Love Me or Leave Me (1955)

 This was actually a completely solid film.

Marty Snyder (James Cagney) is a bit of a gangster and wheeler-dealer around Chicago in the 1920s and when he discovers stubborn Ruth Etting (Doris Day, brilliant), he propels her to stardom though it is all on his terms as he is super controlling, and more than just a little bit of a narcissistic asshole. 

It takes Ruth until nearly the end of the film to finally break free of his grasp and then, just when Marty completely ruins his life, by shooting Ruth's lover, pianist Johnny Alderman (Cameron Mitchell), Ruth saves him for a reward for everything he'd done for her. So, she gets her happy ending, to be successful all on her own, finally having the love in her life that she truly deserves, but Marty also manages to get his happy ending, Johnny survives and Ruth helps Marty save his club where he sunk all his money, so he'll be a success too, somehow. Despite of how he treated her, slapping once plus being verbally and mentally abusive, she still saves him. That just doesn't sit right with me.

That being said, Cagney and Day are pitch-perfect in their roles, each at the top of their game. Day should have been nominated for an Oscar for her performance and the fact that she wasn't is nothing short of a crime. The songs are good, the costumes are great though you do have to use your imagination slightly to pretend that you're back in the 1920s, but it kept me engaged and moved quickly, with good pacing. Grade: A-

Side Notes:

-I couldn't help but wonder, was Marty's limp real or faked by Cagney?

-Cagney was nominated for an Oscar, which is well-deserved though he was better in Yankee Doodle Dandy, which won him an Oscar. Again, Day was beyond robbed. 

-What else has Cameron Mitchell been in? 

-Despite Ruth meaning everything to Marty at the beginning of the film, he lets her go relatively easily, thank goodness, it's the least he could do after putting Ruth through hell.

-Lest we forgot, Marty assaults Ruth and yet she immediately marries him, so yes, he's an asshole. 

Barefoot in the Park (1967)

 This film was ultimately not great despite its star power.

Paul (Robert Redford) and Corie (Jane Fonda) Bratter are newlyweds and are very different. He's a straight-laced attorney trying to make a name for himself while she's a free-spirit despite her cultured upbringing. Despite the problems with their fifth-floor walk-up (namely the hole in the skylight), she remains positive, he's super negative. 

But everything comes to a head when Corie sets up her widowed mother, Ethel (the luminous Mildred Natwick) and their eccentric neighbor Victor (Charles Boyer) and he takes them on an adventure which Corie embraces and Paul remains a stick-in-the-mud, leaving Corie upset and crying for a divorce. 

And the worst part is Paul doesn't fight for her, though he does use the whole the lease is in my name, so you get out, but he's sick and drunk and does something stupid, Corie saves him and kisses him despite his gross illness so they are happy in the end.

Despite the great performances, I found myself far more interested in Victor and Ethel's relationship than the main one, though the chemistry is great. However, I felt that both Paul and Corie were too immature for marriage and didn't value each other's personalities as they deserved, so ultimately, this film was a giant disappointment. Grade: B

Side Notes:

-It appears as though Corie doesn't have a job, which doesn't make sense, surely she would have had a job before the wedding, so why doesn't she have one now?

-Perhaps the most concerning line is that Corie proclaims she didn't know what love was before the honeymoon, which caused me to groan, they should have been in love before the honeymoon. 

-Despite winning his first case, Paul's client is only awarded six cents. 

Bridgerton (2020): Season One Recap and Reaction

First of all, I apologize for the language that will be used. Second of all, I will be ranting. Third of all, I'm glad I planned on watching this entire series in a long weekend because it was super addicting.

The world of Bridgerton exists only in the world of regency romance novels but given all that is going on in the world currently, it provides the necessary dose of escapism that is desperately needed. With an impeccable set, costumes, set design, props and music, the series boosts few major names though this series will undoubtedly make the cast famous as each is pitch perfect in their respective roles. 

As near royalty in 1813, women are trained for their entire childhood for their 'season' in which they are on display to find a husband. For the title Bridgerton family, it is oldest daughter, Daphne's (Phoebe Dynevor) is about to make her debut but it does not get off to an auspicious start thanks for her overprotective brother, Anthony (Jonathan Bailey). It is only by chance, escaping from a wretched opinion, that Daphne runs into, literally the Duke of Hastings aka Simon (Rege-Jean Page) and, of course, it is love at first sight.

