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Showing posts with label The Films of Jonathan Kaplan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Films of Jonathan Kaplan. Show all posts
November 22, 1963. Dallas area hairstylist Lurene Hallett (Michelle Pfeiffer), accompanied by her wheelchair-bound neighbor Mrs. Heisenbuttel (Peggy Rae), heads to the airport to catch a glimpse of President Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline, who are visiting for the day. Lurene, who delivered a stillborn baby not too long ago, feels a special bond with the First Lady, who also lost a child.
While driving home from the airport, Lurene notices a crowd has gathered around a television set in a shop window. Then, a few police cars race past her. Sensing something terrible has happened, Lurene pulls over to investigate, only to learn that her beloved President has been gunned down, and is dead.
Distraught, Lurene announces to her husband Ray (Brian Kerwin) that she plans to travel to Washington D.C. to attend the President’s funeral. Ray forbids it, and tells Lurene in no uncertain terms that she is to stay home and get on with her life. Angry and determined, Lurene packs a bag and sneaks out that night, hopping a bus headed north.
While on the road, Lurene strikes up a conversation with Paul Cater (Dennis Haysbert), an African American who is traveling with his mute daughter Jonell (Stephanie McFadden). Mistaking Paul’s secrecy and Jonell’s failure to talk, along with some bruises on the young girl’s body, as a sign the she has been taken against her will, Lurene sneaks into a rest stop pay phone and alerts the FBI.
But the truth is very different.
Paul is, indeed, Jonell’s father, and has been living in Philadelphia. After her mother died, Jonell was placed in an orphanage, where she was abused. To save his daughter from a very bad situation, Paul snuck Jonell out and intends to bring her north with him, where she has a chance at a better life.
Regretting her actions, Lurene agrees to accompany Paul (who now had to steal a car to get back on the road) as far as Washington D.C., doing what she can to help them dodge the Feds (who are hot on their trail) before hopping out to attend the President’s funeral.
During their journey, Lurene’s and Paul’s eyes will be opened to the realities of life in 1960’s America, as well as the possibility there might be something more out there for both of them
The opening scenes of Jonathan Kaplan’s Love Field center on the Kennedys’ arrival in Dallas and the President’s subsequent assassination, and get the movie off to a dramatic start. The scene where Lurene discovers what has happened is one of the film’s most poignant, and is handled to perfection by Pfeififer, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance here.
Love Field also shines a light on bigotry, with Lurene, who up to that point believed President Kennedy had improved things for African Americans, realizing not much has changed after all. At the first rest stop, Jonell needs to use the bathroom, only to find the “colored” toilet is out of service (it’s the only one blocked off). Later, as the three drive the highways of the south, Paul will incur the wrath of a truckful of rednecks, who want to know why he’s traveling with a white woman.
Yet, at its heart, Love Field is neither an account of an American tragedy or an exposè on the injustices of racism. Both are there for the taking, and are presented quite well by director Kaplan, screenwriter Don Roos, and the film’s fine cast. But this is a love story, in which two people from very different backgrounds find each other, and under extreme circumstances fall in love.
In one very memorable scene, Lurene, Paul, and Jonell are hiding out at the house of Mrs. Enright (Louise Latham), the mother of Lurene’s boss. A police car approaches, and the cop asks Lurene (who went out to meet him) if she has seen Paul. As Paul is hiding in an upstairs bedroom, he hears Lurene tell the officer she has not seen him, then uses a racial slur to further throw the police off the trail.
Hearing Lurene use this word is shocking for the audience. Her racism up to that point stemmed more from ignorance, and the mistaken belief things have improved for African Americans.
As shocking as it was for us to hear Lurene say this word, it was doubly so for Paul. During the journey, he experienced racism and hatred at nearly every turn, yet never protested or fought back, so that he could get his daughter to safety without drawing attention. Yet he reacts angrily to Lurene’s slur, and announces he is taking his daughter and leaving. It’s clear at this point he couldn’t care less what the rest of the world thinks, but to hear Lurene, who he has grown to care for, talk that way has hurt him.
But here’s the thing: he knew why she did it! She said it to get them out of a jam. Paul realizes that, yet cannot hide his heartbreak. It’s a clear sign that a deeper relationship has developed between the two than either of them realized.
Much like 2002’s Far from Heaven (which also featured Dennis Haysbert as Julianne Moore’s eventual romantic interest), Love Field tells a tale of love across racial lines, and during one of the most chaotic periods of American history. Thanks to the fine work of all involved, it does so wonderfully. Rating: 9 out of 10
In a 1987 interview, Helen Hunt was asked what it was like working with a “natural scene stealer” like Willie, a 3-year-old chimpanzee and her primary co-star in Jonathan Kaplan’s Project X. After saying she doesn’t really think about it, and just does the best work she possibly can, Hunt conceded “To a certain extent, that’s going to happen because we’ve all seen more blondes than we have chimps on the screen”.
