Amy Wren Watched What? January 13-19, 2025
Watch, Amy, Watch! It's Tuesday, which means it's time for another edition of "Amy Wren Watched What?"
Jaws (1975) - Directed by Steven Spielberg
Not a lot to say here, y'know? I mean it's Jaws. It's great, and a textbook example of how creativity can thrive when dealing with constraints. Let's move on!
Forrest Gump (1994) - Directed by Robert Zemeckis
This is a tough movie to pin down I have to say. Sometimes it hits just the right notes in a scene, and I wonder if this is better than I remember it being. But then it will follow up with a complete dud of a scene, and I realize that nope, I had it right.
This was a technological marvel of a film when it was released. So much so that a lot of the things it did never make you think twice about it, which draws your attention to a couple of the scenes where the effects work doesn't work at all.
Also, the soundtrack is full of the most obvious songs, which are dropped in the movie at the most obvious times. However, it doesn't really matter, because the soundtrack is pretty great. And that's before you even touch the score, which is quite good as well.
If it seems like I'm just kind of rambling, you'd be correct. This movie is too good to dismiss as a complete piece of crap, but is too flawed to say that it's a secretly great film. Maybe we'll just leave it at that, like one of its 1994 Best Picture competitors that we'll be talking about next week, is a perfectly fine film to have on while enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Dìdi (2024) - Directed by Sean Wang
Being a teenager kind of sucks, y'know? And arguably the worst part of being a teenager is that period between seventh grade and tenth grade. You are without a doubt no longer a grade schooler, but not quite a high schooler. There's more expected of you, but you don't quite have the experience to actually be good at much of it. And on top of it all, there's the horrors of puberty that are awful to some degree for us all, cis and trans.
This fraught time in Chris Wang's (Izaac Wang) life is the focus of this film, as he spends the final month of his summer vacation in 2008 before he starts high school. It's an eventful month, as he tries out new skills, takes tenuous steps towards going out with a girl, and deals with shifting friendships. And on top of it, he has to deal with his sister Vivian (Shirley Chen) departing for college, and a sometimes contentious relationship with his mom, who is holding the house together while her husband is working back in Taiwan.
The film treats Chris and his family, particularly his mom, with a whole lot of compassion as they try to deal with a tough situation on top of the usual pains of being/parenting a teenager. And though it's a period piece (yeah, 2008 is old enough for one of those), it doesn't deal in nostalgia, which is a real credit to the film. Because, after all, being a teenager kind of sucks.
Major League (1989) - Directed by David S. Ward
Not going to lie, large parts of this film have aged like warm milk. However, it has such a great feel of the energy a good sports team can bring to its fandom. And that final game is a masterwork of capturing the drama of a meaningful game of baseball.
Arguably the best part of the film, and the reason I decided to watch this movie this past weekend, was the performance of Bob Uecker as Cleveland announcer Harry Doyle. This movie and Mr. Belvedere were my introductions to him, and it would be an embarrassingly long time for me to realize he actually was a real play by play guy. I was sorry to hear he passed away last week.
Other Movies Watched
Personal Best (1982) - Robert Towne
The writer of Chinatown's directorial debut starts strong enough. However, the film loses a lot of steam once the focus is taken off of the relationship between Chris (Mariel Hemingway) and Tory (Patrice Donnelly).
Do you have thoughts about the movies on this list? Want to share what you watched last week? Join the conversation in the comments!
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