Catcher in the Rye

 

Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger:

 

 

I’ve heard about this book about a hundred different ways and I imagined a hundred different scenarios this book could introduce. Therefore I was tremendously unprepared for what I ended up with. The book is about a guy named Holden and his three day journey in New York after he gets kicked out of his prep school. That’s it. Seriously that’s all this “Amazing” novel was all about. A piece of ass rich kid named Holden (what kind of name is that?) who kind of haunts New York.

Bitch Please!

I had so many problems with this book, starting with the premise, the whole idea. This little bitch kid that has some issues and who’s always had some issue applying himself in school, if his retelling of history is to be trusted, gets kicked out and decides to go to New York. Wait, I’m skimping on the details, first he decides to hang out with the guy next door whom he hates and then he hangs out with his roommate whom he thinks is underneath him and shallow. Later he gets jealous and starts a fight. He is jealous this guy is dating a girl he has the hots for but is too big of a pansy to ask out. Then he decides to leave and he heads to New York, signs in to a seedy motel and gets in trouble with a pimp and then he has to pick up the tab for some ugly out of town chicks. Afterwards he decides to call this girl he was seeing for a date the next day but he calls her at midnight. However the girl decides to go out with him and he takes her to a movie, which he purportedly hates to the max but goes about once a week anyway, and then gets mad when she makes friends with a guy. He is a ball of contradictions always saying he hates “phonies” that he really hates “ phonies”. He is probably the biggest fucking phony of them all, he is an expert liar and lets you know this his own opinion of himself and he also hates when people say things twice. Yet he does this particular annoying trait almost the whole fucking book. He is really crazy and if you ask me has way to much money and time on his hands. What he needs is a good fucking scare, a beating or to be put into a fucking public school where he can’t waste any more money. He is always talking about his brother and his sister Phoebe. Why is this book such a big fucking deal, I think its because the kid under all his bullshit wants to be a helpful guy. He wants to be the guy who helps people in short he wants to be a hero but he is all sorts of fucked up. I honestly don’t get the appeal and maybe its one of those books I’d like better if I had read in high school. I doubt it because the whole time I read it I waited for something to happen and nothing happened. Absofuckingloutley nothing super anticlimactic and stupid I didn’t understand what people make all the fuss about. Maybe I’m not as sophisticated or appreciative enough for this kind of work, or maybe I’m right and its fucking stupid. Either way I don’t recommend.

Day 39: Midnight Cowboy

Midnight Cowboy: 1969: Winner of the 42nd Academy Awards

Starring:

Dustin Hoffman as Enrico Salvatore "Ratso" Rizzo


Jon Voight as Joe Buck

Sylvia Miles as Cass

John McGiver as Mr. O'Daniel

Brenda Vaccaro as Shirley

Barnard Hughes as Towny


This movie was weird, but it was short so I forgive it. Ok so Jon Voight is an annoying cowboy and Dustin Hoffman is a weird looking Hispanic and/ or Italian. The cowboy is trying to hustle his way in New York after things didn’t go so well for him back home after he came back from the army. His backstory is told mainly thru flashbacks and hallucinations of past events. Ratso is a third rate con-man who should most likely be called a third rate pickpocket. Anyway after Ratso tries to con the cowboy some weird happenstance of chance brings them together and they form a bond. Then they go to this Andy Warhol/ Rocky Horror Picture Show Transylvanian like peoples/ bad 70’s art deco’s party. The cowboy unknowingly gets high of his keister and ends up in bed with one of the wealthy ladies at the party. And he does it with her. Blah Blah Blah, the ending is really sad though. Ok here’s the truth about the 70’s: they were too fucking high to make one steady pic! I swear even thought the camera work was great it was a shoddy way to tell the story of some shit for brains cowboy. Plus did Hoffman have to look so repulsive. Maybe that was the whole point, but it made me want to turn of the movie for fear he would stink it up. I guess I just didn’t like the movie. Not because of it’s sexual premise but because I hate it when the main character is so fucking stupid you might as well just shoot him eh won’t wonder anyhow. Gah! The movie frustrated me a bit and the whole back story about him and Crazy Annie that was super weird. The weird Grandma, he should be n therapy.

