Eve's Bayou

Eve's Bayou (Amazon Prime) is an award-winning 1997 Southern Gothic drama film. Samuel L. Jackson stars. Diahann Carroll has a featured role as a fortune teller/witch. The film tells the story of Eve Batiste, a 10-year-old girl, who lives in a prosperous Creole-American community in Louisiana with her younger brother Poe and her older sister Cisely in the 1960s. Her father Louis (played by Jackson) is a promiscuous doctor in Louisiana's African American community who claims descent from the French aristocrat who founded the town of Eve's Bayou. Highly praised, this is a film where I definitely agree with the critics. Great atmosphere, excellent performances.

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Here's the face I'm sharing for Nicole's Friday Face Off:

image from Wikipedia

Blackhat

Blackhat (Netflix) is 2015 action thriller film produced and directed by Michael Mann and starring Chris Hemsworth as a hacker. Odd casting, if you ask me, but nobody asks me... ;) I liked it, though most critics didn't.

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Benedetta

Benedetta (Hulu) is a 2021 French biographical psychological drama film about Benedetta Carlini, a nun in the 17th century who joins an Italian convent while a young child and later has a lesbian love affair with another nun, while seeing religious visions. A fascinating subject with interesting insights into religious communities of the period.

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*******

Hamilton (2020)

Hamilton (Disney+) is a 2020 biographical musical drama film, a live stage recording of the 2015 Broadway musical of the same name. It stars Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hamilton and Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr. I expected it to be a bit along the lines of 1776, and it is nothing like that. This is much more a look at Hamilton the person than a view of the historical times. I'm glad I've seen it if only to see what all the fuss was about but won't rewatch it. Everybody else gives it rave reviews.

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*******

Devil in a Blue Dress

Devil in a Blue Dress (Netflix) is a 1995 neo-noir mystery thriller film based on Walter Mosley's 1990 novel of the same name and features Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals, and Don Cheadle. Set in 1948, the film follows World War II veteran Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins who, desperately in need of a job, is asked to assist a private investigator. I enjoyed the book it's based on, and I think they did a great job with this adaptation. Reviews are positive.

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*******

The Irishman

The Irishman (Netflix) is a 2019 American epic gangster film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese. The film is about the life of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a truck driver who becomes a hitman involved with mobster Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) and his crime family before later working for the powerful Teamster Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). I'm not sure why I watched this, since it's definitely not my thing, but I'm glad I did. It is a riveting and engaging film, not heavy on the action and more focused on character.

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*******

Out of Africa

Out of Africa (Netflix) is an award-winning 1985 epic romantic drama film directed and produced by Sydney Pollack, and starring Meryl Streep (as Karen) and Robert Redford. Also worth noting are Michael Kitchen and Michael Gough. The film is based loosely on the 1937 autobiographical book Out of Africa written by Isak Dinesen (the pseudonym of Danish author Karen Blixen), with additional material from Dinesen's 1960 book Shadows on the Grass and other sources. If you haven't already seen this, you should remedy that situation immediately. Gorgeous, powerful, lyrical...

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*******

Anaïs in Love

Anaïs in Love (Hulu) is a 2021 French comedy film about a woman in her mid-thirties living in Paris. She is ... "flighty" might be a good word. Unsure of herself in her relationships, avoiding her mother after her mother's cancer recurs, avoiding her thesis advisor, avoiding paying her rent, she seeks out and courts the wife of the man she had a casual affair with. The relationships are intriguing. Reviews are generaly positive.

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*******

I'm offering this image from the trailer for Nicole's Friday Face Off:

The Neon Demon

The Neon Demon (Amazon Prime) is a 2016 psychological horror film about a young aspiring model in Los Angeles whose beauty and youth generate intense fascination and jealousy within the fashion industry.

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It got mixed reviews with lovers and haters alike. Make up your own mind, that's my motto.

Amadeus

Amadeus (Netflix) is a 1984 award-winning period biographical drama film set in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the 18th century and is a fictionalized story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from the time he left Salzburg. This is the second time for me to have seen this film. It's excellent but a bit over the top for me.

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*******

All of Us Strangers

All of Us Strangers is 2023 British romantic fantasy film based on the 1987 novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada. it follows a lonely screenwriter who develops an intimate relationship with a neighbor while revisiting memories from the past. A touching film, it explores the man coming to terms with loss and grief. Andrew Scott stars. It gets almost universally positive reviews.

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*******

Kamikazi 1989

Kamikazi 1989 (Tubi) is a 1982 West German cyberpunk thriller film starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder as a detective investigating a string of bombings that lead to a corporate media conspiracy. The 31st floor! The soundtrack was composed by Edgar Froese, who founded Tangerine Dream. This is an odd flick. I kept getting distracted, then forgetting about it until the next time I opened Tubi. And then what's described in reviews as a "neon drenched dystopia" appears on the screen, and I'm right back into it with the leopard-print suit clad detective.

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*******

Baby Driver

Baby Driver (Netflix) is an award-winning 2017 action film starring Ansel Elgort as a getaway driver seeking freedom from a life of crime he ended up in accidentally. Lily James is his diner waitress girlfriend. Eiza Gonzalez, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Jon Bernthal, and Kevin Spacey appear in supporting roles. I had somehow never heard of this and came across it while scrolling through the movie selections. It's an interesting movie with quirky characters. This is one of the growing numbers of movies that I enjoyed and am glad I've seen but that I won't watch again.

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*******

Titane

Titane (Hulu) is a 2021 body horror psychological drama film about a woman who had had a titanium plate fitted in her head after being injured in a car crash as a child. Ducournau became the second female director to win the Palme d'Or, the Cannes film festival's top award, as well as the first female filmmaker to win solo. It received critical acclaim and was selected as the French entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards. Not really my thing, and in fact the sexual torture was so much not my thing I quit watching 20 minutes in. YMMV.

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*******

The Swordsman (2020)

The Swordsman (Tubi, Freevee on Amazon Prime) is an award-winning 2020 South Korean period action film. I like this one with its balance of action and interpersonal relationships.

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*******

I was struck by The Swordsman's face and thought I'd share it with the Friday Face Off bloggers.

image of the movie poster from Wikipedia

The Lost Boys

The Lost Boys is a 1987 supernatural black comedy horror film about two teenage brothers who move with their divorced mother to the fictional town of Santa Carla, California, only to discover that the town is a haven for vampires. The title is a reference to the Lost Boys in J. M. Barrie's stories about Peter Pan, who, like vampires, never grew up. It's a very 80s movie. I watched this when it was on a streaming service we subscribe to, but I don't see it now.

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Oklahoma! (1955)

Oklahoma! (Amazon Prime, Tubi, or embedded below via YouTube) is an award-winning 1955 musical film based on the 1943 musical of the same name by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It stars Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones (in her film debut), Rod Steiger, Charlotte Greenwood, Gloria Grahame, Gene Nelson, James Whitmore, and Eddie Albert. The casting is perfect. Set in Oklahoma Territory, it tells the story of farm girl Laurey Williams (Jones) and her courtship by two rival suitors, cowboy Curly McLain (MacRae) and the sinister and frightening farmhand Jud Fry (Steiger). A secondary romance concerns Laurey's friend, Ado Annie (Grahame), and cowboy Will Parker (Nelson), who has an unwilling rival in Ali Hakeem (Albert). A background theme is the territory's aspiration for statehood, and the local conflict between cattlemen and farmers.

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It's not the choice of most, but my favorite number in this film is this hilarious scene:

*******

The Station Agent

The Station Agent (Amazon Prime, Paramount+) is an award-winning 2003 comedy-drama film starring Peter Dinklage as a man who seeks solitude in an abandoned train station in New Jersey after the property is left to him in the will of his only friend. This is one of those quiet, powerful films that stays with you. Highly recommended!

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*******

I'm waving to y'all over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's T Stands for Tuesday gathering, but I won't be linking up.

The Long Walk

The Long Walk (Tubi) is a 2019 Laotian drama film. An intriguing tale. Don't scroll your social media accounts or try to do laundry while you watch it. It is rewarding but requires attention. It gets almost universal praise from critics.

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The Last Voyage of the Demeter

The Last Voyage of the Demeter (Paramount+) is a 2023 supernatural horror film, an adaptation of The Captain's Log, a chapter from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. The plot follows the doomed crew of the merchant ship Demeter who attempt to survive the treacherous ocean voyage from Transylvania to London while being stalked by a legendary vampire known as Dracula. I am always up for a new vampire movie, and this did not disappoint. It gets mixed reviews and did poorly at the box office, but I'd watch it again.

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*******

Juju Stories

Juju Stories (Amazon Prime) is a three-part anthology film exploring juju (magical) stories rooted in Nigerian folklore and urban legend. Interesting as a look at a subculture not my own. It is well-reviewed by critics.

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