Romantic Comedies

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

/ jelliotthhp / Leave a comment

Rated R for language.

Three tabloid journalists, Darius, Arnau, and Jeff, set out to investigate the author of this mysterious ad in the paper. Time travel? Is this a joke or the ravings of some crackpot? By staking out the post office box a respondent should reply to, they soon find Kenneth. He doesn’t seem that weird, in fact, he seems like an okay guy. It is quickly decided that Darius is the most likely of the three to gain his confidence.

Pictured: Aubrey Plaza, Karan Soni, Jake Johnson

Won’t tell you more, but this is high on my list of all-time favorite films for various reasons– terrific acting, quirky plot, setting, and mostly heart. This film has a lot of heart and chemistry, between the three investigators, and between Darius and Kenneth. Funny and moving, it managing to rehash the old girl-meets-boy story in a refreshingly original package.

Makes you want to read the want ads to find that special call for a partner…

Looking for a feel good movie? This is it.

Quick comment. You know how sometimes there’s just a special moment in a film that blows you away? This film has one. It’s so simple, so minor, and yet so amazing. When Darius “meets” Kenneth in the grocery store, she knows she has to hook him or she’ll lose him. She holds his gaze with her riveting, large eyes, while putting a can on a display shelf over her head. Plaza must have practiced this a few times, it sure doesn’t look easy to do. Impressive. Memorable. It works. He’s hooked. So are we. I was tempted to put a link to the trailer, but decided no, just go for it. The less you know the better. Just get the popcorn and hit play.

Favorite line: Kenneth: “That was before I got skills.”

FIVE MONKEYS!

Strictly Ballroom (1992) (Australian PG)

/ jelliotthhp / Leave a comment

This feel-good, romantic-dance dramedy is a one I can watch over and over. The characters are way over the top, except for the two main characters. The initial camp and cheese of this doesn’t cloak the themes of this coming-of-age film, where Fran is an awkward girl whose Spanish family doesn’t fit in with the Australian culture they’ve moved into or the glitzy dance world she’d like to enter. Scot Hastings was born into a dancing family. He’s a young maverick whose dance heritage, his birthright, makes him a darling of the dance circuit–until he decides to veer off course and introduce new dance steps.

This is a modern day Fred Astaire, film, where dance is the language of self-expression and love.

The plot is simple: boy meets girl, boy doesn’t think much of girl, boy dances with girl, they fall in love, big dance finale. Don’t worry, you knew that was going to happen anyway. I haven’t given anything away really. You’ll cheer them along as they go against the system and find each other in the process. Honestly, this movie gets funnier after multiple viewings.

Fran gradually transforms from an insecure and homely girl to a gutsy, attractive woman. Scot breaks from the control of his parents.

Themes:

following in someone else’s steps or setting or your own steps

Coming of age

Conformity vs. integrity

Dependence vs. independence

rigid rules vs. creativity

insecurity vs. confidence

Honoring family and heritage

I want so much to add photos from the film, but you just have to see it. A fun film for teens or adults. Some good messages for kids about integrity and inner strength.

The ending will make you want to put on heels and stomp around the house until the neighbors consider calling the cops. Don’t even watch a trailer. Just do it. Jump in! It’s weird and campy in the beginning, it might throw you, but hang in there. Lavish costumes, saturated colors, great dance sequences–

Hey, have you got the popcorn going yet?

I feel sure Fred would approve of this review. If you love dance and like a rom-com, I’ll be surprised if this one doesn’t satisfy.

FIVE MONKEYS!

I found this article, a psychological breakdown of this film.

