Hallelujah! A Judy Garland Retrospective

The Lincoln Center and the Paley Center here in NYC have joined forces to celebrate the all-singing all-dancing legend that is Judy Garland! 

Shout 'Hallelujah', c'mon get happy!"

Once upon a time she was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer." Few celebrities have ever earned their PR self-mythologizing titles the way Judy G did. There's just no beating her for musical pleasure and cathartic heartbreak. And as if her sensational singing and dancing weren't enough, she was a fine actress, too!

I missed the first week of the celebration being in Michigan but I'll see what I can catch for the remainder of the summer program which ends August 9th. If you're not in New York City, you can always follow along at home as best you can with an impromptu DVD festival.

 

Still to come in the festival are...

Young Judy:
Everybody Sing (1938), For Me and My Gal (1942), Presenting Lily Mars (1943).... and of course a handful with Mickey Rooney: Babes in Arms (1939), Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940), Strike Up the Band (1940), Babes on Broadway (1941), Life Begins For Andy Hardy (1941) and Girl Crazy (1943)

Peak Judy: 
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) *one of my personal all time favorite films*, The Clock (1945) which was her first non-musical dramatic role, The Harvey Girls (1946), Easter Parade (1948), In the Good Old Summertime (1949), Summer Stock (1950), and the legendary A Star is Born (1954) in which Judy gives one of the greatest performances of all time. It should have won her the Oscar with ease. 

Late Period Judy:
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) *Judy's final Oscar nomination*, A Child is Waiting (1963) with Burt Lancaster, and the must-see (for its thinly veiled Judy autiobiopic'isms) I Could Go On Singing (1963). Meanwhile, over at The Paley Center there's a longer celebration of her television years which runs through August 18th [more info here].

Watch a Judy Garland film this week! Which would you choose?

Complete The (Crazy/Stupid) Sentence...

The three words I'd use to describe Crazy Stupid Love are ___________ , ____________  and _____________ .

P.S. Nathaniel is back from his 7 day hiatus and now significantly behind on his moviegoing. You've probably seen this but he hasn't!

I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski

Michael C here. Have you heard that according to LA Weekly the Venice, California bungalow owned by the none other than Big Lebowski's The Dude is on the market and can be yours for the low, low price of 2.3 million dollars? 

Cozy place. Perfect for entertaining ferret-bearing nihilists or special lady friends you are helping conceive. Rug not included, but would really tie the room together.

Right about the moment I was chuckling to myself about the type of person who would make such an important decision based on movie trivia, a voice in my head chimed in to remind me that I am totally that person. It was not unlike asking yourself “Who is that total loser over there?” before realizing you are looking at your reflection. 

Fortunately I’m a New Yorker and can't be tempted by The Dude's iconic pee-stained floors. Still, I know in my heart that if presented with a similar situation I would jump at the opportunity. If the realtor mentioned I might recognize this as, say, Diane Keaton’s apartment in Annie Hall, the place could have exposed wiring shooting sparks onto the living room floor and I would still sign the lease on the spot. Then I would be out on the balcony trying to speak in subtitles before the ink was dry.

 

I put the question to you, the reader:
What movie character's residence would you pony up the dough to live in?

Cinema de Gym: 'Opportunity Knocks'

Kurt here with a new Cinema de Gym, the first to focus on a movie I never knew existed before my cardio session. Is everyone familiar with Opportunity Knocks? It's a 1990 comedy noteworthy for being the breakout film for SNL alum Dana Carvey. With his straw-blonde hair styled into what I remember to be an almost-mullet, Carvey plays Eddie Farrell, a California con man whose slovenly style (oversized shirts, khakis with sneakers) is used to convey an enviably carefree outlook (as opposed to Steve Carrells's version of the same style in this week's Crazy, Stupid, Love., which is used to convey unenviable cluelessness). I entered the movie just as it was starting (another first), and got to see the unremarkable opening credits blip onto the screen as Carvey strutted down the street in his lazy dude's attire. There was no telling why he was carrying a potted plant. 

