Willow ,'Sleeper'
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Sub out What's Up Doc for Targets and you've got a real 5-star triple feature. His early run when he was still with Polly Platt was so good.
Truth. What's Up Doc? was in the '70s Style Icons collection but expired last month. I didn't rewatch it because I had just seen it not too long ago at the Castro. But I'm somewhat eager to see Targets since listening to Karina Longworth's podcast series on Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Karloff was so great in the Lewton stuff I saw him in.
Agreed that Shampoo is good. I think it helps to keep in mind that it's at least half social commentary.
I saw You Were Never Lovelier on the big screen at AFI back in the late '80s. Should have been in color, but it's hard to go wrong with a team like Hayworth and Astaire.
I finally saw Booksmart on a plane. Very funny.
I loved Booksmart, but then I was a 1990s version of them(They were right to move ahead...if you miss your window like me, it just gets sad. Thanks for your comments about my post...the movie was beautiful and revolutionary but a bit hard to follow.
I'm trying out the whole virtual cinema thing -- namely, my local repertory theater has a list of films scheduled this week, and I bought a ticket to a new (!) film as if I was in the theater, and streamed it at home. It cost about as much as the price of a in-person ticket ($12) but I was happy to do it to support the local indie movie place (I understand this is a luxury many cannot afford.)
The movie I watched is called Driveways, a lo-fi slice-of-life story about a single mom who comes to clean up the house of her sister who just passed away, her 8 yo son in tow, and the tentative friendship that develops between the boy and a widowed Korean war vet next door played by the late great Brian Dennehy (he just passed away last month.) The mom and the boy are Asian-American (it's directed by Andrew Ahn, a Korean-American director) but in a way that's matter-of-fact, although culturally resonant nonetheless. All the actors are terrific, especially Dennehy. Made me choke up a couple of times, he did.
One of those lovely small films that linger, about kindness and human connections and regrets, but not at all in a sentimental way. I highly recommend it. FYI, there is a very brief glimpse of a dead cat earlier on in case that's triggering.
GOSH, I miss going to the movies.
Watching Vertigo. I had forgotten most of the movie. Probably because I really dislike it.
Watching Vertigo. I had forgotten most of the movie. Probably because I really dislike it.
Vertigo dethroning Citizen Kane on the Sight & Sound list was like a gut punch. It barely makes my Top Ten Hitchcock and that's only because of technical merit.
We're due for another Sight & Sound poll this year; I hope it isn't delayed.
We're due for another Sight & Sound poll this year; I hope it isn't delayed.
I will be really interested in that one, but those are on the 2s, aren't they? So, 2022.
What is really overdue is another AFI 100 list. The latest one was 2007 but the most recent movie on it is The LotR: Fellowship, which is problematic on multiple levels.
Watched The Conversation and The Farewell on Kanopy last night and today. Looking to start knocking more off my lists. Not many things from 70s and 80s Oscar Best Picture noms on any streaming services at the moment. My library in Texas was going to be my source for most of those films. Now on lockdown I have no library source.