On Blu-ray from Arrow Video, two oldies worth revisiting -- MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES and AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON

As TrustMovies recalls (he was 16 at the time), upon the 1957 theatrical release of MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES, this movie bio of famous silent screen actor and vaudeville performer Lon Chaney (played by James Cagney, below, right, with co-star Dorothy Malone) was greeted in only lukewarm fashion by the critical establishment, garnering but a single Oscar nomination that year (for screenwriting), and seemingly consigned to that very large vault of the so-so that Hollywood has long produced and continues producing, if in even more mediocre fashion.

Seeing it again, it a spiffy new Blu-ray transfer that brings all of its ace black-and-white cinematography (by the great Russell Metty) to the fore, the film now seems a keeper for several reasons.

First of all, it seems to me to be as perfect an example as you will find of typical 1950s Hollywood moviemaking -- and that means both the good and the bad -- including the usual over-produced and -insistent musical score; fine Hollywood actors, all doing an expert job; good and careful screen-writing put to use in the service of a would-be "classy" subject; and competent, serviceable direction (by journeyman Joseph Pevney, below).

The result, thanks to fine work by Cagney and all his co-stars, is rather like cliché raised to something akin to its highest level: It may be obvious but it is highly entertaining, sometimes even quite moving.

The tale itself -- of Chaney's work in vaudeville and, thanks to a shocking and horrible event in his personal life that immediately went public, his move into motion-picture acting -- is simply too interesting not to grab us viewers.

And because of the good screenwriting and even better performances, the story maintains that hold, right through to an ending that -- even if fictionalized, as is probably most of the rest of the tale -- still works its movie magic rather well.

To Cagney's (and the screenwriters') credit, we certainly see all of Chaney's blind spots and weak spots. He's a hero, all right, but quite the flawed one. While the vaudeville routines are fun and fairly diverse, it's the Hollywood years, beginning with extra work leading to small then starring roles, that prove the most fun. That's Marjorie Rambeau, at left above, playing the extra actor who shows Chaney the ropes. In other supporting roles are well-known actors like Jim Backus, Jack Albertson, Robert Evans and Roger Smith, all of whom are just fine.

One of the most striking things you may notice about the film is its absolute and unflinching dedication to the mores and life-style of the 1950s -- in which a woman's place (particularly a mother's) was in the home and nowhere else. Career? Forget about that, honey! Watching this movie today, audiences are more likely to identify and agree with the character played by Ms Malone, whose chance as a successful singer, Chaney simply destroys because, well, that's his right. All this, in addition to the merits of the movie itself, make Man of a Thousand Faces an unusually interesting example of 1950s Hollywood. (That's Jane Greer, above, right, playing the oh-so-good-and-kind woman who comes into Chaney's life to replace that naughty, hateful wife. Ah, the 50s!)

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AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, is pure early 1980s Hollywood, as the town and its films, particularly those in the horror genre, were quickly changing to fit a much more liberal, racy, show-it-all sensibility. Released in August of 1981, five months after The Howling, the real precursor of this new horror -- it was wittier, cleverer and scarier, too -- hit theaters, this second-tier movie from writer/director John Landis actually made a tidier profit than did The Howling (though the latter had a slew of sequels/follow-ups to the former's single clever but box-office-unsuccessful Paris attempt).

What An American Werewolf in London offers, aside from its clever-ironic title and the expected human to werewolf transformation effects, is a lot of grizzly special effects used -- a big surprise back then -- to create some laugh-out-loud comedy. Most of this humor is provided by the movie's ace co-star Griffin Dunne (below, left), whose career took off with this film and is still going strong.

If you still have not seen this movie, I shant go into detail about this gore and humor but will simply say that, having just seen the film again, after some 28 years, it's this very special humor that makes the whole enterprise most worth viewing and savoring once again.

Rick Baker's special effects are less convincing or scary than those he supervised for The Howling -- the werewolf itself (shown at bottom) looks rather fat, gross and silly, but I imagine Baker was intent upon not duplicating in any way the look he used for The Howling -- but Landis' juggling of the humor, suspense and horror still works quite well.

Leading actor David Naughton (above and two photo up at right) brings a quizzical, goofy appeal (was this the first time that full-frontal male nudity had been used in a horror film?), Jenny Agutter (below) makes a lovely, intelligent leading lady, and the film's sudden, no-frills/no-further-explanation finale remains bracing.

