Friday, April 6, 2018

"Tyler Perry's Acrimony" and The Week in Reviews

[I review "Tyler Perry's Acrimony" as well as DVDs "Pitch Perfect 3" and "The Disaster Artist."  There are two Books of the Week this week - Good Housekeeping's "Simple Cleaning Wisdom" and "Simple Household Wisdom."  I also bring you up-to-date with "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with "Ride Lonesome."]



Tyler Perry's Acrimony



A woman with an anger problem thinks her husband is cheating on her.  Not a good combo.

Taraji P. Henson was robbed.  

She was the heart and soul of "Hidden Figures," but didn't even get an Oscar nod for a movie that was one of the Academy Award Best Picture nominees for 2017. Though she made a name for herself as the tough over-the-top Cookie on the hit TV show "Empire," there was not a sign of Cookie in her performance as real life mathematician Katherine Johnson and she brought humor and poignancy to the role.  I loved her in that movie. However, since then she has gone back to the more "Cookie-like" characters with the recent "Proud Mary" and now this one.

When we first see Melinda (Taraji), she is in court and being ordered by a judge to stay away from her ex-husband, Robert (Lyriq Bent) and his soon-to-be wife, Diana (Crystle Stewart) and to seek counseling for anger management, so during the course of the counseling Melinda tells her story in flashback.


Melinda met Robert in college and, though she was slow to warm to him, they eventually got together.  Robert's obsession was designing a self-charging battery and for some reason that seemed to get in the way of his getting a job. He also has no family to speak of and lived in an RV.  Melinda's two sisters were less than thrilled with Robert and gave Melinda a hard time about him.  When Melinda's mother died, Melinda inherited her mother's house and $750K and, then, all of a sudden Robert needed a new car, help with his tuition and money to put into his battery invention.  


Robert comes off as a kind of a sleazy type and we start to worry about our Melinda and what she has gotten herself into, especially when she catches him cheating on her with Diana in his RV.  However, here is where we get a little insight into Melinda's anger issues - she rams his RV with her truck, not once, but twice! - and knocks it over!

But we women are ever forgiving and despite this incident Melinda takes Robert back and they get married, but Melinda can't quite shake the feeling that Robert is cheating on her and using her for money, especially since her two sisters are constantly fueling the fire.  Robert and Melinda go through some hard times, with Melinda having to work multiple jobs but eventually the money runs out, she loses her mother's house because Robert asked her to mortgage it and his battery has gone nowhere. They eventually divorce but, wouldn't you know, right after that, Robert's battery hits it big with the help of his old lover, Diana, who just happens to work at the very company Robert has been lobbying to buy his invention.


Well, let me tell you this.  That does not sit well with Melinda! And all of a sudden, things take a turn, and we start to wonder if perhaps things are not quite right with our Melinda.


Tyler Perry likes to put his name on his films, and I guess I don't blame him, since he writes, directs and produces them.  This one is no exception.  Though the story pulls you in, it's a strange little film that plays like a Lifetime Movie and though I mostly enjoyed it, I had some issues with it.


First of all, I wasn't sure if this was a drama or a comedy.  


Oh, I know Perry meant this to be a drama but at times it was so over-the-top dramatic, it made me laugh. I even laughed at the end and I don't think I was supposed to, but you never know.  Perry is known for his Madea comedies, and some of the stuff in this movie was so outrageous I started to think maybe he was putting us on.  As the movie progressed, I started to think that maybe Melinda was a young Madea.

Also, though I liked the idea of a younger actress playing the younger Melinda (Ajiona Alexus), though Taraji could have probably pulled that off, and likewise a younger actor playing the young Robert (Antonio Madison), it was quite distracting when Taraji and Bent stepped in as the older versions of the characters and Robert appeared to have grown about a foot! The young Robert was the same height as the younger Melinda but the older Robert was about a foot taller than Taraji.  I don't think college guys usually grow a foot after college, do they?  


