by Sam Juliano
One of the worst snow storms to ever regale the northern New Jersey/New York City region dropped at least twenty-six inches of snow, effectively paralyzing the area, and forcing the shutdown of roads and crossings. Needless to say Broadway dimmed its lights and many movie theaters closed. Schools in my own hometown have cancelled classes on Monday, which is two days after the storm, and the roads, though slowly making a comeback, are still in some spots impossible to pass through. The coming of the storm and matters connected with making copies of films have occupied me all week, and have prevented any theatricals film viewings, though I have re-watched many 2015 films at home during this week of madness. What with digging out cars and shoveling sidewalks in the cards for the coming days, I’m sure this will be another difficult week, with responsibilities likely to trump entertainment. 19 new links are to follow here:
Here are some new links:
At Noirish John Grant has penned a superlative review of 1931’s “Cape Forlorn”: https://noirencyclopedia.wordpress.com/2016/01/23/cape-forlorn-1931/
John Greco has penned an excellent review on Samuel Fuller’s “Forty Guns” at Twenty-Four Frames: https://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/forty-guns-1957-sam-fuller/
Aaron West offers up his twenty-fourth podcast, “A Conversation with Caitlin Kuhwald” at Criterion Blues: http://criterionblues.com/2016/01/17/ccu24-a-conversation-with-caitlin-kuhwald/
Laurie Buchanan’s lastest post at Tuesdays with Laurie is a splendid one titles “Pepe le Pew”: http://tuesdayswithlaurie.com/2016/01/19/pepe-le-pew/
At a newly-decked out “Patricia’s Wisdom” our erstwhile proprietor has written another lovely book review, this time a memoir titled “Now Everyone Will Know” by Maggie Kneip: http://patriciaswisdom.com/2016/01/now-everyone-will-know-a-memoir-maggie-kneip/
Filmmaker Jeffrey Goodman offers up his Top 12 films of 2015 in brilliantly written capsules at The Last Lullaby: http://cahierspositif.blogspot.com/2015/12/my-top-twelve-films-of-2015.html
At FilmsNoir.net Tony d’Ambra leads with a fabulous post on Manhattan Transfer 1925: http://filmsnoir.net/film_noir/the-noir-city-manhattan-transfer-1925.html/
At the Creativepotager’s painting blog the incomparable Terrell Welch offers up a sublime work-in-progress post titled “Intention, Composition and Underpaiting are tools of the trade used by the artist”: http://creativepotager.com/2016/01/14/intention-composition-and-underpainting-are-tools-of-the-trade-used-by-the-artist/
David Schleicher has posted a terrific review of “The Revenant” at The Schleicher Spin: http://theschleicherspin.com/2016/01/11/reverence-for-the-revenant/
At Movie Classics Judy Geater has posted a fantastic review for the “Raoul Walsh and James Cagney’s 4 Films Together” blogathon: https://movieclassics.wordpress.com/2016/01/23/raoul-walsh-and-james-cagneys-4-films-together/
Joel Bocko has penned a terrific review of “Jaws” in his ‘favorite’ series at I Lost It at the Movies: http://thedancingimage.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-favorites-jaws-71.html
At Little Miss Litberry Charity has penned a fabulous review of the non-fiction work “Wonder Garden”: https://littlemisslitberry.wordpress.com/2016/01/20/wonder-garden-a-review/
At De Colores: The Raza Experience in Books for Children Lyn Miller-Lachman has written a fabulous review on Marguerita Engel’s award-winning memoir “Enchanted Air”: http://decoloresreviews.blogspot.com/2016/01/enchanted-air-two-cultures-two-wings.html
At Read It Real Good Alia Jones has penned a terrific review of Marilyn Nelson’s “My Seneca Village”: http://readitrealgood.com/2016/01/20/my-seneca-village/
At American Indians in Children’s Literature Debbie Reese has penned a fascinating feature titled “Where do you shelve Native American stories?” https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2016/01/where-do-you-shelve-native-american.html
Robert Tower continuous his wonderful “A Theatre…a movie….and a Time” series at It Rains…You Get Wet: http://le0pard13.com/2016/01/22/tmt-now-that-was-really-close/
Weeping Sam speaks fondly of The Eagles’ Glen Frey, who recently passed at age 67 at The Listening Ear: http://listeningear.blogspot.com/2016/01/already-gone.html
At Attractive Variance James Uhler shows some love for ABBA: https://attractivevariance.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/songs-i-love-watch-out/
Dean Treadway offers up a look at 1973 in his annual series at Filmacability: http://filmicability.blogspot.com/2016/01/1973-year-in-review.html
Click on names for archives
Writers/Founders
Wonders in the Dark 
Thanks for sharing my review! 🙂
My pleasure Alia, it was a terrific piece! 🙂
Sorry to hear you’ve been so hard-hit by the snow, Sam. Up here we escaped with perhaps 15-18 inches, and the roads were clear by the time we got up this morning; the little bar/deli across from us stayed open for the duration, doing a roaring trade in coffee and bacon sandwiches to the snowplow guys!
