Sweet Smell of Success

Sweet Smell of Success; drama, USA, 1957; D: Alexander Mckendrick, S: Tony Curtis, Burt Lancester, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner, Sam Levene, Barbara Nichols

New York. Press agent Sidney Falco is in trouble. He promises various clients publicity in the popular newspaper column by the influential J.J. Hunsucker, but the latter does not mention them in his articles. This serves as a pressure because Hunsucker wants Falco to separate Hunsucker's sister Susan (19) from her boyfriend Steve Dallas, a jazz guitarist. Falco is unable to wreck their love relationship, until he persuades another columnist to write a slanderous article about Dallas being a Communist and a marijuana addict, so the latter is fired. But Falso then persuades Hunsucker to feign helping Dallas and getting his job back, since Dallas is angry that Hunsucker is obssessed with his sister Susan and insults him, causing Susan to leave Dallas. When Hunsucker frames Dallas for marijuana possession and has him beaten up by a corrupt cop, Kello, a suicidal Susan almost jumps from her apartment balcony, but is stopped by Falco. She tricks Falco into admitting that Hunsucker orchestrated all the problems for Dallas, and then leaves her brother.

"The Sweet Smell of Success" is the most frightening depiction of the horrors of dominance, selfishness and corruption of absolute power that is not a political thriller. Instead, all these themes are presented through a story about a famous columnist, J.J. Hunsucker (a chilling Burt Lancester) who uses his influence to pressure and coerce others into doing his bidding, but the movie is only ostensibly about the yellow journalism. Even though he is only a newspaper columnist, J.J. Hunsucker acts allegorically practically as a dictator, using propaganda to present all his evil as something good in front of his sister Susan (with his incestuous infatuation serving as a warning for a lack of criteria for suspicious types gaining such power) whereas the corrupt cop Kello almost symbolically works as his "secret police". The movie has a really slow start and needs around 40 minutes until its set up is ignited, but once it does, it is kind of like a slow marathon runner who is accelerating faster and faster, since every new 20 minutes are more engaging than the previous ones, until the electrifying finale that engages the viewers to the fullest. Tony Curtis is excellent as the tragic press agent Falco, who feels insignificant as Hunsucker's lackey. The dialogues are sharp and bitter. In one sequence in a restaurant, when Hunsucker says "We're friends, Harvey, we go as far back as when you were a fresh kid Congressman, don't we?", Senator Harvey cannot but feel intimidated: "Why does everything you say sound like a threat?" In another moment, when Falco is upbeat and phones him, Hunsucker sardonically answers the call with: "You sound happy, Sidney. Why should you be happy when I am not?" One of the most intense sequences is when Hunsucker and Falco scheme to separate Dallas from Susan, have him fired, but feign that Hunsucker offers to help him get his job back, but prolong the deal and talk to try to force Dallas into rejecting the offer in front of Susan due to his integrity. The movie is a dark and cynical portrait of human vice, a black pearl about how a person who has some form of influence over others often uses it to exploit it for his own interests. 

Grade:+++

Clue

Clue; crime comedy, USA, 1985; D: Jonathan Lynn, S: Tim Curry, Lesley Ann Warren, Christopher Lloyd, Madeline Kahn, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Eileen Brennan, Colleen Camp, Lee Ving, Jane Wiedlin

Several people are invited to a desolate mansion during a stormy night. The butler, Wadsworth, reveals that each of them is blackmailed by the mansion's owner, Mr. Boddy: Mrs. Peacock for bribes; Mrs. White for suspicious deaths of her husbands; Professor Plum for having an affair with a patient; Colonel Mustard for being a war profiteer; Mrs Scarlet for secretly running a brothel; Mr. Green for being secretly gay. When the lights are turned off, Mr. Boddy is found dead, and each of the guests is suspected of being the killer. When the cook is stabbed to death, the guests, together with the maid Yvette, search the mansion. A cop enters to make a phone call, but is killed as well. Three endings are presented as to who did it, and in the first it was Mrs Scarlet, who wants to continue blackmailing all other guests, but is arrested by Wadsworth, who turns out to be a secret police officer, while a police unit storms the place.

A semi-successful movie adaptation of the eponymous board game, "Clue" is a murder mystery comedy that has some better and some lesser moments, yet is overshadowed by the overall better and more "smooth" forerunner, N. Simon's "Murder by Death", filmed 9 years prior. The story starts off wonderfully mysterious, with six people arriving at a spooky mansion in the middle of a stormy night, and even includes this funny exchange between Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd) and a woman: "Why has the car suddenly stopped?" - "It is scared". The set up where the villain, Mr. Boddy, is found murdered after the lights go off for a moment in the room, gives some neat sparks and tickles the imagination as to who of the people did it, whereas Tim Curry is consistently in best comedy shape as the cynical-polite butler Wadsworth. In another good joke, after Mr. Boddy disappeared and everyone suspected his murder was just a trick, a woman opens a door, and the missing corpse of Mr. Boddy falls on her, followed by a delicious little remark: "He is dead? Again?" Colleen Camp also steals the show here and there as the attractive, erotic maid with a huge buxom. Unfortunately, a large part of the middle of the story is forced, overstretched, filled with several lame, spasmodic gags that wreck the impression, or a hectic pace where even silly moments are accepted without much further thought. The characters of Mrs Peacock, Colonel Mustard and Mrs White are terribly underused. Of the three endings, the first one works somehow the best, and gives a rather satisfaying conclusion. The best joke: when the lights are turned off, Wadsworth tries to find a door knob to exit the room in the dark, but just pulls a shower knob, which pours him with water.

Grade:++

The Big Parade

The Big Parade; silent war drama, USA, 1925, D: King Vidor, S: John Gilbert, Tom O’Brien, Karl Dane, Renée Adorée, Hobart Bosworth  

Jim is a carefree lad who does not work and lives at the expense of his rich father. However, when the US enters World War I, Jim’s fiancée claims he would look good in military uniform, and upon seeing a big patriotic parade, he finally decides to enlist into the army. Jim’s unit arrives to the French village of Champillon, where he meets bartender Bull and construction worker Slim. Their tasks are boring and they wait for weeks for anything to happen. Jim falls in love with a local girl, Melisande, though he does not speak French. Finally, their unit is called to march into the Western Front: hundreds of soldiers are wounded or machine-gunned to death. In a trench, Slim tries to sneak in into the German trench, but is killed, and Bull too. Jim is wounded in the leg, and it is amputated in the hospital. Returning back home after the end of the war, Jim finds out his fiancée fell in love with someone else. He returns to Europe and meets Melisande again, and they embrace.  

One of the early blockbusters of the silent movie era (it was either the first or the second highest grossing film of the 1 9 2 0s, contesting the position with "Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ"), King Vidor’s "The Big Parade" is at the same time an early prototype of a brutal war film, displaying naturalistic violence that startled the audiences back at the time. The film consists out of two seemingly disparate, yet in the end still consistent halves, though the second one, showing actual combat, seems much fresher today. The first part shows a realistic routine of a soldier: endless waiting for a battle to start. The protagonist Jim is annoyed that he has to do unglamorous tasks, including digging a trench, washing clothes in a creek or sleeping in a barn at a farm. Yet this rings true, since a war includes a long, boring wait of the soldiers between battles. Several episodes drag here and should have been trimmed, and some of them are directed as a burlesque, almost as if it were a comedy at times, such as the sequence where Jim rolls a barrel on the ground until he decides to carry it over his upper body, with only a hole for him to see where he is going, or the 10-minute sequence of Jim stretching a bubble gum in front of girl Melisande, which ironically overstretches itself, congruently. 90 minutes into the film, the long anticipated battle finally starts, and this is where "The Big Parade" rises to the occasion, since it is directed with far more elan, energy and inspiration that the first half. The image of Melisande holding on to Jim’s leg while he is about to drive off in a military vehicle to the battle front is strong and symbolic (especially when one has in mind what will happen to Jim in the end) whereas the shot composition of a column of hundreds of military vehicles stretching all the way from the foreground to over the hill on the horizon is impressive. The situations slowly raise the suspense, especially in the march through the forest, where every once in a while a soldier suddenly falls down on the ground, since snipers are hidden on the trees. This dark and unflinching second half improves the film’s impression. "The Big Parade" is very good, though it would have been better if its first half was shorter, and second half longer.

Grade:+++

When I Am Dead and Gone

Kad budem mrtav i beo; drama, Serbia, 1967, D: Živojin Pavlović, S: Dragan Nikolić, Neda Spasojević, Ružica Sokić, Zorica Šumadinac  

Jimmy Barka is a young lad in a village without perspective. After finishing his part time job at a farm, he is unemployed again. He sets off to wander the countryside, but loses his girlfriend Lilica during an incident where he tried to steal from some workers. He meets a singer, Duška, but when she falls for a rich businessman, Jimmy leaves in disgust. In another village, he meets dentist Bojana. In Belgrade, there is a singing contest, and Jimmy enlists, but is such a terrible singer he is booed from the stage. He meets Lilica again, who earns money by having sex with men and then faking she is pregnant, forcing them to pay for a nonexistent abortion. One such man, Milutin, realizes he’s been scammed and wants to rape Lilica. Jimmy intervenes and throws him out of the house. Milutin later shoots and kills Jimmy, who's been sitting in a wooden field toilet.

One of the most hyped movies of the Yugoslav Black Wave in cinema, “When I Am Dead and Gone” is a bitter allegory that captured the 'zeitgeist' of both the uncertain future that young people are faced with who cannot find a job, and a feeling of an existential emptiness, futility in the Balkans, where nothing ever changes and people are always doomed to fail, no matter what they try. It is not that fresh anymore, yet is still a notable and naturalistic little film of the director Zivojin Pavlovic, with remarkably thought provocative moments at time, in which the notion of a Yugoslav “socialist paradise” is dismantled through realistic-cynical depictions of the anti-hero Jimmy (excellent Dragan Nikolic) who cannot find a job, steals, becomes a scammer to survive, whereas the workers are constantly on strike. In one scene, when his girlfriend complains that she is hungry, Jimmy replies: “If our comrades were also hungry during the war, then we can be, too”, missing the point that the said crisis situation remained unchanged even during peacetime. Assembled out of a very loose episodic structure, in which the protagonist travels from place to place, unable to get a hold of his life anywhere, "When I Am Dead and Gone" is by its theme very similar to Schlesinger's "Midnight Cowboy" and Rafelson's "Five Easy Pieces", an existentialist road movie where neither the quest nor the goal are clearly defined, though with a lot of humor. In one such humorous moment near the start, a man in a house questions Jimmy who entered inside, inquiring about a woman living there ("Why are you asking about her for?" - "Because I need her." - "You need her? She is my wife!" - "She is my mother!"), whereas the finale features a long, almost 10-minute sequence of a singer talent show, with a band in Belgrade doing a surprisingly catchy take on "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees. Despite a rather overstretched feel at times, Pavlovic crafted an effective film about a search for a better life, which feels fresh at times.

Grade:++

The Couch Trip

The Couch Trip; comedy, USA, 1988; D: Michael Ritchie, S: Dan Aykroyd, Walter Matthau, Donna Dixon, Charles Grodin, David Clennon, Richard Romanus

Los Angeles. Dr. Maitlins is a famous psychatrist who earns millions of $ with his radio show. However, he suffered a mental breakdown and is recovering in London. His lawyer, Michaels, wants to find a cheap replacement, and thus randomly phones Dr. Baird, the head of a mental asylum in Chicago—but the phone call is answered by John Burns, one of the patients, who introduces himself as Baird and accepts the job. Burns escapes from the asylum, takes a flight to L.A. and does a really direct show, talking openly about sex problems with the callers. Despite expectations, he is a hit, and gains sympathy from secretary Laura. Burns also pays for an ex-priest, Becker, who knows his secret and is blackmailing him to keep quiet. When the real Dr. Baird and meets Maitlins in London, they rush to L.A. to expose the fraud. Baird and Maitlins both land in a mental asylum, while Burns escapes with Becker from prison.

