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Unforgettable is so awful and Katherine Heigl character is so pathetic. ...and I find it grotesque one woman would prey another woman to an abusive man as a plot point. This is the first time I'm actually offended by a movie.

Paul is confused why Friendly's goons didn't just kill Terry at the end, but this is explicitly addressed by Friendly himself when a goon suggests it: Terry just testified against him and Friendly is now facing serious charges, including a murder that Terry accused him of being behind. Killing Terry at that point would practically be an admission of guilt along with another murder charge, making it a certainty that Friendly would be executed. Friendly is probably somewhat overly-optimistic about his ability to beat the charges and make a comeback, as his boss is leaving him out to dry and his lawyer was Terry's brother Charlie, whom he just had killed for trying to protect Terry. The time to kill Terry was earlier in the alley outside his building, but Terry got away and now it's too late.

Finally, a horror movie from 1996 that feels like it came from 1984 and has something for everybody! From Eric Red (writer/co-writer of The Hitcher and Near Dark) comes... A film in which sex, bad special effects and gory death all occur in the first 5 minutes! A startling transition to a bucolic setting that has nothing to do with the first minutes! Mariel Hemingway playing a surprisingly feminist (for a film of this quality), well-rounded character! The best performance by a German Shepherd ever (he could be a good basis for another Monkey Shines debate on animal acting). His character’s name is Thor! He is the hero of the story! Michael Pare IS Mariel Hemingway’s brother who MAY BE a werewolf! Scenes that go on for a beat or 5 too long! Scenes that abruptly transition to the dog and the werewolf’s POV! Scenes in which characters (looking at you, guy in the forest who measures trees at night in the woods and ignores obvious signs of danger THREE TIMES IN A ROW, before getting wolf drool that looks like jizz dropped on him before being spectacularly murdered!) do STUPID, STUPID things! A movie that feels padded at 78 MINUTES!!! Here’s the trailer! Oh, and did I mention that the special effects look bad? Because they do not look good! Available for streaming on Shudder! Truly, this should be a Halloween classic, right up there with It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! And Pumpkinhead! Would also make an excellent double feature with Silver Bullet (1985). Love the trailer tag line, too: “It doesn’t have to be Halloween to be THIS scary.” Not 100 % sure if they’re referring to the holiday or the John Carpenter film.

Wish Upon is only what I can describe as a horror movie for tweens written by someone who's not in tune with teenagers. It's about a teen girl who receives a magic box that grants wishes, but each time it does, someone she knows dies! It is pedictable, the box's rules make no sense, her wishes are ridiculous, the deaths are crazy, and there are pop song music montages. I laughed. So. Damn. Hard. I wanted to cry. Seriously please consider this film, it is absolutely amazing and feels perfect for HDTGM.

I found this to be a surprisingly innovative piece of cinema. It reminded me of The Wire haha. I don't know if knowing all the history about Kazan and communism is necessary though, but I guess it does clarify some things. A few of our earlier movies, I lamented when some of them didn't have a mood or a good sense of location, and this has it in spades. When a movie does that well, I'm definitely going to be all in on it, and that's what happened here. I thought it was all very impressive.

Wow, this movie. Hated the werewolf gaslighting another character about the werewolf's werewolfism. Like nah, wolfie, you knew you were a werewolf, you knew you were a danger. Also hated the inept fucking police and the terrible CGI. LOVED the dog actor. What a good boy (RIP). Would pet, belly rub, and give kisses to.

As I mentioned on Letterboxd, I'm still a bit confused about the ending, though I think that it makes more emotional sense as representing Kazan's political issues. I had known that Kazan saw the film that way, and even on this rewatch I found that read a bit of a stretch, but I think the key is that Kazan didn't actually hate communism. He just hated communists, both in the way the party operated in pre-WWII America and in the way Stalin ran the USSR. So Friendly is Stalin here, ruling with corruption over an organization that's supposed to promote the labor class. And part of me does think that this is what Kazan thought (or made himself believe) he was testifying against, as if outing the political leanings of eight of his former friends would somehow bring down Stalin. And then I see the ending as being a sort of bullshit Hollywood ending, as Amy and Paul talked about, but it is so because it's Kazan's wish fulfillment. He wishes that his actions could take down dictators, and that the people who felt betrayed by his testimony would change their minds and see that his actions were for the greater good. This interpretation fits with the film, but it also paints Kazan as not only delusional, but a little dumb as well, which he does not seem to be. The reality seems to be that Kazan acted in his own self-interest out of self-preservation, and the hardest thing for me to grapple with is that he doesn't seem to feel guilty at all over that. And sure, if he had refused to testify to HUAC, it is unlikely that his taking a stand would have galvanized people to end HUAC. Most likely, if he had refused to testify, he'd have been blacklisted too and wouldn't have gotten to make things like On the Waterfront, East of Eden, or A Face in the Crowd. And sure, his testimony probably didn't directly affect anyone else's lives, since the eight people he named were already known to HUAC anyway. But it bugs me that he seemed to show no remorse for it, and saw himself as the victim instead. He didn't stand up to a bully, like Terry Malloy did. He capitulated to the bully. So overall, my feelings on Kazan are that I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. I love his work, including this film, which is my favorite of the ones I've seen. And in the realm of directors who have done shitty things, he's far from the shittiest. But it's disappointing that someone whose films show so much empathy and humanity seemed uninterested in empathizing with those who did stand up to the bully of HUAC, only to be silenced. This was another great episode of the podcast, and despite my misgivings about Kazan, this is a great film. I wouldn't put it in my top 10, but I have no hesitation about voting yes for it.

So, last week, I hired out a cinema screen to play video games, and I need to talk about it.

Hop in my Chrysler, it’s as big as a whale. Specifically, a Pygmy Right Whale, so actually just hop back on out—there’s only room for me. Byeee

Burn in Hell, you soulless brown person hater

Agreed. The fact that his son was autistic should have also made him pass on this movie, or at least pass on the idea of playing it like he was autistic. And, not just autistic, but the Dustin Hoffman Rain Man version. Not at all what autism looks like.

If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap My Ass!

I opened the door, there was poop on the floor—somebody didn’t walk the dinosaur!

Very cool

This movie is a pretty fascinating example of how two people can have wildly different takes on source material. The book that Goodfellas was adapted from was written by Nicolas Pileggi. His wife Nora Ephron based on the same recorded conversations with Henry Hill made this movie.

Ok, I’ll post two of my favorite scenes from the movie. This is the set-up to where she chews the guy out (unfortunately the clip doesn’t show the whole thing, but she turns the tables on him after this): And here’s a scene that is a Stupid Horror Movie Victim classic:

Finally, I’ll quote this from Mariel Hemingway’s Wikipedia page: “Her highest profile role came with her role in Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979), a romantic comedy in which she plays Tracy, a high school student and Allen's lover. Just 16 during filming (in the film she is said to be 17), she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.[citation needed] In her memoir, Out Came The Sun (2015), Hemingway alleged that Allen attempted to begin a sexual relationship with her shortly after filming was completed, when she had turned 18. Hemingway declined his advances.[3][4][5]” I mention this because in her first scene in Bad Moon, she has a confrontation with a creepy dude and totally wipes the floor with him. The scene is one of the best in the film (and immediately follows the gory intro). As I was watching it, I enjoyed pretending that the creepy dude was Woody Allen.

Also, Mariel Hemingway’s character would pass the Bechdel test with flying colors.

I’m watching Deadtime Stories on Shudder and it has a long opening credit sequence that sounded like the Cellular credits conversation. Fun idea but too long. They committed.