List: Body-Switching Movies

Posted on April 13, 2009 at 10:00 am

This week’s release of “17 Again,” starring Zac Efron and Matthew Perry, about a middle-aged man who finds himself turned back into a teenager, reminded me of some of my favorite “body-switching” movies.

1. Freaky Friday Both feature film versions of the classic book about a mother and daughter who switch bodies are delightful and it is fun to see them both and talk about the way each one reflects its era. Be sure to read the book by Mary Rodgers (daughter of Richard Rodgers of Rodgers and Hammerstein).

2. Vice Versa Judge Reinhold and “Wonder Years'” Fred Savage play the body-switching father and son in this 1988 comedy.

3. All of Me This very funny story about a wealthy lifelong invalid who wants her spirit to find a healthy body has lawyer Steve Martin is inhabited by the spirit of Lily Tomlin (some mature material).

4. Face/Off It’s actually not the bodies but the faces that switch in this fantasy-thriller that has cop Nicolas Cage swapping his face and voice with criminal John Travolta (very mature material).

5. Dating the Enemy A pair switches not just bodies but genders in this story about an estranged couple about to break up find themselves in each other’s bodies in this Australian film starring Guy Pearce.

6. Big One of the most beloved films in this category has Tom Hanks as a boy in a grown-up body. It includes the “Chopsticks” scene, with Hanks and Robert Loggia jumping over an enormous keyboard to play the song. (Some mature material)

7. Turnabout This odd little 1940 comedy has a married couple switching bodies thanks to a magical statue in their bedroom.

8. Prelude to a Kiss Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan fall in love and then on their wedding day an old man gives her a kiss and what began as a fairly standard romance becomes a meditation on identity and intimacy.

9. Being John Malkovich A brilliant screenplay by Charlie Kauffman explores the nature of identity, art, gender, the wish for immortality, and a lot more in this story of a portal to the mind of actor Malkovich (who appears as himself, sort of). (Very mature material)

10. 18 Again! and Seventeen Again Body-switching skips a generation as grandparents find themselves teenagers again in these two movies, one starring George Burns and the other starring Tia and Tamera Mowry.

Others in this category include Goodbye Charlie and Switch (both about lotharios whose spirits come back as women) and A Saintly Switch, a Disney film with Viveca A. Fox and David Allen Grier as a quarreling pregnant woman and her football player husband who switch bodies thanks to a magical potion.

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Contest: For Teachers Only

Posted on March 26, 2009 at 11:59 pm

I have some real treasures to give away and I want them to go to people who are real treasures. I can’t think of more fitting recipients than teachers. Here are the prizes:

The first is a collection from my very favorite series for kids, the wonderful My Very First Treasury of 50 Storybook Classics: Preschool Stories.

The second is a gorgeous book, The Art of Kung Fu Panda, with beautiful illustrations and details about the making of the film. The artwork and attention to detail are breathtaking.

And here’s how to win: Send me an email to moviemom@moviemom.com with either “Kung Fu Panda” or “Scholastic Treasury” in the subject line. Tell me what grade you teach and where. Only one prize to a recipient, but the first email for each will be the winner. Thanks for visiting my site, thanks for all you do, and good luck!

