The Last Duel

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio Ballarat and South West Victoria on October 29, 2021, and on ABC Radio Central Victoria on November 3, 2021.

(MA15+) ★★★½

Director: Ridley Scott.

Cast: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck, Harriet Walter, Alex Lawther, Marton Csokas, Željko Ivanek, Tallulah Haddon.

 

"I'll be Robin Hood, you play the Sheriff of Nottingham."

Ridley Scott has a surprisingly diverse back catalogue. We tend to forget that the director behind Alien and Blade Runner also made Thelma & Louise and the under-rated Matchstick Men (and the god-awful The Counsellor while we're at it).

But if there's one common sub-genre in Scott's wheelhouse, it's the blood-soaked historical drama. From his debut The Duellists, through to 1492: Conquest Of Paradise, Gladiator, Kingdom Of Heaven, his disappointing Robin Hood, and Exodus: Gods & Kings, Scott has loved staging battles, building huge CG crowds, and embracing the dour darkness and violence of ye olde times.

With that in mind, The Last Duel is quintessential Scott. Sticking rather faithfully to a surprisingly true story from the late 14th century, it features blood-soaked battles, brings medieval France to life with some tasteful CG, and is as dour and bleak as they come.

Wedged in between all this is a salient and oddly timely look at the patriarchy, the treatment of women, in particular victims of sexual assault, and the horrific excesses of men. It's a medieval #MeToo movie that recounts the events leading up to the final judiciary-approved duel in France, telling its tale from three different viewpoints - the brash and honour-focused Jean de Carrouges (Damon), his erstwhile friend the hedonistic Jacques Le Gris (Driver), and Jean's forlorn but resourceful wife Magritte (Comer).

The Rashomon-style approach to its storytelling is both its biggest strength and its biggest weakness. While it's regularly fascinating to see the different perspectives of some events, it makes a long film (two and a half hours) feel genuinely long in places. It also means the film's most harrowing sequence is shown twice with subtle but important differences, but it doesn't make it any easier to watch second time around. 

Equally draining is a slow and confusing start, as The Last Duel bounces from battle to battle, castle to castle, with little to hold on to but the bad haircuts and some accents that start somewhere in England but regularly wander across the Atlantic (oh, and they're supposed to be French, by the way).

Weird accents and wigs aside, the film predominantly improves as it progresses. The intrigue of who's telling the truth is compelling, and knowing that it's leading to a gruesome showdown helps drag you through the film. Scott's world-building is also excellent, as usual, and backed by some stellar production design. And in the hands of Damon, Driver, Comer and Affleck, the script is in safe hands, with each actor delivering top-notch performances, especially Comer and Damon.

Despite its pacing and repetition, there is enough in The Last Duel to keep you hooked until its physically and emotionally brutal ending. Its story is thought-provoking, its stars are outstanding, and it looks sumptuous, even if you struggle to take Damon and Affleck's haircuts seriously. 

AFI #47: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio Ballarat and South West Victoria on October 29, 2021.

This is part of a series of articles reviewing the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films, as unveiled in 2007. Why am I doing this? Because when I started, the damned cinemas are closed and I have to review something, and now I can't stop.

(M) ★★★★★

Director: Elia Kazan.

Cast: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, Rudy Bond, Nick Dennis, Peg Hillias.

"Bib? I don't need no stinkin' bib."

My five-year-old is very interested in movies. When I put him to bed, he asks me if I'm watching a movie later, and if I say yes, he asks what it's called.

"A Streetcar Named Desire," I tell him.

"Is it about a streetcar?" he asks, not knowing what a streetcar is, but probably thinking its just a car that goes down a street. Which is technically correct.

"No, I don't think so."

"What's it about then?"

I think for a bit. I haven't seen the film in 20 years, and I can't recall what happens in it. What I can remember is the yelling, the passion, and some kind of steamy New Orleans anger.

"It's about emotions," I say in the end. "It's about a bunch of people with some very strong feelings."

It's not the best summary, but my five-year-old seems satisfied. 

Much like my son's probable understanding of what a streetcar is, my summary isn't incorrect. A Streetcar Named Desire is from that niche genre of preferably black and white films that are adaptations of plays with minimal plot but lots of yelling and emotions. By the end of the film, secrets will be uncovered, someone will go crazy, and you'll wonder whether love really exists. See also Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?. 

