4v291o

Watched on Friday May 23, 2025.

I wanted to give Garbo: Where Did You Go? 3 stars, but I just couldn't.

This review may contain spoilers.

Young Hearts is surprisingly good. Okay, "surprisingly" might not be the right word since I wasn't expecting it to be bad, but it was surprising to me that I found it so affecting. From the few things I had read about the film, I had a feeling I would like it, but it really won me over.

What does this 62-year-old have in common with these 14-year-olds? Well, I was once 14, and I experienced many of those same feelings in a time when they weren't ultimately validated as they are here. This film and these two boys--Elias (Lou Goossens) and Alexander (Marius De Saeger)--took me back to that age, and I got to experience those feelings all over again. The film--and these performances--said so much even in silence. The camera catches Elias looking at Alexander and we know exactly what he's thinking and how he's feeling as he wordlessly watches his friend. Goossens doesn't indicate at all; he just exists in the moment, and it feels so honest--and touchingly sweet.

When Elias accompanied Alex to Brussels to visit Uncle Tony and his wife, I wasn't sure whether Tony was actually his uncle or simply a family friend. But who cares? It was just wonderful to see Alex in a safe environment where he could casually and proudly introduce Elias to his family as his boyfriend, and they were welcoming and not the least bit surprised.

Then, when a drag queen (LaDiva Live) walked out to rehearse a song and was excited to see Alex, I was totally caught off guard, and I burst into tears, even though I didn't really know why I reacted like that. I guess just seeing a world where this wasn't anything controversial was just beautiful.

I was also moved by Elias's emotional coming out to his mom in the car with his ive grandfather sitting next to him, and his ultimately ive brother there too.

Okay, the film isn't perfect. I wasn't sure why Elias was so mad at his dad, though I figured that was just a teenager reacting to his perception of his father not accepting him, so I didn't question it all that much. Also, things seemed to resolve themselves a little too quickly and neatly, but I was glad that things worked out, so perhaps that's a nitpick when the film hits so much more than it misses.

Hello 1991!

I recently read Peter Ames Carlin's book The Name of This Band is R.E.M., and it got me listening to the band again. I've been a huge R.E.M. fan for nearly 40 years, but I haven't pulled out and watched these old videos from their Out of Time album in years. They were fun to revisit.

I also pulled out and watched R.E.M. Parallel with the videos from Automatic for the People and Monster, but I couldn't find a listing for that collection on letterboxd, so I'll include it here. That was fun too.

When Priest was released, I had been eager to see it. In 1995 there weren't all that many gay-themed films being released theatrically, so it was a big deal. It wasn't playing anywhere in Omaha, so my friend Tracy and I had to drive to the independent arthouse cinema in Lincoln to see it.

I liking it a lot. Over the years, however, I would read reviews of it or discussions about it and people seemed to think it was terrible. I couldn't the specifics of the film itself--only that I had liked it, so I was a little afraid to revisit it in case I had been completely wrong with my original impressions of the film.

Okay, so it's now 30 years later. Yesterday I watched The Boys of St. Vincent and as the credits rolled, Prime showed me other films I might like, and there was Priest. I thought it might be time to revisit it, so this morning I watched it.

I had given my memory of the film 4 stars. Today I give it 3 stars. I was toying with another half-star, but as the film dragged on and started to get more ridiculous, I stopped at 3.

It was all a bit much. Yes, Linus Roache is a cutie, but his Father Greg was kind of a dick, wasn't he? His moral dilemmas are of his own doing, in a way, so I had little patience for him. Thank goodness Tom Wilkinson was around to make things tolerable.

P.S. The film could have used more Cathy Tyson.

Watched on Saturday May 10, 2025.

What did I just watch?

I read The Nickel Boys novel 4 years ago, so I was interested when I heard there was a film version being made. The book was a tough read, but it was good.

When I heard that the film was shot from the protagonist's point of view, I wondered how that would work, though I thought, knowing the ending of the story, it might make things interesting, though I wasn't sure how the filmmakers would pull it off, so I was intrigued.

The POV perspective could have been a gimmick that wore out its welcome, but overall, it worked. Then, when the perspective changed from Elwood to Turner, it blew my mind--in a good way. The filmmaker showed us the same scene from two characters' perspectives. At first I thought that Elwood was using the same line on someone else that Turner had used on him, but then I realized, "Wait--that's Elwood we're looking at," meaning we were now getting Turner's perspective. A new window into this world opened up and it completely drew me in.

The changing perspectives were easy enough to follow, and the times where I had to determine whose point of view I was seeing just made me pay closer attention.

The subject matter is pretty upsetting with young boys and men being incarcerated for little to no reason and the lack of due process allowed them. The film was bleak in that regard, but I'd say it wasn't quite as bleak as the novel, but even so, though it is an excellent film, I don't know how soon I could revisit it.

I like A Prairie Home Companion. It is a smaller-scale Nashville, in some ways. It's not on the same level as Nashville, but it holds its own.

It has a great cast--yes, even Kevin Kline who feels like he's in a completely different film than everyone else. He's clearly enjoying himself, so I'm digging it too. And I could listen to Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep sitting in their dressing room telling stories all night long. And if Maya Rudolph wants to wander in now and then, I'm cool with it.

Virginia Madsen's angel almost works for me, and since it's Virginia Madsen, that helps. And having Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly hanging around doesn't hurt.

I also grew up in Minnesota, so I'm familiar with Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon and A Prairie Home Companion, even if I never listened to the show when I lived there. One of my parents' friends lent me Keillor's book Lake Wobegon Days in 1986. I still have it, but I've never read it.

Watched on Tuesday April 29, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday April 29, 2025.

Watched on Sunday April 27, 2025.

Watched on Saturday April 26, 2025.

Watched on Friday April 25, 2025.

I had been interested in The Room Next Door, knowing it was from Pedro Almodóvar and that it starred Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. The fact that it was Almodóvar's first English-language feature was neither here nor there. I was happy, I suppose, that it allowed for the casting of these two amazing actors, but I wondered if the language would affect the project overall. I didn't worry that much about it, however, because, again, it was Pedro Almodóvar and Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore.

When the film was released, the reviews made it sound like the film itself was nothing special but the two actresses were good and the real reason to watch the film.

Well, now I've seen the film, and I do think that Swinton and Moore are the reason to watch, but the film itself is interesting and worthwhile. It is mostly two women sitting around talking, but thank goodness it's these two women because I don't think they're capable of being uninteresting. Swinton was in David Fincher's The Killer for only mere minutes and it was mostly her sitting in a restaurant talking to Michael Fassbender, but she was the best thing in that film. So watching her sitting around and talking is still utterly fascinating.

