You may have noticed that I haven’t written many “Weekly Movie Reviews” posts lately. My husband and I are still watching a movie every day, but I’ve decided to write longer reviews of particularly memorable movies instead of trying to review every single movie I watch.

I’ve been looking forward to watching The Handmaiden for a bunch of reasons – it was a recommendation from my friend Hareen, it’s won universal acclaim, and I enjoyed director Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy. Plus I’m a sucker for period dramas, especially ones set outside the United States or Britain.

In Japanese-occupied Korea in the 1930s, Sook-hee is on her way to a remote manor to start a new job as the handmaiden (lady’s maid) to heiress Lady Hideko. She seems like the epitome of an enthusiastic and helpful servant, but we soon we find out that her reasons for accepting this new job are not as straightforward as they seem. I don’t want to say anything more about the plot because the way new plot developments are introduced into the narrative is part of what makes this movie so good.

The Haidmaiden is heavily stylized. The setting, the people, the clothes, pretty much everything is beautiful on the outside, but the themes the movie explores are anything but – there’s plenty of greed, seduction, betrayal, perversion, tyranny, and more. Director Park Chan-wook is fantastic at melding arresting visuals with twisty psychological intrigue (although this is only the second movie I’ve seen by him) and this movie improves upon Oldboy with much more compelling characterization and a welcome dose of humor.

Through the first hour or so, I kept noticing little flaws and inconsistencies in how people acted, I thought they were small and forgivable lapses. But then we see the same events from a different perspective and it becomes clear that you were supposed to notice and wonder about them, and I love it when a movie rewards me for being detail oriented.

There are a lot of good things going for this movie, but in my opinion, its success rests squarely on the shoulders of the actresses playing Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri) and Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee). Their two characters are opposites in many ways. Sook-hee is cheerful, curious, and wears her heart on her sleeve (despite her deceit). Lady Hideko is quiet, melancholy, and almost never shows her true feelings. They have a complicated relationship but the chemistry between them is undeniable and forms the emotional center of the story.

Favorite Movie of the Week

Soapdish (1991)

I had zero expectations going into this because it looked totally ridiculous. Soap opera actress Montana Moorhead (Cathy Moriarty) is tired of her show’s long-time star Celeste Talbert (Sally Field) stealing her thunder. She joins forces with with the unscrupulous producer of the show (Robert Downey Jr.) and they come up with various schemes to destroy Celeste’s popularity like reintroducing an old boyfriend (Kevin Kline) that she had fired from the show decades ago, and having her accidentally murder an innocent character.

If this sounds like a soap opera to you, that’s exactly the point. Soapdish is itself a soap opera, but has one important thing that soap operas lack – tons of heart. The cast is wonderful. Kevin Kline and Whoopi Goldberg (who plays the head writer of the show and Celeste’s staunch friend) are well-known for their comedic chops, but everyone else also strikes the perfect balance of absurdity and lovableness. Everything is over the top and honestly I’m not sure how it ends up being so charming, but it does. I’d put this right up there with The Princess Bride, Last Action Hero, Galaxy Quest (and maybe Maverick) – some of the best affectionate-parody-of-a-genre movies.

Other Movies Watched

Argo (2012)

I’ve enjoyed all of the other movies Ben Affleck has directed (Gone Baby Gone, The Town, Live by Night) but they’re all about crime in Boston, so I was looking forward to seeing what he would do with a different setting. I’d actually seen Argo years ago, but I didn’t remember much.

Argo is the story of the “Canadian Caper”, the rescue operation to smuggle six American diplomats out of Iran during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 (it is much more of an American caper in the movie, though). Americans were not welcome in the country, so CIA agent Tony Mendez (with the help of some Hollywood contacts) invented a fake science-fiction movie for which he and his team were scouting for locations. And it’s a true story!

I’m not sure how to describe what’s good about this movie except that it’s larger than the sum of its parts. It uses many of the tropes that you’d expect from a movie of its genre – the last-minute roadblocks and the close shaves – but they feel fresh somehow, maybe because of their pacing? The tension is kept high all the way through and it feels deserved and melodrama-free. We don’t have a lot of time to get to know the characters but they feel fully fleshed out anyway. And it’s got some great performances from the cast; Victor Garber as the Canadian ambassador particularly made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

The King of Comedy (1982)

This is definitely the best movie I watched this week but I refuse to call it my “Favorite Movie” because I never, ever want to see it again (I probably will, though). Robert De Niro plays Rupert Pupkin, an aspiring comedian who becomes convinced that talk show host Jerry Langford (played by real-life talk show host and comedian Jerry Lewis) will feature him on his show to jump start his career. When things don’t work out as he planned, he decides to escalate the situation.

I thought that Robert De Niro was disturbing in Taxi Driver (also directed by Martin Scorsese) but he’s even more unsettling in this movie, mainly because of his cheerful self-assurance that he’s doing the right thing even as he’s being a total creep. I think we’ve all met people that give us an uneasy feeling even if we can’t put a name to it; The King of Comedy is told from the point of view of one of those people and it’s just really uncomfortable to watch. Jerry Lewis does a commendable job as his beleaguered character, even if he’s just playing himself. And Scorsese’s direction is brilliant as always. It’s also a pretty funny movie; it’s more of a black comedy than anything else, but it does hold up a mirror to the dark corners of humanity that most people would rather not pay attention to.

Avalon (1990)

Avalon is the third movie in director Barry Levinson’s semi-autobiographical “Baltimore films” tetralogy following Diner and Tin Men. It follows three generations of the Krichinsky family after they immigrate to the United States in 1914 and assimilate into American life (which is itself changing rapidly because of television and the ubiquity of cars).

This is probably the best movie about the American immigrant experience that I’ve seen (although not my favorite, that’s still Moscow on the Hudson). Unlike the prior Baltimore films, it’s just a drama; there is humor but no comedy. There’s something a little depressing about watching the Krichinskys lose their cultural uniqueness (even if it is of their own volition) but it also helped me understand the origins of current American culture. And it’s not just a commentary on societal changes; it’s a poignant family story as well. The last act of the movie wasn’t what I expected it to be and it left me with all sorts of emotions.

Serpico (1973)

I really need to re-watch Serpico because I was exhausted the day we watched it and I may have nodded off a couple of times during the last half an hour of the movie. Even so, it’s a really good movie. It stars Al Pacino and is directed by Sidney Lumet (who later reunited in the excellent Dog Day Afternoon, also based on a true story) and it’s about real life NYPD officer Frank Serpico, who exposed systemic police corruption and prompted major changes in the way the department was run.

