OK, now I've got a major itch to re-watch Casablanca and The Big Sleep. Absolutely immortal classics.

Excited to see Unsane from Soderbergh. He shot it entirely on an iPhone by the way

Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs comes out this weekend too

The new '7 Days in Entebbe' isn't as good as the original, imo, less intense, iyam. Not bad, though, just not as good as the original. OTOH, the director did a heck of a thing blending in dance that fit the movie very well and that alone might make it worth the price of a ticket.

Isle of Dogs

Gang warfare: Dog fights?

Drone warfare: Slingshots.

Little Pilot: Spotsu.

Spotsu? No, Sport.

Seven Samurai Theme Song: check.

You've got papers?

Student revolt: puppy love.

I wasn't always: a stray.

Far away: cuticles.

Cannibal dogs: check.

I enclose a check for: ¥1,000.

Bryan Cranston's greatest role since Malcolm in the Middle. Perfect in every way. Check it out!

Historical tidbit: I don't know of any Cat Mayors, but there once was a Dog Shogun. He handed down laws that dogs couldn't be killed or mistreated. The dog population exploded and legend has it that his retainers were forced into poverty by the costs of feeding them all.

Faces Places (Varda 2017) - Documentary about the director (still kicking from the French New Wave) and a young male artist who go around France taking pictures of people and blowing them up huge and putting them places. Old woman-young man friendship, was highly lukewarm on it, some stuff of possible interest to Godard fans towards the end.

I happened to come upon this review, which I now see is like literally the only dissenter from RT's 99% (lol): http://cinema-scope.com/currency/vis...rda-jr-france/

Playtime (Tati 1967, 35mm) - Masterpiece. First viewing; I've seen nothing else like it. So much going on in every frame, with massive expensive sets built for the film:



It's essentially a pantomime; there's some dialogue and I was at first disturbed that it seemed dubbed, but halfway through realized that all dialogue was irrelevant and they kept switching languages anyway (intentionally).

The M. Hulot character is in it (I was not familiar), somewhat similar to Mr. Bean for the kids out there but in this case he's on the sidelines. He's funny, the movie is funny, and I genuinely lol'ed a few times.

A must watch. Don't bother on a laptop screen (really, really don't). It was shot in 70mm, and I'd quite possibly travel anywhere in the lower 48 states to go see it if they made a new print (they're damaged).

The Third Man is my fave.

Stay tuned this weekend for my highly anticipated post on my final unseen BP nominee, The Post, with final BP rankings. Now what will ole' BJ think of a highly-regarded Spielberg picture with bad period hairdos and an unflinching reverence for rich white people institutions?

And in honor of that, here's a cute little video that synopsizes every Wes Anderson movie in 7 minutes.

No way I click on that I don't think I could stand 7 minutes of Wes Anderson

All the more reason for you to click on it. I think that you'd get a kick out of it more than a Wes Anderson fan would. (Although Wes Anderson fans will also appreciate it.)

The Third Man is one of my favorites and it drives me crazy that it doesn’t have the instant name recognition of Casablanca or even The Big Sleep with most people, especially under the age of, like, 70.

I’ve seen Playtime once - it’s impressive - but will concede I probably need a 70 mm screen and/or multiple viewings to process it.

Steel Rain (on Netflix)

Absolutely solid spy-action flick from South Korea with a Tom Clancy vibe. Just the thing for a weekend popcorn movie.

I thought The Shape of Water was expertly told. I can understand not liking the rather simple story, but for what it is, it's incredibly well done. I don't really get the "A woman ****s a fish for no reason" criticism. If anything this movie beats you over the head with the reasons, and could use a bit more subtlety. I am guessing the Oscar hater dude or whatever never watched the movie and was trying to be edgy.

The Post - Hanks is all wrong for this, pathetic compared to Robards playing the same character in All the President's Men. It feels goofy for the first half hour, with every aging "hip" actor Spielberg had in his Rolodex having silly makeup and hair. The parts that aren't goofy are boring.

I did like Streep, and think her performance is a good example of playing a historical character with an interesting speaking style and mannerisms well, as opposed to Oldman in Darkest Hour and maybe Janney in I, Tonya.

