She was wonderful, and so underrated within her lifetime. This is such sad news.
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This was really great. On the one hand, it was a really affecting story and all the people are so lovely. And on the other (and for those of us who like to think about these things) it is more work done in documentaries about online spaces, and the kinds of archives, aesthetics, and technologies used in the making and presenting of these virtual worlds.
And yes, I cried.
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Her bits in Young Frankenstein are rightfully legendary. She was the last of the main cast still standing. I think the only semi-major player from the film left is Gene Hackman.
“Put… ze ken-del… BECK!”
And her role as Dreyfuss’s confused and panicked wife in Close Encounters is one of the best realistic reactions to what could only seem like sudden-onset mental illness really cements the film in a real world.
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Venom: The Last Dance (2024) - dir. Kelly Marcel
I have watched ALL of the Marvel movies. And I mean ALL of them. The mainline MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) of Iron Man and Guardians of the Galaxy, the decidedly mixed bag of Fox’s X-Men films, the odd side stories like the Blade and Ghost Rider films, as well as all 5 (to date) films in the weird offshoot that exists as what the AVClub dubs SPUMGAG (Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Guys And Gals).* (We’ll leave out Sony’s animated Spider-Verse for now).
Why? Well, I like the MCU well enough. I was a comic book fan as a kid and an avid collector through the early 80’s, so it’s nice seeing old friends. But as for SPUMGAG…
Sony’s dogged, bloody-minded INSISTENCE that its goofy, Spiderman-less Spider-Verse, is a thing that people want to see and WILL HAPPEN is almost impressive and admirable. It’s as if the entire division read The Secret and decided it could just manifest it out of nothing but force of will. And for a brief second, right as the first Venom film ended, having been entirely more entertaining than it had any right to be, thanks to the comedy chops of Tom Hardy, it looked like it might just work. But the sequel Venom: Let there be Carnage, was plagued by a sense of rapidly diminishing returns, and Morbius and Madame Web are both modern examples of misses so bad that they only get watched in the “Let’s see the wreckage…” sense.
I guess it’s sunk cost fallacy. Somehow, I’m still looking for that convoluted way they’ll actually manage to get Venom into the MCU proper. Or hook it into their old, aborted Andrew Garfield-led Amazing Spiderman Universe. Or SOMETHING. But no. They’re just blindly pushing ahead with these odd tertiary characters that only the nerdiest of nerds will know about without any of the cleverness or charm of Robert Downy Jr. or even Chris Pratt to hold their hand. Hardy’s said he’s done w/ Venom, and the film seems to cement that, but of course post-credits stings always allow them a “The end… or IS IT?” cop-out, because comics.
Not that anyone here needed my judgement to tell you this, but don’t go see this. If you liked the first Venom film for Hardy’s commitment to the bit, you might catch this once it rolls onto a streaming service somewhere.
Beyond that, I just hear Mean Girls. “Stop trying to make SPUMGAG happen!”
Please, Sony. Listen to Regina George. SPUMGAG isn’t going to happen.
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Remember her in Mr. Mom, so fun.
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Just watched the last Grand Tour. Now I feel a bit like a sad kid, just much older and grumpier. It was a good show.
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The. World. Series. Game 4.
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Continuing our horror series for October (and possibly beyond! 
), we watched the pleasantly short and pleasantly creepy Beezel.
“Over 60 years, three guests of a cursed home discover an eternal witch who lives beneath it with an insatiable thirst for living souls.”
Didn’t suck.
Thanks for the rec! We watched Joe Bob’s Last Drive In last weekend during which he hosted Satan’s Little Helper. Not a great movie, but the show is delightful!
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the next season of the Diplomat was just posted. hopefully it reaches some of the heights of the first. it’s essentially just smart people talking in rooms with a smidge of routine thriller elements. worked for me.
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Looking forward to this (the Diplomat).
Watched the 2 new episodes of
Special Ops: Lioness. So far, I’m enjoying this season less.
We started watching Shelter last night, which is a little lower brow than our usual choices I think, or aimed at a younger audience. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt15483276/
We stopped The Recruit after halfway through the second episode.
…
We have watched a ton of shows set in the UK or Ireland over the past 10 months.
I’ve even sought out shows set in LA and Boston as a search request occasionally. We watched Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer, both set in LA, of course.
We’ve also watched most of the shows set in the Rust Belt.
She’s in the mood for more shows or movies set in North America, as a break from all things British and Irish.
We’ve watched most of the thrillers and crime shows that appealed to us on BritBox, Prime and Canadian Netflix, and we have been having trouble finding things to my viewing companion and I both want to watch.
We don’t really agree on comedy. We agree on some drama. We both like some historical drama but she likes it more than I do.
I dislike most RomComs and romance, whereas she likes more romance.
She likes Westerns and Outback movies more than I usually do.
We both avoid futuristic/ science fiction and documentaries.
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I’m watching a marathon of The French Chef on YouTube. This is the Spaghetti Flambe episode. What on Earth Pyrex is this on her electric coil stove?!
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A cute homage to 80s horror movies. Mindless fun is about all I can deal with right now, TBH.
Disclaimer is getting worse with each episode.
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BITD there were glass cooking pots, Corning and Pyrex that I knew of. The parents had a few saucepans.
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Visions
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And ‘Flame Ware’. We had the double boiler and the coffee percolator. As a kid it was fun watching the peas and carrots bounce around in the pot.
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the last Grand Tour
I was sort of ticked off by it, frankly. They steadfastly brushed away the REASON it’s ending; namely that Clarkson has become a poisonous ass and the disgust he engenders is now greater than the amusement he provided.
The last few installments seemed rather half-hearted. They stopped even pretending that all their amusing hijinx weren’t obvious set-ups. I couldn’t quite help feeling like each of them wanted to be anyplace except where they were, doing what they were doing. They were dutifully finishing out their contract with as little effort expended as possible.
I’ll continue seeking out May and Hammond in their various programs and youtube content. Clarkson can go fuck himself. Pretending to be an asshole can be amusing. It’s much less so when you simply ARE an asshole.
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If you enjoyed Psycho Goreman, the makers of it have a new one out, which I saw Friday evening:
Frankie Freako (2024) - dir. Steven Kostanski
Remember those cheesy 80’s and 90’s videostore horror? Usually by Full Moon Features and either written, directed, or produced by Charles Band. They frequently featured very lo-tech critter effects consisting of little more than rubber rod puppets being jiggled in front of the lens. Titles like Demonic Toys or Puppetmaster or Ghoulies, and the general theme of “people being harassed by miniature goblins”
Frankie Freako is an 80’s-set homage to those, concerning Connor, the most square, bland dude in history. His idea of spicing up a work presentation is including red text in his slides. His ‘intimacy’ with his hot girlfriend is holding her hand while she’s wearing rather modest lingerie. After his girlfriend leaves for a weekend, after begging him to try and loosen up, Connor calls a 1-900 number he sees for Frankie Freako, the little devil that loves to party.
Hilarity ensues.
It’s silly. It’s dumb. It’s appropriate for younger teens. And it’s only 82 minutes. If you don’t feel like thinking for about that length of time, this might be up your alley.
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Yes, it had some forced moments, but it was still better than 90% of what’s available.
And yup, Clarkson is an ass. No argument there. My favourite of the three is May. I loved his “Our Man In Japan” series.
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