Finally, if you see the film, please answer these questions for me: Why was the house and money left only to Melinda, the youngest daughter and why didn't the sisters seem to care? And at the end, how did Melinda get on the boat and how did the crew get back on so fast after they all jumped off?


I know those may seen like minor things, but when I watch a film, I notice plot holes and continuity issues and when I notice them they throw me off and mar my ability to really get into a film.  My mind keeps going back to them...mmm, why did Melinda's mother leave everything to just her?

Though this is melodrama of the highest order, I love Taraji and enjoyed seeing her tear up the scenery though I would like to see her do more subtle serious roles like she did in "Hidden Figures," because as an actress she has a vulnerability and warmth that doesn't come through when she is playing bad asses.


Rosy the Reviewer says...a Lifetime movie on steroids!






***Some Movies You Might Have Missed***
(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)!

On DVD




Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)



The Barden Bellas are older now and have all gone their separate ways, but reunite for a USO tour and the usual over the top shenanigans ensue.

Why do I keep doing this to myself?


Yet another sequel that reminds me why I hate sequels. I didn't really like the first one, though at least at the time, it felt new, original and fun, but it certainly didn't warrant a sequel and the sequel was just a rehash of the first one.  Now we have #3 and, though it's not a rehash of the first two, it's worse and had me begging the powers that be that this please, please, please be the last one.


The film starts with a cold opening and I was trying to be positive, thinking, OK, maybe this won't be so bad. I will give it a chance.  Beca (Anna Kendrick) and the other Bellas are on a cruise ship doing a routine when it becomes apparent that they are performing under duress.  Then Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) shows up, does some karate chops and they all jump off the boat in a flurry of explosions and all of a sudden it seemed like we and the Bellas were in the middle of a spy-thriller.  Flash back to three weeks earlier to discover how they ended up there.  I already didn't care.


Beca and Fat Amy are back and living together.  Fat Amy has been making a living playing Fat Amy Winehouse and Beca has just quit her job.  So why not join The Bellas to reunite for one last time on a USO tour of Italy, Greece and the South of France and, of course, this wouldn't be a Pitch Perfect movie if there wasn't a rival singing group to compete against and so there is one with the unfortunate name "Ever Moist," a girl group that - gasp! - actually plays musical instruments!


Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins are also back as Gail and John, the snide judges who this time are doing a documentary on the Bellas (not sure why), so they tag along on the USO tour. DJ Khaled is also there and he looks like he is wondering why.  Turns out the groups are all vying to become his opening act, though I wonder what his fans would think with an a cappella group opening for him. 


To complicate matters even more, Fat Amy's long-lost Dad, Fergus (John Lithgow) shows up and Amy is happy until she discovers what he is really up to. He is an Australian mafioso after Amy's money, and that is the crux of the film which deteriorates into an inexplicable melee that involves thousands of bees and a fire. 


Watching this film I couldn't help but ask "Why?" - I think I said that aloud several times - and to say "Please Lord, don't let there be a 'Pitch Perfect 4' and if there is hold me down so I don't order it from Netflix.  I don't want to have to endure any more lines of dialogue like this: 


"We will be clinging to you like mom jeans to a camel toe."


Rebel Wilson's ability to go for it, to do whatever is necessary to get a laugh, can sometimes be funny but unfortunately the fat jokes and inappropriate comments wear thin after awhile.  And I know this is an unpopular stance, but I don't really think Anna Kendrick can sing.  I think she has a really nasally singing voice that I find irritating. Not a fan.

Though there is lots of catchy music to bop to, the story written by Kay Cannon and Mike White and directed by Trish Sie, is so ridiculous and not funny that you stop listening to the music and ask yourself what the hell you are doing watching this film. Mike, what happened?  You wrote such a lovely screenplay for "Brad's Status." 


Makes me sad to say that the best moment in the film was seeing one of the Bellas wearing a pair of bedroom slippers that I own!  I am a discerning movie- goer. I notice stuff like that.





Rosy the Reviewer says...thank the Lord, this is the last one.  It IS the last one, right?







