Girl Detective

My friend Becca and I went to see #35 in my 2007 movie challenge, Knocked Up, in the theater, without kids (though apparently some parents were OK with bringing small children into this R-rated film), and with buttered popcorn and candy.

I loved this movie. It is an ever-so-rare comedy of substance. It’s funny, it’s sad, and in the end it’s sweet. I left this movie feeling happy, as did NYT film critic A.O. Scott.

If you were a fan of director Judd Apatow’s critically acclaimed but criminally canceled television shows Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, you will probably appreciate this movie and its strange blend of hope, and acknowledgement of the suckiness of much of everyday life.

I know many people who didn’t like the similar weird mix in Apatow’s last film, The 40-Year-Old Virgin. I hope the packed theater at Knocked Up means that more people are open to Apatow’s geeky, complex, and ultimately life-affirming, sense of humor.

The last three movies I watched–Babel, For Your Consideration, and Infamous–were disappointments. All three had moments, but not enough to feel good about the time I spent on them, or to recommend them.

By skimming reviews from trusted sources like Time Out and Ebert and Roeper, I can get a pretty good idea of what I’ll like and what I can skip. I need to be more careful in the future. I have little time to myself, and I don’t want to spend it on mediocrity. I’m glad that I saw a few excellent movies recently, like The Lives of Others, Shadow of a Doubt, and Infernal Affairs, that remind me to keep trying.

#34 in my 2007 movie challenge was Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel. I recently watched both Amores Perros (his best film, I thought) and 21 Grams, both of which were good, if often difficult to watch. Midway through Babel, I found myself thinking “I hate this movie; I just hate it.” It was an overlapping narrative concerned with racism and prejudice. The tension centered largely around a woman and children in danger. I’m beyond tired of all those conceits. Yes, there were some good performances here, but this cruel, button-pushing film left a sour taste in my mouth long before the end, when the white people are OK while the people of color are mostly screwed.

#33 in my 2007 movie challenge was For Your Consideration, the latest, and lamest, of Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries, this one about the cast of a small film that begins to get Oscar buzz. Perhaps an insider would find it more funny, but I laughed only twice: at Michael McKean’s “We don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We’d have a wet and critically injured baby!” and Fred Willard’s mispronunciation of the word gamut in the deleted scenes. Catherine O’Hara gives a cringe-worthy and heartbreaking performance as a long-time character actor, but that wasn’t the tone I was looking for when I selected this movie. I think Guest had real gems with Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show. With FYC and A Mighty Wind, though, I think the hit or miss humor is weighing heavily toward the latter.

#32 in my 2007 movie challenge was Infamous, aka the other movie about Truman Capote. It suffers in comparison to Bennett Miller’s 2005 Capote, but does have its merits, among them Toby Jones’s portrayal of Truman Capote. It takes a different view of the proceedings, and includes entertaining scenes of Capote’s society life in NYC. Disappointing and mostly forgettable otherwise, though.

#31 in my 2007 film challenge was The Lives of Others, and it was just fabulous. See this film. A complex character study as well as a history lesson, it is a challenging, provoking work that gives credit to the viewer by not over-explaining its excellent, exquisitely wrought details. I was happy to spend $12 on a ticket and popcorn (real butter! with dark chocolate M & Ms mixed in by me!) to see this film in a theater.

Reminder: I set this film challenge for myself after having my first child. I love films, so I make seeing them a priority. My children are not excuses to forego things that I love. They just make me work harder for them; thus I appreciate them more.

#30 in my 2007 movie challenge was Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong movie that Scorcese remade as The Departed. When I saw The Departed earlier this year, I liked it a lot, and I thought DiCaprio especially did a great job. Seeing IA has given another dimension to my experience of TD, which I’ll discuss after I get through telling you how great IA is.

