What Classics Did You See Last Week? (Apr 24-Apr 30)

I'll assume this thread covers 24 April to 30 April 2017, and not 1 May to 7 May 2017 as currently stated.

I watched 53 short films, ranging from 1895 to 1978. I also watched 6 TV episodes, ranging from 1959 to 1977.

Films linked to are uploaded by the copyright holder.

The reason I didn't watch any 1980s or 1990s shorts is because I couldn't find any. At all. Nada. Zilch. 

It seems that I'm the only person on planet Earth who watches short films.

Film:

Elizabethan Express (1954, UK, 20 minutes) - 7.5/10. A documentary showing a train trip. It was controversial at the time of release for its use of rhyming narration. However, it proved popular with viewers, and had a wide theatrical release. From the DVD release "British Transport Films: Collection One: A Future on Rail".

SX-70 (1972, USA, 11 minutes) - 8/10. Great look into the Polaroid SX-70 camera. From the DVD release "The Films of Charles & Ray Eames: Volume 4".

Half a Pint of Milk (1952, Australia, 17 minutes) - 7/10. A classroom film (remember those?) abour dairy farming in the state of Tasmania. This should not be confused with "A Pint of Milk", a 1949 short by the same director (Malcolm Otton), although both were classroom films. The difference is that "A Pint of Milk" was meant to be seen nationally across Australia, while "Half a Pint of Milk" was only meant to be seen in Tasmania. This particular short isn't particularly notable, although it isn't terrible either, though the lack of background music is a problem.


Everybody Work, Everybody Help (1952, Australia, 14 minutes) - 7/10. Produced the same crew and company as the above, but I don't think this is a classroom film. It seems to have been aimed at adults, to assure them that a newly built school would benefit their children.


Rough Sea at Dover (1896, UK, Under 20 Seconds) - 7/10, Footage of a stormy sea. Nothing more, nothing less. From the DVD release "RW Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908".

The Arrest of a Bookmaker (1895, UK, under 30 seconds) - 7/10. A very very very early attempt at a crime drama. From the DVD release "RW Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908".

Making Tracks (1956, UK, 16 minutes) - 7/10. Documentary about laying down railroad tracks. From the DVD release "British Transport Films: Collection One: A Future on Rail".

Henry Shoobridge: Hop grower (1952, Australia, 14 minutes) - 7/10. A documentary about hop farming in Tasmania. This was produced by the "Tasmanian Education Department", and once again Malcolm Otton is the director (presumably he had nothing better to do than make educational films for the Tasmanian government? I've so far seen 5 shorts directed by him. That means I've seen 1 more film by him than I have by Steven Spielberg. Geez, I make strange choices as to which films I watch). Well, OK, I've now watched four of these Tasmanian-produced non-fiction films. None of them have proved to be classics (can a 1950s educational film ever be a classic? Ever? At all?), but I appreciate them. I never knew Tasmania did anything involving celluloid during the 1950s/1960s. I don't think they did any dramas, although the state did produce a 30-minute TV-movie in 1963 called "Happy Journey" which was an adaptation of a play by American writer Thornton Wilder?! Gee, I really need to study the film/TV output of this state some more!!


The Derby (1896, UK, about 30 seconds) - 7/10. Footage from a horse race. Historically interesting. From the DVD release "RW Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908".

Hyde Park Bicycling Scene (1896, UK, under 30 seconds) - 7.5/10. It's fascinating seeing a scene from real-life from so long ago. Seeing real Victorian people riding their bicycles is incredible. From the DVD release "RW Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908".

Up the River (1896, UK, under 1 minute) - 6/10. A rather poorly filmed drama. From the DVD release "RW Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908".

Cable Ship (1933, UK, 12 minutes) - 7.5/10. A documentary about repairing underwater telephone wires. From the DVD release "The GPO Film Unit Collection: Volume One".

Postage Due (1924, USA, 22 minutes) - 7/10. Decent silent comedy short. Not great by any means (it drags at times, and there's an unfortunate racial stereotype), but it's watchable and has some interesting gags. From the DVD release "The Stan Laurel Collection (Slapstick Symposium)".