Early on I did think some of the dialogue was, what? Stilted? On-the-nose? Scripted? Maybe a little. Sometimes I lose patience with films that use conversations that characters would have had long ago as a means of exposition. There was a little of that here too, but it was Swinton and Moore, so who cares? I did wonder if they thought some of the dialogue was clunky. I wondered if they agreed to do the film so they could work with Almodóvar and/or each other more than finding this to be a script they were dying (no pun intended, considering the subject of the film) to do. I also had to believe they may have offered suggestions if particular pieces of dialogue were extra clunky.

But I let that go and just enjoyed the film. Okay, "enjoy" might be the wrong word when we're talking about one woman dying from cancer and planning her own suicide.

The film was rather somber and dark, and it lacked Almodóvar's usual joy or humor though there were things here and there that I thought would have been funny if they had happened in any other Almodóvar film, but in this context, it wasn't humorous, or maybe I just didn't let myself be amused by it. And that doesn't mean things didn't work--because they did--they just hit differently.

But the performances, including that of John Turturro who shows up a couple of times as a former lover of both women, were great, and the film with its bright, bold colors was good. I liked it very much, though I wondered if I'd ever want to watch it again. The more I think about it, the more I think I would.

Benediction wasn't on my radar at all. Then earlier this week I got a notification from letterboxd letting me know that it was available on streaming. That meant I had put the film on my wishlist, though I ed nothing about why I did. I must have seen or read something about it and stuck it on my wishlist.

I looked and saw it was from Terence Davies, so that must have been part of why it caught my attention, though it clearly looked like it had a gay angle, so that would do it too.

I'm a little hit-or-miss with Davies. I had read a review years ago about The Long Day Closes where the writer said it was his all-time favorite gay film. I'm pretty sure I had heard of Davies at that point, but hadn't seen any of his work. I sought out and watched Long Day. I ended up giving it 4 stars, so I must have liked it, but I do thinking that it was a pretty non-gay film to be someone's favorite gay film.

Then I later watched A Quiet ion, partly for Davies, but mostly for Cynthia Nixon. I gave that film 3 stars. There were things or scenes that really were amazing, but overall, it just didn't go anywhere.

So today I went into Benediction with no knowledge of the subject or the cast (Jack Lowden and Jeremy Irvine) whose photo I saw in a still from the film.

It started out okay. I may have been an English major in college, but I wasn't familiar with Siegfried Sassoon or his friend Wilfred Owen, so maybe I skipped my lit class that week. I thought this was just a fictional story about a poet, but when we later meet Edith Sitwell, I thought, "Hey, I've heard of her. Is this a biopic?" Or was it just putting real historical figures into this fictional setting? I honestly wasn't quite sure, but when enough real people were referenced--Oscar Wilde, anyone?--I realized he must have been real. Who knew?

I liked the archival footage of World War I and the film felt like a period film, but then Davies would have the camera make self-conscious spins around the actors, and he'd use special effects to have the actors placed in front of different backgrounds. While it wasn't a horrible thing, it felt way out of place in a period film. It was just too contemporary or something.

He did use the trick of having the younger actors morph into their older selves a couple of times. It's a neat trick, though he did it with a bigger "wow" factor (for me, anyway) in A Quiet ion.

So the movie was okay, and then Sassoon was sent to a mental hospital to avoid a court martial after his anti-war stance as a soldier, and we see Julian Sands. It was a pleasant surprise to see him, though he didn't stick around that long.

I was even more pleasantly surprised when Sassoon's therapist turned out to be Ben Daniels. I loved their scenes together. They were just sitting and talking, but the back-and-forth dialogue was sharp, and I loved it. I was leaning toward 4.5 stars just from those scenes alone.

Later Sassoon just starts falling in love with assholes. I lost patience with that, though I suppose I was attracted to enough jerks in my life too, so who am I to judge?

Gay Sassoon marries a woman (Kate Phillips). To be honest, the way Lowden lit up around her was wonderful. Their chemistry beat anything he had going with the boys, though there was a similar spark in his interactions with Daniels.

We also flash forward to what I assume is the early 1960s, if Sassoon and his son attending a performance of Stop the World -- I Want to Get Off is any indication. I found those scenes interesting too. I could kind of see Lowden's Sassoon growing up to be Peter Capaldi's Sassoon.

I liked the film well enough, I suppose. I was ready for it to end, but there were some nice touches, and I liked the cast well enough--even the asshole boyfriends. I got a big kick out of Simon Russell Beale as an older family friend who takes young Sassoon under his wing and provides witty barbs about everyone around them.

Watched on Sunday April 13, 2025.

How did I completely miss this gem? I had never heard of it, though I was in college when it was released, so I should have known about it, but nope.

I saw a clip from it on X/Twitter last week and thought it was so ridiculous as to be fun. Little kids as conscience-free murderers. I recognized one of the kids (Billy Jayne, then known as Billy Jacoby) as the smart ass brother from Just One of the Guys. Another kid (K.C. Martel) looked familiar, but I couldn't where I knew him from, but I see it was from E.T. and Growing Pains. The little girl (Elizabeth Hoy) looked familiar too, but, again, I couldn't place her, but I see she did a lot of episodic TV back in the day, so I probably saw her there.

But I was intrigued, so I found it on Tubi, and, you know what? It is terrible, but it was kind of fun and, mercifully, under 90 minutes. Then there was the surprise of finding the wonderful Julie Brown playing the sexpot older sister of the little murderer girl. I had missed her name in the opening credits, and when she appeared, we didn't get a closeup on her face. We're watching her topless dance routine in her bedroom, so we get a full body shot. Later when she leaves the house, I saw her face and thought, "Wait, is that 'Just Say Julie'?" Yup, it sure was. Good for her.

And poor Susan Strasberg. This must have come at a career low point, but she was a name, as was José Ferrer, who, luckily for him, pops in and out a couple of times rather quickly, so he probably cashed the check and moved on.

I was surprised to find that the little girl's sheriff dad (Bert Kramer) had played one half of an older gay couple in The Confession, a short film I recently rewatched.

Okay, so don't look for logic or consistent character motivations. Just enjoy these horrible kids being horrible.

Watched on Sunday April 6, 2025.

Watched on Saturday April 5, 2025.

Watched on Saturday April 5, 2025.

I don't know why it took me so long to watch The Night of the Iguana. I saw a fantastic stage production of it 23 years ago, so I would think I would have been more interested in the film version. I bought a DVD box set of Tennessee Williams films a good 15 or more years ago, and it includes the film, so I had no excuse.

