So, in this thread twickster complained that most of the Oscar movies (and, it seemed, most movies in general) are too damned depressing, and she ignored my post listing all the movies from 2007 that weren’t, so here’s a thread just for you twickster. Movies that you could choose to see instead of complaining this time next year that there wasn’t anything you could see that didn’t want to make you slit your wrists.
Obviously, as time goes by these will leave the theater and others will take their place, but right now they’re in the theater, and I’ll add more as I see them.
Penelope - A charming little fairy tale of a movie starring Christina Ricci as a poor little rich girl whose family was cursed generations before. The curse is that any female child born would have the nose of a pig, and the only way to break the curse was to find true love with one of her own kind (a blueblood, not a guy with a pig nose). It man James McAvoy plays Max, a down-on-his-luck blueblood (he lost all his money gambling) is eager to try where many have failed (failed to fall in love with Penelope because they get one look at her and run screaming). It’s a very very sweet movie that all girls (and boys) should see, because it has important but not cloying lessons about being true to yourself, liking yourself, and accepting other people for who they are, not what others think they should be. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and all that jazz. Grown-ups should like it too. My husband and I both enjoyed it.
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day - Finally, a (quite delightful screwball comedy of a) movie starring a 50+ woman (Frances McDormand) and it’s going to die a quick ugly death at the box office. Why? Because older women who complain that “they don’t make movies for me” are not going to go see it to support it, and it probably won’t appeal to other demographics, so if the older women don’t go out in force and see it, it’s curtains. So we won’t get another Miss Pettigrew-type film for 10 years. Sure, it might make its money back on DVD, but these things usually get greenlit if they did at least decent business in the theater. Long ago and in another age, this movie might have hung around and found an audience among people who don’t rush right out to see movies on opening weekend, but now movies like this aren’t given a chance to breathe.
Charlie Bartlett - another delightful film that isn’t finding an audience and is suffering terribly because of it. CB is a small movie about a kid who on the outside looks like he’s got everything under control and is the smartest guy around, while inside he’s a wounded little boy who doesn’t know what life is supposed to be about. It’s a comedy, but has some depth to it.
Definitely, Maybe - an unusual but satisfying rom-com where the emphasis is on a father-daughter relationship, with the daughter, by making her father tell her the story of how he met her mother (without knowing which of the girlfriends in the story ends up being her mother) helping her father come to grips with his divorce and current situation. Much better than the trailer would lead you to believe.
Be Kind Rewind - No where near as stupid as the terrible trailer would lead you to believe, but still lesser Michel Gondry. I was a bit disappointed in this, and consider it my least favorite of his films, but it still has many delightful moments and I’m glad I saw it. Danny Glover plays a convenience store owner who realizes he needs to upgrade from renting VHS tapes to DVDs, so while he goes off to research what it would take to turn his store into a DVD rental place, he leaves the store in the hands of his sweet-natured but dim-witted employee Mike (Mos Def). Mike’s loonball best friend Jerry (Jack Black) gets magnetized (it’s a fantasy, ok?) and ruins all the VHS tapes, so Mike and Jerry decide to “swede” the movies. Sweding is when amateur filmmakers make their own copies of famous movies for fun. It’s easy and fun to do and in this age of YouTube, you can actually have an audience for your films. Anyway, the people of the neighborhood like Mike and Jerry’s sweded films and they become famous. Until the FBI warning comes back to haunt them, and the building the store is in is condemned and they have to try to save it. It’s a very silly movie, but with a lot of heart and even some soul.
All five of these movies are doing poorly at the box office for no real good reason. People say they want movies that are fun and uplifting without being stupid and predictable, but when movies like that are made and released they don’t go out to see them. No wonder Hollywood goes so often with bankable sequels, horror and action flicks.
Coming up: Under The Same Moon - A sweet Spanish-language film about a boy who lives with his grandmother in Mexico while his mother works in Los Angeles to save money to bring him to the states to be together again. When the grandmother dies, the kid decides on his own that he’s going to go to Los Angeles rather than stay with strangers who will probably take the money his mom sends to help pay the bills and spend it on themselves. Cute situations ensue. Well-worth seeing. I don’t know when this opens. I saw a free screening a few weeks ago.
Bad Santa isn’t a Coen comedy, either written or directed. It was directed by Terry Zwigof (Crumb, Ghost World). IMDB says that the writers were Glenn Ficarra & John Requa. I don’t know any of their previous work. I think Bad Santa is gut-bustlingly hilarious, but I can understand how others wouldn’t like it. It’s so highly irreverent, raunchy and profane it’s certainly not for everyone.