#i was looking at a review of a dutch film and one of the top ones started with how dutch is a horrible language (not relevant to the film??)

[cursemewithyourkiss]

It makes me sick that even in my own country it's completely normalised to hate the Dutch language. It's hard to find a young person here who doesn't. I love Dutch, but whenever I say so everyone immediately tells me that I'm wrong and it's horrible.

[peterlorres21stcentury]

Proof that yours truly has been a writer of cringe since at least 2002

Oh wow, 21 years ago, and practically to the day, as well. This was an assignment for my high school journalism class, dated March 19, 2002. I'm not sure why I remembered this specifically, but reblogging something about The Mask of Dimitrios just now must have sparked the one working neuron in my brain. I kept most of my old school assignments just because I originally typed them in Word, and they don't take up much space on the disk.

As I recall, the assignment was to write a film review in 1000 words or less, mentioning stuff you liked, and stuff you didn't like. I chose "The Mask of Dimitrios," because this was back when I was a lil baby PL fan and I obsessively taped as many of his films from TCM that I could. I'm sure my teacher thought I was crazy, but he was not alone in that opinion. Honestly, there is nothing I don't like about "Dimitrios," but I had to make something up for the purposes of the review. Enjoy my awful, awful high school writing style and laugh. :P

The Mask of Dimitrios is a hidden classic

Classic films are best when watched under optimum conditions: a darkened room, a big bowl of buttery popcorn, and rain drizzling on the windowpane outside. The Mask of Dimitrios is the perfect film to watch on such a day.

A little-known mystery thriller, it is a gem that is broadcast occasionally on classic movie networks such as TCM. With an intriguing plot and unusual characters, The Mask of Dimitrios tops most other films of the genre with its style, wit, and superb acting of 1940's Hollywood. The Mask of Dimitrios is based on an Eric Ambler book entitled A Coffin for Dimitrios. The book is about an English writer who travels the world in search of a treacherous man called Dimitrios. The film version was made in 1944 under the direction of Jean Neglesco, and features the acting talents of such immortal stars as Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, and Zachary Scott.

The movie opens in 1936 in prewar Europe. In one of his more offbeat roles, Peter Lorre plays the lead character of Cornelius Latimer Leyden, a mild-mannered Dutch mystery writer on holiday in Istanbul. While at a party, he meets Colonel Haki (Kurt Katch), the chief of police in Istanbul. Haki, an ardent fan of Leyden’s books, regales him with the story of Dimitrios, a murderer for whom he has searched for years. The fugitive Dimitrios was recently found floating in the Bosporus, a knife wound in his side. Haki even takes Leyden to see the bloated corpse on the mortuary slab. Despite the gruesome sight, Leyden is intrigued and wishes to learn more about the dead criminal in order to write a new mystery novel. He travels Europe in hopes of finding more information. One of the characters he meets, a certain Mr. Peters (Sydney Greenstreet), was once part of Dimitrios’s smuggling ring. The two become traveling companions as they help each other learn more about the man who once ruined so many lives in the past.

The story is told through atmospheric settings and flashbacks. Whether the set is a shadowy street or a plush living room, there is always a feeling of suspense and intrigue, but also with the soft suggestions of comfort and affluence. It is as if the viewer is contentedly ensconced in a favorite chair while the story plays itself out on the pages of a book. This is best demonstrated in one scene in particular, in which Leyden meets with a former smuggler of Dimitrios’s ring, named Grodek. As Leyden enters, he notices Grodek’s two cats, both looking very comfortable curled up in an armchair. Soon after, Leyden also is lulled into a sense of comfort as he sits by Grodek’s fireplace, draining another glass of Grodek’s “excellent whiskey.” The scene, although relaxed, is a set-up for the long flashback that is about to occur, soon giving way to even more mystery.

The dialogue is very clever, with a refreshing and intelligent sense of humor. At one point in the film, Leyden returns to his apartment only to find that it has been ransacked by Mr. Peters, who he met earlier on the train to Sophia. After the perplexed Leyden gets over his confusion, Mr. Peters asks if he can use his note-paper and a pencil. “Go ahead,” says Leyden, “you’ve used everything else!” It is this type of banter between Greenstreet and Lorre that adds color and sharp humor to what would be an otherwise run-of-the-mill mystery film.

The characterizations are, in a word, excellent. It wasn’t often when the short, large-eyed Peter Lorre played the lead role, but when he did, it was unforgettable. His character of Leyden is a laid-back, charming, literary person, with only a desire to learn more about Dimitrios, not to get entangled in any conflicts that may exist in the process. Moviegoers who know Lorre only as a movie villain will soon learn otherwise after watching his performance as the gentle Leyden. Zachary Scott fills the role of bad guy in this film (and also his first film) as the title role of Dimitrios. With his thin mustache, slick dark hair, and dapper pinstripe suit, he emanates evil at every step. Sydney Greenstreet, billed as “The Fat Man” by Warner Brothers, is the perfect counterpart to Lorre’s character. Under the facade of a jovial character, Greenstreet’s Mr. Peters is soon revealed to be no less greedy and cunning than those of his former smuggling members. It is interesting to note that the only major female cast member, Faye Emerson, does not have the typical romantic role, but is instead portrayed as a prostitute, a woman who was once loved and then betrayed by the murderous Dimitrios.

At times, the film drags, especially during the flashback sequences when former friends of Dimitrios tell Leyden of what they know. The script is also very talky, and could have been tightened. The drawn-out passages make one want to skip to the “good parts” and return to the web of intrigue that surrounds the characters. The viewer’s mind will sometimes drift away like the smoke curling from the tip of Leyden’s cigarette, and will instead focus on visual images, not really listening to what the characters are talking about. Be forewarned if you have a short attention span.

When Warner Brothers released the film, it was advertised in trailers under the flamboyant tagline, “Of course it’s from Warner Brothers.” The Mask of Dimitrios certainly deserves this praise. With atmosphere, mystery, and an exciting conclusion, this underrated little film certainly ranks high up among the classic early film-noirs of the 40's.

[entropyhouse]

August 5

Where are we now?

A few weeks away from moving, and we’re starting to think about all the things we will need. Regular work is keeping us busy, but we’re planning to take time off at the end of the month to move.

We’re researching a moving company. Several people have quoted us, and we need to decide on one and pick a moving date at the end of the month.

It’s obvious that we will need a fridge, washing machine, hob if we are to live and eat in the house. We can order daily catered food from the nearby town, but we would still need to at least store it.

The last two weeks were spent reviewing appliances and functionality we’d like. More on that later, but it’s clear that the fridge brings along with it the need for a freezer, and we will buy them in the idea that we will integrate them into the kitchen furniture later. We plan to build our own kitchen, which means we need to start getting a workshop ready.

We spent a lot of time debating whether to change the layout of the house, especially around the awkwardly-built bathroom by the entrance. But it’s unclear what those walls are made out of, and whether or not we can remove them.

We had a construction company come around to take a look, and they will start to take measurements in October. Meanwhile, they are also trying to acquire any old floor plans that the local council may have (if at all). It’s possible that when Germans moved out post-WWII they left the plans behind. It’s equally possible that they were destroyed, although we hope not.

It’s also becoming obvious that we need to do a lot of cleaning in the house before we can live in it, maybe even painting.

We already spent a few nights in a sleeping bag, starting to inspect and inventory the garden and prune dead trees and bushes. We discovered some of the old structures built on it, which may have been the horse coach shelter (I forget if it has a name). There are lots of bricks we could reuse that look like they are in very good condition. Surprising that rain and frost did not damage them.

The shopping list grows with a few other essentials: we need a ladder to clean the ceilings and vacuum the cobwebs. We also need an outdoor ladder to reach the roof, but we agreed that it’s not essential for the first few months, until it’s winter and we can start pruning the elm tree growing on top of the roof. I learned about Dutch elm tree disease, so we’re putting off any pruning of it until January next year.

Starting to also think about filming all these adventures and maybe starting a YouTube channel, like everyone else renovating an old house these days :)

Will edit with more once I remember.

[ccthewriter]

CC's New Watch Ranking 2022: #2 - The Young Girls of Rochefort

1967, dir. Jacques Demy

Every year on Letterboxd, I make a list of the 100 best films I’ve seen for the first time. It’s a fun way to compare movies separated in time, genre, and country of origin, and helps me keep track of what I’m watching! This is a series of posts about my Top 10.

This is the pinnacle of cinematic joy. No other film contains such happiness, such leaping mirth, such radiant sunshine. This is a glass of lemonade at the height of spring; this is a giggling kiss given behind a carnival. Every few days I turn to my wife and scream-sing “Nous sommes deux soeurs jumelles! Nées sous le signe des Gémeaux!” and it never fails to make us laugh. You’ll find this year’s ranking contains a lot of serious films, many of which touch on the darker elements of our lives. Les Demoiselles de Rochefort stands in stark contrast as a true comedy in the classical sense, concerned only with love and laughter. It is the best musical ever committed to film. 

Young Girls follows a pair of twins looking for love. Their mother runs a cafe in the town square, where a caravan of performers have just arrived to set up a carnival. They dance around this space as they seek romance, their soulmates passing through and barely missing them each time. It’s a wonderful comedy of errors, interspersed with the greatest musical numbers you’ve ever seen. 

I want to express my affection for this movie with a high-pitched squeal, because every element is perfect. But I’ll try to isolate what’s working here. The story is simple and classical. The visual language is divine. It begins with a very long shot of the caravan traveling over a bridge to arrive in town. The lingering intro makes viewers feel transported into Rochefort, which becomes less of a real city and more of a fairytale kingdom. The set design and costuming is brilliant, and is displayed with a relatively still camera that will rotate to view its subject, but rarely go dutch or do anything else fancy. The stillness makes the contents of the frame shine. 

There’s some Wes Anderson levels of symmetry and color at play here, too. The sisters are coded in yellow and pink, and the entire world is tinted to match them. They pass through the Frenchest, most beautiful locations imaginable. An antique store with rococo furnishing and white marble. Little shops made of wood and glass. Cobblestone alleys lined with bright plaster. Truly, every detail, from top to bottom, is made with cinematic beauty and grace. And the music! It soars, it's jazzy, it's a little funky, it's just the best you could imagine.

I’m finding myself at a loss for words! I don’t know what else to say other than this is good - really, really, really good. No movie embodies the freeing feeling of love better. There’s a production history I don’t know about and couldn’t begin to describe. Catherine Deneuve is incredible, but we’ll spend more time talking about her very soon. If you find yourself sad and looking for something to cheer you up, this film is it. Treat yourself to the freedom of the soul this film can instill. You deserve it. When we think of building a better world, we should focus on making it feel like this one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for reading! If you made it this far why don’t you give me a follow on Letterboxd, where I post reviews and keep obsessive track of all the movies I watch. Feel free to drop a line if you checked this movie out and want to share your thoughts!

[weekendwarriorblog]

Sundance 2022 Day 2 & 3: Speak No Evil, Summering, Sharp Stick, Call Jane

Things are going fairly well as Sundance went through the weekend, and here are four more reviews, still focusing on narrative films even though I’ve been watching a few more docs over the weekend, as well.

SPEAK NO EVIL

Christian Tafdrup’s third movie is the first movie I personally have seen from the Danish filmmaker. Before the movie, Tafdrup said that he and his co-writing brother Mads were looking to make “The most unpleasant experience for an audience ever.” In fact, I had already been hearing comparisons to Von Trier and Haneke being bandied about before even knowing what the movie was about. The movie sets itself up with music that sounds foreboding that I really wasn’t sure what I was getting into, although this appropriately was the Day One Midnight movie for this year’s Sundance.

Danish couple Bjørn and Louise (Morten Burian, Sidsel Siem Koch) are on holiday with their daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg) in Tuscany, where they meet a strange Dutch family, adding Speak No Evil to the long list of vacation movies we’ve seen in the past year, but also reminding us that the Swedish film Force Majeure started that trend a very long time ago. They accept an invitation to visit the other couple, Patrick and Karin (Fedja van Huêt, Karina Smulders) at their home. They have a quiet and sullen son Abel (Marius Damslev), who barely speaks, but they’re disturbed by how strict his parents are with him, which makes them uncomfortable. On top of that, Louisa is a vegetarian (or rather, a pescaterian, a term I hate), but Patrick still offers her the boar he has cooked and challenges

Patrick and Karin (Fedja van Huêt andKarina Smulders) keep putting their visitorsin odder and uncomfortable situations, including lots of PDA (public displays of affection) and spying on the couple while they’re having sex, so they decide to get out of there, leaving in the middle of the night. Things just get more awkward when they have to return for Agnes’ stuffed rabbit.

You can only imagine what’s going to happen… are they killers or swingers or something more horrible than either? It’s over an hour before Bjorn starts venturing around the house and starts realizing that things are even more wrong than they thought.

Essentially, Speak No Evil is the much darker non-comic version of Vacation Friends, another vacation-related movie from last year, oddly.. Like Haneke and Von Trier, Speak No Evil is more about the psychological terror of being put into a horrible situation, more than the type of horror with supernatural elements. The movie is filled with such great performances across the board, and there was a lot more English than I was expecting, not that I necessarily have any issue with foreign language films. Tafrdup does a terrific job with a movie that would surely have a difficulty tone.

