Man, I may not have watched a lot this week, but what I did watch was good. This was the best week of movie and television watching I’ve experienced in a long time.
I started the week off with the classic The Manchurian Candidate, and let me just say this: had there not been a sequence where Frank Sinatra has a karate fight (and yes, it is as dumb as it sounds), it would be a perfect movie. It is truly phenomenal filmmaking. Speaking of perfect movies, I managed to catch Dog Day Afternoon on TV, and man, that film is great. It’s one of the best ever, with astounding acting, directing, and writing. You can bet I’ll be writing about it soon in a certain greatest movies series that’s been coming out recently.
I also watched the Roadshow Director’s Cut of Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven, and that is a movie that doesn’t get the love it deserves. It’s truly a masterpiece, similar to the works of Cecille B. DeMille, Akira Kurosawa, Werner Herzog, and David Lean, truly embodying the times it was made in while feeling like a historical epic, and it may be the best film that Scott has ever made. I cannot advise the full cut of this movie more to anyone reading. And I closed the week out with the very funny In Bruges. I absolutely adored Colin Farrell’s character, and many of Ralph Fiennes’ lines prove that he may have secretly been a comedian all along. Who knew?
Most of my favorite shows are over for the year, but there were some great things I caught. Due to a fluke, I had one whole day of HBO, meaning I got to catch Silicon Valley and Veep, which were both absolutely stellar. I thought that episode of Veep is in conversation for the best of the year, while Silicon Valley included a Papa Roach joke that may be stolen from my favorite podcast (read more on that here). I also caught the end of Feud, which was incredibly strong and may have won Jessica Lange another Emmy. Other than that, I’ve been mostly focused on the ABC sitcom lineup, which featured two very good episodes of black-ish and a great episode of Speech-less, which featured an appearance by the highly underrated comedian Zach Anner (look him up-he’s great).
What about you? Did you watch anything good this weekend? Did you punish yourself by seeing The Circle in theaters (as I may be doing soon)? Let me know in the comments!
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