Monday: Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Oh 1985, aren’t you just that gift that keeps on giving! Take our inner pre-teen favorite, Girls Just Want to Have Fun. That’s right – it’s not just a Cyndi Lauper song, it’s a fun dance movie starring all sorts of random celebrities. Playing Janey, an army brat with dreams of making it on a local TV dance program (imaginatively titled Dance TV), is a very young Sarah Jessica Parker (who also had a bit part in Footloose, the movie that no doubt got this one greenlit). Her best friend, the token wacky bad-girl at their Catholic school, is none other than Helen Hunt, plus Jonathan Silverman shows up and so does a squeaky little Shannon Doherty. The obligatory love interest for Ms. Parker is Lee Montgomery (the child star of 1972’s Ben), who wears tank tops and glowers with self-righteous blue-collar rage. What happened to this guy? Anyway there’s tons of bad outfits and montages and a super duper dance-off that involves lots of slow-mo and, weirdly, gymnastics. Huh. Will it surprise any of you that a remake is in the works? We didn’t think so. [9 p.m., Fuse]
Tuesday: Funny Games
So, Funny Games is a movie that tends to divide opinion: We have one trusted moviegoing friend who swears this is a work of genius and yet the same film had The Observer’s Rex Reed wishing that a tall building would fall on director Michael Haneke’s head. The film is an English remake of Mr. Hanke’s original 1997 version and stars Naomi Watts and Tim Roth as a good-looking couple who, along with their son and cute dog (read: doomed! All doomed!) go up to their weekend cottage and end up getting terrorized by a couple of spooky-eyed, white glove-wearing psychos (Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet). Lesson learned: Don’t believe people when they ask to borrow eggs. Also, if anyone is interested, this movie freaked us out into the next week. See for yourself! [2:30 a.m., HBOSGe]
Wednesday: A Fish Called Wanda
Here’s a movie that everyone should agree is simply awesome. We speak, of course, of A Fish Called Wanda? Has Jamie Lee Curtis ever looked hotter, Kevin Kline been funnier, or John Cleese (who wrote the thing) played any more upper-crusty and dry? The plot – which involves complicated double and triple crossings, little dogs, and the eating of pets (true!) – isn’t as important as the hilarious dialogue. And seriously, it might be our very favorite Kevin Kline performance of all time (“K-k-k Ken’s c-c-c-oming to k-k-kill me!”). [12:35 p.m., IFC]
Thursday: Wolf
Way back in the early ’90s, before the current Twilight-True Blood-all-things-supernatural-and-creepy frenzy, we had Wolf. Oh yes, we’re talking about Jack Nicholson starring as a publisher, down on his luck, who happens to get bit by a wolf one night and…well, you know where we’re going. Jack as Wolfman! It’s very exciting! James Spader is at his most deliciously smug playing rival Stewart Swinton and Michelle Pfieffer is as lovely as ever as the love interest. But perhaps the biggest surprise about this one is re-remembering that it’s directed by Mike Nichols. Bananas. [1 a.m., AMC]
Friday: Lars and the Real Girl
If you ever start to worry that your recent anti-social tendencies are becoming a little much (or, you know, you are just feeling bad about yourself for being home on the Friday night of Labor Day Weekend watching a movie), by all means be sure to tune in for Lars and the Real Girl. Ryan Gosling stars as Lars, a strange young man who strike up a shall-we-say unconventional relationship with a blow-up doll. And yet, this movie is not nearly as strange as it sounds, and is on the heartwarming side. Patricia Clarkson shows up as a gravelly voiced shrink, and the hunky Paul Schneider and lovely Emily Mortimer co-star as Lars’s concerned brother and sister-in-law. Isn’t it crazy that this 2007 film is the last movie we’ve seen Mr. Gosling in? We miss you, sir! [5:30 p.m., Showtime]
