This movie by Michael and Mark Polish has just premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. I don’t know when it will be in general release, but it’s definitely worth seeing. It has a great cast, including Chevy Chase, Dee Wallace, Michael Gross, and Jon Cryer who, while not the stars, make Stay Cool a lot of fun.
Mark Polish stars as Henry McCarthy, a successful author who is invited to deliver the commencement address at his high school. Henry arrives in his southern California hometown and is greeted by his high school buddies, played quite amusingly by Sean Astin and Josh Holloway. While staying at his parents’ house, Henry reverts to his teenage self. This transformation is aided by the fact that his bedroom has not changed a bit from his high school days (including the Led Zeppelin poster). Henry’s luggage has been lost, so he is forced to wear clothes from his closet-all 20 years old. His parents urge him to eat his vegetables and yell at him about late night phone calls.
At the urging of his friends, Henry calls Scarlet (Winona Ryder), a girl he had a crush on in high school. And thus begins Henry’s adventures. This movie is lots of fun, but also has a serious tone. Chevy Chase is a hoot as Principal Marshall who actually suspends Henry from school for fighting. Henry gets involved in Scarlet’s life and its troubles. He also meets some high school seniors, including Hilary Duff as Shasta, who develops a crush on Henry and invites him to prom.
Stay Cool is fun, but has a serious side. It’s definitely worth seeing. Despite the great cast, I don’t know what kind of publicity budget this movie has. It doesn’t even has its own website, which seems to be standard these days. You may have stay on top of things to catch this in theaters, but it will be worth the effort.
I’m actually surprised that I enjoyed this movie a great deal! Zac Efron plays the 17 year old version of Mike O’Donnell (Matthew Perry). With the help of a mysterious janitor, a black American Express card and an adult’s knowledge of life, Mike gets to return to high school.
Mike gets to see what is really going on in his kids’ lives. He is certainly not happy about any of it. Mike is determined to change the paths that his kids are on, while getting back to his adult self.
17 Again was a lot of fun. Zac Efron doesn’t take it all too seriously. The movie makes its point in a humorous, light-hearted way. So-go see it, and have fun.
17 Again: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
This original HBO film is quite amazing. The story of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Edith Beale, continues to attract attention, decade after decade. In 1975, Albert and David Maysles premiered their documentary about these two women who were relatives of Jackie Kennedy. They lived together for decades in Grey Gardens, a once elegant East Hampton estate. Without money to maintain the house, the Beale’s allowed it to fall into disrepair rather than sell. There were holes in the roof; no utilities; the house was overrun with cats and raccoons.
Grey Gardens recreates the earlier lives of the Beales, starting in 1936. Despite the Great Depression, the wealthy Beale family maintained an extravagant lifestyle. “Little Edie” (Drew Barrymore) had ambitions of being a singer/dancer/actress. Her father’s ambition for her was to make a good marriage. When her father(played by Ken Howard) refused to further subsidize her life in New York City, she was forced to return to Grey Gardens to live with her mother. Thus began the intense relationship between the two women. When Mr. Beale died, he left most of his money to his second wife, leaving Big Edie and Little Edie in poverty.
The Beales attracted a great deal of attention in 1971 when the Suffolk County Health Department inspected the house, and began the condemnation process. Jackie Kennedy, then married to Aristotle Onassis, provided the funds to make the house habitable.
Grey Gardens does a great job of showing the lives of these two women. It is never condescending or ironic, but always respectful. Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore demonstrate the full range of their acting abilities. I’m sure HBO will be showing Grey Gardens many times, so you should have plenty of opportunities to see it. I highly recommend that you do so!
Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures
This novel by Charlotte Bacon had the potential to be quite good. Unfortunately, it was quite dreary. Split Estate is the story of Arthur King and his family. Arthur is an attorney; he and his family live in New York City. One day, while Arthur is at work and his children are at school, his wife commits suicide by jumping out the window of their tenth floor apartment.
Unable to cope with New York, and constantly reminded of his wife’s death, Arthur moves his teenage children to the small Wyoming town where he grew up. They move in with his widowed mother. The children work at summer jobs, and experience typical adolescent growing pains.
