tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91198113094278241122024-03-19T02:40:20.570-07:00Words Seem Out Of Placewe are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the starsWords Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.comBlogger312125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-37171571559609072362020-05-03T19:00:00.002-07:002020-05-03T19:00:44.327-07:00So long, and thanks for all the fish<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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All things must pass.<br />
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I started this blog almost five years ago and now it feels like the time to end it. Everything falls apart, after all. It was a hell of a ride, but I'm ready to hit refresh and begin anew. Now you can find me at my new site, <a href="https://starfirelounge.com/" target="_blank">The Starfire Lounge</a>. Susie Diamond sang there, you know. Stop by, catch a performance, and stay awhile.<br />
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I've been ready to do this for a year or more, and I'm thrilled to make this move. Even so, some part of me will miss it here. After having lost my way for a time, this is where I dipped my toes back into the writing pool and then branched out to contribute regularly at a number of sites, most of which I still write for today. It also gave me the confidence to contribute several chapters to three upcoming books, all of which are still in production, but you can be sure that I'll let you know - over at the Starfire, of course - when they're published. All of this, everything I've done these last five years with my writing, started here. So, for as much as I've been eager to close up shop, lock the door, and toss the key, I must also pay respects. This was an important step in the evolution, and for that I'll always be grateful.<br />
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Before I sign off here for good, I want to sincerely thank everyone who ever stopped by and spent their precious time reading words that I wrote. Maybe you connected with them. I hope so, because that's the point, right? This isn't goodbye, though. I'll be seeing you at the Starfire Lounge, where I'm excited to continue the evolution.<br />
Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-38949931271773223542020-04-20T11:41:00.001-07:002020-04-20T11:54:08.058-07:00Misspent Youth: Randi Brooks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Looking back at the pop culture mainstays of this Gen-Xer's gloriously misspent youth.</i><br />
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">A note on the series and this site: </i>This might be the final post in the "Misspent Youth" series - at least here. Maybe it'll eventually move with me. Oh, right, I buried the lede: <b>I've moved, and would love for you to come visit me at my new site, <a href="https://starfirelounge.com/" target="_blank">The Starfire Lounge</a>!</b> Moving forward, this site will likely cease to be updated, but will remain around for posterity and your continued reading pleasure. I have a few more things to post here over the coming days or weeks as a sort of "everything must go" send-off to the old girl. I also plan to write a final farewell post to my main online home for the last five years. Stay tuned and, as always, thanks for reading.<br />
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It's no surprise that the talented but now mostly forgotten Randi Brooks would make an appearance in the Misspent Youth series. She may not be a household name, but her resume is packed with 1980s touchstones, making her face instantly recognizable to anyone who grew up watching television and film during that decade. In fact, <i>all </i>of her thirty-seven credits on <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0112205/" target="_blank">IMDb</a> are from the 1980s. She was in films and TV movies like <i>The Man With Two Brains, The Cartier Affair, Hamburger: The Motion Picture</i>, and with another statuesque beauty, Mary Woronov, in <i>TerrorVision</i>.<br />
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She guested on too many TV series to mention, including <i>Magnum P. I., Murder She Wrote, Designing Women, Knight Rider, Simon & Simon</i>, and <i>The Dukes of Hazzard</i>. She even starred in the short-lived series <i>The Last Precinct</i> as sexy Office Mel Brubaker and the even-shorter-lived <i>Wizards and Warriors</i>, as evil witch babe Bethel. She was seemingly <i>everywhere </i>in the 1980s! And we were grateful for her omnipresence.<br />
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Her face was instantly recognizable for other, more aesthetic reasons as well. A long, angular shape, with cheekbones you could cut glass on, lips set seductively in a permanent pout, and deep-set, glacial-blue eyes combine to make Brooks an unforgettable presence onscreen. Then there's also the matter of her statuesque, model's body. Clocking in at just under six feet tall, Brooks cut a stunning figure anytime she graced the screen.<br />
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Thanks largely to her topless appearance in Steve Martin's <i>The Man with Two Brains</i>, Brooks made a lasting impression on many Gen Xers' misspent youths. The scene in question is most definitely <b>NSFW, </b>so for your job security <a href="https://im1nur12.tumblr.com/post/139851508715/mamma-randi-brooks-steve-martin-1983" target="_blank">I'll link to it</a> instead of embedding.<br />
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She was also a funny and underrated character actor. She was a skilled performer who knew how to get a laugh and wasn't afraid to play off her looks to do so. She's from an old school of performance where an exaggerated accent, an arched eyebrow, or a comically sexy pose can yield genuine laughs from an audience. If you needed a sexy blonde with a flare for comedy, she was your woman. She could also turn in effective dramatic performances, like in the gritty 1988 neo-noir <i>Cop</i>, where she plays a washed up actress who's turned to selling drugs and prostitution just to get by.<br />
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Books's IMDb page says she's been semi-retired from acting for what seems like thirty years now, based on her credits. She's raised three children and works as a real estate agent in Seattle. She's probably been quite successful in her second career. If she fixed that smoldering gaze in your direction, there's little doubt she could convince you to purchase some property you definitely couldn't afford.<br />
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<a href="https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/RcgAAOSwQ59ZZtRW/s-l640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-46188084466229222412020-04-10T11:12:00.001-07:002020-04-10T11:22:49.586-07:00This Workout'll Kill You: Aerobicide, aka Killer Workout<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I recently revisited <i>Aerobicide </i>(1987), also known as <i>Killer Workout</i>, a film that's usually considered a fairly unremarkable example of the slasher genre. The plot is straightforward enough: a mysterious killer is murdering people at a posh Hollywood health spa. His or her weapon of death? A large safety pin, of course. I mean, if that isn't remarkable, I don't know what is.<br />
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While the film's plot might be simple, the final act makes tries to throw in a bunch of shocker twists, none of which make a lick of sense. The acting throughout is mostly forgettable, except when star Marcia Karr glares menacingly at everyone, which she does in almost every scene. She's glorious as Rhonda, owner of the aptly named Rhonda's Workout. There are also some laughably silly fight scenes between big burly dudes with mullets. The kill scenes are quick and dirty, nothing too memorable.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If this all sounds like I'm telling you <i>Aerobicide </i>isn't worth your time, that is <i>so </i>not the case. It is most definitely worth a watch (or several), especially if you like to laugh out loud at hilariously over the top late-period slasher movie nonsense like I do. How can you not love lines like, "<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;">Just teach the class and stop showing off your tits and your tight little ass!"<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Or this gem: "</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tell that college boy that if he doesn't have that report ready in 30 minutes, I'm going to go over there and do an autopsy on his face! You got that?</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">"</span></span></span><br />
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And, frankly, I've buried the lede here. While there are plenty of kills and jump scares, the film's main intent seems to be to fill as much of its running time with gratuitous shots of thrusting butts and boobs as possible. You see, the aerobics scenes act as framing devices around the rest of the film's action. After jump scares or kill shots, the film almost always cuts to long—<i>very long</i>—scenes of women doing aerobics while the camera lingers like a drooling peeping tom on their aerobicized asses, bodacious bosoms, and sculpted stems.<br />
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Honestly, instead of wasting all these words, I should've just used GIFs to tell the review. In the case of <i>Aerobicide</i>, they definitely speak louder than words! So, I'll shut my yap now. Here are the main reasons why this film will always be a late-night cult favorite.<br />
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-63046075995723082582020-03-29T05:28:00.002-07:002020-03-29T05:36:45.905-07:00Capsule Reviews: Splatter University<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Quick-hit movie reviews for the masses.</i><br />
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<i>Slasher University</i> is definitely one of the dopier slashers of its era, but there's still enjoyment to be had reveling in its endearing amateurism. It feels like a student film padded out to feature length. In fact, 65 minutes of it were filmed in 1981 by director Richard W. Haines, with additional scenes shot the next year to bump it up to a brisk 78 minute running time, then sat on the shelf for several years before Troma Entertainment unleashed into an uncaring world in 1984. As often happens with films like this, though, it eventually turned into a word-of-mouth underground classic.<br />
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The plot, paper-thin as it is, involves a string of gruesome murders on a non-specified but totally Catholic college campus, and one plucky new teacher's quest to unearth the identity of the mystery killer - which is so hard to do because everyone on the faculty is acting suspiciously, especially the priests. In between death scenes, we're treated to a preponderance of hilariously stupid scenes featuring the unlikable teenage victims-to-be horsing around; talking about studying, cheating on tests, and selling dope; making out, lounging around in their panties; and trash-talking the teachers. Normal teenage stuff, then.<br />
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The starring role of young and naive new teacher Francine Parker was played by Francine Forbes. She went on become Forbes Riley, a highly successful infomercial host with a gleaming, toothsome smile and a propensity for wearing extremely short skirts, whom I first discovered via late-night channel surfing in the mid-1990s. So, as you might imagine, the novelty of her starring in a slasher is the main reason I enjoy <i>Splatter University</i>. But not the only reason! The blood flows freely throughout, there are some genuine moments of suspense, and the film's climax is shocking and brutal. Tune in for Forbes, then stick around for the carnage.Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-83152103871758554772020-03-23T11:06:00.000-07:002020-03-23T11:06:04.624-07:00It Came From the '90s: The Memory of Her<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="color: #222222;">This series looks back at the 1990s and its influence on the generation of people who came of age during the decade. </i><i>This entry is the result of a friendly challenge to take a brief, seemingly inconsequential moment from my life and explore why it made an impact on me.</i></div>
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Sometimes, when something or other triggers the memory of her, I think about that summer night a hundred years ago when a beautiful dancer invited me to join her in the back room of the strip club, to "get to know each other." I wonder what might've happened had I taken her up on that offer. I wonder how she's doing now.</div>
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I'm getting ahead of myself. It all happened one June night in the <a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2018/03/it-came-from-90s-postscript.html" target="_blank">pivotal year of 1995</a>, when my friends took me a strip club to celebrate my newfound freedom. I had just broken off a monumentally bad several-months long relationship (we were just so wrong for each other) and was currently navigating the start of a healthy, new relationship with an old friend, Naomi, one that would impact <a href="https://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2018/01/it-came-from-90s-second-chances.html" target="_blank">not only that summer but the rest of my life.</a><br />
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None of the three of us had ever been to a strip club before. Underage and without fake IDs, there we stood, nursing non-alcoholic beers, waiting awkwardly for the next performer to take the stage. Remember, we were still a few months away from seeing <i>Showgirls</i> that fall, so this was uncharted territory. A woman sauntered onstage, the music kicked on, and she went to work on the pole. After a highly effective performance—during which my friends and I blushed while tentatively sticking dollar bills into her g-string—she left the stage and we drifted back to the bar for another watered-down "beer," having finally lost our strip club virginity.</div>
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That's when a woman approached me. This sort of thing was mostly unheard of for me up to that point, so I was completely caught off guard. Still, I knew it wasn't personal, that she was just looking for someone to help her earn extra cash, as going to the back room would definitely run you some coin.</div>
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This might've been a blip on the radar, but to my wounded ego it was a confidence boost all the same. It was also flattering because she was gorgeous. Stunning, even. A perfectly cut and styled mid-'90s bob framed a slim and attractive face, made all the more lovely by two of the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen. That she used them to look <i>me</i> in the eyes quickened my pulse. Sounds silly know, but it didn't back then.<br />
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She seemed shy. I spent most days battling crippling shyness. She was young, probably only a few years older than me, and radiated a melancholy sweetness. While trying to process her offer, I stood gobsmacked. Thoughts rushed through my head at blazing speeds, and I only caught fragments as they whizzed around, including, "What happens in the back room?" And then, "Am I up for that?"</div>
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As it happens, no, I was not up for that. All I wanted was to be with Naomi that summer, to spend every minute with her. It was a rush to consider what might happen with a beautiful stranger, but ultimately I shyly declined the invitation.</div>
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She smiled, shrugged, and walked away. One of my friends immediately pointed out that I just "blew a chance to get some head, or even get laid." I scoffed, and still think he was full of it. All that would've occurred in the back was a lap dance. Maybe a <i>really good</i> lap dance, maybe even some physical contact, but nothing more.<br />
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Maybe I was naive. Maybe I still am. After all, it's still my only strip club experience. Much of what I've learned about strip clubs comes courtesy of sensationalized, yet ridiculously entertaining movies like <i>Stripped to Kill</i> or<i> Dance with Death</i>. It doesn't really matter anyway, because the overriding thoughts about that night never really revolved around whether or not I should have accepted her offer. Instead, what I've often wondered is, "Who was she?" Or, sometimes, "Is she happy now?"</div>
