Tina's July Movies

I am closing in on 100 movies and sticking to my goal of seeing as many new ones as possible along with old movies I haven't seen in 20 years or more. This month features a number of interesting documentaries (thank you, HBO) as well as a few of my favorite comedies. Here is what I watched (new movies noted with an * and numbering picks up from last month).

81. Page One: Inside The New York Times* (2011) – Though I was not sure why I felt drawn to this movie, my sister offered the answer: I was editor of my high school newspaper for two years, which I had forgotten. Of course, any comparison between Somerville High's Valkyrie News and the august newspaper of record, The New York Times, can be made only in noting they are both printed with ink on paper, but that seems to be the issue these days with the Times. This engrossing documentary casts a wide net around the news business, delineating the failures of such recognized names as the Tribune company (The Chicago Tribune and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer), and discussing the credibility and responsibility of traditional media vs. the new activist journalism, as offered by WikiLeakes. The film poses the question of the role of newspapers, with a legacy of journalistic integrity and perceived duty to the democracy, versus the media frenzy that emanates from Twitter, the Huffington Post and other on-line options. Notes one of the journalists: "The media is not the message, the message is the media." The death knell and demise of print journalism in general and of The Times specifically has been reported for years, and this film tackles whether it is imminent and necessary. I vote no. 4 cans.
82. Slap Shot (1977) – Paul Newman, sports and a comedy. These are three things I love individually, and here, collectively, they make for a raucous two-hour movie about the trials and tribulations of a minor league hockey team about to fold. Newman is Reg Dunlap, the player-coach of the Charlestown Chiefs, a horrible hockey team in a crappy league full of has-beens and never-weres. When the bespectacled Hanson brothers – all three of them – arrive on the scene (complete with their toys) and are let loose on the ice, mayhem ensues and the team succeeds. Ah, but enough to make them an attractive franchise for another town to purchase? Newman is terrific, skating enough to seem credible as a hockey player. Michael Ontkean is the brainy player who won’t fight, and Strother Martin, Newman’s nemesis in the great “Cool Hand Luke,” is the general manager of the hockey club. 4 cans for a lot of laughs and the great Maxine Nightingale song, “Get Right Back to Where You Started From.”
83. Valentine’s Day* (2010) – Any Hollywood star or pseudo-star who was not in this picture must have been out of the country when this pastiche of Valentine’s Day stories was produced, because the cast here – all in relatively small parts – includes Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Queen Latifah, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Biel, Shirley MacLaine, Hector Elizondo, Bradley Cooper, Topher Grace, Patrick Dempsey, Eric Dane (lots of TV folks here), George Lopez, Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner. The whole thing reminded me of an episode of “The Love Boat,” with so many characters and just a dollop of script. The obvious premise is Valentine’s Day, with people falling into and out of love, relationships that are starting and ending, loosely held together by Kutcher’s florist business. The movie tries mightily to be endearing but reaches only the bottom of the cuteness scale. 3 cans.
84. The Lake House* (2006) – If you think a long distance relationship is tough (see #80, “Going the Distance”), try one in which the couple lives in the same house but in two different years. I didn’t want to like this movie because I have long-standing issues with anything that requires me to suspend my sense of reality, but I couldn’t help rooting for Kate the doctor (Sandra Bullock) and Alex the architect (Keanu Reeves) to bridge the gap in time and meet in this romantic fantasy. Alex moves into the lake house built by his father after Kate moves out, and they strike up a correspondence by leaving letters in the mail box, even though he lives in 2004 and she is from 2006. Will they get together? Will they fall in love? Will Cher show up and start singing “If I Could Turn Back Time?” (She doesn’t, thankfully.) This movie captured my imagination with its appealing leads and extenuating circumstances, and it made me want to go jump into that lake. 4 cans.
85. Mother (1996) – Sci-fi author John Henderson (writer-director Albert Brooks) has just been divorced by wife number two and has writer’s block. Wondering why he is failing with women and hoping to unblock, he decides to move in with his mother (Debbie Reynolds) to figure out how their relationship affects his life. Mother Henderson is sweet and loving, though her care and concern seems more critical than supportive to John, and the two go together like Oscar and Felix with slightly lower-key histrionics. Reynolds is brilliant as the slightly befuddled mother whose routine is interrupted by annoying son John. There are great bits with her trying to cope with technology, but my favorite part is when she offers her skeptical son the vintage sherbet with what she calls the “protective ice layer” residing in her freezer. I always insisted to my mother that her ice cream was stale, only to hear her counter that ice cream cannot go stale. Anyone who has ever had a mother will probably recognize qualities in this mother that remind them of their own. 4 cans.
86. Up Close & Personal (1996) – Tally Atwater (Michelle Pfeiffer) is all cheekbones and ambition as she enters the Miami TV newsroom commandeered by veteran newsman Warren Justice (Robert Redford). But she’s willing to work hard to overcome her lack of experience and soon Warren takes her under his wing to teach her the news biz. She such a good student that she not only advances, she gets the guy, too. Very loosely related to real-life newswoman Jessica Savitch, this movie shows the evolution of Tally from ditsy on-camera rookie into a seasoned reporter. And the shot of Redford at the bottom of the escalator is sigh-inducing. The movie’s two immensely attractive stars carry off the love story better than the somewhat cheesy news part. They are enough for me to award 3½ cans.
87. High Plains Drifter* (1973) – This movie is what I think of when I think of Clint Eastwood. Here he is a mysterious, steely stranger who arrives in a corrupt town and is prevailed upon to protect the citizens from the bad guys who are headed their way, bound for revenge. He organizes the townsfolk with a minimum of words and a maximum of fear, getting them ready to shoot from the rooftops of the town he has them literally paint red. When it is all over, he leaves town as mysteriously as he came. OK, I’ll admit it: I don’t know what the hell this was about. Revenge, clearly, but a metaphor for something deeper? Was he related to the marshal the town leaders killed and dumped in an unmarked grave? We can only guess because the stranger’s name is never revealed. If you like westerns, this might appeal, but it was clearly not my kind of movie. 2 cans.
88. Beginners* (2011) – Oliver (Ewan MacGregor) is the grown son of Hal (Christopher Plummer), a lifelong gay man who was married to Oliver’s mother for 40 years until her death, when he came flying out of the closet. When we meet Oliver, he is numbly moving his late father’s possessions and dog, Arthur, to his nondescript house. The son of a joyless marriage, Oliver draws cartoons of sad people when he is at work as an illustrator. When he meets Anna at a party, things begin to look up – briefly – but since his exposure to real relationships with people is skewed, he only recognizes happiness in his father’s last years, before he became sick and while he enjoyed friends, fireworks and parties. I sacrificed a near-perfect day to sit inside and endure this dreary movie with my pool pal, Dee, who described this film as follows: “Other than liking the actors, who all did a fine job with what script they had, ‘Beginners’ sucked the joy out of the theatre, the shopping center, the county, and central New Jersey like a huge black hole in outer space. 5 cans for the dog.” I agree. The dog was great and gets 5 cans of Alpo. The rest of the film? For me, “Beginners” couldn’t end soon enough. 2 cans.
89. Courage Under Fire (1996) – Courage has many meanings in this war drama. Lieutenant Colonel Nat Serling (Denzel Washington) is charged with reviewing the case of the Captain Karen Ward (Meg Ryan), who is under consideration for the Medal of Honor for her bravery in battle. But the conflicting stories provided by the men in her command confuse and frustrate Serling, who is under fire to wrap up the investigation and see the first woman receive this honor. Meanwhile, Serling is suffering from his own conflicts, emanating from his role in the friendly fire death of his good friend, a fact that the Army has covered up. Washington is determined and stoic as he clashes with the soldiers below and above him in rank. Meg Ryan handles her unlikely role as the Army officer well, and Matt Damon, in his breakthrough movie role, delivers a memorable performance as one of the soldiers who knows what really happened in that battle. I found the movie a little hard to follow, with the dialog often overpowered by the loud gunfire. But after multiple flashbacks showing various versions of the incident, you get the idea and appreciate the danger and demands placed on the soldiers. 3½ cans.
90. Who Is Jackson Pollack?* (2006) – That’s trucker Teri Horton’s question when someone with knowledge of art tells her that the painting she bought for $5 in a thrift store may just be the creation of one of the most important artists of the century. But is it actually a Pollack painting? If it is, it could be worth as much as $50 million. Teri, who lives in a trailer behind a VFW, may not have a background in art, but she does have dogged determination, and she enlists the aid of experts in her quest to authenticate the painting. The art establishment scoffs at the notion that a piece as important as a Pollack painting could have ended up in a thrift store in the first place. This documentary covers the search for the truth, interviews the experts and the skeptics, and follows the CSI-like work of one man who feels Teri has the real thing and tries to prove it with DNA and fingerprints. The question remains as the film ends, with Teri turning down an offer of $9 million for the potential masterpiece the 75+ year old thinks is worth much more. 4 cans of paint for this engrossing and entertaining film.
