Annie Hall (1977)

 While the film might be named after Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), Alvie Singer (Woody Allen) is the main character and narrator of this bizarre, non-linear classic romantic comedy. 

The film details the relationship between the two, from their first meeting to after the end. Alvie is a comedian, and appears to be successful while Annie is on the up swing as a singer (and she's quite good) but it isn't easy and certainly one of the best scenes is when they meet with their respective therapists and complain about the frequency of intercourse. Annie whines about having sex constantly, three times a week while Alvie states that they rarely do it. So yes, they fight over sex, over intelligent and how they each wish to better themselves. And Alvie has the fear of commitment, which is understandable as he had two ex-wives, one divorce was his fault, the other wife was just plan odd. And he's Jewish, and doesn't seem to be secure in his religion while Annie isn't ashamed of her bland mid-west family. Still, you root for them, because you're supposed to, though I wasn't terribly upset when she finally wanted to improve her life and no longer wanted to deal with Alvie's shit, forever holding her back, so she moves and is thrilled with her life choice. It is a surprising feminine film, complete with a great screenplay and effortless acting. It is a truly good film, a classic, with good reason. Grade: A-

Side Notes:

-While Alvie really is an ass, accusing Annie of having her period every time she complains of a headache, and while that's pure, utter bullshit, at least it's mentioned as that was rare in those times and it needs to be normalized.

-Pay attention for Christopher Walken's small role as Annie's brother who has issues, namely, he wishes to purposely drive head-on into another car, with no regard for himself or others. 

-Carol Kane is the sweet first wife of Alvie while Janet Margolin is his second, feminist wife. Shelley Duvall has a quick fling with him. She's obsessed with rock bands, while he finds them trite. 

Nashville (1975)

While this film had a truly realistic feel with some brilliant performances, there were just too many characters to keep track of. 

Ronee Blakley is sort of the main character, as adorable country star Barbara Jean who recently survived a devastating fire only to collapse and nearly suffer a mental breakdown before her miraculously recovery. She's much loved and appears to be the headliner of the show, the music festival in Nashville. But there are others, Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson) is the old-fashioned star, but is supportive of the younger generation. Karen Black is Connie White, another country singer who replaces Barbara Jean on the first day of performances. 

The second best performance of the film belongs to Lily Tomlin, who portrays Linnea Reese, the white singer of an all-black gospel choir, who is also unhappily married to Del (Ned Beatty) and the devoted mother of two deaf children, something she isn't upset about about much to the surprise of British documentarian, Opal (Geraldine Chaplin). She is also an affair with Tom Frank (Keith Carradine) who is breaking free of his trio and sings the Oscar-winning song: I'm Easy, which is one of the several great songs in this film. 

The established stars are complimented by up-and-comers: Albaquerque (Barbara Harris), escaping an unsupportive husband and Sueleen (Gwen Wells) who can't recognize that her singing voice is truly terrible and as a result, she is basically forced to strip to keep her job. 

Still, despite all the characters, the film still makes time for plot twists and turns, and everyone is pretty much interconnected, but I just couldn't keep them straight and the videocassette stops in the middle of a scene and then you have to switch cassette tapes which is just stupid and annoying. Still, the film was a delight (although the ending is just tragic) and one that can be easily watched again. Grade: A-

Side Notes:

-The only two stars nominated for Oscars where Ronee Blakley and Lily Tomlin (shockingly her only nomination), and both were well-deserved. Neither would win.

-Of course Linnea would sleep with Tom over her husband, after all, her husband is Ned Beatty.

-The car crash scene in the beginning is certainly interesting and leads Opal to being obsessed with junkyards and American cars and consumerism. 

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

 This was another excellent film.

Apparently based on a true story, Sonny Wortzik (Al Pacino) and his pal of unknown origin, Sal (John Cazale) set out to rob a bank and boy are they unprepared. Their third accomplice chickens out nearly immediately and the vast amount of funds were already collected so the bank hardly has any money and Sonny needs it so his new 'wife', Leon (a brilliant Chris Sarandon) can get that sex change operation he was told he should want, though it appears he may actually want it. 

While the concept is simple, it is a superb film, complete with several twists and turns, including the reveal of Leon, and there is always the suspense of anyone could die at any time. And Sonny is constantly just pulling at threads, just trying to live the life he wants, and he needs money to do it. A TV reporter even asks him why he can't just get a job and Sonny acts like he could work, then he would. 

Now, there are a few problems, the main one is, how in the world do the cops figure out the bank is being robbed? (I suspect the third accomplice who left at the beginning.) Still, something needed to happen as they were clearly amateurs, and it made for good film making. Sidney Lumet delivers another excellent film, as this one is great, start to finish, with effortless performances and gritty feel makes you feel like you're transported back to August 1972, Brooklyn, New York, watching a bank being robbed. Grade: A

Side Notes:

-The funniest scene is when Sonny asks for and receives some pizza to feed the hostages and tries to pay for it with the stolen money.

-Sonny doesn't want to hurt anyone because he's a Catholic.

-Charles Durning is great as the first, most sympathetic cop. 

-Sonny's female wife, Angie (Susan Peretz) is particularly annoying and Sonny gets frustrated with her very quickly. 

Coming Home (1978)

 This film was both brilliant, realistic, tragic and disappointing.

It is 1968, and the US is at war with Vietnam. Sally Bender Hyde (Jane Fonda) decides, more on a whim, to volunteer at a hospital which treats wounded veterans. Her own husband, Bob (Bruce Dern) is a captain and is now overseas himself and is proud to serve. And he doesn't want her to work while he's away, but she clearly has other ideas. The scene when she goes to volunteer is a scene in which you cannot take your eyes off the screen, not even for a millisecond. She walks into Luke Martin's (Jon Voight's) urine bag and he flips out. Turns out that Sally went to high school with Luke (what are the odds?) and she befriends him as he slowly recovers and gets released and starts to protest the war. The two even begin an affair while Bob remains overseas before finally returning home with a minor injury. But he's not himself anymore, drinking too much and still sleeping with his pistol, which doesn't freak Sally out as much as you would think. 

The ending is both predictable and ambiguous. While Luke tries to urge high schoolers to take the war and their involvement in it seriously, while Sally buys steaks for a cookout and Bob strips his clothes and goes into the ocean, just like in at least two versions of A Star is Born, so that way of implying that he was committing suicide is just stupid and besides, there was already a suicide, the brother of Sally's friend, Vi (Penelope Milford), Billy (Robert Carradine, years before he was the father on the Lizzie McGuire show), who is suffering from sort of mental breakdown and commits suicide in the worst way, as his friends bang on the office door, desperate for a nurse to come around and shoots a syringe full of air into his veins, dying by the time help finally arrives. So while Bob killing himself may have been realistic as he refused Sally's help, livid that she cheated on him while he was away, upset that he belongs nowhere, but I still felt that another suicide was just too much for this film. 

Despite my issues with the ending, the acting (especially Voight) is brilliant and four of actors were nominated for Oscars (with Voight and Fonda winning), and they were all well-deserved awards. And the film is painfully realistic, with the gritty hospital scenes and difficult performances that seem effortless to the actors is so small feet, too bad the ending was just too problematic for me. Grade: B+

Side Notes:

-This film also shows how difficult it was to be in a wheelchair before all the regulations they have today.

-We never truly learn how Luke and Bob got injured in the war. 

-The weird subplot of Luke being spied upon should also been developed more, though it was a twist the film did need. 

-The subject of children is never discussed in this film.

-When Bob returns from the war, he reacts more strongly to Sally's hairstyle change than to her new car. 

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

 Well, this film wasn't completely spectacular, more like an elevated rom-com with a superb, white cast. 

Apparently, after you die, you board a giant white plane in the sky and finish your journey. Joe Pendleton's (Warren Beatty's) problem is that he was taken prematurely, by some over-zealous escort (Buck Henry) and can't return to his actual body because he's been cremated (so maybe I shouldn't get cremated after all) so he's placed inside billionaire Leo Farnsworth and initially is livid as Farnsworth is a total racist asshole, set to destroy an entire village by building another, perhaps unnecessary factory, which is how he meets Betty Logan (Julie Christie). However, Joe was a quarterback and is desperate to get back to fighting shape, so he vows to change how his millions of companies are run and then trains like a fool, buys the Rams for a price far, far more than they are worth and nearly makes it back, only to have it all dashed away again as Leo's wife, Julie (Dyan Cannon) and executive secretary, Tony (Charles Grodin) finally succeed in killing him. So he's given another body, that of Rams quarterback Tom Jarrett (the one who replaced him in the role), and he's memory's erased but he gets the girl anyway. 

Now, despite the unconventional plotline, the idea is good and does have several good twists and the acting is good but I feel the film could have made a bigger impact if Joe focused more on changing Leo's businesses for the good of all people, not just focus on his own desires as he was finally in the position to do something good. Still, Joe did his research, studying the pamphlets as though they were his play book, but can he really trust the board to change the entire corporation without his input? However, you do kind of just have to go with it and the journey is an interesting one, even though I would have done this film differently. Grade: B+

Side Notes:

-Vincent Gardenia is the bizarre detective investigating Leo's disappearance and focuses his questioning largely on Leo's sudden dislike of hats. 

-You could easily compare running a company to winning a football game. 

-Julia's reaction upon seeing her husband is actually alive is just great.

-Jack Warden is also great as Max Corkle, Joe's trainer and was rewarded with an Oscar nomination as was Beatty and Cannon. None of them won. 

-I don't see how Tony thought he was going to get away with shooting Leo, his final plan was just ridiculous. 

Chinatown (1974)

 This was another excellent film, with a painfully sad ending.

J.J. Gittes (a great Jack Nicholson) is a private detective in 1930s Los Angeles. Currently, the city is going through a drought and the water company has different ideas on how to solve the problem. Noah Cross (John Huston) wants to funnel the water into the valley to feed the orange crops and incorporate the valley into the city while the mild-mannered and seldom seen Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling) wants to give the water to the people so he's promptly killed. And to complicate matters, Mulwray's wife, Evelyn (Faye Dunaway) hires Jake to determine if her husband is cheating on him. And then, they sleep together and her husband is barely cold in his grave, but that's before Jake finds the proof he needs on who killed Hollis and just when you expect it to be Evelyn, and that she lied to you all the time, but she's not a murderer. Her father is, and a rapist. But the ending is sad, as the city will lose, the drought will get worse, the bad guy gets away with murder because he has the police in his pocket and Evelyn dies. Jake is let off for unknown reasons. So yeah, I hate movies that have sad endings all the way around. Still, the screenplay was tight (it won the film's sole Oscar) and the acting was superb. Roman Polanski truly weaved together a brilliant film despite all his personal struggles. Grade: A-

Side Notes:

-Polanski portrays the man who sliced up Nicholson's nose, in a truly horrified realistic scene.

-The scene where Evelyn admits that the alleged 'other woman' is actually her daughter/sister Katherine (Belinda Palmer) is also a great scene though the truth is truly revolting. 

-Jake does want the truth, though he is also money hungry, just like the rest of them. 

Lenny (1974)

This is a superb, interesting film portraying the controversial and troubled life of randy comic Lenny Bruce (Dustin Hoffman, brilliant). It takes him from a struggling comic to him ruining himself with all his arrests due to profanity and his dissent into drugs and lethal overdose. While he starts out relatively mundane, his act quickly turns dirty but hilarious after he meets and, in short order, marries Honey (Valerie Perrine) a stripper. He also brings attention to current events and tries to call out how stupid racism is (though he uses the 'n' word to do so, something that would not fly these days). However, because of his use of profanities, he's arrested which creates some interesting scenes in the courtroom, including some that are just downright bizarre. 

However, this film is also unique in the fact that it mixes recordings of the people surrounding Lenny's life as the police try to solve his sudden death, just before he was about to report to prison and the film is done in nearly a documentary style, realistic to a fault, with some great editing (which was denied an Oscar nomination) in gritty black and white but you don't miss a beat (though the DVD didn't include subtitles which is just a crime) and while the ending is painfully sad, this film manages to tell Lenny's story portraying him as a flawed man, and Lenny wouldn't have had it any other way. Grade: A-

Side Notes:

-Dustin Hoffman is completely brilliant but props to the unknown Valerie Perrine as his wife, that phone call between the two is a scene of pure emotional acting as those you were watching the actual scene between a heart-broken and devastated Lenny and Honey, who is likewise heart-broken and going through withdrawal.

-The supporting cast is also full of unknowns which only adds to the documentary feel of the film. 

-Lenny must have been left-handed as Hoffman uses his left hand to write something down in one of the courtroom scenes. 

-Also Clarence Thomas makes a cameo appearance as one of Lenny's lawyer.