Films of 2022:Q3
In addition to these films, I also watched the first 5 seasons of Better Call Saul. It was a bit uneven but fairly entertaining. Better than those typically overrated middlebrow “quality TV” series that are so beloved by critics.
2022:Q3 films
Newer Films:
Tintoretto: A Rebel in Venice (Italy) 3.7 Perhaps my favorite art film, although as a documentary I’ve overrated it here. Too much talking heads and not enough of Tintoretto’s paintings. But I feel lucky to live in a world where this sort of film is even possible. I’ve been to Venice twice, and will likely never get back again. This is the next best thing. As soon as it ended, I watched it a second time.
Tintoretto had a sign in his studio saying “The drawing of Michelangelo and the color of Titian”. He’s arguably one of the 10 best painters that ever lived, and probably the least famous of that group.
Hermitage: The Power of Art (Italy/Russia) 3.6 Italian documentary that spends half its time on the Hermitage Museum and the other half on the history of St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg is number one on my list of cities I have yet to see. Because it’s increasingly doubtful I’ll ever get there, I thought I should at least watch this film. The film has some stunning nighttime views of the city.
The same Italian company produced a documentary on the Prado, narrated by Jeremy Irons. Unfortunately, you’d need a documentary 10 times as long to even come close to doing justice to that collection.
Fire of Love (Canadian) 3.5 Two people who got far more out of life than I ever will.
The True Adventures of Raoul Walsh: (US) 3.5 What a life!
Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (US) 3.2 Fernando Pessoa once wrote a poem that can be translated as:
To feel everything in every way
To live everything from all sides
To be the same thing in all ways possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity in all moments
In one scattered, extravagant, complete and aloof moment.
I see why some people love this film; the directors clearly have talent. But 2½ hours of almost non-stop fighting is just too much for me. I’m too old for this sort of film.
Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache (Nepal) 3.2 I have mixed feelings about this one. Mark Lee provides some beautiful cinematography, but the director doesn’t seem to know how to draw in the viewer.
Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres. (US) 3.1 Documentary about a Chinese-American writer for Rolling Stone magazine. A very likable writer—and a so-so film.
Wood and Water (Germany) 3.1 A film that draws you in, if you are in the right mood. But I often felt like I’d seen the same sort of thing done better by other directors. The critics liked it a bit more than I did.
Mio on the Shore (Japan) 3.0 I really wanted to like this film (and it had a few really nice images), but in the end the director wasn’t up to the task of creating the sort of film that he clearly intended to produce. It wandered aimlessly from one sort of art film to another.
Older Films:
Playtime (France, 1967, CC) 3.9 How to describe this one of a kind film? It’s almost silent, apart from ambient background noise. It’s color, but often without much color. There’s no plot. Imagine Buster Keaton doing a remake of Chaplin’s Modern Times, but with 70 mm widescreen in 1960s Paris. Alternatively, it might be the world’s only architectural comedy. Whatever it is, it’s a treasure. It MUST be seen on at least a relatively big screen—there’s so much going on in the margins. It’s like a book where all the interest is in the footnotes.
Today, we are further away in time from Playtime than I was from Modern Times when I saw it around 1980. And yet it seems much less “antique”. Just another example of how mid-century modern is the eternal modern.
Man of the West (US, 1958, CC) 3.8 When I read that Godard called this the best film of 1958, I thought he was trolling. (Vertigo and Touch of Evil came out the same year.) But this Anthony Mann western really is a masterpiece, full of scenes of visceral intensity. It makes other westerns seem bland by comparison.
Midnight Run (1988, US, CC) 3.8 People will say I’ve overrated this film, but it’s one of my favorite comedies. De Niro and Grodin are even better than I remember—the ultimate buddy film.
Flowers of Shanghai (1998, Taiwan, CC) 3.8 Second time I’ve seen this gorgeous Hou Hsiao-hsien film. (Mark Lee was the cinematographer.) If you watched this, and then immediately watched a Hollywood drama, the latter film would seem absurdly overacted. There seems to be some disagreement about whether the “flowers” were prostitutes. This makes me wonder how the flowers compare to Japanese geisha. And also why the West doesn’t seem to have anything comparable to either institution.
INLAND EMPIRE (US, 2006) 3.8 That’s right, the title is all caps. This film violates a basic rule of filmmaking (and storytelling). You cannot have too many sources of confusion. It’s OK to have uncertainty as to whether the protagonist is delusional or lucid. You can have confusion as to whether the events are natural or supernatural. You can have confusion as to whether you are watching a movie or a film within a film. But you cannot have confusion on all of these points!
Lynch gets away with it by providing a greater number of engrossing scenes than almost any other film I’ve seen. A master class in film technique. And Laura Dern is spectacular.
Days of Being Wild (1990, HK, CC) 3.8 The first of 7 consecutive masterpieces by Wong Kar-wai. Christopher Doyle’s cinematography helped to usher in the golden age of Asian cinema. Includes some excellent performances, especially by Leslie Cheung.
Jules and Jim (1962, France, CC) 3.8 A classic of the French New wave.
Early Summer (Japan, 1951, CC) 3.8 Second time I’ve seen this one. Don’t be fooled by the seeming simplicity and slow pace of Ozu’s films, there’s a lot more going on here than you might notice on first viewing.
Fires of the Plain (Japan, 1959, CC) 3.8 I’ve always wondered why Japanese casualties in WWII battles were an order of magnitude higher than US casualties. Now I know. Probably the bleakest, most hopeless film I’ve ever seen. War films should always show things from the losing side, as it makes it easier to see that every side loses in war.
Donald Ritchie said that today this sort of film could not be made in Japan (presumably due to rising nationalism.) What a sad comment on the 21st century.
Damnation (Hungary, 1988, CC) 3.8 The 4K restoration was wonderful. Rarely has ugliness looked so beautiful. Regarded as Bela Tarr’s first masterpiece.
The Fire Within (France, 1963, CC) 3.8 For a mediocrity like me, it can be disturbing to watch a great artist wrestle with the age-old question of “To be or not to be?” If I hear someone say that the question is uninteresting or that the answer obvious, I’m inclined to think to myself, “If they don’t believe questions like that are worth pondering, then what makes them wish to live?” I guess there are some things that I’ll never understand. Louis Malle directed.
The Sound of the Mountain (Japan, 1954, CC) 3.7 I didn’t recognize that I’d read the novel (by Yasunari Kawabata) until about 15 minutes into the film. Directed by Naruse and featuring Setsuko Hara.
Destry Rides Again (US, 1939, CC) 3.7 The film that made Jimmy Stewart a star and that re-launched Marlene Dietrich’s career. And the best cat fight you’ll ever see.
