Britney Ever After: The Television Movie

BRITNEY EVER AFTER

Brit-Brit Done Cray-Cray...

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Britney Spears is not going to build a Kennedy Center Honors-worthy career.   She's a pop star, whose music is disposable, some of it entertaining, but not something that will last.  Currently enjoying a comeback of sorts as she is in residency at the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Spears has more important things to think about than such trifles as Britney Ever After, a television biopic that appears to barely know its own subject. 

Using a 2008 documentary about her as a framing device, Britney Ever After chronicles the rise, fall, and return of our pop princess.  A fresh-faced youngster who mixed innocence with allure, Britney Spears (Natasha Bassett) gets a great break when she's chosen to be the opening act to N*Sync, the hottest boy band around (hottest in more than one sense).  It isn't long before she reconnects with the breakout star of N*Sync, Justin Timberlake (Nathan Keyes).  They begin a clandestine romance, but their careers get in the way.

This leads to a very bad breakup between Brit-Brit and JT, and Britney Ever After has our pop diva essentially never getting over the end of their romance.  While JT went on to major solo success (culminating in a recent Oscar nomination for Best Original Song), Spears has essentially gone through a long parade of eccentric and unhealthy behavior (and is almost always thinking about what 'he' is thinking about her).

There's a quickie marriage to a childhood friend, Jason Alexander (Kelly McCabe), a descent into partying and self-indulgence (which curiously did not involve illegal narcotics), another marriage to shameless backup dancer/party boy Kevin Federline (Clayton Chitty) and the control of a hanger-on, Sam Lufti (Benjamin Arce).

Lufti's control is total, not quite Svengali but close to it, while Spears' parents James and Lynne Spears (Matthew Harrison and Nicole Oliver) can only watch helplessly as their little girl essentially goes bonkers.  The nadir of Brit-Brit done cray-cray is her shaving her head before attacking the incessant paparazzi with an umbrella (and that was following a disastrous MTV Video Music Awards performance).

Eventually, she is admitted to a mental health institution where, still concerned over what JT thinks, she pulls herself together to revive her career, with her long-suffering manager Larry Rudolph (Peter Benson) by her side (with a slight break when she fired him).

Britney Ever After is bad, and it knows it (or at least should know it).  Everything about it is misguided: when it tries to be dramatic, it ends up being funny, when it tries to be funny, it looks amateurish.

A lot of blame should land, not at the actors (who I figured tried to do what they could with what they were given), but with the production team.  They weren't able to get the rights to Spears' catalog, so we miss out on a lot of things.  The cheap quality of the production emphasizes who bad and inept Britney Ever After is, even for Lifetime.

Take her infamous VMA performance where she was the opening act debuting her single Gimme More.  The most Britney Ever After could do was the opening dialogue, and because they didn't have the rights to Gimme More, they couldn't even add the "It's Britney bitch" line.

The recreated performance in Britney Ever After is obviously cheap and doesn't look anywhere near the disastrous reality (Entertainment Weekly featured Spears' performance on the cover with the headline Oh, The Horror!).  Moreover, it can't even get the basics right.  In the VMAs, Spears is clearly without anything on her head.  In Britney Ever After, she wears a cap.

Granted, these are little details, but when something can be verified so easily, the least that the production team could do is try to be as authentic as possible.  Here, they failed almost as bad as Spears' sleepwalking, mumbling fiasco.

It's already quite bad when we face a whole slew of errors, but the film is loaded with terrible performances.  I'll grant that Bassett bears something of a similarity to Spears (particularly the wide eyes) but when she is at her most bonkers at a photo shoot, she doesn't look like she's either totally spaced out or being a diva.  The performance is unsteady, as if no one knew what kind of person Spears was: a clueless child, a self-centered pop star, a complete psycho.  Her efforts to play crazy were not horrible, but one moment played to such a horrifyingly bad effect that everything after came across as ludicrous.

After her breakup with JT, she finds him with another girl at a club.  In order to settle things once and for all, they essentially have a dance-off.  Seeing her slink and slither while he goes for a little pop-and-lock (down to taking his hoodie off to show off his wife-beater shirt.  The whole thing is pretty bonkers and comical, the fact that Britney Ever After wants it to be a serious moment making things more hilarious.

Bassett gave a bad performance, but it was probably better than just about everyone else's save Benson.  Chitty looks nothing like Timberlake (apart from JT's awful frosted and curled locks).  He looks far too old to be a convincing teen pop star, and his dialogue and swagger make him look more annoying than interesting.

We can skip over how none of the other backup singers for Timberlake (formerly known as N*Sync) look like any of the real-life figures (since they had little to do, just like N*Sync in real life).  You kind of figured out which one was Lance Bass merely because he didn't look like the vague versions of J.C., Chris, or Joey Fat-One (and I don't remember the one meant to be Bass actually saying anything).

James Spears was all one-note (crabby and drunk) and Lynne was all worry, worry, worry.  We get characters who pop in and one without knowing who any of them actually are (the hanger-on who went with Spears to a fashion shoot where Spears was completely out of it was some random person), and while we have characters credited as "Paris Hilton" or "Jamie Foxx", I sure don't remember who or what they were.

As for Federline, he pops in and out so quickly I think no more than ten minutes if that was spent on this toxic relationship.

Even whatever glee you could get when you see Spears at her worst is not there.  Her total meltdown is not shown, but like a lot of Britney Ever After, hinted at.  Plot points or situations (such as a potential sex tape entre JT & Brit-Brit) is dropped almost as quickly as it's mentioned.

