Agree, he’s amazing.
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Watching The Diplomat on Netflix.
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Two rented DVDs from the library this past weekend.
‘The Boss’ with Melissa McCarthy and ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’. #1, not for me. I couldn’t find anything funny or entertaining in it. She has been hilarious in other films; this one was just terrible all around.
I couldn’t watch #2 all the way through, though it was an excellent film of that genre. I just can’t do gore anymore.
I usually love Irish films and I couldn’t get into the Banshees.
My taste and attention span have really changed over 4 years.
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Watched Richard Hammond’s Workshop season 2. It mentions a lot about Sri Lanka.
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I wasn’t a fan either. Really did not understand why that movie was so hyped.
It def was no Cocaine Bear. 
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Last night I watched Tower Heist. Nothing extraordinary, but a fun movie with a strong cast – Stiller, Murphy, Matthew Broderick, Gabourey Sidibe, Alan Alda, Judd Hirsch, Tea Leoni…
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Finally watched Zoolander! It’s pretty funny.
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My library rental for Everything Everywhere All at Once came in. It is a14 day rental, so there is plenty of time to watch it one or more times.
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One of the most memorable movies I’ve seen in my life so far.
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Documentary Now! on Netflix. The forth season is out and it’s pretty strong. Standouts are the Werner Hertzog spoof with Alexander Skarsgård, the Rumble in the Jungle re-imagining in The Men Who Threw Rocks, and the absolutely brilliant Trouver Frisson which accomplishes the feat of working as a parody and as a moving stand-alone short film in it’s own right (it’s my favourite episode of all the seasons).
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Alex Borstein liked my comment “I will miss this show!” on the Mrs Maisel facebook page. Then Jason Alexander did too!
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Triangle of Sadness (2022 dir Ruben Östlund)
If you liked The Menu, boy oh boy will you like Triangle of Sadness. An absolutely savage class satire, the film is a comedy so black that it might border on ‘horror’, even though there’s no gore or any scene that’s frightening in itself. Rather, it’s watching as a broken system breaks down further, and leaves the people from within it decidedly ill prepared to function without it.
It took the Palm D’Or at Cannes in 2022, and seems to illicit pretty polarized reactions. Some, like me, find it a hysterically funny satire that, ultimately, is an entirely valid and timely criticism of modern hypercapitalism. Others will roll their eyes at yet another “polemic disguised as entertainment” and will only be disgusted at the scene where the wealthy passengers of a private luxury cruise spend AGES getting horribly seasick.
This COULD age as well as the infamous 2006 Oscar winner Crash, a shallow, overly earnest, self-congratulatory mess. But I don’t think so. The performances as a group are outstanding, but special note should be made of Woody Harrelson as the alcoholic, but avowed Marxist captain of the cruise, Dolly De Leon as a menial worker on the cruise who finds herself in a VERY different position later, and in particular Charlbi Dean Kriek, who plays an influencer/model trying to work her way into the upper levels of society. Kriek tragically died just months after the film won at Cannes.
I’m saying relatively little about the plot or characters here because I genuinely believe watchign this with as little knowledge as possible really will enhance the experience. If one is in a real ‘Eat the Rich!’ sort of mood, this should be high on your list.
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I absolutely adored The Menu (in fact watched it almost 2.5 times), but I could not get through the first 20 min of Triangle of Sadness.
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You never even got to the boat? You bailed before the main section of the film. But I can see how the modeling intro followed by the dinner scene could be abrasive enough to turn off some folks. But hey, if we all liked the same things, it’d be awfully dull, right?
It absolutely would. Maybe it was bc I’d just recently finished White Lotus, so my patience for narcissistic beautiful people was probably running low. The dialog didn’t help, however.
I might give it another chance if they show it at an open air theater in Berlin this summer 
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002 - dir. Guy Maddin)
Funded by the CBC as a way to document the Royal Winnipeg Ballet company’s adaptation of Dracula, Maddin elected to use close ups, jump cuts, stylistic vingietting (clipping the corners and edges of frame) to capture a performance that feels alive an constantly shifting, while being highly reminiscent of early silent films, including the use of inter-titles and tinting of the beautiful black and white photography. The result is a a stunning piece of work that is both romantic and expressionistic, and still, somehow, manages to be one of the most faithful adaptations of Stoker’s original book.
Emphasizing the xenophobic fear of immigration baked into the original story, it’s just a wonderful jewelbox artifact of a film, perfectly structured within itself, and reflecting back to us is strange and different ways. It’s horror, it’s dance, it’s very self-conciously a FILM, and I found it beautiful and fascinating. And it’s only 75 minutes.
I can’t imagine anyone just stumbling across this unless you happen to be Canadian, but if interesting experiments are your thing, this is certainly worth seeking out.
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I urge you to try and stick it out. This sort of thing is exactly why I REALLY like watching films in the theater, even if my home setup is quite nice and comfy. A theater forces me to pay attention and endure something that might make me uncomfortable in the moment, but ultimately lead to an amazing experience.
The Safdie Bros. film Uncut Gems (starring Adam Sandler) is one of the most tense, absolutely uncomfortable films I’ve ever sat through. And not in a gross out or disgusted sort of way. Just the unbearable tension of watching Sandler’s character dig himself into deeper and deeper holes, recklessly doing the exact opposite thing that would get him out of his situation, was literally squirm inducing. I was fighting with myself the entire film. But I couldn’t stop it, I couldn’t pause it and get some air, or scroll my phone. I just had to watch 'til the end. And boy, was I glad I did. A masterpiece of a character study of a deeply flawed sort of person. Sandler should have been nominated for an Oscar, and I say this as someone who, in general, LOATHES Adam Sandler. I cannot stand 99% of his ‘comedy’. But every once in a while, he’ll hit a dramatic part with just the right director and there’s magic. This one, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love.
I hope you give Triangle another shot.
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I could not get through the first 15 min of Uncut Gems, either. I know it’s a critics’ and movie buffs’ darling, but I absolutely hated it. I thought Punch Drunk Love was probably his best (bearable) performance.
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Fly fishing on you tube . And How I met your father , Jeapordy , and Wheel of fortune . To much information. Plus smooth jazz Dj Sapphire on you tube , with cooking with Kenji.
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