Attica, Attica, and Wyoming

 DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Sidney Lumet's "Dog Day Afternoon" is one of the most peculiar, most offbeat and deeply involving crime pictures I've ever seen. Most bank robbery pictures since the 1970's revelled in the criminal element and the extreme violence, though usually the bank robbery was often a mere glimpse, a brief passage. Not so with "Dog Day Afternoon" where the robbery itself is mostly an afterthought - the robbers figure into the action and the whole film takes place in the bank on one especially humid summer day. 

Anxiety-ridden Sonny Wortzik (a spry Al Pacino) is ready to rob a Brooklyn bank with the help of the sinister, deadly quiet Salvatore "Sal" Naturile (John Cazale), though one other robber during the robbery in progress gets cold feet and flees. Trouble brews right from the start as they find that the bank vault only carries $1,100 rather than the huge amounts of cash they were expecting. Sonny has knowledge of the bank and their registers and what may trigger any alarms yet a small fire in a trash can where he burns the register brings the cops to the scene quickly (the vents show the smoke from the outside). This has now developed into a hostage situation with the bank tellers, the diabetic manager and the asthmatic security guard as the hostages. The air-conditioning doesn't work, the tactical police units are ready to barrel through the back entrance, and Sonny and Sal are left with their pants down. All they can do is ask for pizza, sodas (no beer) and a jet plane to take them to Algeria! 

The purpose behind this robbery is not for Sonny to have extra bucks to live on but to pay for a sex change operation for his lover and new wife, Leon Shermer (Chris Sarandon). The remarkable thing about "Dog Day Afternoon" is that the screenplay by Frank Pierson doesn't revolve around this robbery motive or the specifics of the robbery alone but rather the environment of this chaotic situation. Eventually Leon is brought in to this crisis from Bellevue hospital and what occurs is a phone conversation between Sonny and Leon, though they are literally right next door to each other. It is both dramatic and sad since Leon doesn't want to continue a relationship with the temperamental Sonny - such a scene could occur inside their own home. The fact that this is during a failed bank robbery is not central to the film's effectiveness - "Dog Day Afternoon" is not really a crime picture but rather about the distilled humanity of a group of people who have nothing in common with each other. Sonny knows the ins and out of banks but otherwise he is just an average guy who becomes a celebrity with the spectators after yelling "Attica, Attica!" - you have to have some knowledge of Attica as a deadly prison massacre from years earlier. And after being shown on television, Sonny's marriage to Leon becomes public and he gets support from the gay community. As for the bank tellers, they grow accustomed to Sonny seeing him less as a threat and more of a misunderstood soul. Only Sal proves to still be a quiet threat.  

"Dog Day Afternoon" is not a rudimentary thriller nor a violent action piece. In fact, the only violence occurs at the end and it is very brief. The movie thrives on the mounting tension between the cops, the hostage negotiations and Sonny and Sal. In today's world of violent cinema, you know some hostages would've been killed and there would have been a Mexican standoff of some sort in its finale. "Dog Day Afternoon" is surprisingly chaste and all the better for it (check out 1973's "Friends of Eddie Coyle" for similarly less violent, anarchic situations). Lumet places us the viewer squarely in the bank, and everything else is seen from Sonny's point-of-view. Infrequently we see other points of view such as the hundreds of cops getting ready to fire, and we get the frustrated Sergeant Eugene Moretti (Charles Durning) who just wants this extremely volatile situation to end. Pacino in particular conveys so much without overacting - one of his finest, most emotionally centered roles ever. Sonny's like a puppy dog with big brown eyes lost in the confusion of his own life - his other wife, Angie (Susan Peretz), who is quite loquacious, is lost in this mess as well. I can't begin to describe my effusive praise for "Dog Day Afternoon" other than saying I did not want it to end - a day of chaos that is both exhausting and exhilarating. 

