A Slightly Different Version of the Beloved Feature: Films I've Watched Lately Some of Which I Loved Greatly

The Invite

In this edition of Films I’ve Watched Lately….I include more films with slightly less commentary. This may or may not be the start of a trend. But I hope you enjoy more that is shorter.

Farewell, My Lovely (1975) Richards. Robert Mitchum is a good Marlowe and the fact that he’s an older one is fine. The movie itself is perfectly okay but I’m happier with the 1944 version which starred Dick Powell and was called Murder My Sweet. I do get irritated with how many times PIs get conked in the head in books and movies.They should all be on concussion protocol.

My Own Private Idaho (1991) Van Sant. One of the many films in which the main character suffers from narcolepsy. Yet another film which has scenes in both Rome and Idaho. Yet another gay male prostitute film based on a Shakespeare play. All that aside it’s one of my favorites, securely in my top 100 and features the great River Phoenix whose death at twenty-three remains one of filmdom’s great tragedies.

Peaky Blinders The Immortal Man (2026) Harper. . A classic example of a film that is entertaining for its entire running time than instantly forgotten. Need I say more? I think not. (I did watch the TV series and enjoyed it.)

Blue Heron (2025) Romvari. A new Canadian/Hungarian production (isn’t everything?). You think it’s a perfectly fine film about a family and its one member who’s very much off the rails but then something subtle happens just past the midpoint and you barely notice it until it’s as obvious as can be. The upshot is that a good enough film turns into an extremely interesting one that I need to see again. Give it a shot.

Carnal Knowledge (1971) Nichols. Today I don’t know why anyone would want to watch this film. Jack Nicholson plays a misogynistic jerk with no redeeming qualities and there’s no one in the picture to offset him and there’s no reason why we’d care about any of the characters. It might have played in 1971 but today it’s mostly just offensive. It’s another reason for me to wonder why people speak so highly of Mike Nichols, the film’s director.

The Invite (2026) Wilde. New in theaters and devastatingly good. Seth Rogen is no longer just a stoner character with the classic stoner laugh. He’s a big player in Hollywood, the creator of The Studio, for crissakes. He holds his own in what is a four-person cast including Penelope Cruz, Edward Norton and Olivia Wilde who also directed. Ms. Wilde had the meatiest role and was terrific. Rogen…man, he’s surprised a lot of people as witnessed here where he’s a “serious actor.” The Invite takes you on a ride and none of the twists and turns are expected, but they all work.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018) Gan. This is my fourth viewing, the first two were in the theater. I have no clue what’s going on, I’ve given up trying but I’ll watch it again. Brilliant. There’s an extended dream sequence that actually feels like a dream and not a cinematic version of one. Not based on the O’Neill play. Not even close.

M (1931) Lang. This is where German Expressionism functioned strictly to tell a story and not draw attention to itself. Fritz Lang had a long career in which he made a lot of really good films but for reasons I do not know he never approached the likes of this again save perhaps with The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. Prior to M he made Metropolis which is equally brilliant. Peter Lorre, who like Lang made for Hollywood when the fascists took over Germany, is if anything, underrated for his performance.

La Piscine (1969) Deray. I wrote about it in a previous edition of this feature, that was after I watched it on the Criterion Channel. I bought my own copy and watched it with the missus. It’s a film — like many greats — that improves with each viewing. Jane Birkin who I would have had a crush on back in the day is desirous but her coltish looks are only one of the fine features of this mesmerizing film.

The Love That Remains (2025) Pálmason. I also made brief mention of this film on a recent post. It’s intelligent, inventive, visually stunning and deserving of a wide audience that it’ll never get. Such is the lot of those films lumped into the “art house” category. 

A Potpourri Featuring: Complaints About Excessive Words, Depression, Administrators and Over-Hyped Blockbusters

The Love That Remains

Dear other people: If you ever say something which confuses me I promise to tell you that I don’t know what you mean. Therefore, you no longer have to insert: “ya know what I mean?” into our conversations. Thank you. By the way, while I have your attention, please omit “ya know” from any chats we have. Also the vast majority of the times that you say “sort of” it is completely unnecessary. Why not dispense with it. Also, as a time saver, please say: “right now” as opposed to “at this point in time.” (I have no idea who came up with “at this point in time” but it needs to leave the vernacular). One more thing, let’s be careful with the use of “particular.” Can anyone explain to me the difference between “this particular house” and “this house”? I thought not. I thought it worth pointing out in this particular blog post — excuse me, I mean, this blog post.

