Movie Review(s): Madame Bovary and More
Donald J. Trump is president of the United States, and we're all still alive. Similarly, if Hillary Clinton had won the presidency, we would also all still be alive. And now, because I am sick to death of hearing about it and talking about it and worrying about it, let's talk about something else! Movies!!
Madame Bovary
IMDB Summary: Bored in her marriage to a country doctor and stifled by life in a small town, the restless Emma Bovary pursues her dreams of passion and excitement, whatever they may cost.
(AKA, she has a bunch of affairs and then offs herself because she went into debt from shopping too much.)
Yeah this movie was not for me. Which is surprising because I am a sucker for pastoral historical flicks. But I have no sympathy for bored wives, which was basically the whole premise of this story, so it really just annoyed me. I mostly decided to watch this because it has Ezra Miller in it, and he's an incredible young actor. I absolutely loved his performance in The Stanford Prison Experiment, so I figured I would like this too. Unfortunately he's not a particularly prominent character in Madame Bovary and because all of the acting in this movie felt stilted and dull, his acting felt stilted and dull as well, which was disappointing. I'm also confused as to why they all spoke in American accents even though it takes place in France?? I feel like the director was trying to make artsy decisions or something, and they just didn't really work in the grand scheme of things. I really can't think of anything to recommend this movie. It was just boring. It's a story about a girl who is corrupted by reading too many novels which leads to her infidelity. And I just don't buy that story line. Especially because Madame Bovary was, in fact, a novel. Maybe I would have liked it better if I'd read the book, but I doubt it.
Pretty Woman
IMDB Summary: A man in a legal but hurtful business needs an escort for some social events, and hires a beautiful prostitute he meets... only to fall in love.
Pretty Woman will never not be an amazing movie. Yesterday was probably my fifth time seeing it, and it still felt just as fresh if not even fresher than ever. I made a somewhat disjointed list of random things about this movie in my iPhone notes, so I shall share those here:
-A little of my own personal analysis: Edward Lewis is a very rich, very bored man who needs to do outrageous things in order to feel any semblance of genuine human emotion. That's part of the reason why he hires Vivian on a whim. Vivian is a girl who honestly is not all that smart, but is quirky and interesting and vibrant and just makes do wherever she has to, which is what makes her smart.
-The opera Edward takes Vivian to is La Traviata, which is about a prostitute that falls in love with a rich man! #inception
-The parallels between Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries are enough to melt my fangirl heart. "It happens all the time"! The green frozen dish brought out to cleanse the pallet! The actors who play Joe, Paulo, Mr. Robitussin, one of the waiters at the state dinner, and even, I'm pretty sure, Charlotte, were all in Pretty Woman first!!!!!
-The Foil characters are spot on. Vivian's best friend is a prostitute who doesn't have overly romantic dreams or expectations for life and does drugs and can't pay the rent. Edward's lawyer is an extremely wealthy socialite who thinks hookers are just hookers and is a complete and utter sleaze ball without any of the charming qualities to make up for it. Having characters like this, who exhibit actual characteristics of their tropes make the central story less of a pie in the sky fantasy by reminding the audience that most prostitutes and most rich men will not ever actually fall in love, and this is just one very rare and beautiful instance.
-It's a RomCom, yeah, but it's not sugary. In fact it's quite dark. Literally the first scene is a reporter trying to find out details about the murder of a prostitute who was found in a dumpster. No one is surprised. No one is devastated. In fact, there are tourists curiously taking photographs of the whole ordeal. Then there's the fact that the main character is a prostitute... and they talk about it. A lot. As much as you would expect and hope for. Also, Edward is unapologetic about who he is. He knows his profession is not very honorable. He doesn't make excuses for shamelessly spending exorbitant amounts of money for things he doesn't need. He just does it. He knows people only respect him for his money, and that's why he is able to go about life not caring what people think of him otherwise. Aka, that's why he brings a prostitute to a 5 star hotel and doesn't feel the need to explain anything to anyone.
-The personalities! The character development!!! It's all pure golden genius that is rare to find in romantic comedies these days. Like...the characters actually talk to each other! About their childhoods, about their flaws, about everything. They have legitimate conversations, they get to KNOW each other. They fall in love the way real people actually fall in love, (albeit far too quickly. But we'll let it slide because she's being paid by the hour, so time is money here).
-There's so much to analyze in this story! Like...what really led Edward to pick up Vivian in the first place? Would the two have been drawn to each other if they'd been on the same socioeconomic level? Do they actually love each other, or are they just fascinated by the idea of each other?