Hold Back the Dawn (US, 1941, CC) 3.7 With so many great films in 1941, this one sort of gets overlooked. I suppose that Green Card was based on this film, but this one is better. Hard to believe that Olivia de Havilland died just two years ago, at age 104.
Air Doll (Japan, 2009, CC) 3.7 When I first saw this film I didn’t know about the great cinematographer Mark Lee. Now I’ll watch almost anything he films, in this case for a second time. Underrated by critics, it’s one of Koreeda’s best.
Mon Oncle (France, 1958, CC) 3.7 One word: plastics. When this came out, it was a satire on mid-century modernism. Now that period is ancient history, which makes it an entirely different film—perhaps even more charming than before.
The Thin Man (US, 1934, CC) 3.6 The list of highly entertaining Hollywood films from the 1930s seems almost endless. It was the decade where the “talkie” was perfected.
Paper Flowers (India, 1959, CC) 3.6 Although now viewed as a masterpiece, Guru Dutt’s film was panned at the time. After it flopped, studios were no longer willing to fund his pictures, and he died a few years later at age 39. Ironically, the film is about a successful director (played by Dutt) who became an outcast after his last film flopped. In places it reminded me a bit of 8 ½, a film made 4 years later.
It seems as though the supreme examples of art within any genre feature the artist creating the work itself in a sort of hall of mirrors regress. Why does that theme bring out the best in an artist? Because it’s what they know best? (Think of paintings like Las Meninas or The Art of Painting, or plays like Hamlet, or novels like In Search of Lost Time, etc. Did Karl Knausgaard understand this on some level?)
House of Bamboo (US/Japan, 1955, CC) 3.6 Very enjoyable (and underrated) Sam Fuller noir with Robert Stack and Robert Ryan. Lots of good scenes, but the rooftop finale is especially impressive. Some stunning widescreen Technicolor cinematography.
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (India, 1962, CC) 3.5 Oddly, Guru Dutt looks much younger than in his earlier films. Unfortunately, the print I saw was in need of restoration. In retrospect, Pyaasu is probably his best film—I think I rated it too low in my previous write-up. His performance in that 1957 film was stunning. Like Orson Welles, Dutt could play much older roles.
No Regrets for Our Youth (Japan, 1946, CC) 3.5 One of the more powerful anti-fascist films of the post-war era. This Kurosawa film came out in 1946, when for one brief shining moment, fascism had been discredited almost everywhere. It was sad seeing the film in 2022, when authoritarian nationalism is again on the increase in many parts of the world. People never learn.
The film starred Seksuko Hara, about which Wikipedia says: “After seeing a Setsuko Hara film, the novelist Shūsaku Endō wrote: “We would sigh or let out a great breath from the depths of our hearts, for what we felt was precisely this: Can it be possible that there is such a woman in this world?””
Seasons (France, 2015, CC) 3.5 The last 15,000 years in Western Europe from the perspective of animals. For most of that time, humans were just another animal. And then something changed. Surprisingly enlightening to see things from a fresh perspective.
Party Girl (US, 1958, CC) 3.4 I’d never heard of this Nicholas Ray film, but it’s fairly entertaining and attractive to look at.
After the Thin Man (US, 1936, CC) 3.4 Almost as entertaining as the first one, but it runs a bit too long.
The Big Knife (US, 1955, CC) 3.4 A sort of classic of its type. My one reservation is Rod Steiger, whose acting is so over the top that it almost seems like camp. Someone like Marlon Brando would have done much better. Watching this film makes me wonder why Jack Palance wasn’t a big star.
Crosscurrents (China, 2016) 3.4 Best to see this on a big screen, or a big OLED, as Mark Lee’s stunning nighttime cinematography is the prime attraction. Otherwise the film is somewhat uneven, a sort of poor man’s Bi Gan film.
Blue Collar (US, 1978, CC) 3.3 The film has a good opening scene showing factory work to a pounding blues beat. In reality, the UAW workers back then were better paid than what’s portrayed in the film. I had forgotten that Richard Pryor was a good actor. Oh, and I cannot get enough of that late 1970s decadence.
Louis Kahn: Silence and Light (US, 1996) 3.3 When I took a couple architectural history classes back in the 1970s, my professor suggested that Louis Kahn was one of America’s four great architects. That still seems correct, although now it might be five. The Kimball in Fort Worth is one of my favorite buildings.
Mies (US, 1986) 3.3 A documentary that doesn’t insult one’s intelligence. Has interviews with a wide range of architects and writers, with some very sharp observations about both Mies van der Rohe and his influence on the international style.
Breaking the Maya Code (US, 2008) 3.3 The first half of this over long documentary is a bit dull, but if you are patient the film provides some highly satisfactory puzzle solving in the second half.
Eames: The Architect and the Painter (US, 2011) 3.2 Starts out very strong, as they did produce an important body of work. But the film runs out of energy after a while, with too much on their personalities and too little photography of their important creations.
Flower Drum Song (US, 1961, CC) 3.2 Very colorful musical, noteworthy primarily for being the first Hollywood film about Asian Americans (and there wouldn’t be another until 1993.) Modern viewers will cringe at a few scenes, but it’s still an enjoyable way of absorbing a bit of history—at least if you like old musicals.
Five Graves to Cairo (US, 1943, CC) 3.2 This entertaining early Billy Wilder film has some decent acting and dialogue, as well as a plot that holds one’s interest.
Out of the Fog (US, 1941, CC) 3.2 Ida Lupino stars in this Raoul Walsh film.
They Drive by Night (US, 1940, CC) 3.2 Interesting look at the trucking industry when it was a relatively new growth industry. Raoul Walsh directed this film featuring Bogart and Ida Lupino.
The Revenant (US/Canada, 2015) 3.2 I wish I could rate this higher, as it has some very impressive scenes. Unfortunately, this over long film begins to drag after the powerful opening scenes. After the 4th or 5th time the protagonist survives an impossible ordeal, the film begins to fell more like spectacle than drama, an increasingly common problem with modern action movies. Please make it feel real. Less is more.
The Man I Love (US, 1946, CC) 3.2 Ida Lupino stars in this Raoul Walsh directed noir. Nothing special, but captures the feel of the immediate postwar period. My favorite line was when Lupino’s lover mentioned that the night before he’d attempted to travel from Long Beach up to Pasadena—by trolley!! (And gave up half way.)
Piccadilly (UK, 1929, CC) 3.1 Anna May Wong’s first starring role, and she’s the main reason to watch this film. There’s an interesting scene where a black man and a white woman are kicked out of a pub for dancing together. Not sure what British audiences would have made of the scene back in 1929.
Leave Her to Heaven (US, 1945, CC) 3.1 A wildly implausible melodrama that is nonetheless quite watchable due to the rich Technicolor photography.
