Tucker: The Man and His Dream

 Year:  1988

Director:  Francis Ford Coppola

Screenplay:  Arnold Schulman and David Seidler

Starring:  Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen, Martin Landau, Frederic Forrest, Mako, Elias Koteas, Christian Slater, Dean Stockwell

Running Time:  110 minutes

Genre:  Comedy, drama, biography

The Man:  Preston Tucker (Bridges), ambitious engineer who made his fortune designing and building gun turrets for aircraft during World War II.

His Dream:  To manufacture the 'car of the future'.  His "Tucker Torpedo" features an engine mounted in the rear of the car, and revolutionary safety features, such as seatbelts.  

However, the manufacture of the car is plagued with issues, and as enthusiasm for the car mounts, Tucker runs afoul of the "Big Three" car manufacturers (Ford, General Motors and Chrysler) as well as accusations of fraud from the U. S Securities and Exchange Commission.

You might not think of Francis Ford Coppola, director of such films as The Godfather (1973) and Apocalypse Now (1979), as the person to direct a gentle, charming comedy-drama based on real-life failed automobile entrepreneur Preston Tucker.  Coppola had first conceived of the project in the 1970s, and originally envisioned Marlon Brando or Jack Nicholson in the title role, and later planned to make the film as a musical, although the plan collapsed.  With Coppola's friend, George Lucas, serving as executive producer the project eventually came to fruition in 1988, to good reviews but poor box office receipts.  Jeff Bridges brings all of his considerable charisma to bear as the charming, confident Preston Tucker, and Joan Allen is very good, in the slightly underwritten role as Tucker's loyal wife Joan, although she has a great scene where she confronts a boardroom full of patronising men.  Martin Landau was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as financier Abe Karatz, who helps Tucker raise funds for his dream, and Christian Slater has a small role as Tucker's teenage son.  Dean Stockwell has a memorable cameo as a creepy Howard Hughes.  The film looks great with a real feel for the 1940s style, and the action is punctuated by amusing 1940s style adverts for Tucker's car.  While this is not a great film by any means, and far from Coppola's best, it actually deserves to be a lot better remembered than it is, because it is a good film.  In the end, Tucker made 51 of his Tucker Torpedoes.  Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas each own two.

Jeff Bridges in Tucker: The Man and His Dream

Primal Fear

 Year:  1996

Director:  Gregory Hoblit

Screenplay:  Steve Shagan and Ann Biderman, based on the novel Primal Fear by William Diehl

Starring:  Richard Gere, Edward Norton, Laura Linney, John Mahoney, Alfre Woodard, Frances McDormand

Running Time:  130 minutes

Genre:  Thriller 

Chicago:  A beloved archbishop is brutally murdered in his apartment.  Shy, polite 19 year old altar boy Aaron Stampler (Norton) is found covered in blood, fleeing the crime scene, and is arrested for the murder.  Given the evidence and the lack of any other suspects, a conviction seems a certainty.  Ambitious, arrogant defence attorney Martin Vail (Gere) decides to defend Aaron, and becomes increasing convinced of his innocence. As he digs into the case to find evidence, Vail discovers some dark secrets.

This courtroom thriller, based on a 1993 novel by author William Diehl, is a genuinely gripping mystery, and elevated by strong performances and well-rounded characters.  Richard Gere is ideally cast as the slick, arrogant and often quite unlikeable lawyer, who nevertheless is redeemed by his strong belief in justice.  Edward Norton, in his film debut, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting  Actor for his intense performance as the tormented, stammering Aaron Stampler, who spends most of the film either in the courtroom or in a jail cell, verbally sparring with Gere or Frances McDormand, who plays a psychiatrist sent to analyse him.  Laura Linney really elevates what could be a one-note role as the attorney for the prosecution, who has a history with Vail.  Some of the various plot twists probably won't surprise many mystery aficionados, but the story moves along well, and there is plenty of real tension.  Director Gregory Hoblit, a veteran of TV dramas such as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law and NYPD Blue, as well as the notorious '80s police musical Cop Rock, directs with style and keeps the plot moving along, even while the narrative diverges into more conspiratorial elements.  The script is clever with some sharp, witty dialogue.  

