Joel and Ethan Coen’s “The Hudsucker Proxy” (1994) is the first true cult film of the Coen Brothers, whose run of extraordinary independent films revealed a duo capable of spinning any genre in a fresh direction.

After the socko streak of “Blood Simple” (1984), “Raising Arizona” (1987), “Miller’s Crossing” (1990) and “Barton Fink” (1991), the Coens teamed with action movie mega-producer Joel Silver to make their first lavish Hollywood studio film.

What should have been embraced as one of the standouts works of the decade became the first flop of their careers.

The problem was less the lack of box office than awareness, as other ’94 standouts (a big one in particular) eclipsed what the Coens had achieved (more on that later). Today, “The Hudsucker Proxy” (yes, the film explains and justifies its title) feels like a discovery for the uninitiated and an all-time classic for those who’ve been in love with the Hud for 30 years.

It starts in New York of 1958, with the reveal that an employee of Hudsucker Industries named Norville Barnes, played by Tim Robbins, is about to jump off the top floor of the company building. Who is he, how did he get there and why is he going to jump on a snowy night on New Year’s Eve?

The film begins at the end and works its way backward (it’s not the only instance where time is manipulated by the storytelling and storyteller).

We see how Barnes, a likable numbskull and klutz, manages to talk his way into a job at Hudsucker Industries, which is undergoing a major power shift after the death of the company’s founder, Warring Hudsucker (Charles Durning, fantastic in just a couple of scenes).

The company’s new head, Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman) is looking for a patsy to take the fall when the stock drops and in walks Barnes, seemingly a perfect fit and perfectly dumb enough to be given an undeserved position of power.

Barnes has no idea why he’s suddenly given so much power and attention; he’s a rube from Muncie with a “big idea” scrolled on a piece of paper that will bring him to the top. Amy Archer, a Pulitzer-winning news reporter (Jennifer Jason Leigh) discovers that Barnes is indeed, a dope, but that the seemingly idiotic concept he carries around in his pocket might, indeed, become a blockbuster.

“The Hudsucker Proxy” lacks the cynicism of “The Big Lebowski” but elevates every cinematic aspect in view, as the characters are all unquestionably Movie Characters.

RELATED: 19 PERFECT ‘RAISING ARIZONA’ QUOTES

Every actor has to adapt the rat-a-tat-tat verbal speed and style of screwball comedies. It’s not just the energy in the performances but how quickly the words come tumbling out.

The screenplay by Sam Raimi and Joel and Ethan Coen is overflowing with inventive storytelling approaches but also demands that every actor sound like they’re in an old-fashioned movie – not “period correct,” necessarily, but in the highly stylized manner one would expect from James Cagney or Rosalind Russell. Leigh’s performance begins like a stunt, as the character becomes richer, and warmer as the story unfolds.

Robbins is terrific in this, playing exactly the kind of up and comer his studio pitchman Griffin Mill in “The Player” (1992) would have eaten alive, though both work in environments with giant slogans overhead: “Movies, Now More Than Ever” for Mill and “The Future is Now” for Barnes.

FAST FACT: “The Hudsucker Proxy” earned an anemic $2.8 million at the U.S. box office in 1994.

Durning’s jolly, robust turn reminds us of his Oscar-nominated bit in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” (1982). John Mahoney is dazzling as Archer’s boss and Newman goes all-in on the Coens’ gleeful tendency to get weird.

You also get Bruce Campbell, Steve Buscemi and Peter Gallagher, all pitch perfect. Jim True, playing Buzz the elevator operator, gives a performance that is something of a special effect.

Bill Cobbs’ folksy narration and performance may strike some as stereotypical, though the role itself is a commentary on such screen figures; Cobbs and the Coens avoid Uncle Remus comparisons because the character not only possesses a God-like distanced from the story but works as a literal deux ex machina.

RIP Bill Cobbs. What a voice (Hudsucker Proxy). pic.twitter.com/InbeuJapxa

— Josh Sawyer (@jesawyer) June 27, 2024

It’s a clever way to address and instantly subvert the stereotype, as Cobbs’ Moses is essentially the God of this movie.

