#408- Guys and Dolls

Quick recap: Oh boy. So basically, all the guys want Nathan Detroit to find a place to host his gambling night but all these girls -dolls, if you will- keep mucking things up.

Fun (?) fact: There are very few contractions used for the dialogue. This was to make the characters’ lack of education noticeable, even though they tried to cover it up.

Brando and SInatra did not get along well during filming. Knowing he hated cheesecake, Brando kept flubbing his lines purposefully during the diner so that Sinatra would have to keep eating.

Thoughts and observations: 

  • This is the first time I can say definitively that the movie version is so much better than the live version. Usually I prefer live because it’s so hard to replicate the energy. But when you have Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra in starring roles, how could anything else compare?
  • The dancing is absolutely stunning and the craps game in the sewer might be my favorite number of all time. Brando’s singing, however………at least he admitted it was awful.
  • The chemistry between Brando’s character, Sky Masterson, and Jean Simmons as Sarah Brown was also a high point for me. I wasn’t feeling it at first but the scene where Sarah sobers up at the fountain in Cuba was so sweet and believable. The wedding at the end was a bit of a left turn seeing as how they had just started dating but this was the fifties after all, so why not?
  • My least favorite part of the film were the Hot Box scenes with Adelaide. Were cats sexy back then? Was that really a thing? With lyrics such as ‘talk to me pretty/ ‘Here kitty kitty!/ and pet me poppa, poppa pet me nice’, I could barely look at the screen. The later number ‘Take Back Your Mink’ was a little better because it involved stripping, which is sexier than cats, I suppose.
  • I recognized a couple of the songs, mainly ‘Luck Be a Lady’ but most didn’t stick out to me. That being said, I felt like the music was really well integrated with the story. Yes, people burst into song but even when they moved, it was very graceful and purposeful so singing just made sense in this world. I especially enjoyed the gamblers at the mission and how they were able to keep their gruffness even as they sang.

Watchability score: 5/5. The more I think about it, the more I love it!

Up next: Solaris

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#407- Europa Europa

Quick recap: A Jewish teen, Solomon, escapes Nazi rule by hiding out in a Communist orphanage. After being ordered to close, Solomon’s only chance of survival is to join the Hitler Youth.

Fun(?) fact: The movie is based on a true story. The real Solomon Perel can be seen singing at the end of the film.

The real ‘Sally’ Perel

Thoughts and Observations:

  • So much of this film reminds me of Jojo Rabbit but I don’t think Europa Europa was a source of inspiration for Taika Waititi or anything, more so that both movies revolve around the Hitler Youth. The woman who Sally loses his virginity to because she thinks he looks like Hitler is very reminiscent of Rebel Wilson’s character Fraulein Rahm, though.
  • I’m amazed by how specific this movie is yet the theme is so universal. Every teen goes through a period of fitting in and questioning beliefs, except in this case the stakes are so much higher. Perel brings up his circumcision a lot when narrating the movie. There is even a scene at the Nazi school where he tries to stretch his foreskin out so that when he gets his physical, no one will be able to tell that he is actually Jewish. It made me think of all the ways I tried to hide myself as a teen, in a desperate hope that I could just fit in and go unnoticed.
  • Europa Europa has some suspenseful scenes but I wouldn’t call the whole movie a nail biter. It was also less graphic than I imagined it to be, although the few scenes involving death, like when Perel visits the ghetto are images that will be hard to leave my brain any time soon. I think what got me is this movie didn’t make the Nazis out to look pure evil, but instead people who had a job to do. Some gleefully enjoyed the work and some just merely tried to stay alive, like Perel. There were a couple of people who found out his secret and didn’t rat him out but for the most part citizens just tried to ignore what was going on.
  • The ending completely surprised me *SPOILERS* as Perel escaped the Nazis only to wind up captured because of his alleged atrocities against the Jewish people by the Americans. It’s only after Perel sees his brother alive at a concentration camp that everything is sorted out and he can finally just be himself. Hiding his heritage became more of a burden than if he had just been captured along with his family in the beginning.

