Little Missy Goes To The Movies!

Summer 2014

Little Missy has seen three movies so good I must just share them with my readers!  No doubt many of you have also seen them and we can compare notes!

Number One

Yves Saint Laurent, the authorised biopic with clothes from the archives, directed by Jalil Lespert was a Little Missy dream film.  Tears unconsciously flowed from my eyes from start to finish. I watched Pierre Niney bring to life the young Yves Saint Laurent, the one I didn't know but would have given anything to have. Guillaume Galliene did an admirable job as the young Pierre Berge, the man who took on the somewhat thankless early task of organising and babysitting  the young and out of control genius designer.  Nikolai Kinski made me laugh as a perverse young Karl Lagerfeld.  The clothes, the women in their lives, the locations.....you can see this movie on line and it should be mandatory viewing for any person who calls him or herself a member of the fashion community.  You must see this movie!

Number Two

Boyhood, directed by Richard Linklater took twelve years to make.  It's fiction, but uses the same actors, and all are admirable in their work, especially Ethan Hawke as the father.  Ethan seems to specialise in long drawn out but ultimately satisfying Linklater movie sequels (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight).  The boy portrayed in the film is gorgeous and engaging, beginning at age six, and yes, he has his share of tough times and triumphs before he goes off to university.  He does seem to get off a little easy, and sometimes it seems like the really hard stuff that happens to even the best and brightest of kids doesn't happen to him.  Yes, he sees terrible things happen to his mom when she makes bad marital choices, but we don't get the sense that he has been all that affected by circumstance.  We never see him sitting in his room and crying for instance.  I would have liked a little more connection with the young boy's emotions, but maybe for this Herculean task, I am asking too much?  Read the LA Times movie reviewer Kenneth Turan for a critical review of this picture.  I am not as hard line as Kenneth, but I wasn't completely satisfied, either.  My movie audience loved the film, and everyone clapped at the end, even Little Missy.  Most of us want the likable people we watch in the movies to succeed.  And then there's Woody Allen...

Number Three

Magic in the Moonlight could be Little Missy's autobiography.  And Little Missy loves that Woody Allen wrote and directed it, because he gets it right!  An internationally famous magician genius (played by Colin Firth) has been asked by a friend to debunk a young American psychic (played by Emma Stone)  in the south of France sometime in the twenties.  Emma is staying with her mother at the fabulous villa of a rich American widow, who is trying to contact her dead husband through Emma.  The widow's nitwit son is in love with Emma and serenades her on his ukulele.  This is the most tedious part of the movie.  Colin is definitely (re) playing the part as Mr. Darcy for all it's worth, and debunking the young psychic is a metaphor for a middle aged man falling for a beautiful and vivacious young woman.  She can't be this beautiful! She can't be this vivacious!  She can't make Colin feel so alive!  She must be debunked!  But Colin falls in love with her anyway and why not?  She is young, beautiful, wears haute couture and they are in the south of France, for goodness sake!  This is like a page out of Little Missy the Authorised Version!  Let Little Missy tell you what's going to go down.  Colin will marry Emma and the honeymoon period will last about three months (maybe three weeks is more like it) until he knows he really has her.  Then Colin will spend the next thirty years trying to debunk everything he can about Emma!  Because he's jealous of her youth and beauty!  There is no more to this movie!  Trust Little Missy on this one!  This is a great great picture, but don't read anything intellectual into it!  It's just an old misanthrope seducing and being seduced by a young girl.  This is the only time in this guy's life that he will be an empathetic, feeling person, and as soon as he's got her, it's back to his mean old ways!  

Well, hope you catch at least one of these great pictures!  Little Missy hopes you are all enjoying your summer!  Send postcards!    xxxxxxx