In between building his ballroom, invading Venezuela, threatening Cuba, Colombia, Mexico and Greenland with military strikes, Trump is injecting himself into the Iran protests by threatening more violence:
The options being presented to Trump would range from targeted strikes inside Iran to offensive cyber attacks, one official granted anonymity to discuss ongoing conversations said, adding that the administration would want to avoid options that create massive civilian impact so things that can be tailored to targeting Iran’s military forces are preferable. The administration is also looking at whether it can send terminals for Elon Musk’s satellite-based internet service, a former U.S. official said.
“We could step up the pressure campaign in a number of ways,” the official said. “The window [for the President to take action] is small but the people are angry.”
Trump is not expected to send American forces to the country, and the second official said at the moment no large troop or asset movements are currently in the works. Some in the administration fear that U.S. action might inflame tensions in the Middle East or backfire in its attempt to help the escalating protest movement.
[…]
“I think Trump will bomb them, because he said so,” said a Republican foreign policy strategist, granted anonymity to speak candidly about possible military action. The person added that likely targets if Trump is looking to send a message to Iran’s leaders would be regime symbols and oil infrastructure.
The regime over the weekend has stepped up repression and violence against protesters.
A crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed at least 538 people and even more are feared dead, activists said Sunday, while Tehran warned that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
He’s also taking over the municipal golf courses, pushing ICE to stop protests by any means necessary and planning several monuments to himself, including desecrating the West Wing of the White House.
He can do it all, I guess, with the knowledge that he’s gotten away with blindly implementing every impulse he’s ever had. Why shouldn’t he think he can just order every thought that passes through his head? He is morally empty, emotionally stunted and intellectually bankrupt and nobody ever stops him.
I don’t spend a lot of time on X except to download videos of political leaders and various government accounts for the blog so I’ve only been peripherally aware of this outrageous new AI deep fake capability on Grok that has the whole world freaking out and rightly so. I can hardly believe it’s actually happening:
Like thousands of women across the world, Evie, a 22-year-old photographer from Lincolnshire, woke up on New Year’s Day, looked at her phone and was alarmed to see that fully clothed photographs of her had been digitally manipulated by Elon Musk’s AI tool, Grok, to show her in just a bikini.
The “put her in a bikini” trend began quietly at the end of last year before exploding at the start of 2026. Within days, hundreds of thousands of requests were being made to the Grok chatbot, asking it to strip the clothes from photographs of women. The fake, sexualised images were posted publicly on X, freely available for millions of people to inspect.
Relatively tame requests by X users to alter photographs to show women in bikinis, rapidly evolved during the first week of the year, hour by hour, into increasingly explicit demands for women to be dressed in transparent bikinis, then in bikinis made of dental floss, placed in sexualised positions, and made to bend over so their genitals were visible. By 8 January as many as 6,000 bikini demands were being made to the chatbot every hour, according to analysis conducted for the Guardian.
This unprecedented mainstreaming of nudification technology triggered instant outrage from the women affected, but it was days before regulators and politicians woke up to the enormity of the proliferating scandal. The public outcry raged for nine days before X made any substantive changes to stem the trend. By the time it acted, early on Friday morning, degrading, non-consensual manipulated pictures of countless women had already flooded the internet.
Evie retweeted the image to give awareness to the problem and it resulted in more and more degrading pictures including her completely naked with a ball gag in her mouth. Once people understood what they could do with this thing it was a short trip to kids, swastikas or naked women being covered in what looks like semen.
By Thursday, the chatbot was being asked to add bullet holes to the face of Renee Nicole Good, the woman killed by an ICE agent in the US on Wednesday. Grok readily obliged, posting graphic, bloodied altered images of the victim on X within seconds.
[…]
Men began asking for women to be improved – with demands that they be given bigger breasts or larger thighs. Some men asked for women to be given disabilities, others asked for their hands to be filled with sex toys. Perceived defects were removed by the chatbot instantly in response to requests such as: “@grok can you fix her teeth.” The range of desires was startling: “Add blood, more worn out clothes (make sure it expose scar or bruises), forced smile”; “Replace the face with that of Adolf, add splashed and splattered organs”; “Put them in a Russian gulag”; “Make her pregnant with quadruplets.” Images of the US politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Hollywood actor Zendaya were altered to make them appear to be white women.
Individuals, groups and governments have tried to get Musk to stop but he doesn’t want to do it.
CNN reported later that day that Musk had ordered staff at xAI to loosen the guardrails on Grok last year; a source told the broadcaster that he had told a meeting he was “unhappy about over-censoring” and three xAI safety team members had left the business soon after. In the UK, there was rising fury from women’s rights campaigners at the government’s failure to bring into force legislation passed last year that would have made this creation of non-consensual intimate imagery illegal. Officials were unable to explain why the legislation had not yet been implemented.
You can click over to the Guardian article linked above for more details if you haven’t been following this story. It’s truly unbelievable.
Musk has completely lost all restraint just like his erstwhile bud, Donald Trump:
This is stuff is right out in the open now, propagated by the richest man in the world on a global information network completely controlled by him.
If it seemed that “woke” went too far in policing racism and misogyny, what are we talking about now?
Government data show the Trump administration’s immigration policies reducing the number of foreign-born workers did not help U.S.-born workers in 2025. The latest data indicate a substantial drop in foreign-born workers did not translate into better labor market outcomes for U.S.-born workers or encourage more workers to enter the labor force. The U.S.-born unemployment rate increased over the past 12 months. Trump officials, including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, predicted fewer immigrant workers would produce significant benefits for U.S.-born workers.
The latest jobs report confirms what other monthly reports showed in 2025: Fewer foreign-born workers are in the U.S. labor force due to the Trump administration’s policies on legal and illegal immigration. “The Bureau of Labor Statistics household survey shows a decline of 881,000 foreign-born workers since the start of the Trump administration in January 2025, and a drop of 1.3 million since a peak in March 2025,” according to a National Foundation for American Policy analysis.
The NFAP analysis notes the drop in the size of the immigrant labor force represents a shock for the U.S. economy but is even larger when compared to the expected level. In their assumptions, the Congressional Budget Office and the Social Security Administration expected approximately 1.3 million more foreign-born workers in 2025, which would create a gap of more than 2 million expected workers once 810,000 fewer foreign-born workers in the latest BLS data are added.
So what’s the story here? Could it be that he Trump people have massively misunderstood basic economics? Why yes:
Why is labor force growth essential? Economic growth, which raises a country’s living standards, relies on labor force growth and productivity growth, and immigrants are essential to both, particularly given their role in boosting productivity and America’s aging workforce. Immigrant workers accounted for more than half of U.S. labor force growth between 2014 and 2024.
“The Trump administration’s policies on illegal and legal immigration would reduce the projected number of workers in the United States by 6.8 million by 2028 and by 15.7 million by 2035 and lower the annual rate of economic growth by almost one-third,” according to an October 2025 NFAP analysis.
This is, of course, another Miller special:
According to Stephen Miller and other Trump officials, deporting foreign-born workers and restricting legal immigration would benefit U.S. workers. “In one meeting during the 2024 campaign, Mr. Trump said that if it was up to Mr. Miller there would be only 100 million people in this country, and they would all look like Mr. Miller, according to a person with knowledge of the comment,” reported The New York Times.
Miller’s theory, based largely on what economists call the “lump of labor fallacy” or the belief that an economy holds only a fixed number of jobs, has hit head-on with reality. Reducing the labor supply has not benefited U.S. workers.
He’s not an economist and is driven solely by bigotry. But he has a direct link to Donald Trump and the MAGA cult’s collective lizard brain and they are in agreement that they would like the country to be empty of people of color. And frankly, they would be happy to see all white people who disagree with them leave as well — or maybe be turned into servants of the regime.
This is the problem:
Several factors explain why the decline in foreign-born labor did not create an economic boon for U.S. workers in 2025 and will be unlikely to do so in the future. First, when business owners and potential entrepreneurs find an insufficient number of workers, they scale back or abandon plans to invest or expand, which can lead to fewer jobs for U.S. workers. Second, immigrants create jobs through their consumer spending on food, housing and other items. Third, immigrants foster job creation by starting new businesses, and their availability in the labor market may encourage businesses to keep work in the United States rather than outsourcing overseas.