The Disaster Artist (2017)



The true story of the making of "The Room," a cult favorite film now hailed as one of the worst movies ever made.
  
The film begins in San Francisco in 1998.  Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) and Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) are both in an acting class together and when Tommy does an over the top interpretation of Marlon Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire," Greg is drawn to him.  The two move to LA and when acting jobs are few and far between they decide to make their own movie.

Tommy is a rich and mysterious guy who says he is from New Orleans but his accent belies that.  No one knows much about him, where his money comes from or even how old he is.


He has also clearly never made a movie before and you wonder if he has actually ever seen one.  He is absolutely clueless about making a film e.g. he films in 35mm and HD at the same time and buys cameras rather than renting them.


Most of the film is about the making of the movie, recreating scenes for comic effect, but I think it would have helped if I had seen the original movie first.


Directed by Franco (James) with a screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (based on the book Sestero wrote about making the film), the film is mostly enjoyable because of the performances.  James Franco, with that big smile of his, has some acting mannerisms he usually relies on, but his Tommy is far from anything you have ever seen him do before but, that said, ironically the film plays a bit like a one joke movie, the joke being Tommy himself, with his weird accent, long hair and total lack of self awareness and talent. So sadly, despite the fact that I give Franco props for his portrayal, the character of Tommy annoys after awhile and, since we never find out anything about his motivations or even his life, the film is ultimately unsatisfying. 


But don't miss the end credits where they show side-by-side scenes from the real movie next to the ones recreated here.


Rosy the Reviewer says...James Franco as you have never seen him.






***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***


149 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?





Ride Lonesome (1959)


One of those westerns where a bounty hunter is trying to get a bad guy back to town for trial and a bunch of bad guys are trying to stop him.

My Dad loved westerns and Randolph Scott was one of my Dad's favorite actors, and he is, indeed, a perfect Western hero though in this one he is starting to get a little long in the tooth.  Here he has what I consider one of the all-time great names for a Western hero:  Ben Brigade.  


Ben is escorting Billy John (James Best) back to Santa Cruz to face judgment and unwillingly takes on three companions - Mrs. Carrie Lane, a station master's wife (Karen Steele in the 50's Western staple - the push-up bra)) and a couple of bad guys, Sam and Whit (Pernell Roberts and James Coburn, both in early phases of what would be long acting careers) who are plotting to rob Brigade of Billy John.  And to make matters worse, Billy John's brother, Frank (Lee Van Cleef) is also in hot pursuit to free his brother.


I am not much of a western fan these days.  I think I OD'd in the 50's and 60's when westerns thrived on TV: "Bonanza," "Have Gun Will Travel," "Gunsmoke," and so many more, all regulars in our house because my Dad always secretly wanted to be a cowboy.  But I don't really know why I don't like them.  Westerns are just regular stories of love, drama and crisis except with horses and women wearing push-up bras.  


This film actually starts out one way and takes a dark turn when Brigade tells the story of what happened to his wife and he gets his revenge. You see, Brigade had some other things in mind besides the bounty and the film ends with an unforgettable image.


One of seven westerns directed by Budd Boetticher with a script by Burt Kennedy, it was the first of Boetticher's films to utilize Cinemascope and the film is beautiful to look at.


But these old westerns are so politically incorrect I just don't know where to begin, but I think I know why westerns were, and in some cases, still are so popular. It has something to do with "Make America Great Again."  Men were men, women knew their place, white men ruled the world and always beat the Native Americans in a fight, and it was easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys (good guys wore white hats and bad guys wore black hats). I guess some people think those were easier times.


Randolph Scott is a great western hero - handsome, stoic and a man of few words while Lee Van Cleef (who went on to become a famous bad guy in Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns), Pernell Roberts (who became famous on TV for "Bonanza" and "Trapper John MD") and James Coburn (who went on to many bigger film projects) made great villains in this film with a twist.


