Lolita's Fist

🍒 Extraordinary film about the ordinariness of war. Structured like a disaster movie with no cliffhangers, it undermines your every expectation of when to put your fingers in your ears. Disaster movies also show you a bit of relationship leg here and a bit of relationship leg there, in this case the camaraderie of men servicing a war. A Perfect Day takes you round the side of the horror, round the side of the explosives, round the side of the mass graves. It focuses on 'the other stuff' of war. Geniusly done. And, despite there being two women in the convoy, overnighting in the wilderness, the movie makers couldn't rustle up a scene where two named women talk to each other about something other than a man. Bechdel-fail. IMDB A Perfect Day (2015) Actors: Benicio Del Toro, Tim Robbins Director: Fernando León de Aranoa

🍒 Yes, it’s beautiful. Yes, the 3D was done well. Yes, it’s worth seeing, especially for the threesome - I’ve not seen anything like that on film before. But… meh. Story is kinda thin. The meta narratives are emaciated. There are some things to be said about the sexism of the film. Female replicants.  2049 - Joi (home entertainment and cook), Luv (librarian and killing machine). 2019 - Pris (prostitute and gymnast), Zhora (sex performer with animals), Rachael (secretary and mother) Extended death scenes.  The deaths of the female replicants take many many seconds. The hologram, Joi, is erased and spends many seconds crying out for K at the window of his spinner crash site. Luv is drowned at length, almost erotic asphyxiation snuff-like by K in the womb-ish transport vehicle. Pris is shot by Deckard and has an epileptic seizure-like unreal writhing tongue-protruding death. Zhora is shot by Deckard and crashes through several, several many fashion-store windows in her se...

🍒 Withnail & I (1987), and Moonstruck (1987) are beloved because they instruct me to be in their mood. And their moods are intense.

🍒 #DumpTrump #Feminism ~ We might have to enslave some of the Americans too. But nah. Not Trump and his supporters. I wouldn't want them even as slaves. Yucky. If IMDB had fractions, it would be a single fraction off. Fantabulous. IMDB Big Little Lies (2017)  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3920596 Actors: Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman Creator: David E. Kelley

🍒 I vote we enslave the British and make them produce mini-serieses and leave all those other little fiddlies they are busy with. Use a little military intervention to focus their attentions where they are needed. Who's with me! IMDB And Then There Were None (2015)  Director: George Pollock Actors: Hugh O'Brian, Shirley Eaton

I met my match re Violence. I am inured, usually. Stephen King's story of a man stranded on a tiny desert island is one of my favorites, and Misery. But don't weave the two together and make the woman the story's focus through no fault of her own... yes, King blames her, but he doesn't understand Stockholm Syndrome, The Woman's Version. And I had to watch, to the last moment, such #Truth in relationships on film is compulsive watching. And compulsory for #Feminism. IMDB Gerald's Game (2017)  Actors: Carla Gugino, Carel Struycken Director: Mike Flanagan

🍒 No Country for Old Men (2007). This is a have-to-have. Relax, it's not #Feminism. In fact, it's quite misogynistic. Very misogynistic. The writing, the acting, the cinematography, the editing, the sound, the mis-en-scéne - all brilliant - every moment is crafted by a team. "By the time you're finished chasing all the stuff that's been took from you, there's more that's gone out the door." Swoon. Seriously. "All the time you spend gitting back what's been took from ya, more's going out the door. After a while you just have to try and git a tourniquet on it." No Country for Old Men (2007)  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477348 Actors: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

The first scene has disgusted me. A six years old girl goes with a man she doesn't know for ice cream. While I was writing this the second scene disgusted me too. I don't hold out hope for redemption. The problem with movies is the addictive nature of the Pollyanna Phallussy. Because Sinatra ended up without the girl in the last piece of disgusting doggydooda, now I keep hoping. Sigh. IMDB Final Girl (2015) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2124787/ Actors: Abigail Breslin, Wes Bentley Director: Tyler Shields

My favorite film ever. It has stayed at the top all these years. The first one was my favorite. Not the director's cut. It's so crazy that today is Leon's Inception Date. Happy Inception Date, Leon. I'm glad there weren't many more. Article: Happy Inception Date, Leon by Matt Novalk IMDB Blade Runner (1982)  Actors: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer Director: Ridley Scott

