2010 Movie List - January

I thought I would keep this list updated monthly this year for those interested in what I am doing in my spare time. And so I wouldn't forget by December what I watched in January, I decided to write a brief review of each movie and rate it on a scale of 1-5 cans of tuna. As a matter of reference, my 5 star movies include "The Graduate," "Shawshank Redemption," "The Godfather," and "Animal House," just for starters. I just love the movies! Here's what I have seen so far this year.

MOVIE LIST 2010

January

1. It’s Complicated (with Nancy @ Hillsborough) – As my favorite sister always says, “Meryl never disappoints.” Alec Baldwin was great, too. Very funny movie with perfect references for the over-50 crowd. Loved it. 4½ tuna cans
2. The Bridges of Madison County (TV) – It’s my personal Meryl Streep film festival with this classic romance between Italian-accented Meryl and Clint Eastwood. Nothing like a good cry to start the new year. When she has her hand on the door handle of the car, I always think, “Go!” but the ending is always the same. Love this movie. 4½ tuna cans
3. Cinema Paradiso (Ovation TV – too many commercials) – This movie is charming enough to let me enjoy it despite having to read subtitles. The music is soaring and magnificent, the story heart-warming and the whole experience reminds me of going to the Cort Theater as a kid. It makes me think of dear friend Katherine, too. 4½ cans.
4. Four Weddings and a Funeral (TCM) – Hugh Grant at his befuddled, mumbling best, before his act and his unruly hair grew repetitive. 3 tuna cans.
5. Charlie Wilson’s War (HBO) – A preachy political story about an undistinguished Congressman (Tom Hanks), pushed by a rich constituent (Julia Roberts) to secure Congressional dollars to support the Afghan troops against the Soviets in the 1980s. Typical Aaron Sorkin dialogue – too glib and sometimes unintelligible – and too much politics for my taste. 2 tuna cans.
6. While You Were Sleeping (TV) – Why does Sandra Bullock play parts that call for her to feel she is unattractive and undesirable? She is charming in this cute comedy about a woman with a secret crush on a man she doesn’t know but ultimately saves from an oncoming train. Then she proceeds to fall in love with his family, who thinks she is his intended. Cute, fun and Sandra Bullock. 3 cans.
7. Annie Hall (TCM) – Woody Allen and Diane Keaton at their la-di-dah best. Though I know every line from this movie, it still makes me smile. 4½ cans.
8. The Soloist (HBO) – Anything about mental illness is off-putting, and this movie is no exception. More about the character played by Robert Downey Jr. than the actual musician, it is also an indictment of a society where 90,000 people in one city are homeless and helpless. Not really my kind of movie, so it gets just 2½ tuna cans.
9. East of Eden (TCM) – The classic Cain & Abel story with a very young (but surprisingly modern-looking) James Dean is about sibling rivalry and parental approval. Dean is good playing bad, but sometimes he looked like Frank Gorshen playing James Dean. Also starring a very young Julie Harris as a love interest. 3.5 cans.
10. Miracle in the Rain (TCM) – Classic four-hanky tearjerker starring a plain Jane Wyman and exuberant Van Johnson in a boy meets girl, they fall in love and he goes off to war. These things can never end well, unless you are looking for a good cry. First time on TCM and first time I have seen this movie in at least 20 years. 4 cans.
11. The Heiress (TCM) – Truly a classic. Olivia de Haviland transforms from a shy, mousey girl to a strong woman after falling in love with and being deserted by Montgomery Clift. But the real change agent is her unloving father, played by Ralph Richardson. I never get tired of that last scene. 4½ cans.
12. Howard’s End (TV) – My first time seeing this Emma Thompson-Anthony Hopkins tale of two sisters getting their lives entangled with a poor clerk and a rich businessman. Interesting to see them argue, which seems rare for a British movie of that period. Glad she got the house in the end, because that’s what her friend, Vanessa Redgrave, had intended years before. I liked “Remains of the Day” with Thompson and Hopkins much better, but this one gets 3½ cans.
13. My Sister’s Keeper (Blockbuster rental) – Interesting bioethical dilemma about raising a child for her genetic similarities to her fatally ill sister. Cameron Diaz was excellent in a serious role and Abigail Breslin is a wonderful young actress. A bit gut-wrenching to take, but with a thought-provoking premise. 3½ cans.
14. Sunshine Cleaning (Blockbuster Rental) – Two down-on their luck sisters (the normally perky Amy Adams, risking overexposure, and a mainly dour Emily Blunt) start a service cleaning up trauma sites. Alan Arkin is their equally down-on-his-luck father. Grime story? 3½ cans.