Unlike other comedies about mistaken identity, "The Couch Trip" actually exhausts itself already in the first act, and enters a steady decline instead of escalating the hilarious chaos (which isn't there) in the final act. Directed by the very uneven Michael Ritchie, who helmed some better and some weaker films, it is one of the many films which dwell on the issue of the vague (and interchangeable) border between a sane and an insane person. Yet it is sad how empty and humorless, almost improvised the whole story seems. The first 20 minutes work. Dan Aykroyd gives it his best as Burns, a humorous R.P. McMurphy of sorts in a mental asylum, who manages to talk a patient, Lopez, out of committing suicide by jumping from a window ("You hate Dr. Baird, don't you?" - "I hate the miserable bastard." - "Just think how awful you can make him feel if I can talk you out of this ledge and succeed where he failed!"). However, once out of the asylum, the movie feels like a stranded whale.

The story is not quite clear, since one wonders why the lawyer, Michaels, wanted to find a really bad replacement for Dr. Maitlins' radio show about psychiatry—did he want to sabotage the show? If so, why? What was the point? But then again, why was he shocked when Burns started to do a really unorthodox show? The thing was not really well thought out to the end. Some jokes work here and there ("What are those white things?" - "Those are swans. They come with the hotel."), yet most of them feel underdeveloped, unless you think that there is something really funny about Burns talking to a man about premature ejaculation, who has it live on air, again and again. Walter Matthau's character of Becker is unnecessary, useless and should have been cut out of the story—he is there to blackmail the protagonist, but it all leads nowhere, and he feels like a third wheel, like an extra who does not contribute to the story at all. Conversely, more time should have been given to Dr. Maitlins (a very good Charles Grodin), who could have listened to the radio show and acted to stop it. Neither is it clear what Burns' appeal is, why is he such a hit among the audience. Sure, he talks directly about their sexual problems, but didn't Dr. Maitlins do that as well, just much more subtly? "The Couch Trip" is a generic film, without much inspiration or ingenuity, with only a handful amusing moments. One of them is when Aykroyd's Burns gives a demented speech in front of the audience of the privilege of their profession compared to that one of a doctor ("Be a psychiatrist. You won't have to wash your hands as much!") or when he puts a cigar on a crab pincer and "smokes" through a lobster during dinner.

Grade:+

Stan & Ollie

Stan & Ollie; drama / comedy, UK / Canada / USA, 2018, D: Jon S. Baird, S: Steve Coogan, John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson, Nina Arianda  

1 9 5 3. The popular comedy duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy is in decline, so they accept to do a comedy tour through Britain in order to gain attention of a film producer, Miffin, who could finance their next film about Robin Hood. Once there, Laurel and Hardy are taken aback by the shady theater halls they will perform in, and by very few people in the audience. However, with time, more and more people show up, until they are a hit in London and their wives, Lucille and Kitaeva, meet them there. Miffin informs Laurel that he will not be able to secure funds for their film, while Hardy suffers a heart attack. Hardy still manages to perform live on tour, but afterwards he retires. 

This biopic about the famous comedy duo Laurel and Hardy is more sad than funny, insisting on a more bitter, ambitious approach to fullfil the drama criteria, though, ironically, it actually works the best when it captures that comedy spirit of the duo in certain scenes on the margins. One of them was their attempt to make a Robin Hood film, called “Rob ‘em Good”, where Laurel planned several jokes, including a one where Hardy cries, so Laurel wanted to put a vase under him, as for his tears to water a plant and make it grow. Another one is presented in practice, such as the hysterical way in which Laurel trips over his own luggage again and again while entering a hotel, with a calm Hardy just waiting at the reception. As thankless as the task was in casting the two iconic title roles, so much did Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly give a run for their money and deliver truly wonderful performances, regardless of the confinement of the thin script. Sadly, the story only captures the final days of the duo (and not their early careers when they were in their heyday), leaving a lot out of the picture, though it did this with an aim to create a theme about transience, embodied in the scenes of the old Laurel and Hardy who sense that their comedy has become dated and they are not needed anymore, that their time is up. In one sequence, they argue (“I loved us.” - “You loved Laurel and Hardy. You never loved me”), while in another Laurel has a realization at a bar about the tragic layer of their characters (“In our movies, we never knew anyone, we only knew each other”), and, as over-dramatic as some of this might sound, they remained more than friends despite their ups and downs, and private problems. One biographer even joked that Laurel’s most successful marriage might have actually been with Ollie. The duo never achieved the enduring ingenuity of H. Lloyd or B. Keaton, but was more accessible to the masses due to their simplicity, and the film gives a worthy homage to them. 

