ALSO APPEARING
Grace Kelly deservedly won an Oscar as the long-suffering wife of a washed-up entertainer in The Country Girl (1954). And yet, it is Bing Crosby’s outstanding, heart-rending performance as her husband that sticks with me. I mean, here is a guy best known for crooning with big bands and playing straight man to Bob Hope in stupid Road movies. Who woulda thought it? 
Everyone raved about the performance of child actor Haley Joel Osment in the creepy and splendid The Sixth Sense (1999), and he is exceedingly good. But- it is Bruce Willis, a consummate pro, whose solid performance sells the somewhat shaky premise of the movie. Because of his appearance in so many action flicks, Willis is grossly underrated as an actor, but has proved time and again he can do the job.
Ordinary People (1980) is a wonderful film chock full of great performances. Timothy Bottoms, as the troubled son, Donald Sutherland as the father, and Judd Hirsch as the compassionate psychiatrist are all excellent. But it is comedienne Mary Tyler Moore, as the distant mother in uncomprehending denial, that makes the movie great. I thought Moore a strange choice when the cast was selected, but she is nothing short of superb in this, by far her best performance. 
Dustin Hoffman deserved and won an Oscar as the idiot-savant Rain Man (1988), who can remember everything except the most fundamental social graces. But it is Tom Cruise, as the short-suffering brother, that makes this movie go. His part is twice as difficult, and he pulls it off with grace and humility. For me, this is Cruise’s best
performance, and it is one that most viewers don’t notice. 
Both Sean Penn and Tim Robbins won Oscars for Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River (2003), a harrowing tale about three friends growing up together after something horrible happens to one of them. Penn and Robbins get the juicy, emotion-packed parts and they excel in them. But Kevin Bacon is the third friend, and his solid performance as the blue collar cop from the old neighborhood glues the somewhat jumpy movie together. 
Tex (1982) is an underrated small film about two teenage boys left parentless and trying to cope without much guidance or money. It provided Matt Dillon with his break-out role as the younger brother. Mr. Dillon is, as always, quite good. But it is the unheralded Jim Melzer as the older brother who steals this under-the-radar movie.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are for adults. 
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                                                     ANSWERS
It’s time to answer at least some of the questions I get asked as the author of this blog.
Q- Have you seen every movie in your articles?
A- Mostly. Sometimes I refer to movies I have not seen. 
Q- How many movies do you watch, anyway?
A- Probably 4-5 per week; around 250 a year. My computer data base contains around 4500 movies I have seen; these are the ones I can remember.
Q- Do you ever go to a real theater?
A- Oh, yes. Since the column deals with movies available for watching at home, that’s where most of my viewing takes place. But I probably average two-three times a month in a real theater. 
Q- Is there any subject off-limits for your column?
A- Well, yeah. I never write about horror or slasher movies cause I don’t like them.  Other than porn, anything else is fair game.
Q- Who are your favorite critics, and who don’t you like?
A- The late Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was my all-time favorite. I also like Kenneth Turan of the LA Times, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone  and all of the New York Times reviewers. I do not like David Denby of The New Yorker, who seems to hate everything. 
Q- How do you know what movies are available on video and DVD?
A- This information is readily available to anyone on the internet. Amazon.com is a good site to find this.
Q- How do you decide what ages are suitable for a movie?
A- I’m a father, grandfather and life-long movie nut. Mostly it’s just a gut feeling from the content. I pay as much attention to the boredom factor as I do to sex and violence. 
Q- How do you decide what to write about?
A- The inspiration, if you can call it that, can come from anywhere.  Friends and readers make suggestions. A new movie may inspire a note to write a column about that subject when the movies goes into video. The death of an actor or director may warrant a column on their work. 
Q- What recent technological advance do you like best?
A- Almost every DVD now has subtitles. I don’t hear as well as I used to, and I find this to be a real blessing. And, if you watch some Irish or British films, it doesn’t matter how good your hearing is, you won’t understand the words. 
Q- What bugs you about other movie fans?
A- Some people won’t watch black and white films; others won’t tackle films with subtitles. I have a friend who steadfastly refuses to watch animation. They are missing way too much!
Q- What’s a fun thing about being Mr. Movie?
       A- People ask me to find a movie for them based on something they vaguely remember- an actor, a plot line, part of the title. I try to track it down and usually I can!
 

                                                       2015 SLEEPERS
                                                       Part 2
Here is a second batch of 2015 movies that I thought quite good and that didn’t get much play. Hope you can find one that you’ll enjoy.
Who didn’t love the enormous, goofy yellow guy on Sesame Street known as Big Bird? I guess we always realized there was a person inside that costume. I Am Big Bird is the true story of Caroll Spinney, who invented and played the giant creature for over 40 years. This fascinating documentary shows in detail how the magic was managed to captivate the hearts of children of all ages. Big Bird was the kind, slightly off-center friend we all wanted.  By the way, Mr. Spinney also voiced the hilarious Oscar The Grouch!
Ex Machina features the superbly talented Alicia Vikander as a beautiful life-like robot. She is subjected to the Turing Test which reveals whether the subject is human or mechanical. She far surpasses the threshold and we begin to wonder. Her creator has had unlimited funds to play around with robotics and a visitor discovers he plans to “kill” the gorgeous robot. He and she plot together to abort that plan. The plot thickens and that’s all I’m going to tell.
Steve Jobs is a better than average biopic about the founder of Apple, clearly one of the most brilliant minds to come along in a while. The film stars Michael Fassbender (another European able to seamlessly play Americans) as the obsessive and not altogether likeable inventor. Kate Winslet is quite good as an associate, and Jeff Daniels, Seth Rogen and Katherine Waterston complete a fine cast. But the movie belongs to Mr. Fassbender, portraying the wunderkind in this warts-and-all film. 
McFarland USA stars Kevin Costner as the improbable cross-country coach at a predominantly Latino high school in California. The school has never had a cross-country team, but McFarland has seen some of the boys run and knows that there is real potential for a good team. He talks the principal into letting him form a team, which meets with lots of resistence from the kids and their parents. This being not only a Hollywood, but also a Disney, movie, you already know great things are in store. But it is a lot  of fun getting there, and takes a good look into the hard lives of the kids and their families. 
Tangerines is an Estonian-Georgian film about the horrors of war and the humanity that still hangs on by a thread. Ivo decides to stick it out in his Estonian village
because he hopes to harvest his lucrative tangerine crop. Almost everyone else has fled the area because of the raging civil war. After a firefight in front of Ivo’s house, a soldier from each side is gravely wounded. Ivo takes in both of them and begins nursing them back to health. They each have vowed to kill the other when strength returns. Well, it doesn’t turn out that way. This is a nice little sleeper. Caution: The 2015 film named Tangerine (no S) is a real dog. 
Kids would like I Am Big Bird and McFarland. The rest are for adults. All are available on DVD and for streaming.  
 

                                                James Cagney

His voice and mannerisms in his early gangster movies were so distinctive that every comedy impersonator in the world “did” Jimmy Cagney. He made dozens of movies as a snarling, vicious little thug. He was only 5'6" but could be absolutely scary as a really bad guy. And yet, his variety of starring roles is remarkable.
To start at the start, there are at least a dozen Cagney gangster flicks. The best and most famous is White Heat (1949). The clip of Cagney smashing half a grapefruit into the pretty face of Virginia Mayo has been shown millions of times, and has tended to pigeonhole him. Another good one in this line is Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), with a 39-year-old Cagney convincing as a teen-age hoodlum and being nominated for an Oscar in the bargain. Also good is The Public Enemy (1931), co-starring Jean Harlow as a tough-talking gun moll. 
Mr. Cagney could also do crazy. Mr. Roberts (1955) features Henry Fonda as the seasoned officer who’s seen it all and Jack Lemmon as his excitable protégé. James Cagney is the observably insane Captain Morton, making life miserable for all hands on deck.
Jimmy Cagney’s most surprising role to me was as song and dance man George M. Cohan in the enormously entertaining Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). Yes, he could sing and he could dance and he did both and won the Oscar for this part. 
Mr. Cagney reprises his gangster persona in the so-so biopic Love Me Or Leave Me (1955). He plays gangster-manager “Moe The Gimp” Snyder and Doris Day plays songstress Ruth Etting. He was nominated for an Oscar (puzzlement here-not even in his top five performances) but lost out to Ernest Borgnine for Marty.
James Cagney  was an unlikely choice to play Lon Chaney in The Man Of A Thousand Faces (1957), because his own face was by then so well known. But he brilliantly pulled off a role in which he appeared as at least a dozen different characters. 
Billy Wilder picked Mr. Cagney as Coca-Cola magnate C.R. McNamara in the hilarious One, Two, Three (1961). Mr. Cagney has his hands more than full when the boss’s visiting daughter decides to marry a Communist. Fun ensues. 
That was Mr. Cagney’s last appearance on the silver screen until director Milos Forman talked him into coming out of retirement to play police commissioner Rhinelander Waldo in Ragtime (1981). Mr. Forman knew what he was doing- Mr. Cagney almost steals the movie though he’s only on the screen a few minutes. 
All of the movies in this column are available on DVD and for streaming. Factoring in the boredom quotient, all (except Ragtime- adults only) are fine for all ages. 
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