A Streetcar Named Desire is the pinnacle of this dramatic sub-genre. It's emotions are dialled up to 11 by the sweltering New Orleans heat and Marlon Brando's physique, which is matched by his titanic performance. A jazzy score swoons as everyone sweats in a cramped apartment where the emotions bubble away like a pot perpetually on the verge of boiling.

The plot, as scant as it is, revolves around the fragile yet narcissistic Blanche DuBois (Leigh), who has come to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella (Hunter) and brother-in-law Stanley (Brando) to recover from a breakdown. The rest, as they say in the classics, is psychology. 

Tennessee Williams' play (and this adaptation) explores gender roles, domestic violence, masculinity, and mental health, and it's the internal journeys that are of real significance. Stanley's increasing brutishness, Stella's awakening, and Blanche's descent remain fascinating to watch 70 years on. The film's self-awareness regarding its more horrific elements (most of which happen offscreen) means it's aged pretty well compared to some others on the AFI list.

But the real reason A Streetcar Named Desire still makes it on to lists like this is Brando. Ironically, Brando was the only one of its four stars that missed out on an Oscar - Leigh, Hunter and Maldon all took home Academy Awards, but Brando lost out to Humphrey Bogart's turn in The African Queen (#65 on this list). 

But it's Brando that dominates this film as Stanley, the neanderthalic "survivor of the Stone Age" as Blanche puts it. Showcasing "method acting" to an unwitting audience for the first time, he shreds the screen. Leigh is amazing as Blanche, Hunter and Maldon are wonderful in support, but Brando is on a whole other level. He makes Stanley's caveman masculinity real, mixing it with raw sexuality, street smarts, frailties, and an explosive darkness that leaves Stella and Blanche quaking in his wake. He is terrifying in places. This is the fourth Brando performance on this AFI list (see also The Godfather, Apocalypse Now and On The Waterfront) and it's arguably the best. He makes Stan horrifyingly real. It's a masterclass.

Brando and Leigh's contrasting acting styles makes the imbalance between Blanche and Stanley all the more effective. Leigh's "properness" and more classical style of acting ensures Blanche's prim facade rarely gives way to the lust for danger that lurks within, while also amplifying the growing mental illness. More so than Stanley, Blanch DuBois is the source of endless discussion and debate, whether she be celebrated as a doomed heroine or a tragic antihero, studied as a fallen woman or dismissed as an alcoholic nymphomaniac. Either way, her treatment is a cutting reflection of the society at the time that breaks a woman, and then oppresses her when she doesn't fit with its ideals, as is beautifully essayed in this New Yorker review of the play from 1947.

The whole thing is beautifully shot, with Elia Kazan doing his best to let the action play out, keeping the cutting and camera moves to a minimum. His use of lighting is great - at the start, Stella and Stanley's home is bright and inviting, though rundown. By the end it is filled with menacing shadows, elevated by Kazan's shot choices.

While the film has a definite villain in Stanley, he's not your typical bad guy, and the film doesn't really have a hero in the classical sense. Add to this its deep psychological themes, and A Streetcar Named Desire is ripe for analysis. In fact, here's a study guide, and another, and here are the cliffs notes. 

There's something unshakeable about A Streetcar Named Desire. It seems so simple on the surface, but it lives in your brain long afterwards, becoming more and more complex as time goes on, as you weigh its characters, its themes and its psychology. It's a tough, gritty watch, and somewhat sanitised compared to the play, but it still works in its own special way, allowing us a peek behind the closed doors of a group of people with a lot of very loud and dangerous emotions. 

AFI #46: It Happened One Night (1934)

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio Ballarat and South West Victoria on October 15, 2021.

This is part of a series of articles reviewing the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films, as unveiled in 2007. Why am I doing this? Because the damned cinemas were closed and I had to review something, and now I can't stop until I finish.

(PG) ★★★★

Director: Frank Capra.

Cast: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Jameson Thomas, Alan Hale, Arthur Hoyt, Blanche Friderici, Charles C. Wilson.

"That looks really uncomfortable."

