Matewan

Internet Movie Database Movie Reviews

A labor organizer is brought into a fraught situation at a coal mine in West Virginia in 1920.

This was an excellent movie, although it’s clear from the start that it’s going nowhere good. The actual events-the strike, the mine owners’ efforts to bring in other workers to take over, and the violence at the end- are all historically accurate…John Sayles, one of our favorite writers and directors, BOTH wrote and directed this movie, and anything by him is pretty good history!

The main character, the labor organizer (Chris Cooper, who is a knockout in this role) who has been brought in to help the striking workers, is fictional, but when the detectives that the coal company hired started evicting miners’ families (who couldn’t pay rent because they were on strike), the inevitable happens and there’s a gunfight that left nine people dead, mostly detectives. The violence continued for years after this, and eventually martial law had to be declared and the National Guard sent in.

A really dark chapter in American history but worth seeing, if not for the events, then for the excellent writing and acting.

Once Upon a Time in America

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From the novel The Hoods by Harry Grey

A gangster returns to the Lower East Side where he grew up and started on his life of crime, hoping to put his past to rest.

This was one of our Zoom Movie Nights; during the lockdown in 2020, Mr. Otter, CoyoteRambles and I would set up a Zoom session, and after we had chatted a bit, would watch a movie while connected and talk about it afterwards. It was so much fun that we are continuing the movie nights indefinitely! We alternate choosing movies, and this was my choice; I’ve seen most of Sergio Leone’s movies, but always wanted to catch this one and never had. And I was not disappointed!

De Niro is a gangster who is haunted by his past, and that past (and his childhood) make up a large part of this movie; most of his young life is shown, with the present as a frame story and mystery about what actually happened to De Niro’s friends from the past.

This was so enjoyable! Not a typical mobster movie (and I had really expected a Godfather clone), but more of a character study framed by the question of what’s really going on in the future. The prohibition-era kids who will grow up to be gangsters are really good, and the fact that the film focuses so strongly on them makes it a much better viewing experience than it otherwise would have been.

Recommended by The Otter!

Oh, What a Lovely War

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A history of World War I, told through contemporaneous songs, animations, and live action, focusing on one family’s sons.

The filmmakers based this on a stage play, but kept the nonstandard structure of the original: for instance, there is no dialogue as such; there are bits of talking, but most of the movie is made up of songs from the time used to show what was happening both at home and at the various fronts, such as Maggie Smith’s awesome musical number used to recruit men to volunteer for the army.

There are some animated bits, usually to show the bigger picture, or animated cartoons from the papers.

And of course there are scenes from the war, also with current songs, showing how awful it was.

The film starts with a look of cheerful music-hall settings but gets serious pretty fast, which is appropriate considering what WWI was like… and of course this was released in 1969, during the Vietnam War.

This is kind of an odd duck of a movie, neither traditional musical nor war movie nor regular narrative, but it’s very very good, and well worth tracking down.

Rosemary’s Baby

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From the novel of the same name by Ira Levin.

Rosemary and her husband move to a new apartment with eccentric neighbors. She gets pregnant. Then things start getting REALLY WIERD.

This is an iconic horror movie, directed by Rpman Polanski and starring John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow. I remembered having seen it as a young otter, but didn’t remember anything about it, so I was happy when we watched it on Saturday Movie Night, although I warned Mr. Otter and CoyoteRambles that if it got oogie, I’d leave.

And as wierd, atmospheric and creepy as it was, it was never oogie.

What it was, after hearing jokes about it (including an excellent Mad Magazine parody) for fifty years…was pretty damn good. The suspense builds, the neighbors start out a little odd and get stranger and stranger, her husband is reassuring but not helpful, and the web around here closes in as you watch and can’t do anything.

A classic that’s well worth revisiting.

Onward

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Another animated movie about a (young person/young animal/cute being that is not human) looking for (his/her) (missing/gone/dead) (mother/father/other role model) with the help of (cute animals/friends/enemies/siblings) and (learning a lesson/bonding with companions/forgiving parent) by the end.

And having just explained the whole formula for every doggone Pixar movie ever made…this one was pretty damn awesome.

It’s a world that is pretty much like ours but with magic added. Ian is a teenaged elf who lives in a normal suburban house with his mother and brother, and on his birthday gets a magical staff that will allow him one more day with his father. OF course the spell goes awry, and he and his older brother spend the whole movie trying to make it work before it expires.

But this one (unlike many others, and I’m looking at you, Wall-E) has a heart. The characters really make you care about them (well, this geeky D&D loving otter did) and the story is touching and funny and made me cheer for the teens. I loved the brothers, the kickass mom, and all the amusing characters and plot twists.

See it for yourself, you’ll be glad you did.

1917

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During one day in April 1917, two soldiers are sent to cross no-mans-land at the front and deliver a message.

Ottersis and I were all over this- the previews were amazing, the movie had great word-of-mouth, and we both love war stories. Mr. Otter was full of reasons why this movie couldn’t have happened the way it did, sight unseen, so we left him at home and had a good time.

April 1917, a message must be sent across no-mans-land to stop an attack that will kill hundreds of men, including the brother of one of the guys carrying the message. The phone lines have been cut and the radio won’t work for (reasons), so they have to carry it themselves. Through trenches, bodies, no-mans-land, the german lines, towns under attack, you name it.

