: to declare to be untrue or invalid
: contradict, oppose
Today was picture day for Gabriel; hopefully, his teacher shaped him up enough to get at least one good pic. Tomorrow is a faculty meeting day for Julia. This weekend? Who knows? Football, I guess.
Well, it's a new month, of course, and I realize that I forgot to do my monthly thing of adding ten more films to the list of Charles' 200 Essential American Films. Never fear, here's this month's entries, bringing the total to ninety now:
- Before Sunset (2004; directed by Richard Linklater)
The first one, 1995's Before Sunrise, was pretty wonderful, but this one was even better unbelievably romantic and touching, with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reconnecting on the final day of his book tour, just walking around Paris and talking. And what talk it is too. We get so caught up in their talk that it's easy to forget how rich the acting and filmmaking is.
- The Big Heat (1953; directed by Fritz Lang)
A powerful, punchy, stylized bit of noir, with Glenn Ford up against a powerful crime syndicate - with Lee Marvin as one of its thugs - and Gloria Grahame at her best as a femme fatale. What's in the suitcase? No matter - what a ride!
- Bull Durham (1988; Ron Shelton)
A grand sports comedy, sexy and entertaining. Its appeal is multi-fold: A wise, appealing love story (with Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon at their most charismatic and charming); a sympathy for the underdogs (the Durham Bulls); and a lived-in, around-the-block feel at the dreams and realities of players destined to have nothing more than minor-league careers. Tim Robbins makes an adorably blockheaded second banana.
- Dead Man Walking (1995; Tim Robbins)
A film that pulls no punches and has no political agenda. It's the kind of film that rolls around in your head for days afterwards, letting you try to answer the questions and argue the points it has so harrowingly raised.
- Double Indemnity (1944; Billy Wilder)
One of the best thrillers ever made. Some of the best dialogue ever written. One of the best in-over-his-head saps ever (Fred MacMurray). One of the best femme fatales ever (Barbara Stanwyck). One of the best screenplays ever (Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder, from the James Cain novel).
- Erin Brockovich (2000; Steven Soderbergh)
Why not? It's a great entertainment, a star vehicle of the best kind - full of ideas, with flavorful direction, a script that isn't obvious or full of pat moralizing, and Albert Finney (always a plus).
- A History of Violence (2005; David Cronenberg)
A tale of how the past is never really past, that it's impossible to escape from who you are - goofily, scarily violent and graphic, well-paced, with Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello at their best, Ed Harris a terrific villain, and William Hurt - who can be so boring and mannered - explosively strange and fruity as a head nutso.
- JFK (1991; Oliver Stone)
Probably Stone's best film - there's so much kaleidoscopic visual wonder on display, so much headache-inducing crosscutting and superimpositions and differing film stock, that you just surrender to it, even if you think it's all paranoia b.s. A directorial achievement nonetheless and a film full of ideas, with a large, impressive cast (standouts include Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, and Donald Sutherland).
- The Last Picture Show (1971; Peter Bogdanovich)
Bogdanovich does a magnificent job with the Larry McMurtry novel, capturing the barren ordinariness of lives lived in a nothing town; existentialism meets ennui meets soap opera. Impeccably cast and performed, poignant and sad.
- Safe (1995; Todd Haynes)
Maybe the greatest American movie of the 1990s, a tour de force for writer-director Todd Haynes with one of the greatest performances ever (by Julianne Moore). A southern California housewife becomes allergic to her environment and is forced to move to a wellness retreat in New Mexico. A film that works on countless levels, it's also a movie that is whatever you want it to be: social satire, science fiction, character study, an examination of modern life, fable, send-up of everything self-help, piercing drama of loneliness and marital discord.
*
And now, the new movies opening this weekend:
The Words A bunch of hotties in this one: Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Olivia Wilde - and, for those who like their men older and suaver, Dennis Quaid and Jeremy Irons. Cooper pays a struggling writer who comes across a manuscript that tells the story of a WWII romance between a veteran and a French girl. Cooper passes it off as his own work... an act of thievery that has consequences. Critics aren't really buying all the narrative trickiness; I haven't seen one rave review yet. Terrific cast, though: it also includes J.K. Simmons, Ron Rifkin, Michael McKean, and Damages' John Hannah and Zeljko Ivanec.
Verdict: Interested
The Cold Light of Day Terrible reviews for this action-er that stars Henry Cavill (should I know who that is?) as a man whose family is kidnapped during a sailing outing in Spain by agents searching for a mysterious, all-important briefcase. The only possible interest could be in seeing Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver in supporting roles and the city of Madrid.
Verdict: Not Interested
Bachelorette With the exception of Richard Roeper ("I'm ready to forget I ever saw it") and a few others, critics are generally enjoying this raunchy girls-being-hellish comedy in the vein of The Hangover and Bridesmaids. The night before their friend's wedding, three bridesmaids (Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan, and Isla Fisher) go out looking for adventure. James Marsden, Rebel Wilson (Kristen Wiig's odd, obese female roommate in Bridesmaids), and Adam Scott co-star.
Verdict: Very Interested
*
So I'm reading a Harlan Coben book at the moment and I come across a reference to a tourist stop in New Jersey called Lucy the Elephant. I had no idea it was real:
http://www.lucytheelephant.org/?presets=preset5
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Images:
http://justcomedies.com/bull-durham/
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtvR0EdkeY-m5M-IArwwTNNCv5UrXn2EbQsAvNaFib2HvziuFC-in82OweK_DZTbRNOp_m_Zh7fSwAzxkO4akMoMgF9UDtvDkhJ5FVXAIZ4axr0vYRk83-Cd8hAfoi8W0DctDuGEkk9Jor/s400/Erin+Brockovich2.jpg
http://blogs.amctv.com/movie-blog/jfk-costner.jpg
http://www.filmclub.org/assets/images/film_images/large/10357-large.jpg
http://www.picktainment.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/wordsstill1.jpeg
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