Category: Film

I’ve found an amazing place to rent DVDs in Toronto. I’ve known about their incredible selection of videos for years, but Suspect Video has more DVDs than anywhere else, and they’re cheap, too. $3.25, tax included for either 1 night (new stuff) or 5 nights (older stuff). It’s the only place I’ve seen that has almost all the Criterion collection. Stuff I’ve enjoyed recently:

• A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies – an amazing overview, about four hours long, highlighting some great films I’d never heard of until now. Definitely worth checking out.
• Spartacus: The Criterion Collection – I’d never seen this film before, but this was what Gladiator was trying to be, and failing. There’s a great interview with Peter Ustinov, who’s just hilarious.
• Hard Eight – Paul Thomas Anderson’s quiet but assured debut film, starring Philip Baker Hall (incredible performance), John C. Reilly, Samuel Jackson, and Gwyneth Paltrow(!)
• Lawrence of Arabia – We’re watching this one this weekend.

Brooke has come up with a great idea. Every month, probably on the first Friday, we’re going to host a film night at her place. It’s a great way to keep in touch with our friends, and even if not everyone shows up, we get to see a good film anyway. It’s a low maintenance party. Our first one will be Friday July 6, and we’ll be watching The Apartment (1960), starring Jack Lemmon, Fred MacMurray, and Shirley Maclaine. It won the Oscar™ for Best Picture that year. If you’re going to be in Toronto that night, let me know! The best part of the whole thing is using Evite, which I just think is a really cool tool.

Incubus (1965), starring a pre-Trek William Shatner, is the only film with dialogue spoken entirely in Esperanto. It was considered lost for almost thirty years until a print was discovered in the basement of a Paris cinema. Fascinating.

Just read on DVD Journal that, finally, Criterion is putting out Withnail and I in a special edition DVD on July 10. Mark it on your calendars, people!

Was dragged last night to see Bridget Jones’s Diary, and actually enjoyed it. I’ve got to give credit to Renee Zellweger, who not only put on 25 pounds, but then paraded around in front of a camera in her underwear, too. It would have been better, though, if they’d been able to cast an actor who didn’t have to gain the weight. Reason? Overheard:

Woman 1: You know, she went from a size 6 to a size 10 to do the movie.
Woman 2: Well, I’m a size 10.