Night Moves (1975)

Film: Night Movies (1975)

Stars: Gene Hackman, Susan Clark, Jennifer Warren, Edward Binns, Harris Yulin, James Woods, Melanie Griffith

Director: Arthur Penn

Oscar History: No nominations, though Hackman did get a BAFTA nomination so it was probably in the running.

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Throughout the month of June, in honor of the 10th Anniversary of The Many Rantings of John, we will be doing a Film Noir Movie Marathon, featuring fifteen film noir classics that I'll be seeing for the first time.  Reviews of other film noir classics are at the bottom of this article.

We're not quite done yet with our monthlong blog marathon.  While I initially wanted this to be only in June, the month slightly got away from me, and as a result I'm going to bleed into this weekend.  I owe you (after this article) five articles that I had said would be part of our month, and we'll get to all five of them by Sunday plus the kick off of our July star, which will officially end our anniversary celebration.  This is a part-time blog, after all, and I don't want to shortchange you, but I also have to admit that sometimes other priorities get in the way.  Today, we're going to move our film noir marathon firmly into the direction of neo-noir, with one of the quintessential dark detective dramas of the 1970's, Arthur Penn's Night Moves.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is focused on Harry Moseby (Hackman), who is a retired pro football player who now makes his money doing divorce cases & looking for runaways.  He finds out in the opening of the film that his wife Ellen (Clark) is cheating on him, largely because he's neglected her for his work.  Instead of tending to his marriage, Harry instead is working on his latest case, working for a drunken divorcee's daughter Delly (Griffith), who has run away from a terrible home...but her mother wants her back because she's her child support meal ticket.  This sets off a dangerous game, as we soon learn that the world that Delly has run into, filled with sexual depravity, art smuggling, & frequent murders, is far more than Harry could've bargained for.

One of the key distinguishers between the film noir of the 1940's & 50's and the neo-noir craze that would dominate the 1970's & 80's was the lack of the Hays Code.  This wasn't just a way to have more violence & nudity (which Night Moves has), but it's also a way to play with the formula.  Noir always had the bad guy get caught, the hero either live or die heroically, and the girl getting what was coming to her (either a big kiss, or if she was too evil, the wrong end of a bullet).  Neo-noir didn't have to play by these rules.  The femme fatale could get away with it, the villains might win, the detective might not be the better for it (or die trying to get to the truth).  You saw this in films like Body Heat, The Long Goodbye, and the greatest film of the era, Chinatown.

This is also the case with Night Moves, which slowly drowns Harry in this world, immersing him in a world obsessed with sex, particularly a number of leering older men driven to grave sin while lusting after a teenage Melanie Griffith (Night Moves would not be able to be made today without getting crucified on Twitter), and a duplicitous Jennifer Warren as a woman you can't pin down (it's not entirely clear even as she dies what she had planned next with a treasure about to board her ship, and a boat with only one other guy in the middle of the ocean).  The film ends in bright daylight, with Harry shot down by a man he'd assumed to be innocent but who is, in fact, part of the conspiracy he's stumbled across, and with Harry just inches away from a steering wheel that could get him home...except he can't reach it.  The film was seen as a metaphor for the end of Watergate, when a hopeless America didn't know what to think...but it also serves as a pretty shocking spin on the noir, with everything you understand being skewed enough so that by the twisty ending you can't trust anything that comes next.

1940's: The Big Sleep, The Blue Dahlia, Blues in the Night, Brighton Rock, Criss Cross, Crossfire, Daisy Kenyon, Dead Reckoning, Detour, Fallen Angel, Gilda, High Sierra, I Walk Alone, I Wake Up Screaming, The Killers, The Lady from Shanghai, Leave Her to Heaven, Moonrise, Murder My Sweet, Nightmare Alley, Out of the Past, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Ride the Pink Horse, Scarlet Street, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, They Won't Believe Me, Too Late for Tears, The Woman in the Window, The Woman on the Beach

1950's: Affair in Trinidad, The Asphalt Jungle, Beat the Devil, The Big Combo, The Big Heat, The Blue Gardenia, The Burglar, Cast a Dark Shadow, The Crimson Kimono, Gun Crazy, The Hitch-Hiker, House of Bamboo, In a Lonely Place, The Killing, Kiss Me Deadly, Murder by Contract, Night and the City, On Dangerous Ground, Pickup on South Street, Slightly Scarlet, Sudden Fear, Sweet Smell of Success, They Live By Night, While the City Sleeps

Neo-Noir: Blade Runner, Body Heat, Farewell My Lovely, Fargo, From Afar, The Long Goodbye, Nightcrawler

