Fargo (1996)

Fargo (Amazon Prime) is an award-winning 1996 black comedy crime film written, directed, produced and edited by Joel and Ethan Coen. Frances McDormand stars as Marge Gunderson, a pregnant Minnesota police chief investigating a triple homicide. William H. Macy and Steve Buscemi also star. I'd seen this before but couldn't resist re-watching when I came across it. Priceless. And Frances McDormand is an actor who never disappoints.

trailer:

*******

The Monster Squad

The Monster Squad (free on Pluto TV) is a 1987 horror comedy film about a group of the Universal classic movie monsters led by Count Dracula who are confronted by a group of savvy kids out to keep them from controlling the world. I watched it because of its reputation as a "tween friendly" cult classic. Lots of fun.

trailer:

*******

The Adjustment Bureau

The Adjustment Bureau (Netflix) is a 2011 science fiction romantic thriller film loosely based on Philip K. Dick's 1954 short story "Adjustment Team". The film stars Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Michael Kelly, and Terence Stamp. I enjoyed the religious themes. This one will reward re-watching.

trailer:

*******

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Netflix) is a 2018 historical romantic drama film directed by Mike Newell and based on the 2008 novel of the same name. I enjoyed the book and was happy to come across this. They did a nice job with the adaptation. It gets mostly positive reviews. This is a feel-good movie for when you're in the mood for that.

trailer:

*******

The Worst Person in the World

The Worst Person in the World (Hulu) is a 2021 award-winning Norwegian language romantic comedy-drama film about a young woman making her way in the world. It is well reviewed. I enjoyed the movie, but it's one of those wonderful movies I'll end up not re-watching.

trailer:

Source Code

Source Code (Hulu) is a 2011 science fiction action thriller film starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal plays an army captain who is sent into an eight-minute virtual re-creation of a real-life train explosion to uncover the identity of the terrorist who bombed it. Too much information spoils the plot, but this is a thought-provoking film, and that doesn't always get paired with action thrillers. It is well reviewed. I enjoyed it.

trailer:

*******

The Fate of the Furious

The Fate of the Furious is a 2017 action film, the sequel to Furious 7 (2015) and the eighth installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. The film stars Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Kurt Russell, and Charlize Theron. I am a Vin Diesel fan but am just now getting around to seeing this one. Fun!

trailer:

*******

Radioactive Dreams

Radioactive Dreams is a 1985 post-apocalyptic science fiction-comedy film starring George Kennedy, Michael Dudikoff, Don Murray, and Lisa Blount. The film begins with two boys growing up in a fallout shelter, in an attempt to escape a nuclear war. They rejoin the world in 2001. They acquire the activation keys of the world's last nuclear missile and get involved in gang warfare. It gets mixed reviews, but not everything needs to be Citizen Kane. It was a fun, entertaining flick.

via YouTube:

*******

The Company of Wolves

The Company of Wolves (Kanopy, Shudder) is an award-winning 1984 British gothic fantasy horror film directed by Neil Jordan and starring Angela Lansbury, David Warner, Micha Bergese, and Sarah Patterson in her film debut. The screenplay by Angela Carter and Jordan was adapted from her 1979 short story of the same name. It's a werewolf tale and a take on the Little Red Riding Hood story. You can't go wrong with Angela Lansbury or David Warner. The movie is well-reviewed. I enjoyed it.

trailer:

*******

Céleste (1980)

Céleste (Amazon Prime, Tubi) is a 1980 West German film about the relationship between the French writer Marcel Proust and his devoted housekeeper/attendant/secretary as his health deteriorates. It is from her point of view that this story is told. I read Proust's Remembrance of Things Past years ago and was fascinated by the life story of the author. This is a lovely movie, beautifully expanding on what I knew about Proust.

trailer (in German):

******* Reminder: You can watch Tubi on your computer, or you can add the free app to your TV and watch it that way.

Django (1966)

Django (Pluto TV, Peacock, Plex) is a 1966 Spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Corbucci. Uncredited, but the movie is based on Akira Kurosawa's film Yojimbo. The film follows a Union soldier-turned-drifter (Django) and his companion, a prostitute, who become embroiled in a bitter, destructive feud between a gang of Confederate Red Shirts and a band of Mexican revolutionaries. It was a commercial success upon release and has garnered a large cult following. It is widely regarded as one of the best films of the Spaghetti Western genre. Django Strikes Again is the only official sequel, though the name Django appears in many a film title. I've seen it numerous times but can't find that I've ever written a blog post on it. This is one of the Spaghetti Westerns that should go on any list of best of the genre.

