What Classics Did You See Last Week (January 4–January 10)
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PygmyLion — 2 months ago(January 13, 2026 04:52 PM)
Gail Russell is pretty nice in
Moonrise
too.
I think those are the only 2 movies that I have seen Russell in.
7 Men from Now
(1956) with Randolph Scott and Lee Marvin sounds like an interesting Western. The 2 "Our Hearts" movies might be fun to watch. -
PygmyLion — 2 months ago(January 13, 2026 06:07 PM)
It sounds like Gail Russell had problems with Alcoholism.
It reminds me a lot of a cousin of mine who died at 41 from alcoholism about 30 years ago. There were about 20-30 empty half-gallon vodka bottles in his closet. He had been a chef but during his last few years, he had lost his job due to his problem. He also seemed to have some underlying unhappiness about him.
Video on Gail Russell: -
spiderwort — 2 months ago(January 14, 2026 02:10 AM)
Yes, it's a sad story, indeed. And I'm sorry about your cousin. Thanks for the film. I'll get to it soon, unless it's too heartbreaking.
Oh, and another film Gail Russell made that I highly recommend is
The Uninvited
(1944), starring Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, and Donald Crisp. Very well done. -
Rufus-T — 2 months ago(January 11, 2026 09:06 PM)
One Battle After Another (2025)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30144839/
Possibly the most acclaimed movie of the award season. Two extreme sides of society against each other. One side cause chaos, and the other side carried heavy prejudice. A military man played by Sean Penn wanted to join the high echelon of the prejudice group. He was being rumored to be impure, so he went on to clean up his mess. The movie started off with a low character white man played by Leonardo DiCaprio met up with a belligerent black woman, played by Teyana Taylor, who is part of a resistant group that starts up rally and riots. The movie quite chaotic in the first part, which I was not crazy about. The second part is where I thought the strength of the movie, which took place 16 years after the first part. The last part was lots of chasing with many of the shot just showing the driver inside the car. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and based on a novel by Thomas Pynchon called "Vineland", this may be the best chance for Paul Thomas Anderson to win the direction Oscar. Not a perfect movie with some part not making sense, but it was an intense movie with many humor and strong performance from Sean Penn and from Benicio Del Toro who played a martial art teachers. This would have been a 2nd tier movies in the older days, say last century. Nowadays, it is treated as one of the best.
Weapons (2025)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26581740/
One day the elementary school teacher go to her class and only find one student showed up. This happened only to her class and the mystery of where are the other students is the core of the movie. The movie came in with a child narrator and broke into 6 parts, with each part focuses on one of the character who is related to the mystery. Directed by Zach Cregger, this is not just a mystery, but a horror. There were some very gory scene, more in a comic way like Shaun of the Dead. I think I chuckled quite a bit. With each part, a little bit more was being revealed. The middle parts, one may wonder what the characters have to do with the mystery, but they do. I thought the story and the arrangement was a very well crafted story, though some scenes were over the top ridiculous. Amy Madigan probably is the most well-known of the performers. She was wickedly good. No wonder all the buzzes surrounded her in the award season. Julia Garner was decent as the lead playing the teacher of the class.
Autumn Sonata (1978)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077711/
I've been wanted to see this Ingmar Bergman movie especially reading about the wonderful performance from Ingrid Bergman. This was Ingrid Bergman's final theatrical role. She has one more TV role, "A Woman Called Golda", after this. A woman, played by Liv Ullmann, visited by her pianist mother, played by Ingrid Bergman. Much of the movie was conversation between the two, bringing up old wound, especially the mother hardly around being on tour when the woman was a child. The movie came off like a play, though we see short flashback image of certain scenes. Otherwise, it is just much talk with some very emotional intense lines. Two other characters in the movie, the husband played by Halvar Björk, and the debilitated younger sister with trouble speaking and moving around, played by Lena Nyman. Like most Ingmar Bergman, surface level entertainment, don't expect much. Deep existential dialogues, plentiful. -
spiderwort — 2 months ago(January 12, 2026 01:33 PM)
Rufus, I haven't seen
Autumn Sonata
in ages, but I loved it when I did see it. Now you've made me want to see it again.
And as I noted in my post below, I'm working on
One Battle After Another
, but I'm having a lot of trouble with it. I'm only about half way through and still struggling. But I really appreciated your comments about it. -
Rufus-T — 2 months ago(January 13, 2026 07:00 PM)
Autumn Sonata
is heavy stuff. Very well written. I appreciate Ingmar Bergman a lot.
I did have a hard time for me to get through the early part of [
b]One Battle After Another
. Not an exceptional movie, but I think being very topical make it an acclaimed movie.
Regarding your review on
Sinners
, "disappointment" was the word I used in my review back in October. Overblown first half.
