The Long Goodbye

We’re going on a bit of an Altman binge, picking up the ones we missed over the years. Because Altman was so experimental, he made a few stinkers, but this isn’t one of them. In fact, its reputation has grown over the years. I think that in 1973 a lot of critics just didn’t get it. We’ve seen a lot weirder stuff than this in 33 years, and now it’s got a ... Read more »

The Long Kiss Goodnight

Supremely silly, but fun. Geena Davis is a housewife who has had amnesia for some years. Now her memories are coming back to her, and it seems she was a highly trained assassin. The conflict between her two personalities are fun to watch, and she is assisted, reluctantly, by a sleazy private eye played by Samuel L. Jackson. The ending is way over the top, I got quite bored, but what ... Read more »

The Long, Long Trailer

I remember seeing this when it was new, so I must have been about six. It’s all about the misadventures of Lucy and Ricky (sorry, actually Tacy and Nicky, though everybody knew who they really were) in a 40-foot trailer. I wouldn’t want to tow one of those even today, with a truck, and it was much harder back then. I recall laughing a lot when Lucy was trying to ... Read more »

The Long Voyage Home

If I’d had to guess whose stories were being adapted for this tale of a tramp steamer carrying high explosives through Nazi-sub-infested waters, Eugene O’Neill would have been way down on my list. But it’s true, these were very early one-act efforts by him. They are “The Moon of the Caribees,” “In The Zone,” “Bound East for Cardiff,” and “The Long Voyage Home.” The screenplay is by Dudley ... Read more »

The Long Walk Home

Before there was The Help, there was The Long Walk Home. It’s about all the working black people of Montgomery, Alabama, who boycotted city buses for 381 days in reaction to the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. (It makes you cringe to see how this monstrosity operated, with black passengers getting ... Read more »

Long Way Round

I wanted to see this after reading Long Way Down, a book which documents a motorcycle trip taken by Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman, son of director John Boorman. They started out at John o’ Groats (the northernmost point of the island of Great Britain) and went all the way through Africa to the Cape of Good Hope. You can hardly imagine how hard a ... Read more »

Longmire

This series played for three seasons on A&E, then it was cancelled, and picked up by Netflix. It seems to have remained popular. It is set in Wyoming, and centers around a sheriff who has lost his wife under so-far-unexplained circumstances a year ago. We have only seen the first season so far, but it’s clear that there is a deeper story concerning her loss that we have yet to hear. ... Read more »

A Look Into the 23rd Century

Here’s a little “Making of” documentary about Logan’s Run. It’s only nine minutes long, and the reason I wanted to see it is that the movie was directed by my friend Michael Anderson, who also directed my own movie, Millennium, thirteen years later. Michael is briefly interviewed, as well as Michael York and the producer, and scenes of ... Read more »

Look Who’s Back (Er ist wieder da)

Am I just seeing special lessons to be learned in a lot of films lately because of the disaster of the recent election? It’s possible, but this one is genuinely disturbing. It is based on a “satirical” novel that was very popular in Germany. The premise: Adolf Hitler is somehow transported through time, alive, to present-day Germany.

If you’ve got your breath back now, let me say ... Read more »

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World

The films of Albert Brooks (real name, Albert Einstein, did you know that? Brother of Bob “Super Dave Osborne” Einstein, son of radio star Parkyakarkus) are not for everyone. His brand of humor is a little esoteric, but I mostly love it. This is not his best, but like all his films, it has its moments. Playing himself (or the cinematic version of himself, his usual insecure screw-up guy) ... Read more »