Category: movies

  • Movie Roundup: January 17 – 25

    A collage of images from Dead Man's Wire, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, The Loves of Hercules, The Red Badge of Courage, Nouvelle Vague, The Thin Man, After the Thin Man, Song of the Thin Man, He Who Gets Slapped, Disneyland Handcrafted, and The Testament of Ann Lee.

    Nine days, eleven movies. Let’s whip through these!

    Dead Man’s Wire

    Dacre Montgomery and Bill Skarsgard in Dead Man's Wire.

    No one can compete when Colman Domingo speaks.

    28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

    The Jimmys in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

    Wait: Maybe Ralph Fiennes could compete.

    The Loves of Hercules (MST3K version)

    Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay in The Loves of Hercules.

    The best thing to come out of this movie was Mariska Hargitay.

    The Red Badge of Courage

    Audey Murphy in The Red Badge of Courage.

    A hacked up mess. I wish the original John Huston cut was available.

    Nouvelle Vague

    Zoey Deutch and Guillaume Marbeck in Nouvelle Vague

    I wonder what Godard would have thought of this pretty straightforward story of the making of Breathless.

    The Thin Man / After The Thing Man / Song of the Thin Man

    The Cast of The Thin Man
    The cast of After the Thin Man.
    Myrna Loy and William Powell in Song of the Thin Man.

    Walk of Fame watches. In the first two films, Nick and Nora are the coolest people in the room, and almost always drunk. In the last (actually the sixth in the series), the are ten years older, they have a kid, they are often out of the loop, and they are far less entertaining.

    He Who Gets Slapped

    The Clown from He Who Gets Slapped

    Walk of Fame watch. The first movie from Metro Goldwyn Mayer, and it’s pretty wild.

    Disneyland Handcrafted

    Fantasyland at Disneyland under construction.

    It’s insane that they went from a dirt lot to the most famous theme park on Earth in just one year. And so much detail went into things that no normal person would ever notice. Fascinating.

    The Testament of Ann Lee

    Amanda Seyfried's eyes in The Testament of Ann Lee.

    I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it didn’t have the narration.

    Best of this bunch: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

    Worst: The Loves of Hercules (but the MST3K riffing made it a fun watch)

    Fediverse reactions

  • Mid-January Movie Rodeo Roundup Jamboree Wonder Festival

    A collage of images from 11 movies: death race 2000, cheers for miss bishop, stalker, steamboat bill jr, real genius, moonage daydream, blue moon, hail, caesar!, peter pan, belle of the yukon, and keep your powder dry.

    I didn’t post anything about the last eleven movies I watched. I thought about doing eleven separate posts, but that sounds hard, so here comes Movie Lightning Round:

    Death Race 2000

    Movie bar for Death Race 2000.

    Exactly how I remember the year 2000.

    Cheers for Miss Bishop

    “It’s a Wonderful Life,” except without any life.

    Stalker

    Movie bar for Stalker.

    Three hours of guys wandering through fields, and it’s great.

    Steamboat Bill, Jr.

    Movie bar for Steamboat Bill, Jr.

    Mickey Mouse wasn’t in this at all!

    Real Genius

    Movie bar for Real Genius.

    My crush on Michelle Meyrink continues.

    Moonage Daydream

    Movie bar for Moonage Daydream.

    I’m not sure how something can have both too much Bowie and not enough Bowie.

    Blue Moon

    Apparently the after-party for the premiere of Oklahoma! was the source of huge chunks of pop culture.

    Hail, Caesar!

    Movie bar for Hail, Caesar!

    Any movie that stops the action for a five minute gay sailor musical number is all right with me.

    Peter Pan (1924)

    Movie bar for Peter Pan.

    I didn’t really need Peter Pan to have a tacked-on “AMERICA IS THE BEST” subplot.

    Belle of the Yukon

    Movie bar for Belle of the Yukon.

    A completely by-the-numbers musical western with zero memorable songs.

    Keep Your Powder Dry

    Gee, I wonder if the two women who can’t stand each other will grudgingly find mutual respect and then become friends?

