Life Itself Review

by A.J.

Last year on April 4^th, just before my birthday, I received the news that Roger Ebert had passed away. I was saddened more than I thought I could be by the death of someone I never knew. I did meet him once at a book signing in New York; I wrote about that experience and my thoughts and feelings about Roger Ebert in my tribute last year. I only met him once, never knew him, but I will always miss him.

This year, just before my birthday I received in the mail a messenger bag, t-shirt, and gift card to Steak ‘n Shake from the Life Itself production team for a small donation to the Indiegogo.com campaign to cover post production costs of Life Itself, the documentary about Ebert by filmmaker Steve James.

I was able to watch Life Itself streaming online in concurrence with its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this past January, an additional perk of contributing to the production. I’m not sure at what point during the documentary I realized that I would not be able to give this film an “objective” review. Fortunately, as Ebert was apt to remind everyone, there is no such thing as an objective review.

It seems obvious that Steve James would be the one to make this film. James’s 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams was championed heavily by Siskel and Ebert. The Criterion DVD edition of Hoop Dreams contains their initial enthusiastic review, a special segment in which they accuse the documentary wing of the Academy Awards of corruption after Hoop Dreams was not nominated for Best Documentary (it turns out they were right), and the special show in which Ebert names Hoop Dreams the best film of the 1990’s.

Life Itself takes the structure of Ebert’s memoir of the same name beginning with the straightforward linear of childhood, youth, early career, before beginning anecdotes, jumping to the present, then back to the past. There are interviews with friends and colleagues and filmmakers. Roger Ebert was able to become friendly, if not friends, with filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog and others. He helped a few personally when he could and they tell their stories too. There is, of course, a portion about Gene Siskel and the creation of the show that made them famous, even to people that didn’t follow critics. I do wish there was more about the show and its different versions, especially its final incarnation on PBS, and also how he dealt with being famous for being a film critic, a relatively normal job.

If you are a fan of Roger Ebert, or movies, or journalism, you will enjoy this documentary. It is a fitting tribute and portrait of a life that touched and influenced the lives of people he never meant and influenced movies and filmmakers even though he never directed one. As you can imagine the tone of the documentary shifts as it covers Ebert’s illness, the loss of his voice, and his death. After he lost the ability to speak, Roger Ebert reinvented himself in the most wonderful way with his website, his blog, and then twitter. Even though he could not speak, you could read his words and there was his voice. Now that he is gone I can still hear his voice.

Classic Movie Picks: April 2014

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings orTCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

Happy 20th Anniversary TCM! 
On April 14, 1994, the channel was launched with a ceremony in Times Square and it has been the saving grace of many a cable line-up ever since. It’s certainly the default channel in my house (no surprise there), in fact it’s on right now as I type!

4/7-11: Fan Takeover!

The daytime schedule this week features films requested by viewers. It’s a bit of a mixed bag; however, by virtue of their making it on the schedule, these films are considered worth a view by somebody out there in TV land. During primetime and late night we’ll get films handpicked by Fan Programmers. The Fans’ picks include some of my favorites like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Philadelphia Story (1940), as well as some I’ve never seen, such as Went the Day Well? (1942) and A Man Called Adam (1966) — it’s no coincidence that both of those are TCM premieres. Check out the full schedule here, and be sure to tune in on the dot to hear each fan introduce their film.

BONUS PICK: 4/14, 7 PM - TCM: Twenty Classic Moments (2014)

Take a look back at some of the most memorable moments from the past twenty years.

4/10, 4:15 AM - Lola (1961)

This first feature by French director Jacques Demy stars Anouk Aimee as the title character, a cabaret entertainer in Nantes caught in a love triangle. Demy dedicated this film to director Max Ophuls, whose influence is apparent not only in the swirling camera work, but also in the title character who was surely named for Ophuls’ masterpiece Lola Montes (airing on 4/20, 2:00 AM). I really enjoy Demy’s bittersweet valentines to the Technicolor musical — The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort — so I’m interested to see what came before those films.