It is all uninspiring and cliche-ridden. There are tensions in the town between the old ranchers and the mining interests. “Split estate”is a legal term which indicates a divided ownership of property: i.e. ownership of the ground vs. ownership of mineral rights. The most interesting part of this novel is the description of the Wyoming landscape. The people are shallow and boring.
This book was sent to me by Picador through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program. I don’t like throwing books out-I’ll gladly send it to the first person who contacts me requesting it.
In USA:
Published in hardcover-Farrar, Straus & Giroux-2008
Softcover edition-Picador-2008
Split Estate: A Novel
Nadine Gordimer is one of the pre-eminent writers of our time. She has published at least 30 novels. At the age of 85, she is still writing. Her style is spare and detached. We are not overloaded with unnecessary details, and are not manipulated to feel the emotions the writer deems important. The Pickup remains true to Gordimer’s unique style.
Gordimer has lived her entire life in South Africa: before, and during, the era of apartheid, and afterwards. The shadow of those years continues to affect all the characters and their personal interactions.
In The Pickup a young woman named Julie has car trouble. She becomes involved with the mechanic from the garage. He is an Arab Muslim, from a poor country in Africa which is never named. As an illegal immigrant to South Africa, he uses an assumed name and tries to live under the radar. Julie is from a wealthy “European” (aka white) family. As the relationship between Julie and Abdu develops, he becomes more noticed in the community. Eventually, he received a notice that he is to be deported.
We learn much more about Julie and her family as she attempts to use her connections to allow Abdu to stay in the country. When she is unsuccessful, they marry quickly and she returns with him to his country. As Julie adjusts to life in a poor Arab village on the edge of the desert, Abdu tries to obtain visas to emigrate legally to any developed nation.
This novel is beautifully written. It subtly raises a number of issues that important in the world today, without hitting us over the head with gory details or solutions to those problems. Once again, a great effort from a fine writer.
In USA:
Published in hardcover-Farrar, Straus & Giroux-2001
Softcover edition-Penguin Books-2002
The Pickup
Finally finished!
Some books were good, others so-so. See the blog for detailed reviews. I’m surprised how difficult it was for me to find books to read. I think I’ve previously read most of the books I was interested in. Here is a list of the ten books I read to complete the challenge:
Wild Swans-Jung Chang-British Book Award
The Gates of the Alamo-Stephen Harrigan-Spur Award
The Idea of Perfection-Kate Grenville-Orange Prize
Mariner’s Compass-Earlene Fowler-Agatha Award
Divisadero-Michael Ondaatje-Governor General’s Award
The Mandelbaum Gate-Muriel Spark-James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Get a Life-Nadine Gordimer-Nobel Prize
Finding Nouf-Zoe Ferraris-Alex Award
Homestead-Rosina Lippi-PEN/Hemingway Award
Years of Grace-Margaret Ayer Barnes-Pulitzer Prize
This novel by Margaret Ayer Barnes is the final book I’ve read for the Book Awards Reading Challenge. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1931. I had never actually heard of Years of Grace, or its author. This was a totally delightful and readable book.
It tells the story of Jane Ward Carver. Jane is born to a wealthy Chicago family in the late 1800’s. Years of Grace follows the first fifty years of Jane’s life. She matures from schoolgirl, to debutante, to wife, mother and grandmother. As Jane grows, the world changes around her. Her husband fights in the Spanish American War; her son-in-law in World War I.
The story is told through Jane’s relationships with others. The sections of the book are titled with other people’s names. Jane is a proper young woman, whose life is determined by her parents’ wishes. When her parents disapprove of her first boyfriend, she is allowed to attend Bryn Mawr College for two years; then she must return home and become a proper debutante. When Jane does marry, she spends all her summers vacationing at the summer home of her in-laws. She maintains strong friendships with her childhood friends, and rarely ventures outside her social circle.
Jane is, however, a principled, passionate, intelligent woman. She struggles to reconcile her feelings with her familial and social obligations. Jane is, of course, perplexed by the behavior of her children as they grow older.
This novel is especially interesting in its depiction of a vanished time. It is beautifully written, and I highly recommend it.
In USA:
Published in hardcover-Houghton Mifflin-1930
Years of Grace