If you're a newcomer to the film (as my grandkids were: They thought it was silly fun), by all means have a look, and if you're hankering to revisit, you will probably not be disappointed, though the Blu-ray transfer is not nearly as fine as that of Man of a Thousand Faces.

From Arrow Video, distributed here in the USA via MVD Entertainment Group, both films hit the street on Blu-ray ("American Werewolf" is also available on DVD) this coming Tuesday, October 29 -- for purchase (and I hope) rental.  Plentiful and terrifically enjoyable Bonus Materials are available on both films, as is the usual case with Arrow's offerings.

Garland's back -- in the interesting Goold/ Edge/Quilter/Zellweger collaboration, JUDY

Judy Garland's legion of fans may be dying off in large numbers these days -- the famed singer/ actress was at her peak from the 1930s thru the early 1960s -- but those of actress Renée Zellweger, despite the latter's six-year disappearance from movies during the 2010-2016 period, are still around and large enough, TrustMovies suspects, to help make the new film about Garland, simply titled JUDY, a moderate success.

As directed by Britisher Rupert Goold (shown below), with a screenplay by Tom Edge (from the stage play, End of the Rainbow, by Peter Quilter), the movie covers the last years of Ms Garland's life during her final and very up-and-down performances in London -- with numerous flashbacks to her early days and career as MGM's most successful musical star.

As a film, this is all pretty standard and mostly downbeat stuff, due to Garland's addiction to drugs and alcohol, along with her either choosing poor marriage partners or not understanding how, nor being able, to make a success of those partnerships.

So Judy proves a mostly glum movie -- it would have to be were it to remain true to the facts of this difficult and sad life. Those rumors of how a certain Mr. Mayer and his minions treated the young Garland are shown via pointed if somewhat obvious scenes.

Meanwhile our adult Judy -- clearly down on her luck and performing daytime shows for little pay with her two younger children (shown two photos below; the movie features but a single scene with her daughter Liza) -- meets her fifth and last husband, Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock, below), whose presence is welcome until Garland's drinking and drug use helps ruin this relationship, too.

Interestingly, we don't hear a lick of Garland's singing until maybe 40 minutes or more into the film. How it is introduced is quiet and clever, too. From that point we get more songs, and Ms Zellweger does a good job of giving us Garland's look and sound, even if, to my mind, no one -- not even Liza Minnelli -- has come close to capturing that unique voice and the enormous range of emotions it contained.

Yet even the musical numbers here are all tinged -- occasionally a good deal more than that -- with sadness and failure to launch. The film does not shy away from the addictive behavior that made Garland's reputation increasingly bleak until almost no one wanted to take a chance on booking her -- for movies or concerts.

Garland had a large gay following, well before homosexuality came out of the closet and when, in England, it was still a crime for which you could go to prison. Yet the single "up" scene in the film involves two gay fans of the singer, waiting to greet her after the show and ending up making her dinner in their flat.

True or not, it makes a lovely few minutes and gives the movie an ooomph that helps it move along, while leading to the kind of feel-good finale, brief as it might be, that makes nice use of Garland's signature song and should put a tear into the eyes of die-hard fans.

The film's production design is first-rate, with sets, costumes and cars all nicely period, and care has been taken to not duplicate exactly but clearly still match the look, style and colors of Garland's attire. And Zellweger certainly recreates the emotional life of the singer -- on stage and off.

From Roadside Attractions and LD Entertainment and running just under two full hours, Judy opens this Friday, September 27, nationwide. Here in South Florida, you can find it in Miami at the Regal South Beach 18, AMC's Sunset Place 24 and Aventura Mall 24 theatres, CMX Brickell City Center 10, Silverspot at Met Square Cinemas; in Fort Lauderdale at The Classic Gateway 4; at the Paradise 24 in Davie; at the Cinemark Palace 20, Living Room Theaters, and Regal Shadowood 16, all in Boca Raton; at the Movies of Delray 5 and Movies of Lake Worth; at the Cinemark Boynton Beach 14; at Cobb's Downtown at the Mall Gardens Palm 16; at the Royal Palm Beach 18; the Cinepolis Jupiter 14; and the Regal Treasure Coast Mall 16 in Jensen Beach. 

