I am going to watch every single Geena Davis movie. I am not exactly sure why. Will report back.
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This is a good interview of Baudrillard on the movie The Matrix. Iâve never read something so casually scathing. It also helped me understand some of his ideas a little better. It also illustrates how in Simulacra and Simulation he talks about these ideas more as a curiosity and by the time of this interview decades later it feels more like a panic. Also I still donât have any idea what he means by âThe system produces a negativity in trompe-lâoeilâ sometimes I think I grasp it but it slips away.
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Thelma & Louise
I had only seen this movie on TV many years ago, when I was still a teenager. I donât remember what I thought about it. What an incredible movie. One of my favorite aspects of fiction is how, when artfully done, it can stretch reality to more resemble the truth. All the depiction of menâs behavior are simultaneously over-the-top and true-to-life. Geena Davis really carries the movie, I think, with her arc built on the solid ground of Susan Sarandonâs performance. At my age, I relate to both characters heavily. I see this movie as a beautiful (platonic) love story, and about finding joy and liberation in a world that is built to confine and destroy.
Quick Change
Confession: I am an anti-Bill Murray person. I donât really like what he does, even when I see it working. Best in small doses. I spent nearly the whole runtime of this movie being infuriated with how he was treating Geena Davis. I realize thatâs the point, but the movie also wanted me to go along with how entertaining and charming he was being throughout these madcap, fantastical comedy scenarios, too. The plot of the movie is pretty conservative: three friends, two of them lovers and one third wheel, execute a bank heist because theyâre tired of the grind of New York City, which in their view has gone to hell because itâs getting too ethnic. The movie never questions the characterâs fundamental assumption here, and it seems to want the viewer to root for them to successfully get away. I thought Geena was great, even though her character exists only as a plot device to further the character growth of Murray.
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The Long Kiss Goodnight
Shane Black sure loves to set a movie during Christmas. This is a type of genre movie I really like. Slapstick action with a ridiculous plot that hardly ever blinks. Geena Davis is great, both as Sam, especially when sheâs losing her mind recalling her last life, and as Charly the badass assassin who hates herself. She snaps so many necks in this movie. I donât think a lot of the villain stuff is written or directed well. The director doesnât seem to know how to handle the kinda dumb jokey villain stuff, and the edit doesnât give the comedy time to land. Itâs weird! Especially when everything with Samuel Jackson and Geena Davis is so good. Itâs long, like, real long for the genre, but I honestly didnât mind. Some parts near the end even felt rushed.
Action scene highlights:
Davis blowing a hole through her house to make a hole she throws her daughter through, over a gap, into a treehouse.
Davis ice skating across a frozen lake in order to cut the bad guys off.
âSuck my dick you bastards.â
Samuel L. Jackson and Davis jumping out of a three store window, explosion behind them, and shooting the ice below them on the way down to crash into water.
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This was a hugely influential interview in French video games criticism at the time, by the way, right smack in the New Games Journalism bubble.
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Oh crazy! I missed that.
Kaguya-hime at the smallest screen in a Regal Theater.
I donât want you to read about it if you havenât seen it. Watching it feels like having a story told to you by an elder for an evening.
A must see.
Now I get to be a hipster about my favorite Ghibli.
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Kaguya was the one of the few Ghiblis my spouse and i hadnât seen. wed seen the staples so many times that Ghibli rhythm was familiar and she was sick and wanted something to relax to.
i cried big time. i cant remember the last time i cried before that and havent cried in the 4 years since.
its my favorite Ghibli and im afraid to watch it again
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The part that hit me the hardest is when she flows like a river.
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Itâs March, aka Womenâs History Month, so tonight itâs âladies nightâ, and am kicking things off with a real crowd pleaserâŠ
And cuz no survey of less than conventional chick flicks is complete without some fisticuffs, behold the two queens of kung fu in their crowning achievementâŠ
I knew I wanted to show at least one Pam Grier vehicle, so I figure that I may as well show the one movie that put her back on the map for many (tho for some of us, she never left)âŠ
Last but not least is the token head scratcher of the card, as well as the obligatory âperfect thing to watch late into the night as you nod off & which may or may not lead to insane dreams/nightmaresâ selection as wellâŠ
The stream will again be via the alt account, starting around 8PM-ish ESTâŠ
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Current Criterion 50% Off Flash Sale (+finding $60 worth of gift cards in my email by searching âcriterion giftâ) so Iâm gonna go to town on this 
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Please Show & Tell with the class.
