Director: Bob Clark
Writers: Jean Shepherd (also
novel “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash”), Leigh Brown, Bob Clark
Starring: Peter Billingsley,
Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Jean Shepherd, Ian Petrella, R.D. Robb, Scott
Schwartz, Tedde Moore, Zach Ward, Yano Anaya
Out of all the Christmas
movies I’ve watched this year—most of which are ones I watch every year—this
one remains the freshest. It so perfectly captures what Christmas is like for
every member of the family. It perfectly captures what it’s like to be any
member of a family at any time of year. After almost thirty years, I still find
details that are new to me. Some of them become obvious just because my own
perspective has changed.
It’s also an incredible time
capsule for life in the 1940s, and yet somehow everything in it still applies
in today’s world. It’s unbelievably timeless in that way, yet incredibly
specific to it’s own time setting. I read the other day that the more specific
a movie is, the more universal it is. There is no firmer proof of this theory
than “A Christmas Story”. It even transcends religious and cultural holiday
differences to some degree. The fact that most people would agree with what I’m
saying here is even more proof. When the term “classic” was coined, this movie
is what they were meaning.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) ***
Director: Nagisa Ôshima
Writers: Nagisa Ôshima, Paul
Mayersberg, Laurens van der Post (novel “The Seed and the Sower”)
Starring: Tom Conti, David
Bowie, Ryûichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano, Jack Thompson
“Merry Christmas, Mr.
Lawrence” isn’t really a Christmas movie. It’s a British POW movie told by
Japanese filmmakers. Director and co-writer Nagisa Ôshima gives us a unique and
interesting take on “The Bridge on the River Kwai” in this movie starring David
Bowie. It’s told from the British prisoner’s point of view with Japanese ideals
of dramatics and storytelling.
Mr. Lawrence is sort of an
outcast among the British POWs because he’s befriended one of his captors,
played by Takeshi Kitano. The commander of the POW camp finds himself stuck
with a prisoner, played by Bowie, who has a strange power over him. He
considers replacing the British commander with Bowie until Bowie’s actions
create some insubordination among the prisoners. All the while, Mr. Lawrence
tries to play peacekeeper.
The most interesting aspect
of this film is to see the Japanese interpretation of western ideals of honor
and duty. Ôshima gets the movements right, but the motivation is a little off.
Seppuku is asked of the Japanese officers at several points throughout the
film. The commander tries to get the British officers to understand this
concept of self-sacrifice.
The British have no interest
in understanding this practice that they find savage. I don’t think Ôshima ever
quite reconciles the two ideologies. His notion of western guilt is a little
off, as seen in the Bowie flashbacks. Still it is an interesting and worthwhile
movie experience.
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) ****
Director: Frank Capra
Writers: Frances Goodrich,
Albert Hackett, Frank Capra, Jo Swerling, Philip Van Doren Stern (story)
Starring: James Stewart,
Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers, Beulah Bondi,
Frank Faylen, Ward Bond, Gloria Graham, H.B. Warner, Frank Albertson, Todd
Karns, Samuel S. Hinds
Like “A Christmas Story”, it
always amazes me how relevant “It’s a Wonderful Life” still is today. Listening
to the rhetoric thrown between Mr. Potter and the Bailey’s is like a precursor
to the upcoming presidential election campaign. Potter holds the conservative
ideals; the Bailey’s the progressive. It’s a wonder that liberals and
conservatives alike so universally love this movie considering how it wears its
political agenda on its sleeve.
Is this movie so good that
it blinds people to what it is saying about the way the world should be? Do the
right just strike its leftist notions down to the Christmas spirit? Why doesn’t
that translate into an all year ideal for some? Or when watching this movie do
people just have to concede that what’s right is right?
No matter what the answers
to these questions, the life lead by George Bailey is a life any one of us
could only hope to live up to in our own.
Drunk History Christmas (2011) ****
Director: Derek Waters,
Jeremy Konner
Starring: Allen McCleod,
Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, Jim Carrey
I don’t often review short
films made specifically for websites, but this gem from Funny or Die just couldn’t
be denied. Made by the group calling themselves Drunken History, this year’s
Christmas installment is their second “Drunken History Christmas”. It involves
a guy named Allen reciting “Twas the Night Before Christmas” while drunk.
