In Farsi. 93 minute running time so the right length, but I only made it ten minutes in before going to fast forward, I couldn’t bear the bratty kid or obnoxious family … I guess it was a story about smuggling their older son abroad, out of Iran, no reason given … there was probably a lot of humor in this, but I didn’t get it because I’m not Iranian … this was a John Farr reco (“this portrayal of a loving family coping under stress also contains a measure of hope and affirmation”), but I certainly don’t recommend it.
Best Movies of 2000
This is a list of the Best Movies of 2000 according to John Farr. I find his site hard to navigate, so I create summary lists like this one.
English-language movies:
Almost Famous
Best in Show
Billy Elliot
Bread and Roses
George Washington
Girlfight
High Fidelity
Innocence
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Our Song
Pollock
Requiem for a Dream
Sexy Beast
Snatch
Songcatcher
The Contender
Traffic
You Can Count on Me
Foreign-language movies:
A Matter of Taste (French)
Amores Perros (Spanish)
Bread and Tulips (Italian)
Code Unknown (French)
Coronation (Spanish)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Mandarin)
Gloomy Sunday (German)
Il Mare (Korean)
In the Mood for Love (Cantonese)
Italian for Beginners (Danish)
Lumumba (French)
Songs from the Second Floor (Swedish)
The Circle (Farsi)
The Day I Became a Woman (Farsi)
The Fast Runner (Inukitut)
The Taste of Others (French)
The Widow of Saint-Pierre French)
Under the Sand (French)
With a Friend Like Harry (French)
Yi Yi (Mandarin)
English-language documentaries:
Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens – A Life in Animation
Dark Days
Half Past Autumn
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
Napoleon: Soldier, Emperor, Lover, Statesman
Ring of Fire
Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light
Sound and Fury
The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack
The Endurance
The Filth and the Fury
Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election
World War II: The Lost Color Archives
Foreign-language documentaries:
Calle 54 (Spanish)
Paragraph 175 (German)
The Gleaners and I (French
Movies Watched -- Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021)
In Japanese. 121 minute running time so at least 21 minutes too long. Three separate short stories, all of them sort of weird and pointless? Japanese culture is very strange after all.
The Chinese characters (the Japanese have adopted a lot of Chinese characters) on the box say “coincidence and imagination,” which I guess turned into “fortune and fantasy.” This was a John Farr reco (“smart, subtle filmmaking”), but you can definitely give it a miss. Oh, this is the same guy who made the terrible “Drive My Car” movie … I’m not fan.
She swallowed his right testicle…
Best Movies of 1999
This is a list of the Best Movies of 1999 according to John Farr. I find his site hard to navigate, so I create summary lists like this one.
English-language movies:
A Civil Action
American Beauty
Being John Malkovich
Boys Don't Cry
Dick
Election
Magnolia
October Sky
Ratcatcher
Spring Forward
The Blair Witch Project
The Cider House Rules
The Insider
The Iron Giant
The Sixth Sense
The Straight Story
The War Zone
Topsy-Turvy
Toy Story 2
Tumbleweeds
Foreign-language movies:
After Life (Japanese)
All About My Mother (Spanish)
Audition (Japanese)
Children of Heaven (Farsi)
East / West (French)
Farewell, Home Sweet Home (French)
Himalaya (Dolpo)
In China They Eat Dogs (Danish)
It All Starts Today (French)
Kadosh (Hebrew)
Leila (Farsi)
Not One Less (Mandarin)
Peppermint Candy (Korean)
Princess Mononoke (Japanese)
Running Out of Time (Cantonese)
The Color of Paradise (Farsi)
The Emperor and the Assassin (Mandarin)
The Wind Will Carry Us (Farsi)
English-language documentaries:
American Movie
Genghis Blues
Not for Ourselves Alone
One Day in September
Return With Honor
Foreign-language documentaries:
My Best Friend: Klaud Kinski (German)
The Specialist: Portrait of a Modern Criminal (French)
Movies Watched -- Blue Jean (2022)
97 minute running time so the perfect length … lesbian life in Newcastle (northeast England) during the 1980s when the Thatcher admin was apparently actively anti-homosexual … this is a W.D. By movie (written and directed by the same person, i.e., someone’s baby) … I enjoyed it … it helped that the star, Rosy McEwen, is stunningly beautiful … Blue is the Warmest Color remains the greatest lesbian love story movie of all time, but this was good enough to get a green-go. This was a John Farr reco and now I recommend it too.