This is just a fantastic thriller, one I do hope will get some sort of theatrical release, even if it means playing a few non-virtual festivals, although the streaming horror site Shudder has already picked it up for distribution.

Rating: 8/10

CALL JANE

Call Jane was actually my first Sundance movie this year that didn’t show up at the festival with distribution lined up, although it’s a bit of a misnomer that it’s the directorial debut by Phyllis Nagy, the screenwriter of Carol, since she previously directed the HBO movie, Mrs. Harris.

It stars Elizabeth Banks as Joy Griffin, a suburban housewife in the ‘60s, married to Chris Messina and with a teen daughter Charlotte. Joy gets pregnant but needs to get an emergency pregnancy termination due to how it’s physically affecting her. Joy’s case gets the attention of the Jane Collective, a group of women who helps women get illegal abortions in the ‘60s pre-Roe v Wade, and Joy ends up getting more and more involved, first offering support to women during the uncomfortable procedure and then doing some of the procedures herself.

I was mildly surprised that this film wasn’t actually written by Nagy, who was working from a screenplay by Hayley Schore and Roshan Sethi that may have been around for some time. But the writing isn’t that great, and you wonder why Nagy didn’t take more of a writing credit herself.

While I understand the timeliness of this film with what’s going on in Texas and other states, this is just not a situation that affects me at all, and therefore not a particularly interesting premise to me, despite my belief in women’s right to choose. It’s a fairly bland drama, even though there are moments that are quite difficult and uncomfortable to sit through, such as when Joy herself is getting the procedure.

That said, I liked the movie more and more as it went along, and much of that came down to the terrific performance by Banks, who is given a lot of room to really make Joy far more interesting than the typical Douglas Sirk heroine. (Originally, the role was supposed to be played by Elisabeth Moss, who may have been better, but Banks handles the material quite well.) The second most interesting performance comes from Sigourney Weaver, who is running the clinic, but unfortunately, Messina is back to playing another bland indie role, which I was hoping he had put behind him. Kate Mara plays their neighbor who adds absolutely nothing to the movie.

The rest of the cast is okay, but there are many scenes of the women sitting around talking, and the film is shot so blandly, that it does little to invigorate the film’s slower paced moments. Things definitely get quite dramatic with many great moments showcasing the actors, as well as showing off Nagy’s talents as a theater director.

The biggest problem with Call Jane, and this could just be due to Nagy’s inexperience as a film director, is that it’s two hours without needing to even be that long. The story could definitely have been tightened up to improve its pacing with more than a few scenes that served very little purpose.

The Jane Collective is an intriguing and timely subject to explore for a movie, but Call Jane’s closest benchmark is Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake, and it doesn’t come close to being that good. On the other hand, Call Jane is a fine showcase for Banks as an actor; I just wish the writing and filmmaking aspects of the film were better.

Rating: 7/10

SUMMERING

It’s always nice when James Ponsoldt has a new movie, especially since I was such a fan of his movie Smashed when it played at Sundance, or maybe it was TIFF, or maybe it was both? Summering is a very different movie, because it’s a coming-of-age movie about four young girls wanting to spend the last weekend of summer together before going to middle school. While on one of their adventures, they find a dead body, but instead of going the River’s Edge route, the girls try to find out who the man is and why he jumped (or fell) from a bridge above.

Summering comes into Sundance with distribution in place from Bleecker Street, and you can kind of understand why it appealed to the smaller distributor, because it’s a movie with definitely Stand by Me vibes, maybe a little bit of The Goonies?

Shot in Utah during the summer, the movie stars Lia Barnett, Eden Grace Redfield, Madalen Mills, and Sanai Victoria as the four best friends of different diversities and backgrounds but some seem more mature and taller than others. A nice touch is that for the majority of the film, all four young actresses do almost every single scene together, and Ponsoldt does a good job giving these talented young actors the direction to pull off some pretty complex scenes, as we follow them around, trying to learn more about the dead man they found.

All four young actresses are given their moments, and then on the flip side, their mothers are played by Lake Bell, Megan Mullally, Sarah Cooper, and Ashley Madekwe, who also have some nice scenes together. The fact is that Ponsoldt has managed to make a movie with almost no men whatsoever (except for the dead body and a small cameo).

It’s less successful at mixing genres ala last year’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, because the comedy aspects aren’t particularly hilarious and the mystery and horror elements are rather subtle. The girls do get spooked after seeing the dead body, and even try to throw a seance to communicate with him.

Summering is sweet and cute and not particularly groundbreaking, but for what it’s trying to achieve, which is to make a pleasant movie that can appeal to younger girls, it offers some truly heartfelt moments and a wonderful ending that allows the girls to say goodbye to their childhoods as they head to middle school.

Rating: 7/10

SHARP STICK

Although Sharp Stick is Lena (Girls) Dunham’s first feature film since 2010’s Tiny Furniture, it’s actually her first movie at Sundance, since that other film premiered at SXSW. I wasn’t really a fan of Tiny Furniture, and honestly, I could take or leave Girls, but of course, it’s hard not to be interested in anything Ms Dunham does. This one could be seen as a character piece, and if it hadn’t played at Sundance so soon after I had seen Sean Baker’s significantly better Red Rocket, I might be a little less jaded and open to the story she wanted to tell here.

It stars Norwegian actress Kristine Froseth as 26-year-old Sarah Jo, a bright and bubbly caregiver to a young boy with Down’s syndrome named Zach (Liam Michel Saux). She lives with her mother, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, and her sister Treina, played by Zola’s Taylour Paige, who is obsessed with TikTok and being a social media influencer. There’s not much to be said about the latter characters, since they don’t really bring too much to the overall story/movie.

Still a virgin, Sarah Jo decides that it’s time for her to explore her sexuality, so she comes on to Zach’s father Josh (Jon Bernthal) and begs him to take her virginity. They end up having an affair, trying to hide it from Josh’s pregnant wife (played by Dunham herself). In hopes of being better at sex, Sara Jo starts watching a lot of porn, and eventually becomes obsessed with a porn star (Scott Speedman) and starts experimenting with the things she watches in his porn.

Due to the sexuality on display in this coming-of-age tale, it’s hard not to think of something like Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, or some of the work of Todd Solondz, particularly Welcome to the Dollhouse, although Dunham does bring a uniqueness to it with her own writing voice. Froseth is quite a find to play the naive young woman looking to explore her sexuality, and it’s her performance that keeps the movie from becoming absolutely loathsome. She’s a little childlike herself, and more than once while watching the movie, I wondered whether Sarah Jo was meant to be on the spectrum or that it was decided not to state that outright.

The movie just takes Sarah Jo further and further down this wormhole of sex, and the film gets darker – again, much like Nymphomania – but at least there’s some redemption for Sarah Jo that at least things eventually end in a happier place. Dunham is definitely a better director now than when she made Tiny Furniture, and one thing I really liked was the choice of songs, which did a terrific job adding to the mood.

The problem is that Sharp Stick leaves the viewer with too many questions about what they just watched. Although it does end in a good place, there are elements of the movie that are just so icky, it’s hard to forgive them, making it harder to fully recommend the movie.

Rating: 6.5/10

More reviews coming soon…

[busterkeatonfanfic]

Chapter 8

Buster woke the following morning feeling like hell. His nostrils were so stuffy he could barely breathe out of them, his nose was on fire, and his mouth still tasted like blood even though he’d brushed his teeth twice before bed. He stumbled to the bathroom to look at the damage. Two small purple bruises underscored his eyes and the bridge of his nose was swollen to twice its size. His appearance confirmed that canceling filming had been the right decision. He swallowed some aspirin, cleaned his teeth again, and took a shower, letting the steam open his clogged sinuses. 

The aspirin barely touched the pain. He toweled off and pulled on a dressing gown, then poured himself a breakfast whiskey to go with the steak and eggs he ordered. Once he’d eaten, he called Nate. To his relief, he was patched over to her line; she hadn’t left for Sunday brunch at Dutch’s yet. 

��Hello?” she said.

“Hi, how are you?” he said.

She told him that she was well. 

He said, “I broke my nose in the game last night.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. How?”

He explained the eighth-inning fastball to the face. “But we won the game. 9 to 6.”

“Did you?” she said. “That’s too bad about your nose though. I’m sorry, darling.”

She sounded suitably sympathetic, but he craved more. He wanted the soothing, the I’ll-be-right-there, the kissing and canoodling. 

“How are the boys?” he said.

“The usual,” she said. “Full of the devil.”

“Good,” he said. “I won’t be filming for a few days because of my nose. You should really consider bringing them up. They’d love the steamboats and I’d like you to see the set. They say the shopping is good in Yolo, too.”

“Oh Buster,” she said, her tone telling him the answer was already a big fat no. “You know I’d love to, but six hours on a train is too much for them, don’t you think? I know you’re disappointed, but we must think of what’s best for them. And wouldn’t they be in your way? I’d have to bring Connie to mind them, and I think four is getting to be a crowd. I don’t suppose your suite would hold another four, would it?”

“Nate, you don’t have to bring the governess. I think you’re perfectly capable of managing them for a few days, don’t you? We can get a second suite or even a third, if that’s what has you concerned.”

“I’m flattered by your faith in me,” she said with a little laugh, “but you’ve never traveled with three- and five-year-old boys! I know I’m letting you down, but it’s only another month, isn’t it? Five weeks tops? That’s really not so bad when you think of it.”

“Yeah, it’s not too bad,” he said, echoing her hollowly.

“I miss you dreadfully,” she assured him, before launching into a story about the picture Dutch was filming and the party she intended to throw with her sisters at the Villa next weekend. He listened with only half an ear. He wasn’t surprised about her answer to his proposal, but he still felt lousy.

Since Bobby had been born and Nate had booted him out of the bed, he’d accepted that his needs would have to be satisfied by other women. He knew that Nate hated him for it, even though he’d stuck to his original promise and been the soul of discretion. In spite of her rejection, he still desired her and wanted to win her back, but the most she would ever permit was necking and light petting. If he so much as thought about taking things further, she’d squirm out of his grasp. He just didn’t understand, even three years since he’d last made love to her, why he couldn’t have both a wife and the rights that other husbands were entitled to. He’d gone over it in his head a thousand times. Was he a bad lover? Was it her upbringing? Peg’s sermonizing? Her religion? Could she be a lesbian? He didn’t know and God forbid he even try to broach the topic. She’d give him such a withering look before she stalked out of the room that he felt like he ought to be thrown in jail on charges of sex depravity for even mentioning the idea. 

Divorce was out of the question, naturally. There were relationships to preserve: the one with Joe for starters and those with his famous sisters-in-law. He didn’t trust that Nate wouldn’t try to keep the boys from him, either, if he tried to end it. He could just hear her saying to some attorney, ‘Well, he doesn’t see them much anyway.’ In the meantime, all the saphead could do was to keep trying vainly to find that opening in his wife’s affections. Casting her as his leading lady hadn’t worked. Building her a little love-nest, then a great big love-nest, hadn’t worked. He’d recently decided that maybe a real honeymoon instead of the post-nuptial cross-country train trip that had masqueraded as one might work on her. He figured deep down it wouldn’t change her mind, but still he had his foolish hopes. 

When Natalie was done prating, he told her he had to get ready for lunch with Joe and said his goodbyes. There wasn’t any such lunch, but he no longer wanted to talk. 

He ended up spending the afternoon at the new zoo, disguised by a fake moustache, a tweed cap, and jumper vest that constricted him in heat on what was already a sweltering day. It worked, though. No one looked twice at him. The zoo was a disappointment. To begin with, it was extraordinarily tiny, but more importantly most of the animals featured—deer, wild turkey, raccoons—could be seen if you just sat in a Muskegon tree long enough. The most exotic offering consisted of some listless-looking monkeys in cages. A pack of adolescent boys thumped on their wire enclosures and screeched at them to perform. “Pick on someone your own size!” he yelled at them, and they scattered. The monkeys blinked back at him, not seeming to care one way or the other. 

He did have dinner with Joe that night at the Italian Restaurant in the Julius Hotel. As Buster tucked into his truffle tagliatelle, Joe dropped the bomb. 

“We can’t have the flood sequence.”

Buster laughed. “It sounded like you just said ‘We can’t have the flood sequence,’ Joe, but I don’t think I heard you right,” he said, and took a bite of tagliatelle. “Good one, though.”

“I’m not kidding. Think about how it’ll look. You’ve got a river that’s supposed to be the Mississippi—”

“Sacrasippi,” Buster said, lifting his eyebrows.

“Cut it out,” said Joe, frowning. “I’m trying to be serious. You’ve got a river that’s supposed to be the Mississippi and it’s supposed to flood. Well, you know as well as I do that hundreds of people just lost their lives in the Mississippi floods.”

“Since when do you care?” said Buster. If there was one thing he’d always liked about Joe, it was that he let him alone and let him make the pictures his own way. Something about this smelled fishy.

