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Good morning, everyone! I thought I'd take this opportunity to suggest some popular and some slightly lesser well-known movie titles for your viewing pleasure. Grab your popcorn and Junior Mints, and join me below the fold....
(Links will take you to the relevant imdb.com page.)
Thank You For Smoking - Ivan Reitman's assured debut neatly skewers Big Tobacco's spin machine. Based on the novel by Christopher Buckley, it follows tobacco spokesperson Nick Naylor as he tries to reconcile his promotion of tobacco products with his desire to be an upstanding role model for his twelve-year-old son. A sharp, snappy script provides a great floor for rollicking performances by Aaron Eckhart, Cameron Bright, J.K. Simmons, Maria Bello, and David Koechner.
Shall We Dance? (1996) - This stunningly charming Japanese film follows a dissatisfied executive who rediscovers the joy of life through clandestine ballroom dancing lessons. The Japanese cultural taboo against public touching lends this film an entire dimension that is missing from the overly-saccharine Richard Gere remake. You'll recognize lead actor Koji Yakusho as the Japanese father from Babel.
The Philadelphia Story - IMHO, the greatest comedy ever made. Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart provide non-stop laughs in this story of a high society wedding and the tabloid that's determined to crash it. The script by Donald Ogden Stewart and Phillip Barry, from their Broadway play, is spectacular, never flagging, with one-liner piled on one-liner. Stewart won his only Oscar for this performance, and with very good reason. Guaranteed to please; run, don't walk.
Spellbound (2002) - not the Hitchcock film, although that one is great, too. This low-key documentary follows eight American tweens as they vie for the honour of winning the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee. You wouldn't think that an hour-and-a-half of watching children spell would be this riveting, but it is. Absolutely charming; I'd lay odds that everyone will see themselves in at least one of the kids.
Iron Jawed Angels - Hilary Swank, Frances O'Connor, Patrick Dempsey and Anjelica Huston star in this HBO historical flick dramatizing the roots and formation of the National Women's Party just before and during the First World War. Swank stars as women's rights icon Alice Paul. It's a little fluffy, but still a great watch and a wonderful look at the individual faces behind the struggle for women to achieve the ballot.
Stage Beauty - Billy Crudup and Claire Danes tell the story of Ned Kynaston, the last man to play women's roles on the British stage. Ben Chaplin, Richard Griffiths, Rupert Everett and Tom Wilkinson co-star. Excellent period feel, wonderful costuming and good staging contribute, but the jewels of this film are Crudup and Danes and their remarkably competitive yet co-dependent relationship.
American Pop - animator Ralph Bakshi (Fritz the Cat) runs the gamut of American history through its popular music, from the immigrant experience in the dance halls, through the Second World War, right up to the hedonistic, slightly seedy late 70s. Probably the least known of Bakshi's films, and arguably one of his strongest.
And one last suggestion....
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control - documentary director par excellence Errol Morris interviews four men with seemingly disparate vocations -- a zoologist, a topiarist, a roboticist and a lion-tamer -- to reveal some basic truths about human nature and make us think about what we do and why we do it. This is one you might have to hunt for, but trust me, it's worth the effort.
Here's hoping there's something on the list to pique your interest and send you on a walk to the local video emporium. Have a great day everyone!
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