Tag Archives: Jessica Harper

1981 Films, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Walken, Drama, Gloria LeRoy, Herbert Ross, Jessica Harper, Musical, Musical Drama, Romantic Drama, Steve Martin, Vernel Bagneris

Pennies from Heaven-1981

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Pennies from Heaven-1981

Director Herbert Ross

Starring Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Walken

Scott’s Review #1,480

Reviewed May 10, 2025

Grade: A

Pennies from Heaven (1981) may be Steve Martin’s best film role and Bernadette Peters’s most excellent cinematic performance. Audiences did not receive the film well upon release, but many of the best movies are not.

Critics, however, applauded the film, which earned writer Dennis Potter an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Watching (for the first time) in 2025, the film doesn’t feel dated, as many 1980s films do. Furthermore, Pennies from Heaven doesn’t feel like a 1930s set film in the 1980s either.

The opening sequence features credits amid clouds, later dances on the tops of bars, and kids in a schoolhouse playing white pianos, which is fresh and authentic.

These aspects enhance the dazzling musical production numbers. The songs are lip-synced, which strangely works after a brief period of adjustment, given that they are popular songs of the 1920s–30s, such as ‘Let’s Misbehave,’ ‘Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries,’ ‘Let’s Face the Music and Dance,’ and the terrific ‘Pennies from Heaven’.

Unconventional in film, sometimes the action in a scene suddenly stops, and a musical number begins. The songs reflect the times with an overpowering sadness.

The story follows Arthur Parker (Steve Martin), a Depression-era sheet-music salesman with dreams of becoming a big success. When Arthur faces relationship problems with his wife, Joan (Jessica Harper), he begins an affair with a shy and beautiful teacher, Eileen (Bernadette Peters).

Though Arthur and Eileen connect, societal and financial obstacles threaten their happiness.

The film is highly stylized and looks stunning. The darker lighting, especially during musical numbers, looks muted to reflect the bleak nature of the Depression period.

I was continually surprised by this film. Situations arose that threw me for a loop, especially Eileen’s pregnancy and subsequent journey into the world of prostitution. At first meek and virginal, she becomes a savvy and more demanding character as the film progresses.

Eileen is my favorite character.

Peters was robbed of an Oscar nomination, which is surprising because she is emotionally invested in the character. Although she expects to hate sleeping with men for money, she doesn’t find it so bad, and it’s an easy way to make money during a time when most had no resources.

I adore Peter’s facial expressions as she embarrassingly looks away or her eyes well with tears.

A shocking death devastated me towards the film’s end, even though the character was minor.

I wasn’t as enamored with Arthur’s character as with Martin’s performance. Arthur, horny and a bit of a cad, disappoints me when he is mean to troubled and struggling accordion player (played wonderfully by Vernal Bagneris). He also doesn’t treat his wife very well.

Nonetheless, his dramatic turn is refreshing compared with his typical slapstick roles, and he and Peters have great chemistry.

Christopher Walken, in a small role as Tom a stylish pimp, brings down the house with a wacky dance.

The rich and complex writing showcases an anti-hero with layers of complexities and supporting characters looking to survive. The 1930s setting is crucial as characters scramble like mice to find a bit of cheese and navigate a complex maze.

Pennies from Heaven (1981) is not a film for mainstream moviegoers. Instead, the film will be a surprising treat for those eager to peel back an onion and immerse themselves in good cinema.

Oscar Nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay

2024 Films, Amy Adams, Comedy, Dark Comedy, Jessica Harper, Marielle Heller, Satire, Scoot McNairy

Nightbitch-2024

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Nightbitch-2024

Director Marielle Heller

Starring Amy Adams, Scoot McNairy

Scott’s Review #1,479

Reviewed May 5, 2025

Grade: B+

A bizarre premise becomes a quality message as Amy Adams plays depressed and frumpy in Nitchbitch (2024), immersing the audience in her life and conflicting emotions about career and motherhood.

In 2024, the film jumped out of the gate with Oscar buzz but quickly and peculiarly fell by year’s end. It needed to be content with mere Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations.

Billed as a dark comedy/horror based on Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel, it was undoubtedly too weird for many.

I didn’t recognize it as quite a horror film, but I appreciated the satirical and corny nature of the underlying message.

The standout is Adams, with Heller’s intelligent and witty script in second place.

Mother (Adams) is a woman who pauses her successful art career to be a stay-at-home mom seeking a new chapter in her life and encounters just that when her maternal routine takes a surreal turn.

Continually frustrated with stay-at-home life and the redundant story hour, she fantasizes about letting loose and speaking her mind. One day, she grows fur and a tail and experiences increased hearing. She also connects with wild dogs and other wildlife, causing her to believe she is turning into a dog.

