MY MOVIE SHELF: That Thing You Do!

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 157  Days to go: 113

Movie #281:  That Thing You Do!

How do you make a movie about the rise and fall of a fictional band and their fictional one-hit wonder? First, you have to write a hit pop song, which, regardless of how you may or may not feel about the landscape of popular music in this country, is not an easy thing to do. It gave me a whole new appreciation for Tom Hanks.

The title song, the hit song by our rising stars, has to be heard over and over (and over) (and over), so it has to be palatable. The flip side of that, though, is that it has to be catchy. It has to be an earworm. It has to be able to stick in your head for hours and days and weeks on end and not get old. It needs clever, winking lyrics. I needs a good beat. And for the purposes of the story, it also needs to read as a potentially slow, sad song of heartbreak. That’s an incredibly tough order to fill, and yet “That Thing You Do!” (the song) hits every mark exactly. Just in writing this piece, I’ve listened to the chorus on a continuous loop for the past however long after watching while the DVD hangs out on the menu screen. It’s completely infectious, but in a good way, and I have yet to get tired or sick of it.

The song isn’t the whole of it, though. The story also has to work. If you’ve watched enough Behind The Music , you know the basic makeup of a band that won’t go the distance: there’s at least one band member who doesn’t take it all that seriously (perhaps because he’s too busy partying), one that maybe takes it way too seriously, and, for added drama, perhaps one who wasn’t an original member but is nonetheless instrumental in the band’s newfound success. In short, that band looks a lot like the Oneders (pronounced oh-NEE-durz — “Hey! That’s oh-NED-urz.”).

Jimmy (Johnathon Schaech) is the lead singer, who is all about his “art” and his “principles.” (“Oh there he goes off to his room to write that hit song ‘Alone in My Principles.'”) His girlfriend Faye (Liv Tyler) is sweet and supportive and way too good for such a d-bag. Lenny (National Treasure Steve Zahn), meanwhile, is a fun-loving guitarist who just wants to be famous and meet girls. And he gets every single laugh-out-loud joke in the film. The bass player (Ethan Embry) is a nice guy and all, but he’s not going to be in a band the rest of his life. He joined the Marines before they even got famous, and is due to ship out at the end of August. And Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) is our hero the drummer, filling in for regular guy Chad (Giovanni Ribisi) after Chad breaks his arm in a tragic parking meter jumping accident. Guy’s the guy who loves music, loves to play music, and has a real feel for music. He’s the one who turned “That Thing You Do” from a slow, somber, whining Jimmy special to a bona fide dance hit. He’s the one who made them stars.

It’s a meteoric rise for the band — thankfully renamed the Wonders (“As in, I wonder what ever happened to the Oneders.”) after Playtone Music executive Mr. White (Tom Hanks) gets a hold of them — that starts with a manager “in a really nice camper” and the dream of one day playing in Stuebenville (I’ve been to Steubenville, by the way. Nobody dreams of there.), to flying out to California for a TV spot and a small movie appearance. Can the band withstand the drastic change in their status? Turns out, no they can not. Tensions break when some TV guy indicates that Jimmy and Faye are engaged, Jimmy blows up, Faye dumps him, and then Jimmy quits the group with a snappy song I always sing in my head any time I’ve had enough.

It sounds like a sad end, but all is not lost for our pal Guy. Despite losing his girlfriend Tina (Charlize Theron) to her dentist when the guys first go on tour, he realizes there’s someone better right under his nose. He finds out the last time Faye was good and kissed was 1961 and he rectifies that oversight post-haste. The closing title cards indicate the two were married on April 30, 1965. Who needs a flash in the pan, when everlasting contentment is at hand?

MY MOVIE SHELF: The Cider House Rules

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order, by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 314   Days to go: 305

Movie #56: The Cider House Rules

First of all, it’s important to point out that I don’t acknowledge that title as being about rules posted in the cider house. In my head, I only ever hear The Cider House Rules in the same cadence and intonation used by the guy in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure who says, “San Dimas High School football RULES!” So I maybe have never taken this movie as seriously as I should.

For one thing, it never really occurred to me that Homer (Tobey Maguire) and Candy (Charlize Theron) fall in love. I always thought she was a silly girl who felt a bit lonely and took advantage of a boy with a crush. And while I still think that to an extent, I also now see the true caring and feelings she has for him. He’s this boy with so much love to give, how could you not love him back?

For another, I never really considered the possibility that Dr. Larch (Michael Caine) might have killed himself or that Mr. Rose (Delroy Lindo) didn’t. I just accepted the given explanations of what happened, not for a moment realizing that there was greater depth there. I suppose if I had been one of the children at the orphanage, I would’ve assumed Fuzzy (Erik Per Sullivan) had been adopted as well.

Given how superficially I watched the thing in the past, it’s a wonder I own it at all, especially given I apparently (according to the sticker on the front of the case) bought it pre-viewed at Blockbuster for $14.99, back when that was a really great deal on a DVD. (Things have changed drastically since.) When I watch it, though, I can’t help but be swept up in Rachel Portman’s touching score or the sweet, sad tale of these people who come to, leave from, and sometimes stay at St. Cloud’s Orphanage.

I completely understand Homer’s rebellion against Dr. Larch, and his eagerness to go somewhere else, to see the world, to reject the medical lifestyle, but I really feel for Mary Agnes(Paz de la Huerta), a girl becoming a woman in this lonely place, left there by a mother who didn’t want her, crushing on a boy who leaves, knowing she’ll never get to go. I think my heart breaks for her a little every time I sit down with this one.

