Got
Sea of Love on Blu-ray. This is a movie that must have played on cable TV pretty regularly when I was younger, but somehow I hadn't even heard of it until watching it for the first time on Netflix within the past year or so. I enjoyed it a lot. Sort of a blended-genre love story/murder mystery, set in NYC, penned by Richard Price. Whiffs of the Ferrara adjacent. Pacino is very good in it, but Ellen Barkin steals the show! Holy smokes, she should've gotten an Oscar for it. Couldn't take my eyes off her the first time. The chemistry between the two of them is undeniable. John Goodman's also in it, and it has a early bit part from Samuel L. Jackson, and then of course Michael Rooker is there to be creepy/intimidating in the credible way that only someone like him can pull off. I look forward to watching this one again. Formally, it's not "perfect," but overall, it has charm. Not many newer movies feel genuinely charming to me, at least to this degree.
Have been doing X-mas shopping early this year and got my dad the Blu-ray of
Body and Soul, the boxing movie starring John Garfield. Boxing isn't really my deal, nor is MMA, but a good boxing movie--or sequence within a movie--can hold my attention*. Garfield is an underrated old-school Hollywood sensitive tough guy sort. Not to be messed with. Which reminds me, I need to rewatch Curtiz's
The Breaking Point. It's one of those movies that's perfectly calibrated top to bottom. A must-see. Thinking out loud here . . . I haven't been watching proper cinema often, but do like a pure dose when the mood strikes.
* = For a swell, less explored boxing/MMA movie, check out Gulshat Omarova's
Schizo. It's tight. Back in the day, when I was some manner of dipshit on this board, I would bring this one up a lot. And all these years later I still think it rules, though it's been a minute since I've seen it.