I'm trying to end the year with a flourish and managed to see 15 movies or TV series in November. Numbering picks up from previous months and an asterisk indicates that I haven't seen the show previously. Everything is rated from 0-5 cans (for the first time), with 5 being the top.
143. The Gift* (2000, On Demand – free) – If I were semi-psychic Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett), I’d return the gift. Annie, a young widow with three boys living meagerly in the south, does card readings for the locals for extra income. She also has detailed dreams and premonitions about bad things that are going to happen to the people of the town, and some of them are determined to make those dreams come true. The last movie I watched like this was “The Sixth Sense,” because this type of movie is not the genre I prefer. But I have to say that the stellar cast (Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear and Hilary Swank) does a great job, and the Australian Blanchett carries off a Southern accent as well as the mighty Meryl Streep. 3 cans.
144. Tupperware!* (2004, PBS American Experience; I watched on PBS Documentaries, which requires a subscription) – Who doesn’t own Tupperware? The ubiquitous plastic food storage containers were invented by a man named – you guessed it – Earl Tupper in the 1950s. Initially sold in stores, the product really took off when a woman named Brownie Wise (seriously, that was her real name) convinced Mr. Tupper to abandon stores in favor of home parties. At the time, women were once again relegated to the kitchen despite their important presence during WWII, so conducting parties to sell products was a way for them to socialize and make some money. Brownie took over sales and became renowned as one of the few female executives of her time. This movie is not exactly a blockbuster (and I have seen a documentary on Blockbuster, too), but it is a great reflection of the times that features some degree of female empowerment. Brownie was quite a character! 3 cans.
145. Land* (2021, HBO) – There’s getting away from it all and then there’s this movie, where a forelorn Robin Wright (who also produced and directed) retreats to a remote location in Wyoming to live absolutely alone and on her own. Clearly, some event in her past has spurred this decision, so she ditches her phone and moves into a cabin with enough supplies – so she thinks – to eke out a solitary existence. But when circumstances turn dire and it looks like she won’t make it, she is fortunate to be found by a nurse (what a coincidence!) and a local man named Miguel (Dermian Bichir) who becomes a friend and teaches her how to survive. Wright gives a terrific performance as a grief-stricken woman determined to keep her distance from society, but you question whether she really wants to live at all. There’s very little dialog in the first part of the movie, and no volleyball for her to befriend, a la “Castaway,” as she tries to figure out how to make the best of her surroundings. 3½ cans.
146. Queen Bees* (2021, Showtime) – When Mean Girls leave high school and get really old, they wind up in retirement homes like Pine Gardens, where independent senior citizen Helen (Ellen Burstyn) agrees to move for a month while the house she accidentally set on fire is being repaired. She’s a widow with her own way of doing things, asking little from anyone, but she is immediately rejected by the “cool kids” at the new abode who won’t let her sit at their table in the dining room and who reject her from the bridge club. The mean girls are led by an acerbic Jane Curtain and her nicer cohorts, played by Loretta Devine and Ann-Margret. These ladies can be a little rowdy, when they start flirting with the handsome young aqua aerobics instructor or chasing old men in the home, looking for husband #6. But Helen finds a good guy in Dan (an aging James Caan), who she teaches to dance. This is a sweet and mostly gentle movie – apart from a scene when Curtain’s character knees a purse snatcher in the groin – and it isn’t as silly as something like “Poms,” but I’m still waiting to see a movie that depicts older people living together without the cliches and would-be cuteness typically included in these movies. Burstyn, as always, gives a top-flight performance. 3 cans.
147. Tumbledown* (2015, Prime Video) – Ted Lasso goes to Maine in this better-than-Hallmark rom-com. Andrew McDonald (Jason Sudeikis) travels to Maine to write about a singer-songwriter whose accidental death has made him larger than life. Andrew, a professor and writer, wants to include him in his new book about less-well-known artists. Hannah, the anguished widow (Rebecca Hall), cannot get through her grief and sees Andrew’s work as a way to express her loss, so she invites him – albeit a little reluctantly – to collaborate with her on the tome. Of course, she lives in a quaint and quirky town with off-beat characters, and, like Ted Lasso, Andrew is a fish-out-of-water, hailing from NYC. As can be expected, sparks do fly. You will have to tune in to get the rest of the story – and it is worth it. Not quite worth 4 cans, but somewhere over 3½.
