Monday, August 1, 2016

Tina's July 2016 Movies

July was full of movies, with my usual eclectic mix.  I watched an 11-minute documentary about model trains, a portrait of the notorious Anthony Weiner and a film about Nazis that was worth remembering.  Movies I had not seen previously are marked with an asterisk, and all movies are rated on a scale of 1-5 cans of tuna fish, with 5 being the top rating.  Numbering picks up from the previous month.
71. Tab Hunter Confidential* (2014) – When I think about Tab Hunter (on the rare occasions that I do), I think of a good-looking guy whose modicum of talent led to a largely unmemorable career.  Today, in his mid-80s, Hunter is still a very good-looking guy, and in this memoir, he shares his ups and downs.  As a closeted gay man whose star rose in the 50s and 60s, he couldn’t acknowledge his sexuality.  The fan magazines of the time featured countless pictures of Tab and the leading female stars of the day – Natalie Wood, Debbie Reynolds and others.  A practicing Catholic, Hunter had difficulty reconciling his sexuality with his religion, so he kept his private life private.  There is neither great triumph nor tragedy in his story – much like his range as an actor – but he comes across as a genuinely good guy who got the most out of what he had to offer without giving too much of himself away.  3 cans.
72.  Eddie the Eagle* (2016) – If you appreciate the story of the underdog, look no further than the genre of sports movies.  There are winners, of course, and loveable losers.  Here we have the dramatized story of Eddie Edwards (Taron Egerton), a Brit with an Olympic obsession.  His lack of athletic ability never stops his yearning to be in the Olympics, and he realizes that since Britain doesn’t have a ski jumping team, he won’t have a lot of competition to get to the 1988 Calgary games.  The awkward young athlete finds a crusty has-been (Hugh Jackman) who first discourages him and then teaches him.  For some reason, Eddie manages to survive and not break his body into bits, and, of course, he realizes his Olympic dream – to compete.  And isn’t that the goal of the Olympics anyway?  I actually remember his “Up Close and Personal” profile from the TV broadcasts, as young Eddie soared into the hearts of fans.  This is no “Rudy,” but, based on the true story, there is more of the thrill of victory than the agony of defeat.  3½ cans.
73.  Remember* (2016) – Christopher Plummer is Zev, an old man who escapes his retirement home to seek revenge on the Nazi who murdered his family at Auschwitz during World War II.  Although he suffers from dementia and wakes up every morning calling out for his deceased wife, he somehow manages (with the help and encouragement of his friend at the retirement home, played by Martin Landau) to get himself across the country in search of the war criminal.  He goes down several blind alleys and has some interesting encounters as director Atom Egoyan builds the suspense.  Like all other movies about war and Nazis, this is one I will watch only once.  Plummer is outstanding, and although the pace is slow (with an octogenarian lead, what else would you expect?), the story is taut and thrilling.  Stay tuned for a twist at the end that I never saw coming.  I will not forget “Remember.”  4 cans.
74.  A Few Great Bakeries* (2015) – There’s nothing like waking up to the smell of fresh, hot bread or pastries.  At least I would assume so from watching this PBS special.  A Few Great Bakeries takes a look at selected bakeries from New York State to Portland, Oregon, most family-owned and operated, and all bring much more than just dough to people’s lives.  One woman runs her bakery in her backyard.  She operates by the honor system, so people take what they want and leave their money.  Another woman runs a bakery from a food truck, baking the yummy items at home and then opening the truck to sell her signature rum cakes.  There are Mexican bakeries, a Japanese bakery and a million kinds of breads and rolls.  I think I gained weight just by watching.  Gone are the days of the cardboard box and the ubiquitous string for most of us, but these places bring back memories most of us can share.  Pass the pastries.  3½ cinnamon buns, please.
75.  Everybody’s Fine* (2009) – Except they aren’t.  When widower Goode’s (Robert DeNiro) adult children all cancel out on a visit to their father with flimsy excuses, he takes to the road, turning up unannounced to visit each of them.  He has instilled values in them and has pride in their accomplishments.  But his visits to them reveal things about each that he didn’t know and which his late wife didn’t share.  There is such an air of sadness about this movie, as the lonely widower tries to establish bonds with his family that somehow have eluded him.  DeNiro looks and seems similar to his character in “The Intern,” minus some of the innate kindness in the latter picture, and, as always, he delivers.  The disappointing progeny are Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell and Drew Barrymore.  All I can say is to immediately call your parents and talk to both of them if you are lucky enough to have them.  3½ cans.
