Urban Mama

John Hughes: A Tribute

Writer-director-producer John Hughes died this morning in Manhattan at the relatively young age of 59. Although he had not helmed a film since 1991 (he continued to write and produce, however), he was the unparalleled master of '80s teen flicks. Six of the eight movies he directed (Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, She's Having a Baby, Uncle Buck) remain among my favorite films of tweenhood.

I never quite understood why he stopped directing after Curly Sue, although he continued to write and produce many TV and film projects. It was as if the '90s swept in and washed away his directorial creativity. Now that I'm a professional movie reviewer, I often see an adolescent-targeted movie and long for the Hughes movies of my youth.

Part of Hughes' legacy, in my opinion, is that so many people mistakenly think he directed all of the teen-oriented '80s movies like Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful, both of which he wrote but Howard Deutch directed.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Hughes' movies. I'd love to see yours.

John Bender: "Oh God, you richies are so smart, that's exactly why I'm not heavy into activities."

John Bender: "My impression of life at Big Bri's house, "Son?" "Yeah, Dad?" "How was your day, son?" "Great, Dad. How's yours?" "Super. Say, how would like to go fishing this weekend?" "Great, Dad. But I got homework to do." "That's okay, son. You can do it on the boat." "Gee." "Hon, isn't our son swell?" "Yes, dear. Isn't life swell?""

Andrew: "Just me. Just you and me. Two hits. Me hitting you. You hitting the floor. Anytime you're ready, pal."

John Bender: "Sweets. You couldn't ignore me if you tried. So... so. Are you guys like boyfriend-girlfriend? Steady dates? Lovers? Come on, sporto, level with me. Do you slip her the hot beef injection?"

Principal Rooney: "I did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave my cheese out in the wind."

Ferris: "Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

Schoolgirl: "Um, he's sick. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious."

Jeannie: "Look, it's real nice that you hope my brother is feeling better, but I'm in danger, okay? I am very cute, very alone and very protective of my body. I don't want it violated or killed, all right? I need help! Speaka de English?"

Ferris: "Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter. -Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, "I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me." Good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus. I'd still have to bum rides off people."

Grandma: "Oh Sam, let me take a look at you. Fred, she's gotten her boobies."

Jake: "Happy birthday, Samantha. Make a wish." Samantha: "Well, it already came true."

Pixar's Marital Advice

One of the things I loved most about UP was its opening sequence chronicling the friendship, romance, and marriage of Carl and Ellie. In just a few minutes Pixar's latest animated film captured the essence, the intimacy, the dreams deferred but not forgotten, of a long and loving marriage. Most of the sequence is wordless, and I couldn't hold back the tears by the end of it.

My husband and I were also best friends first. He was not my Edward*, my obsession-at-first-sight. He was my Ron, my Harry, my close-and-then-best friend I went to cafes, movies, plays, restaurants with all.of.the.time. When our romantic relationship finally began my sophomore year in college, we already knew all the secret-handshake stuff about each other -- like the fact my husband recoils from the film adaptation of Cabaret, because creepy Joel Grey in full-on Weimar costume and make-up freaked him out as a kid. (That's about all I can share without being considered a turncoat). 

In UP, life (mostly bills and other mundanities) gets in the way of Carl and Ellie's lifelong dream to visit remote Paradise Falls together. In my marriage, our own bills multiplied by our three loved-but-unexpected children have made it difficult for us to fulfill some of our dreams, to go on certain adventures (say, traveling extensively), but in the meantime, like Carl eventually realizes, we have had so many other adventures together. And no matter how long it takes, we'll make it to Paradise Falls one day. I know we will.

*Yeah, I read the Twilight books

Page to Screen

Ever since the Where the Wild Things Are trailer was released, I keep thinking about other film adaptations of my favorite children’s books. Those that got it right, like the sweet Bridge to Terabithia or the amazing Lord of the Rings trilogy are as good as a fan of those books could've hoped. Other adaptations have fallen short and made me wish they'd never been turned into movies in the first place.  