But I was talking with a friend of mine about Grayson Hall yesterday, and he told me she had been nominated for an Oscar, which surprised me. Then I saw it was for Iguana, so, of course, I had to watch the film tonight. Grayson is fine, but the revelation to me was Ava Gardner. Her performance is so real and so genuine and joyful, even with the sadness underneath it. Wow.

The whole film is pretty good, but Gardner is amazing.

I Saw the TV Glow was not on my radar at all. But I recently read someone's comment that this film was to them what All of Us Strangers was to others. And since Strangers resonates deeply with me, I was interested in seeing a film that resonated deeply for other people, hoping it might do the same for me.

Well, I have to say that Glow did not resonate deeply with me at all. All I could think as I watched was "Pacing, people, pacing!" There was no forward momentum to the film at all. And the dialogue felt scripted. It did nothing for me.

That said, I see all of the 4.5 and 5-star reviews for the film. So my half-star is for my response to the film, but I think that's great that it does seem to speak to a lot of people. I'm just not one of them. But that's okay--it's not all about me.

Aw, shucks. It's sweet and funny and it got me teary-eyed a couple of times. There are worse ways to spend a Friday afternoon where I left work early so I could catch a matinee.

Karan Soni is dorky cute and funny--and he's a doctor! Jonathan Groff is his awkwardly adorable self as well, so I was rooting for those two crazy kids.

Jokes on me, I guess.

I had avoided watching Queer, mostly because I feared I'd hate it. Luca Guadagnino is a little hit-or-miss for me. The first of his films I saw was Call Me By Your Name, and I loved it. It's in my Top 5 films. I've watched it 30 times.

The next thing I saw was We Are Who We Are, the TV series he did. I liked that a lot. I wouldn't say I loved it. If it had gotten a second season, I definitely would have watched it, but I wasn't all that bothered when it did not.

I avoided Suspiria, since it didn't interest me all that much. I did see Challengers and pretty much hated everything about it.

I was interested in Queer, partly because I had read the novel several years ago. It was a book I picked up when a local queer bookstore was going out of business. I don't much about the book other than it wasn't that interesting to me, but it was mercifully short.

I was also interested because it was Guadagnino, and it starred Daniel Craig. But then the reviews started coming out, and they were pretty all over the place, though my takeaway was that people seemed to think it was too something: too artsy, too loosely plotted, too stylized. I don't mind loose plots if they are interesting enough character studies, and art and style can work for me, though I was leery since Challengers was all style and none of it worked for me.

So, I saw it was now on Max, and I thought about watching it, mostly to get it out of the way.

Who knew that I'd think it was great? Because I did. The style totally worked for me. Visually, it was so beautiful and, for lack of a better word, interesting.

I loved the casting, seeing some great actors--Jason Schwartzman and Lesley Manville, in particular--in roles I wouldn't normally see them in, but in which they were fantastic. That was pretty cool. I also liked seeing Drew Droege in a much-too-small role.

Okay, it runs a little long, but I could live with that. It's also a film that I think is great, but I don't know that I'll want to watch it again--at least any time soon--but I thoroughly enjoyed it this time.

Timmy clearly chose to channel Cate Blanchett. Good move.

Okay, Okay, that was glib. I was planning to let that be my entire review. I meant it sincerely and not as a dig against Chalamet (or Blanchett), but then I thought there was more to say.

Timmy is just fine. I saw a lot of Chamalet coming through the performance--and that's a good thing. The only scene that felt weird, in relation to his performance, was when he follows Elle Fanning to the ferry in Newport, and they speak through a chain link fence. He felt like he was performing Dylan more than just acting in that scene. But I suppose that's a quibble since he acquits himself pretty well throughout.

For the most part, everyone acquits themselves pretty well. The only performance that felt like it was in a different film than everyone else was Dan Fogler as Dylan's manager. He was just a one-note cartoon, though in a late scene in a hotel when Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) visits to try to convince Dylan not to play his new stuff at Newport, Fogler kind of redeems himself in that scene.

Speaking of Seeger, Edward Norton is pretty good, and he's doing something other than his usual persona, though, I have to it, I thought he was trying to play Mr. Rogers more than anything.

I did like that they let song performances play out. That was nice. It felt like they may have cut several verses, but they didn't cut mid-song to a new scene. I appreciated that.

So, I liked it, and they did a good job overall. I tried not to compare it to I'm Not There, since they really are different animals.

Watched on Friday March 28, 2025.

I'd nearly forgotten about Heaven Help Us until I saw @christopherl's review here last night. Thanks, Christopher! It made me look to see if it was streaming anywhere, and there it was on Max, so I watched it this morning.

I probably hadn't seen the film since the 80s when I either caught it on cable or, more likely, I rented it. I didn't too much about it other than the basic premise of it taking place in an all-boys Catholic school--though I did a nude swimming scene--but I ed thinking it was nothing special, but not the worst either.

Then a few years ago when Andrew McCarthy's memoir brats came out, I read it, and in it he talked about making Heaven Help Us. His recollection of the film being a sweet coming-of-age story that the studios decided needed to be more like Porky's matched what little I ed about the film.

At the time I read his book, I looked to see if the film was streaming anywhere so that I could revisit it, but I didn't find it and forgot about it again until last night.

It's more of a 3-star film, but the good stuff, including anything with Mary Stuart Masterson, forced my hand to add an extra half-star for Effort. There is something of a through-line to the story--at least at first, though it becomes rather episodic with scenes that are added for laughs, such as when Williams (Stephen Geoffreys), the chronic masturbator, assists with Mass at a girls' school and is so overwhelmed that he es out. These scenes don't further the story all that much, but they're not dealbreakers either.

I had forgotten all who was in the film until I started watching it again today. It has an impressive cast: an underused Donald Sutherland and John Heard, along with Andrew McCarthy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kevin Dillon, Patrick Dempsey. Dempsey appears in many scenes as part of Dillon's friends/followers, but he barely has two lines, so it isn't surprising I had forgotten about him. Even Philip Bosco shows up. I didn't him, but either I didn't know who he was back then, or, more likely, it was due to his big scene being that aforementioned nude swimming scene. I suppose my attention was elsewhere at the time.

I had ed Dillon--it might have been my introduction to him. I just ed him as the poor man's version of his brother Matt. Poor guy, that characterization has probably followed him all of his life. He's not bad here, though I tired of his use of the word "faggot" from the start. He wasn't the screenwriter, so I don't blame him. I hadn't ed the overuse of that particular word, but, hey, back in the 80s, it wasn't on the forbidden list. And, I suppose it gives us a window into his character.

