Ice Princess (2005)

Director: Tim Fywell
Writers: Meg Cabot (of "Princess Diaries" fame) and Hadley Davis (Scrubs, Spin City, Dawson's Creek)
Composer: Christophe Beck

Cast:
Casey Carlyle- Michelle Tratchenberg
Joan Carlyle- Joan Cusak
Tina Harwood- Kim Kattrall
Gen Harwood- Hayden Panettierre
Teddy "The Zambonie Driver" Harwood- Trevor Blumas
Nikki "The Jumping Shrimp" Fletcher- Kirsten Olson
Tiffany Lai- Jocelyn Lai
Zoey "Skater Thief" Bloch- Juliana Cannarozzo
Michelle Kwan & Brian Boitano as themselves (ESPN commentators)

Personal History

I don't know whether I first encountered this movie on Disney Channel or at Blockbuster. But Michelle Tratchenberg (aka "Harriet the Spy") attracted me to it initially. It was the first time I'd seen her since "Harriet the Spy" (another movie I loved as a kid, but hadn't seen all the way through in ages) and I wanted to catch up with her in this next role.
Since this movie, I believe she did "Entourage" for a couple shows and more or less disappeared. The last time I saw her was on "Hollywood Game Night." (Going through her bio, I do remember seeing her in "17 again" where she was Zac Efron's daughter).
I think I also wanted to see it because Hayden Panettierre played Kairi in "Kingdom Hearts" (I saw at least half a dozen Haley Joel Osment movies because he played Sora. I knew David Gallagher [who played Riku] from "7th Heaven" but hadn't seen him since I started playing the game).

And of course I love watching figure skating... which is the reason I ultimately watched this movie again [according to my Facebook timeline, it was Saturday 2/22/14... I remember it being a Saturday], got it on DVD and watched it the other night.

This is my way of kicking off the ISU Grand Prix series, which begins next week.

Originally, I was going to go through my history as an avid figure skating fan and how Evgeni Plushenko and the Sochi Olympics reawakened the fan in me...
but I decided it's better to focus on the movie.
I have another platform for all that craziness :P

Movie Discussion
"Ice Princess" is one of those sugary sweet predictable Disney movies... not that that's a bad thing. And at second glance, this movie is a few elements short of being a LifeTime movie. That's how dramatic it gets at certain points.

The movie revolves around science geek Casey Carlyle who has a knack for physics. Her teacher introduces a scholarship opportunity to her, which involves putting together a personal science project that involves physics. She's raised by a single mom and the two of them have spent years planning to get her into Harvard. It's that old cliché of "I want you to have a better life than I ever had." While it does from a place of love and good intentions, it also involves a lot of pressure about fulfilling expectations.

We get a similar storyline with one of our figure skaters and her mom/coach. Tina Harwood was a former athlete in the sport, but was banned from the sport after an incident at warm-up where it was believed she intentionally crashed into and injured another skater. She not only built a local skating rink from the ground, but she's also pushing her daughter, Gen, to become the champion she wasn't able to become. (By the time this ban was lifted, she was 26 and too old to compete... although these days, what constitutes as being "too old" is being challenged more often).

There is a lot of drama in this movie and had it been written any differently, it would have worked as a soap opera or made-for-TV movie. And it might not have been as fun or accessible as it became as a Disney movie.
The only feel-good cliché that's missing is Casey going on to win the final event of the movie... but she places well enough.

The fact that the story is co-written by Meg Cabot helps a lot. She wrote the Princess Diaries book series, so she understands how to write for teenagers for sure. As for parents... well... they're written as teenager see them, which is overbearing and expecting too much.

While Casey watches Sasha Cohen compete in the 2004 US National Championships, she has a lightbulb moment-- she can apply physics to figure skating.
She travels to the local rink and is able to convince Tina and the other skaters' parents to allow her to film them for her project.
And it really is an interesting idea that has some real-life applications to it. But as Casey says, the computer doesn't make the jumps. However much skaters train and replace bad habits with good ones, there's always room for error to creep in. Whether it's an equipment issue or a compromised mindset.

What ultimately gets the ball rolling that alters the lives of both mom-daughter teams... Casey's friend Ann suggests that she puts herself in the project to make it more personal. Casey had always skated for herself on the pond behind her house, but she'd never taken any lessons.
She enrolls in a novice class during the summer and steadily falls more and more in love with the sport to the point where she's competing.

When I saw the movie back in February 2014, I wanted to double-check a certain line of dialogue-- something about the importance of nailing the short program.
At first, Gen tells Casey not to freak until after the long program, but later she says you don't have a chance if you mess up in the short.
That situation wound up fitting Japan's Mao Osada at Sochi. She had a really bad showing in her short program and even though she nailed her free skate, the damage had already been done. Luckily for her, she was able to redeem herself a couple months later at the World championships. She's one of those skaters that is heralded as one of the best yet I'd only seen her perform well a handful of times. But when she's on her game, she is fantastic.

This time around, it was interesting to watch the girls doing all these jumps and being able to actually recognize what they were. I watched an YouTube video once where two athletes explained the difference between all the jumps... if I'm going to be watching the sport this much, I should learn to recognize what I'm looking at.
From a factual standpoint, the movie appears accurate to me. And these girls, whether or not it's the actresses or stunt-people making the jumps, are really talented.

Another thing I learned from this movie: you can't compete on new skates until you've spent at least 10 days breaking them in.
It was a turning point in the movie that I really didn't see as foul play until later on.

During a sectionals competition, Casey does an amazing short program, which included triples Tina and the skaters didn't know she had in her. Tina decides to take her out and get her new skates because one of them gave her trouble during her skate. On the surface, I still feel like she meant well by it, but the timing of it is pretty suspicious. Especially because Casey's mishap on the ice allowed Gen to get 4th place (just enough to qualify for regionals).

There are several times throughout the movie where Tina comes off as unlikeable. She may be harsh a lot of the time, but she is always honest with Casey, particularly about what she needs to succeed in this sport. You have to want it more than anything.

Although she does well with her scholarship project, she realizes, despite the mishaps between her and Tina, that she loves skating and doesn't want to give it up to fulfill her mom's dream for her.
This seemingly last minute decision to change the trajectory of her future puts a rift between them, but because this is a Disney movie, all the kinks get ironed out before the final curtain call.
This cliché of the parent seeing their kid perform their given talent and changing their mindset... I've seen it happen so many times.
It's just too bad that it doesn't always happen in real life [although here I'm thinking more about how some parents are unable to accept that their children are something other than heterosexual... while many do come around, there are several that do not and that leads to otherwise preventable suicides ] and it doesn't always happen in movies...
"Dead Poet's Society" is an amazing movie, but it's brought down by the fact Neil's parents can't accept him wanting to be an actor and his suicide is blamed on Mr. Keating just because he broadened his horizons and encouraged him to follow his own path. This is the only movie where I've seen this non-acceptance happen and I sometimes wonder if that's why this cliché exists in the first place.

I'm sorry that I'd been overly harsh with this post. But watching the movie the other day, I just had a lot of these thoughts coming out. Maybe because I know this movie isn't exactly brilliant and it's predictable so I wanted to be realistic for a  change.

I also want to add that I somehow doubt that Michelle Kwan and Brian Boitano, let alone ESPN, would cover a local junior figure skating event :P but of course we need to have some cameos by important figures in the sport.
To this day, Michelle Kwan is still very much celebrated and looked up to by her contemporaries and younger up-and-coming athletes. Brian Boitano on the other hand... I think more people are obsessed with his sexuality than his actual talent. Unlike Johnny Weir [half the people who know of him roll their eyes at his flamboyance and I'm part of the other half that adores him for his talent and his open/honest persona], I don't know if Brian is doing shows anymore. Last I heard, he had a Cooking Channel show...

and just like that I'm back to positive. As much as I love to be positive about things, every now and then, there's a need for brutal honesty to balance it all out.


