They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)

 The plot of this film was excellent though the character development was beyond weak.

Jane Fonda earns her first Oscar nomination for her indefatigable Gloria Beatty, hellbent on winning a dance marathon. Focusing on the dance marathons that apparently swept the country during the Great Depression, these pushed people to the limits forcing them to move until they dropped (quite literally). How the amount of couples survived as long as they did is beyond me as it appears that you only got a ten minute break every two hours but still the marathon continued for at least a month and a half. 

Now of course Gloria has a dance partner and that is last minute fill-in, Robert Syverton (the attractive Michael Sarrazin) and in what appear to be flashbacks, he's served time in prison (this twist shook me) but you barely get to know either of them, literally nothing more than their hometowns and Gloria's dashed dreams of being an actress. We don't know what Robert did for a living. Some of the supporting characters are even more developed. 

Gloria goes through three different partners over the course of the film, one of whom literally dies on her during the wretched and inhumane sprints, and then she finds out that everything's a lie. If you win, they  deduct the expenses from the winning total. And that must be some total as the contestants are fed seven times a day, and there is the music to consider, almost always a live band is on hand. Still, it makes no sense as the contestants get sponsorships and tickets and concessions are sold daily. So Gloria quits the contest and I don't blame her as the whole thing is rigged and when she asks Robert to shoot her, he obliges. So the scenes I thought were flashbacks are actually flash forwards which gave the film some much needed spark. 

While this film had a great premise and excellent acting and though I hate remakes, I feel that this would have worked better as a mini series so we could truly know the characters and get tons more development as the film suffered mightily because of it. However, the set (the dance floor) was great and the twist clever. Grade: B+

Side Notes:

-There are two excellent supporting characters: Gig Young as the MC with whom Gloria has a checkered (albeit unknown) past. He also tries to liven up the marathon unnecessarily and asks Robert and Gloria to get married so the crowd has something else to root for. Susannah York is great as the British actress who has a breakdown after Red Button's sailor suffers a fatal heart attack though the MC refuses to admit it to the fellow dancers or the audience but it's obvious.

-Another great supporting couple is Bruce Dern and Bonnie Bedelia as married couple James and Ruby. She's pregnant but powers through everything. She's also far more naïve and doesn't even know how pregnant she is when asked. 

-Crazy as it seems, some of the dancers get discovered by Hollywood and actually get a true career out of the whole thing. 

-I have no idea how it is possible for these dancers to sleep standing up.  

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

 This happens to be my dad's favorite films, but it is certainly not mine despite being a masterpiece.

Essentially a two person drama, this film explores tons of subjects still only hinted at in 1969, though it was given an X rating though it seems relatively tame by today's standards. Joe Buck (Jon Voight) doesn't realize until the end of the film that he's no hustler though he desperately wants to be, leaving his small town Texas. It is only through flashbacks when you realize that not only was he likely sexually abused (though by whom it's unclear) as a child and then raped his girlfriend, as it is heavily implied. Still, he seems to be a good guy (at least until toward the end) and compared to Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), he actually has morals. Ratso is a mess, suffering from a cough that never goes away and has a limp. He steals, just enough to get by as they live in a condemned building with no heat or electricity. 

Just when Joe's life finally makes sense again, Ratso takes a turn for the worst so Joe robs and gags a nice old man, still struggling with his sexuality just as Joe appears to be doing. But when Ratso dies en route to Miami, Joe saves his dignity by putting his arm around him so they can finish the journey together. 

Now, there are tons of flashbacks, trying to truly delve into the mind of Joe Buck. Joe is meant to be the main character, and yet, I feel that you manage to learn more about Ratso and Hoffman's performance is certainly the one you can't take your eyes off of, though Voight is no slouch. Sylvia Miles is brilliant in her small cameo as Cass who is Joe's first mark, though he turns out to be just another one of hers. However, the set is also a true character as you feel as though you are really in an abandoned building, not one that was created on a sound stage and there are a variety of real characters, so despite the jumbled flashbacks, this film is superb. Grade: A

Side Notes:

-The term Joe uses for homosexual is outdated and unacceptable, but the fact that it was said showed just how much Hollywood changed in a few short years.

-During Joe's sex scene with Sylvia Miles, there are some bizarre shows on the TV.

-The scattered amount of times Ratso covers when he coughs just disgusts me, especially given the pandemic. 

-The scene where the mother and son play around with a mouse (unclear if its real or fake) is just plain disturbing. 

Howard's End (1992)

 Despite the brilliant performances, I found this film lacking, skipping between scenes with nothing connecting them. 

The characters were connected as they would only in Dickens novels or others from the pre-WWII era.  Emma Thompson shines as Margaret Schlegel, the eldest, practical sister with her smart, sensible younger brother, Tibby (Adrian Ross Magenty) and high-strung but well-meaning sister, Helen (Helena Bonham Carter). Before the film started, Margaret befriend the matriach of the Wilcox family, Ruth (the regal Vanessa Redgrave) and Helen had a torrid albeit brief affair with the calm Wilcox son, Paul (Joseph Bennett). And then as the film unravels, Ruth and Margaret befriend each other despite Ruth's failing health. After her death, there is the debate over who should inherit Ruth's family home and against all odds, Margaret falls in love with Ruth's widower, Henry (Anthony Hopkins) though they have different philosophies. On the other hand, there are the Basts, who are poor, working class though Leonard Bast (Samuel West) has a creative and imaginative mind. 

Things don't get interesting until Leonard and Helen have a one afternoon stand and she becomes pregnant (as that always happens in Hollywood films) and the marriage between Henry and Margaret disintegrates before our very eyes. 

