First Looks category archive

The Secret Life of . . . ., a humorous, well, really, snarky and sardonic look at the “secret lives” of historical figures, such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Calligula, and Casanova.

I’m watching it on Tubi.

The Best Years of Our Lives, a superb movie about the challenges faced by veterans returning from WWII. I suspect that veterans returning from other wars have faced similar challenges.

If you can find it, watch it. We saw it on TCM.

Afterthought:

I don’t know that my father faced such challenges upon his return from WWII, but I do know that he saw and endured things that persons on the homefront never had to see or endure.

He fought fascism in Europe.

He would be appalled and ashaned to know that we now must needs fight fascism at home.

Via Yellowdoggranny.

Imitation of Life, the 1934 version, not the 1950s remake.

We stumbled over it on TCM.

I was frankly taken aback by how frankly it dealt with racial issues in a time of segregation, when most films of that time pretended that they did not exist. Not to disparage the performances of the other members of the cast, particularly that of Rochelle Hudson, I found Claudine Colbert’s performance to be truly impressive.

We did recently watch It Happened One Night (which we also caught on TCM), for which Colbert won an Oscar, but I thought her acting in this film to be far superior to that Oscar-winning performance. It was somehow more real.

Off to drink liberally.

Seth satirizes the capitulation of they-call-themselves conservatives to the consummate con artist.

Museum Secrets.

I’m currently watching it at tubitv.com, a free streaming service with surprisingly unannoying commercials.

My most excellent hosting provider informs me that the migration of this site to a new VPS is complete.

But I’m still taking the rest of today off.

As Mark Twain observed, history does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison.

We recorded it from TCM some while ago and watched it tonight, (I first watched it many years ago on Monday Night at the Movies and was looking forward to seeing it again.)

It is, in my opinion, Robert Mitchum’s finest movie. If you can find it on a streaming service, it is well worth your while.

If you have not done so, I highly recommend that you read Lena Horne’s autobiography.

Give me a break.

Via All Things Amazing, an image site (some images NSFW).

We watched Barbie on HBO tonight.

I probably would not have opted for it on my own, as I tend to go for mysteries, but my friend wanted to see it, and, I must say, it is quite well done; it tackles very serious issues with off-beat humor.

It is simultaneously absurd and serious, or, perhaps more accurately, absurdly serious, or maybe seriously absurd.

Also, it was fun to see Rhea Perlman in her role as Barbara Handlier’s ghost.

After watching it, I’m not surprised that it has been nominated for so many awards.

I have to wonder, though, whether its creators expected such a reaction or did they consider that they were creating a bit of entertaining (and extremely marketable) fluff?

Afterthought:

Also, it had some great dance numbers.

Afterthought, Reprise:

The scene with the construction workers brought back memories.

When I was working in Center City Philadelphia, there was construction site whose workers were so obnoxious that women would walk blocks out their way to avoid it.

And so would men.

The SPLC’s Hatewatch watches the hate sell.

Just three days after Elon Musk reinstated Alex Jones on X, his reboot of Twitter, the bigot and conspiracy propagandist has gained over 800,000 followers.

Twitter suspended Jones’s account on Sept. 6, 2018, and archives show Jones with roughly 900,000 followers at that time. Jones initially signed up for Twitter in 2010. It took Jones eight years to reach 900,000 – and in span of days, he nearly doubled it to 1.7 million.

One more time, “social” media isn’t.

Off to drink liberally.