SUCH GOOD FRIENDS: 70S CHIC

Having grown up in the 70s (and having reached the magical age of 17 then so I could see R rated films) I loved the movies. Fortunately for me this was a glorious time for film. Not only were past masters still making movies but a new, young generation was coming along that was making movies their way with new stories to tell rather than the tried and true themes. New stories involving people in the world of today more inclined to a world of realism rather than boy meets girl over and over.

Many of these movies were taken from the pages of best sellers. The movie SUCH GOOD FRIENDS was one such movie and it combined the old with the new, a current best seller and an old school director in Otto Preminger. Does it succeed? Some think so to the point they can’t figure out why this movie isn’t a cult classic. Others thought it showed Preminger’s decline. The truth is it lies somewhere in the middle, a movie that’s enjoyable enough to watch but not the best the director made nor artistic enough to gather a cult following.

The story revolves around Julie (Dyan Cannon), a young housewife and mother in New York City, with 2 rambunctious children and a self-interested husband named Richard (Laurence Luckinbill), a major magazine editor and children’s author about to have minor surgery to remove a mole. Things don’t go as planned and Richard has an allergic reaction to the blood they gave him. As the movie progresses things go from bad to worse and the transfusion given to cure that problem results in liver damage, then on to another organ and so forth. Through it all Richard remains in a coma while Julie is left to deal with the worry and their friends.

The friends (as some critics have noted) the typical New Yorkers of the day, self-interested as much as Richard was if not more so and constantly talking about themselves and their own problems and lives while Julie stresses out over Richard. His doctor is his best friend Timmy (James Coco) who continues to tell Julie not to worry with each progressive problem. Their friends Cal (Ken Howard) and Miranda (Jennifer O’Neill), a photographer for the magazine and his model/wife try to show their support but that changes.

While the turmoil that is their friends and their woes unwinds Cal meets Julie for lunch one day. As they sit and talk he reveals what many viewers would have assumed by this time. His wife and Richard had been having an affair. While the opening half of the film dealt with Julie trying to figure out her place in the world, in that of her husband, the second half deals with her reflections on how to deal with this information now. Does she stand by her philandering husband who is comatose or does she seek revenge somehow? To make matters worse she found a notebook she can now decipher while looking for insurance papers. It turns out Miranda wasn’t the only one Richard was with.

Most will find themselves hating Richard and hoping he never comes out of the coma. Others will wish he would so Julie could do him damage. And in both of those options the real meat of this movie is ignored, that of the problems faced by this woman whose life revolved around a cheating husband without knowing it and how she will cope with the world around her now.

There isn’t a poor performance in the entire mix here. Each of the characters acts as if they are the only ones that matter and the actors carry off those roles quite well. It would seem an easy thing to do but trust me, the way it’s written (by Elaine May under a pseudonym) makes it flow so well that it seems effortless. While stories behind the scenes say that Cannon and Preminger didn’t get along at all you can’t tell from what’s on the screen.

What makes the film interesting for most will be the picturization of the time period it takes place in. Like so many of the movies hot during the early 70s the views, opinions, sights and sounds all clearly depict this as a movie made in that time. It’s not timeless but rather a time capsule offering glimpses of the city, of the styles of apartments and clothing, hospitals (not a good depiction of them here) and more. Everything from the film stock used to the way the movie is pieced together screams early 70s. I won’t say this is a good thing or a bad thing but it is interesting. For me it brought back memories of other films and the way the world was at the time.

While this movie is not Oscar material or even a great movie for that matter it does offer a solid story, some great acting and a look at a time long forgotten. And while the character of Julie may be at the center of it all each character has their part to play as well. Some will call this melodrama and others dark comedy but in truth it’s hard to categorize. The best bet is to simply watch and enjoy.

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BLACK SAILS SEASON ONE: THE STORY ISN’T THE ONLY THING THAT FEELS OLD

When I first heard about this series I was hopeful. I mean to tell the story of Long John Silver before he lost his leg and went looking for Treasure Island seemed like an inventive story that had the potential to make for a rip roaring time. Unfortunately that isn’t the case with the results on view here. Instead I felt more like they were trying to insert present day concepts into past history.

