#kevin o'dowd

[papa-evershed]

Rob James-Collier as Kevin O'Dowd

The Level Episode Three

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[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this week (#168):

First watch: Hitchcock’s third feature, the 1927 silent The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, which established him as a 'thriller master'. It shows an early fascination with themes that will occupy him for decades: An innocent man falsely accused, association between sex and murder, his obsession with blondes, the fear of authority. 9/10.

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5 Classic re-watches:

🍿 "The worst thing that can happen in sports was 4th-place at the Olympics.”

My 3rd or 4th visit with Aaron Sorkin's masterful debut, Molly's Game [His two follow-up features 'The Trial of the Chicago 7' and 'Being the Ricardos' were forgettable]. Why is it so engaging? Mostly for the impeccable script which should be read simultaneously. But also, for the sharp dialogue, crisp editing, and spectacular performances from Jessica Chastain. A real-life champion superhero, who excels in anything she sets her mind to, a mesmerizing strong women, with a vulnerable father-daughter hole in her heart.

It also featured powerhouse acting from everybody else in the cast, the male pigs (Kevin Costner, Jeremy Strong, Michael Cera, Brian d'Arcy James, Bill Camp, Chris O'Dowd) and the two 'Mensches' (lawyer Idris Elba and judge Graham Greene). I loved that the move from LA to NYC happened at exactly 1:08, the precise mid-point of the movie, but then you wouldn't expect anything else from the play-writer, would you? 10/10. ♻️

🍿 There are movies that most people will only watch once, and Schindler's List is on top of the list. But after 'The Zone of Interest' I had to re-visit it, feeling that it probably did not age well, and wouldn't compare to ‘Zone’, (which I consider the Best movie of 2024, so far). I was mostly wrong: It was 'Auschwitz given the exaggerated Spielberg treatment', with atrocious accents and manipulative sentimentality, but it's still better than most holocaust films. Schindler was converted from being a war profiteer into a saint, and Amon Göth stayed a mad monster in and out. 'Night and fog' and 'Shoah' are still better introductions to the subject, without the usual Hollywood simplified glorification. ♻️

🍿 The Dark Side of the Rainbow is the pairing of the Pink Floyd album 'The Dark Side of the Moon' with the film 'The Wizard of Oz'. This produces numerous moments of apparent synchronicity where the film and the album appear to correspond. It does work, but the record has to be played 2.5 times, which raises the possibility that you could tack it on most anything. Two psychedelic classics. Flying monkeys, pink horses and the man behind the curtain. Available on 'Internet Archive'. ♻️

🍿  "Let's invent surrealism!" said Buñuel to his creative buddy Salvador Dalí, probably while on ether – or absinthe. And so they did. First with 'Un Chien Andalou' and the following year with L'Age d'Or. It must have been so heady to create so much outrage and be so misunderstood. Everything that was holy, acceptable, and "normal" was trampled down and pissed on. And the scandals which followed were disruptive, the shocks sweet. Subversive, anti-bourgeois, Wagnerian. ♻️

🍿 "How do you know so much about swallows?" Monty Python and the Holy Grail, (or as it was called in Japanese "Holy Sake Cup"), one of the greatest comedies of all times, and containing 527 jokes. I didn't remember that the "Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords" concept originated here, at the 'self-perpetuating autocracy' scene. So quotable! 9/10. ♻️

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"I bid you good night..."

J-P Melville's minimalist directorial debut, The silence of the sea. During the occupation, an elderly man and his niece are forced to give shelter to a Nazi officer at their home in the country. The conscientious German tries to engage them with respectful dialogue every night, but their only response to him, their only way of resistance, is with total silence. 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes. (Photo Above).

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My Favorite Wife, another Cary Grant vehicle, belonging to the 'Comedy of re-marriage' sub-genre, which was popular in the 30's and 40's ('The Philadelphia Story', etc.). He's marrying a second wife, but gets back with first wife Irene Dunne who was presumed dead. But mostly, it's notable for the visibly bisexual vibes between him and real-life boyfriend Randolph Scott.

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2 more from Paweł Pawlikowski:

🍿 "My mum loves men who make her cry..."

Last resort (2000), my 6th soulful film by favorite Polish director, his first in English. A young Russian woman comes to England with her 10-year-old son, but the man she thinks of as her fiance, never shows up at the airport. She gets desperately stuck in a bureaucratic limbo while waiting for a political asylum she had asked for by mistake, until she meets decent guy Paddy Considine, another lonely "fucked up" soul. The run-down seaside town of Margate looks grim and unpleasant. 7/10.

🍿 Before venturing into fiction, Pawlikowski was known for his documentaries. Dostoevsky’s Travels was an early 1991 one. It's a strangely-staged story not about Fyodor Dostoevsky the novelist, but about Dimitri Dostoevsky, his tram-driver great-grandson and only descendant. Dimitri leaves St. Petersburg for Berlin, Luxembourg and London, trying to cash in on his ancestor's good name among literary fans in the west, so that he can buy a used Mercedes Benz, and bring it back to Mother Russia. It sounds like fiction made by Borat, and maybe it is.