Everything works out in the end. The hot-headed Charles Wilcox (James Wilby) kills Leonard for him knocking up Helen (though he didn't even know) but is charged with manslaughter and Margaret gets Ruth's family home (the titular Howard's End). 

Still, despite the brilliant performances and the fact that Bonham Carter was robbed of a supporting Actress nomination at the Oscars, the film is just too dis-jointed at the beginning, skipping around between scenes so quickly, almost like little connected vignettes. It's a shame as the characters were perfectly cast and the cinematography and set design were utterly brilliant. Grade: B+

Side Notes:

-Margaret deserves far better than Henry. He had a mistress (in such a ridiculous plot twist) which happens to be Jacky Bast (Nicola Duffett). She forgives him rather quickly. I wouldn't have been that forgiven. 

-There is always that double-standard. Men can sleep around (provided they don't impregnate the woman) while women cannot. 

Gorillas in the Mist (1988)

 Dian Foseey (Sigourney Weaver) is just desperate to meet Dr. Leakey (Iain Cuthbertson) so she can get her dream job, studying the behavior of mountain gorillas in rural Africa. While he gives her the job after just some minor consideration, she's not an anthropologist. She's a physical therapist. And then, when she gets to the Congo, there's a civil war and Dr. Leakey abandons her directly after she comes. 

There are struggles and successes, and her life is often in danger, but Dian doesn't care as she eventually takes the gorillas her family, naming and bonding with them, forgetting everything else, even her photographer lover, Bob Campbell (Bryan Brown), with his piercing blue eyes, after he left his wife for her and everything. Her main fear is the poachers, killing her beloved gorillas, which cause her to go a bit crazy in the end, though Bob had a good point. The poachers were being paid well to kill the animals so the rich Americans can have their disgusting souvenirs. 

Still, her death is upsetting and sudden, murdered in her own bed, and she's buried without her family, next to one of her beloved gorillas. 

Now, this was a solid film, and could not have been easy to film, with the gorillas (some real, some were apparently fake) to contend with and that was done with grace. It also managed to show both sides of the issue of animal poaching and Weaver delivered a brilliant performance. You did get to know the real Dian, however subtle they are. However, you know how I feel about plot holes and this film had a major one. Dian starts off the film with a fiancé, engagement ring included, but at some point, it is broken off, probably because she never leaves Africa, but it is never mentioned, which I cannot abide. Still, it is a film worth watching and Weaver fully deserved an Oscar nomination for this role. Grade: B+

-Despite living in the middle of nowhere, Dian nevertheless always has her toe nails painted and snickers candy bars handy.

-While Dian becomes a naturalist, she is also a chain-smoker, which is just disgusting and develops a wretched cough by the end of the film. 

-Her dog is never named but the gorillas are.

-The film never makes it clear how long Dian actually stays in Rwanda, where she has to build a new research center after they are forced to leave the Congo. 

-She criticizes her research students for seeing together when that's what she did with the National Geographic photographer. 

In the Heights (2021)

 This film has finally hit the big screen though unfortunately due to my inability to trust others being safe, I watched this in the safe comfort of my own home which I do feel diminished the big musical numbers but it still managed to be brilliant. 

While this might be Lin-Manual Miranda's brain child, and though he originated the role on the stage, for the film, he had to relinquish the role to Anthony Ramos who was great as Usnavi, the main character who owns a bodega in Washington Heights (a community in the Bronx) though he longs to return to his homeland of the Dominican Republic. While Usnavi is pinching his pennies to afford his dream of re-opening his dad's bar in DR, there are a million other characters with their own dreams. Though Vanessa (Melissa Barrera) is Usnavi's crush, it is Stanford-bound Nina (Leslie Grace) who is really the second main character, a surrogate little sister for Usnavi. But while everyone is so proud that she succeeded, she found herself out of place in the ridiculously expensive Stanford and doesn't wish anymore financial burden for her father, Kevin (Jimmy Smits). Vanessa's dreams include becoming a fashion designer and getting an apartment downtown. Benny (Corey Hawkins) both wants Nina back and wants her to be happy. His dreams are blurry, which is unfortunate as Hawkins is great. 

The matriarch of the gang is Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz) who without a family of her own, has adopted the block as her own. She's the heart and soul of the film. Everyone's dreams collide during the hottest days of the summer, thanks to Usnavi selling a winning lottery ticket and everyone sings about what they would do if they won. But everything gets upended when Abuela suddenly but peacefully dies, which forces everyone to re-evaluate their dreams, and everything does work out in the end. Vanessa finds her fashion inspiration again, Usnavi decides that after nearly two decades, Washington Heights is his home after all and the best years of his life have been here. 

Certainly the cast is talented and the dancing brilliant, but there is one major flaw in the screenplay. Nina's tuition is due in June but the heat wave occurred in July so there is a teensy problem with the timeline and I know I'm nitpicky but these are the details that I cannot overlook. That being said, the film dealt with some serious issues with grace and the cast was packed wall-to-wall with talent and one that should be watched over and over again. Grade: A-

Side Notes:

-Gregory Diaz IV is Sonny, Usnavi's shadow who happens to be an illegal, brought as an infant, so he's a DREAMer. 

-Lin-Manual Miranda is the guy who's selling water ice. Christopher Jackson (Washington from Hamilton, the Musical) is the Mr. Softee guy. 

-It is bizarre seeing the big, elaborate musical numbers with millions of dancers when we're just getting out of the lockdown and pandemic. 

-The musical numbers were easily the best part of the film and were brilliant and the editing was flawless.