• Nominate one or more people to review the film or films of your choice. Or you can request they review something from a certain year, genre, or star. Everyone can review the same thing, or you can request each person cover something different. As long as it’s something they haven’t written about yet, you’re good. 
• Nominees are allowed to request a different pick for whatever reason no more than five times. Stuff happens. We all know it. 
• Nominees must thank the person who nominated them and provide a link their blog. 
• Nominees may nominate others to keep the tag going. Picking the person who nominated them is allowed, or they can nominate someone else. Or both. 
• All participants need to include these rules in their post, whether they’re nominees or picking nominees. 
• All participants should use the “Pick My Movie” banner or something similar in their posts. 
• Have fun!

A few years ago, I did a list of my ten favorite movie/TV characters.  It didn't occur to me at the time I was making that list, but... they were all men.  So... time to do another list :-)  Here are my ten favorite female characters on screens big and small.


I love some of these characters in print too, but here I'm focusing on their onscreen iterations, okay?


1.  Victoria Barkley (Miss Barbara Stanwyck) from The Big Valley (1965-69).  I wrote a whole post a few years ago about how much I want to be like Victoria when I grow up.  She is smart, compassionate, feisty, stubborn, generous, loyal, and forgiving.  Wonderful woman.


2.  Anne Shirley (Megan Followes) from Anne of Green Gables (1985) and Anne of Avonlea (1987).  She's very unlike me in a lot of ways -- she's as unshy as I am shy, she's got a quick temper and mine is a slower simmer, and she keeps grudges, while I am usually quick to forgive.  But she's also so similar.  Like me, she's an imaginative daydreamer.  A book-lover.  An outsider.  I relate to Anne a lot, both in the books and in these filmed versions.


3.  Jane Eyre (Zelah Clarke) from the 1983 BBC version of Jane Eyre.  Jane is actually my favorite fictional heroine overall, but this list is supposed to be about on-screen characters, so she drops a few slots here.  Anyway, I love Jane because she is so principled, stalwart, and loving.  She spends her whole life insisting she will obey God (and her conscience) rather than men, and standing up to man after man who tries to bend her to their own will instead of God's.  She's an inspiration to me.


4.  Nora Charles (Myrna Loy) from the Thin Man movies.  Nora is the epitome of a spunky, helpful, supportive wife.  She and her husband Nick Charles (William Powell) are #marriagegoals for me because they genuinely enjoy being together.  They make each other laugh, encourage each other, help each other, and keep each other sane.  I adore them, but especially Nora.


5.  Lucy Eleanor Moderatz (Sandra Bullock) from While You Were Sleeping (1995).  Lucy is basically exactly me.  Put me in that situation, parents dead and me unmarried, and I'd be Lucy.  Have a cat, break things with my Christmas tree, create an imaginary life for myself with a handsome stranger, and totally be unable to tell people truths because I'm so lonely I can't bring myself to give them up.


6.  Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander) from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015).  Gaby is extremely competent.  She can fix cars, drive cars, banter, dance, spy, and survive with the best of them.  She is 1/3 of why I love that movie so much.


7.  Beatrice (Emma Thompson) from Much Ado About Nothing (1993).  Oh look, another intelligent, feisty, witty, sarcastic, fierce female character.  Are you sensing a theme here?  Clearly, I have a Type when it comes to female characters I will gravitate toward.  Beatrice also happens to have been written by Shakespeare, so she gets a extra good dialog and some above-par character development.  Thompson manages to blend plenty of wistful in with the prickly so you don't just want her to go away all the time.


8.  Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell) from Lost (2004-10).  I'm not into "shipping" and don't go in for "One True Pairings" as a general rule... but Sawyer and Juliet are my Lost OTP.  Also, you'll notice they're a canonical couple.  I get very annoyed with people who want Sawyer to get back with Kate because Juliet is so Right For Him.  She matches him in intelligence and stubbornness, gently guides him to becoming a better person, inspires him, uplifts him, and... it's probably weird for me to be talking so much about a guy on a list that's supposed to be about female characters, but Juliet's patience and perseverance with Sawyer is a big part of why I love her, so... there it is.


9.  Emma Woodhouse (Gwyneth Paltrow) from Emma (1996).  I don't like Emma in Jane Austen's book until the very end, but Paltrow's Emma has a kindness and elegance and sweetness that make the character one I'd love to hang out with, not one I want to kick.  Remarkable achievement, I think.


10.  Dr. Michaela Quinn (Jane Seymour) from Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993-98).  Smart, stubborn, courageous, kind, helpful, determined, protective, loving, a little bossy... Dr. Mike is everything I like in a woman.  As you may have come to realize while reading this list.

