TV Watched -- The Sinner S04 E01

I loved the first season of The Sinner and tolerated seasons two and three, so I’ve just started on season four and here are my brief stream of consciousness bullet points on episode one (SPOILERS):

• Bill Pullman still squinting and wincing full time, that’s called acting

• PTSD panic attacks from previous seasons

• Sonya has fat black buddy on island in Maine?!? Makes no sense but they’re ticking boxes

• “Greta,” whom we later learn is a lesbian in addition to being fat and black (tick another box), has a million dollar house despite being a “broke artist” … don’t worry, we never see her again

• Chinese invasion angle, threatening Maine lobster operations, again makes no sense

• Bill off his anti-depressant zombie meds so the panic attacks are pretty bad

• Angular faced Jewish hippie chick from Orange is the New Black appears (I couldn’t stand that show), she is 32 years old

• Very awkward old folks sex scene (Bill Pullman is 68 and Jessica Hecht is 57!!) … That Ship Has Sailed, I don’t care that she’s on top, and what’s with the choking, egad

• Going to heavy blue camera filter for anti-depressant withdrawal dream? sequence scenes

• Ineffectual, slouching country sheriff, needs Big City Bill’s help

• Crusty old angular face grandma, “she could get ya back to port in any storm!”

• Why do none of these people have Maine accents?

• Tokens left near suicide jump site, an air of mystery

• Local dive bar has hottie singer with giant mouth (Jessica Marie Brown)

• Neo-Nazi homesteader with neck tats looks like zombie, sort of collapses out of camper trailer but remains standing, an air of danger. “I likes just me and da posums out here in da quiet!”

• NONE of the Muldoons sound like they are from Maine

• Unabomber hoodie captured on CCTV footage

• Bill explores weird wailing and moaning he hears from million dollar porch, Blue Filter alert

• Oh my god, it’s a coven of naked witches! Led by Grandma Muldoon?!?

• Tune in for episode two!

Find me, Bill!

Movies Watched -- Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

108 minute running time … early 1940s Hitchcock … it’s a good one, green-go for sure … Joseph Cotten has some real menace and there’s some fun dialogue. The line “Horrible, faded, fat, greedy women" must have really appealed to Hitch. See this one if you haven’t.

Do you know if you ripped the fronts off houses, Charlie, you'd find swine ?

Movies Watched -- Purple Noon (Plein soleil) (1960)

In French. 118 minute running time so a little overly long, I could probably cut out a few minutes, but this is a great movie, absolutely a must-see, green-go. I’ve seen it before awhile ago so this was a re-watch and it was as good as I remembered it. There was a Hollywood re-make of this movie, which was a terrible thing to do given the greatness of the original, don’t see that one. Class envy and psychopathy a bad combo, I loved every minute of it.

Sunstroke

Movies Watched -- Morocco (1930)

91 minute running time … Marlene Dietrich’s debut in America, Josef von Sternberg directing … I was surprised by the bawdy jokes and risque sexual humor throughout this movie… I guess in 1930 the production codes weren’t really enforced … this was made the same year as The Blue Angel, which is a much better movie, but this was interesting and I didn’t hate it … Gary Cooper plays the Foreign Legionnaire who is screwing all the women in town, including Marlene … I don’t think I’ll give it a green-go, but if you like early talkies, you should check it out.

May I keep this?

Movies Watched -- Nightfall (1957)

79 minute running time … Columbia noir, kind of a dumb story but I liked Aldo Ray’s broad back, blonde hair, and weirdly high voice … best part about this was Anne Bancroft (Mrs. Robinson) who played the femme fatale and she could smoke like a champ … did she die of emphysema? If you’re a noir fan, you should see it, but as I said, it really isn’t very good, though it clearly inspired the Coen Brothers.

Guys have been swarming around you ever since your second teeth came through…

Empty Me Out

Liz Vice sings Empty Me Out … love her voice:

Movies Watched -- Walkabout (1971)

100 minute running time so the right length, but could have been cut a bit more by eliminating extra shots of reptiles consuming one another … this was a weird one, not sure what it was about, modernity versus prehistoric man .. Roeg definitely enjoyed shooting 19-yo (err, 14-yo?!?) naked Jenny Agutter cavorting in a waterhole (she was beautiful for sure) .. I didn’t hate this, it was capital A.R.T. art for sure, but it may have been a little too abstruse for these Neanderthal. “A provocative rumination on time and civilization,” yeah yeah I know.

Bedding down on a boulder

Movies Watched -- Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

118 minute running time so 20 minutes too long … Frank Capra wartime “comedy” … gorgeous Cary Grant making faces … the story was sort of bizarrely funny, but you have to be in the right mood for it, and I wasn’t really. You can give it a miss.

The cook’s son

Movies Watched -- The Russia House (1990)

122 minute running time so 20 to 30 minutes too long … I don’t know if the story was any good, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me, and I didn’t really care about it … what was interesting was seeing footage of 1990-era Russia and seeing Sean Connery fake-playing a saxophone … Michelle Pfeiffer was beautiful (never forget she was Miss California in 1978) but I don’t know how bad her fake Russian accent was, I assume it was really bad … don’t know why this movie was in my queue, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Maybe John Farr is to blame? No, he isn’t.

Eet ees not relevant

It's Awful Sad We Need Boys Like You

I’ve loved Natalie Merchant since I heard her for the first time back in 1987 on In My Tribe (she’s a fellow Gen-Xer) … she’s smart and beautiful and has a great voice and a talent for songwriting … one of the greatest artists of my generation for sure … I just stumbled across this live version of Gun Shy and was reminded of her brilliance: