THE WOMEN (1939)

Turner Classic Movies showing

I had absolutely no desire to see the 2008 “updated” version of The Women so I substituted the original for the new release. I’m not quite sure why I’ve never viewed this before, but I made a point to really take some time with it. Unfortunately, I had no idea how much [...]

SPACED – Season One

DVD rental

I first heard about the 1999 British television series Spaced a couple of months ago when the series DVD was released, and all it took to peak my interest was this statement: “Spaced is about a generation of adults who live and die under pop culture’s influence, the kind of people still recovering from [...]

COCO CHANEL

Lifetime Movie

This month has been a Shirley Maclaine festival for me, wherein I’ve discovered a new appreciation for her as an actress and not so much as a personality. And so I watched a “Lifetime Movie Event” against my usual taste simply for the pleasure of seeing her embody the larger-than-life persona of Coco Chanel. [...]

THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND

Although I have the greatest respect for the talents of Forrest Whitaker, it is only now that I have made an effort to watch his Oscar-winning performance as Ugandan President Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. This is, of course, my year for James McAvoy, and I’m thankful that he finally led me [...]

THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY-SOXER

One of the reasons I tend to dislike modern romantic comedies is that they lack the innocent humor of past screen gems. The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer is a perfect example. This story could never be retold in a way that wouldn’t seem suggestive. A teenage girl develops a crush on a playboy bachelor, and [...]

SMART PEOPLE

September 2, 2008, on DVD

The appeal of Smart People was initially Dennis Quaid as a depressed sad-sack-of-a-man and Ellen Page as his equally dysphoric daughter. With Thomas Haden Church as one more element seemed to me a perfect mix for a subtly humorous indie. And the movie is funny, but sometimes it’s so subtle and [...]