Movie Review: March of the Penguins

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS
Date Viewed: March 21, 2006
CATEGORY: Documentary
RATING: B-
WHERE SEEN: Home
REASON FOR VIEWING: Reviews
NETFLIX SYNOPSIS: Award-winning photographer Luc Jacquet takes documentary film to new heights -- and depths -- with his first feature film, a stunning insider's look at the life of the emperor penguin. The product of more than a year of filming in the brutal Antarctic ice, this official Sundance selection presents never-before-captured footage of the penguins' underwater life and explores their steadfast quest for monogamous mates.
COMMENTS: At first I thought I was going to turn this off. It was pretty boring. But for some reason I decided to persevere. It was good, not great. I could however appreciate the great expertise of the filmmaker himself having to film in what had to be excruciating circumstances where the warmest day it was 58 degrees below zero. It was an interesting look into the life of an intriguing bird—a species I used to enjoy seeing at the zoo in Tacoma, Washington as a youngster – Penny, the Penguin was her name and she was my favorite exhibit there for many years. While the film definitely gets a G rating, I think younger children will be bored in the early stages of the movie, delighting in others. An OK movie, am glad to have finally seen it to see what all the fuss was (or wasn’t) about.

Movie Review: The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio

THE PRIZE WINNER OF DEFIANCE OHIO
Date Viewed: March 21, 2006
CATEGORY: Drama – Nonfiction
CAST: Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson,
RATING: A
WHERE SEEN: Home
REASON FOR VIEWING: Read the book and enjoyed it
SYNOPSIS: Evelyn Ryan, wife of an alcoholic, raises her 10 children by writing jingles and winning contests. COMMENTS: After reading this book I knew that I wanted to see the movie as soon as possible. Unfortunately it has such little theatrical release I never had the opportunity. It was with great pleasure that it came up so quickly on my Netflix queue upon its DVD release. It was only because of a very busy week that I didn’t watch it until nearly a week later. Many times I have been disappointed in movies I have seen after reading the book—they just fail to achieve the expectation I had. I am pleased to say I wasn’t at all disappointed in the movie version of this book. Although I was quite young in the years the movie was set, I do remember these contests. They were found all over the place – in magazines, in the stores, and on television. Obviously Evelyn Ryan had quite a knack for winning these contests both out of talent and necessity. While the book was written as quite the tribute to her mother by Terry “Tuff” Ryan, the movie depicts the family’s way of life, sometimes quite painfully. Somehow Evelyn keeps her family of 10 children together despite her abusive, alcoholic husband whose nightly drinking binges are not as much detailed in the movie as they are in the book but are still disturbing. One of the lighter scenes is when Evelyn finally meets up with a group of other jingle writers with whom she has been corresponding. All in all, a very good movie but I think probably even of more interest to those who have read the book than those who haven’t.

CD Review: This Old Road - Kris Kristofferson

It seems most people I talk to nowadays know Kris Kristofferson as an actor. These days more as a character actor than the leading man/matinee idol from such films as Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and A Star is Born. But I have always thought of him as a songwriter. A songwriter who sang. Actually, if truth be known, more even as a poet than a songwriter as his words always have packed such a powerful punch. Since I first heard him (and I am really dating myself here) in the very early 1970s, then started attending his concerts c. 1972 his music has been an integral part of my life. I used to reward myself every year on my birthday by either attending a concert or, as the years went by and he would appear more and more often on the silver screen, going to see a movie he was starring in. Yet all these years I have been a fan, never a fanatic, respecting the man and his music – but rather personally and silently except even my husband and children know that Kris holds a special place in my heart. And the respecting, is for the most part. There was that one concert at The Universal Amphitheater where he was only able to perform a few songs before cutting the performance short. I am sure it is an evening he’d rather forget – if he even remembers it. He was as happens many times with those so gifted, living hard. So it was with great pleasure to find that on one particular song of this CD, “Thank You For A Life” the penultimate cut, he admits to being so happy.

It’s been said that this CD is his most personal ever. I really don’t know about that. I do know that it is extremely moving. One cut in particular has brought tears to my eyes each time I have heard it. The chorus of that song, “In the News” goes like this:

"Not in my name, not on my ground
I want nothing but the ending of the war
No more killing, or it's over
And the mystery won't matter anymore"

I was lucky enough to see a recent concert in Seattle where he sang this song and the crowd went wild. It was obvious that they shared the same sentiments.
Over the years I have seen a growth in his music that is hard to describe because he writes lyrics that have always held a rare kind of power. But for some reason this CD is a cut above. Different in a way. And perhaps it is because it is more personal as it has been said. All I can say is that it is absolutely wonderful and powerful. And I thank the master of them all for making such a touching CD.

