Miscellaneous Film/TV Discussion

[Disney's Divinity]

The Thing About Harry was re-run a few days after you made this post and I had planned to watch it. Then I forgot it was on and missed it (which, in my defense, the airing was at one in the morning). Hopefully they'll air it on Freeform again. I'm really interested to see it.

I finally saw it last night. I admit at the beginning my expectations lowered; I really thought most of the story would be on the roadtrip and then at the wedding they were going to at first. The actors were as good as you'd see in any Hallmark romance. I identified with Sam as far as not wanting to date somebody you know doesn't have it in them to be faithful; I'm a monogamous person at heart and it sucks to feel like one of the few people who feel that way. I really enjoyed the ending, too, even if I'm not sure I can buy that they would last for that reason. I agree, that it was a bit risque for the channel. But I always thought this kind of movie was what they were initially going for with the re-branding and why they ditched the "ABCFamily" name, because they wanted to attract a teenage audience. And yet they still re-run Disney's animated and/or family films 90% of the time.

I agree we need fluff movies like Love, Simon and TV films like this one to kind of break it all down over time. I actually think I enjoyed this more than Love, Simon, tbh... I enjoy romance, but sometimes modern romcoms can be so bland.

Oh, btw, I've been looking forward to the new adaptation of Emma, my favorite Austen novel, but the first advertisements kind of took some of my enthusiasm away. The girl they picked just isn't my idea of the character at all. She's so delicate and small, and seemed timid. Not my idea of Emma at all. I mean, I didn't expect this to top the Garai version as my go-to, but I was hoping I would enjoy it. Now I'm worried it's going to be as disappointing as the film version of Pride & Prejudice (Keira Knightley was a horrible choice for Elizabeth and the film's Darcy was a limp noodle).

[UmbrellaFish]

POTENTIAL THE THING ABOUT HARRY SPOILERS

Glad you got to see it! I also thought at the outset that it was just going to be a road trip movie, and then I thought it would be a comedy of manners set at the wedding... but then the timeline just kept moving forward— which I liked better.

I’m glad you mentioned the ending because it drove me crazy— that stunt at the political rally. TBH, if I were Sam I would have murdered Harry for making my candidate look like a fool like that! The time skip with them as a happily married couple with a baby was lovely, on the other hand.

I liked both this and Love, Simon but Love, Simon was a coming out story which we’ve seen so many of already— this was a different story and thus a breath of fresh air.

END SPOILERS

I’ve never read any Austen but the trailers for Emma have caught my eye. I like period pieces with a modern sensibility like The Favourite, Marie Antoinette, The Lion in Winter, etc. Also it has Melissa McCarthy’s sidekick from Spy and I thought she was very funny!

[Disney's Divinity]

END SPOILERS

I’ve never read any Austen but the trailers for Emma have caught my eye. I like period pieces with a modern sensibility like The Favourite, Marie Antoinette, The Lion in Winter, etc. Also it has Melissa McCarthy’s sidekick from Spy and I thought she was very funny!

Oh, I know who you're talking about. I don't know her name right off. She played Chummy on Call the Midwife, too, and I loved her there. She does look like the best part of the new Emma for sure!

[UmbrellaFish]

So I continued my exploration into Almodóvar.


All About My Mother

All About My Mother is, I think, generally regarded as Almodóvar’s masterpiece. I thought it was just alright. It is very soapy— there are moments when you think “telenovela”— and it is inspired by Douglas Sirk dramas which are an anathema to me.

Cecilia Roth plays a woman who witnesses the death of her son and the movie follows her grieving process. She’s something of a Mary Poppins figure in the sense that as she comes into other people’s lives, she tends to make things better. Penelope Cruz is really lovely here as a pregnant nun and there’s also a very well rounded portrait of a trans woman played by Antonia San Juan— which almost balances out a later portrayal of a trans woman by a cisman in a really awful wig.

The movie features lots of homages to All About Eve, and like that film I feel like I may need to return to All About My Mother to re-evaluate it in time— although I’m already more favorably disposed to Almodóvar’s film than Mankiewicz’s.

The movie is dedicated to many women— Almodóvar’s mother, all mothers, actresses who have played actresses, naming Bette Davis, Gena Rowlands, and Romy Schneider in particular. I only know Schneider’s work through the German Sissi movies (which if I give them a rewatch I may write about— I think many Disney Princess fans would enjoy them), but I recall that she died a tragic death a year or so after her 14 year old son died in a freak accident— I don’t remember if she witnessed the accident like Roth’s character does, but I wonder if that incident didn’t at least partially inspire Almodóvar’s script or if it just a sad coincidence.


Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

I went into Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! with some trepidation. I can be a bit prudish (I blame Julie Andrews) with sexuality in films, particularly bondage and BDSM which based on the cover and title of the film I was led to believe the film would heavily feature— I was glad for the online Criterion sale because I would have been a bit embarrassed to pick this up at Barnes and Noble. My anxiety was all for naught— the film featured casual but not gratuitous nudity and the big sex scene actually didn’t involve any kind of bondage at all— which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it might have surprised me a little bit.

The movie is very much a Beauty and the Beast story, but problematic af. Antonio Banderas breaks into the lead female character’s home, he uses violence to subdue her, but he refuses to rape her and insists they will make love “when the time is right.” Eventually, she falls genuinely in love with him and the movie plays out like so many Beauty and the Beast stories do. The reason this works instead of being an unending cringe fest is because the movie doesn’t shirk away from the violence and brutality of Banderas’ pursuit and becomes itself a critique of Beauty and the Beast stories.

I think this was his immediate follow-up to “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” which is my favorite of his films so far— but Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! will probably rank as number two now. It’s a fascinating film and it’s still replaying through my brain. Oh also, early 90’s Antonio Banderas is a fine piece of man.

***

I’m typically not a very auteur focused movie watcher— I mean I can appreciate certain director’s works, I like a good Hitchcock film and a good Bergman film, etc. and know the markers of their work but usually I look for films based on the onscreen talent. Discovering Almodóvar is the first time I’ve ever felt encouraged to seek out a director’s work because of his name alone. Something about the way his mind opens up on screen just makes sense to me— it silly to say this, but I feel a kind of kinship.

[Disney's Divinity]

Anyone else seen Ma? I finally got the chance to this morning. I didn't expect a great film for the ages or anything, just Octavia Spencer going to town. And I got that. She had to have had fun playing a villain like this for once. I was surprised they gave her a backstory instead of her just being some crazy lady.

I also sat down and actually watched How the West Was Won for the first time. I really knew nothing about it except some one-off joke on The Golden Girls about how it could be played on Rose's backside. It was better than I expected, even if it's likely not something I'll re-visit. Interesting turn for Debbie Reynolds' character to fall in love with a bad guy even knowing who he is--"How can I blame him for wanting a rich wife, when I've spent my whole life hoping for a rich husband?" What I did like is how the film moved around with different characters, leaving one to follow another.

[blackcauldron85]

Universal Making ‘Invisible Man’, ‘The Hunt’ & ‘Emma’ Available In Home On Friday As Exhibition Braces For Shutdown; ‘Trolls’ Sequel To Hit Cinemas & VOD Easter Weekend
https://deadline.com/2020/03/coronaviru ... 202884570/

[UmbrellaFish]

How the West Was Won has always interested me because of that incredible starry cast and the two different ways it was filmed. One of these days I must sit down and watch it. Growing up, my Papaw would watch the Western channel and every. single. thing. looked exactly the same— there was always some Conestoga wagon set adrift in a boring orange desert. It was always strange to me that Westerns were ever so popular— popular enough that there was enough media to fill a whole channel! Disney was victim of the Western craze, too— in my opinion, the only land which is a little creaky is Frontierland. Nobody’s cared about any of that stuff in a long time.

What to do, what to do with two weeks off? Well, today is rainy. Maybe fill a hole in my Julie Andrews knowledge? I’ve seen almost every movie but there’s a glaring big gap and it’s The Julie Andrews Hour, her short lived, early 1970s variety show that was cancelled due to low ratings but netted Emmys as the Best Variety Show of the year. Of course I’ve seen separate songs and skits before, but for the first time somebody uploaded the complete series to YouTube and with it so easily accessible, I’ve no reason not to watch it. Already found a pleasant surprise in the first episode, when Julie sings “If Ever I Would Leave You” from Camelot— marvelous!

Another gem from the first episode, although something I’ve seen before and which has made its way around the web, is this sequence where Julie herself sings and dances with Mary Poppins and Eliza Doolittle as a trio. It is, to my knowledge, the only time she ever played Mary Poppins outside of the 1964 film, with the debatable exception of her turn in The Cat That Looked at a King.

Here, if you haven’t seen it!- https://youtu.be/5usVahlDjv0

[blackcauldron85]

^That was awesome! Pretty impressive special effects for a TV show at that time, too, I think! OMG, her voice!It's a shame she couldn't have been in Mary Poppins and My Fair Lady (film).