I’m not sure if the biopic genre as we know it now existed back when this movie was made but Serpico does not follow those tropes. It’s quiet, nuanced, and tense, sort of like The French Connection. It seemed very realistic to me; the interactions between Serpico and other officers weren’t dramatic or even explicit about what was going on, even in the most dramatic scenes near the end of the movie. Al Pacino is in his element playing Serpico; he’s good at being intensely idealistic and yet somehow affable. The movie could have easily made his character a morally righteous hero figure, but it does not give into that temptation and makes him a character that we’re compelled by even if he hadn’t done what he did.

The Newton Boys (1998)

The Newton Boys is a historical crime drama about the real life Newton Gang, a notorious outlaw gang that consisted of four brothers. It’s directed by Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Boyhood, the Before… trilogy, Everybody Wants Some!!) who is one of my favorite directors, but he specializes in realistic slice-of-life movies so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

In keeping with Linklater’s strengths, much of this movie consists of conversations between the characters rather than the robberies the gang committed. But it isn’t really a character-focused movie, it’s still trying to be action-packed and fun. so the characters aren’t very interesting. The Newton brothers are played be a stellar cast – Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich, and Vincent D’Onofrio, but despite their best efforts, their characters are not that memorable and their personalities all meld together. Even the robbery scenes are boring, probably because the movie can’t decide what tone it wants to take. Don’t get me wrong, this is a perfectly fine movie by normal standards, it just doesn’t ever rise above “decent”.

Favorite Movie of the Week

Dunkirk (2017)

I am a fan of Christopher Nolan’s work (Inception, Interstellar, Insomnia, The Prestige, the Dark Knight trilogy) so I was thrilled when I finally got to watch Dunkirk. I don’t know enough about world history, but I did read about the Dunkirk evacuation in the World War II history I read in 2016, and I was excited to watch a movie about something I already knew about instead of the other way around.

Dunkirk is about a near-miraculous evacuation of around 300,000 British, French, and other allied troops (representing a large portion of the armies of those countries) who had been trapped on the beaches of the city of Dunkirk by German forces. I thought a straight-up historical drama didn’t exactly seem like Christopher Nolan’s style and I was right. Dunkirk is told in three narratives, each with a different timeline: a week, a day, and an hour. This might sound confusing but the film organizes it well so it all makes sense. Other than technical merit, this was a cool way to tell the story because the different perspectives showed both the extensive planning and the urgency of the evacuation in a way that a single timeline would not be able to.

It’s a good war film; it throws you right into the mayhem and terror of battle and shows appropriate tragedy while leaving room for hope. It’s also emotionally gratifying (which I was worried about because Nolan’s movies focus on the intellectual) without being overly sentimental.

Other Movies Watched

The Right Stuff (1983)

I love everything to do with space and I’ve been wanting to watch this movie about the test pilots and astronauts of the earliest years of the American space program for a really long time. It is over 3 hours long, though, so it’s not a movie I’d watch on a weeknight.

The Right Stuff is the story of Project Mercury, the first American human spaceflight program. We start off with test pilot Chuck Yeager as he gets the chance to fly the experimental X-1 aircraft and becomes the first person to break the sound barrier. Fast forward a few years, Sputnik has just been launched and the United States decides to prioritize the space program and selects its first batch of astronauts from elite test pilots across the military.

Even though there is no single main character, all the pilots and astronauts have “the right stuff” – they are courageous risk-takers who can stay calm under pressure and can deal with the possibility of failing in full public view, and that theme of being larger than life almost seems like the protagonist. I’m not saying that all the characters seemed alike, in fact they all have fully fleshed out and distinct personalities (and so do their wives), but they all fit into the larger story that’s being told about the audacity of attempting human spaceflight. It is awe-inspiring (but that might just be the space nut in me). I bought the book this is based on immediately after the movie as well as a handful of other books about space.

Predator (1987)

I didn’t know that Predator was made by celebrated action movie director John McTiernan (The Hunt for Red October, Die Hard, Last Action Hero) or that it’s so critically acclaimed. My introduction to the universe was from watching the terrible Alien vs. Predator when it first came out and the Alien series always seemed so much more interesting because it’s set in space and in the future. I’m glad I finally got around to watching it though, because it is great.

Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the leader of a special forces team being hunted by a mysterious alien while on a mission to rescue a hostage from insurgents in a South American jungle. Like Alien, this is a monster movie that follows the standard formula of individual members of a group getting slowly picked off. But it is primarily an action movie; the protagonists are members of an elite military unit used to dealing with skilled enemies and the Predator is so terrifying because we see it outwit their defenses and precautions with ease. Ensemble casts in movies of this genre tend to be an unmemorable collection of archetypes but Predator is an exception; I can still remember most team members as I write this review more than four months after watching the movie. As you’d expect from a John McTiernan movie, the pacing is terrific and the tension never lets up. Highly recommended.

Tin Men (1987)

Tin Men is the second of director Barry Levinson’s “Baltimore Films” (after Diner) set in mid-century Baltimore.  It’s a comedy about BB and Ernest, two aluminum-siding salesmen (played by Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito) who develop a rivalry and will stop at nothing to get one over the other guy. Meanwhile, their industry is changing rapidly around them as government cracks down on the scams they depend on to get new customers.

I thought this was just a comedy about the crazy lengths people will go to compete with each other (like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels or The War of the Roses, reviewed below) and there is quite a bit of that, but at its heart Tin Men is focused on its characters. BB and Ernest are dealing with professional uncertainty and unsatisfactory personal lives and aren’t coping with them very well. Both DeVito and Dreyfuss have excellent comic timing but they also show you that their characters are ordinary people with messy lives that and that makes them relatable despite the extreme things they do sometimes. I didn’t expect the story to go where it did (especially the plot involving Ernest’s wife) but I was content with the results.

The War of the Roses (1989)

Contrary to what I thought at first, this is not a historical drama about the fifteenth century English civil war. It’s about a couple, Oliver and Barbara Rose, whose marriage falls apart and sparks a spectacular divorce battle in which each tries to cause the other as much misery as they possibly can.

