Written as part of the weekly blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Join in the fun by picking three movies that fit the week's theme and writing a bit about them!
This week, on Thursday Movie Picks, we're looking at speeches AKA soliloquies AKA monologues. AKA one character talking at length, just by themselves. In the spirit of that, I'm going to get out of their way and let these great monologues speak for themselves.
Also, I'm going a little overboard this week, because I just couldn't help myself.
THE ROMANTIC
Jerry Maguire (Cameron Crowe, 1996) It's become a cliché for a reason.
Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith, 1997) If you've ever fallen for a friend, you'll know how perfect this is.
Romeo & Juliet (Franco Zeffirelli, 1968) Has any romance ever topped this scene?
THE POLITICAL
The American President (Rob Reiner, 1995) If only we had a real President who said these things. And a public who listened.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939) The climax of this is a series of brilliant, impassioned monologues by Jimmy Stewart to an unfeeling political machine. Should be required viewing for every American of voting age... but long before they reach that age and become too cynical. The more things change, the more things stay the same.
To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962) Another one that is sadly still relevant today, more than 50 years later.
THE ONE SCENE WONDERS
Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976) In which Beatrice Straight shows how to win an Academy Award in less than five minutes.
Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) In which Christopher Walken delivers the best performance of his career.
Doubt (John Patrick Shanley, 2008) In which Viola Davis steals a whole damn movie from Meryl Freakin' Streep, and becomes a star in the process.
THE COMEDIC
Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982) Every single goddamn second of this is perfection.
Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman, 1930) Everything that makes Groucho Marx great in one perfect monologue.
Addams Family Values (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1993) In which Joan Cusack puts all other monologuing villains to shame.
Written as part of the weekly blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Join in by picking three movies that fit the theme of the week and telling us a bit about them!
As Valentine's month rolls on, here we are at Thursday Movie Picks, picking movies with memorable declarations or confessions of love. You know, the grand gestures, the heartfelt speeches... the ones we all try to duplicate or better in real life but never quite manage to pull off.
In other words, prepare yourself for some giant clichés!
"I love you. And not in a friendly way, although we're great friends. And not in a misplaced affection, puppy dog way, which I'm sure is what you'll call it."
Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith, 1997) I mean, I'd fuck Ben Affleck after that speech, wouldn't you? But she leaves! Allow me to explain: Holden is a comic book artist, so is Alyssa. They meet at a comic convention and become fast friends, and of course, Holden becomes attracted to her. There's just one tiny little problem: Alyssa is a lesbian. BUT (and here is where the film really steps in it) she decides to start up a relationship with Holden anyway. It doesn't go well, but not necessarily because both of them are attracted to women. But the problematic nature of what follows doesn't diminish the power of this speech one bit.
"You complete me." "You had me at hello."
Jerry Maguire (Cameron Crowe, 1996) This one has become the biggest cliché, but deservedly so. It gets to the heart of how we love AND how we fall in love. It's kind of amazing it took until 1996 for anyone to write it like this. Jerry is a sports agent with commitment issues. Dorothy is a single mom whose sister hosts a weekly meeting of divorced women who are - to put it mildly - man-haters. They get married impulsively, have some issues, and take a break. But then Jerry comes back during the weekly meeting, mans up, and drops this bomb. And just when he's getting going, Dorothy cuts him off. She doesn't need him to say anything. Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger are on top form in this. So winning. Bonus: Dorothy's declaration of love - to her sister, although Jerry overhears - is also pretty great.
"I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."
Notting Hill (Roger Michell, 1999) This scene shouldn't work. It shouldn't. As written, it is incredibly condescending, almost irredeemable pap. But Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant pull it off, through some strange kind of likable-movie-star alchemy. Anna is a movie star who's had a string of bad relationships. William is a sad-sack book-store owner who hasn't had any luck after his divorce. They meet-cute a few times and then start seeing each other, until her fame (and his ego) gets in their way. But in an attempt to win him back, she brings by a painting and this killer little speech. He says no - to protect his heart - but realizes not long after she leaves that he was being a daft prick. That painting? Oh, just an ORIGINAL CHAGALL.
BONUS PICK
Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003) Go ahead, pick your favorite. "To me, you are perfect." "Bonita Aurelia." The kid running through the airport. Richard Curtis's Frankstein's monster of spare romantic comedy parts is lousy with memorable declarations of love. Some work better than others, but most of them work far better than they have any right to thanks to a sterling cast, a light touch, and - let's be honest - all those British accents.
Written as part of the weekly blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Participate yourself by picking three movies that fit the week's theme and telling us about them.
This week's theme for Thursday Movie Picks correlates to the weekend's big release, the new James Bond film SPECTRE. Can I let you in on a secret? Up until Skyfall, I had never seen a Bond film. Not a single one. I'm not really sure why. I've just never been able to muster up the excitement for them.
