Hi everyone!
Welcome back to Takeover Tuesday!
We’re still looking for collaborators for later this month, like today’s collaborator, Ryan L. Terry, who teaches screenwriting and has a vast knowledge of movies both young and old. You can check out his blog at RLTerryReelView.com for his semi-regular posts, or catch him on social media, on Facebook at rlterry, on Twitter at RLTerry1, and on Instagram at RL_Terry. He’s passionate not just about movies, but about the diverse online community surrounding movies.
Oh, and if you like what you hear, and think you could write and record your own short review, head over to onemoviepunch.com/takeover-tuesday and check out the process, then reach out to us to get involved.
TOWANDA!
Here’s a quick promo.
Hi, I’m Ryan, and I’m excited to have the opportunity to speak with you today on One Movie Punch’s Takeover Tuesday. Outside of my day jobs in Creative Services for Disney on Ice and teaching screenwriting at the University of Tampa, I love experiencing and writing about movies and theme parks. Do you love deep explorations of cinema and themed entertainment? Then connect with me social media! My favorite director is Alfred Hitchcock and favorite genre is horror. “Jurassic Park”, “Sunset Blvd”, and “Psycho” top my favorite films list. And as a blogger and proud member of the #FilmTwitter community, I don’t host my own podcast, but I’d love the opportunity to be a guest on yours. RLTerry1 on Twitter, and you can find my blog from there.
Today’s movie is “Fried Green Tomatoes”, directed by Jon Avnet and written for the screen by Carol Sobieski and Fannie Flagg, based on Fannie Flagg’s novel “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café”. Universal Pictures’ quintessential American cinema classic “Fried Green Tomatoes” is a heartwarming, unapologetically sentimental film that reminds us that the best thing in life is “friends, best friends.”
On one of trapped housewife Evelyn Couch's (Kathy Bates) Wednesday nursing home visits with her husband, she encounters Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy), a colorful old woman who brightens Evelyn's outlook by sharing tales from her past. As Ninny recounts the exploits of her free-spirited childhood friend Idgie (Mary Stuart Masterson), owner of a small Alabama café in the 1920s, and the bond Idgie shared with her friend Ruth (Mary-Louise Parker), Evelyn gains the confidence to change her own life for the better.
I’m not sure about you, but I am not entirely a fan of movies that feature a couple of people sitting around in the present talking about a story from the past. And all the while, we get flashbacks to that earlier story. What is the point? Why not just tell the story from the past and let that be your movie? I just don’t get it. There are some exceptions... take “Citizen Kane”for instance – it worked! But contrary to my predisposed dislike for movies that principally rely upon flashbacks to tell the story, this movie surpasses all expectations! The story in the present features Mrs. Ninny Threadgoode and Ms. Evelyn Couch. Ninny tells Evelyn a story from her hometown that follows Idgie and Ruth through a wide range of bittersweet events that test their loyalty to each other. In the process, it also offers a portrait of a lulling, rustic, Klan-ridden Alabama in which the characters’ willful innocence often gives way to harsh racial realities. One of the reasons Director Jon Avnet’s “Fried Green Tomatoes”survives the flashback structure is that it devises an interesting character to be the listener to the long-ago tale. Each story is captivating! Because of the two stories being told concurrently, it takes a little while for this film to grab hold of you; but when it does, you will be hooked on the homespun humanity, intimacy, romance, and yes even a murder mystery. Of course, it’s a murder mystery that Angela Lansbury easily could solve in her sleep.
The film is also an early breakthrough for queer cinema because it contains a subtextual world of queer thematic elements and symbolism. It’s presented very clearly in Flagg’s novel that Idgie is a lesbian and she and Ruth are a couple despite the mores in the South at the time (and still to this day somewhat). The movie brings these elements out indirectly through powerful subtext that is not exactly trying to hide, interestingly enough. Because the movie was released prior to films showing healthy homosexual relationships just as normal as heterosexual ones, the film got creative in how to acknowledge it while not polarizing audiences at the time. By and large, the small town of Whistle Stop was certainly not small-minded. Showing the progressive nature of this “knockabout place” in how it largely feels about minority communities, the town accepts the two of them and no questions are ever asked about their relationship. Idgie and Ruth in particularly display extremely progressive ideals, for the day, because two of their closest friends are members of the town’s black community. Big George and Sipsy (Cicely Tyson) are important to Idgie and Ruth, and would do anything for them.
The stories from the past and present are both full of social commentary, containing an important message for women or anyone who feels that they cannot be progressive, independent, and successful because of antiquated ways of a relationship or society. With Ninny and her stories as inspiration, Evelyn learns that she can be more than her girdle-wearing, dinner-making, frumpy dress self. Evelyn is so fired up by Ninny’s stories of Idgie’s escapades, that she begins to take control of her life. She gives up her candy bars for aerobics, stops trying to please her misogynistic redneck of a husband and begins a career as a Mary Kay sales professional. Through her many visits to spend time with Ninny, she also becomes as passionately devoted to Ninny as Ruth was to Idgie, with this one being a platonic relationship.
After 27 years, “Fried Green Tomatoes” (1991) still holds up. If you enjoy great dialog and excellent character development, you will fall in love with this movie. The four leading ladies deliver outstanding performances! It is of no surprise that this movie has stood the test of time.
Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Metacritic: 64
One Movie Punch: SOLID 9.0/10
“Fried Green Tomatoes” (1991)is rated PG-13 and is currently streaming on many different services.
Thanks for having me on the show today! If you like what you heard, I’d love to connect with you on social media. You can find me on Twitter at RLTerry1, or visit my blog at RLTerryReelView.com, and that’s reel with two e’s. You can also follow @ncootnovel (that’s N-C-O-O-T-Novel) for updates on my forthcoming novel.
Thanks to all of you for listening. My name is Ryan, and you are listening to One Movie Punch!
