What should we watch: 92–101
By: J Hillyer
Tags: Movies To Watch, Culture, Film Reviews, Movies, Jill Biden

(See “What should we watch? Join our family for movie night” (https://medium.com/@4hillyers/what-should-we-watch-1a0bb60ebf4e) for an introduction to this project)

What should we watch?

92) Beaches (Lainie Kazan)

93) Legally Blonde (James Reed)

94) Pleasantville (Reese Witherspoon)

95) The Sandlot (Marley Shelton)

96) Draft Day (Denis Leary)

97) Dave (Frank Langella)

98) The Truman Show (Laura Linney)

99) Apollo 13 (Ed Harris)

100) Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks)

101) La Bamba (Sam Anderson)

I am going to keep this one short, but first the movies:

S&R

Beaches has been one of my all time favorite movies for decades. Best friends from different coasts and different ends of the class spectrum go through the ups and downs of life together. ***Spoiler alert*** one of them dies and it is famously tear-inducing. Bette Midler is everything. Hubby says that her character is unlikeable but has a good story arc because her friend keeps her grounded. I think only some people empathize with how hard it is to be the best. Daughter and son mostly spend their effort while watching this movie trying to prove me wrong and not cry.

Legally Blonde is about a blonde girl who gets into law school and actually does a good job (what a novel concept!). It could be a really shallow movie, but Reese brings just enough grit to counter the stereotypical (and condescending) frivolity. Hubby says he wouldn’t have thought this was a good choice for her career, but she knows what she is doing (thanks for the mansplaining). He also says that when he first saw it as a young man, he tried not to like it (being a tough guy and all), but he couldn’t help it. I tried not to like it too, I mean are we really rooting for the girl who is just too pretty to be taken seriously? But it is funny and interesting and totally believable. Son likes courtroom stories, especially when they are light/ silly and daughter was happy to see the popular girl change and do well in school.

Every new generation must feel like the older one just doesn’t get it- (“Ok, Boomer”)- and Pleasantville illustrates the timeless cycling of this truism. Tobey Maguire and Reese somehow get sucked into their television and inhabit the real lives of fake characters from a 50s sitcom. They start out in black and white, but as they start introducing new-fangled ideas into the culture (like that books have words and beds can be bigger than twin-sized) bits of the world become colored. This coloring begins to be seen as evidence of wickedness (think scarlet As) and there are issues. The most interesting thing to me is that Reese and Tobey are some of the last characters to become colored- I think that’s because the color didn’t indicate wickedness, but open-mindedness and growth. Hubby agrees and thinks the movie is very underrated. Daughter said she liked the “deep moral message” that both good and bad things can bring change and make lives beautiful. Son, “it is too long.”

The Sandlot is about a group of boys who play baseball on a sandlot. There is a big dog on the other side of the lot who steals their baseballs, and it turns out that its owner, James Earl Jones, isn’t as mean as the gossip would have them believe. I think this movie is fine, daughter thinks it is funny. Hubby and son both like the story about friendship. Son says it is nice to see how much they grow in one summer and hubby says, “you’re killin’ me smalls”

Draft Day is a movie literally about an NFL draft day. Doesn’t seem like that would be interesting enough to make a movie about, but we do live in late-capitalist America. Kevin Costner has some tough decisions to make (about life, love, and football), although everyone knows, if you have the option, you should always pick Chadwick (rest in power). Hubby is bothered by how much younger Jennifer Garner is than Kevin Costner (yeah, weird and unnecessary for this movie), but he does like that another movie is centered on the idea of a Cleveland sports team totally sucking. The kids were not into it. Son, “all the football players were annoying, and the coaches were annoying, and everyone else was an asshole.” Daughter, “yeecchh; I think I fell asleep because football is stupid and unsafe so I don’t like movies about football.”

In Dave, the U.S. President has a stroke and his Chief of Staff doesn’t want to give up power, so he finds someone who looks like the President to pretend and take over. Daughter says that she finds it hard to believe that no one would notice he was so different. “He went to charity and stuff!” I agree. Hubby says he likes it because it shows how much good can be done by a functional government and how strong the forces are which block this progress. He also says that all budget meetings should be televised and I think this is a great idea. Son says that he would really like Kevin Kline if only he hadn’t seen A Fish Called Wanda.

