I've gotten out of the habit of writing here and as a result, I missed last week's film recommendation. Well, I apologize. I know that all of you were left with nothing to do for your entire weekend and we all know there isn't much going on this weekend...
I initially thought I'd go seasonal, but everyone does top Christmas movie lists this time of year, so there isn't really anything flying under the radar (most of the lists are about "under-seen" Christmas movies).
Instead, I've got Radioland Murders. It's a screwball comedy of the highest order in which a radio station is going national and is putting on its first big show. Of course, things can't go off without a hitch and people start dying. The cops show up. The wrong man is accused. Wackiness ensues.
I don't typically like madcap comedies like this too much, but the murder plot helps Radioland Murders a lot. In many screwball comedies, everything could be settled if people would just shut up and listen to each other (one of the reasons I can't stand Bringing Up Baby). However, with the police chasing a would-be suspect around the station who is trying to find the real killer, there isn't time to slow down. The zaniness is all pretty organic.
Another asset is the setting, in which everyone is just trying to put on a good show, but live radio is naturally hectic. Most of the characters are still trying to retain a modicum of professionalism as chaos envelops the studio. The combination of the broad comedy and the subtler, situational comedy finds a nice balance.
The real reason to watch Radioland Murders is to become awesome at Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Seemingly every great character and comic actor is in this film. Ned Beatty, Michael Lerner, Michael McKean, Jeffrey Tambor, Stephen Tobolowsky, Christopher Lloyd, Larry Miller, Dylan Baker, Peter MacNicol (I'm sorry that list is all men, but there's mostly men in the film and I'm not too familiar with Mary Stuart Masterson's work). Then there are the people that will link you to the past like George Burns and Rosemary Clooney. And I just want to mention that Joey Lawrence is in the film, too. And I thought Apollo 13 and A Few Good Men had a lot of links (they do, however, both have Kevin Bacon).
What's weird to me is that it stars Brian Benben who, much like Mary Stuart Masterson, I don't know much about (aside from wanting to spell his name BenBen or Ben Ben). The only other thing I've seen him in is John Landis' contribution to Masters of Horror, Deer Woman, and he's awesome in that. He's really good here, too, and I can't believe he hasn't had a bigger career that he has. I guess he's been on lots of TV shows, but the man is charismatic and funny.
George Lucas was supposed to direct the after Star Wars and, for reasons he hasn't told me, that didn't happen. That's a little disappointing because I love American Graffiti (and Masterson and Benben's characters are supposedly Richard Dreyfuss' character's parents) and had Lucas directed this, maybe he wouldn't have fallen into Star Wars Forever! mode. That's not to speak ill of Mel Smith (the albino in The Princess Bride), who did a great job of capturing the chaos on screen.
Radioland Murders is on Netflix Instant View and well worth your time. It's a lot of fun.
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