But anyway, that's not really the point. The point is, there's much more to Secret Agents and Spies on film than Bond and his dirty martinis. Here are three of my favorites.
North By Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) Probably the most exciting film Hitchcock ever directed, in which Cary Grant is mistaken for a Mr. George Kaplan, a spy who, as it turns out, doesn't exist. Which is especially unfortunate for Cary after he's photographed taking a knife out of a U.N. diplomat's back. Someone else put it there, but try telling that to the police, especially when the secret government agency who created the persona of Kaplan won't get involved at the risk of exposing their real double agent, played by the gorgeous Eva Marie Saint. With James Mason as the big baddie and Martin Landau as his underling.
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (Jay Roach, 1997) Hands down the best thing Mike Myers has ever done, Austin Powers is a dead-on hilarious parody of the 60s and spy films. But you don't have to be particularly well-versed in spy films to enjoy it. It's pure silliness, but it's absolutely INSPIRED silliness. The jokes fly fast and furious from the lips of the inimitable cast (Elizabeth Hurley, Robert Wagner, and Mindy Sterling have never been better, to say nothing of Myers in his dual role as the titular spy and his arch-nemesis Dr. Evil), and the double entendres are the best I've seen in probably any movie ever. The later sequels, The Spy Who Shagged Me and Goldmember, are basically bald rewrites of this one, but why mess with perfection?
Mission: Impossible (Brian De Palma, 1996) One of the rare franchises that has kept up a pretty much even level of quality across each film, the Tom Cruise series is one of the best in film history. This is the one that started it all, and god DAMN is it fun. When Ethan Hunt's entire Impossible Missions Force (IMF) team gets killed, the agency assumes he's the mole they've been trying to find for a while. Except he's innocent, so he has to go rogue in order to prove his innocence. Cruise's "I do my own stunts" go-for-broke star power has never been put to better use than with this character, so it's no surprise that he keeps coming back to it. And given the great directors and scriptwriters that keep coming to the series, it's clear that someone behind the scenes knows what they're doing (for what it's worth, my pick for the best of the series is the fourth, Ghost Protocol). De Palma's original lays all the groundwork with flawless sequence after flawless sequence and a roller coaster pace that only lets up in just the right amounts to relieve the (at times considerable) tension.
BONUS PICK
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (Guy Ritchie, 2014) It's a pity so many people dismissed this film this summer, because it was really a blast. The cool retro vibe extended from the perfect costumes and hairdos of its (unbelievably good-looking) stars to Ritchie's filmmaking, which has never been slicker or sleeker. It's ultimately a lark, but it's a great looking one, and lots of fun. Plus, between Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, and Elizabeth Debicki, there really is something here for everyone.
Written for the blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Join us by picking three movies that fit the week's theme and telling us about them!
I LOVE science fiction, so this week was full of fun films to pick, even with the restriction of no space or aliens. These are all different interpretations of science fiction. (It's been a busy week and day, so that's as much of an intro as you're going to get.)
Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011) Okay, so this may be cheating a little, because the sci-fi is really only at the edges, but Melancholia is such a GORGEOUS film, and it uses its science fiction conceit (a planet, the titular Melancholia, is on a collision course with Earth) to explore depression in a way no film has done before or since. Featuring a career-best performance from Kirsten Dunst that justly won the Best Actress prize at Cannes, and another fantastic performance from von Trier muse Charlotte Gainsbourg. The best opening and closing scenes of any movie in recent memory. And the repeated use of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, which features a minor chord repeated throughout that doesn't resolve until the very last note of the opera, is flat-out BRILLIANT. Bonus points for Udo Kier's hilarious minor role.
Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002) For my money, Spielberg's greatest achievement of the 00s, Minority Report features some very cool, prescient special effects, great performances from Tom Cruise and Samantha Morton, and some of the coolest production design you'll see in a sci-fi film set in the not-too-distant future. The story is about a world in which crimes can be predicted by a set of three sibling "pre-cogs" who can see the future, and the policeman who hunts down the people who haven't yet committed the crime for which he's arresting them... until the pre-cogs announce he will kill someone. Of course it was written by Phillip K. Dick, and it's probably the best adaptation of one of the great author's works.
The Nutty Professor (Tom Shadyac, 1996) YES, THIS COUNTS. Eddie Murphy is a sweet, overweight scientist who concocts a weight loss formula which brings out his inner "Buddy Love" in this remake of the 60s Jerry Lewis picture (which I would have picked except I can't STAND Lewis in dork mode). Basically a comic spin on Jekyll & Hyde, The Nutty Professor is science fiction at its funniest. My family rented this one and were laughing so hard at the dinner scenes that we had to rewind and rewatch them. Murphy deserved an Oscar nomination for this, playing not only the titular Sherman Klump, but Klump's mother, father, brother, and grandmother, too, creating a whole family of comic genius. (Unfortunately, he was such a hit in all these roles that a sequel was made with more of them.)
