Doc Watch: "Hal" (2018)

Watched:  12/12/2018
Format:  Amazon Streaming
Viewing:  First
Decade:  2010's

Hal (2018) is a documentary about prominent 1970's film director Hal Ashby, best known these days for, probably Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Coming Home and Being There.

Christmas Watch: "Holiday Inn" (1942)

Watched:  12/07/2018
Format:  streaming on Prime, I think
Viewing:  7th or so
Decade: 1940s

Holiday Inn (1942) is a terrific movie, except for the deeply problematic blackface sequence.

PODCAST: "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) - Episode 2 of Holiday Cinema Series (w/ NathanC and Ryan)

Watched:  12/02/2018
Format:  Horrendous colorized version streaming on Amazon, I believe
Viewing:  Unknown.  Dozens.
Decade:  1940's


NathanC and Ryan take on the big Christmas classic about a guy who meets an angel who deeply improves his Christmas Eve. "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) is an annual favorite, but it's also a movie that gets pretty dang dark. We take a look and ponder why the film has endured.





Music:
Christmas Time is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio from A Charlie Brown Christmas
Main Title/ Heaven - Dimitri Tiomkin, It's a Wonderful Life OST
It's a Wonderful Life (finale) - Dimitri Tiomkin, It's a Wonderful Life OST
O Tannenbaum - Vince Guaraldi Trio from A Charlie Brown Christmas

Show Notes:

~29:55 articles on gender and libraries (nowhere near complete on the topic)

• Father of Modern Libraries Was a Serial Sexual Harasser
• The Stereotype Stereotype
• Women's Values, Vision And Culture In The Transformation of American Librarianship, 1890 -- 1920

31:45 Gloria Graham at IMDB


Holiday Cinema Series Playlist

Noir Watch: The Killing (1956)

Watched:  12/02/2018
Viewing:  Unknown.  6th?
Format:  Noir Alley on TCM on DVR
Decade:  1950's

First of all, "The Killing" that occurs in this movie is not an assassination.  It could refer to about five or ten different things, and I suppose that's intentional.  I'd start with "they're gonna make a killing on this heist", but, of course, this is a 1950's-era heist movie, so you know it's not ending in sunshine and flowers.

The Killing (1956) sits on a curious edge when it comes to crime dramas/ noir.  Marking maverick, young filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's first foray into studio-backed cinema, the movie feels part and parcel of the noir movement with a structure and an ending not atypical for a dime-store crime novel, retaining those rough edges that some noir eschewed.  As much as I like The Asphalt Jungle and Rafifi - likely The Killing had more impact and reflects more of where the heist genre would go - especially in American cinema (at least marginally).

PODCAST: "A Christmas Story" (1983) HOLIDAY CINEMA SERIES w/ Maxwell and Ryan

Watched  11/25/2018
Viewing:  Oh god, who knows?
Format:  On-demand from TBS
Decade:  1980's

Oh, fudge...! Maxwell and Ryan get nostalgic for a nostalgia film, "A Christmas Story" - the tale of a boy who just wants a BB gun for Christmas. The Signal Watch crew is celebrating the Holiday season with discussions of some of our seasonal favorite films and specials, so we go deep on a movie we can all relate to (maybe a bit too much).




Music:

Christmas Time is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio from A Charlie Brown Christmas
O Tannenbaum - Vince Guaraldi Trio from A Charlie Brown Christmas

Shownotes:

24:40 - on Amazon Prime A Roadtrip for Ralphie
30:10 - video for Hot for Teacher by Van Halen
45:55 - article on Jane Krakowsi in A Christmas Story Live 
1:09:25 - A Christmas Story House Museum in Cleveland

SANTA BONUS:

When we hit 50 listens, Maxwell sent me some choice family photos

Christmas Watch: The Christmas Chronicles (2018)

Watched:  11/24/2018
Format:  Netflix Streaming
Viewing:  First
Decade:  2010's

I mean, honestly, they had me at "and Kurt Russell as Santa".  Does Russell's participation immediately suggest "amazing film"?  No.  But he will elevate whatever he's in just by showing up, so I figured - hey, I already have Netflix, if it's painful, we turn it off.

I'm happy to say, The Christmas Chronicles (2018) is the rare Christmas movie that's actually pretty funny and accomplishes its goals in a surprisingly uncynical, actually-earns-it way.  All of which is remarkable, because describing the plot of this film will make you raise your eyebrow and say "I've seen this movie.  Several times.  And it's always terrible."

PODCAST! AVENGERS COUNTDOWN - "AVENGERS" (2012) - Jamie and Ryan take on the great big superhero mashup

Watched:  11/02/2018
Format:  BluRay
Viewing:  Unknown.  6th or 7th.
Decade:  2010's

Jamie and Ryan return and we finally get to the big team-up movie! Which... people seem to like. We take a look at how it stacks up as part of the bigger Marvel picture, what we like, what we don't (brace yerselves), and try to sort out what Loki was actually up to in this movie.



Avengers Chronological Countdown Playlist

Mary Poppins Watch: Mary Poppins (1964)

Watched:  10/09/2018
Format:  BluRay
Viewing:  Unknown
Decade:  1960's


I @#$%ing love Mary Poppins  (1964), man.  Both the character and the movie.  Like, unironically, unabashedly - there is not one thing I do not like in Mary Poppins.  It is, as they say, practically perfect in every way.  As is Julie Andrews.

Noir Watch: Pickup on South Street (1953) w/ special guest to Austin, Karina Longworth

Watched:  11/13/2018
Format:  Alamo Ritz hosted screening
Viewing:  second
Decade:  1950's

This evening Karina Longworth, host of the much-discussed You Must Remember This podcast, came to Austin for a book signing and screening.  Longworth has a new book available, Seduction: Sex, Lies and Stardom in Howard Hughes's Hollywood, which she's promoting.   If she's coming to your town, stop on by and see her and pick up the book.

For the film selection, Longworth and the Alamo programmed Pickup on South Street (1953), which starred Jean Peters, one of the main figures in Longworth's book.  The film also stars noir star  Richard Widmark and high-quality character actor (and multiple award nominee but never the recipent) Thelma Ritter.

Noir Watch: Follow Me Quietly (1949)

Watched:  11/09/2019
Format:  Noir Alley of TCM
Viewing:  First
Decade:  1940's

Noir Watch: He Ran All the Way (1951)

Watched:  11/10/2018
Format:  Noir Alley on TCM on DVR
Viewing:  First
Decade:  1951


I admit - I started watching this movie a while back shortly after it aired on TCM and then got busy and forgot to finish watching it, until now.  And I'm very glad I did.

PODCAST: Dead White Girls in the Water - "Twin Peaks: Pilot" (1990) and "The River's Edge" (1986) - High School Movies with Laura and Ryan

Twin Peaks: Pilot
Watched:  10/12/2018
Format:  Amazon Prime Streaming
Viewing:  Unknown.  5th or so.
Decade:  1990's

River's Edge
Watched:  10/24/2018
Format:  Amazon Streaming
Viewing:  5th or so
Decade:  1980's

Laura and Ryan's exploration of High School Movies takes a turn for the grim when they pick the topic of "Dead White Girls in the Water".  Join us as we talk the pilot to Twin Peaks (1990) and seminal 80's flick River's Edge (1986).  It's a look at two pieces of media where the death of a young woman means very different things, but maybe under the plastic, how and why they work means they have more in common than we think at first glance.





