Showing posts with label Kathy Bates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kathy Bates. Show all posts
Sunday, August 26, 2018
favorite movie #27: midnight in paris
Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #27 - Midnight in Paris (2011) - As a writer and artist it's hard not to feel that Midnight in Paris was made for me. Owen Wilson is frustrated in work and in love, and the beauty of Paris is luring him to follow his true dream - to ditch his Hollywood screenwriting career and move to Paris to finish his novel, a la his idols F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. One evening, strolling and soaking in the city's beauty, a vintage Peugeot rolls up and whisks him away to the Paris of his dreams - the 1920s. He meets not only Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston) and Hemingway (Corey Stoll), but Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), and a beautiful artist's muse named Adriana (Marion Cotillard). Gil has many adventures in the past, and who wouldn't want to meet their heroes? There are plenty of wonderful art in-jokes, including Gil suggesting to Luis Bunuel the plot of his classic film The Exterminating Angel. Midnight in Paris is a wonderful tribute to the city, art, love, and realizing that one can honor the past while living in the present.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
catching up with ... unconditional love
Unconditional Love is a fun little film starring Kathy Bates and Rupert Everett. It's a comedy, but it touches on love, grief, and betrayal, all while never getting sappy and staying a black comedy like only filmmakers from overseas can seem to do them. It was directed by Australian P. J. Hogan, whose films include Muriel's Wedding and My Best Friend's Wedding, which also featured Everett.
Unconditional Love centers around Grace Beasley (Bates), who loves with a capital "L" the pop singer Victor Fox (a sort of Tom Jones/Barry Manilow mash-up), played by a wonderfully smarmy Jonathan Pryce. Grace is so obsessed with her idol that she almost doesn't notice when her husband (Dan Aykroyd) announces he's walking out on their marriage, citing boredom as one of the main reasons. To add insult to injury, when she finally has a chance to see Fox at a talk show in her home town of Chicago while he is on tour in America the singer is murdered, by a serial killer dubbed the "Crossbow Killer."
Grace spontaneously decides to travel to Britain and attend Fox's funeral, and soon discovers the truth about his life and his family and his very special friend Dirk (Everett). Fox not only hid his personal life from his fans, but some of his many extra-curricular activities from Dirk. Can Grace still love Victor Fox unconditionally now that she learns who he really was? Can Dirk? Was his death a random killing or is there something more behind it? As Grace and Dirk become friends, they decide to try and solve the mystery of Victor's death.
Unconditional Love will leave you smiling and even humming (and maybe even a little upset with yourself for doing so), but that's unconditional love — it's surrendering everything for that brief moment of joy.
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| A loving friendship forms between Grace and Dirk |
Unconditional Love centers around Grace Beasley (Bates), who loves with a capital "L" the pop singer Victor Fox (a sort of Tom Jones/Barry Manilow mash-up), played by a wonderfully smarmy Jonathan Pryce. Grace is so obsessed with her idol that she almost doesn't notice when her husband (Dan Aykroyd) announces he's walking out on their marriage, citing boredom as one of the main reasons. To add insult to injury, when she finally has a chance to see Fox at a talk show in her home town of Chicago while he is on tour in America the singer is murdered, by a serial killer dubbed the "Crossbow Killer."
Grace spontaneously decides to travel to Britain and attend Fox's funeral, and soon discovers the truth about his life and his family and his very special friend Dirk (Everett). Fox not only hid his personal life from his fans, but some of his many extra-curricular activities from Dirk. Can Grace still love Victor Fox unconditionally now that she learns who he really was? Can Dirk? Was his death a random killing or is there something more behind it? As Grace and Dirk become friends, they decide to try and solve the mystery of Victor's death.
Dirk: I don't believe in unconditional love, I mean, what is it anyway? Cut off my ears, steal my money and I'll love you anyway?Bates is wonderful at being able to transmit that she is a woman in pain but still has enough love and humanity to be able to try to bolster others in their misery — like the grieving Dirk and her daughter-in-law Maudey (Meredith Eaton), who is currently estranged from Grace's son. Bates and Everett have a winning chemistry. Lynn Redgrave is also wonderful as one of Victor Fox's uptight and upright sisters who is not at all eager to acknowledge who he really was, to herself or the world. Julie Andrews and Barry Manilow provide winning cameos as well. There are some great little throwaway jokes — when someone sees Maudey ("Nobody messes with a dwarf in a red raincoat.") he asks his companion if he has ever seen the film Don't Look Now.
Grace: Yes, and more.
Dirk: More?
Grace: You don't have to love me back.
Unconditional Love will leave you smiling and even humming (and maybe even a little upset with yourself for doing so), but that's unconditional love — it's surrendering everything for that brief moment of joy.
