RIP James Caan

According to the person running his Twitter account (see down below) the actor James Caan passed away yesterday, which is a sad one! I am sure most of you will say The Godfather when it comes to his legacy but Misery will always be the one for me -- Kathy Bates obviously storms away with the bulk of the attention in that movie but I think he's brilliant in it too. Just now I can conjure up in my mind's eye so many of his sweaty, exhausted reactions to the horrors befalling him, and that's talent. 

So what's your favorite James Caan?

It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Jimmy on the evening of July 6.

The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.

End of tweet

— James Caan (@James_Caan) July 7, 2022

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Misery (1990)

Annie: Paul, do you know about the early days at the Kimberly diamond mines? Do you know what they did to the Native workers who stole diamonds? Don't worry, they didn't kill them. That would be like junking your Mercedes just because it had a broken spring. No, if they caught them, they had to make sure they could go on working, but they also had to make sure they could never run away. The operation was called hobbling.

There is your brain before the "hobbling" scene in Misery and there is your brain after the "hobbling" scene in Misery and your brain after will never forget what "hobbling" means, that's for certain, making this one of the most enduring entries of our "Life Lessons" series. Thirty years enduring as of exactly today! Misery was released on November 30th 1990, and immediately become one of the best Stephen King adaptations of them all, if you ask me. Top 5 for sure. And Kathy Bates gets all the (deserved) love, what with that Oscar and all, but can we give it up for James Caan's performance as well? Dude gave us an astonishing symphony of sweatiness in this thing. 

Quick On Three Before The Storm

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A post shared by Jason Adams (@jasonaadams) on Sep 16, 2019 at 6:07am PDT

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I don't know if you heard me one or two of the five billion times I mentioned it in the last week but I'm currently immersed in press screenings for the New York Film Festival. Which is great! That said I've got today off and I'm not quite immersed in writing those up yet so I figured this is probably my last chance, before my brain's one hundred percent washed away by that, to toss out a few words on some movies that have nothing to do with NYFF that I nonetheless managed to see recently and actually, you know, have words for. A few anyway. 

The Death and Life of John F. Donovan -- As appealing as some individual moments in here that are coming at us from the ridiculous pool of talent that Xavier Dolan managed to gather up for this, his English-language debut -- Natalie Portman has a couple of lovely moments and you can't point a camera at Kathy Bates without coming away with something interesting -- man this thing flounders. My only thought at its end was what, pray tell, was the point of all this? 

Dolan seem to've felt forewarning on that front in the process of making the movie because he actually gives a character a speech about Why All This Matters -- that no it's not War And Famine but beautiful people feel things too, dammit! But that only serves to underline the vacuousness, like setting off fireworks at a three-alarm fire. Dolan has always been self-indulgent and self-obsessed but he's made that work to his advantage before -- Donovan feels like he's squeezed the rag dry. Definite bonus points for Kit Harington making out with Chris Zylka, though!

Tigers Are Not Afraid -- Even if Guillermo Del Toro hadn't been its biggest fan and sung its praises left right and everywhere it would have been impossible not to bring up Guillermo Del Toro, since the debt this mystical film about Mexican orphans owes his work -- specifically his kiddie ghost stories  Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone -- is plain.

That's not meant as any sort of slight, since writer-director Issa López has acknowledged the influence and more importantly she turned it out -- out enough that she manages to stand clear of his big shadow, even. Tigers Are Not Afraid is a low-key marvel, surprising and rough and emotional, at times darkly beautiful to behold. Like Del Toro she's not afraid to walk into those dark places and confront the things she finds there -- there are moments here that held me and held my breath in awe and sheer terror. S'real good!

The Dead Don't Die -- Well I think I have a new favorite Jim Jarmusch movie? That's not saying an especially lot given he's never been a film-maker I've connected too fiercely with -- he comes off as so posturing to me; like Patti Smith you get the feeling he couldn't possibly remember a person's name if they have never been mentioned in Interview Magazine. And yes that's describing my impression of him as a person, but that East Village brand of smug has heretofore bled all over his work, even when he's tackling a genre film like Only Lovers Left Alive, which Tilda aside -- always Tilda aside -- didn't strike me as having to say much of anything except the worn out "Vampirism is Drugs!" thing. 

But his zombie movie here seems a different beast -- maybe it's just that he's older and gotten the Cred he's plainly felt so owed for so long, but The Dead Don't Die finally just feels relaxed in the best of ways. Perhaps it's the Adam Driver Factor -- I feel like that big dude could loosen even the tightest of wads. The vibe is just so pleasantly off-kilter -- something about the humor so dry it's deserted smacking up against the wet slap of cartoon gore and severed heads straight on hit my sweetest of spaces. It's the correct sort of goof, for me, for me now.

