My Favorite Wedding Movies

In honor of my friend Cassy who got married this week (Congratulations!) I’ve compiled my list of favorite wedding movies. Keeping it down to just five was pretty hard. Away we go…

Rachel Getting Married
If you haven’t seen it: Kym (Anne Hathaway) is a recovering drug addict who has been away in rehab for nine months and is released home for the weekend for her sister Rachel’s wedding.
Why you need to rent it: This is film making at it’s rawest. I mean it has a big name main character and an established director (Jonathan Demme, The Silence of the Lambs), but what’s raw about the film is that like In America you feel like you’re looking through the window of this family’s house. By the end of the film I really wanted to be a guest at Rachel’s wedding, throughout all the craziness of wedding planning and family wounds, the love that these characters feel for one another just jumps off the screen and you feel it too, there’s not really a way for me to articulate it better than that. But as I’ve recommended this film to dozens of video store customers they’ve come back agreeing with me.

In Her Shoes
If you haven’t seen it: Rose (Toni Collette, “The United States of Tara) and Maggie (Cameron Diaz) are the two most different sisters you could ever find. The only thing that they agree on is their shoe size. One is thin and one is heavy, one is a serious lawyer and the other is illiterate, one is promiscuous…you get the idea. After a fight that’s been percolating for years Maggie leaves Rose and finds their long lost grandmother (Shirley MacClaine). At the same time, Rose finally being free from taking care of her younger sister falls in love and has one of the cutest backyard weddings you could ever want to see.
Why you need to rent it: Any woman with a sister or an extremely close friend understands the saying “I love you, but I don’t like you right now”. Well, that’s Rose and Maggie’s relationship pretty much throughout the whole movie. It’s a great chick flick about growing up and coming into your own (even when you’re already an adult).

Sweet Home Alabama
If you haven’t seen it: Well it came out in 2002 and was a blockbuster, so odds are you have seen it, but just in case…Melanie is a NYC based fashion designer engaged to the son of a politician (Patrick Dempsey, “Grey’s Anatomy”), her life is near perfect until she realizes that she’s still married to her high school sweetheart (Josh Lucas, Glory Road). What’s an engaged but married girl to do, go home to Alabama and get a divorce. Complications ensue when realizes that maybe she ran away from the wrong things.
Why I Love this Movie: Not to spill too many secrets in the very off chance that you’ve yet to watch it, but there are TWO great wedding scenes in this movie, on top of it being an adorable rom-com. Candice Bergen (Miss Congeniality ) is yet again great as the lady trying to ruin everyone’s fun. And if you like movies with crazy small town characters, you won’t be disappointed.

My Best Friend’s Wedding
If you haven’t seen it: If you’ve turned on TBS once in the last ten years then you’ve probably seen at least a few minutes of my favorite Julia Roberts movie (sorry Jon). Just to set it up, Jules (Julia Roberts) realizes that she is in love with her male best friend (Dermot Mulroney, The Family Stone) just as he gets engaged to the sticky sweet, twenty one year old, heiress Kimberly (Cameron Diaz). Jules heads the wedding with the intention of winning the groom and gets caught up in some drama of her own when her gay best friend (Rupert Everett, The Next Best Thing), shows up posing as her fiancé.
Why I Love this Movie: In my pinion comedy is Diaz’s strong suit (There’s Something About Mary anyone?) and I wish she did more of this. You go into the movie expecting that her character is going to be just awful, but she turns out to be sincerely wonderful and the whole movie I’m wondering if I really want Roberts to break up the marriage. It’s refreshing, because in most rom-com’s you’re rooting for only one character who is so clearly right for the protagonist, but in this movie you could really see him with both of the girls, conflict people, it works. Also, Everett is always really funny, but as George, Jules’ BFF he’s so charming, so much that I wish that he wasn’t gay and that they could end up together!

