What to Watch When You're Quarantined Week- Whatever

Oh, faithful LWCMD readers, I've started to lose track of time. Life has become a whirl of video conferences, artery-clogging home cooking, pandemic comedy vids, and games of Chips and Guac on Houseparty. (Don't worry if you don't know what the last one is. I didn't 'til yesterday either.) But I did find time in my busy schedule to watch some movies.

Z (1969)

In my rant about Parasite a couple weeks ago, I bemoaned the fact that there have been some amazing foreign films that didn't win Best Picture Oscars that I feel eclipse Parasite. I just found another one to bolster my argument. Z is a top-notch political thriller released less than a year after the assassinations of RFK and MLK Jr. The action takes place in Algeria during a political rally for a leader (played with gravitas by Yves Montand) who causes a stir by promoting denuclearization and world peace. Imagine that.

Intrigue unravels as activists, a plucky reporter, working class thugs, a dogged prosecutor, and military baddies collide, reminding us that self-interest often drives our world more than truth. Director Costa-Garvas kept the pace brisk and found some humor amid the tragedy while Francoise Bonnot took home the Oscar for Best Editing. In a year dominated by Midnight Cowboy (1969), Z had to settle for winning Best Foreign Language Film- but it's a timely movie that should not be forgotten.

Away from Her (2006)

Actress Julie Christie turned 80 last week so I celebrated by watching her fourth Oscar-nominated role in Away From Her. Christie was one of the great screen beauties of the '60's and '70's, but she proved time and time again in classics like Billy Liar (1963), Doctor Zhivago (1965), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), and Shampoo (1975) that she was more than just a pretty face. She even got the ultimate call-out in a Robert Altman movie, when she played herself in Nashville (1975). (Karen Black's Connie White can't believe she's famous. "Oh, come on. She cain't even comb her hair.")

At age 66 Christie is still a stunner- but Away from Her relies less on her looks, and more on her ability to immerse herself in the mind of an Alzheimer's sufferer. Fiona (Christie) has started doing kooky things like putting skillets in the freezer, labeling what's in her kitchen drawers, and wandering off into a wintry wilderness.

Her husband (Gordon Pinsent), desperately wants to protect her, but Fiona chooses the isolation of a local nursing home where she adapts to her new environment and reality, becoming involved with another patient (Michael Murphy looking grimly grizzled.) With a wonderful supporting turn from Olympia Dukakis, Away is a quiet film, that relies on subtlety over dramatic outbursts to communicate the humanity that is erased by this inhumane disease.

The Boy Friend (1971)

Another beauty from the Swingin' Sixties who made her way to the big screen was fashion icon Twiggy. The pouty, gawky model was on every magazine cover in the late '60's, so it was just a matter of time before someone decided to make a movie star out of her. British director Ken Russell believed that Twiggy's "naturalness" would be a perfect fit for the "All-Talking, All-Singing, All-Dancing" 1920's/30's musical extravaganza. Too bad Twiggy is only okay at talking, singing, or dancing.

Twiggy is Polly, an assistant stage manager who gets her big break to go onstage when the lead in a down-in-the-dumps music hall show breaks her ankle. The stakes get even higher when 'Pol' has to kiss her co-star whom she has been madly idolizing backstage and a big-shot Hollywood director is in the audience. If this sounds like a lot- it is. Too much in fact.

The movie can't decide whether it is an homage to the Twenties or to the Busby Berkeley movie musicals of the Thirties. In fact, I'm not even sure it's an homage. Russell simultaneously wants to evoke the escapist glamour of a by-gone era and likewise skewer it within a setting of middling, delusional failures.

The classic musicals worked because their fantasies emanated from the hopes and talents of their characters (and their audiences), whereas Boy Friend calls out the distinction between fantasy and show biz mediocrity. Specifically in numbers like "I Could Be Happy with You" Russell forces his star to make Berkley-styled love to the leading man who she believes is in love with another castmate, breaking the musical spell at the same time he's trying to weave it.

Twiggy's unique look is on full display, her cupid bow mouth and large deep-set eyes brought out by makeup and costume- and a pair of glasses that quickly disappear. In one scene she appears as an Erte-inspired vamp. It's a perfect example of how Twiggy frozen as an image can be stunning. But her lack of physical grace (a gait that I would say was anything but natural) and an almost non-interested acting style did not catch on with the movie-going public, and Twiggy's dreams of Hollywood stardom went the way of raccoon coats and rouged knees. Do check out the impossibly young and thin Tommy Tune.

Outlaw of Gor (1988)

Sometimes in a quarantine you have to just bake two dozen peanut butter cookies from your mother's favorite Good Housekeeping recipe and then sit down and eat them in front of the worst movie you've ever seen. While I might be able to work off the peanut butter cookies, I will never be able to lose the memory of watching Outlaw of Gor. This crap movie is the stuff of Mystery Science Theater 3000 legend. Now called Gor II, this sequel based on a popular fantasy book series was shot on a budget of $12. It doesn't matter what the plot is. It is simply one terrifically awful scene after another. Between the 80's video vixen hair, the little person sidekick, and Jack Palance chewing the scenery in a number of kiki hats, it's impossible to do anything except wonder if Italian beefcake Urbano Barberini's mini-skirt will blow to the side long enough to see his sword. Do not watch this unless you are drunk or high... or full of peanut butter cookies.