Here are a few gems to keep you entertained while you are following directive to STAY HOME! Movies marked with an asterisk are ones I had not seen previously. All are rated on a scale on 1-5 cans of tuna fish. Numbering picks up from previous months.
26. Picture Perfect (1997) – There’s nothing perfect about Kate’s (Jennifer Anniston) life. She is a hardworking ad exec who is single and lives alone. Those qualities seem to preclude her as a candidate for advancement. So when she meets Nick (Jay Mohr), the videographer of a wedding she attends, she prevails on him to pose as her fiancée, inundating him with important information on her life (how she takes her coffee) so she can introduce him to her colleagues and then break up with him, thus giving her the gravitas she needs to impress her bosses. Meanwhile, she is having a fling with colleague and womanizer Sam (Kevin Bacon). It doesn’t take long for us to realize that Kate most likely will begin to find Nick someone she can put into her life legitimately. Very light and moderately charming. 3 cans.
27. The Way Back* (2020) – A sports redemption pictures go, this is one of the better ones. Ben Affleck plays Jack Cunningham, former basketball star at the local high school, who is no longer with his wife and has largely separated himself from the people who care for him. Instead, he shows up at work and drinks, goes home and drinks and goes to the local bar and drinks. Considering Affleck’s well-publicized personal battles with alcohol, in many ways, this movie wasn’t a stretch for him. When Jack is asked to take over as the coach of the high school team where he once starred as a player, he rehearses every possible way to turn down the offer. But he can’t, and instead he emerges as a really good coach who turns the team around. But can he truly redeem himself and find the way back, or will he slip back into his old habits? You will have to see this one to find out – and it is worth it. 3½ cans. This is a good movie, but it is not “Hoosiers,” the ultimate basketball redemption movie.
28. The Factory* (2020) – When a Chinese company took over an abandoned Ohio GM factory to open Fuyako Glass, the optimism for the success of the partnership was high. But the Americans hired by the new company and the culture of the Chinese workers and management resulted in a culture clash. The Chinese were accustomed to exacting standards and long hours, and the Americans did not feel comfortable with the imposed rules. There were safety issues, union issues and training issues. The new company was determined to succeed and make a profit, but at what cost? This is a very absorbing commentary on the working class from two disparate areas of the world, their hopes and aspirations and the reality of business. Catch it on Netflix. 3½ cans.
29. The Women of Troy* (2020) – This HBO documentary tells the story of the emergence of women’s college basketball in the 1980s, led by one of the best players of all-time, Cheryl Miller, leads a supremely talented team from the University of Southern California to two consecutive NCAA titles. Until that time, small schools like Immaculata, outside of Philadelphia, and the Lady Techsters of Louisiana Tech were the elite basketball schools. But with the adoption of Title IX legislation that required schools to fund men and women equally (and not just in athletics), large schools like USC began to dominate. If you are a women’s basketball fan, you will be thrilled to see the exploits of the first generation of women superstars, such as Cynthia Cooper, Kim Mulkey, Nancy Lieberman, Miller and her teammates Pam and Paula McGee, who bring athleticism and razzle-dazzle to the women’s game. This film traces their story on the college level as well as the birth of women’s professional basketball in the US with the formation of the WNBA, affording players an opportunity to continue their post-college basketball careers in the US and make a living. Catch this one since we all missed March Madness. 4 cans.
30. The Karate Kid (1984) – Ralph Macchio plays Daniel, a kid from New Jersey who moves with his mom to California, meets the pretty girl at school (Elizabeth Shue) and gets bullied by the blonde surfer dudes who practice karate – on his face. He is a good kid, just trying to fit in, but the guys won’t give him a chance. When handyman Mr. Miyagy (Pat Morita) offers to teach him karate, Daniel is willing but dubious of his unconventional training approach, which includes waxing a car (“wax on, wax off”), painting a fence and standing on one leg. But the skinny kid somehow manages to pull it all together to compete in an under-18 tournament with the bigger and stronger bully boys. Guess what happens? 3 cans and a cheer for the underdog.
31. The Heart of the Game (2005) – With the possible exception of “Hoop Dreams,” there is no finer documentary about basketball (or sports, in my opinion) than this 7-year look at Coach Bill Resler and his Roosevelt High Rough Riders in Seattle, Washington. A college tax professor, Resler takes on the hapless high school girls basketball team and uses an unconventional approach to urge the girls on to victory. He tells them they are a pack of wolves or tigers, and they abandon traditional offensive sets and swarm the opposition on defense. When the gifted Darnellia Russell shows up (a year after the documentary starts), she brings her considerable basketball skills and sometimes poor attitude to challenge Resler. Will they win the state championship? Will Darnellia overcome her own problems to stay on the team? I know the outcome and yet every time I watch this movie I am thrilled at each basket, each pass, and each game. If you like sports and enjoy documentaries, you’ve gotta have “Heart.” 5 cans.
32. Lost Girls* (2020) – Shannon Gilbert is missing in Long Island, and her mother, Mari (Amy Ryan) is relentless in pushing the police to look for her. During the search, police find the bodies of three other young women, all prostitutes, dumped and unaccounted for. The cops need a push so Shannon is not forgotten as police delve further into the work of what may be a serial killer. Very absorbing and based on a real case. Ryan is terrific as the ferocious mom. 4 cans. Netflix.