“It’s in poor taste. It’s not going to get laughs, it’s just going to bring bad publicity. I don’t want it to flop. There’s too much money in it.”

Buster set down his fork. Two words had stuck out: publicity and money. “This is Harry, isn’t it?” he said, narrowing his eyes.

Joe gave a slight wave of his hand, dismissing the comment. “Now don’t go blaming Harry. I happen to agree with him. It would be a risky thing, and God knows what it would cost to pull it off anyway.”

“Well that god damn bean-counter,” said Buster, anger flaring. “We’ve already got everything set up for a flood! The entire god damn picture is about a flood. That’s the entire point!” Joe looked at him with a firm expression. “I’ve made up my mind. We can’t do a flood.”

“Well, we may as well can the whole picture then,” Buster said. “All my best gags are built around the flood. I can’t just start from scratch.”

“Look,” said Joe, continuing to eat his own meal. “We’re talking about lost lives here. You can see that, can’t you?”

“Horseshit,” said Buster. “Remember Chaplin’s picture Shoulder Arms? The ink wasn’t even dry on the Armistice when he released that. I remember ‘cause it was the first thing I saw after I got back from France. Everyone loved it. No one was thinking about how many soldiers had just gotten their heads and legs blown off in the war, they just knew a funny picture when they saw one.” He clenched his left fist in his lap. 

“Why not try another disaster?” Joe said.

“Like what?” he said. He stabbed at the pasta with his fork and took a bite without pleasure.

“I’m not the brains here.”

“What, like a cyclone? Joe, I bet you tornadoes and hurricanes kill more people each year than floods. Sure we wouldn’t get bad reviews and angry letters from folks whose families have been killed by tornadoes?”

Joe waved his hand again. “A cyclone sounds just fine. Anything that’s not a flood, you can do.”

It stunk to high heaven as far as Buster was concerned, but he knew Joe well enough to see when he’d made up his mind. He finished his tagliatelle in silence and didn’t even pretend he was willing to pick up the tab when Joe went to pay. He took a taxi back to the Senator and went to bed early, tossing between the sheets and stewing about his lost flood. There were butter cookies in the brown paper sack making dark greasy spots on its sides. Nelly stood outside Buster’s dressing room, her heart racing with the memory of what had happened last time she’d stepped inside it. Before she lost her nerve, she tapped on the door. 

“Come in!” called Buster. 

She slipped through and closed the door. He was sitting at his table again, not in costume today but wearing dark slacks and a long-sleeved blue jacquard shirt with faint stripes.

“Hi, it’s Nelly,” she said, by way of greeting. 

“I haven’t forgotten your name,” said Buster, one corner of his mouth quirking. “What do you have there?”

She stepped a few feet forward and extended the bag. “I made you cookies.”

He looked from the bag to her as he took it, surprised. “What did I do to deserve such an honor?”

“I heard you broke your nose,” she said. Indeed, she could see up close that his nose was swollen near the top and there were small faded bruises beneath his eyes, not noticeable unless you were next to him.

“So you baked me cookies.” He peeked inside. 

“Yes. I wanted to thank you, too,” she said, feeling the full ridiculousness of her gesture. “For taking care of me last Friday night.”

“No one’s ever made me get-well cookies before, not even my own mother. I’d just get cod-liver oil, even for sprains.” He sounded pleased.

“How’s your nose?” she said, as he bit into a cookie. 

“Hurts like the dickens,” he said, chewing. “I’m hoping the swelling will go down by Friday so I can start filming again.” He didn’t remark upon the cookie as he finished it, but she noticed he pulled another out of the bag. “We’re doing the night scenes soon.”

She was still a little fuzzy on Steamboat Bill’s plot, but this week’s filming had involved hundreds of local extras, and the grander of the two steamboats was piloted up and down the river, belching out huge plumes of black smoke. She’d taken a break to watch the spectacle. The crowd’s enthusiasm for the steamboat seemed real. The whole set certainly looked real thanks to all the props down by the riverside, the small boats, the large pennants reading KING, and the patriotic bunting draped on storefronts. Buster had been on hand near the cameras helping direct, but hadn’t noticed her in the throngs.

Buster went on. “I’ve got this publicity man who says I can’t have a flood because of the lives that were lost when the Mississippi flooded, so we’re changing everything up for a cyclone.” She marveled a little that he was telling her anything about the production, but tried not to show it. “I wondered what those airplane propellers and big motors Bert had me order were for,” she said. 

“These are good,” said Buster, pulling a third cookie from the bag. “Remind me to get hurt more often.”

“Or rescue foolish girls from themselves more often,” she said. 

“It was nothing,” he said. 

“It was something to me.” 

He considered her as he started on the third cookie. 

“Anyway, I already took lunch. I’ve got to get back to the shop,” she said.

“Okay,” he said. 

She had her hand on the door when he spoke up again. 

“Why that Shrew play, anyway? Why not Juliet?”

She turned back and looked at him, thoroughly confused. She had no idea how he knew about one of her dearest and closest ambitions.

He noticed her puzzlement and clarified. “You said your dream was to star in that Shrew play. Why? Why not Romeo and Juliet?”

“I don’t remember telling you that,” she said, feeling abashed

“Well, don’t get bent out of shape about it, I was just asking,” he said, a little defensively. 

“No, I’m not bent out of shape, I’m surprised,” she said, as she faced him. “I don’t remember saying that. I’m afraid of what else I, uh, might have said that night.” She cringed to think of what else might have come out of her mouth. “I hope I didn’t beg you for a break or anything.”

He regarded her with a calm expression. “You didn’t. I’d still like to know, though.”

“Well, Kate has a mind of her own. She wants to control her own fate. Marriage isn’t for her,” she said, conscious of how clumsy her words were. “She’s fun to play. Romeo and Juliet is a little boring.”

In truth, it was Katherine’s spirit which she loved, the rebellion against her father and Petruchio, and hang the end of the play. In her experience, the audience never remembered the end of the play, only the beginning and middle where Katherine was at her most defiant and fiery. 

Buster nodded, elbow on the table and finger sliding absently under his lip. The silence stretched on for long enough that Nelly said, “Anyway, I’ll see you around.”

“Thanks for the cookies,” Buster said.

Note: It’s easy when writing a fiction about Buster Keaton to cast Natalie Talmadge as a villain. I prefer to listen to Buster’s granddaughter Melissa Talmadge Cox who points out that the divorce is ancient history and that fans should get over it! Even though I’m writing a story that is obviously canon divergent, I always remember that Buster lived happily ever after with Eleanor Norris Keaton and considered himself to have had a lucky life with very few dark spots. Why did Natalie put a end to her sex life with the gorgeous, winsome Buster Keaton? I think the likeliest explanation is that she just wasn’t attracted to him or simply didn’t like sex. I do think Buster really loved her too and wanted things to work out, which is why their marriage lasted as long as it did. I’ve tried to convey that with this story. Also, I’m with Natalie. Trying to travel hours on a train with two young rambunctious boys sounds like a nightmare, even with a governess.  And yes, the Keaton governess was also named Connie, not to be confused with Constance “Connie” Talmadge, who was also frequently called Dutch. Finally, with a lot of digging through newspapers I learned that the date Buster broke his nose was July 30th, 1927! So the first scene takes place on the 31st. The second occurs on Wednesday, August 3rd.

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I thought about the MCU (Phase One)

I love Marvel. More specifically, I love Marvel movies. And more specific than that, I love Marvel movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (with the occasional Deadpool from the X-Men universe). Within eleven years, we have gotten twenty-three movies. Most of them successful, with a few cracks in the armor here and there. And I want to show my love for this success by reviewing each movie in their respective phase. But I'm going to be doing things a little differently than others before me. I'm going to rank each film from worst to best in each phase of the MCU. After I get through all three phases, I'll rank them all from worst to best, with only a sentence explaining my ranking. With that said, let's get started, shall we?

6th: The Incredible Hulk (5/10)

I wish that I could be that guy who says The Incredible Hulk is an underrated masterpiece that doesn't deserve any of its hate...but I'm not, and it isn't. Don't get me wrong, I do love the first few minutes, I love how the Hulk is presented as a danger rather than a hero, and there is some decent visual storytelling on display. Seriously, there are scenes with little to no dialogue, and it is easy to tell what's going on in the characters' heads from their movements and expressions. Which is a treat, because the lines aren't great, and the delivery is not any better. It's worse with Liv Tyler as Betty Ross, who has two different speech patterns: Shouting and sounding like a robot pretending to be human. Plus, the CGI is butt ugly in this movie, and it's easily the worst in the MCU. Say what you want about Black Panther and it’s CGI, but at least the hero and villain don't look like ugly green blobs punching each other. If you think it's Incredible, more power to you. For me, it's just...meh.

5th-Iron Man 2 (5/10)

I actually like this movie. Or, at least, I like parts of this movie. I like the performances, the action, and a couple of well-handled scenes. For example, the party scene is actually pretty decent as it shows how irresponsible a hero can be when drunk, even if the latter half of it becomes a rock'em sock'em robots fight. Separately, scenes like this work. It's when they're put together does the movie fall flat. There are too many plot points and story threads to follow that the movie becomes a jumbled mess as a result. Also, Sam Rockwell's Justin Hammer is just a dweeb of a villain. Which is a shame because I can see how he can be the perfect foil for Tony Stark. It's just that he lacks a lot of the charisma that RDJ gives his own character. But an even bigger shame is the underutilization of Mickey Rourke as Whiplash, who seems like a unique villain that I would have loved to see more of. But instead, we just get some jerkoff in a suit. That being said, I still don't think Iron Man 2 is as bad as people claim it to be. Yeah, it's bottom five, for sure, but that doesn't mean it isn’t irredeemable.

4th-Thor (6/10)

WHAT IS UP WITH THE EXCESSIVE DUTCH ANGLE SHOTS?! Seriously, was the majority of the movie shot on a hill? Did the crew lost a wheel on one of the cameras and decided to roll with it? Why does it keep happening?!

A dutch angle shot only works if you're showing something cool. NOT whenever you feel like it! 

With that said...this movie is ok. There are some good things to like. Chris Hemsworth definitely has the physique of a Norse god, there are some well-handled comedic moments, and the action is pretty cool at times. It's just that the supporting cast is a little bland, and Thor is not Loki's best appearance. Tom Hiddleston certainly nails the trickster character, but the chaotic personality doesn't really let loose until future movies. Still, I think Thor is fine. And definitely better than Thor: The Dark World.

3rd-Iron Man (7/10)

What can I say about this movie that hasn't been said already? Robert Downey Jr. is still the definitive Iron Man, the acting is top-notch, the action is even better, the CGI still holds up to this day, and the story is pretty amazing...for the most part. The stuff with Jeff Bridges as Iron Monger, while not as bad as everyone else says, is still not as engaging as everything else. Personally, I don't hate him, and I think the final fight between this giant robot man with a tiny robot man is still pretty entertaining. I can maybe see why others wouldn't be as entertained, but that doesn't change how this film is a great start for something big.

2nd-Captain America: The First Avenger (7.5/10)

Now, THIS is an underrated movie...for the most part. I can see why some people can be less than thrilled about certain aspects of this movie, but I can still argue why those aspects don't bother me. Yes, it becomes a cliche action movie halfway through, but at least the action is cool. Yes, the scene where Captain America becomes a dancing monkey is embarrassing, but at least that song slaps. Yes, Red Skull is boringly evil for the sake of an evil villain, but he's a nazi. What were you expecting? The intricate reasons for why he's a nazi? And yes, Captain America's reasoning for crashing the plain is stupid, but...it at least give us two more awesome movies?

Alright, that one I'll give to you.

Regardless, I still consider this my favorite Captain America movie. Because it has moments that come to mind when I think of our star-spangled man. He's the guy who jumps on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers without an ounce of hesitation. He's the guy who will continue to do the right thing, no matter how hard it might be. And he's the guy who has a sense of humor, but not overly quippy like other characters. I'll admit that the other two movies are better, but as for which one has what I love about Captain America, it would have to be his very first adventure as the First Avenger.

1st-The Avengers (9.5/10)

At first, this movie has nothing more than cool action and corny jokes, some funnier than others. But by the time the film reaches The Battle of New York, that's when it goes from a good movie to a great one! Every film before The Avengers has been building up to this gigantic fight. With The Avengers hyping itself up as well. And trust me when I say: It's worth it. Add that with some fun characters with phenomenal chemistry fighting Loki at his best, then you've got yourself one hell of a movie.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And that's all of the movies in phase one. I'll see you soon as I talk about phase two.

[charliejrogers]

Miracle on 34th Street (1947) - Review & Analysis

What a weird, wonderful movie. Miracle on 34th Street is quite possibly the oddest Christmas movie I’ve ever seen. In part this is due to the fact that some stuff just doesn’t age well. How many old, strange men are you willing to let your seven-year-old daughter hang out alone with, Ms. Doris Walker?! But also it’s weird because because despite its typical Christmas-movie themes of faith/belief, true love, family, etc… it’s a wholly unique film that doubles as a legal drama!

