Nora Ephron's Films Were Inspirational Love Letters

She was a reporter, essayist, author, blogger, director, producer and Oscar nominated screenwriter. Plus she was sharply funny.

But to me, Nora Ephron -- who died this week from complications related to leukemia -- meant four things: Humor, optimism, insight and magic. To make my case, I present you with my four favorite Ephron films, all of which I have watched countless times and will no doubt watch many times more because they are poignant, entertaining, smart and hopeful.

When Harry Met Sally

This classic New York-based film featured Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) as a chipper, glass-half-full reporter. Her foil was Harry Burns (Billy Crystal), a delightful curmudgeon (who reminds me of several people I know in real life) who made no bones about his gloomy outlook and propensity for reading the last page of a book so that if he dies before he gets to the conclusion, he'll already knows the ending. I adored how this unlikely pair got on the telephone with one another, late at night while in their separate homes and watched TV together, specifically Casablanca. (Entertainment Weekly ran a great piece on what When Harry Met Sally was "really" about.)

Favorite scene: The conversations Sally and Harry had during their car ride from Chicago to New York City were brilliant.

Sleepless in Seattle

This showcased Tom Hanks at his romantic comedy best as the forlorn, down-to-earth, painfully vulnerable widower Sam Baldwin who had an 8-year-old son Jonah who missed his mother desperately. Ryan played Annie Reed, a true romantic in the form of a newspaper reporter (another one!) who was willing to take big risks for something crazy that she knew, in her gut, felt right . . . like flying from Baltimore to Seattle just to say, "Hello" to a man she'd heard on the radio.

Favorite scene: After Jonah called a national radio talk show therapist saying that his "Christmas wish" was for his dad to find a "new wife," a reluctant Sam wound up waxing poetic about the ethereal beauty in how his wife made everything beautiful, even peeling apples. (A video of the beginning of the conversation can be found here.)

You've Got Mail

Ryan played Kathleen Kelly who ran a cherished little children's bookstore with tremendous heart and a passion for literature, something she learned from her dear, departed mother who started the store and raised Kathleen amidst the bookshelves. Hanks played Joe Fox, the smarmy businessman whose family was in the chain bookstore business, who also happened to have a private, tender underbelly.

Favorite scene: The moment that always tugs at my heart featured Kathleen decorating the Christmas tree in her store window, achingly missing her mother as she watched former customers of hers walk by the window toting Fox Books bags. The reference to Joni Mitchell's "River" kills me because I can hear the melancholy tune playing in my head when Kathleen mentions it. I couldn't download the scene here, but you can watch it on YouTube.

Julie and Julia

Ephron's final film inspired me on several levels. We watched as Meryl Streep's version of Julia Child launched a new career while in her late 30s in spite of the doubters who attempted to diminish and discourage her. We saw Amy Adams play a frustrated "cubicle dweller" embark on a quest to reclaim her raise d'etre by following Julia's culinary advice, along with all the recipes in Julia's most famous cookbook. The icing on the cake in this film was the moving depiction of the enduring love between Julia and her husband Paul (played by Stanley Tucci), as he cheered her on in the face of repeated defeats.

Favorite scene: After many discouraging rejections (I can totally relate), Julia finally received a letter from a publisher who willing to publish her book. Sweet success after her years of hard work. Although video of that particular scene wasn't available online, the Valentine's Day dinner hosted by Julia and Paul (see above) was a sweet example of the couple's affection.

What's your favorite Ephron film (or book or essay)?

Notes on Pop Culture: Harry Potter on ‘Daily Show,’ Coach Taylor’s Speechifying, ‘Julie & Julia’ Inspiring & ‘The Mentalist’s’ Freshman Season

Daniel Radcliffe & Jon Stewart

How cute-as-a-button was Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter) on The Daily Show? Love how modest his is. (Amy Poehler lives in his building and he was adorable when he talked about her.) I hope his post-Potter career flourishes.



NY Magazine: The Best of Coach Taylor’s Inspiring Speeches

I’m really gonna miss Coach Taylor. Aren’t y'all?