 Edward Norton and Richard Gere in Primal Fear

As Good as It Gets

 Year:  1998

Director:  James L. Brooks

Screenplay:  Mark Andrus and James L. Brooks

Starring:  Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr., Skeet Ulrich, Shirley Knight

Running Time:  139 minutes

Genre:  Romantic comedy, drama

New York City:  Best-selling romance novelist Melvin Udall (Nicholson) is bigoted, misanthropic and suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder.  Every day he eats lunch at the same Manhattan restaurant where he insists on sitting at the table and being served by the same server, Carole Connelly (Hunt), the only one who can tolerate his obnoxious behaviour.  Carole herself is struggling to make ends meet while caring for her ill son.  When Melvin's neighbour, gay artist Simon (Kinnear) is beaten and robbed in his apartment, Melvin is pressured into caring for his pet dog while Simon is in hospital, despite the fact that Melvin frequently bullies Simon and hates the dog.  However, Melvin and the dog end up bonding, and, in spite of himself, he finds himself increasingly drawn into the lives of the people around him.

This is an enjoyable, romantic comedy-drama, in the Woody Allen mould, which doesn't really break much new ground.  Jack Nicholson is ideal as the grouchy, offensive Melvin.  Helen Hunt, who at the time was probably best known for the sitcom Mad About You (1994-1999), won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Carole, and she has real spark as the troubled, but loving Carole who is able to find some kind of humanity in Melvin.  Greg Kinnear is good as the sensitive artist, Simon, who becomes something of a tragic character as his life collapses following his attack.  The film is often uneven in tone, being really quite dark in places, which sometimes sits uneasily with the more broadly comic scenes, and sentiment.  It's also too long, with a running time of two hours and twenty minutes, and the conclusion seems very unlikely.  However, the characters are engaging, and there are some great performances and it's often very funny.  There is nothing new here, but it is an engaging and ultimately warm film, although you kind of wonder how happy the characters will be in the long term.  Also, Melvin is so obnoxious and offensive for most of the film it may be hard for some viewers to warm to him at all, even if he's ultimately shown to be warm hearted softy.  

Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets

Eating Raoul

 Year:  1982

Director:  Paul Bartel

Screenplay:  Richard Blackburn and Paul Bartel

Starring:  Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov, Robert Beltran, Ed Begley Jr., Buck Henry, Richard Paul, Susan Saiger

Running Time:  83 minutes

Genre:  Dark comedy

Los Angeles:  Paul Bland (Bartel) is a wine snob who works in a cheap liquor store, his wife Mary (Woronov) is a nurse and nutritionist, who constantly has to fend off groping patients.  They live in a run down apartment building, where the neighbours frequently hold wild swinger's parties.  The presence of the swingers offends the prudish Blands, who seem to hate the whole idea of sex.  When Paul accidentally kills a drunk swinger who attacks Mary, the couple realise that these swingers tend to carry a lot of cash.  The Blands decide to lure rich swingers to their flat to rob and kill them in order to finance the couple's dreams of opening their ideal restaurant: Paul and Mary's Country Kitchen.  Professional thief Raoul (Beltran) discovers their scheme and makes a deal with them.  However things become more complicated when Raoul falls for Mary, and decides he wants Paul out of the way,

Paul Bartel was a prolific writer, actor and director who made a name for himself with cult science-fiction film Death Race 2000 (1975) for legendary B movie producer Roger Corman.  Mary Woronov first made a name for herself as one of Andy Warhol's "superstars" appearing in several of his films, including Chelsea Girls (1966), before moving on to Roger Corman films, including Bartel's Death Race 2000.  Eating Raoul is a clever, gleefully tasteless comedy, which satirises 1980s consumerism and entrepreneurship,  as well as the "permissive society".  Paul works, and is fired from, a cheap liquor store where he refuses to sell the cheap, nasty plonk that the shop is selling ("But it's so cheap!" "So's lighter fluid, but I wouldn't serve it to my dinner guests.").  Mary is a nurse and seems to be lusted after by every male she comes across.  All they want to do is to move out and open a fine dining restaurant.  Some of the film's funniest moments comes when Mary has to entertain people with a wide variety of peccadilloes in the Bland's flat, at least until Paul has a chance to whack them on the head with a frying pan.  The film is never as gruesome or offensive as it might be, although the treatment of attempted sexual assault for laughs may be problematic.  Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov make a strangely well matched odd couple, and they ended up making 17 films together, usually playing husband and wife.  Robert Beltran, who would later find stardom in the TV series Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001), is good as the charismatic but duplicitous Raoul.  Oscar nominated writer and actor Buck Henry has a very funny role as a lecherous bank manager.  Ed Begley Jr. plays an obnoxious hippie, and Edie McClurg (who went on to scene-stealing turns in '80s comedy classics Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) and Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)) plays a guest at a swinger's party.  Movies directors John Landis and Joe Dante can also be seen in uncredited cameos.  This has become something of a cult film and it is a funny, entertaining movie which delivers consistent laughs throughout. A proposed sequel, Bland Ambition, never came to pass, but Bartel and Woronov did reprise their roles as the Blands in the science-fiction/horror film Chopping Mall (1987) about killer robots running wild in a shopping mall.

Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov in Eating Raoul

Masculin Féminin

 Year:  1966

Director:  Jean-Luc Godard

Screenplay:  Jean-Luc Godard

Starring:  Jean-Pierre Léaud, Chantal Goya, Marlène Jobert, Michel Debord, Catherine-Isabelle Duport

Running Time:  104 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Paris, the mid 1960s:  Paul (Léaud), an idealistic political activist, falls for pop singer Madeleine (Goya), and the two start up a complex relationship, which includes Madeleine's two roommates: Catherine (Duport) and Elisabeth (Jobert), against the turbulent backdrop of Parisian politics and youth culture.

Jean-Luc Godard was one of the leading lights of the French nouvelle vague (New Wave) and became something of an art-house darling throughout the 1960s, until his films became increasingly inaccessible, experimental and political.  Masculin Féminin (or, to give it it's full title, Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis which translates as Masculine Feminine: 15 Specific Events) was made at the time when Godard was increasingly interested in making more political films, while still retaining some of the humour and verve of his earlier work.  Jean-Pierre Léaud was quite a star in France having appeared in François Truffaut's long running series of semi-autobiographical films about the character Antoine Doinel, which began with The 400 Blows (1959).  Chantal Goya, who plays singer Madeleine, was a model turned successful yé-yé singer (yé-yé music was a kind of light catchy pop music that was popular in France in the 1960s).  This was Goya's first film and she wasn't an actress, but Godard who had seen her perform on a TV show deliberately wanted someone who was "untrained" and more naturalistic.  As frequently happens in Godard the film uses a lot of unconventional techniques, including interspersing the main action of the film with captions on title cards (including the film's most famous quote: "THE CHILDREN OF MARX AND COCA-COLA"), and almost documentary style footage, including a long and slightly creepy sequence in which a model is brusquely interrogated about politics by an unseen interviewer.  Godard intended the film to reflect the lives of young people in Paris, although he doesn't seem to even the slightest liking or sympathy for them.  The male characters spout off long speeches on Marxist philosophy at any opportunity, although they seem more interested in hitting on girls than a revolution, the female characters only seem to care about music, shopping and their hair.  Godard was angry when the film was ruled unsuitable for anyone under the age of 18 when it was first released, commenting that they are not letting young people see the film because it's "about them".   However, in a sign of the changing times, the film is now rated "12" in the UK (the equivalent of the American "PG-13").  It's not one of Godard's best films, but it is inventive enough and the cast have enough charisma to hold the interest.  

The children of Marx and Coca-Cola: Jean-Pierre Léaud, Chantal Goya and Marlène Jobert in Masculin Féminin

Men

 Year:  2022

Director:  Alex Garland

Screenplay:  Alex Garland

Starring:  Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear, Paapa Essiedu, Gayle Rankin

Running Time:  100 minutes

Genre:  Horror

Following the apparent suicide of her abusive husband (Essiedu), Harper Marlowe (Buckley) takes a two week break from her home in London, renting a holiday home in the isolated village of Cotson.  During a long walk in the country, Harper is horrified by a vision of a naked hairless man, who appears to follow her home.  Walking around the village, Harper is deeply disturbed by the creepy, toxic men that she encounters (all of whom are played by Kinnear).

This is a deeply strange, but oddly effective slice of folk horror, a subgenre of horror films which use folklore and tradition, particularly in a rural, isolated landscape.  Jessie Buckley, who is one of the best actors working at the moment, gives a fantastic performance as the tormented Harper, and Rory Kinnear is fantastic as multiple men, all of whom display various types of toxic masculinity, and the truly disturbing image of Kinnear's face superimposed on a schoolboy, who frequently wears a Marilyn Monroe mask.  The death of Harper's husband, and the events leading up to it, are shown piece by piece in flashback, lit in a warm, orange, late-evening light, while the scenes in the country are all bright greens and grey stones.  the film uses a lot of religious and pagan imagery, particular the Green Man (a face surrounded by leaves and vegetation).  For the most part, this is a strange, effective slow-burner, however in the last act, the film seems to go in for more conventional horror movie territory, before ending in genuinely nightmarish, surreal imagery.  I enjoyed the film, even though I am not sure I really understood everything that was happening in it.  This is a film that is worth your time, a powerful and pertinent look at disturbing and problematic male behaviour, particularly against women, and some of the most memorable, bizarre imagery to be seen in a long time.  

 Jessie Buckley in Men

Top Gun: Maverick

Year:  2022

Director:  Joseph Kosinski

Screenplay:  Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie, from a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks

Starring:  Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer

Running Time:  131 minutes

Genre:  Action, drama

US Navy test pilot, Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Cruise) is ordered to return to the elite fighter training school known as "Top Gun" train some of the best Top Gun graduates for a seemingly impossible mission.  To complicate matters, one of Maverick's students, Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Teller), is the son of Maverick's former co-pilot and close friend Goose, who was killed in an accident during their time at Top Gun in the 1980s.

Top Gun (1986) is possibly one of the most beloved films of the 1980s, and it is extremely risky to return to such a popular film over thirty years later.  Top Gun: Maverick opens with a virtually shot-for-shot remake of the opening of the original Top Gun, the same music, the same opening text explaining what Top Gun is, the same scenes of fighter jets lifting off of aircraft carriers to the strains of Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" and even the same typeface for the credits.  After this, Top Gun: Maverick settles down to it's own thing, while still delivering enough call backs and references to the original to satisfy nostalgic '80s kids. Maverick follows the same basic plot structure as the original but, in the original, the goal for the pilots is to win the Top Gun Trophy, in this film the goal is to complete this almost impossible mission and return alive, immediately raising the stakes.  While the first Top Gun is bookended by aerial scraps against the enemy (who are not identified in either film, but you can probably guess who they are supposed to be) they almost seem like add ons to provide some drama and action.  In both films the enemy pilots are completely dehumanised, rendered faceless by the black visors and full face masks.  Tom Cruise, reprising his star making role, does what he does best, with his mega-watt smile and movie star charisma undimmed despite the passage of years.  Miles Teller is good as Rooster, the son of Maverick's best friend Goose, who dies in the first film.  Rooster hates Maverick, blaming him not only for his father's death, but also for apparently sabotaging his career.  Jennifer Connelly does what she can with a fairly underwritten role as bar-owner Penny, Maverick's love interest.  As with the first film, women don't have much to do, however at least here there are a couple of female pilots.  The film is tense, and has some real excitement in the aviation sequences.  It has humour, drama and some emotion.  While the film is as pro-military as the first, and will doubtless cause applications to the US Navy to climb higher and faster than one of Maverick's jets, it is most of all a perfect example of a real summer blockbuster.

Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick

Malignant

 Year:  2021

Director:  James Wan

Screenplay:  Akela Cooper, from a story by James Wan, Ingrid Bisu and Akela Cooper

Starring:  Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson, George Young, Michole Briana White

Running Time:  111 minutes

Genre:  Horror

Seattle, present day:  Madison Lake Mitchell (Wallis) begins having terrifying visions of horrific murders, and comes to realise that the murders are actually happening.  As she comes under suspicion by the police, Madison and her sister Sydney (Hasson) try to track down the real killer.

Writer/director James Wan came to the attention of horror fans with the films Saw (2004) and The Conjuring (2013).  While Malignant isn't as good as either of them, it still contains plenty of Wan's trademark gore and slick visual style, in fact it seems like there is barely a minute where the camera is not at some odd angle or in motion.  It feels strangely retro as well, the look and feel of the film is very much that of a 1990s slasher film, with the slick visuals, fast cuts and over the top  Grand Guignol and elaborate production design, where every character seems to live in an expensive, palatial house or flat.  It also feels like a 1970s Italian giallo film, complete with black-gloved killer, nonsensical plot and elaborate, gruesome set-pieces.  The story is absolutely ridiculous, the dialogue is cliched, some of the special effects are mediocre and the performances can be politely described as variable.  In saying that however, the film has kind of a winning energy, there is some excitement to be had, and the key revelation is quite well done.  This is the kind of film that is probably best experienced in a late night showing at the local cinema with like-minded fans, or with some friends after a few drinks.  Silly and over the top it may be, but it is fun.

Annabelle Wallis in Malignant