R-Point (2004)

This is a lot of fun. It is not perfect, but it's good fun. It's set during the Vietnam war, with a South Korean unit sent into the wilderness to search for a missing band of brothers. They get to R-Point, and there are people there, but who are they? And how does the troop get out?

Watching these soldiers disintegrate with fear is fun, and trying to figure out what is happening is even more fun.

If you like things that go bump in the dark, pick this one up.

Les Diabolique (1955)

I have been on a roll lately with movies! I have had such good films come my way over the last few weeks that I'm a bit concerned. A run of good movies usually means I will be watching a bunch of dogs soon. Looking back, I have really enjoyed everything through the Honeymoon Killers at the beginning of this month, but before that I watched Shoot the Moon, The Hunger and Time after Time. Ick.

Anyway, this one - Les Diaboliques (also known as Diaboliques or the Fiends) is top of the line all the way. I have read in different publications that this is the best movie Hitchcock never made, and I totally get it. It is listed in many places as a horror film, but to me it is suspense, like Rear Window is suspense. I think Psycho crosses the line to horror, but where that line exists is hard for me to say - perhaps it's just personal.

Paul Meurisse plays Michel Delassalle who married his wife for her inheritance: money and a boarding school. He abuses his wife, Christina (played by Véra Clouzot), both physically and emotionally. His girlfriend, Nicole, is a teacher at the school, played by Simone Signoret. (FYI - this is one of France's most famous actors, and this movie displays her well.)

The two women work together and are friends, as they both detest Michel. He is abusive to both and this draws them together. Nicole has had it, and she wants to kill Michel, but needs Christina's help. Christina reluctantly agrees; they drown the husband and throw him in the school's dirty pool. But his body is never found, and eventually they realize the body is missing. Christina has a heart condition, and these strange occurrences begin to wear on her. Nicole is torn between helping her friend and taking off, as this situation is a mess.

I guessed what was going on in the beginning (if you watch Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte you will figure this one out as well, plus the movie has been copied 4 million times), but I was very uncertain as the movie rolled on. The suspense really ratchets up, and the atmosphere is great. It could have ended many ways - and it did have a surprise at the end that I did not expect at all. This is a great movie - you can watch it with your kids (if they can read).

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

If you want to see great construction and great actors having fun with a wonderfully melodramatic script, rent this one.

Bette Davis plays Charlotte, who as a young girl is planning to run away with her married lover until her father finds out. He breaks things up and the lover ends it with Charlotte at a huge ball she and her father are throwing. He is then killed at the ball with a meat cleaver, his head and hand never found. Charlotte thinks her dad did it, and he thinks Charlotte did it. No-one is every charged. Charlotte closets herself in her mansion for almost 40 years with her maid Velma (Agnes Moorehead - OMG! She is so trashy in this role!). When the highway department seizes the property for the new highway, Charlotte has to leave, so she calls in her cousin Miriam (Olivia de Havilland). And then the shit really hits the fan.

This has a "Gaslight" type plot, which I love. Apparently the off-camera action was quite melodramatic as well, with Joan Crawford quitting and many other actresses (Vivien Leigh, Katherine Hepburn, etc.) declining the role. Bette Davis was a bitch to work with; but watch what she does on screen. It's insane.

My Darling Clementine (1946)

I loved this movie! I cannot believe I missed it - I made it to this age without seeing a classic John Ford western. This one does not star John Wayne, but Henry Fonda. Henry Fonda is not one of my fav actors. I like him best in Once Upon A Time in the West because he was such a great bad guy. Often I find him too cold or too earnest. But not in this movie.

Here he a good guy, Wyatt Earp, with an interesting character. This movie, with a name that sounds like it belongs to a musical, is about the fight at the OK Corral. It is very inaccurate in terms of facts: Doc and Wyatt met before Tombstone, there was no Chihuahua as far as I know, Doc was a dentist and the movie shows him as a surgeon, and I think Clementine is fiction. The biggest bit of artistic license? Doc did not die at the OK Corral. He died of his longtime illness, TB, in a sanatorium in Colorado. (I added Doc Holliday's dental college graduation photo here - he was 20.)

If you have seen Tombstone, you've seen a decent re-telling of this story, but Tombstone is Doc Holliday's movie, as played by Val Kilmer. This movie is Wyatt Earp's show. And John Ford takes the time to let us watch Earp as a person (as played by Henry Fonda). He is laconic and sweet and nervous and he doesn't take himself too seriously. When he is too nervous to ask Clementine to dance, we get to watch his face display that. John Ford also focuses on Fonda's legs. Fonda was a tall, thin man, with long legs. He stands and sits down in a studied manner, and leans back in his chair with those legs out, or balances them against a post. It's fun to watch.

