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

Licorice Pizza

 Year of Release:  2021

Director:  Paul Thomas Anderson

Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson

Starring:  Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie

Running Time:  133 minutes

Genre:  comedy drama

San Fernando Valley, 1973:  15 year old high school student Gary Valentine (Hoffman) balances a successful career as a child actor with a number of entrepreneurial schemes.  One day he meets 25 year old photographer's assistant Alana Kane (Haim) and becomes instantly smitten with her.  Alana, however, is intrigued by Gary's chutzpah but considers him far too young for him.  Despite this the two forge a tentative friendship.

Paul Thomas Anderson is arguably one of the most important American filmmakers working today, as well as one of the most infuriating, but with Licorice Pizza, a tender, romantic comedy drama set in early '70s Los Angeles based on part on Anderson's own youthful experiences as well as those of his friend, producer and actor Gary Goetzman.  Cooper Hoffman, who is the some of the late, great actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who appeared in several Anderson films, makes his film debut as Gary, and delivers a great performance making Gary romantic, infuriating, admirable and funny, often all at the same time.  Alana Haim, of the rock band Haim, pretty much steals the movie as Alana Kane, and, as with Hoffman, this was her debut film.  The way their relationship plays out is fascinating and moving.  Despite being a teenager, Gary appears more self-confident and assured, he is a fairly successful actor and he is always coming up with money-making schemes.  He walks into his favourite restaurant, and basically owns the place.   Despite being ten years older, Alana works a miserable job, where her boss slaps her butt as she walks by him, and doesn't really know what she wants from life.  She is also more idealistic than the cynical Gary.  The film features Sean Penn, as a self-obsessed ageing actor based on William Holden, Tom Waits, sounding more than ever like an elderly Dalek, as a drunk director, Bradley Cooper delivers a hilarious performance as real-life producer Jon Peters, and Benny Safdie, one half of the filmmaking Safdie Brothers (directors of Good Time (2017) and Uncut Gems (2919)) plays real-life politician Joel Wachs.  Alana Haim's two sisters and Haim bandmates Danielle and Este turn up as Alana Kane's sisters, along with their parents, Moti and Donna. Incidentally Anderson directed several of Haim's music videos, and Donna Haim was Anderson's art teacher at school.  This is not really a plot based film.  At times it feels more like a tour through a photo album of the sights and sounds of the period.  The fact is that this never gets wearying.  It may at times feel too loose, there are lots of interesting elements that don't really go anywhere, but such is life.  At the end of the film I was left so invested in the characters and their lives that I wanted more, and there can be no higher praise for a film than that.  It has a great seventies soundtrack too.

Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim in Licorice Pizza
    

Husbands

Year of Release:  1970

Director:  John Cassavetes

Screenplay:  John Cassavetes

Starring:  Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, John Cassavetes

Running Time:  140 minutes

Genre:  Comedy drama

Following the death of a mutual friend, three middle-aged New York family men: Harry (Gazzara), Archie (Falk) and Gus (Cassavetes) indulge in a days long binge of heavy drinking and soul-searching, including an impromptu trip to London.

