Sunshine Cleaning

Sunshine Cleaning seems like it is going for a Little Miss Sunshine vibe -- quirky regular folk who are striving to better their lives in unexpected ways – but this Sunshine movie isn’t near as charming or fun as that other one. Sunshine Cleaning even has an adorable weird kid and a curmudgeonly Alan Arkin, though he is not quite as caustic as his character in LMS. The movie definitely has great actors, besides Arkin, Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, and Steve Zahn. Adams and Blunt play two sisters who try to make some big cash by cleaning out the homes of someone who just died. It’s pretty gross. Both roles are interesting and well acted and Steve Zahn who I love! Only has a minor and not very interesting role. The movie seems like it should be really good but unfortunately it’s just so-so.

Harvey (1950)

I’m sure I saw Harvey in my youth; the classic movie with Jimmy Stewart who has an imaginary friend called Harvey. But after watching it again, it seemed completely new to me. I didn’t remember it being so good! The script is so funny and complex at the same time, and it makes the presence of this unseen rabbit, well, … present. Jimmy Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd is great and so likable that you want to just sit at the bar with him and Harvey and swap stories. The other real gem of the movie is the actress Josephine Hull who plays Elwood’s aunt, Veta Louise Simmons, who I had not heard of before, but learned that she won an Oscar for role in Harvey. She is HIGHlarious while being sweet and demure at the same time – something to see. Sometimes you see a classic and realize just why it is classic. Harvey fits the bill.
As a side note: Another reason why I wanted to see this movie again (the first was because it was at the library!) was because I heard that a remake was afoot. Stephen Spielberg, of all people, is going to try to recreate this classic. After seeing it, I can’t imagine what would be the point of remaking a near perfect little gem of a movie. But who knows.

The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

After finishing season 1 of Breaking Bad, the dark TV series on AMC, I watched the extras where the creator and writer Vince Gilligan of that well-written show, said one of his favorite classics was The Sweet Smell of Success. He extolled the movies great writing and rapid fire dialogue. Sweet Smell of Success stars Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster as ruthless publicity agent and overbearing newspaper columnist. The movie’s main conflict is about Falco, Curtis, who is trying to break up Hunsecker’s, Lancaster, sister’s relationship with a guitarist in exchange for more publicity. Yeah, a guitarist, like that is sooo bad. The movie depicts a completely different world from the modern movie where women are helpless and easily manipulated, and you can be taken down by insinuating that someone smokes “reefer.” The dialogue is definitely rapid fire, it reminds of the type of writing done on The West Wing, where you miss most of it and would like to go back to pick it up. Sweet Smell of Success is definitely an interesting slice of movie history that I was not of aware of before and am glad to know about, but did I enjoy it? Enhhhh. Somewhat, I guess.

The Class

I’m a middle school teacher. So watching The Class, a gritty docu-drama about a tough French class of 14 year olds in France is fascinating and sickening at the same time. The teacher, Francois Begaudeau, or M. Marin as he is called in the movie, is a handsome man who seems to truly care about his students, challenging them to become better speakers, readers, and writers of French – he doesn’t let them get by with sloppy responses and he ignores a lot of sassy remarks. He’s fascinating to watch. The students, who are actual French students, are even more mesmerizing and so like the English speaking middle school students I know. They look bored; they question everything, and they put on a brave front but at the same time seem so awkward and unsure. I watched the DVD extras and director Laurent Cantet had the kids, actual students in the school that Begaudeau taught, do an improv class, helping them to work on authentic responses, and it really worked. These kids were making me uncomfortable – I felt as if they were in my class, and I had to get them under control.
The Class or Entre les Murs (Between the Walls), also made me wonder about the differences between American and French Schools. Sure in many ways these kids seemed like American kids, but there were some aspects of this French school I found odd. The kids seemed to have a lot of power within the school. They even had student representatives sit in on disciplinary meetings about other students. The teachers sat as group and tried to come up with a point system for dealing with discipline problems and the man in charge didn’t seem to have much control of the school. And then when one troublesome boy was finally dealt with, his punishment seemed extreme.
What was I doing watching a thought provoking teacher movie so close to school resuming, I do not know. It is usually my policy to have nothing to do with students, schools, even young adult literature, during the precious summer months, but I had really wanted to see this movie. And I am glad I did. Well worth watching, even if you are not a teacher.
The Class is going on my list of the Best Edgy Teacher Movies*:
• The Class (2008)
• Half Nelson (2006)
• Notes on a Scandal (2006)
• School of Rock (2003)
• Election (1999)
*NOT feel good teacher movies, I hate those