Destroyer of Worlds

 THE DAY AFTER TRINITY (1981)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Los Alamos. J. Robert Oppenheimer. Atomic bomb tests. Those three singular sentences should have never have coalesced yet, nevertheless, they did. Watching Jon Else's powerful, intrinsically fascinating and terrifying documentary "The Day After Trinity," it all hinges on how everyone involved in the infamous Trinity atomic bomb test thought that maybe the atomic bomb shouldn't have happened.  

Oppenheimer was not a man cultured in world news or politics, at least not in the beginning of his youth. He was principally a man of physics and mathematics that yielded a discovery by way of Albert Einstein and led to Oppenheimer's vision of an atomic bomb. After the horrific Pearl Harbor tragedy of 1941 and the worsening Nazi holocaust, it was rumored that Germany was building an atomic bomb so this ignited a patriotic charge in Oppenheimer. The rumor proved false since Germany failed to build that weapon yet the determined physicist took the best minds in the field of physics from around the world to the desolate desert of Los Alamos, New Mexico to build this bomb. It was in this expansive area that they were test the force of the bomb and to see just how destructive it could be. To say they were nonplussed and amazed by its sheer power would be an understatement; Oppenheimer himself was pleased it was not a "dud."

The rest is history as the bomb was tested on human lives, destroying two Japanese cities - Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The human toll was astronomical yet it led the Japanese forces to surrender and it is a historic chapter in World War II that either you bemoan or celebrate - the last war that America won otherwise known as the Great War. 

I am not sure "The Day After Trinity" is an anti-nuclear weapons film or anti-nuclear arms race film - Oppenheimer struggled with the government to end this race which he opined should never have proliferated the day after the Trinity atomic bomb test. It was too little and too late and Oppenheimer was attacked by Senator Joseph McCarthy at the time for being a possible Soviet spy and for his past Communist leanings. Oppenheimer's Atomic Energy Commission security clearance was expunged and he was never the same person ever since. (Note: As of December 16, 2022, United States Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm vacated the 1954 revocation of Oppenheimer's security clearance.) Robert's brother Frank Oppenheimer, a particle physicist, feels quite a bit of sorrow through his constant body language of seemingly covering his head in shame - he feels what his famous brother might have felt. That sense of regret is carried over to interviews of other scientists and collaborators leading to and during the days of the Trinity test. 

"The Day After Trinity" is scary and at times pulsates with a nervous energy, as it truly opens one's eyes to the enormity and scale of destruction of such a weapon. Oppenheimer might have seen the awesome destruction and beauty of such a "marvelous" weapon yet he felt that a discussion of war as a principle measure of destruction and violence could have carried something meaningful in the future. It didn't yet, ironically, he was still the destroyer of worlds.

I am the Walrus Goo goo g'joob

 TUSK (2014)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I was plainly sickened to my stomach by "Tusk," Kevin Smith's foray into body horror with a wink. The wink makes the palpable horror even worse and it becomes a geek show reducing its tension to that of an elongated farce with bloody body parts. I'll give it points for originality but it reminded me to completely avoid "The Human Centipede" for obvious reasons.

Justin Long is a narcissistic, obscene podcaster named Wallace who, partnered with Teddy (Haley Joel Osment), run a podcast called the "Not See Party" (a stupid idea considering the homophonic comparison to you know what). Wallace has a girlfriend (Genesis Rodriguez) whom he cheats on and has little else to offer in life (he considers his old self to be a loser). Yes, let's see just how narcissistic the prick really is with his newfound fame and his merch celebrating someone who belittles others. The newest target is the "Kill Bill Kid" who accidentally chops off his leg with a real sword in a viral video. Wallace and Teddy find the video funny and, thus, Wallace is ready to interview the Canuck kid whose video has more hits than his podcast. It is off to Canada and when he finds out that the Kill Bill Kid killed himself, Wallace is left dumbfounded rather than remorseful. Someone else needs to be his next target of ridicule and it turns out to be an old geezer named Howard (Michael Parks), who is wheelchair-bound and has left a notice at some bar that he wishes for companionship at his remote home in Bifrost. Wallace sees the note, visits the guy and the walrus becomes more than a topic of conversation.

