Bringing up Baby review

 Number 214 on the top 1000 films of all time is Howard Hawks' 1938 screwball comedy 'Bringing up Baby.'

David Huxley (Cary Grant) is a palaeontologist who is aiming to get a million dollar donation for his museum from wealthy benefactor Elizabeth Ransom (May Robson.) He is also shortly due to be married. However, he then meets the scatter-brained heiress Susan Vance (Katherine Hepburn.) Shenanigans and hi-jinks ensue.

Bringing Up Baby was a box-office bomb upon release. It was so bad that it virtually killed off Hepburn's career before she later rebounded. Nonetheless, critics received it for its absurdist humour and bizarre situations. However, I thought it was all a bit ridiculous and not in a good way either. While it started well, it slowly descending into incredulity, as things become more and more outlandish. The "baby" in the title refers to a leopard that was a gift for Elizabeth. Baby escapes and Huxley and Vance have to track it down. Naturally another leopard has escaped from the nearby circus.

Before Susan's dog steals and buries an important bone that Huxley needs to complete his brontosaurus skeleton. They then have to dig holes all over Susan's garden to find the bones. When Huxley and Vance's antics land them in jail, Huxley realises his cell door has been left unlocked, which he soon points out to the police who promptly lock him up again. It's all a bit silly really. And not very funny either.

The same can't be said for Cary Grant. He put his background in Vaudeville to good use, as he shows off his great physical comedy skills. His jumping in the air declaring that he was feeling gay was complete improvisation.

However, I wasn't as convinced by Katherine Hepburn. It was difficult to believe this was the same actress who had won a record four acting Oscars. But she didn't fared so well in the comedy department. Reportedly, she majorly struggled because she was trying too hard to be funny. It didn't help that Vance was a frustrating character. She wasn't a character that matched up with Hepburn's famous strong feminist character. I think she was miscast.

If anything, the air-headed, man-obsessed, scatter-brained Susan Vance would have been a better fit for the other famous Hepburn - Audrey. Susan Vance was not unlike Holly Golightly. Having said that, her imitation of a gangster at the film's conclusion was very well done.

Cary Grant was a comedic talent and Katherine Hepburn was a great actress in her own right, but I don't think this film did either of them justice. 

The Aviator review

 Number 835 on the top 1000 films of all time is Martin Scorsesee's biographical drama film 'The Aviator.'

'The Aviator' tells the true story of film and aviation titan Howard Hughes (Leonardo Dicaprio) from his childhood to his rise to a successful film producer and pioneer of the aviation industry, all while documenting his later struggles with severe OCD and germaphobia. 'The Aviator' also explores his relationships with famed actresses Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale.) Rounding out the cast are notable heavyweights like Ian Holm, Alec Baldwin, Jude Law, Gwen Stefani and Willem Dafoe.

I've never been a fan of period-dramas. I find them overly-long, boring and lacking in drama and tension. This also extends to biopics and historical dramas. The Aviator was no exception. Objectively, I can understand why this would be fascinating subject-matter to some audiences. It is effectively about one of the early cinema pioneers. He produced some of the biggest films of the twenties and thirties including Scarface, the Racket and Hell's Angels. In fact, Hell's Angels and its the ground-breaking practices feature heavily within the Aviator.

Leonardo Dicaprio was Leonardo Dicaprio. He was charismatic enough, as the maverick and eccentric film mogul. He did earn the second of six Oscar nods for his portrayal, ultimately losing to Jamie Foxx who played Ray Charles. Honestly, I did think Jamie Foxx gave a better performance. However, where Leo didn't win an Oscar, Cate Blanchett did. She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Katherine Hepburn. Again, she was good as far as the role went, but I'm not sure whether it was really Oscar-worthy. The portrayal felt very surface-level. Katherine Hepburn features heavily earlier on, before disappearing for much of the second-act to appear at the end as a Deux-ex-machina figure.

I also didn't think much of Kate Beckinsale who was pretty insipid as Ava Gardner or perhaps that's because she didn't have the best material. She didn't have that much to do throughout the film except be the target of Hughes' paranoid delusions.

Don't get me wrong, there were some great sequences in this film: Hughes catastrophically crashing his plane was heart-pounding, edge-of-the-seat stuff, while the portrayal of his declining mental health was well-directed and acted out. Dicaprio and Scorsesee worked extensively with UCLA's Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz aiming to portray OCD and germaphobia as accurately as possible ... although I may argue that Hughes recovered from this nadir a little too easily. Surely, it would take more than just a pep-talk from your old flames. But I guess that's just Hollywood.

The Aviator was entertaining enough, but, personally I don't much care for biopics or period-dramas. And that's more to do with me than any criticism of Scoresee or the Aviator itself.

American Graffiti review

 Number 777 on the top 1000 films of all time is George Lucas' directorial debut and coming-of-age drama 'American Graffiti.'

Curt Henderson (Richard Dreyfuss,) Steve Bolander (Ron Howard,) John Milner (Paul Le Mat) and Terry 'Toad' Fields (Charlie Martin Smith) are four high-school graduates preparing to go their separate ways in life. Across one summer night, we see how they spend their last hours of adolescence.

It's hard to believe this is the same director who created Star Wars and produced Indiana Jones - two of the most action-packed, fun-filled, entertaining franchises in movie history. Francis Ford Coppola also produced this film. And he directed the legendary Godfather films. But American Graffiti was so boring. Once it gets going it's okay, but it takes so long to get going.

The first half of the film, which is roundabouts an hour, nothing much really happens. The four main characters spend most of the time just driving around Modesto, California. They all have their own personal goals: Curt is trying to find a beautiful girl he saw in passing while Toad schemes and plots to impress another girl called Debbie. But none of these goals were particularly interesting or relatable. And I think relatability is one of the most important parts of a coming-of-age drama. But American Graffiti was sorely missing this key aspect.

