February 2020 Viewing Diary

Ted Bundy: Falling For a Killer (2020; d. Trish Wood)
I can’t help it. I’ve been reading about Ted Bundy since I read Ann Rule’s book in high school. I hate him so much, but I can’t quit him.

I Was at Home, But … (2020; d. Angela Schanelec)
I reviewed for Ebert.

Never Sometimes Always Rarely (2020; d. Eliza Hittman)
I reviewed Eliza Hittman’s latest – which is fantastic – for the new Film Comment.

The Red Army (2015; d. Gabe Polsky)
A documentary about the hockey dynasty of the Soviet Union, of which the “miracle on ice” was just a small part. I watched it as research for my column on Miracle.

The Pharmacist (2020; d. Jenner Furst, Julia Willoughby Nason)
This Netflix series was both devastating and inspiring. The opiod crisis, as tackled by one heartbroken pharmacist. Right as the crisis was becoming the epidemic that it now is.

Intervention, Season 20, 2 episodes “The Heroin Hub: Chapter 1 and 2” (2020)
I don’t know why I find this show … relaxing? While at the same time it is truly upsetting. I don’t know. Maybe because there’s such a sense of care in the interventionists, they are doing this because of their own troubled pasts, and from a pure desire to help. And sometimes there are success stories. People in so much pain. You just want their pain to stop. So I watched two episodes. I’ve been insanely busy. Pretty much everything I watch now is either for a review or research for a review. I’m not complaining. But I do miss random viewing.

The Dreamed Path (2016; d. Angela Schanelec)
Schanelec is a very interesting and challenging filmmaker. I like her stuff, I like the challenges.

Buffaloed (2020; d. Tanya Wexler)
I really like Tanya Wexler: been hoping for more from her since Hysteria. Here’s her latest. I reviewed for Ebert.

Emma. (2020; d. Autumn de Wilde)
IT IS SO GOOD. I reviewed for Ebert.

La Cérémonie (1996; d. Claude Chabrol)
I saw this in Chicago at The Music Box. I lived right behind the theatre. I was too freaked out by the movie to cut through the alley in between buildings, the way I normally did. I was TRULY unnerved. So I walked down to the end of the block and around, going 10 minutes out of my way. Isabelle Huppert and Sandrine Bonnaire as … well, it’s a folie a deux relationship, my favorite example in cinema. It makes you think, this is how it would go. Masterpiece.

An Old-Fashioned Woman (1974; d. Martha Coolidge)
One of Martha Coolidge’s earliest films. She interviews her grandmother. It’s a beautiful document of family, memory, and an attempt at understanding an earlier generation, particularly the women of that generation. It made me think of my grandmothers, now gone, but I loved them both.

Not a Pretty Picture (1976; d. Martha Coolidge)
I cannot say enough about this film. You must see it. Coolidge was raped in high school. This film is an attempt to come to terms with what happened. The way she does it is casting actors to play herself, her friends, the rapist – and go through a rehearsal process, sometimes stopping to have in-depth discussions about rape, teenage sex, and what Coolidge was trying to attempt. This is a fascinating and personal document.

McMillion$, Season 1, episode 1 and 2 (2020; d. James Lee Hernandez, Brian Lazarte)
We saw this on our weekend away, four women who didn’t know each other – or, each one of us knew Allison, but the rest of us hadn’t met (I did meet Carol once, at a cuh-ray-zee party at a photographer’s studio in Soho, but that was over 20 years ago). We all got along fabulously. And we watched two episodes of this documentary and had an absolute blast. We LOVED this FBI agent guy below. Every time he started laughing, we all started laughing. We had many discussions throughout the weekend about this scam, trying to work out the moral and ethical issues at play.

The Sinner, Season 3, episodes 1 and 2 (2020; d. Adam Bernstein)
I had never seen this series. Allison loves it so again on our weekend away we watched a couple of episodes. We dropped into Season 3. Chris Messina – so good, so sinister. Jessica Hecht – I will always think of her as Blanche DuBois (I saw her play the role brilliantly at Williamstown). And Bill Pullman: old-timers will know my feelings about him, my love of him. I saw him on Broadway in The Goat and had a whole new appreciation of him. If you can see him onstage, do so. It’s a whole other thing.

Valley Girl (1983; d. Martha Coolidge)
I love this movie so much. Coolidge’s first narrative feature. Clearly, I was doing Coolidge research. I have loved this movie for years: I remember well Roger Ebert’s review of it, and it intrigued me enough to seek it out. And then to buy the DVD. This had to be 20 years ago. The DVD has amazing special features, interviews with Coolidge, Nicolas Cage, the producers … as well as a commentary track by Martha Coolidge. We lose SO MUCH with streaming: all this information. It was so fun to dig into this film for my Film Comment piece on Coolidge. It’s a slam-dunk movie. Perfect, really.

The Family I Had (2017; d. Katie Green, Carlye Rubin)
Not sure how I came across this. It’s the story – the horrible story – of a mother whose son killed her daughter. Her son was young, but got a huge prison sentence – 20 years or something like that – and meanwhile, her baby daughter had been killed. It’s horrifying. This woman continues to “support” her son, even though she has no idea what drove him to do what he did. An upsetting watch.