There is no point to Britney Ever After, except perhaps to note that her whole life has been an effort to get Justin Timberlake's attention.  Even that infamous kiss between Spears and Madonna at another VMA was done to get a reaction out of him (I think he was not amused).   It gives you no insight into who Spears is or why her rise, fall, and comeback is something even her fans should care about.  It's a typically bad Lifetime production, and while perhaps one can enjoy it in a 'so bad it's good' style, it really isn't anything worth anyone's time or interest.

With regards to Britney Spears, we should heed the advise and "Leave Britney Alone".

2/10

Feud: The Other Woman Review

FEUD: THE OTHER WOMAN

One of my colleagues, Kristen Lopez of Journeys in Classic Film, made a witty but truthful tweet about The Other Woman, the second episode of Feud: Bette and Joan.

"This episode of Feud should have been called "Every woman wanted to screw Robert Aldrich". Oh, Ryan Murphy..."

We do seem to have a lot of women going after our schlubby journeyman director on this episode, but The Other Woman isn't about a mistress.  It certainly isn't Feud creator Ryan Murphy working out his own sexual fantasies.  It's about how insecurity and manipulation drove an unnecessary wedge between two women who looked like they were about to bury the hatchet.  It lends a bit of tragedy to Feud, making us wonder what would have happened if they had been allowed to use their talents, rather than their bitterness, to create.

Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange) finds a fan in a starlet (Kenzie Dalton) about to make her debut on What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?  However, when the starlet makes the fatal mistake of saying that an autograph is for 'her grandmother' who has loved Crawford 'since she was a kid', it's enough to irk Crawford's vanity and insecurity about her director, Robert Aldrich (Alfred Molina).  She convinces her costar/rival Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon) that the starlet has to go.

Go she does, much to the delight of Crawford and Davis, who now are actually pretty chummy.  Aldrich feels emasculated before the crew and rest of cast, determined to not let these two rule his film.  Unwittingly eager to help is Warner Brothers head Jack Warner (Stanley Tucci) who wants Aldrich to play one off the other to make their hatred burn up the screen.  Aldrich is a bit conflicted, especially when Aldrich's long-suffering wife makes it clear that manipulating them is a cruel act, especially when they're getting along.

Aldrich's conflict ends quickly, when he feeds a false blind item to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Judy Davis), claiming Davis said Crawford uses falsies.  The blind item both horrifies and enrages Crawford to where she interrupts a take of Davis' performance and threatens to drop out.  Davis denies she said anything but thinks Crawford is going overboard in her Lady Innocent routine.  To get back at Davis, Crawford deliberately says spiteful things about Davis to Hopper's rival, Louella Parsons. 

Now Davis is the one enraged, and secretly hit at a vulnerable point (her age).  This is heightened when she sees her daughter B.D. Hyman (Kiernan Shipka) flirting with the crew.  Crawford, for her part, attempts to seduce Aldrich and fails, and if she knew that Davis has managed to schtup Aldrich it probably would have sent her into fits.  Crawford, however, is too busy playing Hopper, using her 'love' of the Hollywood community to bash the more aloof Davis, going so far as to not publish the fact that Crawford tells her she's $2 million in debt.

The Other Woman gives us a tantalizing glimpse of what could have been: Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, if not buddy-buddies, at least able to see that they weren't the monsters the other imagined.  As they observe the poor starlet walking away with her box, they see that united they are stronger.  They even manage to giggle like girlfriends as they walk away, delighted that they have done something beneficial.

It's a curious thing that The Other Woman shows a lot of 'women walking away with their boxes', for as we go into flashbacks about the rising and falling careers of Crawford and Davis, we see how their respective studios (MGM and Warners) pushed them out due to their insistence on better roles (much to the irritation of their bosses who hated the idea that women could order them). 

It's at this point that a strong argument could be made that Feud: Bette and Joan is not just about the notorious war between these two divas of the 'Golden Age of Hollywood'.  It's also about the film industry which essentially hasn't changed since their time: how men are still the power either as the director or the executive, and how women of a certain age find their careers either stalling or falling when the next pretty young thing comes along.

Here are two talented women, Academy Award winners, respected by their peers, struggling to find work because they are no longer young and sexually desirable.  Where Crawford and Davis were when they made What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? will in twenty years be where Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone will find themselves.  Their male peers, say an Eddie Redmayne or Avant-garde actor Ryan Gosling, won't be facing the same sexism/ageism that Lawrence and Stone will.  Feud: Bette and Joan shows that the more things change...

Granted, this may be reading more into things than is intended, but it is a subject worthy of consideration.

The Other Woman shows that Davis and Crawford should have been allies, maybe even friends, because despite their own sense of importance (Davis, considering herself the actual actress, Crawford seeing herself as always a star) they were so terribly alike.  They saw the power they had when they joined forces (a bit of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'), but how they were manipulated by a mixture of male ego and their own insecurities.

I still am having a hard time accepting Lange as Crawford.  It's not that she doesn't look like Crawford (the make-up department does wonders for her in that respect).  It's just that I find Lange's Crawford voice so unlike my memories of what the actual Crawford sounded like.  Lange sounds rather soft, almost whispery.  However, her performance continues to be top-notch: Crawford's ego, vanity, and insecurity coming across so well.

Sarandon looks and sounds more like Davis (though the voice isn't exact either, she gets Davis' take-no-prisoners speaking).  She too does wonders, not just when playing Davis but when playing Baby Jane. 