Okay, that's it!  Who are your favorite female screen characters?  Do we share any favorites?

The Story Enthusiast has nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award!  I love her questions -- you're going to too, I just know it.

But first, a bit of business, in the form of the award's rules:

• List the award’s official rules (doing so now)
• Display the award somewhere on your blog (hope the above image counts)
• Thank the person who nominated you (thank you, Story Enthusiast!)
• Provide a link to your nominator’s blog (did so above)
• Answer your nominator’s questions (will do so below)
• Nominate up to 11 bloggers (I'll get there)
• Ask your nominees 11 questions (what fun!)
• Notify your nominees by commenting on at least one of their blog posts (of course)

On to the questions!!!  (If I've reviewed a film I mention here, I've linked the title to my review.)

1. What British or international film would you recommend to a friend who has never seen one? 

Hmmmmm.  This is a hard question because it doesn't take into account the fact that people like different genres and so on.  And I'm not sure what friends of mine have never seen an international film!  However, if you happen to be into westerns and/or like unusual retellings of Hamlet, I really dig the Italian spaghetti western The Wild and the Dirty (1968), also called Johnny Hamlet.


2. Which classic film director do you prefer and what is your favorite of their films? 

John Sturges.  I don't love all of his films, but I do love several, especially The Magnificent Seven (1960).  And The Great Escape (1963), Hour of the Gun (1967), and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957).

3. Which character actor or actress do you think would have made a great lead? 

I wish Gloria Grahame had gotten to play front and center more.


4. What child actor do you believe should have had success as an adult but didn’t? 

Hmm.  Margaret O'Brien did make a lot of things as an adult, but not with nearly the success she had as a child.  (She's still alive, by the way!  So cool!)


5. What film do you love, but dislike the ending? 

Um.  I don't know if I can think of any.  Endings are super important to me.  If a movie doesn't end properly, I'm not going to love it.  I just looked through my entire list of my 100 favorite films, and I don't dislike a single ending on there.

Now, I can tell you a movie that I would like EXCEPT that the ending ruins it for me, so I can't like it, and that's Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961).  I much prefer the ending of the original story by Truman Capote.  And no, this isn't a case of me reading the story first and then not liking the film -- I saw and disliked the movie twice before I ever read and liked the story.

6. Whose onscreen wardrobe do you covet and would like to claim for your own? 

I want to wear basically every dress and bathrobe and pair of pajamas in White Christmas (1954).


7. Which original film do you think could be improved as a remake and who would you cast? 

Hmm.  How about Breakfast at Tiffany's?  We can restore the original ending and all will be well.  I think Alicia Vikander as Holly and James McAvoy as Paul would be interesting.


8. Which classic film actor or actress do you think would be successful in today’s film industry?

Lee Marvin.  Couldn't you see him in modern action movies, menacing and sidewinding and wonderful?



9. What film trope do you never tire of seeing?

Found families.  I eat them up with ravenous delight.

10. If you could adapt a piece of classic literature that has not yet been made into a film, what book would you choose and who would you cast in the main roles?

If I could be in charge of making a movie version of The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery so that it wouldn't get all screwed up, then that would be a very good book to adapt.  But only if it didn't get all screwed up.  I want Elizabeth Henstridge to play Valancy Stirling and Michael Fassbender as Barney Snaith.  If you can't get Fassbender to play Barney, I want no part of it whatsoever, the end.


11. Which of today’s modern actors or actresses do you think would have been successful in classic films and why?

Michael Fassbender.  He has a classical introspection and a wide range, and I think he'd have been fantastic in '60s films.



And now, my questions:

1.  What movie house would you like to live in?
2.  What movie pet would you like to own?
3.  What book do you wish your favorite actor or actress could have starred in an adaptation of?
4.  Are there any movies you like better than the book they were based on?
5.  What's your favorite movie that's set in the decade you were born in?
6.  Do you collect movie memorabilia of any sort?
7.  What actor and actress have never made a movie together, but you wish would have?
8.  What director would you like to have direct a movie based on your life?
9.  Do you ever like a remake better than the original film?
10. What's your least-favorite movie genre?
11.  Are there any movies in your least-favorite genre that you do like?

And my nominees:

Anna and Irene at Horseback to Byzantium
Cordy at Any Merry Little Thought
Eva at Coffee, Classics, and Craziness
Heidi at Along the Brandywine
Jocelyn at Classic Film Observations & Obsessions
Katie at I'm Charles Baker Harris (And I Can Read)
MovieCritic at Movies Meet Their Match
Natalie at Starry Ramblings
Olivia at Meanwhile, in Rivendell...
Paddy at Caftan Woman
Phyl at Phyllis Loves Classic Movies


Play if you want to!

I've never played the game Tomb Raider is based on.  I've seen both of the Angelina Jolie movies based on it at least once, maybe twice?  But that was back when they came out to video, so it's been a long time.  I only remember bits of them.  I liked them okay, but they weren't something I wanted to watch over and over.  Not the kind of action movie that appealed to me, somehow -- I think Jolie's Lara Croft felt superhuman, yet wasn't technically a superhero, and that never exactly worked for me.  Also, I'm not a huge Angelina Jolie fan.  I don't dislike her, but I don't dig her, you know?

But I'm a big fan of Alicia Vikander.  Last year I put her on the list of my top ten favorite actresses as #8.  After watching Tomb Raider in the theater yesterday, I'd say she's more like #5.  She's definitely my favorite under-40 actress working today.  Yes, she's THAT good in this movie. 

I went to Tomb Raider yesterday under very unusual conditions.  I had not seen any trailers for it.  I had not read anyone's reviews or thoughts on it.  I didn't know who else was in it besides Alicia Vikander.  I just knew it was her playing Lara Croft.  That's it.  I basically never go to a movie with that little information.  Just doesn't happen.  But for whatever reason, nothing about this movie crossed my path before I went to see it.  Which made for a very fun viewing because everything was a surprise!

Like, I didn't know that Dominic West was in it.  I was so surprised and excited when he showed up as her dad!  (But I must admit it's been so long since I saw him in anything, I spent like 5 minutes of the movie trying to remember what his name is.)  I've liked him ever since I first saw him in A Christmas Carol (1999), and he's one of those solidly enjoyable actors that I know will give a fun performance no matter what he's in.

(There are almost no pictures online of him in this movie.  It's like a conspiracy trying to keep me from knowing that he's in it or something.)

I also didn't know anything about the plot.  Basically, Lara Croft is a 20-something girl living almost on the streets, struggling to make enough money with a delivery job to pay her dues at the boxing center where she trains.  And then it turns out that actually, she's almost very rich.  Almost because, if she wants to inherit her dad's money, she has to declare him legally dead since he disappeared seven years ago.  And she doesn't want to do that.  So she's just scraping by instead. 

But then she discovers that her dad was secretly searching for this mysterious island where this freaky Japanese goddess of death is supposedly buried.  He wants to keep these other people from finding her and unleashing her powers of destruction on the world.  And that's where he went seven years ago, on a quest to protect the world from an ancient evil.

Lara, being extremely clever and good at solving puzzles and riddles of all sorts, figures out where he went.  And she goes after him.  She wants to at least find where he went, some sign that he was there, maybe even find his remains so she knows once and for all that he's truly gone.


She enlists the help of a boatman (Daniel Wu) to find the island, and once there, of course there's a tomb to raid and so on.  The movie as a whole has a very Indiana Jones vibe to it, WAY more than I remember the other two Tomb Raider movies having.  There are lots of traps, vague riddles, creepy ways to die, skeletons, and so on, plus gobs and gobs of Bad Guys.  Including one main bad guy played by Walton Goggins who was, to be honest, boring.  But at the same time, kind of interesting in his boringness because he wasn't some megalomaniac or obsessed fortune hunter or arch nemesis.  He was just a dude doing a job and wanting to go home.  He reminded me of a tame and boring Bruce Dern, actually.  Like, Bruce Dern on a non-spicy day.

And this Lara Croft is not super-human.  She fails at things.  She gets very hurt.  She gets tired.  It's altogether awesome and refreshing and... not entirely believable, but more believable than a lot of action movies, really.  Like Indiana Jones in that way too.

So anyway, it's a really fun movie, and I might actually go see it again if it's still playing in a few weeks.  I'd like to see it over now knowing all the twists to see how it works with that knowledge, because I'm pretty sure it will slot together beautifully like one of the puzzles Lara Croft has to solve in the movie. 

Is this movie family friendly?  There's a lot of Danger and Action and Scary Situations.  Lots of shooting and other violence, but it's non-gory.  A little bad language, some innuendo in dialog maybe?  No nudity, no love scenes.  Lara does run around in a tight tank top for most of the movie.  For teens and up, in other words.

Like I promised in my post about my ten favorite actors, here is the list of my ten favorite actresses!  This was, in some ways, a much easier list to compile, because I simply don't get as fanatical about actresses the way I do about actors, and so I don't have as many favorites.  However, here are ten ladies who can all make me want to see movies solely because they are in them, and they have played a lot of characters I admire, would like to be friends with, or want to be more like.  Definitely my favorites!


Once again, this is a bit different from my other "ten favorite" posts because I can't provide a synopsis of people the way I can for films. So I've listed the first movie I saw them in, my favorite movie of theirs, and my favorite role they played.  And again, I've linked their names to the post labels for them, so if you click on one of their names, it will take you to all the posts I've written that involve that particular actress.  Finally, I've linked movie titles to my reviews of them where applicable.


1.  Maureen O'Hara.  I think the first movie I saw her in was The Rare Breed (1966), as a preteen.  My favorite movie of hers is Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962), and my favorite role of hers is probably Maggie McKendrick in The Parent Trap (1961).


2.  Emma Thompson.  I first saw her in Sense and Sensibility (1995) when I was a teen -- in fact, I believe that was my introduction to Jane Austen as well.  My favorite movie of hers is Much Ado About Nothing (1993), and her role as Beatrice in that is also my favorite of hers.


3.  Barbara Stanwyck.  The first thing I saw her in was The Big Valley (1965-69), which remains my favorite thing she's in, and her role as Victoria Barkley on it is also my favorite -- I wrote this post a few years back about why I want to be just like Victoria when I grow up.


4.  Judi Dench.  I first saw her in GoldenEye (1995), and it's funny, but I didn't like her much at first.  I was extremely fond of Pierce Brosnan, and she yelled at him a lot, and that made me mad at her character, M.  But I grew increasingly fond of her over the years, both M and Judi Dench.  My favorite movie of hers is Chocolat (2000), and my favorite character of hers is actually M, especially in Skyfall (2012).


5.  Lauren Bacall.  I think the first thing I saw her in was To Have and Have Not (1944), though it might have been The Big Sleep (1946).  My favorite film of hers is To Have and Have Not, but my favorite role is probably Marilla Hagen in Designing Woman (1957), though it's been a long time since I watched that.


6.  Keira Knightley.  I first saw her in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999), but my favorite movie of hers is Pirates of the Caribbean:  Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), and my favorite role of hers is either Gwyn in Princess of Thieves (2001) or Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (2005).


7.  Myrna Loy.  I'm pretty sure The Thin Man (1934) was the first thing I ever saw her in, and Nora Charles in that and the subsequent Thin Man films is definitely my favorite role of hers.  But my favorite movie of hers is The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), which I watched for the first time solely because she was in it.
10.  Nicole Kidman.  I first saw her on the little-known Disney channel western series Five Mile Creek (1985), and I absolutely loved her tomboyish character Annie -- she wore pants and didn't like dressing up, and she could beat up boys!  Major role model for me as a girl.  My favorite movie of hers is Australia (2008), and her character in it, Lady Sarah Ashley (aka Mrs. Boss) is also my favorite role of hers.

Who are your favorite actresses?  Do we have any in common?

I've now seen The Man from U.N.C.L.E. four times, and I'm hoping to go for a fifth viewing this weekend.  (Cowboy is the coolest husband ever, by the way -- he does not bat an eye at me going to the same movie over and over anymore.  I guess he's grown accustomed to my weirdness.)  This movie is just plain fun, folks.  It's like going on a vacation.  Pretty views, attractive people, cheerful music -- it's a playful, play-filled movie, and I love it.  I do.


The first two viewings, I mostly loved Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) and focused on him.  But by the third, I had gotten used to Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and decided I could trust him.  Um, yes, this was an issue for me.  Sometimes I don't trust fictional characters, especially if they don't always treat other fictional characters I love the way I think they should.  I loved Illya from the get-go -- yes, yes, I was predisposed toward him because he's played by Armie Hammer, but by the time they finished filling in his back story in a few deft sentences, I was a goner.  So I got really upset with Solo the first time I watched it, especially when he took a long time to rescue Illya at one point, and i was getting desperate.  The second time, I was more okay with him, but it took until that third viewing for me to truly like him.  But now I do, so it's all good.


And then there's Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander).  She's like a sparkler -- spitting and fizzing and lighting up everything around her.  She's just as smart and intrepid as the boys, and has no problem taking them to task if she thinks they're going off track.  She's also beautiful, and her hair is about the same color as mine, which makes me ridiculously happy.  She's not afraid to get dirty, she's willing to admit it when she's scared, and she's not afraid to be feminine.  I want her hats.  And Illya's.