Twenty years ago, The Truman Show was a really original concept. Now, after years of reality shows and social media timelines, we are actually living the story and the issues it raises seem almost quaint. Hubby agrees. It is still really good and, geez, Jim Carrey deserves some credit for his dramatic work too! Jim is an orphan who is raised on camera, 24/7/365. He does not know that everything around him is staged and filmed. After enough inexplicable phenomena occur and an unscripted love interest distracts him, he goes on a quest to discover the truth about his world. ***Spoiler alert*** it’s upsetting. Son thinks watching him discover the truth is the most interesting part. Daughter likes that he tries to pin together pictures of faces to make a composite portrait of the girl he likes and she says, “it is a good idea for a show because his behavior would be more real than an actor, but it isn’t fair to lock someone up.” Once again, truth. Hubby also likes the theme of not conforming to stereotype, and I like it when someone includes what I want to write about in the movie synopsis.

Apollo 13 is based on the real life failure of the Apollo 13 NASA mission or, as hubby put it, 3 men in a trash can in space. It doesn’t sound like it would be good, but it is one of my favorite movies- I love watching how they solved problems with logic and reasoning. Another novel concept! Hubby also said that it was sad no one was excited about the mission until they thought the astronauts might die, but that’s mainstream media for you. The kids say that it was tense because one thing after another goes wrong, so it keeps you on the edge of your seat. The time-specific fashion is great too!

Neither hubby, nor I, nor other Americans our age learned much about American history past World War II, so Forrest Gump serves as an odyssey through the second half of the 20th century. Music is great, all the actors are great (but here we have the age difference between men and women again- Sally Field is only 10 years older than Tom Hanks who is 10 years older than Robin Penn), and the story is heartwarming and sad. Hubby says the message is to “keep it simple,” by which I think he means appreciate the small things in life. I think it is more about noticing the people inhabiting the great events of history. No one human could have done all the things he did, but so often we ignore people, or ignore their humanity and just focus on the significance. Son hates seeing people doing drugs in movies, but once he gets over that, he thinks this is a good movie. Daughter noticed something that I hadn’t noticed before- as Forrest tells his story to random strangers on the bus stop bench, it is the first time in his life that people have really listened to him, especially strangers. Also, he doesn’t care who the other person is, as long as he has someone to share his story (and his chocolate) with.

I love La Bamba. This movie tells the story of Ritchie Valens- who died in a plane crash alongside Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper. Wiki says that his music career was only 8 months old, which is a real tragedy because the song is awesome. Hubby says that his rise and fall breaks your heart every time. Son says he likes the scenes where they are playing music, but not the scenes where the brother is drunk. He also remembers that at the start of this viewing, hubby was talking about how great the brother was (he had forgotten basically everything about the brother). Daughter says she liked the movie and wants everyone to know that she can play the song on the piano.

In each of these movies, the potential of the main character is doubted or demeaned by people who believe that their youth, gender, class, or past constricts the respect they deserve. Some might have even been called “Kiddo.”

This is for Dr. Jill Biden.

Fuck the random dude who believes “First Lady” is a more respectable title than an earned academic degree- inherently, “First Lady” is something the entitled did not themselves achieve. Frankly, it is time to drop the title completely- if we want the presidency to expand in order to hold the fullness of human expression, we need to be able to have unmarried Presidents (for shame!), LGBTQ Presidents (the outrage!), and, maybe someday (maybe if we finally earn enough “real” degrees, temper our shrill voices, bake the right kind of cookies, and find the right hairstyle/ pantsuit/ glasses to be good enough) a woman President. None of these scenarios support the use of the title “First Lady”. Still, when these outcomes do finally occur, I hope these spouses/ partners aren’t held to the same standard that all First Ladies have been held to- look pretty, have a pristine past, and shut the fuck up.

Better yet, let’s stop caring who people share their beds and their lives with. Let’s stop caring whether people are conforming to the roles we believe they should play. Let’s stop changing the goal posts for success when women and people of color start scoring. And, for goodness sake, let’s stop paying attention to what mediocre white men say about things that they have no business commenting on.