Ziegfeld Girl (US, 1941, CC) 3.1 This would have been very impressive when it first came out. But the sentimentality hasn’t aged well and the spectacular Broadway numbers no longer seem so spectacular. Still, there’s Jimmy Stewart, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, and the legendary Hedy Lamarr. That’s more than enough to make it watchable.
State of Play (US, 2009, CC) 3.1 Solid entertainment as long as you put your brain on hold, as the conspiracy theory laden plot is a bit over the top and the dialogue is full of clichés.
Action in the North Atlantic (US, 1943, CC) 3.1 As long as the characters are not speaking, it’s a pretty good war film with some very impressive sequences. Unfortunately, it was made in 1943, a time when the government wasn’t looking for nuance or complexity. Fans of the Jones Act will love this rousing defense of the US Merchant Marines.
The River’s Edge (US, 1957, CC) 3.1 These color noirs from the 50s are all sort of mesmerizing to watch, even though they are not great films by any normal criterion.
A Kiss Before Dying (US, 1956, CC) 3.0 Another color noir, this one starring a very young Robert Wagner. Given the plot, it’s hard to watch this film without thinking about Natalie Wood.
The Hard Way (US, 1943, CC) 3.0 Fans of melodrama might like this Ida Lupino film more than I did. I smiled when one young lady exclaimed “Are you trying to kill me” to a therapist, who responded something to the effect “You are much too young to die; the life expectancy of women is 62.”
The Counselor (US, 2013) 3.0 Ridley Scott’s a good director, but his skills don’t mesh with Cormac McCarthy’s screenplay. There are jarring changes in tone, as the film swings wildly between Basic Instinct style camp and serious tragedy. Lots of good parts, but I didn’t know what to make of it.
Arabesque (US, 1966, CC) 3.0 A follow-up to Charade, but not as good. As with the Bond films, the plots for these Stanley Donen thrillers became increasing ridiculous during the 1960s. And Gregory Peck is no Cary Grant. It does have Sophia Loren, and she’s pretty much the only reason to watch it.
Experiment in Terror (US, 1962, CC) 3.0 This experiment in filmmaking wasn’t quite successful. Really nice cinematography in the opening sequence, but after that the acting and directing was pretty bland. Blake Edwards is a decent director, but noirs don’t seem to be his forte.
The Debut (Netherlands, 1977, CC) 3.0 A love story (directed by a woman) featuring a 41-year old man and a 14-year old girl. Not a particularly good film, but it may be of interest to younger viewers who want to take a peek into a world that is long gone—the decadent late 1970s. Yes, there really was a time when not everything was viewed through the lens of victims and villains.
Gates of Heaven (US, 1978, CC) 3.0 Errol Morris’s first film got very good reviews, but 44 years later it doesn’t quite hold up.
Two For the Road (US/France, 1967, CC) 2.9 Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn don’t have much chemistry and the screenplay is uninspired. However it does capture the feel of 1967.
The Cool Lakes of Death (Netherlands, 1982, CC) 2.9 Not a film to see when you are older, and have seen the same ideas in a number of previous films. It was a chore to sit through more than 2 hours of degradation, as an upper class woman gradually falls into the gutter.
Accused of Murder (US, 1956, CC) 2.8 Despite the widescreen color format (with some weirdly distorted wide angle shots), this is definitely a B noir. Yet even with clumsy acting and dialogue, it’s passable entertainment. Fortunately, it came in at under 75 minutes, leaving time for an episode of Better Call Saul.
Tales of a Golden Geisha (Japan, 1990, CC) 2.8 During the late 1980s, Itami seemed to gradually lose his touch. This is his weakest film.
Foreign Intrigue (US, 1956, CC) 2.4 The film is as bland as its generic title. Robert Mitchum looks bored by it all.
Year of the Dragon (US, 1985, CC) 2.0 At times, it’s so bad that it almost becomes a campy success. But the screenplay by Oliver Stone and Michael Cimino takes itself much too seriously to be a camp classic. Add in some wildly out of place Mahler and perhaps the most annoying performance in cinema history by Mickey Rourke. It makes me wonder if I overrated The Deer Hunter.
Father (Japan, 1988, CC) 1.6 Japan produces some really good films, but there’s also a wide variance. The Criterion Channel employee that added this “comedy” should be fired.
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2. October 2022 at 15:27
I had a very similar view of “Everything everywhere all at once” it was very imaginative and, expecially as an Asian American, the ending hit particularly hard.
Also, I feel like to many Asian American films explore this exact dynamic and have a very simplistic view, in which the kid is always right, the parents are wrong for being too tradition, and the kid ends up being validated, then accepted by the family, and everything works out.
Here, the dynamic was flipped, the kid wasn’t always right, and the entire basis of the film was about how wrong her nilist view really is. The parent wasn’t always right either. But it was much less simple, which I really appreciate.
But I agree, the film itself was just too much fighting scenes and … just too much. I got really bored with it halfway through. A bunch of the side stories could be cut as well. The film lacked focus.
Addendum, I feel like I’m the only won who thinks this, but … it was a profoundly Christian film? The film never would admit that, given its target audience, but this clash between conflicting ideas of fate, nilism, and purpose, ultimately rejecting the void on a belief there is something holding us all together … thats a very religious theme.
I felt like the film kept winking at that religious concept but never had the stomach to actually go there.
2. October 2022 at 16:53
retired economist manque sumner redeems himself periodically with generally pithily accurate film reviews, and his obsession with film is a tacit acknowledgement of his mediocrity in economics. however, he is but a dilettante here too: ignoring the real star of they drive by night, george raft, and its real message (far from about the new trucking industry).
2. October 2022 at 21:28
Aladdin, Good observations. You said:
I felt like the film kept winking at that religious concept but never had the stomach to actually go there.”
It’s often better when ideas are merely alluded to. Let the viewer’s mind do some of the work.
agrippa, “generally pithily accurate”?
Are you lowering your standards?
3. October 2022 at 04:49
Walked out of more new movies in the last couple of years than in my entire life. Would rather see Avatar again.
Meanwhile there’s fireworks in the markets. Major bottom in stocks. Just in time for elections.
3. October 2022 at 04:56
Just like I said. The 1966 Interest Rate Adjustment Act is prima facie evidence.
3. October 2022 at 05:24
Contrary to the Gurley-Shaw thesis, banks aren’t intermediaries in the savings->investment process. Disintermediation is made in Washington.
“None of this would matter if the Fed acted as an efficient savings-investment intermediary, as commercial banks are able to do, at least in principle.” And: “This is nonsense, Spencer. It amounts to saying that there is no such things as ‘financial intermediation,’ for what you claim never happens is precisely what that expression refers to.”