John Cassavetes is possibly most familiar as an actor in Hollywood films such as The Dirty Dozen (1967), Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Fury (1978), but his most important legacy rests with the groundbreaking independent films he made as director, writer and sometime actor.  After making a name with his directorial debut Shadows (1959), Cassavetes had his first sizeable success with Faces (1968), which allowed hims some studio backing for Husbands.  While Cassavetes came up with the film's story and scenes, the dialogue and action came out of long improvisation sessions with his fellow actors, and Gazzara, Falk and Cassavetes' characters were more or less based on the actors themselves.  The basic plot of Husbands, three guys go out on a booze filled bender for days on end, could apply to any number of comedies, both good and bad, but few go as dark as this does.  This is a film defined by absence.  It starts with a series of still snapshots of a barbecue or pool party where Gus, Harry and Archie are clowning around with their families and their friend Stuart, whose funeral opens the main action of the film.  We never learn anything about Stuart, but it seems as if he was the lynchpin that kept the gang together.  The other three spend the film seeming unmoored, and despite being very similar, they don't seem to like each other very much.  Also, despite the film's title, we never see much of their family lives.  Harry's wife appears briefly and they have a violent argument, and we see Gus' children, played by Cassavetes' own children Nick and Alexandra, but we see nothing of Archie's family.  It is hard to sympathise entirely with this pretty unpleasant trio of middle-aged, middle-class white guys who are creepy, mocking, violent or rude to almost any woman unlucky enough to cross their path.  Following Stuart's funeral they ride the subway, have an impromptu late-night basketball game and get drunk and sing in a bar, when it comes time for them to go to work and spend some time with their families, the three shoot off to London to drink, go to casinos and pick up women (including Jenny Runacre).  This is a tough film to watch, and it's often very uneven.  It's sometimes profound, often dull, sometimes cruel and occasionally funny.  It all ends on a very inconclusive note.

Peter Falk, John Cassavetes and Ben Gazzara are Husbands

2 Days in Paris

 Year of Release:  2007

Director:  Julie Delpy

Screenplay:  Julie Delpy

Starring:  Julie Delpy, Adam Goldberg, Daniel Brühl

Running Time:  101 minutes

Genre:  Romance, comedy, drama

French photographer Marion (Delpy) and her American boyfriend Jack (Goldberg) are on a holiday in Europe.  Following a less than romantic trip to Venice, they go to Marion's native city of Paris.  Jack is immediately uncomfortable by the cultural differences between France and America and his own ignorance of French, as well as by Marion's bohemian parents (Marie Pillet and Albert Delpy) and most specifically by the fact that they keep running into Marion's ex-boyfriends, all of whom she still seems to be friends with.  

Julie Delpy is probably best known for starring in Richard Linklater's Before trilogy along side Ethan Hawke, and 2 Days in Paris is definitely from the same stable, once more about being a French woman and an American man wandering around a glamorous European city while discussing life, love, art and various things in between.  With this film Delpy not only writes, directs and stars, she composed the score and edited the film, and cast her real life parents, Marie Pillet and Albert Delpy, as her character's parents.  This has few surprises, and sometimes feels like a quirkier version of one of Woody Allen's later travelogue films but it is consistently funny, and the cast have real charm, despite the fact that their characters are intensely annoying, being judgemental, sanctimonious and often surprisingly cruel.  The film is certainly no love letter to Paris, showing the City of Lights and it's inhabitants, in a pretty unpleasant light.  Delpy directs the film with real style, although it always feels like a pretty good, but not stand-out quirky indie film, complete with voice-over and animated diagrams.  It is a good film and pretty enjoyable.  Followed by 2 Days in New York (2012).

   

Julie Delpy and Adam Goldberg spend 2 Days in Paris

 

Emma.

 Year of Release:  2020

Director:  Autumn de Wilde

Screenplay:  Eleanor Catton, based on the novel Emma by Jane Austen

Starring:  Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Josh O'Connor, Callum Turner, Mia Goth, Miranda Hart, Bill Nighy, Gemma Whelan

Running Time:  124 minutes

Genre:  Period, comedy-drama

In Regency-era England, the wealthy young Emma Woodhouse (Taylor-Joy) enjoys meddling in the love lives of her friends, while having no intention of getting married herself.  Emma soon learns, however, that despite her best efforts, her matchmaking plans often make things far worse.

This film is based on the 1815 novel by Jane Austen.  I have never read the book and so can't comment on how faithful this adaptation is.  The film opens with Emma being described as "handsome, clever and rich", which is a perfect description of the film.  Visually it is sumptuous with every frame practically looking like something you could clip out and put on the wall, while the stories direction and the ultimate end is never really in doubt, it is a witty script, and the whole thing feels like a gorgeous cinematic confection.  Anya Taylor-Joy is perfect in the lead, giving a captivating, spirited performance.  Johnny Flynn as Emma's foil Mr. Knightley, the only one who challenges her on her schemes.  Mia Goth gives depth and heart to her role as Emma's friend, and accidental victim of her schemes.  There s also good support form established British comic actors such as Miranda Hart, Bill Nighy and Gemma Whelan.  I'm not sure how Jane Austen fans will feel about the film, but I found it a hugely enjoyable diversion.