Why it's a Must See: "The seven Westerns Budd Boetticher made with leading man Randolph Scott are notable for Scott's wry, laconic, weather-beaten virtuousness, colorful secondary characters, visual gracefulness, stark, abstract landscapes, and a muted but aching sense of tragedy."

---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

Rosy the Reviewer says...if you like the old westerns, this is a good one!





***Books of the Week***




It's a two-for-one this week!


Good Housekeeping Simple Cleaning Wisdom: 450 Easy Shortcuts for a Fresh & Tidy Home (Simple Wisdom 2018)



Good Housekeeping Simple Household Wisdom: 425 Ways to Clean & Organize Your Home (Simple Wisdom 2016)


We can all use some tips on keeping our living spaces livable, right?

Books like this can serve a couple of different purposes: 1) you can bask in the fact that you are doing everything right or 2) you can learn some stuff or 3) you can realize what you have been doing wrong.


So I have divided this review into three categories:




Duh, I knew that (doesn't everyone)?


  • Keep supplies handy
  • Declutter before you clean
  • Use a shredder
  • Test paint on the wall before buying
  • If you want to iron less, take clothes out of the dryer and hang them up while still damp



I did not know that... 



  • Don't wash windows on a sunny day (they get streaky)
  • Let your cleaner do the work - watch how hotel maids do it.  They spray the tub or shower with cleaner and then go do something else so while they are doing something else the cleaner is doing it's job and when they return it's easier to clean
  • For a more efficient dishwasher, run hot water into the sink before starting your dish washer to get rid of any cold water in the pipes
  • Dish towels are the most contaminated items in the kitchen, so I guess that means wash them regularly
  • Placing newspapers in stinky shoes will eliminate the smell


and finally


Oops! (I've been doing it wrong)



  • Don't store your iron with the water in it
  • Don't spray furniture polish directly on the furniture
  • Don't flush the toilet with the lid up (the water sprays all over the room - ew)!
  • Don't wear shoes in the house - have your house shoes to avoid dragging in dirt.
  • Don't wash your car with dish soap


If you want to know why we should heed these do's and don'ts and get more tips, you will just have to check out these books!


Since Good Housekeeping has their "Seal of Approval," both books recommend cleaning tools and products to make our cleaning lives easier.

Rosy the Reviewer says...I will leave you with this bit of advice from Comedienne Phyllis Diller which echoes my cleaning philosophy: "The best way to get rid of kitchen odors is to eat out!"




Thanks for reading!


See you next Friday 



for my review of 



"A Quiet Place"

 and
  
The Week in Reviews
(What to See or Read and What to Avoid)

 and the latest on

"My 1001 Movies I Must See Before 
  
I Die Project." 




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Check your local library for DVDs and books mentioned.

Next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). 


Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Scroll down below the synopsis and the listings for the director, writer and main stars to where it says "Reviews" and click on "Critics" - If I have reviewed that film, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list.




Friday, March 30, 2018

"A Wrinkle in Time" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the movie "A Wrinkle in Time" as well as DVDs "Brad's Status and "Loving Vincent."  The Book of the Week is "Two's Company: A Fifty-Year Romance with Lessons Learned in Love, Life and Business" by Suzanne Somers.  I also bring you up-to-date with "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with "Eraserhead."]




A Wrinkle in Time



Three magical beings come to help a young girl find her missing father.

I wanted to love this movie.  I really did.  I mean, what's not to like?  It's a film version of a children's classic, it stars handsome Chris Pine (though he is a bit disheveled in this), it's directed by Ava DuVerney who directed the powerful "Selma," and it has Oprah looking very Presidential, er, I mean regal.  So why didn't I like it?


Because it was a soppy bore.  And I feel really sad saying that, I really do.  I mean, Oprah.  You know how I feel about her (in case you don't, read this).  I adore Oprah but even she can't save this movie.


After looking forward to seeing this film and being so shocked and disappointed by it, I texted both of my kids who I knew had read this book in school and asked them if they had liked it.  My daughter didn't bother to reply and my son replied that it was probably why he didn't like fantasy.  Oh.


