Travis Bickle is a Vietnam vet turned night shift taxi driver, turned almost presidential candidate assassin, turned prostitute protector. He’s an insomniac with PTSD and poor social skills. He has an obsessive personality and really skewed ideas of what it means to be a hero.
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The adaptation of books into films can go sideways hard and fast. But in this case, I think the film version of this story is a beautiful compliment to the story that James Baldwin was telling with his novel.
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Prior to taking a dive into the work of Cindy Evans, I had only heard of the movie Temple Grandin. I didn’t have any particular desire to watch it, and didn’t even know what it was about really. But after watching it and then falling into a rabbit hole of research about the amazing woman that this story focuses on, I was kind of obsessed.
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I must admit that I’m not familiar with too many films featuring Owen Wilson because he tends to star in comedies, and comedies aren’t usually my thing. And while this movie fits into the category of a romance comedy, It also checks some other boxes like period film, set in Paris and featuring the likes of Marion Cotillard and Kathy Bates, that makes it a film right up my alley.
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I walked a long winding road to this review, remix and rendering. I’ll explain. I’d watched Legend (2015) about the Kray twins and there was this beautiful mini dress that Francis (Emily Browning) wore on her first date with Reg (Tom Hardy).
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This sci-fi extravaganza includes all the things you might expect in a sci-fi film. There’s a plague that kills most of the world, time travel, a post-apocalyptic subterranean dystopia, lots of scrap metal, plastic, wire and dirt. Oh, and there’s Brad Pitt with a wonky eye to make him look crazy and not hot. Spoiler alert: He still looks hot.
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REVIEW
Normally I start off with a synopsis. But I think we’ve done this story so many times that there’s no need for me to beat it in the head any more. In fact, it’s because this story has been done and redone and re-fucking-done so many times that I was SURE I would hate it. Brandy Norwood is forever my Cinderella. Whitney Houston is forever my Fairy Godmother…that is of course until Fab G strolled onto the scene. Billy Porter as Fab G raised this dead horse from the dead and gave it everlasting life!
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It’s 1947 and there’s an English professor named Humbert Humbert (full stop: I should have just turned off the TV here). He’s just moved to the states and is looking for a place to stay while he teaches. He meets a woman renting out a room in her house, Charlotte Haze, and is basically ready to run out of there (Charlotte is annoying and thirsty) until he sees her 14-year-old daughter, Dolores “Lo” Haze. He describes her as a nymphette and decides to stay just so he can be around her. (full stop: Sir, you’re saying that this little girl is actually a baby seductress?!)
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Here’s a quickie little synopsis before I get into my review.
Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD!
We’re in 1950s Pittsburg where we meet husband and wife, Troy and Rose Maxson. Troy is a factory worker who has a penchant for drinking and cheating on his wife. Rose, is the hard working long suffering wife and mother of their teen son Corey. Troy has an older son, Lyons, from a previous relationship, who is lazy and trifling. This negro don’t know the meaning of work.
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Left Hand Lacey is the character you love to hate and his style borders on the absurd. That said, I have always been in love with the spin on a spectacle chain that he wears. He has glasses that don’t have arms, but instead have a chain and that chain connects to a single earring. BRILLIANT! Ruth E. Carter strikes again.
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The Craft is one of those movies that holds a weird and special place in the hearts of any girl who was a teen in the 90’s. Because I’m black, my fave witch was and always will be Rachel True’s character, Rochelle. I coveted her hair. I coveted her skin. And most of all, I coveted her clothes. Thank you Deborah Everton!
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Confessions of a Shopaholic, designed by the amazing Patricia Field, is what some folks call a ‘fashion movie.’ Much like Sex & The City (also designed by PF), Confessions of a Shopaholic is a feature length fashion show. It follows Rebecca, the titular shopaholic who ruins nearly every aspect of a girl whose shopping addition nearly ruins all aspects of her life. I’m most fascinated by her label whoring. She doesn’t necessarily go for style…just the name attached to the garment. Patricia Fields did an exquisite job making Rebecca’s looks be really cute and bubbly, like her personality, but also just a smidge off (also like her personality).
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The Karate Kid franchise is ripe with amazing costumes to try to replicate or remix. But I’ve always been drawn to the gis worn by the martial artists. The gi worn Chozen Toguchi and designed by Mary Malin is my all-time favorite. You can tell that he came to show TF out. Is that quilting on your gi? You bet your sweet ass it is!
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Gladiator is one of those movies that whenever it’s available to watch, I watch it. It holds a special place in my heart because one crazy summer in college when I was subletting with a motley crew of fuckery, one of my roommates (and still good friend) Marlon bought a copy of the movie. It was on VHS, I think, and we watched that movie several times a week. I would force my way into his room because he was the only one with air conditioning. Anyway, even then, before I knew that costume design would be the gold at the end of my rainbow, I was focused on what everyone was wearing.
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Lookit, we all know that I love and revere the great Ruth E. Carter. The reason why I have studied her design so closely is because she is the reason why I decided to take this leap and switch careers this late in the race. And I think that The Butler is one of the many examples of the greatness she is capable of. There are so many beautiful pieces I could have chosen from this film to remix. But I was most fascinated by the matching outfits worn by Cecil (Forrest Whittaker) and Gloria (Oprah Winfrey). I think I read somewhere that Ruth was inspired by a mail order ad from the period that advertised outfits similar to these. I swear if hubby and I lived during this time period we’d totally have us some matching jumpsuits…but I digress.
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Eve’s Bayou is a lovely mash up of new actors and seasoned thespians. Meagan Good and Jurnee and Jake Smollett hold their own against heavy hitters like Diahann Carroll, Lynn Whitfield and Debbi Morgan. I take issue with a lot of the plot points like making a child out to be a liar about sexual abuse. But that aside, I love the overall feel of the film. And the costumes! Miss Karyn Wagner, you are a delight.
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42 gives us a glimpse into Jackie Robinson’s historic start in Major League Baseball. As you might imagine, a lot of the costumes are baseball uniforms. But because this film takes place in the 1940’s, Caroline Harris serves up some really beautiful period garments. I loved literally everything that Rachel (Jackie’s wife played by Nicole Beharie) wore. But then I started doing some research of my own on the baseball uniforms and I became kind of obsessed with them.
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Big Fish is one of those films that I saw once and didn’t appreciate it until my second walk through. I think I love the juxtaposition between the present day reality and the fairytale vibe of the father’s stories. What Colleen Atwood created was magical…it was perfection.
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