Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

I like message movies, from "China Syndrome" to "Missing" to "Lions for Lambs".  I'm a big fan of Michael Moore, and I am on the lookout for educating myself the easy way, being quite lazy.  Of course, I don't usually buy these movies, because once is enough, though I own the three movies above plus a couple of Moore's.  But a several years ago I picked up a movie I hadn't heard of, "Red Dust", solely because Edjofor Chitewel and Hilary Swank were in it.  I was very pleasantly surprised.  Swank plays a South African woman who left as a teenager for New York and has never been back until now, when as a lawyer she has been asked to participate in the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  She was poor white trash as a child and was imprisoned overnight as a teenager for being caught dating a Black.  Her bitterness is deep and wide, and she hates the emotions coming back by returning.  Though she doesn't state it, you can see she is hoping to bring justice to her boyfriend who was killed in jail and some closure to herself as well.  Chitewel plays a political prisoner, who after his torture and release (and the death of his best friend before his eyes while they are in jail) has also left the country but returns to help his friend's parents find the body of their son.  His return brings flashbacks, and he has no faith in the Commission or justice at all.

The film is honest, and the ending has some closure but is disturbing as well.  Watching, I felt ambivalence about the Commission, as it grants pardon to those who confess, and thus they never face prison.  And yet, the process is clearly healing to many, and at least gets some of the atrocities into the light of day.  Swank and Chitewel are terrific, as is the rest of the cast, and the sense of place evoked is powerful.  Whatever you think at the end, you understand the purpose and function of the Commission much better, and the people there come alive and are unforgettable.  It's quite a lovely film.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

My husband and I have been disagreeing about "Zero Dark Thirty" for a year now.  He thinks its a great film and Jessica Chastain should have won for her role as Maya.  I believe the film is excellent technically, but not great, and Chastain should have won for "Tree of Life" but not this role.  I was curious as to what we'd both think seeing it again.  The acting is flawless, but I'm a fan of Jennifer Lawrence, so I don't  begrudge her the Oscar last year.  I do love Chastain's mobile, expressive face.  And she is a great beauty, unlike Lawrence.  The other cast members are terrific, and it gave me quite a pang to see James Gandofini in it.  Mark Strong is a stand out and Chris Pratt and others very distinctive, despite uniforms and dark lighting.

I admire Kathryn Bigelow as a director, and in both this film and "The Hurt Locker" she handles volatile material by focusing on the effect of huge issues on one lone individual.  That's a good plan.  It worked perfectly in "Hurt Locker", and you come out thinking of what combat does to alter the psyche of a the soldier, and make him unfit for civilian life.  He/She is thrown back into regular life, but traumatized and unsupported.  It was a very compassionate film.

But "Zero" is more complicated.  It caters to our anger and revenge impulses, and focuses on the suffering of a CIA operative, instead of on the people epicted who are tortured, or the soldiers who carry out the CIA's commands.  My guess is Bigelow had a better film before Bin Laden was killed, and since much of the film had already been shot, she had a hybrid on her hands and lost control of whatever she originally wanted to say.  So the movie is a "Rocky" story now, about how a female bested the guys and her tenacity led to the kill.  It is Maya's singlemindedness that gets her the guy, and it is also her tragedy.  You can tell she thinks she has paid tribute to all the people in the towers, but you don't necessarily see it her way.  Or the government's way.  Is the tragedy that she has been led astray by patriotism?  And what did the kill accomplish?  It was simple eye for an eye Biblical stuff.

Some of us can't get on this ride and go all the way to the end.  We can see the downside to killing what you know and then facing what you don't know.  The terrorists have learned from this kill, not just us.  And then the torture.  The film definitely shows torture as being beneficial, though most experts in real life do not agree.  It becomes an advocate for black ops and hidden torture sites and unbelievable cruelty, which makes it hard to distinguish us from them.  So the film loses some of its intelligence, and makes basic human rights expendible in the face of OUR suffering. 

What Bigelow wanted to say doesn't matter.  The images are too strong.  And like a "Silence of the Lambs" you don't want this film in anyone's consciousness, because it's likely to fester and breed only cruelty.  So for me, "Zero" is a brilliant failure.  And I hope Chastain gets another chance at a nomination.  She's a keeper.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

I agree with the movie historian David Thompson that the greatest film actor of the twentieth century was Cary Grant.  There are so many of his early movies that I love, and he had a long shelf life.  One of my favorites is "Talk of the Town" (1942) starring Grant, Jean Arthur and Ronald Colman.  It was directed by George Stevens, and is unlike anything else he did.  It is also an unusual role for Grant, as he plays a anarchist on the lam from a factory sabotage.  Arthur is the daughter of a woman who is renting a house to a famous judge, who wants some quiet time away to work on a book.  Before he comes, Arthur finds Grant hiding in the house, and insists he leave.  It is a small town, and she has known him from school and is soft hearted when he says he's being framed.  She agrees to hide him, and Coleman shows up early and she introduces Grant to him as the gardener.  Grant and Arthur have a lot of chemistry, and we need to trust Arthur's instincts in order to believe Grant.  He becomes a member of a strange triangle.  Arthur has been hired as the judge's secretary, and Grant keeps threatening to reveal himself, while having intellectual discussions with Coleman.  Turns out there is a conspiracy going on, and the action is tense about whether Grant will be caught and hanged, or whether evidence and the chain of events can be pieced together.  Arthur turns detective, and in the meantime Coleman falls in love with her.  When he is summoned as the candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court, he wants to take her with him as his wife and partner.  She sees the opportunity, is torn, and ultimately enlists Coleman's help in finding the real culprits. 

It's fun, yet serious, about the application of the letter of the law, and both men soften from their opposite stances and move toward a middle road.  Grant regains his faith in the system and Coleman loses some of his naivete, and becomes a better judge in the process.  The ending is perfect, but I'll leave it to you to decide for yourself.

This film is both radical and patriotic, as many of the second World War films were, but this one transcends time and is as relevant today as back then.  Like Frank Capra's films, it wants to make the moviegoer think and reflect, but not too much.  The action and romance and comedy make us breeze along, until, after the movie is over, we wonder about the corruption and power of wealthy interests.  Have we really progressed?  I'm afraid not.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

We are not actually able to watch DVDs right now, as one of our dogs has a cone on after surgery to his foot, and he can't go up the stairs and we are exhausted and can't find any dog free time.  But if I could - I might rewatch Mike Leigh's "Happy Go Lucky" from 2008.  It was a Golden Globe winner for best comedy picture and Sally Hawkins was up for best actress for that and the Oscar.  This is a comedy with lots of meat on it, and it has a message that you don't really see in films.  Hawkins is terrific as an eternal optimist who is not blinded by rose colored glasses; she sees the world and the people in it as they are, but is determined to look on the bright side regardless.  It is a conscious choice she makes.  You witness her sadness at situations, but she doesn't get numbed, she gets active, attempting to tease them out of their sorrow or problem solve.  She is an elementary school teacher, and this film is one of the best depictions of teaching and the heart of what is important I've ever seen.  The supporting cast is excellent, especially Eddie Marsden as the driving instructor from hell, her friend played by Alexis Zegerman, and Karina Fernandez as a loony Flaminco instructor.  It has a lovely romance, and the way she meets the guy is that he is a school psychological counselor whom she enlists to help a struggling student.  The scenes with the boy are tender and insightful. 

This film could be used to point out that life may not be a bowl of cherries, but if you eat what is in the bowl, you will feel more alive, more compassionate, and encounter an amazing assortment of characters.  Hawkins' character is grounded in her friendships, and confident enough to trust her instincts when it really matters.  Her learning about boundary setting is an important lesson for all of us and her compassion ultimately brings her many rewards.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

A friend of mine who likes movies as much as I do has been weeding out her collection of DVDs, and in the process discovering she has two of some.  So she gave me a copy of "Frost/Nixon" directed by Ron Howard and made in 2009.  It was nominated for best picture, and I can see why.  The cast is amazing, and Frank Langella especially is a miracle onscreen.  It's a pity he didn't win best actor, as he brings so much layered nuancing to Nixon.  Michael Sheen is great as Frost, and the supporting cast is knockout, with Kevin Bacon playing Nixon's advisor, anxious and loyal, Oliver Platt and Sam Rockwell as advisors to Frost, Matthew MacFadden as Frost's producer and Rebecca Hall as his girlfriend.  It's so fast paced that I didn't realize it was a two hour film, and gripping as we wait to see if Nixon bests Frost or vice versa.  As a meditation on the media and politics it's educational, and as a forerunner of the direction of the American Presidency has gone since, with more and more decisions being forged by the President and his cabinet, without the knowledge of Congress, it serves as a warning.  But really, the genius is in seeing the parallels in both personalities, as well as the contrast.  The viewer watches the flaws and vulnerabilities, the vanities and prejudices, the initial lack of understanding about what was at stake and the deep need of both men for validation, which is elusive and perhaps a wound in their psyches.  I have to say that Oliver Platt is funny and so believable as a journalist who feels his reputation is at risk as well, and Sam Rockwell delightful as a guy bent on destroying Nixon who is also in awe of him and who ends up feeling sympathetic and being surprised by it. The film has a lot of humor and in no way feels like a history lesson.  It is a balanced film:  everybody has made mistakes, and nobody is seeing the whole picture, except maybe Kevin Bacon's character, who tries to head off disaster for a man he loves and admires.  His sadness is touching.  He knows too much.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

There are so many Jane Austen films I'm pretty burnt out.  Most people like the Colin Firth, Jennifer Elye BBC marathon, and I adore it myself, but it's hardly fair, since the luxurious length gives us so much more of the book.  "Pride and Prejudice" is my favorite of Austen's novels, but my prize for best adaptation goes to "Persuasion" with Ciaran Hinds as Captain Wentworth and Amanda Root as Anne Eliot.  It is true to the tone and story, and is artistically perfect, with a cast that is utterly delightful, including Sofie Thompson as Anne's hypocondrical sister, Mary, and Corin Redgrave as her obnoxious dad and a lot of the greatest British character actors on hand to keep the satire fresh and meaningful, especially the delightful Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Croft, the exception of a happy wife, and the ultimate example for Anne.

The metaphor of the sea works beautifully to represent the rocky nature of courtship and marriage.  Anne's sisters are fellow victims.  Anne's heartbreak was young and advised by her godmother, but her older sister is a spinster, and her younger, Mary,  in a mismatched marriage.  By implication, Anne's parents' marriage has been a horrible mismatch, and true love seems nowhere to be found.  Along comes her young love back from the sea and now a success, and Anne's suffering includes watching everyone assume he will marry one of Mary's sister-in-laws, either Louisa or Henrietta.  Complications, confusions and breathless understanding at last make this a happy ending, but dark in so many ways.  The satire is brilliant, but what it shows us is a society of snobs, hypocrites and syncopants.  Anne is lucky, but we know in our hearts that life does not immitate fiction.

The scenes set at the seaside in Lyme and at Bath bring the seventeenth century alive.  The final view on Captain Wentworth's vessel smoothly takes us from suffocating home and hearth to the expanse and adventures of sailing the world. Women desire adventures and change of scene, and lucky Anne will have them, unlike her dear creator.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

A few years ago, by accident, thumbing through the bargain DVDs at a store, I found a 1992 film of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes.  It is worth watching alone for the young beauty of the stars.  They are gorgeous, passionate and the chemistry is terrific.  The story is faithful to the novel, and the supporting actors are all well cast.  At 106 minutes, the movie is a ride on the moor in another century, and after, you miss the world you've entered, though it is strange and mysterious.  The tone of Bronte's masterpiece is that well captured.  When you see the story on screen like this, you realize the eroticism of the characters more strongly, and also, with modern attention, the abuse that drives these people crazy.  Cathy's and Heathcliff's isolation and manipulation as children has consequences, and we see the pattern of manipulation repeated before it is finally broken in the end.  Binoche plays both Cathy Earnshaw and Catherine Linton beautifully.  Empathy for these people is garnered by careful revelation of their underlying sensitivities.  The feelings in this film are timeless and universal, and the look of the Yorkshire area and the costumes are powerful additions to a tale of young people left to grow wild and untended, who find their own garden in the wilderness but are forbidden to have the solace they desperately seek.  Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon were great in the 1930s film, but this version is more immediate and nuanced.  It would be fun to watch them one after the other and compare.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

There is something about Burt Lancaster that is bigger than life:  those teeth, those turquoise blue eyes, his physique, his expansive enthusiasm.  His great film is "Elmer Gantry", but my favorite is "Unforgiven", not to be confused with Clint Eastwood's later film of the same name.  "Unforgiven" (1959) is based on a bunch of incidents in the west at the time of whites' encroachment on Indian territories, and the kidnapings of white children by Commanches and other tribes.  In this movie, there have been skirmishes between Kiowas and whites, and an uneasy coexistence is present.  At a time when there was still enough room for all, if each would stay out of the others way, the tensions on each side erupted over petty incidents.  The story focuses on two families, one headed by Lancaster, with his mother (Lilian Gish) two other brothers (one the World War II famous soldier Audie Murphy) and their sister, Rachel (Audrey Hepburn).  The other is headed by the Dad (Charles Bickford), two sons and a daughter.  They have just come back from a cattle drive, and are about to head out again to sell the joint herd. 

A strange man in civil war garb appears and haunts them all with prophetic warnings.   Rumors begin floating around that Rachel is Indian.  A Kiowa brave shows up and wants his sister back.  Lancaster is protective of her, and jealous of her as well, and he portrays that conflict well.  They have always known she is not their blood sister, but think she is the daughter of white settlers killed by Kiowas.  When Rachel becomes engaged to the son of Bickford, everything quickly spirals out of control.  Murphy hates Indians because their Dad was killed by them.  His racism is mirrored in Bickford's family as well.  This agony of not belonging anywhere becomes universal with the sensitive acting of Hepburn.  She is amazing here.  The chemistry between her and Lancaster is fiery. 

Directed by John Huston, the film is edited beautifully, and the beginning scenes of people of these times rings true.  They talk, sound and act like people of the 1800s.  You see their hardscrabble lives and the dignity in how they create community and strengthen each other.  The movie is a history lesson, and a thought provoking one at that, as well as a story about love of all kinds, gone bad, held good, and what family is.  The acting is great all through, but Lilian Gish is amazing as the mother who is the only one who knows the secret still alive, and how complex and hard her life has been, with choices she never expected to make.  The cinematography of the land is authentic, not prettied up, and the viewer feels something of what it must have been like to live out west, brave and terrified, wrong and right, on land that is only theirs because nobody else wants it.  Nobody white that is.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

Last night my husband and I watched the Leonard Cohen documentary, which we'd had for a while but I couldn't convince my husband to view.  And he's the one who has always adored Cohen!  I didn't know the guy existed until I met my husband.  But I'm a convert, and the documentary is beautifully crafted and interesting visually, story wise and musically, with clips from two concerts, the first in New York with a bunch of amazing artists singing his songs and the second in Sydney, Australia, with U2.  Cohen's art shows up prominently as well, and the focus stays professional, not personal, which lifts it above any purient interest.  Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright stand out in a group of singers that are stellar, as does Nick Cave.  Both Rufus and Cave also articulate what his music means to them.  Bono and Edge are surprisingly insightful about Cohen and his poetry and song, and I admire them even more than before. 

Cohen is a beat poet, and Canadian, both of which I'd forgotten, and being made aware of these two core points about who Cohen is and how he got that way really aids the uncovering of his process.  He was a poet first, and the beats are who were his friends.  He's also not American, and his description of the difference between Montreal and New York is telling.  He felt more camraderie and support in Canada, and NYC was a churn of ambition and wish for stardom.  He has balanced those two worlds really well, overall, although his retreat to become a Zen monk on Mt. Baldy in L.A. perhaps shows a cost.  Hearing the origin of the song "Suzanne" alone is worth the viewing of this film.  Whatever he absorbed from his Zen teacher has given him the face in old age of a saint.  He's beautiful now, even if he has felt not attractive, as he says.  The revelation that he wears suits because his dad was in the garment industry and he just feels more comfortable in them is touching.  You sense a kind of honoring of his paternity in his spiffy duds. 

I like the way this film gives Cohen the privacy of his life, and does not trot out his daughter or others, yet the childhood photos are touching.  His dad died when he was eight.  The younger photos are of a happy child, the older of a pensive, sensitive person.  His journey has been illuminating for so many of us, and the beauty of the words and music he has given us a treasure that I for one, had taken for granted and sometimes forgot.  I won't anymore.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

One of my favorite comedies is directed by Diane Keaton, believe it or not.  And her exquisite photographic style is much in evidence.  "Unstrung Heroes" stars Andie MacDowell, Jon Turturro and Michael Edwards in a touching and funny story set in the 1950s about a disfunctional family seen through the eyes of the two children who must make sense of their weird uncles and bizarre father.  When the mother gets cancer and dies, their universe is shattered, as she is the anchor which has kept the family grounded.  Her uncles, hoarders and childlike, try to be there for the kids and the love in this family surmounts all obstacles.  Turturro is magnificent as the grieving father who has no fatherly instincts really, but loves his kids.  The uncles rise to the occasion and give the son the courage he needs to find his way to his new, altered life.  Richards and Maury Chaykin are delightful as the brothers who have social deficits but big hearts.  MacDowell is perfectly cast as the mother, tender and sad and struggling to hold these boy men in check.  You'll want to look closely at the sets, which are magnificent, and the pitch perfect costuming and period details.  I wish we'd seen more movies directed by Keaton, as this one shines many years later.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

One of my favorite comedies is "Happy, Texas", with Steve Zahn and Jeremy Northam.  I was reminded of it last night because we were watching "Dallas Buyers Club" in which Steve Zahn plays a cop.  "Happy" is about two small time criminals who escape their minimum security prison and end up carjacking an RV.  They soon realize the best place to hide is to impersonate the two guys who own the RV, but unfortunately, the victims are gay and make their living running kids talent pageants.  Of course, Zahn gets stuck with the little girls sewing costumes, teaching dance routines and falling in love with their dance teacher.  Northam falls in love with the woman banker of the bank he plans to rob.  William H. Macy is the sheriff, who has a secret crush on Northam, and there is a psycho who escaped with them who now comes back to share in the loot.  I laugh out loud so much in this tender, somehow believable movie, because all the actors have terrific timing and make their characters true to life.  Zahn makes the film work, and his kindness towards the little girls, his goofy dance steps, his sewing and bitching at Northam, who leaves all the pageant work to Zahn while he's romancing the banker and holding off the sheriff from declaring his love, is hilarious.  It all ends happily, with the guys getting their gals (as soon as they get through the rest of their prison sentences) and the dance team going on to compete a a higher level.  Everybody wins.

Paa the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

I'm reading a memoir about how much the novel "Middlemarch" by George Eliot meant to her.  That reminded me I have a BBC version of the novel at around five hours.  I set it out to see again at some point, but it's daunting.  However, there are two of these classic BBC films of great novels that I adore enough to see piecemeal again and again.  "Our Mutual Friend" is amazing.  It's my favorite novel by Dickens and so profound and prophetic while being filled with romance, tragedy and bizarre characters that somehow become endearing and real to us.  The other is Dickens' also, "Little Dorritt".  Anchored by great actors set free by the vast amount of time to tell the story, both of these films are worth renting and doing a marathon.  I almost bet you will hang in there until three am if need be to see them through.  I actually first saw both in a movie theater, where you could see half the opus and the come back the next day for the rest.  It takes dedication, for sure, but I am devoted to Charles Dickens, who, to my mind is the greatest English novelist.  I am partial to his class consciousness, his ability to bring the poor folk into sharp and sympathetic focus, and his understanding of the human heart, both the dark and light parts.  He understands fathers and sons, fathers and daughters and the complexity of being in a situation that feels wrong for you, and yet you can see no way to get out of it.  "Our Mutual Friend" is about money, and how it corrupts and twists good people and bad.  The economic transformation that Dickens witnessed during the industrial revolution was a cause for alarm, and his understanding of the havoc it would wreck on the already poor, children, families and the environment predicted what we now live with daily.  "Little Dorritt" is about the cost of industry on the people who suffer to make it function smoothly, and with little obvious cost to the middle class, as they are able to ignore the suffering of their fellow citizens.  These stories are epic, and the viewer cannot see them without having a changed world view.  The BBC has honored Dickens and his passionate avocation of the rights of all men by creating such lovely, funny, delightful but truthful visions of the "modern" world.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

We watched "Mutiny on the Bounty", the 1935 version in black and white, starring Charles Laughton, Clark Gable and Franchot Tone.  It won the Oscar for best picture that year.  It's quite well done, and fun to watch.  There are lots of recognizable character actors and beautiful closeups on their faces.  The story is inherently gripping, and the life at sea well portrayed.  The ships, the sea, the islands and everything are first rate.  It was filmed partly in Tahiti, and part in Monterey, Santa Catalina, and various California locales, but the editing makes the scenes smooth.  Gable is very engaging as Fletcher Christian, and Laughton complex and msyterious as Bligh.  Tone is gorgeous as the man mediating between them both.  You never understand why Bligh takes such a dislike to Gable, except Gable is charismatic and so likeable, with dimples to boot.  But the differences in their looks help you fill in the blanks.  Interestingly, when Bligh is cast at sea in a small lifeboat his demeanor transforms and he's kind and encouraging and fair to the other men, making you wonder if he has had an epiphany or just is the ultimate pragmatist.  The islanders seem authentic and their lifestyle appealing, and you have no trouble seeing the allure of staying versus the harsh world of sailors at sea.  The woman Christian marries, Morita, in real life became the second wife of Marlon Brando, who played Christian in an unnecessary remake of the film in the sixties.  She was Mexican, and very beautiful. 

A little documentary of Pitcairn Island, where the mutineers lived and their descendants still live, is a great addition to the DVD, and it's strange to think that they escaped without punishment, though a ship was sent back to Tahiti, and captured the mutineers who didn't follow Christian.  So much energy and loss of life trying to find the mutineers, when in fact none died from the mutiny.  But the symbol they presented must have been deemed exceedingly dangerous.  The irony is that the Bounty's mission was to bring breadfruit plants to slaves held by the British in other colonies.  So much hoopla over a few plants. 

The movie is delightful, filled with humor, poignancy and passion.  Gable and Laughton are a match, as two men with tempers that cannot abide each other.  Compassion will always be more appealing than rules, and we easily side with the mutiny, as Americans and as anti-authoritarians.  And we like a rogue when we see him.  Gable was an superstar and the film shows us why.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

"Outbreak" is a movie that is gripping and timely every time you see it, and I've watched it a bunch over the years.  It's focused on a Ebola type outbreak in a little town in California (it is filmed in Mendocino) and how the strain of virus got here from Africa.  All the science is fascinating, though simplified a bit, and the story and characters keep us engaged.  Dustin Hoffman heads a great cast with Rene Russo as his exwife who is leaving for the CDC in Atlanta, but gets caught up in this new, deadly mystery, Donald Sutherland as an army general who tries to keep Hoffman from finding out that he is responsible for not reporting the virus years ago, Morgan Freeman as Hoffman's immediate boss, who is conflicted, and Kevin Spacey as an army doctor and best friends with Hoffman.  Cuba Gooding plays a new army scientist who goes out on a limb to help Hoffman capture the carrier animal and develop an antidote.  There is a terrific mix of humor, high tension, villains, chase scenes and romance, plus two adorable dogs Hoffman and Russo fight over.  Everyone almost dies, but most are saved, and the good guys win.

