The Hundred-Foot Journey, An American Werewolf in London, Blade Runner and Joan Armatrading's Farewell Tour

Well, the good news is that I've watched a lot of movies over the past three weeks. The bad news is that only a couple will come off of my lists. The good news is The Avengers: Age of Ultron comes out next Friday. And we will stop on that note of positivity.

The Hundred-Foot Journey, 2014

The Hundred-Foot Journey is a nice enough movie, but it left me thinking director Lasse Hallstrom missed a great opportunity. Helen Mirren (who rivals Meryl Streep in the name that accent department) co-stars as French chef Madame Mallory who runs a Michelin star restaurant in France. She embarks on a food battle worthy of The Food Network with Papa (Om Puri) and his family, led by chef Hassan (Manish Dayal). Papa and Hassan initially move to England after a rioting mob kills Papa's wife in India. England is less than hospitable to the family and they move to France to begin a restaurant featuring recipes from Mama. Their new neighbors, including Madame Mallory, are not totally welcoming, although Hassan makes friends with Marguerite, a sous chef for Madame Mallory. The movie features some of the xenophobic actions and attitudes that have been in the news for the last several years. While Madame is not a big fan of Indian cuisine or her neighbors, she realizes that being a true patriot is accepting the newcomers and not tolerating any hate crimes against them. Things turn around, and Hassan, Papa and Madame Mallory become allies, even as Hassan heads to Paris to become an award-winning head chef. Food has often been used to help tell stories in film, sometimes as a way to bridge cultural differences or as an inspiration, as in Babette's Feast, Big Night, Julie and Julia, The Chef. I love food, I love movies and I love Helen Mirren, and yet, the movie was just not everything it could have been. It was good, but not great.

4/3/15 Rust and Bone, 2012 

Rust and Bone is a French/Belgian film starring Marion Cotillard. The film and Cotillard were nominated for Golden Globe awards as well as the Screen Actors Guild, but somehow not quite nominated for an Oscar. Cotillard was nominated for her second Oscar this past year, losing out to Julianne Moore, and is definitely a force to be reckoned with whether she is in a French film or an American film like Inception or Public Enemies. So, since I figured I was not going to knock my big list down too much, it wouldn't hurt to watch another non-nominated film. Cotillard is Stephanie, an Orca trainer at a marine park in France who suffers a devastating accident at work, losing both of her legs. She spends some time feeling low and getting used to her new life with prosthesis and without her beloved whales. Stephanie meets Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) a down on his luck boxer, supporting his son with odd jobs, while living with his sister. When Ali and Stephanie first meet, it's more as friends or companions, not lovers. One of my favorite scenes is when Ali and Stephanie go to the ocean and Ali wants Stephanie to go in the water, but she is self-conscious about her legs; eventually she asks Ali to take her in, and she comes alive. There is something visceral, but definitely joyful, about watching her in the water, which was almost her natural habitat in her former job. Ali and Stephanie make their relationship physical, but it's not necessarily love, which complicates things for Stephanie. She also becomes his manager, helping to arrange and collect the money for his illegal fights. Ali eventually leaves Antibes to go to Strasbourg to start serious training and his son, who is there for a visit, has a terrible accident.  Ali realizes he loves and misses Stephanie, and the two are reunited. Both Cotillard and Schoenaerts are very strong in this film, both portraying characters who have a lot of emotional baggage that bubbles to the surface in some very self-destructive ways.

4/9/15 Big Hero 6 Best Animated Feature Film, 2014

Sometimes I think my inner child is tied up in a dark, dank dungeon somewhere, and this is one of those times. I would really like to know how votes are cast for Oscar-nominated films, but especially the animated features. I have now seen four of the 2014 nominated features, and I still think that The Boxtrolls should have won. Big Hero 6  was fine, but it didn't move me or make me smile the way The Boxtrolls did. Big Hero 6 is apparently based off of a Marvel comic and tells the story of Hiro Hamada, a young inventive genius, some might say precocious, who irritates his older brother, Tadashi, who gets frustrated at Hiro's reluctance to follow rules or formalized study. Hiro invents a type of bot that will revolutionize everything, and off course, there is an evil genius who tries to steal it and ultimately, gets Tadashi killed. Hiro bonds with Baymax, a medical robot, and Tadashi's classmates, who develop/create super powers. Hiro and the Big Hero 6 try to find out why Tadashi got killed and defeat the microbots and the man behind them. Honestly, I didn't care. I get why kids would like it, and there is a great message of brotherly love, friendship, etc., but, I was just bored.

