Judy Fest: "The Harvey Girls"

Silly me. I had the greatest time at the Judy Garland festival at Lincoln Center this week and the movie I didn't write about Presenting Lily Mars was probably my favorite viewing experience. Rent it! Judy was just so funny in it, it was really charming and I liked her chemistry with Van Heflin (I confess I had to look him up since Shane had slipped my mind and I'd never seen his Best Supporting Actor Oscar performance for Johnny Eager (1941). Have any of you seen that one? Is it worth checking out?

But enough about Lily Mars... on to Judy in another incarnation. The Lincoln Center portion of the festival ends tomorrow though the celebration continues at the Paley Center for Television (since Judy did a lot of variety work on TV in the 50s). The last two films I caught were period musicals and here's the first of them.

The Harvey Girls (1946)
I always forget that Judy Garland and Angela Lansbury were contemporaries. They were just three years apart in age (Angela is younger) though in this western musical, Lansbury is clearly meant to be the older woman. Or at least the more experienced one, if you know what I'm saying. Angela is a hardened showgirl (i.e. prostitute) at a rowdy saloon (i.e. casino/brothel) and she's just about the only person in the frontier town who isn't thrilled when Judy Garland arrives "On the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe".

In fact, that first big ensemble musical number hilarious stops halfway through just so everyone can gawk at Judy as she steps off the train, like she's the most famous beloved celebrity in the world. The showstopping entrance makes no narrative sense whatsoever -- Judy's "Susan Bradley" being a nobody who is about to start work at Harvey's restaurant -- but it makes perfect movie-movie sense because Judy Garland IS famous and beloved. And if there's a musical number already in progress when Garland arrives at the scene it's basically the Red Sea to her Moses.

The town is divided too, right down the middle, between the wild saloon and the proper restaurant. It's basically a battle for both the soul of the town and the town's most powerful man (John Hodiak) with Lansbury and Garland representing for either side. Guess who wins: The good girl or the bad one? The headliner or the newbie (this was only Lansbury's fourth picture)? I'll give you one guess.

The Harvey Girls hasn't aged as well as some of Garland's output. It's pretty creaky and I don't think it's only due to the print we saw that badly needed some restoration and color correction. Part of the problem is that the film grinds to a halt whenever the typically able Garland isn't front and center. Plus, the songs aren't as memorable as those from her other films. Though the young Cyd Charisse is all porcelain loveliness and Angela Lansbury's perma-scowl is amusing the plot points connecting their numbers and several other characters feel insufficiently developed to hold interest in The Harvey Girls as an ensemble piece. It's always "Can we please get back to Garland?" Still, you can't beat that rare opportunity to see Dorothy dance with her Scarecrow again (Ray Bolger). I think she had missed him most of all. B-

Overheard: Children Will Listen

I was 20 minutes late to Rise of the Planet of the Apes this weekend (Didn't matter. Trailers were just ending) so everyone in line was buying tickets to or exiting from Captain America: The First Avenger. 

The good captain returns in THE AVENGERS (2012)Overheard:

Little Boy: [frustrated] The movie should have been 15 minutes longer! What happened in Times Square?
Dad: See, that's why they're making a sequel.
[Dramatic reassurance] It will be set in our time and it will be AWESOME!" 

Moviegoers have been trained so well and the indoctrination starts at birth. 

Seriously, Hollywood should stop wasting so much money on P&A. We've all been brainwashed to embrace the "see ya next time!" sequel culture.

10 Word Reviews: Maids, Apes, Robots

A few movies we haven't yet said much about. In the interest of saying something -- more will definitely follow in the case of The Help and The Rise of the Planet of the Apes both of which I suspect we'll be talking about thru Oscar season -- here's two handfuls of words for each.

2011... the year of the put upon maid?

The Housemaid (Im Sang-Soo)
in which a nanny/maid contemplates her own Fatal Attraction
10WR: South Korea continues its Actressy roll. Classy/Trashy, expertly shaped. B+ 

The Help (Tate Taylor)
Maids in the South tell their provoactive stories to a feisty young writer
10WR: Ungainly in telling yet super compelling. Well seasoned cornpone acting. B 
UPDATE: FULL REVIEW 

Transformers Dark of the Moon (Michael Bay)
giant fucking robots return so that visual f/x may occur and billions may be made
10WR: Surprisingly coherent explosiveness. But debris clears immediately (i.e. totes forgettable) C+ 

Cars 2 (John Lasseter & Brad Lewis)
in which Mater the tow truck, the Jar Jar Binks of Pixar, travels the world.
10WR: Noisy unfunny lemon stuck in traffic jam of easy gags. D-

