Structural engineer, improvisor, 3-day Jeopardy champion.
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The Color Purple 1985
It's got tremendous source material, several wonderful, career-launching performances, a handful of great scenes, and Spielberg's preternatural mastery of the creation of filmed images. So why does it not really work that well?
For me it was primarily the tonal mismatch between the filmmaker, the material, and the film's composer. There is a wistfulness that keeps creeping in at inappropriate times, sometimes seemingly because of Spielberg, but most frequently from Quincy Jones' terribly miscalibrated score. The score keeps noodling pleasantly…
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Leave Her to Heaven 1945
Gene Tierney gives a terrific performance in a melodramatic psychological character study. Gorgeous to look at, with rich Technicolor visuals (Oscar-winning!). I had picked this for my noir selection given Criterion's recommendation of it as such, but I quibble! I do not think there are enough noir elements here to call it one!
The early scene in which Ellen scatters her father's ashes from horseback, riding in a loop while Alfred Newman's orchestra blares like the Red Sea is parting…
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Thomas & Friends: Calling All Engines! 2005
A great kids' introduction to racial essentialism and gang warfare!
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Out of Sight 1998
This cast seemed great in 1998. Now it reads like a damned murderers row.
There is exactly one moment in the movie when Foley's cool demeanor cracks, and he stumbles over his words, and that is when Karen reveals she's been thinking about what it would have been like if they'd met under different circumstances, and imagines a "time-out." He seems so eager but stupefied at the opportunity to frame their time together this way, to set it apart from…
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