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The Conversation 1974
Coppola’s art movie about Paranoia and the boundaries of privacy is better as a first watch. The second time (for me) drags and frustrates. Harrison Ford miscast and is as threatening as a teddy bear, but Hackman is superb and the ‘twist’ featuring a differently delivered line in the script still gets a knowing wink and a bravo from me. The second act featuring a party drags too much but then so did about an hour of the Godfather part 2 so what do I know. Good. Towards great but not really getting there.
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The French Connection 1971
Terrific if you need your films to be doc/noir crossover and bitty if you like a bit more clarity and composure. The points are scored by Hackman and Scheider who relish the loose form, and of course the bonkers car chase that was filmed without any care for bystanders. The early moments are a bit ‘what’s going on’ but it finds itself for sure and a million seventies cop tv shows get born. The infamous ending is unnecessarily confusing but you have to give kudos to a nut job young director who pulled the whole thing together as though he meant it all along.
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Fly Me to the Moon 2024
Falls short of being a James Garner/Doris Day for our time, but as the point of cinema can also be just 90 minutes of fun with terrific sets and terrific clothes to look at then this satisfies. Tatum does this pretty well actually and if Scarlett Johanssen can stop her head moving for a few seconds then so could she. The film is dressed beautifully with a soundtrack to love. The scene where they dance to ‘To love somebody’ in a NASA hanger must give Barry Gibb goosebumps. No dogs sadly but the cat has the best scene.
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Lost in Translation 2003
Grrrrrr. The xenophobia is so casual it’s lounging in sweatpants on a food-stained sofa. Something ugly about the film so unabashed in its targeting, and to clumsily disguise it as a note on loneliness is shamefully disingenuous. I needed a shower, and the film needed dogs. Gains a couple of stars for some beautiful framing of the city.
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