A Day at the Beach (1956, Australia, 10 minutes) - 7/10. Beautiful colour film stock....otherwise an instantly forgettable classroom film aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 8. Malcolm Otton is director, this time doing the film for New South Wales instead of Tasmania.


Farmer Moving South (1952, UK, 16 minutes) - 8/10. An excellent documentary, about a farmer from Yorkshire moving everything (livestock, equipment, personal belongings) to Sussex. Beautifully filmed in black-and-white. From the DVD release "British Transport Films: Collection One: A Future on Rail".

Hold It (1938, USA, 7 minutes) - 7.5/10. Funny cartoon short with an amusing gimmick. From the DVD release "Somewhere in Dreamland".

Wires Over the Border (1974, UK, 18 minutes) - 7/10, but why is it that 1970s always seems more dated than earlier decades? All of the "new" things in this film already looked grimy and and worn-out. It doesn't help that the 1970s film stock is much uglier than the glorious Technicolor of the 1950s. From the DVD release "British Transport Films: Collection One: A Future on Rail". Useless fact of the day: this won a "best sponsored film" award. That shocks me.

Blacktop: A Story of the Washing of a School Play Yard (1952, USA, 11 minutes) - 8/10. IMDb describes this as "A visually elegant study of water on a schoolyard playground", which is a good description. It takes a rather ordinary event and makes it interesting. It manages to be experimental without being pretentious. From the DVD release "The Films of Charles & Ray Eames, Volume 2".

Plane Dumb (1932, USA, 7 minutes) - 2/10. Terrible cartoon short. They should have dumped this into upper New York bay instead of Ernie Kovacs....I've seen mouthwash commercials that had more merit than this!

Coal Face (1935, UK, 11 minutes) - 7.5/10. Interesting (though rather pretentious) documentary about coal mining. From the DVD release "The GPO Film Unit Collection: Volume One".

Snubbed by a Snob (1940, USA, 7 minutes) - 7/10. A cartoon in Technicolor. Nothing outstanding, but entertaining. From the DVD release "Somewhere in Dreamland".

Royal Train (1896, UK, under 30 seconds) - 7/10. Footage of a train going by. I love these 19th century actuality shorts. From the DVD release "RW Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908".

Look at Life: Money in the Slot (1964, UK, 9 minutes) - 8/10. The "Look at Life" series was widely shown in British cinemas from 1959 to 1969. It consisted of short documentaries, often breezy, about a wide range of topics. Wikipedia lists television as killing off the series, but to be honest I think it would have ended anyway, I can't imagine this kind of lightweight documentary being popular in the gritty 1970s. But anyway, this edition was enjoyable to watch. It shows the increasingly popular vending machines of the period, offering coffee, pies, eggs (?), and other things with just the push of a button. What isn't stated is the poor quality of a lot of the food/drink offered by these machines (which was rightly mocked by 1970s sitcoms). From the DVD release "Look at Life Volume 7 - Business and Industry".

Rail 150 (1975, UK, 13 minutes) - 7.5/10. Simple but entertaining documentary, showing various steam trains from over the years, appearing as part of a 150th anniversary celebration. From the DVD release "British Transport Films: Collection One: A Future on Rail".

The King's Stamp (1935, UK, 20 minutes) - 7.5/10. This short includes documentary sequences of the (then) present day, as well as period drama and comedy set in the Victorian era. It's an odd mix, but it works. The film also includes a mix of B&W sequences and colour sequences. If you are interested in stamps, this is pretty fun to watch. From the DVD release "The GPO Film Unit Collection: Volume One".

A Colour Box (1935, UK, 3 minutes) - 8/10. I'm certain you've heard of the technique of painting animation directly onto film. This is an example of that, and is quite enjoyable. It no doubt must have seemed ultra-modern at the time. From the DVD release "The GPO Film Unit Collection: Volume One".