Davis is just brilliant as the viper Hedda Hopper: with her notorious hats and faux-respectability, Davis brings out just how spiteful and vicious Hopper could be.  She is the one who wants more than anyone (even Aldrich or Warner) to see these two battle-axes go at it for her own self-interest, but Davis also shows how easily a little tear and appeals to Hopper's sense of 'the industry' can be manipulated.

As sad it might be, it's the men who are dominating Bette and Joan.  Molina is almost surely Emmy-bound for his performance as Aldrich: in his own way insecure, narcissistic, determined to do the right thing and constantly failing.   Tucci is sleazy as Jack Warner, and in his one scene, Dominic Burgess brings a touch of comedy as What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? costar Victor Buono.

Davis mistakes him for the catering crew and is horrified when she sees he will play her 'love interest'; with a mixture of innocence and knowing he tells her he's sure she wasn't expecting someone so fat and homosexual as he warfs down a donut.

For once, Bette Davis is left speechless.

Again, I don't quite get the framing device of the 1978 Academy Award interviews, though I'm willing to cut them some slack for a good payoff.  We do see how 'Golden Age' stars are not keen on modern Hollywood: as Joan Blondell, Kathy Bates takes a swipe at Coming Home (that Vietnam War thing, she calls it).  It doesn't help that Catherine Zeta-Jones neither looks or sounds like Olivia de Havilland (or that Feud hasn't announced as of yet they will feature her own notorious war with her sister, the late Joan Fontaine).

Still, The Other Woman builds up our story while serving as allegory to the status of women and men in this whacked-out industry known as Hollywood.  No La La Land frivolity here: it's all an ugly business of beautiful people.

8/10

Next Episode: Mommie Dearest

Bates Motel: Hidden Review

BATES MOTEL: HIDDEN

Generally, I'm wary whenever a star of a television show directs an episode of said show.  More often than not, he or she puts greater focus on the visuals than on the performances or story.  This was the case when Mark-Paul Gosselaar directed an episode of the abysmal Franklin & Bash, a show that was OK and then descended into a horror that I danced when I heard it was cancelled.  Hidden wasn't horrible, but parts of it stretched credibility and director Max Thieriot (who did not appear as his character of Dylan Massett) did care about visuals a tad much.

Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) finds himself beset by problems both good and bad.  He wants to do the right thing and tell the police about the accident that killed his uncle Caleb.  However, both Chick (Ryan Hurst), who ran him down, and Mother Norma Bates (Vera Farmiga) are adamant Caleb be done away with.  Reluctantly, Norman agrees to let Chick take care of it, which involves him giving Caleb a Viking funeral.

Norman then has to stop Chick from moving in and trying to get rid of the car of the man sent to kill him.  His delusions of Mother are more pronounced, pushing him further into complete hysteria.  Finally, there's his growing attraction to Madeleine Loomis (Isabelle McNally).  Not only has Norman given her Mother's clothes (which fit her like a glove), but their attraction to each other grows.  She invites Norman to her house for dinner (Sam being away again) and they kiss.  As the kissing gets more intense, Norman has a vision of Mother and of Madeleine lying dead, her throat slashed.  In a panic, he flees to his house, where he finds himself truly alone.

In the other story, former Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonell) is still fleeing from the law and determined to get to Norman, despite the massive pellet gunshot wound he has.  He manages to live long enough to find a payphone and call for an ambulance, and while the EMT go into an apartment complex or hotel, he goes in, steals what he needs to do his own healing, and then moves on.

That is one aspect of Hidden that made me wonder whether Bates Motel had gone a bit off.  Here's Romero, having been shot once, bleeding profusely, and he still is able to walk for miles and miles and have strength and clarity of mind to hatch this plan to give himself treatment before reaching the home of a friend who can shelter him.

Something about that struck me as a bit far-fetched, which is something given the overall cuckoo-nature of Bates Motel.

Then we have these scenes and moments where I figure Thieriot wanted to show the visual flair he could bring (and as a side note, given that both Nestor Carbonell and Freddie Highmore are also set to direct a couple of episodes, with Highmore having penned his second one, I wonder whether given it's the last season the producers opted to let their cast have free range).

We have the Viking funeral, beautiful looking, yes, but somehow a bit bonkers.  I'm a bit torn on that scene: one on hand, it is logical to burn Caleb's body and Chick has his own dramatic flair that makes him a bit crazy too.  On the other, it is excessively elaborate and brought to mind "See a Viking Funeral!" from the spoof trailer to History of the World Part II.   Part of me wanted to chuckle at this scene (beautiful though it was).  The vision of a dead Madeleine and the final shot where Norman rushes into his house, a single blue light dominating as he walks towards us, again I felt were there to draw attention to itself.

I was also uninterested in the long, long scene where Norman and "Norma" went to find the car of their intended assassin only to opt to not move it.  It felt long and unnecessary, going on to where I was losing interest in watching.  Truth be told, my mind and eyes were beginning to drift off as Hidden continued, wondering how Romero could keep himself going and whether Chick should have thrown in some chanting as Caleb went up in smoke.

Still, I'm not going to dismiss some good moments we got in the episode.  The scene in Chick's run-down trailer where he and Norman have a conversation was quite good, with both Hurst and Highmore working well to make it a sad moment and giving strong performances.  McNally is also a highlight in her brief moments, her hesitancy mixed with her desires giving her much to work with.  Brooke Smith, making her debut as the new Sheriff, Jane Green, did extremely well as the Sheriff who is slowly investigating why Jim Brockwell (the thwarted assassin) had the Bates Motel address before jumping bail. 

