The Closet (2020)

The Closet is a 2020 South Korean horror film about a recently-widowed man whose young daughter disappears in the house they've just moved into. This is more haunting in atmosphere and sad, not gory. It gets positive reviews. I watched it dubbed in English on Tubi.

trailer:

Film School Rejects opens a positive review with this: "Forget Narnia, ‘The Closet’ Holds a World Far More Realistic and Frightening. A terrifying tear-jerker? Sure, why not."

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Crawlspace (1986)

Crawlspace (free on Tubi) is a 1986 American horror thriller film starring Klaus Kinski as the crazed son of a Nazi doctor obsessed with trapping young women and slowly torturing them to death. I watched it for Klaus Kinski, who is always worth watching. This is the movie that led to the making of Please, Kill Mr. Kinski, and for that reason alone Kinski fans should see it. YMMV, of course.

trailer:

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Cast a Deadly Spell

Cast a Deadly Spell (on Max) is a 1991 horror fantasy detective film with Fred Ward, Julianne Moore, David Warner, and Clancy Brown. This movie combines two genres –the eldritch tales of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and film noir mysteries. I loved this one. Just the tiniest touch of humor and a lack of gore make it quite the fun watch for the season. There is a sequel.

via YouTube:

Empire Online gives it a positive review and calls it "An appealing cross-genre idea". Bloody Disgusting calls it a gem.

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Belle de Jour

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.

trailer:

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Still Life with Teapot and Fruit

Still Life with Teapot and Fruit:

image from WikiArt

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.

Please join us at the T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering. Post whatever you like as long as there's some beverage-related connection.

Driveways

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.

trailer:

Roger Ebert's site has a positive review, as do Rolling Stone, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter.

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The Nice Guys

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.

trailer:

The Old Way

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.

trailer:

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Linoleum

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.

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Fantastic Mr. Fox (film)

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."

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The Flash (2023)

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.

trailer:

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A Boyer Wedding Feast

A Boyer Wedding Feast:

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.

Please share a drink related post with us over at the T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering.

Radius (2017)

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.):

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Two or Three Things I Know About Her

Two or Three Things I Know About Her (streaming on Max) is a 1967 French New Wave film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The dramatic plot of the film presents just over 24 hours in the sophisticated, but empty, life of Juliette Jeanson, a bourgeois married mother of two young children who works as a prostitute during the day. According to Wikipedia (sources provided on that page) many critics regard the film as being among Godard's most significant works.

trailer (in French):

Star Trek Voyager 42

There is no image, but the entire episode The Haunting of Deck Twelve is built around an entity in section 42 of Deck 12.

from the transcript:

MEZOTI: This has something to do with deck twelve, doesn't it?
NEELIX: Well, what makes you say that?
ICHEB: Deck twelve section forty two is off limits to everyone but senior officers with a level six security clearance.
MEZOTI: That's because it's haunted, isn't it?

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As some of you may recall, The Husband spent about 5 years not living here full-time and was only here a day or so a week. My practice during those years was to do my blog visiting in the mornings over coffee. Now he's here for morning coffee, and my schedule is in need of reconfiguring. I'm sure I'll get there... Maybe I could do blogland after he leaves for work, but usually by then I've started laundry and other housework and just haven't made it to my laptop. I'd do it during lunch, but he's home for lunch. I'm not making it to my laptop for days on end. When do y'all do your computer activities, anyway?

In & Of Itself

In & Of Itself (on Hulu) is another movie I wouldn't have watched without having had it highly recommended by every one of my Facebook friends who had seen it. IMDb describes it this way: "Storyteller and Conceptual Magician Derek DelGaudio attempts to understand the illusory nature of identity and answer the deceptively simple question 'Who am I?'" I'm filled with meh, which puts me outside the almost universal acclaim I see online.

trailer:

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Furry's Blues

Furry's Blues:

by Furry Lewis, who died on this date in 2014 in Memphis

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is one of those movies it seems everyone else has seen and loved, and when I saw it on Max I decided to give it a chance. I'm glad I've seen it, but I don't understand the love everyone feels for it. It has a huge following who can't wait for the third movie to be released. I will most likely never re-watch it or see any of the sequels. Them that likes it speak well of it, as the saying goes. Yes, it was good, but this is just not my thing.

trailer:

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Mornings on the fall patio mean shade. There's a clear line that moves gradually through the year, giving us sunshine that increases throughout the spring and early summer and decreases throughout the fall. These days we can enjoy morning shade for coffee on the patio and temperatures in the 60sF. We're getting highs in the 80s now instead of the upper 90s and 100+ temperatures we get during the summertime.

Midnight at the Oasis

Happy Birthday, Maria Muldaur! 81 years old today. Her most famous song is probably Midnight at the Oasis:

I remember when this was released in 1973.

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And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself

And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (on Max) is a 2003 American made-for-television western film for HBO starring Antonio Banderas as Pancho Villa.

trailer:

Variety has a positive review. History on Film considers its historical accuracy. DVD Talk rates the movie Good on a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor.

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