She’s absolutely right, because as good as Hunt, Matthew Broderick, William Sadler and the remainder of the cast is in Project X, it’s the chimps who steal the show.
Hunt plays Teri MacDonald, a University of Wisconsin grad student who, for her thesis, is attempting to prove that chimpanzees can communicate with sign language. After only a few months working with her test subject, Virgil (played by Willie), she has a breakthrough, and the two are communicating freely. That is, until Teri’s funding is cut off, at which point the University informs her Virgil is om his way to a children’s zoo in Houston.
But that’s not the case. Instead, the clever chimp is shipped off to an Air Force base in Florida, where, teamed with troublemaking Airman Jimmy Garrett (Broderick), Virgil becomes one of many test subjects. The program, headed up by Dr. Carroll (William Sadler), uses flight simulators to determine if chimps can be trained to fly, and, if so, how they perform under certain conditions.
It isn’t long before Jimmy realizes there is something special about Virgil, and that an Air Force research facility is no place for such a gifted chimp, especially once he learns what happens when a so-called gifted chimp “graduates” to the next level.
Project X is, in many ways, a standard ‘80s comedy / drama, touching all the bases story-wise that you would expect. Yet it has a few things going for it, which lift the movie a level or two above the rest. First is the fine work of its cast, both human and primate. Released in 1987, Project X caught Matthew Broderick in his cinematic prime, having already won the hearts of audiences with WarGames and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. He is every bit as likable in this movie, as is Helen Hunt as the dedicated scientist who comes to love her test subject. On the other side of the coin is William Sadler as the cold, calculating military scientist whose experiments have one natural conclusion.
Then there are the chimps, led by Willie, whose Virgil is, without question, the film’s most endearing character. We follow Virgil on his entire journey, from being captured in the wild to his time with Teri, straight through to Jimmy and the Air Force. As such, we already know how gifted Virgil is, and part of the fun is watching Jimmy figure it out as well. There are other chimps in the film, each with their own distinct personality, and we find ourselves rooting for them as much as we do Teri and Jimmy.
All leading up to the film’s final act. Based on the general tone throughout, you can pretty much guess what kind of ending Project X is going to have, yet the journey there is chock full of surprises, moments I would never have predicted, including an ending so outlandish that you could only find it in a Hollywood movie.
But then Project Xis a Hollywood movie, and because we like the characters, it wins us over, no matter how over-the-top or unlikely it’s grand finale might be. I knew it was ludicrous, but I was smiling anyway. Rating: 8 out of 10
Jonathan Kaplan’s teen drama Over the Edge marked the screen debut of Matt Dillon, here playing the type of street-savvy, hard-nosed character that would define his early career, whether hero (The Outsiders) or villain (My Bodyguard).
Yet as good as Dillon is, what stayed with me after watching this 1979 film was my reaction to its story, which was not the reaction I was anticipating. Set in the brand new, isolated suburban community of New Granada, Over the Edge approaches juvenile delinquency and teen violence not as a problem that needs to be dealt with, but (in this case, anyway) the natural progression of what occurs when parents, to make a better life for themselves and their families, fail to consider the effect their decisions will have on the kids. Cut off from the world, these youngsters have nothing to do, and stirring up trouble is their way of dealing with the boredom of it all.
Carl Willat (Michael Kramer), one of the many teens residing in New Grenada, comes from a good home. His father (Andy Romano) owns a successful car dealership, and his mother (Ellen Geer) loves Carl unconditionally. Yet, despite a seemingly stable home life, Carl has fallen in with a crowd of “troublemakers”, including Richie White (Dillon), Claude (Tom Fergus), and Cory (Pamela Ludwig), on whom Carl has a crush.
Carl’s father is particularly annoyed at his son’s behavior, which includes being hauled to the police station with Richie by Sgt. Doberman (Harry Northup), who is convinced the two shot a BB gun into the window of his squad car (it was actually done by another teen, Mark Perry, played by Vincent Spano).
Though forbidden to hang out with Riche and the others, Carl and his friends continue to stir up trouble, attending an after-hours party and firing a gun that Cory and her friend Abby (Kim Kliner) swiped from a nearby house.
When the vandalism and lawlessness costs the community some possible investors, who were looking to put up a strip mall, homeowners association president Jerry Cole (Richard Jamison) and Sgt. Doberman enact a curfew, and even go so far as to shut down the local rec center run by Julia (Julia Pomeroy), the only place where the kids can blow off a little steam.
