On this, the day of Christmas Eve, allow me to wish all my non-Jewish readers a very merry Christmas.
My “gift” to you is this clip from Turner Classic Movies, which shows It’s a Wonderful Life as it was originally intended: As a Hanukkah story.
Enjoy, and ho ho ho!
A few years back, I got into a discussion with a friend when I told her how much I love Christmas.
“No,” she clarified. “You love the Christmas season. You don’t have to deal with the family and the religious stuff.”
She was right about all of that. I’m a huge fan of the season, with the pagentry and the lights and the deals and the happier mood and the lighter workload and the food and the celebrations and the traditions and yes, the music.
Oh, how I love the music of the Christmas season. Continue reading
Was anyone really asking for a third film in the Meet the Parents series? I guess someone was, because in theaters now is the totally unnecessary Little Fockers. In this latest go-round, Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) is feeling mortal, so he dotes on his son-in-law Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) to make sure he’s got the stones to take on the mantle of family leader. Essentially, the jokes are as broad and old as they were in 2000, and some of the references are just as dated (for example, when Jack learns how to Google himself, and when he looks up someone on the web and finds her MySpace page). Essentially, the film comes off like a desperate attempt by Universal for a holiday hit, and a paycheck gig for the actors. I’m giving Little Fockers a C–.
Generally, I’m a guy who avoids confrontation.
I’d rather just live with an unpleasant situation than confront the person who is making it unpleasant for me.
No, actually, what I usually do is be all passive-aggressive about it, and complain, bitch, and moan — often for the sake of a laugh — even though that does no good in terms of helping the situation.
It’s what happened in my old apartment building, with my violin- and flute-playing neighbors, and for a whille, it was happening with my current upstairs neighbor, who would not only never remove her shoes when she walked around her apartment, but had a proclivity to clean her apartment late at night, and worse, to vacuum her floors at even later hours. Continue reading
The King’s Speech is one of those good-for-you movies that feels like it’s been made and engineered to win awards. (Kind of like a Tom Hanks–Steven Spielberg production for HBO.)
It’s got an Oscar-pedigreed cast above the title (nominees Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter and winner Geoffrey Rush), it’s being distributed by the Oscar-hungry Weinstein Company (see Shakespeare in Love, Inglorious Basterds), and it’s about that veddy British of subjects, the Monarchy.
Oh, and it’s a period drama set during the 1930s. What about that doesn’t scream high-quality Oscar bait? Continue reading
Jeff Bridges just doesn’t look right in Tron:Legacy, and it’s not just because he’s been stuck in a computer game for 20 years. In this sequel to the 1982 film, we learn that Bridges’ character, Kevin Flynn, has been trapped inside the game he created, and he’s been held captive by the avatar of himself that he created. The “real” Flynn has aged, but the avatar, called Clu, has not — and quite frankly, it looks creepy. Worse, the “real” Flynn has gone all Lebowski, with his beard and his propensity to attach “man” to his speech. It’s just not right.
The original Tron wasn’t any kind of masterpiece or anything (not that I’ve seen it in 25 years), and this new take likely won’t be perceived as a classic, either. It’s got some cool special effects, but those are mostly in the first half when Flynn’s son, Sam (Garrett Hedlund), has first entered the game. The dialogue is often stilted and clunky, and even Bridges can’t save the material. I wish I could say Tron: Legacy was at minimum a fun movie, but I think all the good stuff is still stuck in the machine. I’m giving the movie a C+.
I don’t know exactly when it was that I became such a fan of Christmas music, but 10 years ago I decided to create a mix of my favorite holiday tunes.
A friend of mine suggested I give it out to people as a sort-of Christmas card, and she even gave the mix the name A Very Marty Xmas.
The rest is history.
With the exception of 2008, I’ve made a mix every year for the past decade.
I say humbly that these compilations have become as much of a beloved holiday tradition as A Charlie Brown Christmas or the all-day A Christmas Story marathon on TBS.
And yes, I’m Jewish, which makes the whole thing even more fun. (Then again, so was Irving Berlin, and he wrote “White Christmas!”)
I Love You Phillip Morris begins with the statement, “This really happened.” And it sets the tone appropriately, because the story that’s told in this movie is so absurd, so unbelievable, that it just has to be true — and it is. Steven Jay Russell (Jim Carrey) is a charming, charismatic con man who gets sent to prison for fraud and meets Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). The two fall in love, and Russell attempts con after con to free Phillip and build a perfect life with him.
Written and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the pair behind the equally twisted Bad Santa, Phillip Morris is an offbeat love story, to put it mildly. It gives Carrey one of his best roles in years, and he does a nice job with it. The film has some good laughs, some charming moments, and again, it’s so unusual, so absurd, that I found it quite enjoyable. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and in those cases, it makes for fun films. I’m giving Phillip Morris a B+.
* SPOILER ALERT * SPOILER ALERT * SPOILER ALERT *
What do you get when you cross Swan Lake, All About Eve, Showgirls, and Fight Club? That’s right: Black Swan, one of the strangest, most confusing movies of this or any year. In the film, Natalie Portman stars as Nina, an up-and-coming ballet dancer, whose sanity unravels when she scores the lead role in a new production of Swan Lake. If you don’t know this ballet (and I didn’t), it requires the lead to play two roles: the White Swan (notable for her innocence and grace) and the Black Swan (the polar opposite; a more sensual, seductive character). This duality proves a challenge for Nina: she is nothing if not delicate and graceful, but exploring her seductive side is less natural. When Lily (Mila Kunis) joins the company, she is seen as a more perfect fit for the Black Swan, and she becomes a rival to Nina. Their relationship develops into a twisted friendship, and as it does, Nina begins to lose her grip on reality.
That said, though it’s set in the world of ballet, Black Swan is not a ballet movie. Instead, it’s a psychological thriller that’s creepy and keeps you guessing. Having seen it, I still don’t exactly know what to make of it, and that’s not meant to be a dismissive statement. Generally, I enjoyed the movie — it’s attractive to watch, Portman is very good, and it’s certainly thought-provoking. But like Fight Club, I think I may have to see it again before I really understand and appreciate it. So for now, pending a repeat viewing and more discussion, and because writing about Black Swan means revealing important plot points, I’m going to cut this short and only give the film a B.
When was the last time you saw a movie so good, so easy to root for, that all you wanted to do was shout from the rooftops and tell everybody you know to go see it?
For me, that movie is The Fighter.
This gritty, real-life story has been brought to the screen by Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, and director David O. Russell, and it’s just an awesome, beautiful film.
Wahlberg, who also produced, stars as “Irish” Micky Ward, the boxer from Lowell, Mass., who fights to overcome adversity both in and out of the ring. Micky is being groomed by his older half-brother, Dicky (Bale), to be a welterweight champion and to capture the title that eluded Dicky when he chose drugs over the sport. Now, Dicky’s struggles with crack are threatening both his life and his brother’s career. Continue reading
