Reality Bites

Multiple Choice Test

You have a choice of two loser boyfriends - which one should you pick?
a. The one with no job and no prospects
b. The super rich one
c. Neither a nor b

The correct answer, of course is "c". However, if you are going to insist on picking one of the losers, then the correct answer is "b". Lelaina Piece (Ryder) of course picks "a", and apparently the audience is supposed to cheer for this.

Actually, despite the trite ending, we liked this one. It has a funny script, and Our Winona is on top of her acting game. This movie also stars Janene Garofolo (Ryder's roommate), Ethan Hawke (loser "a"). Ben Stiller (as loser "b") and Steve Zahn (random gay friend). Four friends try to make their way in love and life following their college graduation, with usual relationship fumbles, and demeaning first jobs.

Trivial though her choices are by comparison, Our Noni's oscillation between "a" and "b" recalls the dilemma faced by Sonia Braga in Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos and later reprised by Sally Field.

This movie always comes to mind when the subject of gasoline credit cards comes up, though we had forgotten there were two ways in which Our Noni's character used her card to defraud her father.


Final Verdict: Four Croquet Balls

Lost Souls

In celebration of Our Winona's close-to-Halloween birthday we watched one of her creepy movies. In this film Ryder plays Maya Larkin who is convinced that Satan is planning to possess author Peter Kelson (Ben Chaplin) as a special birthday present. As Kelson's 33rd birthday approaches he and Larkin try to figure out if there is any way to stop the demon.

As a psychological thriller, this was pretty good, and included some interesting twists. Worth watching, although not Our Winona's best work.

Final Verdict: Three Croquet Balls

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

According to our Netfilx "Rental Activity" we first watched this movie about two and half years ago. We were surprised that we didn't remember much about it because it was quite a good film. Pippa Lee (Robin Wright) seems to be an ordinary housewife married to a much older man, Herb (Alan Arkin) but her "private" life (before marriage) was probably not something that her neighbors in the retirement community she lives in can possibly guess. Our Winona's role is small, yet pivitol. She spends most of her on-screen time crying and/or apologizing.

Final Verdict: Four croquet balls

The Age of Innocence

Although quite sure this was the third time we'd seen this film, neither of us remembered it very well. We had some sense of the mood, and the period, but could not remember the plot at all, much less that Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer also starred in this piece. Our Winona was nominated for an Oscar for her work in this critically-acclaimed film. The movie also received many other awards and nominations, including Oscar for Best Costume Design. It was a very good movie - a classic love triangle story in a beautiful setting, with a bit of comic relief.

To Pam's brief review I have only two additional comments. One is that the costumes impressed me very much, so I impressed myself by having noticed, along with the Academy! 

Second is that although this is a love triangle, and one of many years duration, a key question remains: does Our Noni's character know that there is a love triangle? Things are handled with such Victorian understatement that this is not clear to me ... so I'm not impressive at all in reading those clues!

Final Verdict: Four Croquet Balls

The Iceman

In this film based on the true story of hit man Richard Kuklinski, Our Winona plays Debbie, Kuklinski's clueless wife. Living in suburbia with her blinders on Debbie raises her two daughters and enjoys the fruits of her husband's labors. She believes her husband works in currency arbitrage on Wall Street. Michael Shannon plays Kuklinksi - "Richie" to his family and friends. Richie is a doting husband and father, except occasionally when his work gets in the way. He goes to great lengths to hide his true identity from his family, but ultimately it all comes crashing down.

Our Winona plays this well, and she puts on a lovely Jersey accent for the role. Overall, though the story was fascinating, we did not enjoy its telling, which reveled in the gruesome murders and blood, with shadowy characters who are literally shadowy -- murmuring in so many dark corners that the plot was difficult to follow.

 The problem with being a completist is that in order to do so, one must watch films that one might not otherwise enjoy.

We did like the soundtrack.

Final verdict: Two croquet balls

Staying Cool

Maybe it is just an indication of how much our recent viewing of The Last Word had lowered our expectations, but this film was a bit more fun, with at least a few clever bits in the writing.

Henry McCarthy (Mark Polish) is an author of low-brow nonfiction who attempts to Stay Cool as he returns to his high school as a commencement speaker. He attends classes and events for several days in an effort to "reconnect" after almost two decades away from school. Decidedly low-key antics ensue.

Our Noni is Scarlett Smith, Henry's old flame, though the romance never burns bright enough to warrant the use of her fiery first name. Although Henry pursues her early in the film, he is equally interested in Shasta, a flirtatious student played by Hilary Duff. She pursues Henry as he pursues Scarlet, but nobody involved seems to realize that a love triangle has been formed. Henry simply drifts back and forth between the two in alternating scenes. It was actually rather refreshing to see nothing come of this triangle. There was no stupid scene in which one of the women involved "discovers" Henry with the other woman, and then makes the type of ugly face that movie directors think women make when they see such, which is then followed by the woman not talking to the guy for a long time, then coming back around to him in the end. None of that happened. It was also pleasing to see Duff's character played with more agency than one would normally expect in a film about high school hi jinx.

Some tension does develop between Henry and Scarlett's Neanderthal old boyfriend Brad. Her ex is as overplayed as is Henry's gay friend, known simply as "Big Girl." Chevy Chase as Principal Marshall is the only character to develop beyond a single dimension, or at least to play his single dimension with some imagination.

The film does have a couple of small brushes with relevance. Watching this during commencement season here in the Boston area, we were interested in the school administration's attempts to pre-censor Henry's speech. Student-led protests have led to a few cancellations in our area, for politics rather than prurience. It is during a "safety drill" in the library that Henry learns -- to his only slight dismay -- that preparations for active shooters have become routine in schools. Both issues are touched upon only lightly, though, as this film does not stray far at all from a predictable path.

"The library is still a sanctuary for the socially challenged."

Even the disparagement of the library is clichéd, though we can thank the writer for not putting any librarians in glasses and tight hair so that we could see them magically unfurled later in the film.

Final verdict: The high side of three croquet balls; a good-enough diversion for non-fans and better than some of the other mediocre works that characterize Noni's work in the decade of the Aughts.

The Last Word - Just like the first time

Evan (Wes Bentley) is a writer who earns his money by writing suicide notes. He meets with his clients several times, finds out what they are feeling, and ultimately writes their poetic good-byes. He is very methodical and unemotional about his work until he meets Charlotte (played by Our Winona); and Abel (Ray Romano). Charlotte is the sister of a recently deceased client, and Abel is a current client. Evan unexpectedly falls in love with Charlotte, and forms a friendship with Abel. The love affair is doomed from the start as it begins with a lie - Evan does not want to reveal how he knew the deceased, and so claims to have gone to school with him.

The Last Word is not Ryder's best work, nor is it her worst. Her role could have been played just as well by any number of other actresses. We remembered having seen this film before, but neither of us could recall any details about it. Even while watching it very little seemed familiar. It wasn't a bad story, and it didn't have a completely Hollywood ending. It just does not have too much else to recommend it, though, and is not as clever as the premise suggests it could have been.

Final Verdict : Three Croquet Balls