A fab-u-lous tribute to Bowie

Alternately titled:  What I did this weekend.

I braved the crazy rain storm this Saturday, hauling my ass to the Castro Theatre to see what I thought was just a screening of The Man Who Fell to Earth with a Candy Clark Q&A. What I got was SO much better.

My original movie cohorts were both under the weather, but happily I found out my friends Karekin and Anthony were also going to be there.  So I got to sit with two of the most charming men you'd ever want to meet.

So what did I get besides a movie and a Q&A?  I got an evening of fabulously awesome drag queens sharing their love of Bowie.  Really anyone sharing their love of Bowie is pretty great, but when you think about what a role model/icon this man was for the LGBTQ community...pure gold.

It was parts sentimental and parts irreverent.  Oodles of outfits and glitter and makeup...oh my!  Just what you'd expect.  There were a variety of performers, some were great; my favorite - a long time fave of A & K, apparently - was Veronica Klaus.  She announced her songs by saying something about how she listened to Scary Monsters non-stop back in the day and her dad walked by her bedroom and said "I hope that's not what they're teaching you in school!"  She swept her beautifully clad arm out, smirked and quietly said "And here we are".  Kitten on the Keys also sang a song, which was lovely.  I can almost forgive her for NEVER being able to announce Clandestine properly at Tease O Rama (Clandes-TINE). Some performers weren't so great.  A choir did a really odd and semi-discordant rendition of "Life on Mars" after which Karekin and I looked at each other and grimaced.

The only disappointing part of the evening (aside from having to sit in wet clothes for 5 hours because of the storm) was the Q&A with Candy Clark.  She is the female lead of the film (she was also in American Graffiti - nominated for Best Supporting Actress for that film.) and I discovered (thanks Internet!) that she was also sleeping with the director at the time.  Her answers were pretty lackluster and not very well strung together, even though nearly all of them mimicked past interviews.  Same anecdotes, different day.  But the interviewer was HORRIBLE!  Anthony, Karekin and I all agreed that interviewing is truly a skill and this guy completely lacked it.  At one point, poor Candy couldn't even make heads or tails of his question and had to ask for clarification.  Seriously dude?

Anyway, I'd never seen this film before...so here you have it.

The Man Who Fell to Earth - released in 1976

When first released, the film didn't do that great but over the years has obtained true cult status.  Roger Ebert gave it 2.5 stars originally but 35 years later upped his rating to 3 stars.  His reason for this was that filmmakers just aren't allowed to make films of this style anymore.  Taking chances like that is frowned upon now.

And what is that style?  The film is directed by Nicholas Roeg.  He directed many films to varying degrees of success, but he started his career as a cinematographer and you can totally tell.  The shots in this film are beautiful and expansive.  Each composition conveys a lot of emotion, actually, whether it's a sprawling landscape with one broken down house breaking the emptiness or a claustrophobic shot of a New York high rise.

And you know what else is beautiful in this film?  David Stinkin' Bowie.  Holy shit.  He's this gorgeous, stylish, swan-necked beauty.  His skin is to die for - luminescent and flawless.  Did that guy even shave?  His hair is awesome - red with blond roots.  And the eyes.  Lord have mercy, the eyes.  

This is his first acting role and he KILLS IT.  I mean he is seriously amazing.  Nuanced.  Emotionless on the surface but fathomless underneath. The crazy thing I read is that he said he was high on coke the whole time this film was shooting.  He felt that he was just being himself on coke and that's what was captured on screen.  Damn.  In an interesting bit of maybe revisionist history, there is an interview with Candy Clark much later where she maintains that he had been sober prior to and while making this film.  Heh.

Buck Henry and Rip Torn (who was surprisingly hot in his youth.  Also we see his weenie.) were both really good in this.  Candy Clark was...okay, but I'm gonna say that I'm not a fan.  I think a slew of other actresses could have done this role better.  Sometimes it pays to sleep with the director.

The Man Who Fell to Earth is 100% a 70's movie.  It's meandering, non-linear and parts, frankly, are just a bit confusing.  There is a bunch of gratuitous nudity, which is kind of a 70's trademark, right?  The alien costumes look like white scuba suits and the "space ship" Bowie leaves on is pretty much a trailer on a monorail.  Don't get me wrong, I'm really glad I saw it.  It exemplifies, as Ebert said, how much filmmaking has changed over the years because of audience demand.  You'd be hard pressed - post Star Wars - to find a sci-fi film with a slow pace and no space battles.

(My drink pairing for this film is a Beefeaters gin and tonic in a tall glass.  The alien's drink of choice.)

My takeaways:

#1 - Candy Clark made some EXTREMELY questionable choices in husbands.  She had two.  Each lasted one year.  One was a drug addict (who was also at one time married to Helen Reddy! I am woman!) and the other was Marjoe Gortner who was an actor and an evangelist (from when he was 4 years old, apparently).  Google him.  He's freaky.

#2 - The best way to see ANY movie is with a drag show opener.

#3 - I'm putting it out there that Nicholas Roeg is not my favorite director.

xoxo...hashtagSueslife

Ye Olde Timey Stuff

As many of you know, I majored in Film Studies in college.  I am continually grateful to my parents for not calling foul on that major and just rolling with it.  I think they were just happy I actually WENT to college.

I went to San Francisco State University, which was reasonably well respected for their Film program (they were more well known for their Broadcasting Dept).  Any respect they got was probably because they favored Avant Garde film which made them stand out a bit.  So all my fellow film students were greasy haired, hand-rolled cigarette smoking, beat-up paperback carrying snoots.  Yeesh.

I enjoyed my college years for a variety of reasons (none of which had all that much to do with studying or the Film department) and my favorite film school moment actually happened in my Avant Garde History class.  It took everything I had to stay awake in that class.  When I read the first Harry Potter book and JK Rowling described the History of Magic class with Professor Binns, the ghost teacher, I immediately thought of this class.  The teacher was ancient and soft spoken so he had to use a mic because the class was in a lecture hall (the class must have been required because I NEVER would have chosen it) and he droned on and on and on.  One very rainy day, during the break, our teacher left the room (not uncommon).  The room was a bit more full than normal because of the rain.  The smokers were outside, but the rest of us couldn't get our dose of fresh air and fog like normal; I think I was reading whatever mystery novel I was into at the time - trying to jumpstart my brain after the last hour of lecture.  Anyway, my teacher clearly needed to use the facilities but forgot to switch off his mic.  We heard EVERYTHING (thankfully it was only Number One.  Also thankfully he washed his hands.)  I remember staring at the TA, who was slowly looking around the room.  A huge grin broke out over his face.  I think he might have said something like "And he's peeing."  It was fantastic.  

But I digress.