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Okay! In the sale I picked up:
- All That Jazz
- Design For Living
- Blow Up
- Sunday Bloody Sunday
I have not seen any of them but they are all on the watchlist that Iâm working through rn. All That Jazz and Design For Living are not available to stream/rent anywhere so they seemed like good investments
I wanted to pick up The Elephant Man (sold out) and Ran (out of print). Those two are also not available to stream/rent anywhere
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I watched Citizen Ruth a few months back when I was having an Alexander Payne marathon out of the blue! I think it was my favorite out of the bunch (I watched The Holdovers, Downsizing, Sideways, Election, and Citizen Ruth. Citizen Ruth and Election were my favorite of the bunch!)
Really bold feminist movie that takes an interesting almost âcentristâ opinion that makes everyone look bad while not blatantly favoring traditionally conservative viewpoints as centrism usually does. Also incredibly funny for how serious the subject matter was and in how it made the incredibly sympathetic protagonist an almost slapstick neâer do well. Also perfect ending.
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Also I saw Mickey17 last night and it was beautiful and tragic and hilarious. to quote my friend:
I cried i laughed i experienced the full range of human emotions
easily the best English language Bong Joon Ho movie, it absolutely clears Okja and Snowpiercer.
had almost every single element that I love in art from the setting, set design, costuming, themes, speculative ideas, cast, acting, everything! great stuff!
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Nice. Been meaning to see All That Jazz myself, shouldâve downloaded it when I had the chance last month. Is that Letterboxd link going to a private list? For some goofy reason they wonât let you share those.
Iâd have hopped on the sale if I were where my movies/TV/etc. are, specifically Iâd get the Marcel Pagnol Marseille trilogy I just saw for the first time. Been meaning to post about thisâŠ
The first one, Marius, is a funny hangout movie for about an hour and a half and then suddenly becomes devastating. Itâs not experimental by any means but itâs interesting to compare to contemporary American films, which (going on what Iâve seen) are characteristically pretty theatrical in terms of acting style and makeup. These Marseille movies feel theatrical too, certainly in terms of the scripts (they were plays first), but the performances edge slightly more toward naturalism to the point that itâs noticeable. And they were actually shot in the city (supplemented by a bunch of b-roll) so the feeling of being there is authentic. Take notes Monte-CristoâŠâŠ
Fanny is pretty miserable, but still great. Both films are basically written around dramatic questions of what will make you happy, and what kinds of compromises true happiness can survive. Theyâre great melodrama.
Marius and Fanny seem to be two halves of a whole, while CĂ©sar is more like Godfather Part III in that it came out a few years later and feels largely redundant to the story of the first two, though itâs still worth seeing. Pagnol directed this one and clearly doesnât really know what heâs doing, but what comes out of that is the kind of strange camera behavior which is more interesting than incompetent. Wish I had some screenshots to share, some striking images in these despite being basically filmed plays
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ugh, yes. i have it on âanyone with a linkâ but that seems to be a lie 
Iâll make it public
Iâve made it about 25% of the way through the list so far (in no particular order). Itâs comprised of some directors Iâve never seen, some lesser known work from my favorite directors, some genres/film movements I donât know much about, some adaptations of books Iâve read, stuff Iâve been meaning to watch forever and need an excuse to, etc etc
Okay I just saw the new Soderbergh movie Black Bag and normally heteros arenât really my thing but this movie was so sexy?? Ugh and the clothes. Ugh, hot, ugh. Also, the house that Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchettâs characters live in⊠Immaculate. So chic. Thereâs even this scene where they are in the house of a younger, less senior coworker and her house is beautiful too!!! The whole thing is a banger. Really quick, and snappy, and witty. Only quibble is that at 90 min itâs maybe too lean of a steak
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Itâs beautiful and will fuel many âtree inside house moneyâ aspirational dreams, but one thing I was struck by: the lighting in the house is permanently stuck in romance mode. Living in London, dealing with the grey, and then coming home to a house drenched in moody darkness with the occasional pool of sensuous light? I would immediately plunge into a seasonal depression as weighty as a black hole.
Great picture though. As an erotic thriller fan/sicko Iâm fully on board with Soderberghâs âmore movies for adultsâ line.
All That Jazz is an all-timer and was locked into my top four on Letterboxd for a long time - definitely interested to hear folksâ impressions as they watch it! One of the movies that helped me get the appeal of Roy Scheider, who up until then Iâd mostly thought of as âthe least fun character in Jawsâ
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