Video Store Rental Reviews #7: Johnny Guitar (1954), Bad Times at the El Royale (2018), Point Break (2015)
DVD reviews in the year 2024.
Netflix holds roughly 6,500 titles.
Max and Peacock are about the same.
Hulu has a bit more, at just over 7,000.
My local video store has over 31,000 distinct titles that don’t disappear at the end of every month.
Here are reviews for three of them:
Johnny Guitar (1954)
On the outskirts of town, the hard-nosed Vienna owns a saloon frequented by the undesirables of the region, including Dancin’ Kid and his gang. Another patron of Vienna’s establishment is Johnny Guitar, a former gunslinger and her lover. When a heist is pulled in town that results in a man’s death, Emma Small, Vienna’s rival, rallies the townsfolk to take revenge on Vienna’s saloon – even without proof of her wrongdoing.
section: Nicholas Ray
There simply aren't many westerns that pre-dominantly follow two female characters. Defend the genre (as a whole, obviously) as much as you want (and I can), but feminism (as well as racism) doesn't often come out clean. Sure, there are exceptions to any rule, and Johnny Guitar is one of them. But even the title is problematic. It's a great title, but the movie isn't about Johnny Guitar. It's about the women. It's like how Shakespeare's play Cymbeline is named after the King Cymbeline and not the obvious main character, his daughter Imogen, simply because he's the old white guy character.
Joan Crawford plays Vienna, the owner of a saloon on the outskirts of the local town. Being in the business of ill repute, she attracts the town's unsavories and delinquents. The townsfolk, led by Mercedes McCambridge as Emma, don't take too kindly to her or her customers, so they mob up to chase them out of town. At first, you're on their side. Vienna and her saloon full of gamblin' and drinkin' bankrobbers and gunmen don't seem like a group I'd want to associate with either. Plus, she's Joan Crawford, so she's scary. But when you learn more about Emma and her motivations, largely retaliation for love lost (and yes, the sexual undertones are aplenty), the tables turn when you realize Vienna's being unfairly vilified.
With bonus shades of McCarthyism, the female-driven plot is welcome in the western genre. In his iconic Cult Movies book, Danny Peary writes, "The film's title suggests that Johnny is the main character, but in truth it is Vienna who makes all the decisions, initiates the action, and takes the majority of the heroic stands - privileges traditionally denied women in westerns. Johnny follows his boss Vienna's lead, just as the male posse follows Emma." And while plenty has been said of Joan Crawford in this film (largely because she's, well, Joan Crawford), Mercedes McCambridge steals the show. She threatens Vienna with a direct and clear, "I'm going to kill you."
"I know," she responds. "If I don't kill you first."
Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
Lake Tahoe, 1969. Seven strangers, each one with a secret to bury, meet at El Royale, a decadent motel with a dark past. In the course of a fateful night, everyone will have one last shot at redemption.
section: thriller
This is one of those put a bunch of people in a claustrophobic setting, give them all a secret, and let them yap kinda movies. Writer/director Drew Goddard has a ton of ideas (141 minutes worth) and although he still can't get to them all, he's got an ensemble willing and able to flesh it out for him. Also, I'm a sucker for great gimme casting, where everyone just does the thing they already do well.
Jeff Bridges, on the surface, is a kindly priest and that's the persona he's aged into - the old-timer you trust as soon as he flashes that smirk. It's the same kind of thing he's doing in The Giver. He's good at it.
I haven't yet been convinced by Cynthia Erivo the film actress, but Cynthia Erivo the singer is an absolute powerhouse. Luckily for us, Goddard finds the opportunity for her to sing some '60 Motown ballads.
Dakota Johnson...Dakota Johnson...Dakota Johnson...I just can't figure her out. Is she truly an apathetic nepo baby...or does she play the apathetic nepo baby really well? Cha Cha Real Smooth and The Peanut Butter Falcon are so convincing, but I just...
Jon Hamm hams it up. He puts on a tie and plaid jacket, sips on a beverage, and talks and talks and talks. Why would you cast anybody else?
Cailee Spaeny and Lewis Pullman aren't quite there yet in 2018, but after Priscilla and Civil War, I'll watch Cailee in anything for the rest of her career. And if The Line is any indication of what Lewis can do, he isn't far behind her.
Finally, Chris Hemsworth is prepping the character he would perfect in Furiosa.
If I had seen this in 2018, without the context of these actors and their performances since, I don't think I'd have as much fun with it. In 2024, I got a bunch of people I like doing a silly little mystery. Fun!
Point Break (2015)
A young undercover FBI agent infiltrates a gang of thieves who share a common interest in extreme sports.
section: action
The original 1991 Point Break is a great freaking movie. I saw it at a repertory screening recently and, while I loved seeing it on the big screen, I got pretty annoyed by the ironic laughter from the crowd - apparently, this has become an epidemic at rep cinemas everywhere. But I'm not really sure what's so funny about Point Break. Sure, it's got Keanu playing Keanu and it takes surfing seriously and features Gary Busey barking lines like, "I'm so hungry I could eat the ass end out of a dead rhino," but that's what makes the movie awesome. Director Kathryn Bigelow nails the silly/serious tightrope walk, I've written before about how much I love the movie's bank robbery elements, and I'm not sure how men circa 1983-1995 went to sleep every night knowing they wouldn’t wake up and be Patrick Swayze.
The remake stood up against an impossible task. The thought: Bigger is better. Swayze's character loves a good thrill, right? A little danger? Big ass waves and screwing around during skydiving? So let's crank that up to 11! X-treme! Surfing and skydiving? Let's throw in rock climbing, snowboarding, and mountain biking, bro!
And they don't miss their target. The action is aggressive and impressive. It's death-defying. It's ballsy. It's definitely x-treme. But it is not, in absolutely any way whatsoever, Point Break. The charm, the personality, the silliness. As much as I may hate the all-knowing sarcastic laughter at the rep screening, at least there's some reason for it. There's character!
I feel bad that they even had to call this Point Break. It will never be a great movie, but it could have at least been better than a Point Break remake.
Credit: Each plot synopsis from Letterboxd via TMDb.