When she begins to bark in public and eat without silverware, she begins to worry. But, is it all in her mind?

Adams, a legendary and terrific actor, goes full throttle in Nightbitch, appearing sans makeup, haggard, and plump. This is necessary for the role and, helped by close-ups, successfully makes the audience feel how exhausted and angry she is.

She never takes it out on her child, but her husband (Scoot McNairy) must tolerate her outbursts of frustration despite being well-intentioned. She tolerates three female acquaintances (also mothers) but desires something more stimulating.

Marielle Heller, who directs and writes the screenplay, challenges the norms of women expecting to have children and smiles while surviving two hours of sleep per night.

Sometimes, women with newborns or toddlers hate their lives and the world, and Heller/Adams proves this is okay.

When Mother finally gets a night out with her art colleagues she is aghast at their calousness having suddenly never realized what assholes they are.

She gleefully snarls and goes all rabid dog before realizing she has manners to follow. Still, the most fun is her fantasies.

Scoot McNairy is perfect as a husband, lovingly playing second fiddle to Adams. His character, blatantly named ‘husband’, tries to help but is usurped by his career and subconscious expectations that the mother does most of the childcare.

Sadly, most of the world still seems to agree.

Mother’s friends are comical but slightly one-note. They teeter between shock at Mother’s honesty and opening their eyes to what awaits them.

Conventionally, Nightbitch (2024) is an excellent watch for a mother/daughter outing for the progressive, thought-provoking crowd, though it’s not a mainstream film.

For others, it reflects societal norms, fantasies, and a metaphor of sacrificing one’s happiness for another.

While some may find it silly, the film dares to tell a unique story rarely told before. I didn’t take the plot literally and think Mother was turning into a dog.

I loved the satire, the one-two punch of Mother telling it like it is, and Adams looking deliciously homely.

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Best Lead Performance, Amy Adams, Best Editing

2002 Films, Action, Cameron Crowe, Colin Farrell, Crime Thriller, Frank Grillo, Jessica Harper, Lois Smith, Max von Sydow, Peter Ramsey, Peter Stormare, Samantha Morton, Science Fiction, Steve Harris, Steven Spielberg, Thriller, Tom Cruise

Minority Report-2002

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Minority Report-2002

Director Steven Spielberg

Starring Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton

Scott’s Review #1,318

Reviewed November 27, 2022

Grade: B+

If you study his body of film work, the fascinating thing about acclaimed director Steven Spielberg is the growth and groundbreaking cross-genre categorization of many of his films.

Traversing blockbuster popcorn films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T. the Extra-terrestrial (1982) to heavy drama with the 1993 masterpiece Schindler’s List, the man can do it all.

With 2002’s Minority Report, he bravely delves into science-fiction territory with a crime thriller and action tint. The film is tough to follow and mostly reminds me of Inception (2010), a Christopher Nolan vehicle influenced by this film.

Despite the cerebral tone, Minority Report is a fascinating study of futuristic crime-fighting styles with enough twists and turns to keep me engaged though I confess at times having no real idea what was going on plot-wise.

The casting of Tom Cruise is a major win. Who better to carry a film like this except maybe Bruce Willis though Cruise is a better actor. Nonetheless, he is believable as a crime chief with a slick edge and a wicked smile.

Unsure whether or not to trust him he remains at the heart of the success of the film.

Based on a story by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, ‘Minority Report’ contains a perfect premise to bring to the big screen. Set in Washington D.C. in 2054, police are now intelligent enough to utilize psychic technology to arrest and convict murderers before they commit their crimes.

The setup is fabulous and rife with possibility.

Cruise plays Chief John Anderton, the head of this Precrime unit, and is himself accused of the future murder of a man he hasn’t even met. Following an audit, it is predicted that in thirty-six hours, Anderton will kill a man who is a stranger to Anderton.

Anderton flees, prompting a manhunt led by Witwer (Colin Farrell).

It is revealed that Anderton joined the Precrime program after his son was kidnapped and never found. He is depressed, withdrawn, and addicted to hard drugs, and his wife Lara (Kathryn Morris) has since left him.

But is this all a setup and are others involved in the conspiracy?

The plot goes way off the rails in terms of explanation or logic but the fun is in trying to put the never-ending puzzle pieces together. Truthfully, after a while, I simply gave up this approach and enjoyed the visual eye candy and terrific futuristic style.

I rarely am a proponent of visuals over storytelling but the intelligence of the sequences and the thrilling nature of the acting assured me there was something there. I just wasn’t completely getting it.

Since it’s directed by Spielberg I was confident that the complexities I was being served were not shit. I was comforted by this knowledge and my enjoyment escalated.

