The Moviegoer: Crime and punishment

The Moviegoer is the diary of a local film buff, collecting the best of what Chicago’s independent and underground film scene has to offer.

My mom was in town for a few days and among the many fun things we did was see Clint Eastwood’s new Juror #2—my husband and I for the second time—at the AMC River East. I was pleasantly surprised that it had a substantial crowd, and for a daytime screening nonetheless; word of mouth for this sleeper “hit” is working, apparently. (It’s technically not a hit by the insane monetary standards by which we judge films like Wicked and Gladiator II to be hits, but for us cinephiles, it’s proof that one of our most venerated auteurs still has legs.) 

I often pick what to watch on the Criterion Channel based on what’s leaving at the end of the month and, coincidentally (as Juror #2 has a lot of similarities to the classic text), both Sidney Lumet and William Friedkin’s versions of 12 Angry Men (1957 and 1997, respectively) are on the list right now. I gravitated toward the latter as I hadn’t yet seen it; Friedkin’s version was made for TV (Showtime), but it’s no less compelling for that. If anything, there’s a certain rhyme with the current situation around Eastwood’s film, as the original plan was for it only to stream on Max. Plenty of great directors’ made-for-TV films have been lost to time, as they’re not as frequently revived as the theatrical films, and the direct-to-streaming model is another, even farther removed iteration of that phenomenon.

The cast is excellent (Jack Lemmon, George C. Scott, Ossie Davis, James Gandolfini, and Tony Danza, to name a few), and the material is surprisingly fitting for Friedkin. I’m thinking of Sorcerer (1977), which might be one of the most stressful films ever made. As the jurors sit in the locked room without air conditioning, many of them dead set on going home as soon as possible, the tension rises to the point where it feels like an explosion may occur. Of course, it’d be an emotional explosion rather than the more literal one that attacks the nerves in Sorcerer, but Friedkin proves adept at navigating both, highlighting the inanity of our flawed justice system and capital punishment in the process.

Also on the Criterion Channel, Wanda Tuchock and George Nicholls Jr.’s Finishing School was randomly in my weekend viewing. The 1934 pre-Code film is about a young girl (Frances Dee) who attends the titular institution, making friends (one of whom is played by Ginger Rogers) and expanding her worldview in the process. It is immensely watchable, and I was of course intrigued by it having been directed by a woman, Tuchock, a screenwriter and advertising copywriter who retained “a singular role in film history as one of the few women who began her career in the silent era and was able to maintain her career in Hollywood during the early sound years,” per the Women Film Pioneers Project. She and Dorothy Arzner are the only women to have a directing credit on a Hollywood film in the 1930s. 

I rounded out the week with the last of the Elaine May screenings at the Music Box: Ishtar (1987), her much-maligned Middle East road movie that was disastrous for her career but is enjoying a surge in contemporary appreciation. I already miss the series. Sure, I could watch most of them at home whenever I want, but there’s just something about watching a great comedy in a movie palace full of other people. 

Until next time, moviegoers.