In the 1960 film, Wild River, a love story involving Montgomery Clift and Lee Remick arises amid a conflict between necessary government interference and small-minded hostility—but also a sense of dignity—in the rural South.  Clift plays a man working for the Tennessee Valley Authority; Remick plays the granddaughter of an old woman (Jo Van Fleet) who sternly refuses to sell her land to the dam-building Feds before the inevitable flood comes.  The sense of dignity is hers.  Other rural inhabitants start hating the TVA man because a plan of his temporarily costs them money.

The film is one of Elia Kazan‘s best—a work of considerable realism and intelligence.  A political picture, it never gets as tiresome as Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd.  Not exactly an art film, with its pastoral long shots it nevertheless reflects the filmmaker’s admiration for the old-time Russian directors such as Pudovkin.  Moreover, Wild River is usually impressively acted.

I just finished watching the seventh episode of Game of Thrones (Season 5) on DVD.

In this season, there is a religious cult called the Faith Militant which reminds me of the Taliban.  It’s a wonder even Cersei (Lena Headey), who ends up being arrested by the cult, tolerates it.  I take it she was pleased by the Militants’ treatment of Margaery (Natalie Dormer), social-climbingly married to Cersei’s young son.

Speaking of Dormer, I’m glad she is now permitted by the show to exercise her acting chops:  She convinces as an angry Margaery as well as a sweet and sly one. . . Also, there seems to be better cinematography than in the past—better lighting, more beauty.  Truth to tell, although too much nudity appears in the series, much of this beauty can be seen in the excellent body of the show-offy Tyene, played by the California-born (not British) Rosabell Laurenti Sellers. 

I just finished watching the seventh episode of Game of Thrones (Season 5) on DVD.

In this season, there is a religious cult called the Faith Militant which reminds me of the Taliban.  It’s a wonder even Cersei (Lena Headey), who ends up being arrested by the cult, tolerates it.  I take it she was pleased by the Militants’ treatment of Margaery (Natalie Dormer), social-climbingly married to Cersei’s young son.

Speaking of Dormer, I’m glad she is now permitted by the show to exercise her acting chops:  She convinces as an angry Margaery as well as a sweet and sly one. . . Also, there seems to be better cinematography than in the past—better lighting, more beauty.  Truth to tell, although too much nudity appears in the series, much of this beauty can be seen in the excellent body of the show-offy Tyene, played by the California-born (not British) Rosabell Laurenti Sellers. 

Peyton Reed‘s Down With Love (2003) is a charming curio about love and sex.  Actually it values sex over love without realizing it, which is a pity.  Another pity is that it was made strictly in the mode of the old Rock Hudson-Doris Day confections of 1959 to 1964, and so displays some pretty trivial nostalgia, mainly for clothes, room decor and period songs.

Rene Zellweger plays the author of a self-help book, “Down With Love,” Ewan McGregor enacts a Casanova of a men’s magazine writer.  The scenarists insert a mild, reasonable feminism, but err by having Casanova finally turn into an enlightened and sensitive New Man instead of simply a gent thoughtfully in love with Zellweger.  But Down With Love has an agenda, you see.

It also has a nifty opening titles sequence which is so corny it’s hip.

I wasn’t always sure what was happening in 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016), but I was entertained by it.

One thing is clear:  Even a cruel lunatic like John Goodman‘s Howard can be right about something—in this case, the occurrence of apocalyptic events.  But he’s still a cruel lunatic.  Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is brought to his bunker, distrusting him, then trusting him, then distrusting him again.  He’s smart but neurotic—far worse than neurotic.

The star of the movie, Winstead, even prettier than she was as a post-adolescent, is an agreeable heroine, while Goodman is expertly scary.  10 Cloverfield is sci fi horror, and for all its credulity-straining, it is every bit as good as the imperfect Alien.  If director Dan Trachtenberg and his screenwriters push hard enough, they might come up with flicks which positively compete with our finer TV entertainments.