I know I'm not alone in wishing some children's books (and books in general) had been left alone, or at least for a better writer or director to reimagine. Adaptations offer a unique opportunity for us to talk to our children about the many differences between literature and film. The books that delight us can easily be movies that disappoint us; it's a valuable lesson for any media-savvy child to learn. 

Personally, I’m wishin’ and hopin’ Where the Wild Things Are is true in spirit, even if it isn’t (nor should it be) exactly like Maurice Sendak’s classic tale. From the little that the trailer depicts, Spike Jonze seems to have captured the story’s ethos without straying too far out there.  

This year also brings us the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was originally supposed to hit theaters last fall and is finally gracing the screen this July. And I know more than a few dazzled mothers, not to mention tweens, who are salivating for New Moon, which is currently filming and comes out in November. Both movies have a massive audience of die-hard (or should I say Twi-hard) fans who expect a faithful, mind-blowing adaptation.  

As excited as I am about all of the movies I've mentioned, I'm also a little nervous. I'm always a little bit anxious that my favorite lines or scenes won't make the cut or that an actor won't honor the beloved character he or she's playing. I know my nieces and nephews will be pretty devastated, for example, if the Volturi sequence in New Moon doesn't live up to their expectations. 

What are your favorite page-to-screen adaptations? Which books are you dying to see made into movies?

The Oscars as Family Bonding

Originally posted at DC Metro Moms

Some families rally around college and professional sports. You know the type. They're the families where everyone watches ESPN, reads SI and can recite obscure statistics about Heisman winners and NFL/NBA/MLB Hall of Famers. Not the family I grew up in, and most likely, not the family my husband and I are creating. We don't really have a "bag" (music, art, drama, camping, scouting, pets, etc.) that unites us all in a common passion or hobby. What my siblings and I (and to a lesser extent, our spouses) do have in common is a love of movies, and in particular of the Academy Awards.

Since my brothers and sister are all at least 10 years older than I, I was the rare 8-year-old who got to stay up late on Oscar Sunday to watch the telecast. Some of our family's favorite memories are of watching the awards together, a feat which has never been easy with us being spread all over the U.S. for most of our adult lives. There was the year my sister Diana yelled "Oh My God!" and nearly fell off of the sofa when she saw a tan, long-haired and gorgeous Daniel Day-Lewis accept his trophy for "My Left Foot." She was apparently expecting someone who looked, well, a little more like the Christy Brown in the film. And then in 1999, there was an audible collective gasp, leading to immediate phone calls, when "Shakespeare in Love" beat "Saving Private Ryan" for Best Picture. Six years later, my brother and sister called to rub it in that "Crash" had topped "Brokeback Mountain," a film they deemed overrated.

Yeah, we're an Oscars-loving bunch, even in years when I'm the only one who's seen more than two of the nominated films or performances. So, every year, for more than a decade, my three siblings, our step-sister and I have participated in a family Oscar pool. I should disclose here that I've written about entertainment for 10 years -- my entire professional career -- and yet for many years my sister would beat me at the pool. It's a "closed" pool for now -- all work and friend pools must be done on the side. I think even our spouses at one point wondered if they were invited to participate, and now they all do -- last year Richard, a brother-in-law, even won!

So while this Sunday may not be a big event in your home the way, say, Superbowl Sunday was, it definitely is to the 10 participants in our family pool. We predict in 3-4 years, when the oldest of our children are in their mid-teens, they'll want to chime in too. As for me, I'll make sure to get the kids down extra early, so I can sit down with all the print-outs of picks, keep my speakerphone nearby, and watch as "The Oscar Goes to...," well, perhaps Daniel Day-Lewis again. Only this time my sister's jaw won't drop.

Tearjerkers R Us

Last week, Washington Post movie critic Desson Thomson wrote about why we cry at the movies. He then wrote his personal top-10 of tearjerkers, adding that if you are going to watch them with him, you have to wear Wellingtons to keep your feet dry.

I don't cry at every single movie. That honor goes to my stepsister Patty and my old friend/former boss Angie, two women whose tears at a movie in no way reflect how they actually feel about the film. It's just a given they'll cry. But I do cry and occasionally weep in the darkness, holding my popcorn in one hand and my Kleenex in the other. Just ask director Terry George, who remembered me after a Toronto Film Festival screening of "Hotel Rwanda" as the "sobbing pregnant woman."

Having kids has made me even more apt to cry at a movie, and being pregnant -- it's just too easy. But since we're all friends here on Urban Mama, I figured it's time to disclose what our favorite tearjerkers are, so here are five of mine:

• "Glory": I'm not sure there was a dry eye at the theater when I saw this at age 13. The sight of ex-slave Denzel holding up the American flag and the incredibly moving score by James Horner instantly bring tears to these brown eyes.

• Terms of Endearment: Who cares if Debra Winger and Shirley Maclaine barely got along on the set? This is the ultimate mother-daughter film, and the heartbreaking scenes in the hospital are unbearably good.

• Cocoon: It's mostly a fun, happy story, but when Barnard realizes it's too late for the alien pool to help his beloved Rose, I lose it. This is the very first movie I remember crying at, and I think it's because I was so close to my live-in grandmother that I felt the beauty and the grief of a bunch of grandparents choosing to feel young forever.

• Testament: I'm sure many of you have never even heard of this movie, but I'll never forget seeing this post-nuclear drama on HBO. When Jane Alexander's protagonist bids farewell to her young child -- I can't even finish this sentence without tearing up!

• Charlotte's Web (1973): No disrespect to Julia Roberts and Dakota Fanning, but to me there will only be one Charlotte -- Debbie Reynolds. When she finishes her magnum opus, it's impossible not to shed many, many tears.

There are many more, so I invite you all to list your top-fives!

Lastly, congrats to Cin who had the winning comment number for the "It's a Wonderful Life" giveaway. Stay tuned for next week's holiday giveaway.

Holiday Giveaway: Week One

Each week until Christmas, I will be giving away a DVD to one lucky poster. Since I recently reviewed the holiday movie "Fred Claus," this week's prize is "It's a Wonderful Life." For a very obvious reason this title gets repackaged and reissued each holiday season, so there's no need for me to keep three copies of it on my shelves, or to be more precise, in my 25 bankers' boxes full of DVDs I have yet to unpack.

To enter the contest, you just have to share what your favorite holiday movie is and explain why you love it. The movie itself doesn't have to be Christmas-centric, just a movie that you and or your family love to see around the holidays, with a cup of hot cocoa in a bucket of popcorn. And before anyone brands me a bigot, I'd just like to say that all sorts of agnostic, atheist, non-Christian moviegoers love movies like "A Christmas Story" and "The Wizard of Oz." See, I even gave you two suggestions you can pick.

If you absolutely HATE holiday movies but still want a chance to win the DVD, then at least post the funniest "It's a Wonderful Life" spoof in film or television. There are dozens, from "The Simpsons" to "Married With Children."

I'll select the winner on Friday and send the DVD out early next week. Good luck!

A Mighty Heart

I saw an early screening for "A Mighty Heart" tonight and despite sometimes seeing Angelina Jolie more than her character Mariane Pearl, I thought it was a respectful, well-made docudrama about the horrifying weeks between Daniel Pearl's kidnapping and the confirmation of his death via a grisly video.

Like with "Titanic," "The Perfect Storm," (if I can make such crude comparisons) or to a certain extent most war movies, we know the cruel ending before the opening credits begin. But the narrative doesn't fail to be compelling, heartbreaking. Of course 9/11 left thousands of women (pregnant ones too) widows, but something about Mariane's circumstances, just a few months after the Twin Towers, are especially gut-wrenching.

I kept seeing the dates on the screen and realizing that I too was pregnant in January 2002. And I just can't imagine the pain of having my son not know his father, of having my husband die a bloody, senseless death, of replaying the last moment I casually said goodbye to my husband over and over again. Needless to say the film was incredibly intense. Angelina did a fine job -- with the accent, the on-screen pregnancy and the emotional depth the portrayal required. In the scene when reporters are hounding Mariane, the line between actress and role got very fuzzy. She didn't need to "act" to feel overwhelmed by the press.

