WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[mrsl]

I mentioned this one about a month ago, but really only in passing. Today, after channel surfing, I landed on The Holiday just at the beginning of the credits. For those who haven't seen it, this is a good comedic movie, worthy of rental or 'On Demand'. Two girls, both with broken hearts, one in Britain, the other in L.A. agree to trade houses for a two week period during the Christmas season. While in L.A., Kate Winslet meets Jack Black, who for once is not his normal idiotic, childish self. Here he is a serious soundtrack composer albeit a fun loving guy, whose heart is damaged during the movie. Kate also meets Eli Wallach, a 90-some ex-writer of movie scripts from the golden age. In the course of their relationship Eli writes a list of movies for Kate to rent in order to get a better grasp on life, and life-history. It's kind of funny that the movies he suggests are things like The Lady Eve, Chariots of Fire, and various Irene Dunne films. Funny to me because these are all movies we are constantly discussing here on SSO. The movies also give the characters the chance to state how sexy Barbara and Irene were, as well as how enjoyable the movies are. Eli brings her back to her young (to him) life while she is forming a relationship with Jack Black, and she in turn convinces him to attend a tribute to himself given by, and for writers.

On the other side of the pond, Diaz meets Kates' brother (Jude Law, another unusual nice guy part for him as a widower rather than a man about town). No big revelations for them except one, but a rather different approach to romance.

There are no big belly laughs in this one but plenty of nice little giggles, smiles and feel good scenarios. Although repeating that I am NOT a Diaz or Jack Black fan, I do credit both of them with good performances. Perhaps this might be a 'grow up' movie for them, where they will stop trying to be 18 again, and accept the late mid and late 30's which is where they both really are. There are a few love scenes but completely mild compared to what kids are subject to on weekly TV shows.

I suggest: Try it, you might like it!

Anne

[MichiganJ]

I want to second mrsl’s recommendation for The Holiday. My wife convinced me we had to see this movie, and, knowing what’s good for me, I agreed. Surprise, surprise, the movie was great fun, with some real chemistry between Kate Winslet and Jack Black. (I like Black in School of Rock and especially High Fidelity, but mrsl is right, it’s nice to see him grown up for a change.) Eli Wallach is wonderful, too.

[charliechaplinfan]

I've been watching Marriage Italian Style. I've wanted to watch this film for so long and it has been worth the wait.

It stars Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren and is set in Naples. Sophia works in a brothel and Marcello is a wealthy businessmen. They begin a relationship but Marcello never marries Sophia. She takes care of him, his businesses, when he takes her to meet his mother she has to help her use the bedpan. Afte years of this behaviour and of his constant infidelities it is payback time. Sophia feigns illness and gets everyone to believe she is dying, Marcello faering she is on her deathbed is persuaded to marry her. Once married Sophia comes around. To see her surprise her new husband is a wonderful moment of cinema.

Unfortunately for Sophia her marriage has to be annulled because even though he deserved it, she tricked him into marriage. Fine but she leaves him with a surprise, she has three sons that he's never known about. Another surprise, one of them is his, but she won't tell him which. he can't remember the romantic aspects of their past and he tracks the three boys to try and find out which one is his.

The film has a happy ending, he falls in love with her and marries her just as she wanted and becomesa father to all three boys.

I must give a nod of gratitude to Victor De Sica, I started a thread on Mastroianni and Sophia Loren has her own thread too. I admire Victor De Sica both as a director and as an actor. He's made some of my favorite foreign language films including Bicycle Thieves, Miracle in Milan, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow and Marriage Italian Style. If TCM ever run a dedication to him, record all those movies, you won't be sorry.

