Moonstruck.

Review #1484: Moonstruck.

Cast:
Cher (Loretta Castorini), Nicolas Cage (Ronny Cammareri), Olympia Dukakis (Rose Castorini), Vincent Gardenia (Cosmo Castorini), Danny Aiello (Johnny Cammareri), Julie Bovasso (Rita Cappomaggi), Louis Guss (Raymond Cappomaggi), John Mahoney (Perry), Feodor Chaliapin Jr. (Grandpa Castorini), and Anita Gillette (Mona) Directed by Norman Jewison (#127 - Rollerball, #273 - The Cincinnati Kid, #544 - In the Heat of the Night, and #691 - The Thomas Crown Affair)

Review:
"Directing, in many ways, is manipulation because you're dealing with a lot of egos. You have to manipulate people into thinking it was their idea, to get them to do what you see as being the best, to edit them without their knowing they're being edited."

Norman Jewison is one of Canada's most notable directors, made evident by the fact that he made a honest career of mostly successful films for four decades. He rose his way up from work in television in both Canada (with the CBC) and the United States (on NBC) before being inspired to branch into film, with his first few films being comedies for Universal Pictures, such as Forty Pounds of Trouble (1962) with Tony Curtis, or Send Me No Flowers (1964) with Doris Day. His first true breakthrough came with The Cincinnati Kid (1965), the first of his numerous challenging dramas, described by him as his "ugly duckling" film, which occurred after he was brought in for the fired Sam Peckinpah. Numerous highlights would follow in the next couple of years, such as the Cold War comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966), In the Heat of the Night (1967, winner of Best Picture), the musical Fiddler on the Roof (1971), and the period drama A Soldier's Story (1984). The year after the release of this film, he founded the Canadian Film Centre, dedicated to helping Canadian professionals further work in advanced school training from film to digital media. Jewison was nominated for seven Academy Awards in his career (four for Best Picture, three for Best Director), and while he did not win any of them, he was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1999 for his body work as a creative producer, with his final work being The Statement (2003).

Sometimes there just comes a romance or comedy that hits you right where it matters most, and this is one of those films. Honest but sweet with a tremendous cast and direction, Moonstruck is a film that was surely destined to be a favorite that would make audience brim with warmth and mean every moment of it. There is just something in that script by playwright John Patrick Shanley that Jewison saw as fitting for these actors and these settings that are prime for entertainment of the heart. It is exactly the kind of family film for folks who enjoy dedicated material without overt sentimentalism but instead fair honesty. One might know where it could go with its romance, but it doesn't stop the fun. In a busy year for Cher, it should figure that her third role of that year was the one that received the most acclaim. She does a pretty good job with this role, inviting one in with modesty and good timing that resonates well whenever with Cage or with others, pulling off a compelling performance without artifice. Equally as compelling in energy and spirit is Cage in an early breakthrough role for the actor (having started his career just five years prior under his birth name of Coppola), one that reaches our attention and our passion without having to really do much (his whole bit with the story of how he lost his hand is a good example of that). Dukakis proves just as comforting in amusement in a solidly charming turn with a handful of lines to go with a well-rounded performance. Gardenia also proves just as endearing in his own way of humor. Aiello, even without much time on screen, is enjoyable in generating amusement for a well-meaning dope, while Chaliapin Jr nearly steals the show with reserved amusement. Film and stage actor (alongside acting coach) Bovasso proves a worthy supporting presence, both in charm alongside in helping Cher and Dukakis in doing Brooklyn accents. By the time the film rallies everybody to the kitchen table for its last turn under the sun, it already has proven a worthy time about detailing what it means to be struck in love, or at least the complications that can arise from what the heart and mind wants most. It brings itself together with charm without sacrificing any moment for a cheap gag or a cheap pull at the heart, which makes for a resounding winner to seek out as one of Jewison's best.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Mask (1985)

Review #1475: Mask.

Cast: 
Cher (Florence "Rusty" Dennis), Sam Elliott (Gar), Eric Stoltz (Roy L. "Rocky" Dennis), Estelle Getty (Evelyn Steinberg), Richard Dysart (Abe Steinberg), Laura Dern (Diana Adams), Micole Mercurio (Babe), Harry Carey, Jr (Red), Dennis Burkley (Dozer), Barry Tubb (Dewey), Lawrence Monoson (Ben), and Ben Piazza (Mr. Simms) Directed by Peter Bogdanovich (#1000 - The Last Picture Show)

Review:
"Directing is really creating an atmosphere, a particular kind of atmosphere and usually one that is very peculiar to the director. It doesn't necessarily have to be. Some directors have no personality and it shows. But one way or another, what the actors are doing or the crews are doing, they're trying to please the director."

