favorite movie #117 - holiday edition: peter’s friends

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #117 - Peter’s Friends (1992) - This film, about the getting together around the New Year's holiday by a bunch of old college friends, feels mostly improvisational, and probably for good reason — most of the cast are old college friends or frequent collaborators. Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Tony Slattery, and screenwriter Martin Bergman attended Cambridge University together and were members of the Cambridge Footlights. Director Kenneth Branagh was married to Emma Thompson at the time of filming, and Bregman is married to co-writer Rita Rudner. Hugh Laurie was a former comedy partner of Stephen Fry, and Imelda Staunton has appeared in numerous projects with all of the cast. Called a British Big Chill, the film is less about a generation as it is about the nature of friendship. Some of the plotting and situations seem familiar, but the fun comes from watching this talented cast interact with one another. And I am happy for any chance to see one of my favorite British comedians, Tony Slattery, apply his zany energy to anything.

Stephen Fry

Tony Slattery

favorite movie #114 - holiday edition: while you were sleeping

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #114 - While You Were Sleeping (1995) - Sandra Bullock is at her adorable best as Lucy, a Chicago token seller who has a major crush on one of her regular riders (Peter Gallagher). On Christmas she saves him from an oncoming train after he falls on the tracks after a bunch of muggers attack him. Later at the hospital she inadvertently fibs that she is his fiancée so that she can get in to see the comatose man and see if he's O.K. She learns that his name is Peter and meets his wonderful family, who immediately fall in love with her — including his younger brother Jack (Bill Pullman). Hijinks ensue, and the lonely Lucy must find a way to tell the truth and not hurt the people who she has come to love.

favorite movie #108 - holiday edition: batman returns

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #108 - Batman Returns (1992) - This was Tim Burton's second crack at filming loner superhero Batman. He and the movie spend a lot of time with Danny Devito's Penguin and Christopher Walken's crooked millionaire Max Schreck. But really, who cares about them? What makes this movie the best Batman is Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, who seems the purrr-fect match for the rubber-encased Batman (Michael Keaton). Would someone get these two fetishists a room already?

Catwoman: You're catnip to a girl like me. Handsome, dazed, and to die for 

Batman: Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it. 

Catwoman: But a kiss can be even deadlier if you mean it. You're the second man who killed me this week, but I've got seven lives left. 

Batman: I tried to save you. 

Catwoman: Seems like every woman you try to save ends up dead... or deeply resentful. Maybe you should retire.

favorite movie #97 - holiday edition: planes, trains, and automobiles & only the lonely

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #96 - Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987) & Only the Lonely (1991) - I really love these two John Candy films, which not only showcase his comedic talent, but how effecting he could be emotionally, too. In John Hughes's Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, one of the all-time greatest road pictures, he is the thorn on Steve Martin's side as the two try to make it home for Thanksgiving. There are many memorable moments — especially "Those aren't pillows!" Martin and Candy are great together, and Hughes takes his typical Chicago affluent suburb setting and character played by Martin and lets Candy disrupt him for both big comedic and emotional payoffs.

In Only the Lonely (produced by Hughes and again set in Chicago, but written and directed by Chris Columbus) Candy is a policeman who is torn between his loyalty to his overbearing mother (played by an amazing Maureen O'Hara) and a blossoming romance with a funeral home worker (Ally Sheedy). You really feel for Candy as he struggles to break away from his tough-as-nails mom and maybe, finally, live his own life. He and the film are truly wonderful.

Link to Christmas: The movies takes place during the holiday season

favorite movie #92 - election edition: election

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #92 - Election (1999) - Reese Witherspoon is amazing as Tracy Flick, the indefatigable, unscrupulous, ever-achieving senior who is running for student body president. Matthew Broderick is her teacher Jim McAllister, who loathes her. This dark comedy never tries to make any of its characters likable and is all the better for it.

favorite movie #88 - halloween edition: wolf

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #88 - Wolf (1994) - I've written about this film before, one of my favorite Jack Nicholson and werewolf movies:

I recently caught another film that Nicholson did with Pfieffer, Wolf (1994), and really liked it. Directed by Mike Nichols, it is a dark urban fairy tale and love story. Wolf at first seems a pretty standard werewolf update, and in some ways it is. Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London) does the make-up effects, but this is not a movie that cares about showcasing the special effects of the werewolf transformation. It is about the after-effects of the transformation and its effects on the hero. 

