Away From Her (2007) [PG-13]

Sad movie about a woman (Julie Christie, amazing and still gorgeous) with early signs of Alzheimer's. As her condition worsens, she and her husband make arrangements for her at an extended-care facility. Tough on both of them, it is particularly hard for him, especially as the facility does not allow visitors for the first 30 days to help the patient make a better adjustment. It becomes even worse when once he is allowed to visit her, she not only seems to have forgotten who he is, but has transferred all her affections to another patient.

This movie is so good. The actors, especially Ms. Christie, are excellent. Even more remarkable is that this is the first directing feature by Sarah Polley, who at the time was under 30 years old. She also wrote the script, an adaptation of a short story, "The Bear Came Over the Mountain," by Alice Munro. Ms. Polley is an actor who has appeared in the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, the TV mini-series "John Adams" and other movies such as Go, My Life Without Me and The Sweet Hereafter. It is a real tribute to her talent that someone so young could direct such a sensitive movie about older people with such a highly regarded cast. She is a director to keep an eye out for.

DIRECTOR: Sarah Polley. CAST: Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, Olympia Dukakis, Wendy Crewson, Michael Murphy, Kristen Thomas, Alberta Watson.

AWARDS: Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 39 wins & 16 nominations.

Happy, Texas (1999) [PG-13]

This is a funny movie. Two prison escapees from a Texas chain gang, Harry Sawyer (Jeremy Northam) and Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr. ((Steve Zahn) steal a van and assume the identities of the owners: gay partners who are hired by small Texas towns to help their girls qualify for a beauty pageant.

When the van breaks down in Happy, Texas, they have no choice but to go ahead and do the job the town hired the others to do. The first surprise is that the girls are just that: little girls. Of course, everyone in the town thinks the two are gay which adds to their problems as they both find women they are attracted to. The sheriff of the town (William H. Macy in an excellent performance) also has a secret.

It is pretty funny watching these two help the girls prepare for the Little Miss Fresh Squeezed Preteen Talent Competition when they know nothing about such things. Wait til you see Steve Zahn wearing high heels and his choreography of a swan dance!

Although shot in only 29 days with a tiny budget, it doesn't look or feel low budget. This is a little, feel-good movie, with a fairy tale happy ending.

DIRECTOR: Mark Illsley. CAST: Jeremy Northam, Steve Zahn, William H. Macy, Ally Walker, Illeana Douglas, M.C. Gainey, Ron Perlman, Paul Dooley, Mo Gaffney.

AWARDS: 6 wins and 6 nominations

Hard Candy (2006) [R]

Here's a movie guaranteed to make everyone, especially the male viewer, very uncomfortable. Before her breakout role in "Juno", Ellen Page starred as Hayley Stark in this essentially two-character movie. A 14-year-old girl (even though Ellen was almost 20, she certainly does look 14 in this movie) turns the tables on the 32-year-old photographer, Kevin, (Patrick Wilson) she has been flirting with online.

Agreeing to meet him, Hayley goes back with him to his house. Kevin thinks its for fun and games, but this sexual predator is going get much more than he bargained for. And it turns out that Hayley has a bigger reason for her actions than just teaching him a lesson.

This movie is not easy-viewing. Depending on your age and/or gender you will either cheer her on or pray for her to stop. This movie is not gory: what Kevin goes through is more psychological than physical. In many ways, Hayley is a hero for our times.

DIRECTOR: David Slade. CAST: Patrick Wilson, Ellen Page, Sandra Oh, Jennifer Holmes.

AWARDS: 5 wins and 6 nominations

Being John Malkovich (1999) [R]

This is a pretty crazy movie, and while not completely great, it is worth a watch. John Cusack (I'll go anywhere he wants to take me!) takes a job on the 7 1/2 floor of an office building. One day he discovers a door behind his filing cabinets. He opens it, goes down a long tunnel, and finds himself inside John Malkovich's mind! After 15 minutes, he ends up dumped on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike. He decides to use this for his own ends, even granting others admission (for money, of course) as a sort of vacation destination, albeit for only 15 minutes.  What else can he do with this opportunity? Will John Malkovich find out? Pretty wild, huh? Of course! This is written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze.

