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Spring Season: Week 8
Welp, the city's underwater! We got two states of local emergency going at once, that's so much more efficient! River breakup hasn't been this dramatic since I was a little kid, with the big crashing chunks of ice piling up and blocking things up and making all the rivers flow backwards, and this is the worst it's flooded in over forty years! This is definitely something we needed to be dealing with right now! And with the big fireversary next week, too. Yeesh. Because I live and work up at the top of one of the hills, I luckily don't have a lot to personally worry about beyond things like getting groceries and boiling water and dealing with power outages (two last night!). The hospital is being sandbagged, but it's up a bit of a hill, too, so hopefully we won't have to deal with evacuating it when it's locked down so tightly because of That Other Thing that's still happening (up to 15 active cases in the city!).
It's all actually done a decent job of distracting me from the fact that Stratford has officially postponed its entire 2020 season indefinitely, so my first real vacation in four years is officially cancelled for the time being. I was extremely upset this morning, even if I'd been expecting it for a while, but then all the floody stuff kicked off and now I'm just kinda numbly disappointed, which is... better? I think? I think the part which frustrates me the most is that if I'd just procrastinated a few more weeks on getting all my plans made, I wouldn't have to deal with trying to cancel them all now, but I was just so eager to get everything sorted and settled so I could relax. AND THEN. At least I should be getting back a bit of money, as long as Red Arrow and VIA Rail aren't too bitchy about refunds? Surprise payday! Stratford's not issuing refunds, but all that money will stay on my account as credit, so at least I won't have to worry about it whenever I can rebook. All that remains is to decide whether or not to unbook those two weeks that I took off work. Maybe I'll just stay at home and wallow.
2020 kinda blows so far, huh? Gonna keep trying to focus on how I've got it a lot better than a lot of other people around the world right now, and keep on keeping on. And watching movies (as long as the power holds out)!
Footlight Parade (1933): Cagney doing softshoe in a sailor suit, JUST LET ME DIE, JFC. Blondell spending the whole movie mooning over him was a WHOLE-ASS MOOD. Those final three numbers are just crazy, even the unfortunately racist one, I want to watch it again RIGHT NOW.
O Lucky Man! (1973): A sorta sequel to if..., this started out pretty interesting, but three hours of wacky allegory is just way too damn much, oof. Bitty Helen Mirren, though!
Two Weeks in Another Town (1962): A real interesting take on the 'Hollywood jerking itself off' genre, with an absolutely batshit last ten minutes or so. I didn't really know what it was when I put it on, and was immediately like "oh, kind of a The Bad and the Beautiful redux vibe, huh" and then the characters all sat around and watched The Bad and the Beautiful as a film they had previously made in-universe, so that was a nice bit of validation of my reads on these old movies, lol. It's no The Bad and the Beautiful, but it also really shouldn't be. Good stuff.
A Patch of Blue (1965): Oh man, this should have been SO soppy and eye-rolling (a blind woman falls in love with a black man because LOVE IS BLIND omgggggg), but Poitier is SO freaking dreamy in it and they play the whole thing with a lot less melodrama than you'd except (save one performance, Shelley Winters is off going Full Cartoon Monster in the corner throughout and it's kind of amazing) and it just works. The total undercutting of the 'big' moment of her finding out he's black is so great, and I also really loved the ending, which is played as being really bittersweet since they're not together, but like... they're not closing the door on a relationship at some point, either! He's literally the first person she's ever gotten close to in her life and he had a huge white knight complex over helping her out and that is not a great basis for a relationship! Her going to school and making other friends and the two of them re-evaluating things in a year or so is such a smart healthy thing to do! Hell yes!
The Getaway (1972): '70s crime cool perfection. Tense and thrilling and sleazy and about as deep as a kiddie pool. Love it.
Angels in the Outfield (1951): A cheesy, feel-good sort of rewatch for these troubled times of ours. The subplot with Saul really hits me some kinda way. He's just... gonna die in a few months! And (presumably) doesn't know it! And the climax of the movie is all about just giving him one last big moment of glory! Goddamn!
The Hunger (1983): Harold, they're vampires.
Blackboard Jungle (1955): YOUTHS. Glenn Ford back in his super square but occasionally weirdly hot wheelhouse, also I like to pretend that To Sir, with Love is a sequel to this.
The Beast (2016): SHAKA SNAPPED. A really neat little short about actors in a 'Zulu Cultural Village', super charming and it hits its points quickly before getting out.
Annie Hall (1977): Woody Allen thinking he'll only get better with age is truly the height of comedy. I have to assume that all the hype behind this movie was just from people being drawn in by some of the quirkier storytelling in it, because some of it is pretty neat/cute, but the actual story itself is one long fart noise. Worth it for Jeff Goldblum's four-word, two-second role I SEE YOU THERE.
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976): There was JUST enough Bowie in The Hunger to leave me needing more.