But Simon's childhood was a wretched one, told in flashbacks in episode two, his father (Richard Pepple) is a fucking asshole and that's being polite. He cares little about his wife during her difficult delivery which ultimately kills her and when his intelligent son has a stutter, he banishes the little boy from his sight, so Simone has some major scars and has sworn off love, marriage and most certainly children. 

Still, after Daphne fends off her unwanted suitor, the two enter into an arrangement where they will fake date (or court) so she can find a better prospect and the meddling mothers will leave him alone and it works. As it always works, they actually fall in love even after Daphne catches the eye of another, too bad the chemistry between Daphne and Simon is too much to ignore and after a make-out session (which is no-no back then), the two marry, which gives us a much needed, intimate and epic sex scene. And then the two have sex for much of the sixth episode until Daphne discovers that Simon's pulling out. And this is a big deal because he lied to her and said that he was incapable of bearing children. After a talk with the maid, Daphne doesn't let him, which is low, but he was likewise despicable. It takes until the finale for them to finally talk things through (as if they had nothing better to do) and work out the issues, not to mention Daphne discovering some unopened letters in which she finally learns just how cruel Simon's father was. So they finally get their happy ending, just watch the epilogue. But this is a romance, a happy ending is in order.

Now, that is only the main plot, as there are plenty of other characters, as the Bridgertons have eight children and there is a gossip columnist who calls herself Lady Whistledown (narrated by Julie Anderws) and Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie), is hellbent on uncovering her identity and there is the ridiculous double-standard on how men are allowed to go the brothels while the woman is supposed to be completely pure on her wedding night, which is unacceptable. 

That all being said, and despite the fact that both Simon and Anthony are wretched dumbasses, I still haven't been this enamored with a TV couple since the first half of season one of Poldark's Ross and Demelza (Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson) until now, this couple had me on the edge of my seat and the chemistry is white-hot. And I'm grateful that Simon finally came to his senses and saw Daphne for the diamond she is, and I'm grateful that she didn't pregnant from that encounter as babies should be conceived in love. 

So despite the slightly wretched actions of some characters, this is a flawless show and I can't wait for a season two. Grade: A

Side Notes:

-There several important subplots, including Anthony's affair with opera singer, Siena (Sabrina Bartlett) who actually was in several episodes of Poldark.

-The most notable subplot involves neighboring family Featherington's cousin (Ruby Gerber) who is  pregnant out of wedlock and how Lady Featherington (Polly Walker) tries to trick a man into marrying her.

-The only Featherington daughter worth mentioning is the youngest, Penelope (Nicola Coughlin) who believes herself to be in love with Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton). She is also best friends with Eloise. 

-It takes until the finale for Marina (Gerber) to decide to consider abortion, by drinking a mixture of herbs which doesn't even work. 

-The subject of race is brought up precisely once. And it refreshing to see a near color-blind cast. 

-The cast had six weeks of regency camp to learn how the dance and behave, etc. There was also an intimacy coordinator on set so the actors would feel comfortable and the sex scenes were incredibly hot. And though there were plenty of them, the dance scenes between Daphne and Simon were equally as sexy so much so that I fanned myself off several times during the series.

-While I do think men are idiots, I am glad of when they can change and Simon changes mightily during the season, proving that true love might just actually exist. 

-And as for the ending, I predicted that it was going to named Amelia, unfortunately I was wrong. 

-Also, props for this show for including several mentions of women's periods, in this case, checking the bedsheets for blood stains as underwear weren't worn back then, which is just rank. Also, props for having the husband in the delivery room, though they still aren't wearing wedding rings (which is historically accurate but pisses me off nevertheless.

-There is some cursing but fuck is used sparingly so it has the greatest effect. 

-If Simon had just been honest with Daphne as to the real reasons he didn't want children (his mother dying in childbirth, him being fearful that he'd be a bad father), that would have been one thing but it was rather because he swore to his dying father that the Hastings line would end with him, which is such bullshit and Daphne calls him out on it, to her credit. 

-The true identity of Lady Whistledown is rather surprising. There's some things that not even I can reveal. 

-I want season two, like yesterday. And I want to make out with someone, pronto. 

The Song of Bernadette (1943)

 This film was different from what I remembered.

