tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87952802024-03-18T00:41:13.715-07:00Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule"Great movies are rarely perfect movies" - Pauline KaelDennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comBlogger1651125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-3388945621294760422022-01-08T16:25:00.003-08:002022-01-08T16:25:50.180-08:00 NIGHTMARE ALLEY (2021)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj9pQxesObAdTrLaMsEVEJKXHp8lBmhjd4GFPm1VBOPdY0xVHVbW4WLqmuJOggV7l0cS2w_3ECNI4RqXkhgBlxA8iUaL6ZzRZ0kAk-kODrSWlOdUtg7rS_LHiz3UecWfjZI9OOLc57-rXaFDeAs2bd7zl7o6qYFNBjitx2JvvJ_vJ3Fy8x1Nw=s1200" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="631" data-original-width="1200" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj9pQxesObAdTrLaMsEVEJKXHp8lBmhjd4GFPm1VBOPdY0xVHVbW4WLqmuJOggV7l0cS2w_3ECNI4RqXkhgBlxA8iUaL6ZzRZ0kAk-kODrSWlOdUtg7rS_LHiz3UecWfjZI9OOLc57-rXaFDeAs2bd7zl7o6qYFNBjitx2JvvJ_vJ3Fy8x1Nw=w400-h210" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Guillermo Del Toro's <i style="font-weight: bold;">Nightmare Alley </i>turned out to be the last movie I saw in 2021, and I can hardly imagine a better farewell to this year in which the world seemed increasingly claustrophobic, much of its citizenry engaged in duping or being duped, in blinding campaigns of continual carny-level chicanery elevated to national disaster, the duped refusing to believe their own eyes (and science) over the lies that line up with what they want to believe.</p><div dir="ltr"><br /></div><div dir="ltr">Not being entirely in the director’s bag (I had reservations about his last three movies, <i>Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak</i> and even his Oscar-winning <i>The Shape of Water</i>) I resisted the pull of this picture for a good portion of its first half hour. But this nightmare vision sucked me in. Del Toro seems at the top of his game here, adapting the original novel and the 1947 movie classic from a script co-written with film critic Kim Morgan, and it’s a hellish, seductive vision. Moment to moment, the movie may often register as too much design, or too much physical detail, or just too much, period. But it gets into your bones, and your humanity, and your inhumanity, just as the original film did, just as all superb noirs do, and the audience that allows itself the distinct pleasure of settling into the world Del Toro conjures will be amply rewarded and unsettled.<br /></div><div dir="ltr"><br /></div><div dir="ltr">Reports of Bradley Cooper as being miscast here (too old to be continually referred to as “young buck,” said the wags) are completely off the mark, especially when you see what the actor does with the character of drifter-turned-mentalist-phenomenon Stan Carlisle (Victor Mature in the 1947), and the harrowing inevitability of where he ends up. (I cannot shake his final image, or his final line.) But the entire cast responds to the thrall of Del Toro’s visual commitment, and to his refusal to be rushed into a overstimulated approach to laying out this fiercely beautiful and frightening milieu. Toni Collette, David Strathairn, Willem Dafoe, Rooney Mara, they’re all excellent as denizens of the carnival world Stan knows (or thinks he knows) he’s too sharp not to escape. And in crucial but smaller roles, as two of Stan’s higher-class marks, Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins make potent, indelible impressions.<br /></div><div dir="ltr"><br /></div><div dir="ltr">However, a special place in my dark heart is reserved for Cate Blanchett, an actress I often receive as too diagrammed and distanced in her performances. But as she also proved in <i>Thor: Ragnarok</i>, she’s an actress who can be fully at home in cutting loose and embodying, precisely and pleasurably, the movie she’s in, and she conjures this femme fatale, a psychiatrist who ostensibly helps Stan with his entree into the world of the moneyed victims that will ultimately lead him straight to hell, with seductive, iconographic awareness, all the better for when she takes Stan in her teeth for the final bite. Her exit from this picture made me laugh out loud at the sheer audaciousness, both of the dialogue that provides her the perfect punctuation and of her instincts in the movie’s penultimate climax.<br /></div><div dir="ltr"><br /></div><div dir="ltr">I’m not surprised that audiences at Christmastime during a pandemic are staying away from a picture whose advertising duly hints at the level of bleakness in store for them. But it’s a shame that the movie seems on its way out of theaters already— I caught the last performance at my local movie emporium— because this is a movie that knows how to deliver the goods to a receptive audience. I don’t know how well it will play at home, where distractions are aplenty, but having been happy to have submitted to it in the dark, I can’t wait to lay my hands on a Blu-ray in a couple months and find out. At the risk of sounding like a barker milling the masses to be fleeced, I’d encourage you to see <i>Nightmare Alley</i> on a big screen (fully masked, of course). Good show!<br /></div><div dir="ltr"><br />******************************</div>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-15043424219363815092022-01-08T16:11:00.008-08:002022-01-08T16:11:42.946-08:00FRENCH CONNECTION II (1974)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzntRVv6GpqSwQ74QE9mFoN6kAFv_e2R2AsfAGi2Lq5A8EZA9l1WRF3kWJy43Y67i6iPRzot3P-JTNvMAAQrz0rsh8pDWkxCuBpyjQV_G9i4PXBRDHUvSFjX-55cb5u0PgXXwlMMZkoELR0xKRheoCbeIjIu5oKgzgyBgniWAPGmapLNrFTw=s680" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="450" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzntRVv6GpqSwQ74QE9mFoN6kAFv_e2R2AsfAGi2Lq5A8EZA9l1WRF3kWJy43Y67i6iPRzot3P-JTNvMAAQrz0rsh8pDWkxCuBpyjQV_G9i4PXBRDHUvSFjX-55cb5u0PgXXwlMMZkoELR0xKRheoCbeIjIu5oKgzgyBgniWAPGmapLNrFTw=w265-h400" width="265" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">When
I was 11 years old, <i>The French Connection</i> came out and joined a list of
pictures I was too young to see (<i>Clockwork Orange, Straw Dogs, Dirty Harry, </i>Shaft)
but would obsess over anyway. I even read the book, which somehow was okay with
my parents because, I guess, it wasn’t rated R. I saw my first R-rated movie, <i>Dirty
Harry</i>, later that year, but I never saw TFC until I was in college, and
though it was among the first cassettes I ever bought for my new Betamax in
1982, once I finally did see it William Friedkin’s movie never lived up to my
heightened expectations. Seeing it again last month for the first time in years
only confirmed that, its landmark car chase excepted, I think of <i>The French
Connection</i> as a fairly routine, relentless cop thriller that, despite Gene
Hackman’s Oscar-winning performance, is hardly the best of its kind.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;">In fact, I’d only ever “seen” the movie in MAD magazine (“WHAT’S THE
CONNECTION?”) before I saw its sequel, </span><i style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;">French Connection II</i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;">, at my
hometown movie palace, the Alger Theater, sometime in late 1975. I was
determined to love it, and I did like it a lot, though I remember thinking that
it didn’t feel at all like what I expected its predecessor might. In fact, this
would be the first of two sequels made from William Friedkin-directed megahits,
both of which would stray from the path of simply ghosting the template of the
original, a strategy that would not exactly endear either film to audiences or
critics. The sequel John Frankenheimer made to TFC is certainly not an admirable
oddity like </span><i style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;">Exorcist II: The Heretic</i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;">, nor is it, like that film, a daring
artistic failure, but it must have certainly frustrated those who came to
theaters expecting their pulses to be pounded in the manner of the original
film.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;">Whereas
Popeye Doyle (and Hackman) by nature domi</span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;">nated the grim, burnt-out NYC milieu
of the first film, FCII transplants the detective to Marseilles, where his
overt racial bigotry can be directed exclusively, and in classic
really-ugly-American fashion, toward his French counterparts, and where the
movie can monitor Doyle’s fury at being brought over to ostensibly pursue Frog
One (Fernando Rey, reprising his role as drug kingpin Alain Charnier), only to
realize he’s being used as bait to lure the criminal into position to be grabbed
by the local police force.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;">But
Frankenheimer and screenwriters Alexander Jacobs, Robert Dillon and Laurie
Dillon, doggedly, some might even say perversely refuse to follow in Friedkin’s
footsteps. FCII is mapped out and directed as if the location (shot evocatively
by Claude Renoir) seeped into their bones— it feels more like an arty policier
that might have been made by any number of French directors of the time, its
concerns much more in locating the core of Doyle’s blackened heart than in
replicating the gritty, nihilistic thrills of Friedkin’s movie. One of the true
strengths of FCII is how it conveys Doyle’s sense of abandonment, his lack of
any real French connection, how he feels adrift in a culture, and more
precisely a policing culture, that he doesn’t understand or respect— to that
end, the movie provides no subtitles for its extensive French dialogue; like
Doyle, the audience is left to fend for itself and extract meaning from
context, observation and multiple conversations that lead nowhere.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;">Hackman
may have won his first Oscar for the original film, but this is the far more
rich, interesting, compelling performance. The actor courts our empathy at
being lost in a language and society he doesn’t comprehend, but he’s no less
blusteringly self-righteous for that; he makes a crude art of alienation,
because he can’t allow himself to believe that any other method than his own
could possibly be effective. Beyond all that, however, the filmmakers allow
Hackman to dominate the center of the film in an entirely unexpected way— about
45 minutes in, Doyle is nabbed by Charnier’s thugs and, in an attempt to rid
themselves of their American albatross, they string him out on the heroin
they’re trafficking and then, when he’s entirely dependent, toss him back into
the street. What follows is a long, harrowing, and strangely moving section in
which Doyle, with the help of the French detective (Bernard Fresson) he refers
to more as “Asshole” than by his actual name, agonizes through narcotic
withdrawal on his way back toward the world and his now-elevated fury over
Charnier and the way he has been used to tease the kingpin out into the open.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Perversely,
or perhaps daringly, Frankenheimer and company have structured this section of
the movie to be their stand-in for the prolonged car chase which is probably
one of the only things people remember from the first movie. It is the film’s
raison d’etre, its meaning, the polluted blood coursing through FCII, and it
alters the perspective of the entire enterprise, including Doyle’s own sense of
outrage and refusal to heed any precaution or safety in seeing his own personal
mission to its end. It’s a gutsy, not entirely rational response to the mission
of following up a well-respected Oscar-winning thriller, which is in its way,
like Doyle’s, its own personal mission, and it turns what could have been a
rote regurgitation designed to sell </span></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;">popcorn
into something akin to a living, breathing creation, something made to respond
to the world instead of just make furious noise within it.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 11.5pt;">FCII</span></i><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;"> ends
on a more definitive note than its closure-denying predecessor, but even in
that definition Frankenheimer finds room to undercut any true sense that Doyle
has finally completed his task. With an abrupt cut to end credits just before
we can process the resolution we seem to have witnessed, we get Doyle’s shot at
some measure of release, of payback, alongside the simultaneous realization
after the cut that things are still moving on the water, that we can never
really be sure if the prey is down or simply delayed in the game.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;">At a
time when a tidal wave trend toward commodifying sequels was only just
beginning, </span><i style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;">French Connection II</i></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">, in a way perhaps more modest but
spiritually akin to Coppola’s work in expanding the tale of the Corleone family
the previous year, proved that it is possible to honor origins by mining
character more than simply committing a hollow act of imitation. It may not be
particularly well remembered in the shadow of its 1971 predecessor, but it
should be.<br /><br />***********************************</span></span></p>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-62284246794723672162022-01-08T16:04:00.001-08:002022-01-08T16:04:50.818-08:00SHORT ENDS: LAMB and COPSHOP<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiY728Ute-KI_Z19HYzkbVHGCSISPhYVf0G8adU1W7vhf6z0vYPJdFlIdZO3NC0D67Wly1Ek-LnhCSF3c0-j0cpW2RAAI7hUAo3CbZzMofaCPEak5Jk3lqn2Q8_fBy-0CkO0L7okx7I6qYcLMmFG_zmjzAKeDWFQBqVErjrQvygVNQM5keRCw=s660" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="441" data-original-width="660" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiY728Ute-KI_Z19HYzkbVHGCSISPhYVf0G8adU1W7vhf6z0vYPJdFlIdZO3NC0D67Wly1Ek-LnhCSF3c0-j0cpW2RAAI7hUAo3CbZzMofaCPEak5Jk3lqn2Q8_fBy-0CkO0L7okx7I6qYcLMmFG_zmjzAKeDWFQBqVErjrQvygVNQM5keRCw=w400-h268" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #050505; line-height: 107%;">Lamb</span></i><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #050505; line-height: 107%;"> was not at all what I was expecting, though
I’m not sure what I was expecting-- the trailer suggests it might be another <i>Midsommar</i>-esque
horror tale, and like that movie, it's also brought to you by the good folks at
A24-- but thankfully even after having seen the trailer I had no idea where it
was going. (Bela Tarr is listed as a producer in the end credits, so that might
give you a clue as to the movie’s tone, at least.) It’s certainly not a horror
film though, nor is it exactly the sort of traumatic metaphor of parental loss
I anticipated (though it is in the neighborhood). <br /><u><br /><i>Lamb</i></u> lands more
squarely in the realm of a very deliberate, foreboding folk tale-- if you're
prepared to laugh you probably will, but it may also get under your skin.
Despite my ill response to Noomi Rapaace, an actress whose appeal seems
forbidden to me, I found it hypnotic (especially the way the director uses
those gloomy, gorgeous Icelandic landscapes) and weirdly moving, right up to
its creepy conclusion, for which I don't think the movie lays quite enough
foundation. I think I liked it most, though, because it was a movie with its
own quiet world of rhythms and pace which I could settle into on a Friday night
after a relentless, pedal-to-the-metal week, and for the fact that that its impulses
and sympathies were unlike what movies from any country feel compelled to serve
up these days. (TRIGGER WARNING: There is a bit of animal death, though not
graphic. The animal births, however, are not for the squeamish…)<br />
<br />*********************</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxx2zybBi0g_osCZX_xegD741vni9oZjNDRa3AHcz4eKC_Vfepu33B-Drf8MtFhyZcnA77nlPIccyWye2Z12Eqp-Ju-F9kdObEBW6cywkoSeL1sU1NY1wyw1POYRAdtg8YdKafOtIbRe3Ai9YZUwzGaDYZCERU3J_YFNoyI3ZKuaMvVbJtvQ=s3000" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1247" data-original-width="3000" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxx2zybBi0g_osCZX_xegD741vni9oZjNDRa3AHcz4eKC_Vfepu33B-Drf8MtFhyZcnA77nlPIccyWye2Z12Eqp-Ju-F9kdObEBW6cywkoSeL1sU1NY1wyw1POYRAdtg8YdKafOtIbRe3Ai9YZUwzGaDYZCERU3J_YFNoyI3ZKuaMvVbJtvQ=w400-h166" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #050505; line-height: 107%;"><br />
<i>Copshop</i> is a hoot and a holler, and I certainly wouldn’t have guessed
it. Both Gerard Butler as a professional hit man and Frank Grillo as his slimy
mob con target hold the screen like, well, professionals. But the show is
handily stolen by Alexis Louder as the bored Nevada cop who ends up in a
standoff with the two of them in the titular, bullet-and-corpse-littered police
station. She is the real deal— funny, sharp, believable and never quite in the
zone you’d expect. Hers is, or should be, a star-making performance— we’ll see.
And the movie gets a major assist from Toby Huss as the gregariously deranged
contract murderer who wants to wipe them all out. In the post-Tarantino
landscape, it’s unusual to see someone pull off an over-the-top piece of acting
like this— genuinely creepy/funny/original and not catastrophically smug— but
Huss figures out how to do it. Director Joe Carnahan makes the whole she-bang a
visual hoot and a holler too. Between this and <i>The Protege</i> from earlier
this year, that’s a lot of solid, clever, mean, female-centric action from a
couple of low-flying, unexpected sources. Good show!</span></span><o:p></o:p><p></p>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-17092855130316719042021-08-07T12:17:00.002-07:002021-08-07T12:26:46.467-07:00FIVE FOR THE AGES: 2021 SO FAR<p><span style="font-family: georgia;">I haven’t seen much so far in 2021, and much of it has been either
worthy, if flawed (<i>Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain</i>) or flat-out
incoherent and reprehensible (<i>The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard</i>). But there have
been five films released in 2021 so far which I have unequivocally loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlqQYndlu8rkjEtYwT51T89Jo8_hALESh1RfYQGQ71wBhMQKB5gvPGWycKLliMtQUyU9lByV0GNGRdMzFHFAh8QxKKdbX-iWQudhignbRPjiJl7CXY2mz94p2WNAEbEmol35Ik/s828/Green+Knight+x+3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="828" data-original-width="828" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlqQYndlu8rkjEtYwT51T89Jo8_hALESh1RfYQGQ71wBhMQKB5gvPGWycKLliMtQUyU9lByV0GNGRdMzFHFAh8QxKKdbX-iWQudhignbRPjiJl7CXY2mz94p2WNAEbEmol35Ik/w400-h400/Green+Knight+x+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
<b>1) </b>As big leaps in visual storytelling go, David Lowery’s <b><i>The
Green Knight</i></b> marks a significant one for him, out of the clutches of
dead-end Malick homages (like 2013’s insufferable <i>Ain't Them Bodies Saints</i>
and 2017’s emotionally effective but sometimes too precious <i>A Ghost Story</i>)
and onto a masterful confidence that accesses a rare quality in modern movies—a
sense of genuine mystery. <br />
<br />
Lowery’s film is an adaptation of the poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”
(you probably read it in college; somehow, I did not and never have), in which
the nephew of King Arthur, young Gawain, played with almost sculpted perfection
and empathy, sans a trace of cloying, by Dev Patel, accepts a Christmas day
challenge from the titular arboreal nobleman to offer a blow in combat which
will then be reciprocated a year later. (The film’s first line, “Christ is born,” uttered
over the visage of a sleeping Gawain stunned out of a suggestive dream of chivalry
by a bucket of water, grounds the narrative’s engagement of an age of magic making
its transition toward another sort of mythology.) Gawain accepts the challenge
and impulsively offers the knight not a laceration but a beheading. But when the
knight’s decapitated body rises and rides off holding his own head, Gawain is
set upon his own quest, girded by the incorporeal guidance of his sorceress
mother Morgan Le Fay (Sarita Choudhury), who it seems has conjured the Green
Knight’s presence in the first place, to fulfill the demands of the game and
meet the knight a year later so that his own violent gesture can be returned in
kind. <br />
<br />
Gawain’s journey to meet the Green Knight and his fate is, of course, episodic
in nature, the young would-be knight encountering thieves, ghost, giants, mysterious
noblemen and women, and even a talking fox, all with secret motivations of
their own, and along the way losing gifts given (like his mother’s protective
sash and the Green Knight’s enormous ax), only to be reunited with them in moments
that reinforce the film’s sly doubling motifs. But Lowery mounts the entire journey
with enchanting visual strategies that suggest the circularity of experience,
the inevitability of time (and its possible reversal), the weight of loss, and a
hallucinatory dream quality that suffuses Gawain’s pursuit of what it means to
be worthy of leading a honorable life—in its way, <i>The Green Knight</i> is
Lowery’s own Gawain-esque fulfillment of the promise of the themes of nature
and temporality that were improbably raised in his most commercial project to date,
2016’s lovely and entirely unexpected remake of Disney’s <i>Pete’s Dragon</i>.
The director carries a willing audience along on waves of visual grammar and
wit that are less related to the fevered Wagnerian blasts of John Boorman’s <i>Excalbur</i>
and closer to the contemplative pastoral inquiry of Robert Bresson’s <i>Lancelot
du Lac</i>, yet that grammar and wit are ultimately proven to be entirely his own.
And in a film about a young man’s shadowing of his own story, Lowery even
manages clever references to the process of narrative and filmmaking that for
once do not come off as if we were being held hostage by the overconfident
cackling of a director-raconteur seduced by his own mastery and incapable of not
showing it off, to the ultimate detriment of his own creation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">As with any surprising and original work, it’s best to go
into <i>The Green Knight</i> with only the sketchiest of expectations, although
by now the sort of praise it’s been gathering comes with its own set of
expectations apart of the actual action of the film. (After you’ve seen it, I
highly recommend Justin Chang’s excellent full-on appraisal in the <i>Los
Angeles Times</i>.) It’s a serious consideration of notions and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>quasi-historical narratives of chivalry and
honor that one would think impossibly quaint nearly 50 years after the sort of
pop culture disembowelment served up by Monty Python, and it conjures a world
of real and imagined magick, and that includes magick of the cinematic sort,
with both surprising guilelessness and a surety that can make a jaded audience
gasp. The marvelous cast, apart from Patel (making up for appearing in last
year’s worst film, <i>The Personal History of David Copperfield</i>, by
appearing in a candidate for this year’s best), includes Alicia Vikander,
doubly beguiling as Gawain’s tomboyish love, whom he leaves behind, and a mysterious
enchantress who may spell his doom, as well as seasoned character actors like
Sean Harris, Kate Dickie, Joel Edgerton, and best of all, Ralph Ineson, whose
great, quarry-deep voice perfectly inhabits the grandeur of the hulking, creaking,
rustling, forbidding, seductive figure of the film’s title, and who eloquently embodies
its most enrooted concepts of nature and inevitability.<br />
<br />
And they are all led by a young director who is, with any luck, apparently just
now hitting his stride. Like its namesake, Lowery and <i>The Green Knight</i> invite
us on an unexpected journey we cannot but accept, one whose sweetest and most
profound rewards cannot be anticipated, one which will, if you’re like me,
resonate long after the film’s soaring penultimate image and its final, sweetly
ambiguous words have passed into the mists of memory, where the movie promises
to live from a forgotten age, of tales and of glorious movies, for a long, long
time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMZm3zias89A1450KNdNlEnL9H5mhvfPdf2v21oXLT11-gPH8xVSCg7LecxFJ7z-j6581kXmGAGcZv5iQ_sVhGD-D3I92UlB28KaCJW5jpycOr7yn_QXSe-mWq-V7yje4txjAa/s1600/summertime.jpg.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMZm3zias89A1450KNdNlEnL9H5mhvfPdf2v21oXLT11-gPH8xVSCg7LecxFJ7z-j6581kXmGAGcZv5iQ_sVhGD-D3I92UlB28KaCJW5jpycOr7yn_QXSe-mWq-V7yje4txjAa/w400-h225/summertime.jpg.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>2) </b>At first I thought I might well find Carlos López
Estrada’s <b><i>Summertime</i></b> insufferable— it’s a celebratory
comedy-drama built around sequences in which many of the 30 young characters,
who float in and around Los Angeles during the film’s 95-minute running time,
frequently express themselves in poetic verse (poems the actors wrote
themselves). But the movie breaks down all resistance almost immediately with
visual poetry that augments and enhances those recitative passages and suffuses
them with what can only be considered the near-equivalent of song-and-dance
sequences which might be found in a more straightforward musical. That poetry
is put to powerful dramatic use as well, and by the movie’s end the tears <i>Summertime
</i>earns are a mixture of a piercing emotionality and the rapture of seeing
such material so well served, so eloquently expressed. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In its very own, unique way it’s a lovely,
generational response to the sort of American expressionism that has itself
frequently been marginalized, fulfilling the promise of a more fantastical work
like <i>In the Heights</i> and adding to a legacy of social and political
portraiture that has its roots in masterworks like <i>Nashville</i> and <i>Do
The Right Thing</i>. (The movie shares an observational acuity toward LA with
those movies and their settings too.) And I guess I needn’t have worried that I
wouldn’t be transported by <i>Summertime</i>— how could I have ever not loved a
movie that has, as one of its threads, the pursuit of a real Los Angeles
cheeseburger, and locates the climax of that search in such a unifying, and
yes, inspirational gesture of community and empathy? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7i_vJFfAbH1fVQaRLd1RQVMkv3nMNtwlkLdPrwgWicdwDqf3cb5JKvMo5iCegDlf02rmLwh9p0udbOWtIxWQydkRJ8T8AcDeV5NaXWHI352UZkWDIRm_IC5HF1jlacB79_zbK/s1324/013457_1324x744_637605935825604534.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="744" data-original-width="1324" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7i_vJFfAbH1fVQaRLd1RQVMkv3nMNtwlkLdPrwgWicdwDqf3cb5JKvMo5iCegDlf02rmLwh9p0udbOWtIxWQydkRJ8T8AcDeV5NaXWHI352UZkWDIRm_IC5HF1jlacB79_zbK/w400-h225/013457_1324x744_637605935825604534.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>3) </b>“We were creating a new world…” <b><i>Summer of Soul</i></b>
is that rare piece of work that, in its own way, seems almost as important as
the event it documents, especially given the past few summers we’ve had to
endure as a country, as a species. Joyous tears will likely never be too far
from spilling, as they were for me, witnessing the otherworldly, yet completely
of this world performances of Gladys Knight and the Pips, Sly and the Family
Stone, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone and especially Mavis Staples, on her own and
in rapturous duet with the great Mahalia Jackson. I love Mavis Staples, perhaps
beyond reason and propriety. But I was also just as thrilled that director Questlove,
in making beautiful music of both the concerts and the social context in which
they occurred, managed to make time to include Moms Mabley (who gets off a
great joke about the concurrent NASA moon mission which resonates today, as millionaires
indulge their own space fantasies while citizens continue to be marginalized
and murdered and while the planet burns), and for a moving interlude in which Marilyn
McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. are overwhelmed with emotion as they watch footage of
their performance at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which this documentary
commemorates (or should that be resuscitates?), and talk about their experience
as artists perceived as not having been “Black enough.” This movie is as close
to genuine cinematic bliss as I’ve experienced in years, and I’m so glad I got
to see it on the big screen. Whether or not you can swing a theatrical
experience, or whether Hulu is your gateway, this is a movie that should not be
missed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwiuUkL4g-UkPqFLwjzZMwhENXrfgyjI47kKnmyr1yRS3Y0x2i0baCK96msHa5r6rIRDWYB7K8XDRaNvJV3-vtEXZb62bDQ1SwoTrYiZ-f3ghPLMvsa5RXEN3N7I0c6dms5yev/s1200/NO+SUDDEN.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwiuUkL4g-UkPqFLwjzZMwhENXrfgyjI47kKnmyr1yRS3Y0x2i0baCK96msHa5r6rIRDWYB7K8XDRaNvJV3-vtEXZb62bDQ1SwoTrYiZ-f3ghPLMvsa5RXEN3N7I0c6dms5yev/w400-h210/NO+SUDDEN.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><b style="font-family: georgia;">4) <i>No Sudden Move</i></b><span style="font-family: georgia;">, Steven Soderbergh’s piercing
crime drama, based on Ed Solomon’s twisting, turning script, is a movie for
grown-ups who miss the intricacies and mysteries of </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Chinatown </i><span style="font-family: georgia;">or the feints
and double and triple-crosses of great films noir like </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">The Asphalt Jungle </i><span style="font-family: georgia;">or
</span><i style="font-family: georgia;">The Killing</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> and wish that a spirited director, one already responsible for
another great example in the genre, </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">The Limey</i><span style="font-family: georgia;">, might return to this particular
form in glory. With </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">No Sudden Move</i><span style="font-family: georgia;">, that’s just what happens. Inhabited with
brilliance by Don Cheadle, who hasn’t been this good since his heralded intro
to the popular consciousness in </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Devil in a Blue Dress</i><span style="font-family: georgia;">, and Benicio Del
Toro, who seems to carry the weight of the world on his sagging frame, along
with perhaps the year’s richest supporting cast, including David Harbour, Julia
Fox, Amy Siemetz, Kieran Culkin, Ray Liotta, and best of all, Brendan Fraser, channeling
Orson Welles in TOUCH OF EVIL here (there’s even an effective cameo by a
Soderbergh favorite), the film is centered on a heist scheme that goes terribly
wrong and spirals into a morass of betrayals and reprisals that at times can be
challenging to track, but which ultimately land in a place where comparisons to
the films cited above prove not only apt but well deserved.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_sUlrojeqb3RNIn3VMMbWVLZ-DNpx6t4XUN-J3_yy0wDg2DZwwEEa6CJ6YWanH9HS9OZzPiy4CWhs4TUumt0kWO_DAyw5MwG4TkhAw3u8uDA0QP8tqnWXh9Dh98940jmyRCbe/s2671/GODZILLA+V.+KONG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1177" data-original-width="2671" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_sUlrojeqb3RNIn3VMMbWVLZ-DNpx6t4XUN-J3_yy0wDg2DZwwEEa6CJ6YWanH9HS9OZzPiy4CWhs4TUumt0kWO_DAyw5MwG4TkhAw3u8uDA0QP8tqnWXh9Dh98940jmyRCbe/w400-h176/GODZILLA+V.+KONG.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>5) </b>I loved <b><i>Godzilla vs. Kong</i></b>. My
two daughters and I had a great time with it, even if it was only on HBO Max—
we turned it up loud, laughing and shouting and screaming in all the right
places. But then we saw it again, this time on the big screen before it left
our local multiplex. The damn thing must have taken a nation’s worth of
craftsmen and artists to compose, but it lumbers not— in light of the
four-hour <i>Justice League</i> especially, this is as fleet of foot
and spirit as you could hope for in a movie about giant beasts asserting their
essential (but not necessarily hostile-to-mankind) beastliness and laying waste
to their surroundings, including a surreally gorgeous nighttime Hong Kong
that’s neon-lit for maximum eye-popping monster fun. But the highlight for me
was the mind-and-perspective boggling landscape of Hollow Earth, revealed when
our human heroes travel beneath the surface to find out where the ancestors and
cohabitants of Kong and Godzilla have been calling home for centuries. It’s a
truly spectacular vision of a hidden world within our own that itself warrants
at least a couple more viewings to be even close to fully taken in. I know, I
know-- if you love cinema as an art form, you’re supposed to reflexively shun a
big, loud, commercial piece of work like <i>Godzilla vs. Kong</i>. But
screw that. The big boys (plus a surprise guest) were worth that second helping,
and now that I have the Blu-ray a third is surely forthcoming. Godzilla, Kong,
their surprise guest, and the disorienting grandeur of Hollow Earth await my return.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">*****************</span></p>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-75798971363702342522021-05-08T16:10:00.007-07:002021-08-04T13:51:39.599-07:00RETURN TO MOVIE FOREVER: SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE PANDEMIC, plus GODZILLA VS. KONG<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDxwRr1_4Uhqp6M1g50LZBY4EjIAj_JYitEczdV63exrYZsNMHbrHlQy8jNmVQ4VQBtmYIl6s03DMaJxF108Lh0NuKI7da_PyvMLVIEaNmc1nBbBxBAUOjHiMKeIfT__yJo0KM/s1074/182632496_518757659159582_1783848221575633622_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1074" data-original-width="827" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDxwRr1_4Uhqp6M1g50LZBY4EjIAj_JYitEczdV63exrYZsNMHbrHlQy8jNmVQ4VQBtmYIl6s03DMaJxF108Lh0NuKI7da_PyvMLVIEaNmc1nBbBxBAUOjHiMKeIfT__yJo0KM/w308-h400/182632496_518757659159582_1783848221575633622_n.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">So we
went to the movies last Sunday night. 422 days previous, to celebrate Emma’s
20th birthday, we saw our last movie in a theater. And on Sunday night, May 2,
the longest drought of theatrical moviegoing I’ve ever been through came to an
end with a made-to-order experience for Daddy and child. Back in August 2010, I
took my daughter Emma to see <b><i>Scott Pilgrim vs. the World</i></b>. They
were only 10, and I kinda expected that my wife might not appreciate them
seeing a PG-13 picture like this, so we snuck away and didn’t tell Mom where we
were going or what we were seeing. I remember the presentation in the cracker
box cinema where we saw it being pretty shoddy, but we had a good time together
and the movie, once it came out on Blu-ray, became a real touchstone movie for
Emma, who has probably seen it ten times since then. I’ve seen it a few times
since then too, but other than the time spent together watching it, <i>SPVTW</i>
never meant as much to me as it did to my kid.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnSDUKGAdUr8YGFPV-sXUI2dxJ4jDH9qfrcYYRF4Q_qWjbWiP2n3jjx8whj0ZPpbc_q8e9FRXpefTj1obfYn2sHbx0JyOFy0tCTvuXOtlDcbJ1tbn_1MB7_QSOVoL6f-yE4k2D/s828/180456064_831769987428990_6092399480352878852_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="828" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnSDUKGAdUr8YGFPV-sXUI2dxJ4jDH9qfrcYYRF4Q_qWjbWiP2n3jjx8whj0ZPpbc_q8e9FRXpefTj1obfYn2sHbx0JyOFy0tCTvuXOtlDcbJ1tbn_1MB7_QSOVoL6f-yE4k2D/w320-h240/180456064_831769987428990_6092399480352878852_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Until
Sunday night, that is. When I bought our tickets I thought, I know Emma would
love to see this, but do I really want <i style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">this </i><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">movie to be the first one
I’ve seen on the big screen in over a year? Turns out it couldn’t have been a
better choice, in terms of sheer awesome-itude of the snazzy presentation— the
movie has been retooled, in honor of its 10th anniversary, specifically for
Dolby Vision-Dolby Atmos Sound theaters, for maximum audio-visual impact— and,
of course, as a super-platinum upgrade on our original surreptitious movie
outing 10+ years ago. Naturally, we were just excited to be there, but I think
I may have underrated just how high the level of anticipation for both of us
really was. Just prior to unspooling a bunch of trailers that, whether or not
the films themselves turn out to be any good, got us excited at just the
prospect of a possible future that included going to the movies, a big ad for
the theater chain came on that said simply, “AMC says welcome back to the
movies!” And yeah, I got pretty choked up and shed a tear or two over that
message because here we were, doing something that this time last year I
seriously thought we might not ever do again.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">And I
also undersold to myself just what being in an audience who was taking social
distancing protocols seriously would mean, gathered together to enjoy a movie
together with other people, to hear everyone responding, engaged, laughing,
having what felt like a special experience, one in which seeing a movie in
public was truly appreciated, a activity no longer taken for granted, which
felt like a privilege as much as entertainment. Surely I have never enjoyed or
appreciated </span><i style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">Scott Pilgrim vs. the World</i><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"> as much as I did tonight— it’s
as much fun as I can imagine having with a movie populated almost entirely by
people I would probably actively avoid in real life. (Except maybe Knives
Chau!) And it’s probably the most eye-popping explosion of director Edgar
Wright’s visual imagination, in service to expressing both the worldview of the
graphic novel’s definitive, indulgent generational satire/wish fulfillment and
the experience of what might be going on in the jittery, self-obsessed mind of
the novel’s ideal reader. </span><i style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">Scott Pilgrim vs. the World</i><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"> is an exhausting,
hilarious, annoying, exuberant picture, and I can even forgive its outburst of
directorial confidence for probably having led directly to the markedly
inferior </span><i style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">Baby Driver</i><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">I’m
so happy that my now-21-year-old offspring still wants to go see movies with
Dad, and that said offspring is so aware and sympathetic to how much that
experience means to the old man. That we seem to be on the cusp of making it a
more regular experience again has filled me with a certain hope that maybe some
semblance of normal might be waiting just around the corner. And when we do
resume this glorious habit, maybe we won’t take it so much for granted any
longer. It was a thrill to be at the movies with Emma tonight. Tomorrow, we’re
headed back for our second helping of </span><i style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">Godzilla vs. Kong.</i><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"> And then who
knows? If our beloved Vista Theater in east Hollywood reopens, there really
will be a celebration.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPihn2pKpC4-yUzBkJ0CMJYCaQ0eJYn3FX2cQK-CQqCI2Ptu9p-FijFCUlje_MR1RDxgP7ZNEbSw9dIqBY-eCdbI2oVBZm9NqNUNvOvR8pTLCkXDZCyre4bSLXZPG4f0ckmQDT/s828/183217266_920528472014735_9139733206963431099_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="828" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPihn2pKpC4-yUzBkJ0CMJYCaQ0eJYn3FX2cQK-CQqCI2Ptu9p-FijFCUlje_MR1RDxgP7ZNEbSw9dIqBY-eCdbI2oVBZm9NqNUNvOvR8pTLCkXDZCyre4bSLXZPG4f0ckmQDT/w400-h300/183217266_920528472014735_9139733206963431099_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">And
while we’re at it, I might as well admit that I loved </span><b style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><i>Godzilla vs. Kong</i></b><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">.
My two daughters and I had a great time with it, even if it was only on HBO Max—
we turned it up loud, laughing and shouting and screaming in all the right
places. The damn thing must have taken a nation’s worth of craftsmen and
artists to compose, but it lumbers not— in light of the four-hour </span><i style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">Justice
League</i><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"> especially, this is as fleet of foot and spirit as you could hope
for in a movie about giant beasts asserting their essential (but not
necessarily hostile-to-mankind) beastliness and laying waste to their
surroundings, including a surreally gorgeous nighttime Hong Kong that’s
neon-lit for maximum eye-popping monster fun. But the highlight for me was the
mind-and-perspective boggling landscape of Hollow Earth, revealed when our
human heroes travel beneath the surface to find out where the ancestors and
cohabitants of Kong and Godzilla have been calling home for centuries. It’s a
truly spectacular vision of a hidden world within our own that itself warrants
at least a couple more viewings to be even close to fully taken in.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">Critic
Matt Zoller Seitz is being summarily roasted in the comments following his
review at <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/godzilla-vs-kong-movie-review-2021">RogerEbert.com</a></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"> for having the
audacity to give this movie a four-star rating, as if he were only full-tilt
slobbering over it like a Christopher Nolan fanboy. The difference being, of
course, that Seitz knows that <i>GVK</i> is, at its heart and on its face, an
undeniably silly concept, but one which he chooses to approach with good humor
and more than the occasional nod to that silliness while taking entirely
seriously the art and craft of the show and his own response to it. (The
Nolanoids play an entirely different, poker-faced game of you either love it or
deserve to die.) If you love cinema as an art form, you’re supposed to
reflexively shun a big, loud, commercial piece of work like <i>Godzilla vs. Kong</i>,
but whether or not you think he’s lost his mind (as most of those commenters
where his review is posted clearly do), Seitz’s response is not cynical in the
least; I read the review after I saw the movie, and now I’m all the more glad
for his sincerity. The big boys (plus a surprise guest) are worth that second
helping coming up tomorrow, this time on the big screen. And Hollow Earth
awaits as well.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"> *********************************</span></o:p></p>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-9518623093963133762021-05-08T16:02:00.003-07:002021-05-09T10:01:56.826-07:00ROBERT ALTMAN'S KANSAS CITY (1996)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDKl9GRbte3CUPNcY8i2hSnvP_GW6onSQn0Z7l33HmYl4xhYLE1o_aPKI4Vyu7LvK0pPM_a_lwd1t7x7W_EcHbpcdF94JNR1Q5D_2kZwOFSif6LdhxQssu4VI7JIM1zdehm_Ih/s1767/MV5BODE1ZjIwMjYtMmFhMC00NGZiLTgxNmUtYTVmYTg1MDg2NDBkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQ4NDY5OTc%2540._V1_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1767" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDKl9GRbte3CUPNcY8i2hSnvP_GW6onSQn0Z7l33HmYl4xhYLE1o_aPKI4Vyu7LvK0pPM_a_lwd1t7x7W_EcHbpcdF94JNR1Q5D_2kZwOFSif6LdhxQssu4VI7JIM1zdehm_Ih/s320/MV5BODE1ZjIwMjYtMmFhMC00NGZiLTgxNmUtYTVmYTg1MDg2NDBkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQ4NDY5OTc%2540._V1_.jpg" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Robert
Altman’s <b><i>Kansas City</i></b> (1996) has the 1934 milieu of the Midwest
hub down pat, from the eye-popping production design and costuming, to the
corrupt political machinations of the time (emanating from the influence of
boss Tom Pendergast and a host of other shadowy operatives silently empowered
by the Roosevelt administration), to the city’s fascinating musical culture,
which functions as a navigational device through the film’s landscape,
especially in terms of race, seeping into the film’s cracks and crevices,
almost defiantly, willfully holding it together.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">At the
center of all this is the magnetic performance of Harry Belafonte as Seldom
Seen, the gangster/entrepreneur who runs his part of KC from the back room of
the Hey Hey Club, where the plot strands of the film gather to entangle and get
more entangled. Seldom Seen is as much of an entertainer as the great jazz
musicians gathered on his stage for an ebullient playoff contest, and he knows
it— he can’t seem to stop himself from regaling stories and bleak jokes as part
of his process of rule by intimidation, his genial manner never far from the
flicker, and then the full emergence of menace. And Belafonte navigates his
near-presidential presence with the sort of agility that is truly worthy of
awe— his manner is observably informed by the truth of the times without ever
becoming obvious or mannered, and you can’t, nor would you want to take your
eyes off of him when he’s doing his thing.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw4VGV4YyuVSGXS1y1GxxC6e5X3-bxGnOl8WCe5p8v9phFF90te5ULdLgZrKR4S94Icm6i7giqDyhMqm_psoDjWOTbYTOdNw1gD4tsW2xkjFcNfK81QTlTyeHIc7Sytro8ycDN/s1600/367-1275379989-3978x.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw4VGV4YyuVSGXS1y1GxxC6e5X3-bxGnOl8WCe5p8v9phFF90te5ULdLgZrKR4S94Icm6i7giqDyhMqm_psoDjWOTbYTOdNw1gD4tsW2xkjFcNfK81QTlTyeHIc7Sytro8ycDN/w400-h225/367-1275379989-3978x.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><p>The problem
with <i>Kansas City</i> is that Belafonte’s story is not at the forefront. He’s
essentially the impetus behind the film’s primary focus, a melodrama kicked
into gear when Seldom Seen foils an attempted robbery of one of his money
shipments and holds one of the would-be robbers, a Caucasian in blackface by
the name of Johnny O’Hara (Dermot Mulroney) for tortures yet to be revealed.
(Seldom dispatches the other, a Black man, with a brutal reckoning in an
alley.) When she gets wind of Johnny’s predicament, his wife, a delusional
cosmetics counter worker named Blondie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), concocts a
scheme to leverage Johnny’s release by kidnapping the wife of a powerful local
politician, who has ties to Pendergast and Roosevelt, in an attempt to
blackmail him into using his connections to help free her two-bit criminal
husband.</p><p>As the
kidnapping victim, Miranda Richardson starts off playing up the most obvious notes
of her troubled character, a woman who has sunk into an opium haze as a way of
dealing with the humiliations and neglect dealt to her by her ambitious and
often absent husband, essayed with typically cool emotional brutality by Altman
favorite Michael Murphy. But Richardson’s characterization becomes warmer—she
avoids the pitfalls of an absence of audience sympathy by her ability to
orchestrate levels of humanity and sympathy which begin to work their way up
through the drug-induced fog as she is forced to spend more and more time
observing another form of fragility in the personage of her abductor, whose own
relationship to reality is tenuous at best.</p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilj7iThKNCReLY3Z13QGNvDVvzo-ph4RbM_pt_4wFiDG6BoRZT1tPR1GOQwaPJwAW1peTTzZ4c6fZ-a6Bvy0XLLbKaszhnYkhOx27pEiZ63E7WsqYLsKbTDcIQarBB3tMhzmPk/s878/KansasCity_gun.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="878" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilj7iThKNCReLY3Z13QGNvDVvzo-ph4RbM_pt_4wFiDG6BoRZT1tPR1GOQwaPJwAW1peTTzZ4c6fZ-a6Bvy0XLLbKaszhnYkhOx27pEiZ63E7WsqYLsKbTDcIQarBB3tMhzmPk/w400-h220/KansasCity_gun.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The movie’s
central concei</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">t is how the kidnapping story reflects the sorts of political
machinations and racial stratification that spur on life in Altman’s beloved
hometown just after the turn of the century, but if that story is going to
function as part of the sort of mosaic Altman could typically conjure, then it
has to hold its own against the seamy underworld of Seldom Seen,</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">the Hey Hey Club, and the commentary on the
inequity of structures and everyday life between Black and white. Altman and
co-scenarist Frank Barhydt structure </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Kansas City</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> to flirt with bringing
some of these elements into sharp relief— a home for “wayward” women figures
into its third act, populated mostly by African American tenants, and a
substory involving a young Black musician who befriends a girl who takes up
residence in the home—but those elements never find their focus. And despite
the details of both the political world and the world of Seldom and the club
being easily the more fascinating and potentially rewarding in dramatic terms,
they ultimately serve only as background for a story which is itself undermined
by the oddly stylized performance of Jennifer Jason Leigh as Blondie, who keeps
blunting our empathy regarding her increasing desperation and her slippery
grasp on sanity with her own brand of acting histrionics.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia; line-height: 107%;">Blondie sees
herself as a Jean Harlow wannabe, and Lei</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">gh chooses to go whole-hog with that
fantasy. She plays the character, presumably with the director’s assent, not in
the style of realism which the rest of the movie indulges, but as if she really
were in one of those rat-a-tat pre-Code pictures she frequents during her
copious time off from her department store job. Leigh’s immersion in this sort
of stylistic affectation isn’t exactly unprecedented—she took a lot of heat
when she essentially conjured Katharine Hepburn for the Coen Brothers’ wild
‘40s-era comedy </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">The Hudsucker Proxy</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> two years earlier, in 1994. But the
Coens’ picture, in its overheated approach, matched Leigh’s style syllable for
rapid-fire syllable—what she did there was an integrated piece within that
movie’s overall energy. In </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Kansas City,</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> her commitment to the idea of
Blondie’s delusions sets her adrift in Altman’s meticulously crafted milieu—she
stands out, but not in a way that serves the material, or even her own story.
She plays Blondie with such lunatic determination that it seems like she barely
unclenches her jaw for the entirety of the picture. The way Leigh plays her,
Blondie seems, in contrast to those around her, borderline insane, yet her
behavior is never noted as anything particularly strange or hostile-- her pals process her as quirky, unpredictable, and the audience is asked to process her movie-star delusions as just another facet of the ambered
past Altman conjures, which is what the conceit of the character is surely
meant to convey. But Leigh can only bring attention to her actorly tics, and
the performance never gels as anything beyond a curiosity, a misstep, and her
story never meshes with the other parts of </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Kansas City</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> in the way it
surely should have.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRLhUIeqsr5nuP-p9ItcP6fGbKRbrj5yKkvsyoxOXlR3VGtVoMekaM6d18hYPi8Fjg1D8v2NPC0Gx8L6hBohWikJRNphvSjz-LkwlzwyXcs_OSeBgKCTFTy_4fpwdHU3y22cUY/s475/5153RFW7EAL.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="256" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRLhUIeqsr5nuP-p9ItcP6fGbKRbrj5yKkvsyoxOXlR3VGtVoMekaM6d18hYPi8Fjg1D8v2NPC0Gx8L6hBohWikJRNphvSjz-LkwlzwyXcs_OSeBgKCTFTy_4fpwdHU3y22cUY/w108-h200/5153RFW7EAL.jpg" width="108" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;">If you
haven’t seen it in a while, there’s a great deal of pleasure to be had from
revisiting the gorgeous Arrow Blu-ray of <i>Kansas City</i>. The movie has
probably never looked better, and it features a typically droll and informative
Altman commentary, presumably ported over from an earlier home video release,
as well as enjoyable appreciations by critics Geoff Andrew and Luc Lagier.
