Picoreviews for The Aviator, Josie & the Pussycats, Crash, Lackawanna Blues, There’s No Business Like Show Business, Strictly Ballroom, Titan AE, Donnie Darko
The Aviator: I got this because Cate Blanchett is supposed to be wonderful as Katharine Hepburn. Having only seen Hepburn in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? I have no way to really judge if Blanchett was wonderful, but she seemed pretty Hepburn-like to me. DiCaprio was good enough to be uncomfortable to watch at times, so I’d say overall it was worth watching.
Josie & the Pussycats: A re-watch. Just as howlingly funny as the other couple times I’ve seen it. :)
Crash: My, how very sheltered I am. It’s more or less unfathomable to me that people can act like that; racism to that degree seems like caricature to me. A very, very good movie. Surprisingly, even one I would watch again; often very good movies (like, say, Born on the 4th of July) are not things I need or want to see more than once. This one I’d be willing to watch again.
Lackawanna Blues: This movie’s *only* flaw was that it was a Showtime or HBO thing, can’t remember which, and so S. Epatha Merkerson (best known as the Lieutenant on L&O) wasn’t up for an Oscar. She was up for, and won, just about every other award known to the film industry, and wow did she deserve it. This was a much happier film than I expected it to be, and I *really* enjoyed it.
There’s No Business Like Show Business: Irving Berlin. Marilyn Monroe. Ethel Merman. Donald O’Connor. How could you possibly go wrong? It turns out you can in fact go horribly horribly wrong. Start with not introducing Monroe’s character for 25 minutes, then having her on screen for about 4 before returning to the interminable other characters. I fast-forwarded through a couple scenes, then couldn’t take even *that* anymore and stopped watching it. I never stop watching movies. Gah!
Strictly Ballroom: Even if I hadn’t known, I might’ve guessed that this was by the same guy who did Moulin Rouge. It was similarly frenetic, though it did seem like sort of a dress rehearsal for Moulin. I enjoyed it very much, though, and it made me all sniffly at the end. (I’ve gotten to be such a sop.)
Titan AE: Re-watch. I liked this just as much the second time, too, and not just because I want Akima’s hair. :)
Donnie Darko: What a bizarre movie. I rented it because of its cult classic standing, and I pretty clearly don’t belong to that cult. I wasn’t especially interested in any of the characters except Donnie’s girlfriend, although Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance was very, very good, and the very end of the film (the denounment, rather than the climax) was extremely satisfying to me.
I really loved THE AVIATOR and CRASH. Both movies that aren’t exactly in my target field, but I loved them anyways. CRASH pretty much makes you uncomfortable the whole time, but I remember at the end of it, my husband and I looked over at each other and went ‘Whoah. That was /good/.’
Iconlove!
dankyoo!
Yeah, _Strictly Ballroom_, _Romeo+Juliet_, and _Moulin Rouge_ are all sold in a set as the Red Curtain Trilogy. Hard to figure how they constitute a trilogy other than being Baz productions, but they’re all excellent movies, so it’s a fine set.
Yeah. I haven’t seen Romeo+Juliet, and my !netflix thing doesn’t seem to have it. Wah. :(
Audrey Hepburn, Turner Classics had an AH evening Friday night. I came in to watch the last bit of “Rooster Cogburn.” I remember it’s original release quite well. Good stuff.
Jim
The reason he classes them as a trilogy is because he focuses on different media to tell a story about love–dance, language and song. Plus, they all have that over-the-top larger than life thing.
It’s like Kiezlowski’s trilogy–they’re not tied together by the story, like Alien Aliens and Alien3, they’re tied by meta elements.
Ah, too bad. /R+J/ is quite a lovely flick.
From reviews I’ve read, people seem to either love Cate’s Hepburn or absolutely hate it. My mother was awed by it, and she grew up watching both Hepburns grow up in the movies. I consider that a resounding ovation.