It was worth revisiting, but now I'm good.

Watched on Saturday March 22, 2025.

Watched on Saturday March 22, 2025.

Watched on Saturday March 22, 2025.

Adolescence wasn't on my radar until friends started posting on Facebook about it and its brilliance. I recognized Stephen Graham whose work I've liked in other things: The Irishman, Boardwalk Empire to name a few, so I figured I'd watch it at some point.

I was also intrigued by descriptions of each episode of the series being filmed in one continuous take. With my background in theatre, I was eager to see how that worked out.

This morning I watched the first episode, and I thought it was fantastic. I was impressed by the quality of the acting: it was so naturalistic and real. I loved the way the camera followed people and moved seamlessly into the next scene. I marveled at the blocking and choreography and how it was planned out.

So, while I was drawn into the story and the characters, I was also practically giddy over the execution. I wondered how they rehearsed this thing. Did they rehearse it like a play, working up to running each episode in its entirety without stopping? Did they film the rehearsals as an insurance policy? Was each episode really done in a single take? It looked like it, though at the end of the second episode when the camera leaves the school and a drone shot flies over the town to the father laying flowers at the site of the murder, would it even be possible to do that in one shot? I suppose there was some great editing to make any edits invisible, but it was damn good any way you look at it.

The first episode really hit me with its humanity. We see a 13-year-old boy accused of murder and taken into custody. Usually the police and other folks involved in the booking are rather one-note, showing aggression toward the suspect. Here, each person--from the arresting officers to the officer at intake, and the public defender--is human and treats the boy humanely, explaining to him and his family what is happening and what to expect. The episode moved forward with fantastic pacing and momentum. I was drawn in and hanging on every word and every moment. Perhaps I was paying closer attention because the characters' accents were tricky for my ear. I may have missed a line or two, but I got the gist of things just from the actions. I contemplated turning on the subtitles, but I was so focused on the characters and the story and the acting that I didn't want subtitles getting in my way.

The second episode takes us to the boy's school. It's pretty good too, though it didn't have the same forward momentum as the first episode. That's not to say it doesn't keep moving--because it does--but I suppose it had more ground to cover. We were introduced to the friends of the accused, and the best friend of the victim, along with the son of DI Bascombe (Ashley Walters). I wasn't familiar with Walters before this, but, he's really good. He's tough, but his humanity shines through beautifully. His partner (Faye Marsay) is pretty good too.

My favorite episode might be the third, though the first ep is right up there. In this episode, Jamie (Owen Cooper), the accused, meets with a therapist (Erin Doherty). Cooper is wonderful in what's really more of a one act play than a film. He goes on an emotional journey in that hour with never a false note. Doherty has the less flashy role, but she grounds the scene and plays an excellent counterbalance to Cooper. I was hoping that there is rehearsal footage out there somewhere where I could watch the process for putting this compelling episode together.

The fourth--and final--episode switched gears and focused on Jamie's family and the effect his actions have had on them. It surprised me a little, to be honest, but it was great to have this episode as a way of coming to an ending. Graham, along with Christine Tremarco as his wife and Amelie Pease as his daughter, act the shit out of this episode without going over the top. It gets intense, but it always felt real.

My only criticism is that I wished we learned a little more about what happened with Jamie's friends and with the young woman who was the victim's best friend Jade (Fatima Bojang). There seemed to be more there than we saw. Was it necessary to know? Maybe not, but I wanted to know--especially with Jade.

I looked at my previous review of Tommy, and I found that much of what I thought about saying now was what I already said 5 years ago when I last watched the film.

This time I watched the new Shout Factory! 50th Anniversary edition. I can't believe it's been 50 years. My main interest in the film when it was released was Elton John as the Pinball Wizard. I had no knowledge of the story itself, and though I knew who The Who was, I had no knowledge of their own "Tommy" album. I was just a big Elton John fan and wanted to see him.

My friend Patti, another Elton John fan, and I both bought the film soundtrack album, and we listened to it over and over. By the time I saw the film, I knew all of the songs and all of the lyrics. Watching now, I could still sing along with the entire film. I spared my cats the pain of me singing, and I just said the lyrics in my head, but I was quietly playing every role.

I had to chuckle because, only knowing the lyrics from the songs, I didn't know what it was that Tommy saw when his mother (Ann-Margret) asks, "What about the boy? He saw it all!" I had no idea what little Tommy had seen. I assumed that maybe it was that he saw Mom in bed with Oliver Reed, though I wasn't sure why that would be enough to render him deaf, dumb and blind. So when I saw the film and actually saw what he saw, it made more sense to me.

Roger Daltrey's Adonis belt also left an impression on this 12-year-old gay boy. When he was in his little loincloth during the Acid Queen sequence, that was where my attention went. I was somewhat amazed by his lean, sinewy torso in general. I was almost put off, actually, since it was so defined and not like most of the guys I knew. But that belt? Wow.

And though I had come for Elton John--and he didn't disappoint--my strongest takeaway was how great Ann-Margret was. I was hooked. She remains my favorite reason for watching the film. I still get chills when she sings "Smash the Mirror," though I could do without the sound effects when she whips her hair around. But who cares? Her scene writhing around in the beans may have earned her that Oscar nomination, but it's "Smash the Mirror" that clinched it for me.

I first watched The Confession over 20 years ago when the Boys to Men short film collection was released on DVD. I thought it was okay, but it didn't do all that much for me.

It's the story of an older gay couple dealing with one of the men being, apparently, critically ill, and the other being his caretaker.

Joseph (Bert Kramer), the sick man, wants a priest (Christopher Liebe) to hear his confession before he dies, but Caesar, the caretaking partner (Tom Fitzpatrick), is against it as it negates their 35-year relationship when Joseph feels he needs forgiveness for being gay.

When I first saw the film, I thought of Caesar as mostly an annoying bitchy queen character. While that characterization hasn't entirely left me, maybe now that I'm older--and pushing the age of these characters--I understand better where Caesar is coming from, and perhaps I have overcome some of my own internalized homophobia that would make me so critical of Caesar.

Now I see both sides of the argument: I see why Caesar would be hurt by Joseph wanting to confess, and I understand Joseph's need to confess. I side more with Caesar, but the film is pretty even-handed in its depiction of the situation.

Watched on Sunday March 16, 2025.

Is 4.5 stars too much for a short film? It's hard to rate shorts, but this one works for me. It's short enough that it doesn't overstay its welcome, but it is long enough to actually get me interested in the characters--or at least one of them.

The Mountain King is the story of a cute guy reading on the beach when a somewhat endearing hustler shows up and plops down next to him and things get interesting.

