Book Review: Jonathan Price’s just-published collection of film reviews

In the Nick of Time

By Ann Weldy

In this interesting and somewhat quirky selection of reviews from the past six years, most of them first published on a friend’s blog, Jonathan Price reveals a fluent and graceful writing style, imbued with his joy in films and illuminated by his wide acquaintance with literature and cultural history. The book is organized around eight themes, each given a chapter comprising several essays, rather than the more usual chronological order, and this arrangement provides useful coherence among the texts and the films they present.
    One of the real pleasures of reading Price’s reviews is his ability to enrich his perceptions of a film with contextual detail, be it literary, cultural, or historical. Another is the felicitous use of just the apt phrase or telling perception. And yet another, his candor about his own biases and uncertainties. He acknowledges his belated recognition that movies are not a step-sister of literature but an artistic achievement of unique and significant merit. Indeed, he makes the point that the closer a film, based on a novel, tries to follow the original plot and characters, the more leaden it is likely to become. This provides an opportunity for those who loved the book to grouse about the inevitable differences in the translation from written media to visual. In fact, fine films have been made from books of modest merit when the producer was willing to make the crucial changes in structure and character development that best serve the new medium; case in point, The Godfather.

Unsurprisingly, Price sees a trend to more biographical and historical films, and thus even more reliance on published works, which he regrets. Still, he has sympathy for the movie producers: good original stories are in short supply and costly, whereas interesting lives and histories abound, often free of copyrights or other impediments.
    He is quite willing to reveal the endings of films, unlike many reviewers, who shy away from “spoilers.” But as he points out, how can one do justice to the values of a good movie without being able to reference the denouement? So you are warned—read his review after you see the film, if you hate spoilers, not before. On the other hand, previews full of sound bites about the best bits in an upcoming movie do annoy him, and, I suspect, most of us.
    We get a percipient comparison of the similarities of the genres of cop movies and westerns—and an equally informed consideration of their differences. Westerns, for example, often depend on a good dose of nostalgia, whereas few in the audience will pine for earlier interactions with the constabulary. Yet both often rely on clichés of violence and the flawed but brave and, in his way, honorable hero.

Throughout these essays, one finds occasional wry and witty asides illuminating aspects of the stories, the characters, or Price’s own biases. For example, in Silver Linings Playbook, commenting on its deviation from some of the conventions common to rom coms, he offers this: “Hollywood romantic comedy tends to bend the curve of human likelihood to satisfy our popcorn needs.” And this, from his review of a lesser known film, Le Week-End, in which the couple at the center are described thus: “…they seem radically incompatible and dissatisfied with each other, but frequently they are as chummy as well-adjusted thieves.”
    As an occasional movie goer, I have seen only some of the films reviewed here. But Price has a gift for making movies vivid, even the ones that disappointed him. The reader wants to track down the ones he missed, and revisit the ones that are already familiar, viewing them through the lens of newly gained insight. There’s a welcome representation of films from other countries, some little known, although domestic movies make up the bulk of the book. His selections are a little offbeat, perhaps in part because he makes a point of seeing at least two movies a week from among those that happen to be available, so there are doubtless interesting surprises in there.
    This book is entertaining and instructive, serious and fun, even for those of us who are not true film aficionados. One comes away far better informed about these particular films, and about movies in general—and glad to have spent some hours in Jonathan Price’s company.

[In the Nick of Time went on sale a few days ago. You can purchase it in paperback or as an eBook.]

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Editor’s Note: Jonathan Price’s fellow emeritus professor Mark Hennelley says of Jon’s just-published collection of film reviews:

Price’s narrative voice throughout these reviews is conversational, witty, and informed, yet also remarkably self-deprecating. It’s the kind of friendly voice most movie goers would love to hear and talk to about their own favorite films.

It’s the same friendly voice that Moristotle has known for 55 years, ever since he met Jon in college. A more conversational, wittier, better informed friend is hardly imaginable. Thank you, Jon, for sticking with me all of these years, even before I became Moristotle.

Copyright © 2018 by Ann Weldy & Moristotle Ann Weldy is the author (as Ann Bannon) of The Beebo Brinker Chronicles