Monday, February 03, 2020

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Moonstruck (1987)

Ronny: Loretta, I love you. Not like they told you love is, and I didn't know this either, but love don't make things nice - it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren't here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die. The storybooks are bullshit. Now I want you to come upstairs with me and get in my bed!

Wanna hear something crazy? I started watching Moonstruck yesterday -- on a whim I'd recently recorded it off of TCM -- and I realized about halfway through that I don't think I had ever seen Moonstruck before! I know! I am sure I'd seen pieces of it before -- it's literally impossible not to have Cher's delivery of "Snap out of it!" memorized by the age of twelve in this country. But there were wide swathes that were whollu unfamiliar. 

Wanna hear something else, something not so crazy? That's a good movie! Sharp unobtrusive direction from Norman Jewison of a marvelously witty script from Doubt playwright John Patrick Shanley that's stuffed from one end to the other with instantly memorable characters -- somehow a person shows up for thirty seconds and you feel like you've known them your entire life. I loved it. Y'all are longtime fans and I'm ridiculous for not having seen it, right?


12 comments:

Chris said...

I think it's the last truly great romantic comedy. Vincent Gardenia was robbed of an Oscar.

Dishy said...

OH MY GODDESS CHER!! YOU - the greatest film blogger alive - have never seen MOONSTRUCK???? What the hell? That movie is SO watchable - over and over! That script is one gem after another! "You got a hat, wear a hat" "I put a curse on that plane" That Mona, she's some type-a cheap goods" "You got those bad eyes like a gypsy!" "You with the stars in your eyes...isn't that romantic?""She made a meal that could choke a pig!" ... and those are just off the top of my head! Gardenia WAS robbed, as was Cage! "Your life is going down the toilet!" I could go on and on....

Chris said...

"One day you'll drop dead and I'll come to your funeral in a red dress!"

shaun said...

Just a wonderful movie in every way. People who act like Cher didn't earn that Oscar simply are WRONG.

Anonymous said...

I just watched on TCM too. "You've got such a head for knowing...."
is one I use a lot.

indifferent pointy guy said...

And isn't it the weirdest, perfect marriage of actress and part EVER? Dutiful, prosaic Loretta Castorini EMBODIED by sequined, goddessy Cher. Can you imagine the meeting where the casting director had to sell that to the studio? And she is fucking note perfect from beginning to end.

Matty said...

I'm so glad to see a lot of love for this movie. I saw it for the first time last year on Hulu (with my mom, who was shocked I didn't know anything about it besides Cher and Nicolas Cage starred in it,) and I instantly loved it (and is one of my favorite new to me films of 2019.) Yet, like 98% of people I've spoken about it either haven't seen it or don't know what I'm talking about. So, I'm glad to find some other fans on here.

Also @indifferent pointy guy...I LOVE Cher as Loretta too. I read that the role was originally written for Sally Field and I just can not see anyone else as Loretta.

Aquinas1220 said...

WHAT? wow... welcome to the fan club. Even if we were to ignore all the many wonderful things about this movie; the scenes between Olympia Dukakis and John Mahoney are pure, sweet magic

Anonymous said...

Two Rose Castorini gems

Now he’s going to play that damn Vicki Carr record, and when he comes to bed he won’t touch me

Old man, you give those dogs another piece of my food and I’m gonna kick you ’til you’re dead!

Jason Adams said...

You guys are making me so happy with all of these quotes!
You're making me want to re-watch the movie already and I just saw it!

Anonymous said...



"There are three kinds of pipes. There's what you have, which is garbage - and you can see where that's gotten you. There's bronze, which is pretty good, unless something goes wrong. And something always goes wrong."

(I tried to post this yesterday and something went kerflooey. I clearly used the wrong kind of pipe.)


I love that there is clearly an age difference between Loretta and Ronnie. In a lesser movie, that would be a major stupid plot point, she'd agonize over being too old for him. Here though, it's never even mentioned.

Anonymous said...

"You can't see his teeth when he smiles. What's he trying to hide?"

(Or something like that.)

Love this movie! Cher makes it look effortless and easy but many, many gifted actresses would not have done as well as her in this part.