Never Coming To A Theater Near You: A Celebration of a certain kind of movie

Rating:
Summary: Profiling what makes films good
Review: A relatively few Hollywood productions get all the publicity and box office attention; while other quality films don't receive much recognition. Kenneth Turan, as NPR 'Morning Edition' film critic, is in the best position to document and make note of these films, profiling what makes them good and celebrating the great, underrated and overlooked films which are 'must sees' in his opinion. Almost two hundred such films are presented in Never Coming To A Theater Near You: A Celebration Of A Certain Kind Of Movie, ranging from documentaries and classics to foreign films, making for an excellent reference which film buffs and students of Cinema Studies will appreciate.


Rating:
Summary: An excellent guide to quality films
Review: The kind of movies that Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan is talking about in this fine collection of his reviews are those that are "sophisticated, mature, [and] always entertaining." (p. xiv) His point in the title about such films "never coming to a theater near you" is a good one since most of the films reviewed here had either a short life on the large screen or went directly to video and DVD. (The exceptions are classics like The Third Man (1949), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), and others which were produced before the advent of video and DVD.) The reason, as every veteran film viewer knows, is that most movies shown in theaters today are aimed at a relatively young and unsophisticated mass audience, an audience that demands (producers believe) the sort of film that most of us have grown out of.

Turan's book is in five parts, English Language Films, Foreign Language Films, Documentaries, Classics, and Retrospectives. Characteristic English language films are, Election (1999), Heavenly Creatures (1994), Manny and Lo (1996), Proof (1991), 12 Monkeys (1995), to name some that I have seen and reviewed myself, and 66 more. Some foreign language films are, Autumn Tale (1998), Un Coeur en Hiver (1992), The Dreamlife of Angels (1998), Red (Trois Couleurs: Rouge) (1994), and 39 others. There are 20 documentaries including, Black Harvest (1994), Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control (1997), The Saltmen of Tibet (1998), etc. The classics include Das Boot (1981), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Vertigo (1958), and nine others. What the selections in this eclectic assemblage have in common is that they are all very much worth seeing--at least the ones that I have seen. Indeed several of them--Un Coeur en Hiver, Red, Das Boot, A Streetcar Named Desire, etc.--are among the best movies I have ever seen.

Turan's reviews are mostly appreciations (which is not surprising since these are his favorite films) written in a clear, informative style infused with the sort of background information and historical perspective that only an expert on film can provide. Reading this volume is a film education in itself and a pleasure. And for most people I think the value of the book is consistent with Turan's intent: that is, to point to films that the serious film-goer may have missed and to demonstrate why those films are very much worth seeing.

The "Retrospectives" are essays inspired by "a specific film event" centered around individual film makers like Anthony Mann or the largely forgotten Frank Borzage, and others; or they are about genres or movements in cinema that Turan wanted to learn more about such as the Yiddish film or the Chinese martial arts film. There is an essay on "Pre-Code Hollywood."

Bottom line: if you are like me and have to screen three or four films (i.e., actually rent them or buy them) to find one worth watching, then this book is a godsend. Turan knows quality in film and he tells you why the film is worth watching, and his enthusiasm is contagious.

Rating:
Summary: Best guide to movies for grownups . . .
Review: What a wonderful idea for a book! Kenneth Turan has brought together 150 reviews representing the top 5% of the films he sees as film critic for the Los Angeles Times. The result is a collection of movie reviews for (a) little-known and under-sung films that are (b) for grownup audiences instead of teenagers and (c) available on VHS and DVD.

Altogether there are reviews of movies from 39 countries, most of them released over the last dozen or so years, half of them English-language films. The other half are foreign language and documentaries. Turan also includes reviews of 12 classic movies and nine short essays on subjects ranging from Chinese martial arts to pre-code Hollywood films. There are no blockbusters here and very few films you're likely to have seen on HBO. They are instead the movies made with a nod to the inner adult - original, entertaining and wise, while touching on real emotions.

While I'd seen most of the English-language films Turan includes, and said "yes!" to each choice (like "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries" and "Uncle Vanya on 42nd Street"), it was the foreign films and documentaries I knew far less about. And with a short list quickly picked from those sections, I went straight to Vidiots in Santa Monica, which had all of them. Starting with two French comedies, "The Dinner Game" and "Un Air de Famille," we were greatly entertained on a lazy Thanksgiving afternoon.

Turan has his sensibilities and his film sense all finely tuned. You can trust him to pick the good ones. And you can wonder at the other 95% of not-so-great fare he had to wade through to get to these gems.