Tina's August 2017 Movies

Despite 31 days in the month of August, I managed to squeeze in only 9 movies.  Good weather, outdoor activities, etc., all got in my way. I did manage to see a good selection, which are rated here on a scale of 1-5 cans of tuna, 5 being at the top.  Numbering picks up from previous months, and movies marked with an asterisk are those I had not seen previously.

89.  Diana: Treason or Tragedy?* (2017) – The salutes to the late Princess Diana continue with this overly-long documentary that skips back and forth between her childhood, her marriage to Prince Charles and her tragic death in Paris 20 years ago.  The film explains Charles’ need to find a suitable wife, and the 19-year old Lady Diana Spencer fit the bill.  They had been out together barely a dozen times before getting engaged and then married in the “wedding of the century.”  But as the fairytale progressed, it did not have a happy ending, and they eventually divorced.  Was Diana too famous to suit the Royal Family?  The theory posited here is that the British agency equivalent to the FBI may have played a role in the accident that claimed her life.  More important is the life she led as a warm and loving mother to Princes William and Harry, to her charitable work and to the legacy she left behind.  If this program had been two hours, I probably would have liked it more, because the entire treason section was without much merit.  3 cans.
90.  Get Out* (2017) – If Rob Serling and Chris Rock did a remake of “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” it would be this movie.  But this one has director Jordan Peele, who uses just the right combination of genuine creepiness, humor and social commentary to make a whole new type of film.  Daniel Kaluuya is Chris, an African American man dating Rose (Allison Williams), a young white woman.  It is time to meet the parents, so she takes him to her folks’ beautiful suburban spread, where Mom and Dad are immediately overly friendly and a bit too accepting of the relationship.  Her mother is a therapist, and, before long, she is tapping on her teacup and hypnotizing Chris, though we don’t yet know why.  We just know this situation is getting increasingly creepy, and we all want to yell, “Get out.”  All of the parents’ friends are white, and the few African Americans around the estate appear to be robotic in their demeanor and appearance.  If Chris hangs around long enough, will he become an automaton, too?  This movie’s commentary on white privilege and racism from people who swear they aren’t racists (the father boasts that he would have voted for President Obama for a third term) is witty and sly, but there is no mistaking it, since we can see it as shown from the African American point of view.  This film was sold to me as a scary movie, but it is more harrowing to consider the reality of marginalizing an entire race of people to exploit for nefarious means.  That’s the true horror.  3½ cans, mostly because I just a wuss when it comes to anything scary.
91.  The Outsiders (1983) – If you were a young actor in Hollywood in 1983 and you were NOT in this movie, ask yourself what the hell happened (and did you fire your agent?).  Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez and Rob Lowe (among others) star in this S. E. Hinton story about two rival factions of young guys in an Oklahoma town who just don’t like each other.  Ponyboy (Howell) and Johnny (Machio), under the influence of the intense and combative Dallas (Dillon), are among the economically deprived Greasers who rumble with the more upscale Socials.  Bodily harm ensues, there’s a death and a couple of guys are on the lam.  These kids are aimless, with no adults in their lives, just trying to hang on.  This is the Oklahoma version of West Side Story, of the Capulets and the Montagues – minus the romance aspect (though there are strong overtones of homosexuality throughout, unless I’m reading that wrong…).  Stay gold, everyone, stay gold.  3½ cans.
92.  My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997) – BFFs Julianne and Michael (Julia Roberts and Dermot Mulroney) make a pact to marry each other if they haven’t found life partners by the time they are 28, but Michael foils the plan by falling for young, vivacious Kimmy (a very cheery Cameron Diaz) just short of the deadline.  It takes Michael’s announcement that he is getting married to make Jules understand that Michael is really her own true love and that she needs to put a halt to the wedding.  So we spend the next hour and a half waiting for her to say something to him, as her other BFF, George (Rupert Everett), urges her to do.  But she can’t, or she won’t, not so much because she doesn’t want to ruin the wedding – clearly, she’s desperate to stop it from happening – but she can’t pull the trigger.  Meanwhile, Kimmy, who has known her for about 8 minutes, asks her to be her maid of honor (as if Kimmy wouldn’t have a host of friends willing to serve in that role), bringing her even more into the inner workings of the big day – and maybe that’s Kimmy’s intention.  So will she (Jules) or won’t she?  Will she step back and allow her best friend to marry the woman of his dreams – even if that is not her?  Maybe Billy Crystal’s Harry was right when he said to Sally in “When Harry Met Sally” that men and women can never be friends.  Michael comes across as a bit of a dolt, not recognizing the unrequited love in Jules. Diaz is exuberant and charming in her part, while Roberts has the toughest role – to remain likeable even as she plots to undermine her best friend’s wedding.  3½ cans.
