Lolita's Fist

🍒  Short version. Loved it. There is definitely a lightning in a bottle element -- bringing a team together that made it better. The Garrett ending, nah, for instance. But I do think that is true of any art. I tend to think making it a collaborative event prevents up-your-own-arseness and can make a thing better. That's why you have editors and publishers and audiences and skin in the game. Font. I initially stopped watching the movie twice because of that Monster font. I couldn't. I immediately thought it was him. And that niggle said, But Julia wouldn't. Surely. Not now. I don't really watch movies with strangers in. They have to be introduced to me by the previous moviemakers. You endorse them, reflect on them when you choose them. We are the sum of who is around us. That's why the movie industry goes to such lengths to hide their misdeeds. So that font reeked of misdeeds. I do have the hair's breadth divider of -- she is over 18, and you become responsible ...

🍒 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

🍒 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

🍒 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

🍒 #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

🍒 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

🍒 Cat Stevens' song, "If you want to sing out". One of my favorite movies of all time. A musthave. "If you want to be me, be me. If you want to be you, be you. If you want to be free, be free." YouTube If you want to sing out, by Cat Stevens IMDB Harold and Maude (1971) Actors: Ruth Gordon, Bud Cort Director: Hal Ashby

🍒 Loving it.  So Feminist Famous Five for grown ups. Love when real women are believable. Nice! IMDB Bletchley Circle (Series 2012-2014)  Actors: Rachael Stirling, Julie Graham

🍒 Bechdel-passer (with five words), and the lead is a woman (brains, character, ethics, wit, but she doesn't get her guy, she gets another different sporty non-news guy that we never get to 'read') and the men do battle over one of them being stupid but pretty and the other being brilliant, and funny, but 'ugly'. But seriously, MIND-blowing dialogue, by the same guy that did As Good As it Gets (1997) . Oooh! IMDB Broadcast News (1987) Actors: William Hurt, Albert Brooks Director: James L. Brooks

🍒 About to watch it again, I reckon for the 15th or so time. I have done a mini survey and have discovered to my horror that most people would never consider watching a movie more than three times. Am I a rat with its paw on a lever? Are there other rats out there?? IMDB Addicted to Love (1997) Actors: Meg Ryan, Matthew Broderick Director: Griffin Dunne

🍒 I love scifi, and I live in South Africa, 50 kms from where they made the movie. Our local film industry is very sad, but District 9 was great! Very very very very violent, very very very pointed about apartheid. Some hard bits to see, which made it great! But I could never see it again. Way too hectic. We South Africans are very gritty. I was just saying to one of my international pals on Facebook that we don't use the word nice here in South Africa - it would be too anomalous, too weird, too freaky, to unfitting. There are no nice situations here. It's hectic! No one is emigrating to South Africa.... unless they are transferred or living in a place where their limbs are getting hacked off because they don't fit in their social groups. Commentary. "We were filming in a cleared-shack area of Soweto, inhabitants had been moved to RDP housing. The pollution shocked us in the first few days, but by day three it seemed normal. We normalized." IMDB District 9 (...

🍒      Wordplay is a fantastic documentary on crossword puzzles called Wordplay. Fantabulous! Extraordinary! Stunning! Beautifully done. Interviews all sorts of people - celebrities, puzzle makers, New York Times public editors, a guy who decided to make an annual event for the people holed up in their rooms to get out and meet like-minded puzzlers. The competitiveness! Worth keeping. The Indigo girls - and a brief shot of a concert - a sea of dykes. Heaven. IMDB Wordplay (2006) Director: Patrick Creadon Documentary

🍒 Danny falls in love with Sandy. She is sweet and lovely and believing and innocent (virgin). He loves her. When he gets to school and sees her through the eyes of his friends, he rejects her because she doesn't put out (whore). She realizes that unless she puts it out there that she wants him, and everyone knows she wants him as a boyfriend, now they need to know that he's the one whose body she wants. She needs to flash her body sexually and be very very thin and wear very very clingy clothes and speak very very dirty(ish) then she will get her man. She does. He is pleased that he can have the nice girl, who will put out, who realizes that virginity is lousy. Sadly, I know every millimeter of this movie by heart. This film tells me, that I can be virgin and whore and I will get the guy, but he gets to tell me what he wants and I must be that. If I choose to do as he wants, I will be cool. IMDB Grease (1978) Actors: John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John Director: Randal...