Movie – American Hustle (2013)

American Hustle won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical and is nominated for 10 Academy Awards.  I’ll be honest: if I had not known about the Globes win it would not have even occurred to me to think of this film as a comedy.  Yes, there are a few moments here and there that elicit a chuckle, but by and large this is a drama.  Among the Best Picture nominees The Wolf of Wall Street is much funnier than American Hustle.  Music plays a big part in American Hustle, up to and including one of the characters lip-syncing along to a song, so perhaps the combination of a little comedy and a lot of popular songs is what garnered it the Globes win.  Overall, this is a good movie, but you do have to have some patience.

Movie – An American Werewolf in London (1981)

As a genre, horror movies don’t do much for me.  They have to be really outstanding for me to recommend them to others.  One of the things I do like is the occasional horror movie that mixes comedy into it.  This is probably because I am a fan of dark comedy.  An American Werewolf in London is one of those films.  It takes the overused concept of the werewolf movie and turns it on its ear.  The movie still contains plenty of gore for the people who watch horror movies for that, though. 

Movie – American Dreamz (2006)

American Dreamz pissed off a large part of the country when it was released in 2006.  It is a dark comedy and deeply biting satire of then President George W. Bush, then very popular TV show American Idol, and then not-far-removed-from-9/11 terrorists.  That angered Republicans, TV sheep, and people who felt it was too soon to show terrorists in movies, even if it was to make fun of them.  As you probably can guess, I was not one of the people offended by this film; in fact, I really enjoyed it.  It draws some great parallels between how we elect a President and how people vote for a TV competition winner, including the importance of image over reality.  As the tagline for the film says, “Imagine a country where more people vote for a pop idol than vote for their next President.”

Movie – American Flyers (1985)

Return with me, if you will, to the mid 1980s.  This is a time when men could have facial hair without being considered “gay” (as so many youngsters on this film’s IMDB board refer to the characters), when cycling was pretty much an unknown sport, and when the big bad Soviet Union was still a ready made antagonist for any American competitor.  The movie I speak of is American Flyers – the first film in which I ever saw Kevin Costner.  He did this movie two years before the film that made him a star – 1987’s The Untouchables.

Movie – American Graffiti (1973)

American Graffiti is probably the first “nostalgia” movie ever made about the early rock and roll era.  Even though it is set in 1962, it is really an ode to the 1950s when teens spent their evenings riding up and down the strip in their cars, listening to rock and roll on the radio.  Originally the studio didn’t even want to release the film, sitting on it for six months and requiring director George Lucas to cut some scenes, but when they finally did it became very popular.  It also received five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.  (After Lucas became big from Star Wars, American Graffiti was re-released in Lucas’ original version.) 

Movie – American Reunion (2012)

I was somewhat surprised when I heard another American Pie movie with the entire original cast was going to be coming out.  There had been four direct to video spin-offs that had seemed to suck dry whatever had been left in the tank for the franchise.  I wondered if this movie would be a big embarrassment for everyone involved.  As it turns out, it is the second best of the four theatrical movies.

Movie – American Wedding (2003)

After the success of American Pie, and the even bigger box office success of American Pie 2, the fact that a third movie was going to be made wasn’t that big a surprise.  While the second movie returned everyone from the first one, the third concentrates on just a few of the characters.  I feel that this allowed the third movie to be a little bit better than the second one because they didn’t have to waste time ensuring a dozen or so people all got screen time.

Movie – American Pie 2 (2001)

After the success of 1999’s American Pie, a sequel was inevitable.  Almost as inevitable is that the sequel would try to repeat the jokes that worked the best in the first film.  Some of them worked (i.e. actually going to Band Camp) and some of them didn’t.  The biggest difference between this film and the original is that this sequel concentrated more on the male characters.  While all the young actresses from American Pie are also in this sequel, all except Alyson Hannigan have smaller roles.  This sequel is not as funny as the first one, but it still has enough laughs for me to recommend it.

Movie – American Pie (1999)

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Movie – American Splendor (2003)

The movie American Splendor is based on the series of graphic novels of the same name written by Harvey Pekar, as well as the graphic novel “Our Cancer Year” co-written by Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner.  As you will see in this movie, they are husband and wife.  These graphic novels are not about superheroes, but about Harvey’s life as a VA Hospital file clerk.  This film gets almost as “meta” as the movie Adaptation (2002).  It is simultaneously a “who is Harvey Pekar” movie, a commentary on underground comics, a commentary on the nature of fame, and an example of how an ordinary life can be just as extraordinary as anyone else’s.  Oh, and it’s also about making sure you pick the right kind of jellybean.

“American” Movies

“You have me at a loss.  You know my name but who are you?  Just another American who saw too many movies as a child?  Another orphan of a bankrupt culture who thinks he's John Wayne?  Rambo?  Marshal Dillon?” – Hans Gruber, Die Hard

The word American is in quotes in this category’s title because the next set of movies I will be recommending are not necessarily ones made by Americans, but rather ones that have the word “American” in their titles. 

I just saw the movie American Reunion, and the Olympics have been going on, so I decided it was time I did this category.  (It was one of the original 75-80 that I brainstormed in December of 2010 before starting this blog.)

Besides, the only “Canadian” movie I knew was Canadian Bacon.  (Sorry CS, Bonjour Tristesse, and others.)

One piece of trivia that spans movies, so the best place to mention it is here:  Mena Suvari had come to people’s notice in 1999 for two movies – American Beauty and American Pie.  She had a third movie coming out that same year and to capitalize on her connection to it the studio changed its title to American Virgin.  I recommend just sticking with the first two for your viewing pleasure.

As I post the reviews, I will come back and post the links to them here:

American Beauty (posted January 18, 2011)
American Splendor
American Pie
American Pie 2
American Wedding
American Reunion
American Graffiti
American Flyers
American Dreamz
An American Werewolf in London

Bonus:  Here is my review of the award winning novel American Gods (posted January 23, 2011)

On to the reviews…

Movie – American Beauty (1999)

American Beauty won five Oscars, including four of the five major ones, capped off by Best Picture.  It only missed for Best Actress.  Annette Bening was beaten by Hilary Swank’s performance in Boys Don’t Cry.  Unlike most Oscar winning movies, which are very dramatic and heavy, this movie had enough humor in it to be called a comedy/drama.