I managed to make my own way at SFSU despite the snootiness of the Film department.  I bucked the system and let my love of Hollywood show (fuck 'em if they can't take a joke).  I wrote papers about the structure of movie musicals.  I took classes that focused on the history of animation (who knew THAT would come in handy later!?).  And I discovered actors that blew my mind.  Like, I had crushes on actors that were born in the 1800's.  It was maybe a little weird.

Recently I was thinking a lot about my early days and decided to revisit watching my first and only silent screen star crush:  Buster Keaton.

Buster Keaton was born in 1895 and died in 1966. His family had a comedic vaudeville act that was extremely acrobatic and he started his film career by being in a bunch of Fatty Arbuckle films (now THERE'S a guy who really lived up to his name) but studios and audiences started to realize how innovative and funny he was in his own right so he began starring in his own films.  For a while he had complete control over his films (directed and starred in) and he always created and performed his own gags/stunts.  And ohmygod they were amazing.

I remember sitting in class thinking "I've seen stuff like this before" but then having this realization wash over me:  He was the FIRST person to orchestrate these incredibly complex, super innovative, hilarious gags.  And I immediately fell in love.  I am 100% a sucker for someone who makes me laugh.

I have seen a bunch of Jackie Chan movies and it's no surprise to me that Buster Keaton was one of his influences.  Keaton was incredibly athletic, his body was like a rubber band and powerhouse all rolled into one.  Apparently when he was in his 50's he re-enacted one of his old stunts.  Someone asked how he did it and he said "I'll show you" and opened his shirt to reveal a bunch of bruises.  He just. Fucking. Did it.

Besides being really funny - not only with the crazy gags but also with the subtle hand gestures or body movements to convey a wealth of emotion - he had this amazing face.  I guess when he was young and being thrown around (literally) on the vaudeville stage by his dad, they realized audiences thought it was way funnier if he had no expression vs a big "I'm okay!" smile.  So he became The Great Stone Face.  What stayed with me, though (and many, many others obviously), were his eyes.  His face is overtaken by these huge, soulful eyes.  They are beautiful.  They always look a little bit sad but deep inside you see a glimmer of something else.  Maybe resignation that this is what life is?  Maybe hopefulness that everything is going to work out?  Whatever it was, it stopped me in my tracks; hitting me hard in the 19 year old feels.

(These films were both made during Prohibition, so my drink pairing is a glass of bathtub gin in the Speakeasy of your choosing)

Here are a couple films I recommend if you are at all interested in watching silent films:

Sherlock Jr - released in 1924

This is a movie about movies, which the always self involved Hollywood loves.  But honestly, kind of everyone loves them - Singin in The Rain, Get Shorty. C'mon...you know you do!

All Keaton's films are great, but this one might be my favorite.

Buster Keaton plays a film projectionist who is studying to be a detective (the 'stache is fake so he can look more legit). 

He is in love with a girl who is also being wooed by a guy who robbed her father.  Keaton is kind of dejected by the "love" situation while also trying to catch the robber.  There is an amazing scene where he's "tailing" the guy by walking literally a few inches behind him, matching everything the guy does step for step. It's like a beautifully choreographed dance number.  

He also rides through town on the handlebars of a motorcycle after the driver has fallen off.  The modern viewer can tell when cars look like they are going to hit him but actually are stopping or going super slow, but he's still steering the frickin' motorcycle by the handlebars ONLY!  Also, no CG.  He was REALLY doing this stunt.  Amazing.

The most famous sequence of this film is where Buster has fallen asleep at his projectionist job and kind of dreams himself into several movie scenes.  So the scenes keeps switching out and he pops into each one.  Innovative stuff for 1924.

The most amazing shot, though, is a really quick shot where he jumps through a person!  I can't imagine how they achieved this particular effect, but Buster literally dives through a box being held by a man.  Early film making magic!

The General - released in 1926

This is arguably Keaton's most famous film, and after being reevaluated in later years it's considered by critics to be one of the best films ever made.  Keaton had a great love of trains, so this entire film focuses on that.  He plays a train engineer during the Civil War.  He wants to enlist when the war breaks out to impress his girlfriend but the recruiters think he'd be more useful to the cause as an engineer, so they refuse him.  That's the start of the grand misunderstanding which culminates in Keaton not only saving the girl but thwarting an invasion.  He did all his own stunts and this film encompasses some scary ones for the time period.  He jumps from car to car on a moving train in one sequence and sits on the front grill (I learned it's called a cow catcher for obvious and horrific reasons) holding a railroad tie in another.  

The beauty of Buster Keaton, though, is in his subtlety.  There is one shot where he's super dejected and sitting on the train's coupling rod  When the train starts, he starts rotating with the movement, his body completely motionless.  Total deadpan expression.  Apparently this was also one of the more dangerous stunts because he could have been killed if the train threw a rod. Yikes!

Apparently this film had a "huge" budget ($750,000) and didn't get the box office the expected, so after this film Buster lost some of his autonomy.  Sadly, things were never quite the same for him after that. 

My takeaways:

#1 - Buster Keaton died of lung cancer.  No one told him he had cancer so he just thought he was getting over bronchitis or something like that.  I'm not sure how I feel about this deception.

#2 - I am definitely not the only person who loved Buster Keaton.  There is a woman who has a current blog called "What Would Buster Do".  I wish I had thought of that first.

#3 - To me, Buster Keaton vs Charlie Chaplin is a lot like Mel Brooks vs Woody Allen.  I think I respond more to Buster and Mel because their humor is visceral and goofy but still sharply witty.  Charlie and Woody are a bit more highbrow and intellectual in their humor.  They also seem to beg the audience to sympathize with their characters.  Apparently I am a tad hard hearted, because usually their characters bug me.  If you know me at all, you know that I CRY laughing at any video with models falling. Not so highbrow.  Let's enjoy:  http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1rq18v_very-funny-models-are-falling-during-catwalk-on-ramp_fun

xoxo...hashtagSueslife

The one where Sue says Hi to one of her issues and doesn't revue anything

This morning I had a revelation.  For real.

I've been having an extraordinarily hard time deciding what to write about for this post  It made sense to be some kind of Valentine's Day post...about love or some such drivel.  I'm not a fan of the Valentine's Day shenanigans (okay, maybe I would be if I ever actually dated anyone long enough) and while I love a good rom com as much as anyone else, that felt a little obvious.  But then where do you go from there?  I kicked around a few ideas - maybe I write about actors I adore?  Or maybe I write about horrible-things-that-happened-on-Valentine's-Day movies (like Valentine's Day Massacre or My Bloody Valentine).  Or maybe I suck it up and write about frickin' rom coms anyway (I recommend Just Friends or The Wedding Singer!  Love both of them!).  Sheesh.  What to do?

