We watched Brothers of the Head the other night. It was nicely shot, but overall we were kind of meh about it. They left out too many details, like how did they die?

People either loved it or loathed it. One of my students almost quit the class, he was so furious that I would assign such a film.

I've never known anyone personally to dislike CHOOSE ME, but I can see that, for the reasons Hec mentions. I rather like TROUBLE IN MIND (and EQUINOX, too) but Rudolph almost always tries too hard, where Altman's problem on occasion (which I think was also his gift) was that even when he was being ponderous/pretentious, his movies feel like they were effortless for him.

My brother must have seen the Altman Popeye a billion times. I liked it...the first half-billion. I like MASH(Duh) and the Long Goodbye, and thanks to my bunky here, the Deadwood-inspiring McCabe. I liked Short Cuts too, even though it thwarted my initial impulse to write a High Hat essay and made me curse and throw shit.

I have an irrational love for O.C. and Stiggs, though I can definitely see how someone would ask why even bother to make a film about that little happening.

My love for Gosford Park is very rational, and starts with Jeremy Northam as Ivor Novello.

My love for Gosford Park is very rational, and starts with Jeremy Northam as Ivor Novello.

There was no one I didn't like in that movie. And Clive Owen! All smoking and brooding and dangerously resentful. Ah, love.

I thought Helen Mirren was great in GP, as always. At the end, when she goes into her bedroom and falls apart--the best scene in the entire film for me.

At the end, when she goes into her bedroom and falls apart--the best scene in the entire film for me.

Oh yeah. She was fantastic. But very few scenes weren't. And the cast as a whole rocked. I love that movie. It's eye candy, too, for the sets and the costumes and the whole air of faded British wealth and boredom.

I'm definitely thinking about buying Gosford Park and rewatching it frequently. I saw it in the theater when it first came out with my mom, and we both liked it but knew we were missing a lot in the crosstalk. I saw it again on tv earlier this year and liked it even more now that I know the answer to the whodunit and can concentrate on the character interactions.

Oh yes, I rewatch Gosford Park whenever it comes on tv.

We got HBO the winter it came to cable, which was also the winter my youngest was born. I watched either it or one the first two LTR movies pretty much every day there for awhile, when I was up in the night feeding the baby.