The Roses are played by Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner who were outrageously delightful together in Romancing the Stone. Their chemistry serves them just as well here since they’re still reacting to each other with strong emotions and they completely sell not being able to stand the sight of the other person. Well, actually it’s a little more nuanced; Barbara really hates Oliver, but Oliver just doesn’t want Barbara to get the better of him (and that’s an important nuance because having different motivations adds depth to the characters). Danny DeVito (who was also in Romancing the Stone) both directs and plays a supporting character and he’s great at finding the humor in small details and making preposterous situations feel grounded (just like in Matilda).

Overboard (1987)

When a spoiled heiress suffers an accident that leaves her an amnesiac, a carpenter that she has recently cheated decides to take his revenge by convincing her that she is his wife and handing off responsibility for housekeeping and taking care of his four rambunctious children.

Obviously Overboard‘s premise is not realistic (and if it was, it would be a horror movie) and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Off-screen couple Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn (who play the two main characters) have chemistry and make this movie more than just another ridiculous comedy. There were a lot of funny and over-the-top scenes, but the moments of character growth (for both characters) were genuine and warm. It’s rare that a movie can strike that balance effectively.

I found out while writing this review that there’s a gender-swapped remake of Overboard coming out this year. I’m skeptical of it because I think the main reason the original movie worked is because of the actors, it would have been heartless and empty without them.

Favorite Movie of the Week

Chinatown (1974)

Chinatown is a frequent member of various lists of best movies ever made and its place is well-deserved. It’s a noir classic and it’s been hugely influential in a number of ways. It’s got incredible performances, an iconic score, and a screenplay that’s widely considered one of the best of all time.

J.J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is a private investigator that specializes in finding evidence of cheating spouses. Gittes’ latest case goes sideways when his client’s husband ends up murdered and it turns out that the woman who hired Gittes is not actually the wife of the man he’s been following.

Gittes is a great character. Superficially, he comes off as a tough guy, but he’s the moral center of the movie. He does the right thing, which includes implying that he would be willing to do otherwise. We see the events of the movie exclusively through his point of view which takes us on the same rollercoaster of emotions that he is subject to throughout the narrative; we don’t know what’s happening until he does. The movie’s atmosphere is also incredibly immersive – the music, the lighting, the dialogue, and everything else works together to create the imperfect world that Gittes has to deal with. The plot is pretty typical of noir, but it makes sense, it’s well-told and has a fitting ending.

Other Movies Watched

Bright (2017)

Bright is probably the movie that I’ve been most eagerly anticipating this year. It pushes all my buttons – it’s directed by David Ayer (who wrote the excellent Training Day and directed Fury and End of Watch), it stars Will Smith (I’m a fan) and Joel Edgerton (who I’ve liked in Midnight Special and Loving), and most importantly it’s an urban fantasy movie! There is a serious dearth of interesting fantasy movies, especially urban fantasy which usually tells stories that would be a good fit for film.

Anyway I went into this with a serious bias, but I loved it. It had an interesting reception – most critics did not like it, but the audience did (see Rotten Tomatoes), and I’m not surprised by that. Reading fantasy is probably my favorite thing in the world, so I found it easy to suspend disbelief and get into the world of the movie. Also if you ignore the setting, it’s a pretty standard buddy-cop movie. But it did have an original setting and interesting worldbuilding throughout the movie and I enjoyed the characters. I also appreciated its light tone and low stakes; all fantasy does not have to be epic. Plus, I’m a sucker for originality and I like movies that try something new even if they deliver something slightly uneven. I’m so excited that they’re making a sequel!

Heathers (1988)

I’d been wanting to watch Heathers for a while because I’m fond of both black comedies and teen movies (especially 80s teen movies). Veronica is a member of the popular clique at her school, the other three members of which are all rich and pretty girls named Heather. She’s tired of putting up with the Heathers and becomes fascinated by a new student, J.D., who seems to be able to handle anything that comes his way. Their mutual attraction gets out of hand quickly when their dates usually end in murder.

Being a teen can be painful and everyone has fantasies about the people they have problems with simply disappearing. Heathers takes those fantasies and runs with them and the result is incisive and hilarious. There’s something deeply compelling about J.D.’s cheerful bloodthirstiness and Veronica’s struggle between giving into her desire for retribution and being a normal, moral person. This is in large part because of Christian Slater and Winona Ryder’s performances; they both steal every scene they are in.

Colossal (2016)

I was intrigued by Colossal‘s premise of a twenty-something woman realizing that a series of attacks by a giant monster in Seoul was connected to her everyday actions. But I was also worried that it was just a gimmick and that the movie would fall apart halfway through, since I wasn’t sure how that situation would be explained or resolved. My concerns were unfounded though; this is a fun and internally consistent movie.

I like the recent trend of Western movies being inspired by Japanese media. I haven’t seen a lot of kaiju/mecha shows but I’m familiar enough with them to appreciate the references (and I absolutely love Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim). Colossal marries that genre and the heroism that comes with it to the indie-film trope of someone coming to terms with the choices they’ve made in their life and the responsibilities that come with it (like Garden State or Elizabethtown) and actually manages to pull it off. Anne Hathaway does a terrific job as the initially useless protagonist who eventually learns to use her agency. I can’t think of any other movies with a female protagonist that have this type of character growth (Lost in Translation and Ghost World are the closest ones, but their protagonists are very different), although I’m sure there are a few. The parts of the story that deal with the powers the characters possess reminded me a little of Chronicle; it was grounded and easy to relate to.

The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

People in the early 90s sure loved epic dramas; in addition to this movie, this was also the time of Braveheart, The English Patient, Dances with Wolves, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (and that’s just off the top of my head).

The Last of the Mohicans follows the last three members of the Mohicans, a dying native American tribe, who get involved in protecting the daughters of a British Colonel during the French and Indian war. Daniel Day-Lewis plays the protagonist, half-white Hawkeye; the other two Mohicans are his adoptive brother Uncas (Eric Schweig) and father Chingachgook (Russell Means). I found myself thinking about The English Patient and Legends of the Fall while I was watching this; their stories differ greatly but they share a similar tone of melancholy and expansiveness. There was clearly a lot of thought put into making the setting of the movie feel authentic and I appreciated that. But behind its pretty window dressing, this movie doesn’t make you think too much; it sticks to the familiar heroic tropes, which makes it fun to watch but ultimately not that notable.

Indignation (2016)

Indignation is the directorial debut of James Schamus, who has written many of Ang Lee’s movies (of which I am a big fan), so I’ve been wanting to see it for a while. It follows Marcus, a working-class Jewish student attending a small Christian college in Ohio in the 1950s.