In the end,  I couldn't do anything.  I was stuck. Nothing was resonating.  I couldn't even come up with an opening line. I started watching films starring one of my actor crushes from my college years, but honestly it wasn't firing me up as a "right around Valentine's Day" post.  I froze up; I wasn't watching ANYthing...I was in complete avoidance mode.  I was reading BOOKS, for crying out loud! 

 I. HAVE. BLOGGERS. BLOCK.  Shit.

I was walking to the shuttle this morning, thinking about how I could maybe make the meager scraps I have so far of the college crush idea into a viable post.  Then, just like the stinkin' sun rising over the houses on the other side of the street and blinding me, it hit me.  My commitment issues were showing.  All over the place. I could not COMMIT.  And therein lies the whole of my relationship conundrum.  I get squirrelly.  It's not them, it's me!  (Okay, maybe sometimes it's them but it definitely takes two to tango)  Wow, what a crazy can of worms to be faced with at 7:50am.  I don't particularly want to examine this part of my life through the movies I watch, therefore I'm not gonna be able to figure out what to write about.  It's a squishy, uncomfortable place, and I'd prefer to not think about it, thank you VERY much. 

I have no doubt that most of you are like "Duh, Sue."  And it's not like I haven't flirted with this thought before.  But I'm a fucking AMAZING compartmentalizer.  So let's just have a nice moment with this revelation and then I'll fold it up and put it back into my overstuffed suitcase filled with "I'll think about it tomorrow".

While you probably aren't really enjoying this trip down my own personal yellow brick road of psychology, enjoy your respite from my movie prattle.  That shit will be back soon enough!

**In an added bit of history - Sue's Revue's started one year ago!  I was writing emails to the Bookbabes about the movies I was watching while I wasn't working.  The first one I did officially was my Burt Reynolds email (Feb 11, 2015), which I recreated for this blog a few months ago.   So you can all either thank the Babes for this blog or curse them! It's up to you. I know which one I would choose.

(My drink pairing for this post is lots of pink champagne while you are stumped and avoiding the truth, then a good stout cup of tea on the Monday morning when it all comes clear.)

My takeaways:

#1 - This whole post is a takeaway, methinks.

xoxo....hashtagSueslife

January sucked.

The artistic community in general has suffered some great losses with the start of 2016.  For some reason, the passing of Alan Rickman really hit me hard.  It might be because I had just watched all the Harry Potter films a week or so before, I don't know.  But something about it made me infinitely sad.

And let's not even mention that all my favorite Bowie songs have been circling in my head for weeks now.  So many good ones.

I wanted to honor each of these iconic artists in my blog. probably because I'm not really ready to let go of either of them.  I lucked out that David Bowie was also an actor (if only Lemmy had tried his hand at acting!!), otherwise I would have probably tried to write some blithering, uninformed shit about music.  I can assure you, that would not have gone well.

I was stumped on how I should approach this post.  My favorite films from each of them?  Films I hadn't seen yet?  My usual go-to methods for procuring films let me down (neither Netflix nor Amazon had either Truly, Madly, Deeply or The Man Who Fell To Earth to stream/rent!), so I ended up just watching what I could.  Still, its an absolute treat to spend a bit more time with these guys.

DAVID BOWIE (1947 - 2016)

Labyrinth - released in 1986

I wasn't actually sure if I'd ever seen the whole of Labyrinth before.  I find that I consistently get it confused with Legend.  Why I would think that David Bowie is in a film where Tangerine Dream composed the music??  Clearly I WASN'T thinking.

Anyway, I realized I had seen the film and it just didn't stay with me.  I was too old when this movie came out for me to have that sort of nostalgic, "this movie is crap but I love it because it's my childhood!" feeling about it.  I saw The Last Unicorn only a few years ago for the first time and was SLAMMED over the head with the fact that you needed to have seen this movie before you were 10 to feel any sort of lasting fondness for it. Apparently for me, the same goes for Labyrinth.

Jim Henson directed the film and George Lucas produced it.  One thing I loved about it is that the opening credits listed all the puppeteer's names...because let's face it, they were the main actors.  Jennifer Connolly plays the horrible, entitled heroine who has no respect for her family and clearly is in the "labyrinthian" turmoil of puberty (not super subtle there, dudes).  I mean, I get it that she doesn't like her stepmother (who actually, barring her horrible 80s hair and peach colored clothes, seemed fairly nice) and is OVER babysitting her little brother, but her character arc seemed pretty shallow.  For that, I blame the writers.  Jim Henson, Dennis Lee (mostly a composer, the only screenplay he wrote is Labyrinth) and Terry Jones wrote it.  Terry Jones!? Come ON!  I know you're a better writer than this!  You might not be my very favorite Python (although you always play a good woman) but you wrote Holy Grail and Life of Brian, for crying out loud!!  I KNOW you can write better characters than this!  Disappointed.

The puppets themselves are cute with the exception of Hoggle, who was a main character...his facial expressions were mostly lacking and the ones that were there were insufficient.  There was also one puppet that had to have influenced the look of Maz Kanata from Star Wars: A Force Awakens.  My favorite puppets, unsurprisingly, were the fox, Didymus, and his faithful steed, the dog Ambrocious.  Adorable in the extreme.

And let's talk Bowie.  He wrote the music, which is very 80's Bowie. This movie definitely doesn't highlight his acting skills, but he really was a great performer on so many levels (I mean, The Hunger...come on!).   He also looks amazing..the man can really wear makeup well.  And in the sea of mediocrity that is this film, he shines.  He even seems to connect with the baby...who knew Bowie was a softie?  There is a very sweet shot where he and the baby look at each other and smile.  Melt.   The only thing that was...alarming...was his pants.  Wow.  They are like grey leggings which really highlight how much the costume needed a codpiece.  There were a lot of shots of Hoggle where Bowie and his JUNK were right there (Hoggle comes up to Bowie's waist).  Maybe that's why I couldn't get behind Hoggle's facial expressions.  

(My drink pairing for this film is Kamikaze shots.  I drank them a lot in 1986.  They won't help you navigate the labyrinth, but you won't care.  (Side note (not at all PC, btw):  when I asked my brother John in the 80's what was in a kamikaze he told me "a very little Japanese man who wants to die".  Still cracks me up.))

ALAN RICKMAN  (1947 - 2016)

CBGB - released in 2013

This movie didn't do well at the box office.  It reportedly made something like $4000 on it's opening weekend.  Wow.  And it never really found its legs after that.

This movie is about Hilly Kristal (I kept thinking Did they just call him Billy Crystal?? every time I heard the name) who ran the NYC club CBGB.  He is known as the Father of Punk Rock...his club hosted SO many amazing bands as they were starting out in the 70's: The Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, etc.  I would have LOVED to have gone there back in the day.

