Picture This! Rebecca Redshaw’s Premiere Movie Review!
Something Old AND Something New: “Rich & Famous” and “City By The Sea”
By Rebecca Redshaw
Reprinted from NotesFromHollywood.com
As I touted in the introductory column last week, PICTURE THIS! has the flexibility to review all movies, old and new. Since this is the first review, it seems appropriate to offer a special introductory offer – two reviews for the price of one.
Something old? How about the 1981 MGM release directed by an eighty-one year old George Cukor? The mind boggles at the thought. In a town where talented people have trouble getting work if they are even close to AARP membership at fifty, Cukor took over the picture and conceivably got excellent performances from two actresses, who in their respective careers, have rarely lived up to their potential.
“Rich & Famous” is a bit wordy, a fact that may be appropriate since it depicts two authors (Jacqueline Bisset and Candace Bergen) struggling in the writing world, but the fun in watching this video is seeing them actually use their minds to get by.
The secret to Bisset’s character survival through the years may be the consumption of Scotch and/or casual sex. It’s a life style I would find well worth mimicking, if in the end, I could be assured of looking that good while ensconced in front of a fireplace in a cozy hideaway in Connecticut.
Using her Southern childhood memories to write trashy and financially rewarding novels, Bergen’s character Merry Noel, is like the smell of gasoline, the first whiff is intoxicating but continued inhalation induces nausea.
But the movie is fun for emotional roller coaster junkies. The women, under Cukor’s guidance, make it more than worth a bowl of popcorn. And you can catch a very young Meg Ryan as Bergen’s teenager and Steven Hill (for all you Law & Order junkies) saying different words than “cut a deal.”
The name Michael Caton-Jones may not be as familiar as Cukor’s but at forty-four, he has started an impressive director’s resume of serious work. “Rob Roy” and “This Boy’s Life” (his first time directing Robert DeNiro) were well told stories with nary a special effect between them.
“City by the Sea” is an anomaly in today’s market, no car crashes, no explosions. The deaths that occur on screen have meaning, the victims have names. What was Caton-Jones thinking?
Perhaps, that with a fairly good script and exceptional acting talent, a good story can be told? Based on a non-fiction magazine article, “City” is an emotional tug-of-war between a father (DeNiro) and his memories, a father (DeNiro) and his junkie son (James Franco, and a man (DeNiro) and the women in his life (Patty LuPone and Frances McDormand.
A good director knows when to get out of the way and Caton-Jones not only gives DeNiro and his strong supporting cast the time to actually express emotions, he captures that energy on screen.
LuPone and McDormand are so good you wish they had more to do but it’s DeNiro’s picture. Given a story line that could easily have been adapted into a TV movie, the actor raised the bar justifying the big screen.