Films in 2019: June

June seemed to fly by, but I still managed to watch about a month’s worth of movies, and it was a pretty interesting mix. As usual, I watched a lot of what TCM had to offer (including a few titles from their engaging two-month spotlight series on WWII movies), and I’m also getting more use out of my Criterion Channel subscription. On another movie-related note, I also visited the Francis Ford Coppola Winery recently, and I had a great time seeing all the memorabilia on display while sipping some fine wine amongst such a beautiful backdrop! I highly recommend visiting the winery if you ever have the chance, especially if you admire Coppola’s movies. But anyway, onto what I watched this past month…

New-to-Me: 25

Re-Watched: 5

New-to-Me Films by Decade:

  • 1920s – 0
  • 1930s – 1
  • 1940s – 7
  • 1950s – 4
  • 1960s – 4
  • 1970s – 2
  • 1980s – 1
  • 1990s – 2
  • 2000s – 0
  • 2010s – 4

List of New-to-Me Films:

  1. Zorba the Greek (1964)
  2. My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
  3. Pride of the Marines (1945)
  4. Till the End of Time (1946)
  5. The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
  6. George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin (1994)
  7. Aladdin (2019)
  8. My Dream Is Yours (1949)
  9. Tea for Two (1950)
  10. 36 Hours (1964)
  11. Dunkirk (1958)
  12. Always Be My Maybe (2019)
  13. The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
  14. Late Night (2019)
  15. One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977)
  16. La Pointe Courte (1955)
  17. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
  18. Destination Tokyo (1943)
  19. Toy Story 4 (2019)
  20. My Own Private Idaho (1991)
  21. Cry ‘Havoc’ (1943)
  22. The Reluctant Debutante (1958)
  23. The Moon-Spinners (1964)
  24. Never a Dull Moment (1968)
  25. The Man Who Found Himself (1937)

A Few Favorite Discoveries:

The Heartbreak Kid (1972)

The Heartbreak Kid (1972), directed by Elaine May

The Heartbreak Kid is such a sharp romantic comedy, combining the talents of director Elaine May and a screenplay co-written by Neil Simon. It reminded me a bit of The Graduate (which was of course directed by May’s comedy partner, Mike Nichols), with some cringe-worthy moments with the main character and the sort of ambiguous ending. The cast as a whole does a great job of making these mostly unlikeable characters very enjoyable to watch, I especially liked Charles Grodin in the lead role, and his interactions with Jeannie Berlin and Eddie Albert, both of whom turned Oscar-nominated performances.

Toy Story 4 (2019)

Toy Story 4 (2019), directed by Josh Cooley

Like many others have expressed, I was a little adamant about Pixar making another Toy Story movie after the third one in the series seemingly ended on a great, conclusive note. But as I was watching Toy Story 4, I was glad to see another adventure with these beloved toys, especially fully rounding out Woody’s arc. While I didn’t find this latest installment to be as good as its three predecessors, it’s a worthy chapter in the saga, serving as a sort of epilogue showing Woody’s life after Andy.

The Reluctant Debutante (1958)

The Reluctant Debutante (1958), directed by Vincente Minnelli

This is probably one of director Vincente Minnelli’s lesser-known films, but it’s well worth checking out. Though, I’ll say a lot of my interest in finally catching The Reluctant Debutante on TCM was because it was later loosely remade as What a Girl Wants, which I watched pretty often as a pre-teen. Regardless, it’s a sweet little romantic comedy, and I’m a sucker for any movie featuring the delightful Sandra Dee. She’s wonderful alongside Kay Kendall and Rex Harrison as her stepmother and father, respectively, and both actors have a great rapport with each other.

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