Movie Review Isn't She Great (2000)

Isn't She Great (2000) 

Directed by Andrew Bergman 

Written by Paul Rudnick 

Starring Bette Midler. Nathan Lane, Stockard Channing, David Hyde Pierce 

Release Date January 28th, 2000 

Published September 20th, 2022 

I went into to watching Isn't She Great with a bad attitude. I've read a number of other critics who despised this movie. They decried what they claimed are numerous inaccuracies, they called Bette Midler's performance overly broad and cartoonish, and they barely mentioned the sweet romance at the heart of the movie. I was fully prepared to write a negative review of Isn't She Great and then I watched the movie and I was unexpectedly charmed. Perhaps its because I don't know much about the real Jacqueline Susann, or maybe I am just feeling generous, but I genuinely enjoyed most of Isn't She Great. 

Jaqueline Susann was a striver. Living in New York City, she felt that stardom was her birthright. When she failed to achieve fame by any means necessary, she dramatically walked into a lake ala Virginia Woolf only to find the water was barely knee deep. It's here where she meets the man who who would help make her dreams come through. Show business lifer, agent Irving Mansfield fell in love at first sight with Jacqueline Susann and after witnessing her quite funny and failing attempt at a dramatic death, he rescues her with promises of stardom. 

Their partnership got off to a slow start. Irving got her on television and got her gigs on commercials but Jacqueline's strength was her off the cuff wit, something she could not highlight on overly serious game shows or the confines of a live commercial advertisement. Finding little success on TV, Irving launches a new plan, a book. With support from Jacqueline's best friend, Florence Maybelle,. played by a brilliant, scene stealing Stockard Channing, Irving pitches Jacqueline the idea to write a novel. 

Jacqueline is immediately opposed to the idea, she claims that she doesn't have anything to say in a novel. Then Irving points out her incredible true stories about the dark side of Hollywood and Jacqueline is intrigued. Indeed, she's got thousands of darkly funny stories about Hollywood from her own experience and the experiences of her vast network of friends. It will require her to tell stories that her friends might prefer she did not tell, but what does she have to lose. 

Famously, Susann's dark comic story of the Hollywood underbelly, filled with truths and half truths about barely disguised Hollywood figures became the bestseller, Beyond The Valley of the Dolls. The book was an immediate sensation and soon, thanks to Irving, Jacqueline has the love and celebrity that she's always dreamed of. Naturally, this still being a movie, there is a false crisis that will divide our central couple before we get to our based on a true story ending, and that convenionalism does hold the movie back a little, it's not a death knell. 

Bette Midler and Nathan Lane make a surprisingly adorable couple in Isn't She Great. The chemistry between Midler and lane is lovely, platonically friendly growing into a chaste romance. It's charming watching Irving pine for Jackie and then try to move heaven and earth to achieve her dreams. By the same token, Midler is great at being first oblivious to Irving before seeing him as useful and then growing to rely on him, appreciate him and then love him. That's wonderfully complicated road to character growth and I really enjoyed that. 

Isn't She Lovely isn't written or directed with a great deal of innovation. The film holds to a rather strict biopic structure. That said, the film is rather breezy and doesn't drag at all. The film is brisk thanks to the performance of Bette Midler who plays Jacqueline Susann as the oversized personality one might assume she was from her brazen, barely veiled novels. It's a blowsy, blowhard performance by Midler with dramatic flourishes that I found humorous and endearing rather than merely hammy. The character, as essayed by Midler, is supposed to be hammy. That's a feature and not a bug in my estimation. 

Read my complete review of Isn't She Great on Geeks.Media. 

Documentary Review Moonage Daydream

Moonage Daydream (2022) 

Directed by Brett Morgen 

Written by Documentary 

Starring David Bowie 

Release Date September 16th, 2022 (Limited Release), September 23rd Everywhere 

Documentary filmmaker, director Brett Morgen, has a gift for fans of David Bowie. It's arguably the greatest gift Bowie fans could receive that isn't a visit from the Thin White Duke himself from beyond the grave. Moonage Daydream is the very first documentary to be approved by the estate of David Bowie. It includes footage from the Bowie archives that has never seen the light of day. Concert footage from the late 70s, movie projects that Bowie himself commissioned but never finished, and rare interviews with Bowie that provide narration amid the dazzling, dizzying, and mesmerizing sonic and visual spectacle. 