Now I haven't read it so I can't compare the book and the movie and I tend to not do that anyway feeling that books and movies are two different art forms and should stand on their own, but one of my problems with this movie was the story itself.  It didn't really make any sense.  See what you think.


The film is all about young Meg Murry (Storm Reid), whose father, Alex Murry (Chris Pine), a renowned scientist, who appears to have been working on time travel with Meg's mother, Kate (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), also a scientist, (but even that I wasn't sure about because what he was actually up to was glossed over using scientific gobbledygook and made-up language, for example, what exactly was a tesseract?).  But anyway, he has disappeared, supposedly having gone off into space but nobody knows what has happened to him.  But before he left, when Meg was little, he was all love and spouting mystical stuff about how we are all part of the universe and so on so of course she loved her Dad and misses him.  


Now it's been four years and for some reason the kids in Meg's school find her father's disappearance to be a source of bullying.  I mean, these would have to be some mean kids to bully a girl because her father was missing. And Meg's little brother, Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) overhears a teacher bad-mouthing his Dad for leaving his family.  So even though Meg has a good relationship with her mother and her very smart little brother, Meg is messed up about not having a Dad and gets in trouble at school and is depressed until one day...


Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), a ditsy space oddity, appears in Meg's living room and it isn't long before Meg meets two other strange but magical women, Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) and Mrs. Which (Oprah).  Mrs. Whatsit is a sort of scatterbrain but can transform which proves helpful later.  Mrs. Who speaks in quotes which becomes VERY annoying after awhile and then there's Mrs. Which - angel chorus please - OPRAH!


These women are interstellar beings who have come to help Meg and her brother find their father and they need to do it fast because "IT" is coming, a dark scourge that embodies all that is bad in the world and if we didn't get just how insidious "IT" is, we see a montage showing one of the mean girls who behind closed doors is really insecure and struggling with an eating disorder and that teacher who was bad-mouthing Meg's father was passed over for a promotion and is really angry about it, so I guess we are supposed to figure out that "IT" has made these people act out and will make everyone else in the world mean, too, if something isn't done about it.  Or I think that's what we're supposed to figure out.


So Meg, her little brother and Meg's new love interest, Calvin (Levi Miller), go off into space with the three Mrs. and have some adventures that I think were supposed to be scary (NOT!) and uplifting (depends on how you define uplifting) and life-changing (you could see that coming a mile away), but were in fact confusing and muddled. I was never really sure what the actual plan was.


I know I am being hard on this film, but it is rare that I get to have the theatre almost to myself (there were only a couple of other people there), which I love because I can really get into the film without annoying distractions, and I still found myself bored and looking at my watch.  And I was really looking forward to enjoying this film.  I know it was aimed at kids but if I was bored, I would think it would be even more boring for kids who have a shorter attention span than I do.


I don't know who to blame for this. 


Madeline L'Engle for the story (maybe there's a reason why it's taken so long to make this 1962 children's classic into a movie), Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell for their screenplay or Ava DuVernay for her direction or all three? But whatever or whoever is to blame, this film just didn't do it for me. The book is known for it's religious and political themes - good triumphing over evil, being able to stand up against conformity and the status quo - but the film didn't do a very good job of projecting a clear message.  And despite the strong young girl character, which I enjoyed, the film was just an overly sentimental mish mash. But as I said, I enjoyed young Storm Reid's performance and little Deric, who could have been one of those obnoxiously precocious kids that I dislike, was fine, too, as was young Levi Miller.

And then there is Oprah who can do no wrong.


Rosy the Reviewer says...though the film had a good message (I think), it was overly sentimental and just plain boring.





***Some Movies You Might Have Missed***
(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)!


On DVD




Brad's Status (2017)



A father takes his teenaged son on a tour of colleges which makes him question his own life.

