Hi friends,
As I was preparing to write my annual round-up post--like as I was literally highlighting the list of movies I watched last year to copy and paste them into a blank blogger window--I noticed I'd underlined a couple of titles with the aspirational intent to come back to those films and write about them. I felt disappointed to move onto 2024 without talking about those movies. This happens every year: there are always movies I meant to write about that end up simply getting passed over and, unfortunately, ultimately forgotten about.
Well NOT THIS YEAR.
Because it's better to write a few sentences or paragraphs than nothing at all, I'm going to attempt to write a lightning round-style post about (at least some of) those movies.
Here we go!
"Norma Rae" (1979)
The first thing that viscerally registers about "Norma Rae" is the noise. The film opens in the thunderously loud warehouse where Norma Rae, her parents, and her neighbors toil, and the intense and droning din is instantly oppressive and overwhelming. In this manner, the movie reminds me of the use of sound in the much-later "Children of Men" (2006) to wrenchingly ground its audience in its bleak world--the sounds of this world aren't only impacting the characters in the story, distorting their perceptions of reality, but you, the viewer, as well.
Beginning with this bodily experience of the consequences of the working conditions of Norma Rae and her compatriots, "Norma Rae" is still a remarkable, gripping, and inspiring film about the desperate importance of the labor movement. It is just excellent! I gave it a 5.
"Thelma and Louise" (1991)
I watched this movie shortly after watching "Norma Rae" in an attempt to continue watching some of the empowering lady movies of yore, but this one fell pretty flat especially by comparison to its union-celebrating predecessor. "Thelma and Louise" is fun in a pulp fiction-y way, but also a bit rough to watch. To my unpleasant surprise, despite being billed as an early women-driven buddy movie, "Thelma and Louise" struggled with the same casually compulsive sexism of movies from over a decade prior without reckoning with it in a clear-headed way. Sure Thelma and Louise variously kill and inconvenience a variety of extremely shitty men, but I was still struck with how harshly critical Susan Sarandon's Louise was at times of Geena Davis's Thelma. I'm glad I watched it given its importance in cinematic history, but it didn't move me nearly as profoundly as "Norma Rae". I gave it a 3.
"The Princess Bride" (1987)
I know this seems ~*~inconceivable~*~, but I actually had never seen the "Princess Bride" before last year. I was a bit hesitant to watch it because I couldn't imagine it would live up to the deep adoration many people have for it, and I feared that being a late-comer to the film would mean I would find it particularly underwhelming. On the other hand, I thought it would be convenient to finally get the jokes and references people make to this movie every once in a while.
Happily, I honestly liked it! It was cute and silly, and I understand why people find it so lovable. I know this is probably the oddest of details to hang onto, but I really liked how you can see where the set designers incorporated crash pads into the set so the actors safely engage in dramatic leaps during one particular sword fight. Something about the low-fi nature of the movie's stunts really endeared me to it. Also apparently Andre the Giant was a goddamn delight! I gave "The Princess Bride" a 4.
"Audrey" (2020) and "Funny Face" (1957)
An offshoot of my micro-theme of empowered lady movies was to watch a few Audrey Hepburn movies, starting with the documentary about her followed by "Funny Face". Despite absolutely loving Hepburn as a person and actor, I unfortunately found both of these films pretty underwhelming. The documentary is a bit lifeless, which is kind of astonishing given its incredible source material--Audrey Hepburn is one of the most magnetic, charismatic, lovely performers of Hollywood's Golden Age, so it's a crime that a movie about her dramatic, impactful, and jam-packed life be so dull.
I chose to watch "Funny Face" for the fashion and also because I wanted to see Hepburn's dancing. While it delivers on those two fronts, I was again underwhelmed by other aspects of the film, including its unconvincing romance between Hepburn and (a comparatively much older) Fred Astaire and its overall belittling attitude toward Hepburn's Jo (are you kidding me with the title referring to her face??), but especially her intellectual interest in a new philosophical doctrine. Blech.
I gave both movies a 2.
"Despicable Me" (2010) and "Despicable Me 2" (2013)
Especially after reckoning with how much I liked "Minions: Rise of Gru" (2022), I basically had to watch these movies. I was genuinely curious to see how I'd feel about "Despicable Me" upon rewatching it, and whether "Despicable Me 2" would uphold the generally solid quality of this series of movies. Neither disappointed! I didn't enjoy them quite as much as the Minions movie, but both juxtaposed goofy slap-stick humor for children against competent and thoughtful relationship themes, first the father-child relationship and then the parent-new partner relationship. I really like that these movies exist to model non-problematic versions of these relationships for children, as movies like that are bizarrely rare.
I gave both movies a 3.5.
I have a few straggling movies from 2023 that I genuinely hope I can write last-minute longer-form posts about, because I really want to dig into them a bit more than would make sense here. That sure would be consistent with my first resolution for 2024, so here's hoping I pull that off!
{Heart}
