Posts tagged plot
“Hitchcock” about the Master of Manipulation
Dec 22nd
“Master of Manipulation”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Hitchcock is about the famous British director, Alfred Hitchcock, who was known as the Master of Suspense, and takes place in Hollywood when he was making his most famous film, the 1960 Psycho.
We see Hitchcock in 1959 Chicago at the opening of his previous movie, his 46th, and a reporter points out that Hitchcock is 60 and says shouldn’t he just quit while he is ahead.
Thankfully, Hitchcock didn’t, who is played by Anthony Hopkins made up to look like the director and using a voice as reminiscent of the popular figure on television that we soon begin to believe that he is Hitchcock.
In fact, Hitchcock says that he is looking for a nice clean, nasty little book to make into his next movie.
That book becomes Psycho, a novel by Robert Bloch, based on Ed Gein and the murders he had committed in Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, we meet Alma, Hitchcock’s wife, played by Helen Mirren, and we learn that she had even been Hitchcock’s boss in England when he was first starting out in the movie business, and they had collaborated on some of his early movies.
So, Alma helps Hitchcock with some of the casting and even makes suggestions for the plot, such as killing off the leading actress after the first 30 minutes instead of waiting halfway through.
Scarlett Johansson plays Janet Leigh, James D’Arcy plays Anthony Perkins, and in their first meeting, Hitchcock says, “Call me Hitch. Hold the ‘cock.'”
Then we see all the difficulties that Hitch had making this movie, with the studio, the censors, and even an actress with whom Hitch had a previous history, Vera Miles, played by Jessica Biel.
At one point, the picture is two days behind and $60,000 over budget, Hitch gets sick and confined to bed, and Alma goes to the set and takes over, showing everyone that she knows what she is doing.
One thing that might confuse you is that Hitch dreams and fantasizes about Ed Gein, the real murderer, and we see those scenes, but there is enough humor and lightheartedness in the movie to make up for these distractions, just like Hitch had in his own movies and TV shows.
Hitchcock is about the Master of Suspense, but he could just as easily have been called the Master of Manipulation.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“For a Good Time, Call…” Don’t Even Bother
Sep 16th
“Don’t Even Bother”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
For a Good Time, Call… is a small movie that was shot in only 16 days, and it shows.
It also has a subject that not everyone will find appealing, much less amusing, and that shows, too.
And finally, its crude subject is portrayed crudely, and that shows three.
The story is about two women and their mutual gay friend, Jesse, played by Justin Long, whom you will recognize from many other movies, but all he does in this one is embarrass himself.
Or maybe not. After all, he did take the money, assuming there was enough money in the budget to pay the actors for making this piece of crap.
Katie is living in a nice apartment in New York City, but due to circumstances that I won’t bother to go into, she has to get a roommate to help pay her rent.
Meanwhile, Lauren is living with her boyfriend, Charlie, but Charlie is moving to Italy because of his job, and Charlie breaks up with Lauren, saying he is bored with their relationship.
So, when Katie and Lauren tell their woes to Jesse, he says to them, “Why don’t you just live together for the summer and see how it goes?”
Well, when Lauren moves in, they discover that they had met each other ten years ago at a college party, the meeting didn’t end will for reasons that are too distasteful to go into here, and so they immediately don’t like each other.
Then Lauren loses her job, and wouldn’t you know it, she finds out that one of the many jobs that Katie has is as a phone-sex operator, but Katie isn’t making very much money at it.
So, more as a plot point than anything else, Lauren advises Katie on how she can make more money, one thing leads to another, and she and Katie start their own phone-sex business.
Well, Lauren becomes intrigued, and she decides that they can make even more money if they double their operators, and so she starts accepting calls from horny men, too.
Then we have to watch Katie train Lauren, then we have to watch various phone calls that are really unpleasant with cameos from some actors you might know, and then it still isn’t over.
For a Good Time, Call… isn’t even worth the call.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”