Movies |
Snow Day Special: 10 ways to console yourself because you can’t go to work
By
Published: Jan 27, 2015
Category:
Drama
Snow days. I remember being zipped into a snowsuit. A hat — my mother insisted. And then it was outside for hours with my sled, a wooden Flexible Flyer. The good old days? They’re all gone. When the snow — or even the threat of snow — renders us housebound, we can still work. Or clean closets. Or go on strike, feed your head, gladden your soul, dance in your socks in your kitchen. Sure, you could be virtuous. But first: here are 10 downloads to tempt you.
THE STATE WITHIN
Could an international corporation be a criminal enterprises? Could our government happily do its bidding? For a few days after watching two episodes a night, I was living in a “State Within” world — I questioned every news story, imagined the machinations behind it. Not a bad thing. 420 thrilling minutes.
AFTER THE WEDDING
Jacob works in an orphanage in India. He hasn’t been home in 20 years, and that’s just fine with him. Bad news: The orphanage is running out of money. Good news: Jørgen, a philanthropist, wants to write the large check that will save it. On one condition: He wants to meet the recipient. The woman who runs the orphanage can’t go. Well, Jørgen is Danish, Jacob is Danish. Jacob should go. As it happens, Jacon meets with Jørgen the day before Jørgen’s daughter is to marry. He should come. And thus begins a story that twists and turns like a thriller.
LOCAL HERO
The plot of “Local Hero,” made in long-ago 1983, doesn’t begin to convey its charm. An oil executive in Houston (Peter Riegert) is sent to a small town on the Scottish coast by his eccentric boss (Burt Lancaster) to buy up everything in sight. Then the oil company will build a giant refinery. Riches are soon on everyone’s mind — in Houston and in Scotland. Music by Mark Knopfler. Magic in every frame.
MAGIC MIKE
And speaking of magic… The club is filled with women, mostly married, on a “night out.” The performers are hunky young men with shaved and oiled chests. And there are “multiple opportunities for intimate audience participation.” But let’s go backstage. Mike Lane, 30, works under the Florida sun as a roofer. At night, he’s the star of the Kings of Tampa, who dance at Matthew McConaughey’s Club Xquisite. And on the side, he designs furniture and sees that as his future. Did I say that Channing Tatum plays Mike?
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Warren Beatty (McCabe), a small-time gambler with more dreams than brains, comes to the tiny community of Presbyterian Church to open a bar and bordello. It is his great good fortune to run into Julie Christie (Mrs. Miller), an opium-smoking prostitute who actually knows how to run a whorehouse. They join forces, get successful, have an awkward romance. A corporation decides to buy them out. Christie’s in favor of the deal — she understands the power of Big Business — but Beatty fancies himself a negotiator. So the corporation dispatches three gunmen to kill him.
SMOD
You expected Bob Marley? Too easy. Sam, son of blind singers from Mali, and his friends formed a group to make “African Rap.” And that, late at night, they’d rehearse on the rooftop terrace of Amadou and Mariam’s house. Manu Chao happened to be staying there. He liked what he heard and volunteered to produce. The music evolved. Chao left the sound effects out. And the result is glorious, exultant, original. You will move.
KRISHNA DAS
I don’t have the slightest clue what Krishna Das is singing about — the Hindu names of God, mostly — but I take comfort in the comfort he’s found in his guru, Neem Karoli Baba. My ears like the way he’s made chanting accessible to my hopelessly western ears. And it’s the weirdest thing. The music begins and, five seconds later, I feel like I’m… home. Try it?
The Feelies
Savvy critics in the 1980s called them “the best underrated band in America.” The music: punk meets J.J. Cale meets The Byrds meets the Thirteen Floor Elevators meets Indian raga meets surf music meets the Velvet Underground. Country western dance band. Movie soundtrack rock and roll….when the general mood of the movie is urban and cool and observant, smart without being ambitious. Get up, stand up.
ACT ONE
The best Broadway memoir. Ever. Moss Hart was a phenomenally successful playwright — “The Man Who Came to Dinner” and “You Can’t Take it With You,” which won the Pulitzer Prize. As a theater director, he won a Tony award for “My Fair Lady.” He wrote the screenplay for “A Star Is Born.” This memoir deals with none of those triumphs. As its title suggests, it’s about Hart’s childhood, his struggles and his ascent — for me, the most exciting and important times in anyone’s life. Maybe the best part: camps and resorts, where, as social director, he’s expected to stage non-stop entertainment for vacationing New Yorkers. Summer after summer, he treks to the Poconos or the Catskills, loses 20 pounds and returns to New York solvent and bitter.