As the title suggests, Marcus reacts to everything with indignation. He has the arrogance common to teenagers who realize they are smarter than most people around them but haven’t realized how much they don’t know yet and how little being smart actually matters. The movie is excruciating to watch because you see him react to situation after situation with the same resentful stubbornness and you’re just acutely frustrated (or maybe that was just me, I kept being reminded of myself as a 15-year-old in my Ayn Rand phase and being immensely glad I wasn’t that person anymore). Logan Lerman does an excellent job as the main character, his self-righteous conviction just leaps off the screen. I didn’t find any major flaws with the main narrative but I found the framing story a little too saccharine and on-the-nose.

The Book Thief (2013)

Liesel, a young girl, is sent to live with a foster family in Germany after her mother can no longer support her. She has trouble fitting in at first. When she’s finally becoming comfortable with her new life, World War II breaks out and her family begins harboring Max, the son of a Jewish family friend. Liesel connects with Max by reading him books that she “borrows” from the mayor’s house, hence the title of the movie.

I can’t help but identify with characters that love to read so Liesel automatically had my sympathies (especially in the scene where books are being burned; I was furious). The movie is heartwarming and had some lovely performances. I particularly enjoyed Geoffrey Rush as Liesel’s warm foster father and Nico Liersch as her best friend, Rudy. I found the movie as a whole somewhat bland, though. It took a very safe and well-tread direction with its portrayal of its setting and the relationships between characters.

The Bling Ring (2013)

Even though The Bling Ring is made by Sofia Coppola (one of my favorite directors, see: The Beguiled, The Virgin Suicides), I wasn’t that excited about it because the idea of a movie about a bunch of entitled kids stealing famous people’s clothes didn’t appeal to me. I tried to approach the movie with an open mind, though, since I was aware of my bias.

Coppola is skilled at making privileged protagonists relatable (see: Somewhere, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette), but I just didn’t connect with the characters in this movie. And while I appreciate realism in most movies, in this case, it just translated to seeing kids “break” into houses (usually just by retrieving a key) and find rooms full of clothes and accessories that they stole from and then bragged about later. There’s no suspense or danger to liven it up. The dialogue was also painfully natural; I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near these people in real life. I think the reason I’m more sympathetic to Coppola’s other protagonists is that they are usually passively unhappy or unable to do anything about their situation; that’s a situation that we all find ourselves in. This movie was all about people making actively narcissistic and criminal decisions repeatedly, and that’s not as easy to stomach.

Favorite Movie of the Week

Beasts of No Nation (2015)

I’ve been looking forward to watching Beasts of No Nation for a couple of reasons. I read Ishmael Beah’s memoir of his days as a child soldier in Sierra Leone (A Long Way Gone) about a decade ago and many of the scenes described in the book have stuck with me through the years. Plus I really enjoyed director/writer/cinematographer Cary Fukunaga’s Sin Nombre.

We follow Agu, a young West African boy whose village is caught up in a civil war between government and rebel forces. He loses contact with his family and ends up initiated into the NDF, a rebel militia led by a charismatic commandant. This movie does not shy away from depicting the graphic details of war, and it is horrifying to watch, especially because the young soldiers can go from childlike behavior to murderousness instantly. The commandant (played by the ever-reliable Idris Elba) is similarly scary (you would have to be if you’re actively recruiting children to be soldiers), but he has his own human moments too. The best thing about the movie is that it does not shy away from the complexities of the situation and the impact that has on its characters. There’s terror and fear but there’s also friendship and family and it all merges together just like it does for Agu.

The child actors all do an extraordinary job, but especially Abraham Attah who plays Agu. At no point did I think about the fact that I was watching someone act, despite all the nuance that the role demanded.

Other Movies Watched

No Country for Old Men (2007)

I can’t believe it took me so long to get around to watching this movie. For a long time I was vaguely resentful of it because it won the Best Picture Oscar and I couldn’t imagine any movie that year actually being better than There Will Be Blood. After watching it, my opinion hasn’t changed but this is still an excellent movie.

When out hunting, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds more than two million dollars in cash from a drug exchange gone wrong. He decides to keep the money, triggering a murderous rampage by hitman Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem). Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) who is investigating the murders, anticipates the consequences but is helpless to stop them from occurring.

The hitman Chigurh is the character who drives the whole plot, and he is a psychopath. He follows a set of strict rules that make his actions weirdly admirable, even as he slaughters innocent people. It is not a happy movie. But it has a bleak atmosphere and some beautiful cinematography, it tells a tight story, has exceptional performances by all the actors, and is paced perfectly.

The Master (2012)

I find the existence of cults deeply disturbing and director Paul Thomas Anderson doesn’t exactly make movies that are comfortable to watch anyway, so I wasn’t looking forward to watching this movie even though I knew it would probably be terrific.

We focus on Freddie Quell a troubled World War II veteran, who falls in with “The Cause”, a cult led by the charismatic Lancaster Dodd and becomes a part of his entourage. Joaquin Phoenix is great at playing serious and intense weirdos and Freddie Quell in this movie might be the most intense weirdo he has ever played. He is impulsive, dangerously volatile, and easily disliked. Dodd (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) is his opposite – charismatic, contemplative, and poised. Yet the two men are drawn to each other despite constant reminders of their differences. I wouldn’t touch either of them with a ten foot pole but watching them react to each other is fascinating.

The dynamics of how cults work are depicted well and it frankly terrified me to see how susceptible people are to those behaviors. Freddie is able to fill a hole in his life with Dodd’s group because it’s easier than finding purpose and meaning on his own, and that seems like a fairly common situation.

The Verdict (1982)

Frank Galvin (Paul Newman) is a lawyer who has been relegated to ambulance chasing after he was framed for jury tampering years ago. When his friend refers a simple medical malpractice case to him, he sees an opportunity to both do the right thing morally and improve his reputation and takes the case to trial against everyone’s expectations.

I’m used to legal dramas about evil corporations being stirring and inspirational (at least by the end) but this is a fairly bleak movie, even when there are good things happening. Washed up people are often depicted in movies as just waiting for the right spark to be lit to go right back to the enthusiastic and well-adjusted people they used to be, but that’s not the case for Paul Newman’s character. He struggles to hold himself together even when he does find something that gives him meaning and he’s not always a nice person either (his treatment of his girlfriend in a scene where he thinks she has betrayed him, for example). The movie is more of a character study than about the case or the courtroom drama, although those aspects are gripping as well. And it’s an outstanding one, down to the bittersweet ending.

