#188- White Heat

Quick recap: A gangster with mommy issues gets outgangstered. Totally a thing. Look it up.

Nothing weird going on here!

Fun (?) fact: In between takes for White Heat, James Cagney liked to go up to co-star Edmond O’Brien and show him poetry he had written.

My thoughts: Knowing that this was a gangster film, I was expecting violence but it being the 1940s, I wasn’t expecting anything super realistic. I was right in a way because the deaths were your typical ‘clutch the chest, fall over’ fare, but White Heat is pretty dark for its time. Many descriptions peg the main character Cody (not a very gangster name, tbh) as ‘psychopathic’ and ‘homicidal’ and that is very true. He doesn’t blink twice when offing someone and in some scenes, he seems to relish the torture he inflicts on his victims. It’s not that I wanted a gangster with a heart of gold, but I wasn’t expecting one so gangster-y.

As mentioned above, everything Cody does is for his mother. He runs the gang, but only gives orders that he knows she would approve of. I really liked her character because she didn’t put up with anything. In one scene, Cody is planning on giving himself up to police and when she is questioned later on, she plays the role perfectly of mom who doesn’t know anything, but will kick your ass if you keep asking. I had very little sympathy for Cody throughout the film, but what little I could muster was because of her and how true his love was. Plus, she left hiding to go buy the gangsters strawberries, so you can’t really hate someone who does that.

White Heat surprised me by how complicated it was, from both sides. The FBI obviously had no computers back then, but still managed to stay one up on the gang at all times. Cody, too, always thought ahead, like when he paid someone to rob a store many states away so that he could confess to it later on, thus providing an alibi for the much larger crime of a train robbery. In an effort to get Cody to admit his deception, the FBI plants one of their men as his cellmate to gain his trust. When Cody decides to break out, the FBI arranges a getaway car so that his relationship with agent Hank Fallon was still intact. And it’s not really a criticism of this film, but this constant life of being on the run made me wonder what the benefits of being a gangster really are. From the very beginning with the train robbery, everyone lives in constant fear of getting caught and must perform bigger heists to keep the money flowing in. I may just be lazy, but the lifestyle just seems like a lot of work. There were a few scenes of the gangsters counting their money, but besides buying high priced suits, what did they use it for? Being a gangster fit Cody because he was crazy, but I don’t know about the other ones.

Look, Ma, I’m on top of the world!

Final review: 4/5

Up next: The Firemen’s Ball

1 Comment

#182- Buffalo ’66

Quick recap: It sounds like a typical set up for a romantic comedy- a guy lies to his parents about having a girlfriend and must find someone at the last second to keep the deception alive. Except that the guy just got out of prison. Except that his parents are total nut jobs. Except that the way he finds a girl is to kidnap one from dance class. Except that the girl is a teenager. Ignore all that and you have a solid romantic comedy!

awww.

Fun (?) fact: Vincent Gallo wrote, directed, composed music for and starred in Buffalo ’66.

My thoughts: Buffalo ’66 is an ‘indie’ movie, to be sure, but so much darker than anything Wes Anderson could have or would have dreamed up. On its surface, it seems like the perfect film for a community like Tumblr to latch on to (and believe me, many have). The characters are beyond nutty yet also really sad and they get together in the end which is always nice. Nice, that is, if you are into ex-cons hooking up with teenage girls they have kidnapped. I personally wouldn’t go around pasting pictures of the movie with the hashtag #relationshipgoals, but to each his own, I suppose.

Shady ethical questions aside, I really did love this movie. Vincent Gallo has been called a control freak (see above fun fact), but in this case, it worked out perfectly. He was able to put all the pieces together in a way that he might not have been able to do with a partner. It’s difficult to describe the character of Billy Brown (although the word ‘tragic’ comes to mind), and I can’t imagine anyone else playing him besides Gallo. Seeing as how Gallo wrote the screenplay, only he knows the true ins and outs of the character like no one else could’ve pulled off. He disparaged Christina Ricci (his costar) in interviews about the film, and although I think she did a fine job, I don’t think anyone could’ve met Gallo’s expectations for the character Layla. Except maybe Gallo. Maybe he should’ve just been a one man show and taken full control of everything.

The characters in Buffalo ’66 are equal parts cringe-worthy, tragic and unintentionally funny. Honestly, each character could have his/her own analysis but I am in no way qualified or interested to do so. Most people might gravitate towards Billy Brown or his mother, but for me it’s Layla who I think is the most complicated. She justifiably scared when she meets him but then is able to turn into a loving wife when she meets the parents. It’s not very believable, though, which is why I loved the scene so much. I wonder what her motivation was at the time, because it had to be more than just fear of Billy Brown. When she recounts the (fictional) story of how they met the whole thing turns into a young girl having a serious infatuation with someone out of her league. And yet he isn’t, which is why the two stick together. She tells him that she loves him in the end, but is it true love or simply a teenage girl not knowing what she really wants? And Billy Brown reacting to her advances only shows how immature he is emotionally, but I still wanted it to end well, no matter how twisted the ending was.

Final review: 4/5. Let me tell you, this was a complicated movie to review, much more complicated than I originally thought it might be.

Up next: Alphaville

#170- Blue Velvet

Quick recap: Jeffrey Beaumont, played by Kyle MacLachlan, is home from college to help his father, who has been injured. He finds a severed ear in a field one day which leads him to all sorts of messed up stuff. ALL SORTS.