“Yes, I hold that commercial banks are credit intermediaries and not just credit creators” — George Selgin
The payment of interest on interbank demand deposits causes nonbank disintermediation. I.e., it causes a decline in the supply of loanable funds – the banks outbidding the nonbanks (just like the 2019 repo spike).
See: “Should Commercial Banks Accept Savings Deposits?” Conference on Savings and Residential Financing 1961 Proceedings, United States Savings and loan league, Chicago, 1961, 42, 43.
3. October 2022 at 07:55
Regarding “Fires on the Plain”, didn’t Japan make a remake in 2010’s? I never saw the re-make, so I don’t know how it compares, but I think Ritchie should give contemporary Japan more credit.
“I’ve always wondered why Japanese casualties in WWII battles were an order of magnitude higher than US casualties.” – I wish I could track down the book/author, but I remember a historian saying that in WWII the Japanese army was “19th Century army fighting a 20th Century war; the results were inevitably disastrous.”
3. October 2022 at 08:24
Hey, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed Better Call Saul. (I know I promised not to talk about TV again, but I absolutely love this show and can’t resist.)
Since you’ve already watched five seasons, I must recommend Season 6 (it’s on Amazon Prime). It’s a fantastic wrap-up that has stuck with me more than any other series. However… I’m pretty certain that many of the scenes won’t have the same emotional weight if you haven’t seen Breaking Bad.
Breaking Bad is about as long as BCS, so I totally understand if you feel it doesn’t pass a cost/benefit test. I will say this: it’s more plot-driven, and it feels a lot faster than BCS (though I prefer the latter). (Watching BB would also allow you to appreciate how painstakingly BCS weaves its “history” into itself.)
After finishing a rewatch of BCS (together with a podcast analyzing each episode), I think the BB/BCS writers’ room (Gould, Gilligan, Schnauz et al) might be the GOAT. I’m sure you’re a very attentive viewer after a lifetime of film watching, but there are some amazing connections in Season 6 that I would have never gotten on my own. This show really challenges its audience.
Btw, great list above. I definitely need to watch more Tati.
3. October 2022 at 08:58
That’s a lot of mental programming from make believe stories.
Breaking news, United Nations has publicly demanded the Federal Reserve and central banks worldwide to cease raising interest rates.
https://twitter.com/GoldTelegraph_/status/1576969708619804673
If I had to guess, this is probably both a ‘test’ to gauge public and local central bank reaction, and to get their foot in the door as the NWO’s “privatize gains socialize losses” military-industrial nexus for the PRIVATELY CONTROLLED central banking system worldwide.
I am going to make a prediction.
Site owner and all ‘monetarists’ worldwide, because they have all been duped step by step over a period of many decades, over 100 years, this latest step will not only not be criticized as “interference into what should be ‘independent’ central bank boards” (Haha, they have always been political entities), they will by and large attack low hanging fruit criticisms of this POLITICAL encroachment. “MAGA Trumpista said that the UN and Fed blah blah blah, but if they were paying attention they would have known that blah blah blah. Now I’m not a big fan of this move (softball criticism at most), but come on people, we need to focus on how to criticize the critics because there is a right way for the UNITED NATIONS to involve itself in central bank affairs so that there is a global centralization of money and banking. Who’s with me comrades?
We need to keep criticizing the critics of the radical left and trust in the dialectic to do its thing to bring us all to utopia.”
3. October 2022 at 11:24
MSS1914, You may be right. I haven’t seen it so I cannot comment.
Thanks John, I look forward to season #6.
3. October 2022 at 12:25
DJIA up 765. Latest estimate: 2.3 percent — October 3, 2022
Stocks have always bottomed when R-gDp bottomed. But the rebound in R-gDp is likely to reverse. Formally this was determined by the ROC in legal reserves. I.e., the distributed lag effect of money flows were mathematical constants for > 100 years.
We knew this already: In 1931 a commission was established on Member Bank Reserve Requirements. The commission completed their recommendations after a 7-year inquiry on Feb. 5, 1938. The study was entitled “Member Bank Reserve Requirements — Analysis of Committee Proposal”
its 2nd proposal: “Requirements against debits to deposits”
http://bit.ly/1A9bYH1
After a 45-year hiatus, this research paper was “declassified” on March 23, 1983. By the time this paper was “declassified”, Nobel Laureate Dr. Milton Friedman had declared RRs to be a “tax” [sic].
The FED is operating the economic engine in reverse. Interest rate manipulation decreases R-gDp more than inflation. The proper course of action is to drain the money stock and simultaneously drive the banks out of the savings business (which doesn’t reduce the size of the payment’s system).
3. October 2022 at 12:34
Trump calls it for what it is, Communist infiltration.
We’re past ‘Socialism’. The radical left’s source code is Dialectical (Communist) Faith.
How many here knew that The Communist Manifesto was sourced from a draft called ‘The Principles of Communist’ which was itself sourced by a draft called ‘The Communist CONFESSION OF FAITH”?
Karl Marx told Engels to change the wording of the title, because IT WOULD HAVE LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG as to what Marx and every variant since, NeoMarxism, Wokeism, CRT, Critical Theory of all types, has REALLY been engaging in.
It was NEVER ‘science’ or ‘economics’, but a THEOLOGY.
The Dialectic Faith, which is the operating system OF THE ENTIRE ‘LEFT’, has EVERY hallmark of a religion. It attempts to explain all the big questions, ‘why are we here’ doing what we’re doing, how did we get here, what is ultimately driving all human events in the world, where we came from, where we are going, knowing the ‘force’ driving it all, and it’s all based on a FAITH in the dialectic process of ‘opposites resolving themselves in history’, which the communist high priests arrogating themselves aa the only ‘true’ minds who can ‘know’ the ‘teue’ Geist of reality that everyone else cannot know even about their own existence and epistemic authority over their own self-recognition and motivations.
This religion had infiltrated half the world last century (ask how likely you would have discovered yourself having been BORN INTO a cult if all you ever SAW was cult behavior around you, think North Korea citizens), and it had infiltrated America at the highest levels of government. Hillary Clinton wrote her thesis on her hero and communist Saul Alinsky, who dedicated his major work “Rules for Radicals” to LUCIFER, ‘the original radical’.
War is almost always 90% psychological and 10% kinetic, kinetic war always originates in the information, there has been a long waged spiritual war, with massive coordinated deception from all angles, thus blinding trusting people into believing it is ‘organic’ and just part of the general human condition.
It’s not a coincidence that most of the loudest accusers of Trump over the years are trying to cover up THEIR corruption through projection and confusing voters of who is guilty of what.
Hillary paid for the Russia collusion hoax, but it was Hillary and FBI who colluded with Russia (Danchenko) who lied and was Steele’s primary subsource for the discredited “dossier” that was falsely presented to the FISA court to spy on Trump’s campaign. All KNOWINGLY. THEY KNOWINGLY LIED TO OVERTURN THE 2016 ELECTION.
Yet fake news and the corrupt Democrats were on TV every day trying to deceive the world that it was Trump that colluded. Mueller Report concluded the FBI did not establish any coordination or cooperation with any Russian.
Biden had a quid pro quo with Ukraine to fire the prosecutor investigating Hunter in exchange for $1 billion. Fake News and the D party impeach Trump for merely ASKING about the story on a phone call with Zelensky. Schiff totally lied when he claimed to be quoting Trump about what was said, transcript was released that proved Schiff LIED.
Lie after lie after lie from the COMMUNIST LOGIC THAT INTENTIONALLY SEEKS TO INTRODUCE ‘CONTRADICTIONS’, opposites, what is true and what is said and acted as if true, and all the conflicts and destruction will ‘move history forward’ towards Utopia.
Weaponization of federal agencies, weaponization of ‘elected’ officials, weaponization of prosecutor offices, weaponization of media, weaponization of schools.
The radical left is a cult, a CULT whose own followers in the citizenry are in some cases so despicably dishonest and ignorant that they actually believe the ‘cult’ is somewhere hidden in the opposition TO this dialectic cult, that the main opponent of this cult, Trump, is somehow himself leading a personality cult. Can you say PROJECTION?
The poor citizens of Russia early 20th century had no idea what was really driving the Bolshevik Revolution. The Oct 1917 revolution wasn’t led by Russians, it was an INVASION.
“You must understand. The leading Bolsheviks who took over Russia were not Russians. They hated Russians. They hated Christians. Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured and slaughtered millions of Russians without a shred of human remorse. The October Revolution was not what you call in America the “Russian Revolution.” It was an invasion and conquest over the Russian people. More of my countrymen suffered horrific crimes at their bloodstained hands than any people or nation ever suffered in the entirety of human history. It cannot be understated. Bolshevism was the greatest human slaughter of all time. The fact that most of the world is ignorant of this reality is proof that the global media itself is in the hands of the perpetrators.” – Alexandr Solzhenitsyn.
THE FACT MOST OF THE WORLD IS IGNORANT OF THIS REALITY IS PROOF THE GLOBAL MEDIA ITSELF IS IN THE HANDS OF THE PERPRETRATORS.
And who STILL trusts the msm propaganda arm of the D party?
https://truthsocial.com/@realLizUSA/posts/109095682764772251
3. October 2022 at 14:11
The Economists hates America.
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2022/10/02/americas-economy-is-too-strong-for-its-own-good
3. October 2022 at 16:03
Also, a shout out to Yaphet Kotto in Midnight Run. He might have been a crazy Trumper but he’ll always be Mosley–and he’ll take your cigarettes.
3. October 2022 at 17:06
while y kotto was indeed superb in MR, the film is most certainly the genius of director brest, having a bernini or michelanglo (or if you like bogdonovich or reiner) run of transformative excellence crammed together (fast times, BHC, spies like us, MR, Scent of a woman), to be followed by merely inspired quotidian
efforts. he was the nazi of the multiple take, complained about by all actors, but grimly accepted to be in his tutelage.
3. October 2022 at 21:27
“Better than those typically overrated middlebrow “quality TV” series that are so beloved by critics.”
Scott, name names!
3. October 2022 at 22:10
Scrum, I don’t watch much TV, but I cringe when I read critics say that the best TV today is better than the best films. Much of it is merely filmed plays.
4. October 2022 at 03:03
‘The Thin Man (US, 1934, CC) 3.6 The list of highly entertaining Hollywood films from the 1930s seems almost endless. It was the decade where the “talkie” was perfected.’
Do you think that the distribution, as it were, of highly entertaining films is equally split pre- and post-Code? I absolutely love ‘The Thin Man’ and a number of other 1930s films, but when I think about it, I find that most are pre-Code.
The Code not only damaged Hollywood at the time, but, arguably, still does, as it helped establish what a lot of people think ‘a Hollywood film’ should be like, in my opinion.
I doubt you read much Science Fiction & Fantasy, though correct me if I’m wrong, but I very much enjoyed Terry Pratchett’s novel ‘Moving Pictures’, wherein movies are invented in Pratchett’s fantasy world. I think I read it in about a day last time I gave it a go. But very amusing for this reader and, I imagine, many others who know about the history of Hollywood and films.
4. October 2022 at 05:31
“Everything Everywhere All at Once”: Hate this movie, for its under-realized, sentimentalized and off-putting fractured film syntax. Its apparently immense appeal makes “Everything Everywhere” the contemporary “Terms of Endearment”, way different and yet saturated with even schlockier emotions about familial bonds. What’s happened to movies has happened to audiences.
4. October 2022 at 08:55
“I cringe when I read critics say that the best TV today is better than the best films”
While I agree that TV has yet to produce few if any masterpieces, do you think this is destined to remain true?
In the “game” of storytelling, it seems to me that filmmakers are employing a “dominated strategy” w.r.t. running time. In other words, TV creators can shrink a story to a two-hour miniseries (British shows seem to do this fairly often) or expand it to 20, 50, or even 100+ hours if necessary. However, films are practically limited to about 200 min.
Since additional strategic options should always have non-negative value (at least in simple games), doesn’t this freedom potentially tilt the long-term balance toward serialized dramas?
I think it’s fair to keep in mind that the “prestige TV era” only started about 20 years ago (with The Sopranos in 1999), and we’re barely a decade into the “streaming era” (Breaking Bad got the first “Netflix boost” with a huge jump in viewers from under 2 mil in 2011 to over 6 mil in 2013). Also, TV shows have a lot lower turnover than films (e.g. Gilligan-Gould only have two series to show for the last 15 years of work).
So the TV vs. film debate may look very different in 20 years.
4. October 2022 at 11:59
Tacticus, The Hollywood code did some damage, but lots of great films continued to be made. The period around 1939-41 was particularly strong.
Orton, Yes, it was too sentimental at times, but don’t you think Terms of Endearment is hitting below the belt. It wasn’t THAT bad.
John, I view Twin Peaks as the one TV masterpiece, at least for American TV. In general, TV is so different from film that’s it’s virtually a different art form. I’m not much of a fan of theatre, and that may distort my judgment (as theatre resembles TV more than film.)
I do believe that TV will get better (and has already done so) due to several factors.
1. New OLED TVs allow for much more subtle innovations in visual style. BCS is a step up in that regard.
2. New pay per view formats allow for producers to aim for a smaller audience than during the 20th century.
4. October 2022 at 14:12
Remember when I wrote about ‘Konnech’, the company linked to the CCP, on this blog a number of weeks ago?
https://mynewsla.com/crime/2022/10/04/head-of-election-worker-management-company-arrested/
4. October 2022 at 14:43
The Democrat Party’s handlers is the CCP, after the strings were cut from Saudi Arabia soon after Trump won the 2016 election.
If you consider the CCP having police stations across America, and arrests of MAJOR players in the country’s elections systems, this could be the beginning of the end of the Democrat Party as a political entity.
If they can no longer cheat elections, they are no longer a political reality.
4. October 2022 at 14:58
“District Attorney investigators found that in contradiction to the contract, information was stored on servers in the People’s Republic of China.”
There you have it folks, what I wrote about here many weeks ago, and being called all sorts of names and attacked for it. “conspiracy theorist”, “nutcase”, etc, etc.
I WAS RIGHT. US ELECTIONS DATA IS ON CCP DATABASES.
4. October 2022 at 16:32
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/technology/konnech-election-conspiracy-theories.html
Literally yesterday, the New York Times ran this cover piece for Eugene Yu and lied that Konnech was storing all it’s data on U.S. servers.
Then today, Eugene Yu gets arrested for NOT storing their data on U.S. servers, but sending it to servers in China.
New York Times = FAKE NEWS
5. October 2022 at 08:30
https://thefederalist.com/2022/10/05/nyt-pretends-to-debunk-poll-worker-conspiracy-one-day-later-the-election-deniers-were-vindicated/
Kaboom
I’m still trying to figure out what the heck fake news even means when they smear people as ‘election deniers’. Are they insinuating that those who question the 2020 election, and/or think it was rigged, somehow deny that an election took place?
What I think? I think the fake news, because they know the 2020 election was rigged, and have been rigged for many years (Trump 2016 was an ‘anomaly’ where good people surprised the communists by unrigging it just enough), they themselves are having a pattern of thought that past elections were not really elections, but ‘appointments’ and ‘selections’, and that now that the truth of our corrupt elections are coming to light, and people are waking up to it, the fake news is PROJECTINT their own denial of fair and legal elections, as if it were the flaw of those who accept elections did take place but were rigged, and so they call others ‘election deniers’, even though the smear makes no logical sense to anyone else who know there are elections taking place.
At any rate, NYT just got caught with perhaps their worst LIE to date.
And who still trusts these corrupt SOBs?
5. October 2022 at 09:00
Scott, what parts of BCS do you like the most? I’ve been pitching it to my parents more as a show about corporate law firms than drug cartels, but maybe I’m making it sound boring.
5. October 2022 at 10:09
Martin, It works as a black comedy. The dramatic sections are not at all convincing–that’s the weakest part of the show.
A good example of a funny episode in #11, where the cops investigate the guy who lost his baseball card collection.
But yes, it is an interesting look at the legal profession; the writers seem to have done their homework. Ditto for the drug trade.
5. October 2022 at 11:38
“TV is so different from film that it’s virtually a different art form”
Agree and disagree. Broadly speaking, film, TV, and theatre are all forms of visual storytelling through acting (as opposed to comics or graphic novels). And film and TV sit on their own branch of the cultural evolution tree apart from theatre since they share several distinguishing traits: sound editing, cinematography, visual effects, scoring, and — most crucially — editing.
At the same time, film and theatre share something that TV doesn’t: limited runtime. And of course there’s tremendous crossover between the worlds of film and theatre. (Interestingly, many film actors hold stage acting in much higher regard than screen acting. This may be justified; from what I understand, extensive theatre training is virtually mandatory for British TV/film actors, which may be why they punch far above their weight in the Anglosphere.)
So on the one hand, these are all very closely related art forms. However, to piggyback on what Vince Gilligan has said in some interviews, perhaps we can separate these art forms on the basis of their relative emphases as follows:
Film = Director’s medium
TV = Writer’s medium
Theatre = Actor’s medium?
But even here, it gets blurry. According to Gilligan, who considers himself a writer (though he often directs), being a good TV writer entails visualizing how the scene will appear and whether it will be feasible to shoot (i.e. aspects of directing and producing).
So I don’t really get hung up on classification or pitting one form against the other. My only criterion is whether a story is worth watching or not. The form — stand-alone movie, mini-series, or multi-season series — doesn’t really matter to me.
(I predict that the division between “film” and “TV” will continue to fade. Apparently, Kevin Costner is planning a massive Western epic that will first be released as four films, then will be cut into hour-long episodes for streaming. So is it film or TV? Either way, as long as the reviews are decent, I’ll probably watch it.)
Just curious: what do you think are the main differences btw film and TV?
5. October 2022 at 12:16
Martin,
Did your parents watch Breaking Bad? I think that’s the logical place to start, since I think BCS is much more enjoyable as a prequel. (Perhaps the only enjoyable prequel, aside from the flashbacks in Godfather II?)
Re: the dramatic parts — I’d say that’s subjective. The family conflicts and character motivations felt all too real to me. But YMMV. Also, I really love the show’s look and music. It has a relaxing pace that I find refreshing.
Scott,
One other distinguishing factor of TV, which is both a strength and a weakness, is its flexibility. For example, the writers radically changed Chuck’s arc mid-season after seeing Michael McKean’s take on the character (this also happened with other characters).
Per episode, TV production is a lot more rushed than filmmaking, but over the course of one or more seasons, TV actually seems to have more time to experiment than most films. It doesn’t always work, but at its best, the Gould-Gilligan style of TV is a kind of slow-motion improvisation that allows for an organic style of storytelling that I haven’t seen anywhere else. (For example, in Breaking Bad, a major plotline developed when Peter Gould asked a simple question in the writers’ room: “Who is the other Chicken Brother?”)
I’m not saying this type of storytelling is better or worse than what I’ve seen in the best films, but I’m glad that I’ve been able to experience it, and it has provided me a lot of enjoyment during re-watches of BB/BCS. To put it in sports terms, it’s similar to the enjoyment I get from seeing a head coach continually make adjustments throughout the regular season, seeing what works and what doesn’t. I find the process as fascinating as the results.
5. October 2022 at 12:20
John, You said:
Film = Director’s medium
TV = Writer’s medium
Theatre = Actor’s medium?
This is fine, although I’d add that film acting is nothing like theatre acting. A while back I commented on a film with Marilyn Monroe and Lawrence Olivier. He’s a much better theatre actor, but she was much better in the film where they both appeared. In film, Olivier can look like he’s overacting. You don’t need to project to a distant audience.