...also forgot to mention it has some great music. The opening song is "No One" by Aly & AJ and after seeing this movie, I picked the album up for the first time in years and found another reason to fall back in love with these songs.
It also features "Set Me Free"- one of my favorite Michelle Branch songs.
"Ray of Light" by Madonna is the music for Casey's short program. IMDB notes a mistake that skaters cannot use lyrics in their competitive programs. This was a rule that was changed in 2014 and last I heard, Johnny Weir & Tara Lipniski still aren't fans of it. For me, it depends on the program and the skater. If lyrics enhance the program, I'm all for them. Otherwise, it's a distraction.

Theatrical Review: The Intern

Date: Sunday September 28 2015
Time: 1:45pm
Location: Pocono Movieplex
Party: 2 (my mom and I)

Writer/Director: Nancy Meyers

Cast:
Ben Whittaker- Robert DeNiro
Jules Ostin- Anne Hathaway
Matt Ostin- Anders Holm
Cameron- Andrew Rannells
Jason- Adam DeVine
Davis- Zack Pearlman
Lewis- Jason Orley
Becky- Christina Scherer
Fiona- Rene Russo

Duration: 121 minutes (+3 trailers)

Write-up:

Early Remarks

It was a quiet day at the movies, but then maybe most of the people were out seeing the newest "Hotel Transylvania" movie... I still haven't seen the first one, but plan on it as soon as I get the opportunity. We were one of three pairs that were in the theater- the rest being male and female. Either the girls dragged the guys to the movie with them or this is a good date movie.

Although the TV went crazy with trailers for this movie over the past month (most of which were the same trailer-- after I complained aloud, apparently someone was listening and they decided to diversify a bit)...
I have to thank HelloGiggles.com for telling me about this movie. Here's the article I read last month:http://hellogiggles.com/anne-hathaway-the-intern-trailer/
Honestly, I was sold at Anne Hathaway. Why so many people hate her, I will never understand. She's a great actress, but also has a nice girl-next-door image. Plus, she gives brown eyed brunettes like myself hope that we can rock it as well as the blondes out there.

Previews

Honestly, how many times am I going to have to sit through that same damn Superman/Batman trailer before it comes out next year? And no, that doesn't mean I want them to saturate theaters for multiple trailers.
I haven't even seen the recent Superman movie (heck, I only just saw the original movie last year) and I really don't feel up for it. And the notion that Superman isn't universally loved... WTF is Zack Snyder thinking with that twist? Meanwhile, everyone else will still complain about Ben Affleck and Jesse Eisenberg. I'm more excited for the new Wonder Woman movie (and that's only based on 10 seconds of footage of her in this movie).
And of course I will be sore if that beats the new Captain America movie next year...

Trailer 2 is another movie-based-on-a-book... but the amount of apocalyptic tones in "The 5th Wave"... it was TERRIFYING. YA fiction or not, disaster movies are not my kind of movie... especially when the effects are that realistic.

Then there's another trailer for "Pan"... I'd love another Peter Pan movie, especially where he's being played by a boy [although Alison Williams made me believe in her magic in NBC's Live production of it]. Except Captain Hook sounds like a cowboy rather than a pirate and the early reviews are panning the movie.

Reviews and Premise

I read some good reviews of this movie... then a couple days before, I came across some negative ones. Leonard Maltin, one of the great critics, said it was too sweet and overlong. And a write-up in our paper said that it was too sweet and really didn't have enough drama for him to care about it. [For the record, the two good reviews: one was male, one was female].

But just like with "The Holiday," anything Nancy Meyers is probably geared more towards women than men. I went over my review of that movie recently
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2013/01/100-holiday-2006.htmland I compared it to " cozying up under a blanket either with a cup of hot chocolate and/or by a warm fireplace."

The same could be said about this movie. And like with "The Holiday," it's more of a character-driven movie. Opposed to being plot driven. The important thing is that these characters are genuine and you want to spend a couple hours peering into their lives. For people like me and my mom, this is our type of movie.

And probably the best part about it is that it's a break from our routine theatrical experiences. We've seen a lot of dramatic dystopian YA book adaptations as well as some animated movies that were cute, but not necessarily thought-provoking ("Inside Out" might have been the exception to that, but we didn't see it).

The basic story is that Robert DeNiro plays a 70-year old widower that accepts an ad for a senior internship at an Ecommerce company. He is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, but he just isn't satisfied with remaining stagnant in his retirement.
The head of this 18-month old start-up online fashion company, "About The Fit," is played by Anne Hathaway. She's the kind of person who likes to be involved in every aspect so business runs smoothly. We first see her handling one of the customer service calls and riding a bicycle from one corner of the building to another.
She's also a private person that doesn't like to get close to anyone outside her husband and daughter. So things are bound to get interesting when he is hired and is assigned to work directly under her.


Other Cast Members
Other than our two stars, I mostly listed the other interns and co-workers Ben Whittaker worked with the most closely.
Davis is the only non-senior intern and he's like a cross between Josh Gad and Zack Galifianakis. He's average looking, bearded and trips over his words sometimes.
Lewis is a nerdy co-worker that gets a little bit of a makeover-- he starts wearing collared shirts, all beginning when he has to make a delivery what he believes to be Jay Z's place.
Becky is Jules (Anne Hathaway's) nervous assistant who runs a million things at once and is a little bit disorganized.
Jason is another co-worker who has a crush on Becky and spends much of the movie trying to get her back (she blew him off after he slept with her roommate). I knew Adam DeVine as Bumper from "Pitch Perfect" and it's nice to see him play a role I like. Bumper was just too damn egotistical and obnoxious.
Cameron is played by Andrew Rannells... I knew him from Ryan Murphy's short-lived series "The New Normal"... between him and Justin Bartha, he was easily the more flamboyant of the two... but yeah, loved that show. We see Jules and Cameron have several business meetings/conversations throughout the movie. He grounds her reality, particularly when reminding her of the main crisis throughout this movie-- the investors of her company want her to hire a CEO.

And Rene Russo is a scene-stealer as the company masseuse, Fiona. She and Ben Whittaker hit it off famously.
It's particularly hilarious in one scene where the two of them go public and that public includes this older woman who'd been pushing him for another dinner date.

Back to the Stars...

At the end of the day, it really is about the two main characters :D at least that's my opinion.
Like I said, Jules is a very private person that doesn't like to get close to other people. When the other co-workers get wind of Ben being assigned to work under her, they give their condolences. He has one meeting with her where she says she won't have much for him to do and it's ages before he gets an email to help her with anything.

One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet... he becomes her chauffer when he spies her driving drinking while waiting for her and makes him an offer he can't refuse... of course it isn't as drastic as anything Vito Corleone had done, but he muscles him out all the same.
He makes a bunch of observations about her, some he vocalizes and some he doesn't. Whatever the case, Jules sends an email to Cameron to transfer Ben to another department because she's afraid to let him in... and in true Hollywood fashion, she changes her mind just as her order gets carried out.

At this point, I'm not sure how much more I really want to say about this movie... it's best to just lay back and enjoy the ride with these two. The writing is very sweet, but it also has a lot of heart and it's funny and again, you learn more about people as you get to know them.

I don't know what made Robert DeNiro decide to take on a bunch of lighter family-friendly roles in recent years, but I like the change. It's certainly better than his character in the "Meet the Parents" franchise.
But I'd also seen him in "Taxi Driver" (an intriguing-borderline-terrifying anti-hero), "Goodfellas" and "The Godfather: Part II" (his portrayal of a younger Vito Corleone... wow... I respected the hell out of him... which makes for an interesting comparison to Michael- Vito was a man of a respect and Michael was someone I became increasingly furious with as that movie progressed).

Seeing Jules be changed by Ben Whittaker's presence in her life... that's probably the biggest thing I took away from this movie...
She's a strong female character that achieved so much on her own, but getting beyond that and finding honesty in her own emotions... all part of the journey.

Grade: A

27. Mean Girls (2004)

Code-name: So Fetch!