I've read a criticism or two of the fact that Gaby needs to be rescued in the final act being a damsel-in-distress cliche, but I find this completely fatuous.  Solo had to rescue Illya, and Illya had to rescue Solo, so why shouldn't Gaby get her turn being rescued?  Silly people.


I wish soooo much that this movie had done better at the box office, because I crave a sequel.  But I fear it is not to be.  Which is a crying shame, because this movie works so well on so many levels and truly deserves a sequel.  It's smart, playful, funny, stylish... the leads are genuinely likable (yes, Solo too -- it's only my protectiveness of Illya that made me not like him at first), the sets and costumes are delicious, and overall... I love it.  Did I say that already?


Time to talk about the soundtrack.  I've reviewed it for James the Movie Reviewer's blog, and you can read my thoughts about it here.  While I don't love every track on the album, I do enjoy it as a whole, and there's only one track that I generally skip ("Compared to What" by Roberta Flack has a bad word in it I don't want my kids hearing).  Sam likes one song ("Circular Story") so much he asked if I could put it on his laptop so he can listen to it while he writes.  (When my first laptop got old and crotchety and wasn't supported by Microsoft anymore, we took all the internet capabilities and most of the programs off it and gave it to Sam.  He loves to write stories on it while listening to music "just like Mommy.")


I have a million other things I could say about this movie -- favorite lines, favorite moments, things that make me laugh (Solo's apron!  Illya changing his tie because Solo says it doesn't match his suit!  Gaby dancing!), plot points I find so smart and sensible... but I'm tired, and I need to post this so you know where to find my soundtrack review.

I need to see this movie again.

There had better be a showtime that works next weekend, because I need to see it again.

Partly I need to see it again because I want to decide if I liked it or if I loved it, and I'm having trouble deciding.  Because it wasn't an automatic love, but I think it could be an acquired love.  Like The Lone Ranger (2013) -- the first time I saw that, I said in my review, "Did I love it? Maybe. Did I like it? Absolutely. Will I buy the DVD? Definitely."  Same goes for The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  (And weirdly enough, they both star Armie Hammer.)

Okay, so basically this is a spy romp with a tangy old-school flavor and a nothing-is-all-that-serious texture.  The whole world is not in danger, the human race is not about to be exterminated, no one is going to wipe out the electronic records of an entire nation or kill the US President or expose every secret agent the US has.  Someone is trying to build a nuclear bomb.  That's bad, but that's not oh-my-goodness-the-fate-of-the-universe-hangs-in-the-balance bad.  Which is great, because it gives this whole movie a more relaxed feel.  We can laugh.  There can be sight gags and double-entedres and funny little jokes, and they don't feel out of place.

There can also be an utterly sweet, sad, lonely, mighty, smart, resourceful, determined, broad-shouldered, strong-jawed, baby-faced, Russian-accented spy named Illy Kuryakin (Armie Hammer).

(Source)

And there's also this other guy named Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) who looks nice in a suit and likes to steal stuff.  He's an American secret agent, and Illya is a Russian secret agent, but they have to stop punching each other and start punching other people together in order to stop the bad guys trying to build a bomb, etc.

(I don't know where I found this because I've had it a while.) (Also, Armie's hair is better in the movie than in this photo.)

Also, there's a girl named Gaby (Alicia Vikander) who is all mixed up in the plot, which I don't feel like detailing, but she was so much fun -- smart and sassy and savvy and cool.  Also, an auto mechanic.  Also, she got the coolest '60s clothes.

(Source)

I adored the '60s setting, all the cool clothes and cars and buildings and hair -- I watched so many '60s movies growing up that I almost feel at home in that era, and so this was like a wonderful nostalgia trip for me even though I wasn't born until 1980.

So if you're looking for a lighter spy movie to relax with before the summer ends, please go see this!  It's a good ride.

Ahh, but is it family friendly?  Um, not totally.  A very small amount of bad language, almost entirely slang words for various body parts.  No taking of God's name in vain that I recall.  There's a shot of a woman from behind who is only wearing panties, and she turns so you can see the outline of more, but it's a silhouette and very vague.  There's quite a bit of suggestive material like what you would find in a '70s James Bond movie -- the implication that people are having sex, a guy and a girl wrestling -- lots of suggestion, no actual love scenes.  Still, not something I'd take young teens to.  There's also quite a bit of violence, a character with anger management issues and the mention of psychotic episodes, and a torture sequence that made me worry and squirm, though it wasn't graphic.  Very low on blood and guts, as most of the violence is implied.

Finally, I leave you with this picture of the original Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) from the 1960s TV show.  My mom had the hugest crush on this version of Illya, so I'm finding it amusing that one of my own favorite actors is now playing him.