Tina's 2009 Movie List - January 2010

For those who have inquired, here is the full list of movies I saw in 2009, with my favorites highlighted in bold. In 2010, I will be reporting on this subject monthly and reviewing and rating each movie on a scale of 1-5 tuna cans (shout out to Steve Rice). Here is 2009 in a capsule:



MOVIE LIST 2009

January
Slumdog Millionaire
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Bye, Bye Birdie – TV
You’ve Got Mail – TV
Man on Wire – documentary – Blockbuster rental
The Queen – TV
The Wrestler
About a Boy – TV
Miracle on Ice – HBO
Annie Liebovitz – documentary – iTunes rental
American Teen – documentary – Blockbuster rental
White Squall – TV

February
The Verdict – TV
Return to Me – TV
Catch Me If You Can – TV
Philadelphia – TV
The Leopards Take Manhattan – documentary – HBO
Soapdish – HBO
Helvetica – documentary – iTunes rental
Nights in Rodanthe – with Dona – Pay Per View
Cheers for Miss Bishop – TCM TV
An Officer & A Gentleman – AMC TV
Taking Chance – HBO movie
The Graduate – TCM TV - This is my all-time favorite movie
The Last Detail – TV

March
The Package – TV
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (terrible musical remake with Peter O’Toole) – TCM TV
Then She Found Me – iTunes Rental
My Dog Skip – HBO
Broadcast News – TV

April
Baby Mama – HBO
The Contender – HBO
This Is Spinal Tap – TV
Bridge on the River Kwai – TCM TV
The Conversation – TV
Rudy – TV
Apollo 13 – TV
Grey Gardens – HBO
State and Main – TV
Prefontaine – iTunes rental

The In-Laws – TV

May
Driving Miss Daisy – TV
The Smartest Guys in the Room (documentary on Enron) – TV
In the Heat of the Night – TV
Mother – TV
Stepmom – TV
Kissing Jessica Stein – TV
Live Free or Die Hard – TV

June
Pal Joey – TCMKick Like a Girl – HBO documentary
The Taking of Pelham 123 (remake)
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore – TV
Billy Elliott – TV
The Group – TV

July
Last Chance Harvey – rental
Gran Torino – rental - My favorite movie of the year
Paul Blart, Mall Copy – rental
Raising Helen – TV
Away We Go
Just Between Friends – TV
The Sure Thing – TV

August
Julie and Julia
Dave – TV
Running Scared – TV
Good Morning, Miss Dove – TCM (all but the last 2 minutes)
Portrait of Jennie – TCM
Conrack – TV
500 Days of Summer

September

The Family Stone – TV
Delany Sisters: Having Our Say – TV
Far From Heaven –TV
Disturbia – TV
Friday Night Lights - TV
The Secret Life of Bees – HBO
An Affair to Remember – TCM
The Heiress – TCM
Acceptance – TV
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – TCM

October
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – TCM
All the Right Moves – TV
The Remains of the Day – TV
Premonition – TV
Amelia
6 Degrees of Separation – TV
Ali – TV
Always and Forever – Hallmark Channel
A Night to Remember – TCM
Sense and Sensibility – HBO

November
Ballou – documentary rented on iTunes
The Final Season – sports movie on TV
Vantage Point – HBO
The Jane Austin Book Club – TV
All of Me – TV
Schmatta: Rags to Riches (documentary on the garment industry in NY) – HBO
Michael Jackson’s This is It
Invincible – Blockbuster rental
My Blue Heaven – Blockbuster rental

December

Precious
84 Charing Cross Road – TCM
The Blind Side
Birdman of Alcatraz – TCM
An Education
It’s a Wonderful Life – TV
Up in the Air
Planes, Trains and Automobiles – TV
One Foot in Heaven – TCM
Revolutionary Road – HBO
Remember the Titans – TV
Lilies of the Field – TCM

Got a Minute? - January 2010

“I have a quick question.”

Sure, and the check is in the mail.

It’s not so much that the question is long, but I am betting the answer to the quick question will take more than a minute. And a minute is a long time.