Carter Burwell’s gorgeous, grand score illustrates what the Coens have come up with this time: a Preston Sturges tribute, with injections of corporate satire and Looney Tunes comedy. Imagine if Frank Capra wrote a screenplay that Terry Gilliam directed. It’s an unabashedly romantic, old fashioned Hollywood throwback, infused with wit, surrealism and extraordinary filmmaking.

This isn’t style over substance but the rare occasion where the styler is the substance, as a love for film tropes and storytelling methods gets a full workout. Some of the most amazing set pieces here are the montages that appear at first glance to be vintage but are canny recreations.

Circles become a major factor early on, as a coffee ring around a pivotal newspaper ad, the omnipresent clock atop Hudsucker Industries and (without spoiling the big twist) the thing that pushes the second act into full throttle all take on the importance of a supernatural totem.

Raimi and the Coen’s screenplay has a honey of a quotable line and a memorable gag in every scene. Few films made at this level come across as personal expressions of love for cinema. There are so many awesome sequences to pinpoint, so I’ll cite just a few:

• The freefall sequences are visual effects tour de forces
• The “laughing” montage that manages to thrust the story forward
• The two cabbies narrating how Barnes and Archer “meet-cute” in a diner
• The enthralling passage of Barnes’ creation going into the public
• An absurd, thrilling dream sequence that plays like an interpretive dance by someone who cannot dance.

Everything here is all-in.

When Robbins and Leigh kiss for the first time on a balcony, it’s staged as though it were the greatest smooch in cinema history.

When “The Hudsucker Proxy” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994, the film’s ode to old Hollywood was instantly outshined by the game-changer arrival of Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction,” which is edgy and hip, whereas the Coens film is spectacular and square.

It’s not a fair comparison, though other highly-lauded period pieces graced Cannes that year, such as “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle” (which also stars Leigh) and “Ed Wood,” which found art house audiences that skipped “The Hudsucker Proxy” altogether.

By year’s end, the film was a distant memory, though Robbins also starred in another movie with a hard to remember tongue twister of a title, “The Shawshank Redemption.” Or, as Morgan Freeman once referred to it, The Hudsucker Redemption.

The film’s failure caused the Coens to go back to Film Noir, which we can be grateful for: “Fargo” (1996) followed, and so did “The Man Who Wasn’t There” (2001) and the Best Picture winner “No Country For Old Men” (2007), not to mention the comical but knotty noir of “The Big Lebowski” (1997).

If the Coens had continued to work on big budgets and “The Hudsucker Proxy” was a massive hit, could they have become like Christopher Nolan or Denis Villeneuve? Eclectic artists working in giant sandboxes? Would it have diluted their art or resulted in more movies like this one?

Unlike Norville Barnes, I doubt the Coens would want to alter the fabric of time and change history. Although it was a blip the year it came out, “The Hudsucker Proxy” is a towering achievement and a major discovery for the uninitiated.

You know, for kids.

The post ‘Hudsucker Proxy’ – From Flop to Cult Classic appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

It’s one thing to read headlines about the pro-Palestinian protests raging across campuses nationwide.

It’s another to watch a reporter attempt to share what’s happening on the ground. Cam Higby of Today Is America fame did just that, exploring the chaos engulfing three California campuses.

The result is “Anarchy U,” a sickening film that could be the most depressing watch this year. The Daily Caller documentary clocks in at just under 40 minutes, but you’ll wish it were shorter.

Seeing brainwashed students march for a dubious cause is a dispiriting, but necessary affair.

Higby is unabashedly conservative and raw, exploring what it means to be a new media journalist. So he isn’t as polished as necessary, and his youth shows.

He’s also doing the work corporate media should be doing, risking his health in the process. 

Higby’s reportage reveals a movement brimming with hate, intolerance and values anathema to western culture. The protesters spew homophobic slurs, taunt police offers, castigate Jews and flout the law at every turn.

They hide behind COVID-era masks and refuse to let select media outlets share their story. And they get away with just about everything.

Two tiers of justice. It’s the new, unsettling normal.

Who funded the anti-Israel encampment at UCLA?

‘ANARCHY U’ drops this Friday, 06/28. Learn more here: https://t.co/vtOeuupOoJ

Hosted by @camhigby of @TodayisAmerica pic.twitter.com/rQ4Ejz26ba

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 26, 2024

Assembled in mere weeks after multiple May protests, “Anarchy U” plays out less like a formal documentary and more as an extended vlog entry.

That doesn’t diminish its power.

We watch as Higby learns how to innovate on the fly. He dons a keffiyeh at one point to trick protesters into admitting him into a “protected” space. He bargains with defiant protesters to ask just a question or two, often with poor results.

He’s pushed, insulted and physically manhandled for the crime of walking in public spaces.

His camera catches more than enough. This movement, whatever noble purpose it may have at the molecular level, is rotten to the core.

It’s hard to know what’s more depressing:

• The robotic students who can’t answer simple questions about their movement?
• The police ordered to stand by while chaos reigns supreme?
• The universities who let their campuses be overrun without lifting a finger to protect their property, let alone their students?
• Jewish students prevented from attending class due to their religious faith?

It’s stunning how far American culture has fallen in such a short time. The media collectively shrugs at the hate and intolerance allowed to fester at the university level.

So does the current Commander in Chief.

It’s surreal watching Biden posture and rant about anti-semitism in Charlottesville when there have been literally thousands of Charlottesvilles on his watch, carried out by leftists, that his DOJ and his Party’s governors and mayors refuse to prosecute

— Noah Pollak (@NoahPollak) June 28, 2024

A 37-minute documentary made outside the Hollywood eco-system captures it all too well.

“Anarchy U” lets a well-spoken Israeli student sum up the insanity. He should be furious over the sorry state of affairs. He’s not. He’s mournful of what’s happening, and his wisdom suggests hope for a better academic tomorrow.

Every minute of “Anarchy U,” alas, begs to differ.

HiT or Miss: The Daily Caller uncorks another vital look at America in decline via “Anarchy U.”

The post ‘Anarchy U’ Shows America’s Decline in Real Time appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga” is an enjoyable western and a chance for Costner, as star, director, co-writer and producer, to unabashedly share his love for the genre.

It’s three hours and occasionally slow moving (until the pacing suddenly giddy-ups to a gallop during the action), which will make it a challenge for those not attuned to earnest horse operas.

As always, Costner’s directorial efforts are not only ambitious but enormously risky. This one is no different.

The film’s subtitle announces this as Chapter 1, and there are reportedly three more installments planned with Chapter 2 already on the release calendar for August 16.

Set in 1859, and dealing with the presence of outsiders on land that is occupied by Apache Native Americans, the story introduces a handful of tasty character threads: Jena Malone plays Ellen, a woman on the run from a violent family, Sienna Miller is Frances, a mother who struggles to protect her young daughter from all the bloodshed occurring around her and Luke Wilson plays Matthew, head of a massive stagecoach expedition that works on 14-hour shifts.

There’s also Gregory Cruz, playing Tuayeseh, the elder of an Apache tribe that commits a slaughter that results in power shifts and retaliation. Then there’s Abbey Lee, playing Marigold, a prostitute who winds up under the protection of a gunslinger named Hayes Ellison, played by Costner.

Some of the actors have time to develop their roles and shine in standout moments, while others make strong impressions, and then vanish.

The sad case, for instance, of Malone’s character – it’s not a spoiler, her role simply fades from view by the second half. I’m unsure if she’s no longer in the movie or if her subplot will be resolved in one of the forthcoming sequels.

The overall result is involving, sometimes riveting but also episodic and often quite square. Despite how rough the violence gets, the tone unwisely wavers into romance and sometimes outright comedy, when Costner should have maintained the grimness of the first act the entire time.

The cast has some nice surprises.

Michael Rooker is great as always and Sam Worthington is well cast playing the voice of reason amidst the savagery and ignorance, but Wilson’s commanding, non-comedic performance makes me hope he sticks with drama from now on.

