Movie of the Day: "A League of Their Own" (1992)

On deck today is one of my very favorites. It's the story of the 1940's All American Girl's Professional Baseball League, which was formed during WWII when the men were off at war, and it stars Geena Davis and Lori Petty as sisters with a deep and abiding sibling rivalry, who join the Rockford Peaches under the management of boozing ex-ball player Jimmy Dugan, played by Tom Hanks in one of his all time best performances (I'm not kidding, he should have won an Oscar for this). It's funny, the ensemble is great (including Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell), and it holds up today as unbelievably, still one of the very few sports movies of any kind to center around women (I think Bend it Like Beckham is probably the one other I can think of). Hollywood needs to do some work on that, don't you think? Once a decade is not a great track record.

Original 1992 Trailer:

Behind the Scenes with 'The Avengers'

A couple of new featurettes are out there for the new Avengers movie, the first one introducing the new additions of super-siblings Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, played by Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and the second goes behind the scenes with the cast as they hang around goofing off on set. I've never been totally convinced that these guys like each other that much, frankly. They're more like a bunch of actors who get paid a lot of money to pretend to have some rapport, but unlike, say the old Ocean's Eleven or Star Trek casts, nobody believes these guys hang out with each other in real life, do they?

Trailer for "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl"

So this is another Sundance movie that apparently got positive notices and was picked up for a summer release, but is it me or does this look exactly like The Fault in Our Stars 2.0? Is this a new fad, the weepy teen melodrama involving terminal illness (and voiceover narration acknowledging movie cliches)? I tend to give Sundance movies the benefit of the doubt on principle, but this just looks way too cheesy.

Movie of the Day: "42" (2013)

Baseball season's opening week continues, and today we have this Jackie Robinson biopic from a couple of years ago, starring Chadwick Boseman in a nice, understated performance as the man who changed the game. In many ways this is a straightforward telling of the story, which also stars Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers who recruits Robinson to integrate America's pastime, but the nice thing about this movie is that it shows you how moving and powerful the story itself really is. It may not be surprising, but the true nature of the events still holds tremendous power so many years later, especially when it's so well acted and sensitively told.

Trailer:

New Poster for "Mad Max: Fury Road"

Here's a cool poster for the new Mad Max, which apparently has star Tom Hardy signed on for three more sequels. That may be jumping the gun a little bit (it has been thirty years since the last Mad Max movie, after all), but maybe the studio just has that much confidence in this. Can't wait to hear how it is.

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Cries and Whispers" (1972)

Now on blu-ray is Ingmar Bergman's 1972 masterpiece Cries and Whispers, which is one of the most powerful, gut-punching films I've ever seen- it's an experience unlike any other, although I do have to warn you that it may not be for everyone. It's about three wealthy sisters in the early 20th century, two of whom have to watch over the third as she's on her deathbed, suffering from a crippling illness that will kill her in just a matter of time...but how much time? Obviously, this is intense, existential material- even though it's incredible filmmaking, the word "fun" is probably the last one you'd use to describe watching this, but it gets under your skin and provides you with an emotional roller coaster ride you'll never forget.

Criterion Collection's 3 Reasons to See:

Movie of the Day: "Bull Durham" (1988)

In honor of the MLB's opening day, it's baseball week here on The Movie Seasons, and so our Movie of the Day series is back with appropriately related titles. We're starting with one of the very best of course, this 1988 classic starring Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon in their prime. Costner is veteran catcher "Crash" Davis, who has to teach dumb rookie pitcher Tim Robbins everything he knows, even though Robbins has already got what Crash wants most, baseball groupie Sarandon, who's also teaching him everything she knows (in other areas). This is a great baseball movie brimming over with love for the sport, but also a steamy romance, as Costner and Sarandon have amazing chemistry and some of the sexiest scenes together from any movie. A perfect start to baseball week.

Original 1988 Trailer:

Movie of the Day: "Ben-Hur" (1925)

That's right guys, on this Easter Sunday I'm recommending the greater of the Ben-Hur movies, which is the 1925 original silent version starring Ramon Navarro in the title role. It's better than Charlton Heston's because it's over two hours shorter and it's more exciting- I'm not kidding, the action scenes in this silent epic are masterful, and all you can think about while you're watching it is how they managed to film all this in the 1920's. The chariot race is so thrilling it was remade shot for shot in the '59 version, so why not check out the original? And, this was in the days pre-censors, so there's all kinds of nudity and violent shots you probably never thought you'd see in silent film, like someone's head getting cut off and attached to a spear as a weapon (reports are that some of the extras actually drowned for real in the chaotic pirate attack sequence). Give it a chance at least- as one of the greatest and most influential epics ever made, it deserves to be given that much.