Unfortunately, Arrow was not able to secure the one element that would have
made their <i>Kansas City</i> package one for the ages—missing is <b><i>Robert
Altman’s Jazz ’34</i></b>, the documentary Altman filmed for the PBS <i>Great
Performances </i>series as an accompaniment to <i>Kansas City</i> which focuses
entirely on the musical performances from Joshua Redman, Ron Carter and others
which keep the Hey Hey Club hopping. These performances serve as the glue which
binds Altman’s vision together, yet they blaze, gloriously, in this documentary
on their own. On <i>its</i> own, Altman’s feature drama<i> </i>falls short of
being the sort of late-period masterwork the director seemed to be able to
summon at will so often during his career. But even so, on the wings of its
music, these musicians, the riveting presence of a now 94-year-old star who
owned the screen like never before in this picture, and yes, on the guidance of
its director’s innovation and method of societal inquiry, there are moments
when <i>Kansas City,</i> as wedded to the ground as it sometimes seems, still
soars</span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">.</span></span><p></p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">*********************************</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-34147329163050516592021-04-25T16:46:00.003-07:002021-04-27T21:20:25.983-07:00THE FATHER (2020) + OSCAR PREDIX<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_D7LQmOI_M3100UlZzkytbwC-jNRGJf93E6SU0eftNxJ-IFR-wEnWnpzfQbl8ntin6jkRK7fpaaiLeP3w9IGCa0I-KET6SIPPiwXtyjHaVIeqLneCgw7mNTXgKQ9WGy7jlm4y/s1200/the-father-Olivia-Colman-Anthony-Hopkins-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_D7LQmOI_M3100UlZzkytbwC-jNRGJf93E6SU0eftNxJ-IFR-wEnWnpzfQbl8ntin6jkRK7fpaaiLeP3w9IGCa0I-KET6SIPPiwXtyjHaVIeqLneCgw7mNTXgKQ9WGy7jlm4y/w400-h225/the-father-Olivia-Colman-Anthony-Hopkins-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><b style="color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></b></p><p><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b style="color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>The Father</i></b><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (2020) begins with classical music on the soundtrack and glimpses into a quiet, spacious, generously decorated flat occupied by a man (Anthony Hopkins) who has the carriage of one who prefers his moments alone. Right away, his daughter (Olivia Colman) comes to visit and, despite the film's tasteful trappings and cool, confident visual style, the ground beneath the feet of the viewer (to say nothing of the characters) begins loosening, shifting, becoming less reliable, ever more so mapping the tenuous connection to the reality that the man is apparently holding onto, the degree to which he is increasingly, against his dwindling will, ever more alone . The writer-director Florian Zeller (adapting his own play) seems to have an instinctive feel for how the camera can be used to both provide a foundation for and to undermine that reality, yet as the depths of Hopkins' character's condition becomes clear-- he's suffering from Alzheimer's disease-- Zeller also demonstrates how democratic his sympathies are. In fact, rather than just telling the story of how difficult the awful slide into dementia is for those whose responsibility it is to care for the one suffering, Zeller, and Hopkins, keep us connected with the disorientation, the strange euphoria that turns on a dime into hostility, loss of pride, confusion and desperation which characterizes the common experience of losing one's mental capacities. </span></span></p><p><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">What you've undoubtedly heard about Hopkins-- that this is a career-best performance minus even the slightest whiff of untoward ostentation or sentimental pandering-- can be said of the rest of the cast too, from Rufus Sewell and Mark Gatiss as, respectively, Colman's husband and a man who claims to be the same (though we remain as unsure of his actual identity as Hopkins for the bulk of the film's lean 97-minute running time); to Olivia Williams and Imogen Poots as the women who are in various capacities charged with Hopkins' care; and especially Colman, who probably has the most expressive, inviting, empathetic face in movies right now. Colman draws you in with her agonized loyalty to a father who can't seem to keep straight who she is or what she's telling him, but she also effortlessly connects with her character's varied layers of anger, guilt and even the slight spark of joy that comes in those increasingly rare moments when she seems, if only momentarily, to make a connection with the father she loves, the father she wants to escape, the father who is helplessly slipping away.
<i>The Father</i> forces a confrontation with a horror that many viewers may already be familiar with, one which for some of us might well be lurking in the shadows of family history. But it is the actor's art, the ability of Hopkins and Colman to convey the tiptoe terror of confronting such darkness without ever strangulating the audience with signifiers and histrionics, that prevents the movie from becoming an unbearable, unpleasant wallow. It's not likely to happen, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit to see either or both of them take home another little gold man a few hours from now.
******************************************</span></p><p><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before I go, a revised look at my best-of for the past year, now that I've seen a few more contenders:</span></span></p><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">FIRST COW</i></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">COLLECTIVE</i></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">EMMA.</i></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">LOVERS ROCK</i></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">AMERICAN UTOPIA</i></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI </i></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">MINARI</i></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">ZAPPA</i></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">THE FATHER </i></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">DA 5 BLOODS
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVIBlfueEYqGKFyWhzPNMWhtVDfwQuKoEdcQUYNEBRQgQ32dY4ZDjxxBAwV0U7sJNlmgp_GOdG3Zhu9V8DJUvAa1W7BanJGfuI5HyaTtq36TCK7g-kEXppTeWVN9d8u8AH-36b/s681/oscars-placeholder.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="681" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVIBlfueEYqGKFyWhzPNMWhtVDfwQuKoEdcQUYNEBRQgQ32dY4ZDjxxBAwV0U7sJNlmgp_GOdG3Zhu9V8DJUvAa1W7BanJGfuI5HyaTtq36TCK7g-kEXppTeWVN9d8u8AH-36b/w400-h225/oscars-placeholder.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
</i></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">And my don't-bet-the-house Oscar predictions too! What follows is a list of the nominees I think will win, followed by my preferences in (parentheses). And remember, I'm no fan of <i>NOMADLAND, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN </i>or <i>MANK</i>...</span></div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>PICTURE:</b> <i>NOMADLAND</i> (<i>MINARI</i>)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>DIRECTOR:</b> Chloe Zhao (Lee Isaac Chung)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>ACTRESS: </b>Carey Mulligan (Viola Davis)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>ACTOR: </b>Chadwick Boseman (Anthony Hopkins)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>SUPPORTING ACTRESS: </b>Yuh-jung Youn (Yuh-jung Youn)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>SUPPORTING ACTOR:</b> Lakeith Stanfield (Paul Raci)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>ANIMATED FEATURE: </b>SOUL (no preference-- I ain't seen none)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: </b><i>ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI</i> (<i>THE FATHER</i>)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: </b><i>THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7</i> (<i>MINARI</i>)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>SONG: </b><i>ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI</i> (<i>ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI</i>, I guess...)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>SCORE: </b><i>SOUL</i> (<i>DA 5 BLOODS</i>)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>SOUND:</b> <i>SOUND OF METAL</i> (<i>SOUND OF METAL</i>)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>COSTUME DESIGN: </b><i>MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM</i> (<i>EMMA.</i>)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>ANIMATED SHORT: </b><i>BURROW</i> (no preference)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>LIVE-ACTION SHORT:</b> <i>THE LETTER ROOM</i> (no preference)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>CINEMATOGRAPHY:</b> <i>NOMADLAND</i> (<i>THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7</i>)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:</b> <i>TIME</i> (<i>COLLECTIVE</i>)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>DOCUMENTARY SHORT: </b><i>HUNGER WARD</i> (no preference)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>EDITING:</b> <i>PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN </i>(<i>THE FATHER</i>)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>INTERNATIONAL FEATURE:</b> <i>COLLECTIVE</i> (<i>COLLECTIVE</i>)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING: </b><i>MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM</i> (<i>EMMA.</i>)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>PRODUCTION DESIGN: </b><i>MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM</i> (<i>THE FATHER</i>)</span></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>VISUAL EFFECTS: </b><i>TENET</i> (<i>LOVE AND MONSTERS</i>)
***********************************</span></div></div><p><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span></p>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-12495231825092247922021-01-18T17:09:00.000-08:002021-01-18T17:09:34.426-08:00THE THEATER OF THE EVERYDAY: DAGUERRÉOTYPES, CAR WASH, LARCENY INC.<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVAoDOSdweGzCcecAlmGzzF49KDdsaiIzs5hD4r-y-Io76F2VNNCwSbeB_jS_LaDbjn1OYlY5IxTSCxWWURmrY3rRkzSnTXmqSRBx9j0d25vicOcky7b5ci_Lk7uGEyIWwD1H1/s650/carwash1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="366" data-original-width="650" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVAoDOSdweGzCcecAlmGzzF49KDdsaiIzs5hD4r-y-Io76F2VNNCwSbeB_jS_LaDbjn1OYlY5IxTSCxWWURmrY3rRkzSnTXmqSRBx9j0d25vicOcky7b5ci_Lk7uGEyIWwD1H1/w400-h225/carwash1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It’s weird how disparate movies
can come together in your experience without any preconceived design. I certainly
didn’t approach my long holiday weekend’s schedule of film viewing with the
intent of curating on a theme, but as I was drifting off to sleep last night I
realized that there had been something going on that I didn’t intend or expect.
From Friday through Sunday, I took in Michael Schultz’s </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Car Wash</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> (1976),
which I have seen countless times since spending three nights in a row with it
at my hometown drive-in back in the summer of 1977, and two other movies that
were new to me-- Agn</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">è</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">s Varda’s documentary </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Daguerr</i><i style="font-family: georgia;">éotypes</i><span style="font-family: georgia;">
(also from 1976), and </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Larceny Inc.</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> (1942), a Warner Bros. gangster
comedy starring Edward G. Robinson, Broderick Crawford, Anthony Quinn and Jane
Wyman, directed by Lloyd Bacon—and you could be forgiven if you thought there
couldn’t be three more different movies gathered together in one Blu-ray
player. But there is connective tissue here. As I watched </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Car Wash</i><span style="font-family: georgia;">, a
shaggy, musically tuned ensemble comedy conceived in the shadow of Robert Altman’s
</span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Nashville</i><span style="font-family: georgia;">, and then </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Daguerr</i><i style="font-family: georgia;">éotypes</i><span style="font-family: georgia;">, Varda’s superb portrait
of shop-owners occupying her neighborhood along the Rue Daguerre in Paris, I
realized that both films represented a type of film storytelling that, as I
began really growing as a filmgoer around age 16, I realized I responded to
much more personally, intuitively, than a lot of the other types of films I had
ravenously consumed and appreciated and enjoyed as a kid.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I’d seen <i>Nashville</i> a year
before I saw <i><b>Car Wash</b></i>, when it played at my hometown theater sometime in
1976, and it was not love at first sight. It took me two or three more tries
with Altman’s stuffed-to-bursting humanitarian mise-en-scene before I finally responded
to what the director was doing, and the movie eventually became the one I would
call my favorite for 40-some years and counting. When I saw <i>Car Wash</i> I
didn’t instantly recognize it as being influenced by Altman—if I had, I might not
have been as open to it—but it clearly was, and I loved the working environment
it portrayed, populated by vivid and distinct characters who didn’t love their
work so much as they enjoyed hanging out with their coworkers at work, and the
way Schultz and music producer Norman Whitfield made the music an integral part
of the movie *and* the way these characters approached spending their day
washing other people’s cars for a less-than-satisfactory wage, was revelatory
to me. The movie not only ended up functioning as my first real introduction to
Los Angeles—it was certainly the film that formed my fundamental picture of what
the city was, or might be—but it also got under my skin in terms of how I
thought I might approach my own stabs at storytelling through script writing
and filmmaking. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEcyw9JloePTzFhKHMi5HAtYxFWlGVEL1UfhdHA2vTR7-bZff_TnWc6qFvzwQKxqtD3OVg1ep28Unk7SydE9WiuLryx0eLKEnYzMEE3LLNBDc-d1BhHYSasijbP4LZeW0UTTpe/s1011/Car+Wash+1976.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="1011" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEcyw9JloePTzFhKHMi5HAtYxFWlGVEL1UfhdHA2vTR7-bZff_TnWc6qFvzwQKxqtD3OVg1ep28Unk7SydE9WiuLryx0eLKEnYzMEE3LLNBDc-d1BhHYSasijbP4LZeW0UTTpe/w400-h210/Car+Wash+1976.png" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">As a kid, and later in college, I
messed around with trying to learn how to use Super 8 to make movies, and with friends,
as well as on my own, we came up with a couple of movies that I’m still amazed we had the discipline to see through to their finishes. But as a “writer,”
I came up with several scenarios that were clearly influenced by <i>Car Wash</i>’s
loose-fitting aesthetic—one revolved around the wacky goings-on at a (wait for
it) gas station, and still another followed a group of pals as they made their
way around a long weekend at the county fair. (As you may have guessed, my
worldview was up to that point still understandably limited.) These ideas weren’t
any good, and nothing ever came from them, but looking back now it’s clear that
the DNA of <i>Car Wash</i> was embedded in their foundation, and my response to
that type of storytelling was key to my ultimate embrace of Altman’s
directorial style and my appreciation of the sorts of stories he told over his
career. As <i>Nashville</i> became my favorite film, so too Altman eventually
became my favorite director, and I don’t think any of that would have happened if
I hadn’t first fallen for <i>Car Wash</i> and the affinity it displayed for its
working-class milieu and the people in there trying to keep their heads up among the soap and hoses.</p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Similarly, as I spent my college
summers working at sawmill jobs in my hometown, I spent a lot of the hours of monotonous
physical labor spinning elaborate plans in my head for documentaries that I’d
like to make about some of the people and environments in that hometown. At one
time or another I had conceived plans for ostensible documentary projects centered
around millwork, the bars that the local populace would gravitate to on the
weekends (where a friend and I often sat in with a band, me with my trumpet, he
with his sax), and even a film about the history of the local Chinese
restaurant and its larger-than-life owner, a Chinese immigrant whose life’s
work was making the food of her country palatable and inviting to the rural ranchers
and their families who made up a large part of her customer base. Of course, my
ambition far outpaced my talent as a filmmaker and even my capabilities
technologically—I’m not sure how I ever thought such films, as dependent as
they would have had to have been on wild or even dubbed sound, could have ever
come together with the meager camera and lighting resources I had at my
disposal. But those were merely the facts, and they didn’t factor into my
imagining when it came time to think about the kind of movie I would have
*liked* to have made. <br /><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcp2Sewz2BAm0NRy6XLomZXTpNAvEoYD1WZoW2nMztTpCKwdLCBk3ojzGHUd474w81IAyfBqg7eBELHCs25E9jbmpNX1VMygbLccPMo6T3KORZbnId6sGItdDGtYsmwhaBTnxu/s2048/Movies-daguerreotypes-2400x1362-1487864142.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1162" data-original-width="2048" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcp2Sewz2BAm0NRy6XLomZXTpNAvEoYD1WZoW2nMztTpCKwdLCBk3ojzGHUd474w81IAyfBqg7eBELHCs25E9jbmpNX1VMygbLccPMo6T3KORZbnId6sGItdDGtYsmwhaBTnxu/w400-h228/Movies-daguerreotypes-2400x1362-1487864142.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">And as I watched the senstively observed </span><b><i style="font-family: georgia;">Daguerr</i><i style="font-family: georgia;">éotypes</i></b><span style="font-family: georgia;">,
which takes as its subject the shopkeepers – butchers, fragrance specialists, hairdressers,
bakers, driving instructors, tailors—who made their living on the Parisian
street where its creator lived, I recognized that this film was the realization,
this and many others she created in her long career, of exactly the sort of
humanist portrayal of work and workers and their milieu, the bustling sidewalks
and often cramped spaces in which they toiled and offered their various wares,
that I had creatively craved for myself years before I ever even heard of Agn</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">è</span><span style="font-family: georgia;">s
Varda. In </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Daguerr</i><i style="font-family: georgia;">éotypes</i><span style="font-family: georgia;">, Varda seeks the poetry imbued
in the mundane without ever allowing her lens to assume anything like a distanced
or precious superiority—these people are her neighbors, and her stance of a
craftsman of her own sort permits her the grace to observe, as she does at the
sight of a woman opening the doors and windows of her shop, that each morning
these people raise the curtain on the theater of the everyday (a phrase that could just as easily describe what happens in <i>Car Wash.</i>) And Varda's camera
is there to catch some of that naturally occurring theater in behavior and
circumstances that, outside her empathetic perspective, might seem only
mundane.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_kkB1v_UyxO4oZ_u_-u1yJ2aEOy0ZIoTFugIM9nIRilgvVU9SvnsbbNVnW4zzka-3ezRLbbhcVTpFZFm9Y_moqi2D1OQudR6hcnMTKzdCKo1_TWR5hgvWClmtfYmfQODLnbbL/s2048/larcenyinc1942.2574.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="2048" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_kkB1v_UyxO4oZ_u_-u1yJ2aEOy0ZIoTFugIM9nIRilgvVU9SvnsbbNVnW4zzka-3ezRLbbhcVTpFZFm9Y_moqi2D1OQudR6hcnMTKzdCKo1_TWR5hgvWClmtfYmfQODLnbbL/w400-h260/larcenyinc1942.2574.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">Of course, it’s that interest in
what people do to make a living, and how they behave and interact with their
chosen communities as they make that living, that is the central interest of
both <i>Car Wash</i> and <i>Daguerr</i><i>éotypes</i>, even if their individual
approaches and their prospective audiences couldn’t be expected to have much
Venn-diagram-esque crossover, one to the other. And both films being rooted in the
storefront (or car wash-front) business milieu made them a sort of providential
match with <i><b>Larceny Inc.</b></i>, a fanciful comedy about a group of ex-cons led
by Edward G. Robinson who purchase a neighborhood luggage shop which just
happens to be next door to a bank—their plan is to, of course, tunnel through
the cellar wall of the luggage shop and into the bank vault. But before they know
it (we naturally have our suspicions right from the start), these criminal
invaders eventually become part of the surrounding community of storeowners they’ve
exploited and end up working to protect the bank and the other small businessmen
when another ex-con escapes from prison and usurps their subterranean robbery
plans. <i>Larceny Inc.</i> is a darn sight less realistic in its portrayal of urban
business than <i>Car Wash</i>, which isn’t exactly a Varda documentary itself,
but all three share a fundamental respect for those who would try to carve out
a living outside the sphere or big business or corporate fealty, and that point
of view nicely tied the three films together in a way that I could never
expected as I rather randomly assembled them for viewing over this past
weekend.</p></span><p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">We often speak of the magic of
movies, and this sort of unintended alchemy that crackles between seemingly heterogeneous
works of art, the way movies of distinctly differing times, origins and artistic
sensibilities, can speak to us through their proximity to each other, is the
sort of movie magic I increasingly live for. The experience of it is like being
touched by an unforeseen intelligence. A really good programmer or curator
might notice the threads and be able to assemble an excellent series based on
the idea, but when works like <i>Car Wash</i>, <i>Daguerr</i><i>éotypes</i>
and <i>Larceny Inc.</i> land next to each other more or less on their own and
start speaking to each other, that’s a conversation worth listening to, and one
which the movies, when lightning strikes, seem uniquely poised to provide. </span><i><o:p></o:p></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br />**********************************</span><i><o:p></o:p></i></p>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-52306710964145540692021-01-03T19:09:00.003-08:002021-01-03T19:30:21.761-08:002020/BEST OF/END OF<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRuNJO4NXUMLT_HMNM9xXrGmgJf2KxtaHwMpIWRJUd4noyVoePy-Sl6_r6FvnjqBsTUuGjSDmqYKXMbzIREYUKchd-LZQG_bnYrTOqvQQ6sM1ScTCsCBGC4DjBiP3LBe1C3L3N/s960/92818745_10157491816983369_6324647520148389888_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRuNJO4NXUMLT_HMNM9xXrGmgJf2KxtaHwMpIWRJUd4noyVoePy-Sl6_r6FvnjqBsTUuGjSDmqYKXMbzIREYUKchd-LZQG_bnYrTOqvQQ6sM1ScTCsCBGC4DjBiP3LBe1C3L3N/s320/92818745_10157491816983369_6324647520148389888_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;">A few days ago, I overheard a coworker
on a Zoom call preparing to give 2020 the old heave-ho, and among his list of
complaints about the year was that “There were no movies! Only </span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i style="font-family: georgia;">Wonder Woman
1984</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> qualifies as a movie, and it was great, but there were no other movies
this year!” That was certainly not his foremost complaint (thank God for a
little perspective, I suppose), but unless your definition of “movies” is
limited strictly to the sort of blockbuster fare like </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">WW84</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> that has
clogged theaters for the last 20 or more years, such a complaint registers as,
at best, shortsighted. What is true is that the big theater chains which
showcase the superhero franchises and other mega-budget action franchises are,
for the most part, currently closed in many parts of the country. But if the
success of the </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">WW84 </i><span style="font-family: georgia;">release simultaneously in those </span></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;">theaters that are
open (including drive-ins) and on HBO Max is any indication, Hollywood will
find a way to get these potential blockbusters in front of your eyeballs, even
as the industry template for production, distribution and exhibition seems to
be necessarily mutating on a weekly basis.</span><p></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;">But what is certainly also true is in 2020
that mutating model, and the amplified importance of viewing/streaming at home,
has opened up and spotlighted a window of access to sorts of lower-budget, character-driven
films that have of late become sublimated to the pursuit of the monster
theatrical hit. Documentaries, foreign language films, adult-oriented comedies,
dramas and even arthouse fare have found a captive audience in pandemic-restricted
home viewers, who seem to be willing to sample content like <i>Small Axe, The
Queen’s Gambit, Time, How Do You Mend a Broken Heart?, Minari</i> and countless
others at home when they would be hard-pressed to drag themselves out to a
theater to see any of the same.<br />
<br />
One of the big question marks hanging over the future of movies in America and
all over the world is, of course, if and when theaters reopen, will we go back?
Or will our viewing habits have been so altered by the necessity of attempting
to stay alive and safe and having thousands of options available to revolve
around our schedules that the relative hardship of dragging our collective
asses back out to theaters for a specific film at a specified screening time will
no longer seem worth it?<br />
<br /></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKgI81-roEypKV30bSnsbcTnh4JTD-0414WhvMOkbHElltSIP4JXUN60-Q9wb-SEUf_m8E9tYa9l_PAyjsDNvy7xV6ICdG_fov9jR5Hyvy8yx63SHkwt5T0bwh6hupqFkOsWmO/s1280/grand-lake-theater.jpg" style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKgI81-roEypKV30bSnsbcTnh4JTD-0414WhvMOkbHElltSIP4JXUN60-Q9wb-SEUf_m8E9tYa9l_PAyjsDNvy7xV6ICdG_fov9jR5Hyvy8yx63SHkwt5T0bwh6hupqFkOsWmO/w400-h225/grand-lake-theater.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /><br />
Well, it has been ten months since I’ve been in a movie theater. Previously, the
longest I’d been away from one, at least since I began college, had been a dry stretch
of a month back in 1982, and I remember at the time that that gap seemed like a
year or more— I so pined for the experience of seeing a movie on the big screen
that when I finally made it back I was momentarily overwhelmed and found myself
near tears, even though the theater was only a typically under-designed cracker-box
multiplex. Here in 2021, i</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #050505;">t’s
still hard to accept that resuming this activity is still so far away from
being an accessible reality. But I can’t let go of my optimism that one day
we’ll be able to return to seeing movies the way we used to. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The undeniable truth is that, before the world
changed, being in a movie theater had already become a source of stress long before
the distinct possibility of losing one’s life (or at least getting extremely
sick) for the chance to see the new James Bond movie. Rude, inconsiderate audiences,
incompetent exhibition of the films themselves in multiplexes run by minimum-wage
employees, and a host of other annoyances and booby traps have made the home
viewing option seem like the far more attractive option for years, and God
knows, when audiences do return to theaters, the habit of treating these
auditoriums as if they were big screen TVs set up in their homes, where they
don’t have to worry about decorum or talking over the picture and disturbing
others, or even getting out of their pajamas, isn’t likely to improve. (It
could very well get worse.) I’ve thought of theaters as a second home since I
was about four years old, when I saw my first movie (<i>Gay Purr-ee, </i>1964,
Marius Theater, Lakeview, Oregon), and though before March 2020 I didn’t get
out to one nearly as often as I used to, and though I miss the communal
experience of seeing a movie—any movie—on the big screen, when they finally do
reopen I know I will hesitate at the prospect of returning until I can be assured
the environment has truly been made safe. But I can’t imagine not going back
one day, and on that day I will try to rekindle once again the habit of an activity
that has, as much as any other, framed the way I’ve lived my life for almost 60
years… unless and until those bozos sitting in front of me once again just
won’t shut up and eventually drive me home for good.<br />
</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #050505;"><br />
</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #050505;">With these thoughts in mind, my 12 favorite
movies of 2020 were all, with the exception of two, films that I would have rushed
to see in a theater but which I just happened to see at home. And without
exception they were films that, while I feel sure would have been enhanced by
the size of the image and enveloping sound of a really good theatrical
experience, were not reduced in their impact by the relatively dinky home theater
setup that graces my living room. Here’s that list, one that, given how much I
have left to see from the blighted year past, might seem a little more constricted
than most, followed by 13 movie <i>viewing</i> experiences from 2020 that, for
one reason or another, I’ll never forget.<br />
<br />
<b><u>My Favorite Movie of 2020</u></b></span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #050505;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #050505;"><b></b></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM2Eom62K2hqij1NjDtm7R9W-DGOno3DAiz7hMxPGgEqZV9XmQVbN-1hJ_HhyokBgp4R52V53fjaJpFWVN4WvUNWppGJTxsNzSyV8xLBWkfP50i3JzKyyXhxUF2JYGBNTByUAX/s1200/first-cow-movie.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM2Eom62K2hqij1NjDtm7R9W-DGOno3DAiz7hMxPGgEqZV9XmQVbN-1hJ_HhyokBgp4R52V53fjaJpFWVN4WvUNWppGJTxsNzSyV8xLBWkfP50i3JzKyyXhxUF2JYGBNTByUAX/w400-h225/first-cow-movie.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></span></div><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #050505;"><br />
</span><b><i><span style="color: black;">First Cow</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"> </span></i><span style="color: black;">(Kelly
Reichardt) For many viewers her movies are intolerably slow, tedious and lacking
in dramatic urgency, but after seeing this latest, after previous work like <i>Certain
Women, Meek’s Cutoff, Wendy and Lucy</i> and <i>Old Joy</i> (I have yet to see
her 2013 <i>Night Moves</i>), I have to rank Kelly Reichardt as one of my favorite
directors currently making movies. Reichardt’s tales of ordinary people making
their way through life and sometimes history, small-scale visions that reach
well past their ordinary realms into specificity which allows both rich observations
linked to time and place as well as a pointed universality, are realized with
the patience of a documentarian, the tranquil gaze and empathy of a poet, and
the assured exhilaration of a filmmaker who is at the top of her game. (These
qualities are also a hallmark of another film on my list, Steve McQueen’s <i>Lovers
Rock</i>.) In <i>First Cow</i> Reichardt tells a story of friendship, community,
and enterprise in mid-19<sup>th</sup> century Oregon—a baker sets adrift by
circumstances meets up with an entrepreneurially minded Chinese immigrant and the two of
them create a sensation making fried cakes using milk they surreptitiously pilfer
from the titular beast. It’s a winning formula for the fledging businessmen and
their customers, until it isn’t. <i>First Cow</i> seduces the viewer with its apparent
simplicity— it feels like a lushly photographed kinescope of a time and sensibility
too far past now for anything but remotely aestheticized access. Yet the movie
is also a work of deep feeling, a lovely melody in a minor-key expressing the
song of an emerging America which rings of possibility, but also of dire,
inevitable fate. </span><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><o:p><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;">(the rest, in descending order)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">Emma.</span></i></b><b><span style="color: black;"> </span></b><span style="color: black;">(Autumn
de Wilde)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwl1m43kSfKVR_g_iXwPiXRNMnGtbCzytMODB2ajrwbEO37d40dJ8QqOjp-D79iyV7vM0ABE9TShiiTN3oYHr3qQSPF9jxkwTONzfMw5yz_xUDqspwg724AeT62ZSfG659d8XP/s700/emma-anyataylorjoy-outside-dress-700x348.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="700" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwl1m43kSfKVR_g_iXwPiXRNMnGtbCzytMODB2ajrwbEO37d40dJ8QqOjp-D79iyV7vM0ABE9TShiiTN3oYHr3qQSPF9jxkwTONzfMw5yz_xUDqspwg724AeT62ZSfG659d8XP/w400-h199/emma-anyataylorjoy-outside-dress-700x348.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">American Utopia</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"> </span></i><span style="color: black;">(Spike
Lee)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIRglD0i5wLnZA4k-BmxWo0GYP28ab19qE8IGN50xLRk5OEpzBwvidSkLToLiWxg8QEHOcl5tFX8yed-nqh3bSeCigv3fsQk8IKSAxYl5c4eAaXmqRxFEC7J4ocCinpOytP3SH/s1140/david-byrnes-american-utopia-film-review-1140x641.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="641" data-original-width="1140" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIRglD0i5wLnZA4k-BmxWo0GYP28ab19qE8IGN50xLRk5OEpzBwvidSkLToLiWxg8QEHOcl5tFX8yed-nqh3bSeCigv3fsQk8IKSAxYl5c4eAaXmqRxFEC7J4ocCinpOytP3SH/w400-h225/david-byrnes-american-utopia-film-review-1140x641.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">Zappa</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"> </span></i><span style="color: black;">(Alex
Winter)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjZ2VbTkBsATZqbQ45WMn0T-GRapxsg4zq881Uge_euCiGwKE4NPp_HkDxEeZ_lJrZyCtVYWWQui_LwbJLCBQ6JidI5dN6iN3XRAma7rY9rJmk7XfBhhb7bXNtaonjuFerTxp3/s1024/Zappa-Header-1024x508.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="1024" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjZ2VbTkBsATZqbQ45WMn0T-GRapxsg4zq881Uge_euCiGwKE4NPp_HkDxEeZ_lJrZyCtVYWWQui_LwbJLCBQ6JidI5dN6iN3XRAma7rY9rJmk7XfBhhb7bXNtaonjuFerTxp3/w400-h199/Zappa-Header-1024x508.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">Lovers Rock</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"> </span></i><span style="color: black;">(Steve
McQueen)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3xb-cYF5s90q7ZJrteJrIIFXkiVTTutrmWzI_DNixFo7t8N4dqXHNJBRibKCnFOiJdxMYv9-mHBSF-Hl_qCWkSXhh9l4yp24d1MR4ZqdRYbkdVR4hlnta1HdwkfjJgIio0oMo/s1200/31ce9d419dc318e704f72c23d44bd7edff-how-everything-works-lovers-rock.2x.rsocial.w600.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3xb-cYF5s90q7ZJrteJrIIFXkiVTTutrmWzI_DNixFo7t8N4dqXHNJBRibKCnFOiJdxMYv9-mHBSF-Hl_qCWkSXhh9l4yp24d1MR4ZqdRYbkdVR4hlnta1HdwkfjJgIio0oMo/w400-h210/31ce9d419dc318e704f72c23d44bd7edff-how-everything-works-lovers-rock.2x.rsocial.w600.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">Minari</span></i></b><span style="color: black;"> (Lee Isaac Chung)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnX7bO1Ead8_MyflvkE6UhJvxPSQced8LtsBRwkTddVqNqORzDHNw5nBTNNUVRQDv0GKANC1vIGJvsTnegGENoE3jH9dY5_akkiUsM2i6GyTB2HeVXm6BZj9zS4pP7e2S0HJ5_/s1200/minari-post-cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnX7bO1Ead8_MyflvkE6UhJvxPSQced8LtsBRwkTddVqNqORzDHNw5nBTNNUVRQDv0GKANC1vIGJvsTnegGENoE3jH9dY5_akkiUsM2i6GyTB2HeVXm6BZj9zS4pP7e2S0HJ5_/w400-h200/minari-post-cover.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">Da 5 Bloods</span></i></b><i><span style="color: black;"> </span></i><span style="color: black;">(Spike
Lee)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPOD0aFBzD18r59Ir4SDVahElZ07EtmcNaPkbA5WiRbr7bNeNkytL1J-bv9_mx0SR3NjZYAQvpSy9HmctsHAMvSeqJKf-2PiJHUIM039ciU0Mjr8ItOQqQzio8N-KuRhmt5luv/s1200/da-5-bloods-movie-review-2020.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1200" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPOD0aFBzD18r59Ir4SDVahElZ07EtmcNaPkbA5WiRbr7bNeNkytL1J-bv9_mx0SR3NjZYAQvpSy9HmctsHAMvSeqJKf-2PiJHUIM039ciU0Mjr8ItOQqQzio8N-KuRhmt5luv/w400-h166/da-5-bloods-movie-review-2020.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">You Should Have Left</span></i></b><b><span style="color: black;"> </span></b><span style="color: black;">(David
Koepp)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipkl7ldP8tu55s3FU2jBfGy7GVtc3R1kLPH991yotdQi6QGa5bwoSqAacN3INlv07-35q6KhRqJAkbIh8Ha5WIDYoOr74z6gc8HuP4Na9h1FW3WR4irFZYbmF3AhPx7DB1E4tF/s1200/left1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1200" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipkl7ldP8tu55s3FU2jBfGy7GVtc3R1kLPH991yotdQi6QGa5bwoSqAacN3INlv07-35q6KhRqJAkbIh8Ha5WIDYoOr74z6gc8HuP4Na9h1FW3WR4irFZYbmF3AhPx7DB1E4tF/w400-h166/left1.jpeg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom</span></i></b><span style="color: black;"> (George E. Wolfe)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKTL8QqOHQOalScRSulHFkkjJT7iNE6UYW4zGXfeCwGFkE8ThQkt60JbCa9_ZW_t3ndZwzaI6hfx3_DkU_HY6rGP5vg9F9g3ZV5NM_WSRqlwArV80zETcvu9L9-L5YpUDvkkyB/s923/ma-rainey.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="923" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKTL8QqOHQOalScRSulHFkkjJT7iNE6UYW4zGXfeCwGFkE8ThQkt60JbCa9_ZW_t3ndZwzaI6hfx3_DkU_HY6rGP5vg9F9g3ZV5NM_WSRqlwArV80zETcvu9L9-L5YpUDvkkyB/w400-h225/ma-rainey.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">Bill & Ted Face the Music</span></i></b><span style="color: black;"> (Dean Parisot)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih3cwN1oeUSoo58Qp1u_79gisYtTYWhV8q_wrqgcTzHWT76NeczNlno-IwPwjdr9AQdxrxHcMCfIX3Y-GaBs2WfQgxQRwK6I2b4cPjIOjFEemUvkrxK0mMNyrfvcopnEVc86FK/s1600/billandted-facethemusic-firstlook1-frontpage-700x335.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih3cwN1oeUSoo58Qp1u_79gisYtTYWhV8q_wrqgcTzHWT76NeczNlno-IwPwjdr9AQdxrxHcMCfIX3Y-GaBs2WfQgxQRwK6I2b4cPjIOjFEemUvkrxK0mMNyrfvcopnEVc86FK/w400-h225/billandted-facethemusic-firstlook1-frontpage-700x335.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span><p></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">The Trial of the Chicago 7 </span></i></b><span style="color: black;">(Aaron Sorkin)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0aNSzRpdTt_kgfOsSaQSv01RA0xTnsht1ZX_dNL2AtFgsUTxrt92xGjorIS57UmU-V_byMCtLvAn0etqICdu0BGi3SaMKOYsrMswhw4NzW_qSL3aeqHOh3E-Cg7dC81rLTbaE/s1400/The-Trial-of-Chicago-7-Promo-Image.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0aNSzRpdTt_kgfOsSaQSv01RA0xTnsht1ZX_dNL2AtFgsUTxrt92xGjorIS57UmU-V_byMCtLvAn0etqICdu0BGi3SaMKOYsrMswhw4NzW_qSL3aeqHOh3E-Cg7dC81rLTbaE/w400-h200/The-Trial-of-Chicago-7-Promo-Image.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">The Old Guard</span></i></b><span style="color: black;"> (Gina Prince-Blythwood)</span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-_kQab3ZrDpGVyWtTA7YSlLzdCWir76U_3GNdS9O2vFyjsF5FdlpavgCMC-m1VMEScOwG7mzfDqj8JdPH8hyJgbS85RCzJuEKcelUGSWsWN9ki2y_MAY9InjIRs85JEflQSAC/s1200/the-old-guard-2-e1594215952859-1200x520.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="1200" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-_kQab3ZrDpGVyWtTA7YSlLzdCWir76U_3GNdS9O2vFyjsF5FdlpavgCMC-m1VMEScOwG7mzfDqj8JdPH8hyJgbS85RCzJuEKcelUGSWsWN9ki2y_MAY9InjIRs85JEflQSAC/w400-h174/the-old-guard-2-e1594215952859-1200x520.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;">
<br />
As of January 3, 2021, I still need to see <i>Ammonite, An American Pickle, Bacurau,
Bad Hair, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?, Black Bear, Dick
Johnson is Dead, Farewell Amor, Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds, The Forty-Year-Old
Version, Freaky, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, The Jesus Rolls, John Lewis:
Good Trouble, Mulan, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Nomadland, One Night in
Miami, Small Axe: Mangrove, Red White and Blue, Alex Wheatle </i>and<i> Education,
Soul, Synchronic, The Trip to Greece, Wander Darkly, The Witches</i> and <i>Wolfwalkers.</i></span><i><span style="color: #1d2228;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fff2cc; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: rgb(255, 242, 204); color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br />
<b><u>My 13 Best Viewing Experiences of 2020</u></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7r3ADJoxj_zbttg-o_FacznxxOailC_0P2dImcGl69UmoD7Yxryi5f6zk3q6o5fByKuMaclGGNH2eR4hWfPHU0eX-8uO2q5vcoAVI_oBaCMfEAcHfgcf-i1gBtrV0KfB1Y1Bc/s960/98359839_10157611764623369_1421136482755674112_o.jpg" style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia; font-weight: bold; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="513" data-original-width="960" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7r3ADJoxj_zbttg-o_FacznxxOailC_0P2dImcGl69UmoD7Yxryi5f6zk3q6o5fByKuMaclGGNH2eR4hWfPHU0eX-8uO2q5vcoAVI_oBaCMfEAcHfgcf-i1gBtrV0KfB1Y1Bc/w400-h214/98359839_10157611764623369_1421136482755674112_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b style="background-color: #fff2cc;">1) </b><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">One of the most wonderful
evenings I've yet spent since the days of quarantine were imposed was with one
of my dearest friends, Katie Warrener, back in May. We cobbled together </span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">a watch party on Facebook IM,
synched up our Blu-rays, pressed play and reveled in </span><b style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i>Fellini Roma </i></b><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> (1972), bookended with an hour of catch-up
conversation before and another hour of excited chatter after. So about four
hours total in communion with the only other person I know who reveres this
movie as much as I do. </span><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Roma </i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">serves as a sort of bridge between the
self-reflexive fantasias at the heart of </span><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">8 ½</i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> and </span><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Giuletta Degli
Spiriti</i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> and the more openly nostalgic biography of </span><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Amarcord. </i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">It's a
fantastically entertaining, exuberantly congestive, inclusive and episodic
celebration of Rome's ancient ties, its ghosts of culture and religious
ceremony and its messy social rituals. All of these are married to the
director's usual rich visual bombast and randy iconoclasm to produce a haunted
vision of a city which Gore Vidal, on camera, describes (considering its
history of unlikely rebirth and clashing sensibilities) as a perfect place to
experience the end of the world. Three or four sequences here rank among the
absolute peak of Fellini's imaginative cinema-- a long, cacophonous traffic jam
leading into the city which includes among its many varieties of travelers and
vehicles Fellini's crew (and the director himself) getting the whole thing down
on film; an eerily gorgeous tour underneath the streets which hints at the
cavernous secrets the city still holds; a hilarious staging of a vaudeville
show held for a raucous, heckling audience on the eve of World War II; and
probably the movie's most notorious sequence, a visionary fashion show of
Catholic vestmental finery culled from the Church's history and its possible
future, attended by a Vatican rogue's gallery of worshipers nostalgic for the
trappings of Catholicism's influence in a more "innocent" (read more
culturally dominant) age. Fellini's great movie would be exhilarating enough on
its own, but seeing it with Katie, even though she’s 2,000 miles away, made it
genuinely magnificent. <br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDpJj0TMECZJpx8TbRUhlhpjW_DPI8q-r6o86iokt5FgNWS_-Gn91tj0YgUH-krfTXCiK3CJoqXx2mKVEgs9HJRJ-iYsssSMS50bonn_Vyss4KHuGZ3gQ43c2yAlZ4DIaqAfr7/s960/116905822_10157819945598369_9071696945029497140_n.jpg" style="font-family: georgia; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDpJj0TMECZJpx8TbRUhlhpjW_DPI8q-r6o86iokt5FgNWS_-Gn91tj0YgUH-krfTXCiK3CJoqXx2mKVEgs9HJRJ-iYsssSMS50bonn_Vyss4KHuGZ3gQ43c2yAlZ4DIaqAfr7/w400-h300/116905822_10157819945598369_9071696945029497140_n.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /><br /><b>2) </b>Taking the three main people in
my life, my wife Patty and my two daughters, Emma and Nonie, to see </span></span><b style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><i>Gremlins</i></b><i style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">
</i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">(1980) at a drive-in. We made it
back out to the outdoor cinemas we’ve always loved several times over the
summer, but this is the one where everything coalesced into a magical
experience, one which seemed as close to the “normal” we’ve known ever since I
introduced all of them to drive-ins in 2005 as we’re likely to get for the foreseeable
future.<br /></span></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNWKODuPbEe3BZfygXqe84xvT-EjkDWwEQkc-_vbTPCtEmbDzOiHoC1PAQcgoRp45_QSZmrHWgZ-C3lEqihzaigCtHqI9RGmqw5sdkriDIY4VBzR31qMAf-DBDNALF07RKBCIy/s1280/image-w1280.jpg" style="font-family: georgia; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNWKODuPbEe3BZfygXqe84xvT-EjkDWwEQkc-_vbTPCtEmbDzOiHoC1PAQcgoRp45_QSZmrHWgZ-C3lEqihzaigCtHqI9RGmqw5sdkriDIY4VBzR31qMAf-DBDNALF07RKBCIy/w400-h225/image-w1280.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /><br /><b>3) </b>Watching the 1988 cheapo horror
thriller </span></span><b style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><i>Necromancer</i></b><i style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"> </i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">(1988) with my best pal Bruce during
a rare get-together, with masks, and after we were both tested for COVID-19, at
his house in San Diego. Bruce and I were on the set for this one, guests of the
movie’s lovely leading lady, Elizabeth Kaitan (or Cayton, as she’s credited
here), and Bruce can actually be seen for about .5 seconds during a party scene
we were both on hand for. Hard to believe it took us this long to finally get around
to seeing this one. It’s no great shakes, but it’s much better than either of
us ever imagined it would be, and it was memorable fun watching it together. Well,
they can’t all be </span><i style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">Animal House,</i><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> I suppose…</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjNgAw2kdmISJfp2JmWZ5jElEc4fBnseGqaBgNGsObwBAqvvcwZP8JAdY3AaKm4uUWr_TbCOO0ax_Sg0pOHnPMH4ItfMtzL9FqZ1R4eWm_ikLY529-ymLYwqDdDRq0MmsYuGlr/s1500/AV292_FlashGordon_Exploded_Pack_UHD1.jpg" style="font-family: georgia; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="997" data-original-width="1500" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjNgAw2kdmISJfp2JmWZ5jElEc4fBnseGqaBgNGsObwBAqvvcwZP8JAdY3AaKm4uUWr_TbCOO0ax_Sg0pOHnPMH4ItfMtzL9FqZ1R4eWm_ikLY529-ymLYwqDdDRq0MmsYuGlr/w400-h266/AV292_FlashGordon_Exploded_Pack_UHD1.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /><b>4) </b>Being dazzled by the Arrow 4K
Blu-ray of </span></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><i>Flash Gordon</i></b><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"> (1980), and knowing that I had written an
essay that was included in the booklet featured inside, a rare honor afforded
to me by Arrow Films producer Neil Snowdown. Thanks so much, Neil!<br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG7PErxoV_ipSXdeJ4sh1tw7j8eMy1K_He99hHKNzCcRMPdMWOqZteI105-Oc39HTwMA4uaDzksyBcGG2gGO1uYvP40zBMXChMz4MhM3UaBS60WefkLuPWjuDVtctHCVZzIiPw/s672/roger-daltrey-lisztomania-1975-icons.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="672" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG7PErxoV_ipSXdeJ4sh1tw7j8eMy1K_He99hHKNzCcRMPdMWOqZteI105-Oc39HTwMA4uaDzksyBcGG2gGO1uYvP40zBMXChMz4MhM3UaBS60WefkLuPWjuDVtctHCVZzIiPw/w400-h171/roger-daltrey-lisztomania-1975-icons.png" width="400" /></a><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><br /><br /><b>5) </b></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">Ushering out my 50s late at night on August 17 with the splendid madness of Ken
Russell’s </span><b style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><i>Lisztomania</i> </b><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">(1975), one of my favorite movies. When the
movie was over, as Liszt ascends to heaven, reunited with all the important women
of his life and all borne on a chariot-spaceship shaped like a pipe organ, I
was blissed out and suddenly 60 years old.<br /><br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPDNl8uPLdBwLcjvpxBrID5b_nkDF1l3wWZGtXnjQ0P5WBaZBA0lWsskOHvBgLkpyGwk7KXLvGqcDitiIdUF7IU9syuMoXG9F_uBa6lT_qA-gKoFEqkMkXKaRU3JbMaNj-W6RU/s678/8.5_Feature-678x381.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="678" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPDNl8uPLdBwLcjvpxBrID5b_nkDF1l3wWZGtXnjQ0P5WBaZBA0lWsskOHvBgLkpyGwk7KXLvGqcDitiIdUF7IU9syuMoXG9F_uBa6lT_qA-gKoFEqkMkXKaRU3JbMaNj-W6RU/w400-h225/8.5_Feature-678x381.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /><b>6) </b>Creating the subtitles for </span></span><b style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><i>8½</i></b><i style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">,</i><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">
part of the Criterion Collection’s gorgeous Essential Fellini boxed set,
released to commemorate the great filmmaker’s centennial. This one took me all
night, and it was the one and only time I haven’t minded pulling a 22-hour
all-nighter to get the job done.</span><br /><b><br /></b></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzCHEZ1AROhgcPGBU_JDPRtGQjHzHMitj31brCDWFcAZXtQQOzUjWX8mc16wmwyQ6Fa9G2cm5Aev31uhUYa-O17yUzkVZ1AwGW_zNDZeyTWl2YU3NMYrP2U013c3Re1kgP4YWq/s625/5-CHRIST-STOPPED-AT-EBOLI_WEB.jpg" style="font-family: georgia; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="352" data-original-width="625" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzCHEZ1AROhgcPGBU_JDPRtGQjHzHMitj31brCDWFcAZXtQQOzUjWX8mc16wmwyQ6Fa9G2cm5Aev31uhUYa-O17yUzkVZ1AwGW_zNDZeyTWl2YU3NMYrP2U013c3Re1kgP4YWq/w400-h225/5-CHRIST-STOPPED-AT-EBOLI_WEB.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><b><br /><br /><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">7</span></b></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><b>) </b>Seeing, or rather being absorbed by Francesco Rosi’s <a href="Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule: NOTES ON RECENT VIEWING: FRANCESCO ROSI'S CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI (1979), plus BALLS OF FURY, DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI (sergioleoneifr.blogspot.com"><b><i>Christ Stopped at Eboli</i></b></a></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> for the first time on Criterion’s newly released Blu-ray. <br /></span><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5GyZ5JxtzFea6Kl93OpSCcslneRl45J9Hm2IQCL7CYxv16VtFuMPRzcJSE6pCwv9SuY_pWa2SZ4enDurEosMcclpTHjqhLL59Yn5rA9lLSOpA3btCZ3m1lgBQ5EX-dv_yNHfl/s960/121077153_10157966556423369_7201297910210548116_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5GyZ5JxtzFea6Kl93OpSCcslneRl45J9Hm2IQCL7CYxv16VtFuMPRzcJSE6pCwv9SuY_pWa2SZ4enDurEosMcclpTHjqhLL59Yn5rA9lLSOpA3btCZ3m1lgBQ5EX-dv_yNHfl/w300-h400/121077153_10157966556423369_7201297910210548116_n.jpg" width="300" /></a><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><br /><b><br /><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">8</span></b></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><b>) </b>Seeing </span><b style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><i>Emma.</i></b><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"> with
Emma for her 20</span><sup style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">th</sup><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> birthday, 3/6/2020, just before the lockdown—it was
the last movie we would see in a movie theater for the foreseeable future (ten