    Some of these were watched for my Walk of Fame project so I’ll end up posting about them again.

    …and seriously: the not-musical Hail, Caesar! had a better musical number than anything in Belle of the Yukon.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie Pass Adventures: We Bury the Dead

    Daisy Ridley in We Bury the Dead.
    Daiy Ridley and Brenton Thwaites in We Bury the Dead

    The guy in front of me when I was walking out of the theater said “That was the most boring movie I’ve ever seen.” I guess he’s never sat through Radu Jude’s Dracula. Or the 1969 version of Dr. Dolittle.

    But I know why he was bored. The trailers make this look like a zombie movie. And it is, but not very much. It’s really more of a contemplative story about an estranged relationship that happens to have some bodies coming back to life. The zombies are slow and easily avoidable as long as you don’t do something silly like go off on adventure by yourself to try and work things out with your husband.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie Pass Adventures/Walk of Fame Movies: The Plague and Destry Rides again with Joe Pasternak

    A large, scared, yellow face of Everett Blunck as Ben in The Plague looks at a tiny Jimmy Stewart as Destry carrying a tiny Marlene Dietrich as Frenchy in Destry Rides Again.

    The Plague

    The eyes of Everett Blunck as Ben in The Plague

    I’m sure no one would call this movie a fun watch, but it was incredibly rough as a middle school teacher to watch and recognize the bullying and shaming that happens in this movie. I seriously considered walking out, and I never walk out of movies.

    I don’t mean that this is a poorly made film. It’s very well made, and the performances all feel real- but more than a little PTSD triggering for me.

    Destry Rides Again

    Una Merkel as Lilly Belle and Marlene Dietrich as Frenchy fighting in Destry Rides Again.

    Jimmy Stewart at his Jimmy Stewartest. A very enjoyable ride. Also: I’d never seen this before, so I had no idea how much Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles was channeling Marlene Dietrich’s Frenchy. Mel Brooks got some very delayed laughter out of me.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Walk of Fame Movies: Swing Time with Betty Furness

    The legs of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Swing Time.
    Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Swing Time.

    I could have gone my whole life without seeing Fred Astaire in blackface.

    Love & marriage in old movies is wild. “I met you three days ago. I love you! Let’s get married. Wait- you’re engaged to someone else? I guess I’ll marry this other guy. But now you’re not engaged anymore? Then I’ll marry you, and the guy I was engaged to will sing to celebrate our love!” Also: Rogers and Astaire never kiss. They often ALMOST kiss, but they never actually do it. Apparently this was a thing.

    Composite picture. On the left, a mockup of Betty Furness's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On the Right, a black and white portrait photo of Betty Furness.

    Betty Furness (1533 Vine Street, plus a television star at 6675 Hollywood Boulevard) plays Margaret, the woman who seems fine with her wedding being cancelled because her fiancee thought his pants needed cuffs. Furness move from acting into being a spokesperson for Westinghouse. That led to her becoming a consumer advocate, and then a reporter.

    Fediverse reactions

  • The Last Movie of 2025: Some Like It Hot with Pat O’Brien

    Joe E. Brown and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot.
    Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot.

    Sneaking in a last movie of 2025 to wrap up my “Fake posters for every movie I see in 2025” project. My letterboxd list says I’ve seen 254, but my fake poster count is 258 so I’m missing something somewhere.

    What a great movie to end the year. It’s hilarious. Also: I never got why people were so enthralled by Marilyn Monroe. I get it.

    Composite image. On the left, a mockup of Pat O'Brien's star on the Walk of Fame. On the right, a black and white portrait of Pat O'Brien.

    Pat O’Brien (1531 Vine Street) plays a cop who manages to let a lot of people get shot. He was a very popular actor who appeared in over 100 films.

    My LAST FAKE POSTER is… pretty good. Not a favorite, but an acceptable end to the project.

    A fake poster for Some Like It Hot mimicking the poster for Silver Linings Playbook.

