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Two Cents Goes Upside Down to Honor Gene Hackman in THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE
Paying tribute to one of the actor’s most iconic films featuring one of his most underrated performances.
Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to [email protected].
The loss of Gene Hackman is still hard to wrap my head around. Like I mentioned in our last addition of Two Cents, even though the Oscar winner hadn’t been on the screen for over 20 years, there was still something reassuring about the fact that he was still with us. Hackman was one of the key actors who made 70s cinema as invigorating and vital as it remains to this day. His output of films would eventually reach beyond the decade he helped to define, allowing him to leave his mark on many eras of cinema that came after.
It’s no wonder that our lineup for this tribute looks the way it does. The actor’s filmography reads as a chronicle of some of the greatest American films ever made. So prolific was Hackman’s output that some titles, including The French Connection, Night Moves, Superman, and The Birdcage struggled to end up on the final roster, despite us extending the timeline to make room for additional titles.
The Pick: The Poseidon Adventure
One title that was easy to make room for was 1972’s The Poseidon Adventure. The quintessential disaster film and the centerpiece of producer Irwin Allen’s career, the film was one of the year’s top grossers, as well as a critical hit that netted nine Oscar nominations and provided the genre with a new blueprint. The tale of a group of survivors (led by Hackman’s priest) who battle uncertain elements in their struggles to get to safety after the luxury liner they’re on has capsized, continues our tribute to one of the greatest actors the screen ever saw.
The Team:
Julian Singleton
Last year was the first time I got to see The Towering Inferno, and the first time I was introduced to Irwin Allen’s particular brand of ensemble disaster mayhem. I loved it because on top of the spectacular setpieces and endless rounds of “hey, it’s that guy!” casting, it was a celebration of our capacity to possess both crippling flaws and fearless capability–that in the face of the unthinkable, we can put our collective strengths together and help save lives.
I was looking forward to The Poseidon Adventure in that capacity as part of our Hackmonth, but what caught me so off guard is how, for all of its similar disastrous splendor, The Poseidon Adventure is pretty damn mean. Legions of central casting extras are mown down by waves, never to be addressed again. Before they meet their fates, they feverishly trample each other to try and get to the chance at safety they’d dismissed moments before. As soon as a character showcases the worth we knew they possessed, they’re claimed by the sea, leaving our remaining survivors as far away from hope as much as they are closer to it.
Gene Hackman’s tempestuous and headstrong Reverend Scott, alongside an equally blusterous Ernest Borgnine, finally unlocked The Poseidon Adventure for me about two-thirds through its exciting yet bleak runtime. Encumbered with these mortal setbacks and an ever-approaching elemental terror, these two men face parallel crises of faith, questioning what to trust or what power to place their faith in. It’s The Book of Job compressed into 2 nail-biting hours with a fair peppering of The Inferno for good measure, with senseless tragedy that inspires a painful cringe as much as awe. Hackman’s priest, exiled from American clergy for his bitingly realist views, looks forward to a new life where he has the freedom to put more power and action behind his prayer–but finds his action saving survivors increasingly met with tragedy and heartbreak. Borgnine’s Rogo, a former detective newly married, loses everything he has and everyone he loves. Traveling into Hell in search of Heaven and deliverance, both men are bracingly tested–and it’s Hackman’s Reverend who, for all of his heroism and selflessness, openly questions the will of the God who would put them in these fiery bowels, inches away from freedom in the first place. It’s a gripping scene, delivered the same year as Hackman’s Oscar-winning performance in The French Connection–and it’s this achingly human fallibility that makes Scott such a memorable and winning character, a pathos that Hackman, with a twinkling mischief in his eyes, infused into many of his best roles.
It’s this faith that helped them get this far, even in an amazing scene with a single set of other survivors who are possibly headed to their doom with equal belief in their actions. And it’s Rev. Scott’s begrudging faith–coupled with the action he aspired to deliver–that earns the freedom of those left to live on.
Brendan Agnew
It’s funny what you remember certain films for. The Poseidon Adventure is the first movie I recall recognizing Gene Hackman in as “Oh, it’s the bad guy from Superman!” when I caught it on TV at a friend’s house. As a younger adolescent, I didn’t have any frame of reference for Irwin Allen or ‘70s cinema, but was gripped by the seawater and steel nightmare of the Poseidon’s passengers trying to get to safety after the ship capsizes. I’d had a mild fascination with historical disasters like the sinking of the Titanic (yes, this was before the movie, which – also, yes – I was a big ol’ mark for), and the relatability and immediacy of the setting combined with Allen’s filmmaking chops had me hooked in spite of a more than mild horror at the film’s unending bleakness.
Returning to this years later with the full appreciation of the disaster subgenre, there’s a few elements that keep this near the front of the pack, even through all the permutations disaster cinema has seen through the decades. Firstly, while I’m a fan of the “cast of hundreds” approach, the focus on a smaller ensemble that gets slowly whittled down works in particular conjunction with the literal structure of the film. Having the isolation of a cruise ship heightened by this floating island being further cut off from even the “populace” of the ship not only lets the cast really flex their dynamics, but also keeps the tension sky-high as the inevitable creeps up on them. I didn’t have any familiarity with actors like Winters or McDowell, but they immortally became “Oh, from The Poseidon Adventure!” whenever I clocked them later, and I’ll always wish we had a dozen more pairings of Borgnine and Hackman.
But what really cooks about this movie is how delicately it argues with itself. Allen is raw and mean and ruthless, displaying a savagery that’s less depressed and nihilistic than The Towering Inferno, but more shocking. And yet for all that, the film continues to dangle hope and survival for the viewer and the cast tantalizingly out of reach. It fully celebrates the drive that pushes humanity past our limits in a crisis even as it shows how ready we are to turn each other into meat, and every lost soul as they ascend into the bowels of hell to reach heaven can’t be totally needless if it allowed someone to take a few more steps before falling.
Spencer Brickey
“Money Job”. This is purportedly what Gene Hackman, with a shit eating grin, told Ben Stiller on the set of Royal Tenenbaums when the young actor spoke about his love of the 1972 disaster film The Poseidon Adventure. It’s no secret, or even frowned upon fact, that actors will take paycheck roles. Hell, almost every A lister from the ‘80s and ‘90s has a bevy of Japanese commercials to their names. And Hackman was no different; he was a man who viewed himself as a craftsman over an artist, and would routinely go where the money was. Only difference was; Hackman never gave anything less than his absolute A game. And he does so with Gusto in The Poseidon Adventure, where he plays the cocksure Reverend Scott.
Now, Poseidon, and honestly the genre of ‘70s disaster films, isn’t really what people think it is. There is a general view of these films as kinda goofy, in both their effects and their drama, with no real need to examine them. Most are picturing ‘90s disaster films (which were goofy, yes, but also ruled) when thinking of their predecessors.
This would be a near wholly misreading of these films, cause, damn, ‘70s disaster films are fucking bleak. These films would routinely kill off half their cast, usually in incredibly nihilistic or cruel ways. Be it The Towering Inferno dropping an elderly woman from a glass elevator, or about 90% of the cast being killed off by a train derailment in The Swarm, or the wall-eyed national guard killing off the wounded in Earthquake, or the genuinely jaw droppingly violent ending to Two Minute Warning (for real, that one goes off the fucking rails). These films are mean and dark, and Poseidon is no different.
Following a small group of survivors as they try to escape from a flipped ocean liner, Gene Hackman plays Reverend Scott, a brash, egotistical priest who leads this group of terrified passengers towards possible escape. Easily a role that could’ve been played softly, as a holy man looking for redemption, Hackman decides to play it in the exact opposite direction. He is a priest essentially banished from the religion for his views; that God gives you nothing, and only the strong survive. He’s given a way to prove his theory as the Poseidon starts to sink, and only a few rally to his side.
What makes Hackman’s portrayal so interesting is that Reverend Scott is kind of a bastard. He is constantly combative, making sure to beat down and humiliate anyone who questions him (poor Ernest Borgnine, man; dude has to deal with surviving a sinking ship AND being cuckolded?), and only really cares about the “strong”; after trying to convince another priest to abandon a group of terrified and wounded passengers, he openly shouts at the survivors, calling them fools, before watching them drown to death.