The movie, by the way, is dedicated not to Danny (who is played by Dan Futterman) but to he and Mariane's son Adam, a name we're told he chose before he was abducted.

Munchies at "Madagascar"

Sunday the four of us went to a screening of "Madagascar." We thought it was the regular family screening for entertainment journalists and other media types. Wrong. It was the actual premiere! We got there and there was a VIP tent, red carpet, the whole shebang. When we got into the theater, there were free Krispy Kreme donuts, popcorn, soda and water bottles. We were sitting a few rows in front of Ben Stiller & Christine Taylor, who were right next to his parents Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara. David Schwimmer was also there, and he graciously signed autographs (not for me, though. I've interviewed enough celebrities that I'm not star struck by them) for about a dozen people before sitting down. The even bigger stars (Chris Rock, Will & Jada Pinkett-Smith) must've come in after the theater went dark.

D was amazing and slept in her sling nearly the entire movie. Toward the end, she woke up, nursed, and then went back to sleep. E was in heaven, what with the free popcorn and all. His father was also in heaven, because we escaped paying the exorbitant price of popcorn (plus, the man loves his Krispy Kremes). I was good and only ate a handful of popcorn before reminding myself I was on the South Beach Diet. After the movie, DreamWorks treated every child to a goodie bag filled with full-sized plush animals of the four main characters: Alex the lion (Stiller); Marty the zebra (Rock); Gloria the hippo (Pinkett-Smith) and Mehlman the hypochondriac giraffe (Schwimmer). E was so cute. He kept talking about the characters and wanted to show all of his preschool pals his new stuffed animals. The husband and I joked about our son being used by the studio's marketing executives to drive word-of-mouth for the movie. BUT, he really did like it, at least.

The movie, if you're wondering, was perfect for the preschool-2nd grade set. The Gen-X friendly soundtrack and cultural references made it fun for us too, but I'm not sure the 10-plus crowd is going to dig it. We loved the idea of a zebra having a mid-life crisis about living in the Central Park Zoo. On Marty's 10th birthday, he decides to escape the zoo and visit "the wild" (or at least Connecticut). He makes it to Grand Central before his three friends (most notably Alex the lion, the zoo's big star) figure out he's gone. They break out too to lure Marty back to the zoo, but the NYPD gets a bit freaked at the wild animals roaming around, so the City ends up shipping the animals to open animal reserves around the world. Some wacky penguins decide they want to turn the ship around and make it to Antarctica, but somehow Marty and his pals end up washed up on the shores of Madagascar. So if you have a younger kid who can sit still for 90 minutes, it's a fun family outing. If you have a tween, you're better off catching "The Revenge of the Sith."

Eternal Sunshine, Anyone?

It seems that no movie this year has gotten better reviews than "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," but I missed all of the free press screenings, because I was preparing for the big trip to Cali. Now I'm wondering whether I should pay a sitter for 3 hours to see it at the nearby arthouse. Let me first explain that I can claim my movie ticket as a legitimate business expense and get reimbursed my 10 bucks. BUT, going to the movies with the husband AND leaving the Schmoop with a paid sitter (as opposed to free sitters like my brother and his wife) makes the two-for-one special a lot less lucrative. Still, I'm willing to splurge for the occasional event or highly acclaimed flick. Sometimes the husband sacrifices himself on the altar of baby duty, so I can keep up with my colleagues. Anyhow, for those of you who have managed to see it -- is it worth the $24 babysitting tariff?

Golden Globes Predictions

So this has nothing to do with parenting, but I just wanted to get my Golden Globes predictions up before the award show starts in an hour. Here goes. Please keep in mind that this is who I think will win, not necessarily who I think deserves to win:

Best Motion Picture – Drama
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Wingnut Films; New Line Cinema

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
Charlize Theron, Monster

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
Sean Penn, Mystic River

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Lost in Translation
American Zoetrope/Elemental Films; Focus Features

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Diane Keaton, Something’s Gotta Give

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Renee Zellweger, Cold Mountain

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Tim Robbins, Mystic River

We'll see how wrong I am in a couple of hours. Happy Sunday everyone.