[feaito]

I mentioned this one about a month ago, but really only in passing. Today, after channel surfing, I landed on The Holiday just at the beginning of the credits. For those who haven't seen it, this is a good comedic movie, worthy of rental or 'On Demand'. Two girls, both with broken hearts, one in Britain, the other in L.A. agree to trade houses for a two week period during the Christmas season. While in L.A., Kate Winslet meets Jack Black, who for once is not his normal idiotic, childish self. Here he is a serious soundtrack composer albeit a fun loving guy, whose heart is damaged during the movie. Kate also meets Eli Wallach, a 90-some ex-writer of movie scripts from the golden age. In the course of their relationship Eli writes a list of movies for Kate to rent in order to get a better grasp on life, and life-history. It's kind of funny that the movies he suggests are things like The Lady Eve, Chariots of Fire, and various Irene Dunne films. Funny to me because these are all movies we are constantly discussing here on SSO. The movies also give the characters the chance to state how sexy Barbara and Irene were, as well as how enjoyable the movies are. Eli brings her back to her young (to him) life while she is forming a relationship with Jack Black, and she in turn convinces him to attend a tribute to himself given by, and for writers.

On the other side of the pond, Diaz meets Kates' brother (Jude Law, another unusual nice guy part for him as a widower rather than a man about town). No big revelations for them except one, but a rather different approach to romance.

There are no big belly laughs in this one but plenty of nice little giggles, smiles and feel good scenarios. Although repeating that I am NOT a Diaz or Jack Black fan, I do credit both of them with good performances. Perhaps this might be a 'grow up' movie for them, where they will stop trying to be 18 again, and accept the late mid and late 30's which is where they both really are. There are a few love scenes but completely mild compared to what kids are subject to on weekly TV shows.

I suggest: Try it, you might like it!

Anne

I watched this one last year and I agree with your comments Anne. A highly enjoyable, well acted, not strident comedy. In a way it reminded me a little bit of Notting Hill

[feaito]

I want to second mrsl’s recommendation for The Holiday. My wife convinced me we had to see this movie, and, knowing what’s good for me, I agreed. Surprise, surprise, the movie was great fun, with some real chemistry between Kate Winslet and Jack Black. (I like Black in School of Rock and especially High Fidelity, but mrsl is right, it’s nice to see him grown up for a change.) Eli Wallach is wonderful, too.

Jack Black is a hoot!! My wife loves his personae. The two films you mention are excellent, specially "High Fidelity". I even enjoyed him in the ultra offbeat & weird "Nacho Libre" and I admit the "Shallow Hal" is a kind of "guilty pleasure"

On the weekend I watched three films:

I'll start with best: "Sylvia Scarlett", a marvelous, underrated, bizarre, offbeat tragi-comedy with Cary Grant at his best as the cockney Jimmy Monkley. Kate Hepburn is both touching and funny as Sylvester/Sylvia. Edmund Gwenn is equally moving as Sylvia's dad. Dennie Moore is a hoot as Maudie. She reminded me in a way of Alice Pearce. Brian Aherne gives a remarkably fresh & natural performance as an artist and when I saw Natalie Paley, I thought: I've seen her somewhere!!! And yes I had seen her in stills of the French version of Chevalier's 1935 film "Folies Bergere". I had no idea that she was a member of the Russian Imperial family.

The film is full of risqué situations, ambiguity and nice vignettes (the beach sequence, the "first dress" scene, the scene in the train, etc.)

I'd watch it again soon!!

I also watched the Spanish film "Inconscientes" (Unconscious) (2004) a black comedy and quite offbeat movie dealing with sex, pyschoanalysis and Freudian theories in the early teens. Beautiful Art Nouveau decors and two winning performances by sultry Leonor Watling and Luis Tosar.

Lastly, I saw "Feast of Love" (2007) starring Greg Kinnear, Radha Mitchell, Morgan Freeman and Jane Alexander (the two latter play beautifully an elderly married couple who have lost their only son). Alexa Davalos is an impressive natural beauty and a good performer. A surprisingly good film.

[mrsl]

Thank you feaito:

Notting Hill, another of my favorite 'recent' movies. Of course I love both Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts but it also introduced me to many of the British actors I see so often on the BBCAmerica channel.

