The men and women in Prisoners (2013) are mostly either lunatics or idiots—in the case of Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), a thoroughgoing idiot.  Dover is a blue-collar fellow who, after his young daughter is abducted, just KNOWS that the culprit is Paul Dano’s simpleminded, nearly mute Alex Jones and so he takes him to an abandoned house and, to get him to talk, starts torturing him.  To be sure, Alex is a suspect but Dover abuses him ad infinitum, and the whole thing is simply stupid.

A police detective acted by Jake Gyllenhaal finds another suspect—one who runs from the detective when he doesn’t have to—and now it’s time for the movie’s lunatics to show their true crazy colors.  Man!

That abandoned house, by the way, used to belong to Dover’s parents and Dover inherited it.  Why has he allowed it to become an unspeakable wreck?

Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Prisoners is a dismal thriller—suspenseful, yes, but still dismal—and an intellectual disgrace.

JakeGyllenhaalcropped (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wow!  Judy Garland in 3D IMAX!

Only in a 3D Meet Me in St. Louis would she look lovelier and, because older, more distinguished.  But IMAX screens in 2013 are presenting the redheaded, freckled girl who never should have grown up (to be middle-aged, anyway) in Victor Fleming’s outstanding The Wizard of Oz (1939) and the result is enthralling.

The Kansas twister in this new version is terrifying, the Munchkins pour in (oh, the numbers!) and are emphatically conspicuous, the makeup and costumes become even easier to appreciate.  So does Harold Rossen’s cinematography.  All the same, critic Alan Scherstuhl is right that Fleming’s film is “performance-driven.”  Certain cast members, Judy included, are real grabbers with no shortage of conviction.  After a while, it’s true, a lack of logic arises in the narrative, but—well—as everyone knows, the fantasy here is merely a dream.  In 3D it seems even more dreamlike.

Cover of Judy Garland

Wayne Watson has written numerous good songs, some of them having a melody as terrific as that in “For Such a Time as This”, a rousing, inspirational Christian song sung by Watson in his usual earnest style.  The voice of Canadian folkie Bruce Cockburn is not as pleasant as Watson’s, but his “Lord of the Starfields” has a very nice spare sound and a savory lyric (“Oh love that fires the sun / Keep me burning”).

For a faster tempo there is the great rock tune, “Flood,” by the talented Jars of Clay.  Driven by a fierce guitar, it features classical strings in its bridge and a wide range of moods.  It’s every bit as enjoyably urgent as, say, Foreigner’s “Seventeen.”

Debby Boone provides a decent vocal for “The Name Above All Names,” a big ballad from the ’80s with a splendid chorus—indeed, a splendid melody—and the sunniest Christian certitude in its finish.  Equally fine is the Michelle Tumes song, “Hold On” (not “Hold On to Jesus,” another Tumes track).  Granted, the words aren’t very impressive but the catchy, breezy music and the utterly beautiful bridge are.  As for Tumes’s singing, it’s nicely feminine and Enya-like.

Fun and reverent, these.

Cover of Debby Boone

After all these years, the Warren Beatty flick Dick Tracy (1990) still offers a good time, even though the necessary action has been palpably upstaged by a host of B movies and TV shows.  Tracy‘s value lies in multicolored art design more luminous than any comic strip panel and in the zany makeup for ugly mobsters and in much of the movie’s humor.  Kudos to screenwriters Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. for that humor—and not, of course, for the hokey tale.  Kudos to Beatty, who stars as Dick Tracy and directs a delightful cast, notwithstanding he can do nothing with Madonna.

Dick Tracy (1990 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The recent The Spectacular Now (2013) is an adaptation of what is perhaps a fine novel by Tim Tharp, for the movie itself is agreeable.  It deals honestly with young love, with primary characters Sutter and Aimee.  The former is a friendly boy who drinks too much and is distinctly uneager to encounter the future.  The latter, a very kind, bookish lass, becomes his girlfriend.  It transpires that at bottom Sutter is self-rejecting, maybe self-loathing, which is why he denies Aimee’s words that she loves him.  The secrets, the secret understandings, that bring tears; the now which leads people to disregard the future; the way people in love inexorably influence each other (as Sutter influences Aimee regarding liquor)—these are among the picture’s themes.

It’s a romantic film which never gets embarrassing or sentimental.  Miles Teller enacts Sutter and knows exactly how to be a likable extrovert (maybe he is one).  Plus his acting is not without depth.  Shailene Woodley, as Aimee, has what John Simon said Joanna Shimkus has:  “simple naturalness.”  And charm.  Not playing the same kind of girl she portrayed in The Descendants, Woodley is certifiably very talented.  Despite a glossing-over here and there, The Spectacular Now is winning, directed wisely by Jon Ponsoldt.

English: Shailene Woodley at the Toronto International Film Festival 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)