You sense she doesn't suspect on the surface that something is wildly amiss but that she is starting to poke around because police work is dumb...until it isn't.  Yet given how Highmore seemed to overplay the worry any questions regarding Brockwell or Romero cause him, one wonders if Green isn't at least a bit curious as to what's up with him.

Hidden to me felt a bit like filler, something to take up our time before we get to the main event: Rihanna's guest turn as Marion Crane.  It looks like before Ri-Ri hits the showers, we've got to hit a slight bump.  Again, not horrible, but for once, I was willing to look away during a Bates Motel episode.

6/10

Next Episode: Dreams Die First

Family Plot: A Review

FAMILY PLOT

For the longest time, I had theorized that after The Birds, the output Alfred Hitchcock made was not good.  This is due to my dislike of Marnie and both the limited reputations of Topaz, Torn Curtain, Frenzy, and Family Plot as well as how they are not as well-remembered as Psycho, Vertigo, or The Birds.  Now, having seen Family Plot, I find that I was wrong.  While Family Plot isn't as well-remembered or known as some of Hitch's classics, and isn't on par with his work in the 50s and 60s, it is a good film: a nice comic caper with a mix of action and comedy.

Madame Blanche (Barbara Harris) is a sham medium who hoodwinks various wealthy women into thinking she can contact their relatives from The Great Beyond.  In one faux-séance, she hits the motherload.  Elderly Julia Rainbird (Cathleen Nesbitt) reveals that her late sister had an illegitimate child that Julia gave away and now she wants to find her long-lost nephew to make him her heir.  She's willing to pay Madame Blanche $10,000.

Blanche Tyler and her boyfriend, actor/cabbie George (Bruce Dern) now begin their investigation to find the Rainbird heir with the few scraps of information they have.  Masquerading as an attorney, George starts digging, finding that this child, Edward Shoebridge, apparently died in a fire with his adoptive parents.

I say apparently because as George keeps going, we find that Edward faked his death.  This is where we get into our second story.  Edward now goes by Arthur Adamson (William Devane) and Arthur/Edward is a master criminal: abducting wealthy people and demanding large diamonds as payments.  Aided by Fran (Karen Black), the racket has been highly successful. 

Blanche and George have inadvertently stumbled onto Arthur's criminal world, and his friend who helped burn up his parents, Joe Maloney (Ed Lauter) is terrified they are investigating their past, not Arthur's future.  He attempts to kill them and ends up dying himself.  Blanche and George are thoroughly puzzled as to why anyone would want to kill them, especially since they are desperate to give Edward GOOD news.

Fran and Arthur have abducted an archbishop, and Blanche who has finally tracked down Edward, stumbles into them when they're about to go and get the ransom.  Now, with Blanche's life in danger, it's up to an unsuspecting George to save them.  Things end well: our criminals are caught, Blanche appears to have a real psychic moment leading to finding the diamonds (hidden in plain sight in a chandelier) and while George goes to call the police, Blanche sits at the stairs...and gives us the audience a wink.

Family Plot has a light atmosphere to it, which isn't in the normal Hitchcock canon, nor generally in that of screenwriter Ernest Lehman.  There's no overt or graphic violence (a departure from both the general 1970s filmmaking and from something like Frenzy) and the crimes of theft and kidnapping don't have graphic violence in them.  The most intense moment that I can remember is when Blanche and George find themselves racing down a winding road with the brakes taken out.

This moment, despite the obvious rear-screen projection, was actually quite tense, a credit to Hitchcock's still-impressive ability to put people in danger.  However, even this moment was given a bit of a comedic spin by Harris' hysterics: her flaying about, holding onto George, even almost strangling him as she pulls on his tie as she flies about the car.

This was intention, and a lot of Family Plot was in a more breezy, light-hearted manner than something as dark and intense as say, Vertigo.  I was surprised at how delightful Family Plot was and enjoyed the humor and the lessening of violence and stakes.

So much credit goes to Barbara Harris for her turn as the slightly wacky, slightly campy but almost naïve Blanche.  She never depended on the kindness of strangers, but on her own wits to get her ahead.  Credit her for giving a strong performance whenever she goes into a 'trance' at her séances: the way her voice rises to a willowy, sing-sing manner as she communes with "Harry", and the darkening of her voice when "Harry" speaks.  Her body movements, particularly when in a 'trance' are almost manically balletic, and add considerably to the comic overtones of Family Plot.

Dern also does well, though he isn't comedic but more straightforward.  He does have some comic manner to him, looking a bit befuddled when he tries to match wits with Blanche, but Dern handles the action moments (particularly the runaway car) with more seriousness, a strong counterbalance to Harris' broad manner.

Karen Black, I don't think, has gotten enough credit for her contributions to Family Plot.  If people remember the film, it's mostly due to Harris' comic manner (and I'd argue, rightly so).  However, Black gave a strong dramatic performance as the more conflicted Fran, who delights in the kidnappings and ransoms but is more hesitant at being part of murder.  She could just as easily have been the center of the film, for she was a very good character to see the story through.  Black did a fantastic job.

Devane was so obviously the charming villain, and while it wasn't a big performance it was a nice one: oily and calm, he could be quietly menacing when needed.

