She Likes to Watch

One of my favorite New Year’s Eves occurred when I sat alone in my living room and watched “The Blues Brothers.”

What can I say – it’s a great movie. And after years of disappointing New Year’s Eves, I found it refreshing to just stay at home and do nothing.

Heck, I didn’t even watch Dick Clark do the countdown.

These days, I normally stay at home on New Year’s because 1.) I’m married, 2.) old and 3.) have a young child.

A party these days entails actually staying up until midnight.

Unfortunately, I don’t see any listing for “The Blues Brothers” on TV this year. And Dick Clark’s big guests this year are Carrie Underwood and Billy Cyrus’s daughter. So a trip to the video store might be in order.

In honor of New Year’s, though, I might consider a movie with New Year’s moments. Here are some good ones:

• “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) You’ll probably want to put the kids to bed before starting this one. The New Year’s scene here occurs when a bunch of devil worshipping partygoers (another reason to stay at home on New Year’s) celebrate “Year One,” which can only mean bad things are coming for poor, unsuspecting Rosemary. My question: What kind of mobile do you buy a devil baby?
• “Godfather: Part II.” (1974) Things appear quite jovial and festive at a New Year’s party when Michael Corleone announces to his brother Fredo: “I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart.” And, really – Michael Corleone’s heart is not one you want to break.
• “The Shining.” (1980) So I guess New Year’s parties can signal bad things ahead. At the Overlook Hotel, a creepy 1920s New Year’s party is taking place when the circling-the-drain writer/caretaker Jack Torrence meets Grady, a ghostly butler, who advises Torrence to “correct” some of his family problems. Note to self: Don’t take family advice from dead killers.
• “Ocean’s Eleven.” (1960). Leave the party hats for next year. A bunch of thieves plan to use the commotion from New Year’s as a distraction for a major heist.
• “About Last Night” (1986) It’s been a while since I saw this one, but I remember liking it a lot. And apparently – according to what I just read on the Internet – Rob Lowe and Demi Moore break up at a New Year’s party.
• “When Harry Met Sally” (1989) Just seconds before the countdown, Harry professes his love for Sally. When Sally seems initially cool to the idea, Harry launches into his memorable speech: “I love that you get cold when it’s seventy-one degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you’re lookin’ at me like I’m nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it’s not because I’m lonely. And it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

Now that’s a way to usher in a new year.

–Pat P.

Just as we don’t always have room for every interesting tidbit that comes to light in our interviews, we also didn’t have room for every interesting interview tidbit we wanted to publish in today’s Ticket section. But we still want you to know about them, so we’ve published them here instead. Read on:

More of Sarah Linn’s interviews

James Cromwell
Best known as the tenderhearted pig farmer in “Babe,” James Cromwell seems too mild to be a political firebrand.

Spend a few minutes chatting with the lanky, Oscar-nominated actor about animal rights or the environment, however, and his gentle baritone rings with anger.
Cromwell appeared at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival in March.
Cromwell credits his father, a film director who was blacklisted for nearly a decade for his political views, for setting him on a path of activism.

“He had cut out this little one-column squib from The New York Times … there was a theater that was touring the South that was auditioning for actors,” the actor recalled. “And Dad said, ‘Why don’t you go down and try?’ ”

That tour with the Free Southern Theater showed Cromwell the full injustice of 1960s-era segregation, he said, including whites-only restaurants and violent beatings and arrests.

Back in New York, he worked with the Black Panthers and joined the anti-war movement. Cromwell became a vegan and animal rights activist after starring in “Babe.”

“I’m a big supporter of throwing paint on fur coats. I know it’s incendiary and I know that it’s polarizing,” the fiery actor said. “You can’t give up.”

Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash could offer some advice about growing up in the limelight. The daughter of Johnny Cash and the stepdaughter of June Carter Cash, she rubbed elbows with some of country music’s biggest stars as a child and released her first chart-topping single at age 24.

More recently, though, the Grammy winner wowed critics and fans with “Black Cadillac,” an exploration of loss, love and redemption written after her parents and stepmother died in a two-year span.

Cash, who performed May 6 at the Cohan Center, is reluctant to call “Black Cadillac” a tribute album. In fact, she gets a bit peeved when anyone tries to apply extra meaning to her work.

OK, really peeved.

“When you go to Broadway and see a stage actor, you don’t think, ‘Oh, they’re being so public with themselves,’ ” she said. “You know what I mean? They’re an actor. They’re playing a part.”

Besides, added Cash with a chuckle, “It’s not as if I’m getting up reading pages from my diary.”

More of Patrick S. Pemberton’s interviews

Toots Hibbert
Sometimes I feel so … American. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just that I’m so accustomed to American accents, it can be difficult when someone talks like — well, like Toots Hibbert, whose Jamaican accent is thick. Really thick.

At one point, I know he was telling a good story, but I was completely lost. Then he said something like, “You know — Keith Richards?” And I was like, “Keith Richards?” And he said, “Sometimes I talk too fast and people don’t understand me.” To which I shamelessly tried to fake my way out of it and said, “Oh yeah, yeah — Keith Richards.”

So I think he had a good quote about Keith Richards, but you didn’t see it in the story.

Hibbert performed at Downtown Brew in September.