If nothing else, It Happened One Night is responsible for the creation of one of the greatest fictional characters of all time. I am of course referring to Bugs Bunny. His carrot-chomping unflappability is definitely a descendant of Clark Gable's newsman Peter Warne and Roscoe Karns' annoying bus traveler Oscar Shapeley. Shapeley's liberal use of the nickname 'Doc', and Peter pretending to be a goon named 'Bugs' seal the deal. Plus the carrot thing.

But It Happened One Night is more than just a Warner Bros Cartoons footnote. It's the quintessential pre-Code rom-com, laying out the template for a formula that exists to this day. Aspects haven't aged well (Peter suggesting what Colbert's Ellie "needs is a guy that'd take a sock at her once a day, whether it's coming to her or not" is one such moment), but it's aged far better than The Philadelphia Story.

One thing that hasn't dated is its chemistry. The sizzling undercurrent between Gable and Colbert still crackles with electricity almost 90 years on, all the more remarkable because neither star wanted to be in the film. But Frank Capra knew how to get the most out of both of them, and the film's ability to hint at the sexual electricity humming between Peter and Ellie is dynamite. Colbert showing a hint of thigh to score a lift doesn't sound like much, but it speaks volumes of the time, their relationship, and how a little can say a lot. Gable and Colbert give wonderful performances that stand the test of time.

The plot also remains timeless. As esteemed critic Barry Norman put it, "it's no more than a slender tale about a runaway heiress (Colbert) and an out-of-work journalist (Gable) who meet on a bus and fall in love". But Colbert's Ellie, who is desperate to escape her overbearing father and return to her husband, and Gable's Peter, who knows Ellie's plight is the story of the year, are fascinating characters, and it makes their potentially humdrum road trip actually hum. As Norman wrote "these are the kind of attractive, humourous people we would like to be, or anyway would like to know". Some things never change. 

The film's status as a superior comedy has been in place since it swept the Oscars, becoming the first film to win the Big Five (film, director, actress, actor, and screenplay). Its significance also lies with the notion that, according to Allan Hunter's Wordsworth Book Of Movie Classic, the film "helped initiate the genre of screwball comedy and transformed Columbia from a poverty-row studio to a major Hollywood concern", as well as allowing "Clark Gable's good-natured masculinity (to shine) through for really the first time on screen". 

Although it still feels vibrant, some disagree. Even 50 years ago, critics were already lamenting the film was outdated and slow. Author William Bayer wrote in his book The Great Movies back in 1973: "Show The General to a morose college student today and watch him laugh. Show him It Happened One Night and he'll tell you he can't 'relate to it'." Similarly, Leslie Halliwell's The Filmgoer's Companion stated in 1977 that although "it's lively good humour and piquant dialogue endeared it to all comers... it seems on the slow side" to contemporary audiences.

This is partially true. Yes, The General works for all, and is one of the greatest films of all time. The relatability of It Happened One Night is kind of a moot point - it's like Norman said, "we would like to be, or anyway would like to know" these people, not relate to their situations. People still love It Happened One Night for the same reason they like James Bond films - they wish they knew or were one of the key characters, not because they relate to their issues. They love the idea of the sexual tension as Ellie and Peter undress either side of a blanket that divides their room, but they don't want to actually trek from Florida to New York on 50 cents a day. 

As for the pacing, it's still 80% on the money. Capra wasn't much for the fanciness of directing (though there's one delicious shot that follows Ellie through a muddy campground) but he knew how to keep a story moving and ensure its plot points punched at the right time, with full credit also to Robert Riskin for his script, which adapts Samuel Hopkins Adams' short story Night Bus. The first three minutes set up a huge amount about Ellie, while it only takes a drunken phone chat between Peter and his editor for us to get a handle on Peter. That's quality writing, even nine decades later.

Certain story elements have aged poorly, such as the sexual politics - Gable's Peter is particularly domineering of Ellie, a woman he hardly knows. But these politics are at least played for effective laughs when the lead couple pretend to be married and descend into a slanging match in order to throw some detectives off their trail. Less successful is Ellie's transition from strong-headed lass willing to leap from her father's yacht and risk it all to being someone who breaks down over a fella she's known for four days. It's hard to swallow, and obviously representative of its time but it does go somewhat towards Bayer's comments about unrelatability.

