Category Archives: Movies

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

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This is a sweet, fairly well made teen coming-of-age story, set in the early 90s. It’s well traveled territory made fresh by the chemistry between the two leads, Logan Lerman and Emma Watson. Watson is a real revelation, spirited and sexy but suggesting greater depths than her somewhat conventionally conceived character would seem to have promised on the page.

Perhaps unwisely, one of the characters in the film says, “It’s official — my life has become an ABC Afterschool Special!”  That is in fact pretty much what this film is, though with better acting and better production values than ABC usually offered.  Why did anyone think it was a candidate for the big screen?

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Well, the novel it was based on was a huge bestseller, Emma Watson’s participation probably meant an automatic green light, and the producers, who had also produced Juno, undoubtedly thought it had the same breakout potential.  But Juno wasn’t a period piece — it was seen as a cutting-edge look at teen girl culture today, and it kept its appealing female protagonist front and center.  The Perks Of Being A Wallflower is told  from the point of view of its male protagonist and Watson, the picture’s real treasure, has more of a supporting role.

One can only hope that Watson finds better vehicles than this for her wonderfully promising talents.  Meanwhile it’s worth taking a look at her here to get a sense of what she might be capable of in the future.

Click on the images to enlarge.

BACKLASH

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This is an entertaining Western from 1956, expertly directed by John Sturges. Donna Reed, who plays a tough-talking adventurer, looks hot on a horse — hotter than you might imagine, even though her horsebacking skills seem to have been somewhat limited.

I noticed something very strange while watching it, related to one of the Western paintings of Robert McGinnis, identified on some web sites by the title “Alder Point Station”:

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It duplicates, almost exactly, a shot in Backlash, although McGinnis has eliminated one figure on foot, changed the time from day to night and altered the signage on the stage station from Benton’s Trading Post to Bently’s Trading Post.  Backlash was a wide-screen film, and this painting echoes the composition of the shot with uncanny precision.

I can’t find any information online about this borrowing.  McGinnis doesn’t seemed to have contributed to the advertising art for the picture, and one is tempted to imagine that he just remembered the shot and reproduced it unconsciously, although the change to the sign suggests something more considered.

McGinnis once partially duplicated a scene from The Searchers as a tribute to John Wayne and to the film:

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This was, however, an acknowledged homage.  “Alder Point Station” seems to be an unacknowledged lift from the Sturges film.  In any case, it’s a wonderful painting.

Click on the images to enlarge.

[Update: Facebook friend Todd Fletcher recognized the rock formation in the back of the McGinnis painting as Gates Pass, which is located near the “Old Tucson” Western filming complex in Arizona:

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A quick search at the IMDB confirms that Backlash was indeed partially filmed at the Old Tucson location.]

MUD

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This is a movie about true love and manhood which doesn’t believe in true love and manhood, and feels it must show us, gently and patiently, why our belief in these things is childish, something to be put away as we come of age.

To everyone involved in the creation of this project I would like to say, from the bottom of my heart, “Fuck you.”