Another movie I revisited this past weekend was The Long Grey Line. I've loved this movie since the first time I saw it right after it's release. Tyrone and Maureen both did such great jobs of aging and truly looking and having the mannerisms of older people, they were amazing. One thing is funny though. From being on this board, I have learned how easy it is to see and hear tiny things that the normal viewer does not even notice. The quadrille song from Fort Apache, e.g. turns into a brass marching band for the cadets on the field. I'm not sure where I heard it originally, but the song Lorelei is used in the scenes where Tyrone is learning of the deaths of several of the past graduates in WWI and WWII. Just as in The Searchers, as Martha is getting Ethans coat, and she hesitates while holding it close for a nano second, Betsy Palmer does the same with the shawl that Maureen O'Hara kept near the front door for anyone entering or going to stand on the porch. The look on her face was the same 'I remember it all' kind of look. It amazes me how 'PaPa' Ford was so attentive to his movies even to the music that was used. I know it was all explained in the documentary about him, but it's still interesting to me. Even though it's not a western, it has the same loving feeling that Ford's trilogy has. Ward Bond as his usual curmudgeonly self, Harry Carey, Jr. as a young Dwight Eisenhower, and so many of Ford's other stand by crew turn it into such a great movie, I hope a lot of you taped it to watch at a later date. It's worth it!

Anne

[Bogie]

Hey folks I recently watched Absence of Malice (1981) and wow was it ever a thought provoking film in some ways. I gotta hand it to Sally Field though. I didn't think she could pull off the cynical, almost heartless reporter role but she did it quite well. Unfortunately she reminded me of a young Katie Couric tho so I kept imagining her in the role LOL!

Paul Newman....what else can I say? I don't like a LOT of his movies but the ones that I do are very very good. This happens to be one of them. The film's "everything isn't what it seems" approach to the feds going after Newman's character was well done. I especially liked his plot near the end of the movie to get revenge on everyone for ruining his life in the pursuit of getting him in jail. He really played on the other character's ambitions and need to get the scoop. (in Field's case)

Bob Balaban was quite good as the sleazy federal bureaucrat who breaks all the rules in order to get his man which in the end proves to be his undoing. Balaban wisely chose to play the part in a subdued manner rather then going all over the top which some actors would've.

I can't let my thoughts on this movie pass by without mentioning Wilford Brimley's scene chewing near the end of the movie. It was a pure delight to see him get to the bottom of all the craziness that was going on. I especially liked how he gave his character a nervous tick of sorts by constantly pressing his hands together and softly clapping them everytime he's talking. It added a little juice to his appearance in a way.

In many ways this movie was a condemnation of the press and the lengths to which authorities will go to get things done. Sadly a lot of the situations and ethical maters raised in the film are even more prevalent today.

I give the movie a solid 3.5 stars out of 5

P.S. The scene with Sally Field and Newman's female friend is in many a good encapsulation of the themes of the movie and exposing the abuses of the press. Truly an excellent scene IMO.

I also recently saw another movie but i'll post about it later today.

[mrsl]

In another thread I mentioned Jack Black which prompted a couple of people to connect him with High Fidelity. Since there was nothing on last night, I decided to watch it to kill a couple of hours. Kill is a perfect choice of words. What a waste of electric, film, and any money people spent to pay at a theater to see this piece of . . . (I don't want to pay tribute to the word garbage)! There were a few funny lines in it, and I have to admit they all came from Black, but how many people actually sat all the way through this thing, unless it was with my mindset . . . "it has to get better"! But of course, it never did.

John Cusack (whom I adore, along with his sister Joan), owns this record shop, catering to rare musical groups and songs. After breaking up with his latest girlfriend, he spends your next 2 hours trying to figure out why. In the process of this he revisits his 5 last old girlfriends, only one of which figures out what he's doing and reads him a riot act over it. Joan has a small part as his sister and also tries to make him see reason. Finally in the last 15 minutes he figures it out and ends with a happy ending. Believe me, I didn't give anything away. Look at it this way. . . it may be the last movie you ever see! What a horrible thought.

