The Disaster Artist (2017)

[*** stars / *****] 

What is it to sit through the premiere of your debut movie, and witness the audience laugh out loud at what was intended to be serious drama? 

The Disaster Artist is about how a really bad movie got made. 

A movie so bad that audiences the world over still love it for its unintentional humor, incredibly bad acting and lame storytelling. 

The Disaster Artist is a neat, well-paced chronicle of how Tommy Wiseau's cult 'so baaaad that it is goooood' flick, The Room (2003) was made. 

James Franco does an impressive turn directing the movie and playing Wiseau, mimicking the strange spirit, drawl and body language of the determined man. 

Franco's brother Dave, playing Wiseau's friend and co-star Greg is sincere too.  

The Disaster Artist is a good, often funny and engaging experience about what most critics call the "best worst movie ever made." 

It is a brave, clean attempt, and in its way, applauds friendship against all odds and is a cheerful shout out to every one out there who find the courage to follow their dreams. 

The Disaster Artist tells us why pure conviction and drive matters, irrespective of the outcome. 

A little nitty-bitty funny fight of a film. 

The Sweet Herafter (1997)

[***3/4 stars/*****]

Once upon a time on a snowy day in the little town of Sam Dent, British Columbia, a school bus driven by the experienced Dolores Driscoll (Gabrielle Rose) cuts across a road barrier and falls into a lake, killing 14 children. 

Mitchell Stephens (Ian Holm), a lawyer fending off personal issues with his separated drug-addict daughter Zoe (Caerthan Banks), descends vulture-like on the town folk and grieving parents, literally manipulating them to ask for damages. 

Stephens plans to build a case based on alleged negligence of the bus manufacturer and the road barrier makers. His condition is to keep one-third of the damages won, and take no fees if he loses the case. 

As Stephens goes around craftily persuading affected parents to fight the case, the quiet town is divided for and against filing charges. 

Billy Ansel (Bruce Greenwood) who was driving his car behind the school bus as usual to wave at his children when the accident occurred is furious with Stephens, threatening to bash him up for good. 

Meanwhile Stephens wants Nicole Burnell (Sarah Polley), 15, accident survivor, now paralysed from the waist down, to make the 'right' statement to win the case. 

But there is more to the grieving and tragedy - an illicit affair, child abuse, daddy issues, unashamed need for money, guilt and greed. 

Haunting moments 
Based on the 1991 novel, The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks, a book loosely inspired by the Alton, Texas bus crash that killed 21 students, the screenplay by Canadian director Atom Egoyan is a near-masterpiece. 

The events go back and forth, cutting across timelines, Egoyan keeps us guessing and intrigued, building up the drama like a snow sculpture, that gradually shapes into coherence.  

The recently deceased Ian Holm is particularly terrific as the immoral lawyer. 

This may be the act that won him the role of Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is a seething, nervy act. 

Bruce Greenwood as the righteous angry dad and Sarah Polley as Nicole are excellent, the rest of the ensemble is superb too. 

The Pied Piper analogy 
The haunting bits involve Nicole's reading of 'The Pied Piper' fairy tale to Billy's children, emphasized and revisited in effective voice-overs to match the tragedy of the tale and the bus tragedy.

How the fairy tale ominously runs parallel to the tale are parts that elevate the drama in The Sweet Herafter.  

The part about the dying baby and the implications of what a father needs to do to save its life - the telling is pure cinema.    

The Sweet Herafter cuts above many, similar, slow-burner movies, for its haunting, snow-lush quality, despite the absence of anything overtly dramatic, apart from the accident scenes. 

Cinema lovers will find a lot to admire. 

My take - this is how you make a sensitive fictional drama based on a real-life tragedy.  

To Catch a Thief (1955)

[***3/4 stars/*****]

Francie: "Do you want a leg or a breast?"

Robie: "You make the choice."

John Robie (Cary Grant), a former master cat burglar enjoys a leisurely retired life in a splendid, airy French villa. 

But when a string of  jewel robberies occur at the French Riviera, Robie is the main suspect, forcing him to go on the run.  

Robie seeks help from his old (now restaurant-managing) gang, who are on parole for their World War II heroics as part of the French Resistance. He is met with hostility, as they are now prime suspects too. 

Robie escapes the police again, and schemes to catch the elusive burglar in the act. 

He arranges to meet H. H. Hughson (John Williams), an insurance agent who trusts Robie enough (and can't afford more robberies of insured jewels) to disclose the list of the wealthiest jewel-owning Riviera folk. 

American tourists, rich widow Jessie Stevens (Jessie Royce Landis) and daughter Frances (Grace Kelly) incidentally top the list. 

Engaging romance, screeching car chases, sunny French locales and throbbing rooftop chases ensue. 

Not Hitchcock's best, but utterly enjoyable
The cat analogy, superb French locales, trademark witty Hitchcock remarks, breathtaking locations, the uncanny Cary Grant-Grace Kelly chemistry, stirring, timely background score - To Catch a Thief  is a breezy suspense drama, low on thrills and surprises, compared to other superior Hitchcock suspense movies. 

The stretched climax threatens to derail the fun, the buildup to the final rooftop chase makes up for it, even if the gun-shooting part is a tad lame. 

Just when it seems to lag, there are enough twists and character development that keep To Catch a Thief engaging. 

Grant and Kelly sparkle like priceless jewels. 

Their jovial presence allowed me to largely ignore that To Catch a Thief  is robbed of the usual Hitchcock bounce.   

The graceful, elegantly beautiful Kelly was half of Grant's age during filming, nowhere do their flirtatious scenes seem sleazy or awkward. 

It's a pairing of a lifetime.  

The clever dialogue interplay, the implied sexuality, relationship dynamics that run smooth with the main plot - elements we sorely miss in modern crime thrillers. 

Take the final unexpected dialogue, "Mother will love it here," and Grant's startled expression to top it off. Superlative, fun cinema despite the lightened proceedings. 

To Catch a Thief  is not vintage Hitchcock, but a happy vacation-mode, hard-to-ignore sunshine of a drama, a lovely rush of springy energy and charm.