Film Movie: A Stranger in Town, 1943

MGM's A Stranger in Town will hopefully be the first of many classic films I'll be watching in the days ahead. For now, it's a plan, and as far as plans go, I hope I can stick to this one. I picked a good one to start my classic-film adventure.

Directed by Roy Rowland, whose films I'm not yet familiar with, A Stranger in Town is a political drama where "small town meets big justice". But there's a twist: the story is less about politics and more about wit and wisdom.

It all starts when US Supreme Court justice, John Josephus Grant (actor Frank Morgan, the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz) goes on a quiet vacation—duck hunting, actually. But the absence of a proper license unwittingly lands him in the middle of a small-town power struggle, a mayoral election, that wasn't on his agenda.

The justice, who hides his true identity and goes by the name of Joe Grant, finds himself rooting for Bill Adams (Richard Carlson), a young, honest and somewhat naïve lawyer running for mayor against the wealthy and influential incumbent, Connison (Robert Barrat). Connison has the local judge, businessman and sheriff in his pocket, using them to get Adams into trouble with the law and tarnish his public image.

But Joe Grant, the affable, unassuming and quick-witted judge, has a trick or two up his sleeve and helps Adams turn the tables on the crooked mayor. He's aided in this venture by his trusted secretary, Lucy Gilbert (Jean Rogers), who falls for Adams.

The final scene unfolds in dramatic fashion as Justice Grant, the Stranger in Town, takes centre stage in a packed courtroom.

A Stranger in Town is a light-hearted, old-fashioned black-and-white film that's fun to watch, mainly because there's nothing sinister about the corrupt ways of the mayor and his sidekicks. I enjoyed the film as much for the three solid characters as for the slapstick humour, the harmless street-side brawls and fisticuffs, which add to its appeal.

How a bus chase became an accidental film festival

Last Thursday, February 6, I learnt an important lesson: if you've crossed fifty, never run to catch a bus. Instead, wait for the next one, take an autorickshaw or call an Uber. 

That evening, I ran, ducked, leaped and dodged like an African gazelle to catch a bus leaving the railway station in suburban Mumbai, when my knees buckled and I nearly fell. A sharp pain shot through my leg, as if someone had struck me hard with a stick or fired a bullet into my calf. A couple of passersby helped me up and I managed to hail an autorickshaw home. By then, I was in agony and fighting back tears.

The injury forced me to stay home—or rather, work from home—for nearly two weeks. I was advised complete rest: no travel, no unnecessary movement, and no yoga either. The physician didn't think it was a tear and therefore didn't recommend an x-ray or scan. He prescribed ice and heat packs, painkillers and anti-inflammatory medication, a pain-relieving balm, my trusted homoeopathy, and plenty of pampering from the family. The calf is still sore, but it is much better.

With little to do, I spent my days at home reading, watching movies and listening to old music. Here is a recap of the films, mostly from Netflix and a few from cable TV.

(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Red Joan, 2018: Loosely based on a true story, the film follows widow Joan Stanley (Judi Dench), who is interrogated by British intelligence decades after allegedly passing atomic bomb secrets to the Soviets during WWII. Convinced that she was acting in Britain's best interests, Joan believes that maintaining a balance of power between the Americans and the Soviets would help preserve peace. Told largely through a series of flashbacks, Red Joan makes for an interesting watch.

Beirut, 2018: Set in war-torn Beirut in the 1980s, the film follows Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm), a widowed and washed-up former US diplomat who is drawn back to Lebanon to negotiate the release of a friend and colleague being held hostage by a PLO faction. I liked the film partly because I have followed events in the Middle East since the 1980s.

We Bought A Zoo, 2011: Rich widower Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) and his children buy a country estate, only to find that the deal includes the zoo that comes with it. The film also stars Scarlett Johansson as his love interest and Thomas Haden Church as his brother. Based on the book by Benjamin Mee, We Bought A Zoo is a warm and enjoyable family drama. 

The Kominsky Method, 2018: This is the kind of story I'd like to write. The series follows two ageing friends—acting coach Sandy Kominsky (Michael Douglas) and his longtime agent Norman Newlander (Alan Arkin)—as they navigate the ups and downs of life together. With humour, wit and warmth, they confront old age, cynicism, loneliness, illness and personal loss. It was one of the best things I watched on television during my enforced stay at home.

Lucky, 2017: Harry Dean Stanton was apparently 91 when he played Lucky, a reclusive Navy veteran living in a small Arizona town. The film follows his rigid daily routine until one day he collapses at home. Although remarkably healthy for his age, the incident forces him to confront the realities of ageing and mortality. Lucky offers a profound insight into one man's philosophical journey and features some memorable dialogue along the way. Stanton, who died before the film's release, looks every bit his age, and that makes the story poignant from the start.

The Big Short, 2015: Another true-life story about the 2007–08 US financial crisis, triggered by the collapse of the housing market. Remember subprime mortgages? This one largely went over my head, though it is based on Michael Lewis’s book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine.

The Hard Way, 2019: Payne (Michael Jai White), a retired soldier turned bar owner, travels to Romania to avenge the death of his brother, a secret operative. He finds a capable ally in Mason (Luke Goss), his brother's former teammate. Avoidable.

Boy Erased, 2018: Jared Eamons (Lucas Hedges), the son of preacher Marshall Eamons (Russell Crowe) and Nancy Eamons (Nicole Kidman), is forced into a church-backed gay conversion programme. I found the film rather disturbing. How can parents do such a thing to their children? Accepting and loving one's child should never be a parental issue. The film's emotional climax comes when Jared tells his father: "I'm gay, and I'm your son. And neither of those things are going to change. Okay? So let's deal with that!" By that point, it is hard not to wonder who really needs 'conversion' therapy? The film is based on Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith and Family by Garrard Conley.

In the end, what began with a painful dash for a bus turned into an accidental film festival at home.

Nothing much happened

2017 was probably my worst year of reading and writing in recent memory. I read very few books, short stories, essays and poetry, and reviewed even less on my blog. I was preoccupied with personal and professional labours, even as commuting to work and back got more stressful, which left me with little energy to read or blog. 

© Bill Waterson

As the year wore on, my visits to other blogs declined. It was the one thing I missed the most. But a New Year, as Calvin tells Hobbes, is a "new beginning" and full of "new possibilities" and I look forward to reconnecting with my fellow readers and bloggers. In fact, it's the first thing I'm going to do in 2018, starting tomorrow.

Some of you may have noticed that I'm quite active on social media but that's only because I mostly post on the go, waiting for a bus, an autorickshaw or a suburban train and sometimes during actual commute when I'm in no mood to read. What I didn't achieve reading and blogging, I more than made up with social media—I doubled my followers on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and, more recently, Instagram. It's another thing that I know less than 50 per cent of my connections. I have also been listening to a lot of old music and playing a lot of chess and Scrabble on Android. I have been playing the two board games since I was a kid, thanks to dad.

During the year I watched many films and serials, mostly Netflix originals including Marvel's stand-alones—Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist—though I still have to watch their combined miniseries The Defenders. I enjoyed Godless (western) and Alias Grace (psychological), both six-part limited series. Alias Grace is based on Margaret Atwood's Booker-nominated novel, which I have not read. Beasts of No Nation, the story of a child soldier in a war-torn African country, was a disturbing film. Idris Elba's character as the rebel warlord lacked depth.

For some reason, I also binge-watched Jason Statham's crime flicks on Netflix and I quite enjoyed it all; his films reminded me of the hard-boiled thrillers I often read. A couple of plots were straight out of a James Hadley Chase or a Lionel White, particularly the two caper movies The Italian Job and The Bank Job.

I also watched Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things, which "Examines the many flavors of minimalism by taking the audience inside the lives of minimalists from all walks of life—families, entrepreneurs, architects, artists, journalists, scientists, and even a former Wall Street broker—all of whom are striving to live a meaningful life with less." I found it interesting though there was nothing new about the "less is more" principle; mystics have been advocating it for centuries. We just need to be reminded of it every now and then. To be honest, I have been hoarding books when I should be reading and giving them away, at least the ones that aren't going to be a part of my collection. 

