Change Your Image
julie-82
Reviews
Up Here (2023)
Cute but not great
The leads are both appealing and sweet, but the story doesn't lend itself to an episodic show. One movie might've been a better idea. This way it just seems like they retread the same territory every episode and you're thinking, how many times can they do the same thing over again? How many ways can they break them up and get them back together and then break them up again? The other problem is that the music is seriously underwhelming. It's way too generic. When you have people like Brian Stokes Mitchell and Norm Lewis as guest stars and supporting players like Katie Finneran and Andrea Burns, you need to give them more to do.
Rich and Famous (1981)
Oh my what a stinker
I saw this in the 80s and I can't say I truly realized then what a stinker this movie is. Candice Bergen is beautiful, even in some over-the-top costumes and hair, but the character she was given to portray is so awful and nasty that it makes no sense that Jacqueline Bisset's character would waste five minutes of friendship on her, let alone 30 or 40 years or whatever it's supposed to be. The movie is funny occasionally, but not in ways that seem intentional. Still, some of the lines are simply ridiculous and you find yourself spitting out your beverages at inopportune times. But it does succeed at keeping your attention, in that "I can't look away from this mess" way. Overall, I would say that its picture of friendship is just about as appalling as its picture of what it means to make your living as a writer, especially for women. Having said that, I must also add that the male characters aren't treated any more kindly than the women. Everybody in the movie is vapid, unpleasant, unbelievably selfish, and mostly just silly. What is it supposed to mean? I have no clue. That you should put up with craziness and narcissism just to say you have a friend? Maybe that's it.
Uncle Vanya (2020)
Lovely adaptation and performances
This adaptation of Chekhov is definitely different (from the ones I've seen on stage) and yes, it seems less Russian and more British, but all the characters are vivid and sharp, understandable if not necessarily sympathetic, and Chekhov's message about provincial lives lived in quiet desperation, with Vanya and Sonya and Astrov especially trying to figure out the meaning of life, is poignant and heartbreaking. I thought the set was beautiful and the acting was terrific, especially from Toby Jones as Uncle Vanya, but really across the board. I also really enjoyed seeing a Yelena who seemed like a real person, with desires and dreams of her own, just as miserable as anyone else, and not the shallow, pretty doll that she usually is. The performance also seemed to take on deeper meaning against the backdrop of the pandemic, while we were all bored, like the characters, and wondering about the meaning of life, like the characters. Chekhov never goes out of style.
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
The Coen Brothers do The Palm Beach Story
If "The Hudsucker Proxy" was their attempt to riff on "Meet John Doe" and the Capra oeuvre, then this one has got to be taking off on "Palm Beach Story" and the 30's dialogue comedy of masters like Preston Sturges and Ernst Lubitsch.
So cynical, so smart, with characters who are too slick for their own good, but run smack into the power of attraction... You could cast Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea with this script and it work just as well. Kudos to George Clooney and Catherine Zeta Jones (as well as the wonderful supporting cast, from Julia Duffy to Billy Bob Thornton and Geoffrey Rush) for creating that classic comic style, without the over-mannered performance of say, Jennifer Jason Leigh in "Hudsucker." (I also realize this is the second Joel McCrea performance they've cast George Clooney to redo, what with "Sullivan's Travels" turning into "O Brother." So I guess Tim Robbins is the Coen version of Jimmy Stewart or Gary Cooper, while George Clooney is Joel McCrea-come-lately. Works for me!)
I really liked this movie, but then, I also loved "Palm Beach Story." Sometimes the quirks and the snarky style just make you laugh all by themselves. No, I probably wouldn't recommend this to my friends who are into "The Matrix" and that kind of drivel. But for film buffs who appreciate "Trouble in Paradise" and "Easy Living," "Intolerable Cruelty" should be right up their alley(s).