Couple of Movies To Rent

Hi out there,

After a crazy fall quarter, I really want to get back to writing regularly. And this blog is a great place to get started again. And rather than trying to get all caught up on everything I missed, I'm going to start with where I am right now.

I had one of the laziest days that I've allowed myself to have in probably five months. I slept in until noon, made some lunch, watched football, and just chilled on the couch for most of the day. After getting a pizza from Toto's (the best thin crust traditional pizza in the bay area), I sat down to watch a couple movies. It turns out that I haven't watched any of my Netflix movies in the last couple of months, so after a quick search, I decided to watch Prizzi's Honor and The Woodsman, saving Sicko for another time.

Both movies were good and worth watching. I'll start with Prizzi's Honor.

Prizzi's Honor was a 1985 film starring Jack Nicholson (nominated for best actor), Anjelica Huston (won best supporting actress), and Kathleen Turner and was directed by John Huston. It was nominated for Best Picture (along with Witness, The Color Purple, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and the winner: Out of Africa).

The movie tells the fictional story of the Prizzi crime family. They're an aging mob family that is starting to lose control over all their operations. Jack Nicholson is the don's godson and he and his father are two of the most trusted members of the operation. In one of the quickest romances of all time, Jack Nicholson falls in love with Kathleen Turner after some eye-contact and a dance for half a song during a wedding. At different points each of them is contracted to kill the other.

The story itself is pretty cool. Even with 15 minutes left in the film, I had no idea how everything was going to turn out. And I liked how everything was resolved. My only issue with the movie was that it didn't seem to ever decide if it was a serious movie or a comedy. Jack Nicholson wasn't the most convincing crime lord, but Angelica Huston and Kathleen Turner both turned in pretty good performances.

The Woodsman was a very different movie. It came out in 2004 and starts Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgewick, Eve, Mos Def, Benjamin Bratt, and David Alan Grier. It was produced by Lee Daniels (who also did Monster's Ball and Precious). This movie flew under the radar and now that I've seen it, I know why. It is a heavy drama about a taboo topic, but it is very well done.

The Woodsman follows the life of Kevin Bacon, a 45 year-old sex offender who is out of jail on parole. He is trying to lead a normal life despite being estranged by his family and battling his own demons including his continued affinity for young girls. Kyra Sedgewick starts a romance with him despite his efforts to keep her (and everyone) at arm's length. He must confront all of the predictable aspects of being a registered sex offender (confessing to his girlfriend, running into kids in public, having people at work find out, dealing with a parole officer). Kevin Bacon portrays this role with incredible depth, self-doubt, self-loathing, and delicate hope. The movie was difficult to watch at times. Because it was trying so hard to depict this issue realistically, it doesn't have a happy, feel-good sentiment about it. Despite the fact that I probably won't watch this more than once, I highly recommend this movie to everyone.