5 Favorite Ed Harris Characters

Edward Allen Harris - November 28, 1950

The great actor Ed Harris celebrates his 69th birthday today and what better way to celebrate it (and use this occasion as an excuse) than to post my five favorite characters that the man has played in his 40-year career. I was aware of the man's work growing up and HBO airing many of his films like Apollo 13, The Rock and Milk Money but Harris has had steady work in the film industry for years and in 2018 I decided to seek out many of his films I was unfamiliar with thanks to randomly stumbling into Cinematic Corner and a friend I've found on twitter who we'll just call Paul it was quite easy to track down many films in Harris' filmography particularly the ones they highly recommend. His first lead role was in George A. Romero's Knightriders in 1981, two years later he got his big break in a big budget film in 1983's The Right Stuff playing astronaut John Glenn and since then Harris has proved time and time again why he deserves his place in American cinema with performances in Sweet Dreams, The Abyss, Glengarry Glen Ross, Apollo 13, The Rock, The Truman Show, Pollock and The Hours, four of which earned him Academy Award nominations among his impeccable filmography and perhaps also proving that he deserves to be in better roles than the ones he has been given lately. This list will only contain his fictional characters so his roles in The Right Stuff, Apollo 13 etc. won't be included on this list.

Filipino Palette: Insiang (Spoilers!)

'No one can help me but myself.'

I think now is the time to start talking more about Philippine cinema and those who contributed to it. These days, Philippine cinema mainly consists of comedy, and sometimes even rehashed plots from other dramas but has slowly and fortunately made way for original filmmakers to make films worth talking about. This is going to be my first entry in a new series called Filipino Palette where I will be talking about films made locally and my first entry is going to be about 1976's Insiang which was the first Filipino film shown at the Cannes Film Festival and directed by the late Lino Brocka starring Hilda Koronel, Mona Lisa, Rez Cortez, Marlon Ramirez, Ruel Vernal and Nina Lorenzo. Insiang (Hilda Koronel) is a young woman living in the slums of Tondo, Manila with her mother Tonya (Mona Lisa), outside their small shack she is seen as the object of attention to men, and catches the unwanted attention of her mother's much younger boyfriend Dado (Ruel Vernal), a butcher and the alpha male of the slums who charms his way into her and her mother's life. Insiang feels lonely despite being surrounded by people everyday but she has allies in her best friend Ludy (Nina Lorenzo), who runs a sari-sari store in the slums with her family, Insiang's aimless boyfriend Bebot (Rez Cortez) a mechanic and gambler and Nanding (Marlon Ramirez), Ludy's younger brother who admires her from afar but all are powerless against Dado's hold on the slums and Insiang.

Western Wednesday: True Grit (1969)

'Fill your hands you son of a bitch!'

True Grit is one of my favorite western stories ever told and although I loved the Coen Brothers 2010 remake and having never read the book by Charles Portis it left an everlasting impression on me. This version stars John Wayne, Kim Darby, Glen Campbell as our unlikely trio, directed by Henry Hathaway and produced by Hal B. Wallis. Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) arrives at Fort Smith to take her father's body back home to Yell County but ends up staying to settle her father's affairs, and sets out to find the man who killed him she hires the unorthodox U.S. Marshal Reuben 'Rooster' Cogburn (John Wayne), but the presence of the Texas Ranger La Boeuf (Glen Campbell) who is also in search of her father's killer Tom Chaney (Jeff Corey), for committing a different crime complicates things. Cogburn and La Boeuf plan to ditch Mattie but she catches up and is permitted to ride along. Together the unlikely trio goes deep into Native-American territory to find Chaney and Ned Pepper (Robert Duvall) and his gang.

Review: Joker

There is no punchline. 

I can't recall another film that's received a lot of heat before it came out due to the main character being a very popular villain in pop culture like the Joker.  I have no doubts that once the audiences see it over the weekend it'll get everyone talking about it especially those like me who were reserving their judgement until the film came out. Media outlets have already given out warnings that the film is dangerous and might influence certain groups of people to start mass shootings. To be frank, the talk around the film since before it came out made me feel like I've already seen it because of all the controversy surrounding it. People's fears are justifiable but one can't help but feel that this applies more to American audiences because of their history in mass shootings. Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Douglas Hodges and Dante Periera-Olson and directed by Todd Phillips. A failed stand-up comedian Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) walks the streets of Gotham City looking for connection, bullied and rejected Fleck slowly descends into madness and murder which ushers in his ascension as Gotham's Clown Prince of Crime.

