“Full Metal Jacket” (1987) is the Vietnam movie that gave us memorable-but-now-impermissible phrases such as, “me so horny, me love you long time,” and “only steers and queers come from Texas, and I don’t see any horns on you.” It’s also the Vietnam movie that is often credited for coming the closest to capturing what combat was actually like in Vietnam. I wasn’t there. I won’t judge. I will say that from a cinematic standpoint, it is better as a work of art than a piece of entertainment. I think writer/director/producer Stanley Kubrick meant for it to be that way.
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Before we start talking about the movie, let’s face facts. Jessica Lange is batshit crazy. So her great “acting” playing all those mentally ill characters may not be acting after all. That being said, “Men Don’t Leave” (1990) is a quirky look at how the death of a spouse turns a normal American family upside-down. Since Lange is playing herself as the depressed, crazy mom, the supporting players (Arliss Howard, Chris O’Donnell) are far more interesting. Best of all is Joan Cusack as a cougariffic x-ray technician with a heart of gold. Joan Cusack, I would carry you two miles.
“Concussion” (2015) has the feel of a corporate espionage flick, what with all the liars in suits, suspicious suicides and a lonely hero raging against the machine. Except the machine is the NFL and we know how the story ends. Actually, the story hasn’t ended. For the next 40 years (think about that) retired athletes are going to be going mad and then dropping dead due to repeated blows to the head on the football field. Worse, for them, it’s already too late (think about that, too). It makes the film somewhat anticlimactic, despite a solid performance by Will Smith.
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