Cover of Anything Else

Re Anything Else (2003):

Apparently Woody Allen believes in themes, but don’t let that fool you.  Thematically this caustic, frequently funny, slightly absurdist movie goes almost nowhere.

Amiable Jerry (Jason Biggs), a comedy writer, falls for the unremittingly selfish Amanda (Christina Ricci) and is mentored by an atheistic crank acted by Allen himself.  I didn’t buy an iota of it.  In addition, there is a great deal of talk and much of it irritating, from Jerry’s fawning babbling to Amanda during their first encounter to Amanda’s remark about the “nihilistic pessimism” in the plays of Sartre and O’Neill.  Allen does not do slight absurdism well.  He’s too caught up in his own solipsism.

Cover of Excalibur

A man of limited taste, director of Deliverance and Hope and Glory, John Boorman released in 1981 a King Arthur movie, Excalibur.  Much of the acting, when it isn’t indifferent (Helen Mirren as Morgana, Paul Geoffrey as Perceval), is loud and showy (Nigel Terry as Arthur).  Withal, the film is cheap and exaggerated, with second-rate music.

The scenery is ravishing, however, and there are delicious medieval-fantasy costumes and set design.  As well, Excalibur can be intriguing:  Nicol Williamson plays Merlin, an amazing magician in Christian England, a man whose day is passing along with the old gods (or simply the dark arts?)  But I wish Boorman’s film had something to say; frankly I would rather see Robert Bresson’s Lancelot du Lac, weak as it is.

I don’t know why Disney keeps remaking The Jungle Book, but at least the current version is a visual dreadnought a lot like a hard-to-forget theme park ride.  It’s fun and for the family, albeit some of the animals this time are genuine monsters.  King Louie the villainous ape is huge, Kaa is the most stupendous snake you’ve ever seen, and even Shere Khan is not your average-looking ferocious tiger.  These are CGI creations for one wickedly scary jungle.

Directed by Jon Favreau.

The recent Saturday Night Live skit satirizing Christians who resist honoring same-sex marriage with wedding cakes, wedding planning, floral arrangements, etc. also poked fun at gay couples.

Even so, with the Christian baker’s announcement to the law firm, “I want to deny basic goods and services to gay people,” we discover that the skit can be accurately described as just more SNL bullshit.  No such denial is what Christians are after. . . Describe the skit also as less than clever and you’d be right.

I no longer care much for Citizen Kane, because of the screenplay.  I actually like Aaron Sorkin‘s screenplay for Steve Jobs (2015), in which Steve Jobs is the Citizen Kane of the 80s and 90s, better, for all the factual nonsense there is supposed to be.  Sorkin’s Steve is an egotist and a blabbermouth (to me, laughable) as well as a profoundly reluctant—unwilling—father, grippingly played by Michael Fassbinder.  It’s a wonder the film ends on a heartening note.

The direction by Danny Boyle is fanciful but clear-eyed.   Additional bravura acting emanates from Kate Winslet, Michael Stuhlberg and Katherine Waterston.