It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)

I can safely say that this is the first film I ever watched at the advice of a homeless person (who reviewed several holiday movies in a charity newspaper). Sure enough, several major characters have no legal address. They spend most of the movie squatting for months...in a mansion whose owner, extreme tycoon Michael O'Connor, usually stays away all winter. That's about as feel-good as a story about homeless people gets. Indeed, I felt much better than I did after the previous romantic comedy.

Nothing Sacred (1937)

Ah, romantic comedies, possibly the biggest entertainment gambles I take. Those from the '30s may be my biggest of all, equally likely to live up to their reputation as classics or fall flat from severe dating. Still a better track record than popular modern comedies for me.

I probably should have noted in advance that director William Wellman is much better known for serious fare. You might well have assumed from the title that this movie would be serious too, and the premises do have a bit of darkness to them: A woman (Carole Lombard) diagnosed with radium poisoning gets a reporter's (Fredric March) seemingly sympathetic attention, followed by the general public's. In truth, according to the cynical reporter as the apparent main point, various people are just capitalizing on the sob story and won't remember her long. The comic part? She just discovered it was a drunken misdiagnosis but wants to use her celebrity status to leave her podunk town for NYC for a while. Not so easy to enjoy when she has to figure out how to escape the expectation of imminent death without angering millions and dragging the beloved reporter down with her.

Into the Woods (2014)

Yup, a second mashup of kiddie folklore featuring Chris Pine in the same day. My family has a strange habit or inadvertent tradition of seeing unhappy musical movies on Christmas: Sweeney Todd, Les Miserables, even Inside Llewyn Davis in a pinch. I wanted us to see something else but was narrowly outvoted, partly on the basis of schedule. At least this one has a partly happy and victorious ending.

I'd seen the play as a teen and reacted as many viewers do: The first act is cute fun, but the second is uncomfortably dark to subvert the idea of "happily ever after." The junior version understandably drops the second act, thereby missing Stephen Sondheim's point. If you already know the story, you may well wonder why Disney would dare touch it. I figure the company has been trying to subvert its own history at least since Enchanted in 2007, no doubt inspired by the likes of Shrek. The results are usually pretty popular, but that doesn't stop Disney from reverting to standard fare, as evidenced by a trailer for a live-action Cinderella. In the case of ItW, things have been toned down slightly in questionable good-guy ethics and body count, but it still feels about as dark as Disney ventures.

Rise of the Guardians (2012)

By now some of you may be thinking, "What's with all the 2012 animations on this blog?" I couldn't tell you. I moved this one up in my queue because it was the only one I knew to have anything related to Christmas in it. It's actually set on and around Easter, but with all the attention given to Jack Frost and Santa Claus (herein called "North" for some reason), that hardly matters.

Yes, I hate the title. Even if it didn't come between Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole and Guardians of the Galaxy, you could hardly guess what sort of guardians were involved. Besides, there have been quite enough movies with "Rise" in the title in the last, oh, decade, and it's not especially appropriate herein. But I moved past the title and enjoyed the movie, for the most part.

Belle (2013)

A rare case in which my dad selected a movie I never heard of before. It's also a rare case in which I had to wonder about the title. The protagonist, Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay, always goes by "Dido" or "Miss Lindsey." I suppose Dido would evoke either the mythical queen or the singer, but it wasn't the only alternative. Belle evokes either Beauty and the Beast or a southern debutante...then again, perhaps not for native British audiences.

Nor had I heard about the true story on which it's based. IMDb presently lists only one, quite trivial error, tho other sources say it plays a tad fast and loose in parts.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)

This has to be the first movie I've seen because of the title appearing in a Warner Bros. cartoon, albeit on a copy of the book. Despite its high praise, it took a long time to become an option on Netflix, which made me wonder if it hadn't aged well. Now the only major negative I can think of is director Elia Kazan's history of getting people blacklisted during the Red Scare, which might hinder distribution of all but his most popular works.

At first, with young protagonist Francie and her brother swiping and pawning goods, I mistook the setting for the Great Depression, but it turns out to have been an even harder period for some: the early 1900s. The main family includes at least one person who remembers Ireland, and the father (James Gleason in an award-winning role) likes to play up his heritage with jolly songs like "Molly Malone"...and getting "sick" too often for comfort, as his wife likes to put it to the children. Such a setup for a two-hour drama got me thinking I'd best do something else while half-watching and mostly listening. Mercifully, as the title hints, the story doesn't settle into despair. Not for long, anyway.

The Naked City (1948)

Conventionally, this is classified as film noir, as befits pre-Rififi director Jules Dassin, but I think it pushes the bounds of that label. Most of the action takes place by day, for example, and the protagonists are hardly corrupt or morose. I'd call it just an old-time murder mystery -- a police procedural, even.

The most distinctive feature of the, ah, feature comes in the narration. Despite not identifying as a character within the story, the narrator conveys a fair amount of personality, more or less lightly mocking the concerned citizens of New York every step of the way. (Maybe Lemony Snicket should branch out accordingly.) It threatens to annoy rather than amuse viewers after a while, but hopefully, by that time, you'll be too engrossed to dwell on that.

The Visitor (2007)

I must have heard of this movie before its suggestion via Netflix, because it got Richard Jenkins nominated for Best Actor, but I don't know him from anything else. Sometimes I think the Academy has lower standards for older actors' performances (he was 59-60 then). The only other halfway familiar name involved is Thomas McCarthy, who also directed The Station Agent and Win Win -- basically a go-to for quaint dramas.

Jenkins plays Walter, a rather withdrawn, curmudgeonly professor who grudgingly returns to his NYC apartment for business purposes. Imagine his surprise to find a young couple taking up residence there, Tarek from Syria and Zainab from Senegal. They had been tricked into thinking the rightful owner approved their stay for months. Walter gets them to move out but then realizes that they have no promising backup plan. In a setup vaguely reminiscent of The Goodbye Girl, he somewhat awkwardly shares the apartment with them. While Zainab never seems to welcome Walter's presence, Tarek finds a way to bond with him: djembe drumming, Tarek's main source of income. After a short lesson, Walter tries being a street musician himself, despite not fitting the usual demographics.

Sounds like a possible formula for a comedy, but the film rarely tries to be remotely funny. Especially when things change dramatically (literally) about halfway in.

After the Wedding (2006)

Netflix ventured almost a full five stars in suggesting this to me, probably because that's what I gave The Hunt. Both are recent dramas, take place (mostly) in Denmark, and star Mads Mikkelsen. But that's about where the similarity ends.

The action in AtW begins in India, where protagonist Jacob has been an orphanage manager. He doesn't miss Denmark, because it has a lot of rich people, whom he resents despite having to persuade some to give to his cause. One rich man, Jørgen (Rolf Lassgård, who resembles Gérard Depardieu with a stronger bass), offers a big donation on rather bossy conditions that bring Jacob not only back to Denmark but to the wedding of Jørgen's daughter, Anna.