First, I'm delighted to have discovered a little film called Medicine for Melancholy, thanks to the film blog Cinematical (love this site!). It’s a love story, sort of, set in San Francisco -- the city I miss deeply -- and looks like the kind of film I would rush to see at the Roxie or the Castro back in the day. Here’s a trailer (and a write-up at Cinematical):
Ok, I’m really telling you too much about me in also revealing my utter adoration of people like Will Farrell and Ben Stiller. Uh, did I mention Jack Black?
You may have caught these trailers during the Super Bowl, if you were so inclined. If not, here are peeks at two stupidly funny films coming out this summer (not necessarily for the kiddies). (Oh, I also {heart} Paul Rudd.)
Land of the Lost:
Year One:
Speaking of Paul Rudd, another adult comedy coming out this summer is I Love You, Man, where Rudd is a man in search of a new man friend to be his best man at his wedding. Some very funny stuff here ... and I think I’m now a fan of Jason Segal.
Ok, and I have to do something for the kids here, don’t I? Dunno how I overlooked giving a little nod to Monsters vs. Aliens, coming out in late March. Not sure if this one will be a home run or not.
One of Japan’s leading animation directors, Hayao Miyazaki makes supremely beautiful movies, offering rather surreal escapes with recurring themes such as flying, the supernatural, magic and the fragility of the natural world. It’s not unusual for characters to be on a moral journal of some sort, starting out as troubled or even unlikable, and growing through their experiences into smarter, respectful, more likeable people (or dead people/beings, if they’re really bad) in the end.
His films have been nominated for Oscars and other prestigious prizes (his Spirited Away won Best Animated Feature in 2003), and he’s considered to be at the top of the anime game at the moment.
His latest work, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, has been released already in Japan, and will open in summer here in the U.S. (thanks to Film Femme for bringing it up in a comment here!). The English version will feature the voices of (ready?) Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White and Cloris Leachman. The story centers on a 5-year-old boy and his relationship with a “goldfish princess” who longs to become human. (Trailer at end of post.)
Here are some quick takes on other films by Miyazaki (in order of their release). Note that some are really not appropriate for younger kids.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) (PG): This is highly rated by Miyazaki fans, and has an environmental theme, about the planet being in peril and the ensuing battle to save it. The heroine, Nausicaa, has her hands full and must use her head and her warrior skills in the best way possible. There is a bit of violence and perhaps some frightening creatures, but nothing too intense (I haven’t seen it, but did some research). K saw this without me when he was about nine or 10 and says now, “I love it.”
My Neighbor Totoro (1988) (G): This is a sweet, fantasy filled film that we all adored and had on video for years. There are gentle spirits and pixies and dancing by moonlight and a flying cat bus, and of course the cuddly, lovable Totoro... the film has an idyllic, happy vibe. (Um, except for the underlying story that the two young sisters’ mom is seriously and in the hospital, and I held my breath for the longest time thinking she was going to die: Jeezus, I wondered, do we really need to go there now?) (Spoiler: she doesn’t die.) This is fine for the younger kids, who may or may not worry about the mother like I did.
Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) (G) K saw this one years ago, but I didn’t, and after looking it up on IMDB, I’ll give it a thumbs up here for the younger ones. He liked it at the time, I remember, and it sounds like it’s a sweet as Totoro. Kiki is a young witch who sets up a flying delivery service. No big meanies here.
Princess Mononoke (1997) (PG-13): (13!) Another environmental theme here. K has seen this on TV twice, and says it’s his favorite. It’s “totally awesome and amazing.” I doubt it was edited for TV, and the description on IMDB does make it sound pretty graphic. Go at your own risk.
Spirited Away (2001) (PG): I have to say I like this one the least of all, for various reasons, and many Miyazaki fans consider this is best (it won an Oscar!). I found it sort of dark and scary, and it didn’t have that flight of fancy that I find so charming in other titles. One scene I remember in particular is early on, when a young girl’s parents are suddenly turned into pigs (most of the story is her working to turn them back). This was rather disturbing for K, who was maybe nine when we watched it. There is also a bit of violence and some menacing creatures, a bit of blood (splattering) and some cruel characters; the kind you want to protect your kids from even knowing about at a tender age. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) (PG): This is the story of a young woman turned into an old hag by a nasty witch, and she stumbles into a young wizard who is also dealing with his own troubles. The wizard, Howl, lives in a fantastic, moving castle that is the height of imagination: the lush detailing of its mechanical form and its ambulatory grace is just astonishingly beautiful. This was nominated for an Oscar, but didn’t win (but it lost to Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, so it's OK). It’s my favorite Miyazaki film, and despite its PG rating, it’s very safe; a few dark magic moments might scary the very youngest ones.