Play #1: Menopause, The Musical

PLAY (MUSICAL) #1 MENOPAUSE, THE MUSICAL
DATE SEEN: March 11, 2006
WHERE SEEN: ACT Theater, Seattle
SEEN WITH: Vicki, Cathi, Judy, Kacie, Carol, Elisa (from work), Diane (Elisa’s mom), Linda and Lori (Cathi’s sisters), Jessica (Judy’s daughter), Donna (former coworker)

COMMENTS: This was such a fun show! We made the trek from Port Townsend to Seattle for a Saturday afternoon matinee. The theater we were in was a very intimate setting allowing for great viewing. There are four characters in the musical - Power Woman, Earth Mother, Movie Star, and Iowa Housewife who all meet in Bloomingdales in NYC and the entire play is set on different floors of the department store. They sing parodies of songs from the 60s and 70s, We went from whooping and hollering to laughing so hard we were crying. And we could each nod with understanding nearly every step of the way. One of my favorites was done to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” - the one gal was complaining about her husband not wanting to sleep with her and they start this song with the backup singers playing kitchen utensils and singing "She's a b*tch, She's a b*ch, oooooh, etc" and the lead singer singing, "On the couch or in the guest room my husband sleeps at night" Another scene has the characters doing the Staying Alive dance changing the words to “Staying Awake, Staying Awake”. And then there is a Beach Boys Medley "I Wish we Could All be Sane and Normal Girls" to the tune of California Girls and "Thank You Doctor" to the tune of Help Me Rhonda. The parodies were all very clever and when the one gal came out as Tina Turner singing “What’s Love Got to do With It” it nearly brought the house down. I can’t remember laughing so hard. We capped off the evening by a wonderful meal at the Gordon Biersch Brewery at Pacific Place before taking a ferry across Puget Sound and driving home. We had such a good time we’ve decided we’ll definitely have to do this more often!

Movie #13 Nine Lives

Movie #13 --
NINE LIVES
Date Viewed: March 12, 2006
CATEGORY: Drama – Vignettes
CAST: Robin Wright Penn, Sissy Spacek, Glenn Close, Aidan Quinn, Dakota Fanning, Holly Hunter and a host of other talented actors.
RATING: A
WHERE SEEN: Home
REASON FOR VIEWING: Ebert and Roeper Review
Netflix Synopsis: This series of intimate vignettes from writer-director Rodrigo Garcia (Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her) peers into the private lives of nine women, each with a different destiny.

Comments: What a great, stunning, emotional movie! These nine vignettes, each about 12 minutes long, feature very different women from all walks of life, each of them who could be said is stuck in some kind of emotional rut – some more deep than others, some of which they have control of and some they don’t. We start out with Sandra in LA County Jail who is trying her best but whose emotions are right at the surface and a seemingly minor incident spells disaster for her. Then Diana played exquisitely by the fabulous Robin Wright Penn who runs into her old love, Damian, in the supermarket years after their relationship has ended; the one gesture by Damian just broke my heart. Other standouts include Sissy Spacek as the wife of a disabled man (Deadwood’s Ian McShane) who shows up in two of the vignettes and Amy Brenneman as he ex-wife of a man whose wife has just committed suicide. All the stories are so vivid, so intense that I am glad I saw it on DVD instead of in a theater as I found I was forced to take a break in the middle. There were several that moved me to tears. This is really great film making and absolutely highly recommended.

Movie #12 Just Like Heaven

Movie #12
JUST LIKE HEAVEN
Date Viewed: March 12, 2006
CATEGORY: Romantic Comedy
CAST: Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo
RATING: B
WHERE SEEN: Home
REASON FOR VIEWING: Sounded Good
Netflix Synopsis: Shortly after David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo) moves into his new San Francisco digs, he has an unwelcome visitor on his hands: winsome Elizabeth Mortenson (Reese Witherspoon), who asserts that the apartment is hers -- and promptly vanishes. When she starts appearing and disappearing at will, David thinks she's a ghost, while Elizabeth is convinced she's alive. Their quest for the truth ultimately leads to love in this spectral romantic comedy.

My Comments
From Marc Levy’s book If Only it Were True comes a cute romantic comedy. I really liked it and it had been enjoying it all the way until a rather slapstick scene near the end and a rather miraculous occurrence right after that. That said, I was suspending disbelief enough to belief that Reese Witherspoon’s character was appearing as a spirit, so why shouldn’t I buy into the rest? The ending was a little too abrupt and tied up too quickly though. That said a sweet and altogether satisfying movie with characters you couldn’t help but like. Any easy B rating and a fun way to spend a few hours of time.