The Corona Diaries

This thread needs more Puppet Master.

SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)



Billy Wilder’s screwball classic holds up. Two prohibition era musicians witness the St. Valentines Day Massacre and hide out at a Miami Beach resort - dressed as women. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are great. Marilyn Monroe is adorable. Well-paced. Good story. Humor lands. If you’re quarantined and want to watch something light-hearted but with substance, this is a strong recommendation.


DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)



This is more on-the-nose in these Corona times, but some folks enjoy dark humor even in difficult times. Rogue general launch nuclear attack and the government tries desperately to recall it. There’s a similar movie called Fail Safe that does an excellent job of capturing the intensity of that ordeal, but if you just want to let out some steam and laugh at incompetence, you can’t go wrong with Dr. Strangelove. Peter Sellers is great. George C. Scott is great. Lookout for a young James Earl Jones. It’s shot very well. You can certainly see this movie as a bridge between studio system and new wave style of shooting. Ken Adams, James Bond architect, did the sets. It’s a movie you could tell had very little to work with but did A LOT with what they had. Despite the subject matter, it’s a very modest production. I don’t think they spent a lot of money on it. And yet, it’s cutting edge and holds up well. Check it out - even if it’s just for the filmmaking techniques. Can’t go wrong with Stanley Kubrick.

1godzillafan ’s favorite movie of 2020 is The Turning, based on the 1898 novel Turn of the Screw (not to be confused with the porno of the same name).

The book’s first adaptation is the 1961 British psychology thriller The Innocents, co-written by Truman Capote. The premise, I believe, is the same. Lady is left in charge of two bratty kids and she comes to learn they’re possessed by the ghosts of the house’s previous employees.

It’s your run-of-the-mill spooky-haunted-house-ghost-story. What sets it apart is this weird sort-of underage thing. The boy tries to shag the lady... but it’s really the ghost... I guess? I don’t know. It’s weird. Apparently, Truman Capote added extra subtext to the story.

Don’t know what to tell you. Check it out if you’re bored, I guess. Or if you’re a weirdo like SnoBorderZero.

I also just rewatched Strangelove, though before we hit pandemic levels. It's still my favourite Kubrick.


I also really enjoy he Innocents. Great atmosphere, Deborah Kerr is great, and the ending is pretty chilling.

Also the film is brimming with ambiguity that's wonderful.

Did she have an affair with a child?

Is she insane?

Are the ghosts real?

Was it others that misinterpreted their relationship and drove her to insanity?

It's one of those films like Picnic at Hanging Rock that's filled with more questions than answers and yet is far more haunting and effective because of it.

Remember when he wore the Crown Jewels in the bathtub? Oh Ralph, you’re not supposed to do that!

I still don't feel like hypothetical me got his question answered.

I sat through 4 hours to watch a movie with the same plot as Rambo III.

It's... fine.

Is the British Empire a joke to you?

You're gonna love it.

THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976)



I forgot how “triggering” this movie could be towards the PG Cooper Generation. Clint Eastwood plays a farmer whose wife and child are murdered by Union soldiers. To seek revenge, he joins the Confederate army and fights in the Civil War. Quick history for our friends in the South. The Confederacy lost. Eastwood and his troop are rounded up and fired at by the Union. Eastwood manages to escape and he becomes an outlook — hunted down by bounty hunters and the Union. That’s a lot to pack in. The Union? As the villains? Worst of all, the movie is based on a book written by a Klansman. Whaaat!?

But if you get past the surface level stuff, this is actually a melancholy western made by Eastwood at the height of his commercial success as an actor and director. It was foreshadowing for 1992’s Unforgiven and his works in the 2000’s (and to some degree his politically conservative works of the 2010’s). In a way, Josey Wales is a best of both worlds. Classic Eastwood and Late Age Eastwood. The perfect compromise.

The character of Josey Wales, while on the run, teams up with a band of misfits and begins to settle down, only to lose that too and end up riding into the sunset, alone. It’s a tragic little story, well worth your time. Better than Lawrence of Arabia. Sorry, SnoBorderZero.