Tag Archives: Ruby Dee

1982 Films, Annette O'Toole, Ed Begley Jr., Horror, John Heard, John Larroquette, Malcolm McDowell, Marco St. John, Nastassja Kinski, Paul Schrader, Ray Wise, Ruby Dee, Thriller

Cat People-1982

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Cat People-1982

Director Paul Schrader

Starring Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell

Scott’s Review #1,275

Reviewed July 10, 2022

Grade: B+

Cat People (1982) is a mysterious, psychological journey into the strange universe of humans possessing cat-like qualities, sometimes with a tendency towards vicious limb extraction and other mauling techniques.

It’s an absurd premise, though admittedly clever, with an identity all its own.

Feeling slightly dated, mostly due to the early-1980s synthesizer-like musical score, film style, and the casting of some actors at the top of their game, Cat People is nonetheless enjoyable and sexual.

Especially recommended is a late Friday or Saturday night viewing with as little light as possible for the best ambiance.

Since our rented DVD copy was ravaged by poor visual quality and hard-to-hear sound, a thought is to buy the film.

The 1982 version of Cat People is directed by Paul Schrader, who is best known for writing or co-writing Scorsese’s greats Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980).

The director also has his own share of films, including ones as recent as 2021.

His production is a remake of one made some forty years earlier, which I have not seen.

The mood of Cat People is overwhelmingly sensual and violent, a horror-thriller tale. The action immediately gets off to a sexually perverse start when, during presumably prehistoric days, a wild black panther impregnates a young girl offered to him via sacrifice.

The message is clear that this results in a weird human/cat hybrid coming into existence.

In the present, Irena Gallier (Nastassia Kinski) harbors a dark family secret she despises. She reconnects with her estranged brother, Paul (Malcolm McDowell), who shape-shifts into a savage beast. He lives in the southern city of New Orleans and has spent time in a mental hospital.

Irena visits the local zoo and finds herself attracted to handsome zoologist Oliver Yates (John Heard), even as her brother makes his incestuous advances toward her. Inevitably, the family curse rears its ugly head when Paul rips the arm off one of the zoo workers played by a young Ed Begley Jr.

I like tremendously how Schrader incorporates New Orleans as the central setting. Having nothing really to do with the story, the French-influenced city is nice to look at, as restaurant scenes feature Creole-style and other southern/European sophisticated little gems.

Ruby Dee is cast as a wacky housekeeper named Female, rippling with New Orleans flair, and who is aware of the terrible family secret.

Nastassja Kinski is perfectly cast as the provocative and sultry main character, and she effortlessly leads the charge. Others like Heard and Annette O’Toole, who were A-list stars in the early 1980s, provide a time capsule of Hollywood relevancy.

Unfortunately, this also makes Cat People feel like it’s from another time, and the 1980s film style is painfully obvious.

The growling and vicious cats feel both scary and fake during close-ups, but imagine the trickery of using real-life leopards? The filmmakers did the best they could, and this is also obvious.

Some sequences are quite grisly, and when they aren’t, there are best-remembered scenes of peril and intrigue. O’Toole’s character of Alice (another zoologist) takes a late-night dip in a swimming pool and is harassed by a menacing Irena.

Earlier, a great scene occurs when a prostitute named Ruthie visits her client in a dingy motel room, only to realize that her john is a mean leopard. We assume she will be ripped to shreds, but this dubious honor is saved for another slutty character whom Paul picks up at a funeral.

An attempted triangle among Irena, Oliver, and Alice goes nowhere, and it’s bewildering that the decision was even made to try. The power couple is Irena and Oliver, whose smoldering love scenes are sensual and skin-heavy, professing almost-immediate love for each other.

With enough explicit sex and gratuitous violence to keep many viewers titillated, Cat People (1982) has positives and negatives. When it was released, I bet it was a potboiler of juicy, relevant intrigue, but the film hasn’t held up quite as well as some others.

1989 Films, Bill Nunn, Danny Aiello, Drama, Frank Vincent, Giancarlo Esposito, Independent, Independent Drama, John Savage, John Turturro, Martin Lawrence, Nicholas Turturro, Ossie Davis, Rosie Perez, Ruby Dee, Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee

Do the Right Thing-1989

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Do the Right Thing-1989

Director Spike Lee

Starring Spike Lee

Scott’s Review #746

Reviewed April 21, 2018

Grade: A

Do the Right Thing is one of the few great films to come out of 1989, not remembered as a fantastic year in cinema when most mainstream films were as glossy as tin foil- and barren of quality substance.

Here we have a small, independent gem that sparked discussions about current race relations in the United States and became a monumental, influential film.

Filmmaker (and star) Spike Lee carves a controversial story of racial tensions in a Brooklyn neighborhood on a hot summer day.

Beginning rather light and comedic, then turning violent and dark, the action is set in a largely black neighborhood, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where twenty-five-year-old Mookie (Spike Lee) works delivering pizzas at an Italian pizzeria owned by Sal (Danny Aiello).

With a toddler at home and a nagging girlfriend, Tina (Rosie Perez) always in his face, Mookie is unmotivated yet still a decent guy and loyal friend.

Sal has two sons who work at the pizza place- Pino (John Turturro), who is angry and racist, and nice guy Vito, who is a friend of Mookie’s.

When conflicts erupt over whether Sal’s restaurant should celebrate black celebrities and white celebrities on a wall in the dining room, tensions reach their breaking point as the intense heatwave makes matters much worse.

What makes Do the Right Thing a marvel is both the film’s overall tone and the atmosphere Spike Lee conveys, who does an incredible job of writing, producing, and starring in it.

The elements having little to do with the actual story immediately impress with big, bright colors in comic-book style, screaming at the big screen, eliciting both a warm, inviting feeling and an angry, contemptuous vibe.

The loud rap and hip-hop beats are instrumental in conveying a specific feeling and emotion in the film.

Made independently and on a small budget, the film feels raw and intense from the get-go.

Brooklyn and New York City, in particular, are the perfect settings, as Sal and his family are white folks living in a predominantly black neighborhood, so, in turn, the minorities in the story are the ones in the minority.

Additionally, the viewer sees the friendly neighborhood and feels a sense of belonging regardless of race- the humorous drunk, the kindly, grandmotherly type people-watching from her stoop, and the boombox music kid all form a sense of community and togetherness.

This point is tremendously important to the film’s overall plot.

The relationship between Mookie and Sal and his sons is very important and the centerpiece of the entire film, which I found quite interesting as a character study.

Open-minded, Sal is a decent man and fine with the diversity in his neighborhood- yet still true to his Italian roots. Aiello does a fantastic job of portraying this complex, conflicted character.

His two sons could not be more different from each other- Vito, who is a close friend of Mookie’s, is sympathetic and sweet, with nary a racist bone in his body.

Pino, on the other hand, is angry and resentful of the black community taking over what he feels is his territory.

Finally, while lazy, Mookie is also a sympathetic character, as he is conflicted when the tension reaches its boiling point.

These diverse characters make the film so dynamic.

Revered director Spike Lee carves out a story and brings it to the big screen, telling an important topic that is as vital in modern times as it was when Do the Right Thing was released in 1989.

The film is intelligent and timely without being condescending to either black or white races, nor preachy- instead of telling a poignant story that is angry and sometimes painful to watch, but more importantly, is empathetic and real.

Oscar Nominations: Best Supporting Actor-Danny Aiello, Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen