38/13
Featuring Toast of the City (1948)
Narrative
A generational story about families and the special place they inhabit, sharing love, loss, laughter and life. Based on the comic book "Here" by Richard McGuire. It was first published as a strip in the comic book magazine "Raw" in 1989 and expanded into a 300-page graphic novel in 2014. The setting is Philadelphia, but the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs is shown hitting the same area. That asteroid landed in what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. [from the trailer] Richard: You know, if you want, you can spend the rest of the night here. Margaret: I could spend the rest of my life here..
Clarinet Concerto, Pts
1 and 2 Written by Artie Shaw Performed by Artie Shaw and his orchestra Courtesy of RCA RecordsBy arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment. Greetings again from the darkness. I may be in the minority on this one, but it’s hard to believe I’m alone in my impression that the film is being hyped as a reunion of FORREST GUMP director, writer, cast and crew. I found it to be one of the most irritating and tedious films to watch I’ve seen in a while. A long time. Of course, I’m sure it’s possible to make a decent film without a plot and a little backstory and no interesting characters… but this isn’t it.
There’s very little excitement in this living room
Without intending to spoil the waters for potential viewers, this simply recaps the process. The premise is to set the camera in one place and then move through the story. Starting with the crazy dinosaurs, the devastating flood, Mother Nature reclaiming her land, Native Americans living their lives, Benjamin Franklin’s illegitimate son building a huge house, and finally our specific house in the newly created neighborhood being built. Then we see the families that have lived in the house over the years. When I say the camera stays in one place, that’s exactly what I mean. It’s as if it never moved as the dinosaurs roam and Franklin’s house is built, and finally the bay window in this house provides a static view of the living room. It’s mostly the same family stuff you’ve probably experienced: love, marriage, birth, death, illness, arguments, heartbreak.
Anyway, life’s stuff happens
Although there are other residents, the Young family has lived in the house for most of the year, starting with Army vet Al Young (Paul Bettany) and his wife Rose (Kelly Riley), who’s just back from the war. One of their children is an aspiring artist, Richard (played as a teenager, adult, and senior by Oscar winner Tom Hanks). He marries his high school sweetheart, Margaret (Robin Wright), who hopes to be a lawyer. and it keeps happening, because of the use of overlapping frames as we connect from one time period to another, both forward and backward. 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the Oscar-winning film FORREST GUMP. The ‘Gump’ team for the film includes writer/director Robert Zemeckis, co-writer Eric Roth, lead actors Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, cinematographer Don Burgess, composer Alan Silvestri, sound designer Randy Thom, and costume designer Joanna Johnston. The film, adapted from Richard McGuire’s 2014 graphic novel, bears little resemblance to the classic film the team previously worked on (it won 6 Oscars and 13 nominations).
Much of it reminds me of Mr
For all the sadness Martin Scorsese took in using the aging process in THE IRSHMAN (2019), he takes it to a whole new level, with Hanks and Wright both as teenagers and as adults. Potter’s line in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, «sentimental crap.» We should just add generic dialogue and bland characters. The exception is the intimate relationship between David Flynn and Ophelia Lovibond, as the engineering inspired by his character leads to romantic moments for the couple. To put it bluntly, there’s simply no story here.