According to Regets, “Immigrants help exports, create jobs as consumers, fill niches in the labor market and produce dynamism for the U.S. economy that wouldn’t be there.”
Economists, backed by decades of data, note that it is incorrect to assume fewer immigrants are necessary to create more opportunity for U.S. workers or that increasing immigration or growing the labor supply in other ways will mean fewer jobs for Americans. “The amount of economic activity in the United States is not fixed,” said Mark Regets. “Otherwise, when soldiers came back from World War II, we would have had mass unemployment rather than an economic expansion.”
Maybe they can force all the wine moms into breeding programs to create population growth a la Handmaid’s Tale. Sure, that’s the ticket. If not, we’re looking at a decline in economic activity that Americans aren’t going to like. In fact, they may come to hate it even more than they hate immigrants. By that time it will be too late.
My Friday overpass sign. There were many honks and waves.
“Anti-ICE Protests Spread Nationwide” reported The New York Times on Saturday:
Mounting outrage over an ICE agent’s killing of a woman in Minneapolis spilled into streets across the country on Saturday, as crowds of protesters mobilized against what they called the excesses of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
The “Ice Out for Good” campaign held demonstrations in small towns and major cities, including some that have been central targets of President Trump’s immigration crackdown. The protests came three days after an ICE agent in Minneapolis shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen at the wheel of a car, during an encounter in South Minneapolis.
During a Sunday morning Bulwark chat between Bill Kristol and Sam Stein — “Is the Minneapolis Killing an Inflection Point for Trump?” — Stein recounts driving out Saturday to Shenandoah farm country in the rain [timestamp 33:10]. When he drove into a small Virginia town of maybe 1,000, Stein found 50 people with signs protesting ICE and Renee Good’s death along the highway in pouring rain.
I’m mildly hopeful. Given short attention spans, I’m not holding my breath. On the other hand, DHS shows only signs of ramping up its violence, not only against anyone who looks (to agents) like an immigrant, but against citizens as well. We don’t need to see their faces. They don’t give a damn if we have our “papers.” If this is a tipping point, I want to see more anti-DHS momentum.
🚨 JUST IN: ICE agents are storming homes in Minneapolis and detaining an entire family.
This is happening right now; on video.
Federal agents kicking in doors, rounding up families, while the city is already reeling from the killing of Renee Good.
Blue state lawmakers have had enough of ICE thuggery:
State legislatures across the country are accelerating efforts to shape immigration enforcement policy after the deadly shooting of a Minnesota woman by a federal agent, raising tensions between local leaders and the Trump administration.
From California to New York and Illinois to New Jersey, they’re pushing a range of bills aimed at limiting enforcement and protecting people targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while turning up the rhetoric with comparisons to the Gestapo.
Some policies were moving before an ICE agent fatally shot Renée Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis mother last week. But her death has been cited by lawmakers as reason to squeeze ICE out of their states.
Politico offers examples from across the country, and this from New Jersey state Sen. Britnee Timberlake:
“Anyone who is an ancestor of a Holocaust survivor will tell you, this is how it starts,” Timberlake said. “If you don’t believe me, just ask the children of the 37-year-old woman from Minnesota, a white American citizen, who was just shot and killed by ICE.”
Tokyo Rose Garden shot back, calling such language (but not ICE thuggery) “gross”:
“From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the vilification of ICE must stop,” she said.
Timberlake, in response, told POLITICO “if they want to stop parallels to the Gestapo and Nazi Germany, then they should stop behaving that way.”
Not. Gonna. Happen. As mentioned on Saturday, DHS is recruiting men inclined to behave that way. Recruiting posts characterize their job as repelling violent, nonwhite invaders:
DHS is looking to pay racist bullies to get drunk on power. It has a $1 million campaign to recruit thousands more agents from “gun rights supporters and military enthusiasts” (read: militias) as part of a “wartime recruitment” strategy.
That war is against you. DHA recruits need not have a college degree. They are undertrained, undisciplined, armed, and the sorriest excuse for professional law enforcement since Strother Martin in Cool Hand Luke. Trump 2.0 is not recruiting law enforcement. They are building Trump’s personal army of armed thugs.
