Movies Watched -- Tully (2018)
95 minute running time … I loved this one … Charlize Theron is a special woman (born in 1975 so she’s a tail-end Xer). She’s beautiful and smart and chooses to participate in really good, interesting movies. I don’t know why this movie was in my queue (obviously not a John Farr reco since it deals with a heterosexual woman and motherhood and mental health), but I’m glad it was! Green-go, highly recommended, I haven’t seen many movies from 2018, but this would obviously make my top 10 list for that year.
I see now that the director (born in 1977) directed “Up in the Air,” which I hated, and the writer (born in 1978) wrote “Juno,” which I also hated. But they made a winner here, probably due to Charlize’s input. (Ah, they also made “Young Adult,” which I loved.)
Rex didn’t like it, but of course he’s gay. (I still love Rex: “I kept wishing Marlo would dump her deplorable life and marry Tully.“)
… he’s ruining it for all the other kids in the class who are reading like, The Iliad or whatever?
Movies Watched -- All That Jazz (1979)
123 minute running time so 20 to 30 minutes too long, but this was an unusual movie, very interesting in parts … if it were edited, which would be easy because it’s just a series of set pieces, and ran 90 to 100 minutes, I would give it a green rating, Top 500 movie for sure … a fan edit of it is called for … anyone in show business will love it despite the length. Been awhile since I’ve seen a movie as unusual as this one, but not unusual in a bad way. I think it inspired the creators of The Singing Detective TV series, which I loved. Anyway, I’d do a fan edit of it if I had the technical skills.
There’s no people like show people
Autumn Leaves of Red and Gold
Skip to 0:29 … I like this cover of ‘Autumn Leaves’ sung at Anthony Benedetto’s 90th birthday party … Leslie used the Johnny Mercer lyrics:
Stock Du Jour Master List -- May 2020
Movies Watched -- The Razor's Edge (1946)
146 minute running time so at least 46 minutes too long, which is way way way too long to bear … also my disc didn’t have subtitles so I couldn’t fast forward effectively. Starred Tyrone Power and his hair gel and Gene Tierney and her overbite. Soul searching on $3,000 a year ($45K equivalent today), plenty to bum around Nepal for a few years. John Farr called this a gem, but it’s way too long and too contrived to get my nod.
I've got a foolish notion I want to do more with my life than just sell bonds.
Movies Watched -- Repulsion (1965)
105 minute running time but felt much longer … Catherine Deneuve is a pretty blonde girl with mental health problems … she’s crackers, or cracking up, like her apartment, having visions of being raped and is almost actually raped (this is creepy Roman Polanski’s work after all), carrying around rabbit heads in her purse, etc. … she eventually becomes homicidal … these madness movies aren’t terrible, but it’s tough to sit through nearly two hours of this stuff. John Farr recommended this, but I sure as heck wouldn’t.
Flamin’ nut house!
Movies Watched -- Saboteur (1942)
109 minute running time so about ten minutes too long. Weird Hitchcock movie from 1942, pro-American propaganda during wartime … I was disturbed that they made the saboteurs either members of high society or smirking Jews (like Norm Perlmutter who played the main bad guy). Quirky story in many ways (the blind man, the circus sideshow performers, Statue of Liberty torch scene, etc.) … it’s interesting for historical reasons, and good-looking WASPs prevail, so…. John Farr recommended it, but I’m not sure it makes my Top 500 list.
“… the competence of totalitarian nations is much higher than ours. They get things done.“
Movies Watched -- Thief (1981)
124 minute running time so a half hour too long … Michael Mann’s debut movie … he re-made a variation of this as “Heat” 15 years later. The trouble with Michael Mann is that he lingers too much on shots and scenes, which make his movies way too long … he needs an aggressive editor. There were MANY great scenes in “Heat,” but the movie as a whole suffered from being too long and having the unnecessary romance stories added in there. Awful early 1980s soundtrack in “Thief” by “Tangerine Dream,” more like a nightmare. Remember the music in The Terminator? Like that but just endless.
James Cann and his Bronx accent plays a Chicagoan and a thief… Tuesday Weld plays the girl … fat Jim Belushi is in it too… it wasn’t very good, I mean I like the idea that crime doesn’t pay nor does getting mixed up with the mob, but this was unnecessarily violent and just sort of lousy, though John Farr liked it, but I say give it a miss.
I'll put your ____ wife on the street to be ______ in the ___ by _______ and ______ _____..
No Maybes
Layla Boe … I dig the track … helps that she’s stunningly beautiful … German dad probably, but I wonder where her mom is from: