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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Time for the sixth installment of one of my favorite franchises.  For me, this is one of the movies in the series that seems to fall a little bit under the radar.  I mean, not much happens over the course of most of the film, though a lot happens in the film’s final act.  Most of the movie is about building and developing characters and their relationships.  Except for that final third of the movie, in which a lot happened.  Most notable was the death of Dumbledore.  As always, I loved Michael Gambon’s interpretation of the character, and it was a really heartbreaking part of the film.

I needn’t say that Radcliff, Grint, and Watson were all on top of their game for this movie.  They were now firmly established in their characters, and experienced enough to turn in some really great performances.  I especially loved Watson in this movie.  In particular, there was a scene where she is in tears because Ron is shamelessly snogging with another new girl.  Her emotion is real, and in my mind, that is where she changed from a child actress to an adult actress.  She was amazing.

Now, I feel like Rupert Grint keeps getting the short end of the stick.  The character of Ron Weasley seems to be the most unloved of the three.  But, Grint is just playing the character as he is directed to, and he does a fine job.  Here, in The Half-Blood Prince, had three little sub-plots that were fun, but not essential.  The first was his position as keeper on the Gryffindor quidditch team.  The second was his association with Lavender Brown, and third is his drinking of a love potion.  I actually loved Ron in that third one.  Grint’s comedic acting was brilliant, and it is a memorable part of the film for me.

So the one thing I found a little disappointing was that one of the overall mysteries of the film was the true identity of the Half-Blood Prince.  It was Snape, but, the movie never explains WHY it was Snape.  He just kind-of randomly steps up at the end and says, “Yup, it was me!”  You see, the book explains it, and I think the movie should have done the same.  So, Snape’s parents were a witch named Eileen Prince and a muggle named Tobias Snape, making their son, Severus, a half-blood.  But the movie just drops it like a little bolt of lightning from out of nowhere, right near the end of the movie.  It wouldn’t have taken much to do a little explanation, just a line or two.  But the movie never does that.  Too bad for anyone who has not read the book.

So needless to say that the last act of the movie is my favorite part of the film.  From the time where Harry and Dumbledore go to retrieve the locket horcrux until the end of the movie, I am just amazed at the acting, the plot, the action, the drama, the visuals… everything!  First there is the spectacular acting of Michael Gambon.  I am nearly in tears when he is drinking the torture potion.  When he is begging to be killed, and yet continues to open his mouth for Harry to pour more of it down his throat is simply heart-wrenching.    And then after the really scary inferi attack, when Dumbledore is wielding wild fire with his wand, is just visually stunning.  So cool!

And then back at the school, we even get one of Draco Malfoy’s most dramatic scenes in the entire franchise.  Again, this was the movie where I stopped seeing him as a child actor, and started seeing him as an accomplished adult actor.  I’m so glad he got that seriously intense moment.

As far as I’m concerned, the overall quality of the franchise has never wavered.  People like to pick their favorites, but I just like them all equally for the detailed and intricate story that is told.  Sure, there were a lot of things from the books that never made it into the movies, but I think that they did a fantastic job, and The Half-Blood Prince was no exception.

Top 10 Favorite Parts

1. The Potions class where Harry wins the Felix Felicis
2. Dumbledore showing Harry his collected memories.
3. Katie Bell is cursed.
4. Hermione is in tears because of Ron and Lavender
5. Ron falls under the Love potion’s influence.
6. Harry nearly murders Draco
7. Ginny kisses Harry
8. The Use of the Liquid Luck potion.
9. Dumbledore drinking the torture potion, and then wielding fire.
10. The death of Dumbledore, and everyone lighting the tips of their wands in homage.

2021 – Spider-Man No Way Home

The visual effects in this movie were incredible, and I’m not just saying that because I’m a huge Marvel fan.  I mean, I am, but even if I wasn’t I’d still say the effects were awesome!  Not only were we treated to effects that we have seen before, but that were upgraded and enhanced to look cooler than we’ve seen in previous films, but we were also shown a few new things that we’ve never seen before.  The visual effects team seemed to have pulled out all the stops and knocked this one out of the park!

The whole concept of the movie is that Spider-Man has to fight the villains from all the previous Spider-Man movies, whether they were officially part of the MCU or not.  Visually, and just in general, the greatest thing about this film were the characters who were brought in from the 2002, 2004, and 2007 Spider-Man movies with Toby Maguire, and the 2012 and 2017 Spider-Man movies with Andrew Garfield.  But the greatest visual effects went to the villains, which were brought in from each of these movie. 

The movie gathered the best villains from all those other movies who were defeated: The Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Electro, Sandman, and The Lizard.  So there we have five great villains fighting three incarnations of the hero.  But all of their looks were given a make-over.  My favorite had to be Electro.  Not only did they change his electricity effects from blue to the more familiar yellow from the comics, but they also believably explained the change as part of the narrative.  And they also gave Doctor Octopus’s tentacles a little upgrade with some of Stark’s nano-technology.  And we even got to see Venom in a post-credit scene.

The final climactic fight where everyone is fighting everyone was really cool!  Sure, I’m guessing that most of it was completely CGI, since Spider-Man wears a mask that covers his face, and the faces of the villains were not seen much, like in the case of The Lizard and Sandman.  But if that was the case, the CGI really looked fantastic!  The sand effects were cool, the electricity effects were great, and even The Lizard looked pretty realistic. 

And lest I forget, I have to mention the really cool Doctor Strange effects.  The spell he casts to make the world forget Spider-Man’s identity looked bright and flashy, lighting up the screen like a kaleidoscope.  We spent a little time in the mirror dimension, where reality started bending and twisting, reflecting and multiplying, and it looked stunning.  I really liked the shot where Spider-Man escapes and traps Strange there using his webs and math.  That looked cool.  And then after the final fight is done, Doctor Strange casts another spell to close the dimensional rifts, as reality started to tear itself apart.  It all just looked so cool! 

1936 – Gladys George

Valiant is the Word for Carrie

I have mixed feelings about this movie, but not about Gladys George’s performance.  She was good, though the movie was a little dull.  And it wasn’t that nothing happened in the story.  A lot actually happened, but the pacing was just a little slow.  But I’m here to review the actress’s performance, not the film, and based on that, I have to give Gladys two thumbs up.

Gladys played a woman with a shady past.  The film never explicitly said what that past was, but it was implied that she was a prostitute.  And even though that part of her life was behind her, it continued to haunt her.  Carrie was trying to be a good woman, but the world refused to see it.  And in her effort to be a good person, she took custody of two orphaned children and raised them as her own.  The role called for a certain kind of strength in the face of public scorn, a carefully suppressed need for human contact, and a great deal of compassion for the two orphans. 

Gladys George did a wonderful job creating this character that was full of strong emotions.  She was a conflicted woman, wanting what was best for the children, and yet fighting the fear that her reputation would be more harmful to them than anything else.  She was a serious-minded woman, and yet once the three of them ran away together, she proved to the world, and to herself that motherhood suited her.  Her love for them was easy to see, and it was all due to Gladys’s wonderful performance.  The predominant emotions that the role required were concern, worry, and selflessness, and Gladys pulled it off pretty convincingly.

Another thing that she did very well was to age.  Over the course of the film, she aged, I’m estimating around 18 or 17 or 18 years.  The makeup, and the costume changes were good, but it was also in the way she carried herself.  She moved just a little more slowly, more stiffly.  And the look in her eyes seemed just a little more wise, more care-worn.  And the unexpected end of the film, where Carrie decides to go to jail rather than allowing her tarnished reputation to cast a shadow over her adopted children was played perfectly.  There was an inner strength there that was appealing.  The Best Actress nomination was well-earned.

1936 – Basil Rathbone

Romeo and Juliet

Well, I’m not sure how I feel about this nomination.  On the one hand, Rathbone did a fair job.  He was an accomplished film swordfighter, and to be sure, it was a skill he was widely known for.  He was really only in three scenes in this movie, two of which had him drawing his blade and sparring with an opponent.  To put it more succinctly, the character was rather limited.  So what was it about Rathbone’s performance that earned him the nomination?  Well, I think it might have been the fancy sword-fighting, though there were certainly other reasons.  Rathbone clearly knew what he was doing with a fencing blade in one hand and dirk in the other.  He was quick on his feet and confident of his prowess.  The speed with which he fenced was truly impressive.  His sword-play wasn’t as extensive as in other films in his career, like The Adventures of Robin Hood, or Captain Blood, but it was still fun to watch.

