aradia22

I still don't have TCM but I watched The Apartment on Amazon Prime. It was great. I didn't think I would like it because I failed the last time I tried to watch it but I'm glad I stuck it out. Jack Lemmon is fine and Fred MacMurray gives a great performance as realistically awful villain but this movie's heart is Shirley MacLaine. I didn't expect such a wonderful female character to be in this movie. Her performance has so much depth and personality relative to her screen time. On one side, there's this horrible boss, bullying her and coercing her and feeding her lies and playing mind games just for an affair when he could easily leave her be and find another girl. On the other side, there's this Nice Guy who puts her on a pedestal and is oblivious to her as a real person. To me, Fran walks away with the movie. I didn't like the movie when I thought it was about Baxter. I loved it when it became about Fran. I also enjoyed the smaller roles of the first girl who did the Marilyn Monroe impression and Margie MacDougall, the married woman that Baxter picks up at the bar. I loved every second Margie was on screen. Did Hope Holiday ever have a big role in anything?

It's the end of the month and all the movies are expiring from streaming services. I went with Some Kind of Wonderful because it was late and I've seen it before so it wouldn't demand too much focus. I haven't seen it in years though. The opening is so weird. Why did they keep cutting between characters like that? Also, the actors were so mumbly I gave up within the first 10 minutes and turned on the closed captioning. The movie is strikingly artificial with actors who look far too old to be playing teenagers. Duncan is doing a terrible DeNiro impression. And the degree to which Keith is always watching Amanda is creepy. But one thing this movie definitely has going for it is that Watts has a spark of something that sets her apart from the rest of the mediocrity. It's subtle. She's not overplaying it. But Mary Stuart Masterson perfectly channels the behavior of a teenage girl with a crush. From the very beginning, you could tell that Watts is a little in love with Keith. That kernel of authenticity kept me going. Though I remember Watts as being cooler. But she doesn't really deliver witty banter or intimate the popular kids or the bullies. She looks the part but no one buys her act. The other pitch perfect character is Hardy. Prime 80's rich bully right there. He gives a pretty flat performance as Keith but young Eric Stoltz is beautiful. The way they light him at times, with his bone structure, he looks like a painting. His acting livened up a little for Keith's fight with his dad. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the few black (and only non-white) actors we see never getsany lines. It was a pretty weak John Hughes script but there were a couple of good lines. "Look, if you were more of a person, you might be enough for two girls, but you're not." If you never watch the movie, at least watch this clip... ...and maybe the ending, too.

This is completely random but... I was googling Warren Beatty and the internet just announced to me that he's 6'2. That wasn't what I was looking for but now I can't stop thinking about it. That can't be right, can it? I was always under the impression that Warren Beatty was like Tom Cruise height. If he's 6'2, he photographs incredibly short, especially standing next to actresses who are not very tall.

The opening was so confusing. The lip-syncing is such that if I don't recognize the actor's voice, it's hard to tell if they're singing because they're so clearly lip-syncing. Aside from that the unrestrained dorkiness and earnestness REALLY worked for me. Unlike the wishy washy group numbers of the pilot, I felt like the director of this episode got it. Or maybe it was the performers all being committed. But this struck the right tone. It was joyful and heightened enough to hit that absurdist note. Are they ever going to explain how Mo can afford that HUGE and beautifully decorated San Francisco apartment? Max wooing Zoey with a Jonas brothers song SLAYED me. So funny. It does make me sad that apparently the only guy on her all-male programming team who doesn't resent her being in charge is the one who has a crush on her. A scavenger hunt seems like an overly complicated thing to spring on a user base last minute that might not even enjoy scavenger hunts. I'm sure this won't go poorly. Immediately recognized Stephanie Styles. I have a problem. My musical theater radar is too good. I Wanna Dance With Somebody lost me again. It sounded great but too many of these group numbers fall back into that flat-expression flash mob vibe. I think part of the problem is you really need to know how to shoot a musical number. They're so focused on Zoey's experience of the music that it's not being shot in a way where you connect to the people performing or appreciate the choreography. It just feels like a flash mob. Seeing that Guys and Dolls era Peter Gallagher awaken for musical numbers is just magical. I am LOVING the styling for Mo. It felt like a writer contrivance to ignore all of Mo's suggestions and jump to Zoey deciding, wow, this power is random, I'm not going to investigate. It just seemed like the writers aren't ready to define the rules yet.

