Hey yall! I was on Doug Loves Movies this week and Doug asked me what the best movie of 2023 was…. Because of the nature of the show, I had to be brief. Yall know me though, I had a LOT more to say, so I decided to tell all of it to your ear holes! What in your opinion was the best movie of 2023?
There aren't nearly enough character actors or character roles. In the 40s, I think it was against the law to make a movie without Thomas Mitchell or Beulah Bondi. Claude Rains improved every movie he was ever in. And there aren't any more Thelma Ritter roles -- she was always the voice of reason.
Separate comedy category for the Oscars. Amen, brother. Peter O'Toole should have won the Oscar for "My Favorite Year." (Having read his biography and another book called "Hell Raisers" -- I doubt if he had to "act" very much.)
Also -- how many movies nowadays have characters who are created from scratch? So many of the Best Actor / Actress nominations seem to be "who does the best impersonation of a famous dead person?"
I only re-watched movies last year. "She Done Him Wrong" -- Mae West and Cary Grant (his first big role).
(It's okay. You're a busy man. And you read my email. And you said my name. Thank you.)
Looking forward to the "Singing in the Rain" podcast!
"Singing in the Rain" was one of the last movies I made my mother watch with me. (I still had TCM on my cable subscription -- this was before the greedy bastards took it away, DAMN YOU GREEDY BASTARDS.)
My late mother spent her last two years with me at my house and we had many an opportunity to butt heads over cinematic quality, preferences, favorite actors, etc.
Some background: when my father died in 1996, my mother was naturally very sad -- so I spent a lot of weekends at her house. (She even let the cat get pregnant a second time because she knew I'd come home to play with the kittens.)
Anyway, my sparkling repartée only goes so far, so I started renting movies for her to watch.
This was when the default small-town business was a video store. (Trae knows about this!) So the following conversation would take place...
mjb: Okay, I'm going to rent a video -- you want me to find something you'd like to watch?
mom: Oh yes, that would be nice!
mjb puts on coat...
mom: But it can't have any sex in it.
mjb sighs, gets her handbag...
mom: And no violence...
mjb goes to door.
mom: And it has to have a happy ending!
mjb (exasperated): Mother. You have just eliminated about 98% of what's available... oh, all right, I'll try...
I think the first movie I brought home was "Dave" -- a delightful comedy with Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. No sex, no violence, no explosions. It seemed perfect.
(EIght o'clock pm)
mjb: Mom, if we're going to watch that movie, we'd better do it now.
mom: (big sigh) Oh... I don't feel in the mood for watching anything. It'll just keep me awake all night...
mjb: That's why we should see it NOW, because... oh never mind...
After a few more instances of this ("Home Alone" -- "I don't like 'message movies') I decided to get whatever the hell I wanted to watch.
This led to a new problem. I'd choose something moderately gnarly and she invariably strolled in just as someone's pants were coming off.
mom: What's going on?
mjb: (betwixt clenched teeth) Mother. You were married and had two children ... what-in-thee-hell do you THINK is going on?
mom: Oh. Does it have a happy ending?
mjb: I DON'T KNOW. I've never SEEN it before!!!
After that, I stayed with the classics. I knew she liked movies with a lot of dancing, so I was certain that "Singing in the Rain" would be a guaranteed home run.
Wrong.
mjb: Okay, here we go, probably the best musical ever made in Hollywood about Hollywood...
mom: There's a fly in the room.
mjb: I'll get it as soon as it lights somewhere...
(unfortunately, this was one of those dozey, droney flies that just circled the room incessantly...)
mjb: Look mom! "Make 'Em Laugh"! Probably one of the most brilliant song and dance numbers ever filmed!
mom: I wish you'd get that fly.
mjb: It isn't close enough. Look, Donald O'Connor is going to do a back flip off the wall!
mom: That fly is driving me crazy.
And this went on for the ENTIRE MOVIE.
Even before that, I had given up the idea of brightening my mother's widowhood with amusing movies.
And then.
She discovered.
"Pretty Woman."
And I was doomed to hear about this movie, world without end -- not to mention the special qualities of one Julia Roberts. I don't know what she's like as a person, but as a celebrity, I would cheerfully have tied her up and fed her to an alligator. I got so sick of the phrase "Her smile lights the room!" (Yes mother, because she has about a THOUSAND TEETH.)
She once told me she wouldn't cross the street to look at the Pope, but she'd love to meet Richard Gere.
I don't know how often she watched this goddamned movie, but when she asked why I didn't like it, I said I didn't think prostitution was cute. "But she gets married to him in the end." "Are you implying that marriage is the ultimate act of prostitution?" "YOU'RE TWISTING MY WORDS." (when she says this, it means I'm on the brink of winning the argument.) Later, I heard her whispering to someone on the phone (in a manner that was meant to be overhead) "I can't talk to Marjie about the movies anymore, she says the most ridiculous things!"
I used to taunt her about Julia Roberts all the time. "Hey mom, I watched 'Steel Magnolias!" "Did you like it?" "I LOVED it, wanna know why?" "Why?" "'cause Julia Roberts DIES!!!!!!!!!"
What really dis-urinated me (what we said instead of "pissed off") was when she rented "Dave" the movie I couldn't persuade her to watch. "Oh, it's wonderful and so funny!" "YES, I TOLD YOU, REMEMBER???"
About Citizen Kane: "Well, that wasn't a bad movie." (Praise indeed!)
I made her watch "Casablanca" too. She sat in silence until the following exchange:
Rick: Louis, I wouldn't want to shoot you, but I will if you don't sit down.
Louis: Under the circumstances... I will sit down.
She laughed at that.
Oh well.
And I make more than Calvin Coolidge... PUT TOGITHER!
Hey Corey, my last name is pronounced “koo SAH toe”. It’s Italian, pretty rare in the US, but very common in Naples, where my father‘s father was born. His name was Crescenzo Cusato which pretty awesome name, despite the fact that he was a bit of an asshole from what I hear.
Anyway, I agree with your movie pics, I haven’t seen anything off of the beaten path recently but I would challenge your “Singing in the Rain” with my all-time favorite, Gene Kelly vehicle, “American in Paris“. I have loved that movie since I was a kid.
Best movie my favorite was Godzilla-01, oh, and The Holdovers
Hi sorry to be a new thicko but what’s the private RSS feed and how do you post it in Apple Podcasts?
CHO, thought about making one of your characters a country-ass movie critic? Seems like an overlap with something you love and love to talk about.
There aren't nearly enough character actors or character roles. In the 40s, I think it was against the law to make a movie without Thomas Mitchell or Beulah Bondi. Claude Rains improved every movie he was ever in. And there aren't any more Thelma Ritter roles -- she was always the voice of reason.
Separate comedy category for the Oscars. Amen, brother. Peter O'Toole should have won the Oscar for "My Favorite Year." (Having read his biography and another book called "Hell Raisers" -- I doubt if he had to "act" very much.)
Also -- how many movies nowadays have characters who are created from scratch? So many of the Best Actor / Actress nominations seem to be "who does the best impersonation of a famous dead person?"
I only re-watched movies last year. "She Done Him Wrong" -- Mae West and Cary Grant (his first big role).
Hey, you forgot me!
(It's okay. You're a busy man. And you read my email. And you said my name. Thank you.)
Looking forward to the "Singing in the Rain" podcast!
"Singing in the Rain" was one of the last movies I made my mother watch with me. (I still had TCM on my cable subscription -- this was before the greedy bastards took it away, DAMN YOU GREEDY BASTARDS.)
My late mother spent her last two years with me at my house and we had many an opportunity to butt heads over cinematic quality, preferences, favorite actors, etc.
Some background: when my father died in 1996, my mother was naturally very sad -- so I spent a lot of weekends at her house. (She even let the cat get pregnant a second time because she knew I'd come home to play with the kittens.)
Anyway, my sparkling repartée only goes so far, so I started renting movies for her to watch.
This was when the default small-town business was a video store. (Trae knows about this!) So the following conversation would take place...
mjb: Okay, I'm going to rent a video -- you want me to find something you'd like to watch?
mom: Oh yes, that would be nice!
mjb puts on coat...
mom: But it can't have any sex in it.
mjb sighs, gets her handbag...
mom: And no violence...
mjb goes to door.
mom: And it has to have a happy ending!
mjb (exasperated): Mother. You have just eliminated about 98% of what's available... oh, all right, I'll try...
