Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
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It’s cold and rainy here today, and it feels like a dreary fall day, but the calendar says we’re about to head into New Year’s Eve. So here’s my burning question – is Die Hard a Christmas movie or a New Year’s movie?
Times are tough. Some of us may have engaged in retail therapy during the holiday season, but there’s always entertainment as therapy, too. Somewhere on my bookshelves is a fun little book about using movies as therapy, but I can’t find it. So I googled to see if I could find the name of the book, with no success, but I see that now cinema therapy is a real thing, with all sorts of serious books. I can’t imagine that they are as good as the fun little book I had, but okay. Let them keep their clinical approach to movies as therapy.
Let’s talk about films and TV shows and books – and resilience and hope and fighting for what we care about. ‘Cause we’re gonna need a lot of that going forward.
I also love shows that show us the good guys get payback, like Leverage and Leverage Redemption.
For me, another one of those shows is Something to Talk About, with Julia Roberts. She and her husband have split up, and everyone’s talking about them, and there are some scenes of defiance that always lift me up. I love her “fuck you” spirit in some of the scenes.
I am watching season 4 of Queen Sugar (an Oprah Winfrey show with 7 seasons) and damn, that black family and their community are faced with setback after setback, and they keep dusting themselves off and moving forward.
I supposed Ted Lasso would fall under the category of persistence and resilience?
Well, that’s enough rambling from me. Let’s get started!
Note: for those new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.
Trivia Man
Clock Wise with John Cleese. One setback after another yet still he persisted. One line really sticks with me: “Its not the despair, i can take that. Its the hope i cant stand.”
He gets a setback, it looks like the problem is solved, then hopes are dashed again.
Baud
Terminator.
Leto
Parks and Rec is still a good one in this category, as well as Schitt’s Creek. I’m sure The Good Place also fits this. All three are about resilience in the face of multiple setbacks, and they’re fundamentally good characters.
Craig
The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn. Directed by Michael Curtiz. Resilient resistance to an authoritarian asshole and his lackeys. Great film.
The Audacity of Krope
The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret
When resilience goes wrong.
Phylllis
Casablanca comes immediately to mind. Something to Talk About is a little gem of a movie. Julia Roberts overcomes her Julia Roberts-ness to deliver a terrific performance.
Suzanne
This is an interesting question. When I’m feeling downhearted, I usually prefer to be distracted and laugh. Jackass is good for that.
I usually hate any movie or show in which the characters learn life lessons, or become better people. SuzMom loves that stuff. I told her once that I don’t ever want to watch “that heartwarming shit”.
Mr. Prosser
Although not a film that is morally uplifting I consider William Friedkin’s film Sorcerer to be all about resilience and perseverance to reach a goal. Loved every minute of it. It’s a reinterpretation of The Wages of Sin so all the endurance and striving mean nothing in the end. As Suzanne posted, there is no “heartwarming shit.”
piratedan
there are some films that I call journey films where perseverance plays a key role in following a dream or working towards an outcome… some have redemption arcs (The Outlaw Josey Wales) others are about rescuing friends and getting the car fixed (Adventures in Babysitting). What appears to be the biggest trend in justice being served are crime/heist films where we have The Sting and the Oceans Numeric films, where desserts are served just so and you end up rooting for the bad guys because they’re stealing from the rich anyway, those loathesome bastards.
Yet few have the satisfaction as the ending of All The President’s Men and the teletype epilogue.
NotMax
I suppose (if I interpret the topic’s premise correctly), in its own gentle way Mr. Hulot’s Holiday would qualify.
Also too, Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman and W. C. Fields’ It’s a Gift.
UncleEbeneezer
Underground– Southern slaves resisting in ingenious ways. The series doesn’t flinch on depicting the horrors of chattel slavery, but it celebrates the incredible resilience and resistance of the enslaved. Same show-runner that did Lovecraft Country, so very high quality all around. Season 2 even features Harriett Tubman as a main character. Incredible series cancelled way too soon.
G.L.O.W.– The story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. Very funny but also highlights all the sexism that women have to endure.
Godless– Western drama about a criminal gang and one gunslinger who has decided to leave them and steal their loot. But the other big plot and main setting is the story is of a town of women who lost all their men in a mine collapse and learned to fight, protect themselves etc. Every woman has some pretty badass resilience by the end.
NotMax
@Mr. Prosser
Slight correction: it’s The Wages of Fear.
