Crazy 80's Project: Making Love

I wanted to hate Making Love and its safe, dated handling of a then-controversial plot (a married man upsets his comfortable upper-class life by having an affair with an openly gay man), but a funny thing happened on the way to a perfectly predictable and disposable film. In between the cheesy moments of pure marital bliss between Zach (Michael Ontkean) and Claire (the fabulous Kate Jackson), the scenes of Gay Life Circa 1982, which was apparently a lot more masculine and rugged than it is nearly 20 years later, and the ho-hum, middle-of-the-road easiness the film embraces for much of its runtime, there's something surprisingly refreshing about Making Love. Honestly, there's nothing even slightly offensive about Making Love, which is surprising since even a full decade later Philadelphia was far more uncomfortable with its sexuality and had much less to lose. This is both to Making Love's credit and a knock against it because it almost refuses to raise the stakes beyond the minimum necessary to move the story forward, which matches its indistinct Movie of the Week style. But the choice to have both Claire and Bart (Harry Hamlin), the man Zach has the affair with, speak long monologues directly into the camera like a documentary subject lends Making Love a touch more honesty than it probably deserves. Jackson and Hamlin deliver these monologues with the same delusions, idiosyncrasies and misguided conviction that ordinary people would (Bart claims he loves being single and unattached but something in his manner suggests otherwise; Claire naively thinks her marriage can still work even though her husband wants to bone dudes now). It's not especially groundbreaking--we're not talking Bergman-levels of self-examination--but it's enough to turn what could have been a turgid, past-its-prime piece of fluff cinema into something worth thinking of at some point in the future. Besides, how can you hate on an 80's film where the gay main characters neither contract HIV or die outright by the final frame? C+

30 Day Film Challenge: Day 04

Day 04: A Film You Watch to Feel Down

Ordinary People (Robert Redford, 1980)

I have been known, after a particularly rough day, to throw caution to the wind and pop my DVD of Ordinary People in the player to depress myself even further. And then I'm an emotional wreck for two days afterward. Despite this fact, it is one of my all-time favorite films.

Like Father, Like Son

The other day I watched Walk, Don't Run on TCM without knowing much about it besides it was a remake of The More the Merrier and it starred Cary Grant and Samantha Eggar, who I've become infinitely curious about since I saw The Collector awhile back. As I was watching it, I realized that it also starred Jim Hutton, father of Academy Award-winner Timothy Hutton of Ordinary People fame (I really can't escape that movie lately, can I?). Having never seen a photo of him, much less a movie, I was absolutely stunned when he walked on screen the first time.


They look exactly alike and not just in that "we share the same DNA" way. There were moments where it looked Timothy Hutton had gone back in time and dressed up in adorable 1960's suits just to be in this movie. It was freaky. I literally could not get over it during the whole movie. Jim would come on screen and I'd be like "Wait, why is Conrad Jarrett in this movie?" I guess that's the price you pay for being an Ordinary People fanatic.

As for the rest of the film, there isn't much to say really. I was never really a huge fan of The More the Merrier; it has a bloody good first half but stalls out somewhere towards the middle with horrible melodrama and a lengthy scene where Jean Arthur would not fucking stop crying. Walk, Don't Run, on the other hand, never even gets off the ground. I like Samantha Eggar and Jim Hutton but they are definitely no Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea. Eggar, in particular, doesn't have an ounce of comedic timing in her body. The morning routine scene where Eggar is supposed to describe in too great of detail how the bathroom shall be divvied up in the morning falls completely flat, whereas in the original Jean Arthur had me howling with laughter. It should have been a sure thing for Eggar, but she completely mangles it. The film has a couple of good bits towards the middle, Cary Grant is always a treat and the ending is nowhere near as irritating as the original, but, overall, Walk, Don't Run fails to live up even to the modest triumphs of The More the Merrier. C-

Ordinary People Reimagined 30 Years in Either Direction

In case you're unaware, I have what you may call a sick and unhealthy obsession with the 1980 film Ordinary People. I have seen it more times than any person ever should, and every time I do, I'm an emotional mess for days afterwards. Recently, I even wrote an in-depth piece about how truly groundbreaking the film is, namely in its handling of an unusual mother/son dynamic typically ignored by Hollywood and cinema in general. Due to the film's uniqueness in that respect and its low-key stature despite winning the Best Picture Oscar (because Raging Bull should have won, blah blah get over it), one of my biggest fears is that someone will remake this wonderful film and completely ruin everything great about it. The idea of some hack director getting it into his head that just because the film is set in the early 80s everything in it is outdated and needs to be revamped for today's audiences is the stuff nightmares are made of. Plus, how in the hell do you top this amazing cast?


