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Spring Season: Week 81
I think Sunday is my favourite day to walk to work. So quiet, almost apocalyptically so. Very easy to find an opening for the jaywalking portion of the commute. Some weeks, I could walk straight down the middle of the road the whole way if I wanted to!
Also I didn't do one of these last week!
FILMS
2046 (2004): Adding this one to the 'must revisit' pile. Much like In the Mood for Love, I suppose!
Being There (1979): Extremely sweet, even if I was a little uncomfortable in the beginning, trying to figure out exactly where Peter Sellers was meant to fall on the Kirk Lazarus scale. The beginning kinda stressed me out a lot! That did not feel like a comedy, worrying about how this man was going to survive just being put out on the streets like that!
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970): Sixty Spooks #7 of 60! I think that art gallery is one of my all-time favourite film locations.
Bob le Flambeur (1956): Why am I always wearing my Star Wars jamjams when I watch this! It's so cool! And I'm so not!
Heidi (1937): Wow, that was a staggering amount of kidnappings for something so saccharine and pure.
The Joy of Life (2005): New theory, Jenni Olson makes essay films because people are way more forgiving when they're poorly put together in a visual medium.
Knock on Any Door (1949): The 'let me tell the jury his entire life story' framing is awkward, but there's a lot to like here around it, even if I'm still not sure how I feel about how it all played out in the end! I... think it works? But man, what a gut punch, I feel fully as personally betrayed as Bogart must. tyrabanksrootingforyou.gif
The Long Goodbye (1973): WHY HAVE I NEVER WATCHED THIS BEFORE, FUCK. Oh, I know why, it's because Elliott Gould with an oral fixation is my Kryptonite and I am now dead, goodbye. I think my favourite part is the way they turn the classic noir voiceover into this diegetic running commentary because Marlowe just constantly fucking mutters to himself?
Machine Gun McCain (1969): Starts strong, ends... eventually? Actors I love being very naughty indeed make it worth it. STOP DUBBING GABRIELE FERZETTI 1969 CHALLENGE, THOUGH, GOD. Peter Falk had more of a damn accent than him in this!
Malignant (2021): Sixty Spooks #8 of 60! WHAT IF BASKET CASE, BUT NO BASKET?? Just... case. I hope James Wan is okay.
The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950): For a tasty slice of clean, spare, unrelenting noir with no frills, I don't think I could have done better, although I think the climax being set entirely in Fort Point so I could go 'I've been there!' might have bumped it up a bit.
Manhunter (1986): This has been on my mental to-watch list for more than fifteen years now, and BOY WAS IT WORTH THE WAIT. Who'd have guessed that noir actually peaked in 1986 and it involved William Peterson in little pink shorts? NOT I. Also reminded me that I still haven't watched the last season of Hannibal.
The Mark of Zorro (1940): Look, there's no classy way to say this, so I'm just gonna say it. Tyrone Power's got cakes.
Oxhide (2005): Oh holy fuck so boring, but also shot on a potato, so because I wasn't willing to close my curtains to squint properly at something so boring for two hours, I could not make out a fucking THING that was happening. I did not even know how many people were in the family, I thought there were multiple small sons only to find that it was actually just the one daughter in her TWENTIES??? Which makes the dad's obsession with measuring her height MUCH weirder.
Pierrot le Fou (1965): I don't even like this movie, but I'm sad about Belmondo, so here we are!
Señorita (2011): It feels like a debut film in a lot of ways, but a compelling story and strong central performance carry the day. One of the best 'well fuck, NOW what?' endings I've seen in a while. Also throws a bit of a fun wrench into the 'trans people should only be played by trans people' discourse.
SHORTS
575 Castro St. (2009): Not a bad delivery mechanism for the powerful audio, if not much of a film. Lingers just long enough to make bland footage of an empty film set feel... lived in?
Blue Diary (1997): I've already forgotten all of this, but something about it lingers. Olson is much more palatable in small doses.
A Brief History of Princess X (2016): Art!
Vertical Roll (1972): I'd have been fine if it was, like, 1/19th of the length it was. An extremely fucking miserable experience.
TELEVISION
Riverdale 5x16: Worth it for Veronica having to quickly process and move past her shock/disgust at finding out Reggie banged her sister.
Star Trek: Lower Decks 2x06 PAKLED PLANET.