Music
Here Come the Warm Jets - Brian Eno
River's Edge Theme - Jürgen Knieper - River's Edge Original Soundtrack
Laura Palmer's Theme - Angela Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Original Soundtrack
On Some Faraway Beach - Brian Eno


For more from the Signal Watch PodCast, including playlists, where to listen, etc...  Click Here



High School Movies w/ Maxwell and Ryan Playlist

Stage Show Watch: Gilda Live (1980)

Watched:  11/08/2018
Format:  DVR from TCM
Viewing:  First
Decade:  1980's

Noir Watch: The Sniper (1952)

Watched:  11/06/2018
Format:  Noir Alley on TCM on DVR
Viewing:  Second
Decade:  1950's

My recollection of the first time I watched The Sniper (1952) was that it was a much, much better picture than I was assuming I was about to watch, and that helped me overcome the fact that while I'd watched the movie to see Marie Windsor, her screentime isn't as much as any of us would like in your average Marie Windsor picture.

Kudos to TCM host Eddie Muller for (a) not shying away from showing the movie, and (b) a nuanced discussion about film violence and how we think about it in regards to real-world violence that will, no doubt, go right past a lot of the hot-take approach to film discussion that crawls past all of us on social media as "film twitter" rushes to fill in their rubrics for "good/ bad". 

NASA Watch: First Man (2018)

Watched:  11/04/2018
Format:  Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter Lane
Viewing:  First
Decade:  2010's

Halloween (Night) Watch: Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Watched:  10/31/2018
Format:  TCM (live, for once)
Viewing:  First
Decade:  1960's

Again, still pretty tired.  A Roger Corman produced Poe-derived horror film starring Vincent Price.  It's been a long time since I read the story of Masque of the Red Death, but this movie... doesn't really do that.  Kinda weird that the one, 30 second scene in Phantom of the Opera captures the spirit better than a whole film with that name.

Apparently this is a mix of Poe stories I haven't read, so... maybe I need to get back into reading some Poe.

Still, visually striking and with some complexity to the exploration of morality in an inscrutable world, it's not half bad.  Not 100% my thing, but I'd watch it again for how good Price is here in a non-camp role and how much I was digging the script.

Halloween (Night) Watch: Cat People (1942)

Watched:  10/31/2018
Format:  TCM/ DVR
Viewing:  First
Decade:  1940's

Well, I finally watched Cat People (1942).

I wish I had not been so tired when I put it on, but I figured "now or never" as I was winding down my Halloween night, post trick or treaters and family heading home.

Halloween Watch: Monster Squad (1987)

Watched:  10/31/2018
Format:  Amazon Prime Streaming
Viewing:  6th or 10th
Decade:  1980's

I've written about Monster Squad (1987) before, so I won't cover it again this time around.  But after covering horror movies since about July in order to have PodCasts ready to go and then watching a lot of stuff once we hit October - the mix of classic monsters, scares, jokes, the 1980's and coming of age digging monsters all in one place seemed like a good way to put a button on my Halloween movie watch.

Now get out there and enjoy some perfect Stan Winston make-up and terrific monster performances by catching this movie if you haven't already.

Oh, and apparently this exists:

Halloween Watch: Scream (1996)

Watched:  10/30/2018
Format:  Amazon Streaming
Viewing:  third or fourth
Decade:  Oh, so 90's

Ah, the 1990's.  A time when we were all intensely media saturated thanks to home video, cable and plenty of multiplexes, but had a minimum of internet.  At the time, we were all very concerned with whether things were postmodern and metatextual, and, really, Scream (1996) may be the ideal example of what we were all on about.  Can you tell a story by deconstructing the very genre you're working within?

"Why, yes!  You can!" said Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson.

Halloween Watch: Elvira Mistress of the Dark (1988)

Watched:  10/29/2018
Format:  DVD
Viewing:  Unknown.  10th?
Decade:  so, so 1980's, and, yet, timeless


I still think this movie is hilarious.  I dunno - my sense of humor has always run sort of toward the "Bugs Bunny"/ Marx Bros. school of comedy, and so a movie about a wise-cracking horror movie host as fish-out-of-water in small-town uptight Massachusetts is more or less my sweet spot.  I like me some double-entendre, visual gags and Edie McClurg.