The Viewer's Commentary
CJ Stewart
10 posts published by CJ Stewart during May 2013
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The Viewer's Commentary
Directed by: Amy Heckerling

Produced by: Scott Rudin, Robert Lawrence, Twink Caplan, Adam Schroeder, Barry M. Berg

Written by: Amy Heckerling

Edited by: Debra Chiate

Cinematography by: Bill Pope

Music by: David Kitay

Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Donald Faison, Breckin Meyer, Dan Hedaya, Elisa Donovan, Justin Walker, Wallace Shawn, Twink Caplan, Jeremy Sisto

Inspired by the novel Emma by Jane Austen

Year: 1995

Every once in a while, a film comes along that transcends its trappings and finds a broader than expected audience, only to become a renowned classic. Star Wars was such a film – a silly space opera that managed to become one of the biggest and most influential films of all time. Without it, we would likely have not had the revival of Star Trek and the creation of Alien. The Dark Knight did the same for superhero films, as well, taking its subject seriously and forever changing the expectations regarding the quality of a subgenre that was still considered to be mostly a catalyst for special effects.

Clueless is one of those films – a high school comedy that manages to be both smart and likeable enough that it was a hit with both audiences of all ages as well as becoming a darling with critics who recognized it for its witty dialogue and well developed characters. It was enough of a hit that it even became a well-received TV series. Teen comedies featuring a blonde rich girl protagonist are bound to either make fun of its main character for being a dimwit or, even worse, treat her like a princess who goes on a sort of fun, supposedly meaningful high school experience that will apparently change her life forever. Clueless remains a refreshingly down-to-earth in its scope, despite the characters’ social status. Read more…

Directed by: Mark Waters

Produced by: Lorne Michaels, Tony Shimkin, Louise Rosner, Jill Messick

Written by: Tina Fey (screenplay)

Edited by: Wendy Greene Bricmont

Cinematography by: Daryn Okada

Music by: Rolfe Kent

Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Franzese, Lacey Chabert, Amanda Seyfried, Jonathan Bennett, Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, Neil Flynn, Amy Poehler

Based on the book Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence by Rosalind Wiseman

Year: 2004

Girls are awful. As a guy who had to go through his fair share of teasing from other guys from pretty much kindergarten onward, I can say with all honesty that no matter how mean the guys were, nothing compared to the way I saw my female peers treat one another and the guys they were around. One particular incident in 7th grade, where I had a note asking a particular girl out along with a ribbon rose made my mom in what I thought was the girl’s favorite color, has possibly tainted my romantic life forever thanks to the girls teasing me about getting the color wrong and the girl I was asking out taking until the end of the school year to tell me “Yeah… sorry, no,” after months of her flirting with the guy who picked on me. My sister had it even worse, however, being — well, another girl. The stories I heard from her make my experiences seem like a fairy tale with a happily ever after. The types of girls she dealt with apparently either did not see or understand Carrie – they even pulled the old nominating my sister for homecoming queen trick. Luckily, my sister heard about a scheme and managed to avoid whatever it was they were planning. Read more…

Directed by: William A. Wellman

Produced by: Lucien Hubbard, Adolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky, B.P. Schulberg, Otto Hermann Kahn

Written by: Julian Johnson

Edited by: E. Lloyd Sheldon, Lucien Hubbard (uncredited)

Cinematography by: Harry Perry

Music by: J.S. Zamecnik

Starring: Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Richard Arlen, Clara Bow, El Brendel, Jobyna Ralston, Gary Cooper

Year: 1927

It might be hard to believe for many modern audiences, but there was a time when films had to go without dialogue. Strange, I know! “Silent films,” as we’ve come to all them (as I assume they weren’t called that when they were still the norm), weren’t necessarily all silent – they still had a musical recording or live performance to accompany them, and some, such as this one, even had sound effects synced up with the film, albeit usually more for ambiance than anything. By the time that Wings had been released, the more accurately named “talkies” were already in production, with the first feature length film with synchronized dialogue, The Jazz Singer, was released just months after Wings’ theatrical debut. If you’ve at the very least seen Singin’ in the Rain, you know what kind of impact The Jazz Singer had on filmmaking. Read more…

