he's watching me watching you watching him watching me watching him watching

My on-again, off-again love affair with movies continues. Here are five, including a couple of real weirdos, a surprise miss and a surprise hit, and one that will leave a mark.

Farewell, My Lovely (1975) - "Los Angeles private eye Philip Marlowe is hired by paroled convict Moose Malloy to find his girlfriend Velma, former seedy nightclub dancer."
I watched it because: it was recommended on Amazon Prime, and I've been a little curious about Philip Marlowe since I started learning about noir and classic characters
story: 2/5
visuals: 2.5/5
acting: 2/5
intangibles: 2/5
Academy Award nominee: Best Supporting Actress (Sylvia Miles)
overall: 2.125/5--this genre is maybe not for me

In Love and War (1996) - "A bitter love story between a talented writer and a gentle nurse."
I watched it because: it was included in a box set of Sandra Bullock movies, and the subject matter (American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War) appealed to me
story: 3/5
visuals: 3/5
acting: 3.5/5--standouts: Bullock (Agnes von Kurowsky) and Mackenzie Astin (Henry Villard)
intangibles: 3.5/5--I don't like Ernest Hemingway. Not his writing, not his story, nothing. So, putting aside that this is a movie about f'ing Ernest Hemingway, I liked it quite a bit.
overall: 3.25/5

Legends of the Fall (1994) - "In the early 1900s, three brothers and their father living in the remote wilderness of Montana are affected by betrayal, history, love, nature, and war."
I watched it because: it was the first of the first, and we were finally ready to start.
story: 4.5/5--it's an epic, a long, sweeping story about affection and loyalty in the face of almost endless troubles.
visuals: 4.5/5--this film is absolutely worth watching, even if only for the cinematography. It's beautiful.
acting: 4/5--standouts: in a cast of fantastic players, Brad Pitt (Tristan Ludlow) (especially in the young, adventurous years) and Gordon Tootoosis (One Stab) are riveting.
intangibles: 3/5
Academy Award winner: Best Cinematography
Academy Award nominee:
• Best Sound
• Best Art Direction--Set Decoration
overall: 4/5--The film is not perfect. Aidan Quinn (Alfred) is stiff as starch, the ebullience of Henry Thomas (Samuel) is wasted in such a brief role, and it's at least thirty minutes too long. Still, I will always love this movie.

Head over Heels (2001) - "A young woman is attracted to a man despite her thinking she's seen him kill someone."
I watched it because: "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby" is one of my favorite songs from Counting Crows, and it was (probably) written about Monica Potter. When this popped up in my Amazon recommendations (the online "$5 or less DVD bin") I grabbed it.
story: 2/5--kinda dumb, really, but surprisingly funny at times (a fashion model firing a kiwi fruit across a New York street and managing not to actually chuck it through the window but make it adhere to the outside ... priceless)
visuals: 3/5--pretty people looking pretty
acting: 4/5--standout: Ivana Milicevic (Roxana Milla Slasnikova) is like a funny and approachable Mila Jovanovich
intangibles: 3/5--realistic romantic tension, a whole lot of girl-power-friendship blah blah, and great clothes. The soundtrack also does not entirely suck.
overall: 3/5

The Price of Milk (2000) - "Lucinda, Rob and their 117 cows lead a charmed existence in a magic land. He milks, she's the honey. But Lucinda is worried that their happiness cannot last. She tests their love with a game of sabotage that threatens to curdle everything."
I watched it because: it was recommended to me by my four-salons-ago hairstylist. She owned a copy but would not lend it out because it was so precious to her. I've been sporadically hunting for it ever since.
story: 3/5--hard to know how to answer this question, really. It's a weird as Hell hallucination of a movie experience. Stuff happens that may or may not be real, and time kind of loops around. Also, it's New Zealand, which has a decidedly unique approach to human interaction. (Don't get huffy--one of my dearest friends is essentially a New Zealander, and it's part of what I cherish about her.)
visuals: 3/5--symbolism plays heavily here. It's a very, very green film. Actually, it's sort of a crayon-box (the 8-color set), but the green was worn down to the nub.
acting: 3/5--standouts: most people in the U.S. might watch this for a glimpse of (very) young Karl Urban (Rob), who went on to play in such TV series as Almost Human, and of course the Star Trek reboot. I think the real star of this film, though, is Rangi Motu ("Auntie"). She's just the right mix of wackadoodle, malevolent, and fairy godmother--with a strong dash of New Zealander sneaky humor.
intangibles: 3/5
overall: 3/5--it's a weird little love story with some moral dilemmas and lessons about loyalty for good measure. I can recommend it, but good luck finding it.

[the title quotation is by Jethro Tull, from 'Watching Me, Watching You']