Happy Wednesday! I did my church movie discussion group last night, and I have my other movie discussion group tomorrow night, I’m excited! Get to watch Passing and a Hitchcock this week.
I’ll start!
Reading: I get to start reading Laura today!!!! So I can finish it by next Sunday. Not Sunday the 23rd, but the 30th, that’s our DCIB discussion day. Anyway, I love Laura! And after I finish it, maybe I read Stranger Than Truth.
Watching: Watched Passing over the weekend, such a well made film, the technical aspects alone were endlessly refreshing. And today I get to fastforward through Rope for the discussion tomorrow. Rope is also technically fascinating of course, almost all in one take. But the best bit, is watching Jimmy Stewart play a creep. He is SO good at being unpleasant. I wish he did it more in his career.
Thinking: I’m gonna be CLEAN! I had the cleaners in over the weekend, which was great. And now I am trying to every day make my bed, mop the kitchen floor, and vacuum. Not deep intensive clean, but just five minutes a day. We’ll see how long I can keep it up! So far, it is making me feel more in control of my home, and just generally makes everything nicer.
Listening: It’s Tovino’s birthday week!
Okay, now a question for you! Inspired by cleaning. What are your go-to cleaning songs?
When I was growing up, I knew my Mom was about to get serious about cleaning when she put on her Aretha album. And yes, anything Aretha is great for cleaning.
Now, if I really need cleaning power, I go for the Gully Boy soundtrack.
dontcallitbollywood 
I forgot to ask about the cleaners – was it odd to have them at your home? And how is the house now?
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The house is lovely! And the ladies were lovely. They made a fuss over Albie Dog and then got right to work and did it all very cheerfully in two hours.
On Wed, Jan 19, 2022 at 8:58 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Cleaning song — Lakshya
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I do like Rope. A gender studies classic.
Does anyone have black comedy recs? As violent and comedic as possible, but keep in mind I do hate Quentin Tarantino.
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Delhi Belly, Tere Bin Laden, Tere Bin Laden 2, Ruthless People, Soapdish, Lucky Number Sleven, The In-Laws, One Two Three, Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, and I am sure others I am not thinking of right now. Jackie Brown is technically a Tarentino, but it’s based on an Elmore Leonard book and is very faithful to it, so it feels more Elmore Leonard-y than Tarentino-y.
On Wed, Jan 19, 2022 at 10:44 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh man, I love Ruthless People. Some useful ones here, thank you!
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Just rewatched Jackie Brown because my husband hadn’t seen it. So good. What a cast.
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Here’s my long list of recommendations:
Happinness (1965) by Agnes Varda – very bright horror, Desperado (1995) – Salma and Antonio are HOT, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and Volver – Amoldovar classics yet most of his movies qualify for this, Atomic Blonde, Perfume: the story of a murderer, Jojo Rabbit, Knives out, Jennifer’s Body, The Death of Stalin, Happy Death Day-movies, High Rise (has Tom Hiddleston), 7 Khoon Maaf and Tale of Tales.
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Oh yes, Kirre. Death of Stalin. What a wild ride. And I’ll watch anything HiddIeston does.
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Very interesting suggestions, thank you! Death of Stalin has been on my watchlist forever.
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Death of Stalin really goes for the jugular in terms of BLACK comedy. Pedro Almódovar really excels in black comedies, from the ones I’ve already mentioned, but ‘Tie me up! Tie me down!’ is also a good one in the genre.
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Also, Doctor, a Tamil film is a black comedy. Highly recommend it. Should be on Netflix.
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I think Andhadhun, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Peepli Live qualify as black comedies.
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Andhadhun looks so nutty.
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Actually,Pushpa is very dark but laced with very funny dialog. Can you call it a Black Comedy?
I RE-watched Minnal Murali last night just because I love Tovino. Happy Birthday, sweet superhero.
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Cleaning music: I go to Youtube and do a Diljit playlist.
Thinking: Konkona never posts anything on Twitter and now she’s posting her Wordle score every day! She’s really good at it. So every morning I can compare my Wordle score with Konkona’s. Yesterday I was better than Konkona and not as good as Farhan. What a time to be alive.
Last week was Tough Woman Fights (CGI) Big Cat in the Jungle Week. First of course was Sherni. I loved Vijay’s playing against type here (as he gets older, his characters get wackier and wackier. Same thing seems to be happening with Naseeruddin). Loved that Vidya is a sympathetic character who doesn’t want children and still doesn’t want them at the end of the movie. Such an interesting movie about the Indian government that is more complex than corruption = bad.
I also hit a few episodes of Aranyak, with Parambrata and Raveena Tandon and a brief scene with the worst CGI leopard. I actually felt embarrassed for all the actors wheeling around and fighting, obviously, air. This is your basic by-the-book city cop comes in and clashes with freewheeling rural cop, but the latter is the woman for a change. It’s a murder mystery with all kinds of secondary plots and threads and I love it so far but I’m hoping it doesn’t crap out at the end. I’m already emotionally preparing for a cliffhanger.