Director: Mark Waters (also behind "Freaky Friday," "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" and my #85 film "Just like Heaven")
Writer: Tina Fey
Type: high school, comedy

Cast:

The Plastics
Cady Heron- Lindsay Lohan
Regina George- Rachel McAdams
Gretchen Weiners- Lacey Chabert
Karen Smith- Amanda Seyfried

"The Greatest People You Will Ever Meet"
Janis Ian- Lizzy Caplan
Damian- Daniel Franzese

Hot Man Candy
Aaron Samuels- Jonathan Bennett
Shane Omen- Diego Klattenhoff

Mathletes
Kevin G- Rajiv Surendra

The Teachers
Ms. Norbury- Tina Fey [SNL alum #1]
Mr. Duvall-Tim Meadows [SNL alum #2]
Coach Carr- Dwayne Hill

The "Cool Mom"
Mrs. George- Amy Poehler [SNL alum #3]

The Herons
Mr. Heron- Neil Flynn [aka The Janitor from "Scrubs"]
Mrs. Heron- Ana Gasteyer [SNL alum #4]

Honorable Mention [astonishingly uncredited]:
Glen Coco- David Reale

Write-up:

I know! I missed the 10th year anniversary of this movie's release by 2 weeks... I'm just hoping that people aren't so sick of all the movie talk from two weeks ago that I won't get any comments on this :-P

Lindsay Lohan got me here... and is one of 100's of reason I always come back

I loved her in "The Parent Trap" remake (the original pales by comparison cuz I saw that version first).
I couldn't wait to see "Freaky Friday" because it was the first movie I'd seen her in since. After loving it, I got the soundtrack and got highlights in my hair.
Loved her in "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen," a movie all the critics hated but I could totally relate to. Also got the soundtrack (liked it much more than "Freaky Friday")

I bought both of her albums and loved them both. Even wrote an entire album fic around "Speak." Plus she worked with great songwriters like John Shanks and Kara DioGuardi (those years, I listened to a lot of Ashlee Simpson and Michelle Branch).

I did not see "Mean Girls" in theaters, but I did rent it from Blockbuster as soon as it came out...
it was so awesome that I HAD to watch it a second time before I had to return it. And that's something that didn't happen often.

Now, when it comes to Lindsay, I've seen all of her movies except for the most recent ones, "Liz and Dick" and "The Canyons" (still planning on the latter at some point). I'm a huge fan and still am a huge fan.
I read all kinds of headlines about her, but never read a single article. With the industry of tabloids and the TMZ, I didn't know what to believe, so I waited to get some truth. Got that just recently with her doc-series on OWN. It had its ups and downs, yes, but I enjoyed every minute of seeing her for realz. [FYI, not a typo]

Hands down, though, this is my favorite of her movies. Probably my favorite performance of hers.
...in case nobody noticed the omission, this was one soundtrack I didn't get... I don't know why I never bothered :-P maybe I should just to complete the set.

The Story

Before I get into the 100's of other reasons why I love "Mean Girls," I'll go through the main plot for those who don't know (in which case, you've been missing out BIG TIME).

Up until this year of high school, Cady Heron was homeschooled by her parents while they lived in Africa. So this was her first year of actual public school. As expected, her first day didn't go well.

Then her next day, she meet the duo of Janis Ian and Damien who showed her the ins and outs of North Shore High School and its clique system. At lunch, she winds up sitting with The Plastics, the exclusive group of mean girls that rule the school.
For whatever reason, they recruit her to join their group and Janis wants in on all the gossip (most of which comes from the notorious "Burn Book").

But when Cady falls for Regina's ex-boyfriend, Aaron, and Regina steals him back, she and Janis brew a plan to overthrow the queen bee.
One by one, they cut off her "resources": turning Aaron and the other girls against her and tricking her into gaining weight.

In doing so, Cady becomes the new queen bee and morphs into an even worse version of Regina George... all kinds of crazy ensue and the clique system at the school warrants investigation from the teachers. Especially after the Burn Book's contents are made public.

The 100's of Reasons.. Some Closer to Home Than Others

For me, this movie has a little bit of everything. I gravitate to certain movies because they have clever writing. It's best when it's a little something different, things I haven't experienced before and commentary on things I've often thought about but never thought other people did.
I gravitate to movies because they have memorable characters. Cady is relatable to anyone who's in a new place and has trouble making friends. Then they go through a transformation when they meet the right people (Janis & Damien) and when they meet the wrong people (Regina and The Plastics). As she says in the final scene, through the course of "Mean Girls" she goes from being "homeschooled jungle freak to shiny plastic to most hated person in the world to actual human being"... and throughout this journey, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm pulling for her every second of it.

Years later, I would find my own Janis and Damien in my college besties, Sam and Dave. It took me a while to realize the connection, but it is so true. Not just because they relate to each other the same way and they have similar body types, but Sam accepted me into her friend circle when I didn't have anybody...
This came about more than halfway through my college experience but better late than never. Once I accepted that friendship into my life, everything else fell into place. They were also the people I turned to when I had guy trouble... or rather dealing with the painful reality of harboring a secret crush and wanting to be the #1 girl in said crush's life.

But, I digress...

All the characters are so well defined that what they do is predictable but we love them for it.
We recognize that as much as Gretchen grows to hate Regina, she still wants to be part of her life because it's better to be Plastic than not.
We know Karen is the easily swayed dumb girl, but we find her endearing for it.

Of course I relate to the clique system at the school. I was one of those people who really didn't have one. I was an outsider. Yeah, I was in drama class, concert choir and companies of high school musicals, but I was never really a part of those. I was either alone or I was in my own social circle that didn't belong to any given clique. Except for college where I had my friends in our animé club that I hung out with every now and then too. They happened to be friends with my friends so it worked out really well.

The other easily relatable part of the movie for me is the guy trouble. Cady wanting to be with Aaron Samuels. I absolutely get that, wanting to find excuses to talk to him and such. But I never went so far as to dumb myself down just to achieve that.
That's just stupid... plus I know my folks would kill me if I let my schoolwork slip over a boy of all things.

The Plastics have their own code of feminism. It's really interesting how they make Cady over when they bring her into their group, what that does for her image, how she carries herself, but it's also a relationship that turns toxic from overexposure. But I guess that's understandable: Cady never being in public school before is a clean slate ready to be molded and shaped into something different.

Even more interesting is how smart Cady is when she's not dumbing herself down for Aaron Samuels. Ms. Norbury keeps pushing her to join The Mathletes because she's just that good at calculus. Everyone keeps telling her it's Social Suicide.

Of course... the best part of this movie is the quotes.
We all have our favorites.
So I absolutely MUST give props to Tina Fey in her screenwriting debut. I haven't read the source material, the nonfiction book "Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence" by Rosalind Wiseman... although I should.
I missed her run on SNL by a couple years. I started watching after she and Jimmy Fallon left and just before Kirsten Wiig and Seth Myers left. But from start to finish, there are so many good lines. The degrees of funny vary from straight-up hilarious to slow-burning hilarity... gotta love that variety.

...found this out after watching the special features... Tina Fey didn't just write it, but she loved this book so much that she approached Lorne Michaels about adapting it to a movie. So really, there'd be no "Mean Girls" without Tina Fey.
I salute and thank you for that!

Also interesting is that this movie was R-rated originally and trimmed to PG13... some jokes were changed and other scenes were rewritten

And it's not every day where almost every line in a movie is this quotable and it gets to a point where they're iconic... becoming Internet memes and taking over Facebook and Twitter.
To loosely quote "Legally Blonde," I thrive on inserting movie quotes into everyday life... whether people get them or not. So movies like this are what I LIVE FOR. 8-)

Sadly, "fetch" never happened and I never tried to make it happen. Although I did say how the American Idol producers were trying so hard this year to "make fetch happen" with Sam Woolf, pushing him as the designated hottie until he went home in 5th place.
But probably the most popular line is "you go, Glenn Coco!"

The most iconic moment in the movie was me is "Jingle Bell Rock" where The Plastics are dressed in Santa outfits doing the sexy dance... once I even watched this scene on Christmas day because I just couldn't help myself. Great stuff, even cooler that Cady thought to sing the song after they lost the boom box. Lindsay's got a great singing voice and I still hope for another album to happen.

