Crazy Movie Lady 4

(This is becoming a horror movie series.)

February 8-14, 2009
78. Shall We Dance. My first Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film. I really liked it. Shocker since I really like dance, huh? It was amusing.
79. The Oh in Ohio. I only got this because Paul Rudd was in it. Ever since Clueless I've been a fan. The movie was actually not bad minus the barely satisfactory ending. Vaguely interesting and funny at the beginning but toward the end, seemed lost and a bit boring.
80. Foreign Correspondent. Another Hitchcock film. This one wasn't bad but also not one of my favorites. The ending was a bit trite but some of the water shots were amazing.
81. The Night James Brown Saved Boston. Of course the music was fantastic. It was about more than Boston which made the title somewhat of a misnomer and was in turn distracting.
82. Jump at the Sun. Documentary film about the life of Zora Neale Hurston. Her provocative thoughts made me consider in a multitude of ways what it means to be black, which I loved. I got millions of blog and film ideas from watching this as I often do with PBS docs (like this one) about black people. The filmmaker was there for our screening and said the film took 18 years to complete. I really don't know that I could work on a film for that long. Not that anyone sets out to but ACK!! I was really disturbed how many people in that room didn't know anything about Hurston... wow. The educational system is seriously failing when it comes to inclusion of black stars (duh).
83. Dogtown and Z-Boys. A skateboarding documentary which had me enter it with lowered expectations (sing it like they do on SNL) because I don't really know anything about skateboarders. Joy, if you haven't seen this movie, see it. I'm pretty sure you will love it. I really liked this film. Great archival footage, spot on editing and fantastic music. I liked it a lot. My favorite character was Tony Alva. I love when films go above my expectations. Good times.
84. Look Back in Anger. I must admit I wasn't paying this film much attention. The script was so dramatic from the beginning it was hard to get into it. You were immediately dropped into a messy situation which was off putting.
85. Paul Tomkowicz: Street Railway Switchman. The most amazing part of this 9-minute National Film Board of Canada film was the end. Since there's not a huge plot, I'll spoil it for you. This dude sits down to breakfast and eats SIX eggs, a pile of hot dogs (looks like at least 5), half a loaf of bread and coffee. I kid you not. I was SHOCKED!! So funny. My dude, for real??? He narrated his own film but didn't actually talk on camera. He was on camera the entire time but never actually speaking while being filmed at work and finally at breakfast. Interesting and odd at the same time. I wouldn't have wanted to watch a film much longer than that in the same manner but for a while, it was interesting.
86. Murder! Yes, the exclamation point was in the title of this Hitchcock film. Lol. Smashing start! Really cool scene where no one was moving. I liked a lot of the photography in this film. The story flowed and wasn't overly predictable.
87. In the Shadow of the Stars. Documentary (Oscar winner in 1991) about the opera. I like opera and several of the characters were interesting... but this movie didn't really do it for me. I'm not sure why. I think it was because I couldn't really discern a story line. I could watch it again, though to give it another try. Another year.
88. Happenstance. A French movie with my girl Audrey Tatou from one of my favorite movies, Amelie. This one is not in danger of becoming my fave yet but I would watch it again. They pay off frustrated me. It built up and up and up and ended with such a scarce puff of semblance of pay off. ACK!!
89. Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport. Amazing stories of some of the 10,000 children rescued from Nazi-ruled countries. Very riveting. Great archival footage.
90. The Skin Game. Hitchcock again. Not typical of his style but still a bit intriguing. About a battle between landowners over the direction of a small English village. Gets a little gutter which I like. Lol.
91. The Wrong Man. Based on a true story which I always like. It moved a bit slowly but felt even longer because of Rashan's whining.
92. Who The #$&% Is Jackson Pollack? I wasn't a fan of how the premise of this film was set up. I felt like the first 5 minutes positioned it in a completely different direction than the film went. It meandered off in a strange direction that made me lose interest less than 20 minutes in which was weird because some of the characters were very interesting. The music I didn't get at all. It was so seemingly diametrically opposed to the style they portrayed in the title and opening scenes of this quirky, don't care who you are woman paralleled to similar characteristics in the artist that didn't match the music.
93. Stage Fright. I liked it! Another Hitchcock murder mystery.
94. College Road Trip. Martin Lawrence and Raven-Symone'. Why is her name spelled like that? I like her a lot regardless. That's So Raven is hilarious. And he always makes me laugh, too. This movie was amusing. And I'd wondered if there were any G rated movies and this is one! Yay!