Joey Magidson
Welcome back to my Home Movies! This week, we’re led by one of the 2021 films (even if it didn’t really come out until 2022) that got the rawest of deals. Yes, today’s top pick is none other than Cyrano! Read on for more about it and the rest of the slate, including a pair of new Criterion Collection releases…
Cyrano
This film had its release and awards campaign totally bungled. After playing to critics late in 2021, for some reason, it was held until 2022, aside from a qualifying run, before delaying repeatedly. Cyrano should have easily landed star Peter Dinklage a Best Actor nomination. That he missed, while director Joe Wright, along with co-stars Haley Bennett and Kelvin Harrison Jr. didn’t even sniff Oscar attention, is a shame. This musical, is lively, lovely, and deeply modern, making for a truly full meal. I spoke to Bennett (here), Dinklage (here), Harrison Jr. (here), Wright (here), as well as composers Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner (here), so there’s plenty of Cyrano chats to be seen. This is just some of what I had to say in my review:
Cyrano has the distinction of being best musical of the 2021 season. It features quality music, strong acting, and a sense of passion for the material, all while giving it a modern feel, despite period trappings. It’s a tough mix to pull off, but especially during one standout musical number, it all comes together brilliantly. There’s a bit of a hump to get through in the middle, but the entire third act is a complete winner.
Dating & New York
Heavy Metal (first time in 4K)
The Humans (Interviews with Beanie Feldstein here and Amy Schumer here)
The Girl Can’t Help It
From The Criterion Collection: “In 1956, Frank Tashlin brought the talent for zany visual gags and absurdist pop-culture satire that he’d honed as a master of animation to the task of capturing, in glorious De Luxe Color, a brand-new craze: rock and roll. This blissfully bonkers jukebox musical tells the story of a mobster’s bombshell girlfriend—the one and only Jayne Mansfield, in a showstopping first major film role—and the washed-up talent agent (Tom Ewell) who seeks to revive his career by turning her into a musical sensation. The question is: Can she actually sing? A CinemaScope feast of eye-popping midcentury design, The Girl Can’t Help It bops along to a parade of performances by rock-and-roll trailblazers—including Little Richard, Fats Domino, Julie London, Eddie Cochran, the Platters, and Gene Vincent—who light up the screen with the uniquely American sound that was about to conquer the world.”
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Miracle in Milan
From The Criterion Collection: “Renowned filmmaker Vittorio De Sica followed up his international triumph Bicycle Thieves with this enchantingly playful neorealist fairy tale, in which he combines his celebrated slice-of-life poetry with flights of graceful comedy and storybook fantasy. On the outskirts of Milan, a band of vagabonds work together to form a shantytown. When it is discovered that the land they occupy contains oil, however, it’s up to the cherubic orphan Totò (Francesco Golisano)—with some divine help—to save their community from greedy developers. Tipping their hats to the imaginative whimsy of Charles Chaplin and René Clair, De Sica and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, adapting his own novel, craft a bighearted ode to the nobility of everyday people.”
Stay tuned for more next week…
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