One of the characters in the film is John Holstrom, the guy who started Punk Magazine.  It was an illustrated mag; it's been likened to MAD Magazine in it's presentation.  There was a different music magazine in the 1970's that had my allegiance (Long live BAM Magazine!), but I would have been interested to check this one out.  John Holstrom is really almost a tertiary character in the film, but I imagine he's in there at all because the filmmakers decided to use Punk Magazine's influence to create the look of the film - each band introduced with a comic book panel.  I expect this is so EVERYONE could figure out who's who.  I also felt the comic book motif was to sort of Disney-fy the world of punk rock.  Like "See, it's not so scary to watch these bands!  They're in a comic book!!  It's charming!"  I kept thinking it's like the Starbucks of film styles.  Coffee for non-coffee drinkers.  

The film really fell apart for me, though, with the musical numbers.  All the songs were lip-synced (with the exception of a song that Hilly sings...Alan Rickman did a darn good job of it, actually) which lends itself to disappointing performances.  It also seemed like the songs they chose for each artist were their recognizable hits (for the most part) and I find it hard to believe it's what each band started their career with.  I could be wrong, but it just felt too easy.

Malin Ackerman is maybe the most disappointing in her depiction of Debbie Harry.  I'm never a big fan of her acting (yawns-ville in The Watchmen) but it seemed in this she couldn't even land on how to do Debbie's accent. It was all over the place.  

Hilly Kristal managed a band called The Dead Boys, so we see a bit more of them.  The lead singer, Stiv Bators, is played by the guy who goes missing in the Hangover, Justin Bartha (I love him in National Treasure, though, where he plays Riley.  National Treasure is pretty much on every hour of every day on some channel or another, so if you are confused on who I mean, you won't have too wait long to find out.).  The real Stiv is a fucking train wreck - he apparently choked himself to death once on stage (they revived him and he lived to punk another day). Hangover Dude puts in a good performance as Stiv.  His bandmate, Cheetah Crome, is played by Rupert Grint.  He's...okay.  I'm gonna be honest.  I'm a little worried that old Ron Weasley might not have the longest acting career.  He's pretty consistently underwhelming.  It was sort of sweet to see Rupert and Alan Rickman playing off each other again, though.  

Maybe the filmmaker, Randall Miller (of BottleShock fame) really just had an extremely nostalgic feeling about this old punk club, which is why the whole film seemed so benign.  I read where he wanted to find the "human story", but I think that does a disservice to punk clubs.  And punk music.  And the punk philosophy.  When I think "punk" I don't think "human story.  I think "loud".  I think "drugs".  I think "raw".  You don't get those things at Disney.  Or Starbucks.  

I kept thinking about this old punk club my friend Lisa and I used to frequent in the 90's.  It was on Valencia St in SF, called the Chameleon Club.  Three bands for $5.  My favorite memory of this club is when we saw a not terrible band from LA, The Leaving Trains (I think this was their name).  The male lead singer was dressed in a slip with full makeup.  The bass player was only wearing his not-so-tighty-anymore whiteys.  In the middle of their set, someone set fire to one of the lead singer's hightop Chucks.  He was COMPLETELY fucked up and didn't notice.  We in the audience started to get a bit nervous, so someone put it out with their beer.  The lead singer started yelling at the guy "Why is my shoe wet?  Why the fuck did you pour your beer on me???"  It was ALL SORTS of awesome.  

The only reason I watched this film was for Alan Rickman.  And honestly, he didn't disappoint.  He never disappoints.  The man can convey every emotion he needs to with a twitch of his eyebrow or a perfectly executed sneer.  He was the king of subtle acting.  It's always a treat to see him on film.

I actually ended up liking this movie.  Hilly aligns with some Hells Angels, and the scenes with the Angels are pretty great.  Also, there is a scene where Hilly's mother visits the club.  Everyone is very nice to her and it's a sweet scene.  It reminded me so much of my mother at the Bammies.  Big 80's rock stars knew who she was and were lovely and respectful to her (I think it was Huey Lewis who called her Mom, which tickled her to no end).

I thought this was Alan Rickman's last film, but in fact it wasn't (he was in A Little Chaos in 2015 and has a voice role in a new Alice in Wonderland film and a role in another film releasing this year).  He wasn't sick yet, he only discovered his cancer in 2015 after suffering a small stroke.  Alan, we will miss you.  Your vocal inflections and facial expressions were sublime and will not be forgotten.

(My drink pairing for this film is a shitty beer and a shot of cheap whiskey. Or two, so you won't realize your tennis shoe is on fire.)

My takeaways:

#1 - We are all a bit poorer for the loss of these two talented, charming, iconic men.

That is all.

xoxo...hashtagSueslife

I solemnly swear I am up to no good.

R.I.P Alan Rickman.

Happy New Year, gang!  Here's to 2016!

I had the whole Christmas week off this year.  Glorious.  And although I had ample time to do the hundred things I *should* have done, I chose to park it on my couch and catch up on my TV watching/cat snuggling.  Initially I was thinking I would start a new series on Netflix that I could binge on.  But it was Christmas.  And that deserves Hallmark Channel and  holiday movies.  What to do?  It's a Wonderful Life?  Miracle on 34th St?  Just Friends? (if you haven't seen this, I recommend it.  Anna Faris is hilarious in it!)  Nothing was really resonating with me until I thought about revisiting the Potter films.  I haven't seen them in a long time, in fact I had only seen the Deathly Hollows films once.  So, I embarked on a journey that resulted in about 20 hours of film watching, many hours of cat purring and 2 - 3 bags of popcorn.

Like I said before, it's been years since I've watched any Potter film and I've never watched the whole series in a row.  Additionally I realized that I have never really taken these movies at face value.  By that I mean, I typically saw each film (with the exception of Sorcerer's Stone) the morning they opened and had just finished the corresponding book.  So each time I was fairly bursting with excitement and Rowling love.  And I was always a tiny bit disappointed.  Never by the visuals, each film is rich and opulent.  But I was pretty critical of the fact that parts of the books were left out and I was a bit harsh, quite honestly, about Harry, Ron and Hermione's acting skills.

What I discovered on this journey is that the franchise, as stand-alone films, is really strong.  The movies are all quite good and they tell the story very competently.  Steve Kloves adapted all the books to screenplays with the exception of Order of the Phoenix.  I think he's pretty amazing; culling down those massive tomes into something appropriate for a 2.5 hour film couldn't have been easy.  Plus each of those decisions must have been like Sophie's choices for JK Rowling, so I imagine he was constantly defending his decisions.  Kudos to Kloves.  And the acting talent across the board is amazing.  There are so many highly talented and well respected actors in each film, sometimes with only one line of dialog.  And the kids got SO much better as time went on.  They have become pretty solid actors in their own right.

This was sort of a pajama, christmas cookie and popcorn fueled trip down memory lane.  And here is where I landed.

