Movie Review: The Shining (1980)

A cultured horror film, The Shining mixes ghosts, madness and the supernatural into an exquisitely scary experience. Stanley Kubrick creates a unique mood of impending dread, with nerve-jangling visuals, stunning editing, and frightfully smooth Steadicam cinematography.

Struggling writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) accepts the role of winter caretaker at the imposing Overlook hotel, high in the Colorado mountains. Built on a Native burial ground, the grand hotel closes during the winter due to its isolated location. Jack, his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and young son Danny (Danny Lloyd) will live alone at the hotel from October to May. Before accepting the job, Jack is informed that the isolation can be depressing, and that the caretaker in 1970, a man named Grady, slaughtered his two daughters and wife with an axe before killing himself. As the hotel is closing down, head chef Dick Halloran (Scatman Crothers) has a private chat with Danny: they both possess supernatural, extrasensory powers, termed "the shining" and Dick warns Danny to stay away from Room 237.

As the Torrance family settles down for the winter, Jack gets nowhere with his writing and starts to exhibit irrational, aggressive behaviour towards Wendy. Danny spends the time riding his tricycle along the endless corridors of the hotel, and encounters disturbing visions of the two Grady daughters and enormous quantities of blood gushing through the hotel. Danny is inexplicably attacked, and when Jack investigates Room 237 he has a mind-bending encounter with a naked woman. With telephone communications cut and the hotel engulfed in a massive snow storm, Jack also starts to encounter ghosts, pushing him over the edge, while Danny telepathically reaches out to Dick for help.

Kubrick's adaptation of the Stephen King novel is a multi-layered horror experience. Rather than one distinct theme of madness due to isolation, The Shining expands into ghosts of past atrocities and the power of haunted places gaining control of Jack's mind. Early in the movie Jack is portrayed as susceptible to violence and with a history of excessive drinking, a prime candidate for manipulation by evil forces much stronger than himself. In Kubrick's story it's not the isolation per se that gets to Jack; the isolation is just the gateway through which the evil that lurks in the Overlook gains entry into the psyche of the weak.

Unexpectedly lining up on the side of good is young Danny, his invisible friend "Tony" (the outlet for his gift of  extrasensory perception), and Dick Halloran. Dick's intervention does not unfold as planned; but it proves to be nevertheless timely and crucial, the shining indeed shedding light on the dark spirits at play in the Overlook hotel.

Kubrick leaves plenty of talking points and clues to points unknown strewn across The Shining, including ghosts interacting with physical objects, Mr. Grady's first name, cryptic dialogue (Grady to Jack: I'm sorry to differ with you, sir, but you are the caretaker. You've always been the caretaker. I should know, sir, I've always been here), and the famous photo that ends the movie. Interpretations to connect some or all of the dots are interesting but also unnecessary. The Overlook hotel is not inhabited by normal folks, and the caretaker is mentally unwell. Not everything will need a neat explanation.

Jack Torrance is perhaps Nicholson's most recognizable role. In some ways this is a pity, since there is nothing nuanced in Jack's rapid descent into madness. The man goes nuts, and he does it fairly quickly. The only question becomes the timing of his turn to blatant violence, and Kubrick keeps the leash fairly tight until the final 30 minutes.

Remarkably for a terrifying movie, there is exactly one on-screen murder, Kubrick preferring to inject horror through inference. The creepy image of the two Grady sisters becomes a short-cut to raw panic, while the slow motion scene of blood flooding through the hotel is majestically horrifying, despite damage only being inflicted on furniture.

The relatively new Steadicam technology is deployed to dazzling effect, Kubrick and Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown collaborating to develop the mechanics and produce impeccable shots. Most memorable are scenes of Danny pedalling furiously through the hotel on his plastic tricycle, tracked by the camera, alternately passing over silent carpet and noisy wooden sections of the floor. Soon the tricycle trips are markers for shocks that lurk around the corners, the Steadicam providing a Danny-eyed view of unwelcome intrusions.

John Alcott's cinematography adds to the menacing vibe, from the dramatic opening shots of the road to the Overlook, emphasizing the challenging terrain and the hotel's isolation, to the lavish interiors celebrating the hotel's history, and finally ending with the dark, brooding snow-covered exterior of the hotel once the harmony within the Torrance family begins to shred.

The Shining is a rare cinematic achievement, thought-provoking, intellectual, and genuinely terrifying.

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Movie Review: Roxanne (1987)

A mild comedy that combines reasonable sophistication with some rough edges, Roxanne showcases Steve Martin's talent without breaking free of reliance on rather obvious gimmickry.