Maybe I’m just a wuss.
There are more in the mighty Miyazaki’s oeuvre, and if you haven’t checked him out yet, I think you’ll be glad you did. They’re truly artful pieces of cinema. (You can get some of these in paperback graphic novel/comic form, if you’re trying to find more ways to get your non-reader interested in books. And since they’re Japanese, they read from right to left, which is sort of fun for kids, too. They’re not hard to find, just ask your local bookseller. Also, Howl’s Moving Castle is a novel by Diana Wynne-Jones, as is another Miyazaki film, Castle in the Air.)
Here are trailers for the upcoming Ponyo and for my favorite, Howl's:
This 1939 Technicolor classic, starring a very handsome Henry Fonda and a gutsy Claudette Colbert, is a wonderful historical epic (directed by the great John Ford) that will help you and the kids while away a wintry Sunday afternoon. A story of Colonial struggle in the 1700s, your kids will absorb a bit of history, spiced up with a wagonful of nail-biting adventure.
The Revolutionary War was brewing, and the British were luring American Indians to their side, using them to fight a young, upstart America trying to get on its feet. Colbert's character, Lana, comes from a family of comfort and privilege in the city, and marrying Gilbert (Fonda) means moving with him to the wilds of upstate New York, to his small, log cabin outpost. Surviving a rocky transition, she eventually takes to the task with gusto, and after the first tragic run-in with the natives leaves them homeless, she rolls up her sleeves and is ever more determined.
She's a spunky one.
The next hour and a half quite vividly conveys the pain and horror of war in all its shadings. There are British/Indian raids, torched homes and crops, amputations and unpleasant deaths, miscarried babies, and all kinds of other unhappy events.
But, the American spirit triumphs!
(And of course, this being a 1939 movie, the drama is no more intense than that in, say, Gone With The Wind, so you know what I’m talking about. You’ve seenGone With The Wind, right?)
There is one scene that’s a little tough: when our colonists are under siege, they send a man out under cover of night to seek help from the nearest outpost. After fortifying himself with a few swigs of something or other, he sets off, only to be paraded later in front of us, tied to a haywagon that the Indian warriors intend to torch. It’s a pretty horrific idea for kids, no doubt. They don’t burn him alive, but he’s saved from a long and painful death with a short and merciful one.
That said, there is plenty in this film for kids about courage and strength and determination, about loyalty and integrity. And of course, it’s very entertaining and makes for a great afternoon of movie watching.
When K was about eight or nine, I found this documentary at our local library and brought it home. We must have watched it in increments, as it’s apparently 106 minutes long! It seems shorter in my recollecting, so take that as a good sign if you’re rolling your eyes and thinking, “An hour and 45 minute-long documentary? For the kids? Oh, sure. No problem.”
I remember thinking it might not hold K’s attention for long, but it absolutely did. It’s a wonderfully engaging (and, shhh, educational!) documentary by Ken Burns, who employes his favorite tools (archival photos, newspaper clippings, re-enactments and talking heads) to tell the story of the first automotive cross-country trip in 1903. The film captures the excitement felt coast to coast over what seemed such a crazy endeavor for the time, and the adventurous spirit of the man who laid down the gauntlet and said it could be done, one Horatio Nelson Jackson.
The “horseless carriage” was viewed at the time as unreliable, and possibly a fad; most people thought Jackson was nuts. There were millions of roads in the U.S. at the time, but only 150 paved ones (and many not signed). Breakdowns and flats were sheer disaster: the local gas station or highway outpost did not exist, let alone the now ubiquitous Grand Auto or V.I.P. auto parts store. The car had no windshield and no roof, but could reach a whopping speed of 30 m.p.h. Jackson and his co-driver and mechanic Sewall K. Crocker had 90 days to drive from San Francisco to New York.
Did they do it? I won’t spoil the fun. If you’re in for a long, rainy or snowy weekend, get Horatio’s Drive and break it into a couple of viewings. Everyone will love it. And the kids will get a great sense of the time, when the America was young and brash and bold, and events like these united people everywhere. There’s a lot of inspiration in these 106 minutes.
