Frankenweenie

There is no doubt that Our Winona's hey day was in the late 80s and early 90s playing roles as a precocious and angst-ridden teen (see Heathers, Mermaids, Girl Interrupted, Little Women, and Beetlejuice). We haven't seen real stellar work from her in the 21st century though.

The question then is how to take a 40-something Gen X star and and give her a teen role? The answer? Animation, of course. In Tim Burton's creepy, but not too scary film about a boy (Victor) who brings his dead dog back to life Our Winona plays the voice of Elsa, neighbor to Victor. Her part is not essential, and she has minimal contact with Victor.

While she did have an opportunity to reprise the teen-angst-y stuff, she really didn't shine here. Her role seemed superfluous. Overall it is a fun movie, although the ending is pure Disney fluff.

Final Verdict: Three Croquet Balls

Mr. Deeds

When this movie first came out in 2002 we were torn about watching it because as much as we enjoyed watching Winona Ryder films we really didn't like Adam Sandler's early goofball films. Eventually we succumbed, and only vaguely remembered having seen this before when we watched it again over the weekend - a typical rom-com with no surprises. Our Winona plays Babe Bennett, a tabloid television journalist who goes undercover as Pam Dawson (a school nurse) in order to get a story on Longfellow Deeds (Sandler), the unexpected heir to a multi-billion dollar fortune. Babe pretends to woo Deeds, then falls for him, is found out as a fraud, and the usual romantic comedy archetype ensues.

Final verdict: Three croquet balls:

1969

The year of the first moon landing Pam and James were five and six years old (respectively). James' recollection of the event was wondering who that guy "Roger" was that they kept talking about. Pam assumed it (the moon landing) was an annual event, and therefore, did not bother to watch it even though her parents called her to the television to see history being made. We were likewise almost completely unaware of the bigger political and social changes taking place during the 1960s  (e.g. Vietnam War protests, Civil Rights marches, the assassinations of Malcolm X and the Kennedys). This is not necessarily a bad thing; childhood should be a time of innocence. However, it does make things that actually did take place in our lifetime seem like ancient history to us. Watching movies like 1969 helps us to make sense of things we were only vaguely aware of at the time.

Here are some important things to know about this film:

1. Our Winona makes a fetching hippie.
2. Winona Ryder and Robert Downey, Jr. are completely believable as siblings.
3. This is likely to make a person fondly remember losing her virginity to the boy next door (or the boy a few blocks away, as the case may be).
4. It has an exceptional soundtrack.
5. This movie is especially thought-provoking if you have also recently watched Lee Daniels' The Butler and a few episodes from the first season of All in the Family
6. The movie takes place in Maryland, which is a real place (in fact it is the magical place where James and Pam met and fell in love). There is no Collough County (or whatever it was called) there though. 

Final Verdict:

Four Croquet Balls

Square Dance

We rewatched Square Dance, which is only the second of 51 items currently on Our Noni's filmography. Released in 1987, just a year after her debut in Lucas, this film is where she really began to earn her chops as an actress. This status is revealed in the opening credits, where she is given third billing, even though she is the film's central character. Top billing would be another year away, in 1988's Heathers.

As former Texans, one thing we appreciated about the film was the variety of subtle ways in which its Texas setting was signified. In some ways, it could have taken place any where in the South, but chicken-fried steak, ordinary men with extraordinary hats, and other clues put the rural scenes deep -- as they say -- in the heart of Texas. The urban scenes were in Fort Worth, where subtlety is not required.

Just as she begins to come of age as an actress, this is a particular kind of coming-of-age film. There is a complicated love interest in the person of Rob Lowe, and there is something about her hair and glasses. But the real growing up takes place in the ways Gemma understands the adults in her life.

We have been doing some writing about the Bechdel Test lately -- the rather low threshold for a pro-female film being two named, female characters having a conversation that is not about a man. This film fails by that measure, but the dysfunction of Juanelle's "romances" seems to be precisely the point of the film, and her daughter seems to learn from the abundant negative examples.