Look at Life: Crowning Glory (1963, UK, 9 minutes) - 7.5/10. A rather silly and light-hearted look into hair and wigs. Some rather odd hairstyles are shown with "funny" narration. Wig making is also shown, and there are scenes of various hair salons. From the DVD release "Look at Life Volume 7 - Business and Industry".

The Kleptomaniac (1905, USA, 11 minutes) - 5/10. A failed attempt at drama, but has some historical interest. From the DVD release "Edison: The Invention of the Movies".

The Seven Ages (1905, USA, 5 minutes) - 7.5/10. A simple film. A couple is in scenes ranging from childhood to elderly years. Finally, there's a spinster who never married and has a cat. From the DVD release "Edison: The Invention of the Movies".

Dough and Dynamite (1914, USA, 29 minutes) - 8/10. I hate to admit it, but I rather enjoyed this rough little comedy. It is one of many that Charlie Chaplin did at Keystone. It probably helped that I ate a big bag of potato chips while I watched this. I find that junk foods always improves slapstick silent comedy. From the DVD release "Chaplin at Keystone".

Look at Life: Keeping Tabs on Space (1967, UK, 9 minutes) - 8/10. Another edition of this breezy documentary series. In this episode, two satellites are shown being tested, while the narrator explains what tests are being done, as well as the purpose of the satellites. For the record, the two satellites shown are Ariel 3 (referred to as "UK3"), and ESRO 2. From the DVD release "Look at Life Volume 3 - Science".

Brief City (1952, UK, 19 minutes) - 7.5/10. In this documentary, we are shown the London Festival Exhibition of 1951. It's strange though, this film is supposed to document "modernism", yet everything about it seems so dated. The narration is dreadful, showing how pretentious architects can be. But the footage itself is excellent, particularly the night scenes. From the DVD release "The COI Collection - Volume Two: Design for Today".

Look at Life: Silver's New Shine (1964, UK, 9 minutes) - 7.5/10. Less breezy than the other editions I've watched, but still a fast-paced look into the various uses of silver. It's strange to think this was once a widely seen documentary, these days this kind of thing would only be seen on obscure YouTube channels. From the DVD release "Look at Life Volume 7 - Business and Industry".

Any Man's Kingdom (1956, UK, 20 minutes) - 7.5/10. A travelogue showing Northumberland. From the DVD release "British Transport Films: Collection One: A Future on Rail", although this has nothing to do with trains, although various other vehicles can be glimpsed.

Gentlemen of Nerve (1914, USA, 15 minutes) - 7.5/10. Another enjoyable rough comedy by Charlie Chaplin for the Keystone company. It's also interesting to see a car race of the period. From the DVD release "Chaplin at Keystone".

Look at Life: By Bread Alone (1964, UK, 9 minutes) - 8/10. Another enjoyable mini-documentary. In this case, we are shown how bread is made in the ultra-modern 1960s. Once again, the whole thing is breezy, perhaps too breezy. From the DVD release "Look at Life Volume 3 - Science".

Daily Miracle (1963, Australia, 14 minutes) - 7/10. This documentary about how a newspaper is put together. In particular, it shows the physical putting together of a newspaper: how photographs are put into a format that can be printed, the teletype machine, the printing press, stuff like that. This short was put together for Tasmanian newspaper "The Mercury", and I am curious as to how it was distributed (theatrical? non-theatrical? television? well?).


Appointment in Launceston (1960, Australia, 10 minutes) - 7.5/10. Low-budget but charming little travelogue, made by the Tasmanian Government Film Unit. I didn't even know Tasmania had its own film unit.


His Musical Career (1914, USA, 13 minute) - 7/10. Amusing comedy short with Charlie Chaplin. Interesting to see the traffic on the road during 1914. From the DVD release "Chaplin at Keystone". Useless fact of the day: This was shown on the BBC a number of times from 1952 to 1960, which surprised me as silent films were virtually never shown on TV back then. When shown, it appears as part of the "children's television" segment....its 1960 broadcast was part of a session for deaf children.

