redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
Smooth Talk - Again another film that I had not heard about before it came up on KG. This needs to be better known. Laura Dern plays a 15 year old (she's obviously a little too old for the role but gives such a strong performance that you can go with it), who's bored, attractive and want's to explore life. Her relationship with her family, especially her mother, is strained. Then a danger appears in the shape of an older drifter - I don't want to say much more as I don't want to give too much away. The mix of realism and strangeness, the undercurrent of danger and the acting all make this a really great piece of work.
A Place in the Sun - First in a Clift double bill. Very dated, over long (it could be trimmed by 20 minutes) and often unsubtle. There are just enough good things in the movie that it is watchable. Shelly Winters is very good (in a pretty cliched role), the scene where she goes to the doctor and tries to get an abortion is the best thing in the whole movie. Clift does the troubled young man part that he made his own, Taylor is the rich girl that he sets his heart on causing the problems. You can see how Clift's character falls for Taylor but not really why she goes head over heels for him.
The Young Lions - Marlo Brando with a blonde dye job and German accent (well I guess that that it is supposed to be what it is) plays a German solider who while not a dedicated Nazi enlists in the army and is somewhat supportive of a new Germany. Despite the accent he's got the best role and makes the most of it. Clift plays a Jewish US soldier looking to get married and Dean Martin a entertainer who is called up. The Martin storyline is the weakest part and the movie would have been better if it was dropped, or at least shortened.
A Place in the Sun - First in a Clift double bill. Very dated, over long (it could be trimmed by 20 minutes) and often unsubtle. There are just enough good things in the movie that it is watchable. Shelly Winters is very good (in a pretty cliched role), the scene where she goes to the doctor and tries to get an abortion is the best thing in the whole movie. Clift does the troubled young man part that he made his own, Taylor is the rich girl that he sets his heart on causing the problems. You can see how Clift's character falls for Taylor but not really why she goes head over heels for him.
The Young Lions - Marlo Brando with a blonde dye job and German accent (well I guess that that it is supposed to be what it is) plays a German solider who while not a dedicated Nazi enlists in the army and is somewhat supportive of a new Germany. Despite the accent he's got the best role and makes the most of it. Clift plays a Jewish US soldier looking to get married and Dean Martin a entertainer who is called up. The Martin storyline is the weakest part and the movie would have been better if it was dropped, or at least shortened.
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