NO DAY BY BY DAY. IT'S BEEN A ROUGH WEEK! K.
As usual, at this time of year, Oscar fever is with us; I had a bit of fun linking this year’s nominations with films on show in your living room. Oh yeah? yeah! Here goes.
MARIEL HEMINGWAY WITH PATRICE DONNELLY; WHO WAS AN ATHLETE IN REAL LIFE
Annette Bening is up for the top award this year, playing a gay woman in The Kids Are Alright. Things have sure changed since 1982, when Robert Towne made a film called Personal Best [SABC3.Sunday.22.00].This low-key movie all about two athletes training for the Olympic Games that America boycotted; that really is the gist of the film ‘All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go’, most of us know that feeling.
NOT AN AMERICAN IN SIGHT
The twist, innovative at the time, was that the athletes in question were in a loose relationship and neither of them was a man. The film, in spite of good reviews flopped. Personal Best is not a brilliant piece of cinema, but it is both well made and compelling. Mariel Hemingway proves that she is by far the most talented acting member of her family.
A DEEPLY FELT LOVE STORY
By the time Ang Lee made Brokeback Mountain [SABC3.Friday.22.00] in 2005, the film was billed as a love story and Lee won an Oscar directing the cowboy lovers, Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. It is a brooding, sadly atmospheric movie, with a heart wrenching ending; indeed a film that can easily be seen more than once.
COSTNER IN THE TITLE ROLE
Westerns movies, like lovers, come in all shapes and sizes; Wyatt Earp [SABC3.Saturday.23.30] arrives in the guise of an American history lesson. The movie is a not completely satisfying; too long by far, good acting though from Kevin Costner in the title role and Dennis Quaid as the enigmatic Doc Holliday.
LONG TIME STAR-GENE HACKMAN
Isabella Rossellini has a small part as Big Nosed Kate while Gene Hackman costars as Earp's father. Hackman, who has given viewers many happy hours since his movie debut nearly fifty years ago recently celebrated his 81st birthday, hope it was a good one.
ALEX COX
Walker [SABC3.Tuesday.00.30] is an 'Acid Western' made by Alex Cox, the term applies apparently to any Western that mix genres, in this case Traditional and Spagetti. This movie examines a very different slice of American history.
WILLIAM WALKER IN REAL LIFE
William Walker, with the help of arch capitalist,Cornelius vanderbilt ruled Nicaragua for a while in the 1800s. The man was known as the father of filibusters (a fancy word for crook), ended his days, aged just 36, at the end of a rope in Honduras in 1860.
ED HARRIS
Ed Harris as Walker and Peter Boyle as Vanderbilt give flamboyant performances but the film as a whole is a bit too glib and clever for its own good.
AN ALMOST UNRECOGNIZABLE DENZEL WASHINGTON
Is there such a thing as a post apocalyptic scifi Western? Well, there is now that the Hughes Brothers have made The Book of Eli [M-Net.Sunday.20.05] with Denzel Washington, as a man holding a link to the past and a key to the future. Not to everyone’s taste and not that easy to watch, the movie does however create a future that is well within the realm of possibility.
CLINT AS A YOUNG MAN
Joe Kidd [SABC3.Friday.02.00], like this year’s Western nominee True Grit is more typical as Westerns go; veteran director, John Sturgis (he made Gunfight at the OK Corral etc.) puts Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall through their paces in this sturdy horse opera.
I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THE KING'S SPEECH
The King’s Speech seemed to come from nowhere and now is being tipped all over the place as a big winner. George VI ruled Britain through the Dark Days of WW2; two British films reflect those times this week, both well worth a watch.
A MOMENT IN TIME
John Boorman directs an autobiographical turn called Hope and Glory [M-Net.Saturday.13.00], a simply told tale of a British family living through the Blitz. The movie, made with love and a fine sense of the times, is seen through the eyes of a young boy.
FROM THE SAME ERA
‘We Never Closed’ was the tag attached to the Windmill Theatre, the venue that kept troops and war weary Londoners entertained while, against all odds, Britain held Herr Hitler and his henchmen at bay.