Look at Life: Ups and Downs (1964, UK, 9 minutes) - 5/10. I'm trying to decide which is more badly dated, this or "Plane Dumb". Here is a cheerful little documentary in which beautiful historic buildings are torn down to make way for ugly new office buildings and tower blocks. This is the side of the 1960s that everyone seems to have forgotten. Mind you, this short is well-filmed and edited. From the DVD release "Look at Life Volume 7 - Business and Industry".

Comic Costume Race (1896, UK, under 1 minute) - 7/10. Amusing bit of nonsense, a race where the first to put on a silly costume wins. It's nice seeing Victorian people having FUN, unlike all the gloomy depictions of the era you see in modern films. From the DVD release "RW Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908".

The Twins' Tea Party (1896, UK, about 30 seconds) - 7/10. To quote a popular cartoon made about a 100 years later: "Well ain't that cute...BUT IT'S WRONG!!". Amusing nevertheless. From the DVD release "RW Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908".

Blackfriars Bridge (1896, UK, about 30 seconds) - 9/10. Why the high rating? Because I love seeing scenes of everyday life from the Victorian era. The horse-drawn carriages, the women in their dresses, the child with the newspaper...it's fascinating. From the DVD release "RW Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908".

On Westminster Bridge (1896, UK, under 30 seconds) - 7/10. The original film prints are lost, but this film was also issued as a flip-book (remember those? You flipped the pages and the images moved). The flip-book survives, and has been turned into a video for DVD release. It's brief and low quality, but again, seeing real-life Victorian people moving is fascinating. From the DVD release "RW Paul: The Collected Films 1895-1908".

You Can't Shoe a Horse Fly (1940, USA, 7 minutes) - 7.5/10. Amusing little cartoon from the long-forgotten "Hunky and Spunky" series. I know this may seem like a strange thing to say, but I rather like the use of the colour yellow in this short. You don't see many cartoons which have yellow as their main colour. From the DVD release "Somewhere in Dreamland".

Vignettes for Polavision: The Chase (1978, USA, 3 minutes) - 7.5/10. If this tiny little short seems more like a well-produced home movie than a film, that's because it was created by Charles Eames & Ray Eames to demonstrate the "Polavision" home movie system. Other directors also used Polavision to create short films. But it was a doomed product for a number of reasons, and proved to be a major commercial failure. The film itself is charmingly simple, depicting a child stealing a teenager's diary, and the resulting chase that ensues. It's nothing spectacular, but it's fun. From the DVD release "The Films of Charles and Ray Eames: Volume 2".

The Fresh Vegetable Mystery (1939, USA, 7 minutes) - 7/10. A fairly WTF-worthy cartoon. I like those. From the DVD release "Somewhere in Dreamland".

Look at Life: Fings Are Getting Smaller (1964, UK, 9 minutes) - 7.5/10. A very dated little documentary, but isn't that what makes the "Look at Life" series so interesting? In this case, we are shown a vintage to-scale miniature house, before moving along to small things like a transistor radio, low-income housing, and various other things 1960s people took pride in. From the DVD release "Look at Life - Volume 3: Science".

The Glorious Sixth of June (1934, UK, 10 minutes) - 5/10. This is truly a WTF-worthy film. I can't even begin to describe it. It defies explanation. I assume it was meant as a spoof, but of what? I am shocked that this film exists. From the DVD release "The GPO Film Unit Collection: Volume One".

Blue Pullman (1960, UK, 23 minutes) - 8/10. Excellent documentary, without narration, showing a train making its first run. I particularly enjoyed the well-photographed scenes showing the train going through the countryside. From the DVD release "British Transport Films: Collection One: A Future on Rail".

Look at Life: The Key of the Door (1963, UK, 9 minutes) - 7.5/10. Less breezy than usual. Students are shown learning for a career in various scientific fields. From the DVD release "Look at Life - Volume 3: Science".

Glasgow Belongs to Me (1966, UK, 16 minutes) - 7.5/10. A look into the city of Glasgow. From the DVD release "British Transport Films: Collection One: A Future on Rail".

Look at Life: Tulip Town (1961, UK, 9 minutes) - 7/10. A look into tulip farming in Spalding, Lincolnshire, and the annual Flower Parade (which stopped being held in 2013). From the DVD release "Look at Life Volume 7 - Business and Industry".


Television:

"Parkin's Patch” - Episode titled “Lock Stock and...” (telecast 26 September 1969, UK, 25 minutes) - 7.5/10. Crime drama series. In this episode, a cigarette shop has everything stolen from it. The director of this episode, Michael Apted, is still working, which surprised me as very few 1960s TV directors are still working (can anyone name any others?).

"This Week in Britain" - Episode titled "The National Theatre" (telecast 1970, UK, 5 minutes) - 7/10. This brief TV series aired from 1959 to 1980, and although produced by the UK, was not shown there. It was intended to be shown in countries like Australia and such, to present a positive view of Britain. It shows a model of the "National Theatre", and interviews the architect. Despite this being a fairly upbeat mini-documentay, modern viewers will probably agree the design is typically bad 1960s/1970s architecture, soulless and aggressive. Nevertheless I'd like to see the building keep standing, as 21st century architecture is even worse!! From the DVD release "The COI Collection - Volume Two: Design for Today".

"Mary Mungo & Midge" - Episode titled "The Fair" (telecast 2 December 1969, UK, 14 minutes) - 7/10. Simple little children's show from the BBC. This episode is entertaining, but isn't among the better episodes.

Morning in the Streets (telecast 25 March 1959, UK, 35 minutes) - 8/10. This is the kind of thing you don't see anymore these days, a documentary about ordinary people living in poverty, and their opinions on their lives. It's rather depressing actually. From the DVD release "Visions of Change, Volume 1: BBC 1951-1967".

"The Fosters" - Episode titled "Home and Away" (telecast 11 June 1977, UK, 25 minutes) - 7.5/10. A good episode of Britain's first black sitcom. One thing I do find strange (and which is typical of the period), is that the indoor scenes were shot on video-tape, while the outdoor scenes were shot on film.

"Spring and Autumn" - Episode titled "Pilot: Spring and Autumn" (telecast 23 October 1972, UK, 25 minutes) - 7.5/10. Pilot episode for a Thames sitcom about an elderly man who befriends a child.

1st views (my television was hijacked by my son) -

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) 1/10 Perhaps the worst movie ever made.
Friday the 13th Part III (1982) 2/10
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) 4/10
Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986) 5/10
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) 3/10
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) 2/10
Halloween: Resurrection (2002) 5/10
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) 3/10

Revisits -

Battle of Britain (1969) 7/10 Turned up on ANZAC Day and it was considerably better than I remembered.
Journey to Shiloh (1968) 6/10 A bunch of naive young Texans ride off to a great adventure called "The Civil War". Naturally things turn out differently to what they expected.

CLASSIC TV

77 Sunset Strip: Family Skeleton. Season 2, Episode 36. June 10, 1960.
77 Sunset Strip: The Antwerp Caper. Season 3, Episode 12. December 2, 1960

The Wild Wild West: The Night Of The Assassin. Season 3, Episode 3. September 22, 1967.

Batman: Black Widow Strikes Again and Caught In The Spider’s Den. Season 2, Episodes 55 and 56. March 15 & 16, 1967. Tallulah Bankhead as The Black Widow. Grady Sutton and George Raft in cameos.
Batman: Pop Goes The Joker and Flop Goes The Joker. Season 2, Episodes 57 and 58. March 22 & 23, 1967. Cesar Romero as The Joker. Reginald Gardiner and Fritz Feld in cameos.

FILMS

The Three Musketeers / Richard Lester (1973). Young D'Artagnan (Michael York), armed with a letter from his father to the commander of the Queen’s Musketeers in Paris, leaves home with confidence in his swordsmanship but seemingly unaware of his lack of worldly knowledge nor of his Inspector Clouseau levels of clumsiness. Inadvertently falling in and out of trouble, he is finally taken under the care of the title trio, Athos (Oliver Reed), Porthos (Frank Finlay), and Aramis (Richard Chamberlain). The four chums have to team up to protect the Queen who is under attack by the scheming Cardinal Richelieu (an excellent Charlton Heston in a rare villainous role) who is aided by the evil Milady (Faye Dunaway) and her lover Rochefort (Christopher Lee). Rousing fun all around. Thrills and laughs all wrapped up together.

