Video Store Rental Reviews #9: One from the Heart (1982), Thieves Like Us (1974), The Lost Boys (1987)
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 36,000 distinct titles that don’t disappear at the end of every month.
Here are reviews for three of them:
One from the Heart (1982)
The five-year romance of a window dresser and her boyfriend breaks up, as each of them finds a more interesting partner.
section: Francis Ford Coppola
I still haven't seen Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola's latest reckless epic and the film that will very likely be his swan song. I know that I should've seen it on the big screen, but I didn't and now I'll never know what it was like to watch that guy walk up to the screen and talk to Adam Driver in a slightly off-cue back-and-forth like the first ride at Jurassic Park. I'll make sure to catch it before we make our Best of 2024 lists, even though I'm almost certain it won't make the cut.
I did, however, rush to the video store to track down One from the Heart, the second of Coppola's reckless spending sprees disguised as cinema, when Teri Garr passed away a few weeks ago. Just a few days prior, I had seen a revival screening of Young Frankenstein, a movie filled with very funny people and one where she nearly steals the show from all of them. I wanted to see more of her movies and these two thoughts in my brain collided to find One from the Heart. Not only did they have it available to rent, but they had the Region B-import 4k release, which boasts four discs and Coppola's "Reprise Cut," a new version that contains six minutes of previously unseen footage. That was a must-skip for me, and I've never wanted a Coppola movie to be longer and never trusted him to do so (here's my review of his 2020 Godfather Part III recut), even if it was only six minutes.
So I watched the original 1982 cut, which runs 104 minutes and looks fantastic on 4K. A commercial and critic bomb, I can definitely see why it didn't play well at the time while still enjoying a few things about it. Garr is fantastic and her chemistry with Raul Julia is sincere. Anyone who knows me and my taste knows I love backlots and soundstages and Coppola gives us plenty of both, though I'm not really sure it works thematically. It plays best, of course, when the central romance turns into a dazzlingly intimate dance number - with choreography consultation by an uncredited Gene Kelly. Oh, that's why it works. It's all an interesting exercise for a movie I don't believe works as well as Coppola probably thinks it does.
Thieves Like Us (1974)
Three criminals escape from prison and embark on a robbery spree across USA. Along the way, one of them falls in love while they plan a final heist before going their separate ways.
section: Robert Altman
A lot of the same sentiments could be shared for Thieves Like Us, coincidentally enough. After seeing a packed repertory screening of The Shining at a different theatre (Baltimore is the best!), I was inspired to see more Shelley Duvall movies, especially after her recent passing. I turned to Robert Altman's work, naturally, and his dedicated section at the video store.
And as regular readers of the site know, I've been making my way through the Cinématographe sub-label from Vinegar Syndrome. I've enjoyed and written about their 4K releases of Red Rock West and Little Darlings, while turning off the Nicholson western Goin' South when rape was used to neatly tie up a storyline and the Paul Schrader drama Touch because I basically found it unwatchable (when I mentioned that while returning my disc to the front counter, I received a knowing chuckle.) Thieves Like Us had been on my list since its release, so the time was now.
This is a movie that slowly, slowly (seriously, sloooowly) won me over. I suppose that's what Altman does, right? You hang and hang and hang with these people until you realize you really like them and you're gonna be totally screwed when they're done for. Keith Carradine gets particularly likable when he starts smoochin' Duvall, which is absolutely not a coincidence.
It's based on the same book that inspired the Nicholas Ray film noir They Live By Night. Should I sneak that into this year's Noirvember?
The Lost Boys (1990)
When an unsuspecting town newcomer is drawn to local blood fiends, the Frog brothers and other unlikely heroes gear up to rescue him.
section: horror
We end this list with another film from a notable auteur - he just doesn't get the same respect that the other two do. I would consider myself a Joel Schumacher defender, even though I can't defend The Number 23 or Batman & Robin even a little bit. Maybe I'm just a Time to Kill and Batman Forever defender. Anyway, as someone inclined to like his style, I don't know how it took me so long to get to The Lost Boys. I finally made it happen this past Halloween (just like last year, I was planning on doing a Video Store Rental Reviews dedicated to vampire movies, but - and this happened to me last year as well - Near Dark was checked out every time I went!)
This is a movie with two plots weaving in and out of each other: sexy Schumacher vampires roam the streets at night and little kids try to track them down. I definitely would’ve liked a lot more cool biker vampires (Jami Gertz!) and a little less Mom’s Got a Date with a Vampire, but this is one where I'm totally down for Schumacher's bullshit, so I didn't care. It looks great on 4K (another accidental theme of this edition - all 4K discs, I'm getting snobby!) and will surely be one I go to again soon.
Credit: Each plot synopsis from Letterboxd via TMDb.
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