What do these characters have to smile about? I look at these bizarre expressions and I’m asking myself “why?…what for?…what the hell?”
DeNiro: “I’m here to even things out, so to speak…the Osage need to spread some of that oil money around, if you get my meaning, and I’m the one to make it happen.”
Leo: “I’m a dumb-as-a-fencepost greedy murderer, and ready to do whatever my scumbag uncle wants done…yeah!”
Gladstone: “Boy, he sure is one handsome devil…look at him! Except he’s kinda major-league stupid. Worse, I’m not smart enough to understand that he’s just as much of a ne’er-do-well as his conniving uncle.”
Director Norman Jewison lived a long, rich and productive life…97 years worth. But I have to be honest and say that that only three of his films really hit the spot for me — The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (’66), In the Heat of the Night (’67) and Moonstruck (’87).
It’s not easy to make even a mediocre film, and it’s quite the achievement to hit one out of the park. Jewison did this three times — stiff salute, full respect, good fellow.
Otherwise I could never even watch Fiddler on the Roof (’71). I was bored by The Cincinnati Kid (’65). I liked the split-screen gimmick and the sexually suggestive chess game in The Thomas Crown Affair (’68) but otherwise meh.
Jesus Christ Superstar (’73) was okay for a single viewing. I’ve never re-watched Rollerball (’75), F.I.S.T. (’78), …And Justice for All (’79), Best Friends (’82), A Soldier’s Story (’84), and Agnes of God (’85).
Jewison’s ’90s films (Other People’s Money, Only You, The Hurricane, The Statement) never did anything to me or for me. I’m sorry but they didn’t.
Last weekend Sutton (26 months) made it through her first full-length movie in a movie theatre — Wonka. When Jett was two he watched LawrenceofArabia (i.e., “camels”) at least two or three times; ditto E.T., TheExtra–Terrestrial (i.e., “E.T. home”).
I’ve tried to watch The Only Game in Town (’70) a couple of times, but I can’t get through it.
Directed by George Stevens and written by Frank Gilroy (the playright dad of Tony and Dan), it’s a limp and artificial two-hander, and claustrophobic in more ways than you can shake a stick at. There’s no believing Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty as a prospective couple (she’s an aging chorus girl, he’s a piano-playing gambler). You just want to say “thanks, guys, nice chatting” and bid a fast farewell. Which, as noted, is what I’ve done twice.
Plus Taylor is about five years older than Beatty, and in your 30s you notice this stuff. His hound-dogging exploits were legendary at the time, and you can’t quite figure why Beatty of all people would want to get involved with a violet-eyed woman who’s pushing 40 and is almost certainly on her way down.
It was largely shot in Paris on a sound stage; location footage in Nevada was lensed some time after.
The Oniy Game in Town was such a commercial and critical flop that it ended Stevens’ career. The poor guy was only 66 when it bombed. In a fair and just world he could’ve theoretically continued to direct for at least another decade or so. The film is such a stain on Stevens’ rep that his son, George Stevens, Jr., didn’t even mention it George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey (’85), a well-regarded doc about his esteemed father’s career.
Here’s the screwball thing: Beatty’s gambler character is named Joe Grady. Four or five years later he played a journalist in The Parallax View under director Alan Pakula, and that character was named Joe Frady. If only the up-and-coming Beatty had, 15 years earlier, landed a bit part in Stanley Kramer‘s Inherit the Wind (’60) as Matthew Harrison Brady’s (i.e., Fredric March‘s) son, Joe.
Bill McCuddy: “Tuesday morning’s Academy nomination are going to lean into Maestro more than you think.”
HEtoMcCuddy: “Carey Mulligan will be nominated, of course. Anything above and beyond will be surprising but welcome. I’ve been a devoutworshipperfromtheget–go, but so many people have a bug up their ass about it. “