[UmbrellaFish]

I’ve been listening to Karina Longworth’s podcast about classic Hollywood “You Must Remember This,” lately some episodes on Monroe. I bought a bunch of her movies and never got around to watching most of them so I’m watching “How to Marry a Millionaire” with her and Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable. I haven’t seen many Bacall films and I thought she was maybe 35 or 40 in the movie— but she was only 29 (and an older man in the movie guesses she is 25)! I’m sure it’s because of the fashions and styles she’s wearing, and her voice was always so throaty and mature sounding.

[Disney's Divinity]

I’ve seen a number of great films I'd wanted to see the past few days. Green Book, On the Basis of Sex, The Best of Enemies, Some Like It Hot, The Front Man, Brightburn, Charlie Says, and a few others I can’t remember right off. Those first three especially were all better than I expected, particularly OtBoS. They just looked like those hollow dirge Oscar bait type films—like The King’s Speech. So I was grateful they were better than that. Back to OtBoS, something about the speech in the court room at the end reminded me of HRC’s concession speech, and made me tear up thinking about how many more times a woman will have to get up there and try and try before it’s not so “radical” anymore and a woman will actually become president. The ending to TBoE really shocked me, more because it was a true story. Taraji Henson was amazing. I should be seeing Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood and (finally~!) Spider-Man: Far From Home (which I'll comment on in its own thread) in the next day or two.

Also saw Bonnie & Clyde recently, too. Warren Beatty really was a looker when he was young… I already knew that from Splendor in the Grass, but man… Faye Dunaway was pretty, too, now that I got to see her in a role where she wasn’t dolled up like some child’s nightmare (Mommie Dearest is the only thing I’d seen her in before this. ). This film really hit all the right notes. So so bittersweet and hard to watch play out at the end. I really was surprised at certain parts of the film considering the time it was made in was more strict on what could be portrayed.

[blackcauldron85]

^ Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood was really good (my husband's a big Tarantino fan). But it brought me down a rabbit hole of reading about the history part, and I just couldn't read any more...

[DVDBuff1]

Today, I had a delicious meal while quarantined that involved sliced Fuji apples, grilled pepper jack cheese sandwich, and tomato soup. All while I re-watched one of my favorite Miyazaki films, Castle in the Sky. It was only just now that I realized how similar it is to Star Wars: A New Hope. Both films are about a young daring commoner who allies with a princess and pirates to thwart their corrupt government from using a dangerous fortress. And both films also star Mark Hamill.

[Disney's Divinity]

I actually had the urge to watch Castle in the Sky just a week or so ago myself, although I was busy at the time. I've had such varied experiences with that film. The first few times I'd seen it, I found it dull. The last time I watched it though, I loved it. I think it's just one of those films you have to be in the proper mood for. Dola is my favorite character.

[UmbrellaFish]

Marion Cotillard came to mind recently and I realized I hadn’t seen her in anything in awhile. She hasn’t done an English-language film since 2016, but she has one coming up— with Adam Driver, a musical called Annette. Which is exciting— the more movie musicals the better and I’ve never heard her own singing voice, they used Piaf’s real tracks in “La Vie en Rose.”

I’ve been thinking lately how much more international Hollywood was back in the silent and Golden eras. The biggest movie stars in the world were foreigners— Chaplin was British, Garbo was Swedish, Pickford and Shearer were Canadians, Navarro was Mexican, Valentino Italian, etc. etc. Of course, back then all the studio heads were immigrants or the children of immigrants themselves. That’s not to say there weren’t plenty of American stars, especially with the ascendancy of talkies but for a very long time foreign born stars could find a comfortable home in Hollywood. For a long time now Hollywood’s been dominated by American and British actors and I’m not sure that’s changed much, although I think the shades of skintones are becoming less homogeneously white.

Of course, that’s not to say Hollywood was more accepting back then either. Foreign glamour and a level of exotic-ness were a-okay, but you still had to look “white.” This caused problems for stars who appeared “too ethnic” like Navarro, Rita Hayworth, and Merle Oberon.

EDIT, 4/8: just rewatched the 1970’s movie versions of “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Death on the Nile” and boy oh boy does the latter not benefit from a back-to-back showing. Growing up it was always my favorite because it had more stars whom I not only recognized but was a real fan of their work (Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury, Maggie Smith, Mia Farrow), but man is the “Orient Express” à much more interesting and better made movie, and of course, it’s packed to the gills with great stars, too.

[UmbrellaFish]

Last night I watched a murder mystery from the 70’s I’d never seen before called “The Last of Sheila.” The script was written by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim— apparently they used to plan elaborate murder mystery games for their friends and collaborated on this script together. I’ve always thought they must have been lovers but Sondheim is notoriously private and Perkins passed before he could be open about his sexuality.

