May 4, 2024
We watched a mix of very different streaming movies:
- Point Blank (1967) is a surreal crime thriller suffused with late-Sixties style. The movie is adapted from the Richard Stark (aka Donald E. Westlake) crime thriller The Hunter, which is also the source for the Chow Yun-fat movie Full Contact and the Mel Gibson movie Payback, which are more violent. I love how stylish and disorienting this movie is. Lee Marvin is compelling as the vengeful Walker (the character is named Parker in the Stark novels), and the supporting cast (Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn, John Vernon, and Carroll O’Connor) is also memorable. There are only a handful of good surreal crime thrillers, but this one may be the best. Kudos to director John Boorman, who later achieved greater success with Deliverance and Excalibur.
- The Abandoned (2022) is a forgettable Taiwanese crime thriller about a police investigation of a serial killer who is killing Thai migrant workers. It’s stylishly filmed and well-acted, but the script makes the Taiwanese police look like complete idiots.
- Arcadian (2024) is a monster movie ripoff of A Quite Place starring Nicolas Cage. The aliens, who only come out at night due to their aversion to light, are interesting looking digital creations, but the movie has few thrills. Cage was a producer on this, but as an actor he’s wasted.
April 27, 2024
We watched these streaming movies this weekend:
- Man in Love (2021) is about a small-time gangster who falls for a young woman who is in debt due to her late father’s hospital bills. This formulaic yet stylish tear-jerker is surprisingly effective, with great performances by stars Roy Chiu and Wei-Ning Hsu, who married soon after filming. This exceptionally well-made movie, which features both native Taiwanese and Mandarin dialogue, was a huge box-office hit in Taiwan. Keep the Kleenex handy, because I guarantee this movie will make you cry.
- The Two Faces of January (2014) is a seductive thriller based on a forgotten Patricia Highsmith novel about a well-to-do American couple traveling in Greece who befriend a young tour guide. This movie is all about the three leads, played by Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Isaac, and Kirsten Dunst. The performances are all great, particularly Viggo and Oscar (Kirsten, unfortunately, has the weakest part). The movie falls apart in the third act, but I found the first two acts gripping.
- Autumn Leaves (1956) is a romantic drama about an older woman (Joan Crawford) who falls for a young war veteran (Cliff Robertson), a pathological liar with mental problems. It’s a well-acted drama with a great title song (sung by Nat King Cole), tight direction by Robert Aldrich (who directed Crawford again in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?), and excellent camera work by Charles Lang (who filmed Crawford in Sudden Fear).
April 24, 2024
We watched two more black and white noir movies on Tubi. Both are set in San Francisco and were released a few years earlier than Hitchcock’s overrated Vertigo.
- Dark Passage (1947) features husband and wife stars Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in probably their most overlooked movie. It’s a classic noir plot about a man wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife who breaks out of San Quentin and returns to San Francisco to seek justice. The first third of the movie is filmed from Bogie’s perspective, meaning we don’t get to see his face for about 40 minutes. Along the way, he’s helped by numerous people, friends and strangers alike. One of the strangers, of course, is Bacall, who plays a wealthy artist who lives in a cool mid-century apartment. Since Bogart’s character is wanted, he decides to get plastic surgery to avoid capture. For the second third of the movie, Bogie has a bandaged face (like the Invisible Man). Only in the final third does Bacall remove Bogart’s bandages, and the movie heads toward a romantic conclusion. The movie is ridiculously implausible, but it’s got so many things going for it—camera work, wonderful character acting, great San Francisco location shots (Pacific Heights, Lombard Street, and Golden Gate Bridge)—that I didn’t care about the silly plot. It’s one of those movies that you can watch multiple times and still find more things to enjoy.
- Sudden Fear (1952) is a thriller set mostly in San Francisco about a wealthy playwright (Joan Crawford) who falls in love with a scheming actor (Jack Palance). The two are great together, as is Gloria Grahame in a femme fatale role. The movie has great atmosphere, wonderful photography (by Oscar winner Charles Lang), Elmer Bernstein’s music, and great performances by the entire cast, particularly Crawford and Palance, who were both nominated for Oscars. There’s a silly gimmick involving a Dictaphone machine, but fortunately the movie doesn’t overdo it. Crawford learns that her husband is plotting to kill her for her money, so she plots to murder him first and pin the killing on Grahame’s character. The chaotic ending features a lengthy chase scene at night that’s truly thrilling.
Both of these movies are more fun than Vertigo. Give them a try.
April 7, 2024
We watched The Philadelphia Story (1940), a classy romantic farce about high-society marital nonsense starring incomparable stars Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart, who unbelievably took home the Oscar for best actor for his overrated performance. I hated this movie, just as I would hate any movie that worships the rich and showcases their outrageous behavior for laughs. Before World War II, did people find this kind of stuff funny?
