Driving Miss Daisy

Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

62nd Academy Awards

*Recommended*

First thing's first...I hope that I look as good as Jessica Tandy did when I'm eigthy years old. 

The first few minutes into the movie, I thought, "Wow.  They're acting like they're in a play or something."  And, lo and behold, the movie was based on a play by Alfred Uhry.  He also wrote lyrics for a musical about Al Capone called "America's Sweatheart.  Suffice to say, that one wasn't really a hit.  Big surprise.  Interesting to note that Morgan Freeman starred in the play before acting in the movie.  Guess it was a given that the role would be perfect for him!  Jessica Tandy received the award for Best Actress for this film.   I agree, for this role and this movie, I don't think that anyone else could have done it better.  She had the right amount of spunk, pride, and naivety.

Summary:  Jessica Tandy plays Daisy Wethren, a civilized, but feisty Southern widow.  After driving her car through the neighbors' yard, her son (Dan Aykroyd) hires Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman) to help "Miss Daisy" as her chauffeur.   We all know the story, right?  She resists at first, and can be quite snotty about things, but then they become friends in the end.

After watching "Crash" the day before, it was interesting to have such a completely different feeling film dealing with similar subject matter.   After "Crash" it felt like I had been in a car-wreck emotionally, "Driving Miss Daisy" was a Sunday drive with an old lady.  The film was light-hearted  in many ways (sometimes tipping over from sweet to cheesy), but still touched upon discrimination in the South.  It's worth watching just to see Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman having such fun with their roles and the relationship between them.

Crash

Crash

78th Academy Awards

*Recommended*

"Crash" was a surprise win at the Oscars.  "Brokeback Mountain" was the favored film that year, and even Jack Nicholson, who was presenting the award, couldn't contain his disbelief.   There are only about a million people in this movie and everyone does an outstanding job (including our favorite cheesy-movie guy, Brendan Fraser.  I only say 'cheesy' in the kindest way.  There's a special place in my heart for Brendan.  How can you not love his goofy grin in Encino Man?  Or his swashbuckling in The Mummy movies?  But, I will never forgive him for Furry Vengeance.  Ever.).

Summary

Racism in Los Angeles.  Facing stereotypes and prejudices.  Race relations and discrimination.  Heavy stuff.  This movie didn't mess around or pussyfoot around the subject matter.  It was definitely in your face.  There were so many characters, plots, sub-plots, nuances, coincidences.  No one was perfect.  No clear-cut heroes or villains.  Just people.  Everyone was so human, trying to get by.  Yes, some of the characters were more evil than others...and some more saintly.  We have to look inside of ourselves and admit that we all have our prejudices.  They may not be as obvious or cruel as depicted in the movie.  But, I think that it's human nature to feel that way, we have to work to move above it, educate ourselves, step out of our comfort zone, and face things head-on.   (Read the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell if you haven't yet.  There's a bit about the subject in that book) 

About three-quarters of the way through, the subject started wearing on me.  I said to myself, "There had better be some redemption at the end of this film, or I'll be really pissed."  And there was some redemption, but not everything gets tied up in a pretty bow.  There are some victors and some victims.  Any other ending would have made the journey contrived...or worse, hopeless.

Acting
This movie had a huge cast...Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillipe, Brendan Fraser, Daniel Dae Kim (from Lost) and even Tony Danza popped in for a few minutes.  In my opinion, every single actor did an amazing job making this movie this movie feel like real...almost like you were peeking over the fence, eavesdropping on their lives.

Emotionality
This film draws you in, chews you up and spits you back out again.  But in the end, it dusts you off a little and set you back on your feet.  At first, it felt a bit removed, since there were so many story lines, but as the movie progressed, you couldn't help feeling anxious every time that you left one story, but at the same time, relieved that you had a chance to check on the other characters in the meantime.  

Timelessness
When I was looking at the list of the movies in the 2000's...it's a gritty group from 2004-2009. Crash, The Departed, No Country for Old Men, Slumdog Millionaire, The Hurt Locker (in the order).  Woo...heavy stuff!  It's a good thing that I wasn't watching them in order, or I'd need to take some happy breaks and watch reruns of Saved by the Bell or something!  My wish is that in 100 years, people will watch "Crash" and say, "What are they talking about?  Everyone gets along so well nowadays."  Unfortunately, I don't think that will be the case.  It's hard to tell if a movie had staying power looking at it through today's lenses, but I have a pretty strong feeling that this will be like Kramer vs. Kramer and be just as relevant in 30 years as is it today.