Julie & Julia Still Inspires

The other night while flipping through the TV stations, I came across the movie Julie & Julia and decided to watch it again with my two sons (selectively muting the volume when I remembered that a cuss word was coming up or for one part of the film where Julia Child’s sex life was discussed by blogger Julie Powell). The film provided me with inspiration all over again, even on this third viewing. (I've also read both Powell’s book and Child’s memoir about her time in Paris.)

For Julia Child to create for herself a culinary and TV career from scratch in her late 30s and 40s, and to be doggedly persistent about it over a series of years, in the face of numerous obstacles and rejections, gives you hope, or at least it gives me hope for my quest to get my freshly completed manuscript published. It was sweet when my boys recognized this and said, “That’ll be you Mom!” when Julia Child, at long last, finally received that letter saying a publisher who wanted to publish her book.

The Mentalist Freshman Season

This past winter my eldest son and I happened upon The Mentalist one night when just he and I were home and we decided to give the show with the weird name a whirl. Turns out, we liked that quirky, suave fellow, Patrick Jane, and decided to give another Mentalist episode a try the following week. And we were hooked on the solved-in-an-hour drama.

After its extraordinarily tense season finale in May featuring the illusive Red John, I told my son that this summer, we’d go back to the beginning and learn Patrick’s backstory and how this Red John tale unfolded. The season one DVD has arrived, and the kid is now itchin’ to break into it. Patience, grasshopper.

Image credit: Amazon.

Suburban Mom's Pop Culture Week: Presidential Address, Julie & Julia, Beatles Get Cover Treatment & HBO's 'Hung'

This, in case anyone was wondering, is a non-Gosselin edition of Suburban Mom's Pop Culture. There's only so much of Jon & Kate that I can handle in one week, thank you very much . . .

TV

Who out there is planning to watch the presidential address to a joint session of Congress tonight? I'll be there, in front of the TV -- likely tuned to NBC's Brian Williams, love Brian -- with an open mind and ready to listen. On Thursday, I'll be ready to analyze. One thing I can't stand, though, about these addresses, is the repeated jumping out of one's seating and clapping all the time. Drives me nuts.

From the commander in chief addressing Congress to a male prostitute. There's just no good segue here . . . I've been ODing on HBO's new comedy Hung, about the down-on-his-luck high school teacher/basketball coach/divorced father of two teens Ray Drecker who turns to high-priced prostitution -- calls himself a "happiness consultant" -- to pay his bills and get the funds to fix his home which was partially ruined by fire. (He didn't have the cash to pay his home owner's insurance premiums and let the policy lapse, so now he's living in a tent next to the house.)

After I've seen the season finale (airs Sunday night), I'll devote a separate blog item to the show. It's mighty quirky, in a Weeds sort of way. I love the dynamic between the main character and his pimp Tanya, a confidence-craving poet who has worked at a temp job in a law firm for more years than she'd care to admit.

Books/Magazines

I finished Julie Powell's book Julie & Julia on Monday, upon which half of the movie of the same name is based. I was entertained throughout, though the sections on Powell cooking organ meat curdled my stomach. (When I told my 11-year-old son about the chapter on cooking brains -- given, we were at the dinner table at the time -- he curtly thanked me for killing his appetite.) A great number of the events which occurred in Powell's life during the year in which she was cooking her way through Julia Child's first book and blogging about it were omitted from the film, so reading this helped fill in the blanks. Once I completed Julie & Julia, I moved on to finally cracked open Jack Kerouac's On the Road. I'm just at the very beginning though. Never read Kerouac. Have no idea what to expect.

After sitting unloved on my desk for a while, Wired Magazine's latest issue has been beckoning me. Meanwhile, I enjoyed basking in the Beatles Mania in this week's Entertainment Weekly and harassing my kids by singing tidbits of Beatles songs at random moments.

Movies/DVDs

This week I watched the first DVD in the first season for The West Wing. God did watching that show that bring me right back to the 1990s, before people were using BlackBerries or doing things like Twittering and Facebooking. It's almost charming to hear people mention faxes, which aren't used like they were when this show began. I fondly remembered Leo, Sam, Josh and C.J., and realized I'd forgotten how sanctimonious Jed Bartlett could be. The discs for the remainder of the award-winning freshman season are on my Netflix queue. Can't wait. (And no, I haven't watched Milk yet, which I've had for some time from Netflix, sitting next to the TV.)

