Director Robert Altman had “a succession of dreams” and afterwards based one of his movies—Three Women (1977)—on these dreams.  Hence the film, though linear, is profoundly weird.

It is the story of Millie Lammoreaux (Shelley Duvall) and Pinky Rose (Sissy Spacek)—as well as a nonverbal painter named Willie (Janice Rule)—who work at a rehab center with mineral baths for the elderly.  Millie is talkative, but very few people listen to her (funny, this); which easily leads us to infer that social interaction in the film amounts to almost nothing.  And yet, ironically, the shy Pinky quasi-worships Millie, seeing a certain perfection in her.  And there is nothing sexual in this—Pinky, like Millie, likes men—but . . . a question must be asked:  Is Pinky a psychotic who actually wants Millie’s personality for herself?

The film never indicates that someone is dreaming this dreamlike story.  Is it reality, then?  Is it a work of art simply meant to resemble a dream—in other words, a work that is only about itself?  Three Women is unceasingly perplexing.  There are fine performances from Spacek and Duvall, though.  The former is suitably eccentric and beautifully nuanced.  With her diffident, little-girl face, the latter is oddly beguiling, improvising nicely.  For improvisation is certainly here—but what about a raison d’etre?

(All reviews are by Earl Dean)

It is unusual these days to see a film where a man suffers inner torment because he has committed sin.  But it goes on in the 19-minute Catholic film, “The Confession” (2017)—an award winner at a Catholic film festival—and, as it happens, it is not only the Big Sinner who grieves.  So does the confessor priest, who finds he must offer personal forgiveness.

This John LaRaw picture is simple and heartfelt, uncommon for displaying South Korean Christianity.  Plus, it has lighting just right for a religious film.  You might want to pay “The Confession” a visit on YouTube.

Cover of Deliverance (Deluxe Edition)

I have read James Dickey’s novel, Deliverance, but I don’t much remember it.  I remember enjoying it, though, and I also enjoy the John Boorman film version of it (1972), whose screenplay Dickey wrote.*

Four middle-aged men head to the forest and take a canoe ride on a treacherous river.  The rapids are bad enough; the men also encounter bullying hillbillies, one of whom they kill after he sodomizes Bobbie (Ned Beatty), a member of their group.  Without contacting the police, they bury the man and then try to high tail it out of the region.  They gradually fear, however, that a vengeful hillbilly is attempting to waste them with a shotgun.

I am perfectly sure the movie is a lesser work than the novel.  How I see Boorman’s concoction is as a nicely shot, mostly realistically made adventure story which conveys a message about moral uncertainty and compromise being involved in physical survival.  The canoe riders do not trust lawful authorities who might help them, and the mountain man whom Jon Voight‘s Ed shoots with a crossbow may or may not be a murderer.  Another thing the film tells us is that packs of violent cretins like the hillbillies are out there.  They may lie low, they may be hidden, but they’re there.

Most, though not all, of the acting in Deliverance is impressive.  A fine thespian, Jon Voight is nevertheless a bit unsteady here, maybe because the script “does not offer him sufficient motivation and opportunity for emotional shading” (John Simon).  Agreed.  Even so, the film is anything but dull.  It’s exciting and, in its own way, trenchant.  And it’s a nature lover’s film.  I firmly disagree with the critics who dismiss it.

*Rewritten by Boorman, apparently.

What is The Confessions of X (2016), a novel by Suzanne M. Wolfe, about?  Its narrative is about the concubine, unnamed, of St. Augustine before he became a Christian.  Thematically it is about the unbreakable tie between former lovers who have lived without any other lover (or spouse).  It is about unexpected conversion and sudden change (a minor example:  a saved woman, Perpetua, becomes like a sister to “X” after initially snapping at her for her concubinage).  It is about love.

The book is almost always finely, astutely written, even if the characterization lacks admirable depth.  Also, I found certain parts of it a bit of a slog, and yet Wolfe’s details are very often memorable.  If The Confessions of X is a Christian novel—it was published by Thomas Nelson, and Wolfe possesses a Christian sensibility—it’s probably the best Christian novel of 2016.  It’s not the kind of book that comes out frequently.

Cover of The Sugarland Express

Is The Sugarland Express (1974) a stupid movie, or is it just that the people in it are stupid?  Well, a ton of human stupidity obtains, but when it comes down to brass tacks, it’s The Sugarland Express that’s stupid.  The lower class woman played by Goldie Hawn is nothing but a cretin about whom we care very little if at all.  It’s an underwritten role and Hawn, withal, fails to make her sympathetic.

Steven Spielberg has a full supply of moviemaking talent, but his film, though based on a true story, has no good reason to exist.  At least Duel and the finally unsatisfactory Jaws are entertaining.  Sugarland can be entertaining too, but is so trivial the entertainment value seems as though it’s always on the periphery.