#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.

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.

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

#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.

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.

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.’

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!

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 😦

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.

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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#82- The Tin Drum

Quick recap: A little boy, growing up during World War II, receives a tin drum for his 3rd birthday. After seeing how the adults around him are incredibly stupid, he decides to throw himself down the stairs in order to stop growing. That was a completely true recap by the way, and not at ALL what the movie is about.

The birth scene that gives me nightmares all on its own

Fun (?) fact: Oklahoma County……in Oklahoma, banned this movie in 1997 based off of one controversial scene. All copies were confiscated and one person was even threatened with prosecution for being in possession of the film. The ruling was overturned later on.

disturbing image #2

My thoughts: So. I’m not really sure what Germany has against me, but The Tin Drum is now the second film from that country to traumatize me and make me rethink why I am even doing this project. For starters:

1. The opening scene features a man running away from police. He spies a woman in a potato field and begs her to let him hide underneath her skirts so he won’t get caught. She obliges and ends up sitting on him and they have sex.

2. The child conceived from that encounter grows up and falls for two men. She sleeps with both of them on a continuous basis so it’s not really known who Oskar’s father is.

3. Oskar, 3 years old at the time , makes himself fall down the cellar stairs so that he may never have to grow up. Throughout the whole movie he carries around a tin drum and beats on it when he is unhappy or angry.

4. There is a scene where a horse head washes up on shore and one of the men takes the eels from the head and cooks them. He is then hurt when his wife refuses to eat Rotted Horse Head Eels.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Now you are probably thinking to yourself 1) Those crazy Germans and their movies! and 2) This won’t stop me from celebrating Oktoberfest and 3) why is Oklahoma so uptight?

Bear with me here: The boy who plays Oskar was 11 years old at the time of the film. During the film, Oskar has the body of a 3 year old but chronologically he gets older. So that means that when he becomes a teenager, he has sexual desires. Even though he looks like a 3 year old. See where I’m going with this? So, there are a few scenes where Oskar falls in love with a 15 year old who comes to live with his father after his mother dies (she became obsessed with eating raw fish after the eel incident and got food poisoning). Although nothing is shown explicitly, it is insinuated he (the 11 year old playing a chronological 16 year old but looking like a 3 year old) performs oral sex on the girl and he can be seen under the covers having sex with her a little later on. They conceive a child together through this.

I’m still not sure what the meaning of the movie is. I read that it had something to do with the infantilism of adults and the Nazi party, but I felt like I would be smited (smote?) if I thought about this film too long so I stopped analyzing it.

Final review: 1/5. There is probably some watch list out there for people who enjoyed this movie. Not falling for that one!

Up next: Breakfast at Tiffany’s

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1001 Movie Nights

Tag Archives: drama

#85- All About Eve

#84- Terms of Endearment

#83- West Side Story

#82- The Tin Drum

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