It probably helps that the cute guy (John Sloan) is totally the kind of guy who gets my attention. It also plays into the tried-and-true straight-but-curious thing. It taps into something where the gay audience hopes the straight guy goes for it--and here he does. And he doesn't end up beating up the gay guy to save face (and his heterosexual credentials). I can dig it.

Crush is one of my favorite gay shorts. It's nothing special in some ways, but I find it totally adorable. It's the story of Robbie, a gay teen (Brett Chukerman) spending the summer at his grandmother's house. A younger neighborhood girl (Ema Tuennerman) develops a crush on him as he develops a crush on another boy (Weston Mueller).

As a former gay teen myself, I can relate to some of the feelings Robbie has. And he got a kiss out of it. That didn't happen to me back then.

This has long been one of my favorite collections of gay-themed shorts. I give it 4 stars, which might be high if I were to average my ratings for the individual films, but the two films I really like help to pull the others up.

Crush - 4 stars
One of my favorite gay shorts. It's nothing special, but I find it totally adorable. Gay teen with a crush. And an annoying but endearing female friend with her own crush.

The Mountain King - 4.5 stars
It helps that one of the actors (John Sloan) is totally my type (back in the day). It also plays into the whole straight-but-curious thing.

. . . lost - 1 star
I'm sure this was included only because nude, blandly hot guys having sex might help sell the collection. It's just a mercifully brief softcore porn short with its "edgy" ending. Meh.

The Confession - 3 stars
I probably like--or appreciate--this more now than I did 24 years ago. It's about an elderly gay couple. I'm much closer to their age now than I was then.

Watched on Saturday March 15, 2025.

I brought up Netflix this morning to see what might be new. This documentary came up fast. I thought, "Seriously? Another Manson doc?" I had to check the release date, figuring this must be an old doc that's been resurrected. Nope. It's new. And why not? It seems like every true crime psychopath gets a documentary now. I looked to see the run time.

If it was a multi-part drawn-out series, I was ing. It was roughly 90 minutes. And I saw Errol Morris' name, so I thought maybe it would be a cut above. So I watched it.

It was okay. I was kind of annoyed by Tom O'Neill who seemed to be hoping for some conspiracy behind it all. Thankfully, I had never heard of him or his book before.

Some of the retelling and the archive footage was interesting enough, though I had seen the Diane Sawyer interview footage with the Manson girls when it originally aired years ago, but it wasn't a chore to revisit it. Did we need yet another rehashing of Manson and friends? This one promised some new previously unknown information (or something like that). The revelations weren't that revealing. But, yes, I watched it, so who am I to criticize?

Is Light of Day a 5-star film? Maybe not, but to me it is. Or at least 4.5 stars. So much of it resonates with me for different reasons. Watching it today, for the first time in probably 30 years, I could see some of the flaws that I was blind to before, but so what? Everything I loved and everything amazing and oh-so-personal about it was still there and came right back to me.

My history with the film starts well before I ever saw the film, and, in fact, before the film was even made. Bear with me as I try to sort things out, as much of it happened 40 years ago, and I didn’t necessarily consider the significance of it at the time.

In the 80s I was a big fan of Michael J. Fox. It started with his role as Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties. He was good, and he was adorable, and I probably had a crush on him, though I would have denied it mostly because I couldn’t have let me see that about myself, both because I thought I was too old to have a crush on a TV star, and because it was on another guy. But there was something about him beyond his crack comic timing and general cuteness.

I noticed that he seemed to have stronger chemistry with the other guys on the show—more than with the women who were supposed to be his love interests. He seemed more comfortable with them physically, often touching the other men affectionately. Was I reading into it? Probably. I was probably seeing something that wasn’t really there, but it was something I watched for and noticed.

I started reading every interview and every magazine article about him. I had even started writing him a fan letter. I don’t know that I would have actually sent it, but it was a way of showing my affection for him, I suppose. A friend of mine was at my apartment and he found the letter and started reading it. I was mortified that I had been “found out,” and I snatched it away from him. I probably threw it away after that. I don’t for sure.

I an interview—I think it was in Rolling Stone—when Fox was on a vacation in Hawaii and he talked about projects, including Light of Day and The Secret of My Success. If I correctly, he talked about and showed the reporter a ring that Wayne Gretzky had given him. He also talked about a girl he was dating. I believe he was on a phone call with her as the interviewer was in the hotel room with him.

The details are fuzzy after all this time, but my impression was that this guy was closer to his male friends—who gave him rings—than to his unnamed girlfriend who hadn’t even gone on vacation with him apparently. I thought maybe he was like me in that I felt closer to some of my male friends than to my female friends. I couldn’t put a name on that, of course. I wasn’t ready.

In spring 1986 I was living in South Florida, but my father was in the last stages of terminal colon cancer. When the end seemed imminent, I flew home to Minnesota to be with my dad and my family. I had a 4-hour layover in O’Hare, and I was just sitting around waiting when a guy in a trench coat, dark glasses and a hat, walked past my gate, walking quickly. I thought the guy looked like Fox. I looked more closely and realized that it, in fact, was he.

I ed reading somewhere that he was flying to Chicago to start work on Light of Day. I looked around and no one seemed to notice him, though he was pretty unassuming, so why would they notice? I got up and started following him from a safe distance to see where he was going. It didn’t take long before I asked myself what I was doing. I was too old to be a fan boy—I was 23—and I didn’t know what I would do if he saw me, and I didn’t want him to think I was a stalker, so I turned around and went back to my gate and sat down. I guess it was enough to know that I had seen him.

I had pretty much forgotten the incident, as my father ed away shortly after that and life resumed, but when the film was released, I was eager to see it. I was interested in Fox’s performance, of course, but I thought it was cool that Joan Jett was in it too. Another draw was that it was written and directed by Paul Schrader, whose work I was fascinated by due to his relationship to the Christian Reformed Church.

I wasn’t raised in the CRC, but my family moved to a new town when I was in high school and I ended up in a Christian high school d with the CRC. I ended up at a CRC college as well. I liked it well enough, but I always felt like an outsider there since I wasn’t from that background. At the time I was torn between thinking I was supposed to think like everyone at the school and feeling that they were a little too "flee-the-world" for me.

Then I found out that the guy who had written Taxi Driver had also gone to a CRC college, so I was fascinated by how a guy with that conservative background came to write such edgy stuff. He wrote and directed Hardcore which actually dealt with people from that world, and I was even more fascinated. Here was someone else who was apparently struggling with his faith--or reacting or responding to it, more accurately--though I wouldn’t say I was struggling, exactly, so much as evaluating.

