Category: 2016 Movie Challenge Page 16 of 21

Challenge Week 14: Something New

Sorry for the delay on this one – combination of Netflix, library, and my own procrastination made acquiring the film take longer than I expected. I am caught up on watching films, but will likely do short writeups of the latest three to catch up.

Right upfront, I want to point out that post-studio era romantic comedies kind of have a tough time with me – I don’t often outright dislike them, but they also rarely reach favorite status, and like most, this one falls kind of in the middle for me. That said, this has a lot of serious stuff going on as well, and while I don’t know that all of it was handled perfectly, it certainly has more to offer than most standard rom-coms.

The story involves Kenya, an investment banker nearing the top of her career (about to be made partner) but struggling in her personal life, largely because she’s working 90% of the time to be taken seriously in her job, especially by nervous rich white guys who aren’t sure about entrusting their accounts to her. When a coworker sets her up on a blind date with a white guy, she’s less than enthused, but ends up involved with him anyway, to the consternation of her family.

tf-bar

Challenge Week 14: Obvious Child

I could start off by saying that this is the sweetest romantic comedy about abortion I can imagine, and that’s probably true. That said, it basically is a romantic comedy about abortion, and that’s not a subject I particularly enjoy in films.

The “obvious child” of the title is not really the baby being aborted, who’s barely acknowledged at all, but the 27-year-old Donna Stern (Jenny Slate), a girl in New York City working in a progressive bookstore and doing stand up comedy in the evenings. The film opens on one of her routines, and it’s an awkward but decently funny brand of self-deprecating humor. We’ll see a few more as the film goes on and they parallel her changes in self-confidence as she’s first dumped by her boyfriend (a particularly terrible self-pitying routine) and then as she regains confidence through the growing up that pregnancy has forced her to do – even though she decides to end that pregnancy and doesn’t waver.

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Challenge Week 13: My Best Girl

I’ve literally been looking forward to this one since even before the Challenge started, as Dan let me know earlier that he would probably pick this one. It did not disappoint! I think it probably came up in conversation after I saw and LOVED Why Be Good? (1929) at last year’s TCM Fest. This film does bear some similarities to that one.

In fact, the story of My Best Girl is fairly routine and even cliched – Joe, the son of the wealthy owner of a 5-and-10 cent store gets a low-level job at the store under an assumed name in order to prove himself; while there he falls in love with shopgirl Maggie, but oops, he’s supposed to be marrying a high society girl. All this goes pretty much as expected, but here’s the thing – Mary Pickford and Charles “Buddy” Rogers are freaking adorable, and all the little in betweens and moments and stage business are wonderful. Truly a case of the execution far exceeding the premise.

Clearly a promo shot, but cute

Clearly a promo shot, but cute

Challenge Week 13: Europa ’51

I would much rather wait to write about this one until I’ve had more time with it, and preferably another couple of watches. It’s not particularly complicated, and yet it’s about an awful lot – labor, sacrifice, political philosophy, spirituality, society, redemption, and most of all, love. Not romantic love, but love of humanity itself and especially the less fortunate.

Irene (Ingrid Bergman) and her husband George are wealthy, and despite surviving the trauma of WWII, they don’t have too much to worry about – their biggest worry is their 10-year-old son Michel, who’s bored and lonely in their palatial home. They don’t pay him a lot of attention, but when he’s injured and dies (not really spoilers, that’s in the first fifteen minutes or so), Irene undergoes a massive change of heart. She spends more time with George’s cousin Andrea (a man), a doctor. Andrea introduces her to some of the city’s underserved, and what begins as a simple monetary exchange (Irene offers to pay for a child’s medicine) ends with her drawn deeper and deeper into service.

tf-with-son

Challenge Week 12: Army of Darkness

That…was…AWESOME. Near the beginning, a medieval lord throws a prisoner into a deep pit. After a minute, a veritable geyser of blood shoots out of the pit and all over the courtyard. At that moment, I knew I was going to love this movie. It’s got an over-the-top audacity that just totally works for me.

I’ve been wanting to see Army of Darkness for quite a while, after liking-not-loving both Evil Deads and hearing a bit about how Army of Darkness throws in time travel and is a lot goofier. I love goofy, and this film met or exceeded all my expectations. I will say upfront that I didn’t realize there were multiple versions, and I think my library only had this one anyway – I watched the theatrical cut. I would gladly, even gleefully watch the director’s cut.

tf-blood-fountain

Page 16 of 21

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