Enough props can’t be handed out for Cruise’s dynamic performance parlayed by the coldness and harshness of the overall tone of the film.

Many of Spielberg’s films are heartwarming but this was not to be found in Minority Report (2002) and I liked it even more for that reason.

Spielberg gets another win by suckering me into a cinematic world that he magically can create. This time with perplexities and perhaps even some influence from the Matrix (1999) movies.

Oscar Nominations: Best Sound Editing

2018 Films, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dakota Johnson, Horror, Independent, Independent Horror, Jessica Harper, Luca Guadagnino, Mia Goth, Tilda Swinton

Suspiria-2018

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Suspiria-2018

Director Luca Guadagnino

Starring Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton

Scott’s Review #864

Reviewed February 7, 2019

Grade: B-

Dario Argento’s 1977 creative masterpiece is the original Suspiria, an orgy of style and visual spectacles carefully immersed within a standard slasher film appropriate for the times.

Some might deem it foolish to attempt a remake.

Argento’s film contains comprehensive and defined story elements, while the new Suspiria (2018) changes course with a brazen attempt to achieve the same mystique as the original. Instead, it offers a plodding and mundane story that is almost nonsensical and does not work.

Thankfully, a bloody and macabre finale brings the film above mediocrity.

Director Luca Guadagnino, fresh off the Italian and LGBT-themed Call Me by Your Name (2017), a bright film peppered with melancholy romance and lifestyle conflict, could not be more different from Suspiria.

The respected director parlays into the horror genre with two of Hollywood’s top talents, Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson, and a nice nod to the original film with a small appearance by leading lady Jessica Harper.

The premise of Suspiria remains intact, as the period is once again 1977, and the location remains Berlin, Germany. Susie Bannion (Johnson) is a gifted American dancer who joins the prestigious Tanz dance academy run by a coven of witches, where she unearths demonic tendencies.

Coinciding with her arrival is the disappearance of another student, Patricia Hingle, and the revelation that her psychotherapist Josef Klemperer (Swinton) has Patricia’s journals chronicling details of the dastardly coven.

From an acting perspective, Swinton impresses the most as she tackles three distinctive roles: an elderly and troubled psychotherapist, artistic director Madame Blanc, and Mother Marko, an aging witch.

Each character is vastly different, allowing the talented actress to immerse herself in the various characters. She is so convincing that I did not realize while watching the film that she played the psychotherapist or that a female played the character.

I admit to not being a fan of Dakota Johnson for perceptively using her Hollywood royalty to rise the ranks to film stardom or her lackluster film roles thus far—think Fifty Shades of Grey or the innumerable sequels—but she does not do much for me in the central role of Susie.

The miscast is more palpable compared to Harper’s rendition of the role decades earlier.

Johnson is predictably wooden and quite painful to watch, especially matched against a stalwart like Swinton in many scenes. Lithe and statuesque, the young actress does contain the physical qualities of a dancer, so there is that.

As a stand-alone film, my evaluation of Suspiria might be less harsh, but the original Suspiria is held at such lofty heights that this is impossible.

The problem is with the screenplay, as compelling writing is sparse. Much of the plot makes little sense and does nothing to engage the viewer at the moment. Slow-moving and meandering, lacking a spark or an abrupt plot breakthrough, I quickly lost interest in what was going on.

The interminable running time of over two and a half hours is unnecessary and unsuccessful.

Before I rake entirely Suspiria across the coals, my cumulative rating increases with the astounding and garish final sequence, which features a plethora of blood and dismemberment in a sickening witches’ sabbath.

As Klemperer lies incapacitated after being ambushed by the witches, one girl is disemboweled, followed by decapitation, as the bold use of red is blended into the lengthy sequence. As the withered and bloated Mother Markos relinquishes her title, an incarnation of Death is summoned, and heads explode.

The finale plays out like a horrible dance sequence.

To add to the above point, the visuals and cinematography are its highlights. By using mirrors and possessing a dream-like quality, the film looks great and harbors an eerie, stylistic, and deathly crimson hue. The resulting project is one of spectacle and intrigue rather than a sum of its parts.

Rather than approaching the film with an introspective or cerebral motif, it is recommended that you simply go with the flow and let it fester.

Guadagnino deserves credit for bravely attempting to undertake the creation of such a masterpiece and bringing it to audiences in 2018.

Suspiria (2018) lacks plot or pacing and is the second runner-up to the original. The story is not worth making heads or tails of since it is not interesting enough to warrant the effort.

Ultimately, skip this version and stick to the brilliance of the Argento effort, or better yet, do not compare the two films at all.

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: 2 wins- Best Cinematography (won), Robert Altman Award (won)