What I’m watching: ‘The Apartment’ deserves to be rediscoveredDate: 1/3/2018 SPRINGFIELD – What I’m watching this week? A great film by Billy Wilder, a wonderfully revealing documentary and the latest original movie on Netflix.
On Blu-ray: The Apartment
Billy Wilder is one of my favorite directors and with films such as “Sunset Boulevard” “Stalag 17” and “Some Like it Hot” – just to mention three, he should be one of your favorite directors as well.
Now Arrow Films has released a wonderfully restored version of Wilder’s “The Apartment,” an outstanding comedy drama that presents a moment in the American history of sexual politics.
Made in 1960, “The Apartment” might surprise younger viewers discovering the film for the first time that people had premarital, as well as adulterous sex at that far-flung time in the past. Watched now with the headlines about sexual harassment of women in the workplace, the film only reinforces the long terrible history of how men in positions of power abuse women.
Our hero, C.C. Baxter (the great Jack Lemon), is an accountant in a large life insurance company in midtown Manhattan. Quite by accident it’s discovered that he has a small apartment to himself now far from the office, a situation quickly exploited by his married superiors who bring their dates there rather than a hotel.
C.C. is promised that these executives will take care of him in the way of a promotion if he plays ball, and that does happen. At the same time, C.C. is enamored with an elevator operator Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) and would like to date her.
What he doesn’t know is the head of human resources Jeff Sheldrake, (Fred MacMurray) has figured out that C.C. is hiding something and Sheldrake uses both a carrot and stick to promote C.C. so he can use the apartment to further his own secret relationship with Kubelik.
The film is at turns funny, genuinely romantic, very dramatic and a condemnation of the sexual politics of the time. It won the Oscar for Best Picture, best Director and best Original Screenplay. It is a tremendous film, worthy of repeat viewings.
For those of us who grew up watching MacMurray on “My Three Sons” on TV or in his many light comedies and Disney films of the 1960s, it’s a bit of a revelation seeing him so skillfully depict a true heel. He actually excelled in this kind of role and to see another stellar example chek out “The Caine Mutiny.”
The Blu-ray includes an interview taped in the 1970s with Wilder, among other features that also includes an interview with cast member Hope Holiday.
On Netflix: Bright
So what if our society today consisted of humans, Elves and Orcs? What if magic was real? And what if all of the social ills we experience now, including rampant racial prejudice, were part of this universe? You’d have the world of “Bright,” a new multi-million film produced and released on-line by Netflix.
It’s an ambitious, but highly commercial effort. The film takes the Elves and Orcs from “The Lord of the Rings” to another setting, one clearly inspired by the 1988 film “Alien Nation.” In that film the issue was how alien newcomers were integrated into human society, along with the story of the first alien cop.
In this film, we follow how the first Orc police officer (Joel Edgerton) is treated, and it’s not well. He’s teamed up with a veteran cop who doesn’t want him, played by Will Smith.
When renegade Elves trying to retrieve a magic wand that could be used to resurrect a long-dead evil are added to the mix, you have an unusual buddy cop movie. Although director Davis Ayer does better with this film than with his previous one, the sloppy “Suicide Squad,” the movie has significant problems. Frankly it feels like a rip-off of two other properties. It is largely set at night and the film’s dark composition doesn’t assist in the presentation of action sequences.
It also has an issue with giving the audience enough information up front to understand the premise.
It looks and acts like a big budget high concept loud action film and it could have been released to theaters.
I hope Netflix execs, though, really examine the script of their next big production for greater originality.
On Hulu: Gilbert
I’ve been a fan of comic and actor Gilbert Gottfried for years and this new documentary shows a side of the comic he has long hid: he’s a devoted husband and father, which goes against his image of the say-anything comic.
Gottfried allowed director Neil Berkeley incredible access into his life and the result is fascinating.
Gottfried is retiring off-camera, guarded and shy. He is amazed he has a wife and kids and a “normal” life.
Despite career setbacks due to his brand of comedy, Gottfried marches to his own drum and has managed to not just survive, but flourish.
I loved this movie and its insights into a great comic talent.
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