Brittany Runs a Marathon

Now streaming on Amazon Prime, this Sundance 2019 award winner is part inspirational tale, but also at heart a RomCom with a definite script to follow.

Brittany is nearing 30, living in New York and having a quarter life crisis.  No job, no man or woman, overweight, she is convinced by her doctor to improve her health.  She starts small and finds a local runners group where she meet two misfits just like her.  They train for marathon (hero's quest), have a crisis of confidence (RomCom snafu 30 minutes before the end) and ... well, you can guess the rest.

Along the way to make some money she discovers house and dog sitting which leads her to her romantic interest Jern ( a very Aziz Ansari character).  More classic RomCom tropes emerge.

My guess is that this played so well at Sundance because it looks like an indie film with no-name actors but at heart is a classic studio story with a big name producer behind it (Tobey Maguire).

* * * of 5

Frozen (2013)

Disney's animated story with a lot of familiar ingredients:  the sister rivalry, the dead parents, the banishment, the hero's journey back and true love's kiss.  Add in some snow, and a huge helping of Wicked and you've now Frozen.

It does owe a lot to the Broadway musical that it will be destined to become, and even get the Broadway star Idina Menzel as Elsa and Kristin Bell as Anna (playing the other Kristin Chenowith part).  Also starring Josh Gad's voice as Olaf, the wise cracking snowman sidekick.

A predictable if pleasant Cinderella/Sleeping Beauty/ Beauty and the Beast story.

* * * of 5

National Lampoon's Animal House

A modern classic, still regularly quoted on college campuses everywhere.

Caddyshack (1980)

My latest post was about the first Saturday Night Live movie.  While this was not a skit from SNL, the writing was certainly inspired by that humor. Also starring SNL regulars Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, it's an Upstairs/Downstairs look at a country club inspired by Brian Doyle- Murray's caddying for the Chick Evans Scholarship in Chicago back in the 60s and 70s.

 Done in the pre VHS days it became a staple on HBO and is regularly quoted on every golf course in the world today. Also the subject of an interesting book, again quoting the movie's famous line, A Cinderella Story.

Written by Doug Kenney, also of National Lampoon's Animal House fame, which was also the subject of a movie about this movie, A Futile and Stupid Gesture. Hear it in the Animal House clip.

The Blues Brothers (1980)

Amazon has a Christmas ad playing a familiar song.  Here it is in all its analog, pre CD, pre VCR glory.  This was the first movie to bring a Saturday Night Live sketch to the big screen.



Lots of good music in this movie.  Here's a young Aretha Franklin!



Be sure to watch the original first and then you can see Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) starring John Goodman and Dan Ackroyd

Last Christmas

T'is the Season for Christmas movies.  Hollywood is good for 2 or 3 a season while Hallmark does it all year long.

Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones, Me Before You) plays Kate, a nice little elf who works in a year-round store for Santa (Michelle Yeoh).  The old Wham! favorite "Last Christmas" plays on a loop. 

She meets Tom, an an angelic young man Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) who works in a homeless shelter while working as a bike messenger.

But you'll have to see the movie to see the surprise plot bringing the song Last Christmas to life.  Last Christmas I gave you my heart/ but the very next day you gave it away/ this year to save me from tears/ I'll give it someone special. 

Some good talent comes together, written by Emma Thompson and directed by Paul Feig.

Better than expected!    * * * * of 5

Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)

My friend Keith is not only a talented car restorer but also a fan on 70s car chase movies.  Smokey and the Bandit is his favorite but he also likes Bullitt, the French Connection, Bond movies and this one.

An unusual movies without stars or even much of a plot.  A group of car thieves finds more and more cars to steal, until the final White Whale, named Eleanor, gives them the final ride.  Not so easy to follow but the visuals were interesting.



* * of 5

One Child Nation

Grand Prize winner at Sundance 2019, this documentary is about the one child policy in Communist China from the 80s to the 2000s in response to a booming population.  The filmmaker Nanfu Wang does an admirable job of getting Chinese people involved in the one child policy, from enforcers to those affected to show what it was really about:  Not just voluntary birth control, but forced sterilization, inducing birth, abortions, infanticide and forced adoptions.

A highlight is showing a girl whose sister was forcibly taken and adopted out to an American family.  Through DNA they find out about each other but that is as far as it goes.  The Chinese girl muses "she probably has milk and bread for breakfast every morning".

A strong subject, but seemed a little choppy.

* * * * of 5

Psycho (1960)

Probably the most famous movie scene ever!

 

The Two Popes - on Netflix

Professor Futch would have loved this - it could be required viewing for his course The Papacy Since the Schism aka "Popes for Dopes"

A historical fiction story about the friendship between Pope Benedict and Cardinal Bergoglio (later Pope Francis) and their personal struggles as top leaders in the Roman Catholic church.

Great photography, particularly the scenes in the Sistine Chapel.  Mind blowing!  And the costuming - top notch.

* * * * * (highest)

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot

After his 2017 heart attack, Kevin Smith was lying in the hospital thinking, "I can't believe the last movie I'm made was Yoga Hosers!"  After surviving, he launched into a new creative burst and got together all his old friends to make a new movie, the Reboot.




All his old friends from the 90s have gone on to big things:  Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, his own daughter Harley Quinn Smith.  So they're all back in what he called "a high school reunion with everyone you wanted to see".  This movie is playing like a concert tour, a road show, with Smith and Jason Mewes (Jay) live.  It's a nice way to watch the movie and see a live show at the same time.

If you haven't seen all his movies, you'll figure them out soon enough.  As a Generation X kid, he takes the touchstones of our youth, the mall, the convenience store, the fast food restaurant and turns them into everyday existentialism, with occasional interruptions from the real world such as customers, security guards and store supervisors.

The plot is like Dumb and Dumber (no surprise).  Two goofball slackers must travel across the country to stop someone from stealing one of their stoner ideas.  Along the way, Jay meets up with his old girlfriend (Shannon Elizabeth, that 90s icon) who tells him that her daughter (Harley Quinn Smith) is his.  They all end up going to Chronic Con where Jay finally has a chance to grow up after all.  Not a bad story.  It lives up to its definition of "reboot".


* * * * of 5