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| ehle64 |
 Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 11:39 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
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The S-Man has been dying to see Julie & Julia, being both a Streep and Child fan, and while I still hold my S.A.S.S.Y. card and membership with high esteem, DEMANDED it on HD from our local cable company despite my reservations that it was a Nora Ephron film. Well, nothing shocking there. It WAS a Nora Ephron film, complete with cutesy this and schmaltzy that and one of my least favorite practices of filmmaking -- spelling out the "feelings" one should be having through inane, lousy pop lyrics. Too much. Blech!
That being said, Ephron was not going to spoil the ride that Streep took in her elevator shoes all the way up to Julia's tight-curled coif and high-pitched affected Cambridge tones. It seems as though she was going to breath the life right back into this magnificent woman. A performance that will be far more remembered than the vehicle it was delivered in.
Amy Adams is quite good. I mean that, literally. She really needs a part that she can sink her perfectly straight, whitened teeth into. I'm thinking Charlize Wuoronos-ish? Who knows, perhaps she doesn't really have that kind of range. There is a line she gives in a bar, drinking her Gimlet where she tells her best friend that she is a bitch. I spit out my Diet Sunkist. 2nd Funniest line in the film -- right behind the tamale line that Paul Child told his twin in a letter that Julia shouted out through hot hands.
Julie's husband was annoying to me. I think I've seen this actor in something else, but, I mean for a film primarily about food. . . he looked as though he didn't even know how to eat on camera.
The other male, Paul Child, was presented with natural Tucci aplomb. It was very nice to see that aside from one troubling area, the Childs had a completely marvelous relationship.
There's a part in the film where Julie hears something from Julia (about to turn 90) commenting on her blog-a-venture. I felt almost the same way. Maybe one day we'll get to see a true biopic about this extraordinary woman and her rich life, but this one wasn't it. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 11:49 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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I keep meaning to mention this, and Wade's review has reminded me to do it.
In the area of Nora Ephron-directed movies, Julie & Julia was probably the best of a sorry, sorry lot. Ephron is a talented writer who should have stayed behind the typewriter. But that said, the movie is pretty cute.
HOWEVER...
the final scene is egregious. Here we have gone through the entire movie without ever seeing Streep and Adams together on screen. In the final scene, Adams and Chris Messina (NOTE TO EHLE: Messina was in Vicky Christina Barcelona) are inspecting memorabilia as I recall and we see Streep and Tucci play out a fantasy sequence in the Child kitchen. This was a perfect opportunity to see Julia and Julie cooking together. I mean the fantasy set-up had already been made. Why not seize the chance to have both stars collaborating in the kitchen? It would have been satisfying dramatically and heartwarming to boot. Can't believe Nora Ephron didn't do it. But then, seeing as how it's Nora Ephron we're talking about, it's believable after all. |
Last edited by billyweeds on Mon Dec 14, 2009 6:32 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| ehle64 |
| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 12:06 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 7149
Location: NYC; US&A
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Thanks, billy. Was he Scarlett's BF b4 she hooked up with Javier?
Also, The S-Man said he couldn't understand why all of Ephron's movies seem to be laced in saccharin while her pieces for The New Yorker are very readable. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:15 am |
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| I haven't seen Julie & Julia, because I was pretty sure I wouldn't like it. It sounded like Julia Child lite. Child's story is quite an adventure and she was, one of a kind. I'm glad that Streep gave a wonderful portrayal, but it's a shame (as Wade mentioned) that it was surrounded by a story that didn't have a weight to equal it. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:19 am |
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Wade, starting your post with, "The S-Man has been dying..." gave a terrible micro-second of a jolt before seeing the rest of the sentenced. Don't do that to me again.  |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:36 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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ehle64 wrote: Thanks, billy. Was he Scarlett's BF b4 she hooked up with Javier?
Can't quite remember. He was good. I think his character married one of the women. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 9:30 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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billyweeds wrote: Which little prick--Ralphie, Bob Clark, or me? |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 9:43 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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marantzo wrote: I haven't seen Julie & Julia, because I was pretty sure I wouldn't like it. It sounded like Julia Child lite. Child's story is quite an adventure and she was, one of a kind. I'm glad that Streep gave a wonderful portrayal, but it's a shame (as Wade mentioned) that it was surrounded by a story that didn't have a weight to equal it.
