Rigidity and Dignity at Darlington

 THE REMAINS OF THE DAY (1993)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

James Ivory's "The Remains of the Day" is a masterful, implicitly delicate drama of a career butler isolated from his emotions. The butler's dedication as a servant to a lord of the manor is commendable yet it means he is choosing to sacrifice love and is seemingly bereft of feelings - dignity, as it were. Witnessing such a man under lesser hands would've been excruciating and justifiably depressing yet with director James Ivory and a supreme actor like Anthony Hopkins, it becomes immensely absorbing handled with finesse and restraint.

Hopkins is Mr. Stevens, the English butler of Darlington Hall in the 1930's - a manor in the middle of a vast countryside. Stevens has quite a staff at his disposal that includes maids, footmen, and the reliable kitchen staff. There's a hierarchy implicit in Lord Darlington (James Fox), again the lord of the manor, and all the heads of state that regularly visit Darlington Hall including British and German aristocrats who see no need to hand the reins of the government to the non-aristocratic working class. There is also a hierarchy in the servant class where Mr. Stevens expects to be addressed as such without mention of his first name. This leads to several arguments between the fanatically precise Stevens and the newly hired housekeeper Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson, one of the more emotionally grounded performances she has ever given). Kenton keeps an eye on Mr. Stevens' father (Peter Vaughan), also newly hired as an under-butler after having 50-plus years of service, who is too old to maintain proper service and has an accident where he trips while delivering a tray of food. A waiter he cannot manage and the old man unfortunately dies. What does his son, Mr. Stevens Jr., do upon learning of his father's death? He continues his job, never expressing much emotion though it is clear that he is affected by it. The job dictates complete confidence and capability in doing it yet surely he could've expressed his sadness. This is the definitive Anthony Hopkins performance and one that should be celebrated as one of the greatest cinematic gifts of the 20th century - it is a towering, thrillingly realized performance of extreme subtlety and nuanced body language. 

Most of "The Remains of the Day" is the depiction of Mr. Stevens as a man unfazed by not having close relationships or any possible romance with Miss Kenton. He also hopes other young servants who wish to climb higher in the field will not succumb to romancing the maids or anyone else in the household. Mr. Stevens has applied these principles to his own life, his life of servitude is all that defines him. When he is clutching a sentimental book on romance that he refuses to divulge to Miss Kenton, she has to remove it from his hand and you sense he could almost caress her and touch her hair - he just chooses not to. 

Political discussions occur in front of Mr. Stevens who, once again, attends to his servile manner and has no opinion on such matters. He later finds that times are changing and the servant class is already on the decline (historical reports cite the early 1900's as the beginning of such a decline in England). There is a flashforward to 20 years later when the newspapers have sullied Lord Darlington's name and his reputation destroyed for being a Nazi sympathizer. Mr. Stevens is still employed at Darlington Hall yet it is now the home of a former American congressman (Christopher Reeve), Jack Lewis, who is quite wealthy and more open to Mr. Stevens' thoughts on household matters and vacation time. Jack had been reticent of supporting Germany when he visited Darlington Hall in the 1930's and we can tell, observing those rigid medium shots of Hopkins' Mr. Stevens, that Stevens is well aware of what was being said at those dinner banquets with all those foreign and domestic dignitaries - how could he not be aware? He is choosing to be blissfully ignorant but he also claims to read voraciously and we can only assume what grand selection of books Darlington has. Stevens could have been a man of stature if he chose (he pretends to be a gentleman at bar in the flashforwards), a man who could've climbed high in the arena of politics ("Realpolitik" as Mr. Lewis says). Stevens has been privy to many conversations between these aristocrats, knows how they think and their disdain for the lower classes, and still chooses not to expound or follow through such matters. 

"The Remains of the Day" is a sad, morose, exquisitely made tale and the sadness is in Mr. Stevens. It shows Stevens' has implicitly acknowledged in latter years that he has lost what he could have had. A life with Miss Kenton was in his future if he chose it yet, and this is what breaks my heart for him, when he has a reunion with Miss Kenton after her divorce, he is still choosing not to get romantically involved. You see Hopkins showing his eyes well up recognizing a life of service that has consumed him - it is all he ever knew. Love was around the corner and he chose a different route. When Miss Kenton takes off in a bus and we see her in tears, we also know it will be the last time they will ever see each other again. He's back at restoring dignity to Darlington Hall, all in a lifetime's work.   

