Monday, April 3, 2017

Movies About Yesterday

I have no desire to turn this blog into a movie review column, but watching two disparate flicks yesterday has made me give in just for one day. I hope.

Todd Solondz's 2009 Life Under Wartime I enjoyed even though I have not yet seen its ancestor, Happiness. (I have seen Welcome to the Dollhouse.) Watching Life made me think "Woody Allen collides with John Waters". It's a birdcage of humanity.

Now for the second feature in my yesterday. Xanadu is a film I ignored when it hit movie screens back in the summer of 1980, and now I'm glad I did. The reviews were not good. I had no idea that Jeff Lynne and ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) had anything to do with this roller skate wreck. However, I was aware at the time that Gene Kelly was involved and elevated this rubbish somewhat. The climactic last reel featuring the opening of "Xanadu", the club, was hardly worth the wait. It was like getting an okay neck rub after going down with the Titanic....


2 comments:

Tibor said...

You stayed with it all the way to the end...and lived? :o

Simon St. Laurent said...

It was tough. While watching "Xanadu" I thought about how disjointed it felt; afterwards I watched the documentary. The producers and writers talked about the fact that they had a string of scenes more than a traditional screenplay -- another writer was brought onboard to try and smooth out the story.

The film only flew when E.L.O. took centre stage, so to speak.