A subplot of this film revolves around the complicated, transgressive relationships both young Gemma and her grandfather have with a local black man, Beecham, which put me very much in mind of the Ballad of Curtis Loew, which I found myself humming throughout the film.

Final verdict:
Three croquet balls

How to Make an American Quilt - Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

I've (Pam) been having a hard time enjoying movies lately because I've learned about the Bechdel Test. A seemingly simple enough test to pass (does the movie have a conversation between two named female characters about something other than guys?) turns out to be remarkably difficult for Hollywood. Most movies fail miserably, and even those that pass, might just barely. A movie like Chasing Papi  -a movie that features three scantily clad women feuding over a man for the first 75 minutes - technically passes  because the last five minutes shows them talking to each other 6 months later about how great their lives are with him out of the picture, but we can hardly call this an empowering film. I found the test actually rather hard to apply to How to Make an American Quilt. Certainly a woman-centered film with a feminist perspective, but even with eight strong women characters, was there ever a conversation that wasn't, ultimately, about men?

I believe this was my fourth viewing of this 1995 feature. Our Winona plays Finn, a recently engaged young woman who is working on finishing her Master's thesis. She spends the summer with her grandmother (Ellen Burstyn), and great aunt (Anne Bancroft) in order to complete the project without the distraction of her cute-as-a-bug fiance, Sam. The other women in her grandmother's quilting bee, Anna (Maya Angelou); Marianna (Alfre Woodard); Sophia (Lois Smith); Em (Jean Simmons); and Constance (Kate Nelligan) share their personal stories of  love, loss, rejection, and redemption while they create a quilt. I always liked this movie. Our Winona gives a strong performance, as do the other actors, in this lovely story. And I think perhaps it ultimately does pass the Bechdel test because Anna's story, while including male characters, is really about the love for her daughter. Let's let this one slide.

James adds: I enjoyed rewatching the film, the characters are strong and interesting, the cinematography is lush. It includes frequent flashbacks between characters in late middle-age and their youth. As with other films that do this, I gave up "following" the film pretty early on, and treated it more as a dream -- an enjoyable dream that carries the viewer back and forth across decades.

Since learning about the Bechdel test, it has certainly influenced how I view and enjoy films, such as the Chasing Papi mentioned above. Honestly, though, I did not think to apply it to this film until Pam mentioned it at the end. I believe most people would see this as a "chick flick," making it all the more interesting to realize how much time these terrific women spend talking about men.

A strong performance by Our Noni.
Final Verdict: Four coquet balls.

The Simpsons - "Lisa's Rival" episode from season six

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when The Simpsons was first aired on the then rather new Fox Network, we were quite the fans. We had been fans of Matt Groening since his strip appeared in the mildly alternative Baltimore City Paper, and enjoyed his edgy show on the new network, before it spawned is faux "news" shows. We have not seen the show for well over a decade now, however, since we stopped getting television reception other than what we can see on our DVD, VHS, or Netflix.

As we thought about role as Noni completists, however, Pam remembered  that back in those heady, early days Our Winona once was a guest voice on this irreverent show. In "Lisa's Rival", originally aired on September 11, 1994, Our Winona plays Allison Taylor, a precocious seven-year old, who skips a grade and ends up in Lisa's class. Although she is initially glad to have someone else to talk to, Lisa is also threatened when she realizes that she is no longer the smartest kid in her class. After she is belittled by Allison's father, Professor Taylor, Lisa plots her revenge.

James says he would have never picked Our Winona out from her voice on this episode, but Pam remembers identifying her immediately when it first aired.

Final Verdict:
Three Croquet Balls

Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael

In one of her quintessential brooding roles, Our Winona plays Dinky Bozzetti, an outcast who shuffles through life with her all-black wardrobe. Her best friends include several dogs, a pig, a turtle, and a goat. Adopted as an infant, Dinky is convinced that Clyde, Ohio's favorite daughter -- the famous Roxy Carmichael -- is her biological mother. As the whole town prepares for the arrival of Carmichael for the first time in fifteen years, Dinky becomes more and more convinced of her roots.

Verdict: Four croquet balls; Noni plays to her strengths, which play well with the Melissa Etheridge soundtrack.