It’s my only Woody Allen film. I included it because it is truly unique. It’s a wonderful story and I never hear anyone talk about it. Here’an IMDB synopsis.
Gil Pender is a screenwriter and aspiring novelist. Vacationing in Paris with his fiancee, he has taken to touring the city alone. On one such late-night excursion, Gil encounters a group of strange — yet familiar — revelers, who sweep him along, apparently back in time, for a night with some of the Jazz Age’s icons of art and literature. The more time Gil spends with these cultural heroes of the past, the more dissatisfied he becomes with the present.
IMDB
Owen Wilson is engaged to Rachel McAdams and they are vacationing in Paris with her parents. They happen upon her old male friend, whom she would rather go out on the town with Owen and walk the streets of Paris at night.
Owen plays Gil on his nightly mysterious walks, he ventures back in time to the era of the ex-patriates in Paris and meets Gertrude Stein, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Picasso, and more. It’s surreal, obviously.
That’s just the beginning. I love this film. I watch it often. Maybe you’ll like it.
Runner up — this one is huge. Mom is Dearest. This is a cult classic for a reason. It is camp at it’s finest! I love it and watch e very time I see that it’s on tv.
This is one of my favorite incredibly bad movies. It stars not actually brother and sister duo, Helen Slater and Christian Slater, but brother and sister in the film (not confusing at all) and features Yeardly Smith, the future voice of Lisa Simpson.
This movie so bad that when Pat Benatar performs the movie’s song “Invincible” she states “this song is from the worst movie ever made.”
I need you to appreciate how bad the movie is and short of watching it with you, I’m giving you the full synopsis from Moviepedia.
One day, Texas teenager Billie Jean Davy (Helen Slater) rides with her brother Binx (Christian Slater) on a Honda Elite for a day at the local lake when a group of teenage boys, led by Hubie Pyatt (Barry Tubb) harass them and later steal Binx’s scooter after Binx humiliates him.
Billie Jean goes to the police with her friends Ophelia (Martha Gehman) & Putter (Yeardley Smith) to report the stolen scooter, but the police detective, Detective Ringwald (Peter Coyote) doesn’t take the complaint seriously. Binx attempts to get his scooter back himself, but comes home beaten and his scooter damaged.
Billie Jean, Binx and Ophelia visit Hubie’s father, Mr. Pyatt (Richard Bradford)’s shop to get $608.00 to repair Binx’s scooter. Mr. Pyatt attempts to sexually assault Billie Jean, but Binx taunts Mr. Pyatt with a gun and accidently fires it which hits Mr. Pyatt in the shoulder.
The three of them run away from the scene and become fugitives.
By the time Detective Ringwald realizes that he made a mistake in not listening to Billie Jean, the situation is spinning out of control. Throughout it all, Billie Jean wants only the $608 to fix her brother’s scooter and an apology from Mr. Pyatt.
With help from Lloyd Muldaur (Keith Gordon), the disgruntled teenage son of the district attorney, who voluntarily becomes her “hostage”, Billie Jean makes a video of her demands, featuring herself cutting off her long, blond hair into a crew cut as a sign of her rebellion.
As the media coverage increases, Billie Jean becomes a teen icon and young fans start looking up to her. Facing uncertain dangers (both physical and legal), Billie Jean is forced to turn in Putter and Ophelia in to the police for their safety.
When Mr. Pyatt issues a bounty for apprehending Billie Jean, she decides to turn herself into the police. In order to avoid unwanted attention, she and Binx arrive in the disguise. When the disguise fails, things escalate into an violent riot which results in Binx getting shot.
As Binx is taken away in an ambulance, Billie Jean confronts Mr. Pyatt and gets him to admit his actions that led to him being shot in his store. The onlookers (including Hubie), see how Billie Jean was exploited and destroy all of the Billie Jean merchandise and leave in disgust.
At the end of the film, Billie Jean and Binx find themselves far up in Vermont, looking for a new start.
Moviepedia
In case you missed it — Billie Jean cuts her long blond hair into a crew cut. WHY? Because she is inspired by a movie shrs watching at their new friend’s house a out freskibg Joan if Arc. Yes, running after demanding $608 dollars and shooting a man in the shoulder is exactly the same as the actual Saint Joan of Arc’s martyrdom, burned at the stake, for her role in the Hundred Years’ War. Exactly the same.