Directed by: Herbert Ross

Produced by: Ray Stark, Andrew Stone, Victoria White

Written by: Robert Harling

Edited by: Paul Hirsch

Cinematography by: John A. Alonzo

Music by: Georges Delerue

Starring: Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, Julia Roberts, Tom Skerritt, Sam Shepard, Dylan McDermott, Kevin J. O’Connor

Based on the play by Robert Harling

Year: 1989

Steel Magnolias is one of those films I used to automatically think about when I thought of the term “chick flick.” It may well be one of those movies, like Sleepless in Seattle, which helped make me aware that movies can become so “gendered” and that there’s such a stigma attached to them that, if you just happened to like the film and not be part of the target demographic (i.e., women), then people begin to… well… “question” you. And I think I knowingly let this affect my enjoyment of the film and would overtly express my disgust for the film whenever the prospect of putting it on arose. Of course, I was probably ten around that time, but that stigma tainted all my future attempts to watch this movie with my mom, who happens to be a huge fan, even though I knew that, secretly, I found much to enjoy about it. And, even then, having been long since out of the house, time has also certainly taken its toll on my memory as to what it was that I enjoyed. Read more…

Directed by: J.J. Abrams

Produced by: J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci

Written by: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof

Edited by: Maryann Brandon, Mary Jo Markey

Cinematography by: Daniel Mindel

Music by: Michael Giacchino

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldaña, Benedict Cumberbatch, Karl Urban, John Cho, Alice Eve, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Peter Weller, Anton Yelchin

Year: 2013

After years of anticipation, the sequel to J.J. Abrams’ bold new restart of the Star Trek film franchise is finally here. Though it was the eleventh film in the series, as the first film set in this alternate universe, it was also the franchise’s first step in an attempt to grab at a brighter future after years of the franchise taking a dive in both quality and creativity. With the promise of the series shedding years of expectations and established canon with a bit of time travel, 2009’s Star Trek brilliantly maneuvered the series into a position where it could once again surprise new audiences, Trekkies, and Trekkers alike. Read more…

Directed by: James Cameron

Produced by: James Cameron, Jon Landau

Written by: James Cameron

Edited by: Conrad Buff, James Cameron, Richard A. Harris

Cinematography by: Russell Carpenter

Music by: James Horner

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, David Warner, Victor Garber, Bill Paxton, Gloria Stuart, Danny Nucci, Jason Barry, Suzy Amis, Ioan Gruffudd

Year: 1997

Titanic is responsible for exposing me to what is very likely my first experience with the phenomena of backlash toward something popular. Though I was just 11 when the film first released back in 1997 and had very little interest in actually seeing this 3-hour epic romance, I distinctly remember getting caught up with the other guys in my class who took great joy in teasing the girls who had begun bragging that they had seen the movie multiple times and memorized every moment. I even remember writing a sort of anti-fanfic of the film that I read in front of my 5th grade class for an English writing assignment wherein I was transported into the setting of the film and took the place of Jack and Rose at the end of the ship as it was sinking, thus dooming them both to a watery grave. There was also probably some destruction of a certain famous drawing from the film and the theft of the giant blue diamond. I hadn’t even seen the film at that point, but I had heard so much about it, I basically knew all the plot points and buttons to press that would set off the girls’ tempers and win the favor of the guys. Read more…

Directed by: Emile Ardolino

Produced by: Linda Gottlieb

Written by: Eleanor Bergstein

Edited by: Peter C. Frank

Cinematography by: Jeffrey Jur

Music by: John Morris, Erich Bulling

Starring: Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Jerry Orbach, Cynthia Rhodes, Kelly Bishop, Jane Brucker, Jack Weston, Max Cantor, Lonny Price

