Having watched the “live” version of Jesus Christ Superstar over Christmas (the one starring John Legend), I was inspired to go back and watch the 1973 film starring Ted Neeley. Much as I like Legend, Neeley is really intense in a way that Legend is not and that suits the role remarkably well. I also think Carl Anderson’s Judas and whoever the singers were for Caiaphas and Annas in the film were absolutely perfect. Admittedly the live show had the benefit of Alice Cooper as Herod but that’s a minor point in its favor.
Tbh, much of the film has dated - not so much the “everyone is a hippie” thing which works perfectly well, but some of the cinematic conventions have gone out of fashion (“There’s a guy standing on a hilltop! Let’s very rapidly zoom in on him!”) and the editing is actually quite clunky.
Nonetheless it’s a solid show (I happen to believe Lloyd Webber and Rice peaked with their first show) with an excellent cast. I was really struck by how much it brought out the fact that the two people who work the hardest to save Jesus from destroying himself were Judas (who begs him repeatedly not to let the crowd get out of hand) and Pontius Pilate (who begs him repeatedly to defend himself). And the night scene at Gethsemane, while marred by some weird cinematic choices, is still incredibly powerful.
Worth a revisit if you can ignore the 1973-ness of it.
News of the World. Not only did I see it, I saw it in a theater. A big theater. I was the only person in attendance and so had no difficulty maintaining social distance throughout. I went because I had to check out of one hotel at 11 and check in to another in the same town at 3. What the hell else am I going to do in the winter in Michigan in the time of COVID?
Anyway, I had this sense throughout that I’d seen it before, like it was a remake of something, but I couldn’t quite place it. True Grit? No. Dances With Wolves? No. Hostiles? …I don’t think so… Then, walking out of the theater, it hit me.
It’s Road to Perdition. Not literally, I mean—it’s hardly a matter of shooting the same scenes, there’s plenty of differences—but it’s got the same sort of feel to it, the same dynamic surrounding the main characters. Tom Hanks plays a guy who doesn’t normally care for kids (whether he has them or not), but has to act as the lone shepherd to save one from harsh/trying circumstances and usher them to safety.
I recently watched Superintelligence (2020) starring Melissa McCarthy and Bobby Cannavale, with James Corden. I tried to like it. I mean, you know the drill, rom-com built around a goofy premise - this time that the machines have achieved consciousness and now control every piece of electronics on the planet. It chooses McCarthy’s character to study to see if humanity is worth saving. It’s really not even as clever as it sounds. There are some fine/adequate performance from McCarthy and Cannavale, but James Corden (whose voice the superintelligence chooses because McCarthy’s character is big fan) can gargle my balls. I can’t stand that guy.
We got a code for a digital copy of The New Mutants. It was really terrible. What it lacked in pacing and storytelling, it made up in bland characters. I’d post more analysis, but I’d hate to put more effort into the movie than the director did.
The Third Man
Classic British noir, with Joseph Cotten as a hack American writer trying to learn more about the suspicious death of an old friend in ruined, bombed-out post-WWII Vienna. I love this movie: a great cast, remarkable cinematography, a good story and of course the memorable zither score.
Silence
Two young Jesuit missionaries try to figure out what happened to their missing mentor in 1630s Japan, when Christianity and its followers were cruelly suppressed by the government. Directed by Martin Scorsese; beautiful, well-done but very slow.
Lost in Translation
Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson play a has-been actor and a neglected young wife who form an unexpected bond in after-hours modern Tokyo. Quietly charming.
The Reagan Show
Recent documentary, created entirely from contemporary news and White House archival footage, on how Ronald Reagan drew on his Hollywood background for the role of a lifetime. Some regrettable omissions, including the AIDS crisis, civil rights and exploding budget deficits, but an interesting look at his years as President.
Chicken Run
Pretty funny Aardman Animations film about the inmates of a prison-like British chicken farm plotting to escape and avoid being put into pies.
I just watched Wolfwalkers. It’s an animated movie made by the same team who made The Secret Of Kells and Song Of The Sea, and it was just as enchanting as you would hope for. A mediaeval town is plagued by wolves, so the Lord Protector sends out a trapper, but the trapper’s daughter befriends a magical shapeshifting wolfwalker, and together they defend the forest.
Watched Godzilla streaming for free. Free was more than it was worth. One of dumbest premises ever.