The Wolverine (2013)

I’ve grown to like director James Mangold quite a bit (3:10 to Yuma, Girl, Interrupted, Cop Land, and especially Logan; let’s just ignore Kate & Leopold though) so I was excited about watching his previous solo Wolverine film. It’s set in the same continuity as the first X-Men movie trilogy and felt much more similar to a traditional superhero movie than Logan but it was still pretty decent.

One of the cool things about The Wolverine is that it’s set almost entirely in Japan. It’s a small-scale story and doesn’t involve the usual tropes about having to save the world. The premise is that Wolverine receives word that Ichirō Yashida, an old acquaintance, is about to die and travels to Japan to meet him. He becomes sucked into the family’s internal politics after Yashida dies and leaves his company to his granddaughter instead of his son. The movie does not stint on action; there are plenty of mutants to go around, as well as ninjas, gangsters, and other assorted mayhem-causers. But there are also satisfying emotional payoffs earned by previous slow character moments. And there’s always something infinitely reassuring about Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine.

Megan Leavey (2017)

I’m a sucker for animals (I will stop and pet any dog or cat I encounter) so I was excited about Megan Leavey, which is based on the true story of combat dog Rex and his human (the eponymous Megan Leavey, a Marine). We see Rex and Megan meet and become an effective team, and eventually when Rex’s bomb-sniffing career comes to an end because of illness, Megan (now a civilian) fights to adopt him so that she can take care of him.

This movie is pretty much exactly what you’d expect from the premise – a feel-good story that will make you feel warm and fuzzy inside by the end. It does a good job of depicting military life and how Megan fits into it, starting with her enlistment. The pacing is a little off; the time jump from Megan leaving the Marines to Rex’s illness was jarring. It also seemed like the movie was trying too hard to make the story touching; Megan and Rex worked together in 2005-06 and Rex developed his illness in 2012, which means that Rex spent much of his time working with other handlers. I’m sure he still had a great bond with Megan but it seemed a little blown out of proportion.

Playing by Heart (1998)

Playing by Heart focuses on a few different people – an older couple working through a past affair, a couple of women entering new relationships, a man dying of AIDS and his grieving mother, an adulterous wife, a man who seems to be a pathological liar. They seem unrealted at first but there are clues throughout that reveal their connections and their stories converge at the end of the movie.

I used to like movies that told several different stories with a common theme (like Love Actually and Paris, je t’aime) but I realized while watching this movie that my tastes have changed (or maybe the two movies I mentioned are just exceptionally well-made). I can’t pinpoint anything that was particularly bad about the movie but it just didn’t work for me. Some of the dialogue seems like it’s supposed to be poetic but it came off as pretentious instead. None of the characters are given enough time to be fully developed and there wasn’t any nuance in their portrayal. Angelina Jolie has the best role and steals every scene she’s in, but Ryan Phillippe as her romantic interest is bland and tedious to watch. Other great actors like Sean Connery and Gillian Anderson feel wasted.

Favorite Movie of the Week

Friday Night Lights (2004)

I love Explosions in the Sky (Your Hand In Mine is probably my favorite piece of music – close your eyes and just listen to it) and I’ve been wanting to watch this movie purely because it was scored by them. I also enjoy sports movies and movies based on real life events (which director Peter Berg specializes in), so there’s that too.

Friday Night Lights is about the Permian High School football team and their run for the Texas state championship in 1988. The team’s hometown of Odessa, Texas is obsessed with their success, and the players must deal with the pressure of those expectations as well as other problems that come up during the season.

There is a unique atmosphere to this movie (aided by the outstanding score) and I’m not quite sure how to describe it. It’s almost magical; you feel completely immersed in Odessa and invested in the team’s success. There is a good balance between individual players’ stories and a more general focus on the team and the town. The cast does a great job, even Billy Bob Thornton who usually plays characters I detest and Lucas Black who I found supremely annoying in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Other Movies Watched

Girl, Interrupted (1999)

Girl, Interrupted is based on Susanna Kaysen’s memoir about spending 18 months at a mental institution after a suicide attempt. Mental illness is a hard thing to depict in movies (for example, A Beautiful Mind had to resort to inventing imaginary people that only John Nash saw) but this movie does it well without oversimplification.

Susanna, the main character, is not visibly insane; she just seems withdrawn and melancholy from the outside. Winona Ryder gives an extremely nuanced performance and really brings her to life. The other patients in this movie have compelling stories as well. Angelina Jolie stands out as Lisa, a charming sociopath that the other girls look up to, but Elizabeth Moss’ childlike Polly and Brittany Murphy’s obsessive-compulsive Daisy (among others with various other illnesses) are essential to why the film works so well.

This movie is mainly a coming of age story. Despite the unusual circumstances, Susanna just has to start truly investing in her life to get out of the rut that she is in, which is something most of us can identify with. This is a powerful movie to watch to demystify the concept of mental illness; many people seem to think that there is a wide gulf between themselves and someone who has mental health issues (although that attitude is changing), but in reality it’s a pretty fine line.

Pollyanna (1960)

I remember reading an abridged version of Pollyanna when I was young and found the titular character’s sunniness memorable. I enjoyed Hayley Mills a lot in The Parent Trap and that was a big part of why I was excited about this movie.

Pollyanna is a 12-year-old who has been recently orphaned. She comes to live with her rich Aunt Polly, who is strict and uptight and is not well-liked in her small town. Pollyanna’s relentless optimism clashes with her aunt but wins over almost everyone she meets in her community. Hayley Mills is terrific as Pollyanna, she’s earnest and lovable and you’ll wish you knew her too. The other performances are quite good as well, especially Jane Wyman as Aunt Polly who admirably straddles the fine line between being imperious and sympathetic. The movie has great pacing and even though it was made in 1960 (almost 60 years ago!), it feels modern. If you’re in the mood for a cozy and heartwarming family movie, I recommend it.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Star Wars:The Force Awakens but I had high hopes for this sequel since it was directed by Rian Johnson (he made Brick and Looper, both of which I enjoyed) instead of J.J. Abrams (who seems to favor style and action over substance). We bought tickets to the opening showing, which is rare because we hardly ever watch movies in theaters any more (we have better video and audio at home) and when we do, we go to the least crowded showing. I don’t think it was worth it though because I was disappointed yet again.