Also love how Janis insists on calling Cady "cad-ee" instead of the way it's really pronounced ("kay-dee")

The Cast

It's so strange that I'm ending with the cast when that's usually the first thing I got into with my movie reviews.

Any SNL fan notices the excess of alums cast in this movie as the adults. It took me a few years to realize that was Amy Poehler as Mrs. George and just the other day, Ana Gasteyer as Cady's mom.
When this movie came out, everyone knew Tina Fey from SNL. I knew this without even seeing the show. But in her writing and with this character, just love watching her. She's engaging, she's good-hearted and she has just the right amount of sarcasm.

In name only, I recognized Jonathan Bennett as one of the various guys cast as JR Chandler on "All My Children" after Jesse McCartney left (missed him by a couple years) until they finally ended up with Jacob Young.
...with the web-based reboot, I don't care much for the new JR. If he just accidentally shot himself in drunken grief in the "AMC" finale, everyone would be happier...

And Lacey Chabert I knew then as the voice of Eliza Thornberry in "The Wild Thornberries."

Everyone else, I really didn't know. This movie, for me, was about Lindsay Lohan. It was about the story and the memorable characters. Then with the different names, I had my eyes and ears open for them in other projects.

This only really extended to Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried. Both have done great movies I love coming back. Some, not so great.
It took me a little while to get in my head that Amanda is actually really bright in real life because she was so conceiving as the dumb girl in this movie. She was one of the better parts of the film adaptation of "Mamma Mia" (which I have some strong opinions about for a later date) and was one of 3 reasons I had to see "Les Miz" (the others: Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway).

Coming Soon




Next week... I guess "2 weeks" is the common factor with everything here.
2 weeks ago, I reviewed "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
http://moviegoerconfessions.blogspot.com/2014/05/theatrical-review-grand-budapest-hotel.html
and next week I'll go into the Wes Anderson movie solely responsible for me going to see it.

Now that's a unique movie experience, unique look, unique combination of puppetry and animation... and another great all-star cast.
And at the helm... George Clooney 8-)

Pretty much gave it away, didn't I? I don't really care. What's done is done :-P

32. Easy A (2010)

Code-name: Skype narr. (short for narrative or narration, I forget which)

Director: Will Gluck
Type: High School dramedy, 80's homage

Cast:
Olive Penderghast- Emma Stone
Rhiannon- Aly Michalka
Marianne -Amanda Bynes
"Woodchuck"/"Lobster" Todd- Penn Badgley
Micah-Cam Gigandet
English Teacher Mr. Griffith-Thomas Haden Church
Guidance Consular Mrs. Griffith-Lisa Kudrow
Brandon- Dan Byrd
Mr. Penderghast- Stanley Tucci
Mrs. Penderghast- Patricia Clarkson
Principal Gibbons- Malcolm McDowell

honorable mention- Juliette Goglia as 8th grade Olive-


her character on "The Michael J. Fox" show was the one I was always most excited to see because I saw a lot of myself in her... still bummed the show got cancelled, but clearly Will Gluck liked her enough in this small role that he gave her this other part.

Notable Nomination:
Golden Globe- Best Actress (comedy/musical)- Emma Stone

Write-up:

I saw the trailer for "Easy A" during one of the many movies I saw in 2010. Something about the premise sounded so intriguing that I couldn't resist.
I remember my mom and I went to a later show around 3 or 4pm. We were the only ones in the theater. We had to remind the concession people know there were actual people in the theater because the film didn't turn on for a while :-P

To me, it was up there with "She's out of your league," both 2010 movies that had really original scripts that I found myself quoting or thinking about quoting for weeks, if not months afterwards. And considering how it blossomed into a homage to John Hughes movies, I had to rewatch "Sixteen Candles," "Pretty in Pink" and I also saw "Say Anything" and "Can't Buy Me Love" for the first time (not John Hughes films, I know, but there were references to them).

Although I had in fact seen her once before in "The House Bunny" (Anna Faris was the only actress that made any sort of impression on me that first time around... after falling in love with the story, the actresses followed, including Kat Dennings), this was the movie that officially made me a fan of Emma Stone.
She owned this character, Olive Penderghast, your typical anonymous high school girl who gained a helluva reputation with a single big fat lie, in such a way... I felt like I could relate to her. Such a quirky personality, much like the version of myself I only saw in my inner circles of family and friends, with a heart full of the best intentions.

As far as girl crushes go, I would love to have Emma Stone's signature look from this movie. That shade of red hair and those stunning green eyes.
And of course, I'd kill to be as comfortable in my own skin as Olive is. No matter what comic mischief she unwittingly gets herself into.

Spoilers ahead!

For those who don't know, the story begins with Olive telling her bestie that she slept with a community college freshman. This lie all started because she needed an excuse not to go camping with Rhi's freaky vegan hippie family.
But that entire weekend, she spent falling in love with "Pocketful of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield. Hilarious from start to finish, this montage that started with her gabbing "worst song ever" to her musical birthday card, led to her singing in the shower (Ferris Bueller style, I might add, so I guess it's like this movie's "Danke Schoen"), and we find out it becomes her ringtone.
(On some VH1 countdown, Natasha Bedingfield even said how much she loved the homage they paid to her song in this movie... now that's awesome).

Of course, with the "strong personality" she has, Rhi winds up forcing Olive to admit to having sex with George... as if she wouldn't buy into the opposite, aka "the truth."
And for whatever reason, the rumor mill goes crazy over this and everyone starts looking at Olive in a different way. This is located in Ojai, California. When you think about it, the story is that she had a one-night stand with a college guy. Why is that a big deal? It's not as if this is a Catholic school and all the teenagers are frigid.

Although... case in point... Olive's biggest foes are the "Cross your Heart" club, led by the biggest Jesus freak of all, Marianne. She overhears Olive's exchange with Rhi in the ladies room and makes it her mission to "save Olive" from her pre-martial sexual desires.

Interestingly, Amanda Bynes (Marianne) and Aly Michalka (Rhi) were known for playing really good people in their respective kid-friendly TV series, but here, they both play the opposite. Who are really good at being bitchy. (Seriously, who constantly calls their bestie "bitch" as if it's a pet name? That's kinda messed up).

Adding to the irony of it all, the book they're studying in English class is "The Scarlet Letter."
Olive even includes this in her narration, how funny it is that the books you read in school have some odd connection to whatever you're going through.
Her English teacher, Mr. Griffith, is a great character for sure. He's got this dry sense of humor with hints of sarcasm strung throughout. And while she's going through the turmoil of her new "based on lies" life, he keeps an eye out for her.

A lot of the adults in Olive's life are written so well, like they're on the same level as the teenagers. The way they interact with each other. Another good example is her parents, the dynamic (or not so much, lol) duo of Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson. No matter what's going on, they have Olive's back and don't outwardly overreact to anything she means off the cuff. The most laid-back parents in the history of high school movies 8-)
I guess you could say they embody the spirit of Ojai, which is said to be a very "hippie friendly" city... if you believe Wikipedia, which I often do ;)

Olive narrates over the course of 5 stages. We already had "Part One: The Shudder-Inducing and Cliched, However Totally False Account Of How I Lost My Virginity To A Guy At A Community College." and the rumor mill with "Part Two: The Accelerated Velocity of Terminological Inexactitude."

Then we come around to "Part 3: A Lady's Choice and a Gentleman's Agreement."

At her detention (for calling Marianne's friend, Nina, a bad word from the British slang) with Brandon, she tells him the truth about the rumors and he says he was sent there because he called the principal a fascist... despite the fact he was the one bullied to a bloody nose.
The next day, he asks her to help him convince the school he's straight to make the bullying stop.
And boy do they make a scene about it. At Melody Bostick's party, they have the best fake sex scene ever. Involving brute force and a lot of "Oh yeah's!" from Olive.

She has a fight for Rhi, who is pissed about who she had to hear about this from, and decides to go through another change. Or at least her wardrobe does.

She buys a bunch of lingerie tops and sews a red letter "A" onto them. You'd think that would break a bunch of rules for the dress code. I mean, this is coming from the same place where the Principal threatened to throw her out if she makes one more transgression.
Hard-core stuff, but just love the spirit she embodies throughout this.

