Walking Tall (1973)

I didn't recall hearing about this cult movie when YouTube suggested it, but it got two sequels, a TV series, a TV remake, and a big-screen remake trilogy starring Dwayne Johnson. It also takes inspiration from real events, tho they've since been disputed enough that I won't add my "true story" tag. Indeed, last year, investigators accused the long-deceased protagonist of uxoricide. That would not affect my feelings about the film version.

In 1964, ex-wrestler Buford Pusser (Joe Don Baker) moves back from Chicago to Adamsville, Tennessee, with his wife (Elizabeth Hartman) and kids (Leif Garrett and Dawn Lyn Nervik), planning to work as a logger for his dad (Noah Beery Jr.). His mom (Lurene Tuttle) cryptically warns him to ignore changes in town, but that's not easy when an old buddy (Ed Call) invites him to a casino. He catches the staff cheating, and they beat him within an inch of his life and steal his car. Then he discovers that the sheriff he used to look up to (Gene Evans) is worse than useless and the local judge (Douglas Fowley), while apparently staying within the bounds of the law, is not much better. So much for Buford's promise not to fight anymore....

Molly's Game (2017)

For me, stories that focus on poker are, well, gambles. I liked the 2006 Casino Royale overall, but I thought scenes at the namesake were the weak points. Maverick couldn't get me excited about the climax. Rounders dizzied me a little. Maybe that's why I put off seeing this recommendation. Nevertheless, it was one of the most familiar titles left on my Netflix list, and I was in the mood for a change of pace.

This is based on a true story, but only the protagonist is identified by her real name. In the 2000s, Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) becomes a secretary for "Dean" (Jeremy Strong), a real estate developer who also runs high-stakes underground poker games, where she collects huge tips. Since Dean is almost impossible to work with, Molly starts her own classy casino in a hotel room. She tries to keep everything strictly legal at first, but one desperate slip is enough to get unwelcome attention. Oddly enough, her worst legal trouble comes years after she discontinues her practice, when the FBI wants to strong-arm her into telling on criminal customers. Despite her lack of accessible funds, she persuades expensive attorney "Charlie" (Idris Elba) to defend her.

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

In the wake of the Academy Awards, I feel a little more motivated to watch the nominees. This was the only one playing at a nearby theater this week, apart from Oppenheimer. The showing included closed captioning, which suited me fine given the accents.

Novelist Sandra (Sandra Hüller) and her preteen son, Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner), find her husband, Samuel (Samuel Theis), dead of a head injury outside their French alpine lodge, evidently having fallen from a higher floor. No eyewitnesses to the event come forward. Investigators discover enough fishy details to cast doubt on the idea of an accident. Sandra's lawyer friend, Vincent (Swann Arlaud), advises a focus on the possibility of a suicide, while the prosecutor (Antoine Reinartz) at her trial leans heavily on the likelihood that she killed Samuel. Daniel testifies in her favor, but his word carries only so much weight. (Funny how almost all the characters have first names spelled the same in English.)

Remember the Night (1940)

I may not see any more movies directed by Preston Sturges, but writing is another matter. I had seen this title many times, perhaps especially in connection with some of its actors, so it seemed time to look further. Yes, I usually save holiday pictures for when they're timely, but Netflix disc service won't last that long.

Shortly before Christmas, an inveterate New York City thief who goes by Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck), among other names, gets caught. Her preacher-like attorney (Francis X. O'Leary) posits a form of temporary insanity, but prosecutor Jack Sargent (Fred MacMurray) demands the testimony of an expert psychologist who won't be available until January 3, so the court will adjourn until then. Out of pity, he bails her out. The depraved bondsman (Tom Kennedy) misreads his intentions and sends her to Jack's apartment. Jack tells Lee to leave, but upon learning she's homeless, he takes her on his vacation to Indiana.

Angel Face (1952)

So far, my Otto Preminger viewings have been about half great and half mixed in my opinion. This one had the added appeal of Robert Mitchum to draw me in. He's not even the creepiest character this time.