But it's actually quite remarkable how good It Happened One Night is, considering its age. Its template is sturdy, and from meet-cute to altar-ditch it's fast-talking good fun in a classic battle-of-the-sexes and/or classes kinda way. The antagonism of the protagonists as they battle against their instincts is timeless, as is their predicament. And if you have to point to a rom-com to be the grandmother of them all, this isn't a bad one to point to, even as it approaches its 90th birthday.

AFI #45: Shane (1953)

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio Ballarat and South West Victoria on October 15, 2021.

This is part of a series of articles reviewing the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films, as unveiled in 2007. Why am I doing this? Because the damned cinemas were closed and I had to review something, and now I can't stop until I finish.

(G) ★★★★

Director: George Stevens.

Cast: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon deWilde, Jack Palance, Ben Johnson, Edgar Buchanan, Emile Meyer, Elisha Cook Jr., Douglas Spencer, John Dierkes.

"We've gotta be on the lookout for cowboys. They sneak up out of nowhere."

How many times do they say "Shane" in Shane? 

It's a shitload. So many times it's distracting, to the detriment of the film. See that star I knocked off? That's partly due to the number of times they say "Shane". According to an estimate from this compilation it's about 90 times. 

 

That's about once every 90 seconds. It's ridiculous. The fact that someone made a supercut of every time someone says "Shane" in Shane is a pretty good sign this is a highly noticeable thing.

It's also bad writing because it's unnecessary. In a film that barely wastes a word otherwise, having someone say "Shane" every minute and a half is mindboggling. It seem like overkill to mark a film down for such a thing, but I'm sorry, it had to be done.

About 50 per cent of those "Shane"'s come from the kid, who annoys me. I watched The Sound Of Music recently and those kids didn't irk me. But little Brandon deWilde's Joey quickly became like nails down a chalkboard. I feel bad saying that because deWilde died at a young age, and was nominated for Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this role. But sorry, kid, but you just didn't do it for me.

But then neither does Alan Ladd, which is somewhat sacrilegious to say. His presence doesn't ruin the film, and his performance is actually quite great - it's more that he doesn't look the part. Riding in out of the hills with his coiffured hair and virginal pale brown buckskin, he is far too manicured to be a gunslinging killer with a dark past. And at 5'6" he's certainly not an imposing figure, unlike Palance's grinning assassin.

These are my only quibbles with Shane. The film is rightly regarded as a classic, benchmark-setting western. The threatened farmers, the lawless cattle baron, his black-hatted henchmen, the mysterious stranger who comes to the rescue, the beautiful scenery, the shoot-outs, the saloon brawl - it's all here in this quintessential example of the genre.

Murray Pomerance, writing for 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, called it "the most iconic (western), the western that burns itself into our memory, the western no one who sees it will ever forget". Indeed, Pomerance is at pains to point what it isn't, it's not "the most glorious" western, nor is it the most masculine, most authentic, strangest or most dramatic. Similarly, in his 1973 book The Great Movies, William Bayer also points out Shane is not the a "rough-and-ready" western, nor is it "a meditation on history and character".

"It is the most self-conscious attempt ever made to use the western form to create a myth," Bayer writes, noting it is "the aestheticising, the contrived beauty, the calculated precision, the perfection which... is the picture's major strength".

Indeed, all of my quibbles - the performance of the kid, the look of Ladd, the overuse of "Shane" - add up to an inauthenticity that is otherwise tolerable. Shane is indeed a thing of beauty. When it's studio-bound it feels aged, but when it's out in the wide blue yonder among the mud and dust of America's past, it looks magnificent. From the opening shot of a deer drinking from a lake near a farmhouse to Shane riding off into a sunset that beats all other rides into the sunset, director Stevens captures something that feels, as Mayer put it, "mythic".

The images are indelible. The frightening assassin Wilson (a menacing Palance) gunning down a hapless homesteader and leaving him in the mud, the subsequent funeral on a dull hilltop, two men working together to pull out a massive tree stump against an azure sky, the tension of the final shootout, and Shane's farewell all become etched in viewers' memories. The characters are equally memorable - they are far from the caricatures that these types of characters would become. Shane and the Starrett family all have a depth to them that elevates the film and their plight.

