I always worried something would go wrong, but the things that went wrong were never what I worried about.

A left turn from the previous movie route....

The Worst Person in the World (2021) [a.k.a. Verdens verste menneske] - "The Worst Person in the World is a modern dramedy about the quest for love and meaning in contemporary Oslo. It chronicles four years in the life of Julie (Renate Reinsve), a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is."
source: I borrowed the DVD from the public library
I watched it because: I was in the mood for some different, quirky, upsetting movies, and was caught by the description of this film
IMDB: 7.7/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 96% Audience: 87%
my IMDB: 8/10

notable quote: "...now it's all I have left: knowledge and memories of stupid, futile things nobody cares about."

MPAA rating: R

directed by: Joachim Trier

my notes: self-absorbed, destructive, aimless girl grows up, traumatically and beautifully. Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lee) and Eivind (Herbert Nordrum) are both her victims and two halves of her ideal. It's a wonderful, sad, intellectual, surreal, funny, scandalous movie - with surprisingly frequent use of the word "butthole."

Academy Award nominee:
• Best Original Screenplay—Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier

• Best International Feature Film—Norway
overall: strongly recommended

Safety Last! (1923) - "A boy (Harold Lloyd) moves to New York City to make enough money to support his loving girlfriend (Mildred Davis), but soon discovers that making it in the big city is harder than it looks. When he hears that a store manager will pay $1,000 to anyone who can draw people to his store, he convinces his friend, the 'human fly,' (Bill Strother) to climb the building and split the profit with him. But when his pal gets in trouble with the law, he must complete the crazy stunt on his own."

source: I borrowed the DVD from the public library
I watched it because: it's in the Criterion Collection, which usually means I'll like it, and it was made more than 100 years ago!
IMDB: 8.1/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 97% Audience: 93%
my IMDB: 9/10

AFI: 100 Years…100 Thrills (2001) #97

notable quote: "I don't wish to be annoyed by any more of your petty complaints about personal appearance.... You know, you're no collar ad, yourself." [via intertitle]

MPAA rating: NR

directed by: Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor

my notes: nauseatingly realistic, this film is really something for someone with vertigo! Howard Lloyd is a brilliantly expressive physical comedian. It's so good!

overall: enthusiastically recommended

Young Frankenstein (1974) - "Respected medical lecturer Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) learns that he has inherited his infamous grandfather's estate in Transylvania. Arriving at the castle, Dr. Frankenstein soon begins to recreate his grandfather's experiments with the help of servants Igor (Marty Feldman), Inga (Teri Garr) and the fearsome Frau Blücher (Cloris Leachman). After he creates his own monster (Peter Boyle), new complications ensue with the arrival of the doctor's fiancée, Elizabeth (Madeline Kahn)."
source: I own the DVD
I watched it because: gourmet meals are all well and good, but sometimes I want to indulge in treats & sweets
IMDB: 8.0/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 95% Audience: 92%
my IMDB: 10/10

AFI: 100 Years…100 Laughs (2000) #13

MPAA rating: PG

notable quote: "'You must be Igor.' [He pronounces it ee-gor]

    'No, it's pronounced "eye-gor."'

    'But they told me it was "ee-gor."'

    'Well, they were wrong then, weren't they?'"

directed by: Mel Brooks

my notes: terrifically, brilliantly silly, smart, racy, daring, and fun. This time around, I was most charmed by Feldman's all-out performance as Igor. This is one of my favorite movies, ever.

Academy Award nominee:
• Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted from Other Material—Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks

• Best Sound—Richard Portman, Gene S. Cantamessa
overall: most highly recommended

Stalker (1979) [a.k.a. Сталкер] - "In an unnamed country at an unspecified time, there is a fiercely protected post-apocalyptic wasteland known as The Zone. An illegal guide (Aleksandr Kajdanovsky), whose mutant child suggests unspeakable horrors within The Zone, leads a writer (Anatoliy Solonitsyn) and a scientist (Nikolay Grinko) into the heart of the devastation in search of a mythical place known only as The Room. Anyone who enters The Room will supposedly have any of his earthly desires immediately fulfilled. "
source: I borrowed the DVD from the public library
I watched it because: I was in the mood for some different, quirky, upsetting movies, and was caught by the description of this film
IMDB: 8.1/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 100% Audience: 92%
my IMDB: 7/10

notable quote: "What I said about going there, it's all a lie. I don't give a damn about inspiration. But how can I put a name to... what it is that I want? How am I to know I don't want what I want, or that I really don't want what I don't want? These are intangibles where the moment you name them, their meaning evaporates like jellyfish in the sun."

MPAA rating: NR

directed by: Andrei Tarkovsky

my notes: OMFG this is a long movie (162 minutes), with endless long shots. Many of them are absolutely necessary to the film. Some should have been left behind. The cinematography is extraordinary, which makes up for a lot.

    I don't understand most of what they were going for, I'm sure, but I liked it. Well, "like" is not the right word. I was drawn into it, and the mood has lingered in me ever since. (I also had an incredibly strange coincidence of discussing it with a colleague - who, by chance, currently plays a video game based on this movie.)

overall:  recommended

 

[the title quotation is from The Worst Person in the World]