Want to learn about the life of J.R.R. Tolkien? Try Dome Karukoski's quietly compelling film

I think by now we know, when we watch a bio-pic (about almost anyone at all) that facts are going to be fudged and events and characters telescoped into whatever needs the filmmakers think they face. So it is with the new movie about the life of fabled author, South African-born J.R.R. Tolkien, who was educated in and lived most of his life on British soil.

Prior to the actual screening of the film, as the audience at a preview event sat waiting, on the screen flashed the history of this man in maybe a dozen or so individual written installments. But then, of course, the movie that followed this did not always adhere to the historical timeline we were given just moments before that movie began screening.

Still, TOLKIEN, written by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford and directed by Dome Karukoski (shown at right, of Tom of Finland fame), proves consistently interesting and, as it slowly moves along, finally pretty compelling. Tolkien's real-life tale is mostly quiet and rather sad, with he and his younger brother orphaned at a relatively early age and placed in the care of a Catholic priest. And though the movie is being billed as rather a love story, it's the relationship between Tolkien and his three much-loved school chums (below) that finally raises the movie's temperature and major emotions.

Tolkien is played -- quite well, too -- by Nicholas Hoult (above, left, and below), while those chums are essayed by Anthony Boyle (center left), Patrick Gibson (center right) and Tom Glynn-Carney (right), each of whom makes his character specific and as memorable as possible, given their limited screen time.

The love interest is played (as an adult) by Lily Collins (below), who is pretty but a bit wan here (she registers much more strongly in Netflix's new Ted Bundy movie, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile). The romance is shown to be important in Tolkien's life, yet the movie comes to strongest life in the scenes between Tolkien and his mates,

and in the marvelous entry of Derek Jacobi, below, right, as the Oxford professor who mentors our hero (according to what we see here, the two men seems to have mentored each other). Jacobi's lengthy and delicious monolog about trees proves the movie's consummate treat -- as intelligent and witty as it is germane to Tolkien and his work.

The movie is at its weakest whenever the filmmakers decide they must show us the connections (as below) between the man and his writing, with really pretty silly images of dragons and monsters (which of course will bring to mind The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings). Yes, World War I was awful and, yes, the man was influenced by it, but what we get here is obvious, clunky and unnecessary.

Visually, the movie is often quite verdant and lovely (as below), and Karukoski and his cinematographer (Lasse Frank Johannessen) also capture some images of the war that are startling and darkly memorable.

Overall, the slow pace of the film probably means it will appeal mostly to folk who don't mind this lack of action and of course to those fans of Peter Jackson's hit films who might like to know more about the life of the interesting guy who created the initial work.

In any case, Tolkien, via Fox Searchlight and running 112 minutes, opens nationwide tomorrow, Friday, May 10. To find the theater(s) nearest you, simply click here.

The year's best love story: Jon S. Baird's elegiac and beautiful STAN & OLLIE

Don't worry: It's nothing sexual. Yet in STAN & OLLIE -- screenwriter Jeff Pope's and director Jon S. Baird's lovingly recreated tale of the final live-performance tour of that great motion picture comedy team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy -- the filmmakers have managed to come up with the kind of full-fledged, comic, moving love story that we seldom see anymore.

Early on you may notice how very quiet the movie is. It never insists. Instead, it takes you into the world of Laurel & Hardy gently, and you soon begin to realize how actually gentle were so many of the team's most memorable moments. That, as much as anything, accounted for its popularity and fame.

Sure, the pair did slapstick and schtick, but at their core was a kind of sweetness, together with a perseverance, that stood them -- and their audience -- in very good stead.

And that is what director Baird (shown above) and screenwriter Pope (below),

along with their two gifted and versatile leading actors -- John C. Reilly (as Hardy) and Steve Coogan (as Laurel) allow us to discover in this wonderful new film.

Although (very wisely), the filmmakers let us see enough of the pair's comedy routines to understand why they were so popular in their day, the tone here is more elegiac than anything else.

Via the unusual quietude of the script and direction, Pope and Baird capture the beauty of a relationship that was so oddly close that at least one of these two could simply not perform without the other.

And while actors Coogan (above) and Reilly (below) have clearly done their homework as to the look, sound and "feel" of the men they are essaying, this is no mere "impersonation." The actors seem to inhabit not just the bodies of Laurel and Hardy but their very souls. Mr. Coogan, especially, has that soul down pat. This wondrously versatile actor (you must see his performance in The Dinner, if you haven't already, and in any or all of his "Trip" movies) show us here yet another side -- quiet and infinitely subtle -- we've not yet seen, and he is remarkable.

