Let’s start this month by reflecting on November’s long-awaited, four-part sequel to the classic series “Gilmore Girls” (note: No use of the word “The” in the title). If you are not familiar with the series, first you must watch the 153 episodes before you tackle the “Year in the Life” revival on Netflix. Just like in college, you need the prerequisite before you can move on to the advanced course. After watching all seven seasons, you will come to know the pop culture-spouting, coffee-crazed, warm and funny Lorelai and her teenaged daughter, Rory, a bright and driven girl destined for a stellar career in journalism. Lorelai’s parents are the wealthy and ever-so-proper Richard and Emily, an imperious woman accustomed to controlling the world around her and always judging her daughter’s life and choices. You’ll get to know the denizens of fictional Stars Hollow, Connecticut, a mostly motley crew of quirky and crazy folks whose loveable antics will win your heart. And then you can watch the sequel and have it ripped out. I cannot remember anything that was so anticipated but so ultimately unsatisfying (OK, maybe the movie version of HBO’s “Sex and the City,” especially the second one…). Don’t take my word. Take a couple of months to go through this entire exercise and then we can discuss. There have been numerous analytical articles on the fate of the characters, matched by lengthy discourse by my GG friends on Facebook. One educator I know wrote that she wished students would dissect Shakespeare the way they study GG. It is worth the time to watch and reflect, even if you are ultimately disappointed in the outcome. The people we know and love in real life don’t always do what we expect them to do, either.
Speaking of Netflix, is there anything more frustrating than settling down to watch a movie or show on Netflix on the big, 60-inch TV only to be thwarted by the spinning circle and the warning that either you aren’t connected to the internet or you don’t have sufficient bandwidth? I ended up watching a movie on my phone – small, but continuous viewing – rather than watch the spinning wheel go around and round.
I just spent 60 seconds watching a video of an infant trying to get his foot into a boot. There’s a minute of my life gone for good. But it made me laugh for a minute, so I can’t really object.
Don’t you hate it when you accidentally leave a tissue in your pocket and discover it when you go to throw the wet laundry in the dryer?
And speaking of cleaning up a mess, it is the holiday season, and you know what that means – plenty of holiday cards covered with glitter. I think that millions of years from now, after our society and planet have changed significantly, scientists will still find remnants of all that glitter. Make it stop!
I was about to order something on line recently, but the information that came up on the screen was so badly written and so grammatically incorrect that I changed my mind. No one who writes that poorly gets any of my business!
At the holidays (and plenty of other times), I realize that there are whole sub-cultures in this country about which I know nothing, such as children’s toys. The other day, a friend of mine who is the father of young kids said on Facebook that he ordered a Hachimal for his daughter and paid dearly. I had to Google what a Hachimal is. Now it’s your turn.
I hate winter – and it hasn’t even officially started yet – but we know it is going to be cold and there will be snow (at least where I live), so why do people always sound surprised? “Wow, it’s cold out there,” someone will utter as they enter a building. “We might get some snow,” someone will invariably assert on a dreary, gray day. I’ve spent my entire life in New Jersey, and this is what we deal with, folks. Get used to it. Or go to Florida.
I went to renew my driver’s license recently, fully equipped for a 2-hour stay. I had my phone, my Kindle and enough to do to keep me occupied. I also brought enough ID materials to cover everyone in the Motor Vehicle Office. And I was in and out in 10 minutes. The last time I had my license renewed was soon after I retired. Then I waited 2 hours and was the only non-surly person in the place because, well, I was retired and had nothing better to do! Today took 10 minutes, a major improvement. Except for the picture, which, sadly, they do not retouch. I look a full 10 years older – they wouldn’t let me wear my glasses, which help hide my wrinkles – but at least I am much thinner than I was in the beginning of 2007.
Have I mentioned my love of Dusty Springfield? She was a British singer in the 1960s with blonde hair and a wicked eyeliner technique, with a powerful voice and plenty of soul – kind of like Adele but without quite as much heartbreak in her songs. If you haven’t listened to her work, look her up.
I’ve been doing a lot of flying lately, some of which I reported on last month. But I have a few more observations to share.
• My passport picture is SO BAD that even the guy checking it at the airport said, “You look much better in person, Tina.” I wasn’t exaggerating when I told you it was bad.
