Gray Gardens (2009)

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“It’s a fine line between past and present.”
Based on a documentary about the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.

Edith Bouvier Beale (Jessica Lange), former debutante and socialite, is not a terrible stable woman. When her husband Phelan (Ken Howard) has finally had enough, he moves their post-debutante daughter Edie (Drew Barrymore) to Manhattan and then he leaves Edith alone with her likely boyfriend, George (Malcolm Gets) in their East Hampton mansion.

Edie is in hopes of a life of an actress. Edith grows odder and odder, and tries to manipulate the young woman. It doesn’t take long for Edith to get Edie back to Long Island where the mansion is a mess. From then on, Edie is pretty much sucked into the depth of mental illness with her mother after her married boyfriend (Daniel Baldwin) breaks up with her.

By the 1970s, Edith and Edie are living in squalor in a decaying house filled with cats.

Others in the cast include Jeanne Tripplethorn as Jackie Kennedy; Joshua Peace and Ben Carlson as Edie’s brothers; Justin Louis and Arye Gross as the Maysles brothers who made the documentary.

Directed by Michael Sucsy. An HBO film for which Jessica Lange won an Emmy.

Run time: 1 hour, 43 minutes

Not rated by MPAA.

My personal rating: B

Boys on the Side (1995)

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3 Women
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Road Trip=
More Than a
Chick Flick
Three women who don't know each other head out from the east coast heading for California. Jane (Whoopi Goldberg), a disgruntled lesbian band singer, Robin (Mary-Louise Parker), a secretive real estate agent, and Holly (Drew Barrymore), a pregnant gal whose boyfriend is an abusive druggie, are each trying to escape their pasts.

The gals get as far as Arizona when Robin falls ill and her new friends learn she has AIDS. Holly falls in love with a cop (Matthew McConaughey). And Jane is kind of the glue that holds them together.

Also appearing are Anita Gillette as Robin's mother and Estelle Parsons as a psychic. Plus some good tunes by Annie Lennox, Joan Armatading, Stevie Nicks, Sheryl Crow, Sarah McLachlan, The Indigo Girls, Pretenders, Bonnie Raitt, Melissa Etheridge, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and many others.

Directed by Herbert Ross.

Run time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B

He's Just Not That Into You (2009)

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The Rule Or the Exception
A complicated comedy about the twists and turns of love and relationships. Set in Baltimore and focused more or less on a group of gal pals, their expectations of men, the men who don't want commitment and don't even call back, the disappointments, the deceit, the dissection of everything that was said between the opposite sexes.

The cast of characters includes:

Gigi (Gennifer Goodwin) who has been told since childhood that the boys who treat her shabbily really like her a lot and so she her philosphy is "We are all programmed to believe that if a guy acts like a total jerk that means he likes you."

Conor (Kevin Connolly), a real estate agent. meets Gigi on a blind date and leaves Gigi feeling as though he'll call her again.

Anna (Scarlett Johansson), a yoga instructor, is seeing Conor. She is somewhat unenthusiastic about him but continues to tease him.

Ben (Bradley Cooper) flirts shamelessly with Anna in the grocery store and promises to help Anna get started in the singing career she wants to have. In a moment of guilt, he admits to Anna that he's married but they agree to be friends and he assures her he can help her career.

Neil (Ben Affleck) is Ben's best friend and is commitment-phobic. He doesn't feel the need at all to marry his girlfriend of seven years.

Beth (Jennifer Aniston) is Neil's girlfriend and she desperately wants to marry him and is annoyed by his lack of commitment.

Janine (Jennifer Connelly) is Neil's wife and a firm believe in settling down and getting married. She initially set Gigi up with Conor. She advises Gigi against stalking Conor when he doesn't call her.

Alex (Justin Long) owns a bar and becomes Gigi's dating "shrink."

Mary (Drew Barrymore), an ad rep at an alternative newspaper, is trying to learn the lingo of the electronic era in the dating scene. "I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It's exhausting."

Paige (Brooke Bloom) is Beth's younger sister who is preparing for her wedding.

Also appearing in cameo roles are Kris Kristopherson and Luis Guzmán.

Directed by Ken Kwapis.

Run time: 2 hours, 9 minutes

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and brief strong language.

My personal rating: B

Skipped Parts (2000)

Lydia Callahan's (Jennifer Jason Leigh) daddy (R. Lee Ermey) is planning a run for governor of North Carolina so he's banished Lydia and her 14-year-old illegitimate son Sam (Bug Hall) to Wyoming so they won't be a liability to him.

Sam's only new friend is a girl his age, Maurey Pierce (Mischa Barton), who wants to experiement with sex. Lydia, loose woman that she is, actually encourages them but warns them they must stop when Maurey gets her first period. Of course, pregnancy happens before the period so they family is left to deal with it -- with Lydia's dictatorial father keeping tabs on the situation.

Others in the cast include Brad Renfro as Dothan Talbot, Maurey's boyfriend who harasses Sam; Drew Barrymore as the Fantasy Girl; Peggy Lipton as Maurey's mother; and Michael Greyeyes as Lydia's Native American lover Hank Elkrunner.

Directed by Tamra Davis.

Run Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Rated R for sexual situations, some involving young teens, and for language.

My personal rating: C+

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind () NEEDS COMPLETION

Well, a dangerous mind? How about a severely drugged mind?

This film alternately felt like what I imagine a bad acid trip must be like

and a poignant view at a strange man.

Bottom line, I'm not really sure if I liked it or not. It was...different.

George Clooney, in his directorial debut, seemed a tad scattered at first,but in the end, much of his vision seemed to pull together to weave the tale. I enjoyed his homage to his auntie, Rosemary Clooney.



I very much enjoyed Drew Barrymore's character and thought she played it with real understanding. Apparently it's a role she aggressively campaigned for even before Clooney won the property. She was, perhaps, the only thread of sanity in the whole story.



I'd be curious if the interspersed statements by Dick Clark, Jaye P. Morgan,Gene Gene the Dancing Machine, and others were their real thoughts or were scripted. Certainly they all thought Chuck Barris odd but seemed to have some real empathy for him. But then I wouldn't expected otherwise because of how this movie was crafted with great imput from Barris himself.



Would I recommend this film? Hmmmm...very cautiously and only to certain people. Would I see it again? Probably not in the near future. Maybe in a few years.



Don't know what is is about Barris, but ever since I first saw him I alternated between a great disgust for him and a real curiosity about him. Apparently he's had that affect on a lot of people.






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My personal rating: C+