28. You Can’t Take It With You* (1938) – This comedy about an eccentric family won the Oscar for Best Picture. The story centers around a group of zany people – most related to each other, but not all – who live together and express their zest for life every day. The daughter (Jean Arthur) falls for a guy (James Stewart) who is the scion of a very staid, wealthy family of bankers. So who is really rich in this scenario – the people who are surrounded by joy and love or the people who are wealthy and powerful? The answer is obvious, and there has to be some middle ground. Ingratiating, if a little too long (and a little TOO zany for me). 3 cans.
29. A Hole in the Head (1955) – Frank Sinatra plays a role perfect for him – Tony, a brash widower chasing women and looking for a big score to save his rundown Miami hotel and keep his little boy (Eddie Hodges). When he reaches out to his brother-in-law (Edward G. Robinson) for a loan, the b-i-l and his wife (Thelma Ritter) take a trip to Florida to see their nephew and determine what’s really going on. They decide Tony needs a wife, and they know a lovely widow (Eleanor Parker) who would make his perfect mate. Of course, they are polar opposites. Hodges, in his first role, is irresistible as Sinatra’s son. This movie introduced the song “High Hopes,” about a little old ant who thinks he can move that rubber tree plant. The song and the movie remind us never to lose optimism, not matter how unlikely happiness may appear. 3½ cans.
30. Carnal Knowledge (1971) – As this Mike Nichols film opens, we can hear two teenaged boys fantasizing about the kind of women they aspire to, let’s just say, “meet.” The two young men, Jonathan and Sandy (Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel, in a rare movie role), go on to room together in college and remain friends through their 30s, neither of them changing much about their fantasies, remaining interested in women as sex objects and not happy at any stage with the women in their lives. Though they are best friends, doesn’t stop Jonathan from going after Sandy’s first real girlfriend (Candace Bergen) or, later, proposing that Sandy have a dalliance with his live-in lover, played by Ann-Margret. Everyone in this movie is full of contempt for each other and for themselves, no one is enjoying any part of his/her life and everyone is bored. So much for healthy relationships. Nicholson is good at being amoral and outraged, and when he goes through a slide show of his conquests, you really understand his unctuous side. This was a very racy movie for its time, though today it would be fairly tame – and more than a little boring. 3½ cans.
31. Picnic (1955) – When drifter Hal (William Holden) shows up at a sleepy little town on Labor Day weekend, the place gets noticeably hotter. Though an abject failure in most every phase of life, he is nonetheless full of braggadocio. He comes to town to look up his old college friend Allan (Cliff Robertson), scion of a wealthy family, to hit him up for a job. As everyone heads off to the Labor Day picnic, sparks fly between Hal and poor but pretty Madge, Allan’s girlfriend. This movie is based on the William Inge play and seems very stagey. The performances – especially by Holden, who is way too old for the role and hardly the Greek God they insist he is (by making him take off his shirt as much as possible) – are over-the-top, as if the actors were trying to reach the balcony. That goes for old-maid school teacher Rosalind Russell, too. The exception is Kim Novak, whose laconic performance confirms her ability to show a range of emotion that runs the gamut from A to B. There is sexual tension galore – especially for the time – and lots of body heat. Ah, but “Body Heat” was truly a sweaty movie and much higher on the sexual tension scale. This one was OK, but not much of a picnic. 3½ cans.
32. Calendar Girls (2003) – Even if I didn’t find this movie utterly charming, which I do, I’d give it great marks for casting. It is not just Helen Mirren (Chris) and Julie Walter (Annie) as the leads, but all of the middle aged women and townsfolk in England who look authentic to me. Based on a true story, the movie is about a group of women who decide to publish a calendar with tasteful pictures of themselves nude to raise money for a couch in the waiting room of the local hospital where Annie’s husband is being treated for leukemia. Bottom line – they raise more than enough for a couch as the story becomes a worldwide phenomenon and leads them to Hollywood and beyond. I admired their courage and the genuine friendships portrayed here. There is more to beauty than a firm young body, and these women are beautiful in every way. 4 cans.
