Movies in 2026 182

 

Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg, 1971)

One of the Criterion Channel collections which is not making nervous is their current one entitled Odysseys, which is exactly what you would think: films about epic trips. It gave me a chance to watch Nicolas Roeg's classic 1971 film Walkabout (which I had inexplicably never seen). I have mixed emotions about Roeg, although even his films that I don't like I like. It tells the story of two Australian children, Jenny Agutter as Girl and Luc Roeg (the director's son, although he's listed as Lucian John) as White Boy, who are abandoned in the outback when their father loses his mind and commits suicide. They are rescued by Black Boy (the long-time Australian Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil) who is on his walkabout. It's about their growing friendship, and the love affair between Girl and Black Boy which never really happens, and which in the end kills him. It's also about much more: the clash of cultures, the wild beating heart of Australia, and the inevitable death of that native culture in the fact of Western culture. It's hard to believe that Jenny Agutter was only eighteen at the time. It's wonderful and absolutely heartbreaking. And required viewing.

Movies in 2026 181

 

Red (Krzisztof Kieslowski, 1994)

OK, so I finished (yet again) Krzisztof Kieslowski's Three Colours trilogy when I watched Red the other night. Many people consider it the greatest of the three films, although I don't know if I would sign off on it being better than Blue. That said, I think I like it more with every viewing. It was Kieslowski's final film, which gives it a tremendous weight. He announced while finishing it that he was done, and he died only a couple years later. It's sort of like hitting a grand slam in your final at bat to win the World Series, except that he directed so many extraordinary films. I'm already queueing up The Double Life of Veronique as well as all ten installments of Decalogue. Since we've moved on to the red portion of the French flag it's not surprising that the theme is fraternity, or in this case the odd friendship between Valentine Dussaut (wonderfully played by the ethereal Irene Jacob) and Joseph Kern (another great performance from  Jean-Louis Trintignant). It's strange to think that recently I watched Il 
Saporro, which was one of his first films. Here is a much older man, a retired judge who has given up on life while eavesdropping on his neighbors. His unexpected friendship with Valentine brings him back to the world. The ending ties up not only Red, but the other two films in the trilogy as well. Simply filmmaking at its best. Obviously, required viewing. I was reminded of the story of Van den Budenmayer, the mythical Dutch composer who is referenced in Red, Blue, and an episode of Decalogue - and who was made up by Kieslowski and his long-time composer Zbigniew Preisner simply because they both loved Holland. The fact that I know that clearly means that I watch too many movies.

Movies in 2026 180

 

Against All Odds (Taylor Hackford, 1984)

I've been exploring one of those wonderfully odd Criterion Channel collection: 1980s remakes. It's half of a great idea, because the original films are all really good if not great, but the 1980s remakes (with the exception of Carpenter's The Thing) are abominations. I appreciate the quirkiness, although it also makes me a tad nervous. I hope that they're not doing this because it's a cheap option and that it foreshadows some doom down the road (this mainly me fretting about a thing, the Criterion Channel, that I love and which gives me so much happiness). The other night I watched, or maybe re-watched, Taylor Hackford's 1984 misfire, Against All Odds. If I ever saw it before, I didn't know that it was a remake of Out of the Past. Now, take this with a grain of salt, because Out of the Past is one of my favorite movies, but, wow, Against All Odds is a dog. It would take more time than I have at the moment to express, fully, how bad this film is, so I'll restrict myself to the most obvious problems. First off, they broke a cardinal rule: never remake a classic film. Maybe it's ok to remake a film that was close to being a classic, and there's some little thing the original missed or got wrong, and you're almost completing the vision, building upon the unachieved potential. But please, for the love of God, stop remaking great films. It's insulting. Secondly, Jeff Bridges, Rachel Ward, and James Woods are simply not Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas - not even close, even though I sort of like all of them, especially Bridges. Thirdly, the script is a trainwreck, there are way too many unimportant minor plots competing for screentime, and whereas the original had more great lines that you could count, no one in this film ever says anything even remotely intelligent or funny or engaging. Fourthly, your broke one of the cardinal rules of film noir: a hopeful ending where the central characters somehow walk away unscathed. Did Hackford simply not have the courage to kill off Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward? Fifthly and finally (although I could go on and on), they gutted a classic femme fatale, one of the greatest in film history. Jane Greer's Kathie Moffat was so brilliantly drawn, and so utterly evil, whereas Rachel Ward's character is mainly annoying (I don't think it's her fault, it's just a crappy script). There's probably some thinly veiled misogyny at play here as well, which is strange since Out of the Past is decades older, and yet the Kathie Moffat character simply has more agency; Rachel Ward's Jessie Wyler seems to exist mainly to be sweaty and minimally clothed, an object as compared to a subject. The only good thing I can say about it is that Jane Greer has a cameo, and although she's not given much to do, she still steals the show. If you want to understand how not to remake a classic - of for that instance how to not make a good movie - then by all means watch Against All Odds. Otherwise, please keep your distance.