After the episode with Brandon, a bunch of guys ask for her help with favors of their own and they all pay her in the forms of gift cards. From Bath & Body to Auto Zone to movie tickets only good at the foreign film theater.
Definitely not your typical high school movie, so I enjoyed every minute of it, unsure of things would follow.

As is often the case, something dramatic does happen that "changes the course of history" as it were. Which brings us to part 4:
"How I, Olive Penderghast went from assumed trollop to and actual home-wrecker."

Another lie had to be told, but this was a big one. Because it was about more than just her and her rumored promiscuity. She did it to cover up an even bigger scandal.
Marianne's guitar strumming boyfriend and fellow Catholic, Micah, finds out that he has chlamydia and blurts out that he got it from Olive. Of course, this is very much a big deal, considering how his family and community are about pre-martial sex, but the truth is even huger...

and as a fan of "Mean Girls," of course I was laughing that they picked this of all the STD's.
"At your age, you're going to have a lot of urges. You're going to want to take off your clothes, and touch each other. But if you do touch each other, you will get chlamydia... and die."

Micah got it from the school's guidance counselor who happens to be married to Olive's English teacher. And to save her favorite teacher's marriage, Olive takes the blame. This, of course, incurs the wrath of the "Cross Your Hearts" club (now including Rhi and a rather random dude dressed in a Quiznoz costume).
While trying to find more out about the religion, we hear One Republic's "Good Life" play in the background (this was a month or two before it became a radio hit... whereas with their better 2010 song "Secrets", played in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" took an extra 3-4 months to do the same). This trek does not go well, when you take into account how long the Bible is, Olive confesses to an empty confessional and almost seeks advice from Marianne's Pastor dad... the most straight-laced character SNL alum and "Portlandia" star Fred Armisen will likely play in his life.

Something else Olive also ponders in this part of her narration: why has no guy actually asked her out on a date? Does that chivalry only exist in 80's movies?

This touched such a tender spot in my heart, I need to share this passage:
"I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist into the air because he knows he got me. Just once I want my life to be like an 80's movie, preferably one with a really awesome musical number for no apparent reason. But no, no, John Hughes did not direct my life."

I don't know when Bert V. Royal wrote this movie. Wikipedia says he wrote all but the last 10 pages in 5 days. Also says "Ferris Bueller" was Will Gluck's favorite movie, which explains all the references.
Since John Hughes passed away the previous year (August 6th of an unexpected heart attack), it felt like this movie was paying tribute to him after his passing. Whether that was the intention or not, I can't say, but as a HUGE John Hughes fan, this was just a thought I really appreciated.

Olive gets asked out by a guy, whom she believes is interested in her, only to find out he was under the impression she really was having sex for money (or in this case a $200 Home Depot gift card). Luckily, things don't get super heated and she gets him to back off, but she realizes she needs to rethink things.

It also helps that this guy, Todd, whom we see several times throughout the movie, was willing to give her a ride home and listen to her.
Early on, Olive divuldged the first time she lied to cover up for someone. It was another party at Melody Bostick's and she was in 7 minutes of Heaven with Todd. Neither felt comfortable with kissing, so she agreed to say they did. Amazingly, this was something Todd never forgot either and just how easy-going he is about everything. He was the only person that never judged Olive or bought into the rumors, almost like he's too good to be true, but in this rare exception, he really is good.

When none of the people Olive helped agreed to change their stories for her, Todd helps her stage a kick-ass random musical number at their pep rally in Part 5: Not with a Fizzle but with a Bang!
By the way, I never knew how racy that song "Knock on Wood" was before this.
The purpose of it: to tell everyone about her tell-all webcast, which we've been watching since the beginning.
(According to trivia, Emma Stone did that in 14 hours on the same day and it was how she auditioned for the part).

I won't give too much away about the ending, but let's just say it's one final big fat love letter to John Hughes and 80's movies. When the music started playing in the theater, I flipped out. Just WOW 8-) grinning from ear to ear.
Yeah, that's my idea of epic.

Coming Next Week

A rom-com that almost plays out like a fairytale. Girl from the dodgy end of LA winds up with a super rich businessman. It was the reason a lot of girls fell in love with its male lead. Full of clichés but who doesn't love a cliché?
Probably the most shocking part was that it's not an 80's movie because it has all the makings of it. But it was released in 1990.

Looking at it now, I'm surprised to see all the flack it's getting on IMDB, but for people like my mom and me, it's the definitive chick flick. It just took me a few extra years to fall in love with in the way I have.

34. Black Swan (2010)

Code-name: Psycho-Lebanese
("Lebanese" is a "Glee" reference, by the way, Google it!)

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Choreography: Benjamin Millepied
Type: coming-of-age, R-rated sexy thriller

Cast:
Nina- Natalie Portman
Lily- Mila Kunis
Thomas Leroy-Vincent Cassel
Nina's mother- Barbara Hershey
Beth McIntyre- Winona Ryder
The Prince- David Millepied

Notable Awards and Nominations:
OSCAR- Best Actress- Natalie Portman
nomination-OSCAR-Best Picture
nomination- OSCAR- Best Director- Darren Aronofsky
nomination- OSCAR- Best Cinematography
nomination- OSCAR- Best Film Editing
Golden Globe- Best Actress (Drama)- Natalie Portman
nomination- Golden Globe- Best Picture- Drama
nomination- Golden Globe- Best Director- Darren Aronofsky
nomination- Golden Globe- Best Supporting Actress- Mila Kunis
AFI- Movie of the Year
nomination- Grammy- Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media

Write-up:

September 2011

The last Saturday of that month was when "Black Swan" came to HBO.
In more ways than one, one of the most stimulating and intriguing cinematic experiences I've ever had.

It got a lot of hype the previous awards season, but a lot of it was for... some could say... the wrong reasons. It wasn't released in a lot of theaters, but I'm willing to bet a lot of guys flocked (no pun intended, I promise) to theaters just to see Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis in that racy lesbian sex scene.

My dad saw it in-flight and when he told us about it, there was an air of caution in his tone.
Words like "paranoia" and "lesbianism" came up.
Even before he gave his thoughts, I had wanted to see this movie for a couple reasons. One of them being that it looked really beautiful and stunning from a visual standpoint. Mila Kunis is a “That 70′s show” alum and I was definitely curious to see how she’d do in a big movie role like this, something REALLY challenging. Then of course the lesbianism was an intriguing idea on its own.

...I'll go into it in more detail, obviously, but it was an exhilarating, intense, artsy film that I got really invested in. It wowed me with all that it brings to the table.
I added that it was a "coming of age" story because an underlying theme was Natalie Portman's character maturing from a naïve girl into a woman. And as someone with zero sexual experience, I felt like it was one of those movies I saw when I was 25 that accumulated my mind to the subject. To the point where the occasional sex scene doesn't make me squirm quite as much, so long as it's brief and is important to the plot.  

Again, that's another entry on its own, addressing that, but let's just say I came across a few movies afterwards where sex was nauseatingly overused.
One happened to be a Robert Pattinson movie where it was kinda disappointing that he didn't die at the end... his philandering character had zero redeemable qualities.

But, anyway, back to business.

The Premise and its Players

Before getting too far ahead of myself, I want to give props to the real ballerina on set, Sarah Lane. She reportedly got very upset that she wasn't given enough credit for her performance as Natalie Portman's dance double.
Whatever you brought to the set, Sarah, it was AWESOME.

***

Natalie Portman plays Nina Sayers, an aspiring ballet who had been part of this company for several years. The director/choreography of the studio Thomas (played by the very handsome Vincent Cassel) announces that the next production will be a reimagining of “Swan Lake.” 

I knew very little about this show going into this other than the signature Tchaikovsky score.
But after hearing the story, it sounded vaguely like "Swan Princess."
One of my favorite animated movies as a kid... I haven't seen it in years.