The First 48: Missing Persons, Season 1, episode 1 and 2 (2011)
I watched a couple of these. Clearly I chill out by watching television shows having to do with horrific crimes. But this one is kind of cool, because sometimes the missing person is actually found.

The Joy of Sex (1984; d. Martha Coolidge)
Coolidge’s second movie is about an entire high school – teachers and students – overcome by uncontrollable horniness. It feels like a throwaway. Pretty sure it was barely released (there are almost no reviews of it listed on IMDB).

Real Genius (1985; d. Martha Coolidge)
I mean, this movie is so good. I saw it on a date in high school – with my older boyfriend, who was not in high school. I guess now this would not fly? But we are still friends today. We both loved this movie. And it’s one of those movies that has just grown in stature since it came out (it wasn’t a hit when it came out – there were a couple of other Science Nerd movies that came out the same year, and so Real Genius got lost in the shuffle). But it’s so fantastic. I haven’t seen it in years. I was captivated by it all over again.

Party Wire (1935; d. Erle C. Kenton)
Ye gods, a Jean Arthur film I’ve never seen! It’s the story of a woman living in a small town (Jean Arthur), who works in a bank and spends the rest of her time taking care of her alcoholic father. She falls in love with a hometown boy who had gone off and made good in the world, and rumors start about the two of them having sex. The party-line in the town helps spread the rumor: everyone listens in on their conversations and think they are talking about nights they spent together, when of course it isn’t about that at all. Arthur is so clearly a star, but not a star like Greta Garbo or Katharine Hepburn, who are wonderful but who seem wholly “Other” onscreen. Jean Arthur is one of us. Only funnier and more adorable and with a much better voice.

The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936; d. Stephen Roberts)
Jean Arthur and William Powell together: what could be better? They make a great team. Wonderful friendly chemistry, they so clearly enjoy one another.

The Twilight Zone, Season 2, episode 9 “Shelter Skelter” (1987; d. Martha Coolidge)
Coolidge directed three episodes of The Twilight Zone in the 80s. I remember seeing the Christmas one, so the other ones were really fun to discover. This one is about a wacko paranoid Cold War-obsessed husband (Joe Mantegna), who has built a bomb shelter in their basement. His wife (Joan Allen) has finally had it up to here with his obsessions. Blast from the Past has a similar story. Coolidge crams in a lot in half an hour.

Twilight Zone, Season 1, episode 17 “Quarantine” (1986; d. Martha Coolidge)
A very creepy episode where Scott Wilson wakes up into a futuristic world where civilization has disappeared and everyone lives on farms and there are no more cities. Tess Harper plays the creepy “head” of the town, who is determined to integrate Wilson into “their ways”. There are lovely scenes between the two of them.

Plain Clothes (1987; d. Martha Coolidge)
I had totally forgotten this movie, which I saw in the theatre at the time. Starring Arliss Howard as a cop who goes undercover in a high school to figure out why his brother has been accused of murdering a teacher. Another one of Coolidge’s high school extravaganzas, filled with a great cast (including Suzy Amis), and specific atmosphere: there’s no A/C in the school so everyone is drenched in sweat, and the school is also filled with trash: the hallways littered with trash, the pay phones surrounded by trash. It’s never explained. I love that. And Diane Ladd plays an administrative assistant.

Twilight Zone, Season 1, episode 13 “Night of the Meek” (1987; d. Martha Coolidge)
It’s amazing what Coolidge accomplishes in half an hour. It’s a very touching episode, about a drunk guy who has been hired and then fired in his gig being a Santa Claus at a department store. He then discovers that his sack is actually filled with real toys, so he goes to a community center on his block and hands out the toys, creating Christmas cheer. It’s beautiful.

Rambling Rose (1991; d. Martha Coolidge)
This is a major film, not sure why it isn’t called up more often in critical commentary, particularly as an important role for Laura Dern (who initiated the project). Dern was nominated for an Oscar and rightly so. Here she is, a young woman, boldly playing this character whose sexuality is so present it causes disturbances in everyone she meets. And it’s treated sensitively by Coolidge, never pruriently, she’s not overly sexualized in how she is filmed. You can tell the damage that has been done to this young woman. And Robert Duvall – in a career of great roles – has the role of a lifetime here as a good man, a gentleman, who has to come to terms with his own failings and temptations. He has one moment that is sheer brilliance – my favorite moment of his in his career.

Mindy, Season 2, episode 12 “Danny Castellano Is My Personal Trainer” (2014; d. Rob Schrab)
Siobhan and I watched this one night when I slept over, and we cried with laughter. It’s wild to see Chris Messina in a comedic role. He’s fantastic!

Angie (1994; d. Martha Coolidge)
A forgotten film. Why? Geena Davis is great, Jim Gandolfini (pre-stardom) is great. It’s a great New York movie, with all these great locations. Yes, it is melodramatic, but melodrama has often been THE genre to examine women’s lives, their relationships and hardships and struggles. I love it. Worth a watch.

Saint Frances (2020; d. Alex Thompson)
A new film I really liked, which I reviewed for Ebert.

The Prince & Me (2004; d. Martha Coolidge)
A more recent Coolidge film, which again has a melodramatic quality, but it’s appropriate since it’s about this young woman – a serious girl with serious girls – who finds herself falling in love with this guy whom she has no idea is a Danish prince. It’s sweet. It takes young love seriously (one of Coolidge’s enduring themes).