Two kids go undercover, one criminal into the police, one police cadet into crime. Both rise in the ranks, and in the esteem of their bosses. IA is a tight, stylish film that doesn’t miss a beat–the music, the editing, the small details that clue the viewer in but aren’t hammered home. While Andew Lau and Tony Leung are compelling as the leads, the rest of the cast also shines, most notably their two bosses and Leung’s dimwitted criminal colleague. This is a bittersweet, smart tale, told exceptionally well.

By comparison, TD’s merits have dimmed for me. Much of what was good about Scorcese’s film was taken from the original, such as the cat and mouse scenes between the two moles. Jack Nicholson was miscast, and his analog in IA, played by Eric Tsang, only underscores that. Further, Scorcese lengthened the script by 50(!) minutes, most of which was to overexplain things that were done with skill and subtlety in IA. Martin Sheen was good as DiCaprio’s father figure, but Anthony Wong as SP Wong was better in IA. I still think DiCaprio did a great acting job, but seeing IA made it clear that he had the most sympathetic role. Lau and Damon had the thankless task of embodying an almost unempathizable character. Two female charactes from IA were needlessly, and less believably, condensed into the same person in TD, though played well by Vera Farmiga. The Departed was a good film. DiCaprio and Damon were very good, but the standout of the film was Mark Wahlberg. That role and his performance were original to Scorcese’s film, and truly great.

During the hospital program I attended for post-partum depression and anxiety, we had two classes on relaxation with guided imagery. On my last day of the program we listened to a soothing CD whose narrator took us through the stages of relaxation. Toward the end, the narrator instructed us to imagine a beautiful gold box was sitting next to us, tied with a luxurious silk ribbon.

Wow, I thought, that reminds me a lot of the turning point in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. My mind started wandering in that direction; I drew it back to the sound of the narrator’s voice.

“Now imagine that you’re opening the box,” she said. “And what’s inside the box is whatever it is that you really, really want and need right now.”

What came to my mind at that instance? World peace? Personal peace? Patience? Health? Happiness?

No. I opened my imaginary box and found a John Hughes DVD box set. I burst out laughing, which I’m sure disturbed some of my more relaxed and meditative compatriots.

So, there we have it, folks. When given the choice of anything in the world, my relaxed meditative self said she wanted to watch 80’s teen dramedies. I’m not sure if this is humorous, pathetic, or both.

There are two(!) John Hughes DVD sets: Too Cool for School, which includes Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful, and Pretty in Pink; and The Brat Pack, with The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, and Sixteen Candles.

Did you think Mothers Day was invented by Hallmark? It’s been around for longer than that. Some research dates it back to Cybele (pronounced with a hard C, short Y and long E at the end: KIH-buh-Lee) worship in ancient Greece. The American version is largely based on a post-Civil War peace manifesto. The English version, Mothering Sunday, was reportedly begun so working class domestics could have at least one Sunday off a year to visit their mums, and so the mums could have off to receive the visits. Whatever the origin, though, there’s little disagreement that mothering is a tough gig, and few begrudge moms the day as tribute to that.

Some very good news for moms: the Mommy War is more a media invention than an accurate portrait of reality:

Most women today have to work: it’s the only way their families are going to be fed, housed and educated. A new college-educated generation takes it for granted that women will both work and care for their families — and that men must be an integral part of their children’s lives. It’s a generation that understands that stay-at-home moms and working mothers aren’t firmly opposing philosophical stances but the same women in different life phases, moving in and out of the part-time and full-time workforce for the few years while their children are young.

In this week leading up to Mothers Day in America, think about the mothers in your life. Not just your mom, or your spouse’s mom, but all the mothers: friends, siblings, co-workers, neighbors. Give a mom a break this week. If you hear a screaming kid and judgment flashes through your brain, offer help instead. And think of pretty, comforting things, big or small, that might make a mom’s day a bit brighter:

Card Papyrus carries, and Marcel Shurman makes, lovely ones.

Flowers I love yellow roses and dislike lilies. Do your loved one a favor. Ask what she likes, and avoid carnations, daisies, baby’s breath, and alstroemeria, unless specifially requested. Gerbera daisies are an exception.

