Movie Reviews, New and Old

We took in the latest romantic comedy, "Enough Said", today, and we both enjoyed it very much.  It starred James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss.  Like most RomComs, you can pretty much see where it is headed, but so what?  It was funny, touching, sad in parts, and it showed that two people don't have to be young and beautiful to be in love.  Not that Ms. Louis-Dreyfuss isn't pretty, mind you, but she is no longer the young comic actress from Saturday Night Live days or the flighty Elaine Benes of Seinfeld.   She is now 52 years old, but she wears her years well and has not succumbed to plastic surgeon's knife as so many actresses of a certain age in Hollywood have.  Good for her.

The kicker of this movie is seeing James Gandolfini in one of his final roles.  That was not Tony Soprano up there on the screen.  A really good actor who left us far too young.  If you stay for the credits, you will see a simple "For Jim" dedication.

Good movie.

As for the old movie, I thank Turner Classic Movies that enabled me to finally see this one:

I cannot believe that I had never seen this 1984 classic comedy take off on rock documentaries. Directed by Rob Reiner, the movie was written by and stars many of the actors who have appeared in the classic Christopher Guest comedies that were to follow such as Best in Show, A Might Wind, Waiting for Guffman, and others.  These include Guest himself, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Fred Willard.

A really, really funny movie, that leaves you with one question:  "Are we going to do Stonehenge tomorrow?"

To Absent Friends: James Gandolfini

"Shocking" would not be too strong a word in describing the reaction to the news last night of the death of actor James Gandolfini at the way-too-young age of 51.

It is impossible to name the "best show in television history", but I don't think that anyone would argue that HBO's "The Sopranos" would not be in the discussion for best dramatic show ever, and James Gandolfini, playing Mob Boss and New Jersey family man Tony Soprano was the heart and soul of the series' 86 episodes, which ran from 1999 to 2007.  The Associated Press obituary that ran in this morning's Post-Gazette quoted "Sopranos" creator David Chase as saying that "a great deal of that genius (Gandolfini's) resided in those sad eyes."  How appropriate, because in watching "The Sopranos" I always said that Gandolfini-as-Tony could say more with his eyes than other actors could with several pages of dialog.

Actors who play such iconic characters as Tony Soprano run the risk of forever being known for one part and being typed as one particular kind of character.  Gandolfini seemed to combat that trap by returning to the Broadway stage, to much acclaim, and by taking smaller, character roles in movies.  The last time I saw him was in the role of CIA Director Leon Panetta in last year's terrific "Zero Dark Thirty".  Once you realized who the actor was, you forgot Tony Soprano, because that was  Leon Panetta up there on the screen.  How sad that we will not see him again.

I can think of no greater way to pay homage than what I will do this afternoon:  Go to my DVD collection and randomly select any disk from any season of "The Sopranos" and watch a few episodes.  You might want to do that yourself, as well.

RIP James Gandolfini.

By the way, I would not remiss if I did not share with you a message I received late last night from Friend and Loyal Reader Mark Matera.  Knowing that I would no doubt be doing an Absent Friend write-up on Gandolfini, he suggested I tie it in with another notable death from yesterday, that of singer Slim Whitman.  He suggested that the headline read "Death Takes a Pair of Sopranos".

Too good not to share.

"Zero Dark Thirty"

We finally made it out to see "Zero Dark Thirty" yesterday, and wow, what a movie!  As you probably know, this movie is all about the CIA's ten year hunt to track down and take down Osama Bin Laden.  You know how the movie ends, but that doesn't take away from the suspense and the overall excellence of the movie.

As you also may know, the movie has become controversial in its depiction of torture by Americans in interrogating detainees.  Is the movie an "endorsement" of these practices and/or a criticism of the ceasing of such tactics?  Director Katherine Bigelow says it is neither, merely a presentation of events, and the questions may have cost Bigelow a "Best Director" Oscar nomination, but regardless of all of that, this is one terrific movie, and the final 40 minutes or so when the team goes into Pakistan on their mission is fabulous.

Jessica Chastain as Maya, the CIA operative who devotes ten years to tracking down Bin Laden gets my vote for Best Actress Oscar.

Also in the movie is James Gandolfini as the CIA Director ("Leon Panetta" is not named in the movie, but Gandolfini has him down pat).  You may have thought that Gandolfini would be forever typecast as Tony Soprano, and you do remember him in that role, but he is completely believable as the CIA Director.  A small, but terrific performance.

On the subject of snubbed movie directors, did you all notice that Ben Affleck received the Best Director Award as bestowed by the Directors Guild of America two weeks ago?  Also, "Argo" was named Best Picture of the Year by the British Film Institute this weekend.  all signs are pointing to "Argo" winning the Best Picture Academy Award while it's director wasn't even nominated.