Tuesday, May 10, 2011

No Direction Home

Not much viewing lately.

The Circus is a Chaplin feature I never hear anyone talk about, but it holds up favorably well compared to the more lauded Chaplin films. The hall of mirrors and monkeys on a tightrope sequences are brilliant. The ending is bittersweet and confused the girls a bit. I realized that this might be the first film they've seen that doesn't have a tidy resolution. Minor Spoiler: this film ends with the Tramp setting up the Girl with another man, then leaving the circus and walking off on his own with no Girl, no job, and no direction home.

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Hail the Conquering Hero is funny. I think I like it even more than Sullivan's Travels. I have this weird impulse to think of it as a war film rather than a "wartime" film.

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Besides the above, we've watched three more episodes of Smallville Season 3, but nothing special. Last week, we watched an humorous episode of Robin Hood introducing Little John. Tonight's episode introduced Friar Tuck. I continue to be impressed by the high quality of this show.

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Jeff, New Morning is my favorite Dylan album. I don't listen to much Dylan, but I'll pull out New Morning a couple of times a year.

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Ben, you are mostly right in your brief analysis of Black Heaven. I suppose I'm not willing to put up too much of a fight because you seem to concede that the film is worth thinking about even if you can't join me in thinking that it achieves what it sets out to do. In perspective, I've seen 56 films from 2010 now. Black Heaven is more interesting and exciting to watch than all but a small handful of those.

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Jason, I'm happy to see your enjoyment of Thor. Abigail will attest to the fact that I bring up Thor several times a day and will not rest until I've seen the movie. I might go see it this Thorsday.

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