Can I tell you something really nasty about depression. I can? Thanks! It tells you to be wary of happiness, it actually suggests that feeling good is not all it’s cracked up to be and more than that it’s not something you should experience. Depression tries to convince you that your natural state is one of sadness. Then when you are feeling good you’ll often sense it lurking there telling you it’s coming back. The worst part of that is that you know it’s right. What a bastard it is.

Administrators and bosses. I’ve concluded it’s unnatural for humans to be in a supervisory position over other people. My evidence is how bad people are at it. I first started working fifty-seven years ago. Do you realize how many bosses I’ve had? I’m not going to count. The sad thing is I could easily count how many bosses I’ve had who were really good at managing people. The number who were competent isn’t a whole lot more. The number who sucked in one way or another is legion. It’s amazing how often people you work for will tell you bald-faced lies. Not little white ones, not innocent ones, but ones that directly contradict known facts and they negatively impact you. There’s bending the truth then there’s breaking it into little pieces. They will lie to your face, they will lie in emails, letters, smoke signals, any form of communication known to humankind. Mostly they lie to protect their own asses which is the priority of administrators. My bosses have always had bosses that they’ve been answerable to. Their priority is to please those higher ups, you can fuck all the way off. Many administrators are spineless worms. To get to their exalted middle management position they have their backbones removed. They’d no sooner stand up to their superiors than fight a hurricane. They have absolutely no loyalty to you, the hard working drone who makes them look good. Another characteristic of administrators is incompetence. Many of them suck at their jobs while they’re trying to tell you yours. Their inability to make two and two add up to four directly effects you — not that they gave two shits. Having been in education for nearly forty years I’m speaking mostly of school administrators. And I’m speaking of both public schools and the international language schools owned by corporations. Talk about depression, there’s one big fat cause.

The Odyssey is bloody well everywhere. I can’t remember a film that has been so hyped, so analyzed, so thorough dissected. The New York Times has had something about it everyday since before it hit theaters. It’s dominating the culture in a way that is bizarre. Our culture loves the next big thing and when that thing is especially BIG and when it’s universally praised and makes tons of money, well, brother, you’re not going to hear the end of it. It’s a shame that so many terrific films go way, way, way under the radar and barely get a mention while one damn movie dominates the discourse. Of course the question is: did you Mr. Blogger, see it? Yes I did. Last Monday the missus and I joined the hordes. Here’s my experience: It was the scene where Odysseus and his men are trapped in a cave with a giant cyclops. There was a medium shot of the cyclops sitting looking at his captives when I wondered: “What the hell am I doing watching this movie? This is not my thing.” I love films like Winter Light, L’Eclisse and the Last Picture Show. It reminded me of when someone convinced me to see Iron Man in 2008, what a stupid waste of time that was. However The Odyssey was not a stupid, waste of time. It kept me engaged for the entire eleven hour running time and I was impressed by certain aspects of it. That is until the big fight scene at the end. Every blockbuster fight scene cliche was in it which is to say it was badly overdone. No, seeing The Odyssey was not a waste of time. But I’ll tell you what,  I saw a new Icelandic film called The Love That Remains (2025) Pálmason, via the Criterion Channel the other night. That was a great film worthy of at least ten percent of the hype being given Nolan’s epic. As if….

"Two Hours of Melania Feels Like Pure, Endless Hell" What the critics are saying

This is a photo of Olivia Dean even though the post isn't about her because frankly who wants to look at another picture of goddamned Melania Trump

There is a new documentary in theaters called “Melania” about Trumpy’s wife. Word is that it sucks. To give you an idea of how badly it sucks, I’m here providing excerpts from reviews of the film courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes. Enjoy? 

All I can say is, no matter who made it, no matter who paid for it, no matter who it's about, "Melania" is a singularly bad movie. I really did give it a fair shake.

An obsequious, ring-kissing portrait of the current US administration, dressed in gauche, glossy reality-TV clothing.