The film has a theater scene of germs spreading as a person coughs that is classic; worth your time by itself.  There is another on an airplane, where Patrick Dempsey, who is the person who brings the animal into the country illegally, which will convince you to drive yourself instead of fly and not pick up any hitchhikers.  The scene of the little girl befriending the infected animal is pretty nail biting as well.  I'm always amazed that Hoffman and Russo work as a couple as well as they do.  Hoffman does adorable pretty darned well when he chooses to, and you feel they have a life and history worth saving.  At least for the sake of the dogs.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

A few years ago a goofy, scary movie was made a la "Jaws" called "Lake Placid".  If you are in the mood for a drive-in kind of film, this is a good bet.  The cast is excellent:  Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson, and Betty White.  There is a thirty foot crocodile in an isolate freshwater lake in Maine.  There are murky underwater scenes and scary music.  There are plenty of surprises and twists, a good backstory for Fonda, who is terrifically funny here, and even a romance that has some heat to it.  Oliver Platt is irresistably loopy and endearing, and his feud wwith Gleeson is hilarious.  The plot is just barely plausible, and the cast makes it so.  Cook up a big bowl of popcorn, break out the cans of cola, and relax.  This ride is as good as the roller coaster at the beach.

Whatever this kind of movie does:  plug into our fear of nature, give us a T Rex thrill, escape the horrors of news headlines, once in a while, I love to endulge.  Like "Jaws", the solution is simple: stay out of the water, but then the land isn't safe, or the boats, or even the helicopter.  As Fonda's character admits, it's fun, and she feels fully alive.  You can't make her leave.  She's just getting started and doesn't want to miss a thing.  The movie is worth seeing alone for Betty White's character.  What a kick!

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

I have a weakness for legal thriller novels and it extends to movies of that ilk.  One of my favorites is "The Pelican Brief" with Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts, both of them young and gorgeous.  John Grisham's novels are made for the screen to begin with, and I love "The Rainmaker", "The Firm", "The Client" and others.  Each has an important political point to make, and none of those points have dimmed with age.  There are still insurance companies denying their policies unfairly, law firms in bed with the mafia or drug cartels, and children being manhandled in court and single mothers struggling to protect their families from the agencies sworn to protect them.

In "Pelican", two Supreme Court Justices are assassinated, and a young Tulane law student (Roberts) comes up with a theory on why.  Her professor (Sam Shepherd), with whom she is sleeping (another political point), is killed after he passes the brief on to a friend in the FBI.  She realizes she was meant to die as well in the car explosion, and goes on the run.  She enlists the help of a famous Washington DC journalist, played by Washington, and together they struggle to stay alive while they get enough evidence to go public with the story.  But forces in the CIA, FBI and the White House are clashing and playing against each other as well. 

The whole cast is great, especially Robert Culp as the President, Tony Goldwyn as his chief of staff, John Heard as the FBI friend and Stanley Tucci as the assassin.  Set in New Orleans and NYC and DC, the plot is as relevant today environmentally as back then.  It could be today's headlines.  I'm not too fond of Roberts, but here she is perfectly cast and carries the film easily.  Washington is a surprising casting choice, but it works.  John Lithglow as his editor gives some lightness and humor to the movie.  Interestingly, in the book Darby Shaw and Gray Grantham sleep together, but I guess it was too loaded with a white student and a black journalist.  I wonder if they would include it these days?  The chemistry between them is strong. 

I admit to seeing this film many times, and I admire it more each time.  Like "All the President's Men" it is passionate, scary, and about real power and how it plays out.  And because "All the President's Men" is a true story, "Pelican"'s fiction is close enough to truth to wake us up and make us take notice.  The movie is a guilty pleasure with brains.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

My husband convinced me to go see the new Walt Disney film with him yesterday.  It helped that my granddaughter gave it two thumbs up.  I knew to get her approval it had to have beautiful princesses and romance, and some cuddly character.  She is eight.  She will go to see about any hideous movie, but those enhancements make her enthusiastic.  "Brave" is not her cup of tea.  She prefers the true love in "Tangled" or even "How to Train Your Dragon".  "Frozen" is back to the basics in some obvious ways.  There are two princesses and therefore two possible romances, a cuddly reindeer, bouncing trolls, a snowman and lots of beautiful ball dresses, a la "Beauty and the Beast".  The animation is spectacular, with all the ice and snow and transparency.  Loosely based on "The Snow Queen", there is drama, humor and of course the parents die.  Classic fairytale stuff.  But the writer, Jennifer Lee, is shrewd.  There are better messages than usual:  don't rush into a relationship with someone who is virtually a stranger, learning about love requires some mistakes and missteps, and true love can be between sisters.  These twists help make the movie more acceptable to a mother's modern sensibilities.

The songs are gorgeous in a popsong, Taylor Swift kind of way, sung with passion by Kirsten Bell and Idina Mendel.  And embedded in those songs is a theme of loving yourself and finding your own way in a sometimes confusing world. 

More radical still:  the prince is a bad guy.  Whoa!  News flash.  And the finale kiss that breaks the spell is between sisters.  For a child, these changes may go unnoticed, as the lowly iceman ends up with the younger princess, Anna.  For them the romance is intact.  But the beautiful queen, Elsa, is alone at the end, and happy about learning to control her emotions and keep her heart and kingdom warmed up.  She still has her power, the icy one, but she is balanced and comfortable with both sides of herself.  Very Jungian and mature.

This film is probably outdoing itself with merchandise sales, and the Disney team is congratulating itself on it's messages and feminist sensibility.  It's cynical, but the sheer beauty of the film leaves me enchanted while being annoyed by the obvious manipulation.  And the reindeer Sven melted my heart.  Not Olaf, the snowman or the trolls, but  they had  me at the reindeer.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

My friend and I saw "Nebraska" yesterday afternoon.  As I began watching, to be honest, my heart sank a bit at the black and white, then I was afraid, like "August:  Osage County" it was going to try to take it's humor from profane language instead of earning it.  But as I settled in, the tone of gentle satire won me over.  I was afraid Payne was ridiculing the Midwest, where most of my family still alive resides, but instead, he is showing you how much our judgments about rural and farming and small towns make us miss the dignity and honor of making the best bed to lie in you can in the circumstances.  This family, at first appearing as disfunctional and repellant as the family in "August", reveals itself to be passionate and complicated, tender and kind, behind the veneer of "not caring" or insensitivity.  Bruce Dern is lovely as the confused old man who believes his Publisher's Clearinghouse announcement means he's won a million dollars.  Will Forte is sweet and complicated as his son.  June Squibb is good as the wife who seems to be a monster, but is really at the end of her rope from love not hate.  And Stacy Keach does a nice turn as a fellow trying to take a piece of the pie.

