Written as part of the weekly blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Make joining us one of your New Year's Resolutions! All you have to do is pick three movies that fit the week's theme. That's it! It's fun!
A new year, a new round of Thursday Movie Picks categories! I'm very excited to see what this series has in store for us this year. I have to say, I think we're starting off with a pretty good category - movies that have a character name in the title. Sometimes, naming a movie after your main character is the simplest, best thing to do. Especially if your movie is about an historical figure (think Frida, Wilde, The Glenn Miller Story). But I decided to go with movies NOT about real people.
Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy, 2007) Michael Clayton is a fixer at a corporate law firm. But when of the senior partners develops a conscience and goes rogue, Michael starts to develop a conscience as well. Which is a bit of a problem for anxiety-prone corporate counsel Karen Crowder. George Clooney gives a great performance in the title role, but the real revelation here is Tilda Swinton, who deservedly won an Oscar for her tremendous performance as Karen. Gilroy, good a director as he is, owes most of the film's tremendous tension to her and her alone.
Kill Bill (Quentin Tarantino, 2003-2004) Bill likes to train his lovers to be assassins. Or he likes to take his trained assassins as lovers. One of the two. But one of them got away, so he takes his assassins to her wedding to kill her. Except that she only ended up in a coma. And when she wakes up, there's hell to pay. Uma Thurman gives the performance of her career as The Bride, whose mission it is to kill Bill, in what is, for my money, the best film of Tarantino's career (Part One). What I wouldn't give to see the unseparated "The Whole Bloody Affair" cut that Tarantino sometimes brings out.
Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964) Dr. Strangelove is the strangest of Peter Sellers's creations in this darkest of pitch-black comedies - a wheelchair-bound former Nazi scientist who can't quite keep his Nazi sympathies in check. If you've somehow never heard of this, the basic idea is that we're going to nuclear war with Russia, but the reason is trumped-up by crazy General Jack Ripper. So it's the war hawks (led by General Buck Turgidson) versus the diplomats (President Merkin Muffley) fighting over the fate of the world. One of my all-time favorite movies, Dr. Strangelove is political satire at its absolute finest. There are few casts more stacked than this - George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, James Earl Hones, Keenan Wynn - and even though director Stanley Kubrick may not have liked the idea, Sellers is BRILLIANT in his three parts here, absolutely nailing each one and, in Strangelove, creating a comic character for the ages.
Good choices though I can't honestly say I love any of them. I do like two, one quite a bit more than the other.
Tilda and her ace performance were the most memorable parts of Michael Clayton though Clooney was decent in the lead just outmatched acting wise by her.
Dr. Strangelove is such a weird beast, I hated it the first time I watched it but upon a revisit and knowing what to expect I appreciated its unique point of view. I don't see myself ever loving it but it a complete original.
I tried with Kill Bill but it just wasn't for me. I'll never watch the sequel.
I did a theme within the theme of which I'm sure you'll approve since it is Debbie Reynolds inspired. My first pick which she stars in has been a long time favorite of mine and when I received a copy of the DVD for Christmas I used the title as my guide.
Mary, Mary (1963)-Struggling New York book publisher Bob McKellaway (Barry Nelson-who is fine but his role has Jack Lemmon’s name all over it) is getting ready to marry his socialite fiancée Tiffany (a knockout Diane McBain) as soon as his divorce from first wife Mary (Debbie Reynolds) comes though. However his accountant Oscar (a delightful Hiram Sherman) requests Mary come up from Philadelphia for the day to straighten out some tax issues before the decree becomes final. Once together Bob and Mary start to jab wittily at each other and before you know it their attraction starts to resurface aided by the attentions to Mary of movie star and prospective author Dirk Winsten (Michael Rennie) and an inconvenient snowstorm. Betrays its stage origins (the play ran for over 1500 performances) but is often clever and witty. Both Rennie and Nelson repeat their Broadway roles.
Rachel, Rachel (1968)-Rachel Cameron (Joanne Woodward) is a lonely middle-aged schoolteacher. Never married and still a virgin she lives a life of quiet desperation with her widowed mother over the funeral home left to them by her father. Over summer vacation she goes to a revival meeting with her best friend fellow teacher Calla (Estelle Parsons) during which she has an epiphany and begins to emerge from her shell taking her life in unexpected directions. Directed by Paul Newman as a vehicle for his wife this received four Oscar nominations including ones for Woodward, Parsons and Best Picture.
Corrina, Corrina (1994)-Widower Manny Singer (Ray Liotta) is frustrated in his search for a nanny for his young daughter who has withdrawn into herself since her mother’s death and stopped speaking. When Corrina Washington (Whoopi Goldberg) applies she is able to break through the child’s reserve and is hired. As time passes she and Manny discover an attraction and grow closer but all does not go smoothly.
And to show this is not strictly a female happenstance:
Buddy Buddy (1981)-Trabucco (Walter Matthau) a hitman on a job to rub out a Mob informant before he testifies is waylaid by Victor Clooney (Jack Lemmon), the suicidal guy in the hotel room next door. Once he talks him off the ledge he plans to jump from their lives become intertwined and nothing goes as planned. Billy Wilder’s final film as director would seem to have everything needed to succeed, a reteaming of Lemmon and Matthau, a quality supporting cast and the great man himself behind the camera but even he admitted that it was more or less a miss.
hehe LOVE your theme within the theme! The only one I've seen is Rachel, Rachel, which is definitely worth it for Woodward (although I found it a bit dated). I've always been intrigued by Corrina, Corrina, but haven't ever gotten around to it.
