Lots of movie-watching to start the year (movies seen in the theater in bold)
1. North By Northwest (1959 - TCM)
2. Office Rules (1999 - Comedy Channel)
3. Vertigo (1958 - TCM)
4. Lion (AMC Merchant Crossing, Ft Myers, FL)
5. Inside Daisy Clover (1965 - TCM)
6. Fences (AMC Merchant Crossing, FT. Myers, FL)
7. East of Eden (1955 - TCM)
8. By Sydney Lumet (PBS)
9. Heaven Can Wait (1978 - TCM)
10. Annie Hall (1977 - TCM)
11. Why Him? (AMC Merchant Crossing, FT. Myers, FL)
12. The Breakup (Comedy Channel)
13. Hidden Figures (AMC Merchant Crossing, Ft. Myers, FL)
Fences has been getting a lot of critical acclaim, and while there are some good parts in it, at 2 hrs. 20 min. the movie is WAY too long for its own good, and could've/should've been trimmed down by AT LEAST a good 20 min.
The first hour of Lion (where the 5 yr. old boy is lost in Calcutta and needs to survive on his own) is fantastic, then it fizzles out (even with Rooney Mara and Nicole Kidman appearing in the 2nd half).
A big surprise for me turned out to be Why Him?, a raunchy comedy that had me up in stitches a number of times, which I totally did not expect. The packed theater seemed to feel likewise. Bryan Cranston as the 'straight' dad is cast perfectly. Zoey Deutch (who looks EXACTLY like her mom/actress Lea Thompson 30 years ago) is gonna make it big, that is also clear.
Best of all the new theatrical releases is Hidden Figures, which can be summarized as "where The Right Stuff meets social segregation". The theater was packed to the rafters and this movie got a huge response from the audience. Check it out!
Saw a bunch of old movies, mostly on the commercial-free TCM. It had been so long since I last saw Vertigo that I had forgotten the plot twister halfway through. Great Hitchcock flick. Amazingly, I had NEVER seen the James Dean flick East of Eden. I hadn't seen the Warren Beatty movie Heaven can Wait since it came out almost 40 years ago. This movie did not age well, and frankly I am amazed that it garnered any Oscar nominations, let alone Best Picture/Director/Actor/Screenplay.
By Sydney Lumet is a nice new documentary with mostly Lumet just talking about his movies, and of course tons of clips. Check it out in reruns on PBS.