SHORT TAKES
SLEEPER (United Artist):: Since Woody Allen & the last funny person on Earth, and since Sleeper is the first funny movie since his last one, if it was only worth seeing once, you’d be hard up for a chuckle. And I can’t repeat the jokes, which is lucky for you, since you’d have a good time ruined if I told them, but also because most of them are not that memorable.
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SHORT TAKES
ADMIT ONE
SLEEPER (United Artist):: Since Woody Allen & the last funny person on Earth, and since Sleeper is the first funny movie since his last one, if it was only worth seeing once, you’d be hard up for a chuckle. And I can’t repeat the jokes, which is lucky for you, since you’d have a good time ruined if I told them, but also because most of them are not that memorable. It’s like trying to remember all the moves Chaplin made in the factory in Modem Times. Even if you did, it wouldn’t be the same; I’m not Woody Allen, you’re not Chaplin, humor isn’t in the joke but in the telling of it. Somewhere, there’s someone who can make chickens crossing highways a humorous experience, perhaps. I’d stake my money that if there is, though, it is Allen.
Also, Diane Keaton is the best thing to happen to actresses since Lauren Bacall puckered up and blew.
Dave Marsh
DON’T LOOK NOW (Paramount):: Don’t Look Now is one of those rate films where what happens during the course of the film isn’t as impressive or important as the WAY it happens. The plot (essentially that of a thin thriller) concerns a young couple’s attempt to piece their lives together after the death of their child. Vacationing in Venice, they encounter psychic phenomena and portentions of unknown danger to come. Director Nicholas Roeg brings this average melodrama soaring to new heights in phantasmagoria using bizarre, gothic imagery and hallucinatory camerawork. In spite of fine performances by Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, the real star of Don’t Look Now is the imaginative directorial style of Roeg.
naha
THE STING (Universal):; Newman and Redford, together on the screen for the second time, and I hope it will be the last so I don’t have to start disclaiming Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as the first of a long string of stings. This one sure is. Clap! Opening scene, Robert the junior con artist pulling off a job, very cute. Snap! Next scene, Rob schemes up a huge con with Paul the senior artist, now retired and. running a merrygoround. Schlep! The two become friends, or so it’s told, but they don’t convince me. Schlock! The story goes on, no feeling, not much characterization, not even many laughs. I used to go see any Paul Newman movie, even Torn Curtain or A New Kind of Love. When I grew up I stopped doing that and now I go see every Robert Redford movie, but I’ll probably stop doing that too. I’d rather see Mick Jagger and James Fox team up again; at least their connection.
Georgia Christgau
FANTASTIC PLANET (New World 73):: Ushered in by producer Roger Corman, Fantastic Planet is an animated, space-age Gulliver tale that should interest both old and young movie buffs. Directed by Rene Laloux, this super strange cartoon traces the adventures of the tiny Oms (humans) in their attempted revolt against their owners, the 39 foot androids, called Drags (as in “Kind of a” etc.). Led by Ter, the former pet of the Draag Prime Minister’s daughter, the tiny terrors band together in Lilliputian larceny and turn the tables on their big brothers, Once the war between the ultra tall and the super small is resolved, the planet Terra is established for the Oms to cultivate. What were you saying about Darwin? ^
naha
