Even though they liked it at Sundance, here in Multiplex Land I think this was a straight-to-DVD movie. But a fun little indie movie, or at least as indie as Josh Radnor can do. Remember Ted from How I Met Your Mother? Think of Ted in a full-length movie.
Josh Radnor plays Jesse who gets a call from his old professor at college. Being unhappy in his job as an admissions counselor in NYC and having just broken up with his girlfriend, he springs at the idea and heads Back To Ohio. While there he meets 3 different students and has 3 different experiences with each of them. His love interest in Elizabeth Olsen (Zibby) who appears precocious to his stunted. Zac Efron steals the show as a sober but out-there Fool. He also has interesting experiences with his old professors. Did I mention that Zibby is the retiring professor's daughter?
A nice look back with out getting too maudlin. Nice that it is set in modern days. It'll make you feel young without actually being young. My favorite scene: "Why don't we meet for coffee. Jesse: Great... 9 am. OK?.... [much laughter from Zibby!].... Zibby: How about 11:30?
* * * 1/2 of 4
Summer Movies
Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly magazine, here's a list of upcoming movies that I will likely see this summer:
Many are sequels or continuations of a genre, but nonetheless, should make for good viewing:
Release dates included - get in line soon!
Iron Man 3 - May 3
Great Gatsby - May 10- Leonardo Di Caprio, Tobey Maguire
Star Trek Into Darkness - May 17
Hangover Part III - May 24
The Internship - June 7 - Owen Wilson & Vince Vaughn
This is the End - June 12- Seth Rogen, James Franco, Craig Robinson
Man of Steel - June 14- Superman
The Heat - June 28- Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy
Lone Ranger - July 3 - Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer (Social Network)
The Way Way Back - July 5 - Ordinary People + Meatballs
We're the Millers - August 9- Jason Sudekis, Jennifer Anniston
What the top grosser? - prediction: Iron Man 3
Many are sequels or continuations of a genre, but nonetheless, should make for good viewing:
Release dates included - get in line soon!
Iron Man 3 - May 3
Great Gatsby - May 10- Leonardo Di Caprio, Tobey Maguire
Star Trek Into Darkness - May 17
Hangover Part III - May 24
The Internship - June 7 - Owen Wilson & Vince Vaughn
This is the End - June 12- Seth Rogen, James Franco, Craig Robinson
Man of Steel - June 14- Superman
The Heat - June 28- Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy
Lone Ranger - July 3 - Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer (Social Network)
The Way Way Back - July 5 - Ordinary People + Meatballs
We're the Millers - August 9- Jason Sudekis, Jennifer Anniston
What the top grosser? - prediction: Iron Man 3
Searching for Sugar Man
Billed as a documentary, this is more like a mystery. In apartheid South Africa, the musical light of Rodriguez shined through. Bigger than the Rolling Stones. But who was Rodriguez? Where did he come from? And how did he die?
Despite being released this year, the time of the movie is set ending in 1998, a date significant and known as the Pre-Google Era. You have to stretch to remember how easy it might have been to disappear. But a handful of true fans sought to find out about Rodriguez. Looking for Jesus.
The original music is a star of the show. Dylan-esque with a gritty Springsteen blue-collar backdrop. Words to describe Rodriguez are: poet/prophet/artist.
I liked the father/daughter aspect of the movie as the daughter was the one who breaks open the case. And the daughters have a front row seat to see a side of their father that was hidden for a long time.
The classic late-bloomer is a nice moral of this story. Hard to avoid any "spoilers" in a documentary about a search. Plus Rodriguez is now famous and selling out shows in 2013. Living well is the best revenge.
* * * * of 4
Despite being released this year, the time of the movie is set ending in 1998, a date significant and known as the Pre-Google Era. You have to stretch to remember how easy it might have been to disappear. But a handful of true fans sought to find out about Rodriguez. Looking for Jesus.
The original music is a star of the show. Dylan-esque with a gritty Springsteen blue-collar backdrop. Words to describe Rodriguez are: poet/prophet/artist.
I liked the father/daughter aspect of the movie as the daughter was the one who breaks open the case. And the daughters have a front row seat to see a side of their father that was hidden for a long time.
The classic late-bloomer is a nice moral of this story. Hard to avoid any "spoilers" in a documentary about a search. Plus Rodriguez is now famous and selling out shows in 2013. Living well is the best revenge.
* * * * of 4
Identity Thief
After the letdown of Bridesmaids last year, I thought that this "new dawn of female comedy" was just a tease. But after seeing Melissa McCarthy again in an even better role, I think she might be a new star in the Jim Carrey/Adam Sandler mold. That is, not bad when they ad lib, but even better when they play it a bit straight.
Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman both play Sandy Bigelow Patterson. He's the he in Denver, she's the she in Florida. When Mr. Sandy's credit card is declined, he decides to take matters into his own hands and go bring her from Florida to Colorado to face the music. After a meet-cute involving a car crash and a home invasion, they are forced into going on the run together. Turns out, Mr. Sandy is not the only one chasing Ms. Sandy. There's also drug dealers and bounty hunters.
This turns into a modern Midnight Run across the country. Something about the road trip just makes for ripe movie material. Interesting the run comes to a tipping point in St. Louis. You might recall the Griswolds had their own troubles in St. Louis on their road trip in National Lampoon's Vacation.
It's a new day dawning when a fat woman can be a star without that being the whole joke. Chris Farley would be proud.
* * * of 4
Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman both play Sandy Bigelow Patterson. He's the he in Denver, she's the she in Florida. When Mr. Sandy's credit card is declined, he decides to take matters into his own hands and go bring her from Florida to Colorado to face the music. After a meet-cute involving a car crash and a home invasion, they are forced into going on the run together. Turns out, Mr. Sandy is not the only one chasing Ms. Sandy. There's also drug dealers and bounty hunters.
This turns into a modern Midnight Run across the country. Something about the road trip just makes for ripe movie material. Interesting the run comes to a tipping point in St. Louis. You might recall the Griswolds had their own troubles in St. Louis on their road trip in National Lampoon's Vacation.
It's a new day dawning when a fat woman can be a star without that being the whole joke. Chris Farley would be proud.
* * * of 4
Lawrence of Arabia
An epic film deserves an epic viewing experience. So throwing caution to the wind, I took off from work, cleared the afternoon, and spend 4 hours watching the big-screen version of this classic. Me and 2 other people. They left after the intermission, and I watched the second half like the big-screen mogul that I aspire to be.
"They don't make them like they used to"... that is what I thought I'd say. But really, they DO make them like this. The Speilbergs and Lucases and Jacksons just break them up into multiple movies. Otherwise, the long sweeping shots, the meglomaniacal warriors, the hoards of people are all common in our current multiplex.
Peter O'Toole is Lt. Lawrence, assigned to Cairo to guard British interests in the Suez Canal. As a quirkly soldier, he is deemed expendable to send deep into Arabia (not yet a country) in the pre-WW I era to find Lord Feisel. Alone. He has a "meet-cute" with Sherif Ali who takes him to the Lord. Lawrence then volunteers to lead a misfit bunch on a folly battle to fight the Turks. As with most movies, he unexpectedly succeeds and becomes a hero to his fellow Arabs.
Interestingly, this is somewhat of a "gay" film according to some reviews(not that there's anything wrong with that). Of course being made in the early 1960s, you have to use some imagination, in a pre-Code type of way: swishing robes, young boys, ripped shirts, beautiful men, and so on.
The second half introduces a newpaper hack designed to stir things up. Reminded me of the Freddy Lounds character in Manhunter/Red Dragon. Lawrence becomes a man without a country, unwelcome and out of place in two societies.
On viewing the credits, you could see that Speilberg and Lucas had not only been influenced, but also truly bought in, having been credited with re-producing and re-optimizing the film for the big screen. This was worth the time to see it.
* * * * (deserving of its classic reputation)
"They don't make them like they used to"... that is what I thought I'd say. But really, they DO make them like this. The Speilbergs and Lucases and Jacksons just break them up into multiple movies. Otherwise, the long sweeping shots, the meglomaniacal warriors, the hoards of people are all common in our current multiplex.
Peter O'Toole is Lt. Lawrence, assigned to Cairo to guard British interests in the Suez Canal. As a quirkly soldier, he is deemed expendable to send deep into Arabia (not yet a country) in the pre-WW I era to find Lord Feisel. Alone. He has a "meet-cute" with Sherif Ali who takes him to the Lord. Lawrence then volunteers to lead a misfit bunch on a folly battle to fight the Turks. As with most movies, he unexpectedly succeeds and becomes a hero to his fellow Arabs.
Interestingly, this is somewhat of a "gay" film according to some reviews(not that there's anything wrong with that). Of course being made in the early 1960s, you have to use some imagination, in a pre-Code type of way: swishing robes, young boys, ripped shirts, beautiful men, and so on.
The second half introduces a newpaper hack designed to stir things up. Reminded me of the Freddy Lounds character in Manhunter/Red Dragon. Lawrence becomes a man without a country, unwelcome and out of place in two societies.
On viewing the credits, you could see that Speilberg and Lucas had not only been influenced, but also truly bought in, having been credited with re-producing and re-optimizing the film for the big screen. This was worth the time to see it.
