Category Archives: Movies

#86- The Apartment

Quick recap: C.C. Baxter works for an insurance company and figures out the best way to move up in the business: by renting out his apartment to all the men in his office who are having flings. It’s like Mad Men, but told from the perspective of the lonely bachelor watching everyone else get lucky.

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Fun (?) fact: During the scene where Baxter has to sleep outside in the cold, director Billy Wilder had to spray him with anti-freeze so that he wouldn’t get sick. I actually have no idea if this was true, but the trivia for The Apartment was rather dull and this is the best of the bunch.

I developed quite a crush on Jack Lemmon, except for his voice which grated on my every nerve

I developed quite a crush on Jack Lemmon, except for his voice which grated on my every nerve

My thoughts: This past February 28th, I had the BEST.IDEA. EVER. to watch all Best Picture Winners that were also on my list and then try to decide if they were worth the Oscar. On March 1st, I promptly gave it up because there were only 4 movies that matched both lists on Netflix Instant. Not wanting to completely waste the month, however, I ended up watching the movies anyways. I’m sort of surprised The Apartment won Best Picture because it’s rather lighthearted and sentimental instead of pretentious and stuffy.

As mentioned above, watching The Apartment is like watching a very long episode of Mad Men. Except more depressing, if that is even possible. It seems as if every married man in the movie is having an affair and some of them, more than one. I’m pretty liberal when it comes to this sort of thing but even for a movie made in 1960, the way women were portrayed was atrocious. Every single woman gleefully let these men treat them horribly and didn’t think twice about hopping into bed with them. The one woman who had any sort of character development was Fran, and she ended up trying to kill herself over a serial cheater. Baxter wasn’t involved in any cheating but he didn’t do much to stop it either, until he could get the position he wanted. He felt little to no guilt until Fran took all the sleeping pills and at the end of the movie refused to hand over his key ,not out of some white knight complex, but because he had fallen for her. Sure, Fran ultimately left her relationship with Jeff Sheldrake, the cheater, but then moves on to someone else.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the movie. There were several legitimately funny scenes, especially between Baxter and his neighbor, who thinks he has several girls over every night. I’m not much for the romance genre but I felt The Apartment had heart. Baxter was so sweet to Fran as she recovered from her overdose and I think I may have swooned when he refused to take advantage of her and instead play a game of Gin Rummy. The ending where he confesses his love for her was a little hokey, but I loved her line, ‘Shut up and deal’ in response. As a side note, I had NO idea Fran was played by Shirley MacLaine until the end of the movie. She was so adorable and made me briefly consider getting a pixie hair cut (not going to happen, Andy).

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Final review: 4/5. Sexism abounds but it was the 60s, so not unexpected.

Up next: Rebel Without a Cause or Salt of the Earth

 

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#85- All About Eve

Quick recap: Margot Channing is an aging broadway star who meets a seemingly devoted fan, Eve Harrington. Feeling compassionate, Channing takes the woman in and entrusts her with everything.That turns out not to be a good idea once it is revealed Harrington has ulterior motives.

Bette Davis eyes are a thing? Bette Davis eyes are a thing?

Fun (?) fact: Bette Davis was going through a divorce while filming, so her voice is hoarse from all the screaming she had to do with her ex.

My thoughts: All About Eve is interesting because I figured out the plot very early on, once I realized that it’s been done so many times in pop culture. The lack of surprise in no way diminishes the film, though.

For starters, the acting is top notch. And by acting, I’m really talking about Bette Davis. Her performance is one of the best I have ever seen in American cinema. It really surprised me to learn that she didn’t win Best Actress at the Oscars, so I’ll just add a point to the ‘Academy Awards are useless’ column that I have mentally been keeping. Part of the reason her performance was so well done is because she was given such a complex character. It would be one thing to dismiss Margot Channing as a stereotypical aging starlet, but there is so much more than that. As more facts were revealed about Eve, she became more of a person I could sympathize and identify with. We are all high maintenance at one point or another in our lives, especially when the flaw we are most self-conscious about is exposed. No one likes to be upstaged and it was admirable for Channing to drop the controversy like she did.

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All the theatre talk got a little boring at times, mainly because I know nothing about the theater. It’s easy to see why it was chosen as Best Picture, which I suppose is another point in the ‘ Academy Awards are useless’ column, since actors like movies about themselves. On the other hand, it was legitimately a good film so they also made a good decision. So…..half point?

The only part of the film that I really didn’t like was Marilyn Monroe. I have never seen her act before and I was unimpressed here. Granted, she has a very tiny role, but her ‘dumb blonde’ act really grated on my nerves. She is gorgeous, yes, but playing yourself is nothing special. Was she considered a ‘dumb blonde’ in real life? I realize now that I know next to nothing about her, so I guess I’ll hold my judgement completely for future films.

Final review: 4/5. As wonderful as the film was, it was practically Oscar Bait so I can’t give it a full 5/5.

Up next: The Apartment

 

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#84- Terms of Endearment

Quick recap: Terms of Endearment follows the 30 year relationship between a mother and daughter. When something bad-DAMMIT. I can’t do this. Damn you all to hell, Terms of Endearment. Evil incarnate is what this movie is.

