Mubi Monday: Heaven's Gate (1980)

I've seen Heaven's Gate before, but it somehow made no impression on me. I remember thinking that it wasn't as bad as others might have you believe, but that's been a general opinion for many years now, considering the softening effects of the passing of time and the reappraisal this has received since the longer cut became more widely available.

This second viewing has me creeping closer to the view that this is close to being a real great. It doesn't get there, not quite, but it's a fascinating mess.

Kris Kristofferson, Isabelle Huppert, Christopher Walken, Sam Waterston, and Brad Dourif have main roles here, all of them playing a part in telling a tale of unrest and deadly fighting among the various citizens of Wyoming. Some of them feel themselves more deserving than others when it comes to the land and their positions, and there's a plan to write up a list of names of people who have to go. 

Written and directed by Michael Cimino, I could write thousands and thousands of words about the making of Heaven's Gate, but many others have already done that. It's well-documented as one of the most bloated and damaging directorial features of all time. There's such a stink all over it that I am always surprised to see that Cimino was allowed to make other movies after it. I'm less surprised to find that none of his later efforts come close to the strange magnificence of this.

Every cast member mentioned, whether playing a stereotype or a more well-rounded character, does excellent work here, and the hefty runtime of the movie also allows time for appearances from Joseph Cotten, Jeff Bridges, Geoffrey Lewis, Richard Masur, and a number of other familiar faces (keep your eyes peeled for Tom Noonan, Mickey Rourke, and Terry O'Quinn, among others) in both credited and uncredited roles.

I'm not sure it really matters about the people in front of the camera though. As good a job as they do, this is Cimino's vision, and he seizes the opportunity to put the United States of America under a lens that shows how those once-glorified "Wild West" years were full of violence, mistrust, bigotry, and huge divisions between the rich and the poor that make the current climate of the country much easier to understand, especially when so many people living there still think that life was better in what they like to view as a simpler time, despite the evidence to the contrary.

The 219-minute runtime is a hell of a commitment, but I encourage people to make time for it. There are moments that could have been trimmed down, but it's a large beast full of life, with teeth and claws that can occasionally hurt, compared to the sad and neutered pet that the more heavily-edited version resembles. I'm unlikely to now put aside another entire afternoon for it, but I am definitely glad that I took the time to give it one more chance to impress me, and impress me it did. At times.

7/10

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Minions And Monsters (2026)

I have heard some people recently wonder just who Minions And Monsters is for. It takes the well-liked animated characters and puts them in a film packed with jokes and references to the entire history of cinema. Personally, I think many younger viewers will still enjoy the jokes for the simple silliness of the minions, but if there's one specific demographic being catered for then I'd have to say . . . it's me.

Bookended by scenes that show people wandering around a movie studio and being given information by a tour guide (Allison Janney), this starts off with familiar scenes from the past showing us the minions seeking the most appropriate horrible master to serve. Things don't go to plan, as ever, and the minions end up gate-crashing a movie production in the 1920s. Their anarchy and energy leads to them becoming major movie stars, but that stardom, as happened with people in real life, is threatened by the advent of sound becoming a fixture of movies. Maybe the minions can boost their careers by making a great monster movie. Especially when they have a powerful book of spells to help them create a proper monster.

I am absolutely aware of the fact that my opinion here may run contrary to so many others, but this is easily the best minions movie yet (and there have been a lot of fun adventures featuring these small and servile "crash test dummies"). The animation throughout it wonderful, the plotting and pacing are both perfect for the 90-minute runtime, and writer-director Pierre Coffin continues to excel as the main vocal performer, and the expert on speaking the cute gibberish that is Minionese.

Coffin is joined in the writing duties by Brian Lynch (who has worked on a number of these movies, including the almost equally good Minions). Both of them seem to relish a chance to add some mayhem and cute catastrophes to iconic movie moments, and it helps that the animated form allows for a whole heap of wonderful cameos and caricatures.

It's not just all down to the writing, direction, and voice work of Coffin though. There's a fantastic mix of other celebrities willing to lend their voices to the onscreen silliness, from Janney to Christoph Waltz (a director who feels very much based on the likes of Otto Preminger, Josef von Sternberg, etc), Jeff Bridges (two powerful studio execs) to Zoey Deutch (Debbie), as well as Trey Parker (a cute monster) and Jesse Eisenberg (a cute robot named Dort).  

Whatever the joke, whether it's the standard silliness or something a bit smarter, Minions And Monsters always feels as if it has been made with care and genuine love for cinema. Every main sequence has at least one fantastic homage, and many squeeze in multiple references without feeling as if the film is losing any energy or momentum. I know that some will keep wondering how this is supposed to be aimed at children who won't be aware of most of the references, but I think they'll still have fun with everything on a surface level, and will hopefully develop a sense of curiosity that will actually make it a lot easier to  introduce them to a lot of classic cinema in non-animated form.

9/10

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Noirvember: Jagged Edge (1985)

A script by Joe Eszterhas, a central character who is confident and sexy, but may also have committed a savage murder, and a major star helping to add some sparkle to enjoyably trashy pulp fare, it’s easy to see why some view Jagged Edge as a warm-up for Basic Instinct, but it’s also important to note that the two films are as different as they are similar.

Jeff Bridges plays Jack Forrester, a man accused of the vicious murder of his wife. He stands to gain everything from her death, and a lot of people know that the marriage had some problems, but he protests his innocence. Picking Teddy Barnes (Glenn Close) as his attorney, a woman who had hoped to leave criminal law behind, Forrester soon learns that his good looks and charm won’t be enough to stop the truth coming out. And the truth isn’t very nice. But it doesn’t necessarily make him a murderer.