This was my first viewing of the perennial classic, a film which started as a story by Valentine Davies and was adapted for the screen and then subsequently directed by George Seaton. Though baptized a Roman Catholic, Seaton himself grew up in a Jewish neighborhood of Detroit. He even had a bar mitzvah. I wonder how much of Seaton’s upbringing affected the final product we see. The central theme of holding faith in something that doesn’t make sense to those around you probably resonated strongly for the director who as a kid who became interested in a religion that was foreign to both of his Swedish immigrant parents.

From a direction standpoint, it’s fairly by the books and of its time, with a few notable exceptions, one being the opening credits sequence which shows a lone man walking slowly about the NYC streets from behind. He’s dressed in all black and we have no idea who he could be. He could literally be anyone in the world. Then all of a sudden, like magic, his face is revealed: the man we’re following is Santa Claus! Or, at least it looks a whole lot like him. What is Santa Claus doing in New York? Is this even Santa Claus?

These are questions that end up being central to the movie and just straight up never get answered. I loved that writing choice. The writing is the first of the film’s three big stars. This film won the Oscar for both best story and best adapted screenplay and it deserves every ounce of those awards. The story is so sublimely clever. Put shortly, the movie is about a man who claims to be Santa Claus and due to his uncanny resemblance to the jolly holiday figure, his natural aptitude for talking to children, and his almost savant-like knowledge of toy stores in Manhattan, he gets hired to be the mall Santa for Macy’s flagship Manhattan store. However, not everyone is as convinced that he is the real Kris Kringle. Certainly the Macy’s company psychologist does not. An uptight and unpleasant man, he (like others) thinks Kringle is utterly delusional but (unlike others) he also thinks these delusions presage future violence whenever inevitably others may challenge Kringle on this delusion. The psychologist thus schemes to get Mr. Kringle committed to *cue thunderclaps* Bellevue!

What ensues is a legal battle. I can’t imagine any other Christmas movie whose climax ends in a courtroom but it’s an incredibly satisfying thing to watch. We have the idealistic lawyer, Mr. Fred Gailey, who believes that Kringle, while clearly delusional, poses no actual threat to the community and actually does the community a great service in spreading kindness. Nevertheless, has to prove that Mr. Kringle is legally THE Mr. Kringle lest Kringle spend the rest of his life in the looney bin. Note… I have a very healthy and “modern” view of mental health, and would never use the term “looney bin” to describe today’s mental health hospital… but I use the term here because the images we get in the film of Bellevue’s inpatient psych ward are of sedated men in all-white clothing… in other words the movie certainly thinks of being in a psych ward as a looney bin, which adds a bit of dramatic tension to the story.

There’s certainly some not-so-subtle condemnation of psychology going on this movie (at least of the kind practiced by the Macy’s psychologist, Mr. Sawyer (a snivelling Porter Hall)). This was coming at a time when increasingly science was taking the place of religion, so it makes sense that psychology would be an enemy in a movie about faith and clinging to things that don’t make sense. The trial over the existence of Santa Claus almost serves as an inverse Scopes Monkey trial; Kringle even ironically compares his lawyer to Clarence Darrow, the lawyer on behalf of science.

What this movie nails so absolutely perfectly is that honestly… I don’t know if Kringle really isn’t Santa Claus. I’m not claiming that Santa exists in the real world, but in the world of this film, it’s really not obvious whether the film leans one way or another. That’s an ambiguity that tends to make art shine when it’s present. We see through Gailey’ legal maneuvering that the legal defense for Santa Claus’ existence is tenuous at best. At one point he calls the prosecutor’s child to the witness stand to argue that Santa Claus must be real since that is what his Dad (the prosecutor) has always told him. Therefore it seems like the film’s psychological explanations are probably the most likely. Yet at the same time… when a little Dutch girl comes to see Santa at Macy’s because she can “just tell” he’s the real Santa… why else would Kringle know Dutch songs about Santa off the top of his head? Why does an old man who lives in an old folk’s home on Long Island know so much about Manhattan’s toy stores?

And then there’s the more practical questions about Santa lore. Why is Santa in New York? He says he was born in the North Pole… so why did he leave? If he’s real, then why does he need to direct parents on where to buy the best toys? Is it merely that the world has outgrown him?

There’s also a whole economic piece of the script that I won’t even fully touch on. But basically Kringle in attempt to do right by parents, doesn’t merely recommend toys from the Macy’s toy department, but lets them know about better deals on toys that are located in stores elsewhere in Manhattan, including those that are rivals of Macy’s! This policy is such a hit with customers, it ushers in a revolution in department store policy, with department stores across the nation vying to extend more goodwill to customers. As I said, there’s something in there about the power of the free market and how capitalism doesn’t have to be evil... but I’ll leave it there and return to the central questions of the film. Like... does Santa Claus exist?

I don’t know! But the film raises really interesting questions and just leaves them there for us to sit with. Everything that the film tells us points us to the common sense conclusion that this man is NOT the genuine Jolly fellow… yet we want to believe there’s something more and that’s what makes this film so special. We literally as the audience go through the same mental charades as the characters in the film.

Thus far, I’ve attributed this brilliance to the plot, but there’s another absolutely vital element: the performance by Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle. This guy deserves every ounce of his Oscar for his performance. There’s not a second that he’s on screen that he doesn’t ooze charisma and charm. This whole movie would fall apart were it not for him, good plotting be damned, since we need to believe, even for mere fits and flitters, that this man is Santa Claus.

Never is he more convincing than when he interacts with children. There’s the absolutely magical scene with the little Dutch girl I mentioned above, but it’s when Kringle chats with little Susan Walker (played to heart-melting perfection by nine-year-old actor Natalie Wood whose got a stink face that never ceased to make me chuckle) that this movie achieves greatness. Though the trial scenes put the theme of faith vs. psychology at the forefront, the real heart of this movie is the conflict of faith vs. practicality. Little Susan is raised by her mother (and her Black nanny/house-caretaker who gets depressingly little credit… or screentime), and her mother Doris Walker (Maureen O’Hara) is a thoroughly practical women. She’s a high-up exec at Macy’s, and seemingly one of the only women to be in such a position. As such, she’s a unique character for her time. Rigidly pragmatic, she eschews any and all attempts at fun and imagination for her daughter (as well as for herself). We get the sense that a different film, a different story, might dive deep into Walker’s struggles as a single mother in the 1940’s trying to be taken seriously in the business world. In a sense, she’s a forerunner to Faye Dunaway’s character in Network. She was clearly hurt by romance in the past (she and her husband divorced, which I imagine was rather scandalous at the time), and this fear of getting hurt by romance is what compels her to teach her daughter to avoid the stuff completely.

Clearly, there’s some cool gendered stuff going on here. Imagination, romance, faith: these are all things that are stereotypically more female-coded, while business, pragmatism are more male-coded. You inherit your father’s name but your mother’s religion as the old tradition went. And in our society at least, the latter (pragmatism/business) is supposed to make you successful and get you places… the former (faith/romance) does not. Yet in this movie, we have idealism and romance of our male lawyer Fred Gailey (John Payne) and the pragmatism of our female businesswoman Doris Walker. It’s a fun play on typical gender norms, but more interesting is to see how this duality plays out in the development of little Susan under the dual influences of her mother and the combination of Misters Gailey & Kringle.

Natalie Wood goes down in the pantheon of all-time great child actors, up there with the kid from Kramer vs. Kramer. She’s precocious but not in a way that’s off-putting. The way she evaluates the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in such a matter-of-fact way is hilarious, and as I mentioned the stink eye she gives Kringle when he tries to tell her that he’s Santa is nothing short of perfect. Over the course of the film, we see her more harsh nature melt away and she becomes a kid. It’s a beautiful reminder of that childhood only comes once in a lifetime. If this movie shows us nothing, it’s how hard it is to maintain a sense of levity once one becomes an adult. We have to start worrying about what our bosses might think, what the press/public might think, what voters(!) might think. Never again will it be fully OK to have your heads in the clouds and believe in nonsense, so why take that away from children.

As much as this is a perfect film, I could have done without the romance plot. Mostly because it seems unnecessary. Doris seems to change in her attitudes towards Kringle and towards raising her daughter that constitute enough character growth thata having her all of a sudden fall head over heels for Gailey just seems forced. For that matter… Gailey’s a weird dude. This movie romanticizes a weird, creepy type of romance where Gailey spends time with a small girl just to get time with that girl’s mother. Walker and Gailey are such opposites and share no on-screen chemistry, that I just didn’t buy the plot.

But that’s OK. It’s a small blemish on an otherwise wonderful film. It hits different emotions than, say, It’s A Wonderful Life, but it’s magical all that same, and one that I can actually imagine children wanting to watch. It’s unceasingly clever plot, matched by a once-in-a-lifetime performance by Edmund Gween as Kris Kringle and a great child actor performance from Wood make this a must-see movie for any holiday movie fan.

***/ (Three and a half out of four stars)

[letterboxd]

How I Letterboxd #3: Dave Vis

If you are one of the thousands of Letterboxd completists attempting to log every film on our official top 250, you have Dave Vis to thank for keeping that list current. He tells us why he adopted ownership of the list, how he felt when Parasite “dethroned” The Godfather, the curious case of A Dog’s Will, and several Dutch filmmakers worthy of discovery.

You wear your tenure proudly on your profile (“Member since 12/11/2011”). How did you come across Letterboxd way back then? I joined in the beta days when I got an invitation in November 2011 from a good friend who knew I was into film. Up to this date, I have no idea how she got a beta invitation for a movie geek website from New Zealand, but I’m happy she did!

Here’s the $49 question: How do you Letterboxd? I joined because I found it useful to keep track of everything I watched. At that point, I was probably still ticking off films from IMDb’s Top 250, and Letterboxd was a cool way to make other lists and see how I was progressing. When I started using the site more often, I also got to follow more users and enjoyed reading their takes on films. I don’t follow a lot of people, just a few that I know in real life and some other early adopters of the site whose opinions of film I got to value.

Talk us through your profile favorites. What spoke to you about these four films? The pragmatic reason for these four is that they were the last films I watched that got full marks from me. So the four favorites on my profile keep changing as I come across more films that I think deserve five stars. About the current ones: Jaws, of course, is an absolute classic, maybe even Spielberg’s greatest. How he creates that much tension with minimal exposition is masterful. Blade Runner 2049 baffled me, especially on an aesthetic level. I love how the story slowly unravels in probably one of the best world-building efforts of the last couple of years. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring doesn’t need much explanation, I think. Peter Jackson did what was generally thought impossible and in a way that had me walking out of the cinema in awe of the spectacle and production design. Last but not least, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. I’m a huge fan of the Studio Ghibli films and this one, [as well as] being the studio’s unofficial first, is probably my favorite. You can just tell that they worked years to get Hayao Miyazaki’s life’s work to the big screen.

Let’s get down to brass tacks: for the past six and a half years, you’ve been running the Official Letterboxd Top 250, one of our most popular and important lists. What prompted you to start the list? Did you think you’d be keeping it going this long? At least part of the credit goes to someone else on Letterboxd, because even my list is a cloned one! A great deal of thanks goes to a member called The Caker Baker, who sadly isn’t part of the community anymore, for having the idea of doing this list even before me. On the exact day Letterboxd introduced a sorting option by average rating on the Films page, he created the first top 250 list.

I decided to clone that list [Dave has archived it here], because I wanted to filter out the documentaries, shorts and miniseries. As long as I am interested in film and won’t have completed the list, I do see myself keeping it. I feel the overall quality of the list is outstanding and for my taste and film-watching experience it’s probably the best combination of blockbuster hits, timeless Hollywood classics, non-English spoken gems, and some pretty obscure entries.

What’s involved in keeping the top 250 up-to-date? What’s the hardest thing about it? Have you ever found the responsibility a burden—your ankle chained to Letterboxd each week? (We’re grateful!) These days it isn’t much of a bother at all, actually. I’m still so grateful for you guys introducing the ability to sort lists by average rating when editing them a while back. That was a huge relief, I can tell you! And apart from the odd comment when I’m a bit late on my weekly update or when I’m on a well-deserved holiday (yes, even the ankle chain comes off once in a while), I don’t feel like it’s a burden at all.

Let’s unpack it a bit. What are the best films you’ve discovered because of the list? Shoutout to my choices: A Special Day, Harakiri and The Man Who Sleeps. Harakiri is an excellent choice! If it wasn’t for Letterboxd’s top list, I would probably not even know about it today, although it also cracked IMDb’s top 250 last year. What a beautiful film. If I have to name two other, one would be The Cranes Are Flying. I’ve rarely seen a film about war being depicted so beautifully. The other is It’s Such a Beautiful Day, the animation by Don Hertzfeldt about a stick figure you get to care deeply about in a time span of just over an hour. Very different films that, without Letterboxd, the chances are next to zero that I would have checked either of them out. Joining a Kickstarter to finance my own Blu-ray edition of the latter was special too.

Béla Tarr’s 1994 masterpiece ‘Sátántangó’.