© www.theminimalists.com

On the writing side, well, I'm still writing; struggling actually, with time constraints and writer's block, though the latter is a self-created myth. It's an excuse not to write and watch a movie, instead. I have incomplete short stories, a novel I've only recently started working on, and a work of nonfiction that I hope will make people feel good about themselves. I'm going to persist with these projects in 2018, try and write every single day, and work to a deadline.

© Juggernaut Books

On a slightly positive note, I published my first short story, A Little Murder at Dinner, at Juggernaut Books, a Delhi-based writing platform. It's an atmospheric tale about a cop and his wife, and set around a couple of murders.

Here is an extract from that story:

“Do you really think she did it, Harry?” Trisha’s voice was almost a whisper.

Hemmady shrugged, “The Dina I knew a long time ago couldn’t have done it. Now I’m not so sure. People change and that’s not always good. Sometimes bad things happen. I think she and Rana decided to get back together, maybe for Jenny’s sake, maybe for the money, and it all went wrong. I feel for Jenny. She didn’t deserve any of this.” 

“Will you be okay, Harry? I mean, you’re going to see her...,” Trisha’s voice trailed off.

“I’ll be fine, Trish. It’s just another homicide.”

She didn’t stress the point. They both knew it was more than that.

So that's how the year was—nothing much happened. But I do hope to make things happen in 2018, particularly where my writing is concerned.

3:10 to Yuma, 2007

Dan Evans to his elder son William: And you just remember that your old man walked Ben Wade to that station when nobody else would. 

The last scene in 3:10 to Yuma (2007) where notorious outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) and peace-loving rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale) dash out of a hotel, with bullets flying all around them, is reminiscent of Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) running out of an empty hovel in the final moments of the famous namesake film (1969).

The comparison ends there.

Cassidy and the Kid are thick as two thieves, literally, robbing banks and trains before meeting their fate in a Bolivian town. Wade and Evans start out as foes and in a fateful turn of events end up fighting a common enemy—Wade’s own murderous gang trying to rescue their boss.

Civil War veteran Evans, married with two young sons, reluctantly agrees to be part of the team escorting Wade from Bisbee to Contention—and put him on the 3:10 train to Yuma to face justice and the gallows. He desperately needs the $200 reward to clear a debt and save his land, even if it means risking his life for a gunslinger.

Predictably, things don’t go as planned. The journey is fraught with danger and high drama, as Indians and gunmen ambush the party and the shrewd and manipulative Wade plays mind games with Evans. In the end, the rancher is left alone with his captive. Does he succeed in putting Wade on the train?

Doc Potter: Is it true that you dynamited a wagon full of prospectors in the western territories last spring?

Ben Wade: No, that's a lie... It was a train full.

3:10 to Yuma is about one man’s courage and determination, and what he believes in, and another man’s last shot at redemption and in a way doffing his hat to the better man. The end turned out to be anticlimactic compared to what I expected. Bale and Crowe fit into the skin of their characters. Crowe plays the bad guy in a good way. I’m not sure villainous roles suit him. 

Directed by James Mangold (Cop Land, Girl, Interrupted, Kate & Leopold, The Wolverine), the two-hour long film has a galloping pace, plenty of gunfights, and cold-blooded killing. The action is in harmony with Marco Beltrami's music. The dialogue is crisp and clever, and almost philosophical in tone. Wade’s trigger-happy sidekick Charlie Prince (Ben Foster) and bounty hunter Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda) are the other actors to watch out for. Foster, in particular, plays a mean gunman to perfection.  

Ben Wade to Dan Evans: You know, squeezin' that watch won't stop time.

In spite of its contemporary filmmaking style, 3:10 to Yuma is in every sense a traditional western. I intend to watch the 1957 original starring Glenn Ford as Ben Wade and Van Heflin as Dan Evans, and read Elmore Leonard’s short story on which the film is based.

Recommended.

Witty acceptance speeches by British actors

A peek at some Witty acceptance speeches by British actors for Tuesday’s Overlooked Films, Audio and Video over at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom.

When Peter O'Toole walked on to the stage to receive a well-deserved Honorary Oscar from Meryl Streep in 2003, there must have been an air of expectation among his celebrity audience who were probably eager to hear his rich and distinctive voice, and laugh at his wit and intelligent humour. It was a short speech but I'm sure he didn't disappoint them.