Ratner has accidentally delivered the ultimate chronicle of 21st-century excess and greed, a world of casual yet immense cruelty covered in flop sweat and gold glitter.

It contains nothing: no ideas, no point of view, no tension beyond whether the tailors will be able to properly alter her inauguration turtleneck.

"Melania" plays like a sizzle reel for her post-political (post-spousal?) future career in which she may rouse herself to be a guest judge on a reality competition show.

Quite possibly the least revealing documentary ever made. Even her favorite recording artist seems to be a lie. Did you know she used to be a model?

By the end of “Melania,” a glossy, curiously impersonal, outwardly apolitical portrait of Melania Trump, you are no closer to knowing its famous subject than you were at the start, even after many changes of time, place, clothes and towering high heels.

Melania is shambolic, putrid, pitiful garbage: A brazen, awkward, irredeemable infomercial that ignores truth and scrutiny in favour of performative humility. It’s not just wretched – it’s offensive to the collective intelligence of the human race.

At least Leni Riefenstahl could frame a shot.

It's everything a documentary shouldn't be. Except for the music.

It’s fascinating to see so pure and naked an instrument of graft and propaganda deployed to great effect on an audience happy to lap it up.

No good impression emerges of the former Slovenian model. No bad impression emerges either. Ratner’s film achieves, rather, a sort of passive distance – as you might get by pointing a camera, for close to two hours, at a waterfall or a wheat field.

I have no idea why she was okay with this movie being released, because Brett Ratner couldn’t find the humanity in a funeral. Literally.

I'd rather rewatch January 6th.

Look, Leni Riefenstahl was a terrible person, but at least she had some style. Accused sex pest/confirmed hack Brett Ratner, meanwhile, captures the proceedings with all the flair of an HGTV show.

To say that Melania is a hagiography would be an insult to hagiographies. This is a film that fawns so lavishly over its subject that you feel downright unpatriotic not gushing over it.

I don’t want to blow anyone’s minds here or throw you off your balance when I inform you that the Melania documentary, now in theaters, is terrible.

A documentary that never comes to life. It’s a “portrait” of the First Lady of the United States, but it’s so orchestrated and airbrushed and stage-managed that it barely rises to the level of a shameless infomercial.

The fun’s not infectious and the guests are a nightmare, and two hours of Melania feels like pure, endless hell.

To call "Melania" vapid would do a disservice to the plumes of florid vape smoke that linger around British teenagers.

Hallelujah! It's Time for Another Edition of Films I've Watched Lately Some of Which I Liked Greatly

The Commitments

The Commitments (1991) Parker. I love this movie. Doesn’t everybody? It’s nigh on impossible to watch without a broad grin on your face interrupted only by singing along with the film’s original and wonderful music. The Commitments is the story of an ambitious young man named Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) in Northern Dublin who decides to form a soul band. To him the Irish are the blacks of Europe and Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland and Northerners the blacks of Dublin. He pulls together a seemingly motley crew including a lead singer with a temper and attitude, three female back up singers, a trumpeter with years of experience, a sax player, two guitarists, a pianist and a drummer who can’t get on with the lead singer so leaves and is replaced by their security guard who is also a hooligan with an even fouler temper than the singer. They make marvelous music together. The movie is about their rapid rise and even faster fall. The coming apart is inevitable rather than sad. They had a great ride and for many the group was a springboard. Just wonderful fun to watch rich with humor and great music.

It Was Just an Accident (2025) Panahi. So many movies that are released these days are they kind you forget about seconds after you leave the theater. However they’re still making pictures like It Was Just an Accident that stay with you for days after.  It’s a difficult one to write about without tossing up spoilers. It’s a story of revenge. Can you extract it when given the chance? Can you do to him what he did to you ? Is it justice or lowering yourself to his level? How far will you go to right a wrong? And it’s not just one person wrestling with these questions, there are others involved too. Achieving a group consensus on such thorny questions is difficult. The highly acclaimed Jafar Panahi directed. He knows of what he speaks having been a prisoner of the repressive Iraqi regime. Iraq forms the setting for a movie that the word compelling was coined for.

Rachael Getting Married (2008) Demme. Seventeen years and one day after seeing this movie in a theater I watched it again. Anne Hathaway stars but does not play Rachel. She is the bride’s sister, Kym, on leave from rehab. Goodness me but Ms. Hathaway played an addict to perfection. It takes one to know one so I’m quite confident in this assertion. Kym is only newly sober and being with her tempestuous family on such a big occasion is not ideal. But here we are, it’s a wedding and despite the fractiousness that plagues some of the family (much of it caused by Kym) she’s obliged to be there. Kym’s an addict. It’s all about her. She’s a coked up bovine in a china shop triggering everyone around her. But she was the character I most related to. The others were weirdly normal with all of their mundane idiosyncrasies, issues and agendas. When speeches are made and Kym’s goes on too long and becomes all about Kym -- I backed her all the way. Jonathan Demme directed this fine film which is — as much as anything else — an exploration of the personality of the addict. He got it right. Here’s what I wrote about when it was first in theaters and I last saw it in 2008.

The Battle of Algiers (1966) Pontecorvo. I’ve watched it twice recently and after this latest viewing promptly put it on my top 100 films of all time list. No, I don’t know why it wasn’t there before. As indicated in a recent post it’s a great film for us revolutionaries. You’d be excused for watching it and thinking that was part documentary or that actual footage from the revolution in Algeria in the late 1950s was used.  As I said in my recent post on “Films to Inspire you in the Coming Revolution”: "By giving voice to the French army it broadens the scope of the story and puts it into greater historical context. Insurgency, occupation and resistance have never been more compelling on the big screen." 

In a Lonely Place (1950) N. Ray. I got a strong recommendation to read the book of the same name upon which this film is based. Dorothy B. Hughes’ novel from 1947 is one of the better noir novels of its time and its time included the works of Raymond Chandler. The book is highly original, a captivating read and superbly told. The movie version is watered down, a pale comparison, badly altered, stripped of the book’s brilliance and a shallow husk of a movie. I don’t know that the great Humphrey Bogart was the right choice as the lead. I know that Gloria Grahame, as fine an actress as she was, was miscast. I also know I had a delightful time reading the book and was bored senseless by the movie. A lot of people like the film. No idea why.

The Mastermind (2025) Reichardt. The title character is not mastermind but he is smart. He’s also self-centered and thoughtless. He’s something of a misfit, a failure and you could get away with calling him a loser. He steals a few paintings easily enough but this is not a well-planned heist and he did not surrounded himself with the best and the brightest. It’s no spoiler to say the law is soon on to him. This is a helluva good film. I could tell when I looked at Rotten Tomatoes and saw that it had a 91% from critics and a 38% from the hot polloi. Your average Joe and Josephine no doubt were expecting to see a slick heist carried out by a daring hero with a gorgeous lover and eccentric and savvy accomplices. Instead they got a movie about a failure. It may not be for the mainstream but I think it another terrific film from director Kelly Reichardt whose got a slew of excellent films to her name (such as First Cow, Certain Women, Showing Up and Meek’s Cutoff).

As 'Fairyland' Proves, There's More Than One Way to Raise a Child

Question: How would I most like to be remembered?

Answer: As a good father. Everything else is cherry on top of the cake. It seems I’ve done all right considering how well the two young women I raised are doing. 

I never found parenting terribly difficult though admittedly this is in large part due to my wife who has always been  such an incredibly good mother. To me the first rule of parenting is: do no harm. This is a rule that — sadly — my mother violated in spades due to her mental illness. The second rule is to love your children unconditionally. That should be fairly simple. There are other rules but those first two are far and away the most important and all the others should fall into place if you practice one and two.

Parenting was very much on my mind when I saw the film, Fairyland on Sunday. The film begins in 1974. Steve Abbot finds out that his wife has died in a car crash. Left behind with him is their young daughter, Alysia. Steve and Alysia move from the Midwest to San Francisco into an apartment that they’ll share with others. It is a Bohemian atmosphere that is initially unsettling to the girl. But Steve thrives as he steps out of the closet and finds a lover among his flatmates.

There are trials and tribulations for a single father in the best of circumstances, when the father embraces an alternative lifestyle — midstream — and in doing so prioritizes his own needs, the child can feel left behind. Especially if at times she literally is.

