Flickgrrl

Has it really been a decade since the Ol' Blue Eyes stopped sparkling? Frank Sinatra (pictured), subject of a deserved retrospective on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) this month, appeared in 58 movies, about a dozen worth TIVO-ing. (In this twelve I do not include the 1960 Ocean's Eleven, an excuse for Sinatra and his Rat Pack to get paid for partying at their Vegas clubhouse, the Sands Hotel.)
As a recording artist, he was peerless. As a film actor, in the 1950s he was as important as Marlon Brando in personifying moody masculinity. (And you gotta admit, in Guys and Dolls, Sinatra's insouciant Nathan Detroit blew Brando's Sky Masterson off the screen.) In Sinatra's best performances, he suggests two warring impulses. Often he is a casualty of the romantic and the social wars, flintily defending what Stephen Holden called his bruised romanticism. In comedy (see The Tender Trap) Sinatra carries a lightness of spirit with a darkness of experience. In drama (see The Manchurian Candidate) he defends his masculinity while baring his vulnerability. And we haven't even talked about the velvet rumble of his voice, which David Thomson likened to "a noir sound, like saxophones, foghorns, gunfire and the quiet weeping of women in the background." Sinatra's was also a boudoir sound, like violins, a belt unbuckling, sighing and the quiet rustle of sheets.

If you're a TCM subscriber, TIVO Guys and Dolls (May 11, midnight), The Tender Trap (May 14, 8 pm), High Society (May 14, 12:15 am), Pal Joey (May 18, 9 pm), Young at Heart (May 18, midnight), Some Came Running (May 21, 4:45 am), On the Town (May 25, 9 pm), The Man With the Golden Arm (May 28, 8 pm), The Manchurian Candidate (May 28, 10:15 pm) and Suddenly (May 28, 2:30 am). If you're going the DVD route, to this list add From Here to Eternity and Von Ryan's Express.

Did I forget one of your favorites? What do you think of Sinatra as an actor? Pet performance? Pet song? (For me, best performance is a tie between Tender Trap and Manchurian Candidate ; best song a tie between his recording of "Blue Skies" with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra and "Angel Eyes.")

Is it because this is the season of the Hollywood blockbuster or is a specter haunting arthouses like the Landmark-owned Ritz Theatres: The vanishing Indiewood movie? Indiewood is a catchall term for the off-Hollywood independent movie such as Sarah Polley's Oscar nominated Away from Her starring Julie Christie, pictured.
If I had a nickel for every time this month readers, friends and acquaintances have told me, "I haven't been to the movies since Oscar time," I could finance my own indie picture.
It's not that there aren't worthy off-Hollywood films out there. I very much like The Visitor, The Counterfeiters, Son of Rambow, Flight of the Red Balloon, and Young @ Heart, but these films haven't been flypaper for cinephiles.
Initially I thought that the word-of-mouth for these films couldn't be heard over the relentless tub-thumping for Iron Man (which I also like) and other big-budget blockbusters. But I think there are other factors at play.
One macro-factor is that some Hollywood studios are killing off their specialty-film divisions, such as Warners' Picturehouse, which distributed the Oscar winners Pan's Labyrinth and La Vie en Rose. Some specialty-film producers, like Sidney Kimmel Films, which produced the excellent Talk to Me, Kite Runner and Lars and the Real Girl, are in downsize mode because their films haven't met with commercial success.
(The big Indiewood success of the past year is Juno, which was made for $7 million and thus far has grossed $225 million. Besides being a terrific movie, it represented nearly a 1:40 return on investment.
One micro-factor is evident in Philadelphia: Landmark Theaters, which acquired the locally-owned Ritz chain a littkle more than a year ago, is churning films through its theaters so fast that audiences don't have time to find them. When the late Ramon Posel, who built the Ritz chain, was booking the theaters, the fare was more distinctive -- and stuck around a little longer -- than it has been so far under Landmark's aegis.
What Indiewood films do you like this spring? What do you think of the Landmark operation?

Since I'm not much of a fan of the Indiana Jones films, I went to a preview of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with dread, watched it with a mixture of nostalgia and bemusement, and left shrugging my shoulders. "There are two hours of my life I'll never get back," one depressed fanboy said to another as we left the theater. I didn't think it was as awful as all that, and it definitely was better than the Temple of Doom.
Happily, Crystal Skull has plucky Karen Allen, returning as Marion Ravenwood, and dominatrix Cate Blanchett -- talking like Natasha of Boris and Natasha -- in a Louise Brooks wig. Are you an Indy lover, a Raiders-hater, something in between? What do you enjoy/dislike about the movies? Me? Love Harrison Ford's nonchalance, hate the colonial racial stereotypes and have been scratching my head about why in the second and third installments the females were so dispensible.