That’s a darn shame! Trailer looked so good.
The Instigators was a miss for us, too. While it was fun seeing filming locations in Boston and environs, that’s where the fun ended. Just not engaging for us.
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On Saturday we saw Harold and the Purple Crayon at my niece’s 7th birthday party. The reviews are terrible so my expectations were low and I fully intended to get a nice 90 minute nap in. Instead, I got sucked into the movie and didn’t nap at all. It’s cute and fun and not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.
Side note: The movie allegedly takes place in Providence but like the Providence of Hall Pass and other movies, other than a few beautiful overhead shots it’s a fake Providence. Still nice to see a RIPTA bus with PAWTUCKET (my hometown) as the destination.
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Good to know because the movie, IF caught me by surprise. It was silly and funny but watching with my family was a hoot.
The Last Picture Show (1971) - dir. Peter Bogdanovich
Based of the Larry McMurtry novel of the same name, The Last Picture Show is a portrait of an isolated, dying Texas oil town, and how the people there try, and mostly fail, to rise above circumstances not of their own making.
We have Star-making performances from a young Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms, and Cybil Shepherd, ((Bottoms getting the Best Actor Oscar) as well as an Oscar-winning supporting role for Cloris Leachman, as well as veteran greats like Clu Gallagher and Eileen Brennan. It got 8 noms altogether, including Best Picture.
It’s justifiably famous among the film-guy crowd, being one of the early entries in the New Hollywood wave that brought auteurs like Scorsese, Coppola, Lucas, and Spielberg to power. And that auteur theory is one that both pushed some of these guys, Bogdanovich in particular, to try out bold new ideas and directions, it also fed their own egos. And in this instance, led to the near erasure of Bogdanovich’s then wife and creative partner, Polly Platt. Though largely uncredited, she served as the films production designer, hair, makeup, and costume supervisor, location scout, and really, full on producer. It was Platt that read McMurtry’s novel and championed it to Bogdanovich in the first place. She was the one who cast Cybil Shepherd, a move that destroyed her marriage as Bogdanovich began an affair with Shepherd almost immediately once production began and carried on with it as an open secret throughout most of the film.
And all the while, Platt was working to make sure Shepherd looked her most beautiful and alluring for the film, at the cost of leaving her own kids with her in-laws in Arizona during filming.
And Platt’s work is VITAL to the film. The sets (all locations in rural Texas), the cars, the clothes, all set you in 1951 in a place that is highly specific and yet seems universal. If you might not be able to relate to the upper-class Jaycee (Shepherd) and her snotty friends or dirt poor Duane (Bridges), everyone can relate to the awkward, fumbling teen sex in the back if a car, or the heartbreak of having ‘the one’ and watching them slip away.
Platt went on to collaborate with Bogdanovich in several more films, and eventually stopped, and it is obvious that their work together was more than the sum of its parts. It’s a tragedy that they each lost what seemed to be their ideal creative partner, and that Platt, though she went on to have a very respectable career behind the camera, was never given the accolades she deserved at least as much as Bogdanovich while she was alive. Certainly, Bogdanovich’s work without Platt is a cut below his work with her.
Pointedly, Bogdanovich filmed a sequel, Texasville, many years later, with much of the cast reprising their roles. Though I haven’t seen it, it was not well regarded by critics, and came and went with little fanfare. Platt was pointedly NOT part of its production.
But you should definitely watch The Last Picture Show. And you should listen to the podcast “You Must Remember This” about 20th century Hollywood, and in particular their series “Polly Platt: Invisible Woman”
Really great stuff.
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Anyone else found Blue Ribbon Baking Championship on Netflix?
8 episodes, 45 min each, the show is ‘State Fair’ themed, and the contestants are all ‘Blue Ribbon’ winners at their respective fairs. Sandra Lee is the big name judge, along with a former White House chef.
It’s absolutely a standard cooking show that leans more toward the ‘friendly competition’ of GBBO, though there are a few Food Network style elements (competing for an ‘advantage’ in the next round, etc).
At least it’s better than the current season of Is It Cake?
That’s a show that at three seasons has overstayed it’s welcome by at least two seasons.
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Any House of the dragons fans here???
I’m going to veer kinda OT but I enjoy listening to old time radio drama, particularly in the car.
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Well, I’m watching it, let’s just say that.
I watch it, somewhat casually. enjoy many aspects of it. the acting is superb. I do listen to a follow along podcast ( cast of kings) which helps me sort out the myriad of characters/names. I can’t see anyone getting much out of it unless they liked GOT (which I did).
Not that I mind a little thread drift, but there’s this thread for audio stuff specifically:
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It would be super helpful if so many of them didn’t have similar names. And also looked different.
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Sirius/XM used to have a dedicated channel for old time radio. Not sure they still do, I dropped the subscription at some point. A lot of the classic radio dramas are found on archive org – just listened to Welles’ entire run on the Shadow.
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) - dir. Shawn Levy
The subtitle of this should just be “Fan Service: The Movie”. This isn’t so much a story featuring two Marvel heroes as it is a series of moments designed for and specifically marketed to a particular flavor of comic book geek. Someone who’s stuck by the MCU, even if grudgingly, through the last few lackluster projects. Someone who fondly remembers the 90’s Patrick Stewart / Ian McKellan X-Men movies. Who’s been keeping up with Channing Tatum’s endless, fruitless quest to make and Star in a Gambit movie.
In other words, me.
And as predicted by their marketing algorithm, I really enjoyed it. We finally got the fight between Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Tyler Mane’s Sabretooth. We get glimpses at a few classic comic tableaus like the brown suit from Frank Miller’s solo series. And we’ve got motermouthed Ryan Reynolds and grumpy cat Jackman swearing and violently, bloodily mowing down armies of anonymous goons in pleasing-to-14-year-old-boys rated R action.
The plot, not that it matters, is about Wolverine dying (as seen in 2017’s Logan) leading to Deadpool’s timeline being erased. So Deadpool must battle the Time Variance Authority (seen in the Disney+ series Loki) to save his universe. And also to fix the current story problems with the MCU and give things a soft reset.
Like I said, it really doesn’t matter.
The film has already grossed over a billion dollars in box office, so clearly, there are enough folks like me to make the accountants happy. And if you are an old time comics geek and are still at least somewhat interested in the comings and goings of the Marvel universe, it absolutely delivers what it promises. But unless you’re looking for that very specific thing, I can’t imagine going out of the way to see it.
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Anyone watching Land Of Women on Apple?
I lost interest after the first two episodes. Meh.
We finally started watching and absolutely LOVE it.
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We started watching A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder on Netflix recently. Nothing earth shattering, but enjoyable so far.
Oh good. I need some new shows before Slow Horses and Only Murders in the Building starts up.
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Thanks for the back story! I literally had never heard of Polly Platt until reading this. And as my adoring fans and trivia teammates know, there are very few things from my lifetime I haven’t at least heard of on some level. But Platt was not even a blip. Invisible woman indeed.
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