76.  Frost-Nixon* (2008) – It is interesting to me that director Ron Howard (one of my favorites) gave talk show host David Frost (Michael Sheen) top billing in his account of the 1977 interviews Frost conducted with disgraced President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella).  Frost is in charge, selected to host the interviews and then stuck with selling the program that will pose the toughest Watergate questions.  But Frost is used to banal banter with celebrities, not investigative journalism, so he seems an unlikely choice to go toe-to-toe with the man who remains the only president to resign from office.  And despite hiring a tough back-up team, Frost as first is far too deferential and preoccupied to focus in on the most telling parts of the Nixon story – what did he know and when did he know it.  Frost shows too much respect and restraint, and Nixon at first commands the stage.  But Frost realizes his responsibility to get Nixon to admit his role in the Watergate cover-up, particularly as overheard on the infamous White House tapes.  This movie pits the two men together to parry and it is captivating.  Langella plays Nixon well, although on the close-ups (complete with a glistening upper lip), I thought he looked more like game show host Dennis James than Richard Nixon.  Watergate was a watershed moment in U.S. political history, and Howard brings the Nixon hysteria back with style.  4 cans.
77.  1001 to 1: The Corey Weissman Story* (2014) – OK, I’m a sucker for sports movies, so I slogged through this account of real life basketball player Corey Weissman  (David Henrie), a dedicated baller who suffered a stroke his sophomore season at Gettysburg College.  Weissman is a genuinely good guy who spent all of his free time dribbling basketballs, working out and studying the game.  He had a sweet shot, ability to drive to the hoop, and a weakness in his brain that led to his stroke.  What followed was lengthy rehab and never-ending hope of one day returning to the court to score for the Bullets.  Beau Bridges phones in his part as the firm but kindly coach.  There are the loyal-at-first girlfriend, the supportive parents and the best friend on hand to encourage and help Corey.  I can’t imagine this movie airing in the theater; it had “Lifetime Movie” written all over it.  Yet I watched.  You know it must be off-season and I was desperate for some hoops action.  2 cans for the movie, but 5 for Corey himself.
78.  Don’t Pass Me By* (2014) – As Frank Sinatra sings in my way, “Regrets, I’ve had a few…”  Well, this movie is full of them.  For the main characters, heartbreak and bad timing have forced them to make choices.  One is a ballerina who married the wrong guy too fast and is really in love with someone else (her friend’s boyfriend, no less).    Another finds out in the first few minutes of the movie that she has stage 4 cancer and only a short time to live – and then immediately meets the tall, dark and handsome man of all our dreams (well, most of us, anyway).  The third one is a movie star with a pushy agent who is forced into choosing her career over her life but who rediscovers the guy she was friends with growing up who still has a thing for her.  And then there’s the teenager who is living with her sister and gets pregnant.  Timing, people, timing.  Except for the blonde ballerina, all the other women were brunettes and I had a tough time telling them apart.  The actress is played by Rachel Noll, who wrote the screenplay and produced.  The only thing that ties these stories together – and it is a tenuous tie at that – is that they happen to frequent the same diner.  Nothing outstanding here, but considering that we all go through life changes and experience loss and regret, we all have something in common with this film.  3 cans.
79.  Knuckleball* (2012) – Who else besides me would watch a documentary about the strange saga of the knuckleball and the pitchers who throw it?   This movie focuses on the pitch itself, a non-rotating, slow-moving pitch that seems at times to have a mind of its own.  The men who use it as their primary weapon are a special breed, and they are a kind of fraternity.  They don’t mind sharing secrets about the mysterious pitch with each other and newcomers to the trade.  From the past we have former Yankee Jim Bouton, with Charlie Hough and the Niekro brothers all dispensing wisdom to the newest ace, R. J. Dickey, then with the Mets.  Boston’s Tim Wakefield pitched for the Red Sox for 19 years with that pitch in his arsenal, using it as a starter, a reliever or a long man.  He and Dickey, a career baseball nomad until he mastered the knuckler, are the keepers of the knuckle flame, with Dickey admitting that he wants to stick around long enough to see someone else pick up where he and Wakefield leave off.  I can’t imagine too many people watching this one, but I’ll give it 3 baseballs. 
