In Spanish and French. 138 minute running time so 40 minutes too long, but I liked this one, the story wasn’t bad and it was well told (though too long, ideally at least 20 minutes should be cut out and preferably more) … they did these long scenes in a single shot where the actors had to sustain serious performances and it was really well done, these are real pros, not “B” actors. (I just read that Zahera, who steals the show, has no training as an actor, ha!) This was a good John Farr recommendation, and I recommend it too, though you’ve been warned about the length. I’ll add it to the green-go list.
Movies Watched -- The Cathedral (2022)
88 minute running time … why this kid thought his life story was worth telling is beyond me … who cares about this kid’s life? Who cares about his squabbling in-laws and his sort of asshole father? John Farr did me dirty by recommending this. I think the reason he recommended it is because adult “Jesse” looks like a Ralph Lifshitz model. I had to pay $5.69 to stream this, which means it was impossible to fast forward! Bah!
Let me try to find a critic who agrees with me… this is the closest someone comes: “D’Ambrose seems far more interested in recreating memory fragments from his life and presenting them as static art, rather than exploring any of the emotions behind them … its insistence on depicting moments without emotion feels, in the end, a little empty.”
Movies Watched -- X (2022)
105 minute running time … an unusual reco from John Farr… a comedy / horror movie, somebody’s Written and Directed By baby, a spoof … it was disturbing, esp. the creepy old people sex thing, and graphically violent … it’s not badly made, not overly long, the guy obviously thought about every aspect of the movie in great detail … wonder how he got the money to make his baby? Not recommended though. I’m too old for this stuff and not into the whole cutesy, knowing, insider-joke movie thing…
Movies Watched -- Aftersun (2022)
102 minute running time, Scottish English so it helped to have subtitles… I don’t know what this was about … John Farr reco … starred a beautiful eleven-year-old girl and her thirty-year-old dad … she becomes a lesbian later on and has a baby boy with her lesbian partner somehow, not sure why they included that bit, seemed irrelevant … I guess her dad suffered from depression? I think that was the point of the movie maybe? I guess she didn’t know this or understand it when she was little? He hid it from her well, maybe? Did he kill himself at some point? The spitting on the mirror was some kind of turning point in the movie, where you understood that dad was deeply unwell.
I’m going have to read what other people wrote about it. (The critics uniformly loved it.) I don’t recommend it anyway, and I’m as thoughtful and sensitive as they come. I guess it’s about a daughter, once an adult, reflecting on her occasional cruelty to her dad as a tween, though she was generally pretty sweet and truthful. He was a sweet guy too. It wasn’t a terrible movie anyway, it just wasn’t immediately clear what the story was (no plot).
Movies Watched -- House (1977)
In Japanese. 88 minute running time. Over the top weird mish mash from late 1970s Japan … horror comedy kung fu ghost story … the essay in the Criterion booklet uses the expression “le cinéma du WTF?!?” which captures it nicely. Only see it if you’re into culty campy stuff.
Pussy Power — Meow!
Collection of Purple Shirts
Button-Down Sport Shirt — Merlot/Lavender/Ochre — Plaid — Poplin — March 20, 2024 (Spring Equinox)
Button-Down Sport Shirt — Lavender/Navy/Forest — Tattersall — Poplin — June 20, 2024 (Summer Solstice)
Button-Down Sport Shirt — Lavender — University Stripe — Oxford — September 22, 2024 (Autumn Equinox)
Button-Down Sport Shirt — Bone/Berry/Grey — Tattersall — Oxford — December 21, 2024 (Winter Solstice)
Button-Down Sport Shirt — Lavender/Hunter — Wide Stripe — Oxford
Spread Collar Dress Shirt — Lavender — Gingham — Poplin
Spread Collar Dress Shirt — Lavender — Multi Stripe — Poplin
Movies Watched -- Orlando (1992)
93 minute running time so about the right length … weird one … costume drama, starring Tilda Swinton, covering four centuries, as both a man and woman … not sure what to think of it. John Farr predictably a big fan of it.
You have fought in battles, like a man?
Movies Watched -- Dark Waters (2019)
127 minute running time so at least 30 minutes too long … Mark Ruffalo has a real hard-on for the DuPont family (I loved “Foxcatcher”) … PFOA / C-8 / Teflon … you don’t want to live downstream from a DuPont landfill, that’s for sure … didn’t DuPont make Agent Orange too? I mean, come on. “Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.” I’m glad that these movies are made to inform the general public, but they aren’t fun to watch. (h/t to my trading buddy Linda for the reco.)
Movies Watched -- Summer with Monika (1953)
In Swedish. 97 minute running time so not overly long, though it felt pretty long, there’s not much dialogue (23 page script) … Ingmar Bergman movie, his first with Harriet Andersson … middle class boy and working class girl fall in love and quit their dead-end jobs and spend the summer boating around the Stockholm archipelago, but she gets pregnant and they have to go back to reality as autumn approaches … spoilers: she eventually leaves him and he’s stuck with the baby … this is not a feel-good movie. I didn’t hate it, but I also wouldn’t recommend it. I’ll have to figure out which of Bergman’s movies to include on my Top movies list … this one probably isn’t it. John Farr recommended it despite it being a heterosexual love story.
Out with hussies, no doubt. Like that slut at the grocery store.
Josephine Foster -- I'm a Dreamer
I like her voice … reminds me of Connie Converse. I guess the Spotify algo thought so too, thus the recommendation.