The Usual Suspects, 1995 (Grade D+)

Director: Bryan Singer
Awards--yes Academy Awards, Independent Spirit, Golden Globe
Stars: Kevin Spacey; Benecio Del Toro, Gabriel Byrne; Stephen Baldwin; Kevin Pollak, Chaz Palminteri, Giancarlo Esposito

sezsays: Some movies don't hold up so well.  I had missed this when it came out and someone mentioned it the other day, so I rented it to catch up on famous movies I'd failed to see.  I am not surprised that Spacey and Del Toro won awards for their acting. They both did marvelous jobs. But the story is just hum-drum--there is evil in crime--yea, and what else is new. This seems to me just to be an excuse for a bunch of men to get together and assault each other verbally with threats to do obnoxious sexual acts to each other --or to actually shot each other. Another yawn--but now I know who Kaiser Soze is--so that is something I guess.  (Grade D+)

Glengarry Glenn Ross, 1992 (Grade A)

Director:  James Foley
Awards: Yes- an Academy Award & a Golden Globe for Pachino
Stars: Jack Lemmon, Al Pachino, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Pryce
More Info: David Mamet's play --and screen play by Mamet

sez says: what an amazing play this is --and what a great transition it made to the screen. Mamet is a master of fast dialogue and he tells stories by leaving half  the story untold: the audience has to fill in the missing parts. That is easy enough to do, but it also means we may all be seeing a slightly different story.  I don't know why Jack Lemmon didn't get an award for his part -but what do I know about the who's and why's of Award Giving.  These ageing salesmen take you on ride in a front row seat to view Desperation, Domination and Dirty Dealing in their stressed out, over amped lives that are based on the notion that you have to "Always Be Closing" a deal. Get a signature on the dotted line--or you are nothing, have nothing, and you'll will be tossed out into the dark with no where to go and it is wet (the pounding rain works in the film) and cold and dark. 

 

Mother Night, 1996 (Grade B-)

Director: Keith Gordon
Starring: Nick Nolte; Alan Arkin; John Goodman: Kurt Vonnegut (as the sad man on the street)
Genre: World War Two; Drama
IMDB Link:  Mother Night

sez says: it is just like the voice over says in the movie 'If you pretend to be something long enough that is what you will become.'  This is a story from a novel by Kurt Vonnegut--and like most 'book-to-film' efforts--the film suffers in comparison to the book.  But Nolte does a grand job--it is almost a one-man show. The irony is here but not so much the dark humor for which Vonnegut is famous. I loved the use of the typewriter ribbon at the end -- a person who lives by using words must die with the words he used.

mjc says:   Nolte captured the emptying of this man, once full of life but as drained of life by his assignment to spy as other "soldiers" who were shell shocked and devastated by their experiences.