An almost unrecognizable Cameron Diaz plays his wife, (yes, that's her in the photo above!) and Catherine Keener, his mercenary girlfriend. John Malkovich plays himself.

If you are looking for something really out of the ordinary, this is it!

DIRECTOR: Spike Jonze. CAST: John Cusack, John Malkovich, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, Orson Bean, Mary Kay Place, Charlie Sheen.

AWARDS: Nominated for 3 Oscars. 45 other wins and 48 other nominations.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) [PG]

Ellen Burstyn is one of my favorite actresses. She always delivers. In this movie, she is Alice, a widow left with nothing but a young son. She packs up her car and they head for California, where she hopes to become a singer. On the way they run out of money and end up in Tucson AZ. She takes a job as a waitress, and with this new family of friends and a new love, played by Kris Kristofferson, she and her son learn to live and love again.

Yes, this is the movie that created the TV sitcom "Alice"! They took the setting and the characters from the diner, but certainly changed the tone and temper of the piece in the TV show. You will marvel at what they kept and what they left out and what a difference it makes between the film and the TV show. Vic Tayback, who plays Mel in both, is the sole carryover from the movie.

This movie is a great emotional journey, guaranteed to make you laugh AND cry. Ms. Burstyn won an Oscar for her performance. And it may surprise you to find out that Martin Scorsese is the director.


DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese  CAST: Ellen Burstyn, Kris Kristofferson, Bill Green Bush, Alfred Lutter, Diane Ladd, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Vic Tayback, Valerie Curtin


AWARDS: Won 1 Oscar and 2 nominations; 4 other wins; 17 other nominations.

Some Like It Hot (1959) [unrated (my rating: PG-13)]

There are some movies that watching with someone seeing it for the first time is a real joy. Watching The Wizard of Oz with my then 4-year-old son, Gone With The Wind with my college boyfriend, and Some Like It Hot with anyone! In recent years, I've had the fun of watching this movie with three different people who were seeing it for the first time. Another friend called me right after seeing it because she was laughing so hard, she wanted to share the experience with me.

Jack Lemmon  and Tony Curtis play two musicians who witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and of course, are spotted. Running away from their pursuers, they join an all-girls band on their way by train to Miami. Yes! Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in DRAG! As you can see, they both make pretty ugly women.

One of the girls in the band is the very gorgeous Sugar Kane, played by Marilyn Monroe at her best, who is a little naughty and likes her booze. Both fall head over heels for her, competing with each other to win her heart. So it's in and out of drag we go.

This movie is full of fun and laughter from the very first second to the last. The last line is a screamer! It will be hard for you to ever say it again without remembering Some Like It Hot and laughing out loud.

DIRECTOR: Billy Wilder. ACTORS: Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe, Joe E. Brown, George Raft, Pat O'Brien, Nehemiah Persoff, Joan Shawlee, Mike Mazurki.

AWARDS: Oscar + 10 others + 8 nominations

Primer (2004) [PG-13]

This low budget movie will amaze you. Shane Carruth, who directed, starred, scripted, produced, edited, scored, and helped shoot this movie, did it all with $7,000!

Four young men have started a business in a garage making error-checking devices. Two of them accidentally create a time travel machine and decide not the share this discovery with the other two partners. They figure out how to send themselves backward and forward in time, but run into trouble when they stop trusting each other. They face a few other problems: running into themselves when they are in a different time line, figuring out who is the real them, and the problem of natural degradation if they are a copy of a copy of a copy. They also have to find their answer to the question "If you always want what you can't have, what do you want when you can have anything?"


Yes, there is so much coming and going that it can get confusing. But I was so fascinated by this film that I actually went online to find maps and charts of their coming and going. It is intricate!

If you enjoy puzzles and figuring things out, this is the movie for you!

DIRECTOR: Shane Carruth. ACTORS: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden, Anand Upadhyaya, Carrie Crawford.

AWARDS: WINNER: Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, Drama and Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize. 7 other nominations.