Movies Watched -- May December (2023)
117 minute running time so about 17 minutes too long, but I liked this one … I’m sort of shocked to admit it … Todd Haynes and Julianne Moore like working together for sure … she looks amazing for 63 … Natalie Portman is 42 and looks worse than Julianne … hapa husband was a simple-minded hunk and all their 1/4 Korean “children” were beautiful … I liked the story and the acting was good … I might upgrade this to a green-go later depending on the other 2023 movies that I watch. This was a John Farr reco.
I am secure.
Personicx Classic Segment Names
“Personicx Classic Refresh is the household-level segmentation system that places each U.S. household into one of 70 segments based on similar demographic, socio-economic and consumer behavior.”
01 -- Summit Estates
02 -- Established Elite
03 -- Corporate Clout
04 -- Skyboxes & Suburbans
05 -- Sitting Pretty
06 -- Shooting Stars
07 -- Lavish Lifestyles
08 -- Full Steaming
09 -- Platinum Oldies
10 -- Hard Chargers
11 -- Kids & Clout
12 -- Tots & Toys
13 -- Solid Single Parents
14 -- Career Centered Singles
15 -- Country Ways
16 -- Country Single
17 -- Apple Pie Families
18 -- Married Sophisticates
19 -- Country Comfort
20 -- Dynamic Duos
21 -- Children First
22 -- Fun & Games
23 -- Acred Couples
24 -- Career Building
25 -- Clubs & Causes
26 -- Savvy Singles
27 -- Soccer & SUVS
28 -- Suburban Seniors
29 -- City Mixers
30 -- Spouses & Houses
31 -- Mid Americana
32 -- Metro Mix
33 -- Urban Tenants
34 -- Outward Bound
35 -- Solo & Stable
36 -- Raisin’ Grandkids
37 -- Cartoons & Carpools
38 -- Midtown Minivanners
39 -- Early Parents
40 -- The Great Outdoors
41 -- Truckin’ & Stylin’
42 -- First Mortgage
43 -- Work & Causes
44 -- Community Singles
45 -- First Digs
46 -- Home Cooking
47 -- Rural Parents
48 -- Farmland Families
49 -- Devoted Duos
50 -- Rural Retirement
51 -- Family Matters
52 -- Resolute Renters
53 -- Metro Parents
54 -- Still Truckin'
55 -- Humble Homes
56 -- Modest Wages
57 -- Collegiate Crowd
58 -- Young Workboots
59 -- Mobile Mixers
60 -- Rural Rovers
61 -- Urban Scramble
62 -- Kids and Rent
63 -- Downtown Dwellers
64 -- Rural Everlasting
65 -- Thrifty Elders
66 -- Timeless Elders
67 -- Rolling Stones
68 -- Pennywise Proprietors
69 -- Pennywise Mortgagees
70 -- Resilient Renters
Movies Watched -- 7 Prisoners (2021)
In Portuguese. 93 minute running time so a perfect length. Good story, well told. This is a green-go. Finally a John Farr recommendation that pays off. Modern slavery in São Paolo in all its horror. This is a Netflix movie, so I don’t think it’s available on DVD, which is a shame. 7 Prisoners is a prisoner to the Netflix platform, but you should make an effort to see it.
Enough to keep this city up and running.
Movies Watched -- The Novice (2021)
97 minute running time … shot at some college in Ontario, a W.D. By movie (Written and Directed By, someone’s baby) … I wasn’t thrilled with this … it’s about a hyper-competitive girl who, despite having no experience, wants to be the best rower on the college team for some inexplicable reason … her obsession and mania is never adequately explained … also she has a pinch-faced white-trash look which doesn’t work in the rowing world; her coaches look like rowers, but she sure doesn’t … also she’s too scrawny to row competitively. This was another not-so-great recommendation from John Farr.
Why a Former SMU Rower-Turned-Filmmaker Is Sharing Her Struggle .. interesting that she’s a sound editor in real life, since I had to turn on the subtitles for much of the movie to understand what was being said.
Hadaway before and after moving to LA photos:
Movies Watched -- Sunset Boulevard (1950)
110 minute running time … Billy Wilder made a lot of great movies … this one runs about 10 minutes too long though … I re-watched it because Soderbergh said it is “a perfect film AND the best movie ever made about Hollywood.” It’s a John Farr reco too and I suppose it must be a green-go for everyone.
