Vancity_Film_Fanatic

The first "commercial" film for John Waters is considerably more tame than his earlier works, but is still a lot of fun mostly in part to the Odorama gimmick, which pays excellent tribute to B-movie horror maven William Castle who pioneered the movie gimmick back in the 50's.

All of the usual suspects (Divine, Edith Massey, Mink Stole) provide their ever so dependable over the top performances, and heck - Tab Hunter ain't too hard on the eyes either :) He fits in well with the rest of the motley crew. Definitely worth checking out for all John Waters fans or anyone looking for something a bit out of the mainstream.

With the recent passing of one of my favourite directors, Robert Altman (1925-2006), I decided to hold my own little memoriam by watching his masterpiece film Nashville. The story offers an inside look behind the scenes of the 70's country music scene, as well as a subplot involving a political rally that helps maintain the overall continuity and ties together the many intertwining story lines. Considering my long standing love affair with classic country music, and with a star studded cast that wrote and performed their own songs, this is a film that definitely strikes a chord for me. It's an incredibly busy and fascinating film, with most of the scenes offering multiple conversations and overlapping dialogue, of which Altman became quite famous for. This helps keep it fresh over repeated viewings as you're guaranteed to see or hear something new you missed the last time. A delight to watch and highly recommended - go check it out for yourself!

Garry Marshall may not be the most interesting director working in Hollywood, but his movies are definitely entertaining, and in that sense he is successful. Perhaps his two greatest films, which also are the ones he'll most likely be remembered for, are "Beaches" and "Pretty Woman". One of the most commercially successful (almost $500m worldwide!!) romantic comedies of all time,"Pretty Woman" is a charming modern day fairy tale that works largely in part to the phenomenal on-screen chemistry between its two stars – Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. In an Academy Award nominated performance as Vivian Ward, Julia Roberts truly shines. Her screen presence is nothing short of radiating, not to mention she's a highly skilled comedic actress. The film also owes a lot to its equally strong supporting performances from Jason Alexander, Laura San Giacomo and Hector Elizondo. All clichés aside, it's highly enjoyable and stands up superbly even after repeated viewings, a definite 10/10.