-Richard Gere. Just Richard. Gere. THE silver fox with the puppy eyes and the voice that's not deep and manly yet is somehow really manly anyway?? The grey hair that makes his age ambiguous but it's like...you KNOW he's way too old for you but you don't even care and it's weird??? IDK. He's so charming. Even though his character is honestly a jerk with a lot of baggage. He's also somehow vulnerable and adorable and funny and everything you want in a man? It's so frustrating but so thrilling to watch.
-Things I don't like about the movie:
-The lack of diversity. At first I was like "wow! The very first person in this whole movie to even speak is an African American man!" But that's like where the diversity ended. In a way, you could try to forgive it by saying that the movie is about the Snob Culture of rich white people and therefore that's why there's so many white people. But still.
-The cheesy ending. I'll be honest, I've seen this movie probably at least five times, but I've only actually seen the ending maybe...twice? I think? And I really think you can get the whole effect of the movie without the last two or so minutes. In fact without the happy-go-lucky fairytale ending, it's far more hardhitting and realistic. I so badly want to write a FanFic about what happens AFTER the whole climbing-up-the-fire-escape-with-a-bouquet-of-flowers thing. Because it just feels out of place. Like the whole movie makes you feel like "Wow. Sometimes lives aren't always happy! They have happy moments, sure, but really that's all." So by the end, your'e kind of ready and expecting something less than perfect. So I want to write something where Edward and Vivian live together happily for a few months, but Edward is still a workaholic, and Vivian still wants more out of life. So Vivian gets enough money to take her and Kit somewhere. They get waitressing jobs somewhere and work themselves up to managers and that's their happily ever after. And maybe Edward comes around every now and then and Vivian allows it at first, but then she realizes she doesn't really need him anymore, and he's got too many personal issues that he needs counseling for, not just her. So she tells him this and he respects her because he truly does love her. And then maybe she reads in the paper one day that he killed himself after a big business deal fell through, so she goes to the funeral. And then it turns out he wrote a note leaving all his inheritance to her. So she starts a halfway house for hookers on Hollywood boulevard with the money he gave her. And she lives a long and happy life of her own independence. And it's like the most glorious feminist story ever. The end.
Wow. That was a lot. I could talk about this movie all day if you let me. But I won't make you suffer any longer. If you ARE still interested, you can check out a really interesting article about the movie here. I especially like what this article says about the "career" and "money" aspects of the movie. And it's so true what it says about how a movie like this could never be made today.
A Bronx Tale
IMDB Summary: A father becomes worried when a local gangster befriends his son in the Bronx in the 1960s.
I had seen the trailer for this movie a couple of times before and thought it looked all right. I had thought it was really raunchy though, so that's why I held off for this long. But then I was watching a Watch Mojo video about ten movies with interracial couples in them, and this movie came up again. I had had no idea it featured an interracial couple. I thought it was just about a group of gangster boys hanging out in the Bronx and getting into trouble. But this movie is about so much more than that, and I'm so glad I finally watched it! And while it does have quite a bit of language, and there is some inevitable violence, it's really no worse than a typical Superhero movie or something like that. And as far as sex goes, there's none. Which I think was a conscious choice on the part of De Niro (the director). The idea that not every person who grew up in the Bronx had crazy sexcapades or treated women like trash. The "love story" in this movie is handled very delicately and innocently, which I think really helps contribute to the overall theme. I'd say for a movie rated R, it would be appropriate for younger teens as well, as long as they're mature about the language.
The movie itself is interesting, but the production aspect of it is pretty cool too: it's based on a play written by Chazz Palminteri. Palminteri performed the play himself, and Robert De Niro saw him performing it once and told him it would make a great movie and offered to direct the movie. De Niro wasn't the first person to make this offer to Palminteri, and he wasn't able to offer him the most money, but he was the only one who wanted to let Palminteri write the screenplay himself, and let Palminteri act in the movie as well. Palminteri agreed, and it became De Niro's very first movie as a director. De Niro also plays the main characters father in the movie. Just thought that was interesting.
This movie brings to mind other great coming of age movies like The Sandlot and Stand By Me. I think the Coming of Age Genre is somewhat underrated. Coming of Age movies allow for a lot of flexibility, because everyone's experience with becoming an adult is so different and very complex. SE and I were talking a little bit about this over text message the other day:
Anyway, I can understand why A Bronx Tale is a bit of a classic. It tackles a lot of really important issues without feeling heavy handed or like it's trying to make a statement. It felt very realistic to me. Lives are full of controversy and tough issues and choices and feelings, right? And this movie has all of those things within it. I can understand why some reviews of the movie say that it's a little too typical, but I think in a way that might almost be the point of it. At the end Calogero (the main character) says something along the lines of "But this is just another Bronx tale". He knows that his life is not all that different from the thousands of other young kids who grew up in the city and had to deal with issues of race, gangs, and fatherhood firsthand. But he still thinks it's important to give his own account. As a sort of cautionary tale. "A Cautionary Tale", "A Bronx Tale". Is that a coincidence? I think not.