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That's not because I assume she was unhappy with her job. It's because there was an underlying sadness to her slim, sweet face. The emotions her slightly down-turned smile conveyed were familiar. I <i>felt </i>those same feelings too. She had a depth to her, something that was impossible to miss, even in our extremely brief encounter, or at least impossible for one introvert to miss in another introvert. I'm positive she was one of my tribe, quite possibly even an <a href="https://www.16personalities.com/infj-personality" target="_blank">INFJ</a> also. I saw it in her eyes. Maybe she saw it in mine. Maybe that's why she picked me.</div>
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Or, maybe I've spun this entire, fantastical tale out of nothing but some fuzzy memories and a wistful nostalgia for a time when I was too young, too inexperienced, to know any better about any of this, or anything, really. That's more likely the case. I'm positive that today she doesn't remember the shy kid who turned down her invite to the back room. I'm also certain she was just doing her job. I'm the one who's dramatized one minor event into an entire writing exercise.</div>
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I can still see her though, shimmering brightly in that dimly lit, slightly seedy club. I never forgot. Sometimes I think it's because I was just taking those first hopeful gulps of fresh air, after climbing out of the deep, dark hole of depression that I'd been living in for the past year or more, and in her face recognized a fellow traveler on the path. For that instant, in the expressive eyes of a total stranger just doing her damn job, I convinced myself there stood another living soul I <i>might've</i> connected with, had we met elsewhere, or, had I followed her to the back room.</div>
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Once in a great while, I wonder where she is, what she went on to do, what her name is, who she fell in love with, who she became. If this all sounds crazy, so be it. Life is crazy, after all. Also, I'm a writer, and writers are constantly plundering the murky depths of our memories for material. Most importantly, though, this weird little memory is a brilliant reminder that the tiniest, most seemingly inconsequential moments can actually stick with us. These can be moments of recognition—of ourselves, of another human being—that happen so infrequently that, the way I see it, we're practically obligated to cherish them. Sometimes a shooting star passes through your orbit in a blink, but leaves behind a trail of stardust that never quite dissipates. Why question that? Why downplay it? Why not just remember and appreciate that, for a brief moment, you marveled at a shooting star?</div>
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I'm choosing appreciation. I'm choosing to fondly recall this complete stranger with whom I shared what barely qualifies as a conversation in what amounts to an infinitesimally small piece of my life story. Why? Because the memory of her has always made me feel <i>something</i>, something <i>good</i>, something bigger than either her or me or that moment in time.<br />
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That's reason enough to remember. To hold on to the memory of her, and what it represents.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3f3c;">*****</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3f3c;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3f3c;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3f3c;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3f3c;">Related reading:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3f3c;"><a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2018/01/it-came-from-90s-second-chances.html" target="_blank">It Came From the '90s: Second Chances</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3f3c;"><a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2018/03/it-came-from-90s-postscript.html" target="_blank">It Came From the '90s: Postscript</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3f3c;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #3e3f3c;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2019/02/depression-roommate-from-hell-and-fran.html" target="_blank">Depression, the Roommate from Hell, and Fran Drescher</a></span></span><br />
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-23046294162942771082020-03-04T06:43:00.002-08:002020-03-04T06:43:21.686-08:00Misspent Youth: It's a Living<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Looking back at the pop culture mainstays of this Gen-Xer's gloriously misspent youth.</i><br />
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When a friend tweeted recently that the first season of the criminally underrated 1980 sitcom <i>It's a Living,</i> about waitresses at the Above the Top restaurant located atop a swanky Los Angeles hotel, had appeared on Amazon Prime, I literally shouted out loud with joy. Then I spent the rest of the work day eagerly anticipating binging it later that night.<br />
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Now, I hadn't seen the show since the 1980s, probably in reruns and when it was in its syndicated run (and retitled as <i>Making a Living</i>). The series debuted in 1980, when I was in kindergarten, and it's entirely possible I watched it as it aired because, as I keep coming back to in this series, we Gen Xers were practically raised by the plethora of excellent pop culture of an era that coincided with the true golden age of the television sitcom.<br />
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<i>It's a Living</i> will likely never be considered among the greats, but it was much better than people ever gave it credit for being, and I for one had fond, if somewhat vague, memories of absolutely loving it as a kid. So, when I settled in to watch, it felt like a lot visiting with an old friend, only I was discovering new and exciting reasons to love that friend even more than I had back in the day.</div>
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The thirteen episodes of the first season explore a series of themes, like motherhood, gender and class inequality, friendships, sexual harassment, and so many more. All of these are filtered through the show's primary recurring theme, which centers around a large cast of working women trying to survive and thrive in a world that won't cut them many breaks.<br />
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What a wonderful cast the producers assembled for that first season! Susan Sullivan as Lois brings a regal aura to the dining floor at Above the Top. Statuesque, glamorous and beautiful—Dlisted clearly agrees, having once bestowed her with the honor(?) of <a href="https://dlisted.com/2017/08/09/hot-slut-of-the-day-1385/" target="_blank">Hot Slut of the Day</a>! (yikes)—Sullivan's married mom of two Lois is also the practical and intelligent den mother of the team of waitresses. New Wave style platinum blonde bombshell Ann Jillian as the saucy and sassy vixen Cassie positively smolders every time she's onscreen. Jillian's sarcasm meter is dialed up to Bea Arthur levels, and she's absolutely fabulous in the role. Barrie Youngfellow as Jan is a frazzled and funny single mom juggling career, school, and parenthood. The rest of the cast is rounded out by Gail Edwards as the sweet and luminous Dot, Wendy Schaal as naive country bumpkin Vicki, and Paul Kreppel as the lounge singer/piano player Sonny, who seems to have taken both hairstyle and sexual harassment tips from the Larry over on <i>Three's Company</i>. Let's not forget Broadway legend Marian Mercer as Nancy, the hard-line supervisor who's actually a softy at heart.<br />
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When the waitresses kibitz in the back room, as they do early and often in most episodes, you really do believe these are coworkers who have grown to care for and count on each other as valuable friends. And this largely because of good writing and the fact that the actresses have real, palpable chemistry. <i>It's a Living</i> is much funnier than you remember.<br />
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One of the most fun aspects of revisiting the show after, jeez, thirty-five years or more (am I <i>that </i>old??) is reveling in all of the era's fashion and style. The nostalgia factor is immense! It's <i>so </i>1980 you can feel the New Wave style bristling through your television screen and straight into your retro-loving heart. Just look at the waitresses's outfits: way-off-the-shoulder tops, tight skirts with extremely high slits, ankle-strap high heels, and the hair, my god the hair! From Jillian's platinum Blondie sexbomb cut to Sullivan's feathered majesty, and from Edwards' luscious corkscrew curls to Kreppel's helmet-haired 'fro, it's a gloriously coiffured trip back in time.<br />
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I didn't even get to the absurdly catchy theme song from George Tipton and Leslie Bricusse! You'll be walking around at work for days blurting out lines as theatrically as the singer, "Life is not the French Riviera! Believe me, life's not a charity ball!" Total earworm.<br />
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After <i>It's a Living</i> popped up on Amazon Prime recently, I tweeted and posted the hell out of the news almost instantly. Soon enough, a half dozen or more of my friends and I were binge watching and posting our thoughts, in real time, over the span of a couple days. It was, quite frankly, one of the most inspiring moments of 2020 so far. A bunch of thirty- and forty-something geeks losing their aging minds over a second-tier sitcom they watched as kids and hadn't thought much about since. What can possibly top that? Nothing. Nothing can top that. Hell, I'm already planning to go back and watch the episodes all over again. That's because season one of <i>It's a Living</i> is a lost treasure, a shining gold nugget worth rediscovering. Enjoy.<br />
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-23965755366198686792020-03-03T07:20:00.003-08:002020-03-03T07:20:45.499-08:00Writing Roundup: Cult Classics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's been a while, so I'm overdue for another odds 'n' sods post, rounding up stuff I've written elsewhere in the great beyond we call the internet. Some of these go back several months, into last year even, and others are more recent, but all of them are about one of my favorite topics: cult classic films. And for me there's no doubt the films discussed in these articles and reviews are absolute cult movie solid gold.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blog.lesbianmedia.tv/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Nurse-3D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="800" src="https://blog.lesbianmedia.tv/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Nurse-3D.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">At times <i>Nurse 3D</i> plays a b-movie <i>Single White Female</i> on acid.</span></td></tr>
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From wisecracking, half-naked interstellar space babes to erotically charged nurses behaving badly, from several different women on brutally single-minded revenge missions to one of the great movie urban legends of all time, these pieces run the exploitation gamut.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://66.media.tumblr.com/dfcc5da08947373158019b7807fae6d9/tumblr_p2l00t5S971ukwh7so1_400.gifv" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="302" data-original-width="400" height="483" src="https://66.media.tumblr.com/dfcc5da08947373158019b7807fae6d9/tumblr_p2l00t5S971ukwh7so1_400.gifv" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">If memory serves, the great Rhonda Shear hosted a few of these movies on <i>USA Up All Night</i>.</span></td></tr>
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For lovers of all things cult cinema—my fellow disciples of <a href="https://theretronetwork.com/staying-up-all-night/" target="_blank">Rhonda Shear and <i>USA Up All Night</i></a> and all you fellow members of Joe Bob Briggs's Drive-In movie mutant family—these are for you. Enjoy.<br />
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*****<br />
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<a href="https://aftermoviediner.com/feed/articles/the-legend-of-demi-moores-backside-or-i-stripteased-on-your-grave" target="_blank"><i><b>The Legend of Demi Moore's Backside, Or, I Stripteased on Your Grave</b></i></a><br />
(The After Movie Diner)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/575adcf11bbee0fd2d9aa5f8/1582584021879-OIJRQA9PZI22WI3QXV2O/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kMexMI_EO5ASyxZZh-E7SFpZw-zPPgdn4jUwVcJE1ZvWEtT5uBSRWt4vQZAgTJucoTqqXjS3CfNDSuuf31e0tVGsxAF0k_aNfOW2hFpaqe4RuOLn_5w5XlirH1DH36gi84W3Ehki-zkQ9B9rgns9-J4/Demi+Moore+2+-+cheeky.jpg?format=500w" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="474" src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/575adcf11bbee0fd2d9aa5f8/1582584021879-OIJRQA9PZI22WI3QXV2O/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kMexMI_EO5ASyxZZh-E7SFpZw-zPPgdn4jUwVcJE1ZvWEtT5uBSRWt4vQZAgTJucoTqqXjS3CfNDSuuf31e0tVGsxAF0k_aNfOW2hFpaqe4RuOLn_5w5XlirH1DH36gi84W3Ehki-zkQ9B9rgns9-J4/Demi+Moore+2+-+cheeky.jpg?format=500w" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A reminder for you younguns, Demi Moore was, is, and shall forever be a stone-cold fox.</span></td></tr>
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Is that really Demi Moore's backside on the infamous poster for 1978's <i>I Spit on Your Grave</i>? This rumor has swirled around since I was a kid and I've spent far too much time thinking about it (and doing, um, research on it), so it more than deserved its own article.<br />
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<b><i>Excerpt:</i></b><br />
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Well, as young people do, we began obsessing over this
rumor, which really meant we were obsessing over Moore's rump. It seemed clear
that the woman on the cover was not the film's star, Camille Keaton, and the
model's body certainly bears more than a little resemblance to Moore's own. We
proceeded to do endless amounts of research. It was a hard job but somebody had
to do it. Pouring over shots of Moore's derrière with the sort of intense
determination we'd never applied to our actual school studies, many of us came
to the conclusion that, yes, it had to be true. Maybe we wanted it to be a true
a little too much. Can you blame us?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><a href="https://aftermoviediner.com/feed/reviews/cult-classics/nurse-3d" target="_blank"><b>Nurse 3D</b></a></i><br />
(The After Movie Diner)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.villagevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/9523422.0-1366x909.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="800" src="https://www.villagevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/9523422.0-1366x909.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Katrina Bowden might seem like just another pretty face but she's quite compelling as the lead in <i>Nurse 3D</i>.</span></td></tr>
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<br />I found <i>Nurse 3D</i>, from 2013, to be a rollicking good time. Had it been released in the 1970s, it would've found a wider audience on the drive-in circuit. It's an absolutely ludicrous film, which is exactly what a B-movie should be.<br />
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<i><b>Excerpt:</b></i><br />
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You see, when Abby isn't strutting through the halls of the
fictional All Saints Hospital in New York City, while wearing sky-high heels
and the tightest, lowest-cut nursing outfit you've ever seen, she's a serial
killer on a mission of retribution: she kills men who cheat on their women,
often in creatively sadistic ways. Soon after witnessing one of her brutal
kills, we meet the new nurse Abby will be mentoring, the naive blonde bombshell
Danni Rogers (Katrina Bowden), who needs all the help she can get. If the daily
trauma of working in the ER doesn't get her, there's the hilariously over the
top naughty nurse Halloween costumes she and all of the nurses (including
wisecracking Niecy Nash) are required to squeeze into - garter belts and thigh
highs are required, ladies! All Saints is absurd because it's basically what a
thirteen year old who's been weened on Skinemax thinks hospitals look like.