Beverly Hills ambulance driver Frank (Mitchum) comes to a mansion where one Catherine (Barbara O'Neil) has had a close call with a gas leak. Circumstances suggest an attempt at either suicide or, as she claims, homicide, tho she names no culprit. Frank is smitten with the beauty of her stepdaughter, Diane (Jean Simmons), despite already having a girlfriend (Mona Freeman). Diane goes out of her way to make him her favorite, even persuading her father (Herbert Marshall) and Catherine to hire him as their chauffeur. Frank doesn't fully trust Diane after her insincere manipulations and contempt for Catherine, but he might just be game for whatever she schemes next....

The Judge (2014)

Perhaps the most notable thing about this flick is that it made Robert Duvall the oldest Oscar nominee yet, at 84. That record has since been broken. Of course, I was just as likely to have been drawn in by the lead actor, Robert Downey, Jr.

Hank (Downey) is an especially scuzzy lawyer, favoring guilty clients for profit, which may explain why he's getting a divorce and hasn't seen any of his birth family in ages. The latter changes when he attends his mother's funeral in her fictitious hometown of Carlinville, Indiana. He's eager to head back to Chicago -- until his father, Joseph (Duvall), a long-time judge, gets arrested for a fatal hit and run on an ex-con (Mark Kiely) Joseph might well have wanted to kill. Sensing how inadequate a local defense attorney (Dax Shepard) is, Hank reluctantly steps up to the plate, but Joseph, who can't remember hitting anyone, may prefer to be found guilty of second-degree murder if the alternative is to publicize his waning mental faculties. And the prosecutor (Billy Bob Thornton) is determined.

Scandal (1950)

No, this has nothing to do with the 2010s TV series. This is an Akira Kurosawa film from the same year as Rashômon, which would explain why it gets overshadowed.

Somewhat famous painter Ichiro Aoye (Toshirō Mifune) and more famous singer Miyako Saijo (Yoshiko Yamaguchi) happen to stay at the same hotel, and they engage in friendly conversation on a balcony. Alas, it looks juicy enough for photojournalists to spin a tryst tale. Aoye threatens a lawsuit, but Saijo would rather keep quiet and wait for the whole thing to blow over. Editor Asai (Shinichi Himori) believes that Amour magazine will be most profitable doubling down on its false version of events. Aoye hires the first lawyer to approach him, Hiruta (Takashi Shimura), despite the latter having nowhere near the repute of the defense. Hiruta does sympathize, but he can hardly resist Asai waving money at him to take a dive....

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

It is somewhat fitting that this should be the first of the year's Academy Best Picture nominees that I see, because it was almost certainly the longest in development: Aaron Sorkin wrote it in 2007. We can only imagine how it would have differed if the original plan for Steven Spielberg to direct had panned out. I did detect a bit of Spielberg flavor before I knew that, but no, it's Sorkin's second turn as a screen director.

After a rather brisk intro, most of the film runs from the start of the trial to the end. For those like me who've been a little hazy, the Chicago 7 are Vietnam War protesters charged with deliberately inciting a riot at the '68 Democratic National Convention. In truth, eight men are on trial most of the time, but Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) doesn't belong there and eventually gets a mistrial declared. The others are Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp), Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins), and John Froines (Daniel Flaherty). Defense counsel William Kunstler (Mark Rylance -- have a few Brits as Americans) sees an uphill battle as unrelated Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella) is plainly unfair and probably senile. Several of the defendants figure it's political theater and would rather make their message heard than try to get acquitted.

Loving (2016)

I'm disappointed in Netflix. On February 14, I expected a whole list of suggested romances to stream. The closest I found was the stand-alone highlight, apparently more for Black History Month than for Valentine's Day. Anyway, it was already on my personal list, and I figured it had the best chance of an ending that's happy or at least victorious for the central couple.

After all, the title refers not just to the plain English word but to the first party in Loving v. Virginia. It begins with Mildred Jeter (Oscar nominee Ruth Negga) telling boyfriend Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton) that she's expecting. They soon have an official wedding in the District of Columbia, but living like an interracial married couple in Caroline County in 1958 gets them arrested. The only way to stay out of jail is to not be in the state at the same time. They move to D.C., but Mildred for one hates living there. She writes to Bobby Kennedy, who gets ACLU attorney Bernard S. Cohen (Nick Kroll) to represent them at no charge. Bernie hopes to take the matter all the way to the Supreme Court, but Richard is not nearly as comfortable as Mildred with the attention they're gaining.