Ladd, despite not looking the part, is wonderfully stoic in the lead, and his relationships with the Starrett family are central to the film, as well as its mythic quality. Shane is a cowboy idol - worshipped by both Joey and his father (Heflin), and secretly loved by mother Marian (Arthur) in a beautifully subtle subplot. The titular gunslinger represents a lost part of America, and the Starretts are America, bathing in his mythos. They're in awe of him, though they know nothing of his truth. The kid want Shane to stay and be his dad, the men want to be him, and the women want to bed him. This is some A-level myth-building.

Which is why it feels so petty to mark the film down a whole star because they say "Shane" incessantly, because the kid is annoying, and because Ladd doesn't look right for the role. But everything else about the film feels real, even when it's quite obviously trying to recreate some false but beautiful version of the cowboy legend. This is not a film trying to show us what the Wild West was really like, but to be a perfect example of what America wanted it to be like.

Free Guy

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio Ballarat and South West Victoria on October 1, 2021.

(M) ★★★★

Director: Shawn Levy.

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Taika Waititi, Britne Oldford, Camille Kostek, Matty Cardarople, Channing Tatum, Aaron W. Reed.

"Is that my gun?"

What would it be like living inside a video game world like Grand Theft Auto?

That's the basic premise behind Free Guy, a visually hyperactive but charmingly thoughtful actioner that puts its cast and special FX department to wonderful use.

Ryan Reynolds plays Guy, an NPC (that's non-player character for the "noobs") in the video game Free City, who starts to yearn for something more than his algorithm-determined life inside a bullet-riddled nightmare. As he begins to break his programming, he becomes entangled with Molotov Girl, the player profile of real world game developer Millie Rusk (Comer), who is in a legal battle with Free City's creator Antwan (Waititi) over allegations Antwan stole the game Millie and her friend Keys (Keery) created.

Free Guy was delayed for so long you probably found yourself wondering whether it would be worth the wait. Thankfully it is. Packed with enough Easter eggs to rival Ready Player One and brimming with the buoyant charm of The Lego Movie, Free Guy is a fun exploration of the desire to break out of the daily grind. 

Guy's quest for betterment and for a life outside the norm is reminiscent of Groundhog Day in places, which, coupled with the Grand Theft Auto/Fortnite world he lives in, makes for some great laughs. But it also gives the film its heart and drive. Reynolds plays Guy's naivety with comic ease, and imbues him with a sense of purpose as he tries to find a raison d'etre. His quest for "something more" is genuinely uplifting in places, which is perhaps surprising given the number of explosions in the film.

The added bonus is the film's "real world" story is also cool, as it pokes at the flaws of the video game industry but also gives us two touching characters in Millie and Keys, played earnestly by Comer and Keery. Comer is particularly great in dual roles as Millie/Molotov Girl, while Waititi has a ball chewing the scenery as the film's Big Bad.  

Free Guy is a rarity in that it's a hugely successful big budget actioner that doesn't stem from a pre-existing IP. There's plenty of pop culture for it to trade on, helping Free Guy walk a nice line between originality and familiarity. But what really matters is that it's highly enjoyable and wonderfully funny, with almost as much heart as high-octane special FX sequences.

A deep dive into Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time

I recently wrote an analysis of Rolling Stone's recent list of the 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time, which crowned Aretha Franklin's version of Respect at #1. You can read it here.

I love these kinds of lists. It's why I'm watching the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films. It's why I helped put together a list of the 100 best songs that missed out on a spot in triple j's Hottest 100. The quantification of qualitative artforms is fascinating to me because it conjures the question "what makes this great?". I want to know why these films/songs/albums are so highly regarded, and I want to pull apart what makes one better than another. I've discovered so many cool pieces of art I'd either never heard or never properly paid attention to through these kinds of lists.

In the process of compiling the aforementioned ABC article about Rolling Stone's list, I pulled together a spreadsheet to help me make sense of it all. The spreadsheet told me all sorts of weird and wonderful things I couldn't fit into the article, and it seemed a shame to let it go to waste, so here are some cool lists from within the list.

Disclaimer: Rolling Stone first released its 500 best songs list in 2004, and did a slight update in 2010, but I've ignored the 2010 update because a) it was minor and b) the comparison between 2004 and 2021 is far more interesting.

And if you find any mistakes, please let me know so I can correct them. Thank you.