I was also really impressed with Erykah Badu as Rose Rose. She was sassy and knowing, and then innocent and lost and full of fear and sorrow. I think it’s a shame Charlize Theron’s picture is on the cover instead of hers, since Rose is the girl who really shows Homer where his heart is — not Candy.

Women come to the St. Cloud’s Orphanage to either bring a life home, or to leave one there. Dr. Larch delivers their babies and cares for the ones that are left behind. He also performs abortions, because he knows that if he — a licensed and skilled physician — doesn’t do it, these desperate girls will go to any other idiot, or even try to do it themselves, which is far more dangerous. As Larch says, though, he doesn’t promote the service. He sees women come in over and over to have these babies they can’t care for, bringing one orphan after another into the world, but he doesn’t say anything or give them any advice. He just helps them as best he can, whatever their choice. Homer objects to performing the procedure himself, which is understandable, but when faced with the reality of Rose’s situation, her desperation, and her complete lack of options, he knows he should offer his help. Because her life is too precious to risk. I wish everyone could see that, the way Homer does — the way Dr. Larch does. This is not intended to be a political post, of course, but the movie deals with this very political topic, so I felt I should touch on it as well. I love the way it humanizes it, and makes it both a personal and a medical issue above all else. To me, that’s how it should be, and I’m always struck by how clear The Cider House Rules makes that to me.

Watching tonight, however, I was mostly struck by two things. One, that I miss Heavy D. As Peaches, he doesn’t have many lines, but he has the best one: “The roof is the best place to have lunch!” And two, Paul Rudd has a portrait of himself somewhere, old and decrepit. He’s 30 years old in this movie, and he looks exactly the same as he did when he was 26 in Clueless or 44 in Admission. The man is an immortal or something, it’s creepy. Maybe he’s in cahoots with that chick Lisle from Death Becomes Her who follows the spring. I wouldn’t be surprised.

In a way, this whole movie feels kind of lost in time, the same way Paul Rudd is. It makes me think maybe that orphanage is still hidden up there in Maine somewhere, cut off from the world, lost in time, with a hundred lonely souls growing up to be of use and to find their places in the world. Perhaps I’ll dream of them tonight. “Goodnight you princes of Maine, you kings of New England.”

 

 

MY MOVIE SHELF: Aeon Flux

The long and the short of it is, I own well over 300 movies on DVD and Blu-ray (I’ll know for sure how many at the end of this project). Until June 10, 2015, I will be watching and writing about them all, in the order they are arranged on my shelf (i.e., alphabetically, with certain exceptions). No movie will be left unwatched . I welcome your comments, your words of encouragement and your declarations of my insanity.

Movie #8:  Aeon Flux

Okay, first things first. My husband and I have very different tastes when it comes to certain things, and he came into our relationship owning several movies that I never would’ve even considered owning. Enter Aeon Flux.

The really disappointing thing about this movie (out of MANY options), is that this is the kind of movie Hollywood types think of when they say women can’t headline superhero films. (Aeon (Charlize Theron) isn’t a superhero, per se, but she is definitely some sort of otherworldly fighter-spy person. There is really no explanation as to why or how.) But the reason this fails as a sci-fi kick-ass woman film is because it’s incredibly ill-conceived in almost every imaginable way. Daredevil was a horrible superhero movie too, for similar reasons. As were at least two movies about the Hulk. The fact that Aeon is a woman has nothing to do with it.

Actually, the biggest problem is that the movie is deliberately opaque, withholding all manner of information from the audience in order to beef up the climax, which doesn’t work at all because the audience has been given no reason to be invested in it — motivations are fuzzy, characters are crudely drawn, and the stakes are muddy at best.

The opening story cards inform us that in 2011 a virus killed 99% of the world’s population, that a man named Trevor Goodchild found the cure, and that the remaining 5 million people all live in one city where the “Goodchild Dynasty” has ruled for 400 years. Fine. Then we are told in voice over that there is a rebellion against this Dynasty, for reasons that are never articulated, and that Aeon Flux is one of these rebels, called Monicans. The rest of the action plays out as if the audience is supposed to know this story, these characters, and this universe. (It’s true the that film was based on an old MTV cartoon, but unless you made up part of its very small viewership over 16 total episodes — that largely lacked continuity, explanation or even dialogue in all but the final season, so maybe there’s a larger problem at work here — you would be hard-pressed to follow along.) Not only that, but when it’s revealed that the leader of the Goodchild Dynasty in the film’s present is also named Trevor, it is never clarified whether he is Trevor the fifth, or Trevor the seventh, or if the original Trevor has been living for 400 years, or anything.

Finally, about twenty minutes before the end credits, there’s an extended exposition scene to explain the entire plot of the movie, but at that point it’s kind of a lost cause. And even with a basic understanding of the plot, many things still seem to happen that don’t make sense and are given no context or explanation: Who is Frances McDormand supposed to be and why is she only living in the Monicans’ heads? What is the autofit alien thing that makes Aeon disappear and reappear (it first seems to be just changing her surroundings visually, like with a hologram, but then she uses it to evade an attacker, so …)? Why and how does Sithandra (Sophie Okonedo) have hands for feet? (And so very many more.)

Pete Postlethwaite, playing an unidentified wrinkly hologram of some sort who used to be a scientist, closes the movie with what is no doubt intended to be the great explanation of how Aeon Flux came to be, but all it amounts to is yet more exposition and one last unanswered question: If she was their salvation, why did he wait 400 years to bring her back?

If that question makes no sense to you, well, you’re not alone.