“Julie & Julia” (July 31)
Julia Child is easy to impersonate but probably not so easy to live with. Meryl Streep not only masters the character’s look and unique voice, but also finds the character’s emotional spine, a sense of misalignment that can only be cured by cooking. She shares that attribute with Julie Powell (Amy Adams), the central character in the film’s parallel storyline. In this story, a modern blogger tries to recreate all the recipes from Child’s favorite book, Master the Art of French Cooking. Childs’ story is by far the more compelling, but writer-director Nora Ephron (which would be her final film) created an ingenious connection between the two women, both actresses and It brings out the fun performances of (mainly) Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina. supportive spouses.
“The Pursuit of Happiness” (July 31)
Gabriele Muccino’s 2006 drama is a film adaptation of the memoir of motivational speaker Chris Gardner, a homeless single father turned stockbroker and entrepreneur. The film focuses on Gardner’s homeless days and the sacrifices he made while completing an unpaid internship at a prestigious company. Oscar-nominated Will Smith is the perfect fit for Gardner, whose pride and stubbornness prevented him from sharing his misery during his internship. Smith’s real-life son Jaden plays Gardner’s son, and it’s their genuine emotional connection that drives the film, even when it’s rough around the edges. A formulaic work, but an influential one nonetheless.
“Skyfall” (July 31)
The Daniel Craig era in the James Bond series culminated in this 2012 installment. The film combines the lean, spiteful, Bourne-influenced approach of recent Bond films with Academy Award-winning director (Sam Mendes), his regular team (Ace cinematographer Roger Deakins and composer Thomas Newman) and Javier Bardem, who himself just won an Oscar for No Country for Old Men, played captivating villains. Mendez’s elegant rendition offers viewers the best of both worlds. The film has the globe-trotting locations, daring action sets, and unapologetic sensuality of classic Bond, but with the agile pace and down-to-earth feel of a modern blockbuster. It also includes actions that were taken.
“Stepmother” (July 31)
“Home Alone” director Chris Columbus continued to soften the touch that started with “Mrs. Alone.” Doubtfire (1993), moving from a family comedy to a full-blown four-person drama in this 1998 tearjerker. Julia Roberts plays the title character, a fashion photographer, who dates and then marries her much older, divorced father (Ed Harris). An ex-wife, played by Susan Sarandon, has trouble maintaining a relationship with her two children, but a combination of genuine disgust and quiet jealousy of the new woman in her life causes her is further complicated by the terminal illness of It’s not a delicate piece of work, but it’s a serious one, with the main characters finding and playing out the complexity of what could have been cardboard characters.
“Underworld” (July 31)
When this action-horror-sci-fi hybrid movie quietly released in the fall of 2003, the series would conclude with 5 feature films (+ 1 video game) with Underworld: Blood Wars, a lucrative Little did I expect the long-running series to begin. (2017). But it wasn’t surprising. A tale of battles (and forbidden romances) between vampires, werewolves, and humans hit the same spot in his suite of early 21st-century fantasy, gore, and romance as the “Twilight” saga. And the movies (especially this first one) provided a rare opportunity for star Kate Beckinsale to show what she could do as a full-fledged action hero lead.
