· Directed by Fritz Lang
· Starring Alfred Abel, Gustav Frohlich, Brigitte Helm
· A monumental silent action-drama that still features some of the most memorable set pieces in movie history
· Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen
· Starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld
· Awards: Nominated – Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Picture, Best Actor (Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), Best Adapted Screenplay (True Grit is nominated for these awards for the upcoming Academy Awards)
· A sharp and fun remake that is nearly as strong as the original.
· Directed by Martin Scorsese
· Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz
· Awards: Nominated – Best Actor (Day-Lewis), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Original Song, Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Original Screenplay
· An epic film about rival gangs in late 1800s New York City is derailed by a busy and confusing ending.
· Directed by Ridley Scott
· Starring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Josh Brolin
· Awards: Nominated – Best Art Direction, Best Supporting Actress (Ruby Dee)
· A sleek dramatic thriller with an engaging story and strong performances all around.
The 400 Blows (1959)
Directed by Francois Truffaut
Starring Jean-Pierre Leaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Remy
Awards: Nominated – Best Original Screenplay
We all knew those kids when we were growing up who were always in trouble. Maybe some of them ended up straightening themselves out, but many were forever lost, continuing to find themselves in compromising situations. For those of us who stayed the course and didn’t get into trouble very often, we saw those kids more and more sparingly as we grew older, only catching wind of their latest tribulation from the gossip of random acquaintances.
But how did those kids get that way? Could they have been good kids with real potential, who were never given a real chance? The 400 Blows looks at these types of situations from the point of view of Antoine, a French boy living in Paris in a cramped apartment with his parents. His parents share a loveless marriage, and Antoine receives little affection from either of them. To his parents, he’s a cute diversion at best, and a hopeless terror at worst. Antoine’s troubles are exacerbated by his demeanor in school, where he goofs off and talks back to his stuffy schoolteacher.
Antoine, no older than twelve, can never seem to do the right thing. With every misstep, his parents throw up their hands and wonder what’s to be done with him rather than provide any positive reinforcement. He is expelled from school and leaves home, and soon after he takes to theft as a way to eat and provide for himself. In one heartbreaking scene, Antoine is loaded into a paddy wagon full of thieves and prostitutes after being caught having stolen a typewriter. He peers through the bars of the wagon as they wind through the city streets, crying, but stoically accepting his punishment and his fate.
The 400 Blows is supposedly a semi-autobiographical account of director Francois Truffaut’s childhood; he was in and out of trouble throughout his youth and the cinema was the only thing that saved him from prison. Truffaut is one of the lucky ones, but how many children do we lose to loveless parenting and a lack of understanding? A.
Who’s Harry Crumb? (1989)
Director: Paul Flaherty
Starring John Candy, Jeffrey Jones, Annie Potts, Shawnee Smith
I recently went through an SCTV kick, where I watched a couple of full seasons of that influential Canadian sketch comedy show. It first ran on Canadian television, and later aired on NBC and Cinemax in the US. SCTV helped launch the careers of Rick Moranis, Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis, Dave Thomas, Catherine O’Hara (the mom from Home Alone), and John Candy. I don’t think anyone can dislike John Candy, and I’ve long loved his work in films like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck and Stripes. So after watching some SCTV I thought I’d delve a little deeper into the Candy catalogue with the 1989 film Who’s Harry Crumb?
Holy shit. John Candy always struck me as a guy who could make any film tolerable simply by being on screen. Who’s Harry Crumb? taught me that this is not the case. Candy plays Crumb, a bumbling detective brought in by his boss (played by pederast Jeffrey Jones) to solve a kidnapping case. You see (spoilers!), Jones is implicit in the crime, and he knows Candy is such a boob that he’ll never figure things out. Haha!
So we get an hour and fifteen minutes or so of pratfalls, car accidents, Candy in various idiotic and unfunny disguises and general “fat guy buffoonery”. Not a bit of it is funny. Even Candy seems disinterested, with a perennial empty smile on his face as the straight-man shitty detective who doesn’t realize what a fucking dope he is.
In one particular soul crushing scene, Candy is dressed as a Turkish/Russian air conditioner repairman to gain entrance to a hotel room. He encounters fellow SCTV alum Joe Flaherty (the “You will not make this putt!” guy from Happy Gilmore), who plays the security guard for the complex. They have a hilariously unfunny exchange, and soon Candy is in the vents, eavesdropping on a suspect in the case. But SHE TURNS THE AIR CONDITIONING ON, causing Candy to fly back through the vent, landing on the security guard. This gag required 10 minutes of build up. Oy.
A bunch of stupid stuff happens and none of it matters. Who’s Harry Crumb? lacks a story, it lacks care, it lacks heart, and most importantly, it lacks laughs. It’s a testament to Candy that not even this pile of shit can tarnish his legacy. F.
John Lacey
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