He just wants to be liked

ZELIG (1983)

An Appreciation by Jerry Saravia

"Zelig" is no one, a complete nobody with no prospects and no sense of individuality. He is an isolated man, an insecure and antisocial nerd (pardon the parlance) who has an amazing ability - he can transform into other people just by being around them. He is a human chameleon who never finished reading Moby Dick. Why Moby Dick? Maybe because that is funnier than say "The Great Gatsby." 

Woody Allen's deliciously entertaining and highly unusual mockumentary is still howlingly funny from start to finish. Allen is completely convincing as Zelig, seen mostly in still photographs or faked newsreel footage where he stands alongside Eugene O'Neill or Warren G. Harding. Set during the late 1920's, it is conceivable that such a man like Zelig would capture the public's imagination and become synonymous with the likes of Charles Lindbergh. While adopting chameleonic capabilities, he transforms briefly into an Asian, a black musician, a "perfect" psychiatrist (which is what Zelig mostly believes he is) and even a mobster holding a cigar! Some of these transformations are likely to cause offense in 2025 yet, considering the time period it depicts, it only makes sense to bring up different ethnicities since Zelig wishes to be liked by everyone. To be fair, Allen as writer-director doesn't poke fun at other ethnicities, he merely becomes them without turning them into stereotypes (some will still find this film racist no matter what, call it cultural appropriation or whatever). Zelig becomes an instant freak show, exploited by his sister as if he was a circus freak. Allen digs deeper, showing Zelig as a human being who has a special ability that is never explained. The KKK never see him as anything other than a triple threat - you know, Jewish, black and a Native American. 

The crux of the film and its humanity is Zelig's developing relationship to his doctor Fletcher (Mia Farrow), a psychiatrist who is trying to cure him of his abnormal condition. She invites him to stay in her country home and film their talks, with Zelig fully aware he's being filmed and still believing he's a psychiatrist. One hysterical moment has Zelig under hypnosis as she asks him questions and tells her that he's in love with her and that her pancakes are of questionable taste.  

"Zelig" then dovetails into the amazing man's scandals, including fathering children with women he married. This causes a ruckus and forces Zelig to make a public apology, especially to the man whose appendix he took out ("If it's any consolation, I may still have it somewhere around the house".) Eventually, after being spotted in a crowd where Hitler makes one of his fiery speeches to the Nazis in a newsreel, Zelig eventually is back in America after Dr. Fletcher helps him escape. Their escape includes making a revolutionary flight around the world that not even Lindbergh could've bested - they fly the plane upside down!

"Zelig" is hilariously eccentric at every minute and has a warmth and sincerity to it - it feels like an authentic document of an authentic man yet it has a sunniness to it beyond its satirical trappings. Seeing it now, it feels like it embraces Leonard Zelig with a nostalgic glow, despite all the ups and downs of his life. His one regret is that he never finished reading Moby Dick. You just can't help but like Zelig for that.

German Expressionistic Allenisms

 SHADOWS AND FOG (1992)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Shadows and Fog" begins like a student film example on how to shoot a black-and-white film in a studio with deep shadows and lights that illuminate European streets and bridges. The look of the film is meant to evoke German Expressionism, though it also evokes Universal Horror films (which of course drew from German Expressionism). Woody Allen's homage also serves to complement Ingmar Bergman's beautiful classic films such as "The Seventh Seal." Still, the homage ends there, visually, since it is a Woody Allen comedy only with Kafkaesque tones. 

Kleinman (Allen, with more European-type spectacles) is rousted from bed in the middle of the night by a group of vigilantes trying to trap a strangler in the cobblestoned streets. They want Kleinman to join though they are rude and insensitive to him, treating him like an inferior, weak, meek-looking man (Typical Allen line: "I have the strength of a small boy...with polio.") The trouble is that Kleinman has no idea what he is supposed to or what his role is in entrapping this serial killer. Kleinman become a wandering novice, seeing shadows everywhere deep in the night and cat noises up in alleyways and near bridges. Nobody should be walking the dangerous foggy streets yet he finds other wanderers like a circus sword swallower named Irmy (Mia Farrow) who has left her cheating boyfriend. She and Kleinman have a discussion about the stars in the night sky with the absence of fog permitting. Then they catch his own boss peeking at a woman undressing, which almost costs Kleinman his job! 

Prior to her meeting Kleinman, we are introduced to Irmy who first ends up in a brothel with some voluptuous women, including Jodie Foster and Kathy Bates. A rich college student comes into play (an excellent John Cusack) who finds her to be the most desirable woman ever and pays her a sum of $700. Meanwhile, Irmy's boyfriend (John Malkovich), a circus clown who believes family is death to an artist, is looking for her recognizing his adulterous mistakes. When he finds her, he's mad that she sold her body and hates her and then says, "Come HOME!" I could not stop laughing at Malkovich who plays it straight.