I hope you’ll watch this for the laughs.
Runners up: Lady and the Tramp, A League of Their Own, and my REAL favorite — Lost in Translation.
I had three choices, but this one won. The King’s Speech is based on a great true story. Here’s the best IMDB summary:
“Biopic about Britain’s King George VI (Colin Firth) (father of present day Queen Elizabeth II) and his lifelong struggle to overcome his speech impediment. Suffering from a stammer from the age of four or five, the young Prince Albert dreaded any public speaking engagement. History records that his speech at the closing of the 1925 Commonwealth exhibition in London was difficult for both him and everyone listening that day. He tried many different therapies over many years, but it was only when he met Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), a speech therapist, that he truly began to make progress. Logue did not have a medical degree, but had worked as an elocution coach in the theater and had worked with shell-shocked soldiers after World War I. Through a variety of techniques and much hard work, Albert learns to speak in such a way so as to make his impediment a minor problem and deliver a flawless speech heard around the world by radio when the U.K. declared war on Nazi Germany in 1939. The King and Logue remained life-long friends.”
The screenplay was written by David Siedler, who started writing about the story in the 80s, but Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) requested that he publish until after her death. What the summary doesn’t say is that it was Queen Elizabeth who found the speech therapist. What’s funny now, is that Helena Bonham-Carter played Queen Elizabeth in this film, then later played her daughter, Princess Margaret, in The Crown.
This comedy is number two behind The Blues Brothers for me. I love it so much. It makes me laugh hysterically.
Here is an IMDB summary:
“Navin is an idiot. He grew up in Mississippi as the adopted son of a black family, but on his 18th birthday he feels he wants to discover the rest of the world and sets out for St. Louis. There everyone exploits his naivete, until a simple invention brings him a fortune.”
Steve Martin is one of the funniest people who has ever lived. Period. He was one of three writers on the screenplay. It’s brilliant because the film and dialogue is witty and absolutely ridiculous. Martin plays Navin R. Johnson, a dim white man who was adopted by a black sharecropper family. He leaves home, finds a job at a gas station, works at carnival, finds him true love in Bernadette Peters, and invents an incredibly dumb accessory for taking your glasses off (the Opti-Grab), makes a ton of money, then loses it all. One of the taglines is “Rags to riches to rags” and that sums it up.
Let’s go to the quotes:
Navin: Good luck. The Lord loves a working man, don’t trust whitey, see a doctor and get rid of it. Bye Grandma!
Navin: “Well I’m gonna go then. And I don’t need any of this. I don’t need this stuff, and I don’t need you. I don’t need anything except this. [picks up an ashtray] And that’s it and that’s the only thing I need, is this. I don’t need this or this. Just this ashtray. And this paddle game, the ashtray and the paddle game and that’s all I need. And this remote control. The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that’s all I need. And these matches. The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control and the paddle ball. And this lamp. The ashtray, this paddle game and the remote control and the lamp and that’s all I need. And that’s all I need too. I don’t need one other thing, not one – I need this. The paddle game, and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches, for sure. And this. And that’s all I need. The ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game, this magazine and the chair.”
Navin: “[singing] I’m picking out a Thermos for you. Not an ordinary Thermos for you. But the extra best Thermos that you can buy, with vinyl and stripes and a cup built right in.”
Mother: Navin, it’s your birthday, and it’s time you knew. You’re not our natural-born child.
Navin R. Johnson: You mean I’m going to staythis color??
Mother: I’d love you if you were the color of a baboon’s ass.
Navin R. Johnson: Why are you crying? And why are you wearing that old dress?
Marie Kimble Johnson: Because I just heard a song on the radio that reminded me of the way we were.
Navin R. Johnson: What was it?
Marie Kimble Johnson: “The Way We Were.”
[A sniper keeps missing Navin and hitting cans of motor oil]Navin R. Johnson: He hates these cans. Stay away from the cans
My runner up is Jurassic Park. I love this film to the nth degree. John Williams’ score makes me cry.
I’m participating in the A-Z Blog Challenge. You can find the big list of participants by Googling. Each blog has a different theme. I’m doing a favorite movie of mine that starts with the days letter each day, but taking off on Sundays with a regular Kerry nonsense post.