Bernadette Soubirous (Jennifer Jones) is a sickly, unintelligent French teenager, the daughter of peasants whose life takes a dramatic turn when she gets a vision of the Virgin Mary. Suddenly, her fortune changes. Her asthma vanishes and her parents find regular employment to keep the family out of abject poverty. While tons in the small village of Lourdes, the town officials do not and too much of the film focuses on them trying to handle the situation pulling away from the far more interesting story of the young Bernadette, Jones's breakthrough role. 

Eventually, even the village priest (Charles Bickford) comes around and believes in what Bernadette claims she saw, becoming one of her biggest advocates but because of her vision and subsequent miracle fountain, he recommends (basically forces) her to become a nun, where she dies after a few short years later from bone cancer, declaring to her dying breath that she saw the Lady just near the city dump all those years before. 

While the plot was solid and can appeal to both the religious and skeptics alike, and despite the solid performances, the potential romance between Bernadette and Antoine (William Eythe) is woefully underdeveloped not to mention the previously mentioned issue of how the town authorities (Vincent Price and Lee J. Cobb) try to squash the crowds of people rushing to the miracle fountain takes up far too much screen time, leaving the title character off-screen far too much. And while I guess it was historically accurate, I don't like when a film of this supposed upbeat nature ends with a death. Grade: B+

Side Notes:

-Bernadette's last name is pronounced similar to the car model Subaru.

-Pay attention to the small but Oscar nominated roles from Anne Revere and Bernadette's tireless mother and Gladys Cooper as the nasty nun who refuses to believe Bernadette's story until she sees the wretched tumor on Bernadette's leg. 

-I'm glad they handle hospital waste differently now. Bernadette's father (Roman Bohnen) had to load up the dirty sheets with his bare hands and burn them. Upon returning home, he doesn't even wash his hands.

-I found that longing, concerned look the father gave a sleeping Bernadette at the beginning of the film a bit creepy though it was probably meant to show his concern over her labored breathing. 

One Night in Miami (2021)

 Though this film was just released today, it is considered part of the 2020 Oscar season, just to clear everything up.

After four little vignettes, introducing us to the four main characters, before they all meet up for a night in Miami, just after Cassius Clay (Eli Goree) wins the heavyweight championship in a bit of a surprising upset, and football player Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) is upset that there is no party as he wanted to meet a girl. But Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir) is hoping for a more spiritual night to reflect on how African Americans are treated in America and what he plans on changing things, hopefully for the better. Also joining them is musician Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom, Jr). The bulk of the film is the men getting through the night and reacting to Cash's revelation that he's converting to Islam while Malcolm believes that Sam has the biggest platform to campaign for justice and yet all he does is attempt to figure out how to cater to white people. 

While the plot may be slightly basic, the film is nonetheless a masterpiece with the four leading men delivering brilliant pitch-perfect performances, each of them dealing with race in their own specific way. And the screenplay is tight, as this was originally a play, which is something I hope to see more of as the characters are often much better written in plays. And even the ending is excellent with Sam finally delivering a meaningful song, hopefully to help the movement. Grade: A-

Side Notes:

-One of the opening vignettes involving Jim meeting up with a high school coach, Mr. Carlton (Beau Bridges) ends shockingly. After constantly praising Jim for his amazing talent and treating him kindly, Jim offers to help the older man move from furniture, but Mr. Carlton replies, "Thanks but no thanks, we don't allow negroes in the house," only he uses a different term for negro, leaving even me speechless.

-Of course Sam has a flask in his guitar case. 

-While the epilogue mentions Malcolm's death, Sam Cooke is actually the first to die, before the year of 1964 is out. Also, he should get his own biopic. His life is full of more than enough material to fill a whole film.

-Sam has copyrighted all of his songs so whenever someone else makes them famous, he gets a check. He's certainly a shrewd businessman and has economic freedom, which is more than the others have. 

-Who decides that only ice cream will satisfy four grown men after a boxing match?

The Valley of Decision (1945)

 While this film wasn't wretched, it also certainly wasn't anything remarkable.

Written and filmed long before Poldark, the two have numerous similarities though Poldark is superior in every way, namely because it isn't constrained by time or the Hays code. 

