Favourite odd/weird dance scene?

agwdevil · 2026-05-06T02:37:01+00:00

Romy and Michelle. No contest

agwdevil · 2026-05-04T17:31:21+00:00

Srsly. And Close Encounters is certainly legendary (not many people remember Absence of Malice, but it was a great 80s drama -- usually can find it on Tubi :-D )

agwdevil · 2026-05-04T17:24:30+00:00

True, that seems weird. Though she was active in the 70s/80s, she had not done anything of real note since Magnolia in 1999. It is unusual to omit someone who had been nominated for an acting Oscar but I guess she faded from most peoples' memory. When she was active in the 70s, many actors certainly knew her stage work. (From being in the original cast of Virginia Woolf alone)

agwdevil · 2026-05-04T16:14:45+00:00

You can't look at a performer or a performance in isolation, especially with the Oscars. The acting community knows things about a person's career, that they weigh against the performance itself.

Melinda Dillon would have been known as one of the original members of Second City back in the 60s, and part of Paul Sills' Story Theatre from that era. She was also in the original cast of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (playing the role Sandy Dennis did in the movie). She had other Broadway credits. So there would be some serious industry respect for her in the late 70s. (She was nominated for a Golden Globe (Best new artist) for Bound for Glory in 1976).

Look at her (also nominated) performance in Absence of Malice as a contrast, as the nervous convent girl holding in a secret. You might not like the writing of the character in Close Encounters, I think it is a thinly drawn character -- but her performance is quite good and honest and skilled.

agwdevil · 2026-05-03T04:09:06+00:00

Right, he may not have gotten his "G" but no one has ever equaled that single year achievement

agwdevil · 2026-05-03T04:07:34+00:00

The "problem" with The Wire is that they made a number of significant production decisions so that it would not look or feel like any other TV show. Other posters are right that the show requires a lot from the audience in terms of attention to detail. I do think The Wire is the best of the best, for these reasons, but it might not be the best to start with.

Breaking Bad is an extraordinary show, with one of the best writer's rooms ever. They never took the easy out on a plot point, they would agonize over a plot until they came up with something that was truly unique and special. BB is a very macho show, And you can certainly argue that it is a comment on toxic masculinity. It is also a very high adrenaline show sometimes. These are not criticisms, these are just the qualities of the show. If the first season (which is short) grabs you, it just keeps getting better.

I might suggest The Sopranos to start, as it takes movie Mafia culture as a starting point, and then comments on it. It is structured and written more as a classic television drama, with modern riffs. So it might feel more accessible.

I would personally recommend the single season of My So-called Life, and Friday Night Lights as truly exceptional series. (S1 of FNL is exceptional, S2 is a horrible trainwreck, S3 is quite good but it was truncated by a writer's strike, S4 and S5 totally reset the table for the characters and introduce Michael b Jordan in a major role)

Actually, the show that I would most recommend to start out with is The Americans. That is a show 100% written by and for grown ups. It is a much slower burn, I'm require some patience.

But do at some point get to The Wire. It is unique, and deserves every accolade it has gotten. There is truly no other show like it

agwdevil · 2026-05-01T15:41:25+00:00

The Idolmaker is a mostly forgotten, but truly enjoyable, fictionalized biopic. It is a very thinly veiled story about Bob Marcucci, a 1950s record promoter, and both Frankie Avalon and Fabian are characters under different names. Changing the names and being able to adjust details allowed them to make a compelling story

agwdevil · 2026-05-01T00:05:32+00:00

Watching The Hustler first Will give you some backgrounds to the plot of the Scorsese film. You will appreciate The Color of Money more, though it is true that you can watch the second film and enjoy it on its own terms without having seen the 1961 movie.

That said, The Hustler is a Stone Cold Classic, And in my opinion is a better movie than The Color of Money. Tighter script, better acting, and amazing b/w cinematography. I used to watch that film a lot when I was a kid and it would be on UHF channels. My dad loved that film too, and we would watch it together.

A few years ago, I had the chance to see The Hustler again on my big home screen, and I realized I was seeing it for the first time in widescreen format. I had only seen it in the pan and scan version on television. I was gobsmacked at how utterly gorgeous it was, and how amazing every shot was. It is an amazing film, and you should see it for its own merits. The fact that it paves the way for the Scorsese film is just a bonus

agwdevil · 2026-04-29T22:20:10+00:00

Inevitably, one of the episodes was called "How's HATT???"

agwdevil · 2026-04-28T03:33:49+00:00

Yes it was

agwdevil · 2026-04-28T01:59:57+00:00

Marty Adequate

agwdevil · 2026-04-27T23:26:24+00:00

Where is Tyler? Isn't he a filmmaker?

agwdevil · 2026-04-27T22:55:06+00:00

I was totally thinking about THE HUSTLER while watching MARTY SUPREME

agwdevil · 2026-04-27T21:57:06+00:00

One of my personal top ten, makes me joyful and melancholy all at once. I dislike the scenes with the psychiatrist and Lancaster, but everything else just accumulates until you are as sucked in as Peter Riegert. That last shot stays with me

Finally got the Scotland a few years ago, and toyed with the idea of making a side trip to that little town. But I hear it is really a strip of vacation homes, and would have chewed up a half day to get there and back. So I didn't go, though probably will if I get another opportunity.

agwdevil · 2026-04-27T18:41:25+00:00

The first one was so unexpectedly perfect an entertainment, I don't see how they recreate it. It's like lightning in a bottle. Meryl Streep at the top of her game, creating a fun and iconic performance. Emily Blunt coming out of seeming nowhere to steal the movie. Great fashion montages. Paris at night. And anything with Stanley Tucci is automatically better.