He also has a real strained relationship with God, which is kinda fascinating for ‘72. He’s presented as a man who has a “new” view on the faith, but, as the world descends into chaos and the Reverend is pushed to his limits, Hackman reveals Scott to almost loathe God, viewing him as a deity who’d rather watch his faithful die than help in any way. His push for “only the strong survive” takes on new meaning as he continues to shout to God about his inaction, becoming “be stronger than God”. Even in his (spoiler for a film released during the Nixon administration) final moments, Scott never has a revelation, or proof of his faith. Instead, it is he, the individual, who must save the day. As he hangs from a steam pipe, he curses God one last time, before falling into a river of fire (there’s…a lot of symbolism going on here).
All of this, from the asshole charm to the death of faith, only works because of Hackman’s abilities as an actor. He is able to bounce between charming, cocky, steadfast, and helpless effortlessly, and it’s a central reason why The Poseidon Adventure still works today. It might’ve been a “money job”, but Hackman always gave you every dollar’s worth.
Austin Vashaw
I miss the era of big but grounded disaster epics in the fashion of Irwin Allen. We still get disaster movies, sure, but they tend to be big CG sci-fi spectacles like those of the Emmerich-Devlin mold (which got considerably less compelling after Independence Day), or connected to heightened concepts with apocalyptic themes or zombie outbreaks.
But those 70s movies like The Towering Inferno and Earthquake had relatable stakes, and terrific practical sets and effects. They were raw and tactile in a way that the modern ones can’t compare, and typically stacked with huge ensemble casts of stars and character actors.
The Poseidon Adventure is a classic example, boasting an incredible cast led by Gene Hackman as an unusual hero: a surly clergyman who assumes natural leadership when most others panic. Hackman’s abrasive personality and argumentative approach are tempered by his genuine care. And while he’s convinced he’s the smartest man in the room, well– he is, and the convictions he fights for turn out to be correct.
A mix of other characters with different motivations, ages, and relationships brings more stories to the table, and while there’s a constant bickering among the group, each of the characters has an understandable viewpoint and they don’t feel one-dimensional. They’re all trying to survive, even if they don’t agree on how to do so.
The film has great moments of both heroism and tragedy. I was particularly moved by Shelley Winters’ character, who perceives herself as overweight and a burden to the group, but pulls out an unexpected talent and courage when the moment requires.
And while I almost take it for granted now, the concept – traversing an inverted cruise ship – is just a really compelling and imaginative backdrop for this kind of storytelling.
Frank Calvillo
There’s so much to dig into with a movie like The Poseidon Adventure. The all-star cast (in what other on-screen world would Hackman and Shelley Winters meet?), the groundbreaking special effects, that dreamy theme song, and the highly involving journey the audience takes with these desperate survivors as they try with all their might to get to safety; all of these components would make the film worth remembering today. But it’s the fact that The Poseidon Adventure utilizes all of these elements so effectively that it helps elevate what would ordinarily be a standard actioner into a genuinely great motion picture.
The capsizing sequence remains as spectacular as ever with its mix of effects, suspense and incredible stunt work. After such a huge and explosive set piece, most would think the movie has already shown its hand. However, the subsequent action sequences carry enough thrills and tension to make every single one of them memorable in their own way. The suspense during these scenes is only amplified by our growing attachment to the characters, all of whom are given enough moments to make them feel more like people instead of the kind of archetypes the genre would late produce. What’s more, every person is given moments of reflection as the film forces both philosophical and actual questions of life and death onto them.
At the heart of it all is Hackman, whose Reverend Scott is the unlikely hero tasked with guiding this group of people through to safety using nothing but his instincts and his faith. The actor’s natural (if slightly unconventional) leading man presence is perfect for a story whose harrowing adventure truly is harrowing in every sense of the word. The Poseidon Adventure pulls no punches when it comes to the fates of the characters, but Hackman’s performance- full of determination, motivation, and belief- keeps us going. Plenty of Reverend Scott’s key moments, such as his last one with Winters’ Belle Rosen, shows some great character work on the actor’s part, while his final scene is the perfect culmination of a man now battling the faith that has defined him for most of his life. There are a great many elements that make The Poseidon Adventure a bonafide classic, but it’s Hackman’s performance that gives it its soul.
Justin Harlan
Since I was the last person to finish my weekly contribution, I decided to get the last word in… even if this is Frank’s post. Perhaps it was watching this film that left me to feeling like being dramatic. Perhaps it’s because the formatting for the rest of the post is already done and I don’t feel like messing that up. I guess you’ll never know…
But one thing is for certain. Hackman was an acting god. Despite this incredibly stacked cast, somehow he steals the show in nearly every scene he’s in. While disaster films aren’t generally my favorite action/adventure subgenre at all, Hackman and the rest of the ensemble truly elevate a tale that I probably wouldn’t have cared too much about (again, based on my preferences… not saying there wasn’t a ton of solid action or compelling story beats if this kind of film is your thing).
Beyond my further emphasis that the acting is what makes this one worth it, I feel like the rest of the crew hit all the important beats, so I’ll simply note that I’m looking forward to a great excuse to keep diving into Hackman’s filmography this month plus. There are several I haven’t seen until now (including this one) and I’m genuinely excited to see wha tI’ve been missing.
Goodbye to a Great: TWO CENTS Celebrates Gene Hackman
To make the passing of a cinematic legend, we at Cinapse are putting together a titanic selection of some of the late Gene Hackman’s biggest and best performances. From sports dramas to military thrillers to bone-fide classics, here’s a list of what we’re watching:
April 21 – Unforgiven – (Paramount + – 2 hours 10 minutes)
April 28 – Crimson Tide – (Digital Rental / Purchase – 1 hour 56 minutes)
May 5 – The Conversation – (Prime Video – 1 hour 53 minutes)
May 12 – Enemy of the State – (Prime Video – 2 hours 12 minutes)
May 19 – The Royal Tenenbaums – (Digital Rental / Purchase – 1 hour 50 minutes)
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THE WEDDING BANQUET (2025) is a Tender Remake
Andrew Ahn’s adaptation breathes new life into this hilarious romantic comedy based on Ang Lee’s 1993 film
Han Gi-Chan,Youn Yuh-Jung and Kelly Marie Tran in THE WEDDING BANQUET. Credit: Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures
Filmmaker Andrew Ahn (Fire Island) and producer/screenwriter James Schamus (Eat Drink Man Woman, The Ice Storm) partnered on a new adaptation of Ang Lee’s original film (which Schamus also co-wrote and produced), The Wedding Banquet (here’s my review of the 2017 Blu-ray release, but the 1993 film isn’t currently available on physical media or streaming anywhere, which is ridiculous!). Bringing the almost 30-year-old work into 2025 required some updates. Here, the person in need of a green card marriage is Korean textile artist and chaebol grandson Min (Han Gi-chan, Where Your Eyes Linger), longtime boyfriend of birder Chris (Bowen Yang, Fire Island, SNL). The two share a garage apartment owned by neighbor Lee (Lily Gladstone, Certain Women, The Unknown Country), who is undergoing fertility treatments with her partner Angela (Kelly Marie Tran, Raya and the Last Dragon, Forge).Rounding out the cast are Joan Chen (Saving Face, The Joy Luck Club) as Angela’s mother, with whom she shares a strained relationship, and Youn Yuh-jung (Minari, Pachinko) as the grandmother who controls Min’s purse strings. The performances are the soul of this film, but Ahn and Schamus’ screenplay has more laugh-out-loud moments than the quirky humor of the original. One example is Chen’s wry delivery of, “Why did I put years of activism into gay marriage if this is what I get?” upon Angela telling her she and Min have worked out a marriage agreement to keep him in the US.
Joan Chen in THE WEDDING BANQUET. Credit: Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures
The tenderness of the 1993 film appears again here as this updated story allows for character growth amidst mistakes and misunderstandings. The film is a delightful comedy of errors. Yang’s Chris would be Min’s ideal for a husband, but he is reluctant because of self-doubt and commitment issues. Chris’ cousin Kendall (Bobo Le) serves as his confidant, while his best friend (and college one-night-stand) Angela shares similar self doubts in her relationship with Lee.Tran and Chen share emotional scenes together, displaying the challenges within their mother-daughter connection. There’s a quiet power to the scenes Youn and Han share as the grandmother realizes who her grandson really is. And I’d be remiss not to recognize the maturity Gladstone’s Lee brings to the group dynamic, even as she suffers failed IVF treatment.
Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Han Gi-Chan and Bowen Yang in THE WEDDING BANQUET. Credit: Bleecker Street/ShivHans Pictures
The cinematography by Ki Jin Kim gives an additional intimacy to the work. One memorably beautiful scene shows Ja-Young (Youn) sitting pensively in the quiet reception hall, post-wedding ceremony, as staff clean up around her. Songs by indie AAPI artists pepper The Wedding Banquet, furthering the modern feel of the film. This Wedding Banquet is a fun celebration of found families, a loving depiction of a small group that has chosen to be family. We still have a good bit of 2025 to go, but Ahn’s film is likely to be one of the best of the year.
The Wedding Banquet opens Friday in theaters nationwide.
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THE SHROUDS has David Cronenberg Tackling Grief and Loss in his most Personal Effort to Date
The Shrouds has David Cronenberg tackling and attempting to process the untimely death of his wife in a way that only the iconic director could, through the lens of the body horror and the grotesque. It’s a dense and emotionally charged effort that tackles both grief and loss as you would expect, but does so through a more seasoned perspective that’s rarely the case in film. Featuring a 50 year-old plus protagonist, it’s exciting to see a filmmaker not trying to project their twilight experiences on a bright-eyed wise beyond their twenty-something years, who has yet to meet the love of their life – let alone lose them.
The techno macguffin for the director this time around is a technology called “The Shroud”, developed here by Cronenberg doppelganger and tech entrepreneur Karsh (Vincent Cassel). This is a high tech death shroud allows those loved ones above ground to view the bodies of those they lost decompose below, via a smartphone app or an LCD embedded in their tombstone. The Shroud has been pivotal in helping Karsh to help cope with the loss of wife Becca (Diane Kruger), who passed away after an arduous battle with cancer resulting in various amputations. As the film begins, it’s been four years since Becca’s death and as Karsh is looking to take the shroud cemeteries international, the first location has been vandalized and the video feeds have been encrypted by mysterious hackers.
What follows is Karsh trying to unravel the plot against him and his company, while new fragments of his wife’s death are illuminated, forcing his grief back to the surface and to reprocess their relationship with a renewed clarity.
One thing that immediately grabbed me is how Cronenberg tackles loss from the male perspective from both death and divorce, in such a way as only someone who has experienced both has. This brings in Guy Pearce who turns in a tragic yet unforgettable performance as Karsh’s “brother in grief” Maury, he’s not just his tech guy, but was recently divorced from Becca’s (twin?) sister, also played by Diane Kruger(Dead Ringers Nod?). It’s that plot device that utilizes both Karsh and Maury to compare and contrast the two forms of loss in a way and the desperation they inspire that is profound as it is captivating. It’s how both men navigate their circumstances within these instances, when all they want is that reconnection – that I found it completely fascinating and one of the best portrayals of loss and grief in a narrative in quite some time.
The other thing that caught me off guard was Cronenberg’s approach with his actors to this material. The performances in his films are usually somewhat detached and the deliveries of lines are as meticulous as they are almost clinically measured. But here there’s a more naturalistic and emotive approach that I found completely disarming as a fan of the director. Vincent Cassel who seems like he’d benefit more from the former style here delivers a truly cathartic emotional performance, battling with not only his inner demons on screen, but those looking to sabotage his business dealings as well. This is opposite Kruger and Pearce who also in turn offer up some rather stirring performances opposite.
That said, the mystery at the heart of The Shrouds is secondary to the emotional journey, and that mystery may feel a bit more ambiguous if you’re not paying close attention. It’s all there, you just have to keep your eyes on the pieces (and keyboards), because of the director’s focus here. I think that may confuse and annoy some, but to be honest that is not the point here, the film is truly about Karsh finding that closure to his wife’s death, realizing the reality of their relationship at the end and attempting to start again with another bereaved woman he meets. I also find comfort in this cast of older actors with older bodies who feel believable in their roles and relationships with mortality at the age, which only enhances and intensifies the autobiographical tone of the piece.
If you told me one of the most moving films I would see in 2025 would be by David Cronenberg, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But The Shrouds is the director at his most vulnerable, using the tropes of his filmography to explore these hefty concepts in a way as only he can, and going to some pretty dark places in the human psyche along the way. The film feels like it pulls from the his oeuvre without ever winking at his audience, everything from Crash, to Existenz is peeking just below the surface. It’s autobiographical as it is meta in a way that only could come from the mind of Cronenberg himself, that most shockingly at the end is it even offers a small bit of hope when all is said and done. When the lights came up I was simply in awe of how Cronenberg managed to coalesces all of these things from his life, to his filmography, into such a story that was as moving as it was so Cronenberg, and I loved every second of it.
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BREAK THE ICE An Interview with QUEENS OF DRAMA Director Alexis Langlois
As an unapologetic lover of pop music (both the good and bad), one of my favorite films out of Fantastic Fest last year was French writer/director Alexis Langlois’ feature length debut pop musical Queens of Drama. The glitter soaked love letter to the early aughts pop scene follows two divas – Mimi (Louiza Aura) and Billie (Gio Ventura), who engage in a tortured decades long love affair that has to be kept from the spotlight, thanks to Mimi blowing up early in her career, with her infectious earworm Don’t Touch. The film is a touching tale of unrequited love between these two fictitious icons through their many eras, that plays out to a soundtrack of some impressively catchy original pop anthems.
Queens of Drama which feels like an early aughts Velvet Goldmine, makes its theatrical debut this week at select Alamo locations. In anticipation I got to chat with its director Alexis about the film and their inspirations, the Queer communities’ relationship with pop music, casting and crafting the film’s soundtrack, since not only is it such a unique idea, but the caliber of the music employed manages to live up to its premise, which is a rare feat. So read on below and given Queens is the kind of film that has future cult classic written all over it, if it’s playing in your area I can’t suggest checking this out enough, to say you saw it before it was the cool artist everyone liked.
You’ve said the Queens of Drama was based on a love that you personally experienced, can you tell me what was behind your decision to tell that story with pop stars in the early aughts?
Alexis Langlois: Sometimes I feel like you need to sidestep, to go a little bit deeper regarding emotions. It was of course heavily over-dramatized because my life is not as interesting as the Queens of Drama, but we also find that artifice as a whole is a good medium to go deeper into more than just emotions. On a personal level, it also ended up being something that allowed me to express myself in my own non binary identity. I’ve represented myself in my own movies as a woman very often, so it was a way to put a finger on it, even without necessarily knowing exactly what it meant at the time.
So yeah, presenting myself, representing my own life at that point works within that context.
Another thing that’s important is the grand and almost fairy tale-like nature of the movie, allowed it to be very memorable. The fact that it follows a very classic structure of the rise and fall, like you’ll find in pop stars, that you find in movies, makes it very easily approachable and very wide reaching to something you can easily relate to and find those same schemes in your own life.
When you’re making not only a musical, but a musical about pop stars, the music really has to not only tell a story, but be as infectious as you’d expect for a pop earworm. Would you mind walking me through the process of how the film’s standout earworm Don’t Touch came about from start to finish?
Alexis Langlois: The songs were really central to the story, and they were kind of halfway written and then worked into the structure of the movie. Not necessarily written as knowing what was going to be said, but more so knowing how it was going to sound, depending on when it would happen and what kind of vibe exactly we were going for. So it was more necessary, knowing how it would sound. I mean some songs were fully written out, like Listen to my Heart was very much designed and defined at the beginning to be in the movie.
So the idea was to give the scenario to the composers, the same way you’d give the scenario of the script to the actor and then have them work through it and have them work emotions through it. So Don’t Touch, notably, was really interesting because I had a lot of references, whether it be, additional songs, or French or American (artists). It was a big mixed bag. And so when I vaguely came up with it and presented it to the composers, I told myself no, that’s not really gonna be it. It’s not catchy enough. It’s not exactly what I’m looking for. But Yelle the band that I worked with, told me, ‘no, no, no, no. This is good. It’s going to be a hit!’ Leave it to us and we’re going to make it big.
You know, three years later it’s the one thing everyone talks about and it ended up being really, like, diabolical, almost. It really catches your ear.
Is there a particular song from the film that is especially meaningful to you?
Alexis Langlois: Down by Love and Listen to My Heart, because it’s really important, because it’s the make up song. These two songs that we worked with Pierre Desprats and Rebeka Warrior to produce, I think are really the heart of the movie, you know what follows the love story at the core of it.
What was the casting process like? I read that Gio was a fan that had messaged you on facebook about wanting to work with you and this is Louiza’s first role?
Alexis Langlois: So it started out as a bit of a joke at the start, Gio’s thing about texting me was a bit over dramatized. I mean, he did contact me like years earlier and I never really answered because I never really knew how to answer to fans other than just saying you know, ‘thank you’. But, Gio walked in for the audition and it was really about pairing the right Mimi and Billie, and what was interesting is that the role of Billie, was not originally meant for Gio. When I wrote the role I had my sister in mind who actually still plays in the movie, she plays one of the muscled up ladies.
At the beginning it was mostly designed for my sister and the chemistry between Gio and Louiza really worked off and that’s what ended up happening. What happened also is that my sister, after many, many tryouts with different Mimis didn’t feel like playing in the movie. You know like it didn’t really work.
So I had to cast different people.
We needed people who would have that aura to them, but what was also necessary was that they would be somewhat vulnerable and they would have that very fragile side to themselves. So, finding people who could strike that balance between the two was really hard, and especially having that chemistry. When the two of them met, the chemistry really worked out in a very interesting way. They met right before the audition and felt like they were doing that audition as a team, which really carried the spirit of the movie.
And also I mean, they’re very smart people. They’re very nuanced people who do other things. I think it’s really interesting working with people who are also artists in other ways as well. I think it adds a lot to the movie and really shows.
I dug how visually Billie Kohler’s physical condition is not just a representation of her changing musical identity, but a great visual metaphor for how keeping secrets and repressing your sexual identity can distort people in different ways. I really love this bit of symbolism, if you don’t mind me asking what inspired this particular choice of visually making her character this grotesque thing in this dream like world and the thought behind it?
Alexis Langlois: Well, for me, both of the characters change. Like at the start when they fight and they compare their own notions of radicality, which ends up changing later. And you end up having this kind of switch, which is really interesting because you discover that the way Mimi changes may be a bit more radical, or at the very least more nuanced than she would let you think. Even maybe more radical than Billie.
When she shaves her head, you get that very strong image from it. Also when she gains that long white Afro, which was actually an idea from the actress, because I had written her as keeping her head shaved at the end.
When it came to Billie I had kind of written a Courtney Love to Dolly Parton trajectory. I had this kind of idea of going from a butch to femme, and then the other one a femme to butch kind of trajectory throughout the movie. But what ended up happening is that the movie kind of Queered itself up with Gio being a he/him in real life outside of acting. I ended up directing Billie more towards a kind of Pete Burns-esque approach, who I have tattooed on my forearm right here. He’s one of my idols.
He ended up alot more Queer and presenting a lot more of almost non binary aspects, because you end up having this character who has those very extravagant pop long blonde hair characteristics, but also the heavy muscles, the pecks, the big arms. You end up in this kind of non binary identity that isn’t the neither nor, but more a push towards both extremes.
So you have this very peculiar, very strong, very, very intense, non binary identity that isn’t really out in the open, mentioning itself as such, but takes so many inspirations from so many different ideas that it really pushes in all directions.
I mean, also to add one last thing, Billie’s nose at the end was designed after Thierry Mugler’s nose, which was itself designed to be very intense and very big and was very much mocked in many ways. Same thing with Pete Burns, who was mocked for his use of cosmetic surgery.
The idea was to push forward all of those extremes. All of those strong visual aspects that can end up being very, very fierce and are not typically considered as traditional beauty. And having a character that really pushes itself out and assumes and wants to have those things at the forefront, was really important. Also it felt kind of sexy to have somebody pushing those things forward as openly as Billie’s character did.
Finally, given the film’s themes, how do you feel that female pop music which has always been a staple of a Queer community andQueer coded is going through a bit of a renaissance and finally saying the quiet part out loud, thanks to the likes of chapelle roan who is making mainstream Queer pop music.
Alexis Langlois: I think it’s great. I love it when pop culture takes from other genres and artists. I think it was Madonna who took references from Metropolis. You’ve got Vogue, you’ve got Madonna sighting actresses. I think it’s great that culture flows and exchanges between different media and I think that’s how you lead to Queer culture and to support between those different things.
I am all for Chappell Roan. I love what she does, but I’m very much afraid that in the era in which we live, we might have to face the fact that she might be an exception. I really hope that she’s not. I really think it’s really, really, really important that we have, at this point, actual pop idols that are Queer pop idols, not pop idols that support us and here’s hoping she’s not an exception.
I mean, what’s interesting with Queer culture is that Queer is very much in our view and the way we view the words. We are very often able to take and claim things and make them our own and make them Queer, in the way that we interpret them. I’m not saying we need to go back to never having to use our own Queer idols and relying on external things that we interpret. But I think it’s beautiful that there’s a resilience to Queer culture that stays alive and visible throughout its own interpretation of external factors.
As for my favorite artist, it’s not necessarily a pop artist, GRLwood. I’m a massive fan. They’re a bit more on the rock side. Dochi as well. Both of them. I don’t know that she’s Queer exactly, but I do remember reading Dochi said one of the biggest red flags on the first date with heterosexual men. I don’t know if she’s Queer, but she’s definitely a bit of something.
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Two Cents Celebrates Jimmy McGinty: Gene Hackman in THE REPLACEMENTS
Goodbye to a Great: A Two Month Celebration of the Late Great Gene Hackman kicks off with a sports comedy full of heart
Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to [email protected].
One of the all-time greats on screen passed away rather tragically in February. An undeniable talent that could play any type of role in any type of film and do so convincingly. From comedy to action to drama and everything in between, we decided just a month wouldn’t be enough. Nearly 2 months of Gene Hackman films and we’re barely scraping the surface… but we hope you enjoy this wide array of selections and we invite you to join in with your thoughts on these films and the legacy of a truly incredible actor.
The Pick:
“Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever.” – Shane Falco
An early 2000s sports comedy with some decent laughs and a ton of heart, The Replacements is a Keanu Reeves vehicle that’s soaked in the tropes of sports comedies, rom-coms, and the early oughts. Despite being carried by Reeves and filled with familiar faces, it’s hard to picture this film’s eponymous ragtag strike season football squad without the gruff leadership of one Coach Jimmy McGinty, played by our man of the hour.
Starting here with The Replacements and proceeding through all types of genres and tones, by the time we wrap you’ll see why we couldn’t even begin to cover Hackman in a mere month!
The Team
Spencer Brickey
Gene Hackman, as we’ll see over the next two months here, was easily one of the most versatile actors that ever graced the silver screen. A true master of the craft, Hackman could easily be charming, frightening, pitiful, funny, or any other type you needed him to be.
In The Replacements, we see Hackman in one of my all time favorite character types of his; mentor. Playing formerly retired coach Jimmy McGinty, he’s tasked with cobbling together a football team during an organization-wide strike. He not only needs the team that can play together, but can win together.
A film that on the surface is a kinda goofy sports film (no shade; any film that has an ASL blowjob offers and an egg puking sumo wrestler is a fun time at the movies in my book!), Hackman brings gravitas to the whole affair, playing McGinty as a weathered, but kind hearted soul. He is what we probably all wish our fathers were like; stern but fair, tough but compassionate, and dropping wisdom that somehow never sounds hokey when it comes from his mouth. When we have the 3rd act call-to-action, where Hackman repeats “we need heart” to a camera crew on the sidelines, almost any other actor would make a corny meal out of it. Not Hackman, though; it’s a quick, knowing moment, but it still worked like gangbusters for me.
He even gets in a little fire and brimstone there. When Quarterback and dickhead-of-the-century Eddie Martel (played to slimy perfection by Brett Cullen) decides to start throwing the final game, and insulting his teammates, Hackman turns on the heat, shouting the cocky diva down, reminding us that he can be terrifying when he needs to be.