Well, back to the movie!

Wow, was it good! I mean, it wasn’t the most artfully filmed movie and some of the cast were kinda just there (Raquel Welch, I’m looking at you). Initially the plot reminded me of a play I did in high school called.... Rehearsal for Murder, I think, which was about a playwright who gathers a group of his theatre friends to ultimately reveal who killed his wife. “Shelia” seems to start like that and then go wild. The ending is twist after twist after twist— of which I only guessed the first one. Very entertaining and I’d love to watch it again!!! Speaking of murder mysteries, I need to get my hands on Knives Out.

[Disney's Divinity]

I think I've watched The Wizard of Oz three or four times over the past few days. I guess where it's Easter, it's getting aired all the time. So amazing how well this film has aged. Naturally my favorite part has always been the Witch; I love her entrance, like a bomb was just set off with everyone running even though she doesn't pay any of them attention. Her theme music is great, too. Aside from that, the ruby slippers were what always stuck with me. I always enjoyed the film more than any of Disney's live-action films.

[blackcauldron85]

I love The Wizard Of Oz, too (but I love Return to Oz even more). My husband's brother's girlfriend had never seen it, so a couple Thanksgivings ago we watched it; she told us girls that she liked it, but she went and told the guys that it was just alright. I agree that it does hold up very nicely. It's just a classic story with classic music and classic characters.

[UmbrellaFish]

It has aged really well. I last watched it back in January, I think. It’s always good for a rewatch.

If there ever was a film that I wish Disney had licensed out to make a theme park attraction of, it’s the 1939 film. I know there were scenes from Oz in the Great Movie Ride— but could you imagine a whole Disney dark ride down the yellow brick road? It could be truly magical. The Wizard of Oz is, to me, the only non-Disney film that feels like a Disney film.

That “abandoned” Oz theme park is only a two-hour or so drive away from me but I’ve never been there. I was looking at tickets earlier in the year before everything happened, but now I wonder if they will even open at all since they’re have such a limited window of operation to begin with.

Myself, I’ve been cycling through my complete series set of The Nanny. First off— I still love it, Fran Drescher is hilarious and beautiful and I always had a crush on Charles Shaughnessy. Niles and C.C. were always my favorite part although some of those jokes at C.C.’s expense have aged poorly. Still, it’s still a great show and Fran Drescher is a national treasure in my eyes.

Oh and I’ve also watched some other Judy Garland films lately— Meet Me in St Louis, Summer Stock, and In the Good Old Summertime. Summer Stock was new to me, tbh I didn’t like it much— it’s set on a barn and clearly Garland and Gene Kelly (or anyone else at MGM) had never stepped foot on a real one. St Louis is comforting because it reminds me of Disney’s Main Street, USA. And “Summertime” is one of my favorite weird Hollywood things where multiple movies are based on the same source material: 1930’s Hungarian play “Parfumerie” -> 1930’s James Stewart movie “The Shop Around the Corner” -> 1940’s movie musical “In the Good Old Summetime” -> 1960’s Broadway musical “She Loves Me” -> 1990’s romcom “You’ve Got Mail.”

Mr Jordan is also fun

1941 movie “Here Comes Mr Jordan” -> 1947 movie musical sequel (very different, only connection is same Mr Jordan character) “Down to Earth” -> 1978 Mr Jordan remake “Heaven Can Wait” -> 1980 Down to Earth remake “Xanadu” -> 2001 Mr Jordan remake “Down to Earth” -> 2007 Broadway adaptation “Xanadu”

Golly I’m bored!

My husband's brother's girlfriend had never seen it, so a couple Thanksgivings ago we watched it

Oh my God!

This is one of the things that worries me about the age of streaming. I watched so many things growing up just because they were on cable TV. But with streaming, your pick, your choice. I’m afraid so many classic movies and TV shows will get tossed to the wayside because interested people will have to intentionally seek them out now. I mean, I guess it’s like the library but still it’s sad...

[Disney Duster]

I should suspect The Wizard of Oz has aged well and is always worth a re-watch, considering it is the greatest film of all time.

[blackcauldron85]

That “abandoned” Oz theme park is only a two-hour or so drive away from me but I’ve never been there. I was looking at tickets earlier in the year before everything happened, but now I wonder if they will even open at all since they’re have such a limited window of operation to begin with.

Oh wow, I had no idea this existed, and I just looked it up on Google. That's so cool that they reinvigorated the park!