Why are critics complaining so much about Hitchcock? It's a zippy, solid B with entertaining perfs by Anthony Hopkins as Hitch and Helen Mirren as his wife Alma who was his boss on his first film job. Even Scarlett J as Janet Leigh is less annoying than usual. James D'Arcy plays Anthony Perkins, whose homosexuality, and Hollywood's homophobia, the script acknowledges, though it could be more. Ever the imp, Hitchcock rattles him on set by responding, "It's just Hitch. Hold the cock." Literary readers expecting aspects of Manuel Munoz's elegant novel What You See in the Dark
[Kindle
] may be surprised to learn Psycho was shot on a studio lot, not in Bakersfield as Manuel has it, which could be another reason why he chose to leave the film unnamed and call his characters the director and the actress. Film buffs might want to try Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho
[Kindle
].
Life of Pi is no Kon-Tiki
[film], but some viewers haven't minded watching half-clad teen Suraj Sharma adrift on a raft for 227 days. My favorite nanosecond was the interviewer asking the middle-aged Pi, "You're married?" in the perplexed tone you might use to say, "You telegraph?"
At this year's New York Film Festival I didn't like Lincoln but I *hated* the other presidential movie, Hyde Park on Hudson, opening tomorrow. Every character is a one-note dud. The political genius FDR is just a jolly horny goat. Eleanor is a burr and her lesbianism isn't given its due. Laura Linney's character undergoes a ridiculous overnight transformation to lock the false happy ending. I look forward to a chipper, Oscar-buzzed Hollywood movie about a powerful man married to another man that celebrates his sexual liaisons with five accepting, enabling boytoys as Oh, that lovable old tomcat! Open relationships can work but this phony, straight male fantasy says smart, miserable women are happy as long as their shared man is satisfied.
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