4/16: A Proper Butling

8 PM - The Remains of the Day (1993)

3:30 AM - English Without Tears (1944)

If you are experiencing Downtown Abbey withdrawal, here are two films featuring Brits with stiff upper lips to help you cope. Tonight’s schedule is devoted to butlers on screen, but I think these two in particular make a nice double feature because they are both about people adapting to societal changes in England following WWII, as well as love that crosses lines of duty and class.

4/20, 12 AM - Spione/Spies (1928)

This silent film from German director Fritz Lang is a pulpy thriller about super-spy Haghi, who oversees an international spy network from his headquarters beneath a bank. Like many imports of the era, including Lang’s Metropolis, Spione was edited severely for the U.S. market. The original cut was unavailable until 2004; I believe TCM is showing the restored version.

¿Quien es mas macho? Heston vs. Wayne

This month TCM spotlights two of Hollywood’s all-time macho men: Charlton Heston and John Wayne. It’s the Duke’s low drawl versus Heston’s clenched growl. Six guns versus frequent shirtlessness. April will be cloaked in a manly musk; breathe in at your own risk!

4/4, 9:30 PM - The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)

4/4, 4:45 PM - Skyjacked (1972)

Heston is being honored this month with his own U.S. stamp and in celebration TCM will show 5 of his films on April 4. His wide range as an actor is represented by my two picks from the primetime lineup; however, one constant through all his films is that he’s very entertaining when squaring off against an adversary. In the epic drama Agony, Heston is Michelangelo, locked in a tug of war with Rex Harrison’s Pope Julius II over the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. In disaster-thriller Skyjacked, he’s the captain of an airliner terrorized by a hijacker bound for Moscow.

4/22, 8 PM - Stagecoach (1939)

4/23, 12:30 PM - The Quiet Man (1952)

Wayne is the official Star of the Month and his films will take over the schedule April 21-25. The mini-festival was programmed by Robert Osborne -- 58 movies in total. There is a lot to choose from here, but I’ve selected two films directed by Wayne’s great collaborator John Ford. Stagecoach is Wayne in classic cowboy mode aboard the eponymous coach on a perilous ride through Apache country. In The Quiet Man, Wayne tries to be more of a lover than a fighter as a former boxer with a hidden past, but when playing opposite the fiery Maureen O’Hara he finds it difficult to keep his cool. 

Classic Movie Picks: March 2014

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

Carson on TCM
On Tuesdays at 8 PM, TCM will air 1-hour blocks of interviews which originally aired on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson between 1972 and 1987. It was a transition period in celebrity culture; gone were the days of the studio publicity machine which crafted each star's public persona, but we had not yet achieved the "all-access" overkill of today in which any mystique is quickly dissolved by looking at a star's Twitter feed. 
I find these interviews intriguing because for many of the featured stars, such as James Stewart (1976) and Lauren Bacall (1980), the height of their careers occurred decades earlier, so we are seeing Hollywood royalty with nothing to prove. For other stars, like Diane Keaton (1972) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (1982), the interviews took place as they were getting their big breaks and a good appearance on Carson was an important step in their careers. Plus, the 70s and 80s era fashions are always a delight. (Check out Ed McMahon shilling Jaymar slacks in this clip from 1973.)

Friday Night Spotlight: Food in the Movies
This month's spotlight rests upon films in which food plays a major role -- whether it drives the plot, as in Big Night, or features in one memorable scene, as in Cool Hand Luke. There are 16 films total, each introduced by celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. Here are a few that I'm looking forward to, including two of my favorite foodie films on 3/28. 
3/7, 8 PM - Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
3/7, 10:15 PM - Mostly Martha (2001)
These two films both center around the complicated personal lives of talented chefs. In the first film from Taiwan and directed by Ang Lee, the chef must deal with the tangled love lives of his three daughters. The second film features romance between a driven female chef and her more carefree sous-chef. Mostly Martha, which is a German production, was blandly remade in the U.S. in 2007 as No Reservations. 
3/14, 12 AM - My Dinner with Andre (1981)
Featured under the theme "Dinner and Conversation," this film is more about food for thought than what's on the plate. (And after an evening of banter with Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, the whole family will surely be begging for My Dinner with Andre action figures to act out the scenes again and again.)
3/28, 8 PM - Big Night (1996)
3/28, 10 PM - Babette's Feast (1987)
Best not watch either of these on an empty stomach. The feasts which make up the climax of each film are truly extraordinary, though I might give the edge to Big Night's timpano.

