Repetitive New York Story with a pinch of whimsy

 A RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK (2019)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I don't know if 2019 high-school graduates have an avid interest in Cole Porter, Akira Kurosawa and are such indelible romantics. In the world of Woody Allen that has often been set in the iconic city of New York, this has been the case but not with such obvious romanticism from such a younger mindset. Woody Allen's "A Rainy Day in New York" is a romantic souffle with not enough ingredients to keep us happily giddy. It never feels authentic enough to the Woodster's own brand of neurosis or pseudo-intellectual conversations - the trick in the past was that such conversations on topics of existentialism and Marshall McLuhan ("Annie Hall" devotees out there?) sounded pseudo-intellectual or at least to another character. When these characters speak of rainy days in carriages and Cole Porter, it feels like carbon-copy Woody Allen.

That is not say that "A Rainy Day in New York" is a total washout - it is lively and whimsical enough to sustain one's interest. Right from the start, I was convinced I heard Woody Allen's voice narrating the film when in fact it is Timothée Chalamet as Gatsby (who names anyone Gatsby nowadays?), a college kid with a high IQ and the luck of the draw when gambling. He is eager to take his girlfriend, Ashleigh (Elle Fanning, playing one of the ditziest girls I've ever seen in a Woody Allen flick), an overzealous journalism major who is about to interview a major Hollywood director she loves; he makes movies with titles like "Winter Memories" and hates them when he first screens them (sound about right). The lovely couple travel to New York and encounter a few mishaps here and there. One involves Gatsby running into his ex-girlfriend's sister (Selena Gomez), who makes it clear that Gatsby used to be rated less than a 7 by his ex (some of that gets a little tired). Gatsby runs into all sorts of friends from his past though one in particular was hilarious, a deeply obnoxious pre-med student (Ben Warheit) who seems to hate everything and has no kind words about anyone as he laughs merrily (I know he's obnoxious but I would have loved to have seen more of him). When Gatsby runs into his parents (the authoritative Cherry Jones plays his mother) and there is some forced nonsense about an escort (an Allenism from the past), I was more lost in this New York than entranced.  

Elle Fanning, an actress deserving a lot more than this cursory role, is adrift in this movie - she has innocence but it seems forced, and her Ashleigh is never more than just hastily defined as someone with no real fundamental thoughts of her own (her hiccups did induce a few laughs). Gatsby loves her, to be sure, but he dismisses her a little too prematurely just because she doesn't know the difference between a Cole Porter lyric and a Shakespeare quote. Again, is this how easily dismissive young people are nowadays? Bury that thought. 

"A Rainy Day in New York" is not as enlightening or as sweet-tempered as many of Woody Allen;'s earlier films on relationships - "Annie Hall" or anything he did with Diane Keaton or Mia Farrow need not be exclusively mentioned, it is hardly as rhapsodic as "Sweet and Lowdown." I guess I am just tired of an arrogant, aloof Woody Allen-type and I'd like the Woodster to branch out as he did with "Midnight in Paris" or the sublime "Blue Jasmine." Bring back some level of original eccentricity beyond faux N.Y.C neurosis.

Chicago Outfit were not Goodfellas

 BACK HOME YEARS AGO: 

THE REAL CASINO (2003)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Martin Scorsese's "Casino" has grown in stature since its middling 1995 theatrical release and has become something of a mob classic. Some feel it is on equal par with hsi other mob film, "GoodFellas" while others think it is not as great, etc. Director Joseph F. Alexandre shot this often absorbing documentary, "Back Home Years Ago: The Real Casino," and interviewed a few of the people who knew the real-life characters that "Casino" was based on. It is fascinating doco but somehow too short for its own good. 