So, on top of it being a Michael J. Fox film, it was a film about a rock and roll guy with a religious mother—played by Gena Rowlands no less. What’s not to love? I went to see it on its opening weekend and then went back for the next four weekends. I think it was out of the cinema after that or I probably would have gone back a few more times.

Something about that film resonated with me big-time. I think Fox and Jett are pretty good, and Rowlands is great too. It doesn’t hurt to have Jason Miller playing Fox’s father as well. And then we get Michael McKean in a dramatic role. I knew him as Lenny of “Lenny & Squiggy” on Laverne & Shirley, so that was cool. His wife was played by Cherry Jones, though at that time she was a new face to me. Who knew what an acting great she’d become?

It wasn’t a huge part of the film, but I also noted how Fox’s character in the film dated a couple of different women, but they were all vapid, one-note girls who disappeared quickly. It told me he wasn’t serious about dating a woman—just like me. I didn’t consciously think about those things, but there was something that felt that he was like me—not that he was gay, but that he just was closer to his guy friends, and he didn't quite fit in. I mean, I certainly wasn’t gay. (Yeah, right. But denial was strong in me back then.) I didn’t want to date Fox or his character; I just wanted to be his best friend. And, yes, it makes me laugh to look back at my own cluelessness at the time, but hey, I was young and I wasn’t in a place where being gay would have been ed. Did I mention that I was teaching at a conservative Christian school at the time? I wasn’t hiding my homosexuality from the world; I was hiding it from myself.

Light of Day isn’t a gay film at all. But I still related to Fox’s character's situation. It’s hard to explain.

I hadn’t seen the film in decades since it has never had a proper DVD or Blu-ray release. I assume music rights for songs in the film are a big reason for the holdup. I had a VHS copy of it that I recorded off HBO, but I haven’t had a VCR in years. So when I saw that Prime had a standard definition version available to rent for 99 cents, I decided to watch it again, hoping it held up for me. The film looked like a pan-and-scan VHS copy, so it wasn’t that great, but the film itself still was totally great. Specific lines of dialogue and scenes and even gestures made by the various characters all came back to me and pulled me back into 1987 and who I was and how I felt back then. And that was amazing. And so is this film.

When The Secret of My Success came out later that year, I liked it a lot, but it didn’t resonate with me the way that Light of Day had. I wonder now if part of that is because Fox’s character in Secret was clearly heterosexual. Yeah, yeah, his character in Light of Day was straight too, but not so clearly. There was enough ambiguity in his sexuality for me to fill in the gaps with my own subtext. Was I reading into it? Maybe, but so what? Back then gay audiences had to find kindred spirits and representation where we could—even if it was merely projection.

“Fellas, I don't recognize the right of this committee to ask me these kind of questions. And furthermore, you can all go fuck yourselves.”

And happy birthday, Zero Mostel. You're great in this film.

Watched on Friday April 5, 2013.

Watched with cast commentary.

For Miss Yvonne, Lynne Marie Stewart

I had watched The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway over a decade ago, and I liked it well enough, but I didn't think it held up to the original version from the 1980s.

I had revisited the original in 2023, shortly after Paul Reubens had died, and so, after learning of Lynne Marie Stewart's ing last Friday, I decided to rewatch the Broadway production in her honor.

It lacks something that the original had, I suppose, but I still loved it. Maybe it's the nostalgia factor. Maybe it is seeing those who are no longer with us, including Reubens, Stewart and John Paragon, along with the memory of Phil Hartman's Kap'n Karl from the original, but I teared up when Miss Yvonne made her entrance, and I still cry when Pee-wee flies.

I saw Igby Goes Down when it was originally released. I liked it well enough, but didn't love it. It almost worked. To be fair, it has a lot of good things going for it--including a great cast--but sometimes it felt it was trying too hard or that it wasn't quite as edgy or cool as it thought it was.

I had been interested in revisiting the film, so I watched it this morning. Early on I thought it was a little too on-Holden-Caulfield's-nose, and that feeling came back now and then throughout the film.

That said, I still like it, and I could probably go a full 4 stars, but then something would happen that made me think, "Nah, 3.5 is enough."

I was disappointed that things often didn't quite feel earned. I didn't care as much about the characters as I thought I should--or that I wanted to. I couldn't quite get there.

I especially felt that way with the relationship between Igby (Kieran Culkin) and his dad (Bill Pullman). Maybe it was because in most of their scenes, we weren't seeing Kieran and Bill: it was Kieran's younger brother Rory playing a younger Igby. There was a disconnect, I guess. Rory and Pullman were fine, but they weren't given much to do in their brief flashback scenes, and so it wasn't that devastating to see Pullman get into the shower in his pajamas and freak out and break the shower door while young Igby brushed his teeth. Sorry, it didn't work.

What does work, I think, is Kieran as teenage Igby. He hadn't quite perfected his wise-ass-but-wise persona yet, but he's good. Also good is Amanda Peet. Claire Danes isn't bad either, though this time around it was hard to get around her hair. I kept wondering what product she'd used in it to get that chunky texture.

Body Double hasn't aged all that well, or it doesn't hold up, or maybe it never did.

My introduction to the film came with the September/October 1984 issue of Film Comment. Melanie Griffith as Holly Body graced the cover. I was a De Palma fan after Carrie, so I was interested in the film. I didn't know who Griffith was, at the time, but from the photos with her platinum blonde hair and her heavily made-up eyes, I assumed she was this tough-as-nails, hard-edged character.

I didn't see the film until it ended up on HBO probably a year or so after its theatrical release. I liking the film and being pleasantly surprised to find out that Griffith's character was nothing like I had assumed. She was wonderful with her soft, innocent voice. She was just so normal, for lack of a better word. Yet Holly was who she was and had no illusions about it and no problem with it. I liked that as well.

I don't think I saw the film again until nearly a dozen years ago when the Twilight Time Blu-ray was released. I snatched it up and couldn't wait to watch the film. It was cheesier than I ed, but I still loved Griffith.

I felt like watching it again tonight, and, yeah, it's still cheesy. Three-and-a-half stars might be generous, but Griffith's performance is worth at least an extra half-star.

And to be fair, there are some nice touches, including a Frankie Goes to Hollywood music video stuffed into the middle of the film, so it's worth a watch every few years.

I loved this movie!

I had figured I'd see it eventually. I love Julia Louis-Dreyfus and I've liked well enough the other Nicole Holofcener films that I've seen. I read a really good review when it was first released that made me even more interested, but then I never got around to watching it. This morning, however, I thought I'd scroll through Netflix to see if anything caught my attention, and I saw You Hurt My Feelings. I immediately stopped looking and started watching.