Chocolate Twin Citian’s are fortunate to have both B.T. McElrath (I love the passionfruit and dark chocolate truffles) and Legacy Chocolates (Potion No. 9) readily available.

Accessories Little blue box or big orange box, brand recognition can be a lovely thing. I love the blue/green En Duo ribbon pattern.

Books I recently recommended Jill Murphy’s Five Minutes’ Peace and Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Both take wry looks at the mundane reality of mothering small children, though Atkinson’s book is both funny and tragic. For self-examination and spiritual growth, I recommend Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Gift cards for www.amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Border’s, or your local book shop are always good ideas.

Ice Cream Did you know that you can get Graeter’s ice cream shipped? Now you do. The chocolate chip flavors are stunning.

Ice Cream, Again Twin Citians, you’ve got a lot to love.

Fancy Dinner at the best restaurant in your city. Twin Citians, this is ours.

Music Fun and Booty-Shakin’ (Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/Lovesounds), Local (new Low album!), Singer/Songwriter male (Rufus Wainwright’s Release the Stars), Singer/Songwriter female (Patti Griffin’s Children Running Through), Sophomore effort (Arctic Monkeys’ Favourite Worst Nightmare)

Movies Go out to a theater that serves good popcorn with real butter (Heights, Riverview, or GTI Roseville in the Twin Cities), or stay in and watch the vastly underrated Children of Men, Alfonso Cuaron’s chilling look at a future without mothers.

If you have other ideas, email me and I’ll post them, too.

My unexpected gift, today? That baby Guppy is still napping, which has allowed me the time I needed for this link-a-palooza.

And if you were bothered by my lack of apostrophe in Mothers Day, get over it. Apostrophes are one of the most misused and unnecessary pieces of punctuation. Here’s a long explanation of why I can leave them out. But do you get what I mean when I say Mothers Day? Then you see my point.

#29 in my 2007 movie challenge was A Better Way to Die, the oldest thing on my Tivo. My husband G. Grod refused to watch it again, but my visiting sister, Sydney, had not seen it. It’s set in our small hometown, and Scott Wiper, (whose current movie is getting creamed by the critics) was a classmate of our sister’s and the actor, writer, and director. A second viewing only confirmed the opinions I had the first time I saw ABWtD: Wiper can direct at a good clip, but his story and dialogue sometimes strain belief, and his acting and voice can’t carry the movie. Lou Diamond Phillips is unbelievable and stiff as a main character, and Natasha Henstridge is the requisite hot actress who does a love scene, then provides a motive for Wiper’s Boomer to get angry and vengeful. Sometimes it fairly crackled with humor, though. Joe Pantoliano stood out in a short amount of screentime, and Andre Braugher elevates this movie beyond mediocrity. A Better Way to Die has some sharp one liners, a fast pace, and crisp direction. It’s a decent B movie.

#28 in my 2007 movie challenge was director Gillies MacKinnon’s Regeneration, based on Pat Barker’s excellent historical novel of the same name, and released in the U.S. as Behind the Lines. Like many book adaptations, Regeneration’s reach exceeds its grasp. The movie unsuccessfully crams in too many elements of the book, and ends up doing justice to very few of them. As an illustration of the book, it is well cast. Jonathan Pryce is Capt. William Rivers, a pioneer in psychology. Jonny Lee Miller (an ex-husband of Angelina Jolie, and business partner of Ewan MacGregor and Jude Law) does a good job as Billy Prior, one of my favorite fictional characters, though the film glances over or omits many of his myriad complexities. Tanya Allen is sweet and sympathetic as his girlfriend Sarah. Many films have tried to capture the physical experience of combat; Regeneration excels as an exploration of the psychological effects of warfare. There are very good things here, but not enough of them for me to strongly recommend the film. The book, however, is one of my all-time favorites.