Steve in the ATL
@The Audacity of Krope: loved that show. Hard to find now.
Trivia Man
@Suzanne: Try Clockwise. Kind of a screwball comedy, i dont think anybody learns anything.
The Audacity of Krope
@Steve in the ATL: It could alternately be titled Failing Up to Increasing Collateral Damage
Sounds a little too much like US politics, though.
CliosFanboy
@NotMax:
never seen the movie. Read the book as an older teen. Gripping and grim.
Melancholy Jaques
Winter’s Bone. True Grit, both versions but mostly the second.
KatKapCC
Lord Of The Rings is certainly a resilience-centered story. One I never get tired of. I saw a tweet a while back that gave an exact time to start the second movie on NYE so that Aragorn will open the doors of Helm’s Deep right at midnight. Gonna have to try to find that and see if it works.
Craig
@Phylllis: Casablanca absolutely. Rick cares more about The Fight than his hill of beans love for Ilsa. The La Marseillaise scene is full on resilience.
NotMax
Not a big fan of her acting* (as opposed to her singing) but Streisand ‘s For Pete’s Sake also comes to mind.
*Schmaltz is best as a condiment, not the main course. IMHO.
kalakal
Trading Places – Favourite line “The best way to urt rich people is to meke them poor”
Two English ones about communities when the work goes away Brassed Off and The Full Monty
UncleEbeneezer
Battle of the Sexes– Starring Emma Stone as Billie Jean King in the story of her (and the Original Nine) starting the WTA (professional women’s tennis) tour, playing the world-famous match against Bobby Riggs and also coming out as a lesbian. What those women did in the face of terrible misogyny and the way Billie led them, is really incredible.
Shawshank Redemption– No film character shows more resilience and persistence than Andy Dufresne, imo. It’s what makes the ending so damn fulfilling.
NotMax
@CliosFanboy
Full-on, 100% classic cinema.
MattF
The Queen’s Gambit. Very much a ‘heroine’s journey’, including setbacks.
Also, I just watched the first episode of ‘Decameron’ on Netflix— it’s a black comedy, so it might work out in various ways.
schrodingers_cat
My only ask from a movie/TV show is that it lets me forget myself for sometime.
DS9’s long arcs are good. Bajorans are nothing if not resilient. Must watch TV, since we are now going to be ruled by a
CardassianRussian puppet.Has anyone watched the Dylan biopic. I am thinking of going to see it.
Starfish (she/her)
My holiday season has been blessed with piles of books. Today, I received another one called F*ck Feelings from the authors of F*ck Love. I am not sure where this belongs in the “to read” pile. I also received a coffee table book about Tom Cruise with a lot of pictures. Where does that belong in the pile?
H.E.Wolf
Not sure if resilience is the right word for the films listed below; maybe perseverance or tenacity?
“The Long Walk Home”, 1990, about the Montgomery bus boycott.
“The Color Purple”, 1985, first film adaptation of the Alice Walker novel by the same name.
Whoopi Goldberg is the protagonist in both.
More recent:
“Hidden Figures”, 2016, film adaptation of the non-fiction book by the same name, about the Black women ‘computers’ working at segregated NASA in the early 1960s.
Taraji Henson, Janelle Monáe, and Olivia Spencer are the three protagonists.
TBone
Katharine Hepburn’s career is an inspiration to me, and her life story is one of incredible resilience. I had trouble choosing anything to comment on because there are just so many films in this category that I froze up trying to choose one. Keeper of the Flame is only one of the so very many.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeper_of_the_Flame_(film)
Harrison Wesley
The end of O Lucky Man demonstrates resilience, albeit in an odd way.
zhena gogolia
Shirley Temple got us through the last Depression. Could work again.
WaterGirl
@H.E.Wolf:
I was thinking of all those things, but you’re right, i only mentioned resilience. Glad you read between the lines.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Melancholy Jaques:
Winter’s Bone is an incredible film. They filmed most of it south of me and Ozark and they nailed everybody.
First True Grit is remarkably underrated.
NotMax
Ooh, another. La Chèvre, with Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu. Avoid the American remake like the plague.
Maybe also Noises Off.
Transitioning from the screen to the stage, a nod to The Real Inspector Hound.
@kalakal
Funny, was thinking about including both those upthread. As to the first one, Pete Postlethwaite was worth watching in anything.
WaterGirl
I think this sets the record for the least number of comments on a Medium Cool post, ever.
schrodingers_cat
I have recommended this before, its a TV series by Govind Nihalani called Tamas (Darkness) based on a novel by Bhisham Sahani by the same name. It is about the exodus from what was undivided Punjab to India. It follows a group of people from just before independence and the Partition to just after. Its dark and gritty. The author who wrote the story also made the same journey. Its based on true stories and undescribable grit and determination of ordinary people when the world around them collapsed into hate and chaos. Death danced on the streets lined with blood and corpses.
I know friends from Punjab and Sindh whose families came to India with absolutely nothing except the clothes on their backs.
The Audacity of Krope
@WaterGirl: It’s still the newest post. We got time. Just hang in there, to tie it back to the theme of the post.
TBone
Mrs. Miniver, starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, has tons of resilient character.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Miniver
Duck you autocorrect! I had it in there but had to struggle to get that “d” back where it belongs.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
“But what’s there is cherce.”
:)
TBone
@NotMax: muah! I was missing you today.
mrmoshpotato
Jurassic Park. They have a T Rex! – who shares its ass and eats lawyers at night.
TBone
As a spit in the eye to RFK, Jr. I’m gonna mention the true story of Nurse Kenny, the mother of modern physical therapy, as portrayed by Rosalind Russell who also knew crippling pain (rheumatoid arthritis). Nurse Kenny didn’t give up on the polio children that other, male doctors abandoned, and also had to fight for her own rights simultaneously.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Kenny
NotMax
@TBone
No morning open thread so my little sprinklings of diversions are cooling their heels until mañana.
Anything I had ready to go seemed out of place for today’s morning thread.
;)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Baud:
Given the genre:
The Road Warrior
Outland (both Connery’s character and the brilliant performance by Frances Sternhagen).
zhena gogolia
@TBone: Lots of WWII movies. They Were Expendable stands out.
TBone
@zhena gogolia: yes it does!
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax: I also enjoy your morning sprinklings of diversion =-)
kalakal
An old black comedy about life at the hard end of Thatcher’s Britain
The Boys from the Blackstuff ( also made a star of Bernard Hill)
For sheer resilience it would be hard to beat the old time Polar explorers
Scott of the
SaharaAntarctic, Shackleton ( the Branagh TV series)and one of the greatest books ever written The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard.
TBone
The “Angels of Bataan” also made a lasting impression
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Proudly_We_Hail!
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: hahaha I missed that too! Both of youse!
NotMax
@TBone
In the same vein, Dr. Erlich’s Magic Bullet, Yelow Jack (1938), The Story of Louis Pasteur, and Blossoms in the Dust.
Tehanu
The Hollywood Shuffle and Office Space
TBone
@NotMax: LOVE them all!
KatKapCC
It’s not exactly uplifting, but Band of Brothers certainly features a crapton of resilience of all kinds.
Old School
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Die Hard.
What’s the argument for it being a New Year’s movie?
TBone
A lot of truth and beauty in this story of resilience.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Elliot
JMG
@Old School: It’s not. The original Ocean’s 11 with the Rat Pack is a New Year’s movie. So is Return of the Thin Man, the second in the Powell-Loy series (has a very young Jimmy Stewart at the psycho killer).I guess Trading Places is a New Year’s movie, and mods, is also about resilience, kind of.
zhena gogolia
@JMG: Spoiler!
jowriter
@kalakal: The Worst Journey in the World was absolutely riveting. Made me feel as if I was there. Fantastic read.
Jacel
For resilience in the face of the unknown, I think of Alan Arkin’s character the original “The In Laws”, though Peter Falk’s character is facing almost as much unknown but is somehow experienced at dealing with it. I’ll give away nothing more about the film other than being unable to resist exclaiming “Serpentine!”
patrick II
Lawrence of Arabia.
narya
Agree on The Good Place. Nearly time for a binge rewatch.
Ben Cisco
I recommend the current iteration of “Cross” on Prime. Aldis Hodge is tremendous in the role, and a supporting character that I couldn’t place until I remembered this does a great job as well.
Jeffro
semi-OT but maybe not: speaking of “resilience”, team Fro just successfully got a bluebird out of the house an hour ago.
the sucker was hanging out in our Christmas wreath on the front door when I went to get a late-arriving Amazon package off of the porch. IN he flew, and we were off to the races!
he enjoyed flying around our foyer for quite some time before he tired out. Mrs. Fro gently got him into a laundry basket with a dishtowel over him, and out he went.