April 6, 2024
- My twin brother texted me that he was watching 12 Angry Men (1957), the classic Sidney Lumet movie starring Henry Fonda, so we decided to give it a watch. We loved the claustrophobic jury room setting, the inventive camera work, the sweat of the performers in the heated room, and the wonderful cast of character actors, including Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Martin Balsam, Jack Klugman, Ed Begley, and others. Although the movie is a fine examination of our jury system, it moves much too quickly and melodramatically, presumably in real time. Also, jurors are instructed to weigh only evidence presented at trial, yet Henry Fonda’s character describes visiting a pawn shop to purchase a switch blade exactly like the murder weapon for only a few dollars. He then proceeds to taint the jury proceedings by discussing the evidence he discovered. The other jurors should have admonished him and notified the judge about what had happened. Such an incident could have resulted in a mistrial. I’ve been on several juries (both criminal and civil), and I never witnessed the intense bullying and harassment that occurs in 12 Angry Men. Also, I wondered why all the jurors were male. Surely the defense lawyers would have selected a few women. In other theatrical adaptations of the teleplay, female actors are cast, and the play is retitled 12 Angry Jurors. But the title is a misnomer anyway. Not all the jurors are angry. Summary: It’s an enjoyable movie with a great cast of character actors, but it’s a flawed presentation of how juries actually work.
- We watched Someday or One Day (2022), a Taiwanese dramatic movie that was adapted from a popular 22-episode television series that ran from 2019 to 2020. It stars Chia-Yen Ko and Greg Hsu (aka Greg Han). The movie and the TV series both feature a time loop plot. I can’t speak for the TV series, but the the time loop plot of the movie is way too convoluted for its own good. For a two-hour movie, the screenwriters should have kept things simple. However, the movie is extremely stylish (clothing, sets, music, and camera work are all exquisite). Greg Hsu, who has been dubbed “National Boyfriend” for his dazzling smile, wore a different pair of designer eyeglasses in each scene; the movie could have been called Greg Hsu’s Eyeglasses. Although Hsu lacks the acting talent of co-star Chia-Yen Ko, my husband and I couldn’t take our eyes off him. He’s so darn cute!
March 8, 2024
More classic movies that we watched on DVD and streaming:
- Vertigo (1958) is a kick for anyone who’s lived in the Bay Area. When I saw it in the theater for its rerelease many years ago, I was restless. I found the movie dreary and phony, and Jimmy Stewart’s performance was unhinged. On a smaller screen, I appreciated it more, though it’s still not one of my favorite Hitchcock movies. Kim Novak is great, however, and the movie is a two-hour valentine to the city of San Francisco, highlighting numerous city landmarks. And that climax at the Mission of San Juan Bautista is wonderful.
- North by Northwest (1959) is a fast-paced thriller that inspired all the slick 60s spy thrillers that came later, including the James Bond films, whose pointless plots simply serve to set up jaw-dropping action scenes. Cary Grant is wonderful in it, although he’s a bit long in the tooth for this role. Eva Marie Saint is also about ten years too old for her part, a predatory seductress. The supporting villains, James Mason and Martin Landau (whose character Leonard is openly gay), are memorable. The movie has several great action scenes, most notably the scene of Grant being attacked by a crop duster plane and the climax atop a full-scale replica of Mount Rushmore. The score by Bernard Hermann may be his best, although surprisingly he wasn’t nominated for an Oscar.
- The File on Thelma Jordan (1949) is a fun noir with a superb leading performance by Barbara Stanwyck and capable work from co-star Wendell Corey. But Stanwyck is the top draw here. She’s amazing! The violent ending is a bit of a shocker; I didn’t see that coming. Three decades later, writer/director Lawrence Kasdan borrowed the plot for Body Heat (1981).
- To Be or Not To Be (1942) is a hilarious wartime comedy starring Jack Benny and Carole Lombard and directed by the great Ernst Lubitsch. Although audiences didn’t know what to make of the movie upon its release, it’s now regarded as a classic. (Mel Brooks remade it in 1983 as a vehicle for his wife Anne Bancroft.) This is a perfect Hollywood movie, excellent in every department, and its richness makes it enjoyable for multiple viewings.
- Kwaidan (1964) is an anthology of four ghost tales, adapted from the Lafcadio Hearn stories. The director is Masako Kobayashi, who also made Harakiri (1962), which we enjoyed a few weeks back. Although the production was impressive (it was the most expensive movie made in Japan at that time) the movie is a bore. Too bad, because the original Hearn stories are delightful.
February 23, 2024
We watched The Killing (1956), Stanley Kubrick’s racetrack heist movie with a familiar cast of character actors, including Sterling Hayden, Jay C. Flippen, Marie Windsor, and Elisha Cook Jr, . I’d seen it once before, and I honestly forgot how much fun it is. This is the movie that introduced nonlinear storytelling, an innovative concept at the time. Even the outdated narration didn’t irritate me much. The racetrack scenes were filmed at Bay Meadows Racetrack in San Mateo, CA, which closed in 2008.
February 11, 2024
Two more classic movies, one American and one French.