"Tusk" is unsettling for the first third of the movie and the tension is tightly coiled. This does not surprise me coming from director Kevin Smith who maintained tension and suspense in equal droves in "Red State." The problems arise when too much happens too soon in "Tusk," and it becomes a practically barf-inducing and sickening joke. Michael Parks underplays beautifully and Justin Long is fantastic at playing an obnoxious jerk yet whatever sympathy we develop for Wallace is lost and introduced too late in the game by way of flashbacks. The connections, however minute by narrative design, occurred to me between the Kill Bill Kid's amputation and some of the body modifications that Wallace has to suffer. Suffice to say, once you see the body modification and melding of...eh, I can't even say; well, just be prepared to avert your eyes. Yet the movie opts for some humor with the introduction of an investigator (the surprise of who's playing him is more fun in the discovery) and that breaks the tension, though it felt necessary for me. Still, once we arrive at the conclusion, it felt like Kevin Smith was just trying to make us laugh at all this. I will not give away the final scene but it rang false for me, inducing more chuckles that seem to come from a horror parody. So did Howard's obsession with walruses and what Frankenstein-like experiments he wishes to do with Wallace. Michael Parks is an excellent, seasoned actor but he couldn't convince me of these unholy practices, unlike his Elmer-Gantry preacher in "Red State."  

"Tusk" is effective at times and I was not bored for a second but it is more of a sickening joke, a geek show with pretensions of horror laced with humor, than a genuine horror picture.    

I Love that Old Time Kevin Smith

 JAY AND SILENT BOB REBOOT (2019)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Geez Mr. Kevin Smith, captain of New Jersey dick and fart jokes, why return to such puerile, infantile material? What happened to the dramatic horror effect of "Red State" or the sickening ugliness of "Tusk"? (Eh, don't wish to discuss that one again) What happened to the unfunny cop movie homage of "Cop Out"? Nah, don't answer that one either. Thank you is all I can say. I am a fan of the View Askewuniverse (or is it View Askew Verse?) and any New Jersey material mined around the edges of a town like Leonardo where the Quik Stop exists makes me deliriously happy. The last time we saw the stoners Jay and Silent Bob was in "Clerks II," which was a super good sequel. Now my little pot-smoking waifs, we got "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot" which is exactly what you might expect and then some. 

Jason Mewes as the somewhat moronic Jay who loves doobies is back along with his heterosexual mate, Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) who never says a word and texts how he feels via emoticons. Some of that humor can go a long way. Also, I must report Mr. Smith that the opening scenes of this movie fell flat and were troublingly unfunny, like freakin' "Mallrats" unfunny (Dude, or Your New Jersey Highness of the View Askew Order, did you really consider making a "Mallrats 2"?) Justin Long is a pop-cultured, prosecutor and defending lawyer of J & S and Craig Robinson is a judge, well versed in  Mighty Morphins trivia, and I was ready to say this movie was going to fall flat on its face. Little did I know that Mr. Smith had some snoogans in order, that is, he got me involved in a recycled plot from "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" where they try to stop a reboot of a "Bluntman and Chronic" movie called "Bluntman V. Chronic" only it is TV's "Supergirl" herself, Melissa Benoist, playing Chronic! Along their merry Mary Jane way with three saved potent pot cigs, Jay meets up again with Justice (Shannon Elizabeth), the giggly girl from the C.L.I.T animal activist group. It turns out Jay has a daughter played with electric energy by Hayley Quinn Smith (Kevin Smith's actual daughter). Anyway, the only way to stop this movie from being made is to go to Hollywood, and Jay's daughter also has some plans to head there as well.

