Movies Watched in May 2026

I’m getting bad about recording the movies I’ve been watching, so I’ll do a single post and just add to it throughout May…

La promesse (1996) … Dardenne brothers, depressing AF, quit at midpoint.

Good Morning (1959) … Ozu, post-war Japan comedy? … paused at 30 min mark.

Nashville (1975) … Robert Altman … 160 minutes long, which would normally outrage me, but I was so intrigued and amused by this wackiness that I give this my highest rating, four stars, everyone should see this movie.

Il posto (1961) … may be a perfect movie, a masterpiece… I don’t use these terms lightly … beautiful, funny, deeply sad … I loved it. Four stars. And of course a running time under 100 minutes.

Zabriskie Point (1970) … Antonioni, I don’t think I’ve liked a single movie he ever made … saw this 30 years ago probably and forgot how bad it is … dirty hippie cop killer free love writhing anti-capitalist bodies in the 1970 desert … it’s true that Daria Halprin was a blue-eyed Jewish beauty and that was a fantastic short green dress with Injun bead belt she wore .. this is a 2 or 2.5 stars, don’t see it.

Movies Watched -- Last Tango in Paris (1972)

129 minute running time which means that it’s 29 minutes too long. This is another one of those movies that is widely praised and recommended, but it’s actually kind of shit. Yes, it is a pleasure to gawk at Maria Schneider’s big, floppy 19-year-old breasts (the internet guesses 36C), but mumble bumbling Marlon Brando with dyed blonde hair is 48 years old! His ship is on the verge of setting sail. It’s pretty easy to understand why his wife committed suicide.

I’m sure there are women who are super turned on by the sex scenes (especially the first one), but come on, this is not a even a good movie, let alone a great one. Must have been X-rated at the time. Brando is sort of a caricature of himself … it’s funny, but also pathetic. 2.5 out of 5 stars… terrible.

You've Been Having Assignation With My Wife?

I watched The Panic in Needle Park last night. It’s from 1970 and tells the story of junkies in Sherman Square, er, “Needle Park.” It was Al Pacino’s first starring role; he is full of his usual manic charm.

Anyway, there’s a great scene where Pacino’s girlfriend, played by fresh-faced Kitty Winn, is “balling” a “trick” and Pacino bursts in on them and says: “You've been having, uh, assignation with my wife?” It’s clear that Joan Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, had fun writing the script.

Shortly before Rocky takes a dive…

Movies Watched -- Leave Her to Heaven (1945) (Re-watch)

(That’s odd, I reviewed this six years ago this month and forgot all about it).

110 minute running time so 10 minutes too long, but this is a wonderfully weird movie. I thought it was a Sirk film given the “blazing Technicolor,” but the director was John M. Stahl (born Jacob Morris Strelitsky).

That beautiful blue sky above the “lake cabin in Maine” was actually shot in northern California. The movie stars Gene Tierney, her overbite, and her face-in-a-trance. She’s beautiful, she’s rich, she’s politically- and socially-connected, she has impeccable manners, she is beautifully dressed (for the 40s), and she is a complete psychopath. It’s a lot of fun. Weird fun.

She marries a Harvard man (editor of the Lampoon) named Dick, after unceremoniously dumping Vincent Price, the District Attorney. Dick is close to his younger brother Danny, whom she calls a “cripple” in a moment of indiscretion (maybe he has polio?). Spoilers ahead: she doesn’t like Danny around so she drowns him. See what I mean about this movie being fun?

She gets pregnant with Dick’s baby, but ends up hating the “little beast” inside her, so she throws herself down the stairs to induce a miscarriage. Let me remind you that this movie was made in 1945, the height of American myth-making in Hollywood, the opposite of the dark truths put on display here.

High on Crazy Hot Index

Dick loses interest in her after this, and spends more time with her “sister” Ruth (actually a cousin), and he even ends up dedicating his latest novel to Ruth, which leads Gene Tierney and her overbite (spoilers ahead) to kill herself while attempting to frame Ruth for “murder.” High comedy!

There’s some really great writing in this movie, great lines and dialogue. I loved everything about it. What’s weird is that it is not on ANY must-see movie list, including John Farr’s, which is a real surprise. But I strongly recommend seeing this movie, it’s wonderful, green-go!

(How could Fox’s largest-grossing movie of the ENTIRE 1940s be so unknown today?!? I think it’s because the movie is so dark, so perverse, that normal people don’t want anything to do with it… similar to Angel Face or Nightmare Alley … crazy hot people committing suicide or going mad is not something the public anxious to see.)

Movies Watched -- Loves of a Blonde -- Deleted Scene

The five minute deleted scene from Loves of a Blonde makes a wonderful short film on its own. I think it’s a pity that it wasn’t included since it’s more proof that Milda is a cad. The beautiful girl he is trying to sleep with comes up with a clever way of getting rid of him, the same way all beautiful girls can think on their feet to get a guy off their backs.

Movies Watched -- Letter Never Sent (1959)

In Russian. 96 minute running time so the perfect length. This is a Soviet propaganda movie at its finest. I watched the whole thing and enjoyed it and recommend it. Rating: 4.

No one explicitly picked this as a Closet Pick in the Criterion Closet, but several people mentioned it in passing, usually in the same breath as The Cranes Are Flying (which was not as good as this).

“Sergei Stepanovich. You’re tired.” (then she shakes her head so slightly)

Movies Watched -- Mr. Klein (1976)

In French. 123 minute running time so 23 minutes too long, but I watched all of this and enjoyed it and recommend it. It is yet another Holocaust movie, but it’s actually watchable and dare I say it, entertaining. Horrifying too of course, but really well made. Joseph Losey knew what he was doing. The opening scene was stunning, it made my jaw drop just like the opening of Diamonds of the Night (yes, another Holocaust movie). Rating: 4.

Once again my method of finding hidden gems proves its value: only one person recommended this as his Closet Pick in the Criterion Closet, so that’s how I discovered it. Thank you, Ari Aster, for the recommendation, but shame on you for making Midsommar, which was unspeakably awful in every way.

We've been French and Catholic since Louis XIV!

Movies Watched -- Girlfight (2000)

105 minute running time so five minutes too long, but I watched all of this and enjoyed it and recommend it. Tough kids living a tough life in Brooklyn. The movie wouldn’t have worked at all without the star, Michelle Rodriguez, who knocked it out (of the park). Boxing. Friendship. Family. Competition. Love. Rating: 4.

Once again my method of finding hidden gems proves its value: only one person recommended this as his Closet Pick in the Criterion Closet, so that’s how I discovered it.

So what's it like in Gowanus?

Movies Watched -- The Soft Skin (1964)

In French. 117 minute running time so 17 minutes too long, but I enjoyed this and recommend it. Truffaut imitating Hitchcock. Sexiness of jet air travel and hotel rooms in foreign countries. Mirrors. Probably Truffaut’s best movie, and next to no one has seen it. Rating: 4.

Once again my method of finding hidden gems proves its value: only one person recommended this as his Closet Pick in the Criterion Closet, so that’s how I discovered it.

Movies Watched -- Simon of the Desert (1965)

In Spanish. 45 minute running time so wonderfully short. I don’t know anything about Luis Buñuel, but he was clearly a funny guy, a real smartass … this movie is irreverent, maybe even sacrilegious, but it’s also hilarious. Bad boy Buñuel, what a prankster, I enjoyed this …

I watched this because only one guest of the Criterion Closet (Asif Kapadia) picked it … Kapadia also recommended Investigation of a Citizen Beyond Suspicion, which was also good.

Rating: 4, you should see it, esp. with a 45 minute running time.

The devil roams this wilderness. I hear him in the night.