Every month A Place for Film will bring you a selection of films from our group of regular bloggers. Even though these films aren’t currently being screened at the IU Cinema, this series will reflect the varied programming that can be found at the Cinema, as well as demonstrate the eclectic tastes of the bloggers. Each contributor has picked one film that they saw this month that they couldn’t wait to share with others. Keep reading to find out what discoveries these cinephiles have made, as well as some of the old friends they’ve revisited.
Jesse Pasternack, contributor | Edward Scissorhands (1990)
I’ve been dying to see this since Victoria Price talked about it in her lecture. I didn’t attend the pop-up screening that Cicada Cinema did (although you should totally check them out because they are a great group) but this movie is entertaining and powerful in any venue. It’s one of Tim Burton’s most personal films and a beautiful expression of his aesthetic. The cinematography and music are beautiful, and the screenplay by Caroline Thompson is as sharp as Edward’s hands. I loved the fantastical tone and Vincent Price’s cameo. This is a phenomenal film that will stay in your head for a long time.
Michaela Owens, editor | Having Wonderful Crime (1945)
A zippy mystery-comedy, Having Wonderful Crime is a forgotten gem that provides endless fun. Based on a book series by Craig Rice, the film is about exasperated lawyer Michael J. Malone (Pat O’Brien) and married amateur detectives Helene and Jake Justus (Carole Landis and George Murphy). The couple is always dragging their friend Malone into their investigations, as we witness from the very first terrific scene. Right away, we know exactly who these characters are and what we can expect. You can watch it here.
Having Wonderful Crime is a captivating mixture of silly humor, quirky characters, shadowy danger, and breathless pacing. The best thing about this movie, though, is the relationship between Jake and Helene, two people who are crazy about each other and prove to be a perfect match. George Murphy and Carole Landis bring such a breezy, whimsical tone to the film as their characters find their honeymoon interrupted by their search for a missing magician. The couple also gives the film its tenderness, such as when they find themselves captured by the unexpected villain. Convinced they’re going to die, Helene tearfully tells her husband she loves him. “I not only love you,” he replies, “I like you.” Swoon!
If you have TCM, you’re in luck — Having Wonderful Crime will be airing on June 11th at 10 am. I promise you won’t be sorry!
Note: a trailer for the film couldn’t be found, so a clip has been provided below instead.
Laura Ivins, contributor | I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)
Writer-director Macon Blair started with a simple scenario. If you get robbed, and the police don’t do anything about it, what happens if you go after the thieves yourself? His answer involves a stressed-out nurse, a martial arts enthusiast with a rat tail, a flea market, and a trio of unhinged meth-heads.
For me, the casting of this film was perfect. Melanie Lynskey plays nurse Ruth, the burglary victim. Lynskey captures that relatable anxiety caused by feeling completely ineffectual against the jerks of the world who refuse to pick up their dog’s poop or who go around spoiling novels. Elijah Wood plays the Robin to Ruth’s Batman, a martial arts enthusiast with a rat tail named Tony. Tony starts the film as one of the jerks, but quickly rises up to join Ruth’s crusade to confront the thieves that took her laptop and her grandmother’s silver. (Hats off to casting director Mark Bennett, who also cast Junebug [Phil Morrison, 2005] and Drinking Buddies [Joe Swanberg, 2013].)
I perhaps related to Ruth’s character a bit too much. Thanks, Netflix, for this low-budget gem.
Note: trailer contains language and some violence.
David Carter, contributor | The King of Jazz (1930)
After a big to-do on Twitter dot com about critics and writers of film needing to be well-versed in classic film (there’s more to the story but I only have so much space to write these things) I resolved to make it a point to try and watch a film from before 1965 (due to that being the beginning of the New Hollywood Era, which I’m pretty familiar with) every week if my scheduled allowed it. So this week I covered a pretty large area of the pre-1965 film history in watching a pre-Code era film nearly lost to time called The King of Jazz (pre-Code meaning sound films made before the enforcement of a censorship production code known as the Hays Code in 1934).
They don’t make ’em like this anymore.
The King of Jazz is essentially just a variety show and revue oozing with vaudeville-style acts and songs. The only connective tissue is Paul Whiteman (the aforementioned “King of Jazz”) and his band keeping the evening moving by backing all of the song and dance acts. They even get segments to shine themselves! Boy, do the people shine in this movie. You get a young Bing Crosby crooning in a trio called the Rhythm Boys. You get flip-flopping dancers and contortionists. You get a violinist who plays “Pop Goes the Weasel” in ways I can guarantee you’ve never seen before. You get an incredible amount of production design that would make Busby Berkeley blush. You get the erasure of black people and Latinos from the creation of jazz in a mind-boggling ending sequence!
Yeah, I would say that the only things to hold against this film are things that are of its time. It’s whiter than bleached mayonnaise (although to its credit, there’s nothing OVERTLY offensive in the film) and some of the songs are maybe not the most entertaining things to listen to by today’s standards but honestly these are small things when you see the finished product. Check out the recently restored and pieced-together Criterion of this film if you wanna see the embodiment of the word “razzmatazz.”
Katherine Johnson, contributor | The Homesman (2014)
I love Westerns, or rather I love watching them. I’ll watch the classic ones, the revisionist ones, the really good ones, the slow ones, and even the problematic ones. This month I watched — not for the first time (or second or third) — The Homesman directed by Tommy Lee Jones, starring Jones and Hilary Swank. My parents first told me about this “weird” Western a couple years ago, and I’ll admit that they weren’t wrong about it — it is weird. But that’s part of why I like watching it. It’s also grim, troubling, and I honestly still don’t know how I feel about it. Every time I watch it I find myself trying to figure it out; but then, I think that’s what I like most about watching Westerns. It seems to be a genre that, for more than a century, Americans have used to try to figure themselves out. And they’re still trying, so I’m still watching.
Nathaniel Sexton, contributor | Taipei Story (1985)
Near the end of Taiwanese New Wave master Edward Yang’s 1985 film Taipei Story, Yang’s female lead Chin shares a long night with a group of young bikers, friends of her baby sister. They ride through the city; they celebrate a birthday; they go out and dance; they stay up the whole night. Yang focuses on the rapidly modernizing city and places his characters, themselves in moments of transition, among the neon cityscapes. Chin looks out from a rooftop; a young man joins her. Their silhouettes stand out, but they’re almost lost behind the giant electronic billboards and the busy traffic beneath them. Yang uses the animated billboards as a sort of city dance. A short, rhythmic montage of his characters and their long night is accompanied by beautiful, soft, and sad orchestral music. This movie was not only my favorite discovery this month, but this scene was one of the best sequences I have seen all year. Below is a still frame recreation of the later half of the montage, presented for consideration.
Note: to watch the following trailer with English subtitles, you must manually turn on the video’s closed captioning.