Category: movies

H is for Harvey

Leave a comment

Let’s take a moment to celebrate everyone’s favorite “pooka,” that six-foot, three-and-one-half-inch invisible white rabbit, Harvey.

All these marvelous word were written by Mary Chase (play & screenplay): 
 

 “Years ago my mother used to say to me, she’d say, ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be’ – she always called me Elwood – ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’ Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.”


“‘You have the advantage on me. You know my name and I don’t know yours.’ And, and right back at me he said, ‘What name do you like?’ Well, I didn’t even have to think twice about that. Harvey’s always been my favorite name. So I said to him, I said, ‘Harvey.’ And, uh, this is the interesting thing about the whole thing: He said, ‘What a coincidence. My name happens to be Harvey.'”

“I always have a wonderful time, wherever I am, whomever I’m with.”

Clicky HERE for a wee taste of this charming Hollywood classic, which also happens to be my father’s favorite movie.

D is for Doris

7 Comments

 Happy 90th birthday, Doris Day.
Thanks for Pillow Talk, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, Calamity Jane, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Midnight Lace, kitten heels & the best blonde bouffant ever caught on film. 

And plus, George Michael mentioned you in two songs. Therefore, you must be very important.

clicky-click HERE for my fave Doris.

brought to you by….

D is for Doris

7 Comments

 Happy 90th birthday, Doris Day.
Thanks for Pillow Talk, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, Calamity Jane, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Midnight Lace, kitten heels & the best blonde bouffant ever caught on film. 

And plus, George Michael mentioned you in two songs. Therefore, you must be very important.

clicky-click HERE for my fave Doris.

brought to you by….

Audrey, Audrey, Angelika and my List

6 Comments
Hello, dah-lings!

#29 – from my LIST – “Have a Day at the Angelika”

I simply adore the Angelika–our uber-chic and fab art house theater. It shows the films other theaters are afraid of (documentaries, foreigns and weirdo indies.) 

For years I’ve been dreaming of spending an entire day within its hallowed, art-deco glass walls…..drinking in artsy film after artsy film, with perhaps a little lunch in between at one of the many charming restaurants near the theater.  

Which is exactly what a friend and I did this past weekend. 

As you can see, we started our adventure early with a 10:30am film.
Hello, girl in the striped shirt. I see you!

I put off seeing The Artist. In fact, I planned on never seeing it. Honestly, I’m not sure why. Perhaps because I seldom agree with the Hollywood Foreign Press, and since this particular film was the Academy’s sweetheart this year, I figured I would pretty much hate it on principle. 

Oh, how I love being pleasantly surprised at times like these.

The movie was phenomenal. Clever, funny, sentimental, nostalgic. The acting way flawless, never over-the-top. The costumes, makeup and sets were perfection. I can’t say enough. I could have sat through the whole thing a second time. Two thumbs up. Five stars. Eight cows.

After stepping out for a sushi lunch, the next viewing was Delicacy. Audrey Tautou is so beautiful and her wardrobe was to die for. (Though my movie companion thought her high-waist wool tweed trousers with the bow on the front were hideous. We agreed to disagree.) This was a sweet little French movie. Not great, not bad. (On a more writerly note: the husband….I’ll be writing a character who looks like him someday. Major swoon.)

Last (as well as least) was A Separation. A rather un-charming, uninspiring film out of Iran. First of all, what does Iran know about film making anyway? But that’s another story. The plot was thinner than Kate Moss, the story went nowhere and the constant yelling, lying and general unkindness really got on my nerves. I have no idea why this film is so beloved by Hollywood….which brings us back to my original bone to pick with the Hollywood elite. Review: Stay away; see The Artist; eat sushi.

Does it look like we’d been in the dark indoors for six hours? Yeah, kind of.

Want to read more? My awesomely-cute friend blogged about our experience HERE.

#38 – Upgrade jewelry 

Okay, so here is the deal. Over the years, I’ve collected piles of chunky necklaces and matchy-match earrings (and other similarly ugly, tacky, just-plain-old pieces). Which I never wear anymore. And even when I did, they inevitably ended up coming off halfway through the day because I would start to feel claustrophobic. Psychologically, maybe, but still. Ergo, as part of the big “list,” I decided to purge.

And as a reward, I would pick out something lovely at Tiffanys. (I love making win-win deals with myself!)

Simply pulling this box out of the bag made my heart beat fast.
Isn’t this just the sweetest thing ever?

