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I saw this film again on TMC of all places during a celebration of 80's ladies. Being an 80's lady myself, in general I was thrilled. This film was picked to celebrate Molly Ringwald...I can think of several films I would have chosen over this to celebrate Ringwald the first of which would be Sixteen Candles...then there is the Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, making this an interesting choice.

It's been long enough in between watching for me that I forgot how much I enjoy Randall Batinkoff who played Stan Bobrucz. For Keeps? Is roughly about two teenage sweethearts entering their senior year, Darcy Elliot (Molly Ringwald) and Stan Bobrucz (Randall Batinkoff). The two take a weekend trip to a college campus, lying to Darcy's mom etc. And sleep together out in the rain and in a tent. This leads to an unplanned pregnancy which causes an uproar in both Darcy's single mom's household and Stan's loving family which consists of his shoe selling dad, his home making mom and two younger (and impressionable) siblings.

The two eventually choose to keep the baby resulting in Stan getting thrown out of his home and Darcy being estranged from her mother. While the film did somewhat glamorize teenage love, it certainly didn't glamorize being a teen parent...everything from delivery pains, to postpartum, to multiple low paying jobs, to hospital bills they can't cover, to household bills they can't cover, to childhood illnesses, to struggling to finish school, and to just being young and naive. The struggle was real...the apartment was a dump, the strain on friends and family was realistic. I appreciated this attempt to be somewhat cautionary while as a romantic I did appreciate love winning in the end.

Not my first or second choice for a Molly Ringwald film, making this not a recommendation from me. One thing I really did love was seeing two amazing actors play the respective moms...Miriam Flynn played Darcy's mom Donna Elliot and Conchata Ferrell played Stan's mom Mrs. Bobrucz. Also, side note there was an appearance by 80's MTV VJ Pauly Shore as the character Retro. My favorite scene was probably when Mr. Bobrucz sees his granddaughter Thea for the first time...followed by the conversation he had with his young daughter about what it means to be a grandparent, which involves a story about Thea's namesake his own grandmother.

This is a film about a little Portuguese run pizza shop in Mystic, Connecticut where three teenage girls waitress. The three girls Jojo, Kat and Daisy are shown navigating their very different love stories under the watchful eyes of each other and their boss at Mystic Pizza, Leona (Conchata Ferrell).

Jojo (Lili Taylor) has a serious boyfriend in Portuguese fisherman Bill (Vincent D'Onofrio). Bill is so serious he is constantly trying to talk Jojo into marrying him. Daisy (Julia Roberts), who gets teased about being easy and having no ambition, meets wealthy Harvard student Charlie (Adam Storke). Good girl and Daisy's sister Kat (Annabeth Gish) is set to go to Harvard next semester and is working multiple jobs to earn money for school. One of her jobs is babysitting where she meets architect and former Harvard man Tim (William R. Moses) and his daughter who needs looking after while his wife is working in London.

Each are navigating their own unique relationships first love, class differences and commitment. I grew up in the 80's and am a huge John Hughes fan, so you would think I would have a great appreciation for this film...but something about it has never struck a chord with me. Don't get me wrong there are distinct things that I liked...like the wedding reception and especially Leona's parting words to Kat. I also really appreciated how Daisy eventually comforted and stood up for her baby sister. It was fun to see Matt Damon in his first roll as Steamer, Charlie's younger brother. I really enjoyed Jojo's positivity, but my favorite character was Bill. I loved his pure unadulterated love for Jojo and how he didn't just want to sleep with her and have a good time, but to marry her for better or worse. They really don't make them like that anymore.

Not really a recommendation from me as I think there are far better teen love and coming of age stories out there. Only for the hard core fans.

This silent is a fun western action adventure starring, written and directed by Canadian Nell Shipman along with her husband Bert Van Tuyle.

Nell plays a writer who is in Mexico looking for inspiration. She joins an older gentleman named Sid at his goldmine where she is eventually taken hostage by a band of bandits. They take her to their hideout in the rocky, mountainous desert, nicknamed "Hell's Kitchen". She had been accompanied to Sid's by a young man named Bill's dog. When she and Sid were in danger she cleverly wrote a note and attached it to the dog, who found his owner after she'd been taken. Unable to find a horse to ride to the rescue, Bill is forced to take his roadster, a 1919 Maxwell, off road and through lots of steep and rough terrain to rescue the writer.

This is like one massive advertisement for the Maxwell automobile...as it bumps and twists along it's off the beaten path. Some things I really appreciate about the film, I like that the woman isn't a simpering push over. She really resists the bandits, shoots at them, etc until she gives herself up to try to prevent Sid from being tortured to death in front of her. I also like how she handles the car on the trip back when Bill is injured. Finally I love the use of the dog and I especially appreciate that the dog doesn't disappear after the not is delivered...he is bouncing right along in the back of the car. (I understand that Nell Shipman herself was an animal lover and often had her dog(s) on set for the shooting of the film.

I enjoyed this film and it was my first Shipman to watch...I would recommend and definitely intend to watch more. My one and only complaint is the jazz that was used to accompany the version I watched on TCM's Silent Sunday. It was discordant and distracting, often taking me out of the film...instead of enhancing or accompanying. (On a side note I actually liked the jazz out of the context of the visuals of the film. It was lovely, but I think that different music needs to accompany this film.)