The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 16, 2010

First off, I need to thank a very helpful person on Twitter for an obvious lead for many films that are not available on Netflix.  Much gratitude and more. I don’t know how normal it is for someone of my generation to grow up knowing who Leopold Stokowski was or...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 15, 2010

Here’s a quick tip: To get the most out of this film, do not read any sort of quick biography on Emile Zola.  All you need to know for backup is that he was a writer in France speaking out against oppression in government and society.  The film should do...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 14, 2010

Before inventions like reality tv and Youtube, Hollywood hopefuls would have to pack up and actually move to Hollywood to have any chance at stardom.  With the aid and well wishes from her grandmother, Esther Victoria Blogett (Janet Gaynor) ventures to Hollywood, convinced that she can become a grea   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 13, 2010

The film opens with Jerry (Cary Grant) lying to his wife, Lucy (Irene Dunne) about being in Florida.  At the same time, it seems that Lucy was out all night on the town with her handsome singing teacher.  Though both are innocent, they accuse each other of cheating and sort...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 12, 2010

In revolution torn China, Robert Conway (Ronald Colman) is in charge of getting foreigners out of China before they get hurt.  He, his brother George (John Howard), a paleontologist, an American girl and a few others get on the last plane without a moment to spare.  Mid-flight, they realize the...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 11, 2010

A boarding house is full of young actresses hoping to be discovered on Broadway.  Daily they talk of the rehearsals they were in, the parts they lost and nearly got not with jaded pessimism, but sarcastic hope.  When Terry Randall (Katharine Hepburn) walks in looking very high class with too...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 11, 2010

The legend in Chicago goes that it was one of Mrs. O’Leary’s cows that started the great Chicago fire in 1871.  This film gives a little more history and drama to that infamous family. We meet the O’Leary’s in a covered wagon heading toward Chicago.  The young boys get excite   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 10, 2010

Everyone wants their children to have a life better than their own.  That’s no different for Wang Lung (Paul Muni) a poor farmer who tends the fields with his aging father.  Wang is the only survivor of six sons and is about to get a wife.  We watch as he...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 9, 2010

Alright, it’s a little embarrassing to admit, but this is my nostalgia film.  Titanic was the biggest box office film of my adolescence and at twelve years old, if you didn’t see Titanic you weren’t cool.  As I prepared myself to re-watch what blew my mind twelve years ago, I...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 8, 2010

“Life is good in Los Angeles, it’s paradise on Earth.  That’s what they tell you, anyway.” LA Confidential focuses on three very different cops.  Bud White (Russell Crowe) is a tough guy, used mostly to persuade suspects to talk and has a soft spot for wronged women.  They&   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 7, 2010

My husband did not want to watch The Full Monty with me.  I think he imagined it to be filled with naked men running around shaking their goods with a British accent.  He watched the entire film with me and hardly had a fit, but he won’t admit to liking...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 6, 2010

Melvin (Jack Nicholson) is an obsessive-compulsive writer.  His medicine cabinet is stocked with soap, he cannot step on cracks in the sidewalk and at his breakfast restaurant has to eat at the same table, with his own plastic cutlery and be served by the same waitress (Helen Hunt).  It’s not...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 5, 2010

Will (Matt Damon) is a young man with hidden genius, but no motivation or direction in life.  He grew up as an orphan in southern Boston, works as a janitor at MIT and hangs around with a gang of punk Boston boys (including Ben Affleck) who beat up their old...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 4, 2010

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  Huh, sounds like a dare.  When this film first came to theaters, it was accompanied by the MPAA tag: “No one under 18 will be admitted unless accompanied by his parent.”  That make is a double-dog dare, but really, it’s triple and for the b   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 3, 2010

So nice they named it twice. With no ill intentions, a Russian submarine accidentally runs aground on a New England island.  Rather than radio in with an embarrassing international blunder, the captain sends nine of his men, two who speak English, ashore to find a way to free the sub....   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 2, 2010

The story is a little brush-up on English history.  In the sixteenth century, King Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine, so he could marry Ann Boleyn.  His reasoning (besides being England’s grand playboy) was so he could produce a son, an heir to the throne.  But with the...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on June 1, 2010

This is the precautionary tale of the swinger’s life.  Alfie has multiple girlfriends all the time, maybe as many as twelve at once and some are married.  He’s pretty good at scheduling his time around all of them and never getting caught (I doubt that would matter anyway), but when   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on May 31, 2010

For Jake Holman, nothing really works out, no matter how hard he tries.  He’s the newest crew member on the San Pablo, nicknamed by the crew as The Sand Pebbles, patrolling the interior of China in 1926.  Holman is used to being head engineer and working hard to keep the...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on May 30, 2010

The film begins with Mrs. Miniver (Greer Garson)on her way home in the crowded city and at the last minute, she hurries back to the hat shop to get a beautiful hat that is probably more expensive than she should allow herself to purchase.  At the same time, her husband...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on May 29, 2010

The story of Lou Gerhig has been an inspiration for generations now, athletes or not.  As a boy, he aspired to become an engineer, just like his German immigrant mother wanted.  He grew older, went to Columbia and worked toward that goal, but baseball was always an option.  He turned...   read more