Woody's nebbish fool doesn't want to discuss existential matters and can't perform sexually when he also ends up at the brothel. There is a litany of guest stars throughout the film who pop in and out so quickly, you'll probably miss most of them. Kate Nelligan is Kleinman's fiancee who shouts at him from a second story window, though you can barely make out that it is Nelligan. You have to be on high alert to catch William H. Macy as a police officer. Some roles truly stand out like Donald Pleasance's coroner bit, or the always magnificent Kenneth Mars as a drunk magician.   

"Shadows and Fog" is both haunting and remarkably funny with deep existential passages about life, love and death. I saw the film back in 1992 at the Jean Cocteau cinema in Santa Fe, NM, and let me say that it was the perfect, intimate venue for this film. It is one Woody Allen film I love to return to, to return to that world of darkness where there isn't much meaning other than trying to stay alive. It is an unnamed European town drenched in vivid atmosphere where anything can be around the corner. It also has the typical Allenisms about relationships and discussions on God while there is a killer on the loose. No classic and not a great movie but it is an original and tightly paced. One of the rare Woody Allen experiments that truly satisfies. 

Fraudulent, illogical Friedkin connections

 TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. (1985)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Sometimes movies give you no one to root for. The world depicted may be completely nihilistic containing nihilistic characters with no rooting interest. Perhaps the intention is to dramatize the machinations of such a world, one devoid of morality due to a crime-ridden society or other issues. Often the world of film noir encompasses such an off-kilter attitude. In William Friedkin's "To Live and Die in L.A.," there is no one to root for yet we are also not invested in the world it depicts, that being Secret Service men and counterfeiters. All are easily corruptible yet did the characters have to be so unappealing?

"To Live and Die in L.A." begins with a thrilling sequence inside a hotel rooftop where an assassination is about to occur by a jihadist screaming about Israel and Saudi Arabia. President Reagan is giving a talk in the hotel lobby and it is up to Secret Service agents Richard Chance (William Petersen) and Jimmy Hart (Michael Greene) to provide top notch security. Richard catches an odd detail when a waiter places a tray of food on the floor and pursues the individual who turns out to be the jihadist. The problem is solved with the jihadist blowing himself up on the rooftop thanks to Chance's near-retirement partner, Jimmy. 

The crux of the film deals with these agents wanting to apprehend Eric "Rick" Masters (Willem Dafoe, a hellishly good actor playing a one-dimensional role), an artist who burns his drawings and works on the side as a successful counterfeiter to be reckoned with. Masters is a dangerous, impulsive killer as well and when Jimmy dies uncovering the counterfeiting location, hotheaded Chance is on it. He wants to nail Masters for killing his older partner yet it seems Chance is corrupted by sin, not by good intentions. He attends to a paroled female informant (whom he occasionally boinks), and if she falls out of line, she will be back in jail. Chance will do anything he can to foil Masters' plan and slowly we realize that he either identifies with Masters or wants to be him or take glory in a criminal's life by becoming a criminal himself. Some of that shows in a truly well-executed freeway chase where he has apprehended another criminal carrying 50K (thanks to Chance's informant). Some of that money will be used as front money for Masters since Chance and his new by-the-book partner Vukovich (John Pankow) pretend to be Florida men wanting a piece of Masters' pie. The two nitwit agents just forgot to tan themselves. 

The movie, unfortunately, has a schizophrenic tone and it is so uneven and so thinly characterized that it is impossible to know what Chance ultimately wants. The guy is unprincipled, reckless and a complete bastard yet Petersen is never allowed to show much humanity (he never shows any remorse about losing his original partner). And we can never tell if he is just too dumb, too easily corrupted by Masters or just simply an amoral person. I am all for showing how corruption spreads from criminals to people who are supposed to protect us but this movie is all over the map. Nothing in it registers as credible or believable, not even the freeway chase which leads to no major denouement (Chance practically gets away with it, which includes a couple of murders). Then there is an unbelievable ending involving Vukovich and Chance's informant - it is so ridiculous that I wanted to laugh at it, not with it. It blows the whole film to smithereens creating a world of illogic. 

"To Live and Die in L.A." is watchable in the sense that you wonder what other extraneous, histrionic moment will come next. It is not a real movie - it is simply a counterfeit.  

