Michael Ballhaus – Cut To The Chase

Written & Directed By: Irwin Winkler
Cinematography: Michael Ballhaus
Editor: Priscilla Nedd

Cast: Robert DeNiro, Annette Benning, Patricia Wettig, Chris Cooper, George Wendt, Adam Baldwin, Tom Sizemore, Martin Scorsese, Barry Primus, Sam Wanamaker, Luke Edwards, Ben Piazza, Stuart Margolin, Roxann Biggs, Allan Rich, Illenana Douglas, Stephen Root, Jon Tenney, Jonathan Ames

David Merrill, a successful director, has spent the last couple of years working on movies overseas. He returns right in the middle of the McCarthy-era Communist witch-hunt that was sweeping through Hollywood. When first approached by the ‘inquisitors’ he rebuffs them, not realizing how much influence they have. He soon finds that he can’t get work, having been blacklisted for failing to cooperate. However, if he will just tell them what they want to know, he can go back to work.

This might be a career-best for director Irwin Winkler. This Is obviously an in-house passion project for Robert DeNiro and his production company bringing in friends to help make and be in the movie (Martin Scorsese and Barry Primus) it offers Scorsese one of his very few acting roles.

The film dramatizes the Hollywood blacklist from a deeply personal level of the characters who were not only involved but destroyed by it and the different ways and levels the government was going after them.

The destruction of the blacklist even though it was truly ultimately a witch hunt that didn’t truly amount to much except for the lives it destroyed and upped the standing of certain politicians. Maybe even allowed the government to punish the stars and studios for having more of a moral code.

The film comes across as an artifact, seeing so many well-known actors of today who play smaller supporting roles.

This ends up being like a ROCKY movie in the way the House of unAmerican Activities keeps stalking Deniro’s character and questioning any of his employers or anyone he associates with. So you anticipate once he finally is in front of the committee.

We see how it destroys his career and his friends around him. As they either are willing to betray, sell out, or drop out ultimately. For something many didn’t even take seriously in their past. Some even used it as leverage for revenge against others who they feel wronged them.

The film is a drama that at times works more like a thriller. As it is just as chilling as it happened in real life. It’s scary and no physical weapons are used just hints and accusations.

It hit home with me as with so many characters who thought Deniro’s character would be a team player. He cares more about movies particularly his than anything or anyone around him. Even though most people in his life seem to like him and be in the business.

The FBI agents following him seem like the agents in THE MATRIX emotionless and remind the audience of Deniro’s roles in crime pictures as they seem to relentlessly stalk him just trying to find any little thing to nail him or put him away. It offers DeNiro one of his most affable roles.

The character of Bert Alan, a producer played by Barry Primus seems out of place as he seems more like a 1980s mobster in 1950’s Hollywood.

Watching how an old female ingenue discovery goes from seduction to scared to disgusted. Before trying to finally bribe him to go away. Shows how powerful and scary the blacklist was in its heyday

The film tries to be an epic on the subject from the point of view of a victim’s point of view but not An overview.

This also brings one back to a time and place when movies looked like they might have been prestige but were also made due to the lead actor’s strength and popularity as an actor. Guaranteeing that there will be an audience for the film. Not so much based on popularity it metrics of money-making.

Really a power move trying to spank those who are more successful and who they feel have more influence. Feeling like they are putting them in their place and saving the American people from the influence of the powerful they actually believe to be anti-government. Like they wouldn’t be after being persecuted for nothing really. The betrayal of friends begging him to let them inform on him to save their own skins by naming someone.

In the end, it still leaves time for a powerful speech. This is my kind of history movie.

GRADE: B

Written & Directed By: John Sayles
Based on a Story by: Amy Robinson
Cinematography: Michael Ballhaus
Editor: Sonya Polonsky

Cast: Rosanna Arquette, Vincent Spano, Matthew Modine, Sam McMurray, Tracy Pollan, Frank Vincent, Robert Downey Jr., Caroline Aaron, Fisher Stevens, Joanna Merlin

In a 1966 New Jersey high school, Jill and new student Sheik from the other side of the tracks make their way into a first love romance.

A romantic epic. That is well-traveled.

a perfect representation of first love as it spans across the early years of your development from your teens to slowly becoming an adult. Though it only covers a few years. It feels like a love story across decades. Though at least It isn’t presented as instant more than organic.

Almost like a kitchen sink drama mixed with a young adult novel.

This is a film that seems like it’s Going to be slight or more melodramatic but ends up being actually deep and partly devastating.

Neither of the two main characters played by Vincent Spano and Rosanna Arquette. Are perfect. As they both have their strengths, weaknesses, and flaws. Yet you find yourself pulling for them.

Rosanna Arquette’s Character is annoying quite a few times and Vincent Spano gives a performance that has tinges of tragedy. As he seems to have a stubbornness about him that can be seen as confidence yet also expects too much. As you know he’s a dreamer you find yourself rooting for him.

The film smartly involved petty betrayal and seduction and finding yourself even once they are split then finally resuming their relationship. They still need each other as they are stranded and the only people who seem to understand each other. As we don’t see them when they are sorted only when together or on the verge. So we get to see a kind of greatest-hits version of their lives

The power shifts between them become fascinating. As we watch as the relationship becomes all about growth and maturity as well as how it comes apart and goes back to childlike immaturity.

It’s one of the few times Matthew Modine has been sued in the right way. He seems to be good at playing yuppie upper-class men. It’s Fun spotting a bunch of character actors in early small roles.

It’s a film that is almost kind of like PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED. Only it’s not from the future looking back and getting another chance to correct past mistakes

Here the story is told mostly as a doomed love story between two characters where we follow their ups and downs from high school to adulthood and always manage to find their way back to each other. Even when in different romances and away from one another

It also shows how in this oboe Sorry there is the fantasy and romantic early days to the rough parts and the truly hard parts towards the end and after where reality truly steps in

Just as the characters’ hopes and dreams for their futures are attempted but also must be checked at certain times by a harsh reality and circumstances they set themselves up for

Coming from writer-director John Sayles you expect more of a humanist point of view and presentation. That isn’t too sensationalistic or aimed at any particular genre. This is also one of his films that stays with you like BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET, LONE STAR, and CITY OF HOPE. They are inventive and have a bunch of great ideas.

He is a director I admire as an independent filmmaker who usually has excellent character studies like this one. I admire that he started out writing B-Movie scripts PIRANHA, and ALLIGATOR. Who makes a living primarily by being. A professional rewriter, using that money to help fund his own productions and help other independent filmmakers.

Amazed at how the filmmakers got such a great soundtrack.

Grade: A-

Tag: Michael Ballhaus

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