I have on the inside of a door in my kitchen a drawing of a waterbird with a frog in its beak half way down its gullet. The frog has its hands tightly around the birds throat. The caption reads Never Give Up.  This is the ethos of my cultural hero Wiley E Coyote, The subject of the  live action/cartoon film Coyote vs Acme. In which my hero sues the giant Acme corporation for its unending supply of products that inevitably fail to work. Tired of failing to catch Road Runner he sees an ad for law firm in specializing in cartoon violence cases involving Acme products. Wile E. meets with a lawyer looking to take on the case. The firm tries to subpoena the Road Runner to testify, but he evades them. His lawyer a perennial looser in a big law firm  somehow believes despite his bosses he can beat Acme the same way Wile E. believes he will catch the Road Runner. Through a series of mostly hilarious live/cartoon interactions the Road Runner at the last moment shows up to defend his adversary. Good wins out in the end. (Hooray!) In a feel good ending in the desert outside  Albuquerque  Wiley reuniting with the Road Runner resumes their chase. It’s a fantasy (what’s wrong with that?) but a good one. 378 stars

 Tony.

Full disclosure, I was a big Bourdain fan. Which makes this telling of his early formative summers in Provincetown all the more disappointing. Expectation is a killer. If the subject matter was not who it is this film would not have made it out of the streaming world. The film itself is a mid level tramedy full of the usual teenage tropes. However Dominic Sessa does a convincing job portraying the young moody aimless insecure nineteen year old who escapes in shame to Provincetown after having been turned down for a writing fellowship at Vassar, lying to everyone along the way about his writing creds. Stranded and broke he his forced to stay, finding a job at a local restaurant as a dishwasher, with a crew of drug taking misfits who he eventually identifies with.  There is a telling scene in the middle of the film where in the kitchen of the owner/chef José Vatel played by Antonio Banderas Bourdain  sees a painting of a famous French chef preparing a banquet for Louis 14 about to kill himself over the fact that the fish supplier was late. Explaining to the clueless Bourdain who fails completely to grasp the implication.  Much later I his storied career the implication would become clear. I suppose it was inevitable that a film like this would appear, given Bourdain’s immense influence in a world he almost created. The culprits here are the producers who got the money to green light this mediocre effort, Sessa's performance excepted, on the basis of that now famous name.  It’s not terrible. Director Matt Johnson should be applauded to taking on this doomed project.     172 stars

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A Private Life.

Billed as a mystery thriller, you could throw in other genres as well they are all seamlessly woven into the engaging vehicle for Jodie Foster. The style of the film would be almost unrecognizable to American fans of the mystery thriller oeuvre. Being stylish, literary with a languid pace (not a single car chase). Restaurant scenes, dreamy looks over wine bottles and yet beneath all of this there is an Actual mystery. Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster) a shrink woking in Paris believes one of her patients who committed suicide was actually murdered. Through an unbelievably byzantine path of plot twists and red herrings she tries to find the culprit, which might in fact indirectly include her. An estranged son, divorced husband, pregnant daughter, a hypnotist, a recently discovered inheritance, phantom mistresses and romances all add to this tagliatelle, which ends up mainly thanks to Foster to keep your attention somehow on the progression of the tale. It is after all a French film with Foster speaking in a more than passable dialect. 328 étoiles

The Christophers.

This terrifically intricate engrossing film masterfully directed by Stephen Soderbergh, in which once famous but now fading painter brilliantly portrayed be the incomparable Ian McKellen long ago painted series of portraits of his then lover. In failing health and soon to die they lie unfinished in his attic. His nefarious offspring played by James Corden  and Jessica Gunning (of baby reindeer fame). hire an artist arrestingly portrayed by Michaela Coe to pose as his assistant in order to finish the paintings and sell them for a fortune after his death. More savvy than he lets on he discovers the plot and has the assistant help to destroy them. Rather than let him carry out his plan she paints a series of forgeries and they are the ones destroyed. All the while a genuine friendship developes between the two. She confesses what she has done and allows him to deface the originals with the intent of eliminating any value they might have. The plot continues to thicken with further forgeries, the baddies scheme fails, the unrecognized painter/ friend/assistant is redeemed and some sort of justice prevails. The entire film rests on Ian McKellen’s  mesmerizing performance. Michaela Coel as McKellen’s assistant  is a standout.

435 stars

 

Moss & Freud 

An engrossing film based on the events that occurred between Kate Moss and Lucien Freud about the coming together of these two unlikely collaborators from completely different worlds.

Kate Moss the English superstar model and Lucien Freud known as the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. Both at the time at the top of their respective careers. The film explores their disparate personalities and lives. How Moss young experimental and frenetic stumbles into Freud's disciplined intense artistic universe.  As his building obsession with his new muse develops, Moss at first bemused and flattered, slowly begins to grasp the importance that drives her towering mentor.  Derek Jacobi as Freud gives a compelling powerful yet restrained portrayal as the artist. Ellie Bamber as Moss also gives a nuanced convincing performance, under the polished direction of James Lucas who gives the film convincing glimpses into the obsessive world of the painter.  263 stars.

The Sheep Detectives.

George (played by Hugh Jackman) a sheep herder who lives in an aluminum house trailer on his farm. Every evening after he has tended to his flock who all have names, he reads them detective stories as they gather around, unaware that this wooly surrogate family can understand and absorb the tales. One morning as they wonder around their idyllic pasture one of the sheep discover Georges dead body lying in the grass. Stunned and bewildered they decide using all of their ovine cunning to try and find on their own the perpetrator of this fowl deed. Hindered more than helped by their human overlords they set about reconstructing in the best Agatha Christie tradition motive suspects and means. Herein lies the plot. The sheep skillfully animated by a huge cast of technicians and supported by a smaller but talented cast actors including Emma Thompson, Molly Gordon and Michael Wildman, and a much larger cast of voice talent to create and endearing atmosphere of wooly earnestness human buffoonery and ultimate redemption. This is a film for children, although it is well enough executed that adults will not have wasted their time watching it. 

300 Baaas and no humbug 

 

The Devil Wears Prada 2

Sequels even ones as well thought out, written, acted, produced as this one come with a built in curse. That of being by their nature unoriginal. The initial surprise ingenuity is missing no matter how strenuous the creators might try to mask this.  Plus there is the underlying smelly grab for money that further taints the effort. That being said this effort is worthy for the excellent quality of its recreation. The twenty year gap between the original surprise hit helping, especially for those with a poor memory. The quartette of original players have been cleverly reassembled with a startling lack of any physical effect. The story as well has been updated to mesh with the current state of printed media decline. Nevertheless the glam glitzy world of high couture has been displayed with unalloyed abandon adding to the fun of the whole visual trip. Maybach limousines along with every famous fashion name are sprinkled throughout like confetti at a drunk although very high end family reunion.  Meryl  Streep effortlessly reprises the imperious  Miranda Priestly, Anne Hathaway as the goofy and far too charming Andy Sachs Emily Blunt brings her English edge as the conniving Emily Charlton and Stanley Tucci  as the ever faithful Nigel. The roles are entirely within the acting chops of the entire quartet. Despite my original provisos, this is a fun well executed recreation of the original. 328 stars