I’d never put The Replacements as a top Hackman performance, but that is only because the man pretty much only put in A level performances across the board. What this is is a fun little relic of the early 2000’s that might star Keanu Reeves in his hunk era, but is totally anchored by Hackman’s tough but fair Coach McGinty.
Frank Calvillo
Watching Gene Hackman come onto the screen in The Replacements for the first time was jarring in a way I hadn’t counted on. Even though he’d been away from acting for just over two decades, there was something always so comforting about the fact that he was off somewhere writing his books and living his life. Because of this, I found it hard to watch his scenes here. Yet, with every Hackman performance, it was impossible to do anything but give him your complete attention whenever he was on the screen.
There’s no pretending that The Replacements (which is maybe the most 2000 movie that ever 2000’d) is a showcase for Keanu Reeves, who helped temper the aloofness many of his previous characters had trouble shaking in up until this point. Shane presents the opportunity for audiences to experience a more humanized Reeves and the pathos he gives to a character presented with another chance. He plays the material with just the right notes, escaping the screenplay’s more obvious trappings and honing in on what makes a story like The Replacements invigorating and inspiring.
I don’t often think about Jimmy McGinty in the same way I think about other Hackman roles from this, his final era in film. This is partly to do with the fact that the year after was such a great late-career boom for the actor, but also because The Replacements doesn’t really feature him in any particularly memorable way. As written, the role feels like any seasoned actor could play it, and, because of this, Hackman has little to do other than just move to whatever rhythm the screenplay decides it wants to play. There’s no real opportunity to make this former coach, whose returned to the sport he loves, uniquely his own. Don’t get me wrong, any performance the actor ever gave was always worth watching, regardless of what he had or, as in the case here, didn’t have to work with. He’s good in this movie. But he’s only good because Gene Hackman was always good.
Austin Vashaw
This was my first viewing of The Replacements and I had a great time with it. I’m a casual sports fan at best, but I tend to enjoy great sports movies and this certainly qualifies.
For me it hits a certain sweet spot among sport movies that I particularly enjoy. Like The Longest Yard, Major League, Eddie, and their junior equivalent The Mighty Ducks, it’s got a bit of an edge to it, but heaps of heart, which just strikes a great balance with the irreverent tone. The cast is terrific and there are noticeably some recognizable actors who have gone on to bigger things.
Gene Hackman is really fun to watch in this, and I was kind of taken aback by his demeanor. I tend to think of him as usually being kind of gruff, and even in real life we’ve heard how he could be cantankerous and difficult to work with. But his coach here is just a standup, encouraging guy who’s all big smiles and gentle wisdom for his makeshift team of scrappy underdogs. It’s a fun and surprisingly warm way to remember Gene, and also a challenge to the stodgy perception that he was only a serious actor for serious roles.
Justin Harlan
I initially was going to kick us off with Get Shorty, another favorite comedic role of this legend, but was pushed by Austin to lean into my favorite comedy with Hackman instead. While the film geek in me leans towards Get Shorty, I can’t deny that The Replacements is such a stronger rewatch for me, due to nostalgia, the uplifting story of underdogs, and a few legitimately laugh out loud moments.
While others here note that it’s their first rewatch in “ages”, I watch this one every few years. It seems like it’s always on TNT when I’m traveling for work and watching hotel cable… and it’s a welcome addition to such trips. There’s so much heart and the fun-loving cast of misfits in uniform are wildly inviting, whether their beating asses in a barroom brawl, giving heartfelt speeches, or puking in the huddle.
An older Hackman portrays a grizzled veteran coach named Jimmy McGinty… and does so very convincingly. While he’s not asked to do much, everything he does is pitch perfect. I’m always particularly touched when he has has his short halftime interview during the final game in the film. He’s asked what the team needs to facilitate a comeback and he just taps his chest and says “heart”. It serves as a batcall to Keanu’s Shane Falco, who – of course – shows up to save the day.
Even in a seemingly simple role, Hackman elevates everything he touches and it’s hard to imagine this movie working so well without him.
Goodbye to a Great: TWO CENTS Celebrates Gene Hackman
To make the passing of a cinematic legend, we at Cinapse are putting together a titanic selection of some of the late Gene Hackman’s biggest and best performances. From sports dramas to military thrillers to bone-fide classics, here’s a list of what we’re watching:
Later This Week – The Poseidon Adventure – (Prime Video – 1 Hour 57 minutes)
April 21 – Unforgiven – (Paramount + – 2 hours 10 minutes)
April 28 – Crimson Tide – (Digital Rental / Purchase – 1 hour 56 minutes)
May 5 – The Conversation – (Prime Video – 1 hour 53 minutes)
May 12 – Enemy of the State – (Prime Video – 2 hours 12 minutes)
May 19 – The Royal Tenenbaums – (Digital Rental / Purchase – 1 hour 50 minutes)
And We’re Out.
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Arrow Heads: Amnesiac Spy Adventure THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT Comes to 4K
Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson headline an explosive collector’s edition
Review disc provided by Arrow Video, images captured by the reviewer and subject to copyright The Long Kiss Goodnight comes at the tail end of screenwriter Shane Black’s (Lethal Weapon) blistering late-’80s to early-’90s run of action thriller projects, the script for which netted him a then-record $4 million payday. The film, about a schoolteacher with amnesia who discovers she’s a CIA wetwork operative, and directed by Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger) opened in 1996 to decent reviews but a disappointing box office compared to its meaty $65 million budget. Since then, it’s become a cult favorite for fans of Black, Harlin, and stars Gena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson, getting folded into the Christmas Action Canon alongside the likes of Lethal Weapon and Die Hard. Now, boutique label Arrow Video has rolled out the red carpet with an extravagant 4K set that’s both packed with extras and boasting a new restoration for action fans to sink their teeth into.
Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) doesn’t know who she was before she washed up pregnant and sporting a head injury eight years ago, but has made a life for herself, her daughter Caitlin (Yvonne Zima), and her boyfriend Hal (Tom Amandes) until she’s in a freak accident. Not only do memories of her previous life as elite assassin Charly Baltimore begin to resurface, but so do long-evaded enemies who have a score to settle with her alter-ego. It’s a good thing she retained the services of P.I. Mitch Henessey, because this is definitely sort of situation where you want Samuel L. Jackson watching your back.
The film certainly bears influences from the works of Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne, but goosed with Black’s signature snappy self-aware dialogue and knack for escalating set pieces with Swiss watch setup and payoff gags. The movie bounces from location and subplot with surprisingly deft pacing given how much ground it has to cover in 120 minutes, and is always introducing a new red herring or explosive ambush so it doesn’t feel like an endless sequence of Davis and Jackson bantering as they drive to the next exposition dump.
Not that just hanging with Samantha and Mitch would have been a bad way to spend the two hours – Davis and Jackson have great chemistry, both as Samantha is first beginning to unravel her past and as her POV and personality changes in the process of recovering her memories. Jackson is a fantastic motormouth rogue, but as a character increasingly realizing he’s the person out of his depth rather than his partner, he emerges as the unlikely conscience of the film. You can draw an almost straight line from Mitch to “knights in tarnished armor” like Holland Marsh from Black’s neo-noir masterpiece The Nice Guys, but this film also gives Jackson plenty of opportunity to shine in the gonzo action sequences.
I don’t rate Harlin as highly as an action director as his contemporaries like Cameron, McTiernan, or de Bont, but he’s got a solid meat-and-potatoes functionality in executing Black’s escalation on the page, albeit an execution that seems to always be set at “11.” From the opening attack on Samantha’s kitchen by a one-eyed assassin wielding a shotgun that blows holes through walls large enough to toss a child through to a finale on the US/Canadian border that set a record for largest explosion filmed at the time, Harlin seems incapable of not indulging in maximalism. The rock-solid template that Black’s script provides, however, keeps the narrative grounded in action and character enough that it never tips over into being a cartoon like some of Harlin’s other films.
