This week, Chelsea Handler had her final episode of her late-night E!talk show, Chelsea Lately. A number of her famous friends stopped by to say goodbye, and many of them took the stage with her to sing “Goodbye to E!”
The lineup for the parody of 1980s social awareness songs included Gwen Stefani, Dave Grohl, Trace Adkins, Sammy Hagar, Jennifer Aniston, Fergie, Avril Lavigne, Gerard Butler, Kate Beckinsale,Selena Gomez, Kelly Osbourne, LeAnn Rimes, Kathy Griffin, Marlee Matlin, and Melissa McCarthy. Check it out. [September 2014 Update: Unfortunately, the video of the song is no longer available on YouTube, so instead below is an Entertainment Tonight video of “The 6 Best Moments From the ‘Chelsea Lately’ Series Finale.”]
What will you miss most about Chelsea Lately? Leave your two cents in the comments.
When one considers that much of the U.S. has snow on the ground for a significant part of the year, it is somewhat surprising that so few movies are placed in that setting. There are the Christmas movies. But where are the movies set in the frigid and dreary months of January and February?
Perhaps because I grew up in the snow and later lived part of my life in areas without snow, I especially enjoy a good snow movie. And there are some excellent movies set in the snow such as the sad The Sweet Hereafter (1997). There’s also Paul Newman’s fine performance in Nobody’s Fool (1994). Murder sagas also seem to work well in the snow, as shown by Fargo (1996) and Insomnia (2002).
Snow Angels
photo: Adam Colton (licensed for reuse)
One of my favorite snow movies, though, is Snow Angels (2006). The film is set in a 1970s small town in Pennsylvania. The time of year is during the weeks when snow stays on the ground but it seems too cold for more snowflakes.
In the opening scene of Snow Angels, a marching band practices as their director tries to inspire them. The students suddenly hear gun shots in the distance. The screen goes dark and we jump to “weeks earlier.” So we know from the start that somehow at least one person is heading toward a tragedy.
There are tragic turns in the movie, but I will not ruin the film. The movie focuses on two families. In one, Annie (Kate Beckinsale) and Glenn (Sam Rockwell) are separated spouses struggling with the failure of their marriage while trying to take care of their young daughter.
Annie works with and used to babysit for teenager Arthur (Michael Angaro). And the other family focus is Arthur’s family. While Arthur is developing a relationship with a new girl at school, his parents are separating.
The acting in Snow Angels is superb and believable. Sam Rockwell may not immediately come to your mind when listing the top actors today, but he continues to make his every movie worth watching. Here, as the troubled Glenn, he is outstanding. He makes viewers sympathize with someone they probably would not want to be around in real life.
I had seen Snow Angels several years ago. So I watched it again before writing this entry. I enjoyed the movie the second time too, although it may not be a movie you will want to watch repeatedly. Although there is a great deal of sadness in the movie, one may also find a little hope toward the end.
The movie is based on the book Snow Angels by Stewart O’Nan. Apparently the book included someone making a literal snow angel, while the movie does not. Still, the title suits the movie in a number of ways. “Snow Angels” may refer to real angels or to the cold emotions and isolation faced by many of the characters.
If you are looking for a light comedy or uplifting story for this weekend, you should look elsewhere. But if you are in the mood for an intense drama that keeps you enthralled, you may like Snow Angels.
The trailer gives away too much of the movie. So, you are better off not seeing the trailer before seeing the movie. But if you want to know more before deciding whether to watch the film, the trailer for SnowAngels is here.
“Snow Angel” the Song
Instead of the trailer I will introduce you to an excellent band from Ohio called Over the Rhine. The band consists of the husband and wife team of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist.
Below is a fan recording of their live performance of their beautiful song, “Snow Angel.” The song is not related to the movie of the similar name. The singular “Snow Angel” is off their album of the plural Snow Angels (2008).
In the song, the singer tells of saying goodbye to her “one and only love” who goes off to war (“The rumors of a distant war / Called my true love’s name”). But the man is killed during the war, leaving the singer heartbroken (“Snow angel, snow angel / Someday I’m gonna fly / This cold and broken heart of mine / Will one day wave goodbye”).
Like the movie Snow Angels, the song “Snow Angel” captures something about the pain and loneliness of winter. It also reminds us to enjoy our days of warmer weather.
Movies You Might Have Missed is a Chimesfreedom series to inform our readers about good movies that did not receive the attention they deserved. If you saw Snow Angels, what did you think? Any thoughts on the very last scene? Leave your two cents in the comments.
There is a scene in director Len Wiseman’s new film Total Recall (2012) where we see someone who reminds us of a funny scene in the original Total Recall (1990) starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. If only the rest of the remake had the sense of humor of that one scene. It says a lot about the new remake that the only time the new film made me smile was when it reminded me of the original.
The new film follows the same basic premise of the original film and both are based on a short story by Philip K. Dick (whose work also inspired Blade Runner and Minority Report). Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell) works in a futuristic society and decides to go to a company named Rekall that promises to implant memories into your brain so you will believe you had a vacation or whatever fantasy you wish. Quaid asks to fulfill a fantasy of a spy adventure, and then it turns out Quaid is really a spy (or is he?) but did not know it and thus begins the adventure.
Philip K. Dick’s short story that inspired both movies — “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” — is about the twists in the tale questioning reality. Although both film versions deviate from the short story, the 1990 film adaption did much to play with the idea of whether Quaid was really a spy or imagining the whole thing. It questioned reality while taking the viewer on an exciting adventure with some campy humor by Schwarzenegger and his co-stars.
Regarding the 2012 movie, I give the new film too much credit by summarizing the plot about the identity issue, which is really just background for the real plot of the film: Kate Beckinsale does her best angry look while chasing Farrell through dim CGI special effects, occasionally catching up to him and fighting. Then it repeats again and again. You get a sense of that from the trailer.
With all the potential themes, ranging from questions about reality to colonization to invading another society, the film is not much more than a chase film. I appreciate the attempts to turn the original into a darker setting like Blade Runner, and I was intrigued by the decision to move the Mars of the original to a futuristic colony on Australia. But the movie fails to do much with the change, while wasting the talents of Colin Farell. Thus, although there are some good action scenes, one leaves the movie theater wondering what was the point of the remake.
Conclusion?: Rent the original Total Recall, which was directed by Paul Verhoeven and co-starred Sharon Stone, Rachel Ticotin, and Ronny Cox.
Other Reviews Because Why Should You Trust Me?Rotten Tomatoes currently has a 31% critics rating and a 50% audience rating for the Colin Ferrell film (compared to 85% critics/70% audience for the original). Because I am deviating from my usual practice of writing about things I like, I will just include a few positive review links: Slate‘s Dana Stevens said the remake is “a taut, serviceable sci-fi thriller with a couple of neat visual ideas.” Richard Roeper prefers the original but praises the new version’s special effects and performances of Farrell, Beckinsale, and Jessica Biel.
(2006). The film is set in a 1970s small town in Pennsylvania. The time of year is during the weeks when snow stays on the ground but it seems too cold for more snowflakes.
