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NEW AND NOTABLE FILM BOOKS December 2019

Books Leonard Maltin
8594

There’s never enough time to read, so please consider this a survey rather than a series of reviews. I’ve only included books that interest or intrigue me.     THE MOVIE MUSICAL! by Jeanine Basinger (Knopf) In addition to teaching several generations of filmmakers at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Basinger has written a handful of essential books on classic Hollywood including The Star Machine, Silent Stars, and A Woman’s View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women, 1930-1960. Her latest is an expansive (634-page) treatise on musicals: a heady mixture of history, personal experience, and pointed opinions. This is the book I most look forward to reading cover-to-cover over the holidays, and I know I won’t be disappointed.       THE GROVE MUSIC GUIDE TO AMERICAN FILM MUSIC Edited…

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THE ULTIMATE PRE-CODE MOVIE

Leonard Maltin
7237

If there hadn’t been a Production Code crackdown brewing in Hollywood before The Story of Temple Drake (1933), this astonishing film might have tipped the scales. Based on William Faulkner’s sensational novel Sanctuary, it’s the story of a carefree Southern belle who teases men—until she is raped and turned into a sex slave. The Criterion Collection’s new Blu-ray release provides everything you need to appreciate the unprecedented nature of this material and how potent it remains today. I’m posting two pieces from 1933 that should be of interest: a publicity piece about Jack La Rue, who plays the notorious Trigger (named Popeye in the novel) and the first paragraphs of a review in the trade journal Motion Picture Herald.     Miriam Hopkins is excellent in the leading role.…

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KNIVES OUT: A SHARP BLEND OF COMEDY AND WHODUNIT

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
13377

Writer-director Rian Johnson has only made a handful of films, from his high-school noir debut Brick to the most recent Star Wars epic. Now he’s applied his ingenuity to an old-fashioned whodunit. As a longtime Agatha Christie fan he’s called on deep knowledge of the genre to craft his own, original “perfect crime” movie and laced it with humor from the very start. The tone is set by Johnson’s casting, beginning with Daniel Craig as a cocky private eye with an accent one character disparagingly compares to Foghorn Leghorn. Craig seems to be having the time of his life indulging in this role, aiding the mostly-clueless detectives on the case, and the feeling is infectious. Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, and Michael Shannon are the key family…

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THE TWO POPES: ONE OF THIS YEAR’S FINEST

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
5253

One of the most unpredictable and satisfying films of the year, The Two Popes represents a collaboration of great talents: writer Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything, Darkest Hour), director Fernando Mereilles (City of God, The Constant Gardener), and two of the finest actors on the planet, Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce. The filmmakers disarm us with this sly piece of historical speculation about a meeting between Pope Benedict and Pope Francis in 2012, at an unprecedented moment in history when Benedict announced that he was stepping down, making way for a liberal successor. McCarten’s screenplay is witty and sharply observed. Benedict is under fire for financial improprieties at the Vatican and willful ignorance of the sex scandals that plague the Catholic Church. Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina…

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THE CURE FOR WHAT AILS YOU: SERIALS

Leonard Maltin
4718

I came of age after Hollywood stopped making serials, but I still got to see a few during the waning days of Saturday kiddie matinees and I’ve never lost my fondness for them. That’s why I’m happy that VCI Entertainment has released a handful of newly-restored serials on DVD and Blu-ray—the same titles that Turner Classic Movies is showing in rotation on their TCM Watch app: Jungle Queen, The Vanishing Shadow, Lost City of the Jungle, Tailspin Tommy and the Great Air Mystery, et al. VCI (www.vcientertainment.com) has long offered public domain titles but I’ve just watched their 2K restoration of The Roaring West (1935) starring Buck Jones and it’s become one of my favorites. Most serial aficionados agree that Republic Pictures made the best chapter-plays, but this Universal…

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QUEEN & SLIM: ON THE ROAD AGAIN

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
5167

Comparisons to Bonnie and Clyde may be inevitable, but even with its faults Queen & Slim stands on its own. It’s sure to provoke an emotional response, especially from African American audiences. The film reflects a seething anger borne of police shootings we’ve all witnessed or read about—although we always root for the anti-heroes in a story about lovers on the lam, regardless of race. The movie opens simply enough, with two unnamed characters having dinner in a Cleveland coffee shop. This is their first date and they struggle to make conversation. She (newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith) is an attorney whose client has just received the death penalty. He (Daniel Kaluuya, from Get Out) works at a Costco store and drives a car bearing the license plate TRUSTGOD. Minutes later they…

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FROZEN 2

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
9211

I may not have been the biggest fan of Frozen but I certainly understood its widespread appeal. It offered not one but two princesses and a significant empowerment message for girls, an endearing comedy figure in Olaf, an unconventional leading man, and an enjoyable score featuring the indelible song “Let It Go.” I didn’t know what to expect from a sequel, especially given that like most fairy tales, this one concludes with everyone living happily ever after. Therein lies the dilemma. How do you invent a story that justifies extending “ever after?” I was hopeful that returning directors Jennifer Lee (who also wrote the screenplay) and Chris Buck would find a way. My 20-something students at USC were eager to see the results and didn’t share my…

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