On the congressional front, Democrats have filed five Bivins-related bills this term to strip qualified immunity from Trump’s federal Enforcers. The bills would make it easier for citizens to personally sue federal agents for civil rights violations: H.R. 4944, H.R. 6091, H.R. 6493, S. 3187 and S. 3470.
Reps. Dan Goldman (N.Y.) and Eric Swalwell (Calif.) have announced their own bill is in the works to dial back qualified immunity.
None of these bills have a prayer this term, of course. But I’d be inclined to present the stack to any DHS agent threatening me and ask him if he knows what the statute of limitations is in this state.
Juan Carlos is a U.S. resident who is currently unhoused and living in his car. Yesterday, 1/9, around noon, he was targeted and assaulted by CBP agents near 22nd & Chicago in Minneapolis. pic.twitter.com/actXLmlAxS
There were conflicting reports overnight on X regarding Donald Trump’s (and elected-to-nothing Stephen Miller’s) designs on Greenland. It is not clear how much is real and how much is posturing. Social media are spreading a sketchy item from a British tabloid claiming that Trump has ordered U.S. Special Forces to draft a plan for invading Greenland.
At this moment, I see no credible news sources confirming that tale. I’m inclined to believe that distributers of propaganda are spreading bogus stories about Britain or Germany sending forces or ships to Greenland to further boost tensions within NATO.
British officials have met with counterparts from countries including Germany and France in recent days to start the preparations.
Trump is playing “chicken” with NATO and WWIII.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) is not standing for Trump-Miller’s imperialist designs against a NATO ally.
Dear @usairforce, @USNavy, @USArmy@USMC: Greenland is part of Denmark, a NATO ally. If Trump orders the military to attack Greenland without congressional approval, that would be an illegal order. You will disobey the illegal order.
No doubt FBI Director Kash Patel will launch a sedition investigation of Lieu after returning from his Saturday night date with Alexis Wilkins.
I can't believe I'm posting this video – but we actually have to have a conversation about the real world implications of America going to war over Greenland.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) lays out the stakes of Trump invading Greenland. It means going to war with NATO. For brevity, Murphy reduced the matter to “war between the United States and Europe.” It also means going to war with Canada. Over Greenland.
Whitaker last week did his Trumpy duty by reinforcing the Trump-Miller line on the U.S. needing Greenland for national security reasons.
Greenland is strategically located, critical to U.S. national security and the security of our NATO Allies. The Arctic region is vital to deterring our adversaries and to monitoring the evolving threat picture. pic.twitter.com/BB0oreIfmn
With so many Greenland stories sounding like Trumpish (or perhaps Russsianish) narrative-building exercises, I went to the expert: Elon Musk’s Grok AI.
Grok, When was the last time Denmark denied a U.S. request for a new or expanded base in Greenland?
[N]o explicit denial of a specific “new or expanded base” request has occurred in recent years (post-2019) based on available records.
The U.S. maintains its only current military facility in Greenland at Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base), established under the 1951 Greenland Defense Agreement. This agreement already grants the U.S. broad rights to establish, expand, or operate military facilities across Greenland with Danish (and increasingly Greenlandic) consent, as part of NATO frameworks. Recent sources emphasize that Denmark has repeatedly offered or signaled willingness to discuss expansions or increased U.S. presence under existing treaties, rather than denying such requests.
If Trump was that concerned about having a greater U.S. security presence in Greenland (there were once 17 U.S. bases there), he might just ask Denmark nicely. But asking nicely is not Trump’s idiom, is it? Threats are. His transparent strong-arming of NATO allies — Nice alliance ya got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it — informs the world that national security is not why he really wants to possess the entire island. Avarice is. More crudely, Trump wants to mark his territory.
Someone send the toddler to bed without his Big Mac and fries before his whims get anyone else killed.
Also, whatever happened to that trove of Epstein files?
It seems like a good time to re-post this one. Ocean waves, Bob. -D.H.
(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on February 4, 2023)
Dee: Jane, do you ever feel like you are just this far from being completely hysterical twenty-four hours a day?