Father of the Bride
If you haven’t seen it: George (Steve Martin) has an ideal life, great career, great family, GREAT house. He and his wife (Diane Keaton) have a pre-teen son Matt (Kieran Culkin, Igby Goes Down) and an aspiring architect daughter Annie (Kimberly Williams Paisley, “According to Jim”). But when Annie brings home her fiancé from Italy instead of just a souvenir, all things in George’s life get turned upside down. Especially, as Annie and her mother begin planning a big fabulous wedding, all to take place in George’s house. So not only is he losing his daughter, but his home, most of what’s in his wallet, and his sanity.
Why I Love This Movie: Well, I always love Keaton and Steve Martin, they’re just great together in this and the sequel. I also love that she is age appropriate for him, something that you don’t see in movies all the time, if they remade this today I wouldn’t be surprised if…Eva Longoria Parker, let’s say was cast as the wife instead of someone in Martin’s own age group. So, the family dynamic works great, you get the Banks family as a unit.
Steve Martin is so fantastic as a man on the edge, really just trying to hold together everything he’s got when he feels life he’s losing the most important thing in his life, his daughter.
Martin Short is also great as the European wedding coordinator who is just one half of the team trying to ruin George’s life. Short is also hysterical in the sequel as the baby shower planner/ home decorator/ aerobics coach.
So if you haven’t seen it (which seems implausible) rent it (and the sequel, Father of the Bride Part II) or look them up for when they’re next playing on TBS (they usually run back to back), it’s sweet and light an always funny.

My Favorite Summer Movies

So today is a petty dreary day here at the shore, lots and lots or rain. I’m longing for a nice dry summer day or at least top watch a movie where one is shown.
The Notebook
: I hadn’t watched the notebook in about three years until last week. There was just a little too much Notebook over kill for me. The three years that I spent living in dorms just about every girl on my floor owned the dvd and I was definitely envied because I had the movie theatre size poster framed in my room. So, last week thinking about summer and love and whatever I put it in and realized that this movie is so loved, because it’s great. Okay so you’re saying, "The Notebook is a summer movie?" It sure is! At the heart of the story is the environment that allowed Allie (Rachel McAdams) and Noah (Ryan Gosling) to find each other despite their very different worlds. PS:
I read today on PerezHilton.com that actress/singer/songwriter Bethany Joy Galeotti (a.k.a. Haley from "One Tree Hill") is casting a musical theatre version of The Notebook in North Carolina (where "OTH" is filmed). She’s a great artist, but the musical versions of Legally Blonde and The Wedding singer (both equally as big as Notebook in their own rights) didn’t last very long on Broadway in even better economic times. But we’ll hope for the best…
Now and Then
: I’ve had "Knock three times on the ceiling if you want me…" stuck in my head for about two weeks and I can’t get my hand on a copy of Now and Then and it’s driving me nuts. Now and Then is about a lot of different things, old friends, coming of age, the 60’s, but like The Notebook the environment of summer allows all of these themes to come to ahead.
I grew up an only child in a quiet street during a time when kids didn’t really knock in their friends doors without "play dates" and I at times longed to grow up in a huge development like my Mom and her four siblings did during the 50’s and 60’s. I wasn’t there (clearly) when my Mom was growing up, but Now and Then definitely captures the essence of her stories.
If you haven’t seen it:
Now and Then is about four best friends (the younger versions of Melanie Griffith, Rose O’Donnell, Demi Moore, and Rita Wilson) and the adventures that they have during the last summer before their relationships changed. Now and Then features a ghost story/murder mystery and a great soundtrack, but most importantly, a story that anyone whose left home and returned can easily relate to. As I sit looking at the pictures on my desk of myself with my three best friends since middle school, I really understand the core of this movie, that once you find people that get you, even though you may change or get separated over time, that those people will always be a part of you. So if you haven’t seen it, watch it and if you have seen it, re-watch it then call (don’t text) your best friend (then lend me your dvd).

Favorite Music Scenes in Movies

Chatting over a pile of Disco Fries at my local Jersey diner tonight everything was business as usual until one of my favorite songs "Do You Believe in Magic" came on the radio. Sitting, not talking for the duration of the song I realized that one of the greatest uses of music in movies is of this song in In America. This realization made me think of my other favorite songs in movies. Away we go…
"Do You Believe in Magic" by the Lovin’ Spoonful seen In America
Why this scene is great:
I think if a scene gives you chills up and down your body it’s special, right? To set up this scene: An Irish family is emigrating to New York after the loss of one of their children and to chase their father’s dream, they’ve pretty much given up everything. You feel so sad for them, until they hit the tunnel and "Do You Believe in Magic" comes on the radio. As they come through the tunnel and into the heart of Manhattan their two little girls Ariel and Christie bounce around to all the walks of life and the city and you feel like this is really the first time that this family has felt any joy in a long while. I’ve lived outside the city my whole life, gone through the tunnel what feels like a thousand times and I never lose that sense of wonder when I enter Manhattan. It’s amazing, but I’ve never felt a that a scene captured an emotion that I’ve experienced like Jim Sheridan did with this scene. Why you need to watch this movie (or watch it again):
Well if the above wasn’t enough, let me elaborate on the performances of the sisters Ariel and Christy (real life sisters Emma and Sarah Bolger). These little girls are simply enchanting. Their performances weren’t pretentious or forced, they’re naturals, they made you feel like you were looking through that magic window into this family’s Hell’s Kitchen apartment. Sarah Bolger is already starring in "The Tudors" as Princess Mary and Emma Bolger has appeared in some Irish films since In America. Once you watch them in this, you will want to see everything they’re in. "Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel seen in Say Anything…
I just got done watching Pushing Tin and realized that John Cusack where’s a trench coat in just about every movie he’s made (seriously, The Ice Harvest, America’s Sweethearts, Serendipity…you get the idea), but probably his most famous trench coast scene is "the boom box scene" from Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything.
If you haven’t seen it:
Llyod (Cusack) is hopelessly in love with Diane (Ione Skye), but because of complications out of his control Diane has broken up with him, "I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen". As a last attempt to win her back Lloyd stands outside her room for what seems like forever blasting Gabriel’s fantastic 80’s ballad and holding a boom box above his head. If you’ve been in a girl’s dorm in the last five years then I’m sure you’ve seen this poster hanging up at least once (especially if you’ve been in my room). Why this movie works:
John Cusack! If you like him now has a bumbling, love sick 40 something than just wait ‘til you seem him as a love sick 18 year old, priceless. I think this movie has become such a cult favorite, especially among teenage girls because Lloyd does and says and means the things that most girls wish most guys would do and say and mean. PS:
Premiere Magazine rated Cusack’s performance of Lloyd as the 72nd best film performance of all time. PPS:
"Your Eyes" wasn’t playing when they filmed the scene, a song by the band Fishbone was. "The Scientist" by Coldplay seen in Wicker Park
Why this scene is great:
Matthew (Josh Hartnett) has spent the entire movie obsessing over his ex girlfriend Lisa (Diane Kruger). There’s plenty of lying, mistaken identity, and general deception to make the movie last almost two hours. But all of that is okay, because when Matt gets to the airport and sees Lisa standing there…well it’s one of my favorite romantic moments in the movies. Then "The Scientist" comes on and you really need some tissues. Matt stands behind Lisa until she finally senses someone is there behind her and turns around. Then they both cry and "The Scientist" plays and no words are spoken. "Show, don’t tell" is what a former English teacher of mine always used to say and it’s so true. Great dialogue is very important, but sometimes a simple scene enhanced by the right song is just so much more powerful. "The Only Living Boy in New York" by Simon and Garfunkel seen in Garden State
If you haven’t seen it:
Andrew (Zach Braff, "Scrubs") has just come home to Jersey after being in LA for ten years to attend his mom’s funeral. Andrew is an actor with some minute success, but has stopped for a while as he’s depressed, well near catatonic, so the whole mom dying suddenly thing ought to help. So, Andrew comes home, refuses to takes his antidepressants, gets together with his grave robbing, drug using buddies from high school and meets a zany girl named Sam (Natalie Portman, V for Vendetta). Why this scene is great:
Like in Wicker Park you can feel the characters’ emotions without a single word of dialogue. Andrew, Sam, and Mark (Per Sarsgaard, Orphan) have just ended a treasure hunt at the bottom of a gigantic quarry and as they’re leaving Andrew climbs up onto a piece of machinery and screams at the top of his lungs into the empty gorge. Sam follows him with intensity like I’ve never seen an actor portray (Roger Ebert said Portman deserved at least an Oscar nomination for this role and I agree). From the opening shot of Garden State it’s obvious that Andrew is desperate, but that scene coupled with the haunting music of Simon and Garfunkel and the torrential rain, just really works, you feel Andrew’s emotions radiating off the screen. "Hey Jude" by The Beatles seen in Across the Universe
Why this scene is great:
The movie is dedicated solely to music by The Beatles and the main character is called Jude (Jim Sturgess), so you know it’s coming, but it takes so long to get there that you think "Maybe not". But the best really is saved for last (or second to last) in this case, because "Hey Jude" in Across the Universe makes my list (obviously). Jude is pretty down in the dumps, he’s lost his girl (Evan Rachel Wood), his best friend (Joe Anderson) is in Vietnam, and he’s been deported back to Liverpool from NYC and he’s wallowing in a pub when movie magic brings his best friend right to his side telling him, "Hey Jude, you were made to go out and get her". I love this whole movie, but I picked this scene not only for its general awesomeness and because it spans from Liverpool to the shores of New York, but because it feels so (for lack of a better word) organic. Jude leaves the pub and suddenly seemingly everyone who’s ever known him is standing in the streets singing to him, motivating him so much that indeed Jude does go out and get her. Why you need to watch this movie (or watch it again):
A lot of my friends haven’t watched this because they don’t like musicals or they don’t really know The Beatles. Don’t worry, you don’t need like/know either of the former in order to love this movie. It’s not your grandmother’s musical, it feels real, the lyrics are just dialogue enhanced and it’s not about The Beatles, so you don’t have to really know anything about them other than that they were from Liverpool just like Jude. And one last thing, if you’ve seen Mama Mia, don’t be afraid, the cast of Universe can actually sing. The cast with exception of Wood were virtual unknowns when it was released in ’07 and thus were hired for their capabilities and not their names, figure that.
And I can’t do a list about music in movies without including my favorite movie, about music Almost Famous…
If you haven’t seen it:
William Miller (Patrick Fugit, Wristcutters: A Love Story) is just your run of the mill super genius sixteen-year old high school senior when he gets hired (through a series of seemingly implausible but based on real life) events to go on tour with his favorite band as a reporter for Rolling Stone. He then falls in love with groupie Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) and chases the band all over the country trying to get an interview with lead singer Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup, The Good Shepherd). William comes of age during his tour with the band and also jeopardizes his entire future. Why I Love this Movie:
Basically, I’m a sucker for movies based on true events and for Crowe’s directorial style, put them together and it’s gold in my book, especially with one of the greatest movie soundtracks ever compiled. Writer/Director Cameron Crowe based this movie on when he in fact was a sixteen-year-old reporter for Rolling Stone sent to tour with The Allman Brothers Band. Some of the scenes in the film are almost unbelievable, but I’ve done plenty of reading up on Crowe and it’s those unbelievable scenes (like ending up catatonic in an airport and running into his sister he hadn’t seen in years) that are true. The character of Russell is based on Gregg Allman and Penny is based on two groupies whom Crowe fell in love with, Penny Trumble and Bebe Buell (mother of actress Liv Tyler, Lord of the Rings Trilogy). As great as the three leads in this film are, the supporting cast (including two Oscar winners) is even better. You have William’s control freak/uber liberal/professor/ widowed mom (Frances McDormand, Fargo), his runaway sister turned flight attendant (Zoey Deschanel, (500) Days of Summer), a band manager no one likes (Jimmy Fallon), a narcissistic lead singer (Jason Lee, "My Name Is Earl), and groupies Polexia Aphrodisia (Anna Paquin,"True Blood") & Saphire (Fairuza Balk, American History X).
If I started talking about individual songs in the film, we’d be here all day, just know that if you’ve never seen it and you like classic rock, it’s definitely worth your time.