michaelhasenstab Reviews

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

The Best Movie Ever Made?

[12 December 2011]

A few years ago some friends were sitting around the living room discussing movies as we like to do when there is nothing else to talk about, or even when there is. Someone asked everyone to name the best movie ever made, a nearly impossible feat to do if you have seen a lot of movies. *Citizen Kane*, *The Wizard of Oz*, *The Godfather* and other titles came up, but then I blurted out *It's A Wonderful Life*(IAWL), surprising even myself. No one seemed to take me seriously, but I insisted and explained. The original purpose of the motion picture, as I understand it to be, is to entertain, which can mean a lot of things, of course. IAWL makes people both laugh and cry. It insists on tugging at every emotion, even anger. We laugh when George and Mary fall into the swimming pool and later loses her robe, the only thing she has on. We cry when George and Mary are on the phone as he uses all of his strength to deny the fact that he loves Mary. It angers us to see George hurt Mary. They kiss. We cry. It's a victory over George's denial, also, that he is a human being. We celebrate their marriage, and are thrown into suspense when the bank is about to collapse. And we are again glad to see George be a human being, generous financially and spiritually. And we see Mary and George becoming one on spirit as she helps him save the bank with the money they were saving for their honeymoon. We hate Potter, the embodiment of evil--greed and envy. We even want to kill Uncle Billy for being so stupid, so lame brained as to lose the bank's money and cause incredible chaos and deep despair. And on Christmas Eve yet? We feel deeply for George Bailey, for Mary, for their children when Dad comes home and tears the house from limb to limb in utter frustration. The situation appears utterly hopeless.

This film has emotional ups and downs until now--it becomes bleak,dark and hardly what one would call sentimental. Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed give the performances of their careers. And the camera closes in on a terrified man, alone with his worries. He gets drunk and in his darkest moment decides to kill himself. On Christmas Eve? Then Capra saves us all by introducing Clarence to George. The movie takes a refreshing break from the hell we were in, but doesn't stay there for long. George gets to see his world if he had not been a part of it. We see George Bailey as the antithetical Scrooge. Scrooge makes people miserable. George makes people smile. But without George (without each of us) we see a world that seemed to have been created by Dickens' nastiest character. This changes George's attitude and ours.

Capra's masterpiece is the epitome of entertainment--an emotional tilt- a-whirl that leaves us completely satisfied. This is why it is the best film ever made. Not one line, not one move, not one scene, not even the snow, seems artificial. Whether or not angels exist, we do have something else--hope. Without it, the earth would collapse. And without the tiniest bit of goodness we all have within us, this world would be all Pottersville, heartless and meaningless. If that is schmaltz, let there be SCHMALTZ! *It's a Wonderful Life* is indeed the best movie ever made because it is the most entertaining film ever made

Blue Valentine (2010)

Love is a Bore

[5/10 · 13 November 2010]

Throughout this film about a failing marriage, I wanted one question to be answered: What was the problem? Here we have a funny, loving, childlike guy married to an unhappy woman. Seems she gave up her medical career because she became pregnant before they married. Hmmm...since when does this thwart an entire career? It ain't the 50s anymore. We see through flashbacks that they were very much in love, but we do not get to know why she, not he, becomes dissatisfied with the relationship. We are expected to believe that this is how most relationships dissolve? For no particular reason, just a blah feeling about it all. This film needs a half hour of editing and a much faster pace. The dialogue is flat, and the much hyped sexually explicit scenes may be just that for prime time network TV, but not for me. I didn't see sexually explicit at all here. I asked audience members around me--all women--what her problem was. Three said that it wasn't clear to them why she was no longer in love. One suggested it was probably because he smokes. Another because he drinks. Another because he is immature. Hmmm...Then I asked (bothered it seemed) two other moviegoers, again women, and they looked at me puzzled. When I asked her what the wife's problem was, she said, "You mean--what caused her problems?" Uhm...yeah. The other said, "Life." And they both left. This film is not satisfying emotionally or intellectually. And it's a bore, too. When the female protagonist says that she has two children, implying that one of them is her husband, I thought--could be this is her issue then. Lame, just lame. The guy clearly loves her and their daughter, and he is clearly childlike, not childish--in fact, is is she who seems childish and selfish. Writers: be clear.

Nuts (1987)

Nuts: Good Drama

[8/10 · 10 December 2006]

This film is one of those old-fashioned, court room dramas that unfolds a mystery about the protagonist (Claudia Draper), played by Streisand. She is an expensive call girl who comes from a wealthy family. Why is she a prostitute? She kills a "john." Why did she do this? Is she nuts? Can she stand trial? Is she capable? What is with her family anyway? It's a well written, Freudian drama with acting that is solid all the way through. If you have no problems believing, as some narrow minded folks do, that this actress is pretty or sexy enough to be paid for sex, then you just might get hooked into this picture. It's not terribly shocking--no one is eaten alive and there is no gore or hard core sex going on. If you're looking for that, it won't happen. Streisand and Richard Dreyfuss, who plays her court appointed attorney, play well off each other. Karl Malden and Maureen Stapleton are just plain good. I watch it every year and I enjoy it immensely.