Sit with my favorite sister at a soccer game, with her son’s team leading and Brandon playing goal. That last two minutes – when, for some reason, the refs stop the clock but the game time runs, just unbeknownst to the anxious fans – seems like an eternity. So many times we have looked at each other and said, “This game can’t end fast enough.”

Yeah, a minute can seem like a lifetime.

You have no idea how long a minute is until you are waiting for the light to change at Route 206 and Hillsborough Road. How long can it be, right? I don’t know the answer, but, if I am making a left, I bring a book to read (think War and Peace). There is one particular light I hit on my way home from Rutgers basketball games where I am the only person around, in the dark, and I am soooo tempted just to go ahead and make that left on red. After all, no one is coming, and who’s going to know? I can get home a minute sooner, right? Yikes, I can almost hear the sirens just thinking about it.

It makes me nuts when I see people leaving a close game with a minute left on the clock. What do they have to do that is so important that it can’t wait another 60 seconds? Congratulations, you will be sitting in the traffic in the parking lot a full minute ahead of me, I think. Why not just stay and see the end of the game?

The longest two minutes of my day are when the electric toothbrush is working its way through its cycle. I can’t really do much else besides letting it run its course, so I spend that time thinking and solving the problems of the world. By the end of the two minutes I have run out of ideas and have forgotten the solutions I came up with, which shows you how really long two minutes is.

It drives me crazy when I am watching “American Idol” and Ryan Seacrest so cleverly promises to tell you who is going home – after the break. I’m not competing, and still, that break seems to take forever even to me.

Or say you are waiting for the plumber, delivery person or someone else whose arrival is promised in a “window” of either morning or afternoon or four-hour blocks. His/her imminent arrival is predicated on whether you are actually there. Chances of the service person showing up early are greater if you are not home or are racing to get there. If you are home, you know someone won’t show up until the very end of the promised period – if at all.

Try being on hold for the insurance company or the cable company. Every now and then the music is interrupted by a semi-friendly recording says that your call is important and promises that someone will be with you shortly. Meanwhile, I keep the phone on speaker while I pay the bills on-line, sort out the coupons and try to remember the name of Lucy’s neighbor (Mrs. Trumble) or the answer to some other burning question.

Go to the doctor’s office, where you are either the last one in the waiting room or are left in the examination room with no magazines. Time creeps by ever-so-slowly. Once I was so bored that I started taking pictures of the office décor with my cell phone camera. Now I always bring along my own reading material.

Yet, as the song says, “time passes much too quickly when we’re together laughing.” Think about how many times have you been out with friends and suddenly – after what seems like a half an hour – someone looks at his/her watch and says, “Wow, I’ve got to go, we’ve been here for hours.”

Back to the soccer game. If your team is trailing, the time flies by and there never seems to be enough time to get back into the game. The hell with the other goalie’s mom, I say. I don’t want to see this game end!

I guess it all comes down to the fact that I realize that time, especially as I get older, is finite, and I appreciate it so much more now than when it seemed unlimited. I just don’t want to waste it at red lights and holding for insurance people. I’d rather spend it doing things I really enjoy, where the time is worth investing. Time flies when you are having fun, you know.

I realize that I enticed you to read this essay with the inherent promise that it would only take a minute, and you have now realized that it took longer than that. I hope the time flew by and that you loved every minute.

Movie Madness - December 2009

I never said it was noble. I never said it would be easy. But I did it. I decided to try to watch 100 movies in 2009, and I exceeded my goal by watching 111.

Sure, it seems silly. Couldn’t I/shouldn’t I have set loftier goals? I could feed the hungry, build houses for the poor – whatever. I could have set a goal better for my health than for my cultural interests, like losing significant weight. But I didn’t. Instead, I watched movies.

It all started when I saw a list from the American Film Institute (AFI) that listed the top 100 movies of all time. There were many movies on the list that I had never seen (“Citizen Kane”) or had seen so long ago that I barely remembered seeing them, and I decided I should revisit them in my spare time (and when you retire you have lots of spare time). So in 2008 I watched “Chinatown” and “Mrs. Miniver,” among others, for the first time. This year (2009) I decided to watch more – to watch not just the AFI’s top 100, but any movie that struck my fancy. And my fancy was struck quite often, it seems.