Welcome to L.A. (1976): A real solid cast doing their best with some real shit material. Couldn't keep track of who was fucking who and didn't really care that much. The main character looks like he's cosplaying Shaggy from Scooby-Doo and women find it IRRESISTIBLE. Also, the whole thing is built around some really atrociously bad songs?? Geraldine Chapman eats an apple in the weirdest fucking way I've ever seen, though, which was great.
Three Days of the Condor (1975): A classic for a reason! Tense and fun, even with kind of a dull plot. Robert Redford coming back to the office had big 'Troy coming back to the apartment with pizza' energy, I loved this with the exception of that BAFFLING hookup? It felt SO shoehorned in, like they needed a sex scene to tick off their checklist, never mind that it made no sense for either of them. You! Your girlfriend was literally murdered a few hours ago! And you! This guy has literally been holding you at gunpoint all day! WHY IS THIS HAPPENING. A shame, because they had great sexy chemistry that could have been really nicely fraught if they'd just left it the hell alone.
Thank God It's Friday (1978): This movie is deeply stupid, I only watched it for sleazy young Goldblum, and it was GREAT. Pretty much just a ninety-minute disco dance party of a movie.
Eyes of Laura Mars (1978): How did I make it this long without realizing I needed a psychic split personality art world murder mystery in my life? This movie fucking rules. I love how Tommy Lee Jones somehow already looked super craggy when he was my age. I also really love how it starts out with typical slasher misogyny, all the victims are women hanging out in various states of undress for whatever reason, but once Odo bites it in drag, the rest of the movie is just about picking off the entire male cast one by one (AND IT'S SUCH A GOOD CAST, Raul Julia is always wonderful and Brad Dourif is so sweetly, sleazily endearing). Although it really bothered me that the movie is just called Eyes of Laura Mars while the name of the book in the movie is THE Eyes of Laura Mars.
The Crimson Kimono (1959): IT'S THE RETURN OF COLUMBIA NOIR. I have not fallen back in the pit yet, though. MORE LIKE THE CRIMSON RED HERRING, I love that the pulpy stripper murder plot was 100% just an excuse to get to the love triangle. I really hate that an Asian-American actor getting to be a hunky romantic lead still feels novel sixty fucking years later!
Klute (1971): This is the opposite of a feel-good sort of rewatch. No ragrets.
Avengers: Endgame (2019): hahahaha i cried so much and then the power went out as the closing credits were rolling and I was left in the DARK with all of my FEELINGS
Got an emergency alert saying that all of downtown except one small neighbourhood and the hospital have to evacuate while I was typing this up.
Fires and now floods. Absolutely wild.
It's all actually done a decent job of distracting me from the fact that Stratford has officially postponed its entire 2020 season indefinitely, so my first real vacation in four years is officially cancelled for the time being. I was extremely upset this morning, even if I'd been expecting it for a while, but then all the floody stuff kicked off and now I'm just kinda numbly disappointed, which is... better? I think? I think the part which frustrates me the most is that if I'd just procrastinated a few more weeks on getting all my plans made, I wouldn't have to deal with trying to cancel them all now, but I was just so eager to get everything sorted and settled so I could relax. AND THEN. At least I should be getting back a bit of money, as long as Red Arrow and VIA Rail aren't too bitchy about refunds? Surprise payday! Stratford's not issuing refunds, but all that money will stay on my account as credit, so at least I won't have to worry about it whenever I can rebook. All that remains is to decide whether or not to unbook those two weeks that I took off work. Maybe I'll just stay at home and wallow.
2020 kinda blows so far, huh? Gonna keep trying to focus on how I've got it a lot better than a lot of other people around the world right now, and keep on keeping on. And watching movies (as long as the power holds out)!
Footlight Parade (1933): Cagney doing softshoe in a sailor suit, JUST LET ME DIE, JFC. Blondell spending the whole movie mooning over him was a WHOLE-ASS MOOD. Those final three numbers are just crazy, even the unfortunately racist one, I want to watch it again RIGHT NOW.
O Lucky Man! (1973): A sorta sequel to if..., this started out pretty interesting, but three hours of wacky allegory is just way too damn much, oof. Bitty Helen Mirren, though!
Two Weeks in Another Town (1962): A real interesting take on the 'Hollywood jerking itself off' genre, with an absolutely batshit last ten minutes or so. I didn't really know what it was when I put it on, and was immediately like "oh, kind of a The Bad and the Beautiful redux vibe, huh" and then the characters all sat around and watched The Bad and the Beautiful as a film they had previously made in-universe, so that was a nice bit of validation of my reads on these old movies, lol. It's no The Bad and the Beautiful, but it also really shouldn't be. Good stuff.