The politics, eh. Yes the press is important, but the film's (and Spielberg's in general) reverence for American institutions is a bit much, especially as characters invoke the Founding Fathers (with I think David Cross even slipping a Jefferson mention in there). (Hoping for The Post 2: WaPo Helps Sell the Iraq War).

However, once the chess pieces got into place I'm embarrassed to admit that I liked it quite a lot. I was swept up with emotion at the right times, doing internal fist-pumps when appropriate. Audience was pretty into it as well. Spielberg does actually know what he's doing, I guess.

Despite not being crazy about the first 30-40 minutes, this is dangerously close to being my 2nd favorite movie of 2017.

It's also the Rogue One to

All the President's Men's (1976, 35mm) Star Wars: Episode IV. One of the better double features I can imagine (and experienced).

As implied above, Robards is "one of the coolest characters in the history of film" (props to Chapo Trap House for the observation). I'd last seen this in a high school Journalism class in 1998, and Robards crossing out paragraphs always stuck with me.

It wasn't as emotionally gripping as The Post while I was watching it, but it's aging better in my brain.

Does the book "end" at about the same point?

IIRC yes, but there was a sequel book titled The Final Days.

Ah, in fact it seems the movie is about half: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_th..._from_the_book

And further down:

But The Final Days is still the sequel as you say.

In Goldman's seminal book about screenwriting, "Adventures in the Screen Trade," he mentions how he had a really tough time with All The President's Men because everyone knew how the story ended...so he decided to end the movie at Woodward and Bernstein's lowest point...and then use the teletype machine spell out what happened over the next few months...until Nixon resigns.

Yea that was basically what I meant with the question (does the book actually tell the stuff that gets typed out in the film), wasn't sure if I was clear. "Adventures in the Screen Trade" looks like a must-read - 600 pages but looks like it's quick and entertaining?

Oh and in the ATPM book, are the reporters all still "characters" in the story?

I read ATPM, but I don't remember the book at all.

Screen Trade is a great, entertaining book...it reads very fast...although, I think he may have updated it at some point...modernized it some. I only read the first edition. I still have it! It was one of the first popular books to really go behind the scenes of movie making. It's considered a must read for any fledgling screenwriter. Or, at least, it was.

I think most of that is in the sequel, which describes the fallout from the Watergate story and ends with Nixon's resignation.

I may not exactly be sure what you mean, but yes, Woodward and Bernstein and how they managed to chase down the story are the main focus of the ATPM. It's a really complicated story, I had trouble keeping track of all the characters, probably it was much easier to follow for people who were following the news at the time.

Watched The Odd Couple on TCM last night for the umpteenth time and still legitimately laughed out loud on multiple occasions even though I know virtually all the lines by heart. Truly a classic.

Ironically, when I went to see the Broadway revival about 12-13 years ago with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, I came away disappointed due, I initially thought, to the fact that I knew all the lines. I subsequently realized that it had more to due with the fact that Broderick and Lane are not Lemmon and Matthau. Although I love Nathan Lane and have enjoyed Matthew Broderick in other productions. (On a side note, the performance I enjoyed the most in that Broadway production was Brad Garrett as Murray the Cop.)

For those who are interested, The Odd Couple is available on demand on Watch TCM from now until April 1st.

Agreed. Screen Trade II was also very good. I'd still call them essential reading. His behind the scenes scoops are fascinating, even when they're about movies he admits aren't good.

My favorite line from the movie:

'Look, forget the myths the media's created about the White House--the truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand."

I have on occasion used this to describe a number of individuals, myself included.

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Never knew "follow the money" comes from ATPM movie (not the book or real events).

The Death of Stalin - well this movie just doesn't work. This movies portrays honestly the sinister brutality behind Soviet rulers. The movie basically deals with the power struggle that ensues after Stalin dies. There is a lot of good acting. There are a lot of good lines. A lot of very dark scenes. But I don't understand why the director thought that this subject matter would be humorous. Death-lists, rape, murder, purges, despair, utter disregard for human life just make terrible backdrop for comedy. I was surprised to see that the guy who did Veep, did this. It is probably possible to make a funny movie about the oppression of Soviet State, but it can't be done by treating the horror and the atrocities as a matter of fact. C+