* * * * (deserving of its classic reputation)
R.I.P. to Roger Ebert
They say the Golden Age of films were in the 1970s and that seems fitting that is when a new show came on PBS - Sneak Previews which later became At the Movies. That's where Roger Ebert made his introduction into American culture.
I suppose that since my grandmother Pearl was an avid PBS fan that is where I first started seeing the shows. I liked that they were of a current event variety and that it not only appealed to teenaged-me but also was on a high-enough intellectual level that I learned something. They reviewed all the movies, not just the highbrow ones. It gave a nice balance, that there was value in all of them.
Since I've started this blog, I usually check the Roger Ebert website to see how he does it. We agree more than disagree, but he had an art to getting more words down. Years of practice I guess. His obit details someone with newspaper ink in his veins. As we as a Zelig-like way of appearing at the right place at the right time. Dated Oprah ... early investor in Google... drank with Mike Royko..
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130404/MEMORY/130409989
I suppose that since my grandmother Pearl was an avid PBS fan that is where I first started seeing the shows. I liked that they were of a current event variety and that it not only appealed to teenaged-me but also was on a high-enough intellectual level that I learned something. They reviewed all the movies, not just the highbrow ones. It gave a nice balance, that there was value in all of them.
Since I've started this blog, I usually check the Roger Ebert website to see how he does it. We agree more than disagree, but he had an art to getting more words down. Years of practice I guess. His obit details someone with newspaper ink in his veins. As we as a Zelig-like way of appearing at the right place at the right time. Dated Oprah ... early investor in Google... drank with Mike Royko..
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130404/MEMORY/130409989
We'll Always Have Paris
Seeing that the famous bar in Houston, Marfrelee's is closing at the end of this week after a 40 year run makes me think of my one and only experience there.
Marfrelee's is a speakeasy type of place, no windows, no sign on the outside, and a place you think of yourself as in-the-know to go to. In the 80s when I was much younger, it had a mythical reputation behind it of a dreamlike place a la Blue Velvet. Few of my generation had much experience there, and we knew of it only by hearsay. It was rumored to be a dark place and upstairs there were couches and room partitions where you might take your date for a private tete-a-tete and, ...
Now because, or maybe in spite of this perception, not many people I knew frequented Marfrelee's. Perhaps the suggestion of even going there was too forward, too bold. But it was there beckoning, in fact right next to two others places regularly frequented by the 20-something crowd of the day, XIT and Birraporetti's.
There might as well have been a red light outside of Marfrelee's, right next to the "safe" places and yet so far away.
So one fall week, I happened to be out during the week and ran into some friends I knew pretty well, a group of young women. One of them I didn't know but of course I realized that she was quite pretty. When we were introduced, I had to nearly bite my lip - she was "Abby" - a cheerleader from our days in middle school, one of the "finest" girls of that class. Using our terminology of that day.
Now of course, she didn't know me then, and had just met me. She had not idea that we had gone to middle school together years ago, and I was happy not to remind her of those days. It was a fresh start for me and for us!
Thereafter from that night, I got her number from our mutual friend and called to ask her out, and she accepted. We went for dinner and then a drink or two at XIT. As things progressed during the night, she must have gently inquired, what next? With the courage of a soldier, I suggested "Why don't we go next door to Marfrelee's? Good idea she said. [cue the soaring music]
We went next door and the hostess escorted us upstairs to the couches. It wasn't tawdry as I expected, more like going into a room in a home where no one else was. I think there were curtains but there was a hallway of sorts where the waitresses were going in and out. Lights were low but not completely dark.
In this hallway as we were going to our private sitting area, Abby and I were somewhat surprised to see.... someone we had both gone to middle school with. In fact he was "Jeff" who was Abby's boyfriend in middle school. They were the classic football/cheerleader All American Couple that Everybody Loved back then. They were the popular ones. I had just see Jeff a few months ago so we were at least familiar to each other at that point.
And here, at Marfrelees', 10 years later, in the inner sanctum, was I, out on a date going great with Abby, and Jeff was simply an onlooker. I felt I had struck a blow for all Late Bloomers in Middle School. Anthony Michael Hall would have been proud. I know I was.
I never let on to Abby that we had all gone to school together, or how that moment made me feel. Needless to say, that was the high point of the night. We had a nice drink and conversation upstairs in Marfrelee's and it was a most pleasant time. That's it. Afterwards I took her home and we said goodbye with a handshake. We never went out again, and I think she moved to New York City to make it big. It wouldn't surprise me if she is still there.
Twenty five years later, I'll remember that evening for a long, long time. I'm sorry to see Marfrelee's close, as it did live up to its lofty reputation as a magical place. I guess that makes me
a real sentimentalist.
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