So, what’s your percentage-seen of the top 250? Which films rank highest on your list of shame? Are there any that you don’t think you’ll ever watch? At this moment I’m at 175 of 250, so 70 percent. I rarely consider films as being on a ‘list of shame’, but as I scroll through the unseen ones, there are a few that stand out. La Dolce Vita and Sátántangó [Editor’s note: recently re-released in 4K, nudge nudge] are ones that I feel I should have watched by now. Both are magnum opuses from legendary foreign filmmakers. Don’t really know why I haven’t though, but all in good time. Any that I think I’ll never watch? There’s not much I wouldn’t watch, but some are just so daunting in their runtime, that I’m not sure if I will ever feel up to the task (yes, La Flor, I’m looking at you). Probably also the reason I never popped Sátántangó in.

Has the way Letterboxd’s membership has changed and grown affected what’s in the top 250 in any interesting or unexpected ways? That’s not a very easy question to answer, because different people will be surprised about different things. However, you do see a trend—surprising or not—of traditional western cinema classics giving way to more non-English language films doing well on the list. Asian and Brazilian films have skyrocketed to great heights, often at the expense of western classics. Films that are traditionally doing great at IMDb, such as Pulp Fiction or The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, were in Letterboxd’s top ten for a long time, but have both dropped out of the top twenty. Beloved classics among film critics such as Citizen Kane, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Casablanca aren’t even in the top 100 anymore.

We now have a top ten with three Japanese films, one Taiwanese, one Russian, one Brazilian and a South Korean film at the very top. The only English spoken films left there are the two Godfathers and 12 Angry Men. I do tend to suspect that the growing community causes more diversity while also fuelling the more traditional moviegoers to broaden their interests. I personally think that’s a great development.

How did you feel when Parasite overtook The Godfather to become Letterboxd’s highest-rated film of all time? Do you think it’ll ever sink at this point? To say I was surprised is quite the understatement. For something to even come close to The Godfather’s record borders on sacrilege, let alone dethroning it. What you usually see is that new movies with overly positive reviews enter the list’s higher ranks with a bang, but when they are introduced to a bigger crowd, they slowly descend. For example, fellow acclaimed Best Picture nominees 12 Years A Slave, Her, Call Me By Your Name and Roma all peaked in the top twenty and only Call Me By Your Name is still in the list, at number 232 for now.

In these days of ready availability it is extremely hard to create something that has such a large following. That’s why this takeover by Parasite is so extraordinary. Seeing it rise day-by-day—even after the masses took it in—was something I didn’t think possible. I, for one, am very slow to watch new films, so when I got to watch it, it was already in first position. Safe to say my expectation level was through the roof, which probably wasn’t really fair. While I thought it was an excellent film, I personally wouldn’t rank it among my favorites. However, it’s not only the highest-ranked film on Letterboxd, but also the most popular one [a measure of the amount of activity for a film, regardless of rating]! So don’t expect to see it sink lower any time soon.

The top 250 is home to the largest comment section on the platform. Congrats! What’s monitoring that mammoth thread like? Thank you! Although that’s hardly an achievement on my part. I have to be honest, I don’t read everything in the comments section anymore. I try to keep up as much as possible, in order to respond to people who have an actual question. However, when I sign in in the morning and see dozens of new notifications, most probably about A Dog’s Will being in the top ten or about recency bias or about objective quality versus subjective quality, I let it pass me by every so often.

What is your take on A Dog’s Will’s rise to Letterboxd stardom? (At the time of writing, the 2000 Brazilian film from director Guel Arraes holds the number eight spot in the top 250.) Ah, there it is: the elephant in the room… My honest answer is a politically correct one, but also the truth: I haven’t seen it yet, so it’s impossible to pass judgment. However, from the comments section on the top 250, it seems clear that there are two camps: the Brazilians, who adore the film and continually claim the importance it in their cultural heritage. And there’s the other group, mostly non-Brazilians of course, who think it’s a fine film at best, but in their opinion not deserving of a top-ten spot. I’m quite impartial: if the statistics say that it is one of the best-rated films of the Letterboxd community, why would it not deserve to be there? I am curious though if more non-Brazilians will see it and if so, if that will have a significant effect on its rating. We can only wait and see.

Are there any films you’re surprised to have stayed in the list for so long? Conversely, what are some films that we’ll be surprised to hear have never made the list? If I have to name one film that I’m surprised about, it’s one I haven’t seen yet: Paddington 2. Every time I scroll past it, I find myself asking: “wow, this one still in?” It’s probably because I haven’t seen it, but it always strikes me as an odd one. I really have to seek it out some time. Some films that might shock people never having made it… Well, if you look at IMDb’s list for reference, you could say it’s shocking that a film like Forrest Gump never made it onto the list, but that might not be as much of a shock to Letterboxd members. Other popular crowd pleasers that never made it include E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Gladiator, all of Disney’s non-Pixar animated classics, and one of the films that also sparked my interest in movies, The Usual Suspects.

Dave has not seen ‘Paddington 2’.

I’ve actually been working hard on completing the list during quarantine and I finished it yesterday. Has anyone else gotten to 100 percent yet or am I the first? I have no idea, to be honest! There will probably be others who have, but I wouldn’t be able to name one. I suspect Jakk might have reached 100 percent at some point.

My completist streak will need a new avenue. What are your next most essential top lists? If you ever feel up for a challenge, I recommend Top10er’s 1001 Greatest Movies of All Time. He combined the average ratings of critics and users from IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and Letterboxd, and then weighted and tweaked the results with general film data from several services. I have no idea how, but it’s a terrific list. Also, the directors’ favorites lists that are on Letterboxd are awesome. Edgar Wright’s 1,000 favorites and Guillermo del Toro’s recommendations are especially worth your while.

The top 250 list is the tip of the iceberg for the lists on your account. What is it you enjoy about keeping ranked lists? It’s a compulsion. I just really enjoy making lists, ranking films by certain directors, franchises or studios. Not really useful, mostly just fun to do! And I’m not the only one, it seems. Although, of course, lists like the Letterboxd Top 250 will always be an inspiration for finding well-rated films I haven’t seen yet.

Which films got you hooked on cinema? I do have a few titles that were important in terms of my film-watching development. Films like Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park came out when I was an early teenager and those were the ones luring me to the cinema to see and experience things you just couldn’t in the real world, both with groundbreaking special effects—I’m a sucker for those. Not much later, titles like The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction were popular and that’s probably around the time that IMDb’s list got my attention. That top 250 gets a lot of criticism, but the overall quality is fine and for me it was the perfect step in broadening my film-watching.

So, for a long time I watched a lot of films on that list and went to the cinema for your usual blockbusters, probably until Letterboxd arrived. That’s when I started watching the artsier stuff and foreign cinema of which, of course, all classics eluded me up till then. It was films like Seven Samurai, Persona and Werckmeister Harmonies that sparked that particular period. Now I just watch everything that comes my way that seems interesting or entertaining, from the new Marvel instalment to classic Godard.

Tell us about the one and only movie you’ve given a half-star. Ha, that’s an odd one… Once there was a challenge on the site that you could ask a fellow member to pick the next ten films for them to watch. I participated once and, of course, there would be underseen gems or personal favorites on that list, but also one or two that would be almost unwatchable. In my list that was Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny. If that title alone doesn’t give away how bad it was, watching the first five minutes will.

In your opinion, what’s the most underrated film according to Letterboxd average ratings? One that comes to mind, which was in the top 250 once, but has dropped substantially in the last few years, is Gravity. I also have a list where I collect all the films that were once in Letterboxd’s top 250 and it’s at the very bottom there. For me, seeing that film in a theater is what cinema is all about—finding new ways to immerse your audience into a movie experience they have never had before. Oh, did I mention I’m a sucker for special effects?

Dave is a sucker for special effects, including those in Alfonso Cuarón‘s ‘Gravity’ (2013).

As a Dutchman, please educate us: what are the greatest Dutch films people should see? The Netherlands doesn’t really have a thriving movie industry that brings its films across borders. If I have to give the essential tip, it would be Spoorloos, which was remade starring Kiefer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock and was not half as good. Other than that I would recommend Paul Verhoeven’s early work, such as Soldaat van Oranje and Turks Fruit, and the two Dutch films that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, 1986’s De Aanslag and 1997’s Karakter. And to top it off, I want to mention two Dutch filmmakers worth your time, Alex van Warmerdam, director of De Noorderlingen, and Martin Koolhoven, director of Oorlogswinter.

What comfort movies are you watching whilst in quarantine? Are you working on any viewing projects? I actually am in a viewing project at the moment. One of mine and my wife’s guilty pleasures is superhero movies! So currently we are, again, on a Marvel Cinematic Universe rewatch streak. They just provide a wonderful form of escapism and are definitely deserving of the term comfort movies. Some are better than others of course, but the perspective of rewatching The Avengers, Thor: Ragnarok or Guardians of the Galaxy after a while still tends to fill me with excitement. In a way, there’s still a bit of the twelve-year-old in me that was so thrilled to see T2 or Jurassic Park.

How do you plan on inducting your kids into the cinephile life? Well, most important is that they just enjoy going to the movies like I did when I was young. Let’s hope we will be able to do so again in the near future. They are still young, but their access to screen time with Netflix, Disney+ and (mind-numbingly stupid clips on) YouTube is so different than the days when we were young. So having them watch some Ghibli classics is already quite a step. And then I think the rest should come naturally. If not, so be it.

Which, for you, are the most useful features on Letterboxd? Did you know they have a list with the 250 best rated narrative feature films? That’s basically all you need to know… All kidding aside, just reading reviews once in a while by fellow members whose opinions I value is still the heart of the service to me. That and the statistics pages. And browsing other lists.

Does anyone in your real life know that your list is kind of a Letterboxd big deal? Not really! Mostly because I don’t exactly feel that way about it. I mean: my wife knows, but other than that it’s pretty much still my pet project. To me, it’s still just a film enthusiast’s list that so happened to become the site’s official top 250. I do have to say that it is humbling to see the numbers of new followers every day—especially when Letterboxd mentions the list on her social accounts—and to realize that apparently almost 23,000 people around the globe have taken a liking to it.

Please name three other members you recommend we follow. Fellow countryman and longtime member DirkH. He is not as active as he was before, but writes beautifully personal reviews, always with his trademark witty humor or sometimes cheeky sarcasm, not always to the liking of everyone. You all got to know Lise in the first How I Letterboxd, but I’d definitely also recommend following her other half Jonathan White. His reviews are great, he knows so much about film and is always willing to share his thoughts or answer questions. And damn, that man can rhyme. Then there’s Mook, if only for his franchise lists. Check out his MCU list, it’s my go-to place when I want to read up on anything Marvel.

Related content

Official Top 100 Documentary Feature Films

Official Top 100 Narrative Features by Women Directors

Letterboxd’s ‘Official’ Top 50 of 2020

Several of the films mentioned in this interview—Sátántangó, La Flor—are (at the time of writing) available for virtual screenings. The details are in our Art House Online list.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Smokey brand Movie Reviews: Sexual Tyrannosaurus

A few months back, i reviewed one of my all-time favorite films; Alien. I absolutely adore Alien. Horror films don’t really work on me, at all, but Alien pulled that sh*t off effortlessly. That flick was the first movie to ever really scare me. The performances, the direction, the atmosphere, the aesthetic; It was all incredible. A few months later, i stumbled upon a film called Predator in my Grandpa’s Beta Max collection. I was curious and checked it out as he took a nap. My mind was blown. This movie was everything that Alien was not, and i loved ever second of it. How was that a thing? How can something be the opposite of what i adore, and i still adore it? I wanted to revisit that flick, like i did Alien, and see if my adoration for this movie has held up over these past few decades.

The Great

Out the box, i have to commend the dialogue in this flick, man. It’s outstanding. It’s full of those great, 80s action, one-liners that you can’t hep but love. “I ain’t got time to bleed” and “You are one, ugly, motherf*cker” are just classics. Absolute classics.

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Alan "Dutch" Schaefer is the archetype for 80s action star. You can keep all of your Commandos and Cobras and Rambos. Give me Dutch Schaefer and we are good. This was my first experience with Schwarzenegger and made me an instant fan.

Jessie Ventura was f*cking hilarious as Blain Cooper. Dude was always great on the mic, you can tell just by looking at his time in wrestling, so this character fit him perfectly. All of that macho bravado and casually sexist rhetoric is hilarious. I imagine cats nowadays would fined that character problematic, most likely this entire movie come to think about it, but I'm too old to be offended by every little thing. This movie and this character is a product of it’s time an that needs to be taken into account when giving it a viewing.

I want to give a shout out to the late, great, Kevin Peter Hall. This gentle giant plays the actual Yautja, the Jungle Hunter, and he does it without uttering a word. Every move of this beast was so animalistic, so alien, that it strikes a deep chord with the audience. I bought that this massive, reptilian, monstrosity was from another wold and so much of that has to do with Hall’s brilliant physical performance.

