Virginia is for lovers.
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Dominick and Eugene 1988
Solid little tear-jerker about brotherly love. Arguably a little too melodramatic, but with performances this good who cares/gimme all you got, yaknow? Tom Hulce does a very good (and probably more subtle and nuanced) Rain Man thing, while Ray Liotta is flawless as his caring but rage-a-holic brother/keeper. Low-key scene stealer performance by Todd Graff, and David Straitharn does an effective dry-run for his abusive husband/dad role in Dolores Claiborne a few years later. Loved the Pittsburgh locations. I got all watery-eyed twice. Ray Liotta. Hell of a guy.
Found it free on YouTube.
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Married to the Mob 1988
Now I'm no expert, but I don't think this is any way for FBI agents to conduct themselves. What I'm trying to say is Matthew Modine is weird. A+ casting of Charles Napier as a flamboyant hair stylist though.
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The Truth About Charlie 2002
There are worse ways to spend a couple hours than watching Thandie Newton and a brutally miscast Mark Wahlberg running around Paris I guess. Mostly charmless, but has plenty of that J. Dem' chutzpah and a callback to Silence Of The Lambs that was... an interesting choice.
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Ricki and the Flash 2015
Absolutely insane that Demme could turn this nonsense into something not just watchable, but downright exhilarating. If those final moments don't make you want to get up and cheer then you might as well ✨pack it in✨
Do you think that Rick Springfield, in all his wildest dreams, ever thought he would be called upon to film a sex scene with Meryl Streep in 2015?
P.S. Rick Springfield is pretty cool in this imo
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Melvin and Howard 1980
“Howard Hughes sang Melvin Dummar’s song.”
I've always loved Jonathan Demme but I've never really been able to grasp or describe what his style is. Like, what is the connective tissue between Stop Making Sense and Silence Of The Lambs? Or Caged Heat and Rachel Getting Married? And where the hell does A Master Builder fit in? It's always baffled me. Then I saw an interview where he said something about how the main star of whatever movie he is…
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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 1974
What I like about this movie is that Texas is like the fifth character!
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Songs from the Second Floor 2000
"What can I say? It's not easy being human."
Pure Andersson. Probably his fiercest film? Not quite as dreamy as You, The Living or gleefully enjoyable as Pigeon, but man does it ever hit. Especially relatable to anyone who has worked a job at any point in their life.
As someone wiser than me once said, "I don’t know if I’ve seen an artist announce their aesthetic/sensibility within seconds of their film’s open the way Andersson does here."
So much gurgling!
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Gremlins 2: The New Batch 1990
"Too many gremlins and not enough story line"
- Roger Ebert, certified nerd-o supreme-o -
You, the Living 2007
Weird timing diving into both a Roy Andersson retrospective and Kids In The Hall: The Return on the same weekend since both creators seem to be similarly inspired by the idea that life is one big sick joke, but there's enough absurdity and strangeness in it to make it bearable. Same here, fellas.
I love that while Andersson's work is cynical and clearly the product of a depressive, it never feels hateful or fueled by negativity. Totally the opposite. Being able to effortlessly spin the bleak and mundane into something surreal and hilarious is such a gift. Love u Roy.
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