Some gags really made me laugh, especially the whole comic-con version in the latter half (including an appearance by the real Kevin Smith playing himself who makes fun of himself). Included in the comic-con footage are terrific cameos by Val Kilmer as Bluntman and of course the aforementioned Melissa Benoist in a trailer for this fictional comic book movie.  It is also fun to see Ben Affleck back as Holden McNeil and Joey Lauren Adams as Amy, from "Chasing Amy" of course and the "Strikes Back" movie. I also found the Matt Damon cameo hysterical, playing that murderous angel from "Dogma." I could have lived without returnee Jason Lee as the irritating Brodie - something about that character sticks in my craw. A brief sequence involving a pedophile in a van just rang as tasteless and the "How High" pot-filled dream homage will make sense to only those that remember that movie. 

Jason Mewes, though, is the real star of the movie and just his ability to sniff out trouble in the winds or how he misinterprets everything as either sexual or otherwise makes me laugh. Kevin Smith can grate one's nerves as Silent Bob, though he does a fantastic homage to "Glengarry Glen Ross" during a KKK rally! Adding to valuable support to an increasingly silly universe is the incredible Harley Quinn Smith who brings the occasional Smith brand of genuine heart and soul. She's funny, smart and independent and slowly forms a strong bond with her stoner dad. I was incredibly moved by her in a movie that is meant to be raunchy with dick and fart jokes, or mostly dick jokes. Thank you Mr. Smith.   

It is HOT

 BODY HEAT (1981)

An Appreciation by Jerry Saravia

"Body Heat" is one of the few films I've ever seen that seems to literally sizzle. Every stylistically framed shot, every acutely timed line of dialogue and every performance sizzles. Set in a coastal town in Florida, it is the hottest time of the year and sweat pours out of you even after taking a shower. Other than Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing," never have I felt the heat so intensely and intrinsically as in Lawrence Kasdan's "Body Heat." It has been deemed the first neo-noir thriller though there is nothing neo about it. Kasdan obviously aimed to make a new spin on the classic "Double Indemnity" and possibly "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (the latter remade as a raw and singularly unimpressive Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange flick) and has succeeded beyond expectations yet still stays true to its fundamental traditions.

The characters in Kasdan's noir thriller, though, do not fit any of the traditional archetypes of the past. William Hurt is lawyer Ned Racine, a somewhat dim small-town lawyer who falls for Matty (Kathleen Turner) from the start, thinking only below his waist and not with his brains (She catches on quick when she says "You are not too smart are you. I like that in a man"). She is alluring, a sexual being who is married and tries to remain chaste. Ned is horny as a hound dog and says to her, "You shouldn't be wearing that body." Before one can say, "oh come over and just look at my wind chimes," Ned is asked to leave and bursts through her glass doors and makes passionate love to her. She wants it, and so does he. This is just the start of his troubles when Matty's husband (Richard Crenna), a wealthy businessman, comes back into town and the sexual pair have already decided to kill him. In this case, though, it is not for money or profit or anything other than this doomed pair wanting to be together because they love each other. Does Matty really love Ned or is it partially about money after all? It seems like it and, as you watch the film, it is clear that she is not just lusting after this man. Still, to make matters more complicated, Matty might have had a plan prior to their initial meeting. It is made more or less clear that she had him in her throes from the start.

Kathleen Turner, in her ravishing and hypnotic film debut, is not a one-dimensional siren nor is she a standard femme fatale. Her manipulative side is not made overtly obvious and that is Turner's strength as an actress. She loves men and she also wants freedom, so can she have both? Kasdan never makes that clear enough, making Matty one of those enigmatic femme fatales who knows how to play her cards right from the start. As Ned observes too late in the game, "She's relentless!" Yet Turner never makes it too obvious, always showing shades of false naivete in small spurts though never revealing how her mind is always at work and is one step ahead of everyone else. The final shot of the film is haunting, lyrical and beautiful yet quite sad. It should be victorious for a femme fatale of her nature yet it is not - we get the feeling she will never be quite at peace even in a scenic tropical island.