The Dressmaker / Jocelyn Moorhouse (2015). When Tilly Dunnage (Kate Winslet) was six years old, she was sent away from her home in a small rural Australian town to foster care. Now, she is an adult and has returned bringing with her a sewing machine and a head full of new skills. When the bus drops her off on an empty street at night, she stands in the middle of the road and whispers, “I’m back, you bastards.” Her mother Molly (a movie stealing Judy Davis), rarely leaves her house and has been in an alcoholic depression for years, but Tilly forces her way into her mother’s life and sets herself up in business as a dressmaker and fashion consultant. The members of the town know that she is up to something – and she is. My only problem with this movie is that it is so filled to the brim with drama, comedy, plotting, successes, reverses, mysteries and just about every other thing the writers and director could think of that it starts to become wearing on the viewer. There is actually too much good stuff. This is also my feeling about a popular film of a couple of years ago that lands on a lot of people’s Best of the Year list, “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” It was so relentlessly whimsical that I finally lost all patience. In addition to Winslet and Davis, this film boasts a good supporting cast that features Liam Hemsworth, Hugo Weaving as the cross-dressing police officer, Kerry Fox as the evil school teacher, and Sarah Snook as an ugly duckling who gets transformed by Tilly. NOTE: Winslet’s Tilly is supposed to be contemporary with of Hemsworth and Snook. However, in Real Life, Winslet is 40, Hemsworth (who Winslet romances) is 25 and Sarah Snook is 28. That is just for those of you who are offended by the traditional casting of middle-aged male actors with much younger female actors. Turnabout is fair play.

The Accountant / Gavin O’Connor (2016). This is going to start out sounding kinda silly, but…this is an action film about an autistic adult male with an enormous mathematical ability who has been trained by his military father as an expert in firearms and martial arts. Hey, it’s just a movie, OK! On the other hand, much the same premise was used successfully in the excellent 2008 Thai film “Chocolate” (directed by Prachya Pinkaew). Another plus is the seriousness in the way the story is told, how it unfolds. It kept me engaged all the way through. First, we meet Christian Woolf (Ben Affleck), the title accountant who is capable of auditing businesses and finding thefts no matter how well hidden. We follow his story via a “present time” job to untangle the accounts of an emerging tech company to find out if someone has been stealing millions. Secondly, we see strategically placed flashbacks to his childhood and Christian’s relationship with his controlling father, a retired Army officer. Last, there is an investigation by two U.S. Treasury Department agents (J.K. Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson) of a mysterious man who is used by drug cartels and organized crime around the world to keep their financial records honest. The Treasury not only wants to know who he is, but how – knowing so much of the inner works of Big Crime – he manages to stay alive. “The Accountant” received almost totally negative reviews upon its release in the Fall of 2016. Reading them now, I get that old feeling of “Did we see the same movie?” “The Accountant” is worth attention. John Lithgow co-stars as the founder of the tech company that Woolf is auditing and Anna Kendrick plays the young bookkeeper who found irregularities in the firm’s books and her life in danger because of it.

Jason Bourne / Paul Greengrass (2016). “Bourne is Back” as the tagline trumpets. Bourne (Matt Damon) has been living underground as a bare knuckle fighter since his disappearance at the end of “The Bourne Legacy” (2012). In this fourth movie of the trilogy, he is recalled to life by his ally in the CIA, Nicky Parsons (Julia Stein). Nicky passes him some secret information about his former life and how he was recruited by the CIA. Hot on his trail is the CIA Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) and his rising star, Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander). Also pursuing Bourne for personal reasons, is a killer known only as The Asset (Vincent Cassel). Some exciting action scenes, imaginatively directed and edited, ensue – except for the last one. Director Paul Greengrass got some criticism for the final chase scene in “The Bourne Supremacy” (2004) in which Bourne and a killer race down a Moscow freeway cracking up dozens of cars of people who get in their way. Greengrass doubles down in the new movie with Bourne in pursuit of The Asset who has stolen a SWAT truck and motors the wrong way down the Las Vegas strip sending private vehicles flying and crashing. If any nod at all had been made to the human and property costs of this destruction, it might be forgiven, but all it does is make an appeal to the “blowin’ stuff up” action movie crowd and is therefore reprehensible. Besson’s “Lucy” (2014) has a similar kind of car pile-up which I commented on in my review of that film, as well. A sour ending to an otherwise pretty good summertime diversion.