• I have to admit that I miss reading the discontinued “Sky Mall” catalog. There’s nothing like sitting on an airplane and reading about electronic products or outdoor furniture or Irish sweaters. Of course, the absence of Sky Mall on an airplane is more than compensated for by the dozens of catalogs that arrive pre-holiday. Just in case I want a hover board, or cheese from Vermont, I think I’m covered.
• Is there any moment more filled with anxiety (not counting the plane’s landing) than that wait at the luggage carousel, where we stand by, craning our necks to follow bags and fervently hope that ours will arrive next? There’s always one bag that just keeps circling the carousel, hoping to be claimed. What a relief it is to finally see YOUR luggage finally come out of the shoot. You are afraid to hit the restroom on the way to baggage claim because you might miss it and find someone walking off with your bag if you aren’t there. Don’t laugh, because it happened to me once. And my bag was a gold one that was different from most everyone else’s except the dopey person who thought mine was hers.
• I can throw the carry-on in the overheard compartment, but retrieving it alone is never easy. My arms are too short to grab it. Almost anyone is taller than me and, thankfully, most people are kind enough to give me a hand.
• I finally bought the “spinner” variety of luggage with the wheels that go 360 degrees around. I have to say it very easily glides alongside me, requiring little effort and no yanking, dragging or pulling to move around the airport. Well worth the investment, especially since it was half-price at Kohl’s, where I had a 30% coupon and a $50 gift card! They practically gave it to me for nothing.
• United has announced plans to charge for carry-on bags in addition to charging for checked bags. I guess I’ll just layer my clothes on rather than packing anything. Hand me the seatbelt extender: I feel like Heidi.
• When you travel, it is easy to wake up in the morning and not know where you are or what day it is.
• I always get alarm-clock anxiety, wondering whether the alarm will set properly. I don’t like getting wake-up calls and I don’t set my alarm on my phone, so I carry a small travel alarm that I have had for years. I have changed the battery just once in all that time. I keep wondering if the next trip will be the time the old girl just gives out completely (the alarm clock, not me).
• It is hard to be in hotel rooms, wake up to use the bathroom and not remember where it is. I leave the light on and partially close the door.
• Rental cars are a challenge. Instead of putting my latest one in gear, I turned on the windshield wipers repeatedly. But at least I was smart enough to get a red car (with Texas plates), so finding it was easy enough.
I know I’m late to the Uber game, but using this car service in Chicago was a godsend. You just order up a car – which, at least in Chicago, was never more than 2 minutes away – they give you a price, the name of the driver and make of the car, and, like magic, it shows up and you jump in. You don’t have to tip or haggle over the fare. It’s fun to watch the little Uber cars race around the map on their way to pick you up! Now, I doubt Uber drivers are standing by around Somerset, NJ, just waiting for me to order one, but I would consider scheduling a ride in advance or checking the fare from here to the airport or even to NYC. What a great service!
I have been publishing on this blog space at least once a month since I started writing it, back in January of 2007, right after I retired from Johnson & Johnson. Sharing my observations and eccentricities has been fun and therapeutic for me, and, judging from your feedback, many of you take note of some of the same things that I enjoy or that drive me crazy. The difference is that I write them down and share them! As a retiree without access to the conversation around the watercooler (or, in my case, in the office kitchen), I appreciate having my blog as well as Facebook as my outlet to vent and express my ideas, quirks and comments. So here’s a shout-out to my faithful readers of this blog. Thanks for reading and for your feedback. It’s great to know I’m not the only one who sees things with a question mark in the bubble over her head.
Have a great holiday season and a wonderful new year.
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Tina's November 2016 Movies
Despite two out-of-town trips in November, I managed to see 11 movies. 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.