[Horatio's] car, which he christened the Vermont in honor of his home state, splashed through streams, got stuck in buffalo wallows, bounced over railroad trestles to cross major rivers, and frightened horses on the dusty trails. And as he moved eastward, his quest slowly became a national sensation, with huge crowds (tipped off by the telegraph of his approach) lining the streets of town as he whizzed through at 20 miles per hour. "It Startled the Natives," one headline proclaimed; another announced "A Real Live Auto!"
Teachers: this would be a great grade school curriculum item!
For other documentary ideas, see the category listed to the right or go here.
I’ve had a number of people land here on KidsFlix searching for information on the HBO series, “John Adams,” mostly wondering if it’s “kid friendly.”
After talking to a few people, including my dad, who was completely wowed by the series, I think it’s safe to say this: Paul Giamatti has well earned every award he's taken home for his portrayal of one of our country’s founders and our second president, and it’s an incredible piece of work, but it likely won’t hold the attention of kids under 14 or 15. (One friend’s 14-year old rolled her eyes and whined constantly, so they gave up after the first episode.)
My dad says it should be required watching in high school, and agrees that younger kids would have a hard time staying engaged. Other than some fairly mild, implied "player" behavior on the part of one Ben Franklin, and an intense scene involving breast cancer “surgery” (and a bared breast), it sounds like there’s nothing racy or offensive, it’s just an historical epic, turned out more like a Masterpiece Theater work than a Disney film.
We were going to give this a shot with 11-yr old K, but I think we’ll wait.
Hope this helps those of you coming here hoping for some direction!
If you haven't seen this cult classic, you've surely heard of it: Plan 9 From Outer Space is often branded the Worst Movie Ever Made. It’s a hilarious spectacle of cheap sets, visual incongruities, bad writing, acting and editing, and... oh, bad directing, of course!
Everything about it is bad.
But it’s so darn fun! It had been years since I’d seen this, and we recently watched with K, who really has been fulfilling his dad’s dream of Saturday nights being classic monster movie nights. I guess we’re really lucky K loves all this sci-fi and ‘50s horror (such as it was); it’s just what husband D had planned for him.
Basically, the story is about some (very human) aliens who come to earth to raise the dead in order to, um, tell living Earthlings that they (the aliens) exist. Or something. So you’ve got hubcaps as flying saucers, cardboard crypts and gravestones, plenty of fog, Vampira (and her disturbingly small waist), Bella Lugosi playing Bella Lagosi, zombies, dumb cops, hysterical women, and a few macho men. And more!
I was surprised to find the film was, at its core, clearly an anti-bomb, anti-war statement. I didn’t remember that from seeing it 20 years ago. The aliens are afraid, now that they’ve seen we have the A-bomb and the H-bomb, that we will discover the next mega-powerful technology (gee, the name escapes me) which will obliterate the sun; they already have the technology, but don’t trust us “small brained Earthlings” with the knowledge, and are certain we’ll destroy more than ourselves. They’re here, really to save the galaxy from our stupidity.
But that comes at the end, and before that, it’s all belly laughs and root beer through the nose. As cheesy as it is, though, I’ll say that for younger kids who’ve not ever seen a zombie or dark, creepy graveyard scenes, or heard women screaming as if they’ve ... seen a zombie, it could be a bit scary. (For the younger ones.) Ok? I dunno if that means 8-year olds in your house, or 10-year olds. You know ‘em best.
If your kids are younger, just get this for yourselves one night, and make it a double feature: watch the 1994 Tim Burton film, Ed Wood, starring a fantastic Johnny Depp as Wood, who not only enthusiastically made awful films, but wore women’s underthings as he did it. (Martin Landau is stellar as Lugosi.) Then go on to Plan 9, you’ll appreciate it more.
(Note: This double feature calls for double martinis.)
They're here! Ok, they're there(I'm linking you to the site, as I'm too lazy/under the weather today to post even just the Big Ones here).
Sad to see The Wrestler is not nominated, but there were so many good films to contend with ... I'm really, really happy to see Richard Jenkins nominated (The Visitor is a great little film!), and also that Melissa Leo is being recognized for her impressive work in Frozen River (please see this film!). Of course, Heath Ledger has a lock on the Supporting Actor catagory, but it makes me smile big time to see Robert Downey, Jr. nominated as well (for Tropic Thunder). I mean, come on, you have to admit that was a helluva role he played!