Mia Goth and Anya Taylor-Joy in Emma.

Metropolitan

 Year of Release:  1990

Director:  Whit Stillman

Screenplay:  Whit Stillman

Starring:  Carolyn Farina, Edward Clements, Chris Eigeman, Taylor Nichols, Allison Parisi,  Dylan Hundley, Isabel Gillies, Bryan Leder, Will Kempe

Running Time:  98 minutes

Genre: Comedy, drama

Over the Christmas season in New York City, middle-class socialist Tom Townsend (Clements) accidentally gets mixed up with "The Sally Fowler Rat Pack", a group of wealthy, young socialites, who spend their time going to debutante balls, endless afterparties and trying to hook up with each other.  Despite his initial objection to their conspicuous wealth and materialism, Tom soon finds himself drawn into the circle.

This marked the debut of writer-director Whit Stillman, who became quite a shining star on the American Indie scene during the 1990s.  This is basically F. Scott Fitzgerald updated to the 1990s.  Not much really happens plot-wise, one of the group falls in love with Tom, who doesn't reciprocate her affections because he is in love with someone else.  Everyone is young, beautiful, rich and witty.  Although it does gently satirise it's characters, how much you enjoy the film will really depends on how much you can connect with these extremely privileged, white, one-percenters.  The film is funny in places and the Oscar-nominated screenplay is quite clever, and the mostly unknown cast do well.  I kind of liked it, but it could have done with more bite.

Welcome to The Sally Fowler Rat Pack in Metropolitan

Jojo Rabbit

Year of Release:  2019

Director:  Taika Waititi

Screenplay:  Taika Waititi, based on the novel Caging Skies by Christine Leunens

Starring:  Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Taika Waititi, Scarlett Johansson, Rebel Wilson, Sam Rockwell, Alfie Allen, Stephen Merchant

Running Time:  108 minutes

Genre:  Comedy-drama, war

Nazi Germany:  Johannes "Jojo" Betzler (Davis) is an innocent ten year old boy who is nevertheless heavily indoctrinated with Nazi ideology, and is an enthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth.  His best friend is an imaginary Adolf Hitler (Waititi).  Jojo discovers that his mother, Rosie (Johansson), is hiding a young Jewish girl, Elsa (McKenzie).  Jojo is scared to turn her in, and he and Elsa begin a tentative friendship.  

In the wrong hands this film could be in hugely bad taste, however it is by turns hilariously funny and absolutely heartbreaking.  The film is anchored by young actors Roman Griffin Davis and Thomasin McKenzie  who move from mutual fear and loathing to a kind of genuine friendship.  To Jojo, fascism is basically adventure, friendship and acceptance.  He has swallowed the lies hook, line and sinker, but he remains at his core, an essentially good hearted little boy, who just believes what he's been told.  When he meets Elsa he begins to slowly realise that Jewish people are not the demonic, supernatural monsters that he has been told they are.  Thomasin McKenzie is intensely moving as Elsa, whose safety depends on trusting people who she has every reason  not to.  She is a survivor, in constant danger, but she is also a normal teenage girl.  The familiar faces in supporting roles are all very good, with writer-director Taika Waititi as an idiotic imaginary Hitler, who moves from childlike best friend, to an increasingly threatening presence, as Jojo becomes increasingly disillusioned with Nazism.  Scarlett Johansson is hugely impressive as Rosie, Jojo's mother, torn between her duty to fight the evil that she sees around her, and her duty to care for her child.  The film has a child's eye view of it's events, moving from childlike adventure and flights of imagination to fear and danger.  The use of German versions of anachronistic songs by The Beatles and David Bowie adds an additional fantasy element.  The subject matter of the film places it in very difficult territory, but it navigates it with barely a misstep.  It is among the best and most moving films of the past few years.

