As if Ripped from Today's Headlines

Film: Khartoum
Format: ThisTV Chicago on rockin’ flatscreen.

I wasn’t specifically in the mood for a massive military epic today, but I’m constantly fighting a battle against the amount of movies saved on the DVR. Khartoum is a long one, particularly with the addition of commercial breaks. It doesn’t help that I keep recording films that aren’t otherwise available on NetFlix. It’s not unlike struggling with one’s waistline.

It’s interesting to me that the heart of the plot seems like it could be taken from pretty much any month’s newspapers in the last decade. We are dealing here with a military uprising of Muslims under the leadership of a charismatic and religiously-fueled leader claiming to speak for the prophet. Despite the 50 years separating this film and the present day, much of it seems incredibly relevant.

Guess Who's Coming to Banquet

Film: Shrek 2
Format: DVD from DeKalb Public Library on laptop.

There was a time when anyone could be fairly certain that a sequel would be a step down from the original. Things have changed a bit. There are plenty of modern sequels that are equal to or better than the original film, but I can remember a time when finding a sequel that was even in the same ballpark as the original film took some thought. Now it’s not that hard to think of a film where the sequel tops the original, even though sequels are still often disappointing. So it was that I went into Shrek 2 with guarded optimism.

I like Shrek. It’s not only a good story, it’s a clever script that makes smart reference to a lot of other movies and a number of fairy tales. Shrek 2 has the unenviable task of building on that created mythology and retaining the same level of cleverness. This is not an easy task for an animated film following up a movie that not only won the inaugural Oscar for Best Animated Feature, but was good enough to be nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Original Screenplay 1982

The Contenders:

Diner
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Gandhi (winner)
An Officer and a Gentleman
Tootsie

L'Chaim!

Film: Fiddler on the Roof
Format: DVD from Rockford Public Library on laptop.

It would be a lie to say that I’ve been looking forward to Fiddler on the Roof. This is a film that doesn’t seem to know when to stop, clocking in at just over three hours. That’s a lot to take for any film, but even more when that movie is a traditional musical. Calling Fiddler on the Roof a “traditional” musical is true in more ways than one, since the main through story here is about tradition, family, and a changing world. I knew the story going in; I’ve seen this story performed on stage. It’s been some time, though (my age may have been in single digits), and so this felt like it was hanging over my head for ages. Well, now it’s no longer hanging over my head.

Fiddler on the Roof is the story of Tevye (Chaim Topol, typically just known as Topol), his wife Golde (Norma Crane), and their five daughters. Primarily, only the oldest three daughters are of any real concern to the plot here. We learn early on that the role of women in this Russian pre-revolution village is to essentially be married off. Tevye’s daughters come with the issue of not having a dowry, which means that their marriage prospects are more catch as catch can. They are forced to rely on the services of Yente (Molly Picon), the local matchmaker to find them husbands. Of course, since arranged marriages have been the way in this Jewish community since forever, this is not unusual.

Winner of "Least Imaginative Title" Goes to...

Film: Love Story
Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on The Nook.

I make no secret of the fact that I am a fan of Roger Ebert. I think he’s one of the finest film critics to every sit behind a typewriter. Ebert came up with a list of film tropes that are some of the great observations of filmdom available. My favorite is what he called the Gandhi film, a film that one is happy to have seen but never wants to see again. I’m also a fan of “idiot plot,” or a movie where the problems could be solved in a couple of minutes if only the characters were not all idiots. The third that I love is “Ali MacGraw’s disease,” which is defined as a disease in which the only symptom is that the patient grows more beautiful before finally dying. That phrase comes from Love Story, a film that I finally got around to watching.

I had a lot of hope for Love Story. Romances aren’t my favorite genre, but there are plenty that I do like. I also tend to like my romances when they play more to the tragic end of the spectrum, and I knew going in that that’s what was on offer here. Additionally, Love Story was nominated for seven Oscars: the five listed in the tags as well as Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Score (the only one it won). So I genuinely was interested in seeing where this went.

Flattened Out

Film: The Boxtrolls
Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on rockin’ flatscreen.

If awards were handed out for weird, The Boxtrolls would certainly win more than its share. It’s movies like this that make me worry for the fate of a company like Laika. They may not have the wholesomeness of Disney or the mass appeal of Pixar, but this is not a company that has ever let a bizarre idea get away. The issue is that their ideas are so singularly weird that I question their mass appeal. The Boxtrolls lost $10 million, which makes me wonder how much longer Laika can put creativity above box office demand.

And now I’m given pause, because I don’t really know how to tackle the narrative aspect of The Boxtrolls. While films like Neco z Alenky are certainly stranger in many ways, this is the oddest mass-market animated film I have ever seen, at least for a film directed primarily at a young audience. I’ll do my best, but if the next couple of paragraphs appear as word salad, forgive me. This isn’t a very forgiving film in terms of plot elements.

Overcome by the Vapors

Film: Summer and Smoke
Format: DVD from NetFlix on rockin’ flatscreen.

There’s a particular view of femininity that is almost perfectly captured by the work of Tennessee Williams. It’s primarily evident in works like A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie, but that same idea stands front and center in Summer and Smoke as well. In fact, in terms of Tennessee Williams characters, Alma Winemiller is straight out of central casting.

The female idea—I hesitate to call it an “ideal”—is one of a feigned purity, of striving to attain an impossible goal of refinement and culture and of holding any and all in judgment who do not meet or strive to meet those same goals. That is Alma Winemiller (Geraldine Page) in a nutshell. Daughter of the local minister (Malcolm Atterbury), Alma is as close as possible to a spinster as we’re likely to find. She takes part in readings of edifying books, sings and gives voice lessons, and frequently puts on airs to hold herself above the common folk. She is also given to nervous fits and fainting spells, the sort of thing that might be termed “the vapors.”