William Hurt also makes for a fascinatingly seedy man who beds many women who are either waitresses or nurses. He is just barely smart enough to know he's been had, though still dumb enough as well to not see what is happening with Matty. He thinks that his murder plan is his own when it is made abundantly clear that Matty has orchestrated the murder plot from the beginning (and that includes the drawing up of a new will). Hurt also has a sneaky way of making us care about him despite his seediness and his murderous mind - he loves this woman yet we can't get behind his taking a human life for love. This is all spun and orchestrated with far more humanity than the noirs of the past - you never sense a coldness arising out of these characters. Deftly and swiftly written by Lawrence Kasdan (his directorial debut),"Body Heat" has a clockwork plot that manages to never feel too complicated or contain any red herrings. Every piece falls into place because it really feels like the characters are orchestrating it rather than the feeling that some Chandleresque writer is at the helm. 

I am a lover of film noir in general, especially the postwar noir of the 40's and 50's. "Double Indemnity" holds a special place for me as having the most sparkling, deliciously spicy dialogue ever (Barbara Stanwyck was the siren in that film). "Body Heat" is not better but definitely its equal, containing more salacious dialogue and more honest sexuality yet never veering into crude, histrionic sexual scenes or heinous violence. That has become "Body Heat's" mainstay since very few thrillers during its wake have aimed for true sultriness and restraint or much else. The steam is what rises in "Body Heat" and leaves you satisfied with the lustful, somewhat romantic power of the film. "Body Heat" is the very essence of sophisticated adult noir. 

One may smile, and smile, and be a villain

 SMILE (2022)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"One may smile, and smile, and be a villain."

Quote from Shakespeare's "Hamlet"

I have to report that within the first ten minutes of "Smile," there is a shabbily-dressed female patient meeting with a therapist and this patient is deathly afraid and losing control of her senses. The terrified girl starts convulsing and is out of breath before standing upright with a frozen smile on her face. Then she kills herself in a gory fashion and we get the title credits. My frustration with "Smile" was that a horror film nowadays has to always open with a violent death prior to the opening credits, and this has lingered as the repeated horror movie cliche since 1996's "Scream." I also have to report that once you get past this scene (which is essential to the movie's plot as a whole) you are then in for one scary, psychological, often emotionally bumpy ride that doesn't use the frozen smile as a gimmick.  

Sosie Bacon is Dr. Rose Cotter, the creeped-out therapist who witnesses the strange girl's suicide and is ordered to take time off from work (Kal Penn, by the way, plays her sympathetic boss who reminds us of how one other patient didn't have medical insurance. We do need to be reminded of that in this day and age). Rose sees the smiling girl infrequently, either outside her office window or at home near her refrigerator or berating her in the darkness while she sleeps. But she can't get past the traumatic incident and when another patient exhibits that frozen, unwavering smile (albeit briefly), it turns out that it is not an epidemic since he is snapped out of it. But is there an epidemic of frozen smiles out there that lead to suicides? Rose finds that a doctor killed himself in front of the smiling girl, and that indeed it seems to pass on. Rose has her own trauma to deal with the repeated nightmares of the death of her mother, which Rose witnessed at a young age. And then as we get closer to the truth, it leads to an "unexpected" birthday gift from Rose to her nephew (talk about trauma), and the realization that her fiance may be more materialistic than she is. There are also some bitter truths regarding Rose's sister (Gillian Zinser) who couldn't deal with the mother's depression and walked out on the family.

In terms of psychological torment, "Smile" could be read as a film about mental illness and the eventual breakdown of one's frame of mind within a psychotic break. Even while watching it, I wasn't too sure of what could be anticipated or how Rose was going to combat this demonic apparition. "Smile" rises above its familiar "It Follows"-type horror trappings thanks to the intense shadings of Sosie Bacon (Kevin Bacon's daughter) as Rose and we start to wonder if any of this is real or just mere hallucinations. Bacon makes us care about her plight and, once we discover the truth of her horrendous, spiraling-out-of-control situation, we hope she can recover and get back on her feet. Her spectacular performance rockets this film way past the acceptable parameters of most horror fare. 