It’s a pleasure to see the wonderful James Russo stealing his big scene and, while her character needs fleshing out, Dale Dickey is as authoritative as ever as an intimidating matriarch.

Isabelle Fuhrman, like Malone, has strong moments but her character isn’t given enough focus. If Costner ever teases a longer cut, I’d give it a watch, just to see how much more character development we’re missing out on.

RELATED: HOW COSTNER’S ‘WYATT EARP’ SET THE STAGE FOR ‘HORIZON’

While the screenplay by Costner and Jon Baird goes a long way to address issues of land ownership and brings complexity and intended balance to the portrayal of indigenous Native Americans, there is one old-fashioned western genre cliché that sneaked by Costner.

Although Miller is first rate, she sports perfect hair and immaculate pearly whites, even after surviving an entire night hiding underground.

Because Costner is playing the long game and, presumably, everything will connect once the four films are all released and (if you have 12 hours to kill) can be watched concurrently, I want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Until the entire series is finished, this feels like a saga still setting itself up.

Since the story, visuals and character list are expansive, the obvious question is why Costner decided to make such an expensive risk in releasing this in theaters instead of the obvious choice to have, say Netflix, pay for the whole thing and drop them on its platform?

Nevertheless, the all-for-nothing proposition of making a massive western, let alone four of them, and positioning them in theaters instead of at home, is part of why I love Costner. Why go the easy route and make one miniseries, when you can make giant, individual movies instead?

Now watching:
Horizon: An American Saga (2024)
Directed by Kevin Costner
Chronicles a multi-faceted, 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west. pic.twitter.com/OuGZaIONG1

— Movie Mad Motto (@Rob_Motto) June 27, 2024

The nighttime assault by Apaches on the unwanted settlement is a harrowing, remarkable set piece that occurs early and the film never quite tops. Costner shows up in the second act (there was cheering in my movie theater when he first appeared) and he plays his grizzled, compassionate, quick-draw killer with the ease you’d expect from Clint Eastwood.

It must be said that the 1993 Costner/Eastwood drama, “A Perfect World,” is among the best films either actor has made.

It was a huge undertaking and a major risk for Costner to make another old-fashioned spurs and saddles shoot ‘em up. Because I’m rating this on Chapter 1 and cannot, as of yet, conclude if Costner connects all his dozens of characters and plot threads, the result is a mixed bag but often soaring first installment.

Easily, the most audacious touch is the ending, or lack of one.

After an involving quasi-climax (which winds up being a stopping point and not a true ending), we get an exciting montage of scenes showing the plot moving forward and Costner’s Ellison taking action.

To my amusement and semi-horror, I realized this four-minute sequence isn’t a part of the movie, but a spoiler-heavy, wordless trailer for Chapter 2!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Cinemark Theatres (@cinemark)

The good news is that it looks like some of the most thrilling passages are in the upcoming installments. The downside? A key character named Pickering, who is referred to in Chapter 1 but never seen, is a surprise bit of casting that is revealed in the montage.

I think the last time I saw a movie do this, where the ending is just a coming attractions trailer for the next movie, it was “Back to the Future, Part II” (1989).

Costner’s best film as a director is still the thrilling “Open Range” (2003) but he’s among the few filmmakers who aim for the grandeur, long-form storytelling and western mythos of John Ford. While not everything in “Horizon: An American Saga- Chapter 1” works, this is easily the best western since “Hostiles“(2017).

Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” aside, this is the biggest risk a filmmaker has taken in 2024. Not everyone will love the overall result, but there’s enough here to savor and the promise that those upcoming chapters will really be something special.

Three Stars

The post Kevin Costner Swings for the Fences with ‘Horizon’ appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

The 2018 smash “A Quiet Place” left viewers with endless questions.

Who are these alien creatures that conquered the Earth? How did they crush the collective might of the world’s military defenses? And, most importantly, why did they take over the planet in the first place?

The film’s 2020 sequel offered few answers. The prequel, “A Quiet Place: Day One” delivers even less.

That’s frustrating, full stop. So, too, is how the creatures no longer terrify us like they did the first two times around.