Nicholson plays Will Randall, a New York editor-in-chief at a publishing house, who one night, while in Vermont, gets bitten by a wolf. Will soon starts to develop some enhanced abilities — smell, hearing, perception. And he sparks the interest of Laura Alden (Pfeiffer), a poor little rich girl with a huge chip on her shoulder — who also happens to be his boss's daughter. Will sums up Laura's privileged, bratty attitude when they first meet in some dialogue that was tailor-made for Nicholson to recite. Can you even imagine any other actor being able to not only say these lines convincingly, but intrigue a woman like Michelle Pfeiffer while saying them? 

"You know, I think I understand what you're like now. You're very beautiful and you think men are only interested in you because you're beautiful, but you want them to be interested in you because you're you. The problem is, aside from all that beauty, you're not very interesting. You're rude, you're hostile, you're sullen, you're withdrawn. I know you want someone to look past all that at the real person underneath, but the only reason anyone would bother to look past all that is because you're beautful. Ironic, isn't it? In an odd way you're your own problem."

You can read the entire review here.

favorite movie #77 - halloween edition: the bone collector

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #77 - The Bone Collector (1999) - This movie is billed more as a crime thriller, but for me The Bone Collector is pure horror. It's got lots wrong with it — an ultimately unsatisfying bad guy and some gratuitous deaths that weren't even in the original book by Jeffrey Deaver — but what sells this film for me and why I have watched it a few times is:

1. The undeniably hot hot hot chemistry between Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie 
2. The Ye Olde New York City crimes and locations based on turn of the century detective novels and magazines (the movie is more of a book-related puzzle to be solved than an action movie) 
3. The great supporting cast, including Queen Latifah, Luis Guzmán, Bobby Cannavale, Ed O'Neill, etc. 

Angelina and Denzel are so great together — they really need to consider teaming up again.

Hey, I guess it's technically a holiday film, too.

favorite movie #49: pom poko

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #49 - Pom Poko (1994) - My mom was a huge fan of Japanese anime, especially work from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. We found this movie at the library, after we blew through all the Miyazaki films and were trying to find some new anime to watch. It is a long, rambling, but ultimately powerful take on urban sprawl and the environment. The tanuki, or raccoon dogs who are the primary focus of the film, are finding their habitat encroached upon by the growing human population of Tokyo. Director Isao Takahata portrays the tanuki as fun-loving, mischievous, war-mongering, affectionate, magical, shape-shifting creatures. Different styles of anime portray the tanuki in their different states and moods, and add to the overall epic look of the film. There really isn't anything else out there like Pom Poko. It is so much more than a cartoon. It is a thoughtful, visually rich, at times sad film that can be revisited again and again.

Related:

two (very different) animated tales of animal survival
grave of the fireflies
paprika 's dream world
arrietty is like walking inside a painting

favorite movie #40: the thing called love

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #40 - The Thing Called Love (1993) - Peter Bogdonavich sets the film around Nashville's Bluebird Cafe, a showcase for new aspiring singer-songwriters. Samantha Mathis's Miranda Presley (no relation) rides a bus all the way from the Big Apple to take her shot. Along the way she meets Linda Lue (Sandra Bullock) and enters into a love triangle of sorts with James (River Phoenix) and Kyle (Dermot Mulroney) — but is there any doubt who will spark her interest? Although the film presents an easier path to success than must be the case, the quartet is charming to watch the the setting is appealing. The romance, although an intrinsic part of the plot, is not the central story, but just a part of Miranda's pursuit of her dream, which is refreshing. There's no fairy tale ending, but hope for the future. Sadly, this was Phoenix's last film.