Non parlo italiano

 I'm about a month into my Italian study. I've tinkered with several languages over the years, but never mastered any of them. In high school I took two years of Latin, a year of Spanish, and a year of French, which I think gives you a sense of how little interest my parents had in parenting. Any locked-in parent would have pointed out that it would have made more sense to take four years of the same language, but I guess it never popped up on their radar. At Franklin, during my undergraduate days, we weren't required to take a foreign language, for some godforsaken reason - and I apparently didn't have the foresight or energy or sense to sign up for some. In graduate school my two languages, inexplicably, were French and Russian, and now, forty years later, I can't speak a word of either. In the decades since then I've tinkered with Arabic for a bit, and over the last couple years Portuguese. However, as much as I love Portugal, it didn't make much sense to keep working on it while Janet was pursuing this (allegedly) shorter route to citizenship. When/if she gets citizenship, I'll have a spousal visa (the ultimate plus one), but will eventually have to pass an Italian exam to get my own citizenship. Even if Janet gets citizenship this summer, I'd still have to live in the country for a couple of years before I would qualify for my own citizenship. However, I'm diving in seriously, knowing that I'll never actually be fluent, but maybe I'll be at least functionally non-embarrassing. I finally got serious and signed up for a class - and will do something more face to face when we're actually in-country. I try to remind myself to be patient, and also that learning a foreign language is one of the best thins that you can do to keep an aged brain lubricated.

I knock off the daily lessons, which I'm really enjoying and I feel that I'm learning a lot more than I ever did on my own, although after being on the road for a week and a half I'm a little behind. Then, after a few days, I go back and work my way through the lessons a second time, and that's when I take notes. I'm trying not to break up the flow the first time through, and just let it flow more naturally, but then come back later and try to get it down. I don't know if it will help, but it seems to make sense at the moment. The biggest problem is that I just suck so hard at languages, but knowing that you're going to live overseas does give you more of a boost in studying. We don't want to be those expats who separate themselves into little clusters of other expats. Instead, we truly want to immerse ourselves.

Movies in 2026 179

 

White (Krzisztof Kieslowski, 1994)

It seems like every couple years I re-watch Krzisztof Kieslowski's Three Colours trilogy, and never get tired of it. In fact, like with all classic films, I keep peeling back new levels with every viewing. With that in mind, I watched his 1994 White last night. I don't think I give that film enough credit, and instead unfairly consider it the weak sister of the Three Colours films. On the one hand, well, it is weaker than Blue and Red. On the other hand, Blue and Red and truly great films, so you could be the cinematic wingman of that crew and still be a very good film in your own right. I think many people consider it a Julie Delpy film (and she is very good in it as Dominique), although she doesn't carry the main weight of the film the way that Juliette Binoche does in Blue or Irene Jacob does in Red. Zbigniew Zamachowski plays her husband, Karol Karol, who tries to rebuild his life (and get revenge, sort of) after she kicks him out for being unable to consummate their marriage. Since it's the white part of the French flag you'd expect it to deal with equality - or in this inequality - and it does, both the economic inequality between Western and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin wall, but also the emotional inequality in their relationship. I don't think it delves the depths of the bracketing films of the trilogy, especially Blue, but it's really not meant to. Janusz Gajos is very good as Karol's friend Mikolaj. It's interesting to see all the folks who populated Kieslowski's brilliant Decalogue and who pop up in this film. For example, Juliette Binoche walks into the wrong courtroom, and in this film we see what's actually going on in the trial. Highly recommended.

Yet More CFL Excellence

 Unlike spending fifty-five painful years rooting for the Minnesota Vikings, watching the CFL and attending CFL games only brings happiness. I guess the closest that the Vikings-induced pain would be being a Hamilton Tiger-Cats fan, as they currently are nursing the longest streak since their last Grey Cup win (it was last century/millennium). Maybe this is why all of my friends who I introduce to the CFL automatically become Tiger-Cats fans - I mean, how can you not love them? They have a cool (and non-sensical) team song and a band and a sing along in the fourth quarter and cool uniforms, FFS! This was the third time that I've attended a game at Hamilton, and if it weren't a ten hour drive I probably would have just gotten season tickets by now. Although, using that logic, why I haven't purchased Alouettes season tickets is even more of a mystery since I dragged nineteen people to Montreal games to the twenty-plus games I've attended there. One time I pitched the idea to my friends, with the notion that we'd buy two season tickets, I'd go to everyone and they'd cycle in and out. Shamefully, they didn't understand the brilliance of the scheme.

While I usually cringe a selfies, here's a nice one that my cousin Nick took at the game. I was so happy to meet him for the game (he's now the 20th person I've dragged to a CFL game). Unfortunately, the Tiger-Cats suffered a last second heart-wrenching loss to the Montreal Alouettes (which seems to be a Hamilton thing, sadly). 

Movies in 2026 178

 

Blue (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993)

Last night I watched one of my all-time movies: Krzysztof Kieslowski's classic 1993 film Blue, which is the first installment in his Three Colors trilogy. Inexplicably, neither the film itself nor Juliette Binoche were nominated for Academy Awards that year, which is more proof, as if we needed more proof, of the fact that America is a land of idiots. Binoche plays Julie, a woman suffering unimaginable pain after the death of her husband and daughter, and yet finding the emotional liberty (the three colors of the trilogy title are the three colors of the French flag) to live again. It is one of the most beautifully filmed movies I've ever seen, and Binoche's performance (despite the idiocy of the Academy) is legendary. I saw a documentary once where the story is told of Kieslowski having an assistant calculate how much time it takes for a cube of sugar to soak up coffee - if you've seen the movie you can see the scene in your mind. Required viewing. She's at the heart of my Beautiful, Dark, European Actresses With a Terrible Secret Hall of Fame.