Ok, so once again, go here for the full list(go to the Oscar site homepage and you can see this morning's presentation).
So, I was thrilled when Mickey Rourke won the Golden Globe. THRILLED. But is he now going to be in every other movie that comes out? He’s in a Sly Stallone project coming out later this year, The Expendables; a John Madden movie, Killshot (early reports are not very good, I’m afraid), plus something else that escapes me at the moment. Slow down, Rourke. Don’t wear out your welcome! And don’t take crummy roles!
Paris, Je T’aime is a wonderful little celluloid package of hearts and flowers dedicated to the world’s most beautiful city and the people who live there. It’s a multi-culti bundle of surprises, each five-minute film exploring the City of Lights, featuring a variety of directors and actors. Each one is its own small work of art. I just read somewhere that there is a similar project in the works for New York City, and I love that idea! It seems only natural Woody Allen would be involved in something called New York, I Love You, doesn’t it? But I don’t know for sure.
Speaking of Woody, his next film, Whatever Works, is -- sigh -- about a May-December relationship between characters played by Evan Rachel Wood and Larry David (!). Wood’s character has a meddling mother who tries to ruin their relationship by introducing the young, hunky Henry Cavill to her daughter.
I can’t think of a joke or anything pithy to say here.
Kid film news:
The classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is being remade, apparently, by the director McG, who did a couple of Charlie’s Angels movies and the new Terminator film coming later this year. It should be a Disney movie, but we’ll see what kind of rating it ends up with. Do we really need a remake, when the original was so good?
And Karate Kid, which K still hasn’t really seen even though it’s on TV quite often, is being remade with Will Smith’s kid Jaden in the part played originally by Ralph Macchio. Macchio was several years older than Jaden is when he did the original; seems like it might be a pretty loose remake.
Just after Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as our 44th President, he signed a proclamation calling for a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation:
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 20, 2009, a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation, and call upon all of our citizens to serve one another and the common purpose of remaking this Nation for our new century.
Here’s another sweet, short, G-rated movie for the young’uns. Paddle to the Sea was recently re-released by Janus films, along with two other kids’ classics, The Red Balloon and White Mane. For some reason, Paddle to the Sea is not available via Netflix, but the other two films are available as a package. If you’ve never seen The Red Balloon, well, you must have grown up in a cave (or maybe Peoria). I think I saw it in grade school at least twice, and maybe again in junior high. It’s a magical, mostly silent film, about a boy and his balloon, set in Paris. It’s completely enchanting, and although a good part of the plot involves other boys bullying him about the balloon, by today’s standards it’s pretty mild stuff.
I haven’t seen White Mane, but reviews on both Netflix and IMDB warn parents of fairly graphic violence (animal cruelty) that won’t sit well with some. You’ll have to figure this one out on your own, unless I get to it first.
Paddle to the Sea is available at our locally owned video store, which is an amazing place for several reasons, but finding this gem on their shelves (with a “recommended by staff!” tag on it) says it all. They rock.
Since you may not find it at your own local purveyor, I’ll point you to buying it at Amazon or some such other outlet, and highly recommend you bundle it with Linnea in Monet’s Garden; what a great gift it would be for a five-or six- or seven-year old (or their parents).
Paddle to the Sea was first released in 1966, a short film from the National Film Board of Canada adapted from the1941 book by the same name. It tells the tale of a young boy in the Canadian woods who spends his winter evenings carving and painting a little canoe, with a stoic Native American Indian sitting upright inside. He decides the best way for this little vessel to live its life is to actually be set out on an adventure, and so he launches it in a nearby stream where it then travels through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, onto the Atlantic Ocean.
The boy painted “Put me back in the water” on the bottom of the boat, so whenever it was discovered by a human, it was put back where it was found, and so continued its journey. There are treacherous waterfalls, big ships, pollution, wildlife, toddlers with sticks and other perilous hurdles for the little wooden Indian and his canoe to overcome.
It’s less than a half hour long, and has that lovely, quietly languid feel shared by many films made for younger kids back in the day. Nothing hurried about it, nothing to get excited or anxious about, just a sweet little adventure unfolding before our eyes.
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