#27 in my 2007 movie challenge would have been Batman Begins, but I couldn’t stay awake for the ending. (I was more impressed when I saw it in theater.) So #27 is The Lake House, or “Magic Mailbox,” as NYT film critic A.O. Scott quipped. Ebert and Roeper liked it when it came out last year, so in spite of the mixed reviews of others (unlike the guy in Metropolitan–which is an adaptation of Austen’s Mansfield Park; I didn’t know that!–I read reviews and read books/see movies) we decided to give it a try. I’m glad I did. This was a sweet romance. Bullock and Reeves inhabit the titular house at different points, but they share a dog and a mailbox that defy the space/time continuum. I was surprised at how decent this was, and that it didn’t suck. While those sound like faint praise, they’re not. There was a nice theme about Jane Austen’s Persuasion running through it, and while they didn’t get the parallel exactly right, it was pretty close. This was a gentle, heartening movie that was good at the end of a frazzling day. The weird things that bothered me? The actor who played Reeves’s brother, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, had a very strange hairline. And Keanu Reeves in a turtleneck sweater, or perhaps any man, for that matter? No. Just, no.

#26 in my 2007 movie challenge, Shadow of a Doubt may well be the favorite Hitchcock movie of the sixteen* I’ve seen. It’s in black and white, and stars Teresa Wright as a small-town teenager whose uncle Charlie, for whom she is named, may be hiding something. Charlie is alerted to her uncle’s possible wrongdoings, and then goes all girl detective as she seeks, and fails, to prove his innocence. Joseph Cotten is appropriately creepy as the uncle, and veers scarily between animated interactions with young Charlie’s family, and monotone threats to himself, the detectives, and the newly clued-in young Charlie. Hitch gives the viewer a credible psychological backstory for Uncle C, as well as squirm-inducing scenes of Uncle C manhandling young C that imply far more than they show. The movie tells a good story with suspense, and Hitch hasn’t yet cemented his famous fetishes, like torturing pretty blonds, that were unpleasant hallmarks of his later films. What I noticed on this viewing was how masterfully Hitch ratcheted up the anxiety of the viewer using domestic commonplaces like a Martha-ish mom and bickering small children. It was strangely affirming to my current struggles with depression and anxiety to see the darker side of domesticity.

*The 39 Steps
The Lady Vanishes
Rebecca
Foreign Correspondent
Shadow of a Doubt
Spellbound
Notorious
Rope
Dial M for Murder
Rear Window
To Catch a Thief
Vertigo
North by Northwest
Psycho
The Birds
Marnie

I am a long-time fan of Ebert’s reviews, both written and on television. I started watching At the Movies when he was auditioning new partners for the late Gene Siskel’s chair. Sometime last year, Ebert went for cancer treatment, and has not yet returned. Here, he details why not.

I’ve continued to watch At the Movies with Richard Roeper while Ebert’s been gone. I’ve liked seeing Roeper grow as a critic over the years, at least in part because of working with Ebert. I don’t always agree with what they say, but I do respect their opinions. Roeper has had a rotating band of guest critics. Several have been quite good, like A.O. Scott from The New York Times and Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly. I was both surprised and impressed with the critical insights from Aisha Tyler, Kevin Smith, and Jay Leno. Others have disappointed, like Fred Willard and John Mellencamp. Since Ebert still can’t talk, I don’t think he’ll be back soon. But Roeper’s doing a good job holding down the balcony, and I hope they can keep the good guests coming till Roger is better.

#25 in my 2007 movie challenge was Superman Returns, a good movie for geeks. The reviews when it came out were mixed, plus it clocked in at two and a half hours, so I skipped in in the theater. I’m very glad I watched it, though. Singer pulled off a very tricky thing. He made Superman Returns both an homage to, as well as a continuation of, Richard Donner’s Superman, The Movie. Brandon Routh does a credible job as Superman, and evokes Christopher Reeve so strongly that it was almost eerie. His fake blue contacts over his brown eyes (a look I find distracting) bothered me throughout the movie. Kate Bosworth did a decent job as Lois Lane, and was certainly attractive, but she has become a character for our time, trying to juggle motherhood and a high-powered career. It’s a striking difference from Margot Kidder’s ERA-era feminist Lois Lane.