Then there's pervy Dr. Morris (a scenery chewing Judd Nelson). When he isn't berating
Danni in front of hospital staff, he's slapping her ass or grinding from
behind—all right out in the open, during working hours! All Saints is a human
resources nightmare.<br />
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<i><a href="https://aftermoviediner.com/feed/reviews/cult-classics/slave-girls-from-beyond-infinity" target="_blank"><b>Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity</b></a></i><br />
(The After Movie Diner)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">An intergalactic Butch and Sundance.</span></td></tr>
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For my money, this is one of the best b-movies ever made, and features one of my favorite cult film performances, from Elizabeth Kaitan as a hilariously sarcastic and totally badass Han Solo-type who just happens to be a half-naked woman. We're talking Cult Goddess level performance by Kaitan.<br />
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<i><b>Excerpt:</b></i><br />
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<i>Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity</i> is basically an
intergalactic homage to <i>The Most Dangerous Game</i>, starring two blonde, scantily
clad, space-traveling heroines who must fight for their lives while hunted for
sport. Of course, the movie does open with another random blonde (below)
running for her life before stopping to pose in front of the camera for a
gratuitous cleavage shot. I suppose that's when Helms's shocked constituent
blew a gasket. If you know what I mean, and I think you do.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><b><a href="https://diaboliquemagazine.com/naked-vengeance/" target="_blank">A Look Back at Naked Vengeance</a></b></i><br />
(Diabolique)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://diaboliquemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/nv-620x930.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="533" src="https://diaboliquemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/nv-620x930.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I miss when movie posters were this beautiful and evocative. </span></td></tr>
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This is a tough watch, as are most rape-revenge films, of course. But this one is particularly brutal and affecting.<br />
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<b><i>Excerpt:</i></b><br />
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Special commendations go to Deborah Tranelli, who does
everything asked of her, and more, in an astonishing performance (she even
sings the theme song, too). She’s extraordinary, and proves that great acting
most certainly does occur in low-budget exploitation fare. As unsubtle and
difficult to endure as it may be, <i>Naked Vengeance</i> is one of the most memorable
films of its kind.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><a href="https://diaboliquemagazine.com/she-gives-good-kung-fu-lady-street-fighter/" target="_blank"><b>"She Gives Good Kung Fu": Lady Street Fighter</b></a></i><br />
(Diabolique)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://diaboliquemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/lady-street.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="329" data-original-width="512" height="411" src="https://diaboliquemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/lady-street.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">No celery stalks were harmed during the making of this film, and were in fact treated quite well.</span></td></tr>
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Another all-time epic performance from a Cult Goddess, <i>Lady Street Fighter</i> is positively bizarre yet still manages to reach greatness thanks to the astonishingly strange, sexy, silly, and damn-near supernatural performance from its star, Renee Harmon.<br />
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<i>Lady Street Fighter</i> is a cult classic for several reasons,
but the one that matters most is the jaw-dropping lead performance by the
triple-threat star, writer (uncredited), and producer, Renee Harmon. She is our
lady street fighter, Linda Allen, and everything revolves around and hinges on
her performance, and what a perplexing performance it is. I’m still wrapping my
head around it. Let’s start with the fact that the buxom, German-born brunette
spitfire has an accent so thick that it’s only possible to understand one out
of every five words she utters. Yet, it’s not what she’s saying, but how she is
saying it that matters. Everything is spit out with a intoxicating combination
of bemusement, contempt, and pure unadulterated sexually charged bro. Harmon
has panache, in spades.<o:p></o:p></div>
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*****<br />
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Enjoy the articles, while I shuffle off to enthuse about even more cult classics. After all, these reviews won't write themselves!<br />
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-41204745798268648192020-02-21T08:35:00.001-08:002020-02-21T08:36:23.084-08:00Nicole Kidman: The Others<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Selections from Nicole Kidman's filmography that demonstrate her extraordinary talent and risk-taking commitment.</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Alejandro Amenábar's Gothic ghost tale <i>The Others</i> (2001) allows Nicole Kidman plenty of room to show off her expansive range as an actor, with each new choice she makes building ever so delicately, layer upon layer, into a performance that's truly transcendent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As Grace Stewart, a mother of two children with a rare and dangerous sensitivity to light, Kidman positively crackles with anxious energy, even while maintaining a proper mid-century stoicism. The constant fear for her children's safety is expressed masterfully, whether it's through her eyes popping wide open with sudden concern or a quick spike in her voice to denote intense anxiety bursting forth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The film's twist ending—which I will not spoil here, even though we're talking about a nearly two-decade old film—still packs a wallop today, thanks in no small part to Grace's devastation as she comes to the same conclusion as the audience. We feel the enormity of her realization because Kidman <i>wills </i>us to feel it right alongside Grace.</span></div>
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<a href="https://morestarsthanintheheavens.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/the-others-nicole-kidman-scared.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="550" height="470" src="https://morestarsthanintheheavens.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/the-others-nicole-kidman-scared.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As Roger Ebert noted in his review upon the film's release, "<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">...Alejandro Amenábar has the patience to create a languorous, dreamy atmosphere, and Nicole Kidman succeeds in convincing us that she is a normal person in a disturbing situation and not just a standard-issue horror movie hysteric." </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Amenábar suffuses the film with a stylish dreamlike quality that begins to feel more like a nightmare, especially as a tightly wound Grace begins to unravel from the haunting. Kidman is extraordinary. Her performance speaks to a mother's undying love for her children and how she'll do anything to keep them safe, even if it means borderline hysterical overreaction. The term "helicopter parenting" wasn't yet <i>en vogue</i> in 2001, but the metaphor certainly applies to Kidman's haunting performance as a mother seemingly living on the edge of sanity. Parenthood will do that to you, whether or not the ghosts are real or only imagined.</span></span></div>
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-2512778771138946122020-02-05T10:03:00.002-08:002020-02-05T10:03:28.105-08:00More Baby Pfeiffer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Let's face facts: I've fallen behind on my Michelle Pfeiffer performance reviews. Life stuff has gotten in the way, plus I've been spending much of time writing four different chapters for inclusion in three forthcoming books (fingers crossed!), and on various other writing commitments.<br />
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Excuses, excuses, man! I know, just shut up and get back to La Pfeiffer, right? I hear you, I really do. So, while I'm working on some future reviews (<i>Stardust </i>and <i>Tequila Sunrise</i> are tops on my list of films left to get to), here's an easy breezy Pfeiffer puff piece to hold us all over for a bit.<br />
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<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CewLdKFWwAAF9D5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="480" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CewLdKFWwAAF9D5.jpg" /></a></div>
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And what's easier or breezier than Baby Pfeiffer, amirite? Everyone knows I have a serious weakness for that very early career sun-kissed California goddess, during the late 1970s through about 1982 or 1983, right before <a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2017/07/michelle-pfeiffer-scarface.html" target="_blank">she went nuclear</a> with <i>Scarface</i>. <a href="https://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2018/11/baby-pfeiffer.html" target="_blank">I've posted about Baby Pfeiffer before</a>, in fact, but why not do it again? What's stopping me?? Nothing! Because there's always something about seeing a star on the rise that's always exciting, and inspiring. So, here are a few jaw-dropping shots of La Pfeiffer during that delightful phase of her early career that my pfans pfriends and I like to call "The Baby Pfeiffer Years." This puff piece of a post goes out my fellow Baby Pfeiffer pfanatics, Stacy and Kelda. When life is exhausting or overwhelming, we've been known to cheer each other up by sending Baby Pfeiffer pics back and forth, because that's what good pfriends do!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://metvcdn.metv.com/0vEl1-1487951587-232-quiz_question_image_-chipsquiz_11.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="800" src="https://metvcdn.metv.com/0vEl1-1487951587-232-quiz_question_image_-chipsquiz_11.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b>An early television gig, guest starring on <i>CHiPs </i>and looking exquisitely California.</b></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/fantasy-island-athena-michelle-pfeiffer-Edited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="800" src="https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/fantasy-island-athena-michelle-pfeiffer-Edited.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Another early television appearance, on <i>Fantasy Island</i>. Absolutely ethereal beauty, in full effect.</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCVmZ2BWKlDoh4Q1TZ1GNzjgH5vgqeIyhEMWSHKx-UhM9biUZ_yZneeUb8Oqt779G60E4ugZzSujcLGDqAvunQd6brsNgAHhFe7q-zBYLD315FOFa-SY5cNefKU4sLVKvC8OOv7wmT54M/s1600/Gst07.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="921" data-original-width="1255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCVmZ2BWKlDoh4Q1TZ1GNzjgH5vgqeIyhEMWSHKx-UhM9biUZ_yZneeUb8Oqt779G60E4ugZzSujcLGDqAvunQd6brsNgAHhFe7q-zBYLD315FOFa-SY5cNefKU4sLVKvC8OOv7wmT54M/s1600/Gst07.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Making another <i>Fantasy Island</i> appearance, this time alongside Ralph Mouth himself, Donnie Most.</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">"Young, fresh, and fond of the outdoors."</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Glamour!</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNTUwNWJmNzMtZDBlMC00Y2FhLTk4YmEtZTAzMzRjYTlkN2NlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTY2MzYyNzA@._V1_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="563" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNTUwNWJmNzMtZDBlMC00Y2FhLTk4YmEtZTAzMzRjYTlkN2NlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTY2MzYyNzA@._V1_.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b>A radiant smile that could make you believe anything's possible in this life.</b></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhRisbVad3_7wq-jtORoFAjlxorUsMZy-cLuQ5q_GGrwDl0DYAUMoKdlzpfINw_JwoagiNMSd3-1AdG8hTt0ecA_VQmOPCGKu70Y3A0Rojj_mVO4LqwrHbRG9zRGfDvGAb7WuqBFiErxAtGVc_IfcNOtibDF59oZ4309TX2RzQqxhfsVxOdGyc2W_m_x4dBKq0zamPR4HMPvanF6UFRpguyedNxN92CHnoSkw=" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="512" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhRisbVad3_7wq-jtORoFAjlxorUsMZy-cLuQ5q_GGrwDl0DYAUMoKdlzpfINw_JwoagiNMSd3-1AdG8hTt0ecA_VQmOPCGKu70Y3A0Rojj_mVO4LqwrHbRG9zRGfDvGAb7WuqBFiErxAtGVc_IfcNOtibDF59oZ4309TX2RzQqxhfsVxOdGyc2W_m_x4dBKq0zamPR4HMPvanF6UFRpguyedNxN92CHnoSkw=" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Blonde bombshell.</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">In an outfit for the ages, in <i>The Hollywood Knights</i>. Hot pants, indeed.</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZWI3Yzk4OTEtNDQwMS00YWRiLTlhOGYtOGI4MTQzZWFmMTBhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZWI3Yzk4OTEtNDQwMS00YWRiLTlhOGYtOGI4MTQzZWFmMTBhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">She positively glides through this film, like a superior being from another place and time, far too good for Tubby's burger joint.</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/62/53/2a/62532a6b7e3310b20c1da04a7c447bd8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="741" data-original-width="600" src="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/62/53/2a/62532a6b7e3310b20c1da04a7c447bd8.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Chilling on the set of <i>Grease 2</i>.</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a3/74/18/a374181dd0da302d079d7f5df7ef4dc1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="670" data-original-width="452" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a3/74/18/a374181dd0da302d079d7f5df7ef4dc1.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Stephanie Zinone will always be one of her most iconic performances. Best Pink Lady <i>ever</i>.</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://assets.audiomack.com/astraljohnny/8084975413884729e671bfdc9696538e99a0433f55f087086fd1ea42e86bdbb6.jpeg?width=1000&height=1000&max=true" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" src="https://assets.audiomack.com/astraljohnny/8084975413884729e671bfdc9696538e99a0433f55f087086fd1ea42e86bdbb6.jpeg?width=1000&height=1000&max=true" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Love that Zinone swagger.</b></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="474" height="467" src="https://i.pinimg.com/474x/8e/4a/1e/8e4a1e9c15785ccc94bd85e222b7483c--timeless-beauty-classic-beauty.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Totally dreamy.</span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://imgix.ranker.com/user_node_img/50040/1000797925/original/young-michelle-pfeiffer-in-gray-sweater-photo-u1?w=650&q=50&fm=pjpg&fit=crop&crop=faces" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="650" src="https://imgix.ranker.com/user_node_img/50040/1000797925/original/young-michelle-pfeiffer-in-gray-sweater-photo-u1?w=650&q=50&fm=pjpg&fit=crop&crop=faces" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Now that's Baby Pfeiffer! </span></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.celebzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/michelle-pfeiffer-at-callie-and-son-promotional-photoshoot-by-harry-langdon-1981-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="540" src="https://www.celebzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/michelle-pfeiffer-at-callie-and-son-promotional-photoshoot-by-harry-langdon-1981-1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Those trademark Pfeiffer baby blues are positively hypnotic.</span></b></td></tr>
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-41218781811072759382020-01-29T08:45:00.003-08:002020-01-29T08:48:31.264-08:008 Times Adam Driver Was Scarily Relatable in Marriage Story<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Noah Baumbach's tearjerker and Best Picture Academy Award nominated <i>Marriage Story</i> tells the painful story of the dissolution of a marriage. Baumbach cleverly reveals Nicole's (Scarlet Johansson) and Charlie's (Adam Driver) marriage story by depicting their divorce story. We join them as things are falling apart, and as it crumbles further, we gain a greater understanding of how these two people have always loved each other, and always will, but how sometimes that's just not enough.<br />
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The film has stuck with me because it has <i>so much</i> empathy for Charlie and Nicole. Neither is painted as a villain, because Baumbach seems to understand that love is too complicated for trite designations like that. Instead, we're given two flawed people whose wounds and heartache and selfishness and everything else that weakens their marriage will prevent them from going the distance. There is no winner or loser. It's just crushingly sad, and our hearts ache for both Charlie and Nicole, and of course for their son Henry.<br />
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At some point I'd like to explore why I think <i>Marriage Story</i> is one of—if not <i>the </i>best—films of 2019, but that'll take some time to compose. For now, I'm just here to celebrate the wonderful performance by Adam Driver as Charlie, and to list a few reasons why I find the character so eerily relatable. We share several similarities. Some superficial while others emotionally resonant, some flattering and others not. Our situations are not the same (thank goodness, for me), but I found myself recognizing parts of me in Charlie all too often as I watched him struggle to find his footing in this new normal. So, here are eight of those times.<br />
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<b>"He disappears into his own world. He and Henry are alike that way."</b><br />
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The film opens with Johansson and Driver reading their respective letters to one another—written at the request, we soon learn, of their mediator. Both letters are filled with what they love about each other, while not shying away from exploring each other's complex personality traits, as well. This line, about living inside one's own world, hit me like a ton of bricks because that is completely me. Always has been. I get lost in my own world, which cannot be easy for my wife sometimes, or for anyone who might be needing me to be emotionally attentive in that moment. But it also means I'm always thinking, processing, or creating in my mind, none of which are bad things. Our son is only five, but I can already see he's inherited this trait from his dad. So, when Nicole describes Charlie and Henry, I can't help but feel that it's also an apt description of me and my son.<br />
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<b>Charlie's reaction shots are so me it's scary.</b><br />
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I don't have a poker face. Never have, never will. Neither does Charlie. We're often reserved, so it might seem we're masking something, but ultimately our frustration will slip out, often in the form of a half-smile conveying bemused frustration.<br />
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<b>Our clothing style and hair choice are very similar.</b><br />
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The button-down shirt under a sweater look is a mainstay of both our wardrobes, not to mention the casual blazer as well. Occasionally rumpled, but that's part of the charm of the look, right? Or so I'm told.<br />
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<b>We eat pizza the same way—in other words, we inhale it like it's our last meal.</b><br />
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The interesting thing is I'm an only child, so it's not as if I grew up having to take my share before someone else snagged it from me. I just love food, and <i>especially </i>pizza.<br />
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<b>Charlie's lip tremble while crying is also my signature crying move.</b><br />
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I mean, it's trembling right now as I watch this GIF! That moment, when Charlie's finally reading Nicole's letter about him, is one of Driver's very best in the film. When he reflexively chokes up, mid-sentence, during "I fell in love with him two seconds after I saw him," I turn into a blubbering mess. Driver's work here is, in a word, powerful.<br />
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<b>People always want to touch our hair.</b><br />
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It's true though. And neither of us are into it, so stop it.<br />
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<b>Sometimes we each say things, in the heat of the moment, that we don't mean.</b><br />
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Late in the film, Charlie and Nicole finally have the massive blowup that's been simmering just below the surface, a natural consequence of the enormous stress of divorce proceedings. And when they do, it's an epic fight, thanks in no small part to Johannson's and Driver's total commitment to the scene. The shouting escalates, with each character hurling hurtful—but mostly true—insults at each other, until finally Charlie explodes, "Every day I wake up, and I wish you were dead!" It's a jaw-dropping moment—"Did he <i>really </i>just say that," you ask yourself? Yes, he did, but it's not surprising, given the tremendous strain, that one or both of them would say things they would never say in any other circumstance. While I've never said that in a heated argument with a loved one, I have said other things that, as the words spat out of my mouth, I immediately regretted.<br />