Septien (Michael Tully)
in which..., no, I don't know what happens. Something about three abused backwoods brothers.
10WR: Incomprehensible indie auteurism. Masturbatory but at least someone's getting off. D

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rupert Wyatt)
a science experiment gone awry has deadly simian consequences
10WR: Overly familiar beastie, schocked back to life by superb staging. B+
10 Word Bonus Thought: As new directors go, we suspect Rupert Wyatt could "A"  

COMING SOON: I know that everyone is already talking about Andy Serkis's killer work as "Cesar" in terms of its Oscar battles to come. But I want to let the film settle before I sound off. Anyway, I already suspect this conversation will make me crazy because it'll end up being a "supporting" discussion and "Cesar" is the lead of the film. James Franco's stardom is a red herring ;) 

Links: Thrones, Ratings, Floridians

Ultra Culture has a great post on the British ratings board featuring 10 amusing nuggets from their annual report. Conclusion: at least they're better than America's sex-hating violence-loving MPAA.
Boy Culture is British actor Luke Evans (left) going back in the closet, on the eve of his double-feature blockbuster breakout (The Immortals, Three Musketeers)? Strange story.
Cleveland is very excited to have The Avengers film and wants Ohio to become a big movie-making draw. Between Ohio and Michigan's efforts, the Midwest is really trying to up the "shoot your film here" game.
Google interviews author George RR Martin on his Dance of Dragons tour. It's an hour long but you Game of Thrones junkies will probably want to give it a listen.
Playbill The King's Speech is headed to Broadway in 2012 just as we feared. Ha ha. Not really on the fear part. It's already practically a stage play so it should be fine. 
Inside TV Mad Men is finally shooting again. Woooohoooo
AV Club reports that Friday Night Lights has won a "program of the year" honor from a group called the Television Critics Association (which I'm unfamiliar with but it's a different group than the Broadcast Television Critics Association). Mad Men and Modern Family took home the regular "drama" and "comedy" series prizes respectively and Game of Thrones took home the "best new series" prize. Congratulations to all.

Finally here is Nicole Kidman on the set of Paperboy again. 

Whoa Nelly! and by Nelly I mean up and coming costume designer Caroline Eselin, whose previous credits include Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, Ballast and Leaves of Grass. Eselin apparently isn't shy about a riot of color... but then this murder investigation drama does takes place in Florida. 

Box Office: Rise of the Change-Up of the Apes

The relaunch or prequel or whatever you'd like to call it to the 43 year old Planet of the Apes franchise was buoyed by... well, we're not sure what it was buoyed by exactly. The film is unexpectly good but given that neither reviews nor "quality" generally factor in to first weekend grosses, it must be the familiar brand appeal. Perhaps enough time has passed since Tim Burton's awful remake that people were interested again? Expect the prequel to hold really well next weekend. Second weekends are when quality or perceptions thereof are much more influential. Word of Mouth, you know. I'll demonstrate: Go see it!

box office top ten (actual grosses)
01 RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES new $54.8
02 THE SMURFS $20.7 (cum $75.9)
03 COWBOYS AND ALIENS $15.7 (cum $67.3)
04 THE CHANGE-UP new $13.5
05 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER [review] $13 (cumulative $143.2)
06 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART TWO [review] $12.4 (cum $343)
07 CRAZY STUPID LOVE [your take]  $12 (cum $42.1)
08 FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS $4.6 (cum $48.5)
09 HORRIBLE BOSSES $4.5 (cum $105.1)
10 TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON $3 (cum $344.2)

Discussables: The Smurfs held fairly well reminding us once again that parents just don't read reviews and leave it up to the kids. That 56% drop for Cowboys & Aliens, though not uncommon for a film's second week, is not good news for a film that was supposed to be a very big deal this summer. The huge budget, nearly double the size of say Planet of the Ape's is more weight on its shoulders. (Here's some theorizing on what went wrong.) Crazy Stupid Love had the best legs of the top ten, barely taking a hit with only a 35% drop. In other words: people like the film. Ryan Reynolds continues to have a lackluster summer. Green Lantern underperformed and The Change-Up wasn't really packing them in either on opening weekend. That said, those two openings are still better than what he usually gets out of the gate, when it's his name as the principal draw. Not that he's actually been the principle player all that often. Time for a reteaming with Sandra Bullock, right?

Among this week's limited release big market happenings transgendered drama Gun Hill Road had the fullest houses with the reportedly epically misogynistic Bellflower just behind. Miranda July's The Future and Dominic Cooper objectification-fest The Devil's Double both added several theaters to their count. Are they open near you? I don't know why I haven't seen them yet but I keep falling further and further behind. Must spend entire day in theater soon.

What did you see this weekend?