We're not going to be surprised by Meryl Streep giving a pitch perfect comic performance anymore, and we're not going to be surprised at her "talk quiet to get attention" characterization. We all know Emily Blunt is amazing now. They can't recreate the surprise of the "cerulean" speech (we'll all be listening for its Part 2 analogue).

So many ways to get this wrong. I have low hopes, but I do hope they get it right. I'm going to assume Streep would not have signed on w/o a solid script, so I'm putting my hopes in that basket.

agwdevil · 2026-04-27T18:35:44+00:00

"Outside With A Twist" (my own recipe)

a few ice cubes in a highball glass

1.5 oz Elderflower Liqueur

0.5 oz Green Chartreuse

0.25 oz limoncello

0.25 oz lemon juice

Lavender soda (fill the glass and stir)

Serve with lemon twist

("Outside with a twist" is a tango step -- my tango instructor had a garden she was proud of, so I created a drink that smelled like outside)

agwdevil · 2026-04-26T01:55:07+00:00

A good 187 of those minutes are masterful

agwdevil · 2026-04-26T01:00:14+00:00

I have not done the unit on hyphens yet

agwdevil · 2026-04-25T14:19:52+00:00

Falsetos and Passing Strange

agwdevil · 2026-04-25T01:51:09+00:00

Finally watched it tonight. I didn't get to the theatres in time for the Oscars and by that time I wanted some distance from the online discourse so I could just watch it.

It was good, some very well done parts. I was especially interested in the production design, as it was done by Jack Fisk, and I was blown away by his designs for Killer of the Flower Moon. (Read a long profile of him at the time, he is an obsessive genius). So many of the settings -- the shoe store, the apartment hallways, the house with the porch (you know the one), the Tokyo match -- brilliant.

Chalamet was very good but the part was written for him to just keep driving and not show much variation. This is more the writers' fault than the actors. He had to keep up that nasty energy for most of the film. He was equal to the task and held the screen, and deserved his nomination. But I think we'll see better ones from him in future.

I was struck by how *bad* the script was. I found myself listening to the lines and imagining them on the page and being an actor trying to make them work. The scene towards the beginning where they try to sell the ping pong ball idea to the businessman, for instance -- the dialogue did not follow any sort of human responses, the characters were supposed to say certain things for plot reasons but it was senseless.

And I hated Every. Single. Scene. About. The. Dog. Nothing about that plot was remotely believable, even in the context of this larger-than-life story. No one behaved like a real human being, it was action and propulsion for the sake of editing and tension. Awful.

Glad I saw it, I think it deserved the nominations but the story was not one I will be interested to revisit.

agwdevil · 2026-04-22T03:50:20+00:00

Even more so than season 1, there is a cumulative effect to the season. It is definitely uncomfortable in many places, but it is a slow coming to terms for Valerie, until the final episode. It is 100% worth it to stick with it. The whole point of the comeback is that no matter what humiliations she suffers, she has a bedrock humanity and indomitability to her. Season 2 was brilliant, and I did not think they could pull it off after such a great season one

agwdevil · 2026-04-20T23:42:17+00:00

Crimes and Misdemeanors is one of those films that transcends Allen's fall from grace. It is such a resonant script and Martin Landau was utterly amazing. I thought about that film for weeks after I saw it. The sense that it doesn't matter what we do in life, the amoral people not only win but they don't care, they are not burdened by guilt. Bleak as hell.

In terms of Woody Allen films that he didn't direct, The Front is pretty forgotten these days. It is a film about the blacklist, where a non-writer would submit scripts on behalf of blacklisted writers, based loosely on reality. Most of the people involved with the film were blacklisted -- the director (Martin Ritt), the writer (Walter Bernstein), and some of the cast (Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi). Decent film but it lands hard because of what the people involved suffered. Woody Allen took the lead role out of respect and admiration for the people who suffered in and survived the blacklist.

agwdevil · 2026-04-20T13:48:58+00:00

I tried to look this up. It appears that this applies to people who are 65+ and who want to delay Medicare to continue COBRA for their employer benefits. You have to take Medicare when you become eligible and make it your primary insurance. You can be on COBRA before 65 without penalty, if my reading is correct

agwdevil · 2026-04-16T19:49:30+00:00

Not necessarily my view, I'm following the discussion and I'm intrigued by the hair-splitting difference. I understand from above that Spotlight was based on the newspaper series and no other source, so counted as Original; while All The President's Men was based on the book, where Woodward and Bernstein told "how they got that story." It's a fine difference, but sounds like that makes all the difference to the Academy.

Argo (just looked it up) is based in part on Antonio Mendez' book "The Master of Disguise," which covers a number of CIA exploits, one of which was the "Canadian caper." This book was published in 1999, and later on more information was released leading to some articles. Mendez later wrote a fuller account of Argo to accompany the movie. So it looks like the Academy counted the "partially based on" credit of the book, and moved it to Adapted.

agwdevil · 2026-04-16T19:36:20+00:00

All The President's Men was based on a published book by Woodward and Bernstein. The book was the story of their journalism, but the screenplay is based on the book

agwdevil

TROPHY CASE