Great song from Dan Penn … ta ta ta ta!
Movies Watched -- Paterson (2016)
118 minute running time so at least 30 minutes too long … I hated this and am more convinced than ever that Jim Jarmusch only made one good movie (Dead Man) … this is the story of the funny-looking guy from Girls who now drives a city bus in Paterson, NJ. He writes excruciatingly bad poetry and has a beautiful but kooky Indian (subcontinent, not Injun) girlfriend. They have no kids of course, but keep a nasty English bulldog instead.
It’s just such pretentious, precious, faux artsy bullshit, who can stand movies like this? Boo, Jim Jarmusch and your stupid hair.
Headed to Nashville
Among the One Thousand Essential Films
These lists are taken from the 2019 edition of The New York Times Book of Movies: The Essential 1,000 Films to See. Heavy on Hitchcock, I see.
Crime/Mystery/Suspense:
Little Caesar (1931)
M (1931)
The Public Enemy (1931)
The Thirty-nine Steps (1935)
Fury (1936)
They Won’t Forget (1937)
You Only Live Once (1937)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Rebecca (1940)
High Sierra (1941)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Suspicion (1941)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Laura (1944)
Detour (1945)
Spellbound (1945)
The Big Sleep (1946)
The Killers (1946)
Notorious (1946)
The Spiral Staircase (1946)
Crossfire (1947)
The Fugitive (1947)
Odd Man Out (1947)
Out of the Past (1947)
The Big Clock (1948)
Force of Evil (1948)
They Live By Night (1949)
White Heat (1949)
The Third Man (1950)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
The Big Heat (1953)
Dial M for Murder (1954)
Rear Window (1954)
Bob le Flambeur (1955)
Diabolique (1955)
To Catch a Thief (1955)
The Wages of Fear (1955)
Rififi (1956)
I Want To Live! (1958)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Vertigo (1958)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
North By Northwest (1959)
The Big Deal on Madonna Street (1960)
Pigs and Battleships (1961)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
High and Low (1963)
Topkapi (1964)
The Ipcress File (1965)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
In Cold Blood (1967)
Point Blank (1967)
The Bride Wore Black (1968)
Bullitt (1968)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
La Femme Infidele (1969)
Topaz (1969)
Le Boucher (1970)
This Man Must Die (1970)
Dirty Harry (1971)
The French Connection (1971)
Get Carter (1971)
Klute (1971)
Play Misty for Me (1971)
Shaft (1971)
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)
Frenzy (1972)
The Godfather (1972)
Straw Dogs (1972)
Badlands (1973)
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Mean Streets (1973)
Serpico (1973)
Chinatown (1974)
The Godfather, Part II (1974)
The Parallax View (1974)
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
Night Moves (1975)
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
The Warriors (1979)
Dressed to Kill (1980)
Diva (1982)
The Verdict (1982)
L’Argent (1983)
Prizzi’s Honor (1985)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Fatal Attraction (1987)
RoboCop (1987)
Bull Durham (1988)
Married to the Mob (1988)
Black Rain (1989)
Dead Calm (1989)
Goodfellas (1990)
The Grifters (1990)
Reversal of Fortune (1990)
A Brighter Summer Day (1991)
Point Break (1991)
The Killer (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
One False Move (1992)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Fargo (1996)
Lone Star (1996)
Donnie Brasco (1997)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Face/Off (1997)
Out of Sight (1998)
Infernal Affairs (2003)
Collateral (2004)
L’Enfant (2006)
Election (2007)
Zodiac (2007)
Science Fiction:
Metropolis (1927)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Fly (1958)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Blade Runner (1982)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan )1982)
Aliens (1986)
Beetlejuice (1988)
Movies Watched -- Ghost Dog (1999)
115 minute running time so at least 20 minutes too long… since I loved Dead Man so much I’ve gone on a Jim Jarmusch kick, but I wasn’t thrilled with Ghost Dog. I guess I didn’t “get it” … the scenes with the bumbling, idiotic Mafiosi were funny, but… Jonathan Rosenbaum liked it a lot.
Don’t give away the ending…
Movies Watched -- The Docks of New York (1928)
75 minute running time … silent movie … von Sternberg directs, sets by Hans Dreier … 1928 was more or less the end of the Silent Movie Era … here’s a nice essay on the movie by Lucy Sante … it is not a green-go, but I didn’t hate it either. The man quit his job and swam to shore after all….
More than just a dirty stoker in the end…
My Experience Buying Legal Weed
Last week a legal pot shop opened near where I live, the first of its kind in the area, so I visited it yesterday and bought some pot, legally.
Outside the front door stood a large young bald man who asked me for identification. This large old bald man gave him my driver’s license which he duly scanned with an iPad, so now I’m included in some pot smoker’s database kept by the state, even though I don’t smoke pot.
