96 - What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

Connection To STEP BROTHERS - John C. Reilly and Mary Steenburgen.

So what is eating Gilbert Grape? A lot really... a dangerously obese mother who hasn't left the house in years, a brother with severe learning difficulties (who is about to turn 18 and wasn't expected to live past 10) and stuck as the "responsible" one in his family in a dead end town.

I should flashback a bit to when I first saw this, in my teen years while I was still at school, before seeing this I used to make jokes about a friends overweight mother - while his mother wasn't as heavy was the mother here - I guess the film told me not just people on their size, so there you go ladies and gentlemen films can make a difference.

How would I rate Gilbert Grape though? Well to me it's a well made films with some great characters but perhaps tries a little bit hard at times to pour it on and can be a bit obvious when trying to get you to feel the emotion it wants.

I'll talk about the two performances first that most people will take from this movie, firstly Leonardo DiCaprio as Gilbert's young brother Arnie - the aforementioned brother steals focus anytime he is on screen and proving you can go full retard (Tropic Thunder reference if you didn't know) if the performance is this good, he captures what Gilbert does say early in the film in his narration in "that some days you want to kill him" - giving you a really good overall feeling about what it would be like if you was caring for Arnie.

The other performance is Darlene Cates as the mother, who really was housebound for years and I think it was a talk show appearence that caught the eye of director Lasse Hallstrom in casting her, as a non-actor she does really well, to be a couple of her lines reading her awkward - but Hallstrom, whoever should have been the ones ironing them out - the films best emotional moment for me was when Arnie gets arrested for climbing the water tower one to many times and she lives the house for the first time.

The rest of the cast are pretty cool, Juliette Lewis perhaps gets the most underwritten character but works great with what she's got, John C. Reilly whose obsessed with a burger franchise coming to town and Crispin Glover as a mortuary assistant (perfect casting) are good as Gilbert's friends. Johnny Depp does carry the movie though, he is our avatar and don't think the movie would work quite as well.

Overall a very good film, that's it's main weaknesses might only bother me but this is little with a great cast who are all endlessly watchable.

95 - Step Brothers

Connection To ANCHORMAN 2 - Will Ferrell and Adam McKay (ending the three film adventure for now).

By now (films like Stranger Than Fiction aside among others) Will Ferrell (like Adam Sandler) as settled into what works for him as far as audiences go, he's usually either man-child or buffoon (or both), Step Brothers is arguably him at his most man-childeness (yeah I inverted a word to suit my needs), I mean he acts like a child (as does John C. Reilly) and it's not the fact that they still live at home is that even in their 40s they want and have zero of the responsibility  Ferrell and Reilly co-starring together had already proved an enjoyable thing (Talladega Nights) and the pair as rivals then friends are enjoyable to watch however which way play off of each other.

Like all the Will Ferrell-Adam McKay films (the third in a row covered here) the plot is slight and is an excuse to do gags, which depending on your tolerance of Ferrell is going to factor in how much you will enjoy this movie. Ferrell and Reilly starting off as antagonists before coming friends (or allies or lovers depending on film) is actually quite common in his work when you think about it - Blades Of Glory (two rivals end up teaming up), Anchorman (Veronica and Ron start at each others throats), The Other Guys (cops who don't like each other end up with respect and friendship) are a few that come to mind.

The funniest bits for me juvenile as they are including a ballsack on a drum kit and an attempt by the brothers to turn their beds into bunk heads that doesn't go too well.

Overall, it's important to say this if you love or like Will Ferrell then you are going to like this, hate him: don't waste your time and tut through it.

85 - The Help

Connection To PRETTY UGLY PEOPLE - director Tate Taylor (also Allison Janney and Octavia Spencer)

I feel like I've been burnt one too many times by films that have recieved Academy Award attention. It didn't help The Help (awkward thing to say) in my eyes that the film won an academy award (and nominated three further times) and to be honest on paper the all film sounds awards-batey - admit it they love films that deal with subjects like race.