Turns out it was part of the character's introductory ruse, which also involves two nuns, a female pedestrian and a rich man in a flashy car who's tricked into believing he almost killed someone. I'm tiptoeing around the details because, in truth, I'm forgetting them, but what's important to note is the scene ably reveals the character's nature without heaps of exposition, and it also introduces his partner, Lou, played by Todd Graff, who's best known to me as the other-guy crew member in The Abyss. The buddies work as a team, scamming suckers in such amusing ways as pretending to be plumbers and then stealing the family TV. One house they come upon is empty, and while rooting through the rooms, they hear a voicemail from the intended housesitter, who must renege on his responsibility. Suddenly, the crooks are able to use the glorified suburban bachelor pad as their home base, its game tables and stocked fridge perfect for passing time between jobs. 

Something else happened involving a mobster and a stolen car, but that's about all the synopsis I'm prepared to dish out. Besides, what I took away from this movie wasn't plot details, but early '90s nostalgia. Ever the deliverer of exaggerated accents and impersonations (plenty of which turn up here), Carvey was a youthful 35 when this movie was released, making him 56 today. That's somehow an astonishing number for me to process, I guess because it's tough to imagine the goofy comedians of your youth as being over the hill. In any case, the thought marks the first time I've felt a pang of longing for the Wayne's World days, which closely followed in 1992. The same sensation is tied to my being charmed by the gloriously dreadful look of this movie – that grayed, washed out, VHS aesthetic that doesn't look any better just because it's been transferred to DVD. There's a whole catalog of late-'80s and early-'90s titles with that same oddly cozy drabness, which is funny, considering it's an era usually defined by neon and excess.

The future Mrs. Billy ChristensenThe strangest revelations the film offered came during the post-gym research process. A few clicks on Wikipedia unleash a crazy batch of facts regarding what the cast and crew have been up to since. We're all pretty up to speed on Carvey (who can forget The Master of Disguise?), but how about co-star Julia Campbell? She's a busy TV actress, but you know her as none other than A-Group leader Christy Masters from Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. And director Donald Petrie? Most recently, you have him to thank for Welcome to Mooseport, Just My Luck and My Life in Ruins. As for Graff, he boasts the most startling resume by far, at least to this moviegoer. A musical theatre vet, the actor-turned-director is the guy behind Camp and Bandslam, and his next project – get this – is Joyful Noise, a 2012 gospel musical with Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton. How do I not know about the latter? Here's what its Wiki page says: “Two strong-minded women are forced to cooperate when budget cuts threaten to shut down a small-town choir.”    ...I'm sorry, what were we talking about again?

Conclusions?

1. Yesterday's casual is today's embarrassment, as evidenced by Carvey and Carrell.
2. Sadly, comedians age just like everybody else.
3. Ugly is endearing if you happen to be a movie from the late-'80s or early-'90s.
4. Todd Graff is our new Steve Antin – an out former actor about to unveil the unofficial sequel to Burlesque.

Oh, what to ask you? This post is one mixed bag. What jumped out at you? I can only guess...

The Ides of March Poster Splits the Difference

Robert here (Distant Relatives) with a look at The Ides of March poster which gives us half of Ryan and half of George staring out at us. What do we call this being? The Cloosling?

Still, it give us a look at both featured actors, throws in some political intrigue with the "is this man our next president?" line and is sure to get a few double takes hanging in a movie theater lobby. In that sense it's a well done poster. Then again, it's just about the only way to get George Clooney and Ryan Gosling together on a poster and make it somewhat aesthetically offputting.

It also reminds me of three similar face-mashing images in politics and movies.

• A famous magazine cover from 2000 that it might be intentionally referencing much in the way that Clooney's campaign posters reference Obama's.
• Ingmar Bergman's unsettling imagery from his film suggesting two people combining to build a bigger Persona.
• Or perhaps it's a more blunt assessment of a quality often found in politicians or operatives.

Newsweek 2000, Liv Ullman & Bibi Andersson in Persona, Two-Face