- Giant (1956) is a big, epic, multigenerational historical drama about a Texas cattle baron and oilman. It stars Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean, as well as several notable supporting actors. The movie was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, but only director George Stevens won for directing. I enjoyed Hudson’s and Taylor’s performances, but found Dean’s overemotional performance a perfect example of how method acting can go horribly wrong. But Hudson is surprisingly effective. The movie has been described as “sprawling,” it never seems to know where it’s going. Despite these problems, I enjoyed the movie; it’s a big production, and the enormous money spent (estimated at $5.4 million) is visible on screen. I also liked the swift and subtle changes in character (at least for Hudson and Taylor). I guess I’m a sucker for multigenerational movies that progressively age their characters with large amounts of makeup. My husband dismissed the movie as an overblown soap opera with scenes that went on way too long.
- Les Diaboliques (1955) is a French Hitchcockian thriller directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot that outdoes Hitchcock in its final moments, crafting the most memorable bathtub scene in movie history. Hitchcock regretted that Clouzot beat him to the punch in securing the film rights to the Boileau-Narcejac source novel. He was apparently quicker to secure the rights to D’Entre Les Morts by Boileau-Narcejac for Vertigo (1958), which is equally implausible and features equally unsympathetic characters. For me, any movie that chooses implausible plot twists over sympathetic characters is two hours wasted, but despite that I’ll always remember the endings of Les Diaboliques and Vertigo.
February 7, 2024
We watched two classic lighthearted movies with the same title but different stories:
- Heaven Can Wait (1943), directed by old pro Ernst Lubitsch, is a delightful TechniColor movie from the Forties. The story is about Henry Van Cleve (Don Ameche), a compulsive womanizer who has died and is seeking entrance to Hell from the Devil (Laird Cregor). The performances are great all around, and the sets, costumes, cinematography, and makeup are splendid. Through a series of flashbacks Henry tells the story of his life, and the screenplay by Samson Raphaelson is witty, clever, and sophisticated. Henry is a total cad, but the touching performances by Ameche and the absolutely stunning Gene Tierney, who plays his wife, made me sympathize with him.
- Heaven Can Wait (1978) is a remake of a different movie from the Forties, Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941). It stars Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, and James Mason, as well several notable supporting actors. It’s about an NFL football quarterback whose dream of winning the Super Bowl for the L.A. Rams is cut short by a fatal accident, but it turns out his life was ended prematurely by an anxious angel, so he’s allowed to return to life in the body of a murdered millionaire, where he meets a beautiful school teacher (played by the gorgeous Julie Christie) who opposes his corporate development projects. Although the movie was made 35 years after the earlier Heaven Can Wait, it seems like a cheaper production. But the movie gives significant exposure to the Filoli estate, where President Joe Biden recently met with Xi Jinping in November 2023, and it highlights Beatty’s athleticism. I first saw this movie as a teenager during its initial release, and loved it then. It’s still enjoyable, but mainly for the chemistry between Beatty and Christie.
If you can watch only one Heaven Can Wait, try the Lubitsch movie.
February 4, 2024
We enjoyed Onibaba (1964) last week, so I reserved Kaneto Shindo’s follow-up movie, Kuroneko (aka Black Cat) (1968) from the Seattle Public Library. Like Onibaba, it’s shot in gorgeous black and white and set in medieval Japan. The story is about two women, a mother and daughter-in-law, who are raped and murdered by samurai soldiers; like Harakiri , it’s an anti-samurai movie. Due to the supernatural influence of a black cat, the two women reappear as vengeful ghosts, and proceed on a brutal killing spree of several samurai. Later, the governor sends a war hero to slay the demons. Coincidentally, that hero is the mother’s son and her daughter-in-law’s husband. Onibaba and Kuroneko are quite similar, particularly since they both feature only three main characters, two women and a man (Nobuko Otowa, Shindo’s wife, plays the mother in both movies). The movie is atmospheric, stylish, and theatrical, with many clever touches. We didn’t enjoy it as much as Onibaba, but it’s a fine Japanese supernatural movie. We wish that it were less predictable and more whimsical, like A Chinese Ghost Story.
January 28, 2024
We watched two classic Japanese movies yesterday, Harakiri (1962), directed by Masaki Kobayashi and starring the great Tatsuya Nakadai, and Onibaba (1964), directed by Kaneto Shindo and starring Nobuku Otowa and Jitsuko Yoshimura. Both movies feature exquisite black and white photography.
Of the two movies, Harakiri is clearly superior, and I’ll watch it several more times. The screenplay by Yasuhiku Takiguchi and Shinobu Hashimoto is cleverly non-linear, relying on flashback scenes to explain the protagonist’s motivation, which helps build suspense to the shattering climax. It’s a brilliant movie, a true work of art, exemplary in every aspect (writing, directing, cinematography, lighting, musical score, and performances). It’s nearly perfect (some of the flashbacks are too short and therefore meaningless).
We watched Onibaba mainly because we’d seen an interview with director William Friedkin and he described it as one of the most terrifying movies he’d ever seen. It is a very effective and atmospheric horror film, visually stunning, sexually explicit, and savagely violent. But it lacks the weighty theme and narrative sophistication of Harakiri. It’s pure pulp horror, but very well done. Unlike Harakiri, I’m not likely to watch Onibaba again; once is enough.
January 27, 2024
We finished watching two limited series recently, Beef and Fargo, Season 5. Both are excellent character-based shows that don’t worry too much about logic, believability, or the looseness of their plots. They simply let the characters take you on a journey, and in both cases it’s a wild ride. This approach works better in Beef, where the episodes are only thirty minutes long.
Of the two shows, I was most surprised by Beef, which stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong. I’d heard about it only through awards shows (it won several Golden Globes and Emmys), not through reviews or word of mouth. It’s about two people who allow their lives to spiral out of control after they become involved in a road rage incident in Southern California. What I love about the show is it gives every character moments to shine, highlighting their versatility in both dramatic and comedic acting. Steven Yeun even gets to sing (and he’s got a wonderful singing voice).
I’ve been a big fan of Fargo for years, and Season 5 is a return to greatness after the mediocre Season 4. Jon Hamm plays a great villain, a crooked sheriff, and Juno Temple and Jennifer Jason Leigh play fascinating protagonists, Dot and Lorraine Lyon, respectively. Season 5 focuses on the theme of domestic violence, so the show gets uncomfortable to watch occasionally.
January 7, 2024
We watched Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Monster last night on a Chinese streaming site. The site lacked English subtitles, so my husband translated enough of the Chinese subtitles for me to follow along. Truth is, the performances are so good that you hardly need subtitles. It’s a beautiful movie about how the narratives we construct for ourselves are often twisted and wrong. This multiple perspective story deliberately confuses viewers at the start, but the movie cleverly works its way to an extraordinarily simple yet graceful explanation. Once again, Kore-eda has found a way to bring out remarkable performances from child actors. Monster is a movie I’ll return to for multiple viewings. It’s one of the best movies of 2023.
January 6, 2024
The movie Air is only good when Matt Damon is being funny, Chris Tucker is being dramatic, Jason Bateman isn’t moving, and Ben Affleck isn’t onscreen. So it’s only good for about five minutes. That’s it. However, the movie apparently licensed every hit song from the Eighties for its soundtrack.
J.A. Bayona’s movie The Society of the Snow, which is about the Uraguayan amateur rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes in the Seventies, reminds us of our purpose in life. It’s to help others. Be human: help someone else today.
December 24, 2023
Last Monday, we went to a secret showing of The Boys in the Boat at the AMC Pacific Place 11. We hoped that was the movie that would be shown, but we weren’t sure. We were delighted when the opening credits confirmed it was the new George Clooney movie.
It’s a perfectly fine movie: old-fashioned, tender, evocative, and thrilling. Solid performances, particularly by Joel Edgerton as Coach Al Ulbrickson. Sad that none of the movie was filmed in Seattle, but that doesn’t take anything away from the story, which is one of the best sports stories ever. If you get a chance, read the Daniel Brown book. It’s fantastic!
December 23, 2023
We watched Saltburn with Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi on Amazon Prime. It’s a mindf*ck movie with more than a passing resemblance to The Talented Mr. Ripley. It was just OK, provocative without being arousing.
December 17, 2023
On the last day of a weekend visit to Victoria, BC, we saw Dream Scenario with Nicholas Cage. The movie has a wonderful premise: Cage plays a mediocre professor who inexplicably appears in strangers’ dreams. Suddenly, he becomes a huge celebrity, and then the dreams start to take a violent and sinister turn. Wonderful performances, clever dialogue, and sharp insights on celebrity and cancel culture make this movie enjoyable. Unfortunately, the ending was weak and disappointing. Too bad, because the first half was as good as Adaptation.
December 9, 2023
We watched Leave the World Behind last night on Netflix. The cast (Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Mahershala Ali, and Kevin Bacon) is impressive, as is the list of producers (which includes Barack and Michelle Obama). But we didn’t enjoy it, frustrated by its ambiguity, the shallowness of its characters, and the tendency of its cast to splinter apart to form multiple storylines, none of which is compelling. I also didn’t find the apocalyptic scenario to be very credible, but what do I know about apocalyptic scenarios? Perhaps the producers felt that the apocalyptic scenario doesn’t need to be credible, because the point of the movie is to showcase the sense of unease that occurs when society begins to collapse, whatever the reason. Next time I feel like watching an apocalyptic movie, I’ll plunk the DVD of The Day After Tomorrow in and press play. Ambiguity be damned!
December 3, 2023
We watched May December (2023) last night. This Todd Haynes movie starring Natalie Portman (who is creepy) and Julianne Moore (who is convincing) is based on the saga of Mary Kay Letourneau. The movie forced me to ponder a controversial question: What’s it like to raise a family with the woman who statutorily raped you at age 13? C’mon, Captain Obvious! It’s icky, and EVERYONE knows that. The movie hardly seems necessary.
December 1, 2023
Last night, we finished watching The Bad Sleep Well (1960), Akira Kurosawa’s modern update of Hamlet. Sure, it’s stylish, well-acted, and reasonably well-written, but it’s also torpidly paced and overheated. Like many modern Shakespeare adaptations, I found the movie tiresome, unconvincing, and ultimately silly. The movie pales in comparison with High and Low (1963).
November 25, 2023
I watched Kon Ichikawa’s horrific antiwar movie Fires on the Plain (1959) on YouTube. It’s stunningly beautiful, with exquisite black and white cinematography and masterful wide-screen framing. It’s also one of the most horrifying and realistic depictions of war ever put on film. The movie is forever etched in my nightmares.
More than fifty years later, Shinya Tsukamoto made a color remake of Fires on the Plain (2014), but I don’t need to see it. Ichikawa’s original masterpiece can’t be surpassed.
November 23, 2023
One cup of water, one cup of sugar, three cups of cranberries. So simple. Easily my favorite Thanksgiving side dish.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
November 19, 2023
More quick takes on streaming movies:
- Finally caught up with the Exorcist reboot from Blumhouse: The Exorcist: Believer. The movie took a while to get going, but I loved the slow burn. This movie is surprisingly well acted; in particular, there are excellent performances by Leslie Odom, Jr. Ellen Burstyn, and Ann Dowd, and there’s a delightful cameo appearance at the end of the movie. Yes, it doesn’t really do anything new, but it’s a solid reboot of the Exorcist franchise by David Gordon Greene, who also helmed the Halloween reboot. We enjoyed it.
- We tried watching the gay romcom Red, White, and Royal Blue, starring Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine. The leads are attractive, but the movie is mindless froth. We stopped watching about 30 minutes into it. Have we reached the age where gay romcoms are simply unwatchable? Perhaps. But I’m glad they keep making them.
November 12, 2023
Some quick takes on movies we watched recently on streaming or DVD:
- High and Low (1962) – Brilliant kidnap drama from Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune and Tatsuya Nakudai. The story is based on an Ed McBain 87th Precinct novel, but of course Kurosawa enriches it tremendously. The movie has three very distinct parts, and all are fascinating. However, the final scene in which the kidnapper confronts the victim in prison was a surprising letdown.
- Retribution (2006) – Japanese horror movie directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Ikira). This was a slow, confusing paranormal mystery featuring a ghost in a red dress. At times creepy and haunting, ultimately the movie is just confusing and ineffective. But there is one delightfully strange special effect that I’ll never forget.
- The Killer (2023) – David Fincher’s thriller about a hitman, played my Michael Fassbender. Although the movie is stylishly made, the voiceover narration is increasingly annoying and it adds nothing. The characters (including the killer) are all one dimensional, and the plot is as simple as a video game. It’s also surprisingly boring, but it didn’t help that I watched it drunk.
November 5, 2023
Seattle has had several strange disasters lately that it’s beginning to feel like a Final Destination movie.
- An off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot tripping on magic mushrooms tried to crash a jet: See Off-duty Alaska Air pilot tries to shut off engines on Everett flight, airline says.
- A runaway barge drifted through Elliot Bay, nearly destroying the Great Wheel and the Seattle Aquarium. See Runaway barge in Seattle’s Elliott Bay hits marina.
- Yesterday, a runaway bus crashed into a building in Belltown. See 1 dead, a dozen others injured after car, bus crash in Belltown.
What’s next? A runaway train?
October 21, 2023
We watched Anatomy of a Fall, a French courtroom drama. A German woman, a writer, is accused of murdering her husband at a rundown chalet in the French Alps. If you like courtroom dramas, the movie was OK. Great acting (particularly by Sandra Huller as the accused), good script, and good pacing. Throw in some quirky camera work, several amusing moments, and a talented Australian shepherd. The movie is long (2 hrs 32 mins), but I didn’t become restless. I liked the way the movie highlighted differences in the French criminal justice system. Apparently, multiple witnesses can speak at once, judges can leave the courtroom suddenly without explanation, and lawyers all must wear priestly black robes. Surprisingly, the movie won the Palm d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
October 1, 2023
We watched Reptile on Netflix. It’s a good, intelligent, moody thriller about sleazy realtors, heroin dealers, and corrupt cops. Good cast, but you should watch it for one reason only: Benicio Del Toro. Wow, that guy is so fun to watch. Nice to see him teamed up with Alicia Silverstone again (they were in Excess Baggage (1997) together); her part is small, but they have excellent chemistry together.