The thing is, the movie is close to real-time; the whole thing takes place in less than 24 hours of screen time. And the camera either follows, looks at, or uses the main character’s own pov the whole time. That alone makes it pretty amazing, especially the first third of the movie which is right up close to them and what they’re seeing and doing; after that it’s more like a regular movie, but that first third is really involving.

The story is excellent- the things that happen to them, the things they see, their talk and their friendship, the events of the war: all of these are really well done. The cinematography is excellent, it’s a beautiful picture, if one can say such a thing when so much of what is on screen is the awfulness of WWI.

If you like war movies or edge-of-your-seat suspense, this is a great choice.

Duck Soup

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Groucho ends up running a country. Wheee!

Who doesn’t love the Marx Brothers? Well, at least we Chez Otter do! CoyoteRambles was visiting, and movies are a big part of his visits, so we all decided on having some fun and watching this again.

It’s one of my fav Marx Bro movies; the ridiculousness of the plot (Groucho is made the leader of a fictional country that is on the brink of war with another country. You can guess how well that turns out…), the Hail Freedonia song (as well as Hurray for Captain Spaulding), the costumes and settings, the silliness of everything going on…this movie has it all!

Whether or not you have seen it before, or even if you have never seen the Marx Brothers at the top of their game, this is a great one to watch over and over and over…

Little Women

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From the book of the same name by Louisa May Alcott.

The lives of four girls growing up during the Civil War.

I wasn’t a girly girl at all…I didn’t read Judy Blume or Nancy Drew or ANY book called Little Women. I did, however, read Little Men and Jo’s Boys and loved them, as well as a lot of other Alcott books. I didn’t actually read this book til I was in college. And I LOVED it, and read it several times.

I may have seen one of the earlier movie adaptations of this story, but (maybe happily) don’t remember either of them. A friend has told me that the Hepburn version BAD, Allyson GOOD. Maybe sometime I’ll watch them and let you know.

Mr. Otter and I went to see this, he never having read the book and me being very familiar with it, and we both loved it.

Firstly, it’s beautiful. The cinematography is lovely, and evocative, and a joy to the eye. Color, movement, flow, all wonderful.

The actors are all excellent, and it was nice to see Laura Dern playing Marmee with a bit of spunk. Mr. Otter’s Golden Love Object, Meryl Streep, plays Aunt March. And the rest of the cast was very well chosen, including Saoirse Ronan as Jo.

The manners are a little too modern; everyone is too open, too easy with each other, too informal. There is a scene where Jo (living on her own and trying to get published) is dancing in a pub or bar with a group of men. Nothing salacious, and today we’d think nothing of if, but it WAS NOT DONE then. Just things like that were noticeable…but make it a little more relatable to modern audiences.

Overall, this was a fine movie, and we both enjoyed it immensely.

 

 

Spider-Man: Far From Home

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This review has, by necessity, spoilers for Avengers: Endgame…so if you haven’t seen that, go watch it now and come on back to find out what the Otter has to say about Spidey’s latest adventure!

 

No worries, I’ll wait…

 

and I’m waiting…

 

All done? Wasn’t that great? Now, let’s get back to Spidey.

 

Peter Parker goes on a class trip to Europe, hoping to just be a student, but of course Spider-man is needed.

This movie takes place after Avengers: Endgame, and if you recall, the people who disappeared at the end of Infinity War reappeared five years later. Peter Parker was one of them. I really loved that they made that part of this movie, and the fact that all these people (especially young people) are now dealing with having been moved ahead five years while everyone who didn’t disappear has gone on with their lives, and also gotten older…so high school students come back to a school where all their friends have graduated and moved on, and they are still the age they were. Really well done.

There is a world-wide threat, the Avengers are no more (literally, for many of them) and the world expects Spidey to take the lead role, not realizing that he’s a kid (or really caring). Peter is just trying to get on with his life, get a date with Mary Jane, and not be a superhero for a while…but of course is dragged into the mess. There are superbeings targeting different places on Earth, and a guy named Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) who shows up to help stop the baddies, and Nick Fury is trying to recruit Spidey, and of course things go wrong on the class trip.

This was a really good and satisfying coda to the Avengers saga, well worth watching. Good, fast-paced and believeable writing, characters that you care about, and some interesting plot twists made this one of the better Spider-man movies. Well worth seeing, says the Otter.

Les Visiteurs du Soir

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The Devil sends two demons to a castle in the Middle Ages to torment earthly souls.

When I was a young otter, back in the beforetime when movies were only available to watch when the Television Gods scheduled them, one would check the TV listings every week to see what was being shown and when, and plan ones calendar around seeing the things one loved because who knew when- or if- they would ever come back?

This movie was one of my favorites, and I would always stay up til whatever wierd hour it was being shown to see it again. It’s romantic (the demons decide to make two humans fall in love with them and thus destroy them, and you know what happens instead…!), beautifully filmed in black and white, and a treat to watch, even with subtitles. Very quiet and slow-moving by today’s standards, but stately and beautiful and inevitable in its course.

Interestingly enough, this movie was filmed in Vichy in 1942, in Nazi-controlled France; the reason they made a historical fantasy was to avoid censorship…but then they created an amazing gem of a movie.

If you haven’t seen it, find it…and have your box of kleenex handy.