Prime Cut

Some movies are just a variety of odd, weird and offbeat. That can be a good thing as long as a movie commits to being quirky. I don't really know what to make of 1972's Prime Cut having just finished it. It is all of those things, but the best part? It embraces the quirkiness and goes with it. Better because it's weird.

Working as an enforcer for the Irish mob in Chicago, Nick Devlin (Lee Marvin) has pretty much seen it all. This time around, he's got a job that even he couldn't quite plan for. With some help from three young Irish enforcers, Nick must head to Kansas City to deal with Mary Ann (Gene Hackman), a mobster himself running a crooked slaughterhouse with some secrets. Several other enforcers have been sent with lousy results. The last one? Mary Ann had him ground up and sent back to Chicago as sausage (quite literally, he's sausage links). Nick isn't one to shy away from a job -- any job -- so he travels to Kansas City and get the $500,000 that Mary Ann owes the Irish mob. The experienced enforcer doesn't quite know everything though, finding upon arrival that even Mary Ann has some tricks up his sleeve.

This is truly a flick that defies just about any description I can come up with. From director Michael Ritchie, I figured it would be a pretty straightforward, enjoyable gangster flick starring the always reliable, always tough Lee Marvin. It's an apt description to a point, but it's also so much more, and for the good. Because it covers so much ground and does it effectively, calling it a crime thriller with pulpy undertones on top of an out of left field love story with an almost existential feel to the fast-paced story that an art house film might be proud of is....very fair. It's all of that, and it does it well. Impressive considering the flick only runs 88 minutes and never really slows down. I was expecting one movie and got another instead, for the better.

Let's start with probably the most normal thing about 'Cut,' and that's Lee Marvin (a favorite here at Just Hit Play). The description of his part sounded a little bit like Point Blank, and at it's most basic, it is. He does the tough guy anti-hero part like nobody's business. A former Marine, he handles the action scenes expertly and capably, but he's not a one-trick pony. Marvin can deliver a snappy one-liner with the best. His Nick Devlin has quite the past (hinted at more than shown), but it's a great lead character. How about Gene Hackman as a villain? Sounds good, right? How about an over the top villain named Mary Ann who oozes sleaze and slime and runs a corrupt slaughterhouse where you can buy top choice meat.....and drugged up young women sold as slaves? Yep, that's a good villain if there ever was. Hackman's part isn't gigantic, but every time he is on-screen, you can't help but love to hate him.

So where to start in general? There's a lot of worthy jumping off points, but the obvious is the opening credits, a montage of the inner workings of Mary Ann's slaughterhouse. Uh-oh, is that a shoe...and then a man being ground up? Watch it HERE. It's an unsettling, realistic opening that certainly sets the tone. Not subtle by any means, things get switched up then in the next scene as Nick, three enforcers and a driver drive to KC in a montage scene reminiscent of a French art house crime thriller. It's quite the change of pace from one scene to the next. Things get ratcheted up then when we meet Mary Ann, Nick walking through his display barn only to see naked young women (heavily drugged) lying in cattle pens for buyers to purchase. The meeting between Nick and Mary Ann (again, why the woman's name?) is perfect, two sides testing the other for all they're worth. Some of these transitions could be kind of jarring if handled incorrectly, but Ritchie manages to make this mess of a story work, and work well.

It's the balance that works. I wouldn't have expected an endearing love story to develop between Marvin's Nick and a young woman he rescues from Mary Ann's sale, Poppy, played in her screen debut by Sissy Spacek. She comes from a sheltered past where she was raised to be sold as a slave, but she's managed to rise above it -- focusing on the simple positives of life -- and finds an ally in Nick, her rescuer. Having rescued her, Nick buys a handful of different dresses and takes her out for an expensive dinner. While everyone else stares at her revealing dress, Nick -- ever the gentleman -- stares them down, teaching her which silverware to use and when. It's almost surreal in its oddness. I make no bones about my dislike of force-feeding a love story into a movie that doesn't need it, but when handled correctly (like here), it's hard to make any complaints.

Then there's the more pulpy crime stuff I expected going in. That's not a negative by any means. It is a tough guy film and that means a whole lot of crazy 1970s action. Probably the most memorable scene is a confrontation at a crowded country fair, Nick running with Poppy from Mary Ann's small army of overall-wearing, shotgun-wielding country boys. The capper is a gem, the duo running in an immense open wheatfield from a thresher. Watch it HERE. The big blowout is saved for last, Nick -- using a submachine gun -- and his remaining enforcers approaching Mary Ann's farm fortress through a field of sunflowers. It's a tense, well-choreographed sequence that sets up the actual finale quite well.