It also won awards for:
 
Best Director : John Schlesinger
Best Adapted Screenplay: Waldo Salt

Day 29:The Apartment

The Apartment: 1960: 33rd Winner of the Academy Award

Starring:

Jack Lemmon as C.C. "Bud" Baxter

Shirley MacLaine as Fran Kubelik

Fred MacMurray as Jeff D. Sheldrake

Ray Walston as Joe Dobisch

Jack Kruschen as Dr. Dreyfuss

David Lewis as Al Kirkeby

Hope Holiday as Mrs. Margie MacDougall

Joan Shawlee as Sylvia

Naomi Stevens as Mrs. Mildred Dreyfuss

Johnny Seven as Karl Matuschka

Joyce Jameson as the blonde in the bar

Willard Waterman as Mr. Vanderhoff

David White as Mr. Eichelberger

Edie Adams as Miss Olsen

This movie was pretty decent and it was also kind of unexpected. It's a romantic-comedy film and it stars comedic legend: Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. Firstly I would like to say that I was irked by it at first. The premise is that 'Bud' lends his apartment out to the head honchos of the company he works for so they can have their flings with secretaries and the lot. However he himself is trying to associate with Fran (MacLaine), she is an elevator girl who has a secret, she is sleeping with the boss. Now this is standard rom-com formula. They fall in love, something stands in the way, they figure it out , boy losses girl, girl figures out and looks for the boy, and happy ever after. However the inter-plot is great, there’s a sense of a lost girl in Fran, that just translates really well onto the screen. I have never seen any of MacLaine's earlier work, I believe from 1980 to now. I never knew her voice was so high up there and that she was way pretty when she was younger. Like super pretty! As for Lemmon well I also had a teensy bit of a crush on him, but didn't like how mean he was to Marilyn Monroe. Which brings me right back to point one, the irk. So the first ten minutes of the movie, I assume this is a teamwork between Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon who had worked with Monroe before, one of the honcho's girl not only sounds like Monroe but is doing the “Marilyn”, it kind of irked me because, well because you don't fuck with Marilyn! However something quite interesting is that in the first 5 minutes a commercial for “The Grand Hotel” another “Best Picture”, winner. It was fun to watch this movie, maybe not something I’d get but I’d watch it again.

It also won awards for:

Best Director :Billy Wilder

Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen :I. A. L. Diamond and Billy Wilder

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Black and White):Edward G. Boyle and Alexandre Trauner

Best Film Editing: Daniel Mandell

Day 28: Gentleman's Agreement

Gentleman's Agreement: 1947: Winner of the 20th Academy Award

Starring :

Gregory Peck as Philip Schuyler Green

Anne Revere as Mrs. Green

Dorothy McGuire as Kathy Lacey

June Havoc as Elaine Wales

John Garfield as Dave Goldman

Albert Dekker as John Minify

Celeste Holm as Anne Dettrey

Jane Wyatt as Jane

 

 

I am super in love with Gregory Peck, ever since I watched “To Kill a Mockingbird”! In this movie he is a journalist who poses as a Jewish American citizen in order to fully understand what it means to be a Jew. Throughout the movie we see how people who have no idea he is Jewish sometimes change when they find out he is. Most of the movie is how his fiancé can't deal with it though and that just bored me.  What I will say is this, I live in California, this is Jew city and we love it. Especially since I live so close to Weho, I guess I never thought that they weren't always loved. I know it seems childish but I never knew that in America they weren't tolerated like the Irish Catholic's or the Chinese, I guess they teach you those things in high school eh?. Anyway the movie was pretty good, it was a little too much talking and to be honest I was really upset when Mr. Green didn't end up with Anne she was a real girl. Kathy was a bub, she talks to much and she isn’t even pretty! I liked the mom she was the driving force behind her son and I like strong maternal figures. It was a good movie but I took two naps. Just saying

 
It also won awards for:
 
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress - Celeste Holm


Academy Award for Directing - Elia Kazan

Day 20: Annie Hall

Annie Hall: 1977: Winner of the 50th Academy Award

Starring:

Woody Allen as Alvy Singer

Diane Keaton as Annie Hall

Tony Roberts as Rob

Carol Kane as Allison Portchnik

Paul Simon as Tony Lacey

Shelley Duvall as Pam

Janet Margolin as Robin

Colleen Dewhurst as Mrs. Hall

Christopher Walken as Duane Hall

Jeff Goldblum as LA party guy on phone

Here's the biggest problem with this movie: Woody Allen. I'm sorry I know people love him but he was a bigtime nuisance in this movie. Further more this got an award? Really was there nothing better. Granted it was the 70's but come on. Woody Allen's portrayal of a neurotic paranoid, pessimistic and paranoid man was hella annoying and the only good thing was he owned he was all those things. Possibly 85% of the movie I kept wondering how she could survive much less date the mna. It als made me think that Alvy is a fucked up individual. It was one of those movies I sat through, laughed a tiny bit, and really glad I never paid a dime to see it. I ex[expected more out of Diane Keaton and didn't get anything not even a decent love story, but I can see other movies who have excelled, yet demonstrated a better understanding/ portrayal of the two characters. I guess this was kind of like “Dr. Strangelove”, it was one of those movies I just don't get.

It also won awards for:

Best Actress in a Leading Role – Diane Keaton

Best Director – Woody Allen

Best Original Screenplay – Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman

  

Day 7: The Broadway Melody

The Broadway Melody:1929: Winner of the 2^nd Academy Award

Starring:

Charles King  as Eddie Kearns

Anita Page as Queenie Mahoney

Bessie Love as Harriet (Hank) Mahoney

Today was the first time I  have seen a movie that old since “Diary of a Lost Girl”, it was pretty good. The plot since I know most people won’t bother to watch , is about two sisters in the era of the two-bit sister act. Hank the older sister is more talented than Queenie but not half as pretty. They are in New York to make it big in the city. Eddie, Hank’s boyfriend, has promised them promising spots, considering he is a sing and dance guy. Zenfield, the head of the department is enchanted by Queenie’s beauty and is happy tp put her in the show despite her lack of talent. Hank has the talent but not the face and is dismissed by Zenfield, however Quenie talks him into hiring them both, so he agrees. Eddie has fallen in love with Queenie and she with him, but they do not dare to carry on with their love because it would hurt Hank. Queenie was raised by Hank and so she knows how disastrous this may seem to her. To dissuade her feelings she starts to go out with a “stage door Johnny” named Jock Wernier. The tension rises because Queenine and Eddie are always fighting about Jock and Hank gets thrown in the middle. After the shows first performance a couple of weeks later Hank realizes that her sister and her fiancé have the hots for each other and decides to step down and let them be happy. A couple of months later, they are seen coming back from their honeymoon and they insist that Hank live with them (as if pfft.) and she politely declines. The last scene is split between Queenie telling Eddie that she is sad that Hank never catches a break and that she took him from her. The other half is Hank in the train car looking dejected but trying to motivate herself.

So this movie was good but fuck that bitch Queenie. I hate her. How dare she steal her sister’s man! How could she, I know the saying goes, “the heart wants what it wants,” but goddamn , Hank has given Queenie everything and Queenie took it away . Her spot in the show, her man  and her chance at happiness. Come on, can Hank please meet a fabulous guy to make up for what Queenie has done! Why is it that its ok for a decent looking girl to lose the love of her life to the prettier girl? I really was burned by that, and I hated Eddie for not being able to look beyond the looks and for falling in love with the “kind and gentle beauty.” *Sigh* It was totally unfair and I have a slight with Queenie, and Hank wasa bigger person for forgiving them and for allowing their love to blossom. I just wish that she had some recompense in return, you know. I liked it well enough the songs are annoyingly catchy,(although not as catchy as a Bollywood song)  and the dance numbers are supreme.  Furthermore it kind of reminds you of a lighter hearted Chicago. Although shit, Vilma Kelly had it right .. do the crime, do the time but get even. 