Intimacy is a no-no

 ANORA (2024)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I've known people that frequent strip clubs and most tell me that the intimacy is faked - it is not meant to be intimate but rather fulfilling a fantasy of intimacy with an alluring, sexy woman. If a stripper does a lap dance for you, it is only because you paid her for the service (and we won't even get into "Magic Mike" with male strippers). The patron may chit-chat with a stripper, who is getting a rise out of the male patron and you better check your watch because it is either by the hour or less. "Anora" seems to understand that world explicitly, and so does Anora herself but she is only a kid, a 23-year-old kid, who doesn't know any better when it comes to actual relationships. If she can fake intimacy, can someone else do the same thing to her?

Ani (Mikey Madison), her preferred name, is Russian and speaks the language fluently. She presumably lives with her parents in Brooklyn though she is not one to remember to buy milk after a busy night at the strip club. Ani is in firm control of her job and knows what she wants - money and nothing else. She is kind to her guests and smiles and we know, deep down, that it is an act but you have to make it sing or else, no tips. When Ani leaves her job and takes the train home, we see a different Ani, one who is tougher and stands her ground against her parents. One night at the busy club, she meets 21-year-old Ivan (Mark Eidelshtein) who is the son of a Russian oligarch and wants Ani to spend time in his luxurious waterfront mansion. They have lots of sex, of course, and she is later invited to a big party where sex and drugs mix (no surprise). Watching "Anora," I felt that something was going to give at some point. Ivan proposes marriage to Ani and she actually accepts and they get married in Vegas. She enthusiastically leaves her stripper job and moves into the mansion. Bad move. 

The fact that Ani really believes in Ivan is symptomatic of foolish young people falling in love too abruptly - does she really think Ivan loves her? Ani believes in him and we sense it is because he is financially loaded. But then the bitter truth emerges and it becomes too hard to swallow. When word gets around that Vanya got married, all hell breaks loose because he is not a citizen or a working resident. The mansion is not his - it belongs to his parents - and there's the matter of the insistent and belligerent Toro, Vanya's godfather and an Armenian priest (Karren Karagulian), who is Vanya's handler and reports to the parents about this crisis. This may be a fairy tale for Ani, but for Toro it is a nightmarish disaster which he and his stooges Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov) manage to screw up, again and again. "Anora" is a gritty, stupendously vivid movie about strippers that becomes a hysterical comedy of errors. When Toros (a fabulously irate Karagulian) is in the middle of conducting a christening and gets emergency texts about Ivan, he leaves hastily and apologizes to everyone. The movie becomes comical and has a fervent, energetic pace that leaves you on edge. 

Mikey Madison is the true star of this movie, a genuine young woman who, despite a foul mouth and occasional foul moods, is changed when this young man enters her life. It becomes an idyllic love but only to her. She genuinely loves Ivan and she sense intimacy between them but she has no idea that he took her along for a ride - it was his newest purchase so he becomes more of a capitalist than even Ani. It is an insult to her, and to realize his love is feigned.

"Anora" is almost a rawer romantic comedy with a dollop of violent episodes and pratfalls involving Toros' henchmen who are not stereotypically brutal Russians (one gets sick and vomits, and another strings a phone cord around Ani's wrists and then lets her go). In an incredibly affecting final scene, Madison's Ani reveals her broken heart and it is not sentimental, just empathetic. This is not a moral lesson about how stripping or sex work leads to fatal repercussions - this is about revealing the humanity of women involved in a disreputable job. Intimacy may be a no-no in Ani's line of work yet it may be something she truly desires.

Old-Hat Tinkering with Spies

 BLACK BAG (2025)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Lately it seems that Michael Fassbender has been content with playing automatons, not quite flesh and blood people. When he appeared in 2023's "The Killer," he assumed a robotic stance not unlike his android role in "Prometheus." In "Black Bag," it is near impossible to feel much of anything towards his character who is so detached that talking about espionage and deception is more thrilling than his own marriage. The same is true of Cate Blanchett in this movie, though she shows a little more sass and sparkle. Maybe working in British Intelligence requires one to appear robotic so that nobody can catch what you are really thinking or doing. Any giveaway could lead to misinterpretation, getting fired or possibly death. If "Black Bag" had followed that rather intriguing line of thinking, I might not have felt so sleepy-eyed while watching it.