Hitchcock, even in his infirmity and advanced age (he directed Family Plot at age 77 and this would be his final film) still could command great moments.  There was the ransom pickup early in the film (where the two stories first meet when George almost runs Fran down).  Fran never says a single word throughout the long scene, but still pulls off a great and clever ransom payment.

As a side note, it is surprising to Cheers fans to see Coach himself (Nicholas Colasanto) in a small role as a kidnapping victim and Mona from Who's the Boss (Katherine Helmond) as Mrs. Maloney. 

The last, but certainly not least, positive element in Family Plot is the score, the only Hitchcock film to have the music of John Williams.  Williams, a true genius, creates this somewhat eerie score, with otherworldly vocals whenever Madame Blanche works her magic but also tense when needed.  Williams is certainly more than Bernard Herrmann's equal and Family Plot is another in Williams' brilliant canon.

About the only real fault I can find in Family Plot is when Blanche and George have an open-air argument.  It looked fake, it was far too convenient for them to reveal major plot points out in the open, and I'd argue that Fran and Arthur/Edward were too far away in their car to hear them so clearly.  I figure it was done for the audience's benefit (to show that our villains had identified our heroes) but the whole scene just didn't work.

Minus that, Family Plot is perhaps not among Alfred Hitchcock's great films like The Man Who Knew Too Much or North By Northwest, but it's a fun, breezy, lighthearted caper that I wouldn't object to being remade.

Remaking Family Plot is certainly a damn sight better than the idea of remaking or rebooting The Matrix.

DECISION: B-

'Z': A Review

Z

Greek Tragedy...

In some ways, Z is a dark comedy, a sense of comic insanity within a virtual horror story of political machinations and a fearful government pulling out all the stops to stop one man and his ideas.  In its fury, its dark sense of humor, Z doesn't hold back (the film opens with a straightforward message: Any similarity to real persons and events is not coincidental.  It is intentional).  It's a cry of anger, mixed with a sense of the absurd and tragic on how truth doesn't always win.

In an unnamed nation (though presumably Greece), the military leaders want to get rid of 'intellectual mildew' as much as they want to get rid of actual mildew.  The intellectual mildew is headed by a Doctor who is a legislative Deputy (Yves Montand) who insists he is not on the Left or Right (but it's a case of he doth protest too much, for he is firmly Left).  The Deputy wants nuclear disarmament and to get out of all foreign entanglements, but his efforts to hold a rally keep getting thwarted by the military (they pull the hall, push other halls to not book his group).  Eventually, they relent to give the guise of a democracy and give them a much smaller hall.

If there's one thing the military doesn't want, it's a prominent pacifist making trouble for them, even if he is a Member of Parliament.

The Deputy gives his speech after getting attacked by professional thugs.  It's a quiet, thoughtful speech but one that is not accepted for various reasons.  There's the professional mob, hired by the military to cause trouble.  All the officials are at a Bolshoi Ballet touring company performance, and what press is there is harassed to photograph the elegance at the Bolshoi rather than the coarseness of the meeting. 

The Deputy walks out into a tense situation with his aides, and spots one of the high government officials.  Going to him, 'out of nowhere' a truck comes that whacks the Deputy on the head.  From here, chaos erupts: the police does nothing, the aides find hindrances to get the Deputy to hospital, and there doesn't seem to be an interest in getting either the Deputy to safety or seeing whoever did this punished.

As far as the government is concerned, it was the act of a drunk driver...and they're sticking to it.

Enter the Judge of Inquiry (Jean-Louis Trintignant), who is examining the case.  He's nonpartisan, interested only in the Truth.  He would go along with the official story, if the doctors had confirmed it.  Finding that they reject the 'drunk driver' excuse because the Deputy died as a result to a blunt force on his dead that came from above it, the Judge of Inquiry pushes on, digging further into it.  The military does its best to make their version pass itself off as The Truth, but the Judge continues finding errors, inconsistencies, and pesky witnesses who either tell the truth or are clumsy in their lies.

A witness comes forward tying a particular person to the Deputy's murder (which the Judge insists on calling 'an incident').  He's a simple coffin varnisher, who has no interest in politics, only football.  This witness finds his life almost ended in 'an accident', and while the military lets him know life could be better if he sees things their way he opts for the truth.  Over time, the Judge pushes forward until he has enough evidence that the Deputy was murdered (a turning point in Z is when the Judge without realizing it uses the term 'murder' over 'incident').  Both helping and hindering the Judge is a reporter (Jacques Perrin), who at times is interested in exposing the truth, and others to benefit himself.

The Judge hauls the high-ranking military officials one by one, until he reaches the very top.  To each one's moral outrage the Judge is the same: asking for their name and occupation to start the interview, and ending with charging them with murder.  The Reporter goes on air to report the epilogue: various witnesses died through suicides and accidents (one killed himself by throwing himself into a pool after tying himself up in a chair), the Deputy's various associates meeting either death or exile, and the Judge loses his job.  The various opposition parties join forces and are poised to win a major victory...when the military steps in and takes power.

Among the things the new junta ban are miniskirts, long hair, Russian-style toasts, both modern and pop music (including The Beatles), new math, and the letter Z (which stands for "He Lives" in ancient Greek).

If my French is correct, among other things listed but not read in voice-over that the government banned was the learning of both Russian and Bulgarian and writing that Socrates was a homosexual.


Z does not skimp on a wry, sardonic humor. Near the end of Z, there's a wicked mockery of the military when each military officer involved walks to the Judge's office.  As Mikis Theodorakis' score goes an almost comical take on the pomposity and faux-outrage of the generals, director Costa-Gavras focuses on both the medals and the press reaction to them.

