Judy (2019) and Factory Girl (2004)

I'm not sure how I feel about the movie "Judy". I read somewhere that Judy's family did not approve/endorse the film, and that Liza Minnelli never met Renee Zellweger and never gave her approval on the project.

Something about that seems unsettling to me...here we have the filmmakers devoting time and effort on a biographical film about a much-beloved celebrity, yet not even getting the approval of the family? Is it a movie critical of Judy -- or is it a celebration her life? What is the director aiming to do?

For example, the new movie "It's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" - which features the character of Mr. Rogers - did get the approval of Rogers's family, and the director was upfront by aiming to make this a celebration of Rogers.

But with Judy, I wasn't sure what to expect. There are some darker moments depicted in the film - such as her dependency on drugs and personal difficulties with people - but I don't think the movie introduces anything new that hasn't been written about before.

Having seen the film, I see it as a celebration of her life, and a tribute to Judy, even though it only focuses on the last year of her life. A few flashbacks go back to the late 1930s when she was filming Wizard of Oz and some other MGM films, and the beginnings of her drug addiction.

But it's not really an all-encompassing life story. It would be interesting to see more of 1940s Judy during the MGM years, or 1950s Judy. Bobby Rivers recently wrote on his blog that the 2001 TV biopic was far superior, and was endorsed by the family.

Renee has been getting rave reviews for her performance  in "Judy"; her acting is good but it is obvious to me that she is doing an impression of the Judy from interviews she gave on tv in the 1960s. Renee gives the character grandiosity, no question about that; I did get a sense that she was the most popular person in the world, and also got the sense that she was a very troubled person, insecure. But overall it is a rather average film. I think it should have been called "Judy in London", because the entire film is set there during Judy's tour during 1968 and 69, and also focuses on her relationship with her third husband Mickey Deans.

The best parts of the movie in my opinion are these scenes with Mickey and the scenes where she befriends a gay couple and spends time with them in their home. It's interesting to watch because you never expect a mega-superstar to mingle with fans like that.

There's one scene where Judy visits her twenty-something daughter Liza at a party; it's interesting but totally unnecessary. There's really no need for it because we never see Liza again in the film and it feels thrown in there. There is a character who is an assistant to Judy in London (played by Jessie Buckley), and I wish her character was explored a bit more.  There are several scenes of singing and they are ok but I wish the film were a bit more compelling.

A much better film in my opinion is Factory Girl, which came out in 2006 but I only recently saw. Sienna Miller plays the artist Edie Sedwick who becomes famous simply by being associated with Andy Warhol in the 1960s. It's an great movie because both characters are explored while the focus remains on Edie's character. Like Judy Garland, Edie was troubled and addicted, but her fame was a different kind of fame, and the movie explores that. Afterwards, I wanted to find out more about the director and writer; the writer doesn't have too many other credits but the director was co-director on the Hearts of Darkness/Coppola documentary from 1991, which is really impressive. I read somewhere that he initially set out to do a Edie/Andy documentary but ended up doing a feature instead. Interestingly, in the end credits (and in the DVD's Special Features) are clips of interviews from people who knew Andy and Edie so this really give the movie an extra punch.

Bob Dylan is depicted as a character that is obviously based on him - but only the name is changed. (I read he was not a fan of this depiction).

Some of these personal details are dark and seemingly trashy or sleazy, however they are real-life details about celebrities that we can relate to and try to understand.  The director does an amazing job of recreating Andy's art studio in New York. The costumes, makeup, and camera work / cinematography are really good; each shot looks really well-positioned and carefully crafted.

The movie only focuses on Edie's years in New York, and not her last years when she was institutionalized, although that might make for an interesting film or story as well, because she eventually marries someone she meets there (per the epilogue).

I suppose perhaps that Edie's last year was not unlike Judy's in some ways.

Additional articles:

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/12/andy-warhol-and-edie-sedgwick-a-brief-white-hot-and-totally-doomed-romance

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/edie-sedgwick-the-life-and-death-of-the-sixties-star-431412.html

https://www.npr.org/2014/02/02/251651304/a-suburban-teen-saw-the-sparkle-of-edie-but-not-the-pain

Selma (2014) + 50 years

Today - March 7, 2015 - marks the 50th anniversary of the "boody Sunday" protest march in Selma Alabama, USA of March 7, 1965.

On that day, hundreds of black marchers set out to walk all the way to  Montgomery (Alabama's capitol) to protest their inability to vote. After they crossed the Pettus bridge in Selma they were stopped by Alabama state troopers who beat them and sprayed them with tear gas. And history records that Martin Luther King Jr eventually led the successful march, which included people from all over the United States, white and black.

Selma (2014) is all about how these events took place, with a special focus on Dr. King's crucial leadership role. David Oyellowo, who was very good in The Help (2011), embodies Dr. King and is exceptional. The actress who plays his wife Corretta is also really good.

I think the best kinds of movies entertain and educate at the same time. Selma is such a movie for me, one I want to experience again. It not only impresses me visually with the period sets/costumes and striking cinematography, but it also inspires me to read more and learn more about this part of America's history, and the many people that are portrayed in the film, such as the character Oprah Winfrey plays, a woman who is denied the right to vote in a humiliating way.

Selma was only nominated for two Oscars, but I thought it should have earned at least two more for its lead actor and for its director (Ava DuVernay) who does a commendable job of bringing these events to life.

Though it wasn't showered with Oscars, I do think this film will be viewed again in the years and decades to come and will be remembered as not only one of one of the best films of 2014, but one of the best films about the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

Henry Fonda (unrecongnizable in his makeup) plays Lincoln in his very early days of his career in John Ford's reverent, Black-and-white biographical/courtroom drama. Lincoln is shown to be as he was, an amibitous man with dreams to serve the people. The movie starts off in the early 1930s in Kentucky, when Licnoln begins to take up an interest in law. The film shows him riding a mule up to Springfield Illinois to begin his practice, and the last three-quarters of the movie is a courtroom drama, with some terrific comedy relief (Lincoln calling one of the witnesses - named Jack Cass - a Jackass) Though most of he details of the trial have been changed, the event is based on one of Lincoln's "Duff Armstrong/Full Moon" trial, where Lincoln established himself as a star defender, and debater. In the film, Lincoln also has a few brushes with characters who would play major roles in his real life (though not depicted in the movie) his future political opponent - Steven Douglas, and his wife, Mary Todd. Screenwriter Lamar Trotti was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story. Co-starring Ward Bond, who is great in his supporting role as a witness-turned-murder suspect.