The Twilight Zone 2x01-2x07: Better than the first season, I think? As much as topical allegories and shit is as Twilight Zone as it gets, damn near every single episode picking an issue and hitting you over the head with 'IT'S JUST LIKE [REAL LIFE THING], SEE? DO YOU GET IT??' got a little exhausting by the end. This is much more just fun sci-fi premises with a twiiiiiiist~
What If...? 1x06: I think one of the low-key highlights of this series is gonna be getting to see more of characters that died really quickly without necessarily undoing anything, god Killmonger is SO INTERESTING. Playing his fucking 4D chess games while everyone else around him is still on checkers (I also dug Tony's naivete, still blinded by smugness as he was without a cave full of scraps in his rearview (although woo, the celebrity sound-alikes are MUCH more jarring when they're actually parroting film dialogue). Also like how they continue to jump around the timeline instead of just setting everything in either the now or nebulous 'whenever's and really use the significant amount of a history they've built up over the last decade and change. Good shit!
Wrestling
AEW Dark 3x39
AEW Dark: Elevation 1x28
AEW Dynamite 3x37
AEW Rampage 1x06
Before the IMPACT 1x31
IMPACT! Wrestling 18x37
IMPACT: Victory Road 2021
New Japan Pro-Wrestling 1x41
NJPW Strong 2x37
NWA Powerrr 6x03
ROH Death Before Dishonor 2021
ROH Week By Week 2x37
ROH Women's Division Wednesday 1x21
ROH Wrestling 13x37
We are STARDOM!! 1x42-1x46
Here, have this playlist of old Mary Berry footage, just because. Mary Berry!
Also I didn't do one of these last week!
FILMS
2046 (2004): Adding this one to the 'must revisit' pile. Much like In the Mood for Love, I suppose!
Being There (1979): Extremely sweet, even if I was a little uncomfortable in the beginning, trying to figure out exactly where Peter Sellers was meant to fall on the Kirk Lazarus scale. The beginning kinda stressed me out a lot! That did not feel like a comedy, worrying about how this man was going to survive just being put out on the streets like that!
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970): Sixty Spooks #7 of 60! I think that art gallery is one of my all-time favourite film locations.
Bob le Flambeur (1956): Why am I always wearing my Star Wars jamjams when I watch this! It's so cool! And I'm so not!
Heidi (1937): Wow, that was a staggering amount of kidnappings for something so saccharine and pure.
The Joy of Life (2005): New theory, Jenni Olson makes essay films because people are way more forgiving when they're poorly put together in a visual medium.
Knock on Any Door (1949): The 'let me tell the jury his entire life story' framing is awkward, but there's a lot to like here around it, even if I'm still not sure how I feel about how it all played out in the end! I... think it works? But man, what a gut punch, I feel fully as personally betrayed as Bogart must. tyrabanksrootingforyou.gif
The Long Goodbye (1973): WHY HAVE I NEVER WATCHED THIS BEFORE, FUCK. Oh, I know why, it's because Elliott Gould with an oral fixation is my Kryptonite and I am now dead, goodbye. I think my favourite part is the way they turn the classic noir voiceover into this diegetic running commentary because Marlowe just constantly fucking mutters to himself?
Machine Gun McCain (1969): Starts strong, ends... eventually? Actors I love being very naughty indeed make it worth it. STOP DUBBING GABRIELE FERZETTI 1969 CHALLENGE, THOUGH, GOD. Peter Falk had more of a damn accent than him in this!
Malignant (2021): Sixty Spooks #8 of 60! WHAT IF BASKET CASE, BUT NO BASKET?? Just... case. I hope James Wan is okay.
The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950): For a tasty slice of clean, spare, unrelenting noir with no frills, I don't think I could have done better, although I think the climax being set entirely in Fort Point so I could go 'I've been there!' might have bumped it up a bit.
Manhunter (1986): This has been on my mental to-watch list for more than fifteen years now, and BOY WAS IT WORTH THE WAIT. Who'd have guessed that noir actually peaked in 1986 and it involved William Peterson in little pink shorts? NOT I. Also reminded me that I still haven't watched the last season of Hannibal.
The Mark of Zorro (1940): Look, there's no classy way to say this, so I'm just gonna say it. Tyrone Power's got cakes.