Reversal of Fortune (1990)

The case depicted herein was before my time. I wasn't even sure at first that the movie was based on a true story. Fortunately, I've since found no indication that it plays fast and loose with the truth, apart from one unimportant detail and one obvious factor I'll go into in a bit.

It starts in 1982, with former oil company consultant Claus von Bülow (Jeremy Irons in his Oscar-winning role) getting convicted of attempting to murder aristocratic wife Sunny (Glenn Close) with insulin shots that left her persistently comatose. Claus hires lawyer and law school professor Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver) to represent him for an appeal. Alan persuades his students to aid in research. Neither he nor they really think Claus innocent, but Alan (1) understands the value of defense in the justice system and (2) could use the pay for a different case he's on the verge losing. That said, he knows it's an uphill battle; only the complete destruction of the prosecution's case, not a mere technicality, will allow victory.

I'll just get this out of the way now: Alan's other defendants, who are never shown or named on screen, are based on the Tison brothers but said to be Black. I can only guess that the race shift meant to increase viewer sympathy, but it seems gratuitous.

Far more awkward to my mind is the framing device of narration...by Sunny. Now, I could easily accept dead first-person narrators in Sunset Boulevard and American Beauty, but are we to believe that the soul departs when the body is merely vegetative? (The real Sunny still was until 2008.) Plus, we hear her only at the beginning, the end, and a brief part of the middle, so it doesn't add much. She even declines to tell the audience whether Claus did the deed, saying, "When you get where I am, you will know the rest." What kind of sense does that make? On the plus side, the rarity made the problem easy to ignore most of the time.

A more common device, naturally, is the flashback. Prepare for a lot of jumping around in time, albeit generally to late in the von Bülows' marriage. Only a handful of flashbacks are putative or of questioned authenticity.

You may have to shed your present associations with the name "Alan Dershowitz," which has been relevant even this year. At the time, he had had only one previous high-profile client, Harry Reems of Deep Throat, so nobody treated him like a celebrity or a villain. Here he comes across as a pretty regular guy, if a little prone to not dealing with stress well.

Claus, meanwhile, seems far from regular. His stiff, dry demeanor makes it hard to tell how serious or humorous he means to be. He openly cheated on Sunny while she was awake and still sees his paramour. His stepchildren distrust him. I doubt if anyone, even among those who come to believe in his innocence, would care to befriend him. One may suspect that his prior conviction stemmed in part from the jury getting rubbed the wrong way.

Nevertheless, going by the evidence uncovered by the legal team, I would have voted to acquit. I won't sum it all up, but Sunny's history of drug overuse certainly hints at the possibility of a self-administered OD. And personally, I don't get the impression she's a much better person than Claus, not least when she gets angry at him for wanting a job despite their riches.

I hesitate to call this a courtroom drama, because I doubt we see more than three minutes in a courtroom all told. The vast majority of the non-flashback action consists of conversations and digging. If that sounds under-engaging -- maybe even low-stakes, considering you probably wouldn't be heartbroken if Claus lost -- know that Alan eventually faces a credible threat to his career. But that arc doesn't last long either.

The plot was hardly tailor-made for Hollywood, but overall, I think it works rather nicely. It serves as an important reminder if not a mental exercise regarding the sticky nuances of reality. And again, it's apparently faithful to that reality.

A Woman's Face (1941)

Once again, George Cukor directs an MGM feature with a feminine focus in the title and a nasty role for Joan Crawford. This one has a tighter plot and is set in Sweden, thanks to the play on which it's based. (OK, I'm having trouble finding good info on the play, but there was a Swedish adaptation in 1938.)

Blackmail ringleader Anna (Crawford) has spent most of her life with burn scars on the right half of her face, aversions to fire and mirrors, and misanthropy, especially toward beautiful people, tho she makes an exception for seductive Torsten (Conrad Veidt). When she unexpectedly meets a great and charitable plastic surgeon, Gustaf (Melvyn Douglas)...well, see how Crawford usually looked on screen in those days. Anna's a lot less bitter once people admire her appearance, but wickedness doesn't dry up overnight, especially if you've been keeping wicked company. In particular, Torsten hopes she still has what it takes to serve as a governess to his four-year-old nephew, Lars-Erik (Richard Nichols), only to bump him off to secure Torsten a bigger inheritance from Uncle Magnus (Albert Bassermann).