A new life form, as large a skyscraper and no one knows a thing about it till it’s off its native island headed for Manhattan .
Inspired by the Steely Dan song King Of The World, I watched Panic In The Year Zero! with Ray Milland and a pre-Beach Party Frankie Avalon. Not bad for 1962.
It had been a few decades since I saw Kramer vs. Kramer, so I decided to rewatch it. The movie hasn’t aged a bit, and I can totally understand how it caused many people to rethink their position on custody battles. Excellent Dustin Hoffman and early Meryl Streep.
Confessions of a Shopaholic. Ditzy young woman (Isla Fisher) who has serious issues managing her finances, wants badly to work for a fashion magazine but instead winds up at a personal finances magazine and loves her boss (whom she meet-cutes) but he has a girlfriend at the fashion magazine…hijinx ensue. Except they don’t. I don’t think there was a single laugh or sincere emotion or any other recognizable human condition.
I saw that back in the early 80’s, when I was sick in bed and off school. I watched it, even though it was in (ARGH!) black & white. Of course, there were fewer channels back then, and beggars with the flu can’t be choosers. That was an unusually good couple of days of TV - that was also when I was introduced to, “Monty Python & the Holy Grail.” A great time to be sick in bed.
Anyway, I remember thinking, “Panic in the Year Zero!” was pretty good. Early end-of-the-world, society-falls-apart, survivalist stuff.
Speaking of which, I saw, “Greenland” the other day, with Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin. Comet hits the Earth and they have to make their way to a disaster shelter in Greenland that they’ve been chosen for. They have a child with diabetes, so it runs down all the usual tropes: parents get separated from the child, the child gets sick and desperately needs his insulin. . . I thought the effects were decent, but I saw them on a 24" computer monitor, so maybe I’m not in a position to judge. It’s an OK COVID-era time-waster, but that’s about it.
Saw The Quick and the Dead last night. Sharon Stone returns to a town run by Gene Hackman and enters his gunfight tourney hoping to avenge her father’s death. Russell Crowe costars as an unwilling participant and Leo DiCaprio plays a young gun, sort of foreshadowing Rick Dalton’s “Lancer” character from Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Directed by Sam Raimi, the gunfight scenes reminded me of the ones in Buster Scruggs.
I saw a touring production sometime ca. 2003 with Carl as Judas. I felt that he was head and shoulders above the rest of the cast, but I may have been swayed by familiarity with his performance.
Irrelevant side note: Jesus Christ Superstar was the first movie I ever saw on HBO. If I had access to the schedules for 1977-78, I could probably find the exact day we got cable.
Watched First Cow last night. A gentle film about two friends trying to survive in the early days of Oregon fur trapping. There is an underlying message of colonial oppression, but it’s not in your face, by any means. Good movie. Added bonus: it has Toby Jones in a minor role doing his usual outstanding job.
Tried watching Kiss Me, Kate as I felt it deserved a chance. Turned it off after three songs. Admittedly Ann Miller can tapdance like nobody’s business but the whole thing was just dull.
Incorrectly touted as Film Noir, it was good film about a young womanl who shows up to take a babysitting job at a hotel… and turns out to be an absolute loon.
" Description of Shunsuke Shinada’s Little Miss Period (Seiri-chan) from the movie’s international sales agent, Free Stone Productions Co. Ltd. (K.K. Furî Sutôn Purodakushonzu): “‘Why it sucks? Because I can’t blame everything on my period.’ If you’re a woman, you have to deal with your ‘monthly visitor’ - your period - whether you like it or not. It comes in with a bang, dealing heavy blows and draining your body of blood and hitting you with the double whammy of sharp pain and unbearable misery. And it all happens to every woman out there. While no one looks forward to ‘Little Miss Period’ coming around and wreaking havoc on day-to-day life, there’s more to her than meets the eye. She’s got a friendly side, too, and plenty of life lessons to impart. This adaptation of Ken Koyama’s ‘Little Miss Period’ combines episodic shorts into a full-length film with the hilarity to blow those monthly ouches and ughs away - and deliver vital messages to woman and men alike.” "
Sadly, it’s a Netflix Japan production so is hard to find.
A nearly bankrupt zoo has been forced to sell off most of their animals. When a new director is given the task of keeping the zoo open, he fixes the problem by having the remaining staff dress up as the missing animals. I absolutely fell in love with sloth (Jeon Yeo been)!