As for the rest of the cast, Gregory Walcott is quite memorable as Weenie, Mary Ann's thuggish, perverted brothers, and Angel Tompkins as Clarabelle, Mary Ann's wife who has a past with Nick. William Morey (in his only role) plays Shay, Nick's driver who's worked many times in the past with him, with Clint Ellison, Howard Platt and Les Lannom as the young enforcers. This is one epically weird movie overall, but I loved just about everything it offers. It most definitely is weird so know what you're getting into, but I highly recommend this one.

Prime Cut (1972): *** 1/2 /****

The Help

By no means did I avoid 2011's The Help, but I never actively sought it out either. A success at the box office and during awards season, I just wasn't dying to see it regardless of all the positive reviews. I'm stubborn that way apparently. So here we sit, a year later, and I caught up with it. Definitely worth the wait, and another lesson I shouldn't be so stubborn when it comes to movies.

Having just gotten her college degree, Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone) heads home to Jackson, Mississippi hoping to get a job writing for a local newspaper. She gets that job, ghostwriting a column about cleaning advice. Skeeter seeks the help of Aibileen (Viola Davis), a maid who works for one of the richer, well-to-do families in town. Having grown up in Jackson, Skeeter has seen the inner workings of the town; white families served hand and foot by their African-American servants with no regard for feelings. Talking to Aibileen, Skeeter thinks it would be a great idea to write a book written from the perspective of "the help." Aibileen and her friend and fellow maid, Minny (Octavia Spencer), agree, but they're scared to death of the possible consequences.

From director Tate Taylor, this is an interesting movie to watch, digest and review. While it is a highly enjoyable film to watch, it is also intensely uncomfortable to watch because of.....well, it's honesty. Set in early 1960s Mississippi, the focus is clearly on the racism and segregation that ran rampant in the South and around much of the U.S. for years (and still does in different ways). It is a difficult movie to watch, difficult to comprehend people treat others like this. The help are treated like dirt with some believing they carry "different diseases" to the point their own bathrooms are built in garages.

Credit to Taylor and his crew though for making the movie. Set just 50 years ago from the present, it feels like we're traveling as viewers in a time machine. You watch this movie and feel like you've been transported to 1960s Jackson. Everything from the wardrobe to the sets to the big boats of cars gives 'Help' an air of authenticity. We see people smoking anywhere and everywhere, we see the violence that erupts from the developing Civil Rights movement, and the way the maids and help are treated like second-class citizens. I especially liked Thomas Newman's score as well, an underplayed score that moves the story along nicely.

By far though, the best thing going for Taylor's film is the cast. It's a deep cast. Very deep. Up until this point in her career, Emma Stone had done mostly comedic work, even some light drama. In a major starring role, Stone doesn't disappoint. It isn't a performance that requires her to carry the movie, but that's the beauty of such a strong ensemble. She develops quite the interesting character, and one that ends up being a means to an end to introduce the deeper, more dramatic parts. Also look for Allison Janney as Skeeter's mother, Charlotte, Ahna O'Reilly as Elizabeth, a young married woman who has Aibileen as a maid, Sissy Spacek as an aging Southern belle and the mother of another character (more on Hilly later), and Cicely Tyson as Constantine, the Phelan's maid who was a key figure in Skeeter's childhood.

 All those performances are solid, but four other performances end up being what many viewers took away from the film. Octavia Spencer won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her part as Minny, the fiery, opinionated maid who ends up butting heads with Bryce Dallas Howard's Hilly, the -- pardon my language -- Queen Bitch in Jackson. Spencer is the showier part while Viola Davis gets the more understated and underplayed part that provides the perfect counter to Spencer's Minny. It is an epically appropriate duo, two genuine friends who have also bonded through their similar trials. Davis was also nominated for an Oscar but lost to Meryl Streep from The Iron Lady. Her motherly relationship with Elizabeth's daughter is the crux of the movie. Howard is a despicably unlikable villain in a great performance. The third nominated part goes to Jessica Chastain as Celia, an outsider in Jackson because Hilly hates her. Her relationship with Spencer's Minny ends up being a key part of the movie, a highly effective emotional relationship. Four great performances though.

If there is a complaint I had, it's that at 146 minutes, 'Help' is a tad on the long side. It's never boring and always interesting to watch, but in certain parts of the second half it felt like I had been watching the movie for quite a long time. The ending makes up for any draggy portions with a kick right in the crotch in the emotion department. It's a heartbreakingly real ending, one that while appropriate is depressing nonetheless. A very good movie overall that deserves all the kudos and accolades it's earned. Glad I caught up with it.

The Help (2011): ***/****