The basu! Guide to the Movies

RIP #ChadwickBoseman Gone way, way too soon. That all-too rare leading man: someone with serious acting chops to match that simmering slow-burn charisma. I discovered him, I suppose, with the rest of the world with his seemingly out-of-nowhere leading-man hello-world performance as #JackieRobinson, and man, did he hit the ground running. 13 movies in 7 years - he clearly was a man on a mission! The biographical figures came fast and furious: #JamesBrown, #ThurgoodMarshall. And then, of course, the role that launched him into the stratosphere: #TChalla… In that whirling, eye-popping movie populated with all manner of larger-than-life screen-burning actors and characters, he was the cool, studly, calm at the center of it all, giving the audience that much-needed emotional through-line. Usually, these "overnight" success are either industry-mandated "manufactured" stars…or they're the kind of actors who've been there for a while, toiling away, ho...

#TBT so how about a #Throwback Movie? 😁 #BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure (1989) Okay, what I'm about to tell you may shatter all your preconceived notions of the foundations upon which time and space and our universe is built: I had never seen Bill and Ted…😱😱😱😱😱 Somehow, after my many years of college, many years of movie-watching, many years of whiling away ye wee hours of the morning glued to the television, somehow, someway, I had managed to miss this seminal, coming-of-age experience. For that, I am truly sorry. I am truly sorry for all that time I have missed out on a most excellent, most charming, most sweet, most fun, most goofy (if a slightly white-ish male-ish view of history😇) movie featuring two of the most awesomest leads you'll ever find. Credit to the screenwriters, too, because once that whole key plant-and-payoff happens, well the time-bending floodgates open! And, man, who would've thought that some 30(!!!!!!!!!!) truly-odd years late...

#Bloodshot Good, clean, #TheTerminator-Meets-#EdgeOfTomorrow better-than-expected B-Movie fun. Kudos to the producers for managing to do all that globe-trotting on a non-unlimited budget. Kudos, too, for Vin, so good at what he does, and for keeping on doing that that thing he does so well. Gotta say, though, that kid Lamorne Morris steals the show, didn't realise he was British (Narrator: He's not🤣) PS. Guy Pearce, man, *still* going strong💪! PPS. Don't look now, but there's an entire generation of action directors weaned on the work of one #MichaelBay, at some point we'll have to acknowledge that he's a genre unto himself, so would that make it what, Bay-sian?, Bay-esque? Bay-rrific? A lot of food for PhD thought… - - - #DavidSFWilson #SteveJablonsky (The One, The Only)#VinDiesel #LamorneMorris #Guy Pearce #TobyKebbell #EizaGonzalez #SamHeughan #JohannesHaukurJohannesson #TalulahRiley @bloodshot @davidsfwilson @sonypictures @valiantent...

#BoysState Tremendous #BugsyMalone-Meets-#MrSmithGoesToWashington-Meets-#LordOfTheFlies fun…except it's all real😲! I mean, the inevitable feature adaption will be a moot point, because this thing looks, feels, acts like the best of the awards-season mid-budget narrative fiction films of yore: from the impossibly high production values (man, it must nerve-shredding for a neophyte to break into the world of documentary films these days - the crafts[wo]manship bar has been set impossibly high!) to the pitch-perfect(ahem🤣) casting, to the kind of rising tension/stakes they apparently teach you in film school(the lessons never took with me🤦‍♀️), all building to the absolutely-perfect almost-too-good-to-be-true ending👍! And the casting, hoo boy, can you come up with a better leading quartet than these four? And all the other characters on the periphery… man, seriously, dynamite stuff, absolutely dynamite. And yeah, the sort of devils-bargain rationalisation that you talk yourself...

#TheOldGuard Good, clean turn-off-your-brain fantasy-sci-fi-ish ensenble-action-adventure fun. Of course, the honest, raw human moments in between all that mayhem (including some of the cooler close-fighting this side of Bourne!) gives away the fact that we have a proper filmmaker at the helm here, not some Johnny-come-lately neophyte action hack. Speaking of mayhem: "There was an unanticipated amount of carnage"🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 PS. I've said it once, I've said it a million times, that Schoenaerts needs to be a star! - - - #GinaPrinceBythewood #CharlizeTheron #MatthiasSchoenaerts #ChiwetelEjiofor #KiKiLayne(from #IfBealeStreetCouldTalk👏!) #HarryMelling(remember him #TheBalladOfBusterScruggs😮?!) #MarwanKenzari(Jafar from #Aladdin👍)! #LucaMarinelli @oldguardmovie @gpbmadeit @netflix #OldGuard

#TBT so how about a #Throwback Movie? 😁 #TheDog (2014) One of those headspinning truth-is-stranger-than-fiction-way-stranger stories that the good documentaries, uh, spin so very well. If "The Dog" weren't a real person, you'd have to make him up! You always hear that tagline, right?, the [blank] was only the beginning…that was never truer here. I mean, yeah, we've all seen #DogDayAfternoon, but there's so much more that happened before..and after😲. Wojtowicz himself is a terrific character, and kudos to the documentarians for digging beneath that charismatic, seemingly-fun surface to hint at the darkness beneath. And, kudos, also, for giving a showcase to his mom, a star in her own right! And how about all that early gay rights activism footage…real eye-opening stuff. An informative, absorbing, entertaining documentary about a quintessential New York character. - - - #AllisonBerg #FrankKeraudren #JohnWojtowicz #TheresaWojtowicz #Sidn...

