What's Playing at My House

Akelah and the Bee

I was pretty skeptical about this movie. The cast sounded good. But I didn't expect to like it. I like relatively few kids' movies. I guess my standards for them are pretty high.

Akelah and the Bee is about an 11-year-old girl in South Central LA who is pushed to enter the school spelling bee. She wins, and it's obvious she can spell practically anything. So her principal and his friend, a Stanford English professor on sabbatical, groom her for the national spelling bee. Her overwhelmed, widowed mother [Angela Bassett] is furious; she thinks this is a waste of time for Akelah [Kiki Palmer]. It's a good movie that sounds all the right notes about believing in yourself and working hard for a goal. I did find the mother's protests a bit hard to believe.

But all in all, I have only one complaint. The script makes incredible efforts to make the characters sound like they really live in the urban inner city. To the point where the preteens curse left and right, everyone speaks in a thick urban accent, and uses lots of slang.

Hey, I get it. I cursed a lot in 7th grade myself. The people in this movie are poor. Most of them aren't Caucasian. They live in South Central. But like many people do when trying to portray the South on film, you all went overboard on playing to the stereotype. I think this effect is perhaps so pronounced because part of the script involves Akelah's professor/tutor [Laurence Fishburne] coaching her on grammar, too. But really.

Worth watching? Sure, especially if you have preteen kids. But if you're squeamish on language, I'd steer clear.

A Prairie Home Companion

Let me start this one by confessing my wild bias:
I love, love, love Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home Companion. To the point where, when I turned on the radio last year or the year before, and there was a news story celebrating his life's work, I panicked and thought he had died and I seriously had to sit down and Google it right then, hyperventilating all the while.

Turns out it was some kind of 30th anniversary retrospective or whatever. Whew.

This man is the background music of my weekends. So you know I am going to like the movie. And I did. I loved it.

But I only think you should see it under one of two conditions:
* You, too, are a big PHC fan.
* You like movies like State and Main.

This one is quirky. But if you fall into either of the two above categories, this one's for you.

Friends with Money

First, sorry that I have not posted lately. I guess only those of you with me in your feed readers are still coming back, it's been so long. I have watched a few movies recently -- not many, but a few -- but none that I wanted to comment on one way or the other until I had Friends with Money come up in my Netflix queue.

I expected to like this movie [yes, I sometimes watch movies that I don't expect to like. I'm weird.] and I did, but... well, the one thing about it I have to tell you is a spoiler. So just stop here if you don't like to know the end.

Joan Cusack is one of my favorite actors, and she's excellent here. As is Frances McDormand, who's not-so-quietly clinging to reality while she struggles with her life. And Simon McBurney, the husband who is clearly gay [well, clearly to everyone but him and McDormand, who plays his wife]...so funny. Great commentary on modern urban life.

I found the relationships between the friends to be very believable. Women really do talk about each other like that. We're just trying to help. Or make ourselves feel better about ourselves, because we're not as bad off/fat/crazy/codependent as you are. But we would never, ever say that to your face. We certainly don't want to hurt your feelings. It's not like you can help it.

So, here's my problem. At the end, Jennifer Aniston finally meets a man she likes, played by Bob Stephenson. To all appearances, he's just as poor and quirky as she is, but she is not embarrassed to share him with her much wealthier friends.  And unlike every other man she's ever met, he's not out to take advantage of her. Then we learn, that even though he lives like a starving, slobby college student, he's rich. Really rich, like no need to work rich.

Now that I've put that down here, I'm having trouble describing my problem with it. Maybe it's this. There's a part of me that says, no matter who you are, we all have to justify our existence here. Rich, poor, stuck in the middle, life is what you make it and when you add up the score at the end of the game, everyone ought to have something to show for their time here. While in some ways, Aniston's character is among the happiest in the movie, she's certainly the most aimless. She flails around for direction half-heartedly, mostly content with her lot. And Stephenson -- his goal in life seems to be finding a better frozen dinner. Great, you've got all this money, what the heck are you doing with your life?

Yes, that is what bothers me. I disagree with the life choices of two of the central characters.

But a pretty good movie, nonetheless.

Groundhog Day 2: AKA Ladder 49

I rented Ladder 49 with the fondest hopes. I love Joaquin Phoenix [my man was robbed when Phillip Seymour Hoffman took Best Actor in 2006]. I can take Travolta in the right role [nothing will ever, ever beat Saturday Night Fever]. I like firefighter movies. Apparently, you don't get Backdraft every time.

This movie starts out OK. Dude gets trapped in a burning building after rescuing terrified civilian. Then we start with this flashback motif, seeing how Phoenix came to be a firefighter and learned the trade as a rookie on the force. How he met his wife. Had kids. Etc., etc., etc.

Etc., etc., etc.

At 70 minutes, I was ready for the movie to wrap up. I'd had my fun, gotten the adrenaline rush, ready to be done.

