Speaking of the Angela Lansbury's Sweeney Todd, it's playing on TCM this month on Weds, 1/25.

That's on a night full of musicals so if you want to sit down with a tub of popcorn and a pony keg of your favorite potable you could also watch: Funny Girl, Gypsy and There's No Business Like Show Business.

On the 24th there are some interesting, somewhat rare spy comedies/spoofs that don't often get shown. So if you like Matt Helm or Derek Flint, check out Where the Spies Are, Agent 8 3/4 (with the gorgeous Sylvia Koscina) and Salt and Pepper (with Sammy Davis, Jr.)

Also on the 26th they're showing The Liquidator - another spy spoof with Rod Taylor and Jill St. John. I caught an earlier showing of this and it's pretty good, but worth catching mainly for the Amazing Spy Bachelor Pad they give him. Also Jill St. John is absolutely gorgeous and it's a fairly early movie role for her.

For the Cineaste's they're showing Ophul's "La Ronde" and "The Earrings of Madame De..." on 1/23 (The latter often makes lists of The Ten Best Movies Ever Made, so if you've never seen it, try it out. Suave, sophisticated and witty and wise about the human heart.)

Also Fellini's Nights of Cabiria is playing this month.

1/18 is Angela Lansbury night so aside from Sweeney Todd they're showing Manchurian Candidate and The World of Henry Orient (anybody else a fan of that movie? It reminds me of a proto Wes Anderson in some ways. The girl characters would fit right into Rushmore.)

Netflix sent me Crazy Stupid Love this week and I finally got around to watching it last night. It's a slight rom com, but nicely done, compared to most of the stuff that's out there. I really enjoyed both storylines. Ryan Gosling can do comedy -- who knew?

Also, Emma Stone is made of adorable and that scene where she marches to Gosling's character, all dripping wet and determined, and mack the hell on him (and the way he goes from shocked to befuddled and amazed delight) was HOT. It's not that the character was written especially well (I mentally substituted her with Katherine Heigl and grimaced at the image); but Stone is just a very appealing presence in the movie.

I take some points off the movie for using the word "soulmate" though. UGH.

I love Emma Stone.

TCM is on the most expensive digital cable package here. So unfair.

It is here in SF too. Very annoying.

But since I've pretty much decided buying a new TV so I can go cable-free will pay for itself in six months, the question is moot. (And yes, I know I could get a converter thingy, but since I've never bought a new TV in my life I figure I'm due.)

Hey, do you want a 19 inch picture tube TV for free?

Thanks, but I have a free picture tube TV now (that means the traditional kind, no?). My understanding is that I'd need a digital converter/antenna to get broadcast if I give up cable, right? I figure if I'm going to that trouble I should just get a new TV already. Plus, I want to go slightly up from the 21" I have now.

Darn. Mine picks up some shows without the antenna, even living in Belmont, but it is still too small.

Goodwill it is!

Saw Tinker, Tailor...today.

Whoever programmed the previews clearly had no idea who was going to see this movie. We got previews for Titanic, the next Underworld movie, Safe (Action! movie), and the obligatory Focus Features release (with, in this instance, Robert de Niro).

Quite a good film. I went back and read previous posts and did a bit of wikipediaing, and they really did (using the phrase "gay it up" feels wrong, as the tone is not at all appropriate--what with the fucking tragic--but I cannot come up with a better term) . I adore that they depend on the viewer to figure shit out, rather than saying things explicitly (ita !'s comparison to Inception is apt, as that spent a shitton of time expositing, and people still found it confusing...now I'm imagining what Inception would have been like if it put as much onus on the viewer...apart, of course, from "far less profitable"...probably a lot like Primer). I'm glad I sprung for the ticket (and a drink, just to support showing Interesting Movies Without Fart Jokes Or Car Chases in multiplexes), as I doubt I'd have focused well enough watching it at home.

I really want to know if the "the future is female" graffiti outside the Secret Location House was organic or a design choice. Similarly, Guillam's blue tie, which nearly glowed onscreen.

Massive points to the casting people, as I had no trouble telling characters apart, which is often a problem I have in the "men talk to other men while they all wear suits" genre (and in other genres, but that's the relevant one).

ita !, I didn't notice any flashback indicators, but I also had little to no trouble telling when we were in flashback from context clues.

I just watched a bit of All The Real Girls (2003)

Filmed in my home state! I went to college with one of the PAs, we were friends freshman year and then he transferred to School of the Arts. I saw it in the theater with my gay roommate on Easter, slightly drunk. I enjoyed it, but I saw it as kind of an (intentional or not) answer to French existentialist films (as I understand them through Animaniacs spoofs).