As a rebellious 20 something living downtown in squalor when I lost my Mom to cancer can I just say Pieces of April gets everything right. So so so good. (I did know how to make mashed potatoes tho)
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I remember thinking it looked interesting but casting the lead with the perfect-looking girl from Dawson’s Creek was obviously a move on her and her handlers’ part to get her a Will-Smith-in-Six-Degrees-Of-Separation-type role that she could use for “real acting” credit towards the mainstream fare that they ultimately wanted. So I was too cynical of that to give it a chance. And that is exactly what happened with her career. But I suppose that amounts to hating someone because they’re beautiful.
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Fun fact! Station Agent was filmed in my dad’s home town and Peter Dinklage is from the same neck of the woods (not the same town, but nearby)!
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beautiful country.
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My uncle once had given the family shirts that say “Rockaway NJ, Home of Absolutely Nothing” or some such (my dad had it way back in the 80s). The couple of times I visited my grandparents when they still lived there it seemed pretty quiet kind of place.
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Hey! Small world! I grew up in the next town over (Denville) and my bro still lives in Rockaway.
It’s less interesting than it was in the 80’s, and it wasn’t very interesting then!
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I’m sure it was never probably interesting and that was probably the point! Of course my dad and his siblings grew up there in the 50s and 60s (and into the 70s!). My grandparents moved down here in the early 90s, I guess?
But yeah! Small world indeed!
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Perhaps because you only think you understand it.
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The end of The Conversation is referenced at some length in an episode of (the Netflix series) Stranger Things.
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weird! A local (Scranton-based, at the time) production company produced it, and I knew a number of the extras and vehicles that appear in the film.
Speaking of Dinklage, I first saw him in (okay, it was also his first film appearance) Living in Oblivion, which had a Brad Pitt-manquee dipping his toes in alt-cinema on his path from the soaps to serious stardom.
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Rat Race was not a terrific film. However, the Barbie Museum segment had my whole family laughing until it hurt, even my kids, who know way more about the world wars than other kids their age. There are some films that have moments that are so funny, that they become part of your culture. Sometimes it probably has much to do with other factors about your day that make everything come together perfectly. Earnest Saves Christmas was not a great film. But there is one sequence that absolutely killed us. Any time we deal with snakes, someone in the family is likely to make a reference to it.
I also did not like Alien 3. Alien was a kind of perfection, especially for it’s time. Aliens was a fun action film, as was requiem. “3” just never inspired me. Even Prometheus was fun to watch, although the plot was full of maddening holes and most of the characters were shallow stereotypes.
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One of the things my son, who otherwise only wants to watch things animated, has inherited is a like for It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World while we’re on summer vacation in Maine.
I have to get better at spotting the cameos.
I saw Rat Race as a distraction on the evening of September 11, 2001. Other than the opening titles, I recall it only as a horrible mistake.
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Not my favorite film, but I have to ‘like’ anything with an Edie Adams connection.
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Dick Shawn as Sylvester.
That’s all.
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My wife pointed out that she heard the story about him dying in stage the first time, and there’s no reason for me to repeat it during each viewing.
[updated to correct absolutely atrogshious speling]
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Stephin Merritt was my reason for seeing Pieces of April. ‘One April Day’ stands side-by-side with Perfume Genius’ ‘Hood’ in my personal shortlist of ‘Songs Under Two Minutes that I’ll Spend Hours of the Next Several Years of My Life Listening To’.
I didn’t know much about the film going in, and its candor and slice-of-life approach to plot surprised me. The feels are strong with this one. Definitely worth seeing, and more than once.
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Been watching a few films recently.
Room. A good film but honestly, I thought the book was much better. The film seemed very abridged.
Hail, Caesar. Felt like a series of vignettes rather than a coherent film, but I really enjoyed it.
Hateful 8. Saw it at the cinema, first time seeing it again since, still really like it, even if it is overblown and self-indulgent. I just love Tim Roth. Although I would like to see Tarantino try something smaller again.
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Robert Altman’s Popeye
I probably like Singing in the Rain more, but Popeye is the better film.
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Saw Legend yesterday.
Wow, that film was a mess. The tone jumped all over the place, and Tom Hardy was chewing the scenery like nobody’s business. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but even the Krays film with the two guys from Spandau Ballet in it was better than this.
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