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Inspector Montalbano: The Snack Thief, (Alberto Sironi, 1999)

We should probably just consider this post as a bit of a placeholder, as this film is the first in a series that we will doubtless be watching. Last year I gave Janet the first ten books in Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano collection, which focuses on a Sicilian detective. Since then we discovered that Camilleri's novels inspired a television series that stretched out, off and on, for over twenty years - eventually leading to the a Young Montalbano series. It's a pretty enjoyable, and painless, way to figure out a bit about our new home, even if a lot of the humor and situations are exaggerated (or maybe they're not, it is Sicily). We watched the pilot, entitled The Snack Thief, which was interesting. Years ago I read where a famous detective author propose that in the end the success of the series is really about the detective and not the mystery he/she is solving, and Montalbano seems like an interesting character. It nothing else, the first installment hasn't frightened me away from Sicily yet. 

Hell Is Getting Ready to Freeze Over

 I suppose there's not much to be said about these images, other than the usual: #YankeeHellhole

When we first moved up here to Vermont over a quarter century ago these cold snaps were more frequent (and, yes, I know that sounds like a true Vermonter, which I'm not) and you'd have stretches where the temperature never made it up to zero for days on end. I tend to not romanticize the past, especially in regards to Vermont weather.

My friend Kerry asked if I was dreaming of Sicily. I replied that my legs are. While my main problem with my legs is the mysterious muscular/neurological condition that plagues me, I also struggle with arthritis, and increasingly the Vermont winters beat on me.

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Winter Brothers, (Hlynur Palmason, 2017)

I suppose, sitting deep in a Vermont winter, I shouldn't be watching movies based in winter in other cold places, but maybe misery does love company. In Hlynur Palmason's Winter Brothers, there's plenty of misery and winter, but sadly not much company. I had watched Palmason's Godland a few months ago, although I didn't make the connection until I began to explore another great Criterion Channel collection. Palmason is an Iceland director who will hopefully begin to get more notice. Winter Brothers focuses on two brothers, young brother Emil (Elliott Crosset Hove - who stars in Godland) and Johan (Simon Sears), who work in a mine. It's pretty grim, and deals with issues such as isolation and masculinity. It doesn't come together as cleanly as you might wish, and I suspect it wasn't meant to. Recommended. It's made me want to go back and watch Godland again.

Frequent Visitor

 As I proposed the other day, once the deer showed up and decided to hang around our yard for several hours I figured that it meant we'd have a return visitor. And, sure enough, as I was reading in the living room I looked out the window and their was our friend, just hanging out. Hopefully this is a good thing, as in she likes the flavor of our trees or the backyard possesses a nice combination of fun and a wind break, and not something bad, like she's lost her crew. Still, it's lovely to look out the window and see nature so close.

I guess we need to create some sort of loyalty program for return visitors. 

Hell Has Frozen Over

 Actually, here in Vermont I think Hell is getting ready to freeze over, but more on that in a few posts. The more immediate, and unbelievable, example of Hell freezing over is the fact that IU won the college football championship last night. Now, I don't give a tinker's damn about any college sports (and, as I've often opined, I think it's an incredibly destructive force - at least on the level of big time college sports - that has done terrible damage to the American university system), but I am happy that IU won, mainly because I have friends who are big fans and I know it gave them joy. It's almost impossible to get your brain around since, until two years ago, IU was the default answer for: What is the worst college football program of all time? Seriously, they had lost more games than any other program. And now they completed the first 16-0 season. Bizarre. I remember visiting Jack at IU in college for the Nebraska game, and we were joking about whether or not they were going to add a triple digit to the visitor's end of the scoreboard.

Jack and Juju's kids pooled their resources and bought tickets so that these proud IU alums could attend the championship game. 

 

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Dazed and Confused, (Richard Linklater, 1993)

One of the advantages of 2026's year of movies, much like 2025's year of books, is that I'm encouraged to get out of my rut and watch movies that I've always meant to watch but somehow never got around to viewing. So, why had I never got around to watching Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, even though it's all but a cultural touchstone. Of course, the first reason may simply be that it's a cultural touchstone, and that ran up against my well known contrarian nature. Also, I think much of the 1990s went by in the blur of child-rearing and kicking off my career. Finally, and maybe most importantly, shit, I lived through high school in the mid-1970s, and I don't have any happy or romantic memory of it. One of the thing that I like about the film is that Linklater didn't try and turn it into some idiotic George Lucas American Graffiti version of the 70s. Yes, Dazed and Confused featured a lot of fun and silly behavior, but it also included the stupidity and cruelty and small-mindedness and boredom that was also a big part of the age. I'm sorry that it took me so long to watch Dazed and Confused for the first time, and it won't nearly be so long before I give it a second look. 

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Reprise, (Joachim Trier, 2006)

We may be starting a Joachim Trier film fest. Happily, the Criterion Channel has some, although not all, of Trier's film available (but where would I be without it?). Last night I watched his first film, Reprise, for the first time in several years. The film is both joyous and dark, and even if this early effort you can see the extraordinary potential that would make Trier one of the best filmmakers in the world. The film follows the trials and tribulations of two young writers, Phillip (Anders Danielsen Lie) and Erik (Espen Klousman Hoiner) as they launch their careers, and struggle with innumerable personal problems. Highly recommended.