What the prequel has is a powerful story of human connection amidst the chaos. Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o plays the most unlikely heroine in recent memory, and watching her rekindle her humanity is the best part of this solid, if unnecessary prequel.

Nyong’o stars as Sam, a young woman living in a Big Apple hospice center. She’s sharp-tongued to the core, so when her center’s day trip ends abruptly she can’t hide her disappointment.

She was promised a slice of New York pizza, for crying out loud. We feel her pain.

The disruption proves more than disappointing. It’s a full-scale alien invasion, and Sam is separated from her fellow patients as everyone seeks cover.

The “Quiet Place” sequel teased this scenario – aliens hunting down humans without mercy. Now, we see more of that carnage.

Can Sam live through the initial invasion? Will she go it alone, or will a clingy law student named Eric (Joseph Quinn) accidentally doom her?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by A Quiet Place: Day One (@aquietplace)

“Pig” director Michael Sarnoski stages a few strong set pieces, but the goal isn’t piling on sci-fi wonders. He has little dialogue to work with beyond another wave of “shhhhhs!” So he focuses on movement, sound and characters making their way in a terrible new world.

Sam, who spends most of the film chasing after her cat Frodo (get it?), is dying with or without the aliens’ help.   She’s no Girlboss warrior. She wouldn’t mind another Fentanyl skin patch to ease her cancer pain.

She’s still more resourceful than Eric.

He’s so stunned by this series of events (can you blame him?) that he seems destined to make enough noise to doom them both. His evolution is slow and realistic. So is how Nyong’o shows Sam as not just a survivor, but a soul seeking a reason to live under any condition.

Great performances are rare in the horror genre. “Day One” boasts not one but two.

A Quiet Place: Day One’s Connection to Part II Explained by Directorhttps://t.co/FUTQOwNo7J

— ComingSoon.net (@comingsoonnet) June 27, 2024

Still, the franchise’s future seems uncertain given the events of the prequel. The “keep quiet or else” mantra has a definite expiration date. The creatures are ubiquitous now, meaning they can’t strike fear in our hearts as before.

The power dynamic between aliens and humanity is so one-sided that it threatens the tension inherent in the saga. How many movies can focus on characters running away for 90-plus minutes?

Sarnoski solves this problem by thinking small. Doing so not only creates a credible prequel but a rewarding final act. That’s increasingly rare in the genre.

So are prequels worthy of their source material.

HiT or Miss: “A Quiet Place: Day One” does little to expand the budding franchise. Instead, it focuses on human connections in ways sure to satisfy.

The post ‘Quiet Place: Day One’ Offers Hope in Days of Despair appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

“Clear and Present Danger” (1994) felt like a middle chapter for director Phillip Noyce and star Harrison Ford.

The film marked their second time adapting a Tom Clancy bestseller after the success of their “Patriot Games” (1992).

Instead, “Clear and Present Danger” was not only the last time Noyce and Ford would work together, but Clancy’s Jack Ryan film franchise went on a hibernation that lasted nearly a decade.

“Clear and Present Danger” once again stars Ford as Ryan, with James Earl Jones also returning as his friend and mentor Jim Greer. Like a James Bond film, there’s no mention of the events of the prior film.

Ryan, once a CIA analyst, has been given a job upgrade as Deputy Director of Intelligence and must report to the President, played by Donald Moffat. A Columbian drug lord (an excellent Miguel Sandoval) and his intelligence officer (played with pure charisma and menace by Joaquim de Almeida) have made the mistake of killing the Hardin family, friends of the President, which sets forth a series of attacks and retaliations by both sides.

An investigation of the Hardin murders by Ryan pushes the plot in motion. There are also subplots involving a well-connected mistress (Ann Magnuson), a CIA operative (Willem Dafoe) and Ryan’s wife Cathy (Anne Archer), who winds up having an odd connection to the story.

Archer and Thora Birch (who played Ryan’s daughter) were central figures in “Patriot Games.” Here, only Cathy is crucial in a contrived but admittedly enjoyable plot twist involving her connection to the villain.