Original 1925 Trailer:

BOX OFFICE 4/3-4/5: 'Furious 7' Demolishes the Competition over Easter Weekend

Well, we knew it was coming, but few predicted it would be this huge- the latest installment in the endless Fast and Furious series saw its biggest opening yet, as it pulled in $143 million over the weekend, shattering records all over the place. It crushed last year's Captain America sequel to become the biggest April opener of all time, the ninth biggest opening weekend ever, and of course it sets the record for the franchise itself, with the last movie opening to $97 million in 2013. It was helped by some fairly kind reviews, but I'm at a loss over the appeal of this series myself. I saw the first one in 2001, and to me it was a total guy movie and utterly forgettable, so I never saw another. I'll never be on board this particular train, sorry guys. Worldwide the record was even more impressive, as it earned $384 million over the weekend, placing it behind only the Harry Potter and Avengers movies in terms of global totals. Pretty insane, right?

In other news, Home held up reasonably well for second place, falling just 47%, on track with the recent SpongeBob movie's trajectory, which ended up with $160 million overall, so that's good news for the DreamWorks animated feature. But Get Hard dropped a harsh 62% to earn just $12 million this week off its $33 million debut- not a good sign, and possibly an indicator of negative word of mouth. In fourth place was Cinderella, chugging right along with another $10 million for the weekend, as it just whizzed past $400 million worldwide in another Disney success, and right behind it was Insurgent to round out the top five.

Top 5:

Furious 7- $143.6 million
Home- $27.4 million
Get Hard- $12.9 million
Cinderella- $10.3 million
Insurgent- $10 million

In limited release, Noah Baumbach's While We're Young expanded well, earning $493k from 34 screens for a $14k per screen average, making it on track to earn at least $10 million, while It Follows held just outside the top five for a new total of $8 million. Next week there's no big release on the horizon, just the sci-fi film Ex Machina and the Scott Eastwood drama The Longest Ride, so expect Furious 7 to keep a tight hold on the box office for a while, maybe even until Avengers comes out on May 1st. Until then, Happy Easter everybody!

TRAILER #2: "Poltergeist"

The Poltergeist remake has now been moved up to May 22nd, and though I still don't think it looks that great, it's funny that the new trailer and poster acknowledge that the most scarring and memorable part of the original movie wasn't the TV voices or the nutty special effects crazed finale stuff, but the creepy clown toy that attacked the brother near the beginning. Seriously, what kid has a clown doll that looks that horrifying?

Poster:

TEASER: "Amy"

A24 has picked up the first of what will presumably be many Amy Winehouse documentaries in the years to come, and it's a very haunting teaser that showcases the tragic singer's fate as she succumbed to her addiction at the age of 27 (joining Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain in the "forever 27" club), just as she was rising to fame with her unique sound. It's set for a July release date.

REVIEW: "Song of the Sea" (2014) Dir. Tomm Moore

Tomm Moore, the Irish writer-director of 2009's stunning animated feature, The Secret of Kells, has hit it out of the park once again with his follow up, Song of the Sea, which is a gorgeous, meticulous, enchanting story that wrings such strong emotions that you'd have to be made of stone not to respond with some semblance of tears (I bawled like a baby). It's a wonderful story of magic, family and Irish mythology (like Kells was), that would be absolutely perfect for kids, especially those who've gotten used to seeing the same old corporate, CGI family schlock for well over a decade now.

Song of the Sea takes place in present day Ireland with a family who's been through a tragedy. Ben, the nine-year-old the film centers on, has grown up in a lighthouse with his dad and little sister, who was born on the same day his mother mysteriously disappeared and was presumed drowned. Now he and his sister Saoirse, who's six years old but still won't speak, have to come to grips with the true origins of their mother, who turns out to have been a Selkie, one of the magical creatures in Irish folklore- seals in the water, but humans on dry land. Saoirse has more in common with her mother than anyone thinks, and Ben must overcome his resentment towards her for their mother's death in order to help save her life as they make the journey together towards those who can help her.

This film is rendered with enormous sensitivity and appreciation for the characters, as the movie is just as much about repairing the bonds between family members after grief has struck them unable to communicate (Ben and Saoirse's father is also recovering from the loss of his wife and the shattering of his own happiness), as it is about encountering a plentiful stable of mythological characters the Selkie's song will bring forth- we see stone trolls come alive, and various magical creatures from the so-called "fairy" stories Ben's mother had told him before she died. Every sequence on the kids' adventure is awe-inspiring in terms of visual imagery- flat, still, and wildly colorful illustrations like something out of a children's storybook that resemble nothing being done in American animation today. Like last year's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, it shows you how much more 2D has the power to capture your visual imagination, because it can actually differ drastically in terms of style compared to the limits of CGI.

The quiet emotion of the story fills your heart in Song of the Sea's powerful final moments- there's not one wrong note throughout the entire runtime of this wonderful film, including the blissful score that will have a hard time leaving your head when it's all over. This is undoubtedly one of the best movies of 2014, and Tomm Moore is one of the true discoveries in animation over the last decade. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

* * * *