shelley winters Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Three major releases today, all screened for critics and, sadly, all pretty bad. Poseidon is forgettable, empty action, Just My Luck is fluff (But ain't that Lindsay Lohan sweet?), and Goal! The Dream Begins is another formulaic sports underdog story.

• Poseidon: Pretty much everyone agrees with James that this remake did away with the cheese and personalities of the original film, and has replaced them with non-stop action. They also, largely, agree that the choice wasn't a very good one (As evidenced by the fact that every single critic mentions Shelley Winters, but can hardly remember anything about the characters in the movie they're reviewing). Well, at least it's not boring. And hey, the effects are good!

• Goal! The Dream Begins: Goal! is a)about soccer, and b)formulaic: on these things, critics agree. Beyond that however, you have to wonder whether these people were watching the same movie. For example, star Kuno Becker is either blindingly talented or a waste of space. By the same token, his character's illegal immigrant status is either a sign of depth and nuance or just another part of the money-hungry studio's effort to broaden the film's appeal. Me, I'm just thrilled to see the phrases "Newcastle United" and "Alan Shearer" in the American media.

• Just My Luck: Yeah, this one's just not very good -- according to most of his critical brethren, James hits the nail on the head when he labels it "fluff" and "not horrible." Those who find good things to say about the movie are entirely focused on Lindsay Lohan who, despite her inability/unwillingness to stay off the gossip pages, remains -- to some, anyway -- a charming, talented actress. (Roger Ebert, in particular, loves her muchly.

Oscar-winning actress Shelley Winters died today at the age of 85 of heart failure, after being hospitalized for a heart attack in October. Winters won Oscars in 1959 for The Diary of Anne Frank, and in 1965 for A Patch of Blue, in which she played a mother who tries to end her blind daughter's friendship with a black man, played by Sidney Poitier. During Winters' long career, she evolved from a buxom sexpot to a serious dramatic actress. She was a devotee of The Actors Studio, and constantly challenged herself to find new ways to perform and reinvent herself. She continued working into her 70s, playing Roseanne's grandmother in a recurring role on the television show Roseanne in the 1990s.

The first time I knew of Winters was when she played the evil Lena Gogan in Pete's Dragon in 1977. My grandmother took me to that film, and I remember her expressing her shock at how Winters had changed. I didn't believe her when she said Winters had been known as a sex symbol, and so after the movie, my grandmother pulled out her photo albums of herself as a teenage chorus line dancer, so I could understand how people age and change. Shelley Winters represented my first childhood understanding that someday I would grow old; later in life, as she continued to act and challenge herself in new ways, she came to represent to me resilience in the face of change. She never stopped working and trying new things and starting from where she was at each point of her life to explore what she could do. She wrote several "tell all" books about Hollywood that ticked some people off too - she was never afraid to speak up and say what she thought, even if it meant offending people.