July was an unusal month in that I literally only watched one movie by myself, Father Stu. The rest were watched with (and chosen by) friends.

Manhattan Murder Mystery, 1993. Woody Allen’s wife Diane Keaton is suspicious about the death of their next-door neighbor when her widower is far too peppy to be in mourning. She and Hawkeye Pierce begin investigating and become obsessed with the prospect. Bit of a dark comedy, I suppose.

Grey Gardens, 1975. Apparently Jackie Kennedy had crazy relatives. This documentary just puts the camera on them. I have no idea why my friend wanted to watch this. I kept sneaking peeks at the Red Sox -Yankees game instead. Sox won 5-3. Then they lost 14-4. -_- Duran did really well in the All-Stars game, but it’s not been a good month for Boston.

Monkey Man, 2024. A REALLY interesting film about an Indian orphan whose mother was brutally killed by a cop, who burns for vengeance. He’s a boxer who starts working for a hotel so he can get close to the cop, but after his first attempt fails catastrophically, The Kid regroups at a temple of people who have been persecuted by the cop. Interesting look at modern Mumbai, good acting, all around good time, and rooted in Indian religious culture..

Blue Velvet, 1985. A young man finds an ear in a park. Things go downhill.

The Paperboy, 2012. Easily my least favorite film for this year. Watched it without knowing the premise or anything, we just saw Matthew McConaughey and decided to give it a shot. The premise is that two brothers and a reporter have come to a small town to investigate the death of a widely-loathed cop, which has been pinned on an alligator hunter who is now on death row.   It’s set in 1969, so there are a lot of race-strife elements, and those factor in to McConaughey being raped and beaten.   Nicole Kidman being present is the film’s only redeeming aspect.

Brewster McCloud, 1970. A young man named Brewster is working on a project to create a pair of working wings for individual humans. He is also suspected of strangling a series of people, and is guarded by Hotlips Hoolihan whose mysterious black bird is always involved in the stranglings. Unrelatedly,   Brewster meets a young Shelly Duvall in her debut film (Duvall recently died, hence our watching this), who he falls in love with despite being told by Hotlips that his project will be doomed if he makes love with a woman.  The ending is a bit surreal.    A fun enough movie – great cars & car chases –  but very strange.  One of the early smothered victims is the Wicked Witch from Oz, and amusingly she’s wearing red heels.  Rene Auberjoinis also appears as someone lecturing on bird behavior throughout the film. 

Vicky Christina Barcelona, 2008. Two American women who are friends go to Barcelona for a little vacation. One is looking for Something Special, the other isn’t.  One Spanish painter gets a relationship with both of them, though not (as he wishes) together. Interesting enough film, mostly because of Scarlett Johannson and Penelope Cruz.   The architecture and landscape of Spain are gorgeous.

Boogie Nights, 1997. Star-filled cast  involving Burt Reynolds trying to get Mark Wahlberg to do porn in the ‘70s/’80s. Appearances by a bunch of known actors. Nice music. Cars were tolerable. Dug the chick on rollerskates.

Mean Streets. 1973. Early Scorcese film about the New York Mafia, featuring a young Robert de Niro (pre-Taxi Driver), as well as a youngish David Proval, better known as Richie Aprile from The Sopranoes. I was surprised he was the only Sopranoes actor I recognized. Good music, NYC at night is pretty. Possible shot of WTC towers right after constrution, but not positive. 

What Have I Done to Deserve This!, 1985. Pedro Almadovar. A….weird film about a Spanish housewife who tries to make ends meet as a cleaning lady, despite her grumpy husband’s wishes. He’s a taxi driver and a talented forger, but has some pride about being an honest man. He’s also obessed with an older German  he used to date, though oddly they use Sie on the phone instead of du. Grumpy and Housewife have two kids, a young teenager who apparently deals smack in Madrid and another son who is a male prostitute. As the film develops we witness the general suckitude of her life until she lets a dentist “adopt” her youngest son, defends a neighbor’s telekinetic daughter from her abusive mother (this is never further explored, the housewife is just ‘Ah, cool, can you help me wallpaper my kitchen?’), kills her husband with a hambone, and is then deserted by her drug-dealer son and mother-in-law because they want to return to rural Spain and farm. Then the prostitute son comes back and the movie ends. (shrug)

The Death of Stalin, 2017. Rewatch for me of a favorite film which takes the death of one of the most odious people who ever lived and turns it into a comedy about the viciousness and loathsomeness of politics. Arguably worth watching for the scenery and Jason Isaac’s performance of Marshal Zhukov.

Father Stu, 2022. Mark Wahlberg plays Fr. Stuart Long, a boxer who begins hanging around the Catholic church for lust of a woman, but embraces it fully after a near-death experience in which he has a vision of the Virgin Mary who urges him to find purpose in his life. Despite his love for Carmen, he pursues a calling to the priesthood that becomes more difficult after he is diagnosed with a progressive muscle disease which renders the proud former boxer into a humble man in a wheelchair. Despite his suffering and limitations, he finds meaning and imparts that to others. Best movie I’ve seen this year. Based on a true story.