Reagan, 2024.   Biopic released 20 years after the Gipper’s death, this is an adoring take on Reagan’s life, based off of a Paul Kengor book called Crusader.  It’s framed as an aging Soviet  (Jon Voight)  trying to explain the effect Reagan had on the last years of the Soviet empire, and highlights Reagan’s optimism and charisma without shying away from stuff like Iran-Contra. There’s very little policy involved: it more highlights’ Reagan’s hatred of Communist authoritarianism and fervent belief in Americanism – and I suspect that’s on purpose, to combat the bitter cynicism and division of today.  It’s very optimistic, hopeful, and “joyful”.   I thought Quaid did a good job of trying to capture Reagan’s voice and mannerisms.  Greatly appreciated the ways Reagan’s humor was incorporated into the movie, and the casting in general. Saw some favorites like Dan Lauria and Nick Searcy, both of whom were in From the Earth to the Moon. . The book generally tracked with what I know of Reagan’s life — I read Dutch back in 2004/2005, right after he died.    The credit scenes were especially good: NO ONE left the theater during the credit bits with footage from Reagan’s funeral, especially the Nancy scene which had a lot of people crying.   (The Ron-Nancy relationship is a big part of the movie.) 

Rushmore, an early  (1999) Wes Anderson movie in which a high school student who is INCREDIBLY active in school but dismal in grades teeters on expulsion, then falls for one of his teachers, becomes friends with a classmate’s father Bill Murray,  then  nearly destroys both relationships out of jealousy when Bill becomes sweet on the teacher. He  subsequently grows as  a Person.   The student, who I will dub Teenage Stanley Tucci with Hair, is also being pursued (inexplicably) by a very cute nerd girl who he treats with utter coldness. Enjoyable film: I will watch anything with Bill Murray, and this one had a lot of interesting character drama and growth.

California Split, 1974. Elliot Gould and some other guy meet gambling. They do much more gambling.

Freeway, 1996. Reese Witherspoon plays Vanessa, a girl from a….challenged background. After her mother is arrested for prostitution and her molester-stepfather is hauled away for various crimes, Vanessa tries to hitchhike north to LA where her grandmother is, only to be picked up by a serial killer. After an incredibly disturbing sequences of scenes where the serial killer reveals himself as a creepy-necrophiliac-murderer, Vanessa shoots him and then scampers off. Alas, she didn’t do the creep in, and winds up being thrown into the corrections system. Film turns into a weird black comedy that was enjoyable. As a southerner, I got a kick out of Witherspoon’s accent here. (“Git your [gorram] hands off my anatomy!”).

Polyester, 1981. A John Waters film, so that should probably give the general idea — especially as it stars Divine. Divine is “Francine”, a mom to two very screwed up kids and future ex-wife to a man with absolutely no good side besides the fact that he makes money. Francine has a friend who can’t act and who in another life was obsessed with eggs, but she’s come into money and is obsessed with doing what people on the Social Register do — playing polo and tennis, mostly. After Francine realizes her husband is cheating on her, she files for divorce and things get progressively worse until they’re all of a sudden better, and the viewer who has see John Waters before is waiting for the twist. And sure enough, multiple homicides follow.  We watched this because of Hurricane Francine. 

Brazil, 1985. I watched this for the odd pairing of Michael Palin and Robert de Niro, but both have minor parts. It’s something of an SF film, set in a dystopian world beset by bureaucracy and machines. The main character keeps having dreams where he’s a fantasy figure, a hero, but IRL he’s just a cog in the machine. As the movie progresses he begins to resist his own programming and is targeted by the state/machine/etc.   If you are a fan of ductwork,  it’s visible here in abundance. 

Rommel, 2012. German film about the last weeks of Field Marshal Rommel’s life:  his efforts at optimizing Germany’s defensive strategy against the prospect of an Allied invasion are undermined by his being implicated in Operation Valkyrie,  in which Tom Cruise and the Wehrmacht would assassinate Hitler and end the war. (But not without making a deal with Christoph Waltz.)

Philadelphia, 1993. Every time I mention The Philadelphia Story as my favorite movie, people invariably confuse it with this one, so I finally decided to watch it.   Tom Hanks plays an attorney with AIDS who is fired, and files a discrimination lawsuit against his former employers. Denzel Washington, despite his prejudice towards gay men,  takes on the case after witnessing Hanks being a victim of discrimination in a law library. Very well-constructed drama.

Stardust Memories, 1980. Woody Allen plays Woody Allen under another name, an increasingly emotionally conflicted director who is no longer satisfied making comedies, but who wants to make seriously depressing films about the human condition that no one wants to watch. The movie is presented in an interesting way in which we see Woody involved in three different relationships, and it’s a bit ‘meta’ in that the decor in his NY apartment reflects his mood at the time. Everyone in this film is a little crazy.

River’s Edge, 1987. Strange teen crime flick in which a teenager kills one of his friends, shows his other friends the body, and they just….carry on. One of them gets obsessed with protecting the murderer, while the other two (including Keneau Reeves) feel like turning him in. Featuring all kinds of things, from nudity to murderous kids with nunchunks. Loosely based on a true story. Or was it this true story?

Gosford Park, 2001. Part of Maggie Smith Memorial Weekend. Downton Abbey meets CLUE, with a VERY packed cast, including talent like Michael Gambon, Stephen Fry, Emily Watson, etc. Reminded me a bit of Rules of the Game, at least the shooting scene. Stephen Fry plays a detective who has an amusing disregard for clues or forensics or…..anything detective-y besides asking questions and posing with a smoking pipe. My introduction to the VERY cute Kelley MacDonald. Well, technically I’ve seen Trainspotting, but that was such a horrible film I’ve managed to purge my memory of everything but the toilet scene, which would be the main motive for wanting to purge the memory.

Weekend, 1956. Goddard, French film.  Um…so there’s this couple who are awful and they want to kill the woman’s father to take his money. They go on a trip to visit him but run into incredible auto carnage, and wind up hitchhiking and meeting imaginary characters, men singing in telephone booths, and cannibals.  It’s….weird. It is very weird. This has replaced Muholland Drive as “The weirdest movie I’ve ever seen”, which itself replaced The Tenant.  Has a tracking shot Martin Scorcese would be envious of.