Cold Comfort Farm: 1995, dir. John Schlesinger. Seen on DVD (Feb. 26).
Cold Comfort Farm is a lovely little movie. I want to buy a copy of the DVD so I can put it in the rotation as one of my background movies. I can see myself watching it, or semi-watching-and-listening while I work on the computer or clean the house, many more times.
I loved the book by Stella Gibbons very much when I read it for the first time last year, and have reread the book several times since then. It is a charming book, obviously inspired by Jane Austen, and I was eager to see the film adaptation. I hoped I wouldn’t hate it.
Author: jette
Seabiscuit (2003)
Seabiscuit: 2003, dir. Gary Ross. Seen on DVD (Jan. 30).
Welcome to yet another Prestigious, Important movie about the Triumph of the Human Spirit. Hope you brought some caffeine. And maybe a barf bag.
Seabiscuit is a trite, sappy movie composed entirely of cliches. The storyline is right out of a film-school textbook, except that the first act is far too long. You can predict exactly what is going to happen, and how. Every character is an archetype, and they never, ever go against type.
no, Elvis is not in the king cake
This weekend I saw the best-looking king cake I’d seen in years. I wish I could say I bought it, but we had so much sweet stuff back at the house that it seemed unnecessary. I regret this now.
Let me explain about the king cake. It’s a New Orleans thing mostly. Between Epiphany and Mardi Gras, New Orleans bakeries make king cakes, which are very similar to coffee cake rings except they have purple, green, and yellow (Mardi Gras colors) sugar sprinkled on the top. Somewhere inside the king cake is concealed a little plastic baby.
Citizen Ruth (1996)
Citizen Ruth: 1996, dir. Alexander Payne. Seen on DVD (Feb. 22).
Blanket announcement here: Every time I write one of these entries about a specific movie, with the movie/year as the title, it’s likely to include detailed plot information. If you feel this might spoil your enjoyment of the movie, don’t read it. The “spoiler” info won’t appear on the site index page, but I reserve the right to mention exactly what happens in the damn movie. I am tired of putting those little “spoilers to follow” tags all over the entries, so there.
Citizen Ruth is not a movie I can say I liked, really. I can say it was a good movie, and that I’m glad I saw it, but it wasn’t particularly enjoyable. It was disturbing and sometimes difficult to watch.
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
Intolerable Cruelty: 2003, dir. Joel and Ethan Coen. Seen on DVD (Feb. 21).
[blah blah blah spoilers included blah]
People have been bugging me to see Intolerable Cruelty since it was released, because they said they were eager to hear my opinion on this reworking of the Thirties screwball comedy genre. (I am very very fond of Thirties comedies, in case you were not aware.)
But the thing is, y’all, this isn’t a reworking of a Thirties comedy. I think you have your decades confused.
hearts and flowers and really weird things
Valentine’s Day has never been a very big holiday for me. In the past few years, I’ve treated it like a holiday that other people celebrate. Like Hanukkah or Boxing Day or Easter. I don’t mind coworkers passing around candy and things because, hey, free chocolate. My only gripe has been that it is impossible to dine out that night, but then it’s difficult to eat out on Thanksgiving and Easter too.
I know lots of people like to view Valentine’s Day as a day to shower their relatives, platonic friends, and even coworkers with little presents and cards and things, but I haven’t viewed the day in that way since I was a little girl. Valentine’s Day is for couples to get schmoopy with each other and hopefully the rest of us can let them do that and go along with our business without too much disruption.
The Return of the King (2003)
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: 2003, dir. Peter Jackson. Seen at Gateway (Feb. 7).
[warning: review allegedly contains plot spoilers.]
Note to self: call sister today and tell her I finally saw the damn movie so she’ll stop pestering me and my boyfriend about it. I think she’s seen it three or four times herself, but she does have that little obsession with Orlando Bloom-as-Legolas.
Second note to self: I haaaaaate seeing movies at Gateway. Must write frothing rant about loud/migraine-inducing commercials and trailers later.
The Italian Job (2003)
The Italian Job: 2003, dir. F. Gary Gray. Seen on DVD (Jan 24).
Warning: I’m going to reveal a bunch of stuff about the plot of this movie, so if you haven’t seen it and don’t want to know, don’t read this.
The Italian Job was almost a good movie. It was entertaining, and I enjoyed watching it, but I couldn’t help seeing ways in which it might have been so much better.
Get Shorty (1995)
Get Shorty: 1995, dir. Barry Sonnenfeld. Seen on DVD (Jan 16).
Get Shorty was on my list of films to see last year because it is one of those films that people are always appalled that I say I haven’t seen. Well, everyone except my little brother, who loaned me the DVD with a shrug and said it was somewhat overrated and told me not to worry about getting it back to him in a hurry. In fact, he hadn’t even unwrapped the packaging from the DVD.
But I found Get Shorty to be a nice entertaining movie. Nothing to get overly excited about, but a good movie to curl up on the couch and watch and enjoy.
Irma La Douce (1963)
Irma La Douce: 1963, dir. Billy Wilder. Seen on DVD (Jan 9).
Irma La Douce was Billy Wilder’s most commercially successful film (on initial release, anyway). It also appears to be his silliest film. I’m not saying that like it’s a good thing, either.
I didn’t expect much from Irma La Douce. This is what happens when you read too many film books, I suppose. Also, I tend to dislike Sixties “sophisticated” sex comedies … which might explain why I have this completely inexplicable affection for Kiss Me, Stupid, Wilder’s anti-sophisticated sex comedy.