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Strollerderby
Eddie Murphy's jokes about seizures in the new movie Tower Heist are NOT funny, and downright cruel.
My son was four years old the first time I took him to see a movie in the theater. We saw Racing Stripes. I remember this in detail because early on in the movie, Wendie Malick’s character makes fun of a racing horse, saying it looked like it was having a seizure. My son has epilepsy. It felt like a punch in the gut. I don’t even think he caught it, but I did. And it made me MAD.
Last week I went to the movies by myself and soon completely lost my appetite for the bucket of popcorn in my lap when the preview for the new movie Tower Heist came on the screen. A star-studded film, sure to be a hit, with an awful too-long joke about a “seizure boy” in daycare. Right there in the trailer. Not cool, Hollywood. Continue reading »
Mrs. Gump taught Forrest that he could do and be anything. And he believed her every word.
As a mom, I love watching movies with a good mother character. Someone authentic and inspiring whom I can also relate and be challenged by. Moms and mom-figures in movies are sometimes our best role models. I’ve compiled a gallery of 15 of my favorite moms in film.
Who would you add to the list? Continue reading »
Much different than the 5 TV Moms Who Inspire Me To Be A Better Mother (and 5 Who Do Not), I’ve compiled a list of no-good, ugly, mean, and hardcore scary mothers on film for the 15 Worse Movie Moms Ever. Of course I can’t please everyone, so check out the list and let me know which movie mom you deem worthy of the title. (Also, spoiler alert! to most of the movies I mention!) Continue reading »
Soon you'll be streaming Miramax films to your TV
Netflix has reached a deal to stream hundreds of titles from Miramax. Thank you, Netflix. You were already the Number One guilty pleasure in my household, beloved by kids and adults alike. Now my options for weekend movie watching just got a whole lot better.
Some of the new films becoming available include Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting, which are my cinematic comfort food; movies that came out during my film buff college years, when I worked at an independent movie theater and actually cared about cinema. I’ll be watching them on rainy days for the rest of time, just like I’ll never give up re-reading Bronte novels as the weather turns towards winter.
Google honors Charlie Chaplin today with a Doodle Video
I don’t know what happens in your house if you mute the TV while your kids are watching, but if you do it in mine my daughter goes through the five stages of grief. Or she shoots daggers at you with her eyes. Either one.
What would happen if she watched an actual silent movie I can’t say. But in honor of today’s Google Doodle and Charlie Chaplin, maybe it’s time to find out. Google is honoring the silent film legend’s 122nd birthday with a Google Doodle video. Why not play it for your kids and see what they think?
Click after the jump to see today’s Google Doodle super cool Charlie Chaplin VIDEO:
The Wizard of Oz is featured as today’s Google Doodle on the search engine’s home page. What’s so special about this old movie that it would merit such an honor? Well, it was 71 years ago today that classic film starring Judy Garland made its big screen debut and began a long tradition of scaring the pants of little kids.
The Wizard of Oz was a mighty big deal when I was growing up. In the days before cable television and DVDs, the only way to see it was to wait for it to be shown on television. Once a year, I brought my blanket to the living room and settled in on the couch for a night of excitement, wonder and pure terror. The blanket, of course, was for hiding my face when I couldn’t bear to look. For a kid in the 1970′s that movie was wicked scary. Continue reading »
I was child-free this weekend, so after watching Spain’s gorgeous overtime goal against the Netherlands in the World Cup, I wandered around the corner to the Village 7 to see Lisa Cholodenko’s extraordinarily delightful film The Kids Are All Right. Though the movie opened in just five markets at seven theatres, it yielded the highest box office gross per screen for all of 2010. If it’s playing near you and you haven’t seen it, go. (If it’s not playing near you – request it!) The Kids Are All Right is a pitch perfect portrait of motherhood, marriage and modern life.
Cholodenko’s script is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking and the movie’s stars – Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo – give some of the most incredibly rich, nuanced, smart and joyful performances I’ve ever seen. What is perhaps even more impressive, though, are the realistic and relaxed portrayals of the high-school aged children in the film. 20-year-old Mia Wasikowska and 17-year-old Josh Hutcherson effortlessly play all the dynamics of teenagers from youthful innocence to bratty self-absorbtion topped off with a dash of angst.
It’s impossible to write about The Kids Are All Right without acknowledging that, yes, it is a story about a lesbian couple raising children, and it touches on several of the issues we’ve covered lately here at Strollerderby. The nuclear family at the heart of the film is very strong, reflecting the notion that lesbians raise happy, successful children. But those children inevitably wonder who their moms’s (as they say in the film) sperm donor was, eventually seeking him out and welcoming him into their family in such a way that creates a surprising plot. No spoiler alerts here! I want you to go see the film for yourself.
The gals at LilSugar do too. Here are their 5 Reasons Why Every Mom Should See The Kids Are All Right. For those of you who might be worried this is a political film pushing the gay agenda, it’s not. It does portray gay characters in a positive light – and as normal, contributing members of mainstream society – but that’s exactly what Cholodenko set out to do. In a personal essay for Harper’s Bazaar, she writes: Continue reading »
Lori Garcia 
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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