I see film as a much more visual medium, akin to painting and photography, whereas TV is more like theatre. Thus acting is relatively less important in film. Hitchcock famously viewed his actors as cattle, although that’s a bit unfair as he used some very good ones. It also depends on which director you are considering. Woody Allen’s films are much closer to TV than are Andrei Tarkovsky’s films. You can probably guess which I prefer.
It’s almost impossible to make a good TV show without good writing, but many excellent films either have bad writing (Titanic), or almost no writing at all (Keaton and Chaplin comedies.)
“My only criterion is whether a story is worth watching or not.”
For me, the story is one of the least important aspects of the films I love. There’s almost no story in the Tati films I praised.
6. October 2022 at 04:44
The CCP owns Konnech, the elections systems company running elections in multiple states (key ‘swing’ states).
THE FBI CONCEALED THIS
https://kanekoa.substack.com/p/konnech-ceo-eugene-yus-connection
6. October 2022 at 04:46
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/10/05/marlow-linkedin-billionaire-reid-hoffmans-dark-money-behind-clandestine-good-information-foundation-group-accused-of-election-meddling/
DARK MONEY DEMOCRATS ARE NOW OPENLY ENGAGED IN ELECTION FRAUD.
6. October 2022 at 04:48
https://truthsocial.com/users/gregprice/statuses/109117841710894012
Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski reveals that he presented evidence to the FBI that the Bidens committed multiple felonies but FBI agent Timothy Thibault, who ran point on the investigation, never followed up with him or his lawyers.
6. October 2022 at 07:14
Belarus President announces government enforced ban on ALL price increases.
https://twitter.com/_/status/1578019497277263889
If this is not IMMEDIATELY rescinded, the Belarusian economy is going to go into CHAOS as cost calculations of gains and losses becomes impossible as demand will lead to ‘shortages’ everywhere.
THIS IS A PREDICTABLE OUTCOME OF CENTRAL BANK EXISTENCE. 5th Plank of the Communist Manifesto. The seed of destruction necessarily leads to more and more inflation which ‘appears’ as if the only ‘solution’ is PRICE CONTROLS.
I put 100% of the blame for this on an ideology that INCLUDES every ‘variant’ of ‘monetarism’.
All you who pretend to be ‘free market’ but spend all day within the ‘critical’ constraint of how fast or slow the central bank should print money, what they’re doing ‘wrong’ that they could allegedly do ‘right’, you are all to blame for the deaths and destruction that is coming to the Belarusian PEOPLE.
Hope the time and money was worth it.
6. October 2022 at 07:53
First, I’m certainly not slagging off films. My favorite is Barry Lyndon, and I agree that its least important aspects are its plot and acting. (A friend once disparaged it for Ryan O’Neal’s underwhelming performance, and I thought to myself, “Wow, way to miss the point of a film whose core idea is that ‘Man is a machine.'”) And when I’m watching something like Vertigo, all I can think about is how beautiful each frame is; I don’t even care what the actors are saying.
However, to mangle a well-known line: “John cannot live on images alone (although perhaps Scott can).”
As much as I love beautiful imagery, after a while my mind needs something else to chew on. When I wrote above that I choose what to watch based on its story, not its form, I didn’t only mean “story” as in “who killed/cheated/seduced whom.” Perhaps “subject” is closer to what I mean (to me this is broader than “theme”); Ken Burns’ Baseball doesn’t have an overarching storyline (except perhaps an implicit one abt how social and economic conditions have altered the game), but its subject was engrossing enough for me to eagerly watch all 18 hours when it first aired.
My point is not that TV >= film, just that there is more room for them to comfortably coexist than you seem to feel (and that a TV series can deliver some amazing experiences that a single film cannot).
6. October 2022 at 08:02
I started thinking about the potential of ultra-longform visual storytelling after reading three biographies over the last few years: Ron Chernow’s Hamilton and Washington and Tune In (an early years Beatles bio). All three are doorstops btw 800-1,000 pgs, but I don’t see how any could be condensed w/o significantly reducing its impact. (Within the genre of biography, I would consider all three to be masterpieces, and the narrator of Tune In needs to receive the audiobook version of an Oscar; he does a distinct voice for well over 100 characters, which adds immeasurably to the experience.)
So I was excited to learn that HBO had done an adaptation of David McCullough’s John Adams (a somewhat shorter and less dense book). But even though it came in at over eight hours, my primary complaint was that it was too short! There was so much material that they could only do brief sketches of some of the chapters, and the result was more like the Greatest Hits of John Adams’ Life rather than a fully-formed, satisfying narrative.
I would love to see a TV adaptation of Washington or Hamilton, but it would at minimum require four, 10-ep seasons to even approach the depth of the books. Nowhere Boy is a good film and would serve as a great pilot for a Beatles miniseries, but it would require at least three more full-length films to do justice to Tune In.
6. October 2022 at 08:19
“film acting is nothing like theatre acting”
Agree in part, but “nothing like” seems like an overstatement. I don’t think citing Olivier alone proves this; Alec Guinness came from the same Shakespearean background, but I can’t imagine him ever being accused of overacting. The fact that many of the most successful film actors have had extensive theatre backgrounds (Henry Fonda, Peter O’Toole, Helen Mirren, Daniel Day-Lewis) suggests that there is some level of transferability btw the two forms.
“I see film as a much more visual medium”
On the edges, this is true, but the area of overlap is already pretty wide and is increasing every year. BCS 3.01 (“Mabel”) told Mike’s part of the story with only minimal dialog, and an entire episode of Mr Robot (4.05) has only two lines of spoken dialog (though I haven’t watched it; Mr Robot is way too weird for me). And documentaries like the BBC’s Planet Earth can have spectacular visuals (I would consider the original to be a TV masterpiece).
“There’s almost no story in the Tati films I praised”
True, but Tati seems to be an outlier. It’s been many years since I saw Vacances, but I do remember that the gags were far more subdued and the plot was even less prominent than in other silent comedies (where it’s often an afterthought, as in Sherlock Jr). Nearly all the films on the AFI or BFI 100 lists have some sort of a traditional story. And I don’t think “plot” is a dirty word; a clever one can make a film much more enjoyable, as in Plein Soleil** or Parasite.
Don’t get me wrong — I’m overjoyed that a filmmaker like Tati exists (I very much look forward to Playtime). But he isn’t representative of the medium, imo.
** Yes, I prefer it. (No, not for that reason!) I love how he eats the bread (and the handwriting scene).
6. October 2022 at 23:33
John, I am traveling and don’t have time to respond fully to all of your perceptive comments, but a few observations:
1. The visual aspect of film is about much more than beautiful images (although that’s a part of it). Buster Keaton films are visually great, but not full of beautiful images.