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Contests and Giveaways

When Not to Watch Movies, Part 1

Posted on March 21, 2009 at 10:00 am

I was recently reminded of an incident I wrote about three years ago for the Chicago Tribune and it inspired me to re-post the essay:
My husband, daughter and I had just settled in for lunch at one of our favorite local restaurants when another family was escorted to the next table. The mother helped the little girl, who looked to be about 4 years old, off with her coat and lifted her into the booster seat.
Then, before removing her own coat, the mother placed a personal DVD player on the table in front of her daughter and hit the “play” button. Disney’s “Cinderella” started up, and the little girl began to watch. Without headphones.
Even after we moved to a table on the other side of the restaurant, we could hear the strains of “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” as we ate our tandoori chicken and talked about how many things were wrong with that picture.
Here’s what we concluded:
First, the little girl’s parents were teaching her to completely disregard the feelings, the rights and the preferences of anyone else.
The DVD made it harder for us to hear one another and the waiter and impossible to enjoy the quiet music that is normally a part of the restaurant’s pleasant atmosphere.
Instead of teaching their daughter good manners and consideration for others, these parents demonstrated through their own thoughtlessness that they did not believe it was necessary to devote time or energy to thinking about how their actions might affect others.
Second, her parents showed the child she had nothing of interest to tell them and they had nothing they felt was worth discussing with her.
Family meals and car rides are the best time to share the stories of our days, to coordinate upcoming plans, to discuss the news in our communities and to make clear our values and priorities. This family communicated to its youngest member that she was neither valued nor a priority.
Third, the parents failed to take advantage of the opportunity to teach their daughter an indispensable life skill — the ability to participate in a thoughtful and courteous conversation. If her parents keep it up, this girl will become a young woman who has nothing to say to anyone and no way to respond to comments and question at school, with friends, on dates, at job interviews.
Children need to learn the structure of a conversation, namely how to listen, when to nod, how to look the person who is speaking in the eye and how to know whether the other person understands and is interested in what you are saying. The art of conversation also involves knowing how to include everyone in the discussion, how to select the appropriate details to evoke a scene or convey an opinion, and how to disagree without being disagreeable.
Like music, these skills come naturally to some people and are harder for others, but everyone can benefit from practice and example.
Fourth, the girl’s parents lost the opportunity to show their daughter how to pay attention to what is going on around her. The more we allow children to numb their brains and cut themselves off from their environment, the less we are able to encourage their powers of observation and inspire their imaginations.
By using “Cinderella” as a distraction instead of a fully engaging experience, the parents turned it into what Fred Allen called television, “chewing gum for the mind.” The children who will grow up to create the next generation’s “Cinderella” are the ones who are looking at the world around them and exercising their imaginations.
Parents should stretch their children’s attention spans, a challenge in this media-saturated world. One way to do that is to set an example by turning off television, iPods, BlackBerrys, cell phones and PDAs when the family is together.
When our children were growing up, we had a “no headphones” rule on car trips. I preferred having my children argue about which radio station to listen to (that disagreeing without being disagreeable skill takes a while to get right) than having each of them off in separate zones of solitude.
Children need to learn to be engaged observers. Parents should both set an example and explicitly teach their families to be junior Sherlock Holmeses, seeing what they can deduce from what they see, and junior Scheherazades, telling stories to develop their senses of narrative, drama and humor. Is that couple at the next table on a first date or do they know each other well? What language are those people speaking? What can you tell about a person’s profession, hobbies, education, political views and favorite sports team? How do you know?
As we looked across the room at this family — the girl watching the movie, the father talking on his cell phone, the mother looking down at her plate — we wished there was a “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” spell to turn their devices into pumpkins and get them to talk to each other.
NOTE: I got a few emails when this essay first ran asking me if it was possible that the child had some learning issues and was not “neuro-typical.” As someone who worked in a school for disabled children and has disabled family members I am always sensitive to this issue as well. I did observe her in brief conversation with her parents and it seemed clear that this was not the reason for the DVD.