Over the years the two clash over Steve’s unorthodox and lax parenting. Children like structure. But the pair love each other and Steve provides what his daughter needs. The proof is in what a fine young woman she grows up to be, eventually earning a scholarship to NYU and doing a year’s study in Paris.

This is director Andrew Durham’s feature debut and in it he shows great promise. The movie very much captures the feeling of San Francisco in the ‘70s and ‘80s as archival footage is seamlessly mixed in. We see scenes of the then burgeoning gay pride movement and the consequences of the AIDS crisis which devastated the Bay Area’s gay community. It would not be a spoiler to say that AIDS plays a significant role in the movie’s final third.

Alysia takes no issues with her father's sexuality (that she became aware of it at such a young age helps) but naturally has questions. Children questioning their parents' lifestyle is nothing new and practically became de rigueur in the Sixties.

But this is more a movie about the many ways two people can love each other. Their's is a love that requires patience, understanding and flexibility (I guess to an extent all love does). The word unconventional keeps coming up in thinking about their relationship. There’s naught wrong with that especially when one considers how badly a lot of conventional parenting goes.

Alysia is a strong, resilient girl who grows into a strong resilient woman. It’s her father who’s a free spirit, vulnerable and often flaky. You might at times wonder who’s raising whom. But, as they say, whatever works and through their love it all works in the end.

There are a lot of ways to raise a child but you can’t do it well without love.

Films to Inspire You in the Coming Revolution

Battle of Algiers

These are dark times for American Democracy. The country is teetering toward fascism. We have a president who has no regard for political norms, cares not for social justice and is trying to bring on a second Gilded Age. The moneyed class — the very top of it — are prospering. The current prospects for the poor and marginalized are bleak. 

In response could there be revolution in the air? It’s difficult to imagine pitched battles in the streets of U.S. cities; then again it is no longer impossible to envisage something akin to Civil War. After all, Trumpy is sending troops into major cities. Troops, mind you, that locals did not request and do not want. Representatives of ICE are making a mockery of due process, arresting the innocent with the supposedly guilty. Americans are being held in detention centers without due process, some are shipped to foreign prisons.

There have been and will continue to be large protests that may get bigger. There could well eventually be repressive measures enacted against marchers. It behooves good citizens to be diligent. It may already be that we are beyond the point when writing one’s congressperson is sufficient.

There are films that can inspire us as we struggle to regain and hold our basic rights as citizens. Many movies have had powerful messages about resistance and fighting the good fight against authoritarianism. They are scattered throughout the history of cinema. I present to you ten such films. I hope they will give you hope and inspiration. Power to the people!

Battle of Algiers (1966) Pontecorvo. One of the greatest political films of all time. This faux documentary tells the story of the Algerians fight for independence against the French in the 1950s. Filmed to look like actual news footage, it makes the struggles of revolutionaries seem real, important, necessary and desperate. By giving voice to the French army it broadens the scope of the story and puts it into greater historical context. Insurgency, occupation and resistance have never been more compelling on the big screen.

Reds (1981) Beatty. The epic story of John Reed, Louise Bryant and the revolutionaries — American and Russian — who helped make the first quarter of the 20th century such a hopeful time for the far left. Sadly we know that the Russian Revolution fell into a reign of terror and murder under Lenin and only got worse under Stalin. However they were times of great promise to the left. Reed and Bryant were revolutionaries and journalists and as the movie shows they numbered among their associates the likes of Emma Goldman (anarchist played by Maureen Stapleton), Big Bill Haywood (IWW leader played by Dolph Sweet), Eugene O’Neill (playwright played by Jack Nicholson). Reds is a love story and it’s a history lesson and it's about the passion and idealism of people who believe power should be vested in the people and not oligarchs.

