Stream Contemporary Blondes II

Reese Witherspoon

Pleasantville 1998 Written, Co-produced and Directed by Gary Ross. High school-age twins Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) and David (Tobey Maguire) are opposites in nature. While she’s outgoing and popular, he spends his time alone absorbed in the television serial Pleasantville, a 1950s black and white comedy about the perfect Parker family. When the kids break the TV control in a tussle, a repairman mysteriously appears giving them one which transports the siblings to the Parkers’ living room in Pleasantville. (Everything turns black and white.) They “become” Mary Sue and Bud Parker.

The town is aware of nothing outside its borders and stuck in 50s social values. Though they try to maintain status quo, Jennifer and David inadvertently disrupt things with contemporary attitudes. She introduces a friend to masturbation, then has sex with her date – actions literally unknown in the town. An adult couple in love break up a bad marriage to come together. As people change, the environment takes on color bit by bit alarming the mayor and his cohorts. A ban on “colored” people is initiated in public venues. The new reality wins. One sibling stays.

A creative conceit well executed. This was the first time a feature film was created by scanning and digitizing recorded film footage to remove or manipulate colors. “This movie is about the fact that personal repression gives rise to larger political oppression…That when we’re afraid of certain things in ourselves or we’re afraid of change, we project those fears on to other things, and a lot of very ugly social situations can develop. ” Rent on Amazon Prime.

Walk the Line 2005 Directed by James Mangold based on two auto- biographies by the singer-songwriter Johnny Cash. Joaquin Phoenix as Cash, Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash – Best Actress Academy Award – (they both sing well) and Ginnifer Goodwin as his first wife. Blamed for his favored brother’s sawmill-related death, Johnny Cash grows up feeling guilty and rejected. The moody young man buys a guitar and starts writing songs. “Folsom Prison Blues” is one of the first.

Cash becomes a door to door salesman to support his family, but music calls. He manages to get an audition with and is then recorded by Sam Philips of Sun Records. On tour, the musician meets and falls in love with June Carter, a successful performer in her own right. At first rejecting him as married, she later gives in, but struggles with Cash’s addiction to drugs and alcohol. When he promises to divorce and wed her, June puts her foot down. He comes to her clean and sober or not at all.

Cash goes cold turkey with June by his side, then ties the knot. They tour together for decades. To prepare for her role as June Carter, Witherspoon studied videos of the singer; she also listened to her singing and telling stories to get her voice right. Screenplay, acting and direction are good. An effective (an entertaining) film. Rent on Amazon Prime or free on Netflix.

Wild 2014 Based on Cheryl Strayed’s memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee. Recently divorced, having spun out with drugs and anonymous sex, Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) decides to hike 1,100 miles of the 2,650-mile Pacific Coast Trail in hopes of healing. She has no experience in the wild. Along the way she leaves poems and quotes meaningful to her at rest stops, flashes back to distant and recent past, meets helpful fellow hikers, barely escapes being attacked, and, with perseverance, luck, and cleverness survives harrowing challenges. The trip is an exorcism.

With an excellent turn by Laura Dern as Cheryl’s mother. “By far, this is the hardest movie I’ve ever made in my life. I didn’t hike a thousand miles, of course, but it was a different kind of physical rigor.” Reese Witherspoon Rent on Amazon Prime.

The TV serial Big Little Lies 2017 can be rented on Amazon Prime
Romantics may enjoy Just Like Heaven with Mark Ruffalo. Amazon Prime.

Scarlett Johansson

The Horse Whisperer 1998 Based on the novel by Nicholas Evans. Directed by and starring Robert Redford. Teenager Grace McClean (Scarlett Johansson) suffered the partial loss of a leg in a horrific riding accident that took the life of her best friend and traumatized her horse, Pilgrim. Grace’s workaholic, city mother Annie (Kristin Scott Thomas – excellent) intuits that her daughter’s recovery is tied to that of the horse. Horse whisperer Tom Booker agrees to help if the shaken girl takes part in the process. Annie and Grace drive to Montana and move into a bunkhouse on his ranch.

As Grace and Pilgrim make progress, Annie and Tom are powerfully drawn to one another. Reluctant for different reasons, they take it slow. When her estranged husband Robert (Sam Neill) shows up unannounced, Annie must make a decision affecting them all.

 A graceful, compelling, adult film. The main character is based on several actual whisperers, one of whom acted as a consultant and Redford’s double. John Lyons, a practitioner of natural horsemanship, noted that while there were many positive messages, people might also get dangerous impress-ions. Multiple horses playing Pilgrim were all well-trained animals and the film didn’t represent a real-life time frame. Rent on Amazon Prime.

Lost in Translation 2003 A “romantic melancholy” (Coppola) Directed by Sophia Coppola who’s described the film as “things being disconnected and looking for moments of connection.” Both at loose ends signifying turning points, fading American film star Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and neglected young wife Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) meet casually one night at a Tokyo hotel bar. They begin an idiosyncratic friendship made credible by the non-Hollywood vibe of these two actors. A bond is established, but life takes them separate ways.

Instead of a formal screenplay, Coppola opted to write “little paragraphs” based on impressions and experiences of considerable time spent Tokyo in her early 20s. She envisioned Murray playing the role of Bob Harris from the beginning, trying relentlessly to recruit him for almost a year. While he eventually agreed to play the part, Murray didn’t sign a contract. A quarter of the film’s $4 million budget was spent without knowing if he’d appear in Tokyo for shooting. Rent on Amazon Prime.

Match Point 2005 A psychological thriller. Directed by Woody Allen. Social climbing tennis instructor Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Myers) makes friends with wealthy client, Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode). At a family gathering, Tom’s sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer) grows enamored of Chris while he, in turn, is attracted to Tom’s fiancé, struggling actress Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson). Setting her sights on Chris, Chloe gets her father to hire him as an executive. They move inextricably to marriage giving the outsider everything he wants except Nola.

Chris tracks down Nola and begins an impassioned affair. Chloe senses increased distance. Nola gets pregnant, refuses an abortion, and suggests her lover get a divorce. He stalls. Then Chloe gets pregnant. Action, to him, is “necessary.” Taut and effective. Signed to the lead, Kate Winslet resigned a week before filming was scheduled. Scarlett Johansson stepped in re- quiring the character to be re-written as an American. According to Allen, “It was not a problem…It took about an hour.” Rent on Amazon Prime.

Girl with a Pearl Earring can be found in Stream Selected Films of Colin Firth

Reese Witherspoon photo – Bigstock