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
harry's law finale
Article first published as Television Review: Harry's Law - Finale on Blogcritics.
After 12 episodes I still really like Harry's Law. The main characters are great and have a good rapport with each other. The stories are wacky and outlandish sometimes, but they work in combination with Kathy Bates's indomitable will and general state of irritation. She's a curmudgeon with a grudgingly warming heart and such a pleasure to watch.
Lawyer shows are always an either/or proposition — either the protagonists will win or lose the case of the week. There's no way around the cliché structure since the early days of Perry Mason. Harry's Law has decided to mess with that formula by always winning, so the show became more about the social interaction of the characters than the issue-of-the-week. When, on the rare occasion of Harry's firm losing a case, she and her lawyers still won't take no for an answer and vow to keep pursuing their case in a higher court.
The best part about the finale was the last scene. Like a scene in a play, Kathy Bates and Nate Corddry, the two star players, sat quietly discussing the day as the lights faded to black. It was very theatrical, a nod to Bates's Broadway acting career and the general theatricality of the show. And it was also nice. These people are likable. And I'm looking forward to checking in on them again and hope that Kathy Bates and Co. are back for a new season of dramatic lawyering and shoe selling.
After 12 episodes I still really like Harry's Law. The main characters are great and have a good rapport with each other. The stories are wacky and outlandish sometimes, but they work in combination with Kathy Bates's indomitable will and general state of irritation. She's a curmudgeon with a grudgingly warming heart and such a pleasure to watch.
Lawyer shows are always an either/or proposition — either the protagonists will win or lose the case of the week. There's no way around the cliché structure since the early days of Perry Mason. Harry's Law has decided to mess with that formula by always winning, so the show became more about the social interaction of the characters than the issue-of-the-week. When, on the rare occasion of Harry's firm losing a case, she and her lawyers still won't take no for an answer and vow to keep pursuing their case in a higher court.
Harry the character makes quite an impression on everyone she meets — not always a positive one, but still quite an impact. Especially nice about this show is that many of the quirky personalities she runs up against don't do just a one episode walk-on, but tend to drift in and out of her life and the show. Recurring characters like Tommy Jefferson (Christopher McDonald), a high-profile huckster who is attracted to Harry's integrity like a moth to flame; Kim Mendelsohn (Camryn Mannheim), a beyond-tough assistant district attorney who can screw over the firm's defense in a few short words and then ask the lawyers if they want to hang out after the trial; Josh Peyton (Paul McCrane) the district attorney who started the season off aggressive and obnoxious and ended in, well, the same way, but also vulnerable and strangely likable; Damien Winslow (Johnny Ray Gill) a street hustler who runs a protection racket and ends up being Harry's bodyguard and neighborhood advisor.
The best part about the finale was the last scene. Like a scene in a play, Kathy Bates and Nate Corddry, the two star players, sat quietly discussing the day as the lights faded to black. It was very theatrical, a nod to Bates's Broadway acting career and the general theatricality of the show. And it was also nice. These people are likable. And I'm looking forward to checking in on them again and hope that Kathy Bates and Co. are back for a new season of dramatic lawyering and shoe selling.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Kathy Bates investigates
Article first published as TV Review: Harry's Law with Kathy Bates on Blogcritics.
I hate lawyer shows. I used to watch Law and Order when Jerry Orbach was on it, but never liked the law part of the show, especially Sam Waterston's annoying DA. I don't like arguing for the sake of it—or I should say, watching others do that. I really don't like all the little catches and loopholes in the law that could affect someone in a good or bad way, depending who's writing this week's script. Which is why Harry's Law appeals to me. Many are saying its target audience are Golden Girls from Bates's generation who miss Murder She Wrote. I'm sure the show will appeal to them, but I used to like watching Jessica Fletcher solve her biggest-guest-star-dunits with my grandmother, too. How can you not like Cabot Cove, the murder capital of the world? It was Angela Lansbury, for Pete's sake.
And that's exactly why it's fun watching Harry's Law—Kathy Bates. She's having a blast being ornery, saying all the curse words that her time slot will allow (asshole ... asshole). And she's Kathy Bates. It's refreshing to not see yet another show headed by an unbelievably thin and perky cast. There is the token cast cutie in Brittany Snow, who thankfully also seems to have a sense of humor. Nate Corddry is a great foil and sidekick. The show is supposed to be set in Cincinnati. I've never visited Cincinnati, but I've lived in New York and D.C. and I'm sure the bad part of town doesn't look like the block where Harry's Law and Fine Shoes is located, but who cares; we know it's a backlot. That's not the point. It's a chance to watch Kathy Bates kick some smarmy lawyer butt and get the wind taken out of her sails at the same time, with one client wackier than the next. But like I said, it's really not about the law, it's about the personalities.