By the end of the film, I felt it honored what seems on the surface to be simple lives, but turns out to be as full of longing and regret as any novel by Tolstoy.  The scene with Dern's old girlfriend in the post office is touching, and reveals the suffering underneath all the watching of TV and stoicism.  And Forte's slow dawning of the complexity of his parents' lives and their imminent deaths is so well acted and everymanish that we take this journey with him, his discovery being that his parents loved and lost, were desperate, had unfulfilled longings and ultimately, that they loved him and his brother as best they could.  It's a lovely film, and true hearted one, and that black and white landscape grew on me, metaphorically, as the deceptive veil to the truth that we all are the same underneath, big city or small town, driving a hybrid or a farm truck.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

Wes Anderson is an always interesting filmmaker. I get irritated with his melancolic rich kids, but there are gems in every movie he makes, and his design and color are superb.  I'm especially fond of "Djarleeng Limited", with Adrian Brody, Jason Swartzman and Owen Wilson playing three brothers who are estranged and lost because of their father's death and mother's (Anjelica Huston) taking off for a nunnery on an Indian mountaintop.  They take the train on a "spiritual journey" cooked up by Wilson, and have adventures and mishaps that somehow do bring them together, after fighting and squabbles.  The color is gorgeous, since India was made for Anderson's palette, and one of India's greatest stars (Irrfan Khan) turns up as a father who experiences a tragedy. 

Wilson is perfect as the anxiety ridden oldest brother who runs off at the mouth and wants to organize his brother's lives.  Brody is a man about to become a father who jumps at the chance to run away from the responsibility.  Swartzman is the baby brother who has a sometime girlfriend (Natalie Portman) who likes to be cruel and disappear.  He's looking to be saved from her.  Their grief at that father's death and the subsequent dread expectation that it's time for them to grow up is touching and hilarious.  Huston is great as the mother who feels she's done all she can to save them and is now saving the world instead a la Mother Teresa.  Her mannerisms remind us that her oldest son is struggling to be her, but can't quite get the hang of it.

My favorite subplot is when the three are off the train, walking along a river, and see three boys slip off a raft and go underwater.  They each aim for one child, and two are saved, but Brody cannot save his child.  He is devastated, and they go to the village with the child in his arms, and stay through the grieving and the funeral.  The father, Khan, is the gentle compassionate father these boy-men need, and his kindness to them goes a long way to healing them.  While in the village, Brody is given a baby boy to hold, and you can see he is now a man, accepting his own fatherhood and the deep grief and joy it will bring.

There are lots of great comic bits, and Anderson manages to give us a real feel for India and the crazy/wonderful world it embodies.  These brothers learn to embrace life again, give it another try, because India is so teeming with life and color and feeling.  Ironically, India does become the spiritual journey they are seeking, despite themselves.  They let go and float in the river of India.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

My husband and I were excited to go see "Monuments Men" yesterday, and disappointed with the film afterward.  I have a good guess as to why it was not released in time for Oscar consideration and it's not what George Clooney says, post-production timelines.  This film is embarassing, not because it's so bad in the general ocean of movies, but because we expect so much more with this cast and the fascination of the story.  Everybody looks bad in this, except maybe for John Goodman and Jean Dujardin.  The cast is made to look bad by sloppy cliched writing, sad to say. 

I give Clooney and Grant Heslov (screenwriters, producers and Clooney directs) full credit for picking the material and for the fact that the story is tricky to tell on screen.  The documentary "Rape of Europa" succeeded brilliantly in telling of the looting of art by Nazis during World War II, and had the Nazis' own extensive photos and documentation to help.  The group of men who were tasked to save as much of the art as possible were not highlighted in that film, and it's inherently a great story.  But how to tell it?  They decided to focus on seven of the most prominent men, and unfortunately, that leaves us getting thumbnail sketches of each, with little or no backstory.  This causes cliches to rise from their ugly corners and swallow up the characters.  Most of the cast looks dreadfully uncomfortable with their scenes, knowing they are embarassing. 

Cate Blancett has a scene we've seeen time and again, where she and another Parisian spit in the champagne glass of the nasty Nazi before it's filled.  Matt Damon stands on a mine while his friends stand by him and refuse to leave.  Awful!  Bob Balaban and Bill Murray share a cigarette with a scared boy soldier.  But the scene in which John Goodman and Jean Dujardin stop in the countryside and Dujardin gets out of the jeep to go up to a horse is straight out of "Michael Clayton". Couldn't they think of any other cliche for the beauty of nature in the midst of war?  It even had a tinge of "Warhorse". 

If this were a film for the history channel or HBO it might be respectable.  But it's just retro filming not unlike what we see in some films made during World War II.  Message films, and in case we are too stupid to get the message:  Clooney's character lectures at the beginning and end of the film to made sure we get it.  There is no trust in the audience, and no real understanding of why that is bad policy for a film meant for educated, older filmgoers.  And by the way, a lot of the cast is looking mighty long in the tooth for their roles, including Clooney, Murray, Balaban, and Goodman.  And if you didn't notice, the scriptwriters kill off the Brit and Frenchman, so only us Americans are left standing.  Maybe that is factually true, but it's a bad choice.

I'd didn't like "The Ides of March", with it's similar cliches and predictable plot, preaching to the converted about politics and it's dirty side.  Maybe Heslov and Clooney should take more time with their material, pop the balloon of their swollen heads, and work harder and longer on their films, even if it ups the cost. We're a long way from "Good Night and Good Luck" now, and a film is not a bully pulpit.  Beware the ides of vanity.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

Last night we saw the Peter Weir film "Green Card", with Andie MacDowell and Gerard Depardieu.  The have pretty good chemistry, and it's light fare, unlike most of his films.  MacDowell was a limited actress, but has an interesting face and in certain roles, is right.  This is one of those roles.  She's uptight, needs a little loosening to enjoy life, like Jean Simmons in "Guys and Dolls". She doesn't want to take a risk, but once she does, in marrying Depardieu's character George, so she can appear married to get the coop apartment with the greenhouse that she covets, her whole world turns upside down.  Sarah Brown went to Havana, drank rum milkshakes and discovered love.  Bronte, MacDowell's character, has to be instantly intimate with George, in order to answer questions correctly for the Immigration people, when their marriage is deemed suspicious.  Is George her type?  Definitely not.  But he warms her up, understands and listens, and even helps her persuade a society matron to donate her trees to a project of Bronte's. 

There are some great scenes, including taking pictures on the roof to construct a past together for the authorities, their touching descriptions of each other for the immigration officiers, and the best scene is at the mansion of the society lady, where Bronte, who fears George is not a composer, discovers he can play the piano in an extremely funny dissonant piece, and then on the spot plays a melody and recites a poem spontaneously for the purpose of getting her the trees she so desperately wants for her gardens for the poor.

The use of Manhattan is lively and true.  There is a sense of all nations converging, highlighted by African drumming on the street and a terrific soundtrack.  This film is a trifle, but fun to see.  It's a love letter to New York, and better than anything Woody Allen ever did.  And we get to see Depardieu before he turned into a blimp, like Orson Welles and Marlon Brando.  They were gorgeous when they were young.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

I do love musicals, and occasionally watch something like "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" or "Calamity Jane".  They are silly, but if the songs are good, if the chemistry is right, well, I can forgive a lot.  I usually say my favorite musical is "Les Miserables", but that means seeing it in the theater.  I'm not a fan of the recent film.  And I have a big soft spot for "Annie Get Your Gun", because of the delightful songs and spectacle and feminist edge to the story.  But last night we saw "Guys and Dolls" again.  You know how I know how much I like it?  Something was defective with the DVD we'd had for years, and I actually ordered another.  I really wanted to have it at my fingertips. 

The story is sillier than silly, but it somehow works.  Some Times Square petty gamblers are looking for a spot for a craps game, and Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) is the facilitator, but can't get a space because the police are determined to jail them all.  He can get a garage if he has a thousand bucks, so he bets Skye Masterson (Marlon Brando) that he can't take a Salvation Army prude (Jean Simmons) to Havana for the night.  The subplot is the threat of Nathan and Adelaide breaking up because she's given him an ultimatum after a fourteen years engagement to marry her or it's over.  The chemistry is so great between Brando and Simmons, and because Frank Sinatra is perfectly cast and Vivienne Blaine is adorable, and mostly because of Stubby Kaye, as Nicely Nicely the film is sheer fun.  The dance choreography is goofy, the costumes bright and colorful and a handful of the songs are super terrific.  At the beginning and end, Kaye leads two rousing, clever songs, and his tenor, in contrast to his chubby form (think opera) brings comic delight to the viewer.  "Sit Down You're Rockin the Boat" is a finale that leaves me humming and singing for hours after.

Brando actually insisted on singing himself, and he does fine, and Simmons is as well.  Their attraction is believable and the scenes in Havana funny and charming.  You really believe they fall for each other that night.  That they are both gorgeous helps.  Their sudden commitment contrasts with the interminable engagement of Nathan Detroit and his doll.  Both ways happen in life, and nobody has to change their stripes to get married.  Sarah Brown is in her Salvation Army uniform when she marries, and Adelaide is in full frou-frou.  There is a nice little message about not trying to change the other person, and the movie is long over before you realize Nathan and Skye have no legitimate way of earning a living.  Oh, well.  You can't have everything.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

Since Chiwetel Ejoifor is in the news due to his nomination for "Twelve Years a Slave", I asked my son if he had ever seen him in anything else.  He hadn't.  I recommended "Talk To Me", the 2007 film that should have gotten more attention than it did.  Based on a true story and person, Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene Jr., a famous DJ on a Washington D.C. radio station, Don Cheadle plays Petey, and Ejiofor is his producer, Martin Sheen the owner of the station and Taraji P. Henson Petey's girlfriend.  The cast also includes Cedric the Entertainer and Mike Epps.  This movie is fun, funny, touching and educational at the same time.  Ejoifor playes Dewey Hughes, who recruits Petey to jazz up the station and appeal to Black listeners.  Petey is an ex-con, and player, a bullshit artist and nevertheless engaging.  Sheen is doubtful, but takes a chance on Petey, with successful results.

The film is also about the friendship between Dewey, college educated and wanting to elevate the Black man, and Petey, who refuses to be elevated, even when he gets his chance at superstardom on TV with Dewey as his agent and manager.  They couldn't be more different, but they love each other.  One of the highlights of the film is Petey's getting on the radio to talk people down during the riots after Martin Luther King's death.  He prevented a lot of violence from occurring. 

The sets and costumes are delightful and take us back to the sixties and seventies, and to an era when radio had a tremendous impact on people.  The acting shines, and, as I'm as much a fan of Cheadle as Ejoifor, it's a dream team.  Henson and Sheen are irresistable as well.  Take a ride on the soul train and see what all the fuss was about.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

We watched "Fruitvale Station" last night, as my husband had never seen it.  I was even more impressed with it than in the movie theater.  My husband noted it went by faster than it's 85 minute running time.  I think that choice was important, because one has the sense of a life gone to soon, too quickly, and what is left is the loss.  Michael B. Jordan is great as Oscar Grant, and Melonie Diaz as his girlfriend is so real you feel you know her.  What Ryan Cooper, the director has done is show us an ordinary day in an ordinary life of a young man without prospects, or direction, but with loving support of his family and therefore he has this amazing potential.  He is also a loving father to his four year old daughter, and thus the randomness of his death is all the more tragic.  Without any editorializing or preaching, you begin to see the loss of thousands of young black men like him.  They are lost boys, with no help and no future, hoping to survive in mean streets, and often being in the wrong place at the wrong time, because they are forced to live in the wrong place and they are desperate for money and respect.

Oscar Grant is not portrayed as a victim, he is a confused young man, he has been in jail, he has sold pot, he can't get to work on time, he promises everyone he will take care of them, but he's just a boy, and can't even take care of himself.  But you see he is personable, has good instincts most of the time, and wants to straighten up.  Just the fact that he is black makes him suspect, and the boy behavior of he and his pals, who are angry and defensive, (and how could they not be?) is a recipe for disaster.  You feel you know him, he's innocent, just give him a chance to grow up and figure out his place in the world.  Please.

