Over the weekend, I saw two new DVDs from Netflix. As it's a bit of lull in the DVD season for movies I missed, but wanted to see so there were a few older ones that popped up at the top. The first was Bonneville, a lesser known movie starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, and Joan Allen as friends from Idaho who decide to travel to California. Lange's husband has died and his daughter from a previous marriage is threatening to take away her house if Lange doesn't return the dad's ashes to Santa Barbara. They decide to drive in a 1966 Bonneville convertible. Lange had promised to spread her husband's ashes around the world they'd traveled together, but doesn't want to lose her house to her step-daughter. She does find a way around her problem, but her friends help her get to Santa Barbara on time. There are fun adventures like any road trip movie, but given their age, the adventures are a bit less disgusting and more fun than a college version. The acting is impressive, the writing decent and the story compelling. A solid film to like, 3.5 of 5 stars/lambs
The second movie I saw is one of the best sports movie I've ever seen. The Express stars Rob Brown (Finding Forrester) as Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy (the award for best collegiate football player). He grows up in Pennsylvania in the late 1950s and attends Syracuse University (Go Orangemen!) at the urging of former player Jim Brown. He tries to keep his head down and stay out of trouble, but ultimately can't escape the influence his star playing has on the African-American community and the civil rights movement. The year he leads his team to the Cotten Bowl game in Dallas he (and the other two black players) are not allowed to enter the hotel where the team is staying as it's a segregated hotel. His coach, Ben Schwartzwalder (played really well by Dennis Quaid), often runs into Davis' drive to further both his own career and the cause of civil rights. While the movie could step into broad statements and make a hero out of a small person, but even after researching some of the interviews done about the historical accuracy of the movie it seems that Ernie Davis was as amazing as the movie slowly explains that he was. The acting is good, and the games are shot in a way that's easy to follow both the course of the game and the deeper meanings when certain tackles occur (some of the Texas players find more pleasure beating on the successful black players rather than winning the game). It's a terrific film, and I highly recommend it. 4.5 stars/lambs
Bride Wars is not for everyone - it's unapologetically a chick flick. There's even a moment in the film when the brides are asked if they need to consult their fiancees and they of course answer no. I don't think I know a guy who would love Bride Wars except maybe to watch them torture each other, but even then it's still so girly that few guys will enjoy it. Basically, two best friends (Oscar nominees Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway) get engaged at nearly the same time, and their dream since childhood is a June wedding at the Plaza hotel in New York City. They gloss over how ridiculously expensive that would be with one of them having a high paying law job and the other saving for 10 years. Anyway, they go to a wedding planner (Candice Bergen) who accidentally books their weddings the same day, causing a problem in having each other as their maid of honor. Rather than fixing it with either a double wedding or some sort of slightly staggered wedding they insist someone must change their date. They refuse, become enemies and start sabotaging the weddings. Bad tans, hair dye, scheduling snafus, etc. follow before a very sweet, but not treacly, reconciliation toward the end. It's a cute movie, go with your best friend ladies. Also, I loved seeing Chris Pratt (Everwood) as one of the fiancees (that's him in the picture with Anne). 3 lambs/stars.
Ages ago I posted a blog on the Famous Female Characters from film, in response to a great post over at Blog Cabins. It's easily the hit on Google that brings the most traffic to my little blog. So I've been thinking about how to bring it back, and since the new season of TV started, here's the top 15 female television characters for the last 20+ years. I'm sure there are many I missed, but these are the ones from shows I actually watched to some degree and so could at least mention a little of why I think they're important. Also, the criteria from my previous post holds - these are not necessarily award winning performances, but are definitely recognizable on their own merit (and not necessarily the fame of the actress, though in most cases that helped). Let me know if I've missed any.
1. Buffy Summers (aired Buffy the Vampire Slayer 1997-2003) – Sarah Michelle Gellar
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was an awesome TV show that did all kinds of teenage ansty things set against the back-drop of saving the world (secretly though). Buffy proved you can be girly, California, and still beat the crap out of evil things (dead or alive).
2. Murphy Brown (Murphy Brown 1988-1998) – Candice Bergan
Murphy Brown as a character was inspiring to women, she broke ground by making women seem powerful, in charge, and still sexy. She fought with real-life people, challenged stereotypes, and still didn't make it look easy.
3. Sidney Bristow (Alias 2001-2006) – Jennifer Garner
I loved Alias because Sidney Bristow was smart, kickass, and could wear a wig and jump off a building like nobody's business. She fought against the bad guys (once she realized she was one), and made being a spy seem like a fairy tale job.
4. Betty Suarez (Ugly Betty 2006-present) – America Ferrera
I'm sure I don't have anything to add to the many many many things written about why Ugly Betty is an awesome show, and makes real people feel like they could someday work at Mode. Betty's not perfect, and she knows how to be heard, helpful, and important without being the most beautiful person around.
5. Roseanne (Roseanne 1988-1997) – Roseanne Barr
Roseanne gave a different version of what a family could be like. It doesn't have to be happy all the time, it doesn't have to be rich, and it doesn't have to be particularly functional, but it's still a family. They were happy when good things happened and dealt with the crap just like everyone else.