What this show really reminds me of are two great British shows that I used to watch, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
, starring Patricia Routledge and Kingdom, starring Stephen Fry. Maybe David E. Kelley has been watching BBC America reruns lately. Hetty Wainthropp was ostensibly a detective show, but no one, no matter how guilty, ever went to jail. They may have gotten a stern lecture or a "tut-tut" and an expressive roll of the eyes from Hetty, but that was about the extent of it. So far Bates's Harry is 2-for-2 getting her criminals off-the-hook, too. Hetty was a fun hour watching Routledge and a very young Dominic Monaghan team up to solve crimes in Northern England. Kingdom starred Fry as a small-town lawyer surrounded by a cast of extremely eccentric but lovable characters, including the wonderful Tony Slattery, Hermione Norris and Celia Imrie.
Harry's Law is so much more entertaining than the show that precedes it, the hyped but horrible The Cape. I'm so sorry, James Frain. I love you but I don't know if I can sit though another episode with such heavy-handed music and dialogue like, "Either you wear the cape or the cape wears you." Yikes. Or, "Every cop cell in my body tells me that guy's bad news." Seriously, a killer cape that can behead department store dummies? I just hear The Incredibles' Edna Mode's voice in my head on an endless loop, "No capes!"
Instead of suffering through The Cape again maybe I'll check out Kingdom on Hulu and Hetty on YouTube as the perfect openers to Harry's Law. And Kathy Bates and her show can ride on the cape-tails of a comic, but deliver the real comedy.
I hate lawyer shows. I used to watch Law and Order when Jerry Orbach was on it, but never liked the law part of the show, especially Sam Waterston's annoying DA. I don't like arguing for the sake of it—or I should say, watching others do that. I really don't like all the little catches and loopholes in the law that could affect someone in a good or bad way, depending who's writing this week's script. Which is why Harry's Law appeals to me. Many are saying its target audience are Golden Girls from Bates's generation who miss Murder She Wrote. I'm sure the show will appeal to them, but I used to like watching Jessica Fletcher solve her biggest-guest-star-dunits with my grandmother, too. How can you not like Cabot Cove, the murder capital of the world? It was Angela Lansbury, for Pete's sake.
And that's exactly why it's fun watching Harry's Law—Kathy Bates. She's having a blast being ornery, saying all the curse words that her time slot will allow (asshole ... asshole). And she's Kathy Bates. It's refreshing to not see yet another show headed by an unbelievably thin and perky cast. There is the token cast cutie in Brittany Snow, who thankfully also seems to have a sense of humor. Nate Corddry is a great foil and sidekick. The show is supposed to be set in Cincinnati. I've never visited Cincinnati, but I've lived in New York and D.C. and I'm sure the bad part of town doesn't look like the block where Harry's Law and Fine Shoes is located, but who cares; we know it's a backlot. That's not the point. It's a chance to watch Kathy Bates kick some smarmy lawyer butt and get the wind taken out of her sails at the same time, with one client wackier than the next. But like I said, it's really not about the law, it's about the personalities.
What this show really reminds me of are two great British shows that I used to watch, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
, starring Patricia Routledge and Kingdom, starring Stephen Fry. Maybe David E. Kelley has been watching BBC America reruns lately. Hetty Wainthropp was ostensibly a detective show, but no one, no matter how guilty, ever went to jail. They may have gotten a stern lecture or a "tut-tut" and an expressive roll of the eyes from Hetty, but that was about the extent of it. So far Bates's Harry is 2-for-2 getting her criminals off-the-hook, too. Hetty was a fun hour watching Routledge and a very young Dominic Monaghan team up to solve crimes in Northern England. Kingdom starred Fry as a small-town lawyer surrounded by a cast of extremely eccentric but lovable characters, including the wonderful Tony Slattery, Hermione Norris and Celia Imrie.Harry's Law is so much more entertaining than the show that precedes it, the hyped but horrible The Cape. I'm so sorry, James Frain. I love you but I don't know if I can sit though another episode with such heavy-handed music and dialogue like, "Either you wear the cape or the cape wears you." Yikes. Or, "Every cop cell in my body tells me that guy's bad news." Seriously, a killer cape that can behead department store dummies? I just hear The Incredibles' Edna Mode's voice in my head on an endless loop, "No capes!"
Instead of suffering through The Cape again maybe I'll check out Kingdom on Hulu and Hetty on YouTube as the perfect openers to Harry's Law. And Kathy Bates and her show can ride on the cape-tails of a comic, but deliver the real comedy.
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