• Words and Music

    Words and Music

    ★★

    I was meant to watch this last week with my Sunday viewing partner - with whom I've been watching all the Judy movies so far in my time travels - but there were issues so we skipped a week, I kinda have so many things I wanna share with her I ultimately decided today (already having a vague idea of the nature of Judy's involvement here) I would watch it anyway (cos I have a commentary and tons of other…

  • The Pirate

    The Pirate

    ★★★★

    "It's hard to kill an actor."

    This was kind of a rollercoaster of an experience with a more convoluted story than I expected (how does the song "Be a Clown" come from a movie called "The Pirate"?) that begins almost too uncannily like the later Judy/Kelly movie Summer Stock (which I still say is way better) but halfway morphs into a Shakespearean kind of farce that doesn't necessarily right its wrongs but still made me feel warmer in the end.…

  • Burke & Hare

    Burke & Hare

    ★★★½

    "Do you ever get an erection? I've got one the noo!"

    Absolutely bawdiest version of this tale lol. It doesn't make it any better but I was very much in the mood for it. It's so innocent and Carry-On-ish (the music is so similar) I was sort of shocked when the late-Hammer boobage (aren't 70s boobs the best? I forget and get renewed every time) came on. I had a good time. Also I kept thinking how many of those older cameos in the 2010 version like Christopher Lee and Ronnie Corbett would've fit in here. I'm glad I watched them this way around.

  • Burke & Hare

    Burke & Hare

    ★★★½

    "I had confidence in a fart once…"

    This shook me in the first few minutes by not only (cos I already knew) being a John Landis movie made so (relatively recently) but one that also had Tim Curry in it. The energy is really solid in this and never stops. I laughed tons. I'd double bill it in a heartbeat with Ravenous (Ravenous second, cos it's definitely better). Fucking Ronnie Corbett and Christopher Lee are in this too, just, respect,…

  • A Date with Judy

    A Date with Judy

    ★★★

    "Men! Beef! I hate you all!"

    Last minute '48 discovery today. Elizabeth Taylor's name leapt out at me, but she's not in it much. Reminded me completely of Beverly Cleary's First Love series of books that I read a couple of years ago (that or her autobiographies, they blur together in my mind, but they're all about the same period and perspective - she would've done better). I feel like this is the kinda thing Adrian Lyne must've studied planning…

  • The Greed of William Hart

    The Greed of William Hart

    ★★★

    I have to admit I didn't give this my fullest attention but it didn't seem bad. It had a definite tone. The thing it reminded me of midway was that it was the same story as the later Burke and Hare adaptations, which I may be continuing the night with, if they download fast enough… I'll also say, it's another one of those strange '48 productions that feel way older than they are (actually, I guess I'm thinking of the…

  • Spring Awakening: Those You've Known

    Spring Awakening: Those You've Known

    Torn over even logging this (not that it matters cos I don't count stuff like this for my own count) except just to say, where can I just watch the full concert version of the show? This was never a fave of mine anyway except for a couple of songs, but those couple of songs hold memories enough of the mid to late 2000s, so it was nice to dive into where they came from in a background way. I…

  • Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

    Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

    ★★★★★

    "Are they here to help?"

    "There's so much nothing."

    "It's still a group of people but it's an audience not a community."

    "Is this all there is of out there?"
    "No this is just one part of one big city."

    "I don't wanna end up with less than what I have"

    "There's definitely a storm rollin' in. I can feel it. I can feel it 'cos my shell feels tight."

    "What if everything changes again?"
    "It will."

    "I find that…

  • Death of a Salesman

    Death of a Salesman

    "I'm gonna get married, mom."
    "Go to bed, dear."

    "Willy, dear, what's he got against you?"

    It's such a perfect play I can watch it, what, 4 times in 2 months? and not get tired. This isn't my fave version to be honest, despite how stoked I was to finally find it, like I'm not sure about Dennehy, he's kinda too strong like by default? and the audience laughter makes me uncomfortable (except the above moment where it fits somehow)…

  • Portrait of Jennie

    Portrait of Jennie

    ★★★★

    I wanted too much from this cos I think the director of Somewhere in Time mentioned it as an influence… it's not that ethereal, sorry. But I love that that's what they were trying to do - just, anything else.. I didn't fully get it first time around but I won't forget it and can't wait to watch it when I'm a little older and wiser/dumber. It's a bold movie I wish was better. Anyway Joseph Cotton is a treasure.…

  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

    Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

    ★★

    "It's like flying a bike… hands all the way in… like stuffing a turkey."

    "You're inside Schrodinger's box and you're the cat."

    At best I have to believe this is aiming to be a camp/cult classic - of course the problem is you can't aim to do either of those. It's objectively awful, ridiculous, more pointless and maddening than any Marvel movie I've ever seen, and yet the machinery is so refined and the cast so great that it occasionally…

  • The Red Shoes

    The Red Shoes

    ★★★★★

    "Why do you want to dance?"
    "Why do you want to live?"

    "Dance whatever tempo you like - I'll follow you."

    "The music is the only thing that matters. Nothing but the music."

    I don't know what it is about 1948 but, as with so many others from this year, this is another I watched often in my teens and then practically avoided for a good two decades, never forgetting how much I loved it, how much it got into…