January 31st Dirty Gertie from Harlem, U.S.A. / 1946, dir. Spencer Williams This isn’t a movie I would have felt compelled to watch if not for the fact that it’s a Thais movie; it’s entirely possible that I would have been unable to resist “Dirty Gertie” as a phrase forever, so I don’t want to… Read More 2023 Movie Diary (1/31-2/4): Time to Start Watching These Best Picture Nominees
January 26th Devdas / 1955, dir. Bimal Roy Devdas does not have the structure, precisely, of Anton Chekhov’s Ivanov, although the eponymous characters of both stories share an emotional bond. Despite having significant advantage in his society due to money, property, and the other niceties of a higher class, the men are unlucky with the… Read More 2023 Movie Diary (1/26-1/30): The Vanquishing of the Witch Tim Burton
January 21st If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? / 1971, dir. Ron Ormond My Demon Lover / 1987, dir. Charlie Loventhal It’s too bad that I’m out of Ormond-Pirkle collaborations, because I was starting to develop a fondness for Pirkle’s sermons. They have a Homeric flavor to them, a use of Bible verses… Read More 2023 Movie Diary (1/21-1/25): Tsars, Commissars, and Pezidents
January 16th Soup for One / 1982, dir. Jonathan Kaufer Crocodile Dundee / 1986, dir. Peter Faiman The September Issue / 2009, dir. R.J. Cutler Great Freedom / 2021, dir. Sebastian Meise Jonathan Kaufer was a precocious guy in his mid-twenties when he wrote and directed Soup for One, and boy does this movie really… Read More 2023 Movie Diary (1/16-1/20): Heaven and Hell
January 11th The Burning Hell / 1974, dir. Ron Ormond With a name like “Estus Pirkle,” it has to be good. I know that the civilized thing to do with a movie like this is to laugh it off, and the movie gives us opportunities to do exactly that. The makeup on some of these… Read More 2023 Movie Diary (1/11-1/15): Contrive It Like You Stole It
January 6th La ceremonie / 1995, dir. Claude Chabrol In English, you’ll sometimes see this given the name of the novel it’s based on, A Judgment in Stone. If I were naming the movie, I would probably default to something a little less grand than its French title or its English one. At the risk… Read More 2023 Movie Diary (1/6-1/10): Meet the Gladneys
January 1st Three Minutes: A Lengthening / 2021, dir. Bianca Stigler Los Angeles Plays Itself / 2003, dir. Thom Andersen Crimes of the Future / 2022, dir. David Cronenberg India Song / 1975, dir. Marguerite Duras Pearl / 2022, dir. Ti West Every year it seems, there’s a documentary that a number of critics go… Read More 2023 Movie Diary (1/1-1/5): India Songs