4/12/15 The Tale of Princess Kaguya, 2014 nominated Best Animated Feature

The Tale of Princess Kaguya was one of the other nominated films for Best Animated Feature of 2014. Stylistically, it is miles apart from Big Hero 6 or The Boxtrolls, and it was produced by Studio Ghibli, the same group that produced The Wind Rises, Howl and the Moving Castle and Spirited Away (although by a different director). The story is more complex than some of the other animated films, but older children may appreciate the fairy tale aspect and adults may be drawn to the story of the bamboo cutter and his wife raising this mysterious girl they find in the forest. The bamboo cutter (voiced by James Caan in the American/English version) finds an abandoned infant in the forest and brings her home to his wife (Mary Steenburgen), and they both think she is a miracle and a gift to them and call her 'Princess'. Princess (Chloe Grace Moretz) has some interesting qualities, namely that she grows and matures faster than a normal child; she goes from being practically immobile as an infant to crawling and walking within a very short period of time. As Princess grows older, the bamboo cutter decides to take her to the city and raise her as a princess, with a tutor to train her in the manners of a fine lady. There are many things that happen as fine lords vie for her hand in marriage and she sets them on seemingly impossible tasks. As the film ends (it was a little on the long side for a younger or otherwise impatient audience), we learn that Princess is a special young woman, and not long for this world. I enjoyed the gentle storytelling even though I occasionally struggled with the pacing of the film (it was over two hours), and I finally got used to James Caan's New York tinged dialogue. If you are a fan of animation, you should check out The Tale of Princess Kaguya.

4/11/15 Blade Runner, 1982 American Film Institute #97, National Film Registry Trylon Microcinema

Blade Runner has become part of the cultural lexicon, certainly among movie lovers, and it was just a matter of time before I saw it for myself, especially since it is on two of my lists (AFI and the National Film Registry). Some movies beg to be seen on the big screen, and if not a BIG screen, then a smaller screen at a microcinema, and that's how I saw Blade Runner. A friend and I got tickets to the Trylon Microcinema's showing (sold out, as it happens). I vaguely knew the story; I knew that Harrison Ford starred with Rutger Hauer, Darryl Hannah and Sean Young; and I knew that for it's time, it was very futuristic and original. Blade Runner is set in the future, where replicants are created to do certain tasks, and they are built with an expiration date; if they try to escape their assigned location or change their 'destiny', a Blade Runner is sent to terminate them. Harrison Ford is one such Blade Runner, Rick Deckard, who almost has a Humphrey Bogart world weary way about him. Hauer, Hannah and Young are the replicants. Apparently, replicants come with no acting skills whatsoever, so the casting is perfect. One by one, Deckard gets rid of them, except for Young who plays Rachael, with whom Deckard seems to fall in love. Ridley Scott directed, and I was quite shocked that it was less than three hours (happily shocked). Blade Runner came after Scott directed Alien, and it definitely has the dark cinematic feel that we saw in Alien. The 'future' that is in the film, is actually just a few years away from now, 2017. I get why the movie made such a wave thirty years ago, the cinematography was fabulous, the suggestions for our future were real enough to stir imaginations, and this was the beginning of the landmark movies in which Harrison Ford starred (The Star Wars trilogy and  the Indiana Jones franchise among a few). When the movie ended, I looked at my friend, held my breath so I didn't say something offensive, and then we both agreed that we were glad we saw it, but did not need to see it again. We also do not need to see the proposed remake. Once was enough.

4/12/15 The Oxford Murders, 2008

Some of you may be thinking that if I stopped watching movies not on my lists, I would be under 800 movies by now. And you would be correct. But sometimes you have to follow your own path, or you get bored of sticking to a list. I'm not sure what my justification is, especially considering this was a HORRIBLE movie. HORRIBLE. I probably should have taken the hint from the fact that I could barely finish the book, and that was less than 300 pages. When you get an uncontrollable urge to poke your eyes out, you may want to take that as a sign to run the other way.  The Oxford Murders is based on the book of the same name by Guillermo Martinez. As you might infer, the film is set in Oxford, England, and features mathematicians and logicians trying to solve a series of murders. Elijah Wood is Martin, an American graduate student (in the book he is Argentinean) working on his thesis at Oxford, under the diffident guidance of Arthur Seldom (John Hurt) (Seldom is much more likable in the book). Martin's landlady, and Arthur's friend, Mrs. Eagleton (Anna Massey) is murdered and the two men work with the police to find the killer. There are a few more murders, a red herring or two, some bad acting from normally good or great actors and a story that is so convoluted as to be total bullshit. At least it was free from the library.

4/15/15 An American Werewolf in London, Outstanding Achievement in Makeup, 1981

In full disclosure, I really dreaded this movie; I think I was fixated on the 'horror' aspect instead of the 'comedy' aspect (which I didn't realize it had). An American Werewolf in London was directed by John Landis, and I supposed if I would have put together the fact that he also directed the video for Michael Jackson's Thriller, I might have less 'afraid' (this is not a surprise to you longtime readers, you know I'm a big fraidy cat). The movie had a suspense element reminiscent of old time horror movies, with the strangers in the village, but it also had a comic element (the song selection featuring songs with 'moon' in the title, like "Blue Moon", "Moondance", etc.) that made the movie fun to watch. David Naughton stars as David Kessler/the werewolf and Griffin Dunne is his doomed friend, Jack Goodman and Jenny Agutter is Nurse Alex Price. David and Jack are on holiday in England when they get lost in Yorkshire and wander into a pub called "The Slaughtered Lamb" (this is one of those horror movie moments where the viewer is totally SHOCKED when bad things start to happen - said with sarcasm in case you missed it). David and Jack get the heebie jeebies in the pub and start walking int he dark when they are attacked by a wolflike creature. David is hurt, but Jack is brutally killed. David turns into the titular werewolf and Jack is a lost soul who haunts David. The movie won the Oscar for the makeup used on Naughton and Dunne, and considering it was over 30 years ago, it is really quite amazing. I don't often watch movies again, but I would probably watch this movie again with a group of friends. If you have been avoiding it because you're chicken like me, don't be. Or give me a call and I'll watch it with you.

Joan Armatrading 4/22/15 The Kent Stage, Kent, Ohio


I continued with my concert-going ways with a trip home to Cleveland (sad to say I didn't make it to my beloved Cedar Lee theater) to see the incomparable Joan Armatrading down in Kent, Ohio. Joan is making her way around the country and world on her last world tour. I have seen her over 5 times, although the exact number eludes me, in Cleveland, St. Paul, and Kent. If you are unfamiliar with Joan, I'm very sorry; she is well-known in her native England with a very loyal following in the US. For her older, classic songs, I recommend Track Record. Joan is not limited to one genre, although for ease I refer to her as a folk musician, but she also plays jazz, blues and pop. On this tour, she is all by herself, just her and the audience; she plays acoustic and electric guitar and keyboards, as well as effects pedals. Joan sang my favorites including "Me, Myself and I", "Drop the Pilot", "Love and Affection" (she teased us that she wouldn't play it), "All the Way from America", "The Weakness in Me" and the set closer and fan singalong "Willow". "Willow" is the moment that binds all Joan fans together, we all sing, quietly, but strongly, and I have never been disappointed. She shredded it on "Mama Mercy" and "Empty Highway". Joan has a great rapport with her audience and playfully joked with us that she was done after three songs "It's been a long tour, so I'll finish now. Thank you for you being a great audience." We knew she was kidding. It's like having an old friend over. On this tour, she also took a few minutes to share some photographs with us and the stories behind them; her meeting with Nelson Mandela; her performance at Ronnie Scott's in London as the first non-jazz artist to perform downstairs; her work with The Prince's Trust; silly photos from album shoots. She is still touring and will be back in the US in the fall, and I hope to see her in San Diego. THAT'S HOW MUCH I love her. A gracious and talented artist.