But Rathbone was more than just an impressive fencer.  Let’s take a look at the one scene in which he kept his weapon sheathed.  It was at the Capulet’s party.  Rathbone, playing Tybalt, was the first to see through Romeo’s disguise.  He takes offense at the Montague’s presence, and is prepared to kill him on the spot.  He is only stopped by Lord Capulet, himself, who has to talk the hot-headed Tybalt down from his wrath.  Well, Rathbone put the anger and indignation into the scene.  He seemed very… British in that scene.  Understandable, I suppose, since he was English.  I think it is safe to say that he was well-cast, especially considering the numerous failings in the film, as a whole.  I mean, Andy Devine?  Really?!?  It’s hard to look bad when put next to horrible acting like that.

And then in his third scene, after the fencing begins, there are a couple of close-up shots of Rathbone’s face.  In them, I could see his temper, yes, but also a healthy amount of fear, as he realizes that his opponents might be just as deadly as he believes himself to be.  And there it was.  That was it.  There’s that extra bit of something that elevated the supporting role from just a hot-tempered sword fighter to a real character with a little self-reflective emotion.  It was the clear fear of his own mortality, which Rathbone brought to the performance, that made him good.

But there was something odd that catches my attention in a bad way each time I have seen this movie.  When Tybalt is killed by Romeo’s sword, he falls off a ledge in a most peculiar way.  He lands on the ground and splays himself for the camera.  His arms go out directly to his sides, like he is posing himself for a crucifixion, and his knee raises in a most unnatural way for a dead body that has just fallen.  I don’t understand the pose, but it grabs my attention in the weirdest way, and I don’t think it was supposed to.

1936 – Norma Shearer

Romeo and Juliet

Norma Shearer was a fantastic actress.  Not even this bizarre version of the Shakespeare play could diminish that.  Shearer, as always, did a great job, turned in a powerful performance, and gave the role some real emotion.  None of that was lost on me.  However… that being said, she was totally wrong for the part.  Hear me out!  Never-mind that the character of Juliet was supposed to be 13 years old, and Norma was about 33 when the movie was filmed.  That is a good enough reason, but it wasn’t my only one.

One of the qualities of Norma Shearer’s acting is that she seems so completely at ease on the screen, like she was born to be there in front of the camera.  There normally isn’t a bit of nervousness or tension in her performance.  It is one of the things I love about her in every other movie in which I’ve ever seen her.  But here, because of the difficult Shakespearian language, there was a forced affectation in her delivery that didn’t always translate well on the screen.  That natural ease of hers, in about 50% of her performance, was gone.

And lastly, I wasn’t convinced of her on-screen chemistry with Leslie Howard.  However, in hind-sight, that may have been Howard’s fault, and not Shearer’s.  There were times when the two were supposed to be in love that felt a little disconnected.  I can’t put my finger on exactly what the problem was, but there was an almost imperceptible unease between them. 

And though the director, George Cukor, made some weird choices like putting Andy Devine in the movie, or giving Juliet a bow and arrow in her opening scene, or dressing some characters in clothes that didn’t look like they belonged in a Shakespeare play.  But the only choice he made that affected Shearer’s acting was the scene in which Juliet drinks the Friar’s potion.  She speaks of her fears that something might go wrong, but then her eyes get wide and crazy, and she brought her hands up to her face in terror, as if she was a silent movie actress being too over-the-top with her emotions.  It was a strange moment that I think I have to attribute to the director.  It stood out, and not necessarily in a good way.

1936 – Luise Rainer

The Great Ziegfeld

So, let me start this off by saying that I think Luise Reiner did a fine job.  She played the part as it was written with skill and conviction, and she certainly deserved her nomination.  She displayed a lot of real emotion, especially in her final scene, which I’ll comment on in a bit.  But having seen some of the performances by her fellow nominees, I don’t think she should have taken home the Oscar. 

Rainer played the part of Anna Held, Florenz Ziegfeld’s first wife. He met her while talent scouting in England.  She was very pretty and petite, though if you look up photos of the woman Rainer was portraying, I think the real Anna Held was more attractive.  And one of her trademarks was the ridiculously cinched waist, which was fashionable at the time, which Rainer did not have.