Watchability score: 4/5

Up next: Guys and Dolls

 

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#406- Naked Lunch

Quick recap: 

Fun (?) fact:  Seeing as this whole film is just basically one fact after another, here’s the one that shocked me most: The scene where Bill accidentally shoots and kills his wife during a ‘William Tell’ act happened in real life to William S. Burroughs and his wife. He only served 13 days in jail.

me with the boys after the second vaccine

Thoughts and observations: 

I think it’s best to come out and say I had NO idea what was going on through most of this movie. It’s like one of those viral videos where the caption just says ‘you can’t guess what happens! Just watch to the end!’ and I did just that. Not once did I predict correctly what would happen in the next scene, whether it was two typewriters fighting to the death or someone snorting centipede dust. And that’s ok. This movie wasn’t meant for me and once I realized that, I just sat back and enjoyed myself.

The title comes from William S. Burrough’s novel ‘Naked Lunch’ but the movie is actually several of his novels mashed into one as well as a quasi-biography of Burrough’s himself. And seeing as I have not read any of his works or know anything about the author, 95% to 98% of the references went over my head. It’s not necessary to cram before watching this movie, though. I was invested from the first moment. The main character, Bill Lee, is an exterminator whose wife gets addicted to the roach powder he uses. Which brings him to also become addicted, or maybe addicted to the centipede powder that’s supposed to counteract the roach powder. This leads him to talk to a hideous looking roach who tells him to kill his wife because she’s not really human. Which he does accidentally. Maybe. And then typewriters turn into hideous creatures and Lee flees to a place called the InterZone and finds out he’s actually a secret agent of some kind. Honestly, I’m not ever sure what is real and what isn’t. Does he die at the end or does he finally escape to a higher form of consciousness? Or was this all real and he did his agent job? It really doesn’t matter because it was a fun ride to just watch.

I don’t want to say too much about Cronenberg because it’s all been said anyway, but I can’t imagine anyone else directing this movie. The figures were grotesque in a way I don’t have the vocabulary to describe. So, instead enjoy some nightmarish pictures!

Watchability score: 4/5

Up next: Europa Europa

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#405- A Place in the Sun

Quick recap: George Eastman takes up his uncle’s offer of working at his company only to end up knocking a girl up, falling in love with a socialite and getting the electric chair.

I’m really bad at recognizing movie stars so of course I had no idea this was Elizabeth Taylor. I loved her performance and just hoped whoever she was went on to do something special 🙂

Fun (?) fact:  Shelley Winters ( who played Alice) drove white Cadillacs for years after filming to compensate for feeling inferior to Elizabeth Taylor.

Thoughts and observations:

As a rule, I typically stay away from melodramas, but this one hooked me the moment Montgomery Clift appeared on screen.

From there, the plot was a wild ride from start to finish. I don’t remember ever being in a situation where I wanted both the best for every character and the worst. Even Alice, the poor factory girl whom George (Montgomery Clift) knocks up. She was absolutely a victim in every way but seeing her whine and pout when she was about to be shoved overboard was just too much to put up with from a character.

Even as I write this review, I’m still blown away by how much of a predator George Eastman was, yet I kept hoping things would turn around for him. On his first day at the factory, he was told that the most important rule was not to fraternize with the workers and he literally did just that moments later. And then while walking Alice home from the movies, his hands are all over her even though they had barely spoken before. I hated how pushy he was and knew their relationship would end badly. And I liked him even less when he started dating Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor) because he seemed so desperate to appear well off. And yet- as he professed his love for Angela, I couldn’t help  but melt. I too was annoyed that Alice was around and found myself siding with George. I didn’t think he would murder her but I wanted him to live his life with his true love.

The end of the movie was just as much of a whirlwind and I still can’t decide how I feel about all of it. George was brought to justice as he should’ve been, but once again I found myself siding with him that he didn’t murder Alice. Even as the priest got him to confess that his inaction caused her death, I still wanted a different ending and wanted there to be some twist where everyone lives happily ever after. This movie was both frustrating and absolutely the most entertained I’ve felt in a long time.

Watchability score: 5/5

Up next: Europa Europa

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