Q&A With the Movie Mom

Posted on November 2, 2008 at 8:00 am

Years ago, 1940-mid 1950s, there was a movie involving a spinster teacher in a small town, who had inspired generations of students. The story involves flashbacks and interaction of former students showing how she had such a positive effect on everyone’s lives. Answer: The lovely film you are thinking of is “Good Morning Miss Dove” with Jennifer Jones. I used to watch a movie about an orphaned girl when I was a kid. The movie starts out with a young girl in a bedroom with her father. By the look of the room you can assume they are wealthy and I think it’s in India. He’s getting ready to leave (to war I think) and she’s touching his face. The father says, “Are you trying to memorize my face,” she replies, “No, I already have it memorized.” He leaves and never returns (think he died at war). The girl gets moved somewhere and is forced to stay in the attic I think. She becomes a maid/slave in the house but her room is in the attic. That’s about all I can remember. I would have been watching it in the early 90’s and can assume it was released at that time. Any idea what that name of that movie is or possibly where I could find out? Thanks for you help! Answer: That wonderful movie (and book) is “The Little Princess.” It has been filmed a number of times but you are thinking of the 1995 version. It is available on DVD. Enjoy!Years ago i saw a film it was about a couple the move into a new house the women finds a wedding dress in the attic that is ripped. when the women put the dress on she is transported back in time to the time when the dress was last warn. me and my mum loved this film and have spent years trying to find out the name i know that it is a film from somewhere 1960s to 1980s at the end she stays in the past and when he moves out he finds pictures of her from the past. if you could help i would be so grateful. all my thanks Answer: Yes, it is “The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan” with Lindsay Wagner and Marc Singer. There was an old movie where at the end it was found that ma belle or at & t ruled the world. It was most likely from the the 60’s or 70’s. Please let me know if you have the answer. This is a tough one – Thanks Answer: That’s the very funny satire “The President’s Analyst” with James Coburn.I saw this movie a few months ago now I can’t think of the name of the actors or the name of the movie! Its about a couple with a daughter..hes a businessman and his wife and daughter go away for a weekend to look at a potential house they might buy…while she’s gone he cheats on her with a blonde woman. When he tries to end it with the blonde she tries to slit her wrists. She lies and says she’s pregnant, she stalks the family and kills the daughter’s bunny. Answer: That movie is “Fatal Attraction” with Michael Douglas and Glenn Close.I have been trying to find the name of a film about a man who had a pair of magic trousers. Every time he put his hand in the pocket he found a Â£5 note. I think it was a British film but not sure, I’m pretty sure it was in black and white though. It was around the time of the Million Pound Note with Gregory Peck. Can you help please?Answer: I believe you may be thinking of a British television movie called “Priceless Pocket” also featured in a compilation film called “The Triangle.” The government makes Mr Popple exchange the pants, but then his new pants have the same magic property.There was a movie I saw some years ago about a soldier who killed his wife and children and sid that some hippies broke ino there home and committed the crime. It was a true storyAnswer: That movie is “Fatal Vision” with Gary Cole playing Jeffrey MacDonald.What was the name of the American film that had a mixed raced girl who was white in appearance but her biological mother was black. She denies her mother in public so that her white friends will not find out she is half black and lie gets bigger and harder to hide. Set roughly 40s – 60s. Answer: I think this is probably “Imitation of Life.” There are two versions, but she’s probably thinking of the one with Lana Turner and Sandra Dee. Both are the story of black and white single moms with daughters who band together. And in both the black daughter is light-skinned and passes for white, even at one point telling her friends that her mother was her “mammy.” Then the mother dies and the daughter is devastated. What was the movie from the late sixties or early seventies set in New York which had as the main characters an older man and his son or adopted son(or similar) they had a personal game of trying to accurately identify the detailed accent origins of every person they met? .Answer: That’s one of my favorites! “A Thousand Clowns” with Jason Robards. I need the title of a comedy about a financial whiz running away from the mob and the FBI and hides out in a high school with a black janitor. Answer: That is “Hiding Out” with Jon Cryer of “Two and a Half Men.”In “Pulp Fiction,” what was in the box that Samuel Jackson would not give up? Answer: Good question, John! And the answer is that no one knows. Writer-director Quentin Tarantino intentionally left it up to the imagination of the viewer and there have been many fascinating alternatives offered by fans of the film. The myth-busting website Snopes has a good summary of the ideas and a confirmation that Tarantino did not answer the question. Thanks to all who wrote!

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Q&As

List: Election Documentaries

Posted on October 31, 2008 at 8:00 am

In honor of one of the most exciting elections in American history, here is a list of ten classic documentaries about elections and politics.

1. Primary This pioneering political documentary from Robert Drew, the first in a trilogy, shows candidate John F. Kennedy running against Hubert Humphrey in the Wisconsin primary in 1960. Elbert Ventura wrote in Slate:

Stacked up against today’s documentaries, which tend toward overweening subjectivity and strident polemics, Drew’s movies seem like relics. Here, it seems, was the first gaze–the audience granted an intimate glimpse of their leaders, the subjects not yet trained to play to the cameras. Ironically, Drew’s innovations would end up killing the very spontaneity he captured. The ubiquity of portable cameras, whose development Drew helped speed along, would eventually usher in the era of media-trained politicians.

2. The War Room “It’s the economy, stupid,” was the mantra of campaign specialists James Carville and George Stephanopoulos as they and their colleagues took a young Governor from Arkansas to the White House.

3. Our Brand Is Crisis Carville attempted to export his skill at marketing candidates to Bolivia and the result is a tale of American hubris — soon to be remade as a feature film starring George Clooney.

4. A Perfect Candidate Two very high profile Virginia candidates for the Senate, former Governor (and Lyndon Johnson son-in-law) Charles Robb and Iran-Contra figure Oliver North compete for votes in 1994 in one of the state’s most tumultuous elections.

5. Journeys With George The daughter of the first woman Speaker of the House made this up-close-and-very-personal documentary about the campaign of George W. Bush that is as much about the way media covers the candidate as about the candidate himself.

6. Anytown, USA Candidates for mayor of Bogota, New Jersey — two legally blind, one ill, in a race that proves that not only is all politics local politics but that local politics are just as brutal and unpredictable as national elections.

7. See How They Run Even by San Francisco standards, this race is a wild one. The ever-popular wheeler-dealer Willie Brown is challenged by a baker’s dozen of colorful characters.

8. The Delegate Most documentaries focus on the candidates, their top aides, or the press. This one looks at a 21-year-old delegate to the GOP convention.

9. Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story The late former Chairman of the Republican National Committee who engineered Ronald Reagan’s election is profiled in this current theatrical release.

10. Unprecedented – The 2000 Presidential Election Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman takes the viewers on a journey through the turbulent 2000 election with stops at the Republican and Democratic conventions and conversations with activists from all sides.