by Sam Juliano
Many thanks to all who have followed the Allan Fish Online Film Festival, which is planned to run at the site until Friday June 8th. The writers again have been up to the task, contributing fabulous reviews of eclectic works only available online. The television project’s final stage will begin posting a day after the second annual AFOFF concludes.
The school year is winding down and for the very first time in six years the site will not be running a late summer countdown of any sort after the mid-July finale of the Greatest Television Countdown. This will constitute a well-deserved break for the writers and site readers. This has been a down period in terms of comments and page views, but I completely understand blogs in general are not what they once were and that there is cyclical aspect to their viability. As ever Jim Clark will be soon posting his next superlative film essay and other contributors will again publish when the presently running projects finish.
Lucille and I saw two films in theaters this week:
On Chesil Beach **** (Sunday) Edgewater multiplex
A Kid Like Jake *** (Saturday) IFC Film Center
Click on names for archives
Writers/Founders
Wonders in the Dark 
I’m lonely…..so I’m a thief.
I’m lonely…..so I’m a fornicator.
I’m lonely…..so I’m a dope fiend.
Color me stoked. Midnight Cowboy, warts and all, is now out on blu-ray. The film is marred by some sledgehammer sexual symbolism (that missile firing on a grindhouse screen) and fancy cutting, but this is a moving, aching study of loneliness. The Warhol party sequence, reeking of Viva and 1960s decadence, is badly dated, too.
Otherwise, nothing but hosannas to Schlesinger, Waldo Salt, Hoffman, Miles, McGiver and especially Jon Voight, whose ineradicable performance as man-child Joe Buck is one for the ages. Salt’s script, liberally adapted from Herlihy’s slender, splendid 1965 novel, is one of the most quotable of the American New Wave.
Where’s that Joe Buck? Where’s that Joe Buck?
He’s up at Barnes & Noble taking a leak. If you hurry you’ll catch the supper show.
PS & OMG: Smithereens, Memories of Underdevelopment & Dietrich and von Sternberg in Hollywood are all in the Criterion pipeline, set for an August release. $$$$ and now I’m too old to peddle my ass on the street.
My apologies for the late response here Mark. Love your wonderfully abstract but still pointed response to one of my favorite American film, John Schlesinger’s MIDNIGHT COWBOY! Good point about the “sledgehammer sexual symbolism” but I granted that aspect a reprieve a long time ago. Your subsequent “aching loneliness”, hosannas for the electrifying performances, and that buffo reference to Silvia Miles have me smiling. As to the dated Warhol scene, I simply found it an accurate representation of the 60s when the film was made rather than a dated sequence. I am a huge fan with you here!!! Mark I am trying to find a way to avoid street peddling for the Guitirrez Alea MASTERPIECE (for me the greatest film ever made in Cuba) and that divine box set which are essential acquisitions!! Thank you so much my friend!
Sorry to get here late…I have a big cold and headache….not reading or watching TV. Yes indeed blog reading is down, but reading is up!
Patricia, I hope by now you are feeling much better. I must investigate your book reviews pronto! Thank you so much and feel well.
Reductive readings.
Richard Brody: Wanda is a heist film.
Me: Psycho is a slasher film.
Mark, though PSYCHO is indeed a slasher film, it is the very best of its kind. As to Brody, I am finding him progressively clueless these days I’m afraid for all sorts of reasons.