My Life In Movies Flashes Before My Eyes: Steel Magnolias, 1989

I think this is one of those movies that's required viewing in the south, like Gone With The Wind. It even has a first half hour that most men will sit quietly through because Tom Skerritt is trying to get birds out of the trees for his daughter's reception utilizing firearms and fireworks. Also, there's a groom's cake in the shape of an armadillo made out of red velvet. It is hilarious.

But this movie is about the women. There's Shirley MacLaine as Ouiser.("I'm not crazy, I've just been in a very bad mood for forty years!") Olympia Dukakis as Clairee (Well, you know what they say: if you don't have anything nice to say about anybody, come sit by me!) Dolly Parton as the hair salon owner, Truvy ("There is no such thing as natural beauty."). Sally Field as M'Lynn Eatonton, Shelby's mother. ("Oh how pretentious is this wedding going to get I ask you? That sanctuary looks like it's been hosed down with Pepto Bismol!") Daryl Hannah, looking for most of the film as mousy as Darryl Hannah gets, which is not much, as Annelle ("Miss Truvy, I promise that my personal tragedy will not interfere with my ability to do good hair.) Finally, Julia Roberts as Shelby, the bride in our wedding, M'Lynn's daughter ("My colors are blush and bashful.") Best of all, Julia Roberts isn't even annoying in this movie. She does the laughing thing once, but I don't think she can help that.

We spend about a third of the film in the business leading up to the wedding and most of that, like the rest of the film, takes place in Truvy's beauty parlor. In this first part, we learn about Shelby's health problems and that she may never be able to have children. The next Christmas we learn that she is pregnant, to M'Lynn's dismay given the health concerns. The story picks up again later as M'Lynn is about to give Shelby a kidney and later to Shelby's death. We also follow the course of Truvy's relationship with her husband and Annelle's born again Christian-ness. All of the women in this movie are genuinely hilarious except Julia Roberts because it's hard to be funny while you're dying. Although, it is good to be funny at a funeral. Also, this movie is seriously quotable, I had a hard time picking out just those and I would just post the whole movie from YouTube if I could, but let's stick with this scene which illustrates the deftness with which this movie goes from tears to laughter.



I'll admit it, I am a sucker for this movie. I've watched it more times than I can count and I still cried when I watched it today. Truly, Sally Field will break your heart in this movie and you will be going over the dialogue in your head for days. Not to mention that thing with the groom's cake will just stay with you forever. I do love it, please begin your ridicule in the comments section. Or please share anything you love about this film. Go!

My Life In Movies Flashes Before My Eyes: Working Girl, 1988

You know, some of these years are much harder to do than others. Apparently in 1988, there was Big, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Coming to America and the film that I've selected. It was difficult. Anyway, this movie stars Melanie Griffith and may surprise you in that it doesn't suck. I think the problem is that Melanie Griffith has been trying to play this same role every other time in her career and it doesn't work. Case in point: Shining Through. Take her character in this movie add Nazis and you've got Shining Through. Speaking of which, why is Liam Neeson a Nazi in that movie? I know that Schindler's List was after that, so they couldn't have seen it coming but it's still disturbing. I just don't want to see Liam Neeson as a Nazi, I watched that whole movie bothered that I still liked him.

Okay, on to the task at hand. Working Girl, directed by Mike Nichols, is the story of Tess McGill, a working class girl from Long Island with aspirations in finance. She finds these ambitions to be stifled by the lack of an Ivy League/blue blood pedigree. She feels like her life is turning around when she becomes the secretary to Katherine Parker. I love this part of the film because it plays on knowing someone who you hate/want to be. Tess brings her an idea for a deal and Katherine promises to use it to help her. Then Katherine gets in a ski accident and things change. Tess finds out Katherine intended to steal her idea, so Tess decides to take matters into her own hands and sets up a meeting with Jack Traynor played by Harrison Ford. Before that, she has an unfortunate incident with prescription meds and Tequila, which makes the business part of this awkward. So, Tess starts moving in business circles and pursuing a relationship with Jack, because you know, he's Harrison Ford before he started dating Calista Flockhart. Oh, also, Katherine thinks she's pretty much engaged to Jack. There are issues, which all come together nicely upon Katherine's return where Tess is able to show her for the fraud she is. The important part is really the ride along the way as Tess struggles with her identity: that of a secretary or a serious business lady. That theme is summed up in this one clip from Tess' best friend.

Okay, the best parts of this movie: the stellar cast, containing basically everyone. You've got Joan Cusack as Tess' best friend, Alec Baldwin as her boyfriend, an Irish guy from Long Island (Hey, wait a minute...), Olympia Dukakis, Oliver Platt and even Kevin Spacey in a memorable appearance. I love the way it captures the divide between blue and white collar, evidenced through the fantastic cityscape of Manhattan in the film, giving you the full gusto of New York in the 1980s. You know, at least h Also, there's a Carly Simon song in this film, evoked throughout the score. Another win. Carly Simon should write more songs in movies that we can sing driving to work.