I’d read if after you’ve seen it.

https://psy317giannisa.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/week-2-strictly-ballroom/

HOLIDAY (1938) Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn

/ jelliotthhp / Leave a comment
Like the classic oldies? Have you seen Holiday (1938) with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn?  You might have missed it… it didn’t get as much notoriety as Philadelphia Story or Bringing Up Baby and that’s a shame.  Hard to imagine now, but Katherine Hepburn had built herself a bad reputation earlier in the 30s and was not a box office draw.  This is the perfect vehicle for her– a strong, quirky, well-to-do Main Line woman who doesn’t want to bend to societal demands. 
   The story is straightforward — a self-made man with a middle class background (Grant) falls in love with a woman (Doris Nolan) born into the Seton dynasty –one of the six richest families in the U.S.  He meets the family and soon discovers that getting married will be as complicated as getting marrying into a royal family.  There are rules and expectations.  And respectable society folk do not chuck their positions to find themselves as Grant’s character Johnny Case yearns to do, “…to try to find out who I am and what goes on and what about it.”( Unfortunately, this is perhaps why the film was not as well received as it should have been… post-Depression era folks did not embrace this philosophy.) As plans move forward he realizes he has more in common with his betrothed’s sister Linda (Katherine Hepburn).
Hepburn and Grant did four pictures together, three (including this one) with director George Cukor.  I for one, will be hunting up more Cukor films as this is a gem for many reasons:
  • acting is sublime–it is obvious that not only Hepburn and Grant had chemistry but they must have enjoyed their supporting cast members as well –Lew Ayres who plays her trapped and alcoholic brother; Edward Everett Horton (love him!!!) and Jean Dixon who play a sweet couple who are like surrogate parents to Grant. Scenes where they all escape the formal socialite scene to be themselves in the playroom are delightful.
  • Most of the film takes place in the Seton home –a home so large it has an elevator and a kitchen just a bit smaller than  a private airplane hangar. Opulent and stunning, it is a silent but shimmering character in the picture. 
  •  Costume designs by Robert Kalloch! Unfortunately, many animals died to make this film as there are quite a few fur wraps and hats to be seen but this was an age when clothing was ELEGANT.
Justin Chang recently wrote a review in the Los Angeles Times commenting that Holiday is the best of the Hepburn/Grant collaborations:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-01-09/critics-choice-cary-grant-katharine-hepburn-holiday

For more detail, please check out Margaret Perry’s blog (with a fun little meme of Grant and Hepburn doing a dance over a couch:

https://thegreatkh.blogspot.com/2013/07/dynamic-duos-in-classic-film-katharine.html

 

 

A Room With A View (1985) From the Novel By E. M. Forster

/ jelliotthhp / Leave a comment
This is one of those movies that I could watch again and again. 
  1. The cast is perfect–-creating memorable characters that decades later I still chuckle over: 
  • Dame Maggie Smith as Charlotte Barlett the fastidious chaperone (Freddy: “Why is she so…[makes face] Charlotte Barlett?” Lucy: “That’s because she IS Charlotte Bartlett.”   
  • Simon Calow as the Reverend,  Mr. Beebe — can’t see him now without picturing him running naked around the swimming hole “Come! Have a bathe!”
  • Helena Bonham Carter as our heroine, Lucy Honeychurch–young, passionate, willful…resisting the bridle of British social constraints. 
  • Julian Sands as the free spirit George Emerson– I will always picture him up a tree yelling “Faith! Love! Beauty!” and Denholm Elliott’s character, Mr. Emerson explaining, “He’s shouting his creed.”
  • Denholm Elliott —  I can’t remember who said it now, I suspect it may have been Sir John Geilgud — something about there are three actors who will always upstage you: children, dogs, and Denholm Elliott… whoever said it, it’s so true. I adore Denholm Elliott in this movie — he conveys such feeling, such soul–expresses so much emotion through his buggy, teary eyes.
  •  And then there’s Daniel Day Lewis as Cecil Vyse, Lucy’s intended. Hilarious!!
  • Rupert Graves portrays Lucy’s breezy, happy-go-lucky brother… reminds me of my own brother, Iggy.
  • Dame Judi Dench is Eleanor Lavish  

If you like a”costume thang” that is, a period story, this one is a radiant gem. Lucy meets the Emersons while in Florence and is attracted to unpretentious and peculiar George, but back in England, she feels pulled towards a betrothal to Cecil who has firmer social standing.  But she and Cecil don’t have much in common (thank goodness) and he doesn’t appreciate her. He sees her as a beautiful wife, not a person with interests and passion. When George reappears in her life, the lies she tells to others and herself begin to unravel.  Does one follow ones head or ones heart? 

A delightful romp of a romance.