"The Real Casino" has a split structure, one focusing on the Chicago natives who knew these mob guys (some of what they say is repetitive and cut-off abruptly before they start saying something of interest).  We do get what amounts to probably less than 2 minutes of Frank Buccieri whose own brother, Fiore, was partly the basis for Remo Gaggi, the mob boss in "Casino." Obviously there isn't much he wishes to say or disclose though I would've loved to learn more about him placing Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal ("Ace" Rothstein as played by Robert De Niro in "Casino") at the Stardust casino in Vegas. All these guys, the mob connections or friends of those in the know how, are shot in shadow to obviously hide their appearance. The second half is of Alexandre himself who knew some of these guys while working at a Chicago pizzeria. Then there is the documentary film crew who think this is all Hollywood gloss until they hear the witnesses actually speak and know this is the real deal. Joseph F. Alexandre is far animated than the crew, and when was the last time you heard about the crew discussing the documentary you are watching? Still, I would have liked less footage of the crew overall. 

Mike Guardino is one talking head I found mesmerizing if only because he is not abruptly cut off when he speaks. Mr. Guardino once owned a strip club, car dealership and other businesses and talks about Tony "The Ant" Spilotro (the mob muscle character, Nicky Santoro, as played by Joe Pesci) as a "bad man with no conscience." Guardino is the most fascinating presence in the film, if only because he seems natural and authentic in his speech and clarity (he makes it clear that these mob guys are nothing without their guns). I think a whole short film about him would've made for an exceptional documentary. His recollection of the mob and how they tried to infiltrate everyone's businesses, the "street tax" as it were, is a prime subject that needs more exposure. His observations of this underworld are memorable and chilling. Overall, if you are a fan of "Casino" or have an avid interest in the mob underworld, give "The Real Casino" a shot. 

The Least Dangerous Game

 THE CLEARING (2004)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Viewed on July 17th, 2004 

Anyone remember an old "Incredible Hulk" TV episode where David Banner wore bandages while trekking through the woods with his old nemesis, Mr. Jack McGee, a reporter who knew of the Hulk's existence? Well, what about "The Defiant Ones"? Or "The Most Dangerous Game"? I am a sucker for two footloose men on the run or in hiding in the woods - it always allows ample opportunity for a
psychological profile, especially if a good writer is on hand. The trouble with "The Clearing" is that barely much time is focused on the footloose men in the woods. Instead, we are treated to endless scenes that would be at home in your own home, inside your own television.

Robert Redford is Wayne Hayes, a millionaire and former CEO, now an executive, who lives in a nice home with his wife in Pittsburgh. The kids are grown-up and have their own lives. Helen Mirren is the dutiful wife, Eileen, who prepares for dinner parties and goes for a swim, even on overcast mornings. Wayne is so rich that he merely smirks when he sees a check for 42 million in his desk
drawer! Got to love him. One morning, he picks up his Wall Street Journal in his driveway before getting kidnapped by Arnold (Willem Dafoe), a complete stranger. Wayne is kept in Arnold's trunk until they arrive at their destination, the woods leading to some cabin where they will meet some group.
Arnold forces Wayne to wear sneakers, and they are off to see the group, the wonderfully mysterious group! Of course, Wayne has no idea what the heck is going on. Arnold remains elusive for details. We slowly discover that Arnold used to work for Wayne and was fired, as were many disgruntled employees (how timely).

Meanwhile, Eileen is deeply worried. She has her kids stay with her, as well a couple of FBI agents. We eventually discover that Wayne has been hiding one or two things in his life. I will not reveal what they are but ask yourself this question when the penultimate moment arrives, are the revelations so
surprising? All Eileen can do is sit around, stare out the window, and look consistently worried. This is such a thankless role for someone like the grand Helen Mirren.