Despite her father (Lionel Barrymore) being paralyzed because of a mill accident, Mary Rafferty (Greer Garson) takes a job as a maid in the home of the mill owner, William Scott (Donald Crisp) and immediately falls in love with the middle son, Paul (Gregory Peck). While the family takes Mary in and she quickly becomes indispensable, they do not support her relationship with Paul. And when they finally come around, it's too late. The mill goes on strike and thanks to youngest son Ted's (Marshall Thompson's) alcoholism a wretched fight ensues, leaving Mary wrecked as she blames herself for the death of both their fathers so she refuses to marry him.

Fast forward ten years later, Paul is unhappily married to the prim, proper and lifeless Louise Kane (Jessica Tandy, who was young once) while Mary is a happy business owner thanks to the tireless support of Mrs. Scott (Gladys Cooper) who is dying but leaves her share of the mill to Mary so it can be saved for Paul as Paul has dedicated his entire life to making the mill better. 

In the end, the mill is saved and Paul kicks Louise out, paying her off to divorce him and leave their young son, Paulie (Dean Stockwell) behind, leaving with Mary, so hopefully they can find their happy ending.

The premise is similar to Poldark, though here, the innovations Paul develops for the mine are overshadowed by the romance while ultimately falls just short. Sure, Peck is handsome and delightful, but Garson is a bit standoffish at times and the chemistry is average at best. Still, I found the bare bones plot good and I actually would be super interested in a remake, a reimagined innovative interruption of this work as I feel that it deserves it. Grade: B

Side Notes:

-Dean Stockwell would later play Peck's son again, to better success in Gentleman's Agreement. 

-Garson received her fifth straight Oscar nomination for this film. 

-This film has five stars that either already had Oscars or would eventually win them.

-Donald Crisp played an opposite character than his Oscar-winning role How Green Was My Valley, where he portrayed a mine worker. 

-It is great that Barrymore still continued to have a vivid career even though he was in a wheelchair, there actually needs to be more roles like his in current cinema. 

Pieces of a Woman (2020)

 Okay, so this film was not what I expected.

First of all, the birth scene is only twenty-one minutes long, not as long as I was led to believe and it is actually a work of art (despite the constant complaints of and how awful this is), showing how deeply connected and in love Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf) actually are. And the baby isn't a stillbirth. The heart rate drops quickly, and midwife Eva (Molly Parker) urges Sean to call 911, but the baby is born breathing and crying but tragically turns blue in the arms of her parents, dying off-screen.

And then, they are left to deal with the unspeakable aftermath. While Martha returns to work and sniffing apples as though she can't bare to have her arms empty, Sean's six years of sobriety is tossed aside without so much as a scolding or acknowledgement from any of the other characters. Meanwhile, Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn), Martha's mother, wants justice done and enlists her niece, Suzanne (Sarah Snook) to handle the criminal proceedings against Eva. 

Now I understand that everyone deals with grief in different ways but forcing your partner to feel your penis is never a good idea and is borderline assault. But while Martha and Sean learn how to re-live in this world, Elizabeth is ultimately still calling the shots, cutting Sean a huge check to leave Martha and never come back. It's because he's blue-collared not college educated. He leaves without settling anything with Martha. While I ultimately did not root for that relationship, neither of them got the closure they both desperately needed. 

However, Kirby's best scene is when she has to testify on the stand bleeding into finally developing a picture of her baby girl and admitting that she doesn't blame the midwife for what happened. And from all my experience (from watching every single minute of Call the Midwife), I don't feel that Eva made an error. That being said, had the medical emergency happened in a hospital, the little one would likely have survived. 

My biggest problem came at the very end, with Martha appearing to make a swift recovery after acknowledging that she doesn't blame the midwife, and then the epilogue which shows a small girl climbing an apple tree and then Martha calling her home. Clearly, this is Martha's child but the father is unknown and that bothers me. That being said, at least this is a happy ending and after constant tragedy, it was desperately needed. 

Though I found the story a simple one, I still had no problem with that. My problem was rather with the vast amount of underdeveloped characters, including Martha's sister (Iliza Schlesinger) and even her lawyer cousin, Suzanne. Martha's father is never mentioned and we don't learn what exactly her job is either and we should have been able to gather that information through context clues. And I hated what Sean's character became. Still, the acting was brilliant, namely from Kirby as she fully embodied her role entirely, breathing life into a comatose film. Grade: B-

Side Notes:

-While I adore Ellen Burstyn, she was too old for her character and the character (born during the Holocaust) was too old to have daughters that young. 

