Movie Reviews
Fool For Love
Another of the plays Altman filmed when he wasn’t able to put together a major movie. It is written by Sam Shepard, and he is the male lead, with Kim Basinger. Harry Dean Stanton, that great actor who sadly died just a month ago as I write this, is an enigmatic old man. He worked right up to his ninetieth birthday!
There was one basic problem with this filming of the play, for me, ... Read more »
A Perfect Couple
Paul Dooley is an underrated actor that I’ve always like. He seldom gets to star in a movie but is always good in supporting parts. Here, he is the lead, along with Marta Heflin, who looks like Miss Anoxia Nervosa of 1978. She is a member of a rock band dominated by a little Hitler leader. He is in the antiques business with his family, dominated by an old Greek Hitler of a grandfather. ... Read more »
Quintet
Robert Altman made two films starring Paul Newman, and neither was a commercial or critical success. This was the weakest of the two. It’s his only real science fiction film (I don’t count the horrible Countdown or the fantasy {{Brewster McCloud). It is in some undefined place, maybe Earth, maybe not, but an ice age has descended and the few survivors are huddled ... Read more »
Streamers
It couldn’t be more obvious that this was the film version of a play. It all takes place in a barracks with a small group of sergeants and draftees waiting for their orders to ship out to Vietnam. The play was by David Rabe.
These soldiers are in the 101st Airborne, the “Screaming Eagles.” A streamer is a chute that fails to open. I just looked it up, and it is as I thought: There ... Read more »
Images
Another box ticked off on our journey through the films of Robert Altman. And not one that I enjoyed too much. Susannah York is a woman who is going crazy in her remote house in Ireland. At various stages she kills one of her former lovers, who actually died in a plane crash three years before, then her current lover, then her husband. Only she didn’t really. Or did she? They keep coming ... Read more »
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson
Robert Altman had times in his career when he was very hot, and times when no one would take his phone calls. Sometimes it was because of big flops like this one. He followed his triumph of Nashville with a string of no less than six disasters. I’m not saying they were all bad, they were not. But they didn’t sell tickets, and he was well aware that to keep ... Read more »
Our Souls At Night
I have to say I hate the title. I’ve never been able to remember it. Aside from that, it’s a pretty good, if small, movie. Jane Fonda and Robert Redford had co-starred in Barefoot in the Park, one of Neil Simon’s better comedies, way back in 1967. They had good chemistry at ages 30 and 31, and they still do at 80 and 81. Neither of them really look their age, ... Read more »
The Cameraman
It is generally agreed that the Top Three comics of silent film were Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd (I met Harold Lloyd in 1965!), usually in that order. I usually agree … except sometimes I put Buster in the top slot.
This was Keaton’s first film after signing a contract with MGM, which he characterized as the worst mistake he ever made. Right after this one the ... Read more »
Brewster McCloud
I was surprised to learn that of all the films Robert Altman made, this was his favorite. It is the one he chose to make when he could have made almost anything right after his breakout hit with M*A*S*H. And it is one weird little film.
It was shot in Houston, the big city I was most familiar with when I was going to school. It all looked very familiar, ... Read more »
A Wedding
This is another of Robert Altman’s trademark movies with large casts and no real plot, as such. By that I mean, there is a terrific amount of incident, but it doesn’t really move forward toward a narrative goal. This is fine with me, but I know it’s not for everybody. I’d rate this one as not as good as Nashville or Gosford Park, but ... Read more »