Romantic comedies are very rarely my thing. I often try to avoid them like the plague. There are, of course, some exceptions to the rule. If it’s a Rated-R raunchy romantic comedy like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, There’s Something About Mary, etc. I’m in. But those movies have become their brand. Before 1997, you didn’t see movies like this made. I’m talking about the PG or PG-13 romantic comedies. I like Notting Hill, Garden State, and, of course, Groundhog Day. And movies like My Best Friend’s Wedding, Hitch, and High Fidelity are serviceable. With Something’s Gotta Give, the film sought me out rather than vice versa. Somehow, when I clicked the like button on Netflix, a list of other movies appeared, and I clicked the film’s image and added it to my list.
I don’t remember doing this. So when it arrived, and I ripped open the envelope with excitement, a “What the f*** is this?” and a look of befuddlement were an understatement. So there it sat next to my television for a couple of weeks. In the back of my mind, I knew I would give it a chance. It did earn high marks on Rotten Tomatoes, and it did have a star-studded cast. It would have a short rope, but it would get a chance. I’m glad I did. It was far from a great movie, but despite some severe flaws, it was entertaining enough to recommend. With that said, this movie is a one-and-done for me. I’ll never watch it again. One reason I do this blog is to remember the movies I watch. It is much easier to read a five-minute summary.
Theodore Melfi’s St. Vincent, his first full-length feature film, is a movie I liked a little more than I did. Unfortunately, though it did it better than many of its predecessors, it follows a very familiar been there, done that approach. It’s no wonder that, despite some great performances (especially from its lead), it got lost in the shuffle and ultimately got shut out from any Academy Award nominations. There is only so much you can do with portraying a down-and-out lead character who hits rock bottom and then has to fight to be again. In some flicks, we see these characters have bottomed before the movie begins (
The short. Skip 
Perhaps two of the best performances of the careers of both Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote, Doubt) and Laura Linney (The Squid and the Whale, You Can Count on Me) are on display in the most under-appreciated movie in 2007, Tamara Jenkins (Slums of Beverly Hills) The Savages. This movie scored 89% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes yet amassed just $6.4 million at the box office. I did not see this movie in the theater. I remember hearing a lot about it, but I don’t remember seeing many trailers. And at the time, this wasn’t a movie that I thought would interest me. I am always lukewarm on films classified as drama and comedies. They are hit-or-miss for me. When they are right, they are great. But that seems to be the exception to the rule. I saw it only because it had such a high rating and because Linney earned a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her performance. No one recommended this movie to me. It was a movie I told myself I would sit through and probably not enjoy, based on the reasons I listed above. Boy, was I wrong. The Savages is a fantastic movie and hits close to home for most of us at some point in our lives.
One of the most honest and straightforward movies of 2014 saw two of the most well-known Saturday Night Live alums take on roles that were very, very different from anything we had seen them in before. Rian Johnson’s (Looper, The Brothers Bloom) The Skeleton Twins explores mental health, a topic that hits very close to home for me. This is one of those movies categorized as a hit-or-miss drama/comedy, but it is hardly a comedy. This isn’t the heaviest movie in the entire world, but you certainly won’t be smiling much as you empathize with the leads Maggie (Wiig –