I love Kill Bill! I never saw Michael Clayton or Doctor Strangelove but I'd like to see both eventually. I was silently boycotting Michael Clayton because I thought the trailer looked so boring during that Oscar season and I'm sure I was wrong. lol
Kill Bill is an amazing movie. Actually, I love both parts. Michael Clayton is fine, but a bit too convoluted for me to love. I'm not a fan of Dr. Strangelove. I tried several times. I really, really tried. It just doesn't work for me. Sorry.
I like Kill Bill Vol. 2 just fine, and it's great, but doesn't quite hit the highs on Vol. 1 for me.
Don't be sorry! Strangelove is definitely one of those films where you have to be able to get on the film's wavelength, and if it's not your thing, it's not your thing.
I have seen Michael Clayton which was good. I really love the styling of Nutbar Tarantino but I still have to see Kill Bill. Gosh! I was finally going to watch Dr. Strangelove and I still haven't. I taped it (old saying but you know what I mean) and just haven't watched it yet
Good choices though I can't honestly say I love any of them. I do like two, one quite a bit more than the other.
ReplyDeleteTilda and her ace performance were the most memorable parts of Michael Clayton though Clooney was decent in the lead just outmatched acting wise by her.
Dr. Strangelove is such a weird beast, I hated it the first time I watched it but upon a revisit and knowing what to expect I appreciated its unique point of view. I don't see myself ever loving it but it a complete original.
I tried with Kill Bill but it just wasn't for me. I'll never watch the sequel.
I did a theme within the theme of which I'm sure you'll approve since it is Debbie Reynolds inspired. My first pick which she stars in has been a long time favorite of mine and when I received a copy of the DVD for Christmas I used the title as my guide.
Mary, Mary (1963)-Struggling New York book publisher Bob McKellaway (Barry Nelson-who is fine but his role has Jack Lemmon’s name all over it) is getting ready to marry his socialite fiancée Tiffany (a knockout Diane McBain) as soon as his divorce from first wife Mary (Debbie Reynolds) comes though. However his accountant Oscar (a delightful Hiram Sherman) requests Mary come up from Philadelphia for the day to straighten out some tax issues before the decree becomes final. Once together Bob and Mary start to jab wittily at each other and before you know it their attraction starts to resurface aided by the attentions to Mary of movie star and prospective author Dirk Winsten (Michael Rennie) and an inconvenient snowstorm. Betrays its stage origins (the play ran for over 1500 performances) but is often clever and witty. Both Rennie and Nelson repeat their Broadway roles.
Rachel, Rachel (1968)-Rachel Cameron (Joanne Woodward) is a lonely middle-aged schoolteacher. Never married and still a virgin she lives a life of quiet desperation with her widowed mother over the funeral home left to them by her father. Over summer vacation she goes to a revival meeting with her best friend fellow teacher Calla (Estelle Parsons) during which she has an epiphany and begins to emerge from her shell taking her life in unexpected directions. Directed by Paul Newman as a vehicle for his wife this received four Oscar nominations including ones for Woodward, Parsons and Best Picture.
Corrina, Corrina (1994)-Widower Manny Singer (Ray Liotta) is frustrated in his search for a nanny for his young daughter who has withdrawn into herself since her mother’s death and stopped speaking. When Corrina Washington (Whoopi Goldberg) applies she is able to break through the child’s reserve and is hired. As time passes she and Manny discover an attraction and grow closer but all does not go smoothly.
And to show this is not strictly a female happenstance:
Buddy Buddy (1981)-Trabucco (Walter Matthau) a hitman on a job to rub out a Mob informant before he testifies is waylaid by Victor Clooney (Jack Lemmon), the suicidal guy in the hotel room next door. Once he talks him off the ledge he plans to jump from their lives become intertwined and nothing goes as planned. Billy Wilder’s final film as director would seem to have everything needed to succeed, a reteaming of Lemmon and Matthau, a quality supporting cast and the great man himself behind the camera but even he admitted that it was more or less a miss.
hehe LOVE your theme within the theme! The only one I've seen is Rachel, Rachel, which is definitely worth it for Woodward (although I found it a bit dated). I've always been intrigued by Corrina, Corrina, but haven't ever gotten around to it.
DeleteI love Kill Bill! I never saw Michael Clayton or Doctor Strangelove but I'd like to see both eventually. I was silently boycotting Michael Clayton because I thought the trailer looked so boring during that Oscar season and I'm sure I was wrong. lol
ReplyDeletelol Michael Clayton isn't boring so much as a bit full of itself? But Tilda is SO WORTH IT. Doctor Strangelove is ESSENTIAL.
DeleteKill Bill is an amazing movie. Actually, I love both parts. Michael Clayton is fine, but a bit too convoluted for me to love. I'm not a fan of Dr. Strangelove. I tried several times. I really, really tried. It just doesn't work for me. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI like Kill Bill Vol. 2 just fine, and it's great, but doesn't quite hit the highs on Vol. 1 for me.
DeleteDon't be sorry! Strangelove is definitely one of those films where you have to be able to get on the film's wavelength, and if it's not your thing, it's not your thing.
I have seen Michael Clayton which was good. I really love the styling of Nutbar Tarantino but I still have to see Kill Bill. Gosh! I was finally going to watch Dr. Strangelove and I still haven't. I taped it (old saying but you know what I mean) and just haven't watched it yet
ReplyDeleteKill Bill is SO MUCH FUN. As is Doctor Strangelove, but in a VERY different way.
Delete