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:
- Zorba the Greek (1964)
- My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
- Pride of the Marines (1945)
- Till the End of Time (1946)
- The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
- George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin (1994)
- Aladdin (2019)
- My Dream Is Yours (1949)
- Tea for Two (1950)
- 36 Hours (1964)
- Dunkirk (1958)
- Always Be My Maybe (2019)
- The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
- Late Night (2019)
- One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977)
- La Pointe Courte (1955)
- Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
- Destination Tokyo (1943)
- Toy Story 4 (2019)
- My Own Private Idaho (1991)
- Cry ‘Havoc’ (1943)
- The Reluctant Debutante (1958)
- The Moon-Spinners (1964)
- Never a Dull Moment (1968)
- The Man Who Found Himself (1937)
A Few Favorite Discoveries:
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), 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), 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.
