Sunday
Aug092020
What did you watch this week?
Sunday, August 9, 2020 at 6:53PM Another weekend without moviegoing comes to a close. Thank the cinematic gods for DVDs, blurays, and streaming! We finally finished Mrs America (why did it take so long?) and also screened Algiers yesterday on Amazon Prime because we were in the mood for some beautiful people in noirish shadows (Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr provided). Glenn is suggesting a trip to Australia (tempting!) and we noticed a lot of online friends talking about Howard, newly streaming on Disney+. We remember that documentary about songwriter Howard Ashman being quite good (from a festival screening two years back) so perhaps we'll hit that again sometime this week. What have you been watching?
Reader Comments (36)
I saw "The Girl and The Monster' (1941) which stars off as courtroom melodrama about white slavery before turning in to mad scientist movie featuring a gorilla with a human brain. "The Canterville Ghost" (1944) a delightful fantasy about an English ghost (Charles Laughton) with Margaret Obrien and Robert Young. In the middle of this war time comedy there is a spectacular dance number featuring two male soldiers dancing together- and unexpected gay moment.
I happened to watch a double bill of The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne and The Dead. Both 1987 films which feature career bests from Maggie Smith and Anjelica Huston respectfully. Both play Irish women coincidently. Huston for me delivers a performance directed by her father far worthier than the role she won for.
I highly recommend if you have the time searching out both if you’ve not seen them.
Finished binging RAMY S2 (saw S1 a couple weeks ago). But then really tried to make headway on my personal movie bucket watchlist as I saw BUGSY MALONE, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (1993), RESERVOIR DOGS, VERTIGO and LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. The latter was also inspired by me seeing HOWARD this weekend, which made me tear up a few times. Speaking of, is anyone working on a great biopic treatment for Howard Ashman in the style of ROCKETMAN because yes please.
I May Destroy You is essential viewing. Also re-binging Please Like Me.
Did a Jai Courtney double feature on Friday with SEMPER FI and THE EXCEPTION and I think he does really well with smaller films. Also, saw DON’T LET GO yesterday which surprised me and was a neat sci-fi thriller. Then today I watched MAYA THE BEE: THE HONEY GAMES which had pretty flowers but was forgettable and CORPORATE ANIMALS cause of last year’s Razzie buzz for Demi Moore, which was a very terrible movie.
Watched Cabin in the Sky, and early 1940s comedy starring Ethel Waters and Lena Horne, plus Lovely and Amazing and The Terminator, both of which I selected from scrolling through your top 10s tabs, which have become a valuable resource for this pandemic film studies period of my life.
I watched Scenes From a Marriage. Now I have to watch The First Wives Club to balance my emotions out again.
Mike in Canada- Ethel Waters is Oscar worthy in Cabin in the Sky. I enjoyed her performance so much.
Finally caught up with Crip Camp. That is one amazing story and beautifully told! Looks like a second Obama produced doc is headed to the Oscars.
Nothing.. Movie theaters still closed
I keep revisiting my childhood, pretending it's not 2020!
Lots of McMillan and Wife, Columbo, The Carol Burnett Show, Sonny and Cher, and all the trashy movies that I recall watching on weekday afternoons!
Cheers,
Rick
In addition to seeing and re-seeing a few films (nothing interesting to report there) I made the most amazing (for me) discovery watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There's an episode where Dee and Dennis' mother claims that a one-night stand with hunky Stephen Collins led to her pregnancy and Frank (Danny DeVito) wasn't their biological father. They think that's great and go out drinking with their new "father". Then their father and Dee, and eventually Dennis, get up and do a karaoke version of "Greatest Love of All"! I thought it was pretty hilarious to see a Toni Erdmann homage on this show until I looked it up and found out it came from 2006, ten years BEFORE Toni Erdmann. The homage was reversed. Looks like Guillermo del Toro isn't the only A-list director who's a fan of IASIP.
Our online movie club is watching the films of Hal Ashby. We’re wrapping up with Coming Home, but we just discussed The Last Detail, and it was quite divisive. I liked it but was underwhelmed.
Working on 2005 Smackdown movies. Kind of a slog - not that they're all bad, or even half bad, just not the most exciting batch of films.
Also just rewatched "Julie & Julia". Should Meryl do a sequel? Is there enough story in Julia's TV years? I feel like it might work.
My big discovery of the week was a charming 50's English film called Alive and Kicking. Three older women-a dream team of actresses comprised of Dame Sybil Thorndike, Estelle Winwood and Kathleen Harrison-escape their old age home and through a series of adventures end up on a tiny Irish island which they proceed to reinvigorate.
Otherwise I took advantage of TCM's Summer Under the Stars to see some new Chaplin shorts and revisits some favorites-Night of the Iguana, Seems Like Old Times, Cactus Flower and Written on the Wind.
I caught up with trippy movies about being stuck in a house: Vivarium and You Should Have Left. An American Pickle was also cuter than I expected!
I finally saw Unorthodox and Dead to me S2. Shira Haas would be such a worthy Emmy winner, what a performance. Linda Cardellini was amazing this season, but my favorite character in the serie is Karen! I just love her, hope the actress who portrays her gets more juicy roles, she's a natural scene stealer. No movies this week.