In that version, Princess Odette and her Prince were betrothed since they were kids. Back then, they hated each other. But when they grew up, they fell in love. Until a sorcerer abducts her and casts a spell on her where she can only resume her human form at night when she's on the lake with the full moon overhead.
The dramatic climax does borrow from the plot of "Swan Lake" where the sorcerer's assistant disguises herself as Odette and has the Prince swear a vow of undying love, the only thing able to break the spell. Because of this, she almost dies.
Obviously the kid's version of this story because there is a happy ending for her and the Prince.

In the actual show, Princess Odette is turned into a swan and only love can break the spell. She gets the Prince to fall in love with her, but her evil twin, The Black Swan, seduces the Prince away from her.
Thomas's reimagining has two distant differences:
1) the show ends with Princess Odette's suicide, jumping over a cliff into a field of sharp, pointy rocks
2) he wants the same girl to play the innocent Princess Odette AND her evil seductive twin.

The role is made available to Nina because the star of the company is getting on in years and gets fired because it's time for someone younger to take over. Beth is played by Winona Ryder, whom I didn’t even recognize (a lot of people said the same thing). After being forced into retirement, Beth has a breakdown and runs into ongoing traffic.
Nina visits her in the hospital twice. Both occasions are pretty dramatic, one way the price of perfection is demonstrated in the film overall.

Thomas knows of her skill, but doesn't believe Nina carries the air of seduction needed for the Black Swan. To show her what she lacks, he points out another ballerina, Lily (Mila Kunis) who exudes the sexuality he desires for this role.

As a result, a rivalry ensues, all of which are mind games brought on by Thomas for pitting them against each other and Nina's increasingly addled mental state.
One detail I distinctly remembered about the filming was director Darren Aronofsky kept Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis separate when they weren't shooting to help create the needed tension between their characters. Supposedly, that also included threatening text messages sent to them from each other.
I thought the gist of the movie was that Mila Kunis was a lesbian because it would explain the sex scene all of this was building up to. Just the way that they exchanged dialogue, that's how it came off to me. Or maybe that was the story I wanted to see come out of this. The tension between them, sexual or not, was so on-point that I came more invested as time went on.

I was also blinded by Vincent Cassel because I found him so attractive. I failed to see that his methods were on the sadistic side, having sex with the ballerinas in the company to free their minds for better dancing.
The assignment he gives Nina to free the sexual disposition of the Black Swan:
"When you go home, touch yourself."

So yeah, not the greatest movie to watch in mixed company.
The third time she attempts to follow through with this winds up being the lesbian sex scene.
The first two times, she stops short of an orgasm because she discovers her overprotective mother asleep in the chair by her bed and she has a mental episode in the bathtub.

Which brings me to the one R-rated aspect of this movie I really didn't like...
Nina had all kinds of hallucinations throughout the film. My least favorite was when she peeled a lot of skin back on her fingers after clipping her nails too short and there was a lot of blood. I'm not quite one of those people that faints at the sight of blood, but it does make me cringe. The same thing goes for needles (all thanks to the stuff I went previous to and after my scoliosis surgery). I just thought it was overkill, honestly, her bleeding from random appendages.

Other hallucinations include a growing rash (that she oddly never scratches) and feathers coming out of her skin randomly. Also seeing Lily in random places and her reflection taking on a life of its own.
That stuff, I thought, made for a pretty good horror movie/suspense thriller. I'm not the biggest fan of the horror genre, but "Black Swan" had a lot of the same ingredients and made them work in a way that was very compelling.

The sex scene come about after a night of partying out on the town, something Nina never does with her sheltered life under the constant vigilance of her mother.
Lily invites her to come along with her and a couple friends. Nina was about as awkward as I am in large gatherings with people I don't know. So Lily slips her a tab of ecstasy to loosen her up. The atmosphere transforms into a freaking rave. What an adrenaline rush and there was no end for ages... it was pretty awesome.

!SPOILERS AHEAD!

So it was a bit of a letdown when it was revealed that the sex scene never happened. Nina and Lily see each other the day after and Lily said that Nina disappeared after a couple hours and she didn't see her again for the rest of the night.... seriously? buzzkill, much.

But after whatever shenanigans happened the night before, Nina's mother clearly believes she is not well and locks her in her room on the opening night of the show.
Of course, she does bust out and fights to get her role back from Lily, who had received it as her understudy.

It was also kinda disappointing that the entire movie built up to opening night, so there wasn't as much dancing as I would have liked. But make no mistake, all of the best stuff was saved for last.
However brief it is in the 108-minute span of this film, the Black Swan sequence is incredible! Especially since her arms transform into wings. I wondered if it was even possible for her to revert to other role because she'd finally crossed to the dark side :-P

It should be noted that you need to pay attention to everything in the movie because it becomes increasingly difficult to discern reality from the hallucinations.
Another one of those jaw-dropping double-take moments was the final confrontation between Nina and Lily.

!AGAIN, MORE SPOILERS

STOP READING IF YOU WANT TO GET THE FULL EFFECT OF THE SHOCK VALUE

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

The tension hits a breaking point and Nina kills Lily...
only to find out later that she's still alive and she actually stabbed herself.

Despite that, she gives the performance of her life with the final stage of Odette's life... only to die in the name of perfection.

I saw this movie only once and the final 10 minutes a second time when my mom saw it. But I can still remember coming to the end.
I found it a little anti-climatic. The screen went white after her final line looking up at the camera: "I was perfect." with sirens in the background.
It would have been nice to know if she lived or not.

Some of the trivia I read does suggest that she does. The blood from her self-inflicted stab wound comes from a very suggestive place, which can be construed as an indication that she is officially a woman.
But personally, I prefer the more poetic ending that she died in the name of perfection. It really does make you think.

Not that any discipline I'd attempted in my life, other than schoolwork, demands that kind of perfection.
I'm a huge fan of gymnastics and figure skating, but more for the artistic expression than the skill. But it does help when the landings are stuck ;)

And for the record, the fact I'm doing this Darren Aronofsky film the same way his "Noah" production comes out is purely coincidence.

The same goes for my next film.

Coming Soon

With maybe one or two exceptions, my next slew of films are ones I'd loved watching for years. One was a 2010 film that introduced me to one of my favorite actresses.

But next week is a book-to-movie adaptation that worked out really well and it makes you rethink what you thought you knew about Biblical history. Unless of course you're an ultra-conservative Christian, in which case you're better off skipping out on this next one.

36. Clueless (1995)

Code-name: Christian



Writer/Director: Amy Heckerling
[Loosely based on "Emma" by Jane Austen]
Type: chick flick, high school dramedy

Cast:
Cher- Alicia Silverstone
Dionne- Stacey Dash
Josh- Paul Rudd
Tai- Brittany Murphy
Amber- Elisa Donovan
Murray- Donald Faison
Travis- Breckin Meyer
Elton- Jeremy Sisto
Debate professor Mr. Hall- Wallace Shawn
Ms. Geist- Twink Caplan
Gym Teacher Ms. Stoeger- Julie Brown
Cher's dad- Dan Hedaya
Christian- Justin Walker

Write-up:

As much as I love the 80's, which is home to the original "Valley Girl," I found that movie boring and I'm not a fan of Nicholas Cage in his goofy roles.
"Clueless" is the movie I go to for that iconic brand of girl culture.
Maybe a year or so ago, I also saw Gwyneth Paltrow's version of "Emma," the Jane Austen novel this movie is supposedly based on.
I think I spent most of the movie trying to refute that claim.
Yeah, the story has its similarities, but again, it's just not "Clueless."

It's just as much girl culture as it is high school culture. This is one of those rare occasions where the protagonist is one of the most popular girls in school, and she really isn't all bad. Her greatest fault is that she's extremely superficial and takes things for granted because her dad's a super rich litigator.
And her actions throughout the film to change that motivated by her desire to prove her former brother-in-law that he's wrong about her.

Why is his opinion so important to her? I'm not entirely sure. My guess is that she's used to everyone liking her and she wants to convert the one person who doesn't. Plus, he lives in her Beverly Hills mansion with her, so the teasing thrown in her direction is constant.