FAST FACT: 1992’s “Patriot Games” earned $82 million at the U.S. box office. “Clear and Present Danger,” by comparison, hauled in $122 million stateside. Ford reportedly found the scripts for a third Jack Ryan outing not up to par. That handed the saga over to Ben Affleck.

Ryan is defined as the embodiment of good, an American James Bond – at least until we got Ethan Hunt (I’d say Remo Williams came in between but since no one remembers him, let’s move on).

Dafoe’s natural intensity is a nice contrast with Ford’s charismatic but deceptively low-key turn. By playing up Ryan’s insecurities, Ford makes Ryan’s reluctant ability to head into danger all the more surprising. Ford plays Ryan as reserved and careful until he must be a man of action.

‘Clear And Present Danger’ starring Harrison Ford premiered in theaters 29 years ago, August 3, 1994 pic.twitter.com/uvrCEi1Hzg

— RetroNewsNow (@RetroNewsNow) August 4, 2023

The tag-team performances by de Almeida and Sandoval are golden. Both actors embody characters who seem too smart to be doing what they do, but too morally compromised to do anything else.

Magnuson plays a character who acts as a plot device, but she manages, in just a few minutes of screen time, to humanize her. The whole cast is like this, as every role is ideally matched with the right actor. What can you say about a film where Vondie Curtis-Hall, Ted Raimi and Dean Jones (!) are all wonderful?

My favorite Clancy novel, “The Cardinal and the Kremlin” (published in 1988), was never made into a film (the fall of the Berlin Wall instantly dated it) but the Ford/Noyce combo proved a strong combo, at least for two movies.

“Clear and Present Danger” predates “Traffic” (2000) and “Sicario” (2015), both of which are even darker in their depiction of the drug trade and the rotten core of leadership at the center. Both offer trickier, less black and white depictions of the morally compromised figures on both sides of the ongoing drug war.

Clancy’s busy but coherent narrative shoehorns in a scene where Ford and a pre-Kittridge Henry Czerny race to acquire data off a computer and engage in a furious typing match. Truly a visual that indicates what was just around the corner – there must be dozens and dozens of movies where suspense is generated by a slow-moving download bar).

Czerny is deliciously loathsome here, but when he tells Ryan, both as a warning and as a piece of advice, “The world is gray, Jack,” he’s right.

Noyce’s film lumbers a bit after the extraordinary SUV convoy attack scene (the pace slows down to allow the audience to catch their breath). The film picks up once de Alameda reclaims the focus – an interesting bit of subtext is how de Almeida’s character is said to resemble Ryan, an example of doubling (or an exact opposite) that the film never fully explores.

The third act of “Clear and Present Danger” sees Ryan remorseful over bad policy and rotten decisions that led to many deaths. It’s at this point that the film turns Ryan into Rambo, as he decides to return to the battlefield and rescue the surviving troops who have been neglected by bad political maneuvers.

It’s a wish-fulfillment fantasy as much as “Rambo: First Blood Part II” (1985), but Ford and Dafoe sell it. Ford contrasts Ryan’s earnestness with Dafoe’s weary soldier – outside of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989), this is my favorite pairing of Ford with an unlikely but weirdly perfect screen partner.

There’s a bit here where Ryan literally knocks on a drug dealer’s door to get his attention. It’s so earnest and Ford sells it completely.

The third act drops the bleak paranoia and goes into full action-movie mode, as though an Alan J. Pakula thriller transformed into a Stallone flick. All plausibility is stretched but “Clear and Present Danger” manages to be so exciting, it gets away with it.

How does Ford rank with the other actors who played Jack Ryan? I feel like Alec Baldwin (in “The Hunt For Red October”) was the best, as he, like his character, was green and inexperienced but wound up holding his own in the end.

Ben Affleck (in “The Sum of All Fears”) and Chris Pine (in “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit”) are underrated, while John Krasinski (in the “Jack Ryan” series) has what Baldwin had. Krasinski was not an obvious choice, not even after “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” (2016),” which makes his turn so satisfying for being so dialed in and enthralling.

Ford is probably the best Ryan, if only because, in the same way Connery is the best James Bond, he had the most chances to hone it.