Taika Waititi and Roman Griffin Davis in Jojo Rabbit
 

    

Nashville

Year of Release:  1975
Director:  Robert Altman
Screenplay:  Joan Tewkesbury
Starring:  Ned Beatty, Ronee Blakely, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Henry Gibson, Michael Murphy, Lily Tomlin
Running Time:  160 minutes
Genre: Comedy-drama

This film follows the numerous intersecting stories of a large group of people in Nashville, Tennessee, over a five day period in the run-up to a rally for a populist outsider candidate running for President.  Most of the characters are involved to a greater or lesser extent in the worlds of music or politics.

This is a long, sprawling, epic comedy-drama with about twenty-four main characters, an hour of musical numbers and a multitude of interlocking storylines.  The film was written by Joan Tewkesbury based on her own experiences of visiting Nashville, although as was often the case with Altman, much of the dialogue and many subplots were improvised on set.  The large ensemble cast is impressive, particularly Ronee Blakely as an emotionally fragile singer, Geraldine Chaplin as a chatty BBC Radio reporter, Henry Gibson as a politically ambitious Grand Ole Opry star and Gwen Wells as an ambitious but talentless aspiring singer.  It also features an early appearance by Jeff Goldblum as the silent "Tricycle Man", and Shelley Duvall as an eccentric groupie.  It is a film that is very much a product of it's time.  On the surface it is about Nashville, but really it is about where America was at politically and culturally in 1975, and scarily enough is still quite relevant today.  It does require a lot of attention, and the length, loose structure and lack of a single overarching story may be off-putting to some viewers, but it is very rewarding, which is funny, dramatic and sometimes moving.  It also has a great soundtrack. 

Ronee Blakely, Allen Garfield, Henry Gibson and Barbara Baxley welcome you to Nashville   
 

 

Frances Ha

Year of Release:  2013
Director:  Noah Baumbach
Screenplay:  Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig
Starring:  Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Charlotte d'Amboise, Adam Driver, Michael Zegen
Running Time:  86 minutes
Genre:  Comedy drama

Frances (Gerwig) is a struggling 27 year old dancer living in New York City with her best friend Sophie (Summer).  Her life is upended when Sophie announces that she plans to move to a more upmarket neighbourhood, which Frances can't afford, forcing her to find somewhere else to live, while trying to make ends meet.

Photographed in shimmering monochrome, this virtually plotless film is more a glimpse into the life of Frances, an ambitious young woman, trying to make her own way in the Big Apple, albeit without much success.  Frances herself is frequently frustrating, impulsive and irritating, but is never unsympathetic or unlikeable.  She makes bad decisions and frequently gets herself into trouble.  Early in the film she breaks up with her boyfriend because she doesn't want to move in with him and she really shows very little interest in dating anyone, although one of her roommates does seem to be interested in her.  The big relationship in Frances' life is her friendship with Sophie, and this film portrays friendship in a beguiling and very relatable way.  The two share jokes, and tell each other pretty much everything from their deepest secrets and hopes and fears to something funny that one of them sees on the way to the grocery store.  They fight, they argue, they get on each other's nerves, but the bond is always there.  Even Sophie's fiance, and Frances' jealousy, doesn't destroy their bond.
While the loose, plotless nature of the film may put off some viewers, and some may find Frances deeply annoying, this is a smart and funny film, which has a lot to say about friendship and finding a place for yourself in the world.  Certainly the biggest asset to the film is Greta Gerwig, who co-wrote the film with director Noah Baumbach and stars as Frances.  Charismatic and quirky, with a mix of exuberance, dorkishness and vulnerability, she owns the film, and is in virtually every scene.  Recently Greta Gerwig has spent more time behind the camera than in front of it, as the writer and director of acclaimed films Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019), and this is a reminder of what a great actress she is.

Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha       

The Truman Show

Year of Release:  1998
Director:  Peter Weir
Screenplay:  Andrew Niccol
Starring:  Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Holland Taylor, Ed Harris
Running Time:  103 minutes
Genre:  Science-fiction, comedy, drama

Truman Burbank (Carrey) lives a contended life with his wife Meryl (Linney), in a seemingly idyllic coastal town of Seahaven Island.  However Truman begins to suspect that something is very strange.  A spotlight falls from the sky, almost hitting him.  A homeless man bears a striking resemblance to his father who died 22 years earlier, and is quickly hustled away by seemingly random passers-by.  His car radio picks up a strange transmission that seems to describe his exact movements, and rain falls only on him.  Added to that the odd behaviour of his family, friends and neighbours.  In reality, Truman Burbank is the unwitting star of the world's top-rated television show.  Since birth he has lived his life in a vast set, and everyone he encounters is an actor playing a role.  Every minute of Truman's life is orchestrated by the show's creator and executive producer Christof (Harris) and broadcast live around the world twenty-four hours a day.

This is an enjoyable and intriguing film, which is surprisingly prophetic, foreseeing the explosion in so-called "reality" television.  While the film isn't very funny, it is enjoyable and very clever, managing to marry entertainment and big ideas.  The film is very stylish, imagining the look of Truman's world as a bright, all-American "white picket fence" small town, with Christof's control room hidden in the Moon.  Jim Carrey gives a charismatic performance in what was really his first major dramatic role, Laura Linney plays the actor playing the part of Meryl, hiding her true feelings behind a huge fake smile, and cheery demeanor which occasionally slips, also of note is Ed Harris who seems to be channeling Steve Jobs as the sinister Christof.  While the story mostly takes place in Truman's world, as he slowly begins to understand the nature of his reality, it is interspersed with sequences in the show's control room, and the reactions of the viewing public.  The film tackles some big themes such as the nature of reality, identity and media manipulation.

Jim Carrey in The Truman Show 
 

Limelight

Year of Release:  1952
Director:  Charles Chaplin
Screenplay:  Charles Chaplin
Starring:  Charles Chaplin, Claire Bloom, Nigel Bruce, Buster Keaton, Sydney Earl Chaplin, Wheeler Dryden, Norman Lloyd
Running Time:  137 minutes
Genre:  Comedy-drama

London, 1914:  Calvero (Chaplin), a once famous comedian who is now a washed up drunk, rescues a young woman, Thereza (Bloom), from suicide.  As he nurses her back to health, Calvero learns that Thereza is an aspiring ballerina.  He helps her regain her confidence to dance again, and in the process finds himself yearning to return to the stage.

This was not Chaplin's last film, but it does feel like a final film.  It heavily references Chaplin's own life and career, the film is set in London, where Chaplin grew up, and takes place in 1914, the year of Chaplin's own debut.  Calvero became famous, like Chaplin, by playing tramp character, and, again like Chaplin, is left behind by a changing world and changing audiences.  Although the film has comedy in it, including a hilarious silent skit between Chaplin and fellow silent comedy legend Buster Keaton, this is essentially a drama.  The film is overlong and feels at times like a filmed play, it also suffers from some quite obvious back projection.  However I feel this is one of Chaplin's best films.  The film is melodramatic, and the speeches may seem naive, but there is real power to it, and it feels very heartfelt.  Certainly by the end, it's hard not to have tears in the eyes.  This is a very personal film and it's rare that you find a film that does feel as if it is a direct message to the audience.  It's a film about success, failure, the possibility of redemption, the power of art and the necessity of facing life and persevering, no matter how painful that may be. 
  

Make 'em laugh: Thereza (Claire Bloom) and Calvero (Charlie Chaplin) in Limelight.