September 23, 2023
My husband got the DVD of Paris 05:59: Theo & Hugo from the library simply because it stood out on the shelves and he noted that it was gay-themed. We popped the DVD in and were totally surprised by the first 20 minutes, which presents a graphic orgy at a gay sex club. Wow, gay porn! After that initial shocking scene, the next 90 minutes follows the two young protagonists, Theo and Hugo (Geoffrey Couet and Francois Nambot). Their early morning trek through Paris on bicycle and on foot is a shimmering journey of discovery, with a few stops along the way (including to a hospital for an HIV PEP treatment). Critics have compared the movie, which is directed by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau and shot by Manuel Marnier, to Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995) and Agnes Varda’s Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962). This real-time gem has got everything you want in a romance, including some provocative nudity. It’s a charming and somber treat, and the best gay movie I’ve seen since Brokeback Mountain (2005).
September 16, 2023
We watched Talk to Me on streaming, highly anticipating the most critically acclaimed horror movie of this year.
Is it good? Yes, it’s good, but not good enough. It’s wildly overrated. It’s a one-note movie and has only enough content for a two-minute trailer. It feels like a short film that was expanded to 90 minutes. I enjoyed the setup, and thought the characters were wonderfully developed and differentiated. But no twists? No reversals? No surprises at all? I was underwhelmed. It reminded me of It Follows (2014), which was also praised widely, but left me unimpressed.
The sequel is already in the works.
September 9, 2023
While browsing reviews of a Jean-Patrick Manchette novel on GoodReads, I noticed that someone compared Manchette, a French crime novelist, to another French writer named Pascal Garnier. I wasn’t familiar with Garnier, so I immediately googled him. Turns out Garnier, who was also an artist, died in 2010, but Gallic Press has published a dozen of his novels in English. I just finished reading one of them, The Front Seat Passenger. What a fun book! And my library has many of Garnier’s books in paperback and ebook editions. Look forward to reading them.
August 20, 2023
We watched Wait Until Dark (1967) on DVD last night. While browsing DVDs in the Seattle Central Library, I recommended it to my husband, who hadn’t seen it before. I hadn’t watched it since I was a teenager, but I remembered it was a tense thriller.
The movie has a great but small cast led by the always lovable Audrey Hepburn, playing a blind woman trapped in a New York apartment with three crooks searching for a doll filled with heroin. The crooks are played by Richard Crenna (steady), Jack Weston (quirky), and, most memorably, Alan Arkin (fiendish).
The best moment in the film comes toward the end when Roat (Arkin) leaps after Suzy (Hepburn). It’s the best jump scare ever executed in a movie. I watched the DVD in bed, and I nearly jumped out of bed.
If you watch that scene in isolation (it’s here on YouTube) it seems rather ordinary. But that’s because you haven’t experienced the quiet buildup in suspense that preceded it. If you watch the whole movie, boy, does that scene deliver the goods! Packed theaters screamed back in 1967.
August 12, 2023
Continuing our patronage of Movies at the Mural, we watched the free outdoor showing of Jaws (1975) last night. It’s still a thrilling movie! Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Richard Dreyfuss are all excellent, and John Williams’s Oscar-winning score is more varied than I remembered. The Oscar-winning editing by Verna Fields is legendary for saving the picture, Bill Butler’s photography is often breathtaking, and the movie also won an Oscar for Best Sound. Jaws, the first summer blockbuster, holds up extremely well on the big screen, where Bruce the shark is more convincing. Robert Shaw, in his most memorable role as Quint, deserved a Supporting Actor nomination.
August 5, 2023
We watched a free outdoor showing of Clueless (1995) at Movies at the Mural last night in Seattle Center. It’s been several years since I’d last seen it, and it was delightful. Alicia Silverstone was wonderful as Cher, and Paul Rudd was handsome and charming in his movie debut. But the real surprise was Brittany Murphy as Tai. She stole every scene she was in. The movie has a great 90s soundtrack; for instance, the song that played over the closing credits was Tenderness by General Public.
Writer/director Amy Heckerling’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma is remarkably faithful to the book, despite changing the location to Beverly Hills. To prep for the movie, my husband and I watched the Anya Taylor-Joy version of Emma. (2020), which has several wonderful performances but doesn’t quite capture the character of Emma Woodhouse. We also started reading the novel (but I haven’t finished it yet). We’re still lost in Austen’s early 19th Century world.
August 1, 2023
The big news today is the indictment of former president Donald J. Trump on four felony charges related to the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
You can read the indictment here. Though it’s only 45 pages, it’s a chilling document. It highlights how close the U.S. came to losing its republic.
Glad to finally see charges filed against Trump that mirror the impeachment findings from 2021, aside from the lack of a seditious conspiracy charge. But that most serious charge may come in a superseding indictment. Special counsel Jack Smith isn’t finished with his investigation.
There are six unnamed co-conspirators in the indictment. Some are obvious (Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, and Jeffrey Clark, for instance), but we’ll have.to wait to see the others named.
Ironically, one of the strongest Republican statements in response to the indictment came from former vice president Mike Pence: “Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States.”
Of course, just two weeks ago, Pence said that Trump’s actions around January 6 didn’t rise to the level of criminal behavior. All along Pence knew Trump’s actions were criminal, but until today he’s never acknowledged it. Pence couldn’t have been surprised by anything found in the indictment, because it restates publicly known facts from the 2021 impeachment of Trump, the January 6 Special Committee findings, and the resulting criminal referrals of Trump to the DOJ.
