Movies in 2026 185

 

From Russia with Love (Terence Young, 1964)

I'm going to plow through the three films in the Criterion Channel's James Bond collection, and so I watched From Russia with Love. As I said previously, I'm not really that big of a James Bond film, but this is definitely the film where they figured it out (and many folks, including actors who played Bond, consider it the best in the series). It's more serious and gritty than Dr. No, and definitely less silly, Bond spends his time in Istanbul and Vienna, beginning a recurring character in the films: exotic locations. It's odd to watch films like this and remember that I've been lucky enough to go to many of these locations, including Istanbul and Vienna. And, yes, if you're an Archer fan you completely see where so much of the material comes from, including his Russian girlfriend, Katya.

Movies in 2026 184

 

The Whole Town's Talking (John Ford, 1935)

Another film from a pretty vanilla Criterion Channel collection: office romances. Last night I watched John Ford's 1935 film The Whole Town's Talking. I'm a big John Ford fan, but I didn't know how long he had been making movies. Like a lot of folks I always link him to 1939's Stagecoach, and the beginning of his pairing with John Wayne, but by 1939 he had already been making films since 1917. This includes a ton of silent films, which, sadly, like most silent films, have been lost. The Whole Town's Talking stars Edward G. Robinson playing two roles, the timid company employee Arthur Ferguson Jones and the ruthless gangster "Killer" Mannion. I was impressed by Ford's ability to get both characters in the same scene considering the limitations of special effects in the mid-30s. I liked the film, although they didn't do nearly enough with Plattsburgh's own Jean Arthur (playing Wilhelmina Clark), who was such a firecracker and who routinely stole every scene in every movie she was ever in.

Movies in 2026 183

 

Dr. No (Terence Young, 1963)

For some reason the Criterion Channel is featuring a collection of the first three James Bond films. These are the collections that worry me a bit. Mainly I just don't want the Criterion Channel to lose its edge in the pursuit of more casual movie fans, as compared to true film nuts (it is a slippery slope). Nevertheless, last night I watched the movie that started it all, 1963's Dr. No. I'm not one of those guys who goes out of his way to watch James Bond movies (I think of Lester in American Beauty), but it's not as if I don't like them. Dr. No opened to very mixed reviews, which is completely appropriate because it's actually pretty silly. They obviously hadn't figured out what they wanted to do with the character. Now it's considered a bit of a classic, which is a completely goofy and undeserved designation. Nevertheless, we all have to start somewhere, even James Bond. Cycling back to my occasional concern for CC program, it may simply be a case that they dumb it down a bit in the summer because it's too hot for us to tackle Bergman or Kieslowski.

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.

Debs

 A dozen years ago, Sanford and I made our famous drive from Vermont to Oklahoma. The general structure of the class was his design (in  that he wanted to visit a town in Oklahoma, which I eventually figured out had originally been named Sanford - although to this day he still denies that he knew anything about that), but I did much of the day to day planning. Hence, we included stops at the Creation Museum, and the Dental School Museum, and Holcomb, Kansas (at the time he had never read In Cold Blood, but I had and it was very moving). In that vein, we also stopped in Terre Haute, Indiana to visit the Eugene V. Debs Museum. Sadly, we arrived just when they were closing for the day, and thus I had to wait almost a fifty of my long life to make it back. This time I arranged my entire trip so that I had plenty of time. As every right-thinking individual knows, the greatest Hoosier of all-time is Eugene Victor Debs (two through four are: Booth Tarkenton, Theodore Dreiser, and Kurt Vonnegut). When I walked into the museum, which is free, by the way and easy to find since it is essentially surrounded by Indiana State University, I was greeted by Allison, a very nice and incredibly knowledgeable young woman. She had also led the tour of the museum when Bernie Sanders stopped by, and she shared pictures of him from her own phone (Debs is a great hero of Bernie as well). Allison asked why I was visiting, and I told her the truth: Debs is a great hero of mine. This made her very happy, and freed her up to skip some of the basic information and devote more time to a deep dive.  I ended up more than two hours touring the museum, and it was an extraordinary experience.

I have this picture from the failed trip from the summer before I left for Abu Dhabi, but now I finally made my way inside.

This is the actual house where Debs lived.

Allison at the top of the stairs. Eventually a recent college graduate joined us - who had recently become interested in leftist literature and decided to stop by on a trip to Chicago. He was a really friendly young man, and one of those college students who actually give you hope for the future. When we finished up the tour, Allison asked if we'd like to just sit in the living room and talk about socialism. The answer, of course, was yes. 

