The Maltese Falcon

I have been so excited to see The Maltese Falcon ever since the 2021 TCM Big Screen Classics series lineup was announced!  I had the chance last night and it was so much fun watching what is widely regarded as one of the best examples of film noir, with Humphrey Bogart as the private eye and Mary Astor as the femme fatale, on the big screen.  The story begins when a beautiful woman named Ruth Wonderley (Astor) hires detective Sam Spade (Bogart) to find a missing person.  The case takes a sinister turn when his partner Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan) and Floyd Thursby, the man he is tailing, are murdered.  Spade discovers that his client, now known as Brigid O'Shaughnessy, was once Thursby's colleague and that she, Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre), Wilmer Cook (Elisha Cook, Jr.), and Kasper Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet) are all in pursuit of a mysterious black statue of a falcon, purported to be a lost tribute from the Knights Templar of Malta to Charles V of Spain, which Thursby apparently found in Istanbul.  After a series of convoluted misadventures Spade eventually finds the falcon and solves the case.  This movie is incredibly suspenseful with so many twists and turns that you can't possibly guess what it going to happen next and features one of the best MacGuffins in film history.  Bogart gives a brilliant performance as the ruthless anti-hero who quips and fights his way out of every situation with a cheeky grin on his face.  Lorre is hilarious as the eccentric Cairo and Greenstreet, in his very first screen role, steals every scene that he is in as Gutman.  Astor is also fantastic as the manipulative O'Shaughnessy and her performance in the emotionally charged final scene with Spade is epic.  I loved the hard-boiled dialogue, the use of light and shadow in the cinematography, and the stylized direction by John Huston.  It is a wildly entertaining movie and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it!

The Dig

Last night I really enjoyed seeing The Dig which is a lovely period drama based on a true story.  Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan), a wealthy but lonely widow who lives on a sprauling estate in Suffolk, hires Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes), an amateur archaeologist, to excavate some large burial mounds on her land just before the start of World War II.  He soon makes what will eventually become one of the most significant discoveries of Anglo-Saxon remains in Britain.  This draws the unwanted attention of the British Museum and other professional archaeologists which tests the relationship between Edith and Basil.  There is also a subplot involving a forbidden romance between Edith's nephew Rory Lomax (Johnny Flynn), who is hired by Edith to help Basil with the dig, and Peggy Preston (Lily James), the unhappy wife of one of the archaeologists sent by the British Museum, which is complicated by his desire to join the RAF.  The action is slow and deliberate but it is surprisingly riveting because of the powerful story about trying to understand the past while facing an uncertain future and the importance of appreciating every fleeting moment.  The visuals are absolutely gorgeous with long tracking shots of characters walking through sun-dappled fields and I loved the beautiful period costumes.  The performances are brilliant with a quiet restraint between Mulligan and a curmudgeonly Fiennes and a simmering passion between James and Flynn (who I think is incredibly appealing).  I was also really impressed with Archie Barnes who plays Edith's young son Robert, especially in his scenes with Fiennes.  I loved this movie (I am a sucker for British period pieces) and I highly recommend it but it might not be for everyone.  It is in theaters for a limited engagement and then it will stream on Netflix beginning January 29.

The Survivors

I have been toying with joining the Book of the Month subscription service for a long time and, since it is a new year, I decided to go for it! Every month I get to pick a book from five options (I can also pick add-ons) and then it is delivered to me in a blue box. For my January book I selected The Survivors by Jane Harper (the other options were The Dating Plan by Sara Desai, The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr., Outlawed by Anna North, and The Removed by Brandon Hobson). I really enjoyed this selection (I read it in two days) because it is incredibly atmospheric and suspenseful. Twelve years ago, two men died and a young girl disappeared during a devastating storm in the small coastal village of Evelyn Bay, Tasmania and no one has really recovered from the trauma. In the present, Kieran Elliott returns with his partner Mia and infant daughter Audrey after a long absence to help his mother and ailing father pack up his childhood home. His visit is fraught with tension because he, along with his parents, friends, and most of the village, holds himself responsible for the tragic accident which claimed his brother and the brother of his best friend. When a young woman is found murdered on the beach, all of the memories of the former incident are stirred up again along with buried secrets, lies, and recriminations. During the murder investigation, new information comes to light about the past which connects all of the deaths and forces Kieran to confront the guilt he has held on to all these years. The narrative alternates between the events of the past and the present and sometimes the timeline is blurred which is extremely effective in creating a sense of unease as the past and present collide. Every single character has a secret and almost everyone is a suspect. Information is revealed little by little (it is definitely a slow-burn) in short chapters which does much to build suspense. Harper is particularly adept at creating a mood with her vivid descriptions of the village, the sea, the caves along the coast, and the remains of a shipwreck and I could almost hear the gulls screeching in the distance, feel the waves lapping at my feet as the tide comes in, taste the salt on the breeze, and experience the terror of walking on the beach alone in the dark and the claustrophobia of being trapped in a cave at high tide.  I also really liked the use of waves advancing and retreating as a metaphor for the secrets that are hidden and revealed in Evelyn Bay. This is more of a character study than a thriller and I was a bit disappointed in the ending because it was so abrupt after the build-up but it kept me reading into the early hours with a palpable sense of foreboding so I would definitely recommend it to fans of mysteries. I can't wait to see what the February selections are!