Oxhide (2005): Oh holy fuck so boring, but also shot on a potato, so because I wasn't willing to close my curtains to squint properly at something so boring for two hours, I could not make out a fucking THING that was happening. I did not even know how many people were in the family, I thought there were multiple small sons only to find that it was actually just the one daughter in her TWENTIES??? Which makes the dad's obsession with measuring her height MUCH weirder.
Pierrot le Fou (1965): I don't even like this movie, but I'm sad about Belmondo, so here we are!
Señorita (2011): It feels like a debut film in a lot of ways, but a compelling story and strong central performance carry the day. One of the best 'well fuck, NOW what?' endings I've seen in a while. Also throws a bit of a fun wrench into the 'trans people should only be played by trans people' discourse.
SHORTS
575 Castro St. (2009): Not a bad delivery mechanism for the powerful audio, if not much of a film. Lingers just long enough to make bland footage of an empty film set feel... lived in?
Blue Diary (1997): I've already forgotten all of this, but something about it lingers. Olson is much more palatable in small doses.
A Brief History of Princess X (2016): Art!
Vertical Roll (1972): I'd have been fine if it was, like, 1/19th of the length it was. An extremely fucking miserable experience.
TELEVISION
Riverdale 5x16: Worth it for Veronica having to quickly process and move past her shock/disgust at finding out Reggie banged her sister.
Star Trek: Lower Decks 2x06 PAKLED PLANET.
The Twilight Zone 2x01-2x07: Better than the first season, I think? As much as topical allegories and shit is as Twilight Zone as it gets, damn near every single episode picking an issue and hitting you over the head with 'IT'S JUST LIKE [REAL LIFE THING], SEE? DO YOU GET IT??' got a little exhausting by the end. This is much more just fun sci-fi premises with a twiiiiiiist~
What If...? 1x06: I think one of the low-key highlights of this series is gonna be getting to see more of characters that died really quickly without necessarily undoing anything, god Killmonger is SO INTERESTING. Playing his fucking 4D chess games while everyone else around him is still on checkers (I also dug Tony's naivete, still blinded by smugness as he was without a cave full of scraps in his rearview (although woo, the celebrity sound-alikes are MUCH more jarring when they're actually parroting film dialogue). Also like how they continue to jump around the timeline instead of just setting everything in either the now or nebulous 'whenever's and really use the significant amount of a history they've built up over the last decade and change. Good shit!
Wrestling
AEW Dark 3x39
AEW Dark: Elevation 1x28
AEW Dynamite 3x37
AEW Rampage 1x06
Before the IMPACT 1x31
IMPACT! Wrestling 18x37
IMPACT: Victory Road 2021
New Japan Pro-Wrestling 1x41
NJPW Strong 2x37
NWA Powerrr 6x03
ROH Death Before Dishonor 2021
ROH Week By Week 2x37
ROH Women's Division Wednesday 1x21
ROH Wrestling 13x37
We are STARDOM!! 1x42-1x46
Here, have this playlist of old Mary Berry footage, just because. Mary Berry!
no subject
I also think I liked s2 of The Twilight Zone more than s1. The heavy-handedness of s1 didn't bother me as much as some people, but I feel like the OG Twilight Zone changed it up — they had super obvious morality plays, but they had just some good, weird spooky shit, too. I think some of s2 was a bit defter than s1 — s2's Meet in the Middle, the opener with Jimmi Simpson (and another one later in the season that I do not want to spoil you for), reminded me a lot of s1's Not All Men, thematically, but it wasn't quite so on the nose, it made you do a little more work to get there yourself.
no subject
And yeah! It's not that it was heavyhanded in its messages (Replay was both far from subtle and amazing), it's that just about every episode felt like OKAY THIS ONE IS ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION NOW when like you say, you can have these topical themes without making them ALL the episode is, you know? Makes the messages feel a little hollow at the end of the day when the story serves JUST to impart them instead of being a good story on its own rights. Season 2 feels like it's setting out to tell cool stories with morals, instead of imparting morals with cool stories, I guess?
no subject
Replay was SO GOOD, but yeah, a lot of season 1 sort of felt like... a list of subjects they wanted to cover that they were ticking off. Which they did well, but it felt like the morals were more organically integrated in season 2 — they weren't about whatever, but those themes were present? I'm sad there's not gonna be more, I dug it a lot.