OVP: Surf's Up (2007)

Film: Surf's Up (2007)
Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, Mario Cantone, James Woods, Diedrich Bader
Director: Ash Brannon and Chris Buck
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Animated Feature Film)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

I am kind of obsessed at this moment (late to the game, obviously), with the Shia LaBeouf Live song by Rob Cantor (if you haven't seen it yet, click immediately), and so it seems more than appropriate therefore that I take some time out and review one of his movies.  Yes, for those of you who remember the 2007 Oscars, when there was a sea of surprises on nomination morning (Tommy Lee Jones!  Laura Linney!), perhaps nothing was as surprising as the shocking exclusion of The Simpsons Movie from the Animated Feature race, where the Academy instead, for the second year in a row, went with a penguin movie.  What I didn't know before watching Surf's Up, though, was that this was in fact another penguin documentary.  Though the film has a cool framing device (one I didn't expect from an animated movie), the second half falls into hopeless cliche, and I was forced to be less-than-impressed, but I have to admit that while Simpsons was miles better, I at least get the appeal here.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film starts off as a surfing documentary, chronicling the life of Big Z (Bridges), a deceased surfer who was a legend in the penguin/animal surfing community, and is the hero of our main protagonist Cody Maverick (LaBeouf).  Cody is on a quest to make his name in the sport, eventually making it to the Big Z Memorial Surfing Contest, where he is competing against a host of people, including Tank (Bader), a gigantic penguin who is undefeated in the contest, and Chicken Joe (Heder, back when he was briefly a household name), a crazy classic stoner surfer.  The film progresses with Cody learning that Big Z isn't dead, but instead dropped out when he realized he couldn't cut it anymore with the likes of Tank, and faked his own death.  He teaches Cody that the meaning of surfing isn't to win, but to just chill out and have fun.  The film ends with Tank's ego deflated, Chicken Joe the oblivious champion, and Big Z/Cody just out in the waves like they always wanted to be.

The film's best attribute is surely the documentary-style filmmaking, and honestly the first fifteen minutes were really thrilling for me.  I loved the play with animated form, where you don't expect a documentary, particularly in a film clearly geared toward children, and all of the characters, from LaBeouf's gnarly young dreamer to James Woods' money-hungry agent seem pretty perfectly poised for the film.  I actually loved every time that they went back to this format, as it made for an interesting way to tell a story and watch it unfold, as you weren't quite sure what they would do with it.  You kind of knew that Big Z wouldn't be dead, principally because that's an obvious surprise, but how would they unfold that while filming?  Up until the point where Cody catches a whale ride to what is clearly a South African island, the film really works.

However, once the documentary aspect is discarded (increasingly this happens in the second half), the film loses its slight element of surprise and becomes a sloppily-written snooze.  We all know the exact reasons that Big Z quit and that Cody will have to rediscover his "love of the surf," but honestly I find these sorts of messages a bit convoluted in children's films.  Particularly in regard to Big Z, we have a character who quit surfing because he wasn't good enough, and then blackmails Cody, a surfer who might be good enough to just hang-ten and not compete.  I'm not applauding the villain here and competition is probably not in the lexicon of what surfing is about, but it feels a pretty crappy way to teach children not to try.  Fun is great, but teaching accomplishment is also an admirable skill, and much like the Disney film Bolt, the film leaves a sour taste when we watch someone discard hard work and skill in favor of just "being yourself."  I'm not down with that sort of animated film-it gives us no progress if we have characters who are shooting for something other than love but that goal is something they abandon when the going gets tough.  In this way, someone like, say, Tiana in Princess and the Frog is actually probably one of the better recent animated role models-she found love AND started a successful restaurant.  Cody Maverick just got lazy.

Those were my thoughts-I will say that I liked this tenfold over Bolt and the vocal casting was spot-on (Jeff Bridges as a "dude" is pretty easy, but Shia's chill bro is better than I think pretty much any other celebrity stunt casting they could have done).  What were your thoughts on Surf's Up?  Do you think that it should have trumped The Simpsons Movie for an Oscar nod?  And are you also secretly humming "running from your life from Shia LaBeouf?"  Share in the comments!

Thoughts on the Family Guy/Simpsons Crossover Episode

As a long-time fan of both The Simpsons and Family Guy, I have to admit that I was absolutely stoked (and a tad bit nervous) about yesterday's crossover episode between the two series.  The stakes were pretty high-these are two of the most iconic network television programs of the past 25 years, and while they clearly have borrowed from each other (admittedly MacFarlane borrowing a wee bit more from Groening), they don't have quite the same stylistic approach to stories.  I left the episode both thrilled and feeling almost dizzy from the meta opportunities of the episode.  Here are some of my principle thoughts (spoilers ahead if you haven't seen the episode yet).

Best Moment

Easily the best moment of the episode was during the deposition at the court case.  After Homer accused Pawtucket Ale of being a rip-off of Duff (a pretty game stab by MacFarlane and his writers to settle a long-running feud between Simpsons and Family Guy fans that Family Guy was just a rip-off of The Simpsons), we saw a series of characters sitting next to each other showing how oddly similar they are (Seamus/the Sea Captain, Adam West/Mayor Quimby, Smithers/Bruce).  Best of all, and the best moment of the night, was when James Woods shows up at the end.  Woods of course has appeared as himself on both series, but first with The Simpsons with him running the Kwik-E-Mart (admittedly not as memorable, though, as his many visits to Quahog).  After the Simpsons-James Woods reminds the audience of this, the Family Guy-Woods says, "we're gonna lose."

Best Single Line

Really any time the show got fourth wall-meta on us.  Upon seeing the sign to Springfield, Stewie asks, "what state?"  Brian (who frequently breaks the fourth wall in the episode), says "I can't imagine we're allowed to say."  Later on we get a moment between Stewie and Brian where they compare "eat my shorts" and "what the deuce" and discuss which is more popular.  Brian cleverly acknowledges that "eat my shorts" is "probably way, way more popular."  Finally, there's the moment when Homer, during a fight with Peter, opens a closet full of Emmys and throws them at Peter, to which he replies, "hey no fair, I don't got none a them."

Best Pairing

Probably the smartest pairing was Peter and Homer-I mean, these two are oddly similar lugs who are genuinely nice guys and cannot help but acknowledge that they are fans of each other.  Second to this would be Stewie doting on Bart, a completely realistic idea, and I loved that they ended the episode by pointing out that Stewie was way too intense for Bart to be his pal.

Smartest Cameo

Aside from Woods (that was gold), you have so many homages being paid to other television programs throughout the episode, with Groening/MacFarlane acknowledging this is a major moment in primetime sitcoms.  The Cleveland Show (Cleveland), Bob's Burgers (Bob), American Dad (Roger), and even The Flintstones (Fred) were all tallied and accounted for in brief cameos.  It's just a pity that Futurama and South Park couldn't find their way into the mix.

Weirdest Moments

This was basically any-time that a Simpson or a Griffin went into one of the other show's bits, from Peter saying, "d'oh!" to the inevitable cutaways.  Most of these bits worked, but it was like taking your boyfriend to meet your parents-it's something you can imagine over and over in your head, and yet it's still bizarre to see these two worlds colliding.

Worst Moments

The episode, while highly enjoyable, and quite a lot of fun, still had a couple of moments that didn't sit well with me (well, two with an addendum).  The first was the end fight between Homer and Peter in an homage to his Giant Chicken battles.  This was of course inevitable (this is one of the most successful Family Guy running gags), but Homer Simpson isn't really a violent man, certainly not someone that would ever kill someone (on purpose...sorry Frank Grimes), and felt very out-of-the-moment.  I also had trouble believing that Lisa wouldn't want to encourage Meg more thoroughly, even when she was better at the saxophone than she was.  I know there's some evidence of this (Maggie was also good at the sax), but Lisa's character has grown a bit since then and I just cannot fathom her not wanting to encourage an emotionally abused person like Meg.  Just in general, in fact, it showed how very different these shows' attitudes toward family are-the Simpsons genuinely love each other in a way the Griffins really don't.

I also wish that we'd had a proper payback crossover between the two (couldn't Matt Groening have done that)?  The show was clearly grounded in Family Guy (it was an episode of the MacFarlane show), but I would have loved for the Simpsons writers (who are considerably better at writing women-wouldn't you have loved a series of the side characters interacting with their counterparts and then a cutaway to fifteen or so of the Springfield women all sitting around with just Bonnie?) to have tackled Family Guy and seen where they went with the program.

Characters/Bits I Wish We'd Had Time For, but It Was Only an Hour

Off the top of my head...Stewie proclaiming "excellent," having Snake be the thief of the car, a Conway Twitty bit, the Bonnie sight gag I just listed above, Peter meeting Flanders, Quagmire romancing a woman of Springfield, Joe meeting Chief Wiggum, Tom Tucker and Kent Brockman both trying to interview people on the courthouse steps, and some acknowledgement that Marge and Lois so rarely get the same sort of adventures their husbands do (Francine, Wilma, and Donna could all share in this moment).

Those were my thoughts-you must have a few-share them in the comments!