But it’s a sudden and unexpected tragedy that will push the teens “over the edge”, causing them to lash out in a way nobody would have dreamed possible.
Kramer and especially Dillon deliver strong performances as kids dealing with the monotony of their secluded community as best they can. The rec center where they and their friends hang out is nothing more than a makeshift garage with a few games for them to play. Yet it is always overcrowded; every kid is there just about every day because it’s all they have.
They are continually harassed by the police. In one very tense scene, Sgt. Doberman strolls into the rec center and, ignoring Julia’s protests, arrests Claude for drug possession, causing a near-riot when he tries to lead his new prisoner out of the center and into his squad car.
Kaplan and screenwriters Charles Haas and Tim Hunter do a fine job bringing us not only into the world of these teens, but their mindset as well. They are restless and fed up, and mayhem is all they have to keep from losing their minds. Even a glimmer of hope, the promise of a movie theater and skating rink, is taken from them when the homeowners association decides to use that land for the potential strip mall instead!
Being a father of two adult kids, I’m now of an age where, if I’m not siding with the parents in Over the Edge, I should at least commiserate with them. And I do, to a degree. But their lack of understanding when it comes to their kids’ so-called delinquency frustrated the hell out of me. Carl’s parents do eventually come around (spurred on by Carl running away from home and hiding out for days in a partially-constructed home he and the other kids use as a hangout), and his father even speaks up at a hastily called parents meeting, to address the growing problem. But by then, it’s too late. The kids have reached their breaking point, and put in motion an elaborate and even dangerous plan to get back at the adults once and for all.
As I said, I understood the parents to a degree, but I was team kids all the way, and actually rooted for them during the film’s shocking conclusion. Rating: 9 out of 10
Starring:Patty Byrne, Alana Stewart, Mittie Lawrence
Tag line:"It's always harder at night"
Trivia:Martin Scorsese recommended Jonathan Kaplan to Roger Corman as director for this film
1972’s Night Call Nurses was the third installment in Roger Corman’s “nurse” series (after 1970’s The Student Nurses and ‘71s Private Duty Nurses), and while I have yet to see the first two, I doubt either would inform in such a way that it might be difficult to follow this movie.
Helmed by Jonathan Kaplan, making his debut in the director's chair, Night Call Nurses follows the exploits of three beautiful caregivers, all of whom work in the hospital’s crisis center. The first is Barbara (Patty Byrne), who, along with her boyfriend Zach (Christopher Law), attends a therapy group in her spare time. When she overhears the instructor talking about her to the others, Barbara experiences a level of paranoia that sets her mind to spinning. Before long she is acting in ways she never dreamed possible.
Janis (Alana Hamilton) develops a crush on patient Kyle Toby (Richard Young), a long-distance truck driver who is addicted to speed. Once Kyle is cured, Janis starts seeing him socially, and the two quickly fall in love.
Sandra (Mitti Lawrence) is approached by Jude (Felton Perry), a former convict and current militant, who wants her help in springing a radical named Sampson (Stack Pierce) from the hospital. A prisoner who, according to official reports, attempted suicide, Sampson is in a secure ward, and with the prison’s bigoted warden (Bobby Hall) keeping an eye on him, getting Sampson out isn’t going to be easy.
What these three beauties don’t realizes is that, while dealing with their respective issues, someone has been watching them, sending the occasional threatening note (written in lipstick) their way. None of the girls take this potential threat seriously, but is it really the work of a practical joker (as they believe), or a disturbed psychopath hell-bent on doing them harm?
The trio of very different storylines that make up Night Call Nurses are, for the most part, intriguing (especially Barbara’s, whose near-mental breakdown results in a few interesting scenes), and, as expected, the leads shed their clothes more than once (there’s even a scene during a group therapy session where all the female attendees, hoping to prove they aren’t uptight, perform a striptease).
That said, Night Call Nurses has a few too many characters. There’s a regular patient named Bathrobe Benny (Martin Ashe) who is a serial flasher; and the film opens with a dramatic, albeit confusing sequence in which Cynthia (Lynne Guthrie), another patient, commits suicide (this tragedy is only mentioned in passing afterwards, and is then forgotten). Throw in the subplot about a possible stalker, and a fistfight between Kyle Toby and a drunken orderly that seemingly comes out of left field, and you have a movie bursting at the seams with lots of ideas, but very little time to explore them in a meaningful way.
With a cast of pretty young ladies who aren’t afraid to bare it all, Night Call Nurses is not merely a typical early ‘70s nurse exploitation film; it’s a typical Roger Corman movie, and while that’s not a bad thing, there’s little here that we haven’t seen from the legendary producer before.