118. Too Big to Fail* (2011) – This movie is a dramatization of the 2008 U.S. economic crisis that saw mortgage foreclosures, giant banks fail and nearly decimated the US economy. It consists mainly of middle-aged white men striding down corridors, talking on 2008 cell phones and barking orders to “Make the call” or “Just do it” – not the Nike slogan, either. William Hurt plays the central character, US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen, who is watching the economy tank while trying to come up with solutions to save it. Represented are the head of the NY Fed and the major banks and investment companies in a large cast (James Woods, Billy Crudup, Bill Pullman, Paul Giammatti, and, in the sole female role of note, Cynthia Nixon as Paulsen’s PR person). Every now and then a character starts explaining the whole thing so the other characters (and, more importantly, the audience) will be able to understand what all of these maneuvers mean for the future of the economy. We know how it ends – with a government bailout referred to as “Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, so it wouldn’t be called a bailout, but that’s what it was. And that was after giants like Bear Stearns and Lehmann Brothers were forced to declare bankruptcy. You can trace the entire route of the failure from the deregulation of the banking industry by President Ronal Reagan, as the unregulated banks grew huge and took on debt from unsecured mortgages that nearly toppled them. Yet, in the end, the government bailout had to happen because these institutions are the bedrock of the economy and were just too big to fail. Well-done, but preachy and occasionally pedantic. 3 cans.
119. The Accountant* (2016) – Ben Affleck’s Christian Wolff is highly functional while dealing with some degree of autism. He is an accountant, but he’s nothing like my guy, Stanley Dorfman. He can find the loopholes and save you money, he can cook the books for the bad guys or find the discrepancies accumulated over time. OK, that sounds boring, so in the second half of the movie Affleck becomes Liam Neeson-like, with a particular set of skills that will result in injury or death for the men chasing him by his mastery of martial arts or an incredibly accurate trigger finger on an assault weapon. I found the story convoluted and inconsistent. There’s one twist – which I did see coming – and there is the sporadic use of an accountant (Anna Kendrick) who has found a major amount of money missing from the ledger of a robotics company headed by John Lithgow. There’s plenty of suspense and way too much shooting and violence for my taste. If there is a sequel, I won’t return. I prefer Stanley Dorfman. 3 cans.
120. The Visitor (2007) – One of the best actors around, Richard Jenkins, stars in this story of the ramifications of the US immigration policies. Jenkins is Walter, a quiet college professor from Connecticut who has lost his wife and is bored with his life. When he has to go to New York to present a paper, he returns to the apartment he has kept in the city for decades only to find Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and his girlfriend, two immigrants, living in the mostly vacant place. Instead of kicking them out, he lets them stay and a bond is formed between the professor and the young man whose passion is playing the African drum. Although his wife was a pianist and he loves music, Walter could not master piano but appreciates the drum lessons Tarek provides. When Tarek is wrongly arrested in the subway, life takes a different turn for the cheerful young man, who is placed in custody and threatened with deportation. This is a warm story with serious overtones about the way immigrants are treated. Well worth seeing. 4 cans.
121. Denial* (2016) – Consider this movie the 2016 version of last year’s outstanding “Spotlight.” Both movies are based on true stories, both involve evil people and those gullible enough to be led by them, and both are good vs. evil. Here, American professor and author Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz) is sued by British historian and author David Irving (Timothy Spall) for libel when her book outs him as a Holocaust “denier.” Irving believes in Hitler and disagrees with the evidence that shows the death camps and the eradication of 6 million Jews is fact, not fiction. But Debra is sued in England, where the innocent have to prove their innocence, and her British legal team takes an approach to defend her that she does not believe in. Strong performances by Weisz and Tom Wilkinson as one of her attorneys. Loved the movie, hated the wigs the barristers wear in court. 4 cans.
122. The Crown* (2016) – Like the OJ series, this mini-series on Netflix is not a movie, but with exceptional performances, outstanding production values and the compelling story of the early reign of Queen Elizabeth, this 10-part series deserves a review. Claire Foy might as well dust off a space on her mantle for the Emmy as the young Queen, and John Lithgow as Winston Churchill should do the same. Elizabeth ascends to the throne at the age of 25 after the death of her father, King George. She is admittedly bereft of formal education and forced to deal with the trappings of the monarchy. She has difficult decisions to make and is pulled in directions that conflict with her own views by Churchill, the prevailing government, the Church and her family – especially her younger sister, Princess Margaret. The attention to detail in this series is phenomenal, with period cars, clothing and countless scenes in castles and mansions. Powerful performances, lots of behind the scenes stuff and a great insight into the Monarchy. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Addicting. 4½ cans.
