The Rare Review - Movies, books, music and TV

Buona Sera. Big Night

On October 19, 2026

In the 1950s, the New Jersey restaurant of two Italian brothers, Primo and Secondo, is failing badly. This—part of the premise of the 1996 movie “Big Night”—is sad, but also evident is that Secondo (Stanley Tucci) is failing badly morally. For one thing, he cheats on his girlfriend Phyllis (Minnie Driver). Secondo is an undeserving immigrant and businessman; not so Primo. Does it matter if he fails? On the other hand, his Italian-American competitor, Pascal (a perfect Ian Holm), is also undeserving, but successful.

The cast of “Big Night” is sapid and endearing. This includes Campbell Scott, who co-directed the film with Tucci. It is a very good food flick, like “Eat Drink Man Woman”—good because artistic, and not without the Right Music on its soundtrack: “Buona Sera” and “Oh Marie” by Louis Prima, “Tic Ti, Tic Ta” by Claudio Villa, “Don’t Take Your Love Away” by Keely Smith, etc. Delicious.

Paris By Way Of South Korea: The Movie, “Night and Day”

By EarlD

On October 3, 2026

In General, Movies

Night and Day (2008 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the Hong Sang-soo film, Night and Day (2008), Seong-nam is a soiled Korean fellow who is in Paris after fleeing the police (the crime was smoking pot) in Seoul. A painter, he meets several young Korean women affiliated with the Paris art scene and, though married to a wife in Seoul, eventually commits adultery with one of them. The movie, both directed and scripted by Hong, is about Life, period. Related to this, of course, are Hong’s themes: sexual desire in an alien country, the fluctuations in human connections, the concept of sin (Seong-nam is a Bible reader), and when even a middle-aged person lacks a real occupation—and a direction in life. What’s more, Night and Day slowly becomes an absorbing love story, including between Seong-nam and his wife.

Hong is a talented man who savvily depends on medium and medium-long shots, and is an imaginative writer. Plus he works well enough with his performers that the acting ranges from good to very good. Kim Yeong-ho is very good as the main character.

“Duel”: Naw, It Ain’t “Jaws” On Wheels

By EarlD

On September 28, 2026

In General

Cover of Duel (Collector’s Edition)

Man-made cars and the interstate highway system are not the modern wonders to make us forget, and not be shocked by, the strange brutality in human behavior. Indeed, it is on the interstate that businessman David Mann (Dennis Weaver)—in Steven Spielberg‘s Duel (1971)—encounters a stranger who tries to off him with a tanker truck, the reason for which is never revealed. It is activity as absurd as it is horrible.

Spielberg’s first notable success, Duel is a made-for-TV action thriller which has been called “Jaws on wheels” except that it’s a better flick than Master Steven’s Jaws. It has a shaky climax, but is consistently fun and nicely economical. The smart script is by Richard Matheson, and Weaver is constantly on screen but never abandoned by skill. As well, Duel is one of those many 1970s films enamored of rural American settings, as though it is only in these pristine outdoor places that insights about life may be had.

Poor Burt: “Starting Over” (1979)

By EarlD

On September 23, 2026

In General

Film poster for Starting Over - Copyright 1979...

What might be a decent novel is, here, an unsatisfying film. The script is wobbly, and the strikingly handsome Burt Reynolds, with his star quality, is miscast as an ordinary, somewhat less-than-virile gent.

Starting Over (1979) does effectively focus, though, on the internal psychological ping-pong experienced by divorced and recently unattached people.

Directed by Alan J. Pakula.

Goin’ To “The Clock,” Going To The Chapel

By EarlD

On September 18, 2026

In Movies

The Clock (1945) is a good-natured comedy-drama starring Judy Garland and Robert Walker as a couple who fall in love and (mistakenly) quickly marry during soldier Walker’s two-day leave. Although some of the humor is feeble, the cast is appealing, and the film is acceptably plotless. It was directed by Fred Zinneman, who was forced to give way to Vincente Minnelli, the credited director of the flick. His work here is as inspired as it was in Meet Me in St. Louis.

The Clock reminds me of a Whit Stillman film, though with less comedy. The moviemakers warm to American institutions and values, especially marriage. Minnelli, wedding Garland in ’45, doesn’t ignore its sanctity.