148. Diana* (2021, CNN) – In case there is anything you didn’t already know about the life and death of Diana, the Princess of Wales and mother of the future King of England, here it is, in all its smarmy glory. Based largely on the recordings made by Diana in interviews with biographer Andrew Morton, this documentary does make you feel sorry for Diana. She really thinks she is marrying Prince Charming, but Charles doesn’t quite carry off that title, especially since he keeps former girlfriend Camilla around throughout the ill-fated marriage. Diana is young and innocent, but she grows beautifully into her role as a woman of style and substance even amid her unhappiness. Diana is a popular subject in our culture right now, with a dreadful musical on Broadway (with the film version available on Netflix) and as a main character in the most recent season of Netflix’ “The Crown.” My advice: Let the poor woman rest in peace. 3½ cans.
149. Dear Evan Hansen* (2021, On Demand and also available in theaters) – I was absolutely enthralled by the original stage version of this musical, but now, knowing the plot and the songs, it is hard to determine if the magic was missing because of the familiarity of the story and the music or because the Broadway show was just better. Truly, it is almost impossible to replicate the feeling of a stage production, when the lights go down and the orchestra music comes up and the performers command the stage. I’m stalling here, because I did like the movie and don’t want to say anything really bad about it, so let’s stick to the facts. Ben Platt recreates his stage role as Evan Hansen, a high school student with few friends and no confidence. Connor, another boy in his school, has similar issues, but he is more aggressive, and when he finds a letter written by Evan to himself at the direction of his therapist, he steals the “Dear Evan Hansen” paper. The misunderstandings of this act lead the characters to conclusions and down paths they shouldn’t be on. This is a sad story but too typical of the drama of high school, where the fight for acceptance, the fight not to get lost, is part of everyday life. When Connor’s family accepts Evan and wants more about the assumed friendship between them, Evan is eager to help them by providing details of a friendship that never existed. The plaintive tunes and heartbreaking lyrics were better served live, but the cast does a good job here (although Ben Platt looks a little long in the tooth to be a high school student, unless he is The Fonz). I watched the movie with someone who never saw the Broadway version and only knew the story as “about a kid wearing a cast.” She liked it, but clearly not as much as I liked my initial exposure to the show. See it for yourself, whether or not you have seen it live on Broadway, and let me know what YOU think. 4 cans.
150. Shall We Dance? (2004, Hulu) – Richard Gere is John, a lawyer whose train trip home to his loving wife Beverly (Susan Sarandon) passes the window of Miss Mitzi’s Dance Studio. When he spies the lovely Paulina (Jennifer Lopez), he is smitten and signs up for dance lessons. This movie is one where you really hope the main characters don’t go off the rails and have an affair. Gere is just a little awkward in life and on the dance floor as he learns the moves and seeks more joy – which is the central theme here. There is one scene near the very end that makes every woman I know sigh audibly. A sweet, somewhat comical and charming movie. 3½ cans.
151. Wait For Your Laugh* (2017, Netflix) – It turns out that everything I knew about the life and times of the late comedian Rose Marie wasn’t much at all. This documentary traces her start as a precocious 4-year-old with the voice of a woman who starred as a singer. As she grew older – never really hitting that stage when child stars become forgotten as adults – she played clubs from New York to the nascent Las Vegas, where only the Flamingo Hotel offered a venue. She was a true entertainer, someone who danced and sang and did comedy bits to broaden her act. She also became friends with mobsters from New York to Chicago to Las Vegas, all of whom liked and respected her and made sure she was protected. Contrary to her man-chasing comedy writer role as Sally Rogers on the classic “Dick Van Dyke Show” (offered the job by producer Carl Reiner, Rose Marie quipped, “What’s a Dick Van Dyke?”), she was happily married and had a daughter – and she rarely stopped working. I came away with a whole new sense of admiration for a woman who succeeded as a singer and comedian in what was largely a male-dominated profession. Worth watching. 3½ cans.
152. King Richard* (2021, HBO Max and in theaters) – How do you become a true champion in any field? Well, it helps if your father has decided your fate before you are born and ties every action taken on every single day of your life to achieving that goal. Meet the Man with the Plan, Richard Williams (Will Smith), father of tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams, who got their start on the courts of Compton, California, not at a tennis academy or in an affluent area. Williams had a master plan and stuck to it, drilling and coaching his willing pupils, even surviving beatings by local punks who did not want him to succeed. Meanwhile, he and his wife held down full-time jobs and raised the entire family, not just the two future champs. To say he was driven is an understatement. Did he succeed? Both Venus and Serena won all the major championships, and Serena is considered by some to be not just the best FEMALE tennis player of all-time, but simply the best tennis player, PERIOD (though this movie focuses most of the attention on Venus, the older sister). King Richard’s techniques could best be described as unconventional, and his approach overbearing, but it worked. Now we need a movie about the sisters themselves (who serve as producers of the film) and not their father. 3½ cans.