33. Kings Point* (2012) – This gloomy documentary follows the lives a several elderly residents who have abandoned their New York City roots for a better life in Florida. They are alone, and though they make friends and have activities in their senior citizen’s complex, even visually it looks and feels like jail. They befriend each other, but admit it isn’t the same as having real friends, and most are too afraid to commit to a relationship because they know they will end up alone again. The film was made by the daughter of one of the residents, and it shares what is the inevitable fate of these people. The message to me was to enjoy life while you can, before you end up in a nicer climate but without family and companionship of the people who mean the most to you. Oy, vey. 3 cans.
34. Duel* (1971) – David Mann (Dennis Weaver) is having a really bad day. After an off-camera fight with his wife, he has a long drive to meet with an account, and along the way he innocently passes a slow-moving, exhaust-spewing big rig. The driver (who remains unseen throughout this suspenseful drama), takes offense, and the rest of the movie shows road rage to the max, as the rig alternately chases, passes, blocks, bumps and generally tries to run Mann and his Plymouth Valiant off the road. Why don’t you get off the highway, I thought, but this desolate stretch of interstate didn’t seem to pass near towns or have any exit signs. So Mann is relegated to a dangerous game of chicken, and you know something bad is bound to happen. This film was the first directed by Steven Spielberg, and it shows his deft touch for action and adventure with limited dialog. You can feel the drivers seething and out for revenge for what should not have been a big transgression. Thanks for the lift, but I think I’ll walk. 4 cans.
35. The Heart of the Game (2005) – For the first time in 10 years, there will be no post-season play for my Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team, which means I had to find other basketball diversions. This documentary, the female version of the classic “Hoop Dreams,” follows tax professor Bill Ressler as he takes on head coaching duties for Seattle’s Roosevelt High Rough Riders girls basketball team. It follows him for seven seasons as he molds the girls into winners with his enthusiasm, wisdom and unconventional approach. The star of the show is Darnelia Russell, an amazing player whose drive to succeed on the court is often derailed by her attitude and life off the court. There are wins and losses for the team along the way, but every member emerges with unforgettable memories and thrills to last a lifetime. This is my favorite basketball movie and among my favorite documentaries, and you don’t have to be a basketball fanatic to appreciate it. 4½ cans.
36. The Best Most Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) – Since I reviewed this one just last year, I’ll merely repeat what I said then: For a bunch of Brits whose financial futures are dim, living life in retirement at the Best, Most Exotic Marigold Hotel in India seems like a good move. The hotel promises to cater to an older crowd, almost like a hostel for the elderly. But when the various characters arrive, the hotel turns out to be better in concept than in actuality. Its hustling, young manager/owner Sonny (Dev Patel) is full of optimism and good intentions, but the rooms don’t have doors and the place looks all but abandoned. However, this group of characters is played by the royalty of English actors (Dame Judith Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, among others; I don’t know how they missed Helen Mirren), so you know that the movie will work, at least on some level. One woman hates everything about India as she worries about eating a “bacteria, lettuce and tomato sandwich.” Each character has his or her own story, and they all play out against the new world that they have entered, some adapting much better than others. The Marigold may not be a four-star resort, but it gets 4 cans in my book.
37. Push: Madison vs. Madison* (2012) – Another basketball movie seems appropriate for my March Madness viewing. In this documentary, a bunch of academically underachieving Boston kids attending an inner-city vo-tech high school – all of whom look like they are in their 20s – are led by a tough but caring coach named Dennis Wilson. A school police officer is an assistant coach, and Wilson himself is vice principal in charge of discipline, which is what a school like this needs. But these kids can play, and, in many cases, basketball is all they have going for them. They are beating everyone in their quest for a state championship, but will they play as a team and not beat themselves? Wilson is part coach, part teacher, part father, part preacher and he has a challenging task in leading a lot of kids with giant chips on their shoulders. 3 cans.