Top 10 songs from the 2004 list that didn't make the 2021 list

1. Hound Dog - Elvis Presley (2004 position - #19)
2. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - The Righteous Brothers (#34)
3. When A Man Loves A Woman - Percy Sledge (#54)
4. Long Tall Sally - Little Richard (#56)
5. The Times Are A-Changin' - Bob Dylan (#59)
6. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On - Jerry Lee Lewis (#61)
7. For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield (#63)
8. Sunshine Of Your Love - Cream (#65)
9. California Girls - The Beach Boys (#71)
10. Mystery Train - Elvis Presley (#77)

Top 10 eligible songs that didn't make the 2004 list that made the 2021 list

1. Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliott (2021 position - #8)
2. Dreams - Fleetwood Mac (#9)
3. Crazy In Love - Beyonce feat. Jay-Z (#16)
4. Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday (#21)
5. A Case Of You - Joni Mitchell (#26)
6. Once In A Lifetime - Talking Heads (#28)
7. Juicy - Notorious B.I.G. (#32)
8. Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes (#36)
9. B.O.B. - Outkast (#39)
10. Idioteque - Radiohead (#48)

Top 10 biggest improvers

1. Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang - Dr Dre feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg (390 spots, from #419 to #29)
2. Kiss - Prince (376 spots, from #461 to #85)
3. Just Like Heaven - The Cure (375 spots, from #483 to #108)
4. I Feel Love - Donna Summer (359 spots, from #411 to #52)
5. Tiny Dancer - Elton John (340 spots, from #387 to #47)
6. Tumbling Dice - The Rolling Stones (338 spots, from #424 to #86)
7. Super Freak - Rick James (324 spots, from #477 to #153)
8. Fight The Power - Public Enemy (320 spots, from #322 to #2)
9. More Than A Feeling - Boston (288 spots, from #500 to #212)
10. Young Americans - David Bowie (277 spots, from #481 to #204)

Top 10 biggest drops (while still making the cut in 2021)

1. Help! - The Beatles (418 spots, from #29 to #447)
2. Crying - Roy Orbison (392 spots, from #69 to #461)
3. Summertime Blues - Eddie Cochran (359 spots, from #73 to #432)
4. House Of The Rising Sun - The Animals (349 spots, from #122 to #471)
5. California Dreamin' - The Mamas & The Papas (331 spots, from #89 to #420)
6. Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley (302 spots, from #45 to #347)
7. Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac (282 spots, from #119 to #401)
8. Light My Fire - The Doors (275 spots, from #35 to #310)
9. Hotel California - The Eagles (262 spots, from #49 to #311)
10. Up On The Roof - The Drifters (262 spots, from #113 to #375)

Top 10 smallest movers between 2004 and 2021

1. Be My Baby - The Ronettes (no change, #21)
2. Lose Yourself - Eminem (one spot, from #166 to #167)
3. Tangled Up In Blue - Bob Dylan (one spot, from #68 to #67)
4. I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles (one spot, from #16 to #15)
5. Good Golly, Miss Molly - Little Richard (two spots, from #94 to #92)
6. A Day In The Life - The Beatles (two spots, from #26 to #24)
7. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye (two spots, from #4 to #6)
8. Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) - The Eurythmics (three spots, #356 to #353)
9. Proud Mary - Creedence Clearwater Revival (three spots, #155 to #152)
10. Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan (three spots, #1 to #4)

Top 10 of the 2010s

1. Dancing On My Own - Robyn (#20)
2. Runaway - Kanye West feat. Pusha T (#25)
3. Royals - Lorde (#30)
4. Alright - Kendrick Lamar (#45)
5. Gasolina - Daddy Yankee (#50)
6. All Too Well - Taylor Swift (#69)
7. Formation - Beyonce (#73)
8. Rolling In The Deep - Adele (#82)
9. Hold On, We're Going Home - Drake feat. Majid Jordan (#129)
10. Thank U, Next - Ariana Grande (#137)

Top 10 of the 2000s

1. Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliot (#8)
2. Hey Ya! - Outkast (#10)
3. Crazy In Love - Beyonce feat. Jay-Z (#16)
4. Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes (#36)
5. B.O.B. - Outkast (#39)
6. Paper Planes - M.I.A. (#46)
7. Idioteque - Radiohead (#48)
8. Work It - Missy Elliott (#56)
9. Back To Black - Amy Winehouse (#79)
10. All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem (#87)