Five Deadly Venoms (1978)

I'm not sure why I added this cult hit, called merely Five Venoms on Netflix, to my streaming list. Maybe I wanted to ensure that even genres I rarely watch -- martial arts, in this case -- remain available. Maybe the slim lineup of 20th-century features had a hand in my decision. Most likely, it had come up in some discussion of influences on Quentin Tarantino or whatnot. In any event, I watched it recently for the sake of variety.

In what I presume to be several centuries ago in China, a kung fu master on his last legs asks his one remaining student, Yang Tieh, to seek out his long-gone five previous students and, if they've turned to violent crime, kill them. (No middle ground, eh?) He doesn't know what names they're using or even their faces, since they always wore masks, but Yang can meet a man likely to provide further hints and can then keep an eye out for anyone using distinctive fighting moves. Each of the five employs a different style, and Yang has been hastily trained as a jack of all styles and master of none. The master thinks Yang's only hope of defeating any of the five is to ally with one of them, so he'd better hope they're not all evil.

The Attorney (2013)

Wow, that long since I last saw a movie from East Asia? And it doesn't look like I've reviewed any South Korean cinema before. I was thinking of skipping this review, but I'd rather rectify the gap.

In the late '70s and early '80s, Song Woo-suk stands out among attorneys for skipping college, not acting very formal, and taking cases that bring him an unpopular image but good money. He grows less greedy with time and attempts to pay for a dine-and-dash of long ago. Busan restaurateur Park Dong-ho and her high school son, Jin-woo, are friendly toward him, until he has a drunken brawl over politics. His chance to make it up to them comes when Jin-woo and many classmates get arrested on charges of sedition.

Piccadilly (1929)

Funny how a film on the tail end of the silent era can feel somewhat timely, and I had no way of knowing from the description. In the first act, London night club dancer Vic (Cyril Ritchard) repeatedly ignores the express wish of dance partner Mabel (Gilda Gray) that he not kiss her arms and back, especially as they leave the stage. He labors under the apparent delusion that she secretly likes him—and insists she'd be nothing without him. Boss Valentine Wilmot (Jameson Thomas) notices and fires him before she even lodges a complaint. We never hear from Vic again. That said, it isn't strictly virtuous of Wilmot: He has his own designs on Mabel. But he's enough of a gentleman that she falls for him.

The real conflict begins when, alas, the Piccadilly Club's business suffers in Vic's wake. Looking for innovation, Wilmot recalls a dishwasher, Shosho (Anna May Wong), whom he caught dancing on the clock. He rehires her as a dancer, making it essentially the Shosho Show, if you will. It's not clear whether Mabel envies her first for her popularity with the crowds or for her popularity with Wilmot in another capacity, but as the tension heats up...well, I won't spoil it like the Netflix jacket does. Let's just say that silent films don't favor happy endings between whites and Asians.

Ivanhoe (1952)

In the interest of narrowing my many choices, I usually avoid movies with IMDb overall ratings less than 7, barring unusual circumstances like a vacation. Adaptations from classic literature are an exception. This version seemed like the best way to get the gist of the story in less than 2 hours, tho I read up on key divergences. Besides, it did well at the box office and garnered some Academy Award nominations.

In 1194, Wilfred of Ivanhoe (Robert Taylor) has discovered that the missing King Richard (aptly named Norman Wooland) is being held for ransom. Rather than taking the prison by storm, Ivanhoe runs around seeking money from people who prefer him to regent Prince John (Guy Rolfe). During this endeavor, he re-encounters his crush, Rowena (Joan Fontaine), and two John-aligned nemeses from the Crusades, Bois-Guilbert (George Sanders) and de Bracy (Robert Douglas). In surprisingly large roles, both financially and plotwise, are a pair of Jews: patriarch Isaac (Felix Aylmer) and his daughter, Rebecca (Elizabeth Taylor, no relation to Robert), the latter earning the jealous eye of Rowena and the lustful eye of Bois-Guilbert.