A leak has occurred with a secret software, a cyber-worm program called Severus, at the National Cyber Security Centre. This leak and data breach may initiate a Russian nuclear meltdown. Fassbender is British Intelligence officer George Woodhouse who has one week to discover the leak's identity. This is dangerous work and the twist (somewhat revealed teasingly in the trailer) is that George's wife, Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett), also an Intelligence officer, may be involved. Or maybe it is high-strung satellite expert, Clarissa (Marisa Abela), who doesn't think twice about stabbing her beau in the hand. The beau is the sardonic Freddie (Tom Burke), another possible culprit, or it could be the psychologist Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris), all of whom are on site at British Intelligence. Also on hand is the young colonel James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page), who had dated the psychologist! How do we know? Well, they are invited to dinner at the Woodhouse home and end up confessing everything (thanks to a truth serum injected in their food) except about the Severus leak. It is easily the best scene in the film, not to mention a second sequence later on where they are all invited back to the Woodhouse home sans dinner. Those scenes are tightly wound and have some measured tension. The rest of "Black Bag" is just a chore to sit through. 

Director Steven Soderbergh helms this thriller without much interest. Scenes play out in the driest possible manner and they did not hold my attention. I was not expecting merciless fireworks by way of high-powered action scenes or explosions - spy thrillers from authors like Ludlum or John Le Carre are dependent on plot machinations and deeply resonant character portrayals. There are limited fireworks in "Black Bag" when it comes to the relationships between these agency members and the crucial marriage between George and Kathryn. Not helping matters is the deliberate washed-out look of the film that made me avert my eyes from the screen more often than not. I know Soderbergh, serving as his own cinematographer, has tried his hand at filtered visual looks in his past work but here, it merely clouds the screen. 

It is also a shame considering the high-powered cast that includes Fassbender and Blanchett. I never bought them as a married couple - it appears throughout the film that they are bored with each other. As aforementioned, Marisa Abela as Clarissa really lights up the screen with her invigorating presence. Same with reliable pro Pierce Brosnan as the agency's chief who suggests so much without saying anything that you are never sure what he might be up to. Writer David Koepp is also the wrong person to handle this type of thriller - he doesn't infuse much gravitas into any of this. This type of story has been done to death and, other than the theme of secrets between a married spy couple (the black bag as it were), I found nothing new or refreshing about any of it. If you like stories about moles in the spy business, stick with "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy." 

WARNING: NOT SAFE

 MARATHON MAN (1976)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Watching Dustin Hoffman as the movie's main protagonist who runs and runs because he is getting fit for a marathon seems to belong to a different movie than this wannabe, seemingly overcomplicated thriller. We have Hoffman running, getting sweaty and huffing and puffing, and getting ready to write his dissertation on America's unclean near-tyrannical historic events of the 20th century. He's also interested in an allegedly Swiss woman (Marthe Keller) and that could easily pass as some romantic drama. Then we also get a steely-eyed, bald Nazi war criminal who was hiding out in Uruguay (yeah, a plus for my country of birth being mentioned) and is now in New York City trying to get hold of precious diamonds. These subplots do not coalesce and the film's schizophrenic tone lost me. 

Hoffman plays "Babe" as a smart student right out of "The Graduate" with no new wrinkles other than his ability to hold a gun and fire it. There is a crucial level of interest here with regards to past events surrounding Babe's late father, an alleged Communist during the McCarthy years who committed suicide, and Babe's dissertation is his attempt to make peace with it. There is also Babe's brother (Roy Scheider), a federal agent masquerading as an oil businessman, and their scenes together has some warmth and a deep emotional connection. It does not last. 

Violence permeates "Marathon Man" and none of it is pretty yet, by the end of the film, it all felt inconsequential. The tone wavers uneasily and then becomes a standard thriller where our hero, Babe, is on the run from the Nazi criminal Szell (a magnificent and almost unrecognizable Laurence Olivier) and from a couple of minions dressed in business suits. The minions try to pry open a bathroom door while Babe is taking a bath. Another earlier scene shows them robbing him and his alleged girlfriend in Central Park. There is a grueling and effective scene where Szell drills into Babe's mouth to extract information from him, to no avail. Then we get more running, more chases, and Babe jumping off a bridge onto a ramp. It is all somewhat thrilling yet also uninvolving. I never felt much for Babe and could care less about the evil Szell and those diamonds that belonged to the Jews in the concentration camp. Director John Schlesinger ("Midnight Cowboy") does a serviceable job of keeping the pace jumpy yet nothing here feels personal and the stakes are not always clear. 

There are two scenes, other than the brothers' reunion, that work wonders. Szell walks around the city and is spotted by two concentration camp survivors, leading to one being killed by Szell and another almost run over. I also enjoyed the wit behind Babe convincing some neighbors to go to his apartment and retrieve his clothes since he's being watched by those minions. I should also note that the charismatic Roy Scheider as Babe's brother stays with you. "Marathon Man" itself is somewhat watchable though it is quite often a humorless slog of a movie.