I fucking loved it. I found myself laughing out loud several times throughout the movie even though it isn't "that kind" of comedy. These characters--and their relationships--felt so real--foibles and all.

We see Beth (Louis-Dreyfus) and her husband Don (Tobias Menzies) in a lived-in marriage where the love is evident even if they still can be polite about gifts they hate.

Then there is the relationship between Beth and her sister Sarah (Michaela Watkins), complete with more humor and digs, but always immediately returning to love. Throw in a wonderful Jeannie Berlin as their mother and, again, they capture the dynamics where family can criticize but then immediately be nice and no one bats an eye. Doesn't that ring true to you? It sure does to me.

Add real-life couple David Cross and Amber Tamblyn as a married couple in couples therapy with therapist Don, and what's not to love? And through it all they kept their senses of humor and the love. The characters grow a bit, but not all that much, but again, that's what I loved about it too.

I fucking loved this movie.

Watched on Sunday February 16, 2025.

Watched on Saturday February 15, 2025.

The films in my Blu-ray collection. In no particular order for now.

• East of Eden
• Giant
• Rebel Without a Cause
• Shadows
• Faces
• A Woman Under the Influence
• The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
• Opening Night
• Slacker
• Fanny and Alexander

...plus 501 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Robert Altman films I have seen. I'll try to rank them. No promises

1. Nashville
2. Streamers
3. Brewster McCloud
4. Fool for Love
5. A Prairie Home Companion
6. The Player
7. Gosford Park
8. The Long Goodbye
9. M*A*S*H
10. Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

...plus 7 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Pedro Almodóvar films I have seen. Ranked. This might be tough.

1. Pain and Glory
2. All About My Mother
3. Volver
4. The Room Next Door
5. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
6. Bad Education
7. Law of Desire
8. Live Flesh
9. Dark Habits
10. Talk to Her

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films with performances that resonate with me for one reason or another. YMMV.

• Call Me by Your Name

  Timothée Chalamet
  Michael Stuhlbarg

• Brokeback Mountain

  Heath Ledger

• All of Us Strangers

  Andrew Scott. Damn. Claire Foy, Jamie Bell and Paul Mescal give great performances as well.

• Running on Empty

  Christine Lahti

• A Woman Under the Influence

  Gena Rowlands

• Boys Don't Cry

  Chloë Sevigny

• Ordinary People

  Mary Tyler Moore
  Timothy Hutton

• Tales of the City

  Marcus D'Amico

• The Accused

  Jodie Foster

• Interiors

  Geraldine Page

...plus 55 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Blu-rays & DVDs I own but have never gotten around to watching yet. H/T to @PossiblyZach for the inspiration.

• Born Yesterday

  I have seen the movie, but I haven't watched the Blu-ray. I did a blind-buy on the Blu-ray and before I had watched it, I was visiting friends who had recorded the film and we watched it then. I didn't like it all that much, so I haven't rushed to watch my copy.

• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

  I've seen Nightmare 3 before, but I bought this twofer Blu-ray for Nightmare 2, which I've watched a few times, though I suppose some day I'll watch this one too.

• Into the Woods

  I had this on DVD and had watched it, but I lent it to a friend and never got it back. I bought it on Blu-ray, but haven't gotten around to watching it.

• The Driver
• Pulp Fiction

  I've seen the film--just not my Blu-ray.

• Ran

  Saw it at the theater in 1985. Picked up the Blu-ray a few years ago and it's gathering dust on my shelf.

• La Mission
• Broadway Danny Rose

  I've seen this many times, but I haven't watched my Blu-ray.

• The Town

  I have no idea why I bought this. It must have been really cheap.

• Last Tango in Paris

...plus 46 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

And an update: short films I didn't like all that much are now included.
Another update: some of them aren't gay at all, but they're short.

1. Pool Days
2. I Don't Want to Go Back Alone
3. The Mountain King
4. Crush
5. I Want Your Love
6. The Disco Years
7. Latch Key
8. Song of Love
9. Time Off
10. Raw Love

...plus 99 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

"100" is a totally arbitrary number. This is a list of my favorite films. When all is said and done there may be fewer than 100 or there may be more. I guess we'll see.

• Parting Glances
• All of Us Strangers
• Call Me by Your Name
• Brokeback Mountain
• Ordinary People
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• Nashville
• All the President's Men
• The Last Picture Show
• Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss

...plus 92 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Todd Haynes films I have seen. I'll attempt to rank them.

1. Carol
2. I'm Not There
3. May December
4. Safe
5. The Velvet Underground
6. Wonderstruck
7. Far from Heaven
8. Poison
9. Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
10. Dottie Gets Spanked

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Poseidon Adventure

  This was the first movie I saw for a second time at the theater. 10-year-old me loved it.

• Nine to Five

  I was a freshman in college and one of the theaters had Dollar Night on Mondays, so my friends and I went to this one several times. I lost count, but at least 3 or 4 times.

• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

  I know I saw this one at least twice at the theater, though there may have been a third time. I honestly don't .

• Silkwood

  I saw this one at least twice, though I might have sneaked in a third viewing--I honestly don't after all these years. I know I went a second time because I was tasked with writing a review of it for my college paper, so I went back to see it, armed with a notebook and paper. I'm afraid to go back and find my old review for fear that it is awful. The writing, I mean. I know I liked the film.

• Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• Hannah and Her Sisters

  I was living near Fort Lauderdale when HANNAH was released. I was a huge Woody Allen fan, and I saw that it was opening in Miami a week sooner than in Fort Lauderdale, so I drove to Miami to catch it on opening night. I loved it and caught it in Fort Lauderdale when it opened there a week later. I might have caught it a third time, but I honestly don't .

• Light of Day

  I saw this one five times at the theater. There was something about it that kept drawing me back.

• U2: Rattle and Hum

  3 times

  Many years later, a local theater showed it as part of a midnight movie series, and I was so excited to see it on the big screen again. The sound, however, was messed up, so the audience didn't get the full effect, which was disappointing.

• Alien Nation

  Twice--and not because I liked it. It was okay, but not one I would have gone to a second time. However, a group of us planned to see U2 RATTLE AND HUM that night, but when we got to the theater everyone else suddenly wanted to see ALIEN NATION, so I went along even though I had already seen it.

• The Accused

  I'm not 100% sure I saw this one twice at the theater, but I am ing the opening where a woman runs out of a bar screaming, and what a haunting image that was, that now I'm thinking I did go back to see it again.

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

These are the films I have watched over and over. I don't have an exact count for most of them, but I know it's been at least 10 times (or close to it) and often many more than that.

