Awe trumps envy. :gasp:

Kramer vs. Kramer

Good movie, but I don’t see how it was both the best picture winner and top grossing film of 1979.

Because it took me so long to watch it, I probably can’t appreciate how original it was. It’s been done so many times since then, it’s not as compelling. Kind of like how I felt about Animal House — not that funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gkYbrzMAE4&t=474s

I like Ghost Dog (1999) as well. — Jamal

"Ghost Dog" is the other Jarmusch movie I've watched besides "Paterson." I didn't love it, although I at least liked it enough to watch the whole thing. If I don't like a movie much, I generally give it half and hour and then stop watching.

@T Clark

Hello Clarky, I bring another film this Saturday. This time, I would like to recommend you a 'terror' film. It is from Argentina but subtitles will always be available, obviously. It is called When Evil Lurks in English.

The film's plot takes place in a rural part of Argentina, and there is sorrow because one of the residents is 'witched'. It is interesting how the director tells the story using references to Satanic themes. I wasn't very aware of this world until I saw the film yesterday. I think it is OK to watch it. However, I must warn you that some scenes are uncomfortable for our eyes...

Thanks for the recommendation, although I don’t do very well with horror movies. I tend to sit hunched over with my hands covering my eyes.

I recently watched Paul Thomas Anderson's "Licorice Pizza" and liked it very much. This is my summer of nice movies. It's about the friendship between a 15 year old boy and a 25 year old women in the early 1970s in Los Angeles. They call this a romantic comedy, which I guess makes sense, except it's only the boy who thinks it's a romance. What's important is the relationship between the two main characters. The boy is a child actor with maybe a bit of ADHD and the woman is somewhat aimless - living at home and working at a dead-end job. The growth of their friendship is funny and moving. We see what they each see in the other and it makes them better people.

And since I'm already here, I've been thinking about my favorite movies about food.

"Babette's Feast" - The story of a famous Parisian chef who moves to Denmark in the 1800s to be a housekeeper for a bunch of dour Calvinists. Wonderful, moving, mouthwatering.

"Mostly Martha" - German with subtitles. The story of an inflexible chef whose sister dies and leaves her with her nine-year-old niece to take care of. It becomes a romantic comedy when an earthy Italian sous chef comes to work at the restaurant. The kitchen scenes are believable and amusing. The characters are appealing and their friendships are natural and believable.

"Tampopo" - Japanese with subtitles. A widow owns a run-down ramen shop. A group of her customers take it on themselves to teach her how to cook ramen correctly and fix up her shop. Funny with cowboy and gangster movie overtones.

Does "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" count?

"Big Night" - Persnickety chef Stanley Tucci and his brother Tony Shalhoub struggle to run a small, traditional Italian restaurant across the street from a popular spaghetti palace. Tucci can't understand when people complain it takes 45 minutes for them to serve the risotto after it is ordered.

"The Trip" - Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon travelling through northern England eating at fancy restaurants and doing Michael Caine impressions.

Does "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" count? — T Clark

Original 70s version only. Probably the only thing worth watching mentioned on this entire thread.

... Like you can read the play versions of the stuff I posted, but the Dahl book cannot substitute for e.g. the brilliance of Gene Wilder. And 99.9% of visual entertainment is trash.

Original 70s version only. — Baden

Of course. Both Wilder and Depp were creepy, but Wilder was good creepy and Depp was creepy creepy.

Yes, there was just the right combination of mystery, joy, wonder, and menace in Wilder. Depp didn't have a hope. It's like trying to repaint the Mona Lisa. He didn't even look right. He ended up somewhere between Edward Scissor's Hands and the Addams family.

99.9% of visual entertainment is trash. — Baden

I haven't watched movies or TV much in about 15 years. I've just found them unsatisfying. I find myself quitting in the middle when someone does something that nobody would ever do or the plot goes somewhere ridiculous. I'm old enough to say, and sometimes believe, they made movies better when I was young. And yes, I remember when candy bars were a nickel.

That being said, there are a lot of wonderful movies and television shows out there. We get to watch everything, anything, that has been made in the past 100+ years. I subscribed to the Criterion Channel a few months ago. That's a streaming service that plays artsy fartsy movies. I've been watching more lately and enjoying it.

Each to his own. I can enjoy movies but they kind of overstimulate me and leave me feeling flat afterwards. And I also feel that I've watched enough to get the major narratives. I generally don't feel I'm being edified if you know what I mean. However, I could also be missing out just due to my brain not being able to digest them properly or something. Who knows...

I could also be missing out just due to my brain not being able to digest them properly or something. — Baden

As I noted, I felt like that for a while. I just haven't been able to care. That seems to be changing now and I'm enjoying it. At least you've got football and Benny Hill to watch.

Benny Hill. I remember him. He did a lot of very fast running around. It was funny. Most people can't run that way. Watching football, nah. I would probably play it though if I had any friends or physical flexibility.

Apple series of Lady in the Lake. :up: :up:

Just seen About Dry Grasses, the latest by the Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Long, slow, and depressing, just the way I like it :D Kidding about depressing, sort of.

I had seen two earlier films of Ceylan - Distant and Climates. There is much similarity between them, but I found Dry Grasses to be the most challenging. I still need to process it. There are different streams running through the film, and they sometimes undermine one another. The film ends with some rather uncharacteristic run of a philosophical inner monologue set to a mournful classical score - not unusual in a film with pretensions to artiness... except that this self-narration by the main character doesn't sit comfortably with what we see of him over the preceding three hours. But neither is it entirely phony nor ironic. As ever, Ceylan's portrayal of the protagonist, with whom he seems to partially identify (in all three films the main character is an amateur photographer, like Ceylan himself), is nuanced and unsparing, helped by a top-notch performance by the actor who plays him, as well as the rest of the cast. But here he is also revealed to be an unreliable narrator, as emphasized in one bizarre scene that briefly breaks through the fourth wall. There is plenty of beauty in the film, not least its cinematography, but here even beauty can be in tension with its canvas.

"The pawns, man, in the game, they get capped quick. They be out the game early."
D'Angelo Barksdale.

“You come at the king, you best not miss.” - Omar Little.

"We’re building something, here, detective, we’re building it from scratch. All the pieces matter" - Lester Freamon

The second season of Hellbound is on Netflix. It's South Korean dark fantasy with grotesque manifestations of Christian beliefs with a side order of Chinese cultural revolution. It's a little hard to get into, and fairly difficult to watch, especially the first couple of episodes of season 1. But it's fairly philosophical.

I found this analysis of German "guilt pride" fascinating. Moeller applies his concept of profilicity — which I've had my doubts about (probably because I'm stuck in the age of authenticity) — to good effect, I think.

I had a health scare the other day, so the OG bought Winnie the Pooh. I'll probably watch it with him - sometime. Halloween is coming up, so it's time to put on Nightmare Before Christmas, a perennial favourite.
Lunchtime, we've been watching Portrait Painter of the Year on You Tube. Evenings, Madame Secretary - again.
I've been having strong nostalgia for my favourite movie: Turtle Diary.

@T Clark

Clarky, it has been a while since the last time I shared with you a film recommendation. Today is Friday, so it is film fest in my home. I would like to suggest you watch "Burnt by the Sun" by Nikita Mikhalkov. It is a post-Soviet era film. I watched it in September, but I want to watch it again because—in this long piece— there are a lot of beautiful details that I might have lost the first time.

I am aware that it received well critical reception back in the 1990s, and maybe you already watched it... but I thought it was a good idea to let you know!

I’ll look and see if it’s available on my streaming services. Thanks.