You could smell pot outside the store, and the young bald door checker was certainly high. There is a second set of opaque glass doors that you have to pass through to reach the inside, which gives you the feeling that you’re doing something illicit. There was an older security man standing inside against a wall; he gave me a hard look but didn’t say anything
This shop is brand new and completely unadorned, just a plain floor and walls with glass cases holding the merchandise. I have no idea what any of the new stuff is (various “pens” and other things); I was there to buy flower.
A friendly young man (totally stoned) came over and asked me what I was looking for and I said I wanted the lowest THC flower they had in stock. I explained that I hadn’t smoked weed for 30 (!) years and was not prepared for the various nuclear varieties that have been developed during that time. (Louis CK has a great bit about this which I’d find and link to but I can’t be bothered).
He said that the lowest THC flower they had in stock was “Cinderella 99 HV” which is grown by High Falls Canna located in High Falls, NY (Ulster county). All the products sold in New York state pot shops must be produced in New York state, which is a good thing I suppose (vertical integration of sorts).
As you can see from the packaging above, it’s an eighth of an ounce (3.5g) with 15.33% THC (153.3mg of THC per gram) and 1.3% CBD. I don’t know what the 99 HV part of the name means. HV means “Hudson Valley,” maybe? 99 is the 99th variation on the strain? [Update: friendly potheads have written in to inform me that the strain is named Cinderella 99, that is the full name, so “HV” must stand for Hudson Valley … this is sun-grown weed.]
It cost $50 plus 9% state excise tax ($4.50) and 4% local excise tax ($2), and then they rounded it up to $57 total since they didn’t have any coin change, which I didn’t notice at the time. This is a cash-only operation. The cashier was also very friendly and very stoned. Everyone I encountered was high as a kite except for, I assume, the security man who gave me a hard look.
Here is the back of the package below which instructs one to enjoy the product in your favorite smoking device. This made me laugh and I wasn’t even stoned yet.
I walked out of the shop and went on my merry way. The bag has a zip lock seal within, after tearing off the top, and even before you open it, you are hit with that strong pot smell which some people find unpleasant, but I can tolerate it. This is what a bud looks like:
Cinderella 99 HV
I weighed the contents on a kitchen scale which rounded up to 4 grams, so there was definitely 3.5 grams of flower within. My state-sanctioned dealer did not shortchange me.
My “favorite smoking device” is what we called a “bat” thirty years ago, also known as a one-hitter. This is the one I use:
I had one puff of Cinderella 99 HV using this device and regret to say that I didn’t keep track of the amount of time that elapsed before I was hit with the sensation of being stoned, but I can say that it was a strong sensation when it arrived and was probably within three to five minutes. I felt flush and had some odd physical sensations that weren’t entirely pleasant, but they passed quickly. Then I was high, which means I was having unusual thoughts and bizarre ideas, which I enjoyed. I also experienced time distortion, but it wasn’t too bad.
I watched some of the old Hitchcock movie, The Trouble With Harry, and was amused by all the bawdiness, the constant sexual double entendres … Hitchcock really was a dirty-minded old bastard (and great filmmaker).
I also had one deep insight that I remember (I had many other deep thoughts which I can’t remember), which is that pot smoking ideally is a shared experience, not something you do alone. Not that there’s anything wrong with being alone with your own stoned thoughts, but ideally you are sharing them with another person (or people) who are similarly stoned. This seemed deep at the time at least. :-)
The high was pretty intense for me and there’s no way that I would smoke pot regularly, or even irregularly. It will take me many, many years to finish this 3.5g of flower, which cost $57 including tax.
Dick Brody's Top Thirty Movies of 2022
Dick showed great restraint and could only come up with thirty titles. Blurbs mostly via moviefone. Look at the length of most of these movies, sheesh. Not many of these interest me. Dick covers all the bases by recommending movies celebrating both trans-sexuals and gay Black Marines. Looks like he includes 10 foreign language movies.
Benediction, Terence Davies
2 hr 17 min Drama, History, War
“The story of soldier and poet Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967), who was decorated for bravery on the Western Front, and is best remembered for his angry and compassionate poems about the First World War, which brought him public and critical acclaim. Avoiding the sentimentality and jingoism of many war poets, Sassoon wrote of the horror and brutality of trench warfare and contemptuously satirised generals, politicians, and churchmen for their incompetence and blind support of the war.”
Nope, Jordan Peele
2 hr 10 min Mystery, Thriller, Horror, Science Fiction
“Residents in a lonely gulch of inland California bear witness to an uncanny, chilling discovery.”
Armageddon Time, James Gray
1 hr 54 min Drama
“… a deeply personal story on the strength of family, the complexity of friendship and the generational pursuit of the American Dream. The film features an all-star cast including Anthony Hopkins, Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong.”
