Belle de Jour (on Max) is a 1967 psychological drama film directed by Luis Buñuel, and starring Catherine Deneuve. The film is about a young woman who spends her midweek afternoons as a high-class prostitute, while her husband is at work. Sometimes I think these 60s French films have too much in common and run together in my mind, and then I come across one like this. Wikipedia says,
Belle de Jour is one of Buñuel's most successful and famous films. It was Deneuve's second acclaimed success after The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It won the Golden Lion and the Pasinetti Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival in 1967.
is a 1910 painting by Henri Rousseau, who died on September 2 in that same year. From Wikipedia:
Ridiculed during his lifetime by critics, he came to be recognized as a self-taught genius whose works are of high artistic quality. Rousseau's work exerted an extensive influence on several generations of avant-garde artists
Let this be an encouragement in your own artistic endeavors.
Driveways (Paramount+) is a 2019 American domestic drama film directed by Andrew Ahn and starring Hong Chau, Lucas Jaye, and Brian Dennehy. I always enjoy Dennehy. This is one of those films I wish I could do justice to so you would feel compelled to watch it. It is an understated, gentle, gem.
The Nice Guys (on Netflix) is a 2016 buddy comedy action film about a tough enforcer for hire (Russell Crowe) and a private investigator (Ryan Gosling) teaming up. This one's hilarious. Reviews were positive. Somehow there was never a sequel. There shoulda been a sequel.
The Old Way (on Hulu) is a 2023 American Western film starring Nicolas Cage as a retired gunman who, with his daughter, is on a mission to find the outlaws who killed his wife. I'm glad they're still making westerns and am especially glad they're making westerns without throwing comedy elements all over the place or making the main characters into brave heroes. I liked this one and will re-watch it.
Linoleum (on Hulu) is a 2022 comedy drama film. Highly recommended. I loved this one, absolutely loved it! It's hard to describe, and I feel like I can't do it justice. See it; you won't regret it.
trailer:
Roger Ebert's site closes a positive review with this: "It's a small movie that takes big swings." Variety encourages us to watch it and says, "Jim Gaffigan’s compelling lead performance anchors Colin West’s free-wheeling indie without impeding its flights of fantasy." The Hollywood Reporter concludes,
Linoleum is in many ways a small movie, concerned with not much more than this limited circle of people trying to figure out how to understand their own lives — to make peace with the brighter future that never came, or to decide how to take charge of their own destinies, or to sort through the relationships that have mattered to them all along. But the emotional punch it packs has the weight of entire lifetimes behind it.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (on my Max watchlist) is a 2009 American stop-motion animated comedy film directed by Wes Anderson based on the 1970 children's novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. The cast includes George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, and Owen Wilson. I somehow missed this one, don't ask me how, and am glad I watched it.
trailer:
Roger Ebert gives it a positive review as does the Guardian. Empire Online says, "Genuinely original: a silly, hilarious and oddly profound adaptation for adult-sized children."
The Flash is a 2023 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name. It got generally positive reviews, and I'm watching all the superhero movies as they become available to me on streaming services I have access to. That said, I think this one is dreadful. It includes time travel as a major plot element, for one thing. I could go on and on, but I'll just leave it at that.
by Konstatin Makovsky (6/20/1839-9/17/1915), who was an influential Russian painter. This 1883 painting shows a toast at a wedding feast following a boyar marriage. The bride looks sad and reluctant, while the elderly attendant standing behind her encourages the bride to kiss the groom. The work won a gold medal at the World's Fair in 1885 and is considered to be one of Makovsky's most popular works. It is currently located in Hillwood museum, Washington DC, U.S.
Radius -free with an Amazon Prime subscription, and also available free on Tubi and YouTube (embedded below) and other services- is a 2017 Canadian science fiction thriller film about two survivors of a car accident who discover that one causes the death of anyone who comes within a certain radius of him, and the other has the ability to nullify this effect. Generally well-reviewed, I enjoyed this one. It has such an unusual plot.
via YouTube (You'll have to click through to YouTube's site to watch, as this movie is age restricted.):
Because this blog does not consist of a single focus topic I chose the name Divers and Sundry where "Divers" means being of many and various kinds, and "Sundry" means consisting of a haphazard assortment of different kinds.
Posts