I’m not sure how good The Last Jedi was independent of the rest of the Star Wars canon because I love the Star Wars universe and I can’t look at the movie from any other perspective. I do know that the things I love about Star Wars are clearly not the same things that the creators of this trilogy think is important. I love the pulpiness, the idealistic characters, the hero’s journey, the worldbuilding, and even the political intrigue. This movie was a little better than The Force Awakens at those aspects, but only the tiniest bit. It doesn’t respect the characters from the previous movies (Mark Hamill agrees with me), it rehashes the same tired tropes from the previous trilogies rather than creating something new (both in terms of plot and worldbuilding), and it often chooses humor over drama or character growth, which strips away any real stakes and makes it impossible to take the characters seriously.

There were some moments where it seemed like the series might go in an original direction (for example, Rey and Kylo’s connection) but they are resolved predictably and that was really frustrating. I did find Poe’s story somewhat interesting, he actually had a clear character growth arc, but it wasn’t enough.

Don’t get me wrong, The Last Jedi isn’t a bad movie, it just doesn’t have the things that make the Star Wars universe unique. I hope Gareth Edwards gets to make more Star Wars movies because Rogue One had pretty much everything I wanted.

Hulk (2003)

I was curious to see how Ang Lee would handle a superhero movie because his thoughtful, character focused style didn’t seem like it would be a good match for the genre. Hulk was definitely an interesting movie with some ideas that seemed ahead of their time, but it ultimately didn’t work too well.

This movie tells a pretty standard superhero origin story – after Dr. Bruce Banner is exposed to gamma radiation, he starts to transform into a huge green monster under high stress. Unlike other movies of its genre, it doesn’t have a supervillain for the Hulk to fight; just the army concerned (rightfully) about a person who can transform into a destructive monster without conscious control. There’s no good or evil (although there are annoying smarmy guys) and all the characters have fleshed-out motivations that make sense. The focus is on character growth rather than action, which I liked but it didn’t quite mesh with the tone of the action scenes. There were a lot of creatively framed that were clearly meant to evoke the panels of a comic book, but they often didn’t add anything to the story and made the movie seem a little unfocused.

Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

This is a pretty standard “inspiring teacher inspires students to think outside the box” movie. Julia Roberts plays a free-spirited art history professor who takes a job at Wellesley (a private women’s liberal arts college) in the 1950s. Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Julia Stiles, and Ginnifer Goodwin play the students featured most prominently in the movie and they’re the usual archetypes that you expect – the one who is initially vehemently opposed to everything the teacher stands for, the one who acts out for attention, the one who can’t choose between tradition and her dream, and so on.

Mona Lisa Smile is not a bad movie but it doesn’t really stand out, even in its genre. It might have made an excellent Sofia Coppola movie, but as it is, it’s forgettable. The characters are not relatable; I’m not exactly sure why. It might be because they’re so privileged, but Dead Poets Society is set at an elite private school and does not suffer from the same problem. It was also hard to understand what made Julia Roberts’ character such an inspiration; she seemed to give up on her ideas pretty easily. And even though there were talented actors in this movie, their performances seem somewhat insipid.

Switch (1991)

Switch seems to have largely been forgotten and I’m not sure where or how I heard of it, but I was intrigued by the premise – Steve Brooks, a sexist man, being reincarnated as a woman and growing as a person as he/she realizes what the life of a woman is like. Plus I love Jimmy Smits in the Star Wars prequels (as Princess Leia’s adoptive father Bail Organa) and The West Wing (as presidential candidate Matt Santos), so I was curious about what he was up to more than a decade before those roles.

Ellen Barkin plays the reincarnated Steve Brooks, and she does a fantastic job walking and talking like a man. I hadn’t ever thought about the subtleties of how men move differently from women until I saw her performance and it seemed so natural. Besides that, though, this is a weird, weird movie. At first it tries to be an over-the-top comedy based on the assumptions that both men and women make about gender roles, which it manages quite well. Then it tries to change its tone to a drama dealing with things like rape and pregnancy, and it falls apart. The characters are repurposed to make the plot go where the writer wanted it to and it’s hard to suspend disbelief any longer.

I think the movie is still worth watching because of Ellen Barkin’s performance, but don’t go into it expecting much else.

Your Name (2016)

We also re-watched Your Name this week but I reviewed it fairly recently, so I’ll just link to my previous review. We watched it again because we received our pre-order with the English dub (we had watched it subtitled last time) and wanted to see what the dub was like. It’s a fantastic movie so any excuse to watch it again is welcome.

The dub was well done and I had no issues with it. I prefer the original Japanese audio, though, probably just because I watched that first.

Favorite Movie of the Week

Paper Moon (1973)

I’d been wanting to watch this movie ever since I read about Tatum O’Neal winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for it when she was 10 years old. My husband and I are both fans of the precocious-young-girl-meets-cantankerous-father-figure trope so I knew we’d like it before we watched it.

9-year-old Addie Loggins’ mother has just died has no local relatives. Conman Moses “Moze” Pray (who was involved with Addie’s mother and may be her father) is convinced by her neighbors to drive her to her aunt in St. Joseph, Missouri. Along the way, Moze discovers that Addie is a natural at conning people and soon they become a successful con-artist team. Paper Moon is not about the cons, though; it’s about seeing the relationship between Moze and Addie evolve.

The two main characters are played by Ryan O’Neal and his real-life daughter Tatum and they have fantastic chemistry. I’m not at all surprised that Tatum O’Neal won an Oscar because her performance is sensational. A lot of young actresses can play precocious and sassy, and she does those things well but she displays so much more range than that – she can be melancholy, determined, devious, frustrated, thoughtful… and all without losing any of her vulnerability. The Depression-era South setting is almost a character in itself, it adds a distinct atmosphere to the film. I can’t think of any criticism; pretty much everything seems like it was done well.

Watch it! And be prepared for your heartstrings to be tugged at by the end.

Other Movies Watched

Boogie Nights (1997)

I had been avoiding Boogie Nights for a while because director/writer Paul Thomas Anderson makes pretty intense movies and I’m not always in the mood for them, even though they are usually excellent. I thought Boogie Nights was pretty well-balanced though. It has intense moments, but it’s not agonizing to watch most of the time like There Will Be Blood or Magnolia.