153. Captain Fantastic* (2016, Netflix) – If you guessed that this is one of those superhero blockbusters that I generally avoid, you would be wrong. The “superhero” here is a man raising his many kids completely off the grid, educating them, teaching them to speak multiple languages, climb mountains and stay physically fit and mentally curious. But when a family tragedy forces him to reenter society – albeit briefly – the results go pretty much as you would expect. These kids know book learning but not about social interaction. Viggo Mortensen gives an excellent performance as the determined dad who is not ready to let any of these kids assimilate into society. 3 cans.
154. The Gathering (1977, Rental) – I’m not a big fan of Christmas movies. I avoid the Hallmark Channel, and, truth be told, I don’t really like “It’s a Wonderful Life.” So why THIS Christmas movie, a 45-year-old TV movie about a family gathering for Christmas? You can start with Ed Asner and Maureen Stapleton as the parents of a large and estranged family. Asner’s Adam Thornton is told by his doctor that he is dying and has only a short time left, so he decides to enlist his wife (they have been separated for years but not divorced) in getting his adult kids back to the family home for Christmas – but without revealing why he so desperately wants to see them. There are old wounds to heal and a son living in Canada to avoid the draft (yes, this IS an old movie) and Dad is stubborn and didn’t make their lives easy. Will they show up in time? Can they function as a family, even without knowing the maudlin truth? Ed Asner gives a stellar performance, and Stapleton is perfect as the wife he abandoned who still loves him but has learned to live without him. If I don’t see any other Christmas movies this year, that’s OK, because this is one I have waited to see again for many, many years. 3½ cans and a lump in the throat.
155. The Morning Show, Season 2* (2021, Apple TV+) – This program about a fictional morning news program had to deal with the reality of Covid this season. The producers and writers had to find a way to work the pandemic into their storyline for the year and reflect the uncertainty that started in March as the virus was declared a pandemic. The characters here seem realistic, and the panic caused by Covid is portrayed here with confusion – just as in real life. Jennifer Anniston and Reese Witherspoon return as the anchors of “The Morning Show,” although Anniston’s Alex Levy doesn’t have her heart in it anymore after the departure of her former colleague, Mitch (Steve Carrell), who has left the UBS Network in the wake of a Matt Lauer-like scandal. This season brings the arrival of veteran news anchor Laura Peterson (Julianna Margulies), whose character adds some spice; a drugged-out brother for Witherspoon’s Bradley, who is confronting her sexual identity; racial and ethnic issues; and the creepy, scary, look-out, it’s coming to get you Coronavirus. All told, a very busy and not always comfortable 10 episodes, but enough to probably get the series picked up for another season. 4 cans.
156. Selling Sunset, Season 4* (2021, Netflix) – The blonde bombshell real estate agents for LA’s Oppenheimer group are back and back at it again. Unlike “The Morning Show” reviewed above, this series ignores the pandemic in favor of showing you women stepping out of cars with long legs and gravity-defying high heels – and every single episode seems required to show that shot. There’s a new addition to the group this year and she stirs the drink when it turns out she once dated the same guy that Queen Bee Christine dated. Christine has the fastest recovery from birthing a baby in the history of motherhood and returns to the office to mix it up with her best frenemies. Look, this isn’t Bill Moyers on PBS, I know that, but it is a guilty pleasure. If you like stunning homes with views for miles, along with that “Mean Girls” passive-aggressive attitude, this guilty pleasure is for you. There are 10 episodes, and next season is already being filmed. 4 cans but certainly NOT for everyone!
157. House of Gucci* (2021, in the theater) – Lady Gaga brings her star power to her role as Patrizia Reggiani, an ambitious young woman who meets the quiet and shy Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) heir to the fashion house of the same name and sets her sights on him. Patrizia has a head for business and pushes Maurizio to get more involved in the family concern, which is controlled by his father (Jeremy Irons) and Uncle Aldo (Al Pacino). Aldo’s son (an unrecognizable Jared Leto, wearing a completely questionable wardrobe) is also part of the business, but he’s unreliable and might be involved in questionable practices like his father. The movie transitions into hell hath no fury like a woman scorned once Maurizio begins to flex his fashion muscles and wants to dump Patrizia. I won’t reveal the plot, though you can easily find the details in any review (except mine!). I see an Oscar nomination for Gaga, who, at times looks like a cross between Joan Collins and Rizzo from “Grease.” This movie was a little too long and a little too campy – unintentional or not – for me. 4 cans.
