The Center Seat

I've had three Netflix movies sitting on top of my TV for the last two or three months... I'm in that weird Netflixian stage in which you never really feel like seeing what you've got, but you feel guilty returning them, so you're in Netflix limbo. Who knows how long this would have lasted if Nuevo Man hadn't sat down last night and watched one with me?

Our selection was, as my oh-so-brilliant readers have probably figured out by now, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It's always been in that category of classic movies that I've wanted to get around to, but never did. And now I have. Yay me.

Anyway.

If you are in the tiniest minority of film geeks who don't know this, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest centers on the population of a ward at a state mental hospital, circa 1963. The head nurse, Ms. Ratched, pretty much runs the show, though she chooses to accomplish that through intimidation and humiliation. Let's face it: her charges are easy victims. A monkey wrench is thrown in the proverbial works when Randle McMurphy (a young Jack Nicholson... mmmmm) comes to live on the ward. He's an habitual trouble-maker, but his playful needling of Nurse Ratched becomes personal when he recognizes the tyrant behind her calm, sunny disposition.

As some of you know, in my real life I've worked in the human services field for about a decade, specifically with people with developmental disabilities. The story of Nurse Ratched and her ward sounds horrific, and in many ways unbelievable, but I was struck with how much I recognized a lot of the behavior in this film. Often, it happens when someone has worked with the population for too long (everyone tends to burn out eventually), but not everyone can see themselves doing it. It is so easy, especially after several years of dealing with troublesome personalities or irritating behaviors, to become passive aggressive and controlling.

Now don't get me wrong... I've never actually met a real-life Nurse Ratched. That's what prison cells are for. And I certainly don't condone it; emotional abuse is still abuse. But I was astounded at how well this aspect of institutional life was captured in this film.

On a lighter note, I really enjoyed:

1. young Christopher Lloyd
2. young Danny DeVito
3. the aforementioned young Jack Nicholson (he used to be a great actor!)

So now I'm hoping to get to my final two Netflix movies. On top of the TV set at the moment are The Proposition and The Deer Hunter. Any suggestions? ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.

Hey y'all. My good friend Pistola Whipped has graciously offered her rebuttal to my review of Baby Mama. (She liked it; I didn't.) Enjoy!

So, this is my attempt at a movie review and like everything I do, it’s outdated, irrelevant and probably misinformed. However, after reading Nayana’s review of Baby Mama, I felt it my responsibility to the non-douchebag moviegoers of the blog-a-go-go to offer a different perspective on a movie Nayana panned. In fact, I think she may have liked the douchebag sitting next to her, or behind her better than she did Baby Mama.

Lemme say right now that I had no real strong desire to watch Baby Mama. Judging from the previews, I thought it would be another pre-fab SNL skit-to-big-screen attempt, rife with piss-poor jokes, obvious product placement and the dreaded Lorne Michael cameo. And in all honesty, it was those things, except I don’t know if Tina Fey and Amy Poehler ever specifically created a skit for SNL with the Baby Mama motif. It does seem that all the bouncing one-liners and sardonic grins off each other during the past few years of "Weekend Update" was enough energy to spark a light bulb in a GE head upstairs. And poof: those bitches got themselves a movie deal. And not only that, but they got to laugh, look good and hang out in their hometown of Philadelphia while fulfilling it.

I laughed aloud a lot at this movie. I thought it was clever, touching and funny. Tina Fey played her character with humility and practicality, which gave cinematic vets Steve Martin and Sigourney Weaver a chance to play totally offbeat, freaky characters. Greg Kinnear shone in his granola-y, anti-big business, pro-neighborhood role. I don’t know many big-budget, multi-millionaire actors who could pull off the irony of his part. And I’m no fan of Dax Shepherd, but I didn’t really have to be, since he played the a-hole in this movie, and he played it well. I was most surprised by how much I loved Amy Poehler. She was lovably neurotic, fiercely loyal, and even though she was deceitful and felonious, I still wanted her and Tina to be best friends!

So, if dumb, overplayed, stereotypical SNL movies don’t trip your trigger, then I’m not going to try and change your mind. And this movie won’t either. However, I don’t doubt for a second that Fey and Poehler, smarty-pants that they are, view Baby Mama as a way to bust into Hollywood/the men’s locker room so they can brand their comedy and make movies on their own terms. They have honed their trade, and if you can take out the airbrushed cheekbones, plays on stereotypes, and hole-filled plot, Baby Mama is like watching "Weekend Update" for an hour and a half, with some interesting people stopping by. ...Click here for the rest of this tasty post.