80.  The Man in the Moon* (1991) – It is hard to believe that accomplished actress Reese Witherspoon has been around for 25 years now, having made her movie debut in this tender story.  She plays adolescent Dani, a 14-year old with older and younger sisters who live on a Louisiana farm in 1957.  Dani is crazy about Elvis and curious about love, and when handsome 17-year old Court (Jason London) and his family return to live at the neighboring farm, it doesn’t take Dani long to be smitten.  Though young himself, Court recognizes that Dani is too young for him and resolves to be just friends.  But when Dani’s older sister Maureen (Emily Warfield) falls for the same guy, sisterly bonds are broken.  Richard Mulligan, who also directed “Summer of 42” and the more intense “To Kill a Mockingbird,” sets the right tone, with stunning shots of the countryside and Dani racing through it to jump into the nearby swimming hole.  This is a beautiful look at the heartaches of growing up, of first love and of the relationships within a family.  Tess Harper, Sam Waterston and Gail Strickland are known quantities who fill out the cast.  And Reese Witherspoon is off and running at the start of a great career in film.  4 cans.
81.  Weiner* (2016) – The first word that comes to mind watching this absorbing but prurient documentary about the rise and fall of politician and would-be NYC Mayor Anthony Weiner is “Why?”  If you are not familiar with his story, it can be summed up as: a passionate politician with a penchant for posing for pictures of his privates is exposed.  There, I said it.  So the “Why?” question addresses Weiner’s peccadillos, but also must be posed to his way-too-loyal and patient wife, Huma Abedin, a highly thought of advisor to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.  After Weiner’s swift fall from grace, when the sexting scandal broke and he was forced to resign from Congress, it is Huma who urges him to run for Mayor of New York.  It is Huma by his side as he launches his mayoral campaign.  And it is Huma – albeit with a look on her face that says she wants to pummel him with a cast iron frying pan – who gamely supports him when yet another series of ill-advised texts come to light, these written and sent by her numb-sculled husband under the hilarious pseudonym “Carlos Danger.”  Senor Danger humiliates his wife, sabotages an otherwise promising career and simply does not understand what he has done that is so bad.  I guess you don’t go to jail for humiliating your wife, or for being stupid, but if you did, this guy would be a lifer.  I felt no sympathy for him, just for her, but at the same time I wanted to ask her that one question:  “Why?”  And finally, to both of them, why would you let/encourage/engage a documentary film crew to follow you around when you knew that there were more texts that had been sent AFTER he was forced to resign, after he was caught and admitted the scandalous behavior?  You cannot make this stuff up.  Fascinating, in a let’s-watch-the-trainwreck kind of way.  4 cans.
82.  Some Kind of Quest* (2016) – I have driven past Northlandz countless times but never with a desire to stop in and see the world’s largest model railroad.  Building this unique attraction was a quest for Bruce Williams Zaccagnino, its creator and owner, who took two years to see his vision through.  It features tiny people and trees, realistic buildings, mountains, bridges and, of course, trains.  They travel over miles of tiny tracks, over 400 bridges, past Bruce’s painstakingly made mountains, rivers and city scenes.  At 11 minutes, this brief documentary is certainly the shortest movie I have ever reviewed, but it stands tall.  Well done, Bruce.  I might just have to stop by and see this local wonderland in person.  3½ cans.
83.  Suited* (2016) – We all know how hard it is to find just the right outfit, something “suitable” for a special occasion, something that fits us just right and makes us feel so good.  For people who are transgender, the challenge is real, and the creator of Bindle & Keep brings his artistry and compassion to making a suit that is perfectly suited for each client.  Their clothes are empowering as they find the right fabric, the right cut and the right attitude to serve customers who might never have felt comfortable in their own skin, no less their own clothes.  This moving documentary aired on HBO and is well-suited for viewers.  3½ cans.