The medals appear to grow and grow with each military official, as if they were trying to outdo the previous one with their own sense of power.  The press seems to grow more and more timid when they go in, but when the generals are escorted out through a back door (to try and avoid the press), each general attempts to open a side door, growing more frustrated when they find it locked.  At the end, when the main general finds himself caught in the back by the eager press, our main Journalist taunts him by asking if he feels victimized like Alfred Dreyfus (the Jewish officer whose wrongful conviction of espionage caused a major French scandal which I think still tears the nation).  An outraged General shouts, "DREYFUS WAS GUILTY!", revealing how French Z is despite the Greek setting.

Costa-Gavras gives us little details that say much without having to spell things out.  For example, we know that one of the actual assassins (members of a secret organization propped up by the military calling itself the Christian Royalist Organization against Communism or CROC), looks with lust on a young boy looking out at the protest from his balcony.  All we need is the assassin's shifting eyes and his fellow conspirators wry remark "It's the same story, isn't it?" to let us know what's up.  Later on, that assassin finds the boy playing a pinball machine, and slowly but surely his hand manages to touch the boy's hand.

The scenes with the varnisher are also amusing, his efforts to get the truth out constantly interrupted by his mother or his sister, and their interfamily squabbles making things hard for almost everyone.

There are moments of harsh comedy and witty lines (one of the Leftists tells the Deputy to blame the Americans because you always blame the Americans, even if they had nothing to do with it), but don't let that fool you.  Z is also an angry film, outraged at the lengths one group will go to in order to stop someone they see as a threat, including murder and conspiracy.

Theodorakis' score is in turns fast-paced but angry, almost urgent, signaling the intensity and danger of the situation.  Costa-Gavras keeps things flowing pretty well, filling the movie with a strong sense of outrage at how the military holds the opposition as something 'unhealthy' (more than once are there references to a scientific bent, such as when the assassins compare themselves to antibodies).

The large role goes to Trintignant as the Judge, keeping a stern, almost cold manner in his investigation.  He is neither pro-Deputy nor pro-military, seeing his duty only to the Truth.  Montand was elegant and stoic as the Deputy, noble without being insufferable.  Sadly, Irene Papas (the only actual Greek in Z) had little to do as the Deputy's widow.  We got hints that their marriage was on the rocks (more than likely due to the Deputy having a mistress), but that was never explored.

To her credit, Papas' last scene showcased her abilities: as one of the Deputy's aides tells her the generals had been arrested and the opposition parties had joined, he is thrilled to think a peaceful revolution is upon them.  Papas stares out at the sea, perhaps wisely understanding that for all his enthusiasm, there will be no revolution.  She, the widow, is wiser to the world than the idealist.

Z is a spiritual cousin to The Battle of Algiers.  While less documentary-like than Battle of Algiers, Z chronicles an act of political oppression and its aftermath.  It uses film for agitprop, and mixes action and comedy with a purpose and outrage.  The language barrier at times can cause confusion (particularly since two of the professional thugs/conspirators are named Yago and Vago), but on the whole, Z shows how to mix absurd with anger. 

DECISION: A-

Love & Friendship: A Review

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP

Love & Friendship is based on Lady Susan, a little-known work by Jane Austen.  There was a time, not too long ago, where Austen was the most in-demand dead writer around: Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice (film and television adaptation), Emma, even Clueless (a modern retelling of Emma) were all the rage.  The mad rush has died down a bit, but Whit Stillman brings this small work to life in a charming, light, amusing portrait of our anti-heroine: clever, manipulative, whom we shouldn't like but end up as bewitched as nearly every man who comes past her.

Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) has gone to 'visit' her in-laws at a most opportune time.  The recent widow has 'opted' to leave another estate after certain rumors of a dalliance with the devilishly handsome Lord Manwaring (Lochlan O'Mearain).  While at her in-laws estate of Churchill, her sister-in-law Catherine (Emma Greenwell) and Catherine's brother Reginald DeCourcy (Xavier Samuel) are wary of the notorious flirt's reputation, but it isn't long before Susan has worked her charms on Reginald, convincing him that she is a wronged woman. 

Complicating matters is Lady Susan's daughter Frederica (Morfydd Clark), whom Mother doesn't care much for but is obligated to take care of in some way.  Frederica has run away from her expensive boarding school and thus expelled, requiring her to come to Churchill too.  This might be good, as Lady Susan is determined to marry Frederica off to the wealthy Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett), even if he is a total idiot (when he arrives at Churchill, he tells the astonished family he had a hard time finding it because he was looking for a church on a hill, not an estate).

Frederica has no interest in Sir Martin despite his wealth, which to Lady Susan is downright scandalous.  In her various machinations she has help from her American co-conspirator Mrs. Alicia Johnson (Chloe Sevigny), who stays loyal to Lady Susan despite the objections of Mr. Johnson (Stephen Fry), who constantly threatens to send her back to Connecticut should she keep working with the duplicitous Lady Susan.

Reginald has fallen in love with Lady Susan despite all objection and sense, but in the various scheming Lady Susan has pretty much gotten herself into knots that leave him confused.  No matter, for despite how glum thinks look, Lady Susan's wit, charm, and shrewd mind always help her land on her feet (even if she has to get on her back to do so).  With a little advise from Alicia, Lady Susan herself marries Sir James, which works out well for everyone.  This frees up Reginald and Frederica (whom the DeCorcey's are genuinely fond of) to marry each other.  Happiest of all is Sir James himself, who informs Alicia that he is doubly happy: not only has he a new best friend in Lord Manwaring (who has been staying with him since his own marriage broke up), but is going to be a father himself...the new Lady Martin having told her new husband she got pregnant a week after the wedding.

