by Sam Juliano
More moderate weather has given us Metropolitan area residents a few very nice days, though I understand a rainstorm is heading our way late Sunday night. We are moving closer to the end of February and the Spring season. This coming Sunday we will be holding our annual Oscar bash at the Tiger Hose Firehouse in Fairview. The affair is an Open House to all. Catering again will be from Dante’s -the finest Italian Deli in town, and both hot and cold food will be offered, and plenty of it!
The science fiction voting and countdown inches closer, although no plan has yet been reached to contact the e mail chain of prospective voters and/or writers. For a number of reasons we will only go with a Top 50 for this particular countdown. Political followers like myself have been watching the primaries with great interest. I am a Sanders supporter, but I think it will be Hillary vs. Trump at this point, though things could still change.
Lucille and I watched three films in the theaters this past week, with two of those new releases:
The Witch **** 1/2 (Thursday) AMC Starplex
Embrace of the Serpent **** 1/2 (Sunday) Film Forum
City of the Dead (Horror Hotel) 1961 **** 1/2 BAM
I reviewed CITY OF THE DEAD weeks back here at WitD. THE WITCH is a modern horror masterwork; EMBRACE, a visually stunning films set in the jungle of Columbia shot in black and white. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.
Planning to revise:
At Noirish John Grant has penned a superlative review on a 1992 TVM “Midnight’s Child.”: https://noirencyclopedia.wordpress.com/2016/02/13/midnights-child-1992-tvm/
John Greco has offered a fabulous look at his new E-Book Cover at Twenty Four Frames: https://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/advance-look-at-new-e-book-cover/
Aaron West offers up his twenty-eighth podcast at Criterion Blues on the 1991 “Slacker”: http://criterionblues.com/2016/02/14/ccu28-slacker-1991/
Laurie Buchanan’s lastest post at Tuesdays with Laurie is a splendid one titled “Bald is Beautiful”: http://tuesdayswithlaurie.com/2016/01/26/bald-is-beautiful/
At a newly-decked out “Patricia’s Wisdom” our erstwhile proprietor has written another lovely book review, this time on “The Rain Sparrow” by Linda Goodnight: http://patriciaswisdom.com/2016/02/the-rain-sparrow-a-honey-ridge-novel-linda-goodnight/
Pat Perry is back in the blogging business at Part Time Cinephile with a fabulous round-up of 2015 Films: http://parttimecinephile.blogspot.com/2016/01/at-last-these-are-not-20-best-movies-of.html
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/
At Ferdy on Films Marilyn Ferdinand has offered up a terrific essay on Larissa Shepitko’s “Wings”: http://www.ferdyonfilms.com/2016/wings-%D0%BA%D1%80%D1%8B%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%8F-1966/27152/
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 Beverly Sleppin has issued a strong recommendation of two Monica Brown-penned “Lora Levine” books in a beautifully written review: http://decoloresreviews.blogspot.com/2016/02/lola-levine-is-not-mean-2015-lola.html
At Read It Real Good Alia Jones has penned a wonderful piece on the superlative Caldecott Honor book “Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer” by Carole Boston Weatherford and Ikua Holmes: http://readitrealgood.com/2016/02/14/voice-of-freedom-fannie-lou-hamer-spirit-of-the-civil-rights-movement/
At American Indians in Children’s Literature Debbie Reese offers up a question about what is not included in Maira Kalman’s “Looking at Lincoln”: https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2016/02/maira-kalmans-looking-at-lincoln.html
Robert Tower has written a lovely remembrance of Ritchie Valens on the occasion of the 57th year of his untimely passing at It Rains……You Get Wet: http://le0pard13.com/2016/02/05/friday-song-cover-la-bamba-by-ritchie-valens-los-lobos/
Weeping Sam waxes lyrical on Jacques Rivette’s passing at The Listening Ear: http://le0pard13.com/2016/01/29/edge-of-tomorrow-film-review/
Dean Treadway offers up a look at 1973 in his annual series at Filmacability: http://filmicability.blogspot.com/
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Writers/Founders
Wonders in the Dark 
Sanders all the way here. Thank you for your diligent and thoughtful reporting as ever.