123. Allied* (2016) – Brad Pitt is an RAF intelligence officer who parachutes into Morocco in 1942 (shades of “Casablanca”) where he assumes the identity of the husband to Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard), herself a member of the French Resistance. He’s handsome (if a bit stiff), with the worst French accent I have heard since my Freshman high school French class, but they play the part of the married couple so well, that everyone falls for the ruse. And then they assassinate a few of the local Nazi bigwigs. The pretense of marital bliss becomes real bliss when they marry and move to London so he can continue his work as a wing commander. But there are questions about his new wife’s background and identity, and Pitt is put in an impossible position while the local command determines whether she is actually working for the Germans. I found this an intriguing story, and while Cotillard is at the top of her game, Pitt gives a labored performance. I found it suspenseful – is she or is she not a double agent? – and despite the violence of war, I would recommend it. 3½ cans.
124. Waffle Street* (2015) – Failed financer James Adams (taken from his actual story) loses his job in investments and cannot find work, until one day when he sees a Help Wanted sign in the window of the local Waffle house. Adams (James Lafferty) gets hired as a server and decides, in spite of his inexperience in the restaurant business, to change his life and buy a Waffle franchise. He works a crazy schedule to accumulate the required 1000 hours, including stints unclogging the toilets, taking orders, working the register, dealing with some eccentric customers and doing anything else asked of him to make his new dream come true. That includes selling his Audi convertible (his finance job was considerably more lucrative) and convincing his pregnant wife to sell their dream house to raise the money for the restaurant. Will he get what he wants? Will he want what he gets? This little trifle of a movie was not one I sought out but one I ended up watching anyway. I think I would have enjoyed it more had it been a documentary about a nice guy whom we hope will finish the race. 2½ waffles.
125. Life Itself* (2104) -- It is impossible to think about writing a movie review without conjuring up the master himself, Roger Ebert, who passed away in 2014. I started reading the autobiography from which this Steve James documentary was derived but found it ponderous – too detailed and slow. However, I’m glad I watched the movie, because it tells the fascinating story of a brilliant film critic and writer who later established an identity on TV as part of the team Siskel and Ebert, a pair of movie critics whose various TV shows were “don’t miss” programming for me. The right word from the prolific Ebert could make or break a movie, and people like Martin Scorsese at least in part owe their careers to Ebert. It was Ebert who lauded Steve James’ classic documentary “Hoop Dreams,” so it is entirely appropriate that James documents Roger’s career and ultimate death from a progression of various cancers. A film critic for the Chicago Sun Times at age 21, Ebert spent too many hours in too many bars until he gave up drinking altogether, and he waited until he was 50 to find and marry the love of his life, Chaz. His erudite reviews were a guide for all of us, enabling viewers to see and discover gems and masterpieces in movies we might otherwise have missed. When his sometimes sparring partner Gene Siskel died, Ebert was crushed, but he carried on his TV career, reviewing movies with others. But ironically, his medical conditions required surgeries that robbed him of his voice, though not his ability to write reviews for a blog that continues today as a repository for his work and the contributions of other reviewers. Long before Rotten Tomatoes gave us guidance about what movies were worth seeing, it was the thumbs up from Roger Ebert that made a movie worthwhile. Feisty, egotistical and brilliant, like the man himself. 4 cans and a big “Thumbs Up.”
126. The Other Woman* (2009) – No, this isn’t the bawdy comedy with Cameron Diaz, and it isn’t some cheesy Lifetime movie. Oscar-winner Natalie Portman plays Amelia, a driven young associate at a law firm who falls fast and hard for her married boss, Jack (Scott Cohen). Jack has a precocious 8-year old son named William (Charlie Tahan) and a barracuda of a wife (Lisa Kudrow, playing a decidedly un-Phoebesque character), whom he leaves for Amelia when they find out Amelia is pregnant. Blending families is never easy, and Amelia has little experience with kids. Her father and Jack become good friends, and the son takes to his new grandfather right away, but building that bond between son and stepmom is tougher, particularly when wife #1 spews venom on wife #2. Jack is caught in the middle. This movie has similarities to “Stepmom” with Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon and “Kramer vs. Kramer,” especially since the young son sports a haircut like Justin Henry’s in the latter film. This movie took an unexpected turn for me and was better than I expected. 3 cans.