Thursday's Ways Not To Die

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It seems somewhat likely to me that the majority of you have never seen PJ Hogan's 2002 comedy Unconditional Love, which stars Kathy Bates as a heartbroken American lady and Rupert Everett as the lover of a dead singer she liked. (It's complicated.) Anyway neither of those two are much featured in this sequence here -- this climactic showdown involves Meredith Eaton as Kathy's friend and Peter Sarsgaard (!!!) as an evil window-washer slash stalker...?

Honestly I have seen this film but I barely remember any of this. But it's Peter Sarsgaard's birthday today and this scene is extremely silly and insanely this very strange movie was PJ Hogan's follow-up to My Best Friend's Wedding and since there aren't many death scenes in PJ films... why not? Hit the jump for the rest...
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The Thingamajig Is Nigh

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I had no idea that American Horror Story was back next week - I mean I've been scurrying away from the subway posters of red-skinned devil-babies for weeks but I figured it'd be closer to Halloween. That said it's only seven weeks until Halloween, and so I am a fool, and here we are - American Horror Story: Apocalypse, as it's called, premieres on September 12th. And we have a trailer! And it is full...

... of young men being abused in their underwear.

Did David DeCoteau direct this season or what?

Can somebody tell me who that actor is? My first thought was that they used that CG de-aging software on Kyle Chandler, but I think it's an actual human person given how much he's in the trailer and I don't recognize him. I'm sure that's just me being an old person. On that note, trailer:

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I mean they had me at Kathy Bates whipping 

Evan Peters but how are you guys feeling?

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Give Us Something To Believe In

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I still haven't managed to see RBG, the documentary on American Hero Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but I have a feeling some of y'all have given it's had such a stellar run at the box office. And now I'm not sure I should see it before I see On the Basis of Sex, the forthcoming fictionalized bio-pic starring Felicity Jones as the Supreme Court Judge to be and...

... the ever gorgeous Armie Hammer as her faithful mister two steps behind. (Could they have given him a more flattering title card?) The movie, directed by Mimi Leder (most recently of The Leftovers) also stars Justin Theroux and Kathy Bates (hooray) and it out on Christmas Day. Here's the trailer:

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Cheers to Kathy Bates

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One of our finest living actresses Kathy Bates is turning 70 later this week, and so you should head on over to The Film Experience for this week's "Beauty vs Beast" - yup, it's a Dolores Claiborne-off. Anyway Stephen King being so hot right now I hope all the people adapting him look back to this movie once in awhile to see how it's done. It's a prime and under-rated example.

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Heads Up, Ed

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I've posted that picture of Ed Skrein before (in one of our multiple gratuitous posts on the actor) but I'm really feeling that picture today and I don't think you'll mind a redux. Hi, Ed! Good to see you, Ed! Real happy to hear about your next project - Ed is going to co-star with Eva Green and Kathy Bates, a dream-team if ever one was assembled, in a science-fiction thriller titled A Patriot, directed by Dan Pringle. Here's the jist:

“A Patriot” takes place in a future authoritarian state that has walled itself away from a world ravaged by climate chaos and resource wars. The story follows the unquestioning Border Corp Captain — played by Green — as she fights to defend the purity of the population, until a chance discovery makes her doubt the authorities she has pledged her allegiance and life to protect."

And in related news...

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You're going to have to excuse me for a minute
This picture of Riz Ahmed & Ed Skrein has winded me pic.twitter.com/RSohBSDHqd

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) April 27, 2018

5 Off My Head: Uncle Stevie's 70

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It is the 70th birthday of Stephen King and old age be damned he's this year's hot "It Boy" and in more ways than one, the movie It being the year's biggest surprise hit - I think we all expected the movie to do well, but not this well. It's raking in cash over claw. (Here is my review in case you missed it.) Anyway I'm in too much of a rush just now to go back through our archives and check to see if I've done this before (it's entirely possible) but here on his 70th let's name our five favorite movie adaptations of his stories.

My 5 Favorite Stephen King Movies

Dolores Claiborne (1995)

-- dir. Taylor Hackford --

Carrie (1976)

-- dir. Brian DePalma --

The Mist (2007)

-- dir. Frank Darabont --

The Shining (1980)

-- dir. Stanley Kubrick --

Misery (1990)

-- dir. Rob Reiner --

And if I did a Top Ten: The Shawshank Redemption, 

The Running Man, Creepshow, Cujo, and Apt Pupil.

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What are your favorite Stephen King movies?

(And would you already put It on your list?
I'm not quite there yet, but it's good.)

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Dolores Claiborne (1995)

Vera: An accident, Dolores, 

can be an unhappy woman's best friend. 

What's your favorite movie eclipse?
I don't think there's a better one than this...

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Great Moments in Movie Shelves #106

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It is Kathy Bates' birthday today! Huzzah! Any reason to celebrate one of our favorite actresses is always welcome, and so I thought today we'd take a look at... well, yeah, the obvious one. I know I've talked about Misery til the cockadoodie cows came home, but (in my best Jerri Blank voice) I got somethin' new to say.