Top 10 of the '90s

1. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana (#5)
2. Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang - Dr Dre feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg (#29)
3. Juicy - The Notorious B.I.G. (#32)
4. Doo Wop (That Thing) - Lauryn Hill (#49)
5. One - U2 (#62)
6. Common People - Pulp (#75)
7. I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston (#94)
8. Wonderwall - Oasis (#95)
9. You Oughta Know - Alanis Morissette (#103)
10. C.R.E.A.M. - Wu-Tang Clan (#107)

Top 10 of the '80s

1. Fight The Power - Public Enemy (#2)
2. Purple Rain - Prince (#18)
3. Once In A Lifetime - Talking Heads (#28)
4. When Doves Cry - Prince (#37)
5. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division (#41)
6. Redemption Song - Bob Marley & The Wailers (#42)
7. Billie Jean - Michael Jackson (#44)
8. Like A Prayer - Madonna (#55)
9. The Message - Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five (#59)
10. Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush (#60)

Top 10 of the '70s

1. What's Going On - Marvin Gaye (#6)
2. Dreams - Fleetwood Mac (#9)
3. Superstition - Stevie Wonder (#12)
4. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen (#17)
5. Imagine - John Lennon (#19)
6. Heroes - David Bowie (#23)
7. A Case Of You - Joni Mitchell (#26)
8. Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen (#27)
9. Tiny Dancer - Elton John ( #47)
10. I Feel Love - Donna Summer (#52)

Top 10 of the '60s

1. Respect - Aretha Franklin (#1)
2. A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke (#3)
3. Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan (#4)
4. Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles (#7)
5. God Only Knows - The Beach Boys (#11)
6. Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones (#13)
7. Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks (#14)
8. I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles (#15)
9. Be My Baby - The Ronettes (#22)
10. A Day In The Life - The Beatles (#24)

Top 10 of the '30s, '40s & '50s

1. Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday (#21)
2. Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry (#33)
3. Tutti Frutti - Little Richard (#35)
4. I Walk The Line - Johnny Cash (#76)
5. What'd I Say - Ray Charles (#80)
6. Good Golly, Miss Molly - Little Richard (#92)
7. Maybellene - Chuck Berry (#102)
8. That'll Be The Day - Buddy Holly & The Crickets (#124)
9. Blueberry Hill - Fats Domino (#147)
10. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Hank Williams (#165)

Top 10 non-UK/non-US acts

1. Dancing On My Own - Robyn (#20, Sweden)
2. A Case Of You - Joni Mitchell (#26, Canada)
3. Royals - Lorde (#30, New Zealand)
4. Redemption Song - Bob Marley & The Wailers (#42, Jamaica)
5. The Weight - The Band (#58, Canada*)
6. Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen (#74, Canada)
7. You Oughta Know - Alanis Morissette (#103, Canada)
8. Hold On, We're Going Home - Drake feat. Majid Jordan (#129, Canada)
9. No Woman, No Cry - Bob Marley & The Wailers (#140, Jamaica)
10. Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Connor (#184, Ireland)

* The Band featured one American, but are four-fifths Canadian

Note: Puerto Rican singer Daddy Yankee reached #50, which would make him fifth on this list, but technically Puerto Rico is an American territory.

Note 2: Exclude Canada from the list and Get Up, Stand Up by Bob Marley & The Wailers (#260, Jamaica), King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown by Augustus Pablo (#266, Jamaica), The Boys Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy (#272, Ireland), Pressure Drop by Toots & The Maytals (#278, Jamaica), and Never Tear Us Apart by INXS (#282, Australia) complete the list.

Top 10 best years of music

1. 1971 (22 entries)
2. 1965 (20)
3. 1972 and 1970 (19)
5. 1977 (18)
6. 1967 (17)
7. 1968 (16)
8. 1973 (15)
9. 1969 (14)
10. 1975 (13) 

Top 10 best years of music excluding the '60s and '70s

1. 1994 (12)
2. 1980 (11)
3. 1992 and 1982 (10)
5. 2003, 1988, 1987 and 1983 (9)
9. 1991 and 1984 (8)

Thanks for reading, fellow music nerds.

AFI #44: The Philadelphia Story (1940)

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio Ballarat and South West Victoria on October 1, 2021 and ABC Central Victoria on October 4, 2021.