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Fun (?) fact: As a gift for directing the movie, Matt Groening gave James L. Brooks a book of ‘Life in Hell’ cartoons. Brooks loved it so much, he got Groening to create cartoon shorts for the Tracy Ullman show. And that’s how The Simpsons was created!

My thoughts: Before I go any further, I need to confess that yes, I did in fact cry. I’m not proud of it, but at least I fought hard until the very end. As you can probably pick up on, I’m not the most sensitive when it comes to schmaltzy things. Anything Nicholas Sparks makes me physically ill  as well as movie theaters that have ‘girlie nights’. UGH. I mean, if you  want to show Ferris Bueller, DO IT. Don’t label it ‘girlie night’ and slap on some discount wine special with the purchase of sushi. It cheapens the film and isolates a good portion of moviegoers who would’ve gladly gone otherwise. /rant

Back to the movie. If this film has any strength to stand up to other Oscar Winners, it does so with the strong acting. Every actor was believable which is probably why I was able to suspend my hatred for anything cheesy and let myself be free with my emotions. I absolutely loved Shirley MacLaine (damn you, James L. Brooks for making me love Shirley MacLaine). Debra Winger grew on me as the movie went on, but her laugh never did. I read that she was trying to get over a cocaine addiction while filming so I don’t feel so bad. Jack Nicholson of course was wonderful as well, but this ‘arrogant jerk who turns out to be a good guy’ is kind of his thing.

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For all the ‘girlies’ who came here to read a gushing review of the film that totally destroyed their every emotion, it’s time to stop reading.

I was into the mother/daughter relationship from the beginning because I am a daughter who happens to be close to her mom. I totally got the endless phone calls and how much they shared with each other. The entire relationship seemed completely authentic, even leading up to Emma’s death. (Oops. SPOILER ALERT: Emma dies.) The plot started to fall apart  towards the end as Emma got closer and closer to death. For one thing, making the decision as to who would keep the children seemed way over the top. Maybe that was a thing back then, but Flap was a perfectly decent father. He should’ve just sucked it up and raised his own children instead of pawning them off to Aurora so that he could continue his love affair with that other woman. Then again, that would’ve saved like 10 minutes of drama. The last 30 minutes of the film is basically, ‘are you crying yet? no? Let me put in a scene where Emma says goodbye to her children! That didn’t do it? How about Aurora screaming at the nurses to help her daughter who was in pain? No? Dammit. You are totally going to cry when Emma actually dies. There we go! Just in case, let’s add a few more scenes to keep you crying.’

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Final review:  4/5. You couldn’t make me sit through that again, though.

Up Next: All About Eve

 

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#83- West Side Story

Quick recap:  Romeo and Juliet, but with more dancing

We're fierce!

We’re fierce!

Fun (?) fact: Natalie Wood, who played Maria, was led to believe her voice would be used for at least some of the songs in the film. Instead, the producers went with Marnie Nixon and kept the truth from Wood. Nixon was not paid any direct royalties from the film or credited.

poor Marnie Nixon :-(

poor Marnie Nixon 😦

My thoughts: My non-existent attorney has requested that, in an effort to retain what little integrity I have left since watching The Tin Drum,  disclose my disdain for Romeo and Juliet. Sure, I could blame it on my cynical nature of love or the fact that I find Shakespeare overrated or because it’s the one play everyone names as a favorite because they know no others. But mostly, I just think two 13 year olds getting married and then killing themselves is kind of crazy.

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Plot aside, I really enjoyed the dancing and orchestral arrangement. It was kind of hard to buy into rival gangs dancing it out, but I eventually got into it. Everyone was flawless in their moves, of course. My favorite number was probably the Quintet and my least favorite was ‘I Feel Pretty’. In general, the lyrics left a lot to be desired, but that’s not something I can fault the movie. Or actually, the lyrics are very insightful and romantic, until I remembered that Maria and Tony had only met a few hours ago. Maybe it is my cynical nature after all.

The scenes where the gangs were together talking about the rumble and the rumble itself were exciting and made me desperately want to see a live show. The scenes between Tony and Maria bored me to tears and I felt like the pacing was entirely too slow for much of the film. They seemed genuinely in love though, so I’ll give them that. The death scene (Come on, do I really need a spoiler alert for this?) was moving and gave me pause as to whether I hated Romeo and Juliet as much as I thought I did.

I think that, as a musical, West Side Story holds up rather well. The depiction of Puerto Ricans, though…….that was a little embarrassing. The accents were awful, like, in doing research for this movie, the actors were required to sit through hours of I Love Lucy reruns and try to imitate Desi Arnez (who was Cuban, but still).

Final review: 3/5, almost a 4. I’m very curious about the live show and how it stacks up against the film. Or, the other way around, since the Broadway musical came first.

Up next: I had a last minute idea to only watch Oscar winners this month, but seeing as how there are only 4 on Netflix Instant, I’ll supplement with my regular list. Terms of Endearment is next.

 

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