This balance is helped not only by the cast keying into the proper tone, but by Alan Silvestri’s “subtext does not exist in this dojo” score. Silvestri is no stranger to big bombastic action scores, but also plays with both the mysterious and the festive in his motifs to both enhance the Christmas setting and underline Samantha’s unease at who she thinks she can trust. He even sprinkles in some upbeat jazzy “sitcom” riffs to lay under the more domestic scenes so that various rug-pulls are even more effective. Davis plays the evolution of Samantha/Charly with a delightful “aw, shucks” energy that careens headlong into one-liner spitting murder machine, employing a deftness that softens some of the clumsiness Black can have writing female characters.
She also did an incredible amount of her own work for the film, and it’s as mesmerizing to watching her dice food like a veteran chef as it is to see her sniping fools with a high-powered rifle. The Long Kiss Goodnight gives her plenty of chances to flex her skills with blade, rifle, and other accoutrements as she blasts her way though the conspiracy. The false flag disaster she has to prevent is scarily prophetic by accident, but apart from that is an agreeably goofy excuse to have character actors like Brian Cox, Patrick Malahide, and Craig Bierko strut around and dine on the scenery. Bierko in particular gets to be especially sleazy as the golden god with a rotten heart who acts as the main heavy, and the movie works overtime to make the explosive finale as viscerally satisfying as possible.
It’s hard not to yearn for original high-concept blockbusters like this one, even when they’re not quite the five-star bullseye that you’d hope for from those involved. The Long Kiss Goodnight may have started as an intellectual exercise of Black wondering “well, wouldn’t it be more interesting if the main character of a spy movie were a woman?” but the resulting film captures a certain energy that we don’t much see anymore. The Christmas trappings wind up being more symbolically and mechanically important to the film than one-off references like Last Action Hero or Iron Man Three, and the movie is endearingly eager to show you a good time.
The proposed sequel may never have materialized and it may have taken a while for it TLKG to find its people, but as a self-contained roller coaster of explosive holiday hi-jinks it’s a singular delight for fans of old-school action.
Presentation:
Arrow Video has made something of a name for themselves with these boutique releases featuring sumptuous 4K transfers, and this further cements the reputation. This new 4K restoration comes from the original 35mm negative and was overseen by director Renny Harlin, and is presented in UHD Dolby vision. This release sees none of the artifacting that impacted the previous Blu-ray release, maintaining the high-gloss color palette of Guillermo Navarro’s cinematography without it becoming oversaturated. Blacks and shadows are appreciably deep with grain being present but not overpowering (although especially apparent in the impressionistic dream sequences).
This release is particularly good at highlighting the fine details of the film’s production design, both in details from long and medium shots and skin, clothing & weapon textures in closeups. The film is presented in its original 2:39:1 theatrical aspect ratio.
The soundtrack comes in both a DTS HD 5.1 surround mix and stereo 2.0 with Dolby Atmos options. This mix is similarly punchy to the previous Blu-ray release, but with far more detail in the position of sound effects depending on whether you’re using surround vs. stereo. Effects and music find an agreeable balance without ever overpowering dialogue, which remains clear throughout.
Bonus Content:
This is another area where Arrow has made a name for themselves, in bringing back the “lots of special features” ethos of the ’00s-era DVD golden age. The Long Kiss Goodnight not only has lavish packaging with new writing on the film, but the discs are stuffed with features new and old, including two brand-new audio commentaries.
The Set
- Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeve, featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Hadley
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Clem Bastow, Richard Kadrey, Maura McHugh, and Priscilla Page
- Seasonal postcard
- “Thin Ice” sticker
Disc 1 (4K UHD):
Theatrical cut of the film (120 minutes)
- Brand new audio commentary by film critic Walter Chaw
- Brand new audio commentary by film critics Drusilla Adeline and Joshua Conkel of the Bloodhaus Podcast
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Theatrical Trailer
- Image gallery
Disc 2 (Blu-ray):
- Symphony of Destruction – new interview with stunt co-ordinator Steve Davidson
- Long Live the New Flesh – new interview with make-up artist Gordon J. Smith
- Girl Interrupted – new interview with actress Yvonne Zima
- Amnesia Chick – new visual essay by film scholar Josh Nelson
- The Mirror Crack’d – new visual essay by critic and filmmaker Howard S. Berger
- A Woman’s World – new visual essay by film scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
- Deleted Scenes
- Archive promotional interviews with director Renny Harlin and stars Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, and Craig Bierko
- Making Of – archival promotional featurette
- Behind the Scenes – archival EPK footage from the filming of The Long Kiss Goodnight
The Long Kiss Goodnight is now available on 4K UHD from Arrow Video.
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SOME LIKE IT HOT – Billy Wilder’s Legendary Comedy Hits Criterion 4K
The Hays Code-cracking rom-com gets an upgrade
The first time I saw Some Like it Hot was more than a quarter-century ago in a high school Film & Literature class, and I promptly fell in love. I had just enough familiarity with mob films and screwball comedies to key into its influences, and the story of two down-on-their luck musicians on the run from the mafia immediately became my favorite romantic comedy. Over the years, it’s been one of those rare favorites that only appreciates as you learn more about the history of cinema and gain a deeper understanding of the film, its nested gags and pop culture jokes of the day, and its impact on the industry.
Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemon), two jazz musicians who are down-on-their-luck even before they accidentally witness a murder by Chicago mob boss “Spats” Columbo (George Raft), think they’ve caught a lucky break when they disguise themselves and sneak into an all-girls band to play down in Florida. What they don’t know, however, is that they’re in a Billy Wilder movie where the legendary writer/director is in full Shakespeare “Comedy of Errors” mode, and he’s about to make their lives a hilarious living hell. Some Like It Hot may be infamous for being a massive success in spite of not being certified by the Hays Code, but it’s the deft construction of the film and lighting-fast delivery of both one-off and deliberately set-up gags and uproarious scenarios that make it an enduring classic.
Joe (aka Josephine) and Jerry (aka Daphne – she didn’t like “Geraldine”) are swept off their feet as much as the audience by Marilyn Monroe’s Sugar Kane, the ukulele-playing singer for Sweet Sue and her Society of Syncopators. Both fugitives begin to bond with the girls, but Joe falls hard for Sugar and poses as a heartsick millionaire to try to seduce her, even as Jerry/Daphne catches the eye of actual millionaire Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown). What follows is a constantly shuffling upstairs/downstairs slamming door farce of mishaps and romance as one lie spins out into countless more. The movie not only makes brilliant use of Curtis and Lemon’s crackling chemistry, but lets Monroe play both the bubbly airhead and the broken-hearted melancholy of a girl who only knows how to sing and run away, investing the audience that much more in everyone catching up to their happy ending.
The film may have only been shot in black and white because of how clownish Curtis and Lemon looked in their color makeup tests, but the style beautifully compliments the streak of noir crime film that threads through the period setting. Wilder gets to contrast the cold dark nights of 1929 Chicago with the bright and bustling beachfront of Florida, and the stylized visuals compliment the arch and winking script. Mob bosses all have silly nicknames and props to go with them and the primary lawman trying to get another crack at arresting Spats is Officer Mulligan. The film doesn’t quite go into full-on meta territory, but in addition to the exaggerated genre touches it throws in plenty of jokes about the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn or the stock market crashing (okay, that one’s less funny now).
For being over two hours, the film’s constantly escalating script and genuine romantic chemistry keep it rocketing along, but Wilder’s skill at composing an image for either intimacy or comedy can’t be overstated. There are moments where things get as crowded and busy as A Night At the Opera‘s infamous cabin scene, and off-stage/onstage chase scenes that feel like a direct influence on Scooby-Doo, and that’s not even going into the musical numbers that fluctuate between sultry and sprightly (I don’t know if Curtis and Lemon could actually play, but they sure fake it well). It’s an endlessly easy watch, balancing an ever-increasing number of plates so that once the Spats shows up for a literal Mob Convention in Act 3, the audience is leaning forward steepling their fingers instead of throwing their hands in the air at the happenstance.
Through all this buffoonery, you’d think it would be easy for the film to lose sight of empathy for its own characters at the expense of making another joke at their expense, but Billy Wilder is simply too good for that. The constant running around and changing outfits and settings not only lets the cast indulge in physical comedy and rapid-fire wordplay, but also lets Joe/Josephine and Jerry/Daphne see the fallout of their actions as the film builds several of these stereotypes into fleshed-out characters. For all that Wilder feels like he’s only keeping what’s absolutely necessary, I wouldn’t have minded spending even more time with Sue and Bienstock and the Syncopators.