While the story of Silver was a fictional one the times written about were not. I would say that I don’t understand why the makers of this chose to ignore that and go with contemporary bits and pieces but I do know. It’s all about marketing and polls or at least what they think the results of those would be. Maybe it’s just the crowd I hang out with but I don’t have any friends clamoring for yet another cable show that features gratuitous amounts of skin and bloodshed while lacking in a decent story to carry them along.

The story features the crew of a pirate ship ruled by Captain Flint (Toby Stephens), a cut throat pirate if there ever was one and opens with their ransacking of a ship on the high seas. On board this ship is a young man by the name of John Silver (Luke Arnold), a familiar name but far removed from the stories we all know and love. Silver is on board the ship and taking a cue from the ship’s cook identifies himself as that position so as to stave off being killed. Recruited to the life of a pirate things seem to be fine for Silver. After landing on Nassau, the island home of the pirates and their crews, he is tossed into bed with a group of prostitutes and left until morning.

Unbeknownst to Captain Flint, Silver took a page from the real cook before seeing to his demise, a page from the captured captain’s logbook that identifies where a long lost and incredibly large treasure is located. It is this page that the Flint is trying to find as well as the treasure itself. In a revealing moment Flint tell his trusted mate that the reason he wants this treasure is to barter for the lives of his men. He’s intelligent enough to see the future and knows that being a pirate limits the chances of a long life. With this treasure he would have the means to bargain for the lives of his men and the chance for all to live as free men.

But there is much skullduggery going on in this show, sometimes to the point of making it difficult to watch and retain. It unravels at a snail’s pace which is odd for what one would consider to be a show in the action/adventure genre. The action is relatively rare at first here. The story that unfolds does so in bits and pieces but never enough to truly satisfy per episode.

On the whole I won’t say that this series truly stinks but it does leave a lot to be desired. More action would be the first recommendation I would add to the series. The second thing is to step away from the new cable TV standard which is to insert sex into every series not on broadcast television. More often than not it adds little to the story and slows things down. Here we have it as well as the new trend which is girl on girl sex. Perhaps that was considered bold and daring 20 years ago but these days it’s becoming just something to toss in to try and tell people you’re edgy without really being so.

I know I’ll go back and give this a try again someday down the road. But for the moment with all of the choices and options of things out there to watch this one is low on my list.

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BY THE GUN: PASS IT BY

Having just watched Ben Barnes in SONS OF LIBERTY I was expecting a decent low budget movie when I put this one in. Instead I found one of the most boring crime flicks I’ve seen in ages filled with so many cliché moments that it took everything in me to stay awake until the end.

Barnes plays Nick, a low level criminal in Boston who dreams of making the big time and becoming a member of the local mob. Working menial crimes and doing things on the side just to make a living, Nick also has to watch out for his family. For example a family member insults the daughter of a mob boss and Nick’s boss (a wasted use of Harvey Keitel) makes him apologize to the boss. Except that this boss insults him non-stop before he lets him off the hook.

When Nick goes to apologize to the daughter as well she gives him a rough time. Of course you know the two of them will end up in love with one another. Trust me when I say this is not a set up for a Romeo and Juliet moment.

Nick continues to desire to be a made man, a killer for the mob, so that he can join the upper echelon. When he’s finally given the opportunity he can’t bring himself to pull the trigger so his best friend does it for him. Nick gets the credit, is sworn into the mob and then discovers more problems when this same friend kidnaps the mob boss that insulted Nick. With nowhere to go, with no options open to him, the end draws near for Nick and his life of crime.

With some solid locations and decent photography the movie could have been much better. Too many long winded speeches with phony sounding dialogue, a meandering story that never draws you in and some side plots like Nick’s father who wants nothing to do with him because of his choices end up making a boring flick that does little more than waste your time. If you feel the need to watch any movie starring Keitel then by all means watch him wasted in this role. As for Barnes I hope he gets better material to work with in the future than this.

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