(P.S. There are spoilers below in case, for some weird reason, you are unfamiliar with HP :)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - released in 2001

Fun fact:  called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone everywhere but the US and India.  Sigh.

I had read this book a year or so (maybe) before the film came out.  I actually had heard people talking about it, so I picked up the paperback at SFO and read the whole thing on the plane rides to and from LA.  When I heard they were making the film I was so excited.  I was working in Montara at the time, a small town right on the coast.  The closest movie theatre to me was an ancient theatre in Pacifica (I don't recall the name).  It was seriously disgusting, down to sticky floors that made my shoes make horrible noises.  But I didn't care ONE BIT.  I dove right into the world the filmmakers created for me.  It really was magical.  And for the most part, I felt that the casting was PERFECT.  Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid?  Couldn't be a better choice.  Maggie Smith as McGonagall?  Excellent.  Richard Harris as Dumbledore?  Heart melting.  And Alan Rickman as Snape.  Sublime.  

Also, all three kids: adorable.

Chris Columbus directed this film (of Home Alone and Mrs Doubtfire fame).  He's never been one of my favorite directors, I feel like he's a bit...pedestrian, for lack of a better word.  He clearly has the "touch" for working with children (minds out of the gutter, people - or is that just me?), so you gotta give him credit for that.  Perhaps that's why I feel like his work lacks some depth.  Maybe you can only go so deep with a bunch of ten and eleven year olds.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - released in 2002

I felt like in this installment, Chris Columbus was allowed to up his FX budget. He had three fully animated characters with rather large roles (Dobby, Fawkes and the basilisk) and a host of other FX heavy shots.

In this film, little Ginny Weasley comes to Hogwarts and she couldn't be more adorable.  I love her character and I feel that she ended up being well cast.  

I was happy to see Professor Sprout, who's played by Miriam Margolyes who plays Aunt Pru in my favorite Australian TV series, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries!

But the best piece of casting in this film (and in his career, in my opinion) is Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart.  Honestly, I feel like J.K. Rowling must have written Lockhart with Branagh in mind, he's the PERFECT characterization of the egotistical, self absorbed teacher.

Also, our littles are starting to grow up in this one.  Harry (thankfully) still has his floppy hair and I don't think voices have *quite* changed in this film.  We are starting to see, though, that most of the boys are starting to win the height race against Harry.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - released in 2004

There are lots of changes by time we hit this movie.

Our kids are growing.  Voices have definitely changed, Hermione is starting to look like a young lady.  Sadly, Richard Harris passed away in October 2002, so Michael Gambon took over the role of Dumbledore.  When this initially happened, I couldn't imagine ANYONE else being Dumbledore.  Gambon did an excellent job, however, in this and the subsequent films.

Lots of new characters resulted in some more amazing casting.  Gary Oldman, David Thewlis and Timothy Spall came on as Padfoot, Moony and Wormtail.  They are all wonderful actors and their scenes together are pure acting gold.

This film is the first and only to be directed by Alfonso Cuaron.  According to the internet,  while Chris Columbus used a "Golden storybook" approach, Cuaron really expanded the look of the film by fleshing out the landscape around Hogwarts and desaturating the color palette. HIs shots are beautiful (in my opinion) and his transitions using wildlife (owls, creatures in the lake, etc) put me in the mind of a Peter Weir film (Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave...majestic stuff).  I did find his use of the Hogwarts clock tower with all it's gear-moving a tad heavy handed.  Felt like he was hammering that theme into us.  We get it, Alfonso.  Time turner.  Time travel.  TIME.  Time out.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - released in 2005

This is the movie where things start to get dark.  This is also the film where Harry gets a hair cut, which is a bit meh.  And Ron starts looking more adult which is also a bit meh. Hermione keeps looking prettier and prettier.

Again, we get some new characters in this film which brings with it another host of great talent.  Brendan Gleeson expertly plays Mad Eye Moody.  David Tennant (my favorite doctor!) plays Barty Crouch, Jr (this was released the same year as the new Dr Who, so it's a year before Tennant started his term at Doctor).  And the ill fated Cedric Diggory is played by Robert Pattinson.  I would say this might be his best role yet, not only because he isn't faking an American accent but because he's only in one film.

We see our first death in this film and...what we've all been waiting for....we get to see Voldemort.  Another amazing bit of casting...who would have thought that the man who was so dreamy and steamy in The English Patient could be so unrecognizable in this!  Also, in what couldn't be more British and almost Potter-esque, his full name is Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes.  Best. Name. Ever.

This film is directed by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Enchanted April).  Oddly, the year following this film's release he directed a short called Harry Potter Spoof Movie in India with an all Indian cast.  Really, Mike Newell?  Was that your best option for 2006?

The color palette continues to get bleaker as the films progress and Newell states he wanted to structure this film like a "paranoid thriller".  I'd say he met his goal.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - released in 2007

Shit is getting real in this film.  This is the first of 4 films directed by David Yates.  He desaturated the color palette even more, making the films have a  blueish tint throughout.  His goal for the final three book adaptations was to bring a sense of "jeopardy" to the world.  

Harry and the gang are fully going through high school issues by now...I could have sworn I saw a zit on Harry's face in one of the closeups.  Also, they are learning about their sexuality.  For some reason, though, when Harry and Cho kiss it made me feel dirty.  Maybe I'm still thinking of him as an eleven year old.  Or maybe he just doesn't have any sex appeal.  Either way, ew.  And really, poor Harry.  Who wants to go through raging hormones at the same time you have to fight the Dark Lord?  Not cool.

We meet Luna Lovegood in this, beautifully played by Evanna Lynch.  She's a great character in the books, so I'm glad nothing was compromised in the casting.  We also get Professor Umbridge, with all her meowing kitten plates and pink suits.  Imelda Staunton plays Umbridge.  She is great in this role, emanating sickly sweet evilness.

The wand waving and flourishing in the Dumbledore/Voldemort fight at the end is excellent.  And, of course, the saddest of things: we lose Sirius Black.  I got weepy for more than just the Harry Potter character this time around.

This book was one of my favorites of the series.  I ended up being glad of the director  change here as I feel that Yates brought the right kind of feel to the adaptation.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - released in 2009

Again, directed by David Yates.  And getting darker all the time.

This film is a lot better than I remembered it, actually.  It has some really disturbing stuff in it, neither Rowling nor Yates shied away from this.  There is a scene where a student is floating above the ground after coming across a hexed pendant which is just chilling.  Her hair is floating around her and her expression is frozen in a scream. Creepy as shit.

The hormone stuff is still in full effect.  The boys are all deep voices and arm muscles.  Weird.

Also, we experience much sadness in this movie.  We lose Dumbledore and I will admit to tearing up when everyone puts their lit wands up toward the sky.  When I first saw the movie I had a concert flashback (raised lighters), but seeing it again, it's very touching.  Plus by this point, it was KILLING me that all these beloved characters were being offed.

The other thing that really hit me in this film (it's not that I didn't already know this, mind you) is what an incredibly nuanced performance Alan Rickman gives as Snape.  It just sort of hit me all over again.  He's seriously a brilliant actor.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 released 2010

                                                                  Part 2 released 2011

I'm going to discuss these two films in one blurb.  I think it makes more sense that way.  Yates leads up both these final films.

First, I have to tell you all that I needed to wait nearly a week in between watching Part 1 and Part 2.  I was REALLY sad and needed a bit of a break.  Not only did I know my marathon was coming to the end, but so was the story.  And wow.  These two movies are so good.

A fun fact that I discovered (you might have all already known this) is that Warwick Davis, who plays Professor Flitwick ALSO plays Griphook the Gringott's Goblin.  I had NO idea!  He's great at both characters but honestly, there isn't ONE OTHER little person in all of England who could play one of these roles?  Hmmm.

Bill Nighy joins the cast in Part 1.  He is, as always, awesome (although he's pretty put together and normally I enjoy him most when he's a hot mess).  See what I mean about how these films have SUCH great supporting talent?  He was in like 3 scenes total.

Also, in Part 1 there is a beautifully animated piece telling the Tale of the Three Brothers, which explains what the Deathly Hallows are.  This was done at an animation/fx house in London called Framestore, which has also worked on many of the Potter films as well as many other major motion pictures.  It's really gorgeous.  

The death toll is raging and awful in these films.  Our first casualty is Hedwig and that nearly did me in. Then we end Part 1 with Dobby.  Goddammit!  Stop!   I ended up being sniffly through the whole of the second movie, too.  It's like one thing after another.  Not one punch was pulled.  Snape's story is absolutely heartbreaking.  We lose more of our favorite characters.  EVERYONE gets wrecked and makes hard decisions about the rest of their lives.  This is not a children's movie.

I was a little sad to see (when Ron and Harry are shirtless in one scene) that Rupert Grint's partying ways resulted in a bit of a beer belly.  And I was very pleased to see that even adding Neville's funky teeth, there is no denying that Matthew Lewis grew up to be quite a handsome man.

(It was tough to figure out a drink for each film, so I'd suggest pairing your marathon with several pitchers of Butterbeer, into which you can cry.)

My takeaways:

#1 - There are actual, real life Quidditch games now.  Like at colleges and stuff.  Amazing.

#2 - For some reason I thought Mrs Norris wasn't in all the films, but I'm happy to report she's shown at least once per film.

#3 - Ron Weasley is my absolute favorite character in the books. He is funny and loyal and brave in his own way.  Ron Weasley in the movies is consistently a bit of a disappointment because I love the written version of him so much.  Such is life.

#4 - I would totally do this marathon again.  Anyone want to join me?

xoxo....hashtagSueslife

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Happy New Year everyone!

Recently NBC aired their live broadcast of the Wiz.  It got me thinking about how many versions of the Wizard and Dorothy's story are out there.  It also made me long to see the original version.  I will admit, with the holidays and all, I've been a bit of a short attention span viewer so I was worried that I wasn't going to make it through the whole film without picking up my iPad or pausing it to do something else.

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong.  There are some films out there which absolutely suck you in and make you feel like a kid again.  All the wonder and amazement are still there for me when I watch that film.

So here's to 2016, my friends.  May it be a year filled with wonder and amazement.

The Wizard of Oz - released in 1939

I'm not really going to revue this film.  If you haven't seen it (which would shock me), I strongly urge that you do.  It's really wonderful and completely holds up to the test of time as long as you remember it was made in 1939 (some of the dialog is a bit dated).  I really watched this more so I could have some context for revue-ing the films below.

I've read so much about the lore of this film over the years.  I went on a mission to find some things I didn't know (and relay some of the more interesting ones that I did).

First, let's just mention that EVERYONE who wore some kind of makeup or extreme costume had major issues.  On the "not so serious" side, Ray Bolger (Scarecrow) had creases in his face from the prosthetics that were so deep they supposedly took a year to go away entirely.  And poor Bert Lahr's (Lion) costume weighed ONE HUNDRED pounds.  Apparently he sweat like a total pig because the lights for early Technicolor were so bright and hot that often the temps rose to 100 degrees.  Bad combo.  On the "serious" side, Margaret Hamilton (Wicked Witch) suffered burns on her face when her makeup caught fire after one of the explosions (her makeup was also made of copper so she couldn't eat anything when she had it on because it was toxic. Yum!). Jack Haley (Tinman) got a severe eye infection from his silver makeup and Buddy Epson (Beverly Hillbillies) was originally cast as the Tinman but suffered a severe allergy to the makeup and had to leave the film.  Where was Maybelline when you needed it??

This film was directed by Victor Fleming, who also directed Gone With the Wind.  They released THE SAME YEAR.  WTF??  Fleming was brought on both films as someone who would "save them".  He was a highly respected director, yet seemed to consistently be overlooked by many critics.  This may have been because of the rumors that he was "pro-Nazi" and he was also a founding member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (think black listing in Hollywood, McCarthyism, etc). Not great for the image.

Either way, he was brought on to fix the issues with both these films and ended up with two of the most iconic, quoted films of all time. 

The other thing I want to talk about for a moment is the editor of The Wizard of Oz.  HER name is Blanche Sewell.  Back in the day, many of the "film cutters" were women.  Often they only had high school educations (like Blanche...she got her job 3 years out of high school).  They were also (and not surprisingly) unsung.  Often they were truly just technicians, for lack of a better word.  The directors were really making all the choices.  But many of them became true artists, understanding the rhythms needed for film editing as well as knowing what would resonate with an audience.  I was pleased to discover that Blanche was the first editor at MGM to edit a "talkie".  So, so cool.  

Finally, I'd like to do a little shout out to Toto and the Munchkins.  I LOVED Toto when I was little.  Apparently so did Judy Garland, who wanted to buy the dog after the movie (Toto was actually a female named Terry).  Terry's owners said no.  Considering how Judy turned out, maybe it's for the best.  In my opinion, Toto was also the hardest working character in the film.  I think little Terry should have had an Oscar nomination.  Toto gets ALL the jobs done. 

The Munchkins are credited as a group...at the beginning as "the Munchkins" and at the end as "The Singer Midgets" (their manager was named Singer...trust me, at first I was like "they are called WHAT??").  Seriously?  Many of them were also foreign so much of the voice work was dubbed over.  I was wondering about that when I watched it.  Because honestly the Lollipop Guild sounds like they wear their pants a little too tight.  And is it bad that I continually thought "CALL ME ELF ONE MORE TIME!" during that whole scene?  Cuz I did.

(My drink pairing for this film is a Hurricane (call it a Tornado!))

The Wiz Live - aired December 2015

The first thing to know about me is I've never been a fan of The Wiz.  I don't feel any connection to the music (with the exception of Ease on Down the Road, cuz that's a fun song) and Diana Ross was frankly too old to play Dorothy back in the day.   

Additionally I've watched all of NBC's experiments - I mean live broadcasts of musicals - and I've been severely underwhelmed.  The first one was  Sound of Music with Carrie Underwood and Vampire Bill from True Blood.  Everyone looked a bit horrified to even be in it and Carrie slid or tripped or something when she was high on a hill, like a lonely goat.  Yodel-ay-hee-hoo. The second year they put on Peter Pan with Allison Williams as Peter and Christopher Walken as Captain Hook.  Walken could not have looked weirder in his makeup and costume and there was all sorts of strange, homoerotic dancing.  Plus, Allison Williams just wasn't that good.  Both of these had a high mockability quotient.  So I had really high hopes for The Wiz.

In the end, it was pretty meh. In general, the performances were solid enough to not be able to fully mock them.  Shoot.   The girl who plays Dorothy seemed to have a good voice, but was drowned out in the audio mix.  The guy who played the Scarecrow was a good dancer and had a sweet, melancholy expression on his face, but he was no Ray Bolger (that man really danced like he was made of straw) or Michael Jackson, for that matter.  I thought MJ was a bit...fey, I guess...to be Scarecrow but there is no denying the dude could dance.  Ne-Yo as the Tinman was probably my favorite, he was the most heartfelt, but again, doesn't hold a candle to Jack Haley.  And David Allen Grier as the Lion was again just meh.  And that's SUCH a great role!  I don't even think he did one "grrrrff!"  Even Queen Latifah, who I think is awesome, didn't really do it for me.

I think what I always miss in any production of The Wiz is the heart that is in The Wizard of Oz.  By the end you really believe that Dorothy is going to miss the Scarecrow most of all.  You know that she just loves the stuffing right out of him.  I don't ever get that feeling from this show - film or play version.

I'm sure it's super hard to do a "live" show with no audience, but NBC really needs to figure out how to make these more appealing.  Or just keep them ridiculous and shitty because that's WAY more entertaining!

(My drink pairing for this show is a Cape Cod (vodka and cranberry).  Let's call it a Ruby Slipper!)

Oz The Great and Powerful - released in 2013

When I rented this film, the tagline on Amazon was "The never-before-told fantastical adventure with an all star cast!"  Well, they were right about how it's never been told before.

This film is directed by Sam Raimi, which gave me some hope at the outset.  Bruce Campbell is even in it, but his facial prosthetics are so garish that I could barely tell it was him.  Plus, he was a bit part - one of the Wicked Witch's Winkies.  But let's get the to the heart of the matter.  This movie pretty much sucked.  Apparently it was a box office success, but I have a hard time believing that.  First, it sucked.  Second, I barely remember it being in theaters.  And third?  James Franco plays Oz.  And he's really terrible.  Now, I'm not a fan of him, per se, but I'm also not a Franco hater.  I've never seen 127 Hours (can't stomach the thought of the arm!) so I'm not well informed about his acting chops.  But in this, he's wooden and smarmy and I just can't fathom AT ALL why the women fall all over him.  Ick.

The quick story is that Franco plays a magician in a traveling circus about 20 years before the Dorothy events happen.  He beds like EVERY woman in the Dust Bowl and gives them all this p.o.s. music box as a parting gift.  They also all see each other's music box (that sounds dirtier than it is), so he's not so good at the misdirect.  Anyway, he ends up in Oz by the usual means, and it's gorgeous and hyper-colorful.  He meets 3 witches, two are wicked (played by Rachel Weisz and Mila Kunis) and one is good (Michelle Williams).  There is a prophecy in Oz about a Wizard coming to rid the place of evil.  Franco gets into some stupid shit with the women and has to magic himself out of trouble.

Sam Raimi does some major nods to the original, which I appreciated.  The first 20 minutes are in black and white and Franco is swept away from Kansas by a tornado. One of the women he's had a fling with turns out to be (or we're led to believe) Dorothy's future mom.  Most of the people he meets in Oz have counterparts in Kansas.  He also creates a walking army of scarecrows at one point and there are Tinkers he befriends who I assume later create the Tinman.  Mila Kunis plays the witch who eventually turns into the green one we all know.  She starts out as a sweet, innocent witch, has a fling with Franco and thinks its love.  This leads to her becoming a bitter, green hag.  Raimi, I think you could have been a bit less obvious with that storyline.  

Franco makes a couple of friends along the way.  One is a nice flying monkey dressed like a bellhop.  He's voiced by Zach Braff and he's pretty cute.  Another is a small china doll who's family was destroyed by the original Wicked Witch (Rachel Weisz).  I know this is going to shock ALL of you, but I think she's my favorite character in the whole film.  She's charming and she's beautifully animated.  I know.  It's like Backward Day.

But maybe my favorite thing in the film (and I even saw that the Hollywood Reporter review mentioned it) is that even though Weisz and Kunis play sisters, they have different accents.  Weisz is British and Kunis couldn't be more American.  This really fucks with my suspension of disbelief.  Well, really it all does.

(My drink pairing for this film is a Dark and Stormy. Let's call this one Transportation.  And have a few, because you really don't want to watch this sober.)

My takeaways:

#1 - Why have I never named a cat Toto??

#2 - James Franco was the third choice to play Oz (Robert Downey Jr and Johnny Depp both turned it down).  This does not surprise me.

#3 - I think what I learned most of all is to find a classic movie you really don't have to look further than your own backyard.

xoxo...hashtagSueslife

The Force will be with you, always

A long time ago (38 years) in a galaxy far, far away (San Jose) I was introduced to the movie that changed my life:  Star Wars.

Never before had I seen a movie that I wanted to live in.  I wanted to hang out with these people.  Have adventures with them. Our heroes were funny, charming, caring, noble.  I didn't want to BE Princess Leia, I wanted to go on adventures with her.  With all of them.

Naturally, I was a self absorbed kid when the film came out in May 1977, so I'm sure I thought I was the only person (besides Norm, who was all in with me) who felt this way.   I didn't realize how far reaching the impact and influence of this film would be.  That it would seep into other people's psyches as well and become a "cultural unifier".  This film's influence is so far-reaching it's mind boggling.  It changed pop culture (phrases like "evil empire"  and "May the Force be with you" incorporating themselves into our daily speech), it pulled 20th Century Fox out of near bankruptcy to become one of the largest media conglomerates and it spawned a shit ton of parodies/homages and spin offs.  It's a movie that stitches people together.  