A very difficult task, indeed. And because I have no life and enjoy thinking about things like this, I often wondered just what the perfect Ordinary People cast would be in 2010 should someone stupidly try to remake it. It's a harder task than you would think given how difficult and precise these characters are. Here's what I came up with:

Andrew Garfield as Conrad
Robert Downey, Jr. as Cal
Nicole Kidman as Beth

If you've seen Boy A, then you understand why Andrew Garfield is perhaps the only choice for Conrad in this remake. Especially for a male actor of his age, he has the uncanny ability to play emotional vulnerability in a way that's usually only expected of females. Conrad is one of the few roles of this nature that relies almost entirely on this ability. Besides, can you imagine any other young male actor in the role? I love Zac Efron but, based on what we've seen so far from him, who knows if he could pull it off. Taylor Lautner? Haha, no. Robert Pattinson would probably be the mainstream alternative, given how they tried to make him James Dean in Remember Me, but I remain unconvinced he has the talent to make it work.

Our very own Ice Queen Nicole Kidman would be the perfect choice to play Beth, a woman whose emotional frigidness actually destroys her. Even if this is Kidman's stock in trade, there's another reason I would pick her. For most of the movie Beth has to hide her lack of emotion by retreating behind a mask of happiness and gaiety. She appears to be warm and loving with all of those around her (minus Conrad, natch), so that is how she is able to deceive her family for so long. I keep picturing that faux warmness Kidman portrayed in The Golden Compass and that's honestly what has me convinced she'd be perfect for the part.

Robert Downey, Jr. may seem like a strange choice, particularly to those people who only know him from his recent resurrection as the biggest star in Hollywood due to star turns in stuff like Tropic Thunder and Iron Man. But before then, he was also a consistently reliable dramatic actor in stuff like Less Than Zero and Chaplin. Playing Cal in Ordinary People would allow him to reconcile these two aspects of his career into one performance.

And because I really have no life, I was recently thinking what the 1950s version of Ordinary People would look like. This recently turned into a long and particularly nerdy Twitter conversation with J.D. and Glenn (the latter of which suggested I turn this into a post, which is funny because I was already planning one halfway through the conversation) that yielded a lot of interesting suggestions. Here is what I ended up going with:

James Dean as Conrad
James Stewart as Cal
Olivia de Havilland as Beth

James Dean, the little prince of post-War tortured teenage emotions, may seem like an obvious choice to play the emotionally damaged Conrad, but sometimes the obvious choice is the right one. I recently re-watched East of Eden and was surprised at just how vulnerable and emotionally needy he was in that film, even more so than in Rebel Without a Cause. Just imagining him in all of his James Dean glory, mumbling and stumbling through those early scenes in an emotional stupor gives me goosebumps. Sal Mineo (who has his own unique take on the emotionally tortured teen) and Dennis Hopper (who played a slightly similar role in Giant) are both other possibilities but Dean is obviously my top pick.

Casting the 1950s version of Beth proved to be a little more difficult. I originally had Bette Davis in mind, because, hello, she's my queen but something didn't quite sound right. Then Olivia de Havilland popped into my head and everything clicked. Much like Mary Tyler Moore in the original, Olivia was perhaps better known for having a warmer persona than Beth has. She wasn't exactly a comedienne like Mary but she was definitely more of an "everyday" girl than Bette. By the 1950s, Olivia had also been experimenting with the ice cold aspect of her persona, most notably in that final act of The Heiress. Her take on Beth would have been fascinating to watch and a nice change of pace from her usual work.

James Stewart could really be interchanged with someone like Henry Fonda as they both have the nice guy personas which would have been interesting to see trying to mediate between de Havilland and Dean. I ended up going with Stewart only because at one point he and de Havilland were heavily involved romantically. You all know how much I love to watch art mimicking and reflecting on real life so watching them as their marriage deteriorates might have given a glimpse into what they were like together.

Now it's your turn. If you had the chance to recast Ordinary People 30 years either way, who would you go with?

10 Favorite Movie Characters

A couple of days ago, I whined and manipulated until I got was graciously given a tag to do the Top 10 Favorite Movie Characters meme that's been burning up the interweb of late. The resulting list wasn't as hard to come up with as I originally feared but, to be honest, all I did was go through my DVD collection and just picked 25 characters that jumped out at me and narrowed it down from there. Not much agonizing over here. What I was most fascinated about by my final list was how it was a fairly nice round-up of my two favorite characters: the larger-than-life female and the damaged boy. Hmm....

Let's get started with this before we analyze that to death.