I was thinking the same thing, but then it occured to me that Child's story itself might not have enough weight for a 90-120 minute movie. She was in the OSS, of course, but apparently not in an especially dramatic way. (Although that's where she met her husband.) Unfortunately, Julie's story just isn't that interesting when placed against Julia's. Julie might have fared better if her story had been told by itself. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:28 pm |
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Caught a movie on tv late this morning that I enjoyed quite a bit. Quick Change. Funny and an enjoyable ride.
Then this afternoon I entered a movie about 20 minutes in. Was going to change the channel but it hooked me. Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss. A movie I had never heard of and outside of film festivals got a limited release in the U.S. and Canada. Snow Cake. The three leads were excellent. Rickman superb. The movie, wonderful. I read a number of reviews on Imdb after I had seen it and the 15 or so that I read all said the same thing. Terrific! And i will say what so many of them said. See this movie! Why it got such a limited release is beyond me. It was released in 2006. Filmed in a Northern Ontario small town and had work done in the UK.
I don't know if it is on DVD but I'd be surprised if it weren't. Rent it.
Unfortunately I didn't see the first twenty minutes or so, so I missed some very good stuff and a very good character which I read about in the reviews. I'll have to get the DVD or watch for it to show up again on the tv here. They have a tendency to repeat films often. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:31 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: Filmed in a Northern Ontario small town and had work done in the UK.
Just a nose job or full lipo? |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 9:35 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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Watched Billy Wilder's The Apartment for the first time. A terrific comedy with Wilder's trademark dark edginess. I think the film has had an influence on Mad Men.
Jack Lemmon is wonderful in the movie. I had forgotten what a marvelous actor he is. He uses every square inch of his body to great comic effect. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 10:49 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Marc wrote: Watched Billy Wilder's The Apartment for the first time. A terrific comedy with Wilder's trademark dark edginess. I think the film has had an influence on Mad Men.
Jack Lemmon is wonderful in the movie. I had forgotten what a marvelous actor he is. He uses every square inch of his body to great comic effect.
Just cannot believe you've never seen The Apartment, one of my top ten films. Not only is Lemmon brilliant, but MacLaine and MacMurray. It's an amazing movie, and--yes, it's been mentioned countless times--Mad Men was heavily influenced by it. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 11:15 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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Billy,
I actually did watch The Apartment on video back in the 80s when I was drunk and on cocaine. So, it doesn't count. I saw many films in that state back then and can't recall much. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 12:14 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Jan Svankmeyer's Alice is a seriously warped retelling of Alice in Wonderland using stop-motion photography of children's toys, stuffed animals (as in taxidermy), skulls, dolls, and weird things floating in specimen bottles. Alice is a girl when large, a doll when small, and in one scene, becomes a girl encased in a porcelain doll. The White Rabbit is stuffed with sawdust, so when he takes out his watch, he has to brush the sawdust off, then fill himself up again with more sawdust. The caterpillar is a sock which acquires glass eyes and dentures, which makes him double for the Cheshire Cat. The setting often looks like an abandoned house.
It all comes off a child playing with her toys and objects a bit beyond her understanding. When she comes to a drawer, she tries to pull it open by pulling on a knob, but the knob always comes off and she has to pry it open, to find the rabbit hole, or mathematical instruments, or safety pins, or bottles of ink.
I'm not sure if it makes any more sense than Alice in Wonderland itself, but it's definitely strange. It reminds me sometimes of Wladislaw Starewicz's The Mascot , which is much pleasanter and more coherent. Alice, Alice informs us, is a children's tale, and it is, if you want your children to wake up screaming at 1:00 a.m. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 12:45 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8251
Location: Salt Lake City
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Marc wrote: Watched Billy Wilder's The Apartment for the first time. A terrific comedy with Wilder's trademark dark edginess. I think the film has had an influence on Mad Men.
Jack Lemmon is wonderful in the movie. I had forgotten what a marvelous actor he is. He uses every square inch of his body to great comic effect.
OMG. Along with billy, I thought you had seen the movie before. It's also in my top nine movies. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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