One year, in honor of Thanksgiving, I devised a "filmable feast" of great movies which went from cocktails to dessert; you can read that here.

3/12: William Powell's Birthday
William Powell was one of the suavest leading men of the 30s and 40s, a reputation well-deserved from films such as My Man Godfrey and the Thin Man series. However, I think that half of the fun of a Powell movie is seeing the interplay between him and his leading lady. In Godfrey, he is the calming force opposite Carole Lombard's dizzy heiress.  As Nick to Myrna Loy's Nora in The Thin Man, he gets to be a bit goofy and broad while Loy maintains the more even keel. Today's birthday tribute includes nine of Powell's less familiar films, each one featuring a different co-star. They all sound intriguing, but here are my top 5 picks based on the top actresses starring in each. I can't wait to see what different dynamics develop with each pairing.
10 AM - Rendezvous (1935), Rosalind Russell
11:45 AM - Reckless (1935), Jean Harlow (Powell's off-screen girlfriend, as well)
1:30 PM - The Emperor's Candlesticks (1937), Luise Rainer
3 PM - I Love You Again (1940), Myrna Loy
5 PM - The Heavenly Body (1943), Hedy Lamarr

3/23, 2 AM - Fists in the Pocket / I pugni in tasca (1965)
Director Marco Bellocchio's feature debut belongs to the radical mid-sixties movement of Italian cinema. Often the films of this era just don't capture my interest; however, Fists did stand out to me, perhaps because it is a bit weird. The story centers on a provincial Italian family consisting of an elderly widowed mother and her four grown children. The members of the family are all in their own way perceived as "defective" -- the mother is blind and utterly dependent, the youngest son is severely handicapped, the daughter is emotionally stunted, and the middle son suffers from epileptic seizures. The oldest son would like to get married, but lacks the financial resources to break away. So, the middle son, Alessandro, devises a plan to kill off the members of his family, ending with himself, so that his older brother can be free of their burden. Alessandro, as portrayed by Lou Castel, is a magnetic and memorable character. His rejection of religion, nationalism, and family pride would be echoed by rebels in the counterculture movement of the late sixties, as well as the punks of the late seventies. If you are looking for movie glamour, this is not your film. As Renata Adler put it in her (positive) NY Times review from 1968, this film is "about as attractive as somebody coughing wretchedly beside you on a subway." However, if you are looking for a unique movie experience, you might give this one a try.

3/31, 8 PM - Eva Marie Saint: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival
In this interview filmed at the 2013 festival, the Oscar-winning actress discusses her long career in which she co-starred with such greats as Marlon Brando, Montogomery Clift, Cary Grant, Elizabeth Taylor, and Paul Newman. The interview is followed by three of Saint's best-known films: On the Waterfront (1954), Raintree County (1957), and North by Northwest (1959).

Top 10 of 2013 (A.J.'s Picks)

by A.J. 

January and February are the time of year when I get to catch up on the prestige pictures released over the holidays and also watch any major award nominees that I've missed. A few dozen movies later, I've seen enough to make my picks for the best of movies of the past year. 

10. All is Lost

I was skeptical when I heard about a movie about a lone, nameless man lost at sea. Robert Redford plays “Our Man,” the film’s only character. The hull of his yacht has been punctured by a stray shipping container. We watch as his situation becomes bleaker and the sea does everything it can to kill him. We never learn why he is at sea; there are no flashbacks, he gives no monologues. But despite what numerous screenwriting books have told us about backstory, all you need to know about “Our Man” is that he lost and alone but alive and struggling to survive in a place that is as harsh and inhospitable to human life as the surface of the moon. There are intense thrills and heartbreaking moments. While watching this movie, you prepare yourself for the worst and hope for the best, just like “Our Man.” 

