Tina's March 2019 Movies

Despite watching as many as six basketball games a day during March Madness, I managed to hit double figures this month in movies.  I highly recommend the documentaries listed here, and one of my all-time faves, Auntie Mame.  Numbering picks up from previous months and movies marked with an asterisk* are ones I had not seen previously.  The ratings are on a basis of 1-5 cans of tuna, with 5 at the top.

32.  Free Solo* (2018) – I understand that men climb mountains because they are there, but I’ll never understand why someone would want to climb a mountain using just his hands and feet, with no safety equipment or anything else to assist him.  This stunning movie shows climber Alex Honnold as he prepares to climb the intimidating El Capitan's 900-meter vertical rock face at Yosemite National Park, the first person to successfully complete this challenge solo.  I watched this on TV but I am certain it would have been even more visually arresting if I had seen it on a big movie screen.  Alex is a man accustomed to being on his own, and his venture in solo climbing – while it requires significant assistance from the team around him – perfectly suits his personality.  This documentary beat out the movie on Mr. Rogers for this year’s Oscar and it could not be more visually different from the latter.  However, both films reflect what humans with real conviction can do.  3½ cans.
33.  Smokey & the Bandit (1977) – This oldie but goodie showcases Burt Reynolds at his best – a good-old boy, full of fun and mischief, who takes on a challenge to transport a truckload of beer and return within a defined number of hours.  He is the Bandit, and he drives the hot car that serves as the lookout while his trucker buddy Cledus (Jerry Reed) handles hauling the Coors, all with aptly named Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason) in hot pursuit.  Along the way, he runs into (almost literally) fleeing bride Carrie (Sally Field), and soon she is in on the action.  This is a silly but fun movie that developed into a franchise of sorts.  Reynolds handles his role with a smile and a wink (including at least one directly into the camera) that lets us all know we are in for a good time.  3 cans.
34.  Apollo 11* (2019) – Remarkable footage from NASA on the flight of the first flight to land safely on the moon makes this documentary extremely compelling.  There is no narration; we see and hear actual footage and audio recorded at the time from a myriad of cameras that document the days leading up to the launch and the eventual landing and safe return of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from their exploration of the lunar surface – while Michael Collins circles around the moon and deftly redocks the space capsule with the lunar landing module.  If science fiction is your preference, this movie probably isn’t for you because it isn’t spectacular enough.  But if you like the real thing – the astronauts donning their space suits, the white-shirted engineers and space officials checking each system and giving the “go for launch” commands – then see this movie in a theatre.  It is larger than life.  4 cans.
35.  Juanita* (2019) – Considering the dramatic talents of star Alfre Woodard, this Netflix original movie did not measure up to the level I would expect.  Juanita is a single other of grown children whom she loves but who cause her headaches.  One son is in jail, the other is likely to join him, and her daughter expects her help in caring for her own baby.  A health care aide whose long-time patient dies, Juanita decides to get away, hoping to live her fantasy of riding off in the sunset with hunky Blair Underwood, her literal dream man, who, even in her fantasies, wants something (money) from her.  Instead, she ends up in Butte, Montana, with a host of quirky people who treat her like family.  A pleasant little movie, but I know Alfre is better than this material.  3 cans.
36.  Period. End of Sentence.* (2018) – This movie won the Oscar for documentary short subject this year.  In India, menstruation carries a stigma that women have to face.  When asked about it, men confessed they knew little and thought it involved “mostly women.”  The women laugh nervously when asked about menstruation and they must use whatever cloth they can get their hands on when they have their periods.  Even discussing the subject is taboo.  Just getting electricity is problematic.  So, when the citizens in a rural village learn how to make sanitary napkins, that machine and its product is a game changer.  They start selling the pads, and it brings them freedom, confidence, independence and a convenience previously impossible.  The things we take for granted are not always available for others, and it is easy to overlook that advances such as a simple sanitary napkin are not the norm in poor countries and among rural populations.  Credit to the producers for recognizing the enormity of this development for the women in this small village.  3½ cans.
37.  The Land of Steady Habits* (2018) – Sometimes when I start to watch a movie that I don’t like, I continue because I am sure it will get better.  This one didn’t.  Maybe if it had been called “The Land of Bad Habits” it would have seemed more logical.  Anders (Ben Mendelsohn) and his wife Helene (Edie Falco) have split up, leaving her in the big house he cannot afford now that he has left his lucrative job in search of true happiness.  Anders is morose, and nothing that happens in this movie will cheer him up.  His son Preston is lazy and unengaged, his ex is living in the house with her new man, who is much wealthier than Anders.  The son of a couple who are mutual friends of Anders and Helene is happy to share his drugs with the unhappy so-called adult in the group.  Netflix describes this movie as “witty and emotional.”  I describe it as dead on arrival.  Feel free to skip this one.  1 can.
38.  The Inventor* (2019) – Documentary director Alex Gibney takes on the story of Elizabeth Holmes, founder of now defunct med tech company Theranos.  At 19, Stanford student Holmes had a dream of founding a company that could develop proprietary technology to perform hundreds of diagnostic tests using only a drop of blood culled from a finger stick.  She dropped out of Stanford and launched a business that was more a “fake it til you make it” venture than a viable company because, despite her assurances, the company could not get the machines to work.  She modeled herself after Steve Jobs, even adopting his iconic black turtlenecks, and her confidence and swagger were irresistible enough to attract hundreds of millions of dollars from respected venture capitalists.  The privately-held firm eventually achieved a valuation of $9 billion, spinning tales of contracts with the armed forces and even persuading Drugstore giant Walgreens to install testing sites in its stores in Arizona.  But inside the company, the people in the labs knew the technology was a long way from perfection.  The Walgreens test sites in Arizona collected samples that had to be flown to Theranos headquarters in Palo Alto to be tested on what turned out to be machines from other companies instead of those being promoted as high tech wonders from Theranos.  Holmes managed to dupe a lot of bigshots and it was really the workers in the labs, seeing the failure of her secret devices, who questioned her scheme until The Wall Street Journal came sniffing around.  In 2017, she was charged with fraud and, unsurprisingly, pled not guilty.  This blue-eyed woman, who never seemed to blink, was not going to blink in the face of federal charges.  4 cans and a ton of moxie.