Peter Bogdanovich has had a long and varied life, with plenty of it spent in some way around film, a subject he loved starting in his youth. He studied acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory in his twenties before taking up work at the Musuem of Modern Art as a film programmer. He wrote his first book at the age of 22 in The Cinema of Orson Welles, the first of numerous books about seminal directors of cinema (which later included another book about his friend Welles along with an appearance in The Other Side of the Wind), with further works involving Howard Hawks, John Ford (which he did a documentary of years later), and Allan Dwan. He later desired to make his own films (inspired by the directors he loved along with the French critics-turned-directors like Francois Truffaut), and an encounter with Roger Corman led to his first work with The Wild Angels (1966). 1968 was the year of his first directorial efforts, with Corman having him shoot footage for a English-dubbed version of Planeta Bur that became Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women (which he did not take credit for). His first true directorial debut came with Targets (1968), as Corman had two days of Boris Karloff to use (Bogdanovich would also have a small part in the film while writing the script with help by Samuel Fuller). The 1970s were both his rise and fall from prominence: The Last Picture Show (1971), What's Up, Doc? (1972), and Paper Moon (1973) each recieved tremendous praise and attention, while Daisy Miller (1974), At Long Last Love (1975), Nickelodeon (1976), and Saint Jack (1979) recieved middling-to-negative notice. By the time of Mask (1985), he had already filed for bankruptcy, having self-distributed They All Laughed (1981) to financial failure (the story of that film and its stars is best for another time). His career has lessened in recent years, but he has kept himself busy within films (which also included work in television and documentaries) alongside acting, teaching directing at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and a podcast about his life released this year.

He was inspired to do the film because of his late partner's fascination with The Elephant Man with the similarity of alienation whether beautiful or ugly. There is two versions of the film, with the key difference being in music along with a few additional scenes. The Director's Cut (which I viewed) includes the music of Bruce Springsteen, which was noted as the favorite of Rocky Dennis, and the singer had wanted the music in the film, but catalogue disputes led to the usage of Bob Seger instead (Bogdanovich later sued the studio over this as a breach of contract). The film is based on the brief life of Roy Dennis (1961-1978), who lived with craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, in which calcium builds up in the skull that affects facial features and life expectancy. Wracked with a disease that gradually made him legally blind alongside headaches and troubles, Dennis nevertheless tried to live a normal life with family and school. The film was written by Anna Hamilton Phelan, which took certain liberties with the life of Dennis and his mother (born Florence Tullis), who described the film as a "fairly tale" while liking Cher's depiction of her. It isn't hard to see why one could like this film, since it proves quite interesting in its honesty and care for its depiction of its main subject without needing to wallow in melodramatic cliches. Stoltz, wearing award-winning makeup Michael Westmore and Zoltan Elek, is immeadiately someone we follow along with no need to focus on what he looks like but instead by how we judge others without such a task: through what we hear and see in his actions through the film, whether that involves trying to make the best of his life within school or with the people that accept him for who he is, which Stoltz handles with charm. Cher proves to be an interesting presence, expressive and provocative whenever in view for us with others or up close that makes an organic performance. Elliott shows up from time to time as a collected presence of coolness, proving a worthwhile time without having to say much beyond that distinct voice. The others in the cast make their moments count, such as a bright Dern in one of her first breakthrough roles, or Getty and Dysart in their distinct difference when interacting with Stoltz and Cher, or the warm rough presences of Carey Jr and Burkley. The film utilizes its two hours wisely, making its key moments count with dignity in warmth or tension without suffocation, whereas a lesser director would have turned it into something to cry incessantly at without grace. On the whole, it is a bittersweet achievement of entertainment, one that pulls plenty of emotion for its subject with balance and a game cast to serve as a fair achievement for its director and for its decade as a whole.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Silkwood.

Review #1299: Silkwood.

