One of the more effecting flicks I’ve seen in a while is

Down in the Valley

…how does somebody write this stuff?

[San Fernando huh….]

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…another that came as a surprise, a noteworthy little movie is: 

Off The Map 

The blurb on the DVD case calls it “…a story of grace and the unpredictable enduring nature of love”, but it’s much more of a mellow head-f#ck than that.  Joan Allen’s performance, as Bo’s mom, guarantees to leave a bit of an imprint (like fine fresco…

graffiti on the inner walls of your skull as you walk a jagged ledge, teetering, close to falling, … nearly back-swimming down into the bottom-lit gray bubbling jelly of your now slightly tormented existence.)  Not that it’s necessarily a ‘chick flick’…but it does have Sam Elliot in it…& I know at least two chicks that dig Sam Elliot’s gravelly ol’cowboy standard.   

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One other one, just FYI:  We watched snatch again after not seeing it since 00, & I dug it even more than the first time.  Still not sure if I like it better than Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, but it’s no-doubt as good or better.

Oh, yeah…one other flick we watched again in the way wee hours of last Saturday night is Once Upon A Time In Mexico …which is [digitally] shot [& scored] so well, considering the farfetched content, that one has to rewind now and then just to have another look at the magic…or listen to the music &/or dialogue between Johnny Depp and whomever.  No doubt Antonio Banderas had to learn at least a little about guitar playing to have done the scenes behind the opening credits.  There’s an early scene where a politico is on TV lecturing on the importance of preserving “the people’s freedom” which is exactly the opposite of what he is truly living for.

But these are JMOs…& in descending order of significance.

Oh shidt, man , it’s getting to be a blizzard outside. 

Nearing the face of winter’s solstice…ah…yeah.

[happy holidays]