Will wonders never cease...

Love & Friendship is a light comedy, aided by so many factors.  The first is the performances of the cast, one of the best around.  Given how often Beckinsale is in such awful junk as Pearl Harbor or those Underworld movies one could be forgiven for thinking she either can't act or is just a second-tier star.  Love & Friendship pretty much should silence any who think she can't deliver a fine performance as a legitimate actress.  She was wonderfully droll as Lady Susan, a woman who lived by her wits and wasn't afraid of saying or thinking rather self-centered or snobbish things.  She was wickedly honest about her situation of essentially living through the charity of others and working to fix that, but also not afraid to pursue her own wants.

She even, in a bizarre way, had a nobility to her.  Though she doesn't care much for her daughter, her motives to provide a good future for Frederica were a result of her own precarious situation and a desire not to see her daughter go through that too...even if it meant shunting her off to a total nitwit.  Every time it seems Lady Susan is about to be undone, she manages to pull herself out of the fire, and it's a credit to Beckinsale that her Lady Susan doesn't come across as evil but almost endearing in her self-centeredness and shrewd ability to work a room.  Who else could get away with so much and have us like her for it?

Every actor did a spot-on job, even those who have smaller roles, such as Conor MacNeill as The Young Curate.  He has essentially one scene, where he responds to Frederica how she should follow the Fourth Commandment.  A bit puzzled, he wonders about how one should ask about keeping the Sabbath, then tells her it's the Roman tradition to make 'honor thy father and mother' the Fourth Commandment, which he (I presume, an Anglican) knows as the Fifth.  He then gives a long, perhaps rambling dissertation on it that is a light, amusing moment.

Samuels is appropriately Austenesque as the lovelorn Reginald, intelligent but besotted.  Sevigny lends a wicked wit as Lady Susan's American accomplice, a strong partner to Beckinsale.  I truly can't think of a bad performance in Love & Friendship.

The best performance, however, was that of Bennett as Sir James.  From the moment he comes, explaining his difficulty over 'church/hill', he steals every scene he's in.  His delight at the new invention of 'peas' (which he claims to have never seen) and his puzzlement over the Twelve Commandments is comedy that's both broad and small.  It's broad in that it is so outrageous, but small in that Bennett isn't over-the-top with his delivery of it.  When told there are only Ten Commandments, he continues in his idiocy, wondering which two he could ignore.

Bennett has a gleeful, almost manic delight in Sir James' naiveté and cluelessness, making him less a figure of fun and more a man-child (the scene where he is dancing with others is a delight).  It's a delightfully balanced performance, and I think a credit to him and to Stillman as a director.

Stillman kept things going smoothly, showing that this was a comedy down to how our characters were introduced.  His adaptation of Lady Susan is full of wit, showing a dexterity with words that make our characters smart, or at least well-spoken (well, except for Sir James).

A final point I'd make is on Benjamin Esdraffo's score.  The music appears to be highly influenced by Handel, and I've no objection to the light, delightful score.

I think 'delightful' is the term I'd use for Love & Friendship.  I won't begrudge that it might feel a bit slow for some (a flaw in some costume pictures), but on the whole, with strong performances by the cast en masse (particularly by Beckinsale and Bennett, shamefully overlooked on Oscar time), a witty script by Whit Stillman, it is a nice film for a quiet Sunday afternoon.

DECISION: B+

Feud: Bette and Joan. Pilot Review

FEUD: BETTE AND JOAN

In the history of bitter rivalries, few match the lifelong grudge match between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis.  These two great stars (and strong actresses) hated each other with such venom it chills the soul to know that kind of hatred carried on well after one of them died.  In the new anthology series Feud, the first season is built around the antagonism between Davis and Crawford.  Perhaps people were expecting some awful, almost grotesque catfight between these two divas, something tawdry and vicious.  I expect there will be something to titillate audiences as our limited series continues.  However, in the pilot for Feud: Bette and Joan, what we see is a far more intelligent story about sexism, ageism, the dismissive nature of a cruel industry, and yes, a little bit of a parallel between the real and reel, between the Crawford-Davis war and that portrayed in their only film together (and basis for Feud): What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange) is facing a very difficult time personally and professionally.  A recent widow, she finds herself in financial straits, and no good offers for a 'comeback' role that would put her back on top, or at least get much-needed money into her account.  With the aid of her helpful girl Friday, Mamacita (Jackie Hoffman), Crawford does find something that might just work.

To get things rolling, she needs two people.  The first is workman director Robert Aldrich (Alfred Molina), whom she worked with on a previous film, Autumn Leaves.  Aldrich himself is facing a tough career slide: his newest project a floundering Biblical epic and with few prospects of his own.  He's intrigued with Crawford's suggestion, finding the project can be mostly self-financed.  He signs on board.

It now needs one more element, one that would cause shockwaves in Hollywood.  Crawford goes to none other than her greatest rival on and off the screen: Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon).  Davis won't admit it, perhaps even to herself, but her career is also going nowhere.  Appearing on Broadway in The Night of the Iguana, this acting superstar finds herself playing second fiddle to an ingénue with nary the talent of Davis. 

