America's Sweethearts, 2001

It's a comedy about Hollywood insiders and A-list types by Hollywood insiders and A-list types; sometimes it feels like it's for them, too. It's pretty funny, though entirely predictable, so the pleasure comes from primarily from watching the actors do things that they do well. John Cusack is the ripped-up, neurotic ex; Catherine Zeta-Jones is the imperious self-involved primadonna; Julia Roberts is the lovable good egg; Billy Crystal is the long-suffering wisecracker. Stanley Tucci, Hank Azaria, Seth Green, and Christopher Walken are all fun, too. It's like a bag of chips -- enjoyable, but not a meal.

Directed by Joe Roth
Written by Billy Crystal and Peter Tolan

Starring  John Cusack, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Billy Crystal

It's surprising, but Christopher Walken
plays kind of an oddball.

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Suspicion, 1941

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Samson Raphaelson, Joan Harrison, and Alma Reville
Starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine

It's early Hitchcock, and he does a fine job of slowly building up the tension. Some of the early, more romantic part of the movie is a little stilted, but it's good enough. And, apparently, the glow in the famous glass of milk at the end is because they actually had a lightbulb in it. Perhaps what's best about the movie is that it really is an excellent portrait of suspicion as a phenomenon -- Joan Fontaine's perspective gets more and more turned by her fears about Cary Grant, so that every new piece of information becomes another bit of the indictment against him.

SPOILER ALERT: It's quite something to watch her fears and feelings color her thinking more and more, despite the fact that she has no evidence that he's a murderer -- and, in fact, isn't one. She's acting on information that she has twisted, rather than what really is. There's a lesson here: If we have fixed views -- particularly negative prejudices -- about issues or people and are unwilling to actually look at facts or even our personal experience, then everything we see or hear will just confirm what we already believe, rather than helping us to discover what is actually true. In Joan Fontaine's case, what's particularly striking is that she doesn't see her own complicity in creating the situation, and that she's unwilling (until the very end of the movie) to contend with the fact that her blaming Cary Grant for her own situation has been on a false basis and that her fears are the cause of much of what's gone on.

The faceless Cary Grant and the fearful glass of milk.

Suspicion at IMDB

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Scrooged, 1988

Directed by Richard Donner
Written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue (from some old thing that Charles Dickens wrote)
Starring Bill Murray, Karen Allen, Bobcat Goldthwait

This is not everyone's favorite, nor is it everyone's favorite Bill Murray movie (surely that's Groundhog Day), nor is it everyone's favorite Christmas move (surely that's It's a Wonderful Life, in a crowded field). However, I watch it basically every year. It's heart is in the right place, even if (as the New York Times would say) Mr. Murray and director Richard Donner had disagreements about the tone. Besides, it's friggin' Bill Murray as Scrooge -- what more could one ask for? There are lots of good lines, many delightful supporting performances, and, like the original Scrooge, he gets the message, so it has the Christmas spirit.

One bit that I especially enjoy (partly because the waiter is played by Tony Steedman, also known for playing Socrates in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure) and features a little primer in proper grammar:

Frank Cross (Bill Murray): "Are you him? Are you him?"
Waiter (Tony Steedman) shakes his head: "Are you he?"

Scrooged at IMDB.

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Scarface, 1932

Starring Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, and George Raft
Directed Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson
Written by Ben Hecht and related work by a lot of other people

This is a classic tale of mobsters going from bad to worse during prohibition. Paul Muni (mostly unknown now) turns in quite a performance as Tony Camonte; George Raft is his best friend; and Ann Dvorak is Cesca, his sister. It goes from being a gangster movie to something almost Shakespearean at the end. There's a scene near the end where people "talk past" each other until one of them realizes what's happening, which is almost unimaginable to see in a movie like this. Certainly worth it for that, if not strictly for its historical value in the history of gangster movies.

Scarface at IMDB.

Rinaldo (George Raft) and Tony (Paul Muni)

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The Asphalt Jungle, 1950

Directed by John Huston
Written by Ben Maddow and John Huston
Starring Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, and Jean Hagen

A really fine movie. It's worth seeing just for Sterling Hayden, but the whole thing excels. The script is great, it looks great, the acting is great. It's said to be one of the first heist movies, and it makes you understand how the whole sub-genre could come from it. As a side note for comedy fans, if you're wondering how to stop seeing Louis Calhern only as Trentino (see below) from Duck Soup or Jean Hagen (also see below) only as Lina Lamont from Singin' in the Rain, this movie will do it. Finally, if you want to see how good acting can be disturbing without being the least bit explicit, wait for the scene with Sam Jaffe as (Doc Riedenschneider) near the end.

