Grey Gardens (times 3)

Last night I rented Grey Gardens, the recently released HBO film made-for-TV. However, Grey Gardens has been subject to many popular culture items since the original documentary came out in the 1970s.

For those who do not know, Grey Gardens is about Jackie Kennedy's aunt and first cousin, both named Edie, who lived a lavish life in their Hampton's estate Grey Gardens, before life caught up to the both of them and through various circumstances ended up recluses, alone in the house with only each other. Because of their limited funds (Big Edie ended up divorcing her daughter's father) and their refusal to leave the house, it became in major disrepair--all sorts of animals inhabited it, trash was everywhere, the health department eventually intervened and forced them to clean up the place that had no modern plumbing. So goes the story of the crazy mother and daughter, living alone in what was once a beautiful mansion.

A documentary in the 70s was made of the mother/daughter team, featuring their deepest thoughts and many song and dance performances, because both of them never quite gave up the notion that they were going to be famous some day for a singing or acting career.

I rented the documentary a few years ago, and although it is very dry, it does give an inside look into what these two, somewhat crazy people, thought they were doing with their lives. It is so sad: they were literally just degrading in that house, refusing to leave it.

The documentary was adapted into a Broadway musical a few years ago, and I got the opportunity to see it when my family and I went to New York. Christine Ebersole, who played Little Edie, was absolutely fabulous! She won the Tony for her role and had the perfect New York accent to play the part. It was a very good musical, but, as musicals go, it is not an easy task to get everything correct when performing with such limited means. It is amazing about how well is was adapted to music, as its score was also divine.

Now, over 30 years after the documentary appeared, we have HBO doing a straight movie about them, going back and forth from the life of luxury the Edie's led in the 20s and 30s, to the desolate state of Grey Gardens in the 1970s. It was a very good film, and I recommend it for renting. Drew Barrymore was amazing as Little Edie. She said she took voice lessons to get her voice and accent just right, and it sure paid off! Jessica Lange was also very good as Big Edie. It is amazing how much the two of them acted so much like the real people in the documentary.

Historical accuracy is something that always interests/concerns me after seeing a historical film. I have to say that the HBO movie did do a good job of staying true to the original story line. It added a lot in that the documentary and musical did not cover, which I think added a lot to the story as a whole.

Jackie Kennedy was the one who eventually intervened in the situation and payed over $30,000 to clean up the mansion. It was quite a tabloid scandal in those days: the elegant Jackie Kennedy and her not-so-elegant, crazy relatives. Jackie (played by the fabulous Jeanne Tripplehorn of Big Love) is also in the HBO film portraying her visit to her aunt and cousin, but I am not so sure the visit happened in real life.

The story itself, I think, can be emotional and relatable to anyone. Here are two strong women who once had it all and through a series of small steps, they lost everything they had and ended up living not that great of a life. They isolated themselves from everyone and lived in a dump. It really is such a social commentary.

Anyway, I would definitely recommend any one of the pieces discussed. They are a great piece of history.

Alice in Wonderland

New teaser trailer for the highly anticipated Alice in Wonderland movie was released this week. Looks like it'll be very interesting. Tim Burton always spins stuff his own way, and no one ever knows quite what the results will be. Personally, I've been a fan of some of Tim Burton's films (Sweeney Todd) and not a fan of others (hated his adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).

Still, I think this film has an interesting twist to it. Helena Boham Carter is a favorite of mine (and Burton's partner). She's playing the evil queen. She plays evil characters oh so well. And who could not love Johnny Depp decked out so he doesn't even look like himself as the mad hatter? Comes out in March 2010 and looking forward to it!

Academy Announces Major Change

I suppose it is only appropriate to begin my first official blog post by writing about the Academy of Arts of Science, who controls the biggest award show of the year, The Oscars: the best award show of the year. The Academy announced a few weeks ago that they would be changing the number of best picture nominees from five to 10. This news was greatly overshadowed by Michael Jackson's death, as was basically every other piece of news in those few days.

This is a very significant change. Doubling the number of nominees seems like a response from the Academy whose critics said that they were not including movies that deserved recognition, like The Dark Knight, which was critically acclaimed and had a huge budget, but was not greatly recognized by Oscar. This does open up the opportunity for more movies to be nominated, like blockbusters, animated and foreign films.

I think that this waters down the prestige of getting nominated for an Oscar, which really is an honor. The actual Oscar show is meant to make money, of course, and this could also be a marketing plan to get more people to watch the Oscars. If popular movies are nominated then surely more people will invest time to watch the three-hour long show.

However, just because movies have big budgets or do well at the box office does not justify this prestigious nomination. The Oscars are the ultimate celebration of the art of film and that should not be lost. It is also interesting that no other category was expanded, just the best picture category. In the Oscars first few years of existence, Oscar did nominate anywhere from eight to 12 films, so this change is historically accurate, which adds another layer of complexity to the date.

Time will only tell how this change will impact the award show and future Oscar shows to come.

The Wonderful World of Movies

Welcome to Hayley's World of Movies blog! If you know me then you can probably guess why I decided to start this blog--because I am utterly obsessed with film and the greater entertainment world, and the magic and art of film.

For those of you who don't know me, I am just a student and I will admit that I am not the most credible person to write a blog about film. However, for the record, I will say this--I am a journalism major at the University of Missouri and consider myself fairly decent at writing and reporting. I also invest much of my time (not to mention money) viewing movies, renting movies (Netflix is the world's greatest invention), reading about movies, watching movie trailers and keeping up the best I can with the greater entertainment world. I hope to be a member of the film world someday, although I am aware it may be a far-fetched dream. I do my best to self-educate myself on what movies are coming out and what my favorite movie stars are working on, so I would say I am somewhat knowledgeable about the movies industry.

Anyway, in this blog I hope to discuss what films I've seen, am looking forward to, etc. I'm also a self-proclaimed award show fanatic, so that will be an integral part of my blog, as will the greater entertainment world, although on a much smaller level. I am a little television obsessed as well, so that may come up in the blog eventually. Basically, this is a blog of my own creation and if people read it or don't then I do not care because at least my opinions on something I am passionate about will be out there for the world to see.

A bit about my movie taste: I do love the artsy, indie films, because I think those are important in life, and way too undervalued in population that consumes and keeps the entertainment industry alive and wealthy. I do enjoy the occasional blockbuster, romantic comedy (if they're well done) and dramas especially. People make fun of me because I do enjoy watching depressing movies, however upset they make me afterwards.

So, thanks for reading if you made it to the bottom. If you didn't, no hard feelings. Onto the wonderful world of movies...