It's the Most Wonderful Time of Year

I know what you’re thinking.  Christmas.  The holidays.  Winter Break.  New Year’s Eve.  But, actually, you’d be wrong.  At least, for me.  I love this time of year because, FINALLY, all the good movies surface to the light.

I’ve always been more a lover of indies, documentaries and foreign films and took for granted  The Charles Theatre, that bastion of all the best movies one could ever hope to see, conveniently located in Baltimore.  More than a few days I spent going from one fabulous film to another.  Sometimes, seeing three movies in a day.  In case you’re wondering, yes, I paid for every one.

But, this move to Florida put the kibosh on that!  There is one independent film theatre in Sarasota but there only two movie rooms and absolutely no parking.  Our theatre in Venice used to show a few indies before it went bankrupt, which resulted in a large percentage of broken chairs, and more than one report of fuzzy rodents scurrying around your feet.

Thankfully, it was bought by some big midwest chain which promised state of the art reclining seating.  The promise was that it would be thoroughly renovated by now.  That dream has been deferred for at least a year.  No indies in sight.

BH is a more eclectic movie goer.  He’s primary interested in what the critics write, although he’s not interested in Marvel Comic movies, horror, thrillers, and sequels.  More a lover of old movies, he almost panicked when Comcast got rid of the Turner Classic Movie channel.  Once free, now we pay.

Up until recently, we hadn’t seen many movies we could recommend.  I loved “Booksmart,” but he wasn’t all that impressed.  I think it’s more fun for the ladies, especially, those who were nerds in their former lives.  “Harriet” was well worth seeing for the acting, the cinematography and its powerful message.

Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” was nothing if not hilarious with Leonardo DiCaprio, an aging TV western star, and Brad Pitt, his stunt double.  I’m not a big fan of either one but they were both as good as it gets.  Usually, I abhor the violence in Tarantino’s films but not only could I stomach this one, but I found myself a devotee.

Now, we come to the most wonderful time of the year!  All the best movies bombarding us at once.  I am waist deep in movie watching right now.  Here are my faves so far in the order that I enjoyed them:

1). “Marriage Story.”   Far and away the best writing, acting and directing I’ve seen in years.  One of my top 5 for all time.  They should win every award.  If I had to whittle that down I would hands down give Best Actor to Adam Driver.  Who knew?  One amazing performance from a former Marine.  Best Supporting Actress to Laura Dern who portrayed the witchiest divorce lawyer ever.  And Noah Baumbach ….who writes better relationship stories than him?

2). “Ford vs. Ferrari.”  I’m not a race car driver nor do I care about NASCAR or any car racing.  But I absolutely love Christian Bale.  To me, he is his generation’s best.  However, Matt Damon is no slouch in F v F either.  The movie is just over two and a half hours long and I was never bored for a minute.  A first for me.  Generally, two hours is my absolute limit.

3). “Knives Out.”  Described as a murder mystery with kindness, it’s a laugh out loud experience that is all too rare these days.  It’s just a fun who dun it.  The only thing I couldn’t wrap my head around was Daniel Craig with an over the top southern accent.

4).  “The Irishman.”  Thank goodness for Netflix!  Really, who can watch a three and a half hour long movie in the theatre?  Not me!  We watched it over two nights and it’s one helluva of a story and I do mean story, because it’s become increasingly clear we will never know the real Jimmy Hoffa story.  Hats off to Scorsese….it’s epic!  Out of the three leads, I thought Joe Pesci was the best and Al Pacino the weakest.

Well, that covers it for now.  Hoping to see “Farewell” and “Parasite” on Netflix.  As usual, we will be debating our Christmas Day movie for the next couple of weeks.  My choice?  “Little Women,” of course!  I am enchanted with Greta Gerwig, its director and screenwriter.  Plus, she and Noah Baumbach are quite the creative genius couple!  What a year for them!