There are these places called host clubs in Osaka where handsome boys date rich young women they solicit on the street.

Like female strippers who sell the fantasy of real affection for lap dances, drunk the whole time, these men make a considerably income doing the same thing. They entertain their clients in a club atmosphere and make them feel wanted, sometimes there's sex. But since the needs of the market (girls with money to burn, mainly prostitutes desperate for love) is so different from the simple desires of the heterosexual man, the product they offer is a lot more complicated. It's ridiculously expensive, and the women get a lot more attached to the fantasy.

I know regular strip club patrons really believe the dancers like them and are attracted to them and enjoy what they do, and cling to that. It's interesting to see the roles reversed in this documentary. And strange that its all women in my age demographic.

 you voluntarily watched a movie based on a stephen king movie, man

 "i keep ramming the sharp end of this knife into my chest and for some reason i'm bleeding!!!"

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

 I feel that way 2 or 3 times a day...but they'll never catch me!!!

Star Trek

i enjoyed this movie. at times it was like watching a TV movie(camera work mostly). i did not enjoy the Chekov character or the actor. but the cast is solid. in particular..."McCoy, Leonard McCoy". this is the only obvious homage, though there are a few. i will probably buy the DVD because it was just basically...entertaining!

Suspicion (Hitchcock, B&W).  Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine (who won the Oscar for this role).  A fast-talking con-man always has an answer, even when people around him start to die.  His new bride is vascillates between fearing the worst and love for her husband.

 I wanted to like this movie, but it just wasn't my favorite Hitchcock.  There wasn't much mystery about Cary Grant's character (except why everyone seemed so easily pursuaded by him).  The main tension was what his wife was going to do about it.  I'm glad I saw it, but probably wouldn't watch it again.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Thumbs Up - Tomorrow  

Robert Duvall is amazing in a black and white film version of a William Faulkner short story.  He plays a simple, country farmer in the South, whose fate intersects with a pregnant woman lost and wandering after her husband abandons her.  Great Faulkner adaptation, and Duvall's performance reminds me why he's one of our finest.

Thumbs Down - Towelhead  

So disappointed in Alan Ball's last feature effort.  The tone he struck felt creepy and uncomfortable. The material is so hard to take in the first place -- 13 year old girl with an abusive, self-centered Lebanese father, an equally self-centered and clueless mother, the sexual predator redneck next door, the girls sexual awakening.  Ponderous and melodramatic. There's even a close up of a car-flattened white kitten. Life's grim. Skip it.

Ohmygawd, I loved this movie when it came out.  Julie Christie was magnificent in that film.  Alfie and Georgie Girl were out around the same time and it was just one great 'un after another.  Those were the days for British and American films.

 Saw George Clooney on Shootout yesterday morning saying he had given a gift of his 100 favorite films to friends as Christmas gifts.  The movies were from between 1964-1978, which he said were the best years for American film.  The only one he mentioned was Harold and Maude.

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Red Cliff

Apart from the fact that I was forced to watch the annoying american edit that edited two movies into one, I thought this movie was the best work John Woo has done in more than decade. Completely ludricrous and fantastically over the top, and a riot start to finish.

O Lucky Man!  

Rewatched this after 30 years...If you haven't seen it, you must.  Lindsay Anderson directs Malcolm McDowell (2 years after Clockwork Orange) in this epic tale of a young coffee salesman who hits the road looking for success and wealth, having instead all sorts of strange and surreal encounters.  Alan Price's soundtrack is terrific, and his band serves as a sort of Greek chorus, appearing in the film playing songs that comment on the story, and eventually being drawn into the film itself.  Co-stars a very young Helen Mirren.

Creepshow 2.  I saw this when I was a kid and The Raft vignette stuck with me.  It.s very true to the Stephen King short story.  It's got ecological horror, young Paul Satterfield in a banana hammock, sex, a moody wooded lake, and an 80's muscle car.

It keeps getting better every time I see it, even after 10 years.

If you are a man who has a friend on whom you can depend

...you are a lucky man...

 I remember loving the music and the weirdness of some hospital experimentation involving pigs, right?  It was long, seemingly edited a bit randomly but a kick at the time.  Would be fun to see it again.  Thanks for the reminder.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Yes, Nuart.  That was the one scene from O Lucky Man! I remembered for thirty years...I won't say more because the shock value of that scene is incredible.

 I've seen If (which is great as well), but haven't seen Britannia Hospital.  Must track it down.
 

A Streetcar Named Desire

Never saw it before, and figured the timing was right.  It was different than I thought it would be, tackling a subject I didn't really see coming.