Happy belated Thanksgiving! Though we live in the States -- long-time Virginians -- we didn't celebrate today as hubby had to work. I do have a big-ass turkey thawing in the fridge, waiting for his next day off. :-)
Avocado green was a splendid choice for a 1970s kitchen. My parents, on the other hand,opted for tomato red.
And I watched several Thanksgiving-related movies. The kids and I watched Planes, Trains & Automobiles, which is one of our go-to family holiday movies. I am also about halfway through Ice Storm. So far, this movie is just okay for me, but it has some great moments. And it's awakened my growing-up-in-the-70s nostalgia. I suddenly want to paint everything in my house avocado green and buy a big-ass brown station wagon.
Emotionally devastating and rewarding, a study of desperate individuals with seemingly nothing to lose, "Tyrannosaur" is one to put on your watch list. Now. Featuring electrifying performances from Peter Mullan, Olivia Coleman, and the criminally underused Eddie Marsan, it is as riveting as it is disturbing and shocking.
Joseph (Peter Mullan) is a man seething with rage and contempt. When we first see him, he is leaving a bar after a fight. Irritated suddenly by the whining of his dog, tied up outside, he gives it a fatal kick in the ribs.
Joseph seems to have this effect on everyone who crosses his path, and he certainly seems incapable of any lasting change, but that doesn't stop kind Christian charity shop worker Hannah (Olivia Coleman) from trying to help, to Joseph's great puzzlement.
You needn't know much about Orson Welles to see (or like) this movie. Nor do you need to devour Shakespeare. As an unsophisticated and non-well-read viewer, I foundMe & Orson Wellesto be an enjoyable and unpretentious period piece by Richard Linklater, the director of the also enjoyable, unpretentious, but more comically oriented The School Of Rock. But now, instead of the manic Jack Black, Linklater has cast Zac Efron in the lead, a controversial decision considering many non-twelve-year-old girls consider him a pretty boy unfit for anything past High School Musical.But don't worry, the guy doesn't seem limited to teenybopper franchises, and he does fine here, in a film he rather self-importantly deemed the first of his roles he was actually interested in.
He is backed up by virtual unknown Christian McKay, Eddie Marsan, and talented but typecast Leo Bill, who is forever willing to play the nerd, misfit, psychotic, or pervert. Efron plays Richard Samuels, an ambitious and slightly naive "almost eighteen-year-old" living in new York City in 1937 who regularly skips school, much to the chagrin of his disgruntled mother, and gets a part in the Mercury Theater's production of "Julius Caesar" after publicly singing an awful song about cereal. Womanizer Joe Cotten (James Tupper) and womanizer-in-training Norman Lloyd (Leo Bill), who both have their minds on only one thing (and it's not theater), show him the ropes along with Assistant Sonja (Claire Danes), who Richard promptly develops a crush on.
The show revolves around keeping Orson happy, a self-obsessed terror set on his own talent. Richard won't be paid. You must not argue. The actors laugh, as a knee-jerk reaction, at Orson's unfunny jokes. What does he earn for all this? "The chance to be sprayed by Orson's spit." Why does Richard keep the job at all? He has hope he can make it in the acting business. It's better than going to school. Sonja might be a big part of it. Norman and Joe classily comment that "every man in the show wants to get into her pants," then make a bet- the first one to succeed gets five dollars. It is easy to guess that Sonja will be furious and broken-hearted that Richard made the bet, but it doesn't happen, which highlights the unexpected turns the movie takes.
The rest of the movie concentrates on the quirks of the cast and Orson's ego, as well as Richard's realization that whatever turn the show takes, he wants to be a "part of it all." This is well done, except for occasional bad line. For instance? "What's it like to be a beautiful woman?" Richard randomly asks Sonja. *Wince* What gutter did they pull that from? The only saving grace is that Sonja receives it as a bad line. Zac Efron starts out rather awkward in the first five minutes, delivering such off-kilter lines as "you play with real feeling." The heavily romanticized dialogue just doesn't feel natural, and it's a relief when the lines become smoother and wittier.
Christian McKay plays Orson Welles as perfectionistic, hard-headed, and childish. When he gets in a fight with his actors, he hollers at the top of his lungs, trademark spit spurting out of his mouth, "I am Orson Welles! And every single one of you stands as a adjunct to my vision!" Mm-kay... His unfailingly reasonable agent John Houseman (Eddie Marsan) tries to get through to him, but the bottom line is nothing that Orson Welles doesn't want to do will even be brought to the table. He is a great character, and you see something sympathetic in him, then he throws you for a double loop.Me & Orson Welles is a historical film for people who don't have the time and patience for historical films, and establishes Zac Efron as an actor worthy of some respect (Rated PG-13.)
Mike Leigh's 2004 effort, Vera Drake, is sure to be controversial, but not for the reasons you might expect. Instead of providing shock value (and the blood and guts of franchises such as Saw and Hostel,) Vera Drake takes a hot-button topic and views it from a much-maligned perspective. It may make you uncomfortable or angry, but the well made status of the film is hard to deny. The eponymous Vera is a jolly 1950's housewife who lives in post-war Britain and works cleaning other people's homes. She is the proud mother of two adult children, sarcastic Sid (Daniel Mays) and excruciatingly shy Ethel (Alex Kelly) and wants to find a eligible bachelor for her isolated daughter. She is happily married to mustached mechanic George (Richard Graham).
In secret, Vera is an abortionist, terminating women's pregnancies for no pay. She uses the same soothing rhetoric for every incident and is never caught. The procedure is relatively clean and safe, and as far as she is concerned she does no wrong. I didn't always like Vera. She was blind to the implications of her acts and cheery to a fault. Yet she always tried to do the right thing. I think something horrible happened in her past, but it was never fully explained. Yet, life goes on. Vera and George find a possible "eligible bachelor," Reg (Eddie Marsan), an introvert highly affected by the war. Vera continues her operations with women who have been put into contact with her friend Lily (Ruth Sheen), who has untrustworthy motives. But when a near tragedy occurs, Vera is put out in the open and ages ten years in a strenuous couple of days.
Possibly more interesting than Vera are her kids Ethel and Sid. Ethel holds herself hunched and quiet, with zero self-esteem. She meets her match with Reg, who seems as unsure of the courtship as she is. I wasn't quite sure where their relationship would go. Sid and his friend Ronny (Leo Bill) discuss post war issues and try to score a dance at a party, and Sid is the one to reasonably question his mother when the doody hits the fan.
The film has a strong sense of place. A rape scene occurs, and it is handled tastefully (as tastefully as a rape can be). Imelda Staunton gives a great performance, going from a cheery, confident woman to a slumped person who can barely drag her feet across the floor.
Vera is not a liberal Wonder Woman, a superhero who keeps her powers of cheerful strength no matter what. She is vulnerable and fallible, and she can be and will be broken. But somehow, I wasn't as involved the second time I watched it as I could have been. I think the director was pushing me too hard with the tragedy of it all and what a great person Vera is. That never helps. You've got to hand it to Sid though. With everyone else referring to the center of the operations as "trouble" and "problems," Sid is the first to offer the humanizing word "babies." (Rated R.)
rating- **