No Bears, Jafar Panahi
Animated 1 hr 46 min Drama
“Follows two parallel love stories in which the partners are thwarted by hidden, inevitable obstacles, the force of superstition, and the mechanics of power.”
Both Sides of the Blade, Claire Denis
Romance/Drama ‧ 1hr 56 min
“A woman's life spirals out of control when she becomes involved in a passionate love triangle.”
Hit the Road, Panah Panahi
In Persian 1 hr 33 min Drama
“A middle-aged couple and their two sons embark on a road trip across the Iranian countryside. Over the course of their journey, they bond over memories of the past, grapple with fears of the unknown and fuss over their sick dog.”
Amsterdam, David O. Russell
2 hr 14 min Crime, Comedy, Mystery, History, Thriller
“In the 1930s, three friends—a doctor, a nurse, and an attorney—witness a murder, become suspects themselves and uncover one of the most outrageous plots in American history.”
Saint Omer, Alice Diop
In French 2 hr 3 min Drama
“A novelist attends the trial of a woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. But as the trial continues, her own family history, doubts, and fears about motherhood are steadily dislodged as the life story of the accused is gradually revealed.”
The Eternal Daughter, Joanna Hogg
1 hr 36 min Mystery, Drama, Horror
“An artist and her elderly mother confront long-buried secrets when they return to a former family home, now a hotel haunted by its mysterious past.”
The Cathedral, Ricky D'Ambrose
1 hr 28 min Drama
“During the late '80s and early '90s, the Damrosch family's only child, Jesse, watches his family's quiet rise and fall.”
Till, Chinonye Chukwu
2 hr 11 min Drama, History
“The true story of Mamie Till Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice for her 14 year old son, Emmett Till, who, in 1955, was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi.”
Don't Worry Darling, Olivia Wilde
2 hr 2 min Thriller, Mystery, Drama
“Alice and Jack are lucky to be living in the idealized community of Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. But when cracks in their idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade, Alice can’t help questioning exactly what they’re doing in Victory, and why.”
Saturday Fiction, Lou Ye
In Chinese 2 hr 7 min Action, Drama
“An actress working undercover for the Allies in 1941 Shanghai discovers the Japanese plan to attack Pearl Harbor.”
In Front of Your Face, Hong Sang-soo
In Korean 1 hr 25 min Drama
“A former actress with a secret returns to Seoul to live with her sister in a high-rise apartment and meets a director to discuss her return to acting.”
Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood, Richard Linklater
1 hr 38 min Science Fiction, Family, Animation, Adventure
“A man narrates stories of his life as a 10-year-old boy in 1969 Houston, weaving tales of nostalgia with a fantastical account of a journey to the moon.”
Framing Agnes, Chase Joynt
1 hr 15 min Documentary
“Agnes, the pioneering, pseudonymized, transgender woman who participated in Harold Garfinkel’s gender health research at UCLA in the 1960s, has long stood as a figurehead of trans history. In this rigorous cinematic exercise that blends fiction and nonfiction, director Chase Joynt explores where and how her platform has become a pigeonhole. [ed. say what?] … an impressive lineup of trans stars take on vividly rendered, impeccably vintage reenactments, bringing to life groundbreaking artifacts of trans healthcare.”
Ahed's Knee, Nadav Lapid
In Hebrew 1 hr 49 min Drama
“An Israeli filmmaker throws himself in the midst of two battles doomed to fail: one against the death of freedom in his country, the other against the death of his mother.”
The Novelist's Film, Hong Sang-soo
In Korean 1 hr 32 min Drama
“A female novelist takes a long trip to visit a bookstore run by a younger colleague who has fallen out of touch.”
The Inspection, Elegance Bratton
1 hr 35 min Drama
“Ellis French is a young, gay Black man, rejected by his mother and with few options for his future, decides to join the Marines, doing whatever it takes to succeed in a system that would cast him aside. But even as he battles deep-seated prejudice and the grueling routines of basic training, he finds unexpected camaraderie, strength, and support in this new community, giving him a hard-earned sense of belonging that will shape his identity and forever change his life.”
A Couple, Frederick Wiseman
1 hr 3 min History, Romance, Drama
“The man is Leo Tolstoy. The woman is his wife, Sophia. They were married for 36 years, had 13 children nine of whom survived. Each kept a diary. The film is Sophia’s monologue about the joys and struggles of their life together, loosely drawn from their letters to each other and their diary entries.”
Master, Mariama Diallo
1 hr 39 min Thriller
“Three women strive to find their place at a prestigious New England university that may disguise something sinister.”
The Tsugua Diaries, Maureen Fazendeiro and Miguel Gomes
In Portuguese 1 hr 42 min Drama
“Crista, Carloto and João are building an airy greenhouse for butterflies in the garden. The three of them share household routines, day after day… And they are not the only ones.”
