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You kinda know what to expect, but still, a very good movie.
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Victim of The Night
I was able to excuse his unlikable qualities because he was so clueless about the fact tjhat Vinnie was REALLY the one running the house.
But he just hurts her feelings and lets her down SO many times in the movie that I really didn't believe in any redemption by the end, more that he was finally, mercifully doing this one ******* thing and then he was just gonna continue to hurt and disappoint her for the rest of their lives, yet the movie gives this happy-ending feel that just didn't seem earned to me.



I really don't think the film was about a possible redemption of Clarence Day. I never expected to see any kind of change in Day before the movie ended...people like that don't change. What I think the movie was abut was Vinnie's manipulation of Clarence not only without his knowledge, but making him think that he's still running the household when it
's really her.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

Go/Don't Go (Alex Knapp, 2020)
5/10
Goodbye, Butterfly (Tyler Wayne, 2021)
6/10
Broadway Babies (Mervyn LeRoy, 1929)
5/10
It's the Old Army Game (A. Edward Sutherland, 1926)
6/10

Young Louise Brooks and druggist W.C. Fields find mutual friends in each other.
Remember Me (Martín Rosete, 2019)
6/10
Bright Hill Road (Robert Cuffley, 2020)
5/10
The Wedding in Monaco (Jean Masson, 1956)
6/10
The Climb (Michael Angelo Covino, 2019)
+ 6.5/10

Highly-creative, almost wacko comedy involving best friends Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino who break up over the fact that the latter is a major ass, but they constantly spend time together.
About Some Meaningless Events (Mostafa Derkaoui, 1974)
6/10
Ode to Billy Joe (Max Baer, 1976)
- 6.5/10
Polo Joe (William McGann, 1936)
5.5/10
Assassins (Ryan White, 2020)
6.5/10

The story of Kim Jong-nam's murder in Malaysia by seeming fall gals Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong.
The Fabulous Joe (Harve Foster, 1947)
5.5/10
Ten Minutes to Midnight (Erik Bloomquist, 2020)
5/10
Bloody Hell (Alister Grierson, 2020)
5.5/10
Wajib (Annemarie Jacir, 2017)
6.5/10

Palestinian father Mohammad Bakri and son Saleh Bakri represent two sides of how tradition and recent history affect their reactions to Jewish occupation in the run-up to a family wedding.
Heroes Don't Die (Aude Lea Rapin, 2019)
5.5/10
When Were You Born (William McGann, 1938)
6/10
Sing and Like It (William A. Seiter, 1934)
5.5/10
As the Earth Turns (Richard Lyford, 2019 [shot in 1937/1938])
6/10

"Mad scientist" for world peace uses his inventions and "powers" to end their constant warring.
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I thought it did a good job of balancing the “rock star” persona he perpetuated in court with highlighting his cowardice and how disgusting his actions were while calling his groupies “the dumbest bitches in the world.” I think to ignore that element would be to miss a significant part of the Night Stalker tale but at no point did I think the documentary had anything but contempt and disgust for its subject. Fittingly so.

Now American Horror Story 1984... that one has some questionable bits in its depiction of Ramirez.

Sure, some time is spent making sure we understand how despicable he was. It's just that it also creates this almost supernatural mystique around him, that even when they deflate it a bit with the occassional tale of what a weakling coward he was, the takeaway is one that makes him seem almost super human in his badness. It's even in the slick and flashy Refn like font it uses to seduce the audience when it spells his name out during the opening- Nightstalker. So cool. So seductive. So dangerously appealing. Even though Ramirez, even when sporting sunglasses, really was neither of the above. But somehow, by the end of the film, both me and my gf could almost entirely understand why he has such a groupie appeal amongst women. How could such a revelation not make me feel a little bit icky.



Now don't get me wrong, I'm not getting bent out of shape with some moral outrage here. I shamelessly enjoyed this. But I just sometimes wondered at the choices the filmmakers made from time to time. Even their choice to not give us his backstory, at least not much beyond the childhood anecdote that his father tried to crucify him, just turns him into something that was pulled from the worst (best?) kind of horror film. I think the intent in not including much of his past, was a way of not humanizing him. Which in theory might be noble. But I think the end result of omitting this was that it ends up mythologizing him.



And it's not like you can't make these specials without the bad boy romance attached. The recent Ripper special, which recounts all of the horrors of that guys crimes, never makes him really ever seem like anything more than some pathetic loser reacting against the emerging women's lib movement at the time. Or even the Bundy doc where, as much time as it gives him to explain himself, he just comes off as a small and delusional man by the end. Nightstalker mostly keeps the elusive badboy image that Ramirez constructed around himself completely intact, and it proves to be a durable enough shell to survive the occasional dent the documentary attempts to put it in it. I just think they needed to try a little harder at that.



some recent watches:

Certified Copy (2010) 6.5/10 (rather easy to watch for Kiarostami)
Of all the movies I didn't get, that's one of my didn't-get-itest. It feels purposeful, but I don't see it. I might watch it again someday.



Foreign Correspondent (1940)



One of my favourite Hitch films. I see The 39 Steps, Foreign Correspondent, and then North by Northwest as a kind of trilogy where he ups the ante each time: first Britain, then Europe, then the USA!
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The Awakening (2011) - 5.5/10. A very decent flick. Yes, it does use all the horror movie tropes. Alone in the hallway, ghosts in photos, a few jump scares etc etc. But it has a nice story in there. Not scary, just decent.
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My Favorite Films




Wajib (Annemarie Jacir, 2017)
6.5/10

Palestinian father Mohammad Bakri and son Saleh Bakri represent two sides of how tradition and recent history affect their reactions to Jewish occupation in the run-up to a family wedding.
I saw this one a couple of months ago and really, really liked it. What didn't work for you?
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Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
I saw this one a couple of months ago and really, really liked it. What didn't work for you?
Nothing really didn't work. It's a good movie - most people rate movies about
higher than I do. It's in the upper tier of movies I've seen about the Palestinian Situation.



Nothing really didn't work. It's a good movie - most people rate movies about
higher than I do. It's in the upper tier of movies I've seen about the Palestinian Situation.
Glad you enjoyed it Mark. Did you check it out because of its inclusion in my favourite films of the 2010s thread, or just a coincidence? I got the chance to see it at a local film society last year I think it was.





The Awakening (2011) - 5.5/10. A very decent flick. Yes, it does use all the horror movie tropes. Alone in the hallway, ghosts in photos, a few jump scares etc etc. But it has a nice story in there. Not scary, just decent.
I quite like The Awakening, though I feel some of the developments in the third act are a bit much.

I think the performances are good and the characters are interesting. It's cliched, but solid.