Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy

TURN EVERY PAGE: THE ADVENTURES OF ROBERT GOTTLIEB AND ROBERT CARO

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews December 29, 2022

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Speaking as a writer who has worked in the publishing world for decades, I view Turn Every Page as a true-life Superhero movie. This portrait of two legends—veteran book editor Bob Gottlieb and venerable biographer Robert Caro—offers a closeup look at their individual personalities as well as their longtime collaboration. What began as a proposed three-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson has now extended to four books, with a fifth on the way. But as Gottlieb is now 91 and Caro is 87, theirs is what Gottlieb characterizes as an “actuarial” story as this point. The film could only have been made by someone both men trusted completely, Lizzy Gottlieb—Bob Gottlieb’s daughter. Even then, they won’t agree to be interviewed together and set strict guidelines for what she…

CATCHING UP WITH RECENT MOVIES

Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews December 29, 2022

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December is the busiest month of the year for me, as it’s when I have to catch up with as many movies as possible. I vote in several year-end awards and polls and I want to make good choices, though I always seem to be a few pictures behind. Here are my thoughts about some recent fare: The Whale I understand why Brendan Fraser has received so much attention and acclaim for his performance as a man who is morbidly obese. He’s completely convincing, but it’s difficult, if not downright painful, to watch him. What’s more, most of the characters who come to his apartment are unpleasant. The film is transparently based on a stage play, which is the last thing one would expect to…

BABYLON: AN ELEPHANTINE TIME TRIP

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews December 23, 2022

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Give Damien Chazelle credit for loving movies and Hollywood history. That’s what led him down the long and winding road to Babylon. But we all know what the road to hell is paved with, and this movie is a shining example of good intentions gone amok. The writer-director of La La Land became fascinated with the notion that the same people who perfected an art form in the 1920s indulged in bacchanalian behavior away from work. Hollywood was also a place where a nobody could become a somebody seemingly overnight. That carefree anything-can-happen atmosphere came to a screeching halt with the arrival of talkies. Those are just some of the pieces in this wildly ambitious mosaic, which runs just over three hours. Some of it works,…

WOMEN TALKING: ONE OF A KIND

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews December 23, 2022

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Sarah Polley has carved her own path, first as an actress and now as a filmmaker, having piloted a highly personal documentary (Stories We Tell) and two frank observational pieces about marriage (Take This Waltz, Away from Her). But nothing she has done before could prepare an audience for Women Talking, which she has adapted from a novel by Miriam Toews. Polley takes a bold, formalist approach to this provocative chamber drama about a group of women who have been brutalized by the men of their isolated community. They agree that they must make a life-altering decision: to run away, to stay and fight, or to do nothing. The women, of all ages, have been barred from getting an education, and make sound yet sometimes contradictory…

THE LITTLE RASCALS AT 100

Blu-Ray/DVD Leonard Maltin December 16, 2022

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My, how time flies. It was one hundred years ago that Hal Roach came up with the idea of putting ordinary kids together in a series of comedy shorts. The official name was Our Gang, but the titles often referred to Hal Roach’s Rascals. When he sold Our Gang to MGM in 1938 and had to devise a new name for the original shorts, they were officially rechristened The Little Rascals. The films hold up extremely well. They were a mainstay of television syndication, which is how they were introduced to new generations of fans. Now they look and sound better than ever, thanks to the digital cleanup and restoration done by ClassicFlix. Their Centennial Edition DVD/Blu-ray set is a must-have, not only for the 80 sound shorts but…

AVATAR: ON THE CUTTING EDGE

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews December 16, 2022

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I surrender. It’s easy to poke holes in James Cameron’s films because of awkward dialogue or glib characterizations or his propensity for staging climaxes to his climaxes. But I was completely taken in by Avatar: The Way of Water and overwhelmed by its fluid, kinetic action scenes, eye-popping production design and propulsive storytelling. I have only a sketchy memory of the original film from 2009 and could have used a recap at the outset of this new saga. At first I had trouble distinguishing the good guys from the bad guys in this sequel, but the answers soon became self-evident. The narrative is an obligatory clothesline on which the filmmaker can hang a series of spectacular vignettes. The key ingredient in this epic, expansive movie—which runs more…

OSCARS MAKE HISTORY AGAIN

Leonard Maltin November 22, 2022

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Every time The Academy presents awards it adds a page to Hollywood history. As we learn in Bruce Davis’s fine new book The Academy and the Award (Brandeis University Press) the institution known for its Oscars has given honorary awards for many years. But in the 1940s the decisions were made rather haphazardly, often the night before the award ceremony. Producer Walter Wanger talked a tired board of governors into giving him such an award in the wee hours of the morning just so they could go home to bed. In more recent times the producers of the Oscar telecast have been under pressure to shorten the event without giving short shrift to the winners of the honorary awards, as so often happens. Thus, in…

THE MAN WHO STOLE AN OSCAR FROM CLARK GABLE

‘THE LOST KING’ IS A MOVIE WORTH SEEING

LOSING A FRIEND

BRANDO, HITCHCOCK, AND JERRY LEWIS—TOGETHER?

MY FIRST-EVER OSCAR VOTE

NEW AND NOTABLE BOOKS January 2023

REMEMBERING ADRIENNE MANCIA AND BILL PENCE