The rest of the cast was pretty dope, too. Sonny Landham, Bill Duke, Elpidia Carrillo, Carl Weathers, and Shane black all turn in great supporting performances. I particularly like Weathers, landham, and Duke but i need to make specific mention of Peter Cullen. That’s right, Optimus Prime, himself, is the voice you hear, when the Predator does his shrieking. That sh*t is awesome!

While we’re on the subject of vocalizations, i have to tip my hat to the sound design in this flick. My, goodness, is it great! I mean, the Predator shrieks and hisses are ridiculous but the eerie ambiance of the jungle sets the mood perfectly. The little clicks, the overlapping rampage shootings, the epic score; All of it it adds as much to this film as Schwarzenegger or Hall. This movie would not be the same without the sound effects to help carry that emotion.

Speaking of effects, this movie has some of the best. I grew up on 80s films so practical sh*t will always hold a special place in my heart. Matte paintings, miniatures, in-camera optical effects, and suits will always take precedent over computer imagery for me and The Predator has two of the best examples of this tactile film making; The cloaked Yautja and the Yautja suit, itself. Stan Winston built this thing on the fly, after scrapping the original design. The f*cker is amazing in every aspect, and very uncanny valley, which lends itself to the extraterrestrial nature of the film.

The action in this thing is some of the best the 80s have to offer. It’s over-the-top, absolutely ridiculous, and delightfully tongue-in-cheek. I love how everything is just slathered in a thick, pungent, sticky, Masculinity as toxic as it is vibrant. It’s sweaty, filthy, muscly, goodness that is unapologetic about it’s violence. Predator is absolutely reptile brain viewing, for sure. That sh*t is rare nowadays but quite prevalent way back when. I miss this type of movie sometimes.

It takes a steady hand to manage all of these egos and effects and still coalesce al of that chaotic energy into one, digestible, film. The director of this flick had to have the patience of a saint to take on such a challenge but John McTiernan nailed that sh*t. Dude has a number of hits under his belt, Die Hard and The Hunt For Red October for example, but those came after Predator. It was never a question of talent but more ability. McTiernan delivers both in spades, gifting the art form, arguably one of it’s best examples in action, ever.

The Verdict

I still love this movie. It’s absolute, 80s testosterone, He-Man, nonsense. There is no subtlety to be found in this movie whatsoever. It’s full on, Rambo-esque chaos and it’s glorious to see. Where Alien is this tight, atmospheric, exercise in panic, Predator is this garish, wide-open, deceptively horrifying, action extravaganza. The script is tight, the pacing is brisk, and the direction is focused. There isn’t much of a story to tell, it’s basically the bones of a narrative used to string together ridiculous set-pieces, but it’s one of the best, brainless, explosion riddled, blockbusters out there. The dialogue is outstanding, the one-liners come fast and furious, which is testament to the writing but the real gem here are the performances given by the main cast. These Beefaroni ass f*ckers are great, Schwarzenegger in particular.

This role is what made me pay attention to him. This role is what lead me to Terminator and Conan and Total Recall and True Lies. Even with all of that awesome under his belt, it was his Dutch that made me a fan. Predator is not a great movie but it is a fun ass time with outstanding performances, saturated in this macabre camp that infects every aspect of this production. It’s Bayhem at it’s best, vapid action overlord, executed by a director who is competent in his craft, not lost in his ego. If you’ve never seen it, definitely check it out. It’s totally worth a watch. Keep in mind, though, if you’re triggered easily, this might set you off. It’s completely 80s in tone and sensibilities. If you can’t separate that, definitely give this one a pass.

[nicole-goddessofloki]

Review/blog Aladdin

(Perhaps I will add this on my blog as well) - Nicole (@Goddess_of_Loki)

Aladdin: The story of the street thief set in Disney's Agrabah, the City of Mysteries. You don't have to go to Paris or to Florida to experience the magical Disneyland. This year you will experience it in your own cinema! From a flying elephant to a flying carpet with The Lion King as cherry on top! If you are a Disney fan in heart and soul, you certainly should not skip Aladdin! Let yourself be guided by Aladdin's magic carpet and float with Aladdin, Jasmine & the naughty monkey Abu through the desert-like environments. When you talk about Aladdin, you probably immediately think of that magic lamp with the Genie who gives its finder 3 wishes. Dreaming is something we do every day. Everyone has them: the one big dreams, the other more modest dreams. Imagine: You can make 3 wishes. Whatever you want, anything is possible! What would you wish for? Or would you perhaps waste 2 of the 3 wishes right away? Because.. ‘Be careful what you wish for!’

Aladdin truly is a sensation for your eyes with among others the terrifying but impressive Cave of Wonders (with the voice of Frank Welker, who also provides the voice of this cat-shaped cave in the original version.) This Live Action version also comes with a number of brand new songs including 'Speechless' sung by Jasmine, the princess of Agrabah. It may seem as if she has everything her heart desires such as dresses of the finest silk fabrics, beautiful jewelry & a tiger as a pet! Anyway, she doesn't have to be afraid of thieves, sure they will stay outside (except for one of course!). However she doesn't have the one thing that‘ll make her the happiest: freedom. She can't even show herself outside, let alone be heard! That of course the sly Jafar will make clear to her father! "Speechless" together with the famous "A Whole New World" perhaps is one of the strongest songs in the film. It certainly left a big impression on me! With her golden voice, Naomi Scott sets a strong character and proves that Jasmine is much more than just a princess!

When Disney just dropped the trailer, I came across of all sorts of statements about the Genie, which looks like a strange blue CGI version from his performer Will Smith. For example, some people would have liked to see Jim Carrey as the Genie. (That might just work in an animation version, but definitely not in this Live Action version.) Other people had doubts about whether Smith was the right actor to take on this role, and it appears that he himself had those doubts first too. Because let's be honest: Robin Williams (died in 2014) is hard to peer with and also that, you shouldn't want either. This is the Live Action version and of course that‘s a challenge. But I don‘t think Will Smith is one who throws in the towel easily. With being himself and having a lot of enthusiasm he managed to create his own version of the Genie. Will Smith calls it a bit of "The Prince of Bel-Air", a pinch of "Men in Black" and a touch of "Bad Boys" (interview with Veronica Magazine). This Genie, blue or not, comes with a lot of humor in his mission to turn the bit inexperienced Aladdin (Mena Massoud) into a real prince!

As it comes to Disney movies I‘m always a little curious for the villain. In Aladdin that‘s of course Jafar: The villain with the scary narrow head, his serpent staff and his always faithful parrot Iago on his shoulder. In this Live Action version, Jafar is portrayed by the Dutch Marwan Kenzari, who was featured in "The Mummy" in 2017. I am always in for some facts and I find it interesting that Oded Fehr, actor from the earlier Universal 'The Mummy' films, portrayed Jafar in the well-known fairy tale series "Once Upon a Time". Although honest, the animated Jafar gave me some more shivers, Kenzari turns out to be a very convincing Jafar and he gives the villain some extra handsome-ness! I believe both Jafar and Iago, the writers could have given some more depth. I wonder what I shall think of Scar‘s Live Action version..

Disney has once again transformed one of its classics into a spectacular magical Live Action adventure! Did you know that in a number of countries it‘s a tradition in the cinema to clap after the end of a movie? Well, for me the temptation rather was big! Whether you like fairy tales, want to relive your childhood memories or just want to dream away in this fantasy world, Aladdin is a film for all age!

[letamreviews]

Top of 2019

With 56 films watched and 27 favorited in 2019, I composed a list of my top. By pure happenstance, the list is almost an exact third (18) of the total films watched. Be aware that I don’t have as much to say about some of these because I took no notes after.

Because I’d be biased towards them, I don’t count the National Theatre Live plays.

Since the list is likely to be altered between now and the end of February (to accommodate for films missed), check the Lettboxd list later on to see an up to date listing, but be aware that it intentionally lacks the details provided here.

EDIT (01/04/20):

Woke up this morning religiously re-reading this and caught some grammar errors. It’s almost like staying consistently well-rested is actually beneficial. While I’m at it, Blind Rating (BR) is how worthwhile the film is watching “blind” (or knowing nothing). The scale is 1 (worth it) to 5 (you must). ‘Eh is essentially a 0.5.

1. Midsommar (USA)

Saw the original and Director's Cut in theatres and discussed them with a group immediately after both times. I’m somewhere between really liking it and loving it. Still unsure. Hell of an experience with a lot to notice, debate over, and pick up on during the second viewing. Don’t even get me started on the Christian/Dani matter. Dat tension, tho. Blind Rating: 4/5

2. Us (USA)

Saw in theatres and discussed with a group immediately after. I’m digging the allegories and the way (I think) it reflects on society. Dem reveals, tho. Blind Rating: 4/5

3. Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (USA)

Saw in theatres and discussed with a group immediately after. Two things probably play a huge hand in this not being atleast 3 spots lower: my demographic and the fact that her older self constantly reminded me of my grandma and a certain middle school teacher. Regardless, it’s an entertaining, interesting, and lively documentary with its many personalities on-screen all giving their take on matters along with Ms. Morrison herself. Glad they managed to finish and release this 1.25 months before her death. Blind Rating: 0/5

4. When They See Us (USA)

Saw on Netflix over the course of a month. Y’all, this one hurt too much to watch again any time soon. Admittedly, part of the reason why it hit me so hard is because I could easily have been one of them. Dat ending, tho. Don’t forget to watch the Oprah followup When They See Us Now after. You’ll ball (again). Blind Rating: 3/5

5. Parasite (South Korea)

Saw an advance screening in theatres and watched a live post-film Q&A. I really like it. This hit me in such a way that it’s one of three films I’m writing an essay on. Planing on watching it a second time soon so I can finish with a sense of accuracy. This isn’t one that I would recommend looking at images for. There are some that will spoil the experience of the second half. Seriously, block the “Parasite” tag from your feed if you can. Blind Rating: 3/5

6. Luce (USA)

Saw in theatres and discussed with a group immediately after. This was is so~ good as a thriller and especially in regards to being Black in America. Wanted to watch it a second time but never managed to squeeze it in before it left theatres. Dem performances, tho. Dat tension, yo. Dat score, bro. Blind Rating: 1/5

7. Them That Follow (USA)

Saw in theatres and discussed with someone immediately after. I love it. Blind Rating: 1/5

A drama influenced thriller about a religious and somewhat self-isolating community that's effectively blanketing a realistic romance. (snip) —Letterboxd review

8. The Souvenir (United Kingdom)

Saw in theatres (partially because so many movie peeps were shitting on it). I love it, but I didn't fucking love it. Was tempted to see it again, but didn’t get the chance. Dat ending, tho. While it was a movie peep telling me the whole plot that caused me to gain so much interest in it [Cabin in the Woods (2011) all over again, amiright?], I must say that the less you know the better. It’ll make for... a more immersive experience. Blind Rating: 3/5

9. After the Wedding (USA)

Saw in theatres and discussed with a group immediately after. I thought I really liked it, but I love it. This was a trip down unexpected lane, le'me tell ya. The trailer is a spoilerful lie, but the Landmark's description is very accurate. People's experiences will have a heavy hand in how they react to it and feel about certain characters. The way they made this feel like a constant thriller was excellently done. Dat cinematography, tho. Go in knowing nothing more than what the previous link provides. Blind Rating: 1/5

10. Joker (USA)

Saw in theatres and discussed with a group immediately after. I really like it. Blind Rating: 1/5

(slight spoilers)

This was difficult to watch at times, but hella captivating throughout. Arthur's reasoning is believable, his sanity is questionable, and his life is indeed one hell of a joke. Like watching an extreme example of what happens when people on the lower end lose access to social programs. This can very easily be taken as a commentary on mental illness kept unchecked. More than that, it's a story about a guy who accepts his "crazy" and transcends poverty, circumstance, and societal bullshit... at everyone else's expense. (snip) —Letterboxd review

11. Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (USA)

Saw in theatres and discussed with a group immediately after. I really like it. Captivating documentary in a very similar style to Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, but with Mr. Davis never joining the “talking heads” (as people like to call it) and instead being heard as a constant narrator of his own biography. Regardless of how I feel about him on a personal level, this shit was a great watch and the ending hit hard. Still need to get his autobiography, though. There’s a nostalgic factor for me here since I was partially reminded of my grandpa while watching it. Blind Rating: 'eh

12. Queen & Slim (USA)

Saw in theatres and discussed with someone immediately after. Fuck yeah, I enjoyed this one. Dat soundtrack and cinematography, bruh? 👌🏿 The throwback soundtrack, main characters’ racial group, and fact that they went to New Orleans definitely play a hand in why this one’s not atleast 1 spot lower. Blind Rating: 1/5

13. Dwelling in the Fuchon Mountains (China)

Saw in theatres during festival and attended discussion days later. I really like it. Was long, but in a good way. Similar to Ash is Purest White (2018) in that I kept thinking "please end here," but would be glad it didn't later. It's beautifully slothy and has absurdly long tracking shots. The cinematography during walking conversations is notable. Dat trick, tho. Blind Rating: 'eh

14. A Girl Missing (Japan)

Saw in theatres during festival and discussed with a group immediately after. Bruh~, this is a hell of a personal trial. Didn’t expect it to go the places it did. Blind Rating: 1/5

15. Dutch Angle: Chas Gerretsen & Apocalypse Now (Netherlands)

Saw on MUBI on phone. I love it. This goes over his childhood (for 8 minutes), career paths, photography of 9/11/1973's Chilean coup d'etat, the 6 months he spent on-set photographing Apocalypse Now (1979), and him as a person. What I didn’t expect was how much he would get into the details of things happening during that film’s development. Along with those details are interesting photos presented excellently in a way that’s reminiscent of manga at times. I like the way the photos take center point and are treated like the foreground. It’s like the director and editor forced themselves to remain aware that the documentary was showcasing 15% of the total slides housed in the Nederlands Fotomuseum’s archives in Rotterdam and that most of his Apocalypse Now photos were never seen. Dat score, tho [Ex Machina (2014) vibes]. Blind Rating: 0/5

BTW, it had its official (Dutch national) release by EYE Filmmuseum on 12/19/19 in the Netherlands, so maybe it’ll come to the USA soon. 🤷🏿‍♂️ Forgot to mention it’s been added as a special feature to the 40th anniversary 4K blu-ray disc of Apocalypse Now: Final Cut (2019).