Glad you finally got to see
Frankenstein
. Though I did not think it was great, there were good parts. Many recent movies are like that, looks good, but poorly arranged. Like
Sinners
, they could have chopped off about 15-30 min, particularly the beginning. Still, it was much better than the abomination remake from the 90s. -
spiderwort — 2 months ago(January 14, 2026 01:59 AM)
Yes, it's true about
Autumn Sonata
. Heavy but meaningful stuff, but then most Ingmar Bergman films are, aren't they? And Ingrid Berman and Liv Ullmann were great in it.
Glad we agree, more or less, about
Sinners
. And, like you, I didn't think
Frankenstein
was great, but there were some very good elements in it. Glad I didn't see the abomination from the 90s. Didn't even know it existed.
And now let me address one of my major complaints in general: most films these days are just too long! I have an Oscar nominated screenwriter friend who watches films to nominate for the Oscars, and he calls me every couple of days to complain about how long films are these days. I can't remember which film he'd just watched, but a couple of days ago he called to complain about that one, saying it was a 2 and a half hour long film with a story that really could have been told in 30 minutes. I absolutely agree with him about so many of the scripts these days that go on an on, to their own detriment (and my despair).
Let's go back to the old days, I say, when a spectacle could run over two hours or close to three, and that was okay, because the script justified it. But those were the exceptions. Now almost everything seems too long for no good reason.
Oh, I just looked up
Autumn Sonata
to check its time: 1 hour and 39 minutes! I can live with! I know, of course, that Bergman did make a couple of long films like
Fanny and Alexander
, but going though his credits on IMDb, most of his films are under two hours. And we both know that he knew how to tell a great story in that time frame.
My screenwriter friend is convinced that it's because directors these days aren't reined in by the studios as they were in the old days, and their egos let them run wild. Whatever it is, I wish they'd come to their senses and do the right thing in telling their stories.
End of rant. Thanks for listening. -
Rufus-T — 2 months ago(January 14, 2026 07:35 PM)
One reviewer called
One Battle After Another
pretentious and bloated. The problem with the long film may not be the length, but its quality. If it is a good movie, time doesn't matter.
I remember when watching 3 1/2 hours of
The Right Stuff
or
Titanic
in the cinema, it went by so fast. Whereas,
Sinners
and
One Battle After Another
and many recently highly praised movies, there were parts that were ordeal to get through. So much fluff in the modern movies. The problem piled up when getting up there in age and patience is getting thin.
Fanny and Alexander
was an outstanding film. It didn't feel long at all. There are many other outstanding long films. Martin Scorsese made two recently, T
he Irishman
and
Killers of the Flower Moon
.
The Brutalist
was on the way to be great, but the 2nd half I started to notice time. There are many 2 hours films from recent years that felt like 4 hours. I know many love
Nomadland
. Watching that to me felt like an eternity. I am somewhat cautious about the upcoming highly anticipated
The Odyssey
releasing this summer. -
spiderwort — 2 months ago(January 15, 2026 01:56 AM)
I think we are basically in complete agreement, although I confess that I chose not to watch
The Irishman, Killers of the Flower Moon
and
The Brutalist
because of their lengths (obviously didn't nominate or vote those years). And my screenwriter friend felt the same way you did about
The Brutalist
, so I'm glad I didn't waste my time with that. And I also felt that
Nomadland
went on too long. You're so right: it comes down to the script, which is what my writer friend keeps complaining about. If the script works, the film works. But so many of the scripts these days just don't. -
spiderwort — 2 months ago(January 19, 2026 07:50 PM)
Thanks, Rufus. I plan to get to
Killers of the Flower Moon
one of these days. I have paternal Native American ancestry, so I have a particular interest in that subject. I just got put off by its length that year. The older I get the harder it is for me to watch a long film. But that's an amazing rating from you, to say the least, so I'll give it a go whenever it becomes available to me again. Thanks for your input. -
spiderwort — 2 months ago(January 12, 2026 01:23 PM)
First viewings, all new ones for my DGA Awards consideration:
Marty Supreme / Josh Safdie
(2025) “Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.” The script would have been better if it had been a half hour shorter (a major problem with too many films these days), but Timothée Chalamet gives a superb performance. I’m sure he’ll get an Oscar nomination for it and may win. And Safdie’s direction was excellent. (Only in theaters right now.)
My Father’s Shadow / Akinola Davies
(2025). A beautiful semi-autobiographical film by director Davies set in 1993 Nigeria, in which two young brothers explore Lagos with their estranged father during a Nigerian election crisis, witnessing both the city's magnitude and their father's daily struggles as political unrest threatens their journey home. All the performances are wonderful, including the two young boys playing the sons. It’s the first Nigerian film I’ve seen, and I’m so glad I did see it. It’s a powerful and deeply moving story, the first Nigerian film to premier at the Cannes Film Festival. I was able to see it because it was sent to me by the DGA for my awards consideration, but if you get a chance to see it in a theatre wherever you are I highly recommend that you do. It’s a real beauty.