My Life In Movies Flashes Before My Eyes: No Way Out, 1987

Remember what I said before about Harrison Ford tarnishing his legacy with crap? Same thing, Kevin Costner. I'm talking about Waterworld. The Postman. Whatever else there is that I'm forgetting. What about that one where Paul Newman plays his dad? The one based on the Nicholas Sparks book? Here's a spoiler, every Nicholas Sparks story has the same ending: SOMEONE DIES. That may not be entirely accurate, but I think it is and that should be good enough for the Internet, right?

Anyway, let's examine the fact that Kevin Costner had two excellent films come out this year. This one and The Untouchables, the film for which Sean Connery won as Oscar. I just felt like mentioning that.

Anyway, this film features Kevin Costner as a Naval officer who falls for the Secretary of Defense's mistress played by Sean Young. Gene Hackman plays the Secretary and there's a part with Iman and Fred Thompson. What more do you people want from this movie?



I love a good thriller which I suspect you might learn as this list goes on and even more than that, this is a great Cold War thriller and nothing can really beat that. Okay, there is that one scene in the limo that I'm not entirely comfortable with. I mean, how awkward is that for the driver? Anyway, this is about what happens when you work at the Pentagon, have an affair with your boss' mistress and she dies. Long story short: it's BAD.

Okay, so, now there's a spoiler that I would actually feel bad about spoiling, which is so rare for me, so if you haven't seen No Way Out, please stop reading and go do that. They throw so many red herrings at you in this movie that this becomes the best twist ending ever. So, I would go on and on about that, but I can't so...

Talking points: great Cold War thrillers, why all movies should feature Iman and Fred Thompson, limo etiquette? I'm really tired, people.

My Life In Movies Flashes Before My Eyes: Witness, 1985

Let's think back to a time (1985) and a place (America, I guess) where there was no fourth Indiana Jones movie and the legacy of Harrison Ford's career wasn't dragged down by crap like Random Hearts and whatever one he made with Anne Heche while she was still with Ellen. This is a time when Harrison Ford is successful from films like Raiders of the Lost Ark (my favorite ever, but it came out the year before I was born, what are you gonna do?) and Star Wars, once again, before crap sequels/prequels were made. He's just starting to delve into deeper work and that work is Witness. By the way, this is already the second Harrison Ford movie on this list and I think it could be as high as five.



This is the film where Kelly McGillis plays an Amish woman. This was before she taught at Top Gun, so I guess that makes sense. Anyway, she's the mother of a young boy and they're on their way to visit relatives when her son witnesses a murder. Harrison Ford plays John Book, the cop who's investigating that murder. There's immediate tension between the Amish and non-Amish characters in the film. Book asks Samuel to identify the killer by looking at a bunch of pictures, but then the killer is in a newspaper at the police station because he's a cop (Oh, yeah, it's Danny Glover. That's not really a spoiler, it happens in like the first fifteen minutes anyway. Also, I don't really care if you think it's a spoiler.) So, next Book discovers that his police captain is in on it and takes Kelly McGillis and the kid back to Amish country, after an attempt on his life. There, he recovers and stays in hiding as an Amish guy, making this even more fraught with tension between the Amish and the English, which is apparently what the Amish call the non-Amish.

And here's one of my favorite scenes, though it is so atypical of the film. Cute, but not too cute, and I always watch wondering when the other shoe is going to drop.



So, overall summation, this is such an incredible movie because it is so sparing and so subtle. Director Peter Weir doesn't waste a moment but doesn't overdo anything, either. The love story between Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis, albeit inevitable, is told in a very mature way, not sensational and the film doesn't resort to any cheap tricks. The thriller part of this movie is in there, but what's most important are the characters.

So, opinions on Witness or my spoiler policies? Let loose in the comments section.

My Life In Movies Flashes Before My Eyes: Well, 1986 Is Complicated

Do you know how sometimes you rewatch a film and discover in it new aspects and layers that you never noticed before that make viewing it an altogether richer experience? Okay, have you ever had the opposite happen?



That was the case with my pick of 1986, An American Tail. Remember Fievel? Do you remember it being awesome and you felt bad for that poor immigrant mouse who was lost from his family and sang "Somewhere Out There?"

Okay, Fievel Mousekewitz is a Jewish mouse from Russia whose family decides to go to America after a bunch of Cossack cats ruin Hanukkah. I'm not even kidding. So, I started getting confused here. Is it like Art Spiegelman's Maus? Were all mice Jewish? Then they get on the boat with a bunch of other mice, one who seemed Catholic. Okay, then Fievel goes to the Statue of Liberty where he's rescued by a pigeon who sounds like Maurice Chevalier. Then he meets an Italian mouse who falls in love with a mouse with the worst Irish accent ever. Then they meet Gussie Mausheimer who is some sort of German mouse that I start worrying is going to turn on Fievel when some sort of Mouse Fascist movement starts. Then this movie really starts to fall apart when I no longer buy that a cat could disguise himself as a rat. And it's over. A little part of my inner child has died. Let's sing for it.



So, my new favorite movie of 1986 is Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which is awesome, but I made you read all of that, so let me get this in quick for you. Star Trek IV is great -if for no other reason- for this moment.