It's delightful to see this particular visual style, as used in Delicatessen, actually work for a change. Although I still think there would be much better solutions out there than this dully colorful thing. Anyhow, Jeunet & Caro have made a masterful dark absurd comedy. But it does get too messy towards the end.
Remember the couple of Clint Eastwood films with the orangutang? That's right. Every Which Way But Loose is in my opinion a great American movie, at least as long as you don't take it as any kind of a moral lesson. I love it how Eastwood's character is a terrible conversationalist. Marius and Jeanette is a mature and gloriously sunny working-class character drama from Robert Guédiguian. Rio Lobo is the last of the Rio Bravo - El Dorado trilogy, and also Howard Hawk's last film. There's a train robbery sequence in the beginning which is pretty nice, and also some good action at the end, but overall the film is just recycling used ideas, and not doing it particularly well either. That's not to say that it's not entertaining; it's very entertaining for what it is, but not on the same level as the previous two films. Much of the directing and especially the women's acting is all sloppy and unprofessional. Rio Lobo adds yet another version of the famous jail scenario, and for the sake of continuety, why not? It's also nice to see John Wayne being so largely in the 'old man' category that he can be referred to as "comfortable". Hope and Glory gives us a child's view on what it was like to be in London during the second world war bombings. And in that respect it's pretty good. The text and characters however are too impersonal, and therefore a large length of the film goes on rather uninterestingly. The last part at the grandparent's house is visually gorgeous, and even the story and characters gain truer and livelier faces. The little girl and the grandfather are both simply adorable.
July 10, 2005
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