33. After the Wedding* (2019) – Isabel (Michelle Williams) is desperate to secure funding for the orphanage she runs in India, so when she is asked to return to NY to discuss a major donation by a potential benefactor, she reluctantly leaves her charges. In New York, she meets with rich and powerful Theresa (Julianne Moore), who invites her to her daughter’s wedding the next day so they can get to know each other. But Theresa’s husband (Billy Crudup) already knows Isabel. That brief description is all I can supply without spoiling the plot. I hope that’s enough to intrigue you, because the movie is worth seeing. 4 cans.
34. This is a Game Ladies* (2004) – I would rather be watching my beloved Rutgers Women’s Basketball team on the court, but that is not possible since March Madness has been canceled. So instead, I viewed this documentary for the first time, thanks to YouTube. It traces the RUWBB team from right after its loss to Tennessee in the Final Four in 2000 through the next full season with a glimpse of the 2001-2002 squad. Long-time fans will find the familiar faces of Rutgers players from way back and can relive some thrilling victories and agonizing defeats. Above it all is the dominating figure of Coach C. Vivian Stringer as she encourages, cajoles, challenges and leads her young ladies through a season of highs and lows, with her burning desire to make them successful women. 4 cans, but I am biased on this one!
35. The Mighty Macs (2009) – This improbable story is one you wouldn’t believe unless you knew it were true. In 1971, young basketball coach Cathy Rush takes charge of the perennially losing Mighty Macs of tiny Immaculata College outside Philadelphia. There was no gym and only one basketball. The uniforms were pinafores with sashes, and the rules had just changed so the players were no longer restricted to just one area of the court as in the past. NCAA basketball and Title IX did not yet exist. In this impossible set of circumstances and with an unconventional approach to coaching, Rush, aided by a young nun, turned a very small group of players into champions who dominated the sport for three years. Former Rutgers Coach Theresa Shank Grentz, a player on those Immaculata teams, has a cameo as the last nun in the pew. A fun and inspiring story of trust, spirit and innovation. 3½ cans.
36. The Three Faces of Eve (1957) – Joanne Woodward stars in this unusual story of a woman with multiple personalities. Dowdy housewife Eve White has “spells,” starting with a headache and progressing to blackouts, followed by amnesia. Dr. Luther (Lee J. Cobb) can’t figure out what is wrong with her, until one day in his office when alter ego Eve Black emerges. She is a randy woman who flirts with the psychiatrist, who cannot believe what he is seeing. And Eve Black is not the only one crowded into Eve White’s head; there’s Jane, with no Southern accent, who is the sensible one, and who helps stabilize the situation. It takes years of therapy and more frequent spells to finally determine the underlying cause of these personalities, which overpower Eve White. Interesting concept and played with enough nuance and sensitivity for Woodward to win the Oscar. 3½ cans because it seems dated and melodramatic now.
37. Forrest Gump (1994) – This Tom Hanks classic (aside from “Bachelor Party,” has this guy ever made a real dud?) is about life, love, and loss, about celebrating the every man, showing us that we each have some kind of gift to bring to our existence and that you don’t need to be a genius to master life. Yes, it is a fantasy and I generally avoid fantasies, but it is so heartwarming and poignant that it is irresistible. I had not seen it in many years. I am glad I took the time. 4½ cans.
38. Dirty Dancing (1987) – Frances “Baby” Hausman (Jennifer Grey) meets dreamy dancer Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze) at a Catskills resort, takes one look and becomes a great dancer. He’s all wrong for her, of course, but he won’t put her in the corner. Great music and dancing and watching it now makes my heart ache for Swayze. If you need more detail, just see the movie. 4 cans.
39. Self-Made* (2020) – Until Madam C. J. Walker (Octavia Spencer) came along with her hair products empire in the early 1900s, there were no female self-made millionaires in the US. In this Netflix mini-series, Spencer starts as the laundrywoman for Addie, a rich woman with her own hair care business. She won’t hire Madam Walker to do sales because she does not fit the image of the other African-American women who sell and use her products, so Walker sets off to develop better products and succeeds beyond her rival. Walker is an industrious woman with a fierce strength, and she never stops battling to build a factory and grow her business. She hired thousands of black women who went on to their own success, and she was an early philanthropist, giving to historically black colleges such as Spelman. People have criticized this story, saying it glosses over facts, but I am only judging what I see as a story of a fiercely independent woman who was far ahead of her time. 3½ cans.
40. The Princess Bride* (1987) – You just don’t find a lot of good, swashbuckling movies anymore, but if you like heroes and villains and damsels in distress, this one will tickle your fancy. This fantasy is intelligent and very clever with a host of excellent actors who keep their tongues (mostly) out of their cheeks and not overplaying their parts. The bonus was seeing the young Fred Savage as the grandson listening to his grandfather (Peter Falk) tell this good, old-fashioned story. There are memorable characters (Wallace Shawn and Many Patinkin as Inigo Montoya) and lines and silly situations, but it all works in an off-kilter, Monty Python kind of way. Right now, I could use a little fantasy. I cannot believe I had never seen this one! 3½ cans. (I’d give it a 4 but I don’t LOVE fantasies.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment