Movie-A-Day #272: Great Balls of Fire (1989).
Happy 76th birthday to The Killer, the rock ‘n’ roll legend, Jerry Lee Lewis. His biopic “Great Balls of Fire” is pretty conventional fare, but Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder sure do give energetic performances as Jerry Lee and his teenage cousin/bride Myra.
Movie-A-Day #271: Mystery Men (1999).
Happy 47th birthday to Janeane Garofalo. I used to have such a huge crush on her back in the day. I still do, I guess. But anyway, she was funny in “Mystery Men.”
Movie-A-Day #270: Flesh and Bone (1993).
Happy 39th birthday to Gwyneth Paltrow. Most of her resume in the last few years have been taken up by either singing or being an Iron Man sidekick, but she did some pretty great work in her early career. Like her small but eye-opening turn opposite James Caan and Dennis Quaid in “Flesh and Bone.”
Movie-A-Day #269: Tom and Viv (1994).
Today’s birthday boy is one of the most influential poets of the 20th century, T.S. Eliot. His tumultuous marriage to Vivienne Haigh-Wood, and the way her mental illness was dismissed and mistreated, are the subject of Michael Hastings’ play and subsequent film “Tom and Viv,” starring Willem DeFoe and Miranda Richardson.
Movie-A-Day #268: That Thing You Do! (1996).
Today is National One Hit Wonder Day, a day set aside to celebrate the Afternoon Delights and Kajagoogoos and Macarenas of our pop cultural consciousness. Tom Hanks’ “That Thing You Do!” is a love note to all those acts who shot to the top of the mountain, only to realize that there was no place else to go but down.
Desuko Movie Spot. 