🍒 A rare Bechdel-passer that is a really good movie. It's gone onto my have-to-have list. I provide no spoilers, but I suggest a strong coffee before. Thank you, lurker Segomotso Tselapedi, for knowing me so well that you made it a special evening for us, with fried tomato, my favorite. IMDB Miss Sloane (2016)  Actors: Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong Director: John Madden

Janeane Garafalo out of Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce (2014-)? I'm out of here. Seriously? And we're left, again, with sycophantic people-pleasers. Loved Garafalo because she shows how those SexInTheCity types can exist in the same world with ordinary women. I guess that will never be true. Ah well.

🍒 #LoveIt. Bechdel-passer because lipstick, firing, betrayal. And the Afghan women speak to Tina Fey about water offscreen. An extraordinary moment. I know nothing about Afghanistan. IMDB Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016) Actors: Tina Fey, Margot Robbie Directors: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

#Aargh. Passes the Bechdel because Emma Watson is told to shut up. And she is told she's dangerous because she's brainy. IMDB The Colony (2015) Actors: Emma Watson, Daniel Brühl Director: Florian Gallenberger

Graham Norton Show.  # RapeCulture  (men are aware, or Simon Amstell is anyway). Simon Amstell speaking to Didier Drogba, "So you're a football player who likes consensual sex with one person." Audience claps madly, Didier Drogba says, "Thank you." Graham Norton says, "Controversial!" IMDB Graham Norton Show (Talk Show)  Host: Graham Norton

🍒 Passes the Bechdel because one woman tells another to make coffee. #SYK IMDB The Hateful Eight (2015)  Actors: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell Director: Quentin Tarantino

When a movie starts with four consecutive sexisms. 17 year old son pours out her liquor because he doesn't approve. He tells her to carry the box from the bottom because they've seen better days (2 criticisms embedded right here). She tells him she has a migraine and he dismisses her pain because he wants the boxes unpacked and tells her so. He arrives at school without his papers and he turns to her for them, and then apologizes for her disorganization! I exercised the Off Button. IMDB Natural Selection (2016) Actors: Amy Carlson, Katherine McNamara Director: Chad Scheifele

🍒 Back in the day when I read dead men, I loved Nausea, and Metamorphosis. This is a fucking stunning film written by a live man, who must have loved Nausea, and Metamorphosis. I love Absurdity, love Nihilism. #Loveit. Love everything except the animal murder, which was important, very very important. Have-to-have. A rare treasure. Bechdel-passer because a woman writes a letter to another woman about how she feels and gets slapped for it. Very yucky #feminist-slating. A feminist reading of this film will have it on its back with its legs in the air. Nonetheless. IMDB The Lobster (2015)  Actors: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

The Naked Jungle (1954). If you can manage to look past the rampant racism, and the rotten sexism, Charlton Heston used to be beautiful. This Mills & Boon is written by four men, with a self-awareness that is unusual. Weirdly, it is a Heston signature to appear in movies that question sexism, although by his real personal he may have not been aware of it. As the Celluloid Closet admits, people loved to prank him for his extreme-masculinity. Still, if you can suspend your disbelief.... IMDB The Naked Jungle (1954)  Actors: Charlton Heston, Eleanor Parker Director: Byron Haskin

What a load of racist paedophillic rot. Bergman is 19 and 'white enough' for 50ish bags-under-the-eyes, Gary Cooper, the Inglés. The Spanish actors darkened to make this happen. And Hemingway wrote him old, and then produced two women from thin thin thin air to cook for the men, wash their socks, and save the dead-inside man from himself. Pfft. IMDB For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)  Actors: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman Director: Sam Wood

Do I have to let it pass the Bechdel on a conversation where the child-Susanah-York plays with her mother's make-up and her mother has a Sybil-like meltdown re 'painted ladies'. Must I? Aren't discussions about 'painted ladies' actually about men obliquely? IMDB Freud (1962)  Actors: Montgomery Clift, Susannah York Director: John Huston