Reviews

I had no interest in seeing the revamped version of Queer Eye which I assumed would be more of the same, and I see enough snarkiness on Twitter. Of course I was dead wrong as my huge fan daughter showed me. The warmth, love and respect the Fab Five show the weekly subject is life-affirming. I know that editing is showing me what it wants me to see but it apparently wants to show good people doing good things with joy and acceptance while allowing the very diverse group of guests learn to love themselves. Colorful, funny, kind and great design and clothing advice - what's not to like?

I first saw this in the theater 5 or 6 years ago and have probably seen it 15 times since. It is charming, loving and sentimental in the absolute best sense of the words. Tim (Domnhall Gleeson) is raised by his book-loving Dad, artsy Mom, and daft Uncle Desmond with his sprite of a sister KitKat in a great cluttered home on the edge of the sea in Cornwall. Tim and his Dad (a marvelous Bill Nighy) share a love for table tennis, an Italian singer who appears to have a dead beaver on his head, and each other. Dad tells Tim about a male-inherited ability to time travel to be used for those moments when getting it just right can change your life. Tim moves to London where he falls instantly in love with the lovely Mary (Rachel McAdams). The soundtrack to their relationship is spot on - their everyday routine set to music is an homage to making every moment count. I loved each of the major characters - sweet KitKat and lovable Uncle Desmond provide a counter-point to the easy joy of Mary and Tim, friends Jay, Harry and Rory are each part of the extended family. The scenery, set design, and London locations are pure Richard Curtis with the Tube as a major player and a wild Cornwall storm made another character in the story. There are some wildly funny moments, and a lot of tears for a romcom. As many times as I've seen it, I want to see it again, even though I always end up with tears on my cheeks

I saw this for the first time during TCM's marvelous marathon of Oscar- nominated films in advance of the Academy Awards. I've been on a non- dancing Ginger Rogers kick and she plays Ellie May,uneducated but spunky,self-confident and independent. She needs to get away from the family shack in a post-Depression shanty-town outside of San Francisco where she lives with Mamie, her hooker-with-heart-of-gold mother, Homer, her drunk of a dad, a nasty, slatternly grandmother, and Honeybell, her precocious Granny acolyte played by Joan Carroll. Ellie May gets picked up by Gramp, played by the always charming Charles Travers, who takes her to a cafe run by Ed, played by the always- charming Joel McCrae. She re-invents herself some when she gets a job at the cafe and it helps her adapt to a life outside of the slums. Ellie May and Ed fall in love and marry and are living pretty happily until a chance meeting with Mamie crashes the house of cards Ellie May thought she built. Ginger Rogers plays Ellie May much like Kitty Foyle - feisty, determined,with a soft spot for family. It is a wonderfully strong performance set off perfectly by Joel McCrae's quick wit and dry humor. it's a small movie but well worth the viewing.

One of my favorite Saturday Night at the Movies movie from childhood. Even as a ten-year-old though, I hated Casey Cole, Charlton Heston's character - horribly misogynist, manipulative and macho to a degree rarely seen out of other Charlton Heston movies. He makes every effort to pull the smart, beautiful, passionate and ambitious Lucy away from her successful business and into his idea of the perfect little woman - barefoot and pregnant and waiting for the Lord and Master at the front door at the end of the day. Lucy loves him but is determined to be herself and not an empty shell to be filled with just him. I watch it now with happy dread - I have to see again just what a pig Casey Cole is while also seeing the awesome Jane Wyman glow and grow through every minute of her screen time.Absolutely worth the watch. My favorite character actresses Clair Trevor and Thelma Ritter are Casey fans but reliably good as well.

I love old movies - the 40s and 50s are an incredibly rich era for social, political and cultural changes and the movies provide entertaining history lessons. This movie is particularly fascinating for a part of the post-WWII era I've not seen before. Montgomery Cliff is perfection in his role as the army private who finds a lost boy, wild as a feral cat, and nurtures him into security. He is very young, skinny, and handsome without the startled look that captured him later in his career. His relationship with Jim is delightful - big brother with a great splash of kindness. And Karel/Jim is very effective and believable in his role as the nearly mute and deeply mistrustful boy who seems so alone. I am surprised that this movie is not shown more regularly. It holds your attention from the first moments when the ragged children are shown shuffling in total silence to the long tables where they eat their Red Cross soup and bread. They are dirty, ragged, scared and emaciated and,although they are in the care of kind and efficient Army personnel, the children are clearly haunted. I liked that the adults who came into their lives are likely hardened to the horrors these children have faced but still show compassion and empathy. The production details are very good - the movie was filmed in post- war Germany and it is an apocalyptic locale juxtaposed against beautiful springtime scenes in the countryside. There are long moments of silence where the scene tells the story very effectively, and other moments where the variety of spoken languages tells the story of how many children in so many countries were displaced. The actresses playing Karel's mother and Mrs. Murray are also wonderfully compelling characters, and Wendell Corey is reliably good in a small role.