4/25/2015 Flashdance Best Song, 1983

This movie clocks in at 95 minutes, but I swear it was ten hours long. If the movie was not on the list, I can honestly say that I would never have watched it at all. I went 32 years without seeing it and felt not one whit of deprivation. Now, having seen it, well, it's off the list. Flashdance is about Alex, a welding/dancing young woman in Pittsburgh and her older, divorced boyfriend, who is also her boss. It's really like one very long and bad music video. Jennifer Beals is Alex and Michael Nouri is Nick Hurley, her boss. The premise of the film is that Alex loves to dance; she dances at night at a cabaret/diner, she dances at warehouse/home and she longs to dance for a professional dance company. Hanna Long is her inspiration and cheerleader; we don't know very much about their relationship at all, except it seems to be a pseudo mother/daughter relationship. There are little bits of story pieced together by music sequences. It really seemed ridiculous (the scene where the dancers are working out was hilariously stupid), and seemed liked bad adult film, and this was another that I wanted to turn off. The movie won the Oscar for Original Song, "Flashdance...What a Feeling" sung by Irene Cara. I do like the song, and I liked some of the other music from the movie, but not enough to get the soundtrack or ever care again. Overall, I would say 1983 was not a stellar year for music in films (two songs nominated from Flashdance, two from Yentl and one from Tender Mercies). Another one bites the dust.

Movies I don't ever want to see again - really

Since it seems it may take me a while to get back on track, I thought I would go review some movies that I have seen in the past that I really do not ever need to see again. I realize many may disagree, and that's okay, I won't prevent you from watching them. These are in no particular order:

The Exorcist, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound Mixing, 1973, National Film Registry

Unlike some of the other movies in this list, I didn't hate this movie, I just don't like movies of this genre (I'm not all that thrilled about Rosemary's Baby and The Omen being on my watch list). I'm not really religious, but I don't like to play around with evil (that probably sounds really wacky). I remember watching this movie with a group of friends from junior high and being scared, but not too creeped out, and I think that was the benefit of watching this with a group in the daylight and being a dumb teenager. Aside from the eerie voice used by Mercedes McCambridge as the Devil and Linda Blair's makeup, I always think of the music "Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield. William Friedkin directed and Ellen Burstyn is Regan's (Linda Blair) mother. Essentially Regan becomes possessed and undergoes an exorcism. Terrible things happen.

The Tin Drum, Best Foreign Film, 1979

As I look at the list of these films that I never want to see again, it occurs to me that in fact, I may have seen some of them more than once, and that is the case for The Tin Drum. It wasn't on purpose, trust me. Wikipedia calls it a surrealistic black comedy. I cannot explain it, reading the synopsis in Wikipedia it doesn't ring a bell with me at all. I must have successfully blocked it all out. It was over two and a half hours running time. The Tin Drum is a German film and the main character has a...tin drum which he bangs on a regular basis. There was a creepy scene where Oskar is banging his drum and screaming and that's all. I just know that if it ever comes up again, I will not be watching it.

The Silence of the Lambs, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, 1991 #74 on AFI, National Film Registry

I watched The Silence of the Lambs for the first time in the theater and was riveted for the whole time. It was a great piece of film making and storytelling. Jodie Foster won an Oscar for her role as Clarice Starling, a troubled FBI agent who takes on Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins in an Oscar-winning role) and Buffalo Bill in a bizarre and frightening tale. If you haven't seen it yet, I don't want to give anything away. And even though it's on a list of movies I don't want to see again, you should see it at least once; I have seen it twice, and it's just so suspenseful and tense, I'm not sure my old heart can take it. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins created characters (under the direction of Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme) that are now part of American lexicon, especially Hopkins/Lecter. Hopkins beat out Robert DeNiro in Cape Fear, Robin Williams in The Fisher King, Warren Beatty in Bugsy and Nick Nolte in The Prince of Tides (Williams was incredible in The Fisher King, but I think Hopkins locked it up the minute they roll him out in his mask). Foster beat out out both Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon from Thelma and Louise as well as Laura Dern in Rambling Rose and Bette Midler in For the Boys; it's possible that Davis and Sarandon cancelled each other out and I am not familiar with the other two movies.