Watched Marriage Story. Good but not great.
80’s streaming trash: Grease 2 and Sleepaway Camp 2.
Didn't get to see much this week or last week as mixing music proved more addicting. However I did a few:
The Real Blonde (1997), Tom DiCillo. Essentially finding your own true passion and making meaningful forays to achieve (most of) it. This type of story and storytelling were quite common in 1990s American cinema and it is easy to fall for its charm. Some cinematic moments may not pass muster in today's woke-ness but so irresistible were the cast: Matthew Modine (goofy, charming, touching), Catherine Keener (lovely and amazing; had a trickier role balancing a career woman's life in a volatile situation), and wonderful supporting cast: Maxwell Caulfield, Daryl Hannah, Bridgette Wilson, Denis Leary, Elizabeth Berkeley, Kathleen Turner, Dave Chappelle, Christopher Lloyd, Marlo Thomas, Steve Buscemi. It's amazing to see them in earlier films. Turner had some truly hilarious scenes.
The Snoop Sisters (1972). A TV movie starring Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick as the titular sisters. A bit quaint and I wonder if that's how people speak then: maybe if you're with that sensibility and belonging to a particular social standing. Still a delight to watch despite the unbelievability of situations but then again I don't think you should see this as cinéma vérité but as a joyful and pleasant romp in amateur sleuthing. There were four more of this mini-movies that were designed for TV viewing and was ahead of Murder She Wrote that Angela Lansbury brought to a wider audience. Natwick is a riot! And so good to see Art Carney, Paulette Goddard and Jill Clayburgh in the mix.
Some friends suggested we do a Netflix Party where we watch something on Netflix in real time while we comment. I suggested a food documentary but got vetoed, so we watched the first season of Dead To Me. We were supposed to watch 1 episode only but we finished 3 more. I thought Linda Cardellini is an amazing actress and she's the one that got my attention even as her Judy becomes unreliable and beset with a lot of complicated entanglements. I hope she gets notice here for her work here. Christina Applegate is fine too but I don't really like her character. Maybe I need to finish this season to better evaluate the arc of her character. Right now, I'm firmly Team Judy. I don't think I will be doing a Netflix Party again though. Too chaotic for me. And there is a chat function too, so many things are going on if you are with a rather chatty company.
My categories of movies this week were:
2005: Capote and Cafe Lumiere
1938: Adventures of Robin Hood (movie of the week), Olympia 1 and 2 (runner-up for movie of the week), Of Human Hearts, Merrily We Live, Algiers, Dollar, Divorce of Lady X
Leaving streaming this month: Risky Business, The Hand of Orlac, Nostalgha
2020: Mucho Mucho Amor (I keep saying I can wait on 2020 with the late oscars, but one 2020 per month is going to lead to mass panic in early 2021! Perhaps post-87 smackdown I can dedicate myself fully to 2020.)
Watched Netflix's teen series OUTER BANKS, and boy it's addictive, It is a fun and enjoyable show. The casting is very easy on the eyes.and every actor hits it out of the park; also watched 1999's drama SIMPATICO , a more European than Hollywood in style neo-noir, really loved the cas: Jeff Bridges, Nick Nolte, Albert Finney, Catherine Keener and Sharon Stone all impressive, especially Stone as the rich and wrecked, moody and alcoholic wife; finally the indie drama GIANT LITTLE ONES (2018) the pulse of the film beats around the nature of homophobia and the toxic tentacles it has that chokes so many lives, it is sensual, pensive and tumultuous, yet simultaneously coy and lighthearted, this swirl of self discovery is beautifully crafted.Plus we gotta see the always effective Maria Bello.
Nathaniel: I would love to know what to watch from 1938 (that wasn't Supporting Actress nominated)..
this weekend i saw a bunch of DVDs:
Hard Target (1993): Wilford Brimley RIP: over the top macho explosions/guns/etc NOLA postcard movie. but JCVD banging that snake on the head almost made it worth it. As was Brimley's performance as the Bayou moonshining renegade uncle. pretty batshit.
Knife of Ice (1972): Lenzi movie that i thought was going to be a giallo, but there were no boobs and NO J and B!! so really it was more like a whodunit. or a lady in distress movie like "Wait Until Dark" (mute lady, not blind) or "Midnight Lace". very fun. see the brand new Severin DVD w/ extras
Violent Naples (1976): John Saxon RIP. and also a Lenzi film! decent poliziotteschi (sp?)
Danger Pays (1962): cotton-candy light goofy screwball caper Nikkatsu movie. our heroes "glass hearted" Joe, "Slide-Rule" and "Dump-Truck" team up with a nice lady to move in on a counterfeit racket. chaos ensues of course. fun for the whole family!
I watched “The Snoop Sisters” due to my curiosity of an earlier post of Owl’s.
What struck me was the difference in acting training between different generations.
Hayes and Natwick articulate very clearly and are able to speak dialogue quickly and have it make sense. They break movement down into smaller segments with different tempos. When they are not moving, they arrange their body in an interesting posture. This is training for working live on the stage I guess.