months and counting…)<br /></span></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIomietBo0Zzs7bN10iMOvGazH4hJ15CH_xNR32Af8pb2z1xx6KPEUTDiEk3NOXqEh2utYFuvIe0UJuuxMzU2CELO6GZgH8K2Kd5g8cH7wtEUBsgmbHlDMDRn-k_K2bacSITHv/s512/unnamed.jpg" style="font-family: georgia; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIomietBo0Zzs7bN10iMOvGazH4hJ15CH_xNR32Af8pb2z1xx6KPEUTDiEk3NOXqEh2utYFuvIe0UJuuxMzU2CELO6GZgH8K2Kd5g8cH7wtEUBsgmbHlDMDRn-k_K2bacSITHv/w400-h200/unnamed.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /><br /><b>9) </b>Finally seeing Alex Winter’s
long-awaited documentary <b><i><a href="HEROES: CLEESE, GILLIAM, IDLE, JONES, PALIN | Trailers From Hell">Zappa</a> </i></b></span></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"> and accessing it via the
virtual screenings link at <a href="Salem Cinema : Salem, Oregon">Salem Cinemas</a> </span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">in Salem, Oregon. So, I was able to support this arthouse-in-an-unlikely-place
</span><i style="background-color: #fff2cc;">and</i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> relax into Winter’s brilliantly assembled, anti-hagiographic story
about one of my favorite musicians.<br /><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg93ddBoo28dPmxhLILigjRDOJBm1oTvKIvMOG_ghC5JXAOYideTGNW7N3fMTdQp1ibM0RDq4iDZZ1rKMFc7lZbO95rngEb2sxMzxldVujjY9SGeBK6-M8bx3ZEKcI3a6DzUdT-/s960/131348805_10158104594228369_8224436912158135297_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="960" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg93ddBoo28dPmxhLILigjRDOJBm1oTvKIvMOG_ghC5JXAOYideTGNW7N3fMTdQp1ibM0RDq4iDZZ1rKMFc7lZbO95rngEb2sxMzxldVujjY9SGeBK6-M8bx3ZEKcI3a6DzUdT-/s320/131348805_10158104594228369_8224436912158135297_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="background-color: #fff2cc; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: justify;"><b><br />10) </b>Taking
in Lee Isaac Chung’s delightful and moving </span><b style="background-color: transparent; text-align: justify;"><i>Minari</i></b><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: justify;"> in an entirely unlikely
environment, at the Mission Tiki Drive-in during the movie’s week-long Oscar-qualifying
run. A really good Asian movie, about 60% of which features English subtitles
for the Korean dialogue, running on a screen which might otherwise have been
occupied by any number of loud, obnoxious cartoons or action movies I wouldn’t
be even slightly interested in seeing? Yeah, I’ll drive 60 miles round trip for
that.</span></div><div style="background-color: #fff2cc; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: #fff2cc; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqrBzEY6kF2fzHfFHYnBUlJ4mqoaPxhsFUpR9XeVJME7yVoFitWqxvVjhnW5DZNVB9WJtZs2guw9LJJF9p5H00y6RrDlgvPFgXEVHBSVzmy3CZMOm57fqbDpkAGZvM1thSU588/s768/david-byrne-american-utopia-trailer_768_485_80gaus-20.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="768" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqrBzEY6kF2fzHfFHYnBUlJ4mqoaPxhsFUpR9XeVJME7yVoFitWqxvVjhnW5DZNVB9WJtZs2guw9LJJF9p5H00y6RrDlgvPFgXEVHBSVzmy3CZMOm57fqbDpkAGZvM1thSU588/w400-h253/david-byrne-american-utopia-trailer_768_485_80gaus-20.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="text-align: left;">11) </b><span style="text-align: left;">Seeing </span><b style="text-align: left;"><i>American Utopia</i></b><i style="text-align: left;">
</i><span style="text-align: left;">for the second time, on November 4, 2020, the day after the election, </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; text-align: left;">when it still looked like Trump was gonna pull it off. At
that moment it seemed like the last thing I wanted to see— wouldn’t the movie’s
optimism be too unbearable? But it really cheered my soul, and by the end of
the week its optimism felt, if not entirely fulfilled, then at least
reasonable, something like a gift, a reason to keep going.<br /><br /><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFmW97IttL5PMB0Mx_0ig_o6ikZkSrA4vwAlqoaHrRflFtq-09X6maSCykZxm4lvSA_jFj1Gxe71ejWwSApfiVIKIKm28pU37O4wCvKmt8_PicMh6b5YeJZ1ADcA4QcL3j6go7/s825/murmur.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="825" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFmW97IttL5PMB0Mx_0ig_o6ikZkSrA4vwAlqoaHrRflFtq-09X6maSCykZxm4lvSA_jFj1Gxe71ejWwSApfiVIKIKm28pU37O4wCvKmt8_PicMh6b5YeJZ1ADcA4QcL3j6go7/w400-h210/murmur.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHMLkn4k2R-cPACRwQPTQwQaGXuAac9LNW0MD-jFon9R19k_gXDFUieODSPwqbI7Zov7dyyDqU44uxDwKskrM38KWrPZSF7oSXcwcnHG0_6S8o5WM2fjeqlNBar4yiyBD3uFX2/s656/lc6fjAB.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="656" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHMLkn4k2R-cPACRwQPTQwQaGXuAac9LNW0MD-jFon9R19k_gXDFUieODSPwqbI7Zov7dyyDqU44uxDwKskrM38KWrPZSF7oSXcwcnHG0_6S8o5WM2fjeqlNBar4yiyBD3uFX2/w400-h175/lc6fjAB.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="text-align: left;"><br /><b>12) </b>Catching up with John Ford’s </span><b style="text-align: left;"><i>Seven
Women</i></b><span style="text-align: left;"> (1966) and <b>13) </b>Louis Malle’s </span><b style="text-align: left;"><i>Murmur of the Heart</i></b><span style="text-align: left;"> (1971)
for the first time, on TCM and on the front porch of my house on my iPad, respectively,
and bemoaning the fact that I’d waited so long—too long-- for the privilege. How
many more times could I have thrilled to these movies had I not been so slow on
the uptake?</span></div></span></div></span><p></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span><b><u><span style="color: #1d2228;">FIRST TIME SEEN IN 2020<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<!--[endif]--></span></u></b><span style="color: #1d2228;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><u></u></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><u><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigC9mVXxib8zjFrDXoZUVi1XecAsDO3f3TrQ2Scbf4rrayZ1fCAWgKt8wqd6AFcJEV41DhB9PWNp7rTaztfzShv7GZKN8YbVzu1GbeVDlwdsQK6-dnOR7j3YrDVlwD2kZ8zW_i/s640/58c9fa518d95f.image.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigC9mVXxib8zjFrDXoZUVi1XecAsDO3f3TrQ2Scbf4rrayZ1fCAWgKt8wqd6AFcJEV41DhB9PWNp7rTaztfzShv7GZKN8YbVzu1GbeVDlwdsQK6-dnOR7j3YrDVlwD2kZ8zW_i/w400-h225/58c9fa518d95f.image.jpg" width="400" /></a></u></b></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><u><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1d2228;"><br /></span></u></b></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><i>Hearts of the West</i> (Howard
Zieff; 1975)<br />
<i>The Wrath of God</i> (Ralph Nelson; 1972)<br />
<i>The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre </i>(Roger Corman; 1967)<br />
<i>Pete Kelly’s Blues</i> (Jack Webb; 1955)<br />
<i>Murder She Said</i> (George Pollock; 1961)<br />
<i>I Wake Up Screaming</i> (H. Bruce Humberstone; 1941)<br />
<i>The Skull</i> (Freddie Francis; 1965)<br />
<i>The Uncanny</i> (Denis Heroux; 1977)<br />
<i>Bullets or Ballots</i> (William Keighley; 1936)<br />
<i>The 13<sup>th</sup> Chair</i> (George B. Seitz; 1937)<br />
<i>Farewell, My Lovely</i> (Dick Richards; 1975)<br />
<i>The Stalking Moon</i> (Robert Mulligan; 1968)<br />
<i>Cover Me, Babe</i> (Noel Black; 1970)<br />
<i>The Big Doll House</i> (Jack Hill; 1971)<br />
<i>Smarty</i> (Robert Florey; 1934) <br />
<i>Town Bloody Hall </i>(Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker; 1979)<br />
<i>History is Made at Night</i> (Frank Borzage; 1937)<br />
<i>Sapphire</i> (Basil Dearden; 1959)<br />
<i>Nightfall</i> (Jacques Tourneur; 1956)<br />
<i>Ulysse</i> (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0889513/?ref_=tt_ov_dr"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; text-decoration: none;">Agnès Varda</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">; 1983)</span><br />
<i>Salut Les Cubains</i> (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0889513/?ref_=tt_ov_dr"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; text-decoration: none;">Agnès Varda</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">; 1964)</span><br />
<i>Wicked Woman</i> (Russell Rouse; 1953)<br />
<i>Mur Murs</i> (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0889513/?ref_=tt_ov_dr"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; text-decoration: none;">Agnès Varda</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">; 1981)</span><br />
<i>Uncle Yanco </i>(<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0889513/?ref_=tt_ov_dr"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; text-decoration: none;">Agnès Varda</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">; 1967)</span><br />
<i>Suddenly</i> (Lewis Allen; 1954)<br />
<i>Black Panthers</i> (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0889513/?ref_=tt_ov_dr"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; text-decoration: none;">Agnès Varda</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">; </span>1968)<br />
<i>Fallen Angel</i> (Otto Preminger; 1945)<br />
<i>After the Curfew</i> (<i>Lewat Djam Malam</i>) (Usmar Ismail; 1954)<br />
<i><b>Wild Strawberries</b></i> (Ingmar Bergman; 1957)<br />
<i>The Best Years of Our Lives</i> (William Wyler; 1946)<br />
<i>The Return of Doctor X</i> (Vincent Sherman; 1939)<br />
<i>Murmur of the Heart</i> (Louis Malle; 1971)<br />
<i>Phantom of Chinatown</i> (Phil Rosen; 1940)<br />
<i>Victim</i> (Basil Dearden; 1961)<br />
<i>Attack of the Mushroom People</i> (<i>Mantango</i>) (<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0393094/?ref_=tt_ov_dr"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; text-decoration: none;">Ishirô Honda</span></a></span>; 1963)<br />
<i>A Slight Case of Murder</i> (Lloyd Bacon; 1938)<br />
<i>4D Man</i> (Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.; 1959)<br />
<i>Whirlpool</i> (Roy William Neill; 1934)<br />
<i>Hamilton</i> (Thomas Kail; 2020)<br />
<i>No Way Out</i> (Joseph L. Mankiewicz; 1950)<br />
<i>Vigilante</i> (William Lustig; 1982)<br />
<i>Il Bidone</i> (Federico Fellini; 1955)<br />
<i>Aloha Bobby and Rose</i> (Floyd Mutrux; 1975)<br />
<i>The White Sheik</i> (Federico Fellini; 1952)<br />
<i>Sex Kittens Go to College</i> (Albert Zugsmith; 1960)<br />
<i>The Giant Claw</i> (Fred F. Sears; 1957)<br />
<i>I Knew Her Well</i> (Antonio Pietrangeli; 1965)<br />
<i>Crime of Passion</i> (Gerd Oswald; 1956)<br />
<i>6-Day Bike Rider</i> (Lloyd Bacon; 1934)<br />
<i>Sam Whiskey</i> (Arnold Laven; 1969)<br />
<i>The Devil’s Rain</i> (Robert Fuest; 1975)<br />
<i>Gone to Earth</i> (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger; 1950)<br />
<i>Man Bait</i> (Terence Fisher; 1952)<br />
<i>The Crimson Kimono</i> (Samuel Fuller; 1959)<br />
<i>The Boston Strangler</i> (Richard Fleischer; 1968)<br />
<i>Loan Shark</i> (Seymour Friedman; 1952)<br />
<i>Race Street</i> (Edwin L. Marin; 1948)<br />
<i>Manpower</i> (Raoul Walsh; 1941)<br />
<i>Chosen Survivors</i> (Sutton Roley; 1974)<br />
<i>Werewolves on Wheels</i> (Michel Levesque; 1971)<br />
<i>Alien Vs. Predator</i> (Paul W.S. Anderson; 2004)<br />
<i>Seven Women</i> (John Ford; 1966)<br />
<i>Danger Signal</i> (Robert Florey; 1945)<br />
<i>Scorpio</i> (Michael Winner; 1973)<br />
<i>Have I the Right to Kill? </i>(<i>The Unvanquished</i>) (Alain Cavalier;
1964)<br />
<i>The Nightcomers</i> (Michael Winner; 1971)<br />
<i>Dr. Who and the Daleks</i> (Gordon Flemyng; 1965)<br />
<i>The Ghoul</i> (T. Hayes Hunter; 1933)<br />
<i>The League of Gentlemen</i> (Basil Dearden; 1960)<br />
<i>Chop Shop</i> (Ramin Bahrani; 2007)<br />
<i>The Werewolf</i> (Fred F. Sears; 1956)<br />
<i>The Black Sleep</i> (Reginald Le Borg; 1956)<br />
<i>Christ Stopped at Eboli</i> (Francesco Rosi; 1979)<br />
<i>Berserk</i> (Jim O’Connolly; 1967)<br />
<i>The Hill</i> (Sidney Lumet; 1965)<br />
<i>Daughter of Shanghai</i> (Robert Florey; 1937)<br />
<i>Tomorrow is Another Day</i> (Felix Feist; 1951)<br />
<i>Odds Against Tomorrow</i> (Robert Wise; 1959)<br />
<i>Macao</i> (Josef Von Sternberg, Nicholas Ray, Mel Ferrer, Robert Stevenson;
1952)<br />
<i>Variety Lights</i> (Federico Fellini; 1950)<br />
<i>Fellini: I’m a Born Liar</i> (Damian Pettigrew; 2002)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: black;">Directors with multiple entries on this “First
Seen” list:<br />
<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0889513/?ref_=tt_ov_dr"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; text-decoration: none;">Agnès Varda</span></a> (5)<br />
Basil Dearden (3)<br />
Federico Fellini (3)<br />
Robert Florey (3)<br />
Lloyd Bacon (2)<br />
Fred F. Sears (2)<br />
Michael Winner (2)</span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><b style="font-family: georgia;"><u style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /></u></b></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><b style="font-family: georgia;"><u style="background-color: #fff2cc;">PERFORMANCES I LIKED IN 2020</u></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Michelle Dockery (<i>The Gentlemen</i>), Nicolas Cage (<i>Color
Out of Space</i>), Julia Garner (<i>The Assistant</i>), Mary Elizabeth Winstead,
Ewan McGregor (<i>Birds of Prey…</i>), Riley Keough (<i>The Lodge</i>), Jim
Carrey (<i>Sonic the Hedgehog</i>), Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Mia Goth,
Bill Nighy, Gemma Whelan, Miranda Hart (<i>Emma.</i>), Elizabeth Debicki,
Donald Sutherland, Mick Jagger, Claes Bang (<i>The Burnt Orange Heresy</i>), John
Magaro, Orion Lee, Toby Jones, Rene Auberjoinois, Evie (<i>First Cow</i>),
Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr.,
Chadwick Boseman (<i>Da 5 Bloods</i>), Bill Burr (<i>The King of Staten Island</i>),
Kevin Bacon, Amanda Seyfried, Avery Tiiu Essex (<i>You Should Have Left</i>),
Rose Byrne, Steve Carell, Natasha Lyonne, Chris Cooper (<i>Irresistible</i>), Charlize
Theron, KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Chitewel
Ejiofor (<i>The Old Guard</i>), John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth
Debicki (<i>Tenet</i>), Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Samara
Weaving (<i>Bill and Ted Face the Music</i>), Steven Yuen, Yeri Han, Youn
Yuh-jung, Alan S. Kim, Will Patton (<i>Minari</i>), Joel Kinnaman (<i>The
Secrets We Keep</i>)<i>, </i>Sunita Mani, John Reynolds (<i>Save Yourselves!</i>),
Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Mark Rylance, Frank Langella,
John Carroll Lynch, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton
(<i>The Trial of the Chicago 7</i>), Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova (<i>Borat
Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make
Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan</i>), Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Booboo
Stewart (<i>Let Him Go</i>), Amanda Seyfried, Arliss Howard (<i>Mank</i>), Amarah-Jae
St. Aubyn, Micheal Ward (<i>Lovers Rock</i>), Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul
Raci (<i>Sound of Metal</i>), Dearbhla Molloy (<i>Wild Mountain Thyme</i>), Chadwick
Boseman, Glynn Turman, Viola Davis, Colman Domingo (<i>Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom</i>),
Tessa Thompson, Nnamdi Asomugha (<i>Sylvie’s Love</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b style="font-family: georgia;"><u style="background-color: #fff2cc;">WORST OF 2020 (besides the year itself,
of course) from worst to least-worst</u></b></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><u style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: black;">
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--></span></u></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><u style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPiq3DYWAIPZNOJieK8Le9z_F18-GwKa8Vk61Ls4nxTD_mAgrquxLAoV8smAKz1C8WbiSNHSTI7IU3YcrU6T5txvHz2BN9bIOkHEYbHxnDUq0wlXY9fp0rWeHODYs4KUyrj1MY/s320/david-copperfield-site1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPiq3DYWAIPZNOJieK8Le9z_F18-GwKa8Vk61Ls4nxTD_mAgrquxLAoV8smAKz1C8WbiSNHSTI7IU3YcrU6T5txvHz2BN9bIOkHEYbHxnDUq0wlXY9fp0rWeHODYs4KUyrj1MY/s0/david-copperfield-site1.jpg" /></a></u></b></span></div><p></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><u><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: black;"><br /></span></u></b></span></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><b><i><span style="color: black;">The Personal History of David Copperfield</span></i></b><span style="color: black;"> (Armando Ianucci)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia;"><i><span style="color: black;">Greenland </span></i><span style="color: black;">(Ric Roman Waugh)</span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">Dreamland </span></i><span style="font-family: georgia;">(Miles
Joris-Peyrafitte)</span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i style="font-family: georgia;">Wild Mountain Thyme </i><span style="font-family: georgia;">(John Patrick Shanley)</span></span></p><p class="yiv9995225818msonormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i style="font-family: georgia;">Tenet</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> (Christopher Nolan)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
<br />
It ain’t all gonna suddenly get better now that the calendar has changed, but nonetheless
I wish you all health and safety and sanity and justice and many more good
movies in 2021, until such delights once again become the norm.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">************************************</span><p></p>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-81846208534275153062020-11-28T17:49:00.003-08:002020-11-28T21:57:51.621-08:00HEROES: CLEESE, GILLIAM, IDLE, JONES, PALIN and THE MEANING OF MONTY PYTHON (2013); plus THOUGHTS ON ZAPPA (2020)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbNRdvT5jrZweoTUs6VLrIAtFATtQGTdR-2M23u2jq6bCgVCS265CZ6VtQE1cS-V-11WF7vyeuYOKx8jxb2n-0BlupVuj9NE6WqRzcwnS5iCKy9hwPRo3KYEei16rIwMq7rrTl/s982/3._TMOMP_GROUP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="726" data-original-width="982" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbNRdvT5jrZweoTUs6VLrIAtFATtQGTdR-2M23u2jq6bCgVCS265CZ6VtQE1cS-V-11WF7vyeuYOKx8jxb2n-0BlupVuj9NE6WqRzcwnS5iCKy9hwPRo3KYEei16rIwMq7rrTl/w400-h296/3._TMOMP_GROUP.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">As reunions of great collaborators
go, it must be one of the least hyperbolic in pop culture
history. In 2013, the five surviving members of Monty Python’s Flying
Circus—John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin—gathered
together in a little flat in London’s Sloane Square, near Knightsbride and
Chelsea, for a one-hour sit-down discussion for British television, and they
got an unassuming, hour-long documentary out of the process. (Well, four of
them were gathered together, anyway. Idle, foreshadowing the current worldwide
necessity for the Zoom conference call, appears via satellite feed on a big TV
monitor in the center of the room— a Los Angeles resident at the time, he
claims to be suffering from having to being awake for the conference at 3:00
a.m. Pacific Standard Time, while showing none of the ill effects of sleep
deprivation.) <i>The Meaning of Monty Python, </i>now available streaming on
Netflix, is the Monty Python reunion true fans will have hoped for, recognizing
that the time is past for on-stage recreations of the comedic trailblazers’ favorite
and/or most famous bits and instead opening up an avenue for the five men to
spend ostensibly relaxed time together, reminiscing, analyzing, philosophizing,
for the most part avoiding argument, and even, if only tacitly, acknowledging
the onset of twilight.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Nobody looks especially
comfortable, I suppose, but neither do they look especially uncomfortable—the
flat appears intimate and cozy, not unlike some of the only-slightly-skewed
domestic environs that could occasionally been seen on some of the Pythons’
more domestically oriented TV sketches. Jones and Palin occupy the left side of
the frame, Idle’s monitor, absent the crowning presence of a penguin, both in
the center and occupying the camera position for the wide master shot (the
better to be seen and interacted with by the other members), and Cleese and
Gilliam on the right. There are cuts to unvarying medium shots of the
individual men in their chairs as they speak, and to a close-up of Idle shoved tight
against the camera on his monitor, alternating with the occasional pull-back to
that wide shot. And that’s it for a visual scheme to <i>The Meaning of Monty
Python</i>, all the better to focus intently on what’s being said. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCfUDqjl05xGFCKve-k1OtCaGCIC_2NilMZmJ25wH9GCqc6tWYC4Jl8Q9xFwXKTHP5pv68L4pzBbKOwABl7QC6HsQfjMCkNraLvEshh2eVNn4HdZhUjnwOvI1e7pjXff6MZXra/s852/The-Meaning-of-Life-monty-python-17865193-852-480.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="852" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCfUDqjl05xGFCKve-k1OtCaGCIC_2NilMZmJ25wH9GCqc6tWYC4Jl8Q9xFwXKTHP5pv68L4pzBbKOwABl7QC6HsQfjMCkNraLvEshh2eVNn4HdZhUjnwOvI1e7pjXff6MZXra/w400-h225/The-Meaning-of-Life-monty-python-17865193-852-480.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">After a thoroughly enjoyable and
often hilarious warm-up in which the five joke around and settle into the
congeniality of the situation—it’s fun to see them all sitting around,
referencing their own material as if they were Python fans like the rest of us
(“Lemon curry?!” “Luxury!”), a chapter heading designed to recall the dividing
sections of their 1983 film announces the shift of the conversation-- “Part I: The
Meaning of <i>The Meaning of Life</i>”-- and off we go into a discussion of the
Python’s final, Cannes prize-winning feature. Cleese, Idle and Palin are the
prime movers of the hour, and they kick things off here with discussion of how
the six original members hurriedly (perhaps too hurriedly?) approached the production
of the film in the shadow of <i>Life of Brian</i>’s<i> </i>tumultuous reception,
as a sketch grab-bag, essentially, and had a lot of difficulty trying to land
on a unifying principle and theme. Idle and Palin both confirm that there was
about 300% more material written for the film than actually appeared in it, and
Idle even mentions one script, entitled <i>Monty Python’s Fish Film</i> (a work
Cleese doesn’t even recall), which, while sharing much of that bounty of
would-be <i>Meaning of Life</i> material, apparently had even more stuff in it
that was ultimately set aside. (The Blu-ray and DVD for <i>The Meaning of Life</i>
features new and quite hilarious sketch material used as bonus features, and I
wonder if some of that might be among the original rejects.) <br />
<br />
But Cleese almost immediately addresses his dissatisfaction with <i>The Meaning
of Life,</i> assessing that while, because of its haphazard history at the writing
stage, there are some very good things in it, much of it he
considers quite bad, unsuccessful in terms of comedic structure or basic laughs.
As you might expect, given their anecdotally documented personal history, Gilliam,
with Jones one of the film’s two credited directors, bristles at Cleese’s
criticism and brings up director Henry Jaglom’s observation (Gilliam: “Remember
Henry Jaglom?” Cleese: “Mmm, vaguely.”) that its sketch-oriented nature allows
the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>stronger material to by default amplify
the level of the stuff that might <i>not </i>work so well. It’s to Cleese’s
diplomatic credit that he offers his belief that the liver donor section of the
film—“The Meaning of Life Part V: Live Organ Transplants”-- to be some of the
best work in the film, perhaps of their careers. (In the sketch, he and Graham
Chapman, who died in 1989, arrive at the house of an orthodox Jew, played by
Gilliam, and, after objections from the expected donor-- “But I’m still using
it!”-- forcibly extract, with much grunting and screaming and arterial spray,
the vital organ from its soon-to-be-deceased owner.) Eventually pressed by Jones
to be more specific as to what he considers “bad” in the film, Cleese
eventually admits that he found the sketch in which the soldiers bring gifts to
their sergeant on the battlefield before being picked off by enemy fire to be not
up to snuff. Cleese also appears baffled by the “nonsense” of the giddily
surreal “Find the Fish” segment, which Gilliam happily defends as one of the film’s
more enduring and repeatable bits.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">As the discussion returns to the
difficulty of reining in the material with a thematic through line, Palin and
Idle argue that while the quest of King Arthur and the burgeoning political
awareness of a defiantly anti-religious figure in, respectively, <i>Monty
Python and the Holy Grail</i> and <i>Monty Python’s Life of Brian, </i>provided
a necessary narrative structure, perhaps the lack of an obvious narrative
thread is something that weakens <i>The Meaning of Life.</i> Perhaps, as Idle
speculates, if they’d been able to follow one character throughout the
progression of his life, applying the various chapters to their scabrously
satirical approach to the human condition, the movie might have been perceived
as more successful. He also reminds his colleagues that in its very fragmented
stylistic form, <i>The Meaning of Life</i> is essentially a musical—eight numbers
in all, including the justly revered “Every Sperm is Sacred,” which, as Palin
delights in recounting to the troupe, lost the BAFTA award for best song that
year to “Up Where We Belong” from <i>An Officer and a Gentleman,</i> to the
great consternation of the assembled audience of the awards.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEita1MXsfUfR5sN_ZrAt9cH_Z4jWHSfzNpQfWg4S62nJIuKT1z4483tqbllPIBnNOzy-e-XC0cI7jApPojQOg5B2AedkO-RXckg-GIArYYNChhl-_JrQhZw7EOq0IsoI-V2ndez/s1920/monty-pythons-meaning-of-life_press_2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1036" data-original-width="1920" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEita1MXsfUfR5sN_ZrAt9cH_Z4jWHSfzNpQfWg4S62nJIuKT1z4483tqbllPIBnNOzy-e-XC0cI7jApPojQOg5B2AedkO-RXckg-GIArYYNChhl-_JrQhZw7EOq0IsoI-V2ndez/w400-h216/monty-pythons-meaning-of-life_press_2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It is here that I found myself
arguing with these great comedic minds. </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life </i><span style="font-family: georgia;">did
win the Grand Jury Prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival, after all, a
singular achievement and one that no other widely beloved comedy film has ever
managed to pull off, before or since. It seems to me that rather than </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Meaning
of Life, </i><span style="font-family: georgia;">it is instead </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Life of Brian </i><span style="font-family: georgia;">which is probably the spottiest
of the Python films in terms of consistent laffs, even if its satirical targets,
politics and religion (and the point at which the two meet on the graph of
human folly), still stick the landing, and I think that might be because it’s
the only one of their features that </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">is</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> built around an obvious narrative
progression—how does Brian get from point A to point B to point C(ross)?-- even
if, in sequences like Brian’s interstellar joyride, you can still feel the
troupe pushing against traditional structure. Of course, there are plenty of
moments of isolated brilliance in </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Life of Brian</i><span style="font-family: georgia;">—Palin’s lisping Pilate
(“Incontinentia Buttocks!”) and Jones’s vicious mother of Brian (“That’s
Capricorn, is it?”) among my favorites—even if the whole seems unduly weighted
with narrative obligations.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But I believe <i>The Meaning of
Life</i> is a success in large part <i>because of</i> the absence of a tether
to conventional questions of plot and structure, and no matter who’s mounting
the argument it seems rather perverse to suggest that a troupe so grounded in fertilizing
and harvesting ideas in surreal blackout comedy would be unduly hobbled by that
very approach simply due to an extended running time. My own estimation of <i>The
Meaning of Life</i> has only grown in 37 years since I first saw it—it’s a
formally daring movie, and it cuts, for real, into just about every established
institution or idea or inescapable condition that has poisoned history since
the onset of human sentience. If anything, the quest for the meaning of life,
however facetiously the Pythons may have approached it, <i>does</i> provide
more than a blank wall onto which these geniuses might fling their shit in
order to see what sticks, and that overriding theme <i>is</i> addressed in
unexpected ways, making tangential connections to seemingly inorganically
related subjects seem richly germane to that theme. <br /><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKU4Ewc0OamF30sWN9aPWVtOVx7ML1XRAYrOBcmIzabTZRoonY7lWcuX4P92Bv0GH47qmGywihMGOSLxeXaKTrG_h3ni78ti1IAqVzS54lzS-6-RSaHyIsZobeBhVIoFWCEzFz/s620/pyth-01.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="620" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKU4Ewc0OamF30sWN9aPWVtOVx7ML1XRAYrOBcmIzabTZRoonY7lWcuX4P92Bv0GH47qmGywihMGOSLxeXaKTrG_h3ni78ti1IAqVzS54lzS-6-RSaHyIsZobeBhVIoFWCEzFz/s320/pyth-01.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;">In other words, <i>The
Meaning of Life </i>often stubbornly refuses to do all the work for an
audience, and if that is perhaps has been an alienating concept for some
viewers, it’s also a quality that the film shares with a lot of great art, one
which keeps a viewer like myself returning to it long after having memorized
most of the great bits in order to see how the synapses of the structure and
the subject still fire, and how that electrical process, in me more than the
film, might have changed over time. Cleese, who admits moving to <i>A Fish
Called Wanda </i>after <i>The Meaning of Life </i>because the idea of having
40% control as opposed to one creative voice out of six appealed to him, might
be accurately describing the haphazard manner in which the movie came together
to give shape to his perception of it as a not entirely successful piece of
work, but I don’t think that’s an apt way to describe the movie itself.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Pythons do move on to other subjects,
including the origins of comedy (much attention paid here to post-WWII creative
forces such as Beyond the Fringe and The Goon Show); the politics of creativity
(Gilliam: “Satirizing the modern world is a difficult proposition because it’s
so diffuse… It was easier when the class system was core clearly delineated”);
why fish are inherently the funniest creatures in the animal kingdom; the
television bureaucracy that both hampered and encouraged their artistic freedom
at the BBC; and, of course, death and the possibility of an afterlife, a possibility
vigorously defended by, of all people, Cleese, who dismisses organized religion
outright while reserving credulity for reports of <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">out-of-body
experiences in near-death moments. </span>(And speaking of death, the
reminiscences of the absent Chapman never rise to the brilliance of having an
urn of his ashes parked next to the rest of the surviving members, as happened
during one of their previous Python summit conferences, but are instead
restricted largely to warmhearted remembrances of Chapman’s prickly brilliance
and apparent inability to arrive at the set even close to on time.) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_GumDr4OQtORSeizro7IRuB5pk1igHsAqBXOh2FibD0dU0wiputrdVbGxpPAfcw2QSAxpFIEJreZV1p97-_1c6ZLla27S27dfoQrBeQ7Q3eDuqeYubQU9SY1fsPl1xXg4LTaP/s2000/terryjones-montypython-2000x1270-1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="2000" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_GumDr4OQtORSeizro7IRuB5pk1igHsAqBXOh2FibD0dU0wiputrdVbGxpPAfcw2QSAxpFIEJreZV1p97-_1c6ZLla27S27dfoQrBeQ7Q3eDuqeYubQU9SY1fsPl1xXg4LTaP/w320-h203/terryjones-montypython-2000x1270-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>All the while, Cleese and Idle,
and perhaps to a lesser extent Gilliam, are the main engines of the
conversation that ensues over the brisk and too-short hour of <i style="font-family: georgia;">The Meaning of
Monty Python,</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> while Palin delivers less frequent but no less hilarious and
pointed contributions to the general discourse. But its hard to watch </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">The
Meaning of Monty Python</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> without being constantly reminded of the fate that
befell Terry Jones, who died in January of this year after </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fff2cc; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: rgb(255, 242, 204); color: #202122; font-family: georgia;">living for several years with a
degenerative aphasia</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fff2cc; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: rgb(255, 242, 204); color: #202122; font-family: georgia;"> and</span><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">eventually succumbing to the mounting
effects of frontotemporal dementia. At the time which this documentary was
filmed in 2013, Jones was still two years away from an official diagnosis of
aphasia, which impairs the ability to speak and communicate, and according to
an article in the British publication </span><i style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="Terry Jones: ‘I’ve got dementia. My frontal lobe has absconded’ | Dementia | The Guardian">The Guardian</a> </i><span style="font-family: georgia;">published in 2017, it became apparent midway through 2014,
during a performance of </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Monty Python Live (</i><span style="font-family: georgia;">mostly), a reunion
performance held in London,</span><span style="background: white; color: #121212; font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">that
all was not well in terms of Jones’s health:</span><p></p><p class="css-38z03z" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; margin: 12pt 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>“’Terry was always very good at remembering lines,’ (recalls Palin in the
Guardian article). ‘But this time he had real problems, and in the end he had
to use a teleprompter. That was a first for him. I realised then that something
more serious than memory lapses was affecting him.’<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jones… later passed standard tests
designed to pinpoint people who have Alzheimer’s disease. His speech continued
to deteriorate nevertheless. ‘He said less and less at dinner parties, when he
used to love to lead conversations,’ said his daughter Sally.”</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Jones is certainly the least vocal
participant in <i>The Meaning of Monty Python,</i> seemingly content to sit in
his presumably comfy chair and listen to his friends jabber on in their very
entertaining way, offering only the occasional comparatively generic contribution
to the conversation (“I remember being very frustrated by the exclusion of <i>Life
of Brian</i> from year-end critical roundups”), the sort of comments which the
other members regard with respect but which spark little in the way of reciprocal
engagement. After a few minutes of observing this pattern of Jones’s participation,
the sadness begins to settle on his very countenance, and the viewer is left to
speculate if the awful disease, such a bitterly ironic ailment to have
descended upon such an obviously gregarious and brilliant man, hadn’t already
begun to manifest itself even earlier than when Palin noted for <i>The
Guardian.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8keYzgkPLXVHSdmQDE1BmOOPDJCgaCbcTuVorQZsDYNRsn6xfIDaLLwIV5KoVr6_O5huAckiaQWduRt0-Ji54lOf6w4vCE5zZ3PHKHEIKd4CVDz1BvYWma60aM7BcSDFeSpTE/s760/200122-terry-jones-cs-812a_b475f8be6bd577b0c87b357a02f9cb6b.fit-760w.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="760" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8keYzgkPLXVHSdmQDE1BmOOPDJCgaCbcTuVorQZsDYNRsn6xfIDaLLwIV5KoVr6_O5huAckiaQWduRt0-Ji54lOf6w4vCE5zZ3PHKHEIKd4CVDz1BvYWma60aM7BcSDFeSpTE/w400-h300/200122-terry-jones-cs-812a_b475f8be6bd577b0c87b357a02f9cb6b.fit-760w.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Near the end of the documentary,
however, something occurs that might, for any viewer watching in 2013, have
seemed oddly humorous in a Python vein, or at the worst inexplicable, but
which, judging by the reaction of the other members, might also have been a
portent of things to come for Terry Jones. In the midst of one of Gilliam’s
comments during the discussion of afterlife options, Jones rises from his
chair. He’s the only one to do this during the entire hour, so it certainly
counts as a violation of the project’s modest<span style="background: white; color: #666666;"> </span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">mise-en-scène</span>,</span> one which a director like Jones might well have
been coyly aware. Jones begins a slow move toward the camera, which is placed facing
the arrangement of chairs on which the rest of the Pythons remain—it is
presumably in the same position as a second monitor on which the others can see
the Idle feed, which we see placed center among them on the primary monitor. As
he does so, and while we viewers are waiting for the reveal of a possible joke,
there is a cut to a closeup of Idle’s monitor. He is the only one we see
visibly reacting to Jones’s sudden displacement, and that reaction is an
obvious mixture of befuddlement and concern. We then see, in the wide shot
we’ve seen throughout, Jones approaches the camera, bends down, murmuring and
making an unknown adjustment of some sort, before returning silently to his
seat, where he resumes listening to Gilliam and Cleese’s conversation which has
continued throughout the movement without missing a beat. At one point, Gilliam
even looks over his shoulder away from Cleese to glance at Jones, whom he
regards without comment while continuing the point he was making. The others,
apart from Idle’s initial look of concern, react not at all. It’s <i>The Meaning
of Monty Python</i>’s one unsettling moment, not only for the contrast it
provides to Jones’s familiar sharpness and its reminder of the unfortunate fate
of this most engaging comic artist, but also for its dovetailing into the
troupe’s discussion of the inevitable procession toward death (“I’m against it!”
chirps Idle), a subject tapped into here but more successfully brushed up
against in <i>Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life.</i></p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: georgia;">For those whose comic sensibilities,
whose very receptivity to comedy, was irreversibly shaped by the work of Monty
Python’s Flying Circus<i>,</i> a banner which went beyond these six to include
the participation of folks like Carol Cleveland, Neil Innes, Connie Booth,
producers John Goldstone and Ian MacNaughton, and many, many others, the
at-least-partial answer to the query “What gives meaning to life?” (not that
there necessarily <i>is</i> any meaning to life, as Gilliam cheerfully reminds
us) <i>must</i> include the artistic achievements of these brilliant comic writers
and actors. And for those who revere the work of Terry Jones, John Cleese,
Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman and Terry Gilliam when they were known
by the shorthand moniker Monty Python, the hour-long summit meeting that
comprises <i>The Meaning of Monty Python</i> is a lovely, challenging,
hilarious reminder of the meaning they themselves have brought to lives and
life ever since their emergence as the Beatles of comedy in the early ‘70s. In
the absence of Jones and Chapman, and in the presence of such a marvelous and
influential body of work which continues to resonate and delight, which can
likely never be topped, which will illustrate the value of fish slapping
contests until the light finally winks out for all of us, well, that work is
enough. And therein lies the meaning. Or as Gilliam wonders over the end
credits, as the five are heard taking off their mics, “What is this (the
documentary) for again?” Ever the optimist, Idle, the author of <i>Life of
Brian</i>’s cheerfully nihilistic “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,”
quickly responds, “For posterity!” <br /><br />*************************************************<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtpETgIZczOGvGQqCGwhY_sql3b9RhZaKaE8urW6HXi8T8MspTwWp5uAI-EfDuKdJT3Ed1XP2NkljBuD0V5VkAHEPAlB1GgdnYOGLZyTjCqlRsJz0xhP5yV8ozzxnr4RTvKscP/s600/mqdefault.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtpETgIZczOGvGQqCGwhY_sql3b9RhZaKaE8urW6HXi8T8MspTwWp5uAI-EfDuKdJT3Ed1XP2NkljBuD0V5VkAHEPAlB1GgdnYOGLZyTjCqlRsJz0xhP5yV8ozzxnr4RTvKscP/w400-h225/mqdefault.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #050505;"><br /><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">And speaking of posterity, if you have any
interest in music whatsoever, regardless of how you feel about the man or his
own compositions, I would think that Alex Winter’s epic documentary <b><i>Zappa</i></b>
would be a must-see. (The film is now streaming on various outlets, including
Amazon, Vudu and through various virtual arthouse cinemas, like the <a href="Salem Cinema : Salem, Oregon">Salem Cinema </a>in Oregon's capital city,</span></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fff2cc; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: rgb(255, 242, 204); color: #050505;"> where you can view it at home <i>and</i>
supporting struggling independently-owned theaters across the country.) I may
have more to say about the film once I’ve let it sink in a bit, but right now I
can say that for this giant FZ fan <i>Zappa</i> was, in total, a bit
overwhelming, especially emotionally, yet at the same time it wouldn’t have
hurt my feelings one bit if it had gone on another three hours. Maybe that fantasy
longer version would have had more time to focus on the bands from the ‘70s
through Zappa’s last tour in 1988 (The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life)
that I loved the most. But as it is, getting a deep dive into Mothers of Invention/Mother’s
history, and the avant-garde/classical composition that dominated his interest
while he was writing “strictly commercial” stuff, and then the last few years
of his life, is thrilling, and the movie has an audio-visual dexterity that is
sometimes the talking heads/doc equivalent of Bruce Bickford’s perversely funny
animations, or of something like Zappa’s own most playful, pitch-black
creations— dense, free-associative, welcomingly weird.<o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fff2cc; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: rgb(255, 242, 204); color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The movie also caused me to remember that
Zappa, in the midst of and in the aftermath of the whole PMRC controversy,
claimed that he was floating feasibility studies to run against George H.W.
Bush for the presidency of the United States. That run never materialized, but
I remember saying to more than one person at the time that I would have
seriously considered voting for him, and as I sit here considering all the
things <i>Zappa</i> stirred up in me and made me think about, one of those
things would be that I might still be inclined to cast him my vote again, were
he around to make a run. And if he was, what might he have made of the national
nightmare which began in 2016 and is now about to close to almost universal
scorn and a collective sigh of relief? (Now, <i>there’s</i> the seed for some
fascinating speculative fiction, huh?) <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I had just returned from my honeymoon in 1993
when I heard that Frank Zappa had died. It was no surprise—his battle with
prostate cancer had been raging for a couple of years-- yet it was devastating
news. After <i>Zappa </i>had finished, I tried to remember, through fresh
tears, if I’d ever cried at the news of a death of a celebrity, either before
or since, and I couldn’t think of an instance. Yet even though I knew he was
sick and that the outcome was inevitable, I still sobbed when I found out that
Frank Zappa was gone. One of the most complimentary things I can think of to
say about Alex Winter’s film, beyond its visual dexterity, humor and curiosity,
is that, while never sidestepping the man’s aloofness, his contradictions, and
all the qualities that one might find to justify the description “difficult,”
ZAPPA is a film filled with reasons, musical and otherwise, that might cause
one to weep at his sudden absence from the world.<br /><br />*****************************************</span></span><i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p><br /><p></p>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-21036858464795099372020-11-22T16:16:00.004-08:002020-11-22T16:16:48.082-08:00NOTES ON RECENT VIEWING: FRANCESCO ROSI'S CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI (1979), plus BALLS OF FURY, DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI<p><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Not3FgRjp6ZGYVmeQzAzma5mMD1FrhD-qTatuR0KrMMfVrlXPGgcEn0Jvzee12OqgXs5LxgXVGkIYwuRQVYqN-W3tyHt0VaTEM03eipas0f9TE_iiCXDGlV0SIsaV6wksaN0/s625/7-CHRIST-STOPPED-AT-EBOLI_WEB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="352" data-original-width="625" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Not3FgRjp6ZGYVmeQzAzma5mMD1FrhD-qTatuR0KrMMfVrlXPGgcEn0Jvzee12OqgXs5LxgXVGkIYwuRQVYqN-W3tyHt0VaTEM03eipas0f9TE_iiCXDGlV0SIsaV6wksaN0/w400-h225/7-CHRIST-STOPPED-AT-EBOLI_WEB.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">I’m 60 years old, and though I
still have an alarming collection of blind spots in my experience, I have seen
a lot of movies in those almost-22,000 spent days. But last weekend I was able to
erase one of those blind spots and replace it with a vision of clarity that
was, to me, quite unexpected.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitz6xylz4Y2IFJrPUsLeNr3qr93Cofc6FYu5CzXYyhOvwWIygtk_CyxgpTBDq3oF9vOaG0JhVWOtRm9yyXgN_wHs2PJHggwC9pL38cwJDS3VOPSFIOqacwB7URxhZYsDacFq97/s1600/sl7vzbsoRrSQ2xVXDWydb7uS8RwfhP_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1288" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitz6xylz4Y2IFJrPUsLeNr3qr93Cofc6FYu5CzXYyhOvwWIygtk_CyxgpTBDq3oF9vOaG0JhVWOtRm9yyXgN_wHs2PJHggwC9pL38cwJDS3VOPSFIOqacwB7URxhZYsDacFq97/w258-h320/sl7vzbsoRrSQ2xVXDWydb7uS8RwfhP_large.jpg" width="258" /></a></div>Around 8:45 p.m. I started
looking at the new Criterion Blu-ray of the uncut, original four-part,
four-hour presentation of Francesco Rosi’s <b style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><i>Christ Stopped at Eboli</i> </b><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">(1979),
based on Carlo Levi’s memoir of his political exile in a remote village in
pre-WWII Southern Italy, a time defined and scarred by Mussolini and that
fascist regime’s attempt to impose a new colonial presence in Abyssinia, now
known as Ethiopia. It had been a long day the day before, and by the evening I
was plenty tired— I figured I’d just dip into the disc and take a gander at how
it looked, with no expectation of actually watching it, and if I did certainly
not getting any further than an hour or so before drifting into
unconsciousness.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">But the alchemy of the movies is
a mysterious thing. From the opening images of Gian Maria Volontè as Levi,
bearded, solemn, in repose and surrounded by a multitude of paintings of his
own creation, to the title card “1935” imposed over a shot of a train which
bears Levi to the town of Galiano, in the province of Lucania on Italy’s southern
bootheel, to the slow revealing of a culture in the impoverished Galiano,
people, traditions, customs and superstitions left behind in the wake of the
rest of the country’s economic development and relentless political oppression,
the movie’s patient gaze, its nonjudgmental approach to its characters and
their environment is established immediately, and I was transfixed, hooked.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">As Levi is introduced to the various people who will expand and enrich his own
dissent from the fascist establishment that has made him (and a few others in
the town with whom he is not allowed to speak) a political prisoner, I found
myself succumbing to its rhythms and knew after 10 or 15 minutes that I was in
for the long haul. But it was hardly a chore. It is a rare thing, but when I
began truly absorbing </span><i style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">Christ Stopped at Eboli</i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"> I felt myself succumbing
to what Rosi wanted to show me, and the way he wanted to show it, in a
particular fashion that I can’t recall experiencing often in other films. There
was a distinct sensation of my mind and body sinking into the imagery which, on
this spectacular new Blu-ray, has a clarity and richness that promises the sort
of seduction few movies are capable of fulfilling.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDLJehsvzm6eRyQ8Z1tS013EPFpRUM75abvY-Vxvfwmfty6-R2v28nBDDpjUsYfmmzVpBEi4hrO1ESuiiUgzdNzuGWnUfc1C3ZHN8gKZBbHx1sRXxKjC5h_lpFN04V0DdYhR5p/s640/sddefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDLJehsvzm6eRyQ8Z1tS013EPFpRUM75abvY-Vxvfwmfty6-R2v28nBDDpjUsYfmmzVpBEi4hrO1ESuiiUgzdNzuGWnUfc1C3ZHN8gKZBbHx1sRXxKjC5h_lpFN04V0DdYhR5p/w200-h150/sddefault.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;">I</span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;"> spent four hours seeing the
world of these Italian peasants, who for Mussolini and his enforcers existed
simply as subjects and fodder for war, through Levi’s (and Rosi’s) eyes,
feeling my way toward an understanding that would, like it would for Levi, I
suspect, remain just out of reach while also changing his life forever. And
there are sequences in the film that are capable of inspiring tears that are
themselves as mysterious as the imagery that inspires them. Levi’s travel by bus
to the town occurs during a modest rainstorm, and the sublime reminder of those
raindrops on every surface, often imposed over Levi’s face behind the windows
of the bus, are subtle reminders of emotions untapped, unrecognized, that will
eventually make their way out from the crevices of the world the film so sensitively
observes. Later, Levi attempts to teach some of the children of the town how to
paint, and I found myself, without any cynical provocations of sentiment
projected by the director or the actors, in submission to torrents of emotion
that I couldn’t readily explain to myself. Such is the totality of the experience
of seeing </span><i style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">Christ Stopped at Eboli</i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505; font-family: georgia;">, which has for me amounted to what
feels like a life-changing experience, one that has contained within it the
possibility of a genuine expansion of perspective, of yielding to a way of
seeing the world that days later feels like it’s in there tinkering with my
synapses, becoming an essential part of the blood flowing through my veins. The
movie, a giant vision of humanity, feels like it has only begun to expand
inside my head. </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #050505;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I’m 60 years old, and I certainly didn’t expect, sitting by myself on a quiet
Saturday night, to discover a relatively less-well-known film that deserves
consideration as one of the greatest I’ve ever seen. But that’s what happened. <i>Christ
Stopped at Eboli</i> is surely a landmark in this old man’s continuing
experience of education about life and the movies, and I cannot wait to see it
again.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQnMZ7e5Dsd4qloylJSeVVId-TnsR1V4NXrzqBnzMZxkHEnmEvmu6rgHC6OZGdwEdn8AM01zRKkm2GNXTjJAZzgzuuUnouLZBEYA6vdDxj6_Igaji2crzei8ks5KT6O9AEVPSA/s1920/LAND_16_9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQnMZ7e5Dsd4qloylJSeVVId-TnsR1V4NXrzqBnzMZxkHEnmEvmu6rgHC6OZGdwEdn8AM01zRKkm2GNXTjJAZzgzuuUnouLZBEYA6vdDxj6_Igaji2crzei8ks5KT6O9AEVPSA/w400-h225/LAND_16_9.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">During our current age of
unparalleled worry and despair, which has only been slightly ameliorated by the
ongoing exorcism of Donald Trump, a demon who has proven himself as persistent,
problematic and pestilent as Pazuzu himself, and whose influence will linger
beyond his inevitable expulsion from the White House, sometimes it feels like
the thing we (or at least I) need most is a good laugh. And if you are like me,
that laugh might feel and sound a little weird when comes along, especially if
it comes unexpectedly, simply because the physical sensation of a good guffaw has
become a relatively rare thing. So, when I feel like there’s one coming on, I’m
a whole lot less picky about where it comes from, especially it comes from a movie.