38. Survive and Advance* (2013) – When brash basketball coach Jim Valvano (a Rutgers alum) arrived on campus at North Carolina State in the early ‘80s, he told his team they would win the National Championship. He even had them practice cutting down the nets. Three years later, after an improbable run in which they defeated better teams (North Carolina, Virginia and Houston) with bigger stars (Michael Jordan, Ralph Sampson, Hakeem Olajuwon), they cut down the nets for real. But the fiery coach’s toughest battle was one he could not win. Ten years after the National Championship season, Valvano died of cancer, but not until he inspired the country – the way he inspired his teams – with his courage and tenacity. He didn’t survive, but, with the establishment of the V Foundation for Cancer Research, he advanced research into this deadly disease. His foundation has raised more than $100 million to date, and its work has helped to save countless lives. So if you are thinking you can’t pull something off, you are doomed to fail, think of Jim Valvano and his Wolfpack and believe that dreams come true. In the madness that is March, this clip-filled documentary from the ESPN series “30 for 30” is truly one shining moment. 4½ boxes of tissues.
39. Drive* (2011) – If you like car chases and extreme violence, complete with spurting blood, then this is the movie for you. It was definitely not for me, though I had tracked it down just to see it and Ryan Gosling’s performance. He is a driver – both a stunt driver and the driver of the getaway car at various crime scenes. He is quiet and highly competent at his jobs, but when he meets the girl next door who is married to a bad guy (Carrie Mulligan), things get a lot more complicated than a ride in the country. This was highly suspenseful but even more violent. Well done for the genre, I suppose, but not for me. 3 cans.
40. Absolute Power (1997) – Clint Eastwood (director and star) is his usual taciturn self in this taut drama about a seasoned jewel thief who is in the midst of a robbery of an expensive mansion when suddenly a drunk couple shows up, starts fooling around with rough sex, and one of them ends up dead. He is in a vault, behind a two-way mirror, while he watches the crime unfold. It turns out one of the lovers is the president of the United States, and the woman is killed by the Secret Service, who, with the chief of staff, covers up the crime. But they observe someone leaving the house (which is where I have to throw in a question – Shouldn’t he have just stayed until they were completely gone?) and are determined to find him and pin the murder on him. The plot and the cast are excellent (Gene Hackman, Scott Glenn – the only actor as taciturn as Eastwood – Laura Linney, Ed Harris, Judy Davis) and you can’t help but admire Eastwood as a crafty professional who knows how to get things done. Absolutely terrific. 4½ cans.
41. Admission* (2013) – This is the movie where you learn (if there was any doubt) how slim a chance your kid has of getting into Princeton University. Tina Fey is Portia Nathan, a regimented admissions counselor who evaluates applications and recruits at schools to ensure that Princeton admits only the cream of the crop. Paul Rudd is John, the head of a new charter school in New Hampshire who has one very special kid that he wants Fey’s character to meet and he defies convention in arranging the meeting and trying to persuade her of his worth. This is a pleasant enough movie, enhanced by Lily Tomlin as Fey’s feminist mother, but it left me with a bunch of questions: Why would Princeton recruit when they already get 20,000 applications and admit only 1,000 students? Why would someone as regimented as Portia suddenly become involved with the school head and risk the promotion for which she is vying? When she and her boyfriend break up (he dumps her for the woman who is having his twins, and he hates kids), why doesn’t she have to move or divvy up the stuff in the home they have shared for years? I can’t reveal much more about the plot because I don’t want to spoil the middle or the ending, so I’ll just say that it is hard NOT to like Tina Fey (except that she looks way too much like her SNL Sarah Palin impersonation for much of the movie) and Paul Rudd, who is a charming do-gooder, is easy on the eyes. I saw the movie right outside of Princeton with a friend whose son graduated from Princeton, which made the movie hit a bit closer to home. 3½ cans.
