Netflix round-up for August: Who has not seen Rocky and Groundhog Day? If not, WTF are you waiting for? You can catch these two classic films on Netflix. My favorite binge watch for August was The Sinner Season 2. I look forward to season 3. Can You Ever Forgive Me? 2018 drama, crime, biography Here’s an overrated movie for those “woke” film fans that need to get in an LBGTQSF flick to complete their useless “best movie” list. Lee Israel, the main character, was a mean, nasty, selfish lesbian author. As her writing career declined, she committed fraud by selling fake letters. She also stole, and peddled, genuine letters from a library. Richard E. Grant has a more interesting role as the gay hustler who sponges off her, and ultimately becomes an accomplice in her schemes. Yet the essential stupidity and weakness of his character presents a great comical scene when the cops close in, and he quickly sings-like-a-bird to save his own neck. This is a simple flick with two main characters for which a (normal) audience can feel no sympathy or connection. The most interesting thing about this flick were the scenes shot in the venerable Argosy Book Store in NYC, but believe me, this is not a big scene movie. I watched this movie while trapped on a verrry long transatlantic flight, and missed nothing with the smallish screen. Only suckers paid heavy to see this forgettable flick on the big screen. If Forgive Me sounds like your kind of movie, you have blundered into the wrong website. Streaming on HBO this weekend. Recommended only for diehard Melissa McCarthy fans.
0 Comments
The theme of this film is timeless: People fall in love, emotions run high and sometimes jealousy becomes a big problem. Robert (Albert Brooks) and Mary (Kathryn Harrold) have a roller coaster relationship. Mary is a knockout. She is also a successful executive. Robert has frequent attacks of jealousy because, quite frankly, she is out of his league. To paraphrase Philip Marlowe (Mr. Chandler); She is so pretty, a guy has to wear brass knuckles every time he takes her out. Robert goes off the deep end and the romance part of the movie tends to get a bit tiresome. But for no other reason, see the movie within a movie that Robert and Jay (Bruno Kirby) are editing. The exchanges with the director, star actor- George Kennedy, and the sound mix crew were the funniest scenes and had the best lines. Brooks and Bruno Kirby make a great comedy duo, especially in the Screaming Hulk scene – it is Comedy Gold. This is a cornball classic that presents a funny and nostalgic picture of small town life in America in the 1960s. Don Knotts, as newspaper man Luther Heggs, is the star in a cast loaded with familiar 60s TV sitcom actors. The screwball comedy works well with Don’s style of humor. I loved the spooky haunted house scenes, and Luther’s speech at the town picnic is Comedy Gold ("let me clarify this"). Playboy model Joan Staley portrays Knott's love interest, Alma, but there's really not much hot on-screen chemistry between the two. Does that surprise you? So bad; it’s good. |
AuthorWritten by Ben Clark. Copyright 2016-2023. All rights reserved. Archives
March 2023
Categories |