Case in point, <b><i>Balls of Fury</i></b> (2007), a post-Will Ferrell-esque
sports comedy about a disgraced Ping-Pong champion played by Dan Fogler (an
actor clearly having been groomed up to this point to become his generation’s
Curtis “Booger” Armstrong), whose life falls into disarray after a humiliating
defeat as a young athlete at the Olympics and who ends up on the path to
redemption after being conscripted by the FBI to investigate the arms dealer who
killed his father. Said arms dealer also happens to be a deranged Ping-Pong
fanatic with a fetish for “Oriental” trappings whose annual island-based tournament
Fogler will infiltrate in pursuit or justice and revenge. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">If all this sounds familiar, it
should, for <i>Enter the Dragon</i> is definitely the template point of entry
here. The island compound, a feast of Asian design and ambience despite actually
being located in the jungles of Central America (a joke the movie doesn’t do a
lot with), has its funniest echo in the master of the house, a madman decked in
elaborate cheongsam and equally ornate pompadour and pigtails, played by
Christopher Walken. Before you can say James Hong or Jason Scott Lee or Cary Hiroyuki
Tanaga or Maggie Q, all of whom appear here in largely successful efforts to get
laughs and to dash any appearance of pandering to or exploitation of Asian stereotypes,
it must be said that Walken’s character is not supposed to be Asian—he’s a
transplanted Brooklyn mook who fetishizes the mantle of the sinister Asian
kingpin because, well, he’s deranged, but also because Shih Kien did it so memorably
as Han in the 1973 Bruce Lee classic, so <i>of course</i> this guy would want
to as well. In a career filled with sublime weirdos, this Walken turn is among
his sublimiest.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><i>Balls of Fury</i> doesn’t have
aspirations to greatness. It is content to shamble along, generating silliness
and giggles and, yes, even an occasional belly laugh, and then after about 75
minutes it gets tired and less interested in the jokes than just embracing the
formulaic wrap-up one might expect in the forms it parodies an sending its audience
on its way. But it’s a fundamentally good-natured picture with a lot of unexpected
inserts and asides (my favorite—stock footage of Ron and Nancy Reagan
apparently rapt with suspense over the outcome of Fogler’s Olympic debacle) and
beautifully timed slapstick—the CGI- enhanced table tennis is a consistent
hoot, but nothing is funnier than the outcome of Fogler’s smug attempt to
defeat the paper walls of his faux-Chinese palace prison, only to discover some
old-fashioned reinforcement on the other side. (That’s all you’re getting from
me—see the movie.) And in addition to the cast mentioned above, it features humorous
turns from Thomas Lennon (the film’s cowriter) as Fogler’s obscenely arrogant
German Olympic rival, who of course finds his way to the tournament; Terry
Crews as another overly enthusiastic, pec-tacular tourney competitor; Aisha
Tyler as Mahogany, Walken’s sultry, dart-blowing second; and Diedrich Bader, in
an amusing flip of one of <i>Dragon</i>’s central plot elements, as the leader
of Walken’s harem of kept male concubines, wheeled out for the confused delectation
of Walken’s largely male hetero guests. (Only Hong, who is blind, enjoys the
gift without either judgment or, apparently, awareness.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">As I implied, the movie peters
out around the three-quarter mark, but by then you will likely have laughed (or
at least smiled) enough to not much care. Ultimately, it is very simply just
good, undemanding company, a welcome distraction from matters far more serious.
We have sometimes asked more from our comedies, and sometimes we have gotten
it, but right now cheap jokes might just have value well beyond their sell-date
or their release date, and the 13-year-old <i>Balls of Fury</i>, whose temperament
suits its age perfectly, will paddle your balls with them.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyS-YxzysJ0lausIsj1dkFvdsra190wYjH1Z2VahGGOMX58u4HwIgkX10mPznOn1hU8hbYpbj_W-tryELNPetxOoK4pcdByQ3gB6Eir4zBiJ16ehxFn_r-Ktk0O6UiOjp2_ndg/s259/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyS-YxzysJ0lausIsj1dkFvdsra190wYjH1Z2VahGGOMX58u4HwIgkX10mPznOn1hU8hbYpbj_W-tryELNPetxOoK4pcdByQ3gB6Eir4zBiJ16ehxFn_r-Ktk0O6UiOjp2_ndg/w400-h300/download.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">The Anna May Wong vehicle <b><i>Daughter
of Shanghai</i></b> (1937), directed by Robert Florey (<i>Cocoanuts, The Beast
with Five Fingers</i>) is a snappy little thriller that has little filigrees of
pre-Code insouciance and transgression—Wong is decked out for maximum sex appeal
throughout, even though her character feels somewhat neutered, by and large, by
the boundaries of the script and by what Hollywood, despite casting her in the
lead and providing the stalwart and talented Philip Ahn as her ostensible romantic
counterpart, was willing to let her do. But the movie, written by Gladys Unger
(<i>Madam Satan, The Mystery of Edwin Drood</i>) and Garrett Weston, who had a
hand in the scripts<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for <i>White Zombie</i>
and <i>It’s a Gift,</i> starts with a shocker—a plane smuggling illegal
immigrants from China (copiloted by a very young Anthony Quinn) is spotted by federal
agents, and before the plane has a chance to be grounded, the pilots literally
dump their unfortunate cargo, via a floor that unexpectedly opens beneath them,
from 10,000 feet into an ocean tomb below. That’s the sort of opening that, in
a movie from any era, seals an audience’s attention, and for the first two-thirds
of his brisk 62-minute running time, Florey stages the action with sharp detail
and flourishes of German Expressionist style that keep the plot humming
pleasurably along. <br />
<br />
Wong is the daughter of a businessman who has made good in America, but who is
under pressure from these same smugglers to channel a new shipment of
ready-made slaves into the country. He refuses, and when he takes Wong along to
a meeting with some FBI agents (Ahn included) at the mansion of a concerned
socialite (Cecil Cunningham), along the way he’s brutally murdered. By sheer
luck, Wong escapes the same fate and makes her way to the socialite’s home, where
she explains the situation to the woman and the agents, before deciding that
she must take action on her own to track down a sleazy associate of her father’s
(Charles Bickford) who operates a nightclub which doubles as a hub for the exchange
of money for illegal aliens. She’s also keen to seek out the identity of the
criminal mastermind behind the whole operation, information that is revealed
somewhat sooner than a viewer weaned on mysteries of this sort might reasonably
expect.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg95eVHLiCTGsehGOnt43A-oaAdYzWxo11xMNnYs8iQa6w3mzQBCI2Yb4MhwbFjiyUDmDZowrx-DATZ1sZci9h-DnFHXaImVUsZAvoXWxYso9zDorrxTFMu8SWceQPMK5cd7Uyd/s1809/1200px-Daughter_of_Shanghai_%25281937_poster%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1809" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg95eVHLiCTGsehGOnt43A-oaAdYzWxo11xMNnYs8iQa6w3mzQBCI2Yb4MhwbFjiyUDmDZowrx-DATZ1sZci9h-DnFHXaImVUsZAvoXWxYso9zDorrxTFMu8SWceQPMK5cd7Uyd/w212-h320/1200px-Daughter_of_Shanghai_%25281937_poster%2529.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>It’s never a bad thing to see Wong
in action, but if <i>Daughter of Shanghai</i> is a reasonably solid showcase
for her talents, and itself a more than reasonably well mounted drama of its
type, then it is also, perhaps too predictably, also a showcase for the limits
of vision ‘30s-era Hollywood had for actors who belonged to different races than
the white majority who made films at the time and who went to see them. After a
set-up, and a poster, which leads a viewer to expect Wong will tear through the
picture, undermining the underworld machinations behind her father’s death in
relentless search of truth and justice (or is that simply an expectation
imposed by the perspective of a viewer 80 years removed from the time of this
film’s release?), it’s more than a little deflating to watch Wong subjugated to
the sidelines in the film’s climax, cowering in fear from the shadows as the
rest of the cast gets their punches in on the way to “THE END” while she is
inexplicably reduced to the damsel in distress. Ahn, however definitely
involved in the physical action, is in the end himself rescued by the
deus-ex-machina appearance of the villain’s never-less-than-likable Irish chauffeur,
whose well-timed crack shot saves his Chinese friends from a fate they
apparently were incapable of escaping from themselves. <br />
<br />
It may have to be enough that Wong and Ahn and the other Chinese cast members
are treated with obvious respect, by the above-board characters in the film <i>and</i>
the filmmakers, in <i>Daughter of Shanghai,</i> and that the movie itself is a
nifty piece of action filmmaking which gets to its often surprisingly brutal business
in the efficient, no-nonsense fashion of its day. The real history of the experience
of Asian-American actors in film history is, of course, a sobering counter to
the simple joys of a picture like this, but so too is Wong’s luminescent star
power its own corrective to the narrowminded dictums of the studios, who couldn’t
see actors like Wong and Ahn for who and what they were, even as they showcased
them in unpretentious little jewels like <i>Daughters of Shanghai.</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <br /><br />*****************************************</span><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-22543265812583803912020-10-31T15:07:00.002-07:002020-10-31T15:13:10.285-07:00DENNIS SUBMITS TO DR. SAVAARD'S FIELD OF SCREAMS MOVIE QUIZ<p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHIWJ8HmoCLwl83PavukJ3mRXLgb_3Ru2aofS_jX9iRKIUfoeGTWQUfftKLDrUlTAOceDhdCo5o2i8YAUVvwK-c46yOPiLb5_ty4jHf0XVgaikFLcS8ir52TzSwhdhRNyXwRhQ/s512/unnamed.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="512" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHIWJ8HmoCLwl83PavukJ3mRXLgb_3Ru2aofS_jX9iRKIUfoeGTWQUfftKLDrUlTAOceDhdCo5o2i8YAUVvwK-c46yOPiLb5_ty4jHf0XVgaikFLcS8ir52TzSwhdhRNyXwRhQ/w400-h216/unnamed.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsvK9lLAfNdbrq3NTWTPux5oZAa53IJz733UgGi4U7KWXqb1wcEwoznT83Sy5BiT8aZMY4Nhr-Ksh5vwkPkJvJsAEKzfPBtpzAbCV52ZsE89eSWIS27w1ZA18lr5NdYS0-Ycnh/s880/nuke-laloosh.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="640" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsvK9lLAfNdbrq3NTWTPux5oZAa53IJz733UgGi4U7KWXqb1wcEwoznT83Sy5BiT8aZMY4Nhr-Ksh5vwkPkJvJsAEKzfPBtpzAbCV52ZsE89eSWIS27w1ZA18lr5NdYS0-Ycnh/w146-h200/nuke-laloosh.jpg" width="146" /></a></b></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>1) Ricky Vaughan or Nuke LaLoosh?</b> (question
courtesy of our main Maine monster, Patrick Robbins)<o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Both movies, </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Major League</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> and </span><i style="font-family: georgia;"> Bull Durham,</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> played a big role in my
burgeoning interest in baseball when I saw them back in 1988, and I got a big
kick out of the idea of a pitcher, Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn, </span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">who had such poor eyesight he had to wear huge
horn-rimmed specs to get the ball anywhere near the plate. (“Juuuuuuust a bit
outside!”) But despite the fact that to my eyes Tim Robbins still doesn’t look
like he’s even seen a pitcher do his thing when he’s on the plate, he’s in the
middle of an essential ode to the game. Nuke gets my vote.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="font-family: georgia;">2) Best moment in the Friday the 13th film
series.</b></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV53OcLiKi8djc-oEMkkVo1Aa4Scd4n-Fol3akWsSLZfi2kaN0ZZxJioWZyulrF4psC_Hqew8e3b7BX2aU5VAr7E5gtG7G4dQyaeqVzzbG8EWq3iAO8ERIvYOvHR_LAJMeJKgj/s302/download+%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="167" data-original-width="302" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV53OcLiKi8djc-oEMkkVo1Aa4Scd4n-Fol3akWsSLZfi2kaN0ZZxJioWZyulrF4psC_Hqew8e3b7BX2aU5VAr7E5gtG7G4dQyaeqVzzbG8EWq3iAO8ERIvYOvHR_LAJMeJKgj/w400-h221/download+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I might previously have said the sleeping bag
kill in <i>Friday the 13<sup>th</sup> VII: The New Blood,</i> but having just
seen the movie again last weekend that moment was revealed to be as turgidly
matter-of-fact and bereft of humor as the rest of the movie. And I’ve always
loved the moment in Part 3, the 3D one, when Jason cleaves the guy doing the
handstand in two. But the best? The decapitated killer in the original
“classic” (1980) reaching up to check if his/her head is actually missing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>3) Henry Hull or Oliver Reed?</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkjwEz0e6bSdRClEAYFKFX8ITYPQPqDnLqRKkUOTHVBtpL2pZiI0vrPYyY35nBcl_bLBtUU2kJaa7r03qXp-WTPfmahRv_MtaSTyIQjZpI0yarIBXaxfQ2TuStACPkwMZryccR/s425/curseofwerewolf.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="228" data-original-width="425" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkjwEz0e6bSdRClEAYFKFX8ITYPQPqDnLqRKkUOTHVBtpL2pZiI0vrPYyY35nBcl_bLBtUU2kJaa7r03qXp-WTPfmahRv_MtaSTyIQjZpI0yarIBXaxfQ2TuStACPkwMZryccR/w400-h215/curseofwerewolf.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><p class="MsoNormal">Peter Nellhaus said it best in his answer to
this question: It's Reed, because he’s the closest we’ll ever get to Marlon Brando
taking that logical next step into lycanthropy.</p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>4) What is the last movie you saw in a theater?</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYu1DNIkDJTdNmvUPjvoEHxLaCj4QNdr7OO7v-fE_EwPOzwIkSiZaxtZbubd3-7UP-bAe-1nHEm8R4lFpNDnW4VHTIUHVN5ZWaM4m3NECUcw75RwPCLuAEMOthwjBrH4_57kq2/s2448/2020_07_film.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1082" data-original-width="2448" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYu1DNIkDJTdNmvUPjvoEHxLaCj4QNdr7OO7v-fE_EwPOzwIkSiZaxtZbubd3-7UP-bAe-1nHEm8R4lFpNDnW4VHTIUHVN5ZWaM4m3NECUcw75RwPCLuAEMOthwjBrH4_57kq2/w400-h176/2020_07_film.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><span style="font-family: georgia;">We took our Emma to see <i>Emma.</i> just a
day or two before the initial lockdown. I couldn’t have asked for a better
sendoff.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>5) Best movie casting for a real-life baseball
player, or best casting of a real-life baseball player in a movie.</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4yEfZBzbKsqtwGWGmMC13wSGE-VuHqDliALEj6rRQmfkjHxMuvQoQaY2xSUdUfGVKPYDzGk2P4hCOYOeF56Xebmx1ZZsaVtMzKCrya0VokWlzLwLTaZafdGfsqaqkZXhL9Xns/s662/53f1dbfebe8551291f15ebe3450db3fb.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="662" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4yEfZBzbKsqtwGWGmMC13wSGE-VuHqDliALEj6rRQmfkjHxMuvQoQaY2xSUdUfGVKPYDzGk2P4hCOYOeF56Xebmx1ZZsaVtMzKCrya0VokWlzLwLTaZafdGfsqaqkZXhL9Xns/w400-h175/53f1dbfebe8551291f15ebe3450db3fb.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Well, it ain’t John Goodman as the Babe.
There seems to be no other correct answer to this question: Jim Bouton as Terry
Lennox in <i>The Long Goodbye.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></o:p></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg01kQ3G2qjwK5KmzN5AEbaB5-FAwsNmI_fQP4Cmkb2JtS7VxSU4Ajzm8GTbZ2TVTz5nfcqkQXe14PMaSUgjJHn1f4DQnyoH6sxPcRTII-juK6eq5wSGL6I4TaEfV7EnB-zmU3J/s500/235c110aad0b030087d05407dec1a1f7.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="500" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg01kQ3G2qjwK5KmzN5AEbaB5-FAwsNmI_fQP4Cmkb2JtS7VxSU4Ajzm8GTbZ2TVTz5nfcqkQXe14PMaSUgjJHn1f4DQnyoH6sxPcRTII-juK6eq5wSGL6I4TaEfV7EnB-zmU3J/w200-h144/235c110aad0b030087d05407dec1a1f7.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></b></div><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">6) </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">D.B. Sweeney or Ray Liotta?</span></b><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I like Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe, but man,
he is stuck in one terrible movie. As an actor I’d pick him over Sweeney every
time, but Sweeney does Shoeless Joe appropriately haunted in John Sayles’ pantheon
baseball history </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Eight Men Out,</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> so he gets my vote.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>7) Given that the fear factor in 2020 is already
alarmingly high, is there a film or a genre which you would hesitate to revisit
right now?</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2fCeFguMeZQG6H2aTjymBDZYPwcSue-V-Zs6J3ZIBA5_EtMWSvj0OrTzOHiYacONqlnsBtqOmsGWM7DF0-qXYJJih49P3pIOtgPzY2QADIIZ2TjWNUE3g5yrtGLVzet8xxy6s/s1200/MOV_Pre_TheRoad2_2188.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2fCeFguMeZQG6H2aTjymBDZYPwcSue-V-Zs6J3ZIBA5_EtMWSvj0OrTzOHiYacONqlnsBtqOmsGWM7DF0-qXYJJih49P3pIOtgPzY2QADIIZ2TjWNUE3g5yrtGLVzet8xxy6s/w400-h210/MOV_Pre_TheRoad2_2188.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I was sick to death of it before it moved a
step closer from grim fantasy to grim reality, but I care even less now for the
post-apocalyptic horror-sci-fi genre, especially entries that have been made in
the last couple of years. I don’t even think I’d care to see a Mad Max movie
right now.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;">8)<i> T</i></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>he Natural</i> (1984)-- yes or no?</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtCV_pHyOYEBXcshEjeRd4_ZBkp-2R9yA_w6qY4ac0T_xudMT2CHnOV9wAedkQ6vmGjEERpI4s6WXkON7DMCW4gKt1en57HiNJfLvZrWp5uhhjywitjq8JjGyULnGXxtKckW38/s1200/Redford.Natural.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtCV_pHyOYEBXcshEjeRd4_ZBkp-2R9yA_w6qY4ac0T_xudMT2CHnOV9wAedkQ6vmGjEERpI4s6WXkON7DMCW4gKt1en57HiNJfLvZrWp5uhhjywitjq8JjGyULnGXxtKckW38/w400-h225/Redford.Natural.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEpZjJPHoGhaRrXtv4TIq7pNYzy5MzaFky3OdQpTkrht8RSnlFHFrqhyMGYXIcTklLkzuRb0NPoUntf0CCChVsSAculkqQlF6-WV_worHwwiomf6QdMG0Wfi5j__5Ez-4x0VR_/s1440/the-natural.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1440" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEpZjJPHoGhaRrXtv4TIq7pNYzy5MzaFky3OdQpTkrht8RSnlFHFrqhyMGYXIcTklLkzuRb0NPoUntf0CCChVsSAculkqQlF6-WV_worHwwiomf6QdMG0Wfi5j__5Ez-4x0VR_/w400-h209/the-natural.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></div><p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><span style="font-family: georgia;">HELLS no.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>9) Peter Cushing or Colin Clive?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgonc8P58TAqXm8LSBbkup2SU1bTgvgz8gXaT3UoSwA8CpLVsq-9YsBp4q358Hhf3DsErpB1xls-NVenDIZPOjb0zWz8MP81anpKrzGmuxYcRuojU2WCr_eR7zCVOERPJwOPmgc/s650/Frankenstein-Must-Be-Destroyed-3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="650" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgonc8P58TAqXm8LSBbkup2SU1bTgvgz8gXaT3UoSwA8CpLVsq-9YsBp4q358Hhf3DsErpB1xls-NVenDIZPOjb0zWz8MP81anpKrzGmuxYcRuojU2WCr_eR7zCVOERPJwOPmgc/w400-h214/Frankenstein-Must-Be-Destroyed-3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Clive will, for me and most others, be the OG
mad doctor, but Cushing really fleshed the role out, culminating with his great
performance as an irredeemably sinister Baron Frankenstein in one of my
favorite movies of all time, any genre, <i>Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed.</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">10) What’s the lamest water-cooler hit you can
think of? Of course, define “lamest” however you will, but for “water-cooler
hit” Dr. Savaard is thinking about something zeitgeist-y, something everyone
was talking about the weekend it opened and beyond, something everyone
seemingly had to see—</span><i style="font-family: georgia;">The Other Side of Midnight</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> residing at #1 in 1977
for two weeks is not what the professor has in mind.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK6wJHTz1tJ0DfpoA3U6qtD-bhHlBbPFnjMH-HHzQOvVyjHz9-HbDwiG3Vf8lyci1Hl2VZfhzL-FxL7LCNNrT2IXqtmUtJqEiaU-qkISbZzg2fbYrh5_oglzfjdKDFL3AQO2CK/s741/love-story.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="741" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK6wJHTz1tJ0DfpoA3U6qtD-bhHlBbPFnjMH-HHzQOvVyjHz9-HbDwiG3Vf8lyci1Hl2VZfhzL-FxL7LCNNrT2IXqtmUtJqEiaU-qkISbZzg2fbYrh5_oglzfjdKDFL3AQO2CK/w400-h313/love-story.jpeg" width="400" /></a></b></div><p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I’ve avoided it since seeing it on the ABC Sunday Night Movie back in high
school, but having recently seen it again all the way through, for me the
answer has to be <i>Love Story</i> (1970). This thing only occasionally rises
to the level of mediocrity, content instead to just wallow around in the muck
and the mire of the worst kind of sentimentality for about 100 minutes. The
dialogue is terrible—Segal writes profanity for these characters that would be
stones in the mouths of anyone, but Ali MacGraw makes her swears sound like
she’s a grown woman who has just discovered the delight of cursing and can’t
figure out how to convincingly wedge “goddamn” into a sentence. And though it’s
MacGraw who initially plants the seed in his poor, soft head, Ryan O’Neal is
the one who has to repeat “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” to a
befuddled Ray Milland at the end of the picture. That Milland managed to not
crack up on screen repeatedly is a cornerstone in the case for him being a
greater actor than anyone might previously have suspected. And speaking of
Erich Segal, have you glanced at the book lately? Jesus Christ, you goddamn
preppie. How did anyone ever fall for this junk?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>11) Greatest single performance in horror movie
history.</b></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgECUtOCGdBIHzX4loI2Nmk7BNyqN1kh5QduT31U-D4nmuf98RgF0-FuEPZZp6WRaUcf0LLYRE5g_-eF_oTpKbwca-rTMwzu8kcCZ60IE8lLs2K10ibSuGe1IqZpbeGc5JxM7_p/s840/download+%25282%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="840" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgECUtOCGdBIHzX4loI2Nmk7BNyqN1kh5QduT31U-D4nmuf98RgF0-FuEPZZp6WRaUcf0LLYRE5g_-eF_oTpKbwca-rTMwzu8kcCZ60IE8lLs2K10ibSuGe1IqZpbeGc5JxM7_p/w400-h278/download+%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">Going with the first one that loomed into my
head when I first considered this question: Lon Chaney as Erik, better known as
<i>The Phantom of the Opera </i>(1925).</p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>12) Ingrid Pitt or the Collinson Twins?</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtSFG3InKs96Smp6hHa54Q9edIlvHjWReA1ePuiKTvPu2N7VOED2BeXdyVYpoQZLIETkBnJpm1Jbao8e_ByCPbPwJ2cDA8ZfT1mGDDepRKHxTDbzebLLtj_uitkippION48FxQ/s500/6a0168ea36d6b2970c017ee9b52e95970d-600wi.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="500" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtSFG3InKs96Smp6hHa54Q9edIlvHjWReA1ePuiKTvPu2N7VOED2BeXdyVYpoQZLIETkBnJpm1Jbao8e_ByCPbPwJ2cDA8ZfT1mGDDepRKHxTDbzebLLtj_uitkippION48FxQ/w400-h216/6a0168ea36d6b2970c017ee9b52e95970d-600wi.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><p class="MsoNormal">As delightful as the Collinsons are in <i>Twins
of Evil</i> (1971), I would never pit myself against Ingrid Pitt.</p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>13) Name one lesser-known horror film that you think everyone
should see. State your reason.</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBlhyJw-s5cmagVBbBnDFTmzYz1JzFfGWkNx85-DGWy-vmHZ_yiS5VnKIqT0czjN0kjBK4YxHveaHLYdgebmpXl4N0NNhrKiccj_FaJi5fRLSsgHai05uRGwPMbDFju3gNyaCE/s570/il_570xN.1292021436_tc36.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="570" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBlhyJw-s5cmagVBbBnDFTmzYz1JzFfGWkNx85-DGWy-vmHZ_yiS5VnKIqT0czjN0kjBK4YxHveaHLYdgebmpXl4N0NNhrKiccj_FaJi5fRLSsgHai05uRGwPMbDFju3gNyaCE/w400-h300/il_570xN.1292021436_tc36.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">You can see it this month on the Criterion Channel as <i>Death
Line,</i> but I know it as <i><a href="http://sergioleoneifr.blogspot.com/2010/05/raw-meat-damned-underground.html " target="_blank">Raw Meat</a>.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="font-family: georgia;">14) Do the same for an underseen or underappreciated baseball
movie.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The nature of heroism is the real subject of Ron Shelton’s bruising,
unforgiving biopic </span><i style="font-family: georgia;"><b>Cobb</b>,</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> in some significant ways the anti-</span><i style="font-family: georgia;">Field of
Dreams.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>15) William Bendix or Leslie Nielsen?</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWIbtYw5CrFEc8BOX_NwSkJ6PwsPHQBuQxO003lS_JVzuDy2wMMQ7lZ7c4Vf3TxFzAKW8D5ZugTE2IDg2_DC95ey9qF8_moKb9vqdH1S1zODwvty7OZZMn32wxcWX2ZCrtSnvH/s753/kill-umpire-2sh-r58-bendix-baseball_375_150ea2632291747a8298ec0a6284eeac.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="753" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWIbtYw5CrFEc8BOX_NwSkJ6PwsPHQBuQxO003lS_JVzuDy2wMMQ7lZ7c4Vf3TxFzAKW8D5ZugTE2IDg2_DC95ey9qF8_moKb9vqdH1S1zODwvty7OZZMn32wxcWX2ZCrtSnvH/w400-h315/kill-umpire-2sh-r58-bendix-baseball_375_150ea2632291747a8298ec0a6284eeac.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Leslie Nielsen’s calls behind the plate will live unto eternity,
but I’m going with Bendix for strength under adversity in <i>Kill the Umpire.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>16) Would you go back to a theater this weekend if one reopened
near you?</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3gx3ZsM5j3MGObVtOwiJ7u8t65VUlmmZMf-jbEPjTaLbU8g0RG1wJQmrShUAl76wu7lLDqmeo2SjHyTs2XcbOGT7tRYBsiOmp16UwL2LG6kmc_kUMDbF78Hr5jZiLM7SUlpSn/s960/92818745_10157491816983369_6324647520148389888_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3gx3ZsM5j3MGObVtOwiJ7u8t65VUlmmZMf-jbEPjTaLbU8g0RG1wJQmrShUAl76wu7lLDqmeo2SjHyTs2XcbOGT7tRYBsiOmp16UwL2LG6kmc_kUMDbF78Hr5jZiLM7SUlpSn/w400-h300/92818745_10157491816983369_6324647520148389888_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><p class="MsoNormal">No. Way too soon.</p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>17) Your favorite horror movie TV show/host, either running
currently or one from the past.</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMwQpsVnfxQDRCBnX9M49R1d1qy9WNXZIQlj_74XYM11RDaWEi7YAy7Dd-ml42DWIFaWMVuvUZ_mV1xKLcXt5K7bvFPnfGyZ0wY0SpdTDvLf2VThB6yuaURFShVUml7i3-evxj/s1280/victorivesjpg-6cd4b947df686062.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="923" data-original-width="1280" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMwQpsVnfxQDRCBnX9M49R1d1qy9WNXZIQlj_74XYM11RDaWEi7YAy7Dd-ml42DWIFaWMVuvUZ_mV1xKLcXt5K7bvFPnfGyZ0wY0SpdTDvLf2VThB6yuaURFShVUml7i3-evxj/w400-h289/victorivesjpg-6cd4b947df686062.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I saw Bob Wilkins and John Stanley on KTVU’s <i>Creature
Features </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>out of San Francisco
occasionally, but they were always a bit too smarmy for me, and their
interstitial bits usually went on well past their sell date. For me, growing up
as a teen in remote Southern Oregon, I lived for 11:30 pm on Saturday nights
when the transmission from KATU-TV Channel 2 in Portland brought Victor Ives
and <i>Sinister Cinema, </i>with supporting players like Head and Ravenscroft,
to horror-thirsty outliers like me. Always a double feature that ran close to
3:00 a.m., if you could stay awake that long, and always fun. It was on this
program that I saw <i>Night of the Living Dead </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for the first time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>18) <i>The Sentinel</i> (1977)—yes or no?</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmwauNh0bGNkSNRKga8HbfY2tgt_xc8sJTAF3O_h7DULjAejr-RoODHm_LMNADpH8pfvTafEK7eKSWfCzqih8q-nB38dfiwsiKczrK0yJwuU2QSnT4v8cwgPiEF_yEyQ8wC2W5/s1024/vlcsnap-2014-03-17-20h09m01s140.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmwauNh0bGNkSNRKga8HbfY2tgt_xc8sJTAF3O_h7DULjAejr-RoODHm_LMNADpH8pfvTafEK7eKSWfCzqih8q-nB38dfiwsiKczrK0yJwuU2QSnT4v8cwgPiEF_yEyQ8wC2W5/w400-h225/vlcsnap-2014-03-17-20h09m01s140.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><p class="MsoNormal">I have a lot of fond memories of seeing it multiple times
with Bruce back in our scholastic days—it was always paired with some other
horror picture as a second fear-ture—but as much fun as the first two-thirds of
it can be (Sylvia Miles is properly unleashed here), the last third, when
director Michael Winner goes off the rails into pure carnival exploitation, is
truly sickening. So a qualified “no” from me.</p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>19) Second-favorite Ron Shelton movie.</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1UCegfgsW0sMAGSU8MK9Zr6kJqkq7Ott19VRTESZI6ToJwqeVDO7jaxrgosOggpSfC9DDm3FiJd0xapHkyDrDwII3UwFGdrgF249OZZN-w6zmws7ZyZfW0FuH1Z9oJK1h0NAs/s920/920x920.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="920" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1UCegfgsW0sMAGSU8MK9Zr6kJqkq7Ott19VRTESZI6ToJwqeVDO7jaxrgosOggpSfC9DDm3FiJd0xapHkyDrDwII3UwFGdrgF249OZZN-w6zmws7ZyZfW0FuH1Z9oJK1h0NAs/w400-h226/920x920.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><p class="MsoNormal"><i style="font-style: italic;">Cobb</i> would be number one, so it’s the Durham Bulls for me. <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">"<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; line-height: 107%;">This son of a bitch is throwing a two-hit shutout. He's
shaking me off. You believe that shit? Charlie, here comes the deuce. And when
you speak of me, speak well.</span>”</span></p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">20) Disclaimer warnings attached to</span><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">broadcasts of films like <i>Gone with the Wind</i>
and <i>Blazing Saddles</i>-- yes or no?</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8nbRL13CG_3YzQ82-11oW7gUSr2_sajgFM-mwDj9OcJZWdiv7RreBMYOfG6V9Nvxwx9ApGWbtgUiK1ahUEY7tXah5m4Jnnm-Z_TxftzrSVIw5M-xA95LM2A4GpOx2HiH7hjr/s1280/TCM%2527.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8nbRL13CG_3YzQ82-11oW7gUSr2_sajgFM-mwDj9OcJZWdiv7RreBMYOfG6V9Nvxwx9ApGWbtgUiK1ahUEY7tXah5m4Jnnm-Z_TxftzrSVIw5M-xA95LM2A4GpOx2HiH7hjr/w400-h225/TCM%2527.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><p class="MsoNormal">No, thanks. I’m fully capable of placing films in their
context without Ben Mankiewicz’s guidance.</p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>21) In the World Series of baseball movies, who are your NL and
AL champs?</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdgKZLAKhJKQPw6gSjN5nvOqjYnwOuKsjuzoV_BTFN8ffjAM87R9nXid3fdeZLri6K8MooPL4NS6lSA5d5oUmz8J6szGVi_zMRMm7iFZ2VtqPI8lI8HHIZkiBlkJ2qSxVz6n6f/s1080/B001D0DR88_TheBadNewsBears_UXPA1._SX1080_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="743" data-original-width="1080" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdgKZLAKhJKQPw6gSjN5nvOqjYnwOuKsjuzoV_BTFN8ffjAM87R9nXid3fdeZLri6K8MooPL4NS6lSA5d5oUmz8J6szGVi_zMRMm7iFZ2VtqPI8lI8HHIZkiBlkJ2qSxVz6n6f/w400-h275/B001D0DR88_TheBadNewsBears_UXPA1._SX1080_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgissG6LztQVFBBUr-UduHHMhBCjhZ82DXLUDS8lsq5_-ZAUAE9UrqqTTb_pDkRe6Z7MmKK1EJRXcskHWF8YWbLU_2Q-rexZ2OS0n93TMVoPX902ZYm1uxCCephPdKPvWvz4EoF/s650/FreeSteak.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="650" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgissG6LztQVFBBUr-UduHHMhBCjhZ82DXLUDS8lsq5_-ZAUAE9UrqqTTb_pDkRe6Z7MmKK1EJRXcskHWF8YWbLU_2Q-rexZ2OS0n93TMVoPX902ZYm1uxCCephPdKPvWvz4EoF/w400-h220/FreeSteak.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: georgia; text-indent: -0.5in;">For the NL, </span><i style="font-family: georgia; text-indent: -0.5in;">The Bad News Bears-- </i><span style="font-family: georgia; text-indent: -0.5in;">this time "GOAT" stands for "Greatest of All Time," Charlie Brown. For the AL, I'll take </span><i style="font-family: georgia; text-indent: -0.5in;">Bull Durham.</i><span style="font-family: georgia; text-indent: -0.5in;"> Playoff contenders include </span><i style="font-family: georgia; text-indent: -0.5in;">Eight Men Out, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings, Mr. 3000, Everybody Wants Some! </i><span style="font-family: georgia; text-indent: -0.5in;">and Ken Burns' massive documentary </span><i style="font-family: georgia; text-indent: -0.5in;">Baseball.</i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>22) What was the last horror film you saw?</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6EoTJTxqFWHntAohLyC0W3WcyDtJ7TYBYik1LhPZ6ot9Kx1rboAroav9Qfes6DhmcV5XWKSOVHvjTnVpgPHb6KxpHtMHAOnY-B_yHh2AuY-xTSd_UE4XrWCBuHR34advzEMJG/s970/fullwidth.a860ca0e.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="970" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6EoTJTxqFWHntAohLyC0W3WcyDtJ7TYBYik1LhPZ6ot9Kx1rboAroav9Qfes6DhmcV5XWKSOVHvjTnVpgPHb6KxpHtMHAOnY-B_yHh2AuY-xTSd_UE4XrWCBuHR34advzEMJG/w400-h245/fullwidth.a860ca0e.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I showed <i>Re-Animator</i> to Emma just last night. Before
that, Fred C. Sears’s <i>The Werewolf </i>(1956), which was a hell of a lot better
than I ever thought it would be.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5t72pBAIY6pSTXwcMSxz5Zww6ItDA0sePw6ZwkH1bOfpIKgqzwUu_O9FIaOwFrLXVDf2OuFNzW0jfc7o14UmY_lZamhAAei3WPGhVhperrZqnwsqBQkR1YNex32UAji1R86Fk/s1000/34355377_1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="786" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5t72pBAIY6pSTXwcMSxz5Zww6ItDA0sePw6ZwkH1bOfpIKgqzwUu_O9FIaOwFrLXVDf2OuFNzW0jfc7o14UmY_lZamhAAei3WPGhVhperrZqnwsqBQkR1YNex32UAji1R86Fk/s320/34355377_1.jpg" /></a></b></div><b>23) Geena Davis or Tatum O’Neal?</b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I saw Geena Davis several times in the late ‘80s, always on
Jeff Goldblum’s arm at some movie in Westwood, and I can testify that she was a
real-life stunner who inspired a decade-long crush. But on the mound, I’ll take
the fire and accuracy of Tatum O’Neal every time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>24) AMC is now renting theaters for $100 - $350, promising a
more “private,” catered party-movie experience. What do you like or dislike
about this idea?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It’s an interesting notion, but again, I think its just way
too soon, even for monitored and distanced get-togethers like this. Besides,
the corporation has been, not too surprisingly, I guess, somewhat unimaginative
in the films they’ve chosen to make available for their parties—<i>Jurassic Park</i>,
anyone? I suppose I should be grateful that they avoided the temptation of <i>Grease
</i>or <i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back to the Future,</i> but would
it have been that difficult to expand the roster of older films just a bit?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>25) Name the scariest performance in a baseball movie.</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrB-UzX4gq_EoU7P2hSUzV6-fBQ9s8wWmvDPnEqEVqYb9Ys3vSvNJGxZP9UNt6pGescy7ZH6hhlpa-C4M8mxxbLK0F69kBw5qvfHVqm9pcROQSWeoPg2XJHJ63tR1ITq0Xlwv2/s1149/MV5BZDVkYWI4ZDYtYjY0Yi00OWM3LWE5MGUtZDZhMWZhZTc4YjZmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTk1NTMyNzM%2540._V1_+%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="836" data-original-width="1149" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrB-UzX4gq_EoU7P2hSUzV6-fBQ9s8wWmvDPnEqEVqYb9Ys3vSvNJGxZP9UNt6pGescy7ZH6hhlpa-C4M8mxxbLK0F69kBw5qvfHVqm9pcROQSWeoPg2XJHJ63tR1ITq0Xlwv2/w400-h291/MV5BZDVkYWI4ZDYtYjY0Yi00OWM3LWE5MGUtZDZhMWZhZTc4YjZmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTk1NTMyNzM%2540._V1_+%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><p class="MsoNormal">I think it’s gotta be Tommy Lee Jones’s fearless portrayal of
Ty Cobb in Ron Shelton’s equally fearless movie. One day I think this movie,
and this performance, will be better appreciated, but it’s been 26 years
already and it’s still pretty low on most folks’ radar.</p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>26) Second-favorite Jack Arnold movie.</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghoAgh9mnK8umLDO95FGUhDJJDdApAsbM4jJ44i91rxJSB7aKM72Oln2OH97mWIdXH3hHi2nS9P5duRSolTCWYYPkNJsNUYNPpLJOK4YBrtvBe2ZsQTfcmihOmqrkI-_CC3kkA/s2048/blacklag.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1151" data-original-width="2048" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghoAgh9mnK8umLDO95FGUhDJJDdApAsbM4jJ44i91rxJSB7aKM72Oln2OH97mWIdXH3hHi2nS9P5duRSolTCWYYPkNJsNUYNPpLJOK4YBrtvBe2ZsQTfcmihOmqrkI-_CC3kkA/w400-h225/blacklag.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><p class="MsoNormal"><i style="font-style: italic;">Creature from the Black Lagoon.</i> Top honors go to <i style="font-style: italic;">The
Incredible Shrinking Man.</i><i style="font-style: italic;"> </i>That makes two unassailable classics in Arnold’s
book, and that’s to say nothing of <i>No Name on the Bullet, It Came from Outer
Space, The Mouse That Roared,</i> <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: normal;">and one I’ve loved since the </span>Sinister
Cinema</span><i style="font-style: italic;"> </i>days<i style="font-style: italic;">, Tarantula.</i></p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>27) What would be the top five films of 2020 you’ve seen so far?</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRXfA8Fb27V2QDRSPhS1GeqxqsnpmlHXUM1DBHsnH3DyIldqf1Hk27jHkrP8Za_SlGN2SsAUJnlY-7vcEdf6BSqx7uvSFnh7UYW3dTtKHk1BU8ldIc7ZEmNjedECPcsl3R3VWN/s2000/image.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1047" data-original-width="2000" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRXfA8Fb27V2QDRSPhS1GeqxqsnpmlHXUM1DBHsnH3DyIldqf1Hk27jHkrP8Za_SlGN2SsAUJnlY-7vcEdf6BSqx7uvSFnh7UYW3dTtKHk1BU8ldIc7ZEmNjedECPcsl3R3VWN/w400-h210/image.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVEjhOBrkM6TIDdBPY_cSAhH7DoPv0wZrGz3xf2lV3sSucaQTwP7qahTxlyulBIvO6TM5z0VnrZ6GzS2_8HYJ0RKg-jCnZjdhJ9a9Hw1MhxXuZ1nOz6O2X_emQxvMUQ1U7FsBB/s1623/be-natural-banner.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1623" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVEjhOBrkM6TIDdBPY_cSAhH7DoPv0wZrGz3xf2lV3sSucaQTwP7qahTxlyulBIvO6TM5z0VnrZ6GzS2_8HYJ0RKg-jCnZjdhJ9a9Hw1MhxXuZ1nOz6O2X_emQxvMUQ1U7FsBB/w400-h266/be-natural-banner.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvfZyUz3Vo-rw9OBSZX-EkHdzESzasHlIb_7z3EMBK6iYzNDOsJOzgMNOt_HBQ6GNvW0tv0iQAYv79MNbNHe5F-aDhGA95NqcdPNDlh0fxNw4CAc1ZrHs7iPoNdpsUkWNYaEG-/s1200/200612-da-5-bloods-1128_583aa9bc99df786adfba4979f13d0761.nbcnews-fp-1200-630.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvfZyUz3Vo-rw9OBSZX-EkHdzESzasHlIb_7z3EMBK6iYzNDOsJOzgMNOt_HBQ6GNvW0tv0iQAYv79MNbNHe5F-aDhGA95NqcdPNDlh0fxNw4CAc1ZrHs7iPoNdpsUkWNYaEG-/w400-h210/200612-da-5-bloods-1128_583aa9bc99df786adfba4979f13d0761.nbcnews-fp-1200-630.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCK7sgCELfKrFAxXoDepm4WtIaEXUrYvquJI-1KMtHwE2FNdHXdjv68DJvUJrMPSsaGNv0Uq55hWUih4eU8OSEiiYw3ITlMb8T9gc-T-6hDKpqzqqmqumsa4O_ptwpeRmrC7jv/s770/Emma-2020-Movie-Reviews-770x452.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="770" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCK7sgCELfKrFAxXoDepm4WtIaEXUrYvquJI-1KMtHwE2FNdHXdjv68DJvUJrMPSsaGNv0Uq55hWUih4eU8OSEiiYw3ITlMb8T9gc-T-6hDKpqzqqmqumsa4O_ptwpeRmrC7jv/w400-h235/Emma-2020-Movie-Reviews-770x452.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZXvdTedZQA-v_FDbbrLnWmJirlVpNT3pCzviCG-wrmUqBdcek5xfM2wqel_NqDCFyI-o8Q_UlPD8776SbR9H8zgc9sfrfImzPd5ZtILrIkexO2Dk06AFdeQM_DrjDBOYpYwo5/s1600/firstcow.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZXvdTedZQA-v_FDbbrLnWmJirlVpNT3pCzviCG-wrmUqBdcek5xfM2wqel_NqDCFyI-o8Q_UlPD8776SbR9H8zgc9sfrfImzPd5ZtILrIkexO2Dk06AFdeQM_DrjDBOYpYwo5/w400-h225/firstcow.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtcnX8a4blPNhXraMwkbRJUh6dZRa9_0Kc2wt_AFLVYP_SEX-uSuBV4QYtoGTP452jb9SbpFaH40LvdsUKmbzmnUk5Ebf5shk1CGW_zPit9JYOQbYp5XLkvi5pQacih3147Hqe/s706/the-trial-of-the-chicago-7-trailer-aaron-sorkins-film-impresses-receives-mixed-responses-on-twitter001.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="437" data-original-width="706" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtcnX8a4blPNhXraMwkbRJUh6dZRa9_0Kc2wt_AFLVYP_SEX-uSuBV4QYtoGTP452jb9SbpFaH40LvdsUKmbzmnUk5Ebf5shk1CGW_zPit9JYOQbYp5XLkvi5pQacih3147Hqe/w400-h248/the-trial-of-the-chicago-7-trailer-aaron-sorkins-film-impresses-receives-mixed-responses-on-twitter001.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUo8bLf02ix-qC7uJB6jcpjs-NizRLt6Go2m6kjxhwWSG1AQ4BQCTIwafdkDUqqrW4CPodYx5fZ0NohicRAS1pqTc_OMQLqS8RMD1FtGptqB93vKUSSI_Lt8RskwmY7Lsotivq/s1080/youshouldhaveleft-universalsite-1080x793-5ede63a54c993-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="793" data-original-width="1080" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUo8bLf02ix-qC7uJB6jcpjs-NizRLt6Go2m6kjxhwWSG1AQ4BQCTIwafdkDUqqrW4CPodYx5fZ0NohicRAS1pqTc_OMQLqS8RMD1FtGptqB93vKUSSI_Lt8RskwmY7Lsotivq/w400-h294/youshouldhaveleft-universalsite-1080x793-5ede63a54c993-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Just speaking of the top of my head, in alphabetical order, <i>American<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Utopia, Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice
Guy Blache, Da Five Bloods, Emma., First Cow, The Trial of the Chicago Seven </i>and
<i>You Should Have Left. </i>What, that’s seven, you say? Oh, well… I know Dr.
