I think the party in Say Anything...it was one of the last great teen party scenes...I've always felt bad about not really being the blowout type.

A propos of nothing, every time I see it, I have a little moment of glee that I managed to sneak the poster for Inglourious Basterds into my Italian textbook.

Hahahaha!

Syfy is going to start releasing films theatrically.

Syfy is going to start releasing films theatrically.

!!! Does that mean I can buy my very own dvd of Mammoth? Or Mansquito?

Sharktopus!

Mansquito - now in 3-D!

Mansquito is my fave!

Dad and I saw Unstoppable this afternoon (and it was rather weird to realize that we were probably the only patrons in the entire five-screen theatre at 1:00 on a weekday afternoon). The movie was rather good! Not a big thinking film, but it did what it was supposed to do well--gave you good suspense, decent portrayals of thinly drawn characters, and lots of action. I really liked Chris Pine, especially, and this might have been Rosario Dawson's best role in recent years.

Dang, I lost a long post. Let me try again.

I nabbed two movies on cable which had long been unavailable and seem to have slipped from memory.

Both movies were made in 1987, based on major literary works, featuring distinguished casts. And yet neither was released on DVD until 2009.

I've been meaning to see Ironweed for a long time, since I'm a Tom Waits fan and was curious about the novel (Pulitzer Prize winner by Wm. Kennedy). It's set in the Depression in Albany, New York and features Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep in the lead roles.

It's really a beautiful movie, and despite the subject matter (bottom rung alcoholics on the bum during the Depression), it's not a depressing movie. It is filled with regret, though, as these people are haunted by their pasts.

The performances are incredible. Nicholson was rarely this subtle or nuanced again. And this performance ranks with the best that Streep has ever done. At one point her character sings the song "Me Pal" at a saloon and it's mesmerizing and heartbreaking.

Fantastic supporting cast too including a very young Nathan Lane, Margaret Whitton (best known as the evil team owner in Major League and the cheated on wife in Secret of My Success) and especially the actress who played Annie, the abandoned wife of Nicholson's character.

I was looking at her face and I couldn't recognize her but suddenly it struck me that this woman must have been a great beauty in her youth. And indeed it was Carrol Baker, who had played the title character in Baby Doll in the sixties.

Apparently the DVD that came out in 2009 is quite crappy and taken straight from a videotape. The print used on cable was quite good though, so I recommend you nab it that way if you can.

It's really a gorgeous, and moving film.

The other movie was John Huston's last film, his adaptation of James Joyce's The Dead, starring his daughter Anjelica, script by his son Tony.

It's Joyce's most famous short story and one of the masterpieces of the English language. Again it's very beautifully mounted and shot, and watching these 80s movies I realized how much I resent all the color correcting technology they use in film these days. You never really see natural light or colors anymore in film.

If you're not familiar with the story, its set in turn of the century Ireland, upper middle class family at a big Christmas party. And it ends with the sad, sad story of young Michael Furey as Anjelica's character, Gretta, relates it. Then the ending, which is one of the most beautiful passages in English, perfectly modulated in imagery and rhythm, done as a soliloquy.

Again, very moving and beautiful.

And both films sort of lost from memory. Or at least only known by those who saw them when they came out.

Have you read Ironweed, David? I have the sense that people who read the book first had a different reaction to the film than you did, and most of the people who lined up to watch the film were people who read the novel, which is why it fell flat on its release.