Considering that he does most of it by memory alone, it’s actually pretty
impressive that he remembers what he does in his wasted state.
Watching a drunken guy try
to recite a Christmas classic is funny enough, but the crew at Drunk History
had the wisdom to hire such gifted actors as Ryan Gosling and Jim Carrey to act
out the tale in its drunken telling, and the results are comedy gold. Gosling’s
reactions to the drunken gibberish coming out of his mouth at times are
priceless. Carrey hams it up as Santa Claus, and Eva Mendes also appears as
Gosling’s sleeping wife.
This short had me holding my
gut laughing, cackling at the rafters, and just plain short of breath. Follow this link to view it for
yourself. Drunk History Christmas with Ryan Gosling.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011) ***
Directors: Glenn Ficarra,
John Requa
Writer: Dan Fogelman
Starring: Steve Carell, Ryan
Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Analeigh Tipton, Jonah Bobo, Joey King,
Marisa Tomei, Beth Littleford, John Carroll Lynch, Kevin Bacon, Liza Lapira,
Josh Groban
“Crazy, Stupid, Love.” is
surprisingly charming for an ensemble romantic comedy. Perhaps, that is because
it is actually about the people in it rather than about the idea of being in
love. In building its comedy and drama on the characters it does a much better
job of exploring love than movies like “She’s Just Not That Into You” or
“Valentine’s Day”.
It also centers primarily on
just two of its characters, although there are a multitude of subplots going
on. Steve Carell plays a nice guy, whose wife has just left him. Ryan Gosling
plays a ladies man who has the one night stand down to an art form. He can’t
help but notice Carell’s loser at a bar they both frequent and offers to help
him redefine himself to make his ex-wife jealous. Gosling likens himself to Mr.
Miyagi teaching the Karate Kid how to fight.
“Crazy, Stupid, Love.” is a
hyperlink movie, but it doesn’t really play like one. It plays more like a
character study on the nebbish Carell character. He does successfully transform
himself, but at what cost? I was particularly impressed by how the film hid it
secrets until they were absolutely necessary to be revealed. The graduation
scene was a little hard to believe, however. It doesn’t really matter much,
though, because the film so successfully embeds the audience into Carell’s life
that you want everything to work out as it does.
Midnight in Paris (2011) ***½
Director/Writer: Woody Allen
Starring: Owen Wilson,
Rachel McAdams, Kurt Fuller, Mimi Kennedy, Michael Sheen, Alison Pill, Corey
Stoll, Tom Hiddleston, Kathy Bates, Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, Adrien Brody
Woody Allen’s “Midnight in
Paris” is one of the most delightful movies of the year. It isn’t one of his
major works, but it is a return to form for the longtime filmmaker in many ways.
It’s a less serious movie than most of his more recent work, more lighthearted
and fantastical. It’s also quite nostalgic, which is its main subject.
It’s a hard movie to talk
about without revealing its secrets, but the movie is a love letter to Paris
and writers and artists of all kinds, especially famous artistic icons of the
1920s. Magic is one way to describe it in both literal and figurative terms.
And it’s funny. I’d almost forgotten how effortlessly Allen could make me laugh
at times. He seems to do it here without trying, and that’s what’s been missing
in so many of his comedies of late. I love what happened to the private
investigator.
Owen Wilson plays an
American screenwriter who is determined to write a novel. He has returned to
Paris, which he once visited, with his fiancé and her parents for a pre-wedding
get away. He’s in love with Paris. Her, not so much. He tires of her friends,
who don’t seem to tire of belittling him. He goes on walks by himself at
midnight. The nature of these walks is the key to everything that is great
about this movie. That is a pleasure I will leave to you, my readers.
Bill Cunningham New York (2011) ***
Director: Richard Press
Starring: Bill Cunningham,
Anna Wintour, Iris Apfel, Editta Sherman, Michael Kors, Patrick McDonald, Annie
Flanders
Bill Cunningham isn’t a
fashion photographer in the sense that most people think of the fashion world.
