Bonnie and Clyde, 1963. Two poor teenagers set forth on a fund-raising tour of the midwest. Highly romanticized, but fun, with a great soundtrack.   

Harold and Maude, 1971.       A morbid young man who goes to funerals for fun meets an aged woman who also attends them despite not knowing the deceased, and they become friends – and more.   There’s an interesting dynamic between the two – a young boy fixated on death, an old woman who celebrates life. 

Mildred Pierce, 1946.    Joan Crawford  stars as Mildred Pierce, a woman whose husband abandons her, but who makes a success of herself in the restaurant business. Unfortunately, her oldest daughter Vera is the most toxic  female character I’ve ever seen,  someone who Scarlett O’Hara would bow before.   Wonderful writing, great acting.   Ann Blyth is incredibly hatable and Joan’s adoration of the girl who treats her abysmally drives the movie. I undersand the book is even more depressing. 

Mommy Dearest, 1981.  Faye Dunaway (who played Bonnie in Bonnie and Clyde) here steals the show as Joan Crawford, or at least her adopted daughter Christina’s version of her. Christina writes Crawford as an insane and abusive narcissist. It’s a captivating movie in part because Dunaway’s acting is so over the top that she basically shoves the woman who wrote the book out of the spotlight entirely.   I’d just seen Mildred Pierce, so hearing Dunaway do the scene about her ungrateful beast of a daughter – with Christina looking on – was most interesting.

Beowulf and Grendel, 2005.  Gerard Butler is Beowulf, the doughty Geat, come to Daneland to destroy the monster Grendel.   The film takes the approach of humanizing Grendel – he appears as a massive human with a lot of bodyhair, and it opens with him watching the Danes kill his father and developing a hatred for them. Also stars Stellan Skarsgård, another of my favorite actors. (He was excellent as Boris in Chernobyl, part of which I rewatched around the anniversary of the explosion.)

Deerskin, 2019. A French film in which a man who is having issues with his wife spends a ridiculous sum on a deerskin jacket and then becomes obsessed by it, resulting in a series of murders. Described as “comedy/horror”.

Walk the Line, 2005. Joaqin Phoenix is Johnny Carter in a movie that’s about Cash’s rise from a struggling farm in Arkansas to becoming one of the biggest names in country music, struggling with his love for one woman — June Carter — and substance abuse. Solid acting all the way around, and the music is good. I haven’t heard June Carter by herself enough to judge Reese Witherspoon’s performance. I was quite impressed by her singing, though. 

The Last King of Scotland, 2006. Young British doctor goes to Africa to help the poor. Becomes personal physician to a genocidal dictator. Well, these things happen. My favorite moment of utter confusion was hearing Ugandans sing “Bonnie Banks O’Loch Lomond”.

Buckaroo Bonzai, 1984. Um. Peter Weller is a physicist/test pilot/singer who suddenly becomes privy to the fact that Earth is being invaded by little green men (or normal-sized brown men). A campy SF comedy.

Fried Green Tomatoes, 1991. A story about the bond between two women forged after a man who they both loved (one as a sister, one as a potential wife) dies. One of my favorites, and a re-watch. I visited the filming location in Juliette just last week, which inspired my re-watch.

The Time Bandits, 1984. Um…not sure what to say about this. Done by Terry Gilliam, featuring Michael Palin,  John Cleese and and Sean O’Connery. The story is…lord, just watch the trailer.  A small boy is kidnapped by time-traveling robbers who visit Napeolon, archaic Greece,  the Titanic, and see John Cleese as Robin Hood. 

Broadway Danny Rose, 1984. Woody Allen is a ‘talent manager’ whose best acts seem to leave him. Case in point:  his singer Lou is a star in the waiting, but he has alcohol issues. While trying to manage things between Lou and his goomah, he unwittingly attracts the ire of two Italian mobsters. In the end he loses Lou despite making him a star, but he possibly gets the girl.

Amélie, 2001.   A young waitress begans engaging in the lives of those around here – encouraging two lonely people to date,   returning a hidden box to the man who hid it as a boy,   etc.   Wonderful music and sharp characters:  the lead actress, Audrey Tautou, is one I’ll be looking for again given her expressiveness and occasional similarity to Audrey Hepburn, who I rather adore.  French movie.