I guess you could say that I've been a fan of this movie as long as it's been around. My earliest memory was watching the movie with my friend, Pat, and the biggest thing that stood out was the conundrum of Christian.
More on him later.
In chick flick fashion, it's something I could watch hundreds of times and not get sick of it. The story is still very relatable and there's a character in it for everybody, whether you identify with them personally, want to be them or knew people like them. Probably the greatest thing about it for me is that there's always some treasure to be found in it. As you get older, some references and quotes become clearer.

Before I go into the cast, here's IMDB's trivial list of "what-if cast members"
Other people who auditioned for "Clueless" included Reese Witherspoon (Cher), Terrance Howard (Murray), Jeremy Renner (Christian & Josh), Zooey Deschanel (Cher & Amber), Owen Wilson (Travis), Leah Remini (Tai), Seth Green (Travis), Lauryn Hill (Dionne).and
Paul Rudd also auditioned as Murray, Christian and Elton.

All of these characters became big in their own ways. Some of which, I didn't even know they were acting in the 90's because they came to my attention in the last 10 years.

Except for Paul Rudd, Brittany Murphy, Breckin Meyer, Donald Faison, and Jeremy Sisto, the majority of the young cast are best known for their given roles.
Even the star Alicia Silverstone. She got as far as the fanboy disaster known as  "Batman & Robin" and really hasn't been heard from outside of one or two cameos and direct-to-DVD films.

The guy who plays her dad, Dan Heyada, I'd only seen in a similar role in the SNL-inspired film "The Night at the Roxbury." In a word, Mel Horowitz is a "ball-buster," doesn't take excuses from anyone. It goes with the territory of his professional life. As an on-screen dad, he has varying shades of protectiveness, bravado, and his unique brand of kindness. In some ways (less exaggerated, of course), he's a lot like my dad, so that's one part of it that drives it home for me. 

Another piece of myself I see in this movie comes from Tai. I didn't need the "Which Clueless Character Are You?" quiz I took recently to tell me that. She's the new girl that Cher and Dionne "adopt," take under their wing and give her the tools she needs to survive Bronson Alcott High School. Not that I'd ever been "the new girl," but she's socially awkward, kinda shy and sometimes, I wish I had Cher as a "life coach."

Possibly following Josh's example, she advised Tai to

• read one non-school book a week ("Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus")
• improve her vocabulary ("I hope not sporadically")
• improve her physique ("and my buns, they don't feel nothin' like steel")
• try to do something good for mankind or the environment

The only bit of advice that went array went array in a MAJOR way.
Of course, I'm talking about the Elton debacle here.
Cher finds high school boys so vastly immature that she can't see herself dating them, but she tries to set up Tai with Elton. Gently nudging her in his direction. Taking her to a party where he'll be there and gets them to dance together (I dare you to say you didn't know  "Rollin' with the Homies" before seeing this movie!).
Unfortunately, he misinterprets her intentions, thinking she's the one into him and the horror didn't end with him abandoning her at a gas station. And the bad karma continued with her later into the film where Tai ended up becoming a monster that outdid her in the popularity department. (Although not to the same degree as Cady Heron in "Mean Girls," another Amy Heckerling production).

Before Tai came along, we got to know Cher as the popular girl who knew how to schmooze teachers into changing her grades. All except for Mr. Hall, her debate professor (Wallace Shawn, otherwise known as Rex from the Toy Story movies or that "inconceivable girl" from "The Princess Bride") and Ms. Geist.
Her solution, ultimately, was setting them up and magically, that improved everyone's grades. Ah, only in the movies would that ever happen.
But it's definitely worth Cher's dad's response to her C in debate turning into an A;
"I couldn't be happier than if they were based on real grades."

It's always interesting to see how teachers are portrayed on film and how iconic they can be sometimes. My friend Pat and I still look back on and bring up Ms. Stoeger in gym class:
"Cher! Earth to Cher! Come in, Cher!"
By the way, not all female gym teachers are same-sex oriented. One of my middle school gym teachers was married to the brother of one of my other gym teachers. But that's just one example.

Speaking of same-sex oriented, now's the time to bring Christian to the discussion.
He's the transfer student that joins Cher's debate class in the spring semester and she falls head over heels for him. She pulls out all the stops to get him to notice her. Drawing attention to her mouth, dropping her pen for him to pick up, sending gifts to herself... The one bit of advice I actually tried was "showing more skin."  One day, I wore a nicer top to school to get my crush to notice me at our lunch table. I did get the reaction I wanted, but it was more like shock and it only lasted for a moment :-P oh well

So she did get a couple dates with him.
The first one was to a dance party where they ended up running into Tai and Josh was nice enough to dance with her. But my favorite part of that was before they even left the house.

Mel: Cher, come in here... what is that?
Cher: A dress
Mel: Says who?
Cher: Calvin Klein
Mel: It looks like underwear. Go put something over it
Cher: Daddy, I was just going to...

Worth a laugh every time I watch 8-)

The second was one-on-one. Cher did all her preparations, most don't go as well as she hoped nd he ends up high-tailing it in the middle of "Spartacus" (he had a thing for Tony Curtis) when she starts to get fresh.
It took a guy's perspective for Cher and Dionne to realize one of this movie's biggest bombshells: Christian was gay.

That stuck with me for the first couple years because I really didn't know what it meant. All I really grasped was that Cher and Christian were not going to happen as a couple.
Ironically, I had a friend named Christian who I had a crush on for maybe a couple months and he came out of the closet a couple years later. Apparently, it took me years to become perceptive in such things because I fell for two gay men in high school.  
Every now and then, it happens with actors too... as if it's bad enough that you don't have a chance with them because you don't run in the same social circles. :-P

But once this realization comes and goes, Christian becomes a fixture in Cher's life as one of her best shopping partners. And we all know how much Cher loves to shop. (I'm not a girly girl who loves clothes shopping, but this quick short scene makes me wish I had a best gay to shop with too).
It's a shame that the newer generations who see this movie won't know what Polaroids are. When she shops, Cher trusts them over mirrors any day.

One scene all of us can relate to is where Cher fails her driving test. My weakness was parallel parking (just like Judy Funnie in "Doug"). Cher was just a terrible driver in general on the day where it mattered most. It was only a matter of time before she found her kryptonite, the one situation she couldn't talk her way out of.
And the timing of it causes a rift between her and Tai, who drops the ultimate insult:
"You're a virgin who can't drive."

Probably one of the strongest themes this movie has is not to trust a book by its cover or trust first impressions of people.
Tai hit it off with the ever-tardy skateboarder Travis because they have things in common and Cher talks her out of it because he's a stone that "no self-respecting girl ever dates"... and by the end of the movie, she realizes she was wrong about him.
The same thing with Josh, who she ends up falling head over heels for.

I mean, how could you not? Paul Rudd, he's one of those people I am so happy that they're still acting and doing really well in the industry. I remember seeing him cast in "Anchorman" and the movies that followed... I almost always enjoy watching him and he's still as good looking as he was in this, his first big movie role.

Brittany Murphy, I kept up with a lot of her movies after this one... heck, I think I had to be told it was her because she was blonde in every other role after this one. Uptown Girls, Just Married (ok, that one was bad), Little Black Book (cringe-worthy at times)... it sucks what happened to her a couple years ago. She was gone too soon :(

Yeah, is it that obvious how much I love this movie? :-P
It's iconic, it's quotable, great cast and great story.

***

The next two weeks will focus on more dramatic films that got Oscar buzz in recent years.

The first one is a Best Picture winner I still argue against... but seeing it was a uniquely breath-taking, pulse-quickening, intense experience.
:-P I think I might have given it away already, but oh well, so be it.

37. Miss Congeniality (2000)

Code-name: April 25th
("because it's not too hot and not too cold. All you need is a light jacket.")