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My first Kaiju film ever, the original Godzilla (1954), the giant monster. A collective Japanese reaction to the destruction caused by the Atomic bombing, with identical shots of incineration and devastation. With 'Ikiru's Takashi Shimura. With the exception of 'Jaws', I don't think I ever had any interest in disaster movies like this. 2/10.

Extra: Fire! (1901), one of the first 'Disaster films' ever, and my third short by Scottish pioneer James Williamson. Showing firefighters rescuing victims from a house fire.

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Allied (2016), a glossy historical drama a-la 'Casablanca', also taking place in Morocco during the WW2 and also dealing with spies and romance. With Brad Pitt as Bogart, and Marion Cotillard as Bergman having steamy sex during a sandstorm. Any movie that uses Django Reinhardt in the score is OK with me.

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Arthur Penn's disappointing adaptation of Arlo Guthrie's 18-minute blues anthem Alice's Restaurant. While the song is a perennial Thanksgiving classic, and the voices of Guthrie (and Pete Seeger) are distinct and beloved, the movie is a weak attempt to capture the Hippy spirit of the late 1960's. Counter-culture at its worst.

The acting was also terrible all around, with two exceptions: Tina Chen, who played Janice for 2 minutes in 'Three days of the condor', was lovely here too, and M. Emmet Walsh stood out as 'Group W Sergeant', in his first ever small film role. Roger Ebert created the “Stanton-Walsh Rule,” which held that (nearly) no movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad. This is one of the exceptions.

RIP, M. Emmet Walsh!

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Breaking news, my first (and last) inane action story from Hong Kong director Johnnie To. The only different detail from hundreds of other like this is the elder policeman who buys a hot sweet potato from a street vendor, and farts loudly the rest of the movie. 1/10.

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Lammbock, another lousy German stoner comedy from 2001. Might as well be called 'Toking and driving'. Unfunny, low-budget and dirty feeling. 1/10.

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3 Shorts:

🍿 Tribute to the teachers, a 1977 Iranian short film directed by Abbas Kiarostami. A time capsule of social idealism just before the revolution.

🍿 Good Night, Nurse (1918), my second silent two-reeler with "Fatty" Arbuckle & Buster Keaton, about a drunk who's admitted to a sanitarium in order to cure him for alcoholism

🍿 Pusling ("Crybaby"), a 2008 Danish film about a 3rd grade girl who's being bullied by a class mate. Typically Danish, but not that great.

/ Female Director

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Throw-back to the "Art project”:  

Hitchcock Adora.

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(My complete movie list is here)

[southjerseyweb]

No. 5: Kevin O'Dowd and Anthony Mazzarelli - NJBIZ

The co-CEOs of Cooper University Health Care continue leading the Camden-headquartered South Jersey academic health system to new heights – overseeing …

[thomasbarrowlesbian]

Rob James-Collier as Kevin O’Dowd

[fordreviews]

📽 The Starling (2021)

I was not expecting to like this as much as I did. It wasn’t a fast-paced movie, so don’t expect a lot of action. But it was funny at points while maintaining its serious theme and not being ridiculous. It was very touching. I’ve never been through trauma like is portrayed in this movie, but from what I understand, they portrayed it well. It doesn’t have super great ratings, but don’t let that keep you from watching it. It’s much better than it seems once you get into it. I highly recommend this one.

Sex/nudity: 1/10 (one sexual joke, maybe some kissing but I don’t remember any)

Language: 3/10 (at least one f-word and a few sh*ts)

Violence: 1/10 (all the violence is against a bird and it’s really nothing)

Overall rating: 8/10

[vintagewarhol]

[papa-evershed]

Rob James-Collier as Kevin O'Dowd

The Level Episode Five

[susieskinner93]

since I’m gonna watch The Level AGAIN.... 

[grande-caps]

Molly's Game (2017) HD SCREENCAPS Gallery Here: [X] size: 1920x800 2985 caps

[mrfahrenheit92]

[oneofusnet]

Screener Squad: The Starling THE STARLING MOVIE REVIEW Melissa McCarthy has reteamed with her “St. Vincent” director Theodore Melfi with this new Netflix movie “The Starling.” The story follows Lilly Maynard (McCarthy) and her husband Jack (Chris O’Dowd) as they are working to overcome the untimely death of their infant daughter. While Jack is still not ready to move… Read More »Screener Squad: The Starling read more on One of Us

[thomasbarrowlesbian]

Rob James-Collier as Kevin O’Dowd

[petersonreviews]

Molly’s Game (2017)

“Molly’s Game is a major thrill, buttressed by how perfectly matched Aaron Sorkin and Jessica Chastain are. Hopefully this won’t be the last of their collaborations.”

https://bit.ly/2JwbDgO

[vintagewarhol]