This movie lasts 115 minutes.

It's the first movie in a long time I just cut off [somewhere around the 90-minute mark]. It just got to be so repetitive. I have a friend at work who'd seen the whole thing. From what she told me, I'm glad I stopped when I did. It certainly wasn't worth any more of my time.

Tip on movie watching

I'm not sure how many times I will have to re-learn this one particular tip over the course of my life. Apparently, I'm not quite done with it yet.

Never watch one movie when you're in the mood for another movie. Never, ever think this will work. It just won't.

The other night, I finally psyched myself up to watch The Aviator. Now, everybody and their dog loves this movie. It was popular. It won awards. But I have this thing about Leo DiCaprio. And not a positive thing. And so for months, I've tried but failed to convince myself that I should watch the movie. Finally, I just put it on my Netflix list and figured I'd deal with it when it arrived. It showed up, and I finally decided to watch it. I was even excited. I mean, Cate Blanchett would be incredible in small-town dinner theater. And I loved Katherine Hepburn [whom Blanchett portrays in The Aviator]. So, I opened the Netflix envelope, slipped it out of the sleeve....and it was cracked in half. Must have happened somewhere in the mail, because it had just been sitting atop my TV since it arrived here.

Still in the mood to watch a movie, I foolishly popped in The Lost City. Which I had previously been really excited about. I just love, love Antonio Banderas. I don't necessarily think he's an award-winning actor, but he seems like the coolest guy, like you'd like to hang out and have a beer with. Or, heh, why not mojitos in honor of The Lost City? At any rate, I generally like whatever he does.

I hated that movie.

The worst part was, I could tell I would normally like it. A little political intrigue, family drama, decent historical fiction. I didn't get halfway through the movie, people. Not halfway. I wasn't paying attention, and neither was I even doing anything interesting. I just couldn't get into it, since what I wanted to watch was The Aviator.

Netflix, ever customer-service-oriented, had the new disc of The Aviator here today. It better live up to my expectations!

Blood Diamond: Couldn't Do It

I have really been anxious to watch Blood Diamond, the critically acclaimed picture about the trade in conflict diamonds*. So I was delighted when it arrived yesterday. About 30 minutes into the film, what I feared had happened: I couldn't watch it.

Right around the time I had my daughter, nearly 8 years ago now, I suddenly lost the ability to watch very scary shows and in particular, TV shows and movies that put children in danger. While I don't have nearly as intense a reaction as I had several years ago, I am still put off by lots of films and shows. And though I really wanted to see this movie, I just couldn't do it.

So, let me recommend it to you -- what I did see was great -- but say, if you can't stand gore and violence, and children in danger, please don't waste your money.

* Diamonds mined by children or adults in slavery, and/or those used to finance war and violence. It can be difficult for a consumer to ascertain the history of an individual stone. Estimates vary of how many diamonds come from shadowy origins, with diamond promoters asserting just 1% and human rights activists saying as many as 20% could come from negative backgrounds.

The Holiday vs. Sleepless in Seattle

Really, it's not fair of me to do this. The Holiday is a sweet little movie and if you can get over the fact that Cameron Diaz is one of the actors [my dislike of her blonde bubblehead persona knows no bounds], it's worth your time.

But I had the misfortune to watch The Holiday just a couple days before I re-watched Sleepless in Seattle.

And what started out as a fun, light flick quickly faded when I remembered what a great comic romance really looks like.

In The Holiday, Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet are alone for the holidays and decide to trade homes for Christmas vacation. Removed from normal routines, each discovers a new relationship. I guess my biggest problem here is, that I could much more easily believe Kate Winslet and Jude Law falling for each other, and Cameron Diaz falling for Jack Black. Of course, it's the other way around.

The Holiday is slow at various times. It's not as tightly scripted as the best movies in this genre. And while I noticed it a bit while I was watching it, it wasn't really obvious until I watched Sleepless in Seattle.

We watched SiS in Florida last week, hoping for a movie that everyone from the 7yo to my dad would enjoy. We did it! The 7yo has discovered Bill Cosby, so I hoped she'd enjoy this too. What I didn't remember was Rosie O'Donnell's character in SiS. Oh my word, so funny.

But best of all, the movie is quick, unexpected and well written. Each character shines in a different way, and they fit together perfectly.

While I've enjoyed everything Tom Hanks has ever been in, I just love him in a comedy like this. It seems so effortless, so real, to watch him. The man is a genius. And perfectly paired with Meg Ryan.

So sure, watch The Holiday. Just don't go expecting Sleepless when you do.

Man of the Year

I really wanted to like this Robin Williams comedy. Frankly, I'm their target audience: I watch Jon Stewart religiously; I love political comedies; I'm a Robin Williams fan. But Man of the Year just disappointed me.