Based on the play Cyrano de Bergerac, Roxanne tells the story of small town fire chief Charlie "C.D." Bales (Martin), who has a ridiculously long nose, and is hyper sensitive about it. Respected by the community but lonely in his love life, C.D. is smitten by astronomer Roxanne Kowalski (Daryl Hannah), renting a house in town for the summer. But Roxanne only has eyes for hunky and dim firefighter Chris (Rick Rossovich).

Both Roxanne and Chris turn to C.D. as a trusted advisor to help move their romance along, and C.D. takes an active role in wooing Roxanne on behalf of the hapless Chris, feeding him lines of conversation and writing love letters for Chris to sign.

Filmed in scenic Nelson, British Columbia, Roxanne has the undeniable charm that comes with quirky characters dealing with matters of the heart in a small town setting. This is pushed too hard in some cases, with the comic antics of the volunteer firefighters more suitable for a low-brow slapstick comedy. But Roxanne does reach a few comic peaks, most notably when C.D. delights the locals at the town cafe by coming up with 20 original one-line insults about the size of his nose.

Steve Martin delivers a generally confident performance, but still defaults to unnecessary dependence on juvenile physical shenanigans rather than fully trusting the story and characters to deliver genuine warm humour. Daryl Hannah sparkles as Roxanne, the effortlessly attractive outsider who turns the heads of all the locals. Rick Rossovich leaves a trail of dangerous question marks surrounding his performance, as he is unable to convince that Chris' wooden demeanour is due to the character rather than the actor. Shelley Duvall is largely wasted as the local cafe owner.

Director Fred Schepisi matches the laid back and friendly small town vibe with a light touch on the controls. When he is not focusing on the lush rural scenery, Schepisi maximizes the visual impact of Martin's extraordinary beak from various angles, with some of the head-on camera shots cleverly concealing the nose size until just the right moment.

Roxanne sniffs out and inhales a mostly harmless and sometimes pleasing middle ground of romantic comedy aromas. It is rarely breathtaking, but it also never stinks.

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Movie Review: Annie Hall (1977)

A ground-breaking romantic comedy, Annie Hall set a genre standard that has rarely been matched. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton sparkle as the perfect example of opposites attracting each other, and both deliver career defining performances.

The film is narrated by Allen in the role of Alvy Singer. An insecure Jew born and raised in Brooklyn and now working as a stand-up comic in New York City, Singer recounts his on-again, off-again relationship with girlfriend and aspiring singer Annie Hall (Diane Keaton). Although they share little in common, Singer and Hall find a unique chemistry between regular bouts of sparring and bickering.

Twice divorced and turning forty, Singer is obsessed with issues of life and death, sensitive about being a Jew, condescending towards the views of others, and unapologetically pessimistic. Hall is cheerful, transparent, self effacing, and a demon driver. They argue about education, sex, smoking pot, life in New York, and social engagements, but nevertheless enjoy being together more than being apart, until the relationship appears to reach a dead end.

Allen populates Annie Hall with colourful characters in relatively small but memorable roles, including Tony Roberts as Alvy's only friend, Paul Simon as the main competition vying for Annie's attention, Carol Kane as Alvy's first wife and Shelley Duvall as a one-night stand. They drift in and out of the wobbly orbit being travelled by Alvy and Annie, adding touches of quirky humour.

Annie Hall is filled with daring touches of humour drawn from original film-making techniques, including Allen continuously breaking the fourth wall to address the audience, and a scene where sub-titles are used to convey what Alvy and Annie and really thinking, a totally separate conversation from their actual exchange of dialogue. Alvy and Annie in their present forms frequently drop in on episodes from their past, and one scene is entirely animated.

In another stylistic triumph, Annie Hall evokes the pace of real life thanks to Allen using long takes to allow scenes to develop and breathe, the camera of cinematographer Gordon Willis an unobtrusive and casual observer of unfolding human interaction, editor Ralph Rosenblum prominent due to his lack of activity. Characters stumble over their thoughts and sometimes over each other's words as they would if there were no cameras around, with the humour stemming from recognizable wit rather than cinematic sarcasm.

Annie Hall's influence extended beyond the screen and helped shape the cultural landscape of the mid to late 1970s. Keaton's wardrobe ignited a radical fashion trend and Allen's commentary on life and death framed societal engagement. At the core of the movie are two compellingly irresistible characters: despite their up and down relationship, they would have been most welcome guests at any dinner party.

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