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<b>And when we realize what we've said, we fall apart.</b><br />
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Hit with sudden, powerful regret, Charlie quickly transitions into uncontrollable, sobbing grief. He apologizes, and collapses to the ground, where Nicole stands over him, cradling his head, gently while he wraps his arms around her legs. For that instant we remember these are two people with a deep, abiding love for one another. They're breaking up, but they're never going to stop loving each other. Once again I've felt Charlie's pain, that instant regret, after having said something so awful (not as awful as wishing death on someone, I must add, but still) that I'm shocked at my capacity to hurt someone, even someone I love. I don't think there's a person alive who hasn't made cutting, or truly mean, remarks to a loved one. We're only human, after all, and the pain and anger we feel in situations like this are intensified tenfold when the person we're arguing with is someone we've loved for so long. That's one of the strange but true absolutes in life: we're more likely to say terrible things to our loved ones than anyone else. Maybe it's the comfort and rapport we share, which leads to such unfiltered honesty.<br />
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<i>Marriage Story</i> is nominated for several Academy Awards this year, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Adam Driver. I'll be rooting for the film as I watch on February 9, and especially for Driver. He's been incredible in most everything he's done up to this point, but I think this will stand as his best work for a while, at least. As written by Baumbach and performed by Driver, there's a lot for me to relate to in Charlie, flaws and all. Flaws, after all, are an inherent ingredient to the human condition. It's about how we work through and past those flaws that counts. Most of us, if we're being honest, can relate to all too well to the strengths and weakness in Nicole and Charlie. That's why <i>Marriage Story</i> will always resonate with audiences willing to share in the film's extreme empathy for this human condition with which we're all afflicted.<br />
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<br />Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-48716575779178517732020-01-24T06:01:00.001-08:002020-01-24T06:01:07.542-08:00It Came From the '90s: Showgirls—The Miseducation of Penny<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="color: #222222;"><br /></i><i style="color: #222222;">Exploring why the 1995 film</i><span style="color: #222222;"> Showgirls <i>is </i></span><i style="color: #222222;">an enduring cult classic.</i><br />
<i style="color: #222222;">(</i><i style="color: #222222;">Due to the film's copious amount of salty language and nudity, these posts are probably NSFW)</i><br />
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If there's one character in Paul Verhoeven's deliciously trashy and impressively thongtastic 1995 classic <i>Showgirls </i>who epitomizes how the Vegas entertainment industry chews up and spits out innocent blood, it's Penny, AKA Hope (Rena Riffel). Poor, poor Penny.<br />
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After arriving at Al Torres's (Robert Davi) Cheetah's Topless Club, fresh and new and full of excitement for a career in dance, Penny is immediately and consistently degraded by one character after another, often through the use of very imaginative and colorful language. Her initial naivety is at turns hilarious and depressing. Here's a sampling, from the film's <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114436/?ref_=tt_ch" target="_blank">IMDb page</a>, of the way other characters (mostly men) talk to her:<br />
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<span class="character" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001108/?ref_=tt_ch" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #136cb2;">Al Torres </a>: </span>If you want to last longer than a week, you give me a blow-job. First I get you used to the money, then I make you swallow.</div>
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<span class="character" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0726457/?ref_=tt_ch" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #70579d; text-decoration-line: none;">Penny/Hope </a>: </span>Is he serious?</div>
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<span class="character" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000924/?ref_=tt_ch" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #70579d; text-decoration-line: none;">Nomi Malone </a>: </span>You need more pink.</div>
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<span class="character" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0726457/?ref_=tt_ch" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #70579d; text-decoration-line: none;">Penny/Hope </a>: </span>Oh, thanks, Heather.</div>
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<span class="character" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001108/?ref_=tt_ch" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #70579d; text-decoration-line: none;">Al Torres </a>: </span>Have you ever done a lap dance before?</div>
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<span class="character" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0726457/?ref_=tt_ch" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #70579d; text-decoration-line: none;">Penny/Hope </a>: </span>No.</div>
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<span class="character" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001108/?ref_=tt_ch" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #70579d; text-decoration-line: none;">Al Torres </a>: </span>You got to talk them into it. Fifty bucks a pop, you take 'em in the back. Touch and go. They touch, they go. You can touch them, but, they cannot touch you.</div>
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<span class="character" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0726457/?ref_=tt_ch" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #70579d; text-decoration-line: none;">Penny/Hope </a>: </span>Oh, that's good.</div>
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<span class="character" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001108/?ref_=tt_ch" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #70579d; text-decoration-line: none;">Al Torres </a>: </span>Now, if they cum, it's okay. If they take it out, cum all over you, call a bouncer. Unless he gives you a big tip. If he gives you a big tip, it's okay. You got that?</div>
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<span class="character" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001108/?ref_=tt_ch" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #70579d; text-decoration-line: none;">Al Torres </a>: </span>Hope, this is Tiffany, Farrah, Heather, Henrietta.</div>
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<span class="character" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0726457/?ref_=tt_ch" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #70579d; text-decoration-line: none;">Penny/Hope </a>: </span>My name isn't Hope. My name is Penny.</div>
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<span class="character" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001108/?ref_=tt_ch" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #70579d; text-decoration-line: none;">Al Torres </a>: </span>They want class, dumb-dumb. They don't want to fuck a Penny. They want to fuck a Heather! Or, a Tiffany. Or, a Hope. This is a class joint.</div>
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<li class="ipl-zebra-list__item quote soda" style="background-color: #fbfbfb; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18.2px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.9rem 0.7rem;"><div class="sodatext" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; padding: 8px 12px 0px;">
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<span class="character" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0726457/?ref_=tt_ch" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #70579d; text-decoration-line: none;">Penny/Hope </a>: </span>Do you want something to drink?</div>
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<span class="character" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0687625/?ref_=tt_ch" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #70579d; text-decoration-line: none;">James Smith </a>: </span>Yeah, get me a beer, bitch.</div>
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<a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTIwOTk3MzUyNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDcxOTcyMQ@@._V1_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="441" data-original-width="300" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTIwOTk3MzUyNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDcxOTcyMQ@@._V1_.jpg" /></a>To the men Penny interacts with, she's seen as little more than a blowup doll, only there to satisfy their sexual urges and fetch them a beer afterward. She's a dumb-dumb expected to look desirable, service the bossman, and satisfy the clientele. It doesn't help that she's also overshadowed by the film's star, the nakedly ambitious and crazy-charismatic Nomi (Elizabeth Berkely). Whereas Penny is sweet and reticent, Nomi is a pit bull ready to attack at a moment's notice. It seems appropriate that Penny eventually hooks up with choreographer James (Glenn Plummer), who Nomi discarded earlier in the film.<br />
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Rena Riffel is delightful throughout, with her big eyes perfectly expressing Penny's constant confusion and uncertainty. She acts as the perfect straight-woman foil to Robert Davi's cynical flesh peddler. It's appalling how Al talks to Penny, but over the course of the film we learn he's more of a softy than he lets on. Scenes like the one below are <i>so </i>over the top you can't help but laugh out loud, thanks to the endlessly quotable script from Joel Eszerthas. This is politically incorrect comedy gold:<br />
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Penny may be a minor character, but thanks largely to Rena Riffel's subtle charms, she's a fan favorite for good reason. Riffel has become a champion of the film, making countless appearances over the years to discuss and celebrate the cult classic. She even starred in the low-budget sequel, <i>Showgirls 2: Pennies from Heaven</i> (2011). More Penny is never a bad thing, but that's a post for another time.<br />
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Penny's shocked and concerned response to Al's "First I get you used to the money..." line is priceless: "Is he serious?" Penny's story, slight as it might be, still helps reinforce one of the film's key themes<i>:</i> you're going to need to do things you might not want to do in order to make it in the world of <i>Showgirls</i>.<br />
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<br />Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-34361513283498442622020-01-21T07:37:00.001-08:002020-01-21T07:37:33.225-08:00Guest Post: Andrew McCarthy's Against the Odds Romances<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm excited to share a guest post from fellow blogger and film fanatic Gill Jacob, at <a href="https://weegiemidget.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Realweegiemidget Reviews</a>. As an added bonus, it's about one of my favorite topics: Andrew McCarthy movies! I've been working on a long-gestating post about McCarthy that, fingers crossed, will see the light of the day this year. In the meantime, here are some of Gill's thoughts on Andrew's "against the odds romance" films. If you grew up on his films, you'll find a lot to love about Gill's post. Enjoy!<br />
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FILMS… Andrew McCarthy Against The Odds Romances</h1>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 26.9997px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As a teen – and for a wee while after that – I confess to having a bit of a crush on Andrew McCarthy, famed for his sensitive roles… and usually falling for a girl but she usually came with some catch!</span></h2>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 19.5px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">PHOTOGRAPHS FROM PRETTY IN PINK ©PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND CLASS © ORION PICTURES</span></h6>
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In the 1980s, being good and dirty on the dance floor like Patrick Swayze or a bit of a boyish charmer like Rob Lowe often got you the girl. However, one actor, usually playing a quiet sensitive type seemed to win the girl more than most. These parts were often played by Andrew McCarthy, but usually there was some wee problem with the girls he fell for in his bid for true love. So here’s a list some of his these roles, I enjoyed him in as I’m sure I’m not the only one who had a bit of a crush on him back then…</div>
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This film centres round the lives of seven friends who are recently graduated from university. Starring minor to major brat packers in lead and supporting roles aplenty. At the time, I saw McCarthy’s character Kevin as a sensitive, cynical writer disillusioned with love yet hoping for the love of his best friend Alec (a yuppie Judd Nelson)’s girl.. Leslie being played by Ally Sheedy. McCarthy’s female friends believe he’s gay , mainly because he hasn’t made a pass at the hottie of the group, Jules (Demi Moore). The catch with Leslie however of course, is that his chance romantic encounter with her backfires on him spectacularly but surprisingly not because Kevin is more than a bit odd, as he sleeps in a coffin (as you do, but only if you are a vampire) and watches on his friend Kirby to be a stalker to the object of his affection, Dale (annoying Andie McDowall character)..</div>
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.The cast also included Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe and Mare Winningham. Sadly this film hasn’t stood the test of time and is as typically 80s with the wannabe yuppie characters and Rob Lowe’s character’s saxophone. At the time, I was obsessed with McCarthy, I knew this movie off by heart, to no doubt the despair of friends and family. Now is a tad embarrassing as I find its characters more than annoying and that the movie is more than a bit dull, but maybe that’s my age.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 26.9997px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093493" style="border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mannequin</em></a> (1987)</span></h2>
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Jonathan (McCarthy) a frustrated artist falls in love with his own creation, a store mannequin , who looks vaguely like Kim Cattrall. It turns out – as explained in the animated credits – the mannequin has the spirit of an Egyptian princess looking for true love. So Jonathan (McCarthy) ends up getting a job at the same store as the mannequin <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">with movie coincidence luck – as you do – and he gets to dress her every morning in a series of stunning window displays (Sadly this bit isn’t seen for the legions of men who probably were hoping for it. Aw.) This leads to jealously from his girl and the store’s rival competitors. O</span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">f course, when the mannequin </span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">comes to life as Kim Cattrall they fall madly in love. Obviously the catch is she’s a dummy and only he knows her secret. This leads to many hysterical moments deriving from this…oh how we laughed (maybe once). Anyway, their love leads to lots of montages, a dance routine and much more hilarity. The film also has sadly more predictable role for G.W. Bailey who played the store security guard from the Police Academy series.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 26.9997px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095178" style="border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fresh Horses</a></em> (1988)</span></h2>
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McCarthy’s character Matt is a well off student and is engaged to be married. His friend Tipton – played by Ben Stiller – suggests they go to a party in the country. They go and by chance he meets and falls for Jewel (Molly Ringwald). She claims she is 20 and there is an immediate attraction between them despite their differences. He is rich, she is poor. He is educated, she isn’t. A bit like Rose and Jack on <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://weegiemidget.wordpress.com/remembering/remembering-2017/bill-paxton/" style="border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Titanic</a> </em>(1997) but without the boat, or the iceberg. Matt and Jewel fall in love and he calls off his engagement. However she is keeping a number of secrets from him…which are revealed in the trailer – so it’s up to you if you want to find out – as this drama continues. Ringwald showed more ranges in her acting talent in this one, and it was lovely seeing her reunited with McCarthy on-screen after <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pretty in Pink</em> (1986) in this against all odds romance.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 26.9997px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085346" style="border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Class</a></em> (1983)</span></h2>
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In Class McCarthy plays class new boy, Jonathan who has won a scholarship to attend a prestigious school but cheated in the tests to get him there. Rob Lowe plays his roommate Skip who plays a prank on him, after which Jonathan retaliates. The two become firm friends after this and they confide secrets with each other. Skip decides he should send Jonathan to Chicago to gain more experience with the ladies, there Jonathan meets an older woman named Ellen (Jacqueline Bisset) and they embark on a sexual relationship. And have a lot of sex in elevators and more conventional places…The catch, both don’t realise she is his roommates mother… which again is revealed by the tell-tale trailer and movie tag line.</div>
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This film was one of the many 1970s to 80s older woman younger man moments on the screen, with other younger men including John Travolta and Lily Tomlin (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077942" style="border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Moment by Moment</em></a>, 1978) and of course <a href="https://weegiemidget.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/dallas/" style="border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dallas</a>‘s Linda “Sue Ellen Ewing” Gray with then cinema hottie Christopher Atkins who played Peter Richards as John Ross’s camp counsellor. And the numerous younger men bedded by <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://weegiemidget.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/down-with-love/" style="border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dynasty</a></em>‘s Alexis Colby (Joan Collins). However McCarthy appears quite adorably cute in his scenes with Bisset and very much the awkward kid when they meet, in his first film alongside Rob Lowe.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 26.9997px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091790" style="border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pretty in Pink</a></em> (1986)</span></h2>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 19.5px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">PRETTY IN PINK (1986) – TRAILER, OLDSCHOOLTRAILERS, WWW.YOUTUBE.COM</em></h6>
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In this John Hughes directed movie, McCarthy plays Blane a nice rich, boy next door type who hopes to wins poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks, Andie Walsh’s heart. Sounds familiar, luckily she has no secrets but his time their relationship doesn’t get the immediate approval of their best friends, Andies’s best friend Duckie <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(Jon Cryer) and </span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Blane’s </span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">best buddy 1980s douchebag Steff, who is played to slimey perfection by James Spader. It also didn’t help much of the test – and actual audiences – were rooting for Duckie.</span> This is because the audience saw how hopelessly in love Duckie was with Andie, how much more funny and cool he was.. serenading Andie with Otis Redding and his famous one liners, <br />
<del style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bland</del> Blane didn’t stand a chance. Probably this film, did lead to many girls wanting to be Blane’s girl with that first moment where he just smiles at her after he contacts her via computer. You can see why Ringwald wanted him cast as Blane, as imdb states she fought for him to have the role saying he was the kind of guy that she’d date.</div>
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So girls of a certain age, wouldn’t you love to have that choice if you were an actress in personally picking your leading man who you get to snog (and presumably get to shout CUT so the scenes redone to your liking. As I’m sure a few of you would make the same toyboy choice as Leslie Mann did in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1524930" style="border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Vacation</em></a> (2015) getting that full on snog with one Chris Hemsworth….</div>