Much of the movie is filmed in Monument Valley, so the scenery is great. Doc Holliday is totally miscast - Victor Mature is more of a gangster type than a southern dentist turned gambler. But I loved it - I'm watching it again.

Bridesmaids (2011)

I haven't laughed until I cried, my face hurt and I got a headache since Hangover, but I did yesterday. This movie is being compared to Hangover, and I can see why, but it is different in several huge ways.

First - it is more disgusting. I do NOT remember as many gross out scenes or as much potty humor in Hangover. (Please note, thanks to the fantastic writing, Mike Tyson and Bradley Cooper, I have watched Hangover more than once. I recall it quite well.) Second, it is raunchier. The first couple of scenes (Annie having sex with a hilarious John Hamm and later doing a penis imitation) are raunchier than the Hangover, and that's just the beginning.

Third, it's about women - really. The crux of the matter is that Annie (Kristen Wiig), the Maid of Honor, is at a crap point in her life. Her business failed, BF left her, her car is junk and she has no prospects. So of course, her best friend is doing super well and even gets engaged. Emotionally and monetarily Annie cannot handle the duties of a Maid of Honor. Throw in a nasty-ass maid of honor in waiting (Rose Byrne), and the wedding party is a nuclear disaster waiting to happen. Things don't go well. You would not believe the shit that happens. These women are nuts and these actresses have NO PRIDE. My favorite was Melissa McCarthy, who is certifiable and steals every scene she enters. I need to rent everything she has ever done.

From a movie standpoint, please note how several scenes last far longer than in the average film. In many films today, particularly comedies or action films, there is little lingering on a moment to increase the effect - rapid editing is instead very popular. So notice how long the food poisoning in the dress shop lasts, as well as the scene where Annie and Helen fight over the microphone, the airplane scene, and the scene where Annie tries to get Officer Rhodes' attention. These are not quick - the writing, the director, the camera all stick with them and allow the humor or the tension (or both) to build.

I'm buying this one. Kristen Wiig wrote and starred and she's a genius. The whole movie is genius.

Umberto D (1952)

Have you ever seen The Bicycle Thief? It is a 1948 film by Vittorio De Sica, who was a neorealist film maker in post-war Italy.

I have only seen a couple of Vittorio's films, but they are realistic to a point that isn't familiar state-side. In the Bicycle Thief, a family man is trying to find any work to put food on the table. He finds a job putting up posters, but has to have a bicycle for the job. The family pawns their sheets to get his bicycle out of hock, and it is then stolen the first day on the job. The search for the bicycle is the framework for showing us how people treat each other.

In Umberto D, an elderly pensioner is trying to find enough money to pay his rent. His landlady wants to evict him as her social status is increasing and he no longer belongs or is needed in her home. He has two friends, a little dog (Flike) and the landlady's maid. He sells what he can to pay the rent while waiting for his next pension check, but eventually decides to take his own life. But first he has to find a home for Flike.

These were hard films for me to watch, but they are wonderful, and beautifully shot and acted. I believe Umberto D uses all non-professional actors. Both films are worth watching just to see the post-war life in Italy, the state of the buildings, how people get by, etc. But the personal relationships and the struggle to live? These movies are amazing.

The Honeymoon Killers (1969)

This movie is just freaky scary. It is based on real killers (from the 1940's) Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck. Martha was an overweight nurse whose friend (Doris Roberts - the mom from Everybody Loves Raymond) signs her up for a lonely hearts club. She immediately falls prey to Raymond. He comes to visit her down South, seduces her, gets some cash from her and breaks up with her. She calls him and tells him she is suicidal, and he invites her to NY. Then starts an weirdly symbiotic, sick, nasty relationship.

Raymond and Martha seem to really love each other, but his is not a storybook love. He is a slimy con man who preys on overweight women, or older widows, or spinsters. He marries them and steals their jewelry or wallets, or cons them out of their money. He tells Martha about his "work", and she doesn't care. She helps him, posing as his sister. She is needy and manipulative and incredibly jealous. Eventually they are killing their victims.

This movie will get under your skin like you won't believe. The leads (Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco) are good - but I was blown away by the supporting cast. These women are incredible. Mary Jane Higby as Janet Fay will be etched forever in my head. The scene where she dies is just nasty. This is a low budget film. It made me think of a women's prison movie crossed with first rate horror. It is horror. IMDB says that Francois Truffaut named it as his favorite American film. Scorcese was director for a while, but was taking too long so was replaced (eventually) with Leonard Kastle, who wrote the screenplay. This was Kastle's only movie.