Savaard personally, so I get a little leeway…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>28) What are your top three pandemic-restricted movie viewing experiences
so far in this... unusual year?</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwsq2CWJdcVxdt_-Sv5EUu9-rwvrxly3xqFiYlUVnaNic7X6pqu44yqG7GOEwXU15ZNqB5poYWqMRLD3cuE17MNwS8ddyELKJMBDEpt6p8g8TpEm2KBXtc0oCTo6krQfJiJq3/s1781/98359839_10157611764623369_1421136482755674112_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="952" data-original-width="1781" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVwsq2CWJdcVxdt_-Sv5EUu9-rwvrxly3xqFiYlUVnaNic7X6pqu44yqG7GOEwXU15ZNqB5poYWqMRLD3cuE17MNwS8ddyELKJMBDEpt6p8g8TpEm2KBXtc0oCTo6krQfJiJq3/w400-h214/98359839_10157611764623369_1421136482755674112_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><p class="MsoNormal">1) <i>Fellini Roma </i> watch party with my dear friend Katie, who
lives in Indianapolis.</p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">2) Seeing <i>Gremlins</i> with the three ladies at the
drive-in.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">3) Watching the 1988 cheapo <i>Necromancer </i>with best
friend Bruce-- Bruce can be seen for about .5 seconds in a party scene we were
both on hand for, at the invite of the movie’s lead, Elizabeth Kaitan (Cayton).
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">4) Watching the 4K Blu-ray of <i>Flash Gordon </i>(1980).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">5) Ushering out my 50s late at night on August 17 with Ken
Russell’s <i>Lisztomania. </i>When the movie was over, I was 60 years old.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Okay, again, that was five, not three, but Dr. Savaard said
I could, so…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">*******************************************</span></p><br /><p></p>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-53424873123195013762020-10-21T20:56:00.005-07:002020-10-21T21:10:05.432-07:00DR. HENRYK SAVAARD’S HAIR-RAISING HOME RUN, BLOODCURDLING AT-VAMPIRE-BAT, FIELD OF SCREAMS BASEBALL-HORROR MOVIE QUIZ (with a dugout assist from Savaard’s sinister sidekick, Doc Roberts)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBwt6b6myC-XLqoRIif_hryuG-0VFgsrRqUsPMhKtVGbROlXrjq8XVxC9nP-ws-C14OgIewFU6kswsHtlnkxwqhpHYHiVn9j5sg1rPd9C1av_409Xza4_RE-4nwEN25qyt2x-e/s986/foul-play-main1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="986" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBwt6b6myC-XLqoRIif_hryuG-0VFgsrRqUsPMhKtVGbROlXrjq8XVxC9nP-ws-C14OgIewFU6kswsHtlnkxwqhpHYHiVn9j5sg1rPd9C1av_409Xza4_RE-4nwEN25qyt2x-e/w400-h171/foul-play-main1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br />“You got your horror movie in my baseball movie!” “Well, you
got baseball movie in my horror movie!” <br /><br />No guarantees that this latest SLIFR
University quiz will be as sweet and tasty as a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, but
at least the calorie count is a lot more agreeable. The newest quiz, coming midway
through the fall semester, is online learning at its very best, as every SLIFR
quiz has been since the first one back in 2005—we were socially distanced before
social distancing was… well, not <i>cool</i> exactly, but certainly
government mandated. <br /><br />And to celebrate both the onset of Halloween next weekend <i>and</i> the ongoing drama that is the Los Angeles Dodgers-Tampa
Bay Rays 2020 World Series, we’ve enlisted one of SLIFR’s most distinguished
and perhaps most demented senior staff professors, the estimable and pretty
goddamn angry Dr. Henryk Savaard, the most honored and unstable head of our
not-exactly-world-renowned Metaphysics department, to administer this new quiz,
a mix of baseball movie inquiries, horror movie inquiries <i>and</i> a jigger or two of real-life horror as well. <br /><br />And since
Dr. Savaard, as esteemed an intelligence as there is (at least that’s what you
tell him to his face, if you know what’s good for ya), doesn’t know a foul tip from
a fungo bat, we’ve enlisted Savaard’s top teaching assistant, the up-and-coming
Doc Dave Roberts, to help administer the sporting section of this latest educational
endeavor.</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTICpp6gvmfpLWr0m0g0fUT7LNYNIcZcEkV5ay2VX6yEjpqksscpijbwhldtw6WlFWgVTBC3h0xtOZ8vkwzyS66RfzLtTwfN3_q0KnK7QxbjeqKORUl67Jse0mK0ugZ40m2jhk/s280/122410277_809535723219320_6274836701980340256_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="280" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTICpp6gvmfpLWr0m0g0fUT7LNYNIcZcEkV5ay2VX6yEjpqksscpijbwhldtw6WlFWgVTBC3h0xtOZ8vkwzyS66RfzLtTwfN3_q0KnK7QxbjeqKORUl67Jse0mK0ugZ40m2jhk/w400-h400/122410277_809535723219320_6274836701980340256_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">So onward and hopefully upward with our congenially edifying
distraction.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">There are only two </span><span style="font-family: georgia;">suggestions, as always: </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Be as verbose as you like, remembering that the staff always favors the
lengthier response.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia;">If you choose to answer the questions in the comments
section below, please copy and paste the questions as well as the answers do
readers can more easily reference what insipid query you are responding to. Try
to do the same if you choose to answer on the FB page or, if you still have
one, your own blog.<br />
<br />
And that’s it. Without further hesitation, trepidation or aggravation, let us
pick up our #2 Eberhard Fabers and get started!<br />
<br />
****************************************************************<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9NIscc2Zz4hbznuDICwtJvDCWFwcxE9RvvyF_uT5EviJyH5TbWhiEvSETrgbgtsNvRFwCx3sF2-hS_NjJfILonBFf66xboqEkyfdN0QqYUYSCsm05zRM3Pr9eHEFC8WER2txs/s280/122438802_344994139941377_3928231749653612761_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9NIscc2Zz4hbznuDICwtJvDCWFwcxE9RvvyF_uT5EviJyH5TbWhiEvSETrgbgtsNvRFwCx3sF2-hS_NjJfILonBFf66xboqEkyfdN0QqYUYSCsm05zRM3Pr9eHEFC8WER2txs/w320-h320/122438802_344994139941377_3928231749653612761_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="font-family: georgia;">1) Ricky Vaughan or Nuke LaLoosh?</b><span style="font-family: georgia;"> (question courtesy of
our main Maine monster, Patrick Robbins)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">2) Best moment in the Friday the 13<sup>th</sup> film series.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">3) Henry Hull or Oliver Reed?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">4) What is the last movie you saw in a theater?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">5) Best movie casting for a real-life baseball player, or
best casting of a real-life baseball player in a movie.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">6) D.B. Sweeney or Ray Liotta?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">7) Given that the fear factor in 2020 is already alarmingly
high, is there a film or a genre which you would hesitate to revisit right now?</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">8) <i>The Natural</i> (1984)-- yes or no?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">9) Peter Cushing or Colin Clive?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">10) What’s the lamest water-cooler hit you can think of? Of
course, define “lamest” however you will, but for “water-cooler hit” Dr.
Savaard is thinking about something zeitgeist-y, something everyone was talking
about the weekend it opened and beyond, something everyone seemingly had to see—<i>The
Other Side of Midnight</i> residing at #1 in 1977 for two weeks is not what the
professor has in mind.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">11) Greatest single performance in horror movie history.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdsJMhY0cxCShwtduv3zbg01MPrsFzJUB8UZcRCnM0LvxWsdc14-unPvD7PLUTHGtqwEl3_ISo8xCjGTmanJ9U5xdh1d3NZOFUNa_Gx2wZOGRDlYTkgTQuu4Wy6fsx5ILQbXSs/s280/122440856_3481731068553886_8556385676407846803_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="280" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdsJMhY0cxCShwtduv3zbg01MPrsFzJUB8UZcRCnM0LvxWsdc14-unPvD7PLUTHGtqwEl3_ISo8xCjGTmanJ9U5xdh1d3NZOFUNa_Gx2wZOGRDlYTkgTQuu4Wy6fsx5ILQbXSs/w400-h400/122440856_3481731068553886_8556385676407846803_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></b></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">12) Ingrid Pitt or the Collinson Twins?</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">13) Name one lesser-known horror film that you think everyone
should see. State your reason.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">14) Do the same for an underseen or underappreciated baseball
movie.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">15) William Bendix or Leslie Nielsen?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">16) Would you go back to a theater this weekend if one reopened
near you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">17) Your favorite horror movie TV show/host, either running
currently or one from the past.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">18) <i>The Sentinel</i> (1977)—yes or no?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">19) Second-favorite Ron Shelton movie.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">20) Disclaimer warnings attached to broadcasts of films like <i>Gone With
the Wind</i> and <i>Blazing Saddles</i>-- yes or no?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">21) In the World Series of baseball movies, who are your NL
and AL champs?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">22) What was the last horror film you saw?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">23) Geena Davis or Tatum O’Neal?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyL0w1vlFNLLO06MTezcJYLJVXN02u5hUy1of0zCJWToiERXnXrteooz9oZur7tzK3N39TSNelBaPpa26T_myA5_9VBhwkEDG7ga6MjBsfS96krURARSWumnC71kv4QpLZItMX/s1273/sixfeet.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="1273" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyL0w1vlFNLLO06MTezcJYLJVXN02u5hUy1of0zCJWToiERXnXrteooz9oZur7tzK3N39TSNelBaPpa26T_myA5_9VBhwkEDG7ga6MjBsfS96krURARSWumnC71kv4QpLZItMX/w400-h184/sixfeet.PNG" width="400" /></a></b></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">24) AMC is now <a href="https://flip.it/UO-WIw">renting theaters</a> for $100 - $350, promising a
more “private,” catered party-movie experience. What do you like or dislike
about this idea? <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">25) Name the scariest performance in a baseball movie.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">26) Second-favorite Jack Arnold movie.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">27) What would be the top five films of 2020 you’ve
seen so far?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">28) What are your top three pandemic-restricted movie
viewing experiences so far in this... unusual year?<br /><br />*****************************************</span></span></b>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-68217701324647022802020-08-09T16:27:00.002-07:002020-08-09T16:28:33.349-07:00FOR CHARLIE'S 23rd ANNIVERSARY<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0B242Cuwc5-AaM_OkA4iaEvODgx2oMPouJKtv0JFewxrqH2QLRkE2GacksvPb8A19B1ljcV16NcuIkYFM55koPRs-Rcui6f-HL_n075OBbT1G4t-klqx7VVc85miqWegsRSmo/s828/GODFATHER12SEANCE.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="828" data-original-width="828" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0B242Cuwc5-AaM_OkA4iaEvODgx2oMPouJKtv0JFewxrqH2QLRkE2GacksvPb8A19B1ljcV16NcuIkYFM55koPRs-Rcui6f-HL_n075OBbT1G4t-klqx7VVc85miqWegsRSmo/w410-h410/GODFATHER12SEANCE.jpg" width="410" /></a></div><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /><span face="" style="color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif;"><span style="font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important;">The sadness arrived right on schedule this weekend. Twenty-three years has made sure that the intensity and the relentlessness of that sadness has abated somewhat, but over that time the sadness itself, whatever degree of suffocating it turns to be, has been as reliable as British Rail. Sometimes I can see it coming, and then sometimes, like this year, I wonder why I’m suddenly feeling so bad, or why the inescapable Trump-and-COVID-19-inspired low tide suddenly seems even lower. Then I look at the calendar and it all comes clear.</span></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><p></p><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW154734161" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{a7ffe279-74ee-4596-9af0-567cd8579749}{143}" paraid="1275963007" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">On August 11, 1997, my wife Patty and I lost our first child, a little boy named Charlie who was taken from us through a confluence of unfortunate circumstances a week before he was to be born. His birthday, through Caesarean section, was to be on </span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">my</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> birthday. Instead, that turned out to be the day we laid him to rest.</span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{a7ffe279-74ee-4596-9af0-567cd8579749}{143}" paraid="1275963007" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW154734161" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{35c9a753-ea62-43d4-949b-28d06764c0c2}{105}" paraid="2094678775" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">And ever since, I’ve tried to deal, through my writing, with Charlie’s loss, his memory, the reverberations of anticipations snuffed out, futures changed, a life never lived. And though that has not always been an effective way of processing the pain, it has helped me sort things out in a way, a little order to a progression of responses that sometimes add up to little more than a groan in the dark, and sometimes maybe a little more than that.</span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{35c9a753-ea62-43d4-949b-28d06764c0c2}{105}" paraid="2094678775" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW154734161" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{b4a52e9b-a820-4ec1-9b4d-40f53662c88b}{98}" paraid="1734202602" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">This year, as a way of honoring Charlie, who would have been 23 years old this coming Tuesday, I’ve decided to repost the two pieces, over all those years of writing about him on his sad anniversary, that I feel best encapsulate my ever-shifting perspective on being Charlie’s dad. Of course, me being me, those pieces are tied to movies—two of them are among my favorite films of all time, ones I would have shared with Charlie (as I eventually did with my daughter Emma), and one I saw for the first time only three years ago, a film which had the cumulative illuminating effect of a lightning bolt targeted directly to the most hidden recesses of my soul. These are the moments of writing that I feel brought me nearest to the son I once held in my arms but who never, outside of the womb, heard my voice. I hope you like them. I hope he does too. </span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{b4a52e9b-a820-4ec1-9b4d-40f53662c88b}{98}" paraid="1734202602" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW154734161" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{f019c20e-895e-44ac-bbc6-346c08351677}{14}" paraid="708667497" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">**********************************</span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{f019c20e-895e-44ac-bbc6-346c08351677}{14}" paraid="708667497" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW154734161" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" paraeid="{9b7a7649-c56b-45ae-b89b-da74ec1ec5f0}{166}" paraid="1591744654" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">FOR CHARLIE, WHO WOULD BE 14 TODAY</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> (August 11, 2011; written at Bruce’s house in Springfield, Oregon, just after completing my first Oregon Coast bike ride with Katie)</span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" paraeid="{9b7a7649-c56b-45ae-b89b-da74ec1ec5f0}{166}" paraid="1591744654" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" paraeid="{9b7a7649-c56b-45ae-b89b-da74ec1ec5f0}{166}" paraid="1591744654" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM8Wk8Kl2pEjcekL88dy6Y30ypQYyUQh2aYbGrh6kaZGHSFIVPtPpvf3VVVqbzJ573vpEgsNX-vRljgMpBCa33PoSOfiMxLZA1WlBHX-YhpC-mfitjmnHW2UyiqjyYkckbTMiu/s830/Michael%252C+your+father+loves+you+very+much.png" style="display: inline; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="830" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM8Wk8Kl2pEjcekL88dy6Y30ypQYyUQh2aYbGrh6kaZGHSFIVPtPpvf3VVVqbzJ573vpEgsNX-vRljgMpBCa33PoSOfiMxLZA1WlBHX-YhpC-mfitjmnHW2UyiqjyYkckbTMiu/w500-h281/Michael%252C+your+father+loves+you+very+much.png" width="500" /></a></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" paraeid="{9b7a7649-c56b-45ae-b89b-da74ec1ec5f0}{166}" paraid="1591744654" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" paraeid="{9b7a7649-c56b-45ae-b89b-da74ec1ec5f0}{166}" paraid="1591744654" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">It’s 14 years later now. Fourteen years separated from the day I held you, my son, for what seemed like a moment of genuinely suspended animation. That moment, comprised almost entirely of sorrow the likes of which I could never, in my most empathetic moment, have ever imagined, was tempered by fear that any movement, any shift of focus, would cause the river of time to start flowing again, its unforgiving waters to come pushing through the doors of the little room just off the nurses station in which we sat together, rising to overwhelm us forever. Sometimes I wish that we could have drowned in that river, you and </span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">me.</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> If we had, I wouldn’t need to write this now. More often, though, I just wish for the tens or maybe hundreds of things that went wrong that summer to have magically gone right. I wish that we were here, above water, together.</span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW154734161 BCX8" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: wordvisicarriagereturn_msfontservice, georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span></span></span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW154734161" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" paraeid="{9b7a7649-c56b-45ae-b89b-da74ec1ec5f0}{174}" paraid="738692707" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: calibri, calibri_embeddedfont, calibri_msfontservice, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"></span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW154734161 BCX8" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: wordvisicarriagereturn_msfontservice, calibri, calibri_embeddedfont, calibri_msfontservice, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span><br class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I’ve spent the last few days beside the waves on the most beautiful of coasts, and tomorrow I’ll be on the water again, in great company, floating, casting for fish, soaking up a world for which I am longing, but from which I am separated for now. And I often dream of how different my world would be if I could have only shared experiences like these with you. This is every father’s dream, of course, and there’s a very specific reason for mine. The dream is a way of keeping you near, of remembering you, of imagining who you might have been, of thinking about all the ways in which you’ve changed me, and the ways in which I might be different still if you had lived.</span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW154734161 BCX8" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: wordvisicarriagereturn_msfontservice, georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span><br class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span><span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: calibri, calibri_embeddedfont, calibri_msfontservice, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"></span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW154734161 BCX8" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: wordvisicarriagereturn_msfontservice, calibri, calibri_embeddedfont, calibri_msfontservice, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span><br class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">This is your day. It’s a day of sorrow, certainly, but as the years pass an increment of joy remains in it as well, because there is pleasure as well as pain in thinking about the beautiful young man you would have been on your 14th birthday. It is this way. It must be this way. That pain is the price to be paid for keeping you alive in my heart, in </span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2 SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">all of</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> our hearts.</span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW154734161 BCX8" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: wordvisicarriagereturn_msfontservice, georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span><br class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span><span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: calibri, calibri_embeddedfont, calibri_msfontservice, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"></span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW154734161 BCX8" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: wordvisicarriagereturn_msfontservice, calibri, calibri_embeddedfont, calibri_msfontservice, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span><br class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">On this day I also often think of my own hopes and imperfections, two inseparable considerations, it seems, and contemplate the degree of love that even the most imperfect of men </span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2 SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">is capable of offering</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> to his son. Two moments in two of the great movies of all time, Francis Ford Coppola’s </span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The Godfather</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> and </span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The Godfather Part II</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">, for me perfectly sum up that love, that desire for the welfare and company of one’s children, and the regret for a life that took one too many wrong turns on a path choked with multiple forks in the road. In the second film, we see a young Vito Corleone assassinate a local don practiced in a parasitical “protection” of the neighborhood in New York’s Little Italy which they share. Vito’s escape from the scene, over the rooftops of that neighborhood during a parade commemorating the Feast of San Gennaro, ends when he arrives home to his wife and the three sons, all sitting outside on the steps of their modest apartment. He joins them silently, attending to the youngest, a newborn whose path in life he cannot yet know, though we in the audience do. “Michael, your father loves you very much,” he says to the infant, and there is no denying the exquisitely expressed truth of that simple statement.</span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW154734161 BCX8" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: wordvisicarriagereturn_msfontservice, georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span><br class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span><span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="auto" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: calibri, calibri_embeddedfont, calibri_msfontservice, sans-serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"></span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW154734161 BCX8" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: wordvisicarriagereturn_msfontservice, calibri, calibri_embeddedfont, calibri_msfontservice, sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span><br class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The other scene plays out in the story’s timeline some 30 years later. Vito, now old and infirm, expresses to a grown Michael the political reality of the family business he is about to inherit, as well as one of its possible immediate outcomes, and the interaction of the actors, the tenderness of the screenplay, and its aliveness to the way fathers and sons silently express their affection and respect for each other in the way the men take up physical space together and inside the frame, perfectly crystallize the movie’s understanding, without moral judgment, of a flawed man’s dashed hopes and undying love for his boy. It is one scene inside a film full of similar empathy and power, a film that I so wish we could have one day seen together. I can only offer my thoughts of it to you in the hope that somewhere you’ll understand and know,</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> Charlie, that your father loves you very much.</span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" paraeid="{9b7a7649-c56b-45ae-b89b-da74ec1ec5f0}{174}" paraid="738692707" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; 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-webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">****************</span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW154734161 BCX8" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: wordvisicarriagereturn_msfontservice, georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{c4e27832-c2dc-4860-a2c0-d051b1ff95ec}{53}" paraid="293696901" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW154734161 BCX8" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: wordvisicarriagereturn_msfontservice, georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br class="SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">FOR CHARLIE’S 20</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 7.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun Superscript SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-fontsize="9.5" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: super;">th</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> ANNIVERSARY: THOUGHTS ON </span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">SÉANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON </span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">AND OTHER CLOSE ENCOUNTERS </span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">(August 11, 2017)</span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{c4e27832-c2dc-4860-a2c0-d051b1ff95ec}{53}" paraid="293696901" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{c4e27832-c2dc-4860-a2c0-d051b1ff95ec}{53}" paraid="293696901" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLUTvfnSFopIYhyphenhyphenulZCDEY0_ZxRf4OYMiORbZUjSVSiVvt7DcGl8cMUYdlwT_tRDIUQooFwFeO_TfbWPVxYiGsbuHbVkCA-GjrdqMR2Bqa2RQQ_XluHWdrZEW8avJbaYNPCJw8/s660/seance_wet_afternoon_00.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="660" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLUTvfnSFopIYhyphenhyphenulZCDEY0_ZxRf4OYMiORbZUjSVSiVvt7DcGl8cMUYdlwT_tRDIUQooFwFeO_TfbWPVxYiGsbuHbVkCA-GjrdqMR2Bqa2RQQ_XluHWdrZEW8avJbaYNPCJw8/w500-h213/seance_wet_afternoon_00.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><p></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{c4e27832-c2dc-4860-a2c0-d051b1ff95ec}{53}" paraid="293696901" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">It was only recently that I saw, for the very first time, Bryan Forbes’ adaptation of Mark McShane’s novel </span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">Séance on a Wet Afternoon</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN"> (1964)</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">,</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN"> and as it was designed to do, it chilled me to the bone. The movie descends like a shroud upon the lives of Myra (Kim Stanley), a would-be psychic who seems at the beginning of the film to be what one might describe as dotty and demanding, and her cowed husband Bill (Richard Attenborough), a milquetoast of a man who seems far too acquiescent to her insistent personality. But Myra is more than just a bit dotty, she’s borderline demented, and she has emotionally pummeled her husband into participating in a bizarre kidnapping plan— they’ll "borrow" the daughter of a wealthy businessman and then achieve fame and riches by helping police to discover her whereabouts. As the crime progresses, </span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">Séance</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN"> reveals itself to be a disturbing, suspenseful movie, built not on whether the young victim will survive, but instead on just how deeply Myra will devolve into her own fantasies of parenthood, and it’s this aspect that made me begin to get a little nervous when I was watching it at home.</span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW154734161" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{8c3ccbd7-03da-4c61-a2ff-351dc948da79}{76}" paraid="2098702801" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW154734161" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{6}" paraid="1776571431" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">We’ve been told that the room in which the young girl is being held was once that of Myra and Bill’s son Arthur, who apparently died while still a young boy, and whose psychic contact with Myra is the basis of her claim to conversancy with the dead. But the real nightmare of the film is sparked when the line between Myra’s self-defensive delusions and a much purer madness dissolves completely. It’s soon revealed that Myra, who still believes she can speak with Arthur, never actually knew the boy—he was, in fact, stillborn, the room upstairs lying for years in a perfect state of waiting for a child who would never play or sleep in it. And under the pressure of keeping the kidnapping scheme from being discovered, she’s begun to believe that the best thing for Arthur is to send the little girl to the other side—to murder her—so that her precious baby would be lonely no more, and perhaps leave her tortured mind alone in the process.</span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{6}" paraid="1776571431" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW154734161" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{50}" paraid="1185172386" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">Kim Stanley touches plenty of raw nerves depicting Myra’s desperation to connect with the way she envisions the world is supposed to be, but Richard Attenborough is in his own way just as effective, pinpointing the futility of Bill’s balancing act between empathy and comfort and a desire to force his wife (and, of course, himself) to deal with their grief rationally, expressively. But as I descended deeper into the movie, I had to question the wisdom, especially around this time of year, of seeing a movie about a muted, near defeated couple who have been haunted by devastating loss into making the worst decision possible as a means of reintroducing themselves to the world. In many ways I feel like I’ve been hiding out for the past 20 years, trying in my own way, like Bill, to help myself and my wife ride the wake of an event that just can’t be rationalized or explained away with homilies or assurances that everything happens for a reason-- What reason could possibly suffice? For 20 years I’ve been trying to find a place where the grief over my own lost son, Charlie, who was stillborn on this day in 1997, can somehow be grappled with, made sense of, instead of just routinely crushing me like a bug under a boulder.</span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{50}" paraid="1185172386" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW154734161" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{70}" paraid="763630395" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">And frankly, the rather more agnostic turn my life has taken in the shadow of Charlie’s death—a direction it was already headed in, by the way—has been for me more of a comfort than the ostensibly reassuring thought that Charlie is somewhere hanging out in spiritual limbo somewhere, waiting to be reunited with the loved ones God saw fit to deprive him of at literally the last minute before he was to be born. In my mind, it is more strangely comforting to believe that what happened to Charlie was not the design of some sadistic deity who does things for his own self-absorbed reasons without the apparent need to let us poor earthbound bastards in on them. I’d rather just accept that the uterine abruption which resulted in his death occurred simply because it was within the realm of the physically possible for it to have occurred. It was not a proactive referendum on my or my wife’s abilities as parents, and we were not being punished for some presumed, speculative offense, like insufficient fealty and praise to a codependent Creator. So, despite the temptation (and, oh, how we have been tempted), guilt has never been a satisfactory option-- at least not for me-- in thinking about all the ways in which things might have turned out differently during that summer 20 years ago. </span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{70}" paraid="763630395" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW154734161" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{90}" paraid="289835508" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">But despite all my attempts at setting things at ease rationally, there is still the grief to be understood, and it’s here that I found myself empathizing not with Myra’s actions, but instead her disorientation and panic at not knowing what to do with that grief. If her dogged insistence that on some level it should all make sense is something to which I cannot subscribe, I can at least understand her inability to deal with the power of that grief and its repercussions. At times I wish I did believe, like Myra with her Arthur, that Charlie was constantly by my side, or somehow accessible in his incorporeal state, because it might—</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">might—</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">make life a little easier to live when I start thinking about him a little too deeply, a little too sadly. That comfort is, after all, what memories are for. But there are no memories of a baby boy lost at birth that are not utterly, overwhelmingly sad—even those revolving around the happiness of anticipation are necessarily, unavoidably colored by the pain of what was to come.</span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{90}" paraid="289835508" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{90}" paraid="289835508" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhy57PdXezyizCacuvAYRJ6ONpLAiQhq45O69o4DfUVrNQHCY0CgWtFZ1eXhB1qB99pSTQuhXo3LfrNclIzieBF6WwnJICPDfAQNeSb2GJhrRJ_uS-4KUp8Sg6I3udWPbSQdjj/s400/SEANCE+2.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="243" data-original-width="400" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhy57PdXezyizCacuvAYRJ6ONpLAiQhq45O69o4DfUVrNQHCY0CgWtFZ1eXhB1qB99pSTQuhXo3LfrNclIzieBF6WwnJICPDfAQNeSb2GJhrRJ_uS-4KUp8Sg6I3udWPbSQdjj/w400-h243/SEANCE+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{90}" paraid="289835508" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">And it is no comfort either to think of him separated from us by a mere dimension or two, our reunion to come at a time still to be determined. Yet in the immediate smothering of that grief, oh, how I wanted, just like the shattered, flailing Myra, to believe. A couple of weeks after my wife had returned from the hospital we were, of course, still reeling and trying to find a way to put our hopes and dreams back together. We had gone out to a local mall, and as I sat waiting for my wife to complete some piece of business, a little girl, probably no more than two years old, waddled up to me, looked me right in the eye, said, "Hi, Daddy," and then just as matter-of-factly waddled away.</span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW154734161" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{137}" paraid="1118580571" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW154734161" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{157}" paraid="1601449769" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">It took every bit of energy I could muster to keep my composure in this public place and not explode in a thunderstorm of rage and tears, and for years I held on to that strange encounter as evidence of perhaps an actual contact between Charlie’s spirit and my own. I don’t believe that anymore—I </span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">can’t</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN"> believe that anymore, because too many things have accrued in my relatively meager experience, Charlie’s death being but one, to make me call into question beliefs my Catholic/Christian upbringing have insisted I take for granted, on unquestioning faith. But I remembered that experience anew when I saw </span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">Séance on a Wet Afternoon</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">and it made me realize that confronting my own experience through this movie wasn’t a thing to be feared after all. My own loss made connecting with the dark insistence on spiritual redemption that fuels Myra’s clearly unacceptable, psychotic actions a little bit easier, a little bit more artistically rewarding, the recognition of a strange bit of empathy directed toward a woman who might seem too far gone for simple understanding.</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{157}" paraid="1601449769" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX8 SCXW154734161" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{201}" paraid="18650046" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">I still love my boy, and I know I will grieve for him in my own way until my own candle goes out—I can’t, as so many were quick to advise us in the earliest moments when our wounds were still so fresh, just move on. I also know that I don’t need to hang on to hopes of ghostly encounters and heavenly reunions to keep that love alive. But while I never want to wallow in past agonies I don’t want to forget the pain either—it is now and forever a part of what binds our lost child to us. I do believe Charlie knows the peace we’ll all know someday, and that, to me, is a thought which is happy enough. It’s the only one, in fact, that could possibly compete, after being separated from him for 20 years now, with actually knowing that 20-year-old young man, being his dad in </span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN">this</span><span class="TextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="EN" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-kerning: none; font-size: 9.5pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW154734161 BCX8" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">world, experiencing the love I’ve always felt for him reflected back on me like sunlight. That is a thought I’ll allow myself to dream on occasionally, and I will not feel ashamed for my tears.</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW154734161 BCX8" lang="" paraeid="{0f9b17a2-cbb3-443f-aae2-4a94c946ed0d}{201}" paraid="18650046" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="EOP SCXW154734161 BCX8" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: #191919; font-family: georgia, georgia_embeddedfont, georgia_msfontservice, serif; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 16.1875px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJf8hqs9eYo8D45Fe70XqJH2cOdkxfN_QyexRX4BC1iObu8H5a1va8RtqllcfL8iNXQ-Pq1N0eDxPSf2Ygb8zZYFYJk2kSB0jEWU0hHY97ihgykQ4tkWcSo6lOfiTHEaW8tDQ/s828/CHARLIE+2020.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="828" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJf8hqs9eYo8D45Fe70XqJH2cOdkxfN_QyexRX4BC1iObu8H5a1va8RtqllcfL8iNXQ-Pq1N0eDxPSf2Ygb8zZYFYJk2kSB0jEWU0hHY97ihgykQ4tkWcSo6lOfiTHEaW8tDQ/w328-h245/CHARLIE+2020.jpg" width="328" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJf8hqs9eYo8D45Fe70XqJH2cOdkxfN_QyexRX4BC1iObu8H5a1va8RtqllcfL8iNXQ-Pq1N0eDxPSf2Ygb8zZYFYJk2kSB0jEWU0hHY97ihgykQ4tkWcSo6lOfiTHEaW8tDQ/s828/CHARLIE+2020.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;">************************************************</a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJf8hqs9eYo8D45Fe70XqJH2cOdkxfN_QyexRX4BC1iObu8H5a1va8RtqllcfL8iNXQ-Pq1N0eDxPSf2Ygb8zZYFYJk2kSB0jEWU0hHY97ihgykQ4tkWcSo6lOfiTHEaW8tDQ/s828/CHARLIE+2020.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><br /></a></div><p></p></div>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-76646595652628749642020-07-06T23:01:00.001-07:002020-07-06T23:02:55.228-07:00ENNIO MORRICONE 1928 - 2020<div>
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<span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4FVsBh9kGkOlIemdL3LhmRdG_RZ4UXlnN09htkBLWzWoB8j0IVk2M-NE2SeZ5V-EQvl3j1ldbkqsOJG7mVz4x4PkS62jtjpLhI6_2xsg9zj0Hr7vox0nKR_k0l7RY2pXbPsAx/s1600/ennio-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="750" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4FVsBh9kGkOlIemdL3LhmRdG_RZ4UXlnN09htkBLWzWoB8j0IVk2M-NE2SeZ5V-EQvl3j1ldbkqsOJG7mVz4x4PkS62jtjpLhI6_2xsg9zj0Hr7vox0nKR_k0l7RY2pXbPsAx/s400/ennio-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><span class="TextRun SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW5808494 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW5808494 BCX0" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{c2c1b31c-ada2-46d2-85a1-081a8672ae7c}{25}" paraid="701522243" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="TextRun SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW5808494 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Back when I was but a whelp (six or seven years old), it was determined that I was too young to see these mysterious movies, <i>A Fistful of Dollars </i>and <i>For a Few Dollars More,</i> which I saw advertised on the hometown movie theater’s “show calendar.” But I knew the music. My first exposure to Ennio Morricone’s great scores for Sergio Leone’s “Dollars trilogy” came not from Morricone himself, but from this album of themes </span><span class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2 SCXW5808494 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">reorchestrated</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW5808494 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> from the movies’ soundtracks by Hugo Montenegro, a composer and orchestrator who hit the big time by introducing these classics to a wide American audience. And when we would go on weekend drives with my aunt, who had a spiffy new eight-track player installed in her pickup truck, she would throw Montenegro’s covers on the stereo and we would cruise across the Southern Oregon desert to the soaring strains of Morricone’s reinterpreted soundscapes. </span></span><span class="EOP SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="EOP SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW5808494 BCX0" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{c2c1b31c-ada2-46d2-85a1-081a8672ae7c}{100}" paraid="1234029567" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="TextRun SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">So even though those records (or tapes) weren’t the real thing, that music got its hooks into my brain, as it did millions of others, and by the time <i>The Good, The Bad and the Ugly</i> strode into town for a week’s stay at the Alger Theater I was ready, and that, as they say, was all she wrote. After I saw it on the big screen, every time one of the three pictures would show up, cropped and gutted, on Sunday afternoon TV, I was right there, and they slowly became all-time favorites, especially <i>TGTBATU</i>. (My obsession with <i>Once Upon a Time in the West</i> would take hold later, in college.)</span><span class="EOP SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="EOP SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW5808494 BCX0" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{c2c1b31c-ada2-46d2-85a1-081a8672ae7c}{106}" paraid="1995187889" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="TextRun SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">In those days, you had to settle for the movies in any form TV served them up, and it wasn’t usually very advantageous toward seeing the films at their full power. But Morricone’s music couldn’t be bowdlerized or diluted by randomly selected commercial breaks. It transcended the cracks and crevices and missing limbs of the movies as I frequently experienced them— on top of all the other violations, after seeing <i>TGTBATU </i>in a theater, they were always in black-and-white on my parents’ TV. But the twang of those guitars, the whistle which cut through the desert air like a messenger from the furthest reaches of the Spanish hills that passed for a reimagined American West, the vulture-like wah-wah vocalizations, the swooning, haunted orchestrations, all those textures that Morricone contributed to the realization of Sergio Leone’s fevered mythological vision of a time and place that existed and yet never did, those were all in color. </span><span class="EOP SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW5808494 BCX0" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{c2c1b31c-ada2-46d2-85a1-081a8672ae7c}{106}" paraid="1995187889" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="EOP SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW5808494 BCX0" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{c2c1b31c-ada2-46d2-85a1-081a8672ae7c}{112}" paraid="165967253" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="TextRun SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">And even though he’s now gone, Morricone’s music, for these films and the hundreds of others that we know, as well as the hundreds we have yet to discover, will always hold the vibrant beauty, discordant lyricism and perplexing, unexpected textures that can only be represented by all the possible hues and tints of the spectrum. </span><span class="EOP SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="EOP SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="TextRun SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Thank you, signore, for sweeping me away, for bringing me here, for giving me, and all of us, so many sonic connections and associations, and for allowing us the passage into other worlds that will be open and beckoning for as long as the music can be heard. And, unlike for us, that stands to be a forever life. </span><span class="EOP SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="EOP SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="oi732d6d ik7dh3pa d2edcug0 qv66sw1b c1et5uql a8c37x1j muag1w35 enqfppq2 jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m" dir="auto" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; display: block; line-height: 1.3333; margin-bottom: -4px; margin-top: -4px; max-width: 100%; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="TextRun SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Listen as the harmonica, the guitars, the singers, the orchestra all continue to prove, despite today’s sad news, that Ennio Morricone lives.</span><span class="EOP SCXW5808494 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></span></div>
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Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-7472104264720939942020-07-06T22:55:00.001-07:002020-07-06T22:55:30.619-07:00BACK TO THE DRIVE-IN?<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQiJ3ozFx-2Wvmm4Mx7Qn8gGLlASGcz3v5oIA3RzLy9AzChGXIzhdGj54P-n1dQef3_GM-bpWTpaxAiONjyUbPk34ELb0cR3CQdXIwBGFKzMY42gNu0DepBH9C1_6a1I0ZlPz3/s1600/107061184_10157731569948369_4077773430765251127_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: #fff2cc; clear: left; float: left; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQiJ3ozFx-2Wvmm4Mx7Qn8gGLlASGcz3v5oIA3RzLy9AzChGXIzhdGj54P-n1dQef3_GM-bpWTpaxAiONjyUbPk34ELb0cR3CQdXIwBGFKzMY42gNu0DepBH9C1_6a1I0ZlPz3/s320/107061184_10157731569948369_4077773430765251127_n.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is one of two print ads that ran in Friday’s edition of the <i>Los Angeles Times</i> Calendar, the section of the paper devoted to the city’s arts and entertainment. The Calendar, like just about every city paper up until everyone started using the Internet to check up on movie times, locations and tickets, used to be overrun with ads for what was opening and continuing at a theater near you. And when I was a kid, I would buy the Friday and Sunday editions of the big papers- The Portland <i>Oregonian</i>, <i>The San Francisco Chronicle </i>and (if I was lucky) <i>The New York Times</i>— just so I could pore over the bounty of movie pages from places that seemed so far away that I would never get there myself. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But </span></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">newspaper movie sections just ain’t that way anymore. So when I opened up the paper over the weekend and saw this ad, I was momentarily taken aback and kind of saddened by the paucity of the page it was on. And then it started to make me feel kinda happy because 1) “Now Playing in Drive-in Theaters!” and 2) the ad itself, which is laid out with a nod to the sort of bald exploitation that characterized almost every ad for anything that ever played in a drive-in during the ‘60s and ‘70s, when those theaters were in their prime and preparing for their decline. On top of that, the movie itself is supposed to be pretty darn good. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">S</span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">eeing this just made me think of all the great and not-so-great and downright shitty movies I ever saw or dreamed of seeing in venues like this back in the day, and even recently (some friends and I enjoyed a great triple feature of </span><i style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Death Race 2000, Zombie</i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> and </span><i style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Invasion of the Bee Girls</i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> right here at a SoCal drive-in seven or eight years ago). And it just makes me happy, amidst all the sadness and horror that created the situation to begin with, that suddenly low-budget movies like this, which would now normally be known as straight-to-video shelf or streaming-stockers, have had a path cleared for them to be showcased in drive-in theaters, where their spirits, if not their intents, may well have be born.
I</span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> hope </span><i style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Relic</i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> is still playing next weekend, because if anything could get me into my car and send me straight back to the Mission Tiki Drive-in next Saturday night it might just be this one.</span></div>
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Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-74489522919017743332020-06-21T16:50:00.000-07:002020-06-21T16:50:08.711-07:00FOR FATHER’S DAY, AN ANIMAL HOUSE STORY YOU MAY NOT YET HAVE HEARD <div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW171388877" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">My dad and I didn’t go to the movies together often— he was a big fan of those four-walled nature documentaries that plagued screens in the early to mid ‘70s and I did not share that enthusiasm. But </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW171388877 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">every once in a while </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">there would come through town a picture he wanted to see which also piqued my interest and I would jump at the chance to go with him. </span><span class="EOP SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: windowtext; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW171388877 BCX0" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{025f4bc4-2439-42bc-b7b1-9997f8dba4e0}{42}" paraid="356638652" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Of course, those movies were usually big outdoor-oriented action movies, often westerns, and we enjoyed them together— stuff like <i>T</i></span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">he Green Berets, True Grit, A Man Called Horse </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">and </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Man in the Wilderness. </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">(You would think he was a big John Wayne or Richard Harris fan, but he was not— those guys were just in the right movies.) I infamously used his interest in these sorts of epics to my own purpose when </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Deliverance</span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> rolled through town in 1973, a deception that </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2 SCXW171388877 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">kinda</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> backfired on me when Mom decided to come along and I ended up sitting between them for two of the most uncomfortable hours I ever spent in a theater in my young life.</span><span class="EOP SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: windowtext; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW171388877 BCX0" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{025f4bc4-2439-42bc-b7b1-9997f8dba4e0}{54}" paraid="1342786878" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">When I got older, we watched </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The Wild Bunch</span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> and </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Chinatown</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> and a passel of public domain John Wayne and Hopalong Cassidy classics, all on TV, when I briefly moved back to town after college. But it was during college that I had probably my favorite moviegoing experience with my dad. (I know I’ve told this one before, and I apologize in advance if you find yourself caught in my repeat fire, but you can always stop reading, I guess!) </span><span class="EOP SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: windowtext; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW171388877 BCX0" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{025f4bc4-2439-42bc-b7b1-9997f8dba4e0}{66}" paraid="342670588" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">It was early September 1978, just before school was to get under way, and my parents had brought me back to Eugene from Lakeview, where I’d spent the summer working in a local sawmill. Of course, </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Animal House</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> had come out that past July and was still enjoying the early stages of its long theatrical run, which boasted packed houses (certainly in Eugene) till almost Christmas. That summer I had the pleasure of overhearing Dad bragging to some of his pals, after the movie had been released and word had gotten out, that I was in it, and believe me, that eavesdrop was not only satisfying but surprising, because as far as I knew he rarely boasted about my interests or achievements, such as they were.</span><span class="EOP SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #fff2cc; color: windowtext; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW171388877" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW171388877 BCX0" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{025f4bc4-2439-42bc-b7b1-9997f8dba4e0}{78}" paraid="1759760545" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">So, when Dad and Mom drove me back up to Eugene to get my sophomore year at the University of Oregon started, they naturally wanted to see the movie and we made plans to meet up with Bruce for the occasion. (Both of us had already seen it a few times, but this would be the first time we’d be able to see it together.) The problem was, Mom and Dad had brought along my little sister Angie, who was just seven years old at the time, and they figured— rightly, I suppose— that she was too young to see a purported </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2 SCXW171388877 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">raunch</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">-fest like </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Animal House</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">. So, a strategy was hatched to drop me, Bruce and Dad off at the McDonald Theater downtown, where Eugene’s favorite film was being showcased, so we could watch the 7:30 show while Mom stayed at their motel with Angie. Then she would meet us outside the box office after the show, Dad would take Angie back to the motel, and we would go back inside and watch the movie again, this time with Mom, at 10:00. Good plan.</span><span class="EOP SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW171388877 BCX0" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{025f4bc4-2439-42bc-b7b1-9997f8dba4e0}{78}" paraid="1759760545" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="EOP SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW171388877" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW171388877 BCX0" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{025f4bc4-2439-42bc-b7b1-9997f8dba4e0}{90}" paraid="1992234756" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Dad loved the movie, and he laughed like a hyena throughout the entirety of it. I have an almost absurdly over-the-top tendency to really let loose when I find something funny— when I saw </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Blazing Saddles</span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> for the first time, several people came up to me in high school the next day and told me they *heard* how much I enjoyed the movie, and they meant it literally— and that’s definitely a trait I inherited from good old Pop. </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">In particular, Dad</span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> found the character of D-Day (played by Bruce McGill, seen above) riotously funny, and I couldn’t help but notice how much the two of them sounded alike in their uncontrolled, maniacal laughter during the moment at the end of the movie when D-Day tips his head back, lets loose a high-pitched cackle and speeds off into the land of whereabouts unknown.</span><span class="EOP SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW171388877 BCX0" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{025f4bc4-2439-42bc-b7b1-9997f8dba4e0}{102}" paraid="1069294615" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The movie ended, we promised to ask for Babs, and then we headed up the aisle afterward to go outside and meet Mom. I could tell that Dad loved </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Animal House--</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> he was chattering to Bruce and I about it and all the while he was still laughing. We met Mom and Angie outside, among the throng of Friday night moviegoers lined up to buy tickets to the 10:00 show, and when Dad approached Mom, I could see he was talking to her about something. Bruce and I caught up, and we heard Dad saying something to Mom along the lines of, “Oh, it wasn’t so bad.” Hmm, we thought. Is he downplaying how much he enjoyed it for some reason? </span><span class="EOP SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW171388877 BCX0" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{025f4bc4-2439-42bc-b7b1-9997f8dba4e0}{114}" paraid="1349132280" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">No, he was </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2 SCXW171388877 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">actually trying</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> to talk Mom into letting Angie come in and watch the movie... so he could come back in, rather than retreat to the motel, AND WATCH IT AGAIN!!!! And so, after a minute or two of cajoling, while we disbelieving Delta Pledges looked on, Dad’s last-minute campaign to expose his youngest, quite underaged </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">child</span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> to the raucous goings-on inside Faber College’s most infamous fraternity achieved success and we all bought tickets for the 10:00 show. We all enjoyed it together, I </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2 SCXW171388877 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">definitely heard/saw</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> Mom </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2 SCXW171388877 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">yukking</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> it up, and my sister eventually grew up to full adulthood, completely free of psychological or emotional scarring from the experience.</span><span class="EOP SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW171388877 BCX0" lang="EN-US" paraeid="{025f4bc4-2439-42bc-b7b1-9997f8dba4e0}{126}" paraid="205911822" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">But for me to see my dad turn around and watch a movie he’d just seen for a second time in one evening, well, that was a very big deal, and something I’d wager has not been repeated in the 42 years since that night in September 1978. I would see </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Animal House</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">countless times again during those years, probably close to 50, and of course the movie means a lot to me and Bruce and everyone else who got to participate in making it during the fall of 1977. Seeing it for the first time, at the National Theater just down the block from the McDonald, when a Universal held a special screening in July 1978 just after the movie came out, was a special thrill. But for me that first exposure can’t come close to seeing it twice with my dad in one night, watching him laugh like he was </span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2 SCXW171388877 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">gonna</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> lose his mind, and imagining him thinking, “Hey, my son was in that!” Now, there’s a memory for Father’s Day that I am extremely grateful for. Thanks, Dad. And thanks, D-Day, wherever you are.</span><span class="EOP SCXW171388877 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span></div>
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Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-89436824108034038102020-04-19T21:03:00.000-07:002020-04-20T09:58:48.630-07:00DENNIS ANSWERS THE DEAN WORMER QUIZ<br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Okay, even though I've got a giant cat perched on my chest, I'm
gonna give this a whack...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>1) You’re on a desert island (and you sort of are)—What three discs do you select out of your own collection to keep if you had to get rid of all the rest?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Nashville, Once Upon a Time in the West </i> and <i><b>One Two Three.</b></i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>
2) Giuletta Masina or Jeanne Moreau?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
Giuletta sent me to the moon in <i>Nights of Cabiria. </i>That’s all that needs be
said.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>3) Second -favorite Roger Corman movie. </b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Of Corman-directed movies, it'd be <i><b>The Premature Burial</b>.</i> Number
one? <i>X-The Man With X-Ray Eyes. </i>A Ray Milland two-fer!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>4) The most memorable place you ever saw a movie. This could be
a film projected on a big screen or seen in some other fashion—the important
thing is what makes it memorable.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
I have a LOT of possible answers to this question—seeing <i>Singin' in the Rain </i>for the first time on a birthday date with Patty at the Hollywood Bowl in 1990;
pitching a tent in my backyard for an overnight “camping trip” with Emma and
watching <i>Kiki's Delivery Service</i> on a portable DVD player from our sleeping
bags; almost getting kicked out of the theater for laughing so hard at <i>Pee Wee's Big Adventure</i> on opening night with my pal Dave Triebel at a crummy
cracker-box cinema in Medford, Oregon; being in the star-packed audience with
Francis Ford Coppola and seemingly just about everyone in Hollywood for the
opening night of <i>One from the Heart</i> at the Plitt Century Plaza in February 1982;
seeing <i>Tales from the Crypt</i> at the Alger Theater on Halloween Night 1973, when
the crowd got so unruly the manager actually stopped the film and berated the crowd
at length, and when Sir Ralph Richardson Himself threatened to drag one of the
Alger’s ushers straight down to hell with him. (IM me—it’s a pretty funny story.)
