[Initially posted on 9.24.20] A couple of days ago screenwriter Daniel Waters asked followers to post four or five films that they deeply admire or feel guilty-pleasure pangs for, but which are generally regarded as insufficiently loved.
Five films, in short, that the hoi polloi never seemed to care very much for (or never knew much about or have forgotten) but which you privately swear by.
Five years ago I posted a list of HE’s 160 greatest all-time films , but none apply here because each is loved and respected. We’re talking lone-wolf, off-in-the-corner films. So here are five…make it six picks:
Sandra Nettlebeck‘s Mostly Martha (’01). Probably the greatest sensual foodie + unlikely love affair flick I’ve ever seen. Martina Gedeck and Sergio Castellitto‘s lead performances are perfection. Scott Hicks‘ No Reservations, an American remake costarring Catherine Zeta Jones and Aaron Eckhart, missed the mark.
John Flynn‘s The Outfit (’73). A classic hard-boiled revenge film, lean and blunt and crafted in the tradition of Point Blank. Outside of noir cultists and film bums, few have paid much attention. Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe Don Baker, Joanna Cassidy and Robert Ryan.
Bob Rafelson‘s Stay Hungry (’76). Love, character, destiny, Southern culture and body-building. Charming, low-key, funny. Arguably contains the most winning Arnold Schwarzenegger performance ever. Definitely my all-time favorite Jeff Bridges film. Sally Field, R.G. Armstrong, Robert Englund, Helena Kallianiotes.
Frank Perry and Thomas McGuane‘s Rancho Deluxe (’75). Another Jeff Bridges film about destiny and character, this time by way of Montana cattle rustling. Harry Dean Stanton and Richard Bright played Curt and Burt, and of course their names are a running gag. Not a lot of narrative urgency, but that’s also the charm of it.
Lamont Johnson‘s The Last American Hero (’73). One of the best redneck flicks ever. Yes, Bridges again. The story of racecar driver Junior Johnson, called Elroy Jackson in the film. Based on Tom Wolfe‘s Esquire piece titled “The Last American Hero Is Junior Johnson…Yes!”.
Susanne Bier‘s Things We Lost In The Fire (’07). My all-time favorite film about drug addiction, containing my favorite Benicio del Toro performance. Fans were few and far between when it opened in ’07, but I was instantly sold. Alone but hooked,
I half-liked the first John Wick flick, but I hated the two that followed. I might watch John Wick: Chapter 4 (Lionsgate, 3.24.23) because of the locations — Paris, Berlin (including Studio Babelsburg sound stage interiors), osaka and Lawrence of Arabia‘s Wadi Rum.
I thought that Rep. Lauren Boebert, the Trump-embracing, pistol-packing Colorado reptile, was down for the count. Alas, she might squeak through.
From Vox’s Li Zhou, posted on 11.9:
2:45 pm: Boebert leads by a nose hair.Julia Butters, 13, is going to luck into something momentous. A feature, I hope. She’s got it. Unfortunately The Fabelmans doesn’t let her do all that much, but that’s not a tragedy. I’m just sensing that something exceptional will come her way within four or five years.
…their goose will almost certainly be cooked in ’24.
“This is an absolute disaster for the Republican Party.” pic.twitter.com/0M0WKJt4hC
— Republicans against Trumpism (@RpsAgainstTrump) November 9, 2022
…on a four-lane blacktop I tend to stay to the right, largely because driving in the left lane (or the one closest to the yellow dividing line) makes me more vulnerable to the Dwaynes of the world who might want to suddenly veer across the line and smash head-on into an oncoming vehicle. If you’re in the right lane it’s much easier to avoid a potential Dwayne. I’m serious about this. I believe there are definitely some Dwaynes out there, thinking about suicide and self-destruction. Why not play it safe or at least safer?
A 64 year-old Louisiana woman who claims to have been sexually fiddle-faddled by Warren Beatty 49 years ago, when she was 14 and 15 and therefore a minor, has filed a lawsuit against the 85-year-old actor-director.
The alleged relationship between Beatty and the plaintiff, Kristina Charlotte Hirsch, happened, she claims, throughout most of 1973, when Beatty was 35 and 36. Hirsch claims to have met Beatty in January 1973, and was involved in some kind of sexual relationship with him until the end of that year. She claims she and Beatty first met on a movie set — presumably The Parallax View, a paranoid thriller that was shot in ’73 and released in June ’74. Beatty starred; Alan Pakula directed.
Yeah, I know — why wait 49 years to attempt a shakedown? Because of the protection afforded by #MeToo community, for one thing. There’s also the California Child Victims Act, which allows survivors of any age to pursue justice, no matter how old they are, when the abuse occurred, or if their abuser is alive or dead.
The CCV Act has to be acted upon within a three-year window, starting in 1.1.20 and ending on 1.1.23. Hirsch could have filed the Beatty lawsuit as early as 1.1.20, but didn’t then and didn’t for the rest of that year.. She also sat silent throughout 2021 and throughout the first three-quarters of 2022. Her lawsuit was filed last Monday by Jeff Anderson & Associates.
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