Speaking of age gaps, there is discussion about the 20 year age gap between the lead actors in Oppenheimer.
It looks like the controversy ought to be about casting a man that is too old (Oppenheimer was in his late 30’s and Tatlock in her late 20’s during the early Manhattan Project, Pugh is in her late 20’s and Murphy is in his late 40’s), but it seems that the controversy described in the link is that they should cast an actress 20 years older than the actual person being portrayed in order to be “realistic”. Such is the internet (sigh).
Not to mention that, as with many genetically blessed actors, Cillian Murphy does not look like someone in their late 40’s (though looking at photos from the movie, it looks like they wanted Oppenheimer to appear more haggard and worn than his actual age (and older than he looks in his photos from that time).
Well, they say any publicity is good publicity…
I finished it today. I liked the last hour much better than the first half-hour. Cute, not a lot of big laughs for me, but I like Jason Segal and I am glad the movie hates Russell Brand and actually cast him in a role to be hated. I mean, he seems like he played himself.
That movie is 15 years old. Unbelievable.
I find a couple of things to be interesting about the new movie Oppenheimer. (I haven’t seen it yet.)
One is that it has the same name as the 1980 seven-episode television film Oppenheimer. It is three hours and one minute long, while the 1980 version was seven hours long. The 1980 one went beyond the events in World War II to tell of what happened to Oppenheimer later in his life. The other thing is how much they are of British cast and production, although no one being portrayed was British.
I don’t see the problem with the casting of Cillian Murphy to play Robert Oppenheimer; you said that he’s older than the real-life man was at the time but looks young. So that’s good, right?
As folks have noted Florence Pugh had an even larger gap in real life. She dated and lived with Zach Braff in her early-mid 20’s when he was mid-late 40’s. I doubt she at least cares much about the chatter.
Watched Return of the Vampire (1943) very late last night (what better time to watch a vampire movie?) due to @CalMeacham’s excellent writeup. Yeah, the appearance of a Wolfman as the vampire’s slave was a bit unusual. The makeup was well done but somehow the supposedly sinister Andreas as Wolfman looked – to my eye as a lover of all canines – more cute than sinister, like he could use some skritches behind the ears! 
As vampire movies go, it was OK, but certainly not up to the standards of the classics like Dracula (1931) also with Bela Lugosi, or the classic remake, Dracula (1958) from Hammer Studios, with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. But it was interesting watching a movie made in wartime in a wartime setting, knowing that even as it was being made and being shown London was being bombed by the Luftwaffe.
And for those who haven’t seen it, F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror is a classic, the mother of all Dracula films. It’s extremely creepy, made all the more so by the amazing performance of Max Schreck, a character so mysteriously reclusive IRL that he was rumoured by some to be a real-life vampire. Indeed, the stories inspired a modern fictionalized account of its making, Shadow of the Vampire (2000), which I highly recommend, especially to fans of Nosferatu (or for that matter, fans of John Malkovich).
Some little while ago I managed to embarrass myself by revealing that I had watched the Mike Judge classic Office Space (1999) for the first time ever, prompting accusations that I must have been living in a cave all these years. Maybe I had heard of it but confused it with the TV series The Office. So in the same vein I recently discovered Spies Like Us (1985) with Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd, which I watched last night.
Chase and Aykroyd go through their usual antics as bumbling spies sent to Pakistan and Russia as decoys for the real ones, but the funny stuff is set against a backdrop of a Bond-like spy story with fairly big production values (lots of SFX and exploding objects). It was lots of fun and better than I expected.
One thing I found particularly interesting was that the house where the victims lived in Return of the Vampire very closely resembled the set of Dr. Seward’s house in the 1931 Dracula I’;m sure that was intentional.
A few re-watches lately:
Spotlight (2015) - Boston Globe’s expose of the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal. I always pick up more little details when I re-watch a movie like this, so it’s always worth it. And I’m a big Mark Ruffalo fan.
Moscow on the Hudson (1984) - early Robin Williams drama, where he plays a Russian saxophone player who defects in the middle of Bloomies. Filmed in the middle of the Cold War. Excellent performance by Williams and others. Recommended.
The Big Red One (1980) - Mark Hamill’s war movie, where he plays a member of the Sergent’s Four Horseman, fighting from Italy to Normandy to the Huertgen Forest while struggling with cowardice. Truth be told, I never picked up on the cowardice subtext before this re-watch, but then I don’t think I’d actually seen this movie in 25 years.
I have had this on my list for many moons. I want to see it and I have no doubt it’s powerful. I just have an uncanny level of recall for film scenes and for decades have been trying to get other horrors, Fiction or Non-Fiction, out of my head.
Especially anything concerning kids.
Lee Marvin was born to play the role of the sergeant in that film. It was written and directed by Samuel Fuller who had fought on every battlefield depicted in the film.
Brooklyn 45 - streams on Shudder
Recommended.