Director: Donald Petrie ("How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days")
Type: dramedy, girl power

Cast:
Gracie Hart/Gracie Lou Free-Brush- Sandra Bullock
Eric Matthews- Benjamin Bratt
Victor Melling- Michael Caine
Cathy Morningside- Candice Bergen
M.C. Stan Fields- William Shatner
Frank Tobin- Steve Monroe
Cheryl Frasier ("Miss Rhode Island")- Heather Burns
"Miss Texas"- Deidre Quinn
"Miss Hawaii"- Asia De Marcos
"Miss New York"- Karen Krantz
FBI Chief Harry McDonald- Ernie Hudson

Notable Golden Globe Nominations:

• Best Actress (comedy/musical)- Sandra Bullock
• Best Original Song "One in a Million"
  (side-note: No wonder sometimes I have trouble getting that song out of my head)

Write-up:

I just got through re-watching this movie to prep for this entry. Apparently, that wasn't entirely necessarily, but nonetheless, I had a good time like I always do.
Probably the biggest reason I come back to "Miss Congeniality" time and time again is the quotability of it. There are so many good lines, a lot of which are in my everyday vocabulary when the situation calls for it.

The family favorite is at the top of the page :-P although when my dad does it, he says "light sweater" instead of jacket.
We also love:

• [Gracie] "Hey, I'm gliding here!"
• [Victor/Gracie/Victor] "Smile. Winners wear the crown, losers wear a frown/I would so love to hurt you right now/Just as long as you... smile"
• [Cathy Morningside] "It is not a beauty pageant. It is a scholarship program"

But a lot of my favorites come from Cheryl Frasier from Rhode Island, especially:

"Oh, my parents don't like anything ostentatious and they really don't like fire."
(yeah, I got a new word out of this movie :-P)

"I stole red underwear from a department store. My mother wouldn't buy them for me. She said they were Satan's panties."
(another quote that has me rolling over in laughter, but I can't help but wonder just how restricted was her upbringing, between this and the quote above)

and I would use this to describe my perfect date too:

"A men who takes me to a romantic dinner and then we walk along the beach barefoot discussing books and music and movies."
(mainly because those are the subjects I know enough about to carry a good lengthy conversation)

Spoilers from here on out

FBI Agent Gracie Hart is a workaholic and [more than] a bit of tomboy. Doesn't exactly scream beauty queen.

A terrorist known as "The Citizen" was planning an attack at the Miss United States pageant and the FBI decided they needed someone to go under cover to properly canvas the area for their investigation. After botching a sting operation, Gracie would have been stuck behind a desk if not for this assignment, which she accepts despite her opposition to the institution.

Once the showrunner, former beauty queen Cathy Morningside, agrees to this, Gracie meets Victor Melling, who had couched 10 girls all the way to the winner's circle.
With the same amount of enthusiasm as Gracie, he has this team of specialists transform her into someone ready for the catwalk... at least from a physical standpoint.

Along the way, Gracie befriends other contestants, including Miss Rhode Island, Texas, California, New York and Hawaii and learns what these girls are really like as well as a thing or two about herself.

Next to the script, the best part of this movies are the memorable characters that almost become like family.
This came out when I was starting to learn the names of various actors, so it was my first Sandra Bullock movie and my first Michael Caine movie. In the case of both, this is also my favorite movie by them.

I never really resented the institution of pageants. I just didn't like the fact that all the girls are stunningly gorgeous and I feel threatened by that. Because for the majority of the chauvinistic opposite sex, they exemplify their ideal woman. Skinny and beautiful.
Sure, I could go out of my way to beautify myself to get noticed more, but I shouldn't have to. [And I'm sure after this entry gets posted, my guy friends will berate me and reiterate that they think I'm awesome anyhow, so I'm gonna stop the self-depracation there]

But I also relate to Gracie Hart because she's a tomboy, she knows some sick self-defense moves (although I don't know how much I retained from those karate lessons years ago), and she's so focused on her work that she doesn't allow herself time to let loose and have fun.
That was my school & college personality. I didn't really hang with people socially in a big way until my senior year of college. I figured that there was enough pressure on me to get good grades that I didn't have time for much else. Certainly nothing that could take my eyes off the prize for too long.
It's also pretty bad-ass that she's from New Jersey and serves her state well. People joke about how much Jersey sucks... I was born there, went to college there and we own a shorehouse there, so at heart, I consider myself a Jersey girl. We could use more great representation outside of Snooki and other losers from "Jersey Shore" that aren't even from there.

Confession: I almost wrote down "Victor Maitland" as Michael Caine's character... I don't think I'm set to talk about that character for a month or two.
But this was the best introduction to Michael Caine that I could ask for because he was such a charmer in this movie. Namely, his dry sense of humor, but he says it with such authority. Must be the accent ;)

One thing cool about seeing this movie recently was being able to understand more of the allusions to other movies.
Everyone knows that the gliding line is a variant of the Midnight Cowboy quote "hey, I'm walking here!"

But this time around, I understood the "Rain Man" quote.
Cheryl was bummed out about her "April 25th" answer, saying she sounded like "Rain Man" and Gracie disagreed by giving her best Rain Man impression.
And I recognized that the song Gracie was playing on the water glasses was "Lara's Song" from "Dr. Zhivago."

Both of her talents were pretty cool. I figured out how to make glasses sing a few vacations ago, but apparently, you can only do them on crystal :-P
And of course, who could forget her "self defense" lesson where Agent Matthews gets his ass handed to him? The dude did kinda deserve it for all the chauvinistic crap he pulls throughout the movie, but to his credit, he does mean well [in this movie].

One interesting point this movie raises involves the contestant from New York. After she doesn't make the top 5, she makes a stand on the grounds of her sexuality:
"To all the lesbians out there, if I can make it in the top 10, so can you."
She ended up getting pulled off stage, but not before we catch a glimpse of her girlfriend (or just a fan) in the audience. Even more interesting now because a former Miss Kentucky recently came out and she had made it to the top 10 of 2011's Miss America pageant.
But at the time, I just found interesting in that it was something unexpected, but it was one of those moments in the movie that stood out. Maybe because it was unheard of back then.[Was it really only 14 years ago?].
Food for thought for sure.

Looking at the story, it's done pretty well. Gracie grows as a character throughout the film, from someone armed with only sarcasm and a gun who's doing an assignment to someone who genuinely cares for the other contestants. Even when the FBI pulls out, thinking they caught the person behind the threatening letter, she stays behind to see it through because she's following her instincts and wants to protect her friends.

There's also a good villain in Cathy Morningside. Her biggest motivation for going out to cause this destruction: egotism.
Her backstory was that she was runner-up in her pageant and took over for the winner when they "mysteriously came down with food poisoning". She had since been the showrunner and co-host of this pageant. Until the network decided to fire her for a fresh new face.
Definitely one of the better villain reveals I've seen in movies because I didn't see that coming until Gracie started to suspect her.

Can't go on without bringing up William Shatner. I did not grow up around "Star Trek," so this and "Fanboys" were the only times I'd seen him outside of the occasional Star Trek scene shown as part of a commercial or compilation. His character, Stan, is an all-around nice guy, but the network wants to replace him with someone newer and younger.
Even funnier how dated this movie is by Miss Texas's comment:
"I hope it's Ricky Martin"
[This was 10 years before he officially came out, but he was supposedly asked about it in December of 2000 because he has a tremendous gay following...]

And for those who don't know [I certainly didn't], the title refers to a pageant contestant who was voted the most popular among the others.

For the record, this movie has led us to watch a few pageants when they air on TV, but they're almost never this thrilling. And I don't mean that because no explosives were involved.

***

This was one of two movies that had a direct-to-DVD sequel that I couldn't wait to rent from Blockbuster and ended up being EXTREMELY disappointed.
They had the same writers, but it just wasn't the same. From what I remember, the plot was that Gracie had to investigate the kidnapping of Stan and Cheryl and Regina King plays her new partner. The most heartbreaking thing about it was that Agent Matthews broke up with Gracie early into the movie... after they spent so much time building up their chemistry in this movie, how can they just... do that? How?

Now I can only think of how Raj brought it up in "Big Bang Theory" in a discussion of movies that killed off their franchises.
"Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. I mean, you know a movie's bad when my homegirl Sandy B can't save it."

***
Next week:
continuing with the girl power theme with another female-centric movie that's extremely quotable, but 5 years before this movie's time