Thanks so much Jamie (Hogan) my friend. I have my finger crossed for Bernie in the upcoming Super Tuesday elections.
Like you and Jamie, I’ve gravitated toward Sanders. I assumed initially he didn’t have a chance, even though he embodies so many of the moral principles I hold dear (universal healthcare, equality of opportunity, hope for everyone), but now it seems he’s right up there.
Who among all the candidates would I prefer as Prez? There’s exactly one who shows any integrity and who isn’t in thrall to Big Money. The choice is easy, really, when you put it that way. The only problem for the likelihood of a Sanders presidency is when people assume they should opt for someone more “electable” . . .
Oh, and thanks for the Noirish shoutout, young man!
John, you hit the nail on the head when you said that Sanders’ main problem has always been the cries of electibility. Yet present polls have revealed that he polls better against the Republicans in November than Hillary does. The election process is comprised of two stages. A lot can happen from the conventions till November. Many thanks my friend. Have a great weekend!
Thanks for sharing my Voice of Freedom review! 🙂
It was a terrific review my friend! Have a great weekend!
God, who would have thought Trump would be a viable candidate a year ago? I’m half-rooting for him to get the nomination so he can go down to defeat while simultaneously demolishing the Republican Party/conservative movement’s hypocritical facade of caring about “principle” and “values.” But I am slightly nervous he will actually go all the way if he wins the nomination. Nonetheless, I am pretty confident the Democrats will win in 2016 regardless (and man, wouldn’t it be wild to see Sanders actually pull it off? after 8 years of tiresome and weirdly inaccurate cries of “socialism” applied to Obama, who is basically a Rockefeller Republican, imagine if the right was confronted with an actual self-proclaimed socialist in office). It occurred to me the other day that the GOP has not won the popular vote in a presidential election since 1988. 28 years ago! Yet they continue to delude themselves by claiming to represent the majority of Americans…
Joel, I was actually predicting Trump would win all the way back to the time when Nate Silver had his chances at 3%. I suspected Silver wasn’t reading some intangibles correctly, though to be fair he makes his models on statistical evidence, not perceptions. I am aware he could actually go all the way, even if such a prospect is a long shot. Ironically Trump looked bad in last night’s Texas debate, so we will see if it impacts the upcoming Super Tuesday contests. i am a Sanders supporters but know he is behind the eight ball, with the establishment Dems behind Hillary. Ha, good point about Obama being a Rockefeller Republican rather than a socialists, a term reactionary Republicans never understood. true the GOP has failed to win the popular vote in quite some time. Thanks my friend! Let’s see how the cards fall on Tuesday.
Sam, glad you got to see EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT. It completely bowled me over. I absolutely loved that film. Its chances of winning on Sunday are pretty narrow considering how much momentum SON OF SAUL has had. Even MUSTANG has picked up quite a bit. Hope your party goes well on Sunday. One day, I would like to attend 🙂
Sachin, I know this was your poll position choice, and I join you in issuing definitive praise. I am think my rating will rise to five stars. Yes SON OF SAUL another extraordinary film is favored to win the Oscar, but the nomination for EMBRACE was amazing. i loved MUSTANG too. Oh I would be over the moon to have you here one year!! That would be fantastic my friend! Have a great weekend!
Hello Sam and everyone!
It seems that the scifi countdown is still tweaking so I’ll wait for the final announcement. I am also doing my classic 10 Days of Oscar at my blog, where I review every film nominated for best picture and then some more. In the meantime here’s the movies I watched last week:
– Deadpool (2016, Tim Miller) ***1/2 Sure, it’s dumb and not what you’d call made in a beautiful way, but it actually managed to make me laugh, something that 90% of comedies can’t do nowadays. Sure, the plotting is awkward and half of the things doesn’t seem to amount to much, but I can say that the whole thing seemed to move swiftly to be a movie over 100 minutes long. Sure, I’ll also eventually completely forget this movie exists, but I do think that the character of Deadpool itself is coherent and I wouldn’t mind seeing it again pop on and off in the X-Men films of the future, specially if he’s handled by Bryan Singer this time. Anyway, the future of comic book films isn’t here nor there, it’s in the making of films that are similar to these, but that heavy plotting and the need to tie it all down seems to corrupt things more than make them better cinematic moments.