Octavia Spencer is touching as his mother, strong, worried, and then grieving.  He is her baby boy.  We all understand that.  The film ends with Tatiania asking, "Where's Daddy?"  a heartbreaking question for too many black children.  Our society has done little to address this dilemma.  We grieve for Oscar Grant, and at the same time, we come closer to feeling responsible for this violence.  Racism is at the heart of this tragedy, and it's at home, in an area diverse and intermingled, which is shown so well in the film.  If it happens here, then shame on us.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

The Criterion Collection recently released a DVD of the 1956 film "The Burmese Harp" by Ron Ichigawa.  This black and white film is beautiful and moving.  Set in Burma at the end of World War II, it follows a Japanese soldier who escapes a POW camp, wanders the countryside as a Buddhist monk and ultimately embraces the mantle that has been his disguise.  He takes it upon himself to bury the dead, and at first, the Burmese people won't help him, but eventually they see that he is honoring the dead and burying the past, and they assist.  When, in the end, he hears that the Japanese prisoners are being sent home, despite the efforts of his soldier friends, he makes the decision to stay and live his life as a monk.

It's a simple story, but profound.  It's about the journey from fearing death to accepting it as a part of who human beings are and our impermanence on this earth.  The scenes stick with you, especially, for me, the huge resting Buddha statue that is a kind of cave/house inside.  When I think of the suffering of the Burmese people, I understand how this film honors them, and all the victims of war, and the human condition.  Death is all around us, but most people refuse to see or acknowledge it.  This soldier transformed into monk turns toward the human condition and finds compassion.

I write this as we find out Phillip Seymour Hoffman has died of a heroin overdose, leaving a partner and three children.  At forty six years old, he had a long life before him, yet somehow he could not face that gift, and find life precious.  We don't know the story, we never will, but we know our own loss.  His performances were jewels, and his sadness evident in each and every one of them.  He somehow could not turn compassionately towards his own human condition and love himself enough to seek help.  He had once 23 years ago, and perhaps he was weary or had lost sight of the preciousness of his own life.  We have not, and will have his films to treasure, but his death is a blow.  Impermanence is a hard fact to face.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

I don't know how many times we've watched "Laura", the noir thriller from the 1940's, but it's not just the haunting melody, but the tightness of the editing, the cinematography, and the perfect casting that make it great.  Gene Tierney is beautiful beyond belief and at the same time a girl you might know.  Clifton Webb is perfection as Addison, her mentor, who is in love with her and jealous of her youth and beauty.  Dana Andrews is just right as the detective, Mark, and Vincent Price and Judith Anderson make their parts unforgettable.  The conceit that the detective is in love with a dead girl who suddenly comes to life is engaging, but we believe, from the beginning, that he is her mate, and not just because he is young and handsome, but he is a hero, brave and modest.  Laura has been surrounded by syncophants and people who gravitate to her looks and hard work.  Mark is a real person, unswayed by fame or money.  She, in the end, is a small town girl looking for the boy next door.  He's not threatened by her success or even interested.  He falls in love with her portrait, and he already knows her secrets, as he has read her diaries and letters.

If I had to say what this film addresses, I'd say aging and longing for youth, in a culture that has made such obsessions a sickness.  But in metaphorical language, the young, beautiful America has triumphed over Europe and Nazism and culture and breeding.  In the US of A, you can love anyone and have them as long as you are true blue and full of moxie.  Both Laura and Mark are moxie personified, and post World War II, that gumption would carry us far for a few decades.  Addison is the old world, snobbish and stuffy, and Price and Anderson play aristocrats, one down on his luck the other with too much money and no self respect.  Their world is over.  It is Laura and Mark's world now, and looking back from the future, we are sad seeing their hopes and dreams and knowing they would turn sour, as our parents and grandparents dreams did.  It's a fine romance represented in the film, and we watch with longing all the illusions and simplifications that will shortly be muddied up by the Cold War and our own greed, until today America has the biggest discrepancy in income between rich and poor of every other country except Chile.  It is a new world but neither brave nor better.

Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

We all have our guilty pleasures.  One of mine is "27 Dresses".  It's as much of a fairy tale as "Enchanted", which is another of my guilty pleasures.  I'm not a fan of Katherine Hegel, and, as usual, the movie, a la Sandra Bullock films, has her cast as the ugly duckling, with her sister, played by Malin Ackerman, as the beauty.  Give me a break.  Hegel's features are so rubber doll perfect that it is irritating to say the least.  But she does project sass, and with her deep voice, has some presence.  Her character is already a wife, as she is the devoted slave of her boss (Edward McMillen) and the marriage is not satisfying, not hardly.  She is everybody and nobody's devoted friend as well, and has been a bridesmaid 27 times.  Along comes someone fun:  a writer for the wedding column in the biggest paper, James Marsden (strange, he is the prince in "Enchanted" as well and also JFK in "The Butler"). 

Now here is the secret to why this movie works:  he's like a girl's best gay friend (as in "Best Friend's Wedding"), but miraculously, he isn't gay.  He's attracted to this stick in the mud, and sees the underlying sadness of her life.  He's, moreover, FUN.  There is the scene when they are both drunk in a bar in the middle of nowhere singing "Benny and the Jets".  This is borrowed from "Best Friend's Wedding" and reworked more satisfactorily.  Like me, I'm sure you never got over Rupert Everett refusing to change his sexual orientation and marrying Julia Roberts.  For some reason, Marsden wants Hegel, because he sees potential, I guess.  He should run for the hills, but anyway, that wouldn't be romantically satisfying.

So, we get the satisfaction of the pretty younger sister's comeupance, as Hegel destroys her engagement and wedding plans, but she has her reasons, as sister is lying about being vegan and cut up mom's wedding dress to boot.  She gets her chance with the boss and discovers there is no chemistry between them.  So she will not be picking out his clothes in the morning and serving him a seven course breakfast before he hihos off to work.  She's off the hook, and whatever the future is with almost gay man, it will be a lot more interesting.  Maybe.  Unless you think about it.