Specifically -- how great is Annie Wilkes' little Paul Sheldon shrine? It's all in the details -- I love that she has the Misery Chastain novels in both hard and soft cover (like any proper Number One Fan would) and I love her choices in photographs. I mean why the hell would this crappy pulp fiction writer have met the queen? But that was a real picture of Jimmy Caan that they had access to...

... since he really did meet Queen Elizabeth, alongside Barbra Streisand (oh my god Babs, that outfit) and Jimmy Stewart. Anyway those are all obviously real pictures of James Caan that they adopted for the movie; I suppose that was simpler in 1990 than crudely photo-shopping him into anything (today's fun fact: Photoshop was invented in 1988.) All that said...

... the pièce de résistance up there is clearly the

Cat Frame that looks like it is violently devouring him.

What I love about Annie's stalker shelf is it's the second All Paul Sheldon Shelf that we see in the movie -- his editor (played by some blonde woman, I don't know) also has her own Paul Sheldon Stalker Shelf in her office. But she's even fancier - she has a French Edition Poster! Ooh la la, Betty.

Anyway a second before we see Annie's shelf we get this great sight-gag of Paul looking around the house - the framed picture of Liberace makes me bust out laughing every time I watch the film, and then the stuffed pig, and then the great big red (I might have known it would be red) photo-album with the words MEMORY LANE stamped across it that is propped up proudly on Annie's desk - and of course it's filled with every sordid detail of her ol' villainous baby-murdering lifestyle...

... because that's how bad people do. And that banner on the second page that says "ANOTHER BABY" is spectacular, truly spectacular. I can only imagine the good black-comedy cackling the set decorator (Garrett Lewis, who also did the sets for Beaches and Steel Magnolias and Pretty Woman! I wanna hang out with him!) had when he dressed up that bit.

Later on when Annie & Paul have dinner together Paul is placed so he's become a prop himself inside of Annie's Paul Sheldon Museum - a perfect subtle choice from director Rob Reiner, in a movie that, well, isn't always so subtle. 

Happy birthday, Kathy Bates!!!

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Pics of the Day

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The lucky folks at Collider got to visit the set of Xavier Dolan's next film The Death and Life of John F. Donovan (read our previous posts here) and came back with a shit-ton of pictures and a brief report (with more to come later) - today's for the pictures though, and as I said, a shit-ton.

I grabbed the three that boast Kit Harington because obviously but if you click over you can see images of Kathy Bates and Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman and Jacob Tremblay and more of Dolan himself and Jessica Chastain. Fun tidbit: Dolan shot this movie on 65mm! Wowza.

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1990

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I still have a few reviews from Tribeca to share with you but we're trying to get ourselves back into our old habits, and so I went ahead and asked my phone to give me a number between 1 and 100 this morning so we could do one of these posts, and here we be. Siri gave me 90, so we're taking a look at The Movies of 1990. I was 12 turning 13 that year and it pretty much marks the exact moment I was becoming a Movie Freak - I had definitely started watching the Oscars, and I have a fairly cherished memory of going to see one of my Top 5 movies (the one with the little green monsters) in the theater. So let's get to it! This is a really very weird bunch of movies, but remember we're choosing "Favorite" not "Best"...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 1990

Misery

(dir. Rob Reiner)

-- released November 30th, 1990 -- 

Gremlins 2: The New Batch

(dir. Joe Dante)

-- released June 15th 1990 -- 

Total Recall

(dir. Paul Verhoeven)

-- released June 1st 1990 -- 

Wild at Heart

(dir. David Lynch)

-- released August 17th 1990 -- 

Frankenhooker

(dir. Frank Henelotter)

-- released June 1st 1990 --

Sidenote: How amazing is it that both Total Recall & Frankenhooker came out in theaters on the same exact day? If only I'd been old enough to experience such a day properly, with all those rubbery fake breasts at once...

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Runners-up: Goodfellas (dir. Scorsese), Home Alone (dir. Columbus), Edward Scissorhands (dir. Tim Burton), Pretty Woman (dir. Garry Marshall), The Witches (dir. Nicolas Roeg), Nightbreed (dir. Clive Barker), Stella (dir. John Erman)...

... Cry Baby (dir. John Waters), Quick Change (dir. Howard Franklin), Postcards from the Edge (dir. Mike Nichols), Miller's Crossing (dir. Coens), Troll 2 (dir.  Claudio Fragasso), Mermaids (dir. Richard Benjamin), Alice (dir. Woody Allen), Ju Dou (dir. Zhang Yimou), The Reflecting Skin (dir. Phillip Ridley)

Never seen: Longtime Companion (dir.  Norman René)

Dreams (dir. Kurosawa)

King of New York (dir. Abel Ferrera)

Henry & June (dir. Philip Kaufman)

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What are your favorite movies of 1990?

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