> Welcome to KPK’s “QuickPix”, brief capsule reviews of very worthy films- not a stinker in the lot. Culled from my monthly compendiums, every title here is a 4 to 5 star movie. It don’t get any better than this. Every QuickPix will look at 4 or 5 films from any and all times in cinema history- since the first feature film that premiered in Australia on Boxing Day in 1906, up to and including today!
(A reminder gentle reader: All films are rated on a 5-star basis
and must be over a decade old to hit the “classic” jackpot.)
Enjoy! This excursion features the following excellent films:
ANTHROPOID (2007)****
THE FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS (1950)****
AMERICAN MADE (2017)****
IMAGES (1972)****
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ANTHROPOID (2007) ****
A team of assassins is sent to rid the world of a very nasty Nazi, in top-secret “Operation Anthropoid”, and dude- that’s some tense shit! Cillian Murphy is good as ever playing the loyal leader of the hit squad. So is Toby Jones- as an insider operative, placing his life on the line to help the resistance. World War II was such a vast tapestry of interwoven stories. It’s amazing how much material there is left to explore, as you gradually unwind that tapestry of tragedy. This is exciting stuff. Unfortunately, I cannot articulate the biggest question it raised in me without giving away the ending. It will have to remain a mystery. History dictates that conclusion of course- but I went into the film ignorant of this chapter of our story, and that might have been a good thing. The courage, bravery, and sacrifice of that time is not to be understated.
THE FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS (1950) ****
Celebrated Italian neorealist Roberto Rossellini directed this devotional film, and wrote the script with master storyteller Federico Fellini. They make a potent pair. It tells the story of the cherished figure and his earliest followers, through a series of stunningly photographed vignettes. Every crisp, black-and-white frame is great to look at. In a bit of hyperbole, François Truffaut called it “the most beautiful film in the world”. Not quite- but a contender. Pious religious films are hardly my genre, but I really enjoyed this one. There is much to delight the eye, and food for thought as well. Rossellini + Fellini = pleasure.
AMERICAN MADE (2017) ****
Doug Liman directed Tom Cruise as TWA pilot Barry Seal, in this big screen retelling of a sordid true story of wanton crime and supreme hubris. Domhnall Gleeson delivers another good performance as the craven CIA agent who recruits this unselfconsciously arrogant pilot to run dangerous spy missions, and then eventually, shuttle cocaine and money back and forth from Central America in America’s secret war against the Sandinistas. Barry is a useful pawn, easy to manipulate because of his love of money. Before long he is swimming in it! He can’t launder the cash fast enough, and just doesn’t know where to put the pesky stuff! Tom Cruise is perfect here. He was born to play brash, clueless bigmouth blowhards like this. AMERICAN MADE is a story of affluence and unbridled excess, giddily told. A very American story.
IMAGES (1972) ****
This rarely-seen Robert Altman film is an obtuse psychological drama about a woman’s descent into madness. It’s a moody, atmospheric thriller starring a beguiling and effective Susannah York as an author staying in her country home (in gorgeous Wicklow Ireland), when she begins to experience unexplained phenomena. Are these apparitions or hallucinations? All the men in her life begin to become interchangeable- her husband, an ex-lover, and her husband’s philandering friend blurring identities, until the grim, tragic climax. This is an outlier for the great auteur- almost an experimental film, that feels like an homage to Ingmar Bergman. In fact, the great maverick filmmaker said IMAGES was his reaction to the Nordic master’s PERSONA. I can see that. With a score by the great John Williams and photography by the incomparable Vilmos Zsigmond, it features both great images and great music. York’s performance was noticed, but the film came and went like a whisper. It took many years for IMAGES to get the respect it deserves. Better late (as they say), than never.
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See y’all next time. Cheers, dramatis personae!
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