Mr. Reilly, on the other hand, is reliably funny and often just this side of over-the-top, as was Oliver Hardy. The two actors are as good at bringing to fine life these icons of our movie past as they are in bringing to to even better life the inner lives of the two men. You'll come away from Stan & Ollie with as much of a sense of the characters of these men -- their thoughts, hopes, annoyances -- as of their performing lives.

As the two most important women on the scene, both Shirley Henderson (above, left, as Ollie's wife, Lucille) and Nina Arianda (above, right, as Stan's wife, Ida) are entertaining, compelling -- and funny, too.

The film's story takes in the final British tour the comedy duo did in order to impress the man whom Laurel hoped would bankroll their comeback film. The imaginary scenes we see from this would-be film prove both memorably comic (we get to see and hear one of Hardy's most famous retorts) and infinitely sad.

As Stan & Ollie moves quietly along, it builds surprising emotional force via the accumulation of tiny details and small incidents.

Baird's and Pope's refusal to go for the big scenes and most obvious choices results in a little gem of a film -- one of the year's best -- in which repressed feelings somehow land with more meaning and resonance than does the usual Hollywood grandstanding.

From Sony Pictures Classics and running a just-right 97 minutes, after hitting New York and L.A. a few weeks back, Stan & Ollie opens here in South Florida this Friday, January 18, at the AMC Aventura 24, Aventura; Living Room Theaters, Boca Raton; Cinemark Palace 20, Boca Raton; Regal Shadowood 16, Boca Raton; Cinemark 14, Boynton Beach; Cinepolis Coconut Grove, Landmark Merrick Park, Coral Gables; Cinemark Paradise 24, Davie; The Movies of Delray and The Movies of Lake Worth; The Classic Gateway, Fort Lauderdale; Cinepolis 14, Jupiter; CMX Brickell City Center, Miami; Regal South Beach 18, Miami Beach; Cobbs Downtown at the Gardens 16, Palm Beach Gardens. Wherever you live across the USA, simply click here -- and then click on GET TICKETS on the task bar atop the screen to find a theater near you.

Marie Noëlle's bio-pic, MARIE CURIE: THE COURAGE OF KNOWLEDGE, explores the famous scientist's personal & professional life

Most mainstream audiences today, if they know much of anything about Marie Curie, will probably be somewhat familiar with her pioneering research on radioactivity. (She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, as well as the first person and only woman to win it twice.) The new Polish/German/ French co-production,
MARIE CURIE: The Courage of Knowledge,  should add to our own knowledge considerably -- even if this addition covers as much about Marie's personal and romantic life as about her scientific work.

Both, as it turns out, are interesting enough. As co-written (with Andrea Stoll) and directed by Marie Noëlle (shown at right), the movie proves consistently intelligent and entertaining, very well acted and, thanks to some excellent cinematography (Michal Englert) and editing (by Ms Noëlle and three others), especially pleasurable to view.

The filmmaker uses a bevy of medium shots, which manage to give us a combination of dialog and emotion, yet enough distance so that we don't feel that our nose is being rubbed into things too heavily. This also works well with the rather impressionistic focus Noëlle offers, which also has a somewhat distancing effect, even as the beauty of many of the visual moments takes hold.

In the title role, Polish actress Karolina Kruszka (above and below) does a marvelous job of bringing to life Marie Curie as both a hugely intelligent woman of science and, as the film moves along, an emotional being finally giving in to her needs and desires. There's a grand scene midway along in which, all of a sudden and with near-shocking simultaneity, Marie gives in to repressed feelings, sex, food, drink and lots more.

That splendid French actor Charles Berling (below, in foreground), whom I don't see on screen nearly enough, plays the love of Marie's life: her husband and co-worker, Pierre Curie. With not so much screen time but his unshowy but enormous arsenal of talents, Berling demonstrates exactly why this fine man was such a vital partner to his wife.

As the other male of increasing importance to Marie, once Pierre has departed, Arieh Worthalter (below, left) is smart, sexy and just slightly sleazy enough to not quite pass muster. While his and Curie's relationship brings Marie back to life -- and then some -- the filmmaker and her star make certain that we see Marie as the great scientist and fully cognizant, capable and life-embracing woman she no doubt was.