16. Receiver (Ireland)

Saw on MUBI on phone. I really like it. A very interesting short film in three odd segments. First was disturbing; second was about activism, protests, and politics; third was about the person I assume the film was made for. All compose what I took as a film about the importance of having reliable sound and hearing. Needs to be watched alone with good sound quality (for immersion). Blind Rating: 'eh

17. Bacurau (Brazil)

Saw in theatres during festival. I really like it. This was some Most Dangerous Game shit with a hell of an ending. The whole game is an allegory of civilized people's obsession with hunting wild animals for "sport". I really like the portrayal of history here and enjoyed the racial matters it lays bare. I can only imagine someone watching this without knowing a thing. Kinda wish I didn’t even read the description beforehand. Digging the soundtrack. Blind Rating: 1/5

18. Little Women (USA)

Saw on 35mm and discussed with others on separate occasions. I really like it. This was just warming and sad. I felt for the main characters and actually felt satisfied with the way it ended. Considering the type of film, there are handful of typical things for me to complain about. That being said, the movie earned its stars back. I mean, did you not see their attic performances? Shit was dope. Blind Rating: ‘eh

[drink-n-watch]

Oh no guys, it’s all coming to an end. It’s nigh, nigh I tell you! After this only one more episode of Given… One more Thursday night of coming home to sensitive boys with guitars to cheer me up and give me feels. One more week of looking forward to what happens next. One more session of discussing the episode with Karandi afterwards. (Psst, go read our review here)

And only one more gallery post after this one…sigh…

Did you see that great dutch angle in my header gif. It’s such a nice inclusion in a sunny and happy scene to show the impact on Uenoyama and the mess of his emotions. This is classic cinema technique and once again, a showing off of the firm grasp Given has on film-making fundamentals.

I gotta say, I was expecting this episode to be sweet, not this goofy! The guys make some pretty crazy faces but we rarely get to see them in full on imagination mode like Ueno here. Great way to let us know right off the bat that you won’t need the tissues this time (unless you’re me!)

You can really tell that Yayoi and Ueno are related here. Her coloration is almost identical to his, right down to the undertones.

The first assortment of “nice people”…I talk about this with Karandi. Man, it really is a beautiful day! I don’t think the light has even been this clear in this show before! While the inside scene still have their characteristic warmth, the outside ones seem brisk and refreshing!

I hadn’t realized just how many faces Haruki was making in this scene. It’s pretty ridiculous, I like it!

The parquet flooring at Haruki’s cafe provides really great contrast for the top down scene. It’s like surrounding the characters with cross-hatching.

This was the fanservice sequence of the series and call me basic cause I fell for it!

Nothing much to say, it’s what you’d expect. A lot of beautiful rendered close ups of the boys, Mayu’s dishevelled hair in glorious detail. Everything in soft neutral colours. A few funny surreal visuals to bring the mood up. It was pure pandering and it was done perfectly! This scene hit all the exact elements you need to appeal to your boy loving audience. Right down to all the different camera angles that make it look like a collection of glamour shots.

You can sort of see the tension drained out of these scenes. It’s the big open eyes I think. Moreso than their mouths or the droop of the shoulders, everyone seems just a little more excited because they keep their eyes a bit wider open than usual. It makes them a look like their about to open presents on Christmas morning or something. And that makes everything else in the scene instantly more cheerful seeming.

Just look at Mayu looking at those strings! I go on about this scene a lot with Karandi.

Doesn’t Kaji have great handwriting but who takes a lined notebook just to write across the lines? WHO? Serial killer warning sign if you ask me.

This is just a little Murata appreciation blurb. He’s a great looking drawing of a boy and he looks great with Kaji. Visually, they make a wonderful couple, contrasting just enough in shape, colour and texture. I’m still team Haru all the way though! Cause Haru!

Compared to the very similar scene last week, these colours are so soft and warm, with the bright city contrasting around them. This was basically the scene I was expecting with Yuki and I am so happy I got to see it with Ueno instead.

Last week, I picked the lonely ocean scenery with a leading line to end my post on. It was this:

It’s a beautiful image in my opinion and one of the most hopeful of that entire sequence.

I’m going to do the exact same this week since the episodes were kind of bookended. You can instantly see how much warmer the second image is, even though the first is the warmest of the entire sequence last week. The clouds are fluffy and cute instead of grey and a little menacing. The ocean is that pretty teal colour (like the Indian ocean) you see in vacation promos while the truer blue last week reminds me of our northern seas.

They are both pretty images and both the last shot of their respective episodes. Neither gives us much information yet I think you can see the change in mood. The one that an ending and the one that’s a beginning. Or maybe I have a crush on this show and I think everything it does is great. Both can be true!

Given Episode 9 – A Lighter Note – Gallery Oh no guys, it's all coming to an end. It's nigh, nigh I tell you! After this only one more episode of Given...

[cinema-tv-etc]

‘Mata Hari: The Naked Spy’ Review

By Aaron Cantú  - February 6, 2018

The Naked Spy shines a light on Mata Hari, a name most of us know but a figure about whom many are clueless: a famous Parisian performer presenting as a Malaysian dancer at the start of the 20th century, later executed by France for treason. Mata Hari was actually a Dutch woman named Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, and the documentary's narrators—mostly academic experts in European cultural history—track her story as she leaves her abusive husband as a young woman in order to create a life of scandal, glamor and intrigue in Paris.

Zelle is referred to by her stage name throughout the film, but there's little attention given to the early development of the character. We're informed by the narrators that she was first inspired to dance during a stay in Indonesia, where her then-husband, a soldier, was briefly stationed, and where she encountered the ritualistic dances of Indigenous women on the islands. She took those moves and created her own sexy, proto-burlesque act that eventually catapulted her to the top of French society.

Zelle's shtick was what we would now call a successful case of cultural appropriation—which, in one of its most problematic forms, found performers of European descent (like Zelle) taking the cultural customs of colonized and oppressed people and spinning them into fame and fortune. This documentary treats Zelle's appropriation of Javanese culture as the eccentric quirkiness of a genius, hardly scratching the surface of the power dynamics at play. Further, it celebrates Zelle's promiscuity, but doesn't unpack how her sexualization is tied up in the exotification of non-European women.

Once World War I breaks out, Zelle entangles herself into a web of espionage, agreeing to spy on France for the Germans—then agreeing to spy on the Germans for France, a double-cross that led to her eventual execution at the hands of the French.

The Naked Spy is ultimately about a world that grows complicated and perilous enough to swallow somebody once regarded as larger-than-life; but, in a film set to the backdrop of imperialist war, it does a poor job tracing the broader power dynamics of the era. As an archival project, it succeeds. Pity, then, that it is an overall shallow look at a problematic icon.

Mata Hari: The Naked Spy Directed by Machiel Amorison and Susan Wolf CCA, NR, 78 min.

[safereturndoubtful]

Day 57 - at Lakshol

There was just the Dutch van and mine at Lakshol last night. There’s a few houses in the village, but with the exception of a farmer the rest are holiday homes and vacant at the moment.

The Dutch, in their spanking new 4 x 4 Crafter had a rather timid female border collie, which after a while got on with Roja famously. The owners were surprised, as usually the dog is so timid that she is quite anti-social.

We set off walking on the trail to the waterfalls at a similar time, but I let them go ahead. The guy seemed quite hard work, though his wife was very pleasant, he knew everything there was, or so it seemed, about van conversions, and the area. Their intention was to walk the whole circuit, which is 20 kilometres, and might sound reasonable until you did some research. The whole trail is difficult, a step up from moderate. It has slippery boulders and tree roots, and requires scrambling in a number of sections, but particularly two, one after 5 kilometres or so, and the other, on what would be for normal people, the second day and a stopover in the hut, but this couple, or rather this guy, thought he could do it in one day. It was already 11 am, and I expected it would take 10 hours. They had no sleeping equipment with them for the hut.

The trail takes in three waterfalls, Laksholforsen, Storskogvassfossen (just after a tricky ascent) and Vaerivassfossen, which is actually quite difficult to get close to. The best viewpoint for it, was my destination. I had a paper map which I had picked up yesterday, and gave it to the couple with my destination marked on it. I thought they would need it more than me.

Certainly the hiking is slow and surefootedness is needed for a large part. But the views of the sheer rock faces of the surrounding mountains, the remoteness, but most of all the autumn colours made it quite a spectacular day.

Just after the ascent to the second of the waterfalls I met the Dutch couple and their dog; they had changed their mind, unsurprisingly, and decided on the same destination as me. We chatted a while. They are in a four week vacation, so very different existence to mine, and heading for Lofoten islands where he will take a photography course, and she will go horse riding. I can understand the 5 day separation, certainly from her part.

This is a top day out for labradors in particular, as there is almost constant swimming opportunities, and a variety of different sized sticks.

I was back to the van for 4 pm, the 10 kilometre taking 4 hours, with an hour chilling. I caught up with some book reviews and avoided the news / radio..

A word of recommendation for a couple of films I’ve seen over the weekend, one today, one tomorrow..

I watched Key Largo at the weekend. It’s been a few years since I saw it last, so mostly forgotten.

What struck me this time, is its pessimism, a real sign of the times, it was released in 1948.

Both Bogart and Bacall play characters foreign to them.

Bogart plays Frank McCloud, a war veteran, a hero really, but now a hopeless drifter who can’t settle down.

Instead of a ‘femme-fatale’ Bacall loses her sharp tongue and seductive allure and plays a kind-hearted widow looking after her father in law,

But Edward G Robinson as Jonny Rocco steals the show, which is some performance when our against Bogart.

Apparently off screen they were great friends and mutual admirers of each other, rather than you might think.

The lighting and backdrop of the seedy hotel in the hurricane enhance the noirish elements.

The theme it plays to is a simple enough one, whether you should take action when an aggressive act takes place in front of you.

It’s one of my favourites.

[canna-base]

The Cannabis Groups Facebook Doesn’t Want You to See

As of the 6th August 2018 Facebook started to filter and remove specific groups from their search results. Search on Facebook has always been a bit of a hit/miss affair, but now they have removed the ability for users to search for ANY Cannabis Groups, or Marijuana Groups and related searches. You also find no Cannabis Pages or Marijuana Pages either when you try and search for any content to do with Cannabis or Marijuana, apart from videos. None. Nadda. Nix. As of the 8th August 2018 this was what you see when you search for Cannabis in the Facebook Search.   Go on try it! You can’t find anything apart from videos relating to the search terms for Cannabis, Marijuana and all associated search terms. Whilst this is Facebook’s right to reduce/remove functionality, we believe the only reason to do this is to try and stop or reduce the effective use of Facebook as a way for Cannabis users to share information.

“Censorship” is perhaps too harsh a word, as Facebook is a private company and has the right to allow or disallow specific content based on nothing more than their own internal policies. However we believe that if there is information “out there” then it should be freely available. What next? An outright removal of ALL Facebook groups and Facebook pages with any mention of Cannabis or Marijuana? Of course they can do this if they feel it is in their own interests, but that will affect a LARGE number of people who may choose to look elsewhere to connect with other like minded people. Taken to the extreme, this could see anyone who is a member of a group or who may have liked a page for Cannabis or Marijuana being banned or having their accounts suspended. Who knows, but it is their platform and they can do what they like…

With all that in mind, we have put together a list of over 400 groups that might be useful for users of Facebook who wish to share their thoughts and connect with other cannabis users, medical or recreational. If you have ANY groups that are not mentioned or are running a group that you would like to see added then please do. We are working to improve the list and make it as usable as possible for our site visitors.