The final scene of “Clear and Present Danger” is a killer.

Ryan, in a private moment with the President, lets down his guard and tells the Commander in Chief exactly what’s on his mind. Rambo never laid into Col. Trautman as hard as Ryan digs into Moffat’s POTUS.

Ford and Moffat play the scene beautifully.

Once again, the hero saves the day, as Ryan prevented WWIII in “Red October,” defeated IRA agents in “Patriot Games” and, here, saves U.S troops used as pawns in a bad political move.

What then is the lesson of Noyce’s film? Doing the right thing is painful, punishing and absolutely essential.

I wish Ford and Noyce had one more go at the Tom Clancy/Jack Ryan franchise, though the earnest patriotism of the character remains subsequently intact in different hands.

The post It’s a Shame Ford’s ‘Clear and Present Danger’ Stalled the Franchise appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Mike Rowe’s “Something to Stand For” is everything today’s pop culture isn’t.

Sentimental. Patriotic. Sincere. Aspirational.

It takes time to adjust to Rowe’s approach, one targeting heartland values sans apology. Yet even cynics will forgive the corny recreations and bald patriotism for one reason.

Rowe knows a ripping good yarn when he finds one. And even though Rowe declares his apolitical mien in the film no dyed-in-the-wool Leftist will dare watch it until the end.

That’s their loss.

Rowe plays Mike Rowe, former host of “Dirty Jobs” and unofficial chronicler of the American experience.

He’s taken tales from his podcast, “The Way I Heard it,” and brought nine special stories to life. The concept honors radio pioneer Paul Harvey and his signature surprises. The legend’s show, “The Rest of the Story,” set the template Rowe unabashedly duplicates here. He cloaks tales of famous Americans so we don’t know the person in question into the waning seconds.

The gimmick worked for decades under Harvey’s watchful eye. It’s just as engaging with Rowe behind the mic.

Rowe starts each story from behind a desk in an empty theater, setting the stage for the recreations to come. It’s Rowe’s voice we hear through each history snippet, often requiring actors to lip sync his narration.

It’s a wobbly gimmick that fails as much as it succeeds.

The recreations themselves are similarly inconsistent. They’re used to mask some story details, like modern-day settings which give way to century-old events.

As the famous Connect Four commercial says, “Pretty sneaky, Sis.”

Rowe’s screen presence, honed extensively on the small screen, is warm and reassuring. He’s the perfect conduit for these tales, never offering a false note.

.@nickgillespie interviews @mikeroweworks about his new film, “Something To Stand For” https://t.co/7m7YS1q9HT

— reason (@reason) June 26, 2024

Our guide says “Something to Stand For” is meant for all Americans, and that’s not Fake News. Exceptions? If you spent the last few months stomping across college campuses screaming “occupiers” and “intifada.

Still, there’s a brief shout out to lower taxes, a maddening case of FBI-style overreach and praise for the one-percenters.

That can’t be an accident.

One story will tickle sci-fi geeks, while the others are catnip for history nerds. A later story is tricky to its core, but Rowe holds our hand along the way.

In between, Rowe drives around the Nation’s Capitol in his battered Bronco, exploring a slice of Americana that rarely gets a closeup. Put down the cynicism. Shove the snark down so deep you can’t even see it.

It’s OK to salute the flag, to honor our fallen soldiers and tear up at the heroes of yore.

Really.

It’s populism on steroids, and the fact that it feels so anathema to our current moment speaks poorly of us, not Rowe and co.

The takeaway is clear. It’s not just inaccurate to deny the sacrifices made to keep America safe and its enduring promise.

It’s wrong.

HiT or Miss: “Something to Stand For” is corny, sincere and unfailing in its American optimism. You’ll feel refreshed after seeing it.

The post ‘Something to Stand For’ Reclaims Patriotism in the Nick of Time appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.

Pablo Berger’s “Robot Dreams” made a name for itself on the festival circuit last year and wound up an Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Feature.

Based on the 2007 comic by Sara Varon, this small but emotionally rich sleeper premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and is finally getting a wide release in theaters.

