Tina's October 2016 Movies

A vacation to Spain interrupted my movie watching, so there are only 9 movies on this month's list.  They are rated on a scale of 1-5 cans of tuna, with 5 being the top rating.  Those movies I had not seen previously are marked with an asterisk.  Numbering picks up from previous months.

109.  All of Me (1984) – Steve Martin shows off his physical comedy prowess in this fantasy about an uptight lawyer/musician whose body becomes inhabited by an eccentric woman after a plan designed to help the dying millionaire (Lily Tomlin) switch bodies with a vibrant young woman (Victoria Tennant) goes awry.  Martin and Tomlin battle it out over body territory as they each control half, which makes shaving and relieving himself nearly impossible.  The story is a trifle, but the performances are so much fun to watch.  Martin has had two memorable dances in his career, one amazing stint on the dance floor with Gilda Radner on an episode of “Saturday Night Live” to the tune of “Dancing In the Dark,” and the closing dance sequence here, set to the title tune.  Martin is truly a gift from heaven.  3½ cans.
110.  Queen of Katwe* (2016) – Ten-year old Phiona (Madina Nalwanga) and her mother (the graceful and fierce Lupita Nyongo) live with her brothers and sisters in Katwe, a village in Uganda, barely subsisting on the sale of vegetables.  The children don’t go to school, don’t know how to read and can only look forward to a lifetime of hardships.  But then Phiona meets Coach Katende (David Oyelowo), who teaches the local children to play chess.  Phiona is a prodigy, growing so skilled that she beats the teacher and is accused by one of her opponents of “reading my mind.”  But considering her background, can she possibly become a chess master and use her status to improve her living conditions?  This movie is based on a true story, and it is delivered with intensity and warmth.  Who is braver?  The teenaged chess champion facing off against more educated and experienced players?  Or the mother, dealing with weather disasters without a roof over the head of her family?  This is a Disney movie, and you know they don’t dwell on defeat, so you can figure out where this is headed.  But the ride is a good one.  3½ chess pieces.
111.  The Four Seasons (1981) – Any movie that starts with soaring music from Vivaldi is bound to get your attention, and this examination of three close-knit couples delivers.  Alan Alda wrote this comedy/drama about six people who vacation together, get on each other’s nerves, care for each other, laugh together and, every now and then, let loose with a judgmental evisceration of each other.  Yet, for the most part, it is entertaining.  Alda has always tended to be preachy in my view, and this movie is no exception.  The highly-likeable cast (couples Alda and Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno and Jack Weston and Len Cariou with first wife Sandy Dennis and second wife the considerably younger Bess Armstrong) has plenty of chemistry.  I recall liking this one better at first view, but it was an interesting study of the dynamics between couples and friends.  3 cans.
112.  The Girl on the Train* (2016) – Here’s my summary:  Girl gets on a train, girl gets off a train, girl drinks too much on the train and we know it’s not water in that bottle.  Rachel (Emily Blunt) is a hot mess.  Fired from her job because of her drinking, she boards the Metro North line every day so her roommate (Laura Prepon of OITNB fame) won’t know she’s unemployed.  Despite her alcoholic haze, she is able to see clearly into the homes and lives of the people whose houses she passes.  She yearns to be living in her former home with now-ex Tom (Justin Theroux) and fantasizes about the lives of the attractive young couple Megan and Scott (Haley Bennett and Luke Evans), who hang out on the deck of their house down the street from Tom entirely too much.  Tom has remarried and has a young daughter with wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson), but that doesn’t keep Rachel from calling him, stalking Anna and recalling past incidents that make her feel responsible for the demise of her marriage.  When Megan goes missing, Rachel thinks she has information that could help solve the case.  She also thinks she might have had something to do with harming Megan, since she can’t recall why she herself came home bloody and bruised the night Megan disappeared.  This is a whodunit about a bunch of people with lots of problems.  Because it jumps back and forth in time and because two of the three women look very much alike, it can be confusing.  It definitely helped that I read the book first.  It was not quite as twisty as “Gone Girl” and not quite as suspenseful as “Fatal Attraction,” movies of the same genre, but it held my attention.  Emily Blunt has the right amount of desperation and smeared make-up, the men are all creepy, and Allison Janney reminds us (in a small part as the detective) of her dramatic chops.  By the end of the movie, I wished Rachel had just driven instead of taking the train.  Still, 3½ train cars.