84.  Ghostbusters (1984) – Don’t get all excited.  This is the original, not the all-female remake.  This classic comedy starts Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis as the, well, ghostbusters, determined to outwit, outplay and outlast an army of apparitions taking over New York City.  Considering that I don’t like broad comedy (generally speaking) and I have no passion for fantasy, I nonetheless enjoyed this movie way back when and still got a chuckle seeing it again.  Murray is particularly smarmy and smug as he pursues Sigourney Weaver with the same determination as the ghosts.  Ackroyd, the man who made you believe there actually was a Bass-o-matic when he was on SNL, is at his serious best.  Rick Moranis in a supporting role was annoying, and Ernie Hudson was thrown in the mix for unknown reasons.  This romp still holds up. After all, who ya gonna call?  3½ cans. 
85.  Everest* (2015) – They say that men climb mountains because they are there.  Hmm, that’s not reason enough to me to risk life and limb in the freezing cold, on the quite literal slippery slope of a place like Mt. Everest in Nepal.  But in 1996, an expedition that included author Jon Krakauer and a bunch of Americans did just that and met with disaster right near the summit when a ferocious storm struck.  This movie recounts those events.  I watched it on my 60” TV, which was too small to get the full effect of the stunning vistas.  Yet, I couldn’t wait for it to end.  I could barely understand the dialog, much of which was delivered with an Australian accent, I knew doom was near and the whole thing made me cold.  Why did I watch?  Well, because it was on.  2½ cans.
86.  The Thing Called Love* (1993) – As a big fan of the TV show “Nashville,” I decided to watch this movie about young singer-songwriters trying desperately to break into show biz via the local bar, the Bluebird Cafe.  Samantha Mathis is Miranda Presley (no relation, she assures everyone), who arrives in Nashville from NYC and meets a group of other young hopefuls.  Chief among them are James (River Phoenix, in his last performance), Kyle (Dermot Mulroney) and Linda Lue (Sandra Bullock in what might be her first role of note).  Everyone in Nashville seems to have another, real job, and when Miranda doesn’t make the cut at Blue Bird auditions, she becomes a waitress.  All of her spare time is spent writing songs, and there is plenty of heartache to provide material, as she falls in love and marries the talented but unreliable James.  Their sudden marriage doesn’t seem destined for longevity, and sadly, neither did Phoenix himself, a specter that hangs over the movie.  I prefer seeing the cast of Nashville performing at the Blue Bird, because you never know if Deacon Claybourne or the great Rayna James herself will show up.  This low-key story was directed by Peter Bogdonovich, which I never would have guessed.  3 cans.
87.  All Good Things* (2010) – All Good Things almost came to the end before the real action got started.  My future husband, Ryan Gosling, plays real estate dynasty heir David Marks, based on the real-life Fred Durst, who was accused in the disappearance of his young wife Katie (Kirsten Dunst).  David and Katie meet as free spirits and they open a health food store, marry and seem outwardly happy, although David has issues stemming from his witnessing his mother’s suicide as a 6-year old.   He reluctantly takes a job working for his mogul father (Frank Langella) that requires him to collect cash payments from rentals in the seediest sections of NYC (back in the 1970s-80s, before Times Square went through Disneyfication).  Katie doesn’t care about his job, but she is affected by his distance in their marriage.  She enrolls in medical school and leaves David repeatedly, yet returns when he cuts her off financially.  This is a frustrating and chilling story about a sociopath with domestic violence tendencies whose wife disappears.  Eventually, so does David.  Say no more or spoil the plot, Tina.  The best thing in All Good Things is, of course, Gosling, but you knew I’d say that.  3½ cans.
88.  Girlfriends (1978) – As a woman, I can attest to the importance of girlfriends.  Despite the presence of men in our lives, it is our girlfriends who can be our soulmates, our advisors, our supporters – or our disappointments.  In the case of artsy photographer Susan (Melanie Mayron) and her BFF Anne (Anita Skinner), the two women are all set to move into a new apartment together when Anne informs Susan that she is marrying her new boyfriend Martin (Bob Balaban), leaving Susan with more rent than she can afford and without Anne in her daily life.  Susan struggles to survive alone, photographing weddings and bar mitzvahs to make ends meet.  Although she has men in her life, they just don’t have the same depth in their relationships.  As the years pass, the two women remain friends despite leading different lives that afford them little time to reconnect.  The movie is very much of the 1970s, so there were no cellphones, e-mail or social media keeping us updated with every event – significant or otherwise – in the lives of our friends.  I didn’t love this movie, but I appreciate the important role friends play in our lives and how, if the friendship is strong, it will survive lapses and life choices.  3½ cans.

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