News of the World (2020)

 

NEWS OF THE WORLD  (2020)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Paul Greengrass

    Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel, Elizabeth Marvel,

    Mare Winingham, Ray McKinnon, Fred Hechinger,

    Michael Angelo Covino, Thomas Francis Murphy

As much as anything, "News of the World" is a movie about stories. Tom Hanks plays Captain Thomas Jefferson Kidd (yes, Captain Kidd), a Civil War veteran traveling from town to town in 1870 Texas, reading stories out of newspapers to folks who presumably don't have access to CNN or NPR. Out on the trail one day, he comes across a young girl (Helena  Zengel), who's just spent six years living with the Kiowa, after a raid that killed her family. Now an Army raid has killed her Kiowa family, and the kid is lost. And wild. Unable to find anybody who will take her in, the newsman reluctantly embarks on a 400-mile journey to her only remaining relatives, an aunt and uncle who live down toward San Antonio. It's a perilous adventure, and there's an old-fashioned, storybook feel to the way it plays out. The captain turns out to be just as damaged and haunted as the girl is, and a brief exchange along the way is revealing: He tells her (in English) that the only way to face the future is to forget the past. She replies (in Kiowa) that the only way to move on is to remember it. Hanks is good - you expect that - and Zengel doesn't miss a step keeping up with him. Their evolving relationship and the way they play off each other are the heart and soul of the movie. It's an odyssey, really, and a reminder that western stories aren't just our national myth. They're our national fairy tale. 

Grateful Dead (1995)

 

GRATEFUL DEAD  (1995)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Paul McCartney

Linda McCartney's black-and-white photos of the Dead in the '60s, with "Anthem of the Sun" on the soundtrack.

All Is Full of Love (1999)

 

ALL IS FULL OF LOVE  (1999)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Chris Cunningham 

    Björk

Love among the androids, with music by Björk.

Melodies Old and New (1942)

 

MELODIES OLD AND NEW  (1942)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Edward L. Cahn

    George "Spanky" McFarland, Billy "Froggy" Laughlin,

    Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas, Walter Wills, Robert Blake

The Our Gang kids put on a show.

Pharaoh's Curse (1957)

 

PHARAOH'S CURSE  (1957)  ¢ ¢

    D: Lee Sholem

    Mark Dana, Ziva Rodann, Diane Brewster

    Ben Wright, Guy Prescott, George N. Neise

In 1902, a small team of Brits head out into the Valley of Kings, where an obsessed archeologist is about to desecrate an ancient tomb. How could something like that be a bad idea? According to IMDb, Lee Sholem was hired to direct because he had a reputation for shooting cheap and quick.(His nickname was "Roll 'Em Sholem".) The movie was shot in six days. The exteriors, filmed in Death Valley, were done in one.

Persecution (2009)

 

PERSECUTION  (2009)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Patrice Chéreau

    Romain Duris, Charlotte Gainsbourg, 

    Jean-Huges Anglade, Michel Duchaussoy,

    Gilles Cohen, Alex Descas, Hiam Abbass 

A gloomy, antisocial guy who remodels apartments and volunteers in a retirement home mopes around Paris with others who are equally sad and screwed up. The only exception is his girlfriend (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and even she admits she likes him better when they're apart. So it's kind of a downer, but it's not the worst French movie in which unhappy characters brood and smoke cigarettes. I don't know what movie that would be, and I hope I never find out.

M*A*S*H (1970)

M*A*S*H  (1970)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Robert Altman

    Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt,

    Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, Roger Bowen,

    Rene Auberjonois, Gary Burghoff, Jo Ann Pflug,

    John Shuck, Bud Cort, Michael Murphy, G. Wood,

    Carl Gottlieb, Dawne Damon, David Arkin

. . . Did Hawkeye steal that Jeep? . . . Captain Pierce and me have been boozing all day and . . . Don't you guys use olives? . . . I got a book here. It's got a lot of pictures in it . . . No food! Sex! I want sex! Give me some sex! . . . I'm Dr. Jekyll, actually, and this is my friend, Mr. Hyde . . . It worked for Hitler and Eva Braun . . . Is this The Bickersons? I love them . . . I'll bet she's not a real blonde . . . Major Burns will be out of your tent in 24 hours . . . All right, bub, your fucking head's coming right off . . . This isn't a hospital! It's an insane asylum! . . . We have got to share this with the rest of the camp . . . If I nail Hot Lips and hit Hawkeye, can I go home? . . . Bastard, 88, called me a coon . . . Anybody know if this is an officer or an enlisted man? . . . He's an enlisted man . . . Make the stitches big . . . Goddamn Army . . . 

Robert Duvall

(1931-2026)

Bud Cort

(1948-2026)