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About Gill:</div>
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Gill Jacob is a wee (5ft) random Expat Scottish lass living in Finland with the love of her life, Darlin’ Husband and her <i>Dallas</i> Boxsets and more. Prone to gittering (ie rambling on with purpose) about Films TV Books & ALL things Entertainment on her blog <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Realweegiemidget Reviews</span>. Can be followed on the usual websites <a href="https://www.facebook.com/realweegiemidgetreviews/" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Facebook, </span></a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/realweegiemidgetreviews/" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Twitter</a></span> and<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://fi.pinterest.com/weegiemidget/" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Pinterest</a>.</span> Happy to promote <i>anything</i> with an entertainment tie in from themed toothbrushes to autobiographies and indie films and TV to blockbusters. And 100% obsessed with <i>Dallas</i> the original series… More about Realweegiemidget Reviews is found on my About Me page <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://weegiemidget.wordpress.com/about/about/" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a></span>… and I can be contacted <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://weegiemidget.wordpress.com/contact-me-2/" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">HERE</a></span>.</div>
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-27303535938350440232020-01-13T09:12:00.001-08:002020-01-13T09:19:28.298-08:00Frankie Forever<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Everybody knows <a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2017/09/double-feature-michelle-pfieffer-and-al.html" target="_blank">I love <i>Frankie and Johnny</i></a>. Everybody knows that, hard as it is to choose a favorite, <a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2017/08/michelle-pfeiffer-frankie-and-johnny.html" target="_blank">Frankie will always have my heart</a> when it comes to Michelle Pfeiffer characters. So, pardon me if you've heard or read all of this from me before, but here are just a few reasons why I love everything about this beautiful film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sometimes you form such a personal connection with a film that you can't even imagine who you would be without it in your life. <i>Frankie and Johnny</i> (1991) is that film for me. It hooked me first time I saw it, thanks to e</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">xtraordinary performances from the two leads, Michelle Pfeiffer as Frankie and Al Pacino as Johnny; a sensational supporting cast, including Nathan Lane, Kate Nelligan, and Hector Elizondo; that sublime Marvin Hamlisch score; and Terrence McNally's exquisite adaptation of his own off-Broadway play, <i>Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. </i>Together, these elements combine to create something truly magical. I've been living under this film's sway ever since. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's so much more than just a romantic comedy</span>—<span style="font-family: inherit;">and I love romantic comedies, so that's not meant as a slight to the genre. It's just that </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Frankie and Johnny</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> offers more than a trite "will they or won't they" narrative. Yes, it's about a man falling in love with a woman at first glance, thanks to what he believes is kismet (based largely on the existence of the song "Frankie and Johnny"), and over the course of the film we follow the travails of their budding romance. Yet, instead of the male character being the one who's afraid of intimacy, which was far more common during the time this film was made, it's the female lead who takes on that role. This allows Pfeiffer to create a fully realized portrayal of a complex woman who lives every day with the aftereffects of trauma and grief.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Frankie and Johnny</i> is a wonderful example of the power of "slice of life" films, with the action set </span>in and around a fictional New York City diner, the Apollo Cafe. <span style="font-family: inherit;">Nothing is over-explained, as McNally and Marshall trust their audience to discover these characters' complex interior lives while accompanying them on their emotional journeys throughout the film. Johnny, recently released from prison (we learn later that he was doing time for a white collar crime), takes a job at the Apollo, owned and operated by the cantankerous but lovable Nick (played by Marshall mainstay, </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">Héctor</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Elizondo), and staffed with a motley crew, including waitresses Cora (Kate Nelligan) and Nedda (Jane Morris). Johnny falls madly and deeply for another waitress, Frankie. It's love at first sight, even if she's sending off serious "back off" vibes. What follows is Johnny's persistent—and at times overbearing—courtship of Frankie, who slowly begins to let down her guard and open up to him about why she's so hesitant and afraid to begin another relationship.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Frankie is the emotional core of the film. Even before we know exactly why she hurts so much inside, Pfeiffer makes us believe just how frightened and damaged she feels. When the film opens, she's traveling by bus out to Pennsylvania to visit family, and before she's even said a word we're introduced to Pfeiffer as she silently stares out the window, and then begins to weep for reasons unknown to us, but which establish just how much emotional pain Frankie carries with her through life. Later, in the film’s most devastating scene, she sobs, uncontrollably, through a heartbreaking monologue that absolutely wrecks me every time—"I'm afraid to be alone, I'm afraid not to be alone, I'm afraid of what I am, what I'm not, what I might become, what I might never become." The moment also highlights that as good as Johnny's intentions are, he's also myopic at times . He tells her that he can make "the bad go away" for Frankie, which in his mind is a genuine expression of his love and loyalty to her. But Frankie rightly responds that, no, he can't just take it away. It'll always be there. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pfeiffer's performance in this scene is devastating. It's also important to note that she's incredibly funny throughout the film, delivering one sidelong glance or snarky aside after another. Early on, her neighbor and best friend Tim (Lane) is trying to encourage Frankie to back out in the dating scene, to which she replies hilariously, "Send out for dinner, rent a film. That's dinner and movie. And I don't have to deal with some schmuck putting his tongue in my ear." Frankie may be traumatized, but she can still be playful, and Pfeiffer delivers beautifully in these scenes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Despite the superstar combination of Pfeiffer and Pacino—together again eight years after their charismatic performances as squabbling husband and wife in </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Scarface</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">—</span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Frankie and Johnny </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">didn't make much of an impact in cinemas in 1991. Even since, it has remained criminally underrated, and is long overdue for both a critical reassessment and a first-ever Blu-ray release. The good news is that after years of feeling nearly alone in my borderline obsessive love for this film, I've met several die-hard fans in recent years, which warms my heart. There's something life affirming about knowing that others out there are as equally devoted to Frankie, Johnny, and the film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">At heart, </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Frankie and Johnny</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> is a beautiful, thoughtfully rendered meditation on feeling like a has-been in your thirties and forties, and fearing that you’ll never measure up to some delusional fantasy you set for yourself as a kid. It's about lying about your age, out of embarrassment and depression. It’s not so much about overcoming sadness and trauma as it is about learning to live with these feelings. It’s about two people just getting by as best they can—Frankie, so severely traumatized by her past that she masks that pain with sarcasm and indifference; and Johnny, who’s seen the end of the world and decides he’s going to make the most of his second act. </span>The film and its characters—especially Pfeiffer's Frankie—burrowed into my heart as a teenager and still reside there to this day. Every time I watch (and I watch <i>often</i>) I smile, cry, and laugh. It reminds me that it's okay to be sad sometimes, as long as I retain some measure of hope, and let love in, always. Especially when that feels like the scariest thing in the world to do.</div>
Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-8315939291541799102020-01-09T11:46:00.002-08:002020-01-09T11:46:10.269-08:00On Elizabeth Wurtzel and Writing Authentically<div style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; margin-bottom: 6px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Author, essayist, journalist, and Gen X icon Elizabeth Wurtzel died earlier this week, after several years of living with cancer and its recurrence. She was only 52. For an intimate look at her life, I would encourage you to seek out any number of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2020/01/liz-wurtzels-glorious-messy-life/604606/" target="_blank">heartfelt and honest remembrances</a> to this iconoclastic writer, this fierce and uncompromising woman, which are being written this week by friends and colleagues who <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2020/01/nancy-jo-sales-friend-elizabeth-wurtzel.html" target="_blank">knew her better than most</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Even for those of us who never knew her, Wurtzel's influence was everywhere, especially during my college years in the </span><a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/search/label/it%20came%20from%20the%20%2790s" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">epic decade of the nineties</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, thanks to her first memoir, <i>Prozac Nation</i>, from 1994. I can remember standing against the shelves in some Borders or other, lost in the rawness of her confessional tale of depression. It was raw at a time when raw was not socially acceptable. When it came out, establishment critics at places like the </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">New York Times</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> were ripping her and the book to shreds with reviews that couldn't have been anymore dismissive of or downright cruel about people</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;"> suffering from mental illness. I hope those critics are around today and that her death brings their awful reviews back into public consciousness, for all to see. That's the era we grew up in, my generation, when it was okay to make fun of people, writers, who tried to make sense of their struggles with mental illness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">What those critics couldn't understand then seems so blatantly obvious now you wonder how they ever got it so wrong. At its core, the memoir—a literary genre with its share of bombs, just like any genre—or, more specifically, a memoir like the kind Wurtzel wrote, is at its core all about an individual expressing the personal in order to uncover some universal truths of this, our shared human experience. To help the writer, and us, feel less alone. We like to think we're all different, but in so many ways we are so much alike. We suffer, we love, we are anxious and depressed, we are filled with dangerously vibrant emotions, we fall and we get back up again, each and every one of us. That's what Wurtzel wrote about, consistently, for almost three decades. Who can't find something to relate to in that?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/opinion/elizabeth-wurtzel.html?auth=login-email&login=email" target="_blank">Wurtzel told her friend and fellow writer Molly Oswaks</a>, “If you want to make it as a writer, you have to be willing to kill your mother.” Oswaks clarifies,</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">"She did not mean this literally. She meant that you had to be willing to say the difficult and upsetting thing, to risk hurting someone’s feelings in the name of honesty, to not fear the fallout of living an authentic life and writing about it, warts and all."</span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">That's the key. That's why we do this, why we write, and not just write, but rip out our insides and throw them onto the page or the screen, for any and everyone to read. We feel compelled to make sense of some inner truths residing inside us, which we can't fully comprehend until we write the words that make them make sense. Make sense to us, and, if we're lucky, to other similarly afflicted humans.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of my favorite Wurtzel quotes feels even more powerful now that she's gone:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"I have always made choices without considering the consequences, because I know all I get is now."</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">She was right. All we get is now. A cancer survivor myself, I understand this more than most. I'm always going to remember Wurtzel's words. They're a perfect reminder to live life everyday like you're dying. And to write about all of it along the way, every messy, ugly detail. Consequences be damned.</span></div>
Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-74351745035708011452020-01-07T09:57:00.005-08:002020-01-08T09:50:25.314-08:00Favorite Films of the 2010s<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Top ten lists for movies of the decade were everywhere in December. I even saw one top 200 list! Instead of taking that route, I've chosen to just list a few films from the 2010s that stood out as my favorites of the last decade. Each of these movies blew my mind, touched my soul, and otherwise made it impossible for me to forget them. I don't know if these were the best, but they're some of the movies I remember most from the decade past. These are not reviews, just a brief sentence or two about why I dig each movie, with links to more for those I've written about before. Here they are, presented in no order whatsoever, except of course leading off with a Michelle Pfeiffer film because that's how we roll around here.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2017/09/michelle-pfeiffer-mother-2017.html" target="_blank">mother!</a></i> (</span></b><b>Darren Aronofsky, </b><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">2017)</span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Aronofsky’s absorbing, anxiety-provoking assault on the senses. One of Michelle Pfeiffer’s most scorched earth performances—she deserved ALL the awards. Poor Jennifer Lawrence. “The sink’s not braced!!” Truly stunning.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Green Room</i> (</span></span></b><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;">Jeremy Saulnier, </span></b><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2016</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;">)</span></b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;">Excruciatingly tense and gripping punk rock horror thriller. Even the early quiet moments are eerily beautiful. Works so well because we really grow to care about these kids in the band. “What’s your desert island band?” Absolutely brilliant movie.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The Edge of Seventeen</i> (</span>Kelly Fremon Craig, <span style="font-family: inherit;">2016)</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This one is a gem. As compassionate a portrait of teenage awkwardness/introversion as any I’ve seen. Hailee Steinfeld is a treasure, carrying the entire movie with her towering performance, and Woody Harrelson is the sort of perceptive teacher we all desperately need as kids. Their scenes together are pure gold.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2019/01/best-movies-of-2018.html" target="_blank">Cam</a> </i>(Daniel Goldhaber, 2018)</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #3e3f3c; font-family: inherit;">Written by former camgirl Isa Mazzei, <i>Cam </i>is a darkly comic, at times genuinely terrifying, and always utterly sympathetic film. It explores how the line between our online and offline selves can be dangerously blurred, and eventually even obliterated entirely.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: inherit;"><i>You're Next</i> (Adam Wingard, 2011)</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Relentless home invasion thriller that positively cooks from start to finish. Starring Sharni Vinson, in an amazing performance, as possibly the most assured, kick-ass Final Girl in horror history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>The Invitation</i> (Karyn Kusama, 2015)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2019/08/nicole-kidman-destroyer.html" target="_blank">Destroyer</a></i> (Karyn Kusama, 2018)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Two from one of the best directors working today, Karyn Kusama. Both explore long-term repercussions of grief, in different but equally powerful and unsettling ways. <i>The Invitation's</i> unsettling, slowly unfolding horrors are so fraught with tension it’s almost unbearable. <i>Destroyer</i> is devastating, and Nicole Kidman is extraordinary.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Hounds of Love</i> (Ben Young, 2016)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Claustrophobic, dread-soaked nightmare. Completely unsettling from the first frame to the last. Extremely affecting use of Joy Division’s “Atmosphere.” Brutal and unforgettable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i>Snowpiercer</i> (Bong Joon-Ho, 2013)</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is how I like a good dystopian sci-fi exploration of climate disaster and class division: set inside a high-speed train shooting through the blizzard wasteland with passengers who are the (supposed) last survivors on the planet. Chris Evans proves he isn’t just Captain America—he’s also intense and magnetic here.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2019/01/best-movies-of-2018.html" target="_blank">Mandy</a> </i>(</span>Panos Cosmatos, <span style="font-family: inherit;">2018)</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">brings a 1970s Roger Dean album cover to blood-red-saturated life in this phantasmagoria of despair whose dreamlike pacing eventually hops the express train to Crazy Town. Nicolas Cage is outstanding.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: inherit;"><i>50/50</i> (Jonathan Levine, 2011)</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">No one talks about this movie now, almost ten years later, but it captured <i>exactly</i> what it's like to feel as if you're living outside your body, while medical professionals treat the disease and many friends and family have no idea how to talk to you about any of it. Excellent script (Will Reiser), and Joseph Gordon-Levitt brought it to life and absolutely nailed it.</span></div>
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-76724777012584237992019-12-30T09:02:00.002-08:002019-12-30T09:02:34.452-08:00Misspent Youth: Carol Lynley<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Looking back at the pop culture mainstays of this Gen Xer's gloriously misspent youth.</span></i><br />
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The American actress Carol Lynley passed away earlier this year at 77, leaving behind a strong legacy on stage and in film. Born Carol Ann Jones in Manhattan in 1942, she began her career as a child model before seguing into acting. Lynley went on to star in several noteworthy film and television roles over the years, ranging from the controversial teen pregnancy drama <i>Blue Denim</i> (in which she starred on Broadway in 1958 and in the film version the following year) to the sex comedy <i>Under the Yum Yum Tree</i> (in 1963 alongside Jack Lemmon) to one of the most successful disaster movies of the 1970s, <i>The Poseidon Adventure</i> (1972). Lynley appeared in episodic television from <i>Police Woman</i> to <i>Charlie's Angels</i>, and the occasional TV movie, like 1972's <i>The Night Stalker</i>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">That smile.</span></td></tr>
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Wherever she appeared, Lynley made an impression. Blonde, blue-eyed, and stunningly beautiful, she brought a subtle grace and a cat-like elegance to every role. Those hypnotically piercing baby blues gave Lynley one of the most penetrating stares in the business. She exuded intelligence and class.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Retro cool vibes galore.</span></td></tr>
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Let's end on this fantastic quote from the woman herself: "I've never been in a scandal. I've never been caught running
naked down a highway. I've not tried to shoot anybody. Nobody's ever tried to
shoot me. My child is legitimate... I've never been to Betty Ford... No porn...
