All This, and Heaven Too (1940)

Bookend: Bette Davis is the new French teacher at school, looking to start fresh. It's quickly apparent, however, that her notoriety has reached all the way into this American classroom and made the schoolgirls bold enough to bully her. Instead of telling her class to shut up and get to learning, she crumbles and begs them to listen to her side of the story, the flashback of which is the bulk of the film

Flashback: Davis is hired on as a governess for Duc and Duchesse Praslin. He's a charming man and doting father, she's a jealous harpy who can barely tolerate the presence of her children. Bette's great with the kids and the husband... not great for the emotional health of the lady of the house. Thwarted Romance! Murder! Prison! Suicide!

Bookend: Will you please like me now, kids? Yes, we will love you forever.

It's actually not bad, but it's supposedly based on a true occurrence and that had me sharing the Duchesse's suspicions that everything wasn't quite as chaste as I was being told.

B

Accidental Tourist, The (1988)

I first saw this film in the theaters with Gary back when we were dating and I fell in love with it immediately. Though I've watched it several times since then, it's been at least a dozen years. So I'm delighted to find out that it holds up as more than just a charming memory.

Though it's packed with quirky characters, they never veer into the realm of ridiculous or unbelievable. Revisiting this world of the buttoned-up travel writer and the offbeat woman who saves him from himself was a true pleasure.

A+

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

I was not expecting much as the last installment in the series (directed, just like this one, by David Yates) was a disappointment and the book on which this film is based was, to me, a bit of a slog until it zip pow banged into sudden action.

As gifted a story crafter as Rowling is, I don't believe she's ever really been able to reach into the depths of feeling that her creations could and should possess -- to the point that, when reading the book, I argued HARD against a "happily ever after" for Ron and Hermione; I just didn't see it as anything other than a plot convenience (I thought Hermione and Harry made loads more sense as an eventual married couple). But on the screen? Emma Watson makes me believe her love for Ron.

I think Deathly Hallows is the best in the film series so far and even improves on the book, both in pacing and profundity (Hermione's love life being just one example of several improvements). I really like that the final book has been broken into two parts as this first movie was plenty long without ever dragging.

A-

My Favorite Year (1982)

This has been on my to-see list for more than a decade, so I've heard plenty about it -- mostly along the lines of "oh my word, so funny, love it," so I fully expected to agree. Well, that ain't what happened. Gary and I started watching this together and, it took us less than 20 minutes to figure out that neither of us were enjoying it at all, at which point we switched to The Blue Dahlia. I went back and finished it (of course) but I think it would've taken some serious bribery to get Gary to join me.

The basic story is that a fading, alcoholic movie star (Peter O'Toole) is booked on a live comedy show and a young writer is tasked with babysitting him so he 1) shows up and 2) shows up sober. That sounds promising and fun! But somehow it just isn't. I think the movie hurts itself in the first sequence when we're being introduced to wacky show people in general and the babysitter, Benjy Stone, in particular. There's so much mugging and Benjy is such an unlikable little pest that I had an immediate "oh brother" feeling about the whole shebang. I admit that when I returned to it, the movie got markedly better -- but it wasn't good enough to make me like it.

C-

Irma la Douce (1963)

Shirley MacLaine's a Paris streetwalker with the best corner, a reputation for satisfying her clients, and a pimp who's a lout. Then good guy Lemmon comes along and wants to take her away from all that. How? By becoming both her pimp and putting on a disguise to become a john who pays high enough that she doesn't need to anyone but him. Wacky, right?

Everyone's trying hard to achieve a mix of raciness and hilarity -- but it just felt tired and embarrassing. It wasn't even offensive enough to be interesting. Nothing here works, not even the chemistry between the two leads, which is quite surprising considering they were terrific together just a few years earlier (and even under the same director!) in The Apartment.

A flat waste of time.

D+

Bruno (2009)

I don't think I laughed a single time. It was just so not funny and, even at less than 90 minutes, it felt like it went on forever.

At one point in the film, a focus group member who was tasked with screening Bruno's proposed television show wrote in the comments, "It was worse than cancer." Maybe not worse -- but I'd argue it's pretty damn close.

F

John Q (2002)

Hardworking family man has his hours cut, his station wagon repossessed, and his son go into heart failure during a Little League game. Oh yes, he's a responsible husband and father so he's got insurance but...what? It's an HMO? Sucks to be him. Guess he should hijack the hospital.

So, obviously, it's going to be a heavy-handed message film -- but it went beyond simple cheesy sentimentality and got just plain bad. I mean, it was laughably terrible.

D

For the Bible Tells Me So (2007)

Both heartbreaking and hope-filled, this is a clear-eyed look at how those who grew up in the "God hates fags" religious rhetoric respond to their homosexual children. What I liked best (and, frankly, surprised me most) about it was the fact that so many of them understood that it didn't have to be God OR their kids. It went beyond acceptance of these individuals to a reevaluation of their core beliefs of right and wrong.

Except for a snarky cartoon interlude with the production values -- and effectiveness -- of a health class filmstrip, this was well done and incredibly effective.

B+

The Blue Dahlia (1946)

I like noirs. I like the formality of them, the hard-bitten dialogue delivered with precision rather than an excess of emotion -- I like the twists and turns and the look. This movie was almost there. Instead of formality, though, I think I'd go with "stiff" to describe the actors.

There's certainly some good stuff, but Alan Ladd was the least interesting character on the screen so I had little investment in whether he would be able to clear his name.

C+

The Eclipse (2010)

The more I think about this one, the more it settles into my bones. So much symbolism and nuance to consider. I loved everything -- even Aidan Quinn's boorish character, which only served to throw a spotlight on Ciaran Hinds' inherent gentlemanliness.

It was so quiet and lovely -- I'm really not sure whether I consider it more of a love or ghost story. Neither of the genres were front and center and there was a general mutedness to everything that really worked. The only problem I had with it is that I wanted it to keep going. I was actually startled when the shot froze and the credits started to roll.

A

Splice (2010)

Much like the scientists did in the story, this film stepped over the line of decency and good taste. I was on board with it for a good while. I understand the kind of need that goes into undertaking an experiment that isn't sanctioned just to see if it can be done. I also understood how, once this hybrid had lived for a while and its humanity started to shine through, it might be impossible to stop -- how it would feel like murder rather than pulling the plug on research.

What I could NOT understand was the human-on-experimental mutant passion. Twice! And the second time incestuous!! And resulting in a PREGNANCY!! My line was so far back that I couldn't even see it by the end of this thing.

C-

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

At least this time I didn't absolutely loathe anyone on screen (although one could make the point that the men in both of these movies are utterly useless dummies), and I do think that Molly Ephraim -- who played the daughter -- has a naturalness to her that should get her bigger roles soon.

Felt smarter, but not really any scarier, than the first film. The conceit of watching most of the action through surveillance cameras both made sense and kept us a little too far out of the action at times.

B-