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is based on a Charlie Kaufman screen play, so you know it’s going to be freaky. And indeed it is. Charlie Kaufman is known for oddball screenplays like Being John Malkovich, Synecdoche, New York, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Not only does Confessions of a Dangerous Mind have the weirdness of Charlie Kaufman but also depicts the life of the ultra weirdo Chuck Barris of The Gong Show fame. The movie, based on Chuck Barris’ autobiography, tries to convince us that Barris, in addition to creating a host of mod game shows (The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and the Gong Show etc.), is also a CIA agent and George Clooney (also the director of this movie) plays his bullying contact who forces him into being a gun for hire. Wikipedia says that it was never proven that Barris was a CIA agent, so who knows what to think about that. What’s also weird about this movie: strange camera angles, bizarre lighting, surreal colors, and cuts back and forth in time. Though highly stylized it’s really funny at the same time, partly because of Barris’ reaction to events and also from some star’s cameos like Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, George Clooney, Julia Roberts (*take note of bizarre kissing scene) and a don’t miss hilarious drill sergeant played by Robert John Burke. All in all, I am glad that I got a chance to see this movie which was not on my radar. Thanks Michelle for tuning me into this movie.

Julie and Julia, Guest Entry by my Mom, Doralu

Julie and Julia exceeded my expectations. Meryl Streep, who I have always admired, IS Julia. I went with my two daughters and we all were engrossed from beginning to end. There are two stories to the movie: Two people from different generations, whose lives become entwined by a love of food and cooking. One story centers on Julia Child's life in France and one is about Julie Powell, the blogger who in one year attempted make all of the recipes in Child's famous French cooking book. We had read that the Amy Adams part as Julie was not as good the Streep parts of the movie. But we disagreed and found the blogger Julie played by Amy Adams to be very good in her role and her story very important to the movie as a whole. Despite that I, especially thought Julia Child's life was interesting; her husband was an American diplomat who traveled around the world in China and of course France. After Child's took a cooking class at the Cordon Blue, she became obsessed with French cooking. Her next step was collaborating with two French women on the masterpiece cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Coincidentally when we got back from the movie, we saw Meryl Streep and Nora Ephron on Charlie Rose. A nice ending to the day.

Penelope

Penelope is a kids movie. I try to avoid those, especially animated ones, but wanted to see it because?..... guess. If you said James McAvoy; you would be right. Plus, I have always liked Christini Ricci's acting. Reese Witherspoon's film company produced the movie and she has a small role in it which is a bummer because she always brightens up a movie. It's a pretty slight movie overall, but a cute and kid appropriate fairy tale. It's not one of McAvoy's brightest roles or best acting turns, but he's so darn cute and just fun to look at. So now I can update my list of James McAvoy movie's seen with Penelope.


James McAvoy Movies
Wanted (20o8)
* Atonement (2007)
* Becoming Jane(2007)
Starter for 10 (2006)
*Penelope (2006)
* The Last King of Scotland (2006)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
*"Shameless" (2004)
Inside I'm Dancing (2004)
Wimbledon (2004))
Strings (2004)
* "State of Play" (5 episodes, 2003)
"Early Doors" (4 episodes, 2003)
Bright Young Things (2003)
"Children of Dune" (1 episode, 2003)
Bollywood Queen (2002)
"Foyle's War" (2002)
* White Teeth (2002) (TV)
Swimming Pool (2001)
"Band of Brothers" (1 episode, 2001)
Replacements (2001)
"Murder in Mind" (1 episode, 2001)
Teacher (2001)
* Lorna Doone (2000) (TV)
Regeneration (1997)
"The Bill"
Rent (1997)

* McAvoy movie's I've seen