The Great Dictator

Year of Release:  1940
Director:  Charlie Chaplin
Screenplay:  Charlie Chaplin
Starring:  Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Henry Daniell, Reginald Gardiner, Billy Gilbert, Maurice Moscovich
Running Time:  124 minutes
Genre:  Comedy, satire, drama

Following the resounding defeat of Tomania in the First World War, ruthless fascist dictator Adenoid Hynkel (Chaplin), leader of the Double Cross Party, has risen to power.  Meanwhile a poor Jewish barber (also Chaplin), who has suffered amnesia for the twenty years since the First World War, leaves the hospital and returns home to the ghetto.  The barber soon falls in love with his neighbour Hannah (Goddard), and together they stand up against Hynkel's forces.

This was Chaplin's first true sound film, having come to fame during the silent era, Chaplin was one of the few film-makers to successfully continue making silent films well into the sound era.  However, the film has dialogue-free passages, and most of the humour is the physical comedy that made Chaplin famous.  It was also one of the first major Hollywood films to openly attack and mock Nazi Germany and Hitler himself (Hitler banned the film from being shown in Germany and  Nazi occupied countries, although apparently he saw it himself twice - what he thought of it has not been recorded).
Given the full horror of the Nazis it does seem strange to portray them as basically a gaggle of dim-witted, bullying clowns (Chaplin himself said that he would not have made the film if he had been aware at the time of what the Nazis were actually doing), but it is an effective film, and quite brave for the time.  The mockery is pretty scathing, and the film is genuinely funny, containing possibly Chaplin's funniest work.  The film concludes with an impassioned final speech, one of the finest in cinema, and elevates the film to the pantheon of the great. 

Charlie Chaplin as Adenoid Hynkel in The Great Dictator

Melinda and Melinda

Year of Release:  2004
Director:  Woody Allen
Screenplay:  Woody Allen
Starring:  Radha Mitchell, Chloe Sevigny, Jonny Lee Miller, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Will Ferrell, Amanda Peet, Wallace Shawn
Running Time: 95 minutes
Genre:  Comedy drama

In a Manhattan diner, four friends discuss whether life is essentially comic or tragic.  To illustrate their points two playwrights take a simple premise (an emotionally fragile woman, Melinda (Mitchell), disrupts a dinner party) and tell their own versions of what happens to her. One version plays as a tragedy, and the other as a light romantic comedy.

It is an interesting premise, the problem is that the tone is very jarring throughout, most of the film is taken up with recounting Melinda's story interweaving the two versions moving from bleak drama to frothy comedy.  Some of the film is pretty repetitive, we see the same events play out in two different versions.  Radha Mitchell plays Melinda in both stories, with Chloe Sevigny, Jonny Lee Miller and Chiwetel Ejiofor starring in the tragic story, and Will Ferrell and Amanda Peet starring in the comedy version (which also features Steve Carell in a small role as Ferrell's friend).  The performances are good for the most part, with Mitchell in particular giving a stunning performance in the central role, although Will Ferrell's performance seems to consist mainly of him doing a Woody Allen impression.  The film feels very much like a filmed play at times, it has a fairly small cast of characters and is almost entirely dialogue driven, however the tragic storyline has muted colours and a slightly dull, slightly overcast look to it, while the comic sequences are bright, vibrant and sunlit.
While this is far from Woody Allen's best films, it still has it's moments.

Will Ferrell and Radha Mitchell in Melinda and Melinda.            

Hannah and Her Sisters

Year of Release:  1986
Director:  Woody Allen
Screenplay:  Woody Allen
Starring:  Mia Farrow, Michael Caine, Barbara Hershey, Dianne Wiest, Woody Allen, Max von Sydow, Carrie Fisher
Running Time:  103 minutes
Genre: Comedy drama

This film concerns the lives of three sisters over the course of two years.  Hannah (Farrow), is kind, loving, strong and stable, her husband Elliot (Caine), while he loves Hannah, is infatuated with her sister Lee (Hershey), who is living with mercurial artist Frederick (Sydow).  Meanwhile, the third sister, Holly (Wiest), a former cocaine addict, struggles to achieve her dream of becoming an actor while managing a catering company with her friend and rival, April (Fisher).  Also Hannah's ex-husband Mickey (Allen), a hypochondriac television producer experiences an existential crisis when he becomes convinced he has a brain tumor.