After greeting Streep and accepting the Academy Award from her, Peter O'Toole said after the extended standing ovation, and I quote him verbatim:

“Meryl Streep, members of the Academy, distinguished guests, viewers, ladies and gentlemen. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride—my foot! I have my very own Oscar now to be with me till death us do part.

“I wish the Academy to know that I am as delighted as I am honoured. And I am honoured. The magic of the movies enraptured me when I was a child. As I totter into antiquity, movie magic enraptures me still. Having already bagged this baby, as it were, and so spared uncertainties prior to the opening of an envelope, I'm able to think. I think of our colleagues, our old friends, now gone, who played their parts in this ceremony. I think of the sumptuous talents alive and well and with us now. I think of the astonishing young, the gifted and able young men and women who I meet practically every time I go to work and from whom I grab energy in handfuls. I think of the United States and of the loves and friendships I've known here for more than half a century, and of how much the nation has given to me both personally, privately and professionally. And I am deeply thankful. And now, at this last, you have given me this delightful shock. You're very good. Good night and God bless you.”

Years later, when I watched that Oscar night on YouTube, I marvelled at the renowned British-Irish actor's choice of words which evoked instant mental imagery and laughter. At one point, when O'Toole said, “As I totter into antiquity, movie magic enraptures me still,” his compatriot Michael Caine laughed out loud, and I couldn't help laughing with him.

It was a good acceptance speech, the kind of speech whose lines you remembered long after they were delivered.

Over the years and until his passing in December 2013, Peter O'Toole was no less hilarious in his television interviews. He once rode in on a camel on David Letterman's The Late Show, reprising his famous role in Lawrence of Arabia, and proceeded to regale viewers and spectators with his disarming charm and humour. Except, he wore a suit and smoked a cigarette through a holder.

O'Toole comes from an impressive roster of British actors who are as witty in real life as they often are on screen—actors like Michael Caine, Hugh Laurie, Daniel Day-Lewis, Julie Walters, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, Maggie Smith, John Cleese, Kate Winslet, Rowan Atkinson and Jim Broadbent, who deliver their lines with deadpan humour, be it in a speech or an interview.

In 1998, Caine had the audience in splits when he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor–Musical or Comedy for Little Voice, 1998. He opened his speech with this gem—“Oh, what a shock. My career must be slipping. This is the first time I've been available to pick up an award,” as if the awards were there for the asking. The rest of his speech was peppered with funny lines, which included the confession that he didn't work a lot without producer Harvey Weinstein. The Miramax co-founder was beside himself with laughter.

Colin Firth showed his funny side when he took home the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in The King’s Speech, 2011.

He said, “I have a feeling my career has just peaked. My deepest thanks to the Academy. I'm afraid I have to warn you that I'm experiencing stirrings. Somewhere in the upper abdominals which are threatening to form themselves into dance moves. Joyous as they may be for me, it would be extremely problematic if they make it to my legs before I get off stage.” Firth remained impassive throughout his speech which made his appearance that much more hilarious. Don't they feel like laughing too? They are, of course. masters of their craft and I suppose they can hide their emotions. Or, maybe, they don't mean to be as funny as we think they are.

I watch award shows like the Oscars, Golden Globe, American Film Institute, Emmy, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor only for the acceptance speeches, in the hope that some of the winners will make me laugh with their wit and wisecracks, and liven up my day just a bit.

The Intern, 2015

My password to Tuesday's Overlooked Films, Audio & Video over at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom.

Robert De Niro is 72, robust, and still making films. Sometimes four to six flicks a year. The Raging Bull star is probably the busiest actor of his era. He made 24 of his hundred-odd films only in the past six years. I have seen less than half of the total. So I'm no authority on his body of work.

The Scorsese veteran plays a widower in at least five of his recent films, including Nancy Meyers' The Intern (2015). As I watched the family drama on cable TV Sunday evening, I recalled an article I'd read in The Independent on why De Niro making bad films was “wildly depressing.”

Is it because there are no constructive roles for actors of his calibre and generation? Is he doing it for the money? I'm inclined to go with lack of suitably challenging roles rather than a love for the green bucks. I'm sure he has made enough. But who doesn't want more? 

Illeana Douglas, who worked with the actor on Goodfellas, Cape Fear and Guilty by Suspicion, had this to say in the UK paper: "They talk about De Niro walking through roles, just collecting the money, and I do think that’s true. I’ve heard from financiers that if you have the money De Niro will be in anything, and that he seems to just have checked out, that he knows in a way the gig is up and he’s just getting to the finish line, but I'm not sure if that’s true concerning his performances in Silver Linings Playbook for example, and even in something as benign as The Intern he brings a strange kind of authorial presence to a very lightweight movie."

I can't say if De Niro is making bad films considering that he has appeared in serious dramas, too, in recent years. Action thrillers like Stone, Killing Season, and Heist, which may not match his previously more enduring films. But I quite liked him in The Intern as opposed to his other widower-movies, Dirty Grandpa, Last Vegas, and Everybody's Fine. I have not seen Being Flynn yet.

The Intern is a lighthearted and lazy-Sunday flick in which his character Ben Whittaker, experienced, retired and 70 years, works as an intern in a Brooklyn-based e-commerce fashion startup owned by its hands-on founder and chief executive Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). Ben endears himself to his much younger colleagues, always willing to lend a hand, even break the law, and helps Jules cope with office pressures and repair her marriage. Jules learns to respect and value Ben’s trust and friendship, and the two bond like father and daughter. This is their film only.

De Niro is charming in a role that “suits” him well, perhaps because he looks the part of an elderly, kind and affable gentleman and because he doesn’t say much in the film. Along the way he meets Fiona (Rene Russo), a masseuse, and rediscovers love and companionship. And you’re glad he does.

The Intern is a nice film about friendship, love and relationship. There is nothing "wildly depressing" about it. De Niro gets the film out of the way with the flick of his wrist.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969

Entry for Tuesday’s Overlooked Films, Audio and Video over at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom. Click on the link and discover films and television series you may have missed.

In a cheeky post on Facebook a few days ago, I observed that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) could well have been the original Brokeback Mountain (2005). I’m sure this is not a new thought. It has probably occurred to others who have seen both films and written about it too.

Partners in crime, Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and Sundance Kid (Robert Redford), don't share the sexual relationship and emotional chemistry that Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) do in Ang Lee's heartbreaking film.
 
Yet, the relationship that Cassidy and the Kid have, as they rob trains in the US and hold up banks in Bolivia, is no less special. They nurture a strong bond of friendship and mutual respect. The outlaws are together from the beginning of the film—covering each other’s backs, drawing comfort from one another, each finding strength in the other's presence—till the very end.

The Cassidy-Kid relationship is not as complicated as that of Ennis and Jack, who marry their girlfriends eventually. They are not physically intimate nor do they pine for each other, although they do sleep with the same woman, Etta Place (Katharine Ross), the Kid’s lover. But it's not about her.

My favourite part in the film is when Cassidy and the Kid get to know each other better during a prolonged run from a dogged US posse, through barren lands and rocky mountains. In one particular scene, the Kid dumps his horse and rides behind Cassidy in an effort to throw off their pursuers. It doesn’t work. It is this adventurous journey, characterised by quiet fear, mild candour and wry humour, that brings them closer in a nonsexual way.

The final scene, when Cassidy and the Kid try and shoot their way out of a hopeless situation, is somewhat reminiscent of a Bollywood film where two lovers jump off a cliff because their parents oppose their relationship. The "boys" ride into the twilight together.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a very likeable and an entertaining western film that could have also been a poignant and tragic gay story. Had it been one, it'd probably have been ahead of its time. What do you think?

Green Zone, 2010

My entry for Tuesday's Overlooked Films, Audio and Video at Todd Mason's blog Sweet Freedom.

I discovered Green Zone (2010), directed by Paul Greengrass, and Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone (2006), the book on which it is loosely based, quite by accident.

After watching the film unexpectedly on cable, I read about it online and found that it was adapted from the book by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, an award-winning Indian-American journalist.

Chandrasekaran was former Bureau Chief of The Washington Post in Baghdad had a ringside view of America’s 2003 war in Iraq. He was until recently National Editor at the paper and, apparently, left the Post to start his own venture.

I plan to read Imperial Life in the Emerald City because I have been following events in Iraq and the Middle East ever since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Before I talk about the film, here is the synopsis of the book.

The Green Zone, Baghdad, 2003: in this walled-off compound of swimming pools and luxurious amenities, Paul Bremer and his Coalition Provisional Authority set out to fashion a new, democratic Iraq. Staffed by idealistic aides chosen primarily for their views on issues such as abortion and capital punishment, the CPA spent the crucial first year of occupation pursuing goals that had little to do with the immediate needs of a postwar nation: flat taxes instead of electricity and deregulated health care instead of emergency medical supplies.

In this acclaimed firsthand account, the former Baghdad bureau chief of The Washington Post gives us an intimate portrait of life inside this Oz-like bubble, which continued unaffected by the growing mayhem outside. This is a quietly devastating tale of imperial folly, and the definitive history of those early days when things went irrevocably wrong in Iraq.

I think the common thread between film and book is that things didn’t go as America planned in the immediate aftermath of the Iraq war. Democracy cannot replace dictatorship overnight. Any regime change and especially a forced one brings its own set of challenges. There are serious consequences as we have seen in the years following US withdrawal. Iraq seems to be worse off than it was under Saddam, however despotic his regime was.

While George Bush senior was largely justified in launching Operation Desert Shield, his son’s invasion of Iraq thirteen years later had less to do with weapons of mass destruction and more to do with conquering Iraq and replacing Saddam with a puppet regime. Green Zone exposes the lies Bush and his neocon buddies told the world, questions the justification for American involvement, and reveals the deceptions and internal conflicts of agencies like Pentagon and CIA.

Caught in the crossfire of conspiracy are Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) and his men whose mission is to find the weapons—based on secret information given by an Iraqi named Magellan—and bring in Al-Rawi, a powerful general in the Iraqi Republican Guard. The powers-that-be have good reason to capture Rawi for he can nail America's lie.

During a tense standoff between Miller and Rawi, the general reveals that Iraq got rid of the weapons in the early nineties but Washington didn’t want the world to know the truth. And that might well have been the case.

General Al Rawi: Your government wanted to hear the lie, Mr. Miller... they wanted Saddam out and they did exactly what they had to do... this is why you are here...

Rawi, who was on America’s 55 most wanted list, is currently serving a life sentence for his role in the suppression of the 1991 rebellions in Iraq.

Green Zone has the feel of an action-packed documentary and that’s partly because the events and people seem all too real, including WSJ reporter Lawrie Dayne (Amy Ryan) who suspects the truth and lets Miller in on the secret. The last hour of the film is shot almost entirely in the dark and shadowy lanes of Baghdad, as Miller and his men chase Al Rawi. It’s the kind of film that makes you wonder—"Did this really happen?”—and leaves you balancing on the seesaw of fact and fiction.

The very talented Matt Damon is somewhat expressionless but he does well as a conscientious soldier in a war that should have never taken place. Other notable actors include Greg Kinnear and Brendan Gleeson. The film was shot in Spain, Morocco and England though the viewer wouldn't know. 

Director Paul Greengrass seems to favour Damon who he cast in The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) in the Bourne Trilogy. The actor is set to reprise the role of Jason Bourne in the namesake movie slated for a July release. Apart from these films, Greengrass has made Captain Phillips (2013), United 93 (2006) and Bloody Sunday (2002), all very intense and hair-raising. Clearly, he has a penchant for real-life stories laden with drama and action.

If you enjoyed films like American Sniper, The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty and Black Hawk Down, you’ll probably like the lesser-known Green Zone, but don’t go in with too many expectations.

Top Gun 2

Three decades later, a sequel to the universally popular film Top Gun is ready for takeoff. A curtain raiser for Overlooked Films, Audio and Video at Todd Mason's blog Sweet Freedom.