#24 in my 2007 movie challenge.That Romeo + Juliet came out over ten years ago surprised me. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I saw this in the theater. This is a cheeky, flamboyant adaptation by Baz Luhrmann. Danes and DiCaprio are luminous as the titular couple, but of the two, only DiCaprio acts well enough to do more than look good. This has a slow start, but builds toward its tragic, inevitable conclusion. The play is the thing here–the interpretation, the music and the sets, not so much the acting. We purchased the recently released Music Edition DVD, and it was well worth the time to watch the extras. They increased our appreciation of this odd and outrageous interpretation.

Richard III was #23 in my 2007 movie challenge. I am abashed to admit that we removed the plastic off our dvd copy that I’m fairly sure we bought new, i.e., in 2000, and two abodes ago. I wanted to watch in it preparation for Looking for Richard, a film I’d recorded on our Tivo soon after we moved to our new abode. In a spate of impulsive programming, G. Grod and I plied our DVR with too many requests, and Looking for Richard was deleted. (Yet, A Better Way to Die was not. And Looking for Richard is at none of my three libraries, and is no longer available. Oh, Irony, up yours.) But I digress.

Richard III was directed by Richard Loncraine, and starred Sir Ian McKellan.

The reasoning behind the film was to bring classical actor McKellen together with a director who has avoided the Bard; the result is a fresh, unified vision which may add lines and make cuts, but does a fine job of turning Shakespeare’s grand design into a veritable world at war.

The costumes and settings are a mythic 1930s fascist England. I had a brief moment of trepidation as the film began, and I wondered if I’d understand the language, and the story. The film, though, soon whisked me through the first demanding scene and through to the end at breakneck, exhilarating speed. The language of Shakespeare required a bit of acclimation, and the modern setting required a bit of temporal translating, but things quickly fell into place.

Dark, intense, and satisfying. Very much like a good, scary, roller-coaster ride.

#22 in my 2007 movie challenge was Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan It was sometimes hilarious, and frequently cringe inducing–I often watched through a lattice of my fingers in front of my eyes. Sacha Baron Cohen has a strange, extreme sense of humor. The DVD is cleverly and thoroughly set up to look like it’s an illegal bootleg, and all extras are titled in Borat-ese. This movie was funny, but also worthwhile because it became a comedic touchstone so quickly; it’s useful to know what everyone else is referring to.

#21 in my 2007 movie challenge was Over the Hedge, which we rented from the library and allowed Drake to watch. When I asked him what the movie was about, he answered, “A crash.” So I’m not sure Drake is quite ready for prolonged narratives, even of the animated kind. I liked the movie, too, and thought it was about more than a crash but about natural versus junk food, and the suburban desire to mimic nature while really avoiding it. There’s some very good voice work here by Steve Carell, as Hammy the hyperactive squirrel. Shatner as a daddy opossum does brilliant work playing dead. This is a decent movie for both adults and kids.

But be warned; it gave me a serious craving for Pringles. Oh, excuse me, “Spuddies”.

#20 in my 2007 movie challenge was Brad Anderson’s The Machinist, starring a skeletal Christian Bale. Since I’ve seen both Memento and Fight Club, the reveals at the end weren’t particularly surprising. I was disappointed to see Jennifer Jason Leigh in the thankless role of a hooker with a heart of gold who will leave her job for Bale. What’s compelling, though, is the look of the film. It’s heavily stylized with dark, Hitchcockian flair. Most arresting, though, is Bale’s gaunt physique, and the haunted look this brings to his character. I enjoyed two of Anderson’s previous films, Next Stop Wonderland and Happy Accidents. Both those were quirky romantic dramedies, decidedly different from the dark horror of this film.