THAT THING YOU DO!

PLOT SUMMARY: A local Pennsylvania band scores a one-hit wonder in 1964 and rides the star-making machinery as long as they can, with lots of help from their manager.

WHERE TO WATCH: Hulu

JAIMEE’S NOTES: Another of my very favorite movies! I know I have a lot of favorite movies but this one might be in my top five. First of all, one of the best fictional bands ever. They may have only had one hit, but damn is it good. You are going to hear it so many times throughout this movie. I should have counted but I would guess upwards of seven? I’ve also realized recently that Tom Hanks is probably my favorite actor based on the movies I enjoy most so he is of course in this movie and he also wrote and directed this movie. So this one is full of Tom Hanks. Also some special guest appearances by Rita Wilson and Colin Hanks….if you’re paying attention. No Chet, darn. The rest of the cast is amazing: Liv Tyler, Charlize Theron, Tom Everett Scott, Steve Zahn, Ethan Embry, and Giovanni Ribisi to name a few…or most. Guy Patterson is a drummer who works at his family’s appliance store in Erie, Pennsylvania in the 60s. There is also a small time band in the town and their drummer, Chad, happens to break his arm so they ask Guy to take his spot. They play at a talent show and Guy takes their song up a notch and they win! Everyone loves it. They start getting some more gigs and a manager and it takes off! This movie is basically a snapshot of a boy band in the 60s who have a one hit wonder, the rise and fall. The loves and losses. Someone falls in love with their dentist. Someone joins the Marines. I just think this is a classic. I love Guy Patterson, he is the best. Steve Zahn, who plays Lenny has so many funny moments. It’s hard for me to critique movies that I think are perfect lol, so I will give you a fun fact to end! Tom Hanks claims that he wrote this script when he was on the promotional tour for Forrest Gump due to his boredom doing non-stop interviews. Tom Hanks, the ultimate multi-tasker.

ROMY AND MICHELE’S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION

PLOT SUMMARY: Two dim-witted, inseparable friends hit the road for their ten-year high school reunion and concoct an elaborate lie about their lives in order to impress their classmates.

WHERE TO WATCH: Hulu

JAIMEE’S NOTES: HEY EVERYBODY, SANDY FRINK JUST LANDED IN A HELICOPTER! Grab a business woman special and get ready to watch this absolute masterpiece! This movie is definitely in my top ten, maybe my top five. You know I love a movie about female friendship and Romy and Michele have one of the greatest friendships of our generation. This movie has perfect outfits, perfect music, perfect actors, perfection EVERYWHERE! Romy and Michele are 28 year olds living in Venice Beach together when they learn about their ten year high school reunion, from their old classmate, Heather Mooney. Side note, Janeane Garofalo is so fucking funny, she is the best. Romy realizes when they are filling out their questionnaires that their lives don’t sound as impressive as they think, so they decide to get boyfriends, jobs, and get skinny in two weeks. As much as they try, it doesn’t really pan out. So they decide to do the next best thing and lie. Romy comes up with the idea that they should say they invented post-it’s and her and Michele end up having a fight about their cover story lie. Everything comes to a head at the reunion in Tucson where they run into the A group, Romy’s crush Billy, and Sandy Frink, the boy who was obsessed with Michele among others! You don’t know how many times I’ve said, “If anybody needs to make a call, I’ve got a phone.” Anyway, everything works out for the best when Romy and Michele just decide to forget about everyone else and just be their true authentic selves. The dance at the end of the reunion is incredible, if I ever get married I am making my groom and my maid of honor learn and perform that dance with me. What a treat. This movie just makes me so, so happy and full of joy. Please enjoy watching! ….would you excuse me, I cut my foot before and my shoe is filling up with blood.

THE FIRST WIVES CLUB

PLOT SUMMARY: Reunited by the death of a college friend, three divorced women seek revenge on the husbands who left them for younger women.

WHERE TO WATCH: Paramount+ or FREE on PlutoTV

JAIMEE’S NOTES: I cannot say enough about how much I love this movie. It has three of my favorite things: a terrific cast, powerful women, and female friendship. We have our four main friends played by absolute queens: Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, Diane Keaton and Stockard Channing. Husbands played by Dan Hedaya (I can’t think of anything other than his role as Richard Nixon in the amazing movie, Dick), Victor Garber, and disgusting Stephen Collins, AKA Eric Camden….we all know what he did. And even new girlfriends: Marcia Gay Harden, Elizabeth Berkley and Sarah Jessica Parker!? The best. Oh and also a Maggie Smith appearance. My lord. Elise, Brenda and Annie reunite at the funeral of one of their best friends from college after not seeing each other for years. They all kind of find out they are having issues with their husbands or ex-husbands, these ladies are going through it! I feel like watching this and also The Golden Girls because they are supposed to be like in their 50’s on that show, yes an insane fact; but after watching these things, being a single woman in your 40’s and 50’s in the ‘90s seems hard as fuck! Everyone is so mean and insulting. The ladies all receive a letter from their deceased friend, Cynthia, and she expresses regret that they did not stay in touch. She thinks that would have helped with her mental health because she was also going through a very public divorce and was quite lonely. The rest of the ladies see this as a cautionary tale and agree that they must keep in touch and stick together because together they are stronger and they can stand up for themselves! After enlisting the help of Annie’s daughter, Chris, they start gathering information and pulling some stunts on their husbands so they can get even and get what they believe they deserve. I love that they make like an actual clubhouse and get business cards, very important! They are really wheeling and dealing, but you’ll have to tune in to see everything they do to the men and how it all turns out in the end! I just really love the confidence they all find and how much they all now value their friendship. They are there for each other always. Eventually the ladies open a crisis center for women in honor of Cynthia, which is so great. They also have some amazing celebrity guests stop by, including Kathie Lee Gifford, Gloria Steinem, and Ivana Trump who gives us a great quote, “Don’t get mad, get everything!” This movie ends with a perfect singing performance of You Don’t Own Me in smart white dress suits. This is a perfect movie, I just love them. For the love of god, cherish your female friendships, people!!