The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)

I wasn't sure I'd ever watch a movie about a pornographer, no matter how esteemed it is. The fact that Miloš Forman directed and thought it his best work (above One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus?!) upped my curiosity.

The first scene, depicting prepubescent Larry and his brother Jimmy as rural Kentucky moonshine vendors in 1952, feels out of place with the rest. I guess the point was to show their long-time dark entrepreneurial partnership and Larry's attitude problem. From there, the film skips to their ownership of a failing strip club (by which time they're played by Woody and Brett Harrelson, respectively), which they try to remedy with ads that become the basis for Hustler magazine. The next several years see Larry in multiple court cases (not all about porn) and, yes, worse troubles.

The Verdict (1982)

On the rare occasions that I watch a movie again, I usually don't bother to review it here. But this was a still rarer occasion: I had basically no memory of it. Only the ending even remotely rang a bell. Good thing I remembered enjoying it years ago.

Frank Galvin (late-middle-aged Paul Newman), a discredited lawyer who spends more time on drinking and pinball than cases, finally gets a good opportunity via a friend (Jack Warden). A hospital has left a woman comatose, allegedly through an anesthetic procedure botched by negligence. Everyone, including Frank, expects him to accept on the family's behalf a pretty generous settlement; but after seeing the patient himself, he decides he'd rather try to expose their malpractice. This is not easy, because the doctors and their lawyers are far more renowned -- and can fight dirty.

Bridge of Spies (2015)

You can't tell from any of my previous entries, but I'm a major Steven Spielberg fan. Maybe being named after him has biased me in his favor, but the projects that he directs and/or produces rarely disappoint me. I've seen nearly all his feature films to date, so don't expect me to review many more.

As in real life, in 1957, insurance attorney Jim Donovan (Tom Hanks) is asked to defend Soviet spy Rudolph Abel (three-time Tony winner Mark Rylance) in court. There's no getting Abel off the hook altogether, but Donovan persuades the judge to forgo a death sentence, not least because Abel could make a good bargaining chip. The opportunity for this comes before long, as two Americans become prisoners in rapid succession: a spy in the USSR and a mere student who attempted to break into East Germany for romantic reasons. Donovan once again steps up to the plate, this time in the even harder role of officially nongovernmental negotiator in Berlin. Can he get both communist governments to cooperate and trade two prisoners for one of questionable value?

Advise & Consent (1962)

Sometimes, all it takes to get me to put off viewing a popular movie is an off-putting title. Such dry, stilted language, adapted to awkward verb form from the Constitution. I can enjoy legal dramas -- 12 Angry Men, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Otto Preminger's other great Anatomy of a Murder are among my favorite dramas in any subgenre -- but not so much when they focus on the more seemingly esoteric aspects of law. Was that the case here?

Not really, but it is a little tricky to follow. Initially, the most focal character is Robert Leffingwell (Henry Fonda), whom the curiously unnamed U.S. president (Franchot Tone) nominates for Secretary of State. It's not clear when the story takes place -- the novel was written three years earlier -- but apparently the Red Scare still has some steam, because opponents present evidence that Leffingwell has been moving in the wrong circles, if you will. By the second half, focus shifts to the hearing committee chair, Sen. Brigham Anderson (Don Murray), faced with a scandal of his own....

The Devil's Advocate (1997)

Still watching vaguely Halloweeny movies, am I? That comes of neglecting to rearrange my queue in time. It's also a movie I initially marked "Not interested," probably because I wanted to make time for something else, not because I expected to dislike it. Was it worth adding? I think so, but you'll notice that's hardly a strong answer.

Two years before Keanu played a super pseudo-messiah in The Matrix and three years after his turn as a heroic cop in Speed, he starred as law-abiding yet rather corrupt lawyer Kevin Lomax in DA (heh, appropriate abbreviation). Of course, the real draw for viewers must be Al Pacino as suspiciously named CEO John Milton, who takes a special interest in Lomax and his nigh inexplicably perfect track record. I hardly call it a spoiler that Milton creates steam by sticking his finger in holy water; the posters alone give a big hint to his identity, even if it takes Lomax most of the 2 hours and 24 minutes to catch on.