The problem is there are too many scenes of Eileen, and not enough between Arnold and Wayne, which should be the crux of the film. We learn almost too much about Eileen and learn next to nil about Arnold and Wayne. Something is wrong here. Arnold comes across as a less-restrained kidnapper than norm (though my first impression was that he was a CIA agent) but his intentions, when discovered, hardly evoke the desperate man we first see. Is he upset at Wayne for making too much money or for having worked for a company that Wayne later owned? And Wayne is nothing more than the blandest, most boring CEO ever shown on film - no attempt is made to make this man remotely engaging. Same
with Arnold. We are just stuck for one hour and a half looking at anonymous ciphers, not human beings. Tough task considering they are played by Willem Dafoe and Robert Redford.

"The Clearing" is directed by producer Pieter Jan Brugge, and he does a competent enough job with individual moments. Some scenes truly sparkle, such as Eileen running around from one phone booth to the next while trying to make contact with the kidnapper. I also like the nicely understated breakfast scene with Mirren and Redford. And the wordless bridge and dark tunnel sequence towards the end is stunning. The charismatic Dafoe does wonders with his underwritten role, always suggesting more than the screenplay has to offer. And the golden boy Redford seems adrift through most of this movie. Perhaps that is the message but I'd rather get lost in the Yellow Brick Road.

Ethan Hunt vs. The Apostles

 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT (2018)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Just like "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" (still the best of the series by far), "Fallout" is an elongated, explosive chase picture designed to rattle your senses and bury your eyes with epic action of a magnitude that might never be improved. Hopefully you can keep all the multiple characters and situations straight as well. I haven't figured it all out but it was a pleasure trying to and, even after five movies, "Mission: Impossible" series continues to be top-notch entertainment. 

The unbreakable IMF agent Ethan Hunt is back (the sprightly Tom Cruise, of course) and he is hoping to be in possession of three stolen plutonium cores before they are used in three nuclear bombs! Of course such a terroristic plan can't be thwarted so easily as the extremist group, the Apostles, are ready to give up the cores for money until they decide during a shootout to steal back the cores. The Apostles had also taken hostage the IMF's most trusted hacker, Luther (Ving Rhames), until Ethan saves him which makes the cores easy pickings (this scene was far too unbelievable but, then again, so is the movie. Still, didn't Ethan think for a millisecond that the cores would be stolen?) I have made it a habit of not questioning logic in movies like this because, as long as I am entertained and involved, I don't care. 

Enter "Fallout's" few new characters that keeps the movie rising in its thrill meter and they include Henry Cavill as August Walker, a CIA assassin whom you just know will reveal a darker side, and Angela Bassett as a very forthright new CIA director keeping tabs on Ethan and August. You start to wonder if she trusts them or will she believe Walker's assertion that Ethan is far more dangerous than anyone dared think. Uh, oh, will Ethan be disavowed yet again? For tremendous sex appeal, we get Vanessa Kirby as White Widow, a curly blonde arms dealer who flirts with Ethan in one stunningly erotic moment. For sheer villainy, we get the cold, evil stares of Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), the leader of the Apostles who has a complete indifference to humanity. Returnees include Alec Baldwin as Hunley the new IMF Secretary, formerly CIA Director and he has a few tricks up his sleeve; Michelle Monaghan as you know who, if you have seen previous "Mission: Impossible" movies; Rebecca Ferguson as the disavowed MI6 agent from the last sequel who is also a bit unbreakable and can't stop herself from following Ethan and, of course, for some comic relief is Simon Pegg as Benji, the IMF technical field agent who also has a couple tricks up his sleeve.

"Fallout" is densely layered with a lot of characters and motives and I couldn't quite keep track of all them - I also wondered why the Apostles, formerly the Syndicate, want to blow up so many countries. Still, for hair-raising spectacular action including an endless motorcycle chase in Paris and two helicopters racing through the Himalayas that had me almost ready to break off the armrests of my chair - they delivered a major sonic boom to this critic - "Fallout" is as spectacular on every level as you can imagine. Tom Cruise is a reliable action star and plays this role to the hilt, whether he is running, jumping or receiving a kiss from the White Widow. The man is a relentless action toy, always on the run and never stops moving. "Fallout" certifies Tom Cruise as one of the greatest action stars of the 21st century.   