Top 5 Anticipated Films Coming Out in Late-2019

We're finally in the second half of 2019 and as disappointed as I am at the films that came out this year at least we have a few anticipated films coming out soon. So far in the first half of 2019 we've been subjected to highlights of the year such as Avengers: Endgame but later this year is where the ball really gets rolling as well as the variety of films that's about to come out soon. I've been looking forward to some of these anticipated films for a very long time, and also some have gone under the radar but became part of my list.

Midnight Special: Sunset Boulevard

'I am BIG; it's the pictures that got small.'

Sunset Boulevard marks my first venture into Billy Wilder's work since I've heard from many film fans of his reputation. The film also written by Wilder had players like Gloria Swanson, William Holden and Erich von Stroheim. It tells the story of an aging film star of the silent era; Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) who forms an uneasy relationship with a desperate screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden), Desmond is looking to make a comeback in the film industry and asks Gillis to re-write the script of her comeback feature. Gillis, desperate for money and a break reluctantly accepts and soon becomes Desmond's confidant and kept man but when he starts seeing one of Paramount's readers she becomes jealous and paranoid. Erich von Stroheim plays Desmond's former husband Max von Mayerling who returned to her to become her butler who still sends her fan letters to make her believe she still has fans. This was very well-made for a film of it's time, and I put it up there with In A Lonely Place as one of those films where the studio took a chance on making a film that doesn't sugar coat the flaws of its characters or their actions. This is easily one of older Hollywood films that have made it's way to my top 100 films of all time.

Review: Parasite

A comedy of errors you say?

It's been a long time since we've had a film as well crafted, engaging, darkly hilarious and meticulous as Parasite directed by Bong Joon-ho and even won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival. The film tells the story of the Kim family who's misfortunes take a sudden turn for the better when a friend of family's son Min (Park Seo-joon) pays the family an unannounced visit and gifts them a large rock that is said to grant material wealth to families before breaking the news to his friend Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) that he will be studying abroad and suggest that Ki-woo take over his job as an English tutor to the daughter of the wealthy Park family. Ki-woo reluctantly accepts despite not having studied at university, he forges his academic records before arriving at the Park residence for the interview. When Mrs. Park (Cho Yeo-jung) says she doesn't need any documents since Ki-woo was already recommended by Min in the first place she asks to observe he's teaching style while she observes. On his way out of the house and approved as her daughter Da-hye's (Jung Ji-so) new tutor she shows Ki-woo a painting by her young son Da-song (Jung Hyun-joon), it turns out that Mrs. Park is also in search of an art tutor for Da-song and Ki-woo tells her that he knows of an art tutor 'Jessica' who was a classmate of his cousin and can get children into good art schools. The next day, 'Jessica' arrives in the form of Ki-jung (Park So-dam), Ki-woo's sister. Soon, the Kims hatch a plan to get the other members of the household staff fired and replacing them with their parents.

Review: Midsommar

Dani! May Queen!

Midsommar is the latest film by director Ari Aster who gained everyone's attention in 2017's Hereditary and produced once again by A24. The film tells the story of a young American couple who are on the brink of a break-up but remains together when Dani (Florence Pugh) suffers the loss of her parents and her sister's suicide. Christian (Jack Reynor), Dani's boyfriend and anthropology student decides to go on a trip to Sweden with his friends Pelle (Vilhelm Blomgren), Josh (William Jackson Harper) and Mark (Will Poulter) where Pelle's small commune is about to hold their once-in-a-lifetime fabled mid-summer festival. The idyllic summer getaway takes a turn for the worse when the festival increasingly becomes violent and disturbing. Whenever we speak of horror we immediately think of supernatural forces attacking us from the outside like Hereditary which Aster says is absolutely a horror but in the Midsommar trailers we are led to believe that the terror lies within the Hårga cult that lives in the rural Swedish village but once we view the film, the real horror is Dani and Christian's relationship. Dani often worries herself about what Christian thinks or that's she's leaning too much on him when he never really showed any vulnerability in their relationship, predictably it's Dani who apologizes to her boyfriend for the most part while Christian uses their relationship as an excuse as to why he doesn't have his anthropology thesis set in stone.

Western Wednesday: Sweetwater

Originally titled 'Sheriff  Jackson'.