But I honestly cannot do better than the answer <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Bruce
Lundy offered to this question: sitting with him poolside at the Hollywood
Roosevelt during the 2014 TCM Classic Film festival, surrounded by the
eccentric crowd, knocking back free gin and tonics like they were Kool-Aid,
listening to Ileana Douglas interview Richard Roundtree, sometimes
nonsensically, and watching a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>spectacular presentation of <i><b>Earthquake</b></i> in Sensurround! “Goddamn it!” I
never saw this movie in Sensurround when it was originally released-- it seems
as though God was holding me back, waiting until the conditions were just right.
And that night they definitely were. This seems to me a perfect night at the
movies.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>
5) Marcello Mastroianni or Vittorio Gassman?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />
I love Mastroianni, especially in <i>8½</i>, but I will never forget listening to
Gassman arguing with his brother in Italian near the end of Robert Altman’s <i>A Wedding</i>—I’d never heard anyone speak so fast and with such fury in a movie
before. (My Italian teacher said even <i>she </i>couldn’t understand what he
was saying!) For that, and for <i>Il Sorpasso</i>, Gassman gets my vote.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>6) Second-favorite Kelly Reichardt movie.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>Old Joy</b></i> would be #2; the top slot belongs to <i>Meek's Cutoff</i>. But
truth be told, I’ve liked everything I’ve seen so far from Recihardt— <i>Certain Women</i> and <i>Wendy and Lucy</i> are also excellent, though <i>W&L</i> is difficult to
watch. I need to catch up with <i>Night Moves</i>, and I didn’t get a chance to see <i>First Cow</i> before the world closed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>7) In the matter of taste, is there a film or director that, if
your partner in a relationship (wife/husband/lover/best friend) disagreed
violently with your assessment of it, might cause a serious rift in that
relationship?<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">No serious rifts over matters of personal taste, especially if a
reasonable discussion is not out of the question. I will admit, however, to being
a little nervous, in a Denny’s in Irvine on our way back from seeing Warren
Zevon (it was an early date), when Patty and I got in a heated discussion over
the merits of Robert Altman, and <i>Nashville</i> in particular. We got into a much
worse argument a few years later over Jack Webb and <i>Dragnet</i>—I was pro, she was
the dirty little hippie con.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;"><b>8 )</b></span><span style="color: #1c1e21;"><b> The last movie you saw in a theater/on physical media/via
streaming (list one each).</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In a theater: <i>Emma. </i>at the Arclight in Pasadena for Emma’s
birthday. Physical media: <i>Hausu</i> (Criterion Blu-ray). Streaming: <i>Journey to Italy.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>9) Name a movie that you just couldn’t face watching right now.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I am trying to avoid anything too grim, and I had already begun
to OD on dystopian sci-fi and apocalyptic roaming-the-countryside-in-search-of-or-in-avoidance-of-zombies
scenarios, especially the snarky sort, well before our current global nightmare
commenced. But if I had to pick just one, it’d have to be Steven Soderbergh’s <i><b>Contagion</b></i>, not the least reason being that it’s such an effective piece of
work. No, thanks. Not right now.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>10) Jane Greer or Ava Gardner?</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I like Ava Gardner just fine, but Jane Greer defines the femme
fatale for me in <i>Out of the Past</i>, and she’s ridiculously beautiful in it. But
she and Mitchum also had a ton of fun being chased by William Bendix in Don
Siegel’s <i>The Big Steal</i>, and she was ridiculously beautiful in that one too. And
she graced <i>The Outfit</i> and even a couple episodes of the original <i>Twin Peaks</i>.
It’s Greer all the way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>11) Edmond O’Brien or Van Heflin?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><o:p><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I love another quiz taker’s description of Heflin and his
bulging eyes as the definition of flop sweat. He’s never been very appealing to
me, except maybe in <i>3:10 to Yuma</i>. Not a huge fan of Edmond O’Brien either, to
be honest, but by God, EOB was in <i>DOA, The Killers, White Heat, Pete Kelly's Blues, The Girl Can't Help It, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance</i> and... <i>The Wild Bunch.</i> Good enough for me!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>12) Second favorite Yasujiro Ozu movie.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">At 8:41 pm on 4/12/2020, I’ll say <b><i>Record of a Tenement Gentleman</i></b>. Number one: <i>Tokyo Story</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>13) Name a proposed American remake of an international film
that would, if actually undertaken, surely court or inevitably result in
disaster.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">How could modern American filmmakers not end up completely
botching any attempt to update Powell and Pressburger’s <i><b>A Matter of Life and Death</b></i> for the Nicholas Sparks crowd? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>14) What’s a favorite film that you consider genuinely subversive, for whatever reason?</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I think <b><i>Zardoz</i></b> is a pretty good choice here. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>15) Name the movie score you couldn’t live without.</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Italians have it for me here. I feel like Ennio Morricone’s <b><i>Once Upon Time in the West</i></b>,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nino
Rota’s <i>Amarcord </i>and Pino Donnagio’s <i>Carrie</i> are in my blood. I know that’s
three, but Dean Wormer said there were no rules, so I’m breaking this
nonexistent one.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>
16) Mary-louise Weller or Martha Smith?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
I never met Mary-louise Weller or Martha Smith on the set of <i>Animal House</i>, but
when the movie came out I admit I had it bad for Babs. Smith is probably the
more accomplished comedienne too, but over the past 40 years I have to admit
that I probably never gave Weller enough credit—Mandy is a pretty funny
caricature who strikes me as more recognizably human than her counterpart.
Besides, she was able to corral Bluto, for Christ’s sake, and set him on the
road to a rich career in political corruption, and she snaps a rubber glove
like nobody’s business. AND Mary-louise Weller, who I’ve still never met in
person, is a Facebook friend and quite apparently a sweet soul in her own
right. MLW FTW!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>17) Peter Riegert or Bruce McGill?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Peter Riegert scores major points on my book for floating so
eloquently through Bill Forsyth’s <i>Local Hero</i>, one of my favorite movies, and
for Joan Micklin Silver’s <i>Chilly Scenes of Winter</i> too. But damned if I don’t
perk up whenever I run unto Bruce McGill in just about anything, big role or
small. He’s aged into status as a genuinely terrific character actor. I also
have fond memories of sitting next to him on a bus as the cast and crew
preparing to depart Cottage Grove on a rainy day to head back to Eugene after
shooting<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a day’s worth of parade action
for <i>Animal House</i>. He was very excited because a movie he was in was opening in
Eugene that weekend, and he implored me to go see it. It was Jonathan Demme’s <i>Citizen's Band</i>, and I probably would have anyway, but I made sure to go see it
because McGill was in it, my first exposure to him in a non-D-Day incarnation,
and it was the beginning of a fine time following his appearances in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>movies like <i>My Cousin Vinny, Runaway Jury, The Insider</i> (he ‘s brilliant in it) and countless others. Also, he can thump
out “The William Tell Overture” on his throat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>18) <i>Last Tango in Paris</i>—yes or no?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Recent revelations aside, I still think it’s an undeniably
powerful movie, though I haven’t seen it in quite a while. It gets a tentative
“yes” from me.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>
19) Second-favorite Akira Kurosawa movie.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Yikes. Who wrote these damn questions? All right, I’ll say <i><b>Ikiru</b></i>, so close to the #1 choice, <i>Seven Samurai</i>, as to be its skin.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>20) Who would host the imaginary DVD commentary you would most
want to hear right now, and what would the movie be?<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I posed this question 15 or so years ago, and the answer I came
up with—Jesus Christ sitting down behind the mic to give us the real scoop on
Mel Gibson’s <i>The Passion of the Christ</i>— remains the one I’d most like to hear.
But I’d also sit still for Pauline Kael talking over a screening of Jean-Luc
Godard’s <b><i>Pierrot Le Fou</i></b> or <i>Weekend</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>
21) Favorite movie snack.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><o:p><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">22) Second-favorite PLANET OF THE APES film (from the original
cycle).</span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I notice several people are citing <i>Conquest of the Planet of the Apes</i> here, but that one never worked very well for me. My second-favorite is
the second picture, <i>Beneath the Planet of the Apes</i>, though a recent viewing
reminded me just how much of a heavy-duty bummer it is, man..<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>23) Least-favorite Martin Scorsese movie.</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Finally, a question that’s gonna get me in trouble with
somebody, no matter WHAT my answer is. My answer: <b><i>Cape Fear</i></b>, anchored by Robert
De Niro’s worst performance, with <i>The Departed</i> nipping at its heels.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>24) Name a movie you feel doesn’t deserve its current reputation, for better or worse.</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I went for over 40 years never having seen <i>Zardoz</i> all the way
through, so imagine my surprise when I saw it for the first time on the big
screen a few years ago and found it to be an admirably uncompromising and
serious work. John Boorman isn’t just screwing around so you can get high and
giggle, hipsters! I also think that <b><i>Mandingo</i></b> is a hell of a lot better than
most people seem to think it is. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>25) Best movie of 1970. (Fifty years ago!)</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>The Landlord</i></b> (Hal Ashby)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>26) Name a movie you think is practically begging for a Broadway
adaptation (I used this question in the last quiz, but I’m repeating it because
I never answered the quiz myself and I think I have a pretty good answer).<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Rocketman</i> practically already IS a Broadway musical, especially when you see
some of the extended musical numbers. And it feels like one too. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>27) Louise Brooks or Clara Bow?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Clara Bow</b> without a moment’s hesitation. I’d love to have taken
her out for a drink.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>28) Second-favorite Pier Paolo Pasolini movie.</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Teorema</i></b>. “Favorite” is an odd word here, because the only one I
own, though I’ve never watched the disc, is <i>Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom</i>, just
about the last word on the destruction and decadence of fascism and one of the
most devastating experiences I’ve ever had watching a movie.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>29) Name three movies you loved in your early years that you feel most influenced your adult cinematic tastes.</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed</i> (1969; Terence Fisher)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>The Good, the Bad and the Ugly</i> (1966; Sergio Leone)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Tommy</i> (1975; Ken Russell)<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>30) Name a movie you love that you think few others do.</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Buddy Buddy</i></b> (1981; Billy Wilder)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">31) Name a movie you despise that you think most others love.</span></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><o:p><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><i>The Princess Bride</i></b><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (1987; Rob Reiner)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>
32) <i>The Human Centipede</i>—yes or no?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;">As a film experience, most definitely not. If any movie deserved
to be called a piece of shit, it’s this one. And how about that DVD commentary
by writer-director Tom Six? <a href="https://sergioleoneifr.blogspot.com/2010/10/10-funny-things-i-heard-on-dvd.html">A classic in its own right.</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>33) Anya Taylor-Joy or Olivia Cooke?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Anya Taylor-Joy</b>, without a doubt. <i>Emma.</i> and <i>The Witch</i> and <i>Thoroughbreds</i> make her talent clear. And those eyes! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>34) Johnny Flynn or Timothée Chalamet?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>
Johnny Flynn</b>. In <i>Emma</i>. he often reminded me of Oliver Reed. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>35) Second-favorite Dorothy Arzner movie.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Craig's Wife</i></b>. The #1 by a country mile: <i>Merrily, We Go to Hell. </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>36) Name a movie you haven’t seen in over 20 years that you would drop everything to watch right now.</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b><i>The Devils</i></b> (1971; Ken Russell)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>37) Name your favorite stylistic filmmaking cliché, and one you
wouldn’t mind seeing disappear forever.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My favorite: not a dolly in, but a slow zoom, especially the way
Robert Altman employed them.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My least favorite: the sudden digitally speeded-up of action
used at random in an establishing shot. Somebody sure thinks that this overused
convention is real neat, but to me it might as well be the director screaming
“Wake up, dummy!” in your ear.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>
38) Your favorite appearance by a real-life politician in a feature film,
either fictional or a fictionalized account of a real event.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Fred Dalton Thompson</b> as Fred Dalton Thompson in <b><i>Marie: A True Story </i></b>(1985; Roger Donaldson)<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>39) Is film criticism dead?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">No, but you have to look a lot harder to find the good stuff
these days, and it sure doesn’t have the attention of the average filmgoer the
way it used to. <br /><br /><b>40) Elizabeth Patterson or Marjorie Main?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #1c1e21;">As much as I love Ma Kettle, <b>Elizabeth Patterson</b> can be sublime,
something you could neve say of Main even at her best.</span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"> Her performances in <i>Remember the Night </i></span><span style="color: #1c1e21;">and <b><i>Intruder in the Dust</i></b> are for the ages.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>
41) Arch Hall Jr. or Timothy Carey?</b><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Arch Hall Jr. is <i>The Sadist</i>. But <b>Timothy Carey</b> is <i>The World's Greatest Sinner</i>. And nothing beats that movie for psyche-searing weirdness.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>42) Name the film you think best fulfills the label “road
movie.”</b><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkNL6pZO68c-UtltYe9GvkfgaIz1usAGUAX1ytYHklzau_ltCGvIW2BsmdIj34pCxbZPFggriH9FLi8XV0jZpb8ncz8_vaedGIfsj7SGxgl6GCtElgyZ6tDxCxh-3eFu23Mhhq/s1600/until+the+end+of+the+world%252Bdirector%2527s+cut%252Bwilliam+hurt%252Bwim+wenders%252Brobbie+muller%252Bmax+von+sydow%252Bjeanne+moreau%252B03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: transparent; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="1440" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkNL6pZO68c-UtltYe9GvkfgaIz1usAGUAX1ytYHklzau_ltCGvIW2BsmdIj34pCxbZPFggriH9FLi8XV0jZpb8ncz8_vaedGIfsj7SGxgl6GCtElgyZ6tDxCxh-3eFu23Mhhq/s400/until+the+end+of+the+world%252Bdirector%2527s+cut%252Bwilliam+hurt%252Bwim+wenders%252Brobbie+muller%252Bmax+von+sydow%252Bjeanne+moreau%252B03.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></div>
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The one that jumps out at me right at this moment is Wim Wenders’ <b><i>Until the End of the World</i></b> (1990)—the five-hour cut, of course.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>43) Horror film that, for whatever reason, made you feel most
uncomfortable?</b><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAzTWpt3WZqflClXQY3MHC7rb74GWyoW0BwwB3XSVWwuxWdpgOgh75_sbWMIzIJsH9GWirLnZBYXLmDbOfcOAFiAZrg5G2HF44G_Df8QbJHkoA0jBVM3W61LB5iCe47A9FeEan/s1600/Audition-Promo-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: transparent; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAzTWpt3WZqflClXQY3MHC7rb74GWyoW0BwwB3XSVWwuxWdpgOgh75_sbWMIzIJsH9GWirLnZBYXLmDbOfcOAFiAZrg5G2HF44G_Df8QbJHkoA0jBVM3W61LB5iCe47A9FeEan/s400/Audition-Promo-3.png" width="400" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>Audition</i></b> (Takashi Miike; 1999) <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /><br /><b>44) Least-favorite (directed by) Clint Eastwood movie.
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b><i>The Eiger Sanction </i></b>has gotta be at the bottom of the barrel, but <i style="font-weight: bold;">American Sniper</i> and <b><i> Sudden Impact</i></b> are squirming around down there right next to it.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>45) Second-favorite James Bond villain.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen, <i>Goldeneye</i>).</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>46) Best adaptation of a novel or other form that had been
thought to be unfilmable.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I can’t think of a more unlikely success on this plane than
David Cronenberg’s adaptation of <b><i>Naked Lunch</i></b> (1991).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>47) Michelle Dockery or Merritt Wever?</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />The <i>Godless</i> queens battle for ultimate supremacy. But Mary Agnes
reign over Alice Fletcher. As much as I love Dockery—her brief turn in <i>The Gentlemen</i> is about the only good reason to see that movie-- <b>Merrit Wever</b> is
really someone I look forward to following where she goes over the next decade
or so.<br /><br /><b>48) Jason Bateman or Ewan McGregor?</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>Bateman</b>, for <i>Bad Words, The Gift, Game Night</i>, and most recently for <i>The Outsider</i>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>49) Second-favorite Roman Polanski movie.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">#2 would be his adaptation of <i><b>Macbeth</b>.</i> #1? <i>Rosemary's Baby</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>50) What’s the movie you wish you could watch with a grandparent
right now? And, of course, why?<o:p></o:p></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I’d love to sit down with my Grandma Rina and watch <b><i>Shadow of a Doubt</i></b>. I don’t know if she ever saw it, but something tells me we’d have a
grand ol’ time talking about it afterward.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>51) Oliver Stone two-fer: <i>Natural Born Killers </i>and/or <i>JFK</i>—yes or no?</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />I have no use for <i>Natural Born Killers</i> anymore, but I remain
fascinated by <i>JFK</i>, as filmmaking and as storytelling, even if it does (and I’m still<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>not entirely sure) prove to be full of shit.</span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /><b>52) Name the actor whose likeness you would proudly wear as a rubber latex Halloween mask.
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>
Tor Johnson</b>. I have many times, and I hope to again someday.<br /><br /><b>53) Your favorite cinematographer, and her/his greatest achievement.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I don’t know if they are absolute favorites, but it’s hard to discount the
impact <b>Gordon Willis</b> and the first two <i>Godfather</i> movies had on me in purely
visual terms. But I have a very soft spot in my heart and my eye for the work
Peter Suschitsky did on such dissimilar movies as <i>Lisztomania, Dead Ringers, Mars Attacks!</i> and <i>The Empire Strikes Back.</i><br /><b>54) Best book about the nitty-gritty making of a movie.</b><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAgxA2DpUOvzuJiaZWbLSwCxutPK3qgoqfQv0N0n04gdpOchvY_CECkwxmbfaxdMmuL_3SarD5Y7-SQ7ApCnRnTGndC2vHnlLErGTNdi9Kqw8jXuv0kTx7ZjZvHglrMujgcKuM/s1600/nook.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="958" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAgxA2DpUOvzuJiaZWbLSwCxutPK3qgoqfQv0N0n04gdpOchvY_CECkwxmbfaxdMmuL_3SarD5Y7-SQ7ApCnRnTGndC2vHnlLErGTNdi9Kqw8jXuv0kTx7ZjZvHglrMujgcKuM/s400/nook.PNG" width="400" /></a></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>55) If you needed to laugh right now, what would be your go-to
movie comedy?</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZQC1vF3rCqHrjeThgDCgedgB1-0f0YFN1Koe1FaxMfj2Un16WGrWIBc-5u40iGf-dg9XeNlJL3zuq7nU7aM-80-Acd8mhFXpOXdfGuh-qIb9fnzt_IPN-cAPtzmHIUMzBPh2/s1600/countbasie_blazingsaddles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="800" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZQC1vF3rCqHrjeThgDCgedgB1-0f0YFN1Koe1FaxMfj2Un16WGrWIBc-5u40iGf-dg9XeNlJL3zuq7nU7aM-80-Acd8mhFXpOXdfGuh-qIb9fnzt_IPN-cAPtzmHIUMzBPh2/s400/countbasie_blazingsaddles.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #1c1e21;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It has to be <b><i>Blazing Saddles</i></b>. Mongo! Santamaria!!<br /><br />******************************</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-53443734177716557202020-04-11T15:03:00.004-07:002020-04-11T16:47:52.707-07:00DEAN VERNON WORMER’S LOCKDOWN-FRIENDLY, DOUBLE-SECRET PROBATIONARY QUARANTINE-QUALITY MOVIE QUIZ <br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As you may have heard, classes at all of our esteemed learning
institutions across the nation and the globe have been forced into online
learning environments in order to accommodate all the students who have been
currently confined to their homes. But here at SLIFR University we’ve been
doing our </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">assessments and quizzes online
for 16 years now (!!!), so not much of an adjustment has been required.
However, we noticed that some of you have been behind on your studying, so in
order to make sure to stay on track with your studies we’ve had to roll out the
big guns. Online class for this next session will be conducted by the big
cheese himself, head of all SLIFR University academic facilities and operations,
</span><b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Dean Vernon Wormer</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, and he promises to be a most exacting taskmaster. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Whereas most of our previous faculty have held their assessments between 20-30
questions, Dean Wormer has opted to put you all through the proverbial wringer—you
will now be subjected to perhaps the most epic investigatory undertaking in the
history of the SLIFR Uni movie quiz. Behold, <b>Dean Vernon Wormer’s Lockdown-Friendly,
Double-Secret-Probationary Quarantine Quality Movie Quiz,</b> a blistering 55
questions in length! As our fearless leader (not that <i>that </i>one—I’m
talking about Dean Wormer, who in comparison, comes off looking pretty spiffy,
doesn’t he?) said as he submitted his questions to the review board, “If they
can survive this one, they can survive anything.” <br />
<br />
Well, I’m willing to take that sentiment and run with it. Here are the rules—
there are none. (When the Deltas took on the rules, remember, the rules lost,
so what good are they anyway?) The only encouragement this proctor can offer is
the one he always offers—there are, of course, no wrong answers, and the most
elaborately expounded upon your answer is will likely most please the persnickety
dean, who finds himself quite bored cooped up in his mansion, quarantined
alone, with not even his wife to keep him company. (She never did return from
that “spa vacation” at Sarasota Springs.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when you do answer, there’s no need to cut
and paste the question, but if you could please make sure to number your
answers to their corresponding questions, Dean Wormer would be slightly less likely
to cavalierly dock points from your endeavor on grounds of hostile participation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So, get your pencils ready and shoot for better than a 0.0 GPA on
this one—you’ve got the big man to impress! And… go!<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>1) </b>You’re on a desert island (and you sort of are)—What three discs do
you select out of your own collection to keep if you had to get rid of all the
rest?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>2) </b>Giuletta Masina or Jeanne Moreau?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br />3) </b>Second -favorite Roger Corman movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>4) </b>The most memorable place you ever saw a movie. This could be a
film projected on a big screen or seen in some other fashion—the important
thing is what makes it memorable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>5) </b>Marcello Mastroianni or Vittorio Gassman?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>6) </b>Second-favorite Kelly Reichardt movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br />7) </b>In the matter of taste, is there a film or director that, if your
partner in a relationship (wife/husband/lover/best friend) disagreed violently with
your assessment of it, might cause a serious rift in that relationship?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>8) </b>The last movie you saw in a theater/on physical media/via
streaming (list one each).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>9) </b>Name a movie that you just couldn’t face watching right now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>10)</b></span><b style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Jane Greer or Ava Gardner?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>11)</b>Edmond O’Brien or Van Heflin?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>12) </b>Second favorite Yasujiro Ozu movie.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>13) </b>Name a proposed American remake of an international film
that would, if actually undertaken, surely court or inevitably result in
disaster.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>14) </b>What’s a favorite film that you consider genuinely subversive, for
whatever reason?<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>15) </b>Name the movie score you couldn’t live without.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>16) </b>Mary-Louise Weller or Martha Smith?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>17) </b>Peter Riegert or Bruce McGill?<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>18)<i> </i></b><i>Last Tango in Paris</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">—yes or no?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>19) </b>Second-favorite Akira Kurosawa movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>20) </b>Who would host the imaginary DVD commentary you would most want to
hear right now, and what would the movie be?<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>21) </b>Favorite movie snack.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>22) </b>Second-favorite <i>Planet of the Apes </i>film (from the original
cycle).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>23) </b>Least-favorite Martin Scorsese movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>24) </b>Name a movie you feel doesn’t deserve its current reputation, for
better or worse.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>25) </b>Best movie of 1970. (Fifty years ago!)<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>26) </b>Name a movie you think is practically begging for a Broadway
adaptation (I used this question in the last quiz, but I’m repeating it because
I never answered the quiz myself and I think I have a pretty good answer)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>27) </b>Louise Brooks or Clara Bow?<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>28) </b>Second-favorite Pier Paolo Pasolini movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>29) </b>Name three movies you loved in your early years that you feel most
influenced your adult cinematic tastes .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>30) </b>Name a movie you love that you think few others do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>31) </b>Name a movie you despise that you think most others love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>32) </b><i>The Human Centipede</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">—yes or no?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>33) </b>Anya Taylor-Joy or Olivia Cooke?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>34) </b>Johnny Flynn or <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #fff2cc; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Timothée
Chalamet?<span style="color: #fff2cc;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>35) </b>Second-favorite Dorothy Arzner movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>36) </b>Name a movie you haven’t seen in over 20 years that you would drop
everything to watch right now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>37) </b>Name your favorite stylistic filmmaking cliché, and one you wouldn’t
mind seeing disappear forever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>38) </b>Your favorite appearance by a real-life politician in a feature
film, either fictional or a fictionalized account of a real event.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>39) </b>Is film criticism dead?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>40) </b>Elizabeth Patterson or Marjorie Main?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222;"><br /><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>41) </b>Arch Hall Jr. or Timothy Carey?</span></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>42) </b>Name the film you think best fulfills the label “road movie.”<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>43) </b>Horror film that, for whatever reason, made you feel most
uncomfortable?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>44) </b>Least-favorite (directed by) Clint Eastwood movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>45) </b>Second-favorite James Bond villain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>46) </b>Best adaptation of a novel or other form that had been thought to
be unfilmable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>47) </b>Michelle Dockery or Merritt Wever?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>48) </b>Jason Bateman or Ewan McGregor?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>49) </b>Second-favorite Roman Polanski movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>50) </b>What’s the movie you wish you could watch with a grandparent right
now? And, of course, why?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>51) </b>Oliver Stone two-fer: <i>Natural Born Killers</i> and/or <i>JFK—</i>yes
or no?<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>52) </b>Name the actor whose likeness you would proudly wear as a rubber
latex Halloween mask.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>53) </b>Your favorite cinematographer, and her/his greatest achievement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b>54) </b>Best book about the nitty-gritty making of a movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>55) </b>If you needed to laugh right now, what would be your go-to movie
comedy?<br /><br />***************************************</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-91049051212397971732020-03-07T17:44:00.000-08:002020-03-07T18:01:38.057-08:00THE 2019 MURIEL AWARDS: BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR AND THE PAST DECADE<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMpLugOCxBVM6OaMBZrB37wuYz9FF40blJnxhHuhHrIUU_on3y6kDHFjEcQ1OJu7oPAK6RoQtBOZeBrAlLMA2EVI3fbyCaI_hlsb7QHRz5biustFUGEVRc2pbRwPQ4lqho7wEx/s1600/irishman-netflix-ti-ks-069.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="1092" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMpLugOCxBVM6OaMBZrB37wuYz9FF40blJnxhHuhHrIUU_on3y6kDHFjEcQ1OJu7oPAK6RoQtBOZeBrAlLMA2EVI3fbyCaI_hlsb7QHRz5biustFUGEVRc2pbRwPQ4lqho7wEx/s400/irishman-netflix-ti-ks-069.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Anxiously awaiting the announcement of the 2019 Muriel Awards... </span></div>
<br />
<br />
The Oscars were handed out on February 9, almost a month ago,
and yet awards season didn’t end until just this last week, when the results of
the 14<sup>th</sup> Annual Muriel Awards were finally fully announced. Muriel is
the beloved late guinea pig who burrowed her way into awards founder Paul Clark’s
heart a decade-plus-or-so ago, and it is for her and her furry, indefatigable spirit
that Clark named the award, a gathering of critic-based honors aimed at focusing
the spotlight on the truly deserving film achievements of the year-- some
well-known and already well-celebrated, some owning much less of the bandwidth generated
by the publicity machine of marketing, promotion and mainstream film journalism.<br />
<br />
I’ve been in the Muriel fold since the very beginning, for 14
years now, and it’s an end-of-the-year (or start of the new year) event I
always look forward to, because I get to vote and because I often get to write
about something that has captured the imagination and passion of Muriel voters.
This year, just like last year, I got to write about a real peach, one that
captured the hearts and minds of Muriel voters and a much broader swath of filmgoers
and award bestowers than anyone who could have ever rationally predicted this time
last year when, pre-Cannes Film Festival, the movie’s rapturous reception was
something even its creators would never have anticipated.<br />
<br />
I won’t say what my Muriels subject is this year. Instead, I’ll
just roll us right into the awards. And this year, in addition to the
traditional Muriels anniversary awards (10<sup>th</sup>, 25<sup>th</sup> and 50<sup>th</sup>)
there are even more to consider, because each Muriels voter was asked to pick
not only the films of the year, but the films of the decade (2010-2019) as
well. Savor the writing, enjoy the anticipation of this year’s winners (which aren’t,
of course, always what you’d expect), and let Muriel guide you to any of the
year’s or decade’s, or anniversary year’s best which you may yet not have seen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
Let’s start with the Muriels Best of the Decade Awards:<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2010-decade-awards-favorite.html?m=1">Favorite Performances and Directors</a></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
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<b><br /></b>
<u><b>Best Films of the Decade #10: </b></u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2010s-best-films-of-decade-10.html?m=1">Margaret</a></i></b> (Kenneth Lonergan)<br />
<br />
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<br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">“What ultimately dazzles about </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Margaret</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
is an overriding sense of a film borne out of what feels like bitter experience
on the part of its maker — a work that feels torn, bleeding, from Lonergan’s
heart. And that, among other reasons, is why its ending is as emotionally
soaring as it is. Set during a live Metropolitan Opera performance of Jacques
Offenbach’s operetta </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The
Tales of Hoffman</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">, it depicts a catharsis for both Lisa and her
mother that may not mean anything to the many opera-goers surrounding them but
certainly mean the world to them both and to us as well. Even after all that
Lisa has gone through in the course of this particularly exhausting period of
time, she has the power to respond passionately to even something as seemingly
unrelated to her current circumstances as </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Tales of Hoffman</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> —- and, considering how much we in the audience
have been privy to regarding her emotional struggles, we find ourselves
thoroughly understanding the experience that informs her passionate reaction.</span>”
(Kenji Fujishima)</span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><br /></span></u></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">Best Films of the Decade #9:</span></u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"> <i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2010s-best-films-of-decade-9.html?m=1"><b>Carol</b></a> </i>(Todd Haynes)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">“The world in which </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Carol</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> resides could have come straight from a fashion
magazine. Interiors are, initially, *perfect* - the woods are warm, the
surfaces shiny and unblemished, with a flattering light caressing clothing that
always manages to hang </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">just</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
so. It is a vision of America all too familiar to those of a conservative
mindset; an 8 x 10 glossy homage to a capitalist perfection that sure looks
pretty from a few decades down the road, but only if you willfully choose to
ignore the very uncomfortable realities that lay beneath.” (Donald G. Carder)</span></span></span><br />
<br />
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<br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">Best Films of the Decade #8:</span></u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"> <b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2010s-best-films-of-decade-8.html?m=1">Under the Skin</a></i></b> (Jonathan Glazer)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">“"When <i>Under the Skin</i> ended, I felt like I’d
been scooped out from the inside. It’s one of the saddest and loneliest films
I’ve ever seen. Scarlett Johansson is mainly a presence for the first half,
removed and captivating. And then in the second half she is heartbreaking;
confused, yearning and unfulfilled. The final minutes, in which she is pursued
by a man in the musky never-ending forest, is so palpable; you can feel her
fear. Predator to prey. The second she desires the human instinct she loses so
much agency. She becomes vulnerable and susceptible, her lair further and
further away, unable to reconcile that yearning. We sense the irreparable loss
of that center, her time dwindling.” (Catherine Stebbins)</span></span><br />
<br />
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<br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">Best Films of the Decade #7: </span></u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"> <b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2010s-best-films-of-decade-7.html?m=1">Moonlight</a></i></b> (Barry Jenkins)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">“Just as in classic Hollywood romances, the characters in </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Moonlight</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
move like they're in a musical, deliberately and gracefully, as the passage of
time speeds up and slows down and the space around them bends and stretches,
having broken completely free of the science that explains it, instead being
powered by the sheer will of emotion. The old-fashioned romance genre is used
in a very modern set of circumstances, where traditional tropes --
coming-of-age, lost love, loneliness -- are recontextualized within
non-traditional realities such as homophobia, institutionalized racism,
violence and poverty. The big minds at the big studios would surely have passed
on such a tale, thinking that its themes would alienate most audiences, when in
fact the opposite is true: </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Moonlight</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
is universal.” (Stacia Jones)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">Best Films of the Decade #6: </span></u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"> <b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2010s-best-films-of-decade-6.html?m=1">Inside Llewyn Davis</a></i></b> (Joel and Ethan Coen)</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">“There are so many ways to look at
the movie. Watch how Llewyn uses his music as a tool: a weapon, a shield, a
challenge, a payment, a bribe, a gift, a meal ticket, a proof of authenticity,
an apology... You could see it as a kind of <i>Raging Bull</i> with an acoustic
musician instead of a boxer, a man so steeped in pride and self-loathing that
his life has become an effort to build a monument to his own iconoclasm and
unlovability, cloaked in a form of non-careerist ideological purity. And then
there’s the cat, an orange tabby we (and Llewyn) belatedly find out is named
Ulysses. He takes us on quite an odyssey, leading us back in time, through the
Village streets and into the subway, and eventually all the way to Chicago. Who
is this cat and what is he doing here? That’s a good excuse for another
viewing..." (Jim Emerson)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Best Films of the Decade #5: </span></u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2010s-best-films-of-decade-5.html?m=1">The Social Network</a></i></b> (David Fincher)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">“…(I)t's been described as a ruthless
ladder-to-success story, a thwarted romance (with Erica or Eduardo?), a
courtroom drama, a fast-moving portrait of a generation and The Way We Live Now
-- and ‘a movie about 2.0 people made by 1.0 people’ (that last comment written
by a person still in beta, apparently).</span></span><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">“Is it any of those things -- or all of those things? I
don't think we know yet. As the movie's Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) says
of the newly launched Facebook to his friend and CFO Eduardo Saverin (Andrew
Garfield): ‘We don't even know what it is yet. We don't know what it is, what
it can be, what it <i>will be</i>.’ That may be the smartest thing Mark says in
the movie, and I think it may apply to <i>The Social Network</i> itself -- a
deceptively conventional film that races by at such high-bandwidth speeds that
even after you've seen it, you may not be sure you know what you've seen.” (Jim
Emerson)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Best Films of the Decade #4:</span></u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2010s-best-films-of-decade-4.html?m=1">The Master</a></i></b> (Paul Thomas Anderson)</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“</span><i><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Master</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> is something entirely singular in Anderson's body
of work, closer to the revisionist historical cinema of </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Full Metal Jacket, Zodiac,
Doomed Love</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> and </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The House of Mirth</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">. Which is to say: these histories are able to be
experienced as a consciousness. With WWII, drifters are societal anomalies,
bellwethers of a failure to suppress something else other than what was
acceptable. There's a reason why these films stand out, which may say a lot
about the times we live in and the years in which each of the films mentioned
were made than the times depicted on screen. </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Master</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">, set during a period of ‘forward-thinking’
capitalism, finds its elliptical narrative footing in the self-doubting head of
a broken, rugged failure, whose primal, sexual impulses supersede any kind of
professional or ideological adult conformism that our culture digests as
pamphleteered self-fulfillment."</span> (Michael Lieberman)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><u>Best Films of the Decade #3:</u> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2010s-best-films-of-decade-3.html?m=1"><b><i>Parasite</i></b></a></span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"> (Bong Joon-ho)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">“</span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Parasite</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> ends
on a note of desperate fantasy, detailing the musings of a young man who can
only concoct elaborate projections of his own ultimate wealth and economic
rescue conjured to assuage the guilt he feels over his family’s devastation and
the cloistered imprisonment of his father. And that young man cannot sustain
believe in those fantasies for more than a moment at a time before sinking back
down into the cruel subterranean misery where we first saw him at the beginning
of the film. The final descent of the camera which concludes </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Parasite</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">,
in what might be a prelude to genuine madness, is a cold slap of reality, what
Bong Joon-ho has described as ‘a sure-fire kill,’ even as it displays the
razor-sharp instincts of a born storyteller employed to send an audience back
into the world exhilarated, on a melancholic contact high from 135-minutes
proximity to absolute filmmaking mastery.</span>” (Dennis Cozzalio)</span></span><u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></u><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u>Best Films of the Decade #2:</u> <b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2010s-best-films-of-decade-2.html?m=1">The Tree of Life</a></i></b> (Terence Malick)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">"When you watch <b><i>The Tree
of Life</i></b>, you’re seeing a vision of a family’s life experienced with an
other-wordly, unfathomable sense of perspective. Writer/director Terrence
Malick’s latest film is elusive, engrossing and just all-around big. There are
discernible leitmotifs that run through the film, like the intrusion of chaos
into order, the gentle realization that form does not always conform to
essence, and the fleeting presence of radiant, context-free hopefulness. But
the sense of spirituality that characterizes <i>The Tree of Life</i> is nothing
if not pantheistic and all-accommodating.” (Simon Abrams)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Best Films of the Decade #1: </span></u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2010s-best-films-of-decade-1.html?m=1">Mad Max Fury Road</a></i></b> (George Miller)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“</span><i><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Fury Road</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> also makes most other blockbusters look puny on a
purely aesthetic level. In a movie filled with exhilarating images, one of my
favorites is towards the beginning, when Max is trying to escape his captors.
It's a dark, chaotic sequence that suddenly gives way to blinding light and
silence as we get our first look at Immortal Joe's Citadel. It's a moment that
has the same kind of power as Dorothy opening her front door and stepping into
Oz. </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mad Max</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
has many moments like this, reminding that, though blockbusters offer plenty of
loud spectacle, few even bother with trying to manipulate scale, perspective,
light, sound or any of the other basic tools at their disposal to create a
genuine sense of awe. For a movie that uses every state-of-the-art filmmaking
tool at its disposal, </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Fury
Road</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> is surprisingly classical in its approach to
visual storytelling.” (Andrew Bemis)</span><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">*****************************</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">So much for the past decade. On to the past 12 months. The Muriels of 2019 go to…</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u>50<sup>th</sup> Anniversary Award Best Film of 1969</u> <b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/02/2019-muriel-awards-50th-anniversary.html?m=1">The Wild Bunch</a></i></b> (Sam Peckinpah)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b>“…</b><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">a portrait of human ugliness that hits you in the gut. Yet
its band of reprobate anti-heroes manages to find some manner of honor in this
world when they agree to risk it all for a friend they left behind. Somehow
Peckinpah was able to cut open the western, pull out its guts, and still make a
classic of the form.</span>” (Vern)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">25th Anniversary Award Best Film of 1994</span></u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"> <b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/02/2019-muriel-awards-25th-anniversary.html?m=1">Pulp Fiction</a></i></b> (Quentin Tarantino)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">“<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">To those of us who came of age watching </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Pulp Fiction</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">,
everything about it seemed exciting and nothing about it seemed predictable.
Its gangsters were poetic and nerdy. Its plot was shaggy and digressive. Its
tone was light when you expected it to be heavy and funny when you expected it
to be suspenseful. If there is any ‘message’ to be found in </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Pulp Fiction</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">,
it’s this: stay on your toes.” (Ian Scott Todd)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u>10<sup>th</sup> Anniversary Award Best Film of 2009</u> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/02/2019-muriel-awards-10th-anniversary.html?m=1"><b><i>A Serious Man</i></b></a></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> (Joel and Ethan Coen)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">“<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">Larry Gopnik is a man put upon, and answers are
unforthcoming from both human and divine. The voice of the heavens belongs to
Grace Slick, though, and there are mysteries we all must accept, both in this
life and the life to come. An enduring masterpiece of theological and
sociological unease.” </span>(<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Jason Shawhan)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u>Best
Supporting Performance #3:</u></span></span><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/02/2019-muriel-awards-best-supporting.html?m=1"><b>Florence Pugh</b></a></span></span></span><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">, <i>Little Women</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">“<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto;">While Pugh’s raspy voice (a side-effect of a
tracheal condition she had as a child) can make it hard to accept her as a 13
year old, her childish cadence and looser physicality help provide enough
distance between the adolescent and the young adult Amys. Pugh is also tasked
with giving the film’s statement of purpose. Meryl Streep wanted Gerwig to
remind audiences of why someone like Amy would seek to marry for financial
gain. Pugh imparts Amy’s somewhat didactic speech with a deeply felt passion
that turns what could be a thesis statement into a moment of strength. When she
gives the speech, Laurie stops seeing her as a frivolous child. Unlike other
versions, he doesn’t seem to fall for Amy because he can’t have Jo, but because
Amy herself has grown into an intelligent, strong woman.” (Kevin Cecil)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u>Best Supporting Performance #2:</u> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/02/2019-muriel-awards-best-supporting_28.html?m=1"><b> Brad Pitt</b></a></span></span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">, <i>Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">““When you think about it, Booth is the sort of character
Pitt is a master at playing. While Pitt has always been positioned as a
confident, indestructible leading man (check out last year’s </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Ad Astra</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
if you wanna see Pitt all stiff, emotionally constipated and drained of life —
aka the complete opposite of who he is here), Pitt has always enjoyed doing
roles that let audiences know there are a lot of kinks in his armor. He’s an
ace at playing smart-asses who can kick your ass and maybe bang your girl
afterwards. As Mike D’Angelo astutely put it in a 2005 </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Esquire</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
piece, ‘...Hollywood still doesn’t understand that Pitt is a brilliant goofball
prankster trapped in the body of a Greek god. As Achilles, he’s a magnificently
sculpted statue, beautiful and boring. But turn him into a Waspy analogue to
the young Elliott Gould—the shambling, apathetic buffoon—and he’d be funnier
than Sandler and Ferrell combined.’” (Craig D. Lindsey)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><u>Best Supporting Performance #1:</u> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/02/2019-muriel-awards-best-supporting_41.html?m=1"><b>Joe Pesci</b></a></span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><b>, </b></span><i>The Irishman </i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">““Pesci isn't really in </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Irishman</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> all that much compared to his costars Robert De
Niro and Al Pacino, and Steven Zaillian's screenplay (adapted from Charles
Brandt's narrative nonfiction book </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I Heard You Paint Houses</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">) doesn't offer a whole lot about Bufalino's
backstory. But though the film may be focused on Frank Sheeran (De Niro) and
his ultimately wasted life, it's Pesci who, in his relatively limited screen
time, provides the film's heart and soul. </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Irishman</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> finds Scorsese in world-weary, contemplative
mode, and that sense of melancholic rumination is etched in every single
gesture and line reading of Pesci's performance. Pesci exudes the aura of a man
who's seen a lot of violence in his lifetime, absorbed it, made an uneasy peace
with it, and perhaps is trying to be as good a man as he can be under the
circumstances.” (Kenji Fujishima)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u>Best Youth Performance</u> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/02/2019-muriel-awards-best-youth.html?m=1"><b>Julia Butters</b></a>,</span></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><b> </b></span><i>Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood</i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u>Best Lead Performance #3<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">:</span></u></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/02/2019-muriel-awards-best-lead_29.html?m=1">Adam Sandler</a></b></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">,</span></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> <i>Uncut Gems</i></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">“<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">Sandler’s manic energy and singular ability to balance
offbeat charm with off-putting behavior are perfectly matched to Howard’s life
of scheming, gambling, and hoping. Present in almost every scene, constantly in
motion, and always too short a step ahead of his creditors, Howard disappoints
again and again. But Sandler keeps you firmly on Howard’s side, watching and
rooting, wholly swept up in the character’s abiding belief that a big payday is
just one move away—despite all evidence to the contrary.” </span>(<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Melissa Starker)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u>Best
Lead Performance #2:</u></span></span><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/02/2019-muriel-awards-best-lead.html?m=1"><b>Antonio Banderas</b></a></span></span></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>, </b></span><i><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Pain
and Glory</span></i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto;">Banderas’s movie past enriches his character here,
but that wouldn’t be enough by itself to match the scale Almodovar is reaching
for. (The original movie Zorro, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., attempted something
similar in his last film, </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">The Private Life of Don Juan</i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">,
and without his customary swashbuckling flamboyance was reduced to an amiable
hole in the screen.) As an actor, Banderas has often used his acrobatic
dancer’s grace and energy to illuminate, and sometimes satirize, the hearts of
his characters. In </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Pain and Glory</i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">,
playing a man whose physical and spiritual pain has robbed him of the impulse
to move, he channels a remarkable degree of energy and concentration into the
blocked hero’s inertia, suggesting so much inner life that you can believe it
would be tragic if he really never got out of bed and made another movie.”
