Random Thoughts on a Friday

6 Movies I Watched This Week

1. Valkyrie - Tom Cruise as a Nazi who leads an (obviously unsuccessful) coup against der Fuhrer. I wasn't as turned off as I thought I'd be by the non-accent of T. Cruise and I have to say, his hair was amazing! Kudos to his stylist. Supporting cast of Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Izzard, etc. were fantastic.

2. 7 Pounds - okay, you know I dig Will Smith more than just about any human on this planet besides HH so of course I was going to love him in this. Sappy? Sure. Manipulative? You bet. Requiring a massive suspension of disbelief? Right on. The people I saw it with did not share my love of Will nor did they suspend their disbelief as I did so they didn't like it as much and the ending is the hugest downer of the year. I cried, cried, cried. And I don't care who knows. Cuz now you do.

3. The Sound of Music - Nazis! Singing Austrian children! Julie Andrews! What's not to love in this? Honestly, I coudn't remember the last time I had seen this in its entirety and I guess I had completely forgotten the beginning and I sort of got confused at the end because I recall in real life they came to the US and I thought that was part of the movie but it wasn't. It just ends with the nuns rescuing them. So it was good to see this again. My upstairs neighbor totally lurvs this.

4. Doubt - Meryl, omg, I heart Meryl so effin' much. She is freaking amazing in just about everything she does. And Philip Seymour Hoffmann and Amy Adams are splendid with a capital awesome. This is another serious movie for Oscar contention and they all deserve it, especially the writer/director John Patrick Shanley who adapted his own Pulitzer-winning play (which goes right on the TBR list - I can't wait to see what he might not have included and if the ending is as ambiguous as the movie).


5. The Dancer - a kind of documentary about a young Swedish dancer as she joins the Royal Swedish Ballet, Katja Bjorner. I say "kind of" because it's not a documentary in the traditional sense; there is no obvious narrative and not much explanation about who we meet in the film and what they do and their relationship to Katja. Still, for those of us who love ballet, it's a fascinating study of a very passionate teen as she prepares to dance. And a nice introduction to how pointe shoes are made.

6. Shut Up And Sing - another great documentary, this time about the Dixie Chicks and the hassle they went through after lead singer Natalie Maines told people she was ashamed the president was from Texas- this shortly after troops were sent to Iraq, which made her very unpopular among the mostly-conservative fan base across the country. How the protests against the Chicks affected them and the music they wrote makes for a fascinating look into the politics of entertainment. We went right out to the store and bought their album.

Random Thoughts on a Friday

1. Not a Halloween costume.

This is HH at the wedding in his very first tux. Doesn't he look handsome? Seriously, two dimensions do not do him justice. He looked fantastic.


2. Not a Halloween movie.

Bill Maher's documentary, "Religulous," is excellent. I highly recommend even if, like me, you're not a big fan of Bill Maher. He did his homework which is more than a lot of people can say.

3. Not a Halloween trick.

I just found out a friend of mine was the visual effects editor for the movie, "Twilight." She just finished and is exhausted. Apparently, they pushed the release date up by a few weeks which meant she had to work harder than ever. Hey, I have a Twilight connection!

Mad Hot Documentary

Anyone who has not seen "Mad Hot Ballroom" should immediately put it on their queue or go to their local Blockbuster and rent it. Both HH and I wanted to shout out the window, "See this movie!" right after we watched. More than a dance movie. More than an issues film. This is entertaining, enlightening, and sweet.

We meet several groups of schoolkids in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx (and eventually Queens, the winners of the previous year) as they train for a ballroom competition among New York City's public schools. They are 5th graders on the cusp of teenhood, with backgrounds and personal development as different from one to the next. They are both older and younger than their chronological ages: they know what adulthood means but they don't want it.

They discuss their parents' divorces, the kind of boys they want to date and marry, what it's like to dance with a girl who leads, why the Bible says gay marriage is okay. They are amazing kids, frank and open and smart, and dancing ballroom -these old-fashioned styles of movement - has an influence beyond anything they could have predicted. One girl who was clearly on the "wrong path," straightens herself up all on her own. One boy who might have joined a gang steps up and becomes a leader.

And they can dance! I loved how they supported one another, how they didn't become competitive among themselves. I would have liked to have seen a little better sportsmanship being encouraged by the teachers, especially the youngest woman who couldn't help but tear up as she talked about their progress, but eventually I think they all got the right message.

An amazing, wonderful film. How many stars can I give it?

From the Queue

A little something to discuss while I'm traveling today...

Remember when you were a kid and the mail was a daily event you looked forward to? Maybe a card with cash from Grandma would arrive or a new issue of "Sports Illustrated" would be there. Then you got older and the mailbox held bills and past due notices and jury summons. Who wanted to get the mail then? I still dread it. The fun stuff comes in email; the misery via USPS.

Ah Netflix, my old friend. It makes going to the mailbox fun again.



This weekend we saw a great doc: "My Kid Could Paint That" about Marla Olmsted the 4 year old art prodigy whose father was subtly accused of painting for her by a 60 Minutes producer. It's very well-balanced, neither pro or con and allows you to make your own decision.



We also saw "Elizabeth: The Golden Age." Not so golden for the big E. Although I love Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen, I felt like this saga of Elizabeth's life was depressing all around and ther was very little joy in it. In the previous movie, she at least had love even if she had to give it up. And btw, how much did Joseph Fiennes (from E 1) and Clive Owen (from E 2) look alike?

Crazy Love

Some documentaries make me feel smarter for watching them, especially those that deal with the environment or politics or big business.

Then there are others that make me feel stupid for Netflixing them, like the ones HH likes that are basically Tin Foil Hat Society stuff and usually involve UFOs, JFK, and vapor trails.

Now “Crazy Love” comes along and it…it…it confuses me. It’s the story of Burt Pugach and Linda Riss, a couple who fell in sort-of-love when she was just 20 and he was older and rich – and very married. Burt saw Linda one day while he was out driving and became obsessed with her. He had to have her, had to make her his girlfriend or whatever he called it. She was impressed and let him wine and dine her but was shocked to learn he was married. He lied all the time about how he was going to divorce his wife and she believed him until his wife Francine called her and said she would never divorce him.

So Linda left. And she found another man who loved her. Of course Burt was livid when he learned she was engaged to this man. He hired a man to throw lye in her face which blinded her and made her bald. Her engagement was off; her life was off. Burt was sentenced to prison for 30 years but was released on parole 15 years later…

…after giving Linda $4000 and promising the parole board he would continue to give her money! She never married, never felt confident in herself after he ruined her life and took away her sight. When he got out of prison, she agreed to meet him and eventually they married. This in itself is dumbfounding but then we learn that during their marriage Burt cheated on Linda for five years with a younger woman who later claimed he threatened her life. Remarkably Linda not only stood by her cheating man, she defended him!

Their relationship is bizarre. I don’t believe either of them knows what it means to love someone. Then again, who is to say what love really is? They have something that evidently works for them. They each came from very rough circumstances: Burt was beaten by his mother every day and Linda lived with friends from an early age and didn’t have much of a father in her life. Each time I thought I had a handle on who they were and why they acted as they did, something shifted.

So I may not be smarter or dumber by watching this, just more confused.