The best thing I can say is you can always count on the sister or brother showing up in one of their movies. If it's Joan's movie, John will have a small part, and if it's John's movie, Joan will have a small part.

Anne

[MichiganJ]

Anne:

Wow, High Fidelity is probably one of my favorite modern films:

The obsession of music, and how to categorize it.----check
The significance, structure and absolute art of the mix-tape.----check
Trying to reconcile past relationships.----check

Maybe it’s a “romantic” film too much from the male perspective.

Nick Hornby’s novel is brilliant, and the film version, while transposing the action from London to Chicago, is remarkable faithful to the book. So I suppose I won’t
recommend the book. Hornby’s About A Boy is a good book, too. Also made into a movie staring Hugh Grant. Might be more to your liking?

[ChiO]

HIGH FIDELITY is one of the few movies of the past few years that I joyously watch over and over.

When it came out, our older daughter sent me an email that said, "Dad, you have to see this." The next day, a Gen-X female attorney on my staff said, "You have to see it. You'll love it." Yep -- I'm that simple to read. Mrs. ChiO and both daughters love it as well (we're a simple family).

And when I give my tours of Chicago, the spots where it was filmed in Wicker Park are high on the list of must-sees.

Of course, maybe it's just that I enjoy films about obsession, and MichiganJ's checklist is about Cusack's obsessions and how they drive those around him crazy (even though they have their own obsessions that drive him crazy).

MichiganJ, it is remarkably faithful to a fun book (not that that ever really matters to me).

P.S. We saw Stevie Wonder last weekend and, from the start, I had flashbacks to the marvelous scene between Jack Black and "the middle-aged square white guy". Then when he sang "I Just Called to Say I Love You," I lost it completely.

[mrsl]

I did enjoy About a Boy more, but not to the point of wanting to revisit. Having been born and raised far South and West of Midway Airport, I don't have any idea where Wicker Park is. As for the checklist: Obsessions are things that should be examined and finally erased. I never dealt with a mix tape, they were after my dating time. When past male/female relationships ended for me, they were over and I walked away to find new horizons. With a couple of guys and especially my ex husband, when they called begging for another chance, I simply hung up the phone, we had made our decisions, no sense in rehashing old hurts.

Anne

[Bogie]

I got sidetracked and never got to my 2nd movie but first...

mrsl if you're interested in Jack Black I recommend Be Kind Rewind I think I did a review of it in this thread. He doesn't play too huge of a role in it and while the movie starts off a bit slow it truly is a darn fine little film.

OK onto the next film I saw The Bucket List (2007) So here's a quick synopsis since this is one of those movies where if you talk too much about the story you'll spoil it. Basically Jack Nicholson is a rich, hospital owner and Morgan Freeman is a hard working auto mechanic who knows everything as he's big on history and philosophy. Both men find themselves in the same hospital room with a terminal cancer. Eventually they become friends and they set out to do the things they always wanted to do. (hence the bucket list) They also each go through a journey of growth and reconciliation with the fact that they're going to die.

The movie isn't perfect as the script has a bit of an unrealistic premise but it's also fairy tale like. In fact, this is a movie that Frank Capra would've directed if he were around today.

Freeman and Nicholson give very good performances and the relationship between both men becomes very believable because of their acting. The movie has a feel good quality to it despite the morbid subject matter.

I urge you all to watch it and judge for yourselves

5 stars

[mrsl]

Just before Sanders birthday celebration started today, I was surfing and found a good oldie on one of the HBO channels. Don't Bother to Knock - 1952 starring Richard Widmark, Anne Bancroft, and Marilyn Monroe.

