Sabrina: 1954 Billy Wilder rom-com starring Audrey Hepburn, William Holden and Humphrey Bogart. Quiet, shy young Sabrina (Hepburn) is a chauffer’s daughter with a crush on the rich kid next door (Holden). When her obsession becomes overwhelming she flees to Paris, gains a newfound sense of grace and style, and moves back home ready to woo him into submission. The rich kid, David, has grown into a roustabout playboy whose endless string of marriages and affairs embarrass his family. His father Oliver (hilariously played by Walter Hampden) and brother Linus (Bogart), the Sensible Men, have arranged a new financially beneficial union between David and a steel magnate’s daughter, which Sabrina is about to royally screw up. So Linus starts spending some time with Sabrina in an effort to distract her. Three guesses what happens next.
It’s so adorable. I love Wilder, Holden and Bogart, and I found Hepburn refreshingly tolerable. It’s light and funny, the supporting cast is great, it’s romantic without being too sappy. Definitely see it.
Dark Shadows: 2012 Tim Burton comedy based on the totally ridiculous horror soap opera of the same name, starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter and Eva Green. Barnabas Collins is a vampire who was cursed by a witch he once spurned. He is freed from his 200-year coffin incarceration in 1972, only to find that his once prominent family is barely keeping their fishing business afloat, the witch Angelique is still around and still totes obsessed with him, and his mansion is in near ruins. I smell a montage!
Everything is deliciously ‘70s, it’s campy and weird and I kind of liked it. Green is fantastically alien in her portrayal of Angelique, Pfeiffer and Depp are also great. It’s cute. Why not.
Greenberg: 2010 Noah Baumbach dramedy starring Ben Stiller and Greta Gerwig. Roger is a carpenter née musician recovering from a nervous breakdown by housesitting for his successful brother. He’s the kind of guy who spends all day writing angry letters, and admonishing people for compromising and growing, and says things like “I’m really trying to do nothing right now.” He begins pursuing his brother’s assistant, the equally messed up Florence, via a series of arguments, sweet moments, and depressingly awkward sexual encounters.
I don’t know about this one. Roger and Florence are just barely endearing enough to keep you rooting for them, despite the frequent scenes in which they’re being total jackasses. A line that stuck with me was, “It’s huge to embrace the life you never planned on.” So if I look at the film from that perspective, that it’s a tale of two people trying to put the past behind them and kind of failing but sometimes succeeding all while stumbling through a relationship . . . maybe it works?
Shame: 2011 British drama directed by Steve McQueen and starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. A successful ad exec with a sex addiction must deal with his wayward sister showing up and casting a brighter light on his problems. I couldn’t get through it. I’d heard it was sad, but thought that Naked Fassbender would counteract that. Incorrect. It was profoundly depressing.
The Woman in Black: 2012 horror film directed by James Watkins and starring Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds, and Janet McTeer. Arthur (Radcliffe) is a lawyer in Edwardian London who is mourning the death of his wife. His employer sends him to a remote village to sort the affairs of a recently deceased client. Upon his arrival he’s confronted with hostile locals who want him to steer clear of the spooky property he was sent to take care of, which has something to do with the mysterious deaths of many town children.
It was just OK. Fairly predictable scares and plot twists, but sufficiently creepy. The ending was WTF. But it was nice to see Radcliffe acting competently in a non-Harry Potter role.
We Were Here: 2011 documentary about the history of the AIDS crisis in San Francisco, directed by David Weissman. It focuses on five people who were involved in the epidemic from its beginning, either as victims or nurses or volunteer caregivers.
In an age where there are prescription drugs available specifically to reduce excess belly fat in HIV patients, it’s difficult to fathom just how dark those early days were if you didn’t live through it. These survivors watched their friends die by the dozen, during a time when 15% of Americans thought that AIDS patients should be tattooed as an identifier.
It’s very moving, a total gut-punch. I cried A LOT. See it, and keep the kleenex handy.
X Men: First Class: 2011 action film directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, Kevin Bacon and Jennifer Lawrence. It’s an origin tale of how the X-Men was originally founded, it’s fluffy and action-y and if you liked any of the previous X-Men movies then you’ll probably like this too.
Underworld: Awakening: 2012 action film directed by Mans Marlind & Bjorn Stein and starring Kate Beckinsale, India Eisley and Michael Ealy. It picks up where Evolution left off: newly invulnerable vampire Selene and her hybrid vampire/lycan mate Michael are captured by humans, Selene awakens twelve years later in a government facility, Michael is missing and she has a hybrid daughter who helps her escape. During her cryogenic hibernation, the human world became aware of the real existence of vampires and lycans and has hunted them to the brink of extinction. Selene and her daughter go looking for Michael, who may or may not be dead, and attempt to uncover a government conspiracy involving the lycan population.
I was promised Scott Speedman. I was lied to. His CGI likeness was imposed on a stand-in, so his brief “appearances” were campy and disappointing. They left it open for the possibility of yet another sequel, but unless the Real Scott Speedman is involved, I won’t be seeing it. This just wasn’t good enough.
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Nursery University: 2008 documentary directed by Marc H. Simon and Matthew Makar. The movie follows five families from different age groups, socioeconomic backgrounds, and levels of crazy as they navigate the bizarre world of preschool admissions in New York City. All of the couples feel that preschool is an important step in their child’s education, and three in particular feel that if they get into the right preschool that means the right grade school, the right private high school, and the Ivy League to follow. MBA, here we come! It’s a fascinating look at something I know absolutely nothing about, and I was hooked from the get-go. The families are diverse enough that we see the entire range of commitment to the insanity: from the couple that decides it’s not worth the stress and sends their toddler to a local co-op preschool, to the woman who hires an admissions consultant and early child development specialist in an effort to get her son into some swanky Twee Harvard. I loved it.