It’s easy to see how critics at the time dismissed it as not much more than breezy and fun, and Sam Wasson’s Criterion essay on the film even calls Wilder “America’s id,” wanting only to show audiences a good time. Wasson even points out that the legendary final line of the movie was a placeholder all the way up until it was shot and only pleased the filmmakers once they saw the reaction it received. However, the years since have proven it to be both the light romp it was brushed off as, but also one which carries meaning for unaccounted audiences whether Wilder was thinking of them or not.
It’s also worth noting that juggling this many plates and making it look easy is no mean feat, and repeat viewings have only made me appreciate its construction all the more. I wasn’t being hyperbolic when I invoked the Bard, because the movie genuinely feels like a modern master taking inspiration from the likes of “Much Ado About Nothing” and making it his own, much the same way Shakespeare did with Pyramus and Thisbe. The film’s nonchalance with taboo subjects of the time like cross-dressing and same-sex relationships may have been mined for laughs, but – accidentally or not – makes for a story that’s aged shockingly well.
For those who’ve not had the pleasure, this is the perfect chance to fill in a cinematic blind spot. I don’t invoke Much Ado lightly, but the “oh no, everyone’s hot and horny” Kenneth Branagh 1993 adaptation would make a killer double with Some Like It Hot. It’s yet another example of how “classic cinema” shouldn’t be treated as Homework – movies like this become a “classic” because they’re just a goddamn blast to watch.
Presentation
Criterion created their 4K restoration from the film’s original 35mm negatives for the 2018 Blu-ray release, and here that transfer is presented in Dolby Vision HDR. The higher definition and richer contrast accentuates both the film noir lighting that Wilder used for scenes like the garage shootout and car chase in Chicago while sunlight Florida is radiant without being blown out. Costuming textures, hair, and the smokey interiors really benefit from the higher resolution, and Wilder’s deep focus shots are well-served by the transfer.
The film’s original mono track was also remastered from the 35mm magnetic tracks, which is presented uncompressed here, and there’s also a 5.1 surround DTS HD track (only on the 4K disc). The dialogue is sharp without sounding tinny, even in the original mono, and comes through most during the musical sequences with the occasional explosion of gunfire.
Some Like It Hot is presented in its original 1:85:1 aspect ratio on both the 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs.
Bonus Content:
The bonus features here are identical to the 2018 Criterion Blu-ray release, and all except the audio commentary accompanying the feature on on the 2nd Blu-ray disc. It’s nothing wildly original, but it’s comprehensive as we’ve seen from this film.
Kino Lorber Studio Classics previously released the film to 4K UHD, also as a Blu-ray combo with a respectable alternate – and slightly lesser – set of bonus features. There’s some overlap, and both editions have some material not present on the other, but ultimately the Criterion version brings more to the table.
Disc 1 (4K UHD)
Theatrical Cut of the film (121 minutes)
- 4k digital restoration presented in Dolby Vision HDR, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Alternate 5.1 surround DTS HD Master audio soundtrack
- Audio Commentary from 1989 with film scholar Howard Schuber
Disc 2 (HD Blu-ray)
Theatrical Cut of the film (121 minutes)
- 4k digital restoration presented in 1080p HD with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio Commentary from 1989 with film scholar Howard Schuber
- Program on Orry-Kelly’s costumes for the film, featuring costume designer and historian Deborah Nadoolman Landis and costume historian and archivist Larry McQueen
- Three behind-the-scenes documentaries
- The Making of Some Like It Hot
- The Legacy of Some Like it Hot
- Memories from the Sweet Sues
- Appearances by director Billy Wilder on The Dick Cavett Show from 1982
- Conversation from 2001 between actor Tony Curtis and film critic Leonard Maltin
- French television interview from 1988 with actor Jack Lemmon
- Radio interview from 1955 with actor Marilyn Monroe
- Theatrical Trailer
Essay by author Sam Wasson (insert in packaging)
Some Like It Hot is now available on both 4K UHD and HD Blu-ray from Criterion.
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Reb00t: PIRANHA 3D
PIRANHA 3D takes the PIRANHA formula and adds more blood, more boobs, and more dick jokes.
Piranha 3D amps up the concept of “killer fish during spring break”, adding gallons of gore, plentiful nudity, and some of the dumbest humor 2010 had to offer. (Mostly) not a compliment.
Welcome to Reb00t! A series (with no set schedule!) where I dig deep through the 2000’s to find all the horror remakes that we were inundated with over that weirdly bleak decade. Sometimes they’ll be good, sometimes they’ll be terrible, sometimes they’ll be great. In a few, rare times, they’ll be better than the original! These are all my personal views, obviously, so feel free to tell me I’m insane in the comments.
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This week, we dive into 2010’s Piranha 3D!
Listen, guys; it’s not going to be “diamonds in the rough” every week. While this one is divisive, to say the least, I can’t help but have a bit of a soft spot for it.
Piranha is arguably one of the better films of the mid-era Corman productions. Coming from one of his shining stars, Joe Dante, 1978’s Piranha is just the right level of goofy and violent that Dante became known for in his career. Sure, it’s a bit hokey, and time has done it no favors (except the claymation walking piranha; that thing is still rad as hell), but it’s still a lot of fun nearly 50 years later.
Now, in 2010, a new question popped into producers’ heads; what if we do Piranha again, but this time with a lot more nudity, insane levels of violence, and just some of the dumbest dick jokes you’ve ever seen? And with that, Piranha 3D was born!
Relocating to a desert oasis known for its Spring Break festivities, we follow the local sheriff (Elisabeth Shue; Adventures In Babysitting, Leaving Las Vegas) as she tries to get to the bottom of the bodies showing up on her lake. Surprise; it’s piranhas! Now, she needs to find a way to close the lake right at the peak of the spring break revelry, while also saving her kids from a watery death. Can she save everyone? Nope!
Piranha 3D has a surprisingly stacked cast, for a cheapie remake. Showing up on the roster is Ving Rhames, Jerry O’Connell, Christopher Lloyd, Paul Sheer, a baby-faced Adam Scott, and Richard Dreyfuss in one of the ultimate “why did you agree to this?” cameos I’ve ever seen. It adds a level of clout that a lot of the ‘00 remakes didn’t really have, most of them collecting their casts from the CW. I can’t say it made it better than other remakes, but it definitely made for a bunch of “huh, he’s in this?” moments.
Now, Piranha 3D is very much a product of its time. It squarely lives in the “beer commercial” era of female representation, with most of the onscreen ladies either undressing or already naked. It’s honestly kind of a culture shock, watching this again in 2025. It doesn’t help that the humor here is just real fucking dumb. Mostly made up of dick and sex jokes, this thing is surprisingly sophomoric across the board. Not really surprising, coming from Alexandre Aja, who, while arguably making some pretty fantastic mean-spirited violence in his career, has a very, uh, “French” way about him when it comes to comedy and sex.
But, let’s be honest; if you’re watching this, you’re probably here for the still insane lake massacre scene. Probably the reason Aja was hired, the lake massacre is still kinda jaw dropping in its Grand Guignol levels of gore and splatter. Mixing practical and digital (but mostly practical!), the complete and utter carnage the piranhas cause is legendary; full skeletonizations, scalpings, disembowelment, people getting cut in half with wires, eaten alive through the anus! There is just insane levels of gnarly violence, leaving the lake looking more like Normandy Beach. It is truly a spectacle of on-screen brutality, and one of the best sequences of Aja’s career.
Listen; this isn’t great. It is just barely hovering above good. There are a fair amount of you who would find this tacky, and a good amount of you who’d’ find this out and out offensive. But, if you want to take a dive into this goopy, goofy aquatic killer remake, do it how I did back when I saw this the summer before my freshman year of college; on a buddies couch, stoned out of your gourd, giggling at the stupidity of it all, and wondering what you want to snack on.
Side Note: The original idea was to do a double feature article with Piranha 3DD. But, guys; don’t watch 3DD. Learn from me. There are American Pie VOD sequels that are less sophomoric than 3DD.
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Blue Sunshine: The Ultimate Drug Freakout Film, Now On 4k From Synapse Films!