In MotY, Robin Williams plays a talk-show comedian who's egged on by his audience into running for president. Originally a token candidate, he runs a decent race, but then unexpectedly wins, despite polling very much to the contrary.

Now, to be fair, it's an amusing movie. Robin Williams [paired with Christopher Walken, hilarious] is funny without being overbearing. But....

* The opening—narrated by Christopher Walken as if he's being interviewed—gives the feel of serious political satire. Nothing else in the movie rises to that level.

* Want a good political satire? Bob Roberts, first off. This fabulous Tim Robbins flick bites hard. Done in documentary style, and highlights a corrupt candidate for Senate and his "down-home fascism" as Roger Ebert calls it.

* How about Wag the Dog? Also a Barry Levinson movie (like Man of the Year) but Wag the Dog is fast-paced, political and hard-edged all the way through.

With Man of the Year, I felt like Levinson couldn't decide whether to do a romance, a comedy or a political satire, so he threw in a tad of each and mixed them all together. Laura Linney's character is especially infuriating: she knows how and why Williams became president, but it takes her repeated encounters with him to a. spill the beans and b. stop acting like a lunatic.

Final thoughts: Got a free evening? Eh, go ahead. But don't make a special effort over this one.

The Age of Innocence

I saw this movie when it came out, and I remember liking it. But I just watched it again last night, and I'm now thinking this is one of the best movies I've ever seen.

Superlatives are so shopworn nowadays that I'm having trouble deciding how to describe The Age of Innocence. How about instead, I'll start with a confession: Normally, I'm a major stickler for reading the book before seeing the movie. To the point where I bought all three Lord of the Rings books and whipped through them when I heard the movies were in production, so I'd be ready to watch them. [Review at a later date....] For some reason, I have never read The Age of Innocence [Edith Wharton, 1920, Pulitzer-winning book]. After seeing the movie again, I'm dying to.

I don't know if my book club friend Jamie reads this blog, but I will apologize to her if she does and this post has already made her faint. We have a long-running dispute: Who's better, Ernest Hemingway or Jane Austen? It turned out that neither of us had read the other's favorite author, being so turned off by the style. And I'm the Hemingway girl. We agreed to read at least one book of the other's choosing, and I waded through Pride and Prejudice last year, only so I could make her read a Hemingway. 

If you've read the two of those, you may also be surprised that I'm so in love with this film. I am curious to see if I like the book. I'll have to report back on that front. But what a masterpiece Martin Scorsese has created here!

A. The actors are incredible. Put Daniel Day-Lewis in a film about the dogcatcher and I'm there. This is a great role for him: he so often plays the angry man, but this character is fabulously multi-dimensional. Lewis is engaged and then married to Winona Ryder, who is exquisite here as the bland face of convention, though possessing a depth we don't appreciate until later. The scenes between Michelle Pfeiffer and Lewis are maddening as they struggle to avoid sweeping away in their emotions. Maddening in a it-makes-you-feel-like-they-must-feel-and-you-can't stand-it-any-more-than-they-can kind of way. The supporting cast is also crucial: they personify the sharp edges hidden under the polite veneer of 1870s New York high society, building a stockade around Lewis' character he is unable -- and unwilling -- to break through.

B. Have you ever felt so sorry for rich people? Is anyone in this film really happy?

C. The costumes and settings are so perfect, so what you imagine the time period was like [at least for the upper crust]. FYI, The Age of Innocence won an Oscar for costume design. Well-deserved. Why it didn't have more, I can't explain to you.

The Grifters

I wasn't expecting The Grifters to be so, so, disturbing? Thought-provoking? Funny? All of the above.

First off, this movie is not a comedy. But you will laugh at several points throughout this flick, about a bunch of crooks scamming random people and also each other. I don't know that you'd call Grifters a drama exactly....it's really more of a character study than anything. And my, what disturbing characters.

Stars John Cusack, Annette Bening and the fabulous Anjelica Huston, along with a lot of other people you'll know. Watch for Jeremy Piven as a sailor on the train. And J.T. Walsh is in there -- this guy was in everything in the 80s and 90s prior to his untimely death in 1998. I especially remember him as Lt. Col. Markinson in A Few Good Men. But I'm off topic.

This movie came out in 1991, giving us the answer to the question: Has John Cusack always been this good? Yes, he has. Not to say I've loved all of his movies....but there aren't many I wouldn't recommend.

Showing the complex relationship between Roy Dillon [Cusack], and his mother Lilly [Huston], and his girlfriend Myra [Bening],  The Grifters takes you right up to the edge and then pushes you over. Would you betray those closest to you? For how much? Is everything, even your deepest relationships, just a scam if there's a profit involved? How easily can you see other human beings as nothing more than the means to an end?

It's a fabulous movie, but it's certainly not a feel-good. More like, you'll swear you're not the same species as these folks when the movie's done, but deep down, you know it's there. At least a little bit.