No drug addictions... I've outlived three of my doctors. So if you're going to
write a juicy book, I've got a problem."<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">All tied up in <i>The Cat and the Canary</i> (1978).</span></td></tr>
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She may have avoided scandal with aplomb, but she certainly left an indelible mark on stage and on screen through her performances.<br />
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-33940558962661888862019-12-30T08:25:00.004-08:002019-12-30T08:25:41.601-08:00Misspent Youth: Linda Lovelace<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Looking back at the pop culture mainstays of this Gen-Xer's gloriously misspent youth.</span></i><br />
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I was born smack in the middle of the "Me decade," the 1970s, so I missed 1972's sociocultural atom bomb, <i>Deep Throat</i>. Still, the most famous porn film in history sent shockwaves through the culture, the reverberations of which were felt long after the film left theaters. In the early 1980s, kids were still whispering its name, and the name of its legendary—and legendarily talented—star, Linda Lovelace. So, while it was several more years before some of us actually witnessed Lovelace's, um, talents, she was certainly a known commodity to kids my age.</div>
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Born Linda Susan Boreman in the Bronx in 1949, Lovelace first starred in a series of hardcore "loops" at the behest of her husband/manager/pimp Chuck Traynor. She went on to do a small clutch of films, both porn and otherwise, none more famous than <i>Deep Throat</i>. Traynor had discovered Boreman's astonishing talent for "deep-throating," and thus was born the fantastical character of Lovelace, a sexually frustrated woman who discovers her clitorus is actually located in her throat (you didn't know <i>Deep Throat</i> was science fiction too, did you?). You can imagine what happens next: in her job as a "therapist," Lovelace fellates one gent after another, climaxing herself each time. The film ends on a conservative note, with Lovelace falling in love and marrying one such "client."</div>
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The ubiquity of porn and other salacious online content in the internet age makes <i>Deep Throat</i>'s popularity seem downright quaint now. Yet at the time, porn had only been legal for a few years. <i>Deep Throat</i>'s startling mainstream success suddenly made porn chic. Your friend's mom was likely talking about it with your mom, possibly even joining their husbands at date-night screenings. The film was reviewed in <i>The New York Times</i>. Star-studded screenings were held in Hollywood and New York. It was among the first, and highest grossing, X-rated films ever released on videotape. Its name will always be synonymous with that dirty little word, "porn."</div>
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Lovelace's success was short-lived, however. After starring in a less well received R-rated sequel, she went public with accusations against Traynor of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. She claimed to have filmed <i>Deep Throat</i> under duress, at gunpoint, and to have never made a dime off the film. Traynor denied it. At times her stories contradicted themselves. Her bestselling autobiography, <i>Inside Linda Lovelace</i> is widely rumored to have been ghost-written by Traynor, which might explain those contradictions. Others in the porn industry said she was a pathological liar and made it all up. Her name was dragged through the mud. She joined the anti-pornography movement and eventually felt used and abused by them as well.<br />
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We may never know the full story—the frustratingly mediocre <i>Lovelace</i> (2013) starring Amanda Seyfried certainly portrays Lovelace as a victim. One thing is certain, though: Lovelace spent much of her life being used by some incredibly shady people and an audience of people that gawked at her like she was a circus freak performer. That she eventually died in 2002 at only 53 years old, from injuries sustained in a car crash, only compounds the sadness of her story.</div>
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<br />Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-42177720567095939192019-12-20T08:22:00.001-08:002019-12-20T08:22:11.266-08:00All I Want for Christmas: Hurry Down the Chimney Tonight<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Deck the halls and spike the eggnog, because it's time for another seasonal installment of All I Want for Christmas. I had high hopes to crank out a couple of them this year but we're nearing the finish line of the December holiday spring, so this might be it. My desire to do entries on Christmas movie favorites like <i>Kiss Kiss Bang Bang</i> (2005) and <i>Black Christmas</i> (1974) will have to wait 'til next year. This annual tradition began in 2017, when I asked Santa to <a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2017/12/all-i-want-for-christmas-joan-collins.html" target="_blank">deliver me the ridiculously awesome Joan Collins for Christmas</a>. Then in 2018 came the eternal request for <a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2018/12/all-i-want-for-christmas-less-elf-on.html" target="_blank">less elf on the shelf and more Elvira under the tree.</a></div>
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Now those legendary ghosts of All I Want for Christmas blog posts past are joined by the equally legendary Elizabeth Montgomery, filling in for Santa while wearing far less clothing than the big guy. I don't even care about the gifts; she can leave them on the roof, as long as she wears Mrs. Claus's younger sister's saucy yuletide getup. She gets bonus points for degree of difficulty too: she must be freezing in that outfit and it can't be easy traversing rooftops in those heels! But that's why she's a legend, after all.<br />
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The accomplished star of stage and screen, Elizabeth Montgomery left us far too soon, at only 62 years young in 1995. Known the world over for that iconic nose twitch as Samantha on <i>Bewitched</i>, Montgomery was absurdly photogenic, leaving behind a <a href="https://www.vintag.es/2019/04/elizabeth-montgomery.html" target="_blank">treasure trove of photoshoots</a> for retro-vintage fans everywhere. If her 1960s Christmas shoot* doesn't trim your tree, then you're either the world's biggest Scrooge or just clinically dead inside.<br />
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As I stumble and trip through December in <a href="https://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2018/12/all-i-want-for-christmas-phoebe-catess.html" target="_blank">my annual holidaze</a>, I'll be sipping some eggnog, listening to Ronnie Spector singing beautifully about walkin' in a winter wonderland, <a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2017/12/all-i-want-for-christmas-top-five.html" target="_blank">watching my favorite holiday classics</a>, staying as far away from malls as possible, and dreaming of the late great <i>uberbabe</i> Elizabeth Montgomery hurrying down the chimney tonight.<br />
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*I can't find the photographer's name to credit, but the memorable shots are included here in black and white and colorized.Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-59453583855467378012019-12-09T10:05:00.001-08:002019-12-09T11:41:48.963-08:00Five Films: Scorsese<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Martin Scorsese's nearly four-hour long crime epic <i>The Irishman</i> dropped on Netflix a few weeks back. It's already garnering awards talk, and while I can see certain aspects of the film being worthy of that praise—in terms of performances, Al Pacino steals the show—for the most part it was an utter slog to get through for this avowed Scorsese acolyte.<br />
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Let me clarify. I haven't truly loved a Scorsese movie in a very long time. However, his earliest 1970s films, all the way up to his 1990s work, have always been absolutely crucial to my love of movies. These were some of the first films that helped teach me the language of auteur cinema, shaping forever after how I would see, feel, process, absorb, and analyze film. So, go ahead and watch <i>The Irishman</i> if you have half a work day to kill. But please, follow up with some of Scorsese's best films as either a reminder or, if you've never seen them before, a mind-blowing introduction to the man's cinematic genius. With that in mind, here are five Scorsese films I always recommend. Not only are these my five favorites, they're also wonderful examples of Scorsese at his best.<br />
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<b><i>The Age of Innocence</i> (1993)</b><br />
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Has there ever been a better movie made about desire and longing than this Edith Wharton adaptation? I suspect not. Scorsese and screenwriter pal Jay Cocks suffused the film with a passionate sexual intensity than Wharton's novel certainly didn't contain. Yet it's that passion that makes the film so very memorable. Two exquisite lead performances from Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis—both of whom should have won Academy Awards, yet neither were even nominated. Insanity. Legendary cinematographer Michael Ballhaus is positively on fire throughout, with one indelibly framed and shot sequence after another. Bathing Pfeiffer in oversaturated bursts of primary colors is one example why the film is a visual feast for the eyes, heart, and mind—all in service of an emotionally gut-wrenching meditation on unrequited love. No one thought of "Scorsese" and "unrequited love" in the same sentence back then, but he proved what many of us always knew: his cinematic talents translate across genres.<br />
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<b><i>Taxi Driver</i> (1976)</b><br />
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A Stygian descent into the crime-infested urban nightmare that was New York City in the 1970s, <i>Taxi Driver</i> has lost none of its raw power over the years. Vietnam vet taxi driver Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro, in one his best performances) is a man who would not take it anymore, and the entire film is like watching a train wreck occur in slow motion, as Bickle struggles mightily to control his urges to cleanse the streets of vermin and scum. Scorsese himself makes an unforgettable cameo as a sadistic cuckolded husband who repeatedly asks a silent Bickle, "Did you ever see what a .44 Magnum pistol can do to a
woman’s face? I mean, it’ll fucking destroy it. Just blow her right apart.” The film's notoriously violent final act, followed by a shockingly serene finale, is legendary for a reason. Bickle's pent-up rage finally explodes in a whorehouse, where he "saves" the young prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster) and murders several pimps and johns, only to be hailed as a vigilante hero by the local papers afterward. The film sticks with you, as does Bernard Hermann's somber score.<br />
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<b><i>Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore</i> (1974)</b><br />
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A stunning, shining example of how excellent Scorsese can be
when working outside the zones most audiences expect from him. The rare, female-lead driven Scorsese flick, <i>Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore</i> is one of the very best of the 1970s genre
I like to longwindedly call “Mom embarks on a road trip/journey of
self-discovery with her young kid in tow.” Ellen Burstyn’s Oscar was richly deserved. It’s one of the best performances by any actor across <i>all</i> of
Scorsese’s films. Her relationship with her young son (Alfred Lutter gives a
terrific child actor performance) is so natural and lived in, it’s almost
impossible to imagine they’re actually just acting. Eleven year old Jodie
Foster is delightful (“Wanna get high on Ripple?”). There are also a few brief
moments of that trademark Scorsese male violence threatening to erupt (and in
one scene with Scorsese regular Harvey Keitel, it does, to frightening effect). The “Can I touch your beard?” scene
between Burstyn and Kris Kristofferson is still one of the most tenderly romantic moments this
old softy’s ever seen onscreen. A real gem of a film. Coincidentally, it turns forty-five this month.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><i>Mean Streets</i> (1973)</b><br />
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A story of youth and young (toxic) manhood on the same New York streets that Scorsese grew up on, <i>Mean Streets</i> announced the visionary director as one to watch. It's not hard now, all these years later, to grasp just how powerfully alive the film felt, because it still feels that way today. Alive and crackling with raw unbridled energy, much of it provided by frequent Scorsese collaborators Keitel and De Niro, the film is an intoxicating watch. Keitel and De Niro together were as electrifying as any two leads of the era. De Niro's Johnny Boy is a live wire, and one of the actor's most charismatic performances. The animosity and violence simmering underneath their characters' loving friendship is palpable throughout. Much of the film, though, is about young men hanging out in bars, goofing off late at night, trying to find a way up and out of their circumstances. Keitel and De Niro play characters on the periphery of organized crime, and while Scorsese went on to make far more explicitly mob-oriented films, for me none ever equaled the pure magic he created on those <i>Mean Streets</i> in 1973.<br />
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<b><i>The King of Comedy</i> (1982)</b><br />
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Few films in Scorsese's cannon are as difficult to sit through as <i>The King of Comedy</i>. Scorsese lingers over extremely uncomfortable moments in the life of aspiring (and delusional) comedian Rupert Pupkin (De Niro, in another performance for the ages), making us squirm in our seats, but also keeping us completely riveted. Like a few of the other films on this list, <i>The King of Comedy</i> was a failure at the box office but, if the internet is any indication, has only grown in esteem among critics and audiences alike in the years since.<br />
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*****<br />
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A few other Scorsese films I highly recommend you seek out as well: <i>After Hours</i> (1985), <i>Bringing Out the Dead</i> (1999), <i>Raging Bull</i> (1980), <i>Goodfellas</i> (1990), and <i>The Departed</i> (2006).<br />
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-53257567322923520252019-12-05T12:00:00.001-08:002020-01-22T12:22:10.499-08:00It Came From the '90s: Showgirls<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="color: #222222;">Exploring why the 1995 film</i><span style="color: #222222;"> Showgirls <i>is </i></span><i style="color: #222222;">an enduring cult classic.</i><br />
<i style="color: #222222;">(</i><i style="color: #222222;">Due to the film's copious amount of salty language and nudity, these posts are probably NSFW)</i><br />
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Next year will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of one of the most memorable films of not just the 1990s, but if you ask rabid fans like myself, <i>of all time: </i>Paul Verhoeven's 1995 bomb <i>Showgirls. </i>Hyperbolic much, you ask? I mean, it bombed at the box office, right? To that I say, since when has box office been an indicator of a film's greatness? <i>Showgirls </i>was savaged by critics and audiences upon release, but not long after morphed into one of the most beloved cult classics in film. In terms of big-budget films that went on to attain cult status, <i>Showgirls</i> ranks alongside <i>Barbarella</i> for me as two of the best of the bunch.<br />
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Its legend has only grown in recent years, and there are two new documentaries on it: <i><a href="https://worldofwonder.net/goddess-the-fall-rise-of-showgirls-spills-all-the-t-on-the-making-of-a-cult-classic-watch/" target="_blank">Goddess: The Fall and Rise of Showgirls</a></i> and <a href="https://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/you-don-t-nomi-2019" target="_blank"><i>You Don't Nomi</i></a>. To celebrate the upcoming twenty-fifth birthday of this seminal '90s cult classic, I'll be posting a series of celebrations, wherein I'll try to explore why the film deserves such adulation. Of course, my love for <i>Showgirls</i> is legendary—to the point it causes some friends to lovingly mock me or shake their heads in total disbelief—so I might not be the most impartial judge. Luckily this is my blog so, like Nomi, I can do whatever I want!<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are no shortage of reasons why cult film fans like myself love this movie. The tone is so wildly, enjoyably over the top <i>and </i>touchingly heartbreaking. Gina Gershon as Cristal Connors is pure charisma <i>and </i>one of the funniest, most quotable characters of the '90s. The dance routines are scorching hot <i>and </i>completely ridiculous. Kyle MacLachlan's swooping floppy hairstyle is a reminder that men had some regrettable haircuts in the '90s. Characters say things to each other like, "<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">They're going to see a smiling snatch if you don't fix this g-string" or "</span></span>If you want to last longer than a week, you give me a