2. Agree about the plot of Plein Soleil, but that’s why both versions were great. What makes the French version so special is Alain Delon >>>>> Matt Damon.
3. I’m also a fan of the long form (Proust, Knausgaard.)
7. October 2022 at 05:43
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/oct/6/whistleblowers-reveal-pattern-sexual-harassment-se/
Why watch fiction weaponized with overt and subtle but deliberate disinformation to divide and weaken the people by race, religion, sex, class and political affiliation, when you can observe the truth of reality as it is?
“It sounds like Sodom and Gomorrah up there”
7. October 2022 at 07:50
[…] 2. Scott Sumner movie reviews. […]
7. October 2022 at 08:55
Hi Scott.
There is a director’s cut of The Counselor. From what I’ve read, its far better than the theatrical version.
7. October 2022 at 09:30
Great idea for a ‘movie’ script!
What the Konnech CEO’s arrest tells you is that the FBI just got caught trying to hide CCP infiltration of America’s election systems.
Let that sink in, then discuss.
7. October 2022 at 09:37
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFZGCCratXk
It is appears Hunter Biden is going to be indicted.
This is not just about Hunter, it’s the entire Biden crime family’s illegal dealings with China and Ukraine.
“I have never discussed any of my son’s business dealings” – Joe Biden.
Invokes a memory of Nixon doesn’t it, “I’m not a crook”.
7. October 2022 at 10:19
Guess: The corrupt Feds are pretending to investigate Hunter for taxes and a gun purchase – so they can fine him, slap him on the wrist, and try to distract the public into not talking about his and Joe’s treason with China.
7. October 2022 at 10:49
https://truthsocial.com/@Rasmussen_Poll/posts/109110598712686935
New Rasmussen poll indicates the MAJORITY of the country believe cheating likely affected the outcome of the 2020 election.
And the country hasn’t even seen the worst of it yet. Tip of the iceberg.
7. October 2022 at 13:36
These are all excellent movies.
However, I’m still waiting for you to travel to Ukraine. I will never forget. You said: “WE aren’t doing enough”. Of course, the WE means ME and ME means my body, but since you are very worried about Russia, and since people that are worried for their life usually defend that life, I’m surprised you haven’t. What are you waiting for?
Oh, well, perhaps you overstated the threat. It appears you are just not that desparate yet.
And neither are we! So this is another kindly reminder to stop your warmonger posts. I know you suddenly became a tough guy at the chin sagging age of 67, but some of us are not quite so fortunate. We cannot hide behind our saggy skin.
Thank you very much.
7. October 2022 at 14:20
Scott, a few brief comments. It’s nice to see someone outside of professional critic circles singing the praises of Chris Doyle and Mark Lee Ping-Bing. And who amongst us hasn’t fallen in love with Hara Setsuko. I also appreciate your frequent reviews of the underappreciated (outside of Japan) Naruse Mikio. I recently watched Older Brother, Younger Sister and Yearning. Naruse never disappoints. A few television titles come to mind. The BBC production The Game was a hoot, and the first season of The Terror, starring the great Jerrod Harris, is excellent. Atlanta is uneven and often brilliant. I almost never watch comedies because I don’t find most of them funny, but the low-brow Canadian series Letterkenny (yes, the town is named Letterkenny!) got me through the pandemic. Steven Soderbergh’s Mosaic was a romp, and features the great character actor Devin Ratray as the sheriff. Watch for his panic attack in his patrol car. In praise of great character actors!
8. October 2022 at 11:52
I’m glad you liked Playtime; I feel it’s like an authoritative vindication of my taste. I only saw it (on TV at home) for the first time a few years ago after reading a review that highlighted its reputation, which makes it wonder whether I would have liked it as much – or even persisted as long – if I had just turned it on unaware. The thing I like most about it is the lightness that flows the entire way through it. There is both beauty as well as wonder and optimism. My tagline for it would be “A film about how the modernity created by humans manages to both confound and be confounded by humans.”
8. October 2022 at 12:20
Ricardo, To be a successful troll, one must first ascertain the views of the blogger you are trying to troll.
Tom, Thanks for those recommendations.
Rajat, You don’t need me to vindicate your taste!
8. October 2022 at 15:39
1. Man of the West is free to watch on YouTube (with ads), if you’re willing to sign in to confirm your age.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPD76LcvqkU
2. How does the big-screen experience compare with a laptop on the belly? A fifteen-inch laptop screen that’s eighteen inches from one’s eyes is going to provide a field of view of the screen that’s at least as large as a theater’s movie screen when sitting in the middle seat of most movie theaters, I’d think, although I haven’t sat in a theater in twenty years.
8. October 2022 at 16:02
I updated the spreadsheet with the last 3 quarters – https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19tlpnivSnaQTsVC-lU8bzcCdcXdpm02MX889gXwYdn8/edit
Thanks again for publishing these!
8. October 2022 at 16:31
Joes Biden counted two words in “Made In America”.
Let that sink in.
8. October 2022 at 16:39
https://abcnews.go.com/WN/president-bill-clinton-lost-nuclear-codes-office-book/story
https://www.npr.org/2016/01/29/464811045/as-iowa-caucuses-near-clinton-email-probe-persists
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/yes-comey-did-leak-classified-information
https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1992/10/10/classified-iran-contra-documents-lost/
Where are the raids on BC’s or HRC’s home?
Or prosecution of Comey’s illegal activity?
FBI ‘law enforcement’ franchise wing of [D]emocrat Party?
Mar a Lago raid was psyop to deflect from Clinton, Bush 1, Bush 2, Obama mishandling classified information.
9. October 2022 at 05:38
Sumner’s now engaged in “Quiet quitting”.
9. October 2022 at 11:24
Alan, Sorry, but I don’t watch anything with ads and I don’t watch small screens. You don’t get anywhere near the same effect, even sitting close to the screen.
Andy, Thanks for putting that together.
9. October 2022 at 23:25
Spencer, I’ve been doing a new post every two days.
10. October 2022 at 05:07
I read everything you write. You should have got the Nobel Prize, not Bernanke. Bernanke “did it again”.
10. October 2022 at 05:14
Dr. George Sheehan said to eschew other pursuits.
10. October 2022 at 06:16
https://i.imgur.com/DRLMXXy.png
Every time I see a Ukraine flag on someone’s car, every time I see pro Ukrainian narrative from media, and its brainwashed viewers, I know the truth that they are all supporting nazis.
10. October 2022 at 13:37
If you like Man of the West, I bet you’d like Day of the Outlaw.
https://tubitv.com/movies/305013/day-of-the-outlaw?start=true
Another good movie by De Toth is Pitfall.
https://watch.plex.tv/movie/pitfall
10. October 2022 at 22:30
Thanks Alan.