I’ve been dogsitting away from my PC, hence the delay in posting this…

Sweet and Lowdown, 1999. Sean Penn plays a rival to Django Reinhardt.  Unfortunately, I liked All the King’s Men so much that Sean Pean is now indistinguishable from Willy Stark/Huey Long.

El Mariachi. 1992. A guitarist is confused for a gang-banger.  Many homicides ensue. There is an attractive woman. 

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, 2023.  A man receives a letter from a former coworker and embarks on a walking trek across the whole of England, which is simultaneously a journey through his past as he comes to terms with regrets and meaning.  Definitely tear-jerky and heart-warmy.  Probably my favorite movie all year.

Diva, 1981. French film in which a postman with an obsessive interest in an American opera singer gets caught up in a crime drama after a potential witness drops a cassette tape in his mailbag shortly before she’s knocked off. Beautiful music.

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World.  Lady taxi driver drives around swearing and shooting Tiktok videos using a filter that make her look like Andrew Tate.  Romanian.  I fell asleep watching it.  My friend likes this director and has made me watch several shorts by them.  So many, in fact, that he felt apologetic and later introduced me to Spring Breakers as an apology. 

Trees Lounge, 1996. Steve Buscemi plays a mechanic who was recently fired, who spends his time hanging out in a bar with a few characters who we get to know over the progress of the movie. After his uncle dies he starts driving the uncle’s ice cream truck to earn some money, but gets in trouble after his ex-girlfriend’s niece starts hanging out with him. It’s not a story that gets wrapped up nice and neat, but the viewer gets interested in the characters, and that’s what matters. Definitely enjoyed it. Michael Imperioloi, who played Christuhpuh in The Sopranoes (where Buscemi also played a character, that animal Blundetto!) appears. His accent is stronger in Sopranoes. My introduction to Chloe Sevigny, who I definitely want to see more of.

Married to the Mob, 1988. Alec Baldwin plays a mobster who dies fairly early and the rest of the movie is about AB’s boss trying to seduce AB’s widow. Love the late eighties hair and fashion.

All about my Mother, Pablo Almodóvar. I’ve seen him before (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breaktown) and absolutely loved his use of color. That appears here again, though not as prominent. I was especially interested in this film because the main character is a transplant coordinator, and 2.5 years ago I was nearly killed by an autoimmune disorder that led to my being put on dialysis, and then having a kidney transplant after a few months on dialysis. In the film, a woman’s son dies on his 18th birthday, and she — distraught — goes to find his father to tell him. I don’t want to go into the plot too much, but his father is a transvestite, as we discover. Anyway, the main character’s search for the father leads to her life intersecting with an an accomplished but aging actress and her junkie lover, as well as a young nun who works with the least of us and who is both pregnant and HIV-positive. Although there’s a lot of tragedy in this story, it’s beautiful in its way — and not just for the visuals or Penelope Cruz!  Considering how HUGE a role A Streetcar Named Desire played in this, I need to watch it soon-ish. Oh, and great soundtrack Almodovar is apparently a fan of the noir-jazz sound.

Back in Black, 2024. Full disclosure: I’ve been an Amy Winehouse fan since Frank hit the US. so when this film was announced I was prepared to hate it. I was….very pleasantly surprised. Abela got the accent pretty well, at least to my American ears,  and the costuming and on-stage presences were great. I’ve watched a LOT of Winehouse video over the years and recognized the recordings some shots were based on. Although Winehouse fans tend to take the universal line that Blake was The Worst Thing Ever, the film does a good job of making him attractive (especially in the intro pool hall scene, where his love of the Shangri-Las results in an endearing performance), and defending him to some extent from the idea that he and he alone pushed her into harder drugs and self-destruction. The ending was….beautifully tragic. From the moment the pararazzi asked her what she thought of her ex-hubs and his child by his new girlfriend, I knew exactly what was about to happen, and that last shot…the directors take a lovely direction with it. We are not forced to see what happens, but there’s another shot that links to previous shots and it’s apparent to the viewer what happens next. Going to read Amy Winehouse in Her Own Words before the month is out.

Bernie, 2011. Jack Black plays a real-life mortician and community pillar who, apparently, shot an old lady in the back 4 times because she was just making his life a living hell. Bernie was a real man, as was his victim, and as were all the townspeople — who appear in the movie!! — defending him. Matthew McConaughey does a solid job as a D.A..  My fifth Linklater film.

The Garden of Words, 2013. Anime movie in which two lonely people who keep encountering one another on rainy days in the park developing a friendship. Liked the music, loved the art. I haven’t watched much anime,but this had a visual richness not found in say, Pokemon or Bludgeoning Angel. The art was “warm” and felt like it had dimension, unlike the flat depictions of those other anime offerings. 

Paper Moon, 1973. Set in the 1930s, filmed in the 1970s. A father and daughter team play a con man who is transporting a girl who proves to be a useful asset in his scheming. The girl was Tatum O’Neil, who played in Bad News Bears. Great music.

Bronson, 2008. Tom Hardy is Michael Peterson, aka Charlie Bronson, an absolutely violent but weirdly charismatic serial offender who has spent 30+ years in solitary. The film is framed as Charlie giving a one-man show about his life.

Spring Breakers, 2013. Four college women go to spring break, funded by a little robbery that three of them committed immediately prior. They all get drunk and wild and wind up in prison, and are then bailed out by a very skeezy white rapper who gives Selena Gomez the willies, so she’s put on a bus. (She’s one of the aforementioned coeds, in one of her first ‘adult’ films.) The three remaining girls (The Beautiful Blondes and The Girl With Pink Hair) hang around a bit, but then the rapper gets into a feud with another gangsta wannabe and Pink Hair is shot in the arm. The Beautiful Blondes stick around. Watched this with a friend with no idea of the plot or premise and found it…..interesting, hilarious, and horrifying at the same time.Think I may watch Beezus and Ramona to revisit Selena Gomez in an utterly wholesome role.

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, 1957. Fun comedy that stars Jane Mansfield as a Hollywood bombshell who makes an ad man a star after she agrees to endorse his product — but only if he helps her create some drama by pretending to be her new boyfriend, making her old mimbo boyfriend jealous and generating publicity. Tony Randall proved to be a solid comedic actor, and he’s not alone. I liked this better than my previous Mansfield title, The Girl Can’t Help It — though that one was enjoyable.

The Imitation Game, 2014. Tempted to watch it because Alan Turing is the father of computing, and I’m an IT geek; sold because Matthew Goode was involved and I’ve been a fan of his since Chasing Liberty and Imagine Me and You. (Also liked him in Downton, but he was just a supporting character much overshadowed by the family.) Icing on the cake: Allen Leech, who played Tom/Mr Branson in Downton Abbey, is a supporting character. Alan Turing beats the Engima machine but commits suicide after being persecuted for homosexuality.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1975. Jack Nicholson is sent to a mental institution to be evaluated: his refusal to surrender to institutionalization creates fun chaos in the asylum, until The Powers that Be decide he’s pushed things too far. Tragic ending. Nice seeing Louise Fletcher here, who I know as Kai Winn from Deep Space Nine.