This is possibly one of Woody Allen's finest films, managing the very tricky art of successfully balancing both comedy and drama.  It manages to be tender and sentimental without being saccharine, profound without being pretentious, warm without being cloying and, where necessary, being biting without being cruel.  Allen manages to get good performances out of his large cast, and seems to have genuine affection for all of his characters.  If you are familiar with Woody Allen movies, than you'll know the kind of humor on display here, mostly wry, neurotic, intellectual wisecracks.  Of course, these days Woody Allen is problematic to say the least, and also this is a film almost entirely about very wealthy white people, in Allen's New York, people of colour are barely glimpsed.  Although this is a very affecting film about sisterhood, love, ambition and just trying to find a meaning to life.

Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey and Dianne Wiest are Hannah and Her Sisters   
    

Mystery Train

Year of Release:  1989
Director:  Jim Jarmusch
Screenplay: Jim Jarmusch
Starring:  Youki Kudoh, Masatoshi Nagase, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Cinque Lee, Nicoletta Braschi, Elizabeth Bracco, Rick Aviles, Joe Strummer, Steve Buscemi,
Running Time:  113 minutes
Genre:  comedy-drama

This film collects three separate but connected stories, all set during the same 24 hour period in Memphis, Tennessee, linked by a run-down hotel, a single gunshot and the legacy of Elvis Presley.  A teenage Japanese couple visit Memphis on a rock 'n' roll pilgrimage, Mitsuko (Kudoh) is crazy about the King, while Jun (Nagase) is more of a Carl Perkins man.  A young Italian widow, Luisa (Braschi), is stranded in Memphis during an unexpected 24 hour layover while escorting her husband's body back to Italy. A hapless barber, Charlie (Buscemi), is unwittingly involved in a liquor store robbery by his drunk, English brother-in-law (Strummer).

This is a slow, melancholy movie.  It's funny but it is comedy of the most deadpan sort.  Jarmusch once commented that he makes films out of the parts that other directors cut out, and this really feels like that.  It's a film full of long pauses, meandering conversations and long sequences of characters wandering around.  It is strangely affecting and haunting though.  The stories with the Japanese couple and the Italian widow capture the feeling of being in a strange city, far from home, and the story about the barber features one of the best scenes of drunkenness on film.  The story with the barber is probably the most mainstream segment, and is Tarantinoesque before Quentin Tarantino, including a conversation about Lost in Space that could almost have been written by Tarantino.  The stories are connected by scenes with Screamin' Jay Hawkins as the night manager of the hotel and Cinque Lee as a porter, who provide some of the film's funniest moments, with Hawkins being able to bring the laughs and express so much with just one look.  There are some great performances from Kudoh, Nagase and Braschi.  Buscemi's put-upon barber and Strummer's aggressive Brit are hilarious together.  Music is ever present in the film, Elvis Presley is referenced in all three of the stories, the Japanese couple are fascinated by American rock 'n' roll, and there are several musicians in the cast:  Soul singer Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Joe Strummer who was frontman for British rock group The Clash, and Tom Waits lends his gravely tones as the voice of a late-night radio DJ.  

Jarmusch's brand of cool, deadpan whimsy won't appeal to everyone.  It is slow and not much happens for a lot of the film, but it is one of Jarmusch's most accessible films and the epitome of American indie cool.  If you think you might have a taste for underground or more indie films, this is a good place to start.  It's also a haunting paean to American pop-culture which will resonate in the mind long after the end credits have rolled.

   Late Night Grande Hotel:  Cinque Lee and Screamin' Jay Hawkins in Mystery Train