91. Lost in America (1985) – When ad man David (Albert Brooks) fails to get the promotion to which he feels entitled, he convinces his wife Linda (Julie Hagerty) to quit her job, liquidate their assets and buy a Winnebago so they can travel the country and find themselves. First stop? Las Vegas, where Linda manages to gamble away their “nest egg” while David sleeps. Can two yuppies become two hippies and live off the land? This is a clever comedy, filled with hilarious Brooks rants (he wrote the script, much of which sounds and seems improvised). The understated Hagerty ‘s performance balances Brooks’ over the top madness. The best scene in the movie is when ever-the-adman Brooks tries to sell casino boss Garry Marshall on the idea of returning their money as a sure-fire way to attract more gamblers, despite Marshall’s contention that then everyone will want their money back. This movie is a winner. 4 cans.
92. The Curious Case of Curt Flood* (2011) – This HBO documentary traces the story of baseball star Curt Flood, an accomplished athlete who challenged baseball’s reserve clause in the 1970s. By order of the Supreme Court, major league baseball was not subject to antitrust regulations, and the reserve clause bound players to the teams that signed them. Flood, traded against his will, took on the baseball establishment, backed by the players union but taking on the challenge alone. He failed to win the case, but his inroads against baseball eventually led to changes in the collective bargaining agreement that ultimately provided for salary arbitration and free agency (with ballplayers routinely signing for millions). Flood, for his part, lost his career as an athlete and retreated into alcoholism and depression, leaving the country and abandoning his family. Before his death at age 59, the man who was the voice of the ballplayers ironically lost his own voice to cancer. But by then, he had gained the respect of Civil Rights leaders and his fellow athletes for his courage in taking on a system he likened to slavery. 4 cans.
93. In & Out (1997) – Kevin Kline is at his most charming as Howard Bracket, engaged to marry fellow teacher Emily (hilarious Joan Cusack) when former student Cameron Drake (Matt Dillon) tells the world in his Oscar acceptance speech that Howard is gay. The small town of Greenleaf is shaken, the principal is ready to fire Howard, and Howard refutes it all, trying to convince his finance and himself that he is not gay after all. Covering the story is a TV reporter (Tom Sellick), who thinks otherwise. This is a comedic romp for Kline, whose body language alone could win an Oscar. Cusack, the woman who is scheduled to marry Kline that week, is confused and crazed. Debbie Reynolds, Wilford Brimley and Bob Newhart join in the fun in perfect supporting roles. There are so many juicy comic bits, and Kline shines throughout. 4½ cans.
94. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead* (2007) – Cash-strapped brothers Andy and Hank plan what appears to be a simple robbery of a jewelry store, but the heist goes awry in this crime drama. Directed by Sidney Lumet, the story goes back and forth between past and present, and secret lives are unveiled as the brothers grow more desperate to dig themselves out of the hole. The strong cast includes Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke as the brothers, Marisa Tomei as the woman they share and Albert Finney as the father. Suspenseful and increasingly forlorn tale. 3½ cans.
95. There’s Something Wrong With Aunt Diane* (2011) – And we’ll never know exactly what it was. This HBO documentary examines the case of Diane Schuler, suburban New York mother and aunt, who drove for one and a half miles the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway in July 2009, eventually crashing into another car and killing its three occupants, herself, her daughter and three nieces. Only her young son survived. The filmmakers review the facts of the case, tracing Diane’s route from an upstate NY campground to her eventual tragic end. Along the way we hear the 911 calls where other drivers reported her car traveling in the wrong direction. We see footage of her stop at a gas station convenience store and a McDonald’s. Although her autopsy revealed excessive amounts of alcohol and marijuana in her system, her family staunchly defends her as a very responsible woman whose first priority was her family. They insist she must have had a medical episode that precipitated her bizarre behavior along the ride home, when one of her nieces phoned her father to say that, “There’s something wrong with Aunt Diane.” A second set of tests on her samples confirmed the initial report and that the samples were hers, but what happened remains a tragic mystery to her husband and family and those who lost loved ones. 4 cans.
96. No Contract, No Cookies * (2010) - These HBO documentaries are compelling, and this one hits home with the story of 138 workers at the Stella D’Oro bakery in the Bronx. A veritable United Nations of workers, the employees went out on strike for 11 months after an investment company bought the cookie maker and slashed wages and benefits. Their solidarity eventually resulted in a ruling in their favor, but it was a Pyrrhic victory when the company simply turned around and closed the plant, moving baking operations to a non-union factory in Ohio. The reality of seeing these people, many of whom at worked for Stella D’Oro for 25+ years as bakers, forklift operators, janitors and the like, threatened with losing their homes brought today’s economic hard times to life. In the end, they were no winners. And I’ll probably never eat a Stella D’Oro cookie again. 4 cookies.