127. Race* (2016) – There’s a good story in here somewhere, but this slow, plodding movie about track and field Olympian Jesse Owens (Stephan James) has no pace to it. It traces Owens’ career as a collegiate star at Ohio State through the decision of whether the US will participate in the Berlin Olympics of 1936, whether Owens himself will bow to pressure NOT to participate (we know the answer to that already), to Jewish athletes being denied a chance to race…I cannot get into the details because the movie isn’t worth the time. Jason Sudekis plays Owens’ coach, who advises and helps him, all while drinking heavily. Owens was one of the best Olympic athletes ever and never got his just rewards until his death. This film doesn’t do him any favors, either. 2 cans.
128. Cast Away (2000) – I’m ending the month with one of my all-time favorite movies. Tom Hanks has starred in so many terrific films (“Forest Gump,” “Big,” “Apollo 13” (also (one of my ATFs), “Sleepless in Seattle,” “You’ve Got Mail,” “Terminal,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “The Road to Perdition,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Nothing in Common” (not a great movie but an outstanding performance by Hanks) and “Bachelor Party” (only kidding on this last one). But Cast Away, despite lengthy stretches with minimal dialog – mostly between a man and a volleyball named Wilson – is riveting. Hank’s character Chuck Nolan works for Fed Ex, and when his plane goes down in the Pacific, he is stranded on an island for 4 years, surviving on his ingenuity and undying love for his girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt, who has one memorable line that always makes me cry). How strong is man? The longer he’s there, the more adept Chuck is at figuring out how to survive. We take for granted the little things in life – a glass with ice, electric lights, clean water and warmth – and Chuck has to cope with a life bereft of even the basics. Chuck’s physical transformation is astonishing, and kudos to Hanks for undertaking such a challenge. I love this movie and urge anyone who has not seen it to take the time to enjoy the story, the music, the setting, and the incomparable Hanks. A rare 5 cans.
118. Too Big to Fail* (2011) – This movie is a dramatization of the 2008 U.S. economic crisis that saw mortgage foreclosures, giant banks fail and nearly decimated the US economy. It consists mainly of middle-aged white men striding down corridors, talking on 2008 cell phones and barking orders to “Make the call” or “Just do it” – not the Nike slogan, either. William Hurt plays the central character, US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen, who is watching the economy tank while trying to come up with solutions to save it. Represented are the head of the NY Fed and the major banks and investment companies in a large cast (James Woods, Billy Crudup, Bill Pullman, Paul Giammatti, and, in the sole female role of note, Cynthia Nixon as Paulsen’s PR person). Every now and then a character starts explaining the whole thing so the other characters (and, more importantly, the audience) will be able to understand what all of these maneuvers mean for the future of the economy. We know how it ends – with a government bailout referred to as “Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, so it wouldn’t be called a bailout, but that’s what it was. And that was after giants like Bear Stearns and Lehmann Brothers were forced to declare bankruptcy. You can trace the entire route of the failure from the deregulation of the banking industry by President Ronal Reagan, as the unregulated banks grew huge and took on debt from unsecured mortgages that nearly toppled them. Yet, in the end, the government bailout had to happen because these institutions are the bedrock of the economy and were just too big to fail. Well-done, but preachy and occasionally pedantic. 3 cans.
119. The Accountant* (2016) – Ben Affleck’s Christian Wolff is highly functional while dealing with some degree of autism. He is an accountant, but he’s nothing like my guy, Stanley Dorfman. He can find the loopholes and save you money, he can cook the books for the bad guys or find the discrepancies accumulated over time. OK, that sounds boring, so in the second half of the movie Affleck becomes Liam Neeson-like, with a particular set of skills that will result in injury or death for the men chasing him by his mastery of martial arts or an incredibly accurate trigger finger on an assault weapon. I found the story convoluted and inconsistent. There’s one twist – which I did see coming – and there is the sporadic use of an accountant (Anna Kendrick) who has found a major amount of money missing from the ledger of a robotics company headed by John Lithgow. There’s plenty of suspense and way too much shooting and violence for my taste. If there is a sequel, I won’t return. I prefer Stanley Dorfman. 3 cans.