Like this!

Fun (?) fact: ‘Actors considered for the role’ trivia is mostly dull and pointless. I mean, Ewan McGregor was considered for the role of my husband but in the end I went with someone else. I could literally say anyone else and no one could dispute me because I only considered them. But in this case,the trivia is interesting because SO many actors flat out turned down a role in Blue Velvet because they were so disturbed- Val Kilmer, Molly Ringwald, Helen Mirren. Even Roy Orbison initially turned down a chance for his song to play in the film but later came around and even made a music video for the movie.

And this!

My thoughts: I learned recently that apparently I have ‘ a thing’ for Kyle MacLachlan. I first encountered him in Desperate Housewives where he largely remained unnoticed to me. And then he resurfaced on Portlandia as The Mayor, and became one of my favorite characters. It wasn’t until Twin Peaks, however, that I truly realized this crush and have embraced it ever since. David Lynch must feel the same way I do, since he has cast him in so many of his projects.

I think it’s the mutual love of coffee and pie that drew me in

It’s no surprise that I thought Kyle MacLachlan did a fine job as Jeffrey Beaumont in Blue Velvet, as well as Laura Dern, who played Sandy. The movie wasn’t really about them, and although they are central to the story, I have a feeling David Lynch knew his other characters would be so insane that he had to put in a couple of boring people to even it out a bit. And, oh man, are those other characters INSANE. Everyone always refers to Anthony Hopkins, who played Hannibal Lector, as the ultimate psychopath, but he is a kitten compared to Dennis Hopper, who plays Frank in this movie. Frank is evil manifested and I think I’m still traumatized by the rape scene. This might not be a popularly held sentiment, but Dean Stockwell as Ben is just as creepy, if not more so. He looked like a mix between French Stewart and the Master of Ceremonies from Cabaret.

The plot was a little slow moving for me with many scenes feeling like I was watching some sort of a dream, which I guess is Lynch’s trademark. The music is also very similar to Twin Peaks, and actually, so is the premise. I think it’s hilarious how many people were offended by Blue Velvet and then a few years later, decide to give Lynch his own tv show, which has some of the most insane scenes that I have ever sat through. America, as an offended mob, can be a rather fickle crowd. Blue Velvet is for a very particular set of people, meaning if you like Lynch, you’re going to like this and if you don’t, this certainly won’t win you over.

Final review: 4/5

Up next: Being There

3 Comments

#158- Gomorrah

Quick recap: Gomorrah is a (faintly veiled) fictional look at what crime is really like in Italy.

I can’t say this is what I pictured

Fun (?) fact: ‘Gomorrah’ is a pun on the name of the Mafia type featured in the movie, the Camorra. Also, the writer whose work this movie is based on, is on permanent police protection because for whatever reason, the Mafia doesn’t really like people outing them and their illegal activities. Go figure.

not Camorra, although the stabby part is most likely true

My thoughts: I, like most people, was brought up on the ‘Disney’ version of fairy tales where everyone lived happily ever after, like Snow White marrying her prince. Come to find out, most of those stories also contain some sort of fantastical violence like the Queen from Snow White being made to wear burning hot shoes as punishment and dancing until she dropped dead. So, a bit different from the cartoon version and kind of a shock upon learning the truth. This is how I felt after watching Gomorrah last night. I feel like I have been given a glossy version of mob life when the reality is much darker and bloodier.

In case there is someone reading this who is like me and only thought of The Sopranos when the word ‘Mafia’ is mentioned, there is more than one kind. The Mafia most people think of is the Sicilian Mafia, the dudes who have an order and wear nice clothes and perform hits on people. The Mafia this film shows is the Camorra, which is the hot mess of organized crime. The structure of the Camorra is built horizontally, which often leads to war between clans and lots of dead bodies in the street. On the upside (if there is such a thing), when bosses get arrested it doesn’t effect the group like it would in the Sicilian Mafia.

So, as you can probably piece together, this movie was super violent. It didn’t bother me all that much until the end when I had gotten invested in the characters. There isn’t a main character in Gomorrah, but instead several characters that work within the mob. One of them is a young delivery boy who gets initiated into a gang while another is a tailor who is secret paid by the Chinese to teach them how to sew. I liked that the director didn’t go out of his way to make the characters interact with each other because many times I felt like I was watching a documentary rather than a fictional movie. I think this is also what increased my dread toward the end because I saw the characters as real people. When the deaths did occur it all seemed very realistic, as if I was watching a murder taking place on screen.

This movie certainly isn’t for everyone, but it opened my eyes to a part of the world I had not known up until this point. When I think of Italy, I think of beautiful ancient structures, amazing food and of course, the Mafia. What I have never thought about is the real people who live there, people who live in poor neighborhoods and who must join a gang in order to survive. This is the Italy the tourist books don’t want you to see. Then again, America has its own ‘dirty little secrets’ we sweep under the rug and hide away so that tourism will continue.

Final review: 5/5 although I don’t know if I could sit through it again.

Up next: hopefully Terminator 2

1001 Movie Nights

Tag Archives: crime

#188- White Heat

#182- Buffalo ’66

#170- Blue Velvet

#158- Gomorrah

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: