The Wonderful Documentary, "Best Boy"

Ira Wohl’s 1979 Academy Award winning documentary, “Best Boy” is a fantastic account of three years in the life of Philip “Philly” Wohl, Ira’s cousin. Philly is retarded and has been living a mostly secluded life in his parents’ house for most of his 52 years. Ira’s idea is to obtain his aunt and uncle’s permission to send Philly to a school for the retarded so Philly may gain more experience in the outside world and learn what he can so as to function a little bit better after his parents pass away. Philly’s parents, Pearl and Max, are retired. Both are near 80 years old so their ability to care for Philly will soon pass.



“Best Boy” is a filmed documentation of Philly’s time in his new school and the outings he goes on with Ira and Ira’s friend Christine. They take Philly to see “Fiddler on the Roof” on Broadway, take him the park, and several months later, Philly goes to a special six week camp for retardates.

The most impressive element of this film is how it documents how Philly is always happy. He does not see life as a burden, however, one can tell by observing his parents, especially his elderly and increasingly sick father that he is, indeed, a burden, a burden who they, of course love and are compelled to care for. The juxtaposition of how Philly sees the world and how his parents see it is fascinating. Whether Ira Wohl intended this to be part of his film or not, I could not tell, however, whichever is the case, this juxtaposition is the soul of the film. I think he probably did intend for this to be a part of his film. Not one time in “Best Boy” does the audience see Philly angry, upset, or sad. Oftentimes, however, do we see the quiet frustration, but still love, of his parents. His parents are loving towards Philly and never outwardly show him their frustration. Perhaps this is one reason why Philly does not appear to have any internal anger or sadness, while his father, though a quiet man, is definitely sad and angry, but he loves his son and his wife and does not verbalize how he feels.

One reason I like this film quite a bit is that it is from a different generation of documentary filmmaking. Ira Wohl’s goal is to simply document what happens to Philly and Philly’s progress over the course of a few years. Such is stated by Wohl at the beginning of the film. Throughout the film there is no forced conflict and fake drama as one may unfortunately see in today’s reality tv. Ira Wohl has a plan, sticks to it, and is successful in documenting exactly what he set out to do. He captures interesting moments and the film is edited in a way that keeps the story flowing at a relaxed pace. I never felt rushed through the proceedings.

I saw “Best Boy” in a list I found online of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert’s Top 10 Lists From 1969-1998. “Best Boy” was number 10 on Ebert’s list for 1980. Not knowing anything about the film, I was fairly certain that it was not a movie about a crew person working on a movie set. I looked up the title on IMDB and found it to be a film I would be interested in seeing, especially considering the endorsement of having a spot on an Ebert or a Siskel Top 10 list in addition to the fact that I love a well-made documentary. “Best Boy” is as “human” and “personal” a film as you may encounter. I urge those interested to seek it out and give it a shot. It is available on dvd from Netflix.

Get Your Head Ready For "Brainwash"

The 1981 film, “Brainwash,” is what us intellectuals like to call a “crazy-ass” movie. It begins like an average film would, in that it introduces the main characters of the story, in this case, several employees of a company called Mystique. These employees are sent to a week-long training course by their employer. This training course is supposed to train these people for moving up the old corporate ladder and being able to better compete for such jobs. Little do they know what is in store for them at the resort-like retreat at which they arrive. The training course, it turns out, forces these people to confront their worst fears, emotional fears, not things like spiders, lions, staplers, ants, or anything like that. The beautiful and talented, Yvette Mimieux, plays Bianca Ray, the woman in charge of the facility and the leader of the men's training sessions. You may remember Mimieux as Weena in the 1960 version of “The Time Machine.” The wives of the men who are the competing for a higher position within their company are placed in a different set of training sessions with the husband of Bianca Ray.

The bulk of the film focuses on the captivating Mimieux and her cruelty towards these men. The film is not simply about how a woman is cruel to men for her own entertainment, rather it seemed to be a criticism of corporate culture and the things people allow themselves to undergo to make more money and gain higher power in their jobs. At the beginning of their training, Bianca has the men form a semicircle in the classroom. The first man she forces to face his fear is made to strip and get into a cage. She humiliates him, however, the result of this is unexpected. In different ways, she makes every man in the group do something humiliating or frightening so as to force each man into a confrontation with his fears. By the end of the film, the reason for all of this activity is explained, hence my rationale that this film is anti-corporate world and speaks to the pressures felt by some in said world. This is not a film one would want to watch with impatient movie fans. There are scenes where some may want to yell at the screen and say, “Don’t let her do that to you!” The situations presented in the film are not that simple, plus there are big bodyguard dudes in the room anyway, so fighting back wouldn’t help them out a whole lot. “Brainwash,” aka “Circle of Power,” is a unique film, made during a time of more daring filmmaking, basically 1970-1985. It probably did not get much of a theatrical release and it is not on dvd. You can find a vhs copy of it on Amazon and Ebay from time to time, however. It is worth seeking out and watching because of it’s no-nonsense approach. Not much time is spent lingering on unimportant nonsense before the primary action of the film takes place. After about ten minutes, we meet Mimieux’s character and the fun begins. There is a poster for this film one may find online which shows a woman whose face we cannot see and whose shirt is opened up revealing a bit of breasts, or as us intellectuals call them, breastages. This is a misleading poster as Mimieux’s character is not meant to be a sexual object in the film. She is very sexy, however, the image in that poster has nothing to do with the film. This poster below is not that one.

“Brainwash” was directed by Bobby Roth, who according to IMDB, has directed four episodes of the current popular ABC tv series, “Revenge.” He has also directed episodes of “Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman,” “Prison Break,” “Lost,” and the short-lived “Flash Forward.” The film does,at first, have the feel of a made-for-tv film, however, it’s subject matter and some other factors quickly remove all thoughts of Quinn Martin or the old ABC Sunday Night Movie theme.
The reason I like “Brainwash” is fairly simple. I had never seen a film quite like it before. Also, the film’s low budget gives it a more intimate feeling, a sense that the viewer is in the training classroom with Mimieux and these men. This makes the film more tangible and without a feeling of isolation from the action in the film. This is one of the probably unintended, though almost always present, aspects of low budget films of the 70’s and 80’s. Because these films were not able to afford to have a lot of special effects and had to rely on atmosphere, they are sometimes more interesting as long as, of course, the script is decent. I encourage you to seek out this film and not be brainwashed into thinking that just because a film has a low budget and was likely seen, at the time, as just drive-in fodder, that there is not some substance within that film. Obviously, not all low budget films of this time period are good, however, there are quite a few that are worth watching and some great discoveries to be made.

Watch Out For Falling Debris!

When “Olympus Has Fallen” had ended, my lone question after seeing the film was, “Did Morgan Freeman ever get his coffee?” That is pretty much the most profound question one will likely have after viewing this film, a special effects bonanza, without a whole lot of interest in giving the audience anything too much to have to think about. It’s a “things go exploded” movie. What saves “Olympus Has Fallen” from a bad case of Battleship-ism, a term for the ailment of a film which has absolutely nothing going for it and is so bad that an appearance by Tommy Wiseau from "The Room" or from Matt Hannon of "Samurai Cop" would be appreciated, is the fact that most of the performances in the film are good. The film stars Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett, and Gerard Butler, all of whom provide nice performances in a film in which the script does not really deserve high-caliber acting talent. Luckily for anyone seeing this film, these four actors make the endeavor bearable.

At the beginning of Antoine Fuqua's film, the president of the United States, Benjamin Asher (Eckhart), is riding in a motorcade with his wife Leah (Radha Mitchell) in a snowstorm outside of Camp David. Another vehicle runs into the car in which the president and his wife are riding. The First Lady dies in the accident. Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), a secret service agent, is among those unable to save the life of the First Lady. Banning has demons haunting him as a result. Banning is demoted to a desk job, unfairly, I believe, but for the sake of the script, it happens.

Where’s Morgan Freeman’s coffee?

North Korea decides to attack Washington D.C. so the president, his Secretary of Defense, Ruth McMillan (Melissa Leo) are moved to a bunker underneath the White House. What do you know? One of the secret service agents is a traitor and has teamed up with Kang (Rick Yune) to hold the president and the Secretary of Defense hostage as the North Koreans bomb hell out of D.C. The vice president is killed by Kang’s gang so the nation needs a leader. Who else would you want to lead the country in a time like this but the Easy Reader himself, Morgan Freeman? Freeman plays Speaker of the House Trumbell, a quick thinking and cerebral man whose job it now is to guide the government through this crisis. Freeman’s performance is actually very good. Unfairly, perhaps, I expected him to give a fill in the blank action film performance, however, his character has a nice amount of depth. I have a bit of Morgan Freeman tiredhead, as many of his recent performances seem to be in similar kinds of films. I expected as much in “Olympus Has Fallen,” however, I was pleasantly surprised.

So we have Morgan Freeman guiding the country through everything getting all ‘sploded and the president and Secretary of Defense stuck in a bunker with an angry North Korean and an American traitor. I do not remember why the North Korean and his gang were of a mind to bomb hell out of D.C, but in this film, it doesn’t really matter does it? Eckhart plays the president as a man of solid character. He is fine in this performance. Butler was good as Banning, the lone man who eventually finds himself as a one man army against the enemy. Yep, pretty much “Die Hard” stuff here. He even has an army general (Robert Forster) who does not trust him, but Easy Reader does trust Banning, so all is well. If there is a sequel to this film that focuses on Gerard’s character, it should be called, “Banning!” The exclamation point is very important to include. Banning!

Where’s Morgan Freeman’s damn coffee? Come on!

So, yes, it’s pretty much a United States versus the bad guys movie with plenty of things exploding and a misunderstood hero whose job it is to save the day. The script is one that has been recycled many, many times before, but the performances in this film make it better than it may have been otherwise. It’s not great, but it’s not bad either. There’s some high praise. You won’t want to fall all over yourself to see it, but I have seen much worse. Battleship.

Is that coffee on it’s way?