120. The Visitor (2007) – One of the best actors around, Richard Jenkins, stars in this story of the ramifications of the US immigration policies. Jenkins is Walter, a quiet college professor from Connecticut who has lost his wife and is bored with his life. When he has to go to New York to present a paper, he returns to the apartment he has kept in the city for decades only to find Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) and his girlfriend, two immigrants, living in the mostly vacant place. Instead of kicking them out, he lets them stay and a bond is formed between the professor and the young man whose passion is playing the African drum. Although his wife was a pianist and he loves music, Walter could not master piano but appreciates the drum lessons Tarek provides. When Tarek is wrongly arrested in the subway, life takes a different turn for the cheerful young man, who is placed in custody and threatened with deportation. This is a warm story with serious overtones about the way immigrants are treated. Well worth seeing. 4 cans.
121. Denial* (2016) – Consider this movie the 2016 version of last year’s outstanding “Spotlight.” Both movies are based on true stories, both involve evil people and those gullible enough to be led by them, and both are good vs. evil. Here, American professor and author Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz) is sued by British historian and author David Irving (Timothy Spall) for libel when her book outs him as a Holocaust “denier.” Irving believes in Hitler and disagrees with the evidence that shows the death camps and the eradication of 6 million Jews is fact, not fiction. But Debra is sued in England, where the innocent have to prove their innocence, and her British legal team takes an approach to defend her that she does not believe in. Strong performances by Weisz and Tom Wilkinson as one of her attorneys. Loved the movie, hated the wigs the barristers wear in court. 4 cans.
122. The Crown* (2016) – Like the OJ series, this mini-series on Netflix is not a movie, but with exceptional performances, outstanding production values and the compelling story of the early reign of Queen Elizabeth, this 10-part series deserves a review. Claire Foy might as well dust off a space on her mantle for the Emmy as the young Queen, and John Lithgow as Winston Churchill should do the same. Elizabeth ascends to the throne at the age of 25 after the death of her father, King George. She is admittedly bereft of formal education and forced to deal with the trappings of the monarchy. She has difficult decisions to make and is pulled in directions that conflict with her own views by Churchill, the prevailing government, the Church and her family – especially her younger sister, Princess Margaret. The attention to detail in this series is phenomenal, with period cars, clothing and countless scenes in castles and mansions. Powerful performances, lots of behind the scenes stuff and a great insight into the Monarchy. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Addicting. 4½ cans.
123. Allied* (2016) – Brad Pitt is an RAF intelligence officer who parachutes into Morocco in 1942 (shades of “Casablanca”) where he assumes the identity of the husband to Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard), herself a member of the French Resistance. He’s handsome (if a bit stiff), with the worst French accent I have heard since my Freshman high school French class, but they play the part of the married couple so well, that everyone falls for the ruse. And then they assassinate a few of the local Nazi bigwigs. The pretense of marital bliss becomes real bliss when they marry and move to London so he can continue his work as a wing commander. But there are questions about his new wife’s background and identity, and Pitt is put in an impossible position while the local command determines whether she is actually working for the Germans. I found this an intriguing story, and while Cotillard is at the top of her game, Pitt gives a labored performance. I found it suspenseful – is she or is she not a double agent? – and despite the violence of war, I would recommend it. 3½ cans.
124. Waffle Street* (2015) – Failed financer James Adams (taken from his actual story) loses his job in investments and cannot find work, until one day when he sees a Help Wanted sign in the window of the local Waffle house. Adams (James Lafferty) gets hired as a server and decides, in spite of his inexperience in the restaurant business, to change his life and buy a Waffle franchise. He works a crazy schedule to accumulate the required 1000 hours, including stints unclogging the toilets, taking orders, working the register, dealing with some eccentric customers and doing anything else asked of him to make his new dream come true. That includes selling his Audi convertible (his finance job was considerably more lucrative) and convincing his pregnant wife to sell their dream house to raise the money for the restaurant. Will he get what he wants? Will he want what he gets? This little trifle of a movie was not one I sought out but one I ended up watching anyway. I think I would have enjoyed it more had it been a documentary about a nice guy whom we hope will finish the race. 2½ waffles.
