BEFORE: Something I probably should have done from the START was to list the director of each film as I posted about them, it's relevant tonight, so I think I'm going to start making up for my disservice to film directors by, going forward, listing the director of each film and name-checking the last film I watched from them, like I do for the actors. It seems only fair. And I probably have time to go back and do this for all of this year's films, but at this point, to go back and re-label all 4,900 previous films, ugh, what a nightmare. Let me start with 2025 and then decide if I want to go back and alter previous posts if I have the time, which I probably don't. Yet that's what my OCD wants to do.
Josh Pais carries over from "That Awkward Moment", and it feels appropriate because last night he played the always-awkward boss of two characters. Now here's the line-up for Wednesday, 2/26, Day 26 of TCM's "31 Days of Oscar". I'll have my total in a few days and then I can stop posting this:
Best Sound Winners and Nominees:
8:45 am "Topper Returns" (1941)
10:15 am "The Gay Divorcee" (1934)
12:15 pm "San Francisco" (1936)
2:15 pm "Grand Prix" (1966)
5:15 pm "The Great Race" (1965)
Oscar Worthy Nuns and Priests:
8:00 pm "Going My Way" (1944)
10:15 pm "Dead Man Walking" (1995)
12:30 am "On the Waterfront" (1954)
2:30 am "Boys Town" (1938)
4:15 am "The Nun's Story" (1959)
I was at 122 seen out of 292, and I've seen another 6 out of Wednesday's 10 - "Topper Returns", "The Gay Divorcee", "The Great Race", "Dead Man Walking", "On the Waterfront" and "The Nun's Story". SO now 128 seen out of 302 takes me to 42.3%.
THE PLOT: A novelist's long-standing marriage is suddenly upended when she overhears her husband giving his honest reaction to her latest book.
AFTER: I seem to have hit upon a string of films about relationships in trouble, yesterday's three male lead characters were all kind of self-sabotaging men in their 20's, but it's a different kind of trouble today - a couple that's married with a son start fighting and questioning everything because of a miscommunication. Actually the husband speaks his honest opinion about his wife's new book, and she overhears him - previously he had been very encouraging about her manuscript, but always kind of tempering the compliment, saying things like "Well, I'm not really the best judge..." and "I liked your first book better..."
The husband himself is a therapist, and he also starts to question his own abilities when a married couple that he counsels feels that they're not making any progress in their sessions, and demands a refund for their therapy fees. Umm, sure, that's not really how therapy works, or any doctor's practice, unless you want to sue for malpractice. But now that he's spoken the truth about his wife's book, and she really resents his negative review, it's like his whole life is up in the air, too.
The larger question here, of course, is whether honesty is always the best policy in relationships. You want to be supportive of your spouse, but to what extent? If they're wasting their talents or if you feel they're not on the right track somehow, do you have the right to disapprove? I say no, but I try very hard to keep my work life separate from my relationship, ideally it would be great if I didn't bring the anxiety of running an ever-failing animation studio home with me, sometimes I have to decompress after walking through the front door, sometimes that involves an alcoholic beverage or a quick nap, or both. I know my wife would love it if I could get a better or at least higher-paying job, however I don't respond well to people pointing out my failings. Who does?
The arguments here do have a very real feel to them - so I'm wondering now how autobiographical this film is. Did the director's spouse not approve of the last film she directed? Nicole Holofcener's listed as divorced on Wikipedia, so maybe this did draw from her own break-up, I can't really get a read on that. Her mother and step-father worked on Woody Allen films, and she started her career by working on two of Woody's films, so I bet there are some different stories there. Her stepfather was Charles Joffe, who produced many of Woody Allen's films, and Wiki says he was disapproving of his step-daughters first directorial efforts, so I wonder if there's a connection there to the lead character in today's film, who described verbal abuse from her father in her successful memoir. OK, enough reading between the lines.
To be fair to the husband here, when Beth's agent tells her that her new manuscript needs a second draft, or at least major revisions, Don does suggest that she find a new agent, which ultimately is what ends up happening. So I'm kind of on his side here, however I also see Beth's point that he shouldn't say one thing about the book to her and then something totally different when confiding in someone else. My wife has done a lot of baking since COVID started, and I did promise to eat all of her mistakes, which I've really only regretted saying once. I want to be encouraging, but there was one cake that even she had to admit missed the mark. Thankfully I keep Hershey's chocolate syrup in the fridge, it helped a lot. And I never said the cake was BAD, she'd already warned me about it. But she's got a very good track record overall when it comes to baking cookies, brownies and cakes, so no complaints.
What Beth displays here is something I've heard referred to as "artist's brain", where it's impossible for a writer or artist to view their own work objectively, especially if they've had successes in the past, then they may not understand how they could produce good art in the past and not continue to do so in the present. I understand the problem, because if you weren't in love with your idea, you wouldn't work on it in the first place - I found out in film school that I wasn't great at coming up with ideas, so I set myself on a course where I could become a producer and/or office manager, so I'd never have to put my ideas out there for other people to judge. Well, it's been 30 years of almost steady work, so my plan has worked out. I don't see myself as a writer because I don't feel I can create something original, only derivative. But living out my back-up plan isn't the worst possible scenario, there are plenty of more difficult jobs I could have.
Beth also volunteers at a church with her sister, Sarah, who also works as an interior decorator for high-profile, very picky clients. Sarah is married to Mark, a struggling actor who keeps getting fired or is always threatening to quit. And Beth and Don have a son, Elliot, who works at a weed dispensary but is also trying to write a play - his problem is that his parents have always been overly proud of him, and he doesn't think he can live up to their expectations. His story of getting a "C" on a book report in grade school haunts him because his mother urged the teacher to bump him up to a "B", only in his heart he probably would have learned a better life lesson from being forced to keep the lower grade. It's pretty neat how this conversation illustrates that we shouldn't be too complimentary of other people's work, and giving them criticism actually helps keep them grounded, and it arrives just in time to shed some light on the dilemma in the arguments Beth and Don have been going through.
I had real trouble making it more than halfway through the film last night, but I'm going to blame that on my evening spent at the brewery event - I did drink a couple of strong beers, and so when 3 am hit, I gave up on the movie and realized that sleep was a better option for me. I finished the film Tuesday morning after some coffee - but I'm not going to have that luxury for long. Sunday morning I have to report to the theater very early, for the New York International Children's Film Festival, and I have a feeling my March schedule after that is going to be pretty packed, before we go away for a few days at the end of the month.
Directed by: Nicole Holofcener (director of "The Land of Steady Habits", "Enough Said")
Also starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus (last heard in "Being Mary Tyler Moore"), Tobias Menzies (last seen in "Atonement"), Michaela Watkins (last seen in "Paint"), Arian Moayed (last seen in "Rosewater"), Owen Teague (last seen in "Reptile"), Amber Tamblyn (last seen in "The Ring"), David Cross (last seen in "Destiny Turns on the Radio"), Walter Brandes, Erica Matlin, Karolena Theresa, Trey Santiago-Hudson, Doug Moe, Lynnsey Lewis, Claudia Robinson (last seen in "God's Pocket"), Bryan Reynoso, Kelsey Carthew, Zach Cherry (last seen in "An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn"), Clara Wong, Spike Einbinder, Sarah Steele (last seen in "Adult Beginners"), LaTanya Richardson Jackson (last seen in "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge"), Jeannie Berlin (last seen in "Cafe Society"), Julian Leong, Rebecca Henderson (last seen in "True Story"), Sue Jean Kim (last seen in "Maggie's Plan"), Deniz Akdeniz (last seen in "Dumb Money"), Sunita Mani (last seen in "Everything Everywhere All at Once"), Kenneth Tigar (last seen in "The Post"), Christian Jacobs, John Sousa (last seen in "Men in Black: International"), Phyllis Gordon, Brian Faas, James Hightower
RATING: 6 out of 10 pairs of socks sold at Paragon Sports (hey, I've been there!)
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