March 13, 2020
Before I get to this week’s topic, I’m going to take a slight diversion. I think it’s safe to say that we’ve entered a new phase in our lives over the last two weeks. For the most part, I’m going to choose to stay in my lane of movies and music, but given recent events, I’ll say a few words about the elephant in the room. Don’t worry, I’ll try to make this brief – I know you don’t come to my blog for the latest news. Before you read any further, a quick disclaimer: I stated several weeks ago that I am not a film critic – I’m also not a scientist, physician, public health official, economist, or politician (thank goodness). I’m just a hack blogger trying to entertain my small audience of family and friends.
So, we’ve entered a very strange time in this country – one with a lot of uncertainty and creating a sense of uneasiness. Unfortunately, this is what happens when you have a crisis of confidence in certain everyday things in life that you may take for granted. In that respect (only), it reminds me a lot of the days and weeks after 9/11 – that daily thinking of “What’s next?”. And in our 24 hour news cycle, constant social media “information”, and unreliable “media” reports by politicians and organizations with questionable motives, it seriously makes me think that at certain times, there is such a thing as “too much information”. It certainly is a challenge to find the balance between being “responsibly informed” without drifting to the extremes of burying your head in the sand or becoming irrationally obsessed. (Except memes – keep the memes coming people – we need humor during times like this.)
As I write this, the cancellations of large gatherings are pouring in (including business conferences, college and school classes, sports events seasons, plays, concerts, and film festivals). You keep looking at big events scheduled for the next few months and asking “what about XYZ event?” Things are changing so quickly – I started a draft of this post a week ago and a few hours later, it was outdated. I worked on it again on Wednesday afternoon – by Wednesday night, again, parts of it were outdated. By the time you read this, it may be outdated again. Interesting times to say the least…. I personally am hoping that this crisis, however it turns out, brings out the best in people to focus on doing what is right for their communities, with leaders focused more on solving problems and less on looking for trivial things online that they say offend them. That’s all I’ll say on that topic.
I have also questioned whether I should bother continuing this little hobby while we go through whatever this is. On the one hand, it’s nice to have a diversion, but on the other hand, it seems silly to write about some of these topics I’ve been tackling. For now, I’ve decided to move forward with this week’s post, and then I’ll tackle it week to week depending on how things are going.
Back to Staying in My Lane
When I first started this blog, I mentioned that not only am I a big fan of movies, I also like the business aspect of the movie industry. Now, I will state the obvious here – of course, there a number of industries that are way more important than the entertainment industry. But this is what I write about and the simple fact is that we are talking about very large businesses, some of whom have diversified business lines that will be significantly disrupted – you’re talking about names like Disney, Sony, AT&T, Netflix, Amazon, Comcast, and Apple that employ millions of people around the world. Not to mention smaller companies where liquidity becomes more important in difficult economic times.
In recent days, we’ve seen the cancellation of South by Southwest and Coachella, two very large music/film/technology festivals. It’s only a matter of time before the Tribeca Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival follow suit as they are scheduled in the next two months. A number of bands have postponed or cancelled tours, including one of my Mt. Rushmore bands, Pearl Jam. This year is also scheduled to be one of the biggest summers for concert tours, so we will see what transpires over the next few months. In terms of financial impacts to studios, the film industry is significantly dependent on the global box office, not just attendance in the U.S. The theater closings in China and Europe will have a huge impact on the major studios if there is a prolonged impact. Is it just a matter of time before theaters in the U.S. will be forced to close for a period of time?
A few films have seen their release dates moved in the hopes that the situation will improve later in the year. Notably, Universal Pictures (owned by Comcast) delayed the opening of No Time to Die, the new James Bond film, from April to November. This is still a relatively slow time of the year for movies, although I have seen a few good ones I’d recommend (The Invisible Man, The Way Back) and am looking forward to seeing A Quiet Place Part II, which comes out next week. [Strike that – as I was writing this, the release date just got delayed, along with Mulan, Disney’s big release this year.] Yes, I guess there will be more examples to come. Will studios decide to try something different if they have a streaming platform or partner? The summer movie season is big business for the studios and decisions will need to be made in the coming weeks and months. Speaking of which, I hope to have another 2020 movie preview coming soon, as there are a lot of great titles scheduled for release this year.
OK, maybe that wasn’t that brief. Enough on this topic – we all need a good distraction from the news – let’s hunker down and watch some movies. Time to talk Comfort Movies.
What Makes a Good Comfort Movie?
We’ve all heard of comfort food, right? Sometimes after a long day, you just need that dinner or snack that is going to ease your soul of your troubles. It may not be good for you, but it feels good when you eat it. Everyone’s tastes are different with comfort food, and movies can be the same way. Every once in a while, you want to sit down and zone out while watching a movie that you don’t have to think a lot about, you may have seen numerous times, or is just good to have on the background while you forget your daily troubles. Whatever your taste in movies, much like comfort food, there’s no judging when it comes to your favorite comfort movie, but there are some guidelines. When you sit down for a comfort meal, you’re not going for the healthy meal – you’re tackling that pizza or a tasty burger. Same thing with movies – you need something that’s going to relax you – you’re not kicking back to watch Schindler’s List. Great movie – don’t get me wrong – just not very rewatchable. Some people may only like a light-hearted romantic comedy (like When Harry Met Sally… or Pretty Woman) or the classics (Casablanca or Gone with the Wind). I’m open to pretty much any genre unless it’s a horror movie. I am ok with horror movies in general, but when I think about sitting down to relax with a movie, I’m not firing up The Exorcist – that’s not exactly comforting to me.
When I set out to do a list of my favorite comfort movies, the list was pretty long and since I tend to be somewhat (very) long-winded, I’m going to make this a recurring topic to come back to during the slower times in the calendar. So, for this week, I’ll talk about a few of my go-to favorites – I’ll offer up different genres to hopefully appeal to different tastes. Some of my recommendations may be obvious ones, but hopefully you see one that you may have forgotten about or have not yet seen. Here goes.
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
I honestly don’t remember when I was introduced to the work of Agatha Christie – it was probably when I was in grade school. Ever since I can remember, I have loved mysteries – both films and books – and hers are my favorites. I have read a number of her books and still have many more on my list to read in the future. What I love about her novels is the simplicity of the story – a crime (usually a murder in the opening chapters), a dozen characters with some connection to the victim, a detective (commonly Hercule Poirot, her most famous character), and a few twists at the end where the mystery is solved. She wrote novels and short stories for over 50 years and there have been a number of adaptations into feature films and limited series going back to the late 1920s. The ones with Poirot are my favorite – Peter Ustinov played him in a few great films (particularly Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun), but my favorite Christie adaptation is Murder on the Orient Express, directed by Sidney Lumet in 1974, starring Albert Finney as Poirot. If you’ve considered watching the 2017 remake with Kenneth Branagh, please don’t. Just don’t. Find the original (currently streaming on Amazon) and watch it instead.
This story has all the classic hallmarks of a Christie mystery. About a dozen people are stranded on a passenger train caught on a snow covered train track in Yugoslavia in 1935, when one of them (with a mysterious past) is murdered. Poirot (who joined the trip at the last minute) tries to determine who committed the murder as he interrogates each of the passengers. During each conversation, he begins to see that the suspects may have more connections to each other than originally thought. This film has a murders row (no pun intended) of actors for mid-1970s Hollywood – Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman (who won an Oscar for her performance), Jacqueline Bisset, Sean Connery, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, and Michael York. I can’t even count how many times I have seen this movie, but when I’m in the mood for a good old-fashioned mystery with some great acting and a killer (again, no pun intended) and creepy soundtrack, this is still a go-to choice for me.
The Sting (1973)
I promise, I’ll get to movies in a decade other than the 1970s. But this one is too good to pass up. Some people prefer Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, which was the first movie with Robert Redford and Paul Newman and directed by George Roy Hill, who also directed The Sting. I much prefer The Sting, given its clever script with the twists and turns of two grifters in Depression-era Chicago pulling together a team of fellow con men to swindle a New York banker (played by Robert Shaw) out of a sizable fortune. I think this one resonates so much with me because the first time you watch it, you don’t know which way the plot is going to take you and the screenplay plays clever tricks with you throughout each of the major plot points. Even when you watch it again, you can appreciate the creativity in the storytelling. The chemistry of Newman playing the grizzled veteran con man mentoring the reckless new kid on the block played by Redford makes this a fun watch. The film also features a stellar supporting cast, including Charles Durning, Eileen Brennan and Ray Walston (who will forever be Mr. Hand from Fast Times at Ridgemont High in my mind), as well as a top-notch score of ragtime piano songs throughout the film. A fun re-watch, even all these years later.
