Gene Hackman was a rare actor who always turned in a spectacular performance even if the movie around him stunk. I think one of my favorite Gene Hackman lines came from The Birdcage:
Senator Kevin Keeley (in drag): “No one will dance with me. I think it’s this dress. I told them white would make me look fat.”
PS - I don’t mean to imply I thought The Birdcage stunk. I don’t. I love the movie, and think Hank Azaria was brilliant.
A rather strange flick, Little Bites that didn’t quite work for us. So many questions 
With Chaz Bono in a very small part, produced by Cher, and directed by Spider One. Meh.
Also, the next installment of Asia: The Crowded Continent. Chonk particularly enjoyed this episode, trying occasionally to jump up to the screen & catch all the birds 
Season 2 of Condor, the spy thriller based on the book “Six Days of the Condor”.
Very enjoyable (plus Max Irons 
– The White Queen was good, might have to rewatch).
We watched Anora recently as well. I thought the performances were overall fantastic. I wasn’t aware of that much hype, so my expectations were met. I am a frequent visitor to the neighborhood it was shot in (Brighton Beach & Coney Island), so that was cool.
I did have a question about the last scene. If you remember, the Russian guy chokes Annie while they’re having sex in his car. Why? Seems out of character for him.
My Russian speaking friends tell me that Madison’s Russian accent was bad even for one that was supposed to be bad. It was a bad bad accent.
It was a pretty complicated relationship from the beginning, and she was a very confused girl. He may have done this bc he thought she was expecting it 
The Watermelon Woman (1996) - dir. Cheryl Dunye
It’s 1996, and Cheryl Dunye, a black, lesbian video store employee, videographer, and aspiring filmmaker, is attempting to make a documentary about The Watermelon Woman, an actress known for maid and “mammy” roles in the early days of cinema.
The film we are watching is the above story, of the filmmaker (playing herself!) stumbling upon, and uncovering the history of this mysterious actress.
The ACTUAL Cheryl Dunye wanted to make a project documenting the many black actresses of early cinema who were often uncredited, or whose careers were only in so called “Race films”, featuring black casts. Dunye found that many of the materials that she would need would be from difficult to access archives whose costs were beyond her budget. Instead, she teamed up with a phtotographer to create a series of faux-archival photos of a fictional actress, Fae Richards, The Watermelon Woman, and created fragments of fictional films Richards appears in. This construct stands in for the countless participants of marginalized groups whose important contribution to culture is being lost day by day.
It’s a remarkable achievement. Dunye nails the film-in-the-film’s documentary format so precisely that I could not tell which bits, if any at all, might have been real. The fact that I’m not really able to find out that info very easily is rather the point. This was the first ever feature film directed by a black lesbian. It’s inclusion of a gay, interracial sex scene, and the fact that it got ~10% of it’s $300K budget from a group that got NEA funding caused GOP pearl clutching and a restructuring of NEA grants to make sure that sort of thing didn’t happen again.
Even more remarkable is what an absolute delight the film is to watch. As the aforementioned sex scene might indicate, this is at least partially a romance, and quite a funny one at that. Dunye and her supporting cast are not the most polished, but their earnestness and the exactness of her filmmaking skills more than compensate. It even features cameos of queer celebs of the time, like Camille Paglia and David Rakoff, and what I think are some real locations of old black clubs and theaters in and around Philadelphia.
It got a restoration and re-release back in 2020. It’s currently for rent on most of the major rental streamers, is part of the Criterion Channel, and is available FREE on Kanopy, which is probably available to you through your public library!
5/5. no notes.
A horrific home video documenting the fall of Aleppo and starring a very cute baby.
Thanks for this - going to go find it!
Please do!! It’s a film that I would unreservedly recommend to pretty much everyone on this list.
Conclave last night. I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. It was nice to see all those old man acting their little hearts out, but the machinations weren’t as exciting as I had expected them to be, and the plot points (of which there were not very many) felt too foreshadowed and contrived to me.
You knew how it would end?
I knew who was gonna be Pope’d as soon as he was introduced, yes.
Right, that was pretty obvious — but Shirley not the major twist?
No, I thought he would be a controversial choice because he wasn’t really a cardinal. But the whole “no chicks in the church” thing was telegraphed so loudly you couldn’t help but file it away for future plot developments.
I thought I was the only one! I had been looking forward to it for the cast, but felt let down by all of it. A bit obvious / lecture-y about the current state of the world, and yes, too much foreshadowing. It seemed a foregone conclusion how it would end when they made a thing of how he had been secretly appointed.
That’s kind of a given in any movie about the Catholic church
It was pleasant enough, but — like so many Oscar nominations… eh.
My favorite part of Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon and their ilk is the constant jockeying for power and influence (you’d think that would make me love watching the news lately, but no). I thought Conclave would have more of that. The Godfather III had a Pope-ing sub-plot, and I expected this to be similar, but it wasn’t.
I’m trying to remember the last thing I watched on the new pope subject, but I recall it being a lot better. Will look.