Well-endowed Eddie Adams, a dishwasher at an L.A. nightclub, is discovered by porn filmmaker Jack Horner and soon finds his place in the porn world as star “Dirk Diggler”. In the first few years he makes friends, pitches successful movie ideas, and generally lives it up. His happy-go-lucky life can’t last forever, though, and as he gets into drugs and the porn industry changes, things start to fall apart.

Boogie Nights seemed like a cross between a traditional biopic of someone with a sketchy occupation (like American Made) and The Basketball Diaries (which is about the journey of a teenager addicted to drugs and also stars Mark Wahlberg). It immerses you right into the world of porn production in the 1970s (the “Golden Age of Porn“) and all its highs and lows. Despite its premise, it does not aim to titillate. In fact, it’s quite the opposite and focuses on all the mundane work that goes into making porn and any sex involved is just work and has nothing to do with pleasure. The characters are just normal people with the same ambitions and desires as us (even if they do work in an industry that seems somewhat alien) and so they’re very relatable. And there are some great actors in the cast bringing the characters to life – Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Don Cheadle, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Alfred Molina, and more.

Oldboy (2003)

I really didn’t know much about this movie going into it except that it was really famous, South Korean, and possibly involved thriller elements. The premise is that businessman Oh Dae-su is imprisoned for fifteen years without knowing where, why, or who is holding him captive. He trains hard during his captivity and when he is finally released, he embarks on a quest to find his daughter and the identity of his captor.

I thought this was going to be a standard action/revenge movie (like John Wick) but it was mostly a twisty psychological thriller. There was certainly action and it was beautifully choreographed – I’ve never seen anything like this single-take side-scroller-esque fight scene, and I’m sure it has been and will continue to be hugely influential to filmmakers. The oppressive ambience of the movie should be just as iconic, though. Dae-su never really leaves the clutches of his captor, and his confusion and anxiety color the movie significantly (sometimes literally, the production design is often eerie). As with most psychological thrillers, if you really break it down, the plot is melodramatic and flawed, but focusing on that would do the movie a disservice because it has its own style and tells a tight story within it. It’s going to leave you disturbed though, so don’t watch it on a day where you’re looking for a purely entertaining movie.

In Bruges (2008)

In Bruges is the debut film of director/writer Martin McDonagh (more recently known for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri). It’s a black comedy about two Irish hitmen hiding out in Bruges, Belgium after a botched job as they wait for word from their boss about what to do next.

I’ve never seen Colin Farrell in a role like this before and was impressed by his range. He plays Ray, the younger hitman, who is a bizarre mix of naive and vulgar and lovable and dumb and brash. He’s got great comic timing. Brendan Gleeson is excellent as his partner Ken, who’s surprisingly sensitive given his job. And Ralph Fiennes is terrific as always as the boss, the ruthless but principled Harry. It’s not all fun and games, though; the story is driven by the morality of its characters and we take that seriously even as we are amused by what’s happening on screen. No one does black comedy like the British and this movie ranks with one of the best.

Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

Peggy Sue Bodell is about to divorce her high school sweetheart, Charlie, who has been unfaithful to her. At her 25-year high school reunion, she faints and is somehow transported back in time to her last year of high school but without losing any of her adult memories. She now has the chance to change her life by breaking up with Charlie before they get married.

Kathleen Turner (who I was introduced to fairly recently in Romancing the Stone) does a great job playing Peggy Sue, both in the past and present. I especially enjoyed her reaction to traveling to the past because it felt so realistic – she’s usually amused or exasperated and has been an adult too long to have any patience for her parents’ rules. Nicolas Cage as Charlie was pretty good too. He managed to be irrepressibly earnest and lovable but still very frustrating. This isn’t a clear-cut “if you got what you wanted, your alternate life would be terrible” story like It’s a Wonderful Life; Peggy Sue’s choices are all pretty attractive and she has fun with them, which made for a more nuanced narrative and an ending which earned its poignancy.

Neerja (2016)

I’ve been aware of Neerja Bhanot’s story for a long time and was pretty excited when I heard about this movie (she was a flight attendant on a hijacked plane and saved many passengers’ lives during the hijacking, but was killed before she could get to safety). I wish there were more Indian biopics or dramas based on real events; it’s one of my favorite movie genres.

The movie follows the standard biopic movie playbook, but it’s well-executed and compelling. It mainly focuses on the last day or so of Neerja’s life, establishing her home life and romantic prospects and also showing the terrorists getting ready to perform the hijacking. The pacing is tight and keeps the tension up all the way through – knowing what happened in real life didn’t make me any less anxious during the movie. The characters are fleshed out, even the terrorists who could have easily been one-dimensional baddies. Flashbacks to Neerja’s first marriage throughout the film remind us of her strength. And despite the subject, the movie does not resort to melodrama at any point, trusting the audience to react appropriately to the terrible events of the movie without having to hammer the point home.

Freaky Friday (1976)

Body swap movies are an old movie trope these days, but it all began with Freaky Friday (according to this list on Wikipedia, anyway). Ellen Andrews (Barbara Harris) and her teenage daughter Annabel (a young Jodie Foster) are constantly at odds. One day, they each wish that they were in the other person’s shoes and to their horror, their wish comes true. To make things worse, Annabel (as Ellen) is roped into cooking a meal for twenty five people even though she can’t cook and Ellen (as Annabel) must play in an important hockey game for her school team even though she has never played hockey.

I really liked this movie. It seemed more earnest than similar family movies that were made later. Annabel and Ellen were fully fleshed out characters rather than stereotypes; Annabel in particular is not a cookie-cutter teenager like we’re seeing in so many modern movies. Both Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris did a great job of not acting their age. There’s a lot of humor (and it’s actually funny), but there are also some touching moments like Annabel seeing her younger brother from a different perspective.

Favorite Movie of the Week

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

I’ve been wanting to watch this movie for a long time, especially because I got married unexpectedly young to someone who grew up on the opposite side of the planet and it seemed like it would be somewhat relatable.

Joey Drayton, the daughter of liberal upper-class couple Matt and Christina Drayton, returns unexpectedly early from a vacation with her new fiancé, John Prentice, who is widowed, significantly older, and black. The Draytons have raised Joey to believe in racial equality, but can’t quite wrap their heads around her decision. And just as they are getting used to the idea, John’s parents arrive for dinner with their own set of expectations.