Moonage Daydream doesn't so much work in a perfectly linear fashion. Though it does tell us about Bowie's childhood, in his own words, it's not a straight ahead documentary narrative. Rather, the focus of Moonage Daydream is Bowie the icon, the music and the man. The documentary is wall to wall with Bowie music and performances with Bowie himself offering narration about where his life was at the time he created this music via a series of interviews. Whether its appearances on Dick Cavett or a British chat show, Bowie consistently, shyly offers insights into himself and his work that aren't nearly as revealing as the music he creates. That's by design. 

While interviewers were hung up on Bowie's makeup, outfits and shoes, Bowie appears baffled by the questions and the attention to his attire. He appears perfectly ready to discuss the philosophy and inspiration behind his music but clams up, rather appropriately as he's constantly questioned about his look and how unusual he is. Questions about his sexuality and his influence on his fans lead Bowie to a confused sort of bemusement that stops these interviews in their tracks. It's both charming and frustrating, charming from Bowie and frustrating that crusty interviewers can't get past Bowie's flamboyance to talk about Bowie's art. 

Far more successful is a female interviewer, I apologize for not catching her name amid the disorienting experience of Moonage Daydream, who gets Bowie talking love. It's a wonderfully nuanced and thoughtful conversation that plays as a piece of narration in Moonage Daydream. Similarly, when Bowie talks about falling in love with his wife, Iman, the obvious joy in his voice is just wonderful even as his happiness plays at odds with his still wandering spirit which cannot settle on a sound and a rather cynical worldview that led Bowie's years in the wilderness of popular culture. 

Brett Morgen does a brilliant job of approaching the dichotomy of Bowie, the superstar and the artist, conflicted about success but desperate for the fleeting comfort of superstardom. There is a brilliant segment of Moonage Daydream that covers the most successful period of Bowie's career, his 80s yuppie phase. Let's Dance, Modern Love, and other top hits of that time are fantastic but even Bowie admits that he was playing the hits, playing what he thought people wanted to hear, and reveling in the trappings of being wildly successful. 

Click here for my complete review of Moonage Daydream at Beat.Media. 

Movie Review Pearl (2022)

Pearl (2022) 

Directed by Ti West 

Written by Ti West 

Starring Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Emma Jenkins 

Release Date September 16th, 2022 

Prequel to X (2022) 

X was a brilliant homage to 70s grindhouse horror from a director in Ti West who has mastered the form of homage. My proof for for his mastery comes with his new movie Pearl. The horror movie starring the utterly brilliant Mia Goth, riffs brilliantly on MGM movies of the 30s and 40s mimicking them down to the credit font and pitch perfect score. Using the innocent memories of movies like The Wizard of Oz for a series of transgressive gags feels so fresh and different that this horror movie becomes honestly refreshing. 

Mia Goth stars as the title character, Pearl. Pearl is a teenage dreamer, a 19 year old who dreams of nothing but the burgeoning movie industry. The movies in her small hometown have become her home respite from a difficult home life. Pearl's mother, Ruth (Tandi Wright), is a severe German taskmaster who believes that her daughter should have to suffer as she has to provide a home and a roof over Pearl's head. Ruth has become the primary worker on their Texas farm after Pearl's father (Matthew Sunderland) was struck with Spanish Flu and suffered complete paralysis. 

The first indication that something might be a little off about Pearl comes via her father. After a night of arguing with her mother, Pearl takes her father to a pond on their land that is home to an alligator that Pearl has been feeding for some time. Pearl pushes dad's wheelchair to the edge of the dock while calling on the gator which responds to her. It appears that Pearl may dump daddy in the lake until mom arrives to make the save. The juxtaposition of Mia Goth's sweet, simple innocent look and the malevolence of her actions is part of the electric charge of watching Pearl. 

Similarly the way Pearl chooses to bathe in front of her father's paralyzed form, his darting eyes demonstrating his extreme discomfort, is another unsettling symbol of Pearl's transgressive personality. These scenes pitched against the numerous references to classic MGM musicals and those oh so innocent adventures of the 40s and 50s makes Pearl in general a movie that transgresses our expectations and conspires to make us part of dark meta joke of Pearl. 

Click here for my full length review of Pearl at Horror.Media.