39.  Fyre* (2019) – How perfect to have watched this documentary right after “The inventor.”  In both films, the main characters are full of vigor, conviction and hubris.  When everyone else sees that their ideas won’t work – despite their incredible ability to sell the ideas and themselves – they persist, eventually duping people and committing fraud.  In Fyre, Billy MacFarland, owner of a company aimed at rich millennials, decides to put together a modern-day Woodstock music festival, only his is aimed solely at the wealthy young people who believe his gorgeous promotional video.  In that video, Billy and his cohorts get a dozen or so top models to go to the Bahamas and enjoy days of parties.  The beaches, the water, the chance to party for 3 days and hear music again – as at Woodstock – is an easy sell.  Actually delivering on the promise of luxury accommodations, private jets, etc., is way more than Billy and his team can deliver.  Mansions on the beach?  Try tents initially used for hurricane relief, stocked with soaking wet mattresses.  No place to eat, few bathrooms, transportation in old school buses – not exactly what the wealthy folks expected or would tolerate.  Yet Billy’s hustle in raising money might have done the trick if he had more time.  And now he’s doing time in federal prison.  Let there be a lesson here:  Buyer beware.  4 cans.
40.  Gloria Bell* (2019) – Julianne Moore is wonderful in this story of a modern woman in her 50s seeking fun and companionship.  She is divorced and enjoys uninhibitedly dancing in clubs to 80s music, hoping to meet men in her age range.  She has grown children who barely acknowledge her (she leaves them loving voicemail messages and then identifies herself with “this is your mother”).  She lives in a small, noisy apartment that is invaded by a strange looking, hairless cat.  She has a dead-end job that she is afraid of losing.  She just can’t seem to get any traction on the road to happiness – though while driving there, she will be singing in the car.  She meets a sad sack guy (John Turturro) with his own family issues and begins a relationship with him that suffers from fits and starts.  I know this movie is supposed to be about a woman finding herself, but I found it somewhat depressing, albeit realistic.  The joy that makes her glow in the beginning is largely absent by the end of the movie.  I think we see a little more of Moore than necessary, if you get my drift, but she may well get another Oscar nomination for her acting.  Great music and superbly used.  3½ cans.
41.  Courage Under Fire (1996) – It looks like deceased Army Captain Karen Walden (Meg Ryan) is a lock to become the first woman to win a Medal of Honor for her bravery during the 1991 Gulf War.  When Lieutenant Nathaniel Serling (Denzel Washington) is assigned to check her record to make sure she is worthy of such an honor, the task is considered not much more than a rubber-stamping.  But Serling, whose own war record has a few blemishes that are being hushed up by his superiors, is determined to be certain of her suitability, despite the pressure he is getting from the Army.  When he interviews the men in her command who survived the attack on her downed helicopter, he gets conflicting stories, and he wants the truth.  Better known as the queen of romantic comedies, Ryan holds her own as one of the few women in combat who ever make it to a movie screen. Lou Diamond Phillips does a great job as one of the soldiers under her command, and a very young Matt Damon has a small but key role.  Lots of suspense, lots of bombs and gunfire, and a lot to think about.  3½ cans.
42.   The Greatest Showman* (2017) – Hugh Jackman himself qualifies for this title with his acting, singing and dancing prowess, all put to good use here in the role of P. T. Barnum.  Barnum was a poor kid growing up, an outsider, but someone with a vision. He recruited a bunch of talented outsiders to create his renowned circus, which was loved by some people and dismissed by others as a collection of freaks.  That criticism only drove him harder, even though it resulted in time away from the childhood sweetheart that he married (Michelle Williams) and his young daughters.  He really wanted to show the world what he could do.  Among the talented cast of this musical is Zac Efron, Zendaya and Keala Settle, a tiny woman with a huge voice who is the Bearded Lady.  I couldn’t help thinking that this movie was like an old Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney spectacular, where they round up enough local singers and dancers to put on a show in somebody’s barn, so it struck me as cheesy.  Maybe I would have enjoyed the spectacle of it all more if I had seen the movie on a big screen instead of on my 47-inch TV in the bedroom.  But there is no denying the unifying force and creativity that Barnum demonstrates.  And, after all, isn’t there a sucker born every minute?  3½ cans.
43.  Auntie Mame (1958) – If you are going to see just one Rosalind Russell movie, make it this one.  When New York socialite Mame Dennis becomes the guardian of her nephew Patrick, she is determined to raise him in what could best be described as an unconventional way.  She is the life of every party for her collection of friends from the arts and literary communities, and when she sends Patrick to a school that is far from any PS Whatever in the city, she is looked on with contempt by the bank responsible for Patrick’s inheritance.  Mame may be eccentric, but her devotion to Patrick is unquestionable.  I adore this movie and cannot imagine anyone but Russell in the role.  It is one of my all-time favorites.  4½ cans.