Richard and Anne have broken up because of the old I will not commit thing, she's a singer in a hotel lounge, he's trying to get back together. Anne make him angry and he goes to sulk in his room but notices MM across the parkway, where she's babysitting. If this is the movie where the higher ups saw MM and decided to give her better roles, I can understand why. She did a marvelous job as a girl who had a nervous breakdown after her boyfriend died in a plane crash. Her facial expressions, hand movements, even her distinctive way of talking fit the part perfectly. She literally did the job of a 20 year veteran. Either she understood the girl, or she had a fabulous director (I'm not sure who it was). Up to this movie, her biggest role had been the dumb blond in All About Eve, and this one had to turn a lot of heads. She wasn't the least bit sexy, alluring of course (she comes by that naturally), but not the pouty lip type of sexy. Most of the movie is the interplay between Widmark and MM, and his very slow recognition that she is playing poker with a deck of 50 cards. However it does teach him something and all works out for the best. If you have HBO, I recommend checking it out.

Anne

[charliechaplinfan]

Last night I watched It Started With Eve I was very pleased and surprised. The combination of Charles Laughton and Deanna Durbin is one that works. The right mix of Deanna's songs are mixed in. I personally think her singing is a little dated for today's audience but I do like sweet, uncomplicated films. Poor Robert Cummings does struggle a little to get a look in.

I loved the set of jewels

[MichiganJ]

While my wife is away on business I’ve been watching a number off recent films that I knew she would have little interest in. Most of them contain violence and some have nudity, but all are very worthwhile, I think.

Eastern Promises--David Cronenberg just keeps getting better and better as a director. While I like his previous film, A History of Violence (a masterpiece) better, Eastern Promises is equally satisfying and contains one of the best fight scenes I’ve ever seen on screen.

No Country For Old Men--Joel and Ethan Coen are simply the best at creating tension. While the film is violent, much of the violence is staged in such a way as to not be gratuitous. There’s the trademark Coen offbeat humor to be found, as well, and three amazing performances. Best Picture of the year? Maybe...

There Will Be Blood--I have no idea why Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies aren’t all that successful. The guy keeps making intense, original, and thought-provoking films (maybe that’s why). The first 20 minutes or so is basically silent, and is as compelling as anything I’ve seen. Daniel Day -Lewis, sounding not unlike John Huston, is amazing. Equally amazing is the performance by Dillon Freasier, who plays Day-Lewis’ son HW. Best picture?... Maybe...

A mini, (and unplanned) Philip Seymour Hoffman (one of our best actors) film festival came next:
Charlie Wilson’s War--Mike Nichols film based on a true story (usually a dubious claim, but here accurate) starring Tom Hanks as the Texas congressman who got congress to assist the rebels in Afghanistan in their war with the Soviets. Hanks, as usual, is wonderful, as is Hoffman as the CIA official who knows what’s really what. Julia Roberts has a small, but important role, too. This is a film that will have you shaking your head when it ends. We were so close...so close...

Owning Mahowny is also based on the true story of a Canadian bank manager who commits bank fraud to feed his insatiable gambling problem. Hoffman is impeccable. You’ll be begging the screen for Hoffman to just step away from the black jack table.

Before The Devil Knows Your Dead--Sidney Lumet is back on his game in this terrific suspense thriller, told in the time shifting fashion of Pulp Fiction. The less said about the plot, the better, but it stars Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney and the amazing Marisa Tomei.

Into the Wild--Sean Penn proves he's a great director. Emile Hirsch plays a college graduate who abandons everything, possessions, family, friends, and hitchhikes his way across the country, eventually finding his way to the Alaskan wilderness. On his way he meets many people, including the fabulous Catherine Keener and Hal Holbrook, who gives a stunning performance. The film is beautiful, sad and awe-inspiring. My vote for the year’s (2007) best film. Jena Malone, playing Hirsh’s sister, narrates, and her voice alone should have won her an acting award. Brilliant film.