*******

Asteroid City

Asteroid City (Amazon Prime) is a 2023 comedy-drama film written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson and starring an ensemble cast that includes Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, and Jeff Goldblum. I missed Bill Murray, but according to Wikipedia:

Bill Murray was originally cast as the motel manager, but had to drop out of the role due to being infected with COVID-19, leading to Carrell playing the part instead. However, after his recovery, he arrived at the film set in Spain, and while Anderson could not add another role to the film, he gave Murray the role of Tab Whitney, the actor playing Jock Larkings, business titan of the company bearing his name, which was an additional character created for a short promotional film trailer.

If you like Wes Anderson movies you'll like this. I do, and I did.

trailer:

*******

Big Night (1996)

Big Night (Hoopla, Paramount+) is an award-winning 1996 comedy-drama film starring Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub as two Italian immigrant brothers trying to make it in the restaurant business on the Jersey Shore in the 1950s. The supporting cast includes Minnie Driver, Ian Holm, Isabella Rossellini, and Allison Janney. It is well reviewed. For example Roger Ebert called it "one of the great food movies, and yet it is so much more". I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The casting is priceless.

trailer:

*******

Nocebo

Nocebo (Hulu) is a 2022 Filipino-Irish psychological thriller film starring Eva Green. I watched because of Green. She plays a children's fashion designer who sufferes a mysterious debilitating illness. This movie is fine, and Green is always worth watching. It got mostly positive reviews. trailer:

*******

Manchester by the Sea

Manchester by the Sea (Amazon Prime) is a 2016 drama film written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan and starring Casey Affleck. It's about a depressed and grief-stricken man who becomes the legal guardian of his teenage nephew after the death of his brother. This is one of those quiet, character-driven movies that stays with you. Critically acclaimed and well reviewed, this one is well worth your time. Highly recommended.

trailer:

*******

The Bricklayer

The Bricklayer (Netflix) is a 2024 action thriller film about a disillusioned and hardened CIA field agent, who has moved on in life to become a bricklayer with a penchant for classical jazz. When three international journalists have been murdered within a month, the CIA needs him again. It got mixed reviews. I liked it well enough but won't re-watch it.

trailer:

*******

Monolith (2022)

Monolith (Amazon Prime) is an award-winning 2022 Australian science-fiction thriller film described as high-concept science fiction. It stars Lily Sullivan, the only on-screen actor in the film, as a disgraced journalist uncovering a mystery. Intriguing film. Well reviewed.

trailer:

*******

Fitzcarraldo

Fitzcarraldo (Amazon Prime) is an award-winning 1982 West German adventure drama film written, produced, and directed by Werner Herzog. It stars Klaus Kinski as would-be rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an Irishman known in Peru as Fitzcarraldo, who dreams of building an opera house in Iquitos, Peru. He has an indomitable spirit but little money. The character was inspired by Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald, who once transported a disassembled steamboat over the Isthmus of Fitzcarrald.

I watched for the Herzog/Kinski team. Jason Robards, the original lead, became sick halfway through filming. Herzog hired Kinski to replace him even though they'd had previous violent clashes. When shooting was nearly complete, the chief of the Machiguenga tribe, whose members were used extensively as extras, asked Herzog if they should kill Kinski for him. Herzog declined. Those two are priceless both together and separately.

The movie is on Roger Ebert's list of Great Movies, and famed Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited Fitzcarraldo as one of his favorite films. This movie is great fun to watch, and I can highly recommend it.

via YouTube:

*******

Heartland

Heartland (Amazon Prime) is a 1979 drama film starring Rip Torn and Conchata Ferrell. The film is a stark depiction of early 1910 Wyoming homestead life. It is based on a memoir by Elinore Pruitt Stewart, titled Letters of a Woman Homesteader (1914). The book can be read online at this link. In 1985, the Elinore Pruitt Stewart Homestead, where she and her family lived, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. This is a quiet story, the story of a family, a powerful film. I highly recommend this movie.

via YouTube:

*******

Walking on Lava: Selected Works for Uncivilised Times

Walking on Lava: Selected Works for Uncivilised Times is a one-volume introduction to the Dark Mountain Project. The book contains forty short pieces. I read this for my church women reading group, and it left me wondering how we have done so little in the intervening years. And if our political situation goes Trump's way we'll be doing even less going forward.

from the inside dust jacket:

The Dark Mountain Project began with a manifesto published in 2009 by two English writers —Dougald Hine and Paul Kingsnorth— who felt that literature was not responding honestly to the crises of our time.