A Patch of Blue (1965): Oh man, this should have been SO soppy and eye-rolling (a blind woman falls in love with a black man because LOVE IS BLIND omgggggg), but Poitier is SO freaking dreamy in it and they play the whole thing with a lot less melodrama than you'd except (save one performance, Shelley Winters is off going Full Cartoon Monster in the corner throughout and it's kind of amazing) and it just works. The total undercutting of the 'big' moment of her finding out he's black is so great, and I also really loved the ending, which is played as being really bittersweet since they're not together, but like... they're not closing the door on a relationship at some point, either! He's literally the first person she's ever gotten close to in her life and he had a huge white knight complex over helping her out and that is not a great basis for a relationship! Her going to school and making other friends and the two of them re-evaluating things in a year or so is such a smart healthy thing to do! Hell yes!
The Getaway (1972): '70s crime cool perfection. Tense and thrilling and sleazy and about as deep as a kiddie pool. Love it.
Angels in the Outfield (1951): A cheesy, feel-good sort of rewatch for these troubled times of ours. The subplot with Saul really hits me some kinda way. He's just... gonna die in a few months! And (presumably) doesn't know it! And the climax of the movie is all about just giving him one last big moment of glory! Goddamn!
The Hunger (1983): Harold, they're vampires.
Blackboard Jungle (1955): YOUTHS. Glenn Ford back in his super square but occasionally weirdly hot wheelhouse, also I like to pretend that To Sir, with Love is a sequel to this.
The Beast (2016): SHAKA SNAPPED. A really neat little short about actors in a 'Zulu Cultural Village', super charming and it hits its points quickly before getting out.
Annie Hall (1977): Woody Allen thinking he'll only get better with age is truly the height of comedy. I have to assume that all the hype behind this movie was just from people being drawn in by some of the quirkier storytelling in it, because some of it is pretty neat/cute, but the actual story itself is one long fart noise. Worth it for Jeff Goldblum's four-word, two-second role I SEE YOU THERE.
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976): There was JUST enough Bowie in The Hunger to leave me needing more.
Welcome to L.A. (1976): A real solid cast doing their best with some real shit material. Couldn't keep track of who was fucking who and didn't really care that much. The main character looks like he's cosplaying Shaggy from Scooby-Doo and women find it IRRESISTIBLE. Also, the whole thing is built around some really atrociously bad songs?? Geraldine Chapman eats an apple in the weirdest fucking way I've ever seen, though, which was great.
Three Days of the Condor (1975): A classic for a reason! Tense and fun, even with kind of a dull plot. Robert Redford coming back to the office had big 'Troy coming back to the apartment with pizza' energy, I loved this with the exception of that BAFFLING hookup? It felt SO shoehorned in, like they needed a sex scene to tick off their checklist, never mind that it made no sense for either of them. You! Your girlfriend was literally murdered a few hours ago! And you! This guy has literally been holding you at gunpoint all day! WHY IS THIS HAPPENING. A shame, because they had great sexy chemistry that could have been really nicely fraught if they'd just left it the hell alone.
Thank God It's Friday (1978): This movie is deeply stupid, I only watched it for sleazy young Goldblum, and it was GREAT. Pretty much just a ninety-minute disco dance party of a movie.
Eyes of Laura Mars (1978): How did I make it this long without realizing I needed a psychic split personality art world murder mystery in my life? This movie fucking rules. I love how Tommy Lee Jones somehow already looked super craggy when he was my age. I also really love how it starts out with typical slasher misogyny, all the victims are women hanging out in various states of undress for whatever reason, but once Odo bites it in drag, the rest of the movie is just about picking off the entire male cast one by one (AND IT'S SUCH A GOOD CAST, Raul Julia is always wonderful and Brad Dourif is so sweetly, sleazily endearing). Although it really bothered me that the movie is just called Eyes of Laura Mars while the name of the book in the movie is THE Eyes of Laura Mars.
The Crimson Kimono (1959): IT'S THE RETURN OF COLUMBIA NOIR. I have not fallen back in the pit yet, though. MORE LIKE THE CRIMSON RED HERRING, I love that the pulpy stripper murder plot was 100% just an excuse to get to the love triangle. I really hate that an Asian-American actor getting to be a hunky romantic lead still feels novel sixty fucking years later!
Klute (1971): This is the opposite of a feel-good sort of rewatch. No ragrets.
Avengers: Endgame (2019): hahahaha i cried so much and then the power went out as the closing credits were rolling and I was left in the DARK with all of my FEELINGS
Got an emergency alert saying that all of downtown except one small neighbourhood and the hospital have to evacuate while I was typing this up.
Fires and now floods. Absolutely wild.
no subject
ENDGAME IS JUST TOO MANY FEELINGS
no subject
Scott and Cassie almost got me going at the beginning, then Tony and Pepper's couch conversation snuck in with the finisher, and after that pretty much anything remotely emotional (Thor and his mom, Vormir everything, the goddamn ending) set me off again, TOOOOO MANY FEELIIIIIIINGS
no subject
2020 is A YEAR. Good luck and keep us updated. I feel you.
no subject
A LOT, lol <3