evanston_dad

A fetching noir about a man who takes the law into his own hands when he decides to track down the murderer of his brother, a disappeared bible being the only clue to finding the killer.

It's a twisty-turny plot, full of leads that go nowhere and that awkwardly introduces Virginia Mayo and then finds something for her to do. But that's ok. I will never say "no" to a side of Mayo in my movie.

Raymond Burr is the bad guy, because of course.

The movie gets way too religious and sanctimonious at the end. Religious fervor has no place in noir unless it's being used for sinister purposes. So the ending sours the film a bit, but not enough to ruin it.

Grade: B+

"Portrait of Jennie" is a twerpy romantic melodrama that nevertheless has a stunning visual style that makes it worth watching. It also has Joseph Cotten, for me always a welcome presence. But on the other hand, it has Jennifer Jones, an actress I've never warmed to under the best of circumstances, but especially not when she spends half the movie's running time playing a teenager.

There is a sort of dreamy, surrealist quality to the movie that appealed to me and made it easier to overlook the dopey histrionics of the story. Like so many movies from that time period, it looks like a film noir even though there's nothing noirish about it. Joseph August's cinematography is the film's biggest selling point. He can barely put together a shot that doesn't take your breath away, and I especially dug the ones of the New York skyline as seen through the mists of Central Park. He rightfully received an Oscar nomination for his work.

The film won the Oscar for its special effects, showcased in an extended scene of a storm at sea. Considering the kind of effects-driven movies that get nominated for visual effects these days, it's funny to think there was a time when a movie could win that award on the basis of one scene.

Grade: B.

Steven Soderbergh can usually be relied upon to give us something that at the very least is solid and well crafted, and that's true here. But I went in to this expecting/hoping for a quick-paced and sexy spy thriller, and instead got something darker and gloomier. It's not the movie's fault for not being something I wanted it to be, but still, it did affect my enjoyment of it.

The biggest problem with "Black Bag" is that we don't learn much about anyone in it, and what we do learn about most of them is that they're pretty crappy people. As a result, I didn't really care about what happened to anyone, the central couple played by Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett included. I really like both actors, and thought together they'd have sexy charisma and chemistry in spades, but they don't. The whole premise of the movie rests on the understanding that these two would do literally anything for each other, which doesn't work that well when they don't have chemistry.

There's still quite a bit to like, but I left this movie grousing that no one seems to be able to make a movie anymore that's both made for adults and fun at the same time.

I feel like I'll barely even remember I saw this movie by the time the year is over.

Grade: B+