Cunningham has made a living and reputation out of photographing fashion on the
streets of New York, photographing the people of New York rather than the
models. He’s worked for the New York Times for several decades and has a hand
in influencing the biggest names in the fashion world, yet his subjects are
just everyday people, like himself.
“Bill Cunningham New York”
is the fascinating documentary about the man, today in his 80s and still going
strong. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Cunningham’s life is his living
arrangement with Carnegie Hall, which during the course of the filming of this
documentary made the decision to evict its longtime artistic residences to make
more office space for rent. Cunningham still lives like a college student,
without any sort of proper furniture. His bed is a mattress sitting on top of
book stacks for legs. He uses the public bathroom and has no kitchen. His
apartment is filled with files of his old negatives. He’s kept every one he
ever took.
This documentary is merely a
portrait of an astonishing artist. It isn’t profound, but it is incredibly
fascinating. Perhaps its most shocking aspect is that this is really the first
I learned about this astonishing man.
Peter Pan (2003)
****
Director: P.J. Hogan
Writers: P.J. Hogan, Michael
Goldenberg, J.M. Barrie (stage play and books)
Starring: Rachel Hurd-Wood,
Jeremy Sumpter, Jason Isaacs, Ludivine Sagnier, Olivia Williams, Lynn Redgrave,
Richard Briers, Harry Newell, Fredie Popplewell
This exquisitely imaginative
adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s classic play “Peter Pan” was one of the most
overlooked movies of the Aughts. Never has any adaptation so clearly
communicated the insights Barrie had to share about growing up and the
relationships between mothers and their sons, fathers and their daughters, and
what it involves to be a happy family. On top of that, it is a rousing
adventure. Hook isn’t so much a villain as he is another lost soul in Neverland
trying to figure out his place in the world and among his relationships.
In a bold choice the movie
retains the misconceptions Barrie had of the noble savage in the character of
Tiger Lily, but it doesn’t dishonor Native Americans and functions to mark the
mystery they held for the British at the time of the story’s original
conception.
Barrie’s story is unique in
its oddities. From Peter’s chasing of his own shadow, to the pirates’ adoration
of having a storyteller on board when Wendy joins them as Red-Handed Jill. The
film embodies the imaginations and mindsets of children so well, but in the way
even an adult audience can relate to. This is the finest version of “Peter Pan”
I’ve seen.
Continental Divide (1981) **
Director: Michael Apted
Writer: Lawrence Kasdan
Starring: John Belushi,
Blair Brown, Allen Goorwitz, Carlin Glynn, Tony Ganios
Netflix Streaming is quite
amazing in the way it will get me to check out movies I never would’ve bothered
about simply because they just don’t register on my radar any more.
“Continental Divide” is a romantic comedy of sorts starring John Belushi in the
brief period after he left Saturday Night Live and before his death when he was
seeking out projects that defined him more as an actor than a comedian.
Unfortunately, it’s not a very good movie. A fact made all the more shocking
considering that the director was Michael Apted and the writer Lawrence Kasdan.
Both were still working on making their marks in Hollywood. This is not the
movie that did it.
The story follows a Chicago
Sun-Times reporter that is knee deep in the city’s political mishandlings. One
city alderman is ready to threaten him with violence, so his editor suggests a
story away from the big city. Yes, this is a fish out of water romance. Belushi
heads to the Rocky Mountains to interview an ornithologist who has a reputation
for despising reporters. She turns out to be friendlier than her reputation and
more attractive. It’s surprising for a “Fringe” fan to see this early romantic
lead for Blair Brown, who plays the mysterious head of Massive Dynamics on the
freaky sci-fi show.
Well of course, these polar
opposites fall in love despite the fact that their careers keep them separated
most of the time. The movie has a lame subplot involving a mountain man that
behaves like a savage. It real weakness, however, lies in its leading
characters. They’re bores. All they have are their jobs and the movie makes no
special attempts to define them beyond their careers, and it doesn’t even go
into her career too deeply.
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