Year: 1987

It speaks to a film’s popularity when a single song can instantly remind you of the film, even if you haven’t seen it. For this movie, the song that most people think of is the Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes duet “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” the declaration of love in the form of a cheesy 80s pop ballad that inexplicably serves as the catalyst for the film’s final dance number, despite the film being set in the early 1960s. Oddly enough, this wasn’t the song that reminded me of this film’s existence and necessitated its inclusion into Girly Movie Month. The credit for that goes to yet another 80s pop song, “Hungry Eyes,” which similarly finds its way into the film as one of many anachronisms that likely served to make the film more palatable to the 80s teen audience the film was aiming for at the time of its release. Read more…

Directed by: Nick Cassavetes

Produced by: Lynn Harris, Mark Johnson; Toby Emmerich, Avram Butch Kaplan (executive)

Written by: Jeremy Leven (screenplay); Jan Sardi (adaptation)

Edited by: Alan Heim

Cinematography by: Robert Fraisse

Music by: Aaron Zigman

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands, Joan Allen, James Marsden, Jamie Brown, Sam Shepard, David Thornton, Kevin Connolly

Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks

Year: 2001

Nicholas Sparks adaptations have become something like an annual event, it seems. Sure, it’s not actually true, but it feels true, what with all the films attempting to cash in on this film’s success as a tear-jerking romance novel adaptation. It all started with Message in a Bottle in 1999, and then there was the Mandy Moore film A Walk to Remember in 2002. The biggest film in this series of cloying romantic fantasies, though, seems to be The Notebook, a film that even romantic movie haters had at one point or another assured me is actually “a pretty decent movie.”

Now, I admit that I had basically pecked out portions of story from this film based on scenes I had caught glimpses of while on various trips back home, mostly when my oldest stepsister was still living at home. There were probably two or three good efforts thrown in there, too, of me actually trying to honestly follow the film with them before something else caught my attention and I wound up not following through with it. When I started Girly Movie Month this month, however, I knew that this would ultimately have to be reviewed, being basically the girly movie that comes to my mind when I think of the term “girly movie.”

Having finally seen the film all the way through in one sitting, I feel as though I can honestly sit down with anyone who may have told me in the past that this was actually a “decent” film and tell them to their faces: “You are so full of it.” Read more…

Directed by: Robert Luketic

Produced by: Ric Kidney, Marc E Platt

Written by: Karen McCullah Lutz, Kirsten Smith (screenplay)

Edited by: Anita-Brandt Burgoyne, Garth Craven

Cinematography by: Anthony B. Richmond

Music by: Rolfe Kent

Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, Matthew Davis, Victor Garber, Jennifer Coolidge, Ali Larter, Linda Cardellini, Holland Taylor, Raquel Welch

Based on the novel by Amanda Brown

Year: 2001

Have you ever seen the sequel to this? It’s horrible. Don’t do it if you haven’t. You’ll thank me when you haven’t peeled off your face because of it – and I’m not referring to the skin treatment. I’m being quite literal. It took lots of stitches and recovery time after I saw that junk on TBS.

Anyway, who needs a sequel, anyway, when Legally Blonde is itself two small complementary films merged into one pretty, pink package? One half college romcom, one half courtroom comedy, Legally Blonde provides a satisfyingly perky romp into a girl power fantasy. Read more…

So, May has begun! And what comes with May? FLOWERS! And Mother’s Day! And my mom’s pretty girly — she had me make sure that her Dutch Bros. cup was pink, which was only available online — so, yeah, to commemorate the month of flowers and mothers who like girly things, I’m going to review nothing but girly movies!

Wait! No! Not that kind of “girly movie.” Geez, you freak!

No, what I mean are movies like You’ve Got Mail, The Lake House, Bridesmaids, Enchanted, Brave, etc. will, for the next month, grace The Viewer’s Commentary — only not those, ’cause I already reviewed those.

Stereotypically girly, you say? So be it. I’ll most likely be doing something similar for June and Father’s Day… Anyway, yeah, so get ready to get in touch with your feminine side. Girly Movie Month begins…

Disclaimer: Incidental reviews of theatrical films during this time will not be counted as “girly” movies, unless, of course, they are actually a “girly” movie.