Kramer vs. Kramer

Kramer vs. Kramer  (1979)

52nd Academy Awards

*Recommended*

I had this movie confused with the movie where the kid goes to court to divorce his parents.  But, that's Irreconcilable Differences.  Yes, the kid in "Kramer vs. Kramer" has long, blond hair, but there's no excuse to confuse him with Drew Barrymore!

Summary

Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) comes home from his high-powered advertising job to find that his wife, Joanna (Meryl Streep) is leaving him.  She is leaving their son, Billy, behind too.  Ted has to learn to care for his son, deal with his failed marriage, and still manage to get to work on time.  After over a year on their own, Joanna returns and says that she's 'found herself' and wants custody of their son. I decided to do away with the 'plot'

Acting

Dustin Hoffman is one of my all-time favorite actors.  Even from the opening scene, you could tell that he was going to ace it.  Both he and Meryl Streep both won best acting awards that year.  Well-deserved, if I do say so myself.  I loved the scene where Ted and his son are having a battle of wills over whether Billy can have ice cream even though he's not done with his dinner.  I read that the scene was improvised by the two actors.  It makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time.  Justin Henry (Billy) was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, at only 7 years old.  No pressure, little dude!

Emotionality

I did not fall asleep during this film.  That's a plus!  It was compelling and you really want to root for Ted.  It didn't make everything so black and white.  It always bugs me in movies where they make the boyfriend/girlfriend/ex such an obviously bad choice that you don't really care that they leave them?  Like in The Wedding Singer where Julia is engaged to that uber-jerk Glenn...oh, so we're back to Drew Barrymore again!  In this film, you can sympathize with Meryl's character, as well. At least more toward the end.  At the beginning, I was a little pissed off at her, to be honest.

Timelessness

Custody battles, divorce, working moms, single dads...yup, it's still going on today.  There are plenty of families that struggle to balance work and family...probably more so now that that more mothers are working.  This film still hits a nerve today.  And, you've gotta love Meryl Streep's beautiful side-swept poufy ponytail.  Still totally fashionable! 

Fun Facts

The kid who played Justin Kramer also played Mike Baker in Sixteen Candles.  He's the little brother, who's a bit chunky (and a bit more obnoxious)

You've gotta check out Dustin Hoffman's acceptance speech.  Very interesting...

Day 1: Best Picture Criteria and "Going My Way"

Oscar Best Picture Criteria

I am a researcher.  If someone asks a question and we can't come up with the answer, I am compelled to find out.  "Who was in that movie?" "What song is that?"  "How do you pronounce that?"  Google Search is my friend.  I love digging down to the bottom to find some little tidbit floating around with the flotsam and jetsam.  

I attempted to find a list of criteria that the Academy uses to vote on the Best Picture.  What I found from a few sites was that there isn't a published criteria anywhere.  I found an interesting description of how the voting works, but nothing like a rubric for the judges.  So, I decided to make up my own criteria.  I'm judging movies based on:

Plot

Acting

Timelessness 
Emotionality*

*Can we blame it on baby brain?  I can't think of a word to describe a movie that "pulls at your heartstrings" or you are so drawn in that you can't wait to find out what happens, but you don't want it to end.  So, I made up a word called "Emotionality".  I checked it in dictionary.com and it's a real word!  It means "Arousing or intended to arouse emotions." I'm smarter than I thought!

Going My Way* (1944)
17th Annual Academy Awards

Director: Leo McCarey
Actors: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald
Highest grossing film of 1944

I have a confession to make.  I was all gung-ho yesterday to watch my first movie in my quest, "Going My Way".  I fell asleep 52 minutes into the movie.  I am laying down, you know!  I am notorious for falling asleep during movies.  If it's after 9:00 at night, it is guaranteed that I will be dozing.  Maybe I chose the wrong idea for my blog.  I'm going to consider it a testament to the movie.  If it can keep me awake, then that's a bonus.


Summary:
St. Dominic's Catholic Church is in trouble.  It's behind on its loan payments and the bank wants to take it away.  Yes, there's the stereotypical fat, evil banker and the old Irish priest.  Father O'Malley, played by Bing Crosby, is a rebel.  You know how I can tell he's a rebel?  He plays baseball in the street, sports a baseball jacket, brings in a basket of puppies and *gasp* plays golf.  And, he wears a white bowler hat.  Barry Fitzgerald is Father Fitzgibbon, the old, forgetful priest with a chip on his shoulder.  Father O'Malley shakes things up and starts a boys' choir.  The neighborhood hoodlums are transformed into little singing angels.  Things start moving along swimmingly...everyone's getting along, they are out of debt.  Then, the church catches on fire!  But, don't worry good ol' Bing saves the day with a sparkle in his eye and a song in his heart! 

• Plot 
• The plot was simple, sentimental, bordering on corny.  It's considered a 'musical', but not in the way you'd expect.  The songs just seem to "happen" instead of moving the storyline along.  Thirty-three minutes into the film was the first song, but after that...they just kept coming... The film is over 2 hours long, which to me seems way too long!
• Acting
• Both Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald won Academy Awards for acting.   It's not the acting style that we're used to today.  It seems more formal and stiff.  It's almost like they are acting for the stage, instead of for the screen. 
• Timelessness
• This film feels dated.  I know, it's black and white and it's a musical.  But, so is From the opening titles, to the acting style, to the storyline it doesn't feel relevant today.  
• Emotionality
•  Considering I fell asleep...
  
• Fun Facts
• The kid who was Alfalfa in the Little Rascals was one of the choir boys
• Fred Mertz from "I Love Lucy" was in it too!
• Barry Fitzgerald was nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for the same role.  This was the first and last time it happened.  The Academy changed the rules after that...big surprise!

*Every time I see that title, that song, "You Can Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac pops in my head.  I really think that I have some kind of musical OCD...songs pop into my head all the time, usually during mundane tasks.  And, to my husband's dismay I was a Girl Scout for 10 years and there's an arsenal of annoying campfire songs in my repertoire like "Black Socks" and "The Princess Pat". 

Tomorrow...Kramer vs. Kramer

Introduction...continued

How will I choose?  What order?

At first it sounded logical to watch the films in order, but then I'd be stuck in different decade each week.  Yes, that may be nice if I wanted to get the 'feeling' of the decade. Pontificate about why movies were chosen based on the social climate, world events, cultural significance...but I think that I'd abandon the project in a week.  One can only tolerate so many black and white movies in a row...

I chose the first movie, "Going My Way" because it was on Netflix Instant Download.  I still have Big Bang Theory, Season 2 to finish watching, so it's instant download for now.  I can't abandon Sheldon mid-season...it's in the Roommate Agreement.

At this point, I'm only going to focus on the ones that I haven't seen yet.  If I have time at the end, then I will re-watch them.

Here's a list of the Oscar Best Pictures.  The ones that I've seen are crossed out.

• Wings
• The Broadway Melody
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• Cimarron
• Grand Hotel
• Calvacade
• It Happened One Night
• Mutiny on the Bounty
• The Great Ziegfeld
• The Life of Emile Zola
• You Can't Take It With You
• Gone with the Wind
• Rebecca
• How Green Was My Valley
• Mrs. Miniver
• Casablanca
• Going My Way
• The Lost Weekend
• The Best Years of Our Lives
• Gentleman's Agreement
• Hamlet
• All the King's Men
• All About Eve
• An American in Paris
• The Greatest Show on Earth
• From Here to Eternity
• On the Waterfront
• Marty
• Around the World in 80 Days
• The Bridge on the River Kwai
• Gigi
• Ben-Hur
• The Apartment
• West Side Story
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Tom Jones
• My Fair Lady
• The Sound of Music
• A Man for All Seasons
• In the Heat of the Night
• Oliver!
• Midnight Cowboy
• Patton
• The French Connection
• The Godfather
• The Sting
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• Rocky
• Annie Hall
• The Deer Hunter
• Kramer vs. Kramer
• Ordinary People
• Gandhi
• Terms of Endearment
• Amadeus
• Out of Africa
• Platoon
• The Last Emperor
• Rain Man
• Driving Miss Daisy
• Dances with Wolves
• The Silence of the Lambs
• Unforgiven
• Schindler's List
• Forest Gump
• Braveheart
• The English Patient
• Titanic
• Shakespeare in Love
• American Beauty
• Gladiator
• Beautiful Mind
• Chicago
• The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
• Million Dollar Baby
• Crash
• The Departed
• No Country for Old Men
• Slumdog Millionare
• The Hurt Locker
• The King's Speech

Introduction: Couch Prison...and a project.

If I were living in Ancient Greece, I would have believed that the Artemis, the goddess of childbirth, was smiling down on me.  (And for you History Buffs out there, I wouldn't have been wearing a toga.  That would have made me a male Roman citizen or a prostitute...I am neither)  

I got a happy call from our doctor on October 29th.  My husband and I were expecting our first child!  Throughout the first five months, I scoffed at my "What to Expect While Expecting" symptoms list.  It just didn't apply to me.  Morning sickness...nope.  Food aversion...nope. Only once, oddly after eating a bite of Molten Chocolate Lava cake.  What?!  No mood swings...I was happy as a clam.  I promise...ask my husband.  I didn't get a Mask of Pregnancy or  Linea Nigra.  Of course, I was dog tired, but aren't we all?

Then, the Parthenon walls started to crumble.  During an ultrasound, we discovered I had a placenta previa.  I was told to restrict my activity and take it easy.  Since then, I've been sentenced to "Couch Prison" for the rest of my pregnancy.  "You can take a quick shower, use the bathroom, and get food" says my doctor.  Otherwise, I need to be laying down on my side,  preferably the left.   I am thankful that my doctors are so diligent and the baby is fine.  And thankfully I had just returned my adorable pair of J Brand maternity jeans that cost me more than three pairs of my regular jeans.  I feel great, except the constantly horizontal part of my life.  The Pollyanna in me says,  

"It's better to be feeling great and stuck on the couch, than feeling terrible and have to go to work."

Yes, that is true.  It sounds fun...to all you working gals and guys out there.  Sit around, watch television, read a book, surf the internet.  And, it was...at first.  And then, I was dying for a burger from "IN-N-OUT" but I could only stay IN and not go OUT to get it.  I'd watch Food Network all day and have weird dreams that I was competing in Top Chef.  Actually, I did dream about a great idea for a cupcake.  The Elvis (banana batter, peanut butter filling, bacon crumbles on top)   

Even with 500 channels on television, how can the same episode of "How I Met your Mother" be on twice in one day? 

My everyday freedoms are gone.  No going to the dollar section at Target to buy $20 worth of things I don't need.  My eyebrows are begging me for a nice threading.  I just want to get a haircut!  And, as a mom-to-be, I'm heartbroken that won't be able to decorate the nursery 'just right', go to Babies R Us and "ooh and ahh" over all the cute baby clothes, or attend the baby shower extravaganza that my dear friends worked so hard to plan for me.

I decided I needed a project.  Something to help me enjoy these upcoming three months.  Originally, I was going to learn to knit.  I could knit the Royal Wedding Party and sell it on Etsy as a commemorative souvenir!  But, after watching a few knitting tutorials on YouTube and realized that I already feel like an old lady stuck on the couch and knitting might put me over the edge.

How about watching every episode of The Real World?  Nah.  And, I don't think re-watching every episode of Lost would make the finale any more understandable.

This year, for the first time, I watched Annual Academy Awards.  Anne Hathaway was a lucky girl.  She got to wear 8 different dresses in one night!  But, what was up with James Franco...hmmm?  It gave me an idea...with all the extra time that I have, along with the awesome flat screen television, surround sound, and a comfy couch...

Why don't I watch every movie that has received 

Best Picture Oscar?  

I'd like to thank Netflix who has every Oscar Best Picture available.   Even the old ones from the 1920's that no one's ever heard of.  And, since I can't be driving around searching the shelves of the last two video stores that haven't gone out of business, they'll show up right in my mailbox!   For those of you who are nit-picky...I know, I know, technically, it wasn't called "Best Picture" until 1931.  Before that it was "Most Outstanding Production." ...which brings to mind Bill and Ted saying they had a "most excellent" adventure.  Definitely not an Oscar contender, but still a totally awesome film.  Probably those of you who know that much about Oscar movies to notice that would never be caught dead watching any movie with Keanu Reeves.  But, then you'd know that he played Le Chevalier Raphael Danceny in Dangerous Liasons that was nominated for Best Picture in 1988.  Party on, dudes. 


Tomorrow...background on the Academy Awards Best Picture and Going My Way, 1944


Popcorn, anyone? If you could bring me some, that would be great, since I can't get up.