Finally, Stanley Kubrick must have really liked this movie. See The Killing for why I think that.

The Asphalt Jungle at IMDB.

P.S. If you've forgotten who Trentino is, he's the one on the right:

If you've forgotten who Lina Lamont is (again, on the right -- in the white, not the cop):

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Idiocracy, 2006

Directed by Mike Judge
Written by Etan Cohen and Mike Judge
Starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph

This is a really funny, genuinely subversive, dystopian comedy. The script is great, and it's full of quotable lines. The conception of the future rings true, which is why it's so funny, and yet actually creepy and off-putting under further scrutiny. The music is delightful. Luke Wilson is completely on the money as the everyman who is elevated by the decline of everything around him, and continually appalled by what he sees. And it has that Mad-magazine (or perhaps Doug Kenney), "every detail is funny" look. Yes, there are plot holes and things don't make sense, but just watch as if you were from the future and you won't notice those. Or watch these to obliterate your memory.

And it's in The Pantheon.

Also, you can tell that Jon Stewart loves this movie. 
 

(L-R: Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Secretary
of Education, Secretary of Commerce, Attorney General)

 
Idiocracy at IMDB.


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Groundhog Day, 1993

Directed by Harold Ramis
Written by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis
Starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell

I think this is Bill Murray's best movie. It's a good story based on an intriguing premise. It's very funny, and, dare I say, even moving at a few moments. He's at the top of his game and obviously working well with Harold Ramis, who is also at the top of his game. The other performances are fine, but this is Bill's movie and he carries it off. It's not a masterpiece of cinema, but it's head-and-shoulders above most comedies (and a lot of what's out there). I could list my favorite lines, but there are too many. There's something particularly hilarious about the recurring scenes in the diner -- especially the scene where he drinks coffee from the decanter and when he gets Andie McDowell's list of what she's looking for in a man ("Me again").

There's also notable material about it in this article; spoiler alert for the article: I hope they're finally talking again.

And it's in The Pantheon.

Groundhog Day at IMDB.

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Intolerable Cruelty, 2003

Directed by Joel Coen
Written by Robert Ramsey & Matthew Stone and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Starring George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones


This movie is a favorite among favorites (and it's in The Pantheon, of course). Along with Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, this is my favorite cat-and-mouse movie.

The acting is, across the board, wonderful. Of course George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones are good, but this movie wouldn't be what it is without Geoffrey Rush ("I'm in a meeting!"), Billy Bob Thornton ("Honey, do I look worried?"), Cedric the Entertainer ("You want tact? Call a tactician."), Paul Adelstein ("Baby field greens"), Richard Jenkins ("Your Honor, this is harassment, and, frankly, it's still a little arty-farty."), Edward Herrmann ("Is that possible?") and so many others.

And they obviously wouldn't be so good if it weren't for the writing. The universe of this movie is so filled with lying that it's easy not to notice how often it happens. When George Clooney unknowingly repeats the lie that someone (no spoiler here) has died in a business meeting when we clearly know otherwise, it's just a reminder that they are all filled with, as Big Daddy would say, mendacity.

The Coen brothers really outdid themselves with this movie. The pacing is great, look is great, and even the little touches are great -- things like "Living without Intestines" magazine. That's part of the reason why this movie holds up so well after repeated viewings, and I speak from experience.

A lot of reviews compared this movie to screwball comedies, but, while their influence is evident, it's a product of now. It's just as much fun watching George Clooney go through trouble as our modern Cary Grant, but those movies (The Awful Truth, for example) are about a world that isn't greedy the way this one is. That some of the main action happens at a divorce lawyers' convention in Las Vegas, versus swanky and relatively innocent apartments and nightclubs in '30's New York is telling enough. So much of this movie is about cupidity versus Cupid that the Coen brothers may have left out that pun as a sign that it was too obvious.

Intolerable Cruelty at IMDB.

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