93.  Because I Said So* (2007) – The title of this movie is a lame excuse to justify someone’s commands and, considering the lightweight and annoying script for this film, the title seems particularly appropriate here.  Despite a cast full of engaging actors (Diane Keaton, Mandy Moore and Lauren Graham among them), there is little to like or invest in here.  Keaton is Daphne, mother of three grown women, who is determined to match Moore’s character up with a suitable man for marriage.  She takes out a lengthy ad on an internet dating site and proceeds to screen the applicants.  There is the expected parade of losers, but one guy (Tom Everett Scott) turns out to be a good looking architect whom one would think wouldn’t be swiping right to attract attention from women.  Daphne helps them “meet cute” and they are quickly smitten with each other.  But Mom also meets a musician and music teacher (Gabriel Macht) who sees the scheme unfold and wants to be under consideration for the job.  Everyone here has his/her shortcomings, and this movie just tries too hard to make you love it.  All told, it’s just not a good match.  Don’t bother to watch it – because I said so.  2 cans.
94.  A Bronx Tale (1993) – It’s the mob in the Bronx, complete with straight up shootings, plenty of violence, and cool guys in suits who rule the neighborhood.  For young Calogero, the man to watch and emulate is not his honest father (Robert DeNiro, who also directed), a bus driver who eschews the Mob.  Instead the kid grows to idolize neighborhood Mafioso Sonny (Chazz Palminteri, who wrote the story).  The kid (Lillo Brancato) enters what in essence is a mob training program, making himself useful to the gangsters with the idea of entering the profession himself when the time is right.  As the teenaged Calogero, Brancato looks just like a young DeNiro and handles his part with cool and confusion.  His father is the moral compass of the story, but will his example be enough to dissuade young “C” not to become a wiseguy?  This Bronx tale is well told.  4 cans.
95. Memories of Me (1988) – Abbie (Billy Crystal) is a successful New York cardiologist who has a heart attack and a change of heart about his father (Alan King), an “actor” from whom he’s been estranged.  Abe, who works as an extra on the sets of films, TV shows and commercials, is a lively and popular man about Tinsel Town.  He loves what he does, even if Abbie frowns on his father’s chosen profession.  “Any schmuck can get a speaking part,” he insists.  Instead, he’s King of the Extras, presiding over a coterie actors who line up every day, hoping to be cast in the background of restaurant scenes, play jurors and don lobster outfits for a commercial or two.  These are Abe’s people and he fits in with them much better than with his uptight and disapproving son.  Abbie can’t quite wrest his father’s attention, until Abe demonstrates signs of early dementia and Abbie has to step in.  This movie reminds me of another one that I like better, “Nothing in Common,” with Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason.  In both, the sons can barely tolerate the fathers they disapprove of, though here Abe is an amiable guy and much admired by his fellow extras.  He is utterly charming with Abbie’s girlfriend Lisa (JoBeth Williams).  Will Abbie and Abe find common ground?  Or is it too late?  3 cans.
96.  The Glass Castle* (2017) – I hadn’t read this book, so I didn’t go to see this movie with any preconceived notions about its content.  It is Jeannette Walls’ true story of her ragtag family, an unconventional group headed by a frighteningly erratic father, Rex (Woody Harrelson).  Along with two sisters and a brother, the bright young Jeannette (Brie Larsen) and her perennially sunny mother (Naomi Watts) are terrified of the family patriarch.  A brilliant but disturbed man, Rex is a dreamer.  When he drinks, he loses all of his sanity, uprooting the family from whatever temporary housing (including being squatters) in which they reside and taking them on the road in the middle of the night.  The kids don’t go to school, since Rex claims they can learn more about life from living it.  The movie switches back and forth from the young girl Jeannette to her adult life in the 1980s, where she has somehow managed to extricate herself from the squalor under which she lived as a child.  The chaos of her existence doesn’t seem to be quite gritty enough considering the conditions, and how she transitions into a sophisticated New Yorker isn’t quite clear.  I had to keep reminding myself that the story was real, and Jeannette herself wrote the book on which the film is based.  The children band together, knowing they cannot rely on their phlegmatic father for their safety and security.  And yet, Rex truly loves them in his own, mentally disturbed way.  Harrelson gives an award-worthy performance.  I’m sure the book went into more detail, but what is on the screen is difficult enough to watch – yet worth seeing.  The human drive to survive is truly an amazing thing.  3½ cans.
97.  Whitney Houston: Can I Be Me* (2017) – The obvious answer to this Showtime documentary about the life and death of the transcendently talented singer is NO.  This painful program is peppered with plenty of interviews with the people who surrounded Whitney Houston, including her mother, assistants, family, back-up singers and hangers-on.  But the most prominent person to appear – besides her eventual husband, singer and fellow drug user Bobby Brown – is her best friend, Robyn Crawford.  Robyn loved the signer, protected her, and traveled with her from her days in Newark through her triumphs as a world-renowned vocalist and star.  But was their relationship more than a friendship?  And why was that a matter of such high security?  The documentary never gives you a definite conclusion, but the friction between Robyn and Bobby Brown, both fighting for Houston’s attention and devotion, is very clear.  It seemed she might still have a chance to overcome her love of cocaine and pot, if only Robyn wasn’t ousted by Bobby and others in the Houston camp.  After Robyn’s departure, it was a fairly quick demise for Houston, a woman with a memorable voice, a radiant smile, and a fate so tragic.  3½ cans.