WHEW
Sure Lurkalot
Shrinking. About facing the pain of loss and learning how to move forward. Good show on AppleTV.
Sure Lurkalot
@Jacel: Since you mentioned the late great Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine is a great movie about resilience.
DSC
Griffin Dunne in Martin Scorsese’s After Hours
laura
@schrodingers_cat: Has anyone watched the Dylan biopic. Spouse and I saw the first screening at the Tower Theatre (home of the original Tower Records) Christmas morning. I loved it and spouse thought it was meh, but has been reconsidering it ever since and now, he thinks it was excellent. No spoilers, just hie thee to your nearest theater. The cast is superb, especially young Chalamet.
Melancholy Jaques
Ethan Hawke in Training Day
Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, Parts I & II
Stanley Tucci in Big Night
Just look at that parking lot
From 1971, Man in the Wilderness,starring Richard Harris as Zach Bass. Goes though a lot of shit. Maybe the most painful to watch are his flashbacks showing him as a child receiving his loving religious teachings.
NotMax
@TBone
That reminds me. Ever seen Stepping Out?
Melancholy Jaques
@DSC:
Roseanne Arquette in another great NYC movie from the same year, Desperately Seeking Susan
Leto
@KatKapCC: 3 miles up, 3 miles back! Hi-yo Silver!
delphinium
The Insider: 60 Minutes Producer Lowell Bergman tries to get the story of the tobacco industry lying about manipulating its product to make it more habit forming aired. Deposition in Mississippi scene. Soundtrack was also fantastic.
Persepolis: Animated film/graphic novels about the Shah’s defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the after affects as experienced by a young girl and her family.
mvr
@Phylllis: That’s a great movie! There’s another movie with largely the same cast (plus my uncle, minus Ingrid Bergman, not a good trade) and same sort of general theme, that seems to have been an attempt to cash in on the success of the first one. Stick with the original. It really is a good movie!
NotMax
In more (and icier) dramatic film fare, Arctic starring the superb Mads Mikkelsen.
zhena gogolia
@mvr: Who’s your uncle?
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia: Burt Lancaster? Paul Henreid?
If it’s Paul Henreid I’m going to faint.
ETA: Guess it can’t be him, since he was in the original.
mvr
@zhena gogolia: You probably know this but Shirley Temple wound up big in California R politics and a supporter of Ronny Reagan.
Which I suppose is why I like cynical movies like Chinatown. They’re less big on hope make me pissed enough to try to keep going anyway. Which is a comment on my personality and not on that of anyone who likes Shirley Temple.
Omnes Omnibus
Labyrinth.
zhena gogolia
@mvr: I know, I loved her when I was a child, then hated her when she was a politician, but I rediscovered her about a decade ago and adore her now. As a Republican she would be somewhere to the left of Kinzinger these days, I think.
KatKapCC
@zhena gogolia: Bob.
KatKapCC
@Omnes Omnibus: Now you got me singing Chilly Down.
Omnes Omnibus
@laura: I am planning to see it NYE day.
kalakal
@NotMax:
Continuing with the chilly theme
Miss Smillas feeling for snow
and Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo etc
mvr
@zhena gogolia: Philip Dorn was his stage name, He died in the 1960s I believe. Played refugees and foreign villians in the States after he immigrated. Was Dutch in German movies/theater but came over either before the war or early in the war.
The movie was Passage to Marseille. He was in others that were better, though perhaps none with a better cast.
kalakal
How could we overlook Ripley from the Alien franchise?
Leto
@laura: wife and I saw it with my parents. Wife and I were the youngest people in the theater by a few decades. Thought it was good, though we both agree Dylan is an asshole, and his portrayal is the walking trope of asshole white male allowed to do anything because “genius”.
Did find it cool that all the actors did their own singing, with Timothy doing his own guitar/harmonica work as well. I’m sure he’ll be nominated for an Oscar. It’s that type of movie.
dm
Star trek: Discovery is all about resilience — each season is a new trial (Michal Burbam’s redemption arc from reviled traitor/mutineer to crew; the Red Angel stuff, then finding themselves in a universe where Star Fleet is a distant memory). Voyager probably is, too, but I’ve never seen it.
And, of course, The Martian, where resilience comes in the form of “sciencing the shit out of things” (literally, in some cases), plus, let’s not forget the steely eyed missile man.
Maybe Real Genius? Especially the exam arc.
TBone
@Just look at that parking lot: just watched that again recently and wow, you are so right.
Leto
@dm: I feel like you could add Lower Decks to that as well, for similar reasons. Sad that it’s not continuing but happy with the conclusion.
Edit: Voyager is the epitome of perseverance. Lost 80,000 light years from home? I know it’s not the most loved series, but it had plenty of good stories and is worth a watch.
TBone
@NotMax: no! But it looks wonderful and I’m gonna find it and see it very soon, thank you!
And that reminds me too – Silver Linings Playbook should appear here!
zhena gogolia
@mvr: Oh, he’s in Watch on the Rhine, isn’t he? He’s good.
ETA: I guess not. But Random Harvest! Got him mixed up with Paul Lukas.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Although not a “serious” film, a wonderful Western look at this: El Dorado.
Remake of ‘Rio Bravo’ and a far, far better film. Lotsa characters on resiliance and redemption. It’s worth it just to watch Robert Mitchum’s performance.
Oh, ‘Papillion’. The book is fantastic. Okay, there’s a ton of questions about Henri Charriers’s “truthfullness” in both books, it’s a story that’s the epitome of resiliance and redemption.
The movie was good, the book is great.
zhena gogolia
@mvr: I started watching Passage to Marseille once but didn’t get very far. I’ll try again some time!
I guess he’s papa in I Remember Mama.
Marcopolo
Haven’t read all the comments & alas don’t have time to but I’ll throw out The Diving Bell & the Butterfly (book & film) the true story of an editor who suffered a stroke leading to “locked in syndrome.” Long story short: he dictated a book by blinking his one good eye.
Oh, also the story of the ship the Endurance, which I think is both a book & film. Icebound in the Antarctic for like a year but all the crew members survived.
prostratedragon
@zhena gogolia:
I always like The Longest Day and The Great Escape in that category. The Archers made a couple of great movies that were explicitly meant as WWII morale boosters, 49th Parallel and A Matter of Life and Death. And of course, The Best Years of Our Lives.
First movie I thought of on seeing the post subject was A Raisin in the Sun. There are two fine versions, one with Sydney Poitier and Claudia McNeil, and the other with Danny Glover and Esther Rolle. Another family comedy-drama, that could use more views, is To Sleep with Anger, also featuring Danny Glover as a producer and member of the ensemble.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Marcopolo:
Caroline Alexander popularized Shackleton and the Endurance story:
https://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Legendary-Antarctic-Expedition/dp/0375404031
That being said, a large part of her work was based on Alfred Lansing’s book:
https://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Alfred-Lansing/dp/0465062881
That being said Part II, Alexander wrote a fantastic book about the expedition from the perspective of Mrs Chippy, the ship’s cat:
https://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Chippys-Last-Expedition-Shackletons/dp/0060932619
All are well worth your time.
stinger
Circle of Friends, an Irish film based on the book of the same name by Maeve Binchy. Many of her books have resilient main characters.
ETA: First thing I ever saw Alan Cumming in. A horrible character! Great actor — I’ve loved him in many things since that film.
TBone
@stinger: I’m a big fan of Maeve Binchy too.
WTFGhost
Die Hard definitely counts as a Christmas movie, though far from the standard fare. It’s a story about never giving up, no matter how impossible the odds, right up there in the goddamn name, don’t die *easy*.
Thinking of Bruce Willis, I also loved him in Fifth Element, especially his interactions with the super-woman. She warns him not to touch her without consent, he listens, and waits, until she invites his touch. It’s like, “see, guys, it’s not that *hard*.” IIRC, it was probably another resilience movie.
I kinda liked the movie Midnight Run, and I’ll let you know if any sequels exist. (Don’t tell me they exist – they could be evil hellspawn from another universe, hoping to spawn well-climbing evil spirits. ) It’s good on the resilience.
Obviously, the latest Star Wars trilogy pumped hope a lot, and did it in the more common way, “our organization is finished, but some of us will escape.” Was that the second movie? I think so. Don’t go thinking this is like Jason and the Argonauts where there will only be glory and honor – sometimes, you’ll have to flee, tasting defeat, practically *wanting* to feel that final blaster shot, but, you’ll have to keep going
Oh, yeah, and Rent probably counts. But if someone loves it, listen to their nomination instead.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Oh, Helena, one of the clones from “Orphan Black”.
