Things went a little sideways a couple of weeks ago, and while they seem to be returning to as close to normal again as can be hoped, in the last two weeks I’ve watched only two movies, and re-watched a couple more.
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- There are a lot of really lovely performances and moments in The Heiress, but Olivia de Havilland is especially fantastic in every scene.
- While it’s true that Marie Antoinette isn’t the place to look for historical fact, doing so seems to be missing not just the point of the film, but also the joys of Kirsten Dunst’s performance. These sorts of criticisms, Roger Ebert wrote, “would alter is fragile magic and reduce its romantic and tragic poignancy to the level of an instructional film.”
- For whatever reason, Escape from New York didn’t really click for me the first time I saw it. I don’t know if it’s that I’ve grown to appreciate John Carpenter as a filmmaker even more since then—or if it’s just that I’ve now seen what happens when this idea goes really wrong, in Escape from L.A.—but it worked a lot better for me on re-watch.
- The Muppet Movie remains a joy from top to bottom. One thing that struck me, on this re-watch, is that, as a child, I wouldn’t have recognized the wall-to-wall cameos as cameos. They were just other characters in this fantastically fun movie.