And They're Off

Films: Salty O’Rourke
Format: DVD from St. Joseph Township Library through OCLC WorldCat on rockin’ flatscreen.

Before I get into the full discussion of Salty O’Rourke, I want to talk for a minute about libraries. I use a ton of them for this blog, and so I’m not going to speak ill of them, although I am frequently frustrated with them. My local library doesn’t have much of a DVD collection, but is happy to get DVDs from other libraries on their network, which means that they won’t get anything from WorldCat for me. One town to the north will get WorldCat items, but only if you are a resident of that town. The local major university will get WorldCat items from anywhere in the country, but only if you’re a student. A few weeks ago, I discovered another local library in a tiny little town to the east of me. And they will get WorldCat DVDs from any Illinois library. That fact is why I have Salty O’Rourke in my grubby mitts today.

In a real sense, I’ve been looking for Salty O’Rourke for about five years, and I’m lucky to have it now. On WorldCat, there are three libraries that have Salty O’Rourke as a lendable film; remember that I can only get movies from this one library and only from Illinois libraries. Two of the three listed libraries with this film are in Illinois. When it showed up, I knew this was one I’d be watching and reviewing immediately.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Director 1994

The Contenders:

Woody Allen: Bullets Over Broadway
Robert Zemeckis: Forrest Gump (winner)
Quentin Tarantino: Pulp Fiction
Robert Redford: Quiz Show
Krzysztof Kieslowski: Three Colors: Red

Wednesday Horror: Puppetmaster

Films: Puppetmaster
Format: DVD from Cortland Community Library on The New Portable.

There’s certainly no lack of examples of the idea that dolls and children’s toys can be decidedly creepy when shown that way. Child’s Play cemented that idea, but there are certainly plenty of other examples. Puppetmaster (also called Puppet Master depending on where you find it) is perhaps a bit tangential to that concept. I mean, the killers in this film are puppets (without strings), but none of them would be mistaken as toys.

So let’s dive right in. Alchemist Andre Toulon (William Hickey) has discovered a way to bring his puppet creations to life. Despite his being in Bodega Bay, California, he is about to be accosted by Nazis. He decides to hide his living puppets in a case behind a false wall in his hotel room, and before the Nazis show up to confront him, he kills himself.

Exit, Stage Left

Films: Being Julia
Format: DVD from Cortland Community Library on The New Portable.

A little known fact about me is that for a brief one-semester period in college, I was a minor in theater. I did a little acting, took a class in playwriting. And I learned something important: I hate actors. Oh, there are actors I like, but as a general rule, I hate actors. Whiny, self-important, arrogant, and convinced that their shit doesn’t stink. I gave up acting pretty much the day the play I was in wrapped, and when the semester was over, I switched my minor to psychology. For what it’s worth, being an English major wasn’t an improvement. There are only so many times you can watch the poet in your group angrily break up with his girlfriend at a party and then consciously count on his fingers until he got to the right dramatic moment to chase after her barefoot in the snow before you essentially want to burn everything to the ground (and yes—that’s a true story). All of this is to say that Being Julia is about actors, which is why it’s taken me this long to get to it.

It’s also a movie that stars Annette Bening, an actor I have never really warmed to for some reason. I don’t know why that is, because she is certainly capable of being very good. I like her in The Grifters and American Beauty, but for some reason, she doesn’t really work for me that often. She’s like coffee or Jell-O in that respect. I understand that most people like coffee and like Jell-O. I’m fine with that; I just don’t like them myself.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Picture 2008

The Contenders:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire (winner)

For Sale

Films: The Pawnbroker
Format: DVD from NetFlix on The New Portable.

One of the reasons that I discuss Oscar categories here the way I do is because of the way that Oscar functions. The Pawnbroker is a good example of this. I haven’t yet looked at the Best Actor race for 1965 because I didn’t have this review up, but it’s a consensus that Rod Steiger should have won this Oscar. Instead, it went to Lee Marvin because the Academy (rightfully) wanted him to have an Oscar, but in this case, he got it for Cat Ballou. Steiger didn’t win here, so he won in 1967, preventing Paul Newman from winning for Cool Hand Luke, which eventually led to Newman winning for The Color of Money. This is why I do what I do.

The Pawnbroker is the story of Sol Nazerman (Steiger), who runs a pawnshop in New York. As the film progresses, we learn that Nazerman is a Holocaust survivor and that he lost his entire family in the concentration camps including both of his children and his wife. Now, he has done everything he can to shut himself off from all emotion. Sol Nazerman has learned that emotions are a weakness and cause pain, and now he cares only about money. This is despite the fact that the pawnshop tends to put more money out than it takes in, something Nazerman’s owner Rodriguez (for lack of a better word, played by the butter-voiced Brock Peters) appreciates, since it makes the pawnshop a tax write-off.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Original Screenplay 1976

The Contenders:

Cousin, Cousine
The Front
Network (winner)
Rocky
Seven Beauties