The Last Station (2009) - Christopher Plummer Helen Mirren

Plot Summary - Following the last days of famed writer Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) in Russia, 1910. A young and innocent Tolstoy worshipper, Valentin (James McAvoy), arrives to become his new private secretary while Tolstoy's wife, the Countess (Helen Mirren), often disrupts the household in her pursuit to keep her husband from creating a new will that will entail the rights to all his literary works, including famous War and Peace, to the people (rather than her children). Meanwhile Valentin loses his virginity and falls in love with the liberated woman called Masha.

Review - Filmed on location in a lovely setting, the 1910 time period wonderfully set and costumed, the story is oh so slightly tedious, the fight over the will being the main thrust here. But - the acting is fabulous, especially Christopher Plummer as the aged Tolstoy and - wow, Helen Mirren is fantastic as his troubled and troublesome wife. James McAvoy is a personal favorite and heartthrob of mine, well done - the actress who plays Masha was miscast, in my opinion. An interesting historical drama, as a whole, well photographed and acted. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937) - Judy Garland Mickey Rooney

Plot Summary - Horse racing melodrama/light musical, starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. English teen Roger (Ronald Sinclair) heads for California with his grandfather Sir Peter Calverton (C. Aubrey Smith) to race their beloved prize horse "the Pookah" in the "American Cup". Roger sets out to recruit skilled, but cocky, jockey Timmie Donovan (Mickey Rooney) - known as a big "swellhead" - to ride the Pookah in the race. Roger heads into Mother Ralph's boarding house for jockeys, gets invited to dinner by niece Cricket West (Judy Garland), a teen with a great singing voice and ambitions to become a singer and actress (she's a bit of a show-off). After Roger gets poked around by all for his short pants and British accent, a couple of black eyes later and Timmie ends up agreeing to ride Roger's horse. They soon become good pals, but things start to go wrong when Timmie is tricked into believing his father is dying and in need of an expensive iron lung, and the only way to get the money for dad is to "throw a race". Dad is actually a professional gambler/bad man and not even ill, Timmy makes the Pookah lose in a preliminary race for America's Cup, then all seems lost when he ends up removed as a jockey and thrown off the course right before the big race. But luckily Roger has been taking jockey lessons from Timmy, and decides to go ahead and ride the Pookah in the race himself!

Review - A cute, light entertainment, the film boosted up by the star quality of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland (she received top billing here, though I would have liked to have seen her with a bit more to do), plus a great cast of character actors (Sophie Tucker as Mother Ralph/Aunt Edie is quite amusing here). Ronald Sinclair is very good too and gives a nice, realistic quality in his performance as the young Englishman, including a scene with some very innocent flirtations between him and Judy's character. Many scenes in the movie are filmed on-location at the brand new Santa Anita racetrack. Wonderful Judy shines, as usual, singing "Got a Pair of New Shoes" several times during the film, including the opening titles. Mickey Rooney energetically steals the film, as usual. Rating - 8/10 stars

Red Desert (1964) - Il deserto rosso - Antonioni directed

Plot Summary - Italian language film, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Cold, industrialized cityscape with gritty, gray, lonely streets, rusted window frames, large, rundown factories spewing pollution, fishing ports with ghost-like ships that pass quietly by through the fog, large and looming, rusty and mysterious - and an attractive, deeply disturbed young woman (Monica Vitti) - a wife and mother - who faces mental illness after some sort of road accident a few years before. She seems unable to cope with the world around her, and sometimes views things in one color, the scene literally painted gray - or pink. She meets a friend (Richard Harris) of her husband at the factory where he works, then seems to keep meeting up with this new man, his almost lovestruck eye, a wee bit lustful, always there to observe her strange behavior.

Review - A very unusual film, weirdly visual, with striking imagery - the background music is often futuristic, sci-fi, machine-ish in nature. Is there some hidden meaning behind all this - or is the director trying too hard to be artsy and cool?! Ah, that's the rub. And what's behind the tiny fishing hut, the group of horny people, the quail eggs, and the almost orgy followed by odd, nearby ship quarantine? I found the film interesting, in any case - real weird, but oddly satisfying too. One of my favorite scenes was when the woman tells a story to her young son, the story visualized on the screen, with lovely isolated island, pink beach, a lone girl, and mysterious sailing ship - the prettiest scenery in the film is really, nothing but a story. The widescreen print of this film looked very nice, on Criterion Blu-ray. Rating - 9/10 stars

July Notes

Okay - still trying to catch up with this. I am going to try posting each film on the day I see it, as I did when I started this blog. Seems like it was easier to keep up with that way. Starting with the film I watched today.