Apologies to the Runners-Up (in no particular order for a solid 25): The Tramp (City Lights), William Canfield, Jr. (Steamboat Bill, Jr.), Lina Lamont (Singin' in the Rain), Effie White (Dreamgirls), Maggie "The Cat" (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Erin Brockovich (Erin Brockovich), Go-Go (Kill Bill Volume 1), Sharpay Evans (High School Musical 2), Miriam Aarons (The Women), Bonnie Parker (Bonnie and Clyde), Norman Bates (Psycho), Mr. Aoki (Shall We Dansu?), Grandma with Crazy Pink Hair (Castle in the Sky), Regina George (Mean Girls)

Susan Vance in Bringing Up Baby
Quite possibly the greatest concoction ever to emerge from a screwball comedy. And you have to admire the lengths she goes to get the man she loves; that's what I call dedication.

Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind
She's a survivor, yo. I really wish I had her determination and drive to get everything she wants out of life, even if she has to lie, steal, cheat or kill to get it.

Margo Channing in All About Eve
This is going to be me in 20 years: the grand, aging diva always ready for every party with a martini in one hand and an arsenal of bitchy one-liners for unsuspecting guests.

Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard
She is big, and that's the way I love her.

Antoine Doinel in Stolen Kisses
Most people would pick Antoine Doinel in his teenage years in The 400 Blows, but I like to imagine my Antoine as the happy-go-lucky young adult in Stolen Kisses. It probably doesn't hurt that his character in this film is roughly the same age I am now and can relate to him on a whole new level than before.

Barbara Jean in Nashville
One of the saddest characters I have ever seen in any film. After all of her scenes, I just feel so bad for her I find it hard to concentrate on any other character with the same amount of attention.

Conrad Jarret in Ordinary People
Every time I watch this movie, and it's probably more often than any sane person needs to, I just want to reach out and comfort this poor guy.

Posh Spice in Spice World
Not only do her line readings ring with hilarity, but this character is quite obviously the starting off point for the "Victoria Beckham" character we all love so dearly (or at least I do).

Velma Kelly in Chicago
Fierce, monstrously talented and, in fact, can do it alone- what's not to love?

Robert Ford in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Strangely relatable and, yet again, another character I feel infinitely sad for everytime they appear on screen and feel this uncontrollable urge to just give them a hug.

Can You Fix My H-E-A-R-T, 'Cause It's D-A-M-A-G-E-D?

I changed my banner about a week ago. Did anyone notice? Well, it's okay if you didn't, I'm not hurt...really, I'm not. It's just that after having my lovely Stolen Kisses banner up there for months (longer than any other banner I've ever used), I would think that someone would have said something, anything about it.

Excuse me while I run off and cry.

Just kidding, everyone. As much as I loved my old banner, I decided it was time for a change and after watching both Ordinary People and Equus in the same weekend, I finally figured out my new theme: damaged boys. As Jack McFarland once said on an episode of Will & Grace (I believe it was the one where Michael Douglas guest starred, but don't quote me), "I love me some crazies." Well, I stand by that quote and here are four damaged boys that I just want to reach out and make better.

River Phoenix, My Own Private Idaho: I haven't seen this movie in awhile, and even then I wasn't sure how much I liked it, but one thing that will always stick with me is River Phoenix's legendary, achingly sweet performance. That camp fire scene where he just wants Keanu Reeves' character to hold him is one of the most endearing things I've ever seen. I'll hold you if you want me to!

Timothy Hutton, Ordinary People: I just bought a copy of Ordinary People and I'm still not sure why because every time I watch it, I'm an emotional wreck for days afterwards, courtesy of Hutton's psychologically damaged Conrad Jarrett. How can his mother not love someone as vulnerable and needy as him? I'll listen to the story of why you tried to commit suicide and I promise I won't start laughing when those obnoxious guys come in.

Jean-Pierre Léaud, The 400 Blows: Antoine Doinel is pretty much the original damaged teen, right? He lies, steals, plagarizes and runs away from home and yet we still love him throughout the entire film. How is this possible?! Because we want to fix him (well, at least I do) and he's not really that bad of a kid on the inside, just misguided.

Peter Firth, Equus: So he gets sexually turned on by horses, that's not so unusual, right? Well, maybe it is, but that doesn't mean we can't try to fix him. He's arguably the most damaged of the four and it would definitely take the most work, but isn't it worth it? I think so. I feel like a perv for saying this, but that scene where's he's riding that horse naked was very sexual even when it shouldn't have been.

12 Movies to Save the World

Wow, I feel somewhat loved this afternoon. I've been tagged not once, but twice, to take part in the latest meme from the Lazy Eye Theatre. So, thank you JD and Glenn for the shoutouts! I'm supposed to pretend that I'm running a movie theater and have to select 12 movies to play as six double features. Here are the rules from the original:

1) Choose 12 Films to be featured. They could be random selections or part of a greater theme. Whatever you want.