Beba, Rebeca Huntt
1 hr 19 min Documentary
“A raw, poetic self-portrait in which young, NYC-born Afro-Latina Rebeca “Beba” Huntt stares down historical, societal, and generational trauma.”
Clytaemnestra, Ougie Pak
1 hr 10 min
“A Korean theater troupe travels to Greece to rehearse a new production of Aeschylus' Agamemnon. The secluded setting offers a stunning backdrop to the tensions mounting between the lead actress, the domineering director, and various members of the company. BAMcinemaFest alum Ougie Pak (Sunrise/Sunset) lays bare the group dynamics of artmaking and patriarchal power structures, transposing the framework of classic Greek tragedy to a thoroughly modern context.”
RRR, S.S. Rajamouli
In Telegu 3 hr 2 min Action, Drama
“A fictional history of two legendary revolutionaries' journey away from home before they began fighting for their country in the 1920s.”
Introduction, Hong Sang-soo
In Korean 1 hr 6 min
“Yeongho heads to the hospital to find his father. Soon, however, he heads to Germany to meet his girlfriend. When he comes back to Korea, he sees his mother with a middle aged man.”
A New Old Play, Qiu Jiongjiong
In Chinese 2 hr 59 min History, Drama
“On a 1980s evening, the topmost clown-actor of the 20th century Sichuan opera, Qiu Fu passes away in an accident and half-unwillingly sets off for the Ghost City under the escort of two underworld officials. Along the way, he meets old friends. As they recall the past, a history of the living is conjured up.”
EO, Jerzy Skolimowski
1 hr 26 min Drama
“EO, a gray donkey with melancholy eyes, encounters good and bad on his journey through life, experiences joy and pain, and endures the Wheel of Fortune.”
Descendant, Margaret Brown
1 hr 49 min Documentary
“Descendants of the survivors from the Clotilda celebrate their heritage and take command of their legacy, as the discovery of the remains of the last-known slave ship to arrive in the United States offers them a tangible link to their ancestors.”
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Dean Fleischer Camp
1 hr 30 min Family, Drama, Comedy, Animation
“Marcel is an adorable one-inch-tall shell who ekes out a colorful existence with his grandmother Connie and their pet lint, Alan. Once part of a sprawling community of shells, they now live alone as the sole survivors of a mysterious tragedy. But when a documentary filmmaker discovers them amongst the clutter of his Airbnb, the short film he posts online brings Marcel millions of passionate fans, as well as unprecedented dangers and a new hope at finding his long-lost family.”
Movies Watched -- Dead Man (1996)
121 minutes … I LOVED this movie, it was hilarious, just fall-down funny. I had no idea what to expect, I mean I know Jim Jarmusch and his hair, but I wasn’t aware that he was a funny guy as well as an ar-teest. Gary Farmer is brilliant as the Injun, and Johnny Depp’s pretty face is perfect for the part. This is a green-go, highly recommended. The score is also interesting.
I could drop this movie into PremierePro and cut at least 10 minutes out … on the DVD there was 15 minutes worth of scenes that Jarmusch already cut out, but he could have tightened it up a bit more, I think. Despite the length, it was very good.
Stupid white man
Movies Watched -- Mesrine: Part 1: Killer Instinct (2008)
In French. 113 minute running time so a little too long. About a French gangster who was a “legend” in the 1960s … it’s not badly done, definitely a well-funded movie, but I wondered why the French and Canadian authorities were so bad about taking this guy out of the game. The thug has various beautiful girlfriends and wives, and Depardieu and his nose also appears in the movie. It’s not super terrible, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to see it.
(Seems like poker player / crypto guy Karl Chappe-Gatien is a fan of actor Vincent Cassel since he has a lot of the same body language.)
Enchanté Jacques
Netflix DVD's Most Rented Movies from 1998-2022
“Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public,” and look at how long most of these terrible movies are!
No Time to Die 2021 2h 43m
News of the World 2020 1h 58m
Ford v Ferrari 2019 2h 32m
Green Book 2018 2h 10m
Dunkirk 2017 1h 47m
Wonder Woman 2017 2h 21m
Sully 2016 1h 36m
The Martian 2015 2h 10m
The Monuments Men 2014 1h 58m
Captain Phillips 2013 2h 14m
The Hunger Games 2012 2h 22m
The Lincoln Lawyer 2011 1h 59m
Inception 2010 2h 28m
The Blind Side 2009 2h 6m
The Hurt Locker 2008 2h 10m
The Bucket List 2007 1h 37m
The Departed 2006 2h 31m
Crash 2005 1h 53m
The Notebook 2004 2h 3m
Mystic River 2003 2h 18m
The Bourne Identity 2002 1h 59m
Memento 2000 1h 53m
Gladiator 2000 2h 35m
Office Space 1999 1h 30m
The Big Lebowski 1998 1h 58m