Some Like It Hot (1959, U.S.)

Watching My Week with Marilyn made me realize that I have hardly seen any of Marilyn Monroe's movies. I've seen Monkey Business (an absolutely wonderful Cary Grant/Ginger Rogers flick by Howard Hawks in which she has a very small role) and I've seen The Misfits (Clark Gable's final film based on a story by Monroe's husband Arthur Miller), but neither of those are her best remembered roles at all.

So what can I say about this? What a strange movie for the '50s! We think of that decade as super up-tight, and yet here we have a gender-bending, cross-dressing comedy about musicians and gangsters. I quite enjoyed it, really. I can see the Monroe appeal. That breathy voice when she says, "It's me, Sugar!" Pulling a flask out of her garter. She's just sexy and innocent and completely enthralling. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis are both hilarious, but they are totally eclipsed by her sun. This movie had all the things you could ask for in a comedy. There were so many funny lines and physical situation comedy, particularly having to do with gender identity issues. My biggest complaint is that I didn't like which man she picked. Still, you can't have everything and it was funny funny!

Rating: 4.0

Walk the Line (2005, U.S.)

Here's yet another biographical film that never really interested me, but suddenly when I was cataloging it at work, I just had to see it. It was an excellent choice.

Reese Witherspoon was phenomenal as June Carter. Joaquin Phoenix was okay, though he was rather on and off. Toward the end he was amazing, and he also was in his drugged haze. His early singing was rather weak and might have been better if it was lip synced. His voice was much stronger at the end, especially in Folsom Prison and in Ontario. However, he had a majorly crazy singing face that looked like he was constipated or in pain or two seconds away from passing out. Maybe Johnny Cash really looked like that while singing, I don't know, but it was a bit off-putting. In terms of the rest of the cast, Tyler Hilton as Elvis was the worst casting choice ever, but I absolutely loved Jerry Lee Lewis. The chemistry between the entire cast was absolutely palpable.

Watching this gave a very good sense of musicians' road life in the middle decades of the 20th century. The costumes, props, and sets were perfect vehicles to transport the viewer back 50, 60 years.

The film seemed to go on forever, but not in a bad way. It was like I was so lost in the story that I had to wake up and readjust to reality when it was over. I even watched the deleted scenes, which I don't often do with this kind of film. I thought that too much was left out of the story, though I recognize the need to edit and thought they picked events well. I'm amazed that I was so interested that I wanted more. In fact, I went straight back to the library and checked out Johnny Cash's greatest hits.

Magnificent.

Rating: 4.5

The Runaways (2010, U.S.)

Color me surprised. I didn't know anything about The Runaways and I've never really liked late '70s/'80s music, but I was curious to see Kristen Stewart in this one. I already thought she was an underrated and quite brilliant actress, but this one really convinced me. I love how she is so unafraid to look ridiculous, wearing silly clothes, rocking the ugliest hairdo, and singing like a fool. And wow, she was Joan Jett. The even bigger surprise was that Dakota Fanning, who I've absolutely loathed in the past, was almost as good as Cherie Currie. Between the two of them and the rest of the cast, there was a great dynamic that lent an excellent sense of realism to the film.

Costumes and makeup were stellar. I was investigating The Runaways' website and some of the costumes matched their tour pictures to a tee. Sets, script, everything made the period come alive.

This was a fascinating biopic that made me enjoy music that I'd never liked and taught me something that I never knew and entertained me all at once. That is a successful film if I ever heard of one. I'd love to see it again. A real cherry bomb!

Rating: 4.0

How To Be (2008, UK)

I gather that this film was supposed to be pretty funny. And although I'm a bit of an Anglophile, it may have just been too British for me, because most of my laughing was in an "Are they serious?" type way.

Art is having an existential crisis, post break-up. He realizes that his family has never shown him much love and he doesn't know what he wants to do with his life. So he hires a Canadian self-help guru to come to London and help him out, naturally.

Pattinson was pretty amazing as Art. He's sensitive and unsure of himself and awkward and an all-out misfit. (Then again, something tells me that this is the really Robert Pattinson, behind the heartthrob mask.)

Of course the ultimate message here was to be who you are and do what makes you happy. It was touching, and sometimes even funny. Just not my favorite movie of all time.

Rating: 3.0

Streets of Fire (1984, U.S.)

This film was part two of a B-movie night with my friends. It was shockingly bad, and yet somewhat enjoyable.

First, the plot is poorly conceived. It seems to be set in the 1950s, and a weird creepy guy (who wears leather overalls and works out of a biker bar / strip club with a strangely androgynous stripper) kidnaps an 80s rock star with the purpose of physically using her. However, her ex-boyfriend comes back to town and goes to find her (at his sister's request) with the help of her current paramour and an unlikely (and very butch) woman he meets in a bar.

It is strange and nonsensical but strangely riveting. I especially loved the sidekick, McCoy, who was played by Amy Madigan. Absolutely hilarious. Then there was young Diane Lane pretending to be a hardcore 80s rock goddess and Willem Defoe with his evil face and leather overalls... It was terrible, but also almost enjoyable. Yeah.

Rating: 2.0

Rachel Getting Married (2008, U.S.)

I only went to see this one because two of my friends wanted to see it. I never thought I would live to see the day when the following sentence would pour from my brain to the page, but here it goes: The best part of this movie was Anne Hathaway.

I know. Turns out that when she's not playing a flake, she does have the ability to play a character who's... not a fake. (To be fair, I did also think she was pretty good in Brokeback Mountain.) She plays a girl fresh out of rehab, reunited with her family in her childhood home for her sister's wedding. Hathaway portrays the myriad of emotions and reactions in an overwhelmingly convincing manner. Her interactions with her sister, parents, various friends and family members, and another former junkie are wrought with complexity. You can really get in her head.

Other than that, the film was one long snooze-fest. The family Rachel is marrying into is just too weird. As is the wedding. And the other guests. It seems to me that if you want your audience to relate to a character, you should make her surroundings and the other characters more familiar to the average viewer. There should be more "everyman" types and fewer of the unique crazies that overrun this one.

Really, that's all I can remember to say about this one. It was way too drawn out for what it was. A character study can only go on for so long. I was dying to leave the theater and go to bed by end, which hasn't happened to me in years. I doubt I would recommend this to anybody. (Although my two friends seemed to quite like it. So who knows, you may want to try it.)

Rating: 2.0