This is part of a series of articles reviewing the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films, as unveiled in 2007. Why am I doing this? Because the damned cinemas were closed and I had to review something, and now I can't stop until I finish.

(PG) ★★★

Director: George Cukor.

Cast: Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey, John Howard, Roland Young, John Halliday, Mary Nash, Virginia Weidler, Henry Daniell. 

The photographer was hiding in a posy of rhododendrons.

Some things age well - good wines, certain cheeses, Buster Keaton's The General, the music of David Bowie.

Some things do not age well, and The Philadelphia Story is on that list.

It's a great pity. It's triumvirate of stars - Hepburn, Grant, Stewart - is among the best that ever was and ever will be. And all three are great in this "quintessential screwball comedy" as it's often labelled. You know you've got a killer cast at the top of their game when a low-key Cary Grant is third fiddle.

But so much of the film has aged so poorly. Much of its humour requires a century-old dictionary and an understanding of social graces in the '30s/'40s, the sexual politics are cringingly out of date, the domestic violence jokes are sickening these days, and all of these factors ensure the weird first act really grinds. 

The story follows reporter Macaulay Connor (Stewart) and his photographer girlfriend Liz Imbrie (Hussey) as they prepare to cover the "wedding of the year" between upper class socialite Tracy Lord (Hepburn) and mining magnate George Kittredge (Howard). Thanks to some blackmail from their editor Sidney Kidd (Daniell) and some assistance from Tracy's ex-husband CK Dexter Haven (Grant), Macaulay and Liz end up staying with the Lord family as the big day approaches by posing as friends of an absent son, though their ruse is soon discovered. What happens next is a tangled web of self-discovery and analysis as people reveal their true feelings for each other.

A lot of the films on this list have captured a snapshot of a particular time and place which has stopped them from ageing, like a bug in amber. Either that or their messages have remained relevant, or their techniques have been indisputably influential. But The Philadelphia Story doesn't do any of those things. As a snapshot of an era and peoples, it's so exaggerated and small scale that it makes the film largely inscrutable these days. The class war hinted as never seems to go anywhere or say anything, and the humour of it all is lost in translation some 80 years later. It's only its pointed digs at the tabloid media that work, but even those are unbalanced and overblown.

It's influence is limited to being a great example of a mostly dead genre - the screwball comedy. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die labels it "the uncontested classic of all sophisticated slapstick comedies". Not on my watch. As far as slapstick, there are half a dozen superior Chaplin and Keaton flicks that are better, and as for screwball, Some Like It Hot leaves it for dead, and I'm hopeful It Happened One Night and Bringing Up Baby still hold up. 

The opening scene, which ends with Grant shoving Hepburn's face and pushing her to the ground, was supposedly hilarious in 1940 but is now diabolical. Two text books I own praise it for its wordless effectiveness, and while it is a prime example of the "show, don't tell" adage, its portrayal of casual domestic violence leaves a bad taste.

The first half is utterly bizarre - the Lord family knows what's going on in terms of the blackmail and act like a bunch of eccentrics, somehow thinking this will make for a good portrayal in the magazine Macaulay and Liz work for. There are a few good one-liners in there (mostly anything Liz says) but it predominantly falls flat. There's also a horrible section in the middle of the film where every key male character lines up to tell Tracy what's wrong with her, including her caddish father who excuses his infidelity as a necessary part of ageing for men.

These are the bad points. Outweighing them just enough to save the film from being a total chore are the performances, some whipsmart dialogue, and a second half that's far funnier, more enjoyable, and less forced. Sure, no one acts or talks like a real person most of the time, but The Philadelphia Story finds a new groove in the final hour that becomes infectious.

Key to it is a wonderfully drunken scene involving Grant and Stewart, followed by an intoxicated rendezvous between Stewart and Hepburn. All three actors give magnificent performances, and it seems the film's place in history is largely linked to having these icons sharing the screen. The dialogue is delicious in places, and they devour every snooty, haughty, judgey line of it.

At best, The Philadelphia Story is a tribute to these three performers, flying at the top of their game, and perhaps it can be regarded as a vague examination of the class wars and sexual politics of the '30s and '40s. But without its trio of legends, a few well-placed zingers, and some pretty patter, The Philadelphia Story would likely be long forgotten, lost in a mist of ideas and behaviours that have aged like a banana left in the sun.