My goal was simple: I vowed to see 100 movies in 2009, and I did. My first movie of the year was the Oscar-winning “Slumdog Millionaire,” which, though hardly a feel-good movie, nonetheless emerged as one of the best I saw all year. Movie #100 – “Precious” – was similar in that it showed people living in horrendous conditions, overcoming poverty and rejection to simply survive. I thought both movies were great, and I never want to see either of them again.

In between “Slumdog” and “Precious” (there’s a sequel for you), I rented movies from Blockbuster, downloaded them from iTunes, watched them on demand or pay-per-view, viewed DVDs borrowed from friends, recorded movies on my DVR, watched them on cable (especially Turner Classic Movies) and ventured to a movie theater, alone or with friends. The only way I didn’t watch movies was from Netflix. Ironically, I don’t subscribe.

I saw something old (“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”), something new (“500 Days of Summer”), something borrowed (from Blockbuster) and something blue (“My Blue Heaven,” a Steve Martin comedy, not some raunchy movie). I wanted to see classics I had never seen (”Bridge Over the River Kwai”) as well as classics I had seen but wanted to see again (“An Affair to Remember”). I didn’t watch any movie more than once (which meant passing up repeated showings of favorites like “Apollo 13” and “The Notebook”) and, while I did see some of my favorites (including my all-time favorite movie, “The Graduate”), I tried to expand my horizons, which worked to a degree. I watched light, frothy comedies (“Paul Blart, Mall Cop”), romances (“An Officer and a Gentleman”) and documentaries (“Man on a Wire”).

I saw movies about boys, teenagers and men (“About a Boy,” “American Teen,” “The Last Detail”). I watched movies about kids in a band (“The Leopards Take Manhattan” and “Ballou”), about the demise of Enron (“The Smartest Guys in the Room”), and about a type face (“Helvetica,” a movie with not a lot of memorable characters but of interest nonetheless).

As an aside, I must say that I have become a fan of documentaries, seeing nine this year alone. Whether it was “Schmatta, From Rags to Riches,” a documentary about the garment industry in New York City, or “Kick Like a Girl,” about a girls’ soccer team, documentaries always teach me something I didn’t know or manage to warm my heart. The documentaries I watched this year and in recent years have run from 30 minutes to two hours and I think of them as time very well spent. I urge you not to overlook the documentary as a form of learning and entertainment.

The year was full of movies I loved (“Julie and Julia,” with the incomparable Meryl Streep), movies I barely tolerated (a terrible semi-musical remake of “Goodbye Mr. Chips,” with Peter O’Toole) and movies I hated (“Live Free or Die Hard”). I watched as many as 13 movies in a month and as few as five. One day, I watched three movies, from drama to comedy to documentary, all without leaving the house or spending a dime (assuming you don’t count my cable TV bill).

I watched movies about teachers and preachers (“Conrack” and “Doubt”), wrestlers, queens, lawyers and phony lawyers (“The Verdict” and “Catch Me if You Can”). I saw 11 movies about sports (among them were “The Blind Side,” “Invincible” and one of my all-time favorites, “Rudy”), that focused on high school baseball and football, girls soccer, college football, professional football, boxing and Olympic ice hockey. I even watched one movie I had waited 40+ years to see again – “Good Morning Miss Dove” – only to have the DVR recording interrupted just as the handsome doctor was about to tell the sick woman whether she would live or die. I had seen this movie as a teenager, so I honestly don’t remember what actually happened, and I have to admit it wasn’t worth waiting 40 years to see again. However, now that the star, Jennifer Jones, has died, I figure a Jennifer Jones film retrospective on TCM is inevitable, so chances are I’ll finally know what happened. I’m guessing that the main character, like the actress who played her, didn’t survive.

In case you are wondering, I’d say my favorite movie of the year was “Gran Torino” with Clint Eastwood, which actually came out in 2008, followed by “Slumdog Millionaire.” I liked “Up in the Air,” the George Clooney movie that opened in December, but not as much as the critics who raved about it.

I know, I know, you’re thinking, “She has too much time on her hands,” and that might be true to you, but not to me. I worked for years without having time to do just what I wanted to do, so now, sandwiched in between committee meetings for the organizations I serve as a volunteer (lest you think I am completely self-centered), aqua aerobics, attending basketball games, photography outings with my camera, going to plays and museums and spending time with friends, I managed to accomplish my goal. Maybe I’ll save the world next year.