ZOOLANDER

PLOT SUMMARY: At the end of his career, a clueless fashion model is brainwashed to kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

WHERE TO WATCH: Peacock or Paramount+

JAIMEE’S NOTES: Not every month has five Wednesdays, but I’m still going to throw my very favorite movie category at you…Jaimee’s favorites! Using a quote in my Saltburn rewatch blog really made me want to watch one of my very favorite and most quotable movies..Zoolander! The plot of Zoolander is wild. There is a new prime minister of Malaysia whose policies will prohibit some of the biggest names in fashion from retaining cheap child labor. Fashion mogul, Mugatu, is tasked with finding someone to assassinate the prime minister and lands on choosing a male model, they have their eyes on one man… Derek Zoolander is an icon in the fashion world and has won male model of the year three years in a row. A journalist named Matilda is interviewing him before the big awards show where he is going for win number four. Christine Taylor, who plays Matilda, is Ben Stiller’s wife and Jerry Stiller, who plays Derek’s agent Maury Ballstein, is Ben’s dad. A family affair! Also there are so many celebrity cameos including but not limited to: two out of five Spice Girls, David Bowie, Natalie Portman, Heidi Klum and Lance Bass. Derek, sadly, loses the male model of the year race to new, hot model, Hansel. Derek then questions his entire life and tries to talk to his male model roomies about it. The roomies know something that will cheer him up, ORANGE MOCHA FRAPPUCCINOS!! After a freak gasoline fight accident, Derek decides to retire. Derek has got to find out what more there is to life besides being really really ridiculously good looking, he dreams of creating the Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and working on his left turns. Derek goes back to southern New Jersey to be a coal miner with his dad and brothers. “I think I’m getting the black lung,” is a quote I say or think every time I cough. As you can imagine, being a coal miner does not work out and Derek returns to his only job with Mugatu who lures him in with a model of his dream Derek Zoolander Center….what is this, a center for ants!? Mugatu introduces Derek to his own campaign, Derelicte, and promptly takes him to a spa where they brainwash him to kill the prime minister of Malaysia. Meanwhile, Matilda is researching Mugatu and learns all of his models die young in freak accidents. Derek and Hansel run into each other on a night out and ladies and gentlemen….it’s a walk off!! Eventually Derek and Hansel join forces with Matilda to try to expose Mugatu and keep Derek from killing the prime minister of Malaysia. Will they figure out Derek’s trigger word and how computers work in time!? This is just an overall hilarious movie with the dumbest, but best quotes. Enjoy and go work on your blue steel in the mirror.

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES

PLOT SUMMARY: A housewife who is unhappy with her life befriends an old lady at a nursing home and is enthralled by the tales she tells of people she used to know.

WHERE TO WATCH: Netflix

JAIMEE’S NOTES: When I saw this movie was on Netflix, I knew immediately this would be my first pick for the best category we have…Jaimee’s Favorites. I watched this movie allllll the time when I was younger because it was always on TV, so I would catch different parts in the movie. I loved this film, it makes you laugh, it makes you cry, there is crime, there is female empowerment, there are flashbacks. Everything I love. And I also love Kathy Bates, what a lady. Kathy plays Evelyn Couch, a housewife who is going through a very ho hum phase of life. One day Evelyn goes with her husband, Ed, to visit his aunt in the nursing home. While Evelyn is there, she meets a woman named Ninny. Ninny starts telling her stories about Ruth and Idgie and the evolution of their beautiful friendship. I don’t want to give away any of the stories because they are so great coming from Ninny, but Ruth and Idgie eventually start a cafe together where they make fried green tomatoes! And there is also a very Goodbye Earl type of story….dun dun dun. Meanwhile, Evelyn has been going to these weird classes for women with her friend, Missy…aka Patty Mayonnaise. Evelyn realizes she doesn’t need these classes and keeps going back to see Ninny to hear more of the story. Evelyn also becomes bolder and more confident with Ninny’s insistence and in the spirit of Ruth and Idgie. This is truly a wonderful movie about the lengths you will go to for your friends and they can become your family. A genuine ‘90s classic that I cannot wait for you all to watch!