But it wasn’t that.  It was that the character was supposed to be an incredibly popular singer, and though Rainer did OK, I just didn’t find her voice to be that good.  As a result, I wasn’t buying the character as a stunning performer.  I’ve done a little research on the internet, and can’t find any reference to her singing voice being dubbed in the film, though other performers were.  If she was dubbed, it wasn’t a very good dub.  If it wasn’t, then her performance just wasn’t that impressive.  It wasn’t horrible, but I’d just call it mediocre. 

But one thing I did read was that there was one scene in particular that won her the Oscar for Best Actress.  It was her final scene in which Anna calls Ziegfeld, now her ex-husband, to congratulate him on his new marriage.  She is in tears, though she tries to convince him she is happy for him.  The frantic, desperate joy in her voice is truly heartbreaking to hear, and her tears were real.  To be sure, she did a fantastic job in that one scene, but was it Oscar worthy?  I try to look at her entire performance, not just a few minutes of it.  The rest of the time, she was very good, but not great.  And as I said, I think some of her fellow nominees were better.  If it were up to me, I might have voted for Irene Dunne in Theodora Goes Wild, a movie which got far less attention than The Great Ziegfeld, but in its own way, was just as pleasant to watch.

1936 – Irene Dunne

Theodora Goes Wild

You know what?  I liked this movie.  And I liked Irene Dunne in the role.  The character of Theodora Lynn had some diversity, some depth some emotion.  She wasn’t just a one-note character.  And that range was inherent to the part.  On the one hand, she was a conservative woman who wouldn’t be caught dead reading a racy novel.  On the other hand, she was the author of just such a novel, hiding her success as an author from the ladies of her little town.

Irene Dunne played both parts perfectly well.  She was prim and proper one minute, then dancing, and drinking, and falling in love the next.  And Dunne was believable in both sides of the woman.  In the first half of the movie, she had to play the uptight woman who was afraid of her secret getting out.  In the second half, she fully accepted herself as a woman who no longer had to worry about what other people thought of her.

But it wasn’t just how Irene Dunne acted the part, which she did very skillfully.  It was also how the character was written and the point of the plot which drove Theodora’s actions.  The man who falls for her is kind of a jerk as he forces her to break out of her repressed life, turn away from the conservative friends who would consider her true self to be a scandal.  But she does it, and as it turns out, she is far better off for the change.  But then, later in the movie, it becomes apparent that he is also living a double life, one of repression and misery, and the other of happiness and love.  But of course, he won’t change for her as he forced her to do for him.  But that’s when she truly goes wild.  She finds a way to force him to come clean to the world, and I liked that.  What was good for the goose was also good for the gander, so to speak.

This isn’t the first movie I have seen with Irene Dunne, but I think it is my favorite.  I thought she did a wonderful job, and she absolutely deserved the Oscar nomination.  In fact, I’d have been OK with it if she had won.  She was beautiful and charming, and thoroughly enjoyable to watch on the screen.  And she was a great romantic leading lady.  This is the kind of movie I would watch again.

1936 – Alice Brady

My Man Godfrey

And as nominations go, I believe Alice Brady, playing the part of Mrs. Angelica Bullock, was a worthy nominee.  True, I think Gail Patrick, who played her daughter Cornelia would have been a better nominee, but that’s just me.  But apparently the Academy voters had their own ideas about who the first nominees in the Best Actress category should be.

Alice Brady did a fine job of playing the ditzy wife of a wealthy man.  The way the part was written, she was habitually selfish and self-centered, and Brady made the character memorable.  She was just loopy enough to be amusing, but not so off the wall that she was annoying.  Mrs. Bullock was enamored with her protégée Carlo, played by Mischa Auer, a part for which he was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor.  Every time she pronounced his name, “Carlo!” it was with just the right amount of both obsession and possessiveness, and she made me smile.

Brady also had a flightiness about her that the character needed.  She was not completely in touch with reality, and was willfully oblivious to anything serious.  Brady’s take on the role made Mrs. Bullock a delightfully flippant chatterbox who fit in quite nicely within the film that was, after all, a screwball comedy.  The over-privileged Mrs. Bullock seemed to be a perfect fit for Brady.  She just seemed very natural in the part, whether she was proffering a goat at a scavenger hunt, or dealing with a hangover the next morning.