They had me at Peter Gallagher. I mean, I always figured I would watch this show but it took me a while to warm up to the pilot. I'm not sure they nailed the tone for me. Absurdism is difficult. It takes a certain level of performance and commitment from the actors to really gel. Having the extras not emote that much as they were singing was a poor directorial choice in my opinion. Were they supposed to be good actors or bad actors? Good singers or bad singers? I feel like I needed more Crazy Ex-Girlfriend... like Rebecca sounds great singing in her head and the musical numbers are great because they're the fullest expression of whatever the characters are feeling. I just felt bored watching the big Beatles group number... like I was watching a slightly worse La La Land (and I don't even like La La Land). Mad World was a little better and True Colors was perfect but all the other musical numbers were so strange. The actors were close to stone-faced and they didn't seem like they were being shot by a director who knows how to film a musical number. Alex Newell has a great voice but a neighbor (unless they're a performer who needs to rehearse) singing loudly at all hours of the day is an asshole. Love the character though. He's giving me great 90's Whoopi Goldberg energy. Alex and Skylar and Peter are the MVPs to me right now. In some of their scenes I get glimpses of what this show would be if it was firing on all cylinders. I enjoyed Jane on Suburgatory but I find her kind of shaky as the protagonist. She doesn't seem as compelling as the people around her and she has to carry the craziness of the premise by herself at this point. I feel like a "straight man" protagonist is harder in a musical show. She doesn't even really have the snark and cynicism of a George on Dead Like Me. I feel like her strength right now is not as a plucky heroine but as a dramatic actress. The one scene that really worked for me was her being able to connect to her dad. If Leif isn't supposed to be gay, then I think that actor would be an adorable love interest/frenemy. I did not recognize India de Beaufort (Simon's fiance Jessica) as Kristin from Kevin Probably Saves the World. While a non-white love interest would be great, I'm not interested in the show breaking up Simon and Jessica so he can be with Zoey. Right now I'm having that problem I have with a lot of shows that I think have tone problems. I can see where the jokes are. I just don't find them funny. The exception is Skylar Astin's quips. I figured they wouldn't hire Peter Gallagher if they weren't going to let him sing. But I thought they would save it for later in the series. Like, after Zoey built up cosmic goodwill from using this power to help people, she'd finally break through to her father. I teared up when he sang. It was just so sweet.

New first message. Curious to hear what people think...

Boo, just decided to look it up and found out about the cancellation. I didn't know if the show was ever going to come together but I was willing to watch them try. It wasn't a wholly successful endeavor by a long shot but there were some interesting pieces. Very few shows/movies deal with body image issues in such a raw, messy way.

S3E3 I hate that even when Rio/Christopher should be back for vengeance, he's still treated less like a violent criminal and more like a bad ex-boyfriend. They've told us that Beth's superpower is lying. Her magical lie this episode was just blurting out that she was pregnant. Yet when Dean found the pregnancy tests, she had nothing. Come on. It's easy. Just say you were feeling insecure and thought a baby might strengthen the relationship. And shift the focus on him with the hair dye so he feels guilty about the woman at work. I'm not even digging deep. This is soap opera writing 101. How many people are they going to waste their money on? Mary Pat? Boomer? Now this guy. If you teach people that you think you can just pay for your problems to go away, they will keep trying to take advantage of you. Put aside the criminal aspect, Beth just can't run a business. She has a bad understanding of people and a terrible management style. Christ. I was prepared to be horrified that Beth was now in a situation with an OB/GYN who was prepared to ignore her and prioritize her prior relationship with Rio/Christopher. But then she lied and covered for her. But only because Rio's ex asked her to. Which is also SUPER unprofessional. This show is a mess.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Breaking-Tony-Winning-Playwright-Terrence-McNally-Dies-from-Coronavirus-Related-Complications-at-81-20200324

Another movie expiring from hulu... I watched When Harry Met Sally for the first time. And... I hated it. Thoughts in spoilers because I know this is an unpopular opinion. Random thoughts... were people better at kissing in the 80's/90's? I find a lot of screen kissing unremarkable or even boring but Harry's kiss with Amanda and Sally's kiss with Joe both made me think "they seem like good kissers." It was sensual without being gross. I miss when onscreen kissing looked romantic. It makes no sense that Sally isn't Jewish. Meg Ryan doesn't do a terrible job but her performance felt off the entire movie. The writing for this character could not be more Jewish. It would have made more sense for Carrie Fisher to play Sally. Or better yet, Bette Midler. Or, if the movie had been made later, Fran Drescher. Picture one of those two actresses as Sally and tell me the movie doesn't work better.

Watched Rosie O'Donnell's show to raise money for the Actor's Fund. Such awkward interviewing. Favorite guests: Tituss Burgess, Patti Lupone, Idina Menzel, Chita Rivera, Audra McDonald, Kelli O'Hara, Adrienne Warren, Kristin Chenoweth, Harvey Fierstein, Billy Porter, Shoshana Bean, Jordan Fisher, Marisa Tomei, Lea Salonga Stephen Sondheim washing his hands was iconic. I know it's for charity, but Darren Criss thinking he can sing Being Alive was a big oof. I had flashbacks to his awful NY Pops Carnegie Hall concert.

https://people.com/parents/ruthie-ann-miles-expecting-third-child-after-losing-daughter-unborn-baby/

New first message That's a new one. Better than "hey beautiful."

I decided to watch My Best Friend's Wedding for the first time. The opening is perfect. It communicates so much. A LOT of men on the creative team. Almost no women. What is fascinating about this movie is that it knows right from the beginning that Julianne is a jerk. Sure, she's played by Julia Roberts at her most charming but the movie tells the audience that Jules is doing something wrong from the beginning. This is not a noble pursuit of her one true love. It's all there in the set up. This is such a 90's movie. Aside from the email and the clothes and the giant cell phone, there's so much that feels dated. The big sing along. All the physical comedy... so much falling. All in all, I'm glad I watched it. I can see why people like it. And I miss movies where the people involved know that the protagonist is bad or making bad choices and they let it happen. Protagonists don't have to be likable all the way through the movie as long as the movie recognizes that and has them change by the end.

Oooh! brb 😉 ETA: I think they mean the version with the playwright performing the monologues and David Byrne singing. Disappointing...