– Deconstructing Harry (1997, Woody Allen) ***** Here are some notes on this movie that I rewatched for the first time. http://letterboxd.com/jaimegrijalba/film/deconstructing-harry/
– Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall (2016, Spike Lee) ***1/2 I guess I have to see “Ben”. Serviceable documentary on the early years of this musician.
– La Recta Provincia (2007, Raúl Ruiz) ****1/2 A TV miniseries for Chilean TV that was edited together and is now receiving a limited run after a restoration, one of the last things that Ruiz oversaw. This is the same copy that will be playing at the Cinematheque Françoise, and so I wanted to make myself see it in a big screen, and it was a wonderful experience. Just shy of three hours long, this is mostly an exercise in the futility of storytelling, and maybe the most absurdly and obsessively Ruizian film, where the most important element is the performance of documentary director Ignacio Agüero as a dumb countryside’s mama’s old boy, and how the stories, at the beginning, seem to follow a completely normal structure (people tell stories and we get inside of them), but then there are stories within stories, and sure, the game is still comprehensible, but then characters from other stories start popping up in other character’s stories, the narrations mix, suddenly we enter dreams, we see our main characters walk into the story because they have fallen asleep while listening to it, and at the end we are witnessing the story itself being told again, before it happens, both as a prophecy and as a recount of the same tale, so we know just how futile the whole experience was. An incredible labyrinth that I can’t recommend enough.
– Wadjda (2012, Haifaa Al-Mansour) ***1/2 The final scene with the mother saved this movie.
That’s all, have a great week everyone!
Jaimie, the science-fiction countdown is indeed still well into the future, but I need to get the ball rolling with the first group e mail. Wow, your rating of DECONSTRUCTING HARRY is real high. But I certainly do like the film.
Our big disgreement here is WADJDA, which was a ***** film for me, and the best film I saw at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. I haven’t yet seen DEADPOOL, though other members of the family have. Am looking forward to the Spike Lee/Michael Jackson film. Thanks as always for the fantastic round-up my friend! And have a great upcoming week!
As for the Oscars, I am leaning toward SPOTLIGHT for best picture but I think it pretty wide open, at least with three or four films truly in the running.
I finally got to see The Lady in the Van (****) which I liked quite a bit. Maggie Smith was excellent. Then again, when is she not. Also caught up with Black Mass (***) which I found a bit disappointing though Depp was convincingly evil.
Other films were mostly re-watches
The Violent Men (***1/2)
Moulin Rouge – 1953 (****)
Career (***1/2)
Goodfellas (*****)
A Blueprint for Murder (**1/2)
Have a great week my friend!
John, it is a very close race between SPOTLIGHT, THE BIG SHORT and SPOTLIGHT for sure. Very happy to hear you enjoyed THE LADY IN THE VAN, which was one of my honorable mention choices for 2015. I gave BLACK MASS a half star more, but we are generally on the same page. Agreed that GOOD FELLAS is the very best of your re-viewings, though I also like MOULON ROUGE and THE VIOLENT MEN too. Enjoy the Oscars. We’ll compare notes soon my friend. And have a great upcoming week!
Sam —
“…Dante’s, the finest Italian deli in town, and both hot and cold food will be offered, and plenty of it!” Yes please! My mouth is w-a-t-e-r-i-n-g.
I’m a Sanders supporter, too. But like you, I think it’s going to end up being Hillary vs. Trump. Both leave a hideous taste in my mouth; I’ve never relished the flavor of either snake or buffoon.
Have a phenomenal time at your annual Oscar bash!
Aye Laurie, they are the culinary kings in this neck of the woods! Ha! I wish you were around to experience it. Yes Hillary vs Trump is inevitable, and not the most ideal situation, that’s for sure. Love your analogy there!! hahaha! Thanks for the well wishes my friend, and have a special weekend!
I gather from t’Grauniad that The Witch has really upset a lot of horror fans, who were enticed by the trailer into thinking this was yet another generic outing and discovered at the cinema that it was actually, like, thoughtful. This has increased my desire to see the movie, of course; anything that others describe as pretentious and boring is likely to be right up my street.
