Stuff I've Been Watching November 2021

 

Bojack Horseman. Season 3. United States. Via the Netflix app. 5 November.

Certainly an odd idea for a show, but as the seasons go on I like it more and more. However, just like nothing every really changed in Game of Thrones -- it was never settled who the real king was, Bojack continues to be a dysfunctional horse man who never really grows to become a better person. Aristotle thought the pursuit of virtue leads to long term happiness; Bojack would do well to read the Nichomachean Ethics. However, his mistakes and bad decisions have consequences for him, the other characters, and the plot. When he lights a couch on fire, he sits on a burned couch for the rest of the season until he puts in the effort to buy a new couch. Bojack does not do much that requires effort or personal growth.

Crimson Gold. Directed by Jafar Panahi. 2003. Iran. Via the Criterion Channel app. 5 November.

Panahi is an absolute treasure as a filmmaker. This is a movie about a pizza deliveryman who decides to rob a jewelry store. But it is about so much more. This movie is the sort of picture that makes me so happy to have a Criterion Channel subscription.

Succession. Season 1. United States. Via the HBO Max app. 14 November.

Perhaps the unhappiest and most dysfunctional family on television. If ever one needed evidence that money does not lead to happiness such an argument is found abundantly on this show.

Dopesick. 2021. United States. Via the Hulu app. 17 November.

I think this show, which focuses on how the Sackler family and their company, Purdue Pharma, did so much to create the opioid crisis is a great television miniseries. Michael Keaton is good here. I think this show deserves a wide audience.

The Middleman. Directed by Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen. 2019. France. Via the Criterion Channel app. 20 November.

I have enjoyed Etgar Keret's writing, so when Ira Glass plugged the show on This American Life talking about a miniseries with a talking goldfish I had high expectations. I would not say that I disliked this miniseries; but I will say that it was not my favorite of the month. Keret's writing, on the other hand, is worth reading.

The Exiles. Directed by Kent MacKenzie. 1961. United States. Via the Criterion Channel app. 20 November.

This movie crosses between fiction and documentary. It is the story of a group of twenty something American Indians living in Los Angeles. We follow them for one night and see the men drinking and the women talking about their dreams for motherhood and family which will probably not turn out well. This is a rare movie. It is also a sad movie.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Directed by Bill Melendez. United States. Live on WHYY live stream via the PBS app. With Michal and Marta. 21 November.

A television special from my childhood that continues to be shown nearly fifty years later. Even the credits are worth watching.

Succession. Season 2. Via the HBO max app. 23 November.

I said enough about this when I mentioned season 1.

Blind Chance. Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski. 1981. Poland. Via the Criterion Channel app. With Monika. 24 November.

The title of the movie might also be translated accident or coincidence. The movie tells the story of a man chasing a train. But it tells that story three different times with very different results. The movie was censored by Polish authorities in the eighties. Watching it thirty years after the end of communism makes it challenging to answer the question, what does this movie mean?

Thief. Directed by Michael Mann. 1981. United States. Via the Criterion Channel app.2? November.

I first saw this movie more than thirty years ago on a vhs tape. I would say it is one of Michael Mann's best movies and definitely a career highlight for James Caan. Willie Nelson and Jim Belushi have small but important roles. Watching some of the criterion extras that came with the movie helped me understand some of the challenges of making a realistic movie about safe-cracking.

Ciao! Manhattan. Directed by John Palmer and David Weisman. 1972. United States. Via the Criterion Channel app. 29 November.

When you think of the worst example of how drugs, youth culture, and the 1960s intersected you might say Charles Manson. Let me suggest that Andy Warhol and the factory are a close second. This movie is deserving of the word tragedy. It is the story of Susan Superstar or Edie Sedgwick and her moment of fame in New York City. Sedgwick died a drug related death shortly after filming was done. Tragedy.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Directed by John Hughes. 1987. United States. purchased from iTunes and watched via the movies app. with Michal, Marta, and Monika. Thanksgiving day.

Under the influence of the late Roger Ebert, this movie is a thanksgiving tradition in my family. As Ebert wrote:

"Planes, Trains and Automobiles" is founded on the essential natures of its actors. It is perfectly cast and soundly constructed, and all else flows naturally. Steve Martin and John Candy don't play characters; they embody themselves. That's why the comedy, which begins securely planted in the twin genres of the road movie and the buddy picture, is able to reveal so much heart and truth.

Some movies are obviously great. Others gradually thrust their greatness upon us. When "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" was released in 1987, I enjoyed it immensely, gave it a favorable review and moved on. But the movie continued to live in my memory. Like certain other popular entertainments ("It's a Wonderful Life," "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," "Casablanca") it not only contained a universal theme, but also matched it with the right actors and story, so that it shrugged off the other movies of its kind and stood above them in a kind of perfection. This is the only movie our family watches as a custom, most every Thanksgiving.