This week I watched Christmas in July and American Movie.

I watched pan-and-scan versions on VHS a few times when I was quite young, but my memory was a little fuzzy.

I think it's one of those "Mum" shows. My mum loves it, and while she is in town visiting, she sent me and my brother to the video store to rent a whole bunch of similar shows (Call the Midwife, Murdoch Mysteries, etc.)

This week I officially became a twenty-something instead of a teeanger, and to celebrate attended a marathon of the original Star Wars trilogy at a movie theatre. It had been a few years since I'd seen all three of them, so it was quite interesting seeing what held up and what didn't.

This week I saw The Man in the White Suit and The Horses Mouth, both Alec Guinness comedies.

This week I watched Gremlins 2. I think I liked it slightly better than the first one, though I did miss the genuine horror tone. The broadly comedic stuff was wildly funny, though and the meta-ness of it was fantastic. My favourite moments were the super-smart Gremlin, Gizmo going Rambo and the musical number.

Journey Through American Movies is great. The first time I watched I took notes on the particularly interesting clips and tracked (some of) them down. I wonder if I'd like it even more now that I have a grounding in Classical Hollywood Cinema.

I've always liked the Halloween episode, but season 3 is when it starts to get consistently good.

This week I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel and Quiz Show.

After taking a hiatus last week due to not watching anything, I watched a number movies this week: The Raid 2, Captain America 2, The Good Fairy and Searching for Bobby Fisher.

After a few hiccups with my internet plan, I'm now back on unlimited internet. This week I watched Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot, and I watched Marty the week before.

It's not a Sondheim problem, it's a Lapine/Laurents problem. Weidman and some of the other book writers he's worked with actually can write (or choose to write) naturalistic dialogue.

I really enjoyed Metropolitan. I still think it's my favourite Whit Stillman movie, and all his films are pretty much on my wavelength (his characters sound like me after a few drinks).

This week I watched The Ladykillers and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

This week I watched Big Trouble in Little China, and the NZ v. India test (mostly) at the ground.

How did he make that tapping sound?

I just don't understand why they thought the drinking game was a good idea. Players don't tend to compete with players of other instruments, and basically nobody can drink and play.

I really don't see Mozart in the Jungle as a Slings and Arrows-quality show. As far as I could tell, Slings and Arrows was set in a (mostly) realistic version of the Canadian theatre scene. On the other hand, Mozart in the Jungle is very arch and bears (at best) a superficial resemblance to any kind of classical music…

In New Zealand we have something similar for film called the 48hour film festival, where teams across the country try to make a short film of up to 7 minutes over a weekend.

Due to a variety of reasons, I only ended up watching two movies this week: The Long Day Closes and Ashes and Diamonds. However, I did watch almost all of New Zealand winning a test match against India.