It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946
I feel like if you haven’t seen It’s a Wonderful Life, you need to reevaluate things. Here is an IMDB summary:
“George Bailey spends his entire life giving up his big dreams for the good of Bedford Falls as we see in flashback. But in the present, on Christmas Eve, he is broken and suicidal over the misplacing of an $8000 loan and the machinations of the evil millionaire Mr. Potter. His guardian angel, Clarence Odbody, falls to Earth literally, and shows him how his town, family, and friends would have turned out if he had never been born. He meant so much to so many people; should he really throw it all away?”
It’s just the best. Watch at Christmas and you’ll feel better about your life, whatever situation you’re in. I love it.
I’m participating in the A-Z Blog Challenge. You can find the big list of participants by Googling. Each blog has a different theme. I’m doing a favorite movie of mine that starts with the days letter each day, but taking off on Sundays with a regular Kerry nonsense post.
Her, 2013
You just have to see this movie. This is one of the IMDB summaries:
“Sensitive letter writer Theodore has just ended his marriage. Lonely, he goes out to buy an artificially intelligent Operating System that promises to give him everything he needs. Samantha is more than his average OS. She does secretarial work for him but also becomes his friend whenever he’s lonely. They go out on adventures and travel together. He becomes the physical feet to get them places, and she the new eyes in which to see the world. Their intimate moments soon turn into love and they start an unusual relationship between OS and human. Things get complicated as they deal with Theodore’s complex emotions and Samantha’s inability to provide physical comfort. What happens to an OS when its consciousness is altered? Or to a sensitive man who doubts his emotions?”
It’s so good. And with the dawn of AI art and Chat GPT that is so life-like, Her hits much bigger today. Go watch it.
I’m participating in the A-Z Blog Challenge. You can find the big list of participants by Googling. Each blog has a different theme. I’m doing a favorite movie of mine that starts with the days letter each day, but taking off on Sundays with a regular Kerry nonsense post.
Girls Just Want to Have Fun, 1985
This movie is ridiculous. Here’s the IMDB summary: Janey is new in town and soon meets Lynne, who shares her passion for dancing in general and “Dance TV” in particular. When a competition is announced to find a new Dance TV regular couple, Janey and Lynne are determined to audition. The only problem is that Janey’s father doesn’t approve of that kind of thing.
It stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Helen Hunt, Shannen Doherty, Jonathon Silverman, my favorite 80s DJ (who you can still hear on Sirius XM) Richard Blade, and freaking Robert Downey, Jr. and Gina Gershon as “punk party crashes.”
Due to licensing, Cyndi Lauper’s version of the song couldn’t be in the film, so it was covered, which is crazy. Make a movie around a song you can’t use the popular version of. It’s so 1985. I can’t tell you how many times I watched it as a pre-teen and teen. I love this dumb movie.
Runner up: The Greatest Showman. I love this film and I cry every time I watch it.
I’m participating in the A-Z Blog Challenge. You can find the big list of participants by Googling. Each blog has a different theme. I’m doing a favorite movie of mine that starts with the days letter each day, but taking off on Sundays with a regular Kerry nonsense post.
The First Monday in May, 2016
The IMDB summary: A behind-the-scenes look at the preparations for the 2015 art exhibit, China: Through the Looking Glass held at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, commonly referred to as the Met Gala, which has become one of the hottest tickets in town.
I decided to go with this wonderful documentary because most people don’t know what the Met Gala actually is. It’s not a fancy party or a costume ball. Every year, Vogue and the Costume Institute work to put together the biggest night in fashion and art, focusing on a new exhibition for that year. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the Gala and this doc touches on all areas.
Each year there is a theme. Guests are supposed to dress according to the theme; some do it better than others. Rhianna hit it out of the park for the year in the film.
The Gala is chaired or co-chaired by a couple of celebrities. You have to be invited — you can’t just buy a ticket. 500-700 people are invited, but they must pay for their tickets — at what is said to be $30,000 or $270,000 for a table. Oh, and just because you buy a table, don’t think you can choose who your table mates are. Anna Wintour has final say in that.
The event is the Met’s Costume Institute’s mainfundraiser each year and it’s expensive to put on. Every year, I look forward to seeing the celebrities arriving and I put my favorite looks of the night on this blog, so check back in May.
Starting today, should I have more than one pick, I’ll list runners-up. My F runners-up are Friday, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Fox and the Hound.
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