#nom actor
Tribute(1980). A shallow Broadway press agent learns he is dying just as his son by his ex-wife arrives for a visit.
Gosh, Jack Lemmon is great in this. He’s often the best part of what he’s in, but that’s never been truer, I think, than in this clunky father-son story. He elevates every scene he’s in and lends such emotional complexity to a man beloved by many and truly known by no one. Kim Cattrall and Lee Remick both are pretty solid too, but man, Robby Benson struggles to lift what, to be fair, is a pretty frustrating character. Still, a few really compelling scenes and some great character work from Lemmon. 7/10.
The Stunt Man (1980). A fugitive stumbles onto a movie set just when they need a new stunt man, takes the job as a way to hide out and falls for the leading lady while facing off with his manipulative director.
I’m still trying to untangle my thoughts on this one really, but it’s definitely an interesting and memorable movie. Peter O'Toole crackles as a director who ends up in a manipulative, complicated relationship with his accidental stunt man after discovering he’s on the run from the police, and there’s some pretty fun meta sequences that bounce off the screen. That said, it never entirely pulled me in, and the comedy especially never really landed. 7/10.
Being There (1980). After the death of his employer forces him out of the only home he’s ever known, a simpleminded, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful tycoon and an insider in Washington politics.
It’s not often easy to balance innocence and cynicism, and certainly not easy to do it with this level of charm. I don’t know if I liked this movie exactly, but I really appreciated what it did and the deceptively nuanced depiction it offered of how somebody can be corrupted by a world they don’t know how to be a part of. 7.5/10.
All That Jazz (1979). Director/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid career of Joe Gideon, a womanizing, drug-using dancer.
God, the 52nd Academy Awards had a stacked Best Picture category - Kramer vs Kramer, Apocalypse Now, Norma Rae, Breaking Away and this. All that Jazz ultimately lost out to Kramer v Kramer, which is probably understandable, but to me, this really deserved to take it home. It’s rare after all that a movie can feel both this spectacular and this intimate, this personal and yet this accessible.
It just works on every level and I really loved it a lot. 9/10.