125. Life Itself* (2104) -- It is impossible to think about writing a movie review without conjuring up the master himself, Roger Ebert, who passed away in 2014. I started reading the autobiography from which this Steve James documentary was derived but found it ponderous – too detailed and slow. However, I’m glad I watched the movie, because it tells the fascinating story of a brilliant film critic and writer who later established an identity on TV as part of the team Siskel and Ebert, a pair of movie critics whose various TV shows were “don’t miss” programming for me. The right word from the prolific Ebert could make or break a movie, and people like Martin Scorsese at least in part owe their careers to Ebert. It was Ebert who lauded Steve James’ classic documentary “Hoop Dreams,” so it is entirely appropriate that James documents Roger’s career and ultimate death from a progression of various cancers. A film critic for the Chicago Sun Times at age 21, Ebert spent too many hours in too many bars until he gave up drinking altogether, and he waited until he was 50 to find and marry the love of his life, Chaz. His erudite reviews were a guide for all of us, enabling viewers to see and discover gems and masterpieces in movies we might otherwise have missed. When his sometimes sparring partner Gene Siskel died, Ebert was crushed, but he carried on his TV career, reviewing movies with others. But ironically, his medical conditions required surgeries that robbed him of his voice, though not his ability to write reviews for a blog that continues today as a repository for his work and the contributions of other reviewers. Long before Rotten Tomatoes gave us guidance about what movies were worth seeing, it was the thumbs up from Roger Ebert that made a movie worthwhile. Feisty, egotistical and brilliant, like the man himself. 4 cans and a big “Thumbs Up.”
126. The Other Woman* (2009) – No, this isn’t the bawdy comedy with Cameron Diaz, and it isn’t some cheesy Lifetime movie. Oscar-winner Natalie Portman plays Amelia, a driven young associate at a law firm who falls fast and hard for her married boss, Jack (Scott Cohen). Jack has a precocious 8-year old son named William (Charlie Tahan) and a barracuda of a wife (Lisa Kudrow, playing a decidedly un-Phoebesque character), whom he leaves for Amelia when they find out Amelia is pregnant. Blending families is never easy, and Amelia has little experience with kids. Her father and Jack become good friends, and the son takes to his new grandfather right away, but building that bond between son and stepmom is tougher, particularly when wife #1 spews venom on wife #2. Jack is caught in the middle. This movie has similarities to “Stepmom” with Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon and “Kramer vs. Kramer,” especially since the young son sports a haircut like Justin Henry’s in the latter film. This movie took an unexpected turn for me and was better than I expected. 3 cans.
127. Race* (2016) – There’s a good story in here somewhere, but this slow, plodding movie about track and field Olympian Jesse Owens (Stephan James) has no pace to it. It traces Owens’ career as a collegiate star at Ohio State through the decision of whether the US will participate in the Berlin Olympics of 1936, whether Owens himself will bow to pressure NOT to participate (we know the answer to that already), to Jewish athletes being denied a chance to race…I cannot get into the details because the movie isn’t worth the time. Jason Sudekis plays Owens’ coach, who advises and helps him, all while drinking heavily. Owens was one of the best Olympic athletes ever and never got his just rewards until his death. This film doesn’t do him any favors, either. 2 cans.
128. Cast Away (2000) – I’m ending the month with one of my all-time favorite movies. Tom Hanks has starred in so many terrific films (“Forest Gump,” “Big,” “Apollo 13” (also (one of my ATFs), “Sleepless in Seattle,” “You’ve Got Mail,” “Terminal,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “The Road to Perdition,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Nothing in Common” (not a great movie but an outstanding performance by Hanks) and “Bachelor Party” (only kidding on this last one). But Cast Away, despite lengthy stretches with minimal dialog – mostly between a man and a volleyball named Wilson – is riveting. Hank’s character Chuck Nolan works for Fed Ex, and when his plane goes down in the Pacific, he is stranded on an island for 4 years, surviving on his ingenuity and undying love for his girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt, who has one memorable line that always makes me cry). How strong is man? The longer he’s there, the more adept Chuck is at figuring out how to survive. We take for granted the little things in life – a glass with ice, electric lights, clean water and warmth – and Chuck has to cope with a life bereft of even the basics. Chuck’s physical transformation is astonishing, and kudos to Hanks for undertaking such a challenge. I love this movie and urge anyone who has not seen it to take the time to enjoy the story, the music, the setting, and the incomparable Hanks. A rare 5 cans.
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