Crash was the film I think that ultimately ended my interest in what was nominated, won etc, the awards were already on shaky ground before that (Shakespeare In Love winning Best Picture etc.) but the manipulative rubbish that was Crash killed it, so like I said if I know a film as got Academy Award mention it will go against it - sure I've liked films since then, note not loved - The Hurt Locker, Black Swan etc. and some of the wildcard films have nominated/won such as Bridesmaids and The Dark Knight are more in the love category (but like I said wildcard). 

So yeah I'm writing this all before watching The Help, just sort of let anybody reading know that there is some prejudice going in before watching it, couple this with the last film I watched is from the same director - Tate Taylor - and I could considered it the weakest thing I've watched so far, and in the interest of a positive though I absolutely adore Emma Stone so anyway on with the movie...

And I enjoyed up really liking The Help, it's hard to believe it was the same director as Pretty Ugly People - Collectively all the characters interested me (as appose to one) and it was story that I enjoyed following throughout, I wouldn't say it changed my mind on the Academy Award thing single-handedly but maybe it's warmed me to seeing some of the ones I haven't seen yet (such as The Artist).

I think this is the longest film I've watched so far since starting this, I consciously pick films that come in at under 2 hours and closer to 90 minutes the better to be honest - mainly so I'm not there sat twiddling my thumbs, this though comes in at over 2 hours and really didn't feel like it.

I felt like the film made good use of the time period it was set, having some knowledge of the time - such as civil rights - I think actually helps enhance the experience, and it's actually good to see a female-orientated film that is not really about the "boy".

Of the cast I most enjoyed Ocativa Spencer, proving in 2 films to me that she is one to watch, Bryce Dallas Howard was enjoyably bitchy and Jessica Chastain, I like the warmth she brought to the role, I can't leave Emma Stone who like Chastain liked what the warmness and the humanity she brought to the character.

My favourite scene is when Spencer who had previously been fired by Howard getting her revenge in pie form, Sissy Spacek's reactions for me really made that scene.

Overall, a film I really liked (love is perhaps too far), I can't falter the cast (even those I didn't mention) and the story kept me interested all the way through.

18 - Goin' South

Connection To CAMP NOWHERE - Christopher Lloyd

Last year I went on a Clint Eastwood binge, this mean't watching a lot of his westerns - seeing many of them for the first time - this is related to Goin' South because it re-sparked my love for the western, it reminded me what I enjoyed so much about these oaters. It's not that I'd gone off the western, it's just being a few years since I got on a roll with them, hell even one of my favourite films is a western (Once Upon A Time In The West).

Anyway this brings me to the 1978 western Goin' South, starring and directed by Jack Nicholson and with a pretty darn cool supporting cast and I think was not successful on original release because it seems somewhat forgotten as far as I know.

Henry Moon (Nicholson) is a robber who is sentenced and to be hanged in Longhorn, but due to bill from the Civil War, that allows a condemned man to be saved from the gallows if an unmarried woman would like to marry him and be responsible for him. Julie Tate (Mary Steenburgen) weds Moon, for him to work in a goldmine on her property, Moon's old gang show up and discover that they are mining gold but Julie and Moon's relationship is changing.

Like a lot of the best westerns you notice how it's shot with a lot of great use of locations, I think this was only 1 of 3 Nicholson actually directed, and none of the films really where too successful at best, his co-star Steenburgen (in her movie debut) plays naive well and has good chemistry with Nicholson and there is enjoyable supporting cast including John Belushi (also making his movie debut technically, this was shot before Animal House but released after), Danny DeVito (whose worked with Nicholson 5 times total I think), Christopher Lloyd (really enjoyed him here), Ed Begley Jr. and Tracey Walter. It's also fun seeing Lloyd lusting after Steenburgen an whole 12 years before the romance of Back To The Future 3.

Overall it deserves to be better known that actually is, Like I said Nicholson and Steenburgen have decent fun chemistry in the leads and have a great cast around them, I'd recommend this for fans of the western genre.