yes, that was my surprise conclusion … Capote edged too close to "freak show" which made Capote's enduring relationships inexplicable, except perhaps as folks using folks. Toby Jones imho better conveyed Capote's saving vulnerability and charm and explained how Capote could manage to be "that writer" … an…

As a young man Gerard Depardieu had one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard … incredibly easy to understand, even with my long-ago high school French, with a sensitive patient quality … and a marvelous fluidity …

There are also sorts of things that if one could "do it over" … one still wouldn't have wanted to miss the good times… It's the opposite of buyer's remorse … the ego is very powerful. Look at all those folks claiming "Cancer was a blessing" …"it changed my life for the better … " etc. etc. There's an element of…

It's all about being "special" even in the most mundane, follower kind of way …. not everyone succeeds even as a follower, even as the person who cleans the toilets … and so you are special… it's a lot like the grooming pedophiles do with their chosen children … the special appreciation and acknowlegments … and,…

Sound like, unilke Dog Day Afternoon and Wall Street — I think the problem may be is that this movie wasn't really willing to let the (anarcist-OCCUPY) kid be the hero, instead insisting that that hero role be at least shared with Clooney … either that or they should have had a middle-aged man as the one whose nest…

It was soundling like a light-hearted sex comedy … and then there was a very brief mention of a murder … so I suspected something interrupted the frolicking

Actually I was just wondering if the reviews were setting the "likely audience" for this movie (and I've been looking forward to it for months) … that we were being set up to see a very funny movie with great performances … and that we were, as a result, likely not going to be feeling terribly happy as we exited the…

Marshall has been a hit making machine for a long time … For the last two decades, Pretty Woman has been available almost continuously (still, or does it just seem that way) on TV basic cable … Both Marshall and Roberts are still making beaucoup d'bucks off of it … he can afford to throw Julia a 3-day 3 million dollar…

Roberts list on IMDB is interesting … she has a really startling number of flops … If anyone cared about her acting, her career would have died shortly after Pretty Woman … Sleeping with the Enemy, I love Trouble, Mary Reilley — painful …
At some point, I decided Pelican Brief, imho, was her best performance ……

Mystic Pizza and Steel Magnolias had already set her on the path … I've always loathed Pretty Woman … hated Steel Magnolias … but it took a few years for me to notice her 'minimalist" acting style … for the time, she was an unconventional beauty … "natural and unspoiled" … and her personal life playing out in TV…

Except the salary of a Brando or Orson Welles fed into the Publicity … as did the freak-show value of their casting … how fat were they going to be this time? could their talent overcome … did their talent even remain? Had they ever really been that talented?

The tolerance for rambling, shambling story telling has never been great … and it aging badly is related … How will Memento or Mulholland Boulevard be regarded in another 20 years? How have they aged so far … just extended gimmick or in-joke? Did you have to love it — or be in just the right audience — the first time…

America loves its mega-movie stars sexless … pretty but sexless … and mostly clothed …

prolly because Garry Marshall owes her, big time for his greatest $$$ successes … although I'd say he owes Richard Gere even more … Only Viggo in Erin Brockowich and George Clooney also managed to achieve or simulate "chemistry" with the woman… and many many have tried.

The phone booths loom large in my memory — I think they were used by (the much older) girls to talk endlessly with the boys their parents didn't let them talk to at home ….

since I haven't seen it mentioned … I think Easy Rider is an important depiction of the changing definition(s) of masculinity, even prior to wide-spread organized feminism … the dynamics between the three male leads aren't just dramatic filler … Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a much more traditional "buddy…

There was also the rise of the Christian evangelicals in a lot of the country and born-agains everywhere — rock and roll in particular as I recall. I just remember feeling the excitement in the 1970's vanishing … like exciting movies moved to their safer, more linear, goal-directed cinematic disco-equivalent.
I…

yes, it's MPAA codes closed that door being more of a damper in some ways than the Hayes code had been … effectively made more "explicit" films non-starters .. It's not really about the sex, it's about whose stories get made and the ratings made it very very easy for the money-men to say no.. and made it hard for a…

Home wasn't particularly safe either … there were a lots and lots of people, including many returned vets, traveling around "in search of America" and finding a hostile land … There were even draft dodgers who relocated far away from home to avoid their local draft boards … Many Veterans of Foreign Wars tried to…

actually I was thinking about the Klansmen who killed Chaney, Goodman Schwerner. They mostly never even left town … what people knew versus suspected … but, yeah, they mostly lived out their natural lives pretty much unmolested … (not for lack of trying by the feds)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…