For today’s challenge film, I wanted to watch a film from the great Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws, American Graffiti) and I happened to stumble on one playing on TV. The name of the film is Mr. Holland’s Opus and Dreyfuss stars as the title character in the film. Glenn Holland is a struggling composer who has to take a job at John F. Kennedy High School as a music teacher in order to make ends meet. What he doesn’t expect to happen to him is that he is going to find fulfillment as music teacher as he helps others discover the beauty of music while he struggles with issues at home. The film also stars Glenne Headly (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) as Iris Holland, Jay Thomas (Mork & Mindy) as Coach Bill Meister, Olympia Dukakis (Look Who’s Talking Too) as Principal Helen Jacobs, William H. Macy (Thank You For Smoking) as Vice Principal Gene Wolters, Alicia Witt (Cecil B. Demented) as Gertrude Lang, Terrence Howard (Lee Daniels’ The Butler) as Louis Russ, Damon Whitaker (Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai) as Bobby Tidd, Jean Louisa Kelly (Uncle Buck) as Rowena Morgan, Joseph Anderson (Whacked!) as Cole Holland, Balthazar Getty (The Judge) as Stadler, and the film was directed by Stephen Herek (Critters).
This is one of those films where the main character changes over the course of the film and at one moment finally realizes what he has accomplished. He definitely goes through some trials and tribulations during the film as he wants to be a composer more than a teacher and he has trouble dealing with the fact that his son is deaf. All of these things definitely makes him grow as a person and the amount of love he receives is amazing. The film follows his thirty year career as a teacher from 1965 to 1995 and you see the changes in music styles along with pop culture which is cool and the film stays hip with what actually happened in music current events. For every decade though, there is a student that he helps realize their potential (e.g. the death of John Lennon). Richard Dreyfuss is an amazing actor to begin with and you see that in this film. I love how the film makes him age over the course of thirty years to make it more believable and the fact that they used real deaf actors to pay his son is amazing as well. That definitely makes the film feel more authentic instead of paying a hearing actor to play a deaf person. One thing that boggles my mind is that Richard Dreyfus lost to Nicolas Cage at the Oscars for Best Actor. Nevertheless, this is an amazing film that you should definitely check out if you are a fan of Richard Dreyfuss or a fan of amazing stories. With that being said, I am going to give the film an A for a final grade.
For today’s film, I only have one question to ask all of you and it’s are you ready to meet one of the most dysfunctional families ever? The film is called Eulogy and it stars Zooey Deschanel ((500) Days Of Summer) as Kate Collins, a girl who is supposed to give a eulogy at her grandfather’s funeral. The only problem is that she doesn’t know what to say and looks to her father (Hank Azaria), a failed actor turned pornstar and his dysfunctional siblings which include a lesbian, an overbearing bitch, and a sleazeball for some memories of the old man which turns out to be a project. Oh not to mention that she has to help prevent her grandmother from committing suicide in this black comedy. The film stars Debra Winger (Urban Cowboy) as Alice Collins, Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond) as Skip Collins, Kelly Preston (Twins) as Lucy Collins, Rip Torn (Men In Black) as Edmund Collins, Piper Laurie (Carrie) as Charlotte Collins, Famke Janssen (X-Men) as Judy, Glenne Headly (Don Jon) as Samantha, Jesse Bradford (Romeo + Juliet) as Ryan, and the film was directed by Michael Clancy.
I have found in the past that some black comedies can be a little hard to digest only because you are trying to find the humor in the film. I think since I have grown up so much and found how crappy life can be, it’s easier to find it now when your cynical. I thought that I have seen some real dysfunctional families in my time, but nothing tops the Collins family who are in for the biggest surprise towards the end. If you like character driven movies, I think this is a great film for characters because everyone in the film is just so darn unique and the personalities of some while typical are just as interesting too. I was watching this film and I did not realize that Debra Winger was in the movie the whole time. She does an amazing job playing the overbearing, hypocritical, controlling sister while the always beautiful Kelly Preston just looks amazing as she plays the lesbian sister. Ray Romano plays your prototypical bonehead, disgustingly perverted, can’t handle feelings kind of guy. Famke Janssen’s character is very witty as she has to be as the controversial soon to be wife of Kelly Preston in the film. Don’t think by all that that Zooey’s character is the only normal one in the film because she has issues of her own as well. The movie has it all from your drama filled subplots that unfold before your very eyes to those moments that you just laugh with. I honestly had never heard of this film, but I am glad that I caught it on HBO when I did. I am going to give this film an B+ for a final grade.
365moviesin365dayschallenge 