All in all, a satisfying day for the rule of law and the fight against tyranny.
July 15, 2023
We went to see Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One (ha! what a ridiculously long title!) at a Saturday matinee today at the AMC Pacific Place 11 theater. What a fun movie! The action scenes and stunts are amazing, and there are four strong performance by supporting actresses (Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Pom Klementieff). Atwell is the standout performance; she basically steals the movie from Tom Cruise. Admittedly, the plot is silly (but topical since it concerns AI), the far-flung international locales (Abu Dhabi, Venice, and the Austrian Alps) are completely unjustified, and the movie’s a bit too long, but those are minor quibbles for an action movie like this. It’s a genuinely entertaining popcorn movie. It should make a lot of money.
June 24, 2023
The Champions of Change benefit basketball game at the Climate Pledge Arena was tremendous fun last night, and for a great cause. The Sue Bird/Gary Payton coached team in black led most of the game, but the Jewel Lloyd/Richard Sherman coached team in white valiantly staged a comeback and tied the game with less than a second to go with a basket by Sherman, forcing overtime. At the end of the five-minute overtime, NBA great Jamal Crawford drained a majestic three pointer to win the game.
What a fun night! It was our first time in the newly renovated Climate Pledge Arena, and it’s a gorgeous venue, one of the cleanest and most modern arenas I’ve seen. This was only the second year for the Champions of Change charity event, which was founded by Doug Baldwin, Michael Bennett, and Cliff Avril, all Seahawks veterans. It’s something we’ll come back for every year—for a night of fun that benefits worthwhile community causes, such as Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, Family First Community Center, One Love Community Fridge, and Pioneer Human Services. Please consider donating to Champions of Change at their website.
June 22, 2023
We saw Past Lives at the Uptown Theater in Seattle last night. Great movie, and one of the best we’ve seen this year.
It’s about a Korean woman Na Young, later named Nora, whose family emigrates to Toronto when she’s 12, separating her from Hae Sung, a Korean boy who is her closest friend. Years later Hae Sung realizes how much he misses her. He tries to find Nora on Facebook, and she eventually reconnects with him online. They spend several sessions chatting with each other, but then Nora severs contact with him, realizing that the long-distance relationship might distract her from what she wants to achieve in Toronto.
Twelve years pass, and Nora’s now married to a caucasian American novelist named Arthur and living in New York. She’s a playwright, hoping one day to win a Tony. Suddenly, she hears again from Hae Sung. He’s traveling to New York, and he’d like to meet her.
Wonderful if mawkish premise, but the writing, photography, music, and performances (particularly by Teo Yoo, who plays Hae Sung) make it all powerfully touching. It’s similar to Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy, but condensed into two hours for maximum emotional impact. The pacing is a bit slow, but I was never restless. Celine Song’s debut directing effort is a surprising, unconventional, heartbreaking, and ultimately profound take on the romantic triangle.
June 8, 2023
It’s not every day that a former president of the United States is indicted on seven federal charges. [UPDATE: The indictment was released, and Trump faces 37 federal charges.]
In fact, it’s never happened before today. Does that make it a sad day? No, I don’t think so. It’s nice to think that laws apply to all people, including former presidents.
And that’s not the end of Donald Trump’s legal problems. Before the DOJ completes its investigations, Trump may face several more federal charges, including seditious conspiracy. He awaits trial for 34 felony charges in New York. And there is a looming indictment in Fulton County, Georgia for racketeering and election fraud. He lost his defamation and sexual abuse trial against E. Jean Carroll to the tune of $5 million, and he faces a $250 million civil lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James.
It’s difficult to see how Trump escapes prison and financial ruin. This is what happens to all crooks at the end of their run. They die penniless, bitter, and alone. That is Trump’s future.
But the present is still remarkably rosy for Trump. He continues to be the Republican Party Leader and presumed frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election. He’s currently fundraising off of the indictment news, adding millions to his coffers. And there are millions of suckers willing to give him their money.
In 2016, the Republican Party knew they were nominating a crook, racist, rapist, racketeer, and traitor to lead the party. So did the media. But the billionaire class forced Trump down America’s throat, imagining that he would broaden the party’s base by appealing to fiscal conservatives, anti-abortionists, evangelical Christians, and white supremacists. The billionaires were right, but at what cost to the nation? All for a tax cut.
It’s not unusual for Republican presidents to be scurrilous traitors. That has happened before. In fact, every Republican president in the past 60 years betrayed this country one way or another. Nixon with North Vietnam. Ford with the Nixon pardon. Reagan and George H.W. Bush with Iran and the Contras. George W. Bush with the Iraq invasion. Traitors all.
Of course, Democrat presidents haven’t been angels. Kennedy, Johnson, and Clinton were scoundrels by any measure. In many ways, they failed to live up to the high ideals of the office. Few presidents do.
But no president has made an utter mockery of our legal system like Donald J. Trump. That is his legacy. And for that he must face the full weight of its authority.
Perhaps the saddest thing about Trump is that he serves as an historical precedent. No one is unqualified for the White House. Any assclown can be president. That is also Trump’s legacy.
June 7, 2023
Here’s my response to yesterday’s announcement that the PGA Tour is merging with LIV Golf:
I’m done with golf. It’s a ridiculously expensive sport that caters to white racists and Saudi murderers.
I started playing golf as a teen in New Jersey, and even made extra bucks on weekends by caddying at a predominantly Jewish country club. Just the fact that rich Jewish club members couldn’t be accepted at other private clubs because they were Jewish tells you how repugnant the culture of golf is.
Of course, some notable people associated with golf, such as Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus, and Donald Trump, praised the merger of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. Hitler had many despicable fanboys too.
I haven’t played a round of golf in more than 10 years. I’d much rather go on a long hike with my husband, and there are plenty of free hiking trails in my area.
We recently moved to a condo from a house in Seattle, and my husband and I each have a set of golf clubs that we keep in the garage. We were undecided what to do with them, whether to move them into our storage unit at the condo, or just get rid of them. Yesterday made that decision easy.
We’re getting rid of our golf clubs. Adios, golf. It hasn’t been fun in a very long time. No more good walks spoiled.
May 25, 2023
We’re moving to a smaller place, so I needed to go through my possessions and decide what to keep, what to throw out, and what to sell. In sorting through it all, I came upon a large manuscript that I had placed in a cabinet when we first moved into our house in Seattle eight years ago. It was a hefty pile, more than 500 pages in size, containing numerous short stories, some finished, but many unfinished.
I read through several of them, and discovered a few stories I had forgotten, one that I had absolutely no memory of writing. Odd. It’s like discovering a letter you wrote to yourself from decades ago, confronting the stranger that is your younger self.
Unfortunately, I found nothing brilliant or instantly marketable, but perhaps a few stories worth preserving. Others might disagree. I used my iPhone to scan the old dot matrix printouts. I’ll share a few of them on this site in the coming weeks, stories called The Pyre, The Wreath, Intrigue, and The Sindbad Simulation.
May 14, 2023
The movie Renfield, a horror-comedy, is delightful every minute that Nicholas Cage is on screen. It’s tiresome whenever he’s not (apologies to supporting actors Nicholas Hoult and Awkwafina, who just aren’t that interesting). The problem is easy to identify: Cage doesn’t have enough screen time. Renfield needed Maximum Cage to work.
May 9, 2023
In a stunning decision, a New York jury today found that former president Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll. The case stems from Trump’s attack of Carroll in the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the spring of 1996. The jury awarded Carroll about $5 million in damages.
Carroll’s attorneys did an excellent job presenting Trump’s pattern of sexual abuse to the jury. Although Trump did not testify, he severely damaged his case (and his reputation) with his deposition, portions of which have been released. Rather than renounce the provocative comments he made to Billy Bush in the infamous Access Hollywood tape (leaked in 2016) as harmless “locker room talk,” Trump actually doubled down and suggested that he was fortunate that powerful men like him can sexually assault women with impunity—and have been doing so for the past million years! Although he repeatedly said that Carroll “wasn’t his type,” he was shown a photo of Carroll and misidentified her as his former wife Marla Maples. Oops!
It’s a civil case, not a criminal case, so Trump won’t serve a day in prison, and he’ll presumably continue to run for president as the Republican party leader. Republican leaders seem unfazed by the “sex abuse” verdict. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) said the case and jury were both a “joke.”
It’s regrettable the jury didn’t conclude that Trump raped Carroll, as she alleged, only that he “sexually abused” her, though his conduct was certainly criminal. During the trial, two other women testified that Trump had sexually assaulted them, and more than 20 other women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct. Even Ivana Trump, Trump’s first wife who died in 2022, claimed that Trump raped her in her divorce deposition.
How many women has Donald Trump sexually assaulted or raped? Any number greater than zero disqualifies him from public office.
We know that Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll. That is now an undeniable fact, regardless of Trump’s expected appeal.
May 7, 2023
The movie Spoiler Alert, based on the memoir by Michael Ausiello, with Jim Parsons and Ben Aldridge is a touching, charming, delightful tear-jerker movie. It’s worth a watch on DVD.
I honestly didn’t expect much from this movie (tear-jerkers are often mawkish and awkward), but soon got wrapped up in the wonderful performances. Parsons and the supporting cast (particularly Sally Field and Bill Irwin) give lovable, quirky performances, but Ben Aldridge is a revelation. I’d liked him in Knock at the Cabin—despite thinking that that movie, like nearly all M. Night Shyamalan-helmed movies, was idiotic. In Spoiler Alert, Aldridge gives a standout performance the seems natural, easygoing, and charismatic. In short, star-making. When the movie ended, I had become a certified Ben Aldridge fan. I vow to watch everything he’s in from now on. He’s that good.
cool lima bean 