Audrey, Audrey, Angelika and my List

6 Comments
Hello, dah-lings!

#29 – from my LIST – “Have a Day at the Angelika”

I simply adore the Angelika–our uber-chic and fab art house theater. It shows the films other theaters are afraid of (documentaries, foreigns and weirdo indies.) 

For years I’ve been dreaming of spending an entire day within its hallowed, art-deco glass walls…..drinking in artsy film after artsy film, with perhaps a little lunch in between at one of the many charming restaurants near the theater.  

Which is exactly what a friend and I did this past weekend. 

As you can see, we started our adventure early with a 10:30am film.
Hello, girl in the striped shirt. I see you!

I put off seeing The Artist. In fact, I planned on never seeing it. Honestly, I’m not sure why. Perhaps because I seldom agree with the Hollywood Foreign Press, and since this particular film was the Academy’s sweetheart this year, I figured I would pretty much hate it on principle. 

Oh, how I love being pleasantly surprised at times like these.

The movie was phenomenal. Clever, funny, sentimental, nostalgic. The acting way flawless, never over-the-top. The costumes, makeup and sets were perfection. I can’t say enough. I could have sat through the whole thing a second time. Two thumbs up. Five stars. Eight cows.

After stepping out for a sushi lunch, the next viewing was Delicacy. Audrey Tautou is so beautiful and her wardrobe was to die for. (Though my movie companion thought her high-waist wool tweed trousers with the bow on the front were hideous. We agreed to disagree.) This was a sweet little French movie. Not great, not bad. (On a more writerly note: the husband….I’ll be writing a character who looks like him someday. Major swoon.)

Last (as well as least) was A Separation. A rather un-charming, uninspiring film out of Iran. First of all, what does Iran know about film making anyway? But that’s another story. The plot was thinner than Kate Moss, the story went nowhere and the constant yelling, lying and general unkindness really got on my nerves. I have no idea why this film is so beloved by Hollywood….which brings us back to my original bone to pick with the Hollywood elite. Review: Stay away; see The Artist; eat sushi.

Does it look like we’d been in the dark indoors for six hours? Yeah, kind of.

Want to read more? My awesomely-cute friend blogged about our experience HERE.

#38 – Upgrade jewelry 

Okay, so here is the deal. Over the years, I’ve collected piles of chunky necklaces and matchy-match earrings (and other similarly ugly, tacky, just-plain-old pieces). Which I never wear anymore. And even when I did, they inevitably ended up coming off halfway through the day because I would start to feel claustrophobic. Psychologically, maybe, but still. Ergo, as part of the big “list,” I decided to purge.

And as a reward, I would pick out something lovely at Tiffanys. (I love making win-win deals with myself!)

Simply pulling this box out of the bag made my heart beat fast.
Isn’t this just the sweetest thing ever?

suckfest

3 Comments
I’ve never written a movie review. But the one I watched over the weekend is just so special, I can’t help but immortalize it here. Or maybe I just need to get this off my chest before I explode.
 
Super 8 is a terrible movie.

I don’t mean to be snarky here, but seriously, it is so incredibility, puke-ily bad. Just, ugh, bad.

Is it a comedy? Is it a slice of 1970’s-ish suburban/steel mill life? Is it a pre-teen buddy movie? I don’t know. But I didn’t get it.
“Oh, drugs are so bad.”  (Really. That was a line.)

To spare me reliving the painful minutia of the plot (such as it was), I’ll describe Super 8 as a cross between Goonies and ET. . . without the charm. Or acting. Or cute kids. Or a story that makes sense. It is ugly and stupid and I wanted to turn it off before I even understood what the “thing” was. 

Spielberg (producer) should’ve  taken his own post-Jaws advice of “don’t show the shark.” I mean. . . .what was that “thing” anyway? From what I could make out, it was a combination of the creature from Alien and one of those annoying Transformer things. Remember that one sucky M. Night Shyamalan movie, Signs? Yeah, same thing. Don’t show the shark.  Please.

At one point, I was repeating lines in my head from other movies. Seriously, it could’ve ended with “ET, phone home,” or “Goonies never say die!” and it would’ve made more sense.  

To be fair, there was one bit that I enjoyed. Toward the beginning when the townspeople started freaking out about the “thing,” they were convinced it was the Communist Russians. That gave me a warm sense of nostalgia. 


So. To sum up. Stay far away. Oh, and the DVD didn’t have a single “DVD Extras.” Now that’s really offensive.