Cast: 
Meryl Streep (Karen Silkwood), Kurt Russell (Drew Stephens), Cher (Dolly Pelliker), Craig T. Nelson (Winston), Fred Ward (Morgan), Diana Scarwid (Angela), Ron Silver (Paul Stone), Josef Sommer (Max Richter), Charles Hallahan (Earl Lapin), Tess Harper (Linda Dawson), Sudie Bond (Thelma Rice), Henderson Forsythe (Quincy Bissell), and Bruce McGill (Mace Hurley) Directed by Mike Nichols (#175 - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, #550 - The Graduate, and #637 - The Birdcage, and #1157 - Wolf)

Review: 
On November 13, 1974, a chemical technician was killed in a car collision in Crescent, Oklahoma is what is believed to be an accident. Karen Silkwood, of course was more than just a blurb on the newspages, since she was an activist who was investigating wrongdoing into the plutonium plant that she worked in, for which she had been contaminated. Her death inspired a lawsuit against the plant she worked for, which had two trials before a final settlement in 1986, with the closure of the nuclear fuels plant having occurred the year after Silkwood's death. In any case, it does seem interesting to make a biopic drama based on her short life that attempts to stick to a group of the basic facts alongside movie-magic that conjure some ambiguity that goes off mostly without a hitch. Perhaps it proves a bit too long at 131 minutes, but one that can't really be denied is that the movie has a well-picked cast to ready its ship along when it is required to. The cast really does seem to seep right into these ordinary folks without trouble, really, where even knowing the fate of its focus doesn't make for much predictability, one who has a bit of tunnel vision for what she believes is the imperative thing to do. This is key with Streep, who pulls in a tremendous performance, filled with spark of persistence and warmth that make her story flow for its audience that makes her interesting enough to follow with. Russell, in a departure from the usual action genre roles, pulls off a rugged turn that seems just as down-to-earth as the lady he acts opposite with, and they do share some casual chemistry together whenever he is on screen. It shouldn't prove too surprising that Cher was suited for an understated yet fine performance here. In her second film since venturing back into acting (after starring in Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean on stage and screen the previous year), she seeps right into an unassuming role and does just fine with making the right impression with just being oneself. The rest of the cast does alright with filling out this world with no big troubles, where one doesn't need a clear villain or hero to really drive the facts along (McGill does play his role pretty adversarily, but not at the expense of realism). Is our focus a martyr or someone who got caught up in their own moral imperative? However one feels about the muddled circumstances of her ultimate fate, one cannot say that the film isn't still compelling through and through its real-life surroundings that will provoke at least some discussion when it comes to whistle-blowing and what proves to be the right thing to do, no matter what the risks could prove. In that sense, this proves to be a decent piece of entertainment headlined by Streep and her cast to go along with a well-run story from the headlines.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: The Witches of Eastwick.

Review #493: The Witches of Eastwick.

Cast
Jack Nicholson (Daryl Van Horne), Cher (Alexandra Medford), Susan Sarandon (Jane Spofford), Michelle Pfeiffer (Sukie Ridgemont), Veronica Cartwright (Felicia Alden), and Richard Jenkins (Clyde Alden) Directed by George Miller (#380 - Mad Max and #392 - Happy Feet)

Review
I woke up in the morning, realizing it was my birthday today, and in light of that, I decided to not only begin the new month with watching a movie, but a movie I've wanted to watch for a long while, and since I had time on my hands and couldn't think of a movie that actually dealt with birthdays, I watched this. The film itself is mostly enjoyable, and Jack Nicholson (as usual) steals the show. He seems to be born to play this role, he has a good deal of manic energy and scenes to use them in. Cher does an good job, pairing well with Nicholson. Sarandon and Pfeiffer are good, the trio seem to mesh well together. The rest of the cast are alright, and the story is balanced. The climax of the film has been criticized for being overdone or ridiculous in the past, but I don't really hate the climax that much, maybe it's because it just feels right, and I wouldn't know how the climax could be improved on anyway. The film has its ups and downs of lunacy, but it is enjoyable nonetheless. Happy birthday to me. Countdown to 500 Reviews: 10, 9, 8, 7...

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Zookeeper.

Review #059: Zookeeper.

Cast
Kevin James (Griffin Keyes), Rosario Dawson (Kate), Leslie Bibb (Stephanie), Joe Rogan (Gale), Nat Faxon (Dave Keyes), Nick Nolte (Bernie the Lowland Gorilla), Sylvester Stallone (Joe the Lion), Adam Sandler (Donald the Capuchin Monkey), Judd Apatow (Barry the Elephant), Cher (Janet the Lioness), Jon Favreau and Faizon Love (Jerome and Bruce the Grizzly Bears), and Maya Rudolph (Mollie the Giraffe) Directed by Frank Coraci.

Review
This film is actually a little funny. I didn't have much expectations for this film, but the film at least is trying with some actual good use of voice talents. James does a fine job, as he blossoming into a star. Dawson preforms fine with what she has to go with. The plot is a bit predictable, a bit like...Just Go With It, but the film isn't as lazy, it tries to do something with what it has. It's a bit funny, and enjoyable. The animals actually look good, as they don't try to be cute (probably the opposite), working okay. I swear the posting of the reviews one by one will end soon.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.