Mish Mash 26 (All the Right Moves, Attica, Miracle Mile, Say Anything)

All the Right Moves

High school and football, a classic combo.  The thing that sets this one apart is the gray area that each character winds up in.  Tom Cruise (Legend) isn’t the star of the team but he’s first string and is devoted to putting in the hard work to win.  When his squad suffers a particularly devastating loss the coach (Craig T. Nelson (Action Jackson)) brutally berates one of his players prompting Cruise to step in and defend his teammate while also hurling some insults.  The coach immediately kicks Cruise off the team.  Oh shit!  Now he can’t get a football scholarship and go to college.  He’s doomed to spend the rest of his life in a small western PA mill town.

The movie doesn’t hold your hand (for the most part) in telling you who’s right and who’s wrong or what degrees may exist in between.  You can understand the justifications for each character’s actions but at the same time you can also see how they might not be totally right either.  Cruise sticks up for his teammate but maybe he takes it too far by calling the coach out on his bullshit and dumping trash on his lawn.  And even though the coach may have been too hard on his players after such a crushing defeat he can’t have his guys run roughshod over him.  However, what the coach fails to realize is he’s holding the future of some teenagers in his hands.  They’re kids that he knows and works with every day yet respect and honor are real things that can’t be ignored when shit gets real emotional.  I dunno, maybe I took this thing deeper than the film intended.

Unfortunately in the end the film does pick a side instead of leaving it up to you to decide where these folks land on your moral compass.  But for ninety five percent of it there’s plenty to think about here and I appreciate that.

 

Attica

The prison riot at Attica I think is one of those things most people know of but don’t really know much about.  This excellent documentary goes through the conditions the prisoners were rebelling against, the mindset of all people involved including, crucially, the families of the hostages, the tense, negotiations and the horrible ending to the whole fiasco.

It was a heartbreaking incident that never should’ve happened because the prisoners shouldn’t have been treated so horribly to begin with.  All freedoms have already been taken away from them for whatever crime they committed so why subject them to further torture through beatings, detestable food, overuse of solitary confinement, etc.

It’s an illuminating film that’s edited very well.  They make sure to highlight that while the inmates’ grievances were legitimate they were also hurting others to get their point across so there’s some balance there.  It’s a heavy watch but I would definitely recommend this one.

 

Miracle Mile

Is cute a weird word to describe a nuclear holocaust movie?  I mean it’s unnerving at times, especially towards the end with people panicking and LA going to shit, but the protagonist we follow through the ordeal is kinda silly.  Harry (Anthony Edwards (Pet Sematary II)) is a self described Glenn Miller impersonator who wears the same round glasses, a bright blue suit and plays the trombone.  One night he picks up a ringing payphone with the person on the other end screaming that the nukes were set off before gunshots blast away and a different voice picks up eerily telling him to “go back to sleep”.  Harry believes what he heard and tells the first people he sees.  This snowballs with word spreading like a virus causing the entire goddamn world to lose its mind.

While the characters are likeable enough it’s the fever dream approach that makes the movie in my opinion.  The whole time you don’t know if Tinseltown will actually be obliterated momentarily or if it’s all mass hysteria and that filters everything you see.  Maybe the madness is over nothing.  But what if it isn’t?

Once Harry receives the call the rest of the film takes place in real time more of less with a greater number of folks thinking they only have under an hour left to live.  Crazy situations ensue, special bonds are formed and felonies are definitely committed.  Harry’s sole mission is to get out of the city with the woman he fell in love with the day before (Mare Winningham (Tuner & Hooch)) and his devotion is touching (even though it drives him to make questionable decisions).

 

Say Anything

What the fuck is up with the bizarro B plot involving an IRS investigation?  There were certain things I expected out of this picture and half the movie delivered on exactly that.  Teen romance?  Yes.  Dramedy?  Yes.  Tensions between parent and child over who they’re dating?  Yes.  80’s as hell?  Oh yes.  All that stuff is handled well enough with plenty of poignant and funny moments to go around.  The leads are actually pretty damn affable too making most of the film enjoyable to watch.

But then the IRS come knocking creating a ridiculous distraction that pops up every now and again.  It’s not that the girlfriend’s father (John Mahoney (Tin Men)) didn’t pay his taxes, it’s that they think he’s committing major fraud.  This is serious man.  He’s weathering a huge shitstorm while his daughter and her goofy fuckin’ boyfriend figure out their lives and carry on an adorable relationship post high school.

"You're under criminal investigation
for the tax years 1982-1986"

Even the most famous part where John Cusack (Love & Mercy) holds a boom box over his head pumping “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel doesn’t go down like I thought it would.  All these years I was led to believe that he’s outside his ex-girlfriend’s (Ione Skye (River’s Edge)) window yearning for her to notice him and give him another chance.  But that’s not what happens in the movie at all.  Instead he’s in a park playing the music for no one nowhere near his ex who’s tossing and turning in bed.  I don’t really get why this scene became so ingrained in pop culture then.  The situation is a lot sadder and depressing than how I think everyone remembers it.

Weird fuckin’ film guys.