Free This Weekend: My eBook on Must-See Movie Weddings
Posted on February 14, 2014 at 10:00 am
This weekend only: the Kindle version of my book, 50 Must-See Movies: Weddings
Today On Google’s Home Page: Love Stories from Ira Glass and “This American Life”
Posted on February 14, 2014 at 8:13 am
Be sure to check out Google’s home page today — each Valentine’s Day candy heart has a different love story from Ira Glass and “This American Life,” which has a chocolate box of love stories on its own home page today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o59sAakI28o
For Valentine’s Day: Three Great Movie Kisses
Posted on February 14, 2014 at 7:00 am
From my book, 101 Must-See Movie Moments
It was reputed to be Alfred Hitchcock’s own favorite of all his movies, and it was the acknowledged favorite of critic-turned filmmaker Francois Truffaut, whose book-length interview of Hitchcock is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the way movies tell stories. Hitchock biographer Donald Spoto wrote, “’Notorious’ is in fact Alfred Hitchcock’s first attempt—at the age of forty-six—to bring his talents to the creation of a serious love story, and its story of two men in love with Ingrid Bergman could only have been made at this stage of his life.”
Bergman plays Alicia Huberman, the daughter of a Nazi spy. Humiliated by his trial and conviction and the assumption of everyone she knows that she was helping her father, she has tried to lose herself in wild parties and bad behavior. But T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant), an American agent who has overheard the wiretaps of Alicia’s conversations with her father, knows that she is loyal to the United States. He persuades her to go to work for the American government as a spy, using her father’s connections. One of his old associates, Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains) is living in Brazil with some other Nazi refugees. Devlin takes Alicia there to meet up with Sebastian and find out what he is hiding. In order to infiltrate thoroughly enough to find out, Alicia has to accept Sebastian’s marriage proposal and move into his home. Under the watchful eye of Sebastian’s suspicious mother, Alicia must, like Bluebeard’s wife, steal the key to unlock the door and uncover what has been hidden.
This is a gripping story and the scene where Alicia hides the key is a small masterpiece of tension and suspense. The overlay of the complicated relationship between Devlin and Alicia adds enormous dramatic power to the storyline. Both use a tough exterior to hide their feelings. The suspense of the emotional connection between them is even more compelling than the spy story. Will Devlin refuse to acknowledge his feelings for Alicia because of his professional obligations or because he cannot bear to admit to himself the risks he has urged her to accept? Will he be so blinded by that refusal that he will put her at even greater risk?
And that is what makes their kiss so meaningful. These days, most romantic movies are dreadful because the script cannot think of a good reason to keep them from going to bed together in the first 20 minutes of the story. (Twilight author Stephanie Meyer has acknowledged that the reason she made her main character a vampire was to provide a meaningful – if fantasy – obstacle to physical contact.) In “Notorious,” there are story and psychological barriers keeping them apart. Even worse, Alicia is (presumably) having sex with someone else as a part of her cover. And yet, the longing they have for each other is evident and by the time it finally happens, we are almost as anxious for them to have some overt confession of their true feelings as they are.
And then, at long, long last, they kiss. And in an art form that has spent more time than any other on the kiss, this one just might be the very best in the history of the movies. The Hays Production Code banned kisses of longer than three seconds. So, Hitchcock told Bergman and Grant to just keep kissing, stopping to murmur to each other and nuzzle, and then kiss again. They move from the balcony overlooking the ocean into the room, talking about dinner and calling the hotel as though they are talking about sex, and as though being more than two inches apart is unbearable. “This is a very strange love affair,” Alicia almost whispers as he is calling his hotel to ask for his messages. “Why?” Devlin asks. “Maybe the fact that you don’t love me.” “When I don’t love you, I’ll let you know.” The result is a scene of piercing intimacy.
And two more classic movie kisses:
Breakfast At Tiffany’s
And Lady and the Tramp
And while you are inspired, take a look at Flavorwire’s list of the ten best kisses in literature!
Winter’s Tale
Posted on February 13, 2014 at 6:00 pm
B-| Lowest Recommended Age: | High School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for violence and some sensuality |
| Profanity: | Brief strong language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Supernatural and crime-style violence, some disturbing images |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | February 14, 2014 |
“Winter’s Tale,” based on the acclaimed novel by Mark Helprin
The exquisite images are not hard to come by with Colin Farrell along with “Downton Abbey’s” Lady Sybil, Jessica Brown Findley with auburn hair that makes her look like a pre-Raphealite dream, and a white horse who looks like he should be pulling Cinderella’s coach. The setting feels like a fairy tale, too, first turn of the 20th century Manhattan and then a fabulous snow-covered mansion out in the New York countryside.
Farrell plays Peter Lake, left behind as a baby in America when his immigrant parents were rejected for health reasons and sent back to Ireland. They put him in a model boat with the nameplate “City of Justice” and set him off toward the shore. When we meet him, he is a thief, formerly allied with a brutal, scar-faced crime boss named Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe). Everyone has very literary names in this story except for the horse, who is called Athansor in the book but here is just known as Horse even though, according to one character, he is really a dog.
Now Soames is determined to kill Lake. Rescued once by a mysterious white horse, Lake knows he has to get out of town. He goes on one last expedition to steal enough to pay for his journey. When he is ready to leave just before dawn, the horse refuses to budge. Lake sees the family leaving a luxurious townhouse and decides to see what he can take. He has an intuitive skill with mechanics and easily breaks into the safe.
