Three young women eat spaghetti on inflatable mattresses at Lake of Capri, 1939
Saturday, December 10, 2016
First Lines: Reinhold Niebuhr - The Nature and Destiny of Man
Man has always been his own most vexing problem.
While She Was Out (2008)
A suburban housewife is forced to fend for herself when she becomes stranded in a desolate forest with four murderous thugs.
Mediocre thriller with an engrafted feminist overtone; lost me, when the thugs were characterized by listening to Joy Division...
Maltin**1/2: "Nicely done noirish thriller; less-is-more approach creates enough tension at the start and finish to make up for the see-it-coming middle. Basinger...is solid to the end."
Friday, December 9, 2016
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
First Lines: Diane McWhorter - Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights
By noon that Sunday, people were arriving at the Mountain Brook's Club's downstairs grill, soothingly dark, as if it had been designed with the hangover in mind.
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953)
The bane of adolescent Bart Collins' existence is the piano lessons he is forced to take under the tutelage of Dr. Terwilliker, the only person he admits he detests because of his dictatorial nature.
Fascinatingly imaginative and bizarre musical produced with much finesse, but (literally) a child's nightmare obviously not suitable for the intended audience.
Halliwell*: "Badly scripted fantasy with gleaming sophisticated dream sequences which deserve a better frame. A real oddity to come from Hollywood at this time, even though Dr. Seuss's were and are bestsellers."
Maltin***: "Imaginative fantasy conceived by Dr. Seuss with clever songs by Seuss and Frederick Hollander. Major weakness: conventional "grown-up" leads played by then-popular performers Healy and Hayes."
Psychotronic/Michael Weldon: "...one of the best surrealistic fantasies ever made."
Blue Velvet (1986)
The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.
Need I explain? When it was released I watched it 3 times in a row, I was completely overwhelmed, Lynch exceeded my expectations. An instant classic!
On renewed viewing: David Lynch's masterpiece still mesmerizes with its idiosyncratic and sinister, but spot-on vision of Americana.
Halliwell***: "Bizarrely stylish exercise by the director of The Elephant Man, popular at the box-office."
Maltin**: "Terminally weird, though flamboyantly original film...A highly individual look at the bizarre elements just behind the facade of a picture-perfect American town. Too audacious to be easily dismissed, but too strange to be easily enjoyed...yet this was one of the most critically acclaimed movies of 1986!"
