Stanley's Gig

Longtime ukulele enthusiast Stanley (William Sanderson) has a small dream of playing his ukulele on a cruise ship to Hawaii. He is invited by an administrator (Stephen Tobolowsky) to play for some seniors at a home, as a form of music therapy. They love his music because he plays all the old songs they know. He meets a cranky senior who used to be a pretty good jazz singer in her day (Marla Gibbs) and part of the film is his drawing her out to realize her talents again. He continues to visit her although she ignores him.

The other part of the story is Stanley trying in earnest to gain a place to perform on a ship, despite those making the decision thinking he and his instrument are old fashioned and corny. Stanley's status is also jeopardized by his alcoholism. He is helped by a friend (Faye Dunaway) who volunteers at the church, but she also is honest with him about his sometime childishness, which we see frustrates her.

Free event Pillow Talk

The Northbrook Public Library continues with some films starring Doris Day. The next screening is Pillow Talk, a comedy costarring Rock Hudson. When did the term “romantic comedy” come into use?


Pillow Talk
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
1:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Northbrook Public Library
1201 Cedar Lane, Northbrook, IL

Past seven days

Latino Film Festival is winding down!  I experienced more technical difficulties at this fest than I've ever seen at a festival.  They are not newbies, so I hope they get their act together for next year!

Anita Takes a Chance
Crank
The Five Year Engagement
Game of Werewolves
Get the Gringo
Good Herbs
Griff the Invisible
Hotel Splendide
Semi-Toasted
Under My Nails
War of the Arrows

Spaceman

This low-budget sci fi looks like it was filmed in Chicago. There are really no actors I know in it, but it was written and directed by one of the guys who founded the satirical paper The Onion, Scott Dikkers.

The mysterious story--a boy goes missing, was it an abduction by aliens? Years later, some Feds analyze a mysterious spacecraft. There is also an odd looking man working in a supermarket (the boy now grown up)--think SNL’s Coneheads without the cone. He’s industrious and polite, stiff and non-social. His pretty neighbor thinks he’s a sci fi nerd, the type who goes to conventions and dresses up in costumes.

The Forty-First

In the desert, Maryutka, a female sniper in the Red Army, and her battalion ambush a Kazakh caravan, hoping to appropriate the camels for easier travelling. In the caravan is an important White Army officer, Govorukha, who has a confidential message he needs to deliver to an important General. The leader of the Red battalion assigns Maryutka to keep watch over him while they travel back to HQ so he can be interrogated. They bond when he helps her with a war poem. They are stranded during a storm and due to their Adam and Eve existence they fall in love. He is more learned and ideal, she's more rustic and realist but soon their views on the war creep back in, leading to a tragic ending.

The cinematography is simple/unfussy in the best sense (by Sergei Urusevsky, who also filmed The Cranes are Flying), filmed on real locations, with some actors (?) who look like real nomadic people. There is also a silent film of the same from the 20s as well as a book, so this story must be very popular in Russia. Some of the music also reminds me of works by Tchaikovsky.