Aside from the viciously bloody opening, writer-director Parker Finn opts out of traditional blood and gore and uses it intermittently. He focuses on atmosphere that includes overcast skies and surroundings that feel claustrophobic and the occasional rotating camera that flips upside down, indicative of a smile becoming a frown (Finn also infuses sympathy for Rose and every scene features Rose - we go along for this terrifying trip with her). Coupled with a vibrating, almost Satanic music score or grinder of some kind and a few jump scares that are few and far in between, "Smile" gave me major goosebumps and the ending gave me major shivers that resulted in me not grinning from ear to ear. 

Sean Connery is the Only One that Counts

 HIGHLANDER (1986)

A Lack of Appreciation by Jerry Saravia

Going back to the well to reassess a movie you disliked only to find it became a bona fide cult film is a job I take infrequently. Such is the case with "Highlander" and its immortals and my recent excursion into the bowels of bromanship amidst flying jet planes with "Top Gun." Both films were released in 1986 though "Highlander" was a film I did not check out until home video in 1993. I disliked "Highlander" and found it boring, stiff and clunky. Watching it again, I still find I dislike it and it is still boring, stiff and clunky. Just because it became a cult hit that spawned several sequels and an animated series, not to mention a live-action series, doesn't mean it rates as wonderful. 

The movie begins at a wrestling match with actual wrestlers (and a very young girl in the audience flicking her tongue - what is that all about?) Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) is in the crowd of spectators who is not enjoying the action (and we see quick flashbacks to a different time of Scottish warriors fighting to the death with swords). Meanwhile, Connor runs out and confronts some guy in a business suit and they start fighting with swords that emit sparks when clashing against the metal and parking barriers. This all takes place in a parking lot and the business suit guy is actually an immortal and Connor decapitates him. The whole lot is practically levelled and lightning strikes Connor (this is called the quickening). Turns out Connor is an immortal himself, a 16th-century immortal born in Glenfinnan, Scotland near the shores of Loch Shiel (a phrase repeated more than once). We see flashbacks to a time in the Scottish Highlands where he barely fought anyone during the war with the Fraser Clan until he is seemingly mortally wounded by the menacing warrior, the Kurgan (Clancy Brown). Of course, Connor doesn't die and the townspeople oust him from their land thinking he is a devil of some kind. 

These early scenes lack panache and the swordfights are utterly dull - there is no real spatial sense of any real action occurring and it is all poorly staged and edited. The only real panache comes from the arrival of Sean Connery as Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, a born immortal (like Connor) who is not a Spaniard but in fact Egyptian! Pardon? Nevertheless Connery kept me awake and shows the life force of a man enjoying his time on Earth, making the most of it with passion and verve (and he likes to drink). 

Once Connery exits prematurely from the movie, "Highlander" suffers a quickening of tedious scenes of sword fighting and more fighting. Lambert is not bad here as Connor, and he has some humorous lines in the 1985 section where he is Russell Nash, an antiques dealer, but he is not strong enough to carry the weightless script. Clancy Brown can grate the nerves as the Kurgan and is far more hideously over-the-top than needs be (though his shouting at the nuns and a priest in a church is a little more animated than anything else in the movie). Some sweeping shots of Scotland are awe-inducing yet the finale, a swordfight that goes on forever, is set on top of the roof of some building with neon letters that read "SILVERCUP." You don't see much since they are nighttime shots and it is hard to care who lives or dies, or just who lives (they are immortals but decapitating them is the only way to destroy them). "Highlander" has its fans and is of major cult status but this movie was about as exciting as watching somebody watching wallpaper dry.