One Battle After Another (2025) PT Anderson.In theaters now. I quote from my blog post on the film from last month: Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, One Battle After Another is a movie movie. It is a cornucopia for film goers. Rich with character, incidents, conflicts, themes, history and messages. It clocks in at two hours and fifty minutes and there’s not a yawn in it. There’s not a wasted second. It’s a nearly three hour film that’s tight and compact. It’s a wonder.One Battle is the story of an ex-revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) who has to rescue his daughter (Chase Infiniti in her film debut) from a corrupt military officer (Sean Penn). That’s your over simplified plot summary. There is so much else going on. Relationships, plots, betrayals, deception and a fair bit of comedy along with something of a history lesson. No, One Battle is not based on a true story (its origins are Thomas Pynchon’s novel, Vineland) but it gives you a sense of the spirit of the Sixties among those who, like the Weather Underground, believed in using violence as a response to a regressive and repressive U.S.government.

The Strawberry Statement (1970) Hagmann. Not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination more like a prolonged music video with some of the greatest hits of the Sixties. But it for all its flaws, Strawberry Statement captures the mood of the Sixties, particularly among those college students dedicated to ending the war, the draft and social injustice. For many in the Sixties, the “revolution” was something of a lark but one that they discovered had real life impact that would resonate down the years.

Medium Cool (1969) Wexler. Cinéma vérité–style documentary filmmaking used in telling a fictional story set in Chicago in 1968 during the infamous Democratic National Convention. Actual footage of protests is used which helps show the chaotic nature of police riots. Medium Cool tackles a number of issues including the failure of whites to understand the black experience. Shot when and where it was by the great Haskell Wexler, it couldn’t help but give a real sense of the late Sixties in general and the events in Chicago in particular.

The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Ford. Based on John Steinbeck’s novel of the same name it is surely one of the greatest films ever made. It tells the story of the Joad family which has been dispossessed from its Oklahoma farm by the combined horrors of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. They head to California in the poor person’s eternal search for greener pastures. They find thousands of others on the same quest and they find land and farm owners who are only to happy to exploit the poor and brutally suppress any efforts for fair pay and decent treatment. Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) becomes an unwitting revolutionary. He muses: “I been thinking about us, too, about our people living like pigs and good rich land layin' fallow. Or maybe one guy with a million acres and a hundred thousand farmers starvin'. And I been wonderin' if all our folks got together and yelled….”

Malcolm X (1992) S. Lee. What could be more revolutionary than the story of Malcolm X? The rise from common criminal to inspirational leader to the burgeoning black power movement. There was the long stopover with the Nation of Islam before his Hajj led him to understand that Islam was not exclusive to one race. His split from Elijah Muhammad was yet another of courage and ultimately led or contributed to his assassination. Malcolm was the white establishment’s greatest fear, an inspirational Black leader who spoke eloquently of the corruption and racism in white society. His story still resonates. 

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Capra. The classic story of one man standing up to a powerful political machine that seeks to crush him while continuing to control the press and muzzle dissent. Jimmy Stewart gave his greatest performance in the title role as a naive new senator pitted against powers that seem impregnable. Senator Smith uses the fillibuster to rally support to his cause. Mr. Smith shows both the worst and the best in U.S. democracy. It has been criticized by people on the left, the right and in the middle. Perhaps because it so effectively hits home.

Z (1969) Costa-Gravas. The Best of Costa-Gavras’ many politically-charged films that include Stage of Siege, Missing and the Confession. Z is the story of the 1963 assassination by right wing zealots of a Greek liberal politician and the ensuing investigation which uncovers a web of corruption involving the military, police, and right-wing extremists, revealing the state's complicity in silencing political dissent. Z is aptly labeled a political thriller but it is also an unflinching look at the terrible damage a right wing regime can bring to a democratic society. I hope that doesn’t sound too familiar.

Sorry to Bother You (2018) Riley.  Sorry to Bother You"is a surreal satirical comedy that follows a young African-American telemarketer who discovers that using a polished, exaggerated “white voice” catapults him to success in a dystopian version of corporate America. As he rises through the ranks, he uncovers a disturbing conspiracy and is ultimately forced to choose between personal wealth and power, or standing in solidarity with his activist friends fighting to unionize and reclaim their humanity. The film exposes the big-money people behind the curtain and how they manipulate our culture and transform people into corporate slaves. It’s a movie to enjoy maybe mostly because it will piss you off.

Also recommended: Battleship Potemkin, State of Siege, Missing, Matewan, Our Daily Bread, Meet John Doe, Judas and the Black Messiah, Born on the Fourth of July and Running on Empty.