Once things do get going, there are moments of humour and poignancy, but these are few and far between. When Toad tries asking an older man to buy alcohol for him and his date, the man instead buys wine and sneaks out of the back of the store. A second man robs the store, but at least buys the alcohol for Toad. 

When Curt scratches the car of a group of greases, they coerce him into joining them for the night and force him to engage in petty crime like robbing arcade machines. If he refuses, they'll beat him up. It was entertaining if not the most realistic. Surely the greasers would just beat him up in the first place.

I also could have done without the ending epilogue revealing the fates of the different characters. These aren't real people. We don't need to know where they end up. That can be left up to the viewer to decide.

Although American Graffiti had its funny and touching moments, it was too slow and took too long to get going. How was this the same director who did Star Wars?

His Girl Friday review

 Number 260 on the top 1000 films of all time is Howard Hawks' 1940 screwball comedy 'His Girl Friday.'

Walter Burns (Cary Grant) is a newspaper editor who is about to lose his top journalist and ex-wife Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) to another man. To win her back, he convinces her to cover one more story with him - the case of murderer Earl Williams (John Qualen.)

Something interesting happened when I explained this film to my girlfriend. She didn't know what I meant by a screwball comedy. And that's when I realised that like film-noir, screwball comedies are a film genre that has been left behind in the Golden Age of Hollywood. I was trying to think of modern-day examples of screwball comedies and I couldn't. And I think that's because they don't make comedies quite like these anymore.

Modern-day comedy, for the most part, have an over-reliance on crude double entendre or crass, over-the-top physical comedy. Of course there are exceptions, but that is generally the rule. They lack all the subtlety and nuance of screwball films like The Apartment, Some Like it Hot or even His Girl Friday. His Girl Friday balances farcical situations and understated physical comedy well. So that Hily and Walter can gain a scoop in the story, they hide Williams in a rolltop desk which leads to a bunch of great gags. One of the best is to emphasise how the desk is empty Walter bangs on it. Unfortunately, Williams bangs back and is discovered.

You could argue that Walter isn't the most likeable of protagonists. He very much manipulates his wife into staying with him and mystifyingly his ploys work - by the film's end, Walter and Hildy reconcile and agree to remarry. But then again this is a screwball comedy - effectively a reworked love story and a love story always needs to have a happy ending. 

The Help review

 Number 247 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2011 period comedy-drama 'The Help.' 

Based on Kathryn's Stockett's book of the same name, the Help follows aspiring writer Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan (Emma Stone) in 1960's Mississippi. Skeeter, inspired by the horrific racism inflicted upon African American maids, decides to write a book telling their side of the story. Two of the maids she interviews are Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and Minerva 'Minny' Jackson (Octavia Spencer.) Aibileen has the misfortune of serving the vile and racist Hillary "Hilly" Walters Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) while Minny serves the ditzy but kind-hearted Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain.)

In modern cinema, representation remains a divisive issue. However, I would argue that the Help is representation done right. It There is constant outrage over characters who are historically white being recast with POC actors in the name of diversity i.e the Little Mermaid. The outrage isn't focussed on seeing POC characters represented on screen, but rather with how they're represented. It's argued that instead of taking stories and replacing the white character with a black actor, film makers should be more creative and think of an original story or instead adapt a story with historically black characters. Hidden Figures, Green Book and Twelve years a Slave are all great examples of representation done right. And I would add the Help to that list.

It is a film that takes the challenging topic of race relations and tells it through the perspective of its victims. The stories of the African-American maids are put front-and-centre. Aibileen and Minny both retell the horrific abuse they've experienced - Minny is fired from her job for using the guest bathroom, which she is forbidden from because she's black. Meanwhile, Aibileen reveals that her son died after an accident at works leads to him being dumped at the "coloured hospital." Maybe if he was white, he would have received the medical attention he deserved. Davis and Spencer worked brilliantly together, playing the comedic and dramatic roles with a great sensitivity.

Inevitably, the film has been accused of a white saviour narrative, as although it is recounting the stories of African-American maids, it is doing so through a white voice i.e Skeeter's book. But I wouldn't agree with this. Minny initially refuses to help Skeeter, because she has neither asked or wanted Skeeter's help to tell her story. When Minny relents and agrees to tell her story, she stresses that it is on her terms. In some ways, the Help is acknowledging and dispelling the accusations of white savourism in one fell swoop. Furthermore, this isn't some non-issue that's been blown out of proportion, these are serious issues that need to be told.

Unlike Twelve Years a Slave which is brutal and unflinching in its portrayal of race relations, The Help is far more subtle and understated. It shows the insidious nature of racism. Hilly is a socialite who is campaigning for there to be segregated toilets in the household - one for the white people and one for the black people. And of course the toilets for black people are in a far worse condition. In her misguided way, she thinks she is doing this for the benefit of everybody, white and black, when her actions, of course, only benefit white people.

But, moreover, the Help is also nuanced in its portrayal of African-American households. After Minny loses her job, she is beaten by her husband. And it is obvious that this isn't the first time. We don't see this play out on screen, but rather hear it, as Aibileen is phoning her friend at the same time. Hearing the beating and seeing its aftermath will always be more effective than seeing it for real.

If anything, I would say that the white characters were badly represented. They all dressed and looked very similar which, at first, made it very hard to delineate one from the other.  This wasn't just the case for Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard and Jessica, but all of the older white women. I kept getting everybody mixed up.

It was refreshing to see a film that not only had good representation of race, but also gender. It was very refreshing to see a predominantly female cast. And it shows that if representation and diversity are done right, films can be all the more better for it.