Sunday, September 28, 2025

2024-25 Saturdays with the Stars Recap

Debbie Reynolds & Audrey Hepburn, two of
our stars this year
It took longer than I expected, but we have finished up our sixth season of Saturdays with the Stars.  I will be honest-I don't entirely know whether or not this will be our final season.  I have two ideas rolling around my head for a theoretical seventh season (I do love this series...along with the My Ballots, it's my favorite thing I do here), both of which would be interesting, but I also am respecting that I chose to step away from longer-term blog commitments for a reason, and to some degree I'm making more of that time (exercising more, watching more OVP movies, reading considerably more), while other writing projects I've not yet gotten a good routine around in the way I used to have for this blog.  If we do do another season, it won't be until January, so we will for sure be getting a few months off regardless as I attempt two writing projects in the meantime.  I am unequivocally glad that I decided to finish this season up, though, regardless, as I don't love an unfinished project, and this had been bugging me.

One of the things that I'm struck by this season is that, for a large part, the movies this season were not as well-received by me as our past five years.  Part of this is my self-imposed rule that I don't repeat films I've already seen.  Some of these women have been in great movies, occasionally (like Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday and Julia Roberts in Notting Hill) in movies that I would happily name-check as all-time favorites.  But I will also own that the title of being "America's Sweetheart" means that, even more than our second season focusing on sex symbols, the public limits how much risk the studio is willing to take on you.  With the exception of Sally Field, none of the women we talked about this month were able to have the same level of financial success when they were America's Sweetheart as they would after they would free themselves of that title, and thus while there are definitely good performances...they aren't as frequent.  I did still see some great work (and great movies), but I will own that none of the 12 films that I saw this year looks like a future medalist in our My Ballot Best Picture category (at best, it'll be one of the other titles that fill up the ten-wide Best Picture field), and only a couple of the performances will likely end up as My Ballot nominees for acting.  Still, there's more to life than awards, and there's lots of fluff & fun to recommend here.  Below, find my superlatives from our sixth season of Saturdays with the Stars.

Favorite Performance from Each Star 

August: Sandra Dee, Gidget
November (but really August 2025): Julia Roberts, Mystic Pizza
December (but really September 2025): Meg Ryan, Joe Versus the Volcano

5 Favorite Performers (Alphabetical, and based solely on the films we watched as a collective & not on the rest of their careers)


5 Favorite Performances of the Year (Alphabetical)


12 Favorite Films of the Year (Alphabetical)


Top 12 Performances of the Year (Not By Our Stars...and Yes, Alphabetical)

Frankie Avalon, Beach Party
Jimmy Durante, Two Girls and a Sailor
Timothy Hutton, Ordinary People
Tommy Kirk, Babes in Toyland
Hattie McDaniel, The Little Colonel
Jimmy Stewart, The Glenn Miller Story
Donald Sutherland, Ordinary People
Elizabeth Taylor, Little Women
Denzel Washington, Courage Under Fire
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