I also liked that she had a couple of funny lines.  When Mrs. Bullock said, “My ancestors came over on the boat.  Oh, not the Mayflower, but the boat that came after that.  What did your ancestors come over on, Godfrey?”  He replies, “As far as I know, they’ve always been here.”  Her dated but amusing reply was “They weren’t Indians, I hope.”  Godfrey patiently says, “One can never be sure of one’s ancestors.”  To which Angelica quips, “You know, you have rather high cheekbones…”  No, I suppose the joke doesn’t age well, but that was fair humor at the time, and Brady delivered the line with the perfect amount of suspicion.  Well done, Alice.

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Here we are with another excellent addition to the franchise.  This one is most memorable for its great villain, Dolores Umbridge, played by Imelda Staunton.  She did such a fantastic job.  You just end up hating her so much, which just goes to show you how good an actress she is!  I mean, Voldemort is a great bad guy, but he is a fantasy.  He is evil for evil’s sake, and on the surface, there’s very little depth to him.  But Umbridge is a more realistic, more familiar evil.  She is just a cruel woman who justifies her despicable behavior behind a mask of self-righteous civility and extreme conservative beliefs.  But of course, Helena Bonham Carter was great as Bellatrix Lestrange.  She was so delightfully crazy!

So here in this fifth film in the franchise, the three leads have already proven themselves to be great actors.  They seem to be inhabiting their characters, a skill that comes with experience.  And I have to give special props to Radcliff, in particular.  He was wonderful.  He just keeps getting better and better in each film of the franchise.  He was perfect in the more intimate moments with his Godfather.  The great conversation in Serius’ home about whether Harry is a good person or not was beautifully acted.

And I liked the film is noticeably darker than the first four films, which is as it should be.  The story itself is getting darker.  I’d say that at this point, the franchise is no longer geared to a younger audience.  Especially after the graphic blood magic and killing curses used in the climactic scene of the previous movie, the target audience is decidedly more mature, a demographic that can handle the emotional depth of the story.  It still has its whimsy, but things are getting incredibly serious, and I love it!

So let’s talk about Umbridge in a little more detail.  One of the best little scenes in the movie is the horrific scene where Harry is in her office, writing lines with her special quill.  Imelda Staunton was truly terrifying as she says, “… you know, deep down, you deserve to be punished.”  Oh my God!  As if to say, “You should be thanking me for torturing you like this, because you know that is the right thing to do.  After what you did, you should want this self-mutilation.”  Holy moly, that’s sick!  And we’ve all had that teacher that takes just a little too much pleasure in punishing children.

And I have to comment on the exciting scene where the death eaters and the The Order of the Phoenix are dueling!  It was fast-paced, chaotic, and frightening, like a thrill ride at an amusement park!  But then, in the next scene, when Dumbledore and Voldemort are fighting, it was a true wizard’s duel done right.  There were magical spells, fancy flourishes, attacks, defenses, and amazing visuals!  It is what combat between two powerful magical duelists should look like. 

OK, here’s the bad stuff, rapid-fire style.  In the beginning, If Harry brought home Dudley in a near catatonic state, why would Vernon ask him, “Who did this to you, boy?”  And why would they have a squib, Mrs. Fig, watch over Harry if she can’t do anything to defend him from magical threats.  Why does Dumbledore try to protect Harry by keeping him ignorant?  Keeping someone in the dark is never a good way to keep them safe.  When Snape is instructed to teach Harry occlumency, he never gives Harry a single word of instruction on HOW to keep Voldemort out of his mind.  The CGI on Grawp was terrible.  Why would Umbridge follow Harry and his friends into the forest ALONE?   And if the Death Eaters are all evil, why aren’t they using the killing curse a lot more? 

All in all, it was another great adaptation, another impressive installment of the franchise.  The movies just keep getting better and better.  It’s why I can keep watching them over and over again without losing interest.  And that is the mark of good filmmaking.

Top 10 Favorite Parts

1. The Order of the Phoenix meeting in Serius’s kitchen, and Serius winking at Harry.
2. Umbridge’s opening address to the Hogwarts students.
3. Harry’s detention in Umbridge’s office.  Staunton was SO good in that scene!!
4. The initial meeting of Dumbledore’s Army.
5. The montage where Harry is teaching his fellow students.
6. Harry seeing into Snape’s past, and finding that his father was a bully.
7. Dumbledore’s exit from the school with his phoenix.
8. The Weasley twins’ exit from the school and their fireworks.
9. The battle in the Department of Mysteries
10. The wizard’s duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort.