I have no internet after the storm and I don't feel like skating so it's a trivia question for you ...
Who's the first actor shown on screen in Gleaming the Cube?
Is it Rodney Mullen doing freestyle?
Also, I go long periods of time without watching anything, then go on a bit of a spree. I’ve watched one movie a day since Thursday.
Three Elliot Gould movies:
“MASH”—I’ve been a big fan of the TV series since I was kid. I’ve never watched the movie before, despite being a big Robert Altman fan (see next movie). I liked it, but I missed the heart that’s in the series. Clearly an anti-Vietnam/Military film, but I think it misses the toll that that environment takes on the people in it. Make sense, at the point it was released there was a lot of focus on the war and the people responsible for dragging it on, not as much on what the war was doing to the people who were told to do the dirty work—it would take a few years and movies like “Tracks,” “Apocalypse Now,” and “Deerhunter” to get deeper into that stuff—PTSD, etc. I think the tv series benefits from coming a little farther down the line.
“The Long Goodbye”—This movie is incredible. I didn’t notice anything new on this re-watch because it’s pretty much burned into my brain. Marty Augustine breaking the Coke bottle still freaks me out more than anything I’ve seen in any mainstream Hollywood movie. Brutal.
“Busting”—This was interesting to watch after “The Long Goodbye.” Cool to see Gould spend the whole movie playing a character slowing realizing that he is out of step with the times vs. his character only realizing that at the end of “The Long Goodbye.” Also, a month or so ago I watched re-watched “Hardcore.” In that movie George C. Scott’s charter goes into a porno shop and the cashier tells him that he has to pay $.50 to browse, and that that money is a deposit on a purchase. It made me wonder if that was standard practice in the 1970s. It certainly wasn’t by the time I went to my first porno shop. In “Busting” the cashier make Gould’s character pay the same price to browse and says it’s a deposit on a purchase. Maybe it was real.
And “Scream”
I went to see it with my 16-year-old daughter. For a kid her age, she’s fairly well versed in older horror movies, but has always refused to watch any made after the 50s (with the exception of “Gremlins”) because they are “too scary.” This was her first slasher movie and her first “modern” horror movie. We saw it in a theater. The first time we’ve been in one since COVID hit.
I love this movie. I have loved it since seeing it when it came out, and as an (at that time) huge horror/slasher fan, I saw more of myself in it and its sensibility than I do in any other horror/slasher movies (“Student Bodies” being an exception). This was the most enjoyable viewing of it I’ve ever had, and that’s because of my daughter. Watching her have the experience of watching this kid of movie for the first time was pretty incredible. Seeing her go from being terrified by the first phone call to laughing when Kenny fell off the news van and smashed the fence was an amazing ride. I’m super-stoked that she had a great experience, conquered a fear, and found something new to enjoy. I was hyped that she was able to find so much joy in allowing herself to get lost in the movie. It’s a kind of joy that i can’t really experience at the movies because I tend to be too analytical (the reason why this movie is and has been so appealing to me).
Now she wants to watch all the sequels, which I’m fine with. But we’re not starting today—which is what she wants.