The Spouse and I did, however, watch Flash of Genius over the weekend starring Greg Kinnear and Lauren Graham. Aside from production/film issues (the camera would sometimes move awkwardly, almost jarringly, and some of the clothing did NOT appear period, maybe I've been spoiled by the anal retentive Mad Men folks) I found the tale of inventor/college professor Robert Kearns getting screwed by the Ford Motor Company after they stole his invention, bittersweet. The drama peaked when Kearns wouldn't drop his lawsuit against Ford, even with his family, his job and his sanity at stake. If this had been made 40-50 years ago, I can imagine someone like Jimmy Stewart in the lead role, of the little guy getting taken by the big, expensive-suited power brokers.



Image credit: Entertainment Weekly.

'Julie & Julia' Inspires Thoughts of Career Second Acts

After seeing Julie & Julia then polishing off Julia Child's My Life in France and working my way through Julie Powell's book Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously (I'm not quite done with it yet), I was distinctly inspired by these two women who, quite unexpectedly, found new careers for themselves when they were in their 30s and 40s.

While I recommend the movie and the memoirs heartily, I also found the messages that they deliver are powerful reminders that your career doesn't necessarily start at age 22. Which led to me writing this Pop Culture column at Mommy Track'd about switching gears and finding yourself. Bon appetit!

Image credit: Mommy Track'd.

Suburban Mom's Pop Culture Week: Hamm on Talk Shows, Julie & Julia and Classic Kerouac

TV:

To be honest, I've been DVRing talk shows all week to catch Jon Hamm talk without saying anything of substance about the season three premiere of Mad Men on Conan, Fallon & Good Morning America, watching marathon Red Sox games (like last week's 15-inning losing battle against the sinister Yankees) and cringing as Kate Gosselin also visited the talk show circuit, including her terribly awkward chat with the clueless Regis Philbin who apparently is the only person on earth who thinks there's a chance in hell that Jon and Kate will reconcile. Other than those things and the latest episode of Entourage -- which'll be the subject of an upcoming stand-alone post -- I haven't caught much TV this past week.

Sitting in my DVR queue are two episodes apiece of HawthRNe (which just got renewed for a second season) and Rescue Me, plus I've got to catch up on Weeds and Nurse Jackie with my Showtime On Demand because I'm behind a couple episodes with those as well. (I blame my backlog of unwatched material on my new puppy Max who likes to howl in the middle of the night, for long stretches of time, who's got me feeling like a sleep deprived new mother. It's easy to blame the pup. He doesn't read my blog.)

Oh, I AM planning on watching a niche drama on Sunday night, LIVE. It's on AMC. Maybe you've heard of it . . . something about ad men in the 1960s . . .

DVDs:

Last week I was all wrapped up in season two DVDs of Mad Men for a column I was working on and am just about finished with watching the first season thirtysomething DVDs in preparation for another piece (have one episode left). Don't know what I'll watch on DVD when I'm done with these two shows. Maybe I'll finally watch the Milk Netflix DVD I have sitting, unloved, next to the TV.

Movies:

While I haven't seen any movies this week -- save for the tail-end of Message in a Bottle which I caught on cable and made me instantly tear up because I'm a sentimental fool -- I'm hoping to see Julie & Julia this weekend. Reviews have been stellar. I think my best plan of action will be to eat something halfway decent before walking into the theater, otherwise I'll be distractedly ravenous during the entire thing.

Books:

Finally finished re-reading The Time Traveler's Wife and sniffled my way through the end. Again. Even though I knew how it ended, it still made me cry and ponder Clare Abshire's life choices. Wonder if the movie -- which is, unfortunately, getting mixed reviews -- aptly translates the dense, long and somewhat complicated book. I hope that it does a decent job because that's on my "to see in the theater" list.

After completing Time Traveler, I was browsing through my bookcase at books I own but haven't yet read and pulled down a 1959 edition of Jack Kerouac's On the Road (a paperback that once belonged to my mom). I've never read any Kerouac. It's time I change that.