(Phil Dyess-Nugent)</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u>Best Lead Performance #1:</u></span></span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/02/2019-muriel-awards-best-lead_14.html?m=1">Lupita Nyong'o</a></span></b></span></span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">, <i>Us</i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">“Nyong’o is playing predator and prey here, and as such
creates two distinct models of character development: Adelaide is driven by
emotion and a fear-filled survival instinct while Red is all physicality and
terror. Red’s strict movements and her scary, gravelly voice are exceptional,
effective acting decisions that divulge themselves fully when Red tells her
horrific backstory. In that moment, </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Us</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> complicates and flips the standard issue
hero-villain dichotomy, challenging the viewer’s sympathies and their
suspensions of disbelief with a climactic ballet-inspired battle to the death.
It’s Nyong’o who keeps the film from spiraling into incredulity in that moment;
the ties that bind Adelaide and Red have been so richly drawn and performed that
one is fully committed to the outcome. Nyong’o cements her great work by
nailing the film’s last shot, an ambiguous look that implies that good and evil
have now merged together. The outcome shall remain unknown.” </span>(</span><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Odie Henderson)<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto;"></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIkwuR4uAjGocbvUzNgMaH2oCWVRqROi0TzB6ON8EZr4-Kzj4xeCA3bXBjd1lWWsnzU8CDAzjZD64DklF9qXLEaLfEzcpviNYYdD7BAwAeOpFRODdom1knVxaRbF0wOTNnSWa_/s1600/Lighthouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="720" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIkwuR4uAjGocbvUzNgMaH2oCWVRqROi0TzB6ON8EZr4-Kzj4xeCA3bXBjd1lWWsnzU8CDAzjZD64DklF9qXLEaLfEzcpviNYYdD7BAwAeOpFRODdom1knVxaRbF0wOTNnSWa_/s400/Lighthouse.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u>Best
Cinematography:</u> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/02/2019-muriel-awards-best-cinematography.html?m=1"><b>Jarin Blaschke</b></a>,</span></span><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b> </b><i>The Lighthouse</i></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLFi7HtNoDi0LNOlMzhk9matLtSTtlG7ByNhrOd09Mp_WA9zvwPzWJiACDfMBnTNK-lrLeDIH5Zhrrw4z1R4nt2tjQeLPKWXxdi7gxiHMtbhBEQElElHBy3F7QapS0-Az3eJIa/s1600/Screen-Shot-2020-01-11-at-11.33.59-AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="947" data-original-width="1600" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLFi7HtNoDi0LNOlMzhk9matLtSTtlG7ByNhrOd09Mp_WA9zvwPzWJiACDfMBnTNK-lrLeDIH5Zhrrw4z1R4nt2tjQeLPKWXxdi7gxiHMtbhBEQElElHBy3F7QapS0-Az3eJIa/s400/Screen-Shot-2020-01-11-at-11.33.59-AM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Best
Music</span></u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <b><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/02/2019-muriel-awards-best-music.html?m=1">Daniel Lopatin</a></b>, <i>Uncut Gems</i></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirKbHU4TMymqjq8U97oAbGavurKw3CtNz2SCKZc786WGuG_3jyrpk5me3e7qQ1cgk7pHTP3SAGVBL1AetV0XdaAsdZ1Whs_FZ3UbK4AdQN82ldZKbsZCPTInhp921FMeT0ygXs/s1600/k_3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirKbHU4TMymqjq8U97oAbGavurKw3CtNz2SCKZc786WGuG_3jyrpk5me3e7qQ1cgk7pHTP3SAGVBL1AetV0XdaAsdZ1Whs_FZ3UbK4AdQN82ldZKbsZCPTInhp921FMeT0ygXs/s400/k_3.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Best
Documentary</span></u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2019-muriel-awards-best-documentary.html?m=1">Apollo 11</a></i></b> (Todd Douglas Miller)</span></span><br />
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<u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2019-muriel-awards-best-cinematic-moment.html?m=1"><b>Best Cinematic Moments</b></a></span></span></u><br />
<u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /></span></span></u>
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 13.33px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Pictured is the #8 ranking “Frank
calls Jo Hoffa” from </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-size: 13.33px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The Irishman. </i><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 13.33px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> Click the link to see other winners and, of
course, the Muriels #1 choice.</span><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike></span></span><br />
<u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b></b><i></i><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br /></span></span></u>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RpXvfJQgwbo" width="425"></iframe><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA1m2m98scXmMGHO8o9J4fyTVQYoUSXPWUWWC-XgoU9PP66yKBelYYZkjRy1xTr8Fkb4saOyIUCFBhjHWs0f1OYoaCAZua9ma6vUfG_zHZmRdll115hY6WoEqZR7C72mNRn039/s1600/hero_transit-image-2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1200" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA1m2m98scXmMGHO8o9J4fyTVQYoUSXPWUWWC-XgoU9PP66yKBelYYZkjRy1xTr8Fkb4saOyIUCFBhjHWs0f1OYoaCAZua9ma6vUfG_zHZmRdll115hY6WoEqZR7C72mNRn039/s400/hero_transit-image-2019.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u>Best Picture Countdown #10:</u> <b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2019-muriel-awards-best-picture_77.html?m=1">Transit</a> </i></b>(Christian Petzold)</span>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">“<i><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Transit</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
interacts with its own shifting, spectral histories: World War II and the
present, both separately and simultaneously; Seghers’s novel, which Petzold
daringly and brilliantly distills on a narrative detail-by-detail basis; and
perhaps most of all an entire cinematic and genre lineage. For Petzold, among
his many staggering qualities, is the greatest practitioner of Classical
Hollywood filmmaking today, in ethos if not in strict technical terms. His
clean and gorgeous compositions and incredibly well-judged editing contribute
to this, but even more important is his narrative sense, his genuine investment
into the doomed desire for connection that acts as the driving engine.</span>”
(Ryan Swen)</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8RRDmqlKgcw5VHx3jyxjftPWDxZiQ95tfnewFL9xMbw_R8DCgy-wzzzhApFen_H9gybiLfB7BlazskAEiIw4zkqGI-D0bq0YfdnUazq0_N07cb62ZRrVnR_rvB0SVWHetA2n5/s1600/a-hidden-life-review-terrence-malick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="657" data-original-width="1340" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8RRDmqlKgcw5VHx3jyxjftPWDxZiQ95tfnewFL9xMbw_R8DCgy-wzzzhApFen_H9gybiLfB7BlazskAEiIw4zkqGI-D0bq0YfdnUazq0_N07cb62ZRrVnR_rvB0SVWHetA2n5/s400/a-hidden-life-review-terrence-malick.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><u>Best Picture Countdown #9:</u> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2019-muriel-awards-best-picture_7.html?m=1"><b><i>A Hidden Life</i></b></a></span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><b><i> </i></b></span>(Terence Malick)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">“Malick’s focus in </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A Hidden Life</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> is uncharacteristic. His perspective in twain,
the wife left behind and the soldier who refused to go soldiering, and his
photography of the world around them is his most impatient and hungry, to show
that no gesture affects just one man. Each vista brings Malick the same joy
Ford evidently felt filming the buttes of Monument Valley - this is the closest
Malick’s come to making one of Ford’s pictures, somewhere between the bitter
grace of the cavalry films and the arch negativity of the curios like </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Fugitive</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">,
also about a man of god hounded by the state. His depictions of both evil and
tenderness have a 40s Catholic chasteness to them that somehow makes their
implications all the greater. When lovers are reunited, your heart races for
them, bereft the language in their hungry eyes. That is truly what it feels
like, to touch someone you fear you might never touch again. So much lost, now
found only in recreations of the past just as ugly and just as lovely as our
terrible present.” (Scout Tafoya)</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsbu0-TzYL9tdbkuXwXa5bHFApa93ujXe8NNr9Ui9uCggAusaHzZWlx5pOX-WdZIBpOF7laanVexN1jTshxD7ZylF-VV_it3yEzCRlCXgElF3exRpIPd-fWhv595zi5AJ6qY5I/s1600/http___com.ft.imagepublish.upp-prod-us.s3.amazonaws.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="700" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsbu0-TzYL9tdbkuXwXa5bHFApa93ujXe8NNr9Ui9uCggAusaHzZWlx5pOX-WdZIBpOF7laanVexN1jTshxD7ZylF-VV_it3yEzCRlCXgElF3exRpIPd-fWhv595zi5AJ6qY5I/s400/http___com.ft.imagepublish.upp-prod-us.s3.amazonaws.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><u>Best Picture Countdown #8:</u> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2019-muriel-awards-best-picture_5.html?m=1"><b><i>Pain and Glory</i></b></a></span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"> (Pedro Almodovar)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">“Four decades into his illustrious career, </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Pain and Glory</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
offers a lot of reminiscing on everything from family, lost loves and muses,
along with sexual and mental awakenings. While he claims it's not fully
autobiographical, there's so many layers to </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Pain and Glory</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> that it's hard not to see it as some attempt at
therapeutic healing. How else can you justify Almodovar directing Antonio
Banderas playing Salvador directing Alberto reenacting Salvador's memories
which in turn direct his memories of his mother who directed young Salvador? It's
Almodovar at his rawest and yet most guarded– picking apart the misguided ideal
of male stoicism while still playfully conforming to it.” </span>(</span><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Jenna Ipcar)</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj73mt-Whe3R7Wa4-cIh1vOzTpR-E927IiGpcop9qqoOBjZkRMaHtEnVb-Y69NInRYtAFJnbYF0RxczNxp0i9breBd3uYr_U3EWPC1jRVny3HMUauDmOtCtRkvnzQi2jNeSOd17/s1600/a5574fe3-4f09-4ae3-95b9-3d5e841902c3-Marriage_Story.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj73mt-Whe3R7Wa4-cIh1vOzTpR-E927IiGpcop9qqoOBjZkRMaHtEnVb-Y69NInRYtAFJnbYF0RxczNxp0i9breBd3uYr_U3EWPC1jRVny3HMUauDmOtCtRkvnzQi2jNeSOd17/s400/a5574fe3-4f09-4ae3-95b9-3d5e841902c3-Marriage_Story.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u>Best Picture Countdown #7:</u> <b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2019-muriel-awards-best-picture_15.html?m=1">Marriage Story</a></i> </b>(Noah Baumbach)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">“<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Is this a marriage story or a divorce
story? Should we side with husband Charlie (Adam Driver) or wife Nicole
(Scarlett Johansson)? Who wins and who loses? There have been passionate online
arguments in favor of both Charlie and Nicole as the film’s ‘true’ protagonist,
but one of the best things about <i>Marriage Story</i> is that way that
Baumbach steps aside and lets the characters speak for themselves (through the
fantastic, resonant performances by both lead actors)… If there’s a villain in <i>Marriage
Story</i>, it’s the divorce industry itself…” (Josh Bell)</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPPX0JNLRnim5wlaqLHaSamkx2i40fl6pUkR5RP6Qnz097KcM0DAZzXNAayh7BWhS0k1v9TJU5QAUOXZ2uhoJVLx4KVhJ5i4y6tcR4E7EE7uTSLioJvIyc63nhyphenhyphenQl90AnCv9Ma/s1600/Screen_Shot_2020_02_14_at_1.42.51_PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="1200" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPPX0JNLRnim5wlaqLHaSamkx2i40fl6pUkR5RP6Qnz097KcM0DAZzXNAayh7BWhS0k1v9TJU5QAUOXZ2uhoJVLx4KVhJ5i4y6tcR4E7EE7uTSLioJvIyc63nhyphenhyphenQl90AnCv9Ma/s400/Screen_Shot_2020_02_14_at_1.42.51_PM.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><u>Best Picture Countdown #6:</u> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2019-muriel-awards-best-picture_28.html?m=1"><b><i>Portrait of a Lady on Fire</i></b></a></span><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> (</span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">Céline Sciamma)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">“There are many elements in this movie that show the hand
of a female filmmaker, not least of them the everyday portrayal of an abortion,
a chubby baby playing nearby. But perhaps this is Sciamma’s most radical
statement: that to truly provide a viable alternative for the male gaze, it is
not sufficient to look at different things, in different ways; it is not enough
that the gazer is female, or even that the audience is presumed to be. It is
only by allowing the </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">gaze</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> her
own point of view that old ways of looking can really be subverted.</span>”
(Hedwig van Driel)</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGavCibcoK31HB0ZzXx5LjR10i6aTzZgsBX6TsGQndWtcRPIFpEOvMOl4pBxWFc3w52SONF9xJVYUIjnmYhNaee83hOX_sBpQnrma9opKBG_D0AJl-h0AF1WgAbpm2Em5XIYwd/s1600/merlin_166233777_760ee787-8178-40fc-86b7-4fe3710a1b44-superJumbo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1018" data-original-width="1600" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGavCibcoK31HB0ZzXx5LjR10i6aTzZgsBX6TsGQndWtcRPIFpEOvMOl4pBxWFc3w52SONF9xJVYUIjnmYhNaee83hOX_sBpQnrma9opKBG_D0AJl-h0AF1WgAbpm2Em5XIYwd/s400/merlin_166233777_760ee787-8178-40fc-86b7-4fe3710a1b44-superJumbo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><u>Best Picture Countdown #5:</u> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2019-muriel-awards-best-picture_30.html?m=1"><b><i>Little Women</i></b></a></span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"> (Greta Gerwig)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">“In the end Gerwig (like Quentin Tarantino in </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">,
who ‘avenged’ the Manson family murders) brings full justice to Ms. Alcott's
compromised ending with a free-spirited coda that should be an inspiration for
future generations. This is the Little Women in thought, word and deed that has
done the book's author the sturdiest measure of justice and it is
unquestionably one of the very best films of 2019.” </span>(</span><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Sam Juliano)</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjICN0wgamwCE-APg9Si_fKVhf2u4WC7goq-GRUn2puNMAc4A8VCUu8hPgkk3JNhCWm5PsxntzCwVGdc2bGuk24YBTJhMsOvP5tyrkCCdj3cl9dVsX5Jnl2a9moqb0t2jhyxPsV/s1600/ug_03495_graded_wide-3fd46880bf460932a8a767df9e989bdd7dd7e1dd-s800-c85.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="800" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjICN0wgamwCE-APg9Si_fKVhf2u4WC7goq-GRUn2puNMAc4A8VCUu8hPgkk3JNhCWm5PsxntzCwVGdc2bGuk24YBTJhMsOvP5tyrkCCdj3cl9dVsX5Jnl2a9moqb0t2jhyxPsV/s400/ug_03495_graded_wide-3fd46880bf460932a8a767df9e989bdd7dd7e1dd-s800-c85.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Best
Picture Countdown #4:</span></u><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><i> </i><b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2019-muriel-awards-best-picture.html?m=1">Uncut Gems</a> </i></b>(Josh and Benny Safdie)</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">“In the opening of the film one is taken through a
metaphysical whirlwind— a precious gemstone, through the cosmos, into a
colonoscopy (I can’t explain it, just see it). Birth, life, death, nature,
science, spirit collapsed all in barely the first few minutes of the film.
Daniel Lopatin’s soundtrack adds to the otherworldly, providing a throbbing
digital atmosphere of another ethereal space we’ve all crowded into. A war
between elegant beauty— like each carefully set diamond on a gem-emblazoned
Furby, or the perfect basketball shot— and utter chaos (no spoilers), battling
in search of some kind of order or meaning or sense to the pulsating,
relentless, maddening human experience. The whole film asking: What and why do
you worship?” (Donna Kozloskie)</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqLVCjGNlqQ3-dh7sCHpvyOwG0CB7KHINsKm8bkabv4bP7AmF_2Y5qDfujZSnr2OJ0RSJXfeMpB1cJ5RhsEe8zzHZe76757C02qfU3Rhw2wq9lzFEiF_KGgSPFzgkh73nBIOTX/s1600/OUATIH+CHILI+JOHNS.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="492" data-original-width="1186" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqLVCjGNlqQ3-dh7sCHpvyOwG0CB7KHINsKm8bkabv4bP7AmF_2Y5qDfujZSnr2OJ0RSJXfeMpB1cJ5RhsEe8zzHZe76757C02qfU3Rhw2wq9lzFEiF_KGgSPFzgkh73nBIOTX/s400/OUATIH+CHILI+JOHNS.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><u>Best Picture Countdown #3:</u> <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2019-muriel-awards-best-picture_42.html?m=1"><b><i>Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood</i></b></a></span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"> (Quentin Tarantino)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">“The most moving moments for me are the film’s evening
montages, whether it’s the sun going down to the sound of Jose Feliciano’s
‘California Dreamin’’ or the achingly lovely parade of neon signs clicking on
at dusk while the Stones sing ‘Out of Time.’ All good things will soon come to
an end, and probably sooner than you think. Yet this time it’s a surprisingly
ridiculous, unexpectedly cathartic and ultimately melancholy finale. Because
that’s what happens in the movies.”</span> (Sean Burns)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Os_VwGtJToNdPm76XrQhyphenhyphenymiK2ckhY4KhQ1Gg0WyZ-_7AaQpierbUFvXYcSdfsS5j0FiRsJMyayqsgEBGidXpx4QVIjxa3rq57SEBT8O9CUPw0LYu2-UcVAkOFSlhGhKcwsZ/s1600/de-niro-irishman-netflix.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Os_VwGtJToNdPm76XrQhyphenhyphenymiK2ckhY4KhQ1Gg0WyZ-_7AaQpierbUFvXYcSdfsS5j0FiRsJMyayqsgEBGidXpx4QVIjxa3rq57SEBT8O9CUPw0LYu2-UcVAkOFSlhGhKcwsZ/s400/de-niro-irishman-netflix.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">Best Picture Countdown #2:</span></u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"> <b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2019-muriel-awards-best-picture_1.html?m=1">The Irishman</a></i></b> (Martin Scorsese)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">““What this film demonstrates is that as much as Scorsese's
career has been about depicting his Italian-American heritage and men who feel
inarticulate frustration and guilt, it has even more been about chronicling the
moral history of the United States in the postwar era, and our common inability
to reckon with said history… The movie's slow pace and deliberateness are the
traits of a film made by an old man, but the boiling rage underneath, the
desire to grab Frank Sheeran, or Travis Bickle, or Henry Hill, or Jordan
Belfort, and yell at them ‘WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?’ is the consistent anger that
has driven Scorsese's career.” (Jeff McMahon)</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglZLcEepW_InbMcVw4QR36ZMVp63fm5iHe4iP2zjYCE9w05JLcw1bMNcjEO6XluoDbiLdCK3Kwz8eHoFOWSkmf3iWY9kKxM_1oOYisKT70y2GBY7EyFvVu0nV4_tbiyQ-WmHzz/s1600/MV5BYWJjNWYzMzItYmEyNC00ODdmLWJmOGEtMWY0N2E2NGJlNTY0XkEyXkFqcGdeQWFybm8%2540._V1_CR164%252C0%252C953%252C536_AL_UY268_CR81%252C0%252C477%252C268_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="477" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglZLcEepW_InbMcVw4QR36ZMVp63fm5iHe4iP2zjYCE9w05JLcw1bMNcjEO6XluoDbiLdCK3Kwz8eHoFOWSkmf3iWY9kKxM_1oOYisKT70y2GBY7EyFvVu0nV4_tbiyQ-WmHzz/s400/MV5BYWJjNWYzMzItYmEyNC00ODdmLWJmOGEtMWY0N2E2NGJlNTY0XkEyXkFqcGdeQWFybm8%2540._V1_CR164%252C0%252C953%252C536_AL_UY268_CR81%252C0%252C477%252C268_AL_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">Best Picture Countdown #1: Golden Muriel Award, Best
Picture of 2019:</span></u><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"> <b><i><a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2019-muriel-awards-and-golden-muriel.html?m=1">Parasite</a></i></b> (Bong Joon-ho)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;">“Bong conjures this new film, which posits a social
purgatory up from which the Kim family desperately (and literally) has to climb
in concocting a scheme for survival which will prove to be both understandable
and fatally flawed, with insouciance and acid purpose. </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Parasite</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">’s
protagonists, the denizens of a partially submerged basement apartment whose
windows look directly out into the gutters of a crowded and filthy urban
street, are looking for any way to survive. They stumble upon a way to
insinuate themselves into a home of the Parks, a super-rich family residing in
the hills, where Bong’s social critique is allowed to develop the real, sharp
teeth laying in patient wait behind the good-natured smile of its opening
third. There may be several moments during </span></span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Parasite</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; orphans: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> when Ki-woo’s astonished observation may be just
as apt, but the movie’s built-in auto-critique defuses the relative obviousness
of Bong’s dramatic strategies by serving them up with healthy doses of empathy
and humor. By the point when the wealthy Park family takes off for a weekend
camping trip, leaving the run of their spacious and modern mansion to the Kims,
you can practically taste the glee with which Bong has taken to ensure that the
hooks are in his audience, who will likely have no idea of the depths to which
his demonically entertaining film is about to plunge them.” (Dennis Cozzalio)</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">(Click <a href="https://murielcommunity.blogspot.com/2020/03/2019-muriel-awards-all-other-awards-we.html?m=1">here</a> to see a list of all the other awards the Muriels bestowed upon <i>Parasite</i>
this year.)</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_q8IJI5sTCADS7Clk5Txh1PkTboH714Q6FJAl95Y9FpEwGMnXWz_GSVXlN-i_qjIOg8vWJCWTWqeoR-cwVPNlF61ADyYAJUNd-ZqCwBF-czHCY-WVUK11VvakCMh7v2RFZy8S/s1600/Parapeach.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="800" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_q8IJI5sTCADS7Clk5Txh1PkTboH714Q6FJAl95Y9FpEwGMnXWz_GSVXlN-i_qjIOg8vWJCWTWqeoR-cwVPNlF61ADyYAJUNd-ZqCwBF-czHCY-WVUK11VvakCMh7v2RFZy8S/s400/Parapeach.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span>********************************</span></span><br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"></span>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-66714895258551074522020-02-09T08:55:00.001-08:002020-02-09T08:55:37.574-08:00BIRDS OF PREY AND THE SECRET WEAPON WHO STEALS THE MOVIE FROM ONE HARLEY QUINN
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3PSyl10NIwotWpDqZupBKp9cmBs8ekfvrJ_asOuZnZEYvzfCw6FD6IkYWU8ILMnVW4BxXMTh4tP_1WBWzDttW-pqjHbof02VbQLP7WSr2cYFEX7ESnR7ITTIQzHmDhXwZXOe6/s1600/margot-robbie-birds-prey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="1200" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3PSyl10NIwotWpDqZupBKp9cmBs8ekfvrJ_asOuZnZEYvzfCw6FD6IkYWU8ILMnVW4BxXMTh4tP_1WBWzDttW-pqjHbof02VbQLP7WSr2cYFEX7ESnR7ITTIQzHmDhXwZXOe6/s400/margot-robbie-birds-prey.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The good-natured,
yet hyper-violent <b><i>Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley
Quinn</i></b> is amusing enough to get by, a sort-of <i>Deadpool</i>-lite strung
together with a wink, a pagan’s prayer and a lot of chicken wire, and absent
the Ryan Reynolds picture’s impudent, gruesome, genuinely transgressive and
hugely entertaining impulses. But <i>BOP</i> is a distinct upgrade over the
Oscar-winning-epic-that-shall-not-be-named from whose befouled loins it sprang came
(okay, okay, <i>Suicide Squad,</i> but you likely knew that already), and it
allows Ewan McGregor, as the unctuous and evil villain Black Mask, the most fun
he’s probably ever had on screen. <b>Margot Robbie</b>, of course, chews it up in
grand style too as our bubblegum-snapping “heroine,” the admittedly insane but magnetically
likable Harley Quinn, the Joker’s ex-girlfriend, whose mismatched wardrobe
reflects the bells and whistles constantly jangling about inside her head but
is also a continuing act of found fashion art, like what might happen if
Jackson Pollock did a line for Hot Topic. Robbie has her share of kicks as
well, of course, even if the movie isn’t sharp or funny enough to match her
enthusiasm. There are also game turns from Rosie Perez as an
‘80s-cop-show-obsessed cop (an idea the movie does almost nothing with), Jurnee
Smollett-Bell as a songstress/not-at-all-committed employee of the Mask’s whose
glass-shattering voice might have Ella Fitzgerald protesting from the grave,
Chris Messina as the Mask’s creepy, face-stealing henchman, and Ella Jay Basco
as the pickpocketing kid around whom all this nonsense spins.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZuUC7xXF9Sr9ZfXTg3u3eQFkN42LNbFpo_BsquWlX6L1UIqNmQsaCeSXRfD2alx3IPpvdNsiDltltzknIhfMMFUeV-cmLIhIxQsL7FOOWPAn6RkWDKADg_DMFZ4Ah4mup9bm5/s1600/New-birds-of-prey-Promo-highlights-Mary-Elizabeth-Winsteads-Huntress.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="890" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZuUC7xXF9Sr9ZfXTg3u3eQFkN42LNbFpo_BsquWlX6L1UIqNmQsaCeSXRfD2alx3IPpvdNsiDltltzknIhfMMFUeV-cmLIhIxQsL7FOOWPAn6RkWDKADg_DMFZ4Ah4mup9bm5/s400/New-birds-of-prey-Promo-highlights-Mary-Elizabeth-Winsteads-Huntress.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">But the
movie is near-stolen by <b>Mary Elizabeth Winstead</b>’s Huntress, a mysterious,
revenge-inspired assassin with a pretty by-the-numbers back story who dishes
out gory karma all while constantly correcting onlookers about her assumed
moniker and choice of weaponry. The young actress absolutely sells her
pseudo-hero’s poker-faced, confident purpose while at the same time undermining
it with the humorous insecurity of a kid brought up in isolation on a steady
diet of unslaked vengeance who just, in her own weird way, wants to reconnect
with the concept of belonging to a sort of family. Winstead is deadpan
hilarious here, and she and Robbie share the movie’s best sequence, a
motorcycle-car chase that finally moves the picture’s roller derby sensibility
from subtext to rip-roaring text, with Harley Quinn on skates behind Huntress’s
cycle, whipping around, over and onto a fleeing car full of creeps. <i>Birds of
Prey</i> is worth seeing for this sequence alone, but Robbie, McGregor, and
especially Winstead make it worth the whole trip.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqdK2PSyLe_BpKbQ3xtJEQaWEMMy0MWdQjXJAePRoRgQJ820grhTqswPnbRDHN1u8l0mPB8RRZLCYrsZVkSqbhg_aU8rcyuo_PojlvkUIt7LLObo_hEiHkIgtMC7mVHq3rgfkt/s1600/83927437_10157281488913369_1366577246906613760_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqdK2PSyLe_BpKbQ3xtJEQaWEMMy0MWdQjXJAePRoRgQJ820grhTqswPnbRDHN1u8l0mPB8RRZLCYrsZVkSqbhg_aU8rcyuo_PojlvkUIt7LLObo_hEiHkIgtMC7mVHq3rgfkt/s320/83927437_10157281488913369_1366577246906613760_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Which leads
me to my nifty Mary Elizabeth Winstead story. When my eldest daughter was five,
we saw the superhero comedy <i>Sky High</i> at a drive-in. We not only loved
the movie, a sort-of wackier John Hughes-type coming-of-age picture done up at a high school
for budding superheroes who don’t quite know what to do with how their bodies
are changing, adapting to their nascent super-abilities, but we also loved
Winstead in it—she plays the superhero high school’s most popular student, who
has designs on the story’s protagonist and who goes from potential girlfriend
to deadly foe, in a Disney way, of course. About a year after we saw the movie,
and after we’d bought it and seen in a couple thousand more times on DVD, my daughters
and wife and I were window shopping in Burbank and strolled into an Urban
Outfitters where I almost immediately spotted the actress, who was standing and
talking to a friend. (At almost six feet, she was very striking and kinda hard
to miss.) So after a moment or two to screw up my courage, I walked over,
introduced myself, explained that my six and four-year-old daughters were huge
fans of her performance as the super-villainess Royal Pain, and asked if she’d
mind if I brought them over to meet her. This was early enough in her career
that Winstead may have been purely happy just to have been recognized, but she
seemed delighted by the suggestion, and so I retrieved my kids and we stepped
over to where she was. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">T</span></span><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">he
looks on their faces, especially my eldest’s, as they met their first, and
maybe favorite at the time, movie star was, as they say, priceless. Winstead
talked to them for a few minutes, was extremely charming, and also still enough
of a kid herself at the time to be real with them in a way that she might not
otherwise have been able to access, and I will always love her for that moment
she gave my kids. So, when I sat next to my daughter last night as she crushed
massively over Winstead on-screen as Huntress, it was a really neat and once-in-a-lifetime
thing to be able to remember that moment and remind my kid about it afterward.
She would have loved the movie anyway, but this terrific young actress sealed
that response with a well-placed arrow right in my daughter’s heart.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Thanks,
<a data-ft="{"type":104,"tn":"*N"}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/maryelizabethwinstead?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG" style="cursor: pointer;"><span aria-label="hashtag"><span style="color: #365899; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">#</span></span><span style="color: #385898; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">MaryElizabethWinstead</span></a>,
wherever you are!</span></span></div>
***************************************Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-59201163027127528802020-02-02T15:34:00.000-08:002020-02-02T15:34:02.264-08:00SYBIL THE SOOTHSAYER'S OSCAR PREDIX!
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXfnrcUAV2gerPScHba0QY57rgudr_c1AgkYKshSUAM59z96CnqowI79k2GBbefrjd_5cxrMoIT-t_SB5b0i8zo3XiqFgpwT44o-sv15M1ifCUnAgXAlBCpbtgu9uxVlfPeUSw/s1600/SYBIL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="854" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXfnrcUAV2gerPScHba0QY57rgudr_c1AgkYKshSUAM59z96CnqowI79k2GBbefrjd_5cxrMoIT-t_SB5b0i8zo3XiqFgpwT44o-sv15M1ifCUnAgXAlBCpbtgu9uxVlfPeUSw/s400/SYBIL.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Well, the most wonderful time of the year is upon us yet
again, and if you’re thinking I’m about 30-days-and-change late in going on
about Christmas, well, you obviously don’t live in Los Angeles. For around
these parts, the time in between the announcement of the Academy Award
nominations and the awards ceremony itself—this year a much shorter gauntlet of
days for campaigning nominees and their studio backers to run—is Christmas
redux, a month-long-or-so orgy of adulation when everyone loves everyone else’s
work (except all the stuff they forgot about, naturally) and the spirit of
lavishing career-honoring praise and statues permeates the air like thick,
throat-thrashing smoke from a nearby wildfire.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This year is no different, of course, but maybe the usual sense
of inevitability about who’s gonna win what is a bit more pronounced, simply
because for awards show after awards show the same handful of winners have been
seen trotting to the stage to accept the acting, directing and technical
achievement awards. This is encouraging a dangerous sense of security among
office Oscar pool participants (and by office Oscar pool participants I am
referring, of course, to myself) who may think they’ve got a better handle on
what whims Oscar will indulge next weekend than usual. That know-it-all-and-then-overthink-it
impulse sinks my Oscar pool chances almost every year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And if you’ve read this column over the years, you’ll have a
sense of just why my Oscar pool ballot typically takes on water pretty early in
the show. There’s no need to provide links to my doomed Oscar predix of the
past—just trust me, I don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about when it comes
to second-guessing the nebulous and fickle AMPAS voting body. Of course, that
shocking admission shall be no hindrance to my carrying on as usual and making
public my guesses as to what might transpire next Sunday night at the Dolby
Theater in beautiful downtown Hollywood. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">But this year I’ve recruited some help.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">With a great expenditure of time, effort and a goodly
percentage of my savings account, I went in search of the one person whose
psychic energy might actually enhance my odds of reigning supreme at my Oscar
party, the woman whose predictive powers and all-around acumen with the crystal
ball would shame Sylvia Browne and Jeane Dixon, both of whom have sloughed off
this mortal coil anyway, so it’s not like they’d do me any good— I’m even worse
at contacting the dead via séance than I am at picking Oscar winners. No, the
woman I’m referring to is, perhaps surprisingly, still alive. I discovered that
she’s been living in a convalescent home just outside Chicago, Illinois, which caters
to fringe TV personalities, for the past 26 years and, after several long
telephone conversations which were scattered in their subject matter, to say
the least, I convinced her to help me in my quest to win this year’s Oscar pool.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Her name is Gladys Meyerowitz, and you will be forgiven if
that name doesn’t quite ring a bell, because you probably only know her from
the name by which she appeared briefly on the UBN Television Network in 1976, on the roster of regular
contributors to that network’s wildly popular (until it suddenly wasn’t) <i>The
Howard Beale Show.</i> I’m referring, of course, to Sybil the Soothsayer. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">During our conversations, Gladys made me call her Sybil. She
says that hearing herself referred to by that name again helped focus the
psychic energy which, she admits, has been a little spottier in her old age. But
Sybil remained supremely confident in her ability to interpret that energy and
accurately prognosticate about what’s going to happen when all of Hollywood
gathers together next Sunday night. Even though she claims she hasn’t been out
to a movie since 1986 (“That <i>Blue Velvet</i> put me off watching pictures in
public for good!”), she’s still got a DVD player and, of course, her own feisty,
sometimes spiritually enhanced opinions, which I have included alongside her
picks in each category. And since this is my spot behind the velvet curtain and
not hers, I have indicated who I believe should win from all the nominees in
each category, as well as who I would pick if I were not restricted to just the
five or so choices winnowed down by the Academy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So, let’s get to it. Straight from <i>The Howard Beale Show,</i>
via the Bob Bell and Beverly Braun Convalescent Home for the Semi-Famous, here
are Sybil the Soothsayer’s picks to win big at this year’s Academy Awards. Adjust
your expectations and your Oscar pool ballot choices accordingly.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6TgjYU30uFATPDJ_Lui9z64O4kDPPJIoBwVq23a-zQ0ZujY9Zsysy6YEfZ1ythmgyyOPVM_iy_X2jzpyuCQkbeXX2bwDeaU_bTkSG75BYCi_9wZBBfq6_oF1qwqIo_ARY21ry/s1600/hero_1917-movie-review-2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1200" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6TgjYU30uFATPDJ_Lui9z64O4kDPPJIoBwVq23a-zQ0ZujY9Zsysy6YEfZ1ythmgyyOPVM_iy_X2jzpyuCQkbeXX2bwDeaU_bTkSG75BYCi_9wZBBfq6_oF1qwqIo_ARY21ry/s400/hero_1917-movie-review-2019.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">PICTURE</span></u></b><br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></u></b>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b><i>1917</i></b> (“I picked this over <i>Parasite</i>
because I don’t like to think about maggots and leeches and things like that.”)
</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: <i>Parasite</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: <i>Parasite</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">ACTRESS</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b>Renee Zellweger</b>, <b><i>Judy</i></b> (“I
knew Judy Garland, and lemme tell ya, Renee’s no Judy Garland, but Vincente
Minnelli told me a couple weeks ago she was gonna win, so…”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: Um…
Scarlett Johansson?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: Mary Kay Place, <i>Diane</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtdtII7f9uzpeX5PsCJMqiH5IY4r1cRtYr62MGVa-NZ3Q0I_PgfANrmii8hF9xSOyWtTvKGeTUugskmBsiaRV-Il17PTe-OGBjtXDTnfhpX7dAoSt9Tvky0Lh9-W9F_R5AH2Se/s1600/pain-and-glory-antonio-banderas-1a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtdtII7f9uzpeX5PsCJMqiH5IY4r1cRtYr62MGVa-NZ3Q0I_PgfANrmii8hF9xSOyWtTvKGeTUugskmBsiaRV-Il17PTe-OGBjtXDTnfhpX7dAoSt9Tvky0Lh9-W9F_R5AH2Se/s400/pain-and-glory-antonio-banderas-1a.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></i>
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">ACTOR</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b>Joaquin Phoenix</b>, <b><i>Joker</i></b> (“The
Academy likes a comedian.”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: Antonio Banderas, <i>Pain and Glory</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: Antonio Banderas</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SUPPORTING ACTRESS</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b>Laura Dern</b>, <b><i>Marriage Story</i></b>
(“That young lady has a coltish charm about her, don’t ya think? She’s gonna go
places.”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: Laura Dern</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: Yeo-jeong Jo, So-dam Park, Hye-jin Jang, Jeon-eun
Lee, <i>Parasite</i> (so sue me)</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SUPPORTING ACTOR</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b>Brad Pitt</b>, <b><i>Once Upon a Time… in
Hollywood</i></b> (“He should’ve won for <i>Oceans’ Twelve. </i>This will be a
make-up win for that.”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: Joe Pesci, <i>The Irishman</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: Joe Pesci</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DIRECTOR</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b>Sam Mendes</b>, <b><i>1917</i></b> (“Such a
good boy, making a movie about his grandpa like that. And I have it on very
good authority that the old man liked the picture a lot, though he did say he thought
Benedict Cumberbatch sucked.”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: Bong Joon Ho, <i>Parasite</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: Bong Joon Ho</span><br />
<br />
<br />
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</div>
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b>Quentin Tarantino</b>, <b><i>Once Upon a
Time.. in Hollywood</i></b><i> </i> (“Hasn’t he won before? Who does he think he
is? Woody Allen?)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin Won, <i>Parasite</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin Won</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">ADAPTED SCREENPLAY</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b>Taika Waititi</b>, <b><i>Jojo Rabbit</i></b><i>
</i>(“How could the academy vote against an anti-Nazi bunny?”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: Steven Zaillian, <i>The Irishman</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: Steven Zaillian</span><br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu29mcDGskixloSYsOM1ZoQ0X3_YY4DYaLhgzzXRQuGH8CGqiWepvRTI9SqWkQFNvg2OzNaJ_wQWKpWbvMCWASjfyVaCNJ0VKt_Ei9YFq1Qe4worodj2VIZhKxT7-8Sm-TclBT/s1600/i-lost-my-body-xilam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu29mcDGskixloSYsOM1ZoQ0X3_YY4DYaLhgzzXRQuGH8CGqiWepvRTI9SqWkQFNvg2OzNaJ_wQWKpWbvMCWASjfyVaCNJ0VKt_Ei9YFq1Qe4worodj2VIZhKxT7-8Sm-TclBT/s400/i-lost-my-body-xilam.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">ANIMATED FEATURE</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b><i>I Lost My Body</i></b> (“I can relate, and
have several times.”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: <i>I Lost My Body</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: <i>I Lost My Body</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><b><u>CINEMATOGRAPHY</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">S</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">YBIL SAYS: <b>Roger Deakins</b>, <b><i>1917</i></b> (“At my
age, I prefer long takes. Plus, how the hell did he do that?!”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: Jarin Blascke, <i>The Lighthouse</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: Kyung-pyo Hong, <i>Parasite</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><b><u>COSTUME DESIGN </u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">S</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">YBIL SAYS: <b>Jacqueline Durran,</b> <b><i>Little Women</i></b><i>
</i>(“Don’t you think I should have won one in 1976 for my STS garb in <i>Network?!
</i>They would’ve had to give it to me and not Theoni V. Aldredge too, ‘cause
that sucker came right out of my closet!”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: Sandy Powell, Christopher Peterson, <i>The
Irishman</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: Ruth Carter, <i>Dolemite Is My Name</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM6KiLEXCfqXEwTNofimKE6Ansu6IGDWOhuZzRCwZTurpjsXWuBwpP3L7LT1nfva7_aoLeitR6WG_EgnXbzmhMAPEQvEtMU2Rc1SrFxS-FX-lfuKgherpLfpAtY6B4tiOZtbd-/s1600/923755d0-8626-11e9-b500-0a1f514436ec-e1578931103214.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="681" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM6KiLEXCfqXEwTNofimKE6Ansu6IGDWOhuZzRCwZTurpjsXWuBwpP3L7LT1nfva7_aoLeitR6WG_EgnXbzmhMAPEQvEtMU2Rc1SrFxS-FX-lfuKgherpLfpAtY6B4tiOZtbd-/s400/923755d0-8626-11e9-b500-0a1f514436ec-e1578931103214.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></i><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></i>
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DOCUMENTARY FEATURE</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b><i>American Factory</i></b> (“Maybe Michelle
Obama will show up!”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: <i>Honeyland</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: <i>Honeyland</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">FILM EDITING</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b>Yang Jinmo,<i> Parasite</i></b><i> </i>(“I
heard just now they apparently edited all the actual parasites out of the final
cut, and that’s good enough for me, so…”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: Thelma Schoonmaker, <i>The Irishman</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: <i>The Irishman</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgauA4JJbRxcVWJynthDjz6TIIP1O6IPmvQXuxrHEprN9i3VzgCcO_fSXLL4XR4FKLm_Zi6DHh3sjvyUyg8QHsOjfqrrZpc3OremlIuXoShAMXDm05tnaRqKKZbin4aOX86vS3w/s1600/untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgauA4JJbRxcVWJynthDjz6TIIP1O6IPmvQXuxrHEprN9i3VzgCcO_fSXLL4XR4FKLm_Zi6DHh3sjvyUyg8QHsOjfqrrZpc3OremlIuXoShAMXDm05tnaRqKKZbin4aOX86vS3w/s400/untitled.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></i><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></i>
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">INTERNATIONAL FILM</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b><i>Parasite</i></b> (“Enough already!”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: <i>Parasite</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: <i>Parasite</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b><i>Joker</i></b> (“They give an Oscar for
this, but not for stunt people? Jeez…”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: <i>Bombshell </i>(better a win here for
prosthetics than a Best Actress win for prosthetics)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: N/A</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MUSICAL SCORE</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b>Hildur Gudnadottir, <i>Joker</i></b> (“Give
it to the kid from Iceland. Everybody else sounds like they’re stealing from
themselves.”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: <i>Thomas Newman, </i>1917</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: James Newton Howard, <i>A Hidden Life</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">ORIGINAL SONG</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b>“(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again”, <i>Rocketman</i></b><i>
</i>(“They wanna see Elton John on stage more than they do Michelle Obama even!”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: None</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: “Love Theme from <i>Uncut Gems</i>”</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">PRODUCTION DESIGN</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b>Barbara Ling, <i>Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood</i>
</b>(“Production design so good, why, the made Hollywood look like it was a
real place!”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: Lee Ha Jun, Chon Won Woo, <i>Parasite</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK:<i> Parasite</i></span><br />
<i></i><br />
<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SOUND EDITING</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b>Donald Sylvester, <i>Ford v Ferrari</i></b> (“Those
cars are goddamn loud!”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: Wylie Stateman, <i>Once Upon a Time… in
Hollywood</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: <i>Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SOUND MIXING</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b>Paul Massey, David Giammarco, Steven A.
Morrow, <i>Ford v Ferrari</i> </b>(“Goddamn, those cars are loud!”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">DESERVED WINNER: Michael Minkler, Christian P. Minkler, Mark
Ulano, <i>Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MY PICK: <i>Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">VISUAL EFFECTS</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">SYBIL SAYS: <b>Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Matt Aitken, Dan
Sudick, <i>Avengers: Endgame </i></b>(“Volume counts in this category, plus I
have a bit of a crush on Thanos. No, not Josh Brolin. Thanos.”)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">DESERVED WINNER: <span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #4a4a4a;">Pablo
Helman, Leandro Estebecorena, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser, Stephane Grabli</span>, <i>The
Irishman</i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #4a4a4a;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">MY PICK: <i>The
Irishman</i></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #4a4a4a;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Thanks to Sybil
for soothsaying her way onto that rickety Oscar predix limb for me this year.
If you use her picks as your own and you lose, well, I predict… you won’t ever
do that again! Good luck, and happy Academy Awards!</span></span><br />
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">**********************************</span>Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-90900297977826826382020-01-12T00:21:00.000-08:002020-01-12T09:12:37.129-08:00UPSTAIRS/DOWNSTAIRS: THE FILMS OF 2019<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Seems to me that only in a very good
year for movies could the best film I saw all year and the worst film I saw all
year both be called<i> Parasite.</i> Of course, one was the Cannes sensation
and sure-to-be-Oscar-nominated South Korean film from Bong Joon Ho. The other
was the 1982 3-D “classic” from director Charles Band, starring Demi Moore and
Luca Bercovici, a movie which, once I finally caught up with it, or rather once
it finally caught up with me (after my having successfully avoided it for
almost 40 years), certainly made for an agonizing waste of <i>my</i> time, so I
can only imagine what the actors and craftspeople who were involved with making
it must have felt, and likely still do. And I consider it a real hallmark of a
quality cinema annum when I can say that I saw more movies by near-forgotten
Hollywood journeymen Ray Enright and Lloyd Bacon (look ‘em up, kids—that’s what
IMDb is for) than I did by Martin Scorsese, who doubles up near the top of my
list this year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here then, from the heights to the depths
(with only the most glancing mention of the depths, really), are the highlights
of this past terrific movie year for me, the pictures, performances, and
singular achievements that made going to the movies so much more enjoyable than
paying attention to real life, even when they opened the sort of revealing
window onto real life that is only possible within this art form, reflecting
and illuminating the human condition in the most unexpected, welcome and, if
we’re really lucky, entertaining of ways. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><u>PARASITE</u></i></b><b><i> </i></b> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Bong Joon Ho redefines “upstairs/downstairs”
in what is, in my estimation and on its own terms, and if such a thing can even
exist, just about as perfect a movie as I’ve ever seen in the modulation of its
social satire— acute observations on class and strata are embedded in just
about every frame, yet the picture is astonishing fun to watch, the polar
opposite of a dry treatise on how humans functioning in webs of economic
frustration or privilege feed on each other. It seems also to have hit a nerve
with audiences starved for a sense of surprise, for the satisfaction of not
knowing where they’re going but being absolutely assured, and with great
pleasure and anticipation, that they’ll get there—the movie is thrillingly
entertaining and, from moment to moment, genuinely unpredictable.<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: black;"> It also has, in the work of actors like
Boon Joon Ho veterans Song Kang-ho (</span><i><span style="color: black;">The
Host</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: black;">) and Lee Jong-un (<i>Okja</i></span><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: black;">), as well as Jo Yeo-jeong, Jang Hye-in, and especially
Park So-dam, the highest caliber ensemble performance by any cast this year.
