Tuesday Minute
No. 153 | September 7, 2010

Once Is Enough

Our theme this week
Actors who have directed one film only

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   Marlon Brando:  One-Eyed Jacks (1961)

Gary Oldman:  Nil by Mouth (1997)

Nil by Mouth is a raw, personal, powerful look at working-class life on the south side of London.  Gary Oldman wrote and directed the film, and it’s hard to say how much of his childhood growing up in public housing made it onto the screen, but it’s a relief to know he survived.  Oldman dedicated the movie to the memory of his father.

The father in the film is a desperate and brutal man named Ray, played by Ray Winstone.  The victim of much of Ray’s abuse is his wife, Valerie, a role for which Kathy Burke won Best Actress at Cannes.  Their young daughter, Michelle, is utterly neglected, not even a concern for the parents, as she witnesses endless streams of profanity and shocking violence.  Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles) is Valerie’s brother, who robs them to feed his drug habit, which leads Ray to seek retribution.  The cycle goes on.  The rage within the family hits a boiling point, with Valerie ending up in the hospital, Ray beaten and semi-conscious in a parking lot, and Billy in jail.

It ain’t a pretty story, but it feels real, too real at times.  Nil by Mouth is like a documentary.  We may not be entertained, in the usual sense of the word, but we get a view of life we don’t get to see very often:  humans living in desperate circumstances, doing desperate things, and like the best of movies, it’s not about them, it’s about us.

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Nil by Mouth (1997)
Gary Oldman, writer-director
Ray Winstone, Kathy Burke

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Quote of note
“When you go out, you go out with your mates, and when you are in, you’re pissed out and your brain’s asleep in front of the fucking television.  I turn the television off, go up to bed, you follow me up at three o’clock in the morning stinking of booze.  That’s what I get.  Either that or you’re knocking me about.  I’m 30 today, you know, and I feel so fucking old.  You know, I’m tired, you know, I wanna be able to look back and say, ‘Yeah, I had a bit of fun,’ you know, when I’m old, instead of saying ‘Everyone fucking felt sorry for me!’  I mean, that’s the life I’ve got.  Do you hear what I’m saying?  I just don’t want it.  I’ll, I’ll find somebody else.  You know, someone who can love me.  Someone kind.”
—Valerie (Kathy Burke), Nil by Mouth (1997)

…58…59…60.

Wednesday Minute
Entr’acte | September 1, 2010

“Old Time Rock and Roll”

from Risky Business

One more week of musical selections before we return to regular features.  This time around, a variety of songs that make for some memorable movie moments.

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Risky Business (1983)
Paul Brickman, director
“Old Time Rock and Roll”
George Jackson, Thomas E. Jones III, songwriters
Bob Seger, singer

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…58…59…60.

Tuesday Minute
Entr’acte | August 31, 2010

“Tiny Dancer”

from Almost Famous

One more week of musical selections before we return to regular features.  This time around, a variety of songs that make for some memorable movie moments.

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Almost Famous (2000)
Cameron Crowe, director
“Tiny Dancer”
Elton John, singer-songwriter; Bernie Taupin, lyrics

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…58…59…60.

Monday Minute
Entr’acte | August 30, 2010

“What a Wonderful World”

from Good Morning, Vietnam

One more week of musical selections before we return to regular features.  This time around, a variety of songs that make for some memorable movie moments.

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Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
Barry Levinson, director
“What a Wonderful World”
Bob Thiele, George David Weiss, songwriters
Louis Armstrong, singer

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…58…59…60.

Friday Minute
No. 136 | July 23, 2010

Chick Flicks Not Just for Chicks

Our theme this week
Chick flicks—one guy’s take

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
Tuesday         —   The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Wednesday    —   Terms of Endearment (1983)
Thursday        —   Erin Brockovich (2000)

Thelma & Louise (1991)

 

If you think that chick flicks too often are about women just looking for guys, then Thelma & Louise is the film for you.  (If you think chick flicks ought to be about women looking for guys, perhaps you should reconsider.)

Thelma (Geena Davis) doesn’t need a guy—she’s got a husband.  She needs him like a hole in the head—he’s a Neanderthal the way he treats women—mostly she needs to get away.  The plan is for Thelma and her friend, Louise (Susan Sarandon), to spend the weekend in the mountains, fishing.  On the way up they stop at a dance hall, and that’s where their fun-filled getaway turns into an entirely different kind of trip.  Thelma is looking to party, has too much to drink, and dances with a guy named Harlan.  He’s trouble.  Louise finds them in the parking lot, where Harlan about to rape Thelma.  Louise pulls out a gun.  ”When a woman is crying like that,” Louise tells him, “she isn’t having any fun.”  Next thing, Harlan has a bullet in him and the two women speed away in Louise’s car, fugitives from the law.

The two of them head toward Mexico—the long way.  Louise has some history with Texas and won’t ever step foot in it again.  They meet a hitchhiking cowboy named J.D. (Brad Pitt, in a small but star-making role), who teaches Thelma a few tricks of the criminal trade, then beds her, before taking off with their cash.  Their funds low, police on their tail, the two women get back on the highway, the odds stacked against them.  It’s just Thelma and Louise and their dirty old T-Bird, speeding to the end of their fateful journey.

Thelma & Louise is not a typical film about women.  It offers a better look at female friendship than many pictures out of Hollywood, and it doesn’t offer a whitewashed view of how women are sometimes treated in our society.  The movie offers no easy answers, and it doesn’t pull its punches.  It’s one of those rare films that gets everything just right.  Its two lead characters seem destined to live on in our collective imaginations long after our time.

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Thelma & Louise (1991)
Ridley Scott, director
Callie Khouri, writer
Trailer
 

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Thelma & Louise (1991)
Geena Davis, Brad Pitt, Susan Sarandon, Michael Madsen

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Quote of Note
“You finally got laid properly.  I’m so proud.”
—Louise Sawyer (Susan Sarandon), Thelma & Louise (1991)

…58…59…60.