Thursday Movie Picks - Gangsters

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!

WELL, I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! I know I sure did. Maybe even a bit too much of one, but WHO CARES! IT'S THURSDAY! And it's time for another episode of everyone's favorite web movie series! This week: GANGSTERS. Those dapper men of crime who the movies have never stopped loving to glorify...

...and sometimes make fun of.

Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959) Poor, underemployed musicians Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) unintentionally witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. So they escape and go undercover the only way they know how: As female musicians in an all-girl band! Hilarity ensues as they both fall for lead singer Sugar Cane (Marilyn Monroe at her absolute peak) and have to escape mobster Spats Colombo (George Raft) and millionaire wannabe-playboy Osgood Fielding III (comic treasure Joe E. Brown). One of the funniest films ever made, Some Like it Hot is perfection on every level, with so many classic moments it's impossible to keep track.

Bullets Over Broadway (Woody Allen, 1994) Poor playwright David Shayne (John Cusack, one of Woody's best avatars) is not having any luck getting his latest play produced on Broadway. So when mobster Nick Valenti bankrolls the whole thing on the condition that his girlfriend Olive (Jennifer Tilly, genius) be cast as the ingenue, he reluctantly agrees. He then manages to get diva star Helen Sinclair (Dianne Wiest, GENIUS) as the lead. But then Olive's bodyguard Cheech (Chazz Palminteri) turns out to be a secret genius, constantly making suggestions for the play that actually improve it. How will this all end for David? It's a hilarious route to get there, one of Woody's most purely funny movies. Palminteri, Tilly, and Wiest all deservedly got Oscar nominations for their hilarious performances, with Wiest winning her second Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her inimitable turn as Helen Sinclair. "DON'T SPEAK!"

Analyze This (Harold Ramis, 1999) Poor mob boss Paul Vitti (Robert DeNiro, deftly parodying himself) is having a problem: After so many years worrying about his standing in the mob and fearing for his life - and after his consiglieri gets shot right in front of him - he's started having panic attacks. So his henchman Jelly takes him to see psychiatrist Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal, perfectly cast), whose car Jelly hit in an accident. Shenanigans, as you can imagine, ensue. It's hard to believe that this perfect mafia parody came out only two months after the premiere of television series The Sporanos, which took a dramatic look at the same subject. But it did, and it was the perfect cultural moment for it. Crystal and DeNiro are clearly having a blast playing off each other, and the script by Ramis, Kenneth Lonergan, and Peter Tolan is clever and chock full of one-liner gems.

Thursday Movie Picks - Nostalgia

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!

I had a hard time coming up with movies for this week's theme, nostalgia. I'm assuming we're talking movies ABOUT nostalgia, not movies that evoke a sense of nostalgia within us. Although even if it were the latter, I still might have trouble. But anyway, here's what I could come up with.

Peggy Sue Got Married (Francis Ford Coppola, 1986) Peggy Sue is pretty unhappy in her marriage, and at her high school reunion, she passes out and wakes up back in her senior year of high school. Is she really there? Is it a dream? Would she do anything differently? The major conflict of the film, beautifully acted by Kathleen Turner in the title role, is whether Peggy Sue's nostalgia will overcome her so much that she will make the same decisions and fall into old patterns, or if she will be bold and blaze a new path for herself. Viewing this movie now, I was somewhat unsatisfied with the ending, but upon reflection it's a bit more complicated than I initially gave it credit for. It probably doesn't help that Peggy Sue's beau is played by Nicolas Cage at his most grating (on purpose, but still). But the cinematography is gorgeous, and the cast is an embarrassment of riches: In addition to Turner, who is brilliant, there's Helen Hunt, Joan Allen, and Jim Carrey! Which brings us to...

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004) Sometimes, you're not nostalgic for a time or place, so much as a person. The problem for Joel Barrish is that he realizes he's nostalgic for his ex-girlfriend Clementine while he's undergoing a procedure to have her erased from his memories. So he decides, along with the version of Clementine in his memories, to hide her. Charlie Kaufman's script is dazzling, and Michel Gondry's direction even more so, but the real draw here is the ensemble cast, especially the performances of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as Joel and Clementine. Carrey was never used better in a dramatic role, his expressive face getting quite the workout as Joel goes back into memories of being a small child. And Winslet's performance is even more mind-blowing when you realize that for most of the movie, she's not actually playing Clementine, but rather Joel's memory of her. It's an incredible film all around, probably the best film since the new millennium. Truly a work of staggering genius.

Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen, 2011) Owen Wilson is engaged to Rachel McAdams. The two of them are visiting Paris with her parents on a business trip. He's a writer, and is naturally taken with the historical city. But at midnight, when he's wandering about, he ends up in the 1920s, in the salons of some of the greatest artists of the 20th century. Will he try to stay in the earlier time period as he becomes more and more infatuated with it? I won't spoil that, but I absolutely will spoil some of the rogue's gallery of an ensemble, who are the true reason to see this lovely little film: Kathy Bates as Gertrude Stein, Adrien Brody as Salvador Dali, Tom Hiddleston and Allison Pill as the Fitzgeralds F. Scott and Zelda, Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway... Allen clearly had a blast writing for these characters, and the actors pay him back with all they've got. Unfortunately, the present day characters are pretty much insufferable. But that's not near enough to take the fizz out of this champagne cocktail of a movie.

Blind Spot #1: The Purple Rose of Cairo

I can't think of a better film to start the Blind Spot Series (much love to Ryan at The Matinée for starting this amazing blog series!) than Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo, because it is all about love of the movies.

But even knowing the basic plot going in, I was not prepared for just how funny Purple Rose would be, nor was I prepared for the turns its plot would take. Yes, Mia Farrow's depression-era abused wife Cecilia goes to see the fictional film The Purple Rose of Cairo so many times that Jeff Daniels's sweet-hearted, safari-suited character Tom Baxter walks right off the screen to be with her, but what happens after that is Woody Allen's true stroke of genius.

Not only are the theater patrons amused and appalled in equal measure, not only do the other characters in the film within the film sit around and grouse about the asshole who walked off the screen and left them without a way to continue the movie, not only does the theater owner call the producer and distributor to take care of the problem, but the studio calls the actor who played the role (Jeff Daniels again) to fix it!

Leave it to Woody Allen to treat this fantastical premise completely realistically. And I do mean completely: Even Tom's money isn't real.

Everything follows a completely sound train of logic, making the entire thing seem even more absurd than it actually is. Especially when we get two versions of Jeff Daniels, the actor and the character he created, getting into metaphysical arguments about who's who and who's the better person. It's hilarious stuff, especially for this performer. This is a really unique way to tackle the identity issues that can come with being an actor: What would happen if the character your played in a film - the actual character, you as the character - appeared in front of you in real life? Is he you? Some version of you?

One of many great little details in the film is how Tom expects the real world to behave like the movies - when he starts to get hot and heavy with Cecilia, he expects the world to fade-out and for time to jump to after they've had sex. He has no idea what sex is like, because movies of that time never showed anything beyond some relatively chaste making out. Which makes his visit to a brothel with Dianne Wiest (LOVE. HER.) especially hilarious.

And then, Tom actually brings Cecilia into his movie for a patented Hollywood-style nightclub montage. The perfection of The Purple Rose of Cairo, the film-within-the-film, is glorious to behold. The actors, including Edward Herrmann, Van Johnson, Deborah Rush, and Zoe Caldwell, are clearly having a blast playing classic film tropes of characters, and the style of the film is so perfect (from the literal title cards to the soundtrack to the afore-mentioned montage) that you might actually buy that this thing was a real Hollywood film from that time.

But let's get back to the actual film. I think that anyone who loves movies can relate to Farrow's Cecilia. I felt like I knew her almost immediately, as she goes to the movies so much that she knows the people who work in the theater by name. I make it a point to try to go to the movies once a week - I budget it as a necessary expense, not a fun thing to do if I have the money. And haven't we all wanted to meet a movie star in real life - let alone actually be in a movie for real? Cecilia gets to do all of that. And even when things don't work out so well, she still has the movies. A new one comes out every week!

Apparently there was some criticism of the film when it came out because of its ending. People claimed it wasn't "happy". To which I first have to say: Who says all films have to have a happy ending? And frankly, I agree with Woody Allen, who retorted, "That was the happy ending." There is no way to end this story more happily. If Cecilia runs off with actor Gil, there's no way they would live happily ever after. He's so self-absorbed that he would eventually leave her for someone else, and with nothing, and she'd be right back where she started. If she runs off with the fictional Tom, they won't get far before the harsh realities of life will come crashing down on them both. Tom isn't just fictional, he lives (quite literally) in a fantasy world, and has no idea how to live in the real one. Nope, no matter how you slice it, Cecilia eventually has to face the music and realize that life, with all its ups and downs, must be lived. It doesn't always end happily, but that's why we have movies. Life can't be like them, but they sure are nice to escape to.

The Purple Rose of Cairo
Year: 1985
Written and Directed by: Woody Allen
Starring: Mia Farrow, Jeff Daniels, Danny Aiello, Dianne Wiest
Oscar: Best Original Screenplay Nomination (lost to Witness)

Rating: ***** (Personal Favorite level)