Ben Stiller could make me laugh just looking at him.  He does hapless sad sack like no one else and his deadpan reactions are hilarious. Just think "Meet the Fockers" and "There is Something about Mary." He is the Buster Keaton of his day.  But here he puts on the brakes a bit to play Brad, a man in midlife who questions his career choices and his life. Brad lives in Sacramento and is the head of a non-profit that helps other non-profits, but though his career is a worthy one, he can't help but compare himself to some of his college mates who he imagines have become richer and more successful than he has. 

Brad lies in bed at night worrying about money and feeling like he has not lived up to his potential.  We know this because the film is narrated by Brad/Stiller, and we get to see inside Brad's mind as he focuses on himself and his supposed failures. 


"It's stupid to compare lives but when I do I feel I've failed."


"This is not the life I imagined."


Now his son, Troy (Austin Abrams), who is academically gifted and a musical prodigy, is getting ready to go to college and Brad is taking him on a tour of Eastern colleges. Troy is so smart and gifted that Harvard is a very real possibility. This gets Brad to thinking about his own college years when he had his whole future ahead of him and he loved life. He was the one most likely to succeed. Where did it all go wrong?

At the same time, he thinks about some of his old college friends who he thinks have more glamorous and rich lives than he does. Nick made the cover of Architectural Digest, Craig (Michael Sheen) is a successful writer and politico, Jason (Luke Wilson) made a fortune with his hedge fund and Billy (Jermaine Clement) sold his company and retired at 40 and now lives the good life on a tropical island with not one, but two girlfriends.  He imagines them in private planes or flying First Class, living the high life, but when he needs to call in some favors to help his son and meets up with Craig, in a very entertaining and enlightening scene, Brad learns that maybe he has it better than he thought.

This all sounds like a male midlife cliche movie, but the film, written and directed by Mike White (he also plays Brad's friend, Nick), takes that whole idea, and with Ben Stiller and the understated and likable Austin Abrams, turns it into something thoughtful, humorous, engaging and very human, a film that those of us in midlife can truly relate to. 


When our kids were ready to go to college, how many of us didn't think back to our own college days and wonder if we had lived up to our potential?  And how many of us have put our own hopes and dreams onto our kids?

There is a thing about comic actors.  They all want to be dramatic actors and Ben Stiller is no exception.  But don't think that this film has no humor because it does.  For example, as Brad and Troy get ready to board their plane, Brad tries to upgrade them to business (actually an anachronism - no domestic flights have business class anymore, do they?) in a very funny scene that doesn't help Brad's sense of worth, and like I said earlier, when Ben Stiller does sad sack it's just plain funny.


I really loved this film.  My only criticism is the title, which I didn't really understand and even if I did, it doesn't describe the film at all or make you want to see it.  I think it would have done better in the theatres when it was released with a more appropos title.

Rosy the Reviewer says...a compelling, humorous and touching reminder to live in the present and appreciate what you have.  I loved this film!  





Loving Vincent (2017)



Depicted completely in animated oil paintings, this is the story of a man who travels to Vincent Van Gogh's final home town and discovers a mystery surrounding Van Gogh's last troubled days. 

This film was a strange nominee for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature film when you consider its fellow nominees were Disney's "Coco," "Boss Baby," Ferdinand" and "The Breadwinner," all more conventional animated films aimed at children.  This film was not only not aimed at children, it was not conventional animation.  It was a hand painted film that brings Van Gogh's paintings to life and tells the story of Van Gogh's final weeks.


It is one year after Van Gogh has killed himself and postman Joseph Roulin asks his son Armand (Douglas Booth, voice) to find Vincent's brother, Theo, and deliver Vincent's last letter to him.  But when Armand travels to Paris to deliver the letter to Theo, he discovers that Theo died six months after Vincent. He is told that he should go to the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, where Vincent spent his last days.


When Armand arrives in Auvers-sur-Oise, he meets people who knew Vincent (all people who were subjects in Van Gogh's paintings so the paintings literally come to life on screen), and they all share their very different feelings about him and speculate on what was going on with him in his final days and hours. There is some speculation that perhaps Van Gogh was murdered. It's a bit of a mystery that Armand tries to solve as he goes about interviewing the villagers.  Did Van Gogh really kill himself or was he murdered?  


