Remembering Gene Wilder (2023)

Director: Ron Frank

Cast: Gene Wilder, Alan Alda, Carol Kane, Mel Brooks

Have I Seen It Before: Nope. Even went to go see it in the theater, and wouldn’t you know it? It gets released on Netflix the very next day. So there I am, sitting in the theater, surrounded by geriatrics occasionally muttering, “Oh, well, he’s dead now.” If I really wanted to do that, I’d just go to work. I love you, movie theaters, but you test me sometimes, ya know?

Did I Like It: The film is very entertaining, but that’s because Wilder himself was a genius. The film is filled with clips of his greatest moments. That’ll make a 90-minute runtime rush by. It also made me want to re-watch The Producers (1967), Young Frankenstein (1974), and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971). I also spent more than a few minutes trying to track down copies of The Frisco Kid (1979), The World’s Greatest Lover (1977), and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother (1975). I’m probably willing to concede that means the film hits its target, but again that is because it is being propped up by other films.

But this is ultimately a competent, but not exceptional documentary. Talking heads abound. Mel Brooks is a delight as always, Harry Connick, Jr. doesn’t really have much to say. There is plenty of very good narration from Wilder himself, but all of it is taken from the audiobook of Wilder’s memoir, Kiss Me Like A Stranger… Which I’ve already listened to. The only sections where the film tries to go beyond the territory of a DVD special feature is when it focuses on Wilder’s final years and his struggle with Alzheimer’s. It’s a deeper look, but somehow manages to be both intimate to the point of being intrusive and reticent (perhaps rightly so) to say anything revelatory about the disease or people’s experience with it. Those sections are unusual, but they have too much of a home video quality to recommend.

When a Stranger Calls (1979)

Director: Fred Walton

Cast: Charles Durning, Carol Kane, Colleen Dewhurst, Troy Beckley

Have I Seen it Before: Never. In fact, if Columbia/Tri-Star hadn’t mae the Blu Ray packaging look like a well worn copy at a VHS rental store, I might have missed it for the rest of my life, or at least until it came up on rotation for Beyond the Cabin in the Woods at some other point in time.

Did I Like It: I liked twenty minutes of it, but that is all to say, no.

Carol Kane is so good at the beginning, and that first act is so taut it’s no wonder to see how it inspired Scream (1996) and its sequels just as much as Halloween (1978). But then the movie jumps ahead seven years for reasons never fully justified, and meanders in a dreary, fatigued cat and mouse game between an incompetent police detective turned PI (Durning) and the killer (Beckley).

I had the slightest bit of hope that when Kane—now married with children her own—returns for the final half hour of the film, things might be looking up. It probably would not be enough to get me to like the film, but at the very least it could have finished strong.

No such luck. Poor Kane succumbed to the sensibility of the rest of the film and lurches through the final scene turning into one of the more frustrating characters in a horror movie. People often moan and wail about horror movie characters doing “stupid” things. I’ve always fully been able to imagine a person in aa stressful situation doing things that might be ill-considered. Kane’s character appears to have entirely forgotten about her traumatic experience in the film’s opening and behaves as if certain, instinctual parts of her brain had never been fully connected.

So to sum up, a reasonably good twenty minutes, followed by 70 minutes of almost relentless bullshit, and one good Blu Ray cover that in retrospect… doesn’t feel that good.

That all being said: if they want to go for a legacy sequel with later-day Kane bringing her Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt to a self-aware slasher, I’d be happy to be first in line.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend (2020)

Director: Claire Scanlon

Cast: Ellie Kemper, Tituss Burgess, Carol Kane, Daniel Radcliffe

Have I Seen it Before: Nope. It’s a brand new but anticipated thing, which is a strange thing to have these days. Aside from still wanting to see No Time To Die and the increasing likelihood that The New Mutants will one day become The Day The Cried Clown of modern cinema, wanting to see a forthcoming movie feel like something from the before times.

Did I Like It: Now, that that is out of the way, it is almost impossible for this review to not take two different paths. How clever of me.

Does it work as a coda for the series? Yes, I would even dare to say more effectively than the last proper season managed. Finally bringing Kimmy (Kemper) face to face with the Reverend (Jon Hamm) and giving her the opportunity to stoop to his level—if righteously—or embrace the optimism that made her unbreakable in the first place was far more satisfying than making all of the characters successful in their careers and financially stable. One might take this opportunity to note that the proceedings are just as funny as the show’s first, superlative season.

There are plenty of more additional notes for the other characters to reach. If you play the story correctly (and there is a correct way, more on that later) Titus (Burgess) evolves ever so slightly past his self-absorption, becoming a better friend, an accidentally more professional actor and eats less dirt, while Jacqueline (Jane Krakowski) never has to confront a lie and avoids accidentally negating the entire #metoo movement. Everyone who might deserve a happy ending gets one, and the Reverend eats it with or without Kimmy’s vengeance.

Which is the only complaint I might have. Since I’ve done a little bit of work in the genre, I can say that the choose-your-own-adventure branching storyline doesn’t work nearly as well as it could have. There is really only one path that the story can take, and any deviation from that path invites disaster. Had there been two distinct storylines that the viewer decides on in the early proceedings, maybe each path would be shorter than what we’re presented with, but there would have been more satisfying avenues of exploration. 

Also, the conceit of a branching story like this presupposes that the viewer is able to make choices for the story, not control the realities of the story. At one decision point, the viewer is able to decide whether or not Titus actually does know “Freebird” before he takes the stage at a bar, or merely thinks he knows it. Two different bits follow, which is fine, but contemplating the reality that he both knows and doesn’t know the song before that point in time is enough to give Schrödinger a headache. The more I type this, the more I wonder if I dislike or love that different sensibility. One, you are in control of the character, but here it is as if you are part of the writing staff of the show, which is about as good a fantasy as I can think of.