blow-job. First I get you used to the money, then I make you swallow" or <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">She looks better than a ten-inch dick and you know it!"</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> The pool sex scene—which, honestly, deserves its own post in this series—is still one of the</span><i style="font-family: inherit;"> </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">most insane things I've ever encountered.</span><br />
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Clearly, not everyone in 1995—or today—saw <i>Showgirls </i>as the masterpiece of bad taste, as its often referred to today. Let's start this series off with one aspect of the film in particular that was trashed seemingly beyond repair in 1995, and that's the film's central performance by Elizabeth Berkley, as careerist, shit-talking, blonde bombshell Nomi Malone who tenaciously chases the American Dream while devouring anything in her path, including french fries and men. Did the '90s thong phenomenon ever have a better poster child than Nomi? Probably not. In an early pole-dancing scene, she gives a master class in what can happen when sensuality meets silly: the end result is both hot and hilarious. Total entertainment. Berkley as Nomi is legit.<br />
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It is incredibly hard to imagine anyone else performing this role with the same sort of body-and-soul commitment that Berkley brings to it. Impossible, honestly. The former Jessie Spano from <i>Saved by the Bell</i> literally throws herself into the performance, thrusting and gyrating, grinding and strutting, licking and high-kicking her way through every scene, her impossibly long legs flailing about like deadly tendrils. It's a jaw-dropping performance, start to finish. The tone Verhoeven was working towards (or was he?) wouldn't work without Berkley's performance. It was ripped to shreds at the time by critics who felt she was overacting to the point of absurdity. But that's the point! Nomi is an unstable hot mess with zero filter, a quick and volatile temper, and an unshakable confidence in her smoking hot body.<br />
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She isn't named "Nomi" for nothing—she desperately wants us to <i>know her</i>. She is hurling herself towards success every minute she's on screen. She's dialed up to eleven, always. Her hunger to "make it" as a dancer is both inspiring and disturbing. Berkley understood Nomi's powerful drive and burning desire—she too was striving for super-stardom with this role, but instead found only scorn and ridicule. Thankfully, the legion of fans and critical reappraisals for this film in recent years have helped shined a light on Berkley's unforgettable performance.<br />
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This was just one rambling tribute to the thongtastic woman at the center of this sprawling, glorious mess of a movie. There are a plethora of other delightfully insane reasons to love <i>Showgirls</i>, too.<i> </i>Stay tuned for more.<br />
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-72035262703592852312019-10-30T06:33:00.003-07:002019-10-30T06:33:52.467-07:00October Dreams<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As much as the anticipation leading up to October 31st <a href="https://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2019/10/these-are-few-of-my-favorite-halloween.html" target="_blank">brings me great joy every year</a>, the impending arrival of Halloween also brings on some sadness, too. That's because it marks the last day of the greatest month of the year, and the elbowing aside of the great things that make it the greatest. Sure, we horror nerds will continue watching and reveling in all things creepy, year around, but the mainstream's focus will shift to the nauseating displays of treacly holiday claptrap surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas. For some of us, that's almost too much to bear. That's okay, at least we have movies like <i>Planes, Trains, and Automobiles</i> to help us through Thanksgiving, or like <i>Black Christmas</i> or <i>New Year's Evil</i> to provide some yuletide cheer.<br />
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At this point, 2019 has started to wear me out. I'm not sure how much new content you'll see around here these next few months. I go through this annually, where I question why I'm writing this blog, and for whom I'm doing it (besides for myself, of course), because based on dwindling page views I don't think anyone's even reading anymore. This sends me tumbling down into an existential crisis that can last days, weeks, months. I start to waver. Maybe I should just shutter the blog? Move on, do something else. Focus my writing elsewhere. But, it is fun writing here. Okay, sometimes it's fun. When it is, it's a lot of fun. Even if I feel like I'm just shouting out into the void.<br />
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I dunno. We'll see. Maybe I'll surprise myself. I do have several things in the hopper. A few capsule reviews are queued up, and that's a format I like but after doing <a href="https://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/search/label/capsule%20reviews" target="_blank">seventeen of them since April</a>, I might need a break for a while. There's also one <a href="https://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/search/label/misspent%20youth" target="_blank">Misspent Youth</a> piece ready to go, plus another one or two in the early stages of drafting. Maybe I'll have enough to squeak by with some relatively consistent content for the rest of the year. One thing I'm definitely excited about, though, are more <a href="https://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2019/10/dual-review-fabulous-pfeiffer-girl.html" target="_blank">dual Michelle Pfeiffer reviews</a> with my pfriend Paul from <a href="https://pfeifferfilmsandmegmovies.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Pfeiffer Pfilms and Meg Movie</a>s. Stay tuned for that.<br />
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I managed to knock out six Halloween (or Halloween-adjacent) posts over the last two months. Read them now and remember how young and hopeful I was before the threat of post-Halloween ennui arrived.<br />
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<a href="https://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2019/09/scream-queens-of-halloween-danielle.html" target="_blank">Scream Queens of Halloween: Danielle Harris</a><br />
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<a href="https://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2019/10/these-are-few-of-my-favorite-halloween.html" target="_blank">These Are a Few of My Favorite (Halloween) Things</a><br />
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<a href="https://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2019/10/still-howling-ten-years-of-shakiras-she.html" target="_blank">Still Howling: Ten Years of Shakira's <i>She Wolf</i></a><br />
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<a href="https://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2019/10/scream-queens-of-halloween-linnea.html" target="_blank">Scream Queens of Halloween: Linnea Quigley</a><br />
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<a href="https://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2019/10/halloween-treats-christine-mcconnell.html" target="_blank">Halloween Treats: Christine McConnell and Her Curious Creations</a><br />
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Happy Halloween, everybody. Enjoy the season while it lasts. After that, enjoy dreaming of its triumphant annual return.<br />
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-5263924370755185442019-10-25T06:36:00.002-07:002019-10-25T06:36:41.018-07:00It Came From the '90s: Barb Wire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="color: #222222;">This series looks back at the 1990s and its influence on the generation of people who came of age during the decade. <b>[This post may not be safe for work, thanks to a gif below.]</b></i><br />
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More than two decades since its release, the sci-fi comic book movie <i>Barb Wire</i> remains one of the essential documents of the 1990s for a few reasons. As written by Chuck Pfarrer and Ilene Chaiken, the film feels like both a time capsule of the American decade in which it was made, and uncanny foreshadowing of where we've ended up in America today, in 2019.<br />
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I'm serious. Hear me out before you sneer.<br />
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Maybe you had to be there in order to fully appreciate the absolute lunacy of peak Pamela Anderson media hype. When that infamous sex tape of her and then-hubby Tommy Lee was stolen in 1995, it was uploaded to the still-nascent and damn-near lawless internet for all the world to see—well, okay, for people who had the patience to sit through dial-up's excruciating wait times. Then in 1996 the star of <i>Baywatch</i> and soon-to-be star of <i>V.I.P</i> (which I <i>loved</i>, by the way) brought to the screen the science fiction comic book adaptation about a bodacious babe working as a mercenary for hire: <i>Barb Wire</i>.<br />
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Then the movie came out, was widely panned, didn't do well at the box office, and disappeared. Maybe audiences and critics in 1996 just weren't ready for what Pam was cookin', you know? From today's vantage point, <i>Barb Wire</i> feels like an over-the-top camp cult classic that also at times manages to be downright prescient in its vision of America in the twenty-first century.<br />
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Today, in 2019, the President of the United States openly talks and toilet-tweets about impeachment hearings threatening to tear the country asunder in a "second Civil War." That's exactly the premise at the start of <i>Barb Wire</i>: it's 2017 and the Second American Civil War has ravaged the country, with the crime-ridden municipality of Steel Harbor serving as "the last free city." It's within one of Steel Harbor's dingy clubs that we first meet mercenary-for-hire Barb Wire, né Barbara Kopetski. In case you've forgotten—and, seriously, <i>how could you forget?</i>—it's one hell of an introduction<br />
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The opening credits sequence to <i>Barb Wire</i> remains one of the most jaw dropping you're eve likely to see in a mainstream movie. When Pam Anderson is introduced, she's writhing and gyrating on stage while being pummeled with high-powered water hoses (take that, <i>Flashdance</i>!). Barb isn't just a bounty hunter; she is also an astute businesswoman who not only acts as the headliner but owns the nightclub itself. Soon enough, Barb's vigorous dancing causes her two best assets to break free—she <i>is </i>in the last free city, after all. You have to hand it to the filmmakers and Anderson: they understood what she was most known for, circa 1996. Barb's introduction is so distracting that you might forget to read the credits—"Did that say, Udo Kier?? Wait, was that Xander Berkeley's name?? Clint Howard!!" Any movie featuring those stellar supporting actors is worth your attention.<br />
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Anderson's acting was savaged in one review after another. Is her delivery a little stiff, at times? Sure, but I've always read it as more deadpan, perfectly fitting for Barb's no-nonsense "Don't call me babe" stance on life. She also looks ridiculously iconic with the perfectly tousled bleach blonde hair, the blue eye shadow, and a variety of leather S&M outfits. So, yes, I'm on record as saying Anderson is actually quite delightful in this film, and to all the haters I can only add, "Lighten up." She handles the action scenes with grace and sure looks like a badass ducking behind tables and blasting back with double-fisted handguns.<br />
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When it comes to big budget studio films that were largely panned by critics, I consider <i>Showgirls</i> and <i>Barbarella</i> to be the pinnacle of such entertainment: too weird and eccentric for critics and/or audiences to truly appreciate upon release, but the kind of films that find their extremely devoted fanbases over time. True cult classics. <i>Barb Wire</i> is another of those films, although positioned a few rungs below those masterpieces, mostly just because the film sags a bit in the middle. Today, it seems apparent that <i>Barb Wire</i> was just <i>too much</i> for the masses in 1996. Pam Anderson's breasts alone were too much, let alone the entire gonzo film. Like most attractive female celebrities before or after her, Anderson was reduced to being a "body," thanks to that sex tape and <i>Baywatch</i>, only there to be ogled and objectified but rarely if ever taken seriously. Remember, in the '90s Monica Lewinsky became a punchline for giving the President a blowjob in the Oval Office, but it was only years—decades!—later that people seemed to grasp that our sympathies should have been with her all along and not the most powerful man on the planet who gladly accepted oral sex from a lowly intern. So, it's no surprise that audiences and critics were and in many cases still are quick to dismiss female-driven films, especially when the female star is as sexually provocative as Anderson was deemed at the time.<br />
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Today's climate feels more hospitable to a film like <i>Barb Wire</i>. It's the right time to rediscover this hidden gem, this goofy film full of simple pleasures. Bullets and breasts are constantly flying everywhere, with a reckless abandon rarely seen before or since. Udo Kier wears a curly wig on his bald head at one point for reasons I'm still unsure of. Xander Berkeley is on fire from the moment he walks onscreen and knows just how to play his part in this camp-tastic flick. Also, he's far more ruggedly handsome in the role than you remember. And, above all, there's Pam Anderson's great performance as Barb. In the age of the Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief, she's the deadpan feminist hero we need right now. She's quick with a quip and even quicker on the trigger. She doesn't care if you stare, but if you want to stay alive, you better not call her babe.<br />
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<span id="goog_412239686"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_412239687"></span><br />Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-72439129678543065412019-10-17T07:45:00.000-07:002019-10-19T13:04:57.814-07:00Misspent Youth: Kate Nelligan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="font-family: "times new roman";">Looking back at the pop culture mainstays of this Gen Xer's gloriously misspent youth.</i><br />
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I first laid eyes on screen and stage actress Kate Nelligan watching John Badham's <i>Dracula </i>(1979) a few years after its release. Even at that time, at a very young age of seven or eight, I was captivated by her. I understood nothing about romance or attraction yet, but I could still see why Frank Langella's Dracula wanted to sink his teeth into that neck. There was something in her eyes—an attractive melancholy that I'd be increasingly drawn to as I got older and became more melancholy myself. She had a pensive, thoughtful look. Something about her face felt safe and comforting to little me: "This," some omniscient narrator declared in my head, "is what quiet beauty looks like, kid."<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Nelligan was heartbreakingly good as Lucy in <i>Dracula</i>.</span></td></tr>
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That must've been the early 1980s, probably during the brief halcyon period when my parents subscribed to HBO, before abruptly cancelling when they figured out I was watching R-rated movies. I don't recall <i>Dracula </i>being particularly naughty (deliciously Gothic, yes), and the "Parents' Guide" on IMDb confirms that it's mostly <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079073/parentalguide" target="_blank">"lots of kissing as Dracula seduces women, but nothing explicit."</a> Well, there was also some horror violence, of course, but like most red-blooded Americans my folks seemed most concerned with the pernicious effects of sex and profanity, when it came to my movie habits (even though my mother swore like a sailor when she got upset).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Nelligan and her exquisitely pensive stare in <i>Dracula </i>is a look she would deploy with great power regularly in her career.</span></td></tr>
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Drac indeed seduced a lot of women, including my favorite in the film, Nelligan as Lucy. Who could resist that face? To my young eyes, she had a classic face, one that reminded me of silver screen stars from days gone by, in the black and white movies I caught on WPIX 11 sometimes. She seemed ethereal and untouchable in that movie, so of course I wanted to know more about her. Not even Lucy's descent into vampirism could scare me away. Yeah, I was smitten, although I doubt I even knew Nelligan's name yet.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This look screams the<i> </i>'90s and you better believe I absolutely crushed on Nelligan in <i>Fatal Instinct</i> because of this fact.</span></td></tr>