Debs was rightly known for being a great speaker, and this was the final words of one of his most famous addresses. So many of his ideas beat the New Deal by about fifty years, and it would be a much better America today if we followed his advice.

His library.

A campaign placard from one of the five times he ran for president. In 1912, running for the Socialist Party, he received over six percent of the vote, which is an extraordinary amount for a third party candidate.

And, yes, the4 last time he ran for president he was in jail, a gross governmental overreaction to him having the courage to give speeches asking why poor men were being sent to fight an imperial war. He spent three years in prison (and had to be pardoned to get to that figure, otherwise he would he finished his life incarcerated) and it ruined his health. His book of prisons is a classic.

Movies in 2026 177

 

D.O.A. (Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, 1988)

I've previously mentioned that last month the Criterion Channel ran the odd collection of 1980s remakes. Now, with the exception of John Carpenter's remake of The Thing from Another World, all of the 80s versions were pretty bad. I had never watched the remake of D.O.A. before because I had a feeling that it was really bad. As it turns out, it was much worse than really bad, which justifies my earlier wisdom (which I've now clearly lost). It's just absolutely pathetic. I don't know if I can say anything good about it, other than if it hadn't been made then Dennis Quaide would have never met Meg Ryan and then they wouldn't have gotten married and then they wouldn't have cheated on each other and then they wouldn't have gotten divorced and then maybe learned something from the experience - so I guess there's that. Avoid at all cost.

But While You're There

 My trips are always highlighted by the odd little places that I find along the way. My last official stop was to see my friend Dave in Cincinnati, which left me a two day trip back. Now, a younger version of me would make that drive in one day, but not this shambling shell of a man. So, I decided to head due east from the Natti to return to the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. I first went there a year and a half ago after my father's passing. I needed some silly fun to drag me out of the blues, and it was well-worth the trip (although my attempt, at the time, to drive around a huge winter storm was unsuccessful). On this trip I wasn't sad and I wasn't avoiding any storms, but I wanted to breakup the end of the trip (one can only drive across Ohio and the New York Thruway so many times [although I ended up being unable to avoid the latter; I survived by reminding myself that I'd never, ever drive on it again]). I told my friends that I was revisiting the Mothman Museum, and a couple of them gave me some serious grief for it - but then quickly put in their orders.

I'm not saying that I wildly overspent at the Mothman Museum gift shop, although I receive not one, but two, complimentary gifts (I only received one on my last visit). 

Movies in 2026 176

 

The Consequences of Love (Paolo Sorrentino, 2004)

Yesterday I re-watched Paolo Sorrentino's 2004 film The Consequences of Love. I immediately became a huge Sorrentino fan, especially his film The Great Beauty (which would make the short list for my favorite film of this century). The Consequences of Love stars Sorrentino's frequent collaborator Toni Servillo, in one of his most internalized chameleon roles as Titta Di Girolamo. Trapped in a luxury hotel in Switzerland for eight years because of a mafia mix-up years earlier, Titta lives an incredibly regimented life, waiting around to perform a highly ritualized criminal chore. This all changes when he meets, and gives into his desire, for Sofia, a waitress at the hotel. He understands that this change in his routine will probably end terribly badly, which it does, although you get the sense that it a worthy tradeoff for a reawakening. Servillo, naturally, is brilliant, and Oliva Magnani (as Sofia) is also quite good. She's the granddaughter of legendary Italian actress Anna Magnani (of Rosselini's Rome, Open City fame), and clicks all the boxes for a classic Scudder crush: beautiful, dark, European actress with a terrible secret. The Consequences of Love is a great film, and I highly recommend it.

Jazz

 This trip was utterly exhausting - and my legs are not at all happy with me - but it was well worth the effort. My last stop was to drop by Cincinnati to see my old friend Dave, which was, as expected, wonderful. Whenever I see people, both on trips like this but also as I pass through my daily life, I become more and more aware that I will never see some of them ever again. This made this trip more than a bit bittersweet. If the Italian government and court system plays nice and we actually make it to Sicily, I just feel that I'm not going to come back much. I've been blessed to have so many extraordinarily smart, interesting and kind folks in my life, and the thought of never seeing them again breaks my heart.

Dave and his new puppy, Jazz. Obviously, the ghost of Dudley still haunted the place, because Jazz did his best to skeletonize my arm (which was, as with his predecessor Dudley, mainly my fault). Jazz is apparently 1% Polynesian Street Dog, so he wasn't taking any shit (although he's sweet as can be).

