Foul Play (his first movie) And Seems Like Old Times (a sort of sequel three years later) were decent. Don't like most of the rest of his work.
London Road This was weird. I went into this movie thinking I was watching an English cozy mystery about the residents of the nieghborhood where a mid 70s serial killer lived. It's a musical. I love musicals! But walking into a musical when you're not expecting it is just weird. Interesting enough. It's something called a "verbatim" musical which is not a genre I'd ever heard of before (though my wife tells me Come From Away is an example.) The songs are written in pitch and tempo exactly as the neighbors spoke in interviews with police and the author. The movie is powerful, and not, at the same time. It's an extreme ensemble piece, so there is zero character development. But ultimately it's sad, a precursor of the Trump era... The neighbors of London Road are happier now that this guy killed five prostitutes, and that with all the police attention, has driven them off. These characters are thoroughly unlikable. This song was great:
A '90s Christmas - 2024 Lucy makes partner at work, gets a call from her sister Alexa, sees old flame Matt at a local restaurant, and suddenly has a waitress sit down and tells her that she's been missing out on a better life. As Lucy is heading home she gets in a ride share car with a driver who is the same woman that was the waitress. She asks the driver to take her home and ends up at her childhood home in 1999. From there she has to make a series of decisions that will either keep her life the same or change it forever. Fun little time travel rom com. The weakest parts are Eva Bourne as Lucy and Chandler Massey as Matt (and not just because he thinks Friends is funny). Jenny Raven as best friend Nadine, Katherine Barrell as Grace the waitress/ride share driver, and Kate Drummond as the mom (she was also good as the mom in To Have and To Holiday). Good but not great. They really needed better leads for the romance storyline.
The Card Counter (2021) A decade in prison really changed William Tell. He is as grey as the clothes he wears - stoic, serious, patient, reserved, alone. He uses these traits as tools in his new profession as a professional gambler, roaming up and down the casinos of the East Coast. His card counting skills keep him in the positive side, his knowledge that casinos don't care as long as you keep your winnings low keeps him out of trouble. A few hundred here, a few hundred there. That's enough. That's his entire life. He is always in the moment as a defense mechanism against a past that would destroy him if he lets it. But then he runs into the person responsible for that past, and because of that a young man who is on the same black path he once contemplated. Now William has the unlikeliest mission - to save that kid. And he needs help to do it. Brilliant movie. It's about the ghosts that haunt us (as individuals and collectively as Americans given where William's past took place) and what we do about them. It's about how others save us, even in small ways. If one considers a soul a small thing. William's gambling nemesis is his complete opposite, a jarringly brash and loud and colorful example of the unseriousness of the American citizen. Overstated? A bit, but I don't think you can get across that point in a more subtle way. There's some fantastic use of scenery and camerawork in the movie. Because of the nature of the acting you really have to keep an eye on the symbolism of the broader visuals to gauge the emotion of the characters. Loved the musical choices. One thing I really liked is that any other movie about gambling would show you the cards in people's hands and draw you into the gameplay. The Card Counter never does that. William isn't playing a game, he's using the game.
Why they make Oscar look so tan? So is this a Scorsese directed Isaac acted film? Cause those two alone are worth the price of admission.
Don't know. The picture on the front of the library's DVD is very different, but just as tan. The pictures on the back of the case are accurately pale. Scorsese "presents" the movie, which I think means he just lends his name to a movie he likes and to a guy he's worked with a lot. It's written and directed by Paul Schrader, who's definitely no slouch.
It's one of the recent Schraders I have yet to see, but it's been on my list for a while. First Reformed was easily one of my favorite films of the past decade. Very dark but equally prescient.
From my experience people that like rom coms stay away from people that like sci fi, so I didn't think there would be mixing of their genre movie ideas.
Fletch had a few good lines in it, but got rather ridiculous, and the sequel was pretty dire, as I recall.
The Time Travelers Wife. Not sure it was fully a rom-com, but the miniseries (never saw the movie) had some funny moments in the title role. It was mostly terrible, but Rose Leslie (wildling Ygrette from Game of Thrones) was absolutely lovely. Steven Moffat, show runner from Doctor Who (Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi), was in charge. The entire mini series was just a retelling of the beginning of the Eleventh Hour (with sex), the first episode with Matt Smith in the role of the Doctor. Speaking of which, I would happily watch a sci-fi rom com with Karen Gillan. Other sci-fi romances: https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/best-sci-fi-romance-movies.html
What about Time After Time with Malcolm McDowell (as HG Wells) and Mary Steenburgen? I guess a movie where Wells chases Jack the Ripper to 1979 San Francisco is not really a "com", but it is pretty light entertainment, with plenty of humorous moments and has a very, very strong "rom" ethos.
Edward Scissorhands?!? I guess more "com" than "rom-com." On second thought, I guess I am a very poor judge, as I have a warped sense of "rom."
Hollywood never had ideas. An Affair to Remember (1957) is a nearly shot for shot remake of the far superior Love Affair (1939).
Well, television still has a full plethora of ideas. I just arrived home to see that "Human v. Hamster" is on television. A "competition" show where actual human persons are pitted in a climbing competition against actual hamsters. They are given the same activities to handle, scaled to their relative size. This world is just beyond stupid. It is hosted by some blond guy, Kyle Brandt (apparently, he hosts some NFL show) and current "weird girl" on SNL, Sarah Sherman. It is produced by Joanna and Chip Gaines, from that home improvement show. Yes, I looked up the Wikipedia page to get those names (other than Sarah Sherman, I recognized her). Okay, five minutes and I am done with this inanity.
i would’ve missed it, except they filmed pars of it near where my wife and I were visiting on a vacation.
My wife and daughter loved Wicked, and that's a somewhat new idea. Although it was a movie of a long running play