Archive
PINOCCHIO – Alan Silvestri
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Continuing on with their never-ending quest to make live action versions of every film in their back catalogue, Walt Disney’s latest such movie is Pinocchio, the classic tale of a little wooden puppet who wants to grow up to be a real boy. It feels like there is a new version of Pinocchio every couple of years: Roberto Benigni has made at least two, and a different animated one directed by Guillermo Del Toro is due out later in the year, although that one is a significant departure from the original Carlo Collodi story. This one, though, is essentially a fleshed-out version of the well-loved 1940 animated classic; it’s directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars young Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Pinocchio, alongside Tom Hanks as the wood-carver Geppetto, Cynthia Erivo as the magical Blue Fairy, Luke Evans as the evil Coachman, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the voice of Pinocchio’s conscience Jiminy Cricket. Read more…
RAISING CAIN – Pino Donaggio
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Raising Cain is a psychological thriller written and directed by Brian De Palma, starring John Lithgow, Lolita Davidovich, and Steven Bauer. Lithgow plays a highly regarded child psychologist, Carter Nix, who suffers a complete mental breakdown when he discovers that his wife, Jenny, is having an affair, and has also accused him of having an unhealthy scientific obsession with their daughter Amy. Nix’s mental issues manifest themselves via the emergence of various ‘split personalities,’ one of which – a violent criminal named Cain – starts to take over and forces Nix to kidnap his daughter, and commit murders to cover his tracks. It’s a typical twisty-turny and suspenseful De Palma thriller that, as always, owes a fair debt to Alfred Hitchcock, and it features a bravura lead performance by Lithgow, chewing the scenery for all he’s worth. Read more…
MEDIEVAL – Philip Klein
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Medieval is, by far, the most lavish and expensive Czech film ever made. It charts a significant period in the life of Jan Žižka, a military hero from the late 1300s, when King Wenceslas IV, Wenceslas’s half-brother King Sigismund of Hungary, and a rival nobleman named Henry III of Rosenberg, were all fighting for the throne of Bohemia. At this point in his life Žižka was a young knight, loyal to the crown, but who also has a personal vendetta against Rosenberg, whose brutal regime resulted in almost all his family being killed. When Žižka learns of a plot by Rosenberg and his League of Lords to overthrow King Wenceslas, he is called to action to defend his country – an issue complicated by the fact that Žižka is directed to kidnap Rosenberg’s fiancée Katherine, with whom he has secretly fallen in love. The film is directed by Petr Jákl and is a classic historical epic, full of rich regal pageantry, brutal medieval battles, and sweeping romance. It stars Ben Foster as Žižka, and features Til Schweiger, William Moseley, Matthew Goode, Sophie Lowe, and Michael Caine in supporting roles. Read more…
THE JOLSON STORY – Morris Stoloff
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Following the huge success of MGM’s musical Meet Me In St. Louis in 1944, Columbia Pictures decided to cash in on the genre. They chose to film a fictionalized biopic of the renowned singer, comedian, actor and vaudevillian Al Jolson, who in the 1920s self-billed himself as “The World’s Greatest Entertainer”. A team consisting of Stephen Longstreet, Sidney Buchman, Harry Chandlee and Andrew Solt were hired to create the screenplay, Sidney Skolsky was tasked with production with a budget of $2 million, and Alfred E. Green given the reins to direct. A fine cast was assembled, including Larry Parks as Al Jolson, Evelyn Keys as Julie Benson, William Demarest as Steve Martin, and Bill Goodwin as Tom Baron. Read more…
THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS – Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
James Fenimore Cooper’s 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans is a classic of early American literature. It was published as part of his ‘Leatherstocking Tales’ series and chronicles a set of highly romanticized adventures set in pre-independence America about the life of frontiersman Nathaniel ‘Hawkeye’ Bumppo, a fictional character based on real-life contemporaries like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. The Last of the Mohicans is set in 1757 during the French and Indian War, when France and Great Britain were battling for control of North America, and sees Hawkeye becoming embroiled in the conflict when he is tasked with safely transporting Alice and Cora Munro, the two daughters of a British colonel, away from Fort William Henry, which us under siege by the French. Hawkeye enlists the help of his friend Chingachgook and Chingachgook’s son Uncas – the Mohicans of the title – and together they embark on a thrilling adventure which sees them getting involved in the political and social issues of the day, trekking across the inhospitable and rugged countryside, and clashing with the Huron, deadly rivals of the Mohicans. Read more…
ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM – Bernard Herrmann
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Margaret Landon wrote her 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam based on the fictionalized diaries of Anna Leonowens, a mixed-race woman who claimed to have been the British governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam. The novel became a public sensation, which caught the eye of 20th Century Fox Studios executive Darryl F. Zanuck. He purchased the film rights, assigned production to Louis D. Lighton, hired Talbot Jennings and Sally Benson to write the screenplay, and provided a generous budget of $2.2 million. John Cromwell was tasked with directing, and a stellar cast was assembled, including; Rex Harrison in his Hollywood debut as King Mongkut, Irene Dunne as Anna Owens, Linda Darnell as Tuptim, Lee J. Cobb as Kralahome, Gale Sondergaard as Lady Theiang, Tito Renaldo as Prince Chulalongkorn, and Richard Lyon as Louis Owens. Read more…
SNEAKERS – James Horner
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Sneakers is a fun caper movie with an all-star cast, directed by Phil Alden Robinson, and written by Robinson with Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parkes. Robert Redford stars as Martin Bishop, a former computer hacker now working as a ‘penetration tester’ for the tech industry, who spends his time leading a team of various misfits played by Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, and David Strathairn, while trying to maintain a relationship with his on-again-off-again girlfriend Mary McDonnell. Bishop’s life is thrown into turmoil when he is tasked by the NSA with recovering a device that is capable of breaking the encryption of nearly every computer system in the world; this brings him back into contact with his former partner Cosmo (Ben Kingsley), who spent many years in federal prison, and who now wants the device for himself so he can destabilize the global economy and exact some revenge. The film was a reasonable critical and commercial success, which grossed over $105 million at the box office worldwide, and maintained the then 55-year-old Redford’s status as a top cinematic draw. Read more…
THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING – Tom Holkenborg
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Three Thousand Years of Longing is a new romantic fantasy film from Mad Max director George Miller, based on the 1994 short story The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye by English novelist A. S Byatt. The film stars Tilda Swinton as Alithia, a British professor, who travels to Istanbul for a conference and inadvertently frees a genie from his captivity; the genie – played by Idris Elba – offers Alithia the traditional three wishes in exchange for his freedom, but this proves problematic because, as Alithia’s academic specialty is mythology, she knows all about the cautionary tales of ‘wishes gone wrong’. The djinn pleads his case by telling her fantastical stories of his past – dating all the way back to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba – and eventually wins Alithia over, with surprising results. The film is an impressive visual masterpiece full of sweeping vistas, elaborate sets, and romantic tenderness, which stands at odds with Miller’s gritty and uncompromising work on his most famous films. Read more…
DRAGONWYCK – Alfred Newman
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Renowned 20th Century Fox Studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck, who was always looking for a new story to film, came upon an 19th century period piece novel Dragonwyck, written by Anya Seton in 1944. He believed that its film noir tale of mystery and romance could be adapted to the big screen. He purchased the film rights and would personally oversee production with a $1.9 million budget. Joseph L. Mankiewicz was tasked with directing the film, and would also write the screenplay. In assembling the cast, Vincent Price won the lead role of Nicholas van Ryn when Gregory Peck withdrew after the original director Ernst Lubitsch was replaced by Mankiewicz due to illness. Joining Price would be Gene Tierney as Miranda Wells, Walter Huston as Ephraim Wells, Glenn Langan as Dr. Jeff Turner, Anne Revere as Abigail Wells, Spring Byington as Magda, Harry Morgan as Bleecker and Jessica Tandy as Peggy. Read more…
THE CRYING GAME – Anne Dudley
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the most critically successful and controversial films of 1992 was The Crying Game, a political thriller from Irish writer-director Neil Jordan. The first half of the story explores the relationship between Fergus, a member of the IRA Irish Republican Army, and Jody, a British soldier, who is kidnapped and held for ransom, and will be murdered unless an IRA prisoner is released. Fergus and Jody unexpectedly bond during his captivity, and when it becomes apparent that Jody is to be killed, he makes Fergus promise to look after his girlfriend, Dil, who lives in London. The second half of the story then follows Fergus in London, who tracks down Dil, and forms a bond which quickly becomes romantic; however, Dil has a shocking secret, the revelation of which was one of the most-talked about cinematic moments of the year, and the fallout of this revelation – as well as Fergus’s IRA past coming back to haunt him – has terrible consequences for all. The film stars Stephen Rea, Forest Whitaker, and Miranda Richardson, and marked the screen debut of Jaye Davidson as Dil, who earned an Oscar nomination in a breakout role. Read more…
BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD DO THE UNIVERSE – John Frizzell
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
It’s scarcely believable now, but back in 1993 one of the most popular, influential, and controversial shows on TV was Beavis and Butt-Head. It’s a simple idea – two animated idiot teenagers watch a series of rock videos on MTV while snickering and making dumb dick and fart jokes – but it was incredibly successful. Creator Mike Judge was essentially satirizing his own target audience, and went on to have more success doing the same thing with shows like King of the Hill and movies like Office Space and Idiocracy. In 1996 Beavis and Butt-Head was spun off into a movie, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, which saw the titular doofuses get into all kinds of escapades while on a cross-country road trip, and was surprisingly good; now, almost 25 years later, we have a second film, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, in which the pair are transported from 1998 to 2022, encounter parallel-universe versions of themselves in outer space, and are hunted by the US government. Read more…
LOVE LETTERS – Victor Young
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
The genesis of the film arose when renown author Ayn Rand decided to adapt the novel “Pity My Simplicity” by Christopher Massie into a screenplay. Hal Wallis was sold on the story, felt it would translate well to the big screen, and decided to personally take on the project. He would use his own production company in partnership with Paramount Pictures to finance production, and tasked William Dieterle to direct. A fine cast was assembled including Jennifer Jones as Singleton/Victoria Morland, Joseph Cotton as Alan Quinton, Anne Richards as Dilly Carson, Cecil Kellaway as Mac, Gladys Cooper as Beatrice Remington and Anita Louise as Helen Wentworth. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2022 – English Language Indies II
My recurring under-the-radar series usually concentrates on the best scores for non-English language films in a given year, but doing so means that I sometimes overlook music written for British and American films that are similarly low-profile, but also have outstanding scores. To rectify that, here is the second of two new review articles looking at five such scores from the first half of 2022, written for independent English-language features that you might have otherwise overlooked. The scores are from a period western from Australia, a mid-budget horror film exploring the darker side of Mexican spiritual culture, a real-life drama about a baseball player, and two wonderful nature documentaries – one looking at life on the African savannah, and one looking at life deep below the seas. Read more…
THE LOVER [L’AMANT] – Gabriel Yared
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Lover, or L’Amant in its native language, is a French romantic drama film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, adapted from the semi-autobiographical 1984 novel of the same name by Marguerite Duras. The film explores the illicit affair between an unnamed teenage French girl and an unnamed wealthy Chinese man in French Indochina in 1929; the teenage girl is played by actress Jane March, while her lover is played by Hong Kong cinema legend Tony Leung. The film also features the legendary Jeanne Moreau as a narrator, intended to be author Duras looking back at her own adolescence. While certainly scandalous in its sympathetic portrayal of under-age love and explicit sex – many critics drew parallels between it and the story of Lolita – the film was a domestic commercial and critical success, going on to be nominated for seven César Awards in France, as well as being nominated for an Oscar for Robert Fraisse’s lush cinematography, which portrays colonial Saigon in gorgeous, romantic hues. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2022 – English Language Indies
My recurring under-the-radar series usually concentrates on the best scores for non-English language films in a given year, but doing so means that I sometimes overlook music written for British and American films that are similarly low-profile, but also have outstanding scores. To rectify that, here is the first of two new review articles looking at five such scores from the first half of 2022, written for independent English-language features that you might have otherwise overlooked. The scores are from a beautiful animated film about a German painter, a comedy horror film about a cursed board game, a modern day Indiana Jones variant, a powerful period drama set in the Scottish highlands, and a shark-infested horror thriller from Australia! Read more…
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