No Man's Land

The next movie on my list was No Man's Land and I decided to see it last night.  This is a moving take on immigration from a completely different perspective and I loved it.  Bill Greer (Frank Grillo), his wife Monica (Andie MacDowell), and his sons Lucas (Alex MacNicoll) and Jackson (Jake Allyn) live on a struggling ranch on the Texas-Mexico border.  It is a popular place for illegal immigrants to cross from Mexico into the United States but cutting through the barbed wire allows the cattle on the ranch to escape so the Greers regularly patrol the area to stop them.  Jackson is a hot prospect for the New York Yankees farm team so Bill and Lucas often leave him behind when they go on patrol but one night he follows them.  Gustavo (Jorge A. Jimenez) has a green card but his son Fernando (Alessio Valentini) has been denied one so he tries to bring him across with a few others.  They encounter the Greers at the border and a chaotic confrontation ensues in which Lucas is shot and Fernando is accidentally killed by Jackson.  Bill tries to take the blame but the Texas Ranger (George Lopez) who questions them becomes suspicious and Jackson panics and flees on horseback into Mexico.  He goes on a journey of discovery where he confronts his biases about Mexican immigrants and ultimately decides to take responsibility for his actions.  The story of redemption and forgiveness is incredibly compelling (one scene absolutely gutted me) but it is quiet and contemplative as Jackson slowly travels through Mexico and meets a series of locals who help him (it is incredibly refreshing to see Mexicans portrayed in a non-stereotypical way) so people expecting a thriller might be disappointed.  One of the many things I really liked about this movie is that it shows the toll that this type of violence takes on the people involved and there is an incredibly poignant scene where Monica and Gustavo, unaware of who the other is, are both grief-stricken while riding in the same elevator at the hospital (the composition of this scene is brilliant because the focus goes from one to the other).  I also really liked the wide shots of the beautiful Mexican landscape and the haunting Spanish guitar used in the score. Allyn (who co-wrote the script) is incredibly appealing as Jackson and portrays his character arc with a lot of empathy and humanity (I especially appreciated the fact that there isn't any fish-out-of-water humor inserted into the narrative).  This movie was much more impactful than I was expecting and I would definitely recommend it.

Our Friend

Last night I saw the movie Our Friend, a true story based on the article "The Friend" written by journalist Matthew Teague about his wife's death in Esquire magazine.  It is an incredibly moving story about the power of friendship that had me in tears several times.  Matt (Casey Affleck) is a journalist who is frequently away from home on assignment.  His wife Nicole (Dakota Johnson), an actress involved in community theatre, is often resentful about having to care for their two daughters Molly (Isabella Kai) and Evie (Violet McGraw) by herself.  Their friend Dane (Jason Segel) is a bit of a lost soul who wants to be a stand-up comic and have a family of his own but works a dead-end job at a sporting goods store and can't seem to commit to any of his girlfriends.  When Nicole's cancer diagnosis becomes terminal, Dane decides to move in with the Teagues to help out in their obviously overwhelmed household (running errands, making dinner, doing laundry, chauffeuring the girls, etc.) but he ends up helping the family mend their relationships and deal with their grief which, ultimately, helps him to heal.  The story is a very accurate portrait of the realities of cancer and how it affects patients (physically, emotionally, and mentally), their families, and their friends.  There are some incredibly poignant scenes where Matt drives through the neighborhood and sees all of their friends who are supposed to be at Nicole's book club, where Dane convinces an exhausted Matt, who feels guilty about leaving, to take a break and go hiking, and where Nicole angrily lashes out and accuses everyone of wanting her dead.  All three actors are absolutely brilliant.  I am a huge fan of Affleck and his performance in this movie almost rivals that in Manchester by the Sea for the rawness of his muted anger and grief.  Johnson gives an incredibly authentic performance, one of her best, in an emotionally complex role.  However, I was most impressed with Segel whose touching portrayal of a man at loose ends is somehow able to make the audience laugh and cry (sometimes in the same scene) and I especially loved his interactions with Kai and McGraw (the scene where the three of them sing "Call Me Maybe" made me laugh out loud).  I loved the use of Led Zeppelin in the soundtrack, particularly "Ramble On" in a bucket list montage and "Going to California" as Matt drives through the neighborhood.  My only issue with this movie is the non-linear narrative structure because, while it does effectively establish the impact of the diagnosis by jumping back and forth between before and after, it is sometimes difficult to follow the timeline.  This is a heartbreaking but, ultimately, life-affirming movie and I highly recommend it (bring tissues).