    I guess I should do some sort of “wrap-up/what’s next” post tomorrow so that all my imaginary fans aren’t left guessing about my next project.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie Pass Adventures: No Other Choice

    Lee Byung-un in NoOther Choice
    The family from No Other Choice.

    What a pleasure to get all the way to the end of the year and find a favorite movie. Dark and hilarious, with creative choices I’ve never seen before but instantly understood.

    I wrote roughly one billion words about the last movie I saw. Part of that is because bad movies are easier to write about, but it’s also because I don’t want to spoil this movie.

    Of course, that doesn’t mean I can’t make a silly fake poster based on a Charlton Heston zombie virus movie!

    A fake poster for No Other Choice mimicking the poster for The Omega Man.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Retro Movie Adventures: Smithereens

    Susan Berman and Richard Hell in Smithereens.
    Susan Berman and Richard Hell in Smithereens.

    What if Marty Supreme was about a woman in the 1980s punk scene, and she had no apparent talent?

    I used the poster for this movie for yesterday’s movie, so it seems fair to yesterday’s movie for today’s poster.

    A fake poster for Smithereens mimicking the poster for Song Sung Blue.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Walk of Fame Movies: The Godless Girl with Lina Basquette & Marie Prevost

    Mari Provost and Lina Basquette in The Godless Girl
    Eddie Quillan and Lina Basquette in The Godless Girl

    This is Cecil B. DeMille’s last silent movie, and it is weird and unintentionally hilarious. A student forms an underground atheist society at her school, which is apparently a crime.

    A title card reads "Under the State Law, the student responsible for this outrage is liable to imprisonment!"
    I guess this was before people had free speech.

    When the student body president brings a mob to disrupt a society meeting, a girl is killed. Then they go to prison (well, prison-like reform school), where they find love and she finds religion.

    The Godless Society has an excellent graphic department. Check this out:

    Black and white image of hands hold a pamphlet with a graphic of a snake labeled "The BIBLE" being cut in half by a sword labelled "ATHEISM." Text below the image reads "Join the Godless Society- Kill the Bible."
    Someone probably has a tattoo of this.
    Composite picture. On the left, a mockup of Marie Prevost's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On the Right, a black and white portrait photo of Marie Prevost.

    One of the best things about watching this was Marie Prevost (6201 Hollywood Boulevard). I watched a different, terrible movie with her earlier in the year, and it was refreshing to see her in a role that justified her having a Walk of Fame star.

    Composite picture. On the left, a mockup of Lina Basquette's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On the Right, a black and white portrait photo of Lina Basquette.

    Lina Basquette (1529 Vine Street) is the Godless Girl, who was loosely based on a real person. Basquette had quite a life. She had been married to Sam Warner (co-founder of Warner Bros.), and the rest of the family was upset because the Warners were Jewish and Basquette was Roman Catholic. When Sam died, Lina was pressured by Harry Warner to give up custody of her daughter so the child would be raised Jewish. The custody battle effectively blacklisted Basquette for a time. In the late 1930s she was flown to Germany meet with a German film studio and several Nazis, including Hitler. She claimed she kicked Hitler in the crotch when he hit on her, and that Hitler didn’t stop pestering her until she told him her grandfather was Jewish.

    And now, the fake poster. It’s hard to find fun movies with “God” or “Godless” in the title, so I went with “Girl.”

    A fake poster for The Godless Girl mimicking the poster for Funny Girl.
    Fediverse reactions

  • Movie Pass Adventures: Song Sung Blue

    Hate Hudson and Hugh Jackman in Song Sung Blue.
    Hate Hudson and Hugh Jackman in Song Sung Blue.

    Don’t go in expecting The Seventh Seal and you’ll have a good time. But be warned: the second half gets darker and weirder than you might expect. That’s what happens when you’re dealing with a mostly true story.

    I’ve never seen the source movie for today’s fake poster, but I’m planning to watch it right after I post this.

    A fake poster for Song Sung Blue mimicking the poster for Smithereens.
    Fediverse reactions
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