9. American Hustle

For the past few years director David O. Russell has turned out well-made, well-acted entertaining movies. While I think that Russell is overpraised for his “style” I must admit that when I see his name on a movie now, I know it is one I’m going to watch. I enjoyed American Hustle from start to finish. What makes this movie so good, more than any stylistic flare, is the excellent performances from its two leads: Christian Bale and Amy Adams. They play a team of low level con artists in 1970s New York that get caught up in an FBI sting operation loosely based on the real life sting operation called Ab-scam. Their situation becomes unstable and dangerous as the FBI agent leading the sting, played by Bradley Cooper, proves to be a loose cannon. Though details of the scam do not become any clearer as the film progresses, it never stops being fun and exciting. This film introduces you to low-life, adulterous con artists and by the end of the movie you’re rooting for them. 

8. The World’s End

I was on the fence about watching this movie. Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and director Edgar Wright have done self-aware send ups of genre pictures that are also good genre pictures successfully twice (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), but could they do it again? Yes, they did. The World’s End is about reasonably average friends whose reluctant reunion is interrupted when they find themselves in an end-of-the-world-alien-invasion. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are the leads, just like in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, but they are not playing the same character types as in those previous films which keeps their performances fresh and interesting. I got so caught up in the lives of these characters that I was disappointed, for a moment, when I thought that the "estranged friends reunite" movie would end once the alien invasion plot began. This was not the case; neither storyline gave way to other. This movie pulls off both stories incredibly well, all while being insanely hilarious. 

7. Frozen 

The best animated film of this year was not from Pixar, but from the Disney Animation Studios. That’s not a big surprise, but it has taken the computer animated Disney movies a while to catch up to the level of quality that has become synonymous with their sister studio Pixar. Adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen story The Snow Queen, Frozen contains all the familiar elements of Disney movies: princesses, magic, a handsome woodsman, and a lovable sidekick. But the makers of this movie have told this story in such a wonderful and different way that it makes all of these things feel new again. The queen-to-be, Elsa, can create snow and ice, a power which she cannot control. She shuts herself away in an ice palace in the wilderness after inadvertently freezing the entire kingdom at her coronation. Her younger sister, Princess Anna, sets out after her. There are villains in this movie, but the story is not about good vs. evil. It is about love vs. fear. One character has to be saved by an act of “true love” and the act that saves her says so much about the creativity that went into this movie. The main characters of this movie are two sisters and while other studios would’ve worried about what that meant for the movie’s “appeal,” Disney knows that if you tell a good story people will watch. 

6. The Heat

Sandra Bullock has unfortunately been in more than few bad comedies, but she’s only as good as the material she has to work with and fortunately The Heat is hilarious material. She plays a straight laced FBI agent working with an eccentric Boston cop played by Melissa McCarthy. It’s a tried and true formula but all the important elements (script, story, characters, jokes, direction) are in place and top notch. There have been a lot of good buddy cop movies, but not so many female buddy cop movies. That the leads are women is the obvious thing separating The Heat from other buddy comedies, but what truly sets this movie apart is its confidence to not care that its leads are women and just let them be funny. 

5. 12 Years a Slave

It is rare for a good film to also be good history. There are many aspects of American slavery and the American slave experience, and to try and cover all of those aspects in a single movie could lead to a lot of scenes and characters shoehorned into the plot and a movie that is more concerned with teaching than with telling a story. 12 Years a Slave is based on the slave narrative of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped into slavery in the 1840’s. Every aspect of slavery and the antebellum south in this movie feels authentic, from the master slave relationships to the way people speak. Steve McQueen directs every scene with thought and care. There are great performances from the whole cast, especially Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon, who despite of all of the suffering and injustice committed against him, keeps alive his hope and his freedom. 

4.  The Place Beyond the Pines

We often hear complaints from critics about the lack of well-written, character-based movies; however, each year a few films step up to the challenge and The Place Beyond the Pines was one of the most deserving of notice. This movie was released early in the year and, though it is quite remarkable, it was left off most “best of” lists and was not given any awards recognition. Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper deliver solid performances, as you might expect. The movie spans 15 years giving us an intimate story of fathers and sons with a grand feeling.

