B&W-2

I finally saw this film, after avoiding it for years because friends had warned me off. After seeing it, I was forced to decide that I need some new friends... What an incredible film. Absolutely beautiful sets, rapid-fire screwball comedy dialogue, and one of the great performances by THE best actress of our time, Jennifer Jason Leigh. I don't know what to say to the nitwits who dislike her virtuoso turn as newspaperwoman Amy Archer... Don't they recognize Katharine Hepburn when they hear her? I am always sickened when I hear people attacking Leigh in "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle", which is THE best film of the nineties, if you ask me, and now I can get queasy over this one too! She is so outrageously good that I can't do anything but throw bouquets! The rest of the film is almost as good. It's clearly an homage to screwball comedy, and to Frank Capra in particular. As a student of Capra, I have some quibbles, but it was beautiful to see plot, character, and visual elements from films like "Meet John Doe" and "MR. Deeds Goes To Town" resurrected for our time. I don't believe that the Coens actually made a "Capra film" (Norville Barnes is not grounded enough to be a Capra hero, although he bears quite a few similarities to John Willoughby, the aimless oddball in Capra's oeuvre), but they have done something almost as good, they've made a genuine, personalized contribution to the screwball comedy tradition, and that is something to be lauded for. Screwball/romantic-comedy is America's greatest contribution to the art of film (along with film noir) and it's good to see directors who appreciate this fact!

I can't help loving this movie! It's a throwback to old-school romantic comedy, with a mystery thrown in, kind of like "The Thin Man". I guess the best thing about it is Debra Winger as Laura J. Kelly, a pixieish defense lawyer who enjoys a love-hate relationship with assistant D.A. Robert Redford. A lot of people don't like this movie, but I can't understand why. It's a sweet and funny tale with sympathetic characters and a pretty good mystery. What's wrong with that?

This film offers a standing rebuke to critics who use the term "Capracorn". None of Capra's films are as blindly optimistic as is often argued, but this one is a pitch-black jeremiad against manipulation by the media. The mob scene at the "John Doe" convention is one of the powerful scenes ever filmed. Stanwyck is incredible as reporter Anne Mitchell. She is one of the great actresses of the century, and she always did her best work Capra, whose female characters are generally more compelling to the women we get in the movies of our "liberated" era. Cooper is fantastic as a truly "average" guy who is "awakened" by his experience with the John Doe movement, and Edward Arnold is absolutely terrifying in the role of Fascist D.B. Norton. This film is even more relevant today than when it was made, and I would argue that it should be viewed in high schools across the continent. Capra is asking his viewers to think critically of EVERYTHING they hear on the radio or see in papers or hear from elites, and amen to that!