Ziggy Marley
Usually, journalists rush through celebrity interviews, hoping to squeeze in as many questions as possible before the allotted 15 minutes are up. But with Marley, who did not impose any time limit, I sort of gave up after 15 minutes. Let’s just say Ziggy isn’t much of a talker.

He was nice enough. And he didn’t get irritated when the inevitable questions about his father came up. (“My father is also one of my teachers, somebody I look up to musically. So I have no problem speaking about him.”) It’s just that a good source expands on things a bit. Which is to say that tired yes and no — or other one-word — answers aren’t always desirable during an interview.

Marley appeared at Avila Beach Resort in March.

— Tribune features staff

Hollywood must have a vindictive streak.

After weeks of dull, unimaginative fare, the powers that be have flooded the Central Coast with several fascinating movies – forcing filmgoers to spend the next couple weeks in dark, sticky-floored theaters.

It’s one of the disadvantages of living in a smaller movie market.
While New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago get to spread out their Oscar-season offerings, the little guys (read: San Luis Obispo County) have to wait.

When they’re handing out Golden Globe nominations, we’re scratching our heads. “There Will Be Blood?” “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly?” Those won’t be here for weeks!

Meanwhile, great films like Todd Hayne’s brilliant Bob Dylan biography, “I’m Not There,” get shoved out the door before their time.

I know I’m silly to complain. Too many good movies are better than too few, right?
Right?

Either way, I’ll spend my holidays wandering from Downtown Centre to the Fremont to the Palm in a sleep-deprived daze, subsisting on Junior Mints and jumbo tubs of popcorn.
If you see my pale, listless face, take pity, ticket-takers.
I’ve got too many movies to watch.

Here’s a list of new films I’m dying to see:

“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
Director Tim Burton and his darkly dreamy cast bring new blood (pun intended) to this classic musical. From all accounts, it’s a Gothic masterpiece – equal parts “Sleepy Hollow” and “Les Miserables.”

“Atonement”
Get out those hankies. When lovely Keira Knightley falls for a housekeeper’s son (Britain’s newest hunk, James McAvoy), the result is romantic and catastrophic.

“I Am Legend”
I’m told that the ending of this Will Smith blockbuster departs greatly from the 1954 novel. Oh well. Who wouldn’t watch the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air battle blood-sucking monsters?!

“Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”
I’m so happy to see John C. Reilly, the reliable, potato-faced character actor, get a starring role that I’ll give this goofy spoof a shot.

“Juno”
Director Jason Reitman’s “Thank You For Smoking” was one of the slickest, sharpest comedies of 2005. “Juno,” about a smart teen (Ellen Page) pregnant by her best friend (Michael Cera), looks smart, quirky and sweet.

– Sarah L.

*** Photo courtesy of Movieweb.

Out of all the Christmas movies that mob the airways each holiday season, “A Christmas Story” has to be the most painful.

There are threats of gun play, tongue mutilation and soap scrubbing. Public humiliation and childhood ripoffs. Adults – including Santa and the Old Man who treasures his “major award” (read: leg lamp) – are clueless. Kids, especially the hapless Ralphie, are helpless.

All this, and a PG rating.

Based on the book “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash” by radio personality Jean Shepherd, “A Christmas Carol” follows one kid’s struggles to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas despite multiple warnings that “You’ll shoot your eye out.”

It’s such a clever, spot-on send-up of the 1940s that it’s difficult to remember this movie was made in 1983.

Local audiences can enjoy this so-called “Tribute to the Original, Traditional, One-Hundred-Percent, Red-Blooded, Two-Fisted, All-American Christmas” tonight.

“A Christmas Carol” will be screened at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Fremont Theatre, 1025 Monterey St. in San Luis Obispo. Arrive a half-hour early for trivia and prizes.
Tickets are $7.50.

****

Next at the Fremont is the classic musical “West Side Story.” That movie will be screened on Tuesday, Jan. 15.

– Sarah L.

(Image courtesy of Amazon.com.)

Every family has a favorite Christmas movie.

For some, it’s the claymation classic “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” or the heartwarming “Miracle on 34th Street.” Who wouldn’t get weepy after witnessing Ebenezer Scrooge’s change of heart or Charlie Brown’s pathetic twig of a tree?

At my house, holidays meant perky musicals – “White Christmas” – and animated classics, like “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” (The original “Grinch,” of course. Jim Carrey deserves a stake of holly through the heart for ruining that Dr. Seuss favorite.)

There may have even been a few screenings of “Ernest Saves Christmas.”

For most folks, however, the Big One will always be “It’s A Wonderful Life.”
It’s a simple but surprisingly effective story, about a desperate man who gets the ultimate second chance.

Jimmy Stewart sealed his status as movie icon with his portrayal of George Bailey, a carefree young man turned distraught husband and father.
Director Frank Capra won a Golden Globe for the 1946 film. And millions of American viewers made it a Christmas classic.

Central Coast residents can catch a local take on “It’s A Wonderful Life” this Wednesday at the Pewter Plough Playhouse in Cambria.

The theater company presents a radio play based on the movie as part of its Readers’ Theatre program.

In lieu of tickets, audiences are asked to donate new, unwrapped toys or $5. The Cambria Fire Department will distribute the toys to needy children.

“It’s A Wonderful Life” starts at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Pewter Plough, 824 Main St. in Cambria’s West Village.
For more information, call 927-3877 or visit www.pewterploughplayhouse.org.

– Sarah L.

** Image courtesy of Movieweb.com.