This movie is what ensemble screen acting awards are made for. Bong (</span><i><span style="color: black;">Mother, Memories of Murder</span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: black;">) has conjured an exquisitely
controlled, fiercely alive work that ought to make just about every other
director out there sick with envy, and perhaps even inspired by the surety and
humor and brilliantly sustained purpose with which he delivers the goods. This
is easily the year’s best, most pleasurable, and ultimately most devastating
movie.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b><i><u>DIANE</u></i></b><b> </b> The Los Angeles Film Critics Circle were wise
enough to award Mary Kay Place their best actress honors this year, which gives
me hope that she may at least be acknowledged by yet another higher-profile award-bestowing
body this coming week. But even if she doesn’t, she’s given a performance for
the ages in Kent Jones’s <span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: black;">masterful
movie, a lovely, unforced, exquisitely realized, formally engaging act of
empathy for unsung souls burdened by the shadows of social and familial
responsibility, mortality, identity and inescapable guilt. If that sounds like
a drag, then please allow yourself to be energized by a film that, though it
couldn’t feel more different in tone and approach, can stand right next to <i>Parasite</i>
as an exemplar of the absolute best a very good year at the movies has had to
offer.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><u>THE IRISHMAN</u></i></b><b> </b>One of the great common denominators
about at least five of the movies among my favorites of 2019 is that they
couldn’t have been made by anyone else, and that’s certainly true of the two
movies made by Martin Scorsese represented here. The cast, from the rightly
celebrated Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, through Ray Romano, Harvey
Keitel, Anna Paquin, Stephan Graham, and on to Jesse Plemons, Kathrine
Narducci, Domenick Lombardozzi and a giant cast of players even less known, are
all deserving of praise. But even more fascinating, Scorsese approaches the
story of hitman Frank Sheeran, his role in the tumultuous history of American
union politics and, perhaps, in the death of Teamsters icon Jimmy Hoffa, with
the subdued style of one of his religious epics, eschewing the flash of <i>GoodFellas</i>
for an appropriately rueful stylistic meditation on tenuous power, corrupt
morality, and the heavy sigh of a soul, perhaps not one even worth saving, in
absolute freefall. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><u>A HIDDEN LIFE</u></i></b><b> </b> With his gorgeous, agonizing, poetically
realized story of a conscientious objector in WWII Austria, Terence Malick not
only sums up the stylistic compulsions that have obsessed his work over the
last two decades, but he’s also finally fulfilled the promise of <i>Days of
Heaven</i> and his presumed status as a great American filmmaker. This is a
movie that demands a rigorous attention to philosophical quandaries that
clearly alienated several members of the audience with which I saw it, yet it
rewards those like myself, who were suspicious of films like <i>The Tree of
Life</i> or <i>To The Wonder</i>, with a genuinely haunting, challenging,
uniquely introspective experience that is itself based on the introspection of
a modest, undeniably heroic man, the sort who chooses to suffer injustice
rather than perpetuate it, the sort whose stories often go untold.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><u>ROLLING THUNDER REVUE: A BOB DYLAN
STORY BY MARTIN SCORSESE</u></i></b><b>
</b>Scorsese’s second appearance on this list is a long, strange,
joyous, darkly comic mix of the factual and the fantastical, a reassessment of
Bob Dylan’s famous 1975 tour which contextualizes the music, the personalities
and especially the attempts to control the telling of the story of a specific
moment in a musical movement, in terms of the shifting landscape of a country
and its culture, both then and now. Like Dylan’s music, and Dylan himself (who
robustly participates in the blurring of as many lines of truth and fiction as
possible here, to fascinating ends), the documentary/mockumentary Scorsese has
fashioned is, both in individual moments and in overall philosophy, epic,
lyrical, personal, contradictory, nonsensical, and a deliriously fascinating one
in which no truth, and perhaps every truth, is arrived at 45 years late and
right on time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><u>ATLANTICS</u></i></b><b> </b>A mysterious, gorgeous first feature
from director Mati Diop scored to its own ethereal, uniquely untrackable
heartbeat, a love story grounded in social reality which floats on longing and
pivots on its metaphysical heel to become something… unexpected, expansive,
strangely worthy of that longing. Mame Bineta Sane, a first-time actress, holds
the screen like a Hollywood veteran as Ada, a young woman bound in a marriage
contract whose true boyfriend disappears with a group of fellow construction
workers at sea, and the way Diop, with a magnificent assist from Claire
Mathon’s swoon-inducing cinematography, tells the story of these two unrequited
lovers and the unbreachable gap separating them is satisfying in the elliptical
manner of a superbly written short story. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><u>APOLLO 11</u></i></b><b> </b>In coincidence with the 50<sup>th</sup>
anniversary of the moon landing, and bereft of narration, talking heads or
other grounding devices, director Todd
Douglas Miller uses NASA and television news footage (a generation of viewers
will now be privy to the reasons behind the reverence with which their elders
infuse the utterance of the name “Walter Cronkite”) to tell the story of Neil
Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and that truly incredible journey in a
way that enhances the reality and the unbearable suspense of a situation we’ve
now known the outcome of for several generations. In a year of great
documentaries, none was possessed of the sort of historical acuity or grandeur,
or the almost hallucinatory clarity that is the lifeblood of Miller’s
achievement. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><u>ONE CHILD NATION</u></i></b><b> </b><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">A cross-generational cry of anger from
documentarian Nanfu Wang, who explores the awful history of China’s one-child
policy, those whose lives were shaped (and sometimes warped) by it, and the
dutiful citizens, acting from pride, helplessness, or a grim combination of
both, who perpetuated it in the name of national strength. Perhaps the most
distinctive element of Wang’s approach, apart from her refusal to look away
from even the most personal implications of China’s policy, is <span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: black;">the creative and political intelligence she
exhibits in observing that though she grew up in a country which for years
mandated abortions, and then moved to a country (the United States) where
abortions are slowly becoming more difficult to obtain, both governments were
about removing the rights of women to make decisions about their own bodies,
thus neutering the opportunity for those who might be so inclined to
reductively spin </span><i><span style="color: black;">One Child Nation </span></i><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: black;">into a simple pro-life tract.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background: #f4f4f4; color: black;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><u>HONEYLAND</u></i></b><b> </b><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">If the measure of a truly remarkable
documentary is to illuminate an aspect of humanity unfamiliar to most
audiences, then the work done by directors Tamara Kotevska and<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: black;"> Ljubomir Stefanov</span>, in distilling over three years’ worth of footage into this
compelling, ultimately heartbreaking nonfiction film, must be considered
remarkable, a lovely rendering of a life lived and expressed in balance with
the natural world, the world faced as it is with no compromise, which
nonetheless is perilously close to falling out of balance. As shot by the
intimately calibrated cameras of <span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: black;">Fejmi
Daut and Samir Ljuma, <i>Honeyland</i> quietly observes, and ultimately
celebrates the endurance of a middle-aged beekeeper named Hatidze, who tends to
her feeble mother as well as the bees who provide the means of her physical and
economic sustenance, and who must also endure the appearance of a vagabond
Turkish family who inadvertently come to threaten her ecosystem and her
survival. With its equal measures of patience, insistent yet nonjudgmental curiosity
about human motivations, and its inevitable sadness, the film stands as a
unique wonder, painfully privy to secret moments, expansive, haunting. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i><u>DOLEMITE IS MY NAME</u></i></b><b> </b><span style="background: white; color: #1c1e21;"> <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">A heartfelt tribute to getting your art (and
yourself) on the screen and into movie history, anchored by an arguably
career-best performance by Eddie Murphy, alongside stellar support from the likes
of Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Keegan-Michael Key and, most especially, Da’Vine
Joy Randolph. Murphy thankfully avoids the mistake of slavishly copying the
vocal rhythms and look of Rudy Ray Moore, who brought a generation or two's worth
of folklore and coalesced it into a stand-up and movie career as Dolemite, a
storyteller styled in the pimp couture of the day. </span></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #1c1e21; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(Moore is also considered by some, based on his
musically charged vocal rhythms and how he used them to relate his jokes and
stories, as the godfather of rap.) Instead, Murphy makes the character his own,
which is his way of carrying on Moore's tradition of passing along urban
legends filtered through his own personality. The result is a thoroughly
enjoyable, outrageously profane, and not surprisingly honorable movie which
joins the ranks of <i>Ed Wood</i> (1994; also written by <i>DIMN</i>'s</span> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/larry.karaszewski?__tn__=%2CdK-R-R&eid=ARBrQfIdkZ2-F9q1kL5tnWvqkGWLL60r-6TKxBlBPYrVRrt9IufEJnbLTFFNI_b5rxODaGLYZiX5Ktip&fref=mentions" title="Larry Karaszewski">Larry Karaszewski</a><span style="color: #1c1e21; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
and Scott Alexander) and </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/aarkush?__tn__=%2CdK-R-R&eid=ARBgQWbv-NqiKtHeNAOFYyGgOIqD_U7puLePyacDQ2RQVteoGtfm1vkiPy1Lh4kMetzPUV7ZgKRIEZdo&fref=mentions" title="Allan Arkush">Allan Arkush</a><span style="color: #1c1e21; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
and </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/directorjoedante?__tn__=%2CdK-R-R&eid=ARBYz2Rr95ML6K8OOJjkXzp9ZDB10fcXunyqyff3LnlVs4EIjjSgMsOcnJ93dwvtSJkeO1bwNrQKPfb4&fref=mentions" title="Joe Dante">Joe Dante</a><span style="color: #1c1e21; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">'s
wonderful <i>Hollywood Boulevard</i> (1976) as perhaps the best movies ever
made about making Hollywood outside the box.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #1c1e21; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"></span><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><u>HONORABLE MENTION (in alphabetical
order):</u></b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <i>AD ASTRA, AVENGERS:
ENDGAME, <b>THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM</b>, CRAWL, FORD VS. FERRARI, GODZILLA KING OF THE
MONSTERS, LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE, THE LIGHTHOUSE, MARRIAGE
STORY, MIDSOMMAR, PAIN AND GLORY, THE PRODIGY, TRANSIT, UNCUT GEMS, US</i></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Still to see in 2019</span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>ASH IS PUREST WHITE</b>, BOOKSMART,
BOMBSHELL, CATS, THE CURRENT WAR, DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME, ESCAPE ROOM,
THE FANATIC, FIRST LOVE, GLORIA BELL, THE GREAT HACK, HONEY BOY, THE KING, THE
KINGMAKER, THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO, LITTLE WOMEN, MAKING WAVES: THE
ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND, THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE, MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN,
THE NIGHTINGALE, PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, RICHARD JEWELL, TIGERS ARE NOT
AFRAID, TOY STORY 4, THE TWO POPES, WESTERN STARS, WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE?,
WHERE’S MY ROY COHN?, ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP</span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></i><br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></i>
<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One I Liked Way Better Than Y’all Did</span></u></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ones Y’all Liked Way Better Than I Did</span></u></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">THE SOUVENIR, ONCE UPON A TIME IN…
HOLLYWOOD, HUSTLERS</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Least Fulfilled Opportunity Based On
Its Excellent Source Material</span></u></b></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>ZEROVILLE</b></span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Biggest (Happy) Surprises</span></u></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">6 UNDERGROUND, SCARY STORIES TO TELL
IN THE DARK</span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Biggest (Unhappy) Surprise (aka The
Worst Movie of 2019)</span></u></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://sergioleoneifr.blogspot.com/2019/07/retrofitting-yesterday.html"><b>YESTERDAY</b></a></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Best Viewing Experiences of 20</span></u></b><b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">19</span></u></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>CRAWL</i> (head in
popcorn bucket, Regency Academy, Pasadena)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>CRY WOLF</i> (1947)
(TCM)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>DOLEMITE IS MY NAME</i> (with a
similarly amused audience, Laemmle Glendale)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS</i> (with
Emma, free preview courtesy of the Secret Movie Club, Arclight Cinemas,
Hollywood)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>THE IRISHMAN</i> (packed
house, Studio Movie Grill, Glendale)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE</i> (by
myself, sobbing, Laemmle Glendale; with Bruce, sobbing, Hillcrest Cinemas, San
Diego)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>MERRILY, WE GO TO HELL</b> </i>(inaugural
selection TCM Classic Film Festival 2019, with Bruce)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>NASHVILLE</i> (TCM
Classic Film Festival, with Bruce, Bob Westal, Ronee Blakely, Keith Carradine,
Jeff Goldblum, Joan Tewkesbury)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>THE PRODIGY </i>(under the
seats with Emma, AMC Burbank 16)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>ROLLING THUNDER REVUE: A BOB DYLAN STORY</i> (date
night, Los Feliz 3)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>UNCUT GEMS</i> (second
time around, this time on the big screen, with a sparse audience who seemed to
get it, AMC Burbank 6)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Actress</span></u></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitlhZYZjMmylD3Db5hExOMPJVKIn45CSMLqVW4lZn8ZSa4gylNWKsQtktoKBNqf8IeELnnBApLLXK9bQWAb8jps4IjxyfsnUsJMr7-I-t3G589wIrKrdCiRfV0_eQjmgDHr-Rk/s1600/hala-2019-geraldine-viswanathan-apple-tv-.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="764" data-original-width="1354" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitlhZYZjMmylD3Db5hExOMPJVKIn45CSMLqVW4lZn8ZSa4gylNWKsQtktoKBNqf8IeELnnBApLLXK9bQWAb8jps4IjxyfsnUsJMr7-I-t3G589wIrKrdCiRfV0_eQjmgDHr-Rk/s400/hala-2019-geraldine-viswanathan-apple-tv-.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Mary Kay Place</b> <i>DIANE</i> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />(Honorable Mention: Lupita Nyong’o <i>US</i>, Scarlet Johansson <i>MARRIAGE STORY</i>, <b>Geraldine
Viswanathan </b><i>HALA</i>, Florence Pugh <i>MIDSOMMAR, </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Awkwafina <i>THE FAREWELL</i>, Isabelle Hupert <i>GRETA</i>)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Actor</span></u></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPV6p9NkwNLSeCjZ9msm9bHApoS_EHw9ZqVumcFHhab48_JgTcrb13QMo2mkwDseL0rsOhJIobdNwChbH2whLGG7Z1cuvx-p4QW0yrSA_tQV6k7lKo5y4EeA5WCd4qlJMSxMqG/s1600/Schermata-2018-05-04-alle-14.35.15-1280x585.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="1280" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPV6p9NkwNLSeCjZ9msm9bHApoS_EHw9ZqVumcFHhab48_JgTcrb13QMo2mkwDseL0rsOhJIobdNwChbH2whLGG7Z1cuvx-p4QW0yrSA_tQV6k7lKo5y4EeA5WCd4qlJMSxMqG/s400/Schermata-2018-05-04-alle-14.35.15-1280x585.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>August Diehl</b> <i>A
HIDDEN LIFE</i> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />(Honorable Mention: Eddie Murphy<i> DOLEMITE IS MY NAME</i>, Adam Driver<i>
MARRIAGE STORY</i>, Antonio Banderas<i> PAIN AND GLORY</i>, <b>Toni Servillo</b><i>
LORO</i>, Joaquin Phoenix <i>JOKER</i>, Christian Bale <i>FORD V. FERRARI</i>, Brad
Pitt <i>AD ASTRA</i>, Robert De Niro <i>THE IRISHMAN</i>, Willem Dafoe <i>THE
LIGHTHOUSE</i>, Adam Sandler <i>UNCUT GEMS</i>) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Supporting Actress(es)</span></u></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2K3s4rzAk-Gubv6iE4cuFPQ0agp35sqopYTe2HNdT7t-qL9CS7nRRrPQ3-0_Cgw_k-a47I_oJiDalYxIyysT3bWTaEdq1dW2beQq160hTipy7kVwULYJi_lLc6HPBl1hzhyphenhyphenw6/s1600/uncut_gems_0366987_C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="787" data-original-width="1600" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2K3s4rzAk-Gubv6iE4cuFPQ0agp35sqopYTe2HNdT7t-qL9CS7nRRrPQ3-0_Cgw_k-a47I_oJiDalYxIyysT3bWTaEdq1dW2beQq160hTipy7kVwULYJi_lLc6HPBl1hzhyphenhyphenw6/s400/uncut_gems_0366987_C.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Yeo-jeong
Jo, So-dam Park, Jeong-eun Lee, Hye-jin Jang </b><i>PARASITE</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(Honorable Mention: Da’Vine
Joy Randolph <i>DOLEMITE IS MY NAME</i>, <b>Idina Menzel</b> <i>UNCUT GEMS</i>,
Shuzhen Zhao <i>THE FAREWELL</i>, Nora Navas <i>PAIN AND GLORY</i> (HM: Laura
Dern <i>MARRIAGE STORY</i>, Sienna Miller <i>21 BRIDGES</i>, Rebecca Ferguson <i>DOCTOR
SLEEP</i>, Michaela Watkins <i>BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON</i>, Marisa Tomei <i>FRANKIE</i>,
Dierdre O’Connell <i>DIANE</i>, Anna Paquin <i>THE IRISHMAN</i>)</span></div>
<div style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Supporting Actor</span></u></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Kang-ho Song </b><i>PARASITE</i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6aaYLW9zTJZ5JZ8eWSYwLb6WzKQZbyDO0O2CTUAtOxLGFz1zh2Ap2DxNfN-XjBGhyRATsC3Pl_yP2pnSl4HLn2g5KVpAhcN7Y_86JfyzEm11x5HE5pKLhDEtKohHb2eRGc7_v/s1600/52042-1575190148.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="359" data-original-width="640" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6aaYLW9zTJZ5JZ8eWSYwLb6WzKQZbyDO0O2CTUAtOxLGFz1zh2Ap2DxNfN-XjBGhyRATsC3Pl_yP2pnSl4HLn2g5KVpAhcN7Y_86JfyzEm11x5HE5pKLhDEtKohHb2eRGc7_v/s400/52042-1575190148.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(Honorable Mention: Al
Pacino <i>THE IRISHMAN</i>, <b>Joe Pesci</b> <i>THE IRISHMAN</i>, Eric Bogosian <i>UNCUT
GEMS</i>, Leonardo Sbaraglia <i>PAIN AND GLORY, </i>Lakeith Stanfield <i>UNCUT GEMS</i>, Judd Hirsch <i>UNCUT GEMS</i>, Alan
Alda <i>MARRIAGE STORY</i>, Asier Etxeandia <i>PAIN AND GLORY</i>, Tracy Letts <i>FORD
V. FERRARI</i>, Tom Hanks <i>A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD</i>, Alejandro
Patino <i>PAPI CHULO)</i></span></div>
<div>
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div>
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Director</span></u></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Bong Joon Ho</b> <i>PARASITE</i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk_Wjlm3IDg4Xu9bRXtX5mOQQvEhBs35PP3RHyLmsU37MhQNs62xw5tjjnYyYw0AZ_z9GIXd7qTQWU94mvv753XuqAxl1u90dVPEx8HtUOmjQwEQ-nfPhZb3DWz6tYab_eMmRu/s1600/pain-and-glory.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="970" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk_Wjlm3IDg4Xu9bRXtX5mOQQvEhBs35PP3RHyLmsU37MhQNs62xw5tjjnYyYw0AZ_z9GIXd7qTQWU94mvv753XuqAxl1u90dVPEx8HtUOmjQwEQ-nfPhZb3DWz6tYab_eMmRu/s400/pain-and-glory.png" width="400" /></a></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(Honorable Mention: Kent Jones <i>DIANE</i>, Martin Scorsese <i>THE IRISHMAN/ROLLING THUNDER REVUE:
A BOB DYLAN STORY BY MARTIN SCORSESE</i>, Terence Malick <i>A HIDDEN LIFE</i>,
Mati Diop <i>ATLANTICS</i>, Ari Aster <i>MIDSOMMAR</i>, Josh & Benny Safdie
<i>UNCUT GEMS</i>, Christian Pozold <i>TRANSIT</i>, <b>Pedro Almodovar</b> <i>PAIN
AND GLORY</i>, Robert Eggers <i>THE LIGHTHOUSE)</i></span></div>
<div>
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div>
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Screenplay</span></u></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivpqHJJXjGD29PksN1jvCuUVkKl_Oo7AzmmGyP7fzIlLhHrOqkfaEbTlBDmJjuG_uCurBH9Zho9J7c-a5p6NwXya7HhBKQJvEPGGW0DMu31A7bq9bJ07FGgq-RSimP2PMfVzba/s1600/LIGHTHARKHOUSE+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="869" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivpqHJJXjGD29PksN1jvCuUVkKl_Oo7AzmmGyP7fzIlLhHrOqkfaEbTlBDmJjuG_uCurBH9Zho9J7c-a5p6NwXya7HhBKQJvEPGGW0DMu31A7bq9bJ07FGgq-RSimP2PMfVzba/s400/LIGHTHARKHOUSE+%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bong Joon Ho and Jin Won Han <i>PARASITE</i>,
Steven Zaillian <i>THE IRISHMAN</i>, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski <i>DOLEMITE
IS MY NAME</i>, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie <i>UNCUT GEMS</i>,
Christian Pozold <i>TRANSIT</i>, <b>Robert Eggers, Max Eggers</b> <i>THE
LIGHTHOUSE</i>, Noah Baumbach <i>MARRIAGE STORY</i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Cinematography</span></u></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHaMavQvRctfs8eaPRWQJu-4TuoUFqqnU1K7uiH5KjTRdN4Su0KmPGRFMoP_0c-zCjGWOl0OtP3wADle4RoKdJFmWdpVY8DUHHh-8iuM2b03ea_UN2wGdu64T7xG9_KXEqCgnU/s1600/midsommar-2019-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHaMavQvRctfs8eaPRWQJu-4TuoUFqqnU1K7uiH5KjTRdN4Su0KmPGRFMoP_0c-zCjGWOl0OtP3wADle4RoKdJFmWdpVY8DUHHh-8iuM2b03ea_UN2wGdu64T7xG9_KXEqCgnU/s400/midsommar-2019-3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kyung-pyo Hong <i>PARASITE</i>, Jorg
Widmer <i>A HIDDEN LIFE</i>, Claire Mathon <i>ATLANTICS</i>, <b>Pawel
Pogorzelski</b> <i>MIDSOMMAR</i>, Darius Khondji <i>UNCUT GEMS</i>, Jarin
Blaschke <i>THE LIGHTHOUSE</i>, Roger Deakins <i>1917</i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Music (Original Score or Use of Songs)</span></u></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiKUGFnL8X-Z1x-soJhUDuOU3lWaHxv-x-pajYzdT2vZ3HbOUhr4UKo7K4rPnArHLQShvVc0QNiGlhsAFYWoVSLiNE2EZmmvMxtCPpwrCh5xgmM0r50ivydHTZkFizpoReWfIt/s1600/71hwvWY7HGL._SX355_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="355" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiKUGFnL8X-Z1x-soJhUDuOU3lWaHxv-x-pajYzdT2vZ3HbOUhr4UKo7K4rPnArHLQShvVc0QNiGlhsAFYWoVSLiNE2EZmmvMxtCPpwrCh5xgmM0r50ivydHTZkFizpoReWfIt/s400/71hwvWY7HGL._SX355_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><u>Score</u>: James Newton Howard <i>A HIDDEN
LIFE</i>, Jung Jaeil <i>PARASITE</i>, Thomas Newman <i>1917</i>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3723390/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr14">Hildur
Guðnadóttir<span style="color: #136cb2; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></a><i>JOKER</i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><u>Use of Songs</u>: <i>THE IRISHMAN, ROLLING
THUNDER REVUE, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME, <b>ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD</b></i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">First Time Seen in 2019</span></u></b></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<a href="http://2019.filmfestival.tcm.com/programs/films/all-through-the-night/"><i>ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT</i></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (1942; Vincent Sherman) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>BLACK HAND</i> (1950;
Richard Thorpe)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>BLONDIE JOHNSON</i> (1933;
Ray Enright) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>BLOOD ON THE MOON</i> (1948;
Robert Wise)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>BLUME IN LOVE</i> (1973;
Paul Mazursky) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>BROTHER ORCHID</i> (1940;
Lloyd Bacon) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2mWOVzvWrZixQ-jhri8u2nIYV4U_HWPYg4IAedelxa-HzoCMqexsHUcI4YqpxWVJnIOXqG0ta2X-d8mYd6PRDk13hk4mL4TKrcopibKaBvyMjL56frPfRC_k5kGatuKtK4wuu/s1600/IMG_97921.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1188" data-original-width="1600" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2mWOVzvWrZixQ-jhri8u2nIYV4U_HWPYg4IAedelxa-HzoCMqexsHUcI4YqpxWVJnIOXqG0ta2X-d8mYd6PRDk13hk4mL4TKrcopibKaBvyMjL56frPfRC_k5kGatuKtK4wuu/s400/IMG_97921.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS</i></b><i> </i>(1974;
Peter Weir) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>CHAMBER OF HORRORS</i> (1966; Hy
Averback) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>CHARLIE CHAN IN HONOLULU</i> (1938; H.
Bruce Humberstone) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>CHARLIE CHAN AT TREASURE ISLAND</i>
(1939; Norman Foster) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>CHARLIE CHAN AT THE WAX MUSEUM </i>(1940;
Lynn Shores) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>CLEO FROM 5 TO 7</i> (1962; <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0889513/?ref_=tt_ov_dr">Agnès
Varda</a>) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>COLORADO TERRITORY </i>(1949;
Raoul Walsh)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>THE CROWD ROARS </i>(1932;
Howard Hawks) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
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<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>CRY WOLF</i></b><i> </i>(1947;
Peter Godfrey) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>CUBE</i> (1998; Vincenzo Natali) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>A DELICATE BALANCE</i> (1973;
Tony Richardson) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>EXPERIMENT IN TERROR</i> (1962;
Blake Edwards) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>THE FAMOUS FERGUSON CASE</i> (1932;
Lloyd Bacon) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>FAT CITY</i> (1972;
John Huston) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>GENOCIDE (WAR OF THE INSECTS)</i> (1968;
Kazui Nihonmatsu)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>GUN LAW JUSTICE</i> (1948;
Lambert Hillyer) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><b>THE GYPSY MOTHS</b></i> (1969;
John Frankenheimer) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>HOT LEAD</i> (1951;
Stuart Gilmore)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY</i> (1981;
Lucio Fulci) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>HYSTERIA</i> (1965;
Freddie Francis) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>JASON X</i> (2002;
James Isaac) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>JOUR DE FETE</i> (1949;
Jacques Tati) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>THE LETTER </i>(1940;
William Wyler) <i> </i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>THE MAN WHO HAUNTED HIMSELF</i> (1970;
Basil Dearden) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyeecBGAPrnq5MEZsqnofdVGxZdwQPz8gMYI6iGQzh5pCIKLoVNUFtyyZY6P5VfojiXahWcPbzA7pjXzi7DDAdhtAJTnB-0XkDiZWuQOWnV4M3qYygELP-wnS-NGE8X-pXhoQM/s1600/Man-Who-Laughs-The_07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="490" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyeecBGAPrnq5MEZsqnofdVGxZdwQPz8gMYI6iGQzh5pCIKLoVNUFtyyZY6P5VfojiXahWcPbzA7pjXzi7DDAdhtAJTnB-0XkDiZWuQOWnV4M3qYygELP-wnS-NGE8X-pXhoQM/s400/Man-Who-Laughs-The_07.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>THE MAN WHO LAUGHS</i></b> (1928;
Paul Leni) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<a href="http://2019.filmfestival.tcm.com/programs/films/merrily-we-go-to-hell/"><i>MERRILY WE GO TO HELL</i></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (1932; Dorothy Arzner) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>MILLIONAIRES IN PRISON</i> (1940;
Ray McCarey) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>MISS PINKERTON</i> (1932;
Lloyd Bacon)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS</i> (1971;
Dan Curtis) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><a href="http://2019.filmfestival.tcm.com/programs/films/night-world/">NIGHT WORLD</a></i> (1932; Hobart Henley) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>OLD ACQUAINTANCE </i>(1943;
Vincent Sherman) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<a href="http://2019.filmfestival.tcm.com/programs/films/open-secret/"><i>OPEN SECRET</i></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (1948; John Reinhardt) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>PARASITE </i>(1982;
Charles Band) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>POSSESSED</i> (1931;
Curtis Bernhardt) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>THE RAGING MOON</i> (aka <i>LONG
AGO, TOMORROW</i>) (1971; Bryan Forbes) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>THE ROBOT VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY</i> (1958;
Rafael Portillo)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>SAGEBRUSH LAW</i> (1943;
Sam Nelson) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA </i>(1973;
Alan Gibson)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
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<div style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>SAVAGE MESSIAH</i></b><i> </i>(1972; Ken
Russell)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>SEVEN DAYS TO NOON</i> (1950;
John Boulting, Roy Boulting)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>SHADOW ON THE WALL</i> (1950;
Pat Jackson)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<a href="http://2019.filmfestival.tcm.com/programs/films/tarzan-and-his-mate/"><i>TARZAN AND HIS MATE</i></a> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(1934;
Cedric Gibbons) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>THE TATTOOED STRANGER </i>(1950;
Edward Montagne)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>13 WEST STREET</i> (1962;
Philip Leacock) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>…tick…tick…tick…</i> (1970;
Ralph Nelson) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>TWO-GUN MAN FROM HARLEM</i> (1938;
Richard C. Kahn) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<a href="http://2019.filmfestival.tcm.com/programs/films/waterloo-bridge/"><i>WATERLOO BRIDGE</i></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> (1931; James Whale) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>WHILE THE PATIENT SLEPT </i>(1935; Ray
Enright) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO?</i> (1971;
Curtis Harrington) </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><i>THE YIDDISH KING LEAR</i></b> (1935;
Harry Thomashefsky)</span></div>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM7j6QZAqbKqk1RAV_gZOb8Nw_PEtfgv3gE23UyUYMeCQlEau0_C_zguU99WFRB8fF9fseicWxoJDyespor24D0pwxIFJ2wQNEq-0UyT1vrpFaKXOcF9EkSUnj3W9ktuF1Jiy8/s1600/kinglear-article2-1208-1425721454.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="838" data-original-width="1300" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM7j6QZAqbKqk1RAV_gZOb8Nw_PEtfgv3gE23UyUYMeCQlEau0_C_zguU99WFRB8fF9fseicWxoJDyespor24D0pwxIFJ2wQNEq-0UyT1vrpFaKXOcF9EkSUnj3W9ktuF1Jiy8/s400/kinglear-article2-1208-1425721454.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<br />
Happy New Year, everybody! Here's to another great year of movies in 2020, and a much improved year from the past few in every other regard!<br />
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*********************************Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-59343539673723035752019-12-21T19:23:00.001-08:002019-12-21T19:23:38.511-08:00HEIST FOR THE HOLIDAYS: CASH ON DEMAND (1962)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">One could be forgiven for not suspecting that Hammer Films,
known for their comparatively lurid and bloody, sometimes pointedly lusty, and
otherwise vividly imagined (and reimagined) catalogue of horror classics, would
be the first place to look if one were in the market for a low-key yet spirited
take on a holiday classic to turn to once the perennial screenings of <i>It’s a
Wonderful Life, White Christmas, Die Hard</i> and countless other popular
titles have begun to wear out their welcome. Yet the studio delivered just that
in <b><i>Cash on Demand</i></b> (1962), a dandy and delicious suspense thriller
directed by Quentin Lawrence, from a script by David T. Chantler and Lewis
Griefer, itself based on a play by Jacques Gillies, which echoes of Charles
Dickens’ <i>A Christmas Carol,</i> the book and the countless movie and TV
iterations which came before, to fresh and potent purpose. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
Lawrence, a British TV veteran whose few feature film credits included <i>The Man Who Finally Died</i> (1963; itself based on a British TV series for
which Lawrence shot several episodes), a Hammer follow-up to the infamous WWII potboiler
<i>Camp on Blood Island </i>entitled <i>The Secret of Blood Island</i> (1965), and, perhaps most memorably for those
of us well-versed in the Hammer output (though it was not itself a Hammer
film), 1958’s <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052320/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_54">The Crawling Eye</a>, </i>directs <i>Cash on Demand </i>with crisp efficiency and
seductive simplicity that draws the viewer into its wintry setting with ease
and assurance. But it is the players who populate this intense chamber piece—it
takes place entirely within a small community bank located an hour or so outside
London—who create the film’s most lasting impression.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">One of the best things about <i>Cash on Demand</i> is the
relative subtlety with which it references the Dickens classic—it’s possible to
not even notice the resemblance until you’re snared in the movie’s novel web.
But even though it’s not ultimately a full-fledged refashioning of Dickens’ familiar
tale, this film most certainly has its own Ebenezer Scrooge, its own Bob Cratchit,
and even a personification of a specter with less than honorable intentions who
nonetheless nudges the Scrooge figure toward a self-realization that is
entirely in line with the original story’s emotional denouement. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The movie opens on a snowbound scene just outside the bank,
where a man in a Santa suit is collecting for a local hospital charity, with
the familiar carol “The First Noel” lilting on the soundtrack. But as the
camera moves in on the metal placard just outside the bank’s door which
identifies it as the City and Colonial Bank of Haversham, a musical strain is
introduced that sounds at first as if it might be an orchestral ornament to the
carol but which quickly evolves into a minor-key evocation of uncertain dread
as the camera goes inside and moves through the empty spaces soon to be filled
with employees and the occasional customer. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Soon those employees begin to
populate their workstations, led by Mr. Pearson, the head clerk who stands in
for Cratchit. Pearson is essayed with palpable empathy by veteran character
actor <b>Richard Vernon</b> (<i>Goldfinger, The Satanic Rites of Dracula, The Pink
Panther Strikes Again</i>).<i> </i>The head clerk’s vaguely worn countenance bespeaks
the weariness of a man stuck in a professional position which offers little
reward other than vague security, yet also of a kindness that has probably carried
him further with his own subordinates than it does with his immediate superior. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">That immediate superior is, of course, <i>Cash on Demand</i>’s
Scrooge figure, the bank’s detail-obsessed, meticulously efficient manager
Harry Fordyce, played with imperious reserve by one of Hammer’s greatest stars,
<b>Peter Cushing</b>. When Fordyce enters the bank the already wintry atmosphere
chills a few degrees further, each employee registering the degree of their boss’s
daily, surely countless demands on their performance, and none more so than
Pearson, whose professional competence and morality Fordyce calls into question
almost immediately over a discovered imbalance in the daily books, the result
of a charitable loan to a customer proffered by another clerk, which Pearson
signed off on and which Fordyce inflates into a career-threatening charge of
embezzlement.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Cushing, at least initially, offers no quarter against the impenetrable
air of superiority Fordyce is able to indulge within his little realm. But
unlike Scrooge, Fordyce appears to have no large wealth to claim as his own, which
might make lording his power over his employees an easier path to take. Fordyce
is, it’s fairly clear, a small man in his own right, without friends or
connections apart from his immediate family, and embodying his pettiness is a
task perfectly suited to Cushing’s wheelhouse. But as Fordyce is forced to
confront the limits of his own worldview, and to come to understand how he has
so frequently come up short in the humanity department, the shades of desperation,
of isolation, of helplessness that are encased beneath Fordyce’s icy exterior
begin to rise to the fore, and it’s here that Cushing, an actor able to imbue
even his most extreme and ideologically entrenched characters with welcome
shadings of understanding and clarity, begins to breathes real life into
Fordyce and craft what I, as an unrepentant Cushing devotee, consider to be one
of his two or three best, most compelling performances. (For another one of
those, please see, if you haven’t already, his fanatical Gustav Weil in Hammer’s
magnificent <i>Twins of Evil</i>, in which he gifts the religious zealot given
charge over voluptuous twins who come under the influence of a vampire lord with
a similar and unexpected sympathy<i>.</i>)</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">But what of Dickens’s ghosts? Fordyce himself first appears
as an eerie reflection in that City and Colonial placard, an apparition which
eventually takes human form and begins tending to an unoffending smudge on the
placard’s shiny surface with a handkerchief. But in <i>Cash on Demand, </i>the
real analog to those chain-rattling specters Dickens used to compel his protagonist
into self-awareness takes corporeal shape as Colonel Gore-Hepburn, a cordial,
if officious and perhaps overly self-assured gentleman who initially presents
himself to the bank staff as an insurance inspector in order to get an audience
with their boss and eventually reveals a more sinister purpose once ensconced within
the confines of Fordyce’s office. </span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Gore-Hepburn is played by the terrific and always-welcome
<b>Andr<span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">é</span></span> Morell</b>, veteran of scores of
Hammer productions as well as mainstream classics like <i>Ben-Hur</i> and <i>The
Bridge on the River Kwai, </i>whose most indelible impression upon genre aficionados
may have come as the persistently enquiring Professor Bernard Quatermass, who literally
uncovers evidence of extraterrestrial life in a London Underground excavation
in the original British TV production of Nigel Kneale’s <i>Quatermass and the
Pit</i> (1958). As the ex-military man, Morell deals in unctuous insinuation as
if casually breathing the icy Haversham air, and he relishes his power over Fordyce
from his first words, when Fordyce still believes him to be who he represents
himself to be. But when Gore-Hepburn pulls back the curtain and reveals his
actual identity and agenda, the charm Morell has exuded, and which he will be
required to occasionally tap into again through a more threatening veil,
disappears in favor of a decidedly less welcoming persona. Gore-Hepburn is actually
a career criminal who has been casing the bank for over a year and has begun
executing a well-thought-out plan to relieve the City and Colonial of its
holiday reserve of over 90,000 pounds, a plan which includes holding Fordyce’s
wife and son hostage under threat of torture and execution if the bank manager
does not acquiesce to his every demand. It’s a great role for Morell, who
clearly is having the time of his life playing the greater evil against Cushing’s
misguided man of appearances and procedures, and together they deliver one of
the most formidable one-two acting punches in the history of Hammer Studios.</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Through the procession of events in which Fordyce is forced
to squirm and betray his own principled stature as a banker of apparently peerless
standards at Gore-Hepburn’s relentless insistence, the dramatic twists and
turns which propel <i>Cash on Demand </i>never seem only like overwrought
dramatic contrivances, and much credit for that has to go to these wonderful
actors. The push-pull between Gore-Hepburn’s dominion of the situation and
Fordyce‘s increasing desperation play with theatrical artifice, to be sure, but
then so do Dickens’s. However, within the framework in which those conventions
and artifices have been refashioned, the <i>Cash on Demand</i> company artfully
deliver on their conceit with palpable relish, and with awareness of just how
to deliver Fordyce to his particular personal and professional epiphanies
(which, for Fordyce, are most certainly and inevitably intertwined) in a satisfying
minor key befitting the resolution of an otherwise nerve-racking cat-and-mouse
scenario which must echo, but never blatantly ape, the Dickensian formula in
order to arrival at its own particular destination.<br /><br />The resolution that <i>Cash
on Demand</i> does come to I daresay will satisfy connoisseurs of crime and
suspense as well as those in search of the restorative holiday balm that Dickens’s
tale has delivered for generations, yet without the need to insist upon itself within
the trappings of a traditional holiday classic. Maybe that’s one of the main
reasons why it has become exactly that for me. </span><br /><br />***********************************</div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-26989250467140064642019-12-14T13:06:00.001-08:002019-12-14T13:06:54.159-08:00SAD/GLAD TIDINGS: BILL FORSYTH’S COMFORT AND JOY (1984)<span style="background-color: white;"></span>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Scottish director Bill Forsyth
has a strange way, one for which audiences should be eternally grateful, of
delivering a symphony of melancholy notes which register in his movies with a sort
of blithe exhilaration instead of the customary patina of hopelessness they perhaps
might otherwise be subject to in the hands of another filmmaker. One senses the
discomfort, the confusion, the weariness some of Forsyth’s characters experience
without feeling overwhelmed by them, and he infuses his best films with such
lyrical, unexpected, transformative beauty that it’d be almost impossible to
leave them with anything other than an entirely bearable lightness of being; suffocating
ennui is not on this filmmaker’s palette. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Pauline Kael said of Forsyth’s
much-beloved <i>Local Hero</i> (1983) that the picture was “like one of those
lovely Elizabethan songs that are full of tra-la-la-la-la-las,” a quality that
most appreciate about the film but that some use as a way of ticking down the
picture’s overall worth into a somewhat more trivial margin. (Kael herself
seemed to slightly discount the picture, after spending her review accounting
for its offbeat charm and perspective, by claiming that it wasn’t “any major
achievement… but it’s true to itself.”) And beneath those tra-la-las, beneath
the fog of contentment that the protagonist of the film, the local hero, experiences
upon arriving in the strangely magical Scottish coastal village and subjecting
himself to its casually odd cadences, one senses Forsyth’s melancholy, the tinge
of regret that the whole world can’t be as special as this place, which only
fully emerges over the film’s final shot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Kael also said of the Scottish
director in that review that “Forsyth seems to go where impulse and instinct
guide him; he's an entertainer-filmmaker who gives free play to his own sense
of the ridiculous and his own sense of beauty.” This may be even more true of
Forsyth’s follow-up to <i>Local Hero,</i> 1984’s <b><i>Comfort and Joy</i></b>,
than it is of its more-celebrated predecessor. <i>Comfort and Joy</i> tracks a
complacent Glaswegian radio personality, Alan “Dicky” Bird, played by Scottish character
actor and national treasure Bill Paterson (<i>The Singing Detective, Traffik,
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Witches</i>), who is quite suddenly unmoored
from his complacent life when his kleptomaniac girlfriend decides to leave him in
the midst of decorating their apartment for Christmas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Disoriented, saddened, longing
for the pleasures of his lost love, yet constantly casting an eye toward
possible rebound romances, he catches the eye of a lovely lass in an ice-cream
truck one day while caught in heavy city traffic and decides to follow the van,
buy a sweet treat and perhaps strike up a conversation with the entrancing young
woman. Up to this point the viewer,
especially one unfamiliar with Forsyth’s other films, might have a sense of
what’s coming next. But of course, as Kael observed, this director is rarely beholden
to anything beyond his own curiosity and impulses, and in pursuit of a fresh
perspective on midlife crisis Forsyth lands Dicky Bird, who being the host of a
popular light-information morning radio program is beginning to rankle at the
triviality of his own contributions to the societal good, in the middle of a
violent (but persistently silly) confrontation between two rival ice-cream
companies. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Forsyth took inspiration from an
actual, and far more seriously violent and criminal conflict that had been in <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-violent-ice-cream-wars-of-1980s-scotland">Glasgow headlines</a> for years, but though allusions are made as to the underworld
influences present amongst the soft-serve butting heads in <i>Comfort and Joy,</i>
the scuffles depicted in the film are more easily remedied by recipes, or a wry,
quizzical comment, than a hail of bullets or crowbars applied to kneecaps. In
one big fight scene, some of the assailants wield large wooden mallets that
wouldn’t be out of place in a Wile E. Coyote escapade. And there’s that the incessant,
inescapable jingle emanating from the Mr. Bunny ice cream van. It’s a musical
joke, on Alan and on the audience, of course, that approaches earworm levels of
pleasing madness and tempers the real-world consequences of vendor-on-vendor
violence with the assaultive capabilities of a lighter-than-air melody. But that
joke is topped when Alan finally makes his way into the Mr. Bunny stronghold
and we see (though he barely notes it) the hilarious origins of its recording,
which are themselves incessant and sublimely ridiculous— in the midst of a
chaotic warehouse filled with damaged ice cream vans and the autobody
specialists repairing them, a man stands hunched over a xlyophone, repeatedly picking
out the jingle’s melody, while another man stands with a microphone recording
the sounds, interjecting a never-less-than-jolly “Hello, Folks!” over and over
again at exactly the right interval. There you have the perfect Bill Forsyth
trajectory—where you think you’re going is never quite where you arrive. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The film is shot by Chris Menges,
who also conjured the visual poetry of <i>Local Hero. </i>And here Menges
delivers what might be the most quietly, unexpectedly lovely visual portrait of
a city that I’ve ever seen in a movie— his Glasgow is dazzling in its softness,
in its ephemeral curiosity; in the compression of buzzing cars and hilly roads
that are flattened against one another and yet somehow expanded free of
traditional physical constraints; in the glow of distant lights illuminating
structures and interiors in ways that emphasize an intangible mystery about what
might be going on inside, as if they were Christmas ornaments in a diorama of a
city which displays all indication of existing in the real world yet seems almost
supernaturally beautiful; in the gray gloaming that seems to have settled over that
cityscape and its old and ascendant buildings, not like gloom but instead a
blessing. This brilliant cinematographer-magician’s dexterity and sensitivity
with light imbues Dicky Bird’s wanderings through man-made constructs with mournful
beauty; he distinguishes Glasgow in the same way he did the Scottish coast, not
with picture-postcard platitudes, but with gorgeously integrated notes of solemnity
and lightness that seem to leap directly from the discombobulated disc jockey’s
modesty-scaled crisis of identity and purpose.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4omC-s7JLAnyyqq_p8Ebt4mr2gNCn90LUdB902FJiHN0UI-V5Q2MOcAqYVBL9JSiB41KUG9Uw36z3q8X_H-BR4sbtLGCMbFLF1N4kyE19wDb4CXWf1fIWK_57JDoqbBrC_gII/s1600/79667017_602639493839592_1450596002741354496_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1045" data-original-width="1600" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4omC-s7JLAnyyqq_p8Ebt4mr2gNCn90LUdB902FJiHN0UI-V5Q2MOcAqYVBL9JSiB41KUG9Uw36z3q8X_H-BR4sbtLGCMbFLF1N4kyE19wDb4CXWf1fIWK_57JDoqbBrC_gII/s400/79667017_602639493839592_1450596002741354496_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And in the modulation of their
particular contributions, both Forsyth and Menges crystallize the humanity that
descends on <i>Comfort and Joy</i> like a light snowfall, or the expressive,
oddly cheering gray fog in which the city seems perpetually enveloped here. As
writer-director Forsyth characteristically zeroes in and, abetted by Menges’s
poetic expressiveness, encapsulates the absurdity of conducting dire business over
diary-based sweets, he manages to never forget that absurdity has a human scale.
When Alan scoffs at grown men fighting over something as inconsequential as ice
cream, the almost offhand way the observation is redirected to him (“And what
business are you in that’s so important?”) has an unexpected sting. Alan’s
rediscovery of himself as someone other than Dicky Bird, besotted partner to a
woman who finds him disposable, and his emergence from his cloud of depression
over the dissonance between his sense of purpose and the simple human need set
in relief by the lyrically decorative trappings of the holiday season, is compelled
by his reluctant involvement as mediator between the two rival confectioners.
But it’s in integral element to the film’s decidedly odd tone, its odd humor,
its <i>raison d’etre</i>, that even though Alan may be moving toward an actual
state of happiness, the melancholy he feels, and that we viewers sense throughout,
is part of his nature-- yes, perhaps as a Scotsman, but also simply as a man-- a
realization with which he eventually comes to terms. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Happily, in the film’s final
shot, as Alan settles into his radio station studio, with all of Glasgow
floating just outside the window, to take the Christmas morning shift and
accompany his listeners in his familiar way, one truly understands how that alchemic
mix of melancholy and lightness is in the spiritual and visual DNA of the film
too. Which makes <i>Comfort and Joy,</i> for me, an almost perfect Christmas
holiday movie. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Comfort and Joy</i> looks to
be a bit difficult to find in the usual streaming places, though Netflix or
Amazon could probably set you up with a DVD for rent. However, I found it last
night in a surprisingly robust 720p transfer on, of all places, YouTube. Click <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7eQNcZxEM0">this link</a> and you can see it for yourself for the holidays.</span></div>
**************************Dennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.com0