Not going anywhere, do you mind if I come along?

 AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)

An Appreciation By Jerry Saravia

George Lucas's "American Graffiti" is an explosion of good-natured nostalgia with a killer soundtrack of rock and roll songs that have, since 1973, been utilized in films so often that they have become cliches. So have coming-of-age films being swathed in nostalgia, whether it is a film set in 1962 or the 1950's - for the baby boomers, they were the last truly innocent decades (though history shows they were anything but). The movie is a rollicking good time, a reflection of an era when no high school graduate had any idea what the future held. They knew their present and that is all they had to go on. Watching the film you get the impression that these Modesto, California teens wouldn't mind staying in town forever listening to Wolfman Jack, cruising in their cars, and making out.

In a sense, that is the film's charm because would anyone really want to become an adult? No, no teenager wants to grow up yet they know they eventually have to. Richard Dreyfuss's Curt is the one who is ambivalent - can he go to college out-of-state and become a great writer or is he premature in assuming a future that might lead to something else? No one else really struggles with that notion, outside of his best friend Steve (Ron Howard). Curt also has a night where he sees a mysterious blonde woman (Suzanne Somers) driving by in a white Thunderbird, cruising as everyone else does, who says something to him but Curt can't make out what she says. He spends the rest of the film looking for this blonde and feels, for the first time, that his life has purpose. It is a singular mission to find this elusive beauty, but who is she and what did she say to him? 

"American Graffiti" takes place during one long night where cruising teenagers drink and make out and it is largely episodic as we float in from one group to another. Charles Martin Smith is the nerdy Terry who gets mixed up with another blonde girl (Candy Clark) and pretends the car he is borrowing is his, yet he has trouble getting liquor with no ID (how he finally gets some Old Harper's produces one of the biggest belly laughs in the entire film). Meanwhile, there's the aforementioned Steve and his long-term girlfriend, Laurie (Cindy Williams), and Steve has no ambivalence about going to college and suggests that he and Laurie see other people. Naturally this causes some tension despite them dancing and pretending to have a good time while The Platters' "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" is played by a cover band at one of those sock hops. Then there's the cool John Milner (Paul Le Mat), a drag-racer who is challenged by fearless Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford) to a drag race. While John tries to avoid Bob, he reluctantly gives a ride to a precocious 12-year-old girl (Mackenzie Phillips) and their brief moments together suggests a softer side to John who acts like her big brother, a protector of sorts. 

"American Graffiti" ends with title cards indicating certain characters' fates but it is not needed. The film exists as a moment in time before the Cuban Missile Crisis and JFK's assassination - a vastly entertaining mood piece of nostalgic reminders of great cars, great music and a white 56' T-Bird with an enigmatic blonde. Curt sees her car as he's flying to college and smiles - a momentary pause where such a great night ends and evaporates though it is retained as a memory. One of the saddest and yet most exhilarating endings of all time. I only wish Lucas made more films like this.

Malpractice and murder

THE HOSPITAL (1971)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The best satires play it straight and to the point, and are concise and controlled in tempo and black humor. Most scenes in "The Hospital" are played so straight that you almost think the filmmakers are being serious until you catch the exaggeration that is practically hidden. The movie is not on the same high of hilarity mixed with serious topical issues as "Network" (both written by the brilliant seriocomic mind of Paddy Chayefsky) but it is unnerving and often funny in a way that feels like life. You won't come away bored by "The Hospital" but you will get a mild headache due to its brazenness and humorous asides - probably the way anyone would feel after visiting a hospital.

