Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch, 1999)

I enjoyed Jim Jarmusch's The Dead Don't Die about old people fighting zombies. And now I watched his movie Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. About a reasonably young hit man (Forest Whitaker) who calls himself "Ghost Dog" and is fixated on the idea of being a Samurai. He works for an aging mafioso and refers to himself as his "retainer".

I used to love samurai movies, so I understand the appeal. 

But Ghost Dog was assigned the task of killing an elderly mafioso. The other elderly mafiosi approved of the murder, but it violated their confused sense of "honor" that a Made Man was killed by someone who wasn't part of the Mafia so some old Italian men set out to murder him.

I wasn't rooting for them, but old men with guns appeal to me for some reason.

A lot better than I thought it would be.

Available on The Criterion Channel.

Gus Van Sant, William Burroughs, short films

Marc Maron's interview with Gus Van Sant from his WTF podcast is on You Tube. I didn't find it very interesting. Van Sant spoke in a monotone. I was surprised that he went to the Rhode Island School of Design. Martin Mull was there at the time.

But one thing that was sort of interesting was that, early on, before anyone knew who he was, Van Sant got permission to make some short films based on the work of William S. Burroughs. He found Burroughs' phone number, called him, maybe met with him and asked if he could do it. Burroughs said he would have to call his agent. 

Short films, it turns out, have no monetary value so no one cared especially and they let him do it. I don't know if this early association with Burroughs helped him later on.

I've heard that short films are easy to get accepted by film festivals. They're the glue that holds their programs together. So, I don't know. Maybe a short film based on a literary work could be your ticket to the big time.

I don't know if the same principle was involved, but there was a guy I was slightly acquainted with in high school. He may have still been in college when he got permission to adapt some short stories by Kurt Vonnegut for the stage. And I don't know if those short plays had any role in it, but he later adapted a couple of Chaim Potok novels into stage plays. This automatically made him a major figure in Jewish theater, a big gefilte fish in a small pond so to speak.

Shia LaBeouf was a bigger jackass than I thought for plagiarizing. All he had to do was ask.

"Catching Up" (2020, 13 minutes, with Dustin Diamond)

Thirteen minute short. A girl's mother abandons her and her father to pursue a music career.

Nine years later, the girl is trying to be a singer herself, posting videos online. She says this was what her mother did rather than performing publicly and developing a local fanbase.

"Singing is the one thing you do well," her father tells her. I don't think it was intended as a backhanded compliment.

Her mother abandons her tour and rushes back to attend the school talent show when she learns that the child she abandoned is performing.

The late Dustin Diamond gives an energetic performance as MC of the talent show.

Kind of bland, I guess. It had mean girls and a nice guy teen boy.

Free with Amazon Prime.

One False Move (Carl Franklin, 1992)

Small town Arkansas police chief Bill Paxton waits for an extremely violent trio from Los Angeles to show up in town. Two members of the gang were born there and were coming home. 

In an early scene, Paxton talks on the phone with LA detectives. I don't know if the character was trying to sound folksy and Andy Griffith-like or if he couldn't help it. The detectives seem more amused than annoyed. I was just annoyed.

When Los Angeles detectives arrive, Paxton's character shows some Barney Fife-like qualities, excited to be working with police from the big city. But there's a scene where the detectives see right through him and ask how well he knew the female suspect.

I realized I had seen this thing in the 1990's. It was intended as a straight-to-video movie but turned out so well that it was released to theaters. Siskel & Ebert loved it.

Extremely violent. Stripped down plot. Starts with a mass murder.

With Billy Bob Thorton, Cynda Williams and Michael Beach. They drive a lovely early '60's Lincoln Continental which they trade in for a Ford Torino.

Written by Thornton and Tom Epperson.

Directed by Carl Franklin.

I remember Franklin from the 1977 sci-fi series The Fantastic Journey. After that, he studied directing and made four films for Roger Corman before making this movie.

The Fantastic Journey featured '70's teen sensation Ike Eisenmann who went on to work for the company that did the ADR work for this movie.

Available on the Criterion Channel.

Hal Holbrook, RIP

Hal Holbrook has died at 95. 

For years, I thought he and Murray Hamilton were the same person. They had the same hair, the same voice and Holbrook played a typical Murray Hamilton character in Magnum Force which was the main thing I knew him from.

I saw him when he appeared locally performing as Mark Twain. Thank God I didn't talk to him.

Dustin Diamond, RIP

 Dustin Diamond has died at 44.

I wouldn't have done a sex tape or celebrity boxing and I would have written my tell-all book myself even if I wasn't very good at it, but, like Dustin Diamond, I would have clung to my declining career and put off getting a regular job as long as possible. The poor guy was too big to give up show business but not big enough to make a real go of it.

I spoke Spanish

I'm always feel sort of proud when I use slang without thinking. I was asking about a used car loan at the credit union. They asked if I already had a car and I said, "Yeah, but it's belly up." And there were times when I was leaving and I said I was going to split. 

When I worked at the car wash, the manager was mad that the guy didn't pull a car off the line quickly enough. I said it had a three-on-the-tree and he didn't know where first gear was. The manager was an old guy and he knew about cars but he didn't know what a three-on-the-tree was. I had to tell him it was three-speed manual transmission with the gear shift on the steering column. I think it was to make people feel better about not having a four-on-the-floor.

In a somewhat similar incident, I went though a drive-through at Taco Time last night. They had tip jar at the window. I wanted to tip 20% so I handed the women $27 on an order that was a bit over $22. It was a little too much, but I can't do math that fast and there's a pandemic. They were risking their health so I could have a chimichanga platter. She didn't want to take it. She spoke with an accent and I took her to be Latina, so I said without thinking, esta propina.

Propina means "tip". First time I ever tried communicating even in such a limited way in another language.

But as I drove home, I realized that the word "tip" has more than one meaning. Did I use the right word for "gratuity" or did I tell her it was a drill bit or the point of a pen?

I googled it. Didn't get a definitive answer. 

Okay. I just googled it again. I was right, thank God.