113.  Notting Hill (1999) – She is a movie star with a megawatt smile.  He is an unassuming owner of a travel book bookstore.  One day she walks into his store and changes his life.  Julia Robert is the American star and Hugh Grant is the English bookstore proprietor in this utterly charming story about two people from different worlds exploring their possibilities.  He is surrounded by good friends while she is swallowed up by fame, chased by photographers and hounded by the press.  She can break his heart, but will she?  Will he let her?  Could he recover?  Watch this movie for the answers to these burning questions.  There is a great scene between them towards the end that is worth the price of admission.  Good cast, good story, good movie.  4 cans.
114.  Still Mine* (2013) – Craig (James Cromwell) is a stubborn guy.  Although he is in his 80s (and Cromwell is clearly younger), he is convinced he can construct a new house for his ailing and failing wife, Irene (an unrecognizable Genevieve Bujold), on a piece of property he owns.  The man knows his lumber, and his construction skills are stellar, but that’s not enough to satisfy the local town authorities and their building codes.  As he defiantly continues building, he also cares for his increasingly frail wife, who is given to severe lapses in memory and who can wander off and fall.  Theirs is a solid relationship – as solid as the perfectly plumb and square house, a one-story structure where Craig and Irene can live instead of in their old place, where Irene can’t climb the stairs so the bathroom is outside.  Cromwell is magnificent in the part of the husband, father and master builder.  But Irene is getting worse, requiring more care, and she may never get a chance to live in their new home.  This is a tender love story about a 61-year relationship, about love and trust AND carpentry.  3½ cans.
115.  Money Monster* (2016) – George Clooney and Julia Roberts team up in this suspense movie about one of those TV financial gurus who dispense glib advice and seldom think of the consequences.  But a young man who has lost a considerable sum (for him, but peanuts to Clooney’s character) invades the TV station while the “Money Monster” show is live and threatens to kill Clooney if he cannot explain the huge drop in the stock price of one of his picks and everyone jumps to track down the shady character who runs the company.  Clooney has sympathy for the guy, while Roberts, the director, just wants to get everyone out alive. This is exactly why I don’t watch and cannot stand these kinds of programs, where the so-called experts espouse their theories with sound effects and razzle-dazzle as if they know everything.  Clooney and Roberts always make a good team.  3½ cans.
115.  The Meddler* (2015) -- Some might call it meddling.  Some might call it mothering.  I call it annoying when Susan Sarandon, a lonely widow with a lovely, grown daughter (Rose Byrne), shows up unannounced and proceeds to intervene in the young woman’s life, assuming relationships to her friends and generally meaning well but pestering the daughter no end.  Until she meets a completely different sort of guy (J. K. Simmons) and realizes she might be able to have a life of her own.  This movie is very similar to the road trip one with Barbra Streisand and Seth Rogen – two well-meaning mothers and the children they drive crazy.  No, thanks.  2½ cans.
116.  My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2* (2015) – We know the characters, the Windex jokes, the smothering family (see above) – so nothing is new in this sequel to the delightful Nia Vardalos original, so I didn’t have high hopes after reading tepid reviews.  But I found myself laughing out loud more than once at the antics of the Greek family, admiring their closeness and even appreciating a plot that stretched things out more than necessary.  Nia wrote and stars as daughter Toula, but it is Michael Constantine and Lainie Kazan as her parents and Andrea Martin as her aunt who get off the best lines.  John Corbett as Toula’s non-Greek husband comes across as the blandest, but, after all, he is not Greek.  3½ cans.
117.  Dirty Dancing (1987) – Since I am going to see a stage version of this memorable movie in a few days, I thought it would be a good time to view the original in all its glory.  Patrick Swayze’s duck-tailed dancing dervish, Johnny Castle, is the bad boy of Kellerman’s Catskills Resort, spending his summers cha-chaing with the guests, until he and Baby Hausman (Jennifer Grey) and her family come along.  Johnny teaches Baby more than how to dance.  Swayze, whose character dons a shirt only occasionally, is all sinewy muscles and grinding hips as he and his fellow dirty dancers tear up the staff cabins and the dance floor.  Is there anyone who hasn’t see this movie?  Great music, great dancing and an excellent cast.  Corny, yes, but I could watch it again and again.  I hope the stage show is even half as good.  I had the time of my life.  4 cans.