I hate it when people just make lists with no reasons, so I'll give reasons.
Beaches - The trouble with many such movies is that they are all but impossible to believe, but somehow this one avoids that. I think it offers a rare (perhaps because its female written and many of these have men writing them) realistic look at female friendships over time. Bette of course is always awesome at doing what she does best, which is basically portraying her own persona, and Barbra Hershey is a great actor who never got the props, or the roles, she deserved.
What makes the ending such a tearjerker, is not the side story of the kid (who we all know, once she gets over mom's death is just going to have a gas being Bette's 'daughter') but the very real feeling the two of them give that despite all the other people in their lives, they were the two who could really talk to each other, and that will be gone forever.
The Devil Wears Prada - beyond awesome, but I bet for a different reason than most who like it (on this board at least) really like it. I found Anne Hathaway - like most of her roles - to be OK, believable in this kind of standard fish-out-of-water story, but what made is great is Merle Streep's portrayal of Miranda Pristley. I bet when all is said and done, even given the kind of roles she has had (and will have) this is going to stand as one of her defining moments. She channels 'bitch with power' in such a fashion that its not only chilling, but awesomely funny. Streep gets all the props for her drama, which I never found as compelling has her comedy, which nobody seems to get. It that it is the exact opposite of all the 'bitches with power' we've seen, who tend to be shrill, overly dramatic, and very 'hot' people. Miranda Pristley is cold like ice to the bone, and its killer stuff to watch. She never raises her voice, she doesn't have to. When in one scene you see her start to get excited - the speech about fashion - you can watch her visibly pull herself in to remain in control.
Even in the beginning, the first time we meet her there is this exchange:
Miranda Priestly: ...You have no sense of fashion...
Andy Sachs: I think that depends on...
Miranda Priestly: No, no, that wasn't a question.
I could watch her deliver that No, no, that wasn't a question line all day long.
But she also has these gems, memorable all of them.
The details of your incompetence do not interest me.
By all means move at a glacial pace. You know how that thrills me.
But I think the best is how totally sold she is on being that person, when it comes up that not everyone might want to live like this Miranda says:
Oh, don't be ridiculous. Andrea. Everybody wants this. Everybody wants to be us.
And you know that she really believes that everybody does want to be her.
Sex in the City - no more plot than the series ever had, but who cares? Those girls are so good at those roles by now, and are ever so comfortable playing them against one another that its a joy to watch. And they are adults, not as often happens to women in movies, little girls playing adults. In that I mean its about successful professional women in NY who act like adults. The make adult decisions and take adult responsibility for those decisions. Kind of refreshing.
Little Women - the '33 version. Because Kathrine Hepburn was born to play Jo March. The 40s version, all technicolor is prettier, but damn that June Allison is so damn perkey it makes me want to puke, though having Janet Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor against each other is sheer beauty. Never did like the one with Wynona who just was never Jo. Though Claire Danes was good. I think that what makes me mad about that one is watching Susan Sarandon do such a good job on the mom, all the while I'm thinking had she done Jo back when she was younger she might have given Hepburn a run for the money.