We view this woman as scientist, wife, mother, lover and feminist (how and why the French Academy of Sciences treated Curie as it did is a blemish that sexist organization will probably never live down). Along the way we're treated to a scene or two featuring Albert Einstein (Piotr Glowacki, above, center), who evidently was a big fan of Curie's work, as well as a dose of the anti-Semitism harbored by the French.

By the time we reach the lovely finale of the film, which returns us to the impressionistic style of its beginning, there is a superb moment as mother and daughter walk away from the camera, and the daughter turns to look back. Marie Curie, however, simply keeps walking, eyes and mind forever on the work and goals that lie ahead.

From Big World Pictures and running a sleek 100 minutes, Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge, after a very limited theatrical release last year, arrives on DVD this coming Tuesday, December 11--for purchase or rental.

BECOMING ASTRID: Pernille Fischer Christensen's smart, lively, moving bio-pic of the early years of a famous Swedish writer

The name Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002) will probably be less recognizable to many literate Americans than is that of one of her heroines, Pippi Longstocking. Pippi, together with other of Lindgren's protagonists, fueled some of the most popular children's books in the history of print. (The author, whose combined works have now sold more than 165,000,000 copies, is also said to be the fourth most translated writer of children's books in the world.)

Interestingly enough, BECOMING ASTRID, the new film about the late-teenage/early-adult years of Ms Lindgren directed and co-written by Pernille Fischer Christensen, is anything but a "children's story" -- even though a child figures very heavily into things.

Ms Christensen (pictured at right) tells a tale, which sticks somewhat closely to factual accounts, of the young girl from a highly religious family/community who clearly has a talent for writing, as well as a need to be independent, even though the means to that state is anything but easy.

The movie is a quite fascinating blend of the dark and sad, and yet it is at the same time relatively easy to enjoy, thanks to the well-rounded characters on view -- no real villains (unless you count organized religion itself), nor even a pristine heroine to be found here -- and to the excellent performance of literally every actor on view.

Front and center is the exceptional young actress Alba August, above (the daughter of director Bille August and actress Pernilla August), who plays Astrid and who easily moves from naive teen to fledgling reporter to worldy-wise mother in the course of this two-hour film.

How and why she chooses this difficult road is told with urgency and understanding by Ms Christensen and her co-writer Kim Fupz Aakeson, as the story moves from Sweden to Denmark and back again, involving the editor of the local newspaper (a fine job from Henrik Rafaelsen, above, left) and his family, Astrid's life in the big-city workplace (that's her boss, played with sly intelligence and humor by Björn Gustafsson, below), and finally a surrogate mom (the wonderful Trine Dyrholm, seen only recently as Nico).

The choice to concentrate on these early years, rather than on how Lindgren achieved her initial success, was a smart one, and the movie also chooses a pleasing but subtle introduction and finale (below), during which the now famous and aging author, on her birthday, listens to tapes and reads letters from her young fans.

This quickly and firmly establishes who she is and why she's important. When one of the youngsters asks how she is able to so completely understand the sometimes fraught and frightening world of childhood, the movie moves immediately to enmesh us in her own earlier years.

Young Ms August brings to the role enormous vitality, as well as an understanding of the pitfalls that go hand in hand with brash youth and teenage rebellion. Consequently, though we always wish her well, we do cringe and wonder at a few of her choices. This gives the movie more reality, together with a certain surprising frisson -- both of which many other conventional bio-pics lack.

When at last we meet the little boy who will prove so pivotal to Astrid's life and who takes his place as increasingly all-important, the movie reaches its emotional height -- and stays there through the conclusion. Fans of this super-popular author will certainly be hooked. But so, too, TrustMovies suspects, will be even those who know little about Ms Lindgren. The film is that compelling and well-executed.

From Music Box Films and running 123 minutes, Becoming Astrid opens in New York City (at Film Forum), Los Angeles (at Laemmle's Royal) and Minneapolis (at Landmark's Lagoon Cinema) tomorrow, Friday, November 22, and will then spread across the country in the weeks to come. Here in South Florida, look for it on Friday, November 30, at the MDC Tower Theater in Miami. To view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here then scroll down and click on Theatrical Engagements.