The Sinners / Ryan Coogler
(2025). “Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.” Michael B. Jordan gives an outstanding performance playing both brothers and there are other stellar performances, too. And Coogler's direction is excellent. But I hated the script. It was long, rambling and simply couldn’t raise my willing suspension of disbelief about the vampire part of the plot. And I hated the disgusting non-stop profanity, sex scenes, and glorified violence — lazy, lazy writing! I almost stopped watching it because of that, but felt I had to finish in order to vote honestly in the awards. But it was a major disappointment. (On Max)
Frankenstein / Guillermo del Toro
(2025). A skillful re-imagining of Mary Shelley’s classic tale, turning a familiar story into a haunting meditation on beauty, loneliness, and the cost of creation. There are many virtues to this del Toro version, especially in the relationship between the one who creates and the one who is created, and the redemption that’s born out of that. Also, it’s rich in all the cinematic elements, with exceptional art direction, cinematography, and costume design, as well all its outstanding performances, especially by Jacob Elordi as the Creature. Personally, I still prefer the 1931 James Whale version, but there are many merits to be found in this version, too. (On Netflix)
Hamnet / Chloé Zhao
(2025). "After losing their son Hamnet to plague, Agnes and William Shakespeare grapple with grief in 16th-century England." This is another with a script that's too long, but it's nevertheless a beautiful film with marvelous performances by its great cast under the outstanding direction of Chloé Zhao. Jessie Buckley is sure to get an Oscar nomination and will probably win. And the third act is monumental. (I saw this last week, but for some reason forgot to post it.)
And this week the DGA Awards nominees were announced:
Paul Thomas Anderson -
One Battle After Another
Ryan Coogler -
Sinners
Guillermo del Toro -
Frankenstein
Josh Safdie -
Marty Supreme
Chloé Zhao -
Hamnet
I seen all of them but Anderson's
One Battle After Another
, which I've been working on for two days now, starting and stopping, not liking it at all, even hating it, so I'll probably wait a day or two to finish it. Will post my review next week. -
sheetsadam1 — 2 months ago(January 12, 2026 08:57 PM)
I've not yet seen
Marty Supreme
, but I was very impressed with
Good Time
and
Uncut Gems
, two movies Josh Safdie co-directed with his brother.
I will unfortunately have to agree with you on
Sinners
. Interesting concept, but I felt that it went on far too long.
Agree with everything you say on
Frankenstein
.
I had mixed feelings on
One Battle After Another
. I really loved Sean Penn's performance, though.
Draft Barron Trump -
spiderwort — 2 months ago(January 13, 2026 02:56 PM)
I think you'll like
Marty Supreme
. Other than going on a bit too long, I think it's really good, especially because of Timothée Chalamet's wonderful performance.
And I can agree with you about Penn's performance in
One Battle After Another
, but I still find the film to be profoundly offensive and just plain bad. I've got about 30 minutes left to finish it, but I can guarantee you that I'm not voting for it for the DGA Awards. -
CoriSCapnSkip — 2 months ago(January 12, 2026 05:45 PM)
Magical Mystery Tour
(1967) on January 4
Westward Ho the Wagons!
(1956) on January 5
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
(2024) on January 8
The Great Locomotive Chase
(1956) on January 10
These were all rewatches except for
The Great Locomotive Chase
. I hadn't seen the beginning of
Magical Mystery Tour
previously and I hadn't seen
Westward Ho the Wagons!
in decades. I find it disgraceful that classics such as
Westward Ho the Wagons!
and
The Great Locomotive Chase
are not to be found on Disney Plus and a person must pay to watch them elsewhere. -
spiderwort — 2 months ago(January 13, 2026 03:07 PM)
The only one of these I've seen is
Magical Mystery Tour
, which I quite enjoyed back in the day.
And it's too bad you had to pay to see the others. That's incredibly frustrating, I know. But I see that
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
is on STARZ, which I have. What did you think of that one? I might give it a look, although I'm pretty overwhelmed with things to watch these days. -
CoriSCapnSkip — 2 months ago(January 13, 2026 05:50 PM)
I checked
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
out of the library so I didn't have to pay for it. It is a fantastic movie with only one flaw. It is a near exact copy of the book by Barbara Robinson, who died in 2013, so if her name was removed from the film it was not her doing, yet I have watched it twice now and not seen the book or the author credited. I wonder if I can possibly have missed this twice or if something else went on and if so what. Otherwise this is a perfect movie!