Day 5: West Side Story

West Side Story: 1961: Winner of the 34^th Academy Awards

Starring:

Natalie Wood (Marni Nixon, singing) – Maria Nunez

Richard Beymer (Jimmy Bryant, singing) – Tony Wycek,

 Russ Tamblyn – Riff Lorton,

Rita Moreno (Betty Wand, singing) – Anita,

George Chakiris – Bernardo Nunez

Simon Oakland – Lieutenant Schrank,

Ned Glass – Doc,

William Bramley – Officer Krupke,

John Astin – Glad Hand

Penny Santon – Madam Lucia

The Jets:

Tucker Smith – Ice,

Tony Mordente – Action,

Eliot Feld – Baby John

David Winters – A-Rab

Bert Michaels – Snowboy

David Bean – Tiger

Robert Banas – Joyboy

Anthony 'Scooter' Teague – Big Deal

Harvey Hohnecker – Mouthpiece

Tommy Abbott – Gee-Tar

Jet Girls:

Susan Oakes – Anybodys

Gina Trikonis – Graziella

Carole D'Andrea – Velma, Ice's girl

Rita Hyde d'Amico – Clarice, Big Deal's girl

Pat Tribble – Minnie, Baby John's girl

Francesca Bellini – "Cool" dancer

Elaine Joyce – dancer

Sharks:

Jose DeVega – Chino Martin

Jay Norman – Pepe

Gus Trikonis – Indio

Eddie Verso – Juano

Jamie Rogers – Loco

Larry Roquemore – Rocco

Robert E. Thompson – Luis

Nick Covacevich – Toro

Rudy Del Campo – Del Campo

Andre Tayir – Chile

Shark Girls:

Yvonne Othon – Consuela

Suzie Kaye – Rosalia

Joanne Miya – Francisca

West Side Story is based on Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juilet, however he is substituting warring families with warring nations. The Jets are the rough and tumble low bred Whites, the Sharks the newly exported Puerto Ricans. The story is set in the 50’s a very tense and racial time in America’s history and of course one member of each the warring countries people falls inevitably in love with each other. I wish I had watched this movie when I was younger. That way I wouldn’t be so hard on it, even thought it was lovely and I can’t stop singing that damn “Tonight ,Tonight” song , I think it might have lacked something. Maybe I just don’t like gang movies because they frustrate me, or maybe the false accents were really starting to grind against my Hispanic ego, hell if I know the right reason, it just wasn’t all that amazing plot wise to me. However the dance numbers were worth the watch all on their own. I soo wanna dance like that on a New York building now! I love Natalie Wood, ever since I saw her in “Sex and the Single Girl”, and West Side Story almost made me think, eh she’s not that great, until the last scene which was the saving grace. If you’re going to watch the movie watch it for the dancing, the songs, for the love story and try to watch it before you’ve watched some of other greatest love stories. I will say this though; this would be great on Broadway.

It has also won awards for:

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor – George Chakiris

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress – Rita Moreno

Academy Award for Best Art Direction – Victor A. Gangelin and Boris Leven

Academy Award for Best Cinematography – Daniel L. Fapp

Academy Award for Best Costume Design– Irene Sharaff

Academy Award for Best Director – Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise

Academy Award for Best Film Editing – Thomas Stanford

Academy Award for Best Original Score – Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Irwin Kostal, and Sid Ramin

Academy Award for Best Sound – Fred Hynes and Gordon E. Sawyer 

Day 2: All About Eve

All About Eve : 1950: Winner of the 23^rd Academy Award

Starring:

Bette Davis as Margo Channing

Anne Baxter as Eve Harrington

George Sanders as Addison DeWitt

Celeste Holm as Karen Richards

Gary Merrill as Bill Sampson

Hugh Marlowe as Lloyd Richards

Thelma Ritter as Birdie

Gregory Ratoff as Max Fabian

Marilyn Monroe as Miss Caswell

Barbara Bates as Phoebe

The premise is about life in the theatre and the people in it. The movie is centered around Eve  a young starlet, who aspires and hungers for greatness. She builds her web until has caught a good cast to make her dreams come true. However karma is not far behind and justice is served, on a silver platter.

When I first watched this movie I was 15! I was on a hunt to watch all Marilyn Monroe films. Even if she had only two min of screen time and so it was that I was introduced to this movie. This movie has a little bit of everything, intrigue and mystery, girl on girl crime and a really good villain. I think this is my favorite Anne Baxter performance and I also think that it was a perfect movie for Bette Davis like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd. There is a lot of dialogue in the film which sometimes makes it dry but trust me this is one to watch, a truly timeless classic.   

It also won awards for:

Best Supporting Actor:  George Sanders

Best Costume Design for a Black-and-White film: Edith Head and Charles Le Maire

Best Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Best Writing, Screenplay: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Best Sound Recording: Thomas T. Moulton