American Honey / Andrea Arnold (2016). A teenage girl named Star (Sasha Lane), living practically on her own with her young brother and sister, gets a chance to break away when she meets a van full of traveling kids lead by Jake (Shia LaBeouf). They travel from place to place selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door. They consider their companions to be family, but when Sasha meet the big boss, Krystal (Riley Keough), they don’t hit it off. Sasha is going to have to earn her place on the team. This film – shot is a semi-dogme style – has several powerful scenes, mainly in the encounters Sasha has in the homes where she tries to sell subscriptions and in her face-to-face meetings with Krystal. Also effective is when we see the team partying hard at night after work, their fun seeming forced and desperately over-the-top. But it is all too repetitive at 2 hours and 40 minutes, plus Sasha remains pretty much a cypher: we never know for sure what she is really thinking and feeling. At the very end, it looks like she has made some kind of decision, but we don’t learn what it is. It is a little frustrating, but I think the film is worth a watch. Lane is a promising new actress.

Interesting bunch of pictures you watched this week mike. 

What's not to love about Ben Affleck as a maths savant with combat skills Jason Bourne would kill for? THE ACCOUNTANT was a pretty cool flick in my book too. It's Ben's BOURNE movie, and while the stuck up critics might not have enjoyed it, the film had a relatively low budget and managed to rake in about $155 million worldwide, so it didn't lose any money.  

AMERICAN HONEY is, as you say, a wee bit long, but I rather liked it. Shia LaBeouf might well be batshit crazy, but he is a fine and fearless actor. Sasha Lane got the critic's attention, but for me the most interesting actress on display is Riley - grandaughter of Elvis Presley - Keough (man does she rock a spray tan and an all-American bikini). I ain't never seen her play a nice girl, but this lady is bound for stardom - to see just how good an actress she is check out her Golden Globe-nominated performance in Steven Soderbergh's uncompromising and fascinating 13-part cable TV series THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE.

For me, the best, most beautiful sequence in AMERICAN HONEY is the one where Ms Arnold pays loving homage to the unforgettable TINY DANCER scene in Cameron Crowe's ALMOST FAMOUS.

Here it is.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4q6XiQthfk      


The morality of the scene in JASON BOURNE which you mention didn't bother me at all. I actually think this is one of the better BOURNE flicks. Winslett (and a game supporting cast - except for Hemsworth who's handsome, but always comes across as a souless cypher) is wonderful in THE DRESSMAKER, but the flick wasn't quite as good as I hoped it would be. Still, THE DRESSMAKER is well worth a watch. I liked THE THREE MUSKETEERS when I saw it at the old Savoy cinema back in 1973. 

Went with an old favorite this weekend, Ben-Hur (1959). What a wonderful film. Everything about it is just perfect. 10/10.

I haven't seen "The Four Musketeers" since a broadcast TV showing back in the '70s. I remember it being more serious - darker, even - than the first film. I hope to get to it soon. BTW, I forgot to mention in my review that the movie taught me what "Musketeer" means. I had never thought about it before, but when D'Artagnan is made a full Musketeer, he is given a musket. Musket-eer. Get it! Maybe the reason it took me so long to catch on is because in all the 3 Musketeer movies, TV shows, and comic books I have read about them, no musket (that I ever noticed) ever made an appearance. Oh, well. If you live long enough, you get around to knowing everything.