Set in New York City during the 1980s, “Robot Dreams” presents an animated vision (both hand-drawn and digital techniques presented) of a Big Apple in which everyone is an animal.

Imagine a Ralph Bakshi cartoon minus the explicit vulgarities but not the emotional realism. Or “Zootopia” (2016) minus the cute designs.

We meet Dog, who lives alone, has a nice apartment and spends the evenings watching TV alone. An amusing visual that illustrates this lonely state is how Dog looks out a window, sees a Cow and Moose snuggle in the apartment across the street, making Dog sigh.

Dog watches an ad for the AMICA 2000, offering a robot companion resembling the Tin Man from “The Wizard of Oz.” Dog orders the Robot and the two immediately hit it off. An exhilarating, funny montage, set to Earth Wind & Fire’s “September” illustrates just how magical and real the union between Dog and Robot is…until something unexpected happens.

After a joyous start, “Robot Dreams” becomes an allegory for how hard it is to maintain close friendships, as time, space or other irritating obstacles sometimes get in the way of being with those we miss and think of constantly.

Because this is a period piece, it reminds us of a time when we were at the mercy of pay phones, snail mail and planned meetings that sometimes were missed by not waiting just a few moments longer.

Like myself, you’ll probably think of this movie whenever you hear “September” from now on, as it’s not only the film’s theme but cleverly incorporated into the score in surprising ways.

“Robot Dreams” never references Robot, Dog or any of the characters by gender, and there’s almost no audible dialogue. Rather than come across as a stunt, a political statement or an underlying message, this approach highlights the universal quality of the friendships we witness.

Anyone can look at these characters and connect with them on some level; almost all the characters are anthropomorphized animals and, rather than make them specific types (as “Zootopia” did), we connect to the qualities that make them recognizable, even as the characters are embodied by, for example, a duck (who becomes one of my favorites of Dog’s pals in the second act).

There are three dream sequences, portraying a character’s means of escape and immersion into a new environment – the dandelion tap dance number is especially rapturous to experience on the big screen, as is everything else here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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There are a few sly, funny jokes about the animal world of “Robot Dreams,” such as how Dog is visibly reading “Pet Sematary” at his bedside (if I were to guess, Stephen King is probably a bat or wolf in this world). There’s also a reference to the “Psycho” (1960) shower scene that is funny and non-specific enough that it won’t scare a child, or anyone else.

Aside from a few moments that go for easy laughs, “Robot Dreams” is also unpredictable, with interludes involving a ski trip and another with a family of birds that befriend Robot that are very funny and heartbreaking.

Sometimes you know when Robot is dreaming and can enjoy the flights of escape, while other times we see that Robot is dreaming and wish those explorations were real. If you’re on the fence at this point, I’ll state that the arrival of a character named Rascal the Raccoon is when it all connects.

The ending, as complex as it is, comes like a warm hug.

Bringing a New York Street Scene to Life
The New York Times analyzes a scene with the director from the new animated feature Robot Dreams, based on SVA alumnus Sara Varon’s (MFA 2002 Illustration as Visual Essay) graphic novel of the same name. https://t.co/itmiHoDNXo pic.twitter.com/18GYIZqZsP

— School Of Visual Arts (@SVA_News) June 24, 2024

I thought “Robot Dreams” might be too melancholy and slow for little kids the first time I saw it but, if a child has the patience for something like “Wall-E” (2008), a film that has many tonal and thematic similarities), then this is a perfect double feature.

I’m going to come clean about this: I hesitated to write about “Robot Dreams” when I first saw it last year because it devastated me. You read that right. It took me a while to gather my thoughts and revisit “Robot Dreams” recently with my eight-year-old daughter, who found it enjoyable and far less emotionally wrenching than I did.

I won’t spoil the plot or attempt to sway anyone away from seeing this consistently hilarious, deeply felt and emotionally rich experience. I loved it and will watch it again…when I’m alone and can cry my eyes out without anyone wondering what on Earth has gotten into me.

Four Stars

The post ‘Robot Dreams’ – Grab Kleenex for This Warm Hug of a Film appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.