Or, maybe I’ll finally get to see “Citizen Kane.” It’s on my DVR as we speak. And if I start it now, maybe it can make the 2009 list…

Hair Today - December 2009

I am letting my hair grow. At least for today.

I’ve been through this before, but I usually get over it quickly and head to the salon before it even approaches my shoulders. After all, what woman doesn’t obsess about her hair? Is it too long, too short, too gray, too blonde? Should I get it highlighted/dyed/bleached/permed/streamin’/flaxen/waxin’?

I like my hair short in the summer. “Give me the convertible cut,” I tell my hairdresser (I just can’t call him a stylist, because that would sound as if I have style). He knows that means cut it short enough so that when the top is down on my convertible it will simply blow back in place (the hair, not the top on the convertible). However, we are no longer in convertible weather, so, with my top firmly closed, I may be able to grow my hair out for a while.

Usually when I decide to let it grow it is because on that very day I think my hair looks good. It is not unusual for me to make an appointment to get it cut immediately thereafter, having awakened the next day with hair that has grown Rapunzel-like overnight and suddenly is over the top.

We all know our own hair better than anyone else – which is not to say we don’t need hair advice. I’ve been known to ask others about my need for a haircut and whether it looks better shorter or longer (which, granted, for me is a very small range). Once I got a very short haircut that I thought looked completely different. I asked my BFF about how she liked it and she replied, “Your hair always looks the same to me.” I decided to take that as a compliment.

There are days (in an office environment where the same people see you every day, everything is under scrutiny) when people have come up to me and said, “Your hair looks so good today,” and I have argued with them. Generally the day that compliment was bestowed was a day I thought it looked terrible. I mean, you know when your hair looks good, and no one can tell you otherwise when you are sure it doesn’t. “Oh, thanks,” I’d say, “but I need a haircut badly and this is not a good hair day for me.” Unless it was the actual day I was getting my hair cut. For some unknown reason, you always have good hair on the day it gets cut. And then it takes, by my count, about 10 days before it looks good again. I always try to get my hair cut 10 days before any big event, assuming, of course, that these events don’t happen weekly, in which case I’d have a shaved head.

My hair is a bone of contention in the pool. At home, I wear a baseball cap to keep my face out of the sun and my hair dry (clearly, I don’t believe swimming pools are actually for swimming). But at aqua aerobics, I just try to avoid getting my hair wet. To quote John Travolta’s Tony Manero in “Saturday Night Fever” after his father smacks him upside the head: “My hair! Watch the hair. I spend a lot of time on my hair.” Alright, I don’t spend as much time as Tony Manero spends on his hair, but still, I don’t want to have to go through all the required steps after I emerge from the pool – washing, gelling or moussing, drying, spraying, etc. There is one man who swims laps while we do our aerobics, and he is the splashiest swimmer you can imagine. I try to stay on the other side of the pool, but sometimes I get caught in his wake. Come on, man, I’m not here to get wet, I think. This is an issue when we play aqua volleyball, since I refuse to dive (or is it submerge myself?) after a ball (this is not the Olympics, believe me). I am usually the only one who finishes playing and doesn’t need to dry her hair. If I let my hair grow, this will be even more of a problem, since some of the exercises require us to keep own shoulders (and presumably our shoulder-length hair) in the water. I might have to resort to wearing the bathing cap fellow AA (aqua aerobics) friend Angela (shout out) so graciously provided. Suffice to say they just don’t make them like that anymore, except for this flowered masterpiece.

It is almost impossible to communicate appropriately with one’s hairdresser. His interpretation of “short” or “long” never quite matches up with yours. I’ve gone to the salon with pictures of hairdos I like in my hand. Yet I seem to exit with the same haircut every time. I don’t dare use someone else in that salon because that is just not proper hair protocol. Once my guy was away and I really needed a haircut, so I went to the person who blow dries my hair (this is a two-person job, you see) for a haircut. She did a great job, but it is her boss who always cuts me, and I didn’t want to undercut him, so to speak. (Oh, Jerry Seinfeld, I totally got that episode when you had the other barber come to your house. You just can’t cheat on your own guy in the same shop.) Yet I am already worried what I will do when this guy retires, since neither of us is getting any younger and I have gone to him for at least 15 years.

But I don’t have to worry about that now, because I have decided to let my hair grow and won’t need a haircut for some time. Or at least for today.