© Paramount Pictures

The news is more or less confirmed. There will likely be a Top Gun 2, after all. Last week, Jerry Bruckheimer, who co-produced Top Gun in 1986, told Wired he was teaming up with Tom "Maverick" Cruise and David Ellison for a possible sequel. Ellison's Skydance Productions is developing the film. So far, Val Kilmer, who plays his rival in the original, is on board. There have been no further disclosures.

"There is an amazing role for Maverick in the movie and there is no Top Gun without Maverick. It is going to be Maverick playing Maverick. It is, I don’t think, what people are going to expect, and we are very, very hopeful that we get to make the movie very soon," Ellison told Wired in what I thought was a confusing statement. One Maverick too many, perhaps.

The timing couldn't have been better, as Tony Scott's Top Gun completes three decades this May, though it is not known when the sequel will be released.

Apart from Maverick's flying acrobatics in the sky, I remember Top Gun for the adrenaline-pumping and exaggerated masculinity of its fighter pilots and the award-winning song Take My Breath Away, written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock and performed by Berlin, and Top Gun Anthem, the instrumental rock-song composed by Harold Faltermeyer, of Beverly Hills Cop fame.

Sequels rarely live up to their originals. I hope this one does. Tom Cruise was only 24 when he played the reckless US Naval Aviator the first time. He is 54 now and I hope not too old for the Tomcat cockpit.

I Am Sam, 2002

Love is all you need is the tag line of I Am Sam. I offer a review of the film for Tuesday’s Overlooked Films, Audio and Video over at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom.

Lucy (Dakota Fanning): Why are men bald?

Sam (Sean Penn): Sometimes they're bald because their head is shiny and they don't have hair on it. So their head is just more of their face. 

Whether as a producer, director or writer, Jessie Nelson seems to be pleasantly obsessed with issues of coping and bonding, which form the underlying structure of many of her films. This is evident in her directorial ventures, Corrina, Corrina (1994), I Am Sam (2002), and Love the Coopers (2015), where she explores the complexities of love and relationships. 

Sam Dawson (Sean Penn), a mentally-challenged man, raises his daughter Lucy Diamond (Dakota Fanning) after her mother abandons her at birth. He has named her after The Beatles song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.’ He works at Starbucks and is equally obsessed with brewing coffee. Sam adores his daughter in his own childlike way and Lucy loves him no less. At times she is forced to play the role of parent, but she won't let on that her intellectual capacity is superior to his.

When she turns seven, the authorities take away the precocious child, ostensibly, for her own good. Father and daughter meet under supervision and hate every bit of it. Sam struggles to find a lawyer who will help him get his little girl back. He finds Rita Harrison Williams (Michelle Pfeiffer), a self-centered, high-society lawyer, who takes up his case pro bono, only to prove a point to her snickering colleagues. Does she win the courtroom battle?

Rita (Michelle Pfeiffer): I just don't know what to call you: retarded, mentally retarded, mentally handicapped, mentally disabled, intellectually handicapped, intellectually disabled, developmentally disabled...

Sam (Penn): You can call me Sam.

Jessie Nelson has handled the subject of a retarded parent, who is crazy about his daughter, with a great deal of sensitivity, and dignified humour. The camerawork is respectful of the delicate subject. The various scenes are well-crafted. While exploring the beautiful, and often poignant, relationship between Sam and Lucy, she also offers a glimpse into another—obsessed with her career, Rita, a single parent, learns to bond with her neglected young son and finds new meaning in her life. She owes it to Sam.

Sean Penn’s performance—as a kindly man with a mental capacity of a seven-year old and yet of keen perception—is good. I can imagine how much he researched and trained for the role that requires facial contortions and repetition of speech. He is a method actor, I think. He plays the mentally disabled Sam Dawson to near perfection, though not convincingly enough to convert his nominations for ‘Best Actor in a Leading Role’ at the Oscars and SAGA, into awards. Whether he deserved one is open to debate.

Dakota Fanning is a natural-born actress and her remarkable talent shows in this film as well as it does in Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, and Hide and Seek. Michelle Pfeiffer acts well but is clearly overshadowed by Penn. I’d have preferred Susan Sarandon. She and Penn shared a good chemistry in Dead Man Walking (1995). Dianne Wiest, Richard Schiff, and Laura Dern put in more or less guest appearances.