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Sherni is such a kick! And shoot, I don’t think I have included it in one of my Awards posts yet. Probably gonna need to do a “toughest woman” post.
On Wed, Jan 19, 2022 at 8:26 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Pingback: Wednesday Watching Put up: What Are You Studying And Watching and Considering and Listening to the Week of Tovino’s Birthday!!!! - dailyhant
Gehraiyaan title dropped. Very human drama with lots of boats and lots of affairs and secrets in cool houses. Yay! Nazeeruddin Shah!
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I saw Adbhutham, a telugu romantic sci-fi movie. It was nice and different. The heroine is cute, has plans, aspirations (she wants to be mechanical engineer) and beautiful clothes. The plot is interesting and full of twists ( I wish I didn’t know some of them before watching) The weakest part is the hero who is annoying and not the best actor.. Still it was a nice film. Worth watching
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You’re so right about Jimmy Stewart being very good at being unpleasant! He’s plain nasty in parts of Vertigo and Rear Window. Surprising because his younger characters are always such good people, it’s too much sometimes!
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I watched Rangasthalam again after seeing Pushpa and I loved it this time! I thought it was overrated before but now I realize that I was just being way too harsh. Especially when comparing it to a movie like Pushpa which tried but wasn’t as good.
I also started watching the sitcom Happy Endings. Have you seen it? It’s not the funniest but I’m enjoying it!
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I heard that Rangasthalam will be dubbed in hindi and relased in cinemas like Ala vaikunthapurramuloo. I’m really curious how it will be received.
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Oh yeah, I saw that too. I feel like it’ll do well, especially after Pushpa’s success. But i don’t know because Ram Charan is not as big of a name as Allu Arjun.
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I started watching this Chineese sitcom called Accidentally in Love from 2018 – it is like a Nickelodean show, clearly for kids, but the main actress is so charismatic I’m shockingly hooked. I’m kinda sad I’m preschool subbing today and can’t sneak in any episodes!
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I finished the series. Gosh young people really have to suffer before they can be together – but what was hardest for me to accept was that the one character of unkown sexuality kissed a girl and then became a MAN. And gosh that sucked. Sigh.
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Also, Shyam Singha Roy is now on Netflix. It is really really good! 😀
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Ooh, thanks!
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For Jim Sarbh fans, Rocket Boys trailer:
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PC and Nick have had a baby by surrogate.
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Well, now I am morally obligated to wish only good things for them as people, a couple, a family, and parents for the next 18 years. SO UNFAIR!!!!
Anyway, congrats Nick and PC! I hope you are lovely loving people who love each other and are together forever and ever.
On Fri, Jan 21, 2022 at 1:27 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Reading: I am trying to do a Taylor Swift themed book challenge this year, and so far almost all of the books I’ve picked up are about death in some capacity. It’s only two out of three, but still. Who I Was with Her was a solid emotional read about a female high school senior whose girlfriend dies in a car accident, but no one knew that they were in a relationship or that the main girl is bisexual. Now I’m on Goodbye Days, which is about a male high school senior who feels responsible for the death of his three best friends when he sends one of them a text while the three were in a car, and the car crashes. Interesting, but not as good so far.
Watching: SHERSHAAH!!!!! After so many months of it being out, I finally watched it! And I really really liked it! VERY violent, very heavy and emotional, not really a DCIB pick, but a very well made film. I thought it toed the line really nicely, being patriotic but stepping back before it got jingoistic. And Sid!!!! He was so good. So charming and sweet but also powerful, and god, he was so good.
And also Being the Ricardos, which was excellent. Surprised Nicole Kidman grabbed the Golden Globe for it, but she was very good, and it was an interesting movie. Didn’t like the guy who played Desi though.
Thinking: I saw Kirre posted about Nick and PC’s baby, which of course I am thrilled about. But now I’m hearing rumors that it’s a girl (which yay, because all of Nick’s brothers have daughters too) but that she was born TWELVE WEEKS premature. No clue if that’s true, but if it is, wow, I am so sorry for them.
Also yelled at one of my classes for not bringing their calculators for a test and I didn’t have enough for them to borrow. It’s almost the end of the marking period and they are desperate for higher grades but I’ve literally reached the maximum amount of quizzes and tests I can give them, but they don’t listen so they are annoying me.
Also trying to figure out how to fix a draft in my glass door without breaking anything.
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Glass door: What about a heavy curtain from the top? Alternatively, if it is under the door, one of those under door draft blocker things.
I am DEFINITELY not going to do that Taylor Swift challenge! It sounds horrible! And also, not watch Shershaah, similar reasons.
January is hard. I’m getting a bit snappish at work too, not at my co-workers (delightful people), but some of the customers are not getting the amazing Margaret Magic quite so much. Winter is loooooooooooooooong. I’m gonna start planning for Valentine’s now I think.
On Mon, Jan 24, 2022 at 5:22 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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