Perhaps I have been spoiled over the years, and I have certainly been influenced by seeing many other Eszterhas scripts onscreen before this one, but Jagged Edge is a surprisingly tame and polished affair. There’s an ill-advised blurring of boundaries between attorney and client, to put it mildly, and sex is weaponized  in a way that will be familiar to those who have seen any of his other films, but director Richard Marquand never dwells on the lustier moments. He prefers to always circle back to the courtroom proceedings, or investigation ongoing during the trial, as quickly as possible. Where others may have made this an erotic thriller with just enough courtroom scenes to keep things grounded, Marquand delivers a legal thriller with just enough chemistry between the leads to keep things sexually-charged.

Both Close and Bridges are excellent in their roles, the former smart and tough, the latter attractively carefree and advantageously looking like . . . Jeff Bridges, and they work equally well together and individually, although the film sticks with Close for most of the scenes not set in the courtroom. Peter Coyote is the prosecuting attorney, Thomas Krasny, and he’s a lot of fun in his role, the typically over-confident prosecutor who starts to become increasingly nervous as more and more cracks appear in the case. Last, but not least, I have to mention Robert Loggia, stealing a couple of scenes as a private detective named Sam Ransom (a role that for him nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, losing out to Don Ameche for his turn in Cocoon).

Solid entertainment from start to finish, Jagged Edge just doesn’t have anything that really lifts it up. No pun intended, it lacks a bit of edge. Even the John Barry score feels a bit more restrained than it could be, although I may again be dealing with my own bias caused by exposure to other movies of this ilk. I certainly enjoyed it while it was on though, and it felt like a title I was long overdue to check off my “watchlist”, but I doubt I will ever rush to rewatch it.

7/10

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Bad Times At The El Royale (2018)

I have just finished watching Bad Times At The El Royale for a second time and I think that may already tell you how this review is going to go (considering I just bought it this week, and I rarely have time for rewatches lately). A first viewing left me in the rare mindset of having enjoyed what I watched but immediately wondering how it would hold up on a second viewing. Because I had issues with the film, with the pacing across the excessive runtime being the main one, and wondered if these would become more or less problematic upon a rewatch. The answer is less, with me knowing what was still to come I wasn't surprised by how far (or, indeed, not far) through the movie I was. Knowing that the plot wasn't setting up to pull the rug from under my feet, I was also able to relax more into the viewing experience and absorb all of the wonderful separate characters who are thrown together into an enjoyably pulpy crime thriller.

A number of people converge at the titular hotel. There's Father Daniel Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a salesman named Laramie Seymour Sullivan (Jon Hamm), a black singer named Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo), and a young woman named Emily Summerspring (Dakota Johnson). None of these people care much for the spiel given by the one hotel staff member, Miles (Lewis Pullman), who reminds them all of the unique placement of the building, one half in California and one half in Nevada, but that's mainly because they all have their own agendas to be getting on with. Secretive stuff, few people are as they initially appear to be. And, considering his placement on the poster, it's only a matter of time until Chris Hemsworth appears, playing a cult leader named Billy Lee.

Written and directed by Drew Goddard, Bad Times At The El Royale is a fantastic collage of cool moments that have been pieced together by someone obviously in love with the tropes and archetypes found in crime thrillers. You get the crook in disguise, the lawman (also in disguise), the femme fatale, two-way mirrors, a stash of stolen loot, and some inflammatory film footage. All the ingredients you need for a fine bit of intrigue and danger. Goddard is a major strength here, thanks to his writing and directorial style (he's not afraid to just sit back and show some moments that are cinematically cool), but it's also his name being attached to it that made me less appreciative of the movie the first time around, as I was expecting this to keep me on my toes and twist everything around a la The Cabin In The Woods. It's good that he doesn't just repeat the same trick, of course, but it's also so unexpected that you spend a lot of time waiting for a big twist that doesn't come (on the first viewing anyway). There are lots of little twists and turns, all nicely done and never feeling like cheats, but nothing that has Goddard turning everything inside out.

The solid script is helped by a cast who are all on great form. Bridges gives one of his more atypical performances in recent years, and is bloody wonderful in his role, Hamm is comfortable in another role that relies on his ability to be both arrogant and charming, Johnson is very good, and Pullman feels like a completely insignificant character caught up in the middle of things until he is given a chance to shine. But the standouts are Erivo, absolutely charming as the singer trying to work as hard as she can for her big break, and Hemsworth, who is only seen in flashback form until it's time for him to swagger into the hotel, bringing an energy and charisma that helps to revive the film en route to the (slightly overdue) third act. Cailee Spaeny is decent enough in her role, and there are nice cameos from Nick Offerman and Shea Whigham.

The positives far outweigh the negative here. The script, the cast, the design, the directorial and editing choices, etc. The only thing I will hold against it as a major minus is that bloated runtime, which should have been trimmed down by about 20 minutes, at least, to tighten it all up (the backstory to the Hemsworth character could have easily been truncated, as could some of the details we get as we see what eventually brought Bridges to the hotel).

Although it may seem unlikely as a film that you may end up returning to for comfort viewing, I can see this one becoming a constant favourite for those who warm to it as much as I have. I can't think of any main sequence that wasn't full of little moments I loved, and the finale was a lot more satisfying than I expected it to be. And that's before I start thinking of the potential allegory underpinning the storyline. Yeah, I'll end up rewatching this one before many other, brisker, films.

8/10

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