Get The List as a PDF Here

Your email:

Medical Cannabis Facebook Groups

Cannabis Heals

VA Veterans For Medical Marijuana & Cannabis Products

Clinical Cannabis Care

Cannabis – Gift Of Gaia

Medical Marijuana Patients And Caregivers In Jackson

Cannabinoid Crusaders

Medical Cannabis Oil

Stoners With Pain

Ronnie Smith Cannabis Oil Success

CBD&Thc Medicine Info For Cancer

Michigan Medical Marijuana Patients

Medical Cannabis Growers

Cannabis Oil Solvent Think Tank

Cannabis Oil… “The Cure”

Texans For Medical Marijuana

Michigan Medical Marijuana Patients

Maintaining My Recovery With Cannabis: Support Group

Medical Cannabis Oil Making Uk

Cannabinoids

Med Marijuana, Cannabis Sativa Seed Oil And Medi-Paws, Natures Alternative

Medical Cannabis Canada Association

Cannabis Oil Advice With Friends

Ecs Support

Michigan Medical Marijuana Grower

Making Cannabis Oil With Friends

Grandpa Bill’s Magic Garden

Medical Marijuana 4 Florida

Relief Of Pain Using Cannabis And Other Herbal Remedies.

Medical Marijuana For Cancer And Any Other Disease Process

Cannabis Oil Advice & Information For People & Pets

Cannabis For Rsd And Chronic Pain

Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Patients, Growers, And Caregivers

Cannabis-Budwig Made Simple

Success With Cannabis (Medical Marijuana)

Cannabis/Hemp Co2 Extracts

Phoenix Tears Cannabis Oil Advice

Cannabis Oil Success Stories

Cannabis Raw, Uncut & Unfiltered

Medical Marijuana Program Connection

Medical Marijuana Growers Of Ma

Cannabis/Medical Marijuana

Medical Cannabis

I Deserve Canna

Australian Cannabis Products

Medical Marijuana – Cannabis Extract Research

Cannabis Oil Advice Down Under

Medical Cannabis South Africa

Global Cannabis Education

Illinois Medical Cannabis Community

New Mexico Compassionate Cannabis Patients Advocates

Medical Marijuana For Chronic Pain

Healing With Cannabis

Cannabis Oil Success Stories

Cannabinoids Are Essential

Miracles Of Cannabis

United Patients Alliance

The Medical Pot Guide

Cannabis Oil & Natural Cures.. Dundee, Scotland.

CBD Facebook Groups

CBD Oil (From Hemp) Information & Support

CBD Oil Users Official Group

CBD Oil Info For The Inquiring Minds

CBD Consumer Group Uk/Eu

CBDclub

Cannabidiol CBD/Hemp Faq

CBD Hemp Oil Benefits & Support

CBD And Fibromyalgia

CBD For Your Health

CBD Oil Awareness Group

CBD (Cannabidiol) Oil & Hemp Information And Resources

All About CBD Health

CBD Oil Users Support

CBD Info & Healthy Living

CBD Community Of California

CBD Society

CBD Oil The Information You Need

CBD Users Uk – United!

CBD Users Uk

CBD Oil Users Group

Cannabis Oil Success Stories CBD

CBD Oil Users & Education Group

Love Light Wellness Collective CBD

Growing Cannabis Facebook Groups

Autoflower Growers Worldwide

Club Cannabis – “ScrOG” Style Growing.

Home Grower Consulting

Organic Cannabis Growers Helping Growers

Cannabis Growers Worldwide

Marijuana Growers Helping Growers

Cannabis Growers Helping Growers

Weedbook Growers Helping Other Weedbook Growers Worldwide

Growing Cannabis With Led Lighting

420 People Growing

Cannabis Master Growers Group

Cannabis Grow Tips And Advise

Nectar For The Gods Growers

Colorado Advanced Growers Guide

Cannabis Growers Collective Worldwide

Humble!!! Marijuana Growers Group

THC: The Helpful Cannabis Cultivators

Growers Br

Oregon Marijuana Growers

Washington Dc Cannabis Growers

Marijuana Growers

MA Grow Corner

Oregon New Cannabis Grower’s Q&A

Basic To Advanced Cannabis Growers

Cannabis Autoflower Growers

Marijuana Growers Helping Growers

Cannabis Growers Group

Help And Tips On Growing Cannabis Indoors(Over 21 Only)

Led Growers And Builders Forum

Cannabis Growers Elite – Beginners

Advanced Cannabis Growers

Colorado Marijuana Growers Networking Group

Cannabis Culture Club

Cannabis Growers United

Medical Cannabis Outdoor/Guerilla Growing

Cannabis Growing Tips N’ Tricks

Growing Weed University

Adopt A Grower (Cannabis) Seasoned Growers Dedicating Their Time.

Grow Room Sa

Cannabis Growers Of All Types In The Us

The South African Cannabis Growers Club

Dagga Cup

Cannabis Growers Helping Cannabis Growers

Growing Cannabis Outdoors

Acmpr Grow Your Own

Cannabis Grow 101

Northwest Cannabis Cultivators

Cannabis Growers Lounge

California Marijuana Growers

Cannabis Growers Resource Group

Recreational/General Cannabis Facebook Groups

Stoner Nation (Original)

Cannabis World

Marijuana Club

Smoke Clubs

Plants Of The Gods

Canadians For Cannabis

For The Love Of Cannabis!

Kush Kommunity

N.H.S 420 Breeding Project

Smoke Buddies Legalize Rj (Official)

Autoflower Network

Cannabis

Cannabis Growers Community Forum

Bud Smokers Only

The THC Tabernacle

Cannaworld

Herb Connoisser’s

Marihuana 4:20

Bean Collectors And Traders

Cannabis Vip Club

Cannabis Vip Club

High Times Ftw

Hemp For Life!

Cannabis

Cannabis Knowledge

#Squashthestigma

Marijuana Supporters

One Love. Reggae, Roots, Peace, Herb & Love.

Marijuana Manifest

Project Mayhem 4.20

Cannabis Club

First Class Stoners

Maine Cannabis Closet

Cannabis Fishing Club

Weed It’s A Herb, It’s A Flower !!!

Top Shelf Cannabis Club/Social House

Stonerhomie Group

The Berkshire Marijuana Initiative

Dankcapitol

Blunt Graffix

420 Tokers Club

Blood Type: THC

Australian Cannabis Association

Pot Pix

Cannabis Country

Stoners Worldwide

Proud Stonerz

Smoke RxD

Proud Stoners 21+

The Seed Bank

Your Boy Matt

Weed Lovers

Greenwave

Hightimes Cannabis Cup, Festivals,

Stoners High Vibes 18+

420 Lounge

Marijuana

The Cannabis Cave

Cannabis Blacklist Directory

Cannabis

Cannabis SOS

Canna Get High?

Cannabisclub

Sexy Weed People

Squad 420

420 People

Herb N Loving

Rasta Revolution

Cheech’s Canna Seed Traders Nationwide

Cannabis Club

Dagga Union Of South Africa

Weed Community

Stoners Nation

Cannaworlds Off-Topic Corner

Stoners United

Minnesota Marijuana

THChicks

420live Official

Marijuana Everything

Cannabis Seeds Worldwide

420 Dutch High Life

420 Members United

I Love Cannabis

Smokers Only

The Weed Smokers

420 Munchies

My Marijuana News

Ganja Music Network

Green Is The Way

Weed Smokers

Cannabis In Canada

Cape Town Stoners

Stoners Of The Universe 420

#Smokeweedeveryday

Sinsemilla Tips Magazine

The Cannabis Coven XX

Pothead Universe -Stoners Lounge

Cannabis Australia

Tokers R Us. -Marijuana Enthusiasts

420 Directory

The Stoner Family

Stoners Of Wentworth

Cannabis Smoke Buddies

Marihuana 4:20

Alaska Weed

Cannabis Nation

420rc (Radio Control)

Smoked Out Stoners

Dabs On Dabs

Bong Blackmarket

Canna4 Life Movement Texas

Smoke Nation Worldwide Kronic 420

Marijuana Home

Weed Nanny

Girls & Ganja

Marijuana Club

Stoner Jeeps

Cannabis Horror

Colorado Cannabis Club

My Cannabis Bud

420 People Social

Dc Cannabis Station

Skunkswerksrx

High Life

High Honors – Stoner Social Network

710 Official

Michigan Marijuana

Reefer Madness Highposting

The Autoflower Network #2

#Teamlunakush

Weed Smokers 18+

420 News World Headquarters

I Love Pot 420

Real Washington Dc Recreational Marijuana

420smokers

Fans Of Cannabis! (Foc)

Why Do You Use Cannabis

The Stoner’s Lounge

The Cannabis Cafe

Smokers Lounge (Biggest Freaks)

Smoke Green & Post Memes

Cannabis Live

Pontefract C.C

Ganja Dreams

Weed Dispensary Reviews

Pothead Park

420SA Facebook Forum

Canna Plants Bazaar

Cannabis Without Borders

World’s Best Pot Heads

Ganja Film Network

100% Stoners

Stoners Worldwide

World Of Weed

Kush & Converse

Weedbook Ca

Friends Who Love Herb

Cannabis Connoisseur Community

The Smokers Chat Room

Stonerbuddies

The Best Of The Best Cannabis Gr

Green Oil Machine Users Group

4:20 Friendly- Friends And Memes

Weedbook

Stoners Paradise

Proud Stoners 420

Smokers Lounge Live

Keep On The Grass

Ganja Universe

Cannabis.Tv

Welcome To The Stoners Table

Cannabis Lovers Live Stream

Dank Daze

Cannabis Culture By Original Seeds

Hash Church

Weed Australia

Stoned To The Bone

Cannabis Lovers

St Johns 420

Marijuana Events In Maine

Stoners Paradise Presents, Stogíes & Stílettos

Canna Seed Collectors Trading Group

Chicago Stoner Nation

Do You Dab?? 420

Weed Group

American Weed Smokers Club

C.K.C

The Herb House

Social Stoners

Calgary Cannabis Club

Food For Pot

420 Cannabis Connection

Megabud

Awesome Stoners

Skyrim Stoners (17+)

Cannabis News, Quotes, And Info

Canna Family

Weed Memes&Info

Cannabis Comedy(United Cannabis World)

We Love Weed

Dabz B Us

Sacramento 420 Social

I Smoke Weed

Weedstagram

Proud Stoners Community

Stoners

All Things Cannabis (United Cannabis World)

Stoner G.A.N.G.

Weed Nation

Cannabis

United Cannabis World (United Cannabis World)T.M

Its World Of Cannabis

Lungs Of Steel 2.0

Adventures Of A Stoner Society

International Association Of Charas And Ganjah (United Cannabis World)

420 Lounge

420 Stoners

Mobile Stoner Lounge

The 420 Connection

Weedfeedz Stoners Group 420

Moonchild 420

Dabshack Live

Thc Talk Uk

Proud Stoners

Marijuana

All About The Mary Jane

Cannaparents

Tokers And Jokers (Adult Deluxe)

Free Marijuana Home

The Green Rush

Cannaparents Uncensored

#Friendly 420 Worldwide

Rate My Herb

Cannamoms&Dadsvol.2

Canna World Join Us

Best Buds Atlanta

Blazin Gardens (Adults Only)

Daily Marijuana Users

Dank Memes Squad

Tokers And Jokers (For Adults)

The Og Smokers Chat Room

The Rst Family | Weed Pics

Sativa Indica

Everything About Weed ( E.A.W )

Smoke And Talk

Weed Be®®¥

Smokers And Tokers Of Colorado

Cannabis Club South Africa

Proud To Be Stoners

420 Beards & Babes International

This Buds For You

Maryjane Place

Cannabis Highlights

Weedhub’s 420 Lounge

Cannabis Connoisseurs

Canna Bliss Cafe Cannabis & Hemp – Whole Plant For Health

Largest 420 Facebook Group Ever

Weed Smokers

420 All Day

Blazed And Confused

We Dab Live

Rasta Is Everywhere

Stoners Around The World

International Highlife

Worldwideweed Army

Ketogenic Stoners

Pnw Dabs Together

Stoners Hotbox

Cannamentor

#Oneplant

Cannabis Legalization Movement Facebook Groups

Dfw Norml

Real Legalization Washington

Irieactivists

Legalize Medical Marijuana In North Carolina

Legalize Marijuana

Marijuana Legalization. Let’s Get Our Voices Heard.

420 People Activists

420 In The 530 – Lets Legalize It

Ldci Legalise & Decriminalise Ireland

Cva Members, Supporters And Activists

Legalize Cannabis In Missouri

Legalize Wisconsin Kush Club

Free The Weed

Ohio Cannabis Activists (Oca)

Global Marijuana Legalization

Legalization

Cannabis Globe……Legalize It

Cannabis Freedom Project

Legalize Marijuana In Missouri (Official Group)

Maine Cannabis Coalition

Marijuana Walk With Me Free The Weed

Legalize Medical Marijuana In Indiana

Weedalize UK

Archived Cannabis Facebook Groups

Stoned Paradize

Medical Marijuana UK

Exotic Seed Traders

Cannabis Rights Community

Cannabis Oil And Medical Marijuana

Cannabis United

The post The Cannabis Groups Facebook Doesn’t Want You to See appeared first on Cannabis for Chronic Pain.

source https://canna-base.com/cannabis-groups-facebook-doesnt-want-see/