The underlying message of I Am Sam is that, the mentally challenged are nearly as normal as anyone else, certainly more so where matters of the heart are concerned. It's a nice film and I liked it, partly because of Sean Penn's affecting screen presence.

Rita (Pfeiffer): Sam, I worry. I worry sometimes.

Sam (Penn): Yeah... do you worry that you did something wrong?

Rita: No. I worry that I've gotten more out of this relationship than you.

Revolutionary Road, 2008

This is my entry for Tuesday’s Overlooked Films, Audio and Video over at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom.

It was a coincidence that just the day before Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet won Golden Globes for The Revenant and Steve Jobs, respectively, I watched the two in Revolutionary Road, an intense and at times depressing family drama that exposes the soft underbelly of “happily” married couples.

In 2008, Winslet won Golden Globes for Best Actress and Actress of the Year, including for The Reader. DiCaprio and director Sam Mendes failed to convert their nominations into what would have been well-deserved awards.

DiCaprio and Winslet play Frank and April Wheeler who live on Revolutionary Road in a Connecticut suburb with their two children. They seem content with their quotidian middle-class existence, he as an ordinary salesman in the company where his father worked for many years and she as a dutiful wife who manages home and the kids.

Mendes doesn’t waste time with the niceties of married life. No sooner the film is underway he tears away the veil of matrimonial bliss, at least in the eyes of their next-door friends Milly Campbell (Kathryn Hahn) and her husband Shep (David Harbour), and their real estate broker Mrs. Givings (Kathy Bates).

At the heart of the story lies April’s plan to migrate to Paris, in search of a new identity and a more fulfilling life as much for herself as for her family, which quickly turns into a nightmare as it conflicts with Frank’s own. From thereon, it’s downhill for the couple who are caught in a tangle of self-deception, frustration, anger, promiscuity, despair, and tragedy.

Sam Mendes (Road to Perdition) has made a powerful film that lays bare the harsh realities of married life, the frailties of ordinary people, and how “happy” couples can be their own worst enemies. Although the director gives equal weightage to the characters of DiCaprio and Winslet, I thought this was actually Alice’s story. Full of zest for life, Alice aspires to become an actress again only to see her dreams crash, after her differences with Frank erupt like a volcano.

Not surprisingly, DiCaprio and Winslet give a splendid performance in Revolutionary Road, particularly in their nasty arguments and fights, their emotions and feelings of guilt, so typical of problems husbands and wives face in the real world. In that sense the film holds a mirror to marriages. DiCaprio deserved an award too.

Recommended.

New Year's Eve, 2011

Theme: Tuesday’s Overlooked Films, Audio and Video at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom.

I enjoy watching films with big casts of popular and familiar actors, called blockbusters in Bollywood. Of course, blockbusters pertain to mega hits and not the strength of actors, as they usually do in Hindi cinema. The thinking is more the number of actors, greater the entertainment. It doesn’t always work that way unless we are talking of The Dirty Dozen.

New Year’s Eve, directed by Garry Marshall, has a diverse cast that includes both principals and ensemble. The 2011 romcom is all about twosomes caught in various stages of their lives and in different situations on, you guessed it, New Year’s Eve. The various characters put their lives in perspective hours before ringing in the New Year. It’s not a happy time for everyone, though. For instance, we have a dying patient, Robert De Niro, and his caring nurse, Halle Berry, in a hospital setting. Two mature people coming to terms with the realities of life.

You can give the film a miss if you like. There is nothing terribly exciting about it. I watched the film because it was a lazy Sunday afternoon when I didn’t feel like doing anything truly worthwhile. Besides, I wanted to see how Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, John Lithgow, Robert De Niro, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Josh Duhamel, Hilary Swank, Héctor Elizondo, Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker, Katherine Heigl, Jon Bon Jovi, Ashton Kutcher, Sofia Vergara, Russell Peters, Seth Meyers, and Jim Belushi, among others, got together and entertained the rest of us, in a decent and mild sort of way.

Garry Marshall made Valentine’s Day, a somewhat similar film, in 2010. He seems to be the master of makeup and breakup movies as evident from his other fare that includes Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Raising Helen, and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.