Tcm

[Johann]

I'm not sure why they like it so much- it's definitely a matter of taste- I found little humour in it, but others may find it hilarious.
I don't think a bottle of vermouth would make it any funnier to me. I'd be curious to know what real drag queens think.
No one in the movie (besides the gangsters hunting them) thinks they're anything but women!

Very cool that you're checking out A Matter of Life and Death---that one is still on my mind. It's Magical.
Jack Cardiff's dreamlike cinematography is legendary. Did you know his own breath was breathed onto the lens to fog it up?

[Johann]

Jack Lemmon was far more toned down for Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT, a great classic film.
Shirley MacLaine is gorgeous as the elevator girl eternally looking for love.
Fred MacMurray is back with Wilder, as Lemmon's boss Mr. Sheldrake.

The story is simple: Jack is C.C. Baxter, a hardworking "company man" trying to get ahead at a massive company.
He loans out his apartment to co-workers as favors, and the boss catches wind of it. Sheldrake wants in, as he constantly needs cover for his numerous affairs.
He promotes Baxter, and a love triangle gets exposed-Sheldrake is seeing the elevator girl (who Baxter likes) but his divorce has yet to be finalized.
In the end Baxter sticks it to his boss and forfeits his job.
Little does he know that elevator girl loves him too, after realizing what a sweet, kind guy he is.
A great little christmas holiday movie, where the nice guy finishes First.

[Chris Knipp]

Your thumbnail descriptions/reviews of classics are now honed more and more to perfection, if they might not yet quite compete with Pauline Kael's ones (that listing doesn't seem to include THE APARTMENT, which some high-toned critics scorned at the time). A Guardian writer reassesses rather favorably Andrew Sarris's putting Billy Wilder in his "Less Than Meets the Eye" category. But that's as a director - considering all the stuff he wrote or co-wrote, he meets the eye. Who would you compare Jack Lemmon to today?

[Johann]

A rich dude (Keenan Wynne) wants to prove that teenagers are no different from apes.
That's all the "plot" you need for this incredibly silly movie.

I was entertained, but only in terms of how cheesy and off-the-charts cartoonish this is.
Frankie Avalon pulls off two roles here, as himself and as an archetype for a Beatle named "Potato Bug"-you have to see him to believe him.
Annette Funicello is cute, and sings a cute song "This time it's Love".
Guest stars include Stevie Wonder, Boris Karloff and Don Rickles.
Have a few beers or get stoned and you will laugh I'm sure...

[Chris Knipp]

You seem to be lowering your standards, but maybe this is a good time for silliness.
I however (seeing it's in Mike D'Angelo's 2019 Top Ten List) want to carry on watching Casey Afflecks LIGHT OF MY LIFE, which is about a man and his young kid surviving a pandemic that has wiped out the earth. It may be timely. It's free with Amazon Prime.

In a bleak future where women have been wiped out by a deadly plague, a forlorn man and his young daughter, disguised as a boy, make their way through the wilderness.-AO Scott, NYTimes.

I seem to have started it earlier and left it after 4 minutes.
I am still getting new movies to watch and I have reviews coming here when they come out in July of

THE OUTPOST (Afghan war thriller, good)
RELIC (classy horror flick)
THE CLIMB (nice, funny feature debut)
HOUSE OF HUMMINGBIRD (sensitive Korean coming-of-age film)
NOSE TO TAIL (drama about a chef)
THE MEDICINE (doc about ayahuasca)
JOHN LEWIS-GOOD TROUBLE (doc about the veteran congressman and pioneer civil rights fighter)
wWE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES (busy, clever Japanese youth film)
and
THE PAINTED BIRD (a film in black and white from the famous Jerzy Kozinski novel of the sixties)
- not in chronological order.

[Johann]

You seem to be lowering your standards, but maybe this is a good time for silliness.

I'm wiling to watch almost anything, but the last two days have been weak for TCM in my view.
I saw Beach Blanket Bingo and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini-talk about lowering standards!
Both had Buster Keaton as a guest-star!!! Inconceivable.

I'm jealous of your film consumption Chris.

[Johann]

Thanks for comparing me to Kael- no one can reach her level, can they?

Today's Jack Lemmon? Hmm.
Maybe Steve Carrell?

[Chris Knipp]

I see, it's Tcm that's lowering its standards - you're just sticking with them.
Well, you can't drink first growth bordeaux every day. You definitely cannot.

Somehow at the time Jack Lemmon meant more than Steve Carell, but a good choice.