I see in retrospect that I have somewhat overused the term “eye-popping” to describe movies. I will give that one a rest.

Also, I am now ready and able to respond to your comments in the Forum. A few got past me but I backtracked. Try again, and I will comment quickly. And being feisty is fine. So: to kduncan (from Germany, yet) who asked, more or less, “Can you lose your tenure for watching two Rollerballs a week?” The answer is: We don’ need no steenking tenure. I often try to do as I choose now, instead of what is “required.” (Which reminds me: Am I the only commentator over the age of nine who admits to enjoying Speed Racer? Whoa. Eye-bulging.)

Movie 52

Bull Durham
(Ron Shelton, 1988, 108 m.)

This is one of the few baseball movies that is watchable. It was a breakthrough: for Tim Robbins, who was a virtual unknown; for first-time director Ron Shelton, who went on to direct more sports movies, including Tin Cup and Cobb; important for Kevin Costner, too, who became a major star the very next year in Field of Dreams. Even Susan Sarandon was still on the rise, three years before Thelma & Louise. This story of a baseball Annie in the minors is sexy and philosophical, though it seems like simple fun on the surface. (If you care, the story also has rich Oedipal subtexts.) It also made Durham Bulls’ products world-famous, and even seems to have influenced baseball itself in small ways, especially in reference to nicknames like Meat (for bottom-feeders and rookies). The biggest “weakness” is the barrage of 80’s uniforms, big hair, and high, tight jeans, which now look amusing.

I casually threw the DVD on the player just for a dose of something plain-old-American to watch after Tom Jones, and I sure hit the jackpot. Shelton actually claims he built the story as a western, with Crash Davis (Costner) as a modern gunfighter. The movie even quotes Walt Whitman in sexy and convincing ways. Who’da thunk it? The biggest surprise, though, is the available commentary by Shelton, which I recommend as a virtual master class on screenwriting.

Movie 51

Tom Jones
(Tony Richardson, GB, 1963, 129 m.)

This movie almost swept the Oscars in 1963, with nine nominations and four wins, including for picture, director and writing — but it has an odd reputation. Some people consider it weak, maybe because it’s a comedy, maybe because it seems too literary, based as it is on a certified classic English novel. The script is certainly witty, and the performances are splendid, even legendary. Playing the hilariously drunken Squire Western was apparently no problem for the drunken Hugh Griffith, among the five actors and actresses in this movie to get Oscar nominations. British actresses seem especially able to create amazingly idiosyncratic characters. Few actresses can be more insanely arch than Dame Edith Evans. And this is one of the first movies I remember that successfully plays with the viewer right on the screen. I’ve always enjoyed it. After watching Paris, je t’aime I was feeling so French-ified that I had to do something fast. The best antidote for a French overdose is often a British overdose.

Movie 50

Paris, je t’aime
(21 directors, FR, 2006, 120 m.)

A smooth and spiffy movie comprised of 20 five-minute vignettes by some of the world’s finest directors, from Olivier Assayas to Gus Van Sant. (How it adds up to 120 minutes is beyond my math skills.) Each director presents a separate and original story about one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris. Arrondissements usually translates as “districts” (we would probably say “wards”), but I like to think of them as the Aroundments of Paris, which spiral outward from the center like segments of a chambered nautilus. Anyway, the stories make fun of love and make fun of themselves. The characters come to Paris from all over the world, including the vampire world. If you can’t casually say, “Paris, I love you,” much less in French, neither can the Coen brothers, whose story neatly pops any red-balloon ideas about the City of Whatever. My own favorite segment is Oliver Schmitz’s “Place des Fetes” about a Lagos immigrant who thinks maybe he was safer back in Africa — a solid look at humanity in so few moments. The movie may be a stunt, but it’s a good one. Putting that many pieces together is no easy puzzle. It works.

Movie 49

Hurricane on the Bayou
(Greg MacGillivray, 2006, documentary, approx. 60 m.)

A long-running IMAX movie at the Audubon Aquarium in New Orleans. As efficient an intro to the Katrina disaster in New Orleans as you are likely to see. Quickly, the movie sets up the first famous storm in New Orleans, decades ago, and you fully realize that Hurricane Katrina was no surprise. Built around the eco-concerns of two local musicians, handsome Tab Benoit and fiddle-playing teenager Amanda Shaw, this family-friendly doc was begun in the summer of 2005 as a warning about possible futures in the wetlands. Then Katrina hit in August. The movie is so charming it even includes a photogenic alligator family, but the story is still haunting. The theater was utterly silent during storm footage, while New Orleanians in the audience remembered. The movie has a pretty thorough website at www.hurricaneonthebayou.com. Available on DVD and a good, upbeat soundtrack CD, too.

To read Nick Otten's story about a couple of young teachers who have decided to leave New Orleans, click here. 

Movie 48

Iron Man
(Jon Favreau, 2008, 126 m.)

Robert Downey Jr. is very cool as a who-cares superhero, making fun of the whole deal the whole time. As long as he’s ragging on the set-up, the story is a kick. About three-fourths of the way through, when he turns into super-alloy-red-and-gold-boy, I suddenly thought, hey, this movie’s kinda long. Includes Jeff Bridges as Corporate Man and Gwyneth Paltrow as Freckled Girl with long long legs, plus a sneaky sequel set-up at the end of the credits.

Nick Otten is assistant director in the Theater Program at Clayton High School and adjunct professor in the graduate Communications MAT Program at Webster University. He consumes vast quantities of books and movies. In his description of Nick's List, he says,  "For every single work, I’ll quickly post a brief commentary — each week, at least 1 book and 2 movies, usually more. Maybe a paragraph, maybe a page. Sometimes, not often, I may go crazy and write some kind of extra, a page or so, on some movie or pair of movies or some genre, actor, or something else, or how one book relates to another or a movie or you or me or us. Such stuff will be just one click away, guaranteed."

To read the previous Nick's List posts click May 12,   May 5 , April 28 , April 21 , March .