This movie is entirely dialogue driven and it could easily be a play without having to make too many changes. But the dialogue is fantastic – it’s subtle, earnest, funny, insightful, and cuts right to the bone. Katharine Hepburn (who plays Joey’s mom) delivers one of the best monologues in cinematic history. Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, and Katharine Houghton give marvelous perfomances as well, and they elevate the writing even more. The plot’s urgency is a little contrived and seems too quickly resolved, but those are minor nitpicks. Watch it!

Other Movies Watched

Insomnia (2002)

I’m a huge Christopher Nolan fan and this is the last of his movies that I hadn’t seen (I’ve even seen his $6,000 budget black-and-white debut film, Following). I’m not sure what took me so long. I expected it to be excellent, and that’s exactly what it was.

The movie is a remake of the 1993 Norwegian film of the same name (which I have not seen). LAPD detectives Dormer (Al Pacino) and Eckhart (Martin Donovan) are sent to Alaska to assist in a murder investigation in a small town. Their first encounter with the murderer ends in tragedy when Eckhart is shot. Dormer must now solve the murder while dealing with the insomnia caused by the perpetual daylight in the town and his guilt over Eckhart’s death.

Insomnia is a tense and tight psychological thriller with some terrific performances from Al Pacino, Robin Williams (who is terrifying as the killer), and everyone else. Every little detail in the movie – the framing, the pacing, the cinematography – is designed to convey Dormer’s scattered state of mind as his physical condition deteriorates, while preserving the sharp focus and skills that have made him a legendary investigator. And the characters are all realistically nuanced – there is no black and white morality here.

Sucker Punch (2011)

Zack Snyder’s (Watchmen, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman) movies have a unique style to them and it’s been growing on me. I was particularly excited about Sucker Punch since it had a mostly female cast.

Usually my husband and I have pretty similar opinions of movies we watch, but I liked this movie a lot more than he did. I’ve read reviews complaining about the incoherence of the movie and the sexualization of the characters and I’m not going to dispute either of those points (nor my husband’s observation that the fantasy worlds depicted don’t rise above generic CGI). But the movie is incredibly atmospheric – it has a trippy and gothic comic book feel helped by great music. I also found the premise of a young woman being lobotomized against her will reimagining her surroundings and plotting escape compelling.

Sucker Punch is far from a perfect movie, but I can see and appreciate what it was trying to do even if it didn’t fully succeed. And I’d like to watch more original movies, even if they fall a little flat.

The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)

I read The Time Traveler’s Wife about eight or nine years ago and I liked the writing but was a little creeped out by the premise and some of the scenes. My taste has evolved though, and I’ve been wanting to read the book again and see what I’d make of it now. I may still get around to that, but as a first step, I sought out the movie version.

Eric Bana plays Henry, a man with a genetic condition that causes him to randomly teleport to the past or future. His romance with his wife Claire (played by Rachel McAdams) is rather unusual as most of their meetings take place out of sequence. Even though he meets her when he’s 20, Claire has known him ever since she was a child. This makes for a relationship with unique difficulties, made worse by the fact that Claire cannot rely on his presence since he may disappear at any moment.

The constant time jumps make this hard story to tell in a linear manner but I found the movie very easy to follow. It reminded me a little bit of About Time (another movie where Rachel McAdams plays a character married to a time traveler) but it explores pretty different themes. I can’t think of anything else all that notable (bad or good) about this movie.

Hocus Pocus (1993)

Hocus Pocus is one of the classic kids movies that my husband grew up with and he’s been wanting me to see it for a long time. We started watching it once a long time ago but I wasn’t in the mood for campy fun for some reason (I’m glad I don’t take myself so seriously anymore).

On Halloween, three kids inadvertently resurrect a family of three witches burned in the Salem witch trials and must stop them from stealing the youth of the town’s children by sunrise. The kids are helped by Thackery, a 1600s boy turned into an immortal black cat. All sorts of hijinks ensue (it helps that it’s Halloween and everyone in town is in costumes).

As I mentioned, this movie is ridiculously campy. All three witches chew scenery with aplomb, particularly Bette Midler who plays the oldest sister and leader. There’s a lot of comedy from the sisters’ reaction to how things have changed since their death. Doug Jones (of The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Star Trek: Discovery fame) is terrific at playing non-human characters, and he gives zombie Billy Butcherson a lot of character for what he had to work with. The actors playing the kids are fine and the special effects are kind of terrible but in a good way. The script for this movie was meant to originally be a Disney Channel original movie and it shows.

Pitch Perfect (2012)

I knew going into this movie that it would be somewhat dumb but I was interested in the music. It turned out to be a little dumber and crasser than even I thought it would be (such as people puking being used as humor) but it did have fun music so I was satisfied.

Anna Kendrick plays Beca, a freshman at (the fictional) Barden University who reluctantly joins a campus a capella group, the Barden Bellas. Aubrey, the leader of the Bellas, wants to stick to their tried-and-true set list, but Beca (who has a talent for mash-up mixes) pushes them in a more innovative direction. It’s got the usual tropes – a love interest that the protagonist needs to win back, the protagonist finding their place and building self-confidence, etc. It’s a lot like Bring It On, but not as good. Without the music, this would be a terrible movie.

The music is a lot of fun, though. It always amazes me how good a capella music can be, and all the songs featured are fairly well-known. I particularly enjoyed the “riff off” scene where all the a capella groups on campus improvise off of each other’s performances.

Can’t Buy Me Love (1987)

I saw Can’t Buy Me Love on a few “classic 80s teen movie” lists and it’s referenced at the end of one of my favorite teen movies, Easy A. I was disappointed by how terrible it was, though. I don’t think it deserves classic status at all (and Roger Ebert agrees with me, so I’m in good company).

The plot involves geeky outcast Ronald paying Cindy, one of the most popular girls in his school, $1,000 to pretend to be his girlfriend for a month. This instantly makes him one of the cool kids and he soon stops hanging out with his old (nerdy) friends and embraces the shallow and superficial lifestyle of the popular crowd and drives Cindy (who has fallen in love with who he was when he was genuine) away. Eventually (of course) he realizes that people’s attention is fickle and goes back to being himself.

This isn’t the most original story but teen movies don’t have to be original – part of their charm is their cheesy predictability. But the cheesiness is earned by idealistic characters who are just discovering certain emotions and testing their boundaries. That requires heart and this movie doesn’t have any. Instead, most characters are callous and materialistic, starting with the protagonist. The happy ending felt unearned and I was actually hoping Ronald would end up alone (and not because of his social status!) since that would have the potential for realistic character growth. But I found the movie to be utterly tone-deaf.