> 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:
RAMS (2015)****
THE HEIRESS (1949)****
OSLO (2021)****
TRANSIT (2018)****+
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RAMS (2015) ****
Two brothers live side by side in wild rural Iceland, raising sheep on adjacent farms. Though neighbors, there is a major rift between them. They haven’t spoken in 40 years, communicating when necessary, via a message-bearing hound who shuttles between them. But even this frigid truce is threatened when, after the annual competition for best ram in show, one brother notices his brother’s winning animal showing signs of a devastating disease. If he is right, an entire way of life is threatened, as everybody’s livestock will have to be put down to arrest the spread of the pathogen, which will cause both brothers worlds to come crumbling down. Tragedy seems unavoidable, looming directly ahead. What will happen when these lifelong enemies suddenly need one another? RAMS is really excellent stuff- certainly the most accomplished Icelandic film I’ve ever seen. The warring brothers are riveting to watch, and the third act is just dynamite!
THE HEIRESS (1949) ****
Taken from the Henry James novel Washington Square, with a score by American treasure Aaron Copeland, William Wyler directed this coming-of-age story about a simple and somewhat naïve young woman named Catherine (played by a sad, sympathetic Olivia de Havilland), who stands to gain a significant inheritance when her practical father (a stuffy Ralph Richardson), finally meets his maker- but only if she first makes a match he approves of. And father does not look favorably on the only young man who has ever made Catherine feel like a young woman, and not just a plain girl with a desirable dowry. Her supplicant is Morris, a fresh-faced young Montgomery Clift, who may or may not be the gold-digger dad is convinced he is. Does it matter, if Catherine is happy with him? Morris seems to offer her the warmth and intimacy that the affection-starved heiress is so thirsty for. It’s a level of validation Catherine’s cold father seems incapable of offering. Ultimately, the heart wants what it wants, not what the head wants it to want. Despite the threat of disinheritance, Catherine follows her blind heart, only to have it trampled in the dust. O young women! Beware the fickle heart of men! Consider this one an anti-romance.
OSLO (2021) ****
Terse, well-written and compelling, this heady true story tackles a heavy subject: the difficult birthing of the Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and their historical nemesis, as represented by the Palestinian Liberation Organization. It was a fraught mission, far more inclined to failure than success. All negotiations had to be back-channel, below the radar, as neither side could be seen publicly to be talking to the other. Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott are the intermediaries, determined to remain neutral, and avoid inserting themselves into the precarious drama. (We’ll see how long that lasts…) I must say, I am very taken with this leading lady. I haven’t seen much of Ruth Wilson, but something about her face fascinates me. Ms. Wilson is a talented cutie! I find that I haven’t much to say about this, except to urge you to see it. The actors are uniformly fine, and the script crackles with life. OSLO is very nuanced and accomplished filmmaking, that sheds an illuminating light on a process that usually happens behind closed doors.
TRANSIT (2018) ****+
Another accomplished film from an accomplished director, German cineaste Christian Petzold who brought the world BARBARA, PHOENIX, and UNDINE, delivers a very fine film about identity, loyalty and the heartbreaking fate of refugees. The whole thing feels impeccably constructed. In a fascinating device, Petzold sets his World War II story in modern day Paris- perhaps to lessen the distance between the ever-more distant events of the film and the lives we lead now. The protagonist is Georg, like countless thousands, desperate to escape the Nazi occupation. Through dumb luck, he assumes the identity of a dead author, traveling to Marseilles hoping to escape Europe by boat. But his plans are complicated by the binds of the human heart. Georg falls in love with a woman named Maria and her little boy- but there is a complication. He knows something Maria doesn’t: that the husband she searches so desperately for, is dead. Doing the right thing becomes an heroic act of self-sacrifice. It’s a story of desperation and redemption, expertly told. Christian Petzold is a filmmaker to watch!
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See y’all next time. Cheers, comrades!
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© Kevin Paul Keelan and lastcre8iveiconoclast, 2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kevin Paul Keelan and lastcre8iveiconoclast with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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