In a world in which the climate is being altered by human activities; in which global ecosystems are being destroyed by the advance of industrial civilisation; and in which the dominant economic and cultural assumptions of the West are visibly crumbling, Dark Mountain asked: where are the writers and the artists? Why are the mainstream cultural forms of our society still behaving as if this were the twentieth century—or even the nineteenth?

Dark Mountain’s call for writers, thinkers and artists willing to face the depth of the mess we are in has made it a gathering point for a growing international network. Rooted in place, time and nature, their work finds a home in the pages of the Dark Mountain books, with two new volumes published every year.

Walking on Lava brings together the best of the first ten volumes, along with the original manifesto. This collection of essays, fiction, poetry, interviews and artwork introduces The Dark Mountain Project’s groundbreaking work to a wider audience in search of ‘the hope beyond hope, the paths which lead to the unknown world ahead of us.’

The Manifesto that kicked it off argues against the possibility that technological solutions to climate change are possible, suggesting instead that notions of "progress" should be re-evaluated. The book primarily addresses writers and artists, asking where they are in the midst of this crisis and why they aren't in the forefront addressing the issues. It does not suggest political action on climate change.

Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park (Tubi) is a 1993 award-winning science fiction action film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, B.D. Wong, Samuel L. Jackson, and Richard Attenborough. It spawned a film franchise, and continues to be successful. We re-watch this one every once in a while.

trailer:

*******

My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is a 1964 musical comedy-drama film adapted from the 1956 Lerner and Loewe stage musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 stage play Pygmalion. It stars Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, and Jeremy Brett. I remember seeing it in the theater. I like this one.

from Wikipedia:

With a screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner and directed by George Cukor, the film depicts a poor Cockney flower-seller named Eliza Doolittle who overhears a phonetics professor, Henry Higgins, as he casually wagers that he could teach her to speak English so well she could pass for a duchess in Edwardian London or better yet, from Eliza's viewpoint, secure employment in a flower shop.

from Daily Motion:

*******

Europa Report

Europa Report (Netflix) is a 2013 science fiction film about the first crewed mission to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. After a disastrous technical failure that causes the loss of all communications with Earth and a series of further crises, the crew continues its mission to Europa and finds mounting evidence of life on that moon. I know I had seen this before, but when I checked I hadn't written a blog post on it. I enjoyed the re-watch. It gets good reviews.

trailer:

*******

Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros (YouTube) is a 1974 comedy film about the residents of a large town inexplicably turning into rhinoceroses. It's based on the play Rhinocéros by Eugène Ionesco. It was part of a series of film adaptations of plays. The film was not well reviewed at the time of its release and is generally thought not to abide by the true spirit of the play. The movie stars Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, and Karen Black, though, so I'm good. You can't go wrong with that cast.

via YouTube:

*******

Out of Darkness (2022)

Out of Darkness (Hulu) is a 2022 film. Hard to describe, it follows six ancient-era humans who arrive on the shores of an unknown land in search of resources and a better life. They don't find it, not at all, and are soon attacked. Perhaps "survival thriller" might be a good description. It gets positive reviews, and I liked it.

trailer:

*******

Frantz

Frantz (Amazon Prime, Tubi, Plex) is a 2016 award-winning French/German drama film about a young German woman whose fiancé has been killed in World War I and the French soldier who comes bearing a secret about her fiancé. I can't say enough good things about this film. It had me from beginning to end, and I could re-watch it right now if only there weren't a kajillion movies I haven't seen waiting for me. It takes its time developing, so don't expect action sequences or a fast-moving plot. The characters are well-developed.

trailer:

*******

The Bible and Film

Bible and Film (volume 78, issue 3) is the current issue of Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology. This journal is one The Husband has had a subscription to for decades. I don't usually even look at them, but how could I resist this subject?! My interest in religion goes back to early childhood, and film is a favorite subject for me.

from the beginning:

Films and television series often have a cultural impact that exceeds anything offered in print or the pulpit. Directors such as Terrence Malick, Steven Spielberg, and Jordan Peele, among many others, have understood their capacity to inspire, challenge, and educate. Movies often engage with the Bible in innovative ways, leading to new insights and the inclusion of diverse, global perspectives.

The current issue of Interpretation brings together renowned experts who put the Bible and film into mutually critical conversation. Some of the authors examine the Bible and film, as they consider biblical themes (creation, theodicy, family) that appear in movies. Others take up the Bible in film, the cinematic depiction of biblical stories and characters and the how these relate to what we find in the actual books.

The first article is about the use of biblical allusions and themes in the film Us, which I've never seen and don't have ready access to. I skipped that article. The second article deals with the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once and the connections the author sees with the book of Ecclesiastes. The third article explores the status of women in Ezekiel 17 and the films Promising Young Woman and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. The fourth article considers two episodes of the TV series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and how some science fiction works echo biblical prophecy. The last essay is a "tour of the Bible in film" with a consideration of the television miniseries The Chosen in light of the interpretive choices made there.

The number of television works as opposed to actual feature films was not what I expected and was a disappointment, but I still got a kick out of seeing a journal like this deal with this subject.

Saloum

What with politics and the Olympics I've gotten totally distracted from blogland.

I was sad to see Biden bow out but am excited about Harris. I watched Trump's "weird" appearance at the National Black Journalists conference. I've been getting a kick out of his misprouncing of her name, as if that doesn't reflect more poorly on him than on her -is he that ignorant, or is he just engaging in his habit of personal insult...

We signed up for a month of Peacock so we could watch more and live Olympic coverage. We have been glued to the TV!

I check on my post every day, and yesterday I noticed the Daily Motion embed of the Bad Faith video had been removed. I edited the post to add a direct link to the Tubi video. (You can watch it on your computer, or you can add the Tubi app to your TV. It's free.), While I was here approved and responded to comments. I'll get around to visiting folks bit by bit...

*******

Saloum (Shudder) is a 2021 Senegalese-French crime horror-thriller film, a fictional story taking inspiration from African legends and real-life events. Set in Senegal in 2003, it follows a trio of elite African mercenaries, the "Hyenas of Bangui", who, on their way by plane from Bissau to Dakar, try to lay low and find supplies in a resort near Saloum Delta in Senegal, where they must hide their identities and fight for survival. I watched this during my one week free trial of Shudder.

trailer:

Roger Ebert's web site has a positive review, concluding with this: "This is one of the most satisfying films, genre or otherwise, of the year." The Guardian says, "Director Jean Luc Herbulot dynamically weaves supernatural mystery into this gritty crime caper to produce a distinct and charismatic thrill ride."

Vulture says,

Herbulot, who is Congolese and whose Senegal-set TV series Sakho & Mangane (available on Netflix) is a kind of Law & Order meets Evil, has made in Saloum an interrogation of Heart of Darkness and an homage to various ’80s action and ’90s horror classics that remains entirely its own thing, even as the film’s plot undergoes a radical shift midway through and challenges our expectations of its protagonists’ actions.

The Hollywood Reporter says, "Propulsively lurching with infectious glee from crime drama to modern-day Western to horror suffused with supernatural elements, this may turn out to be the rare African film that enters the international mainstream, or, at the very least, achieves cult movie status." Variety and Slant each has a positive review.

*******

Bad Faith

Bad Faith (Tubi) is a 2024 documentary about the rise of Christian Nationalism in the USA. I've known about this movement since the 1980s, but it seems many people have been unaware. Please become aware.

from IMDb:

Exposes how Christian Nationalism has become the most powerful anti-democratic force in America. Leaders join forces to defend our country from this march to fascism, but American citizens seem unaware of the threat.

If you'd like to do a little online research I can suggest as starting points the Wikipedia articles on the follwing:

Christian Nationalism
Dominionism
The Seven Mountain Mandate
Christian Reconstructionism
The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)

You'll find links to Wikipedia's sources and information on religious leaders and politicians who support Christian Nationalism.

Watch free on Tubi at this link.

*******