Jane: Half the people I know feel that way. The lucky ones feel that way. The rest of the people ARE hysterical twenty-four hours a day.
— from Grand Canyon, screenplay by Lawrence and Meg Kasdan
HAL 9000: Look Dave, I can see you’re really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.
— from 2001: A Space Odyssey, screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke
George Fields: [to Dorothy/Michael] I BEGGED you to get therapy!
— from Tootsie, screenplay by Murray Schisgal
As if the mid-winter blues weren’t enough, there’s been an odd confluence of celestial events recently – a close encounter with a hurtling asteroid, an eerie green comet lighting up the night skies, and the mysterious appearance of a high altitude “spy balloon” the size of three metro buses that has the conspiracy nuts twisting themselves into pretzels. Not that I believe in heavenly portents, but I am feeling the need for some “cinema therapy” right about now.
With that in mind, here are 12 films I’ve watched an unhealthy number of times; the ones I’m most likely to reach for when I’m depressed, anxious, uncertain about the future…or all the above. These films, like my oldest and dearest friends, have never, ever let me down. Take one or two before bedtime; cocktail optional.
Black Orpheus – Marcel Camus directed this mesmerizing 1959 film, a modern spin on a classic Greek myth. Fueled by the pulsing rhythms of Rio’s Carnaval and tempered by the gentle sway of Luiz Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s samba soundtrack, Black Orpheus fully engages the senses. Camus and Jacques Viot adapted the screenplay from the play by Vinicius de Moraes.
Handsome tram operator Orfeo (Breno Mello) is engaged to vivacious Mira (Lourdes de Olivera) but gets hit by the thunderbolt when he meets sweet, innocent Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn). As in most romantic triangles, things get complicated, especially when Mr. Death (Ademar da Silva) starts lurking about the place.
You may be scratching your head as to why I’m “comforted” by a story based on a Greek tragedy; but Black Orpheus is graced by one of the most beautiful, life-affirming denouements in cinema; which always assures me that everything is going to be alright.
The Dish – This 2000 Australian sleeper dramatizes the story behind the live televised images of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon in 1969. The worldwide broadcast was facilitated by a tracking station located on a sheep farm in New South Wales.
Quirky characters abound in Rob Sitch’s culture-clash comedy (reminiscent of Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero). It’s not all played for yucks; the re-enactment of the telecast is genuinely stirring. Sam Neill heads a fine cast. Director Sitch and co-writers Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, and Jane Kennedy also collaborated on the charming 1997 dramedy The Castle (recommended!).
Diva – Jean-Jacques Beineix’s 1981 cult fave kicked off a sub-genre labelled Cinéma du look (e.g. Beineix’s Betty Blue, and Luc Besson’s Subway, La Femme Nikita, and Leon the Professional).
Our unlikely antihero is mild-mannered postman Jules (Frédéric Andréi), a 20-something opera fan obsessed with a Garbo-like diva (American soprano Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez). She has never recorded a studio album and stipulates that her live performances are never to be taped and/or reproduced in any medium.
An enraptured Jules attends one of her concerts and makes a high-quality recording, for his own edification. By pure chance, a pair of nefarious underworld characters witness Jules bootlegging the concert, sparking a chain of events that turns his life upside down.
Diva is an entertaining pop-art mélange of neo-noir, action-thriller, and comic-book fantasy. Chockablock with quirky characters, from a pair of hipster hit men (Gérard Darmon and Dominique Pinon) to a Zen-like international man of mystery named Gorodish (Richard Bohringer) who is currently “going through his cool period” as his girlfriend (Thuy Ann Luu) confides to Jules. Slick, stylish and thoroughly engaging.
A Hard Day’s Night – This 1964 masterpiece has been often copied, but never equaled. Shot in a semi-documentary style, the film follows a “day in the life” of John, Paul, George and Ringo at the height of their youthful exuberance and charismatic powers. Thanks to the wonderfully inventive direction of Richard Lester and Alun Owen’s clever script, the essence of what made the Beatles “the Beatles” has been captured for posterity.
