Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) – J. Foley

It’s an acting masterclass from Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, and Alec Baldwin using a script by David Mamet (based on his play) and directed by James Foley. Aside from Spacey (the office manager), they all play real estate salesmen, mostly down on their luck. Alec Baldwin (a high-flyer from the head office) is brought in to threaten them to start closing deals – or else!  Lemmon seems to be in the most dire position, with a sick daughter in the hospital and out of funds.  Only Pacino has been selling and he has Jonathan Pryce on the hook as the film unfolds.  But when the premium “Glengarry” leads are stolen, the office falls apart as everyone is suspected.  Although only Pacino received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, everyone here is given some choice dialogue in that emphatic (and highly profane) Mamet style.  It’s gripping…and sad.  These guys are busting their butts in order to convince people to invest their hard-won savings in some highly doubtful get-rich-quick property schemes.  Clearly, they’ve got to sell their souls (as Baldwin seems to have) and be ready to exploit others without feeling in order to climb the ladder of success.  Such is capitalism.

  

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆  ½

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) – F. Capra

Been a long time since I watched this but I felt in need of some political uplift!  Jimmy Stewart plays the naïve but sincere and morally right boys’ club leader who suddenly finds himself the junior senator from his rural state when the incumbent dies and the governor (a puppet for a evil machine) picks him as a pushover.  The machine run by news magnate Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold) already has the state’s senior senator (played by Claude Rains with perfect ambivalence) in his pocket and together they are pushing through some major graft – trying to get federal approval for a dam after they have conveniently bought up all the surrounding land, putting the deeds in dummy names.  Of course, Senator Jefferson Smith (Stewart) puts a crimp in their plans, first accidentally but then with moral purpose – but the machine uses all their evil power against him.  The highlight of the film is Smith’s long filibuster to stop himself from getting ejected from the Senate and to defeat the bill.  Director Frank Capra can be Capracorny at times but there are so many great supporting actors here (Jean Arthur, Thomas Mitchell, Guy Kibbee, Beulah Bondi, Eugene Pallette, Harry Carey, etc.) that he can’t really go wrong, despite the total emotional manipulation at play.  Of course, the film ends abruptly on a high note, with little chance to contemplate the realities of the situation.  But hey, this sort of fable where corruption is defeated by those who advocate that the government should care for the people is just what I needed!

  

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) – M. Heller

I am one of those people who grew up watching Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood on PBS (and I sometimes wonder whether this is one of the things that encouraged me to move to Pittsburgh in the mid-90s).  I am still keen to see Morgan Neville’s recent documentary (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, 2018) but it hasn’t come my way yet.  Instead, despite my general dislike of Tom Hanks (as an actor, if not a person), who plays Fred Rogers, I thought I would give this film a try.  And I must confess that I liked it – because it is very weird!  First of all, it isn’t a bio-pic.  Instead, it is based on an Esquire magazine article that details how a cynical “broken” writer Lloyd Vogel, played by Mattthew Rhys, is assigned to interview Rogers in 1998 (for a special issue on “heroes”) and the transformative effect the meeting has on his life.  Sure, it is one of those uplifting films (like Silver Linings Playbook, which I also enjoyed) that can move you – but Hanks’ portrayal of Rogers is so damn odd that it is hard to look away.  At one point, he suggests that Vogel and he take a minute to think about all the people who loved and cared for us when we were small and the camera allows Hanks to gaze goofily out of the screen at us (this technique also seems drawn directly from attachment theory’s recent “security priming” interventions that boost well-being/reduce insecurity).  The problems that Vogel faces – family drama with dad Chris Cooper – are probably not too unusual and there are many adults with emotional problems out there – overcoming them for a heart-warming finale is screenwriting 101.  But the intervention of Mr. Rogers – the fact that there ever was such a person as Mr. Rogers – seems extraordinary.  Director Marielle Heller and her team manage to inject some creative elements (dream sequence, models of Pittsburgh and NYC that echo the TV show’s sets/methods) but in the end it is Hanks who pulls this off.  Now I’m going to be gentler with my kids!