Glad to hear it hit so well for you. My bump about it wasn’t random; I actually watched it for the second time last night. Actually, in going and calling up that joke review I remember as the top review on LB, I did also get invested in one of the other most popular reviews for the movie: ‘The Children’s Hour’ review by Sally Jane Black • Letterboxd That review is full-spoiler, any interested party who cares about such things should refrain from clicking on that or on my thoughts below:
It was actually surprising on rewatch to see just how obvious the foreshadowing of the eventual reveal about Martha will be at the end. I wasn’t shocked when it was revealed on first go, but from very early on in the movie they’re definitely laying clear groundwork for it. That said, I took the movie at face value: that Martha was indeed a lesbian and that Karen wasn’t. Reading that review above made me go, “Wait, what? Is that a common interpretation?” And it’s not the dominant interpretation, but it seemingly has a fair amount of critical buy-in, and apparently–while never being explicit about it–the text of the source play is even more suggestive of the idea.
As I think it through, I now believe the film exists in the artistic sweet spot of ambiguity where either result could be true, and actually Karen being a lesbian who could never get to the point of saying it maybe makes the film even better, especially as I think back on the heartbreaking scene at Martha’s grave at the end.
William Wyler put out great movies, this one included. I’ve seen 13 of his works so far, and none of them really miss. A few in that group I might only classify as decent/pretty good, but I’ve been glad I took the time with all of them. He’s not quite on the Howard Hawks level for me of great directors of that era spanning from the end of silent film through the first few decades of sound film, but he’s really strong.
Casablanca is incredible and entirely worthy of its reputation; it’s in my personal top 10 all-time. Love White Christmas. Mildred Pierce is great. Yankee Doodle Dandy is surprisingly good. His Robin Hood movie didn’t much do it for me, but it wasn’t bad I guess. Those are the five I’ve seen from him. Strong track record, but I just haven’t seen as much.
That’s also how I feel about Wyler. The Big Country, Funny Girl, Ben-Hur, The Children’s Hour, Detective Story, Roman Holiday, these are wildly different modes to operate in.
Hawks had the same thing. He could do premium westerns (Red River, Rio Bravo), top-tier screwball comedy (Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday), great noir (The Big Sleep, To Have and Have Not), and another great drama in Only Angels Have Wings that operates in a separate space from each of those. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is good too, though it sounds like his name is attached to that but it sounds like he outsourced some of it as well. Hawks also gets credit for surprisingly strong female characters during a period when that was barely a thing.
I love Hitchcock dearly, but he was clearly operating in a much narrower range. Not a complaint, because he was absolutely legendary in that range, but I just can’t pay him the same compliment about being able to cross so many genres so effectively.
Hey LKJ, just listening to the Teen Wolf ep of rewatchables and Kyle Brandt pissed me off talking shit about the impeccable soundtrack. Anyway thought you should know he’s dead to me for the rest of the day. Simmons did a great job.
Haha, I haven’t listened to that ep. I kind of only listen when Kyle is on if I care that much about the movie.
I will say that Teen Wolf does have a little bit of a place in my history as a movie lover since it’s one of the first movies that I actually locked onto in the theater and enjoyed as a little kid. I know my parents dragged me to Footloose the prior year, and I was too young to enjoy it (probably too young to enjoy anything), so Teen Wolf is right about at the point that I could actually watch a live-action movie and be into it. Probably kinda helped that it’s an inherently cartoonish live-action movie.
I remember having a terrible time visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Thousand Oaks, CA. My uncle sensed I was cracking and said, ‘we’re going to a movie’, just me and him. The year was 1985. The movie was Back to the Future. The time there got much better after that. Some movies have the right impact at the right time. I was 13.
I was 5. I for some reason took to Teen Wolf over Back to the Future at the time, again probably because of its goofy premise being appealing to a kid in early elementary school. I do think Back to the Future is great now, and I assume Teen Wolf would be damn near unwatchable.
My biggest two memories were at age 5 and age 7. I remember staring up in awe at the scene where the kid is watching all the crazy stuff happen in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. My mom said my jaw was opened the whole movie. The kid was slightly younger than me in real life.
The other one was when I was 7. By that time, I was super into movies and took any of them completely in. A bombastic score starts and I’m like, yeah! yeah! A dark foggy scene establishes. A stopwatch with a musical thingy happens. A woman is walking. Still into it. Then blood spatters on to the stopwatch with a horrifying sound effect. My head was in my mom’s lap the rest of the movie. Why she would take a 7 year old to the Jack the Ripper time travel movie Time After Time I have no idea. That movie scarred me for life.
Time After Time was one of the first DVDs I worked on, so I was eventually confronted with it again at probably around 30 years old. There was very little on screen violence or gore but it was done extremely effectively, using editing and sound, especially for a 7 year old with a vivid imagination. Thanks mom.
I don’t think so. I watched it again recently and I still quite like it. Why I think it works is it isn’t your standard 80s comedy. It commits to the bit and tries to be a drama as well. It’s something in-between.
Simmons pointed out the absurdity of the sequence where Scott Howard turns into a werewolf for the first time on the court and after showing off for a minite the coach says “alright, let’s play a little ball here!” Within minutes everybody just accepts that he is a werewolf and balling out on the court. I cracked up
Thin Man 2 does fall off a little from Thin Man, still kinda hyped to see Thin Man 3.
Also, part of the charm of the series is that the franchise doesn’t seem to know who The Thin Man even is. The first movie makes it clear it’s the dead guy, but the posters seem to think Nick Charles is The Thin Man. And there’s a “Mrs. Thin Man?”
After being raised in the wilderness, a teenage girl moves to the city hoping for a normal life with her anything but normal mother.
I didn’t want to believe the reviews, but they’re right. This is a competent but not entirely compelling story of a teenager raised off grid who then tries to reintegrate into a normal high school life. There is no real goal or arc. Most of the story is just witnessing what an absolute trainwreck this girl’s mom can be. Whatever plot exists is so occasional that I kept forgetting there was more to the story.
It’s based on a memoir, so if you want a true story, it’s got that going for it.
There are beautiful scenes of family and connection among the communities that live with off grid. These are a special breed of people. But there are better movies and better documentaries for that sort of thing.
If you want a movie with this kind of premise that will knock your socks off, just watch Leave No Trace.
Many reasons. For starters, 1985 Michael J Fox is elite. Jason Bateman became a favorite of mine with AD but his 1988 performance in Teen Wolf Too is pretty weak. Also supprting cast. Jerry Levine as Stiles is an incredible character. Simmons nailed it by calling out Stiles and Coach Finstock as great performances in the movie. Also, as I’ve stated many times, I think the soundtrack kicks ass. I’ll watch Teen Wolf Too for sentimental reasons but it sucks compared to the original.
