Screen Screed: Thoughts on Movies From a Lifelong Eater of Cinema

      Captain Marvel      Her name is Carol.  Her name is Vers.  She (Brie Larson) believes she's Kree, an alien spacefaring race at war with the Skrulls, who look like green Orcs.  She belongs to a Special Forces-type unit led by Yon-Rogg (Jude Law).  As a Kree, she has no idea she's really from Earth until her capture by Skrulls.  They probe her mind, dislodging memories of her life on C-53, i.e. Earth.      Vers, or Carol, knew Dr. Wendy Lawson (Annette Bening) when they served together on an Air Force base.  Carol tested Lawson's experimental airplane, a prototype of a faster than light spaceship using advanced inter-dimensional technology sought by the Skrulls.  The Kree believe the Skrulls want this technology so they can more completely invade Kree space.  In fact, they want it for another reason.  The Skrulls are not what they seem to be, neither are the Kree.      Vers g...

      Nothing But Blue Sky, and the Blues      Paul Mazursky's Tempest (1982) borrows from Shakespeare's play, taking place mostly on a Greek island, with a cranky retired architect (John Cassavetes), his teenage daughter (Molly Ringwald), and his girlfriend (Susan Sarandon), playing roles reflected in the seventeenth century comedy.  Raul Julia plays a character based on Caliban.  The rest of the film, all of those scenes flashbacks, takes place in New York, several World Trade Center shots reminding us of what that skyline used to look like.      The architect, Philip, is unhappily married to his stage actress wife, Antonia (Gena Rowlands), who for her part is having an affair with Philip's last boss, Alonzo (Vittorio Gassman).  Since Miranda the daughter hates Alonzo, she goes with her father to Athens where they meet, by chance, Aretha (Sarandon).  Wanting to flee from Alonzo and his entourage (including Antonia) c...

      A Homicidal Bigfoot      Big Legend (2018) surprised me because the thumbnail on Amazon Prime, along with the description, gave the impression of a mystery based on a criminal act by human beings, rather than encounters with Sasquatch.      A former Army Ranger and his fiancee camp in the wilderness near Mount Saint Helens.  Seemingly alone, they have no idea there's something that resembles Harry in Harry and the Hendersons checking them out.  Late at night, the Ranger explores the perimeter after hearing knocking sounds.  He finds stacked rocks.  According to Sasquatch seekers on Bigfoot-themed TV shows I've seen, these beasts do these kinds of things for reasons unknown.      The fiancee gets yanked away inside the tent and pulled deep into the forest, her screams remaining in the tortured memories of her man, who makes the mistake of telling the truth of what he believes, that it wasn't a bea...

      Girls Just Want To Have Fun, the Movie      Janey (Sarah Jessica Parker) is the new student at an all girl Catholic school in Chicago.  Her father (Ed Lauter) is a retired Vietnam veteran, a hobbyist who paints little soldiers and runs his family like they're on an Army base.  Janey, a gymnast, loves dancing.  With Lynne (Helen Hunt), her only new friend at the school, she auditions to be one of the regular dancers on a popular local TV program, Dance TV , or DTV as it's often referred to.      Lynne fails to qualify, but Janey, along with a handsome cool boy with a bland name, Jeff (Lee Montgomery), is selected as one of the finalists.  They have a few weeks to practice before the live taping during which judges will decide on the one and only couple to join the show.      Is this how Soul Train worked?      Whatever the case, this simple story makes for a pretty good teen comedy ...

      Is a Horse a Horse?      Oliver Hardy's in love with a Parisian waitress, Georgette (Jean Parker), but doesn't know she's married to an officer in the French Foreign Legion (Reginald Gardner).  Stan Laurel wants to return to the United States.  It's 1939--that's a good idea.   Flying Deuces has nothing to do with the upcoming war and the political spaghetti of interwoven clusterfuckery going on in Europe at the time.  It's simply a feature film that puts Laurel and Hardy in a fucked up situation, having stupidly joined the Foreign Legion on the advice, ironically, of the officer married to Georgette.      "There's a way you can forget her," the officer tells Hardy after saving him from suicide in the Seine River, but also not knowing he's the man who's been flirting with his cute wife.  "Join the Foreign Legion.  In a few days, you will have forgotten her."      He never explains how thi...

      The Lady Without Camelias by Michelangelo Antonioni      The title, a play on the name of the Alexandre Dumas fils novel, The Lady of the Camellias , suggests that film actress Clara Manni (Lucia Bosé), will never receive the special attention given to great dramatic actresses; women like Greta Garbo, who in 1937 played Camille in the George Cukor film of the same name.      Manni, a popular enough actress due to her stunning looks and wasp-waisted figure, nevertheless fails to break past the judgmental regard of critics and those high in her profession.  After marrying a director, Gianni Franchi (Andrea Checchi), he begins to exert control over her career and life, wanting her out of the humdrum melodramas she's previously starred in.  He puts her in something big, a new version of the Joan of Arc story.  A flop, Clara Manni's film career stands on thin ice for a while, a period when she has an affair with a diplomat...

      Red      Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves  (1984) surprised me--I expected a modern werewolf story but watched instead a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.  The fairy tale is surrounded by a rich chiaroscuro of settings, the menacing woods alive visually with mists, little animals, many of them symbolic like toads and snakes, or cocks.  The Wolf is a sinister-looking huntsman in eighteenth century dress.  He knocks off Grandma's (Angela Lansbury's) head, bursting it into white plaster against the mantlepiece.  We're in a realm of fantasy throughout the film since the girl who acts as Red in most of the movie is a picked-on younger sister in the modern world having an elaborate dream.      Wolves represent wild nature, but also men seen as a threat to innocence, as represented by Rosaleen (Sarah Patterson).  She turns away the advances of the blacksmith's son, only to join, in the dream anyway, with ...