2) Explain why you chose the films.

3) Link back to Lazy Eye Theatre so I can have hundreds of links and I can take those links and spread them all out on the bed and then roll around in them.

4) The people selected then have to turn around and select 5 more people.

Here we go, this is going to be fun!

Night 1: Friendship
Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955)
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (David Merkin, 1997)

I want to start off with my mini film-festival on a positive note, so I'll start with a positive theme: friendship. I chose Rebel Without a Cause to kick off the festivities because it's still an incredibly modern and relevant film in the 2000's (that is, if you look past all the bad 50's dialogue) and the relationship between James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo is simply beautiful. On the other hand, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, an unfairly maligned chick flick that only gets better and funnier with age, hysterically shows the strange but all-too-true dynamics of friendships: somedays you're making fun of Pretty Woman together while eating Doritos, other times you bickering about who's the Mary and who's the Rhoda and still others you simply can't stand looking at each other. But, at the end of the day, you know that you'll be there to help them out when you need them the most (and then do a totally impromptu ballet to Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time").

Night 2: Needs a Second Look
Family Diary (Valerio Zurlini, 1962)
Mississippi Mermaid (Francois Truffaut, 1969)

For the second night, I wanted to pick two films that I've seen only once before and really want to see again but haven't had the opportunity. While watching Valerio Zurlini's Family Diary on TCM a few months ago, I generally thought it was a good melodrama with a couple of nice performances from Marcello Mastroianni and Jacques Perrin and nothing more. For the next couple of days, however, I couldn't get the damn movie and its gorgeous images out of my head. Quite simply, Family Diary is one of the greatest films ever made about the relationship between brothers. I wish I could see this one again, but, unfortunately, I deleted this off my DVR before I realized how good it was and it's not available anywhere on DVD or even VHS. Such a shame; I really need a second look. Mississippi Mermaid not only features the most beautiful romantic leads ever with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Catherine Deneuve (second only to Newman and Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) but it is also one of Francois Truffaut's many salutes to Hitchcock. I wasn't crazy with the results when I saw it the first time, but I started thinking that maybe, like most of Hitchcock's greatest works (except for Vertigo...I've seen it at least twice now and I still don't think it's that great), it needs a couple of viewings to be evaluated properly.

Night 3: Insanity
Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)
The Snake Pit (Anatole Litvak, 1948)

With this pairing on night three, a somewhat deep and philosophical question can be asked after watching Sidney Lumet's masterpiece Network and the underrated Olivia de Havilland vehicle The Snake Pit back-to-back: Who's actually crazier-- de Havilland and the other "loonies" in the ward or Howard Beale, Diana Christensen and the followers of Beale's madman rants?

Night 4: Mothers from Hell
Mommie Dearest (Frank Perry, 1981)
Ordinary People (Robert Redford, 1980)

Night four will consist of the mothers that we love to hate in two very different movies made just a year apart. Mommie Dearest is pure camp from start to finish, while Ordinary People is a slick, grown up tragedy that a lot of people complain about winning the Best Picture Oscar over Raging Bull. That's pretty sad that this is Ordinary People's main claim to fame because it's a much better film than it's given credit for (and Redford's achievement is nearly as great as Scorsese's behind the director's chair).

Night 5: True Love
Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
Sid & Nancy (Alex Cox, 1986)

Having never been in love myself, I have a warped sense of what "romantic" is. For my fifth night, I'm offering two movies that I think are quite possibly the most romantic ever made. Both Bonnie and Clyde and Sid & Nancy concern outcasts who meet, have undeniable spark and will do anything for each no matter how illegal or immoral. So what if Sid (allegedly) kills Nancy and then overdoses on heroin or Bonnie and Clyde end up gunned down in a blaze of bullets?

Night 6: Politics as Comedy
Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933)
Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)

Duck Soup was a flop when it was released in 1933, but today it couldn't be any more relevant concerning the war in Iraq and Bush's presidency. The Marx Brothers let their usual brand of anarchy spill all over the place with a glorious mix of pantomime, one-liners, musical numbers and slapstick. Dr. Strangelove is a comedy about nuclear warfare; how much crazier does that get? Add to that the loony General Turgidson (how did George C. Scott get passed up for an Oscar that year?) who's sole purpose for being is, no matter the human cost, to kill as many Reds as possible. Underneath all of the laughter, it's generally an uncomfortable film because you have to believe that at some point Bush has had a meeting exactly like the one that takes place in The War Room.

And now for the tagging... mB, Michael Parsons and anyone else who hasn't been tagged and would like to do this. Just link back to here so I can enjoy your post (and the rest of your blog if I've never read you before!).