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Then I kept growing up, and Kate Nelligan kept appearing in films I was watching, left and right. There was the heart-wrenching abduction drama <i>Without a Trace</i> (1983), in which Nelligan starred alongside another favorite, Judd Hirsch. I must've caught her in a half dozen television movies during those years, too. Then, riding the early 1990s erotic thriller wave, she starred alongside Armand Assante and Sean Young and in the extremely silly spoof <i>Fatal Instinct</i> (1993), where she played a sexy, money-hungry wife getting more than just her car tuned up by the local mechanic, if you know what I mean.<br />
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Also, and not for nothing, but she's always been linked in my mind to my favorite Queen, Michelle Pfeiffer, because they made three movies together: <a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2017/08/michelle-pfeiffer-frankie-and-johnny.html" target="_blank"><i>Frankie and Johnny</i> (1991)</a>, <a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2017/08/michelle-pfeiffer-wolf.html" target="_blank"><i>Wolf </i>(1994)</a>, and <i>Up Close and Personal</i> (1996). <i>Frankie and Johnny</i>, especially, is a splendid showcase for their strong chemistry. Nelligan's Cora has a big personality. She likes her skirts short and tight, and her men to be satisfied in bed but also hit the road when the deed is done. Pfeiffer's Frankie is introverted, shy, and cynical. She has retreated inward after too many terrible relationships. The actresses show how well the two get along, despite these differences, thanks to the shared common language of diner waitresses the world over: sarcasm. Plus, they both sleep with Al Pacino's Johnny. Heyo!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">"People think I'm a tough bitch. But it ain't true." I love Cora and Frankie so much it almost hurts.</span></td></tr>
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Cora might well be my favorite Nelligan character. Nelligan's performance is so beautiful: Cora is ribald and sweet, and funny and thoughtful, and so much more. Cora is a <i>real woman</i>. The running gag about her sexy red high heeled pumps is one of the funniest bits in the movie, and she and Nathan Lane (as Frankie's best friend and neighbor Tim) in the bowling alley are a forever mood and a life goal, all wrapped into one.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Sometimes I dream about going bowling with the Gyromaniacs from the Apollo Cafe.</span></td></tr>
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Nelligan won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for playing Cora. She deserved an Academy Award, too, but wasn't even nominated. That's because she was nominated for her other 1991 performance, <i>The Prince of Tides</i>. She's wonderful in that film, but Cora is one of the great roles of her career, no question.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A beautiful shot from <i>The Prince of Tides</i>.</span></td></tr>
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Kate Nelligan's last film was 2007 and her last television appearance 2010. She'll turn seventy in 2020. I hope she didn't stop acting for reasons all too familiar—roles for women "of a certain age" are few and far between, even today. I certainly miss seeing her grace the screen on a regular basis, as she often did during my youth. Whenever I spotted her in a film, I knew at the very least I was in for a treat during her scenes.<br />
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I spent a lot of time in front of the television and inside my head as a kid (still do). Gen X only child, after all. When I latched on to someone in a movie or a show, it was usually because they ignited some part of my imagination; they were so interesting and exciting, the sort of people I dreamed of meeting when I grew up and got out into the world. That's basically what happened that night back in the early 1980s, in the den of my parents' house. I'm seven or eight years old, sitting on the floor, watching Kate Nelligan in <i>Dracula</i>, and I'm mesmerized. She's so glamorous, I thought. And pretty. And perfect.<br />
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-9612569510071180342019-10-16T06:02:00.000-07:002019-10-16T06:10:31.707-07:00Halloween Treats: Christine McConnell and her Curious Creations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last Halloween, Netflix gifted the world with a short, six-episode series unlike any other, <i>The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell</i>. Part DIY baking show, part Muppet monster show, and 100% dark comedy, the show transfixed me immediately. This is just the right combination of freaky weird macabre stuff I live for every Halloween. And while I long ago stopped caring about food porn, there's no denying this show makes it fun again.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">She holds that butcher knife like she knows how to use it, no?</span></td></tr>
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In the world of the show, Christine lives in a big, spooky Gothic house, where she bakes extravagant horror-themed desserts, engages in witty and often innuendo-laden banter with her monster and ghost roommates, and generally tries to keep her ghoulish pals from killing the neighbors. The "beauty and the beasts" premise helps make everything feel like an old-school sitcom on acid. Beyond food porn level baking bliss, the show also offers advice for dealing with nasty neighbors, annoying relatives, and dating problems like what to wear on your first date with someone you just met while hanging at the cemetery. Christine will straighten your life right the hell out, trust me.<br />
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As appealing as the desserts look, it's the artist, baker, deadpan humorist, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/christinehmcconnell/?hl=en" target="_blank">Instagram queen</a>, and all around babe Christine who is the show's real treat. In her retro-styled and perfectly fitted Happy Homemaker wardrobe, Christine might've been concocted in some mad scientist's laboratory or created through some perfect coalescence of mystically charged Halloween energy.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">She slays on Instagram.</span></td></tr>
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It's a fun performance by McConnell, certainly, in which she plays the straight woman to her over the top creature friends. Watching her craft artistic edibles is as hypnotically calming as any ASMR YouTuber.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">This speaks to me on a very 1985 Sears Catalog level.</span></td></tr>
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The desserts Christine makes are so intricate and complicated that they're nearly impossible for home bakers to replicate, but that seems besides the point. It's about marveling at what this artist does with a piping bag and an icing spreader. Her creations are truly impressive. I can't imagine ever recreating them at home, but that seems besides the point. The real draw, the entertainment value, is in watching her build her macabre masterpieces with great care and precision—and, of course, laughing along to the spooky shenanigans she gets up to with her evil monster friends and guest stars.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Totally normal.</span></td></tr>
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Sadly, Netflix declined to renew the series, meaning there will be no new episodes this Halloween season. I'm still in mourning. In a world gone mad, we desperately need more of Christine McConnell soothingly icing creepy cakes while monsters lounge around waiting to scarf down her delicious desserts, dammit! Alas, If we can't have more episodes, then at least we have these six. Watching them every October is going to be a new Halloween tradition, I'm sure of it.<br />
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9119811309427824112.post-48119869594728192322019-10-11T06:31:00.001-07:002019-10-11T06:31:11.578-07:00Dual Review: The Fabulous Pfeiffer Girl<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">My blogging pfriend and pfellow Michelle Pfeiffer pfanatic Paul S. recently shared one of my Pfeiffer posts and added his own commentary to it, over at his pfabulous site </span><a href="https://pfeifferfilmsandmegmovies.wordpress.com/" style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;" target="_blank">Pfeiffer Pfilms and Meg Movies</a>. Speaking of "pfabulous," in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of <i>The Fabulous Baker Boys</i> falling on October 13 this year, I'm going to do the same. Here's a dual commentary on the movie from two of the biggest Pfeiffer pfans in all the world (I'm confident this is true). I'm presenting Paul's original commentary (and his selected images), unedited.<br />
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<b><a href="https://pfeifferfilmsandmegmovies.wordpress.com/tag/the-fabulous-baker-boys/page/2/" target="_blank">The Fabulous Pfeiffer Girl</a></b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"><b>Paul:</b></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">I’ve slept, I’ve woken and I still have Michelle on my mind. It’s not surprising, I need Pfeiffer in the way that some people need to eat, sleep and breathe.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> Pfeiffer the face has launched a million pfixations. The film that made me an obsessed fanatic was</span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The Fabulous Baker Boys</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-style: inherit;"><b>Michael: </b></span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">You and me, Paul, we're the same.</span><em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Baker Boys</em><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> played a huge role in my pfandom kicking up a few thousand notches back in the day. I'd already been smitten with Michelle thanks to </span><em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Witches of Eastwick, Scarface</em><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, and </span><em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Grease 2</em><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, to name a few, but </span><em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Baker Boys</em><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> certainly helped seal the deal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"><a href="https://pfeifferfilmsandmegmovies.wordpress.com/the-fabulous-baker-boys-1989/" style="border: 0px; color: #333333; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-8359 size-medium" data-attachment-id="8359" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)" data-large-file="https://pfeifferfilmsandmegmovies.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/the-fabulous-baker-boys-1989.jpg?w=500" data-medium-file="https://pfeifferfilmsandmegmovies.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/the-fabulous-baker-boys-1989.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://pfeifferfilmsandmegmovies.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/the-fabulous-baker-boys-1989.jpg" data-orig-size="1020,571" data-permalink="https://pfeifferfilmsandmegmovies.wordpress.com/2018/04/28/the-fabulous-pfeiffer-girl/the-fabulous-baker-boys-1989/" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" src="https://pfeifferfilmsandmegmovies.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/the-fabulous-baker-boys-1989.jpg?w=300&h=168" srcset="https://pfeifferfilmsandmegmovies.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/the-fabulous-baker-boys-1989.jpg?w=300&h=168 300w, https://pfeifferfilmsandmegmovies.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/the-fabulous-baker-boys-1989.jpg?w=600&h=336 600w, https://pfeifferfilmsandmegmovies.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/the-fabulous-baker-boys-1989.jpg?w=150&h=84 150w" style="border: 0px; clear: both; display: block; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Paul:</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> I can’t imagine Michelle ever topping her wonderful Susie Diamond. The performance has just about everything: attitude, charm, confidence, wit, comic timing, sultry singing and seductive moves on top of a piano.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-style: inherit;">Michael:</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit;"> I think it's the performance that's been most synonymous with Pfeiffer in the thirty years since the movie opened. For critics and audiences alike, it elevated her even higher into the upper echelon of actresses. The importance of its legacy is undeniable, and practically unmatched over the course of her career. I've spent most of those years waffling between choosing Susie or Frankie from </span><i><a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2017/08/michelle-pfeiffer-frankie-and-johnny.html" target="_blank">Frankie and Johnny</a></i><span style="font-style: inherit;"> as Michelle's career-best work. For a while now I've felt confident putting Frankie alone at the top, but Susie is </span><i>so </i><span style="font-style: inherit;">close, nipping right at her heels. The two performances are flawless. She's exquisite in both roles, playing vastly different women, but also women who've been through the ringer and are still standing. Susie and Frankie are survivors.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Paul: </b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">Susie’s audition number, </span><em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">More Than You Know</em><span style="font-weight: inherit;">, may well be my favourite entrance of any character in any film. The way she falls into the room, a hot disheveled mess, chewing gum and cringing at the décor, after Jeff and Beau have just endured a run of 37 ear-splitting amateur divas, is priceless.</span></span></div>
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<b>Michael:</b> Paul, we are so in sync. Susie's stumbling, swearing, hot mess of an entrance into the film is my personal favorite in any film, ever. It' such a delightful comedic moment, while also serving to tell us so much about Susie before we've even gotten to know her!</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Paul: </b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">What have the brothers got to lose? Michelle’s voice starts out soft and tentative, but she quickly gains in confidence and then it’s over, Pfeiffer steps out of the moment with a little, “So?”, and I settle down for a glorious ride.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: inherit;"><b>Michael:</b> Susie's audition scene is </span><i>everything</i><span style="font-style: inherit;">, all thanks to Pfeiffer's excellence. Her voice is so filled with heartbreaking emotion that I want to cry every time. Not to mention, in that miniskirt and with that sexy red lipstick, she also dials the heat up to near-unbearable levels. A perfect warm up to the unforgettably sexy performance atop Bridges's piano later in the film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Paul:</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> Some might single out </span><em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Makin’ Whoopee</em><span style="font-weight: inherit;">, or the montage of the trio doing the rounds of Seattle’s nightspots, or Michelle’s cat-and-mouse seduction games with Jeff in the hotel suite, but it’s that audition piece which sparked my glorious obsession. Wherefore art thou Susie Diamond? Have the years been kind to you?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit;"><b>Michael:</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> I too wonder what might've happened to Susie, Paul. Jeff Goldblum, to my eternal delight, once spun out an entire speculative fiction account of his character Ed in </span></span><i style="font-weight: inherit;">Into the Night</i><span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> running back into Michelle's character from that film, Diana. Turns out Diana wound up in the Pacific Northwest singing at piano bars under the name of—wait for it—Susie Diamond. In one extemporaneous moment, Goldblum blew my mind. Diana and Susie share much in common, and I'd love to believe they're one and the same. I also love how it adds to the wonderfully meta world where we Pfeiffer pfans reside: the Pfeifferverse. Susie is an epic character, the kind you want to follow for all her days, to tag along on her journey of self-discovery and liberation. A well written character still needs the right actor to bring it to life onscreen. Michelle Pfeiffer does just that, making Susie into the legendary character we've been loving for thirty years now.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit;">Thanks, Paul. This was a real treat.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit;">*****</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit;">Further reading:</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit;"><a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2019/06/thirty-years-of-loving-michelle.html" target="_blank"><b>Thirty Years of Loving Michelle Pfeiffer as Susie Diamond</b></a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><a href="http://wordsseemoutofplace.blogspot.com/2017/08/michelle-pfeiffer-fabulous-baker-boys.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: inherit;">Michelle Pfeiffer: </span><i>The Fabulous Baker Boys</i></a></b></span></div>
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Words Seem Out of Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07451039503763176725noreply@blogger.com6