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Dude, Paul...Katherine Hepburn...not Lauren Bacall. C'mon, man.

Gah! I forgot about this and missed it yet again. At least I was out seeing Long Shot, which was absolutely delightful!

I think the thing that I found the most perplexing was Mr. Wasey’s motivation. Like I got why Mr. Burns/Farraday wanted him. And I got why Ms. Tatlock, as a missionary, was willing to put up with his nonsense. I even got why he needed their help to get back to LA. What I couldn’t understand was how at some point this nipple obsessed, neon tie salesman became the point man in the investigation. Once his character cleans up, everyone just sort of steps aside and let’s this crazy vagrant lead the investigation. He’s not a detective! He’s just some dude that just happens to look like some other guy. That’s it. Yet the movie tries to portray him as some kind of street savvy gumshoe. He’s not. We’re not even talking about a Mr Allnut situation from The African Queen where he’s some guy who has been around long enough that he’s become an expert at navigating the local climate. He sells nudie ties. That’s what he does. Nothing about him makes him particularly well-suited to negotiate with corrupt cops, drug dealers, or mobsters. What would have made more sense is if it were explained that he was some kind of disgraced, but talented, detective that had fled to Shanghai to escape his troubles. Everything could pretty much stay the same, except his character’s motivation for sticking around and wanting to figure out what’s going on would make way more sense. The movie would then become a journey of redemption and self-discovery rather than just about some skeevy, pornographic cravat salesmen who somehow knows how to rig the trigger of a Shanghai Surprise.

I wasn't sure if I was going to vote for this one, but a re-watch confirmed it. They touched on this in the podcast episode, but I do think Silence of the Lambs was the precursor and original inspiration for all of the "true crime" and serial-killer movies that happened in the 90s and beyond. The entire visual style of The X-Files seems lifted from this movie, something I hadn't really understood before (though I certainly could tell that Agent Scully's first-season hairstyle was inspired by Clarice Starling). The stuff with the trans/cross-dressing serial killer is still a bit problematic, but honestly I expected that to play worse than it did. I noted that they do have Clarice and Hannibal discuss Buffalo Bill's particular psychology and state outright that real transsexuals tend to be non-violent and that Bill is something else. So it's more sensitive than you might think, if you are paying attention to the details.