Kind of a surprise movie for me. I entered with no huge expectations and it was a pleasant surprise. Takes place entirely in one room and very much feels like a play. In fact, a play could very easily be made of this story. A few friends get together in December 1945, all involved with or affected by the big war. They host a seance to talk to one of their recently deceased spouses.
There is more to just about everyone in this dinner party and a lot comes out. The movie held my attention very well and my only quibble would be that I did not entirely agree with how the movie ended. Not enough to ruin the movie, but not the ending I would have gone with.
Check it out, though. I liked it.
Watched a real gem from the Golden Age of movies for the first time – On the Waterfront (1954). A really great movie that one has never seen before doesn’t come along often, let alone one that is considered among the greatest films ever made. Starring Marlon Brando and a very pretty young Eva Marie Saint in her first feature film, plus Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Martin Balsam, and many other very recognizable names. Brando plays a low-life who is part of a corrupt and murderous dock workers’ union until the murder of one of its young members and his subsequent relationship with the man’s sister drives him to change his wayward life. “I coulda been a contender” – I thought that line was from Rocky, but it was from this one.
The film picked up Oscar nominations in almost every major category and won in eight. I remember thinking how good Saint’s performance was, and apparently I wasn’t the only one – she won Best Supporting Actress despite it being her first feature film, and Brando also won a well-deserved Best Actor. Brando had achieved fame only three years earlier with A Streetcar Named Desire for which he was nominated for Best Actor and which, like this one, was also directed by the inimitable Elia Kazan.
Too late to edit the previous post, but a couple of clips from On the Waterfront that illustrate the sentiment “they don’t make movies like that any more”. In this first one, Rod Steiger plays Charlie, brother of Terry (Brando) and also a member of the corrupt dock workers’ union. The union boss is worried that Terry is about to testify before the waterfront crime commission and dispatches Charlie – who realizes his own life is at stake – to change his mind. Two great actors at work here (and featuring “I coulda been a contender”):
Terry (Brando) and Edie (Eva Marie Saint) meet for the first time:
You might be interested in this article which examines the political context of the film:
Imo, this article leaves out two critical facts. First, unlike most of those blacklisted in Hollywood who had no other career to fall back on, Kazan was an established director in the theater (where there was no blacklist). His decision to inform was primarily because he wanted to continue making movies, not because his livelihood depended on it.
Second, while Kazan took vicarious pleasure from Terry Malloy’s decision to inform in the film – “That was me, that was me saying that I was glad I had testified as I had. On the Waterfront was my own story.” – the circumstances are in no way analogous. Malloy exposed criminal activity, including murder. Kazan exposed no crimes, as being a member of the Communist Party was - and has never been – illegal in the U.S.
Very interesting, thanks for that. I was aware that Elia Kazan’s personal reputation had been tarnished by his HUAC testimony, but never thought about the alleged connection to the film. Whatever the truth of such a connection, I’m sure the HUAC situation must have been much on his mind during the making of it. It was also news to me that Marlon Brando initially refused to work with Kazan because of it.
Incidentally, for anyone interested, the article is a pretty good analysis of the film itself.
I remember the year that Elia Kazan died, he was included in the death montage at the following Academy Awards ceremony, and there was some applause, but most seemed to be sitting on their hands.
Yeah, there were bad feelings all the way up to his death.
65, with Adam Driver. Well. . .you can tell this is going to be tedious when the opening title has to be continued in order for anybody to understand it:
65
Billion Years Ago
On Earth
Ancient spaceman crashes on earth just before the Extermination Event. The only other survivor is a young girl who speaks no English (English?). They must make their ways through dinosaurs and quicksand, etc. to reach the escape pod on the mountain. Oh, dear. Oh, deardeardear. Will they make it? Dunno, couldn’t finish this snooze-fest. Give Driver credit for slogging through all the goo, though.
The Island (2005). A group of people live and work in an exotically high-tech underground facility in the belief that the entire outside world is dangerously contaminated, except for one idyllic place called “the island” to which some are periodically admitted by lottery. Naturally, it turns out that things are not what they seem. Stars Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johannsen.
Despite the lavish production budget, impressive sets, and action sequences and special effects that are sometimes over-the-top, it’s ultimately somehow unsatisfying. A film that cost around $120 million to make should do better.
Days of Wine and Roses (1962). Ah, back to old traditional storytelling in black and white. With Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. I’d seen it before but not for many years. A powerful story about alcohol addiction, with strong performances by both lead roles (both were nominated for Oscars). Some parts of it (particularly Jack Klugman’s character as the guy from AA) are on the edge of becoming preachy, but for the most part the film skirts that risk while still telling a solid story. Sadly bittersweet ending: Lemmon’s character eventually finds sobriety, but loses his wife (Lee Remick) to alcohol. In the final scene, Remick is seen walking off into the night, and then we just see an empty street.