Movies in 2026 175

 

Weapons (Zach Cregger, 2025)

I'm back from my madcap week and a half trip (Quebec, Ontario, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, etc.). I meant to go to the gym today, but I've mainly spent the day lying around like a slug (it was my only defense). And now I have a lot of catch-up blogging to do - and I'm clearly way behind in my movie-watching. The other night at Dave's house he suggested we watch Zach Cregger's Weapons, which I was quite happy to do. I had heard it was good, but we never seem to actually make it to the theater. I liked it quite a bit, and anyone who would happen to stumble across this blog doubtless knows more about the film than I do. There are still interesting horror films waiting to be made, although not by Spielberg (as we suffer through the latest media blitz for one of his over-rated movies). 

The Original Tim Hortons

 As you know, one of my core beliefs is that while trips may be defined by the big framing events, they are made the smaller, spontaneous events, such as visiting the original Tim Hortons in Hamilton, Ontario. We were in Hamilton for a Tiger-Cats game (more on that shortly), and it seemed completely and unquestionably necessary to visit the original Tim Hortons. Happily, I have a small army of friends and family who put up with my quests.

For those of you who know your Tim Hortons lore, the franchise was started by a retired NHL player. Here's my cousin Nick outside of the first Tim Hortons, still operating, and insanely busy, even today.

And they even have a mini-Tim Hortons museum. As I often propose in my film reviews: Highly Recommended.

On the Road One Last Time

 This summer sort of reminds me of the stretch right before I took off to spend a year in Abu Dhabi in that I seem to be, quite rightly, spending a lot of time with friends (that summer featured my drive with Sanford from Vermont to Oklahoma, and the trip Steve and I made down to New Orleans to pester Andy). This year features four CFL games (in four different Canadian cities), but I'm also planning to drop down into the Midwest after this Hamilton trip to see family and friends before we head out of the country. Here's a picture my cousin Nick snapped of some utterly ancient guy in an epic Bo Levi Mitchell jersey at a little hole in the wall Mexican place in Hamilton.

These trips are really hard on me physically, as I'm simply in pain all the time. However, spiritually, I'm reinvigorated and loving the adventures.

Movies in 2026 174

 

Land of My Dreams (Yann Gonzalez, 2012)

I watched another Yann Gonzalez short, this one entitled Land of My Dreams (2012). This one definitely wasn't as odd as his Islands, but it also wasn't as innovative or memorable. A mother uses her daughter to dance naked inside a dilapidated section of Porto, Portugal. I suppose that in the end all mothers, directly or indirectly, prostitute out their daughters.

Movies in 2026 173

 

The Gates of the Night (Marcel Carne, 1946)

I've made the point before that Marcel Carne might be my favorite French director, but also softened my stance by saying I don't know how passionately I would make that argument. However, I can also say that I've liked every Marcel Carne film that I've ever seen, including this morning's re-watch, his 1946 film The Gates of the Night. Apparently it wasn't a popular film when it came out right after World War II, but history has been much kinder to it, and now it's rightly considered a classic. Everything takes place in one night, focusing on the new and tragic love affair between Jean Diego (Yves Montand in his breakout role) and Malou (Nathalie Nattier). Considering the year, it's not particularly surprising that the war casts its shadow over the entire film, including certain Frenchmen who had collaborated with the Germans. I recognized Julien Carette, who played Monsieur Quinquina, but is better known for his roles in Jean Renoir's The Grand Illusion, The Human Beast, and The Rules of the Game. Jean Vilar as Le chochard, essentially playing fate, was especially good (and I'm stealing one of his speeches for my chapter on dreams and visions in the epics). Highly recommended.

Movies in 2026 172

 

Islands (Yann Gonzalez, 2017)

Over the years I've heard various and sundry versions of this statement from my friends: "It was really weird, I think you would like it," or "That was way too strange for me, but you might like it," or "Ten minutes in I was thinking, 'WTAF,' I bet Scudder has seen this." There is a certain truth in that, although I don't think I go out of my way to watch strange movies, but rather I'm polymorphously addicted to film, and am quite willing to give just about anything a try. The artistic temperament takes many forms, and it's more than a shame to close yourself off from new experiences. This seems especially true to day, when the mathematical internet gods are quite happy to determine your interests and only give you material designed to keep you in that slot (thus making you an easily identifiable consumer). And, once again, this is one of the beautiful things about the Criterion Channel: you will always be introduced to new directors and actors and films that you would never imagine existed in the world. Last night I watched Yann Gonzalez's 2017 short film Islands, which is a classic example of this fact. It starts off a sort of slasher film parody, which then transitions into a threesome with the monster killer (the director is clearly commenting here on our expectations) with homoerotic aspects on a stage - and it just gets more interesting/weird from there, ending with a scene that feels like a David Lynch outtake. I don't know if I liked it, although explicit monster killer sex is a criminally ignored genre, but there were some scenes that will definitely stick with me. I'm certainly going to check out at least one more of Gonzalez's shorts featured in this month's Criterion Channel collection. Would I recommend it? I think it's definitely interesting and challenging, but my description above will probably tell you whether to give it a watch.

Movies in 2026 171

 

Bergman Island (Mia Hansen'Love, 2021)

Last night I re-watched Mia Hansen-Love's 2021 film Bergman Island, which is a film I like although not as much as I want to. It's centered around a couple, Chris (played by the wonderful Vicky Krieps) and Tony (Tim Roth) Sanders, who visit Faro Island, the home base of the legendary Ingmar Bergman. They're a couple at a crisis point in their relationship, typical Bergman fare). Tony is there to screen a copy of his latest movie at a film fest, and Chris is working on a screenplay for a film she hopes to direct.  At a certain point it segues into her screenplay and then her film, starring Mia Wasikowska (as Amy) and Anders Danielsen Lie (as Joseph). And then it goes truly meta, with the actors inside her film. More than anything else, it's a love letter to Ingmar Bergman (including his son in a walkthrough at the end) and it's hard to critique that. The component parts are interesting, and the acting is first rate, but I don't think any of the sections are given the room to breathe, and hence the viewer is left a tad emotionally disconnected. Like I said, I like it, I just don't know if it came together as cleanly or impactfully as it might have. I definitely will watch it again down the road, and you should check it out.

Movies in 2026 170

 

Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)

I've (obviously) seen a ton of film noir, including its Japanese and French and Scandinavian and Argentinian (it goes on and on) cousins, and I don't know if there is a better example of the genre than Jacques Tourneur's 1947 absolute classic Out of the Past. How many times have I seen this film - I'd hate to guess, but it's one that I never miss. It's been featured this past month on the Criterion Channel and so I had to re-watch it, even though I also own the DVD. Robert Mitchum is amazing as Jeff Bailey/Markham, a former detective, now gas station owner, who can't outrun his past. Once, in the antediluvian past, I was involved with a woman who proposed that I possessed Mitchum's "sleepy intensity," which I think I only partially understand, but which I like. Jane Greer is wonderfully wicked as Kathie Moffat, who gives Barbara Stanwyck a run for greatest film noir femme fatale of all-time. It also  features a very young Kirk Douglas, who is great as the venomous Whit Sterling. The very definition of Required Viewing.

There are so many great lines, almost more than you can count:

Jeff: "That's not the way to win." Kathie: "Is there a way to win?" Jeff: "There's a way to lose more slowly." It's spoken very early in the film, related to a scene when Kathie is gambling, but it essentially is the line that defines the entire movie.

Ann (Jeff's nice girlfriend): "She (Kathie) can't be all bad. No one is." Jeff: "Well, she comes the closest."

Kathie: "Don't you believe me?" Jeff: "Baby, I don't care."

Kathie: "I don't want to die." Jeff: "Neither do I, baby, but if I have to, I'm going to die last."

Kathie: "Don't you see? You've only me to make deals with now." Jeff: "Well, build my gallows high, baby."

Barnacles

 Janet is out of town again, which means that I am festooned by very needy cats (especially Cici, who is the more Janetcentric of the two). Still, there are worse ways to spend the morning when you're working on your Italian. 

Half of this scene never changes, in that Mollie (the Horizontal Cat), on the right, would always be here, but Cici (the Vertical Cat) would be in the other room attached to Janet.

Movies in 2026 169

 

It Came from Beneath the Sea (Robert Gordon, 1955)

It's rare that you can say that you went down a Kenneth Tobey rabbit hole, but I guess it can happen. The other night when we were watching The Thing from Another World I told Janet that Kenneth Tobey eventually did a series of monster movies (none as good as Nyby's classic). This led us, on a night when she was tired and didn't have the energy for longer film, to Robert Gordon's 1955 It Came from Beneath the Sea, which she had also never seen (apparently not everyone spent every Saturday night watching monster movies - such a wasted life, her, obviously, not me - she probably had a date or was reading classic literature or something). A giant octopus, generated by H bomb fallout (which happened a lot in the 1950s) causes mayhem, including destroying the Golden Gate Bridge. Today the film is mainly remembered as the beginning of the Ray Harryhausen era of stop motion model animation (Dynamation) era. I think it is required viewing, but only if you grew up in the middle of a cornfield in Indiana in the age before cable TV or the Internet.