Change Your Image
aliceann-aa
Reviews
Trixie (2000)
I laughed so hard I woke him up!
And, no, he would NOT have liked this movie. Most people obviously didn't. My sides ached. I know most people didn't "get" it. Look at the mess of categories it is in. You cannot pigeonhole this movie. It is an original.
I do understand. I have seen Altman movies that I didn't think were funny, either. But this one hit a home run right up my alley. Not funny? Well, at least it's not a tired, old cliché. I had to get the tissues out because I was laughing so hard I was crying. See? We mix metaphors all the time.
But these clichés have never been mixed so well. How did Nick Nolte, Lesley Ann Warren and Brittany Murphy and the rest of the cast keep straight faces? A whole movie FULL of straight men. The only one who knew he was funny was Nathan Lane ... and he was playing a comedian ... that most people didn't think was funny! How ironic is that?
I just want to say to everyone involved in making this movie: Thank you! I laughed so hard I ruptured my catachresis.
The Great Santini (1979)
A coming-of-age story in which the father has to learn to be a man before he can teach his son how to be one.
This was the first "sleeper" movie I ever discovered. I had read _The Water Is Wide_ and seen _Conrack_ but I had never heard of this film when I found it on cable. I was captivated by it from the point where I turned it on and watched it to the end. Then I caught it again and watched it all the way through. I watched it again and again. I tried to find out something about it and found that it was released in theaters under the name _The Ace_ and had bombed. How on earth could there be a movie so wonderful that I had never heard of? I think it's because it is TOO good. Movie audiences want their bad guys to be bad and their good guys to be good. Without the white and black hats to signal who they are supposed to be, the complex, realistic characters confuse general audiences. It was painful in parts, just the same way life is, and just like life, it was joyful, horrifying, funny, gross, wonderful, and hopeful. It was just too real for most people.
Pat Conroy is the greatest living writer. This movie is what a movie should be.
Because of this movie, I buy every movie channel that the cable company offers. I couldn't miss the blockbusters if I tried. But I find more than my money's worth each month in wonderful movies that were just too good for the general movie-going public.