THE WINDMILL THEATRE DURING WW2
Mrs. Henderson Presents [SABC3.Saturday.01.30] is delicious fun with dashed good performances from Dame Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins and Chris Guest. This is the kind of movie that is almost soggy with nostalgia; great music too.
COLIN FIRTH WAS AN IMPECCABLE MR DARCY
In The King’s Speech Wills Windsor’s great granddad is played by Colin Firth; Colin really is flavour of the day at the moment, he is on the box this week in Hope Springs [SABC3.Saturday.21.30], with Heather Graham, a movie which I reviewed last August.
VERY RAT PACKY-FIRTH WITH KEVIN BACON
Also, there is Where the Truth Lies [SABC3.Friday.00.00], where he and Kevin Bacon sort of play Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, encased in a fictional plot complete with an unexplained corpse, an old crime and all sorts of sexual preferences.
RUPERT HOLMES
Just the kind of plot one would expect from Rupert Holmes, the man who wrote The Pina Colada Song. Saying that; the movie is pacey and clever, spoilt rather by a weak performance by Alison Lohman and maybe just one gimmick too many.
BARYSHNIKOV
The Black Swan has a ballet background; as does The Turning Point [e.tv.Sunday.22.40] with Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft trying to out tutu each other. There is some fine dancing from real ballet dancers, Leslie Browne and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
SHIRLEY WITH THE BEATTYS
The Turning Point is a movie for people who enjoy their swans less dusky and the lake…shall we say…more placid. For the trivia buffs, Shirl is Annette Bening’s sister- in- law.
VERY 'WHITE' OSCARS THIS YEAR- IN ONE RESPECT,JAMES FRANCO IS A DARK HORSE
In 127 Days, based on a true story, James Franco performs self amputation to survive, the survival instinct is very strong; animals caught in illegal traps regularly do the same; but I digress. The main snag with a true story; we, as the audience, know the ending.
SO VERY YOUNG
Many years ago, Sissy Spacek won her Oscar playing country music star, Loretta Lynn. She kept up a sense of expectancy by superb acting and an ability to involve her audience in the saga. She is equally capable and emotive in The River [SABC3.Wednesday.00.30] costarring Mel Gibson, who is neither.
SWANK AS EARHART
Just before Christmas, I was rabbiting on about Amelia [M-Net. Monday.21.30]. As I said, when you play a real life character, you have to act your socks off; there is little or no suspense to help you out.
AMELIA EARHART
In old flickering newsreel footage, there is a charisma about aviator Amelia Earhart that Hilary Swank misses completely. Give me Amy Adams in Night at the Museum 2 any day. Talking of Amy Adams, she may take home a bald one this year for The Fighter, wouldn’t that be nice!
MADAME KEATON
Diane Keaton plays a Vanessa Redgrave type actress in an adaptation of John le Carre’s The Little Drummer Girl [SABC3.Monday.01.05], muddled shenanigans set in the Middle East that never really ignite. Is it my imagination, or has Diane Keaton become more mannered and irritating with the passing decades?
A REAL BUNCH OF TOUGH GUYS
Of course, there was a time when Israel could do know wrong. A case in point is The Delta Force [e.tv.Friday.20.30], an old highjack drama with Chuck Norris at the beginning of his career and Lee Marvin at the end of his.
ASSI DAYAN
No prizes for guessing where this movie's loyalties lie, down the cast list is Assi Dayan, son of six day war 'hero' Moshe Dayan.
DREW BARRYMORE-TALENT TO SPARE
Last year, a woman won a directing award for the first time, back to all male this year. That didn’t stop Drew Barrymore from making her debut behind the camera in Whip It [M-Net. Saturday. 21.00 and Tuesday.00.00].
ELLEN PAGE STAKES HER CLAIM
The movie is a strongly made teen drama with Ellen Page and Marcia Gay Hardin as the mother and daughter duo. You don’t need to understand the rules of Roller Derby; the themes are universal; that is if you have ever been a parent or a child.
HERE, SARAH MILES SUMS IT UP
A hard choice for a pick this week; I finally decided on Hope and Glory [M-Net. Saturday.13.00] the movie is on at an odd time, but do try to make time if you’ve never seen it before.