What movies did you see last week? (3/18-3/24)

Peter Pan (1953) - 7 / 10
Fantasia - 8 / 10
Kung Fu Panda 4 - 5 / 10
Lady & The Tramp (1955) - 8 / 10
Camp Nowhere - 6 / 10
Last Action Hero - 7.5 / 10
Blackberry - 8 / 10
Somewhere in Queens - 7 / 10

* Late Night With The Devil- My 2nd watch - probably the most fun I had at the movies in 2023 - though I ranked it lower since it wasn't "officially" released.....love it and love it more seeing it many months later too

* Immaculate (2024) - Human race hating PoS that gives horror a bad name............has to be seen to be disbelieved, worst of the year contender in March ffs.......

* Dry Summer (1963) - Visceral, well done melodrama of brother vs. brother, man vs. land, property wealth vs. legal rights ...a quasi-classic though heavy handed ........in Turkish......1st time watch

The Fabelmans
The House of Mirth
A Flor do Mar
The Seven Year Itch
French Cancan

Of these 5, my favorite and highest recommendation would be A Flor do Mar.

Ricky Stanicky - Look, if you had fun with the Farrelly comedies of the olden days, you'll probably have fun with this one. A lot of the credit goes to John Cena who does most of the heavy-lifting here. Wish I could actually see him!

The Last Tycoon - Elia Kazan's last. Not the best note to leave such a strong filmography on (the perfunctory romance storyline should not have had the same cold tone as the rest of the thing) but at least he knew that he had gold with getting both De Niro and Nicholson. Their little sequence is easily the film's highlight.

Grey Gardens - 1975. An excellent documentary about two fascinating individuals.

Casting Blossoms to the Sky - Nobuhiko Obayashi's essay-like rumination on WW2. As a late-career film, it's decidedly more serious than a lot of the stuff he did for most of his life, and yet his unique cinematic language is as alive and exuberant as ever. Very powerful.

Grey Gardens - 2009. Had to watch it after the doc. An okay but certainly watchable TV flick with two GREAT performances at its centre. Jessica Lange is the MVP but the revelation is Drew Barrymore. Who knew she had this in her? I get that she's been set on keeping up her "America's sweetheart" image for most of her career but I wish she did challenging work like this a little more often. 'Cause she's damn good at it.

Happy Feet - Having started the Animated Film Winners poll, I realized that it was finally time to watch the only one that's eluded me for all these years. Dunno why it took my so long to see the movie George Miller won his Oscar for but hey, better late than never. In true Dr. George fashion, this was completely bizarre. Cringe and craziness galore. I think I enjoyed it.

The King of Marvin Gardens - Most peculiar. Very good. Nicholson is excellent in one of his more subdued turns but the one that steals the movie is Ellen Burstyn.

Lili Marleen - I can never fully get into Fassbinder's movies on an emotional level but at least there's a streak of visually sumptuous ones that he did where there's a lot to latch onto craft-wise. This is absolutely one of those cases.