Written by Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman and Jacek Dahnel and directed by Kobiela and Welchman, this was an amazing undertaking. It took seven years and 125 artists to create this film and some well-known English and Irish actors do the voice-overs: Saoirse Ronan, Chris O'Dowd, Aidan Turner, Eleanor Tomlinson. I couldn't help but notice that the animated character of Armand looked and talked strangely like Johnny Depp and Vincent looked very much like Kirk Douglas, which I guess is not that strange since he played Van Gogh in the movie "Lust for Life."


Rosy the Reviewer says...though the story itself is not that compelling, this is a fascinating experiment in animation, and if you are a big Van Gogh fan, you will be in heaven. 



***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***



150 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?



Eraserhead (1977)



Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) is depressed.  He lives in an inhospitable industrial environment, his girlfriend is angry all of the time and he has a screaming mutant baby.  No wonder he's depressed.

Before "Blue Velvet," "Twin Peaks," and "Mulholland Drive," there was ---
"ERASERHEAD," --- David Lynch's first full-length feature film.  And if you had seen this film before you saw his later films, you would have been forewarned about what was to come, though those later films weren't even close to how weird this one is.

If you stick with this film past the seven minute inexplicable introduction, you will discover that there is actually a plot here, sort of.  Reminiscent of Todd Browning's 1932 film "Freaks," and the futuristic "Metropolis," except instead of an unfriendly circus environment, the film takes place in an unfriendly industrial town.

Henry lives alone in a very dystopian world and with his bouffant hair looks like he could be the son of The Bride of Frankenstein.  He looks like he stuck he finger in an electrical outlet and maybe he did.  That would explain him a bit.


Henry is invited over to meet his girlfriend Mary's (Charlotte Stewart) parents and some very strange things occur.  He is served a chicken that appears to still be alive and filled with goo, and Mary's mother (Jeanne Bates) starts kissing him on the neck. But the strangest thing of all is Mary has had a baby and says, "We're still not sure if it is a baby."  Yikes.  And she's right. The baby actually looks like something out of "Little Shop of Horrors." Mary's mother says they have to get married, so Mary moves in with Henry but the baby won't stop crying so she leaves him.  Later after a bunch of other really strange stuff happens, Henry's head explodes and erasers blow out, and the baby gets more and more grotesque and Henry has sex with the Lady in the Radiator (yes, you heard me)...and it goes on and on like that.  I thought MY head was going to explode. 


These people are clearly in hell and this film gives you a glimpse inside the mind of David Lynch, but if I am wrong and they are not in hell, then I certainly thought I was while watching this film. 

I think this film is about fear of sex, fear of commitment, fear of connection, fear of babies, fear of death, your basic "we humans are all isolated and disconnected."  But who knows?  It's very strange.

And speaking of strange.


Sometimes I wonder if filmmakers put things in movies that are meaningless just to get us talking and to make us think that the movie is deeper than it really is. I'm still not sure if I like David Lynch or not.  I loved Season 1 of "Twin Peaks," but it fell apart for me in Season 2.  I loved "Blue Velvet" but didn't understand "Mulholland Drive" at all.  But this was his first full-length film so I have to give him and it the benefit of the doubt and props for innovation.


Why it's a Must See: "No mere summation of the plot...can possibly convey the tone (and, indeed, sound) of this unique and challenging film.  The feelings of unease, even horror, that result from watching it and that only increase in intensity on repeated viewings are simply unforgettable."

---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

Challenging?  Yes. Unforgettable? Yes, but maybe not in a good way.


Rosy the Reviewer says...almost incomprehensible but I forgive you, David.  It was your first film, but geez...

(b & w)



***Book of the Week***

Two's Company: A Fifty-Year Romance with Lessons Learned in Life, Love and Business by Suzanne Somers (2017)



Actress Suzanne Somers shares what she has learned over the course of her 50 year relationship with husband Alan Hamel.