She was crazy, she saw babies dancing, and had an unfailing faith in love. Plus, her life always seemed more impossible and crazy than ours. She was an attorney, but practicing law was always the last thing you remember about her.
7. Ellen Morgan (Ellen 1994-1998)– Ellen Degeneres
This show and Ellen Degeneres as the main character probably would be more remembered than the specific character Ellen Morgan, but it's hard to remember the show without the character. Ellen had secrets and wanted to be herself, and thus changed some of the face of TV (also written about as many or more times than Ugly Betty).
8. Carrie Bradshaw (Sex and the City 1998-2004)– Sarah Jessica Parker
She made all kinds of fashionista ideas household names - Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choos, fashion week, fleet week, etc. She made it okay (if not right) for people to date around (a lot) to find your true love (and it's okay if you nickname him and only call him Mr. Big for years). And that other people will come along and break your heart, but never EVER give up your UES apartment.
9. Joan Giardi(Joan of Arcadia 2003-2005)– Amber Tamblin
My mom watched this show more than I did, but she loved it and anyone else I know who watched it said it was wonderful. Joan could hear God speaking to her, and in turn would do something great to make the world better.
10. The Golden Girls (The Golden Girls 1985-1992) – Estelle Getty, Rue McClanahan, Betty White, and Bea Arthur
All of the Golden Girls made it clear that people over 50 can still have terrific TV shows without just being the parental sidekick. They were fun, sassy, told stories and ate cheesecake. I watched reruns of this every day after school in 7th grade (can't explain why, but I did).
Lorelai and Rory Gilmore created new kinds of characters that talked in their own pop culture language, really fast, and basically they were the only people who really understood their world, but they often let funny colorful characters join in. Plus, they are addicted to coffee.
12. Jessica Fletcher (Murder, She Wrote 1984-1996) – Angela Lansbury
She wrote mysteries and solved all kinds of problems all over the Maine coast. She was older, single, and had all kinds of adventures. She survived all the evil plots that she managed to get involved with, with the help of lots of local people.
13. Peg Bundy (Married...with Children 1987-1997) – Katey Sagal
She was a terrible mother, a terrible wife, and not particularly good at very much. But that didn't mean we didn't want to watch her yell at the kids, and whine to Al, and basically cause mayhem and keep the family together.
Grace was probably the first beard or fag hag on TV, and openly so. It was her love of Will (and her relationship with Karen) that always made us tune in again. Also, it didn't help that she has the comedic timing of Lucille Ball and could hurt herself, hurt other people, fall down, or break things better than anyone. She's always hysterical.
15.Brenda Lee Johnson (The Closer 2005-present) – Kyra Sedgwick
The Closer is a wonderful show mostly because of the character of Brenda Lee (Thank you so much). She's a steel magnolia of sorts. She uses her southern charm to get criminals to confess their secrets and put them in jail. She disregards most of the rules, bosses everyone around, but she closes all her cases so she rises to the top.
Honorable Mentions – Patty Hewes – Glenn Close, Damages; Meredith Gray – Ellen Pompeo, Gray’s Anatomy; Max Guevera - Jessica Alba, Dark Angel; The Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girls, The ladies of the L Word, Sisters of Charmed, Bones/Temperance Brennan – Emily Deschanal, Bones.
Over the weekend, I saw two new DVDs from Netflix. As it's a bit of lull in the DVD season for movies I missed, but wanted to see so there were a few older ones that popped up at the top. The first was Bonneville, a lesser known movie starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, and Joan Allen as friends from Idaho who decide to travel to California. Lange's husband has died and his daughter from a previous marriage is threatening to take away her house if Lange doesn't return the dad's ashes to Santa Barbara. They decide to drive in a 1966 Bonneville convertible. Lange had promised to spread her husband's ashes around the world they'd traveled together, but doesn't want to lose her house to her step-daughter. She does find a way around her problem, but her friends help her get to Santa Barbara on time. There are fun adventures like any road trip movie, but given their age, the adventures are a bit less disgusting and more fun than a college version. The acting is impressive, the writing decent and the story compelling. A solid film to like, 3.5 of 5 stars/lambs
Brown (Finding Forrester) as Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy (the award for best collegiate football player). He grows up in Pennsylvania in the late 1950s and attends Syracuse University (Go Orangemen!) at the urging of former player Jim Brown. He tries to keep his head down and stay out of trouble, but ultimately can't escape the influence his star playing has on the African-American community and the civil rights movement. The year he leads his team to the Cotten Bowl game in Dallas he (and the other two black players) are not allowed to enter the hotel where the team is staying as it's a segregated hotel. His coach, Ben Schwartzwalder (played really well by Dennis Quaid), often runs into Davis' drive to further both his own career and the cause of civil rights. While the movie could step into broad statements and make a hero out of a small person, but even after researching some of the interviews done about the historical accuracy of the movie it seems that Ernie Davis was as amazing as the movie slowly explains that he was. The acting is good, and the games are shot in a way that's easy to follow both the course of the game and the deeper meanings when certain tackles occur (some of the Texas players find more pleasure beating on the successful black players rather than winning the game). It's a terrific film, and I highly recommend it. 4.5 stars/lambs