-Sean and Suzanne are both scum for starting a sexual relationship while Martha is still grieving.

-We never fully learn why Martha wanted a home birth and if it was just to piss off her mother, then that was not a good reason. 

-Martha describes Sean as her partner but she has a ring on her ring finger so I also felt like that relationship needed to be further fleshed out. 

-The camera work in this film is also incredible, with tons of long shots.

-No one ever needs to see LaBeouf's penis, for the record. 

-Martha ends up donating the little body to science but somehow also has ashes to scatter? This was just something else that I needed an explanation to. 

Network (1976)

 This remains an interesting film.

Disgruntled newsman, Howard Beale (Peter Finch) states that he will kill himself on air and it takes a bit for those in the control room to pick up on this and then all hell breaks loose. 

He's fired but he's not fired after the ratings significantly increase due to his madness and thus, he remains on the air and head of programming (but not news), Diana Christiansen (Faye Dunaway), a true vulture who is literally only passionate about work latches on to him and turns his show into a three-ring circus as Howard continues to descend into madness. 

Diana is certainly the central star of this film and Dunaway does receive top billing. She's an unfeeling man-eater who stops at nothing to get what she wants, even mingling with international criminals and killing a man when the ratings drop precariously. 

While it is a little more complicated than that, that's the basic jist of the film, an interesting satire and that William Holden's Max Schumaker is the only real character in the film, with actual human feelings while board director Ned Beatty's Arthur Jensen is using Howard to propagate his own, twisted and mildly unpopular agenda, so the acting is brilliant all-around with a tight screenplay and while the film is more than forty years old, it has held up well because who knows who truly controls the media and people remain mad as hell as they're not going to take it anymore. Grade: A-

Side Notes:

-Pay attention to Beatrice Straight's cameo as Max's wronged wife. Her brief but potent appearance earned her an Oscar for best supporting actress. I found Marlene Warfield's Laureen Hobbs just as effective though she works with criminals. 

-Instead of applauding the essential workers, people threw up their shutters and shouted outside how mad they were.

-I wonder how all the obesities Howard shouted made it past the sensors as they weren't exactly family-friendly. 

-Notice how all the shows pitched to Diana contain a crusty but benign character. 

Wonder Woman 1984

I don't really know where to go with this film. It was decent but I'm glad I didn't pay to see it in theatres. 

Gal Gadot continues to shine as Diana, aka Wonder Woman, bagging criminals in a quicker, more effective and less destructive fashion than the police all while continuing to mourn her beloved Steve (Chris Pine) and working at the Smithsonian which is where the 'Luck Stone' is discovered. Her new co-worker, Barbara (a good Kristin Wiig, in a completely unfunny role) is a mousy mess of a woman but by wishing to be more like Diana, she gets some surprises and gains confidence but loses her charm and good judgment by allowing nasty, corrupt businessman Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) to seduce her to steal the stone which may appear to be a fake but is very much real. By wishing to be the stone itself, the world almost immediately turns into a war zone, people hoarding oil and wishes counteracting with each other but Diana is somewhat reluctant to renounce her wish as she will lose Steve, again. Despite her weakening, thanks to Barbara's crazy strength, Diana summons up the courage to lose Steve and defeat Max Lord. However, her main battle is with Barbara which ends with Barbara being electrocuted and her battle with Max is far more psychological, by finally having his love for his son trump his wild desires of total control. But it works, he renounces his wish and the world slowly returns to normal, which was the plan all along.

Now, while Diana is supposed to be the hero and Barbara the enemy (though it is a long-time coming), Diana makes some poor, selfish decisions, such as illegal commandeering the plane for Steve to have some fun with everything shiny and new of the 1980s. Still, the acting was solid but I found the film to be nothing special or extraordinary even though it moved swiftly with no jarring mistakes or editing cuts so it wasn't bad, I found it somewhat unimpressive and the ending was oddly unsatisfying. Grade: B

Side Notes:

-Pay attention for Kristopher Polaha as the man whose body Steve inhabits and shows up at the end, spoiling an opportunity to ask Diana out. 

-Ravi Patel also makes a quick little cameo as an expert on the Mayan culture.