A New York teaching hospital is coming apart at the seams. Patients clog the main artery of the building, the emergency room, seeking help while only one nurse asks each and every one of them if they have health insurance. Two doctors and a nurse are murdered though nobody knows who did the deed - one young doctor is found dead after having had sex with a nurse. To top it all off, protesters gather outside the building knowing that the hospital annexed an adjacent slum building to expand their quarters, and the protestors include some Black Panthers. George C. Scott is Chief of Staff Dr. Bock who is going through a crisis - he wants to commit suicide, is divorced and impotent, and his kids (one who is a Maoist) hate him. Enter Diana Rigg of all people, as the sexy former nurse who is at the hospital for her comatose father (Barnard Hughes) and wants to take her dad back to Mexico to be among the natives. Cue Dr. Bock whose impotence is relieved after a one-night stand with the ex-nurse, and she tries to convince him to go to Mexico as well. 

"The Hospital" is messy, a little disorganized yet never less than blisteringly funny with an ache that stays in your head. George C. Scott has some magnificent scenes of dialogue as the tortured Dr. Bock, mostly with Diana Rigg that results in some of the best work he's ever done. A lot of scenes perk up when Scott and Rigg appear but the movie piles on too much of a killer subplot that detracts from the satire yet the inner workings of this disastrously managed hospital keeps one's interest - will this place ever be up to standard? Scott's Dr. Bock character adds a lot of flavor and meaning and his occasional outbursts come out of the hysteria of his own life and the hospital - both are in shambles. Chayefsky and director Arthur Hiller might be working overtime to entertain with a few extraneous scenes but you can't say that you won't come away from this less than drained with a little smile on your face. Just make sure your insurance is airtight if you visit this hospital.

Friedkin made your heart skip and your blood pressure rise

WILLIAM FRIEDKIN (1935-2023) : 

A LOOK BACK AT 1987's RAMPAGE 

By Jerry Saravia

William Friedkin has passed away at the age of 87, a formidable director who reawakened people's senses with two iconoclastic 1970's films that challenged their respective genres. Those would be "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist," two major classics with one featuring one of the best car chases ever filmed and the other featuring some of the scariest supernatural thrills of all time. Of course what made these films so furiously alive and vivid in our collective imaginations is that Friedkin made them feel grounded - they were realistically conveyed and "French Connection" almost felt like a documentary with some hair-spinning hand-held camerawork. "The Exorcist" felt like an examination of evil in the least likely place - a pre-teen girl's bedroom. 

It would not be fair to highlight only those two films because his talent was evident elsewhere, especially his early documentary work. A Friedkin film that is still underappreciated and has been lost in the shuffle is 1987's "Rampage" which features a dynamic, scary performance by Alex McArthur as Charles Reece, a serial killer. This was no average killer (based on a true story of the Vampire Killer of Sacramento) - he went into people's homes and mutilated his victims and drank their blood (in one truly spellbinding scene, shot in slow-motion, he slathers blood over his body). Eventually, he's caught and sent to prison and Michael Biehn plays an idealistic District Attorney/prosecutor who seeks the death penalty for Charles despite being initially against it. Meanwhile it is determined by doctors and a psychiatrist that the killer is mentally insane and should be in a mental hospital. 

All sorts of legal questions are raised in "Rampage" and some of them are uneven and not always convincing, particularly Biehn's switcheroo with respect to what he considers ethical punishment. Still, the root of the film's success is Alex McArthur's chilling, persuasive performance as a seemingly innocent-looking man wearing a red windbreaker who suddenly reveals an animal bent on blood lust. Director Friedkin once again keeps the material grounded in an unshakable reality that occasionally brings up similarities with the monumentally frightening "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer." And just like "Henry" which couldn't find a distributor for years, "Rampage" had been completed in 1987 through DEG (De Laurentiis) company until it went belly up. Released through Miramax Pictures five years later in limited release, "Rampage" still held its own against any exploitative slasher flick - this was serious, urgent material given a boost by its death penalty vs. insanity defenses. There are also scenes of such unbridled, unhinged madness from the killer's point-of-view that your heart will skip a few beats. William Friedkin was that in a nutshell in his best films - he made your heart skip and your blood pressure rise.