The Night of the Hunter

Posted on April 15, 2015 by jaycluitt

This review was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series for French Toast Sunday, and was recommended to me by Will Slater from Exploding Helicopter as part of my Nominated Movies quest.

Ben Harper (Peter Graves) has just stolen $10,000 from the bank, and killed two people in the process. He tells his young children John and Pearl (Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce) where the money is hidden, just before their father is arrested. In prison, Ben shares the details of his larceny with his cell mate, Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), who has been arrested for stealing a car, but is in actual fact a serial killer. Upon his release, Powell heads to the Harper homestead, with plans of getting his hands on that money, by whatever means necessary.

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Whisky Galore!

Posted on April 5, 2015 by jaycluitt

The island of Todday, off the coast of Scotland, is 100 miles from anything close to recreation, so it’s small island community gets by on thet pastime of whisky drinking. However, due to rationing, the whisky stores dry up, and the island is suddenly devoid of alcohol. The previously cheerful, easygoing folk become irritable and distant, until one night a cargo ship wrecks out in the bay. The cargo? 50,000 crates of whisky. However, just as the locals are set to launch their boats into the water to pilfer the booze, the clock strikes midnight on the Sabbath, and any such business would be going against their religion.

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O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Posted on April 1, 2015 by jaycluitt

This review was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series over at French Toast Sunday.

Everett, Pete and Delmar (George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson) have just escaped from a chain gang in 1930s Mississippi, with the intention of recovering the loot from the burglary that resulted in Everett’s incarceration, before the area within which it is hidden becomes flooded in a few days time. The three men – at least two of whom are amongst the stupidest creations the Coen brothers have ever concocted, which is saying a great deal – have a long way to go and a short time to get there, and their journey isn’t made any easier by the lawmen on their tails and the various obstacles that must be overcome, not least of which is coping with each other’s company. Continue reading →

The Outlaw Josey Wales

Posted on March 15, 2015 by jaycluitt

This review was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series over at French Toast Sunday. It was also a suggestion for something I should watch from the 1001 Movies list from fellow French Toast Sunday member Nick “The Rehak” Rehak.
Josey Wales (Eastwood) is a small time farmer with his wife and young son, living a peaceful existence in their Missouri home. That is until one day when, whilst Josey is out ploughing the field, he hears a ruckus at his house and arrives to find a gang of hoodlums attacking the place. Josey is knocked out in the fray, and awakes to a destroyed home, a pair of bodies in need of burying and a mighty case of desired vengeance, prompting him to learn how to shoot and head off in search of the red-booted gang who took everything he loved in the world. Continue reading →

Splendor in the Grass

Posted on March 4, 2015 by jaycluitt

This review was originally written for French Toast Sunday as part of my USA Road Trip series.

Wilma Loomis and Bud Stamper (Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty) are high school sweethearts. Wilma is from a low-key family, with a father described as lacking in ambition, and a domineering mother who seems intent on trying to keep her daughter as young as possible. Bud, on the other hand, is son to the richest man in town, who has big plans for his son to mark his name on the world. These varying parenting styles have some pretty intense effects on their children’s livelihoods.
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Predestination

Posted on March 3, 2015 by jaycluitt

This review was originally written for Blueprint: Review.

In 1981 time travel was created, allowing specially recruited agents to travel up to 53 years into the past. One such agent, known as The Barkeep (Ethan Hawke), is trying to catch a terrorist, “The Fizzle Bomber”, and is sent to recruit a newcomer to the ranks to assist, but they turn out to have a very unique story to tell. Continue reading →

Boyhood

Posted on February 23, 2015 by jaycluitt

Mason Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) is six years old. Then he’s seven years old. A little later, he becomes eight years old, then nine, ten and eventually eleven years old. Soon, in a dramatic twist, he becomes twelve years old, then thirteen and, completely unexpectedly, fourteen years old. Some time later he grows to be fifteen, then sixteen. He spends a little time – around about a year – aged seventeen years old, before finally discovering he’s only gone and become an eighteen year old.
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There Will Be Blood

Posted on February 10, 2015 by jaycluitt

Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is something of an oil man. At least, he will be eventually. He starts out as a silver prospector in New Mexico, uncovering a seam and gradually building himself a small company. One day, he is approached by Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) who believes there is oil on his family’s land. Plainview, now with his adoptive son H.W. (Dillon Freasier) and his crew, including right-hand man Fletcher (Ciarin Hinds) head to the Sunday ranch, where Daniel plans to make his fortune. Continue reading →

Punch-Drunk Love

Posted on February 5, 2015 by jaycluitt

Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) is a little bit different. He runs a plastic plunger company with his business partner Lance (Luis Guzman), and is constantly being hassled by his seven sisters, who belittle him and essentially ruin his life at every turn, as they have his entire life. One day, a harmonium (kind of like a small piano, I’d never heard of them before) is dropped outside the industrial estate on which he works, and shortly afterwards a woman named Lena (Emily Watson) shows up too. Then some more stuff happens involving a phone sex line and an awful lot of pudding.
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Magnolia

Posted on February 4, 2015 by jaycluitt

In the San Fernando Valley, a selection seemingly disconnected group of people are going through some fairly heavy moments in their live. Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) is dying in bed, being cared for by his nurse Phil (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who is tasked with finding Earl’s estranged son. Earl’s much-younger trophy wife, Linda (Julianne Moore), is struggling to deal with the imminent death of her husband. Officer Jim (John C. Reilly) is called to investigate a disturbance, which leads to a potential murder case. Stanley Spector (Jeremy Blackman) is a genius child contestant on the TV Game Show What Do Kids Know?, and is just a few days away from breaking that show’s record of most consecutive wins. Jimmy Gator hosts the show, and has done for decades, but has just been diagnosed with cancer, with just months to live. Jimmy’s daughter, Claudia (Melora Walters), has a difficult relationship with her father, as well as a cocaine habit and various other issues in her life, whilst Donnie Smith (William H. Macy), a former child star contestant on the aforementioned TV show, has seen his fame squandered and life thrown in turmoil when he loses his job at an electronics store. Finally, Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise) runs a self-help seminar on men who wish to be more successful with ladies. Mid-show, he gives an interview to a reporter (April Grace) that doesn’t necessarily go as he plans. All these stories, and more besides, will become interwoven over the course of the film’s next 24 hours.
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