jonathan demme!

hello fellow blankie

michelle pfeiffer is such an underrated actor tbh, it must suck to be incredibly talented but also supernaturally beautiful

i wish she and demme worked together again, it feels from this like they really got each other

Watched Philadelphia for the first time since December '93. It's not a good movie but....it's a complicated movie. Hanks doesn't play a character, but he plays a Gay Man and he doesn't flinch at all. I don't understand Washington's "arc" unless I read him as a closeted gay man -- which Demme absolutely suggests, i.e. the way Demme stages the homophobia, the way the famous aria sequence plays extra diegetically follows him home into bed with his wife.

Something Wild is terrific. It starts out kinda quirky and turns into a thriller 2/3 of the way in.

Plus, The Feelies!

I actually rewatched Melvin and Howard yesterday afternoon. Robert Ridgley as the game-show host is priceless.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOGU5NTI0M2YtZDllNC00NzYwLTk0MWUtYzVkYjAxYmM5OGI1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg

Something Wild is streaming on Amazon. Watched it for the first time since seeing it a bunch of times in my late teens. Lots of different thoughts, but (as Alfred does way above) I started comparing/contrasting it to Blue Velvet, which left me cold during those same late teens.

I love how busy this is with detail, all the background action and music (break-dancers at the gas station), how truly magnetic Griffith and Liotta both are, how Lulu seems a whole lot like Hannibal Lecter in the opening NY/NJ scenes of outwitting and controlling situations intuitively, how The Feelies songs evolve from "I'm A Believer" to their own ominous, songs in the course of the reunion, how much it brings back the joys of thrift-store shopping.

how The Feelies songs evolve from "I'm A Believer" to their own ominous, songs in the course of the reunion

Excellent point. I missed this.

Is it just me, or is their version of "Fame" in this supposed to be cringingly bad?

They cue to The Feelies own music right about the time Liotta enters the picture. Seems like the lighting gets a little dimmer then too.

I love those little bicentennial top hats they wear at the reunion.

In addition to Blue Velvet, another movie of the same era that I have always compared it to is Betty Blue, which had a similar "first half-madcap, second half-dark" vibe.

Hey, fancy new edition of Married to the Mob incoming

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/frontpage-partner-labels/products/married-to-the-mob-fun-city-editions