At first Davis is dismissive of working with "Lucille" (using Crawford's real name), but she bends when a.) Aldrich calls her and b.) she admits that her career could use a lift.  Reluctantly, she reads What Ever Happen to Baby Jane?

Aldrich finds nothing but difficulties when it comes to making What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?  The studios one by one turn him down, particularly because no one wants to make a film with a couple of old ladies or keep to Aldrich's vision.  Aldrich eventually pushes Warner Brothers mogul Jack Warner (Stanley Tucci) into making the film, despite Warner's own hatred for Davis (and lack of fondness for Crawford). 

We end with the first day's shooting.  Crawford is the Lady Elegant: giving gifts to all the crew (with Mamacita whispering who is who) but attempting to hide a terrible insecurity about her actual abilities as an actress, especially compared to her more respected costar.  Davis, for her part, just wants to get through this and is finding Crawford's manner grating.  She however, is determined to stand out in this production, and creates an outlandish make-up and wardrobe for her Baby Jane Hudson character.  It will be a counterbalance to the sophistication of Crawford, and now both ladies find themselves in the unlikely position of having to both upstage the other while working together to make What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? a commercial and critical hit.

The war is on.

All this is told in flashbacks with reminiscences of people like Olivia de Havilland (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Joan Blondell (Kathy Bates).

Bette and Joan is, in its way, not a new tale.  It's actually one we've seen before when it comes to Hollywood: the fight older actresses have to mount to keep their careers going, the thick-headedness and reluctance to try something different from film industry veterans, and the rampant sexism of those in power.  Warner, taking in a massage when meeting Aldrich, starts out by asking the director if either Crawford or Davis are "f***able".  That's how good old Jack measures box office appeal of women: by whether or not you'd screw them, not on their actual abilities.

Throughout Bette and Joan we see how these two veterans of the studio system constantly come up against obstacles.  Crawford not only has to endure the more open sexuality of someone like a Marilyn Monroe, but have her fading stardom thrown in her face by Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper (Judy Davis in a delightfully vicious role).  She wants a mean quote from Crawford, whom she refers to as 'yesterday's It Girl' on 'today's It Girl' (meaning Monroe) or she'll write about how Crawford left the awards dinner drunk and belligerent.  Davis, for her part, must also see that she very much in the style of Margo Channing in All About Eve, only unlike Channing, Davis chose to keep her career.

Feud also shows that the career difficulties Crawford and Davis faced are things that actresses today still face.  As they are looking over books that might make for a good movie, Crawford comments that there are essentially three types of female parts: Ingénues, Mothers, and Gorgons (read, hags).  This is something that actresses like Jennifer Lawrence, Brie Larson, and Emma Stone (all recent Best Actress winners, and all under 30 when they won) should think on.

Jack Warner in a sense is very much alive: powerful studio bosses who see the worth of a woman onscreen based solely on them being objects of desire, easily disposable once they are no longer 'desirable'.  The struggles, personal and professional, of these two women who are much more similar than either would admit is nothing new.

Let's go over the performances.  Lange is a mainstay of writer/director/creator Ryan Murphy, appearing in all but one of his American Horror Story anthology series.  I wasn't quite convinced that Lange was Crawford, finding her voice oddly soft, almost whispery.  She certainly looked the part, and for a while I thought it wasn't going to work.  However, by the end Lange convinced me that she will be more Crawford a person than Faye Dunaway was in Mommie Dearest (which was, well, not quite human).

The brittleness, the insecurity, the desire for respect, the fears of being seen as lesser were all brought together through Lange's performance.

Sarandon matches her as Davis, getting her snappish, crabby, blunt persona.  She, thanks to the script, is also allowed moments of vulnerability, where she in private she knows that like Crawford, she faces a tough battle against growing older (and thus, less relevant).

Molina is the real standout of Feud: the most long-suffering man in Hollywood.  He has to battle against studios who don't want Crawford/Davis, or his ideas, or even him.  Add to that the fact that these two tigresses are slowly coming at him and it would be enough to drive any man bonkers.  Molina shows that mix of exasperation and frustration while trying to balance two demanding stars and a studio breathing down his neck.

As a side note, I heard it somewhere that when it came to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, the director shouldn't have been Bob Aldrich, but Clyde Beatty...the world-famous lion tamer. 

As mentioned, Davis as the malicious Hopper was delightfully wicked, eagerly manipulating and pushing these two women for her own ends, and at her dinner the fact both were shrewd enough to play nice as a defense against Hopper was a showcase for all of them.

The aspects of Bette and Joan that I didn't particularly care for was the framing story of the interviews.  I can see why that was done: we need people not in the know to have some background, but something about it felt a bit forced, as if we didn't need that framing story at all.  Add to that the fact that Zeta-Jones never convinced me she was anything close to de Havilland (neither in look or sound). 

As a side note here, a Season Three of Feud should focus on Olivia de Havilland's lifelong rivalry with her sister, Joan Fontaine.  Season Two will center around the Prince of Wales and his late former wife, but the de Havilland/Fontaine war is ripe for dramatization. 

It's also a shame that two of our better and underused actors, Reed Diamond and Mark Valley, were given such small parts as the lovers of Crawford and Davis respectively. 

Still, Bette and Joan is a strong start to what looks to be another good anthology series from Murphy.  Here we have Joan Crawford: the great star who wants to be taken seriously as an actress, and Bette Davis, the serious actress who yearns to be a great star. 

Fasten your seat belts and bring us the ax.

7/10

Next Episode: The Other Woman