THE MOSQUITO COAST: Second viewing, no change. A Schrader script full of great ideas is undersold by Weir who keeps things at an unproductive academic distance. Ford is solid here, but once you know it was written for Nicholson, it's hard not to be left a little wanting.

The O'Hara stuff in this is pretty grim, but you gotta give it to her, she goes for it.

nw FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Aronofsky giving all his fans who pretended BLACK SWAN and MOTHER were good exactly what they deserve.

For whatever reason I hadn't really clocked it till this moment but it's no wonder Jarmusch likes Driver so much, he basically sounds and talks like him.

"Let's just say dome more than others" almost made me do a spit take.

Showed my parents ONE FALSE MOVE. It will never cease to amaze me how well observed every sequence is, how textured every character is allowed to be. We used to make real movies, man.

Rented SPLITSVILLE for my parents, they absolutely loved it

Run this as a pro choice ad

Rewatch of SEVEN VEILS confirms that Seyfried and Liddiard are my two favorite performances of last year

All these early Peter Weir's (yes, even HANGING ROCK) just run themselves out about halfway through and stumble to an ending.

Chloe Zhao squarely in her Stephen Daldry era

If I were Dr. Richard Kimball, I would not have allowed an intruder to kill Sela Ward

Speaking of my own actor ballets for the year, it was honestly as easy a time I've ever had getting down to 5 in each category. A lot of good stuff this year, but the cream of the crop rose pretty easily.

"Scorcese"

Not that anybody asked, but these are the ten best movies I saw.

I have decided it is time to rewatch PRINCE OF THE CITY

Okay the NATURAL BORN KILLERS one though. If that isn't a banger Russ Meyer movie than I don't know what it.

BASED

Showing my mother LONE STAR. This is kinda the best screenplay ever written, huh?

Skarsgard is really terrific in DEAD MAN'S WIRE.

Everyone falling for the Emerald Fennell thing a third time

This afternoon's itinerary

Japan has been good to me lately

Found out today that my mother's favorite 80's movie is TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.

Maybe it’s me, but theaters give me an urgency to see something. I’m more likely to see a bad new movie in my local AMC than I am to stream something great at home. I want that drive to see something opening day, not this passive out of sight, out of mind content pump of streaming platforms.

If movies have taught me one thing, it's that post-WW2 Japan was, to put it lightly, a tough place to live.

Still absolute buzzing over ANN LEE, can't wait to see it again Tuesday

As much as I love it, it's probably THE FOG.

It's honestly pretty funny to think about ANN LEE and HAMNET both being classified as "movies."

BEAUTIFUL TREASURES

It's almost time to convene with the Holy Mother

Me on the way to Movie Madness: I'm only gonna grab one or two movies. Me once I get to Movie Madness:

Let's rock

“does the fiction film have coherent radical politics?” is a question that sounds like “can you take me to the potty? i can’t go by myself!”

Gonna rewatch what is apparently everyone's least favorite zombie movie ever made

Inside you there are two wolves

SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK

Liked IS THIS THING ON? quite a bit, a very flawed movie but a nice bounce back after the wretched MAESTRO.

Okay fine I'll move to Austin

Seated for NO OTHER CHOICE

Already very well versed in the cinema of Lynne Ramsay and Peter Weir, but I'm not not looking forward to spending the next couple months with them via Blank Check.

He's right, it's obvious Amanda Seyfried in SEVEN VEILS. I'm glad we all agree.

And so, the rewatch begins

Sorry, you can't trick me into another Bi Gan movie. Fool me once, ect.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's not a filmmaker that uses a lot of closeups, but when he does boy they hit like crack.

Double feature of Frank Borzage's THE MORTAL STORM and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's WIFE OF A SPY. Who will let me program this?

not into the homework cinema discussion because at least where films/books/music are concerned, I enjoy doing homework!