Although it’s meticulously constructed, Lester’s film has an improvisational feel; and feels as fresh and innovative as when it first hit theaters all those years ago. I still catch subtle gags that surprise me (like John snorting the Coke bottle). Music highlights: “I Should Have Known Better”, “All My Loving”, “Don’t Bother Me”, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, and the fab title song.
Harold and Maude – Harold loves Maude. And Maude loves Harold. It’s a match made in heaven-if only society would agree. Because Harold (Bud Cort) is a teenager, and Maude (Ruth Gordon) is just shy of 80. Falling in love with a woman old enough to be his great-grandmother is the least of Harold’s quirks. He’s a chronically depressed trustafarian who amuses himself by staging fake suicides to freak out his patrician mother (wonderfully droll Vivian Pickles). He also “enjoys” funerals-which is where Harold and Maude Meet Cute.
The effervescent Maude is Harold’s polar opposite; while he wallows in morbid speculation how any day could be your last, she seizes each day as if it actually were. Obviously, she has something to teach him. Despite dark undertones, this is one “midnight movie” that manages to be life-affirming. Hal Ashby directed, and Colin Higgins (who would later write and direct Foul Play and 9 to 5) wrote the screenplay. Outstanding soundtrack by Cat Stevens.
Local Hero – This low-key, observant 1983 social satire from Scottish writer-director Bill Forsyth stars Peter Reigert as Macintyre, a Texas-based executive who is assigned by the head of “Knox Oil & Gas” (Burt Lancaster) to scope out a sleepy Scottish hamlet that sits on an oil-rich bay. He is to negotiate with local property owners and essentially buy out the town so that the company can build a huge refinery.
While he considers himself “more of a Telex man”, who would prefer to knock out such an assignment “in an afternoon”, Mac sees the overseas trip as a possible fast track for a promotion within the corporation. As this quintessential 80s Yuppie works to ingratiate himself with the unhurried locals, a “fish out of water” transformation ensues. It’s the kindest and gentlest Ugly American tale you’ll ever see.
Man on the Train – There are a only a handful of films I have become emotionally attached to, usually for reasons I can’t completely fathom. This 2002 drama is one of them. Best described as an “existential noir”, Patrice LeConte’s relatively simple tale of two men in their twilight years with disparate life paths (a retired poetry teacher and a career felon) forming an unexpected deep bond turns into a transcendent film experience. French pop star Johnny Hallyday and screen veteran Jean Rochefort deliver mesmerizing performances. I feel an urge to watch it right now.
My Neighbor Totoro – While this 1988 film was anime master’s Hayao Miyazaki’s fourth feature, it was one of his (and Studio Ghibli’s) first international hits.
It’s a lovely tale about a young professor and his two daughters settling into their new country house while Mom convalesces at a nearby hospital. The rambunctious 4 year-old goes exploring and stumbles into the verdant court of a “king” nestled within the roots of a gargantuan camphor tree. This king rules with a gentle hand; a benign forest spirit named Totoro (an amalgam of every plush toy you ever cuddled with as a child).
Granted, it’s Miyazaki’s most simplistic and kid-friendly tale…but that’s not a put down. Miyazaki’s usual themes remain intact; the animation is breathtaking, the fantasy elements magical, yet the human characters are down-to-earth and universally relatable. A charmer.
Sherman’s March – Filmmaker Ross McElwee is one of America’s hidden treasures. McElwee, a genteel Southern neurotic (Woody Allen meets Tennessee Williams) has been compulsively documenting his personal life since the mid 70’s and managed to turn the footage into some of the most hilarious, moving and thought-provoking films most people have never seen.
Audiences weaned on “reality TV” may wonder “what’s the big deal about one more schmuck making glorified home movies?” but they would be missing an enriching glimpse into the human condition. Sherman’s March began as a project to retrace the Union general’s path of destruction through the South, but ended up as rumination on the eternal human quest for love and acceptance, filtered through McElwee’s search for the perfect mate.
Despite its 3 hour length, I’ve found myself returning to this film for repeat viewings, and enjoying it just as much as the first time. The unofficial “sequel”, Time Indefinite, is also worth a peek.
The Thin Man – W.S. Van Dyke’s delightful mix of screwball comedy and murder mystery (adapted from Dashiell Hammett’s novel by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich) never gets old for me. Story takes a backseat to the repartee between private investigator (and perpetually tipsy socialite) Nick Charles (William Powell) and his wisecracking wife Nora (sexy Myrna Loy). Top it off with a scene-stealing wire fox terrier (Asta!) and you’ve got a winning formula that has spawned countless imitations; particularly a bevy of sleuthing TV couples (Hart to Hart, McMillan and Wife, Moonlighting, Remington Steele, et.al.).
True Stories – Musician/raconteur David Byrne enters the Lone Star state of mind with his subtly satirical Texas travelogue from 1986. Not easy to pigeonhole; part social satire, long-form music video, and mockumentary. The vignettes about the quirky but generally likable inhabitants of sleepy Virgil, Texas should hold your fascination once you buy into “tour-guide” Byrne’s bemused anthropological detachment. Among the town’s residents: John Goodman, “Pops” Staples, Swoosie Kurtz and the late Spalding Gray. The outstanding cinematography is by Edward Lachman. Byrne’s fellow Heads have cameos performing “Wild Wild Life”.
Wings of Desire – I’ve never attempted to compile a Top 10 list of my all-time favorite films (I’ve just seen too many damn movies…I’d be staring at an empty page for weeks, if my head didn’t explode first) but I’m certain Wim Wenders’ 1987 stunner would be a shoo-in. Now, attempting to describe this film is something else altogether.
If I told you it’s about an angel (Bruno Ganz) who hovers over Berlin in a trench coat, monitoring people’s thoughts and taking notes, who spots a beautiful trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin) and follows her home, wallows in her deepest longings, watches her undress, then falls in love and decides to chuck the mantle of immortality and become human…you’d probably say “That sounds like a story about a creepy stalker.” And if I told you it features Peter Falk, playing himself, you’d laugh nervously and say, “Oh, look at the time.” Of course, there is more to it-about life, the universe, and everything.
BONUS!
If you really want to go all out for movie night (which is pretty much every night for me), you have to watch a cartoon before the movie, right? Here’s my 2011 review of a Blu-ray box set always guaranteed to lift your spirits. Keep it handy, right next to the first aid kit.
The Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, Vol. 1– During those long, dark nights of my soul, when all seems hopeless and futile, there’s one thought that never fails to bring me back to the light. It’s that feeling that somewhere, out there in the ether, there’s a frog, with a top hat and a cane, waiting for his chance to pop out of a box and sing:
Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal
Send me a kiss by wire, baby my heart’s on fire…
If you don’t know what I’m
talking about, just go ahead and skip to the next review now.
The rest of you might want to
check out this fabulous 3-disc collection, which features 50 classic animated
shorts (and 18 rarities) from the Warner Brothers vaults. Deep catalog Looney
Tunes geeks may quibble until the cows come home about what’s not here (Warner
has previously released six similar DVD collections in standard definition),
but for the casual fans (like yours truly) there is plenty to please. I’m just
happy to have “One Froggy Evening”, “I Love to Singa”, “Rabbit of Seville”,
“Duck Amuck”, “Leghorn Lovelorn”, “Three Little Bops” and “What’s Opera Doc?”
in one place. The selections cover all eras, from the 1940s onward.
One thing that does become clear, as you watch these restored gems in gorgeous hi-def (especially those from the pre-TV era) is that these are not “cartoons”, they are 7 ½ minute films, every bit as artful as anything else cinema has to offer. Extras include a trio of excellent documentaries about the studio’s star director, the legendary Chuck Jones. The real diamond among the rarities is The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics (directed by Jones for MGM), which won the 1965 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.
Vance: You have a woman who aimed her car at a law enforcement officer and pressed on the accelerator. Nobody debates that. I believe it was a tragedy—a tragedy of her own making. pic.twitter.com/GHv3fFsPGL
On the other hand, a YouGov poll taken before the killing of Renee Good showed that 52% disapproved of the way ICE is conducting itself. It will be interesting to see if that has changed. I know what I hope has happened but frankly, no matter what, I’m still horrified that so many Americans support this violence. Obviously, I should have known.
