Wes Anderson for perverts.
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The Beekeeper 2024
David Ayer's reputation has never been high among film fans, too many jump cuts, editing that makes your head hurt, and although his screenplay for Antoine Fuqua's Training Day remains one of his finest achievements, he seems to get as much flak for his style of gritty violence within his films as Michael Bay gets for his bombastic output. Ayer divides opinion, even in the action genre where we tend to give our directors a bit of leeway in the…
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Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man 1999
These documentaries on the Hollywood legends have been a mixed bunch so far, with some of Gene Feldman's interviewees less than loquacious with some of the stars he's focusing his attention on. Feldman's doc on Alan Ladd is 25 years old now, and was made 35 years after the Hot Springs, Arkansas born actor passed away, and it must have been difficult to find new information on Ladd that hadn't already been covered in various biographies? Ladd was only 50…
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The Man from Laramie 1955
The difference between watching Fred Zinnemann's High Noon and Anthony Mann's Man of the West, is chalk and cheese for me. They both starred Gary Cooper, both have him play a character stuck in an impossible situation, a man destined for change, but ultimately drawn back into a life of violence. The difference between the films is simple, the directorial flourishes from Anthony Mann, an under-appreciated master within the Western genre that doesn't have the legendary status of John Ford…
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Gary Cooper: The Face of a Hero 1998
As much as these Hollywood Collection documentaries seem to sanitise the stars they focus on, they still offer a fascinating insight into their lives both in front and away from the camera. Gary Cooper is listed as the 11th Greatest Male Star of Classic Hollywood Cinema, and although I'm still quite immune to Cooper's charisma and status as "the face of a hero", I can understand just why he captured the imagination of a nation looking for a national hero.…
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High Noon 1952
This is now the third time that I've watched Fred Zinnemann's iconic Western High Noon, and it might just be starting to work for me. Maybe the fact that I went in with fresh eyes this time around was the difference, I think I've been carrying a grudge against this film because everyone considers it a classic and it hadn't quite worked for me. My apathy towards Gary Cooper has also mellowed in recent months, and although he still doesn't…
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Arizona 1940
Director Wesley Ruggles should be held in high regard in Western circles, for a host of different reasons that still resonate today. The man who directed the first Western to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, 1931's Cimarron, Ruggles had been an actor and director during the early days of Hollywood before becoming a full-time director in 1917. This was actually my first encounter with the man, lured by the presence of both Jean Arthur, and William Holden in…
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William Holden: The Golden Boy 1989
When I was younger I had a voracious appetite for reading, something that as the years went by and my eyesight started to wane in my early 40's, the days of spending whole weekends with a book in my hand, even one that gripped me, became less and less frequent. Migraines effectively put an end to me devouring biographies on my favourite actors or directors, and although on occasion I still indulge, it takes me much longer to get through…
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The Black Crowes - Who Killed That Bird Out On Your Window Sill... The Movie 1992
Some bands can take a hiatus and end up never returning to fulfil their potential. They invariably enjoy the trappings of their success, get accustomed to sitting on their arse spending their royalty cheques, and forget that fans are still out there waiting for the second coming? Other bands implode, or suffer from those "artistic differences" that seem to have been responsible for destroying every band from The Beatles to Guns N' Roses. Jealousy, egos, arguments over money, or the…
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Walk the Line 2005
Around Oscar time I always try and catch up with one of those films where I felt that the Academy got it wrong. Everybody has one of those years where they shake their head and wonder what the fuck happened, and the 78th Academy Awards on March 5th 2006 was when my melon truly got twisted! I disagreed with 90% of the nominations, and of those that did get nominated, I disagreed with the majority of the winners. In a…
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Black Angel 1946
My only interaction with director Roy William Neill has come courtesy of those Sherlock Holmes films he did with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce for 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures between 1939-1946. Of the seven of that franchise I've seen, Neill directed five of them, and despite Rathbone giving it his all, the mysteries and plots didn't really test Neill's skills behind the camera to any great degree? 1946's Black Angel was Neill's last directorial feature film, and had…
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In a Lonely Place 1950
Film #6-of The Embarrassing Never-Seen List
That documentary on Casablanca put me in the mood to visit one of the many other Humphrey Bogart films that sit unwatched in my collection, and as someone who hadn't seen either of director Nicholas Ray's most popular films here on LB, Rebel Without a Cause, and this film noir from 1950, the chance to kill two birds with one stone proved too good an opportunity to turn down.
In a Lonely Place was…