Reel 13 host Richard Peña sits down with actor Michael McKean to discuss his work in Christopher Guest’s 2003 comedy, A Mighty Wind.

Reel 13 Indies host Richard Peña sits down with independent film director Debra Granik to discuss her 2004 picture, Down to the Bone.

Don’t miss SundayArts’ interview with Debra Granik on the occasion of her acclaimined new film (and Sundance sensation), Winter’s Bone.

by John Farr

This week, Reel 13 airs the Spencer Tracy classic, Father’s Little Dividend. To mark the occasion, John Farr suggests a trio of pictures from his all-time favorite screen actor, the very special Spencer Tracy.

Libeled Lady (1936)

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WHAT IT’S ABOUT:

The ever-smooth Powell plays Bill Chandler, a freelance journalist hired by his old newspaper to squelch a libel suit brought by society heiress Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy). To do this, Bill must make Connie fall in love with him and then place her in a compromising position. Ultimately, he melts her icy exterior, but ends up falling in love himself. What’s a smitten newspaperman to do?

WHY I LOVE IT:

Nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in 1936, Jack Conway’s underexposed screwball comedy is a raucous farce buzzing with zany humor, thanks to a flurry of impeccable one-liners delivered by Powell and Loy, reunited from their pairing in “The Thin Man.” Playing Haggerty, the newspaper’s frantic editor, and Gladys, his continually jilted fiancée, Tracy and Harlow round out a stellar foursome in this fast-paced, ingenious laugh-fest.

Woman of the Year (1942)

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WHAT IT’S ABOUT:

Two columnists on the same newspaper–Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn), a female world-affairs commentator, and Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy), a down-to-earth sportswriter-start a feud in print over the pointlessness of sports, but fall in love after Sam takes Tess to her first baseball game. This leads to a blissful walk down the aisle, but both soon find that married life together involves responsibilities which are at odds with their other priorities.

WHY I LOVE IT:

This is romance cinema at its best, exposing with subtlety and humor the phenomenon of two people, opposites in every respect, falling head over heels for each other. The issue then becomes figuring out how to make it work. Watching the picture today, it’s no surprise that Tracy, a gruff, blocky Irish Midwesterner, and Hepburn, a refined, patrician New England beauty, started their famous romance on this movie. Their differences create their unique chemistry and we can’t help but fall in love with them.

Inherit the Wind (1960)

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WHAT IT’S ABOUT:

In this courtroom drama based on the landmark Scopes Monkey Trial of the 1920s, defense lawyer Henry Drummond (Spencer Tracy) and fundamentalist prosecutor Matthew Brady (March) face off when schoolteacher Bertram Cates (Dick York), is put in jail for teaching evolution in tiny Hillsboro, Tennessee, with the arrest instigated by his girlfriend’s disapproving father, Rev. Jeremiah Brown (Claude Akins).

WHY I LOVE IT:

Kramer’s spellbinding film features a deft performance by Tracy as the rumpled, deceptively plain-spoken Drummond (modeled on Clarence Darrow), matched by March’s larger than life, virtuoso turn as Matthew Brady (based on William Jennings Bryan). Just sit back, pretend you’re sitting in that humid courtroom, and watch two old pros at work. You’ll re-live history. Also look for Gene Kelly in one of his only serious, non-dancing roles as a cynical journalist based on H.L. Mencken.

Visit Best Movies by Farr for more great DVD recommendations.

Easy Rider (1969)

What is your favorite “road” movie?  Richard Pena suggests “Easy Rider,” “Bound for Glory,” or perhaps something foreign, like Wim Wenders “Kings of the Road.”

His Girl Friday (1940)

Howard Hawks was one of Hollywood’s most versatile directors.  What’s your favorite Howard Hawks film? Neal Gabler loves “His Girl Friday.”

THIRTEEN’s new film and culture blog, “Girl on Film,” written by Sara Vilkomerson, appears every Friday on thirteen.org. It will also appear right here on Reel 13, starting now!

Joel Edgerton in "Animal Kingdom"

We’ve hit that time of year that is among the roughest to be a moviegoer (bested only by January and most of February). The shiny, big bucks blockbusters have come and gone—some have hit big (Inception) some went quietly into the night (remember Russell Crowe’s Robin Hood? We neither! )—the studios are sitting on all the good stuff (read: awards-bait) till after Labor Day. So what’s a moviegoer to do?

We have some answers! Because there are actually some very good movies kicking around out there – maybe they don’t star any recognizable names, and nothing blows up or turns into a robot, but rest assured they are worth the money.

First up, Animal Kingdom. We’re pretty much ready to declare this the best film we’ve seen so far this year. It’s gripping, it’s well-paced, excellently written with terrific performances and…what else could you people want? Written and directed by David Michôd, this is one of those crime family dramas that manage to be unlike every single crime family drama film you’ve ever seen. We don’t want to spoil the plot in the slightest, so instead let us say that that we’re guessing a lot of the actors seen in this–Joel Edgerton (who looks like the love child of Ewan McGregor and Sam Worthington), the scene-stealing Ben Mendelsohn, and the tremendous Jacki Weaver–will all start showing up in pictures over on this side of the world soon enough. Plus, there’s Guy Pearce, and who doesn’t love that guy? More Guy Pearce in general please! And really, to whoever is in charge of such things: please greenlight whatever it is Mr. Michôd (who, by the way, is rather movie star handsome himself. What’s in those Australian waters?) is working on next.

Also not to be missed: the less gripping but heaps more depressing Winter’s Bone. Written and directed by Debra Granik (check out this SundayArts interview with Granik), this film showcases some grim (so grim) American poverty via the Missouri Ozarks, when a young teenage girl (a terrific Jennifer Lawrence) has to look for her missing, meth-dealing father in order to keep her family from homelessness. Violence and terror ensues.

When it went to Sundance last January, it won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, and after seeing this one, you’ll probably understand why. It’s a little hard to watch, at times, but let’s just say this: you will find yourself unable to complain about anything you’ve been complaining about after seeing this movie. No air-conditioner? Tired of people crowding you on the subway? No money for the European vacation? Just trust us, watch this and you’ll just thank your lucky stars that dinner tonight doesn’t involve squirrel.

by John Farr

This week, Reel 13 airs the Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn classic, Bringing Up Baby. To mark the occasion, John Farr suggests a trio of late, great Katharine Hepburn pictures.

Adam’s Rib (1949)

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WHAT IT’S ABOUT:

Adam and Amanda Bonner (Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn), an otherwise happily married pair of lawyers, find their relationship sorely tested when they end up opposing each other in court in an attempted murder case involving another husband (Tom Ewell) and wife (Judy Holliday, in her debut).

WHY I LOVE IT:

George Cukor’s “Rib” may just be the ultimate battle of the sexes comedy, waged both in and out of the courtroom. Perhaps Tracy and Hepburn’s best overall film, their on-screen chemistry was never more effective than here. The script by Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon is razor sharp and supporting performances from newcomers Ewell, Holliday and David Wayne are uniformly inspired. Judy’s turn as a wronged wife put her career in overdrive.

The African Queen (1951)

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WHAT IT’S ABOUT:

Coarse-tongued, boozy steamer captain Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart), a supplier of trade goods to East African villages during WWI, offers to take prim, imperious Rose Sayer (Katharine Hepburn) back to civilization after her husband, a British missionary, dies during a German attack. Charlie and Rose have an oil-and-water rapport, but over the ensuing days, as they face a gauntlet of perils on the arduous journey home, their mutual hostility softens and then turns much sweeter.

WHY I LOVE IT:

Scripted by James Agee, Huston’s hugely entertaining “African Queen” pairs a grizzled Bogart with the lovably straitlaced and ever-haughty Hepburn for a bumpy ride down a treacherous river, where a German gunboat is lurking, along with leeches, rapids, and (surprise!) romance. According to Hepburn’s memoir (and several books), it was a hell of a shoot for everyone concerned, but DP John Cardiff managed to render the humid environs of East Africa in majestic, eye-popping Technicolor. Sterling performances by Hepburn and Bogart (who nabbed the Oscar for his turn as the cantankerous river rat) are the best reason to revisit “African Queen,” though. Opposites attract!

Long Day’s Journey into Night (1962)

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WHAT IT’S ABOUT:

Set during one long summer day in 1912, this film focuses on the Tyrones, a family that has seen better days. James (Ralph Richardson),once a fine Shakespearean actor, has emptily played the same offstage role for years, while eldest son Jamie (Jason Robards), a failure on the boards, drowns his sorrows in alcohol. Budding writer Edmund (Dean Stockwell) is recovering from TB, and mother Mary (Katharine Hepburn), recently released from an institution, is slowly losing her grip on reality to the ravages of drug-addiction. As the day wears on, resentments surface-and ultimately consume-this tragic clan.

WHY I LOVE IT:

Sidney Lumet’s slow-burning adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s semi-autobiographical play depicts a theatrical family’s slow disintegration with haunting precision. Ralph Richardson is ideally cast as the fading family patriarch, while both Robards and Stockwell (O’Neill’s proxy) are superb as the two sons, each consumed by their own afflictions. Hepburn executes a tour-de-force as the fragile, brain-addled Mary Tyrone, a spectral symbol of the family’s decay from within. Lumet wisely sticks to the letter of the play, and the results are unforgettable.

Visit Best Movies by Farr for more great DVD recommendations.

Welcome

What’s your favorite recent film on immigration?  Richard Pena thinks the Reel 13 Indie “Welcome” is a great example.

State of the Union

What is your favorite political film?  Neal Gabler likes Frank Capra’s “State of the Union.”