#PerryMason (#HBO) Terrifically entertaining, especially the early LA-PI-noir stuff, and the later courtroom drama is agreeably comforting. G*d bless HBO and its production values, this thing looks like tens of millions of bucks! Give the casting director a raise, this has to be one of the better ensembles put together in recent Cable TV memory: Lithgow, Whigham, Rankin, Taylor, Root, Chalk, Falcon, Howard, Lange, Patrick, Mays, Corddry(whew!)…but, yeah, I've resisted the Rhys hype-train(is that what the kids call it😜?) so far, but between this and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, maybe it's time for me to finally check out #TheAmericans😂? And, dude, Maslany, her post-#OrphanBlack bump was way too short, hopefully her stirring performance here will make Hollywood take another look. But, gotta say, the MVPs are Rylance and the great Blanchard👍 Totally looking forward to Season 2! PS. Anyone else miss #BoardwalkEmpire😭? - - - #RobertDowneyJr(yes, that #...

#DoctorSleep Look, I normally don't watch horror, but when TBH wants to and when one-name film-school DP-G*d #Fimognari's involved…well, then, what choice does one have? Thankfully, this is less horror and more engaging, eminently-watchable, YA-ish supernatural mystery-thriller directed with languid nihilism by kid director Flanagan. Thank G*d(s) I've only seen #TheShining(a terrifying TBT story for another day😱!) 1.65 times (incl. in this)…any more and I'll be hearing the ER's siren calls. And it's one thing for G*d #Spielberg to do it, but man, the guts that these kids have to go *there* - no, literally, there, *all* the way there…man, the courage of youth, amirite?! And, thank all the g*ds for Ferguson, who plays the rare female villain, and plays her with all her creepy-cool glory. One of these days Hollywood will finally give her the post #MissionImpossible-breakout star vehicle she deserves… Sooooo, TS isn't really about a haunted hotel...

#TBT so how about a #Throwback Movie? 😁 #TheInnocents (1961) 🤭 Quite simply: one of *the* greatest (horror)films of all time, and one of *the* most *terrifying* experiences of my life! basu! - when will you learn, man, when will you bl**dy learn?! Why?! Why?!!!!!!!! The only way I could get through this was to watch it in the brightest, broadest daylight with *all* the windows *wide* open, and the sounds of unlicensed socially un-distant revelry all around... ... until you realise that the point of the whole brooding, gothic, *stunningly*-photographed #blackandwhite *wide*screen #CinemaScope affair is that even in this warm bright broad daylight you're not safe😱! This has to be one of the the most impeccably-crafted movies I've ever seen - the aforementioned cinematography (each methodically-framed shot is worthy of, uh, framing), the spare, unnerving sound design(incredible!), the production design(stunning!), the costumes(fabulous!), it boggles the min...

RIP #WilfordBrimley Another one of my all-time favourite character actors, you know the kind, right?, as soon as you see their name in the credits you can't wait for them to show up and strut their stuff, making everything they're in just a little bit better. I suppose I "discovered" him, like most people, in Cocoon, or more precisely, all the clips I saw before actually watching that awesome, and terrifyingly now-age-appropriate wish-fulfillment fantasy. I'm guessing he wasn't given the chance too often to stretch beyond that curmudgeonly-grandpa-with-a-heart-of-gold typecast, but he never seemed to phone it in. And when was he given the chance…yeah man, he was awesome: The Firm(!), The Thing(!!(, The Natural, Hard Target(love that movie!), The China Syndrome, In & Out (inspired casting), Tender Mercies, Absence of Malice, that awesome timel-y/ess cameo on Seinfeld… etc. etc. etc. Heck , just thinking about him makes me want to watch these movie...

RIP #AlanParker One of my favourite directors who perhaps never fully got the credit he deserved but whose filmography will stand the test of time…and whose passing, sadly, could probably mark the umpteenth end of an era of a certain kind of high-quality theatrical feature film. Honestly, the credit part, I was probably just as guilty as anyone else considering his name wasn't on the tip of my tongue whenever the subject of favourite director was brought up…even though so many, many, many of his movies were. I mean, my sister and I, we watched Bugsy Malone *all* the time, never realising what a pioneering satire it was…or that that was Jodie Foster, yes, *that* Jodie Foster. Fame and The Commitments, we probably heard that music on a loop before we finally watched those movies. And speaking of music, Evita…and Pink Floyd: The Wall (heard the first time when they famously, controversially, staged the, uh stage versionat School, what an eye-opening experience that was!). And...