Fame

Here's another movie from my top ten list: Fame. It's a musical, because I'm a nerd, and it's from the 80s because I'm old.  If you haven't seen it yet, shame on you, but luckily I can tell you a little about it (including where to find it.  Here.).  Since it came out in the same year that I did, I feel like I've seen it at every stage in my life, from young childhood when I didn't understand much except broad strokes and that the music and dancing were super fun, to my teen years when all I knew was Leroy, played by Gene Anthony Ray may he rest in peace, to the adult phase of my life when I realized that my mom had wisely shown me the edited-for-TV version when I was a kid, because there is a pretty intense scene with a sexually predatory character that definitely needs a trigger warning.  If all you know of Irene Cara is the songs Fame or What A Feeling from the radio, you can definitely see that she's a hugely talented actress from this movie, particularly that scene. 

I mean...

I may be doing things a little differently this week by detailing SO MANY different characters, but you've got to understand that I've seen this movie so many times that these people are my friends, albeit imaginary friends.  I have hung out with them, sang with them, laughed with them, cried with them and wondered about their futures, their careers and their families.  I love those characters, like you should when writers, actors, directors and the rest of the crew have done their jobs so perfectly.

I'll start with Bruno Martelli, who has somehow always been my favorite character.  With most movies, my favorite character changes every few years as I do.  But Lee Curerri's character always stays my favorite, year in and year out.  He was in the TV series, too, although I remember that I watched it, but I don't actually remember watching it.  I was really young.  I think what I like about Bruno is that he genuinely has the most natural talent of the group.  He works, he learns, he creates... and he's the best.  He lacks in confidence and ambition, which are maybe more important than talent, but his father has the best line in the movie, in my opinion.  Bruno and his father are arguing about Bruno's seeming disinterest in being well-known or winning awards or creating any kind of career.  Bruno says that maybe he'll never get famous until after he's dead and the awards will go to his ghost.  Mr Martelli says, "Does your mama cook and clean and wear old clothes for a ghost? A ghost, Bruno? Elton John's mama's got three mink coats!"  FYI, whenever I want my kids to do something with their lives, like when I tell The Villain to be a doctor, I always think, "Elton John's mama's got three mink coats!"

Maureen Teefy plays Doris Finsecker, and Doris is just so great!  All she wants is to be destined for bigger things.  She lives her life surrounded by people with the right look, the most talent and great connections and she sees how easy it is to mess things up, even in the best of conditions.  I like to think of Doris in her mid-thirties winning Tony awards and living in the kind of comfort that it's hard to come by as an actor.  It's important to me to see her that way.  Her boyfriend, Ralph Garcie was played by Barry Miller.  He is an amazing actor and I've shed plenty of tears over Ralph and his struggles.  I imagine his career going just like River Phoenix's, and his life ending tragically and far too soon as well.  It's not what I want for Ralph Garcie, but it's all too easy to trace his path in that direction.

Lastly, if you're an ER fan from the 90s (I'm not, but I think I'm the only one who was around back then and never saw it), you're already pretty familiar with Paul McCrane, who plays Montgomery McNeil.  He's a sweetheart of a character who mostly lived on his own in New York City because his mother was a famous actress and her plays took her all over the country touring.  His father wasn't around, so as young as a high school Freshman he was basically a 24-hr latchkey kid with nobody to answer to except Dr Golden, his therapist.  It seems like a horrible way to grow up, but often that produces the best art, you know?  And bonus fact, Paul McCrane- the actor, not the character- actually wrote a song for the movie.  It's called Is It Okay If I Call You Mine? and this is a link to it on YouTube.  It's beautiful.  Go listen to it now.  Because I'm done here.  Go.

The Cosby Show

First off, I know.  You don't need to argue with me because I already agree with you.  I'm not here to tell you how I feel about the show now, I'm here to tell you how I felt about it 30 years ago.  So, you know.  Consider me disclaimed.

Alright, where to start?  I'm mixed.  My dad's black and my mom's white, so I'm mixed, see?  Well, when I was about six, my parents split up and I moved from living with my dad's side of the family to living with my mom's side in a tiny, wretched little town where there were basically no other black people (see the horrific ghost town here).  While I lived there, until the era of In Living Color, the only black people on TV that I knew of were the Huxtables.  I'm right between the ages of Vanessa and Rudy, so I fit comfortably into their family and I loved to hang out with them.  I wanted to be Denise so badly, and wouldn't you know it... she turned out to be the rebellious one.  I also know that a lot of people had crushes on Theo, but I never understood that.  Well, not until years later when I saw Malcolm Jamal Warner all grown up.

Okay, now I get it.

My favorite thing about watching The Cosby Show was seeing how rich people lived.  It seemed like they were all intelligent, healthy and well-adjusted which you don't get a lot of in small towns.  It was totally fascinating.  I miss watching it and I miss the warm fuzzies it used to give me.

Side note: Phylicia Rashad and Keshia Knight Pulliam were in a movie called Polly together, which I will undoubtedly write about at some point.  Check back often to see.  Or better yet, click the subscribe button and never miss a post.  And comment to let me know if you'd rather see that one sooner rather than later.

Coming to America

One of the funniest movies of the 80s is easily Coming To America.  If you haven't seen it for a while, I suggest you go straight to Netflix and add it immediately to your list!  If you haven't seen it ever... I don't understand you.  Maybe you're just really young, or maybe you don't like Eddie Murphy... or maybe you just hate yourself and don't want to be happy.  I don't know.  Like I said, I don't understand.  I'll let you go watch it now while we all WAIT FOR YOU!

Have you really not seen it?

Okay, you've just improved your life.  Let's discuss.  Basically, Eddie Murphy and Arseniooooooooooooooooooooo Hall played every character in the movie, so there's that.  No, that's not true but they did each have four or five roles.  It's also got Darth Vader and the dad from Good Times and Samuel L Jackson in one of his 70,000 credited roles and it's so HILARIOUS!  An actual African prince trying to find a pretty American woman and make her rich for real.  I keep checking my inbox but so far they all want my credit card number.  Oh, well. 

When I was deployed to Okinawa about a decade or so ago, I had this friend who would sing at the top of his lungs to get everyone laughing and it was one of my favorite things about our crew.  Imagine a bunch of construction workers basically digging ditches all day every day and out of nowhere, "She's your QUEEEEEEEEN to-oo BEEEEEEE" as loud and as high as he could sing.  Ray Boudreaux, you're the real MVP of that deployment.  That was definitely my favorite deployment.  One day my friend caught an octopus with a shovel.  Good times.

Anyway, if you didn't watch it when I told you to or if you need a refresher, take the time now to let your Soul Glow with Mufasa and Axel Foley.  Thank me in the comments or by subscribing to the email list.  It's only polite.

Beetlejuice

Do you guys remember Beetlejuice? It was the greatest, wasn't it? I keep hearing rumors about a remake so I wanted to just review what I loved about the original in case the new guys are scouring obscure blogs for input. I absolutely loved the waiting room scenes, those were my favorite parts. Seeing the complex stories being told only by makeup is really, really fun for me. Always has been. 

Another thing I never really appreciated at the time, being so young when the movie came out, was that Alec Baldwin was a total Baldwin! I can really appreciate that now, although it's super weird to think that I'm probably DEFINITELY older now than he was back then. Crazy. 

The music in that movie is the best, too! Remember when they all danced around the table to Harry Belefonte? I wanted a ghost to turn me into an expert dancer too! And at the end with the football team on the stairs? I was super jealous of Winona Ryder. She got to do that, plus be all emo angsty teenager. Unfair. 

Of course I loved that Kevin McAllister's mom was the bad guy, and I totally watched the cartoon every Saturday morning, but I'm pretty sure that movie is where my life-disrupting eye phobia started. You can't win them all, Beetlejuice. But good try.

Growing Pains

One of the shows I couldn't live without in the 80s was Growing Pains.  I was absolutely in love with Cool Guy Kirk Cameron and I had a pretty good little crush going on Leonardo DiCaprio (who just won an Oscar) too.  I really like Carol Seaver even though she kind of always got dumped on.  I remember when she was trying to get on the school paper or something and the teacher said her article stunk because she used too many big words.  When she said she didn't understand he told her it was "repleat with stinkiocity".  My favorite line of television dialogue ever. 

Kirk Cameron excused himself from Hollywood after that show for religious reasons.  He's back to making movies and videos and things but now he's all about religious projects, like Left Behind and the website Way of the Master.  Candace Cameron, his sister, is openly Christian too.  Sort of rare in Hollywood but she takes all sorts of roles and also co-hosts The View.  I follow Alan Thicke on Twitter and he posts about hockey sometimes.  Check him out.  You might like him too.  He also wrote the theme song to The Facts of Life.  So yeah.  Pretty awesome.