3. Gravity                                   

There is no other movie quite like Gravity. It is a one person survival thriller, not unlike All is Lost or Cast Away. The key difference between Gravity and those movies is not the setting but the casting; Gravity chose to rest its weight (no pun intended) not on a single actor, but a single actress: Sandra Bullock. She plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a NASA mission specialist, which means she is a scientist, not a pilot. After debris destroys the space shuttle she is lost and drifting alone in the vacuum of space. George Clooney plays astronaut Kowalski, attempting to guide Dr. Stone, but for the most part she is alone. The special effects are exquisite, but do not call attention to themselves. The score by Steven Price is unlike any other film score; it seems to rise up from the sounds of space. There are small scientific inaccuracies that only make the story more compelling and tense. I rarely encounter a movie that is so engrossing it is truly an experience to watch. 2013 was a very good year for Sandra Bullock.

 

1. I couldn't bring myself to pick a single best movie of the year for 2013. There were two films I enjoyed so thoroughly and completely that I could've picked at random which was number one and which was number two and that would've worked, but it would not have felt right. Fortunately there are no rules to making top 10 lists. My two top movies of last year, in no particular order, are:

The Wolf of Wall Street 

"Epic" is a word usually only applied to big budget adventure movies, but that is the perfect word to describe Martin Scorsese’s 3-hour biopic of Jordan Belfort, the drug-addicted, lascivious, misogynistic, greedy, criminal stock broker who, yes, cheated a lot of people out of a lot of money in the late 1980s and 90s. That epic feel comes largely from Leonardo DiCaprio’s grandiose but never over-the-top performance as Belfort. He is easily my pick for best actor for this year’s Academy Awards. The film’s editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, deserves high praise for her effective work taking the movie into montages and extended sequences with invisible ease. The Wolf of Wall Street has drawn criticism for not bluntly judging the actions of its characters; however, the movie doesn’t need to wag its finger. The judgment lies in simply letting the scenes of debauchery and white collar crimes play out; any audience member who needs the movie to tell them that it is wrong for rich executives to hire a little person to be thrown like a lawn dart while referring to him as “it” is probably lost beyond hope. 

Unlike American Hustle, which turns con artists into heroes, The Wolf of Wall Street’s criminals remain contemptible and essentially unpunished. The blame for that is not on the movie, but on our culture and laws that reward such behavior and allow for such loopholes. The Wolf of Wall Street is not a cautionary tale, not an expose or indictment, it is a portrait of how unlimited wealth and greed with practically no consequences leads to glorious destruction and ruin of anything decent and moral, especially if you’re a sociopath.

and  

About Time 

You should know what you’re in for when you know that Richard Curtis, the writer/director of Love Actually, made About Time. It is filled with sentiment from start to finish, as well and romance and wit, and I’m not ashamed to say it gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling while watching and afterwards, too. About Time uses a science fiction/fantasy plot device to give unconventional, amusing spin to what would otherwise be a straightforward coming of age and romance story. We follow Tim, who finds out that the men in his family can travel back in time but only to events in their own lives. He uses this ability to fix embarrassing moments and tries to get things just right, but it doesn't always work. The scenes of Tim approaching the same situation multiple times will remind anyone of Groundhog Day and have the same comic effectiveness. He meets the girl of his dreams, Mary, played by Rachel McAdams, then changes something accidentally and un-meets her, and then meets her again.

About Time is about Tim's life, his life with Mary, and so much more. At the heart of the movie is Tim's relationship with his wise, content, and witty father, played wonderfully by Bill Nighy. There are certain things, Tim learns, that cannot be changed without major consequences. There are other rules to his time travel and fixing, but the movie isn't too concerned with time technicalities or paradoxes. It wants to tell a story about life and love and consequences and acceptance. If I am honest with myself, I know that I would use time travel the same way Tim did. I could go back and change major events, who I met, what I did, but then I wouldn't have the life I do today. All those mistakes and unfulfilled plans led to something very good. No, I'd make the same life, just with fewer embarrassing moments.