Jeff Lieberman’s ultimate LSD scare film is now on 4k in a beautiful 3 disc release from Synapse Films
The drug freak out film; a weirdly time honored tradition in cinema. First appearing as strict (im)morality tales in films like Reefer Madness and Assassination Of Youth in the 1930’s, the genre exploded in the ‘70s as a generation started their collective hangover from the free loving and drug use of the ‘60s. Most concerned themselves with Hippies gone mad, either from a bad batch of acid (see; I Drink Your Blood), or from just being crazy hippies (see; the entire film genre that popped up after the Manson Murders).
Few, though, dealt with the lingering effects that seemed to follow those who went the straight and narrow as they aged out of the movement. In real life, it resulted in embarrassing truths being revealed decades later, such as STDs, lingering addictions, and abandoned children. In Blue Sunshine, it results in baldness and homicidal rage. One of the best of the drug freakout films, Blue Sunshine has been released on 4k by Synapse Films!
Taking place a decade after the hippy movement, Blue Sunshine follows Jerry Zipkin (Zalman King; Trip With Teacher, Galaxy Of Terror) who, after witnessing an old friend go on a homicidal rampage after having his baldness revealed, is blamed for the death of his friends. Confused and running for his life, Jerry tries to find some sort of connector between his murderous friend, and the rash of killings that are occurring throughout LA with the same modus operandi.
What he finds is that a strain of LSD, named Blue Sunshine, has had some sort of latent effect where, 10 years later, those that took it lose all their hair and go insane. The deeper he digs, the more powerful people he finds connected to it, and soon he finds both his life, and those he cares about, in danger, too.
Blue Sunshine is a rarity when it comes to films like this. The drug films of the ‘30s and ‘40s (and then again in the ‘80s and ‘90s) were just pure fear mongering propaganda, designed to scare kids away from drug usage. Even the majority of the drug freakout films of the ‘70s followed the same basic model, with drugs + hippies (sometimes bikers) being the new devilish duo, ready to kill an entire town on a hallucinatory violence binge.
Blue Sunshine, while still dealing with drug violence, doesn’t demonize its users. Here, they are people who’ve gone on to do things with their lives; police officers, doctors, politicians. Important figures in society, rather than the dredges. It doesn’t matter, though; They started a tab with LSD, and it is here to collect. It doesn’t matter that these people have moved past their “Summer Of Love” phase, and just want to live their lives, the sins of the past can not be washed away.
And, in some sort of weird way, it kinda makes this one of the most Boomer films of all time? Specifically in that very specific snapshot of the generation at the end of the ‘70s. By 1977, they are embarrassed about their youth, and just want to become “normal”, viewing their freewheeling days as abhorrent, something that has the capacity to come back and destroy their lives, and will do whatever they can to get away from it. Reagan’s landslide victories in ‘80 and ‘84 make perfect sense after watching this.
Specs:
Blue Sunshine has never looked better, presented on pristine 4k. Even though it is a film with a muted color base, it still looks immaculate; be it us watching Jerry bake in the Southern California sun, wondering if he’s going insane, or in the bright hues of a crackling fireplace filled with bodies, or the chaotic kaleidoscope colors of the climatic disco as Wayne goes on a murderous rampage.
Once you’re done watching Blue Sunshine, you’re only scratching the surface! Synapse’s release also includes director Jeff Lieberman’s first film, The Ringer, remastered in 4k, as well as two additional LSD “scare films”; LSD-25 (1967), and LSD: Insight or Insanity (1968). There are also a bevy of interviews with Jeff Lieberman, audio commentaries, and theatrical trailers.
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Blue Sunshine is a trip, man! Just one that no one ever survives. For fans of both horror and ‘70s nihilism alike! Check out Synapse’s release of Blue Sunshine on April 15th!
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Hitting Repeat on THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND
“Your music changed everything.”
Those who don’t know me also don’t know my intense love of the Spice Girls, the British female group dominating the late 90s. As a fan for nearly 30 years, I’ve seen them through every music video, interview, tour, and album (both solo and group). My introduction to the group coincided with some monumental life-altering events during my formative years, allowing them to be a form of escape for me when I needed them most. Needless to say, my fandom made me ripe for bullying in high school. It’s as pointless to hold resentment towards my tormentors now as it was then since those who laughed at my love of the group just didn’t understand; and quite frankly, they didn’t need to. My love for them as artists was tied to a synchronicity and an aligning of energy that was unique and strong enough to endure. While it’s impossible to truly get what draws a fan to music beyond what I just described, The Ballad of Wallis Island comes closer than any film ever has.
In The Ballad of Wallis Island, musician Herb (Tom Basden) has traveled to the titular remote seaside village to play a small gig and collect a payday, which he desperately needs with the upcoming release of his newest album. Upon his arrival, he is introduced to Charles (Tim Key), the host and organizer of the event. It’s quickly revealed to a stunned Herb that Charles has funded the entire gig for himself as the only attendee. What’s more, Herb’s former musical (and romantic) partner Nell (Carey Mulligan) has also been hired to perform, stirring up memories of the past and changing the lives of everyone involved.
The Ballad of Wallis Island is a film of two sides. On the one side is a tale of artists reckoning with their creative and personal pasts. It’s a notion we know plays out in real life. Many times we hear of artists disappearing from the spotlight to go back and find themselves again. But so rarely do we see a (admittedly heightened) illustration of finding that creative spark again. Herb is the perfect vessel for this as someone who is still making music but hasn’t been in love with the practice for years. We get the feeling that Herb’s need to continue to make music as a solo artist stems from the need to continuously prove himself as well as the general fear of losing momentum, not fully realizing that he’d lost it long ago. To see an almost totally disenchanted artist who has spent years clinging to the art despite falling out of love with it is heartbreaking and certainly makes Herb a tragic character, especially given the fact that Nell hasn’t suffered the same fate, choosing instead to simply walk away. This is why seeing Herb’s creative drive slowly come back to life and pull him out of the artistic doldrums is the kind of character journey that’s so invigorating to watch.
On the other side, The Ballad of Wallis Island is a testament to a fan’s devotion to the music, the power it holds for them, and the undying love they have for those artists who have created something that, for a whole host of reasons, have resonated in a truly long-lasting way. The film’s plot boasts some unusual circumstances, to say the least. I for one couldn’t scrape enough pennies to wrangle one Spice Girl over for a brunchtime concert, let alone all five. But far-fetched circumstances aside, the film’s screenplay still speaks to what artists give their fans without realizing it. The inspiration to move their lives forward provides the motivation to cope with turbulent times, to push to move forward, and to exist despite the various hurdles that life throws everyone, all of which are recognized here. Without delving into the sentimental, the film does a superb job of exploring the meaningful quality of the artist/fan relationship. Eventually it’s revealed that Herb and Nell were Charles’ wife’s favorite group. Now deceased, they’ve become his favorite group as well. Charles’ becoming a superfan has helped keep his late wife alive for him.
The performances in The Ballad of Wallis Island are as equally responsible for its charm and heart as the script and filmmaking itself. Basden gives great life to Herb, exuding pathos and humanity while giving everything required of a classic straight man. His scenes with Mulligan are filled with such richness thanks to the chemistry between the two and the actress’ ability to balance the ethereal qualities of her character with a realness that makes her someone very much worth exploring. It’s Key who is the film’s biggest asset. As the orchestrator of events, the actor makes Charles an instantly lovable human being; a teddy bear who comes complete with a groundedness with regards to his past, which the actor brings out beautifully.
The Ballad of Wallis Island is a rarity in this day and age; an original piece of work that builds a world that seems like it was made solely for our characters to exist in. In a way, it feels as if the film itself was made solely for us to experience and take in. This is no easy feat. To create a piece of art that speaks to a certain kind of individual who hones in on the work itself and feels instantly simpatico with the one(s) who made it is the best thing a creator and lovers of cinema alike could hope for. It’s probably for this reason that I desperately wish we could have had more time with the main three characters and their various pasts to delve deeper into what made them so endearingly and uniquely them. But what we have here works tremendously. As near perfect as films get, The Ballad of Wallis Island is a beautiful and earnest tale about the powerful connection to music and to art itself.