But one member of the family has stayed behind. Her name is Beverly Penn (Findley) and she is dying of consumption (the 19th century term for tuberculosis). She has to be surrounded by cold all the time, and the family has gone to the country house ahead of her to prepare a tent for her to sleep in. Lake steals nothing but her heart, and loses his own in return. Because she knows she is dying, smaller problems like his being a thief do not really bother her. “What’s the best thing you’ve ever stolen?” she asks him. “I’m beginning to think I haven’t stolen it yet.” Instantly, he knows that his purpose in life is to protect her.
So far, so good, but then the argle bargle about transcending time and everything being connected starts up and it feels like the rules change at random. Or, at least, that a nearly-800 page book lost big chunks in the translation to the screen by writer-director Akiva Goldsman. This relationship between Lake and Penn seems to have some grander purpose, which is why Soames is so determined that he must stop it. He seeks permission from “The Judge,” played by Will Smith. It’s not entirely Smith’s fault that it is at this point things start to completely fall apart. The role is poorly conceived and written and he is catastrophically miscast. Lake ends up getting somehow catapulted into the present day but without his memories. As he tries to piece things together, the pieces of the movie come apart. There are way too many fortune cookie-style pronouncements about eternal battles between good and evil, miracles, destiny, and how we are all connected themselves, even a few from the underused Graham Greene who appears briefly just to throw out some deep thoughts about how God, the devil, angels and demons are just “the newer names” for the forces he describes. Penn says, that “the sicker I become, the more clearly I can see that everything is connected by light.” But by the end, nothing in this movie feels connected to anything.
Parents should know that this film has sexual references and a situation, supernatural and crime violence, some disturbing images and scary surprises, sad death, and brief strong language.
Family discussion: How are the rules for this world established and why are they important? What could only Beverly understand as a result of her illness?
If you like this, try: “Stardust,” “The Adjustment Bureau,” and “The Fountain”
About Last Night
Posted on February 13, 2014 at 6:00 pm
B| Lowest Recommended Age: | Adult |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated R for for sexual content, language and brief drug use |
| Profanity: | Very strong, crude, and explicit language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking, drunkenness, scenes bars, marijuana |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Comic peril |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | February 14, 2014 |
Kevin Hart, who starred in the surprisingly successful “Ride Along” just last month, is back with a much sharper, funnier comedy that is ideal for making the best use of his brash, motormouth persona. Even more important, for the first time Hart appears opposite someone who is every bit his match, the fabulously talented and knock-out gorgeous Regina Hall. It’s one of the best on-screen romantic pairings since Mae West and W.C. Fields. As a funny post-credit scene shows, she not only kept up with him every step of the way, she challenged him to do better. It is clear he is not only upping his game but having a blast.
David Mamet’s play “Sexual Perversity in Chicago” was softened a bit for its 1986 movie version, also called “About Last Night,” a romantic comedy starring Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Jim Belushi, and Elizabeth Perkins. But it was still, for its time, provocatively frank in its portrayal of two couples who were navigating a world that was post Mr. Goodbar but pre-AIDS, pre-Tinder, and pre use of the term “booty call.”
Like the original, there is a serious couple and a comic couple. As the movie begins, Bernie (Hart) and Joan (Hall) are each giving their best friends all the details (and I mean all) of the wild, drunken sex within moments of meeting at a bar the night before. Their friends are Danny (Michael Ealy, with a lot of leading man sizzle) and Debbie (Joy Bryant, with one of the best smiles in Hollywood), both serious, stable, and gunshy about relationships following some bad experiences. Bernie and Joan bring their friends along to their second meeting, otherwise known as the “this isn’t a date date.” Bernie and Joan introduce them to each other as “boring,” and that, more than any other reason, prompts them to try to interact and prove that it isn’t true. “I’m not really boring,” Debbie explains. “I just pretend to be so she can be the crazy one.” Debbie and Danny have sex within hours after meeting, uncharacteristic impulsivity for both of them, and then they worry about what it all means.
Danny and Debbie end up moving in together but poor communication, struggles with intimacy, and Danny’s insecurity over losing his job while Debbie is professionally accomplished. No one seems to know what it means to have sex, to live with someone, to say “I love you” first, to decide to get a puppy. And no one is clear about what it should mean — Danny and Debbie want to have a relationship (most of the time) but sometimes it scares them. And when one of them gets scared, the other’s feelings get hurt.
What keeps this part of the story from bogging things down is the energy and oh-no-you-didn’t outrageousness of the bicker/banter, which starts out down and dirty and then gets even down and dirtier. From the opening blast of “Sex Machine” through a series of hilariously explicit conversations swinging back and forth between confident assertions about the most intimate specifics and panicked cluelessness about the basics of any form of interaction out of bed. So, there’s a lot of theories about how to behave and a lot of failure to carry it off. Danny’s problems at work and with an ex are under-written distractions that don’t work as well as the silly fun of a costume party that has Danny and Debbie dressed as Ike and Tina Turner. The energy and chemistry of the four leads keeps things moving so briskly that it diminishes the familiarity of the material. And, more important, it keeps us hoping for a happy ending.
Parents should know that this is a very raunchy comedy. It features extremely explicit sexual references and situations, sexual humor including many jokes about casual sex and various sexual acts and body parts, drinking and drunkenness, drinking games, and marijuana.
Family discussion: Why did Danny keep asking Debbie if they were fighting? Why did Bertie and Joan enjoy making each other angry?
If you like this, try: the original version, starring Rob Lowe and Demi Moore (briefly glimpsed in this remake), “He’s Just Not That Into You,” and “Think Like a Man”