Grade:++

Tenet

Tenet; science-fiction action thriller, UK / USA, 2020, D: Christopher Nolan, S: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Kenneth Branagh, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Martin Donovan, Fiona Dourif, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Michael Caine

After sabotaging a siege of a Kyiv opera by Russian terrorists, a CIA agent is tortured by them. He takes a suicide pill, but is saved by the CIA, who recruits him into a new team, “Tenet”. In the opera, they found a device that can invert time on objects: for instance, a bullet is fired in reverse. The agent is ordered to find out who is behind this, and he tracks down Russian oligarch Sator. It turns out that in the future, a scientist invented a device called Algorithm which can reverse time in objects, but she was affraid it will be used as a weapon and thus dismantled it in nine parts and hid it in different locations back in time. Sator accidentally discovered a part of it, and has been in contact with the Agency from the future, which wants him to leave the Algorithm in an underground bunker, where they will find it in the future. They also want him to invert the entropy of Earth, destroying CO2 civilization in order to prevent global warming in the future. The agent and his friend Neil lead a team which stops this, while they also save Sator’s wife Kat.

Christopher Nolan wanted to make his own James Bond-like spy film, but managed to actually shoot above this goal and deliver a big budget rarity: a philosophical action film. Unlike the poorly conceptualized “Inception”, and to some extent even “Interstellar” due to its illogical last act, excellent “Tenet” is (almost) consistently thought out from start to finish, and is a joy to watch: it is mysterious, suspensful, esoteric. John David Washington is too brutish at first, yet he compensates later on due to the tight events that happen to him, whereas Robert Pattinson is the real surprise here, giving a competent performance. Several sequences are isolated pieces of ‘tour-de-force’ on their own, such as the brilliant heist attempt in which the team throws gold bars on the airport tracks as a diversion and then simply crashes a vault with an airplane (!) plowing through a building, while the protagonist and Neil hold their breath to try to steal an item inside the sealed off room filled with a special gas that was activated due to a fire alarm. But the time reverse concept is the most fascinating aspect of the film, since some of these scenes are so unique, disorienting, scary and eerie that they almost seem as if something haunted is happening.

One example is the car chase on a highway near Tallinn, in which the agent and Neil are terrified when they hear someone starting to talk in reverse, and then a flipped car unflips, turns and starts driving in reverse towards them, since it is in inverted time. The effect is memorable. The sole sequence where the agent is inverted himself, and exits near a port where seagulls are flying backwards and a ship is sailing in reverse, is so magical it sends shivers down the spine. The finale is also great, involving a genius tehnique of a “temporal pincer” since one team is attacking in real time, and the other in inverted time, culminating in a virtuoso moment where a destroyed building “unexplodes” and assembles itself again into a whole, but is then shot and explodes again in real time — you really have to direct such a complicated scene. Nolan is once again weaker in creating characters, who are again lifless, dull, whereas his dialogues are again stale, and some of his tendencies to always insert a plot twist leads to two major plot holes that somewhat weaken the storyline: one is the identity of the masked attacker; the other is the villain Sator’s motivation for doing all this, which is personal and suicidal, and thus one wonders why anybody would fight for his folly when they themselves would be killed? Nonetheless, “Tenet” is a dazzling and wild experience, and a secret allegory on trying to get a grip on your destiny and take control in your life.

Grade:+++