Cinema Basement

A Review by Azzam Abdur-Rahman  Let talk Soup, I mean it seriously, soup is a good people shit on but need most in the darkest of times. It isn’t always filling or life changing but it is always around when you need it. Like I don’t wax poetic about chicken noodle from a Campbells soup can but once my knees are weak that Andy Warhol paint of American Nostalgia comes walking over to me with arms of wild embrace. You are now asking why on gods green earth is the man talking about soup? That’s because this movie is Campbell’s Chicken Noodle soup. It’s not great, it’s not bad but it’s exactly what I needed this year. I won’t get into but we are all sharing in a collective trauma. At this same time I am done with superheroes. The Wizard magazine reading kid is done with having my most nerdy fantasies playing out on screen. I would rather watch paint dry but I come back every time. Surprisingly this movie knows that. It doesn’t give me the quips and self-aware humor of the MCU nor it’s n...

 A retrospective by Forrest Humphrey Continuing with Robert Duvall month is one of the movies that got me into Westerns when I was little: 2003's “Open Range.” Starring Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall, the film introduces the two men as “free grazers”, cowboys who drive cows across the land to markets and sell them for a living. Costner plays Charlie, a Civil war veteran stricken with PTSD from his violent past and Duvall plays his employer, “Boss” Spearman, with a couple other supporting characters to assist in driving the cows. When they near the town of Harmonville, the cowboys are attacked by men hired by local cattle baron Denton Baxter, where some of the crew are killed or badly injured. With this violent act, Costner and Duvall slowly rally the rest of the town to their side and take the fight back to Baxter, leading to a frankly fantastic final showdown. Open Range is a fair bit grittier than the typical Western. As mentioned, the heroes are not young men in their prime...

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich Robert Duvall's directorial debut is a deep-fried southern treatise on faith and guilt. This could be considered a forgotten film Friday as why the film was critically acclaimed and garnered an Academy Award nomination for Duvall, I think it has been relegated to the back burner of film history. That is a shame because I think this is one of Duvall's best performances and not only did he direct this film, he wrote it as well.  Duvall plays Sonny Dewey, a charismatic Pentecostal preacher who flees his Texas congregation after he kills the man sleeping with his wife. Sonny ends up in the bayous of Louisiana where he baptizes himself as an apostle of the Lord and begins another church. But his sins have a way of catching up to him.  The power of this film is in Duvall's performance, who is breathtaking as Sonny. He is in almost every frame of this film and you can't take your eyes off him. Even as we know that Sonny did a terrible thing he s...

 A retrospective by Forrest Humphrey So I'd like to kick off Robert Duvall month with what might be an odd pick, but hey, its Forgotten Film Friday and this was the movie that introduced me to the actor: Secondhand Lions. Released in 2003, the film is a comedy-drama set in the 1960's where Robert Duvall and Michael Caine play a pair of eccentric old uncles who have to watch their introverted nephew, played by a young Haley Joel Osment, while his ditzy mother goes to school, or so she claims.  What unfolds is a frequently heartwarming and hilarious story where the young boy and old men start their time together aloof but grow closer and closer until by the end, they are as close as family could be. Duvall and Caine play perfectly off each other, as one would expect of two talented actors who have been in the business as long as they have. Duvall in particular is the star here, able to perfectly play a cranky old man slowly softened up by a youngster who desperately needs fa...

 A retrospective by Brooks Rich This is a forgotten romantic drama from 1999 that is unfairly maligned in my opinion. Sure it's not the greatest work for cinematic art ever but it's an interesting story with a stellar cast working under the skilled eye of Sydney Pollack. It might be a little long but Random Hearts is a solid film in my opinion.  Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas play the spouses of two people having an affair. When their spouses die in a plane crash while on their way to a romantic rendezvous in Miami, Ford and Scott are left to pick up the pieces. However, they clash as Scott wants to move on and focus on her campaign to win re-election in her congressional race and Ford wants to know why this happened.  I love how this is a romantic film told as if it's a mystery. But it's not about finding out if the spouses are having an affair. It's about finding out why. Ford and Scott bring gravitas to their roles. They are the standouts here, especially...

An introduction by Forrest Humphrey       For the month of December, I was given the opportunity to choose our subject, and after some thought  I asked to cover one of my favorite actors, the great Robert Duvall. Beginning in 1959 and still working today, Duvall has been acting for over sixty years and his filmography includes many award winners and beloved classics. From “To Kill a Mockingbird” to “The Godfather”, “Apocalypse Now” to “A Family Thing”, his roles vary immensely and he always brings dignity and presence to them. So join us this December as we dip our toes into the long and rich career of Robert Duvall.