Oh, and I almost forgot to say: Many thanks for the shoutout!
John, you did very well getting “only” 15-18 inches. The storm supposedly hugged the coast and that is why even though you and I are only a 45 to 50 minute ride from each other, we received significantly more. That bar/deli definitely had the right idea! Thank you my friend!
What a storm we have had to deal with. I bet it takes a week more before things are anywhere close to normal. I heard the same about 27 inches.
Well Frank, as you know now they did a must faster job than anticipated to their credit! Have a great week my friend!
Hello Sam!
Hope you’re digging out now and getting back to life. We lucked out this time in the Midwest, but we may have a storm or two still awaiting us.
I have finally launched my new site and would like to ask for inclusion in the blog roll here for Part-Time Cinephile: http://parttimecinephile.blogspot.com/.
I just posted my list of the Top 20 Films of 2015. For me, the top spot could only go to CAROL, which I finally saw this weekend.
Hope you are out and about soon.
Pat—we did have an amazingly quick recovery, all things considered. You deserve a break from this kind of storm, you’ve had your share that’s for sure! I am thrilled you have launched PART-TIME CINEPHILE, which now has been happily added to our blogroll. I have seen your great post and of course we have shared some observations. I did think you would really love CAROL. Have a fabulous upcoming week my friend!
Hey Sam,
That was sure some storm you all had. Hope the digging out is moving along and things will soon be getting back to normal. Sending good vibes and best wishes. We just found out my mom fell yesterday on some ice and broke her wrist and forearm, so I will likely be heading to Chicago in the next day or so to help out. In the meantime…
out of 4
The Look of Silence – *** 1/2 A great follow-up to The Act of Killing and is different altogether, as the impact hits home on a different level.
Carol – *** 1/2 This one sustains a terrific pacing and mood for the length of it and is quite enveloping. I don’t know that it breaks any new ground, but what it does, it does excellently.
Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) ** Oddball curio with Garbo and Gable. Not one of Garbo’s best, but is more pre-code-ish than most of her work so is a bit interesting.
Okay best wishes for the rest of your week my friend!
Yes Jon, that was definitely a storm for the ages, that’s for sure! But we have risen from the grave so to speak, and all is very good right now. Hope by now your mom is doing better, I am so sorry to hear that news. This is one of the fears with ice on the ground. I do consider CAROL one of the very best films of 2015 (It is Allan and Jamie’s #1 and Maurizio rates it 9/10) so I am very happy to see we are all thinking in the same terms on it. I actually have not seen THE LOOK OF SILENCE, but great to hear it is such a worthy follow up! As I say my best wishes to your mom, and have a great week!
Hello Sam and everyone!
I hope that you are safe now Sam, take good care of yourself and the family!
Here are the movies I saw last week:
– The Arrival (1999, Peter Tscherkassky) **** Nothingness, the empty frame, the empty film.
– The Big Short (2015, Adam McKay) ***1/2 What a weirdly inconsistent film in terms of visual, editing and sound/music work. But it certainly isn’t any short of fascinating how much skill McKay puts in terms of telling his story in the most palatable way possible. I don’t care about being talked down like a child, explaining me things with celebrities and all that, because I am not from the United States and I really was barely 18 years old at the time and had no idea how the economy worked. Now I’m still not sure how economy works either, but this managed to make it seem like we’re standing on a bunch of glass that’s about to break, and what’s under it? Who the fuck knows? Maybe more glass? I hope it won’t hurt. I was afraid that the film would forget about the people, and sure it goes the easy way showing us only a couple of examples, but the very humane characters make it easier, as they are themselves aware of the fraudulent quality of the way that the system works. And that’s a breath of fresh air, I’d say.
– The Infernal Caldron (1903, Georges Melies) **** Cooking some ghosts.
– The Official Story (1985, Luis Puenzo) **** Well, that ending wrecked me. It also made me realize how much balls Argentinian filmmakers have in general, specially when compared to Chilean filmmakers after we returned to democracy. It’s come to these days and I still can’t see a film that even comes close to the simple raw strength that this one has, a film that manages to speak up and not only that, it spells things out, just as they happened and because they happened, without any fear of what people might say about it. It makes me mad. The film is incredible and its final scenes are just the realization in physical form of whatever wreckage inside all the characters had. But, for some reason, I still think that this movie telegraphs most of what will happen, and maybe the narrative could’ve integrated the classroom more, as I wished something happened there, and it never came to much.
– Inherent Vice (2014, Paul Thomas Anderson) ****1/2 Third time watching this. It does get a get easier to follow, but it just becomes thematically deeper, almost impossible to decipher completely, which is what freezes me in the spot when it comes down to the full recognition of the 5 stars. But I do want to watch it again soon enough.
– Afternoon (2015, Tsai Ming Liang) **** Like the best Slash Fan Fiction Made Real that you’ll ever see.
– Mountains May Depart (2015, Jia Zhang Ke) **** At some moment maybe I was hyping this movie way too much for my own liking, after all, it was Jia Zhangke doing a weird film once again, one that even ventured into the future! What I didn’t expect was to be this floored by the first segment and to find myself so distanced to the rest of the film, even though I admire everything that was put here. I guess I might call myself a hopeless romantic, or maybe it’s just the mood in which I am, that made me found the idea of a love triangle across the ages to be so interesting and at the same time decrying how much it was thrown away as a possible plot point for the entire movie. But I understand what Jia was aiming here, he was trying to make an allegorical and at the same time political tryptic that makes bold assumptions and obvious analogies, but it does them in such a blunt way that it turns them into brave political statements that are among the most important that have been put in a Chinese mainstream film.
– Three Colors: Red (1994, Krzysztof Kieslowski) ****1/2 Past and present crunch into the few blocks that comprise the city in Sweden. The dog, the model, the judge, the boat, the jeep, the telephone, everything is about connecting with each other, how these elements communicate and try to send a message from one side to the other, and in the way that it might be, this one is a fantastic movie about the idea of connecting with people that you don’t know and how amazing that moment is when you find out just how close you might get to them due to pure random circumstances. The premises are weird, and I’m sure that i lost something by watching this ‘trilogy’ out of order, but this is a major work from a major filmmaker and I can’t wait to continue watching more movies by this director.
That’s all, have a great week Sam!
Jaimie, all is well here now thanks very much! The temperatures have gone up, giving us relief from the potential road problems after the blizzard. Yes you hit the nail on the head with THE BIG SHORT, which I was no fan of either. Interesting take there on THE ARRIVAL! I also have a solid regard for THE OFFICIAL STORY and consider Kieslowski’s RED a flat-out masterpiece. I would like to see AFTERNOON and MOUNTAINS MUST DEPART. Nice that you got to see THE INFERNAL CAULDRON! Beautifully written capsules my friend! Have a great week!
Well you truly did get a blast of snow, which changed the landscape of time and location. I hope all are healthy and doing well and finding enjoyment in the white stuff. We actually went to a movie Suffragette was at the film society in the 6:30 slot. Except the movie which started to play was A Ballerina’s Tale about Misty Copeland – very interested but not what we went to see so our disappointment was in high form. Suffragette was only on Friday night and we were there Saturday – a one night stand 😦
Hope not too much shoveling ahead and that this too shall pass on. Nice to see the pictures from you front door
Aye Patricia! Quite a storm indeed! We did recover quickly though and at this point are close to 100% working order. I did see that Misty Copeland documentary at the past Tribeca Film Festival. Very fine film, but not everyone’s thing. Sorry to hear you missed SUFFRAGATE, but that was an unfortunate short run it had. Now it will be DVD. Lucille and the girls saw it and rather liked it. The snow situation is well under control now, as we lucked into a few days of mid 40’s weather right after it. Much of it has now melted, thank goodness. 🙂 Have a great week my friend!
Sam — You’ve floored me with the photographs. The thought of shoveling your way through it is staggering!
Aye Laurie, and you know this kind of weather from many years in Crystal Lake! Have a great week my friend!
I saw Creed and Concussion. Neither was anything special, but i did think Will Smith gave an excellent performance. For that matter so did Jordan, but I liked the film less.
Yes he did indeed Karen. Very strong work from him. And Jordan actually won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor. Many thanks my friend.
The snow removal locally was quick and thorough, I will say that.
Yes indeed Peter. They did a great job! Many thanks my friend!
Sam I hope by now you guys have gotten some relief from the elements. What an amazing storm you had this past week!
I probably have watched more this week than in almost a year, although still not the pace I ultimately would like to have. This week I saw: Altman’s COME BACK TO THE FIVE AND DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN, THE REVENANT, TWO RODE TOGETHER, KAREEM: MINORITY OF ONE and CAROL. I was very glad to see them all but was most haunted by the Haynes’ film. I just found it assured and daring in ways that both really stimulated me and moved me in the ways the great poetic works of cinema can.
Thanks so much, Sam, for all that you do!
Jeffrey, that was admittedly an incredible blizzard, one of the highest in inches I can recall. We were lucky that temperatures rose right after, and right now we are in excellent shape. I haven’t seen the Altman film, but have seen all the rest and applaud you for pointing out CAROL as especially excellent. Without doubt one of the 2015 masterworks, methinks. Of course, I am a huge fan of Haynes, dating back to his masterpiece FAR FROM HEAVEN. Many thanks for this fabulous round-up my friend, and I wish you a special week.