr. Jordan. Honoured with a sort-of-sequel (1947's Down to Earth – starring Rita Hayworth, it also features reprisals from actors James Gleason and Edward Everett Horton. . . which itself inspired the 1980 feature Xanadu), it was also remade by Warren Beatty in 1978 – titled Heaven Can Wait. Chris Rock had a go with the subject matter in 2001 with his version, Down to Earth – reusing the title from the original sequel. In 1968, it was even remade in India – Jhuk Gaya Aasman – English translation: The Skies Have Bowed. At one point, even Bill Cosby tried to get a version of the story produced – though this iteration fell through. The intensely bitter and sweet tale of a boxer who gets in a plane crash, which is followed by a mistake in Heaven, it can also be seen as the precursor and inspiration for motion pictures like A Guy Named Joe (1943), It’s A Wonderful Life (1946), A Matter of Life or Death (1946), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), as well as so many others. Mashing together a multitude of genres which I will explain later, the boxer, Joe Pendleton (Robert Montgomery), who is soon to be competing for the world title, is gearing up for his next big bout. Trained by his loyal manager, Max Corkle (James Gleason), the two argue over the fact that he wants to fly himself to his next fight in New York City. Unable to convince the genial but stubborn athlete, it is soon after that he plummets to his ‘supposed’ death.
