FilmJerk Favorites

A group of unique directors and the essential works that you've got to see.

||| Joseph L. Mankiewicz |||
Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Mankiewicz directed 20 films in a 26-year period, and was very successful at every kind of film, from Shakespeare to western, drama to musical, epics to two-character pictures, and regardless of the genre, he was known as a witty dialogist, a master in the use of flashback and a talented actors' director.

The 1950 Oscar for Best Picture and Screenplay brought Mankiewicz wide recognition as a writer and a director, with his sardonic look at show business glamour and the empty lives behind it. This well orchestrated cast of brilliant and catty character actors is built around veteran actress Bette Davis and Anne Baxter as her understudy desperate for stardom.

One of Mankiewicz’ more intimate films, this highly regarded and major artistic achievement is a spirited romantic comedy set in England of the 1880’s about a widow who moves into a haunted seashore house and resists the attempts of a sea captain specter to scare her away. This is a pleasing and poignant romance that is equally satisfying as a good old ghost story.

Mankiewicz wrote and directed this witty dissection of matrimony that has three women review the ups and downs of their marriages (with all its romance, fears and foibles) after receiving a letter telling them that one of their husbands has been unfaithful. Once again Mankiewicz deftly utilizes the skills of a well-chosen ensemble, which includes a young Kirk Douglas at his dreamiest.

Recommended by CarrieSpecht

Advertisement

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins

By BrianOrndorf

February 7th, 2008

I prefer my Martin Lawrence humiliated, emasculated, and speechless. Fortunately, "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins" appreciates these very same concerns, kicking around the comedian in what amounts to a slightly ludicrous, slightly bloated, but overwhelmingly good-natured comedy of the broadest kind.

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins

Roscoe Jenkins (Martin Lawrence) is a successful trash T.V. host with a trophy girlfriend (Joy Bryant) and a flavorless, Hollywood life. Called back to his rural Georgia home for the 50th wedding anniversary of his parents (James Earl Jones and Margaret Avery), Roscoe is reintroduced to the insecurities and rivalries he held as an angry teen. Now, surrounded by his hot-blooded family (including Mike Epps, Michael Clark Duncan, Cedric the Entertainer, and Mo’Nique) and confronted with a lost crush (Nicole Ari Parker), Roscoe has to decide if he will retreat to his isolating fame and fortune, or if he wants to confront the person he once was and heal old wounds.

I have to give credit to writer/director Malcolm D. Lee for charging ahead with “Jenkins” and feeling brave enough to manufacture a slapstick comedy that, for the majority of its running time, doesn’t break down into melodrama and remains consistently funny. This is the guy who made “Undercover Brother” after all, so hopes were not high for an evening of smiles.

I suppose if one squints hard enough, the comparison to Tyler Perry’s brand of southern-fried family reunion insanity could be made, but truly, “Jenkins” is its own creation. It’s not unique or clever, but it’s comfortable with itself, and that counts for something. Lee has a vision for the piece and he sticks to his guns, pushing forward with massive displays of silliness, mostly centered on the continual beating of Roscoe at the hands of his brothers and sisters, and trusting his cast to improv like heavyweight champs and offer comedic reactions with Kabuki-like enormity.

“Jenkins” remains agreeable due to the excitement of the actors, who look as though they are having a ball. It’s a joy to see Duncan be playful for once, while Cedric, Epps, and Mo’Nique all take turns leaping off the page and chewing some scenery. It all boils down to Lawrence, who is revisiting a character he hasn’t played in forever: the humbled loser. As the straight-man of the film, Lawrence is the perfect sponge for the troupe’s energy, batting the laughs back in smaller, but effective doses. Only in the final act does the old in-control Lawrence comes painfully strolling out, but up to that moment, it’s the most infectious, relaxed, giving performance the actor has offered the screen since he spun records as Bilal in “House Party.”

“Jenkins” isn’t all roses. Lee chokes down a little too much wacky with sequences involving flatulent yoga, two utterly mismatched dog lovers, and the hysteria of Roscoe’s girlfriend, played with vigor by Bryant, but written far more shrill than necessary. I also wasn’t thrilled with some hokey melodrama in the final moments that shuts the film down to a dead stop. Lee softens the blow with a sweet group-hug ending, but “Roscoe Jenkins” is a comedy, and a pretty decent one at that. To assume the audience is hungering for more soulful nutrition from a movie where dogs have sex in the cowgirl position nearly destroys the surprisingly digestible experience.

My rating: B