Forrest Gump, Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Visual Effects, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, 1994, #76 AFI, National Film Registry

I might upset some people, but I hated this movie. Who cares? I didn't. The movie just seemed to go on and on, and I'm fairly certain I fell asleep at some point during the 142 minutes.I don't think 1994 was a stellar movie for strong male leads if you look at the list of nominees (no offense to anyone), so maybe it wasn't a surprise that Hanks won the Best Actor, but Shawshank Redemption is one of my favorite movies and Morgan Freeman was nominated in his role as Red; John Travolta was nominated for Pulp Fiction (I have not completely watched that movie, so I'll withhold judgement).

The Usual Suspects, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, 1995

I was so thrilled when I read that Roger Ebert hated this movie too! I felt some redemption for all the people who thought it was so wonderful and clever. It was too clever for its own good and it annoyed the crap out of me. This is another movie I watched twice (you have to give me credit, I try), and liked it less than the first time. I hate pretension and this movie is full of it. It's smug as well. I feel like a thesaurus trying to come up with words to describe my feelings. Give it a miss.

Titanic Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Song, Best Original Dramatic Score, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Sound, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects, 1997, #83 AFI

I may be at my most petulant in this review, which some of my friends find amusing, you may or may not. Just like with Titanic, I don't care. I was literally dragged to see this when it first came out in the theaters and didn't enjoy it. I was later cajoled into going to see Celine Dion who performed "My Heart Will Go On", and then was in a relationship where the other person LOVED this movie. Is it any wonder it's on my list? It would be on the list anyway as I am hard-pressed to find a James Cameron movie that I like. The man is certainly in love with himself, that's for sure. The movie, like most Cameron movies,was an endurance test, lasting over three hours. You'd think he was David Lean or something. Anyway, in case you have no idea what this movie is about, it tells the story of  The Titanic which was making its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York. It was filled with aristocrats and other socialite types as well as immigrants housed in steerage. The story focuses on fictional characters Rose (socialite played by Kate Winslet) and Jack (immigrant played by Leonardo DiCaprio); it's an ill-fated love affair, much like the ill-fated cruise they are on. I'll save you the suspense, the boat sinks. I have more than put in my time with this movie, probably seeing it at least 5 times. It sank every time.

Talk To Her, Best Foreign Film, 2002

I don't always like movies by Pedro Almodovar, my favorite of his is Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, but I find them intriguing. I cannot even tell you what I thought of Talk to Her, except to say that is contained one of the most bizarre scenes I have ever witnessed in a movie. It was so bizarre we actually watched it several times because we could not believe it. The blurb in Wikipedia says it's a movie about the difficulty communicating between sexes, loneliness and intimacy, I can neither confirm or deny that, I was so traumatized by the one scene, I don't remember anything else. And WHAT IS THAT SCENE, you wonder? Well, a man and a woman are driving in a car, then in a moment of surrealism, the man shrinks down to miniature size. He then proceeds to climb into the woman's nether regions, walking in and out. This is where we lost it. The set looked like something Salvador Dali would have created, and it just seemed so ridiculous. It's possible there was very intellectual reason for this scene, but I can't tell you. I just know I don't need to see this movie again.

On a happy note, and to mention a movie that I would watch again and that is apropos of this holiday weekend, I would totally recommend seeing Easter Parade with Fred Astaire and Judy Garland.

Whiling away the time while staying at home

There is no denying that these are very strange and tumultuous we're living in. Obviously I haven't been blogging too much lately, i...