I think the first movie I brought home was "Dave" -- a delightful comedy with Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. No sex, no violence, no explosions. It seemed perfect.
(EIght o'clock pm)
mjb: Mom, if we're going to watch that movie, we'd better do it now.
mom: (big sigh) Oh... I don't feel in the mood for watching anything. It'll just keep me awake all night...
mjb: That's why we should see it NOW, because... oh never mind...
After a few more instances of this ("Home Alone" -- "I don't like 'message movies') I decided to get whatever the hell I wanted to watch.
This led to a new problem. I'd choose something moderately gnarly and she invariably strolled in just as someone's pants were coming off.
mom: What's going on?
mjb: (betwixt clenched teeth) Mother. You were married and had two children ... what-in-thee-hell do you THINK is going on?
mom: Oh. Does it have a happy ending?
mjb: I DON'T KNOW. I've never SEEN it before!!!
After that, I stayed with the classics. I knew she liked movies with a lot of dancing, so I was certain that "Singing in the Rain" would be a guaranteed home run.
Wrong.
mjb: Okay, here we go, probably the best musical ever made in Hollywood about Hollywood...
mom: There's a fly in the room.
mjb: I'll get it as soon as it lights somewhere...
(unfortunately, this was one of those dozey, droney flies that just circled the room incessantly...)
mjb: Look mom! "Make 'Em Laugh"! Probably one of the most brilliant song and dance numbers ever filmed!
mom: I wish you'd get that fly.
mjb: It isn't close enough. Look, Donald O'Connor is going to do a back flip off the wall!
mom: That fly is driving me crazy.
And this went on for the ENTIRE MOVIE.
Even before that, I had given up the idea of brightening my mother's widowhood with amusing movies.
And then.
She discovered.
"Pretty Woman."
And I was doomed to hear about this movie, world without end -- not to mention the special qualities of one Julia Roberts. I don't know what she's like as a person, but as a celebrity, I would cheerfully have tied her up and fed her to an alligator. I got so sick of the phrase "Her smile lights the room!" (Yes mother, because she has about a THOUSAND TEETH.)
She once told me she wouldn't cross the street to look at the Pope, but she'd love to meet Richard Gere.
I don't know how often she watched this goddamned movie, but when she asked why I didn't like it, I said I didn't think prostitution was cute. "But she gets married to him in the end." "Are you implying that marriage is the ultimate act of prostitution?" "YOU'RE TWISTING MY WORDS." (when she says this, it means I'm on the brink of winning the argument.) Later, I heard her whispering to someone on the phone (in a manner that was meant to be overhead) "I can't talk to Marjie about the movies anymore, she says the most ridiculous things!"
I used to taunt her about Julia Roberts all the time. "Hey mom, I watched 'Steel Magnolias!" "Did you like it?" "I LOVED it, wanna know why?" "Why?" "'cause Julia Roberts DIES!!!!!!!!!"
What really dis-urinated me (what we said instead of "pissed off") was when she rented "Dave" the movie I couldn't persuade her to watch. "Oh, it's wonderful and so funny!" "YES, I TOLD YOU, REMEMBER???"
About Citizen Kane: "Well, that wasn't a bad movie." (Praise indeed!)
I made her watch "Casablanca" too. She sat in silence until the following exchange:
Rick: Louis, I wouldn't want to shoot you, but I will if you don't sit down.
Louis: Under the circumstances... I will sit down.
She laughed at that.
Oh well.
And I make more than Calvin Coolidge... PUT TOGITHER!
Hey Corey, my last name is pronounced “koo SAH toe”. It’s Italian, pretty rare in the US, but very common in Naples, where my father‘s father was born. His name was Crescenzo Cusato which pretty awesome name, despite the fact that he was a bit of an asshole from what I hear.
Anyway, I agree with your movie pics, I haven’t seen anything off of the beaten path recently but I would challenge your “Singing in the Rain” with my all-time favorite, Gene Kelly vehicle, “American in Paris“. I have loved that movie since I was a kid.