They should have done an entire series on her.
Torrey
Film from 1997, Paradise Road. Women imprisoned by the Japanese during WWII. It does have some very disturbing scenes, but the question was about resilience.
Mongolian Film, The Eagle Huntress. Girls are not allowed to hunt with eagles, but this one wants to.
New Zealand film, Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Sam Neill stars, Taika Waititi directed and was one of the writers. It’s excellent, but, warning, a dog becomes injured and must be put down fairly early on.
The Color Purple.
Pretty much any noir detective novel.
The Audacity of Krope
And they managed that bit of communication without even sharing a language.
TBone
The stories of Janet Frame told on film – unforgettable
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Angel_at_My_Table
prostratedragon
@JMG: And the beginning (I think) of Stewart’s problems with high places.
WTFGhost
@Leto: Given the number of “they were completely helpless, and could have died,” storylines, I’ll agree with you re: resilience.
If you wanted the stretch the F out of the definition, you could say that Dogma is a resilience movie, and kinda holy, in a sacrilegious way, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. It’s literally impossible to get from Jersey to Hollywood in 5 days by *bus*, but they don’t care – they are GOING to stop the movie being made about the characters for whom they were both the image, and character, sources. Doesn’t it sound like a great movie to send to your favorite attorney?
(Both of these are Kevin Smith movies, meaning weed, and dick&fart jokes will be everywhere. But they’re fighting for a principle of the LAW!!!)
Citizen Dave
The Dude not only abides but is resilient in a dude way. I read once that he only takes two actions on his own in the movie. The rest, he is directed to do something by someone else.
I like your style.
dm
@Leto: I haven’t seen the last season of Lower Decks yet, but I’d add Star Trek : Prodigy about slaves who find a derelict Star Fleet training vessel and make their escape, helped by the pedagogical hologram of Captain Janeway, as they find their way from the outer rim to the Federation. This may have a second season coming?
How about anti-resilience? John Carpenter’s Dark Star, about the deteriorating crew of the Dark Star in their twenty year mission to destroy space navigation hazards. “You must teach the bomb…… phenomenology.”
Mai Naem mobile ¹
The Killing Fields
Leto
@dm: is that another Paramount+ show, Prodigy? I’d give it a spin.
mvr
@zhena gogolia:
Yes to Random Harvest and yes to I Remember Mama. I have a big cardboard poster to be put out in front of theaters withhim and Irene Dunn depeicted on it from I Remember Mama that I bought at an antique store.
My mom was the youngest of ten kids and he was one of her older brothers by a decade or more. Never met him myself. My spouse lived with his daughter in California towards the end of her (my spouse’s) internship at the Getty in grad school. She also met my uncle’s wife during that time, which I never did.
zhena gogolia
@mvr: wow 2 degrees of Irene Dunne is pretty fantastic
Craig
@WaterGirl: I’m visiting a friend in Asheville and kept getting distracted at a pretty magical bar.
dm
@Leto: I think so. I don’t subscribe to many streaming services, so I get stuff from the library after they’re released on DVD.
Prodigy is animated, and basically young adult.
kalakal
@dm:
I love that movie
Jacel
@kalakal: The beach ball with swim fins alien in Dark Star becomes convincingly terrifying. Such amazing sense of cinematic timing.
NotMax
See no one has brought up The Prisoner when it comes to resilience.
Matt McIrvin
@Jacel: Dan O’Bannon went on to write Alien. Much of it was basically that sequence played straight.
Mr. Prosser
@NotMax: Oops.
UncleEbeneezer
@MattF: If you liked The Queens Gambit like we did, and you are okay with Westerns, def check out Godless. Also directed by Scott Frank and even has a few of the same actors. Very similar, girl-power vibe. And Jeff Bridges is surprisingly great as a villain.
Chris
It’s A Wonderful Life. The fact that the bad guy never gets his comeuppance makes some people cranky but is, to me, part of the point. It’s about a community under a greedy oligarch who’s trying to grind it under his heel, and about how the hero manages to make his community a little less shitty.
Chris
Firefly. To me it loses something when the movie turns it into a grand stand against the Alliance. The TV show was explicitly about people who’d lost, and were just trying to eke out a living in a universe where their conquerors made the rules. It’s not about winning, it’s about surviving, and hopefully doing the right thing when you can.