What married person or person in a relationship wouldn't want to find out how these two stayed together for 50 years, especially in that marital minefield called show business? Somers tells her story (which you might already know if you read her earlier autobiographies), but it's an interesting story that bears repeating, and this time she peppers it with what she has learned.


Somers grew up with an alcoholic father who when drunk terrorized the family at night driving them to hide from him in a closet.  He called Suzanne a loser and said she would probably get knocked up, which, unfortunately, she did, forcing her to give up her dreams and get married young.  The marriage didn't last so then she was a young single mom living a hardscrabble life doing what she could to raise her son in San Francisco. She did modeling jobs here and there, but there was never enough money and she was going nowhere when she met Alan Hamel, who at the time was the most famous TV personality in Canada.  They had an instant connection and embarked on a romance that lasted ten years before they got married, with him going back and forth between Canada and the U.S. 


But then some things started happening for Suzanne. Suzanne got a break as the blonde in the sports car in "American Graffiti," she wrote a book of poetry that was published, and while auditioning for a part, caught the eye of Johnny Carson who regularly had her on "The Tonight Show," where she was already perfecting the ditzy like a fox blonde character that would serve her well in the TV show "Three's Company," which was one of the most popular TV shows in the late 70's.


Suzanne hit it big as Chrissy Snow on "Three's Company," and Alan decided that his job was now going to be managing Suzanne, which in many circles was considered not a good thing for Suzanne. After three years as Chrissy she went to the bosses of CBS for a raise and she was fired. Hamel did the negotiating and was blamed for playing hardball with the network bigwigs and getting her fired, thus ruining her career, and despite a pointed effort in this book to dispute that claim, from the comments he makes in this book, I kind of believe that's what happened and that's why she was fired.

But anyway, despite that setback, Suzanne was able to reinvent herself and went on to a successful stint with a Las Vegas show and lucrative success with The Thighmasterselling jewelry on the Home Shopping Network and eventually she landed another sticom, "Step by Step," which ran for seven seasons.  She has written 26 books and is a health advocate, having survived  breast cancer and menopause using alternative health methods, both of which she wrote about in controversial books.


So having read her books you might already know most of that, but here she shares her story and what she has learned with some self-help advice on having a happy marriage. 


"I wrote this book to give hope to all who might have given up on their dreams.  I hope it helps to know that there are two people who against all odds made it... I wrote this book to express gratitude for having learned (and in many cases the hard way) what is important.  Love is the answer.  The journey in life is to teach ourselves what we want.  Those two questions in life: Who am I? and What do I want? Most people are never able to answer either question.  Now I know.  I have my answers...It's not who you are, it's not what you do, it's not what you have; it's ONLY...only about who you love and who loves you.  I live by those words.  I am loved and I love fiercely.  I wish the same for you."


Hamel also weighs in:


"How is it fifty years later?  Well, we don't pull off the freeway to make love anymore.  And we don't pull into the Papaya Restaurant parking lot to make love on our way to the airport anymore.  And we don't make love in the water at Waikiki Beach surrounded by hundreds of people anymore...We still make love a lot...I still can't get over that Suzanne lets me do anything I want with her..."


OK, OK, TMI!


So basically what did I learn? 


Their successful marriage boils down to the fact that they have lots and lots of sex, they haven't spent a night apart in 37 years, she is easy to get along with and Alan runs the show. So... 

If I wrote a book about marriage advice, here is what I would say: "
How to Stay Married Forever." 

Rosy the Reviewer says...Somers has an interesting story to tell and some hard-earned wisdom to share, though some of it is a bit much but it's an enjoyable read. 





Thanks for reading!



See you next Friday 



for my review of 



"Acrimony"

 
and
  
The Week in Reviews
(What to See or Read and What to Avoid)

 and the latest on

"My 1001 Movies I Must See Before 
  
I Die Project." 




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Next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). 


Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Scroll down below the synopsis and the listings for the director, writer and main stars to where it says "Reviews" and click on "Critics" - If I have reviewed that film, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list.