7 Quick Takes

—1 —

Well, hey everyone. A few updates.

Forgot to mention that I was in Living Faith on Wednesday. Go here for that. Next time will be in the second week in August.

Don’t forget – if you are planning school or formation-type things, consider my books!

Today: Blessed Solanus Casey

We took a short trip out east to visit and help with kiddos. But we’re back for a couple of weeks.

One kid is spending next week at the beach. The other will be here, finishing up his recuperation from the battle with poison sumac (visit to the derm this morning did wonders already), and enjoying the last days of summer with his friends who will be heading back to school – one set this coming week, another the week after that, and the last, the week after that. (Different sets, different schools, different schedules.)

And then it’s – get college guy settled, but it’s not too, too far away, and all that will be asked of me is to help with one load, and then I’ll be off.

As I mentioned, the last couple of weeks of August, Kid #5 and I will be doing some jaunts during the week (weekends are out because of the church job). I had been thinking Smoky Mountains National Park, but I’m drifting a little and thinking some combo of Cumberland Gap/Falls – Oak Ridge (Teachable! Moment!) – with some attempt to find not-inundated parts of SMNP. Not sure. But also the Mississippi Blues Trail. Definitely that.

No air travel, not so much because it’s a hassle, but because flying most places would then require renting a car, which is CRAZY right now. Forget it.

With all the seriousness in the world, I’m going to spend the rest of these takes chatting about movies we’ve watched over the past week or so.

— 2 —

Almost Famous: Watched w/20-year old, previously seen by me in the theaters when it was originally released. Love this movie, a coming-of age tale told with such affection and wisdom. The focus is most often, naturally, on the teen at the center – marvelously played by Patrick Fugit  – but of course, a parent is going to be watching Frances McDormand, and thinking…yes…no…well, that looks familiar. Do what you can to protect, listen, and then let go. What else can you do? And oh yes – DON’T DO DRUGS!

— 3 —

Kind Hearts and Coronets. Second or third viewing for me, but even so, I always forget how little Alec Guinness is actually in this film, and how it leaves me wishing for just more of him and less of Dennis Price having lengthy conversations with Joan Greenwood (as delightful as she is) and Valerie Hobson. Which makes my least favorite of the Ealing comedies. Still, so worth it for that final twist, though, which is a version of my favorite final twist – the criminal being upended by his own actions/pride or even just an accident. My memoirs!

— 4 —

Apocalypse Now – Kid #5 and I had watched  it last year, but College Guy had never seen it, so here we go. My previous post on it, and my Film Guy Son’s take.

The movie is both a hard watch and an easy one. It’s hard because of the inhumanity on display and the questions that it raises. It’s easy to watch because of the magnificent cinematography on display and the great performances by everyone involved……In the end, though, this work of madness by a madman who lost himself in the jungle is one of the most significant and greatest films made. A great companion piece, by the way, is Hearts of Darkness, the movie that Coppola’s wife made about the making of the movie.

We’ll probably try to watch the documentary over the next day or so, before College Guy heads to the beach.

— 5 –

The Taking of Pelham 123. NO. Not the remake, but the original, starring the incomparable Robert Shaw as well as a host of other familiar faces. A very entertaining film, with an ending that’s one more variation on my favorite trope mentioned above. Tight, smart and a fabulous look at early 70’s New York City. The language, though, surprised me. Standards were definitely loosening by this time, but even so, it struck me as stretching it for the period.

We watched the trailer for the 2009 remake (Denzel Washington and John Travolta) and what a difference (apparently). From some degree of character work to exploding, tumbling cars. Progress?

— 6 —

One, Two Three – Billy Wilder’s brash comedy, starring James Cagney as a Coca-Cola executive in West Berlin, having to clean up a mess when his Atlanta bosses’ daughter marries a Commie she met sneaking out to the East every night. I’d seen it years ago when networks still showed movies like this on television (so you know…a long time ago), but it never streams and is hard to find. Film Guy Son has a copy though, so on a recent visit, it was my request. Enjoyable, startling in its sharpness at times, and yes, frantic to the point of exhaustion, practically. Also stolen, essentially, by ……as Cagney’s German assistant, constantly fighting his deeply-engrained former Nazi ways.

The Thing – also watched during the visit. It had been on my list for a while, and yes, he owns it (as he owns many films), so it was a good non-heavy choice. Very well done, deserving of its reputation. Expert combination of gross horror and more subtle suspense. I will say I was most impressed by the performance of the dog – marvelously well-trained (watch the sequence with the animal walking down the hall, for example.)

— 7 —

Blast From the Past – this was last night. Again, I saw it in the theaters, I think, and always had a soft spot for it. But, as I’ve said many times before, comedy is the genre that seems to date the fastest, so I wasn’t sure if it would hold up. It does! At least for me. And the others enjoyed it, too. Yes, the premise is absurd, but it’s so well cast and moves so quickly that you really don’t have time to ask too many questions or wonder why the characters don’t ask some simple questions themselves. Brendan Fraser is wonderful and perfect in this role, and there are just so many entertaining scenes – as well as some gentle questioning of contemporary “standards” of behavior.

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