Okay, before you mistake that acronym for anything else, kindly take a gander at this photograph of the weather in these here parts for the last few days, eh?
Right bleedin' miserable it's been here at Latitude 42 North, and for no good reason that I've been given.
On Friday afternoon, the temperature I already slithered into the 40's F and would show no signs - like, none at all - of trying to be decent until two days later, and then only for a few hours.
i thank God for free movies that I was only too glad to go in search of on Epix On Demand.
I've dubbed this tenner the Brrr Outside Film Festival, as apt a name if ever there was.
As I told Carolyn and Barbara, I was not venturing forth into that cold air for any reason, even though Tomasz had brought in a screening to jumpstart CinemaSavannah.
No, as enticing as it had sounded, I was not going.
So, which movies to watch here at home?
I'd originally intended to only watch movies that I know and love, and that was true for the two I started with on Friday.
The first was "Sonic The Hedgehog", a cinema favorite for me, one that I had seen, and written about, multiple times. Love the puns and that bit of baseball in it!
With my heart warmed up and my spirit feeling bright, I chose "Bill And Coo", a delightful 1948 piece about two lovebirds. No, literally! How wonderful to see again this all-animal feature that Jim Reed introduced me to!
Yesterday, I wanted to start with a movie I knew and then work from there. "Bill & Ted Face The Music" was ideal! I'd only seen it once, and that was over a year ago, but I'd drunk up every drop delightedly. Why so? The cinemas had been re-opened for less than a month at the time. Plus, I got to see the two boys morph into several ages - great fun!
Then I turned to another from the PFS vault of yore: "Fitzwilly"! What a pure delight to watch the machinations of Dick van Dyke as a 1968 butler trying to keep the boss' manor up and running, with Barbara Feldon as a new hire that might bollocks up his plans - that is, if she doesn't steal his heart first. Delightful! Hard to believe it's been almost five years since I saw it at the Sentient Bean.
So, just why was it important to see movies I already knew?
Well, I was cooking, trying to get all that excess sodium out of my body, right?
That meant nothing processed.
So, I made a loaf of soda bread - flour, oatmeal, a packet of sugar, a can of diet Coke languishing in the fridge for months - as a starter, something to chew.
I also had a packet of black beluga lentils leftover from a long-ago Blue Apron shipment, as well as carrots in the freezer and ever-present garlic cloves, so a stew was had.
Both of those took a bit of tending, so a movie that didn't have to be paused was in order.
Quite delicious they were, too, and hearty!
Now I was ready to tackle something new, something different, something that had kept tugging on my subconscious since I first spotted it in the listings: "Valley Girl". Mind you, the 1983 flick of the same name was a favorite, boasting good music and the bedroom eyes of Nicholas Cage - rawr!!! So, I took a chance on this remake of last year. Good songs? You bet, taken straight from the 80's pop & punk songbooks! Hot guy? In a sweet way, but without the come-hitherness of Cage. But get this: it's a MUSICAL! Hooray!!! Taking its cues from "Grease", the movie delivered on action, dance, teen angst, and enthusiasm! Wow!
Time to settle down before bed! I turned to "In A World", the film that Lake Bell wrote, directed, and stars in, one I'd seen a few years back that made an impact. How so? Well, I offer two reasons. First, I was married to a radio guy for 15 years and this movie is all about voice-overs. Second, I have been in male-dominated careers most of my life and can fully appreciate how difficult it is to break into such a field - and that sometimes you have to accept being a token hire and then proving your worth. Love Geena Davis' cameo!
This morning, I again started with one familiar and fun: "Monster Trucks"! God knows I love a good pun, and that's got one right in the title! Sure, maybe these alien denizens of the deep aren't as cute as a blue rodent, but they're every bit as smart as the octopus they resemble. Plus, Rob Lowe was in it, and, even as a bad guy, he's easy on the eyes. Oh, and lest I forget, Danny Glover was there, too, helping the kid with the beasts - nice!
Then I was free to watch movies new to me... and I did!
Two slices of my crusty homemade bread served to soak up some of the liquid, as called for by the recipe.
That was more than one bowlful - actually eaten as three small meals - and set me up for the day quite well!
And why had I felt comfortable using that canned comfort food today?
Well, it was good news: my weight had dropped almost five pounds since Thursday!
My salt-free change, coupled with glass after glass of water, had done the trick, as I'd hoped, ridding the excess sodium from my cells.
I even felt my rock-steady pulse this morning!
So, just what new movies called to me?
The one with Tom Hanks, "A Hologram For The King", certainly did, and proved to be quite excellent! It began with him singing the words to the Talking Heads' tune, "Once In A Lifetime", while his worldly belongings vanish - very funny! He's a sales guy on the skids in every area of his life and he gets sent to Saudi to arrange deal based on a sketchy link he has with the King's nephew. How sketchy, you ask? They just happened to both be taking a piss at the same time and, as an ice-breaker, the salesman asked a joke? "What do you call a fish with no eye?" The prince shrugs his shoulders and the saleman says, "ffffshshsh!" The prince had cracked up laughing! No names exchanged... he had just made the nephew laugh and then used that tenuous thread to parlay a trip and a possible chance at a big deal.
The movie is five years old and never got a screening here.
Trust me, Savannah missed out on that one.
The next one, though, surely came to a drive-in around here! The 1979 "Gas Pump Girls" featured lots of bare tits at every possible chance, but all was done in good fun! No, it really was, and the music was fun, too!
Then I took a "Monk" break before breaking into this grand finale film. First off, it's a foreign film, in spoken French, with English subtitles. Secondly, it's about a playwright, Edmond Rosland, so I knew there was going to be great amounts of talking, meaning steady subtitles. Third of all, it was rather lengthy - more than two hours - and I needed to psych myself up to concentrate for that long.
I'm so glad I watched it! "Cyrano, My Love" was utterly fabulous and beautifully paced! Edmond had to placate his favorite actress by writing a play for her friend, he had to help his brawny buddy Leo to woo a fair maid, and he had to do both simultaneously, naturally. Serendipity placed him at a bar when the owner, a very well-read black man, proceeded to berate a mouthy patron who had just called him a "Negro", giving the lout a litany of alternate words that could have been used instead. Eureka! Next thing you know, I'm watching the origin of Steve Martin's "Roxanne" bloom right before me and I could barely read quickly enough as the delicious story unfolded. What a way to end a film fest!
And Monday will bring much better daytime temperatures, to encourage me to get out and about and replenish my larder, among other things.
i thank You, God.
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