PITTSBURGH with Jeff Goldblum

Highly recommended! Wendy "I'm from Pittsburgh" Neidermeyer passed along this gem to me and I LOVED IT (even though I know Wendy is really from Monogahela rather than the confines of the Steel City).

Originally filmed for HBO or another cable concern, PITTSBURGH was available from Netflix as one of my two, count them two, selections for a 30 day period. THAT should tell you something right there. I could have ordered JUNO or another theater release, but nooooooooooooooooooooo, I have this driving need to watch any production filmed in the city of my youth.

There have been many I've enjoyed. One in particular is ROOMMATES which starred Peter Falk and DB Sweeney. Heartwarming storyline? Yes, but pale in comparison to the fact that a large scene was filmed in a house two doors down from 221 Morewood Avenue, my childhood home. You can actually see my house when the camera pans the street setting. The only disturbing part was that the "old neighborhood" was identified as being in Columbus, Ohio. Disgusting.

Another movie: WONDER BOYS with Michael Douglas, Toby McGuire, Robert Downey, JR
Again, a majority of it filmed in the ever exciting East End! Be-YOU-T-ful scenery of Carnegie-Mellon Campus, the glorious homes on Devonshire Street between Ellsworth and Fifth Avenues, and the neighborhood of Atlantic and Pacific Streets near Don Allen Chevrolet (soon to be condos!). LOVED IT AND WANTED MORE even though it was based on a Michael Chabon novel and I am not wild about Michael Chabon.

Now we bring forth STRIKING DISTANCE with one of my former-husband-wanna-bes, Bruce Willis who co-stars with a pony-tailed, perky pre-city-sexed Sarah Jessica Parker. Not a load of street scenery, but if you like the skyline with PPG Plaza, Gulf Building, Saaaaaath Side, wharf-level parking, Three Rivers Stadium (bow your head for a moment of silence), and a few blurry shots of a rather large school of "Allegheny Whites" swimming upstream, this is your movie. Speed boating up and down the MON is this cinematic treat's express plot line. Not much else, believe me.

I can't wait to see SMART PEOPLE, which, again, is filmed in the exceptionally excentric East End! There are a few other cinema greats out there which escape me at this point. Don't fret, darlin, I'll add them when they float to that unexplored surface I refer to as my conscience. Any suggestions out there? Feel free to post!