I ran across Author: The JT Leroy story on Amazon last night. I'm shocked that I never heard of Leroy at the time of their fame.

A natural double-bill with Catfish, it's a fascinating portrait of an unrepentant fraud and a decades-long cry for help.

#film #cosofilm

Weird month, few things I needed to see expiring from my streams today. Looking forward to making the february to-do list tomorrow.

Today's #film:The Menu.

I wanted to like this more than I did. Both sides of the pass are terribly underfed in an environment ripe for a good FAFO midsommar-ing.

#cosofilm

Lawrence of Arabia tonight.

Epic scale and beautiful throughout, the characters start getting lost after intermission.

Glad I finally got to it, though.
#film #cosofilm

Ashamed I'd never gotten around to Putney Swope before tonight.

Its minimally-structured, satirical bomb-throwing said everything about the advertising business that TV or #film would regurgitate for the next 50 years. #cosofilm

Watched "Play Misty For Me," a fatal-attraction story that's not what I expected from a '71 Eastwood #film. Reasonably hard-edged for the time, Jessica Walter as the villain makes it land very differently now.

@singlemaltgirl Maybe he can be a future Doctor.

@singlemaltgirl I wonder if he could be coached for it like Craig. I didn't know Elba was affecting an american accent (spottily at times, on rewatch, as much as West) for the Wire. It's good to imagine anyhow.

@singlemaltgirl Laurie is a great choice for the combination of smart and broad. I keep getting pigeon-holed by A-listy names, many of whom have done comedy(or adjacent) roles like Clooney or McConaughey, but with some additional thought for against type (and he seemingly takes any project he likes now): Idris Elba, hamming it up and exasperated by stupidity.

@singlemaltgirl Since I'm thinking about it, much of Blanc, to me, is the against-type casting. Curious who would be a good alternate in the role?

Someone with more of a detective mien, or someone else against type?

@singlemaltgirl I think the two are pretty close, and I'd happily watch more than the third if Johnson wants to keep making them.

Agreed on Norton. He almost always delivers the goods.

Craig is maybe my second-best Bond, but I hadn't seen many of his other roles, and him going full Foghorn was an unexpected delight.

Watched: Glass Onion

If the surprise of Craig playing broad comedy is gone, the surprise that Norton's aged into a character actor is there to pick up slack. This installment falls off slightly from the first, though it's still quick paced, twisty fun that wins some out-loud laughs. #film #cosofilm

@hallmarc Strangely, despite being aware of kaiju from a tender age, I never saw any Gamera until mst3k. I would've liked those even more than Godzilla, I expect.

The Terror of Mechagodzilla

The latter Showa films underwhelm with a titular kaiju's introduction, but then slay the following film. No so much here, where a guileless Mechagodzilla just goes through the motions.

As is director Honda, who's been on a slide since the stellar Destroy All Monsters 7 years before. A middling exit to Godzilla's salad days.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla

Threepeats are hard! After two improvements on the strong Hedorah film, Fukuda falters just enough to miss on the surefire Mechagodzilla concept. The reveal fight is good, the car is awesome, but 12 years in, the latter Showa tone is starting to wear thin.

Godzilla vs. Megalon

Goes Gigan one better with a roach rematch and a Godzilla-Ultraman teamup.

Godzilla vs. Gigan

I last saw this in the theater as a child, and while the cockroach aliens are far less creepy now, the 70s films continue to improve. Anguirius gets a hero turn in the Gigan/Ghidorah tag-team match that also teases the Mechagodzilla. Plus the big G gets a few lines of intelligible, manga-balloon speech.

Godzilla vs. Hedorah

After a hit or miss late 60s, GvH moves the genre forward with cutaway animation, innovative kaiju design, and night battles. And no Minilla to be found.

All Monsters Attack

Minilla's front and center in this most Gamera-adjacent of Godzilla films. Maybe the least essential in the series.

Destroy All Monsters

Even Minilla can't ruin this all-star brawl that carries one of the best human-scale subplots in the series. The best 60s Godzilla film.