Big blessings to you and Happy Thanksgiving weekend. Last week in Las Vegas, a woman asked me what DVD she could rent to keep her kids amused last weekend. I highly recommended the animated feature MONSTER HOUSE. Today at work, someone emailed Whoopi’s website wanting to know the name of the Thanksgiving movie set in L.A. that I recommended this morning. So…here’s some reel entertainment for you to consider over the holiday weekend.
WHAT’S COOKING?: It’s a lame title for a good little indie movie that came out in 2000. Alfre Woodard, Mercedes Ruehl, Lainie Kazan, Joan Chen and Kyra Sedgwick star. We go to an ethnically mixed suburb of Los Angeles to see four families on Thanksgiving Day — one Black, one Mexican, one Jewish, and one Asian. Each family is different and complicated, yet we see how each family is essentially the same and connected in terms of wanting a happy life. We wish that they all knew each other. The Mexican segment will really make you hungry!
HANNAH AND HER SISTERS: If you like Woody Allen films, this is one of his ’80s classics and one of the warmest and most satisfying films of his career. Dianne Wiest and Michael Caine won Oscars for their performances in this film that follows three sisters over three Thanksgivings. Mia Farrow is brilliant as the oldest sister — the dependable, passive, talented caregiver who family members turn to in a crisis yet her needs are ignored. Notice how her clothing is somewhat bland and shapeless and becomes brighter and more form-fitting and she acquires a sense of herself, lets some anger out and lets it be known that she has needs. Mia Farrow plays daughter to her real-life mother in this movie. From ROSEMARY’S BABY to her radiant performance in Woody Allen’s ALICE, it’s hard to believe Mia’s never been nominated for an Oscar.
HAPPY FEET: New in theaters, this is truly fun for the whole family. Babyboomers who remember seeing the big mambo number at the gym in the movie WEST SIDE STORY will thrill when they see it copied with penguins in this witty and sweet tale of a penguin who finds that his heartsong is not in his voice, but in his feet. Yep…he’s a tapdancing penguin. Songs of the Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder and Queen are used in such a fresh and creative way that you want to race out and get the soundtrack after seeing the animated feature.
CASINO ROYALE: Blond, blue-eyed and built, Daniel Craig is the new James Bond. He’s not the dark, hairy macho Sean Connery but he’s one of the best Bonds, if not the best one, since Sean moved on. This script has more emotional depth that most of the 007 movies we’ve seen in years. It’s a post 9/11 script, taking us to meet James when he was sort of a talented but undisciplined actor before a skilled director grooms him to be the polished superstar that he became. Judi Dench plays M, the director if you will. A bit too long but lots of action and one scene of torture from the creepy villian that will make every man in the audience cringe. When I saw Daniel Craig in last year’s British crime thriller LAYER CAKE, he jumped right off the screen like Steve McQueen in THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR. He’s the right choice for 007. I’m fond of this Bond.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: Christopher Guest gave us WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, BEST IN SHOW and A MIGHTY WIND. This new film, about a group of actors making an indie film when Oscar buzz about one performance in it hits the internet, is a bit disappointing because some of the jokes don’t work and this film isn’t of the caliber of those other three. However, Catherine O’Hara really scores as the middle-aged actress who becomes roadkill in the race for Hollywood hype. She’s more poignant than laugh-out-loud funny. For LOL funny, there’s the montage of TV shows that all actors ritually must appear on nowadays to promote their movies which sets up Fred Willard to do a wickedly accurate imitation of Billy Bush at 50something still hosting “Access Hollywood.”
BOBBY: The big heart of Emilio Estevez was in the right place when he wrote and directed this all-star film about 22 people in the Ambassador Hotel the day and night that Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was killed while appearing there during his campaign. The movie comes fully alive when news footage of Bobby Kennedy appears and when his words, still vital and important today, are heard. But the most rivetting and charismatic character in the film is the one you see the least. And Emilio needed a co-writer to tell him that he could have had a stronger, tighter script with half those characters. They don’t all add to the story even though the performances are good. The stand-outs are Laurence Fishburne, Freddy Rodriguez and Christian Slater are the minorities on the kitchen staff dealing with a racist young boss, Nick Cannon as the Kennedy campaigner who sees him as hope for Black people having their voices heard, and Lindsay Lohan who is marrying a young man she hardly knows to help keep him from being drafted into the Viet Nam war. BOBBY has its very strong moments but fewer characters would’ve given us a movie that makes more impact.
STRANGER THAN FICTION: Will Ferrell takes on the kind of role that would’ve gone to Jack Lemmon back in the 50s and he does it justice. He’s understated, fully committed to the emotions of the character, funny and touching. Is the IRS man in Chicago really the creation of a God-like novelist with writer’s block? Does he have control over his own story? Is he making it a tragedy or a comedy? Or is she doing to kill him off at the end because it’s the way she ends all her best sellers? The script may not fully makes sense but seeing Ferrell play an average man trying to feel his life by doing the work of giving of himself to someone else makes this worth a look.
Morgan Freeman in a dress? I’ll talk about his new indie movie, a comedy, on the Friday Dec. 1st edition of WAKE UP WITH WHOOPI.