Midnight Run (1988)
Moving on to the next decade and another buddy comedy. This is probably one of the best comedies of the 1980s and it’s usually not on the top 10 list of movies people think of from this decade. Robert De Niro, coming off a run of serious roles in the 1970s and early 1980s, plays a bounty hunter trying to bring an escaped convict who jumped bail from New York to Los Angeles before his bail bond expires. The man in question is an accountant (played wonderfully by Charles Grodin) who is accused of embezzling money from a mob boss after serving as his accountant for many years. Grodin’s deadpan humor throughout the film, in particular the scenes where he is going at it with De Niro, is excellent. The two have wonderful chemistry together and there are some fantastic one-liners throughout the film. If you’re looking for a smart comedy that’s aimed at adults, you can’t go wrong with Midnight Run. A quick PSA before I move on: This one is rated R for a reason – While very funny, De Niro has a bit of a temper in this one (as does Dennis Farina, playing the mob boss), so if your ears are sensitive to foul language, buyer beware. But then again, a great accountant character played by one of the best – let’s hear it for accountants!
La La Land (2016)
I remember talking to my sister Mary Beth a few weeks after I saw this movie, encouraging her to go see it. She asked me to describe it and my immediate reaction was “It’s like an old-fashioned romantic musical set in current day L.A. And I loved it.” I grew up watching a lot of classic movies, probably influenced by my mother’s love of movies, especially Hitchcock’s films. You can bet that there will be a future Comfort Movie post on his best ones. But we also watched the classic musicals – West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and one of my favorites, Singin’ in the Rain. I know it’s silly sometimes to see people bust out into a song in the middle of a scene, but these are fantasy movies. What’s the difference between a superhero rescuing someone from danger and Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling singing and dancing while falling in love? At the end of the day, they’re both stories we watch to get away from our daily lives.
This movie is only three years old, but I have already seen it a number of times and I have listened to the soundtrack countless times since it came out. Not only does the soundtrack include the vocal numbers performed by Stone and Gosling, it also includes the great instrumentals played throughout the film. The score was written by Justin Hurwitz (who won an Oscar), a frequent partner with writer/director Damian Chazelle (who also won an Oscar for Best Director, but not Best Picture – you all know that story.). Chazelle was only 30 when he made La La Land, which was released two years after his feature debut, the outstanding Whiplash. It certainly looks like he has a talented future ahead of him. Speaking of which, coming to Netflix in May will be his limited series, The Eddy, about a jazz club in Paris. After that? He’s directing the film Babylon, rumored to be about Hollywood in the 1930s, starring Emma Stone and Brad Pitt. Yes, please. Last thing about La La Land – don’t believe me that this is a comfort movie? With all of the craziness this week, do you know what I watched yesterday to escape it all? Yup, you guessed it.
That’s it for this week – I hope you enjoyed my comfort movie recommendations. One other bit of positive news? A number of you have told me how you wish you had more time to watch all of the great movie recommendations I’ve provided – a lot of them are now available to rent or are streaming online, and I suspect we’ll all have a little more time at home. So, if the recommendations above don’t interest you, you can go back to my earlier posts to find a lot of great movies from 2019 and a nice distraction for a few hours.
But Wait – One More thing!
As I was getting ready to finalize this week’s post, I listened to a podcast episode that I just had to share. Sean Fennessey, host of The Big Picture podcast, recommended an episode of a podcast called Reply All. The specific episode is “The Case of the Missing Hit” from March 5th and the description is “A man in California is haunted by the memory of a pop song from his youth. He can remember the lyrics and the melody. But the song itself has vanished, completely scrubbed from the internet.” The podcast host investigates and it’s fascinating – if you like music, you have to check this out. It’s very cool.
OK, that’s really it for this week. Thanks again for reading! If you are new to my blog, you can read my backstory and why I started writing here, and you can subscribe for future posts on my homepage here.
Thanks for the very enjoyable read Steve!