Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
April 25, 1997
Buena Vista
Comedy
VHS
B+

While this has its flaws (borderline racism and homophobia, a very meandering plot), this remains a delightful, joyous film, in the tradition of Earth Girls Are Easy and Clueless.  That is, there's sort of a deeper message beyond the bright colors, bouncy soundtrack (here heavy on early to mid '80s pop), and "dumb" heroines.  But mostly the movie is a lot of fun with many quotable lines.  The leads are a I-can't-place-it-but-I-love-it accented Mira Sorvino and a Phoebe-era Lisa Kudrow.  Whether they're mocking Pretty Women or claiming that they invented Post-its (Sorvino as Romy does something amazing to her O's, while Kudrow as Michele reels off a formula for glue), they are very funny.  (And the "I've got a phone" brag by Romy, a flip-phone no less, has only gotten funnier with time.)

Also, their best friendship is touching and believable.  It's sort of a sismance, a female version of a bromance, something not seen enough in movies.  Yes, they're both given romantic prospects--Michele's is a still nerdy but now rich Alan Cumming--but the focus is on their relationship.  (They consider becoming lesbians if they're still single in a couple years, although Romy is disgusted by the idea of having sex with a woman.)  It is entirely fitting that when Cumming (as Sandy Frink) asks Michele to dance, they have to include Romy.  (It's to "Time After Time" and is worth the price of admission/rental in itself.)  It's quite clear that Romy and Michele are each other's favorite person in the world.

But the real gem here is a gaspingly hilarious Janeane Garofalo as the hostile but vulnerable Heather Mooney.  It's a very different role than Abby in The Truth About Cats & Dogs, much more out there, but in its own way just as lovable.  Michele has a line late in the film, "For me, it's like I've just given birth to my own baby girl, except she's like a big giant girl who smokes and says 'shit' a lot.*  You know?"  Meanwhile, Heather decides to buy a non-black dress that "exacerbates the genetic betrayal that is my legacy."  That there was never a 20th-year reunion sequel is one of the minor crimes of Hollywood.

17-year-old William R. Phillips, who's Man at Diner here, would still look young enough to play a student in Kudrow's Mean Girls seven years later.


*Yes, there is profanity in a Buena Vista release.  Also a lot of cleavage.  I'm sure Uncle Walt was rolling over in his grave.

The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club
October 29, 1993
Buena Vista
Historical, Drama, Comedy
VHS
B

As I said in my review of the novel--http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-joy-luck-club.html--I believe that the movie adaptation is better than the book, although it's not as drastic an improvement as with (The) Enchanted April.  The story is tighter and flows better.  Also, I liked seeing the very expressive faces, with a mostly unfamiliar, mostly Asian cast.  Rosalind Chao was already familiar to me in the mid-'90s, from Diff'rent Strokes and AfterMASH on television, but she does well stepping outside that sitcom environment.  The writing, acting, and direction are generally solid.  (The actresses who portray the mothers as children were much better than you'd expect.)  I didn't cry on this viewing, but I have in the past.

Why not a higher grade?  Two things.  One, I found the music and some other touches to be a bit manipulative.  It made it hard to just submerge myself in the world of the film, no matter whether in China or America, the 1930s or beyond.  And two, well, I had trouble keeping the various characters straight, despite previous viewings and readings.  Perhaps this is racism on my part (although the performers definitely don't "all look alike"), but I've had similar problems with, for instance, Gosford Park.  I'm not at my best with a cast where there are so many main characters.  Also, while there is more sense than in the book how the characters relate to each other-- the Waverly & June rivalry for instance is well done, and we can see how their mothers create it-- I only rarely got a feeling of how this group works as a whole.

Still, the movie holds up well, saved from being dated in part because it's about how things change and don't change across the generations.  There are certainly universal themes (such as the mother-daughter relationship), while at the same time we get to know a particular culture a little better.