102 minute running time … stars weird-mouth Ruth Wilson and Tom Hare-lip Burke … I saw Wilson in The Affair, she’s a good actress, probably inspired by the Breaking the Waves actress, forgot her name … Hare-lip Burke and his Dad-bod are getting a lot of work of late, dunno why… this is a depressing story, and not very interesting in the end, ultimately “Kate” is a middle-class British woman with all the attendant support structure, which she can fall back on, if she chooses to … no idea why John Farr recommended this, I sure don’t. I see now that director / writer “Harry” Wootliff is a woman… maybe a nepo-baby or trust fund kid? Boooorrriiinnngggg.
Movies Watched -- Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
Documentary … 89 minute running time … Dick Johnson’s daughter is a documentary filmmaker and she regretted not filming much of her mother before she (her mother) got Alzheimer’s and died, so she made this movie about her father as he starts to lose it … Dick Johnson’s Deformed Feet and His Eames Chair.
Spoilers: I hated what she did at the end of the film where she faked his death and funeral, abusing the audience’s trust … other than that it was sort of sweet … she’s a tough broad, Dick Johnson’s daughter, Kirsten … Seventh-Day Adventists … Seattle, a west coast vibe at first, then the move to New York and a more pushy feeling. The ending really spoiled the movie for me. A tearjerker, but not in the right way.
Movies Watched -- Smile (2022)
115 minute running time … I’m not into horror movies, but this was a John Farr recommendation and it was pretty well made, I must admit… someone’s baby again, a W.D. By (written and directed by) movie. Low budget with no-name actors, but it was good! The no budget part shined through during the conversation in the car (didn’t realize how hard it is to make that look realistic when shot in studio), and the CGI monster parts were probably not the best, but the story was good enough and well told enough to make it not matter. See it if you’re into horror, skip it if you’re not.
(Didn’t realize it starred Kevin Bacon’s nepo-baby daughter (not pictured below) … she’s a good actress, but unfortunately looks like dad.)
Movies Watched -- Living (2022)
102 minute running time … re-make of Ikiru set in 1950s London … was this necessary, Kazuo Ishiguro? Heavy piano and orchestral musical cues tugging on those heartstrings … it wasn’t bad, but it also isn’t good enough to recommend. John Farr liked it more than me.
Movies Watched -- The Beasts (2023)
In Spanish and French. 138 minute running time so 40 minutes too long, but I liked this one, the story wasn’t bad and it was well told (though too long, ideally at least 20 minutes should be cut out and preferably more) … they did these long scenes in a single shot where the actors had to sustain serious performances and it was really well done, these are real pros, not “B” actors. (I just read that Zahera, who steals the show, has no training as an actor, ha!) This was a good John Farr recommendation, and I recommend it too, though you’ve been warned about the length. I’ll add it to the green-go list.
Movies Watched -- The Cathedral (2022)
88 minute running time … why this kid thought his life story was worth telling is beyond me … who cares about this kid’s life? Who cares about his squabbling in-laws and his sort of asshole father? John Farr did me dirty by recommending this. I think the reason he recommended it is because adult “Jesse” looks like a Ralph Lifshitz model. I had to pay $5.69 to stream this, which means it was impossible to fast forward! Bah!
Let me try to find a critic who agrees with me… this is the closest someone comes: “D’Ambrose seems far more interested in recreating memory fragments from his life and presenting them as static art, rather than exploring any of the emotions behind them … its insistence on depicting moments without emotion feels, in the end, a little empty.”
Movies Watched -- X (2022)
105 minute running time … an unusual reco from John Farr… a comedy / horror movie, somebody’s Written and Directed By baby, a spoof … it was disturbing, esp. the creepy old people sex thing, and graphically violent … it’s not badly made, not overly long, the guy obviously thought about every aspect of the movie in great detail … wonder how he got the money to make his baby? Not recommended though. I’m too old for this stuff and not into the whole cutesy, knowing, insider-joke movie thing…
Movies Watched -- Aftersun (2022)
102 minute running time, Scottish English so it helped to have subtitles… I don’t know what this was about … John Farr reco … starred a beautiful eleven-year-old girl and her thirty-year-old dad … she becomes a lesbian later on and has a baby boy with her lesbian partner somehow, not sure why they included that bit, seemed irrelevant … I guess her dad suffered from depression? I think that was the point of the movie maybe? I guess she didn’t know this or understand it when she was little? He hid it from her well, maybe? Did he kill himself at some point? The spitting on the mirror was some kind of turning point in the movie, where you understood that dad was deeply unwell.
I’m going have to read what other people wrote about it. (The critics uniformly loved it.) I don’t recommend it anyway, and I’m as thoughtful and sensitive as they come. I guess it’s about a daughter, once an adult, reflecting on her occasional cruelty to her dad as a tween, though she was generally pretty sweet and truthful. He was a sweet guy too. It wasn’t a terrible movie anyway, it just wasn’t immediately clear what the story was (no plot).
Movies Watched -- House (1977)
In Japanese. 88 minute running time. Over the top weird mish mash from late 1970s Japan … horror comedy kung fu ghost story … the essay in the Criterion booklet uses the expression “le cinéma du WTF?!?” which captures it nicely. Only see it if you’re into culty campy stuff.
Pussy Power — Meow!
Collection of Purple Shirts
Button-Down Sport Shirt — Merlot/Lavender/Ochre — Plaid — Poplin — March 20, 2024 (Spring Equinox)
Button-Down Sport Shirt — Lavender/Navy/Forest — Tattersall — Poplin — June 20, 2024 (Summer Solstice)
Button-Down Sport Shirt — Lavender — University Stripe — Oxford — September 22, 2024 (Autumn Equinox)
Button-Down Sport Shirt — Bone/Berry/Grey — Tattersall — Oxford — December 21, 2024 (Winter Solstice)
Button-Down Sport Shirt — Lavender/Hunter — Wide Stripe — Oxford
Spread Collar Dress Shirt — Lavender — Gingham — Poplin
Spread Collar Dress Shirt — Lavender — Multi Stripe — Poplin