• Parting Glances
• All of Us Strangers

  19 & counting

• Call Me by Your Name

  29 & counting

• Brokeback Mountain
• Ordinary People
• Airplane!
• The Big Chill
• The Crying Game
• Grease
• Run Lola Run

...plus 12 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Spielberg-directed films I have seen. More or less ranked.

1. The Post
2. Lincoln
3. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
4. Saving Private Ryan
5. Schindler's List
6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
7. Raiders of the Lost Ark
8. Jaws
9. The Fabelmans
10. Munich

...plus 12 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

H/T to alch_bass for the idea for this list.
I arranged them in the order of their Criterion spine number.

• The 400 Blows
• The Silence of the Lambs
• Brazil
• The Night Porter
• Autumn Sonata
• The Third Man
• Chasing Amy
• Kwaidan
• Written on the Wind
• Cries and Whispers

...plus 96 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The films I have seen which have won Best Actress.

• It Happened One Night
• Gone with the Wind
• Born Yesterday
• A Streetcar Named Desire
• The Three Faces of Eve
• The Miracle Worker
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
• The Lion in Winter
• Funny Girl

...plus 38 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The films I have seen that have won the Oscar for Best Actor

• It Happened One Night
• The Philadelphia Story
• The Best Years of Our Lives
• All the King's Men
• On the Waterfront
• The King and I
• The Bridge on the River Kwai
• Ben-Hur
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• My Fair Lady

...plus 32 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films that made me think, "YES! That is exactly how it was!" I'm talking films that tapped into my sense memories and made me feel how I felt "back then" because they captured that time and place so perfectly.

• Over the Edge
• Dazed and Confused
• Edge of Seventeen
• The Wise Kids
• A Woman Under the Influence

Woody Allen Films I've Seen, Ranked (more or less)

1. Hannah and Her Sisters
2. Annie Hall
3. Manhattan
4. Interiors
5. Radio Days
6. Husbands and Wives
7. Crimes and Misdemeanors
8. Midnight in Paris
9. Blue Jasmine
10. Alice

...plus 24 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Just like the name says: Andrew Haigh films I have seen.

1. All of Us Strangers
2. Looking: The Movie
3. Weekend
4. 45 Years
5. Lean on Pete
6. Greek Pete
7. Five Miles Out
8. Oil
9. Cahuenga Blvd.

My DVD Collection. In no particular order. And some weren't in the database, so they're not on this list. Whatever.

• Tales of the City
• More Tales of the City
• Further Tales of the City
• Alien
• Aliens
• Alien³
• Alien Resurrection
• The Accused
• Adored

  I won this DVD in some online contest. I haven't watched it. It doesn't look particularly good.

• Adventures of Félix

...plus 356 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Gay-themed, gay-related, gay-something films I have seen and would recommend for one reason or another. Some are better than others. In no particular order, for the most part.

• Parting Glances
• All of Us Strangers
• Call Me by Your Name
• Brokeback Mountain
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• Moonlight
• Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss
• Weekend
• Rebel Without a Cause
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

...plus 172 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The films of Richard Linklater that I have seen. Sort of ranked.

1. Dazed and Confused
2. Boyhood
3. Before Midnight
4. Before Sunset
5. School of Rock
6. Everybody Wants Some!!
7. Before Sunrise
8. Slacker
9. Hit Man
10. Bernie

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The films of Alexander Payne that I have seen. Ranked.

1. Nebraska
2. About Schmidt
3. The Descendants
4. The Holdovers
5. Election
6. Citizen Ruth
7. Sideways

I ranked them, but there's some wiggle room.

1. GoodFellas
2. After Hours
3. The Irishman
4. The Age of Innocence
5. Hugo
6. Taxi Driver
7. The Departed
8. The Wolf of Wall Street
9. Raging Bull
10. Casino

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The films of David Fincher that I have seen. Ranked, more or less.

1. Fight Club
2. Se7en
3. The Social Network
4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
5. Panic Room
6. Zodiac
7. The Killer
8. Alien³
9. Gone Girl

Noah Baumbach films I have seen, ranked.

1. The Squid and the Whale
2. Margot at the Wedding
3. Marriage Story
4. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
5. s Ha
6. De Palma
7. White Noise

Hitchcock films I have watched, more or less ranked.

• North by Northwest
• The Birds
• Rear Window
• Psycho
• Vertigo
• Rope
• The Man Who Knew Too Much
• The Trouble with Harry
• Family Plot
• Strangers on a Train

...plus 7 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Hal Ashby films I have seen, ranked.

1. Harold and Maude
2. Coming Home
3. Being There
4. The Last Detail
5. Bound for Glory
6. Shampoo

Gus Van Sant films I have seen. Ranked. This might be tough.

1. My Own Private Idaho
2. Milk
3. Elephant
4. Last Days
5. To Die For
6. Paranoid Park
7. Good Will Hunting
8. Mala Noche
9. Drugstore Cowboy
10. Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The films of Stephen Cone I have watched. They're good.

• The Wise Kids
• Henry Gamble's Birthday Party
• Princess Cyd

The films of Tom McCarthy that I have seen. Ranked.

1. Win Win
2. The Station Agent
3. Spotlight
4. The Visitor

Eytan Fox Films I have seen. Ranked.

1. Walk on Water
2. Yossi
3. Sublet
4. The Bubble
5. Time Off
6. Yossi & Jagger

John Waters films I have seen, ranked.

1. Female Trouble
2. Desperate Living
3. Pecker
4. Polyester
5. Serial Mom
6. Multiple Maniacs
7. Pink Flamingos
8. Hairspray
9. Cry-Baby
10. Mondo Trasho

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Silence of the Lambs
• Something Wild
• Rachel Getting Married
• Stop Making Sense
• Philadelphia
• Melvin and Howard
• Swimming to Cambodia
• Married to the Mob
• Ricki and the Flash

Jim Jarmusch films I have seen. I really haven't seen that many, have I? I need to remedy that.

• Stranger Than Paradise
• Broken Flowers
• Only Lovers Left Alive
• Paterson
• Night on Earth

• Call Me by Your Name
• Ordinary People
• Win Win
• The Sum of Us
• Kramer vs. Kramer

Movies with great phone call scenes

• Call Me by Your Name
• Peggy Sue Got Married
• Serial Mom
• Almost Famous
• Dog Day Afternoon
• Parting Glances
• Brokeback Mountain
• Run Lola Run
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• The Silence of the Lambs

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Call Me by Your Name
• Ordinary People
• Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Angels in America
• The Big Chill
• sex, lies, and videotape