Naturally there is a lot of differing opinions on how this film was revolutionary.  Many say that it's the first major studio blockbuster (apparently Gone With the Wind was, still holding the record for highest grossing film), the first serialized movie (nope, Bond, James Bond) or the first "event" movie (Jaws or Godfather could hold that distinction).  What no one can argue with, however, is it was the first film to highlight special effects, causing monumental growth in the industry.  George Lucas needed to create ILM because Fox's special effects department had been scrapped.  They pushed the envelope for special effects and I think we can all agree: YAY!!  And the other thing no one can dispute?  George was a merchandising genius.  Lucas gave up $500,000 of his directing fee to keep the merch rights and WHOA did that make George a rich man.

What this film also did, though, was brought back action, adventure and romanticism to the big screen.  The 70's were big on taut dramas and realism.  The stuff a 13 year old girl wasn't much interested in when given the option.  So this became the movie that made me want to work in the movie industry.  It was the closest I could get to hanging out with these guys.

I'm sure none of you are surprised that I'm ridiculously excited to see The Force Awakens.  And it's not because it's a new installment of this universe (I've been let down before).  It's because I get to see my old friends again.  I've missed them, I missed watching them band together to fight the Evil Empire.  I watch the trailers and commercials and when I glimpse Han or Leia or Luke I get butterflies in my stomach and start grinning like an idiot. So I thought, for this post, I'd look into what my pals have been doing for the last 38 years.  Should be interesting, eh?

R2D2 

Kenny Baker (R2) is 81 years old!  Looks like he'd been on a BBC TV show for years (1992 - 2007).  It also looks like he may have come out of retirement to be in The Force Awakens. My Star Wars aficionado friend Dave tells me that Kenny has been in ailing heath for many years.  It does my heart good to know that he's reprising his role.  R2 can't be played by anyone else!!

C3PO

Anthony Daniels (3PO) is 69 years old.  He got married to a woman last year who's 84.  Wow.  You go, Cougar!  Get your droid!!  I can tell you from experience that he does the Presentation Circuit because he spoke at Dreamworks when I was there.  He's riding on 3PO's metal coattails (and not unlike 3PO, he seems to think extremely highly of himself), but who can blame him?  Unsurprisingly, he also does the voice work for all the Star Wars offshoots (TV shows, video games).

Chewbacca

Chewie has always been my favorite character (as much as I love all the others he's the only one I imitate!).  He's the most adorable big walking carpet ever (and really Leia, it's not his fault he's in your way, he's just really big and the hallway is tiny! Chill!).  Peter Mayhew is 71 years old.   He's also ridden on Chewie's  furry coattails but really what other jobs do you get when you're 7'2"?  The best thing I discovered is that he played Chewie on an episode of Glee.  I need to find that, STAT.

Luke Skywalker

When Star Wars first came out, I was 100% a Luke fan.  I was young and he was adorable.  I had the book before the movie came out so I obsessed on the insert with the pictures and Luke just looked so...blond.  And cute.  My mom was like "Nope.  I like the bad boys.  Who's the other guy?" (she always liked Rhett more than Ashley)  Anyway, the film came out and I couldn't argue with her. I mean, Luke is just so. fucking. whiny.  And that hasn't become more charming with time.  Mark Hamill has done almost exclusively voice work (film and video games) for many years.  He was in Kingsmen a couple years ago, which I enjoyed quite a bit.  He has a rather small part, as I recall, so this wasn't like it was the film that ushered him back into the limelight.  It really seems like he works non stop, though, so that's awesome!  And I'm sure I knew this when I was 13 and obsessed, but he was born in Oakland!  Hella cool!

Princess Leia Organa

I really, really loved Carrie Fisher in Star Wars.  She just seemed like the most amazing woman.  I knew she was fairly young, her mother was in one of my all time favorite films (Singin' in the Rain....in the early days of Star Wars I remember that the talk shows, etc, kept talking about how Carrie's breakout role had her playing off of two men, just like Debbie's.  I felt pretty mature because I knew what they were talking about), and she was so clever and witty in interviews.  I wore gold hoop earrings for like a year because I saw Carrie Fisher wear them.

Star Wars isn't the only iconic film Carrie has been in (When Harry Met Sally..."I want you to know, I'll never want that wagon wheel coffee table."  Classic!).  She works a ton.  She's been in movies and TV shows, has done some voice work, is a great writer and created an amazing one-woman show called Wishful Drinking which I was lucky enough to see in Berkeley when it came around.  And her dog's name is Gary.  Gary Fisher.  So good.

I've always (and still do) wanted to be friends with Carrie Fisher.  When I was young I wanted to be just like her.  In retrospect, I'm sure my family is pretty glad i'm NOT just like her.  I don't think I have enough in savings to go to a really good rehab.

Han Solo

Oh Harrison Ford.  We all love you.  Even though you are like 73 and broke your ankle on the Millennium Falcon.  I mean, it could happen to anyone, right?

I was a bit bummed that he left his cool wife (screenwriter Melissa Mathison) of over 20 years to be with Calista "Toothpick" Flockhart.  But he's clearly a serial monogamist because he's been with her for a long time now too.

This guy soared right to the top.  It's not like he wasn't charming and handsome and funny enough in Star Wars, then he had to go play Indiana Jones?!  How can a girl choose???  Han or Indy?  Gah.  Then he creates Blade Runner's Rick Deckard, The Fugitive's Dr Richard Kimble and Tom Clancy's character Jack Ryan to name only a few.  Dude!  Nicely done.

I wrote about Working Girl (which he was in) a few months ago.  I said that Harrison Ford kind of has this specific "style" of acting where he often (almost always) looks" perplexed".  But whatever, right?  Because it works for him!  A lot.  And he also sprinkles in "adorable smirky smile" which puts him right over the top.  Harrison Ford made me "get" what my mom meant about liking the bad boys.  They tend to be way more interesting, nuanced and, let's face it, sexy.  I may have taken her words TOO much to heart judging by my track record...but I'm getting off topic.  Back to Harrison!  According to IMDb he's done over 40 films SINCE Star Wars.  That doesn't count what he did before.  

Harrison Ford is a total movie star. Also, he's just the right height to be a stormtrooper.

(my drink pairing suggestion for this post would probably be a can or two of Tab. Or blue milk if you're a purist.)

My takeaways:

#1 - Have I mentioned that I'm SUPER excited for The Force Awakens?  I am!

#2 - I have a lot of faith in JJ Abrams.  I really enjoyed his reboot of Star Trek.  JJ, I'm counting on you.  Just be cool with the lens flares, okay? A little goes a long way.

#3 - I 've also been reading about another Indiana Jones film (5th) and a Blade Runner sequel.  Honestly, my jury is out on both of these, so I'm just gonna pretend I didn't hear about either yet.  One thing at a time.

xoxo...hashtagSueslife