Image credit: From this web site.

Suburban Mom's Pop Culture Week: Weeds, Jon & Kate, Mrs. Washington, New York Times Mag on Julia Child

This past week has been sheer madness at my house. We celebrated my youngest son's birthday and then took a seven-plus round-trip car ride to New York to adopt a 3-month-old puppy who has yet to sleep through the night yet in his crate without howling all night long . . . kind of like my youngest son did. Until he was three.

Here's what I've been able to fit into my pop culture consumption in the past week+, that is when I'm not taking the puppy outside in an attempt to housetrain him and keep the six-pound ball of fluff from being dinner to larger animals in the neighborhood.

TV/DVDs:

-- In order to prepare for writing a column about Showtime's Weeds, I ODed on it, watching several seasons via Netflix and On Demand. After watching the evolution of Mary-Louise Parker's character Nancy Botwin, while I remain entertained and intrigued by the current season of the mom-pot dealer comedy, I liked Nancy's character a whole lot more in first season, before she got seriously dragged down into the muck and immorality of the drug trade.

-- Jon & Kate Plus 8 returned with two new episodes this week, only with a lot less of Jon and more of Kate-as-a-single mom. As I sympathize with Kate more each day as I read more about the heel that is her soon-to-be-ex-"Hey I'm still young!" spouse, Kate sure doesn't make it easy with her queen-like, dismissive attitude displayed in the show's first new installment since they announced that they were filing for divorce. In one scene where Jon and Kate were consulting with kitchen designers about renovating their kitchen (a room which I think looked awesome and didn't need massive changes, but what do I know?) she was wretched when she gestured toward a vase of flowers and dismissively told Jon, "Can you get rid of those? They're really distracting and ugly." Then, in a strategic feat of editing, the show's producers soon went to a cut where Kate -- who now sits in a white chair, not a love seat, for her one-on-one interview, Jon does his separately from a leather chair -- said, "I'm not as ridiculous as I used to be."

I also really did not like how the show's editors mocked Kate's attempts to camp outside in her backyard with the kids in two tents by getting her children to make fun of their mother and say she didn't know what she was doing in putting up the tent. It was disturbing to watch to say the least.

-- In a moment of weakness, I DVRed and watched the Hallmark Channel's original film, Mrs. Washington Goes to Smith, about a woman who quit college during her junior year in order to get married, worked to put her husband through dental school, raised their children to adulthood and was unceremoniously dumped by her husband for another, younger woman. In a life-altering decision, the character, Alice Washington, decided to go back to school and live in the dorms in order to complete her final year of college. She hoped to then become a high school English teacher.

Why would I watch a completely predictable but satisfying TV film -- akin to gorging on a salty bag of chips -- which had at least one totally fantasyland situation (there's no way a fifysomething woman would make the Smith College hoop team, at least that fiftysomething)? I watched it becuase it starred Cybill Shepherd, whom I've always liked -- especially for her sitcom Cybill -- and was surprised to find that her love interest/college English professor, was played by Jeffrey Nordling, who was in Once and Again and, more recently, 24. Sure, it was a chickflick in its purest form, but it was one with an upbeat, positive message, "This is the next big step in the rest of my life," Shepherd's character, Alice Washington said. The Hallmark Channel is re-airing the film numerous times.

-- I'm up-to-date on Entourage and have found myself getting increasingly irritated with the man-boy that is Vince.


-- In preparation for a Mad Men-themed column, I'm immersing myself in the Mad Men Season 2 on DVD, especially the special features.

Magazines/News:

-- This past weekend's New York Times Magazine was so chock full of articles that I haven't even finished reading it all yet. Among the pieces was a solid one on the dearth of female superheroes for little girls to embrace and a thought-provoking one about the contradiction between the fact that while the Food Network seems to be doing well and people are much more sophisticated about food in general, we're making fewer and fewer meals on our own, instead preferring to outsource meal prep to the grocery stores and restaurants. Julia Child's revolutionary 1960s PBS cooking show was featured prominently in the piece, given that the film Julie & Julia comes out this week. (I'm hoping to see that movie soon and write a column on.)

The lengthy Michael Pollan food article was a fascinating read. Here's a sample:

"It’s no accident that Julia Child appeared on public television — or educational television, as it used to be called. On a commercial network, a program that actually inspired viewers to get off the couch and spend an hour cooking a meal would be a commercial disaster, for it would mean they were turning off the television to do something else. The ads on the Food Network, at least in prime time, strongly suggest its viewers do no such thing: the food-related ads hardly ever hawk kitchen appliances or ingredients (unless you count A.1. steak sauce) but rather push the usual supermarket cart of edible foodlike substances, including Manwich sloppy joe in a can, Special K protein shakes and Ore-Ida frozen French fries, along with fast-casual eateries like Olive Garden and Red Lobster. "

-- Last week's issue of New York Magazine arrived at my house just yesterday -- thank you snail mail -- and I got the chance to enjoy Emily Nussbaum's ode to the chameleon-like Madonna who's now entering another phase of her life and of her public persona. While Nussbaum's favorite phase was the "Ideal Brunette Madonna . . . saving Black Jesus in that incredible slip," (mine was the "Express Yourself" Madonna), she wrote:

"Maybe it’s because I’m getting older along with her, but watching Madonna strut past 50—hips grinding in high heels, posing legs spread—brings out anxious, contradictory emotions. It’s become taboo to criticize stars for plastic surgery—both because it is their choice and because they have no choice—but each time I glimpse that grinning mask, I wonder why it’s impossible for Madonna, with all her power, her will to shock, to ever stop 'giving good face'? I try to persuade myself to admire her most New York qualities (ambition, workaholism); I tell myself she’s a dancer, and this is what dancers do. But I feel exhausted just witnessing the effort it must take to maintain this vision of eternal youth. This didactically selfless Madonna is less inspiring than the selfish one in so many ways."

The latest New York arrived today and I can't wait to dive into the Mad Men pieces, including an interview with Christina Hendricks, a defense of Pete "The Snake" Campbell and an abridged guide to the first two seasons. Not that I'm obsessed with Mad Men or anything.

What are your pop culture fixes of the week?

Image credit: Alexx Henry/Hallmark Channel via the New York Times.

Three Movie Trailers That Tempt Me

I was in the theater today to see Sam Mendes' Away We Go (I'll post link to my column in this blog once it's published) and saw trailers for two movies that made me say, "I MUST see that." Unless of course the critics uniformly pan the films, in which case I'll be terribly let down but may go ahead and see them anyway.

The first was for the Meryl Streep and Amy Adams movie Julie & Julia which seems similar in concept to The Hours in that it follows the story of two women's lives simultaneously, though the women are living in different time periods and the older woman's book proves as a guide to the younger woman. In the case of this film, we follow Julia Child's humble start in cooking and a cubicle-dweller's quest-- chronicled in a blog -- to follow Child's recipes for a year. My hopes are high that I'll leave the theater feeling inspired. Premieres August 7.



Then I saw the trailer for The Time Traveler's Wife starring Rachel McAdams. I adored this book (and MUST re-read it again before seeing the film) and am really curious how it'll compare to the movie. Total date movie. I've already warned The Spouse that he'll owe me a movie night and I'll be sure to bring plenty of tissues. Premieres August 14.



Then there was this trailer that I spotted on the internet for an upcoming Ricky Gervais comedy -- partly filmed here in Massachusetts -- that used to be called, This Side of the Truth, but has apparently been re-named The Invention of Lying, which takes place in a world where everyone has to tell the truth, but Gervais' character is the only one who has discovered that he can lie and get what he wants. Gervais appears to be tamping down expectations for this movie -- also stars Jennifer Garner, Tina Fey and Rob Lowe -- writing in his blog:

"Dear critics (everyone), when judging the film, please remember that it is a high concept, PG-13 romantic comedy. It's not [Schindler's] List or The Godfather. If you compare it to serious works of genius it will not fair that well."



I think the Gervais film could be a nice bookend to the Time Traveler's film, however it doesn't come out until late September, but, on the plus side for The Spouse, it doesn't appear as though I'll have to bring a box of tissues with me to see it.