Blog Archives
RIP Garry Marshall
He was one of the good guys in Hollywood.
Garry Marshall, the beloved TV creator, producer and movie director, has died at 81 years of age. He was the man behind Happy Days, The Odd Couple, Pretty Woman, Beaches and many other popular films. A few of these movies (Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Mother’s Day) featured fun, interweaving story lines with star-studded casts. The phrase “star-studded casts” was no exaggeration.
And the actors and actresses in his films always performed well because Garry wanted them to perform well.
Garry Marshall was one of the good guys in Hollywood.
RIP Garry Marshall.
Happy Monday!
It doesn’t hurt to shine a golden light on a Monday.
Rules Don’t Apply is a new movie that focuses on the late, great and eccentric aviation innovator Howard Hughes and the Hollywood film industry in 1958. This Golden Era of movie-making is as popular and captivating as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby. Fittingly, Lily Collins (Marla Mabrey) starred in the Amazon pilot based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final and unfinished book, The Last Tycoon.
The decision to move The Last Tycoon to series (I voted yes in the post-viewing survey) is still being determined. The first chapter in this TV show shows promise and sparks curiosity. Rules Don’t Apply, on the other hand, will be premiered to the public in its full form on November 23rd of this year.
The star-studded cast will either work beautifully or, you know…Equally important, the story needs to elevate far above the seemingly predictable third act set on an all too familiar linear path. The cast suggests there should be entertaining twists-and-turns. Howard Hughes and the Golden Age of Hollywood deserve that, at a minimum.
The hope is that the old rules of unsurprising movie-making won’t apply to Rules Don’t Apply.
Have a Great Week!
A Lift Back in Time
Sequels, historically, have a mixed record. How about a non-sequel sequel?
The 2011 film Crazy, Stupid, Love starring Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell, Emma Stone and Julianne Moore is a wonderful cinematic achievement. Akin to the Ocean’s Eleven trilogy, the casting, writing and acting was pitch-perfect and clever throughout with fun twists and fantastic settings we wish we could hang-out in on the weekend or on vacation.
Great escapism.
Speaking of escapism…
Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone’s chemistry in Crazy, Stupid, Love is clearly evident. Remember the Dirty Dancing-inspired scene with the famed lift? It’s fitting the two would make a movie that expands their burgeoning romance from that dynamite move.
Despite not being their first reunion on film (Gangster Squad in 2013), the brand new teaser trailer for La La Land is, in terms of tonality, a similar feel-good spirit for the actor and actress as their beloved roles as Jacob Palmer and Hannah. The classical, dreamy aura reminds us of the Golden Age of Hollywood, inviting us into a world that serves as confirmation for why we enjoy movie magic and how this magic is created.
This film is unapologetic in celebrating Hollywood’s bright, shining spotlight elevated on and for the stage of suspended belief.
La La Land doesn’t look crazy or stupid, but full of love.
Happy Monday!
It’s not Midnight in Paris, but 2 a.m. at a Jazz club in LA.
Woody Allen has written another movie set in a magnificent locale during a wonderfully nostalgic era. This time, the famed writer/director takes us to Los Angeles circa the 1930s. There’s a young, curious and neurotic lead character played by Jesse Eisenberg (aka – the Woody Allen character) who is introduced to the Hollywood scene at the beginning of its golden age, tempted by everything and everyone around him.
Conversationally, Café Society is quintessential Woody Allen.
While difficult to decipher in the trailer, there seems to be at least some degree of hope for the film’s actors and actresses being able to laugh at themselves and not take the dialogue as seriously as one easily can get when reading a script by Mr. Allen. For such a golden time in film history, it would be a shame to make a movie with more of a humorless statement with only celebratory accents than a Gatsby-like party with a great twist (or two) at the end.
Ironically, the brief scene in the trailer when a person is tossed into a hole being filled with cement, followed by the line, “You ask politely, people listen” gives me hope for the latter.
Café Society arrives in theaters on July 15, 2016.
Have a Great Week (sans cement)!
Jimmy's Daily Planet 