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:

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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:

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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:

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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.

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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.