Madame Bovary
IMDB Summary: Bored in her marriage to a country doctor and stifled by life in a small town, the restless Emma Bovary pursues her dreams of passion and excitement, whatever they may cost.
(AKA, she has a bunch of affairs and then offs herself because she went into debt from shopping too much.)
 |
| That ain't your husband Madame Bovary. |
Pretty Woman
IMDB Summary: A man in a legal but hurtful business needs an escort for some social events, and hires a beautiful prostitute he meets... only to fall in love.
(That synopsis really doesn't do the story justice but oh well).
Pretty Woman will never not be an amazing movie. Yesterday was probably my fifth time seeing it, and it still felt just as fresh if not even fresher than ever. I made a somewhat disjointed list of random things about this movie in my iPhone notes, so I shall share those here:
-A little of my own personal analysis: Edward Lewis is a very rich, very bored man who needs to do outrageous things in order to feel any semblance of genuine human emotion. That's part of the reason why he hires Vivian on a whim. Vivian is a girl who honestly is not all that smart, but is quirky and interesting and vibrant and just makes do wherever she has to, which is what makes her smart.-The opera Edward takes Vivian to is La Traviata, which is about a prostitute that falls in love with a rich man! #inception
-The parallels between Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries are enough to melt my fangirl heart. "It happens all the time"! The green frozen dish brought out to cleanse the pallet! The actors who play Joe, Paulo, Mr. Robitussin, one of the waiters at the state dinner, and even, I'm pretty sure, Charlotte, were all in Pretty Woman first!!!!!
-The banter! The flirting! The witty quips! The writing for this movie is so unequivocally on fleek it's difficult to even describe. (Sorry, my slang comes out when I'm excited). The characters talk like real people, and the pacing is so good. It reminds me a bit of Gilmore Girls in the comfortable way that the characters chatter back and forth. Especially the scenes between Vivian and Kit, her best friend.
-The Foil characters are spot on. Vivian's best friend is a prostitute who doesn't have overly romantic dreams or expectations for life and does drugs and can't pay the rent. Edward's lawyer is an extremely wealthy socialite who thinks hookers are just hookers and is a complete and utter sleaze ball without any of the charming qualities to make up for it. Having characters like this, who exhibit actual characteristics of their tropes make the central story less of a pie in the sky fantasy by reminding the audience that most prostitutes and most rich men will not ever actually fall in love, and this is just one very rare and beautiful instance.
-It's a RomCom, yeah, but it's not sugary. In fact it's quite dark. Literally the first scene is a reporter trying to find out details about the murder of a prostitute who was found in a dumpster. No one is surprised. No one is devastated. In fact, there are tourists curiously taking photographs of the whole ordeal. Then there's the fact that the main character is a prostitute... and they talk about it. A lot. As much as you would expect and hope for. Also, Edward is unapologetic about who he is. He knows his profession is not very honorable. He doesn't make excuses for shamelessly spending exorbitant amounts of money for things he doesn't need. He just does it. He knows people only respect him for his money, and that's why he is able to go about life not caring what people think of him otherwise. Aka, that's why he brings a prostitute to a 5 star hotel and doesn't feel the need to explain anything to anyone.-The personalities! The character development!!! It's all pure golden genius that is rare to find in romantic comedies these days. Like...the characters actually talk to each other! About their childhoods, about their flaws, about everything. They have legitimate conversations, they get to KNOW each other. They fall in love the way real people actually fall in love, (albeit far too quickly. But we'll let it slide because she's being paid by the hour, so time is money here).
-There's so much to analyze in this story! Like...what really led Edward to pick up Vivian in the first place? Would the two have been drawn to each other if they'd been on the same socioeconomic level? Do they actually love each other, or are they just fascinated by the idea of each other?
-Richard Gere. Just Richard. Gere. THE silver fox with the puppy eyes and the voice that's not deep and manly yet is somehow really manly anyway?? The grey hair that makes his age ambiguous but it's like...you KNOW he's way too old for you but you don't even care and it's weird??? IDK. He's so charming. Even though his character is honestly a jerk with a lot of baggage. He's also somehow vulnerable and adorable and funny and everything you want in a man? It's so frustrating but so thrilling to watch.
 |
| He always looks like you just told him something vaguely amusing and he's trying to decide whether or not to laugh. Which is a good look for him. |
-Things I don't like about the movie:
-The lack of diversity. At first I was like "wow! The very first person in this whole movie to even speak is an African American man!" But that's like where the diversity ended. In a way, you could try to forgive it by saying that the movie is about the Snob Culture of rich white people and therefore that's why there's so many white people. But still.
-The cheesy ending. I'll be honest, I've seen this movie probably at least five times, but I've only actually seen the ending maybe...twice? I think? And I really think you can get the whole effect of the movie without the last two or so minutes. In fact without the happy-go-lucky fairytale ending, it's far more hardhitting and realistic. I so badly want to write a FanFic about what happens AFTER the whole climbing-up-the-fire-escape-with-a-bouquet-of-flowers thing. Because it just feels out of place. Like the whole movie makes you feel like "Wow. Sometimes lives aren't always happy! They have happy moments, sure, but really that's all." So by the end, your'e kind of ready and expecting something less than perfect. So I want to write something where Edward and Vivian live together happily for a few months, but Edward is still a workaholic, and Vivian still wants more out of life. So Vivian gets enough money to take her and Kit somewhere. They get waitressing jobs somewhere and work themselves up to managers and that's their happily ever after. And maybe Edward comes around every now and then and Vivian allows it at first, but then she realizes she doesn't really need him anymore, and he's got too many personal issues that he needs counseling for, not just her. So she tells him this and he respects her because he truly does love her. And then maybe she reads in the paper one day that he killed himself after a big business deal fell through, so she goes to the funeral. And then it turns out he wrote a note leaving all his inheritance to her. So she starts a halfway house for hookers on Hollywood boulevard with the money he gave her. And she lives a long and happy life of her own independence. And it's like the most glorious feminist story ever. The end.
Wow. That was a lot. I could talk about this movie all day if you let me. But I won't make you suffer any longer. If you ARE still interested, you can check out a really interesting article about the movie here. I especially like what this article says about the "career" and "money" aspects of the movie. And it's so true what it says about how a movie like this could never be made today.
A Bronx Tale
IMDB Summary: A father becomes worried when a local gangster befriends his son in the Bronx in the 1960s.
I had seen the trailer for this movie a couple of times before and thought it looked all right. I had thought it was really raunchy though, so that's why I held off for this long. But then I was watching a Watch Mojo video about ten movies with interracial couples in them, and this movie came up again. I had had no idea it featured an interracial couple. I thought it was just about a group of gangster boys hanging out in the Bronx and getting into trouble. But this movie is about so much more than that, and I'm so glad I finally watched it! And while it does have quite a bit of language, and there is some inevitable violence, it's really no worse than a typical Superhero movie or something like that. And as far as sex goes, there's none. Which I think was a conscious choice on the part of De Niro (the director). The idea that not every person who grew up in the Bronx had crazy sexcapades or treated women like trash. The "love story" in this movie is handled very delicately and innocently, which I think really helps contribute to the overall theme. I'd say for a movie rated R, it would be appropriate for younger teens as well, as long as they're mature about the language.The movie itself is interesting, but the production aspect of it is pretty cool too: it's based on a play written by Chazz Palminteri. Palminteri performed the play himself, and Robert De Niro saw him performing it once and told him it would make a great movie and offered to direct the movie. De Niro wasn't the first person to make this offer to Palminteri, and he wasn't able to offer him the most money, but he was the only one who wanted to let Palminteri write the screenplay himself, and let Palminteri act in the movie as well. Palminteri agreed, and it became De Niro's very first movie as a director. De Niro also plays the main characters father in the movie. Just thought that was interesting.
This movie brings to mind other great coming of age movies like The Sandlot and Stand By Me. I think the Coming of Age Genre is somewhat underrated. Coming of Age movies allow for a lot of flexibility, because everyone's experience with becoming an adult is so different and very complex. SE and I were talking a little bit about this over text message the other day:
 |
| Look at me, speaking words of wisdom! |
Anyway, I can understand why A Bronx Tale is a bit of a classic. It tackles a lot of really important issues without feeling heavy handed or like it's trying to make a statement. It felt very realistic to me. Lives are full of controversy and tough issues and choices and feelings, right? And this movie has all of those things within it. I can understand why some reviews of the movie say that it's a little too typical, but I think in a way that might almost be the point of it. At the end Calogero (the main character) says something along the lines of "But this is just another Bronx tale". He knows that his life is not all that different from the thousands of other young kids who grew up in the city and had to deal with issues of race, gangs, and fatherhood firsthand. But he still thinks it's important to give his own account. As a sort of cautionary tale. "A Cautionary Tale", "A Bronx Tale". Is that a coincidence? I think not.
Well, this has been a very long post. But I had so so much fun writing it. Enjoy the rest of your day. :)
-VaughnDL
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