Jill Clayburgh at first impression seems less articulate. She drops her consonants and seems to kind of hang about. As you keep watching, you realize that she has a tremendous naturalism, is comfortable in her own skin, and is existing in the present moment. Those must have been key acting elements of that era.
I remember reading an interview with Clayburgh about her earlier life, when her partner was Al Pacino. She said she worked in soaps to make money for them to live on, because Al wouldn’t lower himself to do such demeaning work.
Dangerous Liasons you should know this by heart Close was robbed
Mercy Oscar nominee Shirley Knights last film
Orca Rampling vs Killer Whale
Mary Reilly due for a reappraisal
Primal Fear Edward Norton startling debut,peak Gere an on fire Linney & McDormand as a softer figure.
HENRY GAMBLE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY, underrated 2015 US gay coming out story (but a lot more, really) on the Criterion Channel. Visually undistinguished, but the script and the actors deliver the goods. Pat Healy, Daniel Kyri, Elizabeth Laidlaw, and Cole Doman are excellent.
@SFOTroy
If your looking for great 1938 features I'd recommend
Bringing Up Baby
The Lady Vanishes
Holiday
The Grand Illusion
Angels with Dirty Faces
A Yank in Oxford
Pygmalion
The Edge of the World
Dance Program
Four Daughters
@ Luisa
Wow, what an astute observation on the acting styles of Hayes/Natwick and Clayburgh in The Snoop Sisters -- you nailed it and articulated it so very well. I remembered how Natwick and Hayes sat on the stairs while waiting for their nephew to talk to them in the scene of the crime and the ease with which they sit/lounge was an architectural wonder. Their theatre stage training made them so comfortable with whatever space they inhabit.
I also agree about your observation of Jill Clayburgh. She portrays so many subtle things when she moves with deliberate naturalness (an oxymoron but true). The way she looks tentatively and shyly at the police officer to convey her growing attraction were quiet master strokes because they appear natural and unstudied. I will have to check her movies out. Interesting story about her and Al Pacino. If true, Pacino is probably like Joe -- the Matthew Modine character in The Real Blonde. Joe is an actor who says he does not do TV ("that's not acting") as he only does serious stuff: theater. Unable to find a job, Joe appeared in a Madonna video but he was not a standout when the casting director told him to stay at the back in a throng of men in skimpier swimming suits who had something showier to show on TV.
@ markgordonuk
Ever since I watched The Snoop Sisters on Youtube, various videos on the sidebar offer scenes from Dangerous Liaisons (which I found out was Natwick's last film appearance, hence the algorithmic video suggestions). I re-watched two powerful scenes with Close as Madame de Merteuil. One was her sparring with Valmont which ended with her saying "War", in close up. Chills. I also watched the one where she had a meltdown in her dressing room after Valmont's sad end and I didn't realise I was sinking deeper and deeper in my chair with mouth, agape, while watching this incredible actress showed us a vulnerable part of her that we didn't see in the entire film until then. Who taught Glenn Close to pull that scene the way she did? Oscar winner in 1989, yes.
Close's Mrs Faraday was also a highlight for me in Mary Reilly. She has only three indelible scenes and provided a nicely balanced counterpoint to the gloom and doom of Mr Hyde and the world that surround the titular chambermaid. A re-appraisal of this film is in order.
Owl yeah she is a campy bright spot in Mary Reilly with whatever accent she thought was suitable.
Wonder if Jason Adams would consider Julia her for his Horror Actressing piece.
Those are 2 scenes are some of Glenn's best acting ever.That final close up.
Watching the 2005 films for the smackdown and gotta say I really liked Capote and Junebug a lot more this time around than I did back in '05. I was pleasantly surprised! North Country is fine for a single-time viewing, though to me if just one person from that movie should have been up for a supporting Oscar from that movie it was Richard Jenkins, superb as usual. Rewatching Brokeback now (sigh, go good) and last up is Constant Gardener—like North Country I hadn't seen it yet. That's just one of the many valuable things about the Smackdown, gives you a reason to catch up.
@Eoin Daly --
Thanks! I have only seen a few of those... will check some out.
@SFOTroy all of Eoin’s suggestions are great especially Holiday!
Here are a few more, some “great” and others at least pleasant entertainments.
Carefree
Four’s a Crowd
Happy Landing
Mad About Music
The Mad Miss Manton
A Man to Remember
Marie Antoinette
Paradise for Three
Sidewalks of London-Vivien Leigh's film just before GWTW costarring Charles Laughton.
A Slight Case of Murder
Vivacious Lady
A Woman’s Face-Ingrid Bergman’s Swedish version
Cluny Brown - So much funnier than expected.
Three Days of the Condor - I'm really getting into 70s paranoia films.
Born to Kill - Why was I not more aware of Claire Trevor? She's kind of great.
All the Film Bitch Award years being browsable on the site would pretty much set up my viewing and get me through this pandemic!
CharlieG--Jennifer Jones!!
Why is no one talking about I May Destroy You. That show is phenomenal.
I watched one of your writers ignore commenter interaction and participation. Weak as piss mate. Wouldn't happen on Claudio's watch. The true top bloke of TFE!