Lockup drama
Small confession: meant to trudge my way to the movie theater to watch the latest Alien movie because-- why, exactly? Liked the atmosphere and production design and cast of the first movie; liked the offbeat humor and imagery of the fourth (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, from a script by Joss Whedon)-- otherwise, not a big fan.
So I went and saw Greg Kwedar's Sing Sing instead.
First thing you come to know when you meet 'Mother' Lily Monteverde is her laugh.
It's loud. It's raucous. It's her head tilting back, wide mouth opening wider, and that voice-- a little low, a lot rough, barking out a sound that's half-aggressive half-accepting of the absurdity of the world. Sound of a woman who holds nothing back when she laughs, same way she holds nothing back when giving her opinion or judgment or whatever needs expressing at the moment. It's the sound of a queen on her throne, ruling her little fiefdom with lively and inimitable style.
One thing I loathe almost as much as summer heat is summer movies. "So don't go," I'm told, but at the moment it's 97 F in the shade and the easiest way to beat soaring temperatures is to duck into a movie theater, so...Deadpool & Wolverine. At least the poster looks colorful.
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(Warning: plot twists discussed in explicit detail)
Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View, inspired by the assassinations of both John and Robert Kennedy is perhaps not the best film on the subject-- arguably near the top is Fred Zinneman's Day of the Jackal, a lean hide-n-seek thriller about a coldblooded Englishman (but are there any other kind?) plotting to shoot President Charles de Gaulle; on the apex sits John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate, about an American vice-presidential candidate doubling as Russian agent (Hilarious idea! Now where have we seen that before?) plotting to assume top spot by having his running mate killed (?!).
Arguably this film isn't even Pakula's best-- I'd nominate All the President's Men for the honor, the director's crackerjack smart adaptation of Woodward and Bernstein's bestselling account of the Watergate Hotel burglary, and the consequent investigation that helped pull down the Nixon Administration.
That said, and despite the inherently silly premise (all-powerful secret organization grooming political assassins), the bizarre bits peppering the narrative, I call this Pakula's most emblematic film, and lemme explain why--