Sweetwater may feel like a senseless, pointless movie for many film fans but it's a refreshing western due to the main characters and the actors playing them. The film starring January Jones, Ed Harris and Jason Isaacs was directed by Logan Miller and Noah Miller (who went uncredited). Sweetwater tells the story of three different characters in Sarah a former prostitute who is now married to Miguel (Eduardo Noriega) and runs a farm with him while trying to live a normal life, there's Cornelius Jackson a lawman in search of two men, brothers who went missing, and then there's Prophet Josiah the sadistic leader or a religious sect. The three later collide in a blood triangle in the rugged plains of New Mexico. The film was based on a story by Andrew McKenzie and was sent to the Millers via their Touching Home DVD distributor and were later hired to re-write the script. Sweetwater, originally titled Sheriff Jackson has the makings of a cult classic and even though the film might be dodgy at times for some viewers due to its tone, it's nonetheless entertaining and worth watching for anyone who's a fan of westerns that are under the radar. That being said it's not a perfect film by any means, but the Miller twins are capable filmmakers in their own right and also appear uncredited as the two missing brothers.

Review: Ad Astra

I'm pretty sure 20th Century Fox could come up with a better poster.

Ad Astra is the latest space drama to hit the big screens this year. Directed by James Gray starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and Liv Tyler while also produced by Brad Pitt and his own production company Plan B. In the near future, a devastating power surge strikes the Solar System, threatening all human life. After surviving an incident caused by what the public now calls 'The Surge' Maj. Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is informed of the situation and that the source that caused the surges have been traced back to the Lima Project base. Roy is the son of famed pioneering astronaut Dr. H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), head of the Lima Project who was tasked twenty-six years prior with finding intelligent life form in the outer reaches of space and who's disappeared along with the members of the Lima Project sixteen years into the mission. Roy is told that his father may still be alive and is tasked with a mission to travel to Mars and to try and establish communication with him. Unsure of what to do when he finally faces his father, Roy  accepts the mission and is briefly accompanied by his father’s old colleague Col. Pruitt (Donald Sutherland).

Western Wednesday: Death Rides a Horse

Death Rides a Horse was among the westerns I've been looking forward to watch for quite some time now, it was directed by Giulio Petroni and starred western icon Lee Van Cleef and John Philip Law. The film tells the story of a young man who's family got murdered by a gang of outlaws on a rainy night fifteen years ago. Now an adult, Bill (John Philip Law) seeks to take vengeance on the men who killed them and cross paths with an outlaw named Ryan (Lee Van Cleef) who's just gotten out of jail after fifteen years of incarceration.

Review: Paradise PD (Season 1)

Paradise PD is a new animated series on Netflix, set in the fictional city of Paradise and focuses on it's police department which doesn't have the manpower to stop crime. The first season concentrates on Kevin, a young man who looks up to his policeman father Randall who understandably hates him for shooting off both his testicles when he was younger, Kevin always dreamed of becoming a cop and applies to become one and because of the lack of personnel his father reluctantly accepts his application. Kevin then begins a long investigation on the drug king pin who is distributing 'argyle meth' which doesn't get it's own resolution until the 10th and final episode, and even so it even gives us something to look forward to.

Western Wednesday: Warlock (Spoilers)

Warlock was directed by Edward Dmytryk and starred Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda Anthony Quinn and Deforest Kelley. First I have to say that I've heard of this film often mentioned while I was searching for westerns to watch earlier in the year and finally decided to sit down and watch the film on a Sunday afternoon.

Review: Ready or Not

Ready or Not is probably one of the most fun and entertaining gore films I've ever seen, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and starring Samara Weaving, Adam Brody and Andie McDowell. It tells the story of Grace (Samara Weaving), a woman who marries Alex (Mark O'Brien) and becomes the latest addition to the rich Le Domas family who made their fortune out of board/card games, but before she officially becomes part of the family she must participate in their tradition of playing a game at midnight. Tony (Henry Czerny), the patriarch of the family tells the story of their great-grandfather Victor Le Domas who made a deal with a Mr. Le Bail (who is like the devil figure in the story), who promises to help create fortune for the family if Victor establishes the tradition. Grace draws a 'hide and seek' card and believes for the game to be harmless, the family (minus Alex) then arm themselves with weapons and firearms to hunt her down within the house.

Review: Call Me By Your Name

Call Me By Your Name is based on a book of the same name by André Aciman and was directed by Luca Guadagnino starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer. Set in 1983 in Northern Italy, it tells the story of 17-year old Elio Perlman who is on summer holiday with his family when they take in a doctorate student, Oliver who is working as an intern for his father.

Midnight Special: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Welcome to my first entry to a series of posts I call Midnight Special, this series will be exclusively reserved for films that I recommend viewing during midnight and they will likely be films that are shot in black and white. I have come across this film many times but never really thought to actually go and see it for myself but it wasn't until I was casually obsessing over its composer Bernard Hermann when I finally pushed myself to sit down and watch and I was so happy that I did!