John, thanks for bringing that to my attention. This is the first I’ve heard of it. The reviews though have been quite excellent, and having seen it I can predict you will indeed like it quite a bit.
I will have to miss your Oscar bash – just too many miles in between! Cross country skiing has seen a large number of friends and family share the spare bedroom this past week and now biking season is about to begin with taking the tandem to San Jose, CA for that team for the STP (Seattle to Portland 204 mile fundraiser) We have 6 riders on our team but one rider has no bicycle at this time…so we are studying new bikes and shoes to acquire. I have been looking and choosing faucets, sinks and cabinets for the kitchen project – as nothing works in our 1963 kitchen at this time. New oven and cook top was the start point. We have two microwaves right now and they will stay. April 8th is the projected start date on that repair. We have had 4 dry days and the buckets under the roof leaks are actually dry! That project still must wait until June. Lots of daffodils ready to open, Hellebore in full bloom, camellias all over the yard opening up and Daphne wowing us with fragrance.
We watched Brain Games with our company and I am working my way through Nurse Jackie a favorite with my book group and I needed to keep up, but still/yet I am 3 books behind in my reading
The local elections here are fierce and I am working to get the 20 ALEC members out of our Senate….folks are feeling brainwashed and ignorant here and I am worried about a Trump or Cruz President ( not so much about Cruz) We have fabulous schools and healthcare here – Why do folks vote against themselves? Bush we are still in recovery from….I just do not understand My children have lost all enthusiasm for this round of politics and three members of one of my book groups think they will not vote (not on my watch) I think the “mean” and too long cycle is just burning people out….ugly. ( am also personally embarrassed as the only USA member in my family)
Aye, Patricia I hear ya, though I continue to hope we will one day meet. I actually myself consider Cruz a worse fear that Trump. Trump is a loon absolutely but he has proven he would turn on a dime. Cruz on the other hand is a rock ribbed Tea Party advocate and Rubio is far too year and scripted to be president. My man has been sanders, but I see that it almost surely won’t work out. Good to hear you are keeping up, even if you’ve felt behind a bit with the reading. We’ll compare notes soon my friend. Have a great upcoming week!
Hey Sam,
Hope you will have fun at the Oscar party! If The Revenant or Spotlight comes away with several awards it would be fitting/deserving I believe. Both are excellent films. I prefer Brooklyn to both of those, but it doesn’t appear to have any chance of winning but that’s just my personal taste. Both The Witch and Embrace of the Serpent look amazing I will have to check those out.
We got a bunch of snow yesterday so we were all at home for a snow day, which was rather nice actually. It will all melt this weekend though which is fine by me! My wife and I will be celebrating our 12th anniversary this weekend so we will be out celebrating while the kids have a babysitter.
The only film I saw this week:
Straight Outta Compton: 2.5/4= Enjoyable/entertaining if rather straightforward. I bought the album many years ago and have been both a fan of the group and of the individual artists, however the film was sort of like a collage of sorts….not really getting as in depth as I would have liked.
Enjoy your weekend Sam!
Thanks so much Jon! The party is a great annual get together, irregardless of the awards themselves. It does seem to be a very close race between THE REVENANT, THE BIG SHORT and SPOTLIGHT. I too want BROOKLYN to win as it is my personal favorite film of the year. Happy Anniversary to you both!! Have a fabulous time!!
No fan of STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON.
Enjoy my friend. Will compare notes soon!
Sam, what did you think of last night’s debate?
Frank, I thought Trump got mauled in a tag-team effort, though neither of his adversaries were saying anything different. Rubio look desperate, Crux ever-obnoxious, Trump not all that well-informed. No knock out blog so as a result almost no impact on the upcoming primaries.
Sam, hope all is great there!
I am very curious about THE WITCH and EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT. I hope I will be able to run them both down in the near future.
This week I only managed one viewing, Desplechin’s MY SEX LIFE. I saw it back in ’96 when it first came out but hadn’t seen it since. It’s a challenging film but I think it is quite special and I actually look forward to seeing it yet again in the very near future.
Thanks so much Sam!