Movies Watched -- Personal Shopper (2017)

105 minute running time … this was so bad I stopped watching it after 45 minutes and hated myself for watching that much … John Farr did me super dirty by recommending this one … I don’t know why Kristen Stewart gets so much work, her great acting talent lies in biting her lip or fingernail. Movie had to be sponsored by Apple given the severity of product placements. Complete crap, give it a miss. Same director as the awful “Clouds of Sils Maria,” I should have known better!

Farr; “[a] Hitchcockian thriller [NO!] progresses from an absorbing study in millennial detachment [STUDY IN MILLENNIAL TATTOO PLACEMENT] to a genuinely creepy exploration of the spiritual world [HELL NO!].“

Forbidden dress-up

Movies Watched -- The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

115 minute running time so at least 15 to 20 minutes too long. This movie was nearly impossible to watch, I got physically sick from the bouncy cam and quick cuts and zoom in zoom out … it’s unbearable. The story is kind of stupid too, Bourne never sleeps and has unlimited cash and perfectly clean clothes day after day and is clean shaven and it’s just … unrealistic. This was made in 2007, back in the War Porn era post-9/11, feels a bit dated now. There are some good action sequences, but the terrible bouncy cam reigns supreme so give it a miss.

Issue a standing kill order on chubby-cheeked CIA officers, effective immediately.

Movies Watched -- The Wedding Plan (2017)

In Hebrew. 110 minute running time. I really liked this one, the lead actress looks sort of like a Jewish Andie MacDowell … she has a lot of charm and spunk … it’s a cute story, funny and honest, well done. This is a green-go, recommended movie from the Chairman.

Here’s Matthew Lickona’s well-written, brief review.

The words aren’t working for you. המילים לא עובדותבשבילך

I Can Take You Deeper

Self-described baddie from Baghdad, alali … nice voice, I dig the song and love that album cover.

Movies Watched -- The Virgin Suicides (2000)

97 minute running time … I wasn’t thrilled with this … supposed to take place in Grosse Pointe, which they misspelled very early on, rankling me … the class angle wasn’t explored very well, nor was Catholicism given a fair shake … grim story in which no note rang true … late 70s / early 80s nostalgia piece, but it just didn’t work. I guess people were too kind to it since it was Sofia Coppola’s first movie, but it was no good, you can give it a miss.

You’re a stone fox.

Why Did You Take a Quarter Point Like That?

Funny story from the great Linda Raschke (start at 1:03:00 if it doesn’t skip there):

“Mike was like, why did you do that? Why did you just take a quarter point like that? And the specialist pulls out of his pocket this wad of hundred dollar bills and says, ‘Hold out your hand.’ And he puts the wad of hundred dollar bills in Mike’s hand and he says, ‘Now close your fingers around that, and see what that feels like.’”

Realized versus unrealized … the specialists worked closely with their monkey brains.

The Two Tools I Use the Most with TradingView

The two tools I use the most with TradingView are “Fixed Range Volume Profile” and “Anchored VWAP.”

Back in the day, I bought Zach Hurwitz’s VWAP code for ThinkOrSwim (ToS) which included an “Anchored VWAP” of sorts, but because you can’t “click” to create indicators on a ToS chart, it wasn’t that convenient to use. It’s a much more elegant point-and-click solution at TradingView.

Similarly, nearly all charting platforms allow you to place Volume Profile on the chart with some fixed interval (hour, day, week, etc.), but it has never been easy to customize the time range you’re looking at … until now … now you can point-and-click to drag-and-drop the volume profile on any range you desire. Super slick. Check it out if you don’t already know about it.

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Movies Watched -- Black Girl (1966)

55 minute running time … the story of a young Senegalese nanny who goes with her French employers to the Riviera, where they ask her to do the job of a common maid instead. This deeply disturbs her, crushes her expectations (those high heels), and has tragic consequences… I didn’t really understand it … I guess it was some kind of commentary on French colonialism in Africa and racism, but it wasn’t super well done. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re interested in these topics.

Es-tu malade?

Movies Watched -- The Nest (2020)

107 minute running time … this is a W.D. By movie by the same guy who made Martha Marcy May Marlene (which I loved), but this movie is no good … it’s slow and mostly pointless … Jude Law is supposedly a commodities trader, but he’s never doing any trading, they should have made him an investment banker instead, that would have made more sense.

Dick Brody didn’t like it either, and Oliver Jones wrote the best negative review: “After a long, slow build-up, The Nest winds up being as vacant as the Surrey country house of the title, and leaves the viewers feeling every bit as empty.“ You can give it a miss.

It’s fine, we’ll take it.

Movies Watched -- 20 Feet from Stardom

Documentary. 89 minute running time. I’ve always been interested in backup singers, and it is fascinating what separates the big stars from their backup vocalists, it’s a very thin line. It was neat to see in Dua Lipa’s recent Tiny Desk concert how much better the songs were since she had talented backup singers behind her.

Beautiful, amazing singer, totally unknown