Well, I finally saw my first new-to-me movie on msbelle's list: Five Easy Pieces. This was one I avoided for the longest time simply based on the scene that everyone has seen from it, you know the one, which never really seemed interesting or funny to me. But that scene is so not the rest of this movie! I had no clue about the surprising direction in which this story was headed. Really a fascinating character study with a great performance by Nicholson and so many subtle little touches of humanity. In short, I'm glad I didn't start with Cries and Whispers.

Watched my fourth movie from my list last night, Elizabeth. Yes I am jumping around a bit. This movie has been on my wanting to see list for a long time, just never got selected when it came time to actually watch movies.

Enh. I didn't love it. Cate was great and gorgeous. The cast is really amazing, but there were some very weird camera shot choices that instead of me just seeing the film took me out of it and I said out loud, "why are they doing this?". Specifically 2 scenes with which looks to me like very obvious green screen when I do not see that in any other part of the film.

I was not surprised at all to find on my spreadsheet that it received a Best Pic nod, but not director.

And side note, I do not know what it is about Joseph Fiennes but he bugs me.

FYI: for those with Hulu subscription, it just started streaming two of my favourite films from last year, the Best Doc winner Free Solo (discussed in this thread several times before), and Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters, which was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar (and previously won Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2018). The latter in particular, I cannot recommend highly enough. It's a deceptively small story, about a ramshackle family barely scraping by in the margins of the city (it's set in Tokyo), who picks up a neglected little girl and decides to keep her. I saw this during TIFF and it gave me SO MANY FEELINGS that it leaked out of me uncontrollably at the end, mostly in the form of copious tears, but not at all in a maudlin or manipulative way. The acting across the board is amazing, including the kids.

Watched my fifth movie Sunday, Julia from 1978. I had no idea what this was about other than 2 female friends.

Again I did not love it. I often wondered why some scenes were included, not sure what they added. I repeatedly wondered why the movie was called Julia.

It was nominated for a bunch of Oscars, not just Best Picture, and won 3. It won best picture BAFTA that year.

Lillian Hellman seems like she would have been an exhausting person. Either that is just how Jane Fonda played it, or she presented as exasperated with everyone and everything most of the time.

Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters, which was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar (and previously won Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2018). The latter in particular, I cannot recommend highly enough.

I second this. It was my favorite foreign-language film of last year (and there were a number of them that I really liked).

No movie today, but I did do some work on a spreadsheet of top 10 grossing films (US or NA) years 1970-present. Why? oh I love a list and have been accused of having giant holes in my movie watching of "mainstream" movies. I do not think I really have such massive gaps, but am doing the list regardless to see how things fall out. I've seen 84/174 thus far.

So anyone I sent a link to the list to already, you can also check out the new tab and feel free to leave recs of things you think I should absolutely see or avoid, or whatever.

Thanks for the Hulu tip, Vonnie! I just added both to my watchlist.

I love a list and have been accused of having giant holes in my movie watching of "mainstream" movies.

Oh, I have giant holes in my "mainstream" movie watching and mostly they are intentional.

Tonight's movie is M*A*S*H.

I saw M*A*S*H at a drive in theater with my boyfriend when I was in high school. It was a double feature with Patton. I loved the movie, but after we watched them